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[ { "content": "Title: False consensus effect Content: In psychology , the false-consensus effect or false-consensus bias is an attributional type of cognitive bias whereby people tend to overestimate the extent to which their opinions , beliefs , preferences , values , and habits are normal and typical of those of others ( i.e. , that others also think the same way that they do ) . This cognitive bias tends to lead to the perception of a consensus that does not exist , a `` false consensus '' . This false consensus is significant because it increases self-esteem ( overconfidence effect ) . It is derived from a desire to conform and be liked by others in a social environment . This bias is especially prevalent in group settings where one thinks the collective opinion of their own group matches that of the larger population . Since the members of a group reach a consensus and rarely encounter those who dispute it , they tend to believe that everybody thinks the same way . The false-consensus effect is not restricted to cases where people believe that their values are shared by the majority , but it still manifests as an overestimate of the extent of their belief . For example , fundamentalists do not necessarily believe that the majority of people share their views , but their estimates of the number of people who share their point of view will tend to exceed the actual number . Additionally , when confronted with evidence that a consensus does not exist , people often assume that those who do not agree with them are defective in some way . There is no single cause for this cognitive bias ; the availability heuristic , self-serving bias , and naïve realism have been suggested as at least partial underlying factors . Maintenance of this cognitive bias may be related to the tendency to make decisions with relatively little information . When faced with uncertainty and a limited sample from which to make decisions , people often `` project '' themselves onto the situation . When this personal knowledge is used as input to make generalizations , it often results in the false sense of being part of the majority . The false-consensus effect can be contrasted with pluralistic ignorance , an error in which people privately disapprove but publicly support what seems to be the majority view ( see below ) .", "qid": "214", "docid": "False_consensus_effect", "rank": 1, "score": 120519 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus Content: Scientific consensus is the collective judgment , position , and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study . Consensus implies general agreement , though not necessarily unanimity . Consensus is normally achieved through communication at conferences , the publication process , replication ( reproducible results by others ) , and peer review . These lead to a situation in which those within the discipline can often recognize such a consensus where it exists , but communicating to outsiders that consensus has been reached can be difficult , because the ` normal ' debates through which science progresses may seem to outsiders as contestation . On occasion , scientific institutes issue position statements intended to communicate a summary of the science from the `` inside '' to the `` outside '' of the scientific community . In cases where there is little controversy regarding the subject under study , establishing what the consensus is can be quite straightforward . Scientific consensus may be invoked in popular or political debate on subjects that are controversial within the public sphere but which may not be controversial within the scientific community , such as evolution or the claimed linkage of MMR vaccinations and autism .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Scientific_consensus", "rank": 2, "score": 120257 }, { "content": "Title: The Threat to Reason Content: The Threat to Reason is a book by Dan Hind , published by Verso Books . In it he argues that the Enlightenment has been ` hijacked ' by corporate and state interests who use it to justify their activities . Their claim to represent true Enlightenment values has been used to justify a range of controversial events from the Iraq war to the need for unregulated corporations . The central point is that the mainstream perception of the `` enemies of reason '' distracts attention from the real threat of corporate and government corruption of Enlightenment principles . Hind also articulates Max Horkheimer 's idea that `` the Enlightenment is authoritarian '' . The conclusion to his book upholds Immanuel Kant 's view that the Enlightenment involves intellectual adulthood and making moral decisions independent of those above us in social , economic or political hierarchies . To do this , our true thoughts must be made available publicly through open access platforms . By contributing one 's expertise and knowledge to the public domain , we can `` become the authors of our own Enlightenment '' .", "qid": "214", "docid": "The_Threat_to_Reason", "rank": 3, "score": 115384 }, { "content": "Title: Why The Future Doesn't Need Us Content: `` Why The Future Does n't Need Us '' is an article written by Bill Joy ( then Chief Scientist at Sun Microsystems ) in the April 2000 issue of Wired magazine . In the article , he argues ( quoting the sub title ) that `` Our most powerful 21st-century technologies -- robotics , genetic engineering , and nanotech -- are threatening to make humans an endangered species . '' Joy warns : While some critics have characterized Joy 's stance as obscurantism or neo-Luddism , others share his concerns about the consequences of rapidly expanding technology .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Why_The_Future_Doesn't_Need_Us", "rank": 4, "score": 112923 }, { "content": "Title: An Appeal to Reason Content: An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson .", "qid": "214", "docid": "An_Appeal_to_Reason", "rank": 5, "score": 111808 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific dissent Content: Scientific dissent is dissent from scientific consensus . Disagreements can be useful for finding problems in underlying assumptions , methodologies , and reasoning , as well as for generating and testing new ways of tackling the unknown . In modern times , with the increased role of science on the society and the politicization of science , a new aspect gained prominence : effects of scientific dissent on public policies . Scientific dissent is distinct from denialism , which is a deliberate rejection of scientific consensus usually for commercial or ideological reasons .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Scientific_dissent", "rank": 6, "score": 111176 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "214", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 7, "score": 107989 }, { "content": "Title: Existential risk from artificial general intelligence Content: The existential risk from artificial general intelligence is the hypothetical threat that dramatic progress in artificial intelligence ( AI ) could someday result in human extinction ( or some other unrecoverable global catastrophe ) . The argument for the existence of the threat is that the human race currently dominates other species because the human brain has some distinctive capabilities that the brains of other animals lack . If AI surpasses humanity in general intelligence and becomes `` superintelligent '' , then this new superintelligence could become powerful and difficult to control . By way of example , just as the fate of the mountain gorilla depends on human goodwill , so might the fate of humanity depend on the actions of a future machine superintelligence . The severity of different AI risk scenarios is widely debated , and rests on a number of unresolved questions about future progress in computer science . Two sources of concern are that a sudden and unexpected `` intelligence explosion '' might take an unprepared human race by surprise , and that controlling a superintelligent machine ( or even instilling it with human-compatible values ) may be an even harder problem than naively supposed .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Existential_risk_from_artificial_general_intelligence", "rank": 8, "score": 105816 }, { "content": "Title: Science Under Siege Content: Science Under Siege : The Politicians ' War on Nature and Truth is a 1998 book by journalist Todd Wilkinson . Wilkinson describes the careers of a variety of publicly employed scientists who , in the course of their work for government agencies , found habitat degradation , threatened species , or other decline in availability of a natural resource . When they expressed their views that certain activities must be scaled back or areas protected , they met with poor job performance ratings , hostility from their supervisors , transfers out of the region , and in many cases a severely damaged career . Science is `` under siege '' in these cases because many of the researchers were told to modify their scientific reports so that commercial uses or environmentally destructive activities could continue .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Science_Under_Siege", "rank": 9, "score": 104866 }, { "content": "Title: Experimenter's regress Content: In science , experimenter 's regress refers to a loop of dependence between theory and evidence . In order to judge whether evidence is erroneous we must rely on theory-based expectations , and to judge the value of competing theories we rely on evidence . Cognitive bias affects experiments , and experiments determine which theory is valid . This issue is particularly important in new fields of science where there is no community consensus regarding the relative values of various competing theories , and where sources of experimental error are not well known . In a true scientific process , no consensus does exist and no consensus can exist as the process is conducted scientifically in the pursuit of knowledge . If any party involved in the process stands to personally lose or gain from the result , the process will be flawed and unscientific . In a true scientific process , a theory is formed after a scientist - amateur or professional - has observed a phenomenon and has asked `` why ? '' as a result . The theory is the answer the scientist creates using logic and reason to explain the phenomenon . The scientist then focuses on how to conduct experiments to test the theory incrementally and the theory is either proven to be true or false through repeatable and legitimate experimentation . Legitimate scientific experiments conducted by the person who formulated the theory seek to prove the theory false rather than prove it true specifically to counter the effects of bias . If experimenter 's regress acts a positive feedback system , it can be a source of pathological science . An experimenter 's strong belief in a new theory produces confirmation bias , and any biased evidence they obtain then strengthens their belief in that particular theory . Neither individual researchers nor entire scientific communities are immune to this effect ; see N-rays and Polywater . Experimenter 's regress is a typical relativistic phenomenon in the Empirical Programme of Relativism ( EPOR ) . EPOR is very much concerned with a focus on social interactions , by looking at particular ( local ) cases and controversial issues in the context in which they happen . In EPOR , all scientific knowledge is perceived to be socially constructed and is thus `` not given by nature '' . In his article Son of seven sexes : The Social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon , Harry Collins argued that scientific experiments are subject to what he calls `` experimenter 's regress '' . The outcome of a phenomenon that is studied for the first time is always uncertain and judgment in these situations , about what matters , requires considerable experience , tacit and practical knowledge . When a scientist runs an experiment , and a result comes out of this , he can never be sure whether this is the result he 'd expected . The result looks good because he knows the experiment he conducted was right or that the results are wrong . The scientist , in other words , has to get the right answers in order to know that the experiment is working , or to know that the experiment is working , to get the right answer . Experimenter 's regress occurs at the `` research frontier '' where the outcome of research is uncertain , for the scientist is dealing with `` novel phenomena '' . Collins puts it this way : `` usually , successful practice of an experimental skill is evident in a successful outcome to an experiment , but where the detection of a novel phenomenon is in question , it is not clear what should count as a ` successful outcome ' -- detection or non detection of the phenomenon '' ( Collins 1981 : 34 ) . In new fields of research where no paradigm has yet evolved and where no consensus exists as what counts as proper research , experimenter 's regress is a problem that often occurs . Also in situations where there is much controversy over a discovery or claim due to opposing interests , dissenters will often question experimental evidence that founds a theory . Because for Collins , all scientific knowledge is socially constructed , there are no purely cognitive reasons or objective criteria that determine whether a claim is valid or not . The regress must be broken by `` social negotiation '' between scientists in the respective field . In the case of Gravitational Radiation , Collins notices that Weber , the scientist who is said to have discovered the phenomenon , could refute all the critique and had `` a technical answer for every other point '' but he was not able to convince other scientists and in the end he was not taken seriously anymore . The problems that come with `` experimenter 's regress '' can never be fully avoided because scientific outcomes in EPOR are seen as negotiable and socially constructed . Acceptance of claims boils down to persuasion of other people in the community . Experimenter 's regress can always become a problem in a world where `` the natural world in no way constrains what is believed to be '' . Moreover , attempts to falsify a claim , by replicating an experiment , are hard and problematic for it involves tacit knowledge ( i.e. unarticulated knowledge ) , matters of time and money and replication of exact similar conditions , which is hard . Tacit knowledge can never be fully articulated or translated into a set of rules . Some commentators have argued that Collins 's `` experimenter 's regress '' is foreshadowed by Sextus Empiricus ' argument that `` if we shall judge the intellects by the senses , and the senses by the intellect , this involves circular reasoning inasmuch as it is required that the intellects should be judged first in order that the intellects may be tested -LSB- hence -RSB- we possess no means by which to judge objects '' ( quoted after Godin & Gingras 2002 : 140 ) . Others have extended Collins 's argument to the cases of theoretical practice ( `` theoretician 's regress '' ; Kennefick 2000 ) and computer simulation studies ( `` simulationist 's regress '' ; Gelfert 2011 ) .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Experimenter's_regress", "rank": 10, "score": 103972 }, { "content": "Title: Unscientific America Content: Unscientific America : How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future is a nonfiction book by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum . It was a New York Times best seller . In the book , the authors tackle the problem of scientific illiteracy in America . The authors criticize scientists for talking down to the misinformed and insulting the religious while calling for more friendly and magnanimous science advocates . They also blame the New Atheist movement , the creation -- evolution controversy , the entertainment industry , the media , and science skeptics .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Unscientific_America", "rank": 11, "score": 100687 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 12, "score": 97974 }, { "content": "Title: Worse-than-average effect Content: The worse-than-average effect or below-average effect is the human tendency to underestimate one 's achievements and capabilities in relation to others . It is the opposite of the usually pervasive better-than-average effect ( in contexts where the two are compared or the overconfidence effect in other situations ) . It has been proposed more recently to explain reversals of that effect , where people instead underestimate their own desirable traits . This effect seems to occur when chances of success are perceived to be extremely rare . Traits which people tend to underestimate include juggling ability , the ability to ride a unicycle , the odds of living past 100 or of finding a U.S. twenty dollar bill on the ground in the next two weeks . Some have attempted to explain this cognitive bias in terms of the regression fallacy or of self-handicapping . In a 2012 article in Psychological Bulletin it is suggested the worse-than-average effect ( as well as other cognitive biases ) can be explained by a simple information-theoretic generative mechanism that assumes a noisy conversion of objective evidence ( observation ) into subjective estimates ( judgment ) .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Worse-than-average_effect", "rank": 13, "score": 97769 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "214", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 14, "score": 97468 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "214", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 15, "score": 96301 }, { "content": "Title: Beijing Consensus Content: The Beijing Consensus ( also sometimes called the China Model or Chinese Economic Model ) is the political and especially economic policies of the People 's Republic of China that began after the death of Mao Zedong and the rehabilitation of Deng Xiaoping ( 1976 ) and are thought to have contributed to China 's eightfold growth in gross national product over two decades . The phrase `` Beijing Consensus '' was coined by Joshua Cooper Ramo to pose China 's economic development model as an alternative -- especially for developing countries -- to the Washington Consensus of market-friendly policies promoted by the IMF , World Bank and U.S. Treasury . In 2016 , Ramo stated in an interview with The Diplomat that `` The idea of the Beijing Consensus is less that every nation will follow China 's development model , but that it legitimizes the notion of particularity as opposed to the universality of a Washington model . '' The term has been described variously as the pragmatic use of innovation and experimentation in the service of `` equitable , peaceful high-quality growth '' , and `` defense of national borders and interests '' ( by Ramo ) ; the use of `` stable , if repressive , politics and high-speed economic growth '' . Others maintain that `` it seems '' there is `` no consensus as to what it stands for '' other than being an alternative to the neoliberal Washington Consensus ; and that the term `` is applied to anything that happens in Beijing , regardless of whether or not it has to do with a ` Chinese Model of Development , ' or even with the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) per se . '' This fluidity has been described as an `` ultra-pragmatic '' approach to policy .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Beijing_Consensus", "rank": 16, "score": 95715 }, { "content": "Title: Hard–easy effect Content: The hard -- easy effect is a cognitive bias that manifests itself as a tendency to overestimate the probability of one 's success at a task perceived as hard , and to underestimate the likelihood of one 's success at a task perceived as easy . The hard-easy effect takes place , for example , when individuals exhibit a degree of underconfidence in answering relatively easy questions and a degree of overconfidence in answering relatively difficult questions . `` Hard tasks tend to produce overconfidence but worse-than-average perceptions , '' reported Katherine A. Burson , Richard P. Larrick , and Jack B. Soll in a 2005 study , `` whereas easy tasks tend to produce underconfidence and better-than-average effects . '' The hard-easy effect falls under the umbrella of `` social comparison theory '' , which was originally formulated by Leon Festinger in 1954 . Festinger argued that individuals are driven to evaluate their own opinions and abilities accurately , and social comparison theory explains how individuals carry out those evaluations by comparing themselves to others .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Hard–easy_effect", "rank": 17, "score": 94853 }, { "content": "Title: Björn Kraus Content: Björn Kraus ( born 1969 ) is a German philosopher , who unfolds epistemological theories for social work . He therefore picks up on the doubt about the possibilities of human perception , a topic that has been emphasized over and over in occidental philosophy . He thus stands in tradition of a skepticism as for example defined by Immanuel Kant and Ernst von Glasersfeld .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Björn_Kraus", "rank": 18, "score": 94552 }, { "content": "Title: False balance Content: False balance is a real or perceived media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports . Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the actual evidence for each side , or may omit information that would establish one side 's claims as baseless . Examples of false balance in reporting on science issues include the topics of man-made versus natural climate change , the alleged relation between thimerosal and autism and evolution versus intelligent design . An example of false balance is the `` debate '' on global warming ; although the scientific community almost unanimously attributes global warming to the effects of the industrial revolution , there is a very small number , a few dozen scientists out of tens of thousands of scientists , who dispute the conclusion . Giving equal voice to scientists on both sides makes it seem like there is a serious disagreement within the scientific community , when in fact there is an overwhelming scientific consensus that anthropogenic global warming exists . False balance can sometimes originate from similar motives as sensationalism , where producers and editors may feel that a story portrayed as a contentious debate will be more commercially successful than a more accurate account of the issue . However , unlike most other media biases , false balance may stem from an attempt to avoid bias ; producers and editors may confuse treating competing views fairly -- i.e. , in proportion to their actual merits and significance -- with treating them equally , giving them equal time to present their views even when those views may be known beforehand to be based on false information .", "qid": "214", "docid": "False_balance", "rank": 19, "score": 93363 }, { "content": "Title: Consensus (computer science) Content: A fundamental problem in distributed computing and multi-agent systems is to achieve overall system reliability in the presence of a number of faulty processes . This often requires processes to agree on some data value that is needed during computation . Examples of applications of consensus include whether to commit a transaction to a database , agreeing on the identity of a leader , state machine replication , and atomic broadcasts . The real world applications include clock synchronization , PageRank , opinion formation , smart power grids , state estimation , control of UAVs , load balancing and others .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Consensus_(computer_science)", "rank": 20, "score": 92274 }, { "content": "Title: Threat Matrix (database) Content: The Threat Matrix is an intelligence-based measure and thorough assessments database program that Pakistan government officials and military science circles use for evaluating perceived external and internal threats which challenge the national security of Pakistan . Development began in 2011 under the government of Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani . The program identifies the military 's operational priorities and goes beyond in comprehensively describing both existential and non-existential threats to the country . The Threat Matrix program is viewed to become a permanent fixture of the national security policy of Pakistan . The database 's comprehensive existence was revealed by political scientist , Dr. Farrukh Saleem in his work published in The News International in 2013 , though it was earlier mentioned by the ISPR in a press briefing given to media . In his published thesis , Dr. Saleem critically opined that the source of all existential threats has always been a state actor ( s ) , not a non-state one -- the armed forces .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Threat_Matrix_(database)", "rank": 21, "score": 92217 }, { "content": "Title: Protection motivation theory Content: Protection motivation theory is a theory that was originally created to help clarify fear appeals . The protection motivation theory proposes that people protect themselves based on four factors : the perceived severity of a threatening event , the perceived probability of the occurrence , or vulnerability , the efficacy of the recommended preventive behavior , and the perceived self efficacy . Protection motivation stems from both the threat appraisal and the coping appraisal . The threat appraisal assesses the severity of the situation and examines how serious the situation is . The coping appraisal is how one responds to the situation . The coping appraisal consists of both efficacy and self-efficacy . Efficacy is the individual 's expectancy that carrying out recommendations can remove the threat . Self-efficacy is the belief in one 's ability to execute the recommended courses of action successfully . PMT is one model that explains why people engage in unhealthy practices and offers suggestions for changing those behaviors . It is educational and motivational . Primary prevention : taking measures to combat the risk of developing a health problem . ( e.g. , controlling weight to prevent high blood pressure ) . Secondary prevention : taking steps to prevent a condition from becoming worse . ( e.g. , remembering to take daily medication to control blood pressure ) .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Protection_motivation_theory", "rank": 22, "score": 91981 }, { "content": "Title: Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Content: Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "qid": "214", "docid": "Surveys_of_scientists'_views_on_climate_change", "rank": 23, "score": 91197 }, { "content": "Title: Doubt Is Their Product Content: Doubt is Their Product : How Industry 's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health is a 2008 book by David Michaels , currently Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health , and published by Oxford University Press . `` Doubt is our product , '' a cigarette executive once observed , `` since it is the best means of competing with the ` body of fact ' that exists in the minds of the general public . It is also the means of establishing a controversy . '' Michaels argues that for decades cigarette manufacturers knew that their product was hazardous to people 's health , but hired mercenary scientists who `` manufactured uncertainty by questioning every study , dissecting every method , and disputing every conclusion '' . In doing so the tobacco industry waged a campaign that `` successfully delayed regulation and victim compensation for decades '' Doubt is Their Product documents how the tobacco industry 's tactics spawned a multimillion dollar industry that is dismantling public health safeguards in areas far from tobacco . Product defense consultants , he argues , have increasingly skewed the scientific literature , manufactured and magnified scientific uncertainty , and influenced policy decisions to the advantage of polluters and the manufacturers of dangerous products . To keep the public confused about the hazards posed by global warming , second-hand smoke , asbestos , lead , plastics , and many other toxic materials , industry executives have hired unscrupulous scientists and lobbyists to dispute scientific evidence about health risks . In doing so , they have not only delayed action on specific hazards , but they have constructed barriers to make it harder for lawmakers , government agencies , and courts to respond to future threats . Doubt is Their Product has been reviewed in Science , New Scientist , and Chemical and Engineering News .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Doubt_Is_Their_Product", "rank": 24, "score": 89068 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 25, "score": 89036 }, { "content": "Title: Integrated threat theory Content: Integrated threat theory , also known as intergroup threat theory is a theory in psychology and sociology which attempts to describe the components that cause a perceived threat between social groups .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Integrated_threat_theory", "rank": 26, "score": 88697 }, { "content": "Title: Overblown (book) Content: Overblown : How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats , and Why We Believe Them is a book by the American political scientist John E. Mueller published in 2006 . It argues that the threat presented by terrorism , like many other security threats , has been much inflated .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Overblown_(book)", "rank": 27, "score": 88162 }, { "content": "Title: Gateway belief model Content: The gateway belief model ( GBM ) is a theory in the communication sciences and psychology , most commonly applied in the area of science communication . The model suggests that public perception of the degree of normative ( expert ) agreement -- or ( scientific ) consensus -- on societal issues , such as climate change , vaccines , evolution , gun control , and GMO 's functions as a so-called `` gateway '' cognition , influencing an individual 's personal opinions , judgments , attitudes , and affective dispositions toward various social and scientific issues . The most well-known version of the model was developed by social psychologist Sander van der Linden and colleagues . The conceptual structure of the model is derived from earlier versions and a cumulative body of research .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Gateway_belief_model", "rank": 28, "score": 88085 }, { "content": "Title: Science by press conference Content: Science by press conference ( or science by press release ) is the practice by which scientists put an unusual focus on publicizing results of research in the media . The term is usually used disparagingly . It is intended to associate the target with people promoting scientific `` findings '' of questionable scientific merit who turn to the media for attention when they are unlikely to win the approval of the professional scientific community . Premature publicity violates a cultural value of most of the scientific community , which is that findings should be subjected to independent review with a `` thorough examination by the scientific community '' before they are widely publicized . The standard practice is to publish a paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal . This idea has many merits , including that the scientific community has a responsibility to conduct itself in a deliberative , non-attention seeking way ; and that its members should be oriented more towards the pursuit of insight than fame . Science by press conference in its most egregious forms can be undertaken on behalf of an individual researcher seeking fame , a corporation seeking to sway public opinion or investor perception , or a political or ideological movement .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Science_by_press_conference", "rank": 29, "score": 87421 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "214", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 30, "score": 87112 }, { "content": "Title: Politicization of science Content: The politicization of science is the manipulation of science for political gain . It occurs when government , business , or advocacy groups use legal or economic pressure to influence the findings of scientific research or the way it is disseminated , reported or interpreted . The politicization of science may also negatively affect academic and scientific freedom . Historically , groups have conducted various campaigns to promote their interests in defiance of scientific consensus , and in an effort to manipulate public policy .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Politicization_of_science", "rank": 31, "score": 86971 }, { "content": "Title: Factors contributing to racial bias in threat perception Content:", "qid": "214", "docid": "Factors_contributing_to_racial_bias_in_threat_perception", "rank": 32, "score": 86188 }, { "content": "Title: Time perception Content: Time perception is a field of study within psychology , cognitive linguistics and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience of time , which is measured by someone 's own perception of the duration of the indefinite and unfolding of events . The perceived time interval between two successive events is referred to as perceived duration . Another person 's perception of time can not be directly experienced or understood , but it can be objectively studied and inferred through a number of scientific experiments . Time perception is a construction of the brain that is manipulable and distortable under certain circumstances . These temporal illusions help to expose the underlying neural mechanisms of time perception . Pioneering work , emphasizing species-specific differences , was conducted by Karl Ernst von Baer . Experimental work began under the influence of the psycho-physical notions of Gustav Theodor Fechner with studies of the relationship between perceived and measured time .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Time_perception", "rank": 33, "score": 85771 }, { "content": "Title: Mainstream Science on Intelligence Content: Mainstream Science on Intelligence was a public statement issued by a group of academic researchers in fields associated with intelligence testing that claimed to present those findings widely accepted in the expert community . It was originally published in the Wall Street Journal on December 13 , 1994 as a response to what the authors viewed as the inaccurate and misleading reports made by the media regarding academic consensus on the results of intelligence research in the wake of the appearance of The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray earlier the same year . It was drafted by professor of psychology Linda Gottfredson , sent to 131 researchers , and signed by 52 university professors specializing in intelligence and related fields , including around one third of the editorial board of the journal Intelligence , in which it was subsequently reprinted in 1997 . The 1997 editorial prefaced a special volume of Intelligence with contributions from a wide array of psychologists .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Mainstream_Science_on_Intelligence", "rank": 34, "score": 85304 }, { "content": "Title: Centre for the Study of Existential Risk Content: The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk ( CSER ) is a research centre at the University of Cambridge , intended to study possible extinction-level threats posed by present or future technology . The co-founders of the centre are Huw Price ( a philosophy professor at Cambridge ) , Martin Rees ( a cosmologist , astrophysicist , and former President of the Royal Society ) and Jaan Tallinn ( a computer programmer and co-founder of Skype ) . CSER 's advisors include philosopher Peter Singer , computer scientist Stuart J. Russell , statistician David Spiegelhalter , and cosmologists Stephen Hawking and Max Tegmark . Their `` goal is to steer a small fraction of Cambridge 's great intellectual resources , and of the reputation built on its past and present scientific pre-eminence , to the task of ensuring that our own species has a long-term future . ''", "qid": "214", "docid": "Centre_for_the_Study_of_Existential_Risk", "rank": 35, "score": 84972 }, { "content": "Title: Vierordt's law Content: Karl von Vierordt ( 1868 ) was the first to record a law of time perception which relates perceived duration to actual duration over different interval magnitudes , and according to task complexity . Vierordt 's law is `` a robust phenomenon in time estimation research that has been observed with different time estimation methods '' . It states that , retrospectively , `` short '' intervals of time tend to be overestimated , and `` long '' intervals of time tend to be underestimated . The other major paradigm of time estimation methodology measures time prospectively .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Vierordt's_law", "rank": 36, "score": 84637 }, { "content": "Title: Risk perception Content: Risk perception is the subjective judgement that people make about the characteristics and severity of a risk . The phrase is most commonly used in reference to natural hazards and threats to the environment or health , such as nuclear power . Several theories have been proposed to explain why different people make different estimates of the dangerousness of risks . Three major families of theory have been developed : psychology approaches ( heuristics and cognitive ) , anthropology/sociology approaches ( cultural theory ) and interdisciplinary approaches ( social amplification of risk framework ) .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Risk_perception", "rank": 37, "score": 84115 }, { "content": "Title: Banu Subramaniam Content: Banu Subramaniam ( born 1966 ) is a professor of women , gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts , Amherst . Originally trained as a plant biologist , she writes about social and cultural aspects of science . She advocates for activist science that creates knowledge about the natural world while being aware of its embeddedness in society and culture . She co-edited Making Threats : Biofears and Environmental Anxieties ( 2005 ) and Feminist Science Studies : A New Generation ( 2001 ) . Her book Ghost Stories for Darwin ( 2014 ) was chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title in 2015 and won the Ludwik Fleck Prize for science and technology studies in 2016 .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Banu_Subramaniam", "rank": 38, "score": 83565 }, { "content": "Title: Katsuhiko Ishibashi Content: is a professor in the Research Center for Urban Safety and Security in the Graduate School of Science at Kobe University , Japan and a seismologist who has written extensively in the areas of seismicity and seismotectonics in and around the Japanese Islands . He recently coined the term genpatsu-shinsai , from the Japanese words for `` nuclear power '' and `` quake disaster '' . Katsuhiko Ishibashi has said that Japan 's history of nuclear accidents stems from an overconfidence in plant engineering . He was a member of a 2006 Japanese government subcommittee charged with revising the national guidelines on the earthquake-resistance of nuclear power plants , published in 2007 . His proposal that the committee should review the standards for surveying active faults was rejected and , at the committee 's final meeting he resigned claiming that the review process was `` unscientific '' and the outcome rigged to suit the interests of the Japan Electric Association , which had 11 of its committee members on the 19-member government subcommittee and that among other problems the guide was `` seriously flawed '' as a consequence because it underestimated the design basis earthquake ground motion . In May 2011 , he said : `` If Japan had faced up to the dangers earlier , we could have prevented Fukushima '' .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Katsuhiko_Ishibashi", "rank": 39, "score": 83559 }, { "content": "Title: Stereotype threat Content: Stereotype threat is a situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group . Since its introduction into the academic literature , stereotype threat has become one of the most widely studied topics in the field of social psychology . Stereotype threat has been shown to reduce the performance of individuals who belong to negatively stereotyped groups . If negative stereotypes are present regarding a specific group , group members are likely to become anxious about their performance , which may hinder their ability to perform at their maximum level . For example , stereotype threat can lower the intellectual performance of African Americans taking the SAT test used for college entrance in the United States due to the stereotype that African Americans are less intelligent than other groups . Importantly , the individual does not need to subscribe to the stereotype for it to be activated . It is hypothesized that the mechanism through which anxiety ( induced by the activation of the stereotype ) decreases performance is by depleting working memory ( especially the phonological aspects of the working memory system ) . However , studies showing stereotype threat have been criticized for exaggerating its importance as an explanation of real-world performance gaps and misrepresenting evidence as more conclusive than it is . Several reviews have voiced concerns that the effect has been over-estimated and that the field suffers from publication bias . Stereotype threat is a potential contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in academic performance . It may occur whenever an individual 's performance might confirm a negative stereotype because stereotype threat is thought to arise from a particular situation , rather than from an individual 's personality traits or characteristics . Since most people have at least one social identity which is negatively stereotyped , most people are vulnerable to stereotype threat if they encounter a situation in which the stereotype is relevant . Situational factors that increase stereotype threat can include the difficulty of the task , the belief that the task measures their abilities , and the relevance of the stereotype to the task . Individuals show higher degrees of stereotype threat on tasks they wish to perform well on and when they identify strongly with the stereotyped group . These effects are also increased when they expect discrimination due to their identification with a negatively stereotyped group . Repeated experiences of stereotype threat can lead to a vicious circle of diminished confidence , poor performance , and loss of interest in the relevant area of achievement . The opposite of stereotype threat is stereotype boost , which is when people perform better than they otherwise would have , because of exposure to positive stereotypes about their social group . A variant of stereotype boost is stereotype lift , which is people achieving better performance because of exposure to negative stereotypes about other social groups .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Stereotype_threat", "rank": 40, "score": 83460 }, { "content": "Title: Meaning and Purpose Content: Meaning and Purpose , written by Kenneth Walker , was first published in September 1944 by Jonathan Cape , London , and republished by Pelican books in 1950 . The purpose of the book , as stated in the preface , was '' ... to examine critically those scientific theories of the last hundred years which have exerted a strong influence on our thinking , not so much for the purpose of assessing their worth as for that of discovering the effect which they have had on our philosophy of life . '' The book detailed an alternative perception of life and reality . It offered arguments proposing that neither Charles Darwin nor religious creationism adequately described the event of life , intellect , consciousness and various other concepts . The first chapter opened with a discussion of a passage quoted from Goethe , there described as a poet , philosopher and scientist . Others whose writings as prominent scientists were listed in the book 's bibliography were Sir Arthur Eddington , Ernst Haeckel , Sir Julian Huxley , Sir James Jeans and A. N. Whitehead . A hostile review in 1949 , mentioned that the book referred unfavourably to Karl Marx as never to be regarded as having been a profound thinker and concluded that it was `` by a superficial man serving reactionary purposes '' .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Meaning_and_Purpose", "rank": 41, "score": 83293 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming conspiracy theory Content: A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus . Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Global_warming_conspiracy_theory", "rank": 42, "score": 82876 }, { "content": "Title: Construals Content: In social psychology , construals are how individuals perceive , comprehend , and interpret the world around them , particularly the behavior or action of others towards themselves . Researchers and theorists within virtually every sub-discipline of psychology have acknowledged the relevance of a subjective construal , especially with regards to the concepts of the false consensus effect and the fundamental attribution error . There is a difference between self-construal and construal in a social atmosphere . While self-construal is a perception of the self , the latter is a perception of one 's surroundings . Construal plays a crucial role in situations `` whenever people are obliged to venture beyond the information immediately provided by the direct observation or secondhand report of a stimulus event , in particular whenever they are obliged to infer additional details of content , context , or meaning in the actions and outcomes that unfold around them . '' In other words , a person is most likely to use construal when he or she lacks the knowledge to correctly deal with a given situation .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Construals", "rank": 43, "score": 82607 }, { "content": "Title: Pain Catastrophizing Scale Content: Catastrophic thinking has widely been recognized in the development and maintenance of hypochondriasis and anxiety disorders . This broadly accepted understanding has classified catastrophizing as a tendency to misinterpret and exaggerate situations that may be threatening . Pain is an undesirable sensory and emotional experience in response to potential or actual tissue damage . A general consensus of pain catastrophizing involves an exaggerated negative perception to painful stimuli . The components of catastrophizing that are considered primary were long under debate until the development of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale ( PCS ) by Michael J. L. Sullivan and Scott R. Bishop of Dalhousie University in 1995 . The PCS is a 13 item scale , with each item rated on a 5-point scale : 0 ( Not at all ) to 4 ( all the time ) . The PCS is broken into three subscales being magnification , rumination , and helplessness . The scale was developed as a self-report measurement tool that provided a valid index of catastrophizing in clinical and non-clinical populations . The results of the initial development and validation studies indicated that the PCS is a reliable and valid measurement tool for catastrophizing . The high test-retest relationships concluded that individuals may possess enduring beliefs with regards to the threat value of painful stimuli . It was also found that from a clinical perspective , the PCS may be useful in identifying individuals that may be more susceptible to high distress responses from aversive medical procedures such as chemotherapy or surgery .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Pain_Catastrophizing_Scale", "rank": 44, "score": 82349 }, { "content": "Title: Consensus reality Content: Consensus reality is that which is generally agreed to be reality , based on a consensus view . The appeal to consensus arises from the fact that humans do not fully understand or agree upon the nature of knowledge or ontology , often making it uncertain what is real , given the vast inconsistencies between individual subjectivities . We can , however , seek to obtain some form of consensus , with others , of what is real . We can use this consensus as a pragmatic guide , either on the assumption that it seems to approximate some kind of valid reality , or simply because it is more `` practical '' than perceived alternatives . Consensus reality therefore refers to the agreed-upon concepts of reality which people in the world , or a culture or group , believe are real ( or treat as real ) , usually based upon their common experiences as they believe them to be ; anyone who does not agree with these is sometimes stated to be `` in effect ... living in a different world . '' Throughout history this has also raised a social question as to the effects of a society in which all individuals do not agree upon the same reality . Children have sometimes been described or viewed as `` inexperience -LSB- d -RSB- with consensus reality , '' though are described as such with the expectation that their perspective will progressively form closer to the consensus reality of their society as they age .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Consensus_reality", "rank": 45, "score": 82292 }, { "content": "Title: Academic bias Content: Academic bias is the bias or perceived bias of scholars allowing their beliefs to shape their research and the scientific community . Claims of bias are often linked to claims by conservatives of pervasive bias against political conservatives and religious Christians . This claim focuses on what conservatives , such as David Horowitz , say is discrimination against those who hold a conservative ideology and the argument that research has been corrupted by a desire to promote a progressive agenda . Barry Ames et al. , John Lee and Henry Giroux have argued that these claims are based upon anecdotal evidence which would not reliably indicate systematic bias . Russell Jacoby has argued that claims of academic bias have been used to push measures that infringe on academic freedom . According to , a quarterly journal with a conservative point of view , evidence for academic bias includes the disproportionate percentage of academics who are political progressives and/or irreligious . Conservative activists , such as David Horowitz , have argued that this imbalance is due to academics creating an inhospitable atmosphere for conservatives . Ames et al. and Neil Gross have suggested that this divide is due to self-selection . Instead of conservatives not participating in academia because of discrimination , this theory suggests that conservatives simply are more likely to choose not to pursue an academic career .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Academic_bias", "rank": 46, "score": 81862 }, { "content": "Title: Merchants of Doubt Content: Merchants of Doubt : How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming is a 2010 non-fiction book by American historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway . It identifies parallels between the global warming controversy and earlier controversies over tobacco smoking , acid rain , DDT , and the hole in the ozone layer . Oreskes and Conway write that in each case `` keeping the controversy alive '' by spreading doubt and confusion after a scientific consensus had been reached , was the basic strategy of those opposing action . In particular , they say that Fred Seitz , Fred Singer , and a few other contrarian scientists joined forces with conservative think tanks and private corporations to challenge the scientific consensus on many contemporary issues . The George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer , two of the subjects , have been critical of the book . Other reviewers have been more favorable . One reviewer said that Merchants of Doubt is exhaustively researched and documented , and may be one of the most important books of 2010 . Another reviewer saw the book as his choice for best science book of the year . It was made into a film , Merchants of Doubt , directed by Robert Kenner , released in 2014 .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Merchants_of_Doubt", "rank": 47, "score": 81686 }, { "content": "Title: Unfold (Marié Digby album) Content: Unfold is the debut solo album by singer/songwriter Marié Digby . The album features the singles `` Umbrella '' ( a cover of the Rihanna hit ) , `` Say It Again '' and `` Stupid for You '' , and was released on April 8 , 2008 in the United States via Hollywood Records . The album debuted at # 29 on the Billboard 200 with 18,000 copies sold in its first week .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Unfold_(Marié_Digby_album)", "rank": 48, "score": 81549 }, { "content": "Title: Inventing the \"American Way\" Content: Inventing the `` American Way '' : The Politics of Consensus from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement is a 2008 book by American historian Wendy L. Wall , then a professor at Queen 's University , and currently at Binghamton University . It deals with postwar consensus politics and a national unity which developed from governmental response to the rise of communism and fascism . Wall argues that national unity projects were forged , in order to unite Americans around what seemed to be their common values . According to Kevin M Kruse from Princeton University , Wall shows that `` concepts most Americans now take for granted were created at mid-century to mask deep divisions in American society '' . Projects such as the Freedom Train and Letters from America were built in support of capitalism and protection from other ideologies . According to Jeremi Suri from the University of Wisconsin , this book covers new ground in careful analysis of how `` politicians , intellectuals , businesspeople , labor unions , and ethnic organizations worked -- in shifting coalitions -- to promote a predominant set of assumptions about citizenship and patriotism . '' The book has received the Ellis W. Hawley Prize of the Organization of American Historians in 2008 and the Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Inventing_the_\"American_Way\"", "rank": 49, "score": 81441 }, { "content": "Title: Illusion of control Content: The illusion of control is the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events ; for example , it occurs when someone feels a sense of control over outcomes that they demonstrably do not influence . The effect was named by psychologist Ellen Langer and has been replicated in many different contexts . It is thought to influence gambling behavior and belief in the paranormal . Along with illusory superiority and optimism bias , the illusion of control is one of the positive illusions . Psychological theorists have consistently emphasized the importance of perceptions of control over life events . One of the earliest instances of this is when Adler argued that people strive for proficiency in their lives . Heider later proposed that humans have a strong motive to control their environment and Wyatt Mann hypothesized a basic competence motive that people satisfy by exerting control . Wiener , an attribution theorist , modified his original theory of achievement motivation to include a controllability dimension . Kelley then argued that people 's failure to detect noncontingencies may result in their attributing uncontrollable outcomes to personal causes . Nearer to the present , Taylor and Brown argued that positive illusions , including the illusion of control , foster mental health . The illusion is more common in familiar situations , and in situations where the person knows the desired outcome . Feedback that emphasizes success rather than failure can increase the effect , while feedback that emphasizes failure can decrease or reverse the effect . The illusion is weaker for depressed individuals and is stronger when individuals have an emotional need to control the outcome . The illusion is strengthened by stressful and competitive situations , including financial trading . Though people are likely to overestimate their control when the situations are heavily chance-determined , they also tend to underestimate their control when they actually have it , which runs contrary to some theories of the illusion and its adaptiveness . People also showed a higher illusion of control when they were allowed to become familiar with a task through practice trials , make their choice before the event happens like with throwing dice , and when they can make their choice rather than have it made for them with the same odds . People are more likely to show control when they have more answers right at the beginning than at the end even when the people had the same number of correct answers . The illusion might arise because people lack direct introspective insight into whether they are in control of events . This has been called the introspection illusion . Instead they may judge their degree of control by a process that is often unreliable . As a result , they see themselves as responsible for events when there is little or no causal link . In one study , college students were in a virtual reality setting to treat a fear of heights using an elevator . Those who were told that they had control , yet had none felt as though they had as much control as those who actually did have control over the elevator . Those who were led to believe they did not have control said they felt as though they had little control .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Illusion_of_control", "rank": 50, "score": 81321 }, { "content": "Title: Universal reason Content: The idea of a Universal Reason implies an underpinning system of perception and conception of all forms of complexity . Many philosophers over the years have dealt with or relate to this idea in their writings . In recent years , the idea of a universal reason has been brought up in discussions of artificial intelligence and other topics regarding consciousness for it provides a stage of universality for a mechanistic description of thought .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Universal_reason", "rank": 51, "score": 81308 }, { "content": "Title: American Scientist Content: __ NOTOC __ American Scientist ( informally abbreviated AmSci ) is an American bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi , The Scientific Research Society . Each issue includes four to five feature articles written by prominent scientists and engineers who review research in fields from molecular biology to computer engineering . Each issue also includes the work of cartoonists , including those of Sidney Harris , Benita Epstein , and Mark Heath . Also included is the Scientists ' Nightstand that reviews a vast range of science-related books and novels . American Scientist Online was launched in May 2003 .", "qid": "214", "docid": "American_Scientist", "rank": 52, "score": 81022 }, { "content": "Title: Federation of American Scientists Content: The Federation of American Scientists ( FAS ) is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) organization with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure . FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs . With 100 sponsors , FAS claims that it promotes a safer and more secure world by developing and advancing solutions to important science and technology security policy problems by educating the public and policy makers , and promoting transparency through research and analysis to maximize impact on policy . FAS projects are organized in three main programs : nuclear security , government secrecy , and biosecurity .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Federation_of_American_Scientists", "rank": 53, "score": 80955 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear weapons debate Content: The nuclear weapons debate refers to the controversies surrounding the threat , use and stockpiling of nuclear weapons . Even before the first nuclear weapons had been developed , scientists involved with the Manhattan Project were divided over the use of the weapon . The only time nuclear weapons have been used in warfare was during the final stages of World War II when United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945 . The role of the bombings in Japan 's surrender and the U.S. 's ethical justification for them have been the subject of scholarly and popular debate for decades . Nuclear disarmament refers both to the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world . Proponents of disarmament typically condemn a priori the threat or use of nuclear weapons as immoral and argue that only total disarmament can eliminate the possibility of nuclear war . Critics of nuclear disarmament say that it would undermine deterrence and make conventional wars more likely , more destructive , or both . The debate becomes considerably complex when considering various scenarios for example , total vs partial or unilateral vs multilateral disarmament .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Nuclear_weapons_debate", "rank": 54, "score": 80945 }, { "content": "Title: Our Stolen Future Content: Our Stolen Future : Are We Threatening Our Fertility , Intelligence , and Survival ? A Scientific Detective Story is a 1996 book by Theo Colborn , Dianne Dumanoski , and John Peterson Myers . The book chronicles the development of the endocrine disruptor hypothesis by Colborn . Though written for the popular press in narrative form , the book contains a substantial amount of scientific evidence . A foreword from then Vice President Al Gore increased the book 's visibility . It ultimately influenced government policy through congressional hearings and helped foster the development of a research and regulation initiative within the United States Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) . The authors also started a website which continues to monitor and report on endocrine disruptor scientific research . Thousands of scientific articles have since been published on endocrine disruption , demonstrating the availability of grant money for research on the hypothesis raised by Our Stolen Future . For example , a symposium at the 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) meeting explored the contribution of endocrine disruption to obesity and metabolic disorder . As is often the case , there is strong animal evidence but few epidemiological tests of predictions based on the animal experiments . A recent analysis of Center for Disease Control ( CDC ) data finds an extraordinary increase in risk to type II diabetes as a function of exposure to persistent organic pollutants ( POPs ) , in particular synthetic organic chemicals such as organohalogens .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Our_Stolen_Future", "rank": 55, "score": 80856 }, { "content": "Title: Tend and befriend Content: Tend-and-befriend is a behavior exhibited by some animals , including humans , in response to threat . It refers to protection of offspring ( tending ) and seeking out the social group for mutual defense ( befriending ) . In evolutionary psychology , tend-and-befriend is theorized as having evolved as the typical female response to stress , just as the primary male response was fight-or-flight . This kind of gender determinism within the field is the subject of some controversy . The tend-and-befriend theoretical model was originally developed by Dr. Shelley E. Taylor and her research team at the University of California , Los Angeles and first described in a Psychological Review article published in the year 2000 .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Tend_and_befriend", "rank": 56, "score": 80822 }, { "content": "Title: Nonkilling Global Political Science Content: Nonkilling Global Political Science is a 2002 book written by political scientist Glenn D. Paige . In his book , Paige challenges the violence-accepting assumptions of the discipline of political science as a whole . Paige introduces the concept of Nonkilling , which refers to the absence of killing , threats to kill , and conditions conducive to killing in human society . By 2009 the book was being translated into 34 languages and had led to convening the First Global Nonkilling Leadership Forum in Honolulu , Hawai`i , 1 -- 4 November 2007 .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Nonkilling_Global_Political_Science", "rank": 57, "score": 80590 }, { "content": "Title: Consensus history Content: Consensus history is a style of American historiography that emphasizes the basic unity of American values and downplays conflict as superficial and lacking in complexity . The movement was especially influential in the 1950s and 1960s . Prominent leaders included Richard Hofstadter , Louis Hartz , Daniel J. Boorstin and David M. Potter . Other prominent exemplars included Perry Miller , Clinton Rossiter , Henry Steele Commager , Allan Nevins and Edmund Morgan . It rejected the `` Progressive '' historiography that had previously dominated , and which stressed the central importance of class conflict in American history . Charles A. Beard was the most prominent representative of the discredited progressive or `` Beardian '' approach . Consensus history was rejected by New Left viewpoints that attracted younger more radical historians in the 1960s . These viewpoints stress conflict and emphasize the central roles of class , race and gender .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Consensus_history", "rank": 58, "score": 80498 }, { "content": "Title: Steven Neuberg Content: Steven L. Neuberg is an experimental social psychologist whose research has contributed to topics pertaining to person perception , impression formation , stereotyping , prejudice , self-fulfilling prophecies , stereotype threat , and prosocial behavior . His research can be broadly characterized as exploring the ways motives and goals shape social thought processes ; extending this approach , his later work employs the adaptationist logic of evolutionary psychology to inform the study of social cognition and social behavior . Neuberg has published over sixty scholarly articles and chapters , and has co-authored a multi-edition social psychology textbook with his colleagues Douglas Kenrick and Robert Cialdini .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Steven_Neuberg", "rank": 59, "score": 80483 }, { "content": "Title: Normalcy bias Content: The normalcy bias , or normality bias , is a mental state people enter when facing a disaster . It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster and its possible effects , because it causes people to have a bias to believe that things will always function the way things normally function . This may result in situations where people fail to adequately prepare and , on a larger scale , the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations . The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since one has never personally experienced a disaster , one never will . It can result in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs . People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before . They also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible , seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation . Normalcy bias is essentially a `` desire for the status quo . '' `` With a normalcy bias , '' writes one observer , `` we project current conditions into the future . Normalcy bias is a form of denial where we underestimate the possibility and extent of a looming disaster even when we have incontrovertible evidence that it will happen . We assume that since a disaster never has occurred , then it never will occur . Consequently , we fail to prepare for a disaster and , when it does occur , we may be unable to deal with it . '' A famous observation by Patrick Henry can be seen as a reference to the normalcy bias : `` We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth , and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts . Is this the part of wise men , engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty ? Are we disposed to be the number of those who , having eyes , see not , and having ears , hear not , the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation ? For my part , whatever anguish of spirit it may cost , I am willing to know the whole truth ; to know the worst , and to provide for it . '' Normalcy bias has also been called analysis paralysis , incredulity response , and the ostrich effect . First responders call it `` negative panic . '' The opposite of normalcy bias would be overreaction , or `` worst-case scenario '' bias , in which small deviations from normality are dealt with as signaling an impending catastrophe .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Normalcy_bias", "rank": 60, "score": 80376 }, { "content": "Title: Unfolding (music) Content: In Schenkerian analysis , unfolding ( German : Ausfaltung ) or compound melody is the implication of more than one melody or line by a single voice through skipping back and forth between the notes of the two melodies . In music cognition , the phenomenon is also known as melodic fission . The term `` compound melody '' may have its origin in Walter Piston 's Counterpoint ( New York , Norton , 1947 ) , under the form `` compound melodic line '' ( London edition , 1947 , p. 23 ) . In the context of Schenkerian analysis , it appears among others in Forte & Gilbert , Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis ( 1982 ) , Chapter 3 , pp. 67-80 . Manfred Bukofzer , Music in the Baroque Era , New York , Norton , 1947 , had spoken of `` implied polyphony '' . Unfolding is `` a prolongation by means of the unfolding of intervals horizontally . '' Though the notes skipped between , those heard , may be considered near the foreground , the dyads , those implied , are in the middle or background . Middleground dyads are `` unfolded '' in the foreground : `` intervals conceptually heard as sounding together are separated in time , unfolded , as it where , into a melodic sequence . ''", "qid": "214", "docid": "Unfolding_(music)", "rank": 61, "score": 80374 }, { "content": "Title: RealClimate Content: RealClimate is a commentary site ( blog ) on climatology . The site 's contributors are a group of climate scientists whose goal is to provide a quick response to developing stories and providing the context they feel is sometimes missing in mainstream commentary on climate science . The forum is moderated , and is restricted to scientific topics to avoid discussion of political or economic implications of the science . RealClimate was launched on 10 December 2004 by nine climate scientists .", "qid": "214", "docid": "RealClimate", "rank": 62, "score": 80357 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Balling Content: Robert C. Balling , Jr. is a professor of geography at Arizona State University , and the former director of its Office of Climatology . His research interests include climatology , global climate change , and geographic information systems . Balling has declared himself one of the scientists who oppose the consensus on global warming , arguing in a 2009 book that anthropogenic global warming `` is indeed real , but relatively modest '' , and maintaining that there is a publication bias in the scientific literature .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Robert_Balling", "rank": 63, "score": 80257 }, { "content": "Title: Unfolding (DSP implementation) Content: Unfolding is a transformation technique of duplicating the functional blocks to increase the throughput of the DSP program in such a way that preserves its functional behavior at its outputs . Unfolding was first proposed by Keshab K. Parhi and David G. Messerschmitt in 1989 . . Unfolding in general program is as known as Loop unrolling Unfolding has applications in designing high-speed and low-power ASIC architectures . One application is to unfold the program to reveal hidden concurrency so that the program can be scheduled to a smaller iteration period , thus increasing the throughput of the implementation . Another application is parallel processing in word level or bit level . Therefore these transformed circuit could increase the throughput and decrease the power consumption .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Unfolding_(DSP_implementation)", "rank": 64, "score": 80072 }, { "content": "Title: Say It Again (Marié Digby song) Content: `` Say It Again '' is the first single of Marie Digby 's debut album Unfold . It was released to radio on January 18 , 2008 , and on iTunes on February 19 , 2008 . The song was promoted by its appearance on television series Smallville and by the creation of three music videos .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Say_It_Again_(Marié_Digby_song)", "rank": 65, "score": 80055 }, { "content": "Title: Biosecurity protocol Content: Biosecurity protocol refers to several politically controversial attempts to unify global biosecurity measures and responses , in a similar manner to a biosafety protocol . Although some propose a `` Biosecurity Protocol '' to extend the Biosafety Protocol to organisms considered weapons ( already controlled by UN arms proliferation treaties ) , others argue this is an inappropriate response to military threats , and argue for a broad biodefense instead . As of 2002 , the latter view was prevalent in military and scientific circles , the former in NGOs , some United Nations agencies , and Green Parties . Most cooperation was restricted to attempts to define `` biosecurity '' itself . A major issue is whether to accept the Precautionary Principle , or by extension , any restrictions on militarily useful research by major powers . Compromises , e.g. the 2002 US government request to scientists to delete procedural details of experiments on dangerous organisms , are strongly resisted by most American scientists . Extreme positions , e.g. Bill Joy 's argument for relinquishment of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence , are considered a legitimate part of the debate , but have yet to achieve any serious political support , even among Green Parties . Whether these negotiations and compromises will yield a comprehensive biosecurity protocol is doubtful . It seems that basic political differences drive the debate which are unlikely to easily resolve , and that military alliances will influence tax , trade , and tariff systems and import/export restrictions more than any diplomatic or scientific protocol . Category : Government", "qid": "214", "docid": "Biosecurity_protocol", "rank": 66, "score": 79966 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific controversy Content: A scientific controversy is a substantial disagreement among scientists . A scientific controversy may involve issues such as the interpretation of data , which ideas are most supported by evidence , and which ideas are most worth pursuing . For example , the connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of IQ testing in the early 20th century . Controversies between scientific and non-scientific ideas are not within the realm of science and are not true scientific controversies .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Scientific_controversy", "rank": 67, "score": 79944 }, { "content": "Title: Confounds and artifacts Content: Although often used interchangeably , confounds and artifacts refer to two different kinds of threat to the validity of social psychological research . Within a given social psychological experiment , researchers are attempting to establish a relationship between a treatment ( also known as an independent variable or a predictor ) and an outcome ( also known as a dependent variable or a criterion ) . Usually , but not always , they are trying to prove that the treatment causes the outcome , that differential levels of the treatment lead to differential levels of the outcome .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Confounds_and_artifacts", "rank": 68, "score": 79585 }, { "content": "Title: Role of chance in scientific discoveries Content: The role of chance , or `` luck '' , in science comprises all ways in which unexpected discoveries are made . Many domains , especially psychology , are concerned with the way science interacts with chance -- particularly `` serendipity '' ( accidents that , through sagacity , are transformed into opportunity ) . Psychologist Kevin Dunbar and colleagues estimate that between 30 % and 50 % of all scientific discoveries are accidental in some sense ( see examples below ) . Psychologist Alan A. Baumeister says a scientist must be `` sagacious '' ( attentive and clever ) to benefit from an accident . Dunbar quotes Louis Pasteur 's saying that `` Chance favors only the prepared mind '' . The prepared mind , Dunbar suggests , is one trained for observational rigor . Dunbar adds that there is a great deal of writing about the role that serendipity ( `` happy accidents '' ) plays in the scientific method . Research suggests that scientists are taught various heuristics and practices that allow their investigations to benefit , and not suffer , from accidents . First , careful control conditions allow scientists to properly identify something as `` unexpected '' . Once a finding is recognized as legitimately unexpected and in need of explaining , researchers can attempt to explain it : They work across various disciplines , with various colleagues , trying various analogies in order to understand the first curious finding .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Role_of_chance_in_scientific_discoveries", "rank": 69, "score": 79545 }, { "content": "Title: Truth by consensus Content: In philosophy , truth by consensus is the process of taking statements to be true simply because people generally agree upon them . Imre Lakatos characterizes it as a `` watered down '' form of provable truth propounded by some sociologists of knowledge , particularly Thomas Kuhn and Michael Polanyi . Philosopher Nigel Warburton argues that the truth by consensus process is not a reliable way of discovering truth . That there is general agreement upon something does not make it actually true . There are two main reasons for this : One reason Warburton discusses is that people are prone to wishful thinking . People can believe an assertion and espouse it as truth in the face of overwhelming evidence and facts to the contrary , simply because they wish that things were so . The other one is that people are gullible , and easily misled . Another unreliable method of determining truth is by determining the majority opinion of a popular vote . This is unreliable because on many questions the majority of people are ill-informed . Warburton gives astrology as an example of this . He states that while it may be the case that the majority of the people of the world believe that people 's destinies are wholly determined by astrological mechanisms , given that most of that majority have only sketchy and superficial knowledge of the stars in the first place , their views can not be held to be a significant factor in determining the truth of astrology . The fact that something `` is generally agreed '' or that `` most people believe '' something should be viewed critically , asking the question why that factor is considered to matter at all in an argument over truth . He states that the simple fact that a majority believes something to be true is unsatisfactory justification for believing it to be true . Warburton makes a distinction between the fallacy of truth by consensus and the process of democracy in decision-making . Democracy is preferable to other processes not because it results in truth , but because it provides for equal participation by multiple special-interest groups , and the avoidance of tyranny . Weinberger characterizes Jürgen Habermas as a proponent of a consensus theory of truth , and criticizes that theory as unacceptable on the following grounds : First , even if everyone 's opinion is in agreement , those opinions may all nonetheless be erroneous . Second , truth by consensus is conceived as a limit that is approached via an idealized process of discourse ; however , it has not been proven that discourse even tends towards such a limit , or that discourse even tends towards one single limit , and thus it is not proven that truth is the limit that is approached by ideal discourse and consensus .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Truth_by_consensus", "rank": 70, "score": 79493 }, { "content": "Title: Knowledge argument Content: The knowledge argument ( also known as Mary 's room or Mary the super-scientist ) is a philosophical thought experiment proposed by Frank Jackson in his article `` Epiphenomenal Qualia '' ( 1982 ) and extended in `` What Mary Did n't Know '' ( 1986 ) . The experiment is intended to argue against physicalism -- the view that the universe , including all that is mental , is entirely physical . The debate that emerged following its publication became the subject of an edited volume -- There 's Something About Mary ( 2004 ) -- which includes replies from such philosophers as Daniel Dennett , David Lewis , and Paul Churchland .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Knowledge_argument", "rank": 71, "score": 79466 }, { "content": "Title: World Federation of Scientists Content: The World Federation of Scientists is a multi-disciplinary association of scientists focused around concentrating talent to solving planetary challenges . Established in Erice , Sicily in 1973 by a group of eminent researchers led by Isidor Isaac Rabi and Antonino Zichichi , it has grown to include more than 10,000 scientists drawn from 110 countries . Notable scientists involved with the association include T. D. Lee , Laura Fermi , Eugene Wigner , Paul Dirac , and Piotr Kapitza . The federation administers the Erice Prize and the Gian Carlo Wick Gold Medal Prize . It notably holds annual seminars on planetary threats , discussing issues such as adaption to and mitigation of global climate change . Václav Klaus , then President of the Czech Republic , gave the keynote lecture of their August 2012 meeting , his skeptical views sparking debate among the attendees . It is not related to the World Federation of Science Journalists .", "qid": "214", "docid": "World_Federation_of_Scientists", "rank": 72, "score": 79450 }, { "content": "Title: Objectivity (science) Content: Objectivity in science is a value that informs how science is practiced and how scientific truths are discovered . It is the idea that scientists , in attempting to uncover truths about the natural world , must aspire to eliminate personal biases , a priori commitments , emotional involvement , etc. . Objectivity is often attributed to the property of scientific measurement , as the accuracy of a measurement can be tested independent from the individual scientist who first reports it . It is thus intimately related to the aim of testability and reproducibility . To be properly considered objective , the results of measurement must be communicated from person to person , and then demonstrated for third parties , as an advance in understanding of the objective world . Such demonstrable knowledge would ordinarily confer demonstrable powers of prediction or technological construction . Problems arise from not understanding the limits of objectivity in scientific research , especially when results are generalized . Given that the object selection and measurement process are typically subjective , when results of that subjective process are generalized to the larger system from which the object was selected , the stated conclusions are necessarily biased . Objectivity should not be confused with scientific consensus . Scientists may agree at one point in time but later discover that this consensus represented a subjective point of view .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Objectivity_(science)", "rank": 73, "score": 79445 }, { "content": "Title: Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow Content: The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow ( CFACT ) is a Washington , D.C.-based 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit organization founded in 1985 that advocates for free-market solutions to environmental issues , but has increasingly turned to climate denial . For example , CFACT co-founder Craig Rucker stated that mankind faces a threat `` not from man-made global warming , but from man-made hysteria . '' At the 29 April 2017 Climate March , leaflets distributed by CFACT claimed the scientific consensus that mankind is now driving global changes in the planet 's climate are `` bogus '' , that reports of record-setting temperatures are `` the hottest lie '' being told , and `` CO2 is not the ` control knob ' of the climate '' .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Committee_for_a_Constructive_Tomorrow", "rank": 74, "score": 79399 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 75, "score": 79349 }, { "content": "Title: Unfold Content: Unfold may refer to : Unfoldable cardinal , in mathematics Unfold ( higher-order function ) , in computer science a family of anamorphism functions Unfoldment ( disambiguation ) , in spirituality and physics Unfolded protein response , in biochemistry Equilibrium unfolding , in biochemistry Unfolded state ( denatured protein ) , in biochemistry Maximum variance unfolding ( semidefinite embedding ) , in computer science Unfold ( Marié Digby album ) , 2008 Unfold ( John O'Callaghan album )", "qid": "214", "docid": "Unfold", "rank": 76, "score": 79273 }, { "content": "Title: Slow motion perception Content: Slow motion perception is a postulated mental state wherein time seems to be slowed down . People experiencing life-threatening situations sometimes report that time seemed to have slowed down . Research conducted by David Eagleman established that time does not actually slow down for a person during a life-threatening event but , rather , it is only a retrospective assessment that brings about such a conclusion . He measured time perception during free-fall by strapping palm-top computers to subjects ' wrists and having them perform psychophysical experiments as they fall . By measuring their speed of information intake , he concluded that participants did not have increased temporal resolution during the fall but , because their memories are more densely packed during a frightening situation , the event merely seems to have taken longer .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Slow_motion_perception", "rank": 77, "score": 79216 }, { "content": "Title: Vicky Pope Content: Vicky Pope is head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre . She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation . Since October 2004 she has been Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change . Her research interests include developing and validating climate models . In an interview for The Guardian newspaper , she said : `` very few '' scientists disputed the latest IPCC report . `` The consensus on warming since the 1850s is that a large part is due to man 's activities , '' she said . `` That 's the line of the IPCC report and that position is strengthening . It is a very widespread consensus . There are a few very vocal people who are sceptics , only some of whom are actually scientists . Sceptics obviously have a place in the community . '' link", "qid": "214", "docid": "Vicky_Pope", "rank": 78, "score": 79124 }, { "content": "Title: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason Content: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason ( Ueber die vierfache Wurzel des Satzes vom zureichenden Grunde ) is an elaboration on the classical Principle of Sufficient Reason written by German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer as his doctoral dissertation in 1813 . The principle of sufficient reason is a powerful and controversial philosophical principle stipulating that everything must have a reason or cause . Schopenhauer revised and re-published it in 1847 . This work articulated the centerpiece of many of Schopenhauer 's arguments , and throughout his later works he consistently refers his readers to this short treatise as the necessary beginning point for a full understanding of his further writings .", "qid": "214", "docid": "On_the_Fourfold_Root_of_the_Principle_of_Sufficient_Reason", "rank": 79, "score": 79104 }, { "content": "Title: Silence of the Songbirds Content: Silence of the Songbirds ( ISBN 978-0-8027-1609-5 ) is a book by bird lover and scientist Bridget Stutchbury about the rapid decline and loss of many species of songbirds . Some major threats covered include pesticides , sun-grown coffee , city lights , cowbirds , and global warming . The book was published by HarperCollins in 2007 , and has 243 pages . Kirkus Reviews published a review of the book on June 1 , 2007 , and compared it to Silent Spring by Rachel Carson . Stutchbury describes the link between Latin American deforestation and the loss of food for migratory birds , and the impact of large amounts of pesticides . However , deforestation is minimal for shade-grown coffee . She mentions additional threats to songbirds : light pollution , tall buildings , and wind farms . Despite the diminishing populations of songbirds in recent decades , she provides advice for their survival .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Silence_of_the_Songbirds", "rank": 80, "score": 79089 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "214", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 81, "score": 78902 }, { "content": "Title: Threat Content: A threat is a communicated intent to inflict harm or loss on another person . A threat is considered an act of coercion . Threats ( intimidation ) are widely observed in animal behavior , particularly in a ritualized form , chiefly in order to avoid the unnecessary physical violence that can lead to physical damage or the death of both conflicting parties . Some of the more common types of threats forbidden by law are those made with an intent to obtain a monetary advantage or to compel a person to act against his or her will . In all US states , it is an offense to threaten to ( 1 ) use a deadly weapon on another person ; ( 2 ) injure another 's person or property ; or ( 3 ) injure another 's reputation .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Threat", "rank": 82, "score": 78863 }, { "content": "Title: Social desirability bias Content: Social desirability bias is a social science research term that describes a type of response bias that is the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others . It can take the form of over-reporting `` good behavior '' or under-reporting `` bad '' , or undesirable behavior . The tendency poses a serious problem with conducting research with self-reports , especially questionnaires . This bias interferes with the interpretation of average tendencies as well as individual differences . Topics where socially desirable responding ( SDR ) is of special concern are self-reports of abilities , personality , sexual behavior , and drug use . When confronted with the question `` How often do you masturbate ? '' , for example , respondents may be pressured by the societal taboo against masturbation , and either under-report the frequency or avoid answering the question . Therefore , the mean rates of masturbation derived from self-report surveys are likely to be severe underestimates . When confronted with the question , `` Do you use drugs/illicit substances ? '' the respondent may be influenced by the fact that controlled substances , including the more commonly used marijuana , are generally illegal . Respondents may feel pressured to deny any drug use or rationalize it , e.g. `` I only smoke marijuana when my friends are around . '' The bias can also influence reports of number of sexual partners . In fact , the bias may operate in opposite directions for different subgroups : Whereas men tend to inflate the numbers , women tend to underestimate theirs . In either case , the mean reports from both groups are likely to be distorted by social desirability bias . Other topics that are sensitive to social desirability bias : Personal income and earnings , often inflated when low and deflated when high Feelings of low self-worth and/or powerlessness , often denied Excretory functions , often approached uncomfortably , if discussed at all Compliance with medicinal dosing schedules , often inflated Religion , often either avoided or uncomfortably approached Patriotism , either inflated or , if denied , done so with a fear of other party 's judgment Bigotry and intolerance , often denied , even if it exists within the responder Intellectual achievements , often inflated Physical appearance , either inflated or deflated Acts of real or imagined physical violence , often denied Indicators of charity or `` benevolence '' , often inflated Illegal acts , often denied", "qid": "214", "docid": "Social_desirability_bias", "rank": 83, "score": 78777 }, { "content": "Title: Reason for Existence Project Fear Content: Project Fear is a science fiction movie made by some youngsters in Vadodara City of Gujarat , India . The complete title of the movie is Reason for Existence Project Fear . The story touches the existentialism very hazily . A boy named Ashish sees his father being murdered in his recurrent dreams . He is unable to answer the reason of the grisly images playing in his mind . Facing the nervous breakdowns , his diurnal activities begin to look like a drag . As the mystery unfolds , he finds out that he was constantly kept under surveillance by superior beings looking for the answer for Reason for Existence . This film was screened in Baroda Film Club and became popular in the Vadodara city as `` Zero Budget Movie '' . The movie received many positive responses . Newspapers such as Times of India provided extensive coverage to this movie calling it a `` Fantastic Sci-fi flick on a Shoe String Budget '' .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Reason_for_Existence_Project_Fear", "rank": 84, "score": 78679 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 85, "score": 78657 }, { "content": "Title: Doomsday Clock Content: The Doomsday Clock is a symbol which represents the likelihood of a human-caused global catastrophe . Maintained since 1947 by the members of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board , the Clock represents an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war . Since 2007 , it has also reflected climate change and new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity . The Clock represents the hypothetical global catastrophe as `` midnight '' and The Bulletins opinion on how close the world is to a global catastrophe as a number of `` minutes '' to midnight . Its original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight . It has been set backward and forward 22 times since then , the smallest ever number of minutes to midnight being two ( in 1953 ) and the largest seventeen ( in 1991 ) . , the Clock is set at two and a half minutes to midnight , due to a `` rise of ` strident nationalism ' worldwide , United States President Donald Trump 's comments over North Korea , Russia , nuclear weapons , and the disbelief in the scientific consensus over climate change by the Trump Administration . '' This setting is the Clock 's second closest approach to midnight since its introduction . In-person visits to see the Doomsday Clock are not possible . There is no physical Doomsday Clock at The Bulletins office in the University of Chicago .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Doomsday_Clock", "rank": 86, "score": 78359 }, { "content": "Title: Evaluation apprehension model Content: The evaluation apprehension theory was proposed by Nickolas B. Cottrell in 1972 . He argued that we quickly learn that the social rewards and punishments ( for example , in the form of approval and disapproval ) that we receive from other people are based on their evaluations of us . On this basis , our arousal may be modulated . In other words , performance will be enhanced or impaired only in the presence of persons who can approve or disapprove our actions . Feelings of concern about evaluation nearly always occur when in the presence of others . However , in 1968 , Cottrell tried to separate these variables in an experiment . He found that there was no social facilitation effect on three well-learned tasks performed by a participant when there were two other persons ( part of the study ) blindfolded and supposedly preparing for a perception study . The participants would perform the same as the participants who were to perform the three well-learned tasks alone . Dominant responses ( sharper and quicker ) were given mainly by participants who had to perform the three tasks in the presence of spectators who seemed interested and who were able to see the participant perform the tasks . People may experience evaluation apprehension when they are part of a negatively stereotyped group and involved in a stereotype-linked activity . For example , women taking a math test may not perform to their full potential because of concerns regarding women 's stereotyped difficulties with math . In this situation , evaluation apprehension is called stereotype threat . Stereotype threat can also occur in private , whereas evaluation apprehension can not . Evaluation apprehension can affect subjects ' behavior in psychological experiments , and can lead to invalid casual interference . Rosenberg defined evaluation apprehension as `` an active , anxiety-toned concern that he -LSB- the subject -RSB- win a positive evaluation from the experimenter , or at least that he provide no grounds for a negative one . '' As a result , subjects have conformed less in conformity studies and exhibited quicker conditioning in conditioning studies as part of a positive self-presentation . Other research on evaluation apprehension has shown that , when they must make a choice , subjects are more concerned with presenting themselves in a favorable light ( this has been called the apprehensive hypothesis , the `` good subject role '' ) . Concern with giving a positive self-presentation is also implicit in the social desirability bias . This bias is the tendency to give the `` socially desired response '' ( e.g. , a response that would typically be considered well-adjusted ) in answering items on personality measures . This response set is important for personality researchers because it threatens valid interpretation of test results .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Evaluation_apprehension_model", "rank": 87, "score": 78301 }, { "content": "Title: Superluminal communication Content: Superluminal communication is a hypothetical process in which information is sent at faster-than-light ( FTL ) speeds . The current scientific consensus is that faster-than-light communication is not possible , and to date it has not been achieved in any experiment . Superluminal communication is believed to be impossible because , in a Lorentz-invariant theory , it could be used to transmit information into the past . This contradicts causality and leads to logical paradoxes . A number of theories and phenomena related to superluminal communication have been proposed or studied , including tachyons , quantum nonlocality , and wormholes .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Superluminal_communication", "rank": 88, "score": 78288 }, { "content": "Title: Sexual fluidity Content: Sexual fluidity is one or more changes in sexuality or sexual identity ( sometimes known as sexual orientation identity ) . There is significant debate over whether sexuality is stable throughout life or is fluid and malleable . Scientific consensus is that sexual orientation , unlike sexual orientation identity , is not a choice . While scientists generally believe that sexual orientation is usually stable ( unlikely to change ) , sexual identity can change throughout an individual 's life , and may or may not align with biological sex , sexual behavior or actual sexual orientation . There is no consensus on the exact cause of developing a sexual orientation , but genetic , hormonal , social and cultural influences have been examined . Scientists believe that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic , hormonal , and environmental influences . Essentialism , in the context of sexual fluidity , is the belief that sexual orientation and sexual desire are fundamentally biological and therefore do not change throughout life . The results of a large-scale , longitudinal study by Savin-Williams , Joyner , and Rieger ( 2012 ) indicated that stability of sexual orientation identity over a six-year period was more common than change , particularly for men . While stability may be more common than change , change in sexual orientation identity does occur and the vast majority of research indicates that female sexuality is more fluid than male sexuality . This could be attributed to females ' higher erotic plasticity or to sociocultural factors that socialize women to be more open to change . Due to the gender differences in the stability of sexual orientation identity , male and female sexuality are not treated as functioning via the same mechanisms . More research is needed to determine the fluidity of sexual orientation of subgroups ( i.e. , bisexual , lesbian , gay , etc. ) . Use of the term sexual fluidity has been attributed to Lisa M. Diamond , especially with regard to female sexuality .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Sexual_fluidity", "rank": 89, "score": 78110 }, { "content": "Title: Almond–Lippmann consensus Content: The Almond -- Lippmann consensus is a principle of political theory authored by Gabriel Almond and Walter Lippmann shortly after the Second World War . It states that public opinion is the following : it is volatile and irrational and thus a dubious basis for foreign policy ; it is devoid of interest and susceptible to manipulation and thus should not be studied . The consensus was highly influential in the 1950s and 1960s but weakened following the conclusion of the Vietnam War , when it became clear that `` the American public had taken a more sober and enlightened approach toward the war than the heads of government did , '' which led to Lippmann himself recanting .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Almond–Lippmann_consensus", "rank": 90, "score": 78090 }, { "content": "Title: Social threefolding Content: Social threefolding is a sociological theory suggesting the progressive independence of society 's economic , political and cultural institutions . It aims to foster human rights and equality in political life , freedom in cultural life ( art , science , religion , education , the media ) , and associative cooperation in economic life . The idea was first proposed by Rudolf Steiner in the great cultural ferment immediately following the end of the First World War . The process of achieving the cooperative independence of these three societal realms is meant to be achieved through a gradual transformation of existing societal structures . Steiner believed that the three social spheres had very gradually , over thousands of years , been growing independent of each other , and would naturally tend to continue to do so , and that consciously furthering aspects of this independence thus works in accordance with society 's natural evolution . Steiner held it to be socially destructive when one of the three spheres attempts to dominate the others ; for example , theocracy means a cultural impulse dominates economy and politics ; unregulated and socially irresponsible varieties of capitalism allow economic interests to dominate politics , culture and media ; and state socialism means political agendas dominate culture and economic life . A more specific example : Arthur Salter , 1st Baron Salter suggests governments frequently fail when they begin to give `` discretionary , particularly preferential privileges to competitive industry . '' The goal is for this independence to arise in such a way that those three realms can provide mutual balance . Many concrete reform proposals to advance a `` threefold social order '' at various scales have been advanced since 1919 . Some intentionally cooperative businesses and organizations , mostly in Europe , have attempted to realize a balance between the three spheres , within local structures . Waldorf schools deserve special mention in this regard . Another application has been the creation of various socially responsible banks and foundations . Bernard Lievegoed incorporated significant aspects of social threefolding in his work on organizational development .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Social_threefolding", "rank": 91, "score": 77728 }, { "content": "Title: Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why Content: Gay , Straight , and the Reason Why : The Science of Sexual Orientation ( 2010 ; second edition 2016 ) is a book about the development of sexual orientation by the neuroscientist Simon LeVay , in which the author argues that sexual orientation is an aspect of gender that emerges from the prenatal sexual differentiation of the brain , and criticizes Freudian and behaviorist explanations of sexual orientation . Gay , Straight , and the Reason Why received numerous positive reviews , praising it for LeVay 's wide-ranging overview of scientific research on sexual orientation , but the book also received some mixed or negative reviews , criticizing it on grounds such as LeVay 's willingness to rely on studies with inadequate sample sizes . In 2012 , it received the Bullough Book Award for the most distinguished book written for the professional sexological community published in a given year .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Gay,_Straight,_and_the_Reason_Why", "rank": 92, "score": 77718 }, { "content": "Title: Illusion of validity Content: Illusion of validity is a cognitive bias in which a person overestimates his or her ability to interpret and predict accurately the outcome when analyzing a set of data , in particular when the data analyzed show a very consistent pattern -- that is , when the data `` tell '' a coherent story . This effect persists even when the person is aware of all the factors that limit the accuracy of his or her predictions , that is when the data and/or methods used to judge them lead to highly fallible predictions . In one study , for example , subjects reported higher confidence in a prediction of the final grade point average of a student after seeing a first-year record of consistent B 's than a first-year record of an even number of A 's and C 's . Consistent patterns may be observed when input variables are highly redundant or correlated , which may increase subjective confidence . However , a number of highly correlated inputs should not increase confidence much more than only one of the inputs ; instead higher confidence should be merited when a number of highly independent inputs show a consistent pattern . This bias was first described by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in their 1973 paper `` On the Psychology of Prediction '' .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Illusion_of_validity", "rank": 93, "score": 77707 }, { "content": "Title: Sixth Party System Content: Experts have debated whether national politics in the United States of America is in the era of a Sixth Party System , or whether the Fifth Party System continues in some form to the present . Opinions also differ on when a Sixth Party System may have begun , with suggested dates ranging from the 1960s to the 1990s . Maisel and Brewer ( 2011 ) argue that the consensus among specialists is that the Sixth System is underway based on American electoral politics since the 1960s : The perceived Sixth Party System is characterized by an electoral shift from the electoral coalitions of the Fifth Party System during the New Deal : the Republican Party became the dominant party in the South , rural areas , and suburbs ; while the Democratic Party increasingly started to assemble a coalition of African-Americans , Hispanics and white urban Progressives . A critical factor was the major transformation of the political system in the Reagan Era or `` Age of Reagan '' of the 1980s and beyond , led by Ronald Reagan . However , no clear disciplinary consensus has emerged pinpointing an electoral event responsible for shifting presidential and congressional control since the Great Depression of the 1930s , when the Fifth Party System emerged . Much of the work published on the subject has come from political scientists explaining the events of their time either as the imminent breakup of the Fifth Party System , and the installation of a new one ; or in terms of such transition taking place some time ago . Other current writing on the Fifth Party System expresses admiration of its longevity : the first four systems lasted about 30 to 40 years each , which would have implied that the early twenty-first century should see a Seventh Party System . It is also possible , as argued in Jensen ( 1981 ) and elsewhere , that the party system has given way , not to a new party system , but to a period of dealignment in politics . Previous party systems ended with the dominant party losing two consecutive House elections by large margins , and also losing a presidential election coinciding with or immediately following ( in 1896 ) the second House election -- decisive electoral evidence of political realignment . Such a shift took place in 2006 -- 2008 in favor of the Democrats , but the Republicans won the elections of 2010 by their biggest landslide since 1946 and finished the 2014 elections with their greatest number of U.S. House seats since 1928 .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Sixth_Party_System", "rank": 94, "score": 77661 }, { "content": "Title: List of World Heritage in Danger Content: The List of World Heritage in Danger is compiled by the United Nations Educational , Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) through the World Heritage Committee according to Article 11.4 of the World Heritage Convention , Full title : Convention concerning the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage which was established in 1972 to designate and manage World Heritage Sites . Entries in the list are threatened World Heritage Sites for the conservation of which major operations are required and for which `` assistance has been requested '' . The list is intended to increase international awareness of the threats and to encourage counteractive measures . Threats to a site can be either proven imminent threats or potential dangers that could have adverse effects on a site . In the case of natural sites , ascertained dangers include the serious decline in the population of an endangered or other valuable species or the deterioration of natural beauty or scientific value of a property caused by human activities such as logging , pollution , settlement , mining , agriculture and major public works . Ascertained dangers for cultural properties include serious deterioration of materials , structure , ornaments or architectural coherence and the loss of historical authenticity or cultural significance . Potential dangers for both cultural and natural sites include development projects , armed conflicts , insufficient management systems or changes in the legal protective status of the properties . In the case of cultural sites , gradual changes due to geology , climate or environment can also be potential dangers . Before a property is inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger , its condition is assessed and a potential programme for corrective measures is developed in cooperation with the State Party involved . The final decision about inscription is made by the committee . Financial support from the World Heritage Fund may be allocated by the committee for listed properties . The state of conservation is reviewed on a yearly basis , after which the committee may request additional measures , delete the property from the list if the threats have ceased or consider deletion from both the List of World Heritage in Danger and the World Heritage List . Of the two Former UNESCO World Heritage Sites , the Dresden Elbe Valley was delisted after placement on the List of World Heritage in Danger while the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was directly delisted . As of 2016 , there are 55 entries ( 18 natural , 38 cultural ) on the List of World Heritage in Danger . Some sites have been designated as World Heritage Sites and World Heritage in Danger in the same year , such as the Church of the Nativity , traditionally considered to be the birthplace of Jesus . Arranged by the UNESCO regions 21 of the listed sites are located in the Arab States ( of which 7 are located in Syria and 5 in Libya ) , 17 in Africa ( of which 5 are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ) , 7 in Latin America and the Caribbean , 6 in Asia and the Pacific , and 4 in Europe and North America ( all by 2016 ) . Includes two sites in Georgia The majority of the endangered natural sites ( 13 ) are located in Africa . In some cases , danger listing has sparked conservation efforts and prompted the release of funds , resulting in a positive development for sites such as the Galápagos Islands and Yellowstone National Park , both of which have subsequently been removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger . Despite this , the list itself and UNESCO 's implementation of it have been the focus of criticism . In particular , States Parties and other stakeholders of World Heritage Sites have questioned the authority of the Committee to declare a site in danger without their consent . Until 1992 , when UNESCO set a precedent by placing several sites on the danger list against their wishes , States Parties would have submitted a programme of corrective measures before a site could be listed . Instead of being used as intended , the List of World Heritage in Danger is perceived by some states as a black list and according to Christina Cameron , Professor at the School of Architecture , Canada Research Chair on Built Heritage , University of Montreal , has been used as political tool to get the attention of States Parties . The International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) notes that UNESCO has referenced the List of World Heritage in Danger ( without actually listing the site ) in a number of cases where the threat could be easily addressed by the State Party . The Union also argues that keeping a site listed as endangered over a long period is questionable and that other mechanisms for conservation should be sought in these cases .", "qid": "214", "docid": "List_of_World_Heritage_in_Danger", "rank": 95, "score": 77650 }, { "content": "Title: Science wars Content: The science wars were a series of intellectual exchanges , between scientific realists and postmodernist critics , about the nature of scientific theory and intellectual inquiry . They took place principally in the United States in the 1990s in the academic and mainstream press . Scientific realists ( such as Norman Levitt , Paul R. Gross , Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal ) argued that scientific knowledge is real , and accused the postmodernists of having effectively rejected scientific objectivity , the scientific method , and scientific knowledge . Postmodernists interpreted Thomas Kuhn 's ideas about scientific paradigms to mean that scientific theories are social constructs , and philosophers like Paul Feyerabend argued that other , non-realist forms of knowledge production were better suited to serve people 's personal and spiritual needs . Though much of the theory associated with ` postmodernism ' ( see poststructuralism ) did not make any interventions into the natural sciences , the scientific realists took aim at its general influence . The scientific realists argued that large swaths of scholarship , amounting to a rejection of objectivity and realism , had been influenced by major 20th Century poststructuralist philosophers ( such as Jacques Derrida , Gilles Deleuze , Jean-François Lyotard and others ) , whose work they declared to be incomprehensible or meaningless . They implicated a broad range of fields in this trend , including cultural studies , cultural anthropology , feminist studies , comparative literature , media studies , and science and technology studies . They accused those postmodernist critics who did actually discuss science of having a limited understanding of it .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Science_wars", "rank": 96, "score": 77641 }, { "content": "Title: American Scientific Affiliation Content: The American Scientific Affiliation ( ASA ) is a Christian religious organization of scientists and people in science-related disciplines . The stated purpose is `` to investigate any area relating Christian faith and science . '' The organization publishes a journal , Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith which covers topics related to Christian faith and science from a Christian viewpoint . Members of the irganization are from various movements , such as evangelicalism , and represent several Christian denominations including the Lutherans , Catholics , Methodists , Presbyterians , Baptists , and the Orthodox . The organization frequently runs seminars at universities in the world , such as Baylor University , the University of Cambridge , and The Catholic University of America .", "qid": "214", "docid": "American_Scientific_Affiliation", "rank": 97, "score": 77638 }, { "content": "Title: Threatcasting Content: Threatcasting is a conceptual framework used to help multidisciplinary groups envision future scenarios . It is also a process that enables systematic planning against threats ten years in the future . Utilizing the threatcasting process , groups explore possible future threats and how to transform the future they desire into reality while avoiding undesired futures . Threatcasting is a continuous , multiple-step process with inputs from social science , technical research , cultural history , economics , trends , expert interviews , and science fiction storytelling . These inputs inform the exploration of potential visions of the future . Once inputs are explored for impact and application , participants create a science fiction story ( Science Fiction Prototyping ) based ten years in the future to add context around human activity . Science Fiction Prototyping consists of a future story about a person in a place doing a thing . The threatcasting process results in creation of many potential futures scenarios - some futures are desirable while others are not . Identifying both types of futures ( desirable and undesirable ) will help the participant recognize which future to aim toward , and which to avoid . Utilizing the scenarios , participants plot actions necessary in the present and at various intervals working toward the ten year future scenario . These actions will help participants understand how to empower or disrupt the target future scenario . Flags ( warning events ) are also determined in order to map societal indicators onto the recommended path toward the targeted future . When identified flags appear in society , threatcasting participants map these back to the original forecast to see whether or not they are on track toward the target future scenario .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Threatcasting", "rank": 98, "score": 77621 }, { "content": "Title: True threat Content: A true threat is a threatening communication that can be prosecuted under the law . It is distinct from a threat that is made in jest . The U.S. Supreme Court has held that true threats are not protected under the U.S. Constitution based on three justifications : preventing fear , preventing the disruption that follows from that fear , and diminishing the likelihood that the threatened violence will occur . There is some concern that even satirical speech could be regarded as a `` true threat '' due to concern over terrorism . The true threat doctrine was established in the 1969 Supreme Court case Watts v. United States . In that case , an eighteen-year-old male was convicted in a Washington , D.C. District Court for violating a statute prohibiting persons from knowingly and willfully making threats to harm or kill the President of the United States . The conviction was based on a statement made by Watts , in which he said , '' -LSB- i -RSB- f they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J. '' Watts appealed , leading to the Supreme Court finding the statute constitutional on its face , but reversing the conviction of Watts . In reviewing the lower court 's analysis of the case , the Court noted that `` a threat must be distinguished from what is constitutionally protected speech . '' The Court recognized that `` uninhibited , robust , and wideopen '' political debate can at times be characterized by `` vehement , caustic , and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials . '' In light of the context of Watts ' statement - and the laughter that it received from the crowd - the Court found that it was more `` a kind of very crude offensive method of stating a political opposition to the President '' than a `` true threat . '' In so holding , the Court established that there is a `` true threat '' exception to protected speech , but also that the statement must be viewed in its context and distinguished from protected hyperbole . The opinion , however , stopped short of defining precisely what constituted a `` true threat . ''", "qid": "214", "docid": "True_threat", "rank": 99, "score": 77578 }, { "content": "Title: Planck's principle Content: In sociology of scientific knowledge , Planck 's principle is the view that scientific change does not occur because individual scientists change their mind , but rather that successive generations of scientists have different views . The reason for the name is the statements by Max Planck : Planck 's quote has been used by Thomas Kuhn , Paul Feyerabend and others to argue that scientific revolutions are arational , rather than spreading through `` mere force of truth and fact '' . It has been described as Darwinian rather than Lamarckian conceptual evolution . Whether age influences the readiness to accept new ideas has been empirically criticised . In the case of acceptance of evolution in the years after Darwin 's On the Origin of Species age was a minor factor . Similarly , it was a weak factor in accepting cliometrics .", "qid": "214", "docid": "Planck's_principle", "rank": 100, "score": 77429 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: David Vaughan (glaciologist) Content: David Glyn Vaughan OBE is a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey . His research focus is the role of ice sheets in the Earth system and the societal threat of climate change and rising sea levels . He is a co-ordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . His research work includes the mapping of the bed under Pine Island Glacier and the discovery of a subglacial volcano . Vaughan was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to glaciology .", "qid": "216", "docid": "David_Vaughan_(glaciologist)", "rank": 1, "score": 125828 }, { "content": "Title: Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment Content: The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems . Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind . The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Sea_Ice_Physics_and_Ecosystem_eXperiment", "rank": 2, "score": 124508 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic ice sheet Content: The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Antarctic_ice_sheet", "rank": 3, "score": 116104 }, { "content": "Title: Flogstallen Content: Flogstallen is a flat , icecapped mountain with steep rock sides just northeast of Jokulskarvet Ridge , in the Borg Massif of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys , original research and air photos by the Norwegian -- British -- Swedish Antarctic Expedition ( 1949 -- 52 ) and from air photos by the Norwegian expedition ( 1958 -- 59 ) and named Flogstallen ( the rock wall stable ) .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Flogstallen", "rank": 4, "score": 112830 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West ( or Lesser ) Antarctica , the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains which lies in the Western Hemisphere . The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet , meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves . The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf , the Ronne Ice Shelf , and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea . It is estimated that the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet is about 25.4 million km3 ( 6.1 million cu mi ) , and the WAIS contains just under 10 % of this , or 2.2 million km3 ( 530,000 cu mi ) . The weight of the ice has caused the underlying rock to sink by between 0.5 and 1 kilometres ( 0.31 -- 0.62 mi ) in a process known as isostatic depression . Under the force of its own weight , the ice sheet deforms and flows . The interior ice flows slowly over rough bedrock . In some circumstances , ice can flow faster in ice streams , separated by slow-flowing ice ridges . The inter-stream ridges are frozen to the bed while the bed beneath the ice streams consists of water-saturated sediments . Many of these sediments were deposited before the ice sheet occupied the region , when much of West Antarctica was covered by the ocean . The rapid ice-stream flow is a non-linear process still not fully understood ; streams can start and stop for unclear reasons . When ice reaches the coast , it either calves or continues to flow outward onto the water . The result is a large , floating ice shelf affixed to the continent .", "qid": "216", "docid": "West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 5, "score": 111572 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 6, "score": 110700 }, { "content": "Title: Lake CECs Content: Lake CECs is a subglacial lake in Antarctica at approximately latitude 80 ° S . It has an estimated area of 18 km ² . The territory where the lake is located , some 160 km from Union Glacier , is claimed only by Chile . The lake is located in a buffer zone of three major West Antarctic glaciers . The movement of the ice is almost nonexistent and the area is in a situation of low disturbance . This allows the body of water to be extremely stable , with minimal mass exchanges with its environment . This favors the hypothesis that the lake could support endemic life , which would have developed in extreme isolation . Lake CECs was discovered by the Chilean research center Centro de Estudios Científicos ( CECs ) . The first signs of the lake were detected during Antarctic summer in January 2014 , when a mobile research station team journeyed through the central plateau of West Antarctica . Measurements showed unusual subglacial radar returns , indicating the presence of a waterbody at some 2.6 kilometers depth under the ice . An initial mapping with an ice-penetrating radar confirmed the finding . The research team returned in summer of 2015 and the mapping was completed . The findings were published in a Geophysical Research Letters report by four members of the CECs Glaciology Laboratory .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Lake_CECs", "rank": 7, "score": 109885 }, { "content": "Title: Jones Ice Shelf Content: Jones Ice Shelf was the ice shelf occupying the Jones Channel , between the Arrowsmith Peninsula and Blaiklock Island , on the west coast of Graham Land , Antarctica . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1981 in association with the channel . The shelf was stable between 1947 and 1969 , rising from 3 to above sea level as it blocked the channel . It started to retreat in the 1970s and by 2003 had completely disappeared .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Jones_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 8, "score": 109759 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Bindschadler Content: Dr. Robert Bindschadler is a senior fellow at NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center and has been an active field researcher in the Antarctic for over 25 years . He is a past president of the International Glaciological Society , chairs the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative , is an editor for the Journal of Glaciology and has led 14 expeditions to Antarctica and has participated in numerous other expeditions around the world including Greenland . He has also testified before Congress and has briefed the U.S. vice president concerning ice-sheet stability and is often quoted or featured in the media . He was born in Pittsburgh and received a B.S. in astronomy and physics in 1971 from the University of Michigan and earned his Ph.D in Geophysics from the University of Washington in 1978 and did post doctoral work in Switzerland prior to working at NASA . His work revolves around the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets using remote sensing technology . He has developed applications used to measure ice velocity and elevation using radar imagery which monitors the melting of ice sheets and detects changes in the volume of ice-sheets using radar altimetry . He has received numerous awards including Exceptional scientific achievement by NASA in 1994 as well as the Goddard Senior fellow in 2000 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Robert_Bindschadler", "rank": 9, "score": 109723 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet ( EAIS ) is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica , and the largest on the entire planet . The EAIS lies between 45 ° west and 168 ° east longitudinally . The EAIS is considerably larger in area and mass than the West Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) . It is separated from the WAIS by the Transantarctic Mountains . The EAIS rests upon a large land mass , contrary to that of the WAIS , which rests mainly on bedrock below sea level . The EAIS is also home to the thickest ice on the frozen white continent , at 15,700 ft ( 4,800 m ) . More well known , however , is that the EAIS is home to the geographic South Pole as well as of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station .", "qid": "216", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 10, "score": 109158 }, { "content": "Title: Ice and the Sky Content: Ice and the Sky ( La Glace et le ciel , also known as Antarctica : Ice and Sky ) is a 2015 French documentary film directed by Luc Jacquet about the work of Claude Lorius , who began studying Antarctic ice in 1957 , and , in 1965 , was the first scientist to be concerned about global warming . The film was selected to close the 2015 Cannes Film Festival .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Ice_and_the_Sky", "rank": 11, "score": 108951 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland ice core project Content: The Greenland Ice Core Project ( GRIP ) was a multinational European research project , organized through the European Science Foundation . Funding came from 8 nations ( Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Iceland , Italy , Switzerland , and United Kingdom ) , and from the European Union . The project ran from 1989 to 1995 , with drilling seasons from 1990 to 1992 . GRIP successfully drilled a 3029-metre ice core to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet at Summit , Central Greenland from 1989 to 1992 at . Studies of isotopes and various atmospheric constituents in the core have revealed a detailed record of climatic variations reaching more than 100,000 years back in time . The results indicate that Holocene climate has been remarkably stable and have confirmed the occurrence of rapid climatic variation during the last ice age ( the Wisconsin ) . Delta-O-18 variations observed in the core part believed to date from the Eemian Stage have not been confirmed by other records including the NGRIP core and are now believed not to represent climate events : the interglacial climate of Eemian Stage appears to have been as stable as the Holocene .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Greenland_ice_core_project", "rank": 12, "score": 106251 }, { "content": "Title: Drygalski Ice Tongue Content: The Drygalski Ice Tongue or Drygalski Barrier or Drygalski Glacier Tongue is a glacier in Antarctica , on the Scott Coast , in the northern McMurdo Sound of Antarctica 's Ross Dependency , 240 km north of Ross Island . The ice tongue is at . The Drygalski Ice Tongue is stable by the standards of Antarctica 's icefloes , and stretches 70 km out to sea from the David Glacier , reaching the sea from a valley in the Prince Albert Mountains of Victoria Land . The Drygalski Ice Tongue ranges from 14 to wide . Captain Robert Falcon Scott , leader of the British National Antarctic Expedition ( BrNAE ) ( 1901-1904 ) , discovered the Drygalski Ice Tongue in January 1902 and named it for Prof. Erich von Drygalski , a contemporary German explorer then in Antarctica . The Drygalski Ice Tongue became well established by the name Drygalski Ice Tongue before it became usual to give the same name to a glacier and its glacier tongue . Although this feature is a glacier tongue , the generic term ice tongue has been retained in the name to reduce ambiguity . The Drygalski Ice Tongue is thought to be at least 4,000 years old . On March -- April 2005 , a 3000 km2 iceberg designated B-15A hit the ice tongue breaking off two pieces , each with a surface area of about 70 km2 . This iceberg is a remnant of Iceberg B-15 , which calved from the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000 . Scientists are also concerned for several penguin colonies which have been isolated from the open sea by the two large bodies of ice . At the end of March 2006 , another iceberg coming from the Ross Ice Shelf , named C-16 , hit the ice tongue breaking off another large piece ( more than 100 km2 ) .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Drygalski_Ice_Tongue", "rank": 13, "score": 105931 }, { "content": "Title: Dakshin Gangotri Glacier Content: The Dakshin Gangotri Glacier is a small tongue of the polar continental ice sheet impinging on the Schirmacher Oasis of central Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was discovered by the Second Indian Expedition to Antarctica in 1983 , and named for India 's first Antarctic research station . Since then its snout , and the area around it , has been regularly monitored and it has become a valuable site for tracking the impact of global warming through changes in the movement of the Antarctic ice sheet . The site is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area ( ASPA ) No. 163 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Dakshin_Gangotri_Glacier", "rank": 14, "score": 105197 }, { "content": "Title: John H. Mercer Content: John H. Mercer ( Cheltenham , England , 19 October 1922 -- Columbus , Ohio 3 July 1987 ) was a glaciologist , chiefly known for his theoretical work on , and field studies of Antarctic ice streams , especially in the Transantarctic Mountains and in West Antarctica . Following John T. Hollin 's work ( 1962 ) suggesting that climatic warming and rising sea-level cause Antarctic ice shelves to retreat , Mercer postulated that the West Antarctic ice sheet , being grounded well below sea-level and terminating in floating ice shelves , was vulnerable to these changes and may have collapsed altogether during the last interglacial when Antarctica may have been warmer and sea-level may have been higher . In 1978 , in the science magazine Nature , Mercer pointed out that `` green-house '' warming from burning fossil fuel could have the same effect during the present interglacial . Two studies published 12 May 2014 confirm Mercer 's assumption . Climate scientist James Hansen has coined the term , `` John Mercer effect . '' After Mercer published his paper suggesting that the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse in response to warming , he struggled to get funding . Others , including Hansen , had similar problems . Many climate scientists censor their own work to avoid losing funding , especially regarding prospects for limiting warming to 2 ° C above pre-industrial temperatures . John H. Mercer was the third child of Harriet and John W. Mercer . He was educated at private schools in Cheltenham and , later , at Gordonstoun in Scotland . During World War II he served in the British Merchant Marines ( 1940 -- 46 ) as a radio man . After the war he went to University of Cambridge and studied geography . At that time he came under the influence of William Vaughan Lewis . After finishing his B.A. in 1949 Mercer went to Canada , where he received his PhD in geography from McGill University in 1954 . He was a Research Scholar from 1954 to 1956 at the Australian National University in Canberra , where he studied land use and population in western Samoa . He returned to Canada and worked in the Canadian Hydro-graphic Office in Ottawa as a geographer in 1957 and 1958 . During 1959 -- 60 , 1961 -- 62 , 1964 , and 1966 , the American Geographical Society employed him at its World Data Center A for Glaciology in New York . The turning point in his career as a glaciologist was in 1960 , when he became a Research Associate at The Ohio State University , in the Institute of Polar Studies ( renamed the Byrd Polar Research Center ) . He remained at The Ohio State University until his death , becoming its first Senior Research Scientist .", "qid": "216", "docid": "John_H._Mercer", "rank": 15, "score": 104821 }, { "content": "Title: Nansen Ice Sheet Content: Nansen Ice Sheet , or Nansen Ice Shelf , is a 30 mi by 10 mi ice shelf . It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abutting the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue , along the coast of Victoria Land , Antarctica . This feature was explored by the South Magnetic Polar Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1907-09 and by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910-13 . Frank Debenham , geologist with the latter expedition , applied the name Nansen Sheet as the feature is adjacent to Mount Nansen , the dominating summit in the area .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Nansen_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 16, "score": 103628 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Runway Content: The Ice Runway is the principal runway for the US Antarctic Program during the summer Antarctic field season due to its proximity to McMurdo Station . The other two runways in the area are the snow runway at Williams Field ( NZWD ) and the compacted snow runway at Phoenix Airfield ( NZFX ) , which replaced Pegasus Field ( NZPG ) in 2017 . This runway is capable of handling wheeled aircraft , that have included to date : Lockheed C-5 Galaxy , Lockheed C-141 Starlifter , Boeing C-17 Globemaster III , Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Lockheed P-3 Orion . In the summer season of 2009/2010 the RNZAF trialled a modified Boeing 757 operationally . The intention is to use the Boeing 757 for passenger transport thereby freeing up capacity for C17 cargo space . The annual sea-ice runway for wheeled aircraft is constructed at the start of each season and is used until early December when the sea ice begins to break up . Subsequently flight operations are moved back to Williams Field . Pilots landing C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft on the sea ice runway report that the surface is stable , not unlike landing on concrete . However , the similarity with land bases ends when the jet aircraft rolls to a stop . The nearly 450,000 pound ( = 201 tons ) weight of the plane , including cargo and passengers , causes it to sink into the ice , albeit only a matter of inches . A laser light is trained on the aircraft to measure the settlement rate . The $ 200 million aircraft is moved to a new location on the six-foot-thick ice as a safety measure if the 10-inch red line is reached , according to the News Tribune in Tacoma , Washington .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Ice_Runway", "rank": 17, "score": 103430 }, { "content": "Title: Ice sheet Content: An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50000 km2 , thus also known as continental glacier . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland ; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of North America , the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America . Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers . Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap . An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery . Although the surface is cold , the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat . In places , melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly . This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet -- these are ice streams . The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms . The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap ( maybe several ) in the early Oligocene , but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene , when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica . The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene , but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation . This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Ice_sheet", "rank": 18, "score": 103079 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition Content: 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition a 3,741-mile , 220-day expedition was the first-ever non-mechanized crossing of Antarctica . The six-member , international team was co-led by U.S. team member , Will Steger and French team member , Dr. Jean-Louis Étienne . The other team members were Victor Boyarsky ( Soviet Union ) , Geoff Somers ( Great Britain ) , Qin Dahe ( China ) and Keizo Funatsu ( Japan ) . The expedition was operated in partnership with the Soviet Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute through a joint venture . Primary expedition sponsors were W. L. Gore and Associates and Union d'Assurances de Paris ( UAP ) . The expedition 's purpose was to bring international attention to the continent of Antarctica and the early signs of climate change . The expedition 's goal was to advocate for an environmental protocol and continuation of the Antarctic Treaty that would open up for review in 1991 . Following the expedition , the six team members visited their countries ' leaders and lobbied for the environmental protocol and Antarctic mining ban that were currently under discussion as addenda to the Antarctic Treaty . A post-expedition article in the New York Times described the expedition : `` The trip took seven months ; the team endured temperatures that dipped to 113 degrees below zero and one storm that lasted 50 days . No one had ever tried a polar crossing of such length ; it is unlikely anyone ever will again . ''", "qid": "216", "docid": "1990_International_Trans-Antarctica_Expedition", "rank": 19, "score": 102758 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 20, "score": 101027 }, { "content": "Title: South Ice Content: South Ice was a British support base 560 km from the South Pole at 82 ° 05 'S , 30 ° 00 ' W in Edith Ronne Land , Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year , established by Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , where three men overwintered during the Antarctic winter of 1957 . In the same winter , men overwintered for the first time at the South Pole . The name of the station contrasts to North Ice which was a British research station in Greenland .", "qid": "216", "docid": "South_Ice", "rank": 21, "score": 100636 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "216", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 22, "score": 100607 }, { "content": "Title: Marr Ice Piedmont Content: Marr Ice Piedmont is a large ice piedmont which covers the northwestern half of Anvers Island , in the Palmer Archipelago , Antarctica . This feature was presumably first seen by a German expedition under Eduard Dallmann , 1873 -- 74 , and was first roughly surveyed by the French Antarctic Expedition , 1903 -- 05 , and French Antarctic Expedition , 1908 -- 10 , both under Jean-Baptiste Charcot . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for British marine biologist James W.S. Marr , first commander of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1943 -- 45 , and leader of the base at nearby Port Lockroy . Marr was also a member of the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition under Mawson , 1929 -- 31 , and of Shackleton 's expedition of 1921 -- 22 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Marr_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 23, "score": 100450 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna Content: The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna ( ANITA ) experiment has been designed to study ultra-high-energy ( UHE ) cosmic neutrinos by detecting the radio pulses emitted by their interactions with the Antarctic ice sheet . This is to be accomplished using an array of radio antennas suspended from a helium balloon flying at a height of about 37,000 meters . The neutrinos , with energies on the order of 1018 eV , produce radio pulses in the ice because of the Askaryan effect . It is believed that these high-energy cosmic neutrinos result from interaction of ultra-high-energy ( 1020 eV ) cosmic rays with the photons of the cosmic microwave background radiation . It is thus hoped that the ANITA experiment can shed light on the origin of these cosmic rays .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Antarctic_Impulse_Transient_Antenna", "rank": 24, "score": 100004 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice Shelf Content: The West Ice Shelf is a prominent ice shelf extending about 288 km in an east-west direction along the Leopold and Astrid Coast in East Antarctica between Barrier Bay and Posadowsky Bay . It was discovered and named by the First German Antarctica Expedition , 1901 -- 1903 , under Dr. Erich von Drygalski . The toponym describes the direction in which the German expedition first viewed the ice shelf . Their limited westward view became a prolonged one ; on February 21 , 1902 , the ship became stuck in the ice . It remained there imprisoned by the pack ice until February 8 , 1903 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "West_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 25, "score": 99122 }, { "content": "Title: ICESat Content: ICESat ( Ice , Cloud , and land Elevation Satellite ) , part of NASA 's Earth Observing System , was a satellite mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance , cloud and aerosol heights , as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics . ICESat was launched 13 January 2003 on a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into a near-circular , near-polar orbit with an altitude of approximately 600 km . It operated for seven years before being retired in February 2010 , after its scientific payload shut down and scientists were unable to restart it . The ICESat mission was designed to provide elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as cloud property information , especially for stratospheric clouds common over polar areas . It provides topography and vegetation data around the globe , in addition to the polar-specific coverage over the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets . The satellite was found useful in assessing important forest characteristics , including tree density .", "qid": "216", "docid": "ICESat", "rank": 26, "score": 98319 }, { "content": "Title: Geelan Ice Piedmont Content: Geelan Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont forming the northern end of Rothschild Island , off the coast of Antarctica . Following survey by the British Antarctic Survey , 1975 -- 77 , it was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) for Patrick John Michael Geelan , who was Secretary of the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names , 1955 -- 79 , a member of the UK-APC from 1955 , and Chairman of the UK-APC from 1992 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Geelan_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 27, "score": 97874 }, { "content": "Title: Mackey Rock Content: Mackey Rock is an isolated rock on the east side of the Sulzberger Ice Shelf , 8 nmi southwest of Mount Iphigene , on the coast of Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos ( 1959 -- 65 ) , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Steven Mackey , a field assistant with the United States Antarctic Research Program Marie Byrd Land Survey II , summer 1967 -- 68 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Mackey_Rock", "rank": 28, "score": 97758 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic sea ice Content: Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean . It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer . Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few meters thick . This is in contrast to ice shelves , which are formed by glaciers , float in the sea , and are up to a kilometer thick . There are two subdivisions of sea ice : fast ice , which is attached to land ; and ice floes , which are not . Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow . As a result , melt ponds are rarely observed . On average , Antarctic sea ice is younger , thinner , warmer , saltier , and more mobile than Arctic sea ice . Due to its inaccessibility , it is not as well-studied as Arctic ice .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Antarctic_sea_ice", "rank": 29, "score": 97646 }, { "content": "Title: Whillans Ice Stream Content: Whillans Ice Stream is a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet , formerly known as Ice Stream B , renamed in 2001 in honor of Ohio State University glaciologist Ian Whillans .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Whillans_Ice_Stream", "rank": 30, "score": 97572 }, { "content": "Title: Tim Naish Content: Tim Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist . He is the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre , Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand . He has written about the collapse of Antarctica 's Larsen B ice shelf . In 2002 , between January 31 and March 7 the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed and broke up . Tim Naish warned that the ice shelf of Weddell Sea is imperiled , and if the temperature rises by 3 ° C , the ice shelves of Antarctica will become thinner . `` These are dramatic changes '' -- said Tim Naish . In 2009 , Professor Naish was awarded a New Zealand Antarctic Medal ( NZAM ) for services to Antarctic climate science .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Tim_Naish", "rank": 31, "score": 97503 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary glaciation Content: The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Quaternary_glaciation", "rank": 32, "score": 97405 }, { "content": "Title: Echelmeyer Ice Stream Content: The Echelmeyer Ice Stream , formerly known as Ice Stream F , is a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It is an ice stream flowing west to the Shirase Coast to the north of the MacAyeal Ice Stream , and is one of several major ice streams draining from Marie Byrd Land into the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice streams were investigated and mapped by U.S. Antarctic Research Program personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983 -- 84 and originally named Ice Stream A , B , C , etc. , according to their position from south to north . The name was changed from Ice Stream F by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2002 to honor Dr. Keith A. Echelmeyer of the Geophysical Institute , University of Alaska , Fairbanks , who studied the flow of Marie Byrd Land ice streams , 1992 -- 93 and 1994 -- 95 , as well as the fast flow of surging glaciers in Alaska and Greenland . Dr. Echelmeyer was a student of Barclay Kamb for whom Kamb Ice Stream is named .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Echelmeyer_Ice_Stream", "rank": 33, "score": 97220 }, { "content": "Title: Wordie Ice Shelf Content: The Wordie Ice Shelf was a confluent glacier projecting as an ice shelf into the SE part of Marguerite Bay between Cape Berteaux and Mount Edgell , along the western coast of Antarctic Peninsula . In March 2008 , the British Antarctic Survey reported that it appeared ready to break away from the Antarctic Peninsula . By April 2009 it had done so , vanishing completely . Discovered by the British Graham Land Expedition ( BGLE ) under Rymill , 1934-37 , who named this feature for Sir James Wordie , Honorary Secretary ( later President ) of the Royal Geographical Society , member of the Discovery Committee , and chairman of the Scott Polar Research Institute . He also had been geologist and Chief of the Scientific Staff of the British expedition , 1914-16 , under Ernest Shackleton .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Wordie_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 34, "score": 97109 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen Bay Content: Amundsen Bay , also known as Ice Bay , is a long embayment 24 mi wide , close west of the Tula Mountains in Enderby Land , Antarctica . The bay was seen as a large pack-filled recession in the coastline by Sir Douglas Mawson on January 14 , 1930 . Seen by Captain Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen in charge of a Norwegian expedition during an airplane flight on January 15 and subsequently mapped nearer its true position by the Norwegians . The bay was mapped in detail by an Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions party landed by aircraft in 1956 and another landed by launch from Thala Dan in February 1958 . It was named by Mawson after Roald Amundsen , the Norwegian explorer who was first to reach the South Pole .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Amundsen_Bay", "rank": 35, "score": 96621 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 36, "score": 96608 }, { "content": "Title: Cordilleran Ice Sheet Content: The Cordilleran ice sheet was a major ice sheet that periodically covered large parts of North America during glacial periods over the last ~ 2.6 million years . This included the following areas : Western Montana The Idaho Panhandle Northern Washington state down to about Olympia and Spokane All of British Columbia The southwestern third or so of Yukon Territory All of the Alaska Panhandle South Central Alaska The Alaska Peninsula Almost all of the continental shelf north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca The ice sheet covered up to 2.5 million square kilometres at the Last Glacial Maximum and probably more than that in some previous periods , when it may have extended into the northeast extremity of Oregon and the Salmon River Mountains in Idaho . It is probable , though , that its northern margin also migrated south due to the influence of starvation caused by very low levels of precipitation . At its eastern end the Cordilleran ice sheet merged with the Laurentide ice sheet at the Continental Divide , forming an area of ice that contained one and a half times as much water as the Antarctic ice sheet does today . At its western end it is believed nowadays that several small glacial refugia existed during the last glacial maximum below present sea level in the now-submerged Hecate Strait and on the Brooks Peninsula in northern Vancouver Island . However , evidence of ice-free refugia above present sea level north of the Olympic Peninsula has been refuted by genetic and geological studies since the middle 1990s . The ice sheet faded north of the Alaska Range because the climate was too dry to form glaciers . Unlike the Laurentide ice sheet , which is believed to have taken as much as eleven thousand years to fully melt , it is believed the Cordilleran ice sheet , except for areas that remain glaciated today , melted very quickly , probably in four thousand years or less . This rapid melting caused such floods as the overflow of Lake Missoula and shaped the topography of the extremely fertile Inland Empire of Eastern Washington .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Cordilleran_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 37, "score": 96531 }, { "content": "Title: Derwael Ice Rise Content: Derwael Ice Rise is 40 km long , 35 km wide and about 400 m tall ice rise in ice shelf off Princess Ragnhild Coast , Antarctica . Situated 70 km east of Breid Bay in northern part of Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf , directly in front of Western Ragnhild Glacier . Named for geodesist of Belgian Antarctic expedition Jean-Jacques Derwael . Studies suggest that Derwael Ice Rise has remain relatively stable over the last millennia .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Derwael_Ice_Rise", "rank": 38, "score": 96325 }, { "content": "Title: Detaille Island Content: Detaille Island is a small island off the northern end of the Arrowsmith Peninsula in Graham Land , Antarctica . From 1956 to 1959 it was home to `` Base W '' of the British Antarctic Survey and closed after the end of the International Geophysical Year ( IGY ) . It is now often visited by Antarctic cruise ships but is otherwise unoccupied . Thanks to the men 's hasty departure and the necessity that they take little with them , Base W is an eerily preserved time capsule of 1950s Antarctic life . The base had been intended to host dog-sledging survey parties which would cross the sea ice to the nearby Antarctic Peninsula , but the ice was dangerously unstable . When Base W was vacated , heavy sea ice prevented resupply ship Biscoe from approaching closer than 31 mi , despite the assistance of two U.S. icebreakers . So the men were forced to close up the base , load sledges with only their most valuable gear and use dog teams to reach the ship .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Detaille_Island", "rank": 39, "score": 96295 }, { "content": "Title: The Satellite Content: The Satellite is a small rock peak rising to 1,100 m , protruding slightly above the ice sheet 3 nautical miles ( 6 km ) southwest of Pearce Peak and 8 nautical miles ( 15 km ) east of Baillieu Peak . Discovered and named in February 1931 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition ( BANZARE ) under Mawson . The approximate position of this peak was verified in aerial photographs taken by the U.S. Navy Operation Highjump on February 26 , 1947 . Category : Mountains of Mac . Robertson Land", "qid": "216", "docid": "The_Satellite", "rank": 40, "score": 96261 }, { "content": "Title: Dome C Content: Dome C , also known as Dome Circe , Dome Charlie or Dome Concordia , located at Antarctica at an elevation of 3233 m above sea level , is one of several summits or `` domes '' of the Antarctic Ice Sheet . Dome C is located on the Antarctic Plateau , 1100 km inland from the French research station at Dumont D'Urville , 1100 km inland from the Australian Casey Station and 1200 km inland from the Italian Zucchelli station at Terra Nova Bay . Russia 's Vostok Station is 560 km away . Dome C is the site of the Concordia Research Station , jointly operated by France and Italy .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Dome_C", "rank": 41, "score": 96227 }, { "content": "Title: Mercator Ice Piedmont Content: Mercator Ice Piedmont is a gently-sloping ice piedmont at the head of Mobiloil Inlet , formed by the confluence of the Gibbs , Lammers , Cole and Weyerhaeuser Glaciers in eastern Graham Land , Antarctica . The feature was first photographed from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth in November 1935 , and was plotted from these photos by W.L.G. Joerg as the lower end of a `` major valley depression '' along the coast . It was first seen from the ground by Finn Ronne and Carl R. Eklund of the United States Antarctic Service , 1939 -- 41 , which also obtained air photos . The ice piedmont was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in December 1958 , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Flemish mathematician and geographer Gerardus Mercator , the originator , in 1568 , of the map projection which bears his name .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Mercator_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 42, "score": 96226 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "216", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 43, "score": 96010 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica Content: The Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica is a research program consisting of two overland traverses of East Antarctica : the first from the Norwegian Troll Station to the South Pole in the 2007/2008 season ; and a return traverse via a different route in 2008/2009 . The main research focus of the program is climate change , the stated goals being to : Investigate climate variability in Dronning Maud Land of East Antarctica on time scales of years to a thousand years . Establish spatial and temporal variability in snow accumulation over this area of Antarctica to understand its impact on sea level . Investigate the impact of atmospheric and oceanic variability on the chemical composition of firn and ice in the region . Revisit areas and sites first explored by traverses in the 1960s , for detection of possible changes and to establish benchmark data sets for future research efforts . The program is part of Trans-Antarctic Scientific Traverse Expeditions -- Ice Divide of East Antarctica ( TASTE-IDEA ) , and the International Partners in Ice Coring Sciences ( IPICS ) , both of which have ISCU-WMO endorsement for the International Polar Year 2007-2009 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Norwegian-U.S._Scientific_Traverse_of_East_Antarctica", "rank": 44, "score": 95989 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Shield Content: The East Antarctic Shield or Craton is a cratonic rock body that covers 10.2 million square kilometers or roughly 73 % of the continent of Antarctica . The shield is almost entirely buried by the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that has an average thickness of 2200 meters but reaches up to 4700 meters in some locations . East Antarctica is separated from West Antarctica by the 100 -- 300 kilometer wide Transantarctic Mountains , which span nearly 3,500 kilometers from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea . The East Antarctic Shield is then divided into an extensive central craton ( Mawson craton ) that occupies most of the continental interior and various other marginal cratons that are exposed along the coast .", "qid": "216", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Shield", "rank": 45, "score": 95584 }, { "content": "Title: Rutford Ice Stream Content: Rutford Ice Stream is a major Antarctic ice stream , about 180 miles long and over 15 miles wide , which drains southeastward between the Sentinel Range , Ellsworth Mountains and Fletcher Ice Rise into the southwest part of Ronne Ice Shelf . Named by US-ACAN for geologist Robert Hoxie Rutford , a member of several USARP expeditions to Antarctica ; leader of the University of Minnesota Ellsworth Mountains Party , 1963-1964 . Rutford served as Director of the Division of Polar Programs , National Science Foundation , 1975-1977 . The ice stream is situated in a deep trough which is a tectonic feature between the Ellsworth Mountains and the Fletcher Promontory . Because of this the ice stream position may have been stable for millions of years . The bed of the ice stream reaches 2000 m below sea level . Therefore , between the bed of the ice stream and the height of the Ellsworth Mountains there is a vertical relief of 7 km over a distance of only 40 km . At the upper ( inland ) end of the ice stream the ice thickness reaches 3100 m falling to around 2300 m in the trough . Flow speed reaches a maximum of around 400 metres per year about 40 km inland from where the ice stream meets the Ronne Ice Shelf and starts to float on the sea . The speed of the Rutford ice stream varies by as much as 20 % every two weeks , in response to variations in the tides .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Rutford_Ice_Stream", "rank": 46, "score": 95480 }, { "content": "Title: McDonald Ice Rumples Content: The McDonald Ice Rumples constitute an ice rise in the Brunt Ice Shelf bordering the Weddell Sea in Antarctica , covering an area of 3 by . Ernest Shackleton 's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition reported a glacier in this vicinity in January 1915 . It was named `` Allan McDonald Glacier '' after Allan McDonald of the British Association of Magallanes at Punta Arenas , who was chiefly responsible for raising funds for sending the schooner Emma on the third attempt , in July 1916 , to rescue the 22 men of the Endurance left on Elephant Island . The Royal Society International Geophysical Year expeditions occupied Halley Research Station nearby ( 1955 -- 59 ) and were familiar with this feature , and reported that in 1957 the maximum elevation above the general surface of the ice shelf , a few hundred metres from the ice front , was about 18 m . It has now been identified with `` Allan McDonald Glacier '' , and for the sake of historical continuity the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee has given the name McDonald to these ice rumples .", "qid": "216", "docid": "McDonald_Ice_Rumples", "rank": 47, "score": 95448 }, { "content": "Title: Institute Ice Stream Content: The Institute Ice Stream is an ice stream flowing north into the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica , southeast of Hercules Inlet . The feature was traversed by the United States Antarctic Research Program ( USARP ) Ellsworth -- Byrd Seismic Party , 1958 -- 59 , and the USARP -- University of Wisconsin Seismic Party , 1963 -- 64 . It was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute -- National Science Foundation -- Technical University of Denmark airborne radio echo sounding program , 1967 -- 79 , and in association with Foundation Ice Stream and Support Force Glacier , named after the Scott Polar Research Institute , Cambridge , England .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Institute_Ice_Stream", "rank": 48, "score": 95432 }, { "content": "Title: Dee Ice Piedmont Content: Dee Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont between Pavie Ridge and the mouth of Clarke Glacier on the east side of Mikkelsen Bay , west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula . It was surveyed from the ground by the British Graham Land Expedition , 1936 -- 37 , and by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1948 -- 50 . It was photographed by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , November 1947 ( trimetrogon air photography ) , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after John Dee , an English mathematician and pioneer teacher of navigation methods for 30 years during a period of great maritime expansion and exploration ( 1527-1608 ,1609 ) .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Dee_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 49, "score": 95391 }, { "content": "Title: Catherine Ritz Content: Catherine Ritz is a French Antarctic researcher , best known for her work on ice sheets and their impact on sea level rise .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Catherine_Ritz", "rank": 50, "score": 95229 }, { "content": "Title: Konrad Steffen Content: Konrad `` Koni '' Steffen ( born 1952 ) is a glaciologist and the former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder , a position he held from 2005 until he took office as the director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest , Snow and Landscape Research on July 1 , 2012 . He is known for his research into Arctic sea ice and the glaciers of Greenland , and how they are affected by global warming . He has often traveled to Greenland to study these glaciers firsthand ; for example , when studying Petermann Glacier for three weeks in 2004 , Steffen did so from a camp set up 4,000 feet up the flanks of the glacier 's ice cap . He also operates a network of 20 weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet , the first of which , Swiss Camp , he established in 1990 . He has argued that due to this ice sheet melting faster than anticipated , sea levels could rise by about 3 feet by 2100 , considerably higher than the IPCC 's upper limit of 59 cm , and that Greenland might lose all its ice in 10,000 years , but Antarctica would take considerably longer , since it is so much bigger .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Konrad_Steffen", "rank": 51, "score": 94856 }, { "content": "Title: Concept Ice Vehicle Content: The Concept Ice Vehicle or CIV was a bio-fuelled , propeller-powered vehicle that was developed for the Andrew Regan / Andrew Moon bid to cross the Antarctic in 2009 . The Expedition was rescheduled to November 2010 and the Ice Vehicle was re-engineered and renamed the Winston Wong Bio-Inspired Ice Vehicle BIV . Professor Winston Wong is the sponsor of the Moon Regan Transantarctic Expedition 2010 . The Expedition has several key objectives : to show that the right motorised vehicles can operate successfully and efficiently in the Antarctic , to successfully complete a transantarctic crossing and to help researchers at Imperial College London gather useful data on vehicle emissions , the performance of biofuels and human performance under extreme conditions . Few ground vehicles have , to date , been successful there ; researchers who work across the continent tend to rely on air travel , which may be more environmentally damaging .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Concept_Ice_Vehicle", "rank": 52, "score": 94723 }, { "content": "Title: Eady Ice Piedmont Content: Eady Ice Piedmont is the ice piedmont lying south of Mount Discovery and Minna Bluff , merging at the south side with the Ross Ice Shelf , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from ground surveys and Navy air photos , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1963 for Captain Jack A. Eady , U.S. Navy , Chief of Staff to the Commander , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , from July 1959 to April 1962 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Eady_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 53, "score": 94723 }, { "content": "Title: Shackleton Ice Shelf Content: Shackleton Ice Shelf is an extensive ice shelf fronting the coast of East Antarctica for about 384 km ( 95E to 105E ) , projecting seaward about 145 km in the western portion and 64 km in the east . It occupies an area of 33,820 km ² . It is part of Mawson Sea and separates the Queen Mary Coast to the west from the Knox Coast of Wilkes Land to the east . The existence of this ice shelf was first made known by the USEE under Charles Wilkes who mapped a portion of it from the Vincennes in February 1840 . It was explored by the Australian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson ( 1911 -- 14 ) who named it for Sir Ernest Shackleton . The extent of the ice shelf was mapped in greater detail in 1955 , using aerial photography obtained by US Navy Operation Highjump , 1946-47 . Further mapping by the Soviet Expedition of 1956 showed the portion eastward of Scott Glacier to be a part of this ice shelf .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Shackleton_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 54, "score": 94627 }, { "content": "Title: Getman Ice Piedmont Content: Getman Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont between Reichle Mesa and Three Slice Nunatak at the east end of Joerg Peninsula , Bowman Coast , Antarctica . It drains north-northeastwards into Hondius Inlet . The feature was explored from the ground and photographed from the air by the United States Antarctic Service , 1939 -- 41 , the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , 1947 -- 48 , and was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1946 -- 48 . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1977 for Commander Robert T. Getman of the United States Coast Guard , an Executive Officer on USCGC Southwind during U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze , 1969 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Getman_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 55, "score": 94571 }, { "content": "Title: Petrie Ice Rises Content: Petrie Ice Rises is a group of ice rises extending in a north-south line lying merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , to the west of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Seen from the air on a British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) radio echo sounding flight around Alexander Island , February 11 , 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery . Named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1980 after David L. Petrie , BAS and Scott Polar Research Institute ( SPRI ) electronic technician , about 1966-70 , who was on the flight .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Petrie_Ice_Rises", "rank": 56, "score": 94555 }, { "content": "Title: Kamb Ice Stream Content: Kamb Ice Stream , a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet , formerly known as Ice Stream C , renamed in 2001 in honor of Caltech Glaciologist Dr. Barclay Kamb .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Kamb_Ice_Stream", "rank": 57, "score": 94510 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet dynamics Content: Ice sheet dynamics describe the motion within large bodies of ice , such those currently on Greenland and Antarctica . Ice motion is dominated by the movement of glaciers , whose gravity-driven activity is controlled by two main variable factors : the temperature and strength of their bases . A number of processes alter these two factors , resulting in cyclic surges of activity interspersed with longer periods of inactivity , on both hourly and centennial time scales . Ice-sheet dynamics are of interest in modelling future sea level rise . __ TOC __", "qid": "216", "docid": "Ice-sheet_dynamics", "rank": 58, "score": 94411 }, { "content": "Title: Heirtzler Ice Piedmont Content: Heirtzler Ice Piedmont is a relatively low , triangular-shaped , ice-covered area of about 7 nmi extent , located at the west side of Violante Inlet and north of Maury Glacier , on the Black Coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . The feature was first seen and photographed from the air by the United States Antarctic Service on December 30 , 1940 , and was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1966 -- 69 . In association with the names of continental drift scientists grouped in this area , it was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after James R. Heirtzler , an American physicist . Heirtzler was a Research Scientist at Columbia University 's Lamont -- Doherty Geological Observatory , 1960 -- 64 , and Senior Research Scientist , 1964 -- 67 ; he was Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute , 1969 -- 86 ; Geophysicist and Head of the Geophysics Branch at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from 1986 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Heirtzler_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 59, "score": 94383 }, { "content": "Title: Handel Ice Piedmont Content: Handel Ice Piedmont is a large ice piedmont lying north and west of the Colbert Mountains , between Haydn Inlet and Schubert Inlet on the west-central coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Apparently first seen from the air by the United States Antarctic Service in 1940 but not separately mapped , it was first mapped from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , 1947 -- 48 , by Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960 . The feature was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for George Frideric Handel , the German composer .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Handel_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 60, "score": 94236 }, { "content": "Title: Operation Highjump Content: Operation Highjump , officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program , 1946 -- 1947 , was a United States Navy operation organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd , Jr. , USN ( Ret ) , Officer in Charge , Task Force 68 , and led by Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen , USN , Commanding Officer , Task Force 68 . Operation Highjump commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947 . Task Force 68 included 4,700 men , 13 ships , and 33 aircraft . Operation Highjump 's primary mission was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV . Highjump 's objectives , according to the U.S. Navy report of the operation , were : Training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions ; Consolidating and extending the United States ' sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent ( publicly denied as a goal even before the expedition ended ) ; Determining the feasibility of establishing , maintaining , and utilizing bases in the Antarctic and investigating possible base sites ; Developing techniques for establishing , maintaining , and utilizing air bases on ice , with particular attention to later applicability of such techniques to operations in interior Greenland , where conditions are comparable to those in the Antarctic ; Amplifying existing stores of knowledge of electromagnetic , geological , geographic , hydrographic , and meteorological propagation conditions in the area ; Supplementary objectives of the Nanook expedition ( a smaller equivalent conducted off eastern Greenland ) .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Operation_Highjump", "rank": 61, "score": 94116 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Antarctica Content: The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and , thus , by ice . The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle . It is washed by the Southern ( or Antarctic ) Ocean or , depending on definition , the southern Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans . It has an area of more than 14 million km ² . Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , the world 's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water . Averaging at least 1.6 km thick , the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level ; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur ( e.g. , Lake Vostok ) . Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Geography_of_Antarctica", "rank": 62, "score": 94113 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic Content: There are many glaciers in the Antarctic . This set of lists does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . The lists include outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of these lists , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "216", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 63, "score": 94049 }, { "content": "Title: Cook Ice Shelf Content: Cook Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 55 mi wide , occupying a deep recession of the coastline between Cape Freshfield and Cape Hudson , to the east of Deakin Bay . This indentation was called Cook Bay by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition , 1911 -- 14 , under Douglas Mawson , who named it for Joseph Cook , Prime Minister of Australia in 1914 . The generic term has been amended , as the bay is permanently filled by an ice shelf . Scientists studying the effects of global warming have proposed that sea water encroachment in the area could destabilize a significant portion of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Cook_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 64, "score": 93862 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctica Content: West Antarctica , or Lesser Antarctica , one of the two major regions of Antarctica , is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere , and includes the Antarctic Peninsula . It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It lies between the Ross Sea ( partly covered by the Ross Ice Shelf ) , and the Weddell Sea ( largely covered by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf ) . It may be considered a giant peninsula stretching from the South Pole towards the tip of South America . West Antarctica is largely covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , but there have been signs that climate change is having some effect and that this ice sheet may have started to shrink slightly . The coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula are the only parts of West Antarctica that become ( in summer ) ice-free . These constitute the Marielandia Antarctic tundra and have the warmest climate in Antarctica . The rocks are clad in mosses and lichens that can cope with the intense cold of winter and the short growing-season .", "qid": "216", "docid": "West_Antarctica", "rank": 65, "score": 93848 }, { "content": "Title: Hemmen Ice Rise Content: Hemmen Ice Rise is an ice rise 11 mi long and 2 to wide , with an estimated area of 55 sqkm , located 17 km off the northwest corner of Berkner Island in the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . The feature appears for the first time on a chart prepared at Ellsworth Station in 1957 by Captain Finn Ronne , U.S. Navy Reserve . The ice rise was subsequently noted in U.S. Earth Resources Technology Satellite imagery . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for George E. Hemmen , Executive Secretary of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in 1972 ; he served with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey as a meteorological observer at Admiralty Bay , 1952 -- 53 , and as Base Leader at Deception Island , 1953 -- 54 , and with the Royal Society Antarctic Expedition , 1956 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Hemmen_Ice_Rise", "rank": 66, "score": 93814 }, { "content": "Title: Edward VIII Ice Shelf Content: Edward VIII Ice Shelf is an ice shelf occupying the head of Edward VIII Bay in Antarctica . The northern part of this feature was called Innviksletta ( the inner bay plain ) by Norwegian cartographers , who mapped it from aerial photos taken by the Lars Christensen Expedition in 1936 -- 37 . The area was first visited in 1954 by an ANARE ( Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions ) sledge party . The entire ice shelf was then mapped and named in association with Edward VIII Bay .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Edward_VIII_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 67, "score": 93536 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Peremennyy Content: Cape Peremennyy is an ice point on the coast of Antarctica 45 miles west-northwest of Merritt Island . It was first mapped in 1955 by G.D. Blodgett from aerial photographs taken by USN Operation Highjump ( 1947 ) , and then photographed by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition and ANARE ( Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions ) ( 1956 ) . It was named at the suggestion of members of the Soviet expedition . Peremennyy means `` variable '' and probably refers to the nature of this ice coastline . Category : Headlands of Wilkes Land", "qid": "216", "docid": "Cape_Peremennyy", "rank": 68, "score": 93413 }, { "content": "Title: Iceberg D-16 Content: Iceberg D-16 is a city-sized iceberg near Antarctica , discovered on March 26 , 2006 by the National Ice Center using satellite imagery from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program . It broke free of the Fimbul Ice Shelf , located along the northwestern section of Queen Maud Land in the eastern Weddell Sea . It is approximately 8 miles wide and 15 miles long ( 120 square miles ) , roughly the size of a city .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Iceberg_D-16", "rank": 69, "score": 93388 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Treaty System Content: The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements , collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System ( ATS ) , regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica , Earth 's only continent without a native human population . For the purposes of the treaty system , Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60 ° S latitude . The treaty , entering into force in 1961 and having 53 parties as of 2016 , sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve , establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on that continent . The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War . The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters have been located in Buenos Aires , Argentina , since September 2004 . The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1 , 1959 , and officially entered into force on June 23 , 1961 . The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year ( IGY ) of 1957 -- 58 . The twelve countries that had significant interests in Antarctica at the time were : Argentina , Australia , Belgium , Chile , France , Japan , New Zealand , Norway , South Africa , the Soviet Union , the United Kingdom and the United States . These countries had established over 50 Antarctic stations for the IGY . The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific cooperation that had been achieved `` on the ice '' .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Antarctic_Treaty_System", "rank": 70, "score": 93335 }, { "content": "Title: Green Ice Rises Content: The Green Ice Rises are a local swelling of the Antarctic ice surface 5 nmi east of Henderson Island , where the Shackleton Ice Shelf overrides an underlying obstruction . The feature was mapped by G.D. Blodgett ( 1955 ) from aerial photography taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump ( 1946 -- 47 ) , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Duane L. Green , a radio operator and recorder with U.S. Navy Operation Windmill parties which established astronomical control stations along Wilhelm II , Knox , and Budd coasts in January and February , 1948 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Green_Ice_Rises", "rank": 71, "score": 93179 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet model Content: In climate modelling , Ice-sheet models use numerical methods to simulate the evolution , dynamics and thermodynamics of ice sheets , such as the Greenland ice sheet , the Antarctic ice sheet or the large ice sheets on the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period . They are used for a variety of purposes , from studies of the glaciation of Earth over glacial -- interglacial cycles in the past to projections of ice-sheet decay under future global warming conditions .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Ice-sheet_model", "rank": 72, "score": 93010 }, { "content": "Title: South Pole–Queen Maud Land Traverse Content: The South Pole -- Queen Maud Land Traverse ( SPQMLT ) was a three-part scientific exploration of Antarctica undertaken by the United States in the 1960s . The three parts , referred to individually as South Pole -- Queen Maud Land Traverse I , II , and III ( SPQMLT-1 , -2 , and -3 ) , traveled a zigzag route across nearly 4200 km of the Antarctic Plateau in the austral summers of 1964-1965 , 1965-1966 , and 1967-1968 . The participants included scientists from Belgium , Norway , and the United States . Their objectives included determining the thickness of the Antarctic Ice Sheet , the elevation and slope of its surface , the rate of ice accumulation , and the subglacial topography . Other objectives included measuring the density and temperature of the ice at depth , measuring the geomagnetic field and gravity , and obtaining snow samples and ice cores .", "qid": "216", "docid": "South_Pole–Queen_Maud_Land_Traverse", "rank": 73, "score": 92963 }, { "content": "Title: Evans Piedmont Glacier Content: Evans Piedmont Glacier is a broad ice sheet occupying the low-lying coastal platform between Tripp Island and Cape Archer in Victoria Land . It was circumnavigated in 1957 by the New Zealand Northern Survey Party -RSB- of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , 1956 -- 58 , and was named after Petty Officer Edgar Evans , Royal Navy , of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910 -- 13 , who was one of the South Pole Party under Captain Scott , and who lost his life on the Beardmore Glacier on the return journey .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Evans_Piedmont_Glacier", "rank": 74, "score": 92933 }, { "content": "Title: Maumee Ice Piedmont Content: Maumee Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont at the terminus of Kohler Glacier , east of the Jenkins Heights , on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1965 -- 67 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after the , a supply tanker that serviced McMurdo Station from 1970 -- 85 . Upon construction of fuel storage tanks at McMurdo Station , completed in 1970 , the Maumee replaced smaller tankers used earlier , delivering in one voyage a year 's supply of petroleum fuels .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Maumee_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 75, "score": 92864 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Cold Reversal Content: The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Antarctic_Cold_Reversal", "rank": 76, "score": 92848 }, { "content": "Title: Ross expedition Content: The Ross expedition was a voyage of scientific exploration of the Antarctic in 1839 to 1843 , led by James Clark Ross , with two unusually strong warships , HMS Erebus and HMS Terror . It explored what is now called the Ross Sea and discovered the Ross Ice Shelf . On the expedition , Ross discovered the Transantarctic Mountains and the volcanoes Erebus and Terror , named after his ships . The young botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker made his name on the expedition . The expedition inferred the position of the South Magnetic Pole , and made substantial observations of the zoology and botany of the region , resulting in a monograph on the zoology , and a series of four detailed monographs by Hooker on the botany , collectively called Flora Antarctica and published in parts between 1843 and 1859 . The expedition was the last major voyage of exploration made wholly under sail . Among the expedition 's biological discoveries was the Ross seal , a species confined to the pack ice of Antarctica .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Ross_expedition", "rank": 77, "score": 92848 }, { "content": "Title: Vere Ice Rise Content: Vere Ice Rise is a small ice rise lying merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , lying off the west coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was roughly mapped from the air by British Antarctic Survey on a radio echo sounding flight on 1 February 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery of February 1979 . It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1980 after Flight Lieutenant Robert P. Vere , RAF , the second pilot of the Twin Otter aircraft used on the British Antarctic Survey flight .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Vere_Ice_Rise", "rank": 78, "score": 92817 }, { "content": "Title: Military activity in the Antarctic Content: As Antarctica has never been permanently settled by humans , there has historically been little military activity in the Antarctic . Because the Antarctic Treaty , which came into effect on June 23 , 1961 , bans military activity in Antarctica , military personnel and equipment may only be used for scientific research or any other peaceful purpose ( such as delivering supplies ) on the continent . The Antarctic Treaty specifically prohibits military activity on land or ice shelves below 60 ° S . While the use of nuclear weapons is absolutely prohibited , the Treaty does not apply to naval activity within these bounds ( in the Southern Ocean ) so long as it takes place on the high seas .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Military_activity_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 79, "score": 92662 }, { "content": "Title: Wildlife of Antarctica Content: The wildlife of Antarctica are extremophiles , having to adapt to the dryness , low temperatures , and high exposure common in Antarctica . The extreme weather of the interior contrasts to the relatively mild conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula and the subantarctic islands , which have warmer temperatures and more liquid water . Much of the ocean around the mainland is covered by sea ice . The oceans themselves are a more stable environment for life , both in the water column and on the seabed . There is relatively little diversity in Antarctica compared to much of the rest of the world . Terrestrial life is concentrated in areas near the coast . Flying birds nest on the milder shores of the Peninsula and the subantarctic islands . Eight species of penguins inhabit Antarctica and its offshore islands . They share these areas with seven pinniped species . The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is home to 10 cetaceans , many of them migratory . There are very few terrestrial invertebrates on the mainland , although the species that do live there have high population densities . High densities of invertebrates also live in the ocean , with Antarctic krill forming dense and widespread swarms during the summer . Benthic animal communities also exist around the continent . Over 1000 fungi species have been found on and around Antarctica . Larger species are restricted to the subantarctic islands , and the majority of species discovered have been terrestrial . Plants are similarly restricted mostly to the subantarctic islands , and the western edge of the Peninsula . Some mosses and lichens however can be found even in the dry interior . Many algae are found around Antarctica , especially phytoplankton , which form the basis of many of Antarctica 's food webs . Human activity has caused introduced species to gain a foothold in the area , threatening the native wildlife . A history of overfishing and hunting has left many species with greatly reduced numbers . Pollution , habitat destruction , and climate change pose great risks to the environment . The Antarctic Treaty System is a global treaty designed to preserve Antarctica as a place of research , and measures from this system are used to regulate human activity in Antarctica .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Wildlife_of_Antarctica", "rank": 80, "score": 92610 }, { "content": "Title: Isolation Point Content: Isolation Point is a small volcanic peak projecting through the ice sheet covering the southeastern extremity of White Island , in the Ross Archipelago , Antarctica . It was so named because of its remote position by the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition , 1958 -- 59 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Isolation_Point", "rank": 81, "score": 92607 }, { "content": "Title: MacAyeal Ice Stream Content: MacAyeal Ice Stream , formerly Ice Stream E , is an ice stream in Antarctica flowing west to the juncture of Shirase Coast and Siple Coast between Bindschadler Ice Stream and Echelmeyer Ice Stream . It is one of several major ice streams draining from Marie Byrd Land into the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice streams were investigated and mapped by U.S. Antarctic Research Program personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983 -- 84 onwards and named Ice Stream A , B , C , etc. , according to their position from south to north . The name was changed from Ice Scream E by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2002 to honor Douglas R. MacAyeal of the Department of Geophysical Sciences , University of Chicago , a U.S. Antarctic Program investigator in the Ross Sea area including study of the Ross Ice Shelf , the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Marie Byrd Land ice streams , 1989 -- 2002 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "MacAyeal_Ice_Stream", "rank": 82, "score": 92392 }, { "content": "Title: An Antarctic Mystery Content: An Antarctic Mystery ( Le Sphinx des glaces , The Sphinx of the Ice Fields ) is a two-volume novel by Jules Verne . Written in 1897 , it is a response to Edgar Allan Poe 's 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket . It follows the adventures of the narrator and his journey from the Kerguelen Islands aboard Halbrane . Neither Poe nor Verne had actually visited the remote Kerguelen Islands , located in the south Indian Ocean , but their works are some of the few literary ( as opposed to exploratory ) references to the archipelago .", "qid": "216", "docid": "An_Antarctic_Mystery", "rank": 83, "score": 92340 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 84, "score": 92301 }, { "content": "Title: Gamburtsev Mountain Range Content: The Gamburtsev Mountain Range ( also known as the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains ) is a subglacial mountain range located in East Antarctica , just underneath the lofty Dome A , near the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility . The range was discovered by the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1958 and is named for Soviet geophysicist Grigoriy A. Gamburtsev . It is approximately 1200 km long , and the mountains are believed to be about 2700 m high , although they are completely covered by over 600 m of ice and snow . The Gamburtsev Mountain Range is currently believed to be about the same size as the European Alps , and , as of 2008 , it is unknown how the mountains were formed , though the current speculated age of the range is over 34 million years and possibly 500 million years . Current models suggest that the East Antarctic ice sheet was formed from the glaciers that began sliding down the Gamburtsev range at the end of the Eocene . Vostok Subglacial Highlands form an east extension of Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Gamburtsev_Mountain_Range", "rank": 85, "score": 92264 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica: A Year on Ice Content: Antarctica : A Year on Ice is the first feature film by New Zealand filmmaker Anthony B. Powell . This documentary is set in Antarctica , specifically in the Ross Island region , which is home to two research bases : United States ' McMurdo Station and New Zealand 's Scott Base . It chronicles a year of time spent living and working at these remote stations ; the summer season ( October to February ) when the sun shines 24 hours a day and the long dark winter ( February to October ) where the sun goes down for four long months and darkness envelopes the environment . The film focuses on the everyday workers that keep the stations and the equipment running so the scientists can complete their work . Interviewees include a helicopter pilot , fireman , firehouse dispatcher , cook , mechanic , storekeeper , storeman , finance person , administrative person , and operations manager . Extensive use of time-lapse photography is used to document the changing seasons and the Antarctic landscapes . Powell had to invent many of his own camera systems to survive the extreme conditions of the deep Antarctic winter . Powell 's previous work includes footage for Discovery , National Geographic , and was featured in BBC 's Frozen Planet . The film also touches upon topics such as ` T3 Syndrome , ' a term that describes what happens to people during the winter , when the T3 hormone in the brain is reassigned to the muscles of the body in an effort to protect it against the extreme cold . The film also describes how the community works and plays together including the annual New Year 's party `` Ice Stock '' . The film 's post-production was completed at Park Road Post Production in Wellington , New Zealand .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Antarctica:_A_Year_on_Ice", "rank": 86, "score": 92159 }, { "content": "Title: Burgess Ice Rise Content: Burgess Ice Rise is a small ice rise lying within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , off the west coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was mapped from the air on a radio echo sounding flight by the British Antarctic Survey on February 11 , 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery of February 1979 . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1980 after Flight Lieutenant Robert William Burgess , Royal Air Force pilot in command of the Twin Otter aircraft on the flight .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Burgess_Ice_Rise", "rank": 87, "score": 92036 }, { "content": "Title: Landy Ice Rises Content: Landy Ice Rises is a group of six ice rises in the Bach Ice Shelf near the head of Stravinsky Inlet , on Alexander Island . They were named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee in 1980 after Michael Paul Landy , a British Antarctic Survey glaciologist from 1975 to 1981 , who worked in the area from Adelaide station , 1975 -- 76 , and Rothera station , 1976-77 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Landy_Ice_Rises", "rank": 88, "score": 91976 }, { "content": "Title: Ferrigno Ice Stream Content: Ferrigno Ice Stream is an ice Stream more than 15 nmi long flowing into Eltanin Bay southwest of Wirth Peninsula , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Jane G. Ferrigno of the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) . Ferrigno has been a specialist for some decades from the 1970s in the use of satellite imagery for glacier studies and map compilation , co-leader of the USGS team that compiled the 1:5,000,000 - scale radiometer maps of Antarctica , and task leader of the team that is compiling 25 glaciological and coastal-change maps of Antarctica . Beneath the glacier lies the Ferrigno Rift , a rift valley some 1.5 km deep , 10 km wide , and at least 100 km long . The rift valley was discovered using ice-penetrating radar during a survey of the glacier in 2010 by a team from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Aberdeen investigating ice-melt on the glacier that had been measured using satellites . The ice-filled rift valley is connected to the ocean and is believed to impact ice loss on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Ferrigno_Ice_Stream", "rank": 89, "score": 91845 }, { "content": "Title: Hamilton Ice Piedmont Content: Hamilton Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont , 8 nmi wide , to the east of Wyatt Hill , Bear Peninsula , on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy aerial photographs , 1959 -- 66 , and was named in 1977 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Robert Hamilton , a meteorologist at the University of California , Davis , who was United States Antarctic Research Program Station Scientific Leader at South Pole Station , winter party 1975 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Hamilton_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 90, "score": 91840 }, { "content": "Title: Miller Ice Rise Content: Miller Ice Rise is an ice rise nearly 2 nmi long and 1 nmi wide at the ice front ( 1974 ) of the Wordie Ice Shelf , 16 nmi west-northwest of the Triune Peaks , in southern Marguerite Bay , Antarctica . It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1948 -- 49 , and was photographed from the air by the U.S. Navy in 1966 . The feature was named , in 1977 , by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Richard Miller , a U.S. Navy chief radioman at Palmer Station in the winter party of 1968 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Miller_Ice_Rise", "rank": 91, "score": 91786 }, { "content": "Title: Swinburne Ice Shelf Content: Swinburne Ice Shelf , is an ice shelf just north of Edward VII Peninsula and the Alexandra Mountains in the southern part of Sulzberger Bay , Antarctica . The ice shelf is 20 miles long and 5 miles wide and extends from Fisher Island to White Islands . It was photographed from aircraft and mapped by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition ( ByrdAE ) , 1928-30 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Captain H.W Swinburne , Jr. , Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , during Operation Deep Freeze 1970 and 1971 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Swinburne_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 92, "score": 91720 }, { "content": "Title: Charles R. Bentley Content: Charles R. Bentley ( born 1931 , Rochester , New York ) is an American glaciologist and geophysicist . He is a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison . Mount Bentley and the Bentley Subglacial Trench in Antarctica are named after him . In 1957 , he and a handful of other scientists including Mario Giovinetto set out on an expedition across West Antarctica in tracked vehicles to make the first measurements of the ice sheet . He was awarded the Seligman Crystal by the International Glaciological Society in 1990 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Charles_R._Bentley", "rank": 93, "score": 91642 }, { "content": "Title: Japanese Antarctic Expedition Content: __ NOTOC __ The Japanese Antarctic Expedition of 1910 -- 12 was the first exploration of Antarctic territory by an expedition from Japan . Led by Army Lieutenant Nobu Shirase , its ship Kainan Maru left Tokyo in December 1910 , reached the ice on 26 February 1911 and sailed on into the Ross Sea . As it was very late in the Antarctic season , the ship was not able to get beyond Coulman Island , and returned to Sydney , Australia to winter there . During the following season a third attempt was made to reach an Antarctic landfall , with the specific objective of exploring King Edward VII Land . At the Great Ice Barrier , the Kainan Maru encountered Roald Amundsen 's ship Fram , which was waiting in the Bay of Whales for the return of Amundsen 's South Pole party . A `` Dash Patrol '' of seven men from the Kainan Maru then landed on the Barrier and journeyed southward to 80 ° 05 'S , at which point adverse weather forced their return . Meanwhile , the ship landed another party on the coast of King Edward VII Land , where an exploration of the lower slopes of the Alexandra Range was carried out . Kainan Maru returned to Japan ; it reached Yokohama on 20 June 1912 .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Japanese_Antarctic_Expedition", "rank": 94, "score": 91585 }, { "content": "Title: Amery Ice Shelf Content: The Amery Ice Shelf is a broad ice shelf in Antarctica at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast . It is part of Mac . Robertson Land . The name `` Cape Amery '' was applied to a coastal angle mapped on February 11 , 1931 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition ( BANZARE ) under Douglas Mawson . He named it for William Bankes Amery , a civil servant who represented the United Kingdom government in Australia ( 1925 -- 28 ) . The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names interpreted this feature to be a portion of an ice shelf and , in 1947 , applied the name Amery to the whole shelf . In 2001 two holes were drilled through the ice shelf by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division and specially designed seabed sampling and photographic equipment was lowered to the underlying seabed . By studying the fossil composition of sediment samples recovered , scientists have inferred that a major retreat of the Amery Ice Shelf to at least 80 km landward of its present location may have occurred during the mid-Holocene climatic optimum ( about 5,700 years ago ) . In December 2006 , it was reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Australian scientists were heading to the Amery Ice Shelf to investigate enormous cracks that had been forming for over a decade at a rate of three to five metres a day . These fractures threaten to break off a 1000 square kilometre piece of the Amery Ice Shelf . Scientists want to discover what is causing the cracks , as there has not been similar activity since the 1960s . However , the head of research believes that it is too early to attribute the cause to Global Warming as there is the possibility of a natural 50-60 year cycle being responsible . Lambert Glacier flows from Lambert Graben into the Amery Ice Shelf on the southwest side of Prydz Bay . The Amery Basin is an undersea basin north of the Amery Ice Shelf . The Chinese Antarctic Zhongshan Station and Russian Progress Station are located near this ice shelf . The Amery Ice Shelf is small compared to the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Amery_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 95, "score": 91579 }, { "content": "Title: Airdevronsix Icefalls Content: Airdevronsix Icefalls is a line of icefalls at the head of Wright Upper Glacier , in Victoria Land , Antarctica . Named by U.S. Navy Operation Deepfreeze ( 1956 -- 57 ) for U.S. Navy Air Development Squadron Six , which had been formed to provide air support for the Deep Freeze operations and which had also carried out many important Antarctic exploratory flights . This icefall belongs to world 's most impressive natural landmarks and is approximately 5 km wide and 400 m tall . It has formed on Jurassic dolerite sill , which has intruded in Devonian - Triassic sandstone .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Airdevronsix_Icefalls", "rank": 96, "score": 91573 }, { "content": "Title: Channichthyidae Content: The crocodile icefish or white-blooded fish ( Channichthyidae ) comprise a family of notothenioid fish found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica and southern South America , where water temperatures remain relatively stable ( generally ranging from -1.8 to +2.0 ° C ) . Sixteen species of crocodile icefish are currently recognized .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Channichthyidae", "rank": 97, "score": 91493 }, { "content": "Title: Bindschadler Ice Stream Content: Bindschadler Ice Stream is an ice stream between Siple Dome and MacAyeal Ice Stream . It is one of several major ice streams draining from Marie Byrd Land into the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice streams were investigated and mapped by U.S. Antarctic Research Program personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983 -- 84 and named Ice Stream A , B , C , etc. , according to their position from south to north . The name of this ice stream was changed from Ice Stream D by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( ACAN ) in 2001 or 2002 to honor Robert A. Bindschadler of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , a U.S. Antarctic Project investigator of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet including the dynamics of the Marie Byrd Land ice streams and their interaction with the Ross Ice Shelf , from about 1983 to 1998 . In January 2003 the United States Board on Geographic Names accepted this recommendation , revising its 2000 decision ; the geographic coordinates were also updated .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Bindschadler_Ice_Stream", "rank": 98, "score": 91375 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Peninsula Content: The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica , located at the base of the Southern Hemisphere . At the surface , it is the biggest , most prominent peninsula in Antarctica as it extends 1300 km from a line between Cape Adams ( Weddell Sea ) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands . Beneath the ice sheet which covers it , the Antarctic Peninsula consists of a string of bedrock islands ; these are separated by deep channels whose bottoms lie at depths considerably below current sea level . They are joined together by a grounded ice sheet . Tierra del Fuego , the southernmost tip of South America , lies only about 1000 km away across the Drake Passage . The Antarctic Peninsula is currently dotted with numerous research stations and nations have made multiple claims of sovereignty . The peninsula is part of disputed and overlapping claims by Argentina , Chile and the United Kingdom . None of these claims has international recognition and , under the Antarctic Treaty System , the respective countries do not attempt to enforce their claims . Argentina has the most bases and personnel stationed on the peninsula .", "qid": "216", "docid": "Antarctic_Peninsula", "rank": 99, "score": 91275 }, { "content": "Title: Wormald Ice Piedmont Content: The Wormald Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont covering the eastern part of Wright Peninsula , Adelaide Island , Antarctica , between Rothera Point and Sighing Peak . It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) in 1961 -- 62 , and by the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) from 1976 . It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1977 after Steven Wormald , a prominent former BAS staff member . Category : Ice piedmonts of Graham Land Category : Landforms of Adelaide Island", "qid": "216", "docid": "Wormald_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 100, "score": 91214 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Hurricane Alicia Content: Hurricane Alicia was the costliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic since Hurricane Agnes in 1972 . Alicia was the third depression , the first tropical storm , and the only major hurricane of the 1983 Atlantic hurricane season . It struck Galveston and Houston , Texas directly , causing $ 2.6 billion ( 1983 USD ; US$ ) in damage and killing 21 people ; this made it the worst Texas hurricane since Hurricane Carla in 1961 . In addition , Alicia was the first billion-dollar tropical cyclone in Texas history . Hurricane Alicia was the first hurricane to hit the United States mainland since Hurricane Allen in August 1980 . The time between the two storms totaled three years and eight days ( 1,103 days ) . Hurricane Alicia became the last major hurricane ( Category 3 or higher ) to strike Texas until the stronger Hurricane Bret in 1999 made landfall . Alicia was the first storm for which the National Hurricane Center issued landfall probabilities . Hurricane Alicia was notable for the delayed post storm evacuation of Galveston Island ( since the eye of the storm traveled the evacuation route up Interstate 45 from Galveston to Houston ) . The hurricane was also notable for the shattering of many windows in downtown Houston by loose gravel from the roofs of new skyscrapers and by other debris , prompting changes to rooftop construction codes .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Alicia", "rank": 1, "score": 154186 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Harvey (1999) Content: Tropical Storm Harvey was a moderately strong tropical storm that caused flooding across south Florida during the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season . The tenth tropical cyclone and eighth named storm of the season , Harvey developed from a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico on September 19 . After forming , the system gradually intensified and became a tropical storm early on September 20 . Throughout the rest of its duration , Harvey slowly intensified as it headed eastward . Late on September 21 , Harvey made landfall in Southwest Florida with winds of 60 mph ( 95 km/h ) . Harvey emerged into the Atlantic early on September 22 , but was absorbed by an extratropical cyclone . The remnants of Harvey reached Atlantic Canada before dissipating . Harvey caused minor flooding in south Florida because of light to relatively heavy rainfall in that portion of the state and at least 34 houses and businesses in southern Florida were flooded . There were sporadic reports of tropical storm-force winds throughout the state , as well as two tornadoes . Damage estimates in Florida reached about $ 15 million ( 1999 USD ) . Throughout the rest of the United States , impact was limited , confined to light rainfall in Georgia , North Carolina and South Carolina . Heavy rainfall was reported in Atlantic Canada and Harvey became the wettest tropical cyclone on record in that country . Significant flooding , especially to roads and houses , was reported due to the heavy rainfall and damage throughout Atlantic Canada totalled several million dollars .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Harvey_(1999)", "rank": 2, "score": 152670 }, { "content": "Title: Economic effects of Hurricane Katrina Content: The economic effects of Hurricane Katrina , which hit Louisiana , Florida , Texas and Mississippi in late August 2005 , were far-reaching . In 2006 , the Bush administration sought over $ 100 billion for repairs and reconstruction in the region , making it the costliest natural disaster in US history . And this does not account for damage to the economy caused by potential interruption of the oil supply and exports of commodities such as cotton . Also , before Hurricane Katrina , the region supported approximately one million non-farm jobs , with 600,000 of them in New Orleans . One study , by Mark Burton and Michael J. Hicks estimated the total economic impact to Louisiana and Mississippi may exceed $ 150 billion . Hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Louisiana and Mississippi , including nearly everyone who lived in New Orleans , were left unemployed . No paychecks were being cashed and no money was being spent , and therefore no taxes were being collected by local governments . The lack of revenue will limit the resources of the affected communities and states for years to come . Before the storm , the region was already one of the poorest in America with one of the highest unemployment rates . There was also some concern when , on September 8 , 2005 , President Bush temporarily suspended the Davis-Bacon Act in the affected areas , which allowed for contractors working on Federal construction projects to be paid less than the prevailing local wage . The concerns over these actions were primarily that allowing the government to pay less than the prevailing wage would contribute to increased poverty in the region , which already ranked among the lowest in the nation in terms of household income . The act was later reinstated on October 26 , 2005 , amid political pressure from both Democrats and Republicans in the United States Congress .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Economic_effects_of_Hurricane_Katrina", "rank": 3, "score": 146758 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Harvey Content: The name Harvey has been used for five tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean . Hurricane Harvey ( 1981 ) - threatened Bermuda but turned away before striking , no damage . Hurricane Harvey ( 1993 ) - short-lived storm that threatened no land . Tropical Storm Harvey ( 1999 ) - struck Florida , causing $ 15 million in damage . Tropical Storm Harvey ( 2005 ) - earliest eighth-storm formation in the Atlantic Ocean since record-keeping began , breaking the old record set in 1936 by 12 days . Threatened Bermuda . Tropical Storm Harvey ( 2011 ) - record eighth-storm failing to reach hurricane strength , in a single season , since reliable records began . Strong tropical storm that affected parts of Central America . Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Harvey", "rank": 4, "score": 146482 }, { "content": "Title: April 2016 United States storm complex Content: The April 2016 United States storm complex was a major storm system that resulted from an upper-level low in the United States stalling and producing a major snowstorm in the Rocky Mountains , and record-breaking rain in and around Houston , Texas , resulting in severe flooding . There were more than 17 inches of rain in one day in parts of the city , and up to 4 inches of rain per hour that morning at George Bush Intercontinental Airport . It is described as the wettest April in the city on record . As the most widespread flood event there since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 , it caused a state of emergency to be declared in nine counties . __ TOC __", "qid": "220", "docid": "April_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 5, "score": 136966 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Frances (1998) Content: Tropical Storm Frances caused extensive flooding in Mexico and Texas in September 1998 . The sixth tropical cyclone and sixth named storm of the annual hurricane season , Frances developed from a low pressure area in the Gulf of Mexico on September 8 . The cyclone moved northward through the western Gulf of Mexico , making landfall across the central Texas coastline before recurving across the Midwest through southeast Canada and New England . A large tropical cyclone for the Atlantic Basin , yet an average sized system by western Pacific standards , the storm produced heavy rains across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec , Texas , western Louisiana and the Great Plains . The interaction between developing Frances and Pacific Tropical Storm Javier produced torrential rainfall in southeastern Mexico , causing flooding that killed over 200 people and caused $ 63 million in damage . Coastal flooding overran the coasts of Louisiana and Texas , which worsened river flooding across the region . Federal disaster declarations were made for the states of Louisiana and Texas on September 23 for damage relating to this tropical cyclone . Damage totaled US$ 500 million ( 1998 dollars ) , mainly from flooding . There was one direct death and one indirect death associated with the tropical storm . Frances was the second tropical cyclone to hit Texas during the 1998 season , with Charley being the other .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Frances_(1998)", "rank": 6, "score": 136066 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas Content: The effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas were crippling and long-lasting . Ike 's effects included deaths , widespread damage , and impacts to the price and availability of oil and gas . Hurricane Ike also had a long-term impact on the U.S. economy . Making landfall over Galveston , at 2:10 a.m. CDT on September 13 , 2008 , `` giant '' Hurricane Ike caused extensive damage in Texas , with sustained winds of 110 mph ( 175 km/h ) , a 22 ft ( 6.8 m ) storm surge , and widespread coastal flooding . More than 140,000 residents in the Texas Gulf Coast danger zones in Ike 's path had failed to evacuate , partly due to fears of multi-hour traffic jams as during Hurricane Rita , but over 940 were rescued from rising waters , and nearly 2,000 rescued afterward . As of December 27 , 2008 , 37 people are known to have lost their lives in Texas due to Ike while hundreds are still missing . The storm had come ashore hours before daybreak with 110-mph ( 175 km/h ) winds and towering waves , pushing boats ashore , smashing many houses , flooding thousands of homes , knocking out windows in Houston 's skyscrapers , uprooting trees , and cutting electric power to millions of customers ( estimates range from 2.8 million to 4.5 million customers ) for weeks or months . Some people survived by punching holes in attics , climbing to rooftops or trees , using nearby boats , or floating on debris until reaching solid ground . Afterward , an estimated 100,000 homes had been flooded in Texas , and numerous boats washed ashore . Galveston was declared uninhabitable , and Houston imposed a week-long nighttime curfew due to limited electric power .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Ike_in_Texas", "rank": 7, "score": 135878 }, { "content": "Title: 1941 Texas hurricane Content: The 1941 Texas hurricane , the second storm of the 1941 Atlantic hurricane season , was a large and intense tropical cyclone that struck coastal Texas as a major hurricane in September 1941 , causing relatively severe damage . The storm is estimated to have formed in the eastern Gulf of Mexico on September 16 . After attaining hurricane strength , it completed a clockwise loop and turned northwestward . The hurricane continued to strengthen until it made landfall near East Matagorda Bay , Texas , with winds of 125 mi/h , but rapidly weakened as it headed inland . Damage from the storm amounted to about $ 6.5 million , and crops throughout the region were largely destroyed . The city of Houston suffered extensive damage as the storm passed to the east . The hurricane disrupted activities related to the Louisiana Maneuvers . Later , the system became extratropical and passed over Lake Huron , killing three people in Toronto . Overall , seven people lost their lives due to the cyclone .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1941_Texas_hurricane", "rank": 8, "score": 133827 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Tropical Storm Allison in Texas Content: The effects of Tropical Storm Allison in Texas included 23 deaths caused by extreme flooding . The first storm of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season , Tropical Storm Allison lasted unusually long for a June storm , remaining tropical or subtropical for 15 days . The storm developed from a tropical wave in the northern Gulf of Mexico on June 4 , 2001 , and struck the northern Texas coast shortly thereafter . It drifted northward through the state , turned back to the south , and re-entered the Gulf of Mexico . The storm continued to the east-northeast , made landfall on Louisiana , then moved across the southeast United States and Mid-Atlantic . Allison was the first storm since Tropical Storm Frances in 1998 to strike the northern Texas coastline . Tropical Storm Allison was a major flood disaster throughout its path from Texas to the Mid-Atlantic . The worst of the flooding occurred in Houston , Texas , where over 35 inches ( 890 mm ) of rain fell . Allison killed 41 people , of whom 27 drowned . The storm also caused over $ 5 billion in damage ( 2001 USD , $ 6.4 billion 2007 USD ) , making Allison the costliest and second-deadliest tropical storm on record in the United States .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Effects_of_Tropical_Storm_Allison_in_Texas", "rank": 9, "score": 133263 }, { "content": "Title: List of disasters by cost Content: Disasters can be particularly notable for the high costs associated with responding to and recovering from them . This page lists the economic costs of relatively recent disasters . 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami , Japan : estimated more than $ 300 billion . 2008 Sichuan earthquake , China , $ 148 billion 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake $ 102.5 billion . Deepwater Horizon oil spill , Gulf of Mexico , 2010 : Between $ 60 and $ 100billion . Hurricane Katrina , United States , August 2005 : insurances compensated $ 45 billion . 2011 Thailand floods : $ 45.7 billion ( World Bank estimate of total economic damages and losses ) . 2011 Christchurch earthquake , New Zealand , $ 40 billion . Hurricane Ike , United States , September 2008 , $ 29.6 billion . 1998 Yangtze River floods , China : $ 26 billion . Hurricane Andrew , United States , August 1992 : $ 25 billion . September 11 terrorist attacks , 2001 : $ 20.7 billion . 1994 Northridge earthquake , CA , United States , January 1994 : $ 20 billion . Chernobyl disaster , 1986 : $ 15 billion estimated cost of direct loss . It is estimated that the damages could accumulate to $ 235 billion for Ukraine and $ 201 billion for Belarus in the thirty years following the accident . 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami , many nations , $ 15 billion . Armero tragedy , Colombia , 1985 , $ 7 billion . 2013 Alberta floods , Canada , 2013 , estimated $ 3 billion - $ 5 billion . Exxon Valdez oil spill , 1989 : The clean-up of the oil spill cost an estimated $ 2.5 billion ; recovery for settlements , $ 1.1 billion ; and the economic loss ( fisheries , tourism , etc. ) suffered due to the damage to the Alaskan ecosystem was estimated at $ 2.8 billion . Cedar Fire , United States , 2003 , $ 2 billion . AZF chemical plant explosion , Toulouse , France , 2001 : $ 1.8 billion . 2011 Slave Lake wildfire , Canada , $ 1.8 billion . The costs of disasters vary considerably depending on a range of factors , such as the geographical location where they occur . When a disaster occurs in a densely populated area in a wealthy country , the financial damage might be huge , but when a comparable disaster occurs in a densely populated area in a poorer country , the actual financial damage might be relatively small , in part due to a lack of insurance . For example , the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami , with a death toll of over 230,000 people , cost a ` mere ' $ 15 billion , whereas in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill , in which 11 people died , the damages were six-fold .", "qid": "220", "docid": "List_of_disasters_by_cost", "rank": 10, "score": 132905 }, { "content": "Title: September 1921 San Antonio floods Content: In early September 1921 , the remnants of a Category 1 hurricane brought damaging floods to areas of Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas , particularly in the San Antonio region . On September 4 , a tropical cyclone developed in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico near the Bay of Campeche . Moving slowly in a general westward direction , the disturbance reached hurricane intensity on September 7 prior to making landfall south of Tampico , Mexico the following day . The storm weakened over land , and lost cyclonic characteristics later that day . However , a nearby high-pressure area forced the remnants of the system northward into Texas . Due to an orthographic lifting effect , the remnants were able to produce torrential and record rainfall over the state . Precipitation peaked over Central Texas , where the highest rainfall amount measured was 40 in ( 1,016 mm ) near Thrall , Texas ; this was the fourth-highest tropical cyclone-related rainfall total in Texas since record keeping began . Similarly , an observation of 36.40 in ( 925 mm ) elsewhere in Williamson County , Texas ranked as the sixth-highest tropical cyclone-related rainfall total for the state . The high precipitation totals set nationwide records which would stand for several years .", "qid": "220", "docid": "September_1921_San_Antonio_floods", "rank": 11, "score": 130496 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Elena (1979) Content: Tropical Storm Elena was a weak tropical storm that moved ashore along Texas in the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season . The sixth tropical storm of the season , Elena developed from a tropical wave to the south of Louisiana on August 29 . It tracked generally west-northwest , strengthening little before making landfall on Matagorda Island on September 1 as a minimal tropical storm ; the storm quickly dissipated over land . Elena dropped moderate rainfall along its path , causing two direct deaths in Houston from drowning ; storm damage was minor , amounting to less than $ 10 million ( 1979 USD , $ 28 million 2007 USD ) . Lightning from the storm set fire to an oil supertanker in Houston , causing three indirect deaths and 13 injuries .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Elena_(1979)", "rank": 12, "score": 129411 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Harvey Content: Cyclone Harvey was a tropical cyclone that struck Queensland and the Northern Territory of Australia during the 2004 -- 05 Australian region cyclone season . It had a minimum pressure of 967 mbar ( hPa ; 28.56 inHg ) and maximum wind gusts of 220 km/h .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Cyclone_Harvey", "rank": 13, "score": 129164 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history , shattering numerous records . The impact of the season was widespread and ruinous with an estimated 3,913 deaths and record damage of about $ 159.2 billion . Of the storms that made landfall , five of the season 's seven major hurricanes -- Dennis , Emily , Katrina , Rita , and Wilma -- were responsible for most of the destruction . The Mexican states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán and the US states of Florida and Louisiana were each struck twice by major hurricanes ; Cuba , the Bahamas , Haiti , Mississippi , Texas , Alabama , and Tamaulipas were each struck once and in each case brushed by at least one more . The most catastrophic effects of the season were felt on the United States ' Gulf Coast , where a 30 ft ( 10 m ) storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused devastating flooding that destroyed most structures on the Mississippi coastline ; subsequent levee failures in New Orleans , Louisiana caused by the storm crippled the city . Furthermore , Hurricane Stan combined with an extratropical system to cause deadly mudslides across Central America , with Guatemala being hardest-hit . The 2005 season was the first to observe more tropical cyclones in the Atlantic than the West Pacific ; on average , the latter experiences 26 while the Atlantic only averages 12 . This event was repeated in the 2010 season ; however , the 2010 typhoon season broke the record for the fewest storms observed in a single year , while the 2005 typhoon season featured near average activity . The season officially began on June 1 , 2005 , and lasted until November 30 , although it effectively persisted into January 2006 due to continued storm activity . A record twenty-eight tropical and subtropical storms formed , of which a record fifteen became hurricanes . Of these , a record seven strengthened into major hurricanes , a record-tying five became Category 4 hurricanes and a record four reached Category 5 strength , the highest categorization for hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale . Among these Category 5 storms were hurricanes Katrina and Wilma , respectively the costliest and the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record . This year was also notable because the list of storm names was used up and six Greek letter names had to be used .", "qid": "220", "docid": "2005_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 14, "score": 128729 }, { "content": "Title: 1981 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1981 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1 , 1981 , and lasted until November 30 , 1981 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . The 1981 season was high in activity with 18 tropical depressions and twelve storms forming during the year . Nine of these systems made landfall . Cindy , Harvey , and Irene neither affected land directly nor indirectly . Hurricane Dennis caused millions of dollars in damage in Dade County , Florida and produced the highest rainfall totals of any tropical cyclone this season . Tropical Depression Eight caused the most damage , due to flooding in Texas at the end of August , and led to most fatalities of any tropical cyclone this season ( five ) . Tropical Depressions Two and Eight caused a majority of the damage and fatalities this season , with both affecting Louisiana and Texas . Katrina was the only named storm with associated fatalities .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1981_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 15, "score": 128408 }, { "content": "Title: 1989 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1989 Atlantic hurricane season featured the costliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin at the time , Hurricane Hugo . The season officially began on June 1 , and ended on November 30 . It was a near average season with 11 named storms . The first storm , Tropical Depression One , developed on June 15 , and dissipated two days later without effects on land . Later that month , Tropical Storm Allison caused severe flooding , especially in Texas and Louisiana . Tropical Storm Barry , Tropical Depressions Six , Nine , and Thirteen , and Hurricanes Erin and Felix caused negligible impact . Hurricane Gabrielle and Tropical Storm Iris caused light effects on land , with the former resulting in nine fatalities from rip currents offshore the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada , while the latter produced minor flooding in the United States Virgin Islands . The most notable storm of the season was Hurricane Hugo , a Category 5 hurricane that caused at least $ 10 billion ( 1989 USD ) in damage and 88 fatalities as it ravaged the Lesser Antilles and the United States , especially the state of South Carolina . Hugo ranked as the costliest Atlantic hurricane until Hurricane Andrew in 1992 , and has since fallen further due to destructive storms in the 2000s and early 2010s . Few other storms in 1989 caused significant damage ; hurricanes Chantal and Jerry both resulted in flooding and wind impacts in Texas . Hurricane Dean also caused light damage in Bermuda and the Canadian province of Newfoundland . Tropical Storm Karen , the final storm of the season , brought heavy rainfall and a tornado to Cuba , before dissipating on December 4 . Overall , the storms of the season collectively caused 124 fatalities and at least $ 10.54 billion in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1989_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 16, "score": 127241 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Katrina Content: Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States . The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone , behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969 . Overall , at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods , making it the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane . Total property damage was estimated at $ 108 billion ( 2005 USD ) , roughly four times the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in the United States . The eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season , Katrina originated over the Bahamas on August 23 from the interaction between a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten . Early the following day , the new depression intensified into Tropical Storm Katrina . The cyclone headed generally westward toward Florida and strengthened into a hurricane only two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach and Aventura on August 25 . After very briefly weakening to a tropical storm , Katrina emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and began to rapidly deepen . The storm strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico , but weakened before making its second landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on August 29 in southeast Louisiana . The storm caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas , much of it due to the storm surge and levee failure . Severe property damage occurred in coastal areas , such as Mississippi beachfront towns ; over 90 percent of these were flooded . Boats and casino barges rammed buildings , pushing cars and houses inland ; water reached 6 - from the beach . Over fifty breaches in New Orleans 's hurricane surge protection were the cause of the majority of the death and destruction during Katrina on August 29 , 2005 . Eventually 80 % of the city and large tracts of neighboring parishes became flooded , and the floodwaters lingered for weeks . According to a modeling exercise conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ( USACE ) , two-thirds of the deaths in Greater New Orleans were due to levee and floodwall failure . All of the major studies concluded that the USACE , the designers and builders of the levee system as mandated by the Flood Control Act of 1965 , is responsible . This is mainly due to a decision to use shorter steel sheet pilings in an effort to save money . In January 2008 , Judge Stanwood Duval , U.S. District Court , ruled that despite the Corps ' role in the flooding , the agency could not be held financially liable because of sovereign immunity in the Flood Control Act of 1928 . Exactly ten years after Katrina , J. David Rogers , lead author of a new report in the official journal of the World Water Council concluded that the flooding during Katrina `` could have been prevented had the corps retained an external review board to double-check its flood-wall designs . '' There was also an investigation of the responses from federal , state and local governments , resulting in the resignation of Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) director Michael D. Brown , and of New Orleans Police Department ( NOPD ) Superintendent Eddie Compass . Many other government officials were criticized for their responses , especially New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin , Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco , and President George W. Bush . Several agencies including the United States Coast Guard ( USCG ) , National Hurricane Center ( NHC ) , and National Weather Service ( NWS ) were commended for their actions . They provided accurate hurricane weather tracking forecasts with sufficient lead time .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Katrina", "rank": 17, "score": 126162 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Amelia Content: The name Amelia has been used for one tropical cyclone in the North Atlantic Ocean and two tropical cyclones to the north of Australia . Atlantic Ocean : Tropical Storm Amelia ( 1978 ) , a weak tropical storm that made landfall in Texas ; severe flooding killed 33 people and caused $ 20 million ( 1978 USD ) in damage Australian region : Cyclone Amelia ( 1975 ) , formed in the Arafura Sea and made landfall in the Northern Territory Cyclone Amelia ( 1981 ) , formed in the Gulf of Carpentaria and passed over the northernmost part of the Northern Territory before dissipating in the Timor Sea Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages Category : Australian region cyclone disambiguation pages", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Amelia", "rank": 18, "score": 126003 }, { "content": "Title: 1912 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1912 Atlantic hurricane season featured the first major hurricane -- Category 3 or higher on the modern day Saffir -- Simpson scale -- in the month of November . There were eleven tropical cyclones , seven of which became tropical storms ; four of those strengthened into hurricanes , and one reached major hurricane intensity . The season 's first cyclone developed on April 4 , while the final dissipated on November 21 . The season 's most intense and most devastating tropical cyclone was the final storm , known as the Jamaica hurricane . It produced heavy rainfall on Jamaica , leading to at least 100 fatalities and about $ 1.5 million ( 1912 USD ) in damage . The storm was also blamed for five deaths in Cuba . Other tropical cyclones that left notable impact include the fourth and sixth hurricanes . The former brought rough seas and storm surge to portions of the Gulf Coast of the United States , leaving locally severe damage , particularly in Mobile , Alabama , and Pensacola , Florida , totaling about $ 39,000 . One fatality occurred after a barge capsized . The sixth hurricane brought rough seas and heavy precipitation to northeastern Mexico and south Texas , with flooding reported inland . The storm left 15 deaths and about $ 28,000 in damage . Overall , the tropical cyclones of this season collectively caused at least 122 fatalities and just under $ 1.6 million in damage . The season 's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy ( ACE ) rating of 57 . ACE is , broadly speaking , a measure of the power of the hurricane multiplied by the length of time it existed , so storms that last a long time , as well as particularly strong hurricanes , have high ACEs .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1912_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 19, "score": 125573 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Allison Content: Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical storm that devastated southeast Texas in June of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season . An arguable example of the `` brown ocean effect '' , Allison lasted unusually long for a June storm , remaining tropical or subtropical for 15 days , most of them over land dumping torrential rains . The storm developed from a tropical wave in the northern Gulf of Mexico on June 4 , 2001 , and struck the upper Texas coast shortly thereafter . It drifted northward through the state , turned back to the south , and re-entered the Gulf of Mexico . The storm continued to the east-northeast , made landfall on Louisiana , then moved across the southeast United States and Mid-Atlantic . Allison was the first storm since Tropical Storm Frances in 1998 to strike the northern Texas coastline . The storm dropped heavy rainfall along its path , peaking at over 40 inches ( 1,000 mm ) in Texas . The worst flooding occurred in Houston , where most of Allison 's damage occurred : 30,000 became homeless after the storm flooded over 70,000 houses and destroyed 2,744 homes . Downtown Houston was inundated with flooding , causing severe damage to hospitals and businesses . Twenty-three people died in Texas . Along its entire path , Allison caused $ 9 billion ( 2001 USD ) in damage and 41 deaths . Aside from Texas , the places worst hit were Louisiana and southeastern Pennsylvania . Following the storm , President George W. Bush designated 75 counties along Allison 's path as disaster areas , which enabled the citizens affected to apply for aid . Allison was the first Atlantic tropical storm to have its name retired without ever having reached hurricane strength .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Allison", "rank": 20, "score": 125298 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Florence (1988) Content: Hurricane Florence was the third of four named tropical cyclones to make landfall on the United States during the 1988 Atlantic hurricane season . The seventh tropical storm and second hurricane of the season , Florence developed on September 7 from an area of convection associated with a dissipating frontal trough in the southern Gulf of Mexico . After initially moving eastward , the storm turned northward and strengthened . Florence reached hurricane status and later peak winds of 80 mph ( 130 km/h ) on September 9 shortly before striking southeastern Louisiana . The storm rapidly weakened over land and dissipated on September 11 over northeastern Texas . Early in its duration , the storm dropped rainfall across the Yucatán Peninsula . Upon striking Louisiana , Florence produced a moderate storm surge , causing severe beach erosion in some locations . Gusty winds were also reported , causing power outages to over 100,000 people . In Alabama , one man died while trying to secure his boat . Rainfall from the hurricane caused severe river flooding in portions of the Florida Panhandle in an area already severely affected by heavy rainfall ; the flooding damaged or destroyed dozens of houses in Santa Rosa County . Throughout its path , damage totaled about $ 2.9 million ( 1988 USD , $ 5.3 million 2008 USD ) .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Florence_(1988)", "rank": 21, "score": 124788 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Jeanne in the Mid-Atlantic region Content: The effects of Hurricane Jeanne in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States included two fatalities and $ 530 million ( 2004 USD ; $ USD ) in damage . Originating from a tropical wave off the coast of Africa in early September 2004 , Hurricane Jeanne tracked through the Leeward Islands and Hispaniola for several days , resulting in extensive damage and an immense loss of life . After completing a clockwise loop between September 22 and 24 , the storm intensified into a major hurricane before striking the Bahamas and Florida . Substantially weaker , the system turned northeastward over Georgia before affecting Delaware , District of Columbia , Maryland , New Jersey , New York , Pennsylvania , Virginia , and West Virginia ; all of those states are in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States . By the evening of September 26 , the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center took over responsibility of monitoring the former hurricane over Virginia . Throughout September 28 and much of the following day , the remnants of Jeanne produced heavy , flooding rains in many states . Severe weather associated with the storm also resulted in isolated tornadoes in a few states . Overall damage was severe , with Pennsylvania suffering nearly $ 300 million ( 2004 USD ; $ USD ) in losses alone . Two fatalities were also linked to the passage of Jeanne , one in both Virginia and Pennsylvania . Damage in the Mid-Atlantic states was estimated at $ 530 million ( 2004 USD ; $ USD )", "qid": "220", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Jeanne_in_the_Mid-Atlantic_region", "rank": 22, "score": 123255 }, { "content": "Title: 1955 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1955 Atlantic hurricane season was , at the time , the costliest season ever recorded . The hurricane season officially began on June 15 , 1955 , and ended on November 15 , 1955 . It was slightly above average , with 13 recorded tropical cyclones . The first storm , Alice , had persisted since December 30 , 1954 . Alice caused relatively minor impact as it tracked through the Lesser Antilles and eastern Caribbean Sea in early January . Tropical Storm Brenda caused two deaths and minor damage along the Gulf Coast of the United States in early August . The quick succession of Hurricanes Connie and Diane caused significant flooding in the Northeastern United States , with nearly $ 1 billion ( 1955 USD ) in losses and at least 232 fatalities . The next three storms -- Hurricanes Edith and Flora and Tropical Storm Five -- caused very minor or no impact . In early August , Hurricane Gladys caused severe localized flooding in Mexico , primarily in Mexico City . Additionally , an offshoot of Gladys inflicted minor impact in Texas . Hurricane Hilda struck the Greater Antilles and then Mexico . It was attributed to at least 304 deaths and $ 120 million in losses . In mid-September , Hurricane Ione struck eastern North Carolina and contributed the flooding from Connie and Diane , resulting in seven fatalities and $ 88 million in damage . Later that month , Hurricane Janet , which peaked as a Category 5 hurricane , lashed several countries adjacent to the Caribbean Sea , as well as Mexico and British Honduras . Janet resulted in $ 53.8 million in damage and at least 716 deaths . An unnamed tropical storm in the month of October did not impact land . Hurricane Katie , the final storm , caused minor damage in a sparsely populated area of Hispaniola , totaling to at least $ 200,000 ; 7 fatalities were also reported . Collectively , the storms caused 1518 deaths and $ 1.2 billion in losses , making it the costliest season at the time . A record number of names -- four -- were retired following the season , which was tied by 1995 and 2004 , and then surpassed in 2005 ( when five names were retired ) .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1955_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 23, "score": 122999 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Texas–Oklahoma flood and tornado outbreak Content: Preceded by more than a week of heavy rain , a slow-moving storm system dropped tremendous precipitation across much of Texas and Oklahoma during the nights of May 24 -- 26 , 2015 , triggering record-breaking floods . Additionally , many areas reported tornado activity and lightning . Particularly hard hit were areas along the Blanco River in Hays County , Texas , where entire blocks of homes were leveled . On the morning of May 26 , the National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for southwest Harris County ( which includes the city of Houston ) and northeast Fort Bend County . The system also produced deadly tornadoes in parts of Mexico , Texas , and Oklahoma .", "qid": "220", "docid": "2015_Texas–Oklahoma_flood_and_tornado_outbreak", "rank": 24, "score": 122520 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Harvey (2011) Content: Tropical Storm Harvey was the final tropical cyclone in a record-breaking string of eight consecutive storms that failed to attain hurricane intensity . The eighth tropical cyclone and eighth named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season , Harvey developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on August 19 . It moved over warm waters in the vicinity of Central America . Later on August 19 , the system strengthened into Tropical Storm Harvey while just offshore Honduras . Additional organization occurred and Harvey attained its peak intensity of 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) prior to coming ashore Belize on August 20 . Harvey weakened to a tropical depression on August 21 , but re-intensified to a tropical storm after emerging into the Bay of Campeche . Early on August 22 , it made landfall in Veracruz , then weakened and dissipated several hours later . The precursor disturbance caused thunderstorms throughout the Lesser Antilles , producing squally weather and gusty winds . On Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands , gusty winds downed trees , which struck power lines , leaving minor electrical outages . Along its path , Harvey dropped heavy rainfall across much of Central America . Strong winds and heavy precipitation were reported in the country of Belize . Heavy rains in Mexico triggered numerous landslides , one of which killed 3 people . Landslides in damaged 36 homes and 334 homes in the states of Chiapas and Veracruz , respectively . Heavy rainfall also caused rivers to overflow , damaging homes and businesses . Two additional people died in Mexico from unknown causes .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Harvey_(2011)", "rank": 25, "score": 122134 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Flood (artist) Content: Mark Flood ( born 1957 , in Houston , Texas ) is an American artist . Flood has been making art for 30 years and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Rice University in 1981 . He sings in the band Culturcide under the pen name Perry Webb . His art sells for upwards of $ 200,000.00 per work . From NY Times circa 2012 , `` During most of those years Mr. Flood -- a founder of the underground 1980s band Culturcide -- never sold enough work to say goodbye to his day jobs ( Texaco office worker , elementary school teacher 's assistant , video clerk , museum assistant at the Menil Collection . ) But now he is getting to have the cred and a career too . He has been represented for the past four years in New York by the Zach Feuer Gallery and since 2007 in Europe by Peres Projects , and paintings he has created using lace -- a body of work that some have called `` spinster abstraction '' -- have become highly sought . Beginning July 18 he will present a town house full of little-seen work from the 1980s in `` The Hateful Years , '' at the high-end gallery Luxembourg & Dayan . ''", "qid": "220", "docid": "Mark_Flood_(artist)", "rank": 26, "score": 120861 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Ike Content: Hurricane Ike ( pronounced -LSB- ˈaɪk -RSB- ) was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008 , wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture , particularly in Cuba and Texas . In these places , Ike remains the costliest tropical cyclone on record . Other locations were also seriously affected by Ike , which was ultimately the third-costliest of any Atlantic hurricane and resulted in $ 37.5 billion in damages , with hurricanes Sandy and Katrina causing more damage , at $ 75 and 108 billion , respectively . Ike developed from a tropical wave west of Cape Verde on September 1 and strengthened to a peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane over the open waters of the central Atlantic on September 4 as it tracked westward . Several fluctuations in strength occurred before Ike made landfall on eastern Cuba on September 8 . The hurricane weakened prior to continuing into the Gulf of Mexico , but increased its intensity by the time of its final landfall on Galveston , Texas on September 13 . The remnants of Ike continued to track across the United States and into Canada , causing considerable damage inland , before dissipating two days later . Ike was blamed for at least 195 deaths . Of these deaths , 74 were in Haiti , which was already trying to recover from the impact of three storms ( Fay , Gustav , and Hanna ) which had made landfall that same year . Seven people were killed in Cuba from Ike . In the United States , 113 people were reported killed , directly or indirectly , and 16 were still missing as of August 2011 . Due to its immense size , Ike caused devastation from the Louisiana coastline all the way to the Kenedy County region near Corpus Christi , Texas . In addition , Ike caused flooding and significant damage along the Mississippi coastline and the Florida Panhandle Damages from Ike in U.S. coastal and inland areas are estimated at $ 29.5 billion ( 2008 USD ) , with additional damage of $ 7.3 billion in Cuba ( the costliest storm ever in that country ) , $ 200 million in the Bahamas , and $ 500 million in the Turks and Caicos , amounting to a total of at least $ 37.5 billion in damage . Ike is now the third-costliest Atlantic hurricane of all time , only surpassed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 , and later by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 . The search-and-rescue operation after Ike is the largest search-and-rescue operation in Texas history . Ike was the third major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Ike", "rank": 27, "score": 120703 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Lane (2006) Content: Hurricane Lane was the thirteenth named storm , ninth hurricane , and sixth major hurricane of the 2006 Pacific hurricane season . The strongest Pacific hurricane to make landfall in Mexico since Hurricane Kenna of 2002 , Lane developed on September 13 from a tropical wave to the south of Mexico . It moved northwestward , parallel to the coast of Mexico , and steadily intensified in an area conducive to further strengthening . After turning to the northeast , Lane attained peak winds of 125 mph ( 205 km/h ) , and made landfall in the state of Sinaloa at peak strength . It rapidly weakened and dissipated on September 17 , and later brought precipitation to southern part of the U.S. state of Texas . Throughout its path , Lane resulted in four deaths and moderate damage . Damage was heaviest in Sinaloa , where the hurricane made landfall , including reports of severe crop damage . Across Mexico , an estimated 4,320 homes were affected by the hurricane , with about 248,000 people affected . Moderate flooding was reported in Acapulco , resulting in mudslides in some areas . Damage across the country totaled $ 2.2 billion ( 2006 MXN ) , or $ 206 million ( 2006 USD , or $ 218 million in 2010 USD ) .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Lane_(2006)", "rank": 28, "score": 120702 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Arlene (1993) Content: Tropical Storm Arlene brought torrential rainfall to the western United States Gulf Coast , particularly to the U.S. state of Texas , in June 1993 . The first named storm of the annual hurricane season , Arlene developed from an area of low pressure in the Bay of Campeche on June 18 . The depression slowly strengthened as it tracked west-northwestward and later north-northwestward across the western Gulf of Mexico . Arlene was subsequently upgraded to a tropical storm on June 19 , but failed to intensify further due to its proximity to land . The cyclone then made landfall on Padre Island , Texas , with winds of 40 mph ( 65 km/h ) and degenerated into a remnant disturbance on June 21 . The precursor disturbance to Tropical Storm Arlene dropped heavy rainfall over Central America . As a result , 20 fatalities occurred , all of which were from a mudslide in El Salvador . Heavy rainfall also produced heavy rainfall on the Yucatán Peninsula . After Arlene became a tropical cyclone , rainfall in Mexico inundated areas of Campeche , where damage totaled US$ 33 million . In total , five people were killed in Mexico . Flood damage in South Texas was extensive , with widespread urban flooding and road closures . Entire plots of farmland were inundated by torrential rains brought by Arlene . The landfalling Arlene interacted with a passing cold front which helped to produce showers further northeast , though damage in those locales was comparatively less severe . In total , Arlene caused 26 deaths and at least US$ 60.8 million in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Arlene_(1993)", "rank": 29, "score": 120690 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Humberto (2007) Content: Hurricane Humberto was a minimal hurricane that formed and intensified faster than any other North Atlantic tropical cyclone on record before landfall . Developing on September 12 , 2007 , in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico , the tropical cyclone rapidly strengthened and struck High Island , Texas , with winds of about 90 mph ( 150 km/h ) early on September 13 . It steadily weakened after moving ashore , and on September 14 it began dissipating over northwestern Georgia as it interacted with an approaching cold front . Damage was fairly light , estimated at approximately $ 50 million ( 2007 USD ) . Precipitation peaked at 14.13 inches ( 358.9 mm ) , while wind gusts to 85 mph ( 137 km/h ) were reported . The heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding , which damaged or destroyed dozens of homes , and closed several highways . Trees and power lines were downed , knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers . The hurricane caused one fatality in the State of Texas . Additionally , as the storm progressed inland , rainfall was reported throughout the Southeast United States .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Humberto_(2007)", "rank": 30, "score": 120625 }, { "content": "Title: 1970 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1970 Atlantic hurricane season was the first season in which reconnaissance aircraft flew into all four quadrants of a tropical cyclone . The season officially began on June 1 and lasted until November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . The season was fairly average , with 10 total storms forming , of which five were hurricanes . Two of those five became major hurricanes , which are Category 3 or higher on the Saffir -- Simpson scale . The first system , Hurricane Alma , developed on May 17 . The storm killed eight people , seven from flooding in Cuba and one from a lightning strike in Florida . In July , Tropical Storm Becky brought minor flooding to Florida and other parts of the Southern United States , leaving one death and about $ 500,000 ( 1970 USD ) in damage . The most significant storm of the season was Hurricane Celia , a Category 3 hurricane that slammed South Texas in early August . Celia resulted in about $ 930 million in damage and was the costliest hurricane in Texas until Alicia in 1983 . There were 28 fatalities , with four in Cuba , eight in Florida , and sixteen in Texas . Later that month , Tropical Storm Dorothy caused severe flooding in Martinique , which left up to 51 deaths and $ 34 million in damage . One death occurred in Mexico as a result of Hurricane Ella after a house collapsed . In October , Tropical Depression Fifteen brought a devastating flood to Puerto Rico . At least 22 fatalities and $ 65.5 million in damage occurred . Collectively , the storms of this season left at least $ 1.03 billion in damage and 115 deaths . __ TOC __", "qid": "220", "docid": "1970_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 31, "score": 120234 }, { "content": "Title: 1934 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1934 Atlantic hurricane season ran through the summer and the first half of fall in 1934 . The 1934 season was fairly quiet . However , it was a continuation of deadly seasons that had been going on since 1928 . A June hurricane carved an erratic path across Central America and the Gulf of Mexico , causing catastrophic flooding in Central America that killed 1,000-3 ,000 people . Elsewhere , a tropical storm formed and existed entirely during the month of May , striking Florida and South Carolina and causing $ 155,000 in damage . A Category 1 hurricane passed over north Florida as a tropical storm and made landfall in central Texas , causing 11 casualties and $ 1 -- 2 million in damage . Another Category 1 grazed Galveston . The extratropical remnant of a hurricane moved up the US East Coast , bringing hurricane-force winds .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1934_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 32, "score": 120159 }, { "content": "Title: 1900 Galveston hurricane Content: The Great Galveston Hurricane was a Category 4 storm , with winds of up to 145 mph , which made landfall on September 8 , 1900 , in Galveston , Texas , in the United States , leaving about 6,000 to 12,000 dead . It remains to the present day the deadliest single day event in US history . The hurricane appears to have started as an atmospheric trough from West Africa , causing unsettled weather in the Caribbean , and emerging into the Florida Straits as a tropical storm on September 5 . Owing to contradictory forecasts , the people of Galveston felt no alarm until the official hurricane warning of September 7 . The next morning , a storm surge of 15 ft washed over the long , flat island-city which was only 8 ft above sea level , knocking buildings off their foundations and destroying over 3,600 homes . The disaster ended the Golden Era of Galveston , as the hurricane alarmed potential investors , who turned to Houston instead . The whole island of Galveston was subsequently raised by 17 ft and a 10 mi2 seawall erected .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1900_Galveston_hurricane", "rank": 33, "score": 118838 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Southeastern United States floods Content: The 2009 Southeastern United States floods were a group of floods that affected several counties throughout northern Georgia , Tennessee , Alabama , Mississippi and Arkansas . The worst flooding occurred across the Atlanta metropolitan area . Continuous rain , spawned by moisture pulled from the Gulf of Mexico , fell faster than the local watersheds could drain the runoff . Initial damages from around the state were estimated at $ 250 million . On September 26 , Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine raised the estimated cost to $ 500 million with the potential for it to rise . Some 20,000 homes , businesses and other buildings received major damage and 17 Georgia counties received Federal Disaster Declarations . The flood is blamed for at least ten deaths . The floods were historic , breaking records that went back more than a century in some locations . The Chattahoochee River , the largest river in the region , measured water levels at a 500-year flood level .", "qid": "220", "docid": "2009_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 34, "score": 118547 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Celia Content: Hurricane Celia was the costliest tropical cyclone in Texas history until Hurricane Alicia in 1983 . The third named storm , second hurricane , and first major hurricane of the 1970 Atlantic hurricane season , Celia developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea on July 31 . Initially , the depression tracked north-northwestward without significantly strengthening , and crossed over western Cuba on August 1 . Heavy rains on the island caused severe flooding , leading to five fatalities . The depression entered the Gulf of Mexico and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Celia later on August 1 . Due to warm sea surface temperatures , Celia rapidly intensified into a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale on August 1 . Storm surge and swells lashed the west coast of Florida , especially the Panhandle , causing eight people to drown . Early on August 2 , Celia began to weaken . However , the storm underwent rapid deepening again and peaked as a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 125 mph ( 205 km/h ) on August 3 . In Louisiana , tides caused minor coastal flooding . Minor erosion damage was reported along Highway 82 in Cameron Parish . Late on August 3 , Celia made landfall near Corpus Christi , Texas . Throughout the state , 8,950 homes were destroyed and damaged about 55,650 others . About 252 small businesses , 331 boats , and 310 farm buildings were either damaged or destroyed . Impact was the worst in Nueces County , which observed gusts as high as 180 mph . In Corpus Christi , about one-third of houses suffered severe damage or were destroyed . Additionally , about 90 % of the buildings in downtown were damaged to some degree . Celia weakened as it continued further inland and dissipated over New Mexico on August 6 . The remnants of Celia brought up to 2 in of rainfall to the state . Overall , this storm caused 28 deaths and $ 930 million ( 1970 USD ) in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Celia", "rank": 35, "score": 118525 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Henriette (2007) Content: Hurricane Henriette was a minimal Category 1 hurricane that affected portions of Mexico in late August and early September 2007 . The storm , which caused nine fatalities , formed from an area of disturbed weather on August 30 , 2007 , and became a tropical storm the next day . The cyclone moved parallel to the Mexican Pacific coast , but its proximity to the shore resulted in heavy rainfall over land . The most affected city was Acapulco , Guerrero , where six people were killed by landslides , and where over 100 families had to be evacuated after the La Sabana River flooded . Henriette then turned north and headed towards the Baja California peninsula , and became a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale . Henriette made its first landfall east of Cabo San Lucas at peak intensity , ( Eye witness reports state the first landfall was directly over Cabo ) causing the death of one woman due to high surf . Hurricane Henriette then emerged over the Gulf of California , and made its second landfall near Guaymas , Sonora . After causing heavy rains in Sonora , the storm dissipated over the Sierra Madre Occidental and its remnants went on to cause flooding in New Mexico and Texas . Damage totaled about $ 275 million ( 2007 MXN , $ 25 million 2007 USD ) . It hit Mexico on the same day Hurricane Felix hit Nicaragua , only one of two occurrences in which a North Atlantic hurricane and a Pacific hurricane made landfall on the same day .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Henriette_(2007)", "rank": 36, "score": 118114 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Hazel in Canada Content: The effects of Hurricane Hazel in Canada included 81 deaths and C$ 137,552,400 ( $ 1,281,202,354 in 2017 ) in damages . Hazel , the deadliest and costliest storm of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season , reached Toronto , Ontario by the evening of October 15 , 1954 . It peaked as a category 4 storm , but by the time it reached Canada , it was an extratropical category 1 storm after merging with an existing cold front south of Ontario . Due to an area of high pressure to the north-east , Hazel stalled over Toronto and lost most of its moisture . The worst-affected areas were communities near the Humber River , Holland Marsh , and Etobicoke Creek . Prone to flooding , the Humber River raced downstream from Woodbridge when an earthen dam failed . In the weeks prior to Hazel , Toronto had received copious amounts of rain , and the soil could not hold as much as 200 mm of rain ; consequently , over 90 % of it went into Toronto 's waterways . The Humber heavily flooded Weston , and killed 35 people in Raymore Drive . Holland Marsh was severely flooded ; while no one was killed , the economic losses were severe as the region 's crops were harvested but not collected . In the neighbourhood of Long Branch , the Etobicoke Creek killed seven people and swept numerous dwellings into Lake Ontario . Toronto 's infrastructure also took a major hit , with as much as 50 bridges being washed out by the rising waters . The situation was exacerbated by the lack of preparedness and awareness . Torontonians did not have prior experience with hurricanes , and the storm as whole proved to be extremely unpredictable -- even the arrival of Hazel came as a surprise . Also , the low-lying areas near the Humber were mostly residential , which were among the worst-affected during the storm . In fact , following Hazel , residential development in areas along Toronto waterways was prohibited , and they became parks instead . To help with the cleanup , the army was summoned . Due to the destruction in Canada , as well as the United States and Haiti , the name Hazel was retired , and will never again be used for an Atlantic hurricane . Since it was retired before the creation of formal lists , it was not replaced with any particular name .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Hazel_in_Canada", "rank": 37, "score": 118106 }, { "content": "Title: 1943 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1943 Atlantic hurricane season marked the first deliberate reconnaissance aircraft flights into tropical cyclones . The season officially lasted from June 16 to October 31 , which was , at the time , considered the most likely period for tropical cyclone formation in the Atlantic Ocean . A total of ten storms from 1943 are listed in the Atlantic hurricane database , and an eleventh system that affected Florida and Georgia has been identified as a probable tropical depression . The first system of the year , dubbed the `` Surprise hurricane '' , caused severe damage throughout Texas and Louisiana in June , partially because information about its approach was censored in the fray of World War II ; the storm caused 19 deaths and $ 17 million in damage . A major hurricane in mid-August produced hurricane-force winds in Bermuda , and several other tropical cyclones throughout the year resulted in strong winds there . In September , a hurricane impacted the western Gulf Coast of the United States , then a tropical storm struck the Mid-Atlantic . The two storms resulted in $ 419,000 and $ 20,000 in damage , respectively ; one death was attributed to the latter system . In mid-October , a strong hurricane resulted in flooding and damage to crops throughout the Caribbean . __ TOC __", "qid": "220", "docid": "1943_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 38, "score": 117880 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Alberto (1994) Content: Tropical Storm Alberto was the costliest storm of the 1994 Atlantic hurricane season . The storm was the first named storm of the season . It hit Florida across the Southeast United States in July , causing a massive flooding disaster while stalling over Georgia and Alabama . Alberto caused $ 1 billion in damage ( 1994 USD ) and 30 deaths .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Alberto_(1994)", "rank": 39, "score": 117716 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Pakistan floods Content: The floods in Pakistan began in late July 2010 , resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Sindh , Punjab and , Balochistan regions of Pakistan , which affected the Indus River basin . Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan 's total land area was affected by floods . According to Pakistani government data , the floods directly affected about 20 million people , mostly by destruction of property , livelihood and infrastructure , with a death toll of close to 2,000 . UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had initially asked for US$ 460 million ( $ 420 million ) for emergency relief , noting that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen . Only 20 % of the relief funds requested had been received on 15 August 2010 . The U.N. had been concerned that aid was not arriving fast enough , and the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water . The Pakistani economy was harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops . Damage to structures was estimated to exceed US$ 4 billion ( $ 2.5 billion ) , and wheat crop damages were estimated to be over US$ 500 million ( $ 425 million ) . Total economic impact may have been as much as US$ 43 billion ( $ 35 billion ) .", "qid": "220", "docid": "2010_Pakistan_floods", "rank": 40, "score": 117498 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Midwest flooding Content: The 2007 Midwest flooding was a major flooding event that occurred in the Midwestern United States in the third week of August 2007 . While Hurricane Dean was affecting the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico , and Tropical Storm Erin was affecting Oklahoma and Texas , a persistent storm system hung over the Midwest for several days , causing repeated flash flooding in the US states of Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Minnesota , Ohio , and Wisconsin . Cool Canadian air clashed with large quantities of warm moist air from the Gulf , producing torrential rains along a stationary front . Eighteen deaths across the central United States were attributed to the resulting flooding . Seven Minnesota counties , eight Ohio counties , fourteen counties in Wisconsin , and seven counties in Illinois were declared Federal Disaster Areas .", "qid": "220", "docid": "2007_Midwest_flooding", "rank": 41, "score": 117243 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Dean (disambiguation) Content: The name Dean was used for five tropical cyclones in the Northern Atlantic Ocean : Tropical Storm Dean ( 1983 ) , which struck the coast of Virginia , causing minor erosion and flooding Hurricane Dean ( 1989 ) , which passed over Bermuda , causing $ 10 million in damage and 16 injuries Tropical Storm Dean ( 1995 ) , which caused significant flooding damage to Chambers County , Texas , but no injuries or deaths Tropical Storm Dean ( 2001 ) , which caused $ 7.7 million in damage to Puerto Rico and minimal damage to the U.S. Virgin Islands Hurricane Dean ( 2007 ) , a Cape-Verde hurricane that made landfall at category 5 strength . The name was retired after 2007 , and replaced by Dorian . In the Southeastern Indian Ocean : Cyclone Dean ( 1980 ) , which struck Western Australia and caused substantial damage to Port Hedland Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages Category : Australian region cyclone disambiguation pages", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Dean_(disambiguation)", "rank": 42, "score": 117231 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Gabrielle (1995) Content: Tropical Storm Gabrielle caused moderate flooding in northeastern Mexico and southern Texas in August 1995 . The eighth tropical cyclone and seventh named storm of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season , Gabrielle developed from a tropical wave in the west-central Gulf of Mexico on August 9 . Initially a tropical depression , the system gradually intensified and by the following day , it became a tropical storm . Favorable conditions caused Gabrielle to continue to strengthen , with the storm nearly reaching hurricane status late on August 11 . However , it soon made landfall near La Pesca , Tamaulipas , thus halting further intensification . Once inland , Gabrielle rapidly weakened and dissipated by early on August 12 . As Gabrielle was impacting the east coast of Mexico , Hurricane Flossie in the Eastern Pacific was brushing the Baja Peninsula . The storm produced torrential rainfall in northeastern Mexico , totaling to 19.44 in . As a result , numerous reservoirs were filled , forcing dozens in southern Nuevo Leon to evacuate their homes . Additionally , highway infrastructure and streets in the region were affected . Damage in Mexico is unknown , though six fatalities were reported . Rainfall up to 6 in brought minor flooding to Texas , mainly damaging unharvested cotton . Three days after dissipation , the remnants of Gabrielle also produced heavy thunderstorms in New Mexico on August 15 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Gabrielle_(1995)", "rank": 43, "score": 117202 }, { "content": "Title: Houston Hurricane Content: The Houston Hurricane was a soccer team based out of Houston that played in the NASL . They played from 1978 to 1980 . Their home field was the Astrodome . Their colors were orange , white and red . The team was the last of six expansion teams granted for the season and had about three months to sign players and sell tickets . Though the coach , Timo Liekoski , who had been an assistant with the Dallas Tornado , was capable , assembling a competitive team in so short a time would be daunting . In any case , the Hurricane placed last in its first season with ten wins of thirty matches ( there were no draws in the NASL ) and drew a miserable average attendance of 5,806 , with only the Chicago Sting and San Diego Sockers drawing less in the thirty-team league . For 1979 , the Hurricane did much better , winning the division with 22 wins in thirty matches , and Liekoski was awarded Coach of the Year honors . But the Hurricane could not do as well in the playoffs , losing to the Philadelphia Fury in two straight . Attendance was better at 6,211 a match but still was next to last in the league - the worst being Philadelphia . Considering that Kyle Rote , Jr. had joined the Hurricane that season , it must have been a disappointment . In any case , Rote left the Hurricane on a relief mission to Cambodia and later retired . The Hurricane did n't do as well in what turned out to be their final season , placing second in the division and again losing in the playoffs versus the Edmonton Drillers . They won fourteen and lost eighteen in the expanded schedule , and attendance fell to 5,818 a match , with only the Atlanta Chiefs and , again , Philadelphia being the only teams with worse gates . That was enough for the Hurricane 's owners ( who were actually based in Denver , Colorado ) and the team folded in late 1980 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Houston_Hurricane", "rank": 44, "score": 117007 }, { "content": "Title: 1916 Texas hurricane Content: The 1916 Texas hurricane brought an extensive swath of destruction stretching from the Lesser Antilles westward to South Texas . An intense Category 4 hurricane at its peak , until 1919 the hurricane was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike anywhere in the United States since the 1886 Indianola hurricane in terms of its barometric pressure . Although the storm 's greatest impacts were in Texas , considerable damage was wrought on Jamaica , with minimal impacts in the Lesser Antilles and the Yucatan Peninsula . Over its eight-day trek across the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico , the intense hurricane caused 24 deaths and accrued US$ 28.6 million in damage . The tropical cyclone developed as a tropical storm east of Barbados on August 12 based on ship and insular observations in the vicinity of the storm at the time . Tracking westward , the tropical cyclone gradually intensified and reached hurricane strength on August 15 shortly before making landfall on Jamaica as a minimal hurricane . Additional strengthening occurred as the storm traversed the Yucatán Channel as a major hurricane on August 17 . In the Gulf of Mexico , the storm reached its peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 135 mph ( 215 km/h ) ; the hurricane made landfall near Baffin Bay , Texas with this intensity late on August 18 . After moving inland , the tropical cyclone rapidly diminished and dissipated on August 20 over West Texas .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1916_Texas_hurricane", "rank": 45, "score": 116966 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Edouard (2008) Content: Tropical Storm Edouard brought coastal and minor inland flooding to Louisiana and Texas in August 2008 . The fifth tropical cyclone and fifth named storm of the hurricane season , Edouard developed from a trough in the northern Gulf of Mexico on August 3 . After developing into a tropical depression , it gradually strengthened and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Edouard on August 4 . However , northerly wind shear initially halted any further significant intensification and also caused the storm to struggle to maintain deep convection over the center . Edouard eventually intensified further and peaked as a strong tropical storm with winds of 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) on August 5 . Shortly thereafter , the storm made landfall near Gilchrist , Texas later that day . Edouard quickly weakened and was downgraded to tropical depression by early on August 6 , six hours before degenerated into a remnant low pressure area . Due to the relatively weak nature of the storm , impact was generally minor . Rip currents in Alabama and Florida led to five fatalities . The sixth death from the storm was also related to rough seas and occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana . Storm surge and high tides also caused coastal flooding in the state , especially in Cameron Parish . Relatively strong winds left more than 2,000 without electricity and damaged trees and the roofs of mobile homes . Storm surge caused coastal flooding in eastern Texas , particularly in the Gilchrist area . At least 25 homes sustained damage , while portions of a few major roads , such as Interstate 10 , were closed . Minor inland flooding occurred due to heavy rainfall , with a portion of Texas State Highway 36 being temporarily shutdown . Strong winds in the region damaged hundreds of homes , downed trees , and left about 300,000 people without electricity . Overall , damage from Tropical Storm Edouard totaled slightly more than $ 550,000 ( 2008 USD ) .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Edouard_(2008)", "rank": 46, "score": 116844 }, { "content": "Title: 1987 Gulf Coast tropical storm Content: The 1987 Gulf Coast tropical storm caused flooding along the Gulf Coast of the United States . The second tropical cyclone and first tropical storm of the 1987 Atlantic hurricane season , it originated from a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico , southeast of Texas , on August 9 . Initially a tropical depression , the cyclone moved north-northwestward and slightly intensified into a tropical storm later that day . By August 10 , it made landfall between Galveston and Beaumont . The system weakened after moving inland and turned towards the east and later southeast . Briefly reemerging over the Gulf on August 15 , the depression moved onshore a second time in Florida , before dissipating over eastern Georgia on August 17 . Due to the relatively weak nature of the system , it caused relatively little damage . However , the system dropped heavy rainfall , peaking at 21.05 in in southern Mississippi . This resulted in flooding , which forced more than 400 people to evacuate their homes , some of which had 2 to of water . Flash flooding was reported in a few others states , including Alabama , Florida , and Louisiana . In all , losses from the unnamed storm reached $ 7.4 million ( 1987 USD ) and one person was reported missing after being thrown overboard a boat in rough seas .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1987_Gulf_Coast_tropical_storm", "rank": 47, "score": 116773 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Fay (2002) Content: Tropical Storm Fay was the sixth named storm of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season ; it was a moderate tropical storm which caused flooding in parts of Texas and Mexico . In early September , a trough of low pressure moved south into the Gulf of Mexico , and became stationary . A low pressure center developed along this trough , and on September 5 , a Hurricane Hunter airplane reported that the system had gained sufficient organization to be a tropical depression , 95 mi southeast of Galveston . The depression drifted south-southwest while strengthening , reaching its peak strength of 60 mi/h on the morning of September 6 . The system then made an abrupt turn to the west-northwest , and remained steady in strength and course until landfall the next day , near Matagorda . The system weakened at a fast rate after landfall , but its circulation would not totally dissipate for three more days . The storm caused extremely heavy rainfall in inland areas ; damage totalled $ 4.5 million ( 2002 USD ; $ 5.2 million USD in 2007 ) ; no deaths occurred as a result of Fay .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Fay_(2002)", "rank": 48, "score": 116494 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Oswald Content: Tropical Cyclone Oswald in January 2013 passed over parts of Queensland and New South Wales , Australia over a number of days , causing widespread impact including severe storms , flooding , and water spouts . Coastal regions of Queensland were the most impacted with Mundubbera , Eidsvold , Gayndah and Bundaberg in the Wide Bay -- Burnett hit severely . In many places the rainfall total for January set new records . Across the affected region , damage from severe weather and flooding amounted to at least A$ 2.4 billion ( US$ 2.5 billion ) . 7,500 residents of Bundaberg and patients at the Bundaberg Hospital were evacuated . Houses were completely washed away and parts of Bundaberg 's sewage network were destroyed . Cuts to transport links including damage to numerous bridges , communication interruptions , electrical blackouts and water supply problems were experienced across wide areas . Several swiftwater rescues had to be undertaken .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Cyclone_Oswald", "rank": 49, "score": 115946 }, { "content": "Title: 1933 Texas tropical storm Content: The 1933 Texas tropical storm produced record rainfall in the south-central United States in July of the 1933 Atlantic hurricane season . It was the third storm of the season , developing on July 14 near the Lesser Antilles . While moving westward through the Caribbean Sea , the cyclone passed just south of Jamaica on July 16 . The storm dropped heavy rainfall on the island that caused flooding and road washouts . On July 18 , the storm struck Belize and later moved across the Yucatán Peninsula . Initially it was believed that the storm continued into Mexico and dissipated while another storm formed to its northeast , but it was discovered in 2012 that the storm followed one continuous track . On July 23 , the storm struck southeastern Texas at its peak intensity of 50 mph ( 85 km/h ) . It moved inland and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone . Turning eastward , the storm dropped torrential rainfall in eastern Texas and western Louisiana , peaking at 21.3 in in Logansport , Louisiana . Several stations reported record rainfall , including Shreveport , Louisiana where its 24‑hour amount remained the highest daily total as of 2008 . High rains left about $ 1.5 million in crop damage between two Texas counties . The rains caused rivers to exceed their banks , forcing evacuations and road closures .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1933_Texas_tropical_storm", "rank": 50, "score": 115835 }, { "content": "Title: List of Texas hurricanes (1980–present) Content: From 1980 to the present , at least 70 tropical or subtropical cyclones affected the U.S. state of Texas . According to David Roth of the Weather Prediction Center , a tropical cyclone makes landfall along the coastline about three times every four years , and on any 50 mi segment of the coastline a hurricane makes landfall about once every six years . The most active month is September , with 21 total storms , while no recorded storms have affected Texas during the months of December through May . While the most intense storm in terms of barometric pressure is Hurricane Allen in 1980 , Hurricane Ike in 2008 caused the most fatalities and damages , with $ 19.3 billion in Texas and $ 37.6 billion in total damages and 84 deaths . The first storm to impact the state during the period is also Hurricane Allen in August 1980 , with the most recent being Tropical Storm Bill in June 2015 . In terms of wind speed , Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest storm to affect the state , producing maximum sustained winds equivalent to status on the Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale . During the 1980s , multiple tropical cyclones affected the state , of which six made landfall as hurricanes ; three made landfall as major hurricanes . Hurricane Alicia is the most destructive hurricane of the decade , severely impacting the Greater Houston area . All three major hurricanes that impacted Texas during the 1980s were later retired by the World Meteorological Organization . In contrast to the 1980s , during the 1990s , only one tropical cyclone , Hurricane Bret , made landfall on the Texas coast . In the next decade five hurricanes would make landfall on Texas . Hurricane Ike , the costliest hurricane to impact Texas , makes landfall during the decade . Other notable systems include Tropical Storm Allison and Hurricane Rita .", "qid": "220", "docid": "List_of_Texas_hurricanes_(1980–present)", "rank": 51, "score": 115656 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Danielle (1980) Content: Tropical Storm Danielle caused considerable flooding in the state of Texas during September 1980 . The eighth tropical cyclone and fourth named storm of the 1980 Atlantic hurricane season , Danielle developed from a tropical wave that emerged into the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa on August 22 . Three days later , the tropical wave developed into a tropical depression . Four days later , the depression degenerated into a tropical wave . After tracking westward and entering the Gulf of Mexico , the system gradually developed , and became a tropical depression on September 4 . The depression gradually strengthened and became Tropical Storm Danielle only hours before landfall in eastern Texas on September 5 . Danielle steadily weakened inland and dissipated two days later . Danielle produced widespread rainfall in Louisiana , though few areas reported more than 5 in of precipitation . Rainfall was heavier in Texas , peaking at 18.29 inches ( 465 mm ) in Nederland . Much of the damage caused by the storm was as a resulting of flooding . In Port Arthur , twelve homes were damaged , while Interstate 10 was inundated by flood waters . Danielle also spawned several tornadoes in Texas , though none effects from them are unknown . Outside of Texas and Louisiana , the storm also dropped light rainfall in Oklahoma and Mississippi . Overall , Danielle caused three fatalities and at least $ 25 million ( 1980 USD ) in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Danielle_(1980)", "rank": 52, "score": 114949 }, { "content": "Title: 1933 Florida–Mexico hurricane Content: The 1933 Florida -- Mexico hurricane was the first of two Atlantic hurricanes to strike the Treasure Coast region of Florida in the very active 1933 Atlantic hurricane season . It was one of two storms that year to inflict hurricane-force winds over South Texas , causing significant damage there ; the other occurred in early September . The fifth tropical cyclone of the year , it formed east of the Lesser Antilles on July 24 , rapidly strengthening as it moved west-northwest . As it passed over the islands , it attained hurricane status on July 26 , producing heavy rains and killing at least six people . Over the next three days , it moved north of the Caribbean , paralleling the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas . The storm produced extensive damage and at least one drowning as it crossed the Bahamas . On July 29 , the cyclone came under the influence of changing steering currents in the atmosphere , which forced the storm into Florida near Hobe Sound a day later . A minimal hurricane at landfall , it caused negligible wind damage as it crossed Florida , but generated heavy rains along its path , causing locally severe flooding . The storm turned west , weakened to below hurricane status , and later exited the state north of Charlotte Harbor on July 31 . Once over the eastern Gulf of Mexico , the storm shifted its course to the west-southwest and gradually recovered its intensity . The path of the storm brought it close to the mouth of the Rio Grande in early August . Few ships encountered the small storm as it regained hurricane status on August 4 , just a day before striking northern Mexico with winds of 90 mph ( 145 km/h ) -- making it close to a modern-day Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale . Striking close to the border between the United States and Mexico , the storm caused extensive damage in both countries . Winds damaged buildings and crops in Tamaulipas and the southern regions of Texas , with heavy losses to citrus production in the Rio Grande Valley . While only one person died in the United States , heavy rains led to catastrophic flooding that claimed at least 31 lives in northern Mexico ; the worst-hit areas were in and near the city of Monterrey . While monetary losses in Mexico were unclear , the storm did at least $ 3,000,000 in damages in the United States , measured in contemporary U.S. dollars .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1933_Florida–Mexico_hurricane", "rank": 53, "score": 114735 }, { "content": "Title: 1978 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1978 Atlantic hurricane season was the last Atlantic hurricane season to use an all-female naming list . The hurricane season officially began on June 1 , and ended on November 30 . It was an above average season due to a subsiding El Niño . The first storm , a subtropical storm , developed unusually early -- on January 18 -- and dissipated five days later without causing any damage . At the end of July and early August , short-lived Tropical Storm Amelia caused extensive flooding in Texas after dropping as much as 48 in of rain . There were 33 deaths and $ 110 million ( 1978 USD ) in damage . Tropical Storm Bess and Hurricane Cora resulted in only minor land impacts , while the latter was attributed to one fatality . Later in August , Tropical Storm Debra produced widespread effects , though damage was also relatively minor . Hurricane Ella became the northernmost Category 4 hurricane while located at 38 ° N , and lashed the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada with gusty winds and rip currents . Hurricanes Flossie and Kendra as well as Tropical Storms Hope , Irma , and Juliet caused minimal land impacts as a tropical cyclone . However , the precursor to Hurricane Kendra caused flooding in Puerto Rico . Hurricane Greta brought strong winds , high tides , and flooding to Central America , particularly Belize and Honduras . Greta resulted in about $ 25 million in damage and at least five fatalities . Overall , the storms of this season collectively caused $ 191 million in damage and 42 fatalities . Hurricane Greta crossed into the eastern pacific and was renamed Olivia .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1978_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 54, "score": 114483 }, { "content": "Title: May 2016 United States storm complex Content: The May 2016 United States storm complex was a flood in the United States that occurred on May 31 , 2016 , affecting the states of Arkansas , Kansas , Nebraska , Oklahoma , and Texas . The inundation set precipitation records in Texas and Oklahoma . On June 2 , 2016 , the rising of the Brazos River required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County , Texas . Ten deaths of Texans and thousands of home evacuations led Texas Governor Greg Abbott to issue a statewide Disaster Proclamation on June 1 , 2016 considering the damage in thirty-one counties including Austin , Bandera , Bastrop , Brazoria , Brazos , Burleson , Coleman , Colorado , Erath , Fayette , Fort Bend , Grimes , Hidalgo , Hood , Jasper , Kleberg , Lee , Leon , Liberty , Lubbock , Montgomery , Palo Pinto , Parker , Polk , Robertson , San Jacinto , Tyler , Walker , Waller , Washington and Wharton counties . Meteorologists attribute this storm 's devastation to the power of the El Niño climate cycle . An El Niño system is identified following fluctuation in the climate , characterized by an eastern shift of warming ocean water from the western tropical Pacific Ocean and rainfall along the equator .", "qid": "220", "docid": "May_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 55, "score": 114418 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Amelia (1978) Content: Tropical Storm Amelia was a weak , poorly organized tropical storm that formed during the 1978 Atlantic hurricane season . It caused a severe flooding disaster in Texas after it dissipated . Amelia developed from a tropical wave that moved through the Atlantic Ocean uneventfully . The disturbance then entered an area of the Gulf of Mexico that was conducive to tropical cyclogenesis and became the first tropical depression of the season , after which it was forecast to make landfall before any significant intensification . However , the tropical depression defied predictions , quickly strengthening into a weak tropical storm just hours before making landfall in Corpus Christi . The storm lasted roughly a day over land before becoming unidentifiable after being active for just under 48 hours . Amelia affected the Texas coast for two days , causing several shipping incidents and minor damage in Corpus Christi and South Padre Island . While active , there were no deaths linked to the storm . However , the biggest impact from the storm followed its dissipation , when its remnants contributed to record rainfall totals over the state . The state , already suffering from a previous drought , believed that the rain would help alleviate the conditions . However , the dry ground aided the flooding from the storm . The rainfall caused several rivers and creeks to flood , especially around the Texas Hill Country and northern Texas , leading to severe damage . Following the storm , President Jimmy Carter declared six counties in the state as federal disaster areas , allowing residents to seek aid from the government . Additional aid was brought in from as far away as New York . Overall , Amelia caused 33 fatalities with an estimated $ 110 million in damages in what then-governor Dolph Briscoe called one of the worst floods in the history of the state .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Amelia_(1978)", "rank": 56, "score": 114211 }, { "content": "Title: 1960 Texas tropical storm Content: The 1960 Texas tropical storm brought severe but localized flooding to southeastern Texas in June 1960 . The first tropical cyclone and first tropical storm of the annual season , this system developed from an area of showers and thunderstorms in the Bay of Campeche on June 22 . Initially a tropical depression , it strengthened and was estimated to have reached tropical storm status on June 23 . Early on the following day , the storm peaked with winds of 45 mph ( 75 km/h ) . Later that day , it made landfall near Corpus Christi , Texas , at the same intensity . The storm weakened slowly and moved across the Central United States , before dissipating over Illinois on June 29 . In Texas , the storm dropped up to 29.76 in of precipitation in Port Lavaca . Thus considerable flooding occurred in some areas of south and eastern Texas . Throughout the state , more than 150 houses sustained flood damage in several counties . In addition , numerous major highways were closed , including portions of U.S. Routes 59 , 87 , 90 , and then-185 , and Texas State Highways 35 and 71 . In Arkansas , a few buildings in Hot Springs were damaged from high winds . Flooding in that state resulted in three deaths from drowning . Light to moderate rainfall was recorded in at least 11 other states , though damage was minimal . The storm was the rainiest tropical cyclone on record in the state of Kentucky , dropping 11.25 in in Dunmor . Overall , 18 fatalities were attributed to the storm and $ 3.6 million ( 1960 USD ) in damage was reported .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1960_Texas_tropical_storm", "rank": 57, "score": 114087 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Gabrielle (2001) Content: Hurricane Gabrielle was a North Atlantic hurricane that caused flooding in both Florida and Newfoundland in September 2001 . It developed in the Gulf of Mexico on the same day as the September 11 attacks ; after the attacks , flights were canceled nationwide for two days , and when Gabrielle struck Florida on September 14 , it caused a day of additional cancellations . The storm moved ashore with winds of 70 mph near Venice , a city located south of the Tampa Bay area . The combination of the winds and heavy rainfall , which peaked at 15.1 in in Parrish , left 570,000 customers without power along the west coast and 126,000 customers without power on the east coast . The storm caused about $ 230 million ( 2001 USD ) in damage in Florida . In the Gulf of Mexico , high waves contributed to two deaths , one of which was indirect ; there was also a death due to flooding in Winter Haven . After crossing the state , Gabrielle had the appearance of an occluded frontal low or subtropical cyclone ; this was after the convection decreased near the center . However , Gabrielle gradually re-intensified and became a hurricane on September 17 as it passed northwest of Bermuda . The hurricane reached peak winds of 80 mph , but weakened subsequently due to wind shear . Gabrielle transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on September 19 , and later that day it passed just southeast of Newfoundland . The storm produced record rainfall that caused what was described the `` worst flooding in 100 years '' in St. John 's . Several roads and houses were flooded in the region . The extratropical remnants of Gabrielle continued to the northeast and dissipated on September 21 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Gabrielle_(2001)", "rank": 58, "score": 114032 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Turkish flash floods Content: The 2009 Turkish flash floods were a series of flash floods that occurred on 9 September 2009 in and around Istanbul , Tekirdağ , and the rest of the Marmara Region of Turkey . The floods led to the death of at least 31 people and the cost of damage has been estimated as being in excess of $ 70 million .", "qid": "220", "docid": "2009_Turkish_flash_floods", "rank": 59, "score": 113990 }, { "content": "Title: Village at Glen Iris, Houston Content: Village at Glen Iris is a group of subdivisions in Houston , Texas . Village at Glen Iris is located in southern Houston near Almeda Road . Glen Iris was affected by a wave of foreclosures in the 1980s . From the beginning of 1990 until October 1991 , the prices of the houses declined by 14 % . As of 1994 , of 400 subdivisions surveyed by the Houston Chronicle , Glen Iris had the lowest house prices , with $ 17.08 per square foot . Angel Lane , a subdivision that is a part of the Village at Glen Iris , is a group of sixty-five homes built after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans . Oprah Winfrey started a donation network and donated some of her personal money to get the ball rolling and purchase land . She then teamed up with Habitat for Humanity and the hurricane survivors to build new houses for those that made the decision to resettle in the greater Houston area . The community consists of families that were affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Village_at_Glen_Iris,_Houston", "rank": 60, "score": 113698 }, { "content": "Title: 1926 Miami hurricane Content: The 1926 Miami hurricane , commonly called the `` Great Miami '' hurricane , was a large and intense tropical cyclone that devastated the Greater Miami area and caused extensive damage in the Bahamas and the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 1926 , accruing a US$ 78.58 million damage toll that remains the costliest in U.S. history when adjusted using inflation , population , and wealth normalization , yielding a cost of nearly US$ 165 billion . As a result of the destruction in Florida , the hurricane represented an early start to the Great Depression in the aftermath of the state 's 1920s land boom . The tropical cyclone is believed to have formed in the central Atlantic Ocean on September 11 . Steadily strengthening as it tracked west-northwestward , the tropical storm reached hurricane intensity the next day . As a result of scattered observations at open sea , however , no ship encountered the storm until September 15 , by which time the cyclone had reached major hurricane intensity north of the Virgin Islands . Strengthening continued up until the following day , when the storm reached peak intensity with a strength equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane . This intensity was maintained as the storm tracked across the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas to landfall near Miami on September 18 . The cyclone caused immense destruction throughout the islands and across southern Florida . The storm destroyed hundreds of structures in its path over the islands , leaving thousands of residents homeless . At least 17 deaths occurred on the islands , though many others -- some related only indirectly to the storm -- were reported in the aftermath . Upon striking South Florida , the cyclone generated hurricane-force winds over a broad swath of the region , causing widespread and severe structural damage from both wind and water . Most of the deaths occurred near Lake Okeechobee , when a large storm surge breached muck dikes and drowned hundreds of people . The hurricane quickly traversed the Florida peninsula before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico near Fort Myers . The storm flooded surrounding communities and barrier islands , while strong winds downed trees and disrupted electrical service . The storm later made two landfalls with weaker intensities on Alabama and Mississippi on September 20 and 21 , respectively . The storm caused additional but less severe damage in those states , primarily from heavy rains and storm surge . Land interaction caused the cyclone to deteriorate and later dissipate on September 22 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1926_Miami_hurricane", "rank": 61, "score": 113147 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Houston Content: The climate of Houston is classified as humid subtropical . August normally ranks as the warmest month at 84.6 ° F and January the coldest month at 53.1 ° F. The normal annual precipitation measures 49.77 in . Occasional severe weather of Houston mostly takes the form of flooding . Supercell thunderstorms sometimes bring tornadoes to the area , most commonly during spring . Houston sometimes experiences tropical cyclones during the Atlantic hurricane season , which can bring heavy rain and significant damage to the city . The last hurricane to hit was Hurricane Ike in 2008 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Climate_of_Houston", "rank": 62, "score": 113132 }, { "content": "Title: 1915 Galveston hurricane Content: The 1915 Galveston hurricane was a deadly hurricane that struck Leeward Islands , Hispaniola , Cuba and Texas , in mid August of the 1915 Atlantic hurricane season . Striking Galveston , Texas , 15 years after the 1900 Galveston Hurricane , its 21-ft ( 6.4-m ) waves were slowed by the new Galveston Seawall but changed the beach structure : on August 17 , the entire 300-ft ( 91.5 -- m ) beach was eroded to become an offshore sandbar , later returning partially , but never the same . The 1915 storm caused a great deal of destruction in its path , leaving 275-400 people dead and $ 50 million ( 1915 USD , $ 921 million 2005 USD ) in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1915_Galveston_hurricane", "rank": 63, "score": 113077 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Allison (1989) Content: Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical cyclone that produced severe flooding in the southern United States . The second tropical cyclone and the first named storm of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season , Allison formed on June 24 in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico . Development of Allison was a result of the interaction of a tropical wave and the remnants of Pacific hurricane Hurricane Cosme . It moved south and became a tropical storm on June 26 . By June 27 , Allison made landfall near Freeport , Texas . Allison quickly weakened to a tropical depression later that day , and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on the following day . The storm caused heavy rainfall , amounting to 30 in in some places . In total , 11 fatalities resulted from the storm , as well as $ 560 million ( 1989 USD , $ USD ) in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Allison_(1989)", "rank": 64, "score": 112675 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Western Australian storms Content: The 2010 Western Australian storms were a series of storms that travelled over southwestern Western Australia on 21 and 22 March 2010 . One of the more intense storm cells passed directly over the capital city of Perth between 3:30 pm and 5:00 pm on Monday 22 March 2010 . It is the costliest natural disaster in Western Australian history , with the damage bill estimated at A$ 1.08 billion . The storms brought extensive hail , strong winds and heavy rain , causing extensive damage to vehicles , property and trees , and flash flooding , as well as the first significant rainfall in Perth since 20 November 2009 . The hail stones are the largest ever known to have occurred in Perth and were around 3 cm -- 6 cm in diameter , which caused extensive damage to property across the city , including schools , hospitals , universities and power infrastructure . Wind gusts were recorded at around 120 km/h . At the peak , around 158,000 homes in Perth , Mandurah and Bunbury lost electric power . Telephone lines were cut to thousands of homes until the next day , and the storms led to an estimated A$ 200 million worth of insurance claims within three days , with $ 70 million within the first 24 hours . It was identified as the most expensive natural disaster in Western Australia 's history , and was declared a natural disaster by the Premier , Colin Barnett , allowing federal and state funds to be used for disaster relief . The storm brought an end to a lengthy dry spell in Perth , with 40.2 mm of rain falling at Mount Lawley -- the fifth highest daily rainfall recorded for a March day in Perth . Over half of this fell in just 10 minutes . This was the first significant rainfall since 20 November 2009 ; only 0.2 mm had fallen in the entire period . It was similar to storms which struck Melbourne on 6 March 2010 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "2010_Western_Australian_storms", "rank": 65, "score": 112606 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana Content: The effects of Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana were more severe than anywhere in the storm 's path , and included $ 611.8615 million in damages and five total deaths . Forming from a tropical wave in the central Atlantic , Isaac traversed across many of the Lesser and Greater Antilles , before reaching peak intensity with winds of 80 mph ( 130 km/h ) on August 28 , 2012 while in the Gulf of Mexico . Nearing the coast of Louisiana , the Category 1 hurricane slowly moved towards the west , making two landfalls in the state with little change intensity prior to moving inland for a final time . The hurricane weakened and later dissipated on September 1 while over Missouri . Before landfall , Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency to the state , as well as ordering the mandatory evacuation of 60,000 residents in low-lying areas of Louisiana along the Tangipahoa River in Tangipahoa Parish . Isaac 's large wind field contributed to a strong storm surge peaking at 11.03 ft at a buoy offshore of Shell Beach . The strong waves inundated large areas of the state 's coastal regions , particularly in Plaquemines Parish . The hurricane also brought heavy rainfall , leading to severe inland flooding . Rainfall amounts peaked statewide at 23.22 in in Hammond . Including adjacent states , the storm surge and inland flooding alone caused $ 407 million in insured losses . Isaac 's strong winds caused infrastructural and crop damage , in addition to storm surge and heavy rains . A WeatherBug weather station in Poydras reported a 97 mph ( 156 km/h ) wind gust , the fastest measured in association with the storm . The strong winds also caused a widespread power outage , with 901,000 electricity customers losing power . In the aftermath of the hurricane , the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) granted $ 204.8 million in public assistance funds and $ 129.3 million in individual assistance funding .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Isaac_in_Louisiana", "rank": 66, "score": 112544 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Norman (2012) Content: Tropical Storm Norman brought minor flooding to western Mexico and record rainfall to areas of Texas in September 2012 . The fourteenth tropical cyclone and fourteenth named storm of the 2012 Pacific hurricane season , Norman developed near the southern tip of Baja California early on September 28 . Upon developing into a tropical cyclone on September 28 , Norman attained its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph ( 85 km/h ) . Heading northward into the Gulf of California , the storm began to weaken later that day due to southwesterly wind shear and land interaction . Norman curved northwestward and weakened to a tropical depression early on September 29 . Around that time , it briefly moved inland near Topolobampo , Sinaloa , before re-emerging into the Gulf of California . Later on September 29 , Norman degenerated into a remnant low pressure area . In anticipation of the storm , a tropical storm warning was issued for a portion of the Pacific coast of Mexico . Additionally , orange , yellow , green , and blue alerts were posted for several states . About 553 shelters were opened , though only 65 people sought refuge in them . Heavy rainfall from Norman was reported in Colima , Jalisco , Nayarit , Sinaloa , Baja California Sur , Durango , and Zacatecas . In Baja California Sur , mudslides and flooding left roads impassable , mainly in the La Paz area . Flooding in Sinola left streets inundated and about 150 families fled their homes . About 24 cars in the area were swept away . The remnants of Norman brought record rainfall totals to some areas of Texas . Local flooding occurred , with a few roads inundated in Wimberley . A woman died after her vehicle was swept off the road .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Norman_(2012)", "rank": 67, "score": 112534 }, { "content": "Title: July 2016 North China cyclone Content: The July 2016 North China cyclone was a devastating extratropical cyclone which produced torrential precipitation and caused widespread flash floods over North China and portions of nearby regions , resulting in at least 184 deaths and ¥ 33.19 billion ( US$ 4.96 billion ) of damage in China .", "qid": "220", "docid": "July_2016_North_China_cyclone", "rank": 68, "score": 112421 }, { "content": "Title: List of costliest Atlantic hurricanes Content: This is a list of costliest Atlantic hurricanes . Hurricanes , as defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , are tropical cyclones -- a warm-core , non-frontal synoptic-scale cyclone , originating over tropical or subtropical waters with organized deep convection and a closed surface wind circulation about a well-defined center -- in the Atlantic , Caribbean Sea , Gulf of Mexico , or eastern Pacific , in which the maximum 1-minute sustained surface wind exceeds 64 knots or greater . The hurricanes on the list below depict the severity of the damage the system has caused . Typically , if a hurricane has caused significant damage to a particular location , its name is retired so that it will not be re-used as a name for any future hurricanes . The costliest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic was Hurricane Katrina , which struck the coastlines of Mississippi and Louisiana after brushing the tip of Florida , in August 2005 , causing $ 108 billion ( 2005 USD ) in property damage . The most recent , costliest hurricane was Hurricane Matthew , which struck the coastlines of Haiti , Cuba , and eastern United States , causing $ 15 billion ( 2016 USD ) in damage in September-October 2016 . A majority of the costliest Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history have peaked as major hurricanes . However , weaker tropical cyclones can still cause widespread damage . Both tropical storms Allison in 2001 and Lee in 2011 have caused over a billion in damage ; the former of which accounted for a higher damage total . Due to their excessive damage , the names of tropical cyclones accruing over $ 1 billion in damage are often retired by the World Meteorological Organization . However , this is not always the case . Hurricane Juan in 1985 was the first hurricane to cause over a billion in damage and not be retired ; its name was retired on a later usage in 2003 that did not cause over a billion in damage . Since Juan , five tropical cyclones that caused over a billion in damage were not retired , the most recent of which being Hurricane Isaac in 2012 . All other 39 Atlantic hurricanes to have caused as much damage have had their names retired . The first hurricane to cause over $ 1 billion in damage was Hurricane Betsy in 1965 , which caused much of its damage in southeastern Louisiana . Two and four years later , Hurricanes Beulah and Camille both caused at least $ 1 billion in damage . After the 1960s , each decade saw an increase in tropical cyclones causing at least a billion in damage over the last , due to increasing urban development and population . In the 1970s , four hurricanes caused over a billion in damage ; the costliest of which was Hurricane Frederic , which caused $ 2.3 billion in damage , particularly in Mississippi and Alabama . The following decade featured seven hurricanes causing in excess of a billion in damage . In the 1989 season , Hurricane Hugo was the first storm to hit $ 10 Billion US dollars in cost . In the 1990s , nine tropical cyclones accrued more than a billion in damage . Hurricane Andrew in 1992 greatly exceeded the damage figure of any preceding tropical cyclone after causing $ 26.5 billion in damage , mostly in South Florida . Seventeen tropical cyclones in the 2000s caused in excess of $ 1 billion in damage . Both 2004 and 2005 seasons had five billion-dollar hurricanes apiece , the most of any season on record . Hurricane Ivan caused at least a billion in damage in three separate countries . Thus far in the 2010s , seven storms have caused at least $ 1 billion in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "List_of_costliest_Atlantic_hurricanes", "rank": 69, "score": 112346 }, { "content": "Title: Texas Flood (song) Content: `` Texas Flood '' ( sometimes called `` Stormin ' in Texas '' or `` Flood Down in Texas '' ) is a blues song recorded by Larry Davis in 1958 . It is considered a blues standard and has been recorded by several artists , including Stevie Ray Vaughan , who made it part of his repertoire .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Texas_Flood_(song)", "rank": 70, "score": 112293 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Delia (1973) Content: Tropical Storm Delia was the first tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in the same city twice . Forming out of a tropical wave on September 1 , 1973 , Delia gradually strengthened into a tropical storm as it moved north by September 3 . After reaching this strength , the storm turned more westward and further intensified , nearly attaining hurricane status the next day . The storm peaked with winds of 70 mph ( 110 km/h ) and a barometric pressure of 986 mbar ( hPa ; 29.11 inHg ) . Several hours later , Delia made landfall near Freeport , Texas ; however , the storm began to execute a counterclockwise loop , causing it to move back over the Gulf of Mexico . On September 5 , the storm made another landfall in Freeport before weakening to a depression . The remnants of Delia eventually dissipated early on September 7 over northern Mexico . Due to the erratic movement of the storm along the Texas coastline , significant rainfall fell in areas near the center and in parts of Louisiana . This led to widespread flooding , especially of farmland , that left $ 6 million in damages . Five people were killed during the storm .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Delia_(1973)", "rank": 71, "score": 112005 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Dennis in Jamaica Content: In early July 2005 , Hurricane Dennis brushed Jamaica , bringing torrential rain and damaging floods to the island nation . Forming from a tropical depression on July 4 , Dennis began impacting Jamaica three days later . Approximately 6,000 people evacuated from coastal and flood-prone areas prior to the storm 's arrival while relief agencies allocated resources for recovery operations . Passing northeast of the island , impact from Dennis stemmed primarily from rainfall -- accumulations peaked at 24.54 in and reached 1-in-50 year event levels . Widespread flooding and landslides damaged homes and isolated communities . Saint Thomas and Portland Parishes were hardest-hit ; hundreds required evacuation as multiple rivers burst their banks . Overall , 209,000 people were affected with 6,000 households requesting assistance . A week after Dennis , Hurricane Emily brought further rain to the island , exacerbating damage . Their combined effects damaged or destroyed 440 homes with total losses reaching J$ 5.976 billion ( US$ 96.87 million ) , of which at least J$ 2.128 billion ( US$ 34.5 million ) can be attributed to Dennis alone . One person died due to flooding . Relief operations began before the hurricane subsided , and international communities provided further aid . The overall effects of Dennis were limited and the nation 's economy sustained no major ramifications .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Dennis_in_Jamaica", "rank": 72, "score": 111841 }, { "content": "Title: 1940 Louisiana hurricane Content: The 1940 Louisiana hurricane caused record flooding across much of the Southern United States in August 1940 . The second tropical cyclone and hurricane of the annual hurricane season , it formed from a frontal low off the west coast of Florida on August 3 . Initially a weak disturbance , it moved generally westward , slowly gaining in intensity . Early on August 4 , the depression attained tropical storm intensity . Ships in the vicinity of the storm reported a much stronger tropical cyclone than initially suggested . After reaching hurricane strength on August 5 south of the Mississippi River Delta , the storm strengthened further into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and a minimum barometric pressure of 972 mbar ( hPa ; 28.71 inHg ) at 0600 UTC on August 7 . The hurricane moved ashore near Sabine Pass , Texas later that day at peak strength . Once inland , the storm executed a sharp curve to the north and quickly weakened , degenerating into a tropical storm on August 8 before dissipating over Arkansas on August 10 . Reports of a potentially destructive hurricane near the United States Gulf Coast forced thousands of residents in low-lying areas to evacuate prior to the storm moving inland . Offshore , the hurricane generated rough seas and a strong storm surge , peaking at 6.4 ft ( 1.95 m ) on the western edge of Lake Pontchartrain . The anomalously high tides flooded many of Louisiana 's outlying islands , inundating resorts . Strong winds caused moderate infrastructural damage , primarily in Texas , though its impact was mainly to communication networks along the US Gulf Coast which were disrupted by the winds . However , much of the property and crop damage wrought by the hurricane was due to the torrential rainfall it produced in low-lying areas , setting off record floods . Rainfall peaked at 37.5 in ( 953 mm ) in Miller Island off Louisiana , making it the wettest tropical cyclone in state history . Nineteen official weather stations in both Texas and Louisiana recorded 24-hour rainfall totals for the month of August as a result of the slow-moving hurricane . Property , livestock , and crops -- especially cotton , corn , and pecan crops -- were heavily damaged . Entire ecosystems were also altered by the rainfall . Overall , the storm caused $ 10.75 million in damages and seven fatalities .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1940_Louisiana_hurricane", "rank": 73, "score": 111750 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1951 Content: In mid-July 1951 , heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River and other surrounding areas of the central United States . Flooding resulted in the Kansas , Neosho , Marais Des Cygnes , and Verdigris river basins . The damage in June and July 1951 exceeded $ 935 million in an area covering eastern Kansas and Missouri , which , adjusting for inflation , is nearly $ 8.52 billion in 2016 . The flood resulted in the loss of 17 lives and displaced 518,000 people .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1951", "rank": 74, "score": 111615 }, { "content": "Title: List of Texas hurricanes (1950–79) Content: From 1950 to 1979 , at least 34 tropical or subtropical cyclones affected the U.S. state of Texas . According to David Roth of the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center , a tropical cyclone makes landfall along the coastline about three times every four years , and on any 50 mi ( 85 km ) segment of the coastline a hurricane makes landfall about once every six years . During this period , the most active month for storms affecting Texas is September , with twelve total storms , while no recorded storms have affected Texas during the months of November through May . While the most intense storms in terms of barometric pressure are both Hurricane Carla in 1961 and Hurricane Beulah in 1967 , Carla caused the most fatalities and damages , with $ 325 million in damages and 46 deaths . The first storm to impact the state during the period was Tropical Storm How in October 1950 , with the latest being Tropical Depression Twenty in September 1979 . In terms of wind speed , Hurricane Audrey and Hurricane Carla are the strongest storms to affect the state , producing maximum sustained winds equivalent to status on the Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale . In the 1950s , five tropical cyclones made landfall on Texas as hurricanes . Starting in 1955 , hurricanes that caused substantial damage to any country could have their name retired from the list of names for the Atlantic basin . Hurricane Audrey , the most destructive Texas hurricane during the 1950s , was the first hurricane to impact Texas to have its name retired . While the 1960s only featured six tropical cyclones making landfall on Texas , Hurricane Carla and Hurricane Beulah , both destructive Category 5s , made landfall as Category 4 hurricanes during the decade . Both hurricanes were subsequently retired . In the 1970s , five hurricanes affected Texas . Hurricane Celia made landfall as a major hurricane in 1970 , causing $ 1.8 billion in damages .", "qid": "220", "docid": "List_of_Texas_hurricanes_(1950–79)", "rank": 75, "score": 111601 }, { "content": "Title: 1929 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1929 Atlantic hurricane season was among the least active hurricane seasons in the Atlantic on record -- featuring only five tropical cyclones . Of these five tropical systems , three of them intensified into a hurricane , with one strengthening further into a major hurricane ( Category 3 or higher on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale ) . The first tropical cyclone of the season developed in the Gulf of Mexico on June 27 . Becoming a hurricane on June 28 , the storm struck Texas , bringing strong winds to a large area . Three fatalities were reported , while damage was conservatively estimated at $ 675,000 ( 1929 USD ) . The second storm , nicknamed the Bahamas hurricane , developed north of the Lesser Antilles . It was the most intense tropical cyclone of the season , peaking as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph ( 250 km/h ) and a minimum barometric pressure of 924 mbar . The storm moved through the Bahamas at this intensity and later struck Florida while slightly weaker . Overall , this hurricane resulted in 59 deaths and at least $ 2.36 million in damage . The next three tropical cyclones did not impact land , with the last transitioning into an extratropical cyclone on October 22 . Until HURDAT reanalysis in 2010 , the final two systems were considered the same tropical cyclone . The season 's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy ( ACE ) rating of 48 . ACE is , broadly speaking , a measure of the power of the hurricane multiplied by the length of time it existed , so storms that last a long time , as well as particularly strong hurricanes , have high ACEs . It is only calculated for full advisories on tropical systems at or exceeding 39 mph ( 63 km/h ) , which is tropical storm strength .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1929_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 76, "score": 111302 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Ivan Content: Hurricane Ivan was a large , long-lived , Cape Verde-type hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States . The cyclone was the ninth named storm , the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlantic hurricane season . Ivan formed in early September , reached Category 5 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale , and became the 10th most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded . Ivan also spawned more tornadoes than any other hurricane in the Atlantic basin . Ivan caused catastrophic damage to Grenada as a strong Category 3 storm , heavy damage to Jamaica as a strong Category 4 storm and then Grand Cayman , Cayman Islands and the western tip of Cuba as a Category 5 storm . After peaking in strength , the hurricane moved north-northwest across the Gulf of Mexico to strike Florida and Alabama as a strong Category 3 storm , causing significant damage . Ivan dropped heavy rains on the Southeastern United States as it progressed northeast and east through the eastern United States , becoming an extratropical cyclone . The remnant low from the storm moved into the western subtropical Atlantic and regenerated into a tropical cyclone , which then moved across Florida and the Gulf of Mexico into Louisiana and Texas , causing minimal damage . Ivan caused an estimated US$ 18 billion ( 2004 USD , $ USD ) in damages to the United States , making it the fifth costliest hurricane ever to strike the country .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Ivan", "rank": 77, "score": 111179 }, { "content": "Title: Houston Hurricanes FC Content: Houston Hurricanes FC is an American soccer club based in Houston , Texas . Hurricanes FC was established in December 2012 when the league announced that team owner Brendan Keyes was moving his Galveston Pirate SC franchise to Houston . The Hurricanes ' regular kit colors are green and white horizontally striped shirts with white shorts and socks which derive from the iconic Celtic F.C. uniform .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Houston_Hurricanes_FC", "rank": 78, "score": 111132 }, { "content": "Title: 1949 Texas hurricane Content: The 1949 Texas hurricane was an intense tropical cyclone of the 1949 Atlantic hurricane season . Forming in the Pacific Ocean on September 27 , the storm crossed into the Gulf of Mexico -- one of only a handful of known storms to do so -- and began to intensify . It ultimately peaked with winds corresponding to high-end Category 2 status on the modern-day Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale and made landfall near Freeport , Texas , on the morning of October 4 . It rapidly weakened after moving inland and dissipated several days later . Damage from the storm was moderate , although the hurricane temporarily cut off the city of Galveston from the mainland . Rice crops suffered extensive damage , with losses estimated at up to $ 10 million ( 1949 USD , $ USD ) . Two people died due to the hurricane .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1949_Texas_hurricane", "rank": 79, "score": 110919 }, { "content": "Title: Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements Content: Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements ( DFAA ) is a program of the Government of Canada that provides financial assistance to provincial and territorial governments following large-scale natural disasters . Provinces can apply to the program for assistance when eligible costs exceed one dollar per capita , at which point the federal government will share 50 % of the cost . If the costs exceed $ 3 per capita this rises to 75 % , and when costs reach $ 5 per capita , the federal government is required to pay 90 per cent of the costs . Since its inception in 1970 , a 2011 -- 12 report stated that the program had paid out $ 2 billion in post-disaster assistance . Following the 2013 Alberta floods , $ 2 billion was earmarked for the province and the government sought a $ 689-million increase in funding for the program from parliament . The program has come under criticism for favouring some provinces over others , and for not including public health emergencies in its remit . Events that have received funding include 1996 Saguenay Flood , 1997 Red River Flood , 2010 Hurricane Igor in Newfoundland and the 2011 Assiniboine River Flood .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Disaster_Financial_Assistance_Arrangements", "rank": 80, "score": 110674 }, { "content": "Title: 1933 Trinidad hurricane Content: The 1933 Trinidad hurricane was one of three North Atlantic tropical cyclones on record to produce hurricane-force winds in Venezuela . The second tropical storm and first hurricane of the 1933 Atlantic hurricane season , the system formed on June 24 to the east of the Lesser Antilles . It moved westward and attained hurricane status before striking Trinidad on June 27 . The storm caused heavy damage on the island , estimated at around $ 3 million . The strong winds downed trees and destroyed hundreds of houses , leaving about 1,000 people homeless . Later , the hurricane crossed the northeastern portion of Venezuela , where power outages and damaged houses were reported . After entering the Caribbean Sea , the hurricane maintained a northwest trajectory . It passed south of Jamaica on July 1 , where heavy rainfall flooded roads and railways . The hurricane crossed western Cuba on July 3 . High winds on the island destroyed hundreds of houses , and the storm 's rainfall damaged the tobacco crop . Upon entering the Gulf of Mexico , the hurricane turned to the west and attained peak winds of 110 mph ( 175 km/h ) on July 5 . It struck northeastern Mexico on July 8 and quickly dissipated . Upon its final landfall , the storm caused heavy damage in Mexico , and in southern Texas the storm ended a prolonged drought .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1933_Trinidad_hurricane", "rank": 81, "score": 110636 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Allison (disambiguation) Content: The name Allison has been used for three tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean and the alternative spelling Alison has been used for one tropical cyclone in the Southwest Pacific Ocean and three in the southern Indian Ocean . Atlantic Tropical Storm Allison ( 1989 ) , partially developed from the remnants of Hurricane Cosme from the Pacific Ocean , it brought heavy rain to the southern United States , killing 11 and causing $ 500 million ( 1989 USD ) in damage Hurricane Allison ( 1995 ) , a Category 1 hurricane that made landfall on the Florida Panhandle as a tropical storm ; killed 3 and caused minor damages Tropical Storm Allison ( 2001 ) , the first Atlantic storm to never reach hurricane strength and have its name retired , before Tropical Storm Erika in 2015 ; struck Houston , Texas , killing 41 and causing $ 5 billion in damages , mostly due to heavy rains and flooding The name Allison was retired after the 2001 season , and was replaced by Andrea . The name Allison was itself a replacement for the name Alicia , retired after 1983 's Hurricane Alicia . South Indian Ocean Cyclone Alison ( 1991 ) , a Category 1 cyclone in the central Indian Ocean , well away from land Southwest Pacific Ocean Cyclone Alison ( 1975 ) , formed near New Caledonia and moved south towards South Island , New Zealand Cyclone Alison ( 1986 ) , formed in the Timor Sea near Christmas Island before moving west ; was renamed Krisostoma when it passed over 90 ° E Cyclone Alison ( 1998 ) , formed near the Cocos ( Keeling ) Islands and brought minor effects to the islands Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages Category : Australian region cyclone disambiguation pages", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Allison_(disambiguation)", "rank": 82, "score": 109725 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Jerry Content: Hurricane Jerry caused minor damage in Texas and flash flooding in Kentucky and Virginia in October 1989 . The fourteenth tropical cyclone , tenth named storm of the season , Jerry developed from a tropical wave in the Bay of Campeche on October 12 . Initially a tropical depression , the system moved north-northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico and strengthened into Tropical Storm Jerry early on the following day . Jerry continuously deepened until October 14 and then maintained intensity while curving northeastward and briefly decelerating . Later that day , the storm re-curved north-northwestward . Jerry began to intensify on October 15 and soon became a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale . Early on October 16 , Jerry made landfall on Galveston Island , Texas with winds of 85 mph ( 140 km/h ) . Less than six hours later , Jerry weakened to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression shortly thereafter . Late on October 16 , Jerry was absorbed by a frontal system while situated over southwestern Arkansas . Storm surge and rough surf along the coast of Texas destroyed a 20-mile ( 32 km ) section of Texas State Highway 87 , which was never repaired . Due to strong winds , about 52,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity , most of them in the Galveston area . Many homes , businesses , and buildings were inflicted damage because of strong winds and three tornadoes spawned by the storm . Despite the issuance of a hurricane warning just eight hours prior to landfall , Jerry caused only three fatalities in Texas , possibly due to the storm 's small size ; a car fell over the Galveston Seawall , killing its three occupants . Minor wind and coastal flood damage was reported in Louisiana . Jerry and its remnants brought flash flooding to portions of the Upland South , particularly in the states of Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia . In eastern Kentucky , hundreds of homes were flooded and many bridges , culverts , and roads were washed out ; this left hundreds of residents stranded . Damage in Kentucky reached at least $ 5 million . Similar impact occurred in Virginia ; with $ 3.4 million ( 1989 USD ) in damage in Buchanan County . In West Virginia , overflowing rivers in the western portions of the state forced hundreds to evacuate . Throughout the United States , Jerry resulted in about $ 70 million in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Jerry", "rank": 83, "score": 109711 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of the 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in Florida Content: The effects of the 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in Florida produced significant flooding , damage to vegetation , and beach erosion in the Miami metropolitan area . After forming off West Africa on September 2 , the storm moved on a parabolic path that brought it through The Bahamas as a Category 3 hurricane on September 16 , eventually striking the city of Fort Lauderdale in South Florida as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on the following day . The hurricane later crossed the state , entered the Gulf of Mexico near Naples less than 24 hours later , and went on to strike Louisiana before dissipating on September 21 . The hurricane roduced heavy rainfall of up to 10.12 in , exacerbating existing flood conditions across all of southernmost Florida . High waves pounded the southeast coast , heavily damaging beachfront structures , washing out much of the coastal highway , and piling deep sand drifts on nearby grounds . In the Everglades , many cattle were drowned and the dike on Lake Okeechobee nearly overtopped . Off the west coast , the storm caused a ship to get lost and another to sink . In all , the storm claimed 17 lives and caused $ 31.6 million in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Effects_of_the_1947_Fort_Lauderdale_hurricane_in_Florida", "rank": 84, "score": 109667 }, { "content": "Title: Houston Hurricanes (disambiguation) Content: Houston Hurricanes may refer to : Houston Hurricane , ( 1978 -- 1980 ) , a North American Soccer League team Houston Hurricanes , ( 1996 -- 2000 ) , a USL First Division team Houston Hurricanes FC , ( 2012 -- present ) , a National Premier Soccer League team", "qid": "220", "docid": "Houston_Hurricanes_(disambiguation)", "rank": 85, "score": 109503 }, { "content": "Title: Houston Hurricanes Content: The Houston Hurricanes were a soccer club that competed in the United Soccer Leagues from 1996 to 2000 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Houston_Hurricanes", "rank": 86, "score": 109502 }, { "content": "Title: 1837 Racer's hurricane Content: Racer 's hurricane was a destructive tropical cyclone that had severe effects on northeastern Mexico and the Gulf Coast of the United States in early October 1837 . It takes its name from the Royal Navy ship Racer , which sustained some damage when it encountered the hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean Sea . The storm first affected Jamaica with flooding rainfall and strong winds on September 26 and 27 , before entering the Gulf of Mexico by October 1 . As the hurricane approached northern Tamaulipas and southern Texas , it slowed to a crawl and turned sharply eastward . The storm battered the Gulf Coast from Texas to the Florida Panhandle between October 3 and 7 , and after crossing the Southeastern United States , it emerged into the Atlantic shipping lanes off the Carolinas . For most of the storm 's duration , the strongest winds and heaviest rains were confined to the northern side of its track . The effects of the tropical cyclone were far-reaching . Matamoros , on the southern bank of the Rio Grande , faced hurricane conditions for several days , with significant damage to ships . Many towns along the Texas shoreline were inundated by the storm surge , which flooded the coastal plains for miles inland . Galveston Island was devastated , with nearly every building washed away and most vessels driven ashore . To the east , a water level rise of 8 ft on Lake Pontchartrain submerged low-lying areas of New Orleans , where strong winds unroofed houses . Many buildings along the shores of the lake were swept away , and multiple steamboats were destroyed . The hurricane destroyed the first American lighthouse constructed outside the Thirteen Colonies . Storm surge and wind damage extended into Mississippi and Alabama , but to a lesser degree of severity . In the interior Southeast , sugar cane and cotton crops took heavy losses . As the weakening storm buffeted the Outer Banks of North Carolina on October 9 , a passenger steamboat called the SS Home ran aground about 300 ft off Cape Hatteras , and rapidly broke up in the pounding surf . Of the 130 passengers and crewmen , about 90 perished . Overall , Racer 's hurricane killed an estimated 105 people .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1837_Racer's_hurricane", "rank": 87, "score": 109043 }, { "content": "Title: June 2007 Texas flooding Content: The June 2007 Texas flooding occurred after heavy rains hit the Southern Plains of the United States . Moisture from the Gulf Mexico flowed north creating a slow-moving frontal system . Approximately 200 millimeters ( 8 inches ) of rain poured in northern Texas , and 11 flood-related deaths were reported .", "qid": "220", "docid": "June_2007_Texas_flooding", "rank": 88, "score": 108936 }, { "content": "Title: 1954 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1954 Atlantic hurricane season resulted in over $ 750 million in damage , the most of any season at the time . The season officially began on June 15 , and nine days later the first named storm developed . Hurricane Alice developed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved inland along the Rio Grande , producing significant precipitation and record flooding that killed 55 people . Activity was slow until late August ; only Barbara , a minimal tropical storm , developed in July . In the span of two weeks , hurricanes Carol and Edna followed similar paths before both striking New England as major hurricanes . The latter became the costliest hurricane in Maine 's history . In late September , Tropical Storm Gilda killed 29 people after drenching northern Honduras . A tropical depression in early October was captured by a high-altitude photograph on a rocket , thus producing the first large-scale image of a tropical cyclone . The strongest and deadliest hurricane of the season was Hurricane Hazel , which killed thousands in Haiti before striking near the North Carolina/South Carolina border in October . It caused heavy damage in the United States before becoming extratropical and affecting Ontario . Intense rainfall affected Toronto with severe flooding , leaving significant damage . The season officially ended on November 15 , although another hurricane named Alice developed on December 30 to the northeast of the Lesser Antilles ; it lasted until January 6 of the following year . In total , there were 16 tropical storms , 7 hurricanes , and 3 major hurricanes .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1954_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 89, "score": 108836 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Chris (1982) Content: Tropical Storm Chris caused minor flooding along the Gulf Coast of the United States in September 1982 . The fifth tropical cyclone and third named storm of the 1982 Atlantic hurricane season , Chris developed from a surface low-pressure area in the northern Gulf of Mexico on September 9 . Although initially displaying subtropical characteristics , the low pressure area gradually acquired tropical characteristics , and was reclassified as Tropical Depression Four within 24 hours of development . The depression then began to intensify and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Chris on September 10 . Thereafter , the storm turned north-northeastward and strengthened further . On September 11 , Chris peaked as a 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) tropical storm . Later that day , it made landfall near Sabine Pass , Port Arthur , Texas . By September 13 , Chris dissipated over Arkansas . When Chris moved ashore , it caused high waves and tides along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico . Though the storm made landfall in Texas , minimal impact was recorded in that state , though a restaurant suffered significant damage . Much of the impact occurred to the east , in Louisiana . Rainfall was relatively light in that state , though a few isolated areas experienced precipitation amounts higher than 15 in . The storm caused steady rainfall in parts of the Midwestern United States . Outside of Louisiana , there were rainfall totals higher than 10 in in western Tennessee and slightly less as the storm progressed northward . Due to minor flooding , damage in Louisiana was around $ 1 million ( 1982 USD ) . Elsewhere , impact was limited to mostly light to moderate rainfall , though local flooding was reported in Tennessee and Kentucky . Overall , Chris caused $ 2 million ( 1982 USD ) in damage and no fatalities .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Chris_(1982)", "rank": 90, "score": 108773 }, { "content": "Title: 1986 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 1986 Pacific hurricane season saw several tropical cyclones contribute to significant flooding to the Central United States . The hurricane season officially started May 15 , 1986 , in the eastern Pacific , and June 1 , 1986 in the central Pacific , and lasted until November 30 , 1986 in both regions . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean . A total of 17 named storms and 9 hurricanes developed during the season ; this is slightly above the averages of 15 named storms and 8 hurricanes , respectively . In addition , 25 tropical depressions formed in the eastern Pacific during 1986 , which , at the time , was the second most ever recorded ; only the 1982 Pacific hurricane season saw a higher total . Several storms throughout the season affected land . Hurricane Estelle passed south of Hawaii , resulting in $ 2 million in damage and two deaths . Hurricanes Newton , Paine and Roslyn each struck Northwestern Mexico . While damage was minimal from these three systems near their location of landfall , Paine brought considerable flooding to the Great Plains . The overall flooding event resulted in $ 350 million in damage , with the worst effects being recorded in Oklahoma . Hurricane Roslyn was the strongest storm of the season , attaining peak winds of 145 mph ( 230 km/h ) .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1986_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 91, "score": 108727 }, { "content": "Title: 1909 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1909 Atlantic hurricane season was an average Atlantic hurricane season . The season produced eleven tropical cyclones , of which all eleven became tropical storms ; six became hurricanes , and four of those strengthened into major hurricanes . The season 's first storm developed on June 15 while the last storm transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on November 14 . The most notable storm during the season formed in late August , while east of the Lesser Antilles . The hurricane devastated the Lesser Antilles , the Greater Antilles , and Mexico , leaving around 4,000 fatalities and more than $ 50 million ( 1909 USD ) in damage . The 1909 season was very deadly and destructive , featuring at least 4,661 fatalities , and $ 76.3 million , mostly due to the sixth and eighth hurricanes of the season . In mid-July , the fourth storm of the season hit Freeport , Texas , as a Category 3 hurricane , killing 41 people , and causing $ 2 million in damage . In mid-September , the eighth storm of the season made landfall near Grand Isle , Louisiana , as a Category 3 hurricane , killing at least 350 people and causing $ 10 million in damage . The storm 's storm surge is responsible for destroying thousands of homes , as it penetrated 2 mi inland . In late August , the tenth storm of the season developed , and tracked across Cuba , the Bahamas , and Marathon , Florida , as a Category 3 hurricane . At least $ 2 million in damage was caused , and at least 22 deaths were recorded . Lastly , the final storm of the season struck eastern Jamaica and Hispaniola as a hurricane before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone northeast of the Bahamas . The storm killed 30 people , and caused $ 7 million in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1909_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 92, "score": 108599 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Dennis in Haiti Content: In early July 2005 , Hurricane Dennis brushed the southern coast of Haiti and produced deadly flash flooding across the nation . Forming from a tropical depression on July 4 , Dennis began impacting Haiti two days later with heavy rains . Civil authorities and international agencies acted quickly to protect lives , ordering evacuations -- approximately 1,000 people complied -- and prepositioning emergency supplies . Over the subsequent two days , the hurricane 's outer bands continued to impact the nation before effects abated . Widespread flash floods and landslides caused substantial damage , with areas along the Tiburon Peninsula taking the brunt of the impact . A bridge collapse near Grand-Goâve left 15 people dead or missing . All told , Dennis killed 56 people and wrought US$ 50 million in damage . The nation 's government released emergency relief funds on July 7 and international agencies provided considerable assistance to residents in the months after the storm . World Concern aided roughly 18,000 residents and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies assisted approximately 4,000 people .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Dennis_in_Haiti", "rank": 93, "score": 108553 }, { "content": "Title: Harvey Milk (opera) Content: Harvey Milk is an opera in three acts composed by Stewart Wallace to a libretto by Michael Korie . A joint commission by Houston Grand Opera , New York City Opera , and San Francisco Opera , it was premiered on January 21 , 1995 by Houston Grand Opera . The opera is based on the life and death of the gay activist and politician Harvey Milk who was assassinated along with San Francisco 's mayor George Moscone on November 27 , 1978 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Harvey_Milk_(opera)", "rank": 94, "score": 108465 }, { "content": "Title: 1963 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1963 Atlantic hurricane season featured one of the deadliest tropical cyclones on record in the Atlantic basin : Hurricane Flora . The season officially began on June 15 , and lasted until November 15 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . It was a near-average season in terms of tropical storms , with a total of nine named storms . The first system , Hurricane Arlene , developed between Cape Verde and the Lesser Antilles on July 31 . The storm later impacted Bermuda , where strong winds resulted in about $ 300,000 ( 1963 USD ) in damage . Other storms such as hurricanes Beulah and Debra , as well as an unnamed tropical storm , did not impact land . During the month of September , Hurricane Cindy caused wind damage and flooding in Texas , leaving three deaths and approximately $ 12.5 million in damage . Hurricane Edith passed through the Lesser Antilles and the eastern Greater Antilles , causing 10 deaths and about $ 43 million in damage , most of which occurred on Martinique . The most significant storm of the season was Hurricane Flora , which peaked as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale . Drifting slowly and executing a cyclonic loop , Flora dropped very heavy rainfall in the Greater Antilles , including over 100 in in Cuba . Extreme flooding ensued , leaving behind at least 7,193 fatalities and about $ 773.4 million in damage . Flora is thus listed among the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes on record . In October , Hurricane Ginny moved erratically offshore the Southeastern United States , though eventually , the extratropical remnants struck Nova Scotia . Ginny caused at least three deaths and $ 400,000 in damage in the United States alone . The final cyclone , Tropical Storm Helena , caused five deaths and over $ 500,000 in damage on Guadeloupe . Overall , the storms in this season caused at least 7,225 deaths and about $ 830.1 million in damage .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1963_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 95, "score": 108315 }, { "content": "Title: 1962 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1962 Atlantic hurricane season was the least active since 1939 , with only five named storms . Although the season officially began on June 15 , the first storm did not form until August 26 . Hurricane Alma brushed the Outer Banks before becoming extratropical southeast of New England , destroying hundreds of boats and producing beneficial rainfall . In late August , Tropical Storm Becky developed unusually far east in the Atlantic Ocean , becoming the easternmost storm on record to recurve to the northeast . Celia followed in the September , forming east of the Lesser Antilles and executing a loop near Bermuda before dissipating . Hurricane Daisy was the costliest of the season , leaving about $ 1.1 million in damage in New England ( 1962 USD ) . The storm dropped the highest rainfall total on record in Maine , and its precipitation caused 22 traffic fatalities . The final hurricane -- Ella -- was also the strongest , remaining offshore of the eastern United States but causing two deaths . In addition to the five named storms , there were three non-developing tropical depressions . The first struck Texas in August , causing street flooding and killing three . The second of three formed off the west coast of Florida and flooded widespread areas after 1 in 100 year rainfall . The floods affected 5,000 houses and caused millions in damage . The third of three non-developing storms moved across the Caribbean before striking Nicaragua in October . The season officially ended on November 15 .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1962_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 96, "score": 108314 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Sandy relief bill Content: The Hurricane Sandy relief bill is a law enacted by the 113th United States Congress . The Act amended the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to increase from $ 20.725 billion to $ 30.425 billion the total amount of notes and obligations ( i.e. federal borrowing authority ) which may be issued by the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) , with the President 's approval , for the National Flood Insurance Program .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Hurricane_Sandy_relief_bill", "rank": 97, "score": 108249 }, { "content": "Title: 1999 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1999 Atlantic hurricane season had five Category 4 hurricanes -- the highest number recorded in a single season in the Atlantic basin , later tied in 2005 . The season officially began on June 1 , and ended on November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . It was a fairly active season , mostly due to a persistent La Niña that developed in the latter half of 1998 . The first storm , Arlene , formed on June 11 to the southeast of Bermuda . It meandered slowly for a week and caused no impact on land . Other tropical cyclones that did not affect land were Hurricane Cindy , Tropical Storm Emily , and Tropical Depression Twelve . Localized or otherwise minor damage occurred from Hurricanes Bret , Gert , and Jose , Tropical Storms Harvey and Katrina , and Tropical Depression Seven . The most significant storm of the season was Hurricane Floyd , a strong Category 4 hurricane that caused devastating flooding along the East Coast of the United States , especially in North Carolina . Damage from the storm totaled approximately $ 6.9 billion ( 1999 USD ) and there were at least 77 fatalities , making it the deadliest hurricane in the United States since Hurricane Agnes in 1972 . Flooding from Floyd in North Carolina followed Hurricane Dennis , a slow and erratic -- moving storm that dropped heavy rainfall in the eastern portion of the state . Tropical Depression Eleven in October contributed to extreme flooding in Mexico , which left 636 people dead and caused $ 491.3 million in damage , though impact could not be distinguished from the storm itself . Hurricane Irene caused extensive flooding in Cuba and Florida , with lesser effects in the Bahamas and North Carolina . Irene was the second -- costliest storm of the season , with about $ 800 million in damage . Hurricane Lenny was an unusual eastward -- moving storm in the Caribbean Sea and a strong late -- season storm . It caused extensive damage in the Lesser Antilles in the month of November . Collectively , the storms of the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season caused at least 123 fatalities and $ 8.58 billion in losses .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1999_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 98, "score": 108244 }, { "content": "Title: 1945 Texas hurricane Content: The 1945 Texas hurricane was a slow-moving tropical cyclone which paralleled the Texas Gulf Coast , causing extensive damage in late-August 1945 . The fifth tropical storm and second hurricane of the annual hurricane season , the storm formed out of an area of disturbed weather which had been situated over the Bay of Campeche on August 24 . In favorable conditions , the system quickly intensified as it steadily moved northward , attaining hurricane intensity later that day . As it approached the coast , however , the hurricane quickly slowed in forward motion , allowing it time to intensify off the Texas coast . After reaching major hurricane status , the storm reached peak intensity on August 26 as a minimal Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 115 mi/h . Later that day , the cyclone executed a slight curve toward the Texas coast , and early the next day made landfall near Seadrift at peak intensity . Once inland , it quickly weakened , and degenerated into a remnant low on August 29 over Central Texas . The hurricane 's slow movement and strong intensity was a catalyst for extensive and damaging impacts in Texas . Prior to making landfall , thousands of people were ordered to evacuate from cities along coastal regions . Upon making landfall , the storm brought strong winds , which caused widespread power outages and infrastructural damage . A peak gust of 135 mph ( 215 km/h ) measured in Collegeport , Texas . Northeast of Houston , Texas , a tornado killed a person after traveling for 22 mi ( 35 km ) . At the coast , the hurricane produced strong storm surge which swept and damaged port cities . Port Lavaca , Texas was inundated by a 15 ft ( 4.6 m ) storm surge , which at the time was the third highest ever recorded in the state . Damage in the port alone was estimated to be as high as $ 1 million . The strong wave action killed two people when it capsized a fishing vessel . Further inland , the storm produced torrential rainfall , which was also aided by the hurricane 's slow movement . Rainfall peaked at 19.6 in ( 500 mm ) in Hockley , Texas . The heavy rains caused extensive crop damage , particularly to cotton and rice crops . Damage to cotton in the Corpus Christi , Texas area alone was estimated at $ 1.5 million . Overall , the hurricane caused $ 20.1 million in damage , mostly to crops , and three deaths .", "qid": "220", "docid": "1945_Texas_hurricane", "rank": 99, "score": 108165 }, { "content": "Title: Ike Dike Content: The Ike Dike is a proposed coastal barrier that , when completed , would protect the Galveston Bay in Texas , United States . The project would be a dramatic enhancement of the existing Galveston Seawall , complete with floodgates , which would protect more of Galveston , the Bolivar Peninsula , the Galveston Bay Area , and Houston . The barrier would extend across Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula and would provide a barrier against all Gulf surges into the bay . The project is primarily the suggestion of Dr. Bill Merrell of Texas A&M University at Galveston . The Ike Dike would be able to withstand ~ 10,000 year storms . The proposal is , as the name suggests , motivated by the damage caused by Hurricane Ike in 2008 ( as well as the disastrous 1900 Galveston Hurricane ) . Storm surges from Hurricane Ike caused severe damage to Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula and caused significant damage to other areas around the bay . Fortunately the damage to critical industries was minimal and most heavy industry returned to normal quickly . Still , Ike was not nearly as destructive as meteorologists predict a future hurricane will eventually be . Proponents argue that there is a national security concern that must be addressed . The Houston area ( particularly the Bay Area ) is home to the largest and most important concentration of petroleum refining and petrochemical processing plants in the United States , and most of these plants are on the coast or on the ship channel . Additionally the Port of Houston is the second-busiest port in the nation . The economic damage to the United States , not to mention Texas , in the event of a catastrophic impact on the coast would be nationally serious . Indeed , some researchers have argued that had Ike tracked a few miles further southwest it could have sidelined 40 % of U.S. jet-fuel production , not to mention serious setbacks to the production of gasoline and other chemicals Opponents of the project worry that it is simply too expensive ( some estimates place the cost between $ 3 billion and $ 4 billion ) and its efficacy is not established . The project is still only a concept under study . In 2010 the Texas Governor publicly expressed support for the idea . The Governor 's Commission on Disaster Recovery and Renewal recommended that a 6-county ( Harris , Galveston , Chambers , Brazoria , Orange and Jefferson ) public corporation be established to examine regional approaches to storm surge suppression . That corporation , the Gulf Coast Community Protection and Recovery District , Inc. , was established on April 20 , 2010 . Galveston County Judge Jim Yarborough was elected chair of the board of directors and Robert Eckels , former county judge of Harris County , was elected President . Dannenbaum Engineering was appointed as the engineering consultant . Despite this , though , the declining economy in 2010 stifled efforts to secure funding and the project remains stalled . By the end of 2012 momentum toward building the structure had waned significantly , in large part due to Hurricane Sandy , which seriously damaged the U.S. Northeast and attracted attention away from the Gulf Coast . Nevertheless , in 2013 Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership , a local community organization , began efforts to raise funds for a comprehensive study that could convince the U.S. Congress to fund the project . In addition , throughout 2013 researchers at Delft University of Technology worked out several flood defense concepts for closing off the Bolivar Roads Inlet . On Monday August 4 , 2014 Texas legislators lamented a disagreement on how to protect the Houston region against storm surge and urged that a plan be brought to the Legislature as soon as possible . The project manager named by Dannenbaum Engineering to study the Ike Dike and alternatives , Christopher W. Sallese , is a retired former U.S. Army Corps of Engineer colonel . He was the district engineer and commanding officer of the Galveston District . Sallese is named as one of several defendants in an April 19 , 2013 federal lawsuit filed in United States District Court , Southern District of Texas , Galveston Division , as Civil Action No. 3:13 - CV-00126 . This lawsuit is significant because the East Galveston Bay complex and neighboring counties would be changed greatly if the dike was constructed . Property owners and the economic base of the area would face tremendous changes . In addition , the Rollover Pass area is a federally protected critical habitat for endangered species and is a key point for marine species migration .", "qid": "220", "docid": "Ike_Dike", "rank": 100, "score": 107874 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Ice shelf Content: An ice shelf is a thick floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface . Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica , Greenland , Canada and the Russian Arctic . The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ( resting on bedrock ) ice that feeds it is called the grounding line . The thickness of ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters . In contrast , sea ice is formed on water , is much thinner ( typically less than 3m ) , and forms throughout the Arctic Ocean . It also is found in the Southern Ocean around the continent of Antarctica . Ice shelves are principally driven by gravity-driven pressure from the grounded ice . That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf . The primary mechanism of mass loss from ice shelves was thought to have been iceberg calving , in which a chunk of ice breaks off from the seaward front of the shelf . A study by NASA and university researchers - published in the June 14 , 2013 issue of Science - found however that ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent 's ice shelf mass loss . Typically , a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events . Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf . Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf . The density contrast between glacial ice , which is denser than normal ice , and liquid water means that only about 1/9 of the floating ice is above the ocean surface . The world 's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica . The term captured ice shelf has been used for the ice over a subglacial lake , such as Lake Vostok .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Ice_shelf", "rank": 1, "score": 207930 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic ice sheet Content: The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Antarctic_ice_sheet", "rank": 2, "score": 203671 }, { "content": "Title: Wordie Ice Shelf Content: The Wordie Ice Shelf was a confluent glacier projecting as an ice shelf into the SE part of Marguerite Bay between Cape Berteaux and Mount Edgell , along the western coast of Antarctic Peninsula . In March 2008 , the British Antarctic Survey reported that it appeared ready to break away from the Antarctic Peninsula . By April 2009 it had done so , vanishing completely . Discovered by the British Graham Land Expedition ( BGLE ) under Rymill , 1934-37 , who named this feature for Sir James Wordie , Honorary Secretary ( later President ) of the Royal Geographical Society , member of the Discovery Committee , and chairman of the Scott Polar Research Institute . He also had been geologist and Chief of the Scientific Staff of the British expedition , 1914-16 , under Ernest Shackleton .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Wordie_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 3, "score": 198252 }, { "content": "Title: Prince Gustav Channel Content: The Prince Gustav Channel was named in 1903 after Crown Prince Gustav of Sweden ( later King Gustav V ) by Otto Nordenskiöld of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition . The channel is bounded on the west by the Antarctic Peninsula and on the east by James Ross Island . It is about 130 km long and ranges from 6 to wide . On 27 February 1995 , the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) reported that an ice shelf formerly blocking the channel had disintegrated . This ice shelf had spanned approximately 700 km2 prior to its disintegration . In the area previously covered by the shelf , the channel 's water depth is between 600 to . Between February and March 2000 , scientists collected sediment cores 5 to 6 m in length from the ocean floor . Carbon dating of organic material found in the sediment layers suggested that for a period between 2,000 and 5,000 years ago , much of the channel was seasonally open water . While icebergs were able to navigate the channel , ice rafted debris was deposited within the sediment . It appears that before and after this period , the channel remained closed . The period when the channel was open coincides with a period of local warming supported by data gathered from land-based studies of lake sediments and ancient , abandoned penguin rookeries . With the return of colder conditions about 1900 years ago , the Prince Gustav Ice Shelf reformed until its recent retreat and collapse . Ice shelves are sensitive indicators of regional climatic change , therefore recent warming in the vicinity of the Prince Gustav Channel is exceptional for at least the past 1900 years .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Prince_Gustav_Channel", "rank": 4, "score": 198126 }, { "content": "Title: Ice sheet Content: An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50000 km2 , thus also known as continental glacier . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland ; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of North America , the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America . Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers . Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap . An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery . Although the surface is cold , the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat . In places , melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly . This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet -- these are ice streams . The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms . The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap ( maybe several ) in the early Oligocene , but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene , when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica . The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene , but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation . This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Ice_sheet", "rank": 5, "score": 195817 }, { "content": "Title: John H. Mercer Content: John H. Mercer ( Cheltenham , England , 19 October 1922 -- Columbus , Ohio 3 July 1987 ) was a glaciologist , chiefly known for his theoretical work on , and field studies of Antarctic ice streams , especially in the Transantarctic Mountains and in West Antarctica . Following John T. Hollin 's work ( 1962 ) suggesting that climatic warming and rising sea-level cause Antarctic ice shelves to retreat , Mercer postulated that the West Antarctic ice sheet , being grounded well below sea-level and terminating in floating ice shelves , was vulnerable to these changes and may have collapsed altogether during the last interglacial when Antarctica may have been warmer and sea-level may have been higher . In 1978 , in the science magazine Nature , Mercer pointed out that `` green-house '' warming from burning fossil fuel could have the same effect during the present interglacial . Two studies published 12 May 2014 confirm Mercer 's assumption . Climate scientist James Hansen has coined the term , `` John Mercer effect . '' After Mercer published his paper suggesting that the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse in response to warming , he struggled to get funding . Others , including Hansen , had similar problems . Many climate scientists censor their own work to avoid losing funding , especially regarding prospects for limiting warming to 2 ° C above pre-industrial temperatures . John H. Mercer was the third child of Harriet and John W. Mercer . He was educated at private schools in Cheltenham and , later , at Gordonstoun in Scotland . During World War II he served in the British Merchant Marines ( 1940 -- 46 ) as a radio man . After the war he went to University of Cambridge and studied geography . At that time he came under the influence of William Vaughan Lewis . After finishing his B.A. in 1949 Mercer went to Canada , where he received his PhD in geography from McGill University in 1954 . He was a Research Scholar from 1954 to 1956 at the Australian National University in Canberra , where he studied land use and population in western Samoa . He returned to Canada and worked in the Canadian Hydro-graphic Office in Ottawa as a geographer in 1957 and 1958 . During 1959 -- 60 , 1961 -- 62 , 1964 , and 1966 , the American Geographical Society employed him at its World Data Center A for Glaciology in New York . The turning point in his career as a glaciologist was in 1960 , when he became a Research Associate at The Ohio State University , in the Institute of Polar Studies ( renamed the Byrd Polar Research Center ) . He remained at The Ohio State University until his death , becoming its first Senior Research Scientist .", "qid": "230", "docid": "John_H._Mercer", "rank": 6, "score": 192065 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West ( or Lesser ) Antarctica , the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains which lies in the Western Hemisphere . The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet , meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves . The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf , the Ronne Ice Shelf , and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea . It is estimated that the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet is about 25.4 million km3 ( 6.1 million cu mi ) , and the WAIS contains just under 10 % of this , or 2.2 million km3 ( 530,000 cu mi ) . The weight of the ice has caused the underlying rock to sink by between 0.5 and 1 kilometres ( 0.31 -- 0.62 mi ) in a process known as isostatic depression . Under the force of its own weight , the ice sheet deforms and flows . The interior ice flows slowly over rough bedrock . In some circumstances , ice can flow faster in ice streams , separated by slow-flowing ice ridges . The inter-stream ridges are frozen to the bed while the bed beneath the ice streams consists of water-saturated sediments . Many of these sediments were deposited before the ice sheet occupied the region , when much of West Antarctica was covered by the ocean . The rapid ice-stream flow is a non-linear process still not fully understood ; streams can start and stop for unclear reasons . When ice reaches the coast , it either calves or continues to flow outward onto the water . The result is a large , floating ice shelf affixed to the continent .", "qid": "230", "docid": "West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 7, "score": 184428 }, { "content": "Title: Tim Naish Content: Tim Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist . He is the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre , Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand . He has written about the collapse of Antarctica 's Larsen B ice shelf . In 2002 , between January 31 and March 7 the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed and broke up . Tim Naish warned that the ice shelf of Weddell Sea is imperiled , and if the temperature rises by 3 ° C , the ice shelves of Antarctica will become thinner . `` These are dramatic changes '' -- said Tim Naish . In 2009 , Professor Naish was awarded a New Zealand Antarctic Medal ( NZAM ) for services to Antarctic climate science .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Tim_Naish", "rank": 8, "score": 183311 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice Shelf Content: The West Ice Shelf is a prominent ice shelf extending about 288 km in an east-west direction along the Leopold and Astrid Coast in East Antarctica between Barrier Bay and Posadowsky Bay . It was discovered and named by the First German Antarctica Expedition , 1901 -- 1903 , under Dr. Erich von Drygalski . The toponym describes the direction in which the German expedition first viewed the ice shelf . Their limited westward view became a prolonged one ; on February 21 , 1902 , the ship became stuck in the ice . It remained there imprisoned by the pack ice until February 8 , 1903 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "West_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 9, "score": 181937 }, { "content": "Title: Nansen Ice Sheet Content: Nansen Ice Sheet , or Nansen Ice Shelf , is a 30 mi by 10 mi ice shelf . It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abutting the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue , along the coast of Victoria Land , Antarctica . This feature was explored by the South Magnetic Polar Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1907-09 and by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910-13 . Frank Debenham , geologist with the latter expedition , applied the name Nansen Sheet as the feature is adjacent to Mount Nansen , the dominating summit in the area .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Nansen_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 10, "score": 179392 }, { "content": "Title: Getz Ice Shelf Content: The Getz Ice Shelf is the largest Antarctic ice shelf along the SE Pacific-Antarctic coastline , over 300 mi long and from 20 to wide , bordering the Hobbs and Bakutis Coasts of Marie Byrd Land between the McDonald Heights and Martin Peninsula . Several large islands are partially or wholly embedded in the ice shelf , pinning the calving front . Summer temperature and salinity measurements from 1994 to 2010 show the shelf is subject to more changeable oceanic forcing than other Antarctic shelves . Beneath cold surface waters , the thermocline was ∼ 200 m shallower in 2007 than in 2000 , indicative of shifting access of deep water to the continental shelf and ice shelf base . The calculated area-average basal melt rates was between 1.1 and 4.1 m of ice per year , making Getz the largest source of meltwater to the Southern Ocean . The ice shelf westward of Siple Island was discovered by the United States Antarctic Service ( USAS ) in December 1940 . The portion eastward of Siple Island was first delineated from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 . The entire feature was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy air photos of 1962 -- 65 . It was named by the USAS ( 1939 -- 41 ) for George F. Getz of Chicago , Illinois , who helped furnish the seaplane for the expedition .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Getz_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 11, "score": 178574 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic sea ice Content: Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean . It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer . Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few meters thick . This is in contrast to ice shelves , which are formed by glaciers , float in the sea , and are up to a kilometer thick . There are two subdivisions of sea ice : fast ice , which is attached to land ; and ice floes , which are not . Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow . As a result , melt ponds are rarely observed . On average , Antarctic sea ice is younger , thinner , warmer , saltier , and more mobile than Arctic sea ice . Due to its inaccessibility , it is not as well-studied as Arctic ice .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Antarctic_sea_ice", "rank": 12, "score": 177295 }, { "content": "Title: Amery Ice Shelf Content: The Amery Ice Shelf is a broad ice shelf in Antarctica at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast . It is part of Mac . Robertson Land . The name `` Cape Amery '' was applied to a coastal angle mapped on February 11 , 1931 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition ( BANZARE ) under Douglas Mawson . He named it for William Bankes Amery , a civil servant who represented the United Kingdom government in Australia ( 1925 -- 28 ) . The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names interpreted this feature to be a portion of an ice shelf and , in 1947 , applied the name Amery to the whole shelf . In 2001 two holes were drilled through the ice shelf by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division and specially designed seabed sampling and photographic equipment was lowered to the underlying seabed . By studying the fossil composition of sediment samples recovered , scientists have inferred that a major retreat of the Amery Ice Shelf to at least 80 km landward of its present location may have occurred during the mid-Holocene climatic optimum ( about 5,700 years ago ) . In December 2006 , it was reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Australian scientists were heading to the Amery Ice Shelf to investigate enormous cracks that had been forming for over a decade at a rate of three to five metres a day . These fractures threaten to break off a 1000 square kilometre piece of the Amery Ice Shelf . Scientists want to discover what is causing the cracks , as there has not been similar activity since the 1960s . However , the head of research believes that it is too early to attribute the cause to Global Warming as there is the possibility of a natural 50-60 year cycle being responsible . Lambert Glacier flows from Lambert Graben into the Amery Ice Shelf on the southwest side of Prydz Bay . The Amery Basin is an undersea basin north of the Amery Ice Shelf . The Chinese Antarctic Zhongshan Station and Russian Progress Station are located near this ice shelf . The Amery Ice Shelf is small compared to the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Amery_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 13, "score": 176995 }, { "content": "Title: Publications Ice Shelf Content: Publications Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 35 nautical miles ( 60 km ) long on the south shore of Prydz Bay , between Mount Caroline Mikkelsen and Stornes Peninsula . Several glaciers , listed from southwest to northeast , nourish the ice shelf : Polar Times Glacier , Il Polo Glacier , Polarforschung Glacier , Polar Record Glacier and Polararboken Glacier . The feature was first mapped from air photos by the Lars Christensen Expedition , 1936-37 . The name `` Publication Glacier Tongues '' was applied by John H. Roscoe in 1952 following his study of U.S. Navy Operation Highjump ( 1946 -- 47 ) air photos of the area , but the term ice shelf is more descriptive . So named by Roscoe because the several glaciers in the area commemorate polar publications . Category : Ice shelves of Antarctica Category : Landforms of Princess Elizabeth Land", "qid": "230", "docid": "Publications_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 14, "score": 175876 }, { "content": "Title: Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf Content: Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 250 miles ( 400 km ) long on the coast of Queen Maud Land , extending from Cape Norvegia in the north to Lyddan Island and Stancomb-Wills Glacier in the south . Parts of the ice shelf were sighted by William Speirs Bruce in 1904 , Ernest Shackleton in 1915 , and Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen in 1930 . Most of it was photographed from the air in 1951-52 by the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition ( NBSAE ) and delineated from these photos . Additional delineation of the southern and landward margins of the feature was accomplished from air photos taken , by USN Operation Deep Freeze from 1967 to 1969 . The feature was named by Norway for Capt. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen , who explored the area in the late 1920s and early 1930s .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Riiser-Larsen_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 15, "score": 175703 }, { "content": "Title: Cook Ice Shelf Content: Cook Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 55 mi wide , occupying a deep recession of the coastline between Cape Freshfield and Cape Hudson , to the east of Deakin Bay . This indentation was called Cook Bay by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition , 1911 -- 14 , under Douglas Mawson , who named it for Joseph Cook , Prime Minister of Australia in 1914 . The generic term has been amended , as the bay is permanently filled by an ice shelf . Scientists studying the effects of global warming have proposed that sea water encroachment in the area could destabilize a significant portion of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Cook_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 16, "score": 175334 }, { "content": "Title: Nickerson Ice Shelf Content: Nickerson Ice Shelf , is an ice shelf about 35 miles wide , lying north of Siemiatkowski Glacier and the western part of Ruppert Coast , Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . First observed and roughly mapped by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition ( ByrdAE ) ( 1928-30 ) . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Commander H.J. Nickerson , U.S. Navy ( USN ) , administrative officer on the staff of the Commander , Task Force 43 , during Operation Deep Freeze 1966 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Nickerson_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 17, "score": 174787 }, { "content": "Title: Shackleton Ice Shelf Content: Shackleton Ice Shelf is an extensive ice shelf fronting the coast of East Antarctica for about 384 km ( 95E to 105E ) , projecting seaward about 145 km in the western portion and 64 km in the east . It occupies an area of 33,820 km ² . It is part of Mawson Sea and separates the Queen Mary Coast to the west from the Knox Coast of Wilkes Land to the east . The existence of this ice shelf was first made known by the USEE under Charles Wilkes who mapped a portion of it from the Vincennes in February 1840 . It was explored by the Australian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson ( 1911 -- 14 ) who named it for Sir Ernest Shackleton . The extent of the ice shelf was mapped in greater detail in 1955 , using aerial photography obtained by US Navy Operation Highjump , 1946-47 . Further mapping by the Soviet Expedition of 1956 showed the portion eastward of Scott Glacier to be a part of this ice shelf .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Shackleton_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 18, "score": 172930 }, { "content": "Title: Ellesmere Ice Shelf Content: The former Ellesmere Ice Shelf was the largest ice shelf in the Arctic , encompassing about 3500 sqmi of the north coast of Ellesmere Island , Nunavut , Canada . The ice shelf was first documented by the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76 , in which Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich 's party went from Cape Sheridan ( 82.47 ° N , 61.50 ° W ) west to Cape Alert ( 82.27 ° N , 85.55 ° W ) . The continuous mass of the Ellesmere Ice Shelf had been in place for at least 3,000 years . During the twentieth century the Ellesmere Ice Shelf broke up into six separate shelves , the largest being the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf . During the 1980s reassuring official science reported that the remnants were stable . In April 2000 , satellite images revealed that a large crack in the Ward Hunt shelf had begun to form , and in 2003 it was announced that the ice sheet had split completely in two in 2002 , releasing a huge pool of fresh water from the largest epishelf lake in the Northern Hemisphere , located in Disraeli Fjord . In April 2008 , it was discovered that the shelf was fractured into dozens of deep , multi-faceted cracks . On August 13 , 2005 , The Ayles Ice Shelf , which was located at , approximately 800 km south of the North Pole , broke away from the coast forming the giant Ayles Ice Island 37 m thick and measuring around 14 km by 5 km in size with an area of approximately 66 km ² ( 25.5 sq mi ) or 2.6 km3 in volume . The Milne Ice Shelf is the second large segment of the former Ellesmere Ice Shelf .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Ellesmere_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 19, "score": 172381 }, { "content": "Title: Larsen Ice Shelf Content: The Larsen Ice Shelf is a long , fringing ice shelf in the northwest part of the Weddell Sea , extending along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula from Cape Longing to the area just southward of Hearst Island . It is named for Captain Carl Anton Larsen , the master of the Norwegian whaling vessel Jason , who sailed along the ice front as far as 68 ° 10 ' South during December 1893 . In finer detail , the Larsen Ice Shelf is a series of shelves that occupy ( or occupied ) distinct embayments along the coast . From north to south , the segments are called Larsen A ( the smallest ) , Larsen B , and Larsen C ( the largest ) by researchers who work in the area . Further south , Larsen D and the much smaller Larsen E , F and G are also named . The breakup of the ice shelf since the mid 1990s has been widely reported , with the collapse of Larsen B in 2002 being particularly dramatic .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Larsen_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 20, "score": 172127 }, { "content": "Title: Axel Heiberg Glacier Content: The Axel Heiberg Glacier in Antarctica is a valley glacier , 48 km long , descending from the high elevations of the Antarctic Plateau into the Ross Ice Shelf ( nearly at sea level ) between the Herbert Range and Mount Don Pedro Christophersen in the Queen Maud Mountains . This huge glacier was discovered in November 1911 by the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen , and named by him for Axel Heiberg , a Norwegian businessman and patron of science who contributed to numerous Norwegian polar expeditions . Amundsen used this glacier as his route up onto the polar plateau during his successful expedition to the South Pole . Unlike the big `` outlet '' glaciers such as the Beardmore , Shackleton and Liv , the Axel Heiberg is in effect an alpine glacier , cut off from the Plateau by a dolerite rim and fed entirely from the uncharacteristically heavy snow falling within its own catchment . It falls over 9,000 ft in only 20 mi , most of it over just 7 mi .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Axel_Heiberg_Glacier", "rank": 21, "score": 171961 }, { "content": "Title: Edward VIII Ice Shelf Content: Edward VIII Ice Shelf is an ice shelf occupying the head of Edward VIII Bay in Antarctica . The northern part of this feature was called Innviksletta ( the inner bay plain ) by Norwegian cartographers , who mapped it from aerial photos taken by the Lars Christensen Expedition in 1936 -- 37 . The area was first visited in 1954 by an ANARE ( Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions ) sledge party . The entire ice shelf was then mapped and named in association with Edward VIII Bay .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Edward_VIII_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 22, "score": 171780 }, { "content": "Title: Swinburne Ice Shelf Content: Swinburne Ice Shelf , is an ice shelf just north of Edward VII Peninsula and the Alexandra Mountains in the southern part of Sulzberger Bay , Antarctica . The ice shelf is 20 miles long and 5 miles wide and extends from Fisher Island to White Islands . It was photographed from aircraft and mapped by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition ( ByrdAE ) , 1928-30 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Captain H.W Swinburne , Jr. , Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , during Operation Deep Freeze 1970 and 1971 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Swinburne_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 23, "score": 171562 }, { "content": "Title: List of Antarctic ice shelves Content: This is a list of Antarctic ice shelves . Ice shelves are attached to 44 % of the Antarctic coastline . Their total area is 1,541,700 km ² . Names are also listed in the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research , Gazetteer . The ice shelf areas are listed below , clockwise , starting in the west of East Antarctica : † Indicates that the ice shelf has collapsed .", "qid": "230", "docid": "List_of_Antarctic_ice_shelves", "rank": 24, "score": 170965 }, { "content": "Title: Ross Ice Shelf Content: The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica ( an area of roughly 487000 sqkm and about 800 km across : about the size of France ) . It is several hundred metres thick . The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than 600 km long , and between 15 and high above the water surface . Ninety percent of the floating ice , however , is below the water surface . Most of Ross Ice Shelf is in the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand . It floats in , and covers , a large southern portion of the Ross Sea and the entire Roosevelt Island located in the west of the Ross Sea . The ice shelf is named after Captain Sir James Clark Ross , who discovered it on 28 January 1841 . It was originally called The Barrier , with various adjectives including Great Ice Barrier , as it prevented sailing further south . Ross mapped the ice front eastward to 160 ° W . In 1947 , the US Board on Geographic Names applied the name Ross Shelf Ice to this feature and published it in the original US Antarctic Gazetteer . In January 1953 the name was changed to Ross Ice Shelf ; that name was published in 1956 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Ross_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 25, "score": 170493 }, { "content": "Title: Cosgrove Ice Shelf Content: Cosgrove Ice Shelf is a 35 mi long by 25 mi wide ice shelf , occupying the inner ( east ) part of the embayment between King Peninsula and Canisteo Peninsula , Antarctica . It was mapped from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Lieutenant Jerome R. Cosgrove , U.S. Navy Reserve , assistant communications officer on the staff of the Commander , U.S. Navy Support Force , Antarctica , during U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze , 1967 and 1968 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Cosgrove_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 26, "score": 170306 }, { "content": "Title: Institute Ice Stream Content: The Institute Ice Stream is an ice stream flowing north into the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica , southeast of Hercules Inlet . The feature was traversed by the United States Antarctic Research Program ( USARP ) Ellsworth -- Byrd Seismic Party , 1958 -- 59 , and the USARP -- University of Wisconsin Seismic Party , 1963 -- 64 . It was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute -- National Science Foundation -- Technical University of Denmark airborne radio echo sounding program , 1967 -- 79 , and in association with Foundation Ice Stream and Support Force Glacier , named after the Scott Polar Research Institute , Cambridge , England .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Institute_Ice_Stream", "rank": 27, "score": 169046 }, { "content": "Title: Jelbart Ice Shelf Content: The Jelbart Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 40 nmi wide , fronting on the coast of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica , northward of Giaever Ridge . It was mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and air photos by the Norwegian -- British -- Swedish Antarctic Expedition ( 1949 -- 1952 ) and named for John E. Jelbart , an Australian observer with the expedition who drowned near Maudheim Station on February 24 , 1951 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Jelbart_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 28, "score": 168773 }, { "content": "Title: Voyeykov Ice Shelf Content: Voyeykov Ice Shelf , is an ice shelf fringing the coast between Paulding Bay and Cape Goodenough , Antarctica . Mapped by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition ( SovAE ) ( 1958 ) and named after Aleksandr I. Voyeykov ( 1842 -- 1916 ) , a Russian climatologist .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Voyeykov_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 29, "score": 168153 }, { "content": "Title: Lazarev Ice Shelf Content: The Lazarev Ice Shelf is that part of the ice shelf fringing the Princess Astrid Coast of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica , that lies between Leningradskiy Island and Verblyud Island . It is part of the western Riiser-Larsen Sea and is about 50 nmi long . The ice shelf was first photographed from the air and mapped by the Third German Antarctic Expedition , 1938 -- 39 . It was explored and mapped by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1959 , and named for Lieutenant ( later Admiral ) Mikhail P. Lazarev , commander of the sloop Mirnyy .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Lazarev_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 30, "score": 168071 }, { "content": "Title: Fimbul Ice Shelf Content: The Fimbul Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 200 km long and 100 km wide , nourished by Jutulstraumen Glacier , bordering the coast of Queen Maud Land from 3 ° W to 3 ° E . It was photographed from the air by the Third German Antarctic Expedition ( 1938 -- 39 ) , mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and air photos by the Norwegian -- British -- Swedish Antarctic Expedition ( 1949 -- 1952 ) and from air photos by the Norwegian expedition ( 1958 -- 59 ) and named Fimbulisen ( the giant ice ) .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Fimbul_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 31, "score": 167782 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic Content: There are many glaciers in the Antarctic . This set of lists does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . The lists include outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of these lists , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "230", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 32, "score": 167629 }, { "content": "Title: Dotson Ice Shelf Content: Dotson Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 30 mi wide between Martin Peninsula and Bear Peninsula on the coast of Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica . It was first mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey from air photos obtained by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump in January 1947 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Lieutenant William A. Dotson , US Navy , formerly Officer in Charge of the Ice Reconnaissance Unit of the Naval Oceanographic Office , killed in a plane crash in Alaska in November 1964 while on an ice reconnaissance mission .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Dotson_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 33, "score": 166682 }, { "content": "Title: Jones Ice Shelf Content: Jones Ice Shelf was the ice shelf occupying the Jones Channel , between the Arrowsmith Peninsula and Blaiklock Island , on the west coast of Graham Land , Antarctica . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1981 in association with the channel . The shelf was stable between 1947 and 1969 , rising from 3 to above sea level as it blocked the channel . It started to retreat in the 1970s and by 2003 had completely disappeared .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Jones_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 34, "score": 166612 }, { "content": "Title: Hannan Ice Shelf Content: Hannan Ice Shelf , is an 18-mile-wide ice shelf on the coast of Enderby Land , Antarctica . The ice shelf is nourished by Molle and Kichenside Glaciers and borders McKinnon Island on all but its north side . Photographed from Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions ( ANARE ) aircraft in 1956 . First visited in October 1957 by an Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions ( ANARE ) party led by B.H. Stinear . Named by ANCA for F.T. Hannan , meteorologist at Mawson Station in 1957 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Hannan_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 35, "score": 165608 }, { "content": "Title: Ekström Ice Shelf Content: The Ekström Ice Shelf is the ice shelf lying between Sorasen Ridge and Halvfarryggen Ridge , on the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land . It was first mapped by the Norwegian -- British -- Swedish Antarctic Expedition ( NBSAE ) ( 1949 -- 1952 ) , and named for Bertil Ekström , a Swedish mechanical engineer with the NBSAE , who drowned when the weasel ( track-driven vehicle ) he was driving plunged over the edge of Quar Ice Shelf on February 24 , 1951 . The ice shelf occupies an area of 8,700 sqkm . It is 160 m thick at the edge , and rises 15 m above the sea level . Germany 's Neumayer-Station III is to the northeast at Atka Bay .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Ekström_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 36, "score": 164879 }, { "content": "Title: North-west White Island Antarctic Specially Protected Area Content: The North-west White Island Antarctic Specially Protected Area comprises a 142 km2 area of coastal shelf ice on the north-west side of White Island in the Ross Archipelago of Antarctica.The site has been designated an Antarctic Specially Protected Area ( ASPA 137 ) because it supports an unusual small breeding population of Weddell seals , which is not only the most southerly known , but which has also been physically isolated from other populations by the advance of the McMurdo and Ross ice shelves . The first seals in the area were recorded in 1958 , since when the population has grown to 25 -- 30 . The seals utilise the open waters of McMurdo Sound but do not have the breathing capacity to reach the open ocean by swimming beneath the intervening 20 km of permanent shelf ice .", "qid": "230", "docid": "North-west_White_Island_Antarctic_Specially_Protected_Area", "rank": 37, "score": 164606 }, { "content": "Title: Zubchatyy Ice Shelf Content: Zubchatyy Ice Shelf is a small ice shelf which borders the south side of Sakellari Peninsula in Enderby Land . Plotted by Russian cartographers from air photos taken by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition , 1961-62 . The Russian name means `` toothed '' and refers to the serrated nature of the ice front when viewed in plan . Category : Ice shelves of Antarctica Category : Landforms of Enderby Land", "qid": "230", "docid": "Zubchatyy_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 38, "score": 164280 }, { "content": "Title: Iceberg D-16 Content: Iceberg D-16 is a city-sized iceberg near Antarctica , discovered on March 26 , 2006 by the National Ice Center using satellite imagery from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program . It broke free of the Fimbul Ice Shelf , located along the northwestern section of Queen Maud Land in the eastern Weddell Sea . It is approximately 8 miles wide and 15 miles long ( 120 square miles ) , roughly the size of a city .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Iceberg_D-16", "rank": 39, "score": 164267 }, { "content": "Title: Cordilleran Ice Sheet Content: The Cordilleran ice sheet was a major ice sheet that periodically covered large parts of North America during glacial periods over the last ~ 2.6 million years . This included the following areas : Western Montana The Idaho Panhandle Northern Washington state down to about Olympia and Spokane All of British Columbia The southwestern third or so of Yukon Territory All of the Alaska Panhandle South Central Alaska The Alaska Peninsula Almost all of the continental shelf north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca The ice sheet covered up to 2.5 million square kilometres at the Last Glacial Maximum and probably more than that in some previous periods , when it may have extended into the northeast extremity of Oregon and the Salmon River Mountains in Idaho . It is probable , though , that its northern margin also migrated south due to the influence of starvation caused by very low levels of precipitation . At its eastern end the Cordilleran ice sheet merged with the Laurentide ice sheet at the Continental Divide , forming an area of ice that contained one and a half times as much water as the Antarctic ice sheet does today . At its western end it is believed nowadays that several small glacial refugia existed during the last glacial maximum below present sea level in the now-submerged Hecate Strait and on the Brooks Peninsula in northern Vancouver Island . However , evidence of ice-free refugia above present sea level north of the Olympic Peninsula has been refuted by genetic and geological studies since the middle 1990s . The ice sheet faded north of the Alaska Range because the climate was too dry to form glaciers . Unlike the Laurentide ice sheet , which is believed to have taken as much as eleven thousand years to fully melt , it is believed the Cordilleran ice sheet , except for areas that remain glaciated today , melted very quickly , probably in four thousand years or less . This rapid melting caused such floods as the overflow of Lake Missoula and shaped the topography of the extremely fertile Inland Empire of Eastern Washington .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Cordilleran_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 40, "score": 163773 }, { "content": "Title: Moscow University Ice Shelf Content: Moscow University Ice Shelf is a narrow ice shelf , about 120 nmi long , which fringes the Sabrina Coast of Antarctica between Totten Glacier and Paulding Bay . Dalton Iceberg Tongue extends north from the eastern part of the shelf . The feature was partly delineated from aerial photographs taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump in 1946 -- 47 , and further photographed and mapped by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions and the Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1958 . It was named by the Soviet expedition after Moscow University .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Moscow_University_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 41, "score": 163111 }, { "content": "Title: Crosson Ice Shelf Content: Crosson Ice Shelf is an Antarctic ice shelf , about 35 mi wide , north and northeast of Mount Murphy along the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land . The ice shelf is nurtured by Smith , Pope , Vane , and Haynes Glaciers . It was mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos , 1959 -- 66 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Commander W.E. Crosson , U.S. Navy , Commanding Officer of the Antarctic Construction Group during Operation Deep Freeze 1973 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Crosson_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 42, "score": 162676 }, { "content": "Title: Slava Ice Shelf Content: Slava Ice Shelf , is an ice shelf along the coast of Antarctica between Mawson Peninsula and Cape Andreyev . The feature was photographed from the air by the U.S. Navy ( USN ) Operation Highjump in 1947 . The area was photographed in 1958 by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition ( SovAE ) which applied the name `` Zaliv Slava '' to the wide open bay that fronts this ice shelf . This name decision is in accord with the recommendation by ANCA that the name would be appropriately applied to the ice shelf . Named after the Soviet whaling flotilla Slava .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Slava_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 43, "score": 161974 }, { "content": "Title: Muller Ice Shelf Content: Muller Ice Shelf , also known as Müller Ice Shelf according to the original German spelling of the family name Müller , was an ice shelf lying southwest of Hooke Point in southwest Lallemand Fjord , Arrowsmith Peninsula , Loubet Coast . It was nurtured by Bruckner Glacier and Antevs Glacier . It collapsed `` recently '' ( as at late March 2008 ) . The name was given by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1981 in memory of Fritz Muller ( 1926 -- 80 ) , a Swiss glaciologist , who carried out research in Switzerland , Greenland , the Canadian Arctic , and the Himalayas .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Muller_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 44, "score": 161444 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctica Content: West Antarctica , or Lesser Antarctica , one of the two major regions of Antarctica , is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere , and includes the Antarctic Peninsula . It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It lies between the Ross Sea ( partly covered by the Ross Ice Shelf ) , and the Weddell Sea ( largely covered by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf ) . It may be considered a giant peninsula stretching from the South Pole towards the tip of South America . West Antarctica is largely covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , but there have been signs that climate change is having some effect and that this ice sheet may have started to shrink slightly . The coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula are the only parts of West Antarctica that become ( in summer ) ice-free . These constitute the Marielandia Antarctic tundra and have the warmest climate in Antarctica . The rocks are clad in mosses and lichens that can cope with the intense cold of winter and the short growing-season .", "qid": "230", "docid": "West_Antarctica", "rank": 45, "score": 161393 }, { "content": "Title: Brunt Ice Shelf Content: The Brunt Ice Shelf borders the Antarctic coast of Coats Land between Dawson-Lambton Glacier and Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee after David Brunt , British meteorologist , Physical Secretary of the Royal Society , 1948 -- 57 , who was responsible for the initiation of the Royal Society Expedition to this ice shelf in 1955 . It was the location of the base of the Royal Society Expedition , 1955 -- 59 which was taken over as the British Halley Research Station . The Brunt Icefalls extend along Caird Coast for about 80 km , where the steep ice-covered coast descends to Brunt Ice Shelf . The icefalls were discovered November 5 , 1967 , in the course of a United States Navy Squadron VXE-6 flight over the coast in LC-130 aircraft , and was plotted by the United States Geological Survey from air photos obtained at that time . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in association with the Brunt Ice Shelf .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Brunt_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 46, "score": 161002 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Treaty System Content: The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements , collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System ( ATS ) , regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica , Earth 's only continent without a native human population . For the purposes of the treaty system , Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60 ° S latitude . The treaty , entering into force in 1961 and having 53 parties as of 2016 , sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve , establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on that continent . The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War . The Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters have been located in Buenos Aires , Argentina , since September 2004 . The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1 , 1959 , and officially entered into force on June 23 , 1961 . The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year ( IGY ) of 1957 -- 58 . The twelve countries that had significant interests in Antarctica at the time were : Argentina , Australia , Belgium , Chile , France , Japan , New Zealand , Norway , South Africa , the Soviet Union , the United Kingdom and the United States . These countries had established over 50 Antarctic stations for the IGY . The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific cooperation that had been achieved `` on the ice '' .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Antarctic_Treaty_System", "rank": 47, "score": 160719 }, { "content": "Title: Kainan Bay Content: Kainan Bay is an iceport which indents the front of the Ross Ice Shelf about 37 nmi northeast of the northwestern end of Roosevelt Island , Antarctica . It was discovered in January 1902 by the British National Antarctic Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott . It was named by the Japanese Antarctic Expedition under Lieutenant Shirase Nobu which , in January 1912 , effected a landing on the ice shelf here from the ship Kainan Maru . Little America V , the main base of U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze , 1955 -- 56 , was established at this site in late December 1955 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Kainan_Bay", "rank": 48, "score": 160647 }, { "content": "Title: Hemmen Ice Rise Content: Hemmen Ice Rise is an ice rise 11 mi long and 2 to wide , with an estimated area of 55 sqkm , located 17 km off the northwest corner of Berkner Island in the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . The feature appears for the first time on a chart prepared at Ellsworth Station in 1957 by Captain Finn Ronne , U.S. Navy Reserve . The ice rise was subsequently noted in U.S. Earth Resources Technology Satellite imagery . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for George E. Hemmen , Executive Secretary of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in 1972 ; he served with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey as a meteorological observer at Admiralty Bay , 1952 -- 53 , and as Base Leader at Deception Island , 1953 -- 54 , and with the Royal Society Antarctic Expedition , 1956 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Hemmen_Ice_Rise", "rank": 49, "score": 160409 }, { "content": "Title: Petrie Ice Rises Content: Petrie Ice Rises is a group of ice rises extending in a north-south line lying merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , to the west of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Seen from the air on a British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) radio echo sounding flight around Alexander Island , February 11 , 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery . Named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1980 after David L. Petrie , BAS and Scott Polar Research Institute ( SPRI ) electronic technician , about 1966-70 , who was on the flight .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Petrie_Ice_Rises", "rank": 50, "score": 160356 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Krasinskiy Content: Cape Krasinskiy is a projecting angle of the ice shelf fringing the coast of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica , separating Dublitskiy Bay and Kamenev Bight . The feature was photographed from the air by the Sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in 1958 -- 59 and was mapped from these photos . It was also mapped in 1961 by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition who named it for G.D. Krasinskiy , a polar investigator and organizer of air expeditions .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Cape_Krasinskiy", "rank": 51, "score": 160212 }, { "content": "Title: Prince Gustav Ice Shelf Content: Prince Gustav Ice Shelf was an ice shelf of more than 15 nautical miles ( 28 km ) extent occupying the south part of Prince Gustav Channel , including Rohss Bay , James Ross Island . Named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1990 in association with the channel . The ice shelf has since retreated and collapsed ; in 1995 Prince Gustav Channel was open throughout its length , and only a remnant in Rohss Bay remained .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Prince_Gustav_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 52, "score": 160205 }, { "content": "Title: Landy Ice Rises Content: Landy Ice Rises is a group of six ice rises in the Bach Ice Shelf near the head of Stravinsky Inlet , on Alexander Island . They were named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee in 1980 after Michael Paul Landy , a British Antarctic Survey glaciologist from 1975 to 1981 , who worked in the area from Adelaide station , 1975 -- 76 , and Rothera station , 1976-77 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Landy_Ice_Rises", "rank": 53, "score": 160183 }, { "content": "Title: Ross expedition Content: The Ross expedition was a voyage of scientific exploration of the Antarctic in 1839 to 1843 , led by James Clark Ross , with two unusually strong warships , HMS Erebus and HMS Terror . It explored what is now called the Ross Sea and discovered the Ross Ice Shelf . On the expedition , Ross discovered the Transantarctic Mountains and the volcanoes Erebus and Terror , named after his ships . The young botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker made his name on the expedition . The expedition inferred the position of the South Magnetic Pole , and made substantial observations of the zoology and botany of the region , resulting in a monograph on the zoology , and a series of four detailed monographs by Hooker on the botany , collectively called Flora Antarctica and published in parts between 1843 and 1859 . The expedition was the last major voyage of exploration made wholly under sail . Among the expedition 's biological discoveries was the Ross seal , a species confined to the pack ice of Antarctica .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Ross_expedition", "rank": 54, "score": 159883 }, { "content": "Title: Military activity in the Antarctic Content: As Antarctica has never been permanently settled by humans , there has historically been little military activity in the Antarctic . Because the Antarctic Treaty , which came into effect on June 23 , 1961 , bans military activity in Antarctica , military personnel and equipment may only be used for scientific research or any other peaceful purpose ( such as delivering supplies ) on the continent . The Antarctic Treaty specifically prohibits military activity on land or ice shelves below 60 ° S . While the use of nuclear weapons is absolutely prohibited , the Treaty does not apply to naval activity within these bounds ( in the Southern Ocean ) so long as it takes place on the high seas .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Military_activity_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 55, "score": 159326 }, { "content": "Title: Foundation Ice Stream Content: Foundation Ice Stream is a major ice stream in Antarctica 's Pensacola Mountains . The ice stream drains northward for 150 mi along the west side of the Patuxent Range and the Neptune Range to enter the Ronne Ice Shelf westward of Dufek Massif . The United States Geological Survey mapped the stream from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos , 1956 -- 66 . The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names named the stream in recognition of the National Science Foundation , which provided major support to the U.S. Antarctic Research Program during this period .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Foundation_Ice_Stream", "rank": 56, "score": 158447 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic: A–H Content: This is a list of glaciers in the Antarctic with a name starting with the letters A -- H . This list does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . This list includes outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of this list , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "230", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic:_A–H", "rank": 57, "score": 158430 }, { "content": "Title: Kosco Glacier Content: Kosco Glacier is a glacier about 20 nmi long , flowing from the Anderson Heights vicinity of the Bush Mountains of Antarctica northward to enter the Ross Ice Shelf between Wilson Portal and Mount Speed . It was discovered by the United States Antarctic Service , 1939 -- 41 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Captain George F. Kosco , U.S. Navy , chief aerologist and chief scientist of U.S. Navy Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Kosco_Glacier", "rank": 58, "score": 158416 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Antarctica Content: The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and , thus , by ice . The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle . It is washed by the Southern ( or Antarctic ) Ocean or , depending on definition , the southern Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans . It has an area of more than 14 million km ² . Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , the world 's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water . Averaging at least 1.6 km thick , the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level ; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur ( e.g. , Lake Vostok ) . Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Geography_of_Antarctica", "rank": 59, "score": 158409 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic: I–Z Content: This is a list of glaciers in the Antarctic with a name starting with the letters I -- Z . This list does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . This list includes outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of this list , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "230", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic:_I–Z", "rank": 60, "score": 158384 }, { "content": "Title: Wilkins Sound Content: Wilkins Sound is a seaway in Antarctica that is largely occupied by the Wilkins Ice Shelf . It is located on the southwest side of the Antarctic Peninsula between the concave western coastline of Alexander Island and the shores of Charcot Island and Latady Island farther to the west . Its northern portion was first seen and roughly mapped in 1910 by the French Antarctic Expedition under Jean-Baptiste Charcot and was observed from the air in 1929 by Sir Hubert Wilkins . The configuration of the sound was determined in 1940 on exploratory flights by the US Antarctic Service ( USAS ) . It was named by the USAS for Sir Hubert Wilkins , who in 1929 first proved `` Charcot Land '' to be an island ( see Charcot Island ) and thereby indirectly discovered this feature . The existence of Latady Island at the southwest side of the sound was determined in 1960 by D.J.H. Searle of Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) by examination of air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition ( RARE ) , 1947 -- 48 . On 5 April 2009 the thin bridge of ice to the Wilkins Ice Shelf off the coast of Antarctica splintered , and scientists expect it could cause the collapse of the Shelf . There are reports the shelf has exploded into hundreds of small icebergs . David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey has attributed these events to global warming .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Wilkins_Sound", "rank": 61, "score": 158192 }, { "content": "Title: Bach Ice Shelf Content: The Bach Ice Shelf is an ice shelf which is irregular in shape and 45 mi in extent , occupying an embayment in the south part of Alexander Island entered between Berlioz Point and Rossini Point . The ice shelf supports the south face of the Beethoven Peninsula , along with some minor extensive peninsulas and small inlets ( Weber Inlet , Boccherini Inlet etc. ) Bach ice shelf also supports the north side of the Monteverdi Peninsula . A minor embayment in this position first appeared on the charts of the US Antarctic Service , which explored the south part of Alexander Island by air and from the ground in 1940 . The ice shelf was delineated by Derek J.H. Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960 , from air photos obtained by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947 -- 48 . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach . In a 2009 review , the Bach Ice Shelf was listed as one of 5 Antarctic peninsula Ice shelves that were not in retreat . However , with the retreat of the Wilkins Ice Shelf possibly signalling a southward retreat of the limit of viability , Bach Ice Shelf may be the next to come under threat .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Bach_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 62, "score": 158103 }, { "content": "Title: Forster Ice Piedmont Content: Forster Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont lying landward of the Wordie Ice Shelf , along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula . It is formed by the confluence of Airy , Seller , Fleming and Prospect Glaciers and is about 25 mi long from north to south and 12 mi wide . The feature was first surveyed from the ground by the British Graham Land Expedition in 1936 -- 37 , and again in more detail by Peter D. Forster and P. Gibbs of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) in 1958 . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Forster , a surveyor at Stonington Island in 1958 and at Horseshoe Island in 1960 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Forster_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 63, "score": 158082 }, { "content": "Title: Abbot Ice Shelf Content: The Abbot Ice Shelf is an ice shelf 250 mi long and 40 mi wide , bordering Eights Coast from Cape Waite to Pfrogner Point in Antarctica . Thurston Island lies along the northern edge of the western half of this ice shelf ; other sizable islands ( Sherman , Carpenter , Dustin , Johnson , McNamara , Farwell and Dendtler ) lie partly or wholly within this shelf . The ice shelf was sighted by members of U.S. Antarctic Service ( USAS ) in flights from the ship Bear , in February 1940 , and its western portion was delineated from air photos taken by U.S. Navy ( USN ) Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 . The full extent was mapped by USGS from USN air photos of 1966 . Named by US-ACAN for Rear Admiral James Lloyd Abbot , Jr. , Commanding Officer , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , February 1967 to June 1969 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Abbot_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 64, "score": 157634 }, { "content": "Title: Dakshin Gangotri Glacier Content: The Dakshin Gangotri Glacier is a small tongue of the polar continental ice sheet impinging on the Schirmacher Oasis of central Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was discovered by the Second Indian Expedition to Antarctica in 1983 , and named for India 's first Antarctic research station . Since then its snout , and the area around it , has been regularly monitored and it has become a valuable site for tracking the impact of global warming through changes in the movement of the Antarctic ice sheet . The site is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area ( ASPA ) No. 163 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Dakshin_Gangotri_Glacier", "rank": 65, "score": 157621 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet ( EAIS ) is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica , and the largest on the entire planet . The EAIS lies between 45 ° west and 168 ° east longitudinally . The EAIS is considerably larger in area and mass than the West Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) . It is separated from the WAIS by the Transantarctic Mountains . The EAIS rests upon a large land mass , contrary to that of the WAIS , which rests mainly on bedrock below sea level . The EAIS is also home to the thickest ice on the frozen white continent , at 15,700 ft ( 4,800 m ) . More well known , however , is that the EAIS is home to the geographic South Pole as well as of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station .", "qid": "230", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 66, "score": 157506 }, { "content": "Title: McDonald Ice Rumples Content: The McDonald Ice Rumples constitute an ice rise in the Brunt Ice Shelf bordering the Weddell Sea in Antarctica , covering an area of 3 by . Ernest Shackleton 's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition reported a glacier in this vicinity in January 1915 . It was named `` Allan McDonald Glacier '' after Allan McDonald of the British Association of Magallanes at Punta Arenas , who was chiefly responsible for raising funds for sending the schooner Emma on the third attempt , in July 1916 , to rescue the 22 men of the Endurance left on Elephant Island . The Royal Society International Geophysical Year expeditions occupied Halley Research Station nearby ( 1955 -- 59 ) and were familiar with this feature , and reported that in 1957 the maximum elevation above the general surface of the ice shelf , a few hundred metres from the ice front , was about 18 m . It has now been identified with `` Allan McDonald Glacier '' , and for the sake of historical continuity the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee has given the name McDonald to these ice rumples .", "qid": "230", "docid": "McDonald_Ice_Rumples", "rank": 67, "score": 157007 }, { "content": "Title: Skytrain Ice Rise Content: Skytrain Ice Rise is a large , flattish , peninsula-like ice rise of about 50 miles extent , extending from the vicinity of Meyer Hills in the Heritage Range eastward into the Ronne Ice Shelf of Antarctica . It was mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from surveys and USN air photos , 1961 -- 66 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) after the LC-47 Douglas Skytrain airplane ( also called R4D and Dakota ) , used extensively in the supply and placement of U.S. field personnel in Antarctica beginning with USN Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 , and continuing into the late 1960s .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Skytrain_Ice_Rise", "rank": 68, "score": 156540 }, { "content": "Title: Sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition Content: The sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition ( Den norske antarktisekspedisjonen ) was a scientific expedition to Queen Maud Land in Antarctica . The expedition was based at Norway Station which was located on the Fimbul Ice Shelf bordering the coast of Queen Maud Land . The expedition carried out survey work and scientific studies over a period of three-four years ( 1956 -- 1960 ) . The expedition was intended as part of Norway 's participation in the International Geophysical Year , 1957-58 . The crew set sail from Oslo on board two whaling ships , the Polarsirkel and Polarbjørn , on 10 November 1956 . The expedition was led by Sigurd Gunnarson Helle , a geodesist at Norsk Polarinstitutt . It included a total crew of fourteen researchers which was reduced to nine during the third year . Among their activities were topological mapping of the region . In 1960 , King Olav V of Norway instituted the Antarctic Medal ( Antarktismedaljen ) commemorating the expedition which was awarded to 37 people who were attached to the expedition in various ways .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Sixth_Norwegian_Antarctic_Expedition", "rank": 69, "score": 156496 }, { "content": "Title: Henry Ice Rise Content: Henry Ice Rise is a triangular-shaped ice rise about 70 mi long located between Korff Ice Rise and the southern portion of Berkner Island in the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . It was first visited by the United States International Geophysical Year geophysical traverse party from Ellsworth Station , 1957 -- 58 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Captain Clifford D. Henry of the Military Sealift Command , a veteran American polar sea captain and master of . Henry died aboard his ship , February 16 , 1975 , while returning from his fourteenth voyage to Antarctica in support of the U.S. Antarctic Research Program .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Henry_Ice_Rise", "rank": 70, "score": 156240 }, { "content": "Title: ANDRILL Content: ANDRILL ( ANtarctic DRILLing Project ) is a scientific drilling project in Antarctica gathering information about past periods of global warming and cooling . The project involves scientists from Germany , Italy , New Zealand , and the United States . At two sites in 2006 and 2007 , ANDRILL team members drilled through ice , seawater , sediment and rock to a depth over more than 1,200 m and recovered a virtually continuous core record from the present to nearly 20 million years ago . The project is based at McMurdo Station in Antarctica . In studying the cores , ANDRILL scientists from various disciplines are gathering detailed information about past periods of global warming and cooling . A major goal of the project is to significantly improve the understanding of Antarctica 's impact on the world 's oceans currents and the atmosphere by reconstructing the behavior of Antarctic sea-ice , ice-shelves , glaciers and sea currents over tens of millions of years . Initial results imply rapid changes and dramatically different climates at various times on the southernmost continent.Quirin Scheirmeier , `` Sediment cores reveal Antarctica 's warmer past , '' Nature News , April 24 , 2008 . The $ 30 million project has achieved its operational goal of retrieving a continuous core record of the last 17 million years , filling crucial gaps left by previous drilling projects . Making use of knowledge gained through prior Antarctic drilling projects , ANDRILL employed novel techniques to reach record depths at its two drilling sites . Among the innovations deployed were a hot-water drilling system that allowed for easier ice-boring and a flexible drill pipe that could accommodate tidal oscillations and strong currents . On December 16 , 2006 , ANDRILL broke the previous record of 999.1 m set in 2000 by the Ocean Drilling Program 's drill ship , the Joides Resolution . The Antarctic-record 1285 m of core ANDRILL went on to recover represents geologic time to about 13 million years ago . In 2007 , drilling at the Southern McMurdo Sound , ANDRILL scientists recovered another 1138 meters ( 3733.6 ft ) of core . One goal in 2006 was to look at a period of around 3 to 5 million years ago in the Pliocene , which scientists know to be warmer . The team 's sedimentologists identified more than 60 cycles in which ice sheets or glaciers advanced and retreated across McMurdo Sound .", "qid": "230", "docid": "ANDRILL", "rank": 71, "score": 156185 }, { "content": "Title: Eady Ice Piedmont Content: Eady Ice Piedmont is the ice piedmont lying south of Mount Discovery and Minna Bluff , merging at the south side with the Ross Ice Shelf , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from ground surveys and Navy air photos , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1963 for Captain Jack A. Eady , U.S. Navy , Chief of Staff to the Commander , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , from July 1959 to April 1962 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Eady_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 72, "score": 155842 }, { "content": "Title: Khamsin Pass Content: Khamsin Pass is a pass at 750 m , running north-south between the Relay Hills and the Kinnear Mountains , southward of the Wordie Ice Shelf , Antarctic Peninsula . An important pass used by the British Graham Land Expedition , 1936 -- 37 , and subsequent parties , it allows easy access from the Wordie Ice Shelf into Palmer Land . It was named in 1977 by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in association with other wind names in the area , Khamsin being the warm southerly wind in Egypt that comes from the Sahara .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Khamsin_Pass", "rank": 73, "score": 155790 }, { "content": "Title: Ward Hunt Ice Shelf Content: The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf in the Arctic , located on the north coast of Ellesmere Island , Nunavut , Canada . During the 20th century the Ellesmere Ice Shelf broke up into six separate shelves , the largest being Ward Hunt . Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is about 155 sqmi in size , and has been in place for approximately 3,000 years as part of a continuous ice shelf that encompassed the northern coast of Ellesmere Island until the beginning of the twentieth century . In 2005 one of the other shelves , the 25 sqmi Ayles Ice Shelf , calved completely . The Ellesmere ice shelf was documented by the British Arctic Expedition of 1875-76 , in which Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich 's party went from Cape Sheridan ( 82.47 ° N , 61.50 ° W ) west to Cape Alert ( 82.27 ° N , 85.55 ° W ) , including the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf . The Ward Hunt ice sheet began breaking up approximately 100 years ago , but was believed to have stabilized by the early 1980s . However , in April 2000 , satellite images revealed that a large crack in the ice had begun to form , and in 2003 , it was announced that the ice sheet had split completely in two in 2002 , releasing a huge pool of fresh water from the largest epishelf lake in the Northern Hemisphere , located in Disraeli Fjord . In April 2008 , it was discovered that the shelf was fractured into dozens of deep , multi-faceted cracks . In late July 2008 , it was announced that nearly 8 sqmi broke away from the shelf . In August 2010 , another 50 km ² ( 19 sq mi ) calved off from the northeast quarter of the ice shelf . The icebergs released by the breakup now pose a potential danger to shipping and offshore development in the region . Loss of microbial ecosystems caused by the release of the freshwater may also have far-ranging ecological impacts . The breakup of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is tied to steady and dramatic increases in the average temperature of the region over the past decades , correlated with global warming .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Ward_Hunt_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 74, "score": 155634 }, { "content": "Title: Venzke Glacier Content: Venzke Glacier is a broad glacier flowing northward between Bowyer Butte and Perry Range into Getz Ice Shelf on the coast of Marie Byrd Land . The glacier was discovered and photographed from aircraft of the U.S. Antarctic Service in December 1940 . It was mapped in detail by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from surveys and U.S. Navy photographs , 1959-66 . It was named on 1 January 1974 ( USGS Antarctic ID : 15956 ) by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Captain Norman C. Venzke , U.S. Coast Guard , Commanding Officer of USCGC Northwind ( WAGB-282 ) in Antarctica , 1972 and 1973 , and a participant in several other Deep Freeze operations as ship 's company officer aboard icebreakers . Category : Glaciers of Marie Byrd Land", "qid": "230", "docid": "Venzke_Glacier", "rank": 75, "score": 155472 }, { "content": "Title: Fletcher Ice Rise Content: Fletcher Ice Rise , or Fletcher Promontory , is a large ice rise , 100 mi long and 40 mi wide , at the southwest side of the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . The feature is completely ice covered and rises between Rutford Ice Stream and Carlson Inlet . The ice rise was observed , photographed and roughly sketched by Lieutenant Ronald F. Carlson , U.S. Navy , in the course of a C-130 aircraft flight of December 14 -- 15 , 1961 from McMurdo Sound to this vicinity and returning . It was mapped in detail by the U.S. Geological Survey from Landsat imagery taken 1973 -- 74 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Joseph O. Fletcher , director of the Office of Polar Programs , National Science Foundation , 1971 -- 74 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Fletcher_Ice_Rise", "rank": 76, "score": 155216 }, { "content": "Title: Kamenev Bight Content: Kamenev Bight is a shallow embayment about 25 nmi wide in the ice shelf fringing the coast of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . Cape Krasinskiy , an ice cape , marks the western end of the bight which lies 60 nmi northwest of the Schirmacher Hills . The bight was photographed from the air by the Sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in 1958 -- 59 and was mapped from these photos . It was also mapped in 1961 by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition who named it for S.S. Kamenev , an organizer of Arctic expeditions .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Kamenev_Bight", "rank": 77, "score": 155165 }, { "content": "Title: Harrisson Ice Rises Content: The Harrisson Ice Rises are a local swelling of the ice surface 12 nmi west-southwest of Henderson Island , Antarctica , where the Shackleton Ice Shelf overrides an underlying obstruction . The feature was discovered by the Eastern Sledge Party of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition ( 1911 -- 14 ) under Douglas Mawson , who named the feature for Charles T. Harrisson , biologist with the expedition .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Harrisson_Ice_Rises", "rank": 78, "score": 155149 }, { "content": "Title: King Baudouin Ice Shelf Content: The King Baudouin Ice Shelf ( also called Roi Baudouin Ice shelf , from French : Plateforme de glace Roi Baudouin ) in Dronning Maud Land , East Antarctica , is within the Norwegian part of Antarctica . It is named after King Baudouin of Belgium ( 1930-1993 ) .", "qid": "230", "docid": "King_Baudouin_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 79, "score": 154952 }, { "content": "Title: Halvfarryggen Ridge Content: Halvfarryggen Ridge is a broad snow-covered ridge separating the Ekström Ice Shelf and the Jelbart Ice Shelf , on the coast of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was first mapped by the Norwegian -- British -- Swedish Antarctic Expedition , 1949 -- 52 . They referred to the feature as `` Isrygg '' ( ice ridge ) , but it was subsequently named Halvfarryggen ( the half way ridge ) by the Sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition , 1956 -- 60 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Halvfarryggen_Ridge", "rank": 80, "score": 154922 }, { "content": "Title: Thuronyi Bluff Content: Thuronyi Bluff is a prominent escarpment on the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula , which faces the Larsen Ice Shelf and the Weddell Sea and lies immediately south of the Antarctic Circle . It is located above Mill Inlet in British Antarctic Territory at the base of the Cole Peninsula , between Balch Glacier and Gould Glacier ; it is part of Graham Land . The bluff was first observed in aerial photographs taken on December 22 , 1947 , during the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition . A modern satellite photo of Thuronyi Bluff and its adjoining glaciers can be seen here . Just north of Thuronyi Bluff , the Larsen Ice Shelf once extended a hundred kilometers ( or more ) from land before any open sea would be encountered . However , part of the shelf larger than the state of Rhode Island , known as `` Larsen B '' , disintegrated over a three-week period in 2002 , which followed a similar disintegraton of the equivalently sized `` Larsen A '' region in 1995 . It is anticipated that `` Larsen C '' , which lies at the foot of Thuronyi Bluff , may suffer a similar fate sometime in the next decade , after which open seawater will likely come near to Thuronyi Bluff during the austral summertime .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Thuronyi_Bluff", "rank": 81, "score": 154567 }, { "content": "Title: Vere Ice Rise Content: Vere Ice Rise is a small ice rise lying merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , lying off the west coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was roughly mapped from the air by British Antarctic Survey on a radio echo sounding flight on 1 February 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery of February 1979 . It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1980 after Flight Lieutenant Robert P. Vere , RAF , the second pilot of the Twin Otter aircraft used on the British Antarctic Survey flight .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Vere_Ice_Rise", "rank": 82, "score": 154427 }, { "content": "Title: Humphreys Ice Rise Content: Humphreys Ice Rise is an ice rise in the Muller Ice Shelf in the southwestern part of Lallemand Fjord , Loubet Coast , Antarctica . It was photographed from the air by the Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition , 1956 -- 57 , and surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1956 -- 59 . In association with the names of glaciologists grouped in this area , the feature was named `` Humphreys Hill '' by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after William J. Humphreys , an American meteorologist and specialist on the effects of ice in the atmosphere . Humphreys was joint author with W.A. Bentley ( for whom Bentley Crag was named ) of Snow Crystals , New York , 1931 . It was renamed as Humphreys Ice Rise to reflect the true nature of the feature .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Humphreys_Ice_Rise", "rank": 83, "score": 154275 }, { "content": "Title: Søråsen Ridge Content: Søråsen Ridge ( Søråsen ) is a broad , snow-covered ridge that separates the Quar and Ekström Ice shelves , on the coast of Queen Maud Land . The feature was first mapped and named Søråsen ( the south ridge ) by the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition , 1949-52 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Søråsen_Ridge", "rank": 84, "score": 154101 }, { "content": "Title: Venable Ice Shelf Content: Venable Ice Shelf is an ice shelf , 40 miles ( 60 km ) long and 15 miles ( 24 km ) wide , between Fletcher and Allison Peninsulas , Ellsworth Land . Mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos , 1961-66 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Cdm . J. D. Venable , U.S. Navy , Ships Operations Officer , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , 1967 and 1968 . Category : Ice shelves of Antarctica Category : Landforms of Ellsworth Land", "qid": "230", "docid": "Venable_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 85, "score": 153979 }, { "content": "Title: Kiletangen Ice Tongue Content: Kiletangen Ice Tongue is a narrow projection of the ice shelf on the east side of Tangekilen Bay , along the coast of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was first mapped by Norwegian cartographers from air photos taken by the Lars Christensen Expedition , 1936 -- 37 , and named Kiletangen ( the bay tongue ) .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Kiletangen_Ice_Tongue", "rank": 86, "score": 153613 }, { "content": "Title: Schaus Ice Rises Content: Schaus Ice Rises is a group of small ice rises merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , aligned east-west just off the north side of Eroica Peninsula , situated off the southwest coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1967-68 and from Landsat imagery taken 1972-73 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Commander Richard Schaus , U.S. Navy , assigned to the Division of Polar Programs , National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , as aviation projects officer , 1979-80 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Schaus_Ice_Rises", "rank": 87, "score": 153556 }, { "content": "Title: Lambert Glacier Content: Lambert Glacier is a major glacier in East Antarctica . At about 60 miles ( 100 km ) wide , over 250 miles ( 400 km ) long , and about 2,500 m deep , it holds the Guinness world record for the world 's largest . It drains 8 % of the Antarctic ice sheet to the east and south of the Prince Charles Mountains and flows northward to the Amery Ice Shelf . It flows in part of Lambert Graben and exits the continent at Prydz Bay . This glacier was delineated and named in 1952 by American geographer John H. Roscoe who made a detailed study of this area from aerial photographs taken by Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 . He gave the name `` Baker Three Glacier '' , using the code name of the Navy photographic aircraft and crew that made three flights in this coastal area in March 1947 resulting in geographic discoveries . The glacier was described in Gazetteer No. 14 , Geographic Names of Antarctica ( U.S. Board on Geographic Names , 1956 ) , but the feature did not immediately appear on published maps . As a result the name Lambert Glacier , as applied by the Antarctic Names Committee of Australia in 1957 following mapping of the area by Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions in 1956 , has become established for this feature . It was named for Bruce P. Lambert , Director of National Mapping in the Australian Department of National Development .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Lambert_Glacier", "rank": 88, "score": 152942 }, { "content": "Title: Miller Ice Rise Content: Miller Ice Rise is an ice rise nearly 2 nmi long and 1 nmi wide at the ice front ( 1974 ) of the Wordie Ice Shelf , 16 nmi west-northwest of the Triune Peaks , in southern Marguerite Bay , Antarctica . It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1948 -- 49 , and was photographed from the air by the U.S. Navy in 1966 . The feature was named , in 1977 , by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Richard Miller , a U.S. Navy chief radioman at Palmer Station in the winter party of 1968 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Miller_Ice_Rise", "rank": 89, "score": 152891 }, { "content": "Title: Koettlitz Glacier Content: Koettlitz Glacier is a large Antarctic glacier lying west of Mount Morning and Mount Discovery in the Royal Society Range , flowing from the vicinity of Mount Cocks northeastward between Brown Peninsula and the mainland into the ice shelf of McMurdo Sound . It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition ( 1901 -- 04 ) which named it for Dr. Reginald Koettlitz , physician and botanist of the expedition .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Koettlitz_Glacier", "rank": 90, "score": 152876 }, { "content": "Title: George VI Ice Shelf Content: The George VI Ice Shelf is an extensive ice shelf that occupies George VI Sound which separates Alexander Island from Palmer Land in Antarctica . The ice shelf extends from Ronne Entrance , at the southwest end of the sound , to Niznik Island , about 30 nmi south of the north entrance between Cape Brown and Cape Jeremy . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in association with George VI Sound .", "qid": "230", "docid": "George_VI_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 91, "score": 152559 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary glaciation Content: The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Quaternary_glaciation", "rank": 92, "score": 152506 }, { "content": "Title: Möller Ice Stream Content: Möller Ice Stream is an Antarctic ice stream that drains an area of 66000 sqkm of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet as it flows north-northeast into the Ronne Ice Shelf to the west of Foundation Ice Stream . The drainage basin of this ice stream is separated by the Rambo Nunataks from the drainage basin of Foundation Ice Stream . The feature was delineated from U.S. Landsat imagery commissioned by the Institut für Angewandte Geodäsie , Frankfurt am Main , Germany , recorded January -- March , 1986 . It was named after German engineer Professor Dietrich Möller , Director of the Institute for Land Survey at the Technical University of Braunschweig from 1972 , and Deputy Leader and in charge of geodetic work at Filchner Station on the Ronne Ice Shelf in 1979 -- 80 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Möller_Ice_Stream", "rank": 93, "score": 151968 }, { "content": "Title: MacKenzie Bay Content: MacKenzie Bay is a relatively small embayment of the western extremity of the Amery Ice Shelf , Antarctica , about 20 nmi northeast of Foley Promontory . On February 10 , 1931 , the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition ( BANZARE ) sighted a much larger embayment here and made an airplane flight to sketch its limits . They named it `` MacKenzie Sea '' after Captain K.N. MacKenzie , the master of the expedition 's ship Discovery in 1930 -- 31 . Breakout of a large part of Amery Ice Shelf has drastically reduced the size of this feature ; in 1968 the bay was 15 nmi wide . Several Norwegian whaling ships sighted the original embayment nearly simultaneously with BANZARE ; the whale-catcher Seksern ( Captain Brunvoll ) reached this area on January 13 , 1931 , and the Torlyn ( Captain Klarius Mikkelsen ) on February 13 , 1931 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "MacKenzie_Bay", "rank": 94, "score": 151712 }, { "content": "Title: Bailey Ice Stream Content: Bailey Ice Stream is an ice stream on the northern margin of the Theron Mountains , flowing west-southwest to the Filchner Ice Shelf . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Jeremy Thomas Bailey ( 1941 -- 65 ) , a British Antarctic Survey glaciologist , who with two companions died in a crevasse accident during a radio echo sounding traverse inland from Halley Station on October 12 , 1965 . On an earlier traverse in April , 1965 , Bailey sounded the upper portion of this feature .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Bailey_Ice_Stream", "rank": 95, "score": 151653 }, { "content": "Title: Burgess Ice Rise Content: Burgess Ice Rise is a small ice rise lying within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , off the west coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was mapped from the air on a radio echo sounding flight by the British Antarctic Survey on February 11 , 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery of February 1979 . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1980 after Flight Lieutenant Robert William Burgess , Royal Air Force pilot in command of the Twin Otter aircraft on the flight .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Burgess_Ice_Rise", "rank": 96, "score": 151543 }, { "content": "Title: Grand Chasms Content: The Grand Chasms are two or more deep crevasses in the Filchner Ice Shelf , Antarctica , extending west for an unknown distance from 37 ° W , close west of the Touchdown Hills . The feature is the most notable crevassed area on the Filchner Ice Shelf , roughly 60 mi long and from 0.25 to wide . It was discovered by the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , 1955-58 . During 1957 it was examined by a U.S. party from Ellsworth Station led by Dr. Edward Thiel , who applied the descriptive name .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Grand_Chasms", "rank": 97, "score": 151464 }, { "content": "Title: Mount Wade Content: Mount Wade is a massive mountain in Antarctica . It is the most distinctive landmark in its region and the highest in its range , standing six kilometres northwest of Mount Campbell in the Prince Olav Mountains . The mountain is easily viewed from Shackleton Glacier or the Ross Ice Shelf . The mountain was discovered and photographed by Byrd on flights to the Queen Maud Mountains in November 1929 . It was named by US-SCAN for F. Alton Wade ( 1903 -- 78 ) , a geologist with the Byrd Antarctic Expedition ( 1933 -- 35 ) . He was also senior scientist at West Base of the United States Antarctic Program ( 1939 -- 41 ) , and leader of two Texas Tech Shackleton Glacier Parties ( 1962 -- 63 and 1964 -- 65 ) to this vicinity ; Senior Scientist USARP Marie Byrd Land Survey , 1966 -- 67 and 1967-68 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Mount_Wade", "rank": 98, "score": 151213 }, { "content": "Title: Aurora Glacier (Antarctica) Content: Aurora Glacier is a large glacier draining that part of Ross Island between Mount Erebus and Mount Terra Nova , and flowing south into McMurdo Ice Shelf . It was named by A.J. Heine in 1963 after the Aurora , the ship of the Ross Sea Party of the British expedition under Ernest Shackleton , 1914 -- 17 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Aurora_Glacier_(Antarctica)", "rank": 99, "score": 151196 }, { "content": "Title: Cape May (Antarctica) Content: Cape May is a high rock cape along the west side of the Ross Ice Shelf , Antarctica , 8 nmi southeast of Cape Laird . It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition ( 1901 -- 04 ) and named for Admiral of the fleet Sir William Henry May , Lord of the Admiralty and Controller of the Navy , 1901 -- 05 .", "qid": "230", "docid": "Cape_May_(Antarctica)", "rank": 100, "score": 151077 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 1, "score": 123733 }, { "content": "Title: Lowest temperature recorded on Earth Content: The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is − 89.2 C , which was at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica by ground measurements . A 2009 study estimated that under exceptional climate conditions similar to those recorded at Vostin 1983 , temperatures higher on the plateau around Dome Argus could potentially drop lower than − 95 C. On August 10 , 2010 , satellite observations measured a surface temperature of − 93.2 C at 81.8 ° S 59.3 ° E , along a ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji , at 3,900 m elevation . The result was reported at the 46th annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco , in December 2013 ; it is a provisional figure , and may be subject to revision . The value may not be listed as the record coldest temperature as it was measured by remote sensing satellites and not by ground-based thermometers , unlike the 1983 record . The temperature announced reflects that of the ice surface , while the Vostok readings measured the air above the ice , and so the two are not directly comparable . However , it is most likely that the real temperature on the site was lower than that recorded at Vostok .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Lowest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth", "rank": 2, "score": 123287 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Antarctica Content: The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth . Antarctica 's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983 , with − 89.2 C at Vostok Station . Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures , down to − 93.2 C at the cloud free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010 . It is also extremely dry ( technically a desert ) , averaging 166 mm of precipitation per year . On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet . Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent , because of the katabatic winds . Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate ( Köppen EF ) with very cold , generally extremely dry weather .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Antarctica", "rank": 3, "score": 116903 }, { "content": "Title: Highest temperature recorded on Earth Content: The standard measuring conditions for temperature are in the air , 1.5 meters above the ground , and shielded from direct sunlight . The highest confirmed temperature on Earth recorded according to these measures was 56.7 C in Furnace Creek Ranch , California , located in the Death Valley desert in the United States , on July 10 , 1913 . The former highest official temperature on Earth , held for 90 years by ` Aziziya , Libya , was de-certified by the WMO ( World Meteorological Organization ) in January 2012 as the record for the world 's highest surface temperature ( this temperature of 57.8 ° C ( 136 ° F ) , registered on 13 September 1922 , is currently considered to have been a recorder 's error ) . Christopher C. Burt , the weather historian writing for Weather Underground who shepherded the Libya reading 's 2012 disqualification , believes that the 1913 Death Valley reading is `` a myth '' , and is at least four or five degrees Fahrenheit too high , as do other weather historians Dr. Arnold Court and William Taylor Reid . Burt proposes that the highest reliably recorded temperature on Earth is still at Death Valley , but is instead 53.9 C recorded five times : 20 July 1960 , 18 July 1998 , 20 July 2005 , 7 July 2007 , and 30 June 2013 . Temperatures measured directly on the ground may exceed air temperatures by 30 to 50 ° C . A ground temperature of 84 ° C ( 183.2 ° F ) has been recorded in Port Sudan , Sudan . A ground temperature of 93.9 ° C ( 201 ° F ) was recorded also in Furnace Creek Ranch on 15 July 1972 ; this may be the highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded . The theoretical maximum possible ground surface temperature has been estimated to be between 90 and 100 ° C for dry , darkish soils of low thermal conductivity . Temperature measurements via satellite also tend to capture occurrence of higher records but are considered less reliable than ground-positioned thermometers . There is a satellite record of 66.8 C measured in the Flaming Mountains of China in 2008 . Other satellite measurements of ground temperature taken between 2003 and 2009 , taken with the MODIS infrared spectroradiometer on the Aqua satellite , found a maximum temperature of 70.7 ° C ( 159.3 ° F ) , which was recorded in 2005 in the Lut Desert , Iran . The Lut Desert was also found to have the highest maximum temperature in 5 of the 7 years measured ( 2004 , 2005 , 2006 , 2007 and 2009 ) . These measurements reflect averages over a large region and so are lower than the maximum point surface temperature .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Highest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth", "rank": 4, "score": 111285 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 5, "score": 110739 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 6, "score": 109786 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Earth Content: The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Earth", "rank": 7, "score": 105528 }, { "content": "Title: Stratopause Content: The stratopause ( formerly Mesopeak ) is the level of the atmosphere which is the boundary between two layers : the stratosphere and the mesosphere . In the stratosphere the temperature increases with altitude , and the stratopause is the region where a maximum in the temperature occurs . This atmospheric feature is not only associated with Earth : it occurs on any other planet or moon that has an atmosphere as well . On Earth , the stratopause is 50 to high above the Earth 's surface . The atmospheric pressure is around 1/1000 of the pressure at sea level . The temperature in the stratopause is -15 degrees Celsius ( 5 degrees Fahrenheit ) .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Stratopause", "rank": 8, "score": 103397 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 9, "score": 103124 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 10, "score": 102765 }, { "content": "Title: Planetary equilibrium temperature Content: The planetary equilibrium temperature is a theoretical temperature that a planet would be at when considered simply as if it were a black body being heated only by its parent star . In this model , the presence or absence of an atmosphere ( and therefore any greenhouse effect ) is not considered , and one treats the theoretical black body temperature as if it came from an idealized surface of the planet . Other authors use different names for this concept , such as equivalent blackbody temperature of a planet , or the effective radiation emission temperature of the planet . Similar concepts include the global mean temperature , global radiative equilibrium , and global-mean surface air temperature , which includes the effects of global warming .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Planetary_equilibrium_temperature", "rank": 11, "score": 102137 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 12, "score": 101483 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric temperature Content: Atmospheric temperature is a measure of temperature at different levels of the Earth 's atmosphere . It is governed by many factors , including incoming solar radiation , humidity and altitude . When discussing surface temperature , the annual atmospheric temperature range at any geographical location depends largely upon the type of biome , as measured by the Köppen climate classification .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Atmospheric_temperature", "rank": 13, "score": 100693 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-59b Content: Kepler 59b , discovered in 2012 , is very likely a rocky planet with a radius of 1.1 Earths and a mass of 1.217 Earths and an average temperature of around 866 K.", "qid": "235", "docid": "Kepler-59b", "rank": 14, "score": 100161 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 15, "score": 100007 }, { "content": "Title: Weather Content: Weather is the state of the atmosphere , to the degree that it is hot or cold , wet or dry , calm or stormy , clear or cloudy . Most weather phenomena occur in the lowest level of the atmosphere , the troposphere , just below the stratosphere . Weather refers to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity , whereas climate is the term for the averaging of atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time . When used without qualification , `` weather '' is generally understood to mean the weather of Earth . Weather is driven by air pressure , temperature and moisture differences between one place and another . These differences can occur due to the sun 's angle at any particular spot , which varies with latitude . The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the largest scale atmospheric circulations : the Hadley Cell , the Ferrel Cell , the Polar Cell , and the jet stream . Weather systems in the mid-latitudes , such as extratropical cyclones , are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow . Because the Earth 's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane , sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year . On Earth 's surface , temperatures usually range ± 40 ° C ( − 40 ° F to 100 ° F ) annually . Over thousands of years , changes in Earth 's orbit can affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth , thus influencing long-term climate and global climate change . Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences . Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes as most atmospheric heating is due to contact with the Earth 's surface while radiative losses to space are mostly constant . Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location . The Earth 's weather system is a chaotic system ; as a result , small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole . Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout history , and there is evidence that human activities such as agriculture and industry have modified weather patterns . Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth . A famous landmark in the Solar System , Jupiter 's Great Red Spot , is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years . However , weather is not limited to planetary bodies . A star 's corona is constantly being lost to space , creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System . The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Weather", "rank": 16, "score": 99193 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of the Arctic Content: The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long , cold winters and short , cool summers . There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic , but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter . Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice ( sea ice , glacial ice , or snow ) year-round , and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface . Average January temperatures range from about − 34 ° C to 0 ° C ( − 40 to +32 ° F ) , and winter temperatures can drop below − 50 ° C ( − 58 ° F ) over large parts of the Arctic . Average July temperatures range from about − 10 to +10 ° C ( 14 to 50 ° F ) , with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) in summer . The Arctic consists of ocean that is largely surrounded by land . As such , the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water , which can never have a temperature below − 2 ° C ( 28 ° F ) . In winter , this relatively warm water , even though covered by the polar ice pack , keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere , and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic . In summer , the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_the_Arctic", "rank": 17, "score": 98691 }, { "content": "Title: Polar climate Content: The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers . Every month in a polar climate has an average temperature of less than 10 C. Regions with polar climate cover more than 20 % of the Earth . The sun shines for long hours in the summer , and for many fewer hours in the winter . A polar climate results in treeless tundra , glaciers , or a permanent or semi-permanent layer of ice . It has cool summers and very cold winters .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Polar_climate", "rank": 18, "score": 98452 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature Rising (album) Content: Temperature Rising is the second English language album by Thai singer Tata Young . It was released in 2006 . The album consist of cover songs and original songs . The first single is `` El Nin-YO ! '' , from the lyrics of which the album 's title comes from . ( `` You got my temperature rising like El Nin-YO ! '' ) . Her second single is `` Zoom '' which was released in September . `` Come Rain Come Shine '' , the third single , was used in Star World 's station promo 's from December 2006 to mid-2007 . The promo includes footage of Tata Young singing `` Come Rain Come Shine '' as well as scenes from some of Star World 's television shows ( Everybody Loves Raymond , American Idol etc. . ) Track # 7 , `` Zoom '' , was covered by Ashley Tisdale on her 2007 debut album Headstrong , under the title as `` Do n't Touch ( The Zoom Song ) '' . Temperature Rising was last Tata Young album released on cassette tapes , but in very small numbers produced in a short time until September 2006 .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Temperature_Rising_(album)", "rank": 19, "score": 97985 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "235", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 20, "score": 97740 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "235", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 21, "score": 97268 }, { "content": "Title: Pliocene climate Content: During the Pliocene epoch ( 5.3 Ma to 2.6 Ma ) climate became cooler and drier , and seasonal , similar to modern climates . The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene ( 3.3 Ma -- 3 Ma ) was 2 -- 3 ° C higher than today , global sea level 25m higher and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma . The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds . Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch . The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . During the Pliocene the earth climate system response shifted from a period of high frequency-low amplitude oscillation dominated by the 41,000-year period of Earth 's obliquity to one of low-frequency , high-amplitude oscillation dominated by the 100,000-year period of the orbital eccentricity characteristic of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles . The equatorial pacific ocean sea surface temperature gradient was considerably lower than it is today , mean sea surface temperature in the east were substantially warmer than today but similar in the west , this condition has been described as a permanent El Niño state or El Padre", "qid": "235", "docid": "Pliocene_climate", "rank": 22, "score": 97243 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Mars Content: The climate of Mars has been an issue of scientific curiosity for centuries , in part because Mars is the only terrestrial planet whose surface can be directly observed in detail from the Earth with help from a telescope . Although Mars is smaller than the Earth , at 11 % of Earth 's mass , and 50 % farther from the Sun than the Earth , its climate has important similarities , such as the polar ice caps , seasonal changes and the observable presence of weather patterns . It has attracted sustained study from planetologists and climatologists . While Mars 's climate has similarities to Earth 's , including periodic ice ages , there are also important differences , such as much lower thermal inertia . Mars ' atmosphere has a scale height of approximately 11 km , 60 % greater than that on Earth . The climate is of considerable relevance to the question of whether life is or was present on the planet . The climate briefly received more interest in the news due to NASA measurements indicating increased sublimation of the south polar icecap leading to some popular press speculation that Mars was undergoing a parallel bout of global warming , although Mars ' average temperature has actually cooled in recent decades . Mars has been studied by Earth-based instruments since the 17th century but it is only since the exploration of Mars began in the mid-1960s that close-range observation has been possible . Flyby and orbital spacecraft have provided data from above , while direct measurements of atmospheric conditions have been provided by a number of landers and rovers . Advanced Earth orbital instruments today continue to provide some useful `` big picture '' observations of relatively large weather phenomena . The first Martian flyby mission was Mariner 4 which arrived in 1965 . That quick two-day pass ( July 14 -- 15 , 1965 ) was limited and crude in terms of its contribution to the state of knowledge of Martian climate . Later Mariner missions ( Mariner 6 , and Mariner 7 ) filled in some of the gaps in basic climate information . Data-based climate studies started in earnest with the Viking program in 1975 and continues with such probes as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter . This observational work has been complemented by a type of scientific computer simulation called the Mars general circulation model . Several different iterations of MGCM have led to an increased understanding of Mars as well as the limits of such models .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Mars", "rank": 23, "score": 97181 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 24, "score": 97145 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal Content: A thermal column ( or thermal ) is a column of rising air in the lower altitudes of Earth 's atmosphere , a form of atmospheric updraft . Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth 's surface from solar radiation , and are an example of convection , specifically atmospheric convection . The Sun warms the ground , which in turn warms the air directly above it .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Thermal", "rank": 25, "score": 96713 }, { "content": "Title: Permafrost Content: In geology , permafrost is ground , including rock or ( cryotic ) soil , at or below the freezing point of water 0 C for two or more years . Most permafrost is located in high latitudes ( in and around the Arctic and Antarctic regions ) , but alpine permafrost may exist at high altitudes in much lower latitudes . Ground ice is not always present , as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock , but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material . Permafrost accounts for 0.022 % of total water on earth and exists in 24 % of exposed land in the Northern Hemisphere . It also occurs subsea on the continental shelves of the continents surrounding the Arctic Ocean , portions of which were exposed during the last glacial period , with global weather implications . A global temperature rise of 1.5 C-change above current levels would be enough to start the thawing of permafrost in Siberia , according to one group of scientists .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Permafrost", "rank": 26, "score": 96635 }, { "content": "Title: Frost (temperature) Content: Frost or freezing occurs when the temperature of air falls below the freezing point of water ( 0 ° C , 32 ° F , 273.15 K ) . This is usually measured at the height of 1.2 m above the ground surface . There is a rather subjective scale to show several degrees of frost severity : slight frost : 0 to moderate frost : − 3.6 to − 6.5 ° C ( 25.6 to 20.3 ° F ) severe frost : − 6.6 to − 11.5 ° C ( 20.2 to 11.3 ° F ) very severe frost : below -11.5 C Frost is not necessary to get ground frost or hoar frost ; they can form even if air temperature is above freezing point if the surfaces have been chilled by heat emission during a cold night .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Frost_(temperature)", "rank": 27, "score": 96488 }, { "content": "Title: LOWERN Content: LOWERN is an acronym for 6 factors that affect climate . Latitude . Depending on how close or how far it is to the equator . Ocean currents . Certain ocean currents have different temperatures . Warm ocean currents warm the air above it , which warms the coast . Cold ocean currents cool the air above it , which cools the coast . This helps keep the coast a consistent temperature . Wind and Air masses . Heated ground causes air to rise which results in lower air pressure . As it rises it cools and descends to the ground resulting in high air pressure . This cycle repeats which creates wind . These air masses absorb the climate of the air below it . Elevation . The higher up you are , the colder and drier it will be . When air rises it expands due to low air pressure which causes it to cool . Relief . The differences in the elevation in land . As air is forced to rise over a piece of land ( e.g. a mountain ) the temperature decreases and condensation increases . As it condensates water droplets get bigger and heavier and are forced to fall . Once the air mass goes over the mountain the temperature and evaporation increases but condensations decreases , resulting in a halt in precipitation and rain shadows . Nearness to Water . Water heats up and cools down slower than land does , having a moderating effect . On colder days , the water heats up the land , whereas on hotter days , the land is cooled down by the water . These areas also experience more precipitation . Category : Climatology", "qid": "235", "docid": "LOWERN", "rank": 28, "score": 96354 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature in Canada Content:", "qid": "235", "docid": "Temperature_in_Canada", "rank": 29, "score": 96218 }, { "content": "Title: Earth potential rise Content: In electrical engineering , earth potential rise ( EPR ) also called ground potential rise ( GPR ) occurs when a large current flows to earth through an earth grid impedance . The potential relative to a distant point on the Earth is highest at the point where current enters the ground , and declines with distance from the source . Ground potential rise is a concern in the design of electrical substations because the high potential may be a hazard to people or equipment . The change of voltage over distance ( potential gradient ) may be so high that a person could be injured due to the voltage developed between two feet , or between the ground on which the person is standing and a metal object . Any conducting object connected to the substation earth ground , such as telephone wires , rails , fences , or metallic piping , may also be energized at the ground potential in the substation . This transferred potential is a hazard to people and equipment outside the substation .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Earth_potential_rise", "rank": 30, "score": 95903 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 31, "score": 95723 }, { "content": "Title: Ground frost Content: Ground frost refers to the various coverings of ice produced by the direct deposition of water vapor on objects and trees , whose surfaces have a temperature below the freezing point of water ( 0 ° C , 32 ° F ) .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Ground_frost", "rank": 32, "score": 95573 }, { "content": "Title: Temperate climate Content: In geography , temperate or tepid latitudes of Earth lie between the tropics and the polar regions . The temperatures in these regions are generally relatively moderate , rather than extremely hot or cold , and the changes between summer and winter are also usually moderate .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Temperate_climate", "rank": 33, "score": 95148 }, { "content": "Title: The Greening of Planet Earth Content: The Greening of Planet Earth is a half-hour-long video produced by the coal industry , which argues that rising CO2 levels will be beneficial to agriculture , and that policies intending to reduce CO2 levels are therefore misguided . The video argues that rising CO2 levels both directly stimulate plant growth and , as a result of their warming properties , cause winter temperatures to rise , thereby indirectly stimulating plant growth . It was produced in 1991 and released the following year . A sequel , entitled , The Greening of Planet Earth Continues , was released in 1998 . The video was narrated by Sherwood Idso . After the video was made , it was distributed to thousands of journalists by a coal industry group . The video became very popular viewing in the George H. W. Bush White House and elsewhere in Washington , where it was promoted before the 1992 Earth Summit , and , according to some reports , became especially popular with then-chief of staff John H. Sununu .", "qid": "235", "docid": "The_Greening_of_Planet_Earth", "rank": 34, "score": 95049 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's energy budget Content: Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Earth's_energy_budget", "rank": 35, "score": 94932 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of London Content: London , the capital and largest city in England and the United Kingdom has a temperate oceanic climate , with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year . Summer temperatures rarely rise much above 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) , though higher temperatures have become more common recently . The highest temperature ever recorded in London was 38.1 ° C ( 100.6 ° F ) , measured at Kew Gardens during the European Heat Wave of 2003 . In modern times , heavy snowfalls have been infrequent with snow generally only settling once or twice each winter and accumulations usually of no more than an inch ( 2.5 cm ) or so . Despite its reputation as being a rainy city , London receives less precipitation ( 601 mm ( 24 in ) in a year ) , than Rome , Bordeaux , Toulouse , Naples and less than half the precipitation of Sydney or New York City . This is despite the fact that sub-tropical regions usually receive fewer rainy or overcast days . London 's large built-up area creates a microclimate ( an `` urban heat island '' ) , with heat stored by the city 's buildings . Sometimes temperatures are 5 ° C ( 9 ° F ) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_London", "rank": 36, "score": 94649 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Sindh Content: The province of Sindh is situated in a subtropical region ; it is hot in the summer and cold in winter . Temperatures frequently rise above 46 ° C between May and August , and the minimum average temperature of 2 ° C occurs during December and January . The annual rainfall averages about seven inches , falling mainly during July and August . The southwesterly monsoon wind begins to blow in mid-February and continues until the end of September , whereas the cool northerly wind blows during the winter months from October to January . Sindh lies between the two monsoons -- the southwest monsoon from the Indian Ocean and the northeast or retreating monsoon , deflected towards it by the Himalayan mountains -- and escapes the influence of both . The average rainfall in Sindh is only 6 - per year . The region 's scarcity of rainfall is compensated by the inundation of the Indus twice a year , caused by the spring and summer melting of Himalayan snow and by rainfall in the monsoon season . These natural patterns have recently changed somewhat with the construction of dams and barrages on the Indus River . Parts of southeastern Sindh receive rainfall of up to 36 in and some cities have received very heavy rainfall on occasion . In 2005 , Hyderabad received 14.4 in in just 11 hours . Sindh is divided into three climatic regions : Siro ( the upper region , centred on Jacobabad ) , Wicholo ( the middle region , centred on Hyderabad ) , and Lar ( the lower region , centred on Karachi ) . The thermal equator passes through upper Sindh , where the air is generally very dry . The highest temperature ever recorded in Sindh was 53.5 C , which was recorded in Mohenjo-daro on 26 May 2010 . It was not only the hottest temperature ever recorded in Pakistan but also the hottest reliably measured temperature ever recorded in the continent of Asia and the fourth highest temperature ever recorded on earth . The previous record for Sindh and Pakistan , and for all of Asia , had been 52.8 C , reached on 12 June 1919 . In the winters , frost is common . Central Sindh 's temperatures are generally lower than those of upper Sindh but higher than those of lower Sindh . Dry hot days and cool nights are typical during the summer . Central Sindh 's maximum temperature typically reaches 43 - . Lower Sindh has a damper and humid maritime climate affected by the southwestern winds in summer and northeastern winds in winter , with lower rainfall than Central Sindh . Lower Sindh 's maximum temperature reaches about 35 - . In the Kirthar range at 1800 m and higher at Gorakh Hill and other peaks in Dadu District , temperatures near freezing have been recorded and brief snowfall is received in the winters.In gorakh temperatures in winter nights can sour down to -15 . The highest temperatures each year in Pakistan , typically rising to above 48 ° C , are usually recorded in Shaheed Benazeerabad District ( previously called Nawabshah District ) and Sibbi from May to August . Sometimes the temperature falls to 0 ° C ; on rare occasions ( once every 25 years or so ) it has fallen to below -7 ° C in December or January .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Sindh", "rank": 37, "score": 94570 }, { "content": "Title: List of locations with a subtropical climate Content: This list of locations with a subtropical climate specifically lists locations considered within the subtropics . The subtropics are geographic and climate zones located roughly between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn and the 40th parallel in both hemispheres . Subtropical climate regimes can exist at high elevations within the tropics , such as across the Mexican Plateau and in Vietnam and Taiwan . Six climate classifications utilize the term to help define the various temperature and precipitation regimes for the planet Earth . Using the Trewartha climate classification eight or more months of the year within the subtropics have an average temperature at or above 10 ° C , with their coldest month averaging between 6 and . The Köppen climate classification instead classifies the warmest month above 22 C and the coldest above 0 C or -3 C depending on preference . A great portion of the world 's deserts are located within the subtropics , due to the development of the subtropical ridge . Within the humid monsoon regimes in the subtropics , a wet season is seen annually during the summer , which is when most of the yearly rainfall falls . Within the Mediterranean climate regime , the wet season occurs during the winter . Areas bordering warm oceans are prone to locally heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones , which can contribute a significant percentage of the annual rainfall . Plants such as date palms , citrus , mango , litchi , and avocado are grown within the subtropical zones . This is not a complete list . Many of the higher mountains at tropical latitudes have sparsely ( if at all ) inhabited areas with a subtropical climate . Roads with reflectors also exist in most areas with subtropical climates .", "qid": "235", "docid": "List_of_locations_with_a_subtropical_climate", "rank": 38, "score": 94536 }, { "content": "Title: Troposphere Content: The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth 's atmosphere , and is also where nearly all weather takes place . It contains approximately 75 % of the atmosphere 's mass and 99 % of the total mass of water vapor and aerosols . The average depths of the troposphere are 20 km in the tropics , 17 km in the mid latitudes , and 7 km in the polar regions in winter . The lowest part of the troposphere , where friction with the Earth 's surface influences air flow , is the planetary boundary layer . This layer is typically a few hundred meters to 2 km deep depending on the landform and time of day . Atop the troposphere is the tropopause , which is the border between the troposphere and stratosphere . The tropopause is an inversion layer , where the air temperature ceases to decrease with height and remains constant through its thickness . The word troposphere derives from the for `` turn , turn toward , trope '' and '' - sphere '' ( as in , the Earth ) , reflecting the fact that rotational turbulent mixing plays an important role in the troposphere 's structure and behaviour . Most of the phenomena associated with day-to-day weather occur in the troposphere .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Troposphere", "rank": 39, "score": 94524 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of East Anglia Content: The climate of East Anglia is generally dry and mild . The region is among the driest in the United Kingdom with many areas receiving less than 700mm of rainfall a yearand locations such as Lowestoft less than 600 mm on average . Rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year . Maximum temperatures range from 5 -- 10 ° C ( 41 -- 50 ° F ) in the winter to 20 -- 25 ° C ( 68 -- 77 ° F ) in the summer , although temperatures have been known to reach 35 ° C ( 95 ° F ) . Sunshine totals tend to be higher towards the coastal areas .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_East_Anglia", "rank": 40, "score": 94419 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Venus Content: The atmosphere of Venus is the layer of gases surrounding Venus . It is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and is much denser and hotter than that of Earth . The temperature at the surface is 740 K ( 467 ° C , 872 ° F ) , and the pressure is 93 bar ( 9.3 MPa ) , roughly the pressure found 900 m underwater on Earth . The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid , making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible . Information about the topography has been obtained exclusively by radar imaging . Aside from carbon dioxide , the other main component is nitrogen . Other chemical compounds are present only in trace amounts . Mikhail Lomonosov was the first person to hypothesize the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 in a small observatory near his house in Saint Petersburg , Russia . Aside from the very surface layers , the atmosphere is in a state of vigorous circulation . The upper layer of troposphere exhibits a phenomenon of super-rotation , in which the atmosphere circles the planet in just four Earth days , much faster than the planet 's sidereal day of 243 days . The winds supporting super-rotation blow at a speed of 100 m/s ( ~ 360 km/h or 220 mph ) or more . Winds move at up to 60 times the speed of the planet 's rotation , while Earth 's fastest winds are only 10 % to 20 % rotation speed . On the other hand , the wind speed becomes increasingly slower as the elevation from the surface decreases , with the breeze barely reaching the speed of 10 km/h ( 2.8 m/s ) on the surface . Near the poles are anticyclonic structures called polar vortices . Each vortex is double-eyed and shows a characteristic S-shaped pattern of clouds . Above there is an intermediate layer of mesosphere which separates the troposphere from the thermosphere . The thermosphere is also characterized by strong circulation , but very different in its nature - the gases heated and partially ionized by sunlight in the sunlit hemisphere migrate to the dark hemisphere where they recombine and downwell . Unlike Earth , Venus lacks a magnetic field . Its ionosphere separates the atmosphere from outer space and the solar wind . This ionised layer excludes the solar magnetic field , giving Venus a distinct magnetic environment . This is considered Venus 's induced magnetosphere . Lighter gases , including water vapour , are continuously blown away by the solar wind through the induced magnetotail . It is speculated that the atmosphere of Venus up to around 4 billion years ago was more like that of the Earth with liquid water on the surface . A runaway greenhouse effect may have been caused by the evaporation of the surface water and subsequent rise of the levels of other greenhouse gases . Despite the harsh conditions on the surface , the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth , making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System , even more so than the surface of Mars . Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air ( 21 % oxygen , 78 % nitrogen ) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth , the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization . On January 29 , 2013 , ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of the planet Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to `` the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions . ''", "qid": "235", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Venus", "rank": 41, "score": 94381 }, { "content": "Title: Geothermal heat pump Content: A geothermal heat pump or ground source heat pump ( GSHP ) is a central heating and/or cooling system that transfers heat to or from the ground . It uses the earth as a heat source ( in the winter ) or a heat sink ( in the summer ) . This design takes advantage of the moderate temperatures in the ground to boost efficiency and reduce the operational costs of heating and cooling systems , and may be combined with solar heating to form a geosolar system with even greater efficiency . They are also known by other names , including geoexchange , earth-coupled , earth energy systems . The engineering and scientific communities prefer the terms `` geoexchange '' or `` ground source heat pumps '' to avoid confusion with traditional geothermal power , which uses a high temperature heat source to generate electricity . Ground source heat pumps harvest heat absorbed at the Earth 's surface from solar energy . The temperature in the ground below 6 m is roughly equal to the mean annual air temperature at that latitude at the surface . Depending on latitude , the temperature beneath the upper 6 m of Earth 's surface maintains a nearly constant temperature between 10 and 16 ° C ( 50 and 60 ° F ) , if the temperature is undisturbed by the presence of a heat pump . Like a refrigerator or air conditioner , these systems use a heat pump to force the transfer of heat from the ground . Heat pumps can transfer heat from a cool space to a warm space , against the natural direction of flow , or they can enhance the natural flow of heat from a warm area to a cool one . The core of the heat pump is a loop of refrigerant pumped through a vapor-compression refrigeration cycle that moves heat . Air-source heat pumps are typically more efficient at heating than pure electric heaters , even when extracting heat from cold winter air , although efficiencies begin dropping significantly as outside air temperatures drop below 5 ° C ( 41 ° F ) . A ground source heat pump exchanges heat with the ground . This is much more energy-efficient because underground temperatures are more stable than air temperatures through the year . Seasonal variations drop off with depth and disappear below 7 m to 12 m due to thermal inertia . Like a cave , the shallow ground temperature is warmer than the air above during the winter and cooler than the air in the summer . A ground source heat pump extracts ground heat in the winter ( for heating ) and transfers heat back into the ground in the summer ( for cooling ) . Some systems are designed to operate in one mode only , heating or cooling , depending on climate . Geothermal pump systems reach fairly high coefficient of performance ( CoP ) , 3 to 6 , on the coldest of winter nights , compared to 1.75 -- 2.5 for air-source heat pumps on cool days . Ground source heat pumps ( GSHPs ) are among the most energy efficient technologies for providing HVAC and water heating . Setup costs are higher than for conventional systems , but the difference is usually returned in energy savings in 3 to 10 years , and even shorter lengths of time with federal , state and utility tax credits and incentives . Geothermal heat pump systems are reasonably warranted by manufacturers , and their working life is estimated at 25 years for inside components and 50 + years for the ground loop . As of 2004 , there are over one million units installed worldwide providing 12 GW of thermal capacity , with an annual growth rate of 10 % .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Geothermal_heat_pump", "rank": 42, "score": 94320 }, { "content": "Title: Below Content: Below may refer to : Earth Ground ( disambiguation ) Soil Floor Bottom ( disambiguation ) Less than Temperatures below freezing Hell or underworld", "qid": "235", "docid": "Below", "rank": 43, "score": 94312 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Estonia Content: Estonia lies in the northern part of the temperate climate zone and in the transition zone between maritime and continental climate . Because Estonia ( and all of Northern Europe ) is continuously warmed by maritime air influenced by the heat content of the northern Atlantic Ocean , it has a milder climate despite its northern latitude . The Baltic Sea causes differences between the climate of coastal and inland areas . Estonia has four seasons of near-equal length . Average temperatures range from 16.3 ° C on the Baltic islands to 18.1 ° C inland in July , the warmest month , and from -3.5 ° C on the Baltic islands to -7.6 ° C inland in February , the coldest month . The average annual temperature in Estonia is 5.2 ° C . The average temperature in February , the coldest month of the year , is -5.7 ° C . The average temperature in July , which is considered the warmest month of the year , is 16.4 ° C . The climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean , the North-Atlantic Stream and the Icelandic Minimum , which is an area known for the formation of cyclones and where the average air pressure is lower than in neighbouring areas . Estonia is located in a humid zone in which the amount of precipitation is greater than total evaporation . The average precipitation in 1961 -- 1990 ranged from 535 to per year and was heaviest in late summer . There were between 102 and 127 rainy days a year , and average precipitation was most plentiful on the western slopes of the Sakala and Haanja Uplands . Snow cover , which is deepest in the south-eastern part of Estonia , usually lasts from mid-December to late March .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Estonia", "rank": 44, "score": 94141 }, { "content": "Title: Polar High Content: The polar highs are areas of high atmospheric pressure around the north and south poles ; the north polar high being the stronger one because land gains and loses heat more effectively than sea . The cold temperatures in the polar regions cause air to descend to create the high pressure ( a process called subsidence ) , just as the warm temperatures around the equator cause air to rise to create the low pressure intertropical convergence zone . Rising air also occurs along bands of low pressure situated just below the polar highs around the 50th parallels of latitude . These extratropical convergence zones are occupied by the polar fronts where air masses of polar origin meet and clash with those of tropical or subtropical origin . This convergence of rising air completes the vertical cycle around the polar cell in each latitudinal hemisphere . Closely related to this concept is the polar vortex . Surface temperatures under the polar highs are the coldest on Earth , with no month having an average temperature above freezing . Regions under the polar high also experience very low levels of precipitation , which leads them to be known as `` polar deserts '' . Air flows outwards from the poles to create the polar easterlies in the arctic and antarctic areas .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Polar_High", "rank": 45, "score": 94117 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 46, "score": 94047 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Brazil Content: The climate of Brazil varies considerably mostly from tropical north ( the equator traverses the mouth of the Amazon ) to temperate zones south of the Tropic of Capricorn ( 23 ° 26 ' S latitude ) . Temperatures below the equator are high , averaging above 25 ° C , but not reaching the summer extremes of up to 40 ° C in the temperate zones . There is little seasonal variation near the equator , although at times it can get cool enough to need to wear a jacket , especially in the rain . Average temperatures below the Tropic of Capricorn are mild , ranging from 13 ° C to 22 ° C. At the country 's other extreme , there are frosts south of the Tropic of Capricorn and during the winter ( June -- September ) , and in some years there are snowfalls on the high plateau and mountainous areas of some regions . Snow falls in the mountains of the states of Rio Grande do Sul , Santa Catarina , and Paraná and it is possible but very rare in the states of São Paulo , Rio de Janeiro , Minas Gerais , and Espírito Santo . The cities of Belo Horizonte and Brasília have moderate temperatures , usually between 15 and , because of their elevation of approximately 1000 m. Rio de Janeiro , Recife , and Salvador on the coast have warm climates , with average temperatures of each month ranging from 23 to , but enjoy constant trade winds . The cities of São Paulo , Curitiba , Florianópolis and Porto Alegre have a subtropical climate similar to that of southern United States , and temperatures can fall below freezing in winter . Precipitation levels vary widely . Most of Brazil has moderate rainfall of between 1000 and a year , with most of the rain falling in the summer ( between December and April ) south of the Equator . The Amazon region is notoriously humid , with rainfall generally more than 2000 mm per year and reaching as high as 3000 mm in parts of the western Amazon and near Belém . It is less widely known that , despite high annual precipitation , the Amazon rain forest has a three - to five-month dry season , the timing of which varies according to location north or south of the equator . High and relatively regular levels of precipitation in the Amazon contrast sharply with the dryness of the semiarid Northeast , where rainfall is highly erratic and there are severe droughts in cycles averaging seven years . The Northeast is the driest part of the country . The region also constitutes the hottest part of Brazil , where during the dry season between May and November , temperatures of more than 38 ° C have been recorded . However , the sertão , a region of semidesert vegetation used primarily for low-density ranching , turns green when there is rain . Most of the Center-West has 1500 to of rain per year , with a pronounced dry season in the middle of the year , while the South and most of the East is without a distinct dry season . Because the South Atlantic basin is generally not a favorable environment for their development , Brazil has only rarely experienced tropical cyclones . The country 's coastal population centers are therefore not as burdened with the need to prepare for cyclones , as are cities at similar latitudes in the United States and Asia .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Brazil", "rank": 47, "score": 93584 }, { "content": "Title: Geothermal gradient Content: Geothermal gradient is the rate of increasing temperature with respect to increasing depth in the Earth 's interior . Away from tectonic plate boundaries , it is about 25 ° C per km of depth ( 1 ° F per 70 feet of depth ) near the surface in most of the world . Strictly speaking , geo-thermal necessarily refers to the Earth but the concept may be applied to other planets . A line tracing the gradient through the planetary body is called a geotherm on Earth and other terrestrial planets . On the Moon it is called a selenotherm . The Earth 's internal heat comes from a combination of residual heat from planetary accretion , heat produced through radioactive decay , and possibly heat from other sources . The major heat-producing isotopes in the Earth are potassium-40 , uranium-238 , uranium-235 , and thorium-232 . At the center of the planet , the temperature may be up to 7,000 K and the pressure could reach 360 GPa ( 3.6 million atm ) . Because much of the heat is provided by radioactive decay , scientists believe that early in Earth history , before isotopes with short half-lives had been depleted , Earth 's heat production would have been much higher . Heat production was twice that of present-day at approximately 3 billion years ago , resulting in larger temperature gradients within the Earth , larger rates of mantle convection and plate tectonics , allowing the production of igneous rocks such as komatiites that are not formed anymore today .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Geothermal_gradient", "rank": 48, "score": 93313 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Egypt Content: Egypt is most famously known for the landmark , the Eiffel Tower , and has a rather snowy climate . The prevailing wind to the Mediterranean Sea continuously blows over the northern coast without the interposition of an eventual mountain range and thus , greatly moderates temperatures throughout the year . Because of the effect , average low temperatures vary from 9.5 ° C in wintertime to 23 ° C in summertime and average high temperatures vary from 17 ° C in wintertime to 32 ° C in summertime . Though temperatures are moderated along the coasts , the situation changes in the interior , which are away from the moderating northerly winds . Thus , in the central and the southern parts , daytime temperatures are hotter , especially in summers where average high temperatures can exceed 40 ° C in cities and places such as Aswan , Luxor , Asyut or Sohag which are located in the deserts of Egypt . Some mountainous locations in Sinai , such as Saint Catherine , have cooler night temperatures , due to their high elevations . Every year , sometime from March to May , an extremely hot , dry and dusty wind blows from the south or the southwest . This wind is called khamasīn . When the flow of dry air continuously blows over vast desert regions , it picks up fine sand and dust particles and finally results in a dusty wind which is generally felt in the periphery of the desert . When this wind blows over Egypt , it causes high temperatures to soar temporarily at dangerous levels , usually over 45 ° C , the relative humidity levels to drop under 5 % . The khamasīn causes sudden , early heat waves and the absolute highest temperature records in Egypt . Egypt receives between 20 mm and 200 mm of annual average precipitation along the narrow Mediterranean coast , but south to Cairo , the average drops to nearly 0 mm in the central and the southern part of the country . The cloudiest , rainiest places are in and around Alexandria and Rafah . The sunshine duration is high all over Egypt , ranging from a low of 3,300 hours along the northernmost part in places such as Alexandria to reach a high of over 4,000 hours farther in the interior , in most of the country . It usually snows on the Sinai mountains , but it almost never snows in the cities of Giza , Cairo , and Alexandria . For example , in December 2013 , Cairo received a single overnight snowfall for the first time since 1901 .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Egypt", "rank": 49, "score": 93157 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Mumbai Content: The Climate of Mumbai is a tropical wet and dry climate . Mumbai 's climate can be best described as moderately hot with high level of humidity . Its coastal nature and tropical location ensures temperatures wo n't fluctuate much throughout the year . The mean average is 27.2 ° C and average precipitation is 242.2 cm ( 95.35 inches ) . The mean maximum average temperatures is about 32 ° C in summer and 30 ° C in winter , while the average minimums are 25 ° C in summer and 20.5 ° C in winter . Mumbai experiences four distinct seasons : Winter ( Jan -- Dec ) winter18 to 5 degree , 30 to 27 Summer ( 28 Feb ) ; Monsoon ( June -- August ) ; and Post-Monsoon ( Dec-Feb ) .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Mumbai", "rank": 50, "score": 93148 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Gujarat Content: The climate of Gujarat involves diverse conditions . The winters are mild , pleasant , and dry with average daytime temperatures around 29 ° C and nights around 12 ° C with 100 percent sunny days and clear nights . The summers are extremely hot and dry with daytime temperatures around 49 ° C and at night no lower than 30 ° C . In the weeks leading up to the arrival of the monsoon rains the temperatures are similar to above but with high humidity which makes the air feel hotter . Relief when the monsoon season starts around in mid June . The day temperatures are lowered to around 35 ° C but humidity is very high and nights are around 27 ° C. Most of the rainfall occurs in this season , and the rain can cause severe floods . The sun is often occluded during the monsoon season . Though mostly dry , it is desertic in the north-west , and wet in the southern districts due to a heavy monsoon season . Category : Gujarat Category : Climate of India", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Gujarat", "rank": 51, "score": 92893 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Svalbard Content: The climate of Svalbard is principally a result of its latitude , which is between 74 ° and 81 ° north . Average July temperatures range from 3 and , and in January temperatures are normally between − 13 and . The North Atlantic Current moderates Svalbard 's temperatures , particularly during winter , giving it up to 20 C-change higher winter temperature than similar latitudes in continental Russia and Canada . This keeps the surrounding waters open and navigable most of the year . The interior fjord areas and valleys , sheltered by the mountains , have less temperature differences than the coast , giving about 2 ° C lower summer temperatures and 3 ° C higher winter temperatures . On the south of Spitsbergen , the temperature is slightly higher than further north and west . During winter , the temperature difference between south and north is typically 5 ° C , while only about 3 ° C in summer . Bear Island has average temperatures even higher than the rest of the archipelago . The archipelago is the meeting place for cold polar air from the north and mild , wet sea air from the south , creating low pressure and changing weather and fast winds , particularly in winter ; in January , a strong breeze is registered 17 % of the time at Isfjord Radio , but only 1 % of the time in July . In summer , particularly away from land , fog is common , with visibility under 1 km registered 20 % of the time in July and 1 % of the time in January , at Hopen and Bear Island . Precipitation is frequent , but falls in small quantities , typically less than 400 mm in Western Spitsbergen . More rain falls in the uninhabited east side , where there can be more than 1000 mm . The warmest temperature ever recorded was 21.3 C in July 1979 and the coldest was -46.3 C in March 1986 .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Svalbard", "rank": 52, "score": 92842 }, { "content": "Title: Ground-coupled heat exchanger Content: A ground-coupled heat exchanger is an underground heat exchanger that can capture heat from and/or dissipate heat to the ground . They use the Earth 's near constant subterranean temperature to warm or cool air or other fluids for residential , agricultural or industrial uses . If building air is blown through the heat exchanger for heat recovery ventilation , they are called earth tubes ( also known as earth cooling tubes or earth warming tubes ) in Europe or earth-air heat exchangers ( EAHE or EAHX ) in North America . These systems are known by several other names , including : air-to-soil heat exchanger , earth channels , earth canals , earth-air tunnel systems , ground tube heat exchanger , hypocausts , subsoil heat exchangers , thermal labyrinths , underground air pipes , and others . Earth tubes are often a viable and economical alternative or supplement to conventional central heating or air conditioning systems since there are no compressors , chemicals or burners and only blowers are required to move the air . These are used for either partial or full cooling and/or heating of facility ventilation air . Their use can help buildings meet Passive House standards or LEED certification . Earth-air heat exchangers have been used in agricultural facilities ( animal buildings ) and horticultural facilities ( greenhouses ) in the United States over the past several decades and have been used in conjunction with solar chimneys in hot arid areas for thousands of years , probably beginning in the Persian Empire . Implementation of these systems in Austria , Denmark , Germany , and India has become fairly common since the mid-1990s , and is slowly being adopted in North America . Ground-coupled heat exchanger may also use water or antifreeze as a heat transfer fluid , often in conjunction with a geothermal heat pump . See , for example downhole heat exchangers . The rest of this article deals primarily with earth-air heat exchangers or earth tubes .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Ground-coupled_heat_exchanger", "rank": 53, "score": 92537 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Tuvalu Content: Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 54, "score": 92039 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Ecuador Content: The climate of Ecuador varies by region , due to differences in elevation and , to a degree , in proximity to the equator . The coastal lowlands in the western part of Ecuador are typically warm with temperatures in the region of 25 ° C. Coastal areas are affected by ocean currents and between January and April are hot and rainy . The weather in Quito is consistent with that of a subtropical highland climate . The city has barely any cool air since it is close to the equator . The average temperature during the day is 66 F , which generally falls to an average of 50 F at night . The average temperature annually is 64 F . There are only really two obvious seasons in the city : dry and wet . The dry season ( summer ) runs from June to September and the wet season ( winter ) is from October to May . As most of Ecuador is in the southern hemisphere , June to September is considered to be winter , and winter is generally the dry season in warm climates . Spring , summer , and fall are generally the `` wet seasons '' while winter is the dry ( with the exception of the first month of fall being dry ) .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Ecuador", "rank": 55, "score": 91931 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "235", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 56, "score": 91858 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric temperature range Content: Atmospheric temperature range is the numerical difference between the minimum and maximum values of temperature observed in a given location during a period of time ( e.g. , in a given day , month , year , century ) or the average ( average of all temperature ranges in a period of time ) . The variation in temperature that occurs from the highs of the day to the cool of nights is called diurnal temperature variation .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Atmospheric_temperature_range", "rank": 57, "score": 91795 }, { "content": "Title: TEMP (meteorology) Content: TEMP ( upper air soundings ) is a set of World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) alphanumerical codes used for reporting weather observations of the upper regions of the atmosphere made by weather balloons released from the surface level ( either at land or at sea ) . The WMO designates the FM-35 numerical code for surface TEMPs and the FM-36 numerical code for ship-based TEMPs . Category : Earth sciences data formats", "qid": "235", "docid": "TEMP_(meteorology)", "rank": 58, "score": 91741 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Tasmania Content: Tasmania has a cool temperate climate with four distinct seasons . The highest recorded maximum temperature in Tasmania is 42.2 ° C at Scamander on 30 January 2009 , during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave . Tasmania 's lowest recorded minimum temperature is -13.0 ° C on 30 June 1983 , at Butlers Gorge , Shannon , and Tarraleah . Rainfall in Tasmania is highly differentiated for a relatively compact island . It follows a complicated pattern rather analogous to that found on large continents at the same latitude in the northern hemisphere . Rainfall increases from around 506 mm at Ouse in the centre to 2690 mm at Cradle Valley in the northwestern highlands . Sunshine is also highly differentiated , with average quotients ranging from around 4 hours a day ( under 1500 hours a year ) in the South West of the island , up to around 7 hours daily ( 2550 hours annually ) in the North East around the Launceston area .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Tasmania", "rank": 59, "score": 91583 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of south-west England Content: The climate of south-west England is classed as oceanic ( Cfb ) according to the Köppen climate classification . The oceanic climate is typified by cool winters with warmer summers and precipitation all year round , with more experienced in winter . Annual rainfall is about 1000 mm and up to 2000 mm on higher ground . Summer maxima averages range from 18 ° C to 22 ° C and winter minima averages range from 1 ° C to 4 ° C across the south-west . It is the second windiest area of the United Kingdom , the majority of winds coming from the south-west and north-east . Government organisations predict the area will experience a rise in temperature and become the hottest region in the United Kingdom . Inland areas of low altitude experience the least amount of precipitation . They have the highest summer maxima temperatures , but winter minima are lower than those of the coast . Snowfalls are more frequent in comparison to the coast , but less so in comparison to higher ground . They experience the lowest wind speeds and the total sunshine hours are between those of the coast and the moors . This typical climate of inland areas is more noticeable the further north-east into the region . In comparison to inland areas , the coast experiences high minimum temperatures , especially in winter , and slightly lower maximum temperatures during the summer . Rainfall is lowest at the coast and snowfall there is rarer than the rest of the region . Coastal areas are the windiest parts of the peninsula and they receive the most sunshine . The general coastal climate becomes more prevalent further south-west into the region . The south-west has areas of moorland inland such as Bodmin Moor , Dartmoor and Exmoor . Because of their high altitude they experience lower temperatures and more precipitation than the rest of the south west ( approximately twice as much rainfall as lowland areas ) . Both of these factors also result in the highest levels of snowfall and the lowest levels of sunshine . Exposed areas of the moors are windier than the lowlands and can be almost as windy as the coast .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_south-west_England", "rank": 60, "score": 91270 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Alabama Content: The state is classified as humid subtropical ( Cfa ) under the Köppen climate classification . The average annual temperature is 64 ° F ( 18 ° C ) . Temperatures tend to be warmer in the southern part of the state with its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico , while the northern parts of the state , especially in the Appalachian Mountains in the northeast , tend to be slightly cooler . Generally , Alabama has very hot summers and mild winters with copious precipitation throughout the year . Alabama receives an average of 56 in of rainfall annually and enjoys a lengthy growing season of up to 300 days in the southern part of the state . Hailstorms occur occasionally in the spring and summer , but are seldom destructive . Heavy fogs are rare , and are confined chiefly to the coast . Thunderstorms occur throughout the year - they are most common in the summer , but most severe in the spring and fall , when destructive winds and tornadoes occasionally occur . Hurricanes are quite common in the state , especially in the southern part , and major hurricanes occasionally strike the coast which can be very destructive .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Alabama", "rank": 61, "score": 90992 }, { "content": "Title: Inner core Content: The Earth 's inner core is the Earth 's innermost part . It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1220 km , which is about 70 % of the Moon 's radius . It is composed of an iron -- nickel alloy and some light elements . The temperature at the inner core boundary is approximately 5700 K ( 5400 ° C ) .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Inner_core", "rank": 62, "score": 90830 }, { "content": "Title: Mesosphere Content: The mesosphere ( -LSB- ˈmɛsoʊsfɪər -RSB- from Greek mesos `` middle '' and sphaira `` sphere '' ) is the layer of the Earth 's atmosphere that is directly above the stratosphere and directly below the mesopause . In the mesosphere , temperature decreases as the altitude increases . The upper boundary of the mesosphere is the mesopause , which can be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth with temperatures below -143 C . The exact upper and lower boundaries of the mesosphere vary with latitude and with season , but the lower boundary of the mesosphere is usually located at heights of about 50 km above the Earth 's surface and the mesopause is usually at heights near 100 km , except at middle and high latitudes in summer where it descends to heights of about 85 km . The stratosphere , mesosphere and lowest part of the thermosphere are collectively referred to as the `` middle atmosphere '' , which spans heights from approximately 10 km to 100 km . The mesopause , at an altitude of 80 - , separates the mesosphere from the thermosphere -- the second-outermost layer of the Earth 's atmosphere . This is also around the same altitude as the turbopause , below which different chemical species are well mixed due to turbulent eddies . Above this level the atmosphere becomes non-uniform ; the scale heights of different chemical species differ by their molecular masses .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Mesosphere", "rank": 63, "score": 90676 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Uranus Content: The atmosphere of Uranus is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium . At depth it is significantly enriched in volatiles ( dubbed `` ices '' ) such as water , ammonia and methane . The opposite is true for the upper atmosphere , which contains very few gases heavier than hydrogen and helium due to its low temperature . Uranus 's atmosphere is the coldest of all the planets , with its temperature reaching as low as 49 K. The Uranian atmosphere can be divided into three main layers : the troposphere , between altitudes of − 300 and 50 km and pressures from 100 to 0.1 bar ; the stratosphere , spanning altitudes between 50 and 4000 km and pressures of between and the hot thermosphere ( and exosphere ) extending from an altitude of 4,000 km to several Uranian radii from the nominal surface at 1 bar pressure . Unlike Earth 's , Uranus 's atmosphere has no mesosphere . The troposphere hosts four cloud layers : methane clouds at about 1.2 bar , hydrogen sulfide and ammonia clouds at 3 -- 10 bar , ammonium hydrosulfide clouds at 20 -- 40 bar , and finally water clouds below 50 bar . Only the upper two cloud layers have been observed directly -- the deeper clouds remain speculative . Above the clouds lie several tenuous layers of photochemical haze . Discrete bright tropospheric clouds are rare on Uranus , probably due to sluggish convection in the planet 's interior . Nevertheless , observations of such clouds were used to measure the planet 's zonal winds , which are remarkably fast with speeds up to 240 m/s . Little is known about the Uranian atmosphere as to date only one spacecraft , Voyager 2 , which passed by the planet in 1986 , has studied it in detail . No other missions to Uranus are currently scheduled .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Uranus", "rank": 64, "score": 90630 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "235", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 65, "score": 90597 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 66, "score": 90591 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 67, "score": 90444 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 68, "score": 90400 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Muscat Content: The climate of Muscat features a hot , arid climate with long and very hot summers and mild winters . Annual rainfall in Muscat is about 100 mm ( 4 in ) , falling mostly from December to April . In general , precipitation is scarce in Muscat with several months , on average , seeing only a trace of rainfall . The climate is very hot , with temperatures reaching as high as 49 ° C ( 120 ° F ) in the summer . For sightseeing , the best time to visit Muscat is from December to March as the temperatures are moderate and pleasant , making it easy to move around . Between mid-March and October , travel is very exhausting with the average temperature between 31 ° C to 38 ° C and sunburn and dehydration are possible .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Muscat", "rank": 69, "score": 90308 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Indonesia Content: The climate of Indonesia is almost entirely tropical . The uniformly warm waters that make up 81 % of Indonesia 's area ensure that temperatures on land remain fairly constant , with the coastal plains averaging 28 ° C , the inland and mountain areas averaging 26 ° C , and the higher mountain regions , 23 ° C. Temperature varies little from season to season , and Indonesia experiences relatively little change in the length of daylight hours from one season to the next ; the difference between the longest day and the shortest day of the year is only forty-eight minutes . This allows crops to be grown all year round . The main variable of Indonesia 's climate is not temperature or air pressure , but rainfall . The area 's relative humidity ranges between 70 and 90 % . Winds are moderate and generally predictable , with monsoons usually blowing in from the south and east in June through September and from the northwest in December through March . Typhoons and large-scale storms pose little hazard to mariners in Indonesia waters ; the major danger comes from swift currents in channels , such as the Lombok and Sape straits . Indonesia experiences a number of climates , mostly tropical rainforest ( highest precipitation ) , followed by tropical monsoon and tropical savanna ( lowest precipitation ) . However , oceanic climates and subtropical highland climates are found in a number of high-altitude regions in Indonesia , mostly between 1500 and above sea level . Regions that are above this level ( mostly in the Papuan highlands ) fall into the tundra climate category and the subpolar oceanic category .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Indonesia", "rank": 70, "score": 90201 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of the Nordic countries Content: The climate of the Nordic countries is that of a region in Northern Europe that consists of Denmark , Finland , Iceland , Norway and Sweden and their associated territories , which include the Faroe Islands , Greenland and Åland . Stockholm , Sweden has on average the warmest summer of the Nordic countries , with an average maximum temperature of 23 ° C in July ; Copenhagen , Oslo and Helsinki have an average July maximum temperature of 22 ° C.", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_the_Nordic_countries", "rank": 71, "score": 90093 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Quetta Content: Quetta , Pakistan features a continental and semi-arid climate with significant variations between summer and winter temperatures . The highest temperature recorded in Quetta was 42 C on 10 July 1998 . The lowest temperature in Quetta is -18.3 C which was recorded on 8 January 1970 . Summer starts in late May and continues until early September with average temperatures ranging from 24 C to 26 C. Autumn starts in late September and continues until mid-November with average temperatures of 12 C to 18 C. Winter starts from the first week of October and ends in late March , with average temperatures near 4 C to 5 C. Spring starts in early April and ends in late May , with average temperatures close to 15 C. Unlike most of Pakistan , however , Quetta does not have a monsoon of sustained , heavy rainfall . The highest rainfall during a 24-hour period is 113 mm recorded on 17 December 2000 ; the highest monthly rainfall is 232.4 mm , which was recorded in March , 1982 ; and the highest annual rainfall recorded is 949.8 mm in 1982 . The principle mode of precipitation in winter is snow , falls mostly in December , January , February and sometimes even in March .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Quetta", "rank": 72, "score": 90036 }, { "content": "Title: Sea surface temperature Content: Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans . Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Sea_surface_temperature", "rank": 73, "score": 90026 }, { "content": "Title: Subsidence (atmosphere) Content: Subsidence in the Earth 's atmosphere is most commonly caused by low temperatures : as air cools , it becomes denser and moves towards the ground , just as warm air becomes less dense and moves upwards . Cool subsiding air is subject to adiabatic warming which tends to cause the evaporation of any clouds that might be present . Subsidence generally causes high barometric pressure as more air moves into the same space : the polar highs are areas of almost constant subsidence , as are the horse latitudes , and these areas of subsidence are the sources of much of the world 's prevailing wind . Subsidence also causes many smaller-scale weather phenomena , such as morning fog . An extreme form of subsidence is a downburst , which can result in damage similar to that produced by a tornado . A milder form of subsidence is referred to as downdraft . Category : Atmosphere Category : Basic meteorological concepts and phenomena", "qid": "235", "docid": "Subsidence_(atmosphere)", "rank": 74, "score": 89985 }, { "content": "Title: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Content: Six Degrees : Our Future on a Hotter Planet ( 358 pages ) , ISBN 978-0-00-720905-7 is a 2007 ( 2008 in USA ) non-fiction book by author Mark Lynas about global warming . The book looks and attempts to summarize results from scientific papers on climate change .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Six_Degrees:_Our_Future_on_a_Hotter_Planet", "rank": 75, "score": 89861 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Uranus Content: The climate of Uranus is heavily influenced by both its lack of internal heat , which limits atmospheric activity , and by its extreme axial tilt , which induces intense seasonal variation . Uranus 's atmosphere is remarkably bland in comparison to the other gas giants which it otherwise closely resembles . When Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986 , it observed a total of ten cloud features across the entire planet . Later observations from the ground or by the Hubble Space Telescope made in the 1990s and the 2000s revealed bright clouds in the northern ( winter ) hemisphere . In 2006 a dark spot similar to the Great Dark Spot on Neptune was detected .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Uranus", "rank": 76, "score": 89821 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Dhaka Content: Dhaka experiences a hot , wet and humid tropical climate . Under the Köppen climate classification , Dhaka has a tropical wet and dry climate . The city has a distinct monsoonal season , with an annual average temperature of 25 C and monthly means varying between 18 C in January and 29 C in August . Nearly 80 % of the annual average rainfall of 1854 mm occurs during the monsoon season which lasts from May until the end of September . Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city . Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing destruction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments . Coupled with pollution , such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity . Cold weather is unusual in and around Dhaka . When temperatures decrease to 8 C or less , people without warm clothing and living in inadequate homes may die from the cold .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Dhaka", "rank": 77, "score": 89669 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature's Rising Content: Temperature 's Rising is a compilation album released in 1995 by the Canadian rock band Loverboy . The album was the third compilation by the band , but this particular compilation aimed at the more rarely heard songs by the band , and the minor hits that the previous compilations did not cover .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Temperature's_Rising", "rank": 78, "score": 89632 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Serbia Content: The Serbian climate is between a continental climate in the north , with cold winters , and hot , humid summers with well distributed rainfall patterns , and a more Adriatic climate in the south with hot , dry summers and autumns and rank daily average relatively cold winters with heavy inland snowfall . Differences in elevation , proximity to the Adriatic Sea and large river basins , as well as exposure to the winds account for climate differences . Northern Serbia possesses typical continental climate , with air masses from northern and western Europe which shape its climatic profile . South and South-west Serbia is subject to Mediterranean influences . However , the Dinaric Alps and other mountain ranges contribute to the cooling down of most of the warm air masses . Winters are quite harsh in Raška ( region ) because of the mountains which encircle the plateau . Mediterranean micro-regions exist throughout southern Serbia , in Zlatibor and the Pčinja District around valley and river Pčinja . The average annual air temperature for the period 1961 -- 90 for the area with an altitude of up to 300 m is 10.9 ° C . The areas with an altitude of 300 to have an average annual temperature of around 10.0 ° C , and over 1000 m of altitude around 6.0 ° C . The lowest recorded temperature in Serbia was -39.5 ° C ( January 13 , 1985 , Karajukića Bunari in Pešter ) , and the highest was 44.9 C ( July 24 , 2007 , Smederevska Palanka ) .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Serbia", "rank": 79, "score": 89568 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in West Virginia Content: Climate change in West Virginia is of a concern due to the effects on the environment . Over the last century , the average temperature in Charleston , West Virginia , has increased 1.1 ° F ( 0.61 ° C ) , and precipitation has increased by up to 10 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future . Over the next century , climate in West Virginia may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in West Virginia could increase by 3 ° F ( 1.67 ° C ) in winter , spring , and summer ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and 4 ° F ( 2.23 ° C ) in fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to increase by 20 % ( with a range of 10-30 % ) in all seasons , slightly more in summer . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer thunderstorms is possible", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_change_in_West_Virginia", "rank": 80, "score": 89564 }, { "content": "Title: 50th parallel north Content: The 50th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 50 degrees north of the Earth 's equatorial plane . It crosses Europe , Asia , the Pacific Ocean , North America , and the Atlantic Ocean . At this latitude the sun is visible for 16 hours , 22 minutes during the summer solstice and 8 hours , 4 minutes during the winter solstice . The maximum altitude of the sun on the summer solstice is 63.5 degrees and on the winter solstice it is 16.5 degrees . At this latitude , the average sea surface temperature between 1982 and 2011 was about 8.5 ° C ( 47.3 ° F ) .", "qid": "235", "docid": "50th_parallel_north", "rank": 81, "score": 89516 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Puerto Rico Content: The climate of Puerto Rico falls into the tropical climatic zone . Temperatures are moderate year round , averaging near 80 F in lower elevations and 70 F in the mountains . Easterly trade winds pass across the island year round . Puerto Rico has a rainy season which stretches from April into November . The mountains of the Cordillera Central are the main cause of the variations in the temperature and rainfall that occur over very short distances . The mountains can also cause wide variation in local wind speed and direction due to their sheltering and channeling effects adding to the climatic variation . About a quarter of the annual rainfall for Puerto Rico , on average , occurs during tropical cyclones , which are more frequent during La Niña events .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Puerto_Rico", "rank": 82, "score": 89350 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Miami Content: Miami has a tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen climate classification Am ) with hot and humid summers and short , warm winters , with a marked drier season in the winter . Köppen climate classification Its sea-level elevation , coastal location , position just above the Tropic of Cancer , and proximity to the Gulf Stream shape its climate . With January averaging 69.2 F , winter features warm temperatures ; cool air usually settles after the passage of a cold front , which produces much of the little amount of rainfall . Lows sometimes fall to or below 50 F , with an average 3 such occurrences annually , but very rarely 40 F ; from 1981 to 2010 , temperatures reached that level in only eight calendar years . Highs generally reach 70 F or higher , and fail to do so on only an average of 12 days annually . The wet season usually begins during the month of May and continues through mid-October . During this period , temperatures are in the mid 80s to low 90s ( 29 -- 35 ° C ) , accompanied by high humidity , though the heat is often relieved by afternoon thunderstorms or a sea breeze that develops off the Atlantic Ocean , which then allow lower temperatures , but conditions still remain very muggy . Much of the year 's 61.9 in of rainfall occurs during this period . Extreme temperatures range from 26.5 ° F ( recorded as 27 in the almanac ) on February 3 , 1917 , to 100 ° F on July 21 , 1942 , ( − 2.8 to 38 ° C ) , the triple-digit ( ° F ) reading on record ; the more recent freezing temperature seen at Miami International Airport was on December 25 , 1989 . The highest daily minimum temperature is 84 ° F on August 4 , 1993 and September 7 , 1897 ( although the corresponding record for Miami Beach is 90 ° F on July 17 , 2001 ) , and conversely , the lowest daily maximum temperature is 45 ° F on February 19 , 1900 . While Miami has never officially recorded any accumulating snowfall since records have been kept , there were dubious claims of snow flurries on January 19 , 1977 during the cold wave of January 1977 . Weather conditions for the area around Miami were recorded sporadically from 1839 until 1900 , with many years-long gaps . A cooperative temperature and rainfall recording site was established in what is now Downtown in December 1900 . An official Weather Bureau Office opened in Miami in June 1911 . Heavy snow squalls with accumulations that lasted for a few hours after the snow had stopped falling in February 1899 were reported , but these are not official since there is no written record of it . Miami receives abundant rainfall , one of the highest among major cities in the United States . Most of this rainfall occurs from mid-May through early October . Miami has an average annual rainfall of 61.9 in , whereas nearby Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach receive 66.5 in and 51.7 in , respectively , which demonstrates the high local variability in rainfall rates . Miami reports more thunderstorms than most US cities , with about eighty days per year having thunder reported . These storms are often strong , with frequent lightning and very heavy rain . Occasionally , they can be severe with damaging straight line winds and large hail . Tornadoes and waterspouts sometimes occur , although violent tornadoes of the type seen in other parts of the United States are rare in Florida . During El Niño events , Miami becomes cooler than normal during the dry season with above average precipitation . During La Niña , Miami becomes warmer and drier than normal . A record setting 12-day cold snap in January 2010 was the coldest period since at least the 1940s . During the cold wave of January 1977 that saw snowfall over the majority of the state , isolated flurries have been observed on the outskirts of Miami , which is the only recorded snowfall in the history of the region . The climate for much of the state is humid subtropical ( Köppen Cfa ) , South Florida , as well as all of the Florida Keys , qualify as one of several tropical classifications ( Köppen Aw , Am , or Af ) . Köppen climate classification Southeastern Florida falls into USDA zone 10b for plant hardiness , where annual extreme low temperatures range from 30 to , versus zone 9 in Central Florida , and zone 8 in northern Florida . With global warming , the urban heat island effect , as well as Biscayne Bay as a buffer , the waterside downtown area and the barrier islands including Miami Beach made it into hardiness zone 11a by 2012 . Miami Beach has virtually no freezing weather in its history and very few sub - 40 F weather . Roughly 115 mi north of Miami , Jensen Beach is at the threshold of Florida 's tropical climate designation , with January having an average about 64 F. Southeastern Florida is also the only area in the continental United States to be in Zone 1 for Energy Star recommended insulation levels , with Hawaii , Puerto Rico , and the US Virgin Islands .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Miami", "rank": 83, "score": 89246 }, { "content": "Title: United States temperature extremes Content: For the United States , the extremes are 134 F in Death Valley , California in 1913 and -79.8 F recorded in Prospect Creek , Alaska in 1971 . The largest recorded temperature change in one place over a 24-hour period occurred on January 15 , 1972 in Loma , Montana , when the temperature rose from -54 to . The most dramatic temperature changes occur in North American climates susceptible to Chinook winds . For example , the largest 2-minute temperature change of 49 F-change occurred in Spearfish , South Dakota , a rise from -4 to .", "qid": "235", "docid": "United_States_temperature_extremes", "rank": 84, "score": 89241 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Agra Content: The climate of Agra features a semi-arid climate that borders on a humid subtropical climate . The city features mild winters , hot and dry summers and a monsoon season . The monsoon , though substantial in Agra , is not quite as heavy as the monsoon in other parts of India . The average monsoon rainfall during June to September is 628.6 millimeters . Agra has a reputation of being one of the hottest towns in India . In summers the city witnesses a sudden surge in temperature and at times , mercury goes beyond the 46 ° C mark in addition to a very high level of humidity . During summer , the daytime temperature hovers around 46-50 ° C. Nights are relatively cooler and temperature lowers to a comfortable 30 ° C. Winters are bit chilly but are the best time to visit Agra . The minimum temperature sometimes goes as low as 2 or 3 ° C but usually hovers in the range of 6 to 8 ° C.", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Agra", "rank": 85, "score": 89159 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Dubai Content: Dubai has a tropical desert climate , köppen classification Bwh , because of its location within the Northern desert belt . Summers are extremely hot and humid , with an average high around 41 ° C and overnight lows around 30 ° C . The highest recorded temperature in Dubai is 55 ° C in 2002 . Most days are sunny throughout the year . Winters are warm and short with an average high of 23 ° C and overnight lows of 14 ° C. Precipitation , however , has been increasing in the last few decades with accumulated rain reaching 150 mm per year . The weather in Dubai can bring short and irregular rainfall as is typical for the Middle East . Most of the rainfall occurs in the December to March period . The weather between December and March remains warm and is considered to be the most comfortable climatic conditions of the year .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Dubai", "rank": 86, "score": 89024 }, { "content": "Title: Stratosphere Content: The stratosphere ( -LSB- ˈstrætəˌsfɪər , _ - toʊ - -RSB- ) is the second major layer of Earth 's atmosphere , just above the troposphere , and below the mesosphere . About 20 % of the atmosphere 's mass is contained in the stratosphere . The stratosphere is stratified in temperature , with warmer layers higher and cooler layers closer to the Earth . The increase of temperature with altitude is a result of the absorption of the Sun 's ultraviolet radiation by the ozone . This is in contrast to the troposphere , near the Earth 's surface , where temperatures decreases with altitude . The border between the troposphere and stratosphere , the tropopause , marks where this temperature inversion begins . Near the equator , the stratosphere starts at 18 km ; at mid latitudes , it starts at 10 - and ends at 50 km ; at the poles , it starts at about 8 km . Temperatures vary within the stratosphere with the seasons , in particular with the polar night ( winter ) . The greatest variation of temperature takes place over the poles in the lower stratosphere ; those variations are largely steady at lower latitudes and higher altitudes .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Stratosphere", "rank": 87, "score": 88610 }, { "content": "Title: Late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave ( also referred to as the November 2009 heat wave and the South Australian heat wave ) was a heat wave that occurred in the southeastern Australian states of South Australia , Victoria and southern New South Wales . Daily maximum temperatures during the heat wave were roughly 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) above average in many locations . Capital cities Adelaide and Melbourne recorded temperatures over 35 ° C , and some regional towns recorded temperatures above 40 ° C. Above average temperatures in the region began in late October and persisted until mid-November 2009 . Many locations through the region broke temperature records for November . This heat wave was the second experienced in the region within a 10-month period , following the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave in January and February 2009 , to which 374 deaths were attributed . Although the earlier heat wave was far more intense , the later heat wave was more extensive and long lasting . The heat wave was caused by a combination of factors , including hot , dry winds caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that had settled over the Tasman Sea , an El Niño event occurring in the Pacific Ocean , and gradually rising temperatures across southern Australia , probably as a result of global warming .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Late_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 88, "score": 88429 }, { "content": "Title: Idealized greenhouse model Content: The surface of the Sun radiates light and heat at approximately 5,500 ° C . The Earth is much cooler and so radiates heat back away from itself at much longer wavelengths , mostly in the infrared range . The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth 's atmosphere , including carbon dioxide and water vapour , are transparent to the high-frequency , high-energy solar radiation , but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving the surface of the earth . Thus heat is easily let in , but is partially trapped by these gases as it tries to leave . Rather than get hotter and hotter , Kirchhoff 's law of thermal radiation says that the gases of the atmosphere also have to re-emit the infrared energy that they absorb , and they do so , also at long infrared wavelengths , both upwards into space as well as downwards back towards the Earth 's surface . In the long-term , thermal equilibrium is reached when all the heat energy arriving on the planet is leaving again at the same rate . In this idealized model , the greenhouse gases cause the surface of the planet to be warmer than it would be without them , in order for the required amount of heat energy finally to be radiated out into space from the top of the atmosphere . The greenhouse effect can be illustrated with an idealized planet . This is a common `` textbook model '' : the planet will have a constant surface temperature Ts and an atmosphere with constant temperature Ta . For diagrammatic clarity , a gap can be depicted between the atmosphere and the surface . Alternatively , Ts could be interpreted as a temperature representative of the surface and the lower atmosphere , and Ta could be interpreted as the temperature of the upper atmosphere . In order to justify that Ta and Ts remain constant over the planet , strong ocean and atmospheric currents can be imagined to provide plentiful lateral mixing . Furthermore , any daily or seasonal cycles in temperature are assumed to be insignificant .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Idealized_greenhouse_model", "rank": 89, "score": 88227 }, { "content": "Title: Fladen Ground Content: Fladen Ground is an area in the Scottish sector of the North Sea , between Scotland and Norway , about 100 mi northeast of Aberdeen . The Fair Isle current and East Shetland Islands Atlantic inflow form an eddy , creating a weak , anti-clockwise rotating vortex that is evidenced in the surface form of the seabed . Due to stratification of the water column in the summer months , seasonal variation of the temperature in deep water is low ( 5.7 - ) . Average water depth is in the range of 100 - , and the mostly muddy sea floor has been created by incoming sediments from the surrounding sea areas . The dominant benthic animals are polychaetes and shellfish and other seafoods are common . Fladen Ground is rich in oil and natural gas and offers good fishing.Athena Field Development , p 7 Scottish vessels catch low-fat fish species , and Norway lobster . Danish and English vessels catch Northern prawn .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Fladen_Ground", "rank": 90, "score": 88113 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Faisalabad Content: The climate of Faisalabad features a Semi-arid climate ( BWh ) in Köppen-Geiger classification with very hot and humid summers and dry cool winters . The average maximum and minimum temperature in June are 40.5 C and 26.9 C , respectively . In January it the average maximum stands at 19.4 C and 4.1 C , respectively . The summer season starts from Mid-April and continues till late-October . May and June are the hottest months , while July , August and the first half of September can be oppressively humid , except for the days when it rains . June is the hottest month in Faisalabad when conditions are dry and dust storms are common . While the coldest month is January , which is also a dry month with significant foggy days . The fog is particularly dense at night and early morning hours . The winter season starts from November and continues till early-February . ref name = `` IP '' / > . Spring sets in after Mid February and lasts usually till late March when temperatures begin to warm up and conditions become drier and sunnier . The average annual rainfall lies only at about 375 mm , which is highly seasonal since approximately half of the yearly rainfall takes place in July and August during the monsoon season .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Faisalabad", "rank": 91, "score": 88091 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Anchorage, Alaska Content: Anchorage , Alaska has a subarctic climate with the code Dfc according to the Köppen climate classification due to its short , cool summers . Average daytime summer temperatures range from approximately 55 to ; average daytime winter temperatures are about 5 to . Anchorage has a frost-free growing season that averages slightly over one hundred days . Average January low and high temperatures at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport ( PANC ) are 11 / with an average winter snowfall of 75.5 in . The weather on any given day and indeed for entire seasons can be very unpredictable . Some winters feature several feet of snow and cold temperatures , while others like that of 1976 -- 77 ( in the January of which Anchorage amazingly averaged 2.7 F-change warmer than Atlanta almost 30 degrees closer to the equator ) , just a foot or two of snow and frequent thaws , which put dangerous ice on the streets . On March 17 , 2002 , there was a storm causing 22 inches of snow closing schools for the next two days . The storm broke the city record for the most snowfall in a single day . The storm , which started the evening of March 16 , easily surpassed the old record of 15.6 in recorded on 28 December and 29 December 1955 . On March 17 , 22 in were measured by the National Weather Service , topping the old record of 15.6 in set on December 29 , 1955 . The 2011-2012 winter had 134.5 in , which made it the snowiest winter on record while the least snowiest winter of record was 2014-2015 when 25.1 in of snow fell . The coldest temperature ever recorded at the original weather station located at Merrill Field on the East end of 5th Avenue was -38 F on February 3 , 1947 . Due to its proximity to active volcanoes , ash hazards are a significant , though infrequent , occurrence . The most recent notable incident was an August , 1992 eruption of Mt. Spurr , which is located 78 miles west of the city . The eruption deposited about 3 mm of volcanic ash on the city . The clean-up of ash resulted in excessive demands for water and caused major problems for the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility . Summers are typically mild ( although cool compared to the contiguous US and even interior Alaska ) , though it can rain frequently . Average July low and high temperatures are 52 / and the hottest reading ever recorded was 87 F on June 18 , 2013 . The average annual precipitation at the airport is 16.63 in . Because of Anchorage 's latitude , summer days are very long and winter daylight hours are very short . Anchorage is often cloudy during the winter , which decreases the amount of sunlight experienced by residents .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Anchorage,_Alaska", "rank": 92, "score": 87880 }, { "content": "Title: NRLMSISE-00 Content: NRLMSISE-00 is an empirical , global model of the Earth 's atmosphere from ground to space . It models the temperatures and densities of the atmosphere 's components . A primary use of this model is to aid predictions of satellite orbital decay due to atmospheric drag . This model has also been used by astronomers to calculate the mass of air between telescopes and laser beams in order to assess the impact of laser guide stars on the non-lasing telescopes .", "qid": "235", "docid": "NRLMSISE-00", "rank": 93, "score": 87625 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "235", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 94, "score": 87540 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Kolkata Content: Kolkata has a Tropical wet-and-dry climate ( Köppen climate classification Aw ) . The annual mean temperature is 24.8 ° C ( 80 ° F ) ; monthly mean temperatures range from 15 ° C to 30 ° C ( 59 ° F to 86 ° F ) . Summers are hot and humid with temperatures in the low 30 's and during dry spells the maximum temperatures often exceed 40 ° C ( 104 ° F ) during May and June . Winter tends to last for only about two and a half months , with seasonal lows dipping to 9 ° C -- 11 ° C ( 48.2 ° F -- 51.8 ° F ) between December and January . The highest recorded temperature is 43.9 ° C ( 111 ° F ) and the lowest is 3 ° C ( 37.4 ° F ) . Often during early summer , dusty squalls followed by spells of thunderstorm and heavy rains lash the city , bringing relief from the humid heat . These thunderstorms are convective in nature , and is locally known as Kal baisakhi ( কালবৈশাখী , Nor ` westers ) . Rains brought by the Bay of Bengal branch of South-West monsoon lash the city between June and September and supplies the city with most of its annual rainfall of 1,582 mm ( 62.3 inches ) . The highest rainfall occurs during the monsoon in August ( 306 mm ) . The city receives 2,528 hours of sunshine per annum , with the maximum sunlight occurring in March . Pollution is a major concern in Kolkata , and the Suspended Particulate Matter ( SPM ) level is high when compared to other major cities of India , leading to regular smog and haze . Severe air pollution in the city has caused rise in pollution-related respiratory ailments such as lung cancer .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Kolkata", "rank": 95, "score": 87410 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Mecca Content: Mecca features a hot desert climate . Mecca retains its hot temperature in winter , which can range from 18 C at night to 30 C in the day . Summer temperatures are extremely hot , often being over 40 C during the day , dropping to 30 C at night . Rain usually falls in Mecca in small amounts between November and January . The rainfall , as scant as it is , also presents the threat of flooding and has been a danger since the earliest times . According to Al-Kurdī , there had been 89 historic floods by 1965 , including several in the period . In the last century the most severe one occurred in 1942 . Since then , dams have been constructed to ameliorate the problem .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Mecca", "rank": 96, "score": 87345 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Massachusetts Content: The climate of Massachusetts is mainly a humid continental climate , with warm summers and cold , snowy winters . Massachusetts is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States . Most of its population of 6.4 million live in the Boston metropolitan area . The eastern half of this relatively small state is mostly urban and suburban . Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states and ranks third in overall population density and fourth by GDP per capita . Massachusetts receives about 50 inches ( 1016 mm ) of rain annually , fairly evenly distributed throughout the year , slightly wetter during the winter . Summers are warm with average high temperatures in July above 80 ° F ( 26.7 ° C ) and overnight lows above 60 ° F ( 15.5 ° C ) common throughout the state . Winters are cold , but generally less extreme on the coast with high temperatures in the winter averaging above freezing even in January , although areas further inland are much colder . The state does have extreme temperatures from time to time with 90 ° F ( 32.2 ° C ) in the summer and temperatures below 0 ° F ( -17.8 ° C ) in the winter not being unusual . The state has its share of extreme weather , prone to nor'easter s and to severe winter storms . Summers can bring thunderstorms , averaging around 30 days of thunderstorm activity per year . Massachusetts averages one tornado per year . Massachusetts , like the entire United States eastern seaboard , is vulnerable to hurricanes . Because its location is farther east in the Atlantic Ocean than states farther south , Massachusetts has suffered a direct hit from a major hurricane three times since 1851 , the same number of direct hits suffered by the southern Atlantic state of Georgia . More often hurricanes weakened to tropical storm strength pass near Massachusetts . With the exception of extreme southern Connecticut , all of New England has a humid continental climate or in a broad transition zone , with hot summers and cold winters . Owing to thick deciduous forests , fall in New England brings bright and colorful foliage , which comes earlier than in other regions , attracting tourism . Springs are generally wet and cloudy . Average rainfall generally ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 mm ( 40 to 60 in ) a year . Snowfall can often exceed 100 in ( 2,500 mm ) annually .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Massachusetts", "rank": 97, "score": 87334 }, { "content": "Title: Gulf of Maine Closed Areas Content: The Gulf of Maine has been fished since the 1700s , and has been a historic fishing area since . Climate change is having significant impacts on this ecosystem ; between 2004 and 2013 , the Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than 99.9 % of the global oceans , increasing average temperature by 2 ° C. Having seen the depletion of groundfish stocks starting in the early 1990s , managers took care to create five closure areas in the Gulf of Maine . These closed areas do not prohibit all fishing , rather they prevent the further degradation of benthic habitat and groundfish species . Closed areas are different than Marine Protected Areas ( MPA ) because they allow some forms of fishing and other activities to occur that would normally not be allowed in MPA .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Gulf_of_Maine_Closed_Areas", "rank": 98, "score": 87321 }, { "content": "Title: Antenna gain-to-noise-temperature Content: Antenna gain-to-noise-temperature ( G/T ) is a figure of merit in the characterization of antenna performance , where G is the antenna gain in decibels at the receive frequency , and T is the equivalent noise temperature of the receiving system in kelvins . The receiving system noise temperature is the summation of the antenna noise temperature and the RF chain noise temperature from the antenna terminals to the receiver output . Antenna temperature ( Tant ) is a parameter that describes how much noise an antenna produces in a given environment . Antenna noise temperature is not the physical temperature of the antenna but rather an expression of the available noise power at the antenna flange . Moreover , an antenna does not have an intrinsic `` antenna temperature '' associated with it ; rather the temperature depends on its gain pattern and the thermal environment that it is placed in . Antenna temperature is also sometimes referred to as Antenna Noise Temperature . To define the environment , we 'll introduce a temperature distribution - this is the temperature in every direction away from the antenna in spherical coordinates . For instance , the night sky is roughly ; the value of the temperature pattern in the direction of the Earth 's ground is the physical temperature of the Earth 's ground . This temperature distribution will be written as TS . Hence , an antenna 's temperature will vary depending on whether it is directional and pointed into space or staring into the sun . For an antenna with a radiation pattern given by G , the noise temperature is mathematically defined as : This states that the temperature surrounding the antenna is integrated over the entire sphere , and weighted by the antenna 's radiation pattern . Hence , an isotropic antenna would have a noise temperature that is the average of all temperatures around the antenna ; for a perfectly directional antenna ( with a pencil beam ) , the antenna temperature will only depend on the temperature in which the antenna is `` looking '' . The noise power PN ( in watts ) received from an antenna at temperature TA can be expressed in terms of the bandwidth , B , that the antenna ( and its receiver ) are operating over : , where k is the Boltzmann constant . The receiver also has a temperature associated with it , TE , and the total system temperature T ( antenna plus receiver ) has a combined temperature given by T = TA + TE . This temperature can be used in the above equation to find the total noise power of the system . These concepts begin to illustrate how antenna engineers must understand receivers and the associated electronics , because the resulting systems very much depend on each other . A parameter often encountered in specification sheets for antennas that operate in certain environments is the ratio of gain of the antenna divided by the antenna temperature ( or system temperature if a receiver is specified ) . This parameter is written as G/T , and has units of dB · K − 1 . G/T Calculation G/T is the figure of merit for a satellite system . G is the Receive antenna gain . T is the system noise temperature . System noise temperature = antenna noise temperature + Receiver noise temperature ( LNA ) Antenna noise temperature is the noise power seen at the receive output of the antenna . ( To LNA ) If we are not measuring with an LNA or Receiver then System noise temperature = antenna noise temperature . This is not a representative value for calculating G/T since the G/T relates to the receive performance of both antenna and receiver .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Antenna_gain-to-noise-temperature", "rank": 99, "score": 87243 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Allentown, Pennsylvania Content: The climate of Allentown , Pennsylvania is classified as being in the transition between a humid continental and humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Dfa/Cfa , respectively ) , although lying closer to the former . Allentown 's warmest month ( on average ) is July with a daily average temperature of 73.4 ° F and the coldest month ( on average ) being January with a daily average of 27.8 ° F . The average precipitation of Allentown is 45.35 in per year . Allentown occasionally has some severe weather , mostly thunderstorms and flooding . Winters can bring snow , with some years receiving very little of it while others seeing several major snowstorms ( often Nor'easter s ) . Winter also brings the more dangerous ice , sleet , and freezing rain , which has caused several traffic accidents over the years . Tropical storms and hurricanes occasionally survive up the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and cross into Pennsylvania . Storms such as Hurricane Ivan and more recently Hurricane Sandy have caused light to severe damage in the area .", "qid": "235", "docid": "Climate_of_Allentown,_Pennsylvania", "rank": 100, "score": 87101 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "236", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 1, "score": 139031 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 2, "score": 131819 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 3, "score": 128994 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "236", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 4, "score": 127715 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 5, "score": 123133 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 6, "score": 122685 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 7, "score": 120616 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 8, "score": 116222 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 9, "score": 113699 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 10, "score": 112840 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 11, "score": 112026 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 12, "score": 109443 }, { "content": "Title: Pliocene climate Content: During the Pliocene epoch ( 5.3 Ma to 2.6 Ma ) climate became cooler and drier , and seasonal , similar to modern climates . The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene ( 3.3 Ma -- 3 Ma ) was 2 -- 3 ° C higher than today , global sea level 25m higher and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma . The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds . Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch . The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . During the Pliocene the earth climate system response shifted from a period of high frequency-low amplitude oscillation dominated by the 41,000-year period of Earth 's obliquity to one of low-frequency , high-amplitude oscillation dominated by the 100,000-year period of the orbital eccentricity characteristic of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles . The equatorial pacific ocean sea surface temperature gradient was considerably lower than it is today , mean sea surface temperature in the east were substantially warmer than today but similar in the west , this condition has been described as a permanent El Niño state or El Padre", "qid": "236", "docid": "Pliocene_climate", "rank": 13, "score": 108088 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 14, "score": 107745 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 15, "score": 107475 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Turkey Content:", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Turkey", "rank": 16, "score": 106514 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Tuvalu Content: Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 17, "score": 105382 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 18, "score": 105248 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 19, "score": 104462 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 20, "score": 104430 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 21, "score": 103941 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 22, "score": 103257 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 23, "score": 102873 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 24, "score": 102334 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature in Canada Content:", "qid": "236", "docid": "Temperature_in_Canada", "rank": 25, "score": 102194 }, { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 26, "score": 102047 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature Rising (album) Content: Temperature Rising is the second English language album by Thai singer Tata Young . It was released in 2006 . The album consist of cover songs and original songs . The first single is `` El Nin-YO ! '' , from the lyrics of which the album 's title comes from . ( `` You got my temperature rising like El Nin-YO ! '' ) . Her second single is `` Zoom '' which was released in September . `` Come Rain Come Shine '' , the third single , was used in Star World 's station promo 's from December 2006 to mid-2007 . The promo includes footage of Tata Young singing `` Come Rain Come Shine '' as well as scenes from some of Star World 's television shows ( Everybody Loves Raymond , American Idol etc. . ) Track # 7 , `` Zoom '' , was covered by Ashley Tisdale on her 2007 debut album Headstrong , under the title as `` Do n't Touch ( The Zoom Song ) '' . Temperature Rising was last Tata Young album released on cassette tapes , but in very small numbers produced in a short time until September 2006 .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Temperature_Rising_(album)", "rank": 27, "score": 102029 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Antarctica Content: The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth . Antarctica 's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983 , with − 89.2 C at Vostok Station . Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures , down to − 93.2 C at the cloud free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010 . It is also extremely dry ( technically a desert ) , averaging 166 mm of precipitation per year . On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet . Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent , because of the katabatic winds . Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate ( Köppen EF ) with very cold , generally extremely dry weather .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Antarctica", "rank": 28, "score": 102003 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of the Arctic Content: The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long , cold winters and short , cool summers . There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic , but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter . Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice ( sea ice , glacial ice , or snow ) year-round , and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface . Average January temperatures range from about − 34 ° C to 0 ° C ( − 40 to +32 ° F ) , and winter temperatures can drop below − 50 ° C ( − 58 ° F ) over large parts of the Arctic . Average July temperatures range from about − 10 to +10 ° C ( 14 to 50 ° F ) , with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) in summer . The Arctic consists of ocean that is largely surrounded by land . As such , the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water , which can never have a temperature below − 2 ° C ( 28 ° F ) . In winter , this relatively warm water , even though covered by the polar ice pack , keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere , and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic . In summer , the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_the_Arctic", "rank": 29, "score": 101160 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 30, "score": 100618 }, { "content": "Title: Planetary equilibrium temperature Content: The planetary equilibrium temperature is a theoretical temperature that a planet would be at when considered simply as if it were a black body being heated only by its parent star . In this model , the presence or absence of an atmosphere ( and therefore any greenhouse effect ) is not considered , and one treats the theoretical black body temperature as if it came from an idealized surface of the planet . Other authors use different names for this concept , such as equivalent blackbody temperature of a planet , or the effective radiation emission temperature of the planet . Similar concepts include the global mean temperature , global radiative equilibrium , and global-mean surface air temperature , which includes the effects of global warming .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Planetary_equilibrium_temperature", "rank": 31, "score": 100091 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 32, "score": 99994 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of London Content: London , the capital and largest city in England and the United Kingdom has a temperate oceanic climate , with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year . Summer temperatures rarely rise much above 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) , though higher temperatures have become more common recently . The highest temperature ever recorded in London was 38.1 ° C ( 100.6 ° F ) , measured at Kew Gardens during the European Heat Wave of 2003 . In modern times , heavy snowfalls have been infrequent with snow generally only settling once or twice each winter and accumulations usually of no more than an inch ( 2.5 cm ) or so . Despite its reputation as being a rainy city , London receives less precipitation ( 601 mm ( 24 in ) in a year ) , than Rome , Bordeaux , Toulouse , Naples and less than half the precipitation of Sydney or New York City . This is despite the fact that sub-tropical regions usually receive fewer rainy or overcast days . London 's large built-up area creates a microclimate ( an `` urban heat island '' ) , with heat stored by the city 's buildings . Sometimes temperatures are 5 ° C ( 9 ° F ) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_London", "rank": 33, "score": 99850 }, { "content": "Title: Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project Content: The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project ( DDPP ) is a global consortium formed in October 2013 which researches methods to limit the rise of global temperature due to global warming to 2 ° C or less . The focus of the DDPP is on sustainable energy systems , other sectors of the economy , such as agriculture and land-use , are not directly considered .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Deep_Decarbonization_Pathways_Project", "rank": 34, "score": 98785 }, { "content": "Title: 8.2 kiloyear event Content: In climatology , the 8.2 kiloyear event was a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present , or c. 6,200 BCE , and which lasted for the next two to four centuries . Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it , but more severe than the Little Ice Age that would follow , the 8.2 kiloyear cooling was a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum . During the event , atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb or an emission reduction of 15 % , by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale .", "qid": "236", "docid": "8.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 35, "score": 98647 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Tuvalu Content: Global warming (recent climate change) is particularly threatening in Tuvalu. This is because the average height of the islands is less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) above sea level, with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 metres (15 ft) above sea level. Between 1971 and 2014, during a period of global warming, Tuvalu islands have increased in size, according to aerial photography and satellite imagery. Over four decades, there was a net increase in land area in Tuvalu of 73.5 ha (2.9%), although the changes were not uniform, with 74% of land increasing in size and 27% of land decreasing in size. The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has risen at 3.9 mm per year, which is approximately twice the global average.Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to be significantly impacted by rising sea levels. Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut, pulaka, and taro. Research from the University of Auckland suggests that Tuvalu may remain habitable over the next century. However, as of March 2018, Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga stated that Tuvalu is not expanding and has gained no additional habitable land. Sopoaga has also said that evacuating the islands is the last resort.", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 36, "score": 98380 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 37, "score": 98167 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Estonia Content: Estonia lies in the northern part of the temperate climate zone and in the transition zone between maritime and continental climate . Because Estonia ( and all of Northern Europe ) is continuously warmed by maritime air influenced by the heat content of the northern Atlantic Ocean , it has a milder climate despite its northern latitude . The Baltic Sea causes differences between the climate of coastal and inland areas . Estonia has four seasons of near-equal length . Average temperatures range from 16.3 ° C on the Baltic islands to 18.1 ° C inland in July , the warmest month , and from -3.5 ° C on the Baltic islands to -7.6 ° C inland in February , the coldest month . The average annual temperature in Estonia is 5.2 ° C . The average temperature in February , the coldest month of the year , is -5.7 ° C . The average temperature in July , which is considered the warmest month of the year , is 16.4 ° C . The climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean , the North-Atlantic Stream and the Icelandic Minimum , which is an area known for the formation of cyclones and where the average air pressure is lower than in neighbouring areas . Estonia is located in a humid zone in which the amount of precipitation is greater than total evaporation . The average precipitation in 1961 -- 1990 ranged from 535 to per year and was heaviest in late summer . There were between 102 and 127 rainy days a year , and average precipitation was most plentiful on the western slopes of the Sakala and Haanja Uplands . Snow cover , which is deepest in the south-eastern part of Estonia , usually lasts from mid-December to late March .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Estonia", "rank": 38, "score": 98066 }, { "content": "Title: Sea surface temperature Content: Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans . Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Sea_surface_temperature", "rank": 39, "score": 98025 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 40, "score": 97940 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Svalbard Content: The climate of Svalbard is principally a result of its latitude , which is between 74 ° and 81 ° north . Average July temperatures range from 3 and , and in January temperatures are normally between − 13 and . The North Atlantic Current moderates Svalbard 's temperatures , particularly during winter , giving it up to 20 C-change higher winter temperature than similar latitudes in continental Russia and Canada . This keeps the surrounding waters open and navigable most of the year . The interior fjord areas and valleys , sheltered by the mountains , have less temperature differences than the coast , giving about 2 ° C lower summer temperatures and 3 ° C higher winter temperatures . On the south of Spitsbergen , the temperature is slightly higher than further north and west . During winter , the temperature difference between south and north is typically 5 ° C , while only about 3 ° C in summer . Bear Island has average temperatures even higher than the rest of the archipelago . The archipelago is the meeting place for cold polar air from the north and mild , wet sea air from the south , creating low pressure and changing weather and fast winds , particularly in winter ; in January , a strong breeze is registered 17 % of the time at Isfjord Radio , but only 1 % of the time in July . In summer , particularly away from land , fog is common , with visibility under 1 km registered 20 % of the time in July and 1 % of the time in January , at Hopen and Bear Island . Precipitation is frequent , but falls in small quantities , typically less than 400 mm in Western Spitsbergen . More rain falls in the uninhabited east side , where there can be more than 1000 mm . The warmest temperature ever recorded was 21.3 C in July 1979 and the coldest was -46.3 C in March 1986 .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Svalbard", "rank": 41, "score": 97532 }, { "content": "Title: Late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave ( also referred to as the November 2009 heat wave and the South Australian heat wave ) was a heat wave that occurred in the southeastern Australian states of South Australia , Victoria and southern New South Wales . Daily maximum temperatures during the heat wave were roughly 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) above average in many locations . Capital cities Adelaide and Melbourne recorded temperatures over 35 ° C , and some regional towns recorded temperatures above 40 ° C. Above average temperatures in the region began in late October and persisted until mid-November 2009 . Many locations through the region broke temperature records for November . This heat wave was the second experienced in the region within a 10-month period , following the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave in January and February 2009 , to which 374 deaths were attributed . Although the earlier heat wave was far more intense , the later heat wave was more extensive and long lasting . The heat wave was caused by a combination of factors , including hot , dry winds caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that had settled over the Tasman Sea , an El Niño event occurring in the Pacific Ocean , and gradually rising temperatures across southern Australia , probably as a result of global warming .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Late_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 42, "score": 97474 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric temperature range Content: Atmospheric temperature range is the numerical difference between the minimum and maximum values of temperature observed in a given location during a period of time ( e.g. , in a given day , month , year , century ) or the average ( average of all temperature ranges in a period of time ) . The variation in temperature that occurs from the highs of the day to the cool of nights is called diurnal temperature variation .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Atmospheric_temperature_range", "rank": 43, "score": 97045 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 44, "score": 96906 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "236", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 45, "score": 96859 }, { "content": "Title: Highest temperature recorded on Earth Content: The standard measuring conditions for temperature are in the air , 1.5 meters above the ground , and shielded from direct sunlight . The highest confirmed temperature on Earth recorded according to these measures was 56.7 C in Furnace Creek Ranch , California , located in the Death Valley desert in the United States , on July 10 , 1913 . The former highest official temperature on Earth , held for 90 years by ` Aziziya , Libya , was de-certified by the WMO ( World Meteorological Organization ) in January 2012 as the record for the world 's highest surface temperature ( this temperature of 57.8 ° C ( 136 ° F ) , registered on 13 September 1922 , is currently considered to have been a recorder 's error ) . Christopher C. Burt , the weather historian writing for Weather Underground who shepherded the Libya reading 's 2012 disqualification , believes that the 1913 Death Valley reading is `` a myth '' , and is at least four or five degrees Fahrenheit too high , as do other weather historians Dr. Arnold Court and William Taylor Reid . Burt proposes that the highest reliably recorded temperature on Earth is still at Death Valley , but is instead 53.9 C recorded five times : 20 July 1960 , 18 July 1998 , 20 July 2005 , 7 July 2007 , and 30 June 2013 . Temperatures measured directly on the ground may exceed air temperatures by 30 to 50 ° C . A ground temperature of 84 ° C ( 183.2 ° F ) has been recorded in Port Sudan , Sudan . A ground temperature of 93.9 ° C ( 201 ° F ) was recorded also in Furnace Creek Ranch on 15 July 1972 ; this may be the highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded . The theoretical maximum possible ground surface temperature has been estimated to be between 90 and 100 ° C for dry , darkish soils of low thermal conductivity . Temperature measurements via satellite also tend to capture occurrence of higher records but are considered less reliable than ground-positioned thermometers . There is a satellite record of 66.8 C measured in the Flaming Mountains of China in 2008 . Other satellite measurements of ground temperature taken between 2003 and 2009 , taken with the MODIS infrared spectroradiometer on the Aqua satellite , found a maximum temperature of 70.7 ° C ( 159.3 ° F ) , which was recorded in 2005 in the Lut Desert , Iran . The Lut Desert was also found to have the highest maximum temperature in 5 of the 7 years measured ( 2004 , 2005 , 2006 , 2007 and 2009 ) . These measurements reflect averages over a large region and so are lower than the maximum point surface temperature .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Highest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth", "rank": 46, "score": 96809 }, { "content": "Title: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Content: Six Degrees : Our Future on a Hotter Planet ( 358 pages ) , ISBN 978-0-00-720905-7 is a 2007 ( 2008 in USA ) non-fiction book by author Mark Lynas about global warming . The book looks and attempts to summarize results from scientific papers on climate change .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Six_Degrees:_Our_Future_on_a_Hotter_Planet", "rank": 47, "score": 96560 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of East Anglia Content: The climate of East Anglia is generally dry and mild . The region is among the driest in the United Kingdom with many areas receiving less than 700mm of rainfall a yearand locations such as Lowestoft less than 600 mm on average . Rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year . Maximum temperatures range from 5 -- 10 ° C ( 41 -- 50 ° F ) in the winter to 20 -- 25 ° C ( 68 -- 77 ° F ) in the summer , although temperatures have been known to reach 35 ° C ( 95 ° F ) . Sunshine totals tend to be higher towards the coastal areas .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_East_Anglia", "rank": 48, "score": 96433 }, { "content": "Title: United States temperature extremes Content: For the United States , the extremes are 134 F in Death Valley , California in 1913 and -79.8 F recorded in Prospect Creek , Alaska in 1971 . The largest recorded temperature change in one place over a 24-hour period occurred on January 15 , 1972 in Loma , Montana , when the temperature rose from -54 to . The most dramatic temperature changes occur in North American climates susceptible to Chinook winds . For example , the largest 2-minute temperature change of 49 F-change occurred in Spearfish , South Dakota , a rise from -4 to .", "qid": "236", "docid": "United_States_temperature_extremes", "rank": 49, "score": 96404 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Adelaide Content: Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa ) , with mild to cool winters with moderate rainfall and warm to hot , dry summers . Adelaide is the driest of the Australian capital cities and the past two decades have been far warmer than usual , with the past 8 years seeing an excess of 40 + degrees every summer . Alarmingly , the city has also recorded almost 10 consecutive years of below-average Spring rainfall , with 2014 on track to continuing this trend . A spike in heat waves , droughts and record-breaking high temperatures over the past decade has led to some concerns over the effects of global warming and Man-made climate change ( AGW ) on the city . Nine of the ten warmest years recorded in Adelaide have occurred since 2002 , with 2013 being the hottest year and summer 2015 -- 2016 being the fourth-hottest summer recorded .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Adelaide", "rank": 50, "score": 96266 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature's Rising Content: Temperature 's Rising is a compilation album released in 1995 by the Canadian rock band Loverboy . The album was the third compilation by the band , but this particular compilation aimed at the more rarely heard songs by the band , and the minor hits that the previous compilations did not cover .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Temperature's_Rising", "rank": 51, "score": 95776 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 52, "score": 95615 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "236", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 53, "score": 95220 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Sindh Content: The province of Sindh is situated in a subtropical region ; it is hot in the summer and cold in winter . Temperatures frequently rise above 46 ° C between May and August , and the minimum average temperature of 2 ° C occurs during December and January . The annual rainfall averages about seven inches , falling mainly during July and August . The southwesterly monsoon wind begins to blow in mid-February and continues until the end of September , whereas the cool northerly wind blows during the winter months from October to January . Sindh lies between the two monsoons -- the southwest monsoon from the Indian Ocean and the northeast or retreating monsoon , deflected towards it by the Himalayan mountains -- and escapes the influence of both . The average rainfall in Sindh is only 6 - per year . The region 's scarcity of rainfall is compensated by the inundation of the Indus twice a year , caused by the spring and summer melting of Himalayan snow and by rainfall in the monsoon season . These natural patterns have recently changed somewhat with the construction of dams and barrages on the Indus River . Parts of southeastern Sindh receive rainfall of up to 36 in and some cities have received very heavy rainfall on occasion . In 2005 , Hyderabad received 14.4 in in just 11 hours . Sindh is divided into three climatic regions : Siro ( the upper region , centred on Jacobabad ) , Wicholo ( the middle region , centred on Hyderabad ) , and Lar ( the lower region , centred on Karachi ) . The thermal equator passes through upper Sindh , where the air is generally very dry . The highest temperature ever recorded in Sindh was 53.5 C , which was recorded in Mohenjo-daro on 26 May 2010 . It was not only the hottest temperature ever recorded in Pakistan but also the hottest reliably measured temperature ever recorded in the continent of Asia and the fourth highest temperature ever recorded on earth . The previous record for Sindh and Pakistan , and for all of Asia , had been 52.8 C , reached on 12 June 1919 . In the winters , frost is common . Central Sindh 's temperatures are generally lower than those of upper Sindh but higher than those of lower Sindh . Dry hot days and cool nights are typical during the summer . Central Sindh 's maximum temperature typically reaches 43 - . Lower Sindh has a damper and humid maritime climate affected by the southwestern winds in summer and northeastern winds in winter , with lower rainfall than Central Sindh . Lower Sindh 's maximum temperature reaches about 35 - . In the Kirthar range at 1800 m and higher at Gorakh Hill and other peaks in Dadu District , temperatures near freezing have been recorded and brief snowfall is received in the winters.In gorakh temperatures in winter nights can sour down to -15 . The highest temperatures each year in Pakistan , typically rising to above 48 ° C , are usually recorded in Shaheed Benazeerabad District ( previously called Nawabshah District ) and Sibbi from May to August . Sometimes the temperature falls to 0 ° C ; on rare occasions ( once every 25 years or so ) it has fallen to below -7 ° C in December or January .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Sindh", "rank": 54, "score": 95101 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Massachusetts Content: The climate of Massachusetts is mainly a humid continental climate , with warm summers and cold , snowy winters . Massachusetts is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States . Most of its population of 6.4 million live in the Boston metropolitan area . The eastern half of this relatively small state is mostly urban and suburban . Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states and ranks third in overall population density and fourth by GDP per capita . Massachusetts receives about 50 inches ( 1016 mm ) of rain annually , fairly evenly distributed throughout the year , slightly wetter during the winter . Summers are warm with average high temperatures in July above 80 ° F ( 26.7 ° C ) and overnight lows above 60 ° F ( 15.5 ° C ) common throughout the state . Winters are cold , but generally less extreme on the coast with high temperatures in the winter averaging above freezing even in January , although areas further inland are much colder . The state does have extreme temperatures from time to time with 90 ° F ( 32.2 ° C ) in the summer and temperatures below 0 ° F ( -17.8 ° C ) in the winter not being unusual . The state has its share of extreme weather , prone to nor'easter s and to severe winter storms . Summers can bring thunderstorms , averaging around 30 days of thunderstorm activity per year . Massachusetts averages one tornado per year . Massachusetts , like the entire United States eastern seaboard , is vulnerable to hurricanes . Because its location is farther east in the Atlantic Ocean than states farther south , Massachusetts has suffered a direct hit from a major hurricane three times since 1851 , the same number of direct hits suffered by the southern Atlantic state of Georgia . More often hurricanes weakened to tropical storm strength pass near Massachusetts . With the exception of extreme southern Connecticut , all of New England has a humid continental climate or in a broad transition zone , with hot summers and cold winters . Owing to thick deciduous forests , fall in New England brings bright and colorful foliage , which comes earlier than in other regions , attracting tourism . Springs are generally wet and cloudy . Average rainfall generally ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 mm ( 40 to 60 in ) a year . Snowfall can often exceed 100 in ( 2,500 mm ) annually .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Massachusetts", "rank": 55, "score": 94948 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric temperature Content: Atmospheric temperature is a measure of temperature at different levels of the Earth 's atmosphere . It is governed by many factors , including incoming solar radiation , humidity and altitude . When discussing surface temperature , the annual atmospheric temperature range at any geographical location depends largely upon the type of biome , as measured by the Köppen climate classification .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Atmospheric_temperature", "rank": 56, "score": 94796 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "236", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 57, "score": 94787 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Mumbai Content: The Climate of Mumbai is a tropical wet and dry climate . Mumbai 's climate can be best described as moderately hot with high level of humidity . Its coastal nature and tropical location ensures temperatures wo n't fluctuate much throughout the year . The mean average is 27.2 ° C and average precipitation is 242.2 cm ( 95.35 inches ) . The mean maximum average temperatures is about 32 ° C in summer and 30 ° C in winter , while the average minimums are 25 ° C in summer and 20.5 ° C in winter . Mumbai experiences four distinct seasons : Winter ( Jan -- Dec ) winter18 to 5 degree , 30 to 27 Summer ( 28 Feb ) ; Monsoon ( June -- August ) ; and Post-Monsoon ( Dec-Feb ) .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Mumbai", "rank": 58, "score": 94354 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 59, "score": 94119 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Egypt Content: Egypt is most famously known for the landmark , the Eiffel Tower , and has a rather snowy climate . The prevailing wind to the Mediterranean Sea continuously blows over the northern coast without the interposition of an eventual mountain range and thus , greatly moderates temperatures throughout the year . Because of the effect , average low temperatures vary from 9.5 ° C in wintertime to 23 ° C in summertime and average high temperatures vary from 17 ° C in wintertime to 32 ° C in summertime . Though temperatures are moderated along the coasts , the situation changes in the interior , which are away from the moderating northerly winds . Thus , in the central and the southern parts , daytime temperatures are hotter , especially in summers where average high temperatures can exceed 40 ° C in cities and places such as Aswan , Luxor , Asyut or Sohag which are located in the deserts of Egypt . Some mountainous locations in Sinai , such as Saint Catherine , have cooler night temperatures , due to their high elevations . Every year , sometime from March to May , an extremely hot , dry and dusty wind blows from the south or the southwest . This wind is called khamasīn . When the flow of dry air continuously blows over vast desert regions , it picks up fine sand and dust particles and finally results in a dusty wind which is generally felt in the periphery of the desert . When this wind blows over Egypt , it causes high temperatures to soar temporarily at dangerous levels , usually over 45 ° C , the relative humidity levels to drop under 5 % . The khamasīn causes sudden , early heat waves and the absolute highest temperature records in Egypt . Egypt receives between 20 mm and 200 mm of annual average precipitation along the narrow Mediterranean coast , but south to Cairo , the average drops to nearly 0 mm in the central and the southern part of the country . The cloudiest , rainiest places are in and around Alexandria and Rafah . The sunshine duration is high all over Egypt , ranging from a low of 3,300 hours along the northernmost part in places such as Alexandria to reach a high of over 4,000 hours farther in the interior , in most of the country . It usually snows on the Sinai mountains , but it almost never snows in the cities of Giza , Cairo , and Alexandria . For example , in December 2013 , Cairo received a single overnight snowfall for the first time since 1901 .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Egypt", "rank": 60, "score": 93950 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Antarctica Content: The effects of global warming in Antarctica may include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Antarctica", "rank": 61, "score": 93528 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 62, "score": 93489 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "236", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 63, "score": 93352 }, { "content": "Title: Temperatures Rising Content: Temperatures Rising is an American television sitcom that aired on the ABC network from September 12 , 1972 to August 29 , 1974 . During its 46-episode run , it was presented in three different formats and cast line-ups . The series was developed for the network by William Asher and Harry Ackerman for Ashmont Productions and Screen Gems . Set in a fictional Washington , D.C. hospital , the series featured James Whitmore as a no-nonsense chief of staff , forced to deal with the outlandish antics of a young intern ( Cleavon Little ) and three nurses ( Joan Van Ark , Reva Rose , and Nancy Fox ) . For the first season , 26 episodes were produced and broadcast . In the second season , Whitmore was replaced in the lead role by comedian Paul Lynde , and Asher was replaced as producer by Duke Vincent and Bruce Johnson . The series was re-titled The New Temperatures Rising Show , and featured a new supporting cast : Sudie Bond , Barbara Cason , Jennifer Darling , Jeff Morrow , and John Dehner . Cleavon Little was the only returning member of the original cast . In this season , Lynde was presented as the penny-pinching chief of staff , with Bond as his nagging mother and owner of the hospital . The New Temperatures Rising Show ran for 13 episodes before being placed on hiatus in January 1974 due to poor ratings . It returned in July in yet another incarnation . Asher returned as producer and restored the series to its original format -- albeit with Lynde continuing in the lead . Reverting to the original title of Temperatures Rising , Little remained in the show 's cast , accompanied by a new line-up of supporting players : Alice Ghostley , Barbara Rucker and , returning from the first season 's cast , Nancy Fox . Offered as a summer replacement on Thursday nights , the third version of the sitcom ran for seven episodes , after which it was cancelled permanently .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Temperatures_Rising", "rank": 64, "score": 93329 }, { "content": "Title: Lowest temperature recorded on Earth Content: The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is − 89.2 C , which was at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica by ground measurements . A 2009 study estimated that under exceptional climate conditions similar to those recorded at Vostin 1983 , temperatures higher on the plateau around Dome Argus could potentially drop lower than − 95 C. On August 10 , 2010 , satellite observations measured a surface temperature of − 93.2 C at 81.8 ° S 59.3 ° E , along a ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji , at 3,900 m elevation . The result was reported at the 46th annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco , in December 2013 ; it is a provisional figure , and may be subject to revision . The value may not be listed as the record coldest temperature as it was measured by remote sensing satellites and not by ground-based thermometers , unlike the 1983 record . The temperature announced reflects that of the ice surface , while the Vostok readings measured the air above the ice , and so the two are not directly comparable . However , it is most likely that the real temperature on the site was lower than that recorded at Vostok .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Lowest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth", "rank": 65, "score": 93279 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "236", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 66, "score": 93119 }, { "content": "Title: TEMP (meteorology) Content: TEMP ( upper air soundings ) is a set of World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) alphanumerical codes used for reporting weather observations of the upper regions of the atmosphere made by weather balloons released from the surface level ( either at land or at sea ) . The WMO designates the FM-35 numerical code for surface TEMPs and the FM-36 numerical code for ship-based TEMPs . Category : Earth sciences data formats", "qid": "236", "docid": "TEMP_(meteorology)", "rank": 67, "score": 92899 }, { "content": "Title: 4O Content: 4O or 4-O may refer to : 4 ° ( also 4o ) , an abbreviation for Quarto 4 Degrees and Beyond International Climate Conference , discussing issues involving a 4 ° C rise in average global surface temperature 4o Sector , see Quaternary sector of the economy 4O , IATA code for Interjet 4º , abbreviation for fourth 4º Supermag Rally Italia Sardinia , see 2007 Rally d'Italia Sardegna", "qid": "236", "docid": "4O", "rank": 68, "score": 92592 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 69, "score": 92334 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in West Virginia Content: Climate change in West Virginia is of a concern due to the effects on the environment . Over the last century , the average temperature in Charleston , West Virginia , has increased 1.1 ° F ( 0.61 ° C ) , and precipitation has increased by up to 10 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future . Over the next century , climate in West Virginia may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in West Virginia could increase by 3 ° F ( 1.67 ° C ) in winter , spring , and summer ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and 4 ° F ( 2.23 ° C ) in fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to increase by 20 % ( with a range of 10-30 % ) in all seasons , slightly more in summer . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer thunderstorms is possible", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_change_in_West_Virginia", "rank": 70, "score": 92321 }, { "content": "Title: 4° Content: 4 ° may refer to : 4 ° , or Quarto a book or pamphlet produced from full ` blanksheets ' , each of which is printed with eight pages of text , four to a side 4 ° , a reference to a 4-degrees Celsius increase in the global average temperature due to climate change , 4 Degrees and Beyond International Climate Conference `` 4 ° '' , the third single by the progressive rock band Tool from their 1993 album Undertow `` 4 Degrees '' , the first single by experimental pop singer Anohni from her 2016 album Hopelessness", "qid": "236", "docid": "4°", "rank": 71, "score": 92262 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Tasmania Content: Tasmania has a cool temperate climate with four distinct seasons . The highest recorded maximum temperature in Tasmania is 42.2 ° C at Scamander on 30 January 2009 , during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave . Tasmania 's lowest recorded minimum temperature is -13.0 ° C on 30 June 1983 , at Butlers Gorge , Shannon , and Tarraleah . Rainfall in Tasmania is highly differentiated for a relatively compact island . It follows a complicated pattern rather analogous to that found on large continents at the same latitude in the northern hemisphere . Rainfall increases from around 506 mm at Ouse in the centre to 2690 mm at Cradle Valley in the northwestern highlands . Sunshine is also highly differentiated , with average quotients ranging from around 4 hours a day ( under 1500 hours a year ) in the South West of the island , up to around 7 hours daily ( 2550 hours annually ) in the North East around the Launceston area .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Tasmania", "rank": 72, "score": 92248 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 73, "score": 92095 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Dhaka Content: Dhaka experiences a hot , wet and humid tropical climate . Under the Köppen climate classification , Dhaka has a tropical wet and dry climate . The city has a distinct monsoonal season , with an annual average temperature of 25 C and monthly means varying between 18 C in January and 29 C in August . Nearly 80 % of the annual average rainfall of 1854 mm occurs during the monsoon season which lasts from May until the end of September . Increasing air and water pollution emanating from traffic congestion and industrial waste are serious problems affecting public health and the quality of life in the city . Water bodies and wetlands around Dhaka are facing destruction as these are being filled up to construct multi-storied buildings and other real estate developments . Coupled with pollution , such erosion of natural habitats threatens to destroy much of the regional biodiversity . Cold weather is unusual in and around Dhaka . When temperatures decrease to 8 C or less , people without warm clothing and living in inadequate homes may die from the cold .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Dhaka", "rank": 74, "score": 92081 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Indonesia Content: The climate of Indonesia is almost entirely tropical . The uniformly warm waters that make up 81 % of Indonesia 's area ensure that temperatures on land remain fairly constant , with the coastal plains averaging 28 ° C , the inland and mountain areas averaging 26 ° C , and the higher mountain regions , 23 ° C. Temperature varies little from season to season , and Indonesia experiences relatively little change in the length of daylight hours from one season to the next ; the difference between the longest day and the shortest day of the year is only forty-eight minutes . This allows crops to be grown all year round . The main variable of Indonesia 's climate is not temperature or air pressure , but rainfall . The area 's relative humidity ranges between 70 and 90 % . Winds are moderate and generally predictable , with monsoons usually blowing in from the south and east in June through September and from the northwest in December through March . Typhoons and large-scale storms pose little hazard to mariners in Indonesia waters ; the major danger comes from swift currents in channels , such as the Lombok and Sape straits . Indonesia experiences a number of climates , mostly tropical rainforest ( highest precipitation ) , followed by tropical monsoon and tropical savanna ( lowest precipitation ) . However , oceanic climates and subtropical highland climates are found in a number of high-altitude regions in Indonesia , mostly between 1500 and above sea level . Regions that are above this level ( mostly in the Papuan highlands ) fall into the tundra climate category and the subpolar oceanic category .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Indonesia", "rank": 75, "score": 91978 }, { "content": "Title: Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Program Content: The Global Temperature-Salinity Profile Program ( GTSPP ) is a cooperative international project that seeks to develop and maintain a global ocean Temperature-Salinity resource with up-to-date and high quality data .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_Temperature-Salinity_Profile_Program", "rank": 76, "score": 91864 }, { "content": "Title: List of Temperatures Rising episodes Content: Temperatures Rising is an American television sitcom that aired for two years on the ABC network , during which time it was presented in three different formats and cast line-ups with a total of 46 episodes . The series was originally developed , produced , and occasionally directed by William Asher for Ashmont Productions and Screen Gems and premiered on September 12 , 1972 , in the time slot of Tuesday nights at 8:00 PM . The regular cast consisted of Cleavon Little as Dr. Jerry Noland , Joan Van Ark as Nurse Annie Carlisle , Reva Rose as Nurse Mildred `` Millie '' MacInerny , Nancy Fox as Student Nurse Ellen Turner , and James Whitmore as Dr. Vincent Campanelli . The premise of the series featured Campanelli as the no-nonsense chief-of-staff of Capitol General , a ( fictional ) Washington , D.C. hospital , who is forced to deal with the outlandish antics of Noland and the three nurses , whom Campanelli refers to as `` the four horsemen of aggravation '' . During its first season -- and first format -- 26 episodes were aired with the final one broadcast on . Reruns of the season 's episodes continued until September 4 , 1973 . Despite heavy competition in the ratings from Maude on CBS and Bonanza on NBC , Temperatures Rising did well enough in its first season to be renewed for a second . For this second season , John Mitchell , the head of Screen Gems , decided to replace James Whitmore with comedian Paul Lynde , whose own sitcom , The Paul Lynde Show ( also produced by William Asher for the 1972 -- 73 season ) was to be cancelled . Asher was against the change and declined to continue with Temperatures Rising , resulting in him being replaced as producer by Duke Vincent and Bruce Johnson . Under them , Van Ark , Rose , and Fox were dropped from the cast along with Whitmore , thus retaining Little as the only returning member . The New Temperatures Rising Show , as the series was now retitled , began airing on , and starred Paul Lynde as Dr. Paul Mercy , Sudie Bond as his mother Martha Mercy , Barbara Cason as Miss Tillis , the head nurse , Jennifer Darling as Nurse `` Windy '' Winchester , Jeff Morrow as Dr. Lloyd Axton , John Dehner as Dr. Charles Cleveland Claver , and Cleavon Little as Dr. Jerry Noland , while Jerry Houser was featured in a recurring role as an intern named Haskell . In this season Mercy was presented as the penny-pinching chief-of-staff , with his nagging mother as the owner of the hospital . Little 's character was changed to the chief surgeon and `` the only sane member of this medical madhouse '' . The New Temperatures Rising Show ran for 13 episodes before being placed on hiatus on . The ratings for the show were poor and , as a result , Mitchell asked Asher to return to the series as producer and restore it to its original format -- albeit with Paul Lynde continuing in the lead . For the third format of the series -- which reverted to the original title of Temperatures Rising -- Bond , Cason , Darling , Morrow , Dehner , and Houser were dropped from the cast while Lynde and Little continued on as , respectively , Dr. Mercy and Dr. Nolan . Added to the line-up were Alice Ghostley as Nurse Edwina Moffitt , sister of Dr. Mercy , and Barbara Rucker as Nurse Kelly , while Nancy Fox , from the first-season cast , returned as Nurse Ellen Turner . Offered as a summer replacement on Thursday nights , the third format of the sitcom ran for seven episodes from July 18 to , after which it was cancelled permanently . As of , , Temperatures Rising has not been released on DVD or Blu-ray Disc .", "qid": "236", "docid": "List_of_Temperatures_Rising_episodes", "rank": 77, "score": 91667 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's energy budget Content: Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Earth's_energy_budget", "rank": 78, "score": 91642 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1894 -- 95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 C . Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain . Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885 -- 86 to 1894 -- 95 was 2.87 C , no winter with a CET under 3.0 C followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940 . In contrast , between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 C had lasted longer than twelve winters . Although this winter -- which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881 , 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 -- affected most of Europe and North America very severely , the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs . The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames , which froze for the last time on record . Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state , most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people . There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather , with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London 's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor , and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators . Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible , whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Winter_of_1894–95_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 79, "score": 91631 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Alabama Content: The state is classified as humid subtropical ( Cfa ) under the Köppen climate classification . The average annual temperature is 64 ° F ( 18 ° C ) . Temperatures tend to be warmer in the southern part of the state with its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico , while the northern parts of the state , especially in the Appalachian Mountains in the northeast , tend to be slightly cooler . Generally , Alabama has very hot summers and mild winters with copious precipitation throughout the year . Alabama receives an average of 56 in of rainfall annually and enjoys a lengthy growing season of up to 300 days in the southern part of the state . Hailstorms occur occasionally in the spring and summer , but are seldom destructive . Heavy fogs are rare , and are confined chiefly to the coast . Thunderstorms occur throughout the year - they are most common in the summer , but most severe in the spring and fall , when destructive winds and tornadoes occasionally occur . Hurricanes are quite common in the state , especially in the southern part , and major hurricanes occasionally strike the coast which can be very destructive .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Alabama", "rank": 80, "score": 91034 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The March 2012 United Kingdom and Ireland heat wave was a period of unseasonable warm weather with temperatures getting above 20 C in many places . The average temperature for this time of year in the United Kingdom is 10 C. Aboyne , Scotland , recorded a temperature of 23.6 C on 27 March , the highest March temperature in Scotland since records began . For around eight days no clouds were visible for the majority of places in the UK , allowing the sun to shine straight down through the blue sky and induce high air temperatures . The high pressure also meant there was little wind to act as a coolant .", "qid": "236", "docid": "March_2012_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 81, "score": 90538 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling (disambiguation) Content: Global cooling was a 1970s conjecture about global climate change . Global cooling may also refer to : In general , one of the means by which Earth can undergo climate change Climate change denial , including contrarian views about global warming in the 20th and 21st centuries Cooling periods on the multimillion-year scale in the geologic temperature record Geophysical global cooling , a conjecture about the formation of natural features that was made obsolete by the theory of plate tectonics Little Ice Age , a period from the 16th to 19th centuries characterized by cooling and coincident with below average sunspots frequency", "qid": "236", "docid": "Global_cooling_(disambiguation)", "rank": 82, "score": 90379 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercane Content: A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached 50 C , which is 15 C-change warmer than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded . Such an increase could be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact , a large supervolcanic eruption , or extensive global warming . There is some speculation that a series of hypercanes resulting from an impact by a large asteroid or comet contributed to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs . The hypothesis was created by Kerry Emanuel of MIT who also coined the term .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Hypercane", "rank": 83, "score": 90371 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 84, "score": 90099 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature Content: A temperature is an objective comparative measurement of hot or cold . It is measured by a thermometer . Several scales and units exist for measuring temperature , the most common being Celsius ( denoted ° C ; formerly called centigrade ) , Fahrenheit ( denoted ° F ) , and , especially in science , Kelvin ( denoted K ) . The coldest theoretical temperature is absolute zero , at which the thermal motion of atoms and molecules reaches its minimum -- classically , this would be a state of motionlessness , but quantum uncertainty dictates that the particles still possess a finite zero-point energy . Absolute zero is denoted as 0 K on the Kelvin scale , − 273.15 ° C on the Celsius scale , and − 459.67 ° F on the Fahrenheit scale . The kinetic theory offers a valuable but limited account of the behavior of the materials of macroscopic bodies , especially of fluids . It indicates the absolute temperature as proportional to the average kinetic energy of the random microscopic motions of those of their constituent microscopic particles , such as electrons , atoms , and molecules , that move freely within the material . Temperature is important in all fields of natural science including physics , geology , chemistry , atmospheric sciences , medicine and biology as well as most aspects of daily life .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Temperature", "rank": 85, "score": 90086 }, { "content": "Title: Weather Content: Weather is the state of the atmosphere , to the degree that it is hot or cold , wet or dry , calm or stormy , clear or cloudy . Most weather phenomena occur in the lowest level of the atmosphere , the troposphere , just below the stratosphere . Weather refers to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity , whereas climate is the term for the averaging of atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time . When used without qualification , `` weather '' is generally understood to mean the weather of Earth . Weather is driven by air pressure , temperature and moisture differences between one place and another . These differences can occur due to the sun 's angle at any particular spot , which varies with latitude . The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the largest scale atmospheric circulations : the Hadley Cell , the Ferrel Cell , the Polar Cell , and the jet stream . Weather systems in the mid-latitudes , such as extratropical cyclones , are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow . Because the Earth 's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane , sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year . On Earth 's surface , temperatures usually range ± 40 ° C ( − 40 ° F to 100 ° F ) annually . Over thousands of years , changes in Earth 's orbit can affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth , thus influencing long-term climate and global climate change . Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences . Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes as most atmospheric heating is due to contact with the Earth 's surface while radiative losses to space are mostly constant . Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location . The Earth 's weather system is a chaotic system ; as a result , small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole . Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout history , and there is evidence that human activities such as agriculture and industry have modified weather patterns . Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth . A famous landmark in the Solar System , Jupiter 's Great Red Spot , is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years . However , weather is not limited to planetary bodies . A star 's corona is constantly being lost to space , creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System . The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Weather", "rank": 86, "score": 89822 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Budapest Content: The Climate of Budapest is humid continental . Winter ( December until early March ) is by far the coldest and cloudiest time of year . Snowfall is fairly frequent in most years , and nighttime temperatures of − 15 ° C ( 5 ° F ) are not uncommon from mid-December until mid-February . The spring months ( March and April ) see variable conditions , with a rapid increase in the average temperature . Budapest 's summer , lasting from June until September , is the warmest time of year . Budapest has as much summer sunshine as many Mediterranean resorts . Sudden heavy showers also occur , particularly in May and June . The autumn in Budapest ( mid-September until late October ) is characterized by less rain than in summer and long sunny days .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Budapest", "rank": 87, "score": 89746 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of south-west England Content: The climate of south-west England is classed as oceanic ( Cfb ) according to the Köppen climate classification . The oceanic climate is typified by cool winters with warmer summers and precipitation all year round , with more experienced in winter . Annual rainfall is about 1000 mm and up to 2000 mm on higher ground . Summer maxima averages range from 18 ° C to 22 ° C and winter minima averages range from 1 ° C to 4 ° C across the south-west . It is the second windiest area of the United Kingdom , the majority of winds coming from the south-west and north-east . Government organisations predict the area will experience a rise in temperature and become the hottest region in the United Kingdom . Inland areas of low altitude experience the least amount of precipitation . They have the highest summer maxima temperatures , but winter minima are lower than those of the coast . Snowfalls are more frequent in comparison to the coast , but less so in comparison to higher ground . They experience the lowest wind speeds and the total sunshine hours are between those of the coast and the moors . This typical climate of inland areas is more noticeable the further north-east into the region . In comparison to inland areas , the coast experiences high minimum temperatures , especially in winter , and slightly lower maximum temperatures during the summer . Rainfall is lowest at the coast and snowfall there is rarer than the rest of the region . Coastal areas are the windiest parts of the peninsula and they receive the most sunshine . The general coastal climate becomes more prevalent further south-west into the region . The south-west has areas of moorland inland such as Bodmin Moor , Dartmoor and Exmoor . Because of their high altitude they experience lower temperatures and more precipitation than the rest of the south west ( approximately twice as much rainfall as lowland areas ) . Both of these factors also result in the highest levels of snowfall and the lowest levels of sunshine . Exposed areas of the moors are windier than the lowlands and can be almost as windy as the coast .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_south-west_England", "rank": 88, "score": 89726 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical climate Content: A tropical climate in the Köppen climate classification is a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures of at least 18 C . In tropical climates there are often only two seasons , a wet season and a dry season . Tropical climates are frost-free and changes in the solar angle are small . In tropical climates temperature remains relatively constant ( hot ) throughout the year .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Tropical_climate", "rank": 89, "score": 89693 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Buenos Aires Content: Buenos Aires , the capital of Argentina , has a temperate climate , which is classified as a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) under the Köppen climate classification with four distinct seasons . Summers are hot and humid with frequent thunderstorms while winters are cool and drier with frosts that occurs on average twice per year . Spring and fall are transition seasons characterized by changeable weather . At the central observatory , the highest recorded temperature is 43.3 C while the lowest recorded temperature is -5.4 C. Different climatic factors influence the climate of Buenos Aires . The semi -- permanent South Atlantic High influences its climate throughout the year by bringing in moist winds from the northeast , which bring most of the precipitation to the city in the form of frontal systems during winter or storms produced by cyclogenesis in autumn and winter . The hot temperatures and high insolation in the summer months form a low pressure system called the Chaco Low over northern Argentina , generating a pressure gradient that brings moist easterly winds to the city -- because of this , summer is the rainiest season . In contrast , this low pressure system weakens in the winter , which combined with strong southerly winds results in a drier season due to weaker easterly winds . Being located in the Pampas , Buenos Aires has variable weather due to the passage of contrasting air mass -- the cold , dry Pampero from the south and warm , humid tropical air from the north . The coastal location results in a strong maritime influence , causing extreme temperatures ( hot or cold ) to be rare .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Buenos_Aires", "rank": 90, "score": 89646 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Allentown, Pennsylvania Content: The climate of Allentown , Pennsylvania is classified as being in the transition between a humid continental and humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Dfa/Cfa , respectively ) , although lying closer to the former . Allentown 's warmest month ( on average ) is July with a daily average temperature of 73.4 ° F and the coldest month ( on average ) being January with a daily average of 27.8 ° F . The average precipitation of Allentown is 45.35 in per year . Allentown occasionally has some severe weather , mostly thunderstorms and flooding . Winters can bring snow , with some years receiving very little of it while others seeing several major snowstorms ( often Nor'easter s ) . Winter also brings the more dangerous ice , sleet , and freezing rain , which has caused several traffic accidents over the years . Tropical storms and hurricanes occasionally survive up the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and cross into Pennsylvania . Storms such as Hurricane Ivan and more recently Hurricane Sandy have caused light to severe damage in the area .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Allentown,_Pennsylvania", "rank": 91, "score": 89462 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Kolkata Content: Kolkata has a Tropical wet-and-dry climate ( Köppen climate classification Aw ) . The annual mean temperature is 24.8 ° C ( 80 ° F ) ; monthly mean temperatures range from 15 ° C to 30 ° C ( 59 ° F to 86 ° F ) . Summers are hot and humid with temperatures in the low 30 's and during dry spells the maximum temperatures often exceed 40 ° C ( 104 ° F ) during May and June . Winter tends to last for only about two and a half months , with seasonal lows dipping to 9 ° C -- 11 ° C ( 48.2 ° F -- 51.8 ° F ) between December and January . The highest recorded temperature is 43.9 ° C ( 111 ° F ) and the lowest is 3 ° C ( 37.4 ° F ) . Often during early summer , dusty squalls followed by spells of thunderstorm and heavy rains lash the city , bringing relief from the humid heat . These thunderstorms are convective in nature , and is locally known as Kal baisakhi ( কালবৈশাখী , Nor ` westers ) . Rains brought by the Bay of Bengal branch of South-West monsoon lash the city between June and September and supplies the city with most of its annual rainfall of 1,582 mm ( 62.3 inches ) . The highest rainfall occurs during the monsoon in August ( 306 mm ) . The city receives 2,528 hours of sunshine per annum , with the maximum sunlight occurring in March . Pollution is a major concern in Kolkata , and the Suspended Particulate Matter ( SPM ) level is high when compared to other major cities of India , leading to regular smog and haze . Severe air pollution in the city has caused rise in pollution-related respiratory ailments such as lung cancer .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Kolkata", "rank": 92, "score": 89392 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 World Championships in Athletics – Men's marathon Content: The Men 's Marathon event at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics took place on August 25 , 2007 in the streets of Osaka , Japan . The weather conditions were difficult , with 28 degrees C ( 82 ° F ) and 72 per cent humidity at the start of the race . The temperature rose to 30 degrees C ( 86 ° F ) towards the end of the race , and many competitors failed to finish the race .", "qid": "236", "docid": "2007_World_Championships_in_Athletics_–_Men's_marathon", "rank": 93, "score": 89357 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Puerto Rico Content: The climate of Puerto Rico falls into the tropical climatic zone . Temperatures are moderate year round , averaging near 80 F in lower elevations and 70 F in the mountains . Easterly trade winds pass across the island year round . Puerto Rico has a rainy season which stretches from April into November . The mountains of the Cordillera Central are the main cause of the variations in the temperature and rainfall that occur over very short distances . The mountains can also cause wide variation in local wind speed and direction due to their sheltering and channeling effects adding to the climatic variation . About a quarter of the annual rainfall for Puerto Rico , on average , occurs during tropical cyclones , which are more frequent during La Niña events .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Puerto_Rico", "rank": 94, "score": 89258 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Gujarat Content: The climate of Gujarat involves diverse conditions . The winters are mild , pleasant , and dry with average daytime temperatures around 29 ° C and nights around 12 ° C with 100 percent sunny days and clear nights . The summers are extremely hot and dry with daytime temperatures around 49 ° C and at night no lower than 30 ° C . In the weeks leading up to the arrival of the monsoon rains the temperatures are similar to above but with high humidity which makes the air feel hotter . Relief when the monsoon season starts around in mid June . The day temperatures are lowered to around 35 ° C but humidity is very high and nights are around 27 ° C. Most of the rainfall occurs in this season , and the rain can cause severe floods . The sun is often occluded during the monsoon season . Though mostly dry , it is desertic in the north-west , and wet in the southern districts due to a heavy monsoon season . Category : Gujarat Category : Climate of India", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Gujarat", "rank": 95, "score": 89230 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Miami Content: Miami has a tropical monsoon climate ( Köppen climate classification Am ) with hot and humid summers and short , warm winters , with a marked drier season in the winter . Köppen climate classification Its sea-level elevation , coastal location , position just above the Tropic of Cancer , and proximity to the Gulf Stream shape its climate . With January averaging 69.2 F , winter features warm temperatures ; cool air usually settles after the passage of a cold front , which produces much of the little amount of rainfall . Lows sometimes fall to or below 50 F , with an average 3 such occurrences annually , but very rarely 40 F ; from 1981 to 2010 , temperatures reached that level in only eight calendar years . Highs generally reach 70 F or higher , and fail to do so on only an average of 12 days annually . The wet season usually begins during the month of May and continues through mid-October . During this period , temperatures are in the mid 80s to low 90s ( 29 -- 35 ° C ) , accompanied by high humidity , though the heat is often relieved by afternoon thunderstorms or a sea breeze that develops off the Atlantic Ocean , which then allow lower temperatures , but conditions still remain very muggy . Much of the year 's 61.9 in of rainfall occurs during this period . Extreme temperatures range from 26.5 ° F ( recorded as 27 in the almanac ) on February 3 , 1917 , to 100 ° F on July 21 , 1942 , ( − 2.8 to 38 ° C ) , the triple-digit ( ° F ) reading on record ; the more recent freezing temperature seen at Miami International Airport was on December 25 , 1989 . The highest daily minimum temperature is 84 ° F on August 4 , 1993 and September 7 , 1897 ( although the corresponding record for Miami Beach is 90 ° F on July 17 , 2001 ) , and conversely , the lowest daily maximum temperature is 45 ° F on February 19 , 1900 . While Miami has never officially recorded any accumulating snowfall since records have been kept , there were dubious claims of snow flurries on January 19 , 1977 during the cold wave of January 1977 . Weather conditions for the area around Miami were recorded sporadically from 1839 until 1900 , with many years-long gaps . A cooperative temperature and rainfall recording site was established in what is now Downtown in December 1900 . An official Weather Bureau Office opened in Miami in June 1911 . Heavy snow squalls with accumulations that lasted for a few hours after the snow had stopped falling in February 1899 were reported , but these are not official since there is no written record of it . Miami receives abundant rainfall , one of the highest among major cities in the United States . Most of this rainfall occurs from mid-May through early October . Miami has an average annual rainfall of 61.9 in , whereas nearby Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach receive 66.5 in and 51.7 in , respectively , which demonstrates the high local variability in rainfall rates . Miami reports more thunderstorms than most US cities , with about eighty days per year having thunder reported . These storms are often strong , with frequent lightning and very heavy rain . Occasionally , they can be severe with damaging straight line winds and large hail . Tornadoes and waterspouts sometimes occur , although violent tornadoes of the type seen in other parts of the United States are rare in Florida . During El Niño events , Miami becomes cooler than normal during the dry season with above average precipitation . During La Niña , Miami becomes warmer and drier than normal . A record setting 12-day cold snap in January 2010 was the coldest period since at least the 1940s . During the cold wave of January 1977 that saw snowfall over the majority of the state , isolated flurries have been observed on the outskirts of Miami , which is the only recorded snowfall in the history of the region . The climate for much of the state is humid subtropical ( Köppen Cfa ) , South Florida , as well as all of the Florida Keys , qualify as one of several tropical classifications ( Köppen Aw , Am , or Af ) . Köppen climate classification Southeastern Florida falls into USDA zone 10b for plant hardiness , where annual extreme low temperatures range from 30 to , versus zone 9 in Central Florida , and zone 8 in northern Florida . With global warming , the urban heat island effect , as well as Biscayne Bay as a buffer , the waterside downtown area and the barrier islands including Miami Beach made it into hardiness zone 11a by 2012 . Miami Beach has virtually no freezing weather in its history and very few sub - 40 F weather . Roughly 115 mi north of Miami , Jensen Beach is at the threshold of Florida 's tropical climate designation , with January having an average about 64 F. Southeastern Florida is also the only area in the continental United States to be in Zone 1 for Energy Star recommended insulation levels , with Hawaii , Puerto Rico , and the US Virgin Islands .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Miami", "rank": 96, "score": 88883 }, { "content": "Title: Remote Sensing Systems Content: Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) is a private research company founded in 1974 by Frank Wentz . It processes microwave data from a variety of NASA satellites . Most of their research is supported by the Earth Science Enterprise program . The company is based in Santa Rosa , California . They are a widely cited source of data , on the satellite temperature record . Their data is one source of evidence for global warming . Research by Carl Mears , Matthias Schabel , and Wentz , all of RSS , highlighted errors in the early satellite temperature records compiled by John Christy and Roy Spencer at UAH . The UAH data had previously showed no significant temperature trend , bringing the derived satellite data into closer agreement with surface temperature trends , radiosonde data and computer models . The UAH data is now closer to the RSS data but differences remain , for example the Lower Troposphere global average trend since 1979 , RSS currently have +0.133 K/decade while UAH have 0.140 K/decade , while the mid troposphere difference is even more marked at 0.079 K/decade and 0.052 K/decade respectively . However , in a recent online YouTube video , Dr. Carl Mears , a senior scientist with the team behind the satellite data , explained how he believes his data set needed correction . I would have to say that the surface data seems that it 's more accurate , because a number of groups analyze the surface data , including some who set out to prove the other ones wrong , and they all get more or less the same answer .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Remote_Sensing_Systems", "rank": 97, "score": 88766 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Dubai Content: Dubai has a tropical desert climate , köppen classification Bwh , because of its location within the Northern desert belt . Summers are extremely hot and humid , with an average high around 41 ° C and overnight lows around 30 ° C . The highest recorded temperature in Dubai is 55 ° C in 2002 . Most days are sunny throughout the year . Winters are warm and short with an average high of 23 ° C and overnight lows of 14 ° C. Precipitation , however , has been increasing in the last few decades with accumulated rain reaching 150 mm per year . The weather in Dubai can bring short and irregular rainfall as is typical for the Middle East . Most of the rainfall occurs in the December to March period . The weather between December and March remains warm and is considered to be the most comfortable climatic conditions of the year .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Dubai", "rank": 98, "score": 88752 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Pakistan Content: Pakistan recorded one of the highest temperatures in the world -- 53.5 ° C -- on 26 May 2010 , the hottest temperature ever recorded in Pakistan , but also the hottest reliably measured temperature ever recorded on the continent of Asia . As Pakistan is located on a great landmass north of the Tropic of Cancer ( between latitudes 25 ° and 36 ° N ) , it has a continental type of climate characterized by extreme variations of temperature , both seasonally and daily . Very high altitudes modify the climate in the cold , snow-covered northern mountains ; temperatures on the Balochistan Plateau are somewhat higher . Along the coastal strip , the climate is modified by sea breezes . In the rest of the country , temperatures reach great heights in the summer ; the mean temperature during June is 38 ° F in the plains , the highest temperatures can exceed 47 ° C . In the summer , hot winds called Loo blow across the plains during the day . Trees shed their leaves to avoid loss of moisture . The dry , hot weather is broken occasionally by dust storms and thunderstorms that temporarily lower the temperature . Evenings are cool ; the diurnal variation in temperature may be as much as 11C to 17C . Winters are cold , with minimum mean temperatures in Punjab of about 4 ° C in January , and sub-zero temperatures in the far north and Balochistan . The monsoon and the Western Disturbance are the two main factors which alter the weather over Pakistan ; otherwise , Continental air prevails for rest of the year . Following are the main factors that influence the weather over Pakistan . Western Disturbances mostly occur during the winter months and cause light to moderate showers in southern parts of the country while moderate to heavy showers with heavy snowfall in the northern parts of the country . These westerly waves are robbed of most of the moisture by the time they reach Pakistan . Fog occurs during the winter season and remains for weeks in upper Sindh , central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab . Southwest Monsoon occurs in summer from the month of June till September in almost whole Pakistan excluding western Balochistan , FATA , Chitral and Gilgit -- Baltistan . Monsoon rains bring much awaited relief from the scorching summer heat . These monsoon rains are quite heavy by nature and can cause significant flooding , even severe flooding if they interact with westerly waves in the upper parts of the country . Tropical Storms usually form during the summer months from late April till June and then from late September till November . They affect the coastal localities of the country . Dust storms occur during summer months with peak in May and June , They are locally known as Andhi . These dust storms are quite violent . Dust storms during the early summer indicates the arrival of the monsoons while dust storms in the autumn indicate the arrival of winter . Heat waves occur during May and June , especially in southern Punjab , central Balochistan and interior Sindh . Thunderstorms most commonly occur in northern Punjab , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir . Continental air prevails during the period when there is no precipitation in the country . Pakistan has four seasons : a cool , dry winter from December through February ; a hot , dry spring from March through May ; the summer rainy season , or southwest monsoon period , from June through September ; and the retreating monsoon period of October and November . The onset and duration of these seasons vary somewhat according to location . The climate in the capital city of Islamabad varies from an average daily low of 2 ° C in January to an average daily high of 38 ° C in June . Half of the annual rainfall occurs in July and August , averaging about 255 millimeters in each of those two months . The remainder of the year has significantly less rain , amounting to about fifty millimeters per month . Hailstorms are common in the spring . Pakistan 's largest city , Karachi , which is also the country 's industrial center , is more humid than Islamabad but gets less rain . Only July and August average more than twenty-five millimeters of rain in the Karachi area ; the remaining months are exceedingly dry . The temperature is also more uniform in Karachi than in Islamabad , ranging from an average daily low of 13 ° C during winter evenings to an average daily high of 34 ° C on summer days . Although the summer temperatures do not get as high as those in Punjab , the high humidity causes the residents a great deal of discomfort . In Islamabad , there are cold winds from the north of Pakistan .", "qid": "236", "docid": "Climate_of_Pakistan", "rank": 99, "score": 88707 }, { "content": "Title: Coral in non-tropical regions Content: The poleward migration of coral species refers to the phenomenon brought on by rising sea temperatures, wherein corals are colonising cooler climates in an attempt to circumvent coral bleaching, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. In the age of Anthropocene, the changing global climate has disrupted fundamental natural processes and brought about observable changes in the submarine sphere. Whilst coral reefs are bleaching in tropical areas like the Great Barrier Reef, even more striking, and perhaps more alarming; is the growth of tropical coral species in temperate regions, which has taken place over the past decade. Coral reefs are frequently compared to the \"canaries in the coal mine,\" who were used by miners as an indicator of air quality. In much the same way, \"coral reefs are sensitive to environmental changes that could damage other habitats in the future,\" meaning they will be the first to visually exhibit the true implications of global warming on the natural world.", "qid": "236", "docid": "Coral_in_non-tropical_regions", "rank": 100, "score": 88638 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 1, "score": 109429 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 2, "score": 104128 }, { "content": "Title: Trend type forecast Content: A trend type forecast ( TTF ) also known simply as a trend , is an aviation weather forecast written by a real person on location at a major airport or military base . A TTF is a professionally considered forecast for weather over a two-hour period , and is based on an actual weather report , such as a METAR or SPECI and appended to the end of it . A TTF is similar to or sometimes in addition to a TAF , a terminal aerodrome forecast , but during the TTF 's validity period is considered superior to a TAF .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Trend_type_forecast", "rank": 3, "score": 103405 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 4, "score": 97340 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 5, "score": 96628 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 6, "score": 96178 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 7, "score": 95317 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 8, "score": 94530 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Forecast System Content: __ NOTOC __ The Climate Forecast System or Coupled Forecast System ( both names abbreviated CFS ) is a medium to long range numerical weather prediction and a climate model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) to bridge weather and climate timescales . Version 2 became operational as CFSv2 in 2011 .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_Forecast_System", "rank": 9, "score": 94049 }, { "content": "Title: Climate model Content: Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_model", "rank": 10, "score": 93855 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 11, "score": 93768 }, { "content": "Title: Vicky Pope Content: Vicky Pope is head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre . She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation . Since October 2004 she has been Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change . Her research interests include developing and validating climate models . In an interview for The Guardian newspaper , she said : `` very few '' scientists disputed the latest IPCC report . `` The consensus on warming since the 1850s is that a large part is due to man 's activities , '' she said . `` That 's the line of the IPCC report and that position is strengthening . It is a very widespread consensus . There are a few very vocal people who are sceptics , only some of whom are actually scientists . Sceptics obviously have a place in the community . '' link", "qid": "237", "docid": "Vicky_Pope", "rank": 12, "score": 92546 }, { "content": "Title: WGSN (trend forecasting) Content: WGSN ( formerly Worth Global Style Network ) is a trend forecasting company of parent organization Ascential . WGSN was founded in 1998 in West London by brothers Julian and Marc Worth . Emap ( now Ascential ) , a business-to-business publisher and exhibitions company , bought the company in October 2005 for # 140m .", "qid": "237", "docid": "WGSN_(trend_forecasting)", "rank": 13, "score": 91883 }, { "content": "Title: Economic impacts of climate change Content: This article describes the economic impacts of climate change . Given the inherent nature of economic forecasting , which involves significant degrees of uncertainty , estimates of the results of global warming over the 21st century have varied widely . Many analyses , such as that of the Stern Review presented to the British Government , have predicted reductions by several percent of world gross domestic product due to climate related costs such as dealing with increased extreme weather events and stresses to low-lying areas due to sea level rises . Other studies by independent economists looking at the effects of climate change have found more ambiguous results around the range of net-neutral changes when all aspects of the issue are evaluated , though the issue remains intensely debated .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Economic_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 14, "score": 89807 }, { "content": "Title: Fashion forecasting Content: Fashion forecasting is a global career that focuses on upcoming trends . A fashion forecaster predicts the colors , fabrics , textures , materials , prints , graphics , beauty/grooming , accessories , footwear , street style , and other styles that will be presented on the runway and in the stores for the upcoming seasons . The concept applies to not one , but all levels of the fashion industry including haute couture , ready-to-wear , mass market , and street wear . Trend forecasting is an overall process that focuses on other industries such as automobiles , medicine , food and beverages , literature , and home furnishings . Fashion forecasters are responsible for attracting consumers and helping retail businesses and designers sell their brands . Today , fashion industry workers rely on the Internet to retrieve information on new looks , hot colors , celebrity wardrobes , and designer collections . The fashion forecasting process includes the basic steps of understanding the vision of the business and profile of target customers , collecting information about available merchandise , preparing information , determining trends , and choosing merchandise appropriate for the company and target customer . Color and style are two of the important objects to forecast for most buyers and merchandisers . Trend Tablet , Peclers Paris and Nelly Rodi Lab offer excellent trend reports free online which make it easy to stay informed and watch the forecasting process unfold . WGSN is another important company for fashion forecasting .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Fashion_forecasting", "rank": 15, "score": 89264 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 16, "score": 88804 }, { "content": "Title: ECHAM Content: ECHAM is a general circulation model ( GCM ) developed by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology , one of the research organisations of the Max Planck Society . It was created by modifying global forecast models developed by ECMWF to be used for climate research . The model was given its name as a combination of its origin ( the ` EC ' being short for ` ECMWF ' ) and the place of development of its parameterisation package , Hamburg . The default configuration of the model resolves the atmosphere up to 10 hPa ( primarily used to study the lower atmosphere ) , but it can be reconfigured to 0.01 hPa for use in studying the stratosphere and lower mesosphere . Different versions of ECHAM , primarily different configurations of ECHAM5 , have been the basis of many publications , listed on the ECHAM5 website .", "qid": "237", "docid": "ECHAM", "rank": 17, "score": 88772 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "237", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 18, "score": 88657 }, { "content": "Title: K-HOLE (trend forecasting group) Content: K-HOLE is a trend forecasting group founded by Greg Fong , Sean Monahan , Chris Sherron , Emily Segal , and Dena Yago in 2010 . K-hole is based in New York City .", "qid": "237", "docid": "K-HOLE_(trend_forecasting_group)", "rank": 19, "score": 88556 }, { "content": "Title: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Content: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age . `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Victor_Manuel_Velasco_Herrera", "rank": 20, "score": 88053 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological forecasting Content: Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics , ecology and physiology to predict how ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change . The ultimate goal of the approach is to provide people such as resource managers and designers of marine reserves with information that they can then use to respond , in advance , to future changes , a form of adaptation to global warming . One of the most important environmental factors for organisms today is global warming . Most physiological processes are affected by temperature , and so even small changes in weather and climate can lead to large changes in the growth , reproduction and survival of animals and plants . The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era . These changes are in turn affecting human and natural ecosystems . One major challenge is to predict where , when and with what magnitude changes are likely to occur so that we can mitigate or at least prepare for them . Ecological forecasting applies existing knowledge of how animals and plants interact with their physical environment to ask how changes in environmental factors might result in changes to the ecosystems as a whole .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Ecological_forecasting", "rank": 21, "score": 87941 }, { "content": "Title: DICE model Content: The Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy model , referred to as the DICE model or Dice model , is a computer-based integrated assessment model developed by William Nordhaus that `` integrates in an end-to-end fashion the economics , carbon cycle , climate science , and impacts in a highly aggregated model that allows a weighing of the costs and benefits of taking steps to slow greenhouse warming . '' Nordhaus also developed the RICE model ( Regional Integrated Climate-Economy model ) , a variant of the DICE model that was updated and developed alongside the DICE model . Others who collaborated with Nordhaus to develop the model include David Popp , Zili Yang , Joseph Boyer , and other colleagues . The DICE model is one of the three main integrated assessment models used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency , and it provides estimates intermediate between the other two models .", "qid": "237", "docid": "DICE_model", "rank": 22, "score": 87652 }, { "content": "Title: Unified Model Content: The Unified Model is a Numerical Weather Prediction and climate modeling software suite originally developed by the United Kingdom Met Office , and now both used and further developed by many weather-forecasting agencies around the world . The Unified Model gets its name because a single model is used across a range of both timescales ( nowcasting to centennial ) and spatial scales ( convective scale to climate system earth modelling ) . The models are grid-point based , rather than wave based , and are run on a variety of supercomputers around the world . The Unified Model atmosphere can be coupled to a number of ocean models . At the Met Office it is used for the main suite of Global Model , North Atlantic and Europe model ( NAE ) and a high-resolution UK model ( UKV ) , in addition to a variety of Crisis Area Models and other models that can be run on demand . Similar Unified Model suites with global and regional domains are used by many other national or military weather agencies around the world for operational forecasting . Data for numerical weather prediction is provided by observations from satellites , from the ground ( both human and from automatic weather stations ) , from buoys at sea , radar , radiosonde weather balloons , wind profilers , commercial aircraft and a background field from previous model runs . The computer model is only adjusted towards the observations using assimilation , rather than forcing the model to accept an observed value that might make the system unstable ( and could be an inaccurate observation ) . The Unified Model software suite is written in Fortran ( originally 77 but now predominantly 90 ) and uses height as the vertical variable . Because most developments of interest are at near to the ground the vertical layers are closer together near the surface .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Unified_Model", "rank": 23, "score": 87483 }, { "content": "Title: Slow manifold Content: In mathematics , the slow manifold of an equilibrium point of a dynamical system occurs as the most common example of a center manifold . One of the main methods of simplifying dynamical systems , is to reduce the dimension of the system to that of the slow manifold -- center manifold theory rigorously justifies the modelling . For example , some global and regional models of the atmosphere or oceans resolve the so-called quasi-geostrophic flow dynamics on the slow manifold of the atmosphere/oceanic dynamics , and is thus crucial to forecasting with a climate model .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Slow_manifold", "rank": 24, "score": 87302 }, { "content": "Title: CCCma Content: CCCma ( Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis ) is part of the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada and is located at the University of Victoria , Victoria , British Columbia . Its purpose is to develop and apply climate models to improve understanding of climate change and make quantitative projections of future climate in Canada and globally . Its seasonal forecasting system provides climate forecasts over Canada on timescales of months to years .", "qid": "237", "docid": "CCCma", "rank": 25, "score": 87213 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan M. Gregory Content: Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Jonathan_M._Gregory", "rank": 26, "score": 87174 }, { "content": "Title: General circulation model Content: A general circulation model ( GCM ) is a type of climate model . It employs a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean . It uses the Navier -- Stokes equations on a rotating sphere with thermodynamic terms for various energy sources ( radiation , latent heat ) . These equations are the basis for computer programs used to simulate the Earth 's atmosphere or oceans . Atmospheric and oceanic GCMs ( AGCM and OGCM ) are key components along with sea ice and land-surface components . GCMs and global climate models are used for weather forecasting , understanding the climate and forecasting climate change . Versions designed for decade to century time scale climate applications were originally created by Syukuro Manabe and Kirk Bryan at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton , New Jersey . These models are based on the integration of a variety of fluid dynamical , chemical and sometimes biological equations .", "qid": "237", "docid": "General_circulation_model", "rank": 27, "score": 87059 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "237", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 28, "score": 86820 }, { "content": "Title: 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years Content: 2052 -- A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years is a 2012 book describing trends in global development . It is written by Jørgen Randers and is a follow-up to The Limits to Growth , which in 1972 was the first worldwide report by the Club of Rome . It differs in three ways from the previous report . First , it does not describe an impending disaster scenario , but shows only trends . Secondly , it is to be read in the light of experience since 1972 , namely , that all of humanity has responded to the report , but with a delay of 20 to 40 years . Thirdly , it offers not only future scenarios , it makes concrete proposals on how the individual should respond to emerging developments . Randers repeatedly points out that he does not want to predict specific events , only general trends .", "qid": "237", "docid": "2052:_A_Global_Forecast_for_the_Next_Forty_Years", "rank": 29, "score": 86565 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 30, "score": 86238 }, { "content": "Title: Gerald Celente Content: Gerald Celente ( born November 29 , 1946 ) is an American trend forecaster , publisher of the Trends Journal , business consultant and author who makes predictions about the global financial markets and other events of historical importance . Celente has described himself as a `` political atheist '' and `` citizen of the world '' . He has appeared as a guest on media outlets such as CNN , The Oprah Winfrey Show , The Today Show , Good Morning America , CBS Morning News , The Glenn Beck Show , NBC Nightly News , The Alex Jones Show , Coast to Coast AM and Russia Today .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Gerald_Celente", "rank": 31, "score": 86231 }, { "content": "Title: Petar Gburčik Content: Prof. Petar Gburčik ( Cyrillic : Петар Гбурчик ) ( 30 October 1931 - 29 October 2006 ) was a Serbian scientist and a Professor of Meteorology at the University of Belgrade . He was the author of first mathematical models of the numerical weather prediction , which were used operationally in the Weather Service of Yugoslavia from 1970 to 1977 . In the same period he began modeling of the atmospheric diffusion of air-pollution and created the first model of the spatial distribution of air-pollution . The output of this model was used for the elaboration of the urban plan of Pančevo . For the actual research of the three-dimensional distribution of wind energy ( on the territories of Belgrade and Serbia ) he applied the integration of classic models with GIS technology . Special area of his engagements were the intentionally and inadvertently modified climates , as well as their impact on the sustainable development . These modifications destabilize the climate system and lead to big material and social damage , due to the lack of possibility of weather control . Petar Gburčik proved this with his scientific papers on weather modifications and climate change .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Petar_Gburčik", "rank": 32, "score": 86180 }, { "content": "Title: MM5 (weather model) Content: The MM5 ( short for Fifth-Generation Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Model ) is a regional mesoscale model used for creating weather forecasts and climate projections . It is a community model maintained by Penn State University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research . The MM5 is a limited-area , terrain-following sigma coordinate model that is used to replicate or forecast mesoscale and regional scale atmospheric circulation . It has been updated many times since the 1970s to fix bugs , adapt to new technologies , and work on different types of computers and software . It is used in many different ways : for research and for weather prediction . In research , it is used to compare it to other models , to see what works and what does not work . Since the MM5 has high quality three-dimensional data , it is good for looking at the atmosphere and the weather patterns . It is also used for air quality models .", "qid": "237", "docid": "MM5_(weather_model)", "rank": 33, "score": 85890 }, { "content": "Title: Forecast verification Content: Forecast verification is a subfield of the climate , atmospheric and ocean sciences dealing with validating , verifying and determining the predictive power of prognostic model forecasts . Because of the complexity of these models , forecast verification goes a good deal beyond simple measures of statistical association or mean error calculations .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Forecast_verification", "rank": 34, "score": 84578 }, { "content": "Title: Frank Wentz Content: Frank Wentz is the CEO and director of Remote Sensing Systems , a company he founded in 1974 . Remote Sensing Systems specializes in satellite microwave remote sensing research . Together with Carl Mears , he is best known for developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) one . From 1978 to 1982 Frank was a member of NASA 's SeaSat Experiment Team involved in the development of physically based retrieval methods for microwave scatterometers and radiometers . He has also investigated the effect of climate change on satellite-derived evaporation , precipitation and surface wind values . His findings are different from most climate change model predictions .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Frank_Wentz", "rank": 35, "score": 84570 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 36, "score": 84550 }, { "content": "Title: Theodor Landscheidt Content: Theodor Landscheidt ( Bremen , 1927 -- May 20 , 2004 ) was a German author , astrologer and amateur climatologist . In 1989 , Landscheidt forecast a period of sunspot minima after 1990 , accompanied by increased cold , with a stronger minimum and more intense cold which should peak in 2030 His work on solar cycles has been cited by global warming skeptics to argue that observed warming is not anthropogenic and will soon be reversed , based on an assumption that fluctuations in climate are controlled by solar activity . In 1983 he founded and financed the `` Schroeter Institute for Research in Cycles of Solar Activity '' in Lilienthal , near Bremen . The Institute later moved with him to Nova Scotia , Canada .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Theodor_Landscheidt", "rank": 37, "score": 84337 }, { "content": "Title: Model for Prediction Across Scales Content: The Model for Prediction Across Scales ( MPAS ) is a coupled Earth system modeling package that integrates atmospheric , oceanographic and cryospheric modeling on a variety of scales from the planetary to regional and mesoscale/microscale . It includes climate and weather modeling and simulations that were first used by researchers in 2013 . The atmospheric components ( MPAS-A ) were led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) 's Earth System Laboratory ( NESL ) and the oceanographic components ( MPAS-O ) by the Climate , Ocean , and Sea Ice Modeling Group ( COSIM ) at Los Alamos National Laboratory ( LANL ) . It has been used for real-time weather as well as seasonal forecasting of convection , tornadoes and tropical cyclones , among other uses . Its atmospheric modeling aspects are intended to use and complement rather than replace the Weather Research and Forecasting Model ( WRF-ARW/NMM ) , the Global Forecast System ( GFS ) and the Community Earth System Model ( CESM ) .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Model_for_Prediction_Across_Scales", "rank": 38, "score": 84223 }, { "content": "Title: James Canton Content: James Canton ( born April 29 , 1951 ) is a futurist , author , entrepreneur , CEO & Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures . He forecasts global trends in business , technology , globalization , trade , health care , population , science , climate , workforce and security . He is noted for his keynote presentations and consulting with organizations , assisting them to better understand and benefit from complex change and opportunities in technology , energy , medicine , finance , climate , population , entertainment , security and media . He also assists clients in creating global alliances , investments , strategy and in developing new products or services . He has worked with the leading organizations in the world including IBM , General Mills , Deloitte , Fedex , General Electric , Apple , Phillips , Seimans , Cisco , McKinsey , Tata , Pepsi , Fujitsu , Sony , Pfizer and the US Department of Defense . He has advised three White House administrations , the National Science Foundation , American Association for the Advancement of Science , and the National Science and Technology Council . Canton is the co-developer of Trend Trakker , a network based forecasting platform that analyzes and tracks trends , innovations , threats and global risks . Canton received his Ph.D. in Management and social science from the Union Institute & University in 1982 . His thesis was on Global Systems and High Technology Organizations which he completed while working at Apple Computer . He was born and raised in New York City area . Canton studied and worked with the noted futurist and author of Future Shock Alvin Toffler at the Anticipatory Democracy Network . This was a project designed to incorporate foresight and strategic planning into government . He was Executive Director and founder of the Health Policy Council , a health policy think tank he founded and lead from 1976 -- 79 , while serving as an adviser to the United States Department of Health and Human Services working on wellness , prevention health policy and strategic planning . This was an early effort to transform the health care system by introducing prevention policy and led to the wellness revolution . Canton served on the California Governor 's Council on Wellness and was appointed Chairman , The Work and Health Task Force , Wellness Council . Canton joined Apple Computer as Business and Strategic Planning Executive at Apple Computer , Inc. , in 1981 , where he worked on the introduction of the Macintosh Computer , artificial intelligence and next generation computing applications for business , medicine and science . He held a number of positions in global investment banking ( Swiss Occidental AG ) , high technology ( Ultimate Media Corp ) and trade finance ( Oxynet ) from 1985-1990 . In 1990 , he founded the Institute for Global Futures , a San Francisco-based think tank that advises on business strategy and forecasts innovations and trends for global companies and governments . Starting with IT innovations he expanded the practice to include other technologies such as life sciences and telecommunications but also other trend domains -- climate , energy , workforce , population , security and medicine . He developed a Trend Convergence Model which is used today for forecasting . Having identified the Internet , before the web , as a major disruptive innovation in the 1980s Canton become recognized for his insights into the key trends that will shape the future . Canton participated in the early projects to identify the social and business impact of advanced technologies on the global economy -- nanotechnology , biotechnology , information technology , telecommunications , neurotechnology and quantum technology . As a serial entrepreneur , he started five companies working on early developments in virtual reality , media , avatars , artificial intelligence , e-commerce , Voice Over IP telephony , software as services , cloud computing , data science and digital transactions . He was an Adviser appointed to the National Science and Technology Council on nanoscience , nanoengineering and nanotechnology in his work with the National Science Foundation in the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2003 . He was the first private sector adviser to the National Science Foundation on nanoscience , nanoengineering and nanotechnology . He served on the advisory board of MIT 's Media Lab Europe where he advised on the futures research projects involving emerging technologies . He was a Fellow at the Knowledge Innovation Network at the Kellogg School of Management , Northwestern University from 2009-2011 . Canton is an Adviser Emeritus of the International Advisory Council , Economic Development Board ( EDB ) for the State of Singapore . Canton serves on the Corporate Eco-Forum Advisory Board where he advises on global business strategy and future trends affecting business and environmental sustainability . He was an Academic Fellow at the Center for Neurotechnology , Potomac Institute for Policy Studies where his interest is in forecasting the emerging NeuroFuture and developments in neuroscience . He was the founding Co-Chairman of the Futures and Forecasting Track for NASA and Google sponsored Singularity University , a graduate school focused on the convergence of exponential technologies and future trends affecting grand challenges : population , energy , climate , security and health care . He is the founder of FutureLab , a traveling virtual and showcase on innovation and advanced technologies that teaches youth about the future of science and education . Canton is a director serving on boards of a number of companies supporting innovation in education , finance , clean tech , life sciences , media and telecommunications including SLFC , IKOR inc. and IGF . Canton books have been translated into seven languages and have chronicled from 1998 many of the innovations that have shaped our world today . He is the author of three books Technofutures , The Extreme Future and the forthcoming Future Smart : The Game Changing Trends that will Transform Your World . He has been recognized by the Economist Magazine for his forecasts . CNN dubbed him `` the Digital Guru '' and Yahoo named him `` Dr. Future '' . Mike Wallace of CBS 's 60 Minutes profiled , him as `` one of the world 's greatest minds '' in his book , 50 Years From Today , Thomas Nelson , 2008 . He is a frequent commentator on CNN , MSNBC and Fox where he reports on the global trends that are shaping the future of our lives , work and society . He has been interviewed at Forbes , Fortune , the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal and been featured by the Discovery Channel in a documentary on the future . He is also a producer and writer of innovative new media . He produced the award winning film series The Time Travelers , http://www.ourtimetravelers.com/p/about.html Winner Los Angeles Film Awards and was the producer for NanoDoc , the first interactive game on nano science which won the How Design Award for leading interactive media . Current interests include : Innovation cultures , how business can be more predictive , entrepreneurship , the social enterprise , Big Data science , complexity and social networks , emergent smart machines and robots , strong AI , quantum computing , innovation economics , predictive analytics , simulation , mixed reality media , supermaterials , neuromarketing , synthetic biology , cloud computing and geo-engineering .", "qid": "237", "docid": "James_Canton", "rank": 39, "score": 84158 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 40, "score": 84001 }, { "content": "Title: Lidewij Edelkoort Content: Lidewij Edelkoort , often called Li , ( born 1950 , Wageningen ) is a Dutch trend forecaster , someone who anticipates future fashion and design trends .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Lidewij_Edelkoort", "rank": 41, "score": 83550 }, { "content": "Title: Sudden stratospheric warming Content: A sudden stratospheric warming ( SSW ) is an event where the polar vortex of westerly winds in the winter hemisphere slows down or even reverses direction over the course of a few days . The change is accompanied by a rise of stratospheric temperature by several tens of kelvins .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Sudden_stratospheric_warming", "rank": 42, "score": 83092 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "237", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 43, "score": 82841 }, { "content": "Title: James Annan Content: James D. Annan is a scientist involved in climate prediction . He was a member of the Global Warming Research Program at Frontier Research Centre for Global Change which is associated with the Earth Simulator in Japan . In 2014 he left Japan , returning to the United Kingdom as a co-founder of Blue Skies Research .", "qid": "237", "docid": "James_Annan", "rank": 44, "score": 82775 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 45, "score": 82356 }, { "content": "Title: Numerical weather prediction Content: Numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on current weather conditions . Though first attempted in the 1920s , it was not until the advent of computer simulation in the 1950s that numerical weather predictions produced realistic results . A number of global and regional forecast models are run in different countries worldwide , using current weather observations relayed from radiosondes , weather satellites and other observing systems as inputs . Mathematical models based on the same physical principles can be used to generate either short-term weather forecasts or longer-term climate predictions ; the latter are widely applied for understanding and projecting climate change . The improvements made to regional models have allowed for significant improvements in tropical cyclone track and air quality forecasts ; however , atmospheric models perform poorly at handling processes that occur in a relatively constricted area , such as wildfires . Manipulating the vast datasets and performing the complex calculations necessary to modern numerical weather prediction requires some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world . Even with the increasing power of supercomputers , the forecast skill of numerical weather models extends to only about six days . Factors affecting the accuracy of numerical predictions include the density and quality of observations used as input to the forecasts , along with deficiencies in the numerical models themselves . Post-processing techniques such as model output statistics ( MOS ) have been developed to improve the handling of errors in numerical predictions . A more fundamental problem lies in the chaotic nature of the partial differential equations that govern the atmosphere . It is impossible to solve these equations exactly , and small errors grow with time ( doubling about every five days ) . Present understanding is that this chaotic behavior limits accurate forecasts to about 14 days even with perfectly accurate input data and a flawless model . In addition , the partial differential equations used in the model need to be supplemented with parameterizations for solar radiation , moist processes ( clouds and precipitation ) , heat exchange , soil , vegetation , surface water , and the effects of terrain . In an effort to quantify the large amount of inherent uncertainty remaining in numerical predictions , ensemble forecasts have been used since the 1990s to help gauge the confidence in the forecast , and to obtain useful results farther into the future than otherwise possible . This approach analyzes multiple forecasts created with an individual forecast model or multiple models .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Numerical_weather_prediction", "rank": 46, "score": 82118 }, { "content": "Title: Forecasting (heating) Content: Forecasting is a method of controlling building heating by calculating demand for heating energy that should be supplied to the building in each time unit . By combining physics of structures with meteorology , properties of the building , weather conditions including outdoor temperature , wind power and direction , as well as solar radiation can be taken into account . In the case of conventional heating control , only current outdoor temperature is considered . The starting point for developing the method of forecasting was the ENLOSS mathematical energy balance model developed by Prof. Roger Taesler from Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute in cooperation with Thorbjörn Geiser and Stefan Berglund , who are currently both employed at eGain Sweden AB . Forecasting method began to be introduced to use in the late 1980s . Until 2010 inclusive , forecasting method has been introduced in nearly seven million square metres of floorage of residential buildings and commercial premises . Forecasting method is offered and developed by many companies and organizations . Estimated data indicate 10 - 15 kWh/m2 reduction of average annual heat energy consumption . Since forecasting method contains information about future demand and is not in conflict with other methods of increasing energy efficiency , it is always a good foreground solution .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Forecasting_(heating)", "rank": 47, "score": 81931 }, { "content": "Title: Navy Global Environmental Model Content: The Navy Global Environmental Model ( NAVGEM ) is a global numerical weather prediction computer simulation run by the United States Navy 's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center . This mathematical model is run four times a day and produces weather forecasts . Along with the NWS 's Global Forecast System , which runs out to 16 days , the ECMWF 's Integrated Forecast System ( IFS ) and the CMC 's Global Environmental Multiscale Model ( GEM ) , both of which run out 10 days , and the UK Met Office 's Unified Model , which runs out to 6 days , it is one of five synoptic scale medium-range models in general use . The NAVGEM became operational in February 2013 , replacing the NOGAPS . It uses the same forecast range as the NOGAPS did ( three-hour intervals out 180 hours ) but also uses a refurbished dynamic core and improvements to the physics simulations compared to its predecessor . Category : Numerical climate and weather models Category : National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "qid": "237", "docid": "Navy_Global_Environmental_Model", "rank": 48, "score": 81841 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 49, "score": 81796 }, { "content": "Title: Global Forecast System Content: The Global Forecast System ( GFS ) is a global numerical weather prediction system containing a global computer model and variational analysis run by the United States ' National Weather Service ( NWS ) . The mathematical model is run four times a day , and produces forecasts for up to 16 days in advance , but with decreased spatial resolution after 10 days . The forecast skill generally decreases with time ( as with any numerical weather prediction model ) and for longer term forecasts , only the larger scales retain significant accuracy . It is one of the predominant synoptic scale medium-range models in general use . The GFS model is a spectral model with an approximate horizontal resolution of 13 km for the first 10 days and 27 km from 240 to 384 hours ( 16 days ) . In the vertical , the model is divided into 64 layers and temporally , it produces forecast output every hour for the first 120 hours , three hourly through day 10 and 12 hourly through day 16 . The output from the GFS is also used to produce model output statistics . In addition to the main model , the GFS is also the basis of a lower resolution 20-member ( 22 , counting the control and operational members ) ensemble that runs concurrently with the operational GFS and is available on the same time scales . This ensemble is referred to as the `` Global Ensemble Forecast System '' ( GEFS ) . Ensemble model output statistics are available out to 8 days . The GFS ensemble is combined with Canada 's Global Environmental Multiscale Model ensemble to form the North American Ensemble Forecast System ( NAEFS ) . As with most works of the U.S. government , GFS data is not copyrighted and is available for free in the public domain under provisions of U.S. law . Because of this , the model serves as the basis for the forecasts of numerous private , commercial and foreign weather companies . By 2015 the GFS model had fallen behind the accuracy of other global weather models . This was most notable in the GFS model incorrectly predicting Hurricane Sandy turning out to sea until 4 days before landfall ; while the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ' model predicted landfall correctly at 7 days . Much of this was suggested to be due to limits in computational resources within the National Weather Service . In response , the NWS purchased new supercomputers , increasing processing power from 776 teraflops to 5.78 petaflops . The agency has also been testing a potential replacement model with different mechanics , the flow-following , finite-volume Icosahedral Model ( FIM ) , since the early 2010s .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Global_Forecast_System", "rank": 50, "score": 81591 }, { "content": "Title: Egain forecasting Content: Egain forecasting is a method of controlling building heating by calculating demand for heating energy that should be supplied to the building in each time unit . By combining physics of structures with meteorology , properties of the building , weather conditions including outdoor temperature , wind power and direction , as well as solar radiation can be taken into account . In the case of conventional heating control , only current outdoor temperature is considered . The starting point for developing the method of eGain forecasting was the ENLOSS mathematical energy balance model developed by Prof. Roger Taesler from Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute in cooperation with Thorbjörn Geiser and Stefan Berglund , who are currently both employed at eGain Sweden AB . Forecasting method began to be introduced to use in the late 1980s . Until 2010 inclusive , forecasting method has been introduced in nearly seven million square metres of floorage of residential buildings and commercial premises . Estimated data indicate 10 - 15 kWh/m2 reduction of average annual heat energy consumption . Since forecasting method contains information about future demand and is not in conflict with other methods of increasing energy efficiency , it is always a good foreground solution .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Egain_forecasting", "rank": 51, "score": 81510 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical cyclone forecast model Content: A tropical cyclone forecast model is a computer program that uses meteorological data to forecast aspects of the future state of tropical cyclones . There are three types of models : statistical , dynamical , or combined statistical-dynamic . Dynamical models utilize powerful supercomputers with sophisticated mathematical modeling software and meteorological data to calculate future weather conditions . Statistical models forecast the evolution of a tropical cyclone in a simpler manner , by extrapolating from historical datasets , and thus can be run quickly on platforms such as personal computers . Statistical-dynamical models use aspects of both types of forecasting . Four primary types of forecasts exist for tropical cyclones : track , intensity , storm surge , and rainfall . Dynamical models were not developed until the 1970s and the 1980s , with earlier efforts focused on the storm surge problem . Track models did not show forecast skill when compared to statistical models until the 1980s . Statistical-dynamical models were used from the 1970s into the 1990s . Early models use data from previous model runs while late models produce output after the official hurricane forecast has been sent . The use of consensus , ensemble , and superensemble forecasts lowers errors more than any individual forecast model . Both consensus and superensemble forecasts can use the guidance of global and regional models runs to improve the performance more than any of their respective components . Techniques used at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center indicate that superensemble forecasts are a very powerful tool for track forecasting .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Tropical_cyclone_forecast_model", "rank": 52, "score": 81454 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Koomey Content: Jonathan Koomey is a Consulting Professor at Stanford University . He identified a long-term trend in energy-efficiency of computing that has come to be known as Koomey 's law . Previously , Dr. Koomey was at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , leading the End-Use Forecasting group , and has been a visiting professor at Stanford University , Yale University , and the University of California , Berkeley . He is a graduate of Harvard University ( A.B ) and University of California at Berkeley ( M.S. and Ph.D ) . His research focuses on the economics of greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of information technology on resource use . He has also published extensively on critical thinking skills and business analytics .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Jonathan_Koomey", "rank": 53, "score": 81237 }, { "content": "Title: John F. B. Mitchell Content: John Francis Brake Mitchell OBE FRS ( born 7 October 1948 ) is a British climatologist and climate modeller . He studied Applied Mathematics at Queen 's University Belfast in 1970 , staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973 . In 1978 , he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office 's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research . He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010 . He is the most cited scientist regarding the topic of global warming . He was a convening lead author for the first and third IPCC Working Group I reports and lead author for the second . He was also chair of the World Meteorological Organization JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008 . He now ( 2014 ) works part-time as Principal Research Fellow , advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading .", "qid": "237", "docid": "John_F._B._Mitchell", "rank": 54, "score": 81178 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in West Virginia Content: Climate change in West Virginia is of a concern due to the effects on the environment . Over the last century , the average temperature in Charleston , West Virginia , has increased 1.1 ° F ( 0.61 ° C ) , and precipitation has increased by up to 10 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future . Over the next century , climate in West Virginia may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in West Virginia could increase by 3 ° F ( 1.67 ° C ) in winter , spring , and summer ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and 4 ° F ( 2.23 ° C ) in fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to increase by 20 % ( with a range of 10-30 % ) in all seasons , slightly more in summer . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer thunderstorms is possible", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change_in_West_Virginia", "rank": 55, "score": 81090 }, { "content": "Title: FORECAST (model) Content: FORECAST is a management-oriented , stand-level , forest-growth and ecosystem-dynamics model . The model was designed to accommodate a wide variety of silvicultural and harvesting systems and natural disturbance events ( e.g. , fire , wind , insect epidemics ) in order to compare and contrast their effect on forest productivity , stand dynamics , and a series of biophysical indicators of non-timber values .", "qid": "237", "docid": "FORECAST_(model)", "rank": 56, "score": 80975 }, { "content": "Title: Model output statistics Content: Model Output Statistics ( MOS ) is a multiple linear regression technique in which predicands , often near-surface quantities , such as 2-meter ( AGL ) air temperature , horizontal visibility , and wind direction , speed and gusts , are related statistically to one or more predictors . The predictors are typically forecasts from a numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) model , climatic data , and , if applicable , recent surface observations . Thus , output from NWP models can be transformed by the MOS technique into sensible weather parameters that are familiar to the `` person on the street '' .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Model_output_statistics", "rank": 57, "score": 80888 }, { "content": "Title: Fate of the World Content: Fate of the World is a 2011 global warming game developed and published by Red Redemption . It features several scenarios , based on actual scientific research , in which the player is put in charge of a fictional international organization managing social , technological and environmental policies . The goals of the scenarios range from improving living conditions in Africa , to preventing catastrophic climate change , to exacerbating it . It is quickly followed by an expansion pack called Fate of the World : Tipping Point , released in late 2011 . The climate prediction models for the game are the work of Myles Allen , the head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Fate_of_the_World", "rank": 58, "score": 80783 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Modeling Center Content: The Environmental Modeling Center ( EMC ) improves numerical weather , marine and climate predictions at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) , through a broad program of research in data assimilation and modeling . In support of the NCEP operational forecasting mission , the EMC develops , improves and monitors data assimilation systems and models of the atmosphere , ocean and coupled system , using advanced methods developed internally as well as cooperatively with scientists from Universities , NOAA Laboratories and other government agencies , and the international scientific community .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Environmental_Modeling_Center", "rank": 59, "score": 80769 }, { "content": "Title: David H. Bromwich Content: David H. Bromwich is a member of the Byrd Polar Research Center and a professor at the Department of Geography , The Ohio State University . His work has involved the evaluation and diagnosis of polar weather and climate variability . He received his Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin , Madison . In 1979 he joined Ohio State 's Byrd Polar Research Center as a research scientist . His research has focused on the variability of precipitation over Antarctica , Greenland , and the Arctic Ocean , thus contributing to the understanding of climate and potential sea level changes . He has made contributions to defining aspects of U.S. science policy . Having helped identify the need to improve numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) for the Antarctic , Bromwich has been influential in the development and evaluation of the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System ( AMPS ) . In April 2001 AMPS was one of four weather models used to predict a window of opportunity for the emergency medical evacuation of Ronald Shemenski from the Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station . Flights to the base are normally halted from late February until November because of the extreme winter cold and darkness . But the airlift was successfully completed and pilot Sean Loutitt confirmed the reliance on the forecasts , stating `` The weather was the biggest concern '' .", "qid": "237", "docid": "David_H._Bromwich", "rank": 60, "score": 80761 }, { "content": "Title: David Parker (climatologist) Content: David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England . He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' . In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .", "qid": "237", "docid": "David_Parker_(climatologist)", "rank": 61, "score": 80299 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 62, "score": 80139 }, { "content": "Title: Neoglaciation Content: The neoglaciation ( `` renewed glaciation '' ) describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth 's climate during the Holocene , following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation , the most recent glacial period . Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest point in the Earth 's climate during the current interglacial stage . The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning : local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler ( and wetter ) conditions . Driven inexorably by the Milankovitch cycle , cooler summers in higher latitudes of North America , which would cease to completely melt the annual snowfall , were masked at first by the presence of the slowly disappearing continental ice sheets , which persisted long after the astronomically calculated moment of maximum summer warmth : `` the neoglaciation can be said to have begun when the cooling caught up with the warming '' , remarked E. C. Pielou . With the close of the `` Little Ice Age '' ( mid-14th to late 19th centuries ) , neoglaciation appears to have been stalled in the late 20th century , assumed to be caused by anthropogenic global warming . Whether it has been temporarily or semi-permanently stalled , neoglaciation has been marked by a retreat from the warm conditions of the Climatic Optimum and the advance or reformation of glaciers that had not existed since the last ice age . In the mountains of western North America , montane glaciers that had completely melted reformed shortly before 5000 BP . The most severe part of the best documented neoglacial period , especially in Europe and the North Atlantic , is termed the `` Little Ice Age '' . In North America , neoglaciation had ecological effects in the spread of muskeg on flat , poorly drained land , such as the bed of recently drained Lake Agassiz and in the Hudson Bay lowlands , in the retreat of grassland before an advancing forest border in the Great Plains , and in shifting ranges of forest trees and diagnostic plant species ( identified through palynology ) . The view that neoglaciation is ending in present times , is assumed by those who identify the most recent climate changes and global warming as the onset of a new period in Earth history , speculatively calling it the `` Early anthropocene '' , as a coming geological age dominated by the effects of Homo sapiens .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Neoglaciation", "rank": 63, "score": 80067 }, { "content": "Title: Adam Scaife Content: Adam Arthur Scaife B.A. M.A. MSc PhD FRMetS ( born 18 March 1970 ) is a British physicist , and head of long range prediction at the Met Office . He is an honorary visiting Professor at Exeter University . Scaife carries out research into long range weather forecasting and computer modelling of the climate . Scaife has published over 100 peer reviewed studies on atmospheric dynamics , computer modelling and climate predictability and change and recently published popular science and academic books on meteorology .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Adam_Scaife", "rank": 64, "score": 79984 }, { "content": "Title: CLIVAR Content: CLIVAR ( climate variability and predictability ) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme . Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales , identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for climate modelling .", "qid": "237", "docid": "CLIVAR", "rank": 65, "score": 79951 }, { "content": "Title: Rapid Refresh Content: The Rapid Refresh ( RR or RAP ) is a numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) model . The model is designed to provide short-range hourly weather forecasts for North America . The Rapid Refresh was officially made operational on May 1 , 2012 , replacing the Rapid Update Cycle ( RUC ) . The Rapid Refresh is run at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) . It is based on the framework of the Weather Research and Forecasting model ( WRF ) ; the Global Forecast System ( GFS ) provides the boundary parameters . The grid points are spaced every 13 km , with 50 vertical intervals extending up to the 10-hectopascal ( 10 mb ) level of the atmosphere . The model runs once each hour , with forecasts given hourly out to 18 hours . An experimental version of the Rapid Refresh runs at the Earth System Research Laboratory ( ESRL ) , a NOAA unit that develops models in the research stage prior to operational implementation . This version uses more modern model framework and also has a higher-resolution mode , the High Resolution Rapid Refresh ( HRRR ) , that uses a 3 km grid spacing and gives forecasts in 15-minute intervals ( though still only issued once an hour ) .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Rapid_Refresh", "rank": 66, "score": 79612 }, { "content": "Title: North American Mesoscale Model Content: The North American Mesoscale Model ( NAM ) , refers to a numerical weather prediction model run by National Centers for Environmental Prediction for short-term weather forecasting . Currently , the Weather Research and Forecasting Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model ( WRF-NMM ) model is run as the NAM , thus , three names ( NAM , WRF , or NMM ) typically refer to the same model output . The WRF replaced the Eta model on June 13 , 2006 . The model is run four times a day ( 00 , 06 , 12 , 18 UTC ) out to 84 hours . It is currently run with 12 km horizontal resolution and with three-hour temporal resolution , providing finer detail than other operational forecast models . The NAM ensemble is known as the Short Range Ensemble Forecast ( SREF ) and runs out 87 hours .", "qid": "237", "docid": "North_American_Mesoscale_Model", "rank": 67, "score": 79575 }, { "content": "Title: Flow-following, finite-volume Icosahedral Model Content: The Flow-following , finite-volume Icosahedral Model ( FIM ) is a numerical weather prediction model that has been under development at the Earth System Research Laboratory in the United States since 2008 . The FIM is being developed as a candidate to eventually supplant the Global Forecast System , the United States 's current medium-range forecast model . The FIM was originally slated to become operational some time in 2014 ( as of autumn 2016 the model is still testing ) ; the GFS will continue to be run and maintained for several years afterward , much in the same way the GFS and its predecessor , the Nested Grid Model , ran concurrently for several years . The model currently produces similar results to the GFS , but runs slower on the NWS 's operational computers . Its three-part name derives from its key features : `` flow-following '' indicates that its vertical coordinates are based on both terrain and potential temperature ( isentropic sigma coordinates , previously used in the now-discontinued rapid update cycle model ) , and `` finite-volume '' describes the method used for calculating horizontal transport . The `` icosahedral '' portion describes the model 's most uncommon feature : whereas most grid-based forecast models have historically used rectangular grid points ( a less than ideal arrangement for a planet that is a slightly oblate spheroid ) , the FIM instead fits Earth to a truncated icosahedron , with twelve evenly spaced pentagons ( including two at the poles ) anchoring a grid of hexagons . The FIM runs as a multiscale model , with a suffix number indicating the model 's horizontal resolution . FIM7 operates at a spatial resolution of approximately 60 km , FIM8 at 30 km , FIM9 at 15km and FIM9 .5 at 10km . The FIM7 and FIM8 both run twice daily ( 0z and 12z ) with 6-hour temporal resolution out to 14 days . The FIM9 runs four times daily , also with 6-hour steps , out to 10 days . ( FIM9 .5 is not currently in operation . )", "qid": "237", "docid": "Flow-following,_finite-volume_Icosahedral_Model", "rank": 68, "score": 79181 }, { "content": "Title: Seasonal Attribution Project Content: The Seasonal Attribution Project is a Climateprediction.net sub-project , with support from the WWF . It runs a high resolution model in order to try to determine the extent to which extreme weather events are attributable to human-induced global warming . The project did cease giving out more work , however there has been a project extension to try a fourth sea surface temperature pattern . Current work will still be accepted and used for collaborations and possibly revisions of papers during the review process . A further extension will start soon .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Seasonal_Attribution_Project", "rank": 69, "score": 79044 }, { "content": "Title: Climate ensemble Content: A climate ensemble involves slightly different models of the climate system . There are at least four different types , to be described below . For the equivalent in numerical weather prediction , see ensemble forecasting .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_ensemble", "rank": 70, "score": 78969 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on Australia Content: Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that global warming will negatively impact the continent 's environment , economy , and communities . Australia has been designated as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change , according to the Stern Review and others , due partially to the importance of its agricultural sector and the prominence of its coast . Australia is vulnerable to the effects of global warming projected for the next 50 to 100 years because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas , an already warm climate , high annual rainfall variability , and existing pressures on water supply . The continent 's high fire risk increases this susceptibility to change in temperature and climate . Additionally , Australia 's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas , and its important tourism industry depends on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and other fragile ecosystems . The impacts of climate change in Australia will be complex and to some degree uncertain , but increased foresight may enable the country to safeguard its future through planned mitigation and adaptation . Mitigation may reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impacts , but requires global solutions and cooperation , while adaptation can be performed at national and local levels .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_Australia", "rank": 71, "score": 78953 }, { "content": "Title: Integrated Forecast System Content: The Integrated Forecast System ( IFS ) is an operational global meteorological forecasting model . IFS is developed and maintained by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ( ECMWF ) based in Reading , England . Because of its source , it is often known as the `` ECMWF '' or the `` European model '' in North America , to distinguish it from the American Global Forecast System ( GFS ) . It is one of the predominant synoptic-scale medium-range models in general use worldwide ; its most prominent rivals in the 6 -- 10 day medium range include the GFS and the Canadian Global Environmental Multiscale Model ( GEM and GDPS ) . The IFS is a global model that runs every twelve hours . Its output runs out to fifteen days in one-day intervals ( although output is only made available to most members of the public out to 7 to 10 days , depending on the variable ) . The operational model runs both in a deterministic forecast mode and as a 51-member ensemble . The current deterministic mode has a horizontal resolution of 16 km while the ensemble prediction systems have resolutions of 32 and 64 km , and 137 layers in the vertical resolution in the deterministic compared to 91 layers in the ensemble ; both modes ' vertical layers follow terrain at low levels . The IFS , like the GFS , uses spectral representation rather than a grid-based system . Because the IFS only offers output on a day-by-day interval , each individual ECMWF member country typically runs its own synoptic-scale forecast for the shorter ranges of 5 days or less , separate from the IFS , with smaller time intervals ( examples include the French ARPEGE , British Unified Model and German GME/ICON ) . In contrast to the GEM/GDPS ( which is copyrighted but freely licensed ) and the GFS ( which is public domain ) , the ECMWF 's proprietary data and forecasts are heavily restricted and require a licence for most output . A limited amount of the IFS 's output is released freely to the public and licenced under a Creative Commons licence that prohibits commercial usage or derivative works .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Integrated_Forecast_System", "rank": 72, "score": 78710 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 73, "score": 78333 }, { "content": "Title: Brewer-Dobson circulation Content: Brewer-Dobson circulation is a model of atmospheric circulation , proposed by Alan Brewer in 1949 and Gordon Dobson in 1956 , which attempts to explain why tropical air has less ozone than polar air , even though the tropical stratosphere is where most atmospheric ozone is produced . It is a simple circulation model that posits the existence of a slow current in the winter hemisphere which redistributes air from the tropics to the extratropics . The Brewer-Dobson circulation is driven by atmospheric waves and may be speeding up due to climate change .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Brewer-Dobson_circulation", "rank": 74, "score": 78199 }, { "content": "Title: Climatology Content: Climatology ( from Greek κλίμα , klima , `` place , zone '' ; and - λογία , - logia ) or climate science is the study of climate , scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time . This modern field of study is regarded as a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield of physical geography , which is one of the Earth sciences . Climatology now includes aspects of oceanography and biogeochemistry . Basic knowledge of climate can be used within shorter term weather forecasting using analog techniques such as the El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) , the Madden -- Julian oscillation ( MJO ) , the North Atlantic oscillation ( NAO ) , the Northern Annular Mode ( NAM ) which is also known as the Arctic oscillation ( AO ) , the Northern Pacific ( NP ) Index , the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation ( IPO ) . Climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system to projections of future climate . Weather is known as the condition of the atmosphere over a period of time . While Climate has to do with the atmospheric condition over an extended to indefinite period of time .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climatology", "rank": 75, "score": 77929 }, { "content": "Title: Carl Mears Content: Carl Mears is a Senior Scientist , at Remote Sensing Systems , since 1998 . He has worked on validation of SSM/I derived winds , and rain-flagging algorithm for the QuikScat scatterometer . He is best known for his work with Frank Wentz in developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the UAH one . Mears was a major contributor to Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere : Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences , the first released report from the US Climate Change Science Program . He also contributed to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group one report , Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Carl_Mears", "rank": 76, "score": 77866 }, { "content": "Title: Weather Research and Forecasting Model Content: The Weather Research and Forecasting ( WRF ) Model -LSB- ˈwɔrf -RSB- is a numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) system designed to serve both atmospheric research and operational forecasting needs . NWP refers to the simulation and prediction of the atmosphere with a computer model , and WRF is a set of software for this . WRF features two dynamical ( computational ) cores ( or solvers ) , a data assimilation system , and a software architecture allowing for parallel computation and system extensibility . The model serves a wide range of meteorological applications across scales ranging from meters to thousands of kilometers . The effort to develop WRF began in the latter part of the 1990s and was a collaborative partnership principally among the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( represented by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) and the ( then ) Forecast Systems Laboratory ( FSL ) ) , the Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) , the Naval Research Laboratory ( NRL ) , the University of Oklahoma ( OU ) , and the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) . The bulk of the work on the model has been performed or supported by NCAR , NOAA , and AFWA . WRF allows researchers to produce simulations reflecting either real data ( observations , analyses ) or idealized atmospheric conditions . WRF provides operational forecasting a flexible and robust platform , while offering advances in physics , numerics , and data assimilation contributed by the many research community developers . WRF is currently in operational use at NCEP and other forecasting centers internationally . WRF has grown to have a large worldwide community of users ( over 30,000 registered users in over 150 countries ) , and workshops and tutorials are held each year at NCAR . WRF is used extensively for research and real-time forecasting throughout the world . WRF offers two dynamical solvers for its computation of the atmospheric governing equations , and the variants of the model are known as WRF-ARW ( Advanced Research WRF ) and WRF-NMM ( Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model ) . The Advanced Research WRF ( ARW ) is supported to the community by the NCAR Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division . The WRF-NMM solver variant was based on the Eta Model , and later Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model , developed at NCEP . The WRF-NMM ( NMM ) is supported to the community by the Developmental Testbed Center ( DTC ) . The WRF serves as the basis for the Rapid Refresh model , an operational forecast model run regularly at NCEP . A version of WRF-NMM tailored for hurricane forecasting , HWRF ( Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting ) , became operational in 2007 . In 2009 , a polar optimized WRF was released through the Byrd Polar Research Center at the Ohio State University .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Weather_Research_and_Forecasting_Model", "rank": 77, "score": 77657 }, { "content": "Title: Masao Kanamitsu Content: Masao Kanamitsu ( November 6 , 1943 in Kumamoto , Japan -- August 17 , 2011 in Del Mar , California ) - was Japanese and American atmospheric scientist working in the field of data assimilation . His research greatly influenced global and regional climate change studies including development of breakthrough reanalysis and downscaling datasets and weather forecasting studies . He was the co-author of one of the most cited geophysics paper in his time . Kanamitsu was born in 1943 and was raised in Sapporo . He did his B.S. and M. Sc . in 1968 at Hokkaido University , Japan and M.Sc . and Ph. D. in 1975 at Florida State University . He was one of the large group of Japanese scientists who after the World War II greatly contributed to the development of the dynamic meteorology in the US and in the World including Syukuro Manabe , Taroh Matsuno , Kikuro Miyakoda , and Akio Arakawa . He served as a Forecaster at Japan Meteorological Agency , as a leader of the Global Modeling Branch , Development Division , and later as an Acting Chief of the Prediction Branch at the Climate Prediction Center of the National Meteorological Center . In 2001 he moved to Scripps Institution of Oceanography where he worked to the rest of his life . He had a group of young researchers working with him . Kanamitsu was instrumental in creating one of the most successful datasets used in global change studies - the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis for which he received a Group Gold Medal from the Department of Commerce in 1997 . His 1996 reanalysis paper is one of the most celebrated paper in atmospheric science and geosciences - at the time of his death this paper was cited 7985 times . His publications report ambitious , multiyear in making , and extensive project to develop regional-scale climate change dataset based on the NCEP -- NCAR reanalysis for the period 1948 -- 2005 . This downscaling paved the way for local scale understanding of climate changes . In he worked out a problem of how to produce meteorological dataset such as winds , pressures , or temperature on fine scale ( say every 10 km ) if the measurements are performed every 200 km . This led to a concept of dynamical downscaling of climate analysis using regional models . He served as an editor for the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan ( 1980 -- 1985 ) and the Monthly Weather Review ( 1991 -- 1993 ) . He was active scientifically to the end of his very productive life . At the time of his death he was a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography where in relatively short time of about 10 years he wrote 35 papers . Kanamitsu was survived by his wife Mariko and he had daughter Tomoko . He enjoyed hiking in various mountain ranges around Japan , United States and Europe . He loved dogs . He received Meteorological Society of Japan award in 1983 . He was known as Kana among his friends .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Masao_Kanamitsu", "rank": 78, "score": 77527 }, { "content": "Title: Stanley B. Goldenberg Content: Stanley B. Goldenberg is a meteorologist with NOAA/AOML 's Hurricane Research Division in Miami ( Virginia Key ) , Florida . Goldenberg received his associate degree from Miami Dade College and a bachelor 's degree in 1978 and a master 's degree in 1980 both in meteorology from Florida State University . One of his main graduate advisors was James O'Brien , one of the world 's leading experts on El Niño . Goldenberg has specialized in climate studies and hurricanes . Stan 's hurricane-related research has included developing and implementing significant improvements to one of the earlier numerical hurricane-track prediction models used by the National Hurricane Center and more recently , examining the various climatic factors which influence the variability of hurricane activity in the Atlantic from intraseasonal to multidecadal time scales . He has done extensive research into the physical mechanisms responsible for the connection between El Niño and Atlantic hurricane activity . He was the first author of the research report published in Science establishing the fact that the Atlantic hurricane basin has entered a multidecadal-scale era of greatly increased hurricane activity . The paper concluded that the increase in hurricane activity was due to natural climate fluctuations rather than from any long-term temperature trends ( which some attribute to anthropogenic global warming ) . ( This paper was recognized with the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Outstanding Scientific Paper Award . ) He is one of the lead authors of NOAA 's Seasonal Hurricane Outlooks for the Atlantic basin and was a co-recipient of NOAA 's Bronze Medal for that work . Mr. Goldenberg has participated in numerous research flights into and around hurricanes on NOAA 's WP-3D and Gulfstream IV aircraft , including flights into Hurricane Katrina ( 2005 ) as it made landfall on the Louisiana/Mississippi coast . Goldenberg 's interest and experience in hurricane disaster preparedness was greatly increased when his South Florida home was destroyed as he and his family experienced the full force of Category 5 Hurricane Andrew in 1992 . His family 's personal experience , as well as his scientific expertise , have been featured in numerous TV specials such as Cyclone ! ( National Geographic/PBS ) , Storm Stories ( The Weather Channel ) and Savage Skies ( PBS ) . Goldenberg has published a number of scientific papers , is frequently interviewed by local , national and international media and has been a regular speaker at scientific , insurance , and hurricane preparedness conferences . He has also been a research scientist at the University of Washington from 1986 -- 1989 and for a short time taught Mathematics and Science at a Messianic Jewish academy .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Stanley_B._Goldenberg", "rank": 79, "score": 77518 }, { "content": "Title: Weather forecasting Content: Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location . Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia , and formally since the nineteenth century . Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere at a given place and using scientific understanding of atmospheric processes to project how the atmosphere will change . Once an all-human endeavor based mainly upon changes in barometric pressure , current weather conditions , and sky condition , weather forecasting now relies on computer-based models that take many atmospheric factors into account . Human input is still required to pick the best possible forecast model to base the forecast upon , which involves pattern recognition skills , teleconnections , knowledge of model performance , and knowledge of model biases . The inaccuracy of forecasting is due to the chaotic nature of the atmosphere , the massive computational power required to solve the equations that describe the atmosphere , the error involved in measuring the initial conditions , and an incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes . Hence , forecasts become less accurate as the difference between current time and the time for which the forecast is being made ( the range of the forecast ) increases . The use of ensembles and model consensus help narrow the error and pick the most likely outcome . There are a variety of end uses to weather forecasts . Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life and property . Forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture , and therefore to traders within commodity markets . Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days . On an everyday basis , people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day . Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by heavy rain , snow and wind chill , forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events , and to plan ahead and survive them . In 2014 , the US spent $ 5.1 billion on weather forecasting .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Weather_forecasting", "rank": 80, "score": 77463 }, { "content": "Title: MM5 Content: MM5 may refer to : MM5 ( weather model ) , a regional mesoscale model for creating weather forecasts and climate projections Mega Man 5 , a 1992 NES game in the Mega Man video game series Mega Man V ( Game Boy ) , a 1994 Game Boy game in the Mega Man video game series Might and Magic V : Darkside of Xeen , a 1993 video role-playing game in the Might and Magic series MM5 register , a CPU register used by the MMX extension", "qid": "237", "docid": "MM5", "rank": 81, "score": 77421 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 82, "score": 77233 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 83, "score": 77107 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway climate change Content: Runaway climate change or runaway global warming is hypothesized to follow a tipping point in the climate system , after accumulated climate change initiates a reinforcing positive feedback . This is thought to cause the climate to rapidly change until it reaches a new stable condition . These phrases may be used with reference to concerns about rapid global warming . Some astronomers use the expression runaway greenhouse effect to describe a situation where the climate deviates catastrophically and permanently from the original state -- as happened on Venus . Although these terms are rarely used in the peer-reviewed climatological literature , that literature does use the similar phrase `` runaway greenhouse effect '' , which refers specifically to climate changes that cause a planetary body 's water to boil off .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Runaway_climate_change", "rank": 84, "score": 76842 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model Content: The Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting ( HWRF ) model is a specialized version of the Weather Research and Forecasting ( WRF ) model and is used to forecast the track and intensity of tropical cyclones . The model was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory , the University of Rhode Island , and Florida State University . It became operational in 2007 .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Hurricane_Weather_Research_and_Forecasting_model", "rank": 85, "score": 76705 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "237", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 86, "score": 76636 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "237", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 87, "score": 76279 }, { "content": "Title: Climate prediction Content: Climate prediction is a subset of numerical weather prediction dealing with generalized forecasts beyond the usual short-range and medium-range forecast periods . It is part of the broader science of climatology . Among items that include the phrase `` climate prediction '' in their name include : Climate Prediction Center , an agency of the United States government Climateprediction.net , a collaborative climate ensemble", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_prediction", "rank": 88, "score": 75915 }, { "content": "Title: Joseph D'Aleo Content: Joseph D'Aleo is a Certified Consultant meteorologist and the first Director of Meteorology at The Weather Channel . He was chairman of the American Meteorological Society 's Committee on Weather Analysis and Forecasting . D'Aleo was the founder and is the Executive Director at Icecap website . D'Aleo has been a contributing meteorologist to the Old Farmer 's Almanac in which he predicted in 2008 that the earth had entered a period of global cooling . D'Aleo is currently a meteorologist at Weatherbell Analytics . D'Aleo is a signatory to the Cornwall Alliance 's `` Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming '' . The declaration states : `` We believe Earth and its ecosystems -- created by God 's intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence -- are robust , resilient , self-regulating , and self-correcting , admirably suited for human flourishing , and displaying His glory . Earth 's climate system is no exception . ''", "qid": "237", "docid": "Joseph_D'Aleo", "rank": 89, "score": 75767 }, { "content": "Title: Climarice Content: Climarice is a research project , carried out by The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research ( Bioforsk , Norway ) , Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( TNAU , India ) , International Water Management Institute ( IWMI , India ) and International Pacific Research Center ( IPRC , United States ) ; which is trying to assess the impact of climate variability on water availability and rice production in the Cauvery river basin of Tamil Nadu , India . In particular , the impacts of climate change on extreme events such as droughts , floods , heat waves and on the spatial and temporal distribution of the monsoon rains will certainly impact rice production and food security in India . However , there is a significant level of uncertainty in the climate models ' projections that cascade into impact models and thereby influence policy decisions related to adaptation . For both scientific community and policy makers , reducing the uncertainties is a big challenge . On a positive note , examination of historical observed rice production data in India shows an overall increasing trend in many regions with annual fluctuations . Will this trend continue given the projected change in climate and population increase in India ? Climarice is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , is currently assessing the impacts of climate change on rice production areas and rice productivity . Specifically , the project is assessing the behavior of the Indian monsoon in different climate scenarios , and examining its impact on the water availability , rice crop production and the resultant socio economic vulnerability and adaptation of farming communities in the Cauvery river basin , India . Since the project was started in January 2008 , relevant coping and adaptation mechanisms have been identified and techniques developed to address the issues of climate vulnerabilities in rice production .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climarice", "rank": 90, "score": 75731 }, { "content": "Title: History of numerical weather prediction Content: The history of numerical weather prediction considers how current weather conditions as input into mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather and future sea state ( the process of numerical weather prediction ) has changed over the years . Though first attempted manually in the 1920s , it was not until the advent of the computer and computer simulation that computation time was reduced to less than the forecast period itself . ENIAC was used to create the first forecasts via computer in 1950 , and over the years more powerful computers have been used to increase the size of initial datasets as well as include more complicated versions of the equations of motion . The development of global forecasting models led to the first climate models . The development of limited area ( regional ) models facilitated advances in forecasting the tracks of tropical cyclone as well as air quality in the 1970s and 1980s . Because the output of forecast models based on atmospheric dynamics requires corrections near ground level , model output statistics ( MOS ) were developed in the 1970s and 1980s for individual forecast points ( locations ) . The MOS apply statistical techniques to post-process the output of dynamical models with the most recent surface observations and the forecast point 's climatology . This technique can correct for model resolution as well as model biases . Even with the increasing power of supercomputers , the forecast skill of numerical weather models only extends to about two weeks into the future , since the density and quality of observations -- together with the chaotic nature of the partial differential equations used to calculate the forecast -- introduce errors which double every five days . The use of model ensemble forecasts since the 1990s helps to define the forecast uncertainty and extend weather forecasting farther into the future than otherwise possible .", "qid": "237", "docid": "History_of_numerical_weather_prediction", "rank": 91, "score": 75676 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and potatoes Content: Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change_and_potatoes", "rank": 92, "score": 75584 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Z. Jacobson Content: Mark Zachary Jacobson ( born 1965 ) is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy Program . Jacobson develops computer models about the effects of different energy technologies and their emissions on air pollution and climate . He has done influential research on the role of aerosols and black carbon on the climate and is regarded as a leading aerosol climate modeler . According to Jacobson , a speedy transition to clean , renewable energy is required to reduce the potential acceleration of global warming , including the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice . This change will also eliminate 2.5 -- 3 million deaths worldwide each year , related to air pollution , and reduce disruption associated with fossil fuel shortages .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Mark_Z._Jacobson", "rank": 93, "score": 75496 }, { "content": "Title: HIRLAM Content: HIRLAM , the High Resolution Limited Area Model , is a Numerical Weather Prediction ( NWP ) forecast system developed by the international HIRLAM programme .", "qid": "237", "docid": "HIRLAM", "rank": 94, "score": 75494 }, { "content": "Title: Tim Palmer (physicist) Content: Timothy Noel Palmer CBE FRS ( born 31 December 1952 ) is a mathematical physicist by training . He has spent most of his career working on the dynamics and predictability of weather and climate . Amongst various research achievements , he pioneered the development of probabilistic ensemble forecasting techniques for weather and climate prediction ( at the Met Office and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ) . These techniques are now standard in operational weather and climate prediction around the world , and are central for reliable decision making for many commercial and humanitarian applications .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Tim_Palmer_(physicist)", "rank": 95, "score": 75319 }, { "content": "Title: Penny Whetton Content: Penelope Whetton ( born 5 January 1958 ) is a climatologist and an expert in regional climate change projections due to global warming and in the impacts of those changes . Her primary scientific focus has been Australia .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Penny_Whetton", "rank": 96, "score": 75237 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Climate Challenge Content: During the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 ( COP15 ) , there was a rival conference in Copenhagen , Denmark , for sceptics , called the Copenhagen Climate Challenge . which was organised by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow . While COP15 attracted 33,200 delegates , the rival sceptic conference was attended by 60 people ( 15 journalists , 18 speakers , 27 audience ) . According to Lenore Taylor of The Australian , the attendees had an average age `` well over 60 '' . In closing his speech , Plimer stated that `` They 've got us outnumbered , but we 've got them outgunned , and that 's with the truth . '' Plimer also stated that `` It 's been freezing in Perth and bucketing down '' . Perth had below average rainfall in 2009 , and temperatures of 38 ° C were forecast for December 13 .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Copenhagen_Climate_Challenge", "rank": 97, "score": 75177 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Nevada Content: Climate change in Nevada has been measured over the last century , with the average temperature in Elko , Nevada increasing by 0.6 F-change , and precipitation increasing by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Nevada", "rank": 98, "score": 75100 }, { "content": "Title: Lee–Carter model Content: The Lee -- Carter model is a numerical algorithm used in mortality forecasting and life expectancy forecasting . The input to the model is a matrix of age specific mortality rates ordered monotonically by time , usually with ages in columns and years in rows . The output is another forecasted matrix of mortality rates . The model uses the singular value decomposition ( SVD ) to find a univariate time series vector `` kt '' that captures 80 -- 90 % of the mortality trend ( here the subscript `` t '' refers to time ) , a vector `` bx '' that describes the amount of mortality change at a given age for a unit of yearly total mortality change ( here the subscript `` x '' refers to age ) , and a scaling constant ( referred to here as s1 but unnamed in the literature ) . Surprisingly , kt is usually linear , implying that gains to life expectancy are fairly constant year after year in most populations . Before being input to the SVD , age specific mortality rates are transformed into `` ax , t '' , by taking their logarithms , and then centering them by subtracting their age-specific means ( calculated over time ) . ( The subscript `` x , t '' refers to the fact that ax , t spans both age and time . ) Many researchers adjust the kt vector by fitting it to empirical life expectancies for each year , using the ax and bx just generated with the SVD ; when adjusted using this approach , changes to kt are usually small . To forecast mortality , the above kt ( either adjusted or not ) is projected into the future using ARIMA time series methods , the corresponding future ax , t + n is recovered by multiplying kt + n by bx and the appropriate diagonal element of S ( when -LSB- U S V -RSB- = svd ( mort ) ) , and the actual mortality rates are recovered by taking exponentials of this vector . Because of the linearity of kt , it is generally modeled as a random walk with trend . Life expectancy and other life table measures can be calculated from this forecasted matrix after adding back the means and taking exponentials to yield regular mortality rates . In most implementations , confidence intervals for the forecasts are generated by simulating multiple mortality forecasts using Monte-Carlo methods ; a band of mortality between 5 % and 95 % percentiles of the simulated results is considered to be a valid forecast . These simulations are done by extending kt into the future using randomization based on the standard error of kt derived from the input data . In outline and Matlab-style pseudocode , the algorithm is as follows : Create ax by taking logarithms of the mortality rates and centering the results with the average log mortality at a given age . Derive kt , a scaling eigenvalue , and bx from U ( : ,1 ) , S ( 1,1 ) , V ( 1 , :) , where -LSB- U S V -RSB- = svd ( mort ) . Forecast kt with standard univariate ARIMA methods . Use the forecast kt with the original bx and ax to calculate logged mortality rates for each forecast year . Recover regular mortality rates by calculating the exponential of the forecasted log mortality rates . Without applying SVD or some other method of dimension reduction the table of mortality data is a highly correlated multivariate data series ; the complexity of these multidimensional time series makes such them almost impossible to forecast . SVD has become widely used as a method of dimension reduction in many disparate fields , including by Google in their page rank algorithm . The Lee -- Carter model was introduced by Ronald D. Lee and Lawrence Carter in 1992 with the article `` Modeling and Forecasting the Time Series of U.S. Mortality , '' ( Journal of the American Statistical Association 87 ( September ) : 659 -- 671 ) . The model grew out of their work in the late 1980s and early 1990s attempting to use inverse projection to infer rates in historical demography . The model has been used by the United States Social Security Administration , the US Census Bureau , and the United Nations . It has become the most widely used mortality forecasting technique in the world today . There have been extensions to the Lee -- Carter , most notably to account for missing years , correlated male and female populations , and large scale coherency in populations that share a mortality regime ( western Europe , for example ) . Many related papers can be found on Professor Ronald Lee 's website . There are surprisingly few software packages for forecasting with the Lee-Carter Model . LCFIT is a web-based package with interactive forms . Professor Rob J. Hyndman provides an R package for demography that includes routines for creating and forecasting a Lee-Carter Model . Professor German Rodriguez provides code for the Lee-Carter Model using Stata . Using Matlab , Professor Eric Jondeau and Professor Michael Rockinger have put together the Longevity Toolbox for parameter estimation .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Lee–Carter_model", "rank": 99, "score": 74877 }, { "content": "Title: Community Earth System Model Content: The Community Earth System Model ( CESM ) is a fully coupled numerical simulation of the Earth system consisting of atmospheric , ocean , ice , land surface , carbon cycle , and other components . CESM includes a climate model providing state-of-art simulations of the Earth 's past , present , and future . It is the successor of the Community Climate System Model ( CCSM ) , specifically version 4 ( CCSMv4 ) , which provided the initial atmospheric component for CESM . Strong ensemble forecasting capabilities , CESM-LE ( CESM-Large Scale ) , were developed at the onset to control for error and biases across different model runs ( realizations ) . Simulations from the Earth 's surface through the thermosphere are generated utilizing the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model ( WACCM ) . CESM1 was released in 2010 with primary development by the Climate and Global Dynamics Division ( CGD ) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , and significant funding by the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and the Department of Energy ( DoE ) .", "qid": "237", "docid": "Community_Earth_System_Model", "rank": 100, "score": 74727 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "240", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 1, "score": 306209 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "240", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 2, "score": 282751 }, { "content": "Title: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 3, "score": 278043 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "240", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 4, "score": 264903 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "240", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 5, "score": 259406 }, { "content": "Title: Climate risk Content: Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Climate_risk", "rank": 6, "score": 252651 }, { "content": "Title: Reasons for concern Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has organized many of the risks of climate change into five `` reasons for concern . '' The reasons for concern show that these risks increase with increases in the Earth 's global mean temperature ( i.e. , global warming ) . The IPCC 's five reasons for concern are : threats to endangered species and unique systems , damages from extreme climate events , effects that fall most heavily on developing countries and the poor within countries , global aggregate impacts ( i.e. , various measurements of total social , economic and ecological impacts ) , and large-scale high-impact events . The five reasons for concern are described in more detail below . The following descriptions are based on information from the IPCC 's Third ( TAR ) and Fourth Assessment Reports ( AR4 ) , published in 2001 and 2007 , respectively .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Reasons_for_concern", "rank": 7, "score": 250698 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "qid": "240", "docid": "IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 8, "score": 249446 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 9, "score": 245863 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 10, "score": 241964 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 11, "score": 239841 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Content: The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation . The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "IPCC_Fifth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 12, "score": 237973 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Second Assessment Report Content: The Second Assessment Report ( SAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 1996 , is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change . It was superseded by the Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "IPCC_Second_Assessment_Report", "rank": 13, "score": 233447 }, { "content": "Title: Bert Bolin Content: Bert Rickard Johannes Bolin ( -LSB- bæʈː bʊliːn -RSB- ; 15 May 1925 -- 30 December 2007 ) was a Swedish meteorologist who served as the first chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , from 1988 to 1997 . He was professor of meteorology at Stockholm University from 1961 until his retirement in 1990 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Bert_Bolin", "rank": 14, "score": 231889 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Change Conference, Moscow Content: The World Climate Change Conference was held in Moscow from September 29 to October 3 , 2003 . The initiative of convening the Conference was taken by Vladimir Putin , the President of the Russian Federation . The Conference was convened by the Russian Federation , and supported by international bodies including the United Nations . It should not be confused with the World Climate Conferences . The conference summary report , which was endorsed at concluding session of the Conference , October 3 , 2003 , endorsed the consensus represented by the IPCC TAR : The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has provided the basis for much of our present understanding of knowledge in this field in its Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 . A large majority of the international scientific community has accepted its general conclusions that climate change is occurring , is primarily a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols , and that this represents a threat to people and ecosystems . Some divergent scientific interpretations were brought forward and discussed in the Conference . Andreas Fischlin , conference participant and IPCC author was critical of the conference , saying : However , concerning the scientific content of the conference , we had also to struggle with considerable difficulties . Unfortunately , there were not only leading scientists present , but also some colleagues who used the conference to express personal , political opinions based on value judgement instead of scientific facts and rigorously derived , scientific insights and thorough understanding . Thereby , I believe , principles of proper scientific conduct were violated too often and sometimes , I am afraid having to say so , even systematically . This contrasts sharply with the principles upheld by the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) , which allow only to assess the current knowledge based on the best available , peer reviewed scientific literature and which do not allow for any non-scientific value judgements , let alone policy recommendations .", "qid": "240", "docid": "World_Climate_Change_Conference,_Moscow", "rank": 15, "score": 230341 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 16, "score": 227539 }, { "content": "Title: Yuri Izrael Content: Yuri Antonovich Izrael ( Юрий Антониевич Израэль 15 May 1930 , Tashkent -- 23 January 2014 , Moscow ) was a vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) until September 2008 , when the new bureau was elected . He was the `` most influential scientific adviser '' for Vladimir Putin , the former president of Russia , according to CNN . Izrael was former chairman of the Committee for Hydrometeorology . He also served as director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology , which is a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences . He was a first vice-president of the World Meteorological Organization and helped develop the World Weather Watch . In 1992 , Izrael won the International Meteorological Organization Prize and the UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize for , among other accomplishments , contributing to the `` success of Working Group I I '' of the IPCC .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Yuri_Izrael", "rank": 17, "score": 227281 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 18, "score": 226289 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change acronyms Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) use tens of acronyms and initialisms in documents relating to climate change policy .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Climate_change_acronyms", "rank": 19, "score": 222391 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation Content: The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) published a special report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation ( SRREN ) on May 9 , 2011 . The report developed under the leadership of Ottmar Edenhofer evaluates the global potential for using renewable energy to mitigate climate change . This IPCC special report provides broader coverage of renewable energy than was included in the IPCC 's 2007 climate change assessment report , as well as stronger renewable energy policy coverage . Renewable energy can contribute to `` social and economic development , energy access , secure energy supply , climate change mitigation , and the reduction of negative environmental and health impacts '' . Under favourable circumstances , cost savings in comparison to non-renewable energy use exist .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Sources_and_Climate_Change_Mitigation", "rank": 20, "score": 221456 }, { "content": "Title: Rajendra K. Pachauri Content: Rajendra Kumar Pachauri ( born 20 August 1940 ) was the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He held the post from 2002 until his resignation in 2015 , during which time the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize . He resigned from IPCC in February 2015 . Following a media trial , The Energy and Resources Institute ( TERI ) Governing Council asked him to step down from the post of Director-General of the institute . The Governing Council of TERI in a meeting in February 2016 appointed Ashok Chawla , a Gujarat cadre Indian Administrative Service Office who was former Union Finance Secretary and former Chairman of the Competition Commission , as its new chairman . Ajay Mathur , a technocrat in the Bureau of Energy Efficiency , was appointed as the Director General of TERI by the Governing Council in July 2015 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Rajendra_K._Pachauri", "rank": 21, "score": 221343 }, { "content": "Title: Roger Pulwarty Content: Roger S. Pulwarty is a scientist from Trinidad and Tobago and contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He is the director of the US National Integrated Drought Information System at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) in Boulder , Colorado . Roger Pulwarty earned a B.S. degree ( Hons . ) in Atmospheric Sciences from York University in Toronto in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Climatology from the University of Boulder at Colorado in 1994 , where he worked under Professors Roger Barry and Herbert Riehl . His research and publications are on climate , climate impacts and adaptation policy in Western North America , Latin America and the Caribbean . From 1998-2002 he was the program director for the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments . He is Professor Adjunct at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of the West Indies . Dr. Pulwarty is a lead author on Chapter 17 of the 2007 IPCC Working Group II on Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability , on the IPCC 2008 Technical Report on Climate Change and Water and on Synthesis and Assessments Reports of the US Global Change Research Program . The IPCC is an intergovernmental body mandated by the UN to study the origins and effects of climate change on society and ecosystems . Dr. Pulwarty has served on Committees of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , and has provided testimonies before the U.S. Congress on climate , water resources and adaptation . Dr. Pulwarty acts in advisory roles on climate , natural resources , and disaster management to several U.S. and international interests including the Western Governors Association , the Department of the Interior , the governments of CARICOM ( the Caribbean Economic Community ) , the Organization of American States , the UNDP , UNEP and the World Bank .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Roger_Pulwarty", "rank": 22, "score": 220403 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 23, "score": 217469 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 24, "score": 217374 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 25, "score": 214380 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 26, "score": 214010 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "240", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 27, "score": 213763 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 28, "score": 212129 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Summary for Policymakers Content: The Summary for policymakers ( SPM ) is a summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports intended to aid policymakers . The form is approved line by line by governments : `` Negotiations occur over wording to ensure accuracy , balance , clarity of message , and relevance to understanding and policy . ''", "qid": "240", "docid": "IPCC_Summary_for_Policymakers", "rank": 29, "score": 208789 }, { "content": "Title: John T. Houghton Content: Sir John Theodore Houghton ( born 30 December 1931 ) is a Welsh scientist who was the co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) scientific assessment working group . He was the lead editor of first three IPCC reports . He was professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford , former Director General at the Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre . He is the president of the John Ray Initiative , an organisation `` connecting Environment , Science and Christianity '' , where he has compared the stewardship of the Earth , to the stewardship of the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve . He is a founder member of the International Society for Science and Religion . He is also the current president of the Victoria Institute .", "qid": "240", "docid": "John_T._Houghton", "rank": 30, "score": 207891 }, { "content": "Title: Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment Content: The Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment ( INCCA ) is a proposed network of scientists in India to be set up to publish peer-reviewed findings on climate change in India . It was announced on 7 October 2009 , saying : It was re-announced on 25 January 2012 by an official of the climate change division in the Environment Ministry after a strategy meeting chaired by Joint Secretary ( Climate ) J.M. Mausker , which also dealt with the framing of India 's National Action Plan on Climate Change ( NAPCC ) . On 4 February 2010 India 's environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced that it would bring together 250 scientists from 125 Indian research institutions and collaborate with international organisations.its first assessment of greenhouse gas emission was released on May 11 , 2010 and Its second climate assessment to be published in November 2010 would include reports on the Himalayas , the coastline of India , the Western Ghat highlands and the north-eastern region of India . He said it would operate as a `` sort of Indian IPCC '' , but will not rival the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Ramesh also announced the initiation of an Indian National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology . He said that although he respected the IPCC , it was unequal to the task and its weakness was that it did not conduct its own research . Ramesh also indicated its biases made it insensitive to regional realities , and instead relied on compiling assessments of other reports , which , led to `` goof-ups '' on the Amazon forests , Himalayan glaciers , and ice caps .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Indian_Network_on_Climate_Change_Assessment", "rank": 31, "score": 207879 }, { "content": "Title: Long-term effects of global warming Content: See also Effects of global warming . The focus of this article is on the effects beyond 2100 . There are expected to be various long-term effects of global warming . Most discussion and research , including that by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports , concentrates on the effects of global warming up to 2100 , with only an outline of the effects beyond this .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Long-term_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 32, "score": 206157 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Emissions Scenarios Content: The Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( SRES ) is a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) that was published in 2000 . The greenhouse gas emissions scenarios described in the Report have been used to make projections of possible future climate change . The SRES scenarios , as they are often called , were used in the IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , published in 2001 , and in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , published in 2007 . The SRES scenarios were designed to improve upon some aspects of the IS92 scenarios , which had been used in the earlier IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . The SRES scenarios are `` baseline '' ( or `` reference '' ) scenarios , which means that they do not take into account any current or future measures to limit greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions ( e.g. , the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ) . Emissions projections of the SRES scenarios are broadly comparable in range to the baseline emissions scenarios that have been developed by the scientific community . The SRES scenarios , however , do not encompass the full range of possible futures : emissions may change less than the scenarios imply , or they could change more . SRES was superseded by Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs ) in 2014 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Emissions_Scenarios", "rank": 33, "score": 205222 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC (disambiguation) Content: IPCC may refer to : Independent Police Complaints Commission of England and Wales Independent Police Complaints Council of Hong Kong Integrated Professional Competency Course , a course of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , a scientific body under the auspices of the United Nations . Interworld Police Coordinating Company , a fictional organization in Jack Vance 's novels Irish Peatland Conservation Council", "qid": "240", "docid": "IPCC_(disambiguation)", "rank": 34, "score": 203325 }, { "content": "Title: Arturo Villavicencio Content: Arturo Villavicencio is an Ecuadorian environmental researcher . He was nominated by Denmark in 1995 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and contributed to its fourth assessment report ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Arturo_Villavicencio", "rank": 35, "score": 202865 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Content: The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in two equal parts , between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and Al Gore `` for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change , and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change '' .", "qid": "240", "docid": "2007_Nobel_Peace_Prize", "rank": 36, "score": 202134 }, { "content": "Title: Ismail El Gizouli Content: Ismail Abdel Rahim El Gizouli is a Sudanese civil servant specializing in energy and environment and a member of the bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He has acted as interim chairman of the IPCC since 24 February 2015 , following the resignation of Rajendra Kumar Pachauri . This appointment will last until the next election for a chairman , which is due to take place at the 42nd session in October 2015 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Ismail_El_Gizouli", "rank": 37, "score": 198954 }, { "content": "Title: United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy Content: The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "qid": "240", "docid": "United_States_House_Science_Subcommittee_on_Energy", "rank": 38, "score": 197881 }, { "content": "Title: Bert Metz Content: Bert Metz ( born 15 August 1945 , The Hague ) is a Dutch climate policy expert . He was Co-chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Working Group III on mitigation on climate change for the third and fourth assessment report of the IPCC . Currently he is a fellow at the european climate foundation . Metz obtained an Engineer 's degree in Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology and subsequently his Ph.D. degree at the same university . From 1976 to 1987 he worked for Dutch Ministry of Housing , Spatial Planning and Environment in the fields of air pollution , external safety , noise pollution , chemical waste and the enforcement of environmental laws . From 1987 until 1992 he was Counsellor for Health and Environment at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC . In 1992 he became Deputy Director for Air and Energy of the Netherlands Ministry of Housing , Spatial Planning and Environment , with responsibility for climate policy . He led the Netherlands delegation to the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Convention . In 1997 he moved to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency at RIVM to head the group on climate change and global sustainability and was elected as co-chairman of the Working Group on Climate Change Mitigation of the IPCC for the preparation of the Third Assessment Report . In 2002 he was re-elected in that position for the 4th Assessment Report cycle . Although formally retired , Bert Metz is still very active in the climate policy arena , among others as advisor for the European Climate Foundation and as steering group member of UNEP 's annual Emissions Gap Report . In 2008 he was named Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau . .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Bert_Metz", "rank": 39, "score": 197286 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) is an international environmental treaty adopted on May 9 , 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . It then entered into force on 21 March 1994 , after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it . The UNFCCC objective is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . Instead , the framework outlines how specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' or `` Agreements '' ) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC . Initially an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( INC ) produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 , and opened for signature on 4 June 1992 . The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015 . The convention enjoys broad legitimacy , largely due to its nearly universal membership . The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties ( COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change . In 1997 , the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 . The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013-2020 in the Doha Amendment , which - as of December 2015 - had not entered into force . In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted , governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions . The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th , 2016 . One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and removals , which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions . Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries . The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention , with offices in Haus Carstanjen , and the UN Campus ( known as Langer Eugen ) Bonn , Germany . From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres . In July 2016 , Patricia Espinosa from Mexico succeeded Figueres . The Secretariat , augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies .", "qid": "240", "docid": "United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 40, "score": 195064 }, { "content": "Title: Hoesung Lee Content: Hoesung Lee ( born December 31 , 1945 ) is a South Korean economist and current chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . He is professor in the economics of climate change , energy and sustainable development in the Graduate School of Energy , Environment , Policy & Technology at Korea University in the Republic of Korea . Lee received his B.A. in economics from Seoul National University and a Ph.D. in economics from Rutgers University . Lee was elected as the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) on October 6 , 2015 . One of his elder brothers is Lee Hoi-chang , former Prime Minister of South Korea and three-time presidential candidate .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Hoesung_Lee", "rank": 41, "score": 194114 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 42, "score": 190530 }, { "content": "Title: List of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC or FCCC ) is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) , informally known as the Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . The objective of the treaty is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The treaty itself set no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . In that sense , the treaty is considered legally non-binding . Instead , the treaty provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' ) that may set binding limits on greenhouse gases . The UNFCCC was opened for signature on 9 May 1992 , after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . It entered into force on 21 March 1994 . As of December 2015 , UNFCCC has 197 parties .", "qid": "240", "docid": "List_of_parties_to_the_United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 43, "score": 189940 }, { "content": "Title: David Karoly Content: David John Karoly ( born 1955 ) is an Australian atmospheric scientist . He is an expert in climate change , stratospheric ozone depletion , and climate variations due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) . Karoly has served as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Working Group 2 ( on societal impacts ) and he is a member of the faculty of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne . His work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . He is member of the board of the Climate Change Authority .", "qid": "240", "docid": "David_Karoly", "rank": 44, "score": 188661 }, { "content": "Title: Indur M. Goklany Content: Indur M. Goklany is a science and technology policy analyst for the United States Department of the Interior , where he holds the position of Assistant Director of Programs , Science and Technology Policy . He has represented the United States at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and during the negotiations that led to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . He was a rapporteur for the Resource Use and Management Subgroup of Working Group III of the IPCC First Assessment Report in 1990 , and is the author of Clearing the Air ( 1999 ) , The Precautionary Principle ( 2001 ) , and The Improving State of the World ( 2007 ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Indur_M._Goklany", "rank": 45, "score": 188617 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 46, "score": 185897 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 47, "score": 184396 }, { "content": "Title: List of environmental reports Content: This is a list of notable environmental reports . In this context they relate to the impacts of human activity on the environment . City-level Decoupling : Urban Resource Flows and the Governance of Infrastructure Transitions - by the International Resource Panel Clean Energy Trends - a series of reports by Clean Edge - beginning in 2002 Copeland Report - for the U.S. government , completed in 1933 Copenhagen Diagnosis - written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries Dioxin Reassessment Report - by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Impact of the Big Cypress Swamp Jetport ( `` Leopold Report '' ) - United States Department of the Interior ( 1969 ) Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles - by the International Resource Panel Forest Principles - United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) The Global 2000 Report to the President - Council on Environmental Quality ( 1981 ) Global Environment Outlook - United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) Hirsch report ( Peaking of World Oil Production : Impacts , Mitigation , and Risk Management ) - United States Department of Energy Index of Leading Environmental Indicators - Pacific Research Institute IPCC First Assessment Report - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) IPCC supplementary report , 1992 - IPCC IPCC Second Assessment Report - IPCC IPCC Third Assessment Report Climate Change 2001 - IPCC ( 2001 ) IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 - IPCC ( 2007 ) IPCC Fifth Assessment Report ( 2014 ) Leopold Report ( `` Wildlife Management in the National Parks '' ) - Special Advisory Board on Wildlife Management ( 1963 ) Livestock 's Long Shadow - Environmental Issues and Options - United Nations ( 2006 ) Living Planet Report - WWF , every two years Making Sweden an Oil-Free Society - Government of Sweden ( 2006 ) Meat Atlas - published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Friends of the Earth Europe Nuclear Power and the Environment - UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution - 1976 Our Common Future - World Commission on Environment and Development ( 1987 ) Outlook On Renewable Energy In America ( 2 volumes ) - American Council on Renewable Energy - 2007 Phase I Environmental Site Assessment - generic Planning Policy Statement 10 : Planning for Sustainable Waste Management ( PPS 10 ) - British Government Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation - United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) - planned for 2010 Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification - Royal Commission on Genetic Modification ( 2001 ) State of the Climate - NOAA/NCDC ( published annually ) The State of the World - Worldwatch Institute ( published yearly since 1984 ) Wegman Report - to validate criticisms of reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years Windscale : Britain 's Biggest Nuclear Disaster ( 2007 ) World Climate Report - Greening Earth Society The World 's 25 Most Endangered Primates - selected and published by the IUCN Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group ( IUCN/SSC PSG ) , the International Primatological Society ( IPS ) , and Conservation International ( CI )", "qid": "240", "docid": "List_of_environmental_reports", "rank": 48, "score": 182855 }, { "content": "Title: Michael E. Mann Content: Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data . As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences . Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Michael_E._Mann", "rank": 49, "score": 181939 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change litigation and the California Environmental Quality Act Content: Litigation related to climate change and greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions has become increasingly common in federal and state courts . Following adoption of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 ( AB 32 ) and publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , additional pressure was placed on California public agencies to evaluate potential adverse effects to global climate change caused by GHG emissions . In particular , several lawsuits have been filed against agencies for failure to analyze GHG emissions generated by projects subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ( CEQA ) . Court decisions prior to the 2010 revisions to the CEQA guidelines gave early insights as to how CEQA would be used as a vehicle to identify and mitigate GHG emissions within the state . Decisions issued after adoption of the revised guidelines are now being used to interpret CEQA 's new requirement to evaluate GHG emissions and climate change .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Climate_change_litigation_and_the_California_Environmental_Quality_Act", "rank": 50, "score": 181367 }, { "content": "Title: Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists Content: The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "qid": "240", "docid": "Bali_Declaration_by_Climate_Scientists", "rank": 51, "score": 180892 }, { "content": "Title: Mohan Munasinghe Content: Mohan Munasinghe is a Sri Lankan physicist , academic and economist with a focus on energy , water resources , sustainable development and climate change . He was a Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice-President of the United States Al Gore . Munasinghe is the Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute for Development . Currently he is a Professor of Sustainable Development at the Sustainable Consumption Institute , University of Manchester , and Institute Professor at the Vale Sustainable Development Institute , Federal University of Para , Brazil . He also serves on the board of directors of Green Cross International and is a member of the Club of Rome .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Mohan_Munasinghe", "rank": 52, "score": 180313 }, { "content": "Title: Joel B. Smith Content: Joel B. Smith is an expert on climate change policy . He was a coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2001 assessment report and a lead author of the 2007 assessment report ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) . He is currently a Principal at Stratus Consulting Inc. , in Boulder , CO. .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Joel_B._Smith", "rank": 53, "score": 180109 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 54, "score": 175984 }, { "content": "Title: Harry F. Lins Content: Harry F. Lins ( born 1948 ) is a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey . Since joining USGS in 1971 , his work has spanned several Earth science disciplines , including coastal processes , surface water hydrology , and hydroclimatology . Although most of his career has been spent conducting research , he managed the USGS Global Change Hydrology Program from 1989 to 1997 , and served as Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Hydrology and Water Resources Working Group for the First Assessment Report . In 1999 , he and USGS colleague David Wolock developed `` WaterWatch '' , the Nation 's first website depicting maps and graphs of water resources conditions in near real-time . Lins currently serves as President of the World Meteorological Organization 's ( WMO ) Commission for Hydrology . Since the early 1980s , Lins ' research has focused principally on characterizing the surface water response to climate , with an emphasis on regional streamflow variability , long-term trends , and the statistical techniques appropriate for such analyses . Lins ' most controversial research , which has not been fully embraced by the climate science community , suggests that the significance of climate trends may be greatly overstated because it does not consider the possibility that long-term persistence is a component of climatic variations . Lins holds a B.S. in Geography from the University of Maryland ( 1971 ) , an M.S. in Geography from the University of Delaware , ( 1978 ) , and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia ( 1993 ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Harry_F._Lins", "rank": 55, "score": 174867 }, { "content": "Title: Jean Palutikof Content: Jean Palutikof is founding Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility ( NCCARF ) at Griffith University , Australia . She has held this position since 2008 . Prior to this , Professor Palutikof was based at the UK Met Office during which time she managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II ( Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability ) . Professor Palutikof is among the foremost scholars of climate change adaptation and was lead author and review editor for several assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and was present in Oslo at the ceremony at which the IPCC received the Nobel Peace Prize .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Jean_Palutikof", "rank": 56, "score": 174776 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 57, "score": 172708 }, { "content": "Title: C. Vernon Cole Content: Dr. C. Vernon Cole ( 1922 -- August 30 , 2013 ) was a soil scientist known primarily for his work on nutrient cycling in agroecosystems . He was a member of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Second Assessment report , and the lead author of Chapter 23 `` Agricultural Options for Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions '' . The IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "C._Vernon_Cole", "rank": 58, "score": 172139 }, { "content": "Title: Steve Running Content: Steven W. Running , ( born 1950 ) Regents Professor , Forest Ecology , College of Forestry & Conservation at the University of Montana , and Director of the Numerical Terradynamics Simulation Group , is responsible for developing the earth observing-oriented algorithms used by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) on board NASA 's satellites , Terra and Aqua . He continues to be the lead investigator on this project . Running 's MOD17 algorithms are used to provide accurate and continuous global monitoring of the terrestrial biosphere , specifically , generating near-real-time data sets for repeated monitoring of vegetation primary production on vegetated land at 1-km resolution at 8-day intervals . These datasets are unique in that they provide global data on primary productivity and span a decade . A recognized expert in global ecosystem monitoring , Running was invited to serve on the board of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . In 2007 , the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize `` for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change , and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change '' . Running made the following statement about winning the prize : `` We 've got to get past all the petty bickering and get to work . This is about a big transition for society over the next 50 years . The path we are on is unsustainable . What the Nobel committee is saying is that we 've got to wake up . We 've got to change the course of the whole world . '' Steve Running is co-author of the 2007 book , Forest Ecosystems , and has published over 240 scientific papers . In 2012 , Running suggested a tenth planetary boundary , the annual net global primary production of all terrestrial plants , as an easily determinable measure integrating many variables that will give `` a clear signal about the health of ecosystems '' .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Steve_Running", "rank": 59, "score": 171616 }, { "content": "Title: John Zillman Content: John W. Zillman AO ( born 28 July 1939 ) is an Australian meteorologist , and former President of the World Meteorological Organization and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering ( ATSE ) . He was born and was educated in Brisbane , Queensland . Through his leadership in professional organizations and advisory groups , Zillman has contributed to shaping science and innovation policy in Australia . More widely , he has contributed to raising awareness to the consequences of global climate change through involvement in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "John_Zillman", "rank": 60, "score": 170402 }, { "content": "Title: 1750 Content: Various sources , including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , use the year 1750 as a baseline year for the end of the pre-industrial era .", "qid": "240", "docid": "1750", "rank": 61, "score": 170332 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 62, "score": 169973 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2005 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place between November 28 and December 9 , 2005 , in Montreal , Quebec , Canada . The conference included the 11th Conference of the Parties ( COP11 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , and was the first Meeting of the Parties ( MOP1 ) to the Kyoto Protocol since their initial meeting in Kyoto in 1997 . It was one of the largest intergovernmental conferences on climate change ever . The event marked the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol on 16 February 2005 . Hosting more than 10,000 delegates , it was one of Canada 's largest international events ever and the largest gathering in Montreal since Expo 67 . The Montreal Action Plan was an agreement to `` extend the life of the Kyoto Protocol beyond its 2012 expiration date and negotiate deeper cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions '' by starting negotiations , without delay on an extension of the protocol . Canada 's environment minister , at the time , Stéphane Dion , said the agreement provides a `` map for the future '' .", "qid": "240", "docid": "2005_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 63, "score": 168123 }, { "content": "Title: Human Rights and Climate Change Content: Human Rights and Climate Change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied , analyzed , and addressed . The framework has been employed by governments , United Nations organs , intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations , human rights and environmental advocates , and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the core international human rights instruments . Human rights and climate change analysis focuses on the anticipated consequences to humans associated with global environmental phenomena including sea level rise , desertification , temperature increases , extreme weather events , and changes in precipitation , as well as adaptation and mitigation measures taken by governments in response to those phenomena that may involve human rights or related legal protections .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Human_Rights_and_Climate_Change", "rank": 64, "score": 167668 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 65, "score": 167136 }, { "content": "Title: Dork Sahagian Content: Dork Sahagian is an Armenian American climate scientist . He is the Director of the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania . He invented a technique for calculating the Earth 's air pressure in the past , based on the difference in the size of the bubbles in cooled volcanic lava . Sahagian contributed to three of four assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , which on October 12 , 2007 was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Dork_Sahagian", "rank": 66, "score": 166878 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Third Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Third Assessment Report , Climate Change 2001 , is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the UN 's World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) '' ... to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' -LSB- IPCC website -RSB- The Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) is the third of a series of assessments ; it has been superseded by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , released in 2007 . Statements of the IPCC or information from the TAR are often used as a reference showing a scientific consensus on the subject of global warming , although a small minority of scientists take issue with the UN assessments ( see also Global warming controversy and Politics of global warming ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "IPCC_Third_Assessment_Report", "rank": 67, "score": 166821 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Research Programme Content: The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "qid": "240", "docid": "World_Climate_Research_Programme", "rank": 68, "score": 166544 }, { "content": "Title: David Titley Content: David W. Titley is a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University and the founding director of their Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk . He was also NOAA 's chief operating officer from 2012 -- 2013 . Before assuming these positions , he was a rear admiral in , and the chief oceanographer of , the U.S. Navy , in which he served for 32 years . Titley initiated the Navy 's Task Force on Climate Change , and serves on the CNA Corporation 's Military Advisory Board . He was formerly a climate change skeptic , but later changed his mind after looking at the evidence of what factors influence climate -- which are , according to Titley , `` what are the larger things doing -- what is the ocean doing ? What is the sun doing ? And what 's our atmosphere doing ? '' Since then , he has described climate change as `` one of the driving forces in the 21st century '' and said that it contributed to the 2011 Arab Spring . The Department of Defense requested that Titley present on their behalf at both Congressional Hearings and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) meetings from 2009 to 2011 . Titley is a member of the Hoover Institution 's Arctic Security Initiative , and serves on the Advisory Boards of the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State , the Center for Climate and Security , Columbia University 's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions , and the Association of Climate Change Officers . He is a member of the National Academies of Science committee on Geoengineering and the Center for Naval Analysis ' Military Advisory Board and co-chairs the National Research Council 's `` A Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences '' committee . Titley sits on the Science and Security Board at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , which , among other things , enables him to participate in the discussions that determine the position of the Bulletin 's famed Doomsday Clock . Titley is also on the Advisory Board of Citizens Climate Lobby .", "qid": "240", "docid": "David_Titley", "rank": 69, "score": 166498 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 70, "score": 166190 }, { "content": "Title: Kirk R. Smith Content: Kirk R. Smith is an expert on the health and climate effects of household energy use in developing nations . He is currently a professor of Global Environmental Health at the University of California , Berkeley , where his research focuses on the relationships among environmental quality , health , resource use , climate , development , and policy in developing countries . Smith contributed a great deal to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and the work of the IPCC ( including the contributions of many scientists ) was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize . Smith is a recipient of the 2012 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for his work with cookstoves , health , and climate . He is also credited with designing and implementing the first randomized controlled trial of the health effects of indoor air pollution ( IAP ) from cookstoves .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Kirk_R._Smith", "rank": 71, "score": 166084 }, { "content": "Title: David Wratt Content: David Stuart Wratt QSO is the Chief Scientist ( Climate ) at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research ( NIWA ) and is responsible for NIWA 's National Climate Centre . He has a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury . He has worked in the USA and Australia as well as New Zealand . His expertise includes climate and meteorology , climate change science and impacts , mountain meteorology , and air quality . He is a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand . He chairs the Climate Committee of the Royal Society of New Zealand . He is a member of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and he is a Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group 1 , which assesses the physical science of climate change . He was a Coordinating Lead Author of the `` Australia and New Zealand '' chapter of the IPCC Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . After gaining a PhD in atmospheric physics from the University of Canterbury and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois , he worked for the New Zealand Meteorological Service . In 1992 he and other climate researchers transferred to NIWA . Wratt has stated : `` There 's a strong scientific case for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions . We need a combination of reducing our emissions in New Zealand and being part of international negotiations to reduce emissions globally in order to forestall the worst effects . '' Wratt was made a Companion of the Queen 's Service Order in the 2012 New Year Honours , for services to science .", "qid": "240", "docid": "David_Wratt", "rank": 72, "score": 165828 }, { "content": "Title: Stephen Schneider Content: Stephen Henry Schneider ( February 11 , 1945 -- July 19 , 2010 ) was Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change at Stanford University , a Co-Director at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a Senior Fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment . Schneider served as a consultant to federal agencies and White House staff in the Richard Nixon , Jimmy Carter , Ronald Reagan , George H. W. Bush , Bill Clinton , George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations . Schneider 's research included modeling of the atmosphere , climate change , and the effect of global climate change on biological systems . Schneider was the founder and editor of the journal Climatic Change and authored or co-authored over 450 scientific papers and other publications . He was a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group II Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Assessment Report and was engaged as a co-anchor of the Key Vulnerabilities Cross-Cutting Theme for the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) at the time of his death . During the 1980s , Schneider emerged as a leading public advocate of sharp reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming . In 2006 Professor Schneider was an Adelaide Thinker in Residence advising the South Australian Government of Premier Mike Rann on climate change and renewable energy policies . In ten years South Australia went from zero to 31 % of its electricity generation coming from renewables . An annual award for outstanding climate science communication was created in Schneider 's honor after his death , by the Commonwealth Club of California .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Stephen_Schneider", "rank": 73, "score": 165567 }, { "content": "Title: Kevin E. Trenberth Content: Kevin Edward Trenberth ( born November 8 , 1944 ) is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the US NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research . He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change ( see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability ( CLIVAR ) program . He chaired the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel from 2004 to 2010 and chaired the Global Energy and Water Exchanges ( GEWEX ) scientific steering group from 2010-2013 ( member 2007-14 ) . In addition , he served on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme , and has made significant contributions to research into El Niño-Southern Oscillation . Kevin 's work is highly cited and he has an h-index of 100 ( 100 papers have over 100 citations ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Kevin_E._Trenberth", "rank": 74, "score": 164866 }, { "content": "Title: Gabriele C. Hegerl Content: Gabriele C. Hegerl FRS ( born 1962 ) is Professor of Climate System Science at the University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences . Prior to 2007 she held research positions at Texas A&M University and at Duke University 's Nicholas School of the Environment , during which time she was a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth and Fifth Assessment Report .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Gabriele_C._Hegerl", "rank": 75, "score": 164494 }, { "content": "Title: Mootral Content: Mootral is the name given to a programme to reduce methane emissions from ruminant animals , chiefly cows and sheep , but also goats . Methane is a major target greenhouse gas and in the 4th protocol report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is recommended to increase from a x23 to x72 multiplier because of the magnitude of its effect relative to carbon dioxide and short longevity in Earth 's atmosphere .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Mootral", "rank": 76, "score": 164199 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Bullock (scientist) Content: Peter Bullock ( 6 July 1937 -- 5 April 2008 ) was a soil scientist whose initial work in the field of soil micromorphology preceded an interest in land degradation . His advocacy of the need to treat soil as a sustainable resource led to his appointment to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Bullock contributed to the reports of the IPCC , which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Peter_Bullock_(scientist)", "rank": 77, "score": 164001 }, { "content": "Title: Venkatachalam Ramaswamy Content: Venkatachalam Ramaswamy ( V. `` Ram '' Ramaswamy ) is the Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) , studying climate modeling and climate change . `` A leading climate scientist '' , his work is cited as supporting evidence for significant stratospheric climate change . He focuses in particular on radiative transfer models and the hydrologic cycle in the atmosphere . He has actively supported the development of supercomputing approaches that enable researchers to achieve higher resolution and greater complexity in climate models . As a lead author involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Ramaswamy 's contributions ( along with the contributions of many scientists ) was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Venkatachalam_Ramaswamy", "rank": 78, "score": 163492 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 79, "score": 163090 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 80, "score": 162453 }, { "content": "Title: Anders Levermann Content: Anders Levermann is a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University . He is a Professor of the Dynamics of the Climate System at Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Potsdam University , Germany . He was a lead author of the chapter on sea-level changes of the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC AR5 ) , and contributed to the paleoclimate chapter in the previous report ( IPCC-AR4 ) . Levermann advises political and economic stakeholders on the issue of climate change .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Anders_Levermann", "rank": 81, "score": 162424 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Modeling Forum Content: The Energy Modeling Forum ( EMF ) is a structured forum for discussing important issues in energy and the environment . The EMF was established in 1976 at Stanford University . The EMF works through a series of ad hoc working groups , each focussing on a particular corporate or policy decision . The EMF provides a non-partisan platform that ensures objective consideration of opposing views . Participation is by invitation . Since the late-1990s , the EMF has made contributions to the economics of climate change , as witnessed in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and on integrated assessment modeling more generally . John Weyant is the current director of the EMF .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Energy_Modeling_Forum", "rank": 82, "score": 161822 }, { "content": "Title: Burtoni Award Content: The Burtoni Award was created in 2003 by a group of leading experts and policy makers in the field of climate change . Its purpose is to recognize outstanding contributions to the science of adaptation to climate change . The award is named after the first recipient of the award , Ian Burton , an Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto and a pioneer in the field of adaptation to climate change and extreme events and disasters . Ian has contributed to three Assessment Reports of the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) and the recent Special Report on Extremes ( SREX ) . Subsequent recipients of the Burtoni Award are : Roger Jones ( Australia ) 2005 . Saleemul Huq ( Bangladesh ) 2007 . Coleen Vogel ( South Africa ) 2010 . Karen O'Brien ( Norway/USA ) 2012 . Mark Pelling ( United Kingdom ) 2015 . Richard J.T. Klein ( the Netherlands ) 2016 . Short biographies of the awardees follow : Roger Jones is Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Economic Research , Victoria University Australia . He was a Coordinating Lead Author in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and has the same role in the Fifth Assessment Report . The Burtoni was awarded in recognition of his innovations in research methods for assessing adaptation to climate change , particularly in the application of risk management to adaptation . Saleemul Huq is a Senior Fellow with the International Institute for Environment and Development in London and Director of ICCCD ( International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka , Bangladesh . He received the award for his work linking adaptation and development , his research on decision making and his efforts to build capacity . It was awarded during a three-day workshop on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change in Dhaka . Coleen Vogel is an Independent Consultant and previously Professor of Sustainability at the University of Witwatersrand , Johannesburg . She was Lead Author for the IPCC 4th assessment Report Working Group 2 Chapter on Africa , and she chaired the International Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Climate Change . Karen O'Brien is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo , Norway . She was Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report for Working Group II ( Chapter 20 : Climate-resilient pathways : adaptation , mitigation , and sustainable development ) . She was a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation ( SREX ) in Chapter 8 ` Towards a Resilient and Sustainable Future ' . She was Chair of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security ( GECHS ) project of the IHDP from 2005-2010 . Mark Pelling is Professor of Geography at King 's College London . His research interests are in the institutions and social relationships that shape vulnerability and adaptation to natural disasters , including those associated with climate change , and in the ways in which conflicting values and practices of development inform resilience and transformation in the face of environmental change . He served as a coordinating author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation ( SREX ) and its Fifth Assessment Report . He also sits on the Scientific Steering Committees for the IGBP-IHDP core project Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone ( LOICZ ) and the ICSU core project Integrated Research on Disaster Risk ( IRDR ) . Richard J.T. Klein is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Climate and Development . He was awarded the Burtoni in recognition of his work to advance knowledge through international research , capacity-building and educational collaborations , including as co-director and chief scientist of the Nordic Centre of Excellence for Strategic Adaptation Research ( NORD-STAR ) and as a member , until 2015 , of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability , Impacts and Adaptation ( PROVIA ) . He was only 24 when he became lead author of a chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Second Assessment Report , published in 1994 . He has been a lead author or coordinating lead author of every IPCC Assessment Report since , as well as two Special Reports .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Burtoni_Award", "rank": 83, "score": 161504 }, { "content": "Title: Raymond Pierrehumbert Content: Raymond T. Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford . Previously , he was Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago . He was a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) and a co-author of the National Research Council report on abrupt climate change . He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996 , which was used to launch collaborative work on the climate of early Mars with collaborators in Paris . He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union ( AGU ) and has been named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the Republic of France . He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and sits on the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists . Pierrehumbert 's central research interest is how climate works as a system and developing idealized mathematical models to be used to address questions of climate science such as how the earth kept from freezing over : the faint young sun paradox . Current interests include climate of extrasolar planets . Pierrehumbert contributes to RealClimate . Pierrehumbert is married to Janet Pierrehumbert , professor of Language Modeling at the University of Oxford .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Raymond_Pierrehumbert", "rank": 84, "score": 161258 }, { "content": "Title: Global Scenario Group Content: The Global Scenario Group ( GSG ) was an international , interdisciplinary body convened in 1995 by the Tellus Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute to develop scenarios for world development in the twenty-first century . The GSG 's underlying scenario development work was rooted in the long-range integrated scenario analysis that Tellus Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute had undertaken through the PoleStar Project . Initially conceived in 1991 as a tool for integrated sustainability planning and long-range scenario analysis , PoleStar was inspired by the 1987 Brundtland Commission report Our Common Future , which first put the concept of `` sustainable development '' on the international agenda . The work of the Global Scenario Group was widely adopted in high-level intergovernmental settings . The scenarios informed numerous international assessments , including the World Water Council 's World Water Vision report in 1999 -- 2000 , the OECD Environmental Outlook in 2001 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's greenhouse gas emission mitigation assessment in 2001 , the United Nations Environment Programme 's Third GEO Report in 2002 , and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 . Several of the GSG participants who actively participated in the IPCC assessments have been recognized for contributing to the 2007 award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Global_Scenario_Group", "rank": 85, "score": 160896 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "240", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 86, "score": 160861 }, { "content": "Title: Carlo Carraro Content: Carlo Carraro ( born May 17 , 1957 , in Italy ) is the Chancellor of the University of Venice for the three-year period 2009-2012 , with a two-year extension of his mandate in accordance to the Gelmini University Law bringing it up to summer 2014 . He is also professor of Environmental Economics at the same University . He is Director of the Sustainable Development Programme of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Director of the Climate Impacts and Policy Division of the Euro-Mediterranean Center for Climate Change ( CMCC ) . In 2008 , Carlo Carraro was elected Vice-Chair of the Working Group III and Member of the Bureau of the Nobel Laureate Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Carlo_Carraro", "rank": 87, "score": 159882 }, { "content": "Title: The Deniers Content: The Deniers is a 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon , a Canadian environmentalist and writer . Subtitled `` The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria , political persecution , and fraud , '' the book draws attention to a number of scientists and others who , according to Solomon , have advanced arguments against what he calls the `` alarmist '' view of global warming , as presented by Al Gore , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , the mainstream media , and others . The book is based on a series of columns Solomon wrote for Canada 's National Post .", "qid": "240", "docid": "The_Deniers", "rank": 88, "score": 158915 }, { "content": "Title: John Woods (oceanographer) Content: Professor John Woods , CBE ( born 1939 ) is a British oceanographer . He studied physics at Imperial College , London ( 1958-66 ) , after which he was appointed principal research fellow at the Meteorological Office ( 1966-72 ) , while leading the RN Operation Thermocline in which he pioneered underwater flow visualisation . Later he joined NERC as Director of Marine and Atmospheric Science ( 1986-1994 ) , where he created the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton . He held professorships at Southampton University ( 1972-77 ) , Kiel University ( 1977-86 ) and Imperial College London ( 1994 - ) , carrying out research into the seasonal boundary layer of the ocean and plankton ecosystem models , and modelling global container freight . Woods has served on a number of international project committees , including GARP ( Global Atmospheric Research Programme ) , WCRP ( World Climate Research Programme0 , IGBP ( International GeoSphere-Biosphere Programme ) , EuroGOOS ( European Global Ocean Observing System ) . He was co-chairman of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment . He was a lead author of the first report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , an organisation which was later awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Al Gore . He is now ( 2015 ) Emeritus Professor of Oceanography & Complex Systems in the Faculty of Engineering , Department of Earth Science & Engineering , Imperial College London . He is Adjunct Fellow of Linacre College , University of Oxford ( 1994 - ) , and Emeritus Researcher of the CNR ( Italian National Research Council ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "John_Woods_(oceanographer)", "rank": 89, "score": 158472 }, { "content": "Title: Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases Content: The Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases , created in 1985 , was an advisory body for the review of studies into the greenhouse effect . The group was created by the International Council of Scientific Unions , the United Nations Environment Programme , and the World Meteorological Organization to follow up on the recommendations of the International conference of the Assessment of the role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts , held at Villach , Austria , in October 1985 . The seven-member panel included Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin and Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare . The group held its last meeting in 1990 . It was gradually replaced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Advisory_Group_on_Greenhouse_Gases", "rank": 90, "score": 157794 }, { "content": "Title: Giulio Boccaletti Content: Giulio Boccaletti , Ph.D. , ( born in Modena , Italy ) is the British-Italian Chief Strategy Officer and Global Managing Director for Water at The Nature Conservancy . Trained as a physicist and atmospheric scientist , Boccaletti currently sits on the World Economic Forum 's Global Agenda Council , and has served on the OECD-WWC High Level Panel on Infrastructure Financing for a Water-Secure World . An alumnus of MIT , Princeton and Bologna universities , Boccaletti was briefly a lead author of the fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and contributes to the ideas platform published by the Edge Foundation , Inc. .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Giulio_Boccaletti", "rank": 91, "score": 157638 }, { "content": "Title: Territorialisation of carbon governance Content: Territorialisation of Carbon Governance ( ToCG ) is a concept used in political geography or environmental policy which is considered to be a new logic of environmental governance . This method creates carbon-relevant citizens who become enrolled in the process of governing the climate . The territorialisation of carbon governance transforms climate change from a global to local issue . It embodies political practices that serve to connect the causes and consequences of global climate change to local communities . The commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions ( GHG ) has been a key component of sustainability within governance since the early 1990s . The ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments which brings together 1200 cities , towns and the associated 70 countries in their commitment to sustainable development . Further responses that seek to address these issues , include international body the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , the Rio Earth Summit and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . These organisations strive to tackle anthropogenic forces which are increasing risks of global warming . Under the territorialisation of carbon , climate and global flows of carbon are regarded as ` national sinks ' . This is a means by which the carbon cycle can be managed and territorialised through being assigned to a physical geographical space instead of being thought of as a global phenomenon . The act of territorialisation oversees the combining of material natures and state institutions into one system through the creation of carbon territories . This approach can allow individual states and governments to control and monitor their carbon emissions in order to improve their efforts in carbon governance . Carbon governance can be interpreted as the institutional arrangements under which greenhouse gas emissions are addressed and mitigated . This is achieved through regulating and controlling carbon activities . Measures and protocols exist in an attempt to address the issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions . Carbon governance is addressed via governmental decisions made through leadership and management which attempt to improve and resolve problems related to climate change .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Territorialisation_of_carbon_governance", "rank": 92, "score": 157500 }, { "content": "Title: Myles Allen Content: Myles R. Allen is head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford 's Atmospheric , Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department . He is the Principal Investigator of the distributed computing project Climateprediction.net ( which makes use of computing resources provided voluntarily by the general public ) , and was principally responsible for starting this project . He is Professor of Geosystem Science in the School of Geography and the Environment , and a Fellow of Linacre College , Oxford . He has worked at the Energy Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme , the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire , and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He contributed to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a Lead Author of the Chapter on detection of change and attribution of causes , and was a Review Editor for the chapter on predictions of global climate change for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . His research focuses on the attribution of recent climate change and assessing what these changes mean for global climate simulations of the future . In 2010 , Allen was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for `` his important contributions to the detection and attribution of human influence on climate and quantifying uncertainty in climate predictions '' . Allen also provided the technical expertise for the game Fate of the World , which is `` a PC strategy game that simulates the real social and environmental impact of global climate change over the next 200 years . ''", "qid": "240", "docid": "Myles_Allen", "rank": 93, "score": 157042 }, { "content": "Title: Peter A. Stott Content: Peter A. Stott is a climate scientist who leads the Climate Monitoring and Attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research at the Met Office in Exeter , UK . He is an expert on anthropogenic and natural causes of climate change . He was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I report , chapter 9 , for the AR4 released in 2007 and is an editor of the Journal of Climate . Peter has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Durham University and completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge . He was awarded a PhD by Imperial College London for work on atmospheric modelling of the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster . After his PhD he carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh on stratospheric ozone depletion .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Peter_A._Stott", "rank": 94, "score": 156905 }, { "content": "Title: Vincent R. Gray Content: __ NOTOC __ Vincent Richard Gray ( born 24 March 1922 ) is a New Zealand-based chemist , and a founder of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition . Born in London on 24 March 1922 , Gray was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry by the University of Cambridge after studies on incendiary bomb fluids made from aluminium soaps . In New Zealand , he was the first Director of Building Research and later , Chief Chemist of the Coal Research Association . He has also published many articles and reports , seven in peer-reviewed journals . After retirement , he had four and a half years in China and when he returned became a critic of the claim that climate was harmed by human emissions of greenhouse gases . He has commented on every publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , with 1,898 comments on the 2007 Report . He has published critical studies on all of the reports including a book `` The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of ` Climate Change 2001 ' '' . He has published `` Confessions of a Climate Sceptic '' He is sceptical of the anthropogenic global warming : `` The two main `` scientific '' claims of the IPCC are the claim that `` the globe is warming '' and `` Increases in carbon dioxide emissions are responsible '' . Evidence for both of these claims is fatally flawed . '' Gray has called for the IPCC to be abolished , claiming it is `` fundamentally corrupt '' due to his conclusion that for significant parts of the work of the IPCC , the data collection and scientific methods employed are unsound and that the IPCC resists all efforts to try to discuss or rectify these problems . Gray was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Counterpoint in a debate entitled `` Nine Lies about Global Warming '' , and was interviewed in a featured story in the New Zealand Herald as a `` prominent '' global warming skeptic . In 2002 , Gray also published a book , The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of `` Climate Change 2001 '' . In it , Gray argues `` that the quality and reliability of the IPCC 's measurements are poor , the system of determining how much weight should be attributed to different influences on the earth 's temperature is faulty , and the validity of evidence derived from computer modeling is questionable . ''", "qid": "240", "docid": "Vincent_R._Gray", "rank": 95, "score": 155350 }, { "content": "Title: Gary Yohe Content: Gary Wynn Yohe is the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University , Middletown , Connecticut . He holds a PhD from Yale University . Yohe specializes in Microeconomic theory , Natural Resources , and Environmental Economics . He is a researcher on the economics of climate change and integrated assessment modelling . Among other works , he is an editor of the book `` Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change '' and co-author ( with Edwin Mansfield ) of `` Microeconomics | Microeconomics : Theory and Applications '' . He is a senior member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) that was awarded a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore . He has been involved with the IPCC since the mid-1990s , has served , among other capacities , as a Lead Author for four different chapters in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , and as Convening Lead Author for the last chapter of the contribution of Working Group II to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . Yohe also worked with the Core Writing Team to prepare the overall Synthesis Report for the entire Assessment . Yohe is also a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change and the standing Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change of the National Academy of Sciences . He is also a standing member of the National Academy of Sciences ' Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change . He was a vice-chair of the Third National Climate Assessment . He is one of the four co-signers of an open letter , dated March 12 , 2010 , regarding possible errors in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and regularly advises the US government .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Gary_Yohe", "rank": 96, "score": 153671 }, { "content": "Title: Ottmar Edenhofer Content: Ottmar Georg Edenhofer ( born in 8 July 1961 in Gangkofen , Lower Bavaria , Germany ) is one of the world 's leading experts on climate change policy , environmental and energy policy , and energy economics . Edenhofer currently holds the professorship of the Economics of Climate Change at the Technical University of Berlin . He is deputy director and chief economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research ( PIK ) as well as director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change ( MCC ) . From 2008 to 2015 he served as one of the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Working Group III `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . Among other functions , he is a member of the OECD Advisory Council `` Growth , Investment and the Low-Carbon Transition '' , a member of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices , a member of the Advisory Committee of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform ( GGKP ) , and a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering ( acatech ) .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Ottmar_Edenhofer", "rank": 97, "score": 153626 }, { "content": "Title: Piers Forster Content: Piers Forster is Professor of Physical Climate Change and Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds . A physicist by training , his research focuses on quantifying the different human causes of climate change and the way the Earth responds . He is best known for his work on radiative forcing , climate sensitivity , contrails and geoengineering . He has contributed heavily to the writing of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports , including acting as a Lead Author for both the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Piers_Forster", "rank": 98, "score": 152305 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 99, "score": 151827 }, { "content": "Title: Pedro Moura Costa Content: Pedro Moura Costa ( born 1963 , Brazil ) is an entrepreneur involved in environmental finance with a focus on the international efforts for greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emission reductions . Of particular relevance , he was the founder and President of EcoSecurities Group Plc. , one of the leading project developers for the international carbon markets , and has written widely about the policy and science of climate change mitigation , including contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports .", "qid": "240", "docid": "Pedro_Moura_Costa", "rank": 100, "score": 151033 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "243", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 1, "score": 238068 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 2, "score": 236101 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 3, "score": 217855 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "243", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 4, "score": 202857 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "243", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 5, "score": 200456 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 6, "score": 196722 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "qid": "243", "docid": "IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 7, "score": 192390 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 8, "score": 188884 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 9, "score": 178726 }, { "content": "Title: Reasons for concern Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has organized many of the risks of climate change into five `` reasons for concern . '' The reasons for concern show that these risks increase with increases in the Earth 's global mean temperature ( i.e. , global warming ) . The IPCC 's five reasons for concern are : threats to endangered species and unique systems , damages from extreme climate events , effects that fall most heavily on developing countries and the poor within countries , global aggregate impacts ( i.e. , various measurements of total social , economic and ecological impacts ) , and large-scale high-impact events . The five reasons for concern are described in more detail below . The following descriptions are based on information from the IPCC 's Third ( TAR ) and Fourth Assessment Reports ( AR4 ) , published in 2001 and 2007 , respectively .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Reasons_for_concern", "rank": 10, "score": 173862 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 11, "score": 170682 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change litigation and the California Environmental Quality Act Content: Litigation related to climate change and greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions has become increasingly common in federal and state courts . Following adoption of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 ( AB 32 ) and publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , additional pressure was placed on California public agencies to evaluate potential adverse effects to global climate change caused by GHG emissions . In particular , several lawsuits have been filed against agencies for failure to analyze GHG emissions generated by projects subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ( CEQA ) . Court decisions prior to the 2010 revisions to the CEQA guidelines gave early insights as to how CEQA would be used as a vehicle to identify and mitigate GHG emissions within the state . Decisions issued after adoption of the revised guidelines are now being used to interpret CEQA 's new requirement to evaluate GHG emissions and climate change .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_change_litigation_and_the_California_Environmental_Quality_Act", "rank": 12, "score": 170590 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "243", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 13, "score": 169560 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Third Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Third Assessment Report , Climate Change 2001 , is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the UN 's World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) '' ... to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' -LSB- IPCC website -RSB- The Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) is the third of a series of assessments ; it has been superseded by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , released in 2007 . Statements of the IPCC or information from the TAR are often used as a reference showing a scientific consensus on the subject of global warming , although a small minority of scientists take issue with the UN assessments ( see also Global warming controversy and Politics of global warming ) .", "qid": "243", "docid": "IPCC_Third_Assessment_Report", "rank": 14, "score": 165784 }, { "content": "Title: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 15, "score": 165224 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 16, "score": 164739 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Content: The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation . The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "IPCC_Fifth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 17, "score": 164103 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Emissions Scenarios Content: The Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( SRES ) is a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) that was published in 2000 . The greenhouse gas emissions scenarios described in the Report have been used to make projections of possible future climate change . The SRES scenarios , as they are often called , were used in the IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , published in 2001 , and in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , published in 2007 . The SRES scenarios were designed to improve upon some aspects of the IS92 scenarios , which had been used in the earlier IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . The SRES scenarios are `` baseline '' ( or `` reference '' ) scenarios , which means that they do not take into account any current or future measures to limit greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions ( e.g. , the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ) . Emissions projections of the SRES scenarios are broadly comparable in range to the baseline emissions scenarios that have been developed by the scientific community . The SRES scenarios , however , do not encompass the full range of possible futures : emissions may change less than the scenarios imply , or they could change more . SRES was superseded by Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs ) in 2014 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Emissions_Scenarios", "rank": 18, "score": 163536 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 19, "score": 162635 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 20, "score": 162262 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 21, "score": 160904 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Protocol Content: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 22, "score": 160250 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 23, "score": 159761 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 24, "score": 159748 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Change Conference, Moscow Content: The World Climate Change Conference was held in Moscow from September 29 to October 3 , 2003 . The initiative of convening the Conference was taken by Vladimir Putin , the President of the Russian Federation . The Conference was convened by the Russian Federation , and supported by international bodies including the United Nations . It should not be confused with the World Climate Conferences . The conference summary report , which was endorsed at concluding session of the Conference , October 3 , 2003 , endorsed the consensus represented by the IPCC TAR : The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has provided the basis for much of our present understanding of knowledge in this field in its Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 . A large majority of the international scientific community has accepted its general conclusions that climate change is occurring , is primarily a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols , and that this represents a threat to people and ecosystems . Some divergent scientific interpretations were brought forward and discussed in the Conference . Andreas Fischlin , conference participant and IPCC author was critical of the conference , saying : However , concerning the scientific content of the conference , we had also to struggle with considerable difficulties . Unfortunately , there were not only leading scientists present , but also some colleagues who used the conference to express personal , political opinions based on value judgement instead of scientific facts and rigorously derived , scientific insights and thorough understanding . Thereby , I believe , principles of proper scientific conduct were violated too often and sometimes , I am afraid having to say so , even systematically . This contrasts sharply with the principles upheld by the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) , which allow only to assess the current knowledge based on the best available , peer reviewed scientific literature and which do not allow for any non-scientific value judgements , let alone policy recommendations .", "qid": "243", "docid": "World_Climate_Change_Conference,_Moscow", "rank": 25, "score": 159676 }, { "content": "Title: Climate risk Content: Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_risk", "rank": 26, "score": 159452 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation Content: Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation", "rank": 27, "score": 158623 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 28, "score": 158545 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 29, "score": 158374 }, { "content": "Title: Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Criticism_of_the_IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 30, "score": 158266 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 31, "score": 156756 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 32, "score": 155999 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "243", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 33, "score": 155198 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Coalition Content: The Global Climate Coalition ( GCC ) ( 1989 -- 2001 ) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and challenged the science behind global warming . The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations . The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol , and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States . The coalition promoted the views of climate skeptics . The GCC dissolved in 2001 after membership declined in the face of improved understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in climate change and of public criticism .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_Climate_Coalition", "rank": 34, "score": 153199 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "243", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 35, "score": 152856 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Second Assessment Report Content: The Second Assessment Report ( SAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 1996 , is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change . It was superseded by the Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "IPCC_Second_Assessment_Report", "rank": 36, "score": 151387 }, { "content": "Title: Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment Content: The Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment ( INCCA ) is a proposed network of scientists in India to be set up to publish peer-reviewed findings on climate change in India . It was announced on 7 October 2009 , saying : It was re-announced on 25 January 2012 by an official of the climate change division in the Environment Ministry after a strategy meeting chaired by Joint Secretary ( Climate ) J.M. Mausker , which also dealt with the framing of India 's National Action Plan on Climate Change ( NAPCC ) . On 4 February 2010 India 's environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced that it would bring together 250 scientists from 125 Indian research institutions and collaborate with international organisations.its first assessment of greenhouse gas emission was released on May 11 , 2010 and Its second climate assessment to be published in November 2010 would include reports on the Himalayas , the coastline of India , the Western Ghat highlands and the north-eastern region of India . He said it would operate as a `` sort of Indian IPCC '' , but will not rival the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Ramesh also announced the initiation of an Indian National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology . He said that although he respected the IPCC , it was unequal to the task and its weakness was that it did not conduct its own research . Ramesh also indicated its biases made it insensitive to regional realities , and instead relied on compiling assessments of other reports , which , led to `` goof-ups '' on the Amazon forests , Himalayan glaciers , and ice caps .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Indian_Network_on_Climate_Change_Assessment", "rank": 37, "score": 150667 }, { "content": "Title: Representative Concentration Pathways Content: Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs ) are four greenhouse gas concentration ( not emissions ) trajectories adopted by the IPCC for its fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) in 2014 . It supersedes Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( SRES ) projections published in 2000 . The pathways are used for climate modeling and research . They describe four possible climate futures , all of which are considered possible depending on how much greenhouse gases are emitted in the years to come . The four RCPs , RCP2 .6 , RCP4 .5 , RCP6 , and RCP8 .5 , are named after a possible range of radiative forcing values in the year 2100 relative to pre-industrial values ( +2.6 , +4.5 , +6.0 , and +8.5 W/m2 , respectively ) .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Representative_Concentration_Pathways", "rank": 38, "score": 150601 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation Content: The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) published a special report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation ( SRREN ) on May 9 , 2011 . The report developed under the leadership of Ottmar Edenhofer evaluates the global potential for using renewable energy to mitigate climate change . This IPCC special report provides broader coverage of renewable energy than was included in the IPCC 's 2007 climate change assessment report , as well as stronger renewable energy policy coverage . Renewable energy can contribute to `` social and economic development , energy access , secure energy supply , climate change mitigation , and the reduction of negative environmental and health impacts '' . Under favourable circumstances , cost savings in comparison to non-renewable energy use exist .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Sources_and_Climate_Change_Mitigation", "rank": 39, "score": 149241 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 40, "score": 149181 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 41, "score": 148877 }, { "content": "Title: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions Content: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ( INDCs ) is a term used under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that all countries that signed the UNFCCC were asked to publish in the lead up to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris , France in December 2015 . These intended contributions were determined without prejudice to the legal nature of the contributions . The term was intended as a compromise between `` quantified emissions limitation and reduction objective '' ( QUELROs ) and `` nationally appropriate mitigation actions '' ( NAMAs ) that the Kyoto Protocol used to describe the different legal obligations of developed and developing countries . Under the Paris Agreement , adopted in December 2015 , the INDC will become the first Nationally Determined Contribution when a country ratifies the agreement , unless they decide to submit a new NDC at the same time . Once the Paris Agreement is ratified , the NDC will become the first greenhouse gas targets under the UNFCCC that applied equally to both developed and developing countries . On 3 August 2016 China and US ratified 2015 agreement on INDC . Together they both constitute 38 % of total global emission , with China 's alone emitting total of 20 % . India that has a Global share of GHGs emission at 4.1 % of that of world ratified Paris climate agreement on October 2 , 2016 by depositing the Instrument of ratification with the United nations .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Intended_Nationally_Determined_Contributions", "rank": 42, "score": 145291 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 43, "score": 145143 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 44, "score": 142341 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport Content: The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport", "rank": 45, "score": 141829 }, { "content": "Title: Global Scenario Group Content: The Global Scenario Group ( GSG ) was an international , interdisciplinary body convened in 1995 by the Tellus Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute to develop scenarios for world development in the twenty-first century . The GSG 's underlying scenario development work was rooted in the long-range integrated scenario analysis that Tellus Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute had undertaken through the PoleStar Project . Initially conceived in 1991 as a tool for integrated sustainability planning and long-range scenario analysis , PoleStar was inspired by the 1987 Brundtland Commission report Our Common Future , which first put the concept of `` sustainable development '' on the international agenda . The work of the Global Scenario Group was widely adopted in high-level intergovernmental settings . The scenarios informed numerous international assessments , including the World Water Council 's World Water Vision report in 1999 -- 2000 , the OECD Environmental Outlook in 2001 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's greenhouse gas emission mitigation assessment in 2001 , the United Nations Environment Programme 's Third GEO Report in 2002 , and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 . Several of the GSG participants who actively participated in the IPCC assessments have been recognized for contributing to the 2007 award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_Scenario_Group", "rank": 46, "score": 141722 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 47, "score": 140706 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 48, "score": 140348 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 49, "score": 139871 }, { "content": "Title: List of environmental reports Content: This is a list of notable environmental reports . In this context they relate to the impacts of human activity on the environment . City-level Decoupling : Urban Resource Flows and the Governance of Infrastructure Transitions - by the International Resource Panel Clean Energy Trends - a series of reports by Clean Edge - beginning in 2002 Copeland Report - for the U.S. government , completed in 1933 Copenhagen Diagnosis - written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries Dioxin Reassessment Report - by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Impact of the Big Cypress Swamp Jetport ( `` Leopold Report '' ) - United States Department of the Interior ( 1969 ) Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles - by the International Resource Panel Forest Principles - United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) The Global 2000 Report to the President - Council on Environmental Quality ( 1981 ) Global Environment Outlook - United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) Hirsch report ( Peaking of World Oil Production : Impacts , Mitigation , and Risk Management ) - United States Department of Energy Index of Leading Environmental Indicators - Pacific Research Institute IPCC First Assessment Report - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) IPCC supplementary report , 1992 - IPCC IPCC Second Assessment Report - IPCC IPCC Third Assessment Report Climate Change 2001 - IPCC ( 2001 ) IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 - IPCC ( 2007 ) IPCC Fifth Assessment Report ( 2014 ) Leopold Report ( `` Wildlife Management in the National Parks '' ) - Special Advisory Board on Wildlife Management ( 1963 ) Livestock 's Long Shadow - Environmental Issues and Options - United Nations ( 2006 ) Living Planet Report - WWF , every two years Making Sweden an Oil-Free Society - Government of Sweden ( 2006 ) Meat Atlas - published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Friends of the Earth Europe Nuclear Power and the Environment - UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution - 1976 Our Common Future - World Commission on Environment and Development ( 1987 ) Outlook On Renewable Energy In America ( 2 volumes ) - American Council on Renewable Energy - 2007 Phase I Environmental Site Assessment - generic Planning Policy Statement 10 : Planning for Sustainable Waste Management ( PPS 10 ) - British Government Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation - United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) - planned for 2010 Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification - Royal Commission on Genetic Modification ( 2001 ) State of the Climate - NOAA/NCDC ( published annually ) The State of the World - Worldwatch Institute ( published yearly since 1984 ) Wegman Report - to validate criticisms of reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years Windscale : Britain 's Biggest Nuclear Disaster ( 2007 ) World Climate Report - Greening Earth Society The World 's 25 Most Endangered Primates - selected and published by the IUCN Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group ( IUCN/SSC PSG ) , the International Primatological Society ( IPS ) , and Conservation International ( CI )", "qid": "243", "docid": "List_of_environmental_reports", "rank": 50, "score": 139584 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 51, "score": 139189 }, { "content": "Title: Stephen Schneider Content: Stephen Henry Schneider ( February 11 , 1945 -- July 19 , 2010 ) was Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change at Stanford University , a Co-Director at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a Senior Fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment . Schneider served as a consultant to federal agencies and White House staff in the Richard Nixon , Jimmy Carter , Ronald Reagan , George H. W. Bush , Bill Clinton , George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations . Schneider 's research included modeling of the atmosphere , climate change , and the effect of global climate change on biological systems . Schneider was the founder and editor of the journal Climatic Change and authored or co-authored over 450 scientific papers and other publications . He was a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group II Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Assessment Report and was engaged as a co-anchor of the Key Vulnerabilities Cross-Cutting Theme for the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) at the time of his death . During the 1980s , Schneider emerged as a leading public advocate of sharp reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming . In 2006 Professor Schneider was an Adelaide Thinker in Residence advising the South Australian Government of Premier Mike Rann on climate change and renewable energy policies . In ten years South Australia went from zero to 31 % of its electricity generation coming from renewables . An annual award for outstanding climate science communication was created in Schneider 's honor after his death , by the Commonwealth Club of California .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Stephen_Schneider", "rank": 52, "score": 138846 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 53, "score": 137978 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "243", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 54, "score": 137836 }, { "content": "Title: United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy Content: The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "qid": "243", "docid": "United_States_House_Science_Subcommittee_on_Energy", "rank": 55, "score": 137574 }, { "content": "Title: Roger Pulwarty Content: Roger S. Pulwarty is a scientist from Trinidad and Tobago and contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He is the director of the US National Integrated Drought Information System at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) in Boulder , Colorado . Roger Pulwarty earned a B.S. degree ( Hons . ) in Atmospheric Sciences from York University in Toronto in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Climatology from the University of Boulder at Colorado in 1994 , where he worked under Professors Roger Barry and Herbert Riehl . His research and publications are on climate , climate impacts and adaptation policy in Western North America , Latin America and the Caribbean . From 1998-2002 he was the program director for the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments . He is Professor Adjunct at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of the West Indies . Dr. Pulwarty is a lead author on Chapter 17 of the 2007 IPCC Working Group II on Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability , on the IPCC 2008 Technical Report on Climate Change and Water and on Synthesis and Assessments Reports of the US Global Change Research Program . The IPCC is an intergovernmental body mandated by the UN to study the origins and effects of climate change on society and ecosystems . Dr. Pulwarty has served on Committees of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , and has provided testimonies before the U.S. Congress on climate , water resources and adaptation . Dr. Pulwarty acts in advisory roles on climate , natural resources , and disaster management to several U.S. and international interests including the Western Governors Association , the Department of the Interior , the governments of CARICOM ( the Caribbean Economic Community ) , the Organization of American States , the UNDP , UNEP and the World Bank .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Roger_Pulwarty", "rank": 56, "score": 137177 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 57, "score": 136978 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 58, "score": 136470 }, { "content": "Title: Mootral Content: Mootral is the name given to a programme to reduce methane emissions from ruminant animals , chiefly cows and sheep , but also goats . Methane is a major target greenhouse gas and in the 4th protocol report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is recommended to increase from a x23 to x72 multiplier because of the magnitude of its effect relative to carbon dioxide and short longevity in Earth 's atmosphere .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Mootral", "rank": 59, "score": 136053 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 60, "score": 135991 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emissions reporting Content: Human activities continue to impact Earth 's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases . One of the proposed ways to combat this climate change is through reporting by businesses on the impact of their activities . Large power stations and manufacturing plants are often required to report their emissions to appropriate government entities , for example to the European Union as part of the Emissions Trading System or to the US EPA as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program . In the United Kingdom , Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) has described climate change as the `` greatest environmental challenge facing the world today , '' and it is now a legal requirement for all quoted companies to report their annual greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Carbon_emissions_reporting", "rank": 61, "score": 135605 }, { "content": "Title: List of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC or FCCC ) is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) , informally known as the Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . The objective of the treaty is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The treaty itself set no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . In that sense , the treaty is considered legally non-binding . Instead , the treaty provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' ) that may set binding limits on greenhouse gases . The UNFCCC was opened for signature on 9 May 1992 , after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . It entered into force on 21 March 1994 . As of December 2015 , UNFCCC has 197 parties .", "qid": "243", "docid": "List_of_parties_to_the_United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 62, "score": 135175 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 63, "score": 134922 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) is an international environmental treaty adopted on May 9 , 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . It then entered into force on 21 March 1994 , after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it . The UNFCCC objective is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . Instead , the framework outlines how specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' or `` Agreements '' ) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC . Initially an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( INC ) produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 , and opened for signature on 4 June 1992 . The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015 . The convention enjoys broad legitimacy , largely due to its nearly universal membership . The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties ( COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change . In 1997 , the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 . The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013-2020 in the Doha Amendment , which - as of December 2015 - had not entered into force . In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted , governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions . The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th , 2016 . One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and removals , which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions . Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries . The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention , with offices in Haus Carstanjen , and the UN Campus ( known as Langer Eugen ) Bonn , Germany . From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres . In July 2016 , Patricia Espinosa from Mexico succeeded Figueres . The Secretariat , augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies .", "qid": "243", "docid": "United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 64, "score": 134636 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris , France , from 30 November to 12 December 2015 . It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP ) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties ( CMP ) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change , the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it . The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions . On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) , 174 countries signed the agreement in New York , and began adopting it within their own legal systems ( through ratification , acceptance , approval , or accession ) . According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks , the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius ( ° C ) compared to pre-industrial levels . The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century . In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement , the parties will also `` pursue efforts to '' limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C . The 1.5 ° C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050 , according to some scientists . Prior to the conference , 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions ( called `` Intended Nationally Determined Contributions '' , INDCs ) . These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 . For example , the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 . The agreement establishes a `` global stocktake '' which revisits the national goals to `` update and enhance '' them every five years beginning 2023 . However , no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement -- as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol . A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21 , including the Bonn Climate Change Conference , 19 to 23 October 2015 , which produced a draft agreement .", "qid": "243", "docid": "2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 65, "score": 134292 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 66, "score": 134238 }, { "content": "Title: American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment Content: The American College & University Presidents ' Climate Commitment ( ACUPCC ) is a `` high-visibility effort '' to address global warming ( global climate disruption ) by creating a network of colleges and universities that have committed to neutralize their greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth 's climate . Second Nature is the main supporting organization of the ACUPCC .", "qid": "243", "docid": "American_College_&_University_Presidents'_Climate_Commitment", "rank": 67, "score": 134158 }, { "content": "Title: Long-term effects of global warming Content: See also Effects of global warming . The focus of this article is on the effects beyond 2100 . There are expected to be various long-term effects of global warming . Most discussion and research , including that by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports , concentrates on the effects of global warming up to 2100 , with only an outline of the effects beyond this .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Long-term_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 68, "score": 132902 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Performance Index Content: The Climate Change Performance Index ( CCPI ) is an annual publication by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe . It evaluates the climate protection performance of 58 countries , responsible for over 90 % of global energy-related emissions . CCPI 2013 publication covers emissions from the fossil fuels , except emissions from the shipping industry . Following CCPI 2013 publication may include emissions from deforestation , agriculture and waste . 50 % of the evaluation is based on emissions trend , 30 % on emissions level and 20 % on national and international climate policy assessments made by more than 200 experts . The most recent results ( published December 2014 ) illustrate that efforts are still insufficient to prevent dangerous climate change . Thus , no country received rankings one to three in the results for 2015 although Denmark which topped the list was praised for its efforts .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_Change_Performance_Index", "rank": 69, "score": 132866 }, { "content": "Title: Kevin E. Trenberth Content: Kevin Edward Trenberth ( born November 8 , 1944 ) is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the US NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research . He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change ( see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability ( CLIVAR ) program . He chaired the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel from 2004 to 2010 and chaired the Global Energy and Water Exchanges ( GEWEX ) scientific steering group from 2010-2013 ( member 2007-14 ) . In addition , he served on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme , and has made significant contributions to research into El Niño-Southern Oscillation . Kevin 's work is highly cited and he has an h-index of 100 ( 100 papers have over 100 citations ) .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Kevin_E._Trenberth", "rank": 70, "score": 132802 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas inventory Content: Greenhouse gas inventories are a type of emission inventory that are developed for a variety of reasons . Scientists use inventories of natural and anthropogenic ( human-caused ) emissions as tools when developing atmospheric models . Policy makers use inventories to develop strategies and policies for emissions reductions and to track the progress of those policies . And , regulatory agencies and corporations rely on inventories to establish compliance records with allowable emission rates . Businesses , the public , and other interest groups use inventories to better understand the sources and trends in emissions . Unlike some other air emission inventories , greenhouse gas inventories include not only emissions from source categories , but also removals by carbon sinks . These removals are typically referred to as carbon sequestration . Greenhouse gas inventories , typically use Global warming potential ( GWP ) values to combine emissions of various greenhouse gases into a single weighted value of emissions . Some of the key examples of greenhouse gas inventories include : All Annex I countries are required to report annual emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) National governments that are Parties to the UNFCCC and/or the Kyoto Protocol are required to submit annual inventories of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals from sinks . The Kyoto Protocol includes additional requirements for national inventory systems , inventory reporting , and annual inventory review for determining compliance with Articles 5 and 8 of the Protocol . Project developers under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol prepare inventories as part of their project baselines . Corporation and other entities can prepare greenhouse gas inventories to track progress towards meeting an emission reduction goal . Scientific efforts aimed at understanding detail of total net carbon exchange . Example : Project Vulcan - a comprehensive US inventory of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_inventory", "rank": 71, "score": 132517 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 72, "score": 132494 }, { "content": "Title: Territorialisation of carbon governance Content: Territorialisation of Carbon Governance ( ToCG ) is a concept used in political geography or environmental policy which is considered to be a new logic of environmental governance . This method creates carbon-relevant citizens who become enrolled in the process of governing the climate . The territorialisation of carbon governance transforms climate change from a global to local issue . It embodies political practices that serve to connect the causes and consequences of global climate change to local communities . The commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions ( GHG ) has been a key component of sustainability within governance since the early 1990s . The ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments which brings together 1200 cities , towns and the associated 70 countries in their commitment to sustainable development . Further responses that seek to address these issues , include international body the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , the Rio Earth Summit and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . These organisations strive to tackle anthropogenic forces which are increasing risks of global warming . Under the territorialisation of carbon , climate and global flows of carbon are regarded as ` national sinks ' . This is a means by which the carbon cycle can be managed and territorialised through being assigned to a physical geographical space instead of being thought of as a global phenomenon . The act of territorialisation oversees the combining of material natures and state institutions into one system through the creation of carbon territories . This approach can allow individual states and governments to control and monitor their carbon emissions in order to improve their efforts in carbon governance . Carbon governance can be interpreted as the institutional arrangements under which greenhouse gas emissions are addressed and mitigated . This is achieved through regulating and controlling carbon activities . Measures and protocols exist in an attempt to address the issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions . Carbon governance is addressed via governmental decisions made through leadership and management which attempt to improve and resolve problems related to climate change .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Territorialisation_of_carbon_governance", "rank": 73, "score": 131776 }, { "content": "Title: List of authors of Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Content: This is a list of the 620 authors contributing to Climate Change 2007 : The Physical Science Basis , which was the 996 page contribution of Working Group I to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . Their report describes the causes and climate consequences of global warming . This list is limited to people acknowledged as authors or editors on the report . The additional several hundred reviewers acknowledged in Annex III of the report are not included on this list . Author affiliations and nationalities are summarized from the list in Annex II of the report . Each author may have contributed to one or more sections and had one or more roles during the writing process . In the table below abbreviations are used to denote the roles and sections :", "qid": "243", "docid": "List_of_authors_of_Climate_Change_2007:_The_Physical_Science_Basis", "rank": 74, "score": 131589 }, { "content": "Title: C. Vernon Cole Content: Dr. C. Vernon Cole ( 1922 -- August 30 , 2013 ) was a soil scientist known primarily for his work on nutrient cycling in agroecosystems . He was a member of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Second Assessment report , and the lead author of Chapter 23 `` Agricultural Options for Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions '' . The IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "C._Vernon_Cole", "rank": 75, "score": 131345 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 76, "score": 130459 }, { "content": "Title: Wildland fire emission Content: Wildland fire and wildland fire atmospheric emissions have been a part of the global biosphere for millennia . The major wildland fire emissions include greenhouse gasses and several criteria pollutants that impact human health and welfare. : Compared to the preindustrial era , wildland land fire in the conterminous U.S. has been reduced 90 percent with proportional reductions in wildland fire emissions . Land use changes ( agriculture and urbanization ) are responsible for roughly 50 percent of this decrease , and land management decisions ( land fragmentation , suppression actions , etc. ) are responsible for the remainder . Anthropogenic activities ( e.g. , industrial production , transportation , agriculture , etc. ) today have more than replaced the lost preindustrial wildland fire atmospheric emissions . The following charts compare preindustrial wildland fire emissions with contemporary emissions .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Wildland_fire_emission", "rank": 77, "score": 130301 }, { "content": "Title: Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists Content: The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "qid": "243", "docid": "Bali_Declaration_by_Climate_Scientists", "rank": 78, "score": 130202 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 79, "score": 130126 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 80, "score": 129849 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place from October 23 to November 1 , 2002 , in New Delhi , India . The conference included the 8th Conference of the Parties ( COP8 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The conference adopted the Delhi Ministerial Declaration that , amongst others , called for efforts by developed countries to transfer technology and minimize the impact of climate change on developing countries . It is also approved the New Delhi work programme on Article 6 of the Convention . The COP8 was marked by Russia 's hesitation , stating that it needed more time to think it over . The Kyoto Protocol could enter into force once it was ratified by 55 countries , including countries responsible for 55 per cent of the developed world 's 1990 carbon dioxide emissions . With the United States ( 36.1 per cent share of developed-world carbon dioxide ) and Australia refusing ratification , Russia 's agreement ( 17 % of global emissions in 1990 ) was required to meet the ratification criteria and therefore Russia could delay the process .", "qid": "243", "docid": "2002_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 81, "score": 129400 }, { "content": "Title: Post–Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions Content: Post-Kyoto negotiations refers to high level talks attempting to address global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions . Generally part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , these talks concern the period after the first `` commitment period '' of the Kyoto Protocol , which expired at the end of 2012 . Negotiations have been mandated by the adoption of the Bali Road Map and Decision 1/CP .13 ( `` The Bali Action Plan '' ) . UNFCCC negotiations are conducted within two subsidiary bodies , the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention ( AWG-LCA ) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol ( AWG-KP ) and were expected to culminate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in December 2009 in Copenhagen ( COP-15 ) ; negotiations are supported by a number of external processes , including the G8 process , a number of regional meetings and the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate that was launched by US President Barack Obama in March 2009 . High level talks were held at the meeting of the G8 +5 Climate Change Dialogue in February 2007 and at a number of subsequent G8 meetings , most recently leading to the adoption of the G8 leaders declaration `` Responsible Leadership for a Sustainable Future '' during the G8 summit in L ´ Aquila , Italy , in July 2009 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Post–Kyoto_Protocol_negotiations_on_greenhouse_gas_emissions", "rank": 82, "score": 129170 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 83, "score": 128563 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway greenhouse effect Content: A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Runaway_greenhouse_effect", "rank": 84, "score": 128362 }, { "content": "Title: HadGEM1 Content: HadGEM1 ( abbreviation for Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model , version 1 ) is a coupled climate model developed at the Met Office 's Hadley Centre in 2006 and used in IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on climate change . It represents a significant scientific advance on its predecessor , HadCM3 . HadGEM1 also provides a basis for further development of models , particularly involving enhanced resolution and full Earth System modelling . The current version is HadGEM3 .", "qid": "243", "docid": "HadGEM1", "rank": 85, "score": 128322 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 86, "score": 128150 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 87, "score": 128096 }, { "content": "Title: Yuri Izrael Content: Yuri Antonovich Izrael ( Юрий Антониевич Израэль 15 May 1930 , Tashkent -- 23 January 2014 , Moscow ) was a vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) until September 2008 , when the new bureau was elected . He was the `` most influential scientific adviser '' for Vladimir Putin , the former president of Russia , according to CNN . Izrael was former chairman of the Committee for Hydrometeorology . He also served as director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology , which is a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences . He was a first vice-president of the World Meteorological Organization and helped develop the World Weather Watch . In 1992 , Izrael won the International Meteorological Organization Prize and the UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize for , among other accomplishments , contributing to the `` success of Working Group I I '' of the IPCC .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Yuri_Izrael", "rank": 88, "score": 128047 }, { "content": "Title: Human Rights and Climate Change Content: Human Rights and Climate Change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied , analyzed , and addressed . The framework has been employed by governments , United Nations organs , intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations , human rights and environmental advocates , and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the core international human rights instruments . Human rights and climate change analysis focuses on the anticipated consequences to humans associated with global environmental phenomena including sea level rise , desertification , temperature increases , extreme weather events , and changes in precipitation , as well as adaptation and mitigation measures taken by governments in response to those phenomena that may involve human rights or related legal protections .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Human_Rights_and_Climate_Change", "rank": 89, "score": 127984 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "243", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 90, "score": 127923 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 91, "score": 127874 }, { "content": "Title: European Union Emission Trading Scheme Content: The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions . Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention . The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 . The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase . Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation . Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .", "qid": "243", "docid": "European_Union_Emission_Trading_Scheme", "rank": 92, "score": 127757 }, { "content": "Title: Paris Agreement Content: The Paris Agreement ( Accord de Paris ) is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation , adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020 . The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015 . It was opened for signature on 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) at a ceremony in New York . As of May 2017 , 195 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty , 147 of which have ratified it . After several European Union states ratified the agreement in October 2016 , there were enough countries that had ratified the agreement that produce enough of the world 's greenhouse gases for the agreement to enter into force . The agreement went into effect on 4 November 2016 . The head of the Paris Conference , France 's foreign minister Laurent Fabius , said this `` ambitious and balanced '' plan is a `` historic turning point '' in the goal of reducing global warming . One year on , the ratification of the Paris Agreement was celebrated by the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo by illuminating the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe , Paris ' most iconic monuments , in green .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Paris_Agreement", "rank": 93, "score": 127404 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change adaptation Content: Climate change adaptation is a response to global warming and climate change , that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to relatively sudden change and thus offset the effects of global warming . Even if emissions are stabilized relatively soon , global warming and its effects will last many years , and adaptation will be necessary to the resulting changes in climate . Adaptation is especially important in developing countries since those countries are predicted to bear the brunt of the effects of global warming . That is , the capacity and potential for humans to adapt ( called adaptive capacity ) is unevenly distributed across different regions and populations , and developing countries generally have less capacity to adapt ( Schneider et al. , 2007 ) . Furthermore , the degree of adaptation correlates to the situational focus on environmental issues . Therefore , adaptation requires the situational assessment of sensitivity and vulnerability to environmental impacts . Adaptive capacity is closely linked to social and economic development ( IPCC , 2007 ) . The economic costs of adaptation to climate change are likely to cost billions of dollars annually for the next several decades , though the amount of money needed is unknown . Donor countries promised an annual $ 100 billion by 2020 through the Green Climate Fund for developing countries to adapt to climate change . However , while the fund was set up during COP16 in Cancún , concrete pledges by developed countries have not been forthcoming . The adaptation challenge grows with the magnitude and the rate of climate change . Another response to climate change , known as climate change mitigation ( Verbruggen , 2007 ) is to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and/or enhance the removal of these gases from the atmosphere ( through carbon sinks ) . Even the most effective reductions in emissions , however , would not prevent further climate change impacts , making the need for adaptation unavoidable ( Klein et al. , 2007 ) . In a literature assessment , Klein et al. ( 2007 ) assessed options for adaptation . They concluded , with very high confidence , that in the absence of mitigation efforts , the effects of climate change would reach such a magnitude as to make adaptation impossible for some natural ecosystems . Others are concerned that climate adaptation programs might interfere with the existing development programs and thus lead to unintended consequences for vulnerable groups . For human systems , the economic and social costs of unmitigated climate change would be very high .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Climate_change_adaptation", "rank": 94, "score": 127385 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 95, "score": 126699 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions accounting Content: Greenhouse gas emissions accounting is a method of calculating the amount of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) emitted by a region in a given time-scale . A National Emissions Inventory ( NEI ) measuring a country 's GHG emissions in a year is required by the UNFCCC to provide a benchmark for the country 's emission reductions , and subsequently to evaluate international climate policies such as the Kyoto protocol ( although the original has now expired , extensions have been agreed ) as well as regional climate policies such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme ( ETS ) . There are two conflicting ways of measuring GHG emissions : production-based ( sometimes referred to as territorial-based ) or consumption-based . Production-based emissions take place `` within national territory and offshore areas over which the country has jurisdiction '' . Consumption-based emissions encompass those emissions from domestic final consumption and those caused by the production of its imports . This means the importing country takes responsibility for emissions related to production of the exporting country 's exports . By these definitions production-based emissions include exports but exclude imports and emissions embodied in international trade , whereas consumption-based emissions refer to the reverse ( Table 1 ) . Which technique is applied by policymakers is fundamental as each can generate a very different NEI . Different NEIs would result in a country 's choosing different optimal mitigation activities , the wrong choice based on wrong information being potentially damaging . The application of production-based emissions accounting is currently favoured in policy terms , although much of the literature favours consumption-based accounting . The former method is criticised in the literature principally for its inability to allocate emissions embodied in international trade/transportation and the potential for carbon leakage .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_accounting", "rank": 96, "score": 126599 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 97, "score": 126032 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 98, "score": 125937 }, { "content": "Title: Pedro Moura Costa Content: Pedro Moura Costa ( born 1963 , Brazil ) is an entrepreneur involved in environmental finance with a focus on the international efforts for greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emission reductions . Of particular relevance , he was the founder and President of EcoSecurities Group Plc. , one of the leading project developers for the international carbon markets , and has written widely about the policy and science of climate change mitigation , including contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Pedro_Moura_Costa", "rank": 99, "score": 125928 }, { "content": "Title: Arturo Villavicencio Content: Arturo Villavicencio is an Ecuadorian environmental researcher . He was nominated by Denmark in 1995 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and contributed to its fourth assessment report ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) .", "qid": "243", "docid": "Arturo_Villavicencio", "rank": 100, "score": 125897 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: The Rise (band) Content: The Rise was a five piece band from Austin , Texas , Their sound is a combination of metalcore , hardcore techno , post-hardcore and metal . The band is currently signed to ReIgnition Recordings and their latest album , Reclamation Process , was released on as a free album for subscribers of Law Of Inertia , the rock mag product of Cory Killduff . on May 31 , 2005 . They toured constantly in 2001-2004 , and from their inclusion on the Hellfest 2002 compilation DVD .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rise_(band)", "rank": 1, "score": 99668 }, { "content": "Title: The Rising Content: The Rising may refer to :", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rising", "rank": 2, "score": 96191 }, { "content": "Title: Rise Content: Rise or RISE may refer to :", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise", "rank": 3, "score": 94147 }, { "content": "Title: Simplicity (The Bouncing Souls album) Content: Simplicity is the tenth album from The Bouncing Souls and was released on July 29 , 2016 on Rise Records in conjunction with Chunksaah Records , the band 's own label . The album is also their first with drummer George Rebelo , who joined the band in 2013 , replacing Michael McDermott .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Simplicity_(The_Bouncing_Souls_album)", "rank": 4, "score": 93913 }, { "content": "Title: See the Rise Content: See the Rise is an American Christian hardcore and Christian rock band , and they primarily play hardcore punk , post-hardcore and alternative rock . They come from Minneapolis , Minnesota . The band started making music in 2011 , and their lead vocalist is Josh Meyers . They have released one studio album , Exposures , in 2015 , with Voluminous Records . The band announced their final show for December 3 , 2016 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "See_the_Rise", "rank": 5, "score": 92381 }, { "content": "Title: Earth Rising Content: Earth Rising is an indie band from Las Vegas . `` Coming Home '' , from Earth Rising 's debut EP made it to KOMP 92.3 's Homegrown Show in 2012 . `` By Your Side '' , from their 2nd EP `` Constant Movement '' , debuted on X-Effect Local Effect on X107 .5 Las Vegas in February 2013 . They were chosen by Sam Ash Las Vegas as their official entry at the Indie Music Fest 2012 and received # 3 Best Overall Artist . Past shows include 91.5 KUNV 's Lyons Den Stage , the Neon Reverb Music Festival , Hard Rock Live Las Vegas , and the Gibson Artist Showcase . Their single `` Better Apart '' was released on December 21 , 2014 and they have released several songs in 2015 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Earth_Rising", "rank": 6, "score": 91823 }, { "content": "Title: The Rise Content: The Rise may refer to : The Rise ( band ) , a five-piece American rock band The Rise ( Carl Riseley album ) , 2008 The Rise ( DJ Sammy album ) , 2005 The Rise ( film ) , a 2012 British crime film", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rise", "rank": 7, "score": 90831 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (The Answer album) Content: Rise is the debut album by Northern Ireland rock band The Answer . It has sold in excess of 30,000 copies in the UK & Europe and 10,000 on day one in Japan . The album was recorded at Olympic Studio 1 , Monnow Valley in Wales and the Albert Studio in London during the fall of 2005 . Produced by Andy Bradfield and Avril MacKintosh , the Albert Productions team ( with back room production from the legendary George Young ) and Neal Calderwood from the Bands hometown . Tracks released from the album were Never Too Late , Into The Gutter , Under The Sky , Come Follow Me and Be What You Want . Their website initially stated that the Rise album should have been released in the United States by December 2010 . However , since signing with Napalm Records , they have announced that Re-Releases of The Answer 's back catalogue will be released in the United States and other key territories in the near future . It was eventually released in the US in late 2013 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(The_Answer_album)", "rank": 8, "score": 89861 }, { "content": "Title: Riser Content: Riser may refer to :", "qid": "244", "docid": "Riser", "rank": 9, "score": 89570 }, { "content": "Title: It Came from Outer Space! Content: It Came from Outer Space ! is the first full-length album released by the Christian rock band Dweeb . Dweeb were an indie band from Coventry , UK , from 2002 -- 2011 . It Came from Outer Space ! was released in 2007 by Risen Records ; the label 's ninth CD release . The band was made up of Tim Alford , Matt Donald , ` The Badgerman ' and Dave Ashworth .", "qid": "244", "docid": "It_Came_from_Outer_Space!", "rank": 10, "score": 89057 }, { "content": "Title: Rise Up Content: Rise Up may refer to :", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_Up", "rank": 11, "score": 88435 }, { "content": "Title: Comet (The Bouncing Souls album) Content: Comet is the ninth album from The Bouncing Souls . It was released on June 12 , 2012 by Rise Records in conjunction with Chunksaah Records , the band 's own label . It was produced by Bill Stevenson and recorded at The Blasting Room . It debuted at number 110 on the Billboard 200 chart .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Comet_(The_Bouncing_Souls_album)", "rank": 12, "score": 86688 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (non-governmental organization) Content: Rise , Inc. is an American non-governmental civil rights organization working with multiple state legislatures and the U.S. Congress to implement a sexual assault survivors ' bill of rights . Its founder and president is Amanda Nguyen . In October 2016 , the Sexual Assault Survivors ' Rights Act was enacted in the United States .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(non-governmental_organization)", "rank": 13, "score": 86530 }, { "content": "Title: Rise, East Riding of Yorkshire Content: Rise is a village and civil parish in Holderness , the East Riding of Yorkshire , England . It is situated approximately 7 mi east of the town of Beverley and 5 mi south-west of Hornsea . It lies to the east of the B1243 road . The place-name ` Rise ' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086 , where it appears as `` Risun '' . This is the plural of the Old English word ` hris ' , meaning ` brushwood ' . According to the 2011 UK census , Rise parish had a population of 105 , a reduction on the 2001 UK census figure of 119 . Rise was served from 1864 to 1964 by Whitedale railway station on the Hull and Hornsea Railway , until the line was closed following the Beeching Report .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise,_East_Riding_of_Yorkshire", "rank": 14, "score": 86260 }, { "content": "Title: Signal to Noise (The Rise album) Content: Signal to Noise is the first full-length album by The Rise . Released in stores on April 2 , 2002 , the album combined electronic beats with post-hardcore music , much like Refused did with their 1998 album , the prophetically titled , The Shape of Punk to Come . It was re-released in 2005 on ReIgnition Recordings .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Signal_to_Noise_(The_Rise_album)", "rank": 15, "score": 83231 }, { "content": "Title: RISE (sculpture) Content: RISE is a concept # 400,000 public art spherical metal sculpture in Belfast by Wolfgang Buttress . It is 37.5 m high and 30 m wide and was constructed in early 2011 in the centre of the Broadway roundabout , at the junction of the Westlink and M1 motorway , a main gateway to the city where ( as of 2009 ) more than 80,000 cars on average flow past it each day . It is informally known as The Balls on the Falls as this junction also gives access to the Falls Road area via Broadway . RISE is visible for miles around the city . The area is part of a multimillion-pound road improvement programme . It is the biggest public art sculpture in Belfast . Work on RISE was due to begin in August 2009 and end in October 2009 , however due to delays the completion date was changed to March 2011 . It was finally completed in September 2011 , nearly two years behind the original schedule . When completed it became Belfast 's largest public artwork .", "qid": "244", "docid": "RISE_(sculpture)", "rank": 16, "score": 82951 }, { "content": "Title: The Rise (film) Content: The Rise ( titled Wasteland in North America ) is a 2012 British crime film starring Luke Treadaway and Timothy Spall with a revenge theme . About his part as Dodd , Matthew Lewis , in his interview by the Yorkshire Evening Post said ; `` The character of Dodd was really fun for me to play . He is the biggest of all of his mates and very loyal . He 's on the front line but is n't the sharpest knife in the drawer . ''", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rise_(film)", "rank": 17, "score": 82625 }, { "content": "Title: RISE (professional wrestling) Content: RISE ( Real International Super Elite ) was a professional wrestling stable that competed in New Japan Pro Wrestling ( NJPW ) that was active from 2007 until 2010 . The group was founded and led by Shinsuke Nakamura . The group was the successor to the group `` BLACK '' which featured Nakamura as a co-leader with Masahiro Chono . At one point or another Hirooki Goto , Giant Bernard , Prince Devitt , Minoru , Travis Tomko , Milano Collection AT , Rick Fuller and Low Ki were members of the group . Members of RISE held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship , IWGP Tag Team Championship , IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship as well as winning the 2007 G1 Tag League . In 2009 several members left the group to join Great Bash Heel ( GBH ) and by early 2010 RISE was ended .", "qid": "244", "docid": "RISE_(professional_wrestling)", "rank": 18, "score": 81728 }, { "content": "Title: The Rise (DJ Sammy album) Content: The Rise is the third studio album by Spanish DJ and producer DJ Sammy . The Rise is a trance album with chill out influences .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rise_(DJ_Sammy_album)", "rank": 19, "score": 81696 }, { "content": "Title: The Rise (Carl Riseley album) Content: The Rise is a 2008 album by Australian singer Carl Riseley . It was released on 26 April , and produced by John Foreman , the music director of Australian Idol , after Carl Riseley came third in the 2007 series of the show . The record features a guest appearance by James Morrison , who arranged `` Waltzing Matilda '' . The album debut peaked at # 3 on the ARIA Australian Top 20 Albums Chart in its second week of release .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rise_(Carl_Riseley_album)", "rank": 20, "score": 81423 }, { "content": "Title: I Rise Content: I Rise is an American hardcore punk band from Worcester , Massachusetts . They released a full-length album , and an EP , and a split EP on 1917 Records , and Eightfold Path Records , and toured extensively throughout the US , and Canada , as well as Europe . The current band members include Vocalist Nicky Kantarelis , Guitarist Alex Kantarelis , Bassist Chris Berg , and Drummer Ben Basset .", "qid": "244", "docid": "I_Rise", "rank": 21, "score": 81394 }, { "content": "Title: Pandey (disambiguation) Content: Pandey is a North Indian surname , and may refer to : Chunky Pandey , film actor Gyanendra Pandey , cricketer Kamla Kant Pandey , botanist Mangal Pandey , soldier and protagonist in the Indian rebellion of 1857 Piyush Pandey - Film & Advertising Guru , Mumbai , India . Brij Bihari Pandey , political leader Mangal Pandey : The Rising , also known as The Rising : Ballad of Mangal Pandey , movie about the soldier by the same name . Manoj Kumar Pandey , officer and hero of Operation Vijay Prasoon Pandey , film director Rati Pandey , Television actress Sandeep Pandey , social activist Tarkeshwar Pandey , former Indian Member of Parliament Prem Chand Pandey , Founder Director , NCAOR for Indian Antarctic Program Category : Surnames", "qid": "244", "docid": "Pandey_(disambiguation)", "rank": 22, "score": 80939 }, { "content": "Title: Risen (The Awakening album) Content: Risen is the debut album by South African gothic rock band The Awakening released in April 1997 . The record contains the hit single `` The Sounds of Silence , '' an adaptation of the song by Simon and Garfunkel . The cover achieved massive popularity throughout South Africa and remains one of the band 's most renowned singles .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Risen_(The_Awakening_album)", "rank": 23, "score": 80743 }, { "content": "Title: Chunkey Content: Chunkey ( also known as chunky , chenco , tchung-kee or the hoop and stick game ) is a game of Native American origin . It was played by rolling disc-shaped stones across the ground and throwing spears at them in an attempt to place the spear as close to the stopped stone as possible . It originated around 600 CE in the Cahokia region of what is now the United States ( near modern St. Louis , Missouri ) . Chunkey was played in huge arenas as large as 47 acres ( 19 ha ) that housed great audiences designed to bring people of the region together ( i.e. Cahokians , farmers , immigrants , and even visitors ) . It continued to be played after the fall of the Mississippian culture around 1500 CE . Variations were played throughout North America . Early ethnographer James Adair translated the name to mean `` running hard labor '' . Gambling was frequently connected with the game , with some players wagering everything they owned on the outcome of the game . Losers were even known to commit suicide .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Chunkey", "rank": 24, "score": 80583 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (TV series) Content: Rise ( formerly known as Drama High ) is an upcoming American drama television series created by Jason Katims and Jeffrey Seller based on the young adult novel Drama High by Michael Sokolove , starring Josh Radnor in the main role of Lou Volpe . The pilot was ordered to series by NBC on May 4 , 2017 along with The Brave , making both series the first regular series orders by the network for the 2017 -- 18 United States network television schedule .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(TV_series)", "rank": 25, "score": 80523 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Flobots song) Content: `` Rise '' is the second single released by the alternative hip hop group Flobots from Denver , Colorado . It was released from Flobots ' album Fight with Tools .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Flobots_song)", "rank": 26, "score": 80427 }, { "content": "Title: The Rising (album) Content: The Rising is the twelfth studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen , released in 2002 on Columbia Records . In addition to being Springsteen 's first studio album in seven years , it was also his first with the E Street Band in 18 years . Widely believed to have been based on Springsteen 's reflections during the aftermath of the September 11 , 2001 attacks , the album is predominantly centered upon themes of relationship struggles , existential crisis and social uplift . Upon its release , The Rising was a critical and commercial success , and hailed as the triumphant return for Springsteen . It debuted at # 1 on the Billboard 200 chart , with first-week sales of over 520,000 copies . With this , Springsteen became the oldest person to achieve a first-week sales of over a half of a million copies in the United States . The album also garnered a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2003 ; although nominated for the Album of the Year award as well , it was beaten by Norah Jones ' debut album Come Away with Me . Title song `` The Rising '' was also a Grammy recipient .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rising_(album)", "rank": 27, "score": 80134 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Skillet album) Content: Rise is the ninth studio album by American Christian rock band Skillet . It was released on June 25 , 2013 . The deluxe edition includes three bonus tracks and a DVD entitled Awake & Live DVD . It is the first album to feature guitarist Seth Morrison . The first single off the album , `` Sick of It '' , was released on SoundCloud on April 8 , 2013 and was released on iTunes on April 9 , and was released to US rock radio on April 23 . `` American Noise '' was released to iTunes on April 16 as the first promotional single . `` Rise '' was released as the second promotional single on May 14 , 2013 . Skillet 's fourth single , `` Not Gon na Die '' , was released on USA Today on June 10 . It was released on iTunes the following day .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Skillet_album)", "rank": 28, "score": 78993 }, { "content": "Title: The Rising (memorial) Content: The Rising is a memorial located in the Kensico Dam Plaza of Valhalla , Westchester County , New York , created by architect Frederic Schwartz . It stands against the backdrop of Kensico Dam , commemorating the September 11 attacks on America and remembering in a special way the men and women from Westchester County who were victims of those attacks .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rising_(memorial)", "rank": 29, "score": 78934 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (perfume) Content: Rise ( also known as Beyoncé Rise ) is a perfume endorsed by Beyoncé and distributed through division Coty Beauty of manufacturer Coty , Inc. . She collaborated with perfumer Loc Dong from the company International Flavors & Fragrances ( IFF ) for creating the scent . It marks her third fragrance following the release of Heat ( 2010 ) and Pulse ( 2011 ) . Inspired by African-American author Maya Angelou and meant to showcase private sides of Beyoncé 's personal life , Rise was created as a woman 's fragrance . It was released in February 2014 to various stores ; a promotional poster and a commercial shot by English music video director Jake Nava were released the same month with the latter featuring Beyoncé surrounded by golden glitter . Upon their release , the perfume and the commercial were positively received by critics with Rise 's various scents and its feminist inspiration being particularly hailed . Rise features top notes of Italian bergamot orange , golden apricot and a basil sorbet middle notes of gold symphony orchid freesia blossom and jasminum sambac and base notes of autumn woods accord , cashmere musk and a vetiver extract .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(perfume)", "rank": 30, "score": 78619 }, { "content": "Title: Chunking Content: Chunking may mean : Chunking ( psychology ) , a short-term memory mechanism and techniques to exploit it Chunking ( writing ) , a method of splitting content into short , easily scannable elements , especially for web audiences Chunking ( computing ) , a memory allocation or message transmission procedure in computer programming CHUNKING , an extension method of the Extended SMTP electronic mail protocol in computer networking Chunking ( computational linguistics ) , a method for parsing natural language sentences into partial syntactic structures Chunking ( division ) , an approach for doing simple mathematical division sums , by repeated subtraction Chunking ( music ) , a rhythm guitar and mandolin technique Pumpkin chunking , the activity of hurling pumpkins", "qid": "244", "docid": "Chunking", "rank": 31, "score": 78610 }, { "content": "Title: Kwon Ri-se Content: Kwon Ri-se ( August 16 , 1991 -- September 7 , 2014 ) , better known by her stage name RiSe , was a Japanese singer of Korean descent . She was a member of the South Korean girl group Ladies ' Code under Polaris Entertainment . Prior to her joining Ladies ' Code , she participated in Miss Korea 2009 and was crowned as `` Miss Korea Japan Jin '' . She was one of the Top 12 contestants of MBC 's Star Audition The Great Birth . Born in Fukushima , Japan , she was fluent in Japanese as well as Korean .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Kwon_Ri-se", "rank": 32, "score": 78481 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Danny Gokey album) Content: Rise is the fifth studio album by American singer Danny Gokey . It was released on January 13 , 2017 through BMG Rights Management . His second full-length album of original material in the Contemporary Christian genre , Rise serves as the follow-up to Gokey 's number-one album , Hope in Front of Me ( 2014 ) . The album 's title track was released in August 2016 as the record 's lead single .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Danny_Gokey_album)", "rank": 33, "score": 78314 }, { "content": "Title: Heliacal rising Content: The heliacal rising ( -LSB- hɪˈlaɪəkəl -RSB- , ) of a star occurs annually when it first becomes visible above the eastern horizon for a brief moment just before sunrise , after a period of time when it had not been visible . Historically , the most important such rising is that of Sirius , which was an important feature of the Egyptian calendar and astronomical development . Relative to the stars , the sun appears to drift eastward about one degree per day along a path called the ecliptic . While the sun is moving past a given star , the star can not be seen because it is only above the horizon during the day . The heliacal rising occurs when the sun has moved far enough past the star that the star rises and becomes visible before the sun rises in the morning . Each day after the heliacal rising , the star will rise slightly earlier and remain visible for longer before the light from the rising sun overwhelms it . Over the following days the star will move further and further westward ( about one degree per day ) relative to the sun , until eventually it is no longer visible in the sky at sunrise because it has already set below the western horizon . This is called the cosmical setting . The same star will reappear in the eastern sky at dawn approximately one year after its previous heliacal rising . For stars near the ecliptic , the small difference between the solar and sidereal years will cause their heliacal rising to wander through the calendar over long enough periods of time . Because the heliacal rising depends on the observation of the object , its exact timing can be dependent on weather conditions . Some stars , when viewed from a particular latitude on Earth , do not rise or set . These are circumpolar stars , which are either always in the sky or never . For example , the North Star is not visible in Australia and the Southern Cross is not seen in Europe , because they always stay below the respective horizons .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Heliacal_rising", "rank": 34, "score": 78284 }, { "content": "Title: The Rise of Christianity Content: The Rise of Christianity ( subtitled either A Sociologist Reconsiders History or How the Obscure , Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries , depending on the edition ) , is a book by the sociologist Rodney Stark , which examines the rise of Christianity , from a small movement in Galilee and Judea at the time of Jesus to the majority religion of the Roman Empire a few centuries later .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rise_of_Christianity", "rank": 35, "score": 78265 }, { "content": "Title: East Pacific Rise Content: The East Pacific Rise is a mid-oceanic ridge , a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean . It separates the Pacific Plate to the west from ( north to south ) the North American Plate , the Rivera Plate , the Cocos Plate , the Nazca Plate , and the Antarctic Plate . It runs from south from the Gulf of California in the Salton Sea basin in southern California to a point near 55 ° S , 130 ° W where it joins the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge trending west-southwest towards Antarctica near New Zealand ( though in some uses the PAR is regarded as the southern section of the EPR ) . Much of the rise lies about 3200 km ( 2000 mi ) off the South American coast and rises about 1,800 -- 2,700 m ( 6,000 -- 9,000 ft ) above the surrounding seafloor .", "qid": "244", "docid": "East_Pacific_Rise", "rank": 36, "score": 78085 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Annabelle Chvostek album) Content: RISE is an album released in 2013 by Annabelle Chvostek . The album was recorded with producer Don Kerr ( Rheostatics ) and mixed by Roma Baran ( Laurie Anderson , Kate & Anna McGarrigle ) and Vivian Stoll ( Unknown Gender , Isis ) . It includes guest vocals from Oh Susanna and Canadian legend Bruce Cockburn . Other guests include Debashis Sinha of Autorickshaw , David Celia , Tony Spina and Jérémie Jones . The album is nominated in the Roots & Traditional Album of the Year - Solo category of the 2013 Juno Awards .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Annabelle_Chvostek_album)", "rank": 37, "score": 77970 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Joy Tobing album) Content: Rise is an album by Indonesian singer , Joy Tobing . The album was produced by Kevin Porée and Charlotte Gordon Cumming and recorded at Berry Street Studio , London in 2005", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Joy_Tobing_album)", "rank": 38, "score": 77944 }, { "content": "Title: Rise: The Vieneo Province Content: Rise : The Vieneo Province ( abbreviated to Rise ) is `` free-to-play '' Internet-based virtual world . Through a free downloadable client program , users interact with each other through motional vehicles and avatars , providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse . While Rise is sometimes referred to as a game , in general it does not have points , scores , winners or losers , levels , an end-strategy , or most of the other characteristics of a typical game . Players , often called `` citizens '' , can visit this virtual world almost as if it were a real place . They explore , meet other citizens , socialize , participate in individual and alliance activities , and buy and produce goods ( virtual property ) and services from one another . As they spend more time in the world , they learn new skills and mature socially , learning the culture and manners of a virtual environment . The game contains player-driven economics , a dynamic weather system , and a detailed terrain engine . Vieneo , the fictitious moon the game is based on , has all the typical attributes of a planet or moon and was made using StarGen . The aerodynamic and astrodynamic physics are of the highest fidelity and therefore closely mimic reality . One of the goals of many players is to fly up into orbit and look down at the large gaming arena .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise:_The_Vieneo_Province", "rank": 39, "score": 77784 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Anoushka Shankar album) Content: Rise is an album by Anoushka Shankar released on 27 September 2005 . The album was chosen as one of Amazon.com 's Top 100 Editor 's Picks of 2005 ( # 82 ) . On previous recordings , Anoushka Shankar had followed in the footsteps of her father , Ravi Shankar , by performing relatively traditional , raga-based music . Rise , by contrast , incorporated jazz , pop , and pan-ethnic world music textures in an unpredictable melange . At the center of it all are Shankar 's sitar expertise and traditional Indian roots .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Anoushka_Shankar_album)", "rank": 40, "score": 77659 }, { "content": "Title: Nick Moore (musician) Content: Nick Moore ( born July 17 , 1983 ) is an American Christian musician from Findlay , Ohio . He is best known as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the Billboard charting band Before Their Eyes on Rise Records . On April 18 , 2010 , Moore announced that he would be leaving Before Their Eyes and asked for support for his new project , later revealed to be Planet AD . However , on December 26 , 2010 , he announced via Facebook that he was back in Before Their Eyes . Moore is also known for starting the record label StandBy Records in 2007 , which signed the American Billboard charting band Emarosa and the international recording artist Hopes Die Last . In 2008 , Moore sold the company to HM-Live 's owner , Neil Sheehan . In August 2009 , he started a new record label called inVogue Records . With inVogue , he signed the recording artist The Plot in You and other rock and post-hardcore bands . Notable artists on InVogue Records include pop-punk giants Chunk ! No , Captain Chunk ! , San Diego melodic hardcore band Being As An Ocean , metalcore band Famous Last Words , and spoken-word project Hotel Books . Moore was also the vocalist and played guitar for the pop/punk band The Drama Summer . In early 2013 Nick announced he started a new band called Gentlemen Roosevelt that he does vocals and plays guitar in .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Nick_Moore_(musician)", "rank": 41, "score": 77561 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (A Skylit Drive album) Content: Rise is the fourth album by American post-hardcore band A Skylit Drive . The album was released on September 24 , 2013 , through Tragic Hero Records . The first single and title track of the album , `` Rise '' , was released on July 31 , 2013 . The full track listing was revealed on August 14 , 2013 . Rise peaked at 41 on the Billboard 200 . A lyric video for the track `` Unbreakable '' was released on September 6 , 2013 . On February 21 , 2014 , the music video for the song `` Crazy '' was released as well . On June 26 , 2014 , an acoustic performance video for the song `` Rise '' was released . It 's the first album without guitarist Joey Wilson and the last to feature bassist and unclean vocalist , Brian White , and founding drummer and backing vocalist , Cory La Quay , who both left the band in 2014 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(A_Skylit_Drive_album)", "rank": 42, "score": 77512 }, { "content": "Title: Rise Records (Italy) Content: Rise Records ( Rise Italy ) is an Italian record label of house music and Italo dance , owned by Time Group and founded by Giacomo Maiolini . in 1998 . Rise label rose as department of Time Records , after the death of Downtown .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_Records_(Italy)", "rank": 43, "score": 77498 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Nosferatu album) Content: Rise is the debut studio album by English Gothic rock band Nosferatu . It was released in June 1993 in the United States and Canada , and May 1993 in the United Kingdom and Germany . It is the band 's best selling album with sales over 14,700 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Nosferatu_album)", "rank": 44, "score": 77460 }, { "content": "Title: The Rising (professional wrestling) Content: The Rising was a professional wrestling stable in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ( TNA ) , which consisted of Drew Galloway , Eli Drake and Micah .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rising_(professional_wrestling)", "rank": 45, "score": 77446 }, { "content": "Title: Rising from the East Content: Rising From The East is an album by a UK based Indian DJ Bally Sagoo in 1996 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rising_from_the_East", "rank": 46, "score": 77347 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Lane 8 album) Content: Rise is the debut album by American musician Lane 8 . It was released on July 17 , 2015 , by Anjunadeep .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Lane_8_album)", "rank": 47, "score": 77332 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Herb Alpert album) Content: Rise is a 1979 album by Herb Alpert .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Herb_Alpert_album)", "rank": 48, "score": 77137 }, { "content": "Title: Rise no. 1 Content: Rise no. 1 ( stylized as rise n ° 1 ) is a Dallas , Texas restaurant that serves French food , focusing on soufflés . The restaurant was founded by Hedda Gioia Dowd , who co-owns the restaurant with Rise 's executive chef Cherif Brahmi .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_no._1", "rank": 49, "score": 77114 }, { "content": "Title: Risen (series) Content: Risen is an action role-playing game franchise , developed by the German company Piranha Bytes under Microsoft Windows and converted by Wizarbox into PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . It is published and distributed by the German company Deep Silver , a division of Koch Media . The franchise is close to the three first episodes of the Gothic franchise , also developed by Piranha Bytes .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Risen_(series)", "rank": 50, "score": 77096 }, { "content": "Title: The Rising Foundation Content: The Rising Foundation is a nonprofit organisation based in South Auckland , New Zealand created to assist at-risk youth to develop to their full potential . It is made up of industry leaders who grew up in South Auckland and have decided to help improve the plight of the young people within the community . It seeks to unlock the potential of children in New Zealand who are on the verge of being lost to their families , schools and community . The Foundation delivers this through developing pathways , involving parents , schools and other agencies using outdoor education programmes , one to one mentoring and group therapy . It is built with an outsourcing model where the Foundation raises funds to employ one coordinator and cover costs for outdoor educational experiences and professional services as required .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rising_Foundation", "rank": 51, "score": 76948 }, { "content": "Title: Rising (Donovan album) Content: Rising is the third live album , and twentieth album overall , from British singer-songwriter Donovan . It was released on Permanent Records in 1990 ( LP and CD ) . The live versions of Donovan 's hits guaranteed that Rising would receive a release in both the United States and United Kingdom . Rising was retitled The Classics Live in the United States , 25 Years in Concert in Europe and Atlantis in the UK for marketing reasons . Since the release of Rising , there have been many reissues of the songs from the album under many different titles . Rising was supposedly recorded sporadically from 1982 through 1986 at various live concerts during different world tours . However , after careful research the songs on the album came from are revealed as a U.S. tour in 1971 and from the Cambridge Folk Festival of 1981 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rising_(Donovan_album)", "rank": 52, "score": 76908 }, { "content": "Title: RISE Project Content: RISE Project is a Romanian non-profit journalism organization founded in early 2012 by a group of investigative journalists , activists , programmers and graphic designers . RISE Project uses research techniques and technology to generate complex investigative reporting on local and crossborder organized crime and corruption networks . It produces investigative articles and visual databases and it develops research and data visualization tools such as the Visual Investigative Scenarios ( VIS ) platform . RISE Project is a member of the regional network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project ( OCCRP ) and of the Global Investigative Journalism Network .", "qid": "244", "docid": "RISE_Project", "rank": 53, "score": 76872 }, { "content": "Title: The Trouble with Physics Content: The Trouble with Physics : The Rise of String Theory , the Fall of a Science , and What Comes Next is a 2006 book by the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin about the problems with string theory . Subtitled The Rise of String Theory , the Fall of a Science , and What Comes Next , the book strongly criticizes string theory and its prominence in contemporary theoretical physics , on the grounds that string theory has yet to come up with a single prediction that can be verified using any technology that is likely to be feasible within our lifetimes . Smolin also focuses on the difficulties faced by research in quantum gravity , and by current efforts to come up with a theory explaining all four fundamental interactions . The book is broadly concerned with the role of controversy and diversity of approaches in scientific processes and ethics . Smolin suggests both that there appear to be serious deficiencies in string theory and that string theory has an unhealthy near-monopoly on fundamental physics in the United States , and that a diversity of approaches is needed . He argues that more attention should instead be paid to background independent theories of quantum gravity . In the book , Smolin controversially claims that string theory makes no new testable predictions ; that it has no coherent mathematical formulation ; and that it has not been mathematically proved finite . Some experts in the theoretical physics community disagree with these statements . Smolin states that to propose a string theory landscape having up to 10500 string vacuum solutions is tantamount to abandoning accepted science : The scenario of many unobserved universes plays the same logical role as the scenario of an intelligent designer . Each provides an untestable hypothesis that , if true , makes something improbable seem quite probable .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Trouble_with_Physics", "rank": 54, "score": 76701 }, { "content": "Title: Rising, Illinois Content: Rising is an unincorporated community in Champaign County , Illinois , United States . Rising is northwest of Champaign .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rising,_Illinois", "rank": 55, "score": 76661 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Taeyang album) Content: Rise ( stylized as RISE ) is the second studio album by Taeyang , member of Big Bang ( South Korean band ) . It is his first full album in four years since Solar in July 2010 . Rise became the third highest charting K-pop album , and also the highest charting K-pop album by a Korean soloist on the Billboard 200 chart by debuting at # 112 , # 1 on Billboard World Albums Chart , and # 1 on Heatseekers Albums Chart . The album also debuted at number one on the Gaon Album Chart .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Taeyang_album)", "rank": 56, "score": 76659 }, { "content": "Title: Rise Technology Content: Rise Technology , was a short lived microprocessor manufacturer that produced the Intel x86 MMX compatible mP6 processor . The Santa Clara , California based company was started by David Lin in 1993 with funding from 15 Taiwanese investors , including UMC , ACER and VIA Technologies . After multiple company restructurings , the mP6 was announced at the end of 1998 and went into small production in 1999 . The device was meant for the low-end , low-power segment of laptop computers . Finding itself unable to compete in the computing market with the larger vendors ( Intel and AMD ) , Rise re-targeted itself to set-top boxes and internet appliances . Towards that goal , Rise licensed their cores to STMicroelectronics . The company was acquired by SiS at the end of 1999 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_Technology", "rank": 57, "score": 76649 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Mike Peters album) Content: Rise is the third solo album by Mike Peters .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Mike_Peters_album)", "rank": 58, "score": 76537 }, { "content": "Title: Africa Rising Content: Africa Rising is a term coined to describe the rapid economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa since 2000 and the belief in the inevitability of further , rapid development on the continent . According to The Financial Times , Africa Rising is a `` narrative that improved governance means the continent is almost predestined to enjoy a long period of mid-to-high single-digit economic growth , rising incomes and an emerging middle class . '' It has been particularly associated with the democratisation of African states since the end of the Cold War , comparative peace , greater availability of mobile phones and the Internet , and increase in African consumer spending as well as a growth in entrepreneurship . In the decade between 2005 and 2015 , the economy of Africa as a whole increased by 50 per cent in contrast with a world average of 23 per cent . The term is widely used ( including by the BBC ) and was the title of a 2014 conference held in Mozambique by the International Monetary Fund . Both The Economist and Time have devoted front-pages to the Africa Rising narrative . The term has been criticised by some as being a `` stereotype '' of Africa as a continent `` brimming with mobile phones and energetic businesses '' . Critics have also argued that the narrative has been undermined by experience of the West African Ebola virus epidemic ( 2013 -- 16 ) and the growth of conflict in some parts of the continent . Some have also claimed that the 18 million Africans considered `` middle class '' are too small a proportion ( 3.3 percent ) of the overall population to justify claims of rapid social change brought about by Africa Rising . The term has also spawned a number of spin-off ideas , such as `` Latin America Rising '' and `` Asia Rising '' .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Africa_Rising", "rank": 59, "score": 76413 }, { "content": "Title: Rise, Aust-Agder Content: Rise is a village in Aust-Agder , Norway . Category : Villages in Aust-Agder", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise,_Aust-Agder", "rank": 60, "score": 76364 }, { "content": "Title: Rise of the Video Game Content: Rise of the Video Game is a five-part series on The Discovery Channel about the history of video games . The first episode aired in November 2007 . The series ran under the title I , VIDEOGAME in Europe .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_of_the_Video_Game", "rank": 61, "score": 76325 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Danny Gokey song) Content: `` Rise '' is a song recorded by American singer Danny Gokey for his fourth album of the same name . The song is the title track and lead single from the album . Rise became Gokey 's third No. 1 song on Billboard Christian Airplay chart . According to Gokey , the song is about how he overcame depression a few years prior to the song release .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Danny_Gokey_song)", "rank": 62, "score": 76299 }, { "content": "Title: Rise Records Content: Rise Records is an American record label currently based in Beaverton , Oregon , specialized in the release of punk rock and post-hardcore music .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_Records", "rank": 63, "score": 76298 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Public Image Ltd song) Content: `` Rise '' is a single released by post-punk group Public Image Ltd in 1986 . It was the first single from their fifth studio album , Album . The song was written by John Lydon about apartheid in South Africa and specifically about Nelson Mandela , as Lydon stated in a 2013 Glastonbury interview , . Lydon also referred to Northern Irish RUC interrogation techniques , such as electric torture , in an MTV interview in 1987 . It was one of the group 's biggest commercial hits , peaking at # 11 on the UK Singles Chart and being featured on albums in both the Hits and Now That 's What I Call Music ! series in the UK . The song contains the phrase ` May The Road Rise With You ' , which is a rephrasing of the old Irish blessing `` may the road rise up to meet you '' . `` Rise '' was featured in the films `` The Rules of Attraction '' , `` The Promotion '' , and `` Remarkable Power '' . Steve Vai contributes his guitar work to the track while former Miles Davis drummer Tony Williams contributes drums , Bill Laswell plays fretless bass and L. Shankar plays violin . Liam Howlett of The Prodigy included it on his instalment of the Back to Mine mix album series .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Public_Image_Ltd_song)", "rank": 64, "score": 76211 }, { "content": "Title: RISE School of Accountancy Content: Rise is an ordinary academy of accountancy , with branches in various cities of Pakistan .", "qid": "244", "docid": "RISE_School_of_Accountancy", "rank": 65, "score": 76096 }, { "content": "Title: City Rise Content: City Rise is an inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin . One of the city 's older suburbs , it is , as its name suggests , centred on the slopes which lie close to the city centre , particularly those closest to the city 's original heart of The Exchange ( for this reason , places are said to be on the City Rise rather than in City Rise ) . Extensive views across the central city can be gained from much of City Rise . The name City Rise is generally applied to the area immediately to the west of Princes Street , especially to the approximately triangular area of one square kilometre bounded by Princes Street and the city 's Town Belt , with Maitland Street and Stuart Street lying at the edge of the area . Some parts of the lower slopes at one time carried the name Fernhill , a term still occasionally encountered to refer to this area . Other notable streets on the City Rise include High Street , Rattray Street , Stafford Street , Arthur Street , Canongate , and Serpentine Avenue . The name City Rise is sometime used to cover a wider area extending further to the north along the inner edge of the town belt from Stuart Street and Moana Pool as far as the stately house Olveston and to the top of Pitt Street . City Rise contains many of the city 's earliest grand residences , notably along High Street and streets close to it . Many of these buildings were built on money which flowed into the infant city at the time of the Central Otago Gold Rush of 1861-2 . Notable houses include Threave ( designed by Robert Lawson ) , Moata , and Colquhouns , among many others . The suburb is bounded by the central city to the east and northeast , by Kensington to the south , and Mornington to the west . The small suburb of Belleknowes lies immediately to the north , beyond which is Roslyn . The suburb is mainly residential , though it also has strong links with the city 's education . Otago Boys ' High School lies close to Stuart Street in the north of City Rise , and the original site of Otago Polytechnic ( or , as it was at the time , King Edward Technical College ) is also on the city rise side of Stuart Street . Otago Girls ' High School is located closer to the city centre at the edge of City Rise . Arthur Street School is also located in the suburb , close to Otago Boys ' High School . Next to Arthur Street School 's grounds is a monument on what was the site of Dunedin 's first cemetery , Arthur Street Cemetery . There is very little industry centred on City Rise , the most notable exception being Speight 's Brewery , which is located at the foot of the rise close to the exchange . Immediately above this is St. Joseph 's Cathedral , the city 's Roman Catholic cathedral . Notable historical industrial connections with the suburb include Choie ( Charles ) Sew Hoy 's importing company and the Kempthorne Prosser chemical manufacturing company , both of which had their main offices on Stafford Street . From the 1880s until the 1950s , City Rise was served by Dunedin 's cable tramway , with lines running up from the Exchange to the hill suburbs of Mornington and Roslyn via Stuart Street and Rattray Street . The tramway was notable for being only the second of its type in the world ( after the San Francisco cable car system ) .", "qid": "244", "docid": "City_Rise", "rank": 66, "score": 76081 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (2014 film) Content: Rise is a 2014 Australian crime drama film written and directed by Mack Lindon and starring Nathan Wilson as a man falsely accused of rape . It was written and directed by Mack Lindon and is based on Lindon 's own experience .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(2014_film)", "rank": 67, "score": 76058 }, { "content": "Title: Riseh Content: Riseh ( ريسه , also Romanized as Rīseh ; also known as Rīzeh and Rīzh ) is a village in Pa Qaleh Rural District , in the Central District of Shahr-e Babak County , Kerman Province , Iran . At the 2006 census , its population was 295 , in 96 families .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Riseh", "rank": 68, "score": 76007 }, { "content": "Title: Rise or Fall Content: Rise or Fall may refer to a song on one of the following albums : QR III ( Quiet Riot ) Take Them On , On Your Own ( Black Rebel Motorcycle Club )", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_or_Fall", "rank": 69, "score": 75565 }, { "content": "Title: Rising Medical Solutions Content: Rising Medical Solutions ( Rising ) is a US-based medical-financial solutions firm that provides medical care management and medical cost containment services to the workers ' compensation , auto , liability and group health markets . Clients include insurance carriers , self-insured employers , government entities , third party administrators ( TPAs ) and attorneys . Rising also publishes an annual Workers ' Compensation Benchmarking Study that addresses how claims organizations deal with industry-wide operational challenges .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rising_Medical_Solutions", "rank": 70, "score": 75560 }, { "content": "Title: Chunking (writing) Content: Chunking is a method of presenting information which splits concepts into small pieces or `` chunks '' of information to make reading and understanding faster and easier . Chunking is especially useful for material presented on the web because readers tend to scan for specific information on a web page rather than read the page sequentially . Chunked content usually contains : bulleted lists short subheadings short sentences with one or two ideas per sentence short paragraphs , even one-sentence paragraphs easily scannable text , with bolding of key phrases inline graphics to guide the eyes or illustrate points which would normally require more words", "qid": "244", "docid": "Chunking_(writing)", "rank": 71, "score": 75492 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Samantha James album) Content: Rise is the debut studio album by American singer Samantha James under the label Om Records . The title track from the album was released as a single and reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Samantha_James_album)", "rank": 72, "score": 75441 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Samantha James song) Content: `` Rise '' is a 2006 debut song that was written and produced by Olga Montes , Sebastian Arocha Morton and Andreas Allen and recorded by American singer Samantha James ( who co-wrote the song ) , taken from her first full-length album of the same name , which was released in 2007 . The single , in its original soul/electronica form and later remixed in two different releases , was submitted as a demo by her friend Dave Curtin , which led to her signing with Om Records . The track reached number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart , reaching the top spot on April 21 , 2007 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Samantha_James_song)", "rank": 73, "score": 75401 }, { "content": "Title: High Rise (band) Content: High Rise was a noise rock band from Tokyo , Japan formed in 1982 . The core of the band has consisted of bassist Asahito Nanjo and guitarist Munehiro Narita . The group named themselves after the 1975 novel High Rise by J. G. Ballard . Their music draws from psychedelic music , free jazz , and improvisational music .", "qid": "244", "docid": "High_Rise_(band)", "rank": 74, "score": 75364 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (instrumental) Content: `` Rise '' is an instrumental written by Andy Armer and Randy Badazz Alpert , and first recorded by trumpeter Herb Alpert . The instrumental track was included on Alpert 's solo album Rise and released as a single in 1979 . It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October of that year and remained in the top position for two weeks . Herb Alpert thus became the first ( and only ) artist to reach the top of the Hot 100 with a vocal performance ( `` This Guy 's in Love with You '' , 1968 ) as well as an instrumental performance . `` Rise '' also spent one week atop the adult contemporary chart . `` Rise '' was successful on the other charts , peaking at number four on the R&B chart and number seventeen on the disco chart . The recording also received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance . Songwriters Andy Armer and Randy Badazz Alpert were both nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition . `` Rise '' was originally recorded as an uptempo dance number , however , while recording the master at A&M studios , the drummer on the session , Steve Schaefer , strongly suggested that Herb and Randy try slowing the tempo down to 100bpm . Upon release , the instrumental received an unexpected burst of promotion : Jill Farren Phelps , musical director of the ABC soap opera General Hospital , decided to use `` Rise '' as the musical backdrop for the rape of Laura Webber by Luke Spencer . For several weeks afterward , the recording was played on the show to evoke the memory of Luke 's act . The added exposure in an extremely popular program boosted sales to the point of selling more than one million copies . Shortly after `` Rise '' became a hit in the United States , it became a hit in the United Kingdom when British disc jockeys were playing import copies of the record at the wrong speed . In the 1981 Hindi movie Yaarana starring Amitabh Bachchan and Neetu Singh , Neetu Singh teaches Amitabh some dance moves to this tune . The piece almost plays full length as Amitabh masters disco dancing . A sample of `` Rise '' is the entire musical groove of the 1997 number-one worldwide hit song , `` Hypnotize '' , recorded by The Notorious B.I.G. and co-produced by Sean `` Puffy '' Combs . The sample is credited on both the single , `` Hypnotize '' and in the liner notes for the Notorious B.I.G 's album , Life After Death . `` Run '' by Bel Biv DiVoe samples the same portion sampled in Hypnotize . In 1999 , Brazilian saxophonist Léo Gandelman did a remake of `` Rise '' for his album `` Brazilian Soul '' . R&B singer Monica sampled the recording on the song `` I 'm Back '' on her 2002 album All Eyez on Me .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(instrumental)", "rank": 75, "score": 75349 }, { "content": "Title: Riser (casting) Content: A riser , also known as a feeder , is a reservoir built into a metal casting mold to prevent cavities due to shrinkage . Most metals are less dense as a liquid than as a solid so castings shrink upon cooling , which can leave a void at the last point to solidify . Risers prevent this by providing molten metal to the casting as it solidifies , so that the cavity forms in the riser and not the casting . Risers are not effective on materials that have a large freezing range , because directional solidification is not possible . They are also not needed for casting processes that utilized pressure to fill the mold cavity . A feeder operated by a treadle is called an underfeeder . The activity of planning of how a casting will be gated and risered is called foundry methoding or foundry engineering .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Riser_(casting)", "rank": 76, "score": 75240 }, { "content": "Title: The Rising (Bruce Springsteen song) Content: `` The Rising '' is the title track on Bruce Springsteen 's 12th studio album The Rising , and was released as a single in 2002 . Springsteen wrote the song in reaction to the September 11 , 2001 attacks on New York City . It gained critical praise and earned Grammy Awards for Best Rock Song and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance , as well as a nomination for Song of the Year . Rolling Stone named it the 35th best song of the decade . VH1 placed it 81st on its list of the `` 100 Greatest Songs of the ' 00s '' .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rising_(Bruce_Springsteen_song)", "rank": 77, "score": 75237 }, { "content": "Title: Rise Asset Development Content: Rise provides microfinancing and mentorship to entrepreneurs living with mental health and addiction challenges who are interested in pursuing self-employment . Business loans , leases , and other investments are offered depending on the stage of development , needs and capacity of each business . Rise provides business financing up to $ 25,000 throughout Ontario , with financing averaging from $ 3000 to $ 5000 . The Rotman School of Management and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health participate in advisory functions , lending their respective expertise for business mentoring and mental health supports and services to the benefit of Rise clients . In January 2012 , Rise received the Social Entrepreneurship in Mental Health Equity Award for Toronto social enterprises advancing mental health equity .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_Asset_Development", "rank": 78, "score": 75203 }, { "content": "Title: Rising (The Go Set album) Content: Rising is the fourth studio album by Australian punk rock band The Go Set .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rising_(The_Go_Set_album)", "rank": 79, "score": 75159 }, { "content": "Title: Melbourne Rising Content: The Melbourne Rising is an Australian rugby union team based in Melbourne that competes in the National Rugby Championship ( NRC ) . The team represents the rugby community in Victoria and is organised and managed by the Victorian Rugby Union ( VRU ) , with the coaching and training programs used by the Melbourne Rebels being extended to players joining the team from the Rebels , the local Dewar Shield competition , and local Victorian juniors . The NRC was launched in 2014 , reinstating the national competition after an absence of six years . The previous competition was the Australian Rugby Championship ( ARC ) , which was discontinued in 2007 after only one season . The team representing Victoria in the ARC was the Melbourne Rebels , organised and managed by the VRU . That Rebels team was the predecessor of the Melbourne Rebels team in Super Rugby and the Melbourne Rising team in the NRC .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Melbourne_Rising", "rank": 80, "score": 75104 }, { "content": "Title: Mitsubishi RISE Content: Reinforced Impact Safety Evolution ( RISE ) or Realized Impact Safety Evolution is the brand name of Mitsubishi 's patented safety body construction system . It was first introduced in the 1996 Mitsubishi Galant . Initially designed to improve passive safety , the system has subsequently been developed to electronically integrate every aspect of car 's active and passive safety features . RISE is a monocoque body system that combines an energy-absorbing front and rear section with a strong , rigid occupant cell to provide protection in the event of an accident . It features high tensile steel reinforcing bars in doors and energy-absorbing material in the side pillars and roof rails . The body structure is based on a one-piece shell with high levels of bending and torsional rigidity , which provides a steel cage for the safety of both the driver and passengers .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Mitsubishi_RISE", "rank": 81, "score": 75093 }, { "content": "Title: Rising Star Content: Rising Star may refer to :", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rising_Star", "rank": 82, "score": 74863 }, { "content": "Title: Chunk (information) Content: A chunk is a fragment of information which is used in many multimedia formats , such as PNG , IFF , MP3 and AVI . Each chunk contains a header which indicates some parameters ( e.g. the type of chunk , comments , size etc. ) In the middle there is a variable area containing data which are decoded by the program from the parameters in the header . Chunks may also be fragments of information which are downloaded or managed by P2P programs . In distributed computing , a chunk is a set of data which are sent to a processor or one of the parts of a computer for processing . For example a sub-set of rows of a matrix .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Chunk_(information)", "rank": 83, "score": 74810 }, { "content": "Title: Reise, Reise Content: Reise , Reise ( -LSB- ʁaɪzə , ʁaɪzə -RSB- , a German wake-up call , literally '' ( a ) rise , ( a ) rise '' , although it can also be interpreted as meaning `` journey , journey '' , or as a command `` travel , travel '' ) is Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein 's fourth studio album . It was released on September 27 , 2004 in Germany and followed shortly by its release across Europe . It was released in North America on November 16 , 2004 . The album was recorded in a span of two years at El Cortijo Studios in Málaga , Spain . It was produced by the band themselves along with Swedish record producer Jacob Hellner . The album charted in the top ten in several European charts and was a number one hit in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Iceland , Finland , Estonia and Mexico . As of February 2006 , the album has shipped 1.5 million copies globally .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Reise,_Reise", "rank": 84, "score": 74792 }, { "content": "Title: Chunking (psychology) Content: Chunking in psychology is a process by which individual pieces of information are bound together into a meaningful whole ( Neath & Surprenant , 2003 ) . A chunk is defined as a familiar collection of more elementary units that have been inter-associated and stored in memory repeatedly and act as a coherent , integrated group when retrieved ( Tulving & Craik , 2000 ) . It is believed that individuals create higher order cognitive representations of the items on the list that are more easily remembered as a group than as individual items themselves . Representations of these groupings are highly subjective , as they depend critically on the individual 's perception of the features of the items and the individual 's semantic network . The size of the chunks generally ranges anywhere from two to six items , but differs based on language and culture The phenomenon of chunking as a memory mechanism can be observed in the way individuals group numbers and information in the day-to-day life . For example , when recalling a number such as 12101946 , if numbers are grouped as 12 , 10 and 1946 , a mnemonic is created for this number as a day , month and year . Similarly , another illustration of the limited capacity of working memory as suggested by George Miller can be seen from the following example : While recalling a mobile phone number such as 9849523450 , we might break this into 98 495 234 50 . Thus , instead of remembering 10 separate digits that is beyond the `` seven plus-or-minus two '' memory span , we are remembering four groups of numbers . A modality effect is present in chunking . That is , the mechanism used to convey the list of items to the individual affects how much `` chunking '' occurs . Experimentally , it has been found that auditory presentation results in a larger amount of grouping in the responses of individuals , as compared to visual presentation . Previous literature , such as George Miller 's The Magical Number Seven , Plus or Minus Two : Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information ( 1956 ) have shown that the probability of recall is greater when the `` chunking '' strategy is used . As stated above , the grouping of the responses occurs as individuals place them into categories according to their inter-relatedness based on semantic and perceptual properties . Lindley ( 1966 ) showed that the groups produced have meaning to the participant , therefore ; this strategy makes it easier for an individual to recall and maintain information in memory during studies and testing . Therefore , when `` chunking '' is used as a strategy , one can expect a higher proportion of correct recalls . Various kinds of memory training systems and mnemonics include training and drill in specially-designed recoding or chunking schemes . Such systems existed before Miller 's paper , but there was no convenient term to describe the general strategy or substantive and reliable research . The term `` chunking '' is now often used in reference to these systems . As an illustration , patients with Alzheimer 's disease typically experience working memory deficits ; chunking is an effective method to improve patients ' verbal working memory performance ( Huntley , Bor , Hampshire , Owen , & Howard , 2011 ) . Another classic example of chunking is discussed in the `` Expertise and skill memory effects '' section below .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Chunking_(psychology)", "rank": 85, "score": 74775 }, { "content": "Title: The Rising (Keene novel) Content: The Rising is the first book in a series of zombie-themed horror novels written by author Brian Keene . This title won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel in 2003 . The Rising was optioned for both film and video game adaptation in 2004 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Rising_(Keene_novel)", "rank": 86, "score": 74759 }, { "content": "Title: The Answer (band) Content: The Answer is a Northern Irish hard rock and blues-rock band from Newcastle and Downpatrick , County Down , Northern Ireland , UK . They have achieved success with their debut album Rise selling in excess of 30,000 copies in the UK & Europe , 10,000 on day one in Japan and 100,000 worldwide .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Answer_(band)", "rank": 87, "score": 74741 }, { "content": "Title: Risen (video game) Content: Risen is a single-player fantasy-themed action role-playing game , developed by the German company Piranha Bytes and published by Deep Silver . The series is continued by Risen 2 : Dark Waters and Risen 3 : Titan Lords .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Risen_(video_game)", "rank": 88, "score": 74666 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Daryl Braithwaite album) Content: Rise is an album by Daryl Braithwaite released in November 1990 . The album reached No. 3 on the Australian ARIA Charts . It was the best-selling album in Australia in 1991 . The album sold over 300,000 copies in Australia . Braithwaite was nominated for ARIA Award for Best Male Artist at the ARIA Music Awards of 1991 for Rise , but lost to Chain Reaction by John Farnham . Braithwaite commenced a national tour on 26 December 1990 in Warrnambool . Although this album was not officially released in the U.S. , it includes what would become Braithwaite 's biggest stateside hit , `` Higher Than Hope '' , which reached number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 . The tune appeared as the title track for a compilation album , Higher Than Hope , which was released to the American market in 1991 . The album was certified 4x platinum in Australia in 2016 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Daryl_Braithwaite_album)", "rank": 89, "score": 74647 }, { "content": "Title: Chasing the Rise Content: Chasing The Rise is a metalcore band from Vilnius , Lithuania , formed in 2012 . The band released their debut EP `` The Dawn '' in 2013 , and the follow-up EP `` Chapters '' in 2016 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Chasing_the_Rise", "rank": 90, "score": 74540 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Eddie Amador song) Content: Rise is a single released by Eddie Amador . It was most successful in the United Kingdom where it peaked at 19 # in the singles charts and 1 # in the Dance Charts , during January 2000 .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Eddie_Amador_song)", "rank": 91, "score": 74519 }, { "content": "Title: Rise and Fall (band) Content: Rise and Fall is a Belgian hardcore punk band from Ghent , formed 2002 by members of the Deal and Kingpin . They are among a few European bands currently signed to American hardcore label Deathwish Inc. . Rise and Fall have been influenced by bands such as Black Flag , Converge , Neurosis , Tragedy and Entombed .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_and_Fall_(band)", "rank": 92, "score": 74444 }, { "content": "Title: The Philadelphia Sound Content: The Philadelphia Sound is a compilation album released by Chunksaah Records in 2002 . It features four at the time up-and-coming hardcore punk bands from the Philadelphia , PA area each doing two songs . The bands are The Curse , Go ! For The Throat , Knives Out and Paint It Black .", "qid": "244", "docid": "The_Philadelphia_Sound", "rank": 93, "score": 74412 }, { "content": "Title: Ian Watt Content: Ian Watt ( 9 March 1917 -- 13 December 1999 ) was a literary critic , literary historian and professor of English at Stanford University . His The Rise of the Novel : Studies in Defoe , Richardson and Fielding ( 1957 ) is an important work in the history of the genre . Published in 1957 , The Rise of the Novel is considered by many contemporary literary scholars as the seminal work on the origins of the novel , and an important study of literary realism . The book traces the rise of the modern novel to philosophical , economic and social trends and conditions that become prominent in the early 18th century .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Ian_Watt", "rank": 94, "score": 74284 }, { "content": "Title: Kaos Rising Content: Kaos Rising is a death metal/thrash metal band from Chicago , Illinois . Formed in late 1999 , they soon recorded their first demo , entitled `` Wiped Away '' . This demo attracted the attention of California 's Jet Speed Records , and in the winter of 2001 , they recorded their first full-length album , Welcome To The Violence , which was released in 2002/2003 . Following this release , they opened for many major bands such as Fear Factory , Lamb of God , Shadows Fall , Hatebreed , and others . After much touring in 2004 , they recorded their second album , Cold Years To Come , which was released in October/November 2005 by Break The Surface Music . Whereas Welcome To The Violence came across as a more experimental album , with few songs that could be considered extremely fast , Cold Years To Come has a much faster , old-school thrash feel to it , and certainly contains a higher degree of musical quality . According to their MySpace page , they broke up sometime in early 2006 . Self-described as `` Hardcore Stomping Death Groove '' , which is a quite accurate description of their music , their major influences seem to be Machine Head , Soulfly , and Dying Fetus , although none of these are exact soundalikes .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Kaos_Rising", "rank": 95, "score": 74264 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Trip Lee album) Content: Rise is the fifth studio album from Christian rap artist Trip Lee . The album was released in 2014 , through Reach Records . The album includes features from Lecrae , Andy Mineo , and This ' l among others . Four singles were released for the album ; `` Shweet '' , `` Sweet Victory '' , `` Manolo '' and `` Beautiful Life 2 ( Mine ) '' .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Trip_Lee_album)", "rank": 96, "score": 74082 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Bad Brains album) Content: Rise is the fifth full-length studio album by hardcore punk pioneers Bad Brains . It is the first Bad Brains album to be released on a major label ( Epic Records ) and is notable for the absence of two original members : here , a young Israel Joseph I replaces vocalist H.R. and Cro-Mags drummer Mackie Jayson , who was a session musician on the band 's previous album Quickness , replaces drummer Earl Hudson . The album was released in the wake of a number of funk rock acts whose sounds recalled the latter work of Bad Brains .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Bad_Brains_album)", "rank": 97, "score": 74040 }, { "content": "Title: Rise time Content: In electronics , when describing a voltage or current step function , rise time is the time taken by a signal to change from a specified low value to a specified high value . These values may be expressed as ratios or , equivalently , as percentages with respect to a given reference value . In analog electronics or digital electronics , these percentages are commonly the 10 % and 90 % ( or equivalently and ) of the output step height : however , other values are commonly used . For applications in control theory , according to , rise time is defined as `` the time required for the response to rise from to of its final value '' , with 0 % to 100 % rise time common for underdamped second order systems , 5 % to 95 % for critically damped and 10 % to 90 % for overdamped ones . According to , the term `` rise time '' applies to either positive or negative step response , even if a displayed negative excursion is popularly termed fall time .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_time", "rank": 98, "score": 74030 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (Katy Perry song) Content: `` Rise '' is a song by American singer Katy Perry . She co-wrote the song with Savan Kotecha and its producers Max Martin and Ali Payami . Capitol Records first released it on July 14 , 2016 , as a standalone single . `` Rise '' is a mid-tempo electronic song with lyrical themes of victory and rising above one 's opponents . After an Olympics-themed promotional video was released the following day , an official music video debuted on August 4 , 2016 . Commercially , the song has reached number one in Australia , the top five in France and Scotland , the top ten in Hungary and Luxembourg , the top twenty in Argentina , Canada , Lebanon , Switzerland , and the United States , and the top thirty in Austria , New Zealand , and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(Katy_Perry_song)", "rank": 99, "score": 74014 }, { "content": "Title: Rise (René & Angela album) Content: Rise is a 1983 album by American singing duo René & Angela . Released on April 29 , 1983 , This is the third album by the duo and was their last for the Capitol Records label . It includes the R&B Ballad `` My First Love '' .", "qid": "244", "docid": "Rise_(René_&_Angela_album)", "rank": 100, "score": 73917 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Cap carbonate Content: Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Cap_carbonate", "rank": 1, "score": 192841 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 2, "score": 190541 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 3, "score": 186556 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 4, "score": 180647 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "246", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 5, "score": 178234 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 6, "score": 167379 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide Content: Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide", "rank": 7, "score": 161809 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 8, "score": 161060 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling Curve Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Keeling_Curve", "rank": 9, "score": 159022 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "246", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 10, "score": 158805 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 11, "score": 158374 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 12, "score": 156976 }, { "content": "Title: Yedoma Content: Yedoma is an organic-rich ( about 2 % carbon by mass ) Pleistocene-age permafrost with ice content of 50 -- 90 % by volume . The amount of carbon trapped in this type of permafrost is much more prevalent than originally thought and may be about 210 to 450 Gt , that is a multiple of the amount of carbon released into the air each year by the burning of fossil fuels . Thawing yedoma is a significant source of atmospheric methane ( about 4 Tg of per year ) . The Yedoma region currently occupies an area of more than one million square kilometers from northeast Siberia to Alaska and Canada , and in many regions is tens of meters thick . During the Last Glacial Maximum , when the global sea level was 120 m lower than that of today , similar deposits covered substantial areas of the exposed northeast Eurasian continental shelves . At the end of last ice age , at the Pleistocene -- Holocene transition , thawing yedoma and the resulting thermokarst lakes may have produced 33 to 87 % of the high-latitude increase in atmospheric methane concentration .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Yedoma", "rank": 13, "score": 154440 }, { "content": "Title: Huronian glaciation Content: The Huronian glaciation ( or Makganyene glaciation ) was a glaciation that extended from 2.4 billion years ago ( Ga ) to 2.1 Ga , during the Siderian and Rhyacian periods of the Paleoproterozoic era . The Huronian glaciation followed after the Great Oxygenation Event ( GOE ) , a time when increased atmospheric oxygen decreased atmospheric methane . The oxygen combined with the methane to form carbon dioxide and water , which does not retain heat as well as methane does . It is the oldest and longest ice age , occurring at a time when , in a biological sense , only simple , unicellular life existed on Earth . This ice age led to a mass-extinction on Earth .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Huronian_glaciation", "rank": 14, "score": 150686 }, { "content": "Title: Dry ice Content: Dry ice , sometimes referred to as `` cardice '' ( chiefly by British chemists ) , is the solid form of carbon dioxide . It is used primarily as a cooling agent . Its advantages include lower temperature than that of water ice and not leaving any residue ( other than incidental frost from moisture in the atmosphere ) . It is useful for preserving frozen foods where mechanical cooling is unavailable . Dry ice sublimates at − 78.5 ° C ( − 109.3 ° F ) at Earth atmospheric pressures . This extreme cold makes the solid dangerous to handle without protection due to burns caused by freezing ( frostbite ) . While generally not very toxic , the outgassing from it can cause hypercapnia ( abnormally elevated carbon dioxide levels in the blood ) due to buildup in confined locations .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Dry_ice", "rank": 15, "score": 148877 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 16, "score": 148428 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "246", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 17, "score": 146735 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide clathrate Content: Carbon dioxide hydrate is a snow-like crystalline substance composed of water ice and carbon dioxide . It normally is a Type I gas clathrate . However , there has been some experimental evidence for the development of a metastable Type II phase at A temperature near the ice melting point . The clathrate can exist below 283K ( 10 ° C ) at a range of pressures of carbon dioxide . It is quite likely to be important on Mars due to the presence of carbon dioxide and ice at low temperatures .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_clathrate", "rank": 18, "score": 146583 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 19, "score": 144233 }, { "content": "Title: Supercritical carbon dioxide Content: Supercritical carbon dioxide ( s ) is a fluid state of carbon dioxide where it is held at or above its critical temperature and critical pressure . Carbon dioxide usually behaves as a gas in air at standard temperature and pressure ( STP ) , or as a solid called dry ice when frozen . If the temperature and pressure are both increased from STP to be at or above the critical point for carbon dioxide , it can adopt properties midway between a gas and a liquid . More specifically , it behaves as a supercritical fluid above its critical temperature ( 304.25 K ) and critical pressure ( 72.9 atm ) , expanding to fill its container like a gas but with a density like that of a liquid . Supercritical is becoming an important commercial and industrial solvent due to its role in chemical extraction in addition to its low toxicity and environmental impact . The relatively low temperature of the process and the stability of also allows most compounds to be extracted with little damage or denaturing . In addition , the solubility of many extracted compounds in varies with pressure , permitting selective extractions .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Supercritical_carbon_dioxide", "rank": 20, "score": 144047 }, { "content": "Title: 774–775 carbon-14 spike Content: The 774 -- 775 Carbon-14 Spike is an observed increase of 1.2 % in the concentration of carbon-14 isotope in tree rings dated to the years 774 or 775 AD , which is about 20 times as high as the normal background rate of variation . It was discovered during a study of Japanese cedar trees , with the year of occurrence determined through dendrochronology . A surge in beryllium isotope 10Be , detected in Antarctic ice cores , has also been associated with the 774 -- 775 event . The event appears to have been global , with the same carbon-14 signal found in tree rings from Germany , Russia , the United States , and New Zealand . The signal exhibits a sharp increase of ~ 1.2 % followed by a slow decline ( see Figure 1 ) , which is typical for an instant production of carbon-14 in the atmosphere , indicating that the event was short in duration . The globally averaged production of carbon-14 for this event is calculated as Q = ( 1.1-1 .5 ) × 108 atoms/cm2 .", "qid": "246", "docid": "774–775_carbon-14_spike", "rank": 21, "score": 143886 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age Content: An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Ice_age", "rank": 22, "score": 143663 }, { "content": "Title: Deglaciation Content: Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Deglaciation", "rank": 23, "score": 142825 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "246", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 24, "score": 141512 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 25, "score": 139941 }, { "content": "Title: Bomb pulse Content: The bomb pulse is the sudden increase of carbon-14 ( 14C ) in the Earth 's atmosphere due to the hundreds of aboveground nuclear bombs tests started in 1945 and intensified between 1950 until 1963 when the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States , the Soviet Union and Great Britain . These hundreds of blasts were followed by a doubling of the concentration of 14C in the atmosphere . Since then , the concentration of 14C has decreased towards the previous level . Carbon-14 , the radioisotope of carbon-12 , is naturally developed in trace amounts in the atmosphere and it can be detected in all living organisms . Carbon of all types is continually used to form the molecules of the cells of organisms . Doubling of the concentration of 14C in the atmosphere is reflected in the tissues and cells of all organisms that lived around the period of nuclear testing . This property has many applications in the fields of biology and forensics .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Bomb_pulse", "rank": 26, "score": 137712 }, { "content": "Title: 8.2 kiloyear event Content: In climatology , the 8.2 kiloyear event was a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present , or c. 6,200 BCE , and which lasted for the next two to four centuries . Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it , but more severe than the Little Ice Age that would follow , the 8.2 kiloyear cooling was a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum . During the event , atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb or an emission reduction of 15 % , by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale .", "qid": "246", "docid": "8.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 27, "score": 136928 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 28, "score": 136887 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Earth Content: The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Earth", "rank": 29, "score": 135209 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monoxide Content: Carbon monoxide ( CO ) is a colorless , odorless , and tasteless gas that is slightly less dense than air . It is toxic to hemoglobic animals ( both invertebrate and vertebrate , including humans ) when encountered in concentrations above about 35 ppm , although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities , and is thought to have some normal biological functions . In the atmosphere , it is spatially variable and short lived , having a role in the formation of ground-level ozone . Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom , connected by a triple bond that consists of two covalent bonds as well as one dative covalent bond . It is the simplest oxocarbon and is isoelectronic with the cyanide anion , the nitrosonium cation and molecular nitrogen . In coordination complexes the carbon monoxide ligand is called carbonyl .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_monoxide", "rank": 30, "score": 133184 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 31, "score": 132408 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling (disambiguation) Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that depicts the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the twentieth century . It is named after Charles David Keeling who discovered the rise in carbon dioxide concentrations and plotted the graph . Keeling may also refer to : Keeling , Virginia North Keeling Cocos ( Keeling ) Islands Surname Charles Keeling , climatologist Edward Keeling Harold Keeling John Keeling , MP Ralph Keeling , son of Charles , also climatologist William Keeling , English sea captain", "qid": "246", "docid": "Keeling_(disambiguation)", "rank": 32, "score": 132004 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 33, "score": 131523 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 34, "score": 131448 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 35, "score": 130963 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 36, "score": 129822 }, { "content": "Title: Amorphous carbonia Content: Amorphous carbonia , also called a-carbonia or a-CO2 , is an exotic amorphous solid form of carbon dioxide that is analogous to amorphous silica glass . It was first made in the laboratory in 2006 by subjecting dry ice to high pressures ( 40-48 gigapascal , or 400,000 to 480,000 atmospheres ) , in a diamond anvil cell . Amorphous carbonia is not stable at ordinary pressures -- it quickly reverts to normal CO2 . While normally carbon dioxide forms molecular crystals , where individual molecules are bound by Van der Waals forces , in amorphous carbonia a covalently bound three-dimensional network of atoms is formed , in a structure analogous to silicon dioxide or germanium dioxide glass . Mixtures of a-carbonia and a-silica may be a prospective very hard and stiff glass material stable at room temperature . Such glass may serve as protective coatings , e.g. in microelectronics . The discovery has implications for astrophysics , as interiors of massive planets may contain amorphous solid carbon dioxide .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Amorphous_carbonia", "rank": 37, "score": 128909 }, { "content": "Title: Martian polar ice caps Content: The planet Mars has two permanent polar ice caps . During a pole 's winter , it lies in continuous darkness , chilling the surface and causing the deposition of 25 -- 30 % of the atmosphere into slabs of CO2 ice ( dry ice ) . When the poles are again exposed to sunlight , the frozen CO2 sublimes , creating enormous winds that sweep off the poles as fast as 400 km/h . These seasonal actions transport large amounts of dust and water vapor , giving rise to Earth-like frost and large cirrus clouds . Clouds of water-ice were photographed by the Opportunity rover in 2004 . The caps at both poles consist primarily of water ice . Frozen carbon dioxide accumulates as a comparatively thin layer about one metre thick on the north cap in the northern winter only , while the south cap has a permanent dry ice cover about 8 m thick . The northern polar cap has a diameter of about 1000 km during the northern Mars summer , and contains about 1.6 million cubic km of ice , which if spread evenly on the cap would be 2 km thick . ( This compares to a volume of 2.85 million cubic km ( km3 ) for the Greenland ice sheet . ) The southern polar cap has a diameter of 350 km and a thickness of 3 km . The total volume of ice in the south polar cap plus the adjacent layered deposits has also been estimated at 1.6 million cubic km . Both polar caps show spiral troughs , which recent analysis of SHARAD ice penetrating radar has shown are a result of roughly perpendicular katabatic winds that spiral due to the Coriolis Effect . The seasonal frosting of some areas near the southern ice cap results in the formation of transparent 1 m thick slabs of dry ice above the ground . With the arrival of spring , sunlight warms the subsurface and pressure from subliming CO2 builds up under a slab , elevating and ultimately rupturing it . This leads to geyser-like eruptions of CO2 gas mixed with dark basaltic sand or dust . This process is rapid , observed happening in the space of a few days , weeks or months , a rate of change rather unusual in geology -- especially for Mars . The gas rushing underneath a slab to the site of a geyser carves a spider-like pattern of radial channels under the ice .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Martian_polar_ice_caps", "rank": 38, "score": 128857 }, { "content": "Title: Azolla event Content: The Azolla event occurred in the middle Eocene epoch , around , when blooms of the freshwater fern Azolla are thought to have happened in the Arctic Ocean . As they sank to the stagnant sea floor , they were incorporated into the sediment ; the resulting draw-down of carbon dioxide has been speculated to have helped transform the planet from a `` greenhouse Earth '' state , hot enough for turtles and palm trees to prosper at the poles , to the icehouse Earth it has been since .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Azolla_event", "rank": 39, "score": 128020 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 40, "score": 127911 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere Content: An atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other material body , that is held in place by the gravity of that body . An atmosphere is more likely to be retained if the gravity it is subject to is high and the temperature of the atmosphere is low . The atmosphere of Earth is mostly composed of nitrogen ( about 78 % ) , oxygen ( about 21 % ) , argon ( about 0.9 % ) with carbon dioxide and other gases in trace amounts . Oxygen is used by most organisms for respiration , nitrogen is fixed by bacteria and lightning to produce ammonia used in the construction of nucleotides and amino acids and carbon dioxide is used by plants , algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis . The atmosphere helps protect living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation , solar wind and cosmic rays . Its current composition is the product of billions of years of biochemical modification of the paleoatmosphere by living organisms . The term stellar atmosphere describes the outer region of a star , and typically includes the portion starting from the opaque photosphere outwards . Stars with sufficiently low temperatures may form compound molecules in their outer atmosphere .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Atmosphere", "rank": 41, "score": 127750 }, { "content": "Title: Interstellar ice Content: Interstellar ice consists of grains of volatiles in the ice phase that form in the interstellar medium . Ice and dust grains form the primary material out of which the Solar System was formed . Grains of ice are found in the dense regions of molecular clouds , where new stars are formed . Temperatures in these regions can be as low as 10 K , allowing molecules that collide with grains to form an icy mantle . Thereafter , atoms undergo thermal motion across the surface , eventually forming bonds with other atoms . This results in the formation of water and methanol . Indeed , the ices are dominated by water and methanol , as well as ammonia , carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide . Frozen formaldehyde and molecular hydrogen may also be present . Found in lower abundances are nitriles , ketones , esters and carbonyl sulfide . The mantles of interstellar ice grains are generally amorphous , only becoming crystalline in the presence of a star . The composition of interstellar ice can be determined through its infrared spectrum . As starlight passes through a molecular cloud containing ice , molecules in the cloud absorb energy . This adsorption occurs at the characteristic frequencies of vibration of the gas and dust . Ice features in the cloud are relatively prominently in this spectra , and the composition of the ice can be determined by comparison with samples of ice materials on Earth . In the sites directly observable from Earth , around 60 -- 70 % of the interstellar ice consists of water , which displays a strong emission at 3.05 μm from stretching of the O -- H bond . In September 2012 , NASA scientists reported that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ( PAHs ) , subjected to interstellar medium ( ISM ) conditions , are transformed , through hydrogenation , oxygenation and hydroxylation , to more complex organics - `` a step along the path toward amino acids and nucleotides , the raw materials of proteins and DNA , respectively '' . Further , as a result of these transformations , the PAHs lose their spectroscopic signature which could be one of the reasons `` for the lack of PAH detection in interstellar ice grains , particularly the outer regions of cold , dense clouds or the upper molecular layers of protoplanetary disks . ''", "qid": "246", "docid": "Interstellar_ice", "rank": 42, "score": 127441 }, { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 43, "score": 126881 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "246", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 44, "score": 126690 }, { "content": "Title: Steptoean positive carbon isotope excursion Content: The Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion ( SPICE ) was a geological event which occurred about 500 million years ago at the end of the Cambrian Period . The SPICE event was a sudden reversal of the anoxia ( lack of oxygen ) that had steadily spread throughout the oceans during the Cambrian which also affected the atmosphere . After the SPICE event , oxygen levels recovered and levels in the atmosphere may have risen as high as 30 % , higher than the 21 % of the atmosphere that prevails today . The sudden increase in oxygen led to an explosion of life across the globe .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Steptoean_positive_carbon_isotope_excursion", "rank": 45, "score": 126653 }, { "content": "Title: Suess effect Content: The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Suess_effect", "rank": 46, "score": 126471 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 47, "score": 126445 }, { "content": "Title: Charles Thilorier Content: Charles-Saint-Ange Thilorier was a student at the École polytechnique in the class / year of 1815 , who was mistakenly believed to have been the first person to create solid carbon dioxide ( `` dry ice '' ) . Actually , a French inventor , Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier ( 1790 -- 1844 ) , discovered dry ice . Unfortunately , in almost all of his technical articles , Adrien Thilorier gave his name simply as `` Thilorier '' ; similarly , whenever others referred to him in technical articles , his name was also given only as `` Thilorier '' . This impeded efforts by scholars to identify him subsequently . The confusion was compounded when Paul Thénard wrote a biography of his father , Louis Thénard , a French chemist : In 1835 , Adrien Thilorier had created dry ice by spraying liquid carbon dioxide into a glass vessel . He had thought that the dry ice was merely snow ; that is , water vapor from the atmosphere which had condensed as a result of the cold that the evaporation of the liquid carbon dioxide had produced . Louis Thénard had explained to Thilorier that his `` snow '' was actually solidified carbon dioxide . In a footnote of Louis Thénard 's biography , Paul Thénard identified the `` Thilorier '' who discovered dry ice as `` Charles-Saint-Ange Thilorier '' , a student at the École polytechnique in the class of 1815 . This ( mistaken ) identification was mentioned by Duane H. D. Roller , a graduate student at Harvard University , in a paper that was published in 1952 . Consequently , many sources claim that Charles-Saint-Ange Thilorier discovered dry ice . Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier was an employee of the French Post Office in Paris who invented , among other things , an oil lamp , a gas compressor , and an apparatus for producing liquid carbon dioxide . It was a French scholar who revealed that he had discovered dry ice . During the 1960s , Madeleine Ambrière-Fargeaud , a scholar in France , was trying to identify the person who served as the model for a `` mad scientist '' character , Balthazar Claës , in Honoré de Balzac 's novel La Recherche de l'absolu ( The Quest of the Absolute ) . Her research suggested that Claës was inspired ( in part ) by Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier . By 2003 , Joost Mertens , a Dutch historian of science , had verified many of the findings that Ms. Ambrière-Fargeaud had made about Thilorier . That `` Thilorier '' is actually Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier is proved by French government documents , especially patents . In 1826 , he was granted a patent for a `` hydrostatic lamp '' ; the patent lists his name as `` Thilorier ( Adrien-Jean-Pierre ) '' of Paris . His 1831 patent for a gas compressor also lists his name as `` Thilorier ( Adrien-Jean-Pierre ) '' and describes him as an employee of the `` Administration des postes '' ( i.e. , the Post Office ) in Paris . In 1832 , the Bulletin of the laws of the kingdom of France also lists him as `` Thilorier ( Adrien-Jean-Pierre ) '' and as an employee of the Post Office , who resided at number 21 on the Place Vendôme in Paris , and as the inventor of a gas compressor .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Charles_Thilorier", "rank": 48, "score": 125802 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 49, "score": 125374 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 50, "score": 124882 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 51, "score": 124214 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 52, "score": 123902 }, { "content": "Title: Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide Content: Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide are used to help answer questions about Earth 's carbon cycle . There are a variety of active and planned instruments for measuring carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere from space . The first satellite mission designed to measure was the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases ( IMG ) on board the ADEOS I satellite in 1996 . This mission lasted less than a year . Since then , additional space-based measurements have begun , including those from two high-precision ( better than 0.3 % or 1 ppm ) satellites ( GOSAT and OCO-2 ) . Different instrument designs may reflect different primary missions .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Space-based_measurements_of_carbon_dioxide", "rank": 53, "score": 123640 }, { "content": "Title: Free-air concentration enrichment Content: Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment ( FACE ) is a method used by ecologists and plant biologists that raises the concentration of in a specified area and allows the response of plant growth to be measured . Experiments using FACE are required because most studies looking at the effect of elevated concentrations have been conducted in labs and where there are many missing factors including plant competition . Measuring the effect of elevated using FACE is a better way of estimating how plant growth will change in the future as the concentration rises in the atmosphere . FACE also allows the effect of elevated on plants that can not be grown in small spaces ( trees for example ) to be measured .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Free-air_concentration_enrichment", "rank": 54, "score": 123575 }, { "content": "Title: Controlled atmosphere Content: A controlled atmosphere is an agricultural storage method in which the concentrations of oxygen , carbon dioxide and nitrogen , as well as the temperature and humidity of a storage room are regulated . Both dry commodities and fresh fruit and vegetables can be stored in controlled atmospheres .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Controlled_atmosphere", "rank": 55, "score": 123531 }, { "content": "Title: Paleoatmosphere Content: A paleoatmosphere ( or palaeoatmosphere ) is an atmosphere , particularly that of Earth , at some unspecified time in the geological past . The composition of Earth 's paleoatmosphere can be inferred today from the study of the abundance of proxy materials such as iron oxides , charcoal and the stomatal density of fossil leaves in geological deposits . Although today 's atmosphere is dominated by nitrogen ( about 78 % ) , oxygen ( about 21 % ) , and argon ( about 1 % ) , the pre-biological atmosphere is thought to have been a highly reducing atmosphere , having virtually no free oxygen , virtually no argon , which is generated by the radioactive decay of 40K , and to have been dominated by nitrogen , carbon dioxide and methane . Appreciable concentrations of free oxygen were probably not present until about 2,500 million years ago ( Ma ) . After the Great Oxygenation Event , quantities of oxygen produced as a by-product of photosynthesis by cyanobacteria or blue-green algae began to exceed the quantities of chemically reducing materials , notably dissolved iron . By the beginning of the Cambrian period 541 Ma , free oxygen concentrations had increased sufficiently to enable the evolution of multicellular organisms . Following the subsequent appearance , rapid evolution and radiation of land plants , which covered much of the Earth 's land surface , beginning about 450 Ma , oxygen concentrations reached and later exceeded current values during the early Carboniferous , when atmospheric carbon dioxide was drawn down below current concentrations . This may have contributed to the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse during the Moscovian and Kasimovian ages of the Pennsylvanian subperiod .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Paleoatmosphere", "rank": 56, "score": 122841 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 57, "score": 122693 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sequestration Content: Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_sequestration", "rank": 58, "score": 122080 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 59, "score": 122028 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Pluto Content: The atmosphere of Pluto is the tenuous layer of gases surrounding Pluto . It consists mainly of nitrogen ( N2 ) , with minor amounts of methane ( CH4 ) and carbon monoxide ( CO ) , all of which are vaporized from their ices on Pluto 's surface . It contains layered haze , probably consisting of heavier compounds which form from these gases due to high-energy radiation . The atmosphere of Pluto is notable for its strong and not completely clear seasonal changes caused by peculiarities of the orbital and axial rotation of Pluto . Surface pressure of the atmosphere of Pluto , measured by New Horizons in 2015 , is about , roughly 100,000 times less than Earth 's atmospheric pressure . Temperature on the surface is 40 to , but it quickly grows with altitude due to methane-generated greenhouse effect . Near the altitude it reaches 110 K , and then slowly decreases . Pluto is the only trans-Neptunian object with a known atmosphere . Its closest analog is the atmosphere of Triton , although in some aspects it resembles even the atmosphere of Mars . The atmosphere of Pluto has been studied since the 1980s by way of earth-based observation of occultations of stars by Pluto and spectroscopy . In 2015 , it was studied from a close distance by the spacecraft New Horizons .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Pluto", "rank": 60, "score": 121511 }, { "content": "Title: Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility Content: The Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility ( ZOTTO ) is a climatic research station in the Siberian taiga in the proximity of Zotino , Russia , established and operated by the Max Planck Society and the Sukachev Institute of Forest , it serves as a long-term observing platform to be operated for at least 30 years . Far from human influences , researchers aim to determine how the concentration of greenhouse gases , aerosols , and the rising temperatures of the terrestrial atmosphere affect each other mutually . The heart of the station is a 302 m tower on which precision instruments measure the concentration of carbon dioxide , methane and other greenhouse gases . The measurement data are processed directly in the station at the foot of the tower and then transferred to the Institute of Forest , in Krasnoyarsk , Russia , as well as to the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena , Germany . The station has been operational since September 2006 . It extended the project Terrestrial Carbon Observing System and was funded by the 5th framework programme of the European Union , uniting 8 European and 4 Russian partners . A main conclusion of the project is that Siberian forests constitute a substantially smaller carbon-sink than so far assumed .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Zotino_Tall_Tower_Observation_Facility", "rank": 61, "score": 121494 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 62, "score": 120711 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 63, "score": 120521 }, { "content": "Title: Black carbon Content: Chemically , black carbon ( BC ) is a component of fine particulate matter ( PM ≤ 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter ) . Black carbon consists of pure carbon in several linked forms . It is formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels , biofuel , and biomass , and is emitted in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot . Black carbon causes human morbidity and premature mortality . In climatology , black carbon is a climate forcing agent . Black carbon warms the Earth by absorbing sunlight and heating the atmosphere and by reducing albedo when deposited on snow and ice ( direct effects ) and indirectly by interaction with clouds , with the total forcing of 1.1 W/m2 . Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks , whereas carbon dioxide has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years . The term black carbon is also used in soil sciences and geology , referring either to deposited atmospheric black carbon or to directly incorporated black carbon from vegetation fires . Especially in the tropics , black carbon in soils significantly contributes to fertility as it is able to absorb important plant nutrients .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Black_carbon", "rank": 64, "score": 120123 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 65, "score": 119918 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 66, "score": 119876 }, { "content": "Title: Dry ice color show Content: Dry ice color show is the formation of carbonic acid ( H2CO3 ) by the reaction of dry ice , the solid form of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and water , which lower the pH to the acidic solution . By applying Universal Indicator to the solution , the changing of pH can be indicated as the color of the solution changes into the contrast color . This experiment is usually conducted as a classroom demonstration of pH and properties of carbon dioxide since the materials required are handful and prepared easily .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Dry_ice_color_show", "rank": 67, "score": 119576 }, { "content": "Title: Timeline of glaciation Content: There have been five known ice ages in the Earth 's history , with the Earth experiencing the Quaternary Ice Age during the present time . Within ice ages , there exist periods of more severe glacial conditions and more temperate referred to as glacial periods and interglacial periods , respectively . The Earth is currently in such an interglacial period of the Quaternary Ice Age , with the last glacial period of the Quaternary having ended approximately 11,700 years ago with the start of the Holocene epoch . Based on climate proxies , paleoclimatologists study the different climate states originating from glaciation .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Timeline_of_glaciation", "rank": 68, "score": 119310 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 69, "score": 119090 }, { "content": "Title: Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier Content: Adrien-Jean-Pierre Thilorier ( 16 February 1790 -- 2 December 1844 ) was a French inventor who was the first person to produce solid carbon dioxide ( `` dry ice '' ) .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Adrien-Jean-Pierre_Thilorier", "rank": 70, "score": 118894 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 71, "score": 118772 }, { "content": "Title: Younger Dryas impact hypothesis Content: The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis or Clovis comet hypothesis originally proposed that a large air burst or earth impact of one or more comets initiated the Younger Dryas cold period about 12,900 BP calibrated ( 10,900 14C uncalibrated ) years ago . The hypothesis has been contested by research showing that most of the conclusions can not be repeated by other scientists , and criticized because of misinterpretation of data and the lack of confirmatory evidence . The current impact hypothesis states that the air burst ( s ) or impact ( s ) of a swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comet fragments set areas of the North American continent on fire , causing the extinction of most of the megafauna in North America and the demise of the North American Clovis culture after the last glacial period . The Younger Dryas ice age lasted for about 1,200 years before the climate warmed again . This swarm is hypothesized to have exploded above or possibly on the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the region of the Great Lakes , though no impact crater has yet been identified and no physical model by which such a swarm could form or explode in the air has been proposed . Nevertheless , the proponents suggest that it would be physically possible for such an air burst to have been similar to , but orders of magnitude larger than , the Tunguska event of 1908 . The hypothesis proposed that animal and human life in North America not directly killed by the blast or the resulting coast-to-coast wildfires would have likely starved on the burned surface of the continent .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis", "rank": 72, "score": 118484 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 73, "score": 118213 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 74, "score": 118038 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon hexoxide Content: Carbon hexoxide or carbon hexaoxide is an oxide of carbon with an unusually large quantity of oxygen . The molecule has been produced and studied at cryogenic temperatures . The molecule is important in atmospheric chemistry and in the study of cold ices in the outer solar system and interstellar space . The substance could form and be present on Ganymede or Triton , moons in the outer solar system . The molecule consists of a six membered ring with five oxygen and one carbon atom , and one oxygen with a double bond with the carbon .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_hexoxide", "rank": 75, "score": 117954 }, { "content": "Title: Coal forest Content: Coal forests were the vast swathes of wetlands that covered much of the Earth 's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian ) and Permian times . As vegetable matter from these forests decayed , enormous deposits of peat accumulated , which later changed into coal . Much of the carbon in the peat deposits produced by coal forests came from photosynthetic splitting of existing carbon dioxide , which released the accompanying split-off oxygen into the atmosphere . This process may have greatly increased the oxygen level , possibly as high as about 35 % , making the air more easily breathable by animals with inefficient respiratory systems , as indicated by the size of Meganeura compared to modern dragonflies . Coal forests covered tropical Euramerica ( Europe , eastern North America , northwesternmost Africa ) and Cathaysia ( mainly China ) . Climate change devastated these tropical rainforests during the Carboniferous period . The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse was caused by a cooler drier climate that initially fragmented , then collapsed the rainforest ecosystem . During most of the rest of Carboniferous times , the coal forests were mainly restricted to refugia in North America ( such as the Appalachian and Illinois coal basins ) and central Europe . At the very end of the Carboniferous period , the coal forests underwent a resurgence , expanding mainly in eastern Asia , notably China ; they never recovered fully in Euramerica . The Chinese coal forests continued to flourish well into Permian times . This resurgence of the coal forests in very late Carboniferous times seems to have coincided with a lowering of global temperatures and a return of extensive polar ice in southern Gondwana , perhaps due to lessening of the greenhouse effect as the massive coal deposition process abstracted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Coal_forest", "rank": 76, "score": 117605 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Ic Content: Ice Ic ( pronounced `` ice one c '' or `` ice icy '' ) is a metastable cubic crystalline variant of ice . H. König was the first to identify and deduce the structure of ice Ic . The oxygen atoms in ice Ic are arranged in a diamond structure and is extremely similar to ice Ih having nearly identical densities and the same lattice constant along the hexagonal puckered-planes . It forms at temperatures between 130 and 220 K ( − 140 and − 50 ° C ) upon cooling , and can exist up to 240 K upon warming , when it transforms into ice Ih . Apart from forming from supercooled water , ice Ic has also been reported to form from amorphous ice as well as from the high pressure ices II , III and V . It can form in and is occasionally present in the upper atmosphere and is believed to be responsible for the observation of Scheiner 's halo , a rare ring that occurs near 28 degrees from the Sun or the Moon . Ordinary water ice is known as ice Ih ( in the Bridgman nomenclature ) . Different types of ice , from ice II to ice XVI , have been created in the laboratory at different temperatures and pressures .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Ice_Ic", "rank": 77, "score": 117576 }, { "content": "Title: The Ice Age Content: The Ice Age may refer to : The Last glacial period , which occurred from c. 110,000 -- c. 11,700 years ago The Pleistocene , a geological epoch lasting from c. 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago and spanning the world 's most recent period of repeated glaciations . The Plio-Pleistocene , a geological pseudo-period which begins about 5 million years ago and combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events lasting from the Quaternary period to the present . For the general period of temperature reduction , see Ice age .", "qid": "246", "docid": "The_Ice_Age", "rank": 78, "score": 117508 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 79, "score": 117120 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean acidification Content: Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Seawater is slightly basic ( meaning pH > 7 ) , and the process in question is a shift towards pH-neutral conditions rather than a transition to acidic conditions ( pH < 7 ) . Ocean alkalinity is not changed by the process , or may increase over long time periods due to carbonate dissolution . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the carbon dioxide from human activity released into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes . To achieve chemical equilibrium , some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid . Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion , thus increasing ocean acidity ( H + ion concentration ) . Between 1751 and 1996 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14 , representing an increase of almost 35 % in H + ion concentration in the world 's oceans . Earth System Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogues and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and disrupt the provision of many goods and services associated with the ocean . Increasing acidity is thought to have a range of potentially harmful consequences for marine organisms , such as depressing metabolic rates and immune responses in some organisms , and causing coral bleaching . By increasing the presence of free hydrogen ions , each molecule of carbonic acid that forms in the oceans ultimately results in the conversion of two carbonate ions into bicarbonate ions . This net decrease in the amount of carbonate ions available makes it more difficult for marine calcifying organisms , such as coral and some plankton , to form biogenic calcium carbonate , and such structures become vulnerable to dissolution . Ongoing acidification of the oceans threatens food chains connected with the oceans . As members of the InterAcademy Panel , 105 science academies have issued a statement on ocean acidification recommending that by 2050 , global emissions be reduced by at least 50 % compared to the 1990 level . While ongoing ocean acidification is anthropogenic in origin , it has occurred previously in Earth 's history . The most notable example is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , which occurred approximately 56 million years ago . For reasons that are currently uncertain , massive amounts of carbon entered the ocean and atmosphere , and led to the dissolution of carbonate sediments in all ocean basins . Ocean acidification has been called the `` evil twin of global warming '' and `` the other problem '' .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Ocean_acidification", "rank": 80, "score": 117002 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary glaciation Content: The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Quaternary_glaciation", "rank": 81, "score": 116897 }, { "content": "Title: Frost line (astrophysics) Content: In astronomy or planetary science , the frost line , also known as the snow line or ice line , is the particular distance in the solar nebula from the central protostar where it is cold enough for volatile compounds such as water , ammonia , methane , carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide to condense into solid ice grains . This condensation temperature depends on the volatile substance and the partial pressure of vapor in the protostar nebula . The actual temperature and distance for the snow line of water ice depend on the physical model used to calculate it and on the theoretical solar nebula model : 170 K at 2.7 AU ( Hayashi , 1981 ) 143 K at 3.2 AU to 150 K at 3 AU ( Podolak and Zucker , 2010 ) 3.1 AU ( Martin and Livio , 2012 ) ≈ 150 K for μm-size grains and ≈ 200 K for km-size bodies ( D'Angelo and Podolak , 2015 ) The radial position of the condensation/evaporation front varies over time , as the nebula evolves . Occasionally , the term snow line is also used to represent the present distance at which water ice can be stable ( even under direct sunlight ) . This current snow line distance is different from the formation snow line distance during the formation of Solar System , and approximately equals 5 AU . The reason for the difference is that during the formation of Solar System , the solar nebula was an opaque cloud where temperature were lower close to the Sun , and the Sun itself was less energetic . After formation , the ice got buried by infalling dust and it has remained stable a few meters below the surface . If ice within 5 AU is exposed , e.g. by a crater , then it sublimates on short timescales . However , out of direct sunlight ice can remain stable on the surface of asteroids ( and the Moon ) if it is located in permanently shadowed craters , where temperature may remain very low over the age of the Solar System ( e.g. 30 -- 40 K on the Moon ) . Observations of the asteroid belt , located between Mars and Jupiter , suggest that the water snow line during formation of Solar System was located within this region . The outer asteroids are icy C-class objects ( e.g. Abe et al. 2000 ; Morbidelli et al. 2000 ) whereas the inner asteroid belt is largely devoid of water . This implies that when planetesimal formation occurred the snow line was located at around 2.7 AU from the Sun . For example , the dwarf planet Ceres with semi-major axis of 2.77 AU lies almost exactly on the lower estimation for water snow line during the formation of the Solar System . Ceres appears to have an icy mantle and may even have a water ocean below the surface . Each volatile substance has its own snow line , e.g. carbon monoxide and nitrogen , so it is important to always specify which material 's snow line is meant . The lower temperature in the nebula beyond the frost line makes many more solid grains available for accretion into planetesimals and eventually planets . The frost line therefore separates terrestrial planets from giant planets in the Solar System . However , giant planets have been found inside the frost line around several other stars ( so-called hot Jupiters ) . They are thought to have formed outside the frost line , and later migrated inwards to their current positions . Earth , which lies less than a quarter of the distance to the frost line but is not a giant planet , has adequate gravitation for keeping methane , ammonia , and water vapor from escaping it . Methane and ammonia are rare in the Earth 's atmosphere only because of their instability in an oxygen-rich atmosphere that results from life forms ( largely green plants ) whose biochemistry suggests plentiful methane and ammonia at one time , but of course liquid water and ice , which are chemically stable in such an atmosphere , form much of the surface of Earth . Researchers Rebecca Martin and Mario Livio have proposed that asteroid belts may tend to form in the vicinity of the frost line , due to nearby giant planets disrupting planet formation inside their orbit . By analysing the temperature of warm dust found around some 90 stars , they concluded that the dust ( and therefore possible asteroid belts ) was typically found close to the frost line . The term is borrowed from the notion of `` frost line '' in soil science .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Frost_line_(astrophysics)", "rank": 82, "score": 116370 }, { "content": "Title: Water on Mars Content: Almost all water on Mars today exists as ice , though it also exists in small quantities as vapor in the atmosphere and occasionally as low-volume liquid brines in shallow Martian soil . The only place where water ice is visible at the surface is at the north polar ice cap . Abundant water ice is also present beneath the permanent carbon dioxide ice cap at the Martian south pole and in the shallow subsurface at more temperate latitudes . More than five million cubic kilometers of ice have been identified at or near the surface of modern Mars , enough to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 meters . Even more ice is likely to be locked away in the deep subsurface . Some liquid water may occur transiently on the Martian surface today , but only under certain conditions . No large standing bodies of liquid water exist , because the atmospheric pressure at the surface averages just 600 Pa -- about 0.6 % of Earth 's mean sea level pressure -- and because the global average temperature is far too low ( 210 K ) , leading to either rapid evaporation ( sublimation ) or rapid freezing . Before about 3.8 billion years ago , Mars may have had a denser atmosphere and higher surface temperatures , allowing vast amounts of liquid water on the surface , possibly including a large ocean that may have covered one-third of the planet . Water has also apparently flowed across the surface for short periods at various intervals more recently in Mars ' history . On December 9 , 2013 , NASA reported that , based on evidence from the Curiosity rover studying Aeolis Palus , Gale Crater contained an ancient freshwater lake that could have been a hospitable environment for microbial life . Many lines of evidence indicate that water is abundant on Mars and has played a significant role in the planet 's geologic history . The present-day inventory of water on Mars can be estimated from spacecraft imagery , remote sensing techniques ( spectroscopic measurements , radar , etc. ) , and surface investigations from landers and rovers . Geologic evidence of past water includes enormous outflow channels carved by floods , ancient river valley networks , deltas , and lakebeds ; and the detection of rocks and minerals on the surface that could only have formed in liquid water . Numerous geomorphic features suggest the presence of ground ice ( permafrost ) and the movement of ice in glaciers , both in the recent past and present . Gullies and slope lineae along cliffs and crater walls suggest that flowing water continues to shape the surface of Mars , although to a far lesser degree than in the ancient past . Although the surface of Mars was periodically wet and could have been hospitable to microbial life billions of years ago , the current environment at the surface is dry and subfreezing , probably presenting an insurmountable obstacle for living organisms . In addition , Mars lacks a thick atmosphere , ozone layer , and magnetic field , allowing solar and cosmic radiation to strike the surface unimpeded . The damaging effects of ionizing radiation on cellular structure is another one of the prime limiting factors on the survival of life on the surface . Therefore , the best potential locations for discovering life on Mars may be in subsurface environments . On November 22 , 2016 , NASA reported finding a large amount of underground ice on the planet Mars -- the volume of water detected is equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior . Understanding water on Mars is vital to assess the planet 's potential for harboring life and for providing usable resources for future human exploration . For this reason , ` Follow the Water ' was the science theme of NASA 's Mars Exploration Program ( MEP ) in the first decade of the 21st century . Discoveries by the 2001 Mars Odyssey , Mars Exploration Rovers ( MERs ) , Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO ) , and Mars Phoenix lander have been instrumental in answering key questions about water 's abundance and distribution on Mars . The ESA 's Mars Express orbiter has also provided essential data in this quest . The Mars Odyssey , Mars Express , MER Opportunity rover , MRO , and Mars Science Lander Curiosity rover are still sending back data from Mars , and discoveries continue to be made .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Water_on_Mars", "rank": 83, "score": 115471 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "246", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 84, "score": 114864 }, { "content": "Title: North Carolina ice storm of 2002 Content: The North Carolina ice storm of 2002 caused up to an inch of freezing rain from December 4 -- 5 in central North Carolina . A total of 24 people were killed , and as many as 1.8 million people were left without electricity on December 6 . Power outages began December 4 , and power was not completely restored to until December 14 . Raleigh received the most freezing rain from a single storm since 1948 , and Bristol , Tennessee received the most ice it had seen in 28 years . The storm also produced heavy rain in both the mountains and coastal plain of North Carolina . Much of the Southern Plains and the Northeast received snow with this system . During the power outages many residents used propane and kerosene powered generators and heaters to combat the cold , with some resorting to moving charcoal grills indoors to heat their households . The increased usage of these heating methods , particularly grills led to a substantial number of cases of carbon monoxide poisoning . Varying reports allege 48 to 200 cases of poisoning . Hispanic residents were disproportionally affected by the impacts of the ice storm , sustaining 23 % of total injuries and 65 % of carbon monoxide poisonings during the storm period .", "qid": "246", "docid": "North_Carolina_ice_storm_of_2002", "rank": 85, "score": 114760 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 86, "score": 114514 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Venus Content: The atmosphere of Venus is the layer of gases surrounding Venus . It is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and is much denser and hotter than that of Earth . The temperature at the surface is 740 K ( 467 ° C , 872 ° F ) , and the pressure is 93 bar ( 9.3 MPa ) , roughly the pressure found 900 m underwater on Earth . The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid , making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible . Information about the topography has been obtained exclusively by radar imaging . Aside from carbon dioxide , the other main component is nitrogen . Other chemical compounds are present only in trace amounts . Mikhail Lomonosov was the first person to hypothesize the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 in a small observatory near his house in Saint Petersburg , Russia . Aside from the very surface layers , the atmosphere is in a state of vigorous circulation . The upper layer of troposphere exhibits a phenomenon of super-rotation , in which the atmosphere circles the planet in just four Earth days , much faster than the planet 's sidereal day of 243 days . The winds supporting super-rotation blow at a speed of 100 m/s ( ~ 360 km/h or 220 mph ) or more . Winds move at up to 60 times the speed of the planet 's rotation , while Earth 's fastest winds are only 10 % to 20 % rotation speed . On the other hand , the wind speed becomes increasingly slower as the elevation from the surface decreases , with the breeze barely reaching the speed of 10 km/h ( 2.8 m/s ) on the surface . Near the poles are anticyclonic structures called polar vortices . Each vortex is double-eyed and shows a characteristic S-shaped pattern of clouds . Above there is an intermediate layer of mesosphere which separates the troposphere from the thermosphere . The thermosphere is also characterized by strong circulation , but very different in its nature - the gases heated and partially ionized by sunlight in the sunlit hemisphere migrate to the dark hemisphere where they recombine and downwell . Unlike Earth , Venus lacks a magnetic field . Its ionosphere separates the atmosphere from outer space and the solar wind . This ionised layer excludes the solar magnetic field , giving Venus a distinct magnetic environment . This is considered Venus 's induced magnetosphere . Lighter gases , including water vapour , are continuously blown away by the solar wind through the induced magnetotail . It is speculated that the atmosphere of Venus up to around 4 billion years ago was more like that of the Earth with liquid water on the surface . A runaway greenhouse effect may have been caused by the evaporation of the surface water and subsequent rise of the levels of other greenhouse gases . Despite the harsh conditions on the surface , the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth , making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System , even more so than the surface of Mars . Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air ( 21 % oxygen , 78 % nitrogen ) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth , the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization . On January 29 , 2013 , ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of the planet Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to `` the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions . ''", "qid": "246", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Venus", "rank": 87, "score": 114501 }, { "content": "Title: Interglacial Content: An interglacial period ( or alternatively interglacial , interglaciation ) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age . The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene , about 11,700 years ago .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Interglacial", "rank": 88, "score": 114456 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic geoengineering Content: Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Arctic_geoengineering", "rank": 89, "score": 113851 }, { "content": "Title: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Content: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Bio-energy_with_carbon_capture_and_storage", "rank": 90, "score": 113641 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Cold Reversal Content: The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Antarctic_Cold_Reversal", "rank": 91, "score": 113384 }, { "content": "Title: The Carbon War Content: The Carbon War : Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era is a 1999 book by former oil geologist Jeremy Leggett about global warming .", "qid": "246", "docid": "The_Carbon_War", "rank": 92, "score": 113374 }, { "content": "Title: Idealized greenhouse model Content: The surface of the Sun radiates light and heat at approximately 5,500 ° C . The Earth is much cooler and so radiates heat back away from itself at much longer wavelengths , mostly in the infrared range . The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth 's atmosphere , including carbon dioxide and water vapour , are transparent to the high-frequency , high-energy solar radiation , but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving the surface of the earth . Thus heat is easily let in , but is partially trapped by these gases as it tries to leave . Rather than get hotter and hotter , Kirchhoff 's law of thermal radiation says that the gases of the atmosphere also have to re-emit the infrared energy that they absorb , and they do so , also at long infrared wavelengths , both upwards into space as well as downwards back towards the Earth 's surface . In the long-term , thermal equilibrium is reached when all the heat energy arriving on the planet is leaving again at the same rate . In this idealized model , the greenhouse gases cause the surface of the planet to be warmer than it would be without them , in order for the required amount of heat energy finally to be radiated out into space from the top of the atmosphere . The greenhouse effect can be illustrated with an idealized planet . This is a common `` textbook model '' : the planet will have a constant surface temperature Ts and an atmosphere with constant temperature Ta . For diagrammatic clarity , a gap can be depicted between the atmosphere and the surface . Alternatively , Ts could be interpreted as a temperature representative of the surface and the lower atmosphere , and Ta could be interpreted as the temperature of the upper atmosphere . In order to justify that Ta and Ts remain constant over the planet , strong ocean and atmospheric currents can be imagined to provide plentiful lateral mixing . Furthermore , any daily or seasonal cycles in temperature are assumed to be insignificant .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Idealized_greenhouse_model", "rank": 93, "score": 113320 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon trioxide Content: Carbon trioxide ( CO3 ) is an unstable oxide of carbon ( an oxocarbon ) . Three possible isomers of carbon trioxide , with molecular symmetry point groups Cs , D3h , and C2v , have been most studied by theoretical methods , and the C2v state has been shown to be the ground state of the molecule . Carbon trioxide should not be confused with the stable carbonate ion ( CO32 − ) . Carbon trioxide can be produced , for example , in the drift zone of a negative corona discharge by reactions between carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and the atomic oxygen ( O ) created from molecular oxygen by free electrons in the plasma . Another reported method is photolysis of ozone O3 dissolved in liquid CO2 , or in CO2/SF6 mixtures at -45 ° C , irradiated with light of 2537 Å . The formation of CO3 is inferred but it appears to decay spontaneously by the route 2CO3 → 2CO2 + O2 with a lifetime much shorter than 1 minute . Carbon trioxide can be made by blowing ozone at dry ice ( solid CO2 ) , and it has also been detected in reactions between carbon monoxide ( CO ) and molecular oxygen ( O2 ) .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_trioxide", "rank": 94, "score": 113032 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon pentoxide Content: Carbon pentaoxide or carbon pentoxide is an unstable molecular oxide of carbon . The molecule has been produced and studied at cryogenic temperatures . The molecule is important in atmospheric chemistry and in the study of cold ices in the outer solar system and interstellar space . The substance could form and be present on Ganymede or Triton , moons in the outer solar system . The molecule has a C2 symmetry . It consists of a five membered ring with one carbon and four oxygen atoms . A fifth oxygen atom has a double bond to the carbon . Calculation has resulted in a theoretical structure . The pentagon is not regular , but varies in the length of its sides and angles . The distance between the oxygen atoms that are not attached to carbon is 1.406 Å , whereas the distance between one of these atoms and an oxygen attached to carbon is 1.457 Å . The carbon oxygen bond length is 1.376 Å . The double carbon to oxygen bond is the shortest at 1.180 Å . There is no carbon-to-carbon bond as there is only one carbon atom . The OOO bond angle is 100.2 ° and the OOC angle is 109.1 ° . The OCO bond angle is 125.4 ° .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Carbon_pentoxide", "rank": 95, "score": 112700 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 96, "score": 112664 }, { "content": "Title: European Climate Exchange Content: The European Climate Exchange ( ECX ) manages the product development and marketing for ECX Carbon Financial Instruments ( ECX CFIs ) , listed and admitted for trading on the ICE Futures Europe electronic platform . It is no longer a subsidiary of the Chicago Climate Exchange but rather a sister company . Both companies are owned by Climate Exchange Plc a holding company listed on the London Stock Exchange 's AIM market . ECX / ICE Futures is the most liquid , pan-European platform for carbon emissions trading , with its futures contract based on the underlying EU Allowances ( EUAs ) and Certified Emissions Allowances ( CERs ) attracting over 80 % of the exchange-traded volume in the European market . ECX contracts ( EUA and CER Futures , options and spot contracts ) are standardised exchange-traded products and all trades are cleared by ICE Clear Europe ( LCH.Clearnet was the designated clearing house prior to November 2008 ) . More than 100 leading businesses , including global companies such as Barclays , BP , Newedge , E.ON UK , Endesa , Fortis , Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley and Shell have signed up for membership to trade ECX products . In addition , several hundred clients can access the market daily via banks and brokers in a process called ` order-routing ' without having to be a member themselves . ECX is a member of the Climate Exchange Plc group of companies , founded by Richard Sandor . Other member companies include the Chicago Climate Exchange ( `` CCX '' ) and IFEX . Climate Exchange Plc is listed on AIM on the London Stock Exchange , and was bought in April 2010 by IntercontinentalExchange ( ICE ) . The current Chief Executive is Patrick Birley , son of archaeologist Robin Birley .", "qid": "246", "docid": "European_Climate_Exchange", "rank": 97, "score": 112286 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 98, "score": 112284 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 99, "score": 111582 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "246", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 100, "score": 111547 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 1, "score": 168404 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 2, "score": 159827 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 3, "score": 143925 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 4, "score": 143386 }, { "content": "Title: Water vapor Content: Water vapor , water vapour or aqueous vapor is the gaseous phase of water . It is one state of water within the hydrosphere . Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from the sublimation of ice . Unlike other forms of water , water vapor is invisible . Under typical atmospheric conditions , water vapor is continuously generated by evaporation and removed by condensation . It is lighter than air and triggers convection currents that can lead to clouds . Being a component of Earth 's hydrosphere and hydrologic cycle , it is particularly abundant in Earth 's atmosphere where it is also a potent greenhouse gas along with other gases such as carbon dioxide and methane . Use of water vapor , as steam , has been important to humans for cooking and as a major component in energy production and transport systems since the industrial revolution . Water vapor is a relatively common atmospheric constituent , present even in the solar atmosphere as well as every planet in the Solar System and many astronomical objects including natural satellites , comets and even large asteroids . Likewise the detection of extrasolar water vapor would indicate a similar distribution in other planetary systems . Water vapor is significant in that it can be indirect evidence supporting the presence of extraterrestrial liquid water in the case of some planetary mass objects .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Water_vapor", "rank": 5, "score": 141462 }, { "content": "Title: Landfill gas Content: Landfill gas is a complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill . Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane , with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide . Trace amounts of other volatile organic compounds comprise the remainder ( < 1 % ) . These trace gases include a large array of species , mainly simple hydrocarbons . Landfill gases have an influence on climate change . The major components are CO2 and methane , both of which are greenhouse gas . In terms of global warming potential , methane is over 25 times more detrimental to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide . Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the US .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Landfill_gas", "rank": 6, "score": 140035 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 7, "score": 136276 }, { "content": "Title: Fugitive emissions Content: Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Fugitive_emissions", "rank": 8, "score": 133001 }, { "content": "Title: Methane emissions Content: Global methane emissions are major part of the global greenhouse gas emissions . Methane in the atmosphere has a 100-year global warming potential of 34 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Methane_emissions", "rank": 9, "score": 128510 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Earth Content: The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Earth", "rank": 10, "score": 127834 }, { "content": "Title: Vapour-pressure deficit Content: Vapour-pressure deficit , or VPD , is the difference ( deficit ) between the amount of moisture in the air and how much moisture the air can hold when it is saturated . Once air becomes saturated , water will condense out to form clouds , dew or films of water over leaves . It is this last instance that makes VPD important for greenhouse regulation . If a film of water forms on a plant leaf , it becomes far more susceptible to rot . On the other hand , as the VPD increases , the plant needs to draw more water from its roots . In the case of cuttings , the plant may dry out and die . For this reason the ideal range for VPD in a greenhouse is from 0.45 kPa to 1.25 kPa , ideally sitting at around 0.85 kPa . As a general rule , most plants grow well at VPDs of between 0.8 and 0.95 kPa . A series of membership functions for defining optimality degree of VPD at different light condition and growth stages of greenhouse tomato can be found in the work of Shamshiri . In ecology , it is the difference between the actual water vapour pressure and the saturation water vapour pressure at a particular temperature . Unlike relative humidity , vapour-pressure deficit has a simple nearly straight-line relationship to the rate of evapotranspiration and other measures of evaporation .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Vapour-pressure_deficit", "rank": 11, "score": 127339 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 12, "score": 125936 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 13, "score": 125835 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 14, "score": 125018 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 15, "score": 123495 }, { "content": "Title: Trace gas Content: A trace gas is a gas which makes up less than 1 % by volume of the Earth 's atmosphere , and it includes all gases except nitrogen ( 78.1 % ) and oxygen ( 20.9 % ) . The most abundant trace gas at 0.934 % is argon . Water vapor also occurs in the atmosphere with highly variable abundance .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Trace_gas", "rank": 16, "score": 123027 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries ranked by greenhouse-gas emissions per capita in 2000 . It is based on data for carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , perfluorocarbon , hydrofluorocarbon and sulfur hexafluoride emissions compiled by the World Resources Institute ( WRI ) from a variety of sources , including CDIAC and the US Environmental Protection Agency . Bunker-fuel emissions are not included . Two sets of per capita emissions are given , one with an estimate of the effects of land-use change ( for example , cutting down forests ) and one without . The former is based on regional estimates in Houghton ( 2003 ) . Difficulties with determining rates of deforestation and the magnitude of carbon stocks held by the remaining forests and with distributing regional carbon fluxes among individual countries mean that the land-use change components have a large margin of error , perhaps as large as + / -150 % in some cases . They are included here because , although difficult to quantify accurately at a country level , land-use change is a significant contributor to global warming . The WRI estimates that it accounted for almost a fifth of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 . For 2005 the data for a large number of countries only includes emissions ( see note 12 . )", "qid": "248", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 17, "score": 120917 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 18, "score": 119733 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 19, "score": 119541 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in China Content: The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Climate_change_in_China", "rank": 20, "score": 119356 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 21, "score": 119093 }, { "content": "Title: Fluorinated gases Content: Fluorinated gases ( F-gases ) are man-made gases that can stay in the atmosphere for centuries and contribute to a global greenhouse effect . There are four types : hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) , sulfur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) and nitrogen trifluoride ( NF3 ) .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Fluorinated_gases", "rank": 22, "score": 118956 }, { "content": "Title: SathyabamaSat Content: SathyabamaSat is a micro experimental satellite developed by students and faculty of Sathyabama University , Chennai to collect data on greenhouse gases ( Water vapor , Carbon monoxide , Carbon dioxide , Methane and Hydrogen fluoride ) . It was launched along with the Cartosat-2C satellite atop PSLV-C34 . It was launched on June 22nd , 2016 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "SathyabamaSat", "rank": 23, "score": 118437 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse effect Content: The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_effect", "rank": 24, "score": 118379 }, { "content": "Title: Methane Content: Methane ( -LSB- ˈmɛθeɪn -RSB- or -LSB- ˈmiːθeɪn -RSB- ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula ( one atom of carbon and four atoms of hydrogen ) . It is a group 14 hydride and the simplest alkane , and is the main constituent of natural gas . The relative abundance of methane on Earth makes it an attractive fuel , though capturing and storing it poses challenges due to its gaseous state under normal conditions for temperature and pressure . Natural methane is found both below ground and under the sea floor . When it reaches the surface and the atmosphere , it is known as atmospheric methane . The Earth 's atmospheric methane concentration has increased by about 150 % since 1750 , and it accounts for 20 % of the total radiative forcing from all of the long-lived and globally mixed greenhouse gases ( these gases do n't include water vapor which is by far the largest component of the greenhouse effect ) .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Methane", "rank": 25, "score": 118315 }, { "content": "Title: German response to Kyoto Protocol Content: Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany . Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states . As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms . In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible . Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .", "qid": "248", "docid": "German_response_to_Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 26, "score": 117482 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 27, "score": 116709 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions Content: This is a list of countries by total greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2010 . It is based on data for carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , perfluorocarbon , hydrofluorocarbon , and sulfur hexafluoride emissions compiled by the World Resources Institute . The emissions data shown below do not include land-use change and forestry .", "qid": "248", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions", "rank": 28, "score": 116213 }, { "content": "Title: ECOCITIES (software) Content: All member states of the European Union are bound to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions . For example , the EU climate and energy package requires member states to improve their energy efficiency by 20 % , increase - renewable energy production by 20 % and reduce their emissions by 20 % . With about 40 % of CO2 emissions heating , cooling and hot water production in buildings is one of the largest greenhouse gas producers . At the same time the building sector has the largest potential for energy savings . In their effort to lead a change towards greater energy efficiency and a reduction of greenhouse gas , many companies , cities and municipalities are in the process of developing low carbon action plans . However , the costs for developing optimal action plans and their continuous monitoring and optimization are very high , thus , often hindered by the tense financial situation , especially of cities and municipalities . With significant economic and environmental downsides ; the consequences are additional costs due to the non-compliance to the national and EU emission goals and untapped energy saving potential . ECOCITIES is an energy optimization system for building portfolios combining and extending the benefits of Energy Management Software ( EMS ) , Computer-aided Facility Management ( CAFM ) software and building portfolio management software . It integrates building administration and monitoring , energy accounting and building portfolio optimization . Thereby , it supports the definition of low carbon action plans in terms of environmental impact ( e.g. , carbon footprint , energy efficiency ) and financial impact ( e.g. , investment costs , running , costs ) . The system considers the following options for each building and the resulting ( inter - ) dependencies : energy-efficient building configurations ( e.g. , the compatibility of building components and its contribution to the energy efficiency level ) , energy used at the production and distribution of building components ( i.e. , gray energy ) , environmental impact ( e.g. , CO2 emissions ) , financial constraints , such as ( governmental ) funding and limited long term loans , legal constraints , e.g. , building codes , national and international standards , energy consumption for the operation of buildings , i.e. , heating , ventilation , and air conditioning ( HVAC ) as well as the electricity demand , energy production , storage and load shifting between buildings in combination with renewable energy production ( solar PV and thermal , Micro combined heat and power ) and conversion . energy flows between a building 's on-site networks ( Heating/Cooling and low voltage networks ) , the micro networks on neighborhood level and the city-wide energy networks ( district heating and district cooling networks , mid-voltage distribution networks ) , local typology ( position of buildings , energy networks ) . ECOCITIES calculates all energy - and cost-efficient development scenarios , visualizes them on the screen and allows decision makers to interactively explore the consequences of their actions ( e.g. , what are the citywide costs and the corresponding CO2 reductions of introducing a neighborhood-scale combined heat and power plant ) . ECOCITIES is an enabler for the realization of energy goals and provides synergies with existing endeavors of achieving national and European energy goals . On an operational level , ECOCITIES supports the following processes : Administration and integrated optimization of the entire building portfolio . Energy accounting and monitoring for all buildings . Identification , evaluation and definition of energy efficiency strategies ( low carbon action plans ) . Continuous monitoring , review and optimization of energy efficiency strategies ( low carbon action plans ) . Ensure the alignment of individual initiatives with the overall energy strategy of the company/city , e.g. , planning the cost - and energy efficient integration of new or refurbished single buildings , groups of buildings or entire neighborhoods into a new or existing energy efficiency strategy . Continuous monitoring of the performance related to the contribution to national and European energy goals .", "qid": "248", "docid": "ECOCITIES_(software)", "rank": 29, "score": 115837 }, { "content": "Title: Idealized greenhouse model Content: The surface of the Sun radiates light and heat at approximately 5,500 ° C . The Earth is much cooler and so radiates heat back away from itself at much longer wavelengths , mostly in the infrared range . The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth 's atmosphere , including carbon dioxide and water vapour , are transparent to the high-frequency , high-energy solar radiation , but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving the surface of the earth . Thus heat is easily let in , but is partially trapped by these gases as it tries to leave . Rather than get hotter and hotter , Kirchhoff 's law of thermal radiation says that the gases of the atmosphere also have to re-emit the infrared energy that they absorb , and they do so , also at long infrared wavelengths , both upwards into space as well as downwards back towards the Earth 's surface . In the long-term , thermal equilibrium is reached when all the heat energy arriving on the planet is leaving again at the same rate . In this idealized model , the greenhouse gases cause the surface of the planet to be warmer than it would be without them , in order for the required amount of heat energy finally to be radiated out into space from the top of the atmosphere . The greenhouse effect can be illustrated with an idealized planet . This is a common `` textbook model '' : the planet will have a constant surface temperature Ts and an atmosphere with constant temperature Ta . For diagrammatic clarity , a gap can be depicted between the atmosphere and the surface . Alternatively , Ts could be interpreted as a temperature representative of the surface and the lower atmosphere , and Ta could be interpreted as the temperature of the upper atmosphere . In order to justify that Ta and Ts remain constant over the planet , strong ocean and atmospheric currents can be imagined to provide plentiful lateral mixing . Furthermore , any daily or seasonal cycles in temperature are assumed to be insignificant .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Idealized_greenhouse_model", "rank": 30, "score": 115502 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 31, "score": 114825 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions Content: -RSB- This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity , based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2015 . The following table lists the 2015 annual emissions estimates ( in thousands of tonnes ) along with a list of emissions per capita ( in tonnes of per year ) from same source . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use , land-use change and forestry . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The top 10 largest emitter countries account for 67.6 % of the world total . Other powerful , more potent greenhouse gases , including methane , are not included in this data .", "qid": "248", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions", "rank": 32, "score": 114072 }, { "content": "Title: Shale gas Content: Shale gas is natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations . Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States since the start of this century , and interest has spread to potential gas shales in the rest of the world . In 2000 shale gas provided only 1 % of U.S. natural gas production ; by 2010 it was over 20 % and the U.S. government 's Energy Information Administration predicts that by 2035 , 46 % of the United States ' natural gas supply will come from shale gas . Some analysts expect that shale gas will greatly expand worldwide energy supply . China is estimated to have the world 's largest shale gas reserves . The Obama administration believed that increased shale gas development would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions . In 2012 , US carbon dioxide emissions dropped to a 20-year low . A 2013 review by the United Kingdom Department of Energy and Climate Change noted that most studies of the subject have estimated that life-cycle greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions from shale gas are similar to those of conventional natural gas , and are much less than those from coal , usually about half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal ; the noted exception was a 2011 study by Howarth and others of Cornell University , which concluded that shale GHG emissions were as high as those of coal . More recent studies have also concluded that life-cycle shale gas GHG emissions are much less than those of coal , among them , studies by Natural Resources Canada ( 2012 ) , and a consortium formed by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory with a number of universities ( 2012 ) . Some 2011 studies pointed to high rates of decline of some shale gas wells as an indication that shale gas production may ultimately be much lower than is currently projected . But shale-gas discoveries are also opening up substantial new resources of tight oil / `` shale oil '' .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Shale_gas", "rank": 33, "score": 113489 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 Content: The Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 , also known as Senate Bill 375 or SB 375 , is a State of California law targeting greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles . The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 ( AB 32 ) sets goals for the reduction of statewide greenhouse gas emissions . Passenger vehicles are the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions statewide , accounting for 30 % of total emissions . SB 375 therefore provides key support to achieve the goals of AB 32 . SB 375 instructs the California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) to set regional emissions ' reduction targets from passenger vehicles . The Metropolitan Planning Organization for each region must then develop a `` Sustainable Communities Strategy '' ( SCS ) that integrates transportation , land-use and housing policies to plan for achievement of the emissions target for their region . In a press release the day he signed the bill into law , Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stated , `` What this will mean is more environmentally-friendly communities , more sustainable developments , less time people spend in their cars , more alternative transportation options and neighborhoods we can safely and proudly pass on to future generations . ''", "qid": "248", "docid": "Sustainable_Communities_and_Climate_Protection_Act_of_2008", "rank": 34, "score": 113296 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon diet Content: A low-carbon diet refers to making lifestyle choices to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGe ) resulting from consumption decisions . It is estimated that the U.S. food system is responsible for at least 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases . This estimate may be low , as it counts only direct sources of GHGe . Indirect sources , such as demand for products from other countries , are often not counted . A low-carbon diet minimizes the emissions released from the production , packaging , processing , transport , preparation and waste of food . Major tenets of a low-carbon diet include eating less industrial meat and dairy , eating less industrially produced food in general , eating food grown locally and seasonally , eating less processed and packaged foods and reducing waste from food by proper portion size , recycling or composting .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Low-carbon_diet", "rank": 35, "score": 112615 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite Content: The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite ( GOSat ) , also known as , is an Earth observation satellite and the world 's first satellite dedicated to greenhouse-gas-monitoring . It measures the densities of carbon dioxide and methane from 56,000 locations on the Earth 's atmosphere . The GOSAT was developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) and launched on 23 January 2009 , from the Tanegashima Space Center . Japan 's Ministry of the Environment , and the National Institute for Environmental Studies ( NIES ) use the data to track gases causing the greenhouse effect , and share the data with NASA and other international scientific organizations .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_Gases_Observing_Satellite", "rank": 36, "score": 111746 }, { "content": "Title: Vapor Content: In physics a vapor ( American ) or vapour ( British ) is a substance in the gas phase at a temperature lower than its critical temperature , which means that the vapor can be condensed to a liquid by increasing the pressure on it without reducing the temperature . A vapor is different from an aerosol . An aerosol is a suspension of tiny particles of liquid , solid , or both within a gas . For example , water has a critical temperature of 647 K , which is the highest temperature at which liquid water can exist . In the atmosphere at ordinary temperatures , therefore , gaseous water ( known as water vapor ) will condense into a liquid if its partial pressure is increased sufficiently . A vapor may co-exist with a liquid ( or a solid ) . When this is true , the two phases will be in equilibrium , and the gas-partial pressure will be equal to the equilibrium vapor pressure of the liquid ( or solid ) .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Vapor", "rank": 37, "score": 110059 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport Content: The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport", "rank": 38, "score": 109747 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas inventory Content: Greenhouse gas inventories are a type of emission inventory that are developed for a variety of reasons . Scientists use inventories of natural and anthropogenic ( human-caused ) emissions as tools when developing atmospheric models . Policy makers use inventories to develop strategies and policies for emissions reductions and to track the progress of those policies . And , regulatory agencies and corporations rely on inventories to establish compliance records with allowable emission rates . Businesses , the public , and other interest groups use inventories to better understand the sources and trends in emissions . Unlike some other air emission inventories , greenhouse gas inventories include not only emissions from source categories , but also removals by carbon sinks . These removals are typically referred to as carbon sequestration . Greenhouse gas inventories , typically use Global warming potential ( GWP ) values to combine emissions of various greenhouse gases into a single weighted value of emissions . Some of the key examples of greenhouse gas inventories include : All Annex I countries are required to report annual emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) National governments that are Parties to the UNFCCC and/or the Kyoto Protocol are required to submit annual inventories of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals from sinks . The Kyoto Protocol includes additional requirements for national inventory systems , inventory reporting , and annual inventory review for determining compliance with Articles 5 and 8 of the Protocol . Project developers under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol prepare inventories as part of their project baselines . Corporation and other entities can prepare greenhouse gas inventories to track progress towards meeting an emission reduction goal . Scientific efforts aimed at understanding detail of total net carbon exchange . Example : Project Vulcan - a comprehensive US inventory of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_inventory", "rank": 39, "score": 109178 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 40, "score": 109145 }, { "content": "Title: Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion Content: Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion refers to the combustion-product gas resulting from the burning of fossil fuels . Most fossil fuels are combusted with ambient air ( as differentiated from combustion with pure oxygen ) . Since ambient air contains about 79 volume percent gaseous nitrogen ( N2 ) , which is essentially non-combustible , the largest part of the flue gas from most fossil-fuel combustion is uncombusted nitrogen . Carbon dioxide , the next largest part of flue gas , can be as much as 10 − 25 volume percent or more of the flue gas . This is closely followed in volume by water vapor ( H2O ) created by the combustion of the hydrogen in the fuel with atmospheric oxygen . Much of the ` smoke ' seen pouring from flue gas stacks is this water vapor forming a cloud as it contacts cool air . A typical flue gas from the combustion of fossil fuels contains very small amounts of nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , sulfur dioxide ( SO2 ) and particulate matter . The nitrogen oxides are derived from the nitrogen in the ambient air as well as from any nitrogen-containing compounds in the fossil fuel . The sulfur dioxide is derived from any sulfur-containing compounds in the fuels . The particulate matter is composed of very small particles of solid materials and very small liquid droplets which give flue gases their smoky appearance . The steam generators in large power plants and the process furnaces in large refineries , petrochemical and chemical plants , and incinerators burn considerable amounts of fossil fuels and therefore emit large amounts of flue gas to the ambient atmosphere . The table below presents the total amounts of flue gas typically generated by the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas , fuel oil and coal . The data were obtained by stoichiometric calculations . It is of interest to note that the total amount of flue gas generated by coal combustion is only 10 percent higher than the flue gas generated by natural-gas combustion . Note : m ³ are standard cubic meters at 0 ° C and 101.325 kPa , and scf is standard cubic feet at 60 ° F and 14.696 psia .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Flue-gas_emissions_from_fossil-fuel_combustion", "rank": 41, "score": 109099 }, { "content": "Title: Wildland fire emission Content: Wildland fire and wildland fire atmospheric emissions have been a part of the global biosphere for millennia . The major wildland fire emissions include greenhouse gasses and several criteria pollutants that impact human health and welfare. : Compared to the preindustrial era , wildland land fire in the conterminous U.S. has been reduced 90 percent with proportional reductions in wildland fire emissions . Land use changes ( agriculture and urbanization ) are responsible for roughly 50 percent of this decrease , and land management decisions ( land fragmentation , suppression actions , etc. ) are responsible for the remainder . Anthropogenic activities ( e.g. , industrial production , transportation , agriculture , etc. ) today have more than replaced the lost preindustrial wildland fire atmospheric emissions . The following charts compare preindustrial wildland fire emissions with contemporary emissions .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Wildland_fire_emission", "rank": 42, "score": 108906 }, { "content": "Title: United States federal register of greenhouse gas emissions Content: The United States federal register of greenhouse gas emissions is established by the United States Department of Energy under the Energy Policy Act 1992 . It is administered by the Energy Information Administration through the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program . Separately , the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 commenced implementing a mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program , which applies to facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons or more per year .", "qid": "248", "docid": "United_States_federal_register_of_greenhouse_gas_emissions", "rank": 43, "score": 108717 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas removal Content: Greenhouse gas removal projects are a type of climate engineering that seek to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere , and thus they tackle the root cause of global warming . These techniques either directly remove greenhouse gases , or alternatively seek to influence natural processes to remove greenhouse gases indirectly . The discipline overlaps with carbon capture and storage and carbon sequestration , and some projects listed may not be considered to be geoengineering by all commentators , instead being described as mitigation .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_removal", "rank": 44, "score": 108625 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 45, "score": 108267 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions in Kentucky Content: The report `` Kentucky Greenhouse Gas Inventory '' provides a detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks for Kentucky in 1990 . Emissions were estimated using methods from EPA 's 1995 guidance document State Workbook : Methodologies for Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions . In 1990 , Kentucky emitted 35.4 million metric tons of carbon equivalent ( MMTCE ) . In addition , Kentucky estimated emissions of 0.4 MMTCE from biofuels . Emissions from biofuels are not included . The principal greenhouse gases were carbon dioxide , comprising 87.9 million metric tons ( 24.0 MMTCE ) , and methane , with 1.1 million metric tons ( 6.4 MMTCE ) . Other emissions included 0.0016 million metric tons of perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) ( 4.8 MMTCE ) , and 0.003 million metric tons of nitrous oxide ( 0.2 MMTCE ) The major source of carbon dioxide emissions was fossil fuel combustion ( 96 % ) , the majority of which is utility coal . Minor emissions came from cement and lime production and forest/grassland conversion . Carbon dioxide sinks ( i.e. , an increase in forest carbon storage ) offset about 26 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions . Sources of methane emissions were coal mining ( 73 % ) , domesticated animals ( 12 % ) , landfills ( 10 % ) , manure management ( 3 % ) , and natural gas/oil extraction ( 2 % ) . Nitrous oxide emissions were from fertilizer use . Sources of perfluorocarbons were HCFC-22 production ( 91 % ) and aluminum production ( 9 % ) . Kentucky 's emissions in 1990 were 9.6 MTCE per capita , compared to 1990 U.S. emissions of 6.4 MTCE per capita . Kentucky 's per capita emissions are high due to the large volume of coal-related activities in the state .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_in_Kentucky", "rank": 46, "score": 108173 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas accounting Content: Greenhouse gas accounting describes the way to inventory and audit greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions . A corporate or organisational greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions assessment quantifies the total greenhouse gases produced directly and indirectly from a business or organisation 's activities . Also known as a carbon footprint , it is a business tool that provides information with a basis for understanding and managing climate change impacts . The drivers for corporate GHG accounting include mandatory GHG reporting in directors ' reports , investment due diligence , shareholder and stakeholder communication , staff engagement , green messaging , and tender requirements for business and government contracts . Accounting for greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly seen as a standard requirement for business . For example , in June 2012 , the UK coalition government announced the introduction of mandatory carbon reporting , requiring around 1,100 of the UK 's largest listed companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions every year . Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg confirmed that emission reporting rules would come into effect from April 2013 in his piece for The Guardian . Guidance for accounting for GHG emissions from organizations and emission reduction projects is provided by the World Resources Institute ( WRI ) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development ( WBCSD ) GHG Protocol . For national GHG inventories , guidance is provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) methodology reports . The International Organization for Standardization ( ISO ) also provides some general standards for greenhouse gas emissions at organisation level ( ISO 14064 - 1 ) and greenhouse gas emissions at project level ( ISO 14064 - 2 ) . Specifications to validate and verify relevant accountings are documented in ( ISO 14064 - 3 ) .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_accounting", "rank": 47, "score": 108024 }, { "content": "Title: European Union Emission Trading Scheme Content: The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions . Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention . The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 . The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase . Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation . Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .", "qid": "248", "docid": "European_Union_Emission_Trading_Scheme", "rank": 48, "score": 107864 }, { "content": "Title: Air pollution in India Content: Air pollution in India is quite a serious issue with the major sources being fuelwood and biomass burning , fuel adulteration , vehicle emission and traffic congestion . In autumn and winter months , large scale crop residue burning in agriculture fields -- a low cost alternative to mechanical tilling -- is a major source of smoke , smog and particulate pollution . India has a low per capita emissions of greenhouse gases but the country as a whole is the third largest after China and the United States . A 2013 study on non-smokers has found that Indians have 30 % lower lung function compared to Europeans . The Air ( Prevention and Control of Pollution ) Act was passed in 1981 to regulate air pollution and there have been some measurable improvements . However , the 2016 Environmental Performance Index ranked India 141 out of 180 countries . In 2015 , Government of India , together with IIT Kanpur launched the National Air Quality Index .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Air_pollution_in_India", "rank": 49, "score": 107747 }, { "content": "Title: Kaya identity Content: The Kaya identity is an identity stating that the total emission level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be expressed as the product of four factors : human population , GDP per capita , energy intensity ( per unit of GDP ) , and carbon intensity ( emissions per unit of energy consumed ) . It is a concrete form of the more general I = PAT equation relating factors that determine the level of human impact on climate . The Kaya identity is both simple and tricky , as it can be reduced to only two terms , but it is developed so that the carbon emission calculation becomes easy , as per the available data , or generally in which format the data is available .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Kaya_identity", "rank": 50, "score": 106613 }, { "content": "Title: Trifluoromethyl sulphur pentafluoride Content: Trifluoromethyl sulphur pentafluoride , CF3SF5 , is a rare industrial greenhouse gas , first published in 2000 by a group of researchers from Germany , the United Kingdom and the United States . Trifluoromethyl sulphur pentafluoride is considered to be one of the several super greenhouse gases . On a per molecule basis , it is considered to be the most potent greenhouse gas present in Earth 's atmosphere . However , the current concentration of Trifluoromethyl sulphur pentafluoride remains at a level that is unlikely to measurably contribute to earth 's warming . The source of the gas is attributed to anthropogenic sources , possibly a by-product of the manufacture of fluorochemicals , originating from reactions of SF6 with fluoropolymers used in electronic devices and in microchips , or the formation can be associated with high voltage equipment created from SF6 ( a breakdown product of high voltage equipment ) reacting with CF3 to form the CF3SF5 molecule .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Trifluoromethyl_sulphur_pentafluoride", "rank": 51, "score": 106601 }, { "content": "Title: Włocławek Reservoir Content: Włocławek Reservoir ( Zbiornik Włocławski ) is a water body in the Middle Vistula flow that appeared in 1970 after building of the dam in Włocławek . The length of the reservoir is 58 km from Włocławek to Płock , average width is 1.2 km . It is the biggest reservoir in Poland . Due to the significant amount of organic matter in the tank ( approx . 11.5 % of the dry weight of sediment ) , it emits approx . 400 mg of methane per area of 1 m ² ( which is approx . 27 % of the total amount of gases emitted from the sediment of average 3114 ml m − 2 d − 1 ) . For this reason , is considered an important source of greenhouse gases emission .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Włocławek_Reservoir", "rank": 52, "score": 106442 }, { "content": "Title: Hydrofluorocarbon Content: Hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , organic compounds that contain fluorine and hydrogen atoms , are the most common type of organofluorine compounds . They are commonly used in air conditioning and as refrigerants in place of the older chlorofluorocarbons such as R-12 and hydrochlorofluorocarbons such as R-21 . They do not harm the ozone layer as much as the compounds they replace ; however , they do contribute to global warming . Their atmospheric concentrations and contribution to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly increasing , causing international concern about their radiative forcing . Fluorocarbons with few C -- F bonds behave similarly to the parent hydrocarbons , but their reactivity can be altered significantly . For example , both uracil and 5-fluorouracil are colourless , high-melting crystalline solids , but the latter is a potent anti-cancer drug . The use of the C-F bond in pharmaceuticals is predicated on this altered reactivity . Several drugs and agrochemicals contain only one fluorine center or one trifluoromethyl group . Unlike other greenhouse gases in the Paris Agreement , hydrofluorocarbons have other international negotiations . In September 2016 , the so-called New York Declaration urged a global reduction in the use of HFCs . On 15 October 2016 , due to these chemicals ' contribution to climate change , negotiators from 197 nations meeting at the summit of the United Nations Environment Programme in Kigali , Rwanda reached a legally-binding accord to phase out hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) in an amendment to the Montreal Protocol .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Hydrofluorocarbon", "rank": 53, "score": 105698 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse debt Content: Greenhouse debt or carbon debt is the measure to which an individual person , incorporated association , business enterprise , government instrumentality or geographic community exceeds its permitted greenhouse footprint and contributes greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and climate change . The concept makes no sense without a clear numerical value for the permitted greenhouse footprint . It is not clear what this value is . Friends of the Earth and similar organisations put forward the concept to define specifically the environmental harm caused by developed countries ' past and present policies . Some governments , at least the Australian Labor leadership , have a tendency to accept such a line of reasoning . The greenhouse debt assessment thus forms an ecological footprint analysis but can be used separately . Taken conjointly with a ` water debt ' analysis and an ecological impact assessment , greenhouse debt analysis is basic to giving individuals , organisations , governments and communities an understanding of the effects they are having on Gaia , life , and global warming . Ensuring that the greenhouse debt is zero is essential towards achieving ecologically sustainable development or a sustainable retreat . Any greenhouse debt incurred will contribute to making life harder for future generations of humans and non-human lifeforms . There are three possible consequences that occur as a result of a greenhouse debt . Mitigation : finding compensatory ways of reducing the greenhouse debt so its effects are neutralised Adaptation : finding ways of adjusting to the resulting global warming or climate change Suffering : having one 's quality of life reduced as a result of the consequences", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_debt", "rank": 54, "score": 105682 }, { "content": "Title: America's Climate Security Act of 2007 Content: The America 's Climate Security Act of 2007 was a global warming bill that was considered by the United States Senate to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the United States . Also known as the Lieberman-Warner bill , bill number , the legislation was introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman ( I-CT ) and John Warner ( R-VA ) on October 18 , 2007 . The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in December 2007 , and was debated in the Senate during the week of June 2 . The bill would create a national cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions , in which polluters would mostly be allocated right-to-emit credits based on how much greenhouse gas they currently emit . The cap would get tighter over time , until by 2050 , emissions would be reduced to 63 % below 2005 levels . Several environmental groups express their encouragement at the progress in legislation on the global warming issue while at the same time expressing disappointment that the bill does n't reduce emissions enough . On June 6 , 2008 , the bill was killed by Senate Republicans over worries that it would damage the economy .", "qid": "248", "docid": "America's_Climate_Security_Act_of_2007", "rank": 55, "score": 105587 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 56, "score": 105466 }, { "content": "Title: Hell and High Water (book) Content: Hell and High Water : Global Warming -- the Solution and the Politics -- and What We Should Do is a book by author , scientist , and former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph J. Romm , published December 26 , 2006 . The author is `` one of the world 's leading experts on clean energy , advanced vehicles , energy security , and greenhouse gas mitigation . '' The book warns of dire consequences to the U.S. and the world if wide-scale environmental changes are not enacted by the U.S. government within the next decade . It reviews the evidence that the current initial global warming changes will lead to accelerated warming . According to Romm , the oceans , soils , Arctic permafrost , and rainforests may become sources of greenhouse gas emissions . The book claims that , without serious government action within the next ten years , sea levels will rise high enough to submerge numerous coastal communities and inland areas on both U.S. coasts and around the world by the year 2100 . In April 2008 , TIME magazine wrote that `` On -LSB- Romm 's -RSB- blog and in his most recent book , Hell and High Water , you can find some of the most cogent , memorable , and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming . '' Romm was interviewed on Fox News on January 31 , 2007 about the book and the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report climate report .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Hell_and_High_Water_(book)", "rank": 57, "score": 105061 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic methane emissions Content: Arctic methane release is the release of methane from seas and soils in permafrost regions of the Arctic . While a long-term natural process , it is exacerbated by global warming . This results in a positive feedback effect , as methane is itself a powerful greenhouse gas . The Arctic region is one of the many natural sources of the greenhouse gas methane . Global warming accelerates its release , due to both release of methane from existing stores , and from methanogenesis in rotting biomass . Large quantities of methane are stored in the Arctic in natural gas deposits , permafrost , and as undersea clathrates . Permafrost and clathrates degrade on warming , thus large releases of methane from these sources may arise as a result of global warming . Other sources of methane include submarine taliks , river transport , ice complex retreat , submarine permafrost and decaying gas hydrate deposits . Concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere are higher by 8 -- 10 % than that in the Antarctic atmosphere . During cold glacier epochs , this gradient decreases to practically insignificant levels . Land ecosystems are considered the main sources of this asymmetry , although it has been suggested that `` the role of the Arctic Ocean is significantly underestimated . '' Soil temperature and moisture levels have been found to be significant variables in soil methane fluxes in tundra environments .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Arctic_methane_emissions", "rank": 58, "score": 104974 }, { "content": "Title: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions Content: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ( INDCs ) is a term used under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that all countries that signed the UNFCCC were asked to publish in the lead up to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris , France in December 2015 . These intended contributions were determined without prejudice to the legal nature of the contributions . The term was intended as a compromise between `` quantified emissions limitation and reduction objective '' ( QUELROs ) and `` nationally appropriate mitigation actions '' ( NAMAs ) that the Kyoto Protocol used to describe the different legal obligations of developed and developing countries . Under the Paris Agreement , adopted in December 2015 , the INDC will become the first Nationally Determined Contribution when a country ratifies the agreement , unless they decide to submit a new NDC at the same time . Once the Paris Agreement is ratified , the NDC will become the first greenhouse gas targets under the UNFCCC that applied equally to both developed and developing countries . On 3 August 2016 China and US ratified 2015 agreement on INDC . Together they both constitute 38 % of total global emission , with China 's alone emitting total of 20 % . India that has a Global share of GHGs emission at 4.1 % of that of world ratified Paris climate agreement on October 2 , 2016 by depositing the Instrument of ratification with the United nations .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Intended_Nationally_Determined_Contributions", "rank": 59, "score": 104649 }, { "content": "Title: Physical properties of greenhouse gases Content:", "qid": "248", "docid": "Physical_properties_of_greenhouse_gases", "rank": 60, "score": 104336 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions accounting Content: Greenhouse gas emissions accounting is a method of calculating the amount of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) emitted by a region in a given time-scale . A National Emissions Inventory ( NEI ) measuring a country 's GHG emissions in a year is required by the UNFCCC to provide a benchmark for the country 's emission reductions , and subsequently to evaluate international climate policies such as the Kyoto protocol ( although the original has now expired , extensions have been agreed ) as well as regional climate policies such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme ( ETS ) . There are two conflicting ways of measuring GHG emissions : production-based ( sometimes referred to as territorial-based ) or consumption-based . Production-based emissions take place `` within national territory and offshore areas over which the country has jurisdiction '' . Consumption-based emissions encompass those emissions from domestic final consumption and those caused by the production of its imports . This means the importing country takes responsibility for emissions related to production of the exporting country 's exports . By these definitions production-based emissions include exports but exclude imports and emissions embodied in international trade , whereas consumption-based emissions refer to the reverse ( Table 1 ) . Which technique is applied by policymakers is fundamental as each can generate a very different NEI . Different NEIs would result in a country 's choosing different optimal mitigation activities , the wrong choice based on wrong information being potentially damaging . The application of production-based emissions accounting is currently favoured in policy terms , although much of the literature favours consumption-based accounting . The former method is criticised in the literature principally for its inability to allocate emissions embodied in international trade/transportation and the potential for carbon leakage .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_accounting", "rank": 61, "score": 104249 }, { "content": "Title: Air pollution in Germany Content: Air pollution in Germany has significantly decreased over the past decade . Air pollution occurs when harmful substances are released into the Earth 's atmosphere . These pollutants are released through human activity and natural sources . Germany took interest in reducing its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by switching to renewable energy sources . Renewable energy use rose from 6.3 % in 2000 to 34 % in 2016 . Through the transition to renewable energy sources , Germany has become the climate change policy leader and renewable energy leader in the European Union ( EU ) and in the world with ambitious climate change programs . The current goal of the German government was approved on 14 November 2016 in the German Climate Action Plan 2050 , which outlines measures by which Germany can meet its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 . By 2050 , Germany wants to reduce their GHGs by 80 to 95 % and by 2030 they want to reduce it by 55 % , compared to the EU target of 40 % . In order to achieve these goals , a variety of strategies and policies are used rather than legislation . The four strategies the German government bases air pollution control on are laying down environmental quality standards , emission reduction requirements according to the best available technology , production regulations , and laying down emission ceilings . Through these strategies , policy instruments have been put in place that have contributed to the success of the significant air pollution reduction in Germany . These instruments include the Federal Emission Control Act and Implementing Ordinances , Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control ( TA Luft ) , Amendment to Ordinance on Small Firing Installations , Implementation of the directive on industrial emissions , and Transboundary air pollution control policy . The German Feed-in-Tariff policy introduced in 2000 led to the significant increase in renewable energy use and decreasing air pollution . They have been introduced in Germany to increase the use of renewables , such as wind power , biomass , hydropower , geothermal power , and photovoltaics , thereby reducing GHG emissions causing air pollution and combating climate change . The German government has been an agenda setter in international climate policy negotiations since the late 1980s . However , national and global climate policies have become a top priority since the conservative-social democratic government came into power in 2005 , pushing both European and international climate negotiations . Positive path dependency in Germany 's climate and energy policies has occurred over the past 20 years . There are three main triggers that put Germany on this positive path dependency and what led them to becoming a climate change policy leader . The first being the widespread damages to health , due to smog , and to nature , due to acid rain , caused by air pollution . The second being the shock of the two oil price crises , in 1973 and 1979 , that highlighted the problem of the German economy 's strong dependence on unsure foreign sources . The third being the growing opposition to the country 's growing reliance on nuclear energy . Air pollution began to be seen as a problem in Germany due to these three triggers , causing Germany to put policies into place to control air pollution . This has now developed from controlling air pollution to being a leader in climate change politics . __ TOC __", "qid": "248", "docid": "Air_pollution_in_Germany", "rank": 62, "score": 104148 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Massachusetts Content: Formet Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed into law three global warming and energy-related bills that will promote advanced biofuels , support the growth of the clean energy technology industry , and cut the emissions of greenhouse gases within the state . The Clean Energy Biofuels Act , signed in late July , exempts cellulosic ethanol from the state 's gasoline tax , but only if the ethanol achieves a 60 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline . The act also requires all diesel motor fuels and all No. 2 fuel oil sold for heating to include at least 2 % `` substitute fuel '' by July 2010 , where substitute fuel is defined as a fuel derived from renewable non-food biomass that achieves at least a 50 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions . The requirement for both motor diesel fuel and heating oil increases by a percentage point per year until 2013 , after which it holds steady 5 % . The act also allows the state to expand the requirement to other forms of fuel oil , and it requires the state to work to establish a low-carbon fuel standard under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative . In early August of 2008 , Governor Patrick signed two additional bills : the Green Jobs Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act . The Green Jobs Act will support the growth of a clean energy technology industry within the state , backed by $ 68 million in funding over 5 years . The Global Warming Solutions Act requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 10 % -25 % below 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050 . Under the act , the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will carry the burdens of determining the baseline level of emissions in 1990 and creating a plan to meet the future emissions limits , including the establishment of interim limits for 2030 and 2040", "qid": "248", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Massachusetts", "rank": 63, "score": 103904 }, { "content": "Title: Mootral Content: Mootral is the name given to a programme to reduce methane emissions from ruminant animals , chiefly cows and sheep , but also goats . Methane is a major target greenhouse gas and in the 4th protocol report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is recommended to increase from a x23 to x72 multiplier because of the magnitude of its effect relative to carbon dioxide and short longevity in Earth 's atmosphere .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Mootral", "rank": 64, "score": 103768 }, { "content": "Title: Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases Content: The Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases , created in 1985 , was an advisory body for the review of studies into the greenhouse effect . The group was created by the International Council of Scientific Unions , the United Nations Environment Programme , and the World Meteorological Organization to follow up on the recommendations of the International conference of the Assessment of the role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts , held at Villach , Austria , in October 1985 . The seven-member panel included Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin and Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare . The group held its last meeting in 1990 . It was gradually replaced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Advisory_Group_on_Greenhouse_Gases", "rank": 65, "score": 103326 }, { "content": "Title: KDF Energy Content: KDF Energy is the leader greenhouse gases emissions trading on the Romanian market . The company was set up in 2002 , has subsidiaries in Bulgaria , Greece and Lithuania and is fully controlled by Romanian citizen George Brailoiu . KDF Energy is a member of Dutch-based environmental commodities exchange Climex and trades with foreign brokers on London 's European Climate Exchange ( ECX ) and Paris-based BlueNext .", "qid": "248", "docid": "KDF_Energy", "rank": 66, "score": 102933 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "248", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 67, "score": 102887 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 68, "score": 102605 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Grenada Content: The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "qid": "248", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Grenada", "rank": 69, "score": 102334 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas monitoring Content: Greenhouse gas monitoring is the direct measurement of greenhouse gas emissions and levels . Methods include satellite monitoring such as the Orbiting Carbon Observatory and networks of ground stations such as the Integrated Carbon Observation System . The individual units of ground stations often use an infrared detector to assess the concentration of a certain gas .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_monitoring", "rank": 70, "score": 101992 }, { "content": "Title: Regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act Content: The United States Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) began regulating greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) under the Clean Air Act ( `` CAA '' or `` Act '' ) from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution for the first time on January 2 , 2011 . Standards for mobile sources have been established pursuant to Section 202 of the CAA , and GHGs from stationary sources are currently controlled under the authority of Part C of Title I of the Act . The basis for regulations was upheld in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in June 2012 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Regulation_of_greenhouse_gases_under_the_Clean_Air_Act", "rank": 71, "score": 101991 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 72, "score": 101930 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act Content: __ NOTOC __ The Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act of the Canadian province of Alberta was the first law of its type to impose greenhouse gas cuts on large industrial facilities . Starting from July 1 , 2007 , Alberta facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year will be required to reduce their emissions intensity by 12 percent under the Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act . Companies have three ways to meet their reductions : they can make operating improvements , buy an Alberta-based credit , or contribute to the Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund . The regulations apply to about 100 large facilities which emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year . Those facilities account for about 70 per cent of Alberta 's industrial greenhouse gas emissions . The annual cost of compliance is estimated to be $ 177 million - or less than one tenth of one per cent of Alberta 's nominal GDP ( $ 242 billion in 2006 ) .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Climate_Change_and_Emissions_Management_Amendment_Act", "rank": 73, "score": 101621 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 Content: The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 , or Assembly Bill ( AB ) 32 , is a California State Law that fights global warming by establishing a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources throughout the state . AB 32 was authored by then-Assembly member Fran Pavley and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez ( D-Los Angeles ) and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 27 , 2006 . On June 1 , 2005 , Governor Schwarzenegger signed an executive order known as Executive Order S-3-05 which established greenhouse gas emissions targets for the state . The executive order required the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions levels to 2000 levels by 2010 , to 1990 levels by 2020 , and to a level 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050 . However , to implement this measure , the California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) needed authority from the legislature . The California State Legislature passed the Global Warming Solutions Act to address this issue and gave the CARB authority to implement the program . AB 32 requires the California Air Resources Board ( CARB or ARB ) to develop regulations and market mechanisms to reduce California 's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year of 2020 , representing approximately a 30 % reduction statewide , with mandatory caps beginning in 2012 for significant emissions sources . The bill also allows the Governor to suspend the emissions caps for up to a year in case of emergency or significant economic harm . The State of California leads the nation in energy efficiency standards and plays a lead role in environmental protection , but is also the 12th largest emitter of carbon worldwide . Greenhouse gas emissions are defined in the bill to include all of the following : carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , sulfur hexafluoride , hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons . These are the same greenhouse gases listed in Annex A of the Kyoto Protocol .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Global_Warming_Solutions_Act_of_2006", "rank": 74, "score": 101114 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 75, "score": 101113 }, { "content": "Title: Hydroelectricity Content: Hydroelectricity is electricity produced from hydropower . In 2015 hydropower generated 16.6 % of the world 's total electricity and 70 % of all renewable electricity , and was expected to increase about 3.1 % each year for the next 25 years . Hydropower is produced in 150 countries , with the Asia-Pacific region generating 33 percent of global hydropower in 2013 . China is the largest hydroelectricity producer , with 920 TWh of production in 2013 , representing 16.9 percent of domestic electricity use . The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low , making it a competitive source of renewable electricity . The hydro station consumes no water , unlike coal or gas plants . The average cost of electricity from a hydro station larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour . With a dam and reservoir it is also a flexible source of electricity since the amount produced by the station can be changed up or down very quickly to adapt to changing energy demands . Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed , the project produces no direct waste , and has a considerably lower output level of greenhouse gases than fossil fuel powered energy plants .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Hydroelectricity", "rank": 76, "score": 100907 }, { "content": "Title: Emissions Trading Scheme in South Korea Content: South Korea 's Emissions Trading Scheme ( KETS ) is the second largest in scale after the European Union Emission Trading Scheme and was launched on January 1 , 2015 . South Korea is the second country in Asia to initiate a nation-wide carbon market after Kazakhstan . Complying to the country 's pledge made at the Copenhagen Accord of 2009 , the South Korean government aims to reduce its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by 30 % below its business as usual scenario by 2020 . They have officially employed the cap-and-trade system and the operation applies to over 525 companies which are accountable for approximately 68 % of the nation 's GHG output . The operation is divided up into three periods . The first and second phases consist of 3 years each , 2015 to 2017 and 2018 to 2020 . The final phase will spread out over the next 5 years from 2021 to 2025 . The cap-and-trade system is a tool of carbon pricing that has been adapted by several countries to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through a market mechanism . It entails a market open to the transaction of trade permits , which allow participating businesses or countries to emit a given amount of greenhouse gases . A cap is set by the government which defines the maximum level of total emissions permitted during a certain time period . The South Korean government had set the emissions cap for the first year of implementation ( 2015 ) as 573 MtCO2e . The major objectives of the KETS is to place South Korea at the forefront of the global effort in reducing GHG emissions and to develop its market competitiveness in the clean energy sector . As one of the top 10 largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions and a nation with the highest growth rate in GHG emissions , South Korea 's awareness of its carbon footprint has increased over the years . The country grows more vulnerable to climate change as the average temperature has risen by 1.5 degrees Celsius causing frequent natural disasters . Furthermore , the South Korean government aims to cut back its reliance on imported fossil fuel energy which accounts for roughly 97 % of its primary energy consumption . Lastly , by implementing the emissions trading scheme , the government has prospects of developing its green industries and increase its global share of the clean energy market .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Emissions_Trading_Scheme_in_South_Korea", "rank": 77, "score": 100560 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Content: The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder ( AIRS ) is one of six instruments flying on board NASA 's Aqua satellite , launched on May 4 , 2002 . The instrument is designed to support climate research and improve weather forecasting . Working in combination with its partner microwave instrument , the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit ( AMSU-A ) , AIRS observes the global water and energy cycles , climate variation and trends , and the response of the climate system to increased greenhouse gases . AIRS uses infrared technology to create three-dimensional maps of air and surface temperature , water vapor , and cloud properties . AIRS can also measure trace greenhouse gases such as ozone , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , and methane . AIRS and AMSU-A share the Aqua satellite with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) , Clouds and the Earth 's Radiant Energy System ( CERES ) , and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS ( AMSR-E ) . Aqua is part of NASA 's `` A-train , '' a series of high-inclination , Sun-synchronous satellites in low Earth orbit designed to make long-term global observations of the land surface , biosphere , solid Earth , atmosphere , and ocean . AIRS data is free and available to the public through the Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information and Services Center . NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California , manages AIRS for NASA 's Science Mission Directorate in Washington , D.C.", "qid": "248", "docid": "Atmospheric_Infrared_Sounder", "rank": 78, "score": 100183 }, { "content": "Title: Executive Orders S-3-05 and B-30-15 Content: Executive Orders S-3-05 is an Executive Order of the State of California signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in June 2005 that set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for the State of California and laid out responsibilities among the state agencies for implementing the Executive Order and for reporting on progress toward the targets . Specifically , the Executive Order established these targets : By 2010 , reduce GHG emissions to 2000 levels By 2020 , reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels By 2050 , reduce GHG emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels The first and second goals were enshrined into law by the legislation known as AB 32 , or the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 , which gave the California Air Resources Board broad authority to implement a market-based system ( also known as cap-and-trade ) to achieve these goals . California Executive Order B-30-15 ( April 2015 , signed by Governor Jerry Brown ) added the intermediate target of : By 2030 , reduce GHG emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Executive_Orders_S-3-05_and_B-30-15", "rank": 79, "score": 100088 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse Mafia Content: Greenhouse Mafia is the title of a TV program aired by the ABC on the 13 February 2006 episode of its weekly current affairs program Four Corners . The program says the term greenhouse mafia is the `` in house '' name used by Australia 's carbon lobby for itself . The program featured former Liberal Party member Guy Pearse and Four Corners host Janine Cohen , while others concerned about the influence exerted by the fossil fuel lobby also participated . The report was based on a thesis Pearse wrote at the Australian National University between 1999 and 2005 regarding the response of Australian business to global warming . According to the program , lobby groups representing the coal , car , oil , and aluminium industries have wielded their power to prevent Australia from reducing its greenhouse gas emissions , which were already among the highest per capita in the world in 1990 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Greenhouse_Mafia", "rank": 80, "score": 99769 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 81, "score": 99119 }, { "content": "Title: California Senate Bill 32 Content: The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 : emissions limit , or SB-32 , is a California Senate bill expanding upon AB-32 to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions . The lead author is Senator Fran Pavley and the principal co-author is Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia . SB-32 was signed into law on September 8 , 2016 , by Governor Edmund Gerald `` Jerry '' Brown Jr. . SB-32 sets into law the mandated reduction target in GHG emissions as written into Executive Order B-30-15 . The Senate bill requires that there be a reduction in GHG emissions to 40 % below the 1990 levels by 2030 . Greenhouse gas emissions include carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , sulfur hexafluoride , hydrofluorocarbons , and perfluorocarbons . The California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) is responsible for ensuring that California meets this goal . The provisions of SB-32 were added to Section 38566 of the Health and Safety Code subsequent to the bill 's approval . The bill goes into effect January 1 , 2017 . SB-32 builds onto Assembly Bill ( AB ) 32 written by Senator Fran Pavley and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez passed into law on September 27 , 2006 . AB-32 required California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and SB-32 continues that timeline to reach the targets set in Executive Order B-30-15 . SB-32 provides another intermediate target between the 2020 and 2050 targets set in Executive Order S-3-05 . SB-32 was contingent on the passing of AB-197 , which increases legislative oversight of CARB and is intended to ensure CARB must report to the Legislature . AB-197 also passed and was signed into law on September 8 , 2016 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "California_Senate_Bill_32", "rank": 82, "score": 99062 }, { "content": "Title: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Content: ` The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI , pronounced `` Reggie '' ) is the first mandatory market based program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . RGGI is a cooperative effort among the states of Connecticut , Delaware , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , New York , Rhode Island , and Vermont to cap and reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector . RGGI compliance obligations apply to fossil-fueled power plants 25MW and larger within the nine-state region . RGGI establishes a regional cap on the amount of CO2 pollution that power plants can emit by issuing a limited number of tradable CO2 allowances . Each allowance represents an authorization for a regulated power plant to emit one short ton of CO2 . Individual CO2 budget trading programs in each RGGI state together create a regional market for CO2 allowances . The RGGI states distribute over 90 percent of allowances through quarterly auctions . These allowance auctions generate proceeds , which participating states are able to invest in strategic energy and consumer benefit programs . Programs funded through RGGI have included energy efficiency , clean and renewable energy , greenhouse gas abatement , and direct bill assistance . An initial milestone program 's development occurred in 2005 , when seven states signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU ) announcing an agreement to implement RGGI . The RGGI states then established individual CO2 budget trading programs , based on the RGGI Model Rule . The first pre-compliance RGGI auction took place in September 2008 , and the program became effective on January 1 , 2009 . The RGGI program is currently in its third three-year compliance period , which began January 1 , 2015 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Regional_Greenhouse_Gas_Initiative", "rank": 83, "score": 98994 }, { "content": "Title: Energy policy of China Content: The energy policy of China is a policy decided on by the Central Government with regard to energy and energy resources . Ensuring adequate energy supply to sustain economic growth has been a core concern of the Chinese government since 1949 . The country is currently the world 's largest emitter of greenhouse gases according to a Dutch research agency . However , China 's per capita emissions are still far behind the developed countries . In addition , China is the world 's leading renewable energy producer . From 2010 to 2015 China reduced energy consumption per unit of GDP by 18 % , and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 20 % . Primary energy use in China was 26,250 TWh and 20 TWh per million persons in 2009 . According to IEA the primary energy use grew 40 % and electricity use 70 % from 2004 to 2009 . The energy import was three times bigger in 2009 compared to 2004 . The share of energy import of the primary energy use was 12 % in 2009 . The CO2 emissions growth in five years ( 2004-2009 ) was 44 % .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Energy_policy_of_China", "rank": 84, "score": 98902 }, { "content": "Title: Effort Sharing Regulation Content: The Effort Sharing Regulation is a policy framework , part of the European Union climate and energy package . It sets binding national greenhouse gas targets for each of the 28 Member States of the European Union , collectively amounting to a 30 % cut in emissions by 2030 ( from a 2005 baseline ) . Its predecessor , the Effort Sharing Decision , covered the years up to 2020 . which collectively amount to a 10 % cut in emissions between 2005-2020 . These cuts come from areas including transport , buildings and heat , and agriculture . It is the companion policy to the European Union Emissions Trading System , which covers emission cuts in power and industry .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Effort_Sharing_Regulation", "rank": 85, "score": 98386 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 86, "score": 98229 }, { "content": "Title: Chinese national carbon trading scheme Content: The Chinese national carbon trading scheme is a cap and trade system for carbon dioxide emissions set to be implemented in July 2017 . This emission trading scheme ( ETS ) creates a carbon market where emitters can buy and sell emission credits . From this scheme , China can limit emissions , but allow economic freedom for emitters to reduce emissions or purchase emission allowances from other emitters . China is currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and many major Chinese cities have severe air pollution . With this plan , China will soon be the largest market in carbon trading . The scheme will limit emissions from six of China 's top carbon dioxide emitting industries , including coal-fired power plants . China was able to gain experience in drafting and implementation of an ETS plan from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , where China was part of the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) . From this experience with carbon markets , and lengthy discussions with the next largest carbon market , the European Union ( EU ) , as well as analysis of small scale pilot markets in major Chinese cities and provinces , China 's national ETS will be the largest of its kind and will help China achieve its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution ( INDC ) from the Paris Agreement in 2016 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Chinese_national_carbon_trading_scheme", "rank": 87, "score": 98164 }, { "content": "Title: GHG footprint Content: The GHG footprint , or greenhouse gas footprint , refers to the amount of GHG that are emitted during the creation of products or services . It is more comprehensive than the commonly used carbon footprint , which measures only carbon dioxide , one of many greenhouse gases . The GHG footprint differs from the ecological footprint in that the former is expressed in units of GHG warming potential ( GGWP ) and is generated by products or services , whereas the latter is expressed in units of land area and is generated by whole societies .", "qid": "248", "docid": "GHG_footprint", "rank": 88, "score": 97423 }, { "content": "Title: American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut Content: American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut , , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court , in an 8 -- 0 decision , held that corporations can not be sued for greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) under federal common law , primarily because the Clean Air Act ( CAA ) delegates the management of carbon dioxide and other GHG emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) . Brought to court in July 2004 in the Southern District of New York , this was the first global warming case based on a public nuisance claim .", "qid": "248", "docid": "American_Electric_Power_Co._v._Connecticut", "rank": 89, "score": 97180 }, { "content": "Title: Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate Content: The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate , also known as APP , was an international , voluntary , public-private partnership among Australia , Canada , India , Japan , the People 's Republic of China , South Korea , and the United States announced July 28 , 2005 at an Association of South East Asian Nations ( ASEAN ) Regional Forum meeting and launched on January 12 , 2006 at the Partnership 's inaugural Ministerial meeting in Sydney . As of 5 April 2011 , the Partnership formally concluded although a number of individual projects continue . The conclusion of the APP and cancellation of many of its projects attracted almost no media comment . Foreign , Environment and Energy Ministers from partner countries agreed to co-operate on the development and transfer of technology which enables reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that is consistent with and complementary to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other relevant international instruments , and is intended to complement but not replace the Kyoto Protocol. , Ministers agreed to a Charter , Communique and Work Plan that `` outline a ground-breaking new model of private-public task forces to address climate change , energy security and air pollution . '' Member countries account for over 50 % of the world 's greenhouse gas emissions , energy consumption , GDP and population . Unlike the Kyoto Protocol ( currently unratified by the United States ) , which imposes mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions , the Partnership engages member countries to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies , with no mandatory enforcement mechanism . This has led to criticism that the Partnership is worthless , by other governments , climate scientists and environmental groups . Proponents , on the other hand , argue that unrestricted economic growth and emission reductions can only be brought about through active engagement by all major polluters , which includes India and China , within the Kyoto Protocol framework neither India nor China are yet required to reduce emissions . Canada became the 7th member of the APP at the Second Ministerial Meeting in New Delhi on October 15 , 2007 . Canada 's Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier expressed his intention to join the Partnership in August 2007 , despite some domestic opposition .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Asia-Pacific_Partnership_on_Clean_Development_and_Climate", "rank": 90, "score": 97098 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "248", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 91, "score": 97092 }, { "content": "Title: New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Climate Change Action Plan 2001 Content: The New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers ( NEG-ECP ) Climate Change Action Plan 2001 is a resolution adopted on August 28 , 2001 , by the New England Governors and the Eastern Canadian Premiers . The resolution calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions to 1990 levels by 2010 , at least 10 % below 1990 levels by 2020 , and a 75-85 % reduction of 2001 levels as a long-term goal . Participating are the six states belonging to New England : Connecticut , Maine , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , Rhode Island , and Vermont ; as well as the Eastern Canadian provinces : New Brunswick , Newfoundland and Labrador , Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island , and Quebec . In addition , the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management ( NESCAUM ) is building a Regional Greenhouse Gas Registry ( RGGR ) to help track emissions in the region . This effort is similar to that of the California Climate Action Registry .", "qid": "248", "docid": "New_England_Governors_and_Eastern_Canadian_Premiers_Climate_Change_Action_Plan_2001", "rank": 92, "score": 97088 }, { "content": "Title: European Climate Change Programme Content: The European Climate Change Programme ( ECCP ) was launched in June 2000 by the European Union 's European Commission , with the purpose of avoiding dangerous climate change . The goal of the ECCP is to identify , develop and implement all the necessary elements of an EU strategy to implement the Kyoto Protocol . All EU countries ' ratifications of the Kyoto Protocol were deposited simultaneously on 31 May 2002 . The European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) is perhaps the most significant contribution of the ECCP , and the EU ETS is the largest greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world . In 1996 the EU adopted a target of a maximum 2 ° C rise in global mean temperature , compared to pre-industrial levels . Since then , European Leaders have reaffirmed this goal several times . Due to only minor efforts in global Climate change mitigation it is highly likely that the world will not be able to reach this particular target . The EU might then be forced to accept a less ambitious target or to change its climate policy paradigm .", "qid": "248", "docid": "European_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 93, "score": 97017 }, { "content": "Title: Vapor recovery Content: Vapor ( or vapour ) recovery is the process of recovery the vapors of gasoline or other fuels , so that they do not escape into the atmosphere . This is often done ( or required by law ) at filling stations , in order to reduce noxious and potentially explosive fumes and pollution . The negative pressure created in the ( underground ) tank by the withdrawal is usually used to pull in the vapors . They are drawn-in through holes in the side of the nozzle and travel through special hoses which have a return path .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Vapor_recovery", "rank": 94, "score": 96359 }, { "content": "Title: GWP Content: GWP can stand for : Global-warming potential , a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere Global Water Partnership , an international network offering practical advice for sustainably managing water resources Gross world product , the combined GNP of all countries in the world Gross Written Premiums , a measure of revenues for insurance businesses Guild Wars Prophecies , an MMORPG Guinea-Bissau peso , the currency code for Guinea-Bissau 's peso from 1975 to 1997 Gigawatt-peak , a measure in gigawatts of the nominal power of a photovoltaic solar energy device under laboratory illumination conditions", "qid": "248", "docid": "GWP", "rank": 95, "score": 96249 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-neutral fuel Content: Carbon-neutral fuels can refer to a variety of energy fuels or energy systems which have no net greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint . One class is synthetic fuel ( including methane , gasoline , diesel fuel , jet fuel or ammonia ) produced from sustainable or nuclear energy used to hydrogenate waste carbon dioxide recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater . Other types can be produced from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines , solar panels , and hydroelectric power stations . Such fuels are potentially carbon-neutral because they do not result in a net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases . Until captured carbon is used for plastics feedstock , carbon neutral fuel synthesis is the primary means of carbon capture and utilization or recycling . To the extent that carbon-neutral fuels displace fossil fuels , or if they are produced from waste carbon or seawater carbonic acid , and their combustion is subject to carbon capture at the flue or exhaust pipe , they result in negative carbon dioxide emission and net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere , and thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas remediation . Such power to gas carbon-neutral and carbon-negative fuels can be produced by the electrolysis of water to make hydrogen used in the Sabatier reaction to produce methane which may then be stored to be burned later in power plants as synthetic natural gas , transported by pipeline , truck , or tanker ship , or be used in gas to liquids processes such as the Fischer -- Tropsch process to make traditional fuels for transportation or heating . Carbon-neutral fuels are used in Germany and Iceland for distributed storage of renewable energy , minimizing problems of wind and solar intermittency , and enabling transmission of wind , water , and solar power through existing natural gas pipelines . Such renewable fuels could alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels , enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles . A 250 kilowatt synthetic methane plant has been built in Germany and it is being scaled up to 10 megawatts .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Carbon-neutral_fuel", "rank": 96, "score": 96050 }, { "content": "Title: Seawater greenhouse Content: A seawater greenhouse is a greenhouse structure that enables the growth of crops in arid regions , using seawater and solar energy . The technique involves pumping seawater ( or allowing it to gravitate if below sea level ) to an arid location and then subjecting it to two processes : first , it is used to humidify and cool the air , and second , it is evaporated by solar heating and distilled to produce fresh water . Finally , the remaining humidified air is expelled from the greenhouse and used to improve growing conditions for outdoor plants . The technology was introduced by British inventor Charlie Paton in the early 1990s and is being developed by his UK company Seawater Greenhouse Ltd. . The more concentrated salt water may either be further evaporated for the production of salt and other elements , or discharged back to the sea . The seawater greenhouse is a response to the global water crisis and peak water .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Seawater_greenhouse", "rank": 97, "score": 95909 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon footprint Content: A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual , event , organisation , or product , expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent . In most cases , the total carbon footprint can not be exactly calculated because of inadequate knowledge of and data about the complex interactions between contributing processes , especially which including the influence on natural processes storing or releasing carbon dioxide . For this reason , Wright , Kemp , and Williams , have suggested to define the carbon footprint as : A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and methane ( CH4 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) . Greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) can be emitted through land clearance and the production and consumption of food , fuels , manufactured goods , materials , wood , roads , buildings , transportation and other services . For simplicity of reporting , it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide , or its equivalent of other GHGs , emitted . Most of the carbon footprint emissions for the average U.S. household come from `` indirect '' sources , i.e. fuel burned to produce goods far away from the final consumer . These are distinguished from emissions which come from burning fuel directly in one 's car or stove , commonly referred to as `` direct '' sources of the consumer 's carbon footprint . The concept name of the carbon footprint originates from ecological footprint , discussion , which was developed by Rees and Wackernagel in the 1990s which estimates the number of `` earths '' that would theoretically be required if everyone on the planet consumed resources at the same level as the person calculating their ecological footprint . However , given that ecological footprints are a measure of failure , Anindita Mitra ( CREA , Seattle ) chose the more easily calculated `` carbon footprint '' to easily measure use of carbon , as an indicator of unsustainable energy use . In 2007 , carbon footprint was used as a measure of carbon emissions to develop the energy plan for City of Lynnwood , Washington . Carbon footprints are much more specific than ecological footprints since they measure direct emissions of gases that cause climate change into the atmosphere . Carbon footprint is one of a family of footprint indicators , which also includes water footprint and land footprint .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Carbon_footprint", "rank": 98, "score": 95783 }, { "content": "Title: New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme Content: The New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme ( also known as GGAS ) was a mandatory greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme that aimed to lower greenhouse gas emissions in New South Wales , Australia , to 7.27 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita by the year 2007 , which commenced on 1 January 2003 . The Scheme imposed obligations on NSW electricity retailers and certain other parties , including large electricity users who elected to manage their own benchmark to abate a portion of the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to their sales/consumption of electricity in NSW . They did this by purchasing and acquitting NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates ( also known as NGACs ) created by accredited `` Abatement Certificate Providers '' ( ACPs ) . The NSW Minister for Energy , Chris Hartcher , announced closure of the scheme in April 2012 , effective from 30 June 2012 . The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme ( GGAS ) closed on 30 June 2012 . The NSW Government closed GGAS to avoid duplication with the Commonwealth 's carbon price which commenced on 1 July 2012 .", "qid": "248", "docid": "New_South_Wales_Greenhouse_Gas_Abatement_Scheme", "rank": 99, "score": 95783 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "248", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 100, "score": 95650 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: CO2 is Green Content: CO2 is Green is a non-profit organization supporting public policy on environmental issues . A main focus of the organization are federal proposals that may `` interfere with natures dependence on carbon dioxide . '' CO2 is Green does not view carbon dioxide as a pollutant and advocates for federal law and regulations to support this thinking .", "qid": "250", "docid": "CO2_is_Green", "rank": 1, "score": 153617 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "250", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 2, "score": 145659 }, { "content": "Title: The Greening of Planet Earth Content: The Greening of Planet Earth is a half-hour-long video produced by the coal industry , which argues that rising CO2 levels will be beneficial to agriculture , and that policies intending to reduce CO2 levels are therefore misguided . The video argues that rising CO2 levels both directly stimulate plant growth and , as a result of their warming properties , cause winter temperatures to rise , thereby indirectly stimulating plant growth . It was produced in 1991 and released the following year . A sequel , entitled , The Greening of Planet Earth Continues , was released in 1998 . The video was narrated by Sherwood Idso . After the video was made , it was distributed to thousands of journalists by a coal industry group . The video became very popular viewing in the George H. W. Bush White House and elsewhere in Washington , where it was promoted before the 1992 Earth Summit , and , according to some reports , became especially popular with then-chief of staff John H. Sununu .", "qid": "250", "docid": "The_Greening_of_Planet_Earth", "rank": 3, "score": 135928 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 4, "score": 131584 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 5, "score": 126796 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide generator Content: A Carbon dioxide generator or CO2 generator is a machine used to enhance carbon dioxide levels in order to promote plant growth in greenhouses or other enclosed areas . Carbon dioxide generators have been used to help grow marijuana . They can be fueled with propane or natural gas . CO2 generators were used mostly by commercial growers until smaller and less expansive systems made the technology more widely available to hobbyists . The generators also give off heat . Using compressed CO2 is an alternative to generators .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_generator", "rank": 6, "score": 123722 }, { "content": "Title: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction Content: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction harnesses solar energy to convert into higher-energy products . The chemical conversion of CO2 already occurs on an industrial scale in the manufacture of solvents such as formic acid , but photochemical reduction differs in that it relies on a renewable energy source , the sun . Because CO2 is a greenhouse gas , there is environmental interest in producing artificial systems that are efficient photocatalysts , but the low turn-over rates of current methods have prohibited wide-scale industrial application .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Photochemical_carbon_dioxide_reduction", "rank": 7, "score": 121930 }, { "content": "Title: Recycled fuel Content: Fuel made of residues as CO2 produced by using a primary fuel . For example , CO2 pollution in the atmosphere , produced by petrol burning or other sources , can be extracted to produce fuel through an artificial photosynthesis based in nanotechnology , which helps to mitigate pollution , climate change and energy issues .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Recycled_fuel", "rank": 8, "score": 119229 }, { "content": "Title: Green trading Content: Green trading encompasses all forms of environmental financial trading , including carbon dioxide , sulfur dioxide ( acid rain ) , nitrogen oxide ( ozone ) , renewable energy credits , and energy efficiency ( negawatts ) . All these emerging and established environmental financial markets have one thing in common , which is making profits in the emerging emissions offset economy by investing in `` clean technology '' . Green Trading claims to accelerate change to a cleaner environment by using market-based incentives whose application is global.Some examples , such as the carbon market or market for SO2 suggests that market-based systems are more likely environmentally effective because market systems will direct abatement to relatively larger and more heavily utilized sources with relatively high emission intensities . . Many current projects to advance green technology are recipients of funding generated through the voluntary carbon offset market in the United States . Though currently not required to do so , many companies are seeking ways to clean up their environmental impact . Bad energy practices that they can not eliminate , they may offset ; knowing that they are funding projects that are actively developing cleaner energy practices and increasing energy efficiency for the future . In November 2008 , in a unique partnership initiated by Verus Carbon Neutral , 17 businesses of Atlanta 's Virginia Highland came together to establish themselves as the first Carbon-Neutral Zone in the United States . Their efforts now fund the Valley Wood Carbon Sequestration Project , the first such project to be verified through the Chicago Climate Exchange .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Green_trading", "rank": 9, "score": 118654 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-neutral fuel Content: Carbon-neutral fuels can refer to a variety of energy fuels or energy systems which have no net greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint . One class is synthetic fuel ( including methane , gasoline , diesel fuel , jet fuel or ammonia ) produced from sustainable or nuclear energy used to hydrogenate waste carbon dioxide recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater . Other types can be produced from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines , solar panels , and hydroelectric power stations . Such fuels are potentially carbon-neutral because they do not result in a net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases . Until captured carbon is used for plastics feedstock , carbon neutral fuel synthesis is the primary means of carbon capture and utilization or recycling . To the extent that carbon-neutral fuels displace fossil fuels , or if they are produced from waste carbon or seawater carbonic acid , and their combustion is subject to carbon capture at the flue or exhaust pipe , they result in negative carbon dioxide emission and net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere , and thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas remediation . Such power to gas carbon-neutral and carbon-negative fuels can be produced by the electrolysis of water to make hydrogen used in the Sabatier reaction to produce methane which may then be stored to be burned later in power plants as synthetic natural gas , transported by pipeline , truck , or tanker ship , or be used in gas to liquids processes such as the Fischer -- Tropsch process to make traditional fuels for transportation or heating . Carbon-neutral fuels are used in Germany and Iceland for distributed storage of renewable energy , minimizing problems of wind and solar intermittency , and enabling transmission of wind , water , and solar power through existing natural gas pipelines . Such renewable fuels could alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels , enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles . A 250 kilowatt synthetic methane plant has been built in Germany and it is being scaled up to 10 megawatts .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon-neutral_fuel", "rank": 10, "score": 117933 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 11, "score": 110955 }, { "content": "Title: Green Energy (Definition and Promotion) Act 2009 Content: The Green Energy ( Definition and Promotion ) Act 2009 ( c 19 ) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . The Act is intended to reduce carbon emissions in order to reduce climate change , to increase the diversity and security of energy supplies , to reduce fuel poverty , and to contribute to meeting the EU 2020 renewable energy targets .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Green_Energy_(Definition_and_Promotion)_Act_2009", "rank": 12, "score": 110268 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide flooding Content: Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_flooding", "rank": 13, "score": 105766 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon neutrality Content: Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_neutrality", "rank": 14, "score": 105537 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 15, "score": 105132 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainable automotive air conditioning Content: Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends . The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases . Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Sustainable_automotive_air_conditioning", "rank": 16, "score": 104474 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide laser Content: The carbon dioxide laser ( CO2 laser ) was one of the earliest gas lasers to be developed . It was invented by Kumar Patel of Bell Labs in 1964 , and is still one of the most useful . Carbon dioxide lasers are the highest-power continuous wave lasers that are currently available . They are also quite efficient : the ratio of output power to pump power can be as large as 20 % . The CO2 laser produces a beam of infrared light with the principal wavelength bands centering on 9.4 and 10.6 micrometers ( μm ) .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_laser", "rank": 17, "score": 103994 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 18, "score": 103717 }, { "content": "Title: The Green Initiative Content: The Green Initiative has as its main objective the offsetting of Greenhouse gases emitted by human activities that can range from complex industrial production processes to simply driving a car , with reforestation projects in riparian areas that need to be recovered . The trees planted will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide , as well as environmental benefits , such as water and air quality preservation , and biodiversity protection .", "qid": "250", "docid": "The_Green_Initiative", "rank": 19, "score": 103466 }, { "content": "Title: Easy Being Green Content: Easy Being Green is one of the largest energy efficiency operators in Australia . It was established in 2004 and have been responsible for organising mass consumer action on energy efficiency . As of 2013 the company had aided over 750,000 homes and businesses with energy efficiency . The company has managed to prevent more than 5 million tonnes of carbon pollution from entering the atmosphere through their various energy efficiency projects . Easy Being Green was founded in 2004 by Nic Frances to focus on residential energy efficiency in Australia . His work in the UK to provide assistance and employment opportunities to vulnerable people was acknowledged when he was awarded the MBE . In 1998 , he emigrated from the UK to Australia . There , he led the Brotherhood of St Laurence until 2004 . His work earned him an Australian Centenary Medal . From 2005 to 2007 Paul Gilding took over the running of Easy Being Green . Prior to this , Gilding served with Greenpeace between 1989 and 1994 as an Executive Director for Greenpeace International and Greenpeace Australia . Gilding helped build Easy Being Green to a successful business employing over 200 people . The company used carbon trading to drive mass consumer action on energy efficiency . In doing so it achieved 4,300,000 tonnes of CO2 reductions and established domestic energy efficiency as a mainstream consumer and policy priority opportunity in Australia . In 2008 Easy Being Green was acquired by Jackgreen Ltd , Australia 's only renewable energy retailer . The business continued as Jackgreen 's energy efficiency arm , offering free residential energy efficiency services and upgrades . Easy Being Green in 2009 launched a major campaign on Solar hot water in which it offered a free system with an interest free green loan on the installation . In 2010 , the founder of Jackgreen Ltd , Andrew Randall , purchased the Easy Being Green assets and has been running it ever since . The company today continues as a leading Australian energy efficiency organization , with large residential energy efficiency programs , energy efficiency audits , green loans , a strong commercial efficient lighting operation and solar sales and installation .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Easy_Being_Green", "rank": 20, "score": 102031 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 21, "score": 101862 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 22, "score": 101715 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Content: The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme ( or CPRS ) was a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme for anthropogenic greenhouse gases proposed by the Rudd government , as part of its climate change policy , which had been due to commence in Australia in 2010 . It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia . The policy began to be formulated in April 2007 , when the federal Labor Party was in Opposition and the six Labor-controlled states commissioned an independent review on energy policy , the Garnaut Climate Change Review , which published a number of reports . After Labor won the 2007 federal election and formed government , it published a Green Paper on climate change for discussion and comment . The Federal Treasury then modelled some of the financial and economic impacts of the proposed CPRS scheme . The Rudd government published a final White Paper on 15 December 2008 , and announced that legislation was intended to take effect in July 2010 ; but the legislation for the CPRS ( aka ETS ) failed to gain the numbers in the Senate and was twice rejected creating a double dissolution election trigger . A bitter political debate within the Coalition Opposition saw Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull lose the leadership to the anti-CPRS Tony Abbott . The Rudd government did not call an election and in April 2010 , Rudd deferred plans for the CPRS . After the 2010 federal election , the Gillard Government was able to get the Carbon Pricing Mechanism ( CPM ) passed into law as part of the Clean Energy Futures Package ( CEF ) in 2011 , and became effective on 1 July 2012 . However , after the 2013 federal election there was a change in government , and the Abbott Government repealed the CEF package on 17 July 2014 . Due to the great deal of policy uncertainty surrounding the scheme , organizations in Australia responded in a rather informal and tepid manner and largely withheld from making any large-scale investments in emissions reductions technology during the scheme 's operation .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_Pollution_Reduction_Scheme", "rank": 23, "score": 101189 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 24, "score": 101051 }, { "content": "Title: Amorphous carbonia Content: Amorphous carbonia , also called a-carbonia or a-CO2 , is an exotic amorphous solid form of carbon dioxide that is analogous to amorphous silica glass . It was first made in the laboratory in 2006 by subjecting dry ice to high pressures ( 40-48 gigapascal , or 400,000 to 480,000 atmospheres ) , in a diamond anvil cell . Amorphous carbonia is not stable at ordinary pressures -- it quickly reverts to normal CO2 . While normally carbon dioxide forms molecular crystals , where individual molecules are bound by Van der Waals forces , in amorphous carbonia a covalently bound three-dimensional network of atoms is formed , in a structure analogous to silicon dioxide or germanium dioxide glass . Mixtures of a-carbonia and a-silica may be a prospective very hard and stiff glass material stable at room temperature . Such glass may serve as protective coatings , e.g. in microelectronics . The discovery has implications for astrophysics , as interiors of massive planets may contain amorphous solid carbon dioxide .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Amorphous_carbonia", "rank": 25, "score": 100865 }, { "content": "Title: Campus carbon neutrality Content: All across the world , colleges and universities are looking to a sustainable future by working to become carbon neutral . Universities are taking responsibility for their environmental impact and are working to neutralize those effects . To become carbon neutral , universities are working to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases , cut their use of energy , use more renewable energy , and emphasize the importance of sustainable energy sources . Universities that have committed to becoming carbon neutral have recognized the threat of global warming and are therefore committing to reverse the trend .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Campus_carbon_neutrality", "rank": 26, "score": 100210 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide sensor Content: A carbon dioxide sensor or CO2 sensor is an instrument for the measurement of carbon dioxide gas . The most common principles for CO2 sensors are infrared gas sensors ( NDIR ) and chemical gas sensors . Measuring carbon dioxide is important in monitoring indoor air quality , the function of the lungs in the form of a capnograph device , and many industrial processes .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_sensor", "rank": 27, "score": 100191 }, { "content": "Title: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Content: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Bio-energy_with_carbon_capture_and_storage", "rank": 28, "score": 100126 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monitoring Content: Carbon monitoring refers to tracking how much carbon dioxide or methane is produced by particular activity at a particular point in time . For example , it may refer to tracking methane emissions from agriculture , or carbon dioxide emissions from land use changes , such as deforestation , or from burning fossil fuels , whether in a power plant , automobile , or other device . Because carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emitted in the largest quantities , and methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas , monitoring carbon emissions is widely seen as crucial to any effort to reduce emissions and thereby slow climate change . Monitoring carbon emissions is key to the cap-and-trade program currently being used in Europe , as well as the one in California , and will be necessary for any such program in the future , like the Paris Agreement . The lack of reliable sources of consistent data on carbon emissions is a significant barrier to efforts to reduce emissions .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_monitoring", "rank": 29, "score": 98603 }, { "content": "Title: Zero-carbon city Content: A zero-carbon city runs entirely on renewable energy ; it has no carbon footprint and will in this respect not cause harm to the planet . Most cities throughout the world produce energy by burning coal , oil and gas , unintentionally emitting carbon . Almost every activity humans do involves burning one of these fossil fuels . To become a zero carbon city , an established modern city must collectively reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to zero and all practices that emit greenhouse gases must cease . Also , renewable energy must supersede other non-renewable energy sources and become the sole source of energy , so a zero-carbon city is a renewable-energy-economy city . This transition which includes decarbonising electricity ( increasing the importance of the sources of renewable electricity ) and zero-emission transport , is undertaken as a response to climate change . Zero-carbon cities maintain optimal living conditions while eliminating environmental impact . Instead of using established cities , many developers are starting from scratch in order to create a zero-carbon city . This way they can make sure every aspect of a city contributes to it being carbon free .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Zero-carbon_city", "rank": 30, "score": 97930 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon cycle re-balancing Content: The carbon cycle is the process by which carbon is exchanged between the four reservoirs of carbon : the biosphere , the earth , the air and water . Exchanges take place in several ways , including respiration , transpiration , combustion , and decomposition . The carbon balance , or carbon budget , is the balance of exchange between the four reservoirs . Debate about 're - balancing the carbon cycle ' arises from a concern that use of fossil fuels , which has accelerated since the start of the industrial revolution , has caused carbon to accumulate in the atmosphere . Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are estimated to have risen from 280 ppm to almost 400 ppm since 1800 and this is linked to global warming . It is therefore argued that the carbon cycle should be re-balanced by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere . ` Carbon cycle re-balancing ' is a useful name for a group of environmental policies listed below . The name gives a specific reason for adopting these policies . Related names , including pleas for sustainable development and participation in the green movement are politics-based rather than science-based . Carbon offset - for example by photosynthesis ( e.g. in new forests ) Carbon capture and storage - extraction of CO2 and placing it underground or underwater Carbon capture and transformation - extraction of CO2 and reacting it with hydrogen via renewable energy electrolysis to create methane as an energy store/carrier . Low to neutral cycle Sustainable energy - a shift from fossil fuels energy to wind power and solar power Nuclear power - as an alternative to fossil fuels Sustainable design - to reduce inputs and outputs of energy Sustainable transport - to reduce reliance on fossil fuels Burning domestic refuse to generate power can be promoted as a recycling , and therefore sustainable , policy . But from a carbon cycle re-balancing standpoint it is better to compost as much domestic refuse as possible .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_cycle_re-balancing", "rank": 31, "score": 97768 }, { "content": "Title: Green electricity in the United Kingdom Content: There are a number of suppliers offering ` green ' electricity in the United Kingdom . In theory these types of tariffs help to lower carbon emissions by increasing consumer demand for green electricity and encouraging more renewables to be built . Since OFGEM 's 2014 regulations there are now set criteria defining what can be classified as a green source product . As well as holding sufficient guarantee of origin certificates to cover the electricity sold to consumers , suppliers are also required to show additionality by contributing to wider environmental and low carbon funds . Care needs to be taken in selecting a green energy supplier . A National Consumer Council report in December 2006 concluded that many green tariffs are not delivering the environmental benefits they claim to , and that consumers may not be making the positive contribution they think they are .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Green_electricity_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 32, "score": 97645 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon price Content: Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_price", "rank": 33, "score": 97541 }, { "content": "Title: Photoelectrochemical reduction of CO2 Content: Photoelectrochemical reduction of CO2 is a chemical process whereby carbon dioxide is reduced to carbon monoxide or hydrocarbons by the energy of incident light . This process needs to be catalyzed either homogeneously or heterogeneously in order to proceed , and current research is aimed at developing these catalysts , most of which are semiconducting materials . Semiconducting catalysts provide favourable electron transfer kinetics . Motivation for research in this area is strong due to the current attention to atmospheric carbon dioxide as the reduction of carbon dioxide would be one route for removal and sequestration . Furthermore , the reduced species may prove to be a valuable feedstock for other processes . If the incident light utilized is solar in nature then this process also potentially represents energy routes which combine renewable energy with CO2 reduction .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Photoelectrochemical_reduction_of_CO2", "rank": 34, "score": 97393 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide reforming Content: Carbon dioxide reformation ( also known as dry reformation ) is a method of producing synthesis gas ( mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide ) from the reaction of carbon dioxide with hydrocarbons such as methane . Synthesis gas is conventionally produced via the steam reforming reaction . In recent years , increased concerns on the contribution of greenhouse gases to global warming have increased interest in the replacement of steam as reactant with carbon dioxide . The dry reforming reaction may be represented by : CO2 + CH4 → 2 H2 + 2 CO Thus , two greenhouse gases are consumed and useful chemical building blocks , hydrogen and carbon monoxide , are produced . A challenge to the commercialization of this process is that the hydrogen that is produced tends to react with the carbon dioxide . For example , the following reaction typically proceeds with a lower activation energy than the dry reforming reaction itself : CO2 + H2 → H2O + CO Typical catalysts are noble metals , Ni or Ni alloys . In addition , a group of researchers in China investigated the use of activated carbon as an alternative catalyst .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_reforming", "rank": 35, "score": 96532 }, { "content": "Title: Natur-Energi Content: Natur-Energi A/S is a Danish utility company which produce all of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind , hydro , sustainable biomass and solar power . The company delivers CO2 neutral electricity to households and companies . Natur-Energi was founded in 2008 to give consumers access to a triple bottom line utility company that is committed to fighting climate change . The main product is certified electricity endorsed and certified by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation under the label Bra Miljöval . Bra Miljöval is approved by the Eugene Green Energy Standard The company also offers verified carbon offset products to individuals and businesses .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Natur-Energi", "rank": 36, "score": 96524 }, { "content": "Title: Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal Content: Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal ( ECCO2R ) is the removal of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the bloodstream in people who have elevated levels of carbon dioxide as a result of respiratory failure . The use of extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal is currently considered experimental , but it has been studied in a number of situations , specifically severe exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and in adult respiratory distress syndrome where conventional mechanical ventilation would cause excessive lung damage . It requires the insertion of a tube similar to a dialysis catheter into a large vein . Blood is pumped through a machine where the carbon dioxide is filtered out .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Extracorporeal_carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 37, "score": 96437 }, { "content": "Title: Green industrial policy Content: Green industrial policy ( GIP ) is strategic government policy that attempts to accelerate the development and growth of green industries to transition towards a low-carbon economy . Natural scientists warn that immediate action must be taken to lower greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change . Social scientists argue that the mitigation of climate change requires state intervention and governance reform . Thus , governments use GIP to address the economic , political , and environmental issues of climate change . GIP is conducive to sustainable economic , institutional , and technological transformation . It goes beyond the free market economic structure to address market failures and commitment problems that hinder sustainable investment . Effective GIP builds political support for carbon regulation which is necessary to transition towards a low-carbon economy . Several governments use different types of GIP that lead to various outcomes . GIP and industrial policy are similar , although GIP has unique challenges and goals . GIP faces the particular challenge of reconciling economic and environmental issues . It deals with a high uncertainty of green investment profitability . Furthermore , it addresses the reluctance of industry to invest in green development , and it helps current governments influence future climate policy . GIP offers opportunities for energy transition to renewables and a low-carbon economy . A large challenge for climate policy is a lack of industry and public support . GIP creates benefits that attract support for sustainability . It can create strategic niche management and generate a `` green spiral '' , or a process of feedback that combines industrial interests with climate policy . GIP can protect employees in emerging and declining industries , which leads to political support for other climate policy . Carbon pricing , sustainable energy transitions , and decreases in greenhouse gas emissions have higher chances of success as political support increases . GIP faces many risks . Some risks include poor government choices about which industries to support ; political capture of economic policy ; wasted resources ; ineffective action to combat climate change ; poor policy design that lacks policy objectives and exit strategies ; trade disputes ; and coordination failure . Strategic steps can be taken to manage the risks of GIP . Some include public and private sector communication , transparency , and accountability ; policy with clear objectives , evaluation techniques and exit strategies ; policy learning and policy experimentation ; green rent management ; strong institutions ; and a free press . Governments in various countries , states , provinces , territories , and cities use different types of green industrial policy . Distinct policy instruments lead to several outcomes . Examples include sunrise and sunset policies , subsidies , research and development , local content requirements , feed-in tariffs , tax credits , export restrictions , consumer mandates , green public procurement rules , and renewable portfolio standards .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Green_industrial_policy", "rank": 38, "score": 96019 }, { "content": "Title: Citizens' Greener Evanston Content: Citizens ' Greener Evanston ( previously known as `` Citizens for a Greener Evanston '' ) is an environmental organization in Evanston , Illinois that works primarily on strategies for reducing carbon emissions and increasing community sustainability . Its origins were in Network for Evanston 's Future , an umbrella group started c. 2000 for a half-dozen organizations in Evanston working on various aspects of sustainability in the municipality , to wit , Evanston 's Affordable Housing Future ; The Citizens ' Lighthouse Community Land Trust ; Evanston 's Transportation Future ; Evanston Interreligious Sustainability Circle ; Evanston 's Energy Future ; Evanston Food Policy Council ; and The Talking Farm . After the City in October 2006 voted to sign the United States Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement , Network leaders , after public meetings , convened a number of citizen taskforces , which began working in the fall of 2007 to develop a plan to reduce the city 's carbon footprint . The result was the Evanston Climate Action Plan ( `` ECAP '' ) , passed in November 2008 , which proposed over 200 different tactics to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Evanston with respect to transportation , buildings , energy sources , waste , and food production . The Evanston effort was singled out by the State of Illinois as a `` best practices '' model for developing such a plan . The ECAP was presented to the Evanston City Council , and `` accepted '' by it , in November , 2008 . After the ECAP was final , many of the citizens who had worked on it continued to meet , first as Citizens for a Greener Evanston , often referred to as CGE . In 2010 , the group incorporated as Citizens ' Greener Evanston . Since formation , the group has expanded its reach to partner with the City , local school districts , institutions such as Northwestern University , businesses , and resident groups in an effort to reduce the City 's carbon-based emissions by 13 % by the year 2012 . CGE set in motion City discussion of a wind turbine farm based offshore of Evanston in Lake Michigan ; the effort resulted in formal City request for information in 2010 , garnering widespread attention . CGE frequently presents public informational sessions , such as a lecture and book-signing by author Christopher Steiner . The group partnered with the Evanston Chamber of Commerce , ComEd and the City in sponsoring a free breakfast presentation on energy efficiency , targeted at local businesses , in September , 2009 . Many members of CGE worked to develop a green building ordinance in Evanston . The group does not endorse , support , or oppose candidates but in the 2009 municipal elections , sponsored an informational candidates ' forum open to the public , and in the 2010 primary election , issued questionnaires to state legislative candidates and published the results online .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Citizens'_Greener_Evanston", "rank": 39, "score": 95532 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 40, "score": 95075 }, { "content": "Title: Cofiring Content: Co-firing is the combustion of two different types of materials at the same time . One of the advantages of co-firing is that an existing plant can be used to burn a new fuel , which may be cheaper or more environmentally friendly . For example , biomass is sometimes co-fired in existing coal plants instead of new biomass plants . Co-firing can also be used to improve the combustion of fuels with low energy content . For example , landfill gas contains a large amount of carbon dioxide , which is non-combustible . If the landfill gas is burned without removing the carbon dioxide , the equipment may not perform properly or emissions of pollutants may increase . Co-firing it with natural gas increases the heat content of the fuel and improves combustion and equipment performance . As long as the electricity or heat produced with the biomass and landfill gas was otherwise going to be produced with non-renewable fuels , the benefits are essentially equivalent whether they are cofired or combusted alone . Also , co-firing can be used to lower the emission of some pollutants . For example , co-firing biomass with coal results in less sulfur emissions than burning coal by itself .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Cofiring", "rank": 41, "score": 94970 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 (disambiguation) Content: CO2 is the molecular formula for carbon dioxide . CO2 , Co2 or C02 may refer to :", "qid": "250", "docid": "CO2_(disambiguation)", "rank": 42, "score": 94890 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon offset Content: A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere . Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent ( CO2e ) and may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases : carbon dioxide , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , and sulfur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases . There are two markets for carbon offsets . In the larger , compliance market , companies , governments , or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit . This market exists in order to achieve compliance with obligations of Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol , and of liable entities under the EU Emission Trading Scheme . In 2006 , about $ 5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market , representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions . In the much smaller , voluntary market , individuals , companies , or governments purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation , electricity use , and other sources . For example , an individual might purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by personal air travel . Many companies ( see list ) offer carbon offsets as an up-sell during the sales process so that customers can mitigate the emissions related with their product or service purchase ( such as offsetting emissions related to a vacation flight , car rental , hotel stay , consumer good , etc. ) . In 2008 , about $ 705 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market , representing about 123.4 million metric tons of CO2e reductions . Some fuel suppliers in the UK offer fuel which has been carbon offset such as Fuel dyes . Offsets are typically achieved through financial support of projects that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the short - or long-term . The most common project type is renewable energy , such as wind farms , biomass energy , or hydroelectric dams . Others include energy efficiency projects , the destruction of industrial pollutants or agricultural byproducts , destruction of landfill methane , and forestry projects . Some of the most popular carbon offset projects from a corporate perspective are energy efficiency and wind turbine projects . Carbon offsetting has gained some appeal and momentum mainly among consumers in western countries who have become aware and concerned about the potentially negative environmental effects of energy-intensive lifestyles and economies . The Kyoto Protocol has sanctioned offsets as a way for governments and private companies to earn carbon credits that can be traded on a marketplace . The protocol established the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) , which validates and measures projects to ensure they produce authentic benefits and are genuinely `` additional '' activities that would not otherwise have been undertaken . Organizations that are unable to meet their emissions quota can offset their emissions by buying CDM-approved Certified Emissions Reductions . Emissions from burning fuel , such as red diesel , has pushed one UK fuel supplier to create a carbon offset fuel named Carbon Offset Red Diesel . Offsets may be cheaper or more convenient alternatives to reducing one 's own fossil-fuel consumption . However , some critics object to carbon offsets , and question the benefits of certain types of offsets . Due diligence is recommended to help businesses in the assessment and identification of `` good quality '' offsets to ensure offsetting provides the desired additional environmental benefits , and to avoid reputational risk associated with poor quality offsets . Offsets are viewed as an important policy tool to maintain stable economies and to improve sustainability . One of the hidden dangers of climate change policy is unequal prices of carbon in the economy , which can cause economic collateral damage if production flows to regions or industries that have a lower price of carbon -- unless carbon can be purchased from that area , which offsets effectively permit , equalizing the price .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_offset", "rank": 43, "score": 94881 }, { "content": "Title: Power to gas Content: Power to gas ( also power-to-gas ) ( often abbreviated P2G ) is a technology that converts electrical power to a gas fuel . When using surplus power from wind generation , the concept is sometimes called windgas . There are currently three methods in use ; all use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen by means of electrolysis . In the first method , the resulting hydrogen is injected into the natural gas grid or is used in transport or industry . The second method is to combine the hydrogen with carbon dioxide and convert the two gases to methane ( see natural gas ) using a methanation reaction such as the Sabatier reaction , or biological methanation resulting in an extra energy conversion loss of 8 % . The methane may then be fed into the natural gas grid . The third method uses the output gas of a wood gas generator or a biogas plant , after the biogas upgrader is mixed with the produced hydrogen from the electrolyzer , to upgrade the quality of the biogas . Impurities , such as carbon dioxide , water , hydrogen sulfide , and particulates , must be removed from the biogas if the gas is used for pipeline storage to prevent damage .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Power_to_gas", "rank": 44, "score": 94754 }, { "content": "Title: ECOCITIES (software) Content: All member states of the European Union are bound to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions . For example , the EU climate and energy package requires member states to improve their energy efficiency by 20 % , increase - renewable energy production by 20 % and reduce their emissions by 20 % . With about 40 % of CO2 emissions heating , cooling and hot water production in buildings is one of the largest greenhouse gas producers . At the same time the building sector has the largest potential for energy savings . In their effort to lead a change towards greater energy efficiency and a reduction of greenhouse gas , many companies , cities and municipalities are in the process of developing low carbon action plans . However , the costs for developing optimal action plans and their continuous monitoring and optimization are very high , thus , often hindered by the tense financial situation , especially of cities and municipalities . With significant economic and environmental downsides ; the consequences are additional costs due to the non-compliance to the national and EU emission goals and untapped energy saving potential . ECOCITIES is an energy optimization system for building portfolios combining and extending the benefits of Energy Management Software ( EMS ) , Computer-aided Facility Management ( CAFM ) software and building portfolio management software . It integrates building administration and monitoring , energy accounting and building portfolio optimization . Thereby , it supports the definition of low carbon action plans in terms of environmental impact ( e.g. , carbon footprint , energy efficiency ) and financial impact ( e.g. , investment costs , running , costs ) . The system considers the following options for each building and the resulting ( inter - ) dependencies : energy-efficient building configurations ( e.g. , the compatibility of building components and its contribution to the energy efficiency level ) , energy used at the production and distribution of building components ( i.e. , gray energy ) , environmental impact ( e.g. , CO2 emissions ) , financial constraints , such as ( governmental ) funding and limited long term loans , legal constraints , e.g. , building codes , national and international standards , energy consumption for the operation of buildings , i.e. , heating , ventilation , and air conditioning ( HVAC ) as well as the electricity demand , energy production , storage and load shifting between buildings in combination with renewable energy production ( solar PV and thermal , Micro combined heat and power ) and conversion . energy flows between a building 's on-site networks ( Heating/Cooling and low voltage networks ) , the micro networks on neighborhood level and the city-wide energy networks ( district heating and district cooling networks , mid-voltage distribution networks ) , local typology ( position of buildings , energy networks ) . ECOCITIES calculates all energy - and cost-efficient development scenarios , visualizes them on the screen and allows decision makers to interactively explore the consequences of their actions ( e.g. , what are the citywide costs and the corresponding CO2 reductions of introducing a neighborhood-scale combined heat and power plant ) . ECOCITIES is an enabler for the realization of energy goals and provides synergies with existing endeavors of achieving national and European energy goals . On an operational level , ECOCITIES supports the following processes : Administration and integrated optimization of the entire building portfolio . Energy accounting and monitoring for all buildings . Identification , evaluation and definition of energy efficiency strategies ( low carbon action plans ) . Continuous monitoring , review and optimization of energy efficiency strategies ( low carbon action plans ) . Ensure the alignment of individual initiatives with the overall energy strategy of the company/city , e.g. , planning the cost - and energy efficient integration of new or refurbished single buildings , groups of buildings or entire neighborhoods into a new or existing energy efficiency strategy . Continuous monitoring of the performance related to the contribution to national and European energy goals .", "qid": "250", "docid": "ECOCITIES_(software)", "rank": 45, "score": 94456 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide cleaning Content: Carbon dioxide cleaning ( CO2 cleaning ) comprises a family of methods for parts cleaning and sterilization , using carbon dioxide in its various phases . It is often preferred for use on delicate surfaces . CO2 cleaning has found application in the aerospace , automotive , electronics , medical , and other industries . Carbon dioxide snow cleaning has been used to remove particles and organic residues from metals , polymers , ceramics , glasses , hard drives , optics , and other surfaces .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_cleaning", "rank": 46, "score": 94330 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 47, "score": 93770 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-based fuel Content: Carbon-based fuel is any fuel principally from the oxidation or burning of carbon . Carbon-based fuels are of two main kinds , biofuels and fossil fuels . Whereas biofuels are derived from recent-growth organic matter and are typically harvested , as with logging of forests and cutting of corn , fossil fuels are of prehistoric origin and are extracted from the ground , the principal fossil fuels being oil , coal , and natural gas . From an economic policy perspective , an important distinction between biofuels and fossil fuels is that only the former is sustainable or renewable . Whereas we can continue to obtain energy from biofuels indefinitely in principle , the Earth 's reserves of fossil fuels was determined millions of years ago and is therefore fixed as far as our foreseeable future is concerned . The great variability in the ease of extraction of fossil fuels however makes its endgame scenario one of increasing prices over one or more centuries rather than of abrupt exhaustion . From the perspective of climate and ecology , biofuels and fossil fuels have in common that they contribute to the production of atmospheric carbon dioxide , which has emerged in recent decades as the fastest-changing greenhouse gas , whose principal impacts are global warming and ocean acidification . However biofuels actively participate in the carbon cycle today by photosynthesizing carbon dioxide , unlike fossil fuels whose participation was long ago , and can therefore in principle bring atmospheric CO2 into an equilibrium not possible with the continued use of fossil fuel . But in practice photosynthesis is a slow process , and the additional fuel produced by artificial methods of accelerating it such as application of fertilizer tends to be offset by the energy consumed by the accelerating processes , to a degree currently under active debate . In contrast the speed of photosynthesis is immaterial for fossil fuels because they had millions of years in which to accumulate . Burning of both fossil fuels and biofuels usually also produces carbon monoxide , which is toxic and can kill a person after mixing with the haemoglobin of the blood , increasing its concentration in the body . Biofuels and fossil fuels may also produce many other air pollutants depending on the contents of the fuel .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon-based_fuel", "rank": 48, "score": 93641 }, { "content": "Title: Coal pollution mitigation Content: Coal pollution mitigation , often referred to by the public relations term clean coal , is a series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate the pollution and other environmental effects normally associated with the burning ( though not the mining or processing ) of coal , which is widely regarded as the dirtiest of the common fuels for industrial processes and power generation . The preferred industry term `` clean coal '' has been described as `` Orwellian '' , an oxymoron , and a myth . Approaches attempt to mitigate emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and other greenhouse gases , and radioactive materials , that arise from the use of coal , mainly for electrical power generation , using various technologies . Historical efforts to reduce coal pollution focused on flue-gas desulfurization starting in the 1850s and clean burn technologies . More recent developments include carbon capture and storage , which pumps and stores CO2 emissions underground , and integrated gasification combined cycle ( IGCC ) involve coal gasification , which provides a basis for increased efficiency and lower cost in capturing CO2 emissions . There are seven technologies deployed or proposed for deployment in the United States : carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) , flue-gas desulfurization , fluidized-bed combustion , integrated gasification combined cycle ( IGCC ) , low nitrogen oxide burners , selective catalytic reduction ( SCR ) , and electrostatic precipitators . Of the 22 demonstration projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy since 2003 , none are in operation as of February 2017 , having been abandoned or delayed due to capital budget overruns or discontinued because of excessive operating expenses .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Coal_pollution_mitigation", "rank": 49, "score": 93619 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 (opera) Content: CO2 is an Italian opera by Giorgio Battistelli which premiered at La Scala on May 16 , 2015 . It is based on Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth , and Gore was initially a character in the opera . The libretto , primarily in English but containing passages in other languages , was written by Robert Carsen , who directed the production , and Ian Burton .", "qid": "250", "docid": "CO2_(opera)", "rank": 50, "score": 93309 }, { "content": "Title: German response to Kyoto Protocol Content: Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany . Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states . As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms . In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible . Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .", "qid": "250", "docid": "German_response_to_Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 51, "score": 93190 }, { "content": "Title: Green the Capitol Content: Green the Capital In March 2007 , House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi began the Green the Capitol an initiative to make the United States Capitol a more environmentally sustainable workplace , the mission to make the millions of square feet of Capitol infrastructure a model of sustainability . The Speaker charged Chief Administrative Officer ( CAO ) Daniel P. Beard with the task of making the House of Representatives a model of sustainability for the nation . Within a short period of time the program made significant progress in dramatically reducing energy consumption ; greening all of the restaurants and cafeterias , reducing greenhouse gases ; encouraging recycling reuse and diverting House waste from landfills ; encouraging sustainable business practices in Legislative Agencies , Member Offices and Committees ; and encouraging alternative transportation use for employee commuters to reduce traffic congestion and save energy . Robert K. Lane initially was appointed as Executive Director of the program in 2008 and served in that capacity until July 2010 , when Allison Rogers was appointed as Director . A major accomplishment of the Green the Capitol Initiative was to coordinate with the Architect of the Capitol to convert the antiquated Capitol Power Plant from predominant use of coal , to cleaner natural gas . This initiative substantially reduced the Capitol Campus ' carbon emissions and contributed to the enhanced air quality of the Capitol Hill area . On August 4 , 2011 , Daniel J. Strodel , succeeded Daniel P. Beard as Chief Administrative Officer of the United States House of Representatives , and Stephen T. Ayers , AIA , LEED AP , Architect of the Capitol ( AOC ) , announced that the ( AOC ) will assume and expand the House of Representatives ' sustainability initiatives formerly conducted by the Chief Administrative Officer ( CAO ) . This will further improve efficiencies in the effort to reduce energy consumption on Capitol Hill . The CAO 's organization brought a number of sustainability issues to the forefront for the House of Representatives , and identified a number of energy and cost-savings measures that the AOC then carried out . To further improve efficiencies and educational resources Congress-wide , these initiatives will now be directed by the AOC whose mission it is to preserve and enhance the Capitol complex . `` Saving energy saves money and consolidating our sustainability programs helps save taxpayer dollars by improving efficiencies and allows us to make smart and sound investments throughout the Capitol complex . This greatly improves our return on investment in Congressional facilities by continuing to include sustainability in our long-range project planning , '' noted Ayers . In 2010 , the Architect of the Capitol installed 30,000 energy-efficient light fixtures , and converted 2,700 bathroom fixtures to automatic , low-flow units . These upgrades helped to achieve a 23.3 percent reduction in water consumption in the House Office Buildings from Fiscal Year 2009 to Fiscal Year 2010 . In addition , approximately 1,250 bathroom fixtures were diverted from landfills and sent to a local asphalt plant for recycling . The AOC also installed a dimmable LED lighting technology in the Rayburn Cafeteria . In a matter of months , energy consumption for lighting in the cafeteria was reduced by more than 70 percent . As a result of these efforts and others , Congress 's energy reduction efforts have yielded great results . In Fiscal Year 2010 , the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 ( EISA 2007 ) goal was exceeded by reducing energy consumption 17 percent , beating the Fiscal Year 2010 requirement of a 15 percent reduction . `` Working with the AOC , our staff put together a blueprint that we 've used to save energy on the House side of the Capitol , '' said Strodel . `` Now it 's time to hand this initiative over to the Architect to incorporate sustainable practices across the Capitol complex to realize even greater savings . '' For more information about sustainability , visit www.aoc.gov/sustainability.cfm .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Green_the_Capitol", "rank": 52, "score": 92903 }, { "content": "Title: Direct carbon fuel cell Content: A Direct Carbon Fuel Cell ( DCFC ) is a fuel cell that uses a carbon rich material as a fuel such as bio-mass or coal . The cell produces energy by combining carbon and oxygen , which releases carbon dioxide as a by-product . It also called coal fuel cells ( CFCs ) , carbon-air fuel cells ( CAFCs ) , direct carbon/coal fuel cells ( DCFCs ) , and DC-SOFC . The total reaction of the cell is C + O2 → CO2 . The process in half cell notation : Anode : C + 2 O2 − → CO2 + 4 e − Cathode : O2 + 4 e − → 2 O2 − Despite this release of carbon dioxide , the direct carbon fuel cell is more environmentally friendly than traditional carbon burning techniques . Due to its higher efficiency , it requires less carbon to produce the same amount of energy . Also , because pure carbon dioxide is emitted , carbon capture techniques are much cheaper than for conventional power stations . Utilized carbon can be in the form of coal , coke , char , or a non-fossilized source of carbon . At least four types of DCFC exist : The first one is based on the Solid oxide fuel cell ( SOFC ) concept . Overall reaction in the solid oxide electrolyte based DCFC C + O2 → CO2 . Anode reaction <Direct electrochemical oxidation path> C + 2O2 − → CO2 + 4e − C + O2 − → CO + 2e − <Indirect electrochemical oxidation path> CO + O2 − → CO2 + 2e − <Boudouard reaction:indirect chemical reaction path> C + CO2 → 2CO Cathode reaction O2 + 4e − → 2O2 − The second one is molten hydroxides fuel cell . William W. Jacques obtained an US Patent 555,511 in this type of fuel cell in 1896 . Prototypes have been demonstrated by the research group , SARA , Inc. . The third one is based on the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell ( MCFC ) concept . William W. Jacques obtained a Canadian patent in this type of fuel cell in 1897 . It has been developed further at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory . The fourth is a molten tin anode solid oxide fuel cell design , which utilizes molten tin and tin oxide as an inter stage reaction between oxidation of the carbon dissolving in the anode and reduction of oxygen at the solid oxide cathode .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Direct_carbon_fuel_cell", "rank": 53, "score": 92829 }, { "content": "Title: Cool Earth 50 Content: Cool Earth 50 ( also known as Cool Earth ) is a plan developed by Japan to reduce global CO2 emissions 50 % by 2050 , which was discussed at the 34th G8 summit . Cool Earth 50 is planned to be a framework that would continue towards the goals set forth in the Kyoto Protocols . This plan includes three proposals : a long-term strategy , a mid-term strategy and launching a national campaign for achieving the Kyoto Protocol Target . The plan was first proposed on May 24 , 2007 at an international conference called Asian Future and was initiated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe . The program 's goal is to reduce current global green house emissions by 50 % by the year 2050 the . The goal of reduction was aimed particular towards the largest green house emitting countries The United States , China , Japan , and India . Also , for the major green house emitters to create a frame work for reduction . Cool Earth aims at reducing green house emissions by improve technology in energy fields . A large goal of Cool Earth is to promote economic prosperity through green technology and to encourage political stability domestically and internationally .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Cool_Earth_50", "rank": 54, "score": 92818 }, { "content": "Title: Octanitrocubane Content: Octanitrocubane ( molecular formula : C8 ( NO2 ) 8 ) is a high explosive that , like TNT , is shock-insensitive ( not readily detonated by shock ) . The octanitrocubane molecule has the same chemical structure as cubane ( C8H8 ) except that each of the eight hydrogen atoms is replaced by a nitro group ( NO2 ) . It is however not as powerful as once thought , as the high density theoretical crystal structure has not been achieved . For this reason heptanitrocubane , the slightly less nitrated form , is believed to have marginally better performance despite having a worse oxygen balance . Octanitrocubane is thought to have 20 -- 25 % greater performance than HMX ( octogen ) . This increase in power is due to its highly expansive breakdown into CO2 and N2 , as well as to the presence of strained chemical bonds in the molecule which have stored potential energy . In addition , octanitrocubane produces no water vapor making it less visible , and both the chemical itself and its decomposition products ( nitrogen and carbon dioxide ) are considered to be non-toxic . Octanitrocubane has a detonation velocity of 10,100 m/s , making it the fastest known explosive . Small amounts have been synthesized in the laboratory , but not enough for performance testing as an explosive . Octanitrocubane was first synthesized by Philip Eaton ( who was also the first to synthesize cubane in 1964 ) and Mao-Xi Zhang at the University of Chicago in 1999 , with the structure proven by crystallographer Richard Gilardi of the United States Naval Research Laboratory . The R.E. factor of octanitrocubane is 2.38 , making it the most effective chemical explosive known .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Octanitrocubane", "rank": 55, "score": 92779 }, { "content": "Title: American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut Content: American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut , , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court , in an 8 -- 0 decision , held that corporations can not be sued for greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) under federal common law , primarily because the Clean Air Act ( CAA ) delegates the management of carbon dioxide and other GHG emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) . Brought to court in July 2004 in the Southern District of New York , this was the first global warming case based on a public nuisance claim .", "qid": "250", "docid": "American_Electric_Power_Co._v._Connecticut", "rank": 56, "score": 92473 }, { "content": "Title: Project Vulcan Content: Project Vulcan is a NASA/DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions at space/time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past . The initial purpose of the Vulcan Project was to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget , to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks , and to support the demands posed by higher resolution CO2 observations . The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has now made it a valuable tool for policymakers , demographers , social scientists and the public at large . Project Vulcan has achieved U.S. fossil fuel CO2 emissions at < 10 km spatial scales and an hourly time scale , based on datasets such as air quality emissions reporting , census data , highway statistics , energy statistics , and econometric data . Furthermore , Vulcan includes significant process-level detail , dividing the emissions into economic sectors and sub-sectors in addition to 23 fuel types . It has been produced for the year 2002 , and an annual product spanning 1980-2006 will be available by late-2009 . The first Vulcan inventory ( v1 .0 ) was released to the public in early April 2008 . Version 1.1 was released in February 2009 and Version 1.2 is due out in early August 2009 . In addition to the data release , establishment of the Vulcan website and a press release , a video of various aspects of atmospheric transport was released on Purdue University 's YouTube website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on Google Earth . As of 2015 , version 2.2 has been published on a site hosted by Arizona State University .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Project_Vulcan", "rank": 57, "score": 92373 }, { "content": "Title: Enhanced coal bed methane recovery Content: Enhanced coal bed methane recovery is a method of producing additional coalbed methane from a source rock , similar to enhanced oil recovery applied to oil fields . Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) injected into a bituminous coal bed would occupy pore space and also adsorb onto the carbon in the coal at approximately twice the rate of methane ( CH4 ) , allowing for potential enhanced gas recovery . This technique may be used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage in mitigation of global warming where the carbon dioxide that is sequestered is captured from the output of fossil fuel power plants . A research project at ETH Zurich is studying the process of pumping carbon dioxide into unminable coal seams and recovering the methane that is subsequently displaced . An extensive experimental investigation about the process of desorbing methane by adsorbing carbon dioxide in real coal samples was performed . The proof of principle and the technical feasibility of the method could be verified with these measurements . These research results indicate that CBM can become an alternative to conventional natural gas . ECBM provides additional to CBM the advantage of long-term CO2 storage in the underground coal seams . However , without other incentives , enhanced coal bed methane recovery is not economical as the commercial value of the released methane does not completely offset the cost of pumping . Penetration of CO2 into coal is simulated using a stress-enhanced diffusion model .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Enhanced_coal_bed_methane_recovery", "rank": 58, "score": 92154 }, { "content": "Title: Suess effect Content: The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Suess_effect", "rank": 59, "score": 91983 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monoxide-releasing molecules Content: Carbon monoxide-releasing molecules ( CO-RMs ) are chemical compounds that release controlled amounts of carbon monoxide ( CO ) to cells and tissues and are being developed as potential therapeutic agents . Although long recognized as a poison , CO also exhibits beneficial effects in small doses . These effects include anti-inflammatory activity , vasodilatation , and cardioprotection . CO is produced in mammals during the degradation of heme by heme oxygenase-1 , a redox-sensitive enzyme induced by oxidative stress . It is this enzymatic reaction that inspired the development of synthetic CO-RMs . Therapeutic drugs have historically been developed based on the similar activity of small molecules in biological signaling , examples exist in the case of both H2S and NO-releasing drugs . Synthetic CO-RMs are typically metal carbonyl complexes . A representative CO-RM that has been extensively characterized both from a biochemical and pharmacological view point is the ruthenium ( II ) complex Ru ( glycinate ) Cl ( CO ) 3 , also known as CORM-3 .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_monoxide-releasing_molecules", "rank": 60, "score": 91932 }, { "content": "Title: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Content: ` The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI , pronounced `` Reggie '' ) is the first mandatory market based program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . RGGI is a cooperative effort among the states of Connecticut , Delaware , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , New York , Rhode Island , and Vermont to cap and reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector . RGGI compliance obligations apply to fossil-fueled power plants 25MW and larger within the nine-state region . RGGI establishes a regional cap on the amount of CO2 pollution that power plants can emit by issuing a limited number of tradable CO2 allowances . Each allowance represents an authorization for a regulated power plant to emit one short ton of CO2 . Individual CO2 budget trading programs in each RGGI state together create a regional market for CO2 allowances . The RGGI states distribute over 90 percent of allowances through quarterly auctions . These allowance auctions generate proceeds , which participating states are able to invest in strategic energy and consumer benefit programs . Programs funded through RGGI have included energy efficiency , clean and renewable energy , greenhouse gas abatement , and direct bill assistance . An initial milestone program 's development occurred in 2005 , when seven states signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU ) announcing an agreement to implement RGGI . The RGGI states then established individual CO2 budget trading programs , based on the RGGI Model Rule . The first pre-compliance RGGI auction took place in September 2008 , and the program became effective on January 1 , 2009 . The RGGI program is currently in its third three-year compliance period , which began January 1 , 2015 .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Regional_Greenhouse_Gas_Initiative", "rank": 61, "score": 91617 }, { "content": "Title: Zero carbon housing Content: Zero Carbon Housing and Zero Energy Housing are terms used interchangeably to define single family dwellings with a very high energy efficiency rating . Zero Energy Housing requires a very low amount of energy to provide the daily needs and functions for the family occupying the home . A zero carbon home has a yearly net carbon footprint of zero . The carbon footprint is the total measure of all greenhouse gas emissions generated or produced directly or indirectly by activities in the home such as heating the home or running an appliance , personal activities such as driving a car , broader services such as the use of public transportation or air travel , and individual consumption of food and other products . A home 's carbon footprint consists of the sum of two parts , the primary footprint and the secondary footprint , expressed in units of metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent ( CO2e ) . The primary carbon footprint is a measure of the CO2 emissions from the direct consumption of fossil fuels for energy consumption and transportation . The secondary carbon footprint is the measure of indirect CO2 emissions related to the manufacturing process of products used in the home and eventual decomposition of products . Examples of the parts that make up the secondary carbon footprint are the manufacturing of clothes , cars , and furnishings , as well as recreational activities by the inhabitants . The calculation of the carbon footprint becomes detailed when considering secondary factors . Secondary factors involve the home 's occupant lifestyle such as diet , foods are consumed ( example organic vs. non organic ) , frequency of yearly air travel , commuting mileage to and from work , school , etc. , use of public transportation , and number , type , and use of private vehicles . Secondary factors also include fashion or type of clothes purchased and worn , frequency of recycling , recreational activities and use of financial and other services throughout a given year . The frequency of airline flights in a year is considered due to the amount of fuel consumption and other energy usage and emissions generated by one flight . A person that travels frequently may have a significantly bigger carbon footprint than someone who flies once a year for a vacation . The emissions for an individual flight are calculated by using the greater circle method . First , the distance between airports is determined . Then calculations are completed to account for indirect distances and by an emissions factor in relation to the type of flight ( international or a short flight , and what class seating the person is in ) . Another contributing factor to a person 's carbon footprint is their personal vehicle which includes the type of car driven , the efficiency or miles per gallon ( MPG ) rating , and the amount of miles driven each year . The frequency of public transportation used by an individual , miles traveled on public transportation and the type of public transportation used such as bus , train , or subway contributes to their carbon footprint as well . Other factors , as trivial as they might seem , are included in the calculation of a person 's carbon foot print to include things such as the type of diet . A vegetarian compared to a person that eats a lot of red meat will have a lower carbon footprint . All factors being the same except diet , a vegetarian secondary carbon footprint averages three metric tonnes of CO2 , one tonne less than the individual who consumes meat . Other factors include the purchase of local and / or organically grown produce vs. imported items , the latest clothes fashions vs. more conventional purchases , buying individually packaged products vs. buying in bulk , recycling activities , and the types of recreation such as carbon-free activities like hiking and cycling or carbon-intensive activities like skydiving or boating .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Zero_carbon_housing", "rank": 62, "score": 91242 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 63, "score": 91131 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 64, "score": 91101 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sequestration Content: Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_sequestration", "rank": 65, "score": 90686 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 66, "score": 90568 }, { "content": "Title: Greening Earth Society Content: The Greening Earth Society , now defunct , was a public relations organization which promoted the idea that there is considerable scientific doubt about the effects of climate change and increased levels of carbon dioxide . The Society published the World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute . It was a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association , with which it shared an office and many staff members . It has been called a `` front group created by the coal industry '' and an `` industry front '' . Fred Palmer , a Society staffer , is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy , a coal company . Although the Greening Earth Society was generally skeptical of the impact of climate change , it acknowledged some degree of global warming as real : `` Fact # 1 . The rate of global warming during the past several decades has been about 0.18 ° C per decade '' . Note that the actual increase in the global surface temperature during the 100 years ending in 2005 was 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C.", "qid": "250", "docid": "Greening_Earth_Society", "rank": 67, "score": 90416 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon footprint Content: A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual , event , organisation , or product , expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent . In most cases , the total carbon footprint can not be exactly calculated because of inadequate knowledge of and data about the complex interactions between contributing processes , especially which including the influence on natural processes storing or releasing carbon dioxide . For this reason , Wright , Kemp , and Williams , have suggested to define the carbon footprint as : A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and methane ( CH4 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) . Greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) can be emitted through land clearance and the production and consumption of food , fuels , manufactured goods , materials , wood , roads , buildings , transportation and other services . For simplicity of reporting , it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide , or its equivalent of other GHGs , emitted . Most of the carbon footprint emissions for the average U.S. household come from `` indirect '' sources , i.e. fuel burned to produce goods far away from the final consumer . These are distinguished from emissions which come from burning fuel directly in one 's car or stove , commonly referred to as `` direct '' sources of the consumer 's carbon footprint . The concept name of the carbon footprint originates from ecological footprint , discussion , which was developed by Rees and Wackernagel in the 1990s which estimates the number of `` earths '' that would theoretically be required if everyone on the planet consumed resources at the same level as the person calculating their ecological footprint . However , given that ecological footprints are a measure of failure , Anindita Mitra ( CREA , Seattle ) chose the more easily calculated `` carbon footprint '' to easily measure use of carbon , as an indicator of unsustainable energy use . In 2007 , carbon footprint was used as a measure of carbon emissions to develop the energy plan for City of Lynnwood , Washington . Carbon footprints are much more specific than ecological footprints since they measure direct emissions of gases that cause climate change into the atmosphere . Carbon footprint is one of a family of footprint indicators , which also includes water footprint and land footprint .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_footprint", "rank": 68, "score": 90378 }, { "content": "Title: NAV-CO2 system Content: Non-flammable Alcohol Vapor in Carbon Dioxide systems ( NAV-CO2 System ) were developed in Japan in the 1990s to sanitize hospitals and ambulances .", "qid": "250", "docid": "NAV-CO2_system", "rank": 69, "score": 90373 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Massachusetts Content: Formet Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed into law three global warming and energy-related bills that will promote advanced biofuels , support the growth of the clean energy technology industry , and cut the emissions of greenhouse gases within the state . The Clean Energy Biofuels Act , signed in late July , exempts cellulosic ethanol from the state 's gasoline tax , but only if the ethanol achieves a 60 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline . The act also requires all diesel motor fuels and all No. 2 fuel oil sold for heating to include at least 2 % `` substitute fuel '' by July 2010 , where substitute fuel is defined as a fuel derived from renewable non-food biomass that achieves at least a 50 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions . The requirement for both motor diesel fuel and heating oil increases by a percentage point per year until 2013 , after which it holds steady 5 % . The act also allows the state to expand the requirement to other forms of fuel oil , and it requires the state to work to establish a low-carbon fuel standard under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative . In early August of 2008 , Governor Patrick signed two additional bills : the Green Jobs Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act . The Green Jobs Act will support the growth of a clean energy technology industry within the state , backed by $ 68 million in funding over 5 years . The Global Warming Solutions Act requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 10 % -25 % below 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050 . Under the act , the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will carry the burdens of determining the baseline level of emissions in 1990 and creating a plan to meet the future emissions limits , including the establishment of interim limits for 2030 and 2040", "qid": "250", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Massachusetts", "rank": 70, "score": 90241 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sink Content: A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period . The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration . Public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol , which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset . There are also different strategies used to enhance this process .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_sink", "rank": 71, "score": 90213 }, { "content": "Title: North American Carbon Program Content: The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "qid": "250", "docid": "North_American_Carbon_Program", "rank": 72, "score": 90196 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 (album) Content: CO2 is the fourth studio album by German band Stahlmann , released in 2015 .", "qid": "250", "docid": "CO2_(album)", "rank": 73, "score": 89987 }, { "content": "Title: CERINA-Plan Content: CERINA Plan is the abbreviation for `` CO2 Emissions and Renewable Investment Action Plan '' . It is a CO2 reduction concept developed by the German renewable energy institute IWR . The CERINA Plan proposes a technical investment approach linking a country 's CO2 emissions to its investment in renewable energy technology . Therefore , it is an alternative model to approaches like the Kyoto idea of mere cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . The model is meant to be flexible and to adapt to the special national circumstances of each country .", "qid": "250", "docid": "CERINA-Plan", "rank": 74, "score": 89464 }, { "content": "Title: C. Kumar N. Patel Content: Chandra Kumar Naranbhai Patel ( born 2 July 1938 ) is an electrical engineer . He developed the carbon dioxide laser in 1963 ; it is now widely used in industry for cutting and welding , as a laser scalpel in surgery , and in laser skin resurfacing . Because the atmosphere is quite transparent to infrared light , CO2 lasers are also used for military rangefinding using LIDAR techniques . Patel was born in Baramati , India , and received a Bachelor of Engineering ( B.E. ) degree from the Government College of Engineering , the University of Pune , India and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1959 and 1961 , respectively . Patel joined Bell Laboratories in 1961 , and subsequently became Executive Director of the Research , Materials Science , Engineering and Academic Affairs Division at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill , New Jersey , where he developed the carbon dioxide laser . Patel 's discovery , in 1963 , of the laser action on the vibrational-rotational transitions of carbon dioxide and his discovery , in 1964 , of efficient vibrational energy transfer between molecules , led to a series of experiments which demonstrated that the carbon dioxide laser was capable of very high continuous-wave and pulsed power output at very high conversion efficiencies . From 1993-1999 , Patel served as Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California , Los Angeles , where he is also Professor of Physics and Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering . In 1996 , President Bill Clinton awarded Patel the National Medal of Science , '' -LSB- f -RSB- or his fundamental contributions to quantum electronics and invention of the carbon dioxide laser , which have had significant impact on industrial , scientific , medical , and defense applications . '' In addition to the carbon dioxide laser , he also developed the `` spin-flip '' infrared Raman laser . Patel currently holds 36 U.S. patents relating to lasers and laser applications . He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Science , and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences , the American Physical Society , the IEEE , the Optical Society of America , the Laser Institute of America , and the American Society of Laser Medicine .", "qid": "250", "docid": "C._Kumar_N._Patel", "rank": 75, "score": 89456 }, { "content": "Title: Alberta Carbon Trunk Line Content: The Alberta Carbon Trunk Line ( ACTL ) is a 240 km pipeline in its construction stages that will collect excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the province of Alberta and transport it to various oil reservoirs around the province for enhanced oil recovery applications . Pioneered by Enhance Energy , the ACTL will source its CO2 from a fertilizer manufacturing plant in Redwater , and the North West Redwater Partnership bitumen upgrading plant using gasification . It will initially funnel the collected CO2 to Clive , a field discovered in the 1950s and currently produces about 300 barrels per day .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Alberta_Carbon_Trunk_Line", "rank": 76, "score": 89095 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 dragster Content: CO2 dragsters are miniature racing cars which are propelled by a carbon dioxide cartridge , pierced to start the release of the gas , and which race on a typically 60 foot track . They are frequently used to demonstrate mechanical principles such as mass , force , acceleration , or aerodynamics . Two hooks ( eyelets or screw eyes ) linked to a string ( usually monofilament fishing line ) the bottom of the car prevent the vehicle from losing control during launch . In a race , a laser scanner records the speed of the car at the end of its run . Often , the dragster is carved out of balsa wood because of its light weight . CO2 cars are a part of engineering curriculae in diverse parts of the world such as Australia , New Zealand and the United States . In the United States , classroom projects and competitions can operate under the aegis of the Technology Student Association at middle school and high school levels . Competitions can be featured in local newspapers . Students learn about the forces of gravity , drag , wind resistance , and the motion of air as a fluid . The projects mainly test the aerodynamic , mass and friction properties of a car . These forces can influence performance in a race , so it is vital to take them into account when building .", "qid": "250", "docid": "CO2_dragster", "rank": 77, "score": 88960 }, { "content": "Title: Green building and wood Content: Green building results in structures that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout their lifecycle -- from siting to design , construction , operation , maintenance , renovation , and demolition . A 2009 report by the U.S. General Services Administration evaluated 12 sustainably designed GSA buildings , and found they cost less to operate and have excellent energy performance . In addition , occupants were more satisfied with the overall building than those in typical commercial buildings . Wood products from responsible sources are a good choice for most green building projects -- both new construction and renovations . Wood grows naturally using energy from the sun , is renewable , sustainable and recyclable . It is an effective insulator and uses far less energy to produce than concrete or steel . Wood can also mitigate climate change because wood products continue to store carbon absorbed by the tree during its growing cycle , and because substituting wood for fossil fuel-intensive materials such as steel and concrete result in ` avoided ' greenhouse gas emissions . Wood 's natural beauty and warmth have been shown to generate improved productivity and performance in schools , offices and better patient outcomes in hospitals .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Green_building_and_wood", "rank": 78, "score": 88914 }, { "content": "Title: Powerlet Content: A Powerlet cartridge , commonly referred to as a CO2charger , is a small disposable metal container holding 8-12 g of compressed CO2 and often a small quantity of oil , used as a power source for certain air guns , airsoft guns , paintball guns , and for quick inflation of various devices , such as a personal flotation device . Originally developed and the trademark owned by Crosman Corporation and introduced to the market in 1954 , the Powerlet cartridge has become the dominant source of power for inexpensive , rapid fire air guns from many manufacturers . A Powerlet container typically provides 20 to 40 shots in an airgun , depending on the gun and environmental conditions . The first 10 shots from a new bottle are consistent , with subsequent shots losing power . For paintball markers , expect fewer shots due to increased weight of the paintball compared to an airgun projectile . For modern paintball guns , the technology is considered outdated , though some still use Powerlet cartridges for stock paintball , as they can not fire as many shots as a modern tank could provide . They are also still favored for paintball pistols , for players wishing to run ` light ' with considerably less weight .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Powerlet", "rank": 79, "score": 88507 }, { "content": "Title: Timothy Ball Content: Timothy Francis `` Tim '' Ball ( born November 5 , 1938 ) is a Canadian geographer . A retired professor , he taught in the department of geography at the University of Winnipeg from 1971 until 1996 . Ball rejects the scientific opinion on climate change , stating that `` CO2 is not a greenhouse gas . '' He has worked with the Friends of Science and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project , and is a research fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Timothy_Ball", "rank": 80, "score": 88480 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 81, "score": 88209 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) ( or carbon capture and sequestration ) is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide from large point sources , such as fossil fuel power plants , transporting it to a storage site , and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere , normally an underground geological formation . The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of into the atmosphere ( from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries ) . It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification . Although has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes , including enhanced oil recovery , the long term storage of is a relatively new concept . The first commercial example was the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project in 2000 . Other examples include SaskPower 's Boundary Dam and Mississippi Power 's Kemper Project . ` CCS ' can also be used to describe the scrubbing of from ambient air as a climate engineering technique . An integrated pilot-scale CCS power plant was to begin operating in September 2008 in the eastern German power plant Schwarze Pumpe run by utility Vattenfall , to test the technological feasibility and economic efficiency . CCS applied to a modern conventional power plant could reduce emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80 -- 90 % compared to a plant without CCS . The IPCC estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until year 2100 . Carbon dioxide can be captured out of air or fossil fuel power plant flue gas using adsorption ( or carbon scrubbing ) , membrane gas separation , or adsorption technologies . Amines are the leading carbon scrubbing technology . Capturing and compressing may increase the energy needs of a coal-fired CCS plant by 25 -- 40 % . These and other system costs are estimated to increase the cost per watt energy produced by 21 -- 91 % for fossil fuel power plants . Applying the technology to existing plants would be more expensive , especially if they are far from a sequestration site . A 2005 industry report suggests that with successful research , development and deployment ( RD&D ) , sequestered coal-based electricity generation in 2025 may cost less than unsequestered coal-based electricity generation today . Storage of the is envisaged either in deep geological formations , or in the form of mineral carbonates . Deep ocean storage is not currently considered feasible due to the associated effect of ocean acidification . Geological formations are currently considered the most promising sequestration sites . The National Energy Technology Laboratory ( NETL ) reported that North America has enough storage capacity for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates . A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are very difficult and uncertain , and there is still the risk that might leak into the atmosphere .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage", "rank": 82, "score": 88172 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercapnia Content: Hypercapnia , also known as hypercarbia and CO2 retention , is a condition of abnormally elevated carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in the blood . Carbon dioxide is a gaseous product of the body 's metabolism and is normally expelled through the lungs . Hypercapnia normally triggers a reflex which increases breathing and access to oxygen ( O2 ) , such as arousal and turning the head during sleep . A failure of this reflex can be fatal , for example as a contributory factor in sudden infant death syndrome . Hypercapnia is the opposite of hypocapnia , the state of having abnormally reduced levels of carbon dioxide in the blood . The word is from the Greek hyper = `` above '' or `` too much '' and kapnos = `` smoke '' .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Hypercapnia", "rank": 83, "score": 88116 }, { "content": "Title: Carbonyl fluoride Content: Carbonyl fluoride is the inorganic compound with the formula COF2 . This gas , like its analog phosgene , is colourless and highly toxic . The molecule is planar with C2v symmetry .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbonyl_fluoride", "rank": 84, "score": 88108 }, { "content": "Title: Chicago Climate Exchange Content: The Chicago Climate Exchange ( CCX ) was North America 's only voluntary , legally binding greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil . CCX employed independent verification , included six greenhouse gases , and traded greenhouse gas emission allowances from 2003 to 2010 . The companies joining the exchange committed to reducing their aggregate emissions by 6 % by 2010 . CCX had an aggregate baseline of 680 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent . CCX ceased trading carbon credits at the end of 2010 due to inactivity in the U.S. carbon markets , although carbon exchanges were intended to still be facilitated .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Chicago_Climate_Exchange", "rank": 85, "score": 88106 }, { "content": "Title: Climit Content: CLIMIT - Programme for Power Generation with Carbon Capture and Storage . The programme is managed by Gassnova in cooperation with the Research Council of Norway . Responsibilities have been divided : whereas the Research Council of Norway is in charge of the research projects , Gassnova is responsible for the prototype and demonstration projects . CO2 ( carbon dioxide ) before , during or after power production Compression and handling of CO2 Transport of CO2 Long-term storage of CO2 and other areas of application Gassnova shall focus on co-funding projects seen as having an obvious commercial potential and which include a market-oriented business plan . For research grants within the same field , please refer to the calls for proposals issued by the Research Council of Norway .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Climit", "rank": 86, "score": 88019 }, { "content": "Title: Individual action on climate change Content: Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Individual_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 87, "score": 87533 }, { "content": "Title: Landfill gas Content: Landfill gas is a complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill . Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane , with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide . Trace amounts of other volatile organic compounds comprise the remainder ( < 1 % ) . These trace gases include a large array of species , mainly simple hydrocarbons . Landfill gases have an influence on climate change . The major components are CO2 and methane , both of which are greenhouse gas . In terms of global warming potential , methane is over 25 times more detrimental to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide . Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the US .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Landfill_gas", "rank": 88, "score": 87298 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monoxide Content: Carbon monoxide ( CO ) is a colorless , odorless , and tasteless gas that is slightly less dense than air . It is toxic to hemoglobic animals ( both invertebrate and vertebrate , including humans ) when encountered in concentrations above about 35 ppm , although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities , and is thought to have some normal biological functions . In the atmosphere , it is spatially variable and short lived , having a role in the formation of ground-level ozone . Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom , connected by a triple bond that consists of two covalent bonds as well as one dative covalent bond . It is the simplest oxocarbon and is isoelectronic with the cyanide anion , the nitrosonium cation and molecular nitrogen . In coordination complexes the carbon monoxide ligand is called carbonyl .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_monoxide", "rank": 89, "score": 87263 }, { "content": "Title: Post-combustion capture Content: Post-combustion capture refers to the removal of CO2 from power station flue gas prior to its compression , transportation and storage in suitable geological formations , as part of carbon capture and storage . A number of different techniques are applicable , almost all of which are adaptations of acid gas removal processes used in the chemical and petrochemical industries . Many of these techniques existed before World War II and , consequently , post combustion capture is the most developed of the various carbon-capture methodologies .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Post-combustion_capture", "rank": 90, "score": 86859 }, { "content": "Title: PCO2 Content: The PCO2 is the partial pressure of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , normally used in reference to blood , but also used in Oceanography to describe the partial pressure of CO2 in the Ocean . Usually the arterial blood is the relevant context ; the symbol for PCO2 in arterial blood is PaCO2 . Measurement of PaCO2 in the systemic circulation indicates the effectiveness of ventilation at the lungs ' alveoli , given the diffusing capacity of the gas . It is a good indicator of respiratory function and the closely related factor of acid -- base homeostasis , reflecting the amount of acid in the blood ( without lactic acid ) .", "qid": "250", "docid": "PCO2", "rank": 91, "score": 86818 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Engineering Content: Carbon Engineering is a Calgary , Alberta-based company commercializing technology to capture carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) directly from the atmosphere . The company was founded in 2009 by David Keith , now a professor of public policy and applied physics at Harvard University . It is based on his research conducted at the University of Calgary . Carbon Engineering is funded by several government and sustainability-focused agencies as well as by private investors , including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and oil sands financier N. Murray Edwards .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_Engineering", "rank": 92, "score": 86645 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide Content: Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide", "rank": 93, "score": 86645 }, { "content": "Title: Ecosecurities Content: EcoSecurities is a business that sources and develops carbon credits and carbon offsets from greenhouse gas emission reduction projects throughout the world . The company has offices in Europe , Middle East , Americas and Asia and has a large portfolio of green house gas emission reduction projects covering numerous countries and technologies . EcoSecurities was created in January 1997 , 12 months before the Kyoto conference . After a period of organic growth , the company floated on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in December 2005 , allowing it to grow its geographic presence by placing over 300 staff in 30 countries . Its portfolio grew to over 150 million CERs - the largest in the world at the time . In June 2007 , the company raised an additional $ 100 million to expand into new markets , with Credit Suisse becoming a major investor . It trades in the international carbon market which was valued at $ 38 billion in the first six months of 2008 . The former President and co-founder of EcoSecurities was Pedro Moura-Costa and the former CEO was Bruce Usher . At the end of 2009 the firm was acquired by JP Morgan and is now an indirect wholly owned subsidiarly of JPMorgan Chase and Co. and can provide its clients with access to the scope of services provided by the bank 's Environmental Markets business in addition to those activities of sourcing and developing greenhouse gas abatement projects outlined above . Following on from acquisition of EcoSecurities the company appointed Paul Mark Kelly as Chief Executive Officer of the company in December 2009 , when the company subsequently delisted from the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Ecosecurities", "rank": 94, "score": 86638 }, { "content": "Title: Make Cars Green Content: Make Cars Green ( MCG ) is a campaign by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile ( FIA ) aimed at reducing the impact of cars on the environment . The campaign consists of advising motorists of methods of reducing carbon dioxide emissions , as well as purchasing environmentally friendlier vehicles .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Make_Cars_Green", "rank": 95, "score": 86541 }, { "content": "Title: London Green500 Content: The London Green500 is London mayor Boris Johnson 's pioneering carbon mentoring programme . With the aim to lead London 's top organisations to reduce carbon emissions in the capital by 60 % by 2025 . The London Green500 is led by a consortium on behalf of the London Development Agency . AEA Technology is the lead contractor , with Mouchel , National Energy Foundation , Futerra and Future Considerations .", "qid": "250", "docid": "London_Green500", "rank": 96, "score": 86166 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions Content: -RSB- This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity , based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2015 . The following table lists the 2015 annual emissions estimates ( in thousands of tonnes ) along with a list of emissions per capita ( in tonnes of per year ) from same source . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use , land-use change and forestry . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The top 10 largest emitter countries account for 67.6 % of the world total . Other powerful , more potent greenhouse gases , including methane , are not included in this data .", "qid": "250", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions", "rank": 97, "score": 86039 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 98, "score": 85870 }, { "content": "Title: CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Content: The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme ( the CRC , formerly the Carbon Reduction Commitment ) is a mandatory carbon emissions reduction scheme in the United Kingdom that applies to large non-energy-intensive organisations in the public and private sectors . It has been estimated that the scheme will reduce carbon emissions by 1.2 million tonnes of carbon per year by 2020 . In an effort to avoid dangerous climate change , the British Government first committed to cutting UK carbon emissions by 60 % by 2050 ( compared to 1990 levels ) , and in October 2008 increased this commitment to 80 % . The scheme has also been credited with driving up demand for energy-efficient goods and services . The CRC was announced in the 2007 Energy White Paper , published on 23 May 2007 . A consultation in 2006 showed strong support for it to be mandatory , rather than voluntary . The Commitment was introduced under enabling powers in Part 3 of the Climate Change Act 2008 . A consultation into the scheme 's implementation was launched in June 2007 . The Scheme is being introduced under the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Order 2010 .", "qid": "250", "docid": "CRC_Energy_Efficiency_Scheme", "rank": 99, "score": 85814 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emissions reporting Content: Human activities continue to impact Earth 's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases . One of the proposed ways to combat this climate change is through reporting by businesses on the impact of their activities . Large power stations and manufacturing plants are often required to report their emissions to appropriate government entities , for example to the European Union as part of the Emissions Trading System or to the US EPA as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program . In the United Kingdom , Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) has described climate change as the `` greatest environmental challenge facing the world today , '' and it is now a legal requirement for all quoted companies to report their annual greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "250", "docid": "Carbon_emissions_reporting", "rank": 100, "score": 85679 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: ExxonMobil climate change controversy Content: The ExxonMobil climate change controversy is the controversy around ExxonMobil 's activities related to climate change , especially their promotion of climate change denial . Since the 1970s , ExxonMobil engaged in research , lobbying , advertising , and grant making , some of which were conducted with the purpose of delaying widespread acceptance and action on global warming . From the late 1970s and through the 1980s , Exxon funded internal and university collaborations , broadly in line with the developing public scientific approach . After the 1980s , the company was a leader in climate change denial , opposing regulations to curtail global warming . ExxonMobil funded organizations critical of the Kyoto Protocol and seeking to undermine public opinion about the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels . Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition of businesses opposed to the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "254", "docid": "ExxonMobil_climate_change_controversy", "rank": 1, "score": 119285 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Finance Content: Climate finance refers to financing channeled by national , regional and international entities for climate change mitigation and adaptation projects and programs . They include climate specific support mechanisms and financial aid for mitigation and adaptation activities to spur and enable the transition towards low-carbon , climate-resilient growth and development through capacity building , R&D and economic development . The term has been used in a narrow sense to refer to transfers of public resources from developed to developing countries , in light of their UN Climate Convention obligations to provide `` new and additional financial resources , '' and in a wider sense to refer to all financial flows relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation . Finance is sourced from public , private and public-private sectors and can be channelled through various intermediaries , notably BFIs , MFIs , development cooperation agencies , the UNFCCC ( various funds including those managed by the Global Environment Facility ) , non-governmental organisations and the private sector . The financials flows can flow from developed to developing countries ( North-South ) , from developing to developing countries ( South-South ) , from developed to developed countries ( North-North ) and domestic climate finance flows in developed and developing countries . According to the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment Report 2011 , investments in renewable energy in 2010 reached a record of USD 211 billion ( not including large hydropower ) . These amounts far exceed existing dedicated resources and those proposed under the developed world at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) Cancún Agreements . The estimations for the needed financing for climate change vary according to the geographic , sectorial and activity coverage , timescale and phasing , target and the underlying assumptions . The 2010 the World Development Report preliminary estimates of financing needs for mitigation and adaptation activities in developing countries range from USD 140-175 billion per year for mitigation over the next 20 years with associated financing needs of USD 265-565 billion and USD30 -- 100 billion a year over the period 2010 - 2050 for adaptation . The International Energy Agency 's 2011 World Energy Outlook ( WEO ) estimates that in order to meet growing demand for energy through 2035 , USD 16.9 trillion in new investment for new power generation is projected , with renewable energy ( RE ) comprising 60 % of the total . The capital required to meet projected energy demand through 2030 amounts to $ 1.1 trillion per year on average , distributed ( almost evenly ) between the large emerging economies ( China , India , Brazil , etc. ) and including the remaining developing countries .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Finance", "rank": 2, "score": 106007 }, { "content": "Title: Bangladesh Climate Multi Donor Trust Fund Content: The Bangladesh climate Multi Donor Trust Fund ( MDTF ) is a proposed institution to collect and disburse climate adaptation funding for Bangladesh , to be administered by the World Bank . The MDTF is now known as the Climate Change Resilience Fund ( CCRF ) . On February 15 , 2009 , the Bangladeshi government refused to accept a # 60m climate funding offer from the United Kingdom if it was channelled through the World Bank .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Bangladesh_Climate_Multi_Donor_Trust_Fund", "rank": 3, "score": 99436 }, { "content": "Title: London Climate Change Agency Content: The London Climate Change Agency Limited ( LCCA ) , was a municipal company owned by the London Development Agency ( LDA ) that worked in partnership with private sector companies ( notably EDF Energy ) to design , finance , construct , own and operate decentralised low energy and zero-carbon projects for London , as well as providing services to others . It operated in the areas of energy , water , waste and transport . In 2009 it was integrated into the London Development Agency The Agency was launched on 20 June 2005 to implement a manifesto commitment by Ken Livingstone in the 2004 elections for the Mayor of London . Its budget for 2006-07 is # 815,000 , 63 % of which is funded directly by the LDA . The Chief Executive Officer is Allan Jones , who previously led the development of the pioneering sustainable community energy system in Woking . The London Climate Change Agency plans to create a similar system for London . As of 2006 , London produces 7 % of the UK 's carbon emissions . The LCCA is seen as one of the key vehicles for delivering the Mayor 's energy strategy , which targets cuts in these emissions of 20 % by 2010 and 60 % by 2050 ( although achieving the first of these targets is unlikely ) . The Agency is also expected to play a role in ensuring that the London Olympic games are the first to be powered by low carbon technology .", "qid": "254", "docid": "London_Climate_Change_Agency", "rank": 4, "score": 99237 }, { "content": "Title: Climate stabilization wedge Content: The Climate stabilization Wedges is an approach produced by Princeton University researchers looking at Climate change mitigation scenarios . The project was funded by Ford Motor Company between 2000 and 2009 and has been receiving funding from BP since 2000 . The goal of the approach , Stephen Pacala and Robert H. Socolow , is to demonstrate that global warming is a problem which can be attacked using today 's commercially available technologies to reduce emissions . The objective is to stabilize concentrations under 500ppm for the next fifty years , using wedges from a variety of different strategies which fit into the stabilization triangle . A newer estimate by the original authors indicated that by 2011 , the number of necessary wedges had increased from seven to nine . This was due to the continuing increase in emissions since the original 2004 paper which determined the number of wedges that would have been necessary , if serious action to mitigate climate change had begun then .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_stabilization_wedge", "rank": 5, "score": 95335 }, { "content": "Title: Natural Resources Stewardship Project Content: The Natural Resources Stewardship Project is a Canadian non-profit organization that presents itself as undertaking `` a proactive grassroots campaign to counter the Kyoto Protocol and other greenhouse gas reduction schemes while promoting sensible climate change policy . '' The group was founded in October 2005 . A report in the Toronto Star on January 28 , 2007 stated that the organization had not revealed who funds the Stewardship Project . The Guardian and Vancouver Sun stated in 2008 that the organization is funded by energy firms . Until April 2008 , it was headed by global warming skeptic Tom Harris , formerly Ottawa director of the consulting firm High Park Group , and , until later in 2008 , Tim Ball , formerly Professor of Geography at the University of Winnipeg . Harris has stated that the NRSP was set up on the initiative of the High Park Group . NRSP has been mentioned in at least two op-ed pieces . According to the Toronto Star , the group has been described by critics as an Astroturf organization .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Natural_Resources_Stewardship_Project", "rank": 6, "score": 95232 }, { "content": "Title: The Climate Group Content: The Climate Group is a non-profit organization that works internationally with business and government to promote clean technologies and policies , with the aim of expanding clean technology markets and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions . After launching with the support of Tony Blair in 2004 , the organization now has offices in the UK ( headquarters ) , the United States , Europe , Australia , India , mainland China and Hong Kong . As of December 2010 , The Climate Group 's membership included 80 large companies and state/city-level governments from around the world , with members representing 15 % of global GDP . The Climate Group says it is one of the world 's first business and government alliances working to create solutions to climate change that are compatible with economic growth . Solutions pursued by the organization include its technology programs , such as the LED ` Lightsavers ' global trial taking place in cities such as New York City , Hong Kong and Kolkata ; the Climate Principles project , under which financial institutions ( including Credit Agricole , HSBC , Standard Chartered , Swiss Re , F&C Asset Management and BNP Paribas ) agree to consider climate change when structuring their service and product offerings ; the States and Regions Alliance , designed to encourage state , provincial and city government climate change initiatives ; and publications assessing and promoting the potential value of low carbon technologies and policies . The Climate Group also hosts a range of events such as Climate Week NYC in New York City , a week-long global forum examining clean technology policies and financing strategies . It has partnered a range of initiatives and reports with organisations including the Global e-Sustainability Initiative ( GeSi ) , International Emissions Trading Association ( IETA ) , the Carbon Disclosure Project , the Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation , the New York Academy of Sciences , the United Nations Foundation , the German Marshall Fund , the Office of Tony Blair and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development ( WBSCD ) .", "qid": "254", "docid": "The_Climate_Group", "rank": 7, "score": 95097 }, { "content": "Title: Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy Content: The Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy ( CCCEP ) is a climate change research centre in England . It is hosted jointly by the University of Leeds and the London School of Economics and Political Science ( LSE ) . CCCEP is part of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment , which is chaired by Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford , former Chief Economist of the World Bank and author of the widely known Stern Review . CCCEP was established in 2008 , and is funded by the ESRC . Its mission is to advance public and private action on climate change through rigorous , innovative research . In pursuit of its mission , CCCEP has five research themes in its phase 2 programme : Understanding green growth and climate-compatible development Advancing climate finance and investment Evaluating the performance of climate policies Managing climate risks and uncertainties and strengthening climate services Enabling rapid transitions in mitigation and adaptation In October 2016 , The Daily mail reported allegations that CCCEP had fraudulently obtained millions of dollars from UK taxpayers by claiming credit for research they did not produce . The organization responded to the claims saying that the alleged fraud was an overreaction to a clerical error .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Centre_for_Climate_Change_Economics_and_Policy", "rank": 8, "score": 95068 }, { "content": "Title: Tyndall Centre Content: The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research is an organisation based in the United Kingdom that brings together scientists , economists , engineers and social scientists to ` research , assess and communicate from a distinct trans-disciplinary perspective , the options to mitigate , and the necessities to adapt to current climate change and continuing global Warming , and to integrate these into the global , UK and local contexts of sustainable development ' . The centre , named after the 19th-century UK scientist John Tyndall ( born in Ireland ) and founded in 2000 , has eight core partners : the University of East Anglia , University of Cambridge , Cardiff University , University of Manchester , Newcastle University , University of Oxford , University of Southampton , and the University of Sussex . Fudan University joined the Tyndall Centre partnership in May 2011 . From 2000 until 2010 , core funding was provided by the UK 's Natural Environment Research Council , the Economic and Social Research Council , and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council . The Tyndall Centre in the UK is now primarily funded by the host universities and by research grants . Fudan Tyndall Centre is funded with a 15-year commitment by the Chinese central government and the Shanghai City government . The Tyndall Centre 's director is currently Professor Corinne Le Quéré . The deputy director is Professor Kevin Anderson , and the director of strategic development is Professor Robert Watson . The deputy director for international activities is Professor Trevor Davies . The founding director is Professor Mike Hulme .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Tyndall_Centre", "rank": 9, "score": 94736 }, { "content": "Title: Climate and Development Knowledge Network Content: The Climate and Development Knowledge Network ( CDKN ) is a # 72 million ( US$ 100 million ) initiative , formed in 2010 , that links developing countries with experts on climate change . Funded by the UK 's Department for International Development and the Directorate-General for International Cooperation , its aim is to help developing nations adapt to the consequences of climate change and build capacity for a low-carbon economy . CDKN does this by combining research , advisory services and knowledge management in support of locally owned and managed policy processes . It works in partnership with decision-makers in the public , private and non-governmental sectors nationally , regionally and globally . CDKN is run by an alliance of organisations , headed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and including the Overseas Development Institute , a think tank on development and humanitarian issues ; Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano , a non-governmental organisation ( NGO ) for sustainable development based in Ecuador ; LEAD Pakistan ( an NGO that aims to inspire leadership in developing Asian countries ) ; and SouthSouthNorth , ( an NGO that aims to reduce poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa ) . CDKN works across Africa , Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean , with a focus on 12 priority countries : Kenya , Rwanda , Ethiopia , Uganda , Bangladesh , Pakistan , Nepal , India , Indonesia , Colombia , Peru and El Salvador .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_and_Development_Knowledge_Network", "rank": 10, "score": 93168 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Council Content: The Climate Council is an Australian independent non-profit organisation formed to provide independent , authoritative climate change information to the Australian public . It was formed by former members of the Climate Commission after it was abolished by the federal government . It is funded by donations from the public .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Council", "rank": 11, "score": 91188 }, { "content": "Title: Business action on climate change Content: Business action on climate change includes a range of activities relating to global warming , and to influencing political decisions on global-warming-related regulation , such as the Kyoto Protocol . Major multinationals have played and to some extent continue to play a significant role in the politics of global warming , especially in the United States , through lobbying of government and funding of global warming skeptics . Business also plays a key role in the mitigation of global warming , through decisions to invest in researching and implementing new energy technologies and energy efficiency measures . ( See also individual and political action on climate change . )", "qid": "254", "docid": "Business_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 12, "score": 91083 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Hustle Content: Climate Hustle is a 2016 film rejecting the existence and cause of climate change , narrated by climate change denialist Marc Morano , produced and directed by Christopher Rogers , co-written by Morano and Mick Curran , and funded by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow ( CFACT ) , a free market pressure group funded by the fossil fuel lobby . According to Ars Technica , the film offers `` a fast-paced , uninterrupted delivery of superficial and false claims about climate science '' .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Hustle", "rank": 13, "score": 90903 }, { "content": "Title: ClimateCare Content: ClimateCare is a profit for purpose environmental and social impact company known for its role providing carbon offset services , with a particular focus on using carbon and other results based finance to support its ` Climate + Care Projects ' . It also provides businesses and governments with sustainable development programmes , environmental and social impact measurement and project development . The company was founded in 1997 with a focus on projects that cut carbon and fund social development . ClimateCare is a certified B Corporation and a founding member of the B Corporation movement in the UK . The company has offices in the UK , India , and Kenya .", "qid": "254", "docid": "ClimateCare", "rank": 14, "score": 90279 }, { "content": "Title: High Level Advisory Group on Climate Financing Content: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon established a High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing ( AGF ) on 12 February 2010 for the duration of ten months . The group 's aim was to `` study potential sources of revenue that will enable achievement of the level of climate change financing that was promised during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009 . ''", "qid": "254", "docid": "High_Level_Advisory_Group_on_Climate_Financing", "rank": 15, "score": 90248 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Capitalism Content: Climate Capitalism : Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change is a 2011 book by L. Hunter Lovins and Boyd Cohen . It presents positive stories and examples of how profit-seeking companies are helping to save the planet , and says that `` the best way to rebuild America 's economy , cities and job markets is to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy resources , whether climate change is happening or not '' . However , reviewer Gail Whiteman is unconvinced by the argument that naked greed and market forces will drive businesses to cut their greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Capitalism", "rank": 16, "score": 89729 }, { "content": "Title: Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change Content: The Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change was a special appointment made at the University of Adelaide and funded by the Government of South Australia . It was established with funding for four years , beginning in 2006-07 . The Chair 's role is to advise government , industry , and the community on how to tackle climate change . The Chair is also tasked to draw together expertise in climate change from across the university . The foundation appointee to the position was Professor Barry Brook who held the position for 8 years until December 2014 . From 1 January 2015 to 15 January 2017 , the position was held by Professor Corey J. A. Bradshaw . It is unknown if the position will continue .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Sir_Hubert_Wilkins_Chair_of_Climate_Change", "rank": 17, "score": 89628 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Science Legal Defense Fund Content: The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund ( CSLDF ) is a not-for-profit organization established in 2011 to provide legal assistance to researchers and institutions engaged in climate science facing legal challenges from private entities such as think tanks and legal foundations . In 2012 , CSLDF formally affiliated with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility , a nonprofit providing aid and advice to government whistleblowers and scientists working on environmental issues . In addition to providing legal services to climate scientists and researchers threatened with legal action , CSLDF provides litigation support and files amicus briefs in related cases . CSLDF also promotes awareness among scientists of their legal rights and responsibilities and provides information regarding legal actions taken against scientists . CSLDF claims that many legal actions against climate scientists intend to secure their silence for purely political reasons or to stifle their research . According to CSLDF , litigation has intensified against climate scientists in recent years , and salaries earned by academicians and researchers are often inadequate to pay for litigation defending against `` corporate-funded law firms and institutes . '' CSLDF is funded entirely through private donations . In 2014 , CSLDF received $ 55,000 in donations . One of the organizers of CSLDF is Scott A. Mandia , a physical sciences professor at Suffolk County Community College .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Science_Legal_Defense_Fund", "rank": 18, "score": 89247 }, { "content": "Title: European Climate Foundation Content: The European Climate Foundation is an international organisation whose aims are to promote climate and energy policies that it says would greatly reduce Europe 's greenhouse gas emissions and to help Europe play a stronger international leadership role in mitigating climate change . According to the grop , key elements of a sustainable energy future include : A substantial increase in energy efficiency A successful transition from conventional to renewable energy Maintenance of the earth 's ecological systems and the life-supporting services they provide Equitable distribution of energy services to different segments of the population , both internationally and within nations . The European Climate Foundation is funded by the Nationale Postcode Loterij , The Arcadia Fund , The Children 's Investment Fund Foundation , The ClimateWorks Foundation , The McCall MacBain Foundation , Oak Foundation , The Stordalen Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation .", "qid": "254", "docid": "European_Climate_Foundation", "rank": 19, "score": 88884 }, { "content": "Title: Stop Esso campaign Content: The Stop Esso campaign was a campaign by Greenpeace , Friends of the Earth and People and Planet aimed at boycotting the oil company Esso , known as ExxonMobil in the United States , on the grounds that it is damaging the environment . The campaign alleges that Esso / ExxonMobil is : not investing in renewable energy sources denying the existence of global warming funding the creation of junk science which denies climate change , delaying urgently needed climate change action undermining the Kyoto Protocol .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Stop_Esso_campaign", "rank": 20, "score": 88867 }, { "content": "Title: National Ecological Observatory Network Content: National Ecological Observatory Network ( NEON ) is a large facility project operated by Battelle and funded by the National Science Foundation . When completed , NEON will be a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change , land-use change and invasive species on ecology . NEON will gather long-term data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and climate , and on feedback with the geosphere , hydrosphere , and atmosphere . Battelle , an independent , nonprofit research and development organization , was selected by the National Science Foundation to complete the construction , commissioning and the initial operations of NEON . The National Science Foundation , the National Science Board and Congress approved funding for NEON in 2011 . Funding came from the National Science Foundation . NEON itself is not a funding agency . NEON , Inc. was the entity in charge of running the NEON project when it first began , but on December 11 , 2015 , the NSF terminated the NEON , Inc. contract . The NSF conducted a search for a new company to complete the project through the first several months of 2016 . In March 2016 , Battelle was chosen to complete the construction of the NEON field sites and infrastructure needed to gather data from those sites .", "qid": "254", "docid": "National_Ecological_Observatory_Network", "rank": 21, "score": 88454 }, { "content": "Title: Anna Skarbek Content: Anna Skarbek ( born 1976 ) is an Australian businesswoman and former investment banker . In 2009 she became the executive director of ClimateWorks Australia , a non-profit group which develops projects to reduce carbon emissions . Under her directorship , the company was awarded a Eureka Prize in 2010 for developing a `` low carbon growth plan '' with applications for business . Skarbek studied law and commerce at Monash University before taking a job in Macquarie Bank 's energy and utilities division . In 2002 she became a climate change adviser to the Victorian deputy premier , John Thwaites . From 2007 to 2009 she worked as an investment manager at Climate Change Capital in London . Skarbek sits on the Government of South Australia 's low-carbon expert panel with former Liberal party politician John Hewson and ANU Professor Frank Jotzo .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Anna_Skarbek", "rank": 22, "score": 87563 }, { "content": "Title: Friends of Science Content: Friends of Science ( FoS ) is a Canadian non-profit advocacy organization based in Calgary , Alberta . The organization takes a position that humans are largely not responsible for the currently observed global warming , contrary to the established scientific position on the subject . Rather , they propose that `` the Sun is the main direct and indirect driver of climate change , '' not human activity . They argued against the Kyoto Protocol . The society was founded in 2002 and launched its website in October of that year . They are considered by many to promote climate change denial . They are largely funded by the fossil fuel industry . Madhav Khandekar , Chris de Freitas , Tim Patterson and Sallie Baliunas act as advisers to the Friends of Science with their work cited in Friends ' publications . Douglas Leahey has been president since December , 2009 .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Friends_of_Science", "rank": 23, "score": 87236 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Counts Content: Climate Counts , spearheaded by Stonyfield Farm CEO Gary Hirshberg , is a non-profit campaign that scores companies annually on the basis of their voluntary action to reverse climate change . The Climate Counts Company Scorecard -- launched in June 2007 -- helps people vote with their dollars by making climate-conscious purchasing and investing choices that put pressure on the world 's most well-known companies to take the issue of climate change seriously . Climate Counts aims to mobilize everyday consumers -- not just the traditional environmental community -- as the most important activists in the fight against global warming . Companies are given a 0 to 100 score based on whether they have measured their climate footprint , set goals and targets to reduce their impact on global warming ( with ongoing progress toward those reductions to show for it ) , supported ( or suggest intent to block ) progressive climate legislation , and publicly disclosed their climate actions clearly and comprehensively . They outline their criteria for scoring in greater detail here . ( Climate Counts Scorecard ) . Climate Counts publishes a downloadable pocket shopping guide based on company scores and ranks and in keeping with the organization 's own efforts to reduce its impact , offers shoppers the option of having a paperless version sent to their cell phones .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Counts", "rank": 24, "score": 86448 }, { "content": "Title: Energy efficient clay brick project Content: Funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation 's ( SDC ) Global Programme Climate Change , and implemented by Swisscontact , the Energy Efficient Clay Brick projcet ( EECB ) aims at increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emission in the South African clay brick sector . The project represents phase II of the 4 year Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln ( VSBK ) project and was launched in November 2013 with a duration of another 4 years .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Energy_efficient_clay_brick_project", "rank": 25, "score": 85650 }, { "content": "Title: DC Divest Content: DC Divest is an advocacy campaign that seeks to get Washington , D.C. , to remove investments in fossil fuel companies from its investment portfolios , to raise awareness of local climate impacts , and support local climate activism . It is one of hundreds of locally focused campaigns worldwide taking part in the fossil fuel divestment movement , which seeks to increase the sense of urgency among elected officials , financial leaders , and the public around the need for political and social action to mitigate the worst effects of climate change . DC Divest was founded in March 2013 by a group of Washington , D.C. residents following a call to action by the non-profit environmental advocacy group 350 . org . In September 2013 , it succeeded in convincing the Council of the District of Columbia to introduce the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act of 2013 . In June 2016 , advocates announced that the city 's $ 6.4 million major pension fund had , citing financial and moral issues , sold off all direct investments in oil , coal , and gas companies listed on the Carbon Underground 200 . A number of Washington , D.C.-based environmental advocacy groups have given their support of the DC Divest campaign 's goal of removing fossil fuel companies from the District 's investments , including the D.C. Environmental Network , the Washington DC chapter of the Sierra Club , Moms Clean Air Force , the Chesapeake Climate Action Network , and many others .", "qid": "254", "docid": "DC_Divest", "rank": 26, "score": 85517 }, { "content": "Title: Green Climate Fund Content: The Green Climate Fund ( GCF ) is a fund within the framework of the UNFCCC founded as a mechanism to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change . The GCF is based in the new Songdo district of Incheon , South Korea . It is governed by a Board of 24 members and initially supported by a Secretariat . `` The Green Climate Fund will support projects , programmes , policies and other activities in developing country Parties using thematic funding windows '' . It is intended to be the centrepiece of efforts to raise Climate Finance of $ 100 billion a year by 2020 . This is not an official figure for the size of the Fund itself , however . Disputes also remain as to whether the funding target will be based on public sources , or whether `` leveraged '' private finance will be counted towards the total . A total of US$ 10.3 billion has been pledged so far , which is meant to cover investments over a four year period . Only a fraction of this sum had been pledged as of July 2013 , mostly to cover start-up costs . According to the Climate & Development Knowledge Network , at the third meeting of the Board in Berlin in March 2013 , members agreed on how to move forward with the fund 's Business Model Framework ( BMF ) . They identified the need to assess various options for how nations could access the fund , approaches for involving the private sector , plus ways to measure results and ensure requests for monies are country-driven . At the fourth Board meeting in Songdo , South Korea , in June 2013 , Hela Cheikhrouhou , a Tunisian national , was selected to become the Fund 's first Executive Director . Cheikhrouhou left the Fund in September 201", "qid": "254", "docid": "Green_Climate_Fund", "rank": 27, "score": 85232 }, { "content": "Title: Breakthrough Energy Coalition Content: Breakthrough Energy Coalition is a global group of 28 high net worth investors from 10 countries committed to funding clean energy companies emerging from the initiatives of Mission Innovation , which was also announced at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Breakthrough_Energy_Coalition", "rank": 28, "score": 84925 }, { "content": "Title: Connect4Climate Content: Connect4Climate is a global partnership program under the Communication for Climate Change Multi-Donor Trust Fund of the World Bank Group . The Trust Fund was initiated by the Italian Ministry of Environment , and in 2014 it was joined by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Connect4Climate", "rank": 29, "score": 84249 }, { "content": "Title: Sandbag (non-profit organisation) Content: Sandbag is a Community Interest Company , campaigning for changes to European climate change policy , especially emissions trading . The organisation was launched in 2008 by Bryony Worthington and was the first ( and founding ) member of The Guardian 's Environment Network .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Sandbag_(non-profit_organisation)", "rank": 30, "score": 84229 }, { "content": "Title: Operation Noah (charity) Content: Operation Noah is an ecumenical Christian charity , based in the UK , that campaigns exclusively on climate change . Trustees are cross-denominational , with members from the Catholic , Anglican and free churches . The charity is managed by the Chair ( Dr Isabel Carter ) and Board , with a small number of support staff . It is funded through supporter donations and grants . Operation Noah was founded in 2004 by Christian Ecology Link ( CEL ) , with its official launch in October that year . It later became a joint project of CEL and the Environmental Issues Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland . It gained charitable status in 2010 . In October 2009 , the then Archbishop of Canterbury , Dr Rowan Williams , gave the Operation Noah Annual Lecture at Southwark Cathedral , speaking on ` The Climate Crisis : A Christian Response ' . In February 2012 , Operation Noah launched The Ash Wednesday Declaration , a theological response to climate change . The document was signed by a number of church leaders including Rowan Williams . In September 2013 , Operation Noah launched Bright Now , a campaign for UK church disinvestment in fossil fuel companies . In November/December 2013 , Operation Noah was a partner on the Fossil Free UK Tour along with People & Planet and 350 . org .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Operation_Noah_(charity)", "rank": 31, "score": 83814 }, { "content": "Title: The Climate Reality Project Content: The Climate Reality Project is a non-profit organization involved in education and advocacy related to climate change . The project was established in July 2011 after the joining of two environmental groups , The Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate Project , which were both founded in 2006 by Al Gore . Among its activities , The Climate Reality Project hosts an annual event called 24 Hours of Reality and , in 2013 , launched Reality Drop , a social media tool .", "qid": "254", "docid": "The_Climate_Reality_Project", "rank": 32, "score": 83689 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Investment Funds Content: The Climate Investment Funds ( CIFs ) were designed by developed and developing countries and are implemented with the multilateral development banks ( MDBs ) to bridge the financing and learning gap between now and the next international climate change agreement . CIFs are two distinct funds : the Clean Technology Fund and the Strategic Climate Fund . The CIFs are additional to existing Official Development Assistance ( ODA ) and aim to enable countries to continue on their development path and achieve the Millennium Development Goals . These funds will be operated in close coordination with existing bilateral and multilateral efforts . The funds were approved by the World Bank Board of Directors in July 2008 and on September 26 , 2008 received pledges of US$ 6.5 billion .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Investment_Funds", "rank": 33, "score": 83467 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP17 ) was held in Durban , South Africa , from 28 November to 11 December 2011 to establish a new treaty to limit carbon emissions . A treaty was not established , but the conference agreed to establish a legally binding deal comprising all countries by 2015 , which was to take effect in 2020 . There was also progress regarding the creation of a Green Climate Fund for which a management framework was adopted . The fund is to distribute US$ 100 billion per year to help poor countries adapt to climate impacts . While the president of the conference , Maite Nkoana-Mashabane , declared it a success , scientists and environmental groups warned that the deal was not sufficient to avoid global warming beyond 2 ° C as more urgent action is needed .", "qid": "254", "docid": "2011_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 34, "score": 83360 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 35, "score": 83181 }, { "content": "Title: The Adaptation Fund Content: The Adaptation Fund is an international fund that finances projects and programs aimed at helping developing countries to adapt to the harmful effects of climate change . It is set up under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) .", "qid": "254", "docid": "The_Adaptation_Fund", "rank": 36, "score": 83077 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change TV Content: Climate-ChangeTV was the world 's first web channel specific to climate change videos . It contains interviews from heads of state , government officials and negotiators , NGO 's , Civil Society and business professionals with a range of views on the climate change negotiations . It is hosted by Responding to Climate Change , an NGO and Official Observer to the United Nations Framework on the Convention on Climate Change RTCC provides a daily news and analysis service - following latest developments in climate policy , research and other aspects of the climate debate . In February this year they submitted a series of proposals to the UNFCCC on raising the ambition of the Durban Platform - which had been agreed at COP17 . The Studio is run for the UNFCCC at the annual COP . The interviews are hosted on RTCC and the UNFCCC 's studio portal . It provides for one-on-one video interviews with a wide array of stakeholders from civil society , intergovernmental organizations and party delegates . The studio provides a platform for discussing the effects of climate change , causes of global warming and possible solutions . It continues at COP17/CMP 7 after successfully running at COP15/CMP 5 in Copenhagen , and COP16/CMP 6 in Cancun . At the most recent COP , held in December 2011 , the Climate Change TV Studio was visited by UNFCCC Chief Executive Christiana Figueres , lead Netherlands negotiator Maas Goote , and UK Minister for energy and climate change Greg Barker , along with members of Oxfam and 350 . org .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Change_TV", "rank": 37, "score": 83015 }, { "content": "Title: Greenpeace India Content: Greenpeace India is the Indian branch of the global environmental group Greenpeace , a non-profit NGO , with a presence in 40 countries across Europe , the Americas , Asia and the Pacific . The Indian operations run four broad campaigns namely , stop climate change , sustainable agriculture , preserving the oceans and preventing another nuclear catastrophe . Greenpeace India states that it receives 60 % of its funding from donors in India , 38 % from Netherlands-based Greenpeace International and less than 1 % from the US-based Climate Works Foundation . According to the organization , they do not accept money from governments , intergovernmental organizations , political parties or corporations in order to avoid their influence . In 2015 , several women employees made allegations of sexual harassment , bullying and rape at Greenpeace India .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Greenpeace_India", "rank": 38, "score": 82643 }, { "content": "Title: Young Voices on Climate Change Content: Young Voices on Climate Change is a film series created by the non-profit 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) organization of the same name . The films present youth solutions to the climate crisis , showing environmental initiatives planned and implemented by children in America , Europe , India , Africa and Siberia .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Young_Voices_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 39, "score": 82246 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund Content: The Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund ( EDRF ) is a legal aid program based in British Columbia , Canada that provides grants to individuals , community groups and environmental organizations who need to hire legal representation to assist them in resolving an environmental problem or dispute . The grants are provided and administered by West Coast Environmental Law , a non-profit environmental law and public advocacy organization , based in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada . Unlike other public interest environmental law organizations , which use in-house lawyers to provide environmental representation , EDRF funding allows grantees to hire lawyers ( at a legal aid rate ) from the private bar . Funding for the EDRF is provided by the Law Foundation of British Columbia .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Environmental_Dispute_Resolution_Fund", "rank": 40, "score": 82024 }, { "content": "Title: Heidi Cullen Content: Heidi Cullen is the chief scientist for the non-profit environmental organization , Climate Central , located in Princeton , New Jersey . In addition , she is a guest lecturer at nearby Princeton University , and the author of the book , The Weather of the Future . An expert and commentator about issues related to climate change and the environment , she was an on-air personality at The Weather Channel , and is a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania ( Penn ) .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Heidi_Cullen", "rank": 41, "score": 81704 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Institute of Australia Content: The Climate Institute is a Sydney-based policy think-tank established in 2005 to encourage progressive policies for managing climate change in Australia . Its board consists of a mixture of academics and business people drawn from rural , scientific and business backgrounds . Recent research work by the Institute includes analysis of the vulnerability of sport to the growing physical impacts of climate change , modelling the effects of Australia 's Renewable Energy Target , and examining the financial impacts of delayed climate change action . The Institute also produces an annual Climate of the Nation report , which is a comprehensive survey of Australians ' attitudes on climate change , its impacts and solutions . An important component of The Climate Institute 's work is in building alliances and networks representing organisations across Australia 's economy and society to achieve diverse support for strong action on climate change . It has been a lead player in key business alliances such as the Australian Climate Roundtable . Through its role in the Asset Owners Disclosure Project , the Institute was also a pioneer in trying to get large asset owners -- such as superannuation and pension funds -- to recognise and disclosure carbon risk . The Institute was originally set up for 5 years under funding provided by the Poola Foundation 's Tom Kantor fund . The Institute has now been running for more than a decade , but the expiry of significant philanthropic support means that it now faces key challenges if it is to continue to operate beyond 2017 . In December 2015 , The Age reported that the organisation was struggling with fundraising , as its core funding ran out . The Institute has been very actively seeking new donors . It has announced that it will close in June 2017 .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Institute_of_Australia", "rank": 42, "score": 81261 }, { "content": "Title: Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Content: Bangladesh Climate Change Trust is a government trust in Bangladesh that utilities funds to take action against problems caused by climate change .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Bangladesh_Climate_Change_Trust", "rank": 43, "score": 81130 }, { "content": "Title: Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences Content: The Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences ( CFCAS ) was Canada 's main funding body for university-based research on climate , atmospheric and related oceanic work . It is now the Canadian Climate Forum . As an autonomous , charitable foundation established in 2000 , CFCAS funded research that improved the scientific understanding of processes and predictions , provided relevant science to policy makers and improved understanding of the ways in which these challenges affect human health and the natural environment in addition to strengthening Canada 's scientific capacity . Its chair is Gordon McBean . CFCAS fosters partnerships in support of innovation , investment , policy , skills development and service delivery . It funds the generation of new knowledge that is essential to the competitiveness of industries and to the health and safety of Canadians . The foundation has invested over $ 117 million in university-based research related to climate and atmospheric sciences , in 24 collaborative networks , 2 major initiatives , and 158 projects . Several of the networks are linked to international research programs ; all involved multiple partners . Complementary ( leveraged ) support for networks has doubled the resources available to them . The Foundation has also hosted or co-hosted a number of workshops and symposia on topics such as extreme weather and Arctic climate , and provides support to international project offices .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Canadian_Foundation_for_Climate_and_Atmospheric_Sciences", "rank": 44, "score": 80989 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Disclosure Standards Board Content: The Climate Disclosure Standards Board ( CDSB ) is a non-profit organization working to provide material information for investors and financial markets through the integration of climate change-related information into mainstream financial reporting . CDSB operates on the premise that investors and financial institutions can make better and informed decisions if companies are open , transparent and analyse the risks and opportunities associated with climate change-related information . To this end , CDSB acts as a forum for collaboration on how existing standards and practices can be used to link financial and climate change-related information using its Climate Change Reporting Framework . The Framework is a standards-ready tool for companies to disclose climate change-related information in mainstream financial reports . Launched in September 2010 , the Climate Change Reporting Framework adopts and relies on relevant provisions of existing standards and practices , including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and International Financial Reporting Standards as well as reflecting regulatory and voluntary reporting and carbon trading rules . The distinctiveness of the Framework is that it references standards instead of creating a new one . The Framework also adopts relevant principles and objectives of financial reporting to complement mainstream financial reporting models .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Disclosure_Standards_Board", "rank": 45, "score": 80840 }, { "content": "Title: 10:10 Content: 10:10 is a charity that enables people to take practical action on climate change , and combines these local actions to inspire a more ambitious approach to the issue at every level of society . Founded in 2009 , 10:10 began by campaigning for a 10 % reduction in carbon emissions in 2010 , and has since broadened its approach to include a range of projects focused on carbon reduction and renewable energy . Its three main projects are Solar Schools , which helps communities crowdfund the cost of solar panels for their local schools ; #itshappening , which showcases positive examples of progress on climate change ; and Back Balcombe , which supports a solar power cooperative in the Sussex village targeted for oil drilling , and promotes community-scale renewable energy nationally .", "qid": "254", "docid": "10:10", "rank": 46, "score": 80833 }, { "content": "Title: Nordic Development Fund Content: The Nordic Development Fund is the joint multilateral development finance institution of Denmark , Finland , Iceland , Norway and Sweden . It was established in 1989 and adheres to the development assistance policies of the Nordic countries and has financed 190 development assistance credits valued at EUR 1 billion . The NDF provides grants to climate change related investments under its new mandate , established in 2009 . NDF offices are located in Helsinki , Finland . The objective of the Nordic Development Fund 's ( NDF ) operations is to facilitate climate change investments in low-income countries . NDF grants are made in cooperation with bilateral and multilateral development institutions . NDF 's operations mirror the Nordic countries ' priorities in the areas of climate change and poverty reduction . The operations are financed from the development cooperation budgets of the five Nordic countries .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Nordic_Development_Fund", "rank": 47, "score": 80260 }, { "content": "Title: U.S. Climate Change Technology Program Content: The United States Climate Change Technology Program or CCTP is a multi-agency planning and coordination entity . Its purpose is to accelerate the development and deployment of technologies that can reduce , avoid , or capture and store greenhouse gas emissions . CCTP was established administratively in 2002 , authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 , and appropriated funds in 2007 . Currently , the Department of Energy is designated as the lead agency .", "qid": "254", "docid": "U.S._Climate_Change_Technology_Program", "rank": 48, "score": 80185 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Capital Content: Climate Change Capital is a private asset management and advisory group founded in 2003 to support efforts to develop solutions to climate change and resource depletion .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Change_Capital", "rank": 49, "score": 80003 }, { "content": "Title: CACC Content: CACC may refer to : Calcium-activated chloride channel , a cellular ion signalling pathway Campaign against Climate Change , a UK pressure group that aims to raise public awareness of global warming through mobilising mass demonstrations A Canada ( CA ) Ministry of Health Communication Centre Center for Animal Care and Control , the non-profit operator of New York City 's municipal shelter system Central Alabama Community College , a two-year institution of higher learning located in Alexander City , Alabama . Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference , a US intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA 's Division II Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination , a Michigan environmental group Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. , a Chinese company manufacturing large passenger aircraft Commander , Air Component Command , a US military abbreviation ( see 607th Air Intelligence Squadron ) Correlated Active Clause Coverage , A Logic Coverage Criterion from Software Testing Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control , an extension of Adaptive Cruise Control in which vehicles exchange information Chin Association for Christian Communication , a non-profit organization for Chin people in Burma .", "qid": "254", "docid": "CACC", "rank": 50, "score": 79477 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Investment Organisation Content: The Environmental Investment Organisation ( EIO ) is a UK-based not-for-profit body dedicated to researching , proposing and implementing solutions to climate change . It has developed the Environmental Tracking ( ET ) concept , rebranded by ET Index Research in 2016 to Engaged Tracking , into two separate components known as the ET Carbon Rankings and the ET Index Series . The ET Carbon Rankings rate companies based on their greenhouse gas emissions intensity and transparency . The ET Low Carbon & Fossil Free Index Series , which are based on the rankings , provide investors with a tool to incentivise companies to lower emissions while reducing their exposure to potential future carbon ` price shocks ' .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Environmental_Investment_Organisation", "rank": 51, "score": 79429 }, { "content": "Title: International Climate Change Partnership Content: The International Climate Change Partnership ( ICCP ) is an organization of companies and trade associations from around the world working to influence international climate change legislation .", "qid": "254", "docid": "International_Climate_Change_Partnership", "rank": 52, "score": 79193 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Hawks Vote Content: Climate Hawks Vote is a small-scale , grassroots-funded super-PAC founded in 2013 that supports candidates and elected officials whom it identifies as making climate change a top priority .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Hawks_Vote", "rank": 53, "score": 79175 }, { "content": "Title: John Connor (Australia) Content: John Connor is the Chief Executive Officer of the Climate Institute of Australia , a bi-partisan policy think-tank primarily funded by a private donation . Initially trained as a lawyer and working in the Land and Environment Court of NSW he subsequently became a researcher for Peter MacDonald the Independent member for Manly . After that he spent three years running the Nature Conservation Council of NSW and in 1999 he took up the job as Campaigns Director for the Australian Conservation Foundation . He then worked as Campaigns Manager for World Vision , where he also co-convened Make Poverty History Australia . He was appointed CEO of the Climate Institute of Australia in 2007 . In his time at the Climate Institute Connor has overseen the release of a series of reports on Australia 's Climate Change response , including economic modeling on how Australia can reduce emissions and maintain a growing economy , up to date evidence on Australia 's greenhouse pollution profile and analysis of community opinions on climate change and climate change solutions . Connor has expressed strong support for carbon pricing in Australia as it has reduced pollution as the economy has grown .", "qid": "254", "docid": "John_Connor_(Australia)", "rank": 54, "score": 78425 }, { "content": "Title: Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership Content: The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership , or TRCP , is a non-profit 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) coalition of conservation organizations , grassroots partners and outdoor related businesses , the main goal of which is increased federal funding for conservation while preserving access for hunters and fishers . It has lobbied policymakers to do more to address the challenge of climate change , which they say will have a significant impact on the sportsmen community and has teamed with the National Wildlife Federation and Trout Unlimited to form `` Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development , '' which works to preserve natural resources and forests . As of December 2014 , the President and CEO was Whit Fosburgh . In 2013 , the organization 's revenue was $ 3.7 million and it spent 84.1 % of its income on programs .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Theodore_Roosevelt_Conservation_Partnership", "rank": 55, "score": 78372 }, { "content": "Title: R20 Regions of Climate Action Content: The R20 - Regions of Climate Action is a non-profit environmental organization founded in November 2010 , by former Governor of California , Arnold Schwarzenegger , with the support of the United Nations . R20 is a coalition of sub-national governments , private companies , international organizations , NGOs , and academic & financial institutions . Its mission is to help sub-national governments to implement low-carbon and climate-resilient projects , as well as to share best practices in renewable energy and energy efficiency in order to build a `` green economy '' . This NGO operates at the sub-national level as R20 believes sub-national governments constitute a powerful force for change and are best positioned to take action & implement green projects . Through this bottom-up approach , successful sub-national projects will be scaled-up to national and international levels to achieve a broader , global impact .", "qid": "254", "docid": "R20_Regions_of_Climate_Action", "rank": 56, "score": 78328 }, { "content": "Title: Fossil fuel divestment Content: Fossil fuel divestment or fossil fuel divestment and investment in climate solutions is the removal of investment assets including stocks , bonds , and investment funds from companies involved in extracting fossil fuels , in an attempt to reduce climate change by tackling its ultimate causes . Numerous groups advocate fossil fuel divestment , which in 2015 was reportedly the fastest growing divestment movement in history . Beginning on campuses in The United States in 2011 with students urging their administrations to turn investments in the fossil fuel industry into investments in clean energy and communities most impacted by climate change , the movement soon spread across the globe . By December 2016 , a total of 688 institutions and over 58,000 individuals representing $ 5.5 trillion in assets worldwide had been divested from fossil fuels .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Fossil_fuel_divestment", "rank": 57, "score": 78027 }, { "content": "Title: Science & Environmental Policy Project Content: The Science & Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) is a research and advocacy group financed by private contributions based in Arlington , Virginia in the United States . It was founded in 1990 by atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer . SEPP disputes the prevailing scientific views of climate change and ozone depletion . SEPP also questioned the science used to establish the dangers of secondhand smoke , arguing the risks are overstated . SEPP 's former Chairman of the Board of Directors is listed as Rockefeller University president emeritus Frederick Seitz , a former president of the National Academy of Sciences , now deceased .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Science_&_Environmental_Policy_Project", "rank": 58, "score": 77966 }, { "content": "Title: Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Content: The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is a research institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science founded in May 2008 . The centre is a partner of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College and acts as an umbrella body for LSE 's overall research contributions to the field of climate change and its impact on the environment . Furthermore , the institute oversees the activities of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy ( CCCEP ) , a partnership between LSE and the University of Leeds . Both Grantham research centres are sponsored through the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment , established by Hannelore and Jeremy Grantham in 1997 . The combined investments totalling approximately # 24 million is recognised as one of the largest private contributions to climate change research . CCCEP is funded independently by the ESRC . The institute is currently chaired by Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford , former Chief Economist of the World Bank and author of the widely known Stern Review . The purpose of the Institute is to increase knowledge and understanding on climate change and the environment ; promote better informed decision-making ; and educate and train new generations of researchers through its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes . The institute 's main research activities are divided into five different areas : 1 . Global response strategies 2 . Green growth 3 . Practical aspects of climate policy 4 . Adaptation and development 5 . Resource security The research of the institute is characterised by its interdisciplinary nature and brings together international expertise on economics , finance , geography , the environment , international development and political economy , as the centre 's academic staff comprise a broad range of disciplines , including physicists , climatologists , economists , statisticians , political scientists and various other social scientists . In September 2015 , the institute hosted the Open Energy Modelling Initiative workshop .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Grantham_Research_Institute_on_Climate_Change_and_the_Environment", "rank": 59, "score": 77835 }, { "content": "Title: Manchester Friends of the Earth Content: Manchester Friends of the Earth is an award-winning environmental campaign group working on causes relating to the environment and to social justice . They campaign on issues with a local connection , and also lobby for policy changes at the local , regional , national and international levels . They work on a diverse range of topics including climate change , corporate responsibility , real food , trade justice , sustainable transport & aviation and waste & recycling . The group consists entirely of volunteers , and the campaigns are funded entirely by membership , individual donations and charitable grants . Manchester FoE is part of a national network of local groups who are affiliated to Friends of the Earth ( EWNI ) ( England , Wales and Northern Ireland ) .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Manchester_Friends_of_the_Earth", "rank": 60, "score": 77763 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Saving Trust Content: Energy Saving Trust ( EST ) is a British organization devoted to promoting energy efficiency , energy conservation , and the sustainable use of energy , thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions and helping to prevent man-made climate change . It was founded in the United Kingdom as a government-sponsored initiative in 1992 , following the global Earth Summit . Energy Saving Trust is an independent , not-for-profit organization funded by the government and the private sector . It is a social enterprise , and also has a charitable foundation . The EST has regional offices in England , and country offices in Wales , Northern Ireland , and Scotland . It maintains a comprehensive website , and a network of numerous local advice centres .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Energy_Saving_Trust", "rank": 61, "score": 77569 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Transformation Fund Content: The Environmental Transformation Fund ( ETF ) is the UK 's financial commitment to tackling climate change within the UK and developing countries . There are two parts to the fund , managed separately , to reflect the different challenges of its international and national elements . The UK element of the ETF was formally launched in April 2008 , its focus being to accelerate development of new low carbon energy and energy efficient technologies in the UK . The fund is administered by DECC ( which was created from parts of both BIS and DEFRA ) . The international element of the ETF is managed jointly by DEFRA and DFID .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Environmental_Transformation_Fund", "rank": 62, "score": 77210 }, { "content": "Title: Greening Earth Society Content: The Greening Earth Society , now defunct , was a public relations organization which promoted the idea that there is considerable scientific doubt about the effects of climate change and increased levels of carbon dioxide . The Society published the World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute . It was a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association , with which it shared an office and many staff members . It has been called a `` front group created by the coal industry '' and an `` industry front '' . Fred Palmer , a Society staffer , is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy , a coal company . Although the Greening Earth Society was generally skeptical of the impact of climate change , it acknowledged some degree of global warming as real : `` Fact # 1 . The rate of global warming during the past several decades has been about 0.18 ° C per decade '' . Note that the actual increase in the global surface temperature during the 100 years ending in 2005 was 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C.", "qid": "254", "docid": "Greening_Earth_Society", "rank": 63, "score": 76819 }, { "content": "Title: China Carbon Forum Content: China Carbon Forum ( CCF ) is a non-profit organisation which aims to facilitate stakeholder dialogue in the climate change sector in the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) , including environmental policy and the renewables , clean tech and Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) markets . CCF organizes events , including speaker/networking events , stakeholder consultations , and meetings with VIPs , to discuss current climate change issues affecting China . The latest series of events are the China Low Carbon Leadership Network series , jointly organized with GIZ . The organization is based in Beijing , China .", "qid": "254", "docid": "China_Carbon_Forum", "rank": 64, "score": 76789 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate and Energy Project Content: The Global Climate and Energy Project ( GCEP ) at Stanford University , `` seeks new solutions to one of the grand challenges of this century : supplying energy to meet the changing needs of a growing world population in a way that protects the environment . '' Beginning in December 2002 , GCEP is a 10-year , $ 225m research project aimed at developing new energy technologies . These new energy technologies include areas of interest such as renewable energy , CO2 capture and storage , hydrogen storage and electrocatalysis . It has the support of four major companies - ExxonMobil , General Electric , Schlumberger , and Toyota . Under the heading `` Grand Challenge '' , it identifies a global warming-related need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through future energy development .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Global_Climate_and_Energy_Project", "rank": 65, "score": 76776 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 66, "score": 76358 }, { "content": "Title: Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change Content: The Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change ( or CSCCC ) is an entity that maintains a website and describes itself as a global group of non-profit organizations with a mission of `` seek -LSB- ing -RSB- to educate the public about the science and economics of climate change in an impartial manner . '' The Coalition identifies its membership as including 60 independent nonprofit organisations from 40 countries `` who share a commitment to improving public understanding about a range of public policy issues . '' It calls itself `` a free-market alternative to mainstream environmentalism . '' An Indian news media report states that it was founded by the International Policy Network , a London-based organization that receives support from Exxon Mobil . The group publishes background papers and opinion editorials on the science and economics of climate change and maintains a blog . Its Civil Society Report on Climate Change was published in 2007 , shortly before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Bali . CSCCC experts make media appearances , such as Julian Morris 's 2007 feature on Larry King Live and his televised debate in 2008 with IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri . This IPN in the UK has Julian Morris as Executive Director . It is actually a part of the Atlas Group/Network ( aka Atlas Economic Research Institute ) which was founded by UK factory-chicken king , Sir Antony Fisher ( one of PM Margaret Thatcher 's economic gurus ) and American Loctite millionaire Richard Krieble . They had funding support from Krieble , Richard Mellon Scaife , and Philip Morris . Fisher is reputed to have had a primary hand in establishing up to 150 libertarian think-tanks around the world . Fisher 's daughter , Linda Whetstone , now works for the ( Fisher-founded ) Adam Smith Institute . She is also the chairperson of the International Policy Network , and is on the Boards of Directors of the Mont Pelerin Society , the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Atlas Group in the USA . Coalitions and networks of this kind a common with Atlas Group think-tanks , and many of their key staff and directors serve on many different organisations . This faux-multiplicity amplifies the apparent strength of the public attacks on climate-change science . See also the Stockholm Network . and", "qid": "254", "docid": "Civil_Society_Coalition_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 67, "score": 76264 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Central Content: Climate Central is a nonprofit news organization that analyzes and reports on climate science . Composed of scientists and science journalists , the organization conducts scientific research on climate change and energy issues , and produces multimedia content that is distributed via their website and media partners . Climate Central has been featured in many prominent U.S. news sources , including the New York Times , the Associated Press , Reuters , NBC Nightly News , CBS News , CNN , ABC News , Nightline , Time , National Public Radio , PBS , Scientific American , National Geographic , Science , and The Washington Post . Climate Central 's President and CEO is Paul Hanle . Former Weather Channel climate expert Heidi Cullen is the group 's Director of Communications and Chief Climatologist . The organization 's research team is directed by Richard Wiles , while the editorial team features veterans of CNN , Time magazine , The Weather Channel , Environment and Energy Daily , DISCOVER Magazine , MLB.com and Washingtonpost.com .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Central", "rank": 68, "score": 76156 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Massachusetts Content: Formet Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed into law three global warming and energy-related bills that will promote advanced biofuels , support the growth of the clean energy technology industry , and cut the emissions of greenhouse gases within the state . The Clean Energy Biofuels Act , signed in late July , exempts cellulosic ethanol from the state 's gasoline tax , but only if the ethanol achieves a 60 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline . The act also requires all diesel motor fuels and all No. 2 fuel oil sold for heating to include at least 2 % `` substitute fuel '' by July 2010 , where substitute fuel is defined as a fuel derived from renewable non-food biomass that achieves at least a 50 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions . The requirement for both motor diesel fuel and heating oil increases by a percentage point per year until 2013 , after which it holds steady 5 % . The act also allows the state to expand the requirement to other forms of fuel oil , and it requires the state to work to establish a low-carbon fuel standard under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative . In early August of 2008 , Governor Patrick signed two additional bills : the Green Jobs Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act . The Green Jobs Act will support the growth of a clean energy technology industry within the state , backed by $ 68 million in funding over 5 years . The Global Warming Solutions Act requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 10 % -25 % below 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050 . Under the act , the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will carry the burdens of determining the baseline level of emissions in 1990 and creating a plan to meet the future emissions limits , including the establishment of interim limits for 2030 and 2040", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Massachusetts", "rank": 69, "score": 76062 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Carta Content: Energy Carta is a non-profit organization founded in Singapore by a team of young adults . It promotes its cause by bringing stakeholders together to have discourse and provide solutions to the climate change issues the world faces . In particular , it seeks to promote interest amongst the grassroots and students", "qid": "254", "docid": "Energy_Carta", "rank": 70, "score": 75986 }, { "content": "Title: GWPP Content: The initials GWPP could indicate : the Global Water Policy Project , a fresh-water conservation project headed by Sandra Postel . the Global Warming Petition Project ( AKA the Oregon Petition ) , a project devoted to discrediting global climate change ( or its previous label global warming ) , under the auspices of the non-profit organization called the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine .", "qid": "254", "docid": "GWPP", "rank": 71, "score": 75758 }, { "content": "Title: Artists' Project Earth Content: Artists ' Project Earth is a UK registered charity which recruits internationally known musicians and artists through albums , concerts , art exhibitions and art related projects to raise awareness of climate change and funds for campaigns and disaster relief .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Artists'_Project_Earth", "rank": 72, "score": 75660 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Farewell, UK Content: Cape Farewell is an artist led organisation that works to create an urgent cultural response to climate change . Launched by David Buckland in 2001 with a series of ground-breaking artist and scientist manned expeditions to the Arctic , Cape Farewell has become an international not-for-profit programme based at the University of the Arts London : Chelsea . Cape Farewell aims to change the way people think about climate change , and to widely communicate , educate and inspire action on the need for urgent , and achievable , change . Cape Farewell engages with our greatest creative , scientific and visionary minds to work together with clean technology entrepreneurs , sociologists and universities to achieve the non-carbon society we must all aspire to . In 15 years Cape Farewell have supported over 300 artists in the research and creation of artworks . For example , Marcus Coates ' ` The Sound of Others ' opened the Manchester Science Festival in partnership with The Museum of Science and Industry ( MOSI ) in 2014 ; Guy Martin installed Forcey 's Tower , Dorset , 2014 ; Sabrina Mahfouz completed her poetry residency with performances at the London School of Economics and the Southbank Centre ; and SWITCH showcased young climate poets in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company , Stratford . Cape Farewell is a partner organisation , working with major cultural institutions -- such as the Natural History Museum , Science Museum , Tidal Lagoon Swansea , Tate , Eden Project , Royal Academy , Maritime Museum and Southbank Centre - to create new and challenging artworks that explore and highlight the urgency of climate change and bring the vital conversation around environmental sustainability into the public domain .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Cape_Farewell,_UK", "rank": 73, "score": 75652 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom Climate Change Programme Content: The United Kingdom 's Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) . The 2000 programme was updated in March 2006 following a review launched in September 2004 . In 2008 , the UK was the world 's 9th greatest producer of man-made carbon emissions , producing around 1.8 % of the global total generated from fossil fuels .", "qid": "254", "docid": "United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 74, "score": 75605 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Action Network Content: Climate Action Network -- International ( CAN ) is an umbrella group of environmental non-governmental organisations ( NGOs ) active on the issue of climate change . It is most active at meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , where it publishes a daily newsletter `` ECO '' , presenting the views of the Environmental NGO community . The Climate Action Network-International is a worldwide network of over 1100 non-governmental organizations in 120 countries working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels . CAN members work to achieve this goal through the coordination of information exchange and NGO strategy on international , regional and national climate issues . CAN has formal regional networks which coordinate these efforts in Africa , Central and Eastern Europe , Europe , Latin America , North America , South Asia , Southeast Asia , and Japan . CAN also has members in China , the Pacific and the Middle East . CAN members place a high priority on both a healthy environment and development that `` meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs '' ( Brundtland Commission ) . Climate Action Network 's vision is to protect the atmosphere while allowing for sustainable and equitable development worldwide .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Action_Network", "rank": 75, "score": 75559 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear Liabilities Fund Content: The Nuclear Liabilities Fund ( formerly the Nuclear Generation Decommissioning Fund ) is a fund of the UK Government to provide arrangements for funding certain long-term costs for the decommissioning of eight nuclear power stations formerly owned by British Energy , now EDF Energy . Responsibility for the Fund within government lies with the Shareholder Executive , on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change . The Fund is incorporated as a limited company registered in Scotland and is owned by the Nuclear Trust . It consists of five trustees , three appointed by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and two by the owners of the nuclear power stations , now EDF Energy . The trustees are also directors of the Fund as well as owning the ordinary share capital of the Fund .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Nuclear_Liabilities_Fund", "rank": 76, "score": 75550 }, { "content": "Title: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication Content: The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication ( YPCCC ) is a research center at Yale University . The center is based at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and grew out of a conference held in Aspen , Colorado in 2005 . YPCCC 's mission is to bridge the gap between society and climate . The organization does the following : Conducts research on public climate knowledge , risk perceptions , decision-making and behavior ; Designs and tests new strategies to engage the public in climate science and solutions ; Empowers educators and communicators with the knowledge and tools to more effectively engage their audiences . Its affiliates include the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and the Earth Day Network . The research conducted by the YPCCC and its staff is often covered in the news and popular media , including NBC , Real Time with Bill Maher , Huffington Post , Discovery Channel , The Guardian , Bill Moyers , Time , Science , the New York Times and the U.S. News & World Report . One of the YPCCC 's projects is the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media , which hosts a number of YouTube videos on its official channel . Peter Sinclair is responsible for some of these videos . The Forum also hosts a blog focused on global warming and other environmental issues .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Yale_Program_on_Climate_Change_Communication", "rank": 77, "score": 75010 }, { "content": "Title: Green Launching Pad Content: The Green Launching Pad is a public-private collaborative program developed between the University of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning and funded by the United States Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 . There are numerous goals of the initiative associated with entrepreneurial venture acceleration for individuals and businesses operating in New Hampshire to reduce environmental degradation and improve economic outlook through the creation of novel , purposeful businesses which will offer employment opportunities as they grow . The program also considers the State Energy Program and the NH Climate Action Plan in choosing which companies to endorse . From February 2010 until August 2012 , the program has held three competitive rounds where entrepreneurs from around the state vied for capital rewards up to $ 90,000 as well as access to professional business consultants and other , community-related forms of support . The idea was conceived and made reality through the minds of two University of New Hampshire business professors , local businessmen , and key figures from the State of New Hampshire , including Governor John Lynch . As of August 2012 , the program has helped with the establishment and development of 14 companies while providing educational and networking opportunities that have impacted more than 450 event and seminar attendees . In addition to these direct successes , the program provided invaluable internship opportunities for students of various backgrounds at the University of New Hampshire ; employing more than ten different students in two years .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Green_Launching_Pad", "rank": 78, "score": 74840 }, { "content": "Title: The Connect U.S. Fund Content: The Connect U.S. Fund is a Washington based non-profit organization that promotes responsible U.S. global engagement on nuclear non-proliferation , human rights , climate change and development . The organization supports grantees and other non-governmental organizations in their efforts to collaborate effectively within and between issue areas , to engage policy makers , and to bring issues to the attention of the media . Currently a former Ambassador to the United Nations Nancy E. Soderberg serves as President of The Connect U.S. Fund . The CUSF 's current affiliation with religious orders or sources is unclear . The associated website offers no information on the organization itself , but includes options for `` Bible Verses '' and `` Prayer . '' Articles published on the website claim to offer `` pros and cons '' on issues , but contain no bylines or author references .", "qid": "254", "docid": "The_Connect_U.S._Fund", "rank": 79, "score": 74730 }, { "content": "Title: Edward Maibach Content: Edward Maibach is a widely recognized expert in public health and climate change communication . Since 2010 , he has been a Distinguished Professor of Communication at George Mason University and Director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at GMU . Together with the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication , the center is widely known for its research on public attitudes , opinion and engagement with climate change . The center 's research is funded by scientific grants from institutions such as the National Science Foundation and NASA .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Edward_Maibach", "rank": 80, "score": 74700 }, { "content": "Title: Center for Climate and Energy Solutions Content: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions ( C2ES ) is an environmental nonprofit organization based in Arlington , Virginia . Launched in 2011 , C2ES is the successor to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change . C2ES works closely with policymakers and stakeholders to promote pragmatic , effective policies at the state , national and international levels .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Center_for_Climate_and_Energy_Solutions", "rank": 81, "score": 74625 }, { "content": "Title: Durban Industry Climate Change Partnership Project Content: Durban Industry Climate Change Partnership Project ( DICCPP ) is a project aimed at facilitating industry response to climate change in the eThekwini Municipality ( Durban ) , South Africa . The project is being implemented through a partnership between the United Nations Industrial Development Organization ( UNIDO ) , the Durban Investment Promotion Agency ( DIPA ) , the eThekwini Municipality and the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( DCCI ) . The purpose of the project is to sensitise industry in Durban to the risks and opportunities associated with climate change by creating a platform through which learning and communication between industry and government can take place . The project aims to establish a sustained partnership between the various industries organisations in Durban and the eThekwini Municipality . The partnership is seen as fundamental to responding to climate change and effectively contributing towards climate change mitigation and adaptation within the Durban metropolitan area .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Durban_Industry_Climate_Change_Partnership_Project", "rank": 82, "score": 74617 }, { "content": "Title: The London Accord Content: The London Accord is a collaboration between investment banks , research houses , academics and NGOs to produce free research on climate change for financial investors . It is intended as a reference guide for investors in the climate change sector . The London Accord is the largest cooperative project in the world on investment opportunities in avoiding climate change ( about 7 million UK pounds ) .", "qid": "254", "docid": "The_London_Accord", "rank": 83, "score": 74384 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Grenada Content: The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Grenada", "rank": 84, "score": 74383 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon bubble Content: The carbon bubble is a hypothesized bubble in the valuation of companies dependent on fossil-fuel-based energy production , because the true costs of carbon dioxide in intensifying global warming are not yet taken into account in a company 's stock market valuation . Currently the price of fossil fuels companies ' shares is calculated under the assumption that all fossil fuel reserves will be consumed . An estimate made by Kepler Chevreux puts the loss in value of the fossil fuel companies due to the impact of the growing renewables industry at US$ 28 trillion over the next two decades-long . A more recent analysis made by Citi puts that figure at $ 100 trillion . Analysts in both the petroleum and financial industries are concluding that the `` age of oil '' has already reached a new stage where the excess supply that appeared in late 2014 may continue to prevail in the future . A consensus appears to be emerging that an international agreement will be reached to introduce measures to constrain the combustion of hydrocarbons in an effort to limit global temperature rise to the nominal 2 ° C that is consensually predicted to limit environmental harm to tolerable levels . According to the UK 's Committee on Climate Change , overvaluing companies that produce fossil fuels and greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to the economy . The committee warned the British government and Bank of England of the risks of the carbon bubble in 2014 . The following year , Mark Carney , the Governor of the Bank of England , in his lecture to Lloyd 's of London , warned that limiting global warming to 2 ° C appears to require that the `` vast majority '' of fossil fuel reserves be `` stranded '' , or `` literally unburnable without expensive carbon-capture technology '' , resulting in `` potentially huge '' exposure to investors in that sector . He concluded that `` the window of opportunity is finite and shrinking '' for responding to the threat that climate change poses to financial resilience and longer-term prosperity , which he called the `` tragedy of the horizon '' . That same month , the Prudential Regulation Authority of the Bank of England issued a report discussing the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to the insurance industry . In his speech announcing his denial of the proposal to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline , U.S. President Barack Obama gave as one reason for the decision '' ... ultimately , if we 're going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes , we 're going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground ... '' .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Carbon_bubble", "rank": 85, "score": 74374 }, { "content": "Title: National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture Content: National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture ( NICRA ) was launched during February 2011 by Indian Council of Agricultural Research ( ICAR ) with the funding from Ministry of Agriculture , Government of India . The mega project has three major objectives of strategic research , technology demonstrations and capacity building . Assessment of the impact of climate change simultaneous with formulation of adaptive strategies is the prime approach under strategic research across all sectors of agriculture , dairying and fisheries . Evolving climate resilient agricultural technologies that would increase farm production and productivity vis-à-vis continuous management of natural and manmade resources constitute an integral part of sustaining agriculture in the era of climate change . The four modules of NICRA -- natural resource management , improving soil health , crop production and livestock -- is aimed making the farmers self-reliant .", "qid": "254", "docid": "National_Initiative_on_Climate_Resilient_Agriculture", "rank": 86, "score": 74273 }, { "content": "Title: Lawrence Wollersheim Content: Lawrence Dominick Wollersheim has been an active director of several specialized non-profit organizations since 2002 . He has worked with others to help to develop the concepts and practices of `` Sustainable Prosperity , '' `` the Universe Evolutionary Worldview , '' `` Evolution Spirituality , '' `` Progressive Evolution , '' the `` Universe Principles of Sustainability '' and `` Job One for Humanity Climate Restabilization Plan . '' The Job One plan is a meta-systemic , long-term plan for mitigating global warming and climate destabilization . Much of his current work for these organizations is focused on how to apply the scientific principles of universe-scale evolution to our daily lives and to resolve our biggest global challenges . Wollersheim is also a former Scientologist . He sued the Church of Scientology in 1980 . The story of Xenu was made public when Church materials detailing the Operating Thetan Level 3 were used as exhibits . In Wollersheim 's court case Scientology 's `` top secret '' materials about Xenu and their beliefs in past alien invasions of Earth was filed with the LA court on his behalf and then copied from court records and published by media all over the world . Wollersheim helped co-found Factnet.org in 1993 to help other victims of cult abuse . Currently he is still a director of Factnet .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Lawrence_Wollersheim", "rank": 87, "score": 74256 }, { "content": "Title: ECODES Content: ECODES `` huft '' Foundation Ecology and Development ( Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo ) is an independent non-profit organization that works towards sustainable and environmentally friendly development , founded on 10 March 1992 . ECODES works to strengthen dialogue and collaboration with all stakeholders in the implementation of actions and programs that promote sustainable development and enable social change . They provide ideas and solutions as well as critical commentary based on professional expertise . The organizations main areas of focus are social responsibility , climate change resulting from global warming , water management , reducing consumption and development cooperation . Besides their various projects they publish an online magazine , esPosible .", "qid": "254", "docid": "ECODES", "rank": 88, "score": 74247 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Commission Content: The Climate Commission was an independent body established in 2011 by the Federal Government of Australia to communicate `` reliable and authoritative information '' about climate change in Australia . Abolished by a newly elected government in September 2013 , it was relaunched as an independent non-profit organisation called the Climate Council .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Commission", "rank": 89, "score": 74194 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2003 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place between 1 December -- 12 December 2003 in Milan , Italy . The conference included the 9th Conference of the Parties ( COP9 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The parties agreed to use the Adaptation Fund established at COP7 in 2001 primarily in supporting developing countries better adapt to climate change . The fund would also be used for capacity-building through technology transfer . At the conference , the parties also agreed to review the first national reports submitted by 110 non-Annex I countries . Category :21 st-century diplomatic conferences Category : Diplomatic conferences in Italy Category : Climate change conferences 2003 2003 United Nations Climate Change Conference , 2003 Category :2003 in the environment Category : November 2003 events Category :21 st century in Milan Category :2003 in Italy", "qid": "254", "docid": "2003_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 90, "score": 74062 }, { "content": "Title: YouTube Original Channel Initiative Content: The YouTube Original Channel Initiative was a $ 100 million program funded by Google to bring original content onto Google . The original channel initiative was also meant to kick start Google TV . The channels are collectively known as `` original '' , `` premium '' or `` YouTube funded '' channels . Participants include Madonna , Pharrell Williams , Young Hollywood founder R.J. Williams , former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal , comedian Amy Poehler , actor Ashton Kutcher , The Office star Rainn Wilson , comedian Kenny Hotz , Motor Trend , SourceFed , spiritual doctor Deepak Chopra and Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara . Most are creating channels through their production companies . Madonna is a partner with the dance channel DanceOn , while O'Neal plans the Comedy Shaq Network . In September 2012 , twenty of the 100 original channels started getting at least 1 million views a week . In October 2012 , it was announced that YouTube introduced 60 new original channels . Google invested $ 200 million into the original programming as well . The top 25 original programs also averaged around 1 million views per week at the time of the announcement . In November 2012 , YouTube ended funding for more than 60 % of the 160 or so channels it financed as part of the initiative . After cancellation , YouTube kept all incoming revenue from these channels that failed to recoup their initial investments . In November 2013 , it was reported that the landing page for the original channels had become a redirect to a 404 error page , seemingly as a way for Google to remove any reference to the original channel initiative .", "qid": "254", "docid": "YouTube_Original_Channel_Initiative", "rank": 91, "score": 73883 }, { "content": "Title: Marguerite Fund Content: The 2020 European Fund for Energy , Climate Change and Infrastructure , known as the Marguerite Fund , is a pan-European equity fund that invests in renewables , energy and transport . It is based in Luxembourg . The Marguerite Fund was established in 2010 by the European Investment Bank , Caisse des dépôts et consignations , Cassa Depositi e Prestiti , Instituto de Crédito Oficial , Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau and Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan . The Marguerite Fund has invested in the Butendiek Wind Farm off Germany , the Tychovo and the Kukinia wind farms in Poland , -RSB- -RSB- . the Thorntonbank Wind Farm off Belgium , Chirnogeni Wind Farm in Romania , Massangis 1 and Toul-Rosières 2 photovoltaic plants in France , the Poznań incineration plant in Poland , the Zagreb International Airport in Croatia , the N17/N18 Motorway project in Ireland , and the Autovía de Arlanzon Motorway in Spain . In January 2016 , the Marguerite Fund became the second largest investor in the Latvian gas company Latvijas Gāze .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Marguerite_Fund", "rank": 92, "score": 73799 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Global Warming Swindle Content: The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King . The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols . The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . '' Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .", "qid": "254", "docid": "The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle", "rank": 93, "score": 73655 }, { "content": "Title: Climarice Content: Climarice is a research project , carried out by The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research ( Bioforsk , Norway ) , Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( TNAU , India ) , International Water Management Institute ( IWMI , India ) and International Pacific Research Center ( IPRC , United States ) ; which is trying to assess the impact of climate variability on water availability and rice production in the Cauvery river basin of Tamil Nadu , India . In particular , the impacts of climate change on extreme events such as droughts , floods , heat waves and on the spatial and temporal distribution of the monsoon rains will certainly impact rice production and food security in India . However , there is a significant level of uncertainty in the climate models ' projections that cascade into impact models and thereby influence policy decisions related to adaptation . For both scientific community and policy makers , reducing the uncertainties is a big challenge . On a positive note , examination of historical observed rice production data in India shows an overall increasing trend in many regions with annual fluctuations . Will this trend continue given the projected change in climate and population increase in India ? Climarice is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , is currently assessing the impacts of climate change on rice production areas and rice productivity . Specifically , the project is assessing the behavior of the Indian monsoon in different climate scenarios , and examining its impact on the water availability , rice crop production and the resultant socio economic vulnerability and adaptation of farming communities in the Cauvery river basin , India . Since the project was started in January 2008 , relevant coping and adaptation mechanisms have been identified and techniques developed to address the issues of climate vulnerabilities in rice production .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climarice", "rank": 94, "score": 73619 }, { "content": "Title: Indigenous peoples and the UN-REDD Program in Panama Content: Following a series of disputes regarding the participation of indigenous peoples in the Panama UN-REDD National Programme , the National Coordinating Body of the Indigenous Peoples of Panama ( COONAPIP ) announced their withdrawal from the climate change mitigation program on February 25 , 2013 . COONAPIP , which brings together the country ´ s seven indigenous peoples and their 12 traditional indigenous representative structures , cited a failure to ensure guarantees of respect for indigenous rights and the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples , and a breach of agreements made during the process of the program ´ s approval . In March 2013 , the Panama UN-REDD National Programme was suspended pending the results of an independent investigation and evaluation . The dispute was highlighted as an important development in the broader context of global policy efforts to implement initiatives to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation ( REDD + ) , which were at the time grappling with issues around the participation of indigenous peoples and forest communities in related initiatives , including the implementation of Free , Prior and Informed Consent . Preliminary results of an independent investigation and evaluation commissioned by the UN-REDD Programme were published , as well as a study of the conflict by a Central American non-governmental research center . In December 2013 , the Panama UN-REDD National Programme was reopened following agreement between the Panama Government , through its National Environmental Authority ( ANAM ) , and indigenous peoples , through the National Coordinating Entity of Indigenous Peoples in Panama ( COONAPIP ) . This was realized through extensive consultations between ANAM and COONAPIP to resolve issues and develop an Environmental Agenda between indigenous peoples and the ANAM , which includes a revised result framework of the UN-REDD National Joint Programme of Panama . The General Assembly of COONAPIP , which took place on 29 November 2013 in Playa Muerto , in the Darien province of Panama , approved the Environmental Agenda jointly developed between ANAM and COONAPIP . On the reopening of the National Programme in Panama , Candido Mezua , President of COONAPIP said , `` We feel satisfied that the process followed with ANAM will help us to correct issues , and COONAPIP is going to engage again in the Programme . '' He added , `` It is time to trust again '' . Mezua emphasized that REDD + had to be conducted with full respect for the rights of indigenous peoples , asking for the support of UN agencies to ensure that rights such as free , prior and informed consent ( FPIC ) are respected and appropriate grievance mechanisms are made available for indigenous peoples . He further underscored the complexities and nuances of REDD + and offered COONAPIP 's contribution to national REDD + efforts . In December 2013 , UN-REDD Programme Policy Board congratulated Panama on its progress towards resolving the differences with the National Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples in Panama ( COONAPIP ) and announced the approval of a no-cost extension of Panama 's National UN-REDD Programme until June 2015 . The extension was approved together with a review of the new results framework of the Programme and with the full agreement of COONAPIP , who co-presented on a panel with the Government of Panama 's National Environment Authority ( ANAM ) at the Eleventh Meeting of the UN-REDD Programme Policy Board , which took place from 9-10 December 2013 in Geneva . The UN-REDD Programme Policy Board , composed of representatives of partner countries , indigenous peoples and civil society , donor countries and UN agencies , was deeply appreciative of progress made in Panama and of the joint efforts of COONAPIP , ANAM and the UN-REDD Programme to resolve the conflict . Members noted that the experiences in Panama provided valuable lessons for other REDD + countries and highlighted the importance of strong stakeholder engagement processes .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Indigenous_peoples_and_the_UN-REDD_Program_in_Panama", "rank": 95, "score": 73617 }, { "content": "Title: Institute for Sustainable Communities Content: The Institute for Sustainable Communities ( ISC ) is an independent , tax-exempt , nonprofit organization whose primary work includes finding community-based solutions to reducing climate pollution in the U.S. and China , building the capacity of civil society in the Balkans , and helping communities along the U.S. Gulf Coast and China recover from disasters . ISC provides training , technical assistance and financial support to communities , nonprofits/nongovernmental organizations , businesses and local governments . Founded in 1991 by Madeleine Kunin and George Hamilton , ISC 's early work connected civic participation with environmental management in the countries of the former Soviet Union . ISC has since managed 99 projects in 30 countries , and is funded by private foundations , corporations , individuals and government agencies . Major current programs include the Guangdong Environmental partnership and U.S.-China Partnership for Climate Action in China , the Climate Leadership Academy and Gulf Coast Sustainable Communities Network in the U.S. , the Civil Society Advocacy Initiative in Serbia , and the Civil Society Strengthening Program in Kosovo . Based in Montpelier , Vermont , ISC has offices in Washington , DC , in China ( Beijing ) , Bangladesh ( Dhaka ) , and India ( Mumbai ) . ISC works with local partners to design and implement projects that mobilize communities to bring clean air , water , and land to their communities ; adopt energy efficiency measures and conserve resources ; reduce the causes and adapt to the local effects of climate disruption ; strengthen their civil society institutions to become influential partners alongside business and government ; or rebuild sustainably after disasters . By combining technical expertise and leadership training with strategic investments in local organizations , ISC 's approach ensures solutions emerge from within the community , rather than being imposed from the outside . ISC has founded and/or mentored organizations in the countries in which it has worked , including the Fund for Sustainable Development in Russia , the Successful Communities Institute in Ukraine , and FOCUS , a new grassroots organization based in Mississippi . Approximately 84 % of ISC 's $ 13.9 million budget in FY14 supported programming .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Institute_for_Sustainable_Communities", "rank": 96, "score": 73612 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 97, "score": 73504 }, { "content": "Title: National Adaptation Programme of Action Content: A National Adaptation Programme of Action ( NAPA ) is a type of plan submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) by Least Developed Countries , to describe the country 's perception of its most `` urgent and immediate needs to adapt to climate change '' . NAPAs are not supposed to include original research , but use existing information and include profiles of priority projects that are intended to address those needs that have been identified . The UNFCCC maintains a database of NAPAs , and of country priorities that have been identified within NAPAs . As of November 2011 , it contained reports from 46 LDCs . The Least Developed Country Fund ( LDCF ) was established to finance the preparation of NAPAs and to implement the projects that they propose . The LDCF currently has resources of at least US$ 415 million , of which US$ 177 million has been approved for 47 projects , attracting more than US$ 550 million in co-financing in the process .", "qid": "254", "docid": "National_Adaptation_Programme_of_Action", "rank": 98, "score": 73468 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act Content: __ NOTOC __ The Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act of the Canadian province of Alberta was the first law of its type to impose greenhouse gas cuts on large industrial facilities . Starting from July 1 , 2007 , Alberta facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year will be required to reduce their emissions intensity by 12 percent under the Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act . Companies have three ways to meet their reductions : they can make operating improvements , buy an Alberta-based credit , or contribute to the Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund . The regulations apply to about 100 large facilities which emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year . Those facilities account for about 70 per cent of Alberta 's industrial greenhouse gas emissions . The annual cost of compliance is estimated to be $ 177 million - or less than one tenth of one per cent of Alberta 's nominal GDP ( $ 242 billion in 2006 ) .", "qid": "254", "docid": "Climate_Change_and_Emissions_Management_Amendment_Act", "rank": 99, "score": 73326 }, { "content": "Title: SOLVIT Content: The SOLVIT network is a body funded by the European Commission since 2002 to assist citizens and businesses to ascertain their EU rights in cases where a dispute has risen between a citizen or a company and an official body of a Member state of the European Union . There is a SOLVIT centre in every member state ( as well as in the EEA Member States Norway , Iceland and Liechtenstein ) . On 2 May 2017 the European Commission announced a package of measures intended to enhance the functioning of the Single Market within the EU which included a proposed Action Plan on reinforcing SOLVIT .", "qid": "254", "docid": "SOLVIT", "rank": 100, "score": 73092 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 1, "score": 315384 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 2, "score": 279351 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 3, "score": 196644 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 4, "score": 183493 }, { "content": "Title: MWP Content: MWp or MWP may refer to : Mega Watt peak , a solar power measure in photo-voltaic ( PV ) industry to describe a unit 's nominal power Medieval Warm Period , a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region Metta World Peace , a professional basketball player formerly known as Ron Artest", "qid": "256", "docid": "MWP", "rank": 5, "score": 175409 }, { "content": "Title: Late Antique Little Ice Age Content: The Late Antique Little Ice Age was a long-lasting Northern Hemisphere cooling period in the 6th and 7th century AD , proposed as theory in 2015 , and subsequently confirmed as the interval from 536 to about 660 AD . This period followed three immense volcanic eruptions in 536 , 540 and 547 . One of the suspected volcanic sites for those events is the Rabaul caldera , in the western Pacific , which erupted around 540 . The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the early phenomena of the century-long global temperature decline . The evidence comes from a temperature reconstruction from the Euro-Med2k working group of the international PAGES ( Past Global Changes ) project , using new tree-ring measurements from the Altai Mountains , which closely matches the temperatures in the Alps in the last two centuries .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Late_Antique_Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 6, "score": 150582 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age Content: An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Ice_age", "rank": 7, "score": 144854 }, { "content": "Title: Crisis of the Late Middle Ages Content: The crisis of the Late Middle Ages refers to a series of events in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that brought centuries of European prosperity and growth to a halt . Three major crises led to radical changes in all areas of society : demographic collapse , political instabilities and religious upheavals . A series of famines and plagues , beginning with the Great Famine of 1315 -- 17 and especially the Black Death of 1348 , reduced the population perhaps by half or more as the Medieval Warm Period came to a close and the first century of the Little Ice Age began . Popular revolts in late medieval Europe and civil wars between nobles within countries such as the Wars of the Roses were common -- with France fighting internally nine times -- and there were international conflicts between kings such as France and England in the Hundred Years ' War . The unity of the Roman Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism . The Holy Roman Empire was also in decline ; in the aftermath of the Great Interregnum ( 1247 -- 1273 ) , the Empire lost cohesion and politically the separate dynasties of the various German states became more important than their common empire .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Crisis_of_the_Late_Middle_Ages", "rank": 8, "score": 143169 }, { "content": "Title: Last ice age Content: Last ice age may refer to : Quaternary glaciation , the period of the last few million years Last glacial period , the most recent glacial period of the current ice age Little Ice Age , a hundred years of relative cold in the Middle Ages after what historians term the Medieval Warm Period", "qid": "256", "docid": "Last_ice_age", "rank": 9, "score": 141514 }, { "content": "Title: Iron Age Cold Epoch Content: The Iron Age Cold Epoch ( also referred to as Iron Age climate pessimum or Iron Age neoglaciation ) was a period of unusually cold climate in the North Atlantic region , lasting from about 900 BC to about 300 BC , with an especially cold wave in 450 BC during the expansion of ancient Greece . It was followed by the Roman Warm Period ( 250 BC -- 400 AD ) .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Iron_Age_Cold_Epoch", "rank": 10, "score": 129509 }, { "content": "Title: Neoglaciation Content: The neoglaciation ( `` renewed glaciation '' ) describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth 's climate during the Holocene , following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation , the most recent glacial period . Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest point in the Earth 's climate during the current interglacial stage . The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning : local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler ( and wetter ) conditions . Driven inexorably by the Milankovitch cycle , cooler summers in higher latitudes of North America , which would cease to completely melt the annual snowfall , were masked at first by the presence of the slowly disappearing continental ice sheets , which persisted long after the astronomically calculated moment of maximum summer warmth : `` the neoglaciation can be said to have begun when the cooling caught up with the warming '' , remarked E. C. Pielou . With the close of the `` Little Ice Age '' ( mid-14th to late 19th centuries ) , neoglaciation appears to have been stalled in the late 20th century , assumed to be caused by anthropogenic global warming . Whether it has been temporarily or semi-permanently stalled , neoglaciation has been marked by a retreat from the warm conditions of the Climatic Optimum and the advance or reformation of glaciers that had not existed since the last ice age . In the mountains of western North America , montane glaciers that had completely melted reformed shortly before 5000 BP . The most severe part of the best documented neoglacial period , especially in Europe and the North Atlantic , is termed the `` Little Ice Age '' . In North America , neoglaciation had ecological effects in the spread of muskeg on flat , poorly drained land , such as the bed of recently drained Lake Agassiz and in the Hudson Bay lowlands , in the retreat of grassland before an advancing forest border in the Great Plains , and in shifting ranges of forest trees and diagnostic plant species ( identified through palynology ) . The view that neoglaciation is ending in present times , is assumed by those who identify the most recent climate changes and global warming as the onset of a new period in Earth history , speculatively calling it the `` Early anthropocene '' , as a coming geological age dominated by the effects of Homo sapiens .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Neoglaciation", "rank": 11, "score": 124432 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 12, "score": 122710 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary glaciation Content: The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Quaternary_glaciation", "rank": 13, "score": 118378 }, { "content": "Title: Roman Warm Period Content: The Roman Warm Period or the Roman climatic optimum has been proposed as a period of unusually warm weather in Europe and the North Atlantic that ran from approximately 250 BC to AD 400 .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Roman_Warm_Period", "rank": 14, "score": 117906 }, { "content": "Title: A Contention for Honor and Riches Content: A Contention for Honor and Riches is a Arjun Singh Chauhan from Saharanpur era stage play , a short drama or interlude written by James Shirley and first published in 1633 . Generally classed as a morality play , it illustrates the continuing influence of archaic forms of drama on the relatively `` sophisticated '' or even `` decadent '' theatre of the Caroline era . The play was entered into Register on November 9 , 1632 and was published the following year in quarto by the bookseller William Cooke , who issued many of Shirley 's plays in the 1630s , either alone or in partnership with Andrew Crooke . Shirley dedicated the volume to Edward Golding , of Colston , Northamptonshire , a personal friend . No data on the play 's theatrical history has survived ; it is not known when , or even if , the work was ever staged . The most likely date for the play 's authorship may be 1630 . The existing play , `` A moral masque in three scenes , '' was later reworked and expanded by the author into a full five-act drama , and eventually published in 1659 under the title Honoria and Mammon . 1630 was relatively late in the history of English Renaissance theatre for a morality play -- though the form , while unfashionable , was not entirely extinct in Shirley 's era . Late examples include Four Plays in One ( c. 1608 -- 13 ) , from the canon of John Fletcher , and The Sun 's Darling ( 1624 ) , a collaboration between Thomas Dekker and John Ford . As is often the case in the morality form , the characters in Shirley 's Contention are known by generic titles more than personal names : Lady Honor , Lady Riches , Ingenuity , Gettings , the Courtier , the Soldier , the Vice , etc. ( In the later expansion , Honoria and Mammon , the same characters are given personal names . )", "qid": "256", "docid": "A_Contention_for_Honor_and_Riches", "rank": 15, "score": 117395 }, { "content": "Title: Meltwater pulse 1A Content: Meltwater pulse 1A ( MWP1a ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of rapid post-glacial sea level rise during which global sea level rose between 16 m and 25 m in about 400 -- 500 years , giving mean rates of roughly 40 -- 60 mm/yr . Meltwater pulse 1A is also known as catastrophic rise event 1 ( CRE1 ) in the Caribbean Sea . The rates of sea level rise associated with meltwater pulse 1A are the highest known rates of post-glacial , eustatic sea level rise . Meltwater pulse 1A is also the most widely recognized and least disputed of the named , postglacial meltwater pulses . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwater pulse 19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1B , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Meltwater_pulse_1A", "rank": 16, "score": 116521 }, { "content": "Title: 1340s Content: The 1340s were a Julian calendar decade in the 14th century , in the midst of a period in world history often referred to as the Late Middle Ages in the Old World and the pre-Columbian era in the New World . In Asia , the successors of the old Mongol Empire were in a state of gradual decline . The Ilkhanate had already fragmented into several political territories and factions struggling to place their puppet leaders over the shell of an old state ; the Chagatai Khanate was undermined by religious unrest and fell to rebellion . The Black Plague swept through the Kipchak Khanate in 1346 , and also affected the Genoese colonies under Mongol siege , thence spreading into Europe . The Yuan dynasty in China was struck by a series of disasters , including frequent flooding , widespread banditry , urban fire , declining grain , increased civil unrest and local rebellion - the seeds of resistance that would lead to its downfall . Southeast Asia remained free from Mongol power , with several small kingdoms struggling for survival . In Europe , the decade continued the period of gradual economic decline , often mistitled the `` depression '' of the 1340s . This followed the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the start of the Little Ice Age in the 1300s , and affected most of Western Europe , with the exception of a few Italian city-states . The state increasingly interfered in the social and economic life of the decade , while Europe entered a period which saw almost continuous war for the next century . The Hundred Years ' War ( 1337 -- 1453 ) between France and England continued , and Edward III of England led an invasion resulting in notable victories at the Battles of Sluys and Crécy in 1340 and 1346 respectively . The medieval crusading spirit continued in Spain , with a Castilian victory at the Battle of Río Salado and the recommencement of the Reconquista in 1340 ; and in the Baltic , with King Magnus II of Sweden 's Northern Crusades against Novgorod in 1347 -- 1348 . In the east , the Byzantine Empire , then under the Palaiologoi , saw the start of the disastrous Byzantine civil war of 1341 -- 47 . Meanwhile , a crisis of confidence in the Florentine banks caused many of them to collapse between 1341 and 1346 . The Black Plague which struck Europe in 1348 wiped out a full third of the population by the end of the decade . In Africa , the two great empires were the Christian Ethiopian Empire in the east and the Muslim Mali Empire in the west . Amda Seyon I , who had brought Ethiopia to its height , was succeeded in 1344 by Newaya Krestos , who continued to foster trade in East Africa . Mansa Suleyman assumed office in the Mali Empire in 1341 , and similarly took steep measures to reform Mali 's finances . Songhai , which had emerged in this decade , was conquered by Mali for the time being . In the Americas , cities of the Mississippian culture such as Cahokia , Kincaid and Moundville went into an accelerated state of decline in this decade . Factors such as depletion of resources , climatic change , war , disease , social unrest and declining political and economic power have been suggested , although the sites were not fully abandoned until the 15th century . Central America saw the decayed Maya civilization ruled from their capital Mayapan in the Yucatán Peninsula , while the Mexicas from their capital city of Tenochtitlan were on the rise .", "qid": "256", "docid": "1340s", "rank": 17, "score": 115200 }, { "content": "Title: Glacial period Content: A glacial period ( alternatively glacial or glaciation ) is an interval of time ( thousands of years ) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances . Interglacials , on the other hand , are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods . The last glacial period ended about 15,000 years ago . < ref name = `` Severinghaus1999 '' > </ref> The Holocene epoch is the current interglacial . A time when there are no glaciers on Earth is considered a greenhouse climate state .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Glacial_period", "rank": 18, "score": 114708 }, { "content": "Title: Jean Grove Content: Jean Grove ( 10 March 1927 - 17 January 2001 ) , née Clark , was a British physical geographer and glaciologist known for her comprehensive study of climate change in the Little Ice Age across the world .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Jean_Grove", "rank": 19, "score": 114572 }, { "content": "Title: List of periods and events in climate history Content: Knowledge of precise climatic events decreases as the record goes further back in time . Some notable climate events known to paleoclimatology are listed here . The timeline of glaciation covers ice ages specifically , which tend to have their own names for phases , often with different names used for different parts of the world . The names for earlier periods and events come from geology and paleontology . The marine isotope stages ( MIS ) are often used to express dating within the Quaternary .", "qid": "256", "docid": "List_of_periods_and_events_in_climate_history", "rank": 20, "score": 114249 }, { "content": "Title: Contention Content: Contention may refer to : The main contention , in rhetoric and logic , the main point being argued Resource contention , a general concept in communications and computing , is competition by users of a system for the facility at the same time : Contention ( telecommunications ) , a channel access method The contention ratio , in computer networking , competition that applies specifically to the number of people connected to an ISP who share a set amount of bandwidth Lock contention , in computer science , where a mutual exclusion lock reduces the throughput by hindering the concurrency of a program Bus contention , in computer design , where multiple devices on a computer bus attempt to use it at the same time Contention City , Arizona , a ghost town also known as Contention", "qid": "256", "docid": "Contention", "rank": 21, "score": 113972 }, { "content": "Title: River Thames frost fairs Content: River Thames frost fairs were held on the tideway of the River Thames at London in some winters between the 17th century and early 19th century , during the period known as the Little Ice Age , when the river froze over . During that time the British winter was more severe than now , and the river was wider and slower , further impeded by the medieval Old London Bridge . Even at its peak , in the mid-17th century , the Thames freezing at London was less frequent than modern legend sometimes suggests , never exceeding about one year in ten except for four winters between 1649 and 1666 . From 1400 to the removal of the now-replaced medieval London Bridge in 1835 , there were 24 winters in which the Thames was recorded to have frozen over at London ; if `` more or less frozen over '' years ( in parentheses ) are included , the number is 26 : 1408 , 1435 , 1506 , 1514 , 1537 , 1565 , 1595 , 1608 , 1621 , 1635 , 1649 , 1655 , 1663 , 1666 , 1677 , 1684 , 1695 , 1709 , 1716 , 1740 , ( 1768 ) , 1776 , ( 1785 ) , 1788 , 1795 , and 1814 . So , of the 24 , the by-century totals are : 15th 2 , 16th 5 , 17th 10 , 18th 6 , 19th 1 . Frost fairs were far more common elsewhere in Europe , for example in the Netherlands . The Thames freezes over more often upstream , beyond the reach of the tide , especially above the weirs , of which Teddington Lock is the lowest . The last great freeze of the higher Thames was in 1962 -- 63 . During the Great Frost of 1683 -- 84 , the worst frost recorded in England , the Thames was completely frozen for two months , with the ice reaching a thickness of 11 in in London . Solid ice was reported extending for miles off the coasts of the southern North Sea ( England , France and the Low Countries ) , causing severe problems for shipping and preventing the use of many harbours . Near Manchester , the ground was frozen to 27 in Somerset , to more than 4 ft.", "qid": "256", "docid": "River_Thames_frost_fairs", "rank": 22, "score": 113740 }, { "content": "Title: Interglacial Content: An interglacial period ( or alternatively interglacial , interglaciation ) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age . The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene , about 11,700 years ago .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Interglacial", "rank": 23, "score": 113194 }, { "content": "Title: Middle Bronze Age Cold Epoch Content: The Middle Bronze Age Cold Epoch was a period of unusually cold climate in the North Atlantic region , lasting from about 1800 BC to about 1500 BC . It was followed by the Bronze Age Optimum ( 1500 -- 900 year BC ) . During that epoch , a series of severe volcanic eruptions occurred , including Mount Vesuvius ( Avellino eruption , ≈ 1660 BC ) , Mount Aniakchak ( ≈ 1645 BC ) , and Thera ( Minoan eruption , ≈ 1620 BC ) .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Middle_Bronze_Age_Cold_Epoch", "rank": 24, "score": 112417 }, { "content": "Title: Contention-based protocol Content: A contention-based protocol ( CBP ) is a communications protocol for operating wireless telecommunication equipment that allows many users to use the same radio channel without pre-coordination . The `` listen before talk '' operating procedure in IEEE 802.11 is the most well known contention-based protocol . Section 90.7 of Part 90 of the United States Federal Communication Commission rules define CBP as : A protocol that allows multiple users to share the same spectrum by defining the events that must occur when two or more transmitters attempt to simultaneously access the same channel and establishing rules by which a transmitter provides reasonable opportunities for other transmitters to operate . Such a protocol may consist of procedures for initiating new transmissions , procedures for determining the state of the channel ( available or unavailable ) , and procedures for managing retransmissions in the event of a busy channel . This definition was added as part of the Rules for Wireless Broadband Services in the 3650-3700 MHz Band .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Contention-based_protocol", "rank": 25, "score": 112382 }, { "content": "Title: Meltwater pulse 1B Content: Meltwater pulse 1B ( MWP1b ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of either rapid or just accelerated post-glacial sea level rise that occurred at the beginning of the Holocene and after the end of the Younger Dryas . Meltwater pulse 1B is also known as catastrophic rise event 2 ( CRE2 ) in the Caribbean Sea . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwaterpulse19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1A , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of proposed rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Meltwater_pulse_1B", "rank": 26, "score": 111566 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene climatic optimum Content: The Holocene Climate Optimum ( HCO ) was a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years BP . This event has also been known by many other names , including : Hypsithermal , Altithermal , Climatic Optimum , Holocene Optimum , Holocene Thermal Maximum , and Holocene Megathermal . This warm period was followed by a gradual decline until about two millennia ago . For other temperature fluctuations see : Temperature record For other past climate fluctuation see : Paleoclimatology For the pollen zone and Blytt-Sernander period associated with the climate optimum , see : Atlantic ( period )", "qid": "256", "docid": "Holocene_climatic_optimum", "rank": 27, "score": 111563 }, { "content": "Title: Timeline of glaciation Content: There have been five known ice ages in the Earth 's history , with the Earth experiencing the Quaternary Ice Age during the present time . Within ice ages , there exist periods of more severe glacial conditions and more temperate referred to as glacial periods and interglacial periods , respectively . The Earth is currently in such an interglacial period of the Quaternary Ice Age , with the last glacial period of the Quaternary having ended approximately 11,700 years ago with the start of the Holocene epoch . Based on climate proxies , paleoclimatologists study the different climate states originating from glaciation .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Timeline_of_glaciation", "rank": 28, "score": 110528 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 29, "score": 110089 }, { "content": "Title: Mycobacterium indicus pranii Content: Mycobacterium indicus pranii ( MIP ) , earlier known as Mw , is a non-pathogenic mycobacterial species , which , based on its growth characteristics and metabolic properties , is validly classified as a member of the Mycobacterium avium complex . The novelty of this bacterium is due to its translational application as an immunotherapeutic . The genome of the organism has now been completely sequenced . The origin of the proposed name is a combination of the site of isolation of the bacterial species from India ( indicus ) , discovery by Pran Talwar ( pranii ) and characterization at the National Institute of Immunology , India ( pranii ) .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Mycobacterium_indicus_pranii", "rank": 30, "score": 110021 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 31, "score": 109786 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 32, "score": 109677 }, { "content": "Title: Vashon Glaciation Content: The Vashon Glaciation or Vashon Stade was the most recent period of very cold climate in which glaciers existed at elevations at and near sea level in the western part of present-day Washington state . It occurred during a colder than present part of the current ice age . The Vashon Glaciation lasted from about 19,000 - 16,000 BP ( Before Present - present defined as January 1 , 1950 for this scale ) . The Cordilleran Ice Sheet was an ice sheet that covered present-day southern Alaska and parts of western Canada . During the Vashon Glaciation , the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced into the Puget Sound region .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Vashon_Glaciation", "rank": 33, "score": 109460 }, { "content": "Title: International Cloud Experiment Content: International Cloud Experiment ( formally known as `` Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment '' - TWP-ICE ) was a scientific mission to gather information on tropical storm formation . It involved seven airplanes , a ship anchored off Darwin in Australia , RV Southern Surveyor , and over 250 scientists and researchers . The I.C.E. took place from 21 January to 23 February 2006 , and had been in the planning stages since September 2003 . The experiment was a collaboration between the US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement ( ARM ) Program , the Bureau of Meteorology ( Australia ) , NASA the European Commission DG RTD-1 .2 and several United States , Australian , Canadian and European Universities . During the experiment , a record-breaking tropical typhoon arose , then spent seven days as a `` landphoon '' over the Australian desert . The Australian Broadcasting Corporation released in 2007 Thunderheads , a 47-minute program which has shown on the Smithsonian Channel .", "qid": "256", "docid": "International_Cloud_Experiment", "rank": 34, "score": 109426 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Cold Reversal Content: The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Antarctic_Cold_Reversal", "rank": 35, "score": 108811 }, { "content": "Title: Stadial Content: Stadials and interstadials are phases dividing the Quaternary period , that last 2.6 million years . Stadial are colder periods and interstadials are warmer . Each phase has a Marine Isotope Stage ( MIS ) number , working backwards from the present , with stadial having even numbers and interstadials odd numbers . Thus the current Holocene is MIS1 and the most recent ice age is MIS2 . Stages are divided into warmer and colder intervals . MIS 5e ( the Eemian ) , the hottest of the last million years , was the oldest interstadial of MIS5 , with MIS3 and MIS1 being interstadials and MIS2 and MIS4 being colder stadials . In glacials a and c are stadials and b and d are warmer interstadials . Thus MIS 6a , 6c and 6e are stadials and 6b and 6d are interstadials . Generally , stadials endure for a thousand years or less , interstadials for less than ten thousand years , interglacials for more than ten thousand and glacials for about one hundred thousand . The Bølling Oscillation and the Allerød Oscillation , where they are not clearly distinguished in the stratigraphy , are taken together to form the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , and dated from about 14,700 to 12,700 years before the present . Greenland ice cores show 24 interstadials during the one hundred thousand years of the Wisconsin glaciation . Referred to as the Dansgaard-Oeschger events , they have been extensively studied , and in their northern European contexts are sometimes named after towns , such as the Brorup , the Odderade , the Oerel , the Glinde , the Hengelo , the Denekamp , etc. .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Stadial", "rank": 36, "score": 108488 }, { "content": "Title: Contention of the Bards in Gwynedd Content: According to Welsh tradition , the event sometimes referred to in English as the Contention of the Bards took place at Deganwy in the Kingdom of Gwynedd , and was a contest in bardic skill between Taliesin and the court poets of king Maelgwn Gwynedd , led by Heinin . According to the legendary history of Taliesin , the poet ( not to be confused with the historical figure Taliesin ) was a boy of 12 at the time , and was the bard of Elffin ap Gwyddno . Maelgwn is said to have held Elffin in captivity and Taliesin challenged his bards to a bardic contest for which Elffin was the prize . Taliesin won the contest and Elffin 's freedom , and also ( correctly ) prophesied Maelgwn 's death from a swamp-born pestilence . The poems Prifardd ydwyf i Elffin ( Primary Chief Bard am I to Elffin ) and Cân y Gwynt ( Song to the Wind ) , which are later medieval poems attributed to Taliesin , are amongst those that , according to some versions of the legend , he sang in the Contention . These and other poems are extant only in manuscripts compiled in the late medieval and early modern periods , and on linguistic evidence can be dated to the medieval period .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Contention_of_the_Bards_in_Gwynedd", "rank": 37, "score": 108415 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (Magic: The Gathering) Content: Ice Age is a block of three sets in Magic : The Gathering , consisting of the Ice Age , Alliances and Coldsnap sets . It is also the titular first set in the block . The Ice Age set is the eleventh set and the sixth expansion set , released in June 1995 . Set in the years from 450 to 2934 AR , the set describes a world set in perpetual winter due to the events in Antiquities . Ice Age was followed up June 1996 with Alliances , the fourteenth Magic : The Gathering set and eighth expansion set. ; and on July 21 , 2006 with Coldsnap . The time period between Alliances and Coldsnap was the longest period of time between the beginning and the completion of a full block in Magic . Originally , the set Homelands , released in October 1995 , was the second set in the Ice Age block ( with Alliances being the third set ) , but following the release of Coldsnap , Homelands was removed from the block in favor of Coldsnap .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Ice_Age_(Magic:_The_Gathering)", "rank": 38, "score": 107416 }, { "content": "Title: Flandrian interglacial Content: The Flandrian interglacial or stage is the name given by geologists and archaeologists in the British Isles to the first , and so far only , stage of the Holocene epoch ( the present geological period ) , covering the period from around 12,000 years ago , at the end of the last glacial period to the present day . As such , it is in practice identical in span to the Holocene . Present climatological theory ( based on analysis of Milankovitch cycles ) forecasts that the present Flandrian climate should decline in temperature towards a global climate similar to that of the ice age . Less orbital eccentricity may have the effect of moderating this temperature downturn . The Flandrian began as the relatively short-lived Younger Dryas climate downturn came to an end . This formed the last gasp of the Devensian glaciation , the final stage of the Pleistocene epoch and is traditionally seen as the latest warm interglacial in a series that has been occurring throughout the Quaternary geological period . The first part of the Flandrian , known as the Younger Atlantic , was a period of fairly rapid sea level rise , known as the Flandrian transgression and associated with the melting of the Fenno-Scandian , Scottish , Laurentide and Cordilleran glaciers . Fjords were formed during the Flandrian transgression when U-shaped glaciated valleys were inundated with water .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Flandrian_interglacial", "rank": 39, "score": 107309 }, { "content": "Title: African humid period Content: The African humid period (AHP) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, trees and lakes was caused by changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun; changes in vegetation and dust in the Sahara which strengthened the African monsoon; and increased greenhouse gases, which may imply that anthropogenic global warming could result in a shrinkage of the Sahara desert. During the preceding last glacial maximum, the Sahara contained extensive dune fields and was mostly uninhabited. It was much larger than today, but its lakes and rivers such as Lake Victoria and the White Nile were either dry or at low levels. The humid period began about 14,600–14,500 years ago at the end of Heinrich event 1, simultaneously to the Bølling-Allerød warming. Rivers and lakes such as Lake Chad formed or expanded, glaciers grew on Mount Kilimanjaro and the Sahara retreated. Two major dry fluctuations occurred; during the Younger Dryas and the short 8.2 kiloyear event. The African humid period ended 6,000–5,000 years ago during the Piora Oscillation cold period. While some evidence points to an end 5,500 years ago, in the Sahel, Arabia and East Africa the period appears to have taken place in several steps such as the 4.2 kiloyear event. The AHP led to a widespread settlement of the Sahara and the Arabian Deserts, and had a profound effect on African cultures, such as the birth of the Pharaonic civilization. They lived as hunter-gatherers until the agricultural revolution and domesticated cattle, goats and sheep. They left archeological sites and artifacts such as one of the oldest ships in the world, and rock paintings such as those in the Cave of Swimmers and in the Acacus Mountains. Earlier humid periods in Africa were postulated after the discovery of these rock paintings in now-inhospitable parts of the Sahara. When the period ended, humans gradually abandoned the desert in favour of regions with more secure water supplies, such as the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia, where they gave rise to early complex societies.", "qid": "256", "docid": "African_humid_period", "rank": 40, "score": 106437 }, { "content": "Title: Main contention Content: In both formal and informal logic , a main contention or conclusion is a thought which can be either true or false and is usually the most controversial proposition being argued for . In reasoning , a main contention is represented by the top of an argument map , with all supporting and objecting premises which bear upon it placed underneath . In the context of argumentative text , it is the point that the author wants to convince you to believe - the culmination of all their reasoning . The main contention provides an answer to the following types of questions : `` Why is the author bothering to tell me these things ? '' `` What is the main point the author is trying to convince me of ? '' `` What is the most important thing the author is arguing for or against ? ''", "qid": "256", "docid": "Main_contention", "rank": 41, "score": 106289 }, { "content": "Title: 1500–1550 in Western European fashion Content: Fashion in the period 1500 -- 1550 in Western Europe is marked by voluminous clothing worn in an abundance of layers ( one reaction to the cooling temperatures of the Little Ice Age , especially in Northern Europe and the British Isles ) . Contrasting fabrics , slashes , embroidery , applied trims , and other forms of surface ornamentation became prominent . The tall , narrow lines of the late Medieval period were replaced with a wide silhouette , conical for women with breadth at the hips and broadly square for men with width at the shoulders . Sleeves were a center of attention , and were puffed , slashed , cuffed , and turned back to reveal contrasting linings . Henry VIII of England ( ruled 1509 -- 1547 ) and Francis I of France ( ruled 1515 -- 1547 ) strove to host the most glittering renaissance court , culminating in the festivities around the Field of Cloth of Gold ( 1520 ) . But the rising power was Charles V , king of Spain , Naples , and Sicily from 1516 , heir to the style as well as the riches of Burgundy , and Holy Roman Emperor from 1530 . The inflow of gold and silver from the New World into recently united Spain changed the dynamics of trade throughout Western Europe , ushering in a period of increased opulence in clothing that was tempered by the Spanish taste for sombre richness of dress that would dominate the second half of the century . This widespread adaptation of Hispanic court attire in Europe was seen as a sign of allegiance to the empire of Charles V. Regional variations in fashionable clothing that arose in the 15th century became more pronounced in the sixteenth . In particular , the clothing of the Low Countries , German states , and Scandinavia developed in a different direction than that of England , France , and Italy , although all absorbed the sobering and formal influence of Spanish dress after the mid-1520s . Linen shirts and chemises or smocks had full sleeves and often full bodies , pleated or gathered closely at neck and wrist . The resulting small frill gradually became a wide ruffle , presaging the ruff of the latter half of the century . These garments were often decorated with embroidery in black or red silk , and occasionally with gold metal threads if the garment was meant to be flashier of ones wealth . The bodice was boned and stiffened to create a more structured form , and often a busk was inserted to emphasize the flattening and elongation of the torso . Small geometric patterns appeared early in the period and , in England , evolved into the elaborate patterns associated with the flowering of blackwork embroidery . German shirts and chemises were decorated with wide bands of gold trim at the neckline , which was uniformly low early in the period and grew higher by midcentury . Silk brocades and velvets in bold floral patterns based on pomegranate and thistle or artichoke motifs remained fashionable for those who could afford them , although they were often restricted to kirtles , undersleeves and doublets revealed beneath gowns of solid-coloured fabrics or monochromatic figured silks . Yellow and red were fashionable colors . Inspired by the mended uniforms of the Swiss soldiers after the country 's 1477 victory over the Duke of Burgundy , elaborate slashing remained popular , especially in Germany , where a fashion arose for assembling garments in alternating bands of contrasting fabrics . Elsewhere , slashing was more restrained , but bands of contrasting fabric called guards , whether in color or texture , were common as trim on skirts , sleeves , and necklines . These were often decorated with bands of embroidery or applied passementerie . Bobbin lace arose from passementerie in this period , probably in Flanders , and was used both as an edging and as applied trim ; it is called passamayne in English inventories . The most fashionable furs were the silvery winter coat of the lynx and dark brown ( almost black ) sable .", "qid": "256", "docid": "1500–1550_in_Western_European_fashion", "rank": 42, "score": 106127 }, { "content": "Title: Early Palaeozoic Icehouse Content: The Early Palaeozoic Icehouse was a cool period that interrupted the greenhouse temperatures of the Ordovician and Silurian periods , culminating in the Hirnantian glaciation and the Ordovician extinction event . The icehouse was formerly thought only to consist of the Hirnantian glaciation itself , but has now been recognized as a longer , more gradual event .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Early_Palaeozoic_Icehouse", "rank": 43, "score": 105918 }, { "content": "Title: The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses Content: The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for the Armour of Achilles is a Caroline era stage play , an interlude written by James Shirley and first published in 1659 . As its title indicates , the subject of the play is a staple of the classical literature ; Shirley most likely drew upon Book 13 of the Metamorphoses of Ovid as his direct source , along with Thomas Heywood 's play The Iron Age . The play was first printed in an octavo volume issued by the bookseller John Crooke , containing both The Contention and another play by Shirley , Honoria and Mammon . The title page states that The Contention was `` nobly represented by young gentlemen of quality , at a private entertainment of some persons of honour . '' No specific data about the stage history of either piece has survived , however ; both may have been works that Shirley prepared for performance by the schoolboys he taught after the theatres closed with the start of the English Civil War in 1642 . While not one of Shirley 's most famous works , The Contention contains a funeral dirge that begins `` The glories of our blood and state / Are shadows , not substantial things , '' which has been often excerpted and reproduced , sometimes under the title of `` Death the Leveller . '' Included in collections of familiar quotations , the poem is the most famous and popular work in Shirley 's canon ; Louisa May Alcott quotes its concluding line in Little Women . The poem was set to music , and was well known as a song -- King Charles II was reportedly fond of it .", "qid": "256", "docid": "The_Contention_of_Ajax_and_Ulysses", "rank": 44, "score": 105654 }, { "content": "Title: Contention of the bards Content: The Contention of the bards ( in Irish , Iomarbhágh na bhFileadh ) was a literary controversy of early 17th century Gaelic Ireland , lasting from 1616 to 1624 , probably peaking in 1617 . The principal bardic poets of the country wrote polemical verses against each other and in support of their respective patrons . There were 30 contributions to the Contention , which took the form of a bitter debate over the relative merits of the two halves of Ireland : the north , dominated by the Eremonian descendants of the Milesians , and the south , dominated by the Eberian descendants . The verses were first published in print in two volumes produced by the Irish Texts Society in 1918 and 1920 , edited by Lambert McKenna .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Contention_of_the_bards", "rank": 45, "score": 105583 }, { "content": "Title: Malta Workers Party Content: The Malta Workers Party ( Partit tal-Ħaddiema , MWP ) was a political party in Malta .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Malta_Workers_Party", "rank": 46, "score": 105535 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (band) Content: Ice Age was a progressive band from New York City , USA . Founded by guitarist Jimmy Pappas , vocalist/keyboardist Josh Pincus , drummer Hal Aponte and bassist Arron DiCesare , the band released their debut album in 1999 , titled The Great Divide . Liberation followed in 2001 , both on Magna Carta Records . Ice Age are influenced by pop/progressive bands such as Yes , Kansas and Rush , but also by more modern progressive metal bands like Queensrÿche , and Dream Theater . In 2006 , the band officially changed their name to Soulfractured . This was accompanied by an announced shift in the band 's music - less overt progressive experimentation , with closer attention paid to melodic structure and songcraft . In this incarnation the band released the Soulfractured EP , made available through the band 's websites . They had previously released the Little Bird EP as Ice Age . Shortly after the second EP 's release , the group disbanded .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Ice_Age_(band)", "rank": 47, "score": 105242 }, { "content": "Title: Cool tropics paradox Content: The cool tropics paradox refers to an apparent difference between modeled estimates of tropical temperatures during warm , ice-free periods of the Cretaceous and Eocene , and the colder temperatures which proxies suggested were present . The long-standing paradox was resolved when novel proxy derived temperatures showed significantly warmer tropics during past greenhouse climates . The low-gradient problem , i.e. the very warm polar regions with respect to present day , is still an issue for state-of-the-art climate models .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Cool_tropics_paradox", "rank": 48, "score": 104804 }, { "content": "Title: Pliocene climate Content: During the Pliocene epoch ( 5.3 Ma to 2.6 Ma ) climate became cooler and drier , and seasonal , similar to modern climates . The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene ( 3.3 Ma -- 3 Ma ) was 2 -- 3 ° C higher than today , global sea level 25m higher and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma . The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds . Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch . The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . During the Pliocene the earth climate system response shifted from a period of high frequency-low amplitude oscillation dominated by the 41,000-year period of Earth 's obliquity to one of low-frequency , high-amplitude oscillation dominated by the 100,000-year period of the orbital eccentricity characteristic of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles . The equatorial pacific ocean sea surface temperature gradient was considerably lower than it is today , mean sea surface temperature in the east were substantially warmer than today but similar in the west , this condition has been described as a permanent El Niño state or El Padre", "qid": "256", "docid": "Pliocene_climate", "rank": 49, "score": 103966 }, { "content": "Title: YAD06 Content: YAD06 is a tree located in the Yamal Peninsula of Siberia . A core sample from this tree , YADO61 , provided data used to support hockey stick interpretation of global climate history . The data was originally published in 1995 a paper by Keith Briffa of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia . The paper asserted that the late Middle Ages , previously described as a `` Medieval Warm Period , '' was actually quite cold . Steve McIntyre has described this tree as possibly `` the most influential tree in the world '' , and publicly accused Briffa of cherry-picking certain tree ring records in order to get a specific result , creating what Michael E. Mann described as a `` manufactured scandal . ''", "qid": "256", "docid": "YAD06", "rank": 50, "score": 103929 }, { "content": "Title: The Ice Age Content: The Ice Age may refer to : The Last glacial period , which occurred from c. 110,000 -- c. 11,700 years ago The Pleistocene , a geological epoch lasting from c. 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago and spanning the world 's most recent period of repeated glaciations . The Plio-Pleistocene , a geological pseudo-period which begins about 5 million years ago and combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events lasting from the Quaternary period to the present . For the general period of temperature reduction , see Ice age .", "qid": "256", "docid": "The_Ice_Age", "rank": 51, "score": 103129 }, { "content": "Title: MWM GmbH Content: The Caterpillar Energy Solutions GmbH ( formerly known as MWM , DEUTZ Power Systems or DPS ) is a mechanical engineering company , based in Mannheim . For many years it was known as Motoren-Werke Mannheim ( MWM ) . In 2009 the company was the third-largest producer by revenue of gas and diesel engines . The main focus of production is gensets ( gas and diesel engines ) for the generation of electrical energy from 400 to 4,300 kWel per unit . It also provides consulting , designing and engineering , construction and commissioning of plants as well as global aftersales service . The company also has its own training center .", "qid": "256", "docid": "MWM_GmbH", "rank": 52, "score": 102815 }, { "content": "Title: Contention City, Arizona Content: Contention City or Contention is a ghost mining town in Cochise County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona . It was occupied from the early-1880s through the late-1880s in what was then known as the Arizona Territory . Only a few foundations now remain of this boomtown which was settled and abandoned with the rise and fall of silver mining in and around the area of Tombstone .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Contention_City,_Arizona", "rank": 53, "score": 102648 }, { "content": "Title: 8.2 kiloyear event Content: In climatology , the 8.2 kiloyear event was a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present , or c. 6,200 BCE , and which lasted for the next two to four centuries . Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it , but more severe than the Little Ice Age that would follow , the 8.2 kiloyear cooling was a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum . During the event , atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb or an emission reduction of 15 % , by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale .", "qid": "256", "docid": "8.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 54, "score": 102396 }, { "content": "Title: Elster glaciation Content: The Elster glaciation ( Elster-Kaltzeit , Elster-Glazial or Elster-Zeit ) or , less commonly , the Elsterian glaciation -- in the older and popular scientific literature also called the Elster Ice Age ( Elster-Eiszeit ) -- is the oldest known ice age that resulted in the large-scale glaciation of North Germany . It is temporally identified with the south German Mindel glaciation . The Elster glaciation is currently dated to about 400,000 to 320,000 years ago . It succeeded a long period of rather warmer average temperatures , the Cromerian Complex . Two ice advances were very extensive . The Elster was followed by the Holstein interglacial . The glacial period is named after the White Elster , a right tributary of the Saale .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Elster_glaciation", "rank": 55, "score": 102319 }, { "content": "Title: Chu–Han Contention Content: The Chu -- Han Contention ( 206 -- 202 BC ) was an interregnum between the Qin dynasty and the Han dynasty in Chinese history . Following the collapse of the Qin dynasty in 206 BC , Xiang Yu split the former Qin Empire into the Eighteen Kingdoms . Two major contending powers emerged , Western Chu and Han , which engaged in a struggle for supremacy over China . Western Chu was led by Xiang Yu , while the Han leader was Liu Bang . Several minor kings also warred , but these were largely independent of the main conflict between Western Chu and Han . The war ended in 202 BC with total victory for Han , with Liu Bang soon proclaiming himself first emperor of the Han dynasty .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Chu–Han_Contention", "rank": 56, "score": 102132 }, { "content": "Title: Contention (telecommunications) Content: In statistical time division multiplexing , contention is a media access method that is used to share a broadcast medium . In contention , any computer in the network can transmit data at any time ( first come-first served ) . This system breaks down when two computers attempt to transmit at the same time . This is a case of collision . To avoid collision , carrier sensing mechanism is used . Here each computer listens to the network before attempting to transmit . If the network is busy , it waits until network quiets down . In carrier detection , computers continue to listen to the network as they transmit . If computer detects another signal that interferes with the signal it is sending , it stops transmitting . Both computers then wait for random amount of time and attempt to transmit . Contention methods are most popular media access control method on LANs .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Contention_(telecommunications)", "rank": 57, "score": 102077 }, { "content": "Title: Contention ratio Content: In computer networking , the contention ratio is the ratio of the potential maximum demand to the actual bandwidth . The higher the contention ratio , the greater the number of users that may be trying to use the actual bandwidth at any one time and , therefore , the lower the effective bandwidth offered , especially at peak times . A contended service is a service which offers ( or attempts to offer ) the users of the network a minimum statistically guaranteed contention ratio , while typically offering peaks of usage of up to the maximum bandwidth supplied to the user . Contended services are usually much cheaper to provide than uncontended services , although they only reduce the backbone traffic costs for the users , and do not reduce the costs of providing and maintaining equipment for connecting to the network .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Contention_ratio", "rank": 58, "score": 101725 }, { "content": "Title: Murchison Widefield Array Content: The Murchison Widefield Array ( MWA ) is a joint project between an international consortium of universities to build a low-frequency radio array operating in the frequency range 80 -- 300 MHz . The main scientific goals of the MWA are to detect neutral atomic Hydrogen emission from the cosmological Epoch of Reionization ( EoR ) , to study the sun , the heliosphere , the Earth 's ionosphere , and to study radio transient phenomena . The total cost of the project is A$ 51 million . The MWA is the first so-called large-N array , fully cross-correlating signals from 128 phased tiles , each of which consist of 16 crossed dipoles arranged in a 4x4 square . The field of view is large by the standard of astronomical instruments , being on the order of 30 degrees across . The MWA was to be situated at Mileura Station where initial testing had been conducted then moved southwest to Boolardy station in outback Western Australia , at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory ( MRO ) , 800 kilometres north of Perth . This location offers a quiet radio environment and stable climate for observations . The MRO is also the site of CSIRO 's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder ( ASKAP ) and one of two selected sites for the Square Kilometre Array ( SKA ) . In addition to the geographic link , the MWA is a technology and science pathfinder for the SKA .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Murchison_Widefield_Array", "rank": 59, "score": 100601 }, { "content": "Title: Mountain Wave Project Content: The Mountain Wave Project ( MWP ) pursues global scientific research of gravity waves and associated turbulence . MWP seeks to develop new scientific insights and knowledge through high altitude and record seeking glider flights with the goal of increasing overall flight safety and improving pilot training .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Mountain_Wave_Project", "rank": 60, "score": 99838 }, { "content": "Title: Late Middle Ages Content: The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th and 15th centuries ( c. 1301 -- 1500 ) . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ( and , in much of Europe , the Renaissance ) . Around 1300 , centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt . A series of famines and plagues , including the Great Famine of 1315 -- 1317 and the Black Death , reduced the population to around half of what it was before the calamities . Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare . France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings , such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants ' Revolt , as well as over a century of intermittent conflict in the Hundred Years ' War . To add to the many problems of the period , the unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism . Collectively these events are sometimes called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages . Despite these crises , the 14th century was also a time of great progress in the arts and sciences . Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages , the Italian Renaissance began . The absorption of Latin texts had started before the Renaissance of the 12th century through contact with Arabs during the Crusades , but the availability of important Greek texts accelerated with the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks , when many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in the West , particularly Italy . Combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing , which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning . These two things would later lead to the Protestant Reformation . Toward the end of the period , the Age of Discovery began . The rise of the Ottoman Empire , culminating in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 , eroded the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire and cut off trading possibilities with the east . Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes , leading to the expedition of Columbus to the Americas in 1492 , and Vasco da Gama 's circumnavigation of India and Africa in 1498 . Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations . The changes brought about by these developments have led many scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of modern history and early modern Europe . However , the division is somewhat artificial , since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society . As a result there was developmental continuity between the ancient age ( via classical antiquity ) and the modern age . Some historians , particularly in Italy , prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all , but rather see the high period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and the modern era .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Late_Middle_Ages", "rank": 61, "score": 99304 }, { "content": "Title: Merchant wind power Content: Merchant wind power ( MWP ) is a framework of developing electricity from wind turbines placed on land owned by brown-field sites , such as those of heavy industry . The wind-turbine operators then supply the land owners with power at reduced rates .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Merchant_wind_power", "rank": 62, "score": 98969 }, { "content": "Title: Abbassia Pluvial Content: The Abbassia Pluvial was an extended wet and rainy period in the climate history of North Africa . It began c. 120,000 years before the present ( ybp ) , lasted approximately 30,000 years , and ended c. 90,000 ybp . The Abbassia Pluvial spanned the end of the Lower Paleolithic and the start of the Middle Paleolithic eras -- an interval that is also sometimes identified as the Achulean ( 250 -- 90 kybp ) . As with the subsequent Mousterian Pluvial , the Abbassia was brought about by global climate changes associated with the ice ages and interglacials of the Pleistocene Epoch .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Abbassia_Pluvial", "rank": 63, "score": 98678 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age (disambiguation) Content: __ NOTOC __ An ice age is a geologic period characterized by the presence of polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Periods of major glaciation ( commonly also referred to as ice ages ) are scientifically termed glacial periods . Ice Age may also refer to :", "qid": "256", "docid": "Ice_age_(disambiguation)", "rank": 64, "score": 98472 }, { "content": "Title: Younger Dryas impact hypothesis Content: The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis or Clovis comet hypothesis originally proposed that a large air burst or earth impact of one or more comets initiated the Younger Dryas cold period about 12,900 BP calibrated ( 10,900 14C uncalibrated ) years ago . The hypothesis has been contested by research showing that most of the conclusions can not be repeated by other scientists , and criticized because of misinterpretation of data and the lack of confirmatory evidence . The current impact hypothesis states that the air burst ( s ) or impact ( s ) of a swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comet fragments set areas of the North American continent on fire , causing the extinction of most of the megafauna in North America and the demise of the North American Clovis culture after the last glacial period . The Younger Dryas ice age lasted for about 1,200 years before the climate warmed again . This swarm is hypothesized to have exploded above or possibly on the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the region of the Great Lakes , though no impact crater has yet been identified and no physical model by which such a swarm could form or explode in the air has been proposed . Nevertheless , the proponents suggest that it would be physically possible for such an air burst to have been similar to , but orders of magnitude larger than , the Tunguska event of 1908 . The hypothesis proposed that animal and human life in North America not directly killed by the blast or the resulting coast-to-coast wildfires would have likely starved on the burned surface of the continent .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis", "rank": 65, "score": 98472 }, { "content": "Title: Marxist Workers Party Content: The Marxist Workers Party was a communist party in the United States active in the late 1930s . The MWP was a splinter group of the Proletarian Party , which left in 1937 because they disapproved of the PP vacillating line concerning the USSR and the popular front . The founders of the Marxist Workers Party were more critical of the Communist Party of Soviet Union line and , while granting that the USSR was , in some sense , a workers state , they had no use for the Comintern or the Communist Party . The new organization kept , however , some of the Proletarian Party 's other characteristics , including an emphasis on Marxist education ; hence its establishment of Marxian Labor Colleges in San Francisco , Chicago and Flint , Michigan . The group 's first periodical was the Marxian Labor College Bullitin in San Francisco . This was moved to Chicago in 1939 and became The Marxist Review in 1940 . The organization seems to have become defunct that year .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Marxist_Workers_Party", "rank": 66, "score": 98272 }, { "content": "Title: Bond event Content: Bond events are North Atlantic ice rafting events that are tentatively linked to climate fluctuations in the Holocene . Eight such events have been identified . Bond events were previously believed to exhibit a quasi ~ 1,500-year cycle , but the primary period of variability is now put at ~ 1,000 years . Gerard C. Bond of the Lamont -- Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University was the lead author of the 1997 paper that postulated the theory of 1470-year climate cycles in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic . However , more recent work has shown that these tracers provide little support for 1,500-year intervals of climate change , and the reported ~ 1,500 ± 500-year period was a statistical artifact . Furthermore , following publication of the Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005 ( GICC05 ) for the North GRIP ice core , it became clear that Dansgaar-Oescher Events also show no such a pattern . The North Atlantic ice-rafting events happen to correlate with episodes of lowered lake levels in the Mid-Atlantic region , USA , the most weak events of the Asian monsoon for at least the past 9,000 years , and also correlate with most aridification events in the Middle East for the past 55,000 years ( both Heinrich and Bond events ) . For reasons that are unclear , the only Holocene Bond event that has a clear temperature signal in the Greenland ice cores is the 8.2 kyr event .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Bond_event", "rank": 67, "score": 98113 }, { "content": "Title: Atlantic (period) Content: The Atlantic in palaeoclimatology was the warmest and moistest Blytt-Sernander period , pollen zone and chronozone of Holocene northern Europe . The climate was generally warmer than today . It was preceded by the Boreal , with a climate similar to today 's , and was followed by the Subboreal , a transition to the modern . Because it was the warmest period of the Holocene , the Atlantic is often referenced more directly as the Holocene climatic optimum , or just climatic optimum .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Atlantic_(period)", "rank": 68, "score": 97914 }, { "content": "Title: Bambandyanalo Content: Bambandyanalo was in present-day Zimbabwe , just north of the Limpopo River , and flourished from the 11th to 13th centuries . The ruins have survived because much of the complex was built in stone.This site contains a large mound , some 180 metres in diameter , and covers an area of about 5 hectares . It is surrounded on three sides by sandstone cliffs ( Wood 2005:86 ) . In the 11th century Bambandyanalo developed its influence over the region and established itself as a hub in the trade connecting the African inland with the Indian Ocean ( Hall 1987:83 ) . It was closely associated with Mapungubwe and was a precursor to the much better known Great Zimbabwe near Masvingo , 125 miles to the north east . The climate was wetter when Bambandyanalo flourished ( the `` medieval warm period '' ) , and archaeological evidence ( carbonized seeds ) shows that sorghum and millets were cultivated ( Huffman 1996:57 ) . Sometime around 1270 however , the climate changed for the worse ( `` the little ice age '' ) and the settlement was abandoned as the crops repeatedly failed . This was the period when Great Zimbabwe began its rise to prominence , as it had a better climate due to its location by the South East escarpment .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Bambandyanalo", "rank": 69, "score": 97538 }, { "content": "Title: Western Hemisphere Warm Pool Content: The Western Hemisphere Warm Pool ( WHWP ) is a region of sea surface temperatures ( SST ) warmer than 28.5 ° C that develops west of Central America in the spring , then expands to the tropical waters to the east . The WHWP includes the tropical Atlantic Ocean ( TNA ) east of the Lesser Antilles , Caribbean Sea , Gulf of Mexico , and eastern north Pacific Ocean ( ENP ) . A WHWP heating cycle begins with warmth in the eastern North Pacific in the spring . A dipole pattern off Central America appears due to surges of cooler , drier air through the gap at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec . During spring , the warm pools grow and merge . Their warmth and moisture feed the Mexican monsoon . By summer , the warmth spreads across the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean areas .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Western_Hemisphere_Warm_Pool", "rank": 70, "score": 97400 }, { "content": "Title: System Contention Scope Content: The System Contention Scope is a scheme that determines which kernel thread a kernel process should use , since the threads are contending for the processor . When we say the thread library schedules user threads onto available LWPs , we do not mean that the thread is actually running on a CPU ; this would require the OS to schedule the kernel thread onto a physical CPU . To decide which kernel thread to schedule onto a CPU , the kernel uses System Contention Scope", "qid": "256", "docid": "System_Contention_Scope", "rank": 71, "score": 97105 }, { "content": "Title: Warming Up to the Ice Age Content: Warming Up to the Ice Age was singer-songwriter John Hiatt 's seventh album , released in 1985 . It was his last album with Geffen Records , who dropped Hiatt after the album failed to chart . It was the last Hiatt studio album to miss the Billboard 200 . `` The Usual '' would later be covered by Bob Dylan . `` Living a Little , Laughing a Little '' , originally a hit for The Spinners , was a duet with Elvis Costello . During the recording of the album Hiatt was still doing drugs and drinking which , he felt , diminished the quality of the album and also meant he was short on material . `` The wholeness got dissipated by my personal problems , and I think that kind of showed up on ` Warming Up to the Ice Age ' . I was drinking and drugging a lot and eventually I was consumed by it . After ` Ice Age ' I got sober . '' Influencing Hiatt 's decision to become sober was the birth of his daughter Lily in 1984 . Shortly after giving birth to Lily , Hiatt 's estranged wife committed suicide , leaving him a single father . Hiatt remained sober throughout the `` Warming Up to the Ice Age '' tour , which he called a `` scary experience '' . The album failed to build on the critical momentum of its predecessor , Riding with the King , and Hiatt found himself without a label as Geffen dropped him from their roster .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Warming_Up_to_the_Ice_Age", "rank": 72, "score": 97034 }, { "content": "Title: Eemian Content: The Eemian ( also called the last interglacial , Sangamonian , Ipswichian , Mikulin , Kaydaky , Valdivia or Riss-Würm ) was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago and ended about 115,000 years ago . It corresponds to Marine Isotope Stage 5e . Although sometimes referred to as the `` last interglacial '' ( in the `` most recent previous '' sense of `` last '' ) , it was the second-to-latest interglacial period of the current Ice Age , the most recent being the Holocene which extends to the present day ( having followed the last glacial period ) . The prevailing Eemian climate is believed to have been warmer than that of the Holocene . The Eemian is known as the Ipswichian in the UK , the Mikulin interglacial in Russia , the Valdivia interglacial in Chile and the Riss-Würm interglacial in the Alps . Depending on how a specific publication defines the Sangamonian Stage of North America , the Eemian is equivalent to either all or part of it .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Eemian", "rank": 73, "score": 96915 }, { "content": "Title: Late Glacial Content: The Late Glacial ( c. 13,000 -- 10,000 years ago ) , or Tardiglacial ( `` Late Glacial '' ) , is defined primarily by the beginning of the modern warm period , in which climates in the Northern Hemisphere warmed substantially , causing a process of accelerated deglaciation following the Last Glacial Maximum ( c. 25,000 -- 13,000 years ago ) . At this time , human populations , previously forced into refuge areas as a result of Last Glacial Maximum climatic conditions , gradually begin to repopulate the Northern Hemisphere 's Eurasian landmass and eventually populate North America via Beringia for the first time . Evidence for its occurrence stems from two main types of analysis . The first is the use of oxygen isotope stages ( OIS ) gathered from stratified deep-sea sediment cores . Samples are gathered and measured for change in isotope levels to determine temperature fluctuation for given periods of time . The second is a proxy measurement , the observation of certain reappearing fauna and flora fossils that can survive only in temperate climates , thus indicating warming trends for a given geographic area . Archaeological evidence of settlement and resettlement in certain areas by humans also serve as proxy measurements . Towards the end of OIS 2 in which the Late Glacial Maximum occurs , the deep-sea sediment cores indicate a gradually warming climate , and the reappearance of certain warm-weather flora and fauna remains throughout the Northern Hemisphere correlate with that trend . A period of relatively brief cold oscillation , referred to as the Younger Dryas , is detected during OIS 2 , as can be inferred from an increase in isotope weight .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Late_Glacial", "rank": 74, "score": 96506 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 75, "score": 95787 }, { "content": "Title: Mandatory Work Activity Content: Mandatory Work Activity ( MWA ) was a workfare programme in the United Kingdom whereby individuals had to work for their benefits or risk being ` sanctioned ' and losing them . MWA started in May 2011 , but in November 2015 the DWP confirmed it was `` not renewing '' it . An academic analysis by the Department of Work and Pensions cast doubt on the effectiveness of MWA , and despite finding `` little evidence '' that workfare improved claimants gaining paid employment , the DWP ignored the findings of the study , and in June 2012 , the scheme received a # 5m expansion . A similar but little-known scheme ` Jobseeker Mandatory Activity ' ( JMA ) was piloted by New Labour in 2006 , but did not last beyond 2008 . JMA targeted those claimants 25 and over , who had been unemployed for 6 months or more and made claimants liable to ` sanction ' for non-compliance .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Mandatory_Work_Activity", "rank": 76, "score": 95521 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 77, "score": 95420 }, { "content": "Title: Ice cap climate Content: An ice cap climate is a polar climate where the temperature never exceeds 0 C . The climate covers areas in or near the polar regions , such as Antarctica and Greenland , as well as the highest mountaintops . Such areas are covered by a permanent layer of ice and have no vegetation , but they may have animal life , that usually feeds from the oceans . Ice cap climates are inhospitable to human life . Antarctica , the coldest continent on Earth , sustains no permanent human residents , but has some civil inhabitants in proximity to research stations in coastal settlements that are maritime polar and there are some communities that are situated in a transitional zone between the two climates , but barely qualify as a tundra . Some places like Antarctica had a different climate before having an ice cap climate", "qid": "256", "docid": "Ice_cap_climate", "rank": 78, "score": 95158 }, { "content": "Title: Haslach-Mindel interglacial Content: The Haslach-Mindel interglacial ( Haslach-Mindel-Interglazial ) , also called the Haslach-Mindel warm period ( Haslach-Mindel-Warmzeit ) , is a warm period of the Pleistocene in the Alpine region . It lies between the Haslach and Mindel glacial stages .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Haslach-Mindel_interglacial", "rank": 79, "score": 95123 }, { "content": "Title: Mount Washington Observatory Content: The Mount Washington Observatory ( MWObs ) is a private , non-profit scientific and educational institution organized under the laws of the state of New Hampshire . The weather observation station is located on the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire . The Observatory 's mission is to advance understanding of the natural systems that create the Earth 's weather and climate , by maintaining its mountaintop weather station , conducting research and educational programs and interpreting the heritage of the Mount Washington region . The first regular meteorological observations on Mount Washington were conducted by the U.S. Signal Service , a precursor of the Weather Bureau , from 1870 to 1892 . The Mount Washington station was the first of its kind in the world , setting an example followed in many other countries .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Mount_Washington_Observatory", "rank": 80, "score": 94791 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 81, "score": 94514 }, { "content": "Title: Climate pattern Content: A climate pattern is any recurring characteristic of the climate . Climate patterns can last tens of thousands of years , like the glacial and interglacial periods within ice ages , or repeat each year , like monsoons . A climate pattern may come in the form of a regular cycle , like the diurnal cycle or the seasonal cycle ; a quasi periodic event , like El Niño ; or a highly irregular event , such as a volcanic winter . The regular cycles are generally well understood and may be removed by normalization . For example , graphs which show trends of temperature change will usually have the effects of seasonal variation removed .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Climate_pattern", "rank": 82, "score": 94299 }, { "content": "Title: Mueller Water Products Content: Mueller Water Products , Inc. ( MWP ) is a publicly traded company headquartered in Atlanta , Georgia . It is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of fire hydrants , gate valves , and other water infrastructure products in North America . MWP is made up of two business units -- Mueller Co. and Mueller Technologies -- that oversee more than a dozen brands and affiliates , including Echologics and Mueller Systems .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Mueller_Water_Products", "rank": 83, "score": 93696 }, { "content": "Title: Cold snap (disambiguation) Content: A cold snap , also known as a cold wave , is a period of intensely cold and dry weather Cold snap may also refer to : Coldsnap , an expansion set for the trading card game Magic : The Gathering from the Ice Age block Coldsnap , a member of DC Comics Masters of Disaster supervillain team Cold Snap ( album ) , the first full-length album released by the Weeping Tile `` Cold Snap '' ( Heroes ) , an episode from the fourth season of the TV series Heroes", "qid": "256", "docid": "Cold_snap_(disambiguation)", "rank": 84, "score": 93617 }, { "content": "Title: MechWarrior: Dark Age Content: MechWarrior : Dark Age ( MWDA ; later as Age of Destruction or AOD ) was a tabletop wargame by WizKids set in the BattleTech universe that uses the Clix system . The game 's miniatures are pre-painted models of infantry squads , vehicles , and giant walking war machines known as BattleMechs or more simply '' ` mechs '' . Mechwarrior : Dark Age is played on a 36 '' x 36 '' game surface with each player taking turns giving his units ` orders ' that involve moving and/or attacking opposing units . A measuring tape and three-six sided dice are used while executing these orders . Frequently miniaturized ` terrain ' , such as buildings ( blocking terrain ) , forests ( hindering terrain ) or lakes ( shallow water ) , is placed on the game board . The victor is determined after one or more ` victory conditions ' have been achieved by a player or when the predetermined time limit for the game has been reached , depending on the game scenario that is being played . The game may be purchased in booster packs ( similar to Magic : The Gathering ) , but there are ways of acquiring particular pieces without spending large quantities of money on packs . Trade is the most common option , followed by purchases on eBay . There are units that players can only acquire through trade or send-aways , such as the Battleforces and the Designer Series Mechs and pilots . From August 2002 to August 2003 , WizKids organized story-based campaigns wherein it was possible for players to win units based on the factions named in the story . Such items - the Champion , Fellowship , and two Participation units ( one for each faction ) - are unique versions of certain game pieces with higher stats and a special lapel pin . There are several factions to collect , and many are interconnected by alliances and other relations . Many of the factions from Classic Battletech were introduced into the game and the game has several original factions as well . In keeping with the spirit of the Battletech universe , there are also many mercenary units referred to as Gunslingers . In 2003 , MechWarrior : Dark Age won the Origins Awards for Best Illustration 2002 , Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures Series 2002 and Game of the Year 2002 . In 2005 , WizKids updated MechWarrior : Dark Age . In conjunction with a rules overhaul , the game was renamed MechWarrior : Age of Destruction . In early 2008 , WizKids announced that MechWarrior franchise will be put on hiatus until further notice . No new announcements about the franchise future were made other than a new novel based on franchise was due to released on November 19 , 2008 . On November 10 , 2008 , Topps announced the closure of Wizkids .", "qid": "256", "docid": "MechWarrior:_Dark_Age", "rank": 85, "score": 93481 }, { "content": "Title: Fred Wolf Films Content: Fred Wolf Films is an American animation studio founded in the 1960s by Fred Wolf and Jimmy Murakami ( the latter of whom worked on the TV special The Snowman ) . It was founded as MW ( Murakami-Wolf ) . The studio produced The Point , the first U.S. animated special to air in prime time ( on the ABC network in 1971 ) . It was also responsible for Free to Be ... You and Me , the Puff the Magic Dragon specials , and television series such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Toxic Crusaders , Alvin and The Chipmunks ( eleven episodes from the sixth season ) , James Bond Jr. , The New Adventures of Speed Racer , and Sarah Ferguson 's Budgie the Little Helicopter . It was named for founders Jimmy Murakami and Fred Wolf , and for partner Charles Swenson . It later became known as MWS ( Murakami-Wolf-Swenson ; with Charles Swenson who had already been with the company for some time ) and even later as MWD ( Murakami-Wolf-Dublin ) before eventually adopting its current name . From 1989 to 2000 , they also operated a subsidiary , Fred Wolf Films Dublin , located in Dublin , Ireland .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Fred_Wolf_Films", "rank": 86, "score": 93402 }, { "content": "Title: Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs Content: The Ministry of Women and Children 's Affairs ( MWCA ) or Ministry of Gender , Children and Social Protection ( MGCSP ) of Ghana is the government ministry responsible for the formulation of policies that promote the institutionalization and development of women and children issues .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Ministry_of_Women_and_Children's_Affairs", "rank": 87, "score": 93395 }, { "content": "Title: MWR Content: MWR may refer to : Michael Waltrip Racing , a NASCAR racing team Monthly Weather Review , an American Meteorological Society journal Morale , Welfare and Recreation , an American military support network Museum of World Religions , a museum in New Taipei , Taiwan Microwave Radiometer ( MWR ) , a instrument on the Juno Jupiter orbiter", "qid": "256", "docid": "MWR", "rank": 88, "score": 93271 }, { "content": "Title: Weichselian glaciation Content: The last glacial period and its associated glaciation is known in Northern Europe as the Weichselian glaciation , Weichselian ice age ( Weichsel-Eiszeit ) , Vistulian glaciation , Weichsel or , less commonly , the Weichsel glaciation , Weichselian cold period ( Weichsel-Kaltzeit ) , Weichselian glacial ( Weichsel-Glazial ) , Weichselian Stage or , rarely , the Weichselian complex ( Weichsel-Komplex ) . In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation . It was characterized by a large ice sheet that spread out from the Scandinavian Mountains and extended as far as the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein , the March of Brandenburg and Northwest Russia . In Northern Europe it was the youngest of the glacials of the Pleistocene ice age . The preceding warm period in this region was the Eemian interglacial . The last cold period began about 115,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago . Its end corresponds with the end of the Pleistocene epoch and start of the Holocene .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Weichselian_glaciation", "rank": 89, "score": 93249 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1894 -- 95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 C . Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain . Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885 -- 86 to 1894 -- 95 was 2.87 C , no winter with a CET under 3.0 C followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940 . In contrast , between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 C had lasted longer than twelve winters . Although this winter -- which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881 , 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 -- affected most of Europe and North America very severely , the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs . The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames , which froze for the last time on record . Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state , most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people . There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather , with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London 's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor , and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators . Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible , whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Winter_of_1894–95_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 90, "score": 93041 }, { "content": "Title: Inventory of Conflict and Environment Content: The Inventory of Conflict and Environment ( ICE ) is a project initiated by Jim Lee , School of International Service ( SIS ) at American University in Washington , D.C. . He has also written extensively on environment and conflict , including the book `` Hot and Cold Wars '' . The ICE project makes use of case research and computer applications in international relations research . The cases can be searched through a pattern matching tool . ICE establishes a perspective in which disaggregated data is combined with geographic information in the study of conflicts . ICE Case studies are sets of categorical research projects meant to spur further research in specific areas of international dispute . The ICE cases are related to the Trade and Environment Database project ( TED ) . Since 1991 , the TED and ICE projects have produced over a range of case study projects . ICE has about 300 cases . Among the practical uses of such case studies , ICE provides information on environmental refugees , conflict dimensions , countries involved and related issues . ICE case studies have been of interest in both research and policy arenas . The ICE cases can be found HERE . Conflict and environment are modern and age-old problems and the cases represent this continuum of impact . The history of conflict and environment dates back many thousands of years .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Inventory_of_Conflict_and_Environment", "rank": 91, "score": 92907 }, { "content": "Title: Man's World (magazine) Content: Man 's World , also known under its abbreviation MW , is an Indian men 's luxury lifestyle magazine . It was launched in March 2000 by Anuradha Mahindra , wife of industrialist Anand Mahindra and was conceived by two leading city journalists working for Business India - Radhakrishnan Nair , who was the Executive Editor of Business India , and Harsh Man Rai , who worked as Photo Editor . According to Radhakrishnan , now Publisher and Editor of Man 's World , `` Man 's World was conceived to be India 's answer to some of the leading international men 's magazines '' . He also states that the magazine was `` essentially targeted at a generation of young men who were coming of age , benefiting from the fruits of economic liberalisation of the 1990s . '' In 2010 , Radhakrishnan , the founding editor of Man 's World , bought out the magazine from Mahindra . MW India Pvt Ltd. , has also branched out into contract publishing . The company brings out magazines for several clients including a travel magazine for Club Mahindra and the inflight magazine of Air Deccan ( now defunct ) , called Simplifly . Man 's World Magazine Services also publishes a women 's magazine My World , launched on 1 September 2006 , for retail chain Big Bazaar . In April 2013 , it was reported that the Delhi Press Group was in talks to buy Man 's World . Radhakrishnan Nair the Publisher of Man ' World and Rolling Stone India has sold a majority stake in the magazine to Spenta Multimedia in 2013 . MW is India 's definitive guide to the latest trends in men 's fashion , style , cars , gizmos , sports , relationships , women , etiquette , books , films & television , theater , wine , food , music , fitness , adventure , travel , gadgets and a lot more .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Man's_World_(magazine)", "rank": 92, "score": 92872 }, { "content": "Title: Allerød oscillation Content: The Allerød oscillation ( Allerødtiden ) was a warm and moist global interstadial that occurred at the end of the last glacial period . It raised temperatures in the northern Atlantic region to almost present-day levels , before they declined again in the succeeding Younger Dryas period , which was followed by the present interglacial period . In some regions , especially in northern Eurasia , there is evidence for a cold period known as the Older Dryas interrupting the interstadial . In such regions the shorter oscillation ending with the Older Dryas is known as the Bølling oscillation , and the Allerød period is the interstadial following the Older Dryas . The Allerød period was named after a type site in Furesø municipality in Sjælland , Denmark ( near Copenhagen ) , where deposits created during the period were first identified in work published in 1901 by Hartz and Milthers . This Blytt-Sernander period corresponds to Pollen zone II .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Allerød_oscillation", "rank": 93, "score": 92836 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval reenactment Content: Medieval reenactment is a form of historical reenactment that focuses on re-enacting European history in the period from the fall of Rome to about the end of the 15th century . The second half of this period is often called the Middle Ages . This multiplicity of terms is compounded by the variety of other terms used for the period . The first period is sometimes called the Migration Period or Dark Ages by Western European historians , and as Völkerwanderung ( `` wandering of the peoples '' ) by German historians . This term is usually reserved for the 5th and 6th centuries . Re-enactors who re-create the next period of history - 7th to 11th centuries - often refer to this as Early medieval . The 12th to 14th centuries fall under the term High medieval , while the 15th century is often termed Late medieval . With such a wide range of eras most medieval reenactment groups focus on a smaller time period , sometimes restricting their interest to a particular century , or even a specific decade , series of battles , or monarch , depending on how authentic the reenactment and encampment is intended to be .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Medieval_reenactment", "rank": 94, "score": 92597 }, { "content": "Title: High Middle Ages Content: The High Middle Ages or High Medieval Period was the period of European history around the 11th , 12th , and 13th centuries ( c. 1001 -- 1300 ) . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages , which by convention end around 1500 . The key historical trend of the High Middle Ages was the rapidly increasing population of Europe , which brought about great social and political change from the preceding era , the Renaissance of the 12th century , including the first developments of rural exodus and urbanization . By 1250 the robust population increase greatly benefited the European economy , reaching levels that would not be seen again in some areas until the 19th century . This trend was checked in the Late Middle Ages by a series of calamities , notably the Black Death but also including numerous wars and economic stagnation . From about the year 780 onwards , Europe saw the last of the barbarian invasions and became more socially and politically organized . The Carolingian Renaissance led to scientific and philosophical revival of Europe . The first universities were established in Bologna , Paris , Oxford and Modena . The Vikings had settled in the British Isles , France and elsewhere , whilst Norse Christian kingdoms were developing in their Scandinavian homelands . The Magyars had ceased their expansion in the 10th century , and by the year 1000 , a Christian Kingdom of Hungary was recognized in Central Europe , forming alliances with regional powers . With the brief exception of the Mongol invasions in the 13th century , major nomadic incursions ceased . The powerful Byzantine Empire of the Macedonian and Komnenos dynasties gradually gave way to the resurrected Serbia and Bulgaria and to a successor Crusader state from 1204 to 1261 , while countering the continuous threat of the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor . In the 11th century , populations north of the Alps began to settle new lands , some of which had reverted to wilderness after the end of the Roman Empire . In what is known as the `` great clearances '' , vast forests and marshes of Europe were cleared and cultivated . At the same time settlements moved beyond the traditional boundaries of the Frankish Empire to new frontiers in Europe , beyond the Elbe River , tripling the size of Germany in the process . The Catholic Church , reaching the peak of its political power at this time , called armies from across Europe to a series of Crusades against the Seljuk Turks , occupying the Holy Land , and founding the Crusader States in the Levant . Other wars led to the Northern Crusades , while Christian kingdoms took the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim control , and the Normans colonized southern Italy , all part of the major population increases and resettlement patterns of the era . The High Middle Ages produced many different forms of intellectual , spiritual and artistic works . This age saw the rise of ethnocentrism , which evolved later into modern civic nationalisms in most of Europe , the ascent of the great Italian city-states , and the rise and fall of the Muslim civilization of Al-Andalus . The rediscovery of the works of Aristotle led Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers of the period to develop Scholasticism , a combination of Catholicism and ancient philosophy . For much of the time period Constantinople remained Europe 's most populous city and Byzantine art reached a peak in the 12th century . In architecture , many of the most notable Gothic cathedrals were built or completed during this era . The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages , beginning at the start of the 14th century , marked the end of this era .", "qid": "256", "docid": "High_Middle_Ages", "rank": 95, "score": 92526 }, { "content": "Title: MWEB Content: MWEB was founded in 1997 and is today South Africa 's second largest Internet Service Provider ( ISP ) . MWEB offers a range of Internet access offerings , differentiated tools and services to approximately 320 000 customers . The company 's main division , MWEB Connect , is focused on the residential and small business market . MWEB is a subsidiary of Internet Solutions , a division of Dimension Data , and its headquarters are located in the MWEB Building in Parow , Cape Town .", "qid": "256", "docid": "MWEB", "rank": 96, "score": 92501 }, { "content": "Title: Plows, Plagues and Petroleum Content: Plows , Plagues and Petroleum : How Humans Took Control of Climate is a 2005 book published by Princeton University Press and written by William Ruddiman , a paleoclimatologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia . He has authored and co-authored several books and academic papers on the subject of climate change . Scientists often refer to this period as the `` Anthropocene '' and define it as the era in which humans first began to alter the earth 's climate and ecosystems . Ruddiman contends that human induced climate change began as a result of the advent of agriculture thousands of years ago and resulted in warmer temperatures that could have possibly averted another ice age ; this is the early anthropocene hypothesis .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Plows,_Plagues_and_Petroleum", "rank": 97, "score": 92376 }, { "content": "Title: Mwerlap language Content: Mwerlap is an Oceanic language spoken in the south of the Banks Islands in Vanuatu . Its 1100 speakers live mostly in Merelava and Merig , but a fair proportion have also settled the east coast of Gaua island . Besides , a number of Mwerlap speakers live in the two cities of Vanuatu , Port Vila and Luganville .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Mwerlap_language", "rank": 98, "score": 92342 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital forcing Content: Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth 's axis and shape of the orbit ( see Milankovitch cycles ) . These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25 % at mid-latitudes ( from 400 to 500 Wm − 2 at latitudes of 60 degrees ) . In this context , the term `` forcing '' signifies a physical process that affects the Earth 's climate . This mechanism is believed to be responsible for the timing of the ice age cycles . A strict application of the Milankovitch theory does not allow the prediction of a `` sudden '' ice age ( rapid being anything under a century or two ) , since the fastest orbital period is about 20,000 years . The timing of past glacial periods coincides very well with the predictions of the Milankovitch theory , and these effects can be calculated into the future .", "qid": "256", "docid": "Orbital_forcing", "rank": 99, "score": 92307 }, { "content": "Title: Middle Ages (disambiguation) Content: The Middle Ages was a period in Western history spanning the time from the 5th to the 16th century ( approximately : 400 -- 1500 ) Middle Ages or Medieval may also refer to : Middle Ages , the European historical period from the 5th to the 15th century ( 476-1453 ) . By analogy , the term is also used to refer to periods in nations outside of Europe having similarities in social and military development , such as seen in : History of Japan #Feudal Japan ( 1185 -- 1615 ) Medieval history of Sri Lanka Medieval India Medieval architecture a term used to represent various forms of architecture popular in the Middle Ages Medieval music , the music tradition of Europe from 500 to 1500 Medieval Times , an American dinner theater Medieval rock , modern post 1980s goth , metal and folk tradition that use the Middle Ages as inspiration Medieval : Total War , a computer strategy game Medieval II : Total War , a computer strategy game that is a sequel to Medieval : Total War", "qid": "256", "docid": "Middle_Ages_(disambiguation)", "rank": 100, "score": 92255 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 1, "score": 193882 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 2, "score": 163181 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 3, "score": 141067 }, { "content": "Title: MWP Content: MWp or MWP may refer to : Mega Watt peak , a solar power measure in photo-voltaic ( PV ) industry to describe a unit 's nominal power Medieval Warm Period , a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region Metta World Peace , a professional basketball player formerly known as Ron Artest", "qid": "257", "docid": "MWP", "rank": 4, "score": 124167 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 Eastern North America heat wave Content: The 1911 Eastern North America heat wave was an 11-day heat wave in New York City and other Eastern cities that killed 380 people starting on July 4 , 1911 . In Nashua , New Hampshire , the temperature peaked at 106 degrees Fahrenheit ( 41 C ) . In New York City , 146 people and 600 horses died . In Boston , the temperature rose to 104 ° ( 40 ° C ) on July 4 , an all-time record high that still stands today .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1911_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 5, "score": 115322 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 6, "score": 112118 }, { "content": "Title: Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station Content: The Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station ( NGPS ) is the second-largest geothermal power station in Iceland . The facility is located 177 m above sea level in the southwestern part of the country , near Thingvellir and the Hengill Volcano . NGPS is owned and operated by ON Power . Plans for utilizing the Nesjavellir area for geothermal power and water heating began in 1947 , when some boreholes were drilled to evaluate the area 's potential for power generation . Research continued from 1965 to 1986 . In 1987 , the construction of the plant began , and the cornerstone was laid in May 1990 . The station produces approximately 120 MW of electrical power ; it also delivers around 1100 l of hot water ( 82-85 ° C ) per second , servicing the space heating and hot water needs of the Capital Region .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Nesjavellir_Geothermal_Power_Station", "rank": 7, "score": 111993 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 8, "score": 111576 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 9, "score": 110509 }, { "content": "Title: Mountain Wave Project Content: The Mountain Wave Project ( MWP ) pursues global scientific research of gravity waves and associated turbulence . MWP seeks to develop new scientific insights and knowledge through high altitude and record seeking glider flights with the goal of increasing overall flight safety and improving pilot training .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Mountain_Wave_Project", "rank": 10, "score": 106701 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1990 heat wave in the United Kingdom was a particularly severe heat event with temperatures hitting record highs of 37.1 C on 3 August . The temperature was recorded at Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and was a full degree Celsius above the previous record , set in 1911 . However , this record was subsequently broken in the 2003 heatwave .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1990_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 11, "score": 105431 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian heat wave Content: In May 2015 , India was struck by a severe heat wave . , it has caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people in multiple regions . The heat wave occurred during the Indian dry season , which typically lasts from March to July with peak temperatures in April and May . Although it typically remains hot until late October , Indian monsoons often provide some respite from the heat . The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring Telangana , where more than 1,735 and 585 people died respectively , were the areas most affected by the heat wave . Other casualties were from the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha . The high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities . The 2015 heat wave has had the highest recorded temperatures since 1995 . In May 2016 , a new record was set in Phalodi .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2015_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 12, "score": 104979 }, { "content": "Title: MW (film) Content: MW is a live-action Japanese film released in 2009 and based on the MW manga by Osamu Tezuka . The film was directed by Hitoshi Iwamoto . The film was shot in Kantō region for 40 days , and the car chase scene was shot in Bangkok .", "qid": "257", "docid": "MW_(film)", "rank": 13, "score": 104743 }, { "content": "Title: 59P/Kearns–Kwee Content: 59P/Kearns -- Kwee is a periodic comet in the Solar System with a current orbital period of 9.52 years . It was discovered by E. Kearns and Kiem King Kwee on a photographic plate taken on 17 August 1963 during a search for the lost comet 55P/Tempel -- Tuttle and confirmed by Elizabeth Roemer at the US Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station , Arizona . She estimated its brightness at a faint magnitude of 16 . The perihelion was initially calculated as 28 October 1963 and the periodicity as 8.48 years , but calculations based on further observations revised the data to 7 December and 8.95 years . The 1972 apparition was observed by Elizabeth Roemer and L. M. Vaughn of the University of Arizona , using the 229-cm reflector at Kitt Peak as early as 26 July 1971 . It was relocated in 1981 by T. Seki of Japan and again on 10 September 1989 by J. Gibson at Palomar Observatory . It was also successfully re-observed in 1999 and 2009 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "59P/Kearns–Kwee", "rank": 14, "score": 104490 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Iceland earthquake Content: The 2008 Iceland earthquake was a doublet earthquake that struck on May 29 at 15:46 UTC in southwestern Iceland . The recorded magnitudes of the two main quakes were 5.9 Mw and 5.8 Mw , respectively , giving a composite magnitude of 6.1 Mw . There were no human fatalities , but 30 injuries were reported and a number of sheep were killed . The epicenter of the earthquake was between the towns of Hveragerði and Selfoss , about 45 km east-southeast of the capital , Reykjavík . It was the strongest earthquake to hit Iceland since the summer of 2000 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2008_Iceland_earthquake", "rank": 15, "score": 103281 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 16, "score": 103224 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 17, "score": 103102 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 Northridge earthquake Content: The 1994 Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17 , at 4:30:55 a.m. PST and had its epicenter in Reseda , a neighborhood in the north-central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles , California . It had a duration of approximately 10 -- 20 seconds . The blind thrust earthquake had a moment magnitude ( Mw ) of 6.7 , which produced ground acceleration that was the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America , measuring 1.8 g ( 16.7 m/s2 ) with strong ground motion felt as far away as Las Vegas , Nevada , about 220 miles ( 360 km ) from the epicenter . The peak ground velocity at the Rinaldi Receiving Station was 183 cm/s ( 4.09 mph or 6.59 km/h ) , the fastest peak ground velocity ever recorded . In addition , two 6.0 Mw aftershocks occurred , the first about one minute after the initial event and the second approximately 11 hours later , the strongest of several thousand aftershocks in all . The death toll was 57 , with more than 8,700 injured . In addition , property damage was estimated to be between $ 13 and $ 40 billion , making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1994_Northridge_earthquake", "rank": 18, "score": 102807 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "257", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 19, "score": 102686 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 20, "score": 102584 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 South-Eastern Australian heatwave Content: The 2014 South-Eastern Australian Heatwave was a prolonged period of time in which highly unseasonal weather was recorded across the south and south-eastern corridor of mainland Australia . The heatwave commenced during early May , and was the longest ever recorded in Australia 's modern history , lasting in some places up to 15 days . Sydney , Melbourne and Adelaide were most hard hit , with temperatures in these areas breaking late Autumn records and causing a distinct lack of precipitation , especially in Sydney , Australia 's most populous city . The cause of this phenomenon was a large blocking High pressure system situated over the Tasman sea , which pushed usual Autumn cold fronts far south of the mainland .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2014_South-Eastern_Australian_heatwave", "rank": 21, "score": 102059 }, { "content": "Title: MW (manga) Content: is a manga series by Osamu Tezuka . It was originally serialized in Shogakukan 's Big Comic in Japan , from 1976 -- 78 , and was published in English translation by Vertical Inc. in 2007 . Vertical 's edition earned it a nomination for Eisner Award at the category `` Best U.S. Edition of International Material -- Japan , '' but it lost to Tekkonkinkreet . A Japanese film adaptation was released in July 2009 . A thriller , MW follows a fictional Japanese priest , Father Garai , his lifelong connection to serial killer Michio Yuki , and a mysterious chemical weapon `` MW '' developed by the Occupying American Force in Japan . This manga series is notable because it can be seen as Tezuka 's response to the gekiga ( `` dramatic pictures '' ) artists who emerged in the 1960s and 70s , and as an attempt to surpass their work . The gekiga artists of this period created gritty , adult-oriented works that sharply contrasted to the softer , Disney-influenced style with which Tezuka was associated , a style that was seen as being out-of-step with the times . Also of note are the unapologetic and explicit homosexual relationships in the manga , back when they were still a novelty for the genre .", "qid": "257", "docid": "MW_(manga)", "rank": 22, "score": 102055 }, { "content": "Title: Malta Workers Party Content: The Malta Workers Party ( Partit tal-Ħaddiema , MWP ) was a political party in Malta .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Malta_Workers_Party", "rank": 23, "score": 101430 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 Valparaíso earthquake Content: The 1906 Valparaíso earthquake hit Valparaíso , Chile , on August 16 at 19:55 local time . Its epicenter was offshore from the Valparaíso Region , and its intensity was estimated at magnitude 8.2 MW . Much of Valparaíso was destroyed ; there was severe damage in central Chile from Illapel to Talca . The earthquake was felt from Tacna , Peru to Puerto Montt . Reports said the earthquake lasted four minutes . A tsunami was also generated . The earthquake killed a reported 3,886 people . The record of previous seismic activity includes major earthquakes in 1647 , 1730 and 1822 . The 1906 disaster was predicted by Captain Arturo Middleton , Chief of the Chilean Army Meteorological Office , in a letter that was published in El Mercurio , one week before it occurred . Admiral Luis Gómez Carreño ordered the shooting of at least 15 people , who were caught looting after the earthquake . A Board for Reconstruction was formed some weeks after the earthquake . The Seismological Service of Chile was also created . Fernand de Montessus de Ballore was appointed as the first chief executive of the Service .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1906_Valparaíso_earthquake", "rank": 24, "score": 101261 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "257", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 25, "score": 101145 }, { "content": "Title: 10P/Tempel Content: 10P/Tempel , also known as Tempel 2 , is a periodic Jupiter-family comet in the Solar System . It was discovered in 1873 and has an orbital period of 5.3 years . The comet nucleus is estimated to be 10.6 kilometers in diameter with a low albedo of 0.022 . The nucleus is dark because hydrocarbons on the surface have been converted to a dark , tarry like substance by solar ultraviolet radiation . During the 2010 apparition the comet brightened to about apparent magnitude 8 . It next comes to perihelion ( closest approach to the Sun ) on 14 November 2015 when it should brighten to around magnitude 11 . The most favorable apparition of 10P/Tempel 2 was in 1925 when it came within 0.35 AU of Earth with an apparent magnitude of 6.5 . On August 3 , 2026 , comet Tempel 2 is expected to have another close pass within about 0.41 AU of Earth .", "qid": "257", "docid": "10P/Tempel", "rank": 26, "score": 100973 }, { "content": "Title: Marxist Workers Party Content: The Marxist Workers Party was a communist party in the United States active in the late 1930s . The MWP was a splinter group of the Proletarian Party , which left in 1937 because they disapproved of the PP vacillating line concerning the USSR and the popular front . The founders of the Marxist Workers Party were more critical of the Communist Party of Soviet Union line and , while granting that the USSR was , in some sense , a workers state , they had no use for the Comintern or the Communist Party . The new organization kept , however , some of the Proletarian Party 's other characteristics , including an emphasis on Marxist education ; hence its establishment of Marxian Labor Colleges in San Francisco , Chicago and Flint , Michigan . The group 's first periodical was the Marxian Labor College Bullitin in San Francisco . This was moved to Chicago in 1939 and became The Marxist Review in 1940 . The organization seems to have become defunct that year .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Marxist_Workers_Party", "rank": 27, "score": 100781 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 28, "score": 100594 }, { "content": "Title: THTR-300 Content: The THTR-300 was a thorium high-temperature nuclear reactor rated at 300 MW electric ( THTR-300 ) in Hamm-Uentrop , Germany . It started operating in 1983 , synchronized with the grid in 1985 , operated at full power in February 1987 and was shut down September 1 , 1989 . The THTR-300 served as a prototype high-temperature reactor ( HTR ) to use the TRISO pebble fuel produced by the AVR , an experimental pebble bed operated by VEW . The THTR-300 cost $ 2.05 billion and was predicted to cost an additional $ 425 million through December 2009 in decommissioning and other associated costs . The German state of North Rhine Westphalia , Federal Republic of Germany , and Hochtemperatur-Kernkraftwerk GmbH ( HKG ) financed the THTR-300 's construction .", "qid": "257", "docid": "THTR-300", "rank": 29, "score": 99759 }, { "content": "Title: 1937 Indianapolis 500 Content: The 25th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday , May 31 , 1937 . With temperatures topping out at 92 ° F , it is one of the hottest days on record for the Indy 500 . Late in the race , Wilbur Shaw held a comfortable lead , and had lapped second place Ralph Hepburn . With about 20 laps to go , however , Shaw 's car had been leaking oil , and had nearly lost nearly all of the oil out of the crankcase . In addition , the right rear tire was heavily worn . Shaw slowed down considerably in an effort to nurse his car to the finish line . Shaw and his riding mechanic John `` Jigger '' Johnson were both suffering from burns due to the leaking oil . Second place Hepburn realized Shaw 's problems , and began a charge to catch him . He unlapped himself , and went on a tear in hopes of victory . As the laps dwindled down , Ralph Hepburn was closing dramatically . Shaw was largely defenseless , as he was carefully nursing the car around . As the car went in and out of the turns , the oil pressure was rising and dropping , and Shaw was calculating how much time he could give up per lap and still maintain the lead . Hepburn closed to a straightaway deficit , then was nearly in reach . On the final lap Hepburn pulled to within a few seconds , and by the last turn he was directly behind Shaw and looking to pass him for the win . With nothing to lose , Shaw floored the accelerator and pulled away down the final straight . He held off Hepburn for the win by 2.16 seconds , the closest finish in Indy 500 history to that point . The margin would stand as the closest finish ever at Indy until 1982 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1937_Indianapolis_500", "rank": 30, "score": 99468 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "257", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 31, "score": 99191 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record Content: For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Temperature_record", "rank": 32, "score": 99074 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 North American heat wave Content: In March 2012 , one of the greatest heat waves was observed in many regions of North America . Very warm air pushed northward west of the Great Lakes region , and subsequently spread eastward . The intense poleward air mass movement was propelled by an unusually intense low level southerly jet that stretched from Louisiana to western Wisconsin . Once this warm surge inundated the area , a remarkably prolonged period of record setting temperatures ensued . NOAA 's National Climate Data Center reported that over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were tied or broken from 1 March through 27 March . In some places the temperature exceeded 86 ° F ( 30 ° C ) . For instance , in Grand Rapids , Michigan , the highest temperature recorded was 87 ° F on March 21 ; in Chicago a high of 87 ° F was also recorded on that same day . Records were broken in unusual ways . Chicago , for example , saw temperatures above 80 ° F every day between March 14 -- 18 , breaking records on all five days . Chicago would go on to record eight days at or above 80 ° F during the month , with many suburban areas recording an additional day in the 80s on March 19 ( that day , the city only tied its record high of 78 ° F ) . In context , the National Weather Service 's Chicago branch noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the 80 's in April . And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80 ° F days as this March . In Traverse City , Michigan one day began with a low temperature ( 67 ° F ) higher than the previous record high for the day . Temperature records across much of southern Canada also were shattered . Some of the most impressive readings came from Nova Scotia on March 22 , when the mercury climbed to 30.0 C at a climate station in Lake Major , making it the highest March temperature recorded in Nova Scotia , and the third highest March temperature recorded in Canada . That same day , the temperature hit 29.2 C at Western Head , Nova Scotia . The heat reached as far east as Cape Breton Island , with the temperature climbing to 24.0 C at Sydney , Nova Scotia on March 22 , a place historically surrounded by ice-jammed waters , frigid winds , and snow in March . The week of March 18 also set record temperatures in Manitoba and much of Ontario as well as into the Maritime Provinces . Non-severe thunderstorms were reported on the evening hours of March 21 , through to the early morning hours March 22 into northern Ontario . In addition , NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data show that the atmospheric pattern was so persistent that much of the Midwest and Northeast , and up into Ontario , had temperature departures over periods of several days to a week or more of magnitudes which would be unusual even for a single day . Averaged over the seven-day period from March 16 to March 22 inclusive , nearly the entire area of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. and most of Ontario and Quebec had temperatures 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) or more above the 1981-2010 average . Even more dramatically , most of Iowa and Minnesota , all of Wisconsin and Michigan , and most of southeastern Ontario had seven-day mean temperatures more than 15 ° C ( 27 ° F ) above the climatological average for the same period . An 84 ° F high at Madison , WI in early March was 43 ° F above average and followed an overnight low of 60 ° F , 35 degrees above normal the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean . The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 ° F or more ; the highest temperature recorded there was 107 ° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s . This mild warm spell brought out spring peepers in northern Ontario on 23 March , which are usually not heard until mid-to-late April , or sometimes early May . The warm weather was also responsible for several early-season tornado touchdowns , such as the EF3 that struck Dexter , Michigan , near Ann Arbor .", "qid": "257", "docid": "March_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 33, "score": 98792 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 34, "score": 98760 }, { "content": "Title: Noise-equivalent temperature Content: Noise-equivalent temperature ( NET ) is a measure of the sensitivity of a detector of thermal radiation in the infrared , terahertz or microwave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum . It is the amount of incident signal temperature that would be needed to match the internal noise of the detector such that the signal-to-noise ratio is equal to one . Often the spectrum of the NET is reported as a temperature per root bandwidth . A detector that measures power is often interested in the analogous noise-equivalent power ( NEP ) . If a relation between intensity and temperature is well defined over the pass band , as in the case of a blackbody , then the NET simply scales with the NEP . If a detector is limited by either shot noise or Johnson noise then the NET can be decreased by using an increased integration time . The NET of flicker noise limited detectors can not be reduced by increased integration time . Typically uncooled bolometric detectors have NET figures of 30-200 mK . Cooled photon detecting infrared detectors using materials such as HgCdTe ( LWIR or MWIR ) or InSb ( MWIR ) can approach a NET figure of 10 mK . In the microwave radiation region NET values are typically several hundred millikelvins to several kelvins . For a particular mean signal temperature there is a fundamental limit to NET given by the natural thermodynamic fluctuations of the photon flux from the source under investigation .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Noise-equivalent_temperature", "rank": 35, "score": 98646 }, { "content": "Title: Latina Nuclear Power Plant Content: Latina Nuclear Power Plant is a former nuclear power plant at Latina , Lazio , Italy . Consisting of one 153 MWe Magnox reactor , it operated from 1963 until 1987 . Construction started in 1958 . The first criticality occurred in December 1962 , and the first connection to the distribution grid in May 1963 . Commercial operation took place starting from January 1964 . The plant was originally rated at 210 MWe , but the danger of significant oxidation of mild steel components by the high temperature carbon dioxide coolant required ( in 1969 ) a reduction in operating temperature from 390 to 360 ° C , which reduced power by 24 % , down to 160 MWe . In 1985 its license was renewed to operate until at least 1992 but after the Chernobyl disaster it was shut down early in 1987 . Phase 1 decommissioning ( de-fuelling ) has started .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Latina_Nuclear_Power_Plant", "rank": 36, "score": 98587 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Pacific Northwest heat wave Content: The 2009 Pacific Northwest heat wave was a heat wave that affected the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada in late July 2009 , particularly areas west of the Cascade Mountains in British Columbia , Oregon and Washington . The heat wave set many new heat records across the area , and broke the previous all-time record high temperature in Seattle by three Fahrenheit degrees ( 1.7 Celsius degrees ) . Because the temperatures reached in the heat wave are rare in the Pacific Northwest , few residents own air conditioners .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2009_Pacific_Northwest_heat_wave", "rank": 37, "score": 98516 }, { "content": "Title: Hatchobaru Geothermal Power Plant Content: The is a large geothermal power station in Oita Prefecture , Japan . At 112 MW , it is the largest geothermal power plant in the country . The plant comprises 3 generation units . The first unit , with a capacity of 55 MW , was activated in June 1977 . A second unit started operation in June 1990 , with an additional 55 MW capacity . A third binary unit rated at 2 MW is operational since April 2006 . The first unit was among the first double flash geothermal generation units . The second unit is very similar to the first , with some technical improvements based on the experience gained from the operation of unit 1 . The power station is located in Kokonoe town , in the Aso Kujū National Park . Another geothermal power station , the Otake plant with a capacity of 12.5 MW , is located about 2 km from Hatchobaru plant . The location in a national park , and the presence of popular tourist attractions nearby , means that the plant is subject to strict limits and controls over location of wells , discharges , noise and visual distraction from the local scenery . The plant is located in the vicinity of mount Kuju , an active volcano . It generates electricity from high temperature steam from the site . The power plant is at an elevation of 1100 m and it is operated by remote control from the nearby Otake power plant . As of December 2008 , there are 30 steam wells ranging in depth from 760 m to 3000 m and generating a total of 890 tons of steam per hour . The wells are concentrated in a relatively small area of about 1 km2 , due to terrain constraints : the plant is in a narrow valley in the Kuju mountain range . As in other Japanese geothermal plants , the waste brine from Hatchobaru is used to produce hot water for local communities before being reinjected .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Hatchobaru_Geothermal_Power_Plant", "rank": 38, "score": 98509 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 39, "score": 98401 }, { "content": "Title: Microwave Radiometer (Juno) Content: Microwave Radiometer ( MWR ) is an instrument on the Juno orbiter sent to planet Jupiter . MWR is a multi-wavelength microwave radiometer for making observations of Jupiter 's deep atmosphere . MWR can observe from 1.37 to 50 cm when describing light by a wavelength , and from 600 MHz to 22 GHz when describing light by frequencies . This supports its goal of observing the previously un-seen atmospheric features and chemical abundances hundreds of miles/km into Jupiter 's atmosphere . MWR is designed to detect six different frequencies in that range using separate antennas . Determining the features and abundances of oxygen , nitrogen , and sulfur at up to 100 Bars of pressure will shed light on the origins and nature of Jupiter . It is also designed to detect the amount water and ammonia deep inside Jupiter . It should also be able to provide a temperature profile of atmosphere down to 200 bar . Overall MWR is designed to look down as deep as 1,000 atmospheres which is about 342 miles ( 550 kilometers ) on Jupiter . MWR views Jupiter in microwave light wavelengths so it can see up to hundreds of miles deep into the planet . In August 2016 , as Juno swung closely by the planet MWR achieved a penetration of 200 to 250 miles ( 350 to 400 kilometers ) below the surface cloud layer . MWR is designed to make observations below the cloud-tops , especially detecting the abundances of certain chemicals and determine dynamic features . The region has not been observed like this previously . MWR was launched aboard the Juno spacecraft on August 5 , 2011 ( UTC ) from Cape Canaveral , USA , as part of the New Frontiers program , and after an interplanetary journey that including a swingby of Earth , entered a polar orbit of Jupiter on July 5 , 2016 ( UTC ) , The electronics for MWR are located inside the Juno Radiation Vault , which uses titanium to protect it and other spacecraft electronics . The antennas and transmission lines are designed to handle the radiation environment at Jupiter so the instrument can function . At the time of its use in the 2010s , it was one of only four microwave radiometers to have been flown on interplanetary spacecraft . The first was Mariner 2 , which used a microwave instrument to determine the high surface temperature of Venus was coming from the surface not higher up in the atmosphere . There is also radiometer type instruments on Rosetta comet probe , and Cassini-Huygens . Previously , the Galileo Probe directly measured Jupiter 's atmosphere in situ as it descended into the atmosphere , but only down to 22 bars of pressure . However , MWR is designed to look down as deep as 1000 bar of pressure . MWR used six separate antennas of different size that are mounted to the sides of the Juno spacecraft body . As the spacecraft turns ( it is a spin-stabilzed spacecraft ) each antenna takes a `` swath '' of observations of the giant . Five of the six antennas are all on one side of the spacecraft . The sixth and biggest antenna fills the whole side of another side the Juno body .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Microwave_Radiometer_(Juno)", "rank": 40, "score": 98231 }, { "content": "Title: Kurakhove Power Station Content: Kurakhove Power Station ( also : Kurakhivska TES or Kurakhovskaya TES , Курахівська ТЕС ) is a thermal power plant on Volycha river 15 km from Kurakhove in Donetsk Oblast , Ukraine . The first Kurakhove power station went into service on July 6 , 1941 , but was soon rendered inoperable by German troops during World War II . On October 20 , 1941 it was occupied by German troops , who destroyed it in their retraction in 1943 . It was repaired soon thereafter and on August 12 , 1946 it went into operation again . Further units were installed resulting in an output power of 400 MW . Between 1972 and 1975 7 new units , one with 200 MW , 6 with 210 MW went in service , which replaced the old one and which are after modernization in 2006 still in use . The chimney of the power plant is 250 m tall .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Kurakhove_Power_Station", "rank": 41, "score": 98197 }, { "content": "Title: 125P/Spacewatch Content: 125P/Spacewatch , is a periodic Jupiter-family comet . It was discovered on September 8 , 1991 , by Tom Gehrels using the 0.91 m Spacewatch telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory . It has a diameter of 1.6 km .", "qid": "257", "docid": "125P/Spacewatch", "rank": 42, "score": 98071 }, { "content": "Title: Mandatory Work Activity Content: Mandatory Work Activity ( MWA ) was a workfare programme in the United Kingdom whereby individuals had to work for their benefits or risk being ` sanctioned ' and losing them . MWA started in May 2011 , but in November 2015 the DWP confirmed it was `` not renewing '' it . An academic analysis by the Department of Work and Pensions cast doubt on the effectiveness of MWA , and despite finding `` little evidence '' that workfare improved claimants gaining paid employment , the DWP ignored the findings of the study , and in June 2012 , the scheme received a # 5m expansion . A similar but little-known scheme ` Jobseeker Mandatory Activity ' ( JMA ) was piloted by New Labour in 2006 , but did not last beyond 2008 . JMA targeted those claimants 25 and over , who had been unemployed for 6 months or more and made claimants liable to ` sanction ' for non-compliance .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Mandatory_Work_Activity", "rank": 43, "score": 97981 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 44, "score": 97967 }, { "content": "Title: Mitraba Content: Mitraba is a barren land in the northern Kuwait region , it currently holds the record of highest temperature ever recorded in Asia on 15 June 2010 when the mercury rose up to 55 ° C ( 131 ° F )", "qid": "257", "docid": "Mitraba", "rank": 45, "score": 97664 }, { "content": "Title: Reykjanes Power Station Content: The Reykjanes Power Station is a geothermal power station located in Reykjanes at the southwestern tip of Iceland . As of 2012 , the plant generates 100 MWe from two 50 MWe turbines , using steam and brine from a reservoir at 290 to 320 ° C , which is extracted from 12 wells that are 2700 m deep . This is the first time that geothermal steam of such high temperature has been used for electrical generation .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Reykjanes_Power_Station", "rank": 46, "score": 97600 }, { "content": "Title: Angry Summer Content: The Australian summer of 2012 -- 2013 , known as the Angry Summer or Extreme Summer , resulted in 123 weather records being broken over a 90-day period , including the hottest day ever recorded for Australia as a whole , the hottest January on record , the hottest summer average on record , and a record seven days in a row when the whole continent averaged above 39 ° C. Single-day temperature records were broken in dozens of towns and cities , as well as single-day rainfall records , and several rivers flooded to new record highs . In January 2013 , the Bureau of Meteorology altered its weather forecasting chart 's temperature scale to include a range , coloured purple , between 52 ° and 54 ° C . The reporting of the heatwave in the Australian media attracted controversy in the scientific community , as very few articles cited a correlation between the event and climate change , which it was correlated with according to studies conducted by the University of Melbourne .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Angry_Summer", "rank": 47, "score": 97368 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave was a heat wave that commenced in late January and led to record-breaking prolonged high temperatures in the region . The heat wave is considered one of the , if not the , most extreme in the region 's history . During the heat wave , fifty separate locations set various records for consecutive , highest daytime and overnight temperatures . The highest temperature recorded during the heat wave was 48.8 ° C in Hopetoun , Victoria , a record for the state . Many locations through the region recorded all-time high temperatures including capital cities Adelaide , which reached its third-highest temperature , 45.7 ° C , and Melbourne , which recorded its highest-ever temperature on record , 46.4 ° C. Both cities broke records for the most consecutive days over 40 ° C , while Mildura , Victoria recorded an all-time record twelve consecutive days over 43 ° C. The exceptional heat wave was caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that settled over the Tasman Sea , with a combination of an intense tropical low located off the North West Australian coast and a monsoon trough over Northern Australia , which produced ideal conditions for hot tropical air to be directed down over southeastern Australia . The heat began in South Australia on 25 January but became more widespread over southeast Australia by 27 January . A weak cool change moved over the southern coastal areas bringing some relief on 30 January , including Melbourne , where the change arrived that evening , dropping temperatures to an average of 30.8 ° C. Higher temperatures returned on the following weekend with Melbourne recording its hottest day since records began in 1855 , 46.4 ° C , also the highest temperature ever recorded in an Australian capital city . The heat wave generated extreme fire conditions during the peak of the 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season , causing many bushfires in the affected region , contributing to the extreme bushfire conditions on 7 February , also known as the Black Saturday bushfires , which claimed 173 lives in Victoria . Ten months after this heat wave , a second struck the same region in November 2009 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Early_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 48, "score": 97168 }, { "content": "Title: Mount Wilson Observatory Content: The Mount Wilson Observatory ( MWO ) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County , California , United States . The MWO is located on Mount Wilson , a 1740 m peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena , northeast of Los Angeles . The observatory contains two historically important telescopes : the 100 in Hooker telescope , which was the largest aperture telescope in the world from its completion in 1917 to 1949 , and the 60-inch telescope which was the largest telescope in the world when it was completed in 1908 . It also contains the Snow solar telescope completed in 1905 , the 60 foot ( 18 m ) solar tower completed in 1908 , the 150 foot ( 46 m ) solar tower completed in 1912 , and the CHARA array , built by Georgia State University , which became fully operational in 2004 and was the largest optical interferometer in the world at its completion . Due to the inversion layer that traps smog over Los Angeles , Mount Wilson has more natural steady air than any other location in North America , making it ideal for astronomy and in particular for interferometry . The increasing light pollution due to the growth of greater Los Angeles has limited the ability of the observatory to engage in deep space astronomy , but it remains a productive center , with the CHARA Array continuing important stellar research . The observatory was conceived and founded by George Ellery Hale , who had previously built the 1 meter telescope at the Yerkes Observatory , then the world 's largest telescope . The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory was first funded by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1904 , leasing the land from the owners of the Mount Wilson Hotel in 1904 . Among the conditions of the lease was that it allow public access .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Mount_Wilson_Observatory", "rank": 49, "score": 96705 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 European heat wave Content: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540 . France was hit especially hard . The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe . Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000 . The predominant heat was recorded in July and August , partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2003_European_heat_wave", "rank": 50, "score": 96703 }, { "content": "Title: 1976 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1976 United Kingdom heat wave led to the hottest summer average temperature in the UK since records began . At the same time , the country suffered a severe drought . It was one of the driest , sunniest and warmest summers ( June/July/August ) in the 20th century , although 1995 is now regarded as the driest . Only a few places registered more than half their average summer rainfall . In the CET record , it was the warmest summer in that series . It was the warmest summer in the Aberdeen area since at least 1864 . It was the driest summer since 1868 in Glasgow .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1976_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 51, "score": 96693 }, { "content": "Title: MWEB Content: MWEB was founded in 1997 and is today South Africa 's second largest Internet Service Provider ( ISP ) . MWEB offers a range of Internet access offerings , differentiated tools and services to approximately 320 000 customers . The company 's main division , MWEB Connect , is focused on the residential and small business market . MWEB is a subsidiary of Internet Solutions , a division of Dimension Data , and its headquarters are located in the MWEB Building in Parow , Cape Town .", "qid": "257", "docid": "MWEB", "rank": 52, "score": 96665 }, { "content": "Title: MW 18014 Content: MW 18014 was a German V-2 rocket test launch that took place on 20 June 1944 , at the Peenemünde Army Research Center in Peenemünde . It was the first man-made object to reach outer space , attaining an apoapsis of 176 kilometers , which is above the Kármán line ( the currently accepted boundary of Earth 's atmosphere , at 100 km above the surface ) . It was a vertical test launch . Although it reached space , it was a sub-orbital spaceflight and therefore returned to Earth in an impact .", "qid": "257", "docid": "MW_18014", "rank": 53, "score": 96230 }, { "content": "Title: 1901 eastern United States heat wave Content: The 1901 eastern United States heat wave was the most severe and deadly heat wave in the United States prior to the 1930s dust bowl . Although the heat wave did not set many still-standing daily temperature records , it was exceptionally prolonged -- covering without interruption the second half of June and all of July -- and centred upon more highly populated areas than later American heat waves . The heat wave accompanied a major drought in the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest , with Illinois having what remains its driest calendar year since records have been kept , and Missouri being only 0.21 in above its driest calendar year of 1953 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1901_eastern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 54, "score": 96201 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 2003 Content: The Blizzard of 2003 , also known as the Presidents ' Day Storm II or simply PDII , was a historical and record-breaking snowstorm on the East Coast of the United States and Canada , which lasted from February 14 to February 19 , 2003 . It spread heavy snow across the major cities of the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states , making it the defining snowstorm of the very snowy winter of 2002-2003 . All cities from Washington DC to Boston were covered in 15 - of snow and those cities were brought to a standstill due to problems caused by temperatures and the snow . In Baltimore and Boston , this was the biggest snowstorm on record , with 28.2 and 27.5 inches ( 71.6 and 69.9 cm ) respectively .", "qid": "257", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_2003", "rank": 55, "score": 95898 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Adelaide heatwave Content: The 2014 Adelaide heatwave was a heat wave that occurred in Adelaide , South Australia in both January and February 2014 . The heatwaves were so strong that it broke records , becoming the hottest summer ever recorded in Adelaide . Although there were no deaths directly linked to the heatwave as of 2015 , there were at least 136 heat-related hospital admissions recorded .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2014_Adelaide_heatwave", "rank": 56, "score": 95891 }, { "content": "Title: Lowest temperature recorded on Earth Content: The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is − 89.2 C , which was at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica by ground measurements . A 2009 study estimated that under exceptional climate conditions similar to those recorded at Vostin 1983 , temperatures higher on the plateau around Dome Argus could potentially drop lower than − 95 C. On August 10 , 2010 , satellite observations measured a surface temperature of − 93.2 C at 81.8 ° S 59.3 ° E , along a ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji , at 3,900 m elevation . The result was reported at the 46th annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco , in December 2013 ; it is a provisional figure , and may be subject to revision . The value may not be listed as the record coldest temperature as it was measured by remote sensing satellites and not by ground-based thermometers , unlike the 1983 record . The temperature announced reflects that of the ice surface , while the Vostok readings measured the air above the ice , and so the two are not directly comparable . However , it is most likely that the real temperature on the site was lower than that recorded at Vostok .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Lowest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth", "rank": 57, "score": 95848 }, { "content": "Title: Central England temperature Content: The Central England Temperature ( CET ) record is a meteorological dataset originally published by Professor Gordon Manley in 1953 and subsequently extended and updated in 1974 , following many decades of painstaking work . The monthly mean surface air temperatures , for the Midlands region of England , are given ( in degrees Celsius ) from the year 1659 to the present . This record represents the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence . It is a valuable dataset for meteorologists and climate scientists . It is monthly from 1659 , and a daily version has been produced from 1772 . The monthly means from November 1722 onwards are given to a precision of 0.1 ° C . The earliest years of the series , from 1659 to October 1722 inclusive , for the most part only have monthly means given to the nearest degree or half a degree , though there is a small ` window ' of 0.1 degree precision from 1699 to 1706 inclusive . This reflects the number , accuracy , reliability and geographical spread of the temperature records that were available for the years in question .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Central_England_temperature", "rank": 58, "score": 95687 }, { "content": "Title: Hekla 3 eruption Content: The Hekla 3 eruption ( H-3 ) circa 1000 BC is considered the most severe eruption of Hekla during the Holocene . It threw about 7.3 km3 of volcanic rock into the atmosphere , placing its Volcanic Explosivity Index ( VEI ) at 5 . This would have cooled temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere for several years afterwards . An eighteen-year span of global cooling that is recorded in Irish bog oaks has been attributed to H-3 . The eruption is detectable in Greenland ice-cores , the bristlecone pine sequence , and the Irish oak sequence of extremely narrow growth rings . Andy Baker 's team of researchers dated it to 1021 BC ± 130 -- 100 . A `` high chronology '' ( earlier ) interpretation of the above results is preferred by Baker , based also on growth of stalagmites . In Sutherland , northwest Scotland , a spurt of four years of doubled annual luminescent growth banding of calcite in a stalagmite is datable to 1135 BC ± 130 . A rival , `` low-chronology '' interpretation of the eruption has been made by Andrew Dugmore : 2879 BP ( 929 BC ± 34 ) . In 1999 , Dugmore suggested a non-volcanic explanation for the Scottish results . In 2000 skepticism concerning conclusions about connecting Hekla 3 and Hekla 4 ( probably 2310 BC ± 20 ) with paleoenvironmental events and archaeologically attested abandonment of settlement sites in northern Scotland was expressed by John P. Grattan and David D. Gilbertson . Some Egyptologists have firmly dated the eruption to 1159 BC , and blamed it for famines under Ramesses III during the wider Bronze Age collapse . Dugmore has rebutted this dating . Other scholars have held off on this dispute , preferring the neutral and vague `` 3000 BP '' .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Hekla_3_eruption", "rank": 59, "score": 95670 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "257", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 60, "score": 95607 }, { "content": "Title: Meltwater pulse 1A Content: Meltwater pulse 1A ( MWP1a ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of rapid post-glacial sea level rise during which global sea level rose between 16 m and 25 m in about 400 -- 500 years , giving mean rates of roughly 40 -- 60 mm/yr . Meltwater pulse 1A is also known as catastrophic rise event 1 ( CRE1 ) in the Caribbean Sea . The rates of sea level rise associated with meltwater pulse 1A are the highest known rates of post-glacial , eustatic sea level rise . Meltwater pulse 1A is also the most widely recognized and least disputed of the named , postglacial meltwater pulses . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwater pulse 19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1B , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Meltwater_pulse_1A", "rank": 61, "score": 95590 }, { "content": "Title: Grímsstaðir Content: Grímsstaðir is a settlement in north-east Iceland whose main claim to fame is that its weather station holds the low-temperature record for Iceland of -38 ° C : no doubt due to its sheltered location ( at altitude of about 400 metres ) between two upland areas ( above 800 metres ) . One of its recent records was recorded on December 8 , 2013 , when the temperature fell at -24,2 ° C. It is situated just off Route 1 ( the main ring road around the island ) , where it crosses the large river Jökulsá á Fjöllum , about 37 km or 23 miles east of Lake Mývatn . The river was bridged in 1947 : before that , traffic between north and east Iceland had to use a ferry . Currently the settlement has some accommodation for tourists , with discussions for growth . It also has an airstrip , in common with many isolated rural settlements in Iceland . It is a recognised stop on the bus route between Akureyri and Egilsstaðir ( up to one bus per day in summer ) although it is only during summer that the buses venture off the main road to the settlement itself .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Grímsstaðir", "rank": 62, "score": 95175 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "257", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 63, "score": 95127 }, { "content": "Title: Murchison Widefield Array Content: The Murchison Widefield Array ( MWA ) is a joint project between an international consortium of universities to build a low-frequency radio array operating in the frequency range 80 -- 300 MHz . The main scientific goals of the MWA are to detect neutral atomic Hydrogen emission from the cosmological Epoch of Reionization ( EoR ) , to study the sun , the heliosphere , the Earth 's ionosphere , and to study radio transient phenomena . The total cost of the project is A$ 51 million . The MWA is the first so-called large-N array , fully cross-correlating signals from 128 phased tiles , each of which consist of 16 crossed dipoles arranged in a 4x4 square . The field of view is large by the standard of astronomical instruments , being on the order of 30 degrees across . The MWA was to be situated at Mileura Station where initial testing had been conducted then moved southwest to Boolardy station in outback Western Australia , at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory ( MRO ) , 800 kilometres north of Perth . This location offers a quiet radio environment and stable climate for observations . The MRO is also the site of CSIRO 's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder ( ASKAP ) and one of two selected sites for the Square Kilometre Array ( SKA ) . In addition to the geographic link , the MWA is a technology and science pathfinder for the SKA .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Murchison_Widefield_Array", "rank": 64, "score": 95099 }, { "content": "Title: August 2009 Argentine winter heat wave Content: The 2009 Argentine winter heat wave was a period of unusual and exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of the winter on August 2009 in Argentina . Several provinces of the country were most affected . Several records were broken . August 2009 was the warmest month since official measurements began . On 30 August 2009 it was hot enough to be the middle of summer late last week in the heart of Argentina even with the calendar showing more than three weeks remaining in the Southern Hemisphere winter . A shot of tropical heat drawn unusually far southward hiked temperatures 30 C-change above normal in the city of Buenos Aires and across the north-central regions of the country . Even though normal high temperatures for late August are near 16 C , readings topped 30 C degrees at midweek , then topped out above 32 C degrees during the weekend . Temperatures hit 33.8 C on 29 August and finally 34.6 C on 31 August in Buenos Aires , making it the hottest day ever recorded in winter breaking the 1996 winter record of 33.7 C. Elsewhere in Argentina , the mid-northern city of Córdoba reached a dramatic high of 37.8 C degrees on 29 August 2009 . Another northern city , Santa Fe , registered 38.3 C degrees on 30 August , compared to the normal high of around 18 C.", "qid": "257", "docid": "August_2009_Argentine_winter_heat_wave", "rank": 65, "score": 95033 }, { "content": "Title: April 2011 Miyagi earthquake Content: The April 2011 Miyagi earthquake ( Japanese : ) was a magnitude 7.1 Mw earthquake , with an epicentre off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture , approximately 66 km east of Sendai , Japan . The earthquake was classified as an aftershock of the March 11 Tōhoku earthquake , and occurred at 23:32 JST ( 14:32 UTC ) on Thursday , 7 April 2011 . Several tsunami warnings were issued for the northeastern coast of Honshu ; however , they were all canceled 90 minutes later . Over 3 million households in the area were left without power , and several nuclear plants suffered minor inconveniences . There was no major structural damage , but the quake killed at least 4 people and injured 141 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "April_2011_Miyagi_earthquake", "rank": 66, "score": 94709 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "257", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 67, "score": 94670 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 North American cold wave Content: The 1994 North American cold wave occurred over the midwestern United States , eastern United States , and southern Canada during January 1994 . Two notable cold air events occurred from January 18-19 and from January 21-22 . There were 67 minimum temperature records set on January 19 . Indiana and Kentucky both set state records on January 19 . The United States experienced its coldest temperature month since February 1934 , although much of the West experienced mild temperatures . Washington and Idaho experienced the second warmest January recorded in the previous 100 years . During the same period , the western United States experienced one of its most damaging earthquakes ever , and the eastern United States experienced a major snowfall that significantly delayed traffic . Over 100 deaths occurred in the United States as a result of the cold wave .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1994_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 68, "score": 94502 }, { "content": "Title: HTR-10 Content: HTR-10 is a 10 MWt prototype pebble bed reactor at Tsinghua University in China . Construction began in 1995 , achieving its first criticality in December 2000 , and was operated in full power condition in January 2003 . HTR-10 is modeled after the German HTR-MODUL . Like the HTR-MODUL , HTR-10 is claimed to be fundamentally safer , potentially cheaper and more efficient than other nuclear reactor designs . Outlet temperature ranges between 700 C to 950 C , which allows these reactors to generate hydrogen as a byproduct efficiently , thus supplying inexpensive and non-polluting fuel for fuel cell powered vehicles . HTR-10 is a pebble-bed reactor HTGR utilizing spherical fuel elements with ceramic coated fuel particles . The reactor core has a diameter of 1.8 m , a mean height of 1.97 m and the volume of 5.0 m 3 , and is surrounded by graphite reflectors . The core is composed of 27,000 fuel elements . The fuel elements use low enriched uranium with a design mean burn up of 80,000 MWd/t . The pressure of the primary helium coolant circuit is 3.0 Mpa .", "qid": "257", "docid": "HTR-10", "rank": 69, "score": 94475 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Indian heat wave Content: In April and May 2016 , India experienced a major heat wave . A national record high temperature of 51.0 ° C ( 123.8 ° F ) was set in the town of Phalodi , in the state of Rajasthan . A total of over 160 people have died and 330 million affected . There are also water shortages . Drought has worsened the heat wave .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2016_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 70, "score": 94449 }, { "content": "Title: Summer of 1976 (Europe) Content: The summer of 1976 was considered to be one of the hottest summers in Europe ( and especially the United Kingdom ) within recent memory . A large high-pressure area dominated most of Europe for all of the summer months . The pressure system moved into place in late May 1976 and remained until the first traces of rain were recorded on August 27 . Rainfall throughout the July -- August period was down by half the annual average . During this spell of hot weather temperatures exceeded 32 ° C ( 89.6 ° F ) at several weather stations within the United Kingdom every day and the town of Cheltenham had eleven , including seven successive days from the 1st of July - recording 35.9 ° C ( 96.6 ° F ) on the 3rd . For the entire period much of Europe was bathed in continual sunshine with the United Kingdom seeing an average of more than 14 hours of sunshine per day . 1976 was dubbed `` The year of the Ladybird '' in that country due to the rise in the mass numbers of ladybirds brought on by the long hot period . `` The long hot summer of 1976 which eventually ended in September of that year , was the culmination of a 16-week dry spell - the longest recorded over England and Wales since 1727 . `` Quote From Met Office The summer of 1976 is by now a firmly established reference point for discussion in the UK of contemporary hot spells .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Summer_of_1976_(Europe)", "rank": 71, "score": 94315 }, { "content": "Title: Mycobacterium indicus pranii Content: Mycobacterium indicus pranii ( MIP ) , earlier known as Mw , is a non-pathogenic mycobacterial species , which , based on its growth characteristics and metabolic properties , is validly classified as a member of the Mycobacterium avium complex . The novelty of this bacterium is due to its translational application as an immunotherapeutic . The genome of the organism has now been completely sequenced . The origin of the proposed name is a combination of the site of isolation of the bacterial species from India ( indicus ) , discovery by Pran Talwar ( pranii ) and characterization at the National Institute of Immunology , India ( pranii ) .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Mycobacterium_indicus_pranii", "rank": 72, "score": 94298 }, { "content": "Title: Great Comet of 1811 Content: The Great Comet of 1811 , formally designated C/1811 F1 , is a comet that was visible to the naked eye for around 260 days , a record it held until the appearance of Comet Hale -- Bopp in 1997 . In October 1811 , at its brightest , it displayed an apparent magnitude of 0 , with an easily visible coma .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Great_Comet_of_1811", "rank": 73, "score": 94187 }, { "content": "Title: 1928 Talca earthquake Content: The 1928 Talca earthquake occurred on 1 December at near Curepto , Maule Region , Chile , with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 MW , 8.3 MS and 7.9 ML . In Talca , it lasted 1 minute 45 seconds . There was damage between Valparaíso and Concepción , and severe damage on the coast from Cauquenes to Pichilemu , and in the following cities in the Chilean Central Valley : Talca , Curicó and San Fernando . In Talca there were 108 dead , 67 in Constitución , and 50 in the surrounding villages . Soon after the earthquake , the Barahona dam , in the valley of Cachapoal River , that contained copper tailings , collapsed , killing 54 miners . In total , there were 279 dead , 1,083 wounded and 127,043 homeless .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1928_Talca_earthquake", "rank": 74, "score": 94175 }, { "content": "Title: 55P/Tempel–Tuttle Content: 55P/Tempel -- Tuttle ( commonly known as Comet Tempel -- Tuttle ) is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 33 years . It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with ( 20 years < period < 200 years ) . It was independently discovered by Wilhelm Tempel on December 19 , 1865 and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on January 6 , 1866 . It is the parent body of the Leonid meteor shower . In 1699 , it was observed by Gottfried Kirch but was not recognized as a periodic comet until the discoveries by Tempel and Tuttle during the 1866 perihelion . In 1933 , S. Kanda deduced that the comet of 1366 was Tempel -- Tuttle , which was confirmed by Joachim Schubart in 1965 . On 26 October 1366 , the comet passed 0.0229 AU from Earth . The orbit of 55P/Tempel -- Tuttle intersects that of Earth nearly exactly , hence streams of material ejected from the comet during perihelion passes do not have to spread out over time to encounter Earth . The comet currently has an Earth-MOID of 0.008 AU . This coincidence means that streams from the comet at perihelion are still dense when they encounter Earth , resulting in the 33-year cycle of Leonid meteor storms . For example , in November 2009 , the Earth passed through meteors left behind mainly from the 1466 and 1533 orbit . In February , 2016 , two bolides detected by the NASA All-Sky Fireball Network were calculated to have orbits consistent with those of 55P , although with a node 100 degrees less than 55P . The reason for this is yet to be determined . 55P/Tempel -- Tuttle is estimated to have a nucleus of mass 1.2 kg and radius 1.8 km and a stream of mass 5 kg .", "qid": "257", "docid": "55P/Tempel–Tuttle", "rank": 75, "score": 93978 }, { "content": "Title: 1999 Oaxaca earthquake Content: The 1999 Oaxaca earthquake occurred on September 30 at 11:31 local time ( 16:31 UTC ) in Oaxaca , Mexico , 60 km NNW of Puerto Ángel . The epicenter was located near San Agustin Loxicha . It had a magnitude of Mw 7.4 . The maximum intensity reached MM VIII in southwestern Oaxaca , and could be felt strongly in Mexico City . The torrential rains preceding and following the temblor intensified the damage of this earthquake . 35 people were reported dead . The archeological site of the ancient Zapotec city of Monte Alban also suffered damage in this earthquake . This was an intraplate earthquake in the Cocos Plate , with a normal-faulting mechanism . The fault plane was 90 km long and 45 km wide . The maximum slip was about 2.5 m , which was located about 20 and 40 km WNW of the hypocenter . A research of M. A. Dunajecka and S. A. Pulinets showed that anomalies in temperature and humidity had been observed before the earthquake .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1999_Oaxaca_earthquake", "rank": 76, "score": 93622 }, { "content": "Title: Osagyefo Barge Content: The Osagyefo Barge is a 125 MW barge-mounted gas turbine electric power generating station located at Effasu in the Western Region of Ghana . The 77 m long barge is equipped with a pair of single-cycle heavy-duty gas turbine units built by Ansaldo that have a combined generating capacity of 125 MW . It is designed to burn either natural gas or diesel fuel . The 125 MW power barge was ordered by the Ghanaian government in 1995 with financial assistance from the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan . It was intended to generate electricity from natural gas obtained from offshore production fields . The project development called for 450 MW of combined cycle power barges to belated in a man made lagoon . The barge was built in Italy at Navalmare Yard , completed in 1999 , and delivered to Ghana in October 2002 . It was then moored at the Sekondi Naval Base in Sekondi until 2005 , when it was moved to Effasu after the completion of dredging necessary to allow it to enter the harbor there . The offshore oil and gas fields did not develop as quickly as expected , so the power barge sat idle and its condition deteriorated . There was a proposal to move the barge to Tema , but that proposal was dropped in 2007 . During this period , there was little maintenance conducted on the power barge or on the site , resulting in the deterioration of many of the systems . The power barge project was initially under the management of Western Power , a subsidiary of GNPC the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation ; responsibility was transferred to the Volta River Authority in 2003 . In July 2007 , the government of Ghana entered an unsolicited 20-year lease agreement with the company Balkan Energy Ghana to refurbish and operate the power barge , initially using diesel fuel and later using gas to be delivered by the West African Gas Pipeline . Ghana sought additional electricity supplies from the barge to alleviate electricity shortages resulting from reduced water levels at the Akosombo Dam hydroelectric project . The company promised to begin operations within 90 days . Also , plans were announced to increase the barge 's generating capacity by 60 MW , bringing it from its current capacity of 125 MW up to 185 MW . The unit has never operated and the expansion was not completed . The government of Ghana sued in Ghanaian court , seeking to nullify the contract with Balkan Energy . Balkan Energy blamed ProEnergy , a U.S. company with which it had contracted , for Balkan 's inability to bring the generating station online when promised . Balkan Energy and ProEnergy sued each other in U.S. courts and the government of Ghana later filed a lawsuit against ProEnergy in U.S. court . The name `` Osagyefo '' commemorates Kwame Nkrumah , the first president of Ghana .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Osagyefo_Barge", "rank": 77, "score": 93581 }, { "content": "Title: Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant Content: The Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant ( NPP ) ( Loviisan ydinvoimalaitos , Lovisa kärnkraftverk ) is located close to the Finnish town of Loviisa . It houses two Soviet-designed VVER-440 / 213 PWR reactors , each with a capacity of 510 MW . The reactors at Loviisa NPP went into commercial operation in 1977 and 1980 respectively . To comply with Finnish nuclear regulation , Westinghouse and Siemens supplied equipment and engineering expertise . This unorthodox mix of US and Soviet enterprise led to the project developers being given the nickname `` Eastinghouse '' . The plant is operated by Fortum Oyj . In 1996 , the pressure vessel of Unit 1 was successfully heat annealed in order to clear embrittlement caused by neutron bombardment and impurities of the welding seam between the two halves of the vessel . The operating licence for both units has been renewed for a 50-year lifetime , Loviisa-1 to 2027 and Loviisa-2 to 2030 . Fortum Power and Heat Oy applied to build a third reactor unit , to produce up to 1000 MWt of district heating supply and from 800 - 1,600 MW of electrical generation , which the Finnish government declined on 21 April 2010 . Spent fuel from the reactors were planned to be stored permanently at the Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository . In 2014 Rolls-Royce took over the modernisation of safety-related systems for both units from an AREVA-Siemens consortium and the project should be completed by 2018 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Loviisa_Nuclear_Power_Plant", "rank": 78, "score": 93573 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 79, "score": 93486 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 80, "score": 93238 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 81, "score": 92973 }, { "content": "Title: LS IV-14 116 Content: LS IV-14 116 is a hot subdwarf located approximately 2,000 light years away on the border between the constellations Capricornus and Aquarius . It has a surface temperature of approximately 34,000 ± 500 Kelvin . Along with stars HE 2359-2844 and HE 1256-2738 , LS IV-14 116 forms a new group of star called heavy metal subdwarfs . These are thought to be stars contracting to the extended horizontal branch after a helium flash and ejection of their atmospheres at the tip of the red giant branch . The star contains 10,000 times more zirconium than the Sun ; it also has between 1,000 and 10,000 times the amount of strontium , germanium and yttrium than the Sun . The heavy metals are believed to be in cloud layers in the atmosphere where the ions of each metal have a particular opacity that allows radiational levitation to balance gravitational settling .", "qid": "257", "docid": "LS_IV-14_116", "rank": 82, "score": 92866 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Kunlun earthquake Content: The 2001 Kunlun earthquake also known as the 2001 Kokoxili earthquake , occurred on 14 November 2001 at 09:26 UTC ( 17:26 local time ) , with an epicenter near Kokoxili , close to the border between Qinghai and Xinjiang in a remote mountainous region . With a magnitude of 7.8 Mw it was the most powerful earthquake in China for 5 decades . No casualties were reported , presumably due to the very low population density and the lack of high-rise buildings . This earthquake was associated with the longest surface rupture ever recorded on land , ~ 450 km .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2001_Kunlun_earthquake", "rank": 83, "score": 92770 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 offshore Sanriku earthquake Content: The 1994 offshore Sanriku earthquake ( Japanese : 三陸はるか沖地震 Sanriku Haruka Okijishin ) occurred on December 28 , 1994 , at 12:19 UTC ( 21:19 local time ) . This was a magnitude Mw 7.7 earthquake with epicenter located in the Pacific Ocean at about 180 km east of Hachinohe , Aomori ( haruka-oki means `` far offshore '' ) . Three people were reported dead and more than 200 injured ; 48 houses were completely destroyed . Road damage and power outages were reported . Liquefaction occurred in the Hachinohe Port area . The intensity reached shindo 6 in Hachinohe , Aomori , about 187.6 km from epicenter . It could be felt in Tokyo , about 632.9 km from epicenter , with shindo 2 . The Japanese Meteorological Agency put the magnitude at Mjma 7.5 . Slip associated with this earthquake continued for more than a year and it has been termed an ` ultra-slow earthquake ' .", "qid": "257", "docid": "1994_offshore_Sanriku_earthquake", "rank": 84, "score": 92756 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 Denali earthquake Content: The 2002 Denali earthquake occurred at 22:12:41 UTC ( 1:12 PM Local Time ) November 3 with an epicenter 66 km ESE of Denali National Park , Alaska , United States . This 7.9 Mw earthquake was the largest recorded in the interior of the United States for more than 150 years . The shock was the strongest ever recorded in the interior of Alaska . Due to the remote location , there were no fatalities and only a few injuries . Due to the shallow depth , it was felt at least as far away as Seattle and it generated seiches on bodies of water as far away as New Orleans . About 20 houseboats were damaged by a seiche on a lake in Washington State .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2002_Denali_earthquake", "rank": 85, "score": 92690 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 86, "score": 92621 }, { "content": "Title: Tempel 1 Content: Tempel 1 ( official designation : 9P/Tempel ) is a periodic Jupiter-family comet discovered by Wilhelm Tempel in 1867 . It completes an orbit of the Sun every 5.5 years . Tempel 1 was the target of the Deep Impact space mission , which photographed a deliberate high-speed impact upon the comet in 2005 . It was re-visited by the Stardust spacecraft on February 14 , 2011 and came back to perihelion in August 2016 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Tempel_1", "rank": 87, "score": 92495 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-90e Content: Kepler-90e is a hot Neptune with a temperature of 448 K. Its orbital period is about 91.93913 days . It orbits at 0.42 AU from Kepler-90 . Its radius is 0.238 times that of Jupiter .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Kepler-90e", "rank": 88, "score": 92451 }, { "content": "Title: MWM GmbH Content: The Caterpillar Energy Solutions GmbH ( formerly known as MWM , DEUTZ Power Systems or DPS ) is a mechanical engineering company , based in Mannheim . For many years it was known as Motoren-Werke Mannheim ( MWM ) . In 2009 the company was the third-largest producer by revenue of gas and diesel engines . The main focus of production is gensets ( gas and diesel engines ) for the generation of electrical energy from 400 to 4,300 kWel per unit . It also provides consulting , designing and engineering , construction and commissioning of plants as well as global aftersales service . The company also has its own training center .", "qid": "257", "docid": "MWM_GmbH", "rank": 89, "score": 92419 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Pakistan heat wave Content: In April 2017 , a severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 51 ° C ( 124 ° F ) hit Pakistan , especially its southern parts . This heat wave broke the old temperature records of many cities in the country for the month of April . Larkana , a city in the southern province of Sindh , experienced the highest maximum temperature of 51.0 ° C on 20 April , breaking the previous day 's record of 50 ° C.", "qid": "257", "docid": "2017_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 90, "score": 92314 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Russian wildfires Content: The 2010 Russian wildfires were several hundred wildfires that broke out across Russia , primarily in the west in summer 2010 . They started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010 . The fires were associated with record-high temperatures , which were attributed to climate change -- the summer had been the hottest recorded in Russian history -- and drought . Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in seven regions , and 28 other regions were under a state of emergency due to crop failures caused by the drought . The fires cost roughly $ 15 billion in damages . A combination of the smoke from the fires , producing heavy smog blanketing large urban regions and the record-breaking heat wave put stress on the Russian healthcare system . Munich Re estimated that in all , 56,000 people died from the effects of the smog and the heat wave . The 2010 wildfires were the worst on record to that time ; in 2012 , however , new wildfires broke out , and they proved even more extensive and damaging .", "qid": "257", "docid": "2010_Russian_wildfires", "rank": 91, "score": 92115 }, { "content": "Title: Highest temperature recorded on Earth Content: The standard measuring conditions for temperature are in the air , 1.5 meters above the ground , and shielded from direct sunlight . The highest confirmed temperature on Earth recorded according to these measures was 56.7 C in Furnace Creek Ranch , California , located in the Death Valley desert in the United States , on July 10 , 1913 . The former highest official temperature on Earth , held for 90 years by ` Aziziya , Libya , was de-certified by the WMO ( World Meteorological Organization ) in January 2012 as the record for the world 's highest surface temperature ( this temperature of 57.8 ° C ( 136 ° F ) , registered on 13 September 1922 , is currently considered to have been a recorder 's error ) . Christopher C. Burt , the weather historian writing for Weather Underground who shepherded the Libya reading 's 2012 disqualification , believes that the 1913 Death Valley reading is `` a myth '' , and is at least four or five degrees Fahrenheit too high , as do other weather historians Dr. Arnold Court and William Taylor Reid . Burt proposes that the highest reliably recorded temperature on Earth is still at Death Valley , but is instead 53.9 C recorded five times : 20 July 1960 , 18 July 1998 , 20 July 2005 , 7 July 2007 , and 30 June 2013 . Temperatures measured directly on the ground may exceed air temperatures by 30 to 50 ° C . A ground temperature of 84 ° C ( 183.2 ° F ) has been recorded in Port Sudan , Sudan . A ground temperature of 93.9 ° C ( 201 ° F ) was recorded also in Furnace Creek Ranch on 15 July 1972 ; this may be the highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded . The theoretical maximum possible ground surface temperature has been estimated to be between 90 and 100 ° C for dry , darkish soils of low thermal conductivity . Temperature measurements via satellite also tend to capture occurrence of higher records but are considered less reliable than ground-positioned thermometers . There is a satellite record of 66.8 C measured in the Flaming Mountains of China in 2008 . Other satellite measurements of ground temperature taken between 2003 and 2009 , taken with the MODIS infrared spectroradiometer on the Aqua satellite , found a maximum temperature of 70.7 ° C ( 159.3 ° F ) , which was recorded in 2005 in the Lut Desert , Iran . The Lut Desert was also found to have the highest maximum temperature in 5 of the 7 years measured ( 2004 , 2005 , 2006 , 2007 and 2009 ) . These measurements reflect averages over a large region and so are lower than the maximum point surface temperature .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Highest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth", "rank": 92, "score": 92003 }, { "content": "Title: Rijeka Thermal Power Station Content: The Rijeka Thermal Power Station ( Termoelektrana Rijeka , TE Rijeka , also known as TE Urinj ) is an oil-fired power station east of Rijeka at Kostrena , Croatia . It was built between 1974 and 1978 and it has one generation unit with capacity of 320 MW . The height of the boiler house including its rooftop flue gas stack is 250 m. Turbine for the power station was supplied by Ansaldo Energia . Ansaldo Energia was also awarded engineering , procurement and construction contract . Boilers were supplied by Waagner-Biro . The power station is owned and operated by Hrvatska elektroprivreda . Its annual production varies , averaging 917 GWh , but only 141 GWh in 2011 . It is expected to undergo decommissioning in 2020 , but it is doubtful that it will remain operational until then because of its pollution problem .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Rijeka_Thermal_Power_Station", "rank": 93, "score": 91715 }, { "content": "Title: NRX Content: NRX ( National Research Experimental ) was a heavy water moderated , light water cooled , nuclear research reactor at the Canadian Chalk River Laboratories , which came into operation in 1947 at a design power rating of 10 MW ( thermal ) , increasing to 42 MW by 1954 . At the time of its construction it was Canada 's most expensive science facility and the world 's most powerful nuclear research reactor . NRX was remarkable both in terms of its heat output and the number of free neutrons it generated . When a nuclear reactor is operating its nuclear chain reaction generates many free neutrons , and in the late 1940s NRX was the most intense neutron source in the world . NRX experienced one of the world 's first major reactor accidents on 12 December 1952 . The reactor began operation on 22 July 1947 under the National Research Council of Canada , and was taken over by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited ( AECL ) shortly before the 1952 accident . The accident was cleaned up and the reactor restarted within two years . NRX operated for 45 years , being shut down permanently on 8 April 1993 . It is currently undergoing decommissioning at the Chalk River Laboratories site . NRX was the successor to Canada 's first reactor , ZEEP . Because the operating life of a research reactor was not expected to be very long , in 1948 planning started for construction of a successor facility , NRU , which went critical in 1957 .", "qid": "257", "docid": "NRX", "rank": 94, "score": 91660 }, { "content": "Title: HTTR Content: The high-temperature test reactor ( HTTR ) is a graphite-moderated gas-cooled research reactor in Oarai , Ibaraki , Japan operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency . It uses long hexagonal fuel assemblies , unlike the competing pebble bed reactor designs . HTTR first reached its full design power of 30 MW ( thermal ) in 1999 . Other tests have shown that the core can reach temperatures sufficient for hydrogen production via the sulfur-iodine cycle .", "qid": "257", "docid": "HTTR", "rank": 95, "score": 91639 }, { "content": "Title: North Ice Content: North Ice was a research station of the British North Greenland Expedition ( 1952 to 1954 ) on the inland ice of Greenland . The coordinates of the station were , at an altitude of 2341 m above sea level . The British North Greenland Expedition was led by Commander James Simpson RN . The station recorded the lowest temperature ever in North America with -66.1 C on 9 January 1954 . The name of the station contrasts to the former British South Ice station in Antarctica .", "qid": "257", "docid": "North_Ice", "rank": 96, "score": 91629 }, { "content": "Title: HadCRUT Content: HadCRUT is the dataset of monthly instrumental temperature records formed by combining the sea surface temperature records compiled by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the land surface air temperature records compiled by the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) of the University of East Anglia . The data is provided on a grid of boxes covering the globe , with values provided for only those boxes containing temperature observations in a particular month and year . Interpolation is not applied to infill missing values . The first version of HadCRUT initially spanned the period 1881 -- 1993 , and this was later extended to begin in 1850 and to be regularly updated to the current year/month in near real-time .", "qid": "257", "docid": "HadCRUT", "rank": 97, "score": 91588 }, { "content": "Title: Pauzhetskaya Power Station Content: The Pauzhetskaya power station is located in the south-western part of the Kamchatka Peninsula , 30 km 30 km east of Ozernovskij settlement , located on the coast of the Okhotsk Sea . The geothermal power plant was put into operation in 1966 . The power plant has two 6 MW turbines of direct cycle and 2.5 MW binary turbine . The first steam turbine is designed for an inlet pressure of 1.2 bars and a steam flow rate of 24.2 kg/s . The second steam turbine is designed for an inlet pressure of 2.2 bars and a steam flow rate of 25.8 kg/s . The binary turbine is designed for a separated water flow rate of 118 kg/s at 120 ° C. Presently , one steam turbine is in operation , while the other steam turbine is a reserve . The geothermal reservoir contains water with a temperature of about 190 ° C. Proven steam resources of the Pauzhetska field are 35.5 kg/s ( steam-water mixture -- 424.5 kg/s ) . This steam-water mixture is produced from 10 wells .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Pauzhetskaya_Power_Station", "rank": 98, "score": 91505 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Alibera Content: Cyclone Alibera was the second longest-lasting tropical cyclone on record in the south-west Indian Ocean , with a duration of 22 days . It formed on December 16 , 1989 , well to the northeast of Madagascar . For several days , it meandered southwestward while gradually intensifying . On December 20 , Alibera intensified to tropical cyclone status with 10‑minute maximum sustained winds of 120 km/h ( 75 mph ) , or the equivalent of a minimal hurricane . That day , the Météo-France office in Réunion ( MFR ) estimated 10‑minute winds of 140 km/h ( 85 mph ) , while the Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) , an unofficial warning agency for the region , estimated peak 1‑minute winds of 250 km/h ( 150 mph ) . After drifting erratically for several days , the storm began a steady southwest motion on December 29 as a greatly weakened system . On January 1 , Alibera struck southeastern Madagascar near Mananjary , having re-intensified to just below tropical cyclone status . It weakened over land but again restrengthened upon reaching open waters on January 3 . The storm turned to the southeast , then to the southwest , and finally back to the southeast , dissipating on January 5 . Early in its duration , Alibera produced gusty winds in the Seychelles . Upon moving ashore in Madagascar , the cyclone lashed coastal cities with heavy rainfall and up to 250-km/h ( 150-mph ) wind gusts . In Mananjary , nearly every building was damaged or destroyed , and locals considered it the worst storm since 1925 . Across the region , the cyclone destroyed large areas of crops , thousands of houses , and several roads and bridges . Alibera killed 46 people and left 55,346 people homeless . After the storm , the Malagasy government requested for international assistance .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Cyclone_Alibera", "rank": 99, "score": 91486 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "257", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 100, "score": 91452 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "258", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 1, "score": 153942 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 2, "score": 141086 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 3, "score": 140743 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "258", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 4, "score": 137389 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 5, "score": 137273 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 6, "score": 133841 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 7, "score": 130488 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 8, "score": 130395 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 9, "score": 129069 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "258", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 10, "score": 126781 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 11, "score": 124273 }, { "content": "Title: Climate engineering Content: Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation . Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility . Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy . Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts . Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_engineering", "rank": 12, "score": 122977 }, { "content": "Title: Werner Kurz Content: Werner Kurz is a Canadian research scientist at Canada 's Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria , British Columbia . He is leading the development of an accounting system to assess potential climate change known as the National Forest Carbon Accounting System for Canada . Currently , his research focuses on using forest land to its maximum carbon efficiency , reducing the impact of natural disasters , and managing forests . Kurz holds a PhD in forest ecology from the University of British Columbia . He has made significant contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and the work of the IPCC ( including the contributions of many scientists ) was recognized by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Werner_Kurz", "rank": 13, "score": 122816 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 14, "score": 121332 }, { "content": "Title: Evangelical Climate Initiative Content: The Evangelical Climate Initiative ( ECI ) is a campaign by US-American church leaders and organizations to promote market based mechanisms to mitigate global warming . ECI 's first statement , calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions , was initially signed by 86 evangelical leaders . Signatories included Rick Warren , the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges , and the leader of the Salvation Army . The number of signatories had risen to over 100 by December 2007 , and as of July 2011 over 220 evangelical leaders had signed the call to action . David P. Gushee , a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University , helped draft the document . When the Evangelical Climate Initiative launched in February 2006 , the National Association of Evangelicals ( NAE ) was not ready to make such a commitment . Not quite a year later , the NAE worked with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to bring scientists and evangelical Christian leaders together to mitigate climate change . As ABC News reported :", "qid": "258", "docid": "Evangelical_Climate_Initiative", "rank": 15, "score": 121247 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 16, "score": 121063 }, { "content": "Title: North American Carbon Program Content: The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "qid": "258", "docid": "North_American_Carbon_Program", "rank": 17, "score": 120687 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 18, "score": 120288 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 19, "score": 119904 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 20, "score": 119893 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Raupach Content: Michael Robin Raupach ( 30 October 1950 -- 10 February 2015 ) was an Australian climate scientist . He is credited with developing the concept of a carbon budget , the amount of CO2 that is emitted and absorbed in the global ecosystem in the course of a year . When the in balance , CO2 emissions and absorption in carbon sinks are roughly the same , but when disturbed , possibly large changes in the ecosystem ensue . He was a founding co-chair of the Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) , a network of the world 's leading carbon cycle researchers . He was instrumental in publishing the Annual Carbon Budget , which draws on a large amount of scientific data to determine the level of imbalance and options for addressing it . He worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation before becoming the director of the Australian National University 's Climate Change Institute in 2014 . He was a co-chair of the Global Carbon Project from 2000 to 2008 , and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 . He chaired the steering committee of the ` Australia 2050 ' project of the Australian Academy of Science ( AAS ) . In 2009 -- 2010 he chaired the Expert Working Group on Challenges at the Intersection of Carbon , Energy and Water , reporting to the Prime Minister 's Science , Engineering and Innovation Council and the Office of the Chief Scientist of Australia . His career included the publication of 150 scientific papers and 50 reports . His research developed in three stages , the first focused on very localized flow and transport of matter and energy through and above plant canopies . At the next stage , he worked on quantification of CO2 transport through and above plant canopies , though still on a small scale . In the 1990s , his focus began to shift to global ecosystems when he became a member of the scientific steering committee of the Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle core project of the IGBP ( International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ) . One of the most fundamental and important questions that the project addressed was : does the land-surface matter in climate and weather ? His research contributed to addressing that question , through his work on turbulent fluxes near the land surface , boundary-layer budgeting and quantifying the water balance at broader scales . He was a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science , the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering , and the American Geophysical Union . Just before his death following a short illness , he co-chaired the working group of the Australian Academy of Science drafting the AAS booklet The Science of Climate Change : Questions and Answers .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Michael_Raupach", "rank": 21, "score": 119578 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 22, "score": 119443 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 23, "score": 117961 }, { "content": "Title: Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Content: Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "qid": "258", "docid": "Surveys_of_scientists'_views_on_climate_change", "rank": 24, "score": 117841 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "258", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 25, "score": 117680 }, { "content": "Title: Kenneth Hare Content: Fredrick Kenneth Hare , ( February 5 , 1919 -- September 3 , 2002 ) was a Canadian climatologist and academic , who researched atmospheric carbon dioxide , climate change , drought , and arid zone climates and was a strong advocate for preserving the natural environment .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Kenneth_Hare", "rank": 26, "score": 116984 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 27, "score": 116978 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 28, "score": 115308 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 29, "score": 114869 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 30, "score": 114316 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 31, "score": 114292 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 32, "score": 114131 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 33, "score": 113864 }, { "content": "Title: James Hansen Content: James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "qid": "258", "docid": "James_Hansen", "rank": 34, "score": 113537 }, { "content": "Title: Presidential Climate Action Plan Content: President Barack Obama 's Climate Action Plan proposed a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions . It included preserving forests , encouraging the use of alternate fuels , and increased study of climate change . The plan was first established in 2008 and updated every two years since . The plan would support conservation of land and water resources and developing actionable climate science , and to encourage other countries to take action to address climate change , including reducing deforestation and lowering subsidies that increase use of fossil fuels . The plan specifically mentions methane , building efficiency , wind , solar and hydroelectricity . White House staff members who were directly tasked with implementation of the plan include Heather Zichal and Michelle Patron . On the first day of the presidency of Donald Trump , the White House website announced that The Climate Action Plan would be eliminated , stating it is ` harmful and unnecessary ' .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Presidential_Climate_Action_Plan", "rank": 35, "score": 113252 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 36, "score": 113004 }, { "content": "Title: Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases Content: The Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases , created in 1985 , was an advisory body for the review of studies into the greenhouse effect . The group was created by the International Council of Scientific Unions , the United Nations Environment Programme , and the World Meteorological Organization to follow up on the recommendations of the International conference of the Assessment of the role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts , held at Villach , Austria , in October 1985 . The seven-member panel included Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin and Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare . The group held its last meeting in 1990 . It was gradually replaced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Advisory_Group_on_Greenhouse_Gases", "rank": 37, "score": 112762 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "258", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 38, "score": 112550 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP17 ) was held in Durban , South Africa , from 28 November to 11 December 2011 to establish a new treaty to limit carbon emissions . A treaty was not established , but the conference agreed to establish a legally binding deal comprising all countries by 2015 , which was to take effect in 2020 . There was also progress regarding the creation of a Green Climate Fund for which a management framework was adopted . The fund is to distribute US$ 100 billion per year to help poor countries adapt to climate impacts . While the president of the conference , Maite Nkoana-Mashabane , declared it a success , scientists and environmental groups warned that the deal was not sufficient to avoid global warming beyond 2 ° C as more urgent action is needed .", "qid": "258", "docid": "2011_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 39, "score": 112143 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 40, "score": 111624 }, { "content": "Title: Tom Wigley Content: Tom Wigley is a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide . He is also affiliated with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research ( UCAR ) . He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) for his major contributions to climate and carbon cycle modeling and to climate data analysis , and because he is `` one of the world 's foremost experts on climate change and one of the most highly cited scientists in the discipline . '' His h-index ( August 2014 ) is 64 , one of the highest in the discipline . He contributed to many of the reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) . Wigley was educated as a mathematical physicist and earned his doctorate at the University of Adelaide in Australia . He served as director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1993 . In 1993 he went on to the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder , Colorado , where he was appointed a senior scientist in 1994 . He subsequently moved to the University of Adelaide where he currently ( 2014 ) holds a Professorial Fellowship . His published papers include the first paper to demonstrate 20th century warming using both land and marine data , the first paper to include the effects of aerosol cooling on projections of future climate change , the first paper to provide realistic scenarios for the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 , and the first paper to use pattern-based methods to identify a significant human influence on the climate . Wigley has also published a number of highly cited papers in aqueous geochemistry , including a now-standard method for carbon dating of groundwater . Wigley has argued in the popular media that the IPCC has been too optimistic about the prospect of averting harmful climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions through the use of renewable technologies alone , and argued that any realistic portfolio must include significant contributions from nuclear energy . He has also pointed out that `` the human-induced changes that are expected over the next 100 years are much , much greater than any changes that societies experienced in the past . '' In 2013 , with other leading experts , he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers , which stated that `` continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity 's ability to avoid dangerous climate change . ''", "qid": "258", "docid": "Tom_Wigley", "rank": 41, "score": 111422 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 42, "score": 110783 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "258", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 43, "score": 110749 }, { "content": "Title: Five Ways to Save the World Content: Five Ways to Save the World is a British documentary film on environmental issues related to climate change , released in 2006 . The film was made by Karen O'Connor , for the big screen and was shot in the English language to reach an international audience . It includes interviews with five environmental scientists and experts including Paul Crutzen , James Roger Angel , John Latham , Ian Jones , and Klaus Lackner . The `` five ways '' proposed are geoengineering techniques : space lenses in orbit , to diffract sunlight away from the earth cloud seeding with seawater to increase albedo sulfur launched into the stratosphere to increase albedo ocean fertilization with iron or urea ( nitrogen fertilizer ) artificial trees ( see carbon capture and sequestration ) Since the first three methods do not remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , they would only reduce global warming but not ocean acidification . Since the last two methods would remove carbon dioxide , they could in theory reduce both global warming and ocean acidification .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Five_Ways_to_Save_the_World", "rank": 44, "score": 110184 }, { "content": "Title: Journal for Geoclimatic Studies Content: The Journal for Geoclimatic Studies is the name given to a nonexistent journal which published a fabricated global warming study in November 2007 entitled , `` Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria : the death of manmade global warming theory ? '' The published study identified the Journal for Geoclimatic Studies as an official publication of Okinawa University 's Institute for Geoclimatic Studies ( The Institute for Geoclimatic Studies is also fraudulent and does not exist ) . The spurious study , ostensibly authored by Daniel Klein and Mandeep J. Gupta of the University of Arizona 's Department of Climatology , and Philip Cooper and Arne FR Jansson at the University of Gothenburg 's Department of Atmospheric Physics , claimed that global warming was not human caused , but the work of carbon-dioxide emitting bacteria based on the ocean floor . The report was circulated by a number of global warming skeptics before discovery that the study authors and university departments identified in the publication did not exist . The website where the study was published was taken down once the deception was revealed , and its ownership was traced to David Thorpe , a science journalist and web designer based in the United Kingdom . The true author of the article is purportedly a man identifying himself as Mark Cox , who has claimed the hoax was designed to expose the gullibility and scientific illiteracy of global warming skeptics .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Journal_for_Geoclimatic_Studies", "rank": 45, "score": 110060 }, { "content": "Title: Younger Dryas impact hypothesis Content: The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis or Clovis comet hypothesis originally proposed that a large air burst or earth impact of one or more comets initiated the Younger Dryas cold period about 12,900 BP calibrated ( 10,900 14C uncalibrated ) years ago . The hypothesis has been contested by research showing that most of the conclusions can not be repeated by other scientists , and criticized because of misinterpretation of data and the lack of confirmatory evidence . The current impact hypothesis states that the air burst ( s ) or impact ( s ) of a swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comet fragments set areas of the North American continent on fire , causing the extinction of most of the megafauna in North America and the demise of the North American Clovis culture after the last glacial period . The Younger Dryas ice age lasted for about 1,200 years before the climate warmed again . This swarm is hypothesized to have exploded above or possibly on the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the region of the Great Lakes , though no impact crater has yet been identified and no physical model by which such a swarm could form or explode in the air has been proposed . Nevertheless , the proponents suggest that it would be physically possible for such an air burst to have been similar to , but orders of magnitude larger than , the Tunguska event of 1908 . The hypothesis proposed that animal and human life in North America not directly killed by the blast or the resulting coast-to-coast wildfires would have likely starved on the burned surface of the continent .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis", "rank": 46, "score": 109826 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 47, "score": 109201 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 48, "score": 108528 }, { "content": "Title: Thomas Knutson Content: Thomas Knutson is a climate modeller at the US Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory , a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . His research covers hurricane activity , the link between climate change and hurricane incidence and intensity , and climate change detection and attribution . He served as a contributing author on working group 1 of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . He is an Associate Editor of the American Meteorological Society 's Journal of Climate . He has published in Science , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Journal of Geophysical Research , Journal of Climate , Tropical Cyclone Research and Review , Tellus A and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society . In 2004 , Knutson published a paper suggesting that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide would lead to more intense hurricanes . This finding was subsequently supported by independent research . Knutson was invited to discuss his thesis on Ron Reagan 's MSNBC talk show , but the invitation was withdrawn after the White House intervened . Source : New Scientist Magazine 2007-02-03 , p. 5", "qid": "258", "docid": "Thomas_Knutson", "rank": 49, "score": 108512 }, { "content": "Title: Christopher Field Content: Chris Field , Ph.D is an American scientist and researcher , who has contributed to the field of climate change . The author of more than 200 scientific publications , Field 's research emphasizes impacts of climate change , from the molecular to the global scale . His work includes major field experiments on responses of California grassland to multi-factor global change , integrative studies on the global carbon cycle , and assessments of impacts of climate change on agriculture . Field 's work with models includes studies on the global distribution of carbon sources and sinks , and studies on environmental consequences of expanding biomass energy .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Christopher_Field", "rank": 50, "score": 108311 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 51, "score": 108201 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 52, "score": 108041 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 53, "score": 107938 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 54, "score": 107788 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 55, "score": 107178 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and potatoes Content: Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_and_potatoes", "rank": 56, "score": 107161 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 57, "score": 107042 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "258", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 58, "score": 106478 }, { "content": "Title: Ken Caldeira Content: Kenneth Caldeira is an atmospheric scientist who works at the Carnegie Institution for Science 's Department of Global Ecology . He researches ocean acidification , climate effects of trees , intentional climate modification , and interactions in the global carbon cycle/climate system . He also acted as an inventor for Intellectual Ventures , a Seattle-based invention and patent company headed up by Nathan Myhrvold .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Ken_Caldeira", "rank": 59, "score": 106168 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 60, "score": 106022 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 61, "score": 105963 }, { "content": "Title: David Reay Content: David S. Reay is a climate change scientist , author , and professor of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh .", "qid": "258", "docid": "David_Reay", "rank": 62, "score": 105649 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "258", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 63, "score": 104926 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 64, "score": 104920 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 65, "score": 104841 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon bubble Content: The carbon bubble is a hypothesized bubble in the valuation of companies dependent on fossil-fuel-based energy production , because the true costs of carbon dioxide in intensifying global warming are not yet taken into account in a company 's stock market valuation . Currently the price of fossil fuels companies ' shares is calculated under the assumption that all fossil fuel reserves will be consumed . An estimate made by Kepler Chevreux puts the loss in value of the fossil fuel companies due to the impact of the growing renewables industry at US$ 28 trillion over the next two decades-long . A more recent analysis made by Citi puts that figure at $ 100 trillion . Analysts in both the petroleum and financial industries are concluding that the `` age of oil '' has already reached a new stage where the excess supply that appeared in late 2014 may continue to prevail in the future . A consensus appears to be emerging that an international agreement will be reached to introduce measures to constrain the combustion of hydrocarbons in an effort to limit global temperature rise to the nominal 2 ° C that is consensually predicted to limit environmental harm to tolerable levels . According to the UK 's Committee on Climate Change , overvaluing companies that produce fossil fuels and greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to the economy . The committee warned the British government and Bank of England of the risks of the carbon bubble in 2014 . The following year , Mark Carney , the Governor of the Bank of England , in his lecture to Lloyd 's of London , warned that limiting global warming to 2 ° C appears to require that the `` vast majority '' of fossil fuel reserves be `` stranded '' , or `` literally unburnable without expensive carbon-capture technology '' , resulting in `` potentially huge '' exposure to investors in that sector . He concluded that `` the window of opportunity is finite and shrinking '' for responding to the threat that climate change poses to financial resilience and longer-term prosperity , which he called the `` tragedy of the horizon '' . That same month , the Prudential Regulation Authority of the Bank of England issued a report discussing the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to the insurance industry . In his speech announcing his denial of the proposal to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline , U.S. President Barack Obama gave as one reason for the decision '' ... ultimately , if we 're going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes , we 're going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground ... '' .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carbon_bubble", "rank": 66, "score": 104688 }, { "content": "Title: William D. Sellers Content: William D. Sellers ( 18 August 1928 -- 27 August 2014 ) was an American meteorologist , climate scientist , and pioneer of climate modelling . He created one the earliest climate models and was one of the first scientists to recognize the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere on the earth 's climate . He published the textbook `` Physical Climatology '' .", "qid": "258", "docid": "William_D._Sellers", "rank": 67, "score": 104659 }, { "content": "Title: Suess effect Content: The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Suess_effect", "rank": 68, "score": 104651 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 69, "score": 104635 }, { "content": "Title: The Hartwell Paper Content: The Hartwell Paper calls for a reorientation of climate policy after the perceived failure in 2009 of the UNFCCC climate conference in Copenhagen . The paper was published in May 2010 by the London School of Economics in cooperation with the University of Oxford . The authors are 14 natural and social scientists from Asia , Europe and North America , including Mike Hulme , Roger A. Pielke ( Jr ) , Nico Stehr and Steve Rayner , who met under the Chatham House Rule . The paper argues that `` decarbonisation will only be achieved successfully as a benefit contingent upon other goals which are politically attractive and relentlessly pragmatic . '' It emphasizes human dignity as a necessary guiding principle for climate policy : `` To reframe the climate issue around matters of human dignity is not just noble or necessary . It is also likely to be more effective than the approach of framing around human sinfulness -- which has failed and will continue to fail . '' It has three main objectives : 1 . Energy access for all The paper advocates taking investments in the innovations of renewable energy to decrease energy costs and to make them more affordable to society . Only this diversification of energy could extend the access to energy , especially in undeveloped countries . 2 . Clean energy 3 . Dealing with climate change The ultimate goal is `` to develop non-carbon energy supplies at unsubsidised costs less than those using fossil fuels . '' The Hartwell Paper recommends achieving this goal by introducing low carbon taxes . Moreover this money should be used to develop a CO2 free energy supply .", "qid": "258", "docid": "The_Hartwell_Paper", "rank": 70, "score": 104283 }, { "content": "Title: George M. Woodwell Content: George M. Woodwell ( born October 23 , 1930 ) is an ecologist . He is an alumnus of Dartmouth College , class of 1950 . Woodwell founded the Woods Hole Research Center in 1985 in Woods Hole , MA as an institute for global environmental research . He is retired , but retains the title of Director Emeritus . He was one of the first scientists to sound the alarm on climate change , and he first testified to Congress about climate change impacts in 1986 . In 1997 he was awarded the 3rd Annual Heinz Award in the Environment and in 2001 he was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize .", "qid": "258", "docid": "George_M._Woodwell", "rank": 71, "score": 104264 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Code Red Content: Climate Code Red : The Case for Emergency Action is a 2008 book which presents scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is worse than official reports and national governments have so far indicated . The book argues that we are facing a `` sustainability emergency '' that requires a clear break from business-as-usual politics . The authors explain that emergency action to address climate change is not so much a radical idea as an indispensable course we must embark upon . Climate Code Red draws heavily on the work of a large number of climate scientists , including James E. Hansen . The key themes of Climate Code Red are : `` Our goal is a safe-climate future -- we have no right to bargain away species or human lives . '' `` We are facing rapid warming impacts : the danger is immediate , not just in the future . '' `` For a safe climate future , we must take action now to stop emissions and to cool the earth . '' `` Plan a large-scale transition to a post-carbon economy and society . '' `` Recognise a climate and sustainability emergency , because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual '' . Co-author David Spratt is a Melbourne businessman , climate-policy analyst , and co-founder of the Carbon Equity network . Co-author Philip Sutton is convener of the Greenleap Strategic Institute and Assistant Convenor of the Climate Emergency Network . The book was launched by the Governor of Victoria , Professor David de Kretser in Parliament House in Melbourne , Victoria , on July 17 , 2008 .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_Code_Red", "rank": 72, "score": 104024 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 73, "score": 103885 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Saskatchewan Content: The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Saskatchewan", "rank": 74, "score": 103629 }, { "content": "Title: Vatican Climate Forest Content: The Vatican Climate Forest , to be located in the Bükk National Park , Hungary , was donated to the Vatican City by a carbon offsetting company . The forest is to be sized to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Vatican during 2007 . The Vatican 's acceptance of the offer , at a ceremony on July 5 , 2007 , was reported as being `` purely symbolic '' , and a way to encourage Catholics to do more to safeguard the planet . No trees have been planted under the project and the carbon offsets have not materialised . In a more effective move to combat global warming , in May 2007 , the Vatican announced that the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall would be covered with photovoltaic panels . The installation was officially placed into service on November 26 , 2008 .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Vatican_Climate_Forest", "rank": 75, "score": 103053 }, { "content": "Title: Tihomir Novakov Content: Tihomir Novakov , Ph.D known also as Tica Novakov ( March 16 , 1929 -- January 2 , 2015 ) was a Serbian-born American physicist . As a scientist , Novakov is known for his black carbon , air quality , and climate change research . James Hansen dubbed him `` the godfather of black carbon . ''", "qid": "258", "docid": "Tihomir_Novakov", "rank": 76, "score": 102830 }, { "content": "Title: Individual action on climate change Content: Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Individual_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 77, "score": 102811 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 78, "score": 102762 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 79, "score": 102439 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Authority Content: The Climate Change Authority is an Australian statutory agency established under the Climate Change Authority Act 2011 . It began operations on 1 July 2012 . Its role is to review various climate change policies , including the Carbon Farming Initiative and National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting system , and to advise the Australian Government and Parliament on other matters as requested . The Authority has no legislative or executive powers , which remain with the Government and Parliament of the day . The Authority is presently undertaking a Special Review into Australia 's policies and targets for reducing emissions in the context of its international commitments and those of other countries . The Special Review is due to be completed by 30 June 2016 . The Authority has a Board comprising a Chair and eight permanent members : Dr Wendy Craik ( Chair ) , Stuart Allinson ( Acting Chair ) , Kate Carnell AO , Professor David Karoly , Professor John Quiggin , Professor Clive Hamilton , The Hon. John Sharp , Dr Alan Finkel and Danny Price . A tenth member , Andrew Macintosh , sits as an associate member until the conclusion of the Special Review . Dr Finkel is an ex officio member of the Authority as Australia 's Chief Scientist , replacing the former Chief Scientist Ian Chubb . The original Chair of the Authority was former Reserve Bank of Australia Governor and Treasury Secretary , Bernie Fraser . He resigned from the position in September 2015 . The agency is based in Melbourne where it has the advantage of being able to work closely with the Productivity Commission . The agency was allocated A$ 6.2 million in the 2012-13 financial year . The Australian Government , under Liberal leadership , is in the process of abolishing the Climate Change Authority , a move which has been heavily criticised .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_Change_Authority", "rank": 80, "score": 102200 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 81, "score": 102182 }, { "content": "Title: Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists Content: The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "qid": "258", "docid": "Bali_Declaration_by_Climate_Scientists", "rank": 82, "score": 102180 }, { "content": "Title: Politics of global warming Content: The complex politics of global warming results from numerous cofactors arising from the global economy 's interdependence on carbon dioxide emitting hydrocarbon energy sources and because carbon dioxide is directly implicated in global warming -- making global warming a non-traditional environmental challenge .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Politics_of_global_warming", "rank": 83, "score": 102088 }, { "content": "Title: The Hype about Hydrogen Content: The Hype about Hydrogen : Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate is a book by Joseph J. Romm , published in 2004 by Island Press and updated in 2005 . The book has been translated into German as Der Wasserstoff-Boom . Romm is an expert on clean energy , advanced vehicles , energy security , and greenhouse gas mitigation . Over 200 publications , including Scientific American , Forbes magazine and The New York Times , have cited this book . The book was named one of the best science and technology books of 2004 by Library Journal . The thrust of the book is that hydrogen is not economically feasible to use for transportation , nor will its use reduce global warming , because of the cost and greenhouse gases generated during production , the low energy content per volume and weight of the container , the cost of the fuel cells , and the cost of the infrastructure . The author argues that a major effort to introduce hydrogen cars before 2030 would actually undermine efforts to reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide .", "qid": "258", "docid": "The_Hype_about_Hydrogen", "rank": 84, "score": 102007 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 85, "score": 101939 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in popular culture Content: The issue of climate change and global warming , their possible effects , and related human-environment interaction have entered popular culture since the late 20th century . Science historian Naomi Oreskes has noted , `` There 's a huge disconnect between what professional scientists have studied and learned in the last 30 years , and what is out there in the popular culture . '' An academic study contrasts the relatively rapid acceptance of ozone depletion as reflected in popular culture with the much slower acceptance of the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_in_popular_culture", "rank": 86, "score": 101894 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 87, "score": 101792 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon literacy Content: Carbon Literacy is a term used to describe an awareness of climate change and the climate impacts of mankind 's everyday actions . The term has been used in a range of contexts in scientific literature and in casual usage ( see Research ) , but is most associated with The Carbon Literacy Project ( CLP ) .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carbon_literacy", "rank": 88, "score": 101784 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in China Content: The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Climate_change_in_China", "rank": 89, "score": 101673 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 90, "score": 101247 }, { "content": "Title: Ian G. Enting Content: Ian Enting ( born 25 September 1948 ) is a mathematical physicist and the AMSI/MASCOS Professorial Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems ( MASCOS ) based at The University of Melbourne . Enting is the author of Twisted , The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial in which he analyses the presentation and use of data by climate change deniers . More recently he has been addressing the claims made in Ian Plimer 's book `` Heaven + Earth '' . He has published a critique , `` Ian Plimer 's ` Heaven + Earth ' -- Checking the Claims '' , listing what Enting claims are numerous misrepresentations of the sources cited in the book . From 1980 to 2004 he worked in CSIRO Atmospheric Research , primarily on modelling the global carbon cycle . He was one of the lead authors of the chapter and the Carbon Cycle in the 1994 IPCC report on Radiative Forcing of Climate . Enting has published scientific papers , on mathematical physics and carbon cycle modelling , and a monograph on mathematical techniques for interpreting observations of carbon dioxide and other trace gases .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Ian_G._Enting", "rank": 91, "score": 100841 }, { "content": "Title: Peter A. Stott Content: Peter A. Stott is a climate scientist who leads the Climate Monitoring and Attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research at the Met Office in Exeter , UK . He is an expert on anthropogenic and natural causes of climate change . He was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I report , chapter 9 , for the AR4 released in 2007 and is an editor of the Journal of Climate . Peter has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Durham University and completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge . He was awarded a PhD by Imperial College London for work on atmospheric modelling of the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster . After his PhD he carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh on stratospheric ozone depletion .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Peter_A._Stott", "rank": 92, "score": 100780 }, { "content": "Title: Carnian Pluvial Event Content: The Carnian Pluvial Event ( CPE ) is a major global climate change and biotic turnover that occurred during the Carnian , early Late Triassic , ~ 230 million years ago . The base of the CPE is marked by a ~ 0.4 % negative shift in carbon stable isotopes of fossil molecules ( n-alkanes ) from higher plants and total organic carbon . A ~ 0.15 % negative shift in oxygen stable isotopes of conodont apatite suggests a global warming . Major changes in organisms responsible for calcium carbonate production occurred during the CPE . A halt of carbonate sedimentation is observed in deep water settings of Southern Italy that was probably caused by the rise of the Carbonate Compensation Depth ( CCD ) . High extinction rates occurred among ammonoids , conodonts , bryozoa , and crinoids . Major evolutionary innovations followed the CPE , as the first occurrence of dinosaurs , calcareous nannofossils and scleractinian corals .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Carnian_Pluvial_Event", "rank": 93, "score": 100476 }, { "content": "Title: Timothy Ball Content: Timothy Francis `` Tim '' Ball ( born November 5 , 1938 ) is a Canadian geographer . A retired professor , he taught in the department of geography at the University of Winnipeg from 1971 until 1996 . Ball rejects the scientific opinion on climate change , stating that `` CO2 is not a greenhouse gas . '' He has worked with the Friends of Science and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project , and is a research fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Timothy_Ball", "rank": 94, "score": 100150 }, { "content": "Title: Field Notes from a Catastrophe Content: Field Notes from a Catastrophe : Man , Nature , and Climate Change is a 2006 non-fiction book by Elizabeth Kolbert . The book attempts to bring attention to the causes and effects of global climate change . Kolbert travels around the world where climate change is affecting the environment in significant ways . These locations include Alaska , Greenland , the Netherlands , and Iceland . The environmental effects that are apparent consist of rising sea levels , thawing permafrost , diminishing ice shelves , changes in migratory patterns , and increasingly devastating forest fires due to loss of precipitation . She also speaks with many leading scientists about their individual research and findings . Kolbert brings to attention the attempts of large corporations such as Exxon Mobil and General Motors to influence politicians and discredit scientists . She also writes about America 's reluctance in the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions . Leading this resistance , she explained , was the Bush administration , which was opposed to the Kyoto protocol since it was ratified in 2005 . Kolbert concludes the book by examining the events surrounding the events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and arguing that governments have the knowledge and technologies to prepare for such disasters but choose to ignore the signs until it is too late .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Field_Notes_from_a_Catastrophe", "rank": 95, "score": 100124 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "258", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 96, "score": 99945 }, { "content": "Title: Citizens' Climate Lobby Content: Citizens ' Climate Lobby ( CCL ) is an international grassroots environmental group that trains and supports volunteers to build relationships with their elected representatives in order to influence climate policy . Operating since 2007 , the goal of CCL is to build political support across party lines to put a price on carbon , specifically a revenue neutral carbon fee and dividend ( CF&D ) at the national level . CCL is supported by notable climate scientists James Hansen , Katharine Hayhoe , and Daniel Kammen . CCL 's advisory board also includes former Secretary of State George Shultz , former US Representative Bob Inglis , actor Don Cheadle , and RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris . Founded in the United States , CCL has active groups in Australia , Bangladesh , Brazil , Burundi , Cameroon , Canada , Chile , France , Germany , Iceland , India , Italy , Kenya , Nepal , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Nigeria , Panama , Poland , Portugal , Qatar , Romania , Serbia , Scotland , Sweden , Switzerland , the Ukraine , and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Citizens'_Climate_Lobby", "rank": 97, "score": 99913 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 98, "score": 99829 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainable automotive air conditioning Content: Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends . The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases . Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .", "qid": "258", "docid": "Sustainable_automotive_air_conditioning", "rank": 99, "score": 99579 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place from October 23 to November 1 , 2002 , in New Delhi , India . The conference included the 8th Conference of the Parties ( COP8 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The conference adopted the Delhi Ministerial Declaration that , amongst others , called for efforts by developed countries to transfer technology and minimize the impact of climate change on developing countries . It is also approved the New Delhi work programme on Article 6 of the Convention . The COP8 was marked by Russia 's hesitation , stating that it needed more time to think it over . The Kyoto Protocol could enter into force once it was ratified by 55 countries , including countries responsible for 55 per cent of the developed world 's 1990 carbon dioxide emissions . With the United States ( 36.1 per cent share of developed-world carbon dioxide ) and Australia refusing ratification , Russia 's agreement ( 17 % of global emissions in 1990 ) was required to meet the ratification criteria and therefore Russia could delay the process .", "qid": "258", "docid": "2002_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 100, "score": 99459 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 1, "score": 192828 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan M. Gregory Content: Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_M._Gregory", "rank": 2, "score": 148083 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 3, "score": 143350 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 4, "score": 141940 }, { "content": "Title: John T. Houghton Content: Sir John Theodore Houghton ( born 30 December 1931 ) is a Welsh scientist who was the co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) scientific assessment working group . He was the lead editor of first three IPCC reports . He was professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford , former Director General at the Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre . He is the president of the John Ray Initiative , an organisation `` connecting Environment , Science and Christianity '' , where he has compared the stewardship of the Earth , to the stewardship of the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve . He is a founder member of the International Society for Science and Religion . He is also the current president of the Victoria Institute .", "qid": "261", "docid": "John_T._Houghton", "rank": 5, "score": 138764 }, { "content": "Title: An Appeal to Reason Content: An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson .", "qid": "261", "docid": "An_Appeal_to_Reason", "rank": 6, "score": 134412 }, { "content": "Title: Arturo Villavicencio Content: Arturo Villavicencio is an Ecuadorian environmental researcher . He was nominated by Denmark in 1995 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and contributed to its fourth assessment report ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Arturo_Villavicencio", "rank": 7, "score": 132089 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "261", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 8, "score": 131441 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 9, "score": 130687 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 10, "score": 127704 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Rosenberg (SIP author) Content: Jonathan Rosenberg ( born ) is a technologist noted for his work in IP communications . Network World has referred to him as `` a pioneer -LSB- in -RSB- the development of the SIP protocol '' , and he was included in the 2002 TR35 list of the world 's top under-35 innovators , as published by MIT Technology Review . , Rosenberg is the vice president and chief technology officer for Collaboration at Cisco , having previously worked as Skype 's chief technology strategist .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_Rosenberg_(SIP_author)", "rank": 11, "score": 125260 }, { "content": "Title: Bert Bolin Content: Bert Rickard Johannes Bolin ( -LSB- bæʈː bʊliːn -RSB- ; 15 May 1925 -- 30 December 2007 ) was a Swedish meteorologist who served as the first chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , from 1988 to 1997 . He was professor of meteorology at Stockholm University from 1961 until his retirement in 1990 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Bert_Bolin", "rank": 12, "score": 124459 }, { "content": "Title: John Weyant Content: John P. Weyant ( born July 23 , 1947 ) is a research professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University . He obtained his PhD from UC Berkeley and has been at Stanford since 1977 . His research is focussed on climate change , energy security , corporate strategy analysis , and energy policy in Japan . Weyant is the director of the Energy Modeling Forum , an editor of Energy Economics , and a lead author of the IPCC ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) . He is a key figure in the academic communities of energy economics , integrated assessment modelling , and climate economics , and has been influential in shaping the international policy debate on climate policy .", "qid": "261", "docid": "John_Weyant", "rank": 13, "score": 123499 }, { "content": "Title: Giovanni Marliani Content: Giovanni Marliani was an Italian physicist , doctor , philosopher and astrologer who was born and lived during the Late Medieval period in northern Italy . Marliani specialised in many mathematical fields and lectured on the phenomenon of natural body heat . He was the first to empirically prove that hot water freezes faster than cold water .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Giovanni_Marliani", "rank": 14, "score": 122900 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "261", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 15, "score": 122859 }, { "content": "Title: C. Vernon Cole Content: Dr. C. Vernon Cole ( 1922 -- August 30 , 2013 ) was a soil scientist known primarily for his work on nutrient cycling in agroecosystems . He was a member of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Second Assessment report , and the lead author of Chapter 23 `` Agricultural Options for Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions '' . The IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "C._Vernon_Cole", "rank": 16, "score": 122407 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 17, "score": 122094 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Change Conference, Moscow Content: The World Climate Change Conference was held in Moscow from September 29 to October 3 , 2003 . The initiative of convening the Conference was taken by Vladimir Putin , the President of the Russian Federation . The Conference was convened by the Russian Federation , and supported by international bodies including the United Nations . It should not be confused with the World Climate Conferences . The conference summary report , which was endorsed at concluding session of the Conference , October 3 , 2003 , endorsed the consensus represented by the IPCC TAR : The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has provided the basis for much of our present understanding of knowledge in this field in its Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 . A large majority of the international scientific community has accepted its general conclusions that climate change is occurring , is primarily a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols , and that this represents a threat to people and ecosystems . Some divergent scientific interpretations were brought forward and discussed in the Conference . Andreas Fischlin , conference participant and IPCC author was critical of the conference , saying : However , concerning the scientific content of the conference , we had also to struggle with considerable difficulties . Unfortunately , there were not only leading scientists present , but also some colleagues who used the conference to express personal , political opinions based on value judgement instead of scientific facts and rigorously derived , scientific insights and thorough understanding . Thereby , I believe , principles of proper scientific conduct were violated too often and sometimes , I am afraid having to say so , even systematically . This contrasts sharply with the principles upheld by the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) , which allow only to assess the current knowledge based on the best available , peer reviewed scientific literature and which do not allow for any non-scientific value judgements , let alone policy recommendations .", "qid": "261", "docid": "World_Climate_Change_Conference,_Moscow", "rank": 18, "score": 121876 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Oppenheim Content: Jonathan Oppenheim is a professor of physics at University College London . He is an expert in quantum information theory and quantum gravity . His Ph.D. under Bill Unruh at the University of British Columbia was on Quantum time . In 2004 he was a postdoctoral researcher under Jacob Bekenstein and a Royal Society University Fellow in Cambridge before moving to University College London . Together with Michał Horodecki and Andreas Winter , he discovered quantum state-merging and used this primitive to show that quantum information could be negative . More recently he and collaborators have developed a resource theory for thermodynamics on the nano and quantum scale . Together with Lluis Masanes , he proved the Third law of thermodynamics , first conjectured by Walther Nernst in 1912 . As a student Oppenheim was involved in the Edible Ballot Society which satirically advanced eating ballots to highlight the democracy gap in electoral politics . He was arrested at the 1997 APEC protests on University of British Columbia campus . He withdrew from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP following the refusal of the Prime Minister to testify . His group was responsible for smuggling a siege catapult into the medieval city of Quebec during the Summit of Americas , 2001 . It was used to lob teddy bears .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_Oppenheim", "rank": 19, "score": 120972 }, { "content": "Title: United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy Content: The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "qid": "261", "docid": "United_States_House_Science_Subcommittee_on_Energy", "rank": 20, "score": 120051 }, { "content": "Title: Yuri Izrael Content: Yuri Antonovich Izrael ( Юрий Антониевич Израэль 15 May 1930 , Tashkent -- 23 January 2014 , Moscow ) was a vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) until September 2008 , when the new bureau was elected . He was the `` most influential scientific adviser '' for Vladimir Putin , the former president of Russia , according to CNN . Izrael was former chairman of the Committee for Hydrometeorology . He also served as director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology , which is a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences . He was a first vice-president of the World Meteorological Organization and helped develop the World Weather Watch . In 1992 , Izrael won the International Meteorological Organization Prize and the UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize for , among other accomplishments , contributing to the `` success of Working Group I I '' of the IPCC .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Yuri_Izrael", "rank": 21, "score": 119763 }, { "content": "Title: Vincent R. Gray Content: __ NOTOC __ Vincent Richard Gray ( born 24 March 1922 ) is a New Zealand-based chemist , and a founder of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition . Born in London on 24 March 1922 , Gray was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry by the University of Cambridge after studies on incendiary bomb fluids made from aluminium soaps . In New Zealand , he was the first Director of Building Research and later , Chief Chemist of the Coal Research Association . He has also published many articles and reports , seven in peer-reviewed journals . After retirement , he had four and a half years in China and when he returned became a critic of the claim that climate was harmed by human emissions of greenhouse gases . He has commented on every publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , with 1,898 comments on the 2007 Report . He has published critical studies on all of the reports including a book `` The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of ` Climate Change 2001 ' '' . He has published `` Confessions of a Climate Sceptic '' He is sceptical of the anthropogenic global warming : `` The two main `` scientific '' claims of the IPCC are the claim that `` the globe is warming '' and `` Increases in carbon dioxide emissions are responsible '' . Evidence for both of these claims is fatally flawed . '' Gray has called for the IPCC to be abolished , claiming it is `` fundamentally corrupt '' due to his conclusion that for significant parts of the work of the IPCC , the data collection and scientific methods employed are unsound and that the IPCC resists all efforts to try to discuss or rectify these problems . Gray was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Counterpoint in a debate entitled `` Nine Lies about Global Warming '' , and was interviewed in a featured story in the New Zealand Herald as a `` prominent '' global warming skeptic . In 2002 , Gray also published a book , The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of `` Climate Change 2001 '' . In it , Gray argues `` that the quality and reliability of the IPCC 's measurements are poor , the system of determining how much weight should be attributed to different influences on the earth 's temperature is faulty , and the validity of evidence derived from computer modeling is questionable . ''", "qid": "261", "docid": "Vincent_R._Gray", "rank": 22, "score": 119368 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 23, "score": 118733 }, { "content": "Title: Roger Pulwarty Content: Roger S. Pulwarty is a scientist from Trinidad and Tobago and contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He is the director of the US National Integrated Drought Information System at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) in Boulder , Colorado . Roger Pulwarty earned a B.S. degree ( Hons . ) in Atmospheric Sciences from York University in Toronto in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Climatology from the University of Boulder at Colorado in 1994 , where he worked under Professors Roger Barry and Herbert Riehl . His research and publications are on climate , climate impacts and adaptation policy in Western North America , Latin America and the Caribbean . From 1998-2002 he was the program director for the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments . He is Professor Adjunct at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of the West Indies . Dr. Pulwarty is a lead author on Chapter 17 of the 2007 IPCC Working Group II on Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability , on the IPCC 2008 Technical Report on Climate Change and Water and on Synthesis and Assessments Reports of the US Global Change Research Program . The IPCC is an intergovernmental body mandated by the UN to study the origins and effects of climate change on society and ecosystems . Dr. Pulwarty has served on Committees of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , and has provided testimonies before the U.S. Congress on climate , water resources and adaptation . Dr. Pulwarty acts in advisory roles on climate , natural resources , and disaster management to several U.S. and international interests including the Western Governors Association , the Department of the Interior , the governments of CARICOM ( the Caribbean Economic Community ) , the Organization of American States , the UNDP , UNEP and the World Bank .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Roger_Pulwarty", "rank": 24, "score": 118667 }, { "content": "Title: Michael E. Mann Content: Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data . As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences . Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Michael_E._Mann", "rank": 25, "score": 118528 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "261", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 26, "score": 118166 }, { "content": "Title: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 27, "score": 118143 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Third Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Third Assessment Report , Climate Change 2001 , is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the UN 's World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) '' ... to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' -LSB- IPCC website -RSB- The Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) is the third of a series of assessments ; it has been superseded by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , released in 2007 . Statements of the IPCC or information from the TAR are often used as a reference showing a scientific consensus on the subject of global warming , although a small minority of scientists take issue with the UN assessments ( see also Global warming controversy and Politics of global warming ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "IPCC_Third_Assessment_Report", "rank": 28, "score": 118051 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Second Assessment Report Content: The Second Assessment Report ( SAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 1996 , is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change . It was superseded by the Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "IPCC_Second_Assessment_Report", "rank": 29, "score": 117931 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Bullock (scientist) Content: Peter Bullock ( 6 July 1937 -- 5 April 2008 ) was a soil scientist whose initial work in the field of soil micromorphology preceded an interest in land degradation . His advocacy of the need to treat soil as a sustainable resource led to his appointment to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Bullock contributed to the reports of the IPCC , which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Peter_Bullock_(scientist)", "rank": 30, "score": 116870 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 31, "score": 116721 }, { "content": "Title: Dork Sahagian Content: Dork Sahagian is an Armenian American climate scientist . He is the Director of the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania . He invented a technique for calculating the Earth 's air pressure in the past , based on the difference in the size of the bubbles in cooled volcanic lava . Sahagian contributed to three of four assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , which on October 12 , 2007 was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Dork_Sahagian", "rank": 32, "score": 116473 }, { "content": "Title: The Deniers Content: The Deniers is a 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon , a Canadian environmentalist and writer . Subtitled `` The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria , political persecution , and fraud , '' the book draws attention to a number of scientists and others who , according to Solomon , have advanced arguments against what he calls the `` alarmist '' view of global warming , as presented by Al Gore , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , the mainstream media , and others . The book is based on a series of columns Solomon wrote for Canada 's National Post .", "qid": "261", "docid": "The_Deniers", "rank": 33, "score": 116208 }, { "content": "Title: Ye Tianshi Content: Ye Tianshi ( 1667-1747 ) was a Chinese medical scholar who was the major proponent of the `` school of warm diseases '' . His major work , Wen-re Lun ( Discussion of Warm Diseases ) published in 1746 , divided the manifestations of diseases into four stages : wei ( defensive phase ) , qi ( qi-phase ) , ying ( nutrient-phase ) , and xue ( blood-phase ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Ye_Tianshi", "rank": 34, "score": 116125 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Doran Content: Peter Doran , Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University . Doran specializes in polar regions , especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems . Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal Nature in January 2002 . Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000 , his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the global warming theory , such as Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton . In an opinion piece in the July 27 , 2006 New York Times , Doran characterized this as a `` misinterpretation '' and stated , `` I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming . '' ( The temporary phenomenon is related to the `` hole '' in the ozone . As the `` hole heals '' the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly . ) Doran and his grad student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also published a paper in the Jan 27 , 2009 issue of EOS showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth 's climate . Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Peter_Doran", "rank": 35, "score": 115090 }, { "content": "Title: Dinosaur renaissance Content: The dinosaur renaissance was a small-scale scientific revolution that started in the late 1960s , and led to renewed academic and popular interest in dinosaurs . It was sparked by new discoveries and research indicating that dinosaurs may have been active and warm-blooded animals , rather than cold-blooded and sluggish as had been the prevailing view and description during the first half of the twentieth century . The new view of dinosaurs was championed by John Ostrom , who argued that birds evolved from coelurosaurian dinosaurs , and particularly Robert Bakker who argued passionately that dinosaurs were warm-blooded in a way similar to modern mammals and birds . Bakker frequently portrayed his ideas as a renaissance of those popular in the late nineteenth century , referring to the period in between the Dinosaur Wars and the dinosaur renaissance as `` the dinosaur doldrums '' . The dinosaur renaissance led to a profound shift in thinking on nearly all aspects of dinosaur biology , including physiology , evolution , behaviour , ecology and extinction . It also led to many depictions of dinosaurs in popular culture .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Dinosaur_renaissance", "rank": 36, "score": 114543 }, { "content": "Title: Shiva Ayyadurai Content: V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai is an Indian-born American scientist and entrepreneur . Ayyadurai is notable for his controversial claim to be the `` inventor of email '' . His claim is based on the electronic mail software he wrote as a New Jersey high school student in the late 1970s , which he called EMAIL . Initial reports repeating Ayyadurai 's claim -- by organizations such as The Washington Post and the Smithsonian Institution -- were followed by public retractions . These corrections were triggered by objections from historians and ARPANET pioneers who pointed out email already existed in the early 1970s . Ayyadurai is also known for two controversial reports : the first questioning the working conditions of India 's largest scientific agency ; the second questioning the safety of genetically modified soybeans . Ayyadurai holds four degrees from MIT , including a Ph.D. in biological engineering , and is a Fulbright grant recipient . He is a candidate in the 2018 United States Senate election in Massachusetts .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Shiva_Ayyadurai", "rank": 37, "score": 113579 }, { "content": "Title: Alan Robock Content: Alan Robock ( born 1949 ) is an American climatologist . He is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University , New Jersey . He advocates nuclear disarmament and has met with Fidel Castro during a lecture trip to Cuba discuss the dangers of nuclear weapons . Alan Robock was a 2007 IPCC author , a member of the organisation when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize , `` for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change , and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change '' .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Alan_Robock", "rank": 38, "score": 113353 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Content: The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation . The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "IPCC_Fifth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 39, "score": 112985 }, { "content": "Title: Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Criticism_of_the_IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 40, "score": 112335 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "qid": "261", "docid": "IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 41, "score": 112249 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 42, "score": 112052 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "261", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 43, "score": 111799 }, { "content": "Title: Raymond Pierrehumbert Content: Raymond T. Pierrehumbert is the Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford . Previously , he was Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago . He was a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) and a co-author of the National Research Council report on abrupt climate change . He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996 , which was used to launch collaborative work on the climate of early Mars with collaborators in Paris . He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union ( AGU ) and has been named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the Republic of France . He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and sits on the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists . Pierrehumbert 's central research interest is how climate works as a system and developing idealized mathematical models to be used to address questions of climate science such as how the earth kept from freezing over : the faint young sun paradox . Current interests include climate of extrasolar planets . Pierrehumbert contributes to RealClimate . Pierrehumbert is married to Janet Pierrehumbert , professor of Language Modeling at the University of Oxford .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Raymond_Pierrehumbert", "rank": 44, "score": 111689 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "261", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 45, "score": 111661 }, { "content": "Title: Mieczysław Warmus Content: Mieczysław Warmus ( born April 1 , 1918 in Dobrowlany , d. September 20 , 2007 in Australia ) was a Polish mathematician , a pioneer of computer science in Poland , professor , university lecturer , author of over a hundred scientific papers .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Mieczysław_Warmus", "rank": 46, "score": 111655 }, { "content": "Title: Vicky Pope Content: Vicky Pope is head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre . She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation . Since October 2004 she has been Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change . Her research interests include developing and validating climate models . In an interview for The Guardian newspaper , she said : `` very few '' scientists disputed the latest IPCC report . `` The consensus on warming since the 1850s is that a large part is due to man 's activities , '' she said . `` That 's the line of the IPCC report and that position is strengthening . It is a very widespread consensus . There are a few very vocal people who are sceptics , only some of whom are actually scientists . Sceptics obviously have a place in the community . '' link", "qid": "261", "docid": "Vicky_Pope", "rank": 47, "score": 111419 }, { "content": "Title: List of medieval European scientists Content: Scientific activity in medieval Europe was maintained by the activity of a number of significant scholars , active in a wide range of scientific disciplines and working in Greek , Latin , and Arabic-speaking cultures . This list provides a brief summary of their work . Anthemius of Tralles ( ca. 474 -- ca. 534 ) , a professor of geometry and architecture , authored many influential works on mathematics and was one of the architects of the famed Hagia Sophia , the largest building in the world at its time . His works were among the most important source texts in the Arab world and Western Europe for centuries after . John Philoponus ( ca. 490 -- ca. 570 ) , also known as John the Grammarian , a Christian Byzantine philosopher , launched a revolution in the understanding of physics by critiquing and correcting the earlier works of Aristotle . In the process he proposed important concepts such as a rudimentary notion of inertia and the invariant acceleration of falling objects . Although his works were repressed at various times in the Byzantine Empire , because of religious controversy , they would nevertheless become important to the understanding of physics throughout Europe and the Arab world . Paul of Aegina ( ca. 625 -- ca. 690 ) , considered by some to be the greatest Christian Byzantine surgeon , developed many novel surgical techniques and authored the medical encyclopedia Medical Compendium in Seven Books . The book on surgery in particular was the definitive treatise in Europe and the Islamic world for hundreds of years . The Venerable Bede ( ca. 672 -- 735 ) , a Christian monk of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow who wrote a work On the Nature of Things , several books on the mathematical / astronomical subject of computus , the most influential entitled On the Reckoning of Time . He made original discoveries concerning the nature of the tides and his works on computus became required elements of the training of clergy , and thus greatly influenced early medieval knowledge of the natural world . Rabanus Maurus ( c. 780 -- 856 ) , a Christian monk and teacher , later archbishop of Mainz , who wrote a treatise on Computus and the encyclopedic work De universo . His teaching earned him the accolade of `` Praeceptor Germaniae , '' or `` the teacher of Germany . '' Abbas Ibn Firnas ( 810 -- 887 ) , a polymath and inventor in Muslim Spain , made contributions in a variety of fields and is most known for his contributions to glass-making and aviation . He developed novel ways of manufacturing and using glass . He broke his back at an unsuccessful attempt at flying a primitive hang glider in 875 . Pope Sylvester II ( c. 946 -- 1003 ) , a Christian scholar , teacher , mathematician , and later pope , reintroduced the abacus and armillary sphere to Western Europe after they had been lost for centuries following the Greco-Roman era . He was also responsible in part for the spread of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in Western Europe . Maslamah al-Majriti ( died 1008 ) , a mathematician , astronomer , and chemist in Muslim Spain , made contributions in many areas , from new techniques for surveying to updating and improving the astronomical tables of al-Khwarizmi and inventing a process for producing mercury oxide . He is most famous , though , for having helped transmit knowledge of mathematics and astronomy to Muslim Spain and Christian Western Europe . Abulcasis ( 936-1013 ) , a physician and scientist in Muslim Spain , is considered to be the father of modern surgery . He wrote numerous medical texts , developed many innovative surgical instruments , and developed a variety of new surgical techniques and practices . His texts were considered the definitive works on surgery in Europe until the Renaissance . Constantine the African ( c. 1020 & -- 1087 ) , a Christian native of Carthage , is best known for his translating of ancient Greek and Roman medical texts from Arabic into Latin while working at the Schola Medica Salernitana in Salerno , Italy . Among the works he translated were those of Hippocrates and Galen . Arzachel ( 1028 -- 1087 ) , the foremost astronomer of the early second millennium , lived in Muslim Spain and greatly expanded the understanding and accuracy of planetary models and terrestrial measurements used for navigation . He developed key technologies including the equatorium and universal latitude-independent astrolabe . Avempace ( died 1138 ) , a famous physicist from Muslim Spain who had an important influence on later physicists such as Galileo . He was the first to theorize the concept of a reaction force for every force exerted . Adelard of Bath ( c. 1080 -- c. 1152 ) was a 12th-century English scholar , known for his work in astronomy , astrology , philosophy and mathematics . Avenzoar ( 1091 -- 1161 ) , from Muslim Spain , introduced an experimental method in surgery , employing animal testing in order to experiment with surgical procedures before applying them to human patients . He also performed the earliest dissections and postmortem autopsies on both humans as well as animals . Robert Grosseteste ( 1168 -- 1253 ) , Bishop of Lincoln , was the central character of the English intellectual movement in the first half of the 13th century and is considered the founder of scientific thought in Oxford . He had a great interest in the natural world and wrote texts on the mathematical sciences of optics , astronomy and geometry . In his commentaries on Aristotle 's scientific works , he affirmed that experiments should be used in order to verify a theory , testing its consequences . Roger Bacon was influenced by his work on optics and astronomy . Albert the Great ( 1193 -- 1280 ) , Doctor Universalis , was one of the most prominent representatives of the philosophical tradition emerging from the Dominican Order . He is one of the thirty-three Saints of the Roman Catholic Church honored with the title of Doctor of the Church . He became famous for his vast knowledge and for his defence of the pacific coexistence between science and religion . Albert was an essential figure in introducing Greek and Islamic science into the medieval universities , although not without hesitation with regard to particular Aristotelian theses . In one of his most famous sayings he asserted : `` Science does not consist in ratifying what others say , but of searching for the causes of phenomena . '' Thomas Aquinas was his most famous pupil . John of Sacrobosco ( c. 1195 -- c. 1256 ) was a scholar , monk , and astronomer ( probably English , but possibly Irish or Scottish ) who taught at the University of Paris and wrote an authoritative and influential mediaeval astronomy text , the Tractatus de Sphaera ; the Algorismus , which introduced calculations with Hindu-Arabic numerals into the European university curriculum ; the Compotus ecclesiasticis on Easter reckoning ; and the Tractatus de quadrante on the construction and use of the astronomical quadrant . Jordanus de Nemore ( late 12th , early 13th century ) was one of the major pure mathematicians of the Middle Ages . He wrote treatises on mechanics ( `` the science of weights '' ) , on basic and advanced arithmetic , on algebra , on geometry , and on the mathematics of stereographic projection . Villard de Honnecourt ( fl . 13th century ) , a French engineer and architect who made sketches of mechanical devices such as automatons and perhaps drew a picture of an early escapement mechanism for clockworks . Roger Bacon ( 1214 -- 94 ) , Doctor Admirabilis , joined the Franciscan Order around 1240 where , influenced by Grosseteste , Alhacen and others , he dedicated himself to studies where he implemented the observation of nature and experimentation as the foundation of natural knowledge . Bacon wrote in such areas as mechanics , astronomy , geography and , most of all , optics . The optical research of Grosseteste and Bacon established optics as an area of study at the medieval university and formed the basis for a continuous tradition of research into optics that went all the way up to the beginning of the 17th century and the foundation of modern optics by Kepler . Ibn al-Baitar ( died 1248 ) , a botanist and pharmacist in Muslim Spain , researched over 1400 types of plants , foods , and drugs and compiled pharmaceutical and medical encyclopedias documenting his research . These were used in the Islamic world and Europe until the 19th century . Theodoric Borgognoni ( 1205-1296 ) was an Italian Dominican friar and Bishop of Cervia who promoted the uses of both antiseptics and anaesthetics in surgery . His written work had a deep impact on Henri de Mondeville , who studied under him while living in Italy and later became the court physician for King Philip IV of France . William of Saliceto ( 1210-1277 ) was an Italian surgeon of Lombardy who advanced medical knowledge and even challenged the work of the renowned Greco-Roman surgeon Galen ( 129-216 AD ) by arguing that allowing pus to form in wounds was detrimental to the health of he patient . Thomas Aquinas ( 1227 -- 74 ) , Doctor Angelicus , was an Italian theologian and friar in the Dominican Order . As his mentor Albert the Great , he is a Catholic Saint and Doctor of the Church . In addition to his extensive commentaries on Aristotle 's scientific treatises , he was also said to have written an important alchemical treatise titled Aurora Consurgens . However , his most lasting contribution to the scientific development of the period was his role in the incorporation of Aristotelianism into the Scholastic tradition . Arnaldus de Villa Nova ( 1235-1313 ) was an alchemist , astrologer , and physician from the Crown of Aragon who translated various Arabic medical texts , including those of Avicenna , and performed optical experiments with camera obscura . John Duns Scotus ( 1266 -- 1308 ) , Doctor Subtilis , was a member of the Franciscan Order , philosopher and theologian . Emerging from the academic environment of the University of Oxford . where the presence of Grosseteste and Bacon was still palpable , he had a different view on the relationship between reason and faith as that of Thomas Aquinas . For Duns Scotus , the truths of faith could not be comprehended through the use of reason . Philosophy , hence , should not be a servant to theology , but act independently . He was the mentor of one of the greatest names of philosophy in the Middle Ages : William of Ockham . Mondino de Liuzzi ( c. 1270-1326 ) was an Italian physician , surgeon , and anatomist from Bologna who was one of the first in Medieval Europe to advocate for the public dissection of cadavers for advancing the field of anatomy . This followed a long-held Christian ban on dissections performed by the Alexandrian school in the late Roman Empire . William of Ockham ( 1285 -- 1350 ) , Doctor Invincibilis , was an English Franciscan friar , philosopher , logician and theologian . Ockham defended the principle of parsimony , which could already be seen in the works of his mentor Duns Scotus . His principle later became known as Occam 's Razor and states that if there are various equally valid explanations for a fact , then the simplest one should be chosen . This became a foundation of what would come to be known as the scientific method and one of the pillars of reductionism in science . Ockham probably died of the Black Plague . Jean Buridan and Nicole Oresme were his followers . Jacopo Dondi dell ` Orologio ( 1290-1359 ) was an Italian doctor , clockmaker , and astronomer from Padua who wrote on a number of scientific subjects such as pharmacology , surgery , astrology , and natural sciences . He also designed an astronomical clock . Richard of Wallingford ( 1292-1336 ) , an English abbot , mathematician , astronomer , and horologist who designed an astronomical clock as well as an equatorium to calculate the lunar , solar and planetary longitudes , as well as predict eclipses . Jean Buridan ( 1300 -- 58 ) was a French philosopher and priest . Although he was one of the most famous and influent philosophers of the late Middle Ages , his work today is not renowned by people other than philosophers and historians . One of his most significant contributions to science was the development of the theory of impetus , that explained the movement of projectiles and objects in free-fall . This theory gave way to the dynamics of Galileo Galilei and for Isaac Newton 's famous principle of Inertia . Guy de Chauliac ( 1300-1368 ) was a French physician and surgeon who wrote the Chirurgia magna , a widely read publication throughout medieval Europe that became one of the standard textbooks for medical knowledge for the next three centuries . During the Black Death he clearly distinguished Bubonic Plague and Pneumonic Plague as separate diseases , that they were contagious from person to person , and offered advice such as quarantine to avoid their spread in the population . He also served as the personal physician for three successive popes of the Avignon Papacy . John Arderne ( 1307-1392 ) was an English physician and surgeon who invented his own anesthetic that combined hemlock , henbane , and opium . In his writings , he also described how to properly excise and remove the abscess caused by anal fistula . Nicole Oresme ( c. 1323 -- 82 ) was one of the most original thinkers of the 14th century . A theologian and bishop of Lisieux , he wrote influential treatises in both Latin and French on mathematics , physics , astronomy , and economics . In addition to these contributions , Oresme strongly opposed astrology and speculated about the possibility of a plurality of worlds . Giovanni Dondi dell ` Orologio ( c. 1330-1388 ) was a clockmaker from Padua , Italy who designed the astarium , an astronomical clock and planetarium that utilized the escapement mechanism that had been recently invented in Europe . He also attempted to describe the mechanics of the solar system with mathematical precision .", "qid": "261", "docid": "List_of_medieval_European_scientists", "rank": 48, "score": 111251 }, { "content": "Title: Jon Postel Content: Jonathan Bruce Postel ( -LSB- pəˈstɛl -RSB- August 6 , 1943 -- October 16 , 1998 ) was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet , particularly with respect to standards . He is known principally for being the Editor of the Request for Comment ( RFC ) document series , and for administering the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority ( IANA ) until his death . In his lifetime he was known as the `` god of the Internet '' for his comprehensive influence on the medium . The Internet Society 's Postel Award is named in his honor , as is the Postel Center at Information Sciences Institute , University of Southern California . His obituary was written by Vint Cerf and published as RFC 2468 in remembrance of Postel and his work . In 2012 , Postel was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society . The Channel Islands ' Domain Registry building was named after him in early 2016 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jon_Postel", "rank": 49, "score": 111022 }, { "content": "Title: John A. Church Content: John A. Church ( born 1951 ) is an expert on sea level and its changes . He was co-convening lead author ( with Jonathan M. Gregory ) for the chapter on Sea Level in the IPCC Third Assessment Report . He was also a co-convening lead author for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report . He is a member of the Joint Scientific Committee of the WCRP . He is currently a project leader at CSIRO .", "qid": "261", "docid": "John_A._Church", "rank": 50, "score": 110892 }, { "content": "Title: Alootook Ipellie Content: Alootook Ipellie ( 1951 -- September 8 , 2007 ) was an accomplished Inuit graphic artist , political and satirical cartoonist and writer , photographer , and Inuktitut translator . He was born in the small hunting camp of Nuvuqquq near Frobisher Bay , Northwest Territories now known as Iqaluit , Nunavut on Baffin Island . His father Joanassie died in a hunting accident before Ipellie 's first birthday and his mother Napatchie moved with him to the hamlet of Frobisher Bay . `` He spent his childhood and early teenage years adjusting to the transition from the traditional nomadic Inuit way of life to life in government-sponsored Inuit settlements . '' Three illustrated poems by Alootook were published when he was 17 called ` Hot to Warm and Cool to Cold ' . It begins ... The mosquitos are at large today As the wind stills , as the sun heats , And we walk the rocks under , Searching the hills for the meat And hide of the useful caribou that feeds and clothes my family , Through four different seasons When the winds change from Hot to warm , and cool to cold . He died of a heart attack in Ottawa , Ontario at age 56 and is survived by his daughter , Taina Ipellie .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Alootook_Ipellie", "rank": 51, "score": 110749 }, { "content": "Title: Jon Beckwith Content: Jonathan Roger `` Jon '' Beckwith ( born December 25 , 1935 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ) is an American microbiologist and geneticist . He is the American Cancer Society Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston , Massachusetts . Beckwith led the research group that in 1969 isolated the first gene from a bacterial chromosome . Some of researchers worked in the Beckwith laboratory at the Harvard Medical School and consisted of several now well-known scientists and doctors including James A. Shapiro and Lawrence Eron , MD. ; others ( Lorne MacHattie and Garret Ihler ) were located in the laboratory of Charles Thomas . The procedure used was devised by Garret Ihler and Karin Ippen . Complementary strands of the gene , carried within non-complementary strands of viral DNA , from viruses transducing the gene in reverse orientations which had been separated by a poly U , G density-gradient technique , were annealed to form double-stranded DNA . The single-stranded DNA was then removed using a single-strand specific DNase under investigation in the Thomas laboratory , leaving the double-stranded gene intact . The elegant electron micrographs of the pre - and post-digested DNA were taken by MacHatty in the Thomas laboratory . Before and following this experiment , Beckwith made important contributions to the study of bacterial genetics . His studies include the mechanisms of protein secretion , disulfide bond formation , and cell division . In addition , he is a prominent speaker on the social implications of science and has been an activist in science . He spoke out against the testing of boys for XYY chromosomes and was a member of the ELSI ( Ethical , Legal , and Social Implications ) committee of the Human Genome Project initiated by James D. Watson . He has worked on issues of social responsibility in science and since 1983 has taught a course on the Social Issues in Biology at Harvard University , one of the first of its kind . He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986 . In 2005 he received the Abbott-ASM Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Microbiology for `` sustained , remarkable contributions to the microbiological sciences '' . Beckwith was the 2009 recipient of the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences . He trained with Sydney Brenner , Arthur Pardee and Francois Jacob at the Institut Pasteur in France before arriving at Harvard University . Beckwith is a member of the National Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jon_Beckwith", "rank": 52, "score": 110588 }, { "content": "Title: David Karoly Content: David John Karoly ( born 1955 ) is an Australian atmospheric scientist . He is an expert in climate change , stratospheric ozone depletion , and climate variations due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) . Karoly has served as a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Working Group 2 ( on societal impacts ) and he is a member of the faculty of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne . His work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . He is member of the board of the Climate Change Authority .", "qid": "261", "docid": "David_Karoly", "rank": 53, "score": 110296 }, { "content": "Title: Winston E. Kock Content: Winston Kock ( 1909 -- 1982 ) was the first Director of NASA Electronics Research Center ( NASA ERC ) in Cambridge , Massachusetts , from September 1 , 1964 , to October 1 , 1966 . The Center was created for multidisciplinary scientific research , its proximity to certain colleges , its proximity to a local U.S. Air Force research facility , and was perceived as part of the nation 's cold war effort . He was an American electrical engineer , researcher , and musician . Kock was also a novelist under the pseudonym Wayne Kirk . Kock also wrote books about topics in engineering and acoustics . These included radar , sonar , holography , and lasers.The first line of this paragraph is copied almost word for word from the German Wikipedia article of the same name ( translated into English ) . Kock 's seminal research in artificial dielectrics , carried out at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the 1940s , is a historical connection to metamaterials .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Winston_E._Kock", "rank": 54, "score": 109819 }, { "content": "Title: Harry F. Lins Content: Harry F. Lins ( born 1948 ) is a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey . Since joining USGS in 1971 , his work has spanned several Earth science disciplines , including coastal processes , surface water hydrology , and hydroclimatology . Although most of his career has been spent conducting research , he managed the USGS Global Change Hydrology Program from 1989 to 1997 , and served as Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Hydrology and Water Resources Working Group for the First Assessment Report . In 1999 , he and USGS colleague David Wolock developed `` WaterWatch '' , the Nation 's first website depicting maps and graphs of water resources conditions in near real-time . Lins currently serves as President of the World Meteorological Organization 's ( WMO ) Commission for Hydrology . Since the early 1980s , Lins ' research has focused principally on characterizing the surface water response to climate , with an emphasis on regional streamflow variability , long-term trends , and the statistical techniques appropriate for such analyses . Lins ' most controversial research , which has not been fully embraced by the climate science community , suggests that the significance of climate trends may be greatly overstated because it does not consider the possibility that long-term persistence is a component of climatic variations . Lins holds a B.S. in Geography from the University of Maryland ( 1971 ) , an M.S. in Geography from the University of Delaware , ( 1978 ) , and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia ( 1993 ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Harry_F._Lins", "rank": 55, "score": 109183 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "261", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 56, "score": 109071 }, { "content": "Title: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Content: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age . `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Victor_Manuel_Velasco_Herrera", "rank": 57, "score": 108918 }, { "content": "Title: Rajendra K. Pachauri Content: Rajendra Kumar Pachauri ( born 20 August 1940 ) was the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He held the post from 2002 until his resignation in 2015 , during which time the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize . He resigned from IPCC in February 2015 . Following a media trial , The Energy and Resources Institute ( TERI ) Governing Council asked him to step down from the post of Director-General of the institute . The Governing Council of TERI in a meeting in February 2016 appointed Ashok Chawla , a Gujarat cadre Indian Administrative Service Office who was former Union Finance Secretary and former Chairman of the Competition Commission , as its new chairman . Ajay Mathur , a technocrat in the Bureau of Energy Efficiency , was appointed as the Director General of TERI by the Governing Council in July 2015 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Rajendra_K._Pachauri", "rank": 58, "score": 108732 }, { "content": "Title: Warm Bodies (film) Content: Warm Bodies is a 2013 American paranormal romantic zombie comedy film based on Isaac Marion 's novel of the same name . Directed and written by Jonathan Levine , the film stars Nicholas Hoult , Teresa Palmer , Analeigh Tipton and John Malkovich . The film focuses on the development of the relationship between Julie ( Palmer ) , a young woman , and `` R '' ( Hoult ) , a zombie , and how their eventual romance develops throughout . The film is noted for displaying human characteristics in zombie characters , and for being told from a zombie 's perspective .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Warm_Bodies_(film)", "rank": 59, "score": 108662 }, { "content": "Title: Eugenius Warming Content: Johannes Eugenius Bülow Warming ( 3 November 1841 -- 2 April 1924 ) , known as Eugen Warming , was a Danish botanist and a main founding figure of the scientific discipline of ecology . Warming wrote the first textbook ( 1895 ) on plant ecology , taught the first university course in ecology and gave the concept its meaning and content . `` If one individual can be singled out to be honoured as the founder of ecology , Warming should gain precedence '' . Warming wrote a number of textbooks on botany , plant geography and ecology , which were translated to several languages and were immensely influential at their time and later . Most important were Plantesamfund and Haandbog i den systematiske Botanik .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Eugenius_Warming", "rank": 60, "score": 108284 }, { "content": "Title: Patrick Michaels Content: Patrick J. ( `` Pat '' ) Michaels ( born February 15 , 1950 ) is an American climatologist . Michaels is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute . Until 2007 he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia , where he had worked from 1980 . A self-described skeptic on the issue of global warming , he is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists . He has written a number of books and papers on climate change , including Sound and Fury : The Science and Politics of Global Warming ( 1992 ) , The Satanic Gases ( 2000 ) , and Meltdown : The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists , Politicians , and the Media ( 2004 ) . He 's also the co-author of Climate of Extremes : Global Warming Science They Do n't Want You to Know ( 2009 ) . Michaels ' viewpoint , as argued in a 2002 article in the journal Climate Research , is that the planet will see `` a warming range of 1.3 -- 3.0 ° C , with a central value of 1.9 ° C '' for the 1990 to 2100 period ( an analysis far smaller than the IPCC 's average predictions ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Patrick_Michaels", "rank": 61, "score": 108046 }, { "content": "Title: Kevin E. Trenberth Content: Kevin Edward Trenberth ( born November 8 , 1944 ) is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the US NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research . He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change ( see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability ( CLIVAR ) program . He chaired the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel from 2004 to 2010 and chaired the Global Energy and Water Exchanges ( GEWEX ) scientific steering group from 2010-2013 ( member 2007-14 ) . In addition , he served on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme , and has made significant contributions to research into El Niño-Southern Oscillation . Kevin 's work is highly cited and he has an h-index of 100 ( 100 papers have over 100 citations ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Kevin_E._Trenberth", "rank": 62, "score": 107462 }, { "content": "Title: Warm Worlds and Otherwise Content: Warm Worlds and Otherwise is a short story collection by Alice Sheldon that , under her pen name James Tiptree , Jr. , was first published in 1975 . In its introduction , `` Who is Tiptree , What is He ? '' , fellow science fiction author Robert Silverberg wrote that he found the theory that Tiptree was female `` absurd '' , and that the author of these stories could only be a man . When it was later revealed that Tiptree was a woman , a postscript to the introduction by Silverberg was added to the collection . __ NOTOC __", "qid": "261", "docid": "Warm_Worlds_and_Otherwise", "rank": 63, "score": 107274 }, { "content": "Title: Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment Content: The Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment ( INCCA ) is a proposed network of scientists in India to be set up to publish peer-reviewed findings on climate change in India . It was announced on 7 October 2009 , saying : It was re-announced on 25 January 2012 by an official of the climate change division in the Environment Ministry after a strategy meeting chaired by Joint Secretary ( Climate ) J.M. Mausker , which also dealt with the framing of India 's National Action Plan on Climate Change ( NAPCC ) . On 4 February 2010 India 's environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced that it would bring together 250 scientists from 125 Indian research institutions and collaborate with international organisations.its first assessment of greenhouse gas emission was released on May 11 , 2010 and Its second climate assessment to be published in November 2010 would include reports on the Himalayas , the coastline of India , the Western Ghat highlands and the north-eastern region of India . He said it would operate as a `` sort of Indian IPCC '' , but will not rival the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Ramesh also announced the initiation of an Indian National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology . He said that although he respected the IPCC , it was unequal to the task and its weakness was that it did not conduct its own research . Ramesh also indicated its biases made it insensitive to regional realities , and instead relied on compiling assessments of other reports , which , led to `` goof-ups '' on the Amazon forests , Himalayan glaciers , and ice caps .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Indian_Network_on_Climate_Change_Assessment", "rank": 64, "score": 107262 }, { "content": "Title: Punit Boolchand Content: Punit Boolchand is a materials scientist , a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computing Systems ( EECS ) in the College of Engineering and Applied Science ( CEAS ) at the University of Cincinnati ( UC ) , where he is director of the Solid State Physics and Electronic Materials Laboratory He discovered the Intermediate Phase : an elastically percolative network glass distinguished from traditional ( clustered ) liquid -- gas spinodals by strong non-local long-range interactions . The IP characterizes space-filling , nearly stress-free and non-aging , critically self-organized non-equilibrium glassy networks ( such as window glass , ineluctably complex high-temperature superconductors , microelectronic Si/SiO2 high-k dielectric interfaces , and protein folding ) . His experimental data over a 25-year period ( 1982 -- 2007 ) formed the basis for the theory of network glasses developed by James Charles Phillips and Michael Thorpe . The theory was adopted by Corning Inc. and was a substantial factor contributing to the development of Gorilla glass by Corning scientists including John . C. Mauro . These networks , although disordered , exhibit many nearly ideal properties that have revolutionized glass science and technology , as part of HD TV and glass covers for devices such as cell phones .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Punit_Boolchand", "rank": 65, "score": 107025 }, { "content": "Title: John F. B. Mitchell Content: John Francis Brake Mitchell OBE FRS ( born 7 October 1948 ) is a British climatologist and climate modeller . He studied Applied Mathematics at Queen 's University Belfast in 1970 , staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973 . In 1978 , he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office 's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research . He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010 . He is the most cited scientist regarding the topic of global warming . He was a convening lead author for the first and third IPCC Working Group I reports and lead author for the second . He was also chair of the World Meteorological Organization JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008 . He now ( 2014 ) works part-time as Principal Research Fellow , advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading .", "qid": "261", "docid": "John_F._B._Mitchell", "rank": 66, "score": 106862 }, { "content": "Title: It Was Warm and Sunny When We First Set Out Content: It Was Warm and Sunny When We First Set Out is the second full-length studio album from Vancouver indie rock band In Medias Res . It was produced by Jonathan Anderson , a fellow Vancouver indie act who also worked with the band on their previous record , as well as duo Dave Carswell and John Collins . Self-released on January 4 , 2011 , the 10-track album was initially only available as a digital download . After the band signed with Vancouver label File Under : Music on June 23 , 2011 , the album was released as a hard copy on July 12 . It Was Warm and Sunny was produced by Jonathan Anderson , who had worked with the band on their 2003 record , Of What Was . The album 's name is taken from a track from their Demos EP of the same title . Caleb Chan and Brian Chan contributed string arrangements . It Was Warm and Sunny has been positively reviewed by national and local publications alike . Canadian indie music magazine Exclaim ! described the album as `` gloomy ... brimming with atmospheric production and soaring meloadrama . '' They compared the album 's sound to Pedro the Lion and Radiohead . Local publication The Georgia Straight heralded the band as `` poised to take the spotlight ... beyond our cityscape , '' while praising the album 's polished and cohesive sound . The Vancouver Sun rated the album four out of five , while categorizing it as post - and math-rock in genre . Music videos for `` Hollis '' and `` This Could Be The One '' were released in October 2011 and March 2012 , respectively . The latter was produced by bassist Ryan Flowers . In February 2013 , `` The Center '' , a track intended for the album , but ultimately left out , was released by the band .", "qid": "261", "docid": "It_Was_Warm_and_Sunny_When_We_First_Set_Out", "rank": 67, "score": 106608 }, { "content": "Title: Janusz Kurtyka Content: Janusz Marek Kurtyka ( 13 August 1960 -- 10 April 2010 ) was a Polish historian , and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash , the second president of the Institute of National Remembrance ( IPN ) . Kurtyka was born in Kraków and obtained his degree in the History and Philosophy Department of the Jagiellonian University . He had been a historian at the Polish Academy of Sciences since 1985 where he specialized in Polish medieval and communist era history , modern history and historical methodology . He finished his PhD in 1995 and was habilitated in 2000 . He was a contributor to Wielka Encyklopedia PWN and Polski Słownik Biograficzny ( Polish Biographical Dictionary ) and the author of more than 140 academic publications . In the People 's Republic of Poland , Kurtyka was a member of the democratic opposition to communism and an activist with the Independent Students Union and the trade union Solidarity . Between 1989 and 2000 he was the presidents of the Kraków office of Solidarity in the Historical Institute PAN . After the Institute of National Remembrance ( a Polish government-affiliated research institute which investigates both Nazi and Communist crimes committed in Poland ) was created in 1998 , Kurtyka was the first president of its Kraków branch . In April 2005 he was recommended by the Board of the Institute for the position of the president and was approved by the Polish Sejm and Senate in December of that year . He took his oath of office on December 29 , 2005 . In 2007 , Kurtyka was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit , third degree and in April 2009 he was awarded the Commander 's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of Poland , Lech Kaczynski . Kurtyka was on the Tupolev Tu-154 flight of the 36th Special Aviation Regiment carrying the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński which crashed near Smolensk-North airport near Katyn , Russia , on April 10 , 2010 , killing all aboard . Days before he died he called for `` the results of the Russian investigation into Katyn massacre to be declassified and for the Russian archives to be opened '' . The post which was left open by his death was considered particularly problematic due to the difficulty there would be in replacing him . After a mass in the Saints Peter and Paul Church in Kraków he was buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery on April 23 , 2010 . On April 16 , 2010 , he was posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Janusz_Kurtyka", "rank": 68, "score": 106403 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Petropoulos Content: Jonathan Petropoulos ( born January 10 , 1961 ) is an American historian who writes about National Socialism and , in particular , the fate of art looted during World War II . He is John V. Croul Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont , California . Before his 1999 appointment to Claremont McKenna College , Petropoulos taught at Loyola College in Maryland . From 1998 to 2000 , Petropoulos served as Research Director for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets , chaired by Edgar Bronfman , Sr. . Since 2000 , Petropoulos has served as an expert witness in several legal cases concerning Nazi-looted assets , including Altmann v. Austria ( six paintings by Klimt , including Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I ) , Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum ( painting by Pissarro ) , Kann v. Wildenstein ( medieval manuscripts ) , and Rosner et al. v. U.S.A. ( the Hungarian Gold Train case ) . Petropoulos was featured in The Rape of Europa , a 2006 documentary on Nazi art looting . He is the author of three books : Art as Politics in the Third Reich ( 1996 ) , The Faustian Bargain ( 2000 ) , and Royals and the Reich ( 2006 ) . With John Roth , he is the co-editor of Gray Zones : Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Aftermath ( 2005 ) . In April 2008 , Petropoulos resigned his position as director of Claremont McKenna College 's Center for the Study of the Holocaust , Genocide and Human Rights amidst controversy over the failed restitution of a Pissarro painting looted by the Nazis in 1938 . The London-based Art Loss Register employed Petropoulos because of his acquaintance with Bruno Lohse , a notorious Nazi art looter who died in 2007 . The looted Pissarro , Le Quai Malaquais , Printemps , was discovered by Swiss investigators in May 2007 in a secret safe controlled by Lohse in Zurich , Switzerland . After its seizure by Swiss authorities , the painting was independently restituted to an heir of Gottfried Bermann Fischer later in 2007 by a Liechtenstein court , and ultimately auctioned by Christie 's in New York for $ 1,850,000 ( $ 2,154,000 with premium ) on November 3 , 2009 . Following a review , a March 2008 Claremont McKenna College statement said the professor `` adhered to applicable contractual and legal obligations '' in attempting to arrange return of the painting .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_Petropoulos", "rank": 69, "score": 106342 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 70, "score": 105244 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Dordick Content: Jonathan S. Dordick ( born January 15 , 1959 ) is the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Biochemical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . In 2008 he became director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies . In 2013 Dr. Dordick stepped down from his role as head of the CBIS and became the Vice President for Research at RPI .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_Dordick", "rank": 71, "score": 105204 }, { "content": "Title: Karl Friedrich Schimper Content: Karl Friedrich Schimper ( 15 February 1803 -- 21 December 1867 ) was a German botanist , naturalist and poet . Born in Mannheim , he was a theology student at Heidelberg University and taught at Munich University . He pioneered research in the field of plant morphology , particularly phyllotaxis . He is perhaps best known as the originator of the theory of prehistoric hot and cold eras , and was one of the initiators of the modern theories of ice ages and climatic cycles . He was a brother of botanist Georg Wilhelm Schimper and cousin of botanist Wilhelm Philippe Schimper . Bill Bryson states in his book A Short History of Nearly Everything that Karl Schimper originated the idea of glaciation and proposed the radical idea that ice sheets had once covered much of Europe , Asia , and North America . However , Schimper was known to be reluctant to write and never published his ideas . He discussed them with Louis Agassiz , who went on to appropriate the idea as his own and , much to Schimper 's dismay , undeservedly received much of the credit for its origination .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Karl_Friedrich_Schimper", "rank": 72, "score": 105102 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 73, "score": 104817 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 74, "score": 104774 }, { "content": "Title: Venkatachalam Ramaswamy Content: Venkatachalam Ramaswamy ( V. `` Ram '' Ramaswamy ) is the Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) , studying climate modeling and climate change . `` A leading climate scientist '' , his work is cited as supporting evidence for significant stratospheric climate change . He focuses in particular on radiative transfer models and the hydrologic cycle in the atmosphere . He has actively supported the development of supercomputing approaches that enable researchers to achieve higher resolution and greater complexity in climate models . As a lead author involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Ramaswamy 's contributions ( along with the contributions of many scientists ) was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Venkatachalam_Ramaswamy", "rank": 75, "score": 104751 }, { "content": "Title: Stephen Schneider Content: Stephen Henry Schneider ( February 11 , 1945 -- July 19 , 2010 ) was Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change at Stanford University , a Co-Director at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a Senior Fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment . Schneider served as a consultant to federal agencies and White House staff in the Richard Nixon , Jimmy Carter , Ronald Reagan , George H. W. Bush , Bill Clinton , George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations . Schneider 's research included modeling of the atmosphere , climate change , and the effect of global climate change on biological systems . Schneider was the founder and editor of the journal Climatic Change and authored or co-authored over 450 scientific papers and other publications . He was a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group II Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Assessment Report and was engaged as a co-anchor of the Key Vulnerabilities Cross-Cutting Theme for the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) at the time of his death . During the 1980s , Schneider emerged as a leading public advocate of sharp reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming . In 2006 Professor Schneider was an Adelaide Thinker in Residence advising the South Australian Government of Premier Mike Rann on climate change and renewable energy policies . In ten years South Australia went from zero to 31 % of its electricity generation coming from renewables . An annual award for outstanding climate science communication was created in Schneider 's honor after his death , by the Commonwealth Club of California .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Stephen_Schneider", "rank": 76, "score": 104482 }, { "content": "Title: Warm Ways Content: `` Warm Ways '' is a song performed by British/American music group Fleetwood Mac . The song was written and performed by group keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie . In October 1975 , `` Warm Ways '' was released as the lead single from the album entitled Fleetwood Mac in the United Kingdom . It was not released as a single in the United States , where `` Over My Head '' was issued as the first single instead . The ` single version ' of the song , released for radio airplay , is a slightly edited version that is different from the version appearing on the Fleetwood Mac album . The single did not chart in Britain , with only the fourth single from the album , `` Say You Love Me '' managing to chart upon its original release .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Warm_Ways", "rank": 77, "score": 103980 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan R. Lyon Content: Jonathan R. Lyon is an American historian of medieval Europe . He is a professor of history at the University of Chicago .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_R._Lyon", "rank": 78, "score": 103941 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Fisher Content: Parson Jonathan Fisher ( 1768 -- 1847 ) was the first Congregational minister from 1794 to 1837 in the small village of Blue Hill , Maine in the United States . Although his primary duties as a country parson engaged much of his time , Fisher was also a farmer , scientist , mathematician , surveyor , and writer of prose and poetry . He bound his own books , made buttons and hats , designed and built furniture , painted sleighs , was a reporter for the local newspaper , helped found Bangor Theological Seminary , dug wells , built his own home and raised a large family . Truly a renaissance man in the breadth of his accomplishments Fisher invites comparison with a Franklin or Jefferson . In his manners , morals and writings Fisher represents the best of the vigorous New England churchmen who shaped the standards of their congregations during America 's formative years .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_Fisher", "rank": 79, "score": 103923 }, { "content": "Title: Steve Rayner Content: Steve Rayner is James Martin Professor of Science and Civilization at Oxford University and Director of the Institute for Science , Innovation and Society , a member of the Oxford Martin School . He describes himself as an `` undisciplined social scientist '' having been trained in philosophy , comparative religion ( BA University of Kent ) and political anthropology ( PhD University College London ) . A key research interest is climate policy , in particular adaptation and geoengineering as ways to mitigate climate change 's effects . He has been an outspoken critic of the architecture of the Kyoto Protocol , and his paper The Wrong Trousers : Radically Rethinking Climate Policy , co-written with Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics has been widely cited on this topic . He is also interested in wicked problems , uncomfortable knowledge and clumsy solutions . He is currently principal investigator of the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities and co-director of the Oxford Geoengineering Programme . In 2008 , he was listed by Wired Magazine as one of the 15 people the next President should listen to and was recognized for his contribution to the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Steve_Rayner", "rank": 80, "score": 103896 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Steadward Content: Robert Steadward , OC , AOE ( born May 26 , 1946 ) is a Canadian author , sport scientist , manager , counsellor , consultant and community volunteer who was the first president of the International Paralympic Committee ( IPC ) , which he presided from 1989 to 2001 . Prior to that , he had founded the Canadian Sports Fund for the Physically Disabled in 1979 . He was also elected member of the International Olympic Committee in 2000 . He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Oregon . Dr. Steadward is a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity ( Epsilon-Alpha Chapter ) . In 1999 , he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada , and in 2002 inducted into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame and he received the Queen 's Golden Jubilee Medal . In 2010 he was appointed to the Alberta Order of Excellence . In 1978 , Steadward founded The Canadian Research and Training Centre for Athletes with Disability at the University of Alberta . Renamed The Steadward Centre for Personal and Physical Achievement in 2000 , the facility is a disability research centre which offers physical activity and sport programs for adults and children with disabilities . He was succeeded as the President of the International Paralympic Committee by Sir Philip Craven in 2001 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Robert_Steadward", "rank": 81, "score": 103878 }, { "content": "Title: John Woods (oceanographer) Content: Professor John Woods , CBE ( born 1939 ) is a British oceanographer . He studied physics at Imperial College , London ( 1958-66 ) , after which he was appointed principal research fellow at the Meteorological Office ( 1966-72 ) , while leading the RN Operation Thermocline in which he pioneered underwater flow visualisation . Later he joined NERC as Director of Marine and Atmospheric Science ( 1986-1994 ) , where he created the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton . He held professorships at Southampton University ( 1972-77 ) , Kiel University ( 1977-86 ) and Imperial College London ( 1994 - ) , carrying out research into the seasonal boundary layer of the ocean and plankton ecosystem models , and modelling global container freight . Woods has served on a number of international project committees , including GARP ( Global Atmospheric Research Programme ) , WCRP ( World Climate Research Programme0 , IGBP ( International GeoSphere-Biosphere Programme ) , EuroGOOS ( European Global Ocean Observing System ) . He was co-chairman of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment . He was a lead author of the first report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , an organisation which was later awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Al Gore . He is now ( 2015 ) Emeritus Professor of Oceanography & Complex Systems in the Faculty of Engineering , Department of Earth Science & Engineering , Imperial College London . He is Adjunct Fellow of Linacre College , University of Oxford ( 1994 - ) , and Emeritus Researcher of the CNR ( Italian National Research Council ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "John_Woods_(oceanographer)", "rank": 82, "score": 103814 }, { "content": "Title: Carl Mears Content: Carl Mears is a Senior Scientist , at Remote Sensing Systems , since 1998 . He has worked on validation of SSM/I derived winds , and rain-flagging algorithm for the QuikScat scatterometer . He is best known for his work with Frank Wentz in developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the UAH one . Mears was a major contributor to Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere : Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences , the first released report from the US Climate Change Science Program . He also contributed to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group one report , Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Carl_Mears", "rank": 83, "score": 103769 }, { "content": "Title: Robert T. Bakker Content: Robert Thomas Bakker ( born March 24 , 1945 ) is an American paleontologist who helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs , particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic ( warm-blooded ) . Along with his mentor John Ostrom , Bakker was responsible for initiating the ongoing `` dinosaur renaissance '' in paleontological studies , beginning with Bakker 's article `` Dinosaur Renaissance '' in the April 1975 issue of Scientific American . His special field is the ecological context and behavior of dinosaurs . Bakker has been a major proponent of the theory that dinosaurs were `` warm-blooded , '' smart , fast and adaptable . He published his first paper on dinosaur endothermy in 1968 . His seminal work , The Dinosaur Heresies , was published in 1986 . He revealed the first evidence of parental care at nesting sites for Allosaurus . Bakker was among the advisors for the film Jurassic Park and for the 1992 PBS series , The Dinosaurs ! . Bakker also appeared in the Sega CD version of Jurassic Park . He also observed evidence in support of Eldredge and Gould 's theory of punctuated equilibrium in dinosaur populations . Bakker currently serves as the Curator of Paleontology for the Houston Museum of Natural Science . Dr. Bakker was also a guest in episode 28 of the Williams Street original Space Ghost Coast to Coast .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Robert_T._Bakker", "rank": 84, "score": 103673 }, { "content": "Title: Burtoni Award Content: The Burtoni Award was created in 2003 by a group of leading experts and policy makers in the field of climate change . Its purpose is to recognize outstanding contributions to the science of adaptation to climate change . The award is named after the first recipient of the award , Ian Burton , an Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto and a pioneer in the field of adaptation to climate change and extreme events and disasters . Ian has contributed to three Assessment Reports of the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) and the recent Special Report on Extremes ( SREX ) . Subsequent recipients of the Burtoni Award are : Roger Jones ( Australia ) 2005 . Saleemul Huq ( Bangladesh ) 2007 . Coleen Vogel ( South Africa ) 2010 . Karen O'Brien ( Norway/USA ) 2012 . Mark Pelling ( United Kingdom ) 2015 . Richard J.T. Klein ( the Netherlands ) 2016 . Short biographies of the awardees follow : Roger Jones is Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Economic Research , Victoria University Australia . He was a Coordinating Lead Author in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and has the same role in the Fifth Assessment Report . The Burtoni was awarded in recognition of his innovations in research methods for assessing adaptation to climate change , particularly in the application of risk management to adaptation . Saleemul Huq is a Senior Fellow with the International Institute for Environment and Development in London and Director of ICCCD ( International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka , Bangladesh . He received the award for his work linking adaptation and development , his research on decision making and his efforts to build capacity . It was awarded during a three-day workshop on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change in Dhaka . Coleen Vogel is an Independent Consultant and previously Professor of Sustainability at the University of Witwatersrand , Johannesburg . She was Lead Author for the IPCC 4th assessment Report Working Group 2 Chapter on Africa , and she chaired the International Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Climate Change . Karen O'Brien is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo , Norway . She was Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report for Working Group II ( Chapter 20 : Climate-resilient pathways : adaptation , mitigation , and sustainable development ) . She was a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation ( SREX ) in Chapter 8 ` Towards a Resilient and Sustainable Future ' . She was Chair of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security ( GECHS ) project of the IHDP from 2005-2010 . Mark Pelling is Professor of Geography at King 's College London . His research interests are in the institutions and social relationships that shape vulnerability and adaptation to natural disasters , including those associated with climate change , and in the ways in which conflicting values and practices of development inform resilience and transformation in the face of environmental change . He served as a coordinating author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation ( SREX ) and its Fifth Assessment Report . He also sits on the Scientific Steering Committees for the IGBP-IHDP core project Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone ( LOICZ ) and the ICSU core project Integrated Research on Disaster Risk ( IRDR ) . Richard J.T. Klein is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Climate and Development . He was awarded the Burtoni in recognition of his work to advance knowledge through international research , capacity-building and educational collaborations , including as co-director and chief scientist of the Nordic Centre of Excellence for Strategic Adaptation Research ( NORD-STAR ) and as a member , until 2015 , of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability , Impacts and Adaptation ( PROVIA ) . He was only 24 when he became lead author of a chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Second Assessment Report , published in 1994 . He has been a lead author or coordinating lead author of every IPCC Assessment Report since , as well as two Special Reports .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Burtoni_Award", "rank": 85, "score": 103529 }, { "content": "Title: Eduardo Zorita Content: Eduardo Zorita ( born 1961 in Madrid ) is a Spanish paleoclimatologist . , he is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Coastal Research , GKSS Research Centre in Geesthacht , Germany , where he has worked since 1996 . Zorita was a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC , and is review editor of the journal Climate Research . Zorita received his Ph.D in solid state physics at the University of Zaragoza in 1988 , and then held a postdoctoral appointment at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology , Hamburg . He was an Associate Researcher at the Laboratoire de Océanographie Dynamique et de Climatologie ( LOCEAN ) , Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University , Paris , 1994 -- 95 . Zorita is a regular contributor to Die Klimazwiebel , a climate science blog operated by Hans von Storch , Zorita and other climate scientists .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Eduardo_Zorita", "rank": 86, "score": 103251 }, { "content": "Title: Jon Butterworth Content: Jonathan Mark Butterworth is a Professor of Physics at University College London ( UCL ) working on the ATLAS experiment at CERN 's Large Hadron Collider ( LHC ) . His popular science book Smashing Physics , which tells the story of the search for the Higgs boson , was published in 2014 and his newspaper column / blog Life and Physics is published by The Guardian .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jon_Butterworth", "rank": 87, "score": 103059 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 88, "score": 103040 }, { "content": "Title: Willem Jozef Andreas Jonckbloet Content: Willem Jozef Andreas Jonckbloet ( 6 July 1817 , The Hague -- 19 October 1885 , Wiesbaden ) was a Dutch historian , best known for work on medieval poetry . From 1835 he was a student at the University of Leiden . After pursuing medicine and law , he turned to Low German literature . From 1847 at Deventer , he became a professor at Leiden in 1878 . In 1855 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Willem_Jozef_Andreas_Jonckbloet", "rank": 89, "score": 102530 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Shepard Content: Jonathan Shepard is a British historian specializing in early medieval Russia , the Caucasus , and the Byzantine Empire . He is regarded as a leading authority in Byzantine studies and on the Kievan Rus . He specializes in diplomatic and archaeological history of the early Kievan period . Shepard received his doctorate in 1973 from Oxford University and was a lecturer in Russian History at the University of Cambridge . Among other works , he is co-author ( with Simon Franklin ) of The Emergence of Rus 750 -- 1200 ( 1996 ) , and editor of The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire ( 2008 ) . Among Shepard 's theories is that the breakdown in Byzantine-Khazar relations and the shift in Byzantine foreign policy towards allying with the Pechenegs and the Rus against Khazaria was a result of the Khazar conversion to Judaism .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_Shepard", "rank": 90, "score": 102305 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Samet Content: Jonathan Michael Samet ( born 1946 in Newport News , Virginia ) is an American pulmonary physician and epidemiologist who serves as the Professor and Flora L. Thornton Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California . He is also the chair of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency , as well as the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_Samet", "rank": 91, "score": 101896 }, { "content": "Title: Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen Content: '' Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen '' ( `` On the movement of small particles suspended in a stationary liquid demanded by the molecular-kinetic theory of heat '' ) is the 1905 journal article , by Albert Einstein , that proved the reality of atoms , which were first proposed in 1808 by John Dalton . It is one of the four groundbreaking papers Einstein published in 1905 , in Annalen der Physik , in his miracle year . In 1827 , botanist Robert Brown used a microscope to look at dust grains floating in water , and discovered that they moved about erratically ; a phenomenon that became known as `` Brownian motion '' . This was thought to be caused by water molecules knocking the grains about . In 1905 , Albert Einstein proved the reality of these molecules and their motions by producing the first statistical physics analysis of Brownian motion . French physicist Jean Perrin used Einstein 's results to experimentally determine the mass , and the dimensions , of atoms , thereby conclusively verifying Dalton 's atomic theory . Before this paper , atoms were recognized as a useful concept , but physicists and chemists hotly debated whether atoms were real entities . Einstein 's statistical discussion of atomic behavior gave experimentalists a way to count atoms with an ordinary microscope . Wilhelm Ostwald , one of the leaders of the anti-atom school , later told Arnold Sommerfeld that he had been converted to a belief in atoms by Einstein 's complete explanation of Brownian motion . The paper also provided the best way up to that time of estimating Avogadro 's Number -- the corrected value from Einstein 's paper was accurate to one significant figure .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Über_die_von_der_molekularkinetischen_Theorie_der_Wärme_geforderte_Bewegung_von_in_ruhenden_Flüssigkeiten_suspendierten_Teilchen", "rank": 92, "score": 101815 }, { "content": "Title: Hubert M. Meingast Content: Hubert Michael Meingast ( June 28 , 1911 -- August 29 , 1961 ) was an engineer and scientist who worked for the Borgward group , based in Bremen . H.M. Meingast was born in the small town of Ebelsberg , Austria , in 1911 . After intensive training to become an engineer , he eventually went to work in Bremen for Carl F. W. Borgward . During and after World War 2 , H.M. Meingast , in association with his mentor Professor Dr. Paul Riebensahm of the Technical University of Berlin , was involved in founding two research organizations concerning the heat treatment of metals : Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Wärmebehandlung und Werkstofftechnik e. V. - AWT ( Association for Heat Treatment and Material Science ) and Institut für Härterei-Technik ( Institute for Material Science ) . He taught at the Institute and wrote research papers . One research paper H.M. Meingast authored was described as containing ideas that were still being referred to by engineers 20 years later at the time of his death in 1961 ( `` Ein Vortrag , der ein aussergewohnliches Interesse fand und dessen Abdruck auch heute noch , fast 20 Jahre spater , fur viele Leser wichtige Hinweise enthalt . '' ) . His ideas have been described as being very advanced for their time ( `` Seine Ideen , seine Vorschlage waren oft erheblich ihrer Zeit vor-aus , seine Arbeiten -- besonders aus den Jahren 1942 bis 1950 -- zum Teil bahnbrechend . '' ) , especially between 1942 and 1950 . In 1952 H.M. Meingast emigrated to Canada and after working as an engineer for the Cockshutt Farm Equipment Company in Brantford , Ontario , Canada , he joined the Harold Jones Machine Company in Thornbury , Ontario in 1957 as vice-president . In this position he was responsible for all the design work of the manufactured products . Also , during this time he did consulting work for mining companies in South Africa . In 1958 , he became an owning partner in the business and the company was renamed JMG ( Jones , Meingast , Gardiner ) . It was later called Teledyne . This company manufactured specialized mining equipment . It is still in existence in Thornbury today under new ownership and is called BTI - Breaker Technology Inc. . Late in 1959 , H.M. Meingast founded his own business in Owen Sound , Ontario , manufacturing hydraulic cylinders ( hydraulic machinery ) . It was named H.M. Meingast & Sons Ltd . This business was purchased by the large American company Parker Hannifin Corporation in 1965 and was still operating in Owen Sound until 2006 when it was closed . H.M. Meingast died from lung cancer on August 29 , 1961 in Toronto , Ontario , Canada . His eldest sister was the actress Erika Meingast . His eldest brother was the writer Fritz Meingast , who received the prestigious Bayerische Poetentaler award in 1984 .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Hubert_M._Meingast", "rank": 93, "score": 101717 }, { "content": "Title: Anders Levermann Content: Anders Levermann is a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University . He is a Professor of the Dynamics of the Climate System at Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Potsdam University , Germany . He was a lead author of the chapter on sea-level changes of the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC AR5 ) , and contributed to the paleoclimate chapter in the previous report ( IPCC-AR4 ) . Levermann advises political and economic stakeholders on the issue of climate change .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Anders_Levermann", "rank": 94, "score": 101617 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Oppenheimer Content: Michael Oppenheimer ( born February 28 , 1946 ) is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University . He is the Director of the Program in Science , Technology and Environmental Policy ( STEP ) at the Woodrow Wilson School and Faculty Associate of the Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences Program , Princeton Environmental Institute , and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies . Oppenheimer has taken leading role in various environmental and science policy related activities , e.g. with regard to acid rain , in contributing to 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act . With regard to climate change , he was a major author of the IPCC 's Fourth Assessment Report and a coordinating lead author of the Fifth Assessment Report . Oppenheimer is also a prominent public figure and has e.g. discussed various aspects , impacts , solutions and even the psychology of global warming in the media . He has been a guest on many television and radio programs and talk shows , including ABC 's This Week , Nightline , Alcove , The News Hour , The Oprah Winfrey Show , Charlie Rose , ABC News and The Colbert Report . Oppenheimer is the author of over 140 articles published in professional journals . He is the author of Dead Heat : The Race Against The Greenhouse Effect , written together with environmental activist Robert H. Boyle and published in 1990 . Oppenheimer is co-founder of the Climate Action Network .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Michael_Oppenheimer", "rank": 95, "score": 101433 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan Dollimore Content: Jonathan G Dollimore ( born 1948 in Leighton Buzzard ) is an English philosopher and social theorist in the fields of Renaissance literature ( especially drama ) , gender studies , queer theory ( queer studies ) , art , censorship , history of ideas , death studies , decadence , and cultural theory . After leaving school at fifteen he took various jobs , before returning , as a mature student , to Keele University , where he achieved his BA , and the University of London , which awarded him his PhD As a Reader at the University of Sussex , he co-founded with Alan Sinfield the Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence , which , as he remembers in Sex , Literature and Censorship , ` attracted some notoriety for being the first of its kind in the country ' ( 3 ) . He later became Professor of English and Related Literature at the University of York . Dollimore is credited with making major interventions in debates on sexuality and desire , Renaissance literary culture , art and censorship , and cultural theory .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_Dollimore", "rank": 96, "score": 101380 }, { "content": "Title: Indur M. Goklany Content: Indur M. Goklany is a science and technology policy analyst for the United States Department of the Interior , where he holds the position of Assistant Director of Programs , Science and Technology Policy . He has represented the United States at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and during the negotiations that led to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . He was a rapporteur for the Resource Use and Management Subgroup of Working Group III of the IPCC First Assessment Report in 1990 , and is the author of Clearing the Air ( 1999 ) , The Precautionary Principle ( 2001 ) , and The Improving State of the World ( 2007 ) .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Indur_M._Goklany", "rank": 97, "score": 101378 }, { "content": "Title: Hieronymus Bock Content: Hieronymus Bock ( Latinised Tragus ) ( 1498 -- February 21 , 1554 ) was a German botanist , physician , and Lutheran minister who began the transition from medieval botany to the modern scientific worldview by arranging plants by their relation or resemblance .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Hieronymus_Bock", "rank": 98, "score": 101261 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan D. G. Jones Content: Jonathan Dallas George Jones FRS ( born 14 July 1954 ) is a senior scientist at the Sainsbury Laboratory and a Professor at the University of East Anglia using molecular and genetic approaches to study disease resistance in plants .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Jonathan_D._G._Jones", "rank": 99, "score": 101252 }, { "content": "Title: Addison Bain Content: Addison Bain is a retired NASA scientist and founding member of the National Hydrogen Association who is credited with postulating the Incendiary Paint Theory ( IPT ) , which posits that the Hindenburg disaster was caused by the electrical ignition of lacquer - and metal-based paints used on the outer hull of the airship . Thus Bain believes that the hydrogen in the airship had no part to play in the initiation of the disaster . This theory , which was proposed in 1997 and recently updated in his 2004 book , The Freedom Element : Living with Hydrogen , has been generally accepted by people interested in promoting hydrogen as a transportation fuel , and generally rejected by people involved with airships and their history . Bain attended Flathead High School , received his Bachelor of Science in Space Technology from Florida Institute of Technology ( FIT ) , his Master of Science in Systems Management from FIT , and his Ph.D. in Engineering Management from CCU . The primary refutation is based on the work of A. J. Dessler , D. E. Overs , and W. H. Appleby . Their work , both theoretical and experimental , has concluded that even if the airship were covered with solid rocket fuel , as the Incendiary Paint Theory claims , it would still have taken 12 hours for the airship to burn had hydrogen not been present . It is worth noting that this refutation misses the point of the theory , which relates only to what started the fire , not how it continued . The case for the Incendiary Paint Theory is explained in Bain 's televised demonstration of the extreme flammability of a piece of the actual skin of the Hindenburg preserved from the disaster . Bain demonstrates the incendiary properties of the Hindenburg skin and then asks why the bits of skin ejected from the inferno continued to burn brightly on their way down instead of self-extinguishing once removed from the zone of densest hydrogen . This question of `` self-extinguishing '' is important , since his critics point out that the components of the doping compound used on the skin should put themselves out if removed from any fuel for fire , and should not have burned so quickly if the fire actually started with the skin instead of the hydrogen . Critics also counter that Bain did not actually ignite the skin with a quick electrical charge but instead uses a Jacob 's Ladder with continuous electrical charge , which required several strikes to ignite . Additionally , Bain was required to correctly position the fabric to allow it to ignite . Another part of the IPT hypothesizes that the mooring cables , which were designed to ground any static electricity on the surface of the airship , worked only partly in this instance ; since some of the skin panels still carried an electric charge , at least one of them must have sparked , causing the initial outbreak of fire . Thus it has yet to be proven that an electrical charge could ignite the Hindenburg skin . The design of the ship would likely exclude the skin being an ignition point due to the properties of the doping process , the insulation from the frame and skin of the grounding drop-lines , and the inability of any experiment to ignite the skin via electric spark consistent with the conditions of the 1937 disaster . The television show MythBusters also dedicated the opening episode for their 2007 season to Bain 's theory . Scale models of the Hindenburg were built and tested with skin reproductions . One model had no hydrogen while the other did . The only burn that replicated the Hindenburg burn used hydrogen .", "qid": "261", "docid": "Addison_Bain", "rank": 100, "score": 101097 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Michael E. Mann Content: Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data . As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences . Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_E._Mann", "rank": 1, "score": 181521 }, { "content": "Title: Malcolm K. Hughes Content: Malcolm K. Hughes is a meso-climatologist and Regents ' Professor of Dendrochronology in the Laboratory for Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona . He was born in Matlock , Derbyshire , England , and earned a Ph.D in ecology from the University of Durham . Since 1998 , he is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union . His research is on the nature of climate variability , specifically focusing on the timescales of years to centuries . He uses natural recorded records such as tree rings . Hughes has studied geographical areas including Europe , Asia , and the Sierra Nevada . In addition to tree rings , Hughes uses ice cores , laminated sediments , and the historical temperature record to help understand past climates . In 1998 , he was a co-author with Michael E. Mann and Raymond S. Bradley on a paper which produced the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) incorporating multiple climate proxy data sets of different types and lengths into a high-resolution reconstruction of northern hemisphere temperatures . In 1999 the same team extended the method to cover 1,000 years , producing what was dubbed the hockey stick graph .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Malcolm_K._Hughes", "rank": 2, "score": 172794 }, { "content": "Title: YAD06 Content: YAD06 is a tree located in the Yamal Peninsula of Siberia . A core sample from this tree , YADO61 , provided data used to support hockey stick interpretation of global climate history . The data was originally published in 1995 a paper by Keith Briffa of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia . The paper asserted that the late Middle Ages , previously described as a `` Medieval Warm Period , '' was actually quite cold . Steve McIntyre has described this tree as possibly `` the most influential tree in the world '' , and publicly accused Briffa of cherry-picking certain tree ring records in order to get a specific result , creating what Michael E. Mann described as a `` manufactured scandal . ''", "qid": "263", "docid": "YAD06", "rank": 3, "score": 172248 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars Content: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines is a 2012 book about climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann . In the book Mann describes how he became a researcher investigating the temperature record of the past 1000 years and was lead author , with Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , on the 1999 reconstruction that was the first to be dubbed the hockey stick graph . He concisely explains the basics of climate science including statistical methodology dealing with paleoclimate proxy data , and examines the tactics which opponents of action on climate change use to distort the science and attack the reputations of climate scientists . The book describes both the hockey stick controversy and the broader context of skepticism in science and contrarians rejecting evidence of human influence on climate . The book was picked by Physics Today books editor Jermey Matthews as one of the five top books of the 49 they had reviewed in 2012 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_and_the_Climate_Wars", "rank": 4, "score": 165068 }, { "content": "Title: Divergence problem Content: The divergence problem is an anomaly from the field of dendroclimatology , the study of past climate through observations of old trees , primarily the properties of their annual growth rings . It is the disagreement between the temperatures measured by the thermometers ( instrumental temperatures ) and the temperatures reconstructed from the latewood densities or , in some cases , widths of tree rings in the far northern forests . While the thermometer records indicate a substantial late 20th century warming trend , many tree rings from such sites do not display a corresponding change in their maximum latewood density . In some studies this issue has also been found with tree ring width . A temperature trend extracted from tree rings alone would not show any substantial warming since the 1950s . The temperature graphs calculated in these two ways thus `` diverge '' from one another , which is the origin of the term .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Divergence_problem", "rank": 5, "score": 158868 }, { "content": "Title: Pseudoproxy Content: A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Pseudoproxy", "rank": 6, "score": 154156 }, { "content": "Title: International Tree-Ring Data Bank Content: The International Tree-Ring Data Bank ( ITRDB ) is a data repository for tree ring measurements that has been maintained since 1990 by the United States ' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Paleoclimatology Program and World Data Center for Paleoclimatology . The ITRDB was initially established by Hal Fritts through the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona through a grant from the US National Science Foundation after the First International Workshop on Dendrochronology in 1974 . The ITRDB accepts all tree ring data with sufficient metadata to be uploaded , but was founded with a focus on tree ring measurements intended for climatic studies . Specific information is required for uploading data to the data base , such as the raw tree ring measurements , an indication of the type of measurement ( full ring widths , earlywood , latewood ) , and the location , but the types of data and the rules for accuracy and precision of the primary data , tree-ring width measurements , are decided by the dendrochronologists who are contributing the data rather than by the NOAA or another governing organization .", "qid": "263", "docid": "International_Tree-Ring_Data_Bank", "rank": 7, "score": 142531 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 8, "score": 139819 }, { "content": "Title: Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research Content: The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research ( LTRR ) was established in 1937 by A.E. Douglass , founder of the modern science of dendrochronology . The LTRR is a research unit in the College of Science at the University of Arizona in Tucson . Since its founding , visiting scholars and faculty at the lab have done notable work in the areas of climate change , fire history , ecology , archeology and hydrology .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Laboratory_of_Tree-Ring_Research", "rank": 9, "score": 132612 }, { "content": "Title: Dendroclimatology Content: Dendroclimatology is the science of determining past climates from trees ( primarily properties of the annual tree rings ) . Tree rings are wider when conditions favor growth , narrower when times are difficult . Other properties of the annual rings , such as maximum latewood density ( MXD ) have been shown to be better proxies than simple ring width . Using tree rings , scientists have estimated many local climates for hundreds to thousands of years previous . By combining multiple tree-ring studies ( sometimes with other climate proxy records ) , scientists have estimated past regional and global climates .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Dendroclimatology", "rank": 10, "score": 131969 }, { "content": "Title: Six's thermometer Content: Six 's thermometer is a registering thermometer which can record the maximum and minimum temperatures reached over a period of time , for example 24 hours . It is used to record the extremes of temperature at a location , for instance in meteorology and horticulture . It was invented by a British scientist James Six , born in Canterbury , in 1780 ; the same basic design remains in use . It is also commonly known as a maximum -- minimum , minimum -- maximum , maxima -- minima or minima -- maxima thermometer , of which it is the earliest practical design . The thermometer indicates the current temperature , and the highest and lowest temperatures since last reset .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Six's_thermometer", "rank": 11, "score": 130350 }, { "content": "Title: Wesley Ferguson Content: Wesley Ferguson ( 1922 -- March 24 , 1986 ) was an American academic at the Tree-Ring Research Laboratory at the University of Arizona at Tucson who studied tree-rings . He built a tree-ring sequence from bristlecone pines which was used by Hans Suess to create a calibration curve for radiocarbon dating .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Wesley_Ferguson", "rank": 12, "score": 129359 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Mann Content: Michael Kenneth Mann ' ( born February 5 , 1943 ) is an American film director , screenwriter , and producer of film and television . For his work , he has received nominations from international organizations and juries , including those at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts , Cannes and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . His most acclaimed works are the crime film Heat ( 1995 ) and the docudrama The Insider ( 1999 ) . Total Film ranked Mann No. 28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Directors Ever , Sight and Sound ranked him No. 5 on their list of the 10 Best Directors of the Last 25 Years , and Entertainment Weekly '' ranked Mann No. 8 on their 25 Greatest Active Film Directors list .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Mann", "rank": 13, "score": 128952 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Baillie Content: Not to be confused with Mike Baillie drummer of The Skids Michael G. L. `` Mike '' Baillie is Professor Emeritus of Palaeoecology at Queen 's University of Belfast , in Northern Ireland . Baillie is a leading expert in dendrochronology , or dating by means of tree-rings . In the 1980s , he was instrumental in building a year-by-year chronology of tree-ring growth reaching 7,400 years into the past .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Mike_Baillie", "rank": 14, "score": 128849 }, { "content": "Title: Attorney General of Virginia's climate science investigation Content: The Attorney General of Virginia 's climate science investigation was a `` Civil Investigative Demand '' initiated in April 2010 by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for a wide range of records held by the University of Virginia related to five grant applications for research work by a leading climate scientist Michael E. Mann , who was an assistant professor at the university from 1999 to 2005 . The demand was issued under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act in connection with claims by Cuccinnelli that Mann had possibly violated state fraud laws in relation to five research grants , by allegedly manipulating data . No evidence of wrongdoing was presented to support the claim . Mann 's earlier work had been targeted by climate change skeptics in the hockey stick controversy , and allegations against him were renewed in late 2009 in the Climatic Research Unit email controversy but found to be groundless in a series of investigations . Widespread concerns were raised by University of Virginia 's faculty and numerous scientists and science organizations that Cuccinelli 's actions posed a threat to academic freedom , and would have a chilling effect on research in the state . The university filed a court petition and the judge dismissed Cuccinelli 's demand on the grounds that no justification had been shown for the investigation . Cuccinelli tried to re-open his case by issuing a revised subpoena , and appealed the case to the Virginia Supreme Court . The case was defended by the university , and the court ruled that Cuccinelli did not have the authority to make these demands . The outcome was hailed as a victory for academic freedom .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Attorney_General_of_Virginia's_climate_science_investigation", "rank": 15, "score": 128431 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "263", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 16, "score": 127613 }, { "content": "Title: Leopoldo Nobili Content: Leopoldo Nobili , born on 5 July 1784 in Trassilico ( Toscana ) and died on 22 August 1835 in Florence , was an Italian physicist who invented a number of instruments critical to investigating thermodynamics and electrochemistry . Born Trassilico , Garfagnana , after attending the Military Academy of Modena he became an artillery officer . He was awarded the Légion d'honneur for his service in Napoleon 's invasion of Russia . In 1825 he developed the astatic galvanometer . He worked with Macedonio Melloni on the thermomultiplier , a combination of thermopile and galvanometer , before being appointed professor of physics at the Regal Museum of Physics and Natural History in Florence where he worked with Vincenzo Antinori on electromagnetic induction . He was also credited with the discovery of ` Nobili 's Rings ' . `` When a dilute solution of copper acetate is placed on a bright silverplate and a strip of zinc is touched to the silver beneath the copper , a series of rings of copper are formed by electrolysis around the zinc . ''", "qid": "263", "docid": "Leopoldo_Nobili", "rank": 17, "score": 127467 }, { "content": "Title: Guccio di Mannaia Content: Guccio di Mannaia ( Malnaia ; Malnaggia ; Manaie ; Mannaie ) was an Italian goldsmith from Siena , Italy active from 1288 to 1322 . He is best known for a 13th-century decorated gold-plated chalice which contains the first documented use of translucent enamels using the technique known as basse-taille .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Guccio_di_Mannaia", "rank": 18, "score": 126020 }, { "content": "Title: Dendrochronology Content: Dendrochronology ( or tree-ring dating ) is the scientific method of dating tree rings ( also called growth rings ) to the exact year they were formed in order to analyze atmospheric conditions during different periods in history . Dendrochronology is useful for determining the timing of events and rates of change in the environment ( most prominently climate ) and also in works of art and architecture , such as old panel paintings on wood , buildings , etc. . It is also used in radiocarbon dating to calibrate radiocarbon ages . New growth in trees occurs in a layer of cells near the bark . A tree 's growth rate changes in a predictable pattern throughout the year in response to seasonal climate changes , resulting in visible growth rings . Each ring marks a complete cycle of seasons , or one year , in the tree 's life . , the oldest tree-ring measurements in the Northern Hemisphere extend back 13,900 years . Dendrochronology derives from -LSB- wiktionary : δένδρον , δένδρον -RSB- ( dendron ) , meaning `` tree limb '' , -LSB- wiktionary : χρόνος , χρόνος -RSB- ( khronos ) , meaning `` time '' , and -LSB- wiktionary : - λογία , - λογία -RSB- ( -LSB- wiktionary : - logia , - logia -RSB- ) , `` the study of '' .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Dendrochronology", "rank": 19, "score": 125812 }, { "content": "Title: Beckmann thermometer Content: A Beckmann thermometer is a device used to measure small differences of temperature , but not absolute temperature values . It was invented by Ernst Otto Beckmann ( 1853 -- 1923 ) , a German chemist , for his measurements of colligative properties in 1905 . Today its use has largely been superseded by electronic thermometers . A Beckmann thermometer 's length is usually 40 -- 50 cm . The temperature scale typically covers about 5 ° C and it is divided into hundredths of a degree . With a magnifier it is possible to estimate temperature changes to 0.001 ° C . The peculiarity of Beckmann 's thermometer design is a reservoir ( R on diagram ) at the upper end of the tube , by means of which the quantity of mercury in the bulb can be increased or diminished so that the instrument can be set to measure temperature differences at either high or low temperature values . In contrast , the range of a typical mercury-in-glass thermometer is fixed , being set by the calibration marks etched on the glass or the marks on the printed scale .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Beckmann_thermometer", "rank": 20, "score": 125362 }, { "content": "Title: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit Content: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit ( -LSB- ˈfærənˌhaɪt -RSB- -LSB- ˈfaːʀənhait -RSB- ; 24 May 1686 -- 16 September 1736 ) was a Dutch-German-Polish physicist , inventor , and scientific instrument maker . A pioneer of exact thermometry , he is best known for inventing the mercury-in-glass thermometer ( first practical , accurate thermometer ) and for proposing the Fahrenheit scale ( first standardized temperature scale to be widely used ) .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Daniel_Gabriel_Fahrenheit", "rank": 21, "score": 124933 }, { "content": "Title: Thermo-hygrograph Content: A thermo-hygrograph or hygrothermograph is a chart recorder that measures and records both temperature and humidity ( or dew point ) . Similar devices that record only one parameter are a thermograph for temperature and hygrograph for humidity . Thermographs where the variations are recorded using photography were described by several scientists as early as 1845 , including Francis Ronalds who was Honorary Director of the Kew Observatory . An updated model of the initial machine was deployed across the national observational network set up by the new UK Met Office in 1867 and coordinated by Kew Observatory . These instruments then saw extended use around the world . An alternative thermograph configuration has a pen that records temperature on a revolving cylinder . The pen is at the end of a lever that is controlled by a bi-metal strip of temperature-sensitive metal which bends as the temperature changes . A human hair bundle can be used for humidity in such machines .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Thermo-hygrograph", "rank": 22, "score": 124671 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record Content: For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Temperature_record", "rank": 23, "score": 123431 }, { "content": "Title: Miller-Casella thermometer Content: The Miller-Casella thermometer was a Six 's thermometer with a double bulb used extensively by the Challenger expedition during the late nineteenth century . The thermomemeter was used for water temperature readings along 360 different research stations around the world 's oceans . The thermometer , which was about 9 inches in length , was enclosed in a copper case and filled with a solution of creosote in spirit . A U-shaped mercury tube recorded maximum and minimum temperature as the thermometer was lowered and raised into the ocean . This design assumed accurate measurements could be taken as long as the water closer to the surface of the ocean was always warmer than that below . Scientists aboard the HMS Challenger later questioned this assumption and made temperutare measurements with reversing thermometers instead which would n't require the coldest water to be at the ocean 's bottom .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Miller-Casella_thermometer", "rank": 24, "score": 123416 }, { "content": "Title: UAH satellite temperature dataset Content: The UAH satellite temperature dataset , developed at the University of Alabama in Huntsville , infers the temperature of various atmospheric layers from satellite measurements of radiance . It was the first global temperature datasets developed from satellite information and has been used as a tool for research into surface and atmospheric temperature changes . The dataset is published by John Christy et al. and formerly jointly with Roy Spencer .", "qid": "263", "docid": "UAH_satellite_temperature_dataset", "rank": 25, "score": 123102 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "263", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 26, "score": 122951 }, { "content": "Title: Ole Rømer Content: Ole Christensen Rømer ( -LSB- ˈo lə ˈʁœːˀmɐ -RSB- ; 25 September 1644 -- 19 September 1710 ) was a Danish astronomer who in 1676 made the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light . Rømer also invented the modern thermometer showing the temperature between two fixed points , namely the points at which water respectively boils and freezes . In scientific literature alternative spellings such as `` Roemer '' , `` Römer '' , or `` Romer '' are common .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Ole_Rømer", "rank": 27, "score": 122925 }, { "content": "Title: MMTS (meteorology) Content: A Maximum Minimum Temperature System or MMTS is a temperature recording system that keeps track of the maximum and minimum temperatures that have occurred over some given time period . The earliest , and still perhaps most familiar , form is the Maximum minimum thermometer invented by James Six in 1782 . Today a typical MMTS is a thermistor . This may be read locally or can transmit its results electronically .", "qid": "263", "docid": "MMTS_(meteorology)", "rank": 28, "score": 122621 }, { "content": "Title: Thermoscope Content: A thermoscope is a device that shows changes in temperature . A typical design is a tube in which a liquid rises and falls as the temperature changes . The modern thermometer gradually evolved from it with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century and standardisation through the 17th and 18th centuries .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Thermoscope", "rank": 29, "score": 121461 }, { "content": "Title: HadCRUT Content: HadCRUT is the dataset of monthly instrumental temperature records formed by combining the sea surface temperature records compiled by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the land surface air temperature records compiled by the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) of the University of East Anglia . The data is provided on a grid of boxes covering the globe , with values provided for only those boxes containing temperature observations in a particular month and year . Interpolation is not applied to infill missing values . The first version of HadCRUT initially spanned the period 1881 -- 1993 , and this was later extended to begin in 1850 and to be regularly updated to the current year/month in near real-time .", "qid": "263", "docid": "HadCRUT", "rank": 30, "score": 121086 }, { "content": "Title: John A. Eddy Content: John Allen `` Jack '' Eddy ( March 25 , 1931 -- June 10 , 2009 ) was an American astronomer who published professionally under the name John A. Eddy but much of the content referencing him can be found under his nickname Jack which he preferred to use . In 1976 Dr. Eddy published a landmark paper in Science titled `` The Maunder Minimum '' where , using the Nineteenth Century works of Edward W. Maunder and Gustav Spörer , he identified a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 as a time when solar activity all but stopped . In making the case for the anomaly , he gathered and interpreted data from a wide variety of sources , including first-hand accounts from extant historical observations of the Sun going back to the telescopic observations of Galileo and other contemporary scientists of the 17th and early 18th centuries ; from historical reports of the aurora borealis observed in past centuries in Europe and the New World ; from visual observations of sunspots seen with the unaided eye at sunrise and sunset in dynastic records from the Orient ; from existing descriptions of the eclipsed Sun ; and from measurements of carbon-14 in dated tree-rings . In the last of these , which can be used as a proxy indicator of solar activity , he found evidence of other similar periods of solar quiescence in the distant past , the most recent an even longer 90-year span , from about 1460 until 1550 , which he named the Spörer Minimum . Both the Maunder and Spörer minima fell during the coldest parts of the Little Ice Age , which suggested a meaningful connection between the longer term behavior of the Sun and of the Earth 's mean surface temperature . In advancing the theory that the Sun is a variable star Eddy observed : `` It has long been thought that the Sun is a constant star of regular and repeatable behavior . Measurements of the radiative output , or solar constant , seem to justify the first assumption , and the record of periodicity in sunspot numbers is taken as evidence of the second . Both records , however , sample only the most recent history of the Sun . ''", "qid": "263", "docid": "John_A._Eddy", "rank": 31, "score": 120441 }, { "content": "Title: Mercury-in-glass thermometer Content: The mercury-in-glass or mercury thermometer was invented by physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in Amsterdam ( 1714 ) . It consists of a bulb containing mercury attached to a glass tube of narrow diameter ; the volume of mercury in the tube is much less than the volume of the bulb . The volume of mercury changes slightly with temperature ; the small change in volume drives the narrow mercury column a relatively long way up the tube . The space above the mercury may be filled with nitrogen or it may be at less than atmospheric pressure , a partial vacuum . In order to calibrate the thermometer , the bulb is made to reach thermal equilibrium with a temperature standard such as an ice/water mixture , and then with another standard such as water/vapour , and the tube is divided into regular intervals between the fixed points . In principle , thermometers made of different material ( e.g. , coloured alcohol thermometers ) might be expected to give different intermediate readings due to different expansion properties ; in practice the substances used are chosen to have reasonably linear expansion characteristics as a function of true thermodynamic temperature , and so give similar results . The application of mercury ( 1714 ) and Fahrenheit scale ( 1724 ) for liquid-in-glass thermometers ushered in a new era of accuracy and precision in thermometry .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Mercury-in-glass_thermometer", "rank": 32, "score": 120435 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Mann (sociologist) Content: Michael Mann ( born 1942 ) is a British-born professor of Sociology at the University of California , Los Angeles ( UCLA ) and Visiting Research Professor at Queen 's University Belfast . Mann holds dual British and United States citizenships . He received his B.A. in Modern History from the University of Oxford in 1963 and his D.Phil . in Sociology from the same institution in 1971 . Mann is currently visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge . Mann has been a professor of Sociology at UCLA since 1987 ; he was lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex after graduation . Then became reader in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science from 1977 to 1987 . Mann was also a member of the Advisory Editors Council of the Social Evolution & History journal . In 1984 , Mann published The Autonomous Power of the State : its Origins , Mechanisms , and Results in the European Journal of Sociology , the foundation for the study of the despotic and bureaucratic power of the modern state . Mann 's most famous works include the monumental The Sources of Social Power ( four volumes ) and The Dark Side of Democracy , spanning the entire 20th century . He also published Incoherent Empire , where he attacks the United States ' ` War on Terror ' as a clumsy experiment in neo-imperialism . The last two volumes of The Sources of Social Power - Global Empires and Revolution 1890-1945 and Globalizations 1945-2011 , were published by CUP in 2012 and 2013 respectively . Mann 's work has been subject of several books including J.A. Hall and R. Schroder ( eds ) . The Anatomy of Power : Social Theory of Michael Mann , ( Cambridge UP , 2006 ) and R. Schroder ( ed . ) Global Powers : Michael Mann 's Anatomy of 20th century and Beyond , ( Cambridge UP , 2016 ) .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Mann_(sociologist)", "rank": 33, "score": 119884 }, { "content": "Title: A. E. Douglass Content: A. E. ( Andrew Ellicott ) Douglass ( July 5 , 1867 in Windsor , Vermont -- March 20 , 1962 in Tucson , Arizona ) was an American astronomer . He discovered a correlation between tree rings and the sunspot cycle , and founded the discipline of dendrochronology , which is a method of dating wood by analyzing the growth ring pattern . He started his discoveries in this field in 1894 when he was working at the Lowell Observatory . During this time he was an assistant to Percival Lowell , but fell out with him when his experiments made him doubt the existence of artificial `` canals '' on Mars and visible cusps on Venus . Craters on the Moon and Mars are named in his honor .", "qid": "263", "docid": "A._E._Douglass", "rank": 34, "score": 119456 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "263", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 35, "score": 119147 }, { "content": "Title: Clifford Allbutt Content: Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt ( 20 July 183622 February 1925 ) was an English physician and inventor of the clinical thermometer . Thomas Clifford Allbutt was born in Dewsbury , Yorkshire , the son of Rev. Thomas Allbutt , Vicar of Dewsbury and his wife Marianne , daughter of Robert Wooler , of Dewsbury ( 1801 -- 1843 ) . He was educated at St Peter 's School , York and Caius College , Cambridge , where he graduated B.A. in 1859 , with a First Class degree in natural sciences in 1860 . After studying medicine at St George 's Hospital , Hyde Park Corner , London , and taking the Cambridge MB degree in 1861 , he went to Paris and attended the clinics of Armand Trousseau , Duchenne de Boulogne ( G. B. A. Duchenne ) author of Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine , Pierre-Antoine-Ernest Bazin and Hardy . He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1880 , while still practising at Leeds General Infirmary ( 1861 to 1889 ) . After serving as one of the Commissioners for Lunacy in England and Wales from 1889 , Allbutt became Regius Professor of Physic ( medicine ) at the University of Cambridge in 1892 , and was knighted in 1907 . He died in Cambridge , England in 1925 . Allbutt was married to Susan , daughter of Thomas England , merchant , of Headingley , Leeds , on 15 September 1869 . They had no children .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Clifford_Allbutt", "rank": 36, "score": 119121 }, { "content": "Title: Felix Mann Content: Felix Mann ( 10 April 1931 -- 2 October 2014 ) was a German-born acupuncturist . He devised the system known as Scientific Acupuncture and was the founder and past-president of the Medical Acupuncture Society ( 1959 -- 1980 ) . He was also the first president of the British Medical Acupuncture Society ( 1980 ) , and the author of the first comprehensive English language acupuncture textbook Acupuncture : The Ancient Chinese Art of Healing first published in 1962 . In 1995 , he received The German Pain Prize . Mann , who was based in England , also lectured internationally on medical acupuncture . Mann distanced himself from traditional beliefs in the existence of acupuncture points and meridians .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Felix_Mann", "rank": 37, "score": 118836 }, { "content": "Title: Gustave Reininger Content: Gustave Reininger ( 1950 -- April 19 , 2012 ) was an American scriptwriter who was the co-creator of the NBC TV drama , Crime Story . The executive producer was Michael Mann . Crime Story was based on the Mafia in Chicago , or `` The Outfit , '' and how it got off the streets and into the boardrooms of Las Vegas casinos . The show premiered with a two-hour pilot - movie , which had been exhibited theatrically , and was watched by over 30 million viewers . Crime Story then was scheduled to follow Miami Vice on Friday nights , and continued to attract a record number of viewers . Reininger was a former Wall Street international investment banker who had come to Mann 's attention based on a screenplay he had written about arson investigators , and a French language thriller with Dennis Hopper that he had co-written and produced . Mann 's agent somehow reached Reininger while he was traveling incognito in the Mayan Highlands of Guatemala , with a liberation theology catholic Bishop . Reininger researched Crime Story by winning the confidence of Detective William Hanhardt who put him in touch with undercover officers in the Chicago Police Department . They sent him on meetings with organized crime figures . Reininger risked wearing a body microphone and recorder . After visiting the crime scene of a gruesome gang slaying of bookmaker Al Brown , Reininger backed off his Mafia interviews . In a June 1986 press conference , Mann said that the first season of the show would go from Chicago in 1963 to Las Vegas in 1980 . He said , `` It 's a serial in the sense that we have continuing stories , and in that sense the show is one big novel . '' Mann and Reininger 's inspiration for the 1963-1980 arc came from their mutual admiration of the 15 1/2 hour television film , Berlin Alexanderplatz , by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder ' . Mann said , `` The pace of our story is like the speed of light compared to that , but that 's the idea - if you put it all together at the end you 've got one hell of a 22-hour movie . '' NBC chief Brando Tartikoff allowed the series to move to Las Vegas for the last quarter of the 22 episodes . The last episode is legendary as Ray Luca and Pauli Taglia are on the lam , hiding from Det. Mike Torello , in a Nevada desert shack , which is located in an Atomic Bomb test area . An A-Bomb explodes , presumably obliterating Luca and Taglia , in one of the most memorable cliffhangers in television history , leaving viewers wondering whether they were dead or alive , just as the show 's creator were wondering if the series itself was dead or alive with NBC . Viewers were surprised to learn in the fall the series had returned to be permanently based in Las Vegas . The principal characters are based on the real life head of the Chicago anti-mob unit , Det. William Hanhardt and on Chicago mobster Anthony Spilotro . Reininger was subpoenaed to Spilotro 's trial in Federal Court in Las Vegas as an unwilling material witness for Spilotro , who was alleging that the only way Reininger could have written scripts and the series `` Bible '' was by having access to Federal wiretaps of Spilotro . Reininger in turn discovered that his New York phones were being monitored . Reininger was served Spilotro 's subpoena , and given a deadly warning , in a New York hotel bar by now infamous Hollywood private detective Anthony Pellicano , who in 2006 was imprisoned for illegal wiretapping , blackmail and harassment while representing notable entertainment figures . Spilotro returned home to Chicago and was brutally murdered along with his brother Michael , and buried in an Indiana cornfield . The case was dismissed , and Reininger , who had sent all his Crime Story work materials to a former banking associate in Zurich , Switzerland , did not have to testify . Subsequently , Martin Scorsese directed and produced his movie Casino loosely basing it on elements of Crime Story , which was recognized at the Casino premiere as an inspiration . Crime Story was the prototypes for today 's arc-driven television series , such as 24 and The Sopranos that have continuing story lines over multiple episodes .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Gustave_Reininger", "rank": 38, "score": 118790 }, { "content": "Title: Galileo thermometer Content: A Galileo thermometer ( or Galilean thermometer ) is a thermometer made of a sealed glass cylinder containing a clear liquid and several glass vessels of varying mass . As the temperature changes , the individual floats rise or fall in proportion to their respective weights and the density of the surrounding liquid . It is named after Galileo Galilei because he discovered the principle on which this thermometer is based -- that the density of a liquid changes in proportion to its temperature -- and he also invented a thermoscope based on this principle .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Galileo_thermometer", "rank": 39, "score": 118279 }, { "content": "Title: Pictet–Spengler reaction Content: The Pictet -- Spengler reaction is a chemical reaction in which a β-arylethylamine such as tryptamine undergoes ring closure after condensation with an aldehyde or ketone . Usually an acidic catalyst is employed and the reaction mixture heated , but some reactive compounds give good yields even under physiological conditions . The Pictet -- Spengler reaction can be considered a special case of the Mannich reaction . The reaction was discovered in 1911 by Amé Pictet and Theodor Spengler . It has remained an important reaction in the fields of alkaloid and pharmaceutical synthesis . The Pictet -- Spengler reaction product of tryptophan and aldoses can be identified in foodstuffs such as soy sauce and ketchup . Nucleophilic aromatic rings such as indole or pyrrole give products with good yields and mild conditions , while less nucleophilic aromatic rings such as benzene give poor yields despite high temperatures and strong acid . The original Pictet -- Spengler reaction was the reaction of β-phenethylamine with the dimethyl acetal of formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid forming a tetrahydroisoquinoline . Like the Mannich reaction , aldehydes give good yields while ketones tend to give lower conversion . The Pictet -- Spengler reaction has been applied to solid-phase combinatorial chemistry with great success . An analogous reaction with an aryl-β-ethanol is called Oxa-Pictet -- Spengler reaction", "qid": "263", "docid": "Pictet–Spengler_reaction", "rank": 40, "score": 117923 }, { "content": "Title: Central England temperature Content: The Central England Temperature ( CET ) record is a meteorological dataset originally published by Professor Gordon Manley in 1953 and subsequently extended and updated in 1974 , following many decades of painstaking work . The monthly mean surface air temperatures , for the Midlands region of England , are given ( in degrees Celsius ) from the year 1659 to the present . This record represents the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence . It is a valuable dataset for meteorologists and climate scientists . It is monthly from 1659 , and a daily version has been produced from 1772 . The monthly means from November 1722 onwards are given to a precision of 0.1 ° C . The earliest years of the series , from 1659 to October 1722 inclusive , for the most part only have monthly means given to the nearest degree or half a degree , though there is a small ` window ' of 0.1 degree precision from 1699 to 1706 inclusive . This reflects the number , accuracy , reliability and geographical spread of the temperature records that were available for the years in question .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Central_England_temperature", "rank": 41, "score": 117844 }, { "content": "Title: Paleothermometer Content: A paleothermometer is a methodology for determining past temperatures using a proxy found in a natural record such as a sediment , ice core , tree rings or TEX86 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Paleothermometer", "rank": 42, "score": 117772 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature measurement Content: Temperature measurement ( or thermometry ) describes the process of measuring a current local temperature for immediate or later evaluation . Datasets consisting of repeated standardized measurements can be used to assess temperature trends .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Temperature_measurement", "rank": 43, "score": 116411 }, { "content": "Title: James Six Content: James Six FRS ( 1731 -- 25 August 1793 ) was a British scientist born in Canterbury . He is noted for his invention , in 1780 , of Six 's thermometer , commonly known as the maximum minimum thermometer . This device is still in common use today and widely sold in garden centres .", "qid": "263", "docid": "James_Six", "rank": 44, "score": 114973 }, { "content": "Title: Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich Content: Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich ( 4 August 1815 , Sulz am Neckar -- 25 September 1877 , Leipzig ) was a German physician , pioneer psychiatrist , and medical professor . He is known for his measurement of mean healthy human body temperature of 37 ° C ( 98.6 ° F ) , now known more accurately to be about 36.8 ° C ( 98.2 ° F ) . He attended grammar school in Stuttgart and at the age of eighteen he began his medical studies at Tübingen University , where he completed his final exams in 1837 . In 1838 he worked as assistant at St Catharine 's Hospital in Stuttgart , and wrote his MD thesis . Two years later he wrote his MD habilitation on internal medicine at Tübingen University In 1846 he was appointed Professor ( ordentlicher Professor ) and head of the general hospital at Tübingen . Four years later he moved to Leipzig University as Professor and Medical Director of the university hospital . There he introduced clinical pedagogy , combined with a rigorous methodology of diagnosis , and empirical observation of patients . He introduced temperature charts into hospitals , holding that fever is not a disease , but a symptom . The thermometer he used was reportedly a foot long , and required 20 minutes to register the temperature . He was known for his lectures on psychiatry and on the `` pathology and therapy of illnesses of the nervous system . '' He described an extremely rare eponymous syndrome which consists of retroperitoneal bleeding from the kidney which tracks into the surrounding tissues . This may be due to benign or malignant disease . In 1871 he was appointed to the Department of Medicine 's organisational commission for the construction and design of psychiatric hospitals .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Carl_Reinhold_August_Wunderlich", "rank": 45, "score": 114735 }, { "content": "Title: Frank Wentz Content: Frank Wentz is the CEO and director of Remote Sensing Systems , a company he founded in 1974 . Remote Sensing Systems specializes in satellite microwave remote sensing research . Together with Carl Mears , he is best known for developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) one . From 1978 to 1982 Frank was a member of NASA 's SeaSat Experiment Team involved in the development of physically based retrieval methods for microwave scatterometers and radiometers . He has also investigated the effect of climate change on satellite-derived evaporation , precipitation and surface wind values . His findings are different from most climate change model predictions .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Frank_Wentz", "rank": 46, "score": 114562 }, { "content": "Title: William Henry Bristol Content: William Henry Bristol , inventor , manufacturer , educator , and environmentalist , was born in Waterbury , Connecticut on July 5 , 1859 , the eldest of six children . After graduating from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1884 with an engineering degree , he returned there in 1886 as an instructor and progressed to become a professor of mathematics in 1899 . While at Stevens , he patented products including a steel lacing for industrial belts and a pressure chart recorder . The need to manufacture these products led to the founding of the Bristol Company in 1889 with his brother , Franklin , and his father , Benjamin . By 1915 , the company was manufacturing the largest and most complete line of industrial instruments in the world , including instruments to measure and record temperature , electricity , pressure , motion , time , flow , and humidity . These instruments were the first to provide an uninterrupted history of manufacturing plant operations ; increasing efficiency , improving quality , and allowing higher rates of productivity . He was awarded the John Scott Medal in 1890 . Edward Longstreth Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1894 . In 1904 , Professor Bristol invented the first practical pyrometer for measuring high temperatures . This created another new industry and led to the formation of the William H. Bristol Pyrometer Company in New York City . In 1915 , he invented the `` Bristolphone '' to simultaneously record voices and other sounds with motion in moving pictures . He founded the William H. Bristol Talking Picture Corporation to develop `` synchronized talking motion pictures , '' and produced one of the first full-length motion pictures with sound . The Bristolphone was used in nearly one hundred movie houses in the U.S. . He also developed and manufactured loud speakers , power amplifiers , radios and phonograph recorders . His `` Audiophone , '' which was used at Yankee Stadium and Grand Central Station in New York , revolutionized public address systems . William Bristol was awarded medals at expositions in Chicago ( 1893 ) , Paris ( 1900 ) , Saint Louis ( 1904 ) , San Francisco ( 1915 ) and Philadelphia ( 1926 ) . He received two awards from the Franklin Institute to honor his distinguished career . He gained worldwide recognition while making possible major advances in both pure scientific knowledge and industrial technology . Bristol , who received nearly 100 patents during his lifetime , died on June 18 , 1930 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "William_Henry_Bristol", "rank": 47, "score": 114526 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Mann (scholar) Content: Michael Thomas Mann ( April 21 , 1919 -- January 1 , 1977 ) was a German-born musician and professor of German literature .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Mann_(scholar)", "rank": 48, "score": 114505 }, { "content": "Title: Dendroarchaeology Content: Dendroarchaeology is a term used for the study of vegetation remains , old buildings , artifacts , furniture , art and musical instruments using the techniques of dendrochronology ( tree-ring dating ) . It refers to dendrochronological research of wood from the past regardless of its current physical context ( in or above the soil ) . This form of dating is the most accurate and precise absolute dating method available to archaeologists , as the last ring that grew is the first year the tree could have been incorporated into an archaeological structure . Tree-ring dating is useful in that it can contribute to `` chronometric '' , `` environmental '' , and `` behavioral '' archaeological research . The utility of tree-ring dating in an environmental sense is the most applicable of the three in today 's world . Tree rings can be used to `` reconstruct numerous environmental variables '' such as `` temperature '' , `` precipitation '' , `` stream flow '' , `` drought society '' , `` fire frequency and intensity '' , `` insect infestation '' , `` atmospheric circulation patterns '' , among others .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Dendroarchaeology", "rank": 49, "score": 114447 }, { "content": "Title: Harvey mannequin Content: Harvey was one of the earliest medical simulators available for training of health care professionals . Harvey was created in 1968 by Dr. Michael Gordon at the University of Miami . Harvey is currently sold by the Laerdal Corporation .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Harvey_mannequin", "rank": 50, "score": 114351 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 51, "score": 113821 }, { "content": "Title: Franklin Ware Mann Content: Franklin Weston Mann ( 1856 -- 1916 ) was an American physician and inventor remembered as author of the pioneering ballistics text entitled The Bullet 's Flight from Powder to Target : The Internal and External Ballistics of Small Arms ; a Study of Rifle Shooting with the Personal Element Excluded , Disclosing the Cause of the Error at Target .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Franklin_Ware_Mann", "rank": 52, "score": 113632 }, { "content": "Title: Incremental dating Content: Incremental dating techniques allow the construction of year-by-year annual chronologies , which can be temporally fixed ( i.e. , linked to the present day and thus calendar or sidereal time ) or floating . Archaeologists use tree-ring dating ( dendrochronology ) to determine the age of old pieces of wood . Trees usually add growth rings on a yearly basis , with the spacing of rings being wider in high growth years and narrower in low growth years . Patterns in tree-ring growth can be used to establish the age of old wood samples , and also give some hints to local climatic conditions . This technique is useful to about 9,000 years ago for samples from the western United States using overlapping tree-ring series from living and dead wood . The Earth 's orbital motions ( inclination of the earth 's axis on its orbit with respect to the sun , gyroscopic precession of the earth 's axis every 26,000 years ; free precession every 440 days , precession of earth orbit and orbital variations such as perihelion precession every 19,000 and 23,000 years ) leave traces visible in the geological record . These changes provide a long-term sequence of climatic events , recorded as changes in the thickness of sediment layers ( known as `` varve analysis '' -- the term `` varve '' means a layer or layers of sediment . Typically , varve refers to lake or glacial sediment ) , as temperature induced changes in the isotopic ratios for oxygen isotopes in sediments , and in the relative abundance of fossils . Because these can be calibrated reliably over a period of 40 million years this provides an alternate verification to radiometric dating in cases where sufficient record exists to provide a reliable trace . Polarity reversals in the Earth 's magnetic field have also been used to determine geologic time . Periodically , the magnetic field of the earth reverses leaving a magnetic signal in volcanic and sedimentary rocks . This signal can be detected and sequences recorded , and in the case of volcanic rocks , tied to radiometric dates . Another technique used by archaeologists is to inspect the depth of penetration of water vapor into chipped obsidian ( volcanic glass ) artifacts . The water vapor creates a `` hydration rind '' in the obsidian , and so this approach is known as `` hydration dating '' or `` obsidian dating '' , and is useful for determining dates as far back as 200,000 years .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Incremental_dating", "rank": 53, "score": 113334 }, { "content": "Title: Julabo Labortechnik Content: Julabo GmbH is an international manufacturer of temperature-control technology for research and industry . The company was originally based upon Ernst Juchheim 's ( 1901 -- 1969 ) development of contact thermometers in 1926 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Julabo_Labortechnik", "rank": 54, "score": 113196 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Mann (disambiguation) Content: Michael Mann is an American film director , screenwriter , and producer . Michael Mann may also refer to : Michael Mann ( bishop ) ( 1924 -- 2011 ) , Anglican bishop Hollywood Fats ( Michael Leonard Mann , 1954 -- 1986 ) , American blues guitarist Michael Mann ( 1930 -- 1998 ) , Lord Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales , see Factortame litigation Michael Mann ( scholar ) ( 1919 -- 1977 ) , musician and professor of German literature , son of Thomas Mann Michael Mann ( sociologist ) ( born 1942 ) , professor of sociology Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) , climatologist and geophysicist", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Mann_(disambiguation)", "rank": 55, "score": 113057 }, { "content": "Title: Richard Assmann Content: Richard Assmann ( Anglicized spelling of the German name Richard Aßmann ) ; ( 13 April 1845 -- 28 May 1918 ) was a German meteorologist and physician who was a native of Magdeburg . He made numerous contributions in high altitude research of the Earth 's atmosphere . He was a pioneer of scientific aeronautics and considered a co-founder of aerology . In 1868 he received his medical doctorate in Berlin , and from 1870 to 1879 was a general practitioner in Bad Freienwalde . In 1879 he returned to Magdeburg to practice medicine . In 1885 he earned a doctorate in secondary studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Halle , and subsequently became a scientific officer at the Royal Meteorological Institute at Berlin-Grünau . From 1905 to 1914 Assmann was director of the Prussian Royal Aeronautical Observatory at Lindenberg , and afterwards was an honorary professor at the University of Giessen . From 1887 to 1892 , with airship designer Rudolf Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld ( 1861 -- 1902 ) , he developed a psychrometer for accurate measurement of atmospheric humidity and temperature . This was the first instrument that was able to provide reliable temperature readings with high altitude balloons , as it was capable of shielding its thermometric elements from solar radiation . The technical implementation and production of this device took place in the factory of Rudolf Fuess ( 1838 -- 1917 ) . From 1888 to 1899 , he was a member of the Verein zur Förderung der Luftschifffahrt , from which he organized scientific balloon ascents in order to study the atmosphere . From these studies , valuable insights in regards to atmospheric stratification of the troposphere were made . He is also credited for popularizing the field of meteorology , and played a significant role in several scientific newspapers and magazines during his career . From 1884 until his death , Assmann published the popular monthly magazine Das Wetter ( The Weather ) . With Léon Teisserenc de Bort ( 1855 -- 1913 ) , he is credited as co-discoverer of the stratosphere , as both men announced their discovery during the same time period in 1902 . In 1903 , with meteorologist Arthur Berson ( 1859 -- 1942 ) , he was awarded the Buys Ballot Medal by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Richard_Assmann", "rank": 56, "score": 113035 }, { "content": "Title: Remote Sensing Systems Content: Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) is a private research company founded in 1974 by Frank Wentz . It processes microwave data from a variety of NASA satellites . Most of their research is supported by the Earth Science Enterprise program . The company is based in Santa Rosa , California . They are a widely cited source of data , on the satellite temperature record . Their data is one source of evidence for global warming . Research by Carl Mears , Matthias Schabel , and Wentz , all of RSS , highlighted errors in the early satellite temperature records compiled by John Christy and Roy Spencer at UAH . The UAH data had previously showed no significant temperature trend , bringing the derived satellite data into closer agreement with surface temperature trends , radiosonde data and computer models . The UAH data is now closer to the RSS data but differences remain , for example the Lower Troposphere global average trend since 1979 , RSS currently have +0.133 K/decade while UAH have 0.140 K/decade , while the mid troposphere difference is even more marked at 0.079 K/decade and 0.052 K/decade respectively . However , in a recent online YouTube video , Dr. Carl Mears , a senior scientist with the team behind the satellite data , explained how he believes his data set needed correction . I would have to say that the surface data seems that it 's more accurate , because a number of groups analyze the surface data , including some who set out to prove the other ones wrong , and they all get more or less the same answer .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Remote_Sensing_Systems", "rank": 57, "score": 112960 }, { "content": "Title: Disappearing-filament pyrometer Content: The disappearing-filament pyrometer is an optical pyrometer , in which the temperature of a glowing incandescent object is measured by comparing it to the light of a heated filament . Invented independently in 1901 by Ludwig Holborn and Ferdinand Kurlbaum in Germany and Harmon Northrup Morse in the United States , it was the first device which could measure temperatures above 1000 ° C. Disappearing filament pyrometers have been used to measure temperatures between about 600 ° C and 3000 ° C. Like other optical pyrometers they are used to measure the temperature of objects too hot for contact thermometers , such as molten metals . Widely used in the steel and ceramics industries as well as for research , they have been almost totally superseded by electronic spectral-band pyrometers . The simplest design has optics like a Keplerian telescope . A thin wire ( filament ) , placed at the focal plane of the objective lens , is heated by electric current . When seen through the eyepiece , the wire appears silhouetted in front of the hot luminous object under investigation . The user compares the brightness of the glowing filament with the object behind , and adjusts the current through the filament until it seems to `` disappear '' in front of the glowing object . At that point the filament and object are at the same temperature . The user then reads the temperature off the filament current control dial , which is calibrated by the filament 's current-vs-temperature curve . or in some instruments from a current-vs-temperature table . The filament seems to `` disappear '' against the background of the object because two objects at the same temperature have the same black-body spectrum . In other designs the current through the filament is kept constant , and the radiation allowed through from the target object is varied with calibrated attenuating wedges in the optical path , or a prism is used to place the images of the target object and a calibrated glowing surface next to each other , e.g. as a disk inside a ring . Many disappearing-filament pyrometers use a red filter . The combination of the filter and the human eye 's response only allows through a narrow band of red wavelengths , so the luminosity comparison is made over only a narrow band of wavelengths . This reduces errors due to the target and filament not having identical emission spectra . For very hot objects , additional filters can be used to protect the eye from excessive light . The resolution of the instrument depends somewhat on the operator , but with a skilled operator a resolution of 10 ° C for temperatures up to 2000 ° C can be achieved . Disappearing-filament pyrometers can be used only if the object under study emits visible light similar to a hot black body ; this means that its temperature must be high enough ( around 600 ° C and up ) and the object must not be fully transparent or highly reflective . For good accuracy , the object should appear dark gray or black when cold .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Disappearing-filament_pyrometer", "rank": 58, "score": 112772 }, { "content": "Title: Mood ring Content: A mood ring is a ring that contains a thermochromic element , such as liquid crystal , that changes colors based upon the temperature of the finger of the wearer . Most new rings come with a color chart indicating the supposed mood of the wearer based upon the colors indicated on the ring . The mood ring was created in 1975 by two New York inventors , Josh Reynolds and Maris Ambats , who bonded liquid crystals with quartz stones set into rings . They initially retailed for $ 45 for a `` silvery setting '' and $ 250 for gold , and first sold at Bonwit Teller , rapidly becoming a fad in the 1970s .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Mood_ring", "rank": 59, "score": 112526 }, { "content": "Title: Quartz thermometer Content: The quartz thermometer is a high-precision , high accuracy temperature sensor . It measures temperature by measuring the frequency of a quartz crystal oscillator . The oscillator contains a specially cut crystal that results in a linear temperature coefficient of frequency , so the measurement of the temperature is essentially reduced to measurement of the oscillator frequency . Resolutions of .0001 ° C , and accuracy of .02 ° C from 0-100 ° C are achievable . The high linearity makes it possible to achieve high accuracy over an important temperature range that contains only one convenient temperature reference point for calibration , the triple point of water . Introduced by Hewlett-Packard in 1965 , the successor company , Agilent , has discontinued the Model 2804A Quartz Thermometer . Other manufacturers make nearly linear-in-temperature quartz crystals that may be used to construct thermometers of similar performance .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Quartz_thermometer", "rank": 60, "score": 111196 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Maar Content: Michael Maar ( born July 17 , 1960 in Stuttgart ) is a German literary scholar , germanist and author . For his 1995 doctoral dissertation on Thomas Mann , titled Geister und Kunst , he was awarded the Johann Heinrich Merck Prize by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung . He was himself elected a member of the academy in 2002 . He was a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin from 1997 to 1998 , and Visiting Professor at Stanford University in 2002 . From 2005 to 2006 he was a Fellow of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung . In 2008 , he became a member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste . His 2005 book The Two Lolitas , as well as two articles in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and The Times Literary Supplement the previous year , argued that Vladimir Nabokov 's 1955 novel Lolita was most likely based on an until-then little known 1916 short story by German author Heinz von Lichberg , also titled Lolita and featuring an identical theme . The discovery received strong attention by literary critics and the world press . Maar did not himself accuse Nabokov of plagiarism , but suggested it was a case of cryptomnesia , arguing that Nabokov and Lichberg lived in the same part of Berlin for several years in the 1920s and 1930s and that Lichberg 's 1916 book ( a collection of short stories ) was easily available at the time . His father is the author Paul Maar .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Maar", "rank": 61, "score": 111129 }, { "content": "Title: The Tables of the Law Content: The Tables of the Law ( Das Gesetz ) is a 1944 novella by German writer Thomas Mann . It is a dramatic retelling of the Biblical story of Moses contained in the Book of Exodus , although some of the laws which Moses proscribes for his followers are taken from Leviticus . It was the only story that Mann was ever commissioned to write , and he finished it in just eight weeks , beginning on January 18 , 1943 , and ending on March 13 , 1943 . Publisher Armin L. Robinson , believing the Ten Commandments to be the basis on which civilization was founded , wanted to make a movie detailing the Nazi 's `` desecration of the Mosaic Decalogue . '' Instead , he settled on a book , entitled The Ten Commandments : Ten Short Novels of Hitler 's War Against the Moral Code , with ten authors , one for each commandment . Mann 's novella , which he was paid $ 1000 to write , was originally meant to be the introduction to the volume , but Robinson liked it so much that he decided to make it the first story , under the heading `` Thou Shalt Have No Other God Before Me . '' It should also be noted that Mann considered his story to be greatly superior to that of his fellow contributors , and he considered the overall book a `` failure '' .", "qid": "263", "docid": "The_Tables_of_the_Law", "rank": 62, "score": 111126 }, { "content": "Title: Miami Vice Content: Miami Vice is an American television crime drama series created by Anthony Yerkovich and executive produced by Michael Mann for NBC . The series starred Don Johnson as James `` Sonny '' Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo `` Rico '' Tubbs , two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami . The series ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984 to 1989 . The USA Network began airing reruns in 1988 , and broadcast an originally unaired episode during its syndication run of the series on January 25 , 1990 . Unlike standard police procedurals , the show drew heavily upon 1980s New Wave culture and music . The show became noted for its integration of music and visual effects . It has been called one of the `` Top 50 TV Shows '' . People magazine stated that Miami Vice was the `` first show to look really new and different since color TV was invented '' . In 2016 , television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz ranked Miami Vice as the 51st greatest American television show of all time . Michael Mann directed a film adaptation of the series , which was released on July 28 , 2006 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Miami_Vice", "rank": 63, "score": 110985 }, { "content": "Title: Leopold Mannes Content: Leopold Damrosch Mannes ( December 26 , 1899 -- August 11 , 1964 ) was an American musician , who , together with Leopold Godowsky , Jr. , created the first practical color transparency film , Kodachrome .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Leopold_Mannes", "rank": 64, "score": 110690 }, { "content": "Title: Henri Grissino-Mayer Content: Henri Grissino-Mayer is a Full Professor of Geography and Director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science at the University of Tennessee , Knoxville . Grissino-Mayer is a dendrochronologist who specializes in the use of tree-ring analysis to reconstruct environmental and cultural history . He received a BS ( with honors ) in Geography in 1985 and a MS in Geography in 1988 from the University of Georgia . His thesis research directed by David Butler ( now at Texas State University , San Marcos ) investigated the relationships between climate and growth of shortleaf pine in north-central Georgia . He completed his Ph.D. under Tom Swetnam in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona in 1995 . His dissertation research was conducted at El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico where he reconstructed precipitation and wildfire activity for the last 2,000 years . Grissino-Mayer has published over 90 peer-reviewed articles during his career . His work has appeared in high impact journals such as Ecology , Holocene , International Journal of Wildland Fire , and Journal of Archaeological Science and has been featured on the Discovery Channel , the History Channel , and the Weather Channel .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Henri_Grissino-Mayer", "rank": 65, "score": 109725 }, { "content": "Title: Stevie Richards Content: Michael Stephen Manna ( born October 9 , 1971 ) is an American professional wrestler and podcaster , better known by his ring name , Stevie Richards . Over the course of his career , Richards has performed for major professional wrestling promotions including Eastern/Extreme Championship Wrestling , World Championship Wrestling , World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment , Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , Chikara and Ring of Honor . Championships held by Richards include the ECW World Tag Team Championship , WWE Hardcore Championship , NWA National Heavyweight Championship and Extreme Rising World Championship . He is the current WildKat Heavyweight Champion and Freedom Pro Wrestling National Champion .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Stevie_Richards", "rank": 66, "score": 109506 }, { "content": "Title: Dolbear's law Content: Dolbear 's law states the relationship between the air temperature and the rate at which crickets chirp . It was formulated by Amos Dolbear and published in 1897 in an article called `` The Cricket as a Thermometer '' . Dolbear 's observations on the relation between chirp rate and temperature were preceded by an 1881 report by Margarette W. Brooks , According to Frings and Frings , this is : Margarette W. Brooks , `` Influence of temperature on the chirp of the cricket '' , Popular Science Monthly 20 ( 1881 ) , p. 268 ; citing `` W.G.B. '' , a writer whom Brooks does not further identify . although this paper went unnoticed until after Dolbear 's publication . Dolbear did not specify the species of cricket which he observed , although subsequent researchers assumed it to be the snowy tree cricket , `` Oecanthus niveus '' . However , the snowy tree cricket was misidentified as O. niveus in early reports and the correct scientific name for this species is Oecanthus fultoni . The chirping of the more common field crickets is not as reliably correlated to temperature -- their chirping rate varies depending on other factors such as age and mating success . In many cases , though , the Dolbear 's formula is a close enough approximation for field crickets , too .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Dolbear's_law", "rank": 67, "score": 109484 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Mann (bishop) Content: Michael Ashley Mann KCVO ( 25 May 1924 -- 31 December 2011 ) was an Anglican bishop during the last quarter of the 20th century . He was born on 25 May 1924 and educated at Harrow and the Royal Military College , Sandhurst , from 1946 to 1955 he served in the Colonial Service in Nigeria . Ordained in 1957 he was later Vicar of Sparkwell , a Canon Residentiary at Norwich Cathedral , Bishop of Dudley and finally Dean of Windsor . He retired in 1989 . He died on 31 December 2011 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Mann_(bishop)", "rank": 68, "score": 109224 }, { "content": "Title: Mannix Content: Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 to 1975 on CBS . Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller , the title character , Joe Mannix , is a private investigator . He is played by Mike Connors .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Mannix", "rank": 69, "score": 109198 }, { "content": "Title: Ned H. Roberts Content: Major Ned H. Roberts ( 1866 Goffstown , N.H. -- 1948 ) , was an American hunter , competition target shooter , gun writer & editor , ballistician and firearms experimenter . Roberts was a prolific contributor to sporting publications , including Outdoor Life , Outers , Arms and the Man ( later renamed as American Rifleman , and to Hunting and Fishing magazine , for which latter publication he served as Firearms Editor . His work on cartridge design in collaboration with Adolph Otto Niedner , Franklin Weston Mann , Townsend Whelen , and F.J. Sage led to a commercialized version of his own original .25 - caliber wildcat cartridge introduced by Remington in 1934 and named the .257 Roberts . Development of the .257 Roberts Roberts announced in the March 1928 issue of American Rifleman the creation of a new `` ideal , or perfected '' .25 - caliber cartridge superior in ballistics and accuracy to any other cartridge yet produced in that caliber . Dr. F.W. Mann and Adolph Otto Niedner had previously developed wildcat cartridges in .25 - caliber made by necking down the .30 -40 Krag and the .30 -06 Springfield cases . The two .30 - caliber cases held too much powder , however , and could not be filled with any existing smokeless powder . Although good results had been obtained with the Krag cartridge case , a rimless cartridge compatible with the best ( Springfield and Mauser ) actions was desired . He originally intended to base the new cartridge on the .30 -06 case , as proposed by Townsend Whelen , but Whelen 's friend and correspondent Harvey A. Donaldson pointed out , in a letter to Whelen that it would save work to modify the shorter 7x57 Mauser case . Roberts was a perfectionist and there followed years of trial-and-error testing which involved the making up of literally dozens of barrels for his .25 - caliber wildcat , with different chambers , groove dimensions and rifling twists . Colonel Whelen once told Ken Waters that he doubted if any man ever spent so much time perfecting a cartridge as Ned Roberts did with his .25 Roberts , as he originally called it . Colonel Townsend Whelen and Mr. L. C. Weldin , ballistic engineer of the Hercules Powder Company advised using a shoulder angle of 15 ° in order to hold down pressures with the rather fast-burning powders of the late 1920s . This suggestion was adopted and the 7mm case necked down , formed to the new long-sloping shoulder , and trimmed approximately 1/16 '' . The Neidner Rifle Corporation of Dowagiac , Michigan proceeded to offer barrels and complete rifles in the new caliber featuring A.O. Neidner 's usual close chambering . The result was availability to an elite audience of especially keen and affluent shooters of the original wildcat .25 Roberts cartridge , designed to be capable of firing 1-inch ten shot groups at 100 yards from a rest with a telescopic sight . Griffin & Howe , the great New York custom gun-making firm , soon followed suit , making custom rifles chambered in their own slightly-modified version of the wildcat cartridge . The .25 Griffin & Howe differed from the .25 Roberts only with respect to the New York company , skipping one step and opting for a slightly longer cartridge by leaving the 7x57 Mauser case untrimmed . In 1934 , Remington decided to make the new .25 Roberts cartridge available commercially . Remington eliminated case-trimming and modified the shoulder angle from the original 15 ° to 20 ° for greater ease in manufacturing . The resulting cartridge had a 1/16 '' longer case , and was given the slightly different designation of .257 Roberts . The new Remington cartridge went on to become , for decades , one of the most popular North American hunting cartridges . Schuetzen Rifle and Other Target Shooting Roberts published extensively on match target , Schuetzen , and long-range hunting rifles of both the 19th century black powder era and the early 20th century smokeless powder era . After his death , a number of his articles and letters on these subjects were collected and published by Gerald O. Kelver in 1951 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Ned_H._Roberts", "rank": 70, "score": 109159 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Herman (mathematician) Content: Michael Robert Herman ( 6 November 1942 -- 2 November 2000 ) was a French American mathematician . He was one of the leading experts on the theory of dynamical systems . Born in New York City , he was educated in France . He was a student at École Polytechnique before being one of the first members of the Centre de Mathématiques created there by Laurent Schwartz . In 1976 he earned his PhD at the Paris-Sud 11 University , under supervision of Harold Rosenberg . He introduced Herman rings in 1979 . Among his students was Jean-Christophe Yoccoz , 1994 Fields Medalist .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Herman_(mathematician)", "rank": 71, "score": 109093 }, { "content": "Title: Newton scale Content: The Newton scale is a temperature scale devised by Isaac Newton in 1701 . He called his device a `` thermometer '' , but he did not use the term `` temperature '' , speaking of `` degrees of heat '' ( gradus caloris ) instead . Newton 's publication represents the first attempt to introduce an objective way of measuring ( what would come to be called ) temperature ( alongside the Rømer scale published at nearly the same time ) . Newton likely developed his scale for practical use rather than for a theoretical interest in thermodynamics ; he had been appointed Warden of the Mint in 1695 , and Master of the Mint in 1699 , and his interest in the boiling points of metals are likely inspired by his duties in connection with the Royal Mint . Newton used linseed oil as thermometric material and measured its change of volume against his reference points . He set as 0 on his scale `` the heat of air in winter at which water begins to freeze '' ( Calor aeris hyberni ubi aqua incipit gelu rigescere ) , reminiscent of the standard of the modern Celsius scale ( i.e. 0 ° N = 0 ° C ) , but he has no single second reference point ; he does give the `` heat at which water begins to boil '' as 33 , but this is not a defining reference ; the values for body temperature and the boiling point of water suggest a conversion factor between the Newton and the Celsius scale of between about 3.08 ( 12 ° N = 37 ° C ) and 3.03 ( 33 ° N = 100 ° C ) but since the objectively verifiable reference points given result in irreconcilable data ( especially for high temperatures ) , no unambiguous `` conversion '' between the scales is possible . The linseed thermometer could be used up to the melting point of tin . For higher temperatures , Newton used `` sufficiently thick piece of iron '' that was heated until red-hot and then exposed to the wind . On this piece of iron , samples of metals and alloys were placed , which melted and then again solidified on cooling . Newton then determined the `` degrees of heat '' of these samples based on the solidification times , and tied this scale to the linseed one by measuring the melting point of tin in both systems . This second system of measurement led Newton to derive his law of convective heat transfer , also known as Newton 's law of cooling . In his publication , Newton gives 18 reference points ( in addition to a range of meteorological air temperatures ) , which he labels by two systems , one in arithmetic progression and the other in geometric progression , as follows :", "qid": "263", "docid": "Newton_scale", "rank": 72, "score": 109041 }, { "content": "Title: Steve Mann Content: Steven Mann ( born 1962 ) is a Canadian researcher and inventor best known for his work on computational photography , particularly wearable computing and high dynamic range imaging .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Steve_Mann", "rank": 73, "score": 108579 }, { "content": "Title: Henry F. Mann Content: Henry F. Mann was an inventor and blacksmith . Mann is most famous for inventing a reaping machine in 1848 with his father Jacob J. Mann . Their first reaper patent was applied for on June 19 , 1849 . In 1861 , Henry obtained a patent for improvement in breech loading cannons and subsequently test-fired many rounds for the chief ordnance constructor of the U.S. government . This first reaper-harvester cut the grain with a scalloped edge sickle , and by a double series of toothed bands ; one series running on a level with the cutting apparatus , and the other series , running up an inclined plane , carried the cut grain up the inclined plane by way of a revolving apron and deposited it into a rotating receptacle where the sheaf was collected , and thrown upon the ground in circular condition for binding . This was an improvement of earlier reapers where the operator did not have to rake or collect the grain into a sheaf . Ten of these machines were produced and sold in 1849 . An improved machine was entered in the 1953 Indiana State Fair held at LaFayette . It won first premium in competition with the popular machines of that day . By the 1870s , around 2,000 reaper machines with the name `` J.J.Mann and Sons '' were being used .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Henry_F._Mann", "rank": 74, "score": 108441 }, { "content": "Title: Delisle scale Content: The Delisle scale ( ° D ) is a temperature scale invented in 1732 by the French astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle ( 1688 -- 1768 ) . Delisle was the author of Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire et aux progrès de l'Astronomie , de la Géographie et de la Physique ( 1738 ) .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Delisle_scale", "rank": 75, "score": 108282 }, { "content": "Title: Heat (1995 film) Content: Heat is a 1995 American crime film written , produced and directed by Michael Mann , and starring Robert De Niro , Al Pacino , and Val Kilmer . De Niro plays Neil McCauley , a professional thief , while Pacino plays Lt. Vincent Hanna , a LAPD robbery-homicide detective tracking down McCauley 's crew . The story is based on the former Chicago police officer Chuck Adamson 's pursuit during the 1960s of a criminal named McCauley , after whom De Niro 's character is named . Heat is a remake by Mann of a TV series he had worked on , the pilot of which was released as a TV movie , L.A. Takedown in 1989 . Heat was a critical and commercial success , grossing $ 67 million in the United States and $ 187 million worldwide ( about $ million in ) against a $ 60 million budget . It was well received by critics . The film-critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 86 % positive reviews , calling the film `` an engrossing crime drama that draws compelling performances from its stars and confirms Michael Mann 's mastery of the genre . ''", "qid": "263", "docid": "Heat_(1995_film)", "rank": 76, "score": 108236 }, { "content": "Title: Ivo Kolin Content: Ivo Kolin ( 1924 , Zagreb - 2007 , Zagreb ) was a Croatian economist , engineer and inventor . After years of experimentation he demonstrated in 1983 the first Low Temperature Difference ( LTD ) Stirling engine which ran at the temperature difference as low as 15 ° C , astonishingly low at the time . It was also the first time in history of piston motors heat was turned into a mechanical work at the temperature lower than the boiling water . The engine was later significantly improved by an American engineer James Senft building on his previous work with Ringbom Stirling engines . Senft created an ultra LTD Ringbom Stirling engine which ran at the temperature difference of just 0.5 ° C . Such engines , which could even run from heat absorbed while resting on the palm of a human hand , offer many applications , such as Solar Powered Stirling Engines .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Ivo_Kolin", "rank": 77, "score": 108190 }, { "content": "Title: Weston Fulton Content: Weston Miller Fulton ( August 3 , 1871 -- May 16 , 1946 ) was an American meteorologist , inventor , and entrepreneur , best known for his invention , the `` sylphon , '' a seamless metal bellows used in thermostats , switches , and other temperature-control devices . Fulton also invented an automatic river gauge while working for the U.S. Weather Bureau , and played a primary role in the development of the depth charge during World War I. His company , now called Fulton Bellows after numerous ownership changes , still operates in Knoxville , as part of the United Flexible Group , which acquired it in 2016 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Weston_Fulton", "rank": 78, "score": 107865 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Hausman Content: Michael Hausman is an American percussionist and artist manager in the music industry . He was a former student of Berklee College of Music and played with a Boston band called The Dark before becoming the drummer for the mid-1980s new wave band 'Til Tuesday ; the group 's best-known hit , `` Voices Carry '' is said to have been inspired by an argument between Hausman and bandmate/former girlfriend Aimee Mann . The producer , Mike Thorne , in a March 1999 article disputes this and states the lyrics originally had Mann singing to another woman . The gender was changed due to pressure from the record company . Hausman later became a manager , representing Mann and other artists , including Michael Penn , Skeleton Key and Pete Droge ; in addition to Mann , his current roster includes Suzanne Vega , Marc Cohn , Amanda Palmer , Kristina Train and Christina Courtin . Hausman , along with Mann and Penn , founded the independent music collective United Musicians , which is based on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Hausman", "rank": 79, "score": 107786 }, { "content": "Title: Chuck Adamson Content: Charles Fredrick `` Chuck '' Adamson ( June 11 , 1936 -- February 22 , 2008 ) was an American police officer who became a television producer and screenwriter . Adamson was best known for creating the television crime drama Crime Story , for which he won a People 's Choice Award , and for writing episodes of Miami Vice . The 1995 film Heat , starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and directed by Michael Mann , is based on one of Adamson 's more famous cases in Chicago from the 1960s . He died in 2008 at age 71 . Michael Mann 's 2009 film Public Enemies stated in its end credits `` In memory of Chuck Adamson '' .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Chuck_Adamson", "rank": 80, "score": 107689 }, { "content": "Title: William Julius Mann Content: William Julius Mann ( 1819 -- 1892 ) was an American Lutheran theologian and author , born in Stuttgart , Germany . He studied there and at Tübingen and was ordained in 1841 . Three years later he came to the United States with Dr. Philip Schaff and settled in Philadelphia . There he was assistant pastor ( 1850 -- 1863 ) and pastor ( 1863 -- 1884 ) of St. Michael 's and Zion 's Church . From its establishment in 1864 almost to his death he was professor of symbolics at the Lutheran Theological Seminary . With Dr. Schaff he edited Der deutsche Kirchenfreund . His daughter , Emma T. Mann , wrote his Life , ( Philadelphia , 1893 ) . His publications include : Plea for the Augsburg Confession ( 1856 ) Lutheranism in America ( 1857 ) Life and Times of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg ( 1887 ) Category :1819 births Category :1892 deaths Category : American theologians Category : American Lutheran clergy Category : History of Christianity in the United States", "qid": "263", "docid": "William_Julius_Mann", "rank": 81, "score": 107472 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Helfert Content: Dr. Michael Helfert was a senior scientist at NASA 's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center , and acted as chief scientist and scientist for Earth observations for 100 + Space Shuttle missions ( 1982 -- 2008 ) . Those Mission Reports were primarily published in the journal Geocarto International . He was also the Director of the National Climatic Data Center 's Southeast Regional Climate Center and the South Carolina state climatologist . While at the National Climate Data Center he was also the Director of the U.S. Climate Reference Network . This program designed and maintained very precise climate monitoring stations throughout the USA as well as selected overseas locations in Italy and Siberia .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Helfert", "rank": 82, "score": 107451 }, { "content": "Title: Manfred Mann Chapter Three Content: Manfred Mann Chapter Three was a British experimental jazz rock band founded by South African keyboard player Manfred Mann and long-time partner Mike Hugg . The line-up for its debut at Newcastle 's Mayfair Ballroom on 24 October 1969 was ; Mike Hugg ( vocals/electric piano ) , Mann ( organ ) , Bernie Living ( alto sax ) , Steve York ( bass ) and Craig Collinge ( drums ) , augmented by a five-piece brass section of Clive Stevens ( tenor sax ) , Carl Griffiths ( tenor sax ) , Dave Coxhill ( baritone sax ) , Gerald Drewett ( trombone ) and Sonny Corbett ( trumpet ) . The band 's approach centred on the `` time , no changes '' approach of Miles Davis and John Coltrane applied to slow , funky grooves with voodoo lyrics inspired by Dr. John alternating with blaring big-band horn riffs and improvised free-jazz solos reminiscent of Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler . Although intelligible at a time when artists like Davis himself were crossing over into the rock/funk field and American `` jazz-rock '' ensembles such as Blood , Sweat and Tears , Chicago , and The Mothers of Invention espoused brass sections and atonality , the formula was limited and the band expensive to maintain , so it was short-lived and disbanded after two albums . A third album was recorded in 1971 , but shelved before its release . It consisted both of love songs which Mike Hugg would rerecord for his first solo albums and more experimental music featuring brass arrangements or Manfred Mann on the Moog synthesizer . Mann went on to form Manfred Mann 's Earth Band in 1971 .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Manfred_Mann_Chapter_Three", "rank": 83, "score": 106986 }, { "content": "Title: Recording thermometer Content: A recording thermometer is a type of thermometer that records temperature changes over a period of time . One end of the strip is attached to a long , light metal lever that holds a special pen . Tiny movement of the bimetallic strip causes much larger movement of the free end of the lever and the pen . The pen traces a rising and falling line on a strip of paper attached to a slowly turning drum . The drum usually makes one turn every seven or so days , so afterwards each strip of paper contains a complete and accurate record of temperature changes for a whole week . There are normally two types of metal on the bimetallic strip . Mostly one is steel and one is copper . Because these metals expand and contract at different rates.When one of these metals expand it curls tighter , when one contracts it uncurl slightly . When it curls or uncurls , the data is converted into electric signals , which record the temperature change . Category : Thermometers", "qid": "263", "docid": "Recording_thermometer", "rank": 84, "score": 106770 }, { "content": "Title: William C. Mann Content: William C. `` Bill '' Mann ( died August 13 , 2004 , aged 69 ) was a computer scientist and computational linguist , the originator of Rhetorical Structure Theory ( RST ) and a president of the Association for Computational Linguistics ( 1987 -- 1988 ) . He is especially well known for his work in text generation . He received a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University under Herbert Simon and Allen Newell . From the mid-1970s until 1990 , he was a researcher at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California . From 1990 to 1996 , he was a consultant with the Summer Institute of Linguistics , based in Nairobi .", "qid": "263", "docid": "William_C._Mann", "rank": 85, "score": 106271 }, { "content": "Title: Dr. Mann (cycling team) Content: Dr. Mann was a Belgian professional cycling team that existed from 1960 to 1970 . Its main sponsor was proprietary medicine producer Dr. Mann . Its most notable victory was Herman Van Springel 's win of the 1968 Giro di Lombardia .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Dr._Mann_(cycling_team)", "rank": 86, "score": 106257 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Francis Tompsett Content: Michael Francis Tompsett is a British-born physicist , engineer , and inventor , and the founder director of the US software company TheraManager . He is a former researcher at the English Electric Valve Company , who later moved to Bell Labs in the United States . Tompsett designed and built the first ever video camera with a solid-state ( CCD ) sensor . Tompsett received the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in 2017 , with Eric Fossum , George Smith and Nobukazu Teranishi . Dr. Tompsett has also received two other lifetime awards ; the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame 2010 Pioneer Award , and the 2012 IEEE Edison Medal . The thermal-imaging camera tube developed from his invention also earned a Queen 's Award in 1987 . Dr. Tompsett is known particularly for his work on infrared imagers and CCD imagers . He pioneered compact , low power , high performance and low cost solid-state infrared imagers , CCD imagers and digital cameras and made contributions in several fields with patents and publications over an extended period of time . He is credited with applying the principle behind the charge-coupled device to invent the CCD imager , used in devices such as digital cameras .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Michael_Francis_Tompsett", "rank": 87, "score": 106214 }, { "content": "Title: Florence M. Hawley Content: Florence Hawley ( September 17 , 1906-1991 ) was one of the first anthropologists to work extensively on dendrochronology , or tree-ring dating . She conducted archaeological and ethnographic research in the Southwestern United States ; and undertook some of the first dendrochronological research in eastern North America in the mid 20th century , examining samples from a number of archaeological sites . She was also highly regarded as a passionate teacher who pushed her students toward greatness by encouraging them to think for themselves and work hard for what they wanted to achieve . Although faced with many challenges in her career , and discriminated against for being a woman , she persevered in her research and became a great influence both for her students and for other women in her field .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Florence_M._Hawley", "rank": 88, "score": 106158 }, { "content": "Title: Mannen som älskade träd Content: Mannen som älskade träd ( English : The Man , who loved trees ) is a music album recorded by Swedish-Dutch folk singer-songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk in 1985 . Recorded in Tromsø , Norway , four years after his previous album .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Mannen_som_älskade_träd", "rank": 89, "score": 106104 }, { "content": "Title: Jean-Pierre Christin Content: Jean-Pierre Christin ( May 31 , 1683 -- January 19 , 1755 ) was a French physicist , mathematician , astronomer and musician . His proposal to reverse the Celsius thermometer scale ( from water boiling at 0 degrees and ice melting at 100 degrees , to water boiling at 100 degrees and ice melting at 0 degrees ) was widely accepted and is still in use today . Christin was born in Lyon . He was a founding member of the Académie des sciences , belles-lettres et arts de Lyon and served as its Permanent Secretary from 1713 until 1755 . His thermometer was known in France before the Revolution as the thermometer of Lyon . One of these thermometers was kept at Science Museum in London .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Jean-Pierre_Christin", "rank": 90, "score": 106005 }, { "content": "Title: List of Mannix episodes Content: The following is a list of episodes for the detective television series Mannix which aired from 1967 to 1975 in the United States on the CBS television network . The title character , Joe Mannix , is an Armenian-American private investigator played by Mike Connors ( who was also of Armenian heritage ) . Mannix was created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller ( who also created Mission : Impossible ) .", "qid": "263", "docid": "List_of_Mannix_episodes", "rank": 91, "score": 105864 }, { "content": "Title: Aethrioscope Content: An aethrioscope ( or æthrioscope ) is a meteorological device invented by Sir John Leslie in 1818 for measuring the chilling effect of a clear sky . The name is from the Greek word for clear - αίθριος . It consists of a metallic cup standing upon a tall hollow pedestal , with a differential thermometer placed so that one of its bulbs is in the focus of the paraboloid formed by the cavity of the cup . The interior of the cup is highly polished and is kept covered by a plate of metal , being opened when an observation is made . The second bulb is always screened from the sky and so is not affected by the radiative effect of the clear sky , the action of which is concentrated upon the first bulb . The contraction of the air in the second bulb by its sudden exposure to a clear sky causes the liquid in the stem to rise . The device will respond in a contrary fashion when exposed to heat radiation and so may be used as a pyrometer too .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Aethrioscope", "rank": 92, "score": 105798 }, { "content": "Title: Dracaena mannii Content: Dracaena mannii Baker or small-leaved dragon tree , is a small to medium-sized tree , though recorded up to 30 m tall with stem to 2 m in diameter in Cameroon and Gabon . It occurs from Senegal to Angola along the African west coast , is widespread in tropical Africa and is found along the African east coast from Kenya to Kosi Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal . It prefers lowland , submontane and montane forests which are either moist and evergreen , swampy or on coastal dunes . It is also found along forest edges , in clearings and on river banks from sea level to 1,800 metres . It is one of some 120 species currently recognised , which occur primarily in Africa and southern Asia with a single vagrant species in Central America . The species is named after Gustav Mann ( 1836 -- 1916 ) , a German botanist , who corresponded with John Gilbert Baker . This species is evergreen , single-stemmed or much branched from near the ground , sometimes stilt-rooted , and has linear to narrowly oblong-elliptic leaves with numerous parallel nerves , up to 400 x 20 mm , mostly in terminal clusters , clasping the stem for half its circumference ( half-amplexicaul ) . Flowers are in terminal spikes or panicles ( racemose to paniculate ) , cream or pure white in colour , yellow-green on the outside , and sweetly fragrant when opening at night . The fruit is some 30 mm in diameter , berry-like , brown at first turning bright red when ripe . Bark is white , papery and smooth , with prominent , crescent-shaped leaf scars . Old bark is smooth and grey , and longitudinally fissured , producing resin when damaged .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Dracaena_mannii", "rank": 93, "score": 105766 }, { "content": "Title: Henry Mann Content: Henry Berthold Mann ( 27 October 1905 , Vienna -- 1 February 2000 , Tucson ) was a professor of mathematics and statistics at Ohio State University . Mann proved the Schnirelmann-Landau conjecture in number theory , and as a result earned the 1946 Cole Prize . He and his student developed the ( `` Mann-Whitney '' ) U-statistic of nonparametric statistics . Mann published the first mathematical book on the design of experiments .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Henry_Mann", "rank": 94, "score": 105710 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 95, "score": 105702 }, { "content": "Title: Keith Briffa Content: Keith Raphael Briffa ( born 1952 ) is a climatologist employed since 1977 by the University of East Anglia , where he is now emeritus professor and deputy director of the Climatic Research Unit . He has authored or co-authored over 130 scholarly articles , chapters and books . In his professional work , he focuses on climate change in the late Holocene , with a special focus on northern portions of Europe and Asia . Briffa 's preferred method is dendroclimatology , which is a set of procedures intended to decode information about the past climate from tree rings . Briffa helped develop data sets from trees from Canada , Fennoscandia , and northern Siberia which have been used in climate research . He completed his PhD at the University of East Anglia entitled `` Tree-climate relationships and dendroclimatological reconstruction in British Isles '' in 1984 . From 1994 to 2000 , Briffa served on the scientific steering committee ( SSC ) of the PAGES project ; more recently he also served on SSCs for the UK NERC Rapid Climate Change and the European Science Foundation 's HOLIVAR program . Briffa served as Lead Author on chapter 6 ( Paleoclimatology ) of working group I of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Briffa previously served as associate editor of the scholarly journals Holocene , Boreas and Dendrochronologia .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Keith_Briffa", "rank": 96, "score": 105400 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 97, "score": 105266 }, { "content": "Title: Matthias Mann Content: Matthias Mann ( born 10 October 1959 ) is a scientist in the area of mass spectrometry and proteomics . Born in Germany he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Göttingen . He received his Ph.D. in 1988 at Yale University where he worked in the group of John Fenn , who was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry . After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense he became group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory ( EMBL ) in Heidelberg . Later he went back to Odense as a professor of bioinformatics . Since 2005 he has been a director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich . In addition , he will also become a principal investigator at the newly founded `` Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research '' in Copenhagen . His work has impact in various fields of mass spectrometry-based proteomics : The peptide sequence tag approach developed at the EMBL was one of the first methods for the identification of peptides based on mass spectra and genome data . Nano-electrospray ( an electrospray technique with very low flow rates ) was the first method that allowed femtomole sequencing of proteins from polyacrylamide gels . A recently developed metabolic labeling technique called SILAC ( stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture ) is widely used in quantitative proteomics .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Matthias_Mann", "rank": 98, "score": 105200 }, { "content": "Title: ThermoSensor Content: ThermoSensor is a coin-sized battery-powered RFID-enabled temperature sensor which is to be attached to the lower abdomen of patients by using 3M Tegaderm for body temperature monitoring . ThermoSensor was invented by the company Cadi Scientific in 2003 in Singapore for body temperature monitoring but it was later used for location tracking of patients too .", "qid": "263", "docid": "ThermoSensor", "rank": 99, "score": 105031 }, { "content": "Title: Carl Mears Content: Carl Mears is a Senior Scientist , at Remote Sensing Systems , since 1998 . He has worked on validation of SSM/I derived winds , and rain-flagging algorithm for the QuikScat scatterometer . He is best known for his work with Frank Wentz in developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the UAH one . Mears was a major contributor to Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere : Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences , the first released report from the US Climate Change Science Program . He also contributed to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group one report , Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis .", "qid": "263", "docid": "Carl_Mears", "rank": 100, "score": 104859 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "266", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 1, "score": 146422 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 2, "score": 136635 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 3, "score": 136181 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 4, "score": 119878 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 5, "score": 108772 }, { "content": "Title: Saab hockey stick Content: The hockey stick is an automotive design feature seen on nearly all Saab automobiles . It is a C-pillar curve from the base of the rear passenger window that resembles the shape of an ice hockey stick or the Nike swoosh symbol . The distinctive design cue first appeared on the Saab 92 and was kept in the Saab 93 and Saab 96 . When the Saab 99 was launched in the late 1960s it kept this design feature . and has since appeared on most Saab models , including the classic Saab 900 , and later models such as the Saab 9-5 and the 9-3 SportCombi . Saab designers later experimented with evolving the styling feature into what has been referred to as reverse hockey stick , where the angle of the rear passenger window extends out toward the rear end instead of curving forward towards the B-pillar . The reverse hockey stick design can be seen on the Saab 9-X Biohybrid concept car .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Saab_hockey_stick", "rank": 6, "score": 108763 }, { "content": "Title: Wegman Report Content: The Wegman Report ( officially called the Ad Hoc Committee Report on the ` Hockey Stick ' Global Climate Reconstruction ) was prepared in 2006 by three statisticians led by Edward Wegman at the request of Rep. Joe Barton of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce to validate criticisms made by Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick of reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years , in particular the reconstructions by Mann , Bradley and Hughes which had become the focus of the hockey stick controversy .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Wegman_Report", "rank": 7, "score": 107650 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey-stick identity Content: In combinatorial mathematics , the identity is known as the hockey-stick or Christmas stocking identity . That name stems from the graphical representation of the identity on Pascal 's triangle : when the addends represented in the summation and the sum itself are highlighted , the shape revealed is vaguely reminiscent of those objects .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Hockey-stick_identity", "rank": 8, "score": 104760 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick (disambiguation) Content: A hockey stick is : a stick used to propel the ball or puck in hockey . In particular : Field hockey stick , used to propel the ball in field hockey Ice hockey stick , used to propel the puck in ice hockey something shaped like an ice hockey stick Saab hockey stick , styling cue on Saab cars Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 1000 years Hockey stick controversy about the `` hockey stick '' graph which shows a sharp recent rise in global temperature a Hockey Stick diagram is a diagram that shows the payoff of a call option or a put option with respect to the price of the underlying asset . a hockey stick procedure turn is the standard way to reverse direction during an instrument landing in aviation . Other uses : the name of a step in Cha-cha-cha .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Hockey_stick_(disambiguation)", "rank": 9, "score": 104533 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick Content: A hockey stick is a piece of equipment used in field hockey , ice hockey , roller hockey or underwater hockey to move the ball or puck .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Hockey_stick", "rank": 10, "score": 104035 }, { "content": "Title: Michael E. Mann Content: Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data . As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences . Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Michael_E._Mann", "rank": 11, "score": 103031 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars Content: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines is a 2012 book about climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann . In the book Mann describes how he became a researcher investigating the temperature record of the past 1000 years and was lead author , with Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , on the 1999 reconstruction that was the first to be dubbed the hockey stick graph . He concisely explains the basics of climate science including statistical methodology dealing with paleoclimate proxy data , and examines the tactics which opponents of action on climate change use to distort the science and attack the reputations of climate scientists . The book describes both the hockey stick controversy and the broader context of skepticism in science and contrarians rejecting evidence of human influence on climate . The book was picked by Physics Today books editor Jermey Matthews as one of the five top books of the 49 they had reviewed in 2012 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_and_the_Climate_Wars", "rank": 12, "score": 101275 }, { "content": "Title: Ice hockey stick Content: An ice hockey stick is a piece of equipment used in ice hockey to shoot , pass , and carry the puck across the ice . Ice hockey sticks are approximately 150 -- 200 cm long , composed of a long , slender shaft with a flat extension at one end called the blade . The blade is the part of the stick used to contact the puck , and is typically 25 to 40 cm long . Stick dimensions can vary widely , as they are usually built to suit a particular player 's size and preference . The blade is positioned at roughly a 135 ° angle from the axis of the shaft , giving the stick a partly ` L-shaped ' appearance . The shaft of the stick is fairly rigid , but it has some flexibility to benefit some shots . The blade is slightly curved in one direction , either way , to aid in retaining or lifting the puck off the playing surface . This can be to the left or right , depending on the player 's shooting orientation . The goaltender has a slightly modified stick . The lower part of the stick is wider , the angle is smaller , and the blade is slightly curved towards the direction of the play . New goalie sticks also are made of the same composite technology as used in regular sticks .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Ice_hockey_stick", "rank": 13, "score": 100792 }, { "content": "Title: IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships Content: The World Para Ice Hockey Championships , known before 30 November 2016 as the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships , are the world championships for Para ice hockey , formerly known as sledge hockey . They are organised by the International Paralympic Committee through its World Para Ice Hockey subcommittee . The first sanctioned World Para Ice Hockey Championships were held in Nynäshamn , Sweden in 1996 . On 30 November 2016 , the IPC , which serves as the international governing body for 10 disability sports , adopted the `` World Para '' branding across all of those sports . At the same time , it changed the official name of the sport from `` sledge hockey '' to `` Para Ice hockey '' . The name of the world championships was immediately changed to `` World Para Ice Hockey Championships '' .", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_World_Championships", "rank": 14, "score": 99780 }, { "content": "Title: Field hockey stick Content: In field hockey , each player carries a stick and can not take part in the game without it . The stick for an adult is usually in the range 89 -- 95 cm ( 35 -- 38 in ) long . A maximum length of 105 cm ( 41 '' ) was stipulated from 2016 . The maximum permitted weight is 737 grams.The majority of players use a stick in the range 19 oz to 22 oz ( 538 g - 623 g ) . Traditionally hockey sticks were made of hickory , ash or mulberry wood with the head of the sticks being hand carved and therefore required skilled craftsmen to produce . Sticks made of wood continue to be made but the higher grade sticks are now manufactured from composite materials which were first permitted after 1992 . These sticks usually contain a combination of fibreglass , aramid fiber and carbon fibre in varying proportions according to the characteristics ( flexibility ; stiffness ; resistance to impact and abrasion ) required .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Field_hockey_stick", "rank": 15, "score": 99409 }, { "content": "Title: International Professional Hockey League Content: The International Professional Hockey League ( IPHL ) was the first fully professional Ice hockey league , operating from 1904 to 1907 . It was formed by Jack ` Doc ' Gibson , a dentist who played hockey throughout Ontario before settling in Houghton , Michigan . The IPHL was a five team circuit which included Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , Sault Ste. Marie , Ontario , Sault Ste. Marie , Michigan , Calumet , Michigan and Houghton . The IPHL was instrumental in changing the nature of top-level senior men 's ice hockey from amateur to professional . In the time period around 1900 , leagues in Canada fought against the professionalization of athletics . John Ross Robertson was quoted in the newspapers of the day as saying `` for self preservation , the stand of the Ontario Hockey Association ( OHA ) against the professionalism of Pittsburgh , Houghton , Calumet and the Soo must be uncompromisingly antagonistic ... Any player who figures on any of these teams must be banished from Ontario Hockey . '' Leagues in Canada had been accused of paying individual players for several years and , in fact , Gibson played on a team expelled from the Ontario Hockey Association in 1898 for paying some of its players . However , it was n't until the Portage Lakes Hockey Club and the formation of the IPHL in 1904 that any hockey league achieved full-fledged professional status .", "qid": "266", "docid": "International_Professional_Hockey_League", "rank": 16, "score": 97208 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Second Assessment Report Content: The Second Assessment Report ( SAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 1996 , is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change . It was superseded by the Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_Second_Assessment_Report", "rank": 17, "score": 96232 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 18, "score": 95414 }, { "content": "Title: NGC 4656 and NGC 4657 Content: NGC 4656/57 is a highly warped barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici and is sometimes informally called the Hockey Stick Galaxies or the Crowbar Galaxy . In the Catalogue of Named Galaxies , it is called Pilamalleus Canum Venaticorum , after a Latin neologism for hockey stick . The galaxy is a member of the NGC 4631 Group . A Luminous Blue Variable in `` super-outburst '' was discovered in NGC 4656/57 on March 21 , 2005 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "NGC_4656_and_NGC_4657", "rank": 19, "score": 93886 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Content: The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation . The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_Fifth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 20, "score": 93500 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 21, "score": 93479 }, { "content": "Title: Golden Hockey Stick Content: The Golden Hockey Stick ( Zlatá hokejka ) is an award given to the top Czech ice hockey player . It was originally awarded to the top player in the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League , beginning in the 1968 -- 69 season . After the Czech Republic and Slovakia became separate countries in 1993 , it was awarded to the top Czech player anywhere in the world . Jaromír Jágr has won this award 12 times , more than any other player . Dominik Hašek won it five times .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Golden_Hockey_Stick", "rank": 22, "score": 92910 }, { "content": "Title: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 23, "score": 92474 }, { "content": "Title: International Silver Stick Content: The International Silver Stick is a youth ice hockey tournament for youth hockey teams from Canada and the United States .", "qid": "266", "docid": "International_Silver_Stick", "rank": 24, "score": 92151 }, { "content": "Title: IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships Content: The IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships is the name commonly used to refer to the European ice sledge hockey championships . The European Championship is also a qualifying tournament for the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships and the Paralympic Games . The first European Championship was held in 2005 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_European_Championships", "rank": 25, "score": 91436 }, { "content": "Title: Independent Police Complaints Commission Content: The Independent Police Complaints Commission ( IPCC ) is a non-departmental public body in England and Wales responsible for overseeing the system for handling complaints made against police forces in England and Wales .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Independent_Police_Complaints_Commission", "rank": 26, "score": 91226 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships Content: The 4th IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships were held between March 29 , 2008 and April 5 , 2008 in Marlborough , Massachusetts , United States , at the New England Sports Center . Organized by Massachusetts Hockey in co-operation with US Paralympics , around 200 athletes from ten countries participated in the 10-team round robin tournament which featured two divisions : six teams in group A and four teams in group B.", "qid": "266", "docid": "2008_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_World_Championships", "rank": 27, "score": 90982 }, { "content": "Title: Mic-Mac hockey stick Content: The Mic-Mac hockey stick was made originally by the Mi ` kmaq people of Nova Scotia , who dominated the international ice hockey market in the early twentieth century . It was first marketed by the Starr Manufacturing Company of Dartmouth , Nova Scotia , in the 1860s . The Mi ` kmaq practice of playing hockey appears in recorded colonial histories beginning in the 18th century , and beginning in the 19th century they were credited with inventing the ice hockey stick . The oldest known hockey stick , now owned by the Canadian Museum of History , dates to the mid-1830s and is made of sugar maple wood ; it may have been made by a Mi ` kmaq . ( In 2006 , a stick made by Mi ` kmaq in the 1850s , at the time the oldest known , was sold at auction for $ 2.2 million ; it had been appraised at US$ 4.25 million . In 1863 , the Starr Manufacturing Company in Dartmouth , Nova Scotia , began to sell the Mic-Mac Hockey Stick nationally and internationally . Hockey became a popular sport in Canada in the 1890s , and through the first decade of the 20th century , the Mic-Mac was the best-selling hockey stick in Canada . By 1903 , apart from farming , producing them was the primary occupation of the Mi ` kmaq on reserves throughout Nova Scotia , particularly Shubenacadie , Indian Brook and Millbrook . In 1927 the department of Indian Affairs for Nova Scotia noted that the Mi ` kmaq remained the `` experts '' at making hockey sticks . Mi ` kmaq continued to make hockey sticks until the 1930s , when the product was industrialized .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Mic-Mac_hockey_stick", "rank": 28, "score": 90281 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick Illusion Content: The Hockey Stick Illusion : Climategate and the Corruption of Science is a book written by Andrew Montford and published by Stacey International in 2010 . Montford , an accountant and science publisher who publishes a blog called ` Bishop Hill ' provides his analysis of the history of the `` hockey stick graph '' of global temperatures for the last 1000 years and the controversy promoted by mining exploration company director Steve McIntyre about the research which produced the graph . The book describes the history of the graph from its inception to the beginning of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( `` Climategate '' ) . The book was Amazon UK 's second bestselling environment book of 2010 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_Illusion", "rank": 29, "score": 90192 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 30, "score": 90109 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Third Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Third Assessment Report , Climate Change 2001 , is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the UN 's World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) '' ... to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' -LSB- IPCC website -RSB- The Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) is the third of a series of assessments ; it has been superseded by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , released in 2007 . Statements of the IPCC or information from the TAR are often used as a reference showing a scientific consensus on the subject of global warming , although a small minority of scientists take issue with the UN assessments ( see also Global warming controversy and Politics of global warming ) .", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_Third_Assessment_Report", "rank": 31, "score": 89978 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships Content: The 2nd IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships was held between March 20 , 2000 and March 25 , 2000 at the E Center in West Valley City , Utah , United States.The same place where would host the same sport two years later as the first test event for the Paralympic Winter Games in 2002 . Participating countries : Canada , Estonia , Japan , Norway , Sweden and United States .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2000_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_World_Championships", "rank": 32, "score": 89778 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships Content: The 3rd IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships was held between February 12 , 2011 and February 20 , 2011 at Niphallen in Sollefteå , Sweden . Participating 130 athletes from ten nations : Czech Republic , Estonia , Germany , Great Britain , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia and Sweden . The 2011 European Championships is held as part of the 2011 Paralympic Winter World Cup ( PWWC 2011 ) , which also includes alpine skiing , biathlon and cross-country skiing . In the Championships ' second match , Norway 's sledge hockey team set an international sledge hockey scoring record with 21 -- 0 . The Swedish team set a new scoring record in the classification semifinals , with 23 -- 0 . There was one woman competing at the Championships , the Netherlands ' goalkeeper Betty Meijer .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2011_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_European_Championships", "rank": 33, "score": 89753 }, { "content": "Title: 1996 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships Content: The first IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships was held March , 1996 Nynäshamn , Sweden . Participating countries : Canada , Estonia , Japan , Norway , Sweden and United States . Japan made its debut at the World Championship .", "qid": "266", "docid": "1996_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_World_Championships", "rank": 34, "score": 88783 }, { "content": "Title: High-sticking Content: High-sticking is the name of two infractions in the sport of ice hockey that may occur when a player intentionally or inadvertently plays with his or her stick above the height of the shoulders or above the cross bar of a hockey goal . This can result in a stoppage of play or in a penalty . In the rules of the National Hockey League , high-sticking is defined as a penalty in Rule 60 and as a non-penalty foul in Rule 80 . A stoppage in play results if a high stick comes in contact with the puck and the team who touched it regains control of the puck . However , play usually continues if a player touches the puck with a high stick and the opposing team gains control of the puck . If the puck goes into the opposing net after coming into contact with a high stick , the goal is disallowed . The level at which a stick is considered too high for a goal is the crossbar of the net . However , if a player knocks the puck into his own net with a high stick , the goal is allowed . A penalty is assessed if a player strikes another player with a high stick . The player is given a minor penalty unless his high stick caused an injury , in which case the referee has the option to assess a double-minor , major , game misconduct or match penalty . It is the referee 's discretion which penalty to assess : the rule calls for a double minor for an accidental injury , or a match penalty for a deliberate attempt to injure ( whether the opposition player was actually injured ) . Injury is usually decided by the high stick causing bleeding , but the presence of blood does not automatically mean an extra penalty is awarded . Some referees have been known to award an extra penalty without the presence of blood if the referee determines that the injury sustained was sufficient to warrant a double-minor penalty .", "qid": "266", "docid": "High-sticking", "rank": 35, "score": 88490 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships Content: The first IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships was held between April 10 , 2005 and April 16 , 2005 in the eastern Moravian city of Zlín , Czech Republic . Participating 80 athletes from six nations : Czech Republic , Estonia , Germany , Great Britain , Italy and Sweden . The best European team joined the already qualified teams from Canada , Japan , Norway , Sweden , the USA and host country Italy to the Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2005_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_European_Championships", "rank": 36, "score": 88437 }, { "content": "Title: Holding the stick Content: In ice hockey , holding the stick is a penalty called when a player intentionally holds an opposing player 's stick in his hands and between any part of his body ( i.e. under arms or between legs ) to restrict the opposing player 's ability to play the puck . The referee will call a Minor Penalty for this infraction .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Holding_the_stick", "rank": 37, "score": 88358 }, { "content": "Title: IPC World Championships Content: There are a number of IPC World Championships supervised and co-ordinated by the International Paralympic Committee ( IPC ) : IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships IPC Athletics World Championships IPC Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Championships IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships IPC Powerlifting World Championships IPC Shooting World Championships IPC Swimming World Championships IPC Wheelchair Dance Sport World Championships", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPC_World_Championships", "rank": 38, "score": 87723 }, { "content": "Title: New Zealand men's national field hockey team Content: The New Zealand men 's national field hockey team , also known as the Black Sticks Men , represents New Zealand in international men 's field hockey . They upset Australia to win gold at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal , becoming the first non-Asian/European team to clinch the gold medal . They have also won silver and bronze at the 2002 and 2010 Commonwealth Games .", "qid": "266", "docid": "New_Zealand_men's_national_field_hockey_team", "rank": 39, "score": 87698 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships Content: The 2nd IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships was held between November 18 , 2007 and November 24 , 2007 at Palaghiaccio Ice Rink in Pinerolo , Turin , Italy . Participating 100 athletes from seven nations : Czech Republic , Estonia , Germany , Norway , Italy , Poland , Sweden . Pinerolo , a town of 35,000 , located 50 km from Turin , was the host of 2006 Winter Olympics curling events . The Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships tournament was organised under the aegis of the EPC and the IPC by a Committee made up of Turin Olympic Park , operators of the Palaghiaccio , the Municipality of Pinerolo and the Alioth Sports Society , affiliated to the C.I.P. under its president Paolo Covato ( Mayor of Pinerolo ) and vice president Tiziana Nasi ( President of the C.I.P. Piedmont ) .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2007_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_European_Championships", "rank": 40, "score": 87274 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Summary for Policymakers Content: The Summary for policymakers ( SPM ) is a summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports intended to aid policymakers . The form is approved line by line by governments : `` Negotiations occur over wording to ensure accuracy , balance , clarity of message , and relevance to understanding and policy . ''", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_Summary_for_Policymakers", "rank": 41, "score": 86970 }, { "content": "Title: New Zealand women's national field hockey team Content: The New Zealand women 's national field hockey team , also known as the Black Sticks Women , represents New Zealand in international women 's field hockey ( known in New Zealand as simply hockey ) . The team 's best performances include a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games , a third placing at the 2011 Champions Trophy , and fourth placings at the 1986 World Cup and the 2012 Summer Olympics . , the team ranks fourth on the International Hockey Federation ( FIH ) world rankings .", "qid": "266", "docid": "New_Zealand_women's_national_field_hockey_team", "rank": 42, "score": 86921 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey Content: Hockey is a sport in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent 's goal using a hockey stick . There are many types of hockey such as bandy , field hockey and ice hockey . Often one variation of the sport , such as field hockey or ice hockey , will predominate in a certain area and be known simply as `` hockey '' .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Hockey", "rank": 43, "score": 86505 }, { "content": "Title: World Sledge Hockey Challenge Content: The World Sledge Hockey Challenge ( WSHC ) is an semi-annual international ice sledge hockey tournament sponsored by Hockey Canada and the IPC Sledge Hockey . The tournament is an invitational format to bring four of the strongest ice sledge hockey teams together for international competition in non-Paralympic years . The tournament features four teams per year and has seen teams from Canada , the United States , Russia , South Korea , Norway , Germany and Japan .", "qid": "266", "docid": "World_Sledge_Hockey_Challenge", "rank": 44, "score": 86486 }, { "content": "Title: 2004 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships Content: The 3rd IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships was held between April 13 , 2004 and April 24 , 2004 at Kempehallen in Örnsköldsvik , Sweden . Örnsköldsvik was also the host of the first Paralympic Winter Games in 1976 . Participating countries : 104 athletes from eight nations Canada , Estonia , Germany , Great Britain , Japan , Norway , Sweden , United States . The USA , Norway and Sweden were automatically qualified for their performance at the Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Winter Games , while the other five teams were selected through regional championships .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2004_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_World_Championships", "rank": 45, "score": 86144 }, { "content": "Title: Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Criticism_of_the_IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 46, "score": 86132 }, { "content": "Title: James Nation Content: James Henry Nation ( born 23 September 1976 in Waipukurau ) is a field hockey player from New Zealand who earned his first cap for the national team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , in 2001 against Malaysia . The midfielder provides support at centre and left half and is also an attacking penalty corner option . He made his test debut in 2001 , but did not make the team to the Commonwealth Games a year later . Nation represented his native country at two Summer Olympics : in 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing . Nation plays representative hockey for Wellington and was part of the team that won the national title in 2002 . The resident of London plays for Teddington in the English Premier League .", "qid": "266", "docid": "James_Nation", "rank": 47, "score": 85979 }, { "content": "Title: Anthony Thornton (field hockey) Content: Anthony Mark Thornton ( born 27 March 1967 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . He was born in Wanganui . He was later the head coach of the NSWIS ( NSW Institute of Sport ) women 's hockey program .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Anthony_Thornton_(field_hockey)", "rank": 48, "score": 85959 }, { "content": "Title: Nikolai Borschevsky Content: Nikolai Konstantinovich Borschevsky ( Николай Константинович Борщевский born January 12 , 1965 in Tomsk , Soviet Union ) is a retired professional ice hockey player from Russia , and the current head coach of the Atlant Moscow Oblast of the KHL . Nicknamed `` Stick '' due to his diminutive frame , he was a star in the Soviet Union and went on to play in the National Hockey League for the Toronto Maple Leafs , Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars . Despite a successful NHL debut in 1992 -- 93 , he never achieved the same level of success in North America , with injuries limiting his effectiveness . He retired in 1998 after a second stint with Spartak Moscow .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Nikolai_Borschevsky", "rank": 49, "score": 85936 }, { "content": "Title: Independent Police Complaints Council Content: The Independent Police Complaints Council ( IPCC , ) is a civilian body of the Government of Hong Kong , part of the two-tier system in which the Hong Kong Police Force investigates complaints made by the public against its members and the IPCC monitors those investigations . The IPCC was created as an independent body to monitor the review by the Complaints Against Police Office ( CAPO ) of complaints against members of the Police Force . Unlike CAPO , which is a unit of the police force , the IPCC is a civilian body not linked with the police that reports directly to the office of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong . The IPCC was created in 1994 and succeeded an earlier independent review body , the Police Complaints Committee or PCC , to investigate police . The PCC was created in 1986 and reported to the then Governor of Hong Kong . The IPCC is headed by a Secretariat and is governed by The Independent Police Complaints Council ( IPCC ) Ordinance , which enacted in July 2008 . On 1 June 2009 , after the ordinance came into operation , the Chinese official name of IPCC was changed from '' 投訴警方獨立監察委員會 '' to '' 獨立監察警方處理投訴委員會 '' and the English name remain . There have been criticisms in LegCo that the IPCC has limited monitoring power .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Independent_Police_Complaints_Council", "rank": 50, "score": 85889 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Women's International Cup Content: The first IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Women 's International Cup was held November 2014 in Brampton , Ontario , Canada . Participating countries : Canada , a unified team from Europe and United States .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2014_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_Women's_International_Cup", "rank": 51, "score": 85825 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships Content: The 5th IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships took place in early 2009 . The competition was divided into two tournaments , with Tournament B held from 15 to 21 March in Eindhoven , the Netherlands , and Tournament A held from 9 to 16 May in Ostrava , the Czech Republic . A total of thirteen teams participated ; eight in Tournament A and five in Tournament B . The top six teams from Tournament A automatically qualified for the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver , Canada . The remaining two teams from Tournament A and the top two teams from Tournament B will play in the 2009 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Paralympic Qualifier to determine who will take the remaining two Paralympic slots .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2009_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_World_Championships", "rank": 52, "score": 85709 }, { "content": "Title: Claude Chartre Content: Claude Chartre ( born December 21 , 1949 ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey centre . He played in 18 WHA games with the New York Raiders , New York Golden Blades , New Jersey Knights , Michigan Stags , and Baltimore Blades over parts of three seasons .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Claude_Chartre", "rank": 53, "score": 85632 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships Content: The 7th IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships took place in the SPART Complex in Goyang , South Korea from April 12 - 20 , 2013 . It was the first time that South Korea hosted the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships . In the final , Canada defeated the United States 1-0 , to win their third title . Russia defeated the Czech Republic 3-0 for the bronze medal .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2013_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_World_Championships", "rank": 54, "score": 85361 }, { "content": "Title: Field hockey Content: Field hockey is a team sport of the hockey family . The earliest origins of the game date back to the Middle Ages in England , Scotland , France and the Netherlands . The game can be played on a grass field or a turf field as well as an indoor board surface . Each team plays with eleven players , including the goalie . Players use sticks made out of wood , carbon fibre , fibre glass or a combination of carbon fibre and fibre glass in different quantities ( with the higher carbon fibre stick being more expensive and less likely to break ) to hit a round , hard , plastic ball . The length of the stick depends on the player 's individual height . Only one end of the stick is allowed to be used . Goalies often have a different kind of stick , however they can also use an ordinary field hockey stick . The specific goal-keeping sticks have another curve at the end of the stick , this is to give them more surface area to save the ball . The uniform consists of shin guards , shoes , shorts , a mouth guard and a jersey . Today , the game is played globally , with particular popularity throughout Western Europe , the Indian subcontinent , Southern Africa , Australia , New Zealand , Argentina , and parts of the United States ( primarily New England and the Mid-Atlantic states ) . Field Hockey is the national game of Pakistan . The term `` field hockey '' is used primarily in Canada and the United States where ice hockey is more popular . In Sweden the term `` landhockey '' is used and to some degree also in Norway . It is a section of Norway 's Bandy Association . Until recently they called it `` hockey '' , when it was changed to `` landhockey '' . During play , goal keepers are the only players who are allowed to touch the ball with any part of their body ( the player 's hand is considered ` part of the stick ' if on the stick ) , while field players play the ball with the flat side of their stick . Goal keepers also can not play the ball with the back of their stick . Whoever scores the most goals by the end of the match wins . If the score is tied at the end of the game , either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time or a penalty shootout , depending on the competition 's format . There are many variations to overtime play that depend on the league and tournament play . In college play , a seven-aside overtime period consists of a 10-minute golden goal period with seven players for each team . If a tie still remains , the game enters a one-on-one competition where each team chooses 5 players to dribble from the 25 yard line down to the circle against the opposing goalie . The player has 8 seconds to score on the goalie keeping it in bounds . The play ends after a goal is scored , the ball goes out of bounds , a foul is committed ( ending in either a penalty stroke or flick or the end of the one on one ) or time expires . If the tie still persists extra rounds thereafter until one team has scored . The governing body of hockey is the International Hockey Federation ( FIH , in French ) , with men and women being represented internationally in competitions including the Olympic Games , World Cup , World League , Champions Trophy and Junior World Cup , with many countries running extensive junior , senior , and masters club competitions . The FIH is also responsible for organising the Hockey Rules Board and developing the rules for the game . A popular variant of field hockey is indoor field hockey , which differs in a number of respects while embodying the primary principles of hockey . Indoor hockey is a 5-a-side variant , with a field which is reduced to approximately 40 x. With many of the rules remaining the same , including obstruction and feet , there are several key variations : Players may not raise the ball unless shooting on goal , players may not hit the ball ( instead using pushes to transfer the ball ) , and the sidelines are replaced with solid barriers which the ball will rebound off .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Field_hockey", "rank": 55, "score": 85235 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation Content: The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) published a special report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation ( SRREN ) on May 9 , 2011 . The report developed under the leadership of Ottmar Edenhofer evaluates the global potential for using renewable energy to mitigate climate change . This IPCC special report provides broader coverage of renewable energy than was included in the IPCC 's 2007 climate change assessment report , as well as stronger renewable energy policy coverage . Renewable energy can contribute to `` social and economic development , energy access , secure energy supply , climate change mitigation , and the reduction of negative environmental and health impacts '' . Under favourable circumstances , cost savings in comparison to non-renewable energy use exist .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Sources_and_Climate_Change_Mitigation", "rank": 56, "score": 85215 }, { "content": "Title: H-E Double Hockey Sticks Content: H-E Double Hockey Sticks is a 1999 American comedy movie directed by Randall Miller starring Will Friedle and Matthew Lawrence . The film is based on the opera Griffelkin by Lukas Foss . The film 's title is a common euphemism for the word hell .", "qid": "266", "docid": "H-E_Double_Hockey_Sticks", "rank": 57, "score": 85106 }, { "content": "Title: Ice hockey Content: Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice , usually in a rink , in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent 's net to score points . The sport is known to be fast-paced and physical , with teams usually consisting of six players each : one goaltender , and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team . Ice hockey is most popular in Canada , central and eastern Europe , Scandinavia , and the northern regions of the United States . Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada , where the modern version of the sport was created , and enjoys immense popularity ; alongside Canada , hockey is the most popular winter sport in Finland , Latvia , the Czech Republic , Sweden , Slovakia , Belarus and Switzerland . In North America , the National Hockey League ( NHL ) is the highest level for men 's hockey and the most popular . The Kontinental Hockey League ( KHL ) is the highest league in Russia and much of Eastern Europe . The International Ice Hockey Federation ( IIHF ) is the formal governing body for international ice hockey , with the IIHF managing international tournaments and maintaining the IIHF World Ranking . Worldwide , there are ice hockey federations in 74 countries . Ice hockey is believed to have evolved from simple stick and ball games played in the 18th and 19th century United Kingdom and elsewhere . These games were brought to North America and several similar winter games using informal rules were developed , such as `` shinny '' and `` ice polo '' . The contemporary sport of ice hockey was developed in Canada , most notably in Montreal , where the first indoor hockey game was played on March 3 , 1875 . Some characteristics of that game , such as the length of the ice rink and the use of a puck , have been retained to this day . Amateur ice hockey leagues began in the 1880s , and professional ice hockey originated around 1900 . The Stanley Cup , emblematic of ice hockey club supremacy , was first awarded in 1893 to recognize the Canadian amateur champion and later became the championship trophy of the NHL . In the early 1900s , the Canadian rules were adopted by the Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace , the precursor of the IIHF and the sport was played for the first time in the Olympics in the Olympic Games of 1920 . In international competitions , the national teams of six countries ( the `` Big Six '' ) predominate : Canada , Czech Republic , Finland , Russia , Sweden and the United States . Of the 69 medals awarded all-time in men 's competition at the Olympics , only six medals were not awarded to one of those countries . In the annual Ice Hockey World Championships , 177 of 201 medals have been awarded to the six nations . Teams outside the `` Big Six '' have won only five medals in either competition since 1953 : All 12 Women 's Olympic and 36 IIHF World Women 's Championships medals have been awarded to one of these six countries , and every gold medal in both competitions has been won by either the Canadian national team or the United States national team . In Canada , the United States , and some European countries it is known simply as hockey ; the name `` ice hockey '' is used in places where `` hockey '' more often refers to field hockey , such as South America , Asia , Africa , Australasia , and some European countries . In Russia and Ukraine , where `` hockey '' can also refer to bandy , ice hockey is often called `` hockey with puck '' .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Ice_hockey", "rank": 58, "score": 84539 }, { "content": "Title: John Radovonich Content: John Lewis Radovonich ( born 10 January 1965 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the men 's national team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . He was born in Christchurch .", "qid": "266", "docid": "John_Radovonich", "rank": 59, "score": 83942 }, { "content": "Title: Marshall Islands stick chart Content: Stick charts were made and used by the Marshallese to navigate the Pacific Ocean by canoe off the coast of the Marshall Islands . The charts represented major ocean swell patterns and the ways the islands disrupted those patterns , typically determined by sensing disruptions in ocean swells by islands during sea navigation . Most stick charts were made from the midribs of coconut fronds that were tied together to form an open framework . Island locations were represented by shells tied to the framework , or by the lashed junction of two or more sticks . The threads represented prevailing ocean surface wave-crests and directions they took as they approached islands and met other similar wave-crests formed by the ebb and flow of breakers . Individual charts varied so much in form and interpretation that the individual navigator who made the chart was the only person who could fully interpret and use it . The use of stick charts ended after World War II when new electronic technologies made navigation more accessible and travel among islands by canoe lessened .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Marshall_Islands_stick_chart", "rank": 60, "score": 83793 }, { "content": "Title: Eastern Canada Cup Challenge Content: The Eastern Canada Cup Challenge ( ECCC ) is a Canadian Junior ice hockey mid-season prospects tournament , featuring All-star teams from Canadian Junior Hockey League and Hockey Canada-sanctioned Junior A leagues from across Ontario , Quebec , and the Maritime Provinces . Founded in 2011 as the Central Canada Cup Challenge ( CCCC ) .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Eastern_Canada_Cup_Challenge", "rank": 61, "score": 83694 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships Content: The 6th IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships took place in the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre in Hamar , Norway from March 24 , 2012 to April 1 , 2012 . It was the first time that Norway hosted the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships . In the final , the United States defeated Korea 5-1 , to win their second title since 2009 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "2012_IPC_Ice_Sledge_Hockey_World_Championships", "rank": 62, "score": 83471 }, { "content": "Title: Gulf Ice Hockey Championship Content: The Gulf Ice Hockey Championship , also known as the GCC Gulf Ice Hockey Championships , is an international ice hockey competition involving countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC ) region . The inaugural tournament took place on the May 25 to May 30 in Kuwait City , Kuwait and was organised by the Kuwait Ice Hockey Association . The championship has featured teams six different countries since its formation and currently consists of Kuwait , Oman , Qatar and the United Arab Emirates . The United Arab Emirates has won all four editions of the championship , while Kuwait has finished second on three occasions and Qatar on one .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Gulf_Ice_Hockey_Championship", "rank": 63, "score": 83325 }, { "content": "Title: Bevan Hari Content: Bevan David Hari ( born 4 January 1975 in Rotorua ) is a field hockey striker from New Zealand , who finished in sixth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens , Greece .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Bevan_Hari", "rank": 64, "score": 83074 }, { "content": "Title: Shane Collins (field hockey) Content: Shane Elizabeth Collins ( born 25 July 1963 in Ranfurly , New Zealand ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eight position with the National Women 's Field Hockey Team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona . After an illustrious career in the police , Collins is now undertaking research in the field of sport policy . Collins is still an elite sportswoman but has switched from hockey to marathon running in more recent years . Recent achievements include representing New Zealand in the Portuguese half marathon . After several successful half marathons Collins has now turned her attention to triathlon .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Shane_Collins_(field_hockey)", "rank": 65, "score": 82825 }, { "content": "Title: Craig Russ Content: Craig Sinclair Russ ( born 10 May 1968 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . He was born in Hamilton , New Zealand . Craig Russ was the hitter in short corners for the New Zealand Black sticks team for a number of years .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Craig_Russ", "rank": 66, "score": 82791 }, { "content": "Title: David Grundy Content: David John Grundy ( born 24 December 1963 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . Played 38 tests for New Zealand . He was born in Hokitika .", "qid": "266", "docid": "David_Grundy", "rank": 67, "score": 82673 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC (disambiguation) Content: IPCC may refer to : Independent Police Complaints Commission of England and Wales Independent Police Complaints Council of Hong Kong Integrated Professional Competency Course , a course of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , a scientific body under the auspices of the United Nations . Interworld Police Coordinating Company , a fictional organization in Jack Vance 's novels Irish Peatland Conservation Council", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_(disambiguation)", "rank": 68, "score": 82626 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Anderson (field hockey) Content: Scott Warren Anderson ( born 26 June 1968 ) is a former field hockey goalkeeper from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . He was born in Oamaru .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Scott_Anderson_(field_hockey)", "rank": 69, "score": 82598 }, { "content": "Title: Violence in ice hockey Content: Violence has been a part of ice hockey since at least the early 1900s . According to the book Hockey : A People 's History , in 1904 alone , four players were killed during hockey games from the frequent brawls and violent stickwork . More modern examples of violence include brawls , fan involvement , physical abuse of officials and deliberately injuring opponents . Violent actions such as kicking , hitting from behind and prohibited stickwork , are penalized with suspensions or fines . Fighting , or fisticuffs , is also penalized but is considered by many hockey enthusiasts , particularly in North America , to be quite distinct from stick-swinging or other violent acts . They regard fighting as an entrenched , acceptable and an integral part of the game . On the ice , referees may impose penalties for prohibited activities . Off the ice , the National Hockey League ( NHL ) sometimes fines , suspends or expels players . The criminal justice system has also been known to investigate , charge and convict players . As a result , hockey has become much more regulated and the violent element much more controlled . This has been aided , in no small part , by dramatic increases in disciplinary processes and technology allowing for a high level of scrutiny of any event which occurs .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Violence_in_ice_hockey", "rank": 70, "score": 82596 }, { "content": "Title: Caryn Paewai Content: Caryn Erena Paewai ( born 27 August 1975 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in sixth position with the Women 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney , Australia . Two years later she was a member of the side that finished fourth at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester , United Kingdom . She was born in Dannevirke .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Caryn_Paewai", "rank": 71, "score": 82343 }, { "content": "Title: Brett Leaver Content: Brett Leaver ( born 12 January 1970 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . He was born in Auckland and raised in Otahuhu with four other siblings . Achieving high in sports and getting awards , he became an athlete at Otahuhu College and then carried it on until he became an Olympian for New Zealand .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Brett_Leaver", "rank": 72, "score": 82196 }, { "content": "Title: United States women's national ice sledge hockey team Content: The United States national ice sledge hockey team is the ice sledge hockey team representing the United States . The team participated in its first IPC-sanctioned international competition in 2014 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "United_States_women's_national_ice_sledge_hockey_team", "rank": 73, "score": 82060 }, { "content": "Title: Rick Chartraw Content: Raymond Richard Chartraw ( born July 13 , 1954 in Caracas , Venezuela ) is a retired American professional ice hockey defenseman who played 420 games in the National Hockey League between 1974 and 1984 . Selected tenth overall in the 1974 NHL Entry Draft , he was the first American drafted in the first round . Chartraw was born in Caracas , Venezuela while his American father was employed there as an engineer . The family moved back to the United States when Rick was three , and he grew up in Erie , Pennsylvania . He learned to play hockey there ( he was also a promising golf player ) before moving to Canada as a teenager to play junior hockey for the Kitchener Rangers .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Rick_Chartraw", "rank": 74, "score": 81796 }, { "content": "Title: Cathy Chartrand Content: Cathy Chartrand is a Canadian-born women 's ice hockey player . Currently with the CWHL 's Canadiennes de Montreal , Chartrand became the league 's all-time leading scorer among defenders on January 9 , 2017 .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Cathy_Chartrand", "rank": 75, "score": 81793 }, { "content": "Title: Iptamenoi Pagodromoi Athinai Content: Iptameni Pagodromi Athinai ( Ιπτάμενοι Παγοδρόμοι Αθήναι , `` flying ice-skaters Athens '' ) is an ice hockey team in Athens , Greece . They play in the Greek Ice Hockey Championship .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Iptamenoi_Pagodromoi_Athinai", "rank": 76, "score": 81618 }, { "content": "Title: Jamie Smith (field hockey) Content: Jamie Samuel Lawrence Smith ( born February 15 , 1965 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed the Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . Smith was captain of the New Zealand side from 1993-1998 . He was born in Auckland and went to King 's College . He earned a total of 160 national caps .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Jamie_Smith_(field_hockey)", "rank": 77, "score": 81449 }, { "content": "Title: Paresh Patel (field hockey) Content: Paresh Jasmat Patel ( born 29 July 1965 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . He was born in Auckland .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Paresh_Patel_(field_hockey)", "rank": 78, "score": 81218 }, { "content": "Title: Irish Peatland Conservation Council Content: The Irish Peatland Conservation Council ( IPCC ; ) is a national organisation established in 1982 to conserve and protect a representative sample of Irish bogs . Having been for many years in Dublin city centre , the Council 's headquarters are currently located at the Bog of Allen Nature Centre , Lullymore , Rathangan , Co. . Kildare . The Bog of Allen Nature Centre was acquired by IPCC in 2003 and since then work has been ongoing to develop an internationally recognised centre for peatland conservation , education and research . IPCC 's conservation aims and objectives are set out in a series of Action Plans , the most recent being Bogs and Fens of Ireland Conservation Plan 2005 . An account of the first fifteen years of the Save the Bogs Campaign is contained in Save the Bogs Story , with all IPCC publications orderable through the charity 's website . IPCC also produces a twice-yearly campaign newsletter Peatland News which goes out to Friends of the Bog . The Friend of the Bog scheme is one means by which members of the public can become involved in and help the Save the Bogs Campaign . Other fundraising methods include special appeals , sale of symbolic share certificates in Irish bogs , a Save the Bogs card and gift catalogue , raffles , open days and sales of work , visits to the Bog of Allen Nature Centre . The IPCC is a registered charity , It is not state-funded and so relies on public support to ensure its independence and influence .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Irish_Peatland_Conservation_Council", "rank": 79, "score": 81114 }, { "content": "Title: Umesh Parag Content: Umesh Vasan Parag ( born 15 August 1971 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . He won a silver medal with the team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester . Parag plays locally for Wellington , and was also a member of the national squad competing at the 2004 Summer Olympics . He was born in Wellington .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Umesh_Parag", "rank": 80, "score": 81102 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Hobson (field hockey) Content: Scott Helmore Hobson ( born 7 April 1967 in Christchurch ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the Men 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , Spain . His father , Noel Hobson , represented New Zealand in field hockey at the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Scott_Hobson_(field_hockey)", "rank": 81, "score": 81055 }, { "content": "Title: Susan Furmage Content: Susan Maureen Furmage ( born 27 February 1963 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eight position with the National Women 's Field Hockey Team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona . She was born in London , England . Lives in New Zealand married to Terry Furmage , and has four daughters including twins . Furmage now works at Bethlehem College and teaches hockey , while her husband is deputy head teacher in a Greerton School .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Susan_Furmage", "rank": 82, "score": 81003 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC report Content: IPCC report may refer to : IPCC First Assessment Report , 1990 IPCC Second Assessment Report , 1995 IPCC Third Assessment Report , 2001 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report , 2007 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , 2014 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report , expected in 2022", "qid": "266", "docid": "IPCC_report", "rank": 83, "score": 80999 }, { "content": "Title: Paul Woolford (field hockey) Content: Paul Matthew Woolford ( born June 1 , 1977 in Auckland ) is a field hockey player from New Zealand , who earned his first cap for the national team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , in 1999 . He won a silver medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Paul_Woolford_(field_hockey)", "rank": 84, "score": 80975 }, { "content": "Title: Phillip Burrows Content: Phillip Ross Burrows MNZM ( born 25 April 1980 in Wellington ) is a field hockey player from New Zealand , who earned his first cap for the national team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , in January 2000 . The striker is New Zealand 's top field goal scorer and was named 2003 New Zealand Player of the Year . Since his debut , he has competed in over 120 international games for his country and appeared in three Summer Olympics : in 2004 in Athens , in 2008 in Beijing and in 2012 in London . He has played club hockey in The Netherlands since 2004 , initially for Breda and since the summer of 2005 , for HC Rotterdam .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Phillip_Burrows", "rank": 85, "score": 80841 }, { "content": "Title: Skippy Hamahona Content: Skippy Hamahona ( born Marama Cecelia McGregor on 1 January 1975 ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand . She finished in sixth position with the Women 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney , Australia . Two years earlier she was a member of the side that claimed the bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia . She was born in Sydney , Australia .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Skippy_Hamahona", "rank": 86, "score": 80834 }, { "content": "Title: NHL 11 Content: NHL 11 is an ice hockey video game , which celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the NHL series . The game was developed by EA Canada , published by EA Sports , and released in North America on September 7 , 2010 , with the game releasing in all other regions within two weeks . The game features a physics-based game engine , which replaced the old animation-based system , and was touted by NHL 11 producer , Sean Ramjagsingh , as `` the biggest change in NHL 11 '' . Other significant changes include broken sticks , which means the stick may now break when the player shoots . NHL 11 does not use official International Ice Hockey Federation jerseys , as the game does n't have the IIHF license . The cover of NHL 11 features Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews , who helped the team win their first Stanley Cup title in 49 years in 2010 . On January 11 , 2013 , all online services for NHL 11 were discontinued .", "qid": "266", "docid": "NHL_11", "rank": 87, "score": 80812 }, { "content": "Title: Cross-checking Content: Cross-checking is an infraction in the sport of ice hockey where a player checks an opponent by using the shaft of his or her stick with both hands . In the rules of the National Hockey League , cross-checking is defined in Rule 59 , while the international ( IIHF ) rules define it in Rule 127 . While body checking is allowed , the use of the stick increases the risk of injury to an opponent . The most common penalty is a two-minute minor , served by the offender . However under certain circumstances the referee may assess a major penalty ( plus automatic Game Misconduct ) or a Match Penalty if the action is judged to be an attempt to injure the player . Usually , if the cross-check causes an injury the league itself may look into whether extra punishment is required for the player that delivered the check . International ice hockey rules and league rules though slightly different lay out the foundation of penalties for cross-checking . While the differences happen to be subtle in the context of international hockey events such as the Winter Olympics and the World Ice Hockey Championships , the penalties tend to be stricter than those from the NHL , KHL and the minor leagues . Generally , the severity of the penalty depends on the referees ' judgment as to the severity and intent of the cross-check . The penalty is generally assessed by the referee that is on ice and is up to their judgment to decide whether the penalty was a cross-check or something else . For example , at the 2014 Sochi Olympics Women 's Gold Medal Game between Canada and USA , Hilary Knight of the USA team was assessed a cross-checking penalty on Canada forward Hayley Wickenheiser . The call caused uproar from both benches , while the Canada bench thought it was tripping and there should have been a penalty shot , the USA bench felt that it was not a cross check . The discretion of the referee decides whether or not a cross-check is to be called .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Cross-checking", "rank": 88, "score": 80783 }, { "content": "Title: Krivokrasov stick incident Content: This scandal , involving Sergei Krivokrasov , occurred during 3rd game of 2003 -- 04 Russian Hockey Super League playoff semifinals between Avangard Omsk and HC Lada Togliatti . At 3:05 left in the third period , Lada Head coach , Petr Vorobiev , asked for Krivokrasov 's stick measurement . The referee for the game , Sergei Gusev , accepted the request , however delayed the procedure by several minutes . Stick was measured and proved legal , so Lada was given a minor penalty for delaying the game . However , it was witnessed by several Lada staff members , that Krivokrasov had changed his stick during the delay -- and reported immediately to game officials . This appeal was denied , so Vorobiev ordered his team to leave the ice as a protest . After the short consultation with game inspector , referee finally called minor and misconduct penalties against Krivokrasov , but Lada refused to return , since their minor penalty for delaying the game stayed intact . 1:0 victory ( the score before the incident ) was awarded then to Avangard . Several days later , game officials for this game were suspended until the end of the season for `` critical mistakes in measurement procedures '' . Lada was fined , and Petr Vorobiev served a 5-game suspension for League regulations violation .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Krivokrasov_stick_incident", "rank": 89, "score": 80676 }, { "content": "Title: NHL 2K8 Content: NHL 2K8 is an ice hockey video game made by 2K Sports , and published on the PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 consoles . It features Ottawa Senators centre Jason Spezza on its cover . Bob Cole and Harry Neale return from NHL 2K6 and NHL 2K7 to provide commentary . New features in the game include an all-new faceoff system , an all-new ProStick system involving the right skill stick to deke , take faceoffs and puck handle , and an all-new system called Superstar Combo moves , which mimics real-life dekes and fakes by actual NHL players to use in the game with the push of a button . Also , the game included an all-new goaltending system , with all-new graphics and movement . NHL 2K8 introduced the new Reebok Edge jerseys through the use of a code found on the 2K Sports website .", "qid": "266", "docid": "NHL_2K8", "rank": 90, "score": 80511 }, { "content": "Title: Emily Gillam Content: Emily Gillam ( born 5 September 1977 ) is a retired female field hockey player from New Zealand . She was a member of the Women 's National Team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , that won the bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Emily_Gillam", "rank": 91, "score": 80485 }, { "content": "Title: Rourke Chartier Content: Rourke Chartier ( born April 3 , 1996 ) is a Canadian professional ice hockey center . He is currently playing with the San Jose Barracuda in the American Hockey League ( AHL ) as a prospect of the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League ( NHL ) . Chartier was selected by the Sharks in the 5th round ( 149th overall ) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Rourke_Chartier", "rank": 92, "score": 80463 }, { "content": "Title: Robyn Toomey Content: Robyn Michelle Toomey-Matthews ( born 6 March 1964 in Napier ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eight position with the National Women 's Field Hockey Team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona . She was also a member of the squad that won the bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Robyn_Toomey", "rank": 93, "score": 80380 }, { "content": "Title: Trudy Kilkolly Content: Trudy Anne Kilkolly ( born 4 October 1965 in Wanganui ) is a former field hockey player from New Zealand , who finished in eighth position with the National Women 's Field Hockey Team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Trudy_Kilkolly", "rank": 94, "score": 80309 }, { "content": "Title: Gareth Brooks Content: Gareth Brooks ( born 28 February 1979 in Christchurch ) is a field hockey player from New Zealand , who earned his first cap for the national team , nicknamed The Black Sticks , in 2002 . The midfielder was a member of the team that finished sixth at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens , Greece .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Gareth_Brooks", "rank": 95, "score": 80270 }, { "content": "Title: Michelle Turner Content: Michelle Kay Hollands ( born 1 August 1974 in Palmerston North ) is a field hockey player from New Zealand , who was born under her maiden name Turner . She finished in sixth position with the Women 's National Team , nicknamed Black Sticks , at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney , Australia .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Michelle_Turner", "rank": 96, "score": 80253 }, { "content": "Title: Speed Stick Content: Speed Stick is a brand of deodorant/antiperspirant that , as the name suggests , comes in stick form . The product is owned by its parent company , Colgate-Palmolive . It was formerly known as `` Mennen Speed Stick '' prior to Colgate-Palmolive 's purchase of The Mennen Company . Currently , the products feature the words `` by Mennen '' in a small font on the label . Speed Stick comes in both deodorant and antiperspirant forms . Speed Stick is both a sponsor and the official antiperspirant of the NHL . Speed Stick comes in forms for men and women ( Lady Speed Stick ) and in stronger `` 24/7 '' forms . Both Speed Stick and Lady Speed Stick are available in Stick and Gel form . Different types of Speed Stick products include 24/7 , Pro , Stain Guard , Irish Spring , and Original .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Speed_Stick", "rank": 97, "score": 80190 }, { "content": "Title: Evgeny Petrov (sledge hockey) Content: Evgeny Petrov ( born 19 February 1990 ) is a Russian sledge hockey player . In 2013 he and his team won the bronze medal at the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships which were hosted in Goyang , South Korea . In the 2014 Winter Paralympics , he won the silver medal with Russia .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Evgeny_Petrov_(sledge_hockey)", "rank": 98, "score": 79970 }, { "content": "Title: Christine Arthur Content: Christine Arthur ( born 26 August 1963 in Stratford , New Zealand ) played field hockey for New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s . Arthur was a member of the team that finished sixth at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles , California , and eight years later competed with The Black Sticks at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona , where the team finished in eight position . Arthur has also acted as coach for the Junior Women 's national hockey team . She currently lives in Auckland and is a deputy principal for Diocesan School for Girls .", "qid": "266", "docid": "Christine_Arthur", "rank": 99, "score": 79944 }, { "content": "Title: National Hockey League Content: The National Hockey League ( NHL ; Ligue nationale de hockey -- LNH ) is a professional ice hockey league currently comprising 30 teams -- 23 in the United States and 7 in Canada -- with a 31st team in Las Vegas scheduled to begin play in the 2017 -- 18 season . Headquartered in New York City , the NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world , and one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada . The Stanley Cup , the oldest professional sports trophy in North America , is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season . The National Hockey League was organized on November 26 , 1917 , in Montreal , Quebec after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization , the National Hockey Association ( NHA ) , which had been founded in 1909 in Renfrew , Ontario . The NHL immediately took the NHA 's place as one of the leagues that contested for the Stanley Cup in an annual interleague competition before a series of league mergers and folds left the NHL as the only league left competing for the Stanley Cup in 1926 . At its inception , the NHL had four teams -- all in Canada , thus the adjective `` National '' in the league 's name . The league expanded to the United States in 1924 , when the Boston Bruins joined , and has since consisted of American and Canadian teams . After a labour-management dispute that led to the cancellation of the entire 2004 -- 05 season , the league resumed play under a new collective agreement that included a salary cap . In 2009 , the NHL enjoyed record highs in terms of sponsorships , attendance , and television audiences . The league draws many highly skilled players from all over the world and currently has players from approximately 20 countries . Canadians have historically constituted the majority of the players in the league , with an increasing percentage of American and European players in recent seasons .", "qid": "266", "docid": "National_Hockey_League", "rank": 100, "score": 79890 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research Content: The Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research is a climate research centre in Bergen , Norway . The centre has a special focus on Northern Europe and the Polar regions . The centre was started in 2000 and is a co-operation between University of Bergen , Institute of Marine Research , the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and Uni Research . The centre was part of Research Council of Norway 's Centre of Excellence program from 2003 to 2013 . Eystein Jansen headed the centre from 2000 to 2013 , while Tore Furevik has been director since 2014 . Researchers from the Bjerknes Centre have taken part in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports ; Eystein Jansen as one of the lead authors in the fourth report and upcoming fifth report . It is named after Vilhelm Bjerknes and his son Jacob Bjerknes .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bjerknes_Centre_for_Climate_Research", "rank": 1, "score": 270702 }, { "content": "Title: Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen Content: The Geophysical Institute , University of Bergen ( Geofysisk institutt , UiB ) is a marine research facility located in Bergen , Norway . Founded in 1917 by Bjørn Helland-Hansen , the institute studies the field of oceanography dealing with the patterns of the weather in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Norway . Within recent years , focus has been increasingly on geophysics and environmental research . The research activities at the institute span from small scale measurement of turbulence up to studies of the large scale ocean currents , from local air and noise pollution up to studies of global scale climate change . Areas of research focus on the Norwegian Current , the West Spitsbergen Current and the Norwegian Sea . Shifts and fluctuations in these currents are monitored , as they are thought to be indicators for climate change . Research has included sequestration and related matters dealing with Carbon capture and storage.The director of the institute is Dr. Peter M. Haugan . The Bergen School of Meteorology , which led to modern weather forecasting , was developed at the Geophysical Institute by Vilhelm Bjerknes and collaborators ( including Carl-Gustaf Rossby ) beginning in 1917 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Geophysical_Institute,_University_of_Bergen", "rank": 2, "score": 229800 }, { "content": "Title: Eystein Jansen Content: Eystein Jansen ( born 28 February 1953 , Bergen ) is a Norwegian professor in marine geology / paleoceanography at the University of Bergen and researcher and adviser at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research ( BCCR ) . He headed the Bjerknes Centre from its founding in 2000 to 2013 . Jansen got a MSc degree in 1981 and a PhD degree ( dr.scient . ) in 1984 from the University of Bergen . He was assistant and later associate professor in marine geology at the university 1985 -- 1993 and became a full professor in 1993 . He was a co-ordinating lead author for the paleoclimate chapter of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and was one of the lead authors of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Eystein_Jansen", "rank": 3, "score": 216496 }, { "content": "Title: Bergen School of Meteorology Content: __ NOTOC __ The `` Bergen School of Meteorology '' is a school of thought which is the basis for much of modern weather forecasting . Founded by the meteorologist Prof. Vilhelm Bjerknes and his younger colleagues in 1917 , the Bergen School attempts to define the motion of the atmosphere by means of the mathematics of interactions between hydro - and thermodynamics , some of which had originally been discovered or explained by Bjerknes himself , thus making mathematical predictions regarding the weather possible by systematic data analysis . Much of the work was done at the Geophysical Institute , University of Bergen , in Bergen , Norway .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bergen_School_of_Meteorology", "rank": 4, "score": 201100 }, { "content": "Title: Abrupt climate change Content: An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states . Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Abrupt_climate_change", "rank": 5, "score": 161466 }, { "content": "Title: Bønes Church Content: Bønes Church ( Bønes kirke ) is a parish church in Bergen municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . It is located in the Bønestoppen neighborhood in the city of Bergen . The church is part of the Bønes parish in the Fana deanery in the Diocese of Bjørgvin . The white , wooden church was built in 1997 by the architect Helge Hjertholm . The church seats about 300 people . There was an addition built onto the church in 2009 . From 1997 until 2002 , the church was an annex to the main Storetveit Church , but since 2002 it has been a separate parish .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bønes_Church", "rank": 6, "score": 161297 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower Content: The Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower ( CCT ) is a 34-meter research tower installed in Ny-Ålesund , Svalbard , Norway , for the study of various physical parameters in the boundary layer of the lower troposphere . In particular it continuously measured meteorological parameters ( temperature , relative humidity , intensity and direction of the wind ) at four different levels of height , and the four components of solar radiation and infrared at the top of the tower itself . They also measure the height of the layer of snow and its temperature at two depths . The tower was funded by the Department of Earth and Environment ( DTA ) of the National Research Council of Italy ( CNR ) and installed by Kings Bay in science village of Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard island . The inauguration took place on30 April 2009 . The CCT is an important point of reference for the study of the energy balance at the surface , and the processes of interaction and exchange between the various components of the climate system . The structure is dedicated to the Arctic expeditions of Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Italian Umberto Nobile explorers .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Amundsen-Nobile_Climate_Change_Tower", "rank": 7, "score": 155400 }, { "content": "Title: Nordnes Content: Nordnes is a peninsula and neighbourhood in the city centre of Bergen in Hordaland county , Norway . Vågen , Byfjorden , and Puddefjorden surround the peninsula . The Bergen Aquarium is located at the tip of the peninsula . The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research and Fredriksberg Fortress are also located on Nordnes . The parish church , Nykirken i Bergen , is located in this neighborhood . The neighbourhood of Nordnes includes approximately 50 % of the peninsula . The neighbourhoods Strandsiden and Verftet , as well as parts of Nøstet , are also located on Nordnes . Recreation areas include Nordnes Park and the Ballast Pier ( Ballastbryggen ) . One of the main recreation activities is visiting Nordnes sjøbad . This is an outdoor swimming facility with a heated pool and possibility to swim in the fjord . Nordnes sjøbad is open from 18 May to 1 September .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Nordnes", "rank": 8, "score": 153922 }, { "content": "Title: Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research Content: The Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research ( abbreviated CICERO ; Senter for klimaforskning ) is an interdisciplinary research centre for climate research and environmental science/environmental studies in Oslo . CICERO was established by the Government of Norway in 1990 . It is organised as an independent foundation and is affiliated with the University of Oslo . The current director is Kristin Halvorsen , former Minister of Finance .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Centre_for_International_Climate_and_Environmental_Research", "rank": 9, "score": 152519 }, { "content": "Title: Liv Mildrid Gjernes Content: Liv Mildrid Gjernes ( born 2 June 1954 in Lunde , in Telemark , Norway ) is a Norwegian artist and has given name to the contemporary style of decoration , sculpture , and furniture design known as Gjernes style . She lives and has her atelier in Eidsfoss , in Vestfold in Norway . She studied in Bergen high-school of art and design and at the Institute for Furniture and Room . Apart from being chosen for vast number of sculptural decoration assignments for private and public institutions , she was commissioned by the Norwegian government to produce its wedding gift to Princess Märtha Louise and Ari Behn on 24 May 2002 . The gift consisted of two cupboards specially designed for the wedding-couple with the title `` Ikons for the Hearts '' . In each cupboard there were seven exclusive pieces of handicraft , from different regions of Norway , produced by other outstanding Norwegian artisans .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Liv_Mildrid_Gjernes", "rank": 10, "score": 152373 }, { "content": "Title: Peter M. Haugan Content: Peter Mosby Haugan ( born 28 July 1958 ) is a Norwegian Scientist and Director of the Geophysical Institute , University of Bergen . His research includes various aspects of physical oceanography focusing on the North Sea and Arctic Ocean . His research is often featured in the Journal of Geophysical Research as well as in Cicerone , a climate magazine published by CICERO - Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Peter_M._Haugan", "rank": 11, "score": 147491 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian Meteorological Institute Content: The Norwegian Meteorological Institute ( Meteorologisk institutt ) , also known as MET Norway , is Norway 's national institute which provides weather forecasts . Its three main offices are located in Oslo , Bergen and Tromsø . MET Norway has around 500 employees and some 650 part-time observers around the country . It also operated the last remaining weather ship in the world , MS Polarfront , stationed in the North Atlantic , until it was discontinued due to budgetary issues on 1 January 2010 and replaced with satellite and buoy data . The institute was founded in 1866 with the help of Norwegian astronomer and meteorologist Henrik Mohn who served as its director until 1913 . He is credited with founding meteorological research in Norway . The institute represents Norway in international organizations like the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) , the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ( ECMWF ) , and EUMETSAT . The Institute is also partner to a number of international research and monitoring projects including EMEP , MyOcean , MyWave and the North West Shelf Operational Oceanographic System ( NOOS ) .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Norwegian_Meteorological_Institute", "rank": 12, "score": 146644 }, { "content": "Title: Vilhelm Bjerknes Content: Vilhelm Friman Koren Bjerknes ( -LSB- ˈvɪlˌhɛlm_ˈbjɜːrknᵻs -RSB- 14 March 1862 -- 9 April 1951 ) was a Norwegian physicist and meteorologist who did much to found the modern practice of weather forecasting .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Vilhelm_Bjerknes", "rank": 13, "score": 145658 }, { "content": "Title: Climarice Content: Climarice is a research project , carried out by The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research ( Bioforsk , Norway ) , Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( TNAU , India ) , International Water Management Institute ( IWMI , India ) and International Pacific Research Center ( IPRC , United States ) ; which is trying to assess the impact of climate variability on water availability and rice production in the Cauvery river basin of Tamil Nadu , India . In particular , the impacts of climate change on extreme events such as droughts , floods , heat waves and on the spatial and temporal distribution of the monsoon rains will certainly impact rice production and food security in India . However , there is a significant level of uncertainty in the climate models ' projections that cascade into impact models and thereby influence policy decisions related to adaptation . For both scientific community and policy makers , reducing the uncertainties is a big challenge . On a positive note , examination of historical observed rice production data in India shows an overall increasing trend in many regions with annual fluctuations . Will this trend continue given the projected change in climate and population increase in India ? Climarice is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , is currently assessing the impacts of climate change on rice production areas and rice productivity . Specifically , the project is assessing the behavior of the Indian monsoon in different climate scenarios , and examining its impact on the water availability , rice crop production and the resultant socio economic vulnerability and adaptation of farming communities in the Cauvery river basin , India . Since the project was started in January 2008 , relevant coping and adaptation mechanisms have been identified and techniques developed to address the issues of climate vulnerabilities in rice production .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Climarice", "rank": 14, "score": 145196 }, { "content": "Title: Nordnes Park Content: The Nordnes Park ( Nordnesparken ) is a public park in the municipality of Bergen in Hordaland county , Norway . The park is located near the centre of the city of Bergen on the northwestern end of the Nordnes peninsula . It was established in 1888-1898 after an initiative from Edvard G. Johannessen in Det nyttige Selskab . The park covers about 32.7 daa of land . The Bergen Aquarium and the headquarters of the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research are both located on the grounds of the park . The city of Bergen and the city of Seattle are sister cities , and in 1970 , Seattle sent a totem pole to Bergen to celebrate the city 's 900th anniversary . The totem pole was erected in the Nordnes Park .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Nordnes_Park", "rank": 15, "score": 143966 }, { "content": "Title: Centre for Medieval Studies, Bergen Content: The Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Bergen , Norway was founded in 2003 by the Research Council of Norway . The organization 's site defines its goal as follows : `` to enhance our understanding of Europe as a whole , in the Middle Ages as well as today , from a peripheral point of view '' . It is headed by Sverre Bagge .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Centre_for_Medieval_Studies,_Bergen", "rank": 16, "score": 143958 }, { "content": "Title: Natural Science Building (University of Bergen) Content: The Natural Science Building ( Norwegian : Realfagbygget ) is located in Allégaten 41 at Nygårdshøyden in Bergen , right next to Nygårdsparken . The building is a part of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Bergen . The building was drawn by architect Harald Ramm Østgård , and built between 1963-1977 . The Sciences Building is one of Norway 's largest buildings with 47000 square meters usable area . The building is considered one of the best examples of brutalistic architecture in Bergen .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Natural_Science_Building_(University_of_Bergen)", "rank": 17, "score": 142711 }, { "content": "Title: Bjerka Content: Bjerka is a village in the municipality of Hemnes in Nordland county , Norway .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bjerka", "rank": 18, "score": 142342 }, { "content": "Title: Henning Warloe Content: Henning Warloe , ( born 24 March 1961 in Bergen , Norway ) is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party of Norway , and Commissioner for Urban Development , Climate and Environmental Affairs since 14 August 2014 in Bergen . He graduated as an officer in the Norwegian Army , and holds a degree in economics from Norwegian School of Economics from 1986 . Aside from his political career , Henning Warloe worked as a salesman for Strømsnes Tekniske AS 1980 -- 1981 , Director of Finance for Oskar Pedersen AS 1986 -- 1988 , Manager for Kløverhuset shopping center 1988 -- 1993 , Manager of Sommer Bergen AS 1993 -- 1995 and Chairman of Pepper AS 1995 -- 2003 . He was one of the founders of Ferieklubben in Bergen . One of Henning Warloe ` s hobbies is magic , and he was President of Magiske Cirkel Norge ( The Magic Circle of Norway ) , a national organization for magicians , from 2008 until 2010 . Warloe was a member of Bergen City Council 1995 -- 2003 and the leader of European Movement International in Hordaland County 1996 -- 2001 . During 2003 -- 2007 he was Commissioner for Finance , Property Management and Business Development in the Municipality of Bergen . He was also a member of the board of the Bergen Conservative Party 2003 -- 2009 and 1st Deputy Chairman for Hordaland Conservative Party . From 2007 , Warloe was Commissioner for Culture , Sports and Business Development and from spring 2009 , after the Progress Party withdrew from the City Government , he was also Acting Commissioner for Finance , Competition and Development . From 2 June until 31 January 2007 , during Monica Mæland ` s. maternity leave , Warloe was Acting Leader of the City Government . Warloe stepped down in the autumn of 2009 , as he was elected MP for Hordaland county in the 2009 election . In 2013 , Warloe was fined and got a suspended sentence for possession and use of narcotics . Before he was sentenced he resigned from his political duties for the Conservative Party .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Henning_Warloe", "rank": 19, "score": 142188 }, { "content": "Title: The Ny-Ålesund Symposium Content: The Ny-Ålesund Symposium is an annual high level international event where top researchers and politicians , senior business executives , representatives of NGOs and other decision makers meet to share experiences and to discuss climate change solutions . The topics are related to the challenges of climate change , other environmental issues , and issues directly connected to the Arctic and the Northern areas which could have major global consequences . Participation is limited to 45 people , by invitation only . The Symposium takes place on Svalbard at 79 degrees north . It is the world 's northernmost permanent settlement and is only 1200 km from the North Pole . The Norwegian Government has transformed this former mining community into a major base for scientific research and environmental monitoring in the Arctic . The base hosts scientists from more than 20 nations and plays an important role in international climate change research . It is owned and operated by the governmental company Kings Bay AS , a coal mining company in earlier days . The scenery is exceptional , with a backdrop of unspoiled Arctic nature . The purpose of the Symposium is to exchange knowledge , improve the understanding and seek solutions of the challenging impacts these issues have both on the Arctic regions and internationally . The Symposium is organized by Kings Bay AS in cooperation with the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research , the Ministry of the Environment -RSB- , the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , the Ministry of Trade and Industry , the Ministry of Justice and the Police , and the -LSB- Research Council of Norway -RSB- . Statkraft AS is a co-organizer and sponsor of the Symposium . The secretariat is by CICERO Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo . His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway is patron of the Symposium . The first Symposium was arranged in March 2006 . The main themes for the symposia have been : 2006 - The changing Arctic - new opportunities and challenges 2007 - The changing Arctic - global climate change - the need for action 2008 - Global climate change and research challenges 2009 - Climate change : Understanding global politics towards Copenhagen and beyond 2010 - The Changing Arctic and Its Global Implications 2011 - cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud 2012 - Towards a green economy : the role of technology 2013 - The Changing Arctic - Opportunity or Threat 2014 - Breaking the Climate Stalemate", "qid": "267", "docid": "The_Ny-Ålesund_Symposium", "rank": 20, "score": 140034 }, { "content": "Title: Bønestoppen Content: Bønestoppen is a neighbourhood in the city of Bergen , Norway . It is located on the northern shore of the lake Nordåsvannet in the city borough of Fyllingsdalen . The Bønes Church is located here .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bønestoppen", "rank": 21, "score": 139117 }, { "content": "Title: Stormålvatnet Content: Stormålvatnet is a lake in the municipality of Hemnes in Nordland county , Norway . It is located about 12 km east of the village of Korgen . The river Bjerkaelva flows through the lake on its way to the nearby Ranfjord .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Stormålvatnet", "rank": 22, "score": 138064 }, { "content": "Title: Vågen, Bergen Content: Vågen is a bay in the centre of the city of Bergen in Hordaland county , Norway . It is the central harbour of the city centre , and is the center of the historical core of the city . The city of Bergen originated on the east shore of the bay , and from there it expanded to the southern and western shores over a few centuries . Today , Bergen is the second largest city in the nation . The 1200 m long bay branches off the main Byfjorden . The Nordnes peninsula lies on the south side of the bay , and the Bergenhus Fortress lies on the northern shore . The Bryggen UNESCO World Heritage Site also lies along the northern shore of the bay . Bryggen includes many old buildings , some of which date back to the 11th century .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Vågen,_Bergen", "rank": 23, "score": 137541 }, { "content": "Title: Steinar Stjernø Content: Steinar Stjernø ( born 10 January 1945 ) is a Norwegian academic . He obtained the mag.art . degree ( PhD equivalent ) in Public Administration and Organizational Theory from the University of Bergen in 1971 . He worked as a researcher at the Norwegian State College of Local Government Administration and Social Work from 1971 to 1978 , and later as associate professor . He was the rector from 1987 to 1991 . When the Oslo University College was established in 1994 through a merger , Stjernø became the rector there , a position he held until 2000 . Since 2002 he is professor at the same institution , of social policy studies and social work . He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Bremen , the University of New South Wales and the University of California , Berkeley . Stjernø was a member of the board of the Council of University Colleges in Norway from 1995 to 2000 . In 2007 and 2008 he chaired the board of the Norwegian Work Research Institute . He has been active in the Socialist Left Party , having been its deputy leader from 1975 to 1977 . He is a member of Ullern borough council .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Steinar_Stjernø", "rank": 24, "score": 137142 }, { "content": "Title: Lene Buhl-Mortensen Content: Lene Buhl-Mortensen ( born 20 June 1956 in Esbjerg ) is a Dano-Norwegian marine biologist . She is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research . She is an expert on the biogeography of the amphipod fauna in Norwegian waters , on the taxonomy of amphipods , barnacles and copepods , and on mapping of biodiversity in the Barents Sea . She holds a fil.kand . degree in biology from the University of Gothenburg ( 1980 ) and a dr.scient . ( PhD ) from the University of Bergen ( 1994 ) . She has been head of MAREANO , a national mapping program to document the topography , environment and seabed fauna outside Norway funded directly over the state budget of Norway . She has also discovered several new species in this area .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Lene_Buhl-Mortensen", "rank": 25, "score": 136684 }, { "content": "Title: Hemnes Content: Hemnes is a municipality in Nordland county , Norway . It is part of the Helgeland traditional region . The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Korgen . Other villages include Bjerka , Bleikvasslia , Hemnesberget , and Sund . The municipality sits south of the Ranfjorden and stretches south and east toward the border with Sweden . The Nordland Line and European route E06 cross Hemnes on their way to the town of Mo i Rana about 20 km to the northeast . The E6 highway enters Hemnes from the west through the Korgfjell Tunnel from Vefsn .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Hemnes", "rank": 26, "score": 136224 }, { "content": "Title: Western Norway Research Institute Content: The Western Norway Research Institute ( WRNI , Vestlandsforsking in Norwegian ) , is an assignment based research foundation founded by the county municipality of Sogn og Fjordane . Located in the Fosshaugane Campus , of the Sogn og Fjordane University College in Sogndal , the Institute is independent of the University and conducts research and development studies commissioned by research councils , industry and , the public sector . Though international in nature the institute maintains strong regional ties particularly in the fields of climate adaptation and rural tourism . Its special areas of expertise include ; information communication , technology systems , organizational research , environmental research , sustainable tourism , environmental policy and energy production and use and , climate change social impacts , evaluation and adaptation .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Western_Norway_Research_Institute", "rank": 27, "score": 135129 }, { "content": "Title: Conrad Svendsen Content: Conrad Svendsen ( 19 August 1862 -- 9 September 1943 ) was a Norwegian teacher for the deaf , priest and magazine editor . Svendsen was born in Bergen to Johan Henrik Parrau Svendsen and Margrethe Louise Vogt . He was a son-in-law of politician Jacob Aall Bonnevie , the father of Conrad Bonnevie-Svendsen , and grandfather of Conrad Vogt-Svendsen . He was a brother-in-law of physicist and meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes , patent engineer Alfred Jørgen Bryn , biologist Kristine Bonnevie and feminist Margarete Bonnevie . While a theological student , Svendsen started working as a teacher for the deaf in Christiania . He eventually travelled to Denmark , Switzerland , Italy , France and Germany to make further studies on the education of deaf . In 1895 he was ordained priest for the deaf in Norway . In 1898 he founded the institution Hjemmet for Døve , a home for the deaf in Nordstrand , and he edited the magazine De Døves Blad . His publications include Om Døvstummes Undervisning from 1889 , De døvstumme , deres Opdragelse i Hjem og Skole from 1893 , and Husandagtsbog , ordnet efter kirkeaaret from 1901 . A relief of Svendsen , sculptured by Nic Schiøll , is located at Hjemmet for Døve .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Conrad_Svendsen", "rank": 28, "score": 134806 }, { "content": "Title: Forecasting Division of Western Norway Content: The Forecasting Division of Western Norway ( Vervarslinga på Vestlandet ) is a department of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute located in Bergen . It was established in 1918 . It prepares weather forecasting for the area between Nord-Trøndelag and Lista , as well as the fishing grounds around The British Isles and Iceland .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Forecasting_Division_of_Western_Norway", "rank": 29, "score": 134629 }, { "content": "Title: Sydnes Content: Sydnes is a traditional neighbourhood in the city of Bergen in Hordaland county , Norway . It is located along the Puddefjorden in the southern part of the city centre of Bergen . TV 2 has its headquarters at Sydnes . The Johanneskirken is located in this neighborhood .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Sydnes", "rank": 30, "score": 134018 }, { "content": "Title: Bjerknes Content: Bjerknes may refer to : Carl Anton Bjerknes ( 1825-1903 ) , Norwegian mathematician and physicist Vilhelm Bjerknes ( 1862 -- 1951 ) , Norwegian physicist and meteorologist , son of Carl Anton Jacob Bjerknes ( 1897 -- 1975 ) , Norwegian-American meteorologist , son of Vilhelm Bjerknes ( lunar crater ) , named in honour of Vilhelm", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bjerknes", "rank": 31, "score": 133964 }, { "content": "Title: Chr. Michelsen Institute Content: The Chr . Michelsen Institute ( CMI ) was founded in 1930 , and is currently the largest centre for development research in Scandinavia . In 1992 , the Department for Natural Science and Technology established the Christian Michelsen Research AS , and the CMR Group . ( cmr.no ) The University of Bergen is the main owner in The CMR Group . The Department of Social Science and Development became the Chr . Michelsen Institute . CMI is an independent , non-profit research foundation for policy-oriented and applied development research . Headed by the director Ottar Mæstad , it employs 40 social scientists , primarily anthropologists , economists and political scientists . CMI receives core funding from the Norwegian Research Council ( NFR ) and project support from Norwegian state ministries and agencies , and Norwegian and international non-governmental organisations . CMI hosts the Anti-Corruption Resource Centre , also referred to as U4 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Chr._Michelsen_Institute", "rank": 32, "score": 133536 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian Institute for Air Research Content: The Norwegian Institute for Air Research ( Norsk Institutt for luftforskning ) or NILU is one of the leading specialized scientific laboratories in Europe researching issues related to air pollution , climate change and health . NILU has a staff of scientists , engineers and technicians with specialized expertise for working on air pollution problems . The staff do more than two hundred projects annually for research councils , industries , international banks and local , national and international authorities and organizations . Its director since 2009 is Kari Nygaard .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Norwegian_Institute_for_Air_Research", "rank": 33, "score": 133510 }, { "content": "Title: Kjersti Toppe Content: Kjersti Toppe ( born 20 October 1967 ) is a Norwegian politician representing the Centre Party . She was her party 's top nominee for Hordaland in the 2009 election and was elected to the Storting in September . Prior to her election to parliament , Toppe served as the Centre Party 's sole representative in the Bergen city council since 2001 . In parliament , Toppe was assigned to the position as deputy leader of the Standing Committee on Health and Care Services . During the election campaign , healthcare was her main issue , and she has pledged to work against closure of rural hospitals . Apart from politics , Toppe is a medical doctor , and has worked at the emergency room in Bergen . She quit this job during her fifth pregnancy , and now has six children .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Kjersti_Toppe", "rank": 34, "score": 133199 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute Content: The Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute ( Norsk institutt for skog og landskap ) is a research institute based in Norway . Organizationally subordinate to the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food , it is autonomous in its research . It was established on 1 July 2006 through a merger of the Norwegian Forest Research Institute ( Norsk institutt for skogforskning ) and the Norwegian Institute of Land Inventory ( Norsk institutt for jord - og skogkartlegging ) . Headquarters are in Ås , and regional offices are in Bergen , Steinkjer and Tromsø . The director is Arne Bardalen .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Norwegian_Forest_and_Landscape_Institute", "rank": 35, "score": 132703 }, { "content": "Title: International Arctic Research Center Content: The International Arctic Research Center , or IARC , established in 1999 , is a research institution focused on integrating and coordinating study of climate change in the Arctic . The primary partners in IARC are Japan and the United States . Participants include organizations from Canada , China , Denmark , Germany , Japan , Norway , Russia , the United Kingdom , and the United States . The Center is located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks , in the Syun-Ichi Akasofu Building . The Keith B. Mather Library is the science library housed in the Akasofu Building , serving IARC and the Geophysical Institute of UAF . The building also houses the UAF atmospheric sciences department , the Center for Global Change and the Fairbanks forecast office of the National Weather Service . Study projects are focused within four major themes : Arctic ocean models and observation Arctic atmosphere : feedbacks , radiation , and weather analysis Permafrost/Frozen soil models and observations Arctic biota/vegetation ( ecosystem models ) IARC is devoting specific effort to answering the following three questions : To what extent is climate change due to natural vs man-made causes ? What parameters , processes and interactions are needed to understand and predict future climate change ? What are the likely impacts of climate change ?", "qid": "267", "docid": "International_Arctic_Research_Center", "rank": 36, "score": 132646 }, { "content": "Title: Olav Sigurd Kjesbu Content: Olav Sigurd Kjesbu ( born 13 June 1956 ) is a Norwegian fisheries biologist/Chief Scientist at the Institute of Marine Research ( IMR ) in Bergen . He is the director of the Hjort Centre for Marine Ecosystem Dynamics . Bergen is one of the largest marine knowledge hubs in the world and the Hjort Centre is a central part of this research cluster . In addition he also holds a position as adjunct professor at Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis ( CEES ) , University of Oslo , Oslo . Kjesbu got his PhD in 1988 and became principal scientist in 1996 . His research expertise falls within reproductive biology and recruitment dynamics of marine fish . He is an expert on Northeast Atlantic cod , currently the largest cod stock in the world . Kjesbu has been active in or leading development co-operation projects , especially with Centro Investigaciones Pesqueras ( CIP ) , Havana through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation ( NORAD ) . Kjesbu was selected as one out four `` Norwegian leading experts on arctic-related marine research '' in the mobile European exhibition of the University of Oslo The legacy of Fridtjof Nansen ( 150th birthday ) , where he represented the field of marine biology .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Olav_Sigurd_Kjesbu", "rank": 37, "score": 132637 }, { "content": "Title: Munkeliv Abbey Content: Munkeliv Abbey was a Benedictine abbey located at Nordnes in Bergen , Norway . It was one of the oldest monasteries in Norway , and also one of the wealthiest and best-documented .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Munkeliv_Abbey", "rank": 38, "score": 132084 }, { "content": "Title: St John's Church, Bergen Content: St. John 's Church ( Johanneskirken ) is a church in Bergen municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . It is located in the Sydnes area of the city of Bergen . The church is one of five churches in Bergen Cathedral parish in the Bergen arch-deanery in the Diocese of Bjørgvin . The red , brick cruciform church has 1250 seats , making it the largest church in Bergen . The church was built between 1891 and 1894 in the Gothic Revival style . It was consecrated on 15 March 1894 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "St_John's_Church,_Bergen", "rank": 39, "score": 131960 }, { "content": "Title: Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad Content: Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad is a local newspaper published in Eidsvoll , Norway . It was established in 1901 as Eidsvoll Blad , and eventually became affiliated with the Centre Party . It was originally published twice a week ; this was increased to three issues in 1930 and four issues in 1969 . It mainly covers the municipalities of Eidsvoll and Hurdal , but is also distributed in Gjerdrum , Ullensaker and Nannestad . It had a circulation of 6,858 in 1983 , increasing to the current 8,178 , of whom 7,915 are subscribers . It is owned by various local people and groups .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Eidsvoll_Ullensaker_Blad", "rank": 40, "score": 131520 }, { "content": "Title: Kaare Langlo Content: Kaare Langlo ( October 7 , 1913 in Bergen , Norway -- October 7 , 1985 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian meteorologist . He contributed to establishing meteorology as an important scientific field both in Norway and internationally . Langlo was assistant general secretary of the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) . Langlo grew up in Bergen and received his examen artium ( baccalaureate ) at Sydneshaugens skole in 1932 . He earned a Cand.Real . degree in 1941 and his Ph.D. in 1953 both from the University of Oslo . From 1940 to 1943 he was at the Auroral Observatory in Tromsø . In 1944 he was at the Christian Michelsens Institutt in Bergen and in 1945 at Meteorological Office in London . Langlo was a meteorologist at the Meteorological Institute in Oslo 1943 -- 1945 and department head 1945 -- 1952 . Langlo held leading positions at the secretariat of the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) from 1952 to 1975 . He played an important role in establishing international programs such as World Weather Watch and Global Atmospheric Research Programme . From 1970 he was assistant general secretary . From 1976 he was senior advisor to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and from 1978 to 1983 Langlo was director of the institute . During his time at the institute he was promoting internationalization and he was eagerly working for Norwegian membership of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading in Great Britain . Norway eventually became a member , but that was after he had retired from the director chair . He published several geophysical reports and articles and is most well known for establishing links between the ozone layer and meteorological conditions . In particular , as early as 1952 he associated low ozone levels in the stratosphere to the presence of polar stratospheric clouds ( PSCs ) . Kaare Langlo was named Knight , First Class of Order of St. Olav in 1975 for his contribution to international meteorological collaboration . From 1960 to 1970 he was member of the International Ozone Commission .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Kaare_Langlo", "rank": 41, "score": 130691 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica Content: The Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica is a research program consisting of two overland traverses of East Antarctica : the first from the Norwegian Troll Station to the South Pole in the 2007/2008 season ; and a return traverse via a different route in 2008/2009 . The main research focus of the program is climate change , the stated goals being to : Investigate climate variability in Dronning Maud Land of East Antarctica on time scales of years to a thousand years . Establish spatial and temporal variability in snow accumulation over this area of Antarctica to understand its impact on sea level . Investigate the impact of atmospheric and oceanic variability on the chemical composition of firn and ice in the region . Revisit areas and sites first explored by traverses in the 1960s , for detection of possible changes and to establish benchmark data sets for future research efforts . The program is part of Trans-Antarctic Scientific Traverse Expeditions -- Ice Divide of East Antarctica ( TASTE-IDEA ) , and the International Partners in Ice Coring Sciences ( IPICS ) , both of which have ISCU-WMO endorsement for the International Polar Year 2007-2009 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Norwegian-U.S._Scientific_Traverse_of_East_Antarctica", "rank": 42, "score": 130353 }, { "content": "Title: Ferdinand Bjerke Content: Ferdinand Bjerke was a Norwegian railway engineer . He graduated from Christiania Technical School in 1893 , and started working for the Norwegian State Railways . Bjerke first worked on the Gjøvik Line , then on the Bergen Line and the Dovre Line . From 1911 to 1918 , he was in charge of the rebuilding of Trondheim Central Station . During his period in Trondheim , he was involved in the plans for the Gråkallen Line of the Trondheim Tramway , and made the plans for the route , and sat on the board . His main achievement was participating as senior engineer with the work on the Flåm Line . Before the construction could begin , he had been dispatched to study different railway types in the Alps .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Ferdinand_Bjerke", "rank": 43, "score": 130333 }, { "content": "Title: Inntrøndelag District Court Content: Inntrøndelag District Court ( Inntrøndelag tingrett ) is the district court serving the Inntrøndelag region in Nord-Trøndelag county , Norway . This court serves the municipalities of Steinkjer , Inderøy , Snåsa , Verran , Verdal , Levanger , Frosta , Stjørdal , Leksvik , Meråker , and Namdalseid . Located in the town of Steinkjer , this court was established on 1 January 2011 to replace the old Inderøy District Court ( located in Steinkjer ) and the Stjør - and Verdal District Court ( located in the town of Levanger . The court was formally opened on 14 June 2011 . The courthouse was built in 1997 for the old Inderøy District Court , and in 2010 there was a addition built to accommodate the new court . The court has seven judges and eleven clerks . The presiding judge of the court is currently Odd Arve Bartnes . The court is a court of first instance which also handles probate cases , estate settlements ( joint property , bankruptcy , etc. ) , and notarial transactions . Cases from this court may be appealed to the Frostating Court of Appeal . On 5 March 2011 , the Nord-Trøndelag Land Consolidation Court was also moved to this courthouse .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Inntrøndelag_District_Court", "rank": 44, "score": 130323 }, { "content": "Title: Fjell Content: Fjell is a municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . It is part of the traditional district of Midhordland . The municipality consists of several islands west of the city of Bergen , the major ones being Litlesotra , the northern part of Store Sotra , Bildøy , Bjorøy , Misje , and Turøy . The administrative centre of Fjell is the village of Straume . Some of the villages in Fjell include Ågotnes , Fjell , Foldnes , Knappskog , Knarrevik , Kolltveit , Landro , and Sekkingstad . Due to the opening the Sotra Bridge to the mainland in 1971 and its proximity to the city of Bergen , the population has grown from less than 7,000 to over 23,000 , and as of 2008 it has one of the highest population growth rates in Norway . The result is major traffic jams over the bridge every day . A highway that leads to Bergen has reduced the traveling time to only fifteen minutes from the community centre at Straume on Litlesotra to the center of Bergen .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Fjell", "rank": 45, "score": 130094 }, { "content": "Title: Jacob Bjerknes Content: Jacob Aall Bonnevie Bjerknes ( -LSB- ˈjɑːkəb_ˈbjɜːrknᵻs -RSB- in English ; November 2 , 1897 -- July 7 , 1975 ) was a Norwegian born , American meteorologist .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Jacob_Bjerknes", "rank": 46, "score": 130050 }, { "content": "Title: Centre of Norway Content: The geographical centre of Norway has been identified as a spot in the Ogndalsfjella in the southeastern part of the municipality of Steinkjer in Nord-Trøndelag county , located at . A monument marking the significance of the spot was unveiled in a ceremony on 3 September 2006 . It is hoped that it will become a tourist attraction . The site lies just to the west of the large lake Skjækervatnet .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Centre_of_Norway", "rank": 47, "score": 129961 }, { "content": "Title: Møhlenpris Content: Møhlenpris ( formerly Vestre Sydnes ) is a neighbourhood in the city of Bergen in Hordaland county , Norway . It is next to the Puddefjorden in the borough of Bergenhus . The neighbourhood is named after Jørgen Thor Møhlen , who established some industry at Møhlenpris in the late 17th century . Most of the buildings date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Møhlenpris", "rank": 48, "score": 129703 }, { "content": "Title: Blåmanen Content: Blåmanen is one of the seven mountains that surround the centre of the city of Bergen in Hordaland county , Norway . The 554 m tall mountain is located east of the mountain Fløyen , making it somewhat difficult to see from the city centre of Bergen . The mountain Rundemanen lies just north of Blåmanen .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Blåmanen", "rank": 49, "score": 129236 }, { "content": "Title: Ejlert Bjerke Content: Ejlert Bjerke ( 14 March 1887 -- 1963 ) was a Norwegian novelist , poet , playwright and essayist . He made his literary debut in 1909 with the short story collection Mennesker og fauner . A second collection , Frie Fugle , was published in 1910 . Among his novels are Livsfyrsten from 1914 and Sværmere i solen from 1917 . His essay collection Molok was published in 1920 , and the travelogue Tre horisonter in 1929 . He was father of André Bjerke .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Ejlert_Bjerke", "rank": 50, "score": 129175 }, { "content": "Title: Fredriksberg Fortress Content: Fredriksberg fort is a Norwegian fortification located at the highest point of Nordnes in Bergen .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Fredriksberg_Fortress", "rank": 51, "score": 129066 }, { "content": "Title: Bartnes, Nord-Trøndelag Content: Bartnes is a village in the municipality of Steinkjer in Nord-Trøndelag county , Norway . The village is located in the western part of Steinkjer in the Beitstad area . It lies along the shore of the innermost part of the Trondheimsfjord , across from the large village of Malm . The municipal center of Steinkjer lies about 13 km to the east and the village of Vellamelen lies about 10 km northeast of Bartnes . Bartnes Church is located in this village . Bartnes is a very old settlement , with many historical findings in the surrounding area .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bartnes,_Nord-Trøndelag", "rank": 52, "score": 128906 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian Polar Institute Content: The Norwegian Polar Institute ( in Norwegian : Norsk Polarinstitutt ) is Norway 's national institution for polar research . It is run under the auspices of the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment . The institute conducts research in the polar regions , provides management relevant knowledge for the Norwegian authorities , and organizes expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions . The institute runs year-round the Sverdrup research station in Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard and the Troll station in Antarctica . In addition the Norvegia station which is located on the Bouvet Island in the Southern Ocean and the Tor Field Station on Antarctica are used for shorter term work . Its offices are in Tromsø and Longyearbyen , Svalbard , in addition to the research stations in Queen Maud Land and Svalbard , and employs approximately 150 persons . It has the responsibility to enforce international treaties regarding Antarctic activities by Norwegian citizens or corporations . The institute was founded as Norges Svalbard - og Ishavsundersøkelser by Adolf Hoel in 1928 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Norwegian_Polar_Institute", "rank": 53, "score": 128862 }, { "content": "Title: Bjørnafjorden Content: Bjørnafjorden is a fjord in Hordaland county , Norway . It runs through the municipalities of Austevoll , Fusa , Os , and Tysnes . The large island of Tysnesøya ( and many small , surrounding islands such as Reksteren ) lie along the south side of the Bjørnafjorden and the Bergen Peninsula and the mainland lie along the north and east sides of the fjord . The Fusafjorden ( and the Samnangerfjorden which branches off it ) split off from the main fjord on the north side by the village of Osøyro . The 30 km fjord is about 10 km wide and its maximum depth is 583 m below sea level .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bjørnafjorden", "rank": 54, "score": 128819 }, { "content": "Title: Erik Bartnes Content: Erik Bartnes ( born 27 November 1939 ) is a Norwegian farmer and politician for the Centre Party . He is a son of Inge Einarsen Bartnes and father of Inge Bartnes and Lars Erik Bartnes . He is from Beitstad in Steinkjer . He has worked in the Norwegian Agrarian Association and been mayor of Steinkjer . Following the 2003 county council election he was appointed county mayor of Nord-Trøndelag . He did not run for re-election in 2007 . He has also been a board member of the Regional Development Fund .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Erik_Bartnes", "rank": 55, "score": 128518 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian Glacier Museum Content: The Norwegian Glacier Museum ( Norsk Bremuseum ) is a museum in Fjærland , Sogn og Fjordane , Norway . The museum 's stated purpose is to `` collect , create and disseminate knowledge about glaciers and climate '' -- it provides information about the glacier Jostedalsbreen and the Jostedalsbreen National Park and also houses the Ulltveit-Moe Climate Centre . The museum is open from April through October , daily . It was founded as a joint project between the organizations and institutions Norwegian Trekking Association , the International Glaciological Society , the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate , the Norwegian Polar Institute , the Sogn og Fjordane University College , the University of Bergen and the University of Oslo . The building was designed by Sverre Fehn . In 2002 a decision was made to build an extension to the museum , which was also designed by Fehn . In 2006 Sarner Ltd , a UK-based museum and attraction design company were commissioned to create an experiential exhibit on climate change . The exhibit Our Fragile Climate was opened in July 2007 by former US vice-president Walter Mondale .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Norwegian_Glacier_Museum", "rank": 56, "score": 128389 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian Centre for Research Data Content: The Norwegian Centre for Research Data ( Norsk senter for forskningsdata ) ( NSD ) is a Norwegian government-owned company responsible for managing data for the research community of Norway . Until 1 March 2016 it was known as Norwegian Social Science Data Services . The agency is owned by the Ministry of Education and Research , had 90 employees in 2015 and is based in Bergen . It is one of the world 's largest archives for research data . Established in 1971 , it was part of the Research Council of Norway until 2003 when it became a limited company owned by the ministry . NSD operates the Norwegian Scientific Index and the European database ERIH PLUS .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Norwegian_Centre_for_Research_Data", "rank": 57, "score": 128375 }, { "content": "Title: Steinkjer Content: Steinkjer is a city and municipality in the Nord-Trøndelag county , Norway . It is part of the Innherad region . The city is located on the inner part of the Trondheim fjord . Steinkjer is the largest city in the county , and the municipality is the county 's second-most populous after it was passed by Stjørdal in 2008 . The city is also the administrative place of Nord-Trøndelag County Council . Other populated areas in Steinkjer include the villages of Bartnes , Beitstad , Binde , Byafossen , Følling , Kvam , Lerkehaug , Mære , Sparbu , Sunnan , Vassaunet , Vekre , and Vellamelen .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Steinkjer", "rank": 58, "score": 127857 }, { "content": "Title: Carl Anton Bjerknes Content: Carl Anton Bjerknes ( -LSB- ˈbjærknəs -RSB- ; 24 October 1825 -- 20 March 1903 ) was a Norwegian mathematician and physicist . Bjerknes ' earlier work was in pure mathematics , but he is principally known for his studies in hydrodynamics .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Carl_Anton_Bjerknes", "rank": 59, "score": 127846 }, { "content": "Title: Nymark Content: Nymark ( Norwegian : `` new ground '' ) was the name that artist Alex Hartley gave to a small island he discovered in the arctic archipelago of Svalbard , a Norwegian territory , in 2004 . It is officially named Nyskjæret by the Name Committee for Norwegian Polar Regions ( skjer = skerry ) . It is a small island in the Barents Sea , 500 miles off the coast of Norway . It emerged from the now melted portion of a retreating glacier and is around the size of a football field . As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad , Hartley toured a scaled version of Nyskjæret round the South West coast of England as nowhereisland . According to its website , it provided a platform to engage with issues raised by the project , exploring a sense of place through an epic , nomadic sculpture and how we can respond to the issue of global warming . The island was discovered during a Cape Farewell expedition of scientists and artists , collaborating on a cultural response to global warming and the retreating Arctic ice pack . A large wall exhibit made from framed rock samples , letters , maps , photographs , and other documentation materials forms part of Cape Farewell - Art and Climate Change , and appeared in the National Conservation Centre in Liverpool as part of the 2006 biennial .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Nymark", "rank": 60, "score": 127729 }, { "content": "Title: Ottar Brox Content: Ottar Brox ( born 30 August 1932 in Torsken ) is a Norwegian authority in social science and a politician for the Socialist Left Party . He was professor of sociology at the University of Tromsø from 1972 to 1984 , and later associate professor while working as head of research at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research . Brox graduated as an agronomist from Norwegian College of Agriculture in 1957 , took history and sociology at the University of Oslo in 1959 and 1960 and a dr. scient . degree from NLH in 1970 . Brox was a member of parliament for Troms in the period 1973 -- 1977 . He was not re-elected in 1977 . On the local level he has been a member of Bergen city council 1971 -- 1972 and Oslo city council 1991 -- 1995 . Brox has written a wide range of popularized science literature and participated actively in the public debate . Brox ' most influential book is Hva skjer i Nord-Norge ? ( What is happening in Northern Norway ? ) , published in 1966 . This book became a source of inspiration to Northern Norwegian regionalism and caused an upgrading of the economic impact of small vessels in fisheries . The theme of this book was carried on in Nord-Norge : Fra allmenning til koloni . His 1964 article `` Avvisning av storsamfunnet som økonomisk tilpasningsform '' ( Rejection of Mainstream Society as a Form of Economic Adjustment ) was selected for the Norwegian Sociology Canon in 2009 -- 2011 . He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters . In 2002 he received the Fritt Ord Honorary Award . He holds an honorary doctorate at the Memorial University of Newfoundland since 1994 , the University of Aberdeen since 2001 and the University of Tromsø since 2003 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Ottar_Brox", "rank": 61, "score": 127565 }, { "content": "Title: Gjerdåker Station Content: Gjerdåker Station ( Gjerdåker stasjon ) is a railway station on the Bergensbanen railway line . It is located at Gjerdåker on the eastern edge of the village of Vossevangen in Voss municipality , Hordaland county , Norway . The station is served by the Bergen Commuter Rail , operated by Norges Statsbaner , with up to five daily departures in each direction . The station was opened in 1941 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Gjerdåker_Station", "rank": 62, "score": 127482 }, { "content": "Title: Haukelandshallen Content: Haukelandshallen is an indoor sport arena in Årstad borough , Bergen , Norway . It holds 5,000 people . The arena hosts mainly team handball matches , is the home arena for Tertnes IL and hosted the 2008 European Men 's Handball Championship . The basketball team Ulriken Eagles also plays there . Category : Sports venues in Bergen Category : Handball venues in Norway Category : Indoor arenas in Norway Category :1970 establishments in Norway", "qid": "267", "docid": "Haukelandshallen", "rank": 63, "score": 127250 }, { "content": "Title: Strandgaten, Bergen Content: Strandgaten is a street in the city centre of Bergen , Norway , west of the bay of Vågen . It starts at Torgallmenningen and follows the eastern shore of the Nordnes peninsula to Tidemands gate , where it becomes Nordnesgaten . The easternmost quarter of Strandgaten is a regular two-way street , while it is an eastbound one-way street between Tollbodallmenningen and Holbergsallmenningen , and between Østre Murallmenningen and Torgallmenningen . Between Holbergsallmenningen and Østre Murallmenningen the street is pedestrianised . In total , Strandgaten is approximately 1.2 km long .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Strandgaten,_Bergen", "rank": 64, "score": 127216 }, { "content": "Title: Ola Raknes Content: Ola Raknes ( 17 January 1887 -- 28 January 1975 ) was a Norwegian psychologist , philologist and non-fiction writer . Born in Bergen , Norway , he was internationally known as a psychoanalyst in the Reichian tradition . He has been described as someone who spent his entire life working with the conveying of ideas through many languages and between different epistemological systems of reference , science and religion ( Dannevig , 1975 ) . For large portions of his life he was actively contributing to the public discourse in Norway . He has also been credited for his contributions to strengthening and enriching the Nynorsk language and its use in the public sphere . Raknes was known as a thorough philologist and a controversial therapist . Internationally he was known as one of Wilhelm Reich 's closest students and defenders .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Ola_Raknes", "rank": 65, "score": 127055 }, { "content": "Title: Olaf Aarvold Content: Olaf Aarvold ( 3 February 1899 , Gjerpen - 3 August 1991 ) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party . He graduated from upper secondary school in 1922 , and worked as a teacher in Larvik from 1923 to 1925 . In 1929 he graduated with the cand.theol . degree from the MF Norwegian School of Theology . He worked as a priest in Durban 1930 , Rouen 1935 and Antwerp 1936 . In 1940 he returned to Norway as vicar in Tysnes . Having been imprisoned by the German occupants from 1943 to 1945 , he moved on to become chaplain in Bergen in 1946 . He was appointed vicar in Eidanger in 1957 . He served as a deputy representative to the Norwegian Parliament from Bergen during the terms 1950 -- 1953 , 1954 -- 1957 , and 1958 -- 1961 . On the local level he was a member of the executive committee of Eidanger municipal council from 1960 to 1963 . In 1930 he married Gudrun , née Johansen ; the couple had three children .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Olaf_Aarvold", "rank": 66, "score": 126888 }, { "content": "Title: Naturen Content: Naturen ( The Nature ) is a Norwegian popular science magazine , which has been published since 1877 in Bergen , Norway . It is the earliest still running popular science magazine of the country .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Naturen", "rank": 67, "score": 126861 }, { "content": "Title: Kjerknesvågen Content: Kjerknesvågen is a village in the municipality of Inderøy in Nord-Trøndelag county , Norway . It is located along the Trondheimsfjord on the northwestern shore of the Inderøy peninsula , about 8 km north of the village of Utøy . The village features a general store and a harbour . Located a few kilometers to the east is Lyngstad School that serves as an elementary school . The harbour is known for its annual Båttreff , a marine fair including a regatta . The dominant industry around the village is farming .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Kjerknesvågen", "rank": 68, "score": 126505 }, { "content": "Title: Institute for Research in Economics and Business Administration Content: Institute for Research in Economics and Business Administration ( Samfunns - og næringslivsforskning ) or SNF is a research institute that is associated with the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration ( NHH ) in Bergen , Norway . The institute performs commercial research related to economics and in particular energy , evaluation studies , fisheries , health economics , agricultural economics , regional business development , strategy and management as well as telecommunications , media and network economics . SNF has between 30-40 full-time researchers as well as 20-30 assistants . In addition more than 100 researchers from NHH and the University of Bergen ( UiB ) have associated work with SNF . The institute is organized as a limited company that is owned by the foundation Stiftelsen SNF ( 80 % ) , NHH ( 16 % ) and UiB ( 4 % ) . The institute dates back to 1991 when three research institutes associated with NHH were merged . The limited company was founded in 2001 . Category : Research institutes in Norway Category : Norwegian School of Economics Category : University of Bergen Category : Foundations based in Norway Category : Companies based in Bergen Category : Research institutes established in 1991 Category :1991 establishments in Norway", "qid": "267", "docid": "Institute_for_Research_in_Economics_and_Business_Administration", "rank": 69, "score": 126439 }, { "content": "Title: Bergen Aquarium Content: Bergen Aquarium ( ` Akvariet i Bergen ' ) is a public aquarium in Norway . It is situated on the Nordnes peninsula in Bergen and is one of the city 's tourist attractions . When it opened on 27 August 1960 , it was considered to be the largest and most modern aquarium in Northern Europe . The complex houses over 60 tanks of fish , marine invertebrates , as well as three outdoor ponds with seals , penguins and cyprinids and a tropical branch with reptiles and monkeys .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bergen_Aquarium", "rank": 70, "score": 126294 }, { "content": "Title: MV Rocknes (2001) Content: MV Rocknes was a 166 m-long rock discharge vessel that hit shallow water and suddenly capsized south of Bergen , Norway on 19 January 2004 , killing 18 members of its 30-person crew . At the time of its sinking , it was the world 's largest dynamically positioned flexible fall pipe rock dumping vessel . The ship was repaired during 2004 and 2005 and renamed Nordnes . Rocknes was owned by Kvitnes Shipping Company Ltd. of St. Johns , a part of the Hartmann group of Cadenberge , Germany . The ship was on a long-term charter to Van Oord ACZ , an international contractor specializing in dredging , rock dumping , and offshore and coastal construction .", "qid": "267", "docid": "MV_Rocknes_(2001)", "rank": 71, "score": 126201 }, { "content": "Title: Tron Frede Thingstad Content: Tron Frede Thingstad ( born 1946 ) is a Norwegian Scientist . Professor Thingstad is leading a research group on marine microbiology at the Department of Biology , University of Bergen . His work has facilitated understanding the role of microbes in marine ecosystems , including the microbial loop . In 2009 , Thingstad was awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Investigators Grant to the project `` MINOS '' ( MIcrobial Network OrganiSation ) , which is focused on microbial networks in the ocean . In 2010 , Thingstad received the `` Prize for Outstanding Research '' of the Norwegian Research Council ( informally known as the `` Møbius Prize '' ) . According to the jury , his research `` has contributed to deeper understanding of topics within marine microbiology , biodiversity , climate research , and ocean acidification '' . He is also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Tron_Frede_Thingstad", "rank": 72, "score": 125489 }, { "content": "Title: Bjerke IL Content: Bjerke Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Nannestad , Akershus . It has sections for association football , skiing and biathlon . It was founded on 15 March 1936 as Bjerke AIL , a team in Arbeidernes Idrettsforbund . It had a certain predecessor in Bjerke SK , which existed from 1896 to 1935 . The men 's football team is now a part of Nannestad FK , founded in 2009 . Bjerke IL last played in the Norwegian Second Division in 1998 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bjerke_IL", "rank": 73, "score": 125438 }, { "content": "Title: Finneidfjord Content: Finneidfjord is a small village in the municipality of Hemnes , Norway . It is located on a small isthmus , about halfway between Hemnesberget and Bjerka . European route E06 highway and the Nordland Line pass through the village . The 0.66 km2 village has a population ( 2011 ) of 392 . The population density is 594 PD/km2 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Finneidfjord", "rank": 74, "score": 125336 }, { "content": "Title: Nils Valla Content: Nils Agnar Valla ( born 1 March 1936 ) was a Norwegian agrarian leader and politician for the Centre Party . He hails from and resides in Bjerka in Hemnes . He was born in Korgen , and is a brother of Gerd-Liv Valla . He was an able track and field athlete in his youth , among others achieving 56.1 seconds in the 400 metres hurdles and 43.70 metres in the discus throw . He and his sister represented the club Mo IL . He was a farmer from 1965 until retiring in 2000 . He chaired the Norwegian Agrarian Association from 1980 to 1987 , was the director of agricultural insurance in Gjensidige from 1987 to 1995 and served as mayor of Hemnes from 1995 to 1999 . Internationally he was a board member of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Nils_Valla", "rank": 75, "score": 124751 }, { "content": "Title: Sjur Olsnes Content: Sjur Olsnes ( 23 August 1939 -- 18 July 2014 ) was a Norwegian biochemist . He was born in Bergen , but grew up in Vaksdal . He took his medicine degree at the University of Bonn , and worked at the University of Bergen from 1967 to 1968 before being hired at the Norwegian Radium Hospital . He took the dr.med . degree at the University of Oslo in 1972 and was promoted to professor in 1989 , retiring in 2009 . He was a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Russian Academy of Sciences . He was a prolific facilitator of Norwegian-Russian academic cooperation . Hans Wilhelm Steinfeld thus dubbed Olsnes a member of the `` great Norwegian historical science troika in Russia '' together with Fridtjof Nansen and Olaf Broch . In 2003 he was awarded the King Olav V 's Prize for Cancer Research of the Norwegian Cancer Society .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Sjur_Olsnes", "rank": 76, "score": 124412 }, { "content": "Title: Fløyen Content: Fløyen is one of the city mountains in Bergen , Hordaland , Norway , and one of the city 's most popular tourist attractions . Fløyfjellet is the name of the mountain top . It is 399 m above sea level . Looking over the Bergen city centre . The name could originate from fløystangen `` weather cock '' , that was set up to provide signals about the direction of the wind when ships were to set sail . The view of the Bergen peninsula makes fløyfjellet a popular attraction among tourists and city locals . It has a funicular system that transports passengers from the center of Bergen to a height of 320 meters in roughly 8 minutes and the highest point ( 425 meters ) on Fløyfjellet is approximately 1 km to the northeast . The funicular is used by tourists and citizens all year-around .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Fløyen", "rank": 77, "score": 124374 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian Institute of Marine Research Content: The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research ( Havforskningsinstituttet ) is a national consultative research institute which is owned by the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs . The Institute performs research and provides advisory services in the fields of marine ecosystems and aquaculture . With a staff of almost 750 , the Institute of Marine Research is the largest centre of marine research in Norway . The Institute has a highly qualified scientific staff , high-technology research stations and laboratories in Austevoll , Bergen ( head office ) , Flødevigen ( Arendal ) and Matre , a department in Tromsø and several vessels . The primary responsibility of the Institute of Marine Research is to provide advice to national authorities , society and industry regarding questions related to the ecosystems of the Barents Sea , the Norwegian Sea , the North Sea and the Norwegian coastal zone and in the field of aquaculture . The Institute is heavily engaged in development aid activities through its Centre for Development Cooperation in Fisheries . Norwegian Fisheries Investigations ( `` Norske Fiskeriundersøgelser '' ) was initiated in Oslo in 1864 . In 1900 the investigations was located to Bergen , and in 1947 , the institute was separated as a research institute under directorate of fisheries . To further ensure its independence , the institute became an independent institution in 1989 . Among important scientific contributions was Johan Hjort 's pivotal work on `` Fluctuations in the Great Fisheries of Northern Europe '' ( 1914 ) . Einar Lea 's use of ASDIC to find herring schools ( 1947 ) and the use of Echo Integration for estimating fish abundance ( Midtun & Hoff , 1962 ) are also notable .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Norwegian_Institute_of_Marine_Research", "rank": 78, "score": 124316 }, { "content": "Title: Bjørn Vassnes Content: Bjørn Roar Vassnes ( born 16 November 1951 ) is a Norwegian musician and writer . He started the folk rock group Erter , Kjøtt og Flesk with Jens Harald Eilertsen in Tromsø in 1972 , and was the guitar player for the band . After one LP in 1973 the band dissolved . In Bergen in 1979 he started the ska-inspired band Nøkken with Turid Pedersen . He has later made a career as a popular conveyor of natural sciences . He co-founded the science television program Schrödingers katt ( named after Schrödinger 's cat ) on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation . He has also been a science journalist and periodicalist . For this he was awarded the Fritt Ord Honorary Award in 2010 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bjørn_Vassnes", "rank": 79, "score": 124045 }, { "content": "Title: Fyllingsdalen Content: Fyllingsdalen is a borough of the city of Bergen in Hordaland county , Norway . The borough is located southwest of the city centre in the Fyllingsdalen valley , west of the mountain Løvstakken . The neighbourhoods of Fyllingsdalen mainly consist of fairly large apartment buildings with little industry or commerce . The valley 's name comes from the farm name `` Fyllingen '' ( from Old Norse : ` fylingr ' , related to Old Norse ` fæla ' - hide/hidden ) and `` dale '' ( from Old Norse : ` dalr ' - valley ) and is attested in 1437 as `` Fylingir '' . ( see also Sandnes/Stemshaug : Norsk Stadnamnleksikon , Samlaget , Oslo 1990 ) .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Fyllingsdalen", "rank": 80, "score": 123975 }, { "content": "Title: Gjert Kristoffersen Content: Gjert Kristoffersen ( born 13 August 1949 in Arendal ) is a Norwegian linguist , a phonetician and a professor at the University of Bergen . His native dialect of Norwegian is Arendalsk .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Gjert_Kristoffersen", "rank": 81, "score": 123960 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Research Centre Content: The Climate Change Research Centre ( abbreviated CCRC ) is a research initiative established in 2007 at the University of New South Wales . The foundation Directors of the CCRC were the Australian Research Council ( ARC ) Federation Fellow Professor Matthew England , who established the Climate and Environmental Dynamics Laboratory in 2005 , and Professor Andrew Pitman , the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science . The current Director is Professor Steven Sherwood ( an ARC Laureate Fellow ) . The Centre 's research falls into ten broad categories : Climate Oceanography Atmospheric Science Ecosystems Carbon Cycle Terrestrial Processes Climate Impacts Energy Policy Climate Model Evaluation Palaeoclimatology The CCRC is the University of New South Wales lead of the Australian Research Council 's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science ( 2011 -- 2018 ) .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Climate_Change_Research_Centre", "rank": 82, "score": 123785 }, { "content": "Title: Søreide Church Content: Søreide Church ( Søreide kirke ) is a parish church in Bergen municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . It is located in the Søreidegrenda neighborhood in the city of Bergen . The church is part of the Søreide parish in the Fana deanery in the Diocese of Bjørgvin . The wooden church was built in 1973 by the architect Helge Hjertholm . The church seats about 300 people , although by moving some folding walls , it can expand to fit an additional 350 people .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Søreide_Church", "rank": 83, "score": 123744 }, { "content": "Title: Nansen Institute Content: Not to be confused with Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen . The Fridtjof Nansen Institute is named after the Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen ( 1861 -- 1930 ) . It is housed in Polhøgda , Nansen 's mansion from 1901 to 1930 . The institute is an independent research foundation with a multi-disciplinary approach , engaged in research on international environmental , energy , resource management politics and law of the sea . The main disciplines are political science and international law . The research centers around six focal points : Marine affairs and law of the sea Global governance and sustainable development Biodiversity and biosafety Polar and Russian politics European energy and environmental politics Chinese energy and environmental politics The Fridtjof Nansen Institute groups as one of Norway 's foreign politics research institutes . The Fridtjof Nansen Institute is internationally recognized for its long-standing research in the field of the law of the sea and on 21 -- 23 August 2008 , the Institute hosted its last international law of the sea conference , ` The World Ocean in Globalisation : Challenges for Marine Regions ' .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Nansen_Institute", "rank": 84, "score": 123401 }, { "content": "Title: Gjerde Church Content: Gjerde Church ( Gjerde kyrkje ) is a parish church in Etne municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . It is located in the village of Etnesjøen , just south of the village centre . The church is part of the Etne parish in the Sunnhordland deanery in the Diocese of Bjørgvin .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Gjerde_Church", "rank": 85, "score": 123318 }, { "content": "Title: Tertnes IL Content: Tertnes Idrettslag is a Norwegian multi-sports club from Bergen , founded on 25 January 1953 . Active in athletics , football , gymnastics , handball and mountaineering , it is best known for its women 's handball team .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Tertnes_IL", "rank": 86, "score": 123318 }, { "content": "Title: Stefan Gössling Content: Stefan Gössling , born 1970 , has professorships in Sweden at the Linnaeus University School of Business and Economics and Lund University 's Department of Service Management , as well as being research coordinator at the Western Norway Research Institute 's Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism . He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism . He has published , co-authored or presented a number of academic works , and co-edited the book Climate Change and Aviation : Issues , Challenges and Solutions ( 2009 ) . With three co-authors he wrote the chapter on hypermobility in the book . He also wrote the book `` Carbon Management in Tourism : Mitigating the Impacts on Climate Change '' and co-authored a chapter to a Finnish government report on development in a carbon-constrained world .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Stefan_Gössling", "rank": 87, "score": 123301 }, { "content": "Title: Nykirken Content: Nykirken ( literally : `` The new church '' ) is a parish church in Bergen municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . It is located in the Nordnes area of the city of Bergen . The church is part of the `` Bergen domkirke '' parish in the Bergen arch-deanery in the Diocese of Bjørgvin . The large , white , stone , cruciform church is located at the `` Nykirkeallmenningen '' square between the Strandgaten road and Vågen bay . Although it is generally known as the Nykirken , it was consecrated in 1622 by Bishop Nils Paaske as `` Holy Trinity Church '' . When the church was originally built in 1622 , there were several other churches in Bergen that were already several hundred years old , so this church was nicknamed `` the new church '' , a name which has stuck for centuries . It is also ( probably ) an appropriate nickname , since the churches on this site have burned down several times and then been rebuilt , so it literally is usually the `` newest '' church in the central city . The current building dates back to 1764 when it was completely rebuilt and redesigned after a major fire . It has been significantly rebuilt several times since then , too , following various fires . The church was a parish church for the Nykirken parish in central Bergen from 1622 until 2002 . In 2002 , several urban parishes in central Bergen were merged to form the `` Bergen domkirke '' parish . The Nykirken is still in regular use , but it has been given a special emphasis as a `` children 's church '' , putting a special emphasis on children and their families . Since 2002 , the parish has started calling the church the `` Children 's Cathedral '' .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Nykirken", "rank": 88, "score": 123271 }, { "content": "Title: Bergenstest Content: The Bergenstest , also known as Test i norsk - høyere nivå , is a test for proficiency in the Norwegian language , with variants available for both bokmål and nynorsk . The test is nationally approved and is a pre-requisite for non-native speakers who wish to study at a tertiary education institute ( college or universities ) in Norway . Citizens who have Swedish or Danish as their native language are not required to undertake this test as proof of Norwegian language competence . It is a pass/fail test with written and oral sections which are intended to be passed by someone with an advanced grasp of the language , equivalent to a B2/C1 reference level under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.The test can be taken several times a year at various educational institutes around the country , and also twice a year abroad in April and October . Those who pass the test can be entitled to study at a Norwegian university in a degree taught in Norwegian language . It is furthermore the highest language test available for the concerned language .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bergenstest", "rank": 89, "score": 123072 }, { "content": "Title: Bartnes Church Content: Bartnes Church ( Bartnes kirke ) is a parish church in the municipality of Steinkjer in Nord-Trøndelag county , Norway . It is located in the village of Bartnes . The church is part of the Beitstad parish in the Nord-Innherad deanery in the Diocese of Nidaros . The brick church was constructed in 1960 and seats about 100 people . The church was consecrated on 31 July 1960 by the bishop Arne Fjellbu .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bartnes_Church", "rank": 90, "score": 122863 }, { "content": "Title: Ted Hanisch Content: Theodor `` Ted '' Hanisch ( born 20 April 1947 ) is a Norwegian sociologist , civil servant and politician for the Labour Party . He was born in Tønsberg . He graduated with the mag.art . degree ( PhD equivalent ) in sociology , and was a director at the Norwegian Institute for Social Research from 1978 . In 1986 , when the second cabinet Brundtland assumed office , he resigned to become a State Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister . He lost this job in 1989 , when the second cabinet Brundtland fell . Hanisch was then hired as director general of the newly established CICERO , Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo . In April 1993 he assumed a new position , as vice director of Aetat . The director Bjartmar Gjerde was soon to retire , and in September 1994 Hanisch was promoted to director , assuming the position in 1995 . He was pressured to leave in 2000 following bookkeeping irregularities . Hanisch has also been the chairman of the board of Enova .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Ted_Hanisch", "rank": 91, "score": 122760 }, { "content": "Title: Arne Foldvik Content: Arne Foldvik ( born 6 April 1930 ) is a Norwegian oceanographer . He was born in Tromsø as a son of as a son of meteorologist Nils M. Foldvik and Helene Andresen . In 1956 he married teacher Ninja Schibbye Danifer , a daughter of painter Sigurd Danifer . He finished his secondary education in 1948 and took the cand.real . at the University of Oslo in 1957 . After a period as research fellow from 1955 to 1960 , at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters 's Institute for Weather and Climate Research led by Einar Høiland , he was hired as a lecturer at the University of Bergen in 1960 . He took the dr.philos . degree here in 1968 , was promoted to docent in 1976 and professor in 1985 . He also helped build the University Centre in Svalbard . He is a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 1992 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Arne_Foldvik", "rank": 92, "score": 122672 }, { "content": "Title: Ågotnes Content: Ågotnes is a village in Fjell municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . The industrial village is located on northern part of the island of Store Sotra , about 20 km west of the city of Bergen . The village of Landro ( and Landro Church ) lies about 3 km to the northwest . Ågotnes serves as a commercial centre for the northern part of Sotra . It is the site of a primary school , sports facilities , fire station , and health clinic . It is also a main supply base for the oil industry . The 3.43 km2 village has a population ( 2016 ) of 3,821 which gives the village a population density of 1114 PD/km2 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Ågotnes", "rank": 93, "score": 122575 }, { "content": "Title: Puddefjorden Content: Puddefjorden , often anglicized as Pudde Fjord , is an inlet or fjord in the central part of the city of Bergen in Hordaland county , Norway . An arm off of the main Byfjorden , the Puddefjorden is 3.5 km long and stretches from the tip of the Nordnes peninsula to the Solheimsviken bay at the entrance to the Store Lungegårdsvannet bay . The fjord is 1.2 km at its widest , between Nordnes and the inner part of the borough of Laksevåg . The innermost part of the fjord , known as Damsgårdssundet , is far more narrow , scarcely 100 m wide at the narrowest . The fjord is located next to some of Bergen 's most important industrial areas , and has played a significant part in the city 's development and industrialisation .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Puddefjorden", "rank": 94, "score": 122296 }, { "content": "Title: Bergen Byleksikon Content: Bergen Byleksikon is an encyclopedia which covers the city of Bergen in Norway . It was first published in 1994 and is authored by Gunnar Hagen Hartvedt .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bergen_Byleksikon", "rank": 95, "score": 122104 }, { "content": "Title: Fyllingsdalen Church Content: Fyllingsdalen Church ( Fyllingsdalen kirke ) is a parish church in Bergen municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . It is located in the Fyllingsdalen borough of the city of Bergen . The church is part of the Fyllingsdalen parish in the Fana deanery in the Diocese of Bjørgvin . The white , concrete church was built in 1976 by the architect Helge Hjertholm . The modern-looking church has a unique curved roofline . The sanctuary seats about 350 people , but it expandable up to about 600 . The church was consecrated on 3 December 1976 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Fyllingsdalen_Church", "rank": 96, "score": 122071 }, { "content": "Title: Masfjordnes Content: Masfjordnes is the administrative centre of Masfjorden municipality in Hordaland county , Norway . The village lies along the southern shore of the Masfjorden , along Norwegian County Road 570 . The village is very narrow , occupying the 200 m wide strip of shoreline between the fjord and the mountains . The small village is often called Sandnes by the locals since Sandnes Church is located here . There is a 800 m long cable ferry from Masfjordnes to Duesund across the fjord . Masfjordnes is about 50 km north of the city of Bergen . There was a factory that dyed cloth and yarn on the west side of Masfjordnes from 1889 until 1954 .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Masfjordnes", "rank": 97, "score": 121823 }, { "content": "Title: Jørgen Blydt Content: Jørgen Blydt ( 14 March 1868 -- 28 April 1938 ) was a Norwegian businessperson and politician for the Liberal Party . He ran for parliamentary election in all four of Bergen county 's constituencies at the time -- Kalfaret , Nordnes , Sandviken and Nygaard -- and served two terms as an MP ( 1900 -- 1903 and 1916 -- 1918 ) . He ran a company with his brother-in-law , was a stock exchange commissary , and from 1932 to 1938 he was the Chancellor of the Order Council .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Jørgen_Blydt", "rank": 98, "score": 121788 }, { "content": "Title: Bjørn G. Andersen Content: Bjørn Grothaug Andersen ( 23 March 1924 , in Stavanger , Norway -- 12 January 2012 , in Asker , Norway ) was a Norwegian professor of Quaternary geology and glaciology who made foundational contributions to glacial geology and the understanding of climate change .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Bjørn_G._Andersen", "rank": 99, "score": 121648 }, { "content": "Title: Henrich Herman Foss Content: Henrich Herman Mejer Foss ( 17 September 1790 -- 21 September 1853 ) was a Norwegian officer and politician . He was born in Bergen . He participated in the Gunboat War as artillery officer . He eventually rose to Lieutenant Colonel in the Norwegian Army , a rank he acquired in 1843 . As a politician Foss was elected to the Norwegian Parliament in 1827 from the constituency Bergen , in 1830 from Moss , and from Christiania in 1833 , 1836 , 1839 , 1842 and 1845 . He was mayor of Christiania in 1838 , 1840 and 1841 . Foss authored several publications , including Bergens Beskrivelse in 1824 ( with Lyder Sagen ) , publications on politics as well as songs . Some of the songs were intended to celebrate the Norwegian Constitution Day , of which Foss was a proponent . He also proposed a Norwegian civil ensign during the personal union with Sweden . Streets have been named after him in Bergen , Oslo and Kongsberg .", "qid": "267", "docid": "Henrich_Herman_Foss", "rank": 100, "score": 121567 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "268", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 1, "score": 158763 }, { "content": "Title: Climate engineering Content: Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation . Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility . Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy . Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts . Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_engineering", "rank": 2, "score": 157319 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "268", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 3, "score": 157008 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 4, "score": 156480 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 5, "score": 154936 }, { "content": "Title: North American Carbon Program Content: The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "qid": "268", "docid": "North_American_Carbon_Program", "rank": 6, "score": 150363 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 7, "score": 147966 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 8, "score": 147849 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 9, "score": 147839 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 10, "score": 147792 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 11, "score": 145362 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 12, "score": 143882 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 13, "score": 141118 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 14, "score": 141063 }, { "content": "Title: Solar radiation management Content: Solar radiation management ( SRM ) projects are a type of climate engineering which seek to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming . Proposed examples include the creation of stratospheric sulfate aerosols . Their principal advantages as an approach to climate engineering is the speed with which they can be deployed and become fully active , their potential low financial cost , and the reversibility of their direct climatic effects . Solar radiation management projects could , for example , be used as a temporary response while levels of greenhouse gases can be brought under control by mitigation and greenhouse gas removal techniques . They would not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere , and thus do not address problems such as ocean acidification caused by excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Solar_radiation_management", "rank": 15, "score": 140946 }, { "content": "Title: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Content: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age . `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Victor_Manuel_Velasco_Herrera", "rank": 16, "score": 139828 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 17, "score": 139659 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 18, "score": 138521 }, { "content": "Title: Regional climate change initiatives in the United States Content: Twenty-eight states have climate action plans and nine have statewide emission targets . The states of California and New Mexico have committed most recently to emission reductions targets , joining New Jersey , Maine , Massachusetts , Connecticut , New York , Washington and Oregon . Regional initiatives can be more efficient than programs at the state level , as they encompass a broader geographical area , eliminate duplication of work , and create more uniform regulatory environments . Over the past few years , a number of regional initiatives have begun developing systems to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants , increase renewable energy generation , track renewable energy credits , and research and establish baselines for carbon sequestration .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Regional_climate_change_initiatives_in_the_United_States", "rank": 19, "score": 137061 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "268", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 20, "score": 136422 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 21, "score": 135767 }, { "content": "Title: Friends of Science Content: Friends of Science ( FoS ) is a Canadian non-profit advocacy organization based in Calgary , Alberta . The organization takes a position that humans are largely not responsible for the currently observed global warming , contrary to the established scientific position on the subject . Rather , they propose that `` the Sun is the main direct and indirect driver of climate change , '' not human activity . They argued against the Kyoto Protocol . The society was founded in 2002 and launched its website in October of that year . They are considered by many to promote climate change denial . They are largely funded by the fossil fuel industry . Madhav Khandekar , Chris de Freitas , Tim Patterson and Sallie Baliunas act as advisers to the Friends of Science with their work cited in Friends ' publications . Douglas Leahey has been president since December , 2009 .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Friends_of_Science", "rank": 22, "score": 135533 }, { "content": "Title: Idealized greenhouse model Content: The surface of the Sun radiates light and heat at approximately 5,500 ° C . The Earth is much cooler and so radiates heat back away from itself at much longer wavelengths , mostly in the infrared range . The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth 's atmosphere , including carbon dioxide and water vapour , are transparent to the high-frequency , high-energy solar radiation , but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving the surface of the earth . Thus heat is easily let in , but is partially trapped by these gases as it tries to leave . Rather than get hotter and hotter , Kirchhoff 's law of thermal radiation says that the gases of the atmosphere also have to re-emit the infrared energy that they absorb , and they do so , also at long infrared wavelengths , both upwards into space as well as downwards back towards the Earth 's surface . In the long-term , thermal equilibrium is reached when all the heat energy arriving on the planet is leaving again at the same rate . In this idealized model , the greenhouse gases cause the surface of the planet to be warmer than it would be without them , in order for the required amount of heat energy finally to be radiated out into space from the top of the atmosphere . The greenhouse effect can be illustrated with an idealized planet . This is a common `` textbook model '' : the planet will have a constant surface temperature Ts and an atmosphere with constant temperature Ta . For diagrammatic clarity , a gap can be depicted between the atmosphere and the surface . Alternatively , Ts could be interpreted as a temperature representative of the surface and the lower atmosphere , and Ta could be interpreted as the temperature of the upper atmosphere . In order to justify that Ta and Ts remain constant over the planet , strong ocean and atmospheric currents can be imagined to provide plentiful lateral mixing . Furthermore , any daily or seasonal cycles in temperature are assumed to be insignificant .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Idealized_greenhouse_model", "rank": 23, "score": 134367 }, { "content": "Title: Kenneth Hare Content: Fredrick Kenneth Hare , ( February 5 , 1919 -- September 3 , 2002 ) was a Canadian climatologist and academic , who researched atmospheric carbon dioxide , climate change , drought , and arid zone climates and was a strong advocate for preserving the natural environment .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Kenneth_Hare", "rank": 24, "score": 133835 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Saskatchewan Content: The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Saskatchewan", "rank": 25, "score": 133551 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emissions reporting Content: Human activities continue to impact Earth 's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases . One of the proposed ways to combat this climate change is through reporting by businesses on the impact of their activities . Large power stations and manufacturing plants are often required to report their emissions to appropriate government entities , for example to the European Union as part of the Emissions Trading System or to the US EPA as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program . In the United Kingdom , Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) has described climate change as the `` greatest environmental challenge facing the world today , '' and it is now a legal requirement for all quoted companies to report their annual greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_emissions_reporting", "rank": 26, "score": 133390 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 27, "score": 132366 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Thejll Content: Peter Andreas Thejll ( born 1956 ) is a Danish astrophysicist and climate researcher . His research in solar variation helped provide evidence of the greenhouse effect on the Earth 's climate in the late 20th century . In particular , his study with Knud Lassen on Northern Hemisphere land air temperature showed that the rise of 0.4 degrees Celsius since 1980 could not be accounted for by the solar cycle . Climatologists have pointed to this finding as an `` actual piece of evidence for greenhouse warming '' . Thejll received his undergraduate education at the University of Copenhagen . He received an M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Delaware . Thejll was a Carlsberg Fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and worked at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics . Thejll currently is a senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen . He is currently involved in the creation of a global automatic system to observe the Earth 's reflectivity - albedo - using observations of the earthshine on the Moon . Such data can be used for climate change studies and calibration of satellite data as the measurements deliver independent data on the albedo . A telescope is now installed on Hawaii at the Mauna Loa Observatory . The Swedish research agency VINNOVA is funding this project .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Peter_Thejll", "rank": 28, "score": 132124 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 29, "score": 131813 }, { "content": "Title: Ian Clark (geologist) Content: Ian D. Clark is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa ( Canada ) , who has been publishing research on geoscience , groundwater and geochemistry since 1982 . His graduate work in isotope hydrogeology was at the University of Waterloo and the University of Paris . Clark is among the scientists who reject the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change ; in the 2007 UK television documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle , he states that changes in global temperature correlate with solar activity , saying `` Solar activity of the last hundred years , over the last several hundred years correlates very nicely on a decadal basis , with sea ice and Arctic temperatures . ''", "qid": "268", "docid": "Ian_Clark_(geologist)", "rank": 30, "score": 131397 }, { "content": "Title: Solar activity and climate Content: Solar irradiance variation has been a main driver of climate change over geologic time , but its role in the recent warming has been found to be insignificant .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Solar_activity_and_climate", "rank": 31, "score": 131369 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 32, "score": 131185 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "268", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 33, "score": 130220 }, { "content": "Title: Individual action on climate change Content: Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Individual_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 34, "score": 130149 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and potatoes Content: Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_and_potatoes", "rank": 35, "score": 130033 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 36, "score": 129997 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment Content: The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment ( SORCE ) is a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that measures incoming X-ray , ultraviolet , visible , near-infrared , and total solar radiation . These measurements specifically address long-term climate change , natural variability and enhanced climate prediction , and atmospheric ozone and UV-B radiation . These measurements are critical to studies of the Sun , its effect on our Earth system and its influence on humankind . The SORCE spacecraft launched on January 25 , 2003 on a Pegasus XL launch vehicle to provide NASA 's Earth Science Enterprise ( ESE ) with precise measurements of solar radiation . SORCE measures the Sun 's output using radiometers , spectrometers , photodiodes , detectors , and bolometers mounted on a satellite observatory . The SORCE satellite orbits the Earth accumulating solar data . Spectral measurements identify the irradiance of the Sun by characterizing the Sun 's energy and emissions in the form of color that can then be translated into quantities and elements of matter . Data obtained by the SORCE experiment can be used to model the Sun 's output and to explain and predict the effect of the Sun 's radiation on the Earth 's atmosphere and climate . Flying in a 645 km , 40 degree orbit , SORCE is operated by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics ( LASP ) at the University of Colorado at Boulder , Colorado . It will continue the precise measurements of total solar irradiance that began with the ERB instrument in 1979 and has continued to the present with the ACRIM series of measurements . SORCE will also provide the measurements of the solar spectral irradiance from 1 nm to 2000 nm , accounting for 95 % of the spectral contribution to the total solar irradiance . SORCE carries four instruments including the Total Irradiance Monitor ( TIM ) , Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment ( SOLSTICE ) , Spectral Irradiance Monitor ( SIM ) , and the XUV Photometer System ( XPS ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Solar_Radiation_and_Climate_Experiment", "rank": 37, "score": 129723 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 38, "score": 129466 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "268", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 39, "score": 128907 }, { "content": "Title: Citizens' Climate Lobby Content: Citizens ' Climate Lobby ( CCL ) is an international grassroots environmental group that trains and supports volunteers to build relationships with their elected representatives in order to influence climate policy . Operating since 2007 , the goal of CCL is to build political support across party lines to put a price on carbon , specifically a revenue neutral carbon fee and dividend ( CF&D ) at the national level . CCL is supported by notable climate scientists James Hansen , Katharine Hayhoe , and Daniel Kammen . CCL 's advisory board also includes former Secretary of State George Shultz , former US Representative Bob Inglis , actor Don Cheadle , and RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris . Founded in the United States , CCL has active groups in Australia , Bangladesh , Brazil , Burundi , Cameroon , Canada , Chile , France , Germany , Iceland , India , Italy , Kenya , Nepal , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Nigeria , Panama , Poland , Portugal , Qatar , Romania , Serbia , Scotland , Sweden , Switzerland , the Ukraine , and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Citizens'_Climate_Lobby", "rank": 40, "score": 128850 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 41, "score": 128814 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of Sun angle on climate Content: The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate , as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location , time of day , and season due to the Earth 's orbit around the Sun and the Earth 's rotation around its tilted axis . Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight , caused by the tilt of the Earth 's axis , is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter . Change in day length is another factor . ( See also season . )", "qid": "268", "docid": "Effect_of_Sun_angle_on_climate", "rank": 42, "score": 127776 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 43, "score": 127217 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 44, "score": 126953 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 45, "score": 126944 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 46, "score": 126933 }, { "content": "Title: Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases Content: The Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases , created in 1985 , was an advisory body for the review of studies into the greenhouse effect . The group was created by the International Council of Scientific Unions , the United Nations Environment Programme , and the World Meteorological Organization to follow up on the recommendations of the International conference of the Assessment of the role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts , held at Villach , Austria , in October 1985 . The seven-member panel included Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin and Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare . The group held its last meeting in 1990 . It was gradually replaced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Advisory_Group_on_Greenhouse_Gases", "rank": 47, "score": 126794 }, { "content": "Title: Evangelical Climate Initiative Content: The Evangelical Climate Initiative ( ECI ) is a campaign by US-American church leaders and organizations to promote market based mechanisms to mitigate global warming . ECI 's first statement , calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions , was initially signed by 86 evangelical leaders . Signatories included Rick Warren , the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges , and the leader of the Salvation Army . The number of signatories had risen to over 100 by December 2007 , and as of July 2011 over 220 evangelical leaders had signed the call to action . David P. Gushee , a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University , helped draft the document . When the Evangelical Climate Initiative launched in February 2006 , the National Association of Evangelicals ( NAE ) was not ready to make such a commitment . Not quite a year later , the NAE worked with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to bring scientists and evangelical Christian leaders together to mitigate climate change . As ABC News reported :", "qid": "268", "docid": "Evangelical_Climate_Initiative", "rank": 48, "score": 126246 }, { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 49, "score": 125886 }, { "content": "Title: Presidential Climate Action Plan Content: President Barack Obama 's Climate Action Plan proposed a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions . It included preserving forests , encouraging the use of alternate fuels , and increased study of climate change . The plan was first established in 2008 and updated every two years since . The plan would support conservation of land and water resources and developing actionable climate science , and to encourage other countries to take action to address climate change , including reducing deforestation and lowering subsidies that increase use of fossil fuels . The plan specifically mentions methane , building efficiency , wind , solar and hydroelectricity . White House staff members who were directly tasked with implementation of the plan include Heather Zichal and Michelle Patron . On the first day of the presidency of Donald Trump , the White House website announced that The Climate Action Plan would be eliminated , stating it is ` harmful and unnecessary ' .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Presidential_Climate_Action_Plan", "rank": 50, "score": 125750 }, { "content": "Title: Solar gain Content: Solar gain ( also known as solar heat gain or passive solar gain ) refers to the increase in temperature ( heat gain ) in a space , object or structure that results from solar radiation . The amount of solar gain increases with the strength of the sunlight , and with the ability of any intervening material to transmit or resist the radiation . Objects struck by sunlight absorb the short-wave radiation from the light and reradiate the heat at longer infrared wavelengths . Certain materials and substances , such as glass , are more transparent to the shorter wavelengths than the longer ; when the sun shines through such materials , the net result is an increase in temperature -- solar gain . This effect , the greenhouse effect , so called due to the solar gain that is experienced behind the glass of a greenhouse , has since become well known in the context of global warming .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Solar_gain", "rank": 51, "score": 124904 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 52, "score": 124230 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Mexico Content: Mexico highly depends on the burning of its fossil fuels , and for the same reason , it is in its interest to look into mitigation solutions for its corresponding emissions . In the General Law on Climate Change on 2012 , Mexico promised to reduce 20 % of its GHG emissions by 2020 and 50 % by 2050 , as well as in the Paris Agreement . 19 % of the this new mitigation plan will be dedicated to carbon capture and storage and specifically 10 % to the energetic industry .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Mexico", "rank": 53, "score": 123566 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of global warming in Australia Content: Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming . This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming , which involves taking action to minimise the effects of global warming . Scientific consensus on global warming , together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions , is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming . Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions . However , CCS can not deliver in time to avoid dangerous increases in temperatures , as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030 . Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets , more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power , photovoltaics , and solar thermal technologies . The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases . A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions . It requires large businesses ( defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually ) to pay a price for emissions permits . The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticised and highly publicised move .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Mitigation_of_global_warming_in_Australia", "rank": 54, "score": 122602 }, { "content": "Title: Solar maximum Content: -RSB- Solar maximum or solar max is a normal period of greatest solar activity in the 11 year solar cycle of the Sun . During solar maximum , large numbers of sunspots appear and the sun 's irradiance output grows by about 0.07 % . The increased energy output of solar maxima can impact Earth 's global climate and recent studies have shown some correlation with regional weather patterns . At solar maximum , the Sun 's magnetic field lines are the most distorted due to the magnetic field on the solar equator rotating at a slightly faster pace than at the solar poles . The solar cycle takes an average of about 11 years to go from one solar maximum to the next , with duration observed varying from 9 to 14 years . Large solar flares often occur during a maximum . For example , the solar storm of 1859 struck the Earth with such intensity that the northern lights were visible as far from the poles as Cuba and Hawaii .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Solar_maximum", "rank": 55, "score": 122379 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 56, "score": 122166 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and agriculture Content: -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_and_agriculture", "rank": 57, "score": 121732 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 58, "score": 121719 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 59, "score": 121505 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 60, "score": 121351 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 61, "score": 120979 }, { "content": "Title: Kaya identity Content: The Kaya identity is an identity stating that the total emission level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be expressed as the product of four factors : human population , GDP per capita , energy intensity ( per unit of GDP ) , and carbon intensity ( emissions per unit of energy consumed ) . It is a concrete form of the more general I = PAT equation relating factors that determine the level of human impact on climate . The Kaya identity is both simple and tricky , as it can be reduced to only two terms , but it is developed so that the carbon emission calculation becomes easy , as per the available data , or generally in which format the data is available .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Kaya_identity", "rank": 62, "score": 120921 }, { "content": "Title: Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility Content: The Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility ( ZOTTO ) is a climatic research station in the Siberian taiga in the proximity of Zotino , Russia , established and operated by the Max Planck Society and the Sukachev Institute of Forest , it serves as a long-term observing platform to be operated for at least 30 years . Far from human influences , researchers aim to determine how the concentration of greenhouse gases , aerosols , and the rising temperatures of the terrestrial atmosphere affect each other mutually . The heart of the station is a 302 m tower on which precision instruments measure the concentration of carbon dioxide , methane and other greenhouse gases . The measurement data are processed directly in the station at the foot of the tower and then transferred to the Institute of Forest , in Krasnoyarsk , Russia , as well as to the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena , Germany . The station has been operational since September 2006 . It extended the project Terrestrial Carbon Observing System and was funded by the 5th framework programme of the European Union , uniting 8 European and 4 Russian partners . A main conclusion of the project is that Siberian forests constitute a substantially smaller carbon-sink than so far assumed .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Zotino_Tall_Tower_Observation_Facility", "rank": 63, "score": 120611 }, { "content": "Title: Marine cloud brightening Content: Marine cloud brightening is a proposed solar radiation management climate engineering technique that would make clouds brighter , reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight back into space in order to offset anthropogenic global warming . Along with stratospheric aerosol injection , it is one of the two solar radiation management methods that may most feasibly have a substantial climate impact . The intention is that increasing the Earth 's albedo , in combination with greenhouse gas emissions reduction , carbon dioxide removal , and adaptation , would reduce climate change and its risks to people and the environment . If implemented , the cooling effect is expected to be felt rapidly and to be reversible on fairly short time scales . However , technical barriers remain to large-scale marine cloud brightening . There are also risks with such modification of complex climate systems .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Marine_cloud_brightening", "rank": 64, "score": 120510 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 65, "score": 120063 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 66, "score": 119727 }, { "content": "Title: Stratospheric aerosol injection (climate engineering) Content: The ability of stratospheric sulfate aerosols to create a global dimming effect has made them a possible candidate for use in solar radiation management climate engineering projects to limit the effect and impact of climate change due to rising levels of greenhouse gases . Delivery of precursor sulfide gases such as sulfuric acid , hydrogen sulfide or sulfur dioxide by artillery , aircraft and balloons has been proposed . It presently appears that this proposed method could counter most climatic changes , take effect rapidly , have very low direct implementation costs , and be reversible in its direct climatic effects . One study calculated the impact of injecting sulfate particles , or aerosols , every one to four years into the stratosphere in amounts equal to those lofted by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 , but did not address the many technical and political challenges involved in potential solar radiation management efforts . If found to be economically , environmentally and technologically viable , such injections could provide a `` grace period '' of up to 20 years before major cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions would be required , the study concludes . It has been suggested that the direct delivery of precursors could be achieved using sulfide gases such as dimethyl sulfide , sulfur dioxide , carbonyl sulfide , or hydrogen sulfide . These compounds would be delivered using artillery , aircraft ( such as the high-flying F-15C ) or balloons , and result in the formation of compounds with the sulfate anion SO42 − . According to estimates , `` one kilogram of well placed sulfur in the stratosphere would roughly offset the warming effect of several hundred thousand kilograms of carbon dioxide . ''", "qid": "268", "docid": "Stratospheric_aerosol_injection_(climate_engineering)", "rank": 67, "score": 119551 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 68, "score": 119357 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita from 1990 through 2011 . All data was calculated by the US Department of Energy 's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) , mostly based on data collected from country agencies by the United Nations Statistics Division . Countries are ranked by their metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2009 . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use such as deforestation . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The carbon dioxide emissions of a country are only an indicator of one greenhouse gas . For a more complete idea of how a country influences climate change , gases such as methane and nitrous oxide should be taken into account . This is particularly so in agricultural economies . Carbon dioxide emissions are also known for earlier periods . A study of a global sample of twelve countries provide estimates for emissions since 1800 and explores the long-run drivers of carbon dioxide emissions by decomposing changes in carbon emissions into population , income , technological and energy mix changes .", "qid": "268", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 69, "score": 119215 }, { "content": "Title: Fugitive emissions Content: Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Fugitive_emissions", "rank": 70, "score": 119088 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 71, "score": 118999 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "268", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 72, "score": 118810 }, { "content": "Title: Environment of Canada Content: The environment is the subject of ministries AT the federal and provincial level in Canada , with the current highest environmental government official being the national Minister of the Environment Catherine McKenna . Canada 's large land mass and coastline make it very susceptible to any climate changes , so any contemporary changes of climate in the country are of national concern . Of the factors caused by human intervention that can affect this environment , activities that sustain the economy of Canada such as oil and gas extraction , mining , forestry and fishing are influential . In 2011 United Nations said Canada 's environment was the best in the world Several governmental programs have been created to mitigate 20th and 21st century climate change , such as the One-Tonne Challenge . In late 2005 Canada hosted the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal , Quebec . Hundreds of environmental organizations have been founded in Canada .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Environment_of_Canada", "rank": 73, "score": 118539 }, { "content": "Title: Climate footprint Content: The term climate footprint has emerged from the field of carbon footprinting , and refers to a measure of the full set of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) controlled under the Kyoto Protocol . A climate footprint is a more comprehensive measure of anthropogenic impact upon the climate than a carbon footprint , but is also more costly and labour-intensive to calculate . A climate footprint is a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent ( CO2e ) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_footprint", "rank": 74, "score": 118469 }, { "content": "Title: Werner Kurz Content: Werner Kurz is a Canadian research scientist at Canada 's Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria , British Columbia . He is leading the development of an accounting system to assess potential climate change known as the National Forest Carbon Accounting System for Canada . Currently , his research focuses on using forest land to its maximum carbon efficiency , reducing the impact of natural disasters , and managing forests . Kurz holds a PhD in forest ecology from the University of British Columbia . He has made significant contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and the work of the IPCC ( including the contributions of many scientists ) was recognized by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Werner_Kurz", "rank": 75, "score": 118338 }, { "content": "Title: 10:10 Content: 10:10 is a charity that enables people to take practical action on climate change , and combines these local actions to inspire a more ambitious approach to the issue at every level of society . Founded in 2009 , 10:10 began by campaigning for a 10 % reduction in carbon emissions in 2010 , and has since broadened its approach to include a range of projects focused on carbon reduction and renewable energy . Its three main projects are Solar Schools , which helps communities crowdfund the cost of solar panels for their local schools ; #itshappening , which showcases positive examples of progress on climate change ; and Back Balcombe , which supports a solar power cooperative in the Sussex village targeted for oil drilling , and promotes community-scale renewable energy nationally .", "qid": "268", "docid": "10:10", "rank": 76, "score": 118307 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 77, "score": 118139 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 78, "score": 118061 }, { "content": "Title: Theodor Landscheidt Content: Theodor Landscheidt ( Bremen , 1927 -- May 20 , 2004 ) was a German author , astrologer and amateur climatologist . In 1989 , Landscheidt forecast a period of sunspot minima after 1990 , accompanied by increased cold , with a stronger minimum and more intense cold which should peak in 2030 His work on solar cycles has been cited by global warming skeptics to argue that observed warming is not anthropogenic and will soon be reversed , based on an assumption that fluctuations in climate are controlled by solar activity . In 1983 he founded and financed the `` Schroeter Institute for Research in Cycles of Solar Activity '' in Lilienthal , near Bremen . The Institute later moved with him to Nova Scotia , Canada .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Theodor_Landscheidt", "rank": 79, "score": 117876 }, { "content": "Title: Vatican Climate Forest Content: The Vatican Climate Forest , to be located in the Bükk National Park , Hungary , was donated to the Vatican City by a carbon offsetting company . The forest is to be sized to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Vatican during 2007 . The Vatican 's acceptance of the offer , at a ceremony on July 5 , 2007 , was reported as being `` purely symbolic '' , and a way to encourage Catholics to do more to safeguard the planet . No trees have been planted under the project and the carbon offsets have not materialised . In a more effective move to combat global warming , in May 2007 , the Vatican announced that the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall would be covered with photovoltaic panels . The installation was officially placed into service on November 26 , 2008 .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Vatican_Climate_Forest", "rank": 80, "score": 116591 }, { "content": "Title: Gilbert Plass Content: Gilbert Norman Plass ( 22 March 1920 -- 1 March 2004 ) was a Canadian physicist who in the 1950s made predictions about the increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 20th century and its effect on the average temperature of the planet that closely match measurements reported half a century later . Plass worked most of his life as a physicist in the United States . He graduated from Harvard University in 1941 and earned a PhD in physics from Princeton University in 1947 . He worked as an associate physicist at the Metallurgical Laboratory ( Manhattan District ) of the University of Chicago from 1942 to 1945 . He became an instructor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in 1946 , and eventually became an associate professor there . In 1955 , leaving academia , he held a job for a year as a staff scientist with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation . He then joined the advanced research staff at the Aeronutronic division of the Ford Motor Company . In 1960 , he became manager of the research lab at Ford 's theoretical physics department and a consulting editor of the journal Infrared Physics ( now called Infrared Physics and Technology ) . In 1963 , he accepted a position as the first professor of atmospheric and space science at the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies ( now the University of Texas at Arlington ) , where he remained for five years . In 1968 , he arrived at Texas A&M University , where he served as professor of physics and head of the department .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Gilbert_Plass", "rank": 81, "score": 116181 }, { "content": "Title: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction Content: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction harnesses solar energy to convert into higher-energy products . The chemical conversion of CO2 already occurs on an industrial scale in the manufacture of solvents such as formic acid , but photochemical reduction differs in that it relies on a renewable energy source , the sun . Because CO2 is a greenhouse gas , there is environmental interest in producing artificial systems that are efficient photocatalysts , but the low turn-over rates of current methods have prohibited wide-scale industrial application .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Photochemical_carbon_dioxide_reduction", "rank": 82, "score": 116115 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 83, "score": 115608 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in China Content: The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_in_China", "rank": 84, "score": 115563 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 85, "score": 115452 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 86, "score": 115347 }, { "content": "Title: Timothy Ball Content: Timothy Francis `` Tim '' Ball ( born November 5 , 1938 ) is a Canadian geographer . A retired professor , he taught in the department of geography at the University of Winnipeg from 1971 until 1996 . Ball rejects the scientific opinion on climate change , stating that `` CO2 is not a greenhouse gas . '' He has worked with the Friends of Science and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project , and is a research fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Timothy_Ball", "rank": 87, "score": 115278 }, { "content": "Title: Solar phenomena Content: Solar phenomena are the natural phenomena occurring within the magnetically heated outer atmospheres in the Sun . These phenomena take many forms , including solar wind , radio wave flux , energy bursts such as solar flares , coronal mass ejection or solar eruptions , coronal heating and sunspots . These phenomena are generated by a helical dynamo near the center of the Sun 's mass that generates strong magnetic fields and a chaotic dynamo near the surface that generates smaller magnetic field fluctuations . The total sum of all solar fluctuations is referred to as solar variation . The collective effect of all solar variations within the Sun 's gravitational field is referred to as space weather . A major weather component is the solar wind , a stream of plasma released from the Sun 's upper atmosphere . It is responsible for the aurora , natural light displays in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic . Space weather disturbances can cause solar storms on Earth , disrupting communications , as well as geomagnetic storms in Earth 's magnetosphere and sudden ionospheric disturbances in the ionosphere . Variations in solar intensity also affect Earth 's climate . These variations can explain events such as ice ages and the Great Oxygenation Event , while the Sun 's future expansion into a red giant will likely end life on Earth . Solar activity and related events have been recorded since the 8th century BCE . Babylonians inscribed and possibly predicted solar eclipses , while the earliest extant report of sunspots dates back to the Chinese Book of Changes , . The first extant description of the solar corona was in 968 , while the earliest sunspot drawing was in 1128 and a solar prominence was described in 1185 in the Russian Chronicle of Novgorod . The invention of the telescope allowed major advances in understanding , allowing the first detailed observations in the 1600s . Solar spectroscopy began in the 1800s , from which properties of the solar atmosphere could be determined , while the creation of daguerreotypy led to the first solar photographs on 2 April 1845 . Photography assisted in the study of solar prominences , granulation and spectroscopy . Early in the 20th century , interest in astrophysics surged in America . A number of new observatories were built with solar telescopes around the world . The 1931 invention of the coronagraph allowed the corona to be studied in full daylight .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Solar_phenomena", "rank": 88, "score": 115256 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital effects on climate Content: There are various solar/celestial effects that exist which have an effect on Earth 's climate . These effects usually occur in cycles , and primarily include how Earth 's obliquity , the eccentricity of Earth 's orbit , and the precession of the equinoxes and solstices affect Earth 's climate . In addition to these effects , there are also other factors that have an effect on Earth 's climate . These other factors include how sun activity affects climate and how celestial phenomena , such as meteors , affect Earth 's climate . Some of these factors are n't yet well understood , for instance the ice ages occur on 100,000 year cycles , and it 's not completely understood why the various effects with this periodicity have such a strong effect on glaciation ( see the 100,000-year problem ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Orbital_effects_on_climate", "rank": 89, "score": 115181 }, { "content": "Title: The Cloud Mystery Content: The Cloud Mystery is a documentary by Danish director Lars Oxfeldt Mortensen . It explores the published theory by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark on how galactic cosmic rays and solar activity affects cloud cover , and how this influences the earth 's climate . Also known as Klimamysteriet in Danish . This documentary presents the work done to develop the theory that cloud cover change is caused by variations in cosmic rays as the major originator of global climate variation . It also mentions that these scientist to not subscribe to the view that human influence and the effect of greenhouse gases as significant drivers of climate . However , the focus is on the work they have done and not on other climate theories like anthropogenic global warming for instance .", "qid": "268", "docid": "The_Cloud_Mystery", "rank": 90, "score": 115060 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Uranus Content: The climate of Uranus is heavily influenced by both its lack of internal heat , which limits atmospheric activity , and by its extreme axial tilt , which induces intense seasonal variation . Uranus 's atmosphere is remarkably bland in comparison to the other gas giants which it otherwise closely resembles . When Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986 , it observed a total of ten cloud features across the entire planet . Later observations from the ground or by the Hubble Space Telescope made in the 1990s and the 2000s revealed bright clouds in the northern ( winter ) hemisphere . In 2006 a dark spot similar to the Great Dark Spot on Neptune was detected .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_of_Uranus", "rank": 91, "score": 115003 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Observing Optical Network Content: The Solar Observing Optical Network ( SOON ) consists of three U.S. Air Force ( USAF ) Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) solar observatories . AFWA operates a solar telescope at each site to monitor solar active regions at optical wavelengths . The National Geophysical Data Center ( NGDC ) archives histograms of intensity versus area every minute for the active regions . It also archives magnetograms of the magnetic field structure and tachograms of plasma velocities on an irregular schedule . The SOON observatories are operated by detachments of AFWA 's 2nd Weather Group at the following sites : RAAF Learmonth , Western Australia , Australia Holloman AFB , New Mexico , USA San Vito dei Normanni Air Station , San Vito dei Normanni , Italy ( contractor-run site ) Telescopes at Palehua , Hawaii and Ramey Air Force Base , Puerto Rico have been shut down . There is an active Consolidated Repair Activity ( CRA ) based out of Holloman Air Force Base , New Mexico which is operated by the 49th Communications Squadron . The CRA provides depot-level maintenance and support to the SOON program . The CRA also develops maintenance procedures , institutes physical ( non-software ) updates , and overhauls all three telescopes on a regular basis .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Solar_Observing_Optical_Network", "rank": 92, "score": 114632 }, { "content": "Title: James Hansen Content: James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "qid": "268", "docid": "James_Hansen", "rank": 93, "score": 114628 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monitoring Content: Carbon monitoring refers to tracking how much carbon dioxide or methane is produced by particular activity at a particular point in time . For example , it may refer to tracking methane emissions from agriculture , or carbon dioxide emissions from land use changes , such as deforestation , or from burning fossil fuels , whether in a power plant , automobile , or other device . Because carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emitted in the largest quantities , and methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas , monitoring carbon emissions is widely seen as crucial to any effort to reduce emissions and thereby slow climate change . Monitoring carbon emissions is key to the cap-and-trade program currently being used in Europe , as well as the one in California , and will be necessary for any such program in the future , like the Paris Agreement . The lack of reliable sources of consistent data on carbon emissions is a significant barrier to efforts to reduce emissions .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_monitoring", "rank": 94, "score": 114497 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 95, "score": 114452 }, { "content": "Title: Flick Off Content: FLICK OFF ( flick off ) is a Canadian advertising campaign launched by Key Gordon Communications . It is a movement to fight climate change by getting Canadians to use less energy . Its sponsors include MuchMusic , Roots Canada , Environmental Defence Canada and the Government of Ontario . Some view this program as a continuation of the scrapped program One-Tonne Challenge in global perspective . The motivation for the campaign is both to reduce energy consumption for its own sake and also with the aim of reducing carbon emissions to ultimately combat global warming . The website associated with the campaign is aimed specifically at young Canadians . The website contains educational material about causes and consequences of global warming and strategies for reducing carbon emissions , and includes a `` carbon calculator '' called One Less Tonne to measure individual carbon dioxide emissions . The website was launched by British entrepreneur Richard Branson and Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten in Toronto on April 25 , 2007 . According to the official website , the campaign is now in `` hibernation '' .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Flick_Off", "rank": 96, "score": 114335 }, { "content": "Title: Fisheries and climate change Content: Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Fisheries_and_climate_change", "rank": 97, "score": 114218 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 98, "score": 113584 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "268", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 99, "score": 113533 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Protocol Content: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "qid": "268", "docid": "Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 100, "score": 113482 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 1, "score": 197233 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 2, "score": 188935 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 3, "score": 168693 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 4, "score": 165541 }, { "content": "Title: Meltwater pulse 1A Content: Meltwater pulse 1A ( MWP1a ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of rapid post-glacial sea level rise during which global sea level rose between 16 m and 25 m in about 400 -- 500 years , giving mean rates of roughly 40 -- 60 mm/yr . Meltwater pulse 1A is also known as catastrophic rise event 1 ( CRE1 ) in the Caribbean Sea . The rates of sea level rise associated with meltwater pulse 1A are the highest known rates of post-glacial , eustatic sea level rise . Meltwater pulse 1A is also the most widely recognized and least disputed of the named , postglacial meltwater pulses . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwater pulse 19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1B , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Meltwater_pulse_1A", "rank": 5, "score": 161825 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 6, "score": 156579 }, { "content": "Title: North Ice Content: North Ice was a research station of the British North Greenland Expedition ( 1952 to 1954 ) on the inland ice of Greenland . The coordinates of the station were , at an altitude of 2341 m above sea level . The British North Greenland Expedition was led by Commander James Simpson RN . The station recorded the lowest temperature ever in North America with -66.1 C on 9 January 1954 . The name of the station contrasts to the former British South Ice station in Antarctica .", "qid": "272", "docid": "North_Ice", "rank": 7, "score": 154914 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 8, "score": 153780 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Cold Reversal Content: The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Antarctic_Cold_Reversal", "rank": 9, "score": 153542 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 10, "score": 152570 }, { "content": "Title: Paleoflooding Content: The phenomenon of paleoflooding is apparent in the geologic record over various spatial and temporal scales . It often occurred on a large scale , and was the result of either glacial ice melt causing large outbursts of freshwater , or high sea levels breaching bodies of freshwater . If a freshwater outflow event was large enough that the water reached the ocean system , it caused changes in salinity that potentially affected ocean circulation and global climate . Freshwater flows could also accumulate to form continental glacial lakes , and this is another indicator of large-scale flooding . In contrast , periods of high global sea level ( often during interglacials ) could cause marine water to breach natural dams and flow into bodies of freshwater . Changes in salinity of freshwater and marine bodies can be detected from the analysis of organisms that inhabited those bodies at a given time , as certain organisms are more suited to live in either fresh or saline conditions .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Paleoflooding", "rank": 11, "score": 151922 }, { "content": "Title: The Coming Global Superstorm Content: The Coming Global Superstorm ( ISBN 0-671-04190-8 ) is a 1999 book by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber , which warns that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects . First , the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift would generate a cordon of warm water around the North Pole , which in turn , holds in a frozen mass of Arctic air . Second , if the North Atlantic drift were to shut down , that barrier would fail , releasing a flood of frozen air into the Northern Hemisphere , causing a sudden and drastic temperature shift . The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the Gulf Stream : the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world 's oceans . Bell and Strieber explain the possibility that such current destabilizations have occurred before , as well as seemingly impossible engineering feats by the ancients . Among their examples is the island city of Nan Madol . The book claims that its construction , with exacting tolerances and extremely heavy basalt materials , necessitates a high degree of technical competency . Since no such society exists in the modern record or even , in legend , the society must have been destroyed by dramatic means . While other explanations beside a global meteorological event are possible , a correlating evidence set is presented in the woolly mammoth . Strieber and Bell assert that since mammoths have been found preserved with food still in their mouths and undigested in their stomachs , these animals must have been killed quickly , in otherwise normal conditions . They were preserved so well by quick freezing , which is taken as evidence of a rapid onset of a global blizzard or similar event . Interspersed with the analytical parts of the book are a series of interlinked short fictional scenarios , written in italics , describing what might transpire today if a destabilization of the North Atlantic Current were to occur . The fictional accounts of `` current events '' as the meteorological situation deteriorates provided background and inspiration for the 2004 science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow . Indeed , some events from the book are portrayed in the film with little modification .", "qid": "272", "docid": "The_Coming_Global_Superstorm", "rank": 12, "score": 150848 }, { "content": "Title: North American ice storm of January 1961 Content: The North American ice storm of January 1961 was a massive ice storm that struck areas of northern Idaho in the United States on January 1 -- 3 , 1961 . The storm set a record for thickest recorded ice accumulation from a single storm in the United States , at 8 inches . The storm 's swath covered areas from Grangeville , in north central Idaho , to the Canada -- United States border . According to the National Weather Service , a combination of dense fog , sub-freezing temperatures , and occasional freezing rain led to the heavy ice accretions . Catastrophic damage to trees and utilities resulted , resulting in widespread power outages . Prior to this storm , previous records of between 4 and 6 inches of ice were recorded in New York City and Texas .", "qid": "272", "docid": "North_American_ice_storm_of_January_1961", "rank": 13, "score": 150510 }, { "content": "Title: Deglaciation Content: Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Deglaciation", "rank": 14, "score": 150459 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 15, "score": 149278 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic ice sheet Content: The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Antarctic_ice_sheet", "rank": 16, "score": 148853 }, { "content": "Title: Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012 Content: The Great Arctic Cyclone , or `` Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012 , '' was an extratropical cyclone which centered on the Arctic Ocean in early August , 2012 . Such storms are rare in the Arctic summer , although common in the winter . The Great Arctic Cyclone was the strongest summer storm and the 13th strongest storm observed at any time since satellite observations began in 1979 . Although the Great Arctic Cyclone did not cause the record melting of sea ice which occurred in 2012 , turbulence resulting from the storm is believed to have contributed to melting of sea ice due to the rise of warmer saltier water from below .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Great_Arctic_Cyclone_of_2012", "rank": 17, "score": 148475 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Meier Content: Mark F. Meier ( 1925 -- November 25 , 2012 ) was an American glaciologist who was considered a leading expert on the study of rising sea levels due to the melting of glaciers . Meier was the Director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research ( INSTAAR ) from 1985 to 1994 and remained the institute 's director emeritus until his death in 2012 . He was also a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado - Boulder . Meier was born and raised in Iowa . He resided in Boulder , Colorado , since 1985 . In 1956 , Meier founded the U.S. Geological Survey 's department of glaciology . He obtained doctorate in 1957 from the California Institute of Technology . Meier served as the director of the U.S. Geological Survey 's Project Office of Glaciology in Tacoma , Washington , until he became the director of INSTAAR in 1985 . Meier was one of the first glaciologists to use remote sensing to study glaciers and rates of melting . He headed several studies of tidewater glacier dynamics in the U.S. state of Alaska . Meier organized the systematic measurement and assessment of glacier mass balance within North America to mark the International Geophysical Year and International Hydrological Decade , which was observed from 1965 to 1975 . His numerous recognitions and awards included the Seligman Crystal from the International Glaciological Society in 1993 , the Robert E. Horton Medal in 1996 , three medals from the USSR Academy of Sciences ( now the Russian Academy of Sciences ) and the United States Department of the Interior 's Distinguished Service Award . Meier died in Boulder , Colorado , on November 25 , 2012 , at the age of 86 . He is survived by his wife , Barbara , his children , Lauren Meier , Gretchen Meier , and Mark S. Meier , and his seven grandchildren .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Mark_Meier", "rank": 18, "score": 146996 }, { "content": "Title: James O'Brien (oceanographer) Content: James O'Brien ( born August 10 , 1935 , died September 20 , 2016 ) is the emeritus Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography at Florida State University . He believes sea levels are rising but predicts a more modest 18 in rise instead of 6 ft by 2100 targeted by some other scientists . He stated that `` sea level in Florida is going to continue to rise period . Unless we go back into an Ice age , we will continue to rise at over 8 in in 10 year . That 's without any global warming . ''", "qid": "272", "docid": "James_O'Brien_(oceanographer)", "rank": 19, "score": 145241 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 20, "score": 145190 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic resources race Content: The Arctic resources race refers to the competition between global entities for newly available natural resources in the Arctic . As the ice in the Arctic melts at a record rate and the sea ice extent continues to decrease due to global climate change , the Arctic waters become more navigable and Arctic resources -- such as oil and gas , minerals , fish , as well as tourism and new trade routes -- are becoming more accessible . Under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea , five nations have the legal right to exploit the Arctic 's natural resources within their exclusive economic zones : Canada , Russia , Denmark , Norway , and the United States ( though the U.S. has yet to ratify the treaty , it considers the treaty to be customary international law and abides by it ) . The Arctic region and its resources have recently been at the center of controversy and pose potential conflicts between nations that have differing opinions of how to manage the area , including conflicting territorial claims . In addition , the Arctic region is home to an estimated 400,000 indigenous people . If the ice continues to melt at the current rate , then these indigenous people are at risk of being displaced . The acceleration of ice depletion will contribute to climate change as a whole : melting ice releases methane , ice reflects incoming solar radiation , and without it will cause the ocean to absorb more radiation ( albedo effect ) , heating up the water causing more ocean acidification , and melting ice will cause a rise in sea level .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Arctic_resources_race", "rank": 21, "score": 144178 }, { "content": "Title: Past sea level Content: Global or eustatic sea level has fluctuated significantly over the Earth 's history . The main factors affecting sea level are the amount and volume of available water and the shape and volume of the ocean basins . The primary influences on water volume are the temperature of the seawater , which affects density , and the amounts of water retained in other reservoirs like rivers , aquifers , lakes , glaciers , polar ice caps and sea ice . Over geological timescales , changes in the shape of the oceanic basins and in land/sea distribution affect sea level . In addition to eustatic changes , local changes in sea level are caused by tectonic uplift and subsidence . Over geologic time sea level has fluctuated by hundreds of meters . Today 's interglacial level is near historic highs and is 130 meters above the low level reached during the Last Glacial Maximum 19,000 -- 20,000 years ago . Observational and modeling studies of mass loss from glaciers and ice caps indicate a contribution to sea-level rise of 0.2 to 0.4 mm/yr averaged over the 20th century . Over this last million years , whereas it was higher most of the time before then , sea level was lower than today .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Past_sea_level", "rank": 22, "score": 141509 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic sea ice Content: Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean . It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer . Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few meters thick . This is in contrast to ice shelves , which are formed by glaciers , float in the sea , and are up to a kilometer thick . There are two subdivisions of sea ice : fast ice , which is attached to land ; and ice floes , which are not . Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow . As a result , melt ponds are rarely observed . On average , Antarctic sea ice is younger , thinner , warmer , saltier , and more mobile than Arctic sea ice . Due to its inaccessibility , it is not as well-studied as Arctic ice .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Antarctic_sea_ice", "rank": 23, "score": 140503 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "272", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 24, "score": 140277 }, { "content": "Title: Meltwater pulse 1B Content: Meltwater pulse 1B ( MWP1b ) is the name used by Quaternary geologists , paleoclimatologists , and oceanographers for a period of either rapid or just accelerated post-glacial sea level rise that occurred at the beginning of the Holocene and after the end of the Younger Dryas . Meltwater pulse 1B is also known as catastrophic rise event 2 ( CRE2 ) in the Caribbean Sea . Other named , postglacial meltwater pulses are known most commonly as meltwater pulse 1A0 ( meltwaterpulse19ka ) , meltwater pulse 1A , meltwater pulse 1C , meltwater pulse 1D , and meltwater pulse 2 . It and these other periods of proposed rapid sea level rise are known as meltwater pulses because the inferred cause of them was the rapid release of meltwater into the oceans from the collapse of continental ice sheets .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Meltwater_pulse_1B", "rank": 25, "score": 139980 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 26, "score": 138949 }, { "content": "Title: Konrad Steffen Content: Konrad `` Koni '' Steffen ( born 1952 ) is a glaciologist and the former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder , a position he held from 2005 until he took office as the director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest , Snow and Landscape Research on July 1 , 2012 . He is known for his research into Arctic sea ice and the glaciers of Greenland , and how they are affected by global warming . He has often traveled to Greenland to study these glaciers firsthand ; for example , when studying Petermann Glacier for three weeks in 2004 , Steffen did so from a camp set up 4,000 feet up the flanks of the glacier 's ice cap . He also operates a network of 20 weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet , the first of which , Swiss Camp , he established in 1990 . He has argued that due to this ice sheet melting faster than anticipated , sea levels could rise by about 3 feet by 2100 , considerably higher than the IPCC 's upper limit of 59 cm , and that Greenland might lose all its ice in 10,000 years , but Antarctica would take considerably longer , since it is so much bigger .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Konrad_Steffen", "rank": 27, "score": 138466 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-albedo feedback Content: Ice-albedo feedback ( or snow-albedo feedback ) is a positive feedback climate process where a change in the area of snow-covered land , ice caps , glaciers or sea ice alters the albedo . This change in albedo acts to reinforce the initial alteration in ice area . Cooling tends to increase ice cover and hence the albedo , reducing the amount of solar energy absorbed and leading to more cooling . Conversely , warming tends to decrease ice cover and hence the albedo , increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed , leading to more warming . The effect also applies on the small scale to snow-covered surfaces . A small amount of snow melt exposes darker ground which absorbs more radiation , leading to more snowmelt . The effect has mostly been discussed in terms of the recent trend of declining Arctic sea ice . Internal feedback processes may also potentially occur , as land ice melts and causes eustatic sea level rise , and also potentially induces earthquakes as a result of isostatic rebound , which further acts to disrupt glaciers , ice shelves , etc. .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Ice-albedo_feedback", "rank": 28, "score": 136268 }, { "content": "Title: Berkner Island Content: Berkner Island or Berkner Ice Rise or Hubley Island is an ice rise , where bedrock below sea level makes the ice dome upward . If the ice cap melted , it would be under water . Berkner `` Island '' is high and completely ice-covered and about 320 km long and 150 km wide , with an area of 44000 km2 . Berkner is surrounded by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf . The northernmost point of the Berkner is about 20 km from the open sea . It lies in the overlapping portion of the Argentine and the British claims . The island rises to 869 m ( 975 m according to other sources ) and separates Ronne Ice Shelf from the Filchner Ice Shelf . It is characterized by two domes , Reinwarthhöhe in the north ( 698 m ) , at , and Thyssenhöhe in the south ( 869 m ) , at . It is indented by three bays on the eastern side , which are from north to south : McCarthy Inlet , Roberts Inlet , and Spilhouse Inlet . Gould Bay is on the north coast . Berkner Island is about 150 km west of Luitpold Coast , Coats Land , the closest mainland of Eastern Antarctica . 17 km off the northwest corner of Berkner Island is Hemmen Ice Rise . Berkner Island was discovered by members of the United States-International Geophysical Year ( US-IGY ) party at Ellsworth Station under the leadership of Capt. Finn Ronne , United States Navy Reserve ( USNR ) , during the 1957-1958 season . Berkner Island was named by the United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for American physicist Lloyd Berkner , engineer with the Byrd Antarctic Expedition ( 1928 -- 1930 ) . Since 1990 , Berkner Island has been a jumping off point for a number of long distance polar expeditions . Ben Saunders has planned an unsupported journey from the island to the South Pole and back . It was the start point of Henry Worsley 's attempt to cross the Antarctic in 2015/16 . In the 1994/1995 field season the British Antarctic Survey , Alfred Wegener Institute and the Forschungsstelle für Physikalische Glaziologie of the University of Münster cooperated in a project drilling ice cores on the North and South Domes of Berkner Island .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Berkner_Island", "rank": 29, "score": 136228 }, { "content": "Title: Cap carbonate Content: Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Cap_carbonate", "rank": 30, "score": 136127 }, { "content": "Title: Dvořák Ice Rise Content: Dvořák Ice Rise is an ice rise 1.5 nmi in extent , rising above the ice of Mendelssohn Inlet in the southwest part of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was first mapped , from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , 1947 -- 48 , by D. Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960 , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Antonín Dvořák , the Czech composer . ( 1841-1904 ) .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Dvořák_Ice_Rise", "rank": 31, "score": 135972 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "272", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 32, "score": 135464 }, { "content": "Title: Ice rise Content: An ice rise is a clearly defined elevation of the otherwise totally flat ice shelf , typically dome-shaped and rising 100 to 200 metres above the surrounding ice shelf . An ice rise forms where the ice shelf touches the rocky seabed because of an elevation in the seabed that remains below sea level . ( In contrast , an elevation in the seabed that extends above sea level is defined as an island ) . The ice shelf flows over the seabed elevation , completely covering it with ice , thereby forming an ice rise . The resulting tension forms crevasses around the ice rise . An island within and totally covered by the ice shelf , may appear the exactly the same as an ice rise . Elaborate measurements may be required to distinguish between these two geographic features . Although ice rises are typically located within the ice shelf area , they can partially face the open sea . Ice rises are found only on the ice shelves of Antarctica . The largest ice rises exceed dimensions of 50 by 200 km , or 10 000 km ² in area . Some ice rises are incorrectly called islands , but also a few totally ice-covered islands within an ice shelf are also called ice rises . Ice rises , grouped by ice shelf , clockwise starting in East Antarctica : Brunt Ice Shelf McDonald Ice Rumples Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf Lyddan Island King Baudouin Ice Shelf Derwael Ice Rise Amery Ice Shelf Budd Ice Rumples IR1 to IR5 near the ice front Shackleton Ice Shelf Green Ice Rises ( the northernmost ice rise , at 66 ° 21 'S ) Harrisson Ice Rises Ross Ice Shelf Crary Ice Rise ( the southernmost ice rise , at 82 ° 56 'S ) Crosson Ice Shelf Davis Ice Rise Bach Ice Shelf Burgess Ice Rise Dvořák Ice Rise Ives Ice Rise Landy Ice Rises George VI Ice Shelf Martin Ice Rise Wilkins Ice Shelf Petrie Ice Rises Schaus Ice Rises Vere Ice Rise Wordie Ice Shelf Coker Ice Rise Linchpin Ice Rise Miller Ice Rise Napier Ice Rise Reynolds Ice Rise Wade Ice Rise Müller Ice Shelf Humphreys Ice Rise Larsen-C Ice Shelf Bawden Ice Rise Gipps Ice Rise Tharp Ice Rise Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Berkner Island Korff Ice Rise Henry Ice Rise Fowler Ice Rise Skytrain Ice Rise Doake Ice Rumples Dott Ice Rise Fletcher Ice Rise Hemmen Ice Rise Kealey Ice Rise Kershaw Ice Rumples Henry and Korff Ice Rises are the largest ice rises , with areas of roughly 1 500 to 1 600 km ² .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Ice_rise", "rank": 33, "score": 135061 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "272", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 34, "score": 134949 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Saint John River flood Content: The 2008 Saint John River flood was considered the worst flooding of the Saint John River in 35 years . Flood levels reached 27 feet and 4 inches in Fredericton on May 1 , almost reaching the previous record of 28 feet and 3 inches , set in 1973 . Flooding was attributed to the melting of record snowfall from the 2007-2008 winter and heavy rain during the melting season . Fifty streets in Fredericton area were closed as a result of the flooding . The flooding caused severe damage in areas of northern Maine and western New Brunswick including international bridges and hundreds of homes and buildings . By May 3 , the Canadian Red Cross had registered 680 residents who had been forced to evacuate from their homes . An additional 600 residences were evacuated in Maine .", "qid": "272", "docid": "2008_Saint_John_River_flood", "rank": 35, "score": 134891 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "272", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 36, "score": 134726 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic Ocean Content: The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world 's five major oceans . The International Hydrographic Organization ( IHO ) recognizes it as an ocean , although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea , classifying it a mediterranean sea or an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean . Alternatively , the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean . Located mostly in the Arctic north polar region in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere , the Arctic Ocean is almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America . It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter . The Arctic Ocean 's surface temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes ; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans , due to low evaporation , heavy fresh water inflow from rivers and streams , and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities . The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50 % . The US National Snow and Ice Data Center ( NSIDC ) uses satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Arctic_Ocean", "rank": 37, "score": 134223 }, { "content": "Title: Heard Island glaciers Content: The Heard Island glaciers covered 79 percent of Heard Island itself , in 1947 , covering 288 km2 ; by 1988 , this had decreased by 11 percent to 257 km2 . The glaciers fall under the Antarctic Environmental Gradient , which spans 30 degrees of latitude and includes a range of macro-climatic zones from cool temperate islands to the frigid and arid Antarctic continent . Glaciers extend from 2745 m to sea level , with ice up to 150 m deep.The geologic movement of the glaciers can appear fast-flowing due to the steep slope and high precipitation , and are particularly sensitive to climatic fluctuations . Measurements between 1947 and 1980 show glacial retreat , particularly on the eastern flanks , is correlated with changes in weather patterns . A 29 % reduction in area of the Brown Glacier from 1947-2003 was observed . The volcano Big Ben , from which all the glaciers drain , has shown no sign of changing geothermal output to cause the melting ; a 1 degree Celsius warming has occurred over the same time period . Glaciologists continue to study the Brown Glacier , detailing surveys of the glacier 's snout and surface , which determine if glacial retreat is rapid or punctuated . Measurements on the mass balance of the glacier , as well as more detailed ice thickness measurements using a portable radar echo sounder , were undertaken . Monitoring of climatic conditions continues , with emphasis on the impact of Foehn winds on glacier mass balance . An expedition by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division recently visited the volcanic island in 2009 , observing glaciers that had retreated 50 metres in three years . Repairs were made to an automatic weather station established in November 2000 . Glaciologist Dr. Ian Allison cites that the latest aerial surveys that show continuous rapid melt and that satellite imagery shows the island double in size due to volcanic activity .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Heard_Island_glaciers", "rank": 38, "score": 134139 }, { "content": "Title: Ledenika Content: Ledenika ( Леденика , English : icy or glacial ) is a cave in the Northwestern parts of the Balkan Mountains , 16 km away from the Bulgarian city of Vratsa . Its entrance is approximately 830 m above sea level . The cave features an abundance of galleries and impressive karst formations including stalactites and stalagmites . It was first discovered around the beginning of the 20th century and has been open to tourists since 1961 . Ledenika Peak on Graham Land in Antarctica is named after the cave , in recognition of its cultural importance .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Ledenika", "rank": 39, "score": 133845 }, { "content": "Title: Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment Content: The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems . Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind . The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Sea_Ice_Physics_and_Ecosystem_eXperiment", "rank": 40, "score": 133647 }, { "content": "Title: Heinrich event Content: A Heinrich event is a natural phenomenon in which large armadas of icebergs break off from glaciers and traverse the North Atlantic . First described by marine geologist Hartmut Heinrich ( Heinrich , H. , 1988 ) , they occurred during five of the last seven glacial periods or `` ice ages '' over the past 640,000 years ( Hodell , et al. , 2008 ) . Heinrich events are particularly well documented for the last glacial period but notably absent from the penultimate glaciation ( Obrochta et al. , 2014 ) . The icebergs contained rock mass , which has been eroded by the glaciers , and as they melted , this matter was dropped onto the sea floor as ice rafted debris ( abbreviated to `` IRD '' ) . The icebergs ' melting caused extensive amounts of fresh water to be added to the North Atlantic . Such inputs of cold and fresh water may well have altered the density-driven , thermohaline circulation patterns of the ocean , and often coincide with indications of global climate fluctuations . Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain the cause of Heinrich events , most of which imply instability of the massive Laurentide ice sheet , a continental glacier covering North America during the last glacial period . Other northern hemisphere ice sheets were potentially involved as well ( Scandinavia , Iceland , Greenland ) . However , the initial cause of this instability is still debated .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Heinrich_event", "rank": 41, "score": 133611 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland ice sheet Content: The Greenland ice sheet ( Grønlands indlandsis , Sermersuaq ) is a vast body of ice covering 1710000 km ² , roughly 80 % of the surface of Greenland . It is the second largest ice body in the world , after the Antarctic ice sheet . The ice sheet is almost 2400 km long in a north-south direction , and its greatest width is 1100 km at a latitude of 77 ° N , near its northern margin . The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 m . The thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point . It is not the only ice mass of Greenland -- isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76000 and around the periphery . If the entire 2850000 km3 of ice were to melt , it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m . The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice , or its Danish equivalent , indlandsis . It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Greenland_ice_sheet", "rank": 42, "score": 130848 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic ice pack Content: The Arctic ice pack is the ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity . The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer , reaches a minimum around mid-September , then increases during fall and winter . Summer ice cover in the Arctic is about 50 % of winter cover . Some of the ice survives from one year to the next . Currently 28 % of Arctic basin sea ice is multi-year ice , thicker than seasonal ice : up to 3 - thick over large areas , with ridges up to 20 m thick . As well as the regular seasonal cycle there has been an underlying trend of declining sea ice in the Arctic in recent decades .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Arctic_ice_pack", "rank": 43, "score": 130794 }, { "content": "Title: Mingyong Glacier Content: Mingyong Glacier is located in the Yunnan Province , People 's Republic of China , The glacier retreated 200 meters ( 656 feet ) in four years . The region has also seen a rising tree line and these events are believed to be associated with global warming . The glacier is sacred to the local peoples . The glacier is fed by snows which fall on 6,740 m ( 22,107 ft ) Mount Meili , also known as the Meili Snow Mountain . Glaciers in China 's Tibetan region are melting at 7 percent annually . At 28.5 degrees north and an elevation of 2,700 meters ( 8,858 ft ) , the glacier is located at the lowest latitude and elevation of any glacier in China .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Mingyong_Glacier", "rank": 44, "score": 130660 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic dipole anomaly Content: The Arctic dipole anomaly is a pressure pattern characterized by high pressure on the arctic regions of North America , and a low pressure on the Eurasia region . This pattern sometimes replaces the Arctic oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation . It was observed for the first time in the first decade of 2000s and is perhaps linked to recent climate change . The Arctic dipole lets more southern winds into the Arctic ocean resulting in more ice melting . The summer 2007 event played an important role in the record low sea ice extent which was recorded in September . The Arctic dipole has also been linked to changes in arctic circulation patterns that cause drier winters in Northern Europe , but much wetter winters in Southern Europe and colder winters in East Asia , Europe and the eastern half of North America .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Arctic_dipole_anomaly", "rank": 45, "score": 130385 }, { "content": "Title: Waterworld Content: Waterworld is a 1995 American post-apocalyptic science fiction action film directed by Kevin Reynolds and co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy . It was based on Rader 's original 1986 screenplay and stars Kevin Costner , who also produced it with Charles Gordon and John Davis . It was distributed by Universal Pictures . The setting of the film is in the distant future . Although no exact date was given in the film itself , it has been suggested that it takes place in 2500 . The polar ice caps have completely melted , and the sea level has risen over 7,600 m ( 25,000 feet ) , covering nearly all of the land . The film illustrates this with an unusual variation on the Universal logo , which begins with the usual image of Earth , but shows the planet 's water levels gradually rising and the polar ice caps melting until nearly all the land is submerged . The plot of the film centers on an otherwise nameless antihero , `` The Mariner '' , a drifter who sails the Earth in his trimaran . The most expensive film ever made at the time , Waterworld was released to mixed reviews , praising the futuristic setting and premise but criticizing the characterization and acting performances . The film also was unable to recoup its massive budget at the box office ; however , the film did later become profitable due to video and other post-cinema sales . The film was also nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound at the 68th Academy Awards . The film 's release was accompanied by a tie-in novel , video game , and three themed attractions at Universal Studios Hollywood , Universal Studios Singapore , and Universal Studios Japan called Waterworld : A Live Sea War Spectacular , which are all still running as of 2017 . Universal Studios Hollywood had closed it down for refurbishment , but had it re-opened in April 2017 .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Waterworld", "rank": 46, "score": 129683 }, { "content": "Title: December 1981 windstorm Content: The December 1981 windstorm was a severe storm that particularly affected southern England , Wales and south west France during December 13 , 1981 . The storm formed as a secondary low . In England , the storm started with violent winds and snow , which reached Cornwall during the morning . Prior its arrival a number of record low temperatures were reached for December , with -25.2 C at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire , -5.5 C in Southampton , while in Wales a record of -22.7 C was recorded at Corwen in Denbighshire . In the evening spring tides combined with a 1.45 m storm surge resulted in the highest water levels recorded in the Bristol Channel since the start of the 20th century . Water from melting snow , caused by milder weather accompanying the depression , added to the flooding . The maximum surge at Hinkley Point was measured at 1.3 m above the 7.4 m tidal level Ordnance Datum ( OD ) at 2025 hours , and 1.3 m measured at Avonmouth . The wind was measured at 40 knots from the west . Over topping of the sea defences along a 7 mi stretch of the North Somerset coast at 22 locations from Clevedon to Porlock began after 19:30 , and continued until about 21:30 when the wind speed had reached 50 knots from the west . Although there was no loss of life , the resultant flooding covered 12500 acre of land , affecting 1072 houses and commercial properties , with # 150,000 worth of livestock killed and # 50,000 of feed and grain destroyed . Wessex Water Authority estimated the total cost of the damage caused at # 6m , resulting in a three-year programme of sea defence assessment , repair and improvement . In France , the storm caused widespread flooding in the south west , causing considerable damage in the river basins of the Garonne and Adour and flooding the city of Bordeaux . The MV Bonita , an 8000 tonne Ecuadorian cargo ship sailing from Hamburg to Panama was caught in the storm in the English Channel . 29 were rescued from the ship , 4 by helicopter until the storm was too strong for the helicopter to operate . The remaining crew were rescued by the Guernsey lifeboat , however there were 2 fatalities . Water entered the cooling water pump house of Hinkley Point nuclear power station , causing a shut-down for weeks after the storm .", "qid": "272", "docid": "December_1981_windstorm", "rank": 47, "score": 129459 }, { "content": "Title: Measurement of sea ice Content: Measurement of sea ice is important for safety of navigation and for monitoring the environment , particularly the climate . Sea ice extent interacts with large climate patterns such as the North Atlantic oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation , to name just two , and influences climate in the rest of the globe . The amount of sea ice coverage in the arctic has been of interest for centuries , as the Northwest Passage was of high interest for trade and seafaring . There is a longstanding history of records and measurements of some effects of the sea ice extent , but comprehensive measurements were sparse till the 1950s and started with the satellite era in the late 1970s . Modern direct records include data about ice extent , ice area , concentration , thickness , and the age of the ice . The current trends in the records show a significant decline in Northern hemisphere sea ice and a small but statistically significant increase in the winter Southern hemisphere sea ice . Furthermore , current research comprises and establishes extensive sets of multi-century historical records of arctic and subarctic sea ice and uses , among others high-resolution paleo-proxy sea-ice records . The arctic sea ice is a dynamic climate-system component and is linked to the Atlantic multidecadal variability and the historical climate over various decades . There are circular changes of sea ice patterns but so far no clear patterns based on modeling predictions .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Measurement_of_sea_ice", "rank": 48, "score": 129052 }, { "content": "Title: Stamukha Content: A stamukha ( plural : stamukhi ) is a grounded accumulation of sea ice rubble that typically develops along the boundary between fast ice and the drifting pack ice , or becomes incorporated into the fast ice . It is a pressure ridge . Wind , currents and tides contribute to this phenomenon . Stamukhi tend to occur in belts that are parallel to the shoreline , along coastal shoals , at water depths of about 20 m ( 65 ft ) , but that can reach 50 m ( 160 ft ) . They can build up to heights 10 m or more above the waterline . Although they remain pinned to the seabed , these features can be subject to small displacements , either due to thermal expansion or to the pressure exerted by the drifting pack ice onto the fast ice . Because stamukhi tend to be deeply grounded , they may occur as isolated ice features in the open sea during the summer season , after the surrounding ice has melted away . Since stamukhi extend downward into the seabed , they present a risk to submarine pipelines and telecommunications cables that cross the shoreline . Seabed penetration by the ice can reach a depth of 5 m.", "qid": "272", "docid": "Stamukha", "rank": 49, "score": 128612 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Antarctica Content: The effects of global warming in Antarctica may include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Antarctica", "rank": 50, "score": 128446 }, { "content": "Title: Marine transgression Content: A marine transgression is a geologic event during which sea level rises relative to the land and the shoreline moves toward higher ground , resulting in flooding . Transgressions can be caused either by the land sinking or the ocean basins filling with water ( or decreasing in capacity ) . Transgressions and regressions may be caused by tectonic events such as orogenies , severe climate change such as ice ages or isostatic adjustments following removal of ice or sediment load . During the Cretaceous , seafloor spreading created a relatively shallow Atlantic basin at the expense of deeper Pacific basin . This reduced the world 's ocean basin capacity and caused a rise in sea level worldwide . As a result of this sea level rise , the oceans transgressed completely across the central portion of North America and created the Western Interior Seaway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean . The opposite of transgression is regression , in which the sea level falls relative to the land and exposes former sea bottom . During the Pleistocene Ice Ages , so much water was removed from the oceans and stored on land as year-round glaciers that the ocean regressed 120 m , exposing the Bering land bridge between Alaska and Asia .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Marine_transgression", "rank": 51, "score": 128429 }, { "content": "Title: Henry Ice Rise Content: Henry Ice Rise is a triangular-shaped ice rise about 70 mi long located between Korff Ice Rise and the southern portion of Berkner Island in the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . It was first visited by the United States International Geophysical Year geophysical traverse party from Ellsworth Station , 1957 -- 58 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Captain Clifford D. Henry of the Military Sealift Command , a veteran American polar sea captain and master of . Henry died aboard his ship , February 16 , 1975 , while returning from his fourteenth voyage to Antarctica in support of the U.S. Antarctic Research Program .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Henry_Ice_Rise", "rank": 52, "score": 128365 }, { "content": "Title: Besh Barmag Mountain Content: Besh Barmag ( Beş Barmaq ) literally translated as Five Finger Mountain , is in Siazan District of Azerbaijan , not far from the Caspian Sea . It rises to 382 m above the sea level overlooking the Baku-Quba Highway . The mountain is a solid rock and is one of the most famous mountains in the Caucasus , known for its mythical stories . It is a sacred place for regular visitation by pilgrims . Tide marks on the mount attest to meltwater inundation from the northern glacial ice caps and date back to the end of the last ice age . The tidelines confirm the theory of a Holocene outflow of meltwater from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea , rather than a direct incursion of sea water into the Black Sea as a result of global sea level rise . Estimates of the increase in Caspian Sea level height are between + 20 and 30 meters .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Besh_Barmag_Mountain", "rank": 53, "score": 128338 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Alaska floods Content: The 2009 Alaska floods were a series of natural disasters taking place in the United States state of Alaska during April and May 2009 . The floods are a result of heavier-than-typical winter snowfall and above-average spring temperatures that resulted in rapid melting of the winter snowfall . The resulting high water levels were aggravated in places by the development of ice dams that caused catastrophic flooding . The record-breaking flood that affected Eagle , Alaska in early May is the best example of an ice dam causing flooding beyond the norm .", "qid": "272", "docid": "2009_Alaska_floods", "rank": 54, "score": 128296 }, { "content": "Title: Tyrrell Sea Content: The Tyrrell Sea , named for Canadian geologist Joseph Tyrrell , is another name for prehistoric Hudson Bay , namely as it existed during the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet . Roughly 8,000 years BP , the Laurentide Ice Sheet thinned and split into two lobes , one centred over Quebec-Labrador , the other over Keewatin . This drained Glacial Lake Ojibway , a massive proglacial lake south of the ice sheet , leading to the formation of the early Tyrrell Sea . The weight of the ice had isostatically depressed the surface as much as 270-280 m below its current level , making the Tyrrell Sea much larger than modern Hudson Bay . Indeed , in some places the shoreline was 100 to 250 km farther inland than at present . It was at its largest at roughly 7,000 years BP . Isostatic uplift proceeded rapidly after the retreat of the ice , as much as .09 m per year , causing the margins of the sea to regress quickly towards its present margins . The rate of uplift decreased with time however , and in any event was nearly matched by sea-level rise from the melting ice sheets . When the Tyrrell Sea `` became '' Hudson Bay is difficult to define , as Hudson Bay is still shrinking from isostatic rebound .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Tyrrell_Sea", "rank": 55, "score": 128246 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Content: The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment ( ACIA ) is a study describing the ongoing climate change in the Arctic and its consequences : rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , unprecedented melting of the Greenland ice sheet , and many impacts on ecosystems , animals , and people . The ACIA is the first comprehensively researched , fully referenced , and independently reviewed evaluation of Arctic climate change and its impacts for the region and for the world . The project was guided by the intergovernmental Arctic Council and the non-governmental International Arctic Science Committee . Three hundred scientists participated in the study over a span of three years . The 140-page synthesis report Impacts of a Warming Arctic was released in November 2004 , and the scientific report later in 2005 . The ACIA Secretariat is located at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Arctic_Climate_Impact_Assessment", "rank": 56, "score": 128095 }, { "content": "Title: Sea ice Content: Sea ice arises as seawater freezes . Because ice is less dense than water , it floats on the ocean 's surface ( as does fresh water ice , which has an even lower density ) . Sea ice covers about 7 % of the Earth 's surface and about 12 % of the world 's oceans . Much of the world 's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth 's polar regions : the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean . Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent , a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology , including the ocean 's ecosystems . Due to the action of winds , currents and temperature fluctuations , sea ice is very dynamic , leading to a wide variety of ice types and features . Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs , which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean . Depending on location , sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Sea_ice", "rank": 57, "score": 127812 }, { "content": "Title: Lead (sea ice) Content: A lead ( -LSB- ˈliːd -RSB- ) is a large fracture within an expanse of sea ice , defining a linear area of open water that can be used for navigation purposes . Leads vary in width from meters to hundreds of meters . As is the case for polynyas ( another sea ice feature involving open water ) , leads allow the direct interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean , and are important for Arctic sea ice ecology . Additionally it has been lately found that ice leads contribute significantly to the amount of mercury deposited onto surface and leaked into the ocean . If the air is cold enough ( typically in the winter ) , the water within a lead quickly refreezes , such that in many cases , leads are partly or entirely covered by a thin layer of new ice .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Lead_(sea_ice)", "rank": 58, "score": 127774 }, { "content": "Title: Bentley Subglacial Trench Content: Bentley Subglacial Trench is a vast topographic trench in Marie Byrd Land , West Antarctica , 80 ° S , 115 ° W . At 2,555 meters ( 8,382 ft ) below sea level , it is the lowest point on the surface of the earth not covered by ocean , although it is covered by ice . Normally , it is not counted as the lowest point on land , since the overlying ice sheet makes it essentially subterranean . ( See Extremes on Earth and Vestfold Hills ) Also , if the ice melted , the area would be under water . The trench was named in 1961 after Charles R. Bentley who was the geophysicist in charge of the scientific expeditions in West Antarctica in 1957 -- 59 that led to its discovery .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Bentley_Subglacial_Trench", "rank": 59, "score": 127396 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 2006 Content: The North American Blizzard of 2006 was a nor'easter that began on the evening of February 11 , 2006 . It dumped heavy snow across the Mid-Atlantic and New England states , from Virginia to Maine through the early evening of February 12 , and ended in Atlantic Canada on February 13 . The major cities from Baltimore to Boston received at least a foot of snow , with a second-highest amount of 26.9 inches ( 68.3 cm ) in New York City , the ( at the time ) most since at least 1869 , the start of record keeping , only broken by the January 2016 United States blizzard nearly 10 years later .", "qid": "272", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_2006", "rank": 60, "score": 127116 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Tuvalu Content: Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 61, "score": 126885 }, { "content": "Title: Exodus (Bertagna novel) Content: Exodus is a science fiction novel written for teens to young adults by Julie Bertagna , published in August 2002 . The story is set on an island faced with the problem of a rising sea level , caused by melting ice caps and other forms of global warming . Mara must think of a way to save herself , the other villagers and , most importantly , the world . The book was short-listed for the Whitbread Children 's Book of the Year in 2002 . Exodus is part of a trilogy ; the sequel to the book is Zenith , published in 2007 , followed by Aurora , published in 2011 . Julie Bertagna was inspired to write this book in 1999 , when she learned of two South Pacific Islands being engulfed by the sea as a result of global warming , forcing the people to find higher land . Bertagna started to investigate into the topic of global warming and the stories inspired her to write Exodus and its sequel Zenith . The purpose of the book is to inform young readers about global warming and convince them that something must be done about it .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Exodus_(Bertagna_novel)", "rank": 62, "score": 126508 }, { "content": "Title: Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption Content: In response to concerns that volcanic ash ejected during the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland would damage aircraft engines , the controlled airspace of many European countries was closed to instrument flight rules traffic , resulting in the largest air-traffic shut-down since World War II . The closures caused millions of passengers to be strand #Verb not only in Europe , but across the world . With large parts of European airspace closed to air traffic , many more countries were affected as flights to and from Europe were cancelled . After an initial uninterrupted shutdown over much of northern Europe from 15 to 23 April , airspace was closed intermittently in different parts of Europe in the following weeks , as the path of the ash cloud was tracked . The ash cloud caused further disruptions to air travel operations in Ireland , Northern Ireland and Scotland on 4 and 5 May and in Spain , Portugal , northern Italy , Austria and southern Germany on 9 May . Irish and UK airspace closed again on 16 May and reopened on 17 May . The eruption occurred beneath glacial ice . The cold water from the melting ice chilled the lava quickly , causing it to fragment into very small particles of glass ( silica ) and ash , which were carried into the eruption plume . The extremely fine ash particles and the large volume of steam from the glacial meltwater sent an ash plume hazardous to aircraft rapidly high into the upper atmosphere . The presence and location of the plume depended upon the state of the eruption and the winds . The large amount of glacial meltwater flowing into the eruption vent made this eruption so explosive that it injected its ash plume directly into the jet stream , which was unusually stable and south-easterly . The ash was then carried over Europe into one of the busiest airspace in the world . The International Air Transport Association ( IATA ) estimated that the airline industry worldwide would lose a day during the disruption . IATA stated that the total loss for the airline industry was around US$ 1.7 billion ( # 1.1 billion , $ 1.3 billion ) . The Airport Operators Association ( AOA ) estimated that airports lost # 80 million over the six-and-a-half days . Over 95,000 flights had been cancelled all across Europe during the six-day travel ban , with later figures suggesting 107,000 flights cancelled during an 8-day period , accounting for 48 % of total air traffic and roughly 10 million passengers .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Air_travel_disruption_after_the_2010_Eyjafjallajökull_eruption", "rank": 63, "score": 126444 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 64, "score": 126413 }, { "content": "Title: Melt pond Content: Melt ponds are pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer . The ponds are also found on glacial ice and ice shelves . Ponds of melted water can also develop under the ice . Melt ponds are usually darker than the surrounding ice , and their distribution and size is highly variable . They absorb solar radiation rather than reflecting it as ice does and , thereby , have a significant influence on Earth 's radiation balance . This differential , which had not been scientifically investigated until recently , has a large effect on the rate of ice melting and the extent of ice cover . Melt ponds can melt through to the ocean 's surface . Seawater entering the pond increases the melt rate because the salty water of the ocean is warmer than the fresh water of the pond . The increase in salinity also depresses the water 's freezing point . Water from melt ponds over land surface can run into crevasses or moulins -- tubes leading under ice sheets or glaciers -- turning into meltwater . The water may reach the underlying rock . The effect is an increase in the rate of ice flow to the oceans , as the fluid behaves like a lubricant in the basal sliding of glaciers .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Melt_pond", "rank": 65, "score": 126100 }, { "content": "Title: Weddell Polynya Content: The Weddell Polynya or Weddell Sea Polynya is a polynya or irregular area of open water surrounded by sea ice in the Weddell Sea of the Southern Ocean off Antarctica and near the Maud Rise . The size of New Zealand , it re-occurred each winter between 1974 and 1976 . These were the first three austral winters observed by the Nimbus-5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer ( ESMR ) . Since 1976 , the polynya has never been seen again . Since the 1970s , the polar Southern Ocean south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current has freshened and stratified , likely a result of anthropogenic climate change . Such stratification may be responsible for suppressing the return of the Weddell Sea polynya .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Weddell_Polynya", "rank": 66, "score": 125222 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 67, "score": 124916 }, { "content": "Title: Skuleskogen National Park Content: Skuleskogen National Park ( Skuleskogens nationalpark ) is a Swedish national park in Västernorrland County , on the coast of the Baltic Sea , in northern Sweden . It covers 30.62 km , constituting the eastern part of the Forest of Skule . The park is characterized by a very rough topology with many rocky peaks , of which the highest is Slåttdalsberget , 280 m in altitude , rising directly from the sea . The topography is also marked by the presence of deep crevasses and caves . This particular topology can be found throughout the entire High Coast ( Swedish : Höga kusten ) , a region of Sweden so named because it constitutes the highest section of the coast of the Baltic Sea . This region is in our day principally known as a favored site for the observation of the phenomenon of post-glacial rebound . Most of the region was under the sea less than 10,000 years ago , after the ice sheet that blanketed it melted . But thanks to the melting of this mass of ice that had been pressing down upon it , the ground is rising year by year , at a current speed of 8 mm per year . Humans have left their mark upon the park , although they probably never established themselves there in great numbers . Numerous Bronze Age funerary cairns are still visible along the ancient coastline . Later , the forest was mainly used as pasture . Things changed in the middle of the 19th century when the logging industry spread throughout Sweden , affecting almost all the forest of the park . This exploitation ceased , however , at the end of that century , so that the current forest is dominated by trees more than 100 years old . This forest has thus been able to recover a part of its ancestral richness , and so contains an important fauna and flora , with several endangered species , such as the lichen Dolichousnea longissima , which is the park 's symbol . This geological and biological richness led to the creation of a national park in 1984 , followed by the inclusion of the park with the rest of the High Coast in 2000 in the UNESCO World Heritage List . Today , despite its distance from areas of dense human population , the park is a relatively important site of tourism with 20,000 visitors per year . The principal attraction of the park is the 40 m deep crevasse of Slåttdalskrevan , which is easily accessible by numerous hiking trails , including the Höga Kustenleden , which goes along the whole of the High Coast .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Skuleskogen_National_Park", "rank": 68, "score": 124851 }, { "content": "Title: International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Content: For the ICES civil engineering software package see COGO . The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea ( ICES ; Conseil International de l'Exploration de la Mer , CIEM ) is the world 's oldest intergovernmental science organization . ICES is headquartered in Copenhagen , Denmark , where its multinational Secretariat staff of 51 provide scientific , administrative and secretarial support to the ICES community . It was established on July 22 , 1902 in Copenhagen .", "qid": "272", "docid": "International_Council_for_the_Exploration_of_the_Sea", "rank": 69, "score": 124520 }, { "content": "Title: Hemmen Ice Rise Content: Hemmen Ice Rise is an ice rise 11 mi long and 2 to wide , with an estimated area of 55 sqkm , located 17 km off the northwest corner of Berkner Island in the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . The feature appears for the first time on a chart prepared at Ellsworth Station in 1957 by Captain Finn Ronne , U.S. Navy Reserve . The ice rise was subsequently noted in U.S. Earth Resources Technology Satellite imagery . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for George E. Hemmen , Executive Secretary of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in 1972 ; he served with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey as a meteorological observer at Admiralty Bay , 1952 -- 53 , and as Base Leader at Deception Island , 1953 -- 54 , and with the Royal Society Antarctic Expedition , 1956 .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Hemmen_Ice_Rise", "rank": 70, "score": 123952 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic geoengineering Content: Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Arctic_geoengineering", "rank": 71, "score": 123636 }, { "content": "Title: Davis Ice Rise Content: Davis Ice Rise is an ice rise , 4 nmi long , near the terminus of Smith Glacier , 8 nmi southeast of Mayo Peak , Bear Peninsula , on the Walgreen Coast , Marie Byrd Land . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1966 and from Landsat imagery taken 1972 -- 73 . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Commander Arthur R. Davis , U.S. Navy , Supply Officer , Operation Deep Freeze , 1975 -- 76 and 1976 -- 77 .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Davis_Ice_Rise", "rank": 72, "score": 123218 }, { "content": "Title: November 2015 United States ice storm Content: Around Black Friday of 2015 , a major ice storm occurred in the Southern Central Plains , with areas receiving up to 1 in of the frozen precipitation . Residents in the areas were without powers for days , if not weeks . The storm also brought snow to parts of the Midwest , with accumulations up to 1 ft of snow . Historic rainfall also fell too , breaking numerous records .", "qid": "272", "docid": "November_2015_United_States_ice_storm", "rank": 73, "score": 122928 }, { "content": "Title: Cryoseism Content: A cryoseism , also known as an ice quake or a frost quake , is a seismic event that may be caused by a sudden cracking action in frozen soil or rock saturated with water or ice . As water drains into the ground , it may eventually freeze and expand under colder temperatures , putting stress on its surroundings . This stress builds up until relieved explosively in the form of a cryoseism . Another type of cryoseism is a non-tectonic seismic event caused by sudden glacial movements . This movement has been attributed to a veneer of water which may pool underneath a glacier sourced from surface ice melt . Hydraulic pressure of the liquid can act as a lubricant , allowing the glacier to suddenly shift position . This type of cryoseism can be very brief , or may last for several minutes . The requirements for a cryoseism to occur are numerous ; therefore , accurate predictions are not entirely possible and may constitute a factor in structural design and engineering when constructing in an area historically known for such events . Speculation has been made between global warming and the frequency of cryoseisms .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Cryoseism", "rank": 74, "score": 122864 }, { "content": "Title: Miller Ice Rise Content: Miller Ice Rise is an ice rise nearly 2 nmi long and 1 nmi wide at the ice front ( 1974 ) of the Wordie Ice Shelf , 16 nmi west-northwest of the Triune Peaks , in southern Marguerite Bay , Antarctica . It was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1948 -- 49 , and was photographed from the air by the U.S. Navy in 1966 . The feature was named , in 1977 , by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Richard Miller , a U.S. Navy chief radioman at Palmer Station in the winter party of 1968 .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Miller_Ice_Rise", "rank": 75, "score": 122855 }, { "content": "Title: Cold blob (North Atlantic) Content: The cold blob in the North Atlantic describes a cold temperature anomaly of ocean surface waters , affecting the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation ( AMOC ) which is part of the thermohaline circulation , possibly related to global warming-induced melting of the Greenland ice sheet .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Cold_blob_(North_Atlantic)", "rank": 76, "score": 122157 }, { "content": "Title: Lake Whittlesey Content: Lake Whittlesey was a proglacial lake that was an ancestor of present-day Lake Erie . It formed about 14,000 years ago . As the Erie Lobe of the Wisconsin Glacier retreated at the end of the last ice age , it left melt-water in a previously-existing depression area that was the valley of an eastward-flowing river known as the Erigan River that probably emptied into the Atlantic Ocean following the route of today 's Saint Lawrence River . The lake stood at 735 ft to 740 ft above sea level . The remanent beach is not horizontal as there is a ` hinge line ' southwest of a line from Ashtabula , Ohio , through the middle part of Lake St. Clair . The hinge line is where the horizontal beaches of the lake have been warped upwards towards the north by the isostatic rebound as the weight of the ice sheet was removed from the land . The rise is 60 ft north into Michigan and the Ubly outlet . The current altitude of the outlet is 800 ft above sea level . Where the outlet entered the Second Lake Saginaw at Cass City the elevation is 740 ft above sea level . The Lake Whittlesey beach called the Belmore Beach and is a gravel ridge 10 ft to 15 ft high and one-eighth mile ( 18 meters ) wide . Lake Whittlesey was maintained at the level of the Ubly outlet only until the ice melted back on the `` Thumb '' far enough to open a lower outlet . This ice recession went far enough to allow the lake to drop about 20 ft below the lowest of the Arkona beaches to Lake Warren levels . The strip of Lake bottom between the Whittlesey and Warren beaches in southeastern Michigan is largely a clayey plain , the principal exceptions being at deltas of Lake Arkona . The deltas of streams entering Lake Whittlesey are less conspicuous than of the same streams in connection with its predecessor , Lake Arkona . One reason for this is the fact that the rise of water caused estuarine conditions for some distance up the valleys beyond the Whittlesey beach , and it was necessary to fill these estuaries from their heads down-stream past the beach before the lake-bed proper would receive a coating of delta material . Frank Taylor named this body of water , Lake Whittlesey in 1897 . The lake created the Belmore beach of the Erie-Huron basin . It flowed across the `` thumb '' of Michigan , through an outlet known as the Ubly outlet .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Lake_Whittlesey", "rank": 77, "score": 122116 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 1966 Content: The Blizzard of 1966 swept across most of the United States and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains on January 29 , 1966 , and brought record low temperatures , high winds and heavy snowfall in its wake . Within days , at least 142 people had been killed -- 31 had frozen to death , 46 died in fires that started while people were trying to heat their home . Others died from heart attacks while shoveling snow or pushing cars , or traffic accidents caused by slick roads . The death toll reached 201 by Wednesday , February 2 , as the storm eased . On Monday , January 31 , federal government employees in Washington were excused from reporting to work and international airports were closed from Boston to Washington , D.C. . Sixty inches ( five feet or 152 cm ) of snow fell on Oswego , New York , and the additional accumulation raised the snow level to 13 inches in Norfolk , Virginia . By February 1 , additional snow brought the level to 102 inches ( 8 1/2 feet ) to Oswego . ( This held the record for the most snowfall in a single storm in Oswego until the Lake Effect snow storm of February 2007 ) . The storm began as a nor'easter , which affected the New York City metro area and was followed by heavy `` wraparound '' lake effect snows . Winds were more than 60 mph during the storm , and at Fair Haven , New York they are believed to have exceeded 100 mph . The snow was badly drifted and roads and schools closed as long as a week . Drifts covered entire 2 story houses . A total of 103 inches of snow was recorded at Oswego , 50 inches of this falling on the last day of the storm alone . 50 inches of snow were also recorded at Camden , New York on the same day . The last day of the blizzard the winds subsided and snowburst conditions prevailed , with the snow falling straight down . Fair Haven did not have official snowfall records at the time , but state troopers reported measuring 100 inches of snow on the level , where none had been prior to the storm . Syracuse , New York received a record snowfall of 42.3 inches which remained their heaviest storm on record , until the Blizzard of 1993 . The storm lasted from January 27 to January 31 , 1966 , a total of 4 1/2 days . The daily snowfall totals for Oswego are as follows . January 27 , 1966 : 8 '' January 28 , 1966 : 12 '' January 29 , 1966 : 11 '' January 30 , 1966 : 21 '' January 31 , 1966 : 50 '' On January 22 -- 23 of 1966 , two other New York counties , Batavia and Genesee , each had 2 feet of snow fall on that Saturday night alone . The only thing that prevented that snowstorm from becoming a true blizzard like this infamous one of the very next weekend was the lack of high winds .", "qid": "272", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_1966", "rank": 78, "score": 121651 }, { "content": "Title: Pressure melting point Content: The pressure melting point is the temperature at which ice melts at a given pressure . The pressure melting point is a constant 0 ° C at pressures above the triple point at 611.7 Pa , where water can exist in only the solid or liquid phases , through atmospheric pressure ( 100 kPa ) until about 10 MPa . With increasing pressure above 10 MPa , the pressure melting point decreases to a minimum of − 21.9 ° C at 209.9 MPa . Thereafter , the pressure melting point rises rapidly with pressure , passing back through 0 ° C at 632.4 MPa .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Pressure_melting_point", "rank": 79, "score": 121485 }, { "content": "Title: Melting (EP) Content: Melting is the second EP by South Korean singer Hyuna , released on October 21 , 2012 . It features the number one single , `` Ice Cream '' . The release date was originally scheduled for October 22 , 2012 but due to a leak it was digitally released a day earlier by Cube Entertainment .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Melting_(EP)", "rank": 80, "score": 121346 }, { "content": "Title: Tharp Ice Rise Content: Tharp Ice Rise is an ice rise , about 1.3 nautical miles ( 2.4 km ) long , located at the ice front ( 1966 ) of Larsen Ice Shelf , 15 nautical miles ( 28 km ) east of Cape Fanning , Merz Peninsula , Black Coast . The ice rise was mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1966-69 . In association with the names of Antarctic oceanographers grouped in this area , named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1977 after Marie Tharp , American marine geologist and oceanographer of Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory , Columbia University , New York . Category : Ice rises of Antarctica Category : Landforms of Palmer Land", "qid": "272", "docid": "Tharp_Ice_Rise", "rank": 81, "score": 120366 }, { "content": "Title: West Svartisen Ice-cap Content: The West Svartisen Ice-cap is an ice cap glacier , occupying 201 km2 of the coastal area of central Norway , just inside the Arctic Circle . Most of the glacier is around 1000 metres above sea level on a high plateau . The ice-cap owes its existence to the high snowfall rates in the region , rather than the cold temperatures , similar to other glacier close by such as the Jostedalsbreen glacier . The surface on the top of the plateau feeds many outlet glaciers , including the Engabreen glacier . The status of the glacier is unknown , although some of the outlet glaciers are advancing and gaining ice mass .", "qid": "272", "docid": "West_Svartisen_Ice-cap", "rank": 82, "score": 120027 }, { "content": "Title: Hirnantian Content: The Hirnantian is the seventh and final internationally recognized stage of the Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era . It was of short duration , lasting about 1.9 million years , from to Ma ( million years ago ) . The early part of the Hirnantian was characterized by cold temperatures , major glaciation , and a severe drop in sea level . In the latter part of the Hirnantian , temperatures rose , the glaciers melted , and sea level returned to the same or to a slightly higher level than it had been prior to the glaciation . Most scientists believe that this climatic oscillation caused the major extinction event that took place during this time . In fact , the Hirnantian ( also known as the End Ordovician and the Ordovician-Silurian ) mass extinction event represents the second largest such event in geologic history . Approximately 85 % of marine ( sea-dwelling ) species died . Only the End Permian mass extinction was larger . Unlike many smaller extinction events , however , the long-term consequences of the End Ordovician event were relatively small . Following the climatic oscillation , the climate returned to its previous state , and the species that survived soon ( within two or three million years ) evolved into species very similar to the ones that existed before .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Hirnantian", "rank": 83, "score": 119507 }, { "content": "Title: Philippi Rise Content: Philippi Rise is a low , snow-covered promontory 7 nautical miles ( 13 km ) wide and extending some 10 nautical miles ( 18 km ) southeast from the east coast of Graham Land . The ice surface is highest in the west , where it rises to about 395 m and is broken by Borchgrevink and Gemini Nunataks . The Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Nordenskjold , 1901 -- 04 , reported an ice wall or glacial terrace in the vicinity of Borchgrevink Nunatak . Although unable to determine its nature , Nordenskjold named the feature Philippigletscher , after Emil Philippi . It was determined to be a snow-covered promontory by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) during their 1947 survey of this coast . Category : Mountains of Graham Land Category : Oscar II Coast", "qid": "272", "docid": "Philippi_Rise", "rank": 84, "score": 119426 }, { "content": "Title: McDonald Ice Rumples Content: The McDonald Ice Rumples constitute an ice rise in the Brunt Ice Shelf bordering the Weddell Sea in Antarctica , covering an area of 3 by . Ernest Shackleton 's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition reported a glacier in this vicinity in January 1915 . It was named `` Allan McDonald Glacier '' after Allan McDonald of the British Association of Magallanes at Punta Arenas , who was chiefly responsible for raising funds for sending the schooner Emma on the third attempt , in July 1916 , to rescue the 22 men of the Endurance left on Elephant Island . The Royal Society International Geophysical Year expeditions occupied Halley Research Station nearby ( 1955 -- 59 ) and were familiar with this feature , and reported that in 1957 the maximum elevation above the general surface of the ice shelf , a few hundred metres from the ice front , was about 18 m . It has now been identified with `` Allan McDonald Glacier '' , and for the sake of historical continuity the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee has given the name McDonald to these ice rumples .", "qid": "272", "docid": "McDonald_Ice_Rumples", "rank": 85, "score": 119276 }, { "content": "Title: Old Pulteney Row To The Pole Content: The Old Pulteney Row To The Pole was a publicity stunt sponsored by a whisky distiller for naming rights , which navigated a rowing boat to the North Magnetic Pole at 78 ° 35.7 N 104 ° 11.9 W , the position certified in 1996 . It is believed to be the only polar expedition to feature rowing boats since the crew of Sir Ernest Shackleton 's row to Elephant Island off South Georgia in 1916 , after his aborted attempt to cross Antarctica . The 450-mile journey took almost four weeks . The expedition set out from Resolute Bay on July 28 , 2011 reaching the Pole position on August 25 . It was the first time any surface vessel under human power had been to any pole position . The expedition was the first attempt at such a voyage and was made possible by the open water in the Arctic region in summer . According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center , part of the University of Colorado , the Arctic sea ice melted to its third smallest extent ( since 1979 , when satellite measurements began ) in September 2010 . Prior to 1979 ice extents are unreliable .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Old_Pulteney_Row_To_The_Pole", "rank": 86, "score": 119130 }, { "content": "Title: Canadian Arctic Archipelago Content: The Canadian Arctic Archipelago , also known as the Arctic Archipelago , is a group of islands north of the Canadian mainland . Situated in the northern extremity of North America and covering about 1424500 km2 , this group of 36,563 islands in the Arctic Sea comprises much of the territory of Northern Canada -- most of Nunavut and part of the Northwest Territories . The Canadian Arctic Archipelago is showing some effects of global warming , with some computer estimates determining that melting there will contribute 3.5 cm to the rise in sea levels by 2100 .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Canadian_Arctic_Archipelago", "rank": 87, "score": 119054 }, { "content": "Title: Meltwater Content: Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice , including glacial ice , tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans . Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers , where the rate of snow cover is reducing . Meltwater can be produced during volcanic eruptions , in a similar way in which the more dangerous lahars form . When meltwater pools on the surface rather than flowing , it forms melt ponds . As the weather gets colder meltwater will often re-freeze . Meltwater can collect or melt under the ice 's surface . These pools of water , known as subglacial lakes can form due to geothermal heat and friction .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Meltwater", "rank": 88, "score": 119034 }, { "content": "Title: Korff Ice Rise Content: Korff Ice Rise is an ice rise , 80 nmi long and 20 nmi wide , lying 50 nmi east-northeast of Skytrain Ice Rise in the southwestern part of the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . It was discovered by the US -- IGY Ellsworth Traverse Party , 1957 -- 58 , and named by the party for Professor Serge A. Korff , vice chairman of the cosmic ray technical panel , U.S. National Committee for the International Geophysical Year , 1957 -- 59 .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Korff_Ice_Rise", "rank": 89, "score": 118563 }, { "content": "Title: North Greenland Ice Core Project Content: The drilling site of the North Greenland Ice Core Project ( NGRIP or NorthGRIP ) is near the center of Greenland ( 75.1 N , 42.32 W , 2917 m , ice thickness 3085 ) . Drilling began in 1999 and was completed at bedrock in 2003 . The cores are cylinders of ice 11 centimeters in diameter that were brought to the surface in 3.5-meter lengths . The NGRIP site was chosen to extract a long and undisturbed record stretching into the last glacial , and it succeeded . The site was chosen for a flat basal topography to avoid the flow distortions that render the bottom of the GRIP and GISP cores unreliable . Unusually , there is melting at the bottom of the NGRIP core - believed to be due to a high geothermal heat flux locally . This has the advantage that the bottom layers are less compressed by thinning than they would otherwise be : NGRIP annual layers at 105 kyr age are 1.1 cm thick , twice the GRIP thicknesses at equal age . The NGRIP record helps to resolve a problem with the GRIP and GISP2 records - the unreliability of the Eemian Stage portion of the record . NGRIP covers 5 kyr of the Eemian , and shows that temperatures then were roughly as stable as the pre-industrial Holocene temperatures were . This is confirmed by sediment cores , in particular MD95-2042 . In 2003 , NGRIP recovered what seem to be plant remnants nearly two miles below the surface , and they may be several million years old . `` Several of the pieces look very much like blades of grass or pine needles , '' said University of Colorado at Boulder geological sciences Professor James White , an NGRIP principal investigator . `` If confirmed , this will be the first organic material ever recovered from a deep ice-core drilling project , '' he said .", "qid": "272", "docid": "North_Greenland_Ice_Core_Project", "rank": 90, "score": 118498 }, { "content": "Title: Thiel Trough Content: Thiel Trough is a submarine trough trending NE-SW with depths reaching to 1,500 metres below sea level . The trough extends southwest from about 7630S , 3500W , in the Weddell Sea ; underlies Filchner Ice Shelf and the south part of Ronne Ice Shelf , south of Henry Ice Rise ; and continues west to about 8300S , 8500W , near Martin Hills . The portion northeast of the Henry Ice Rise was discovered in 1957-58 by a U.S. traverse party from Ellsworth Station and named `` Crary Trough '' after Albert P. Crary , chief scientist with the United States Antarctic Research Program ( USARP ) . The southwest portion was traced by U.S. seismic traverse parties , 1958 -- 64 , and the whole delineated in greater detail by the Scott Polar Research Institute ( SPRI ) - National Science Foundation ( NSF ) - Technical University of Denmark ( TUD ) airborne radio echo sounding program , 1967-79 . The name `` Crary Trough '' was later set aside by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) at the suggestion of Dr. Crary , who recommended that the entire trough be named after Dr. Edward C. Thiel ( 1928 -- 61 ) . Dr Thiel was chief seismologist at Ellsworth Station 1956 -- 58 , the leader of the traverse party that discovered this feature and died in an air-crash at Wilkes Station Antarctica . Category : Oceanic basins of the Southern Ocean Category : Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf", "qid": "272", "docid": "Thiel_Trough", "rank": 91, "score": 118364 }, { "content": "Title: 1872 Baltic Sea flood Content: The 1872 Baltic Sea flood ( Ostseesturmhochwasser 1872 ) , often referred to as a storm flood , ravaged the Baltic Sea coast from Denmark to Pomerania in the night of 12/13 November 1872 and was , until then , the worst storm surge in the Baltic . The highest recorded peak water level was about 3.3 m above sea level ( NN ) .", "qid": "272", "docid": "1872_Baltic_Sea_flood", "rank": 92, "score": 118225 }, { "content": "Title: Vashon Glaciation Content: The Vashon Glaciation or Vashon Stade was the most recent period of very cold climate in which glaciers existed at elevations at and near sea level in the western part of present-day Washington state . It occurred during a colder than present part of the current ice age . The Vashon Glaciation lasted from about 19,000 - 16,000 BP ( Before Present - present defined as January 1 , 1950 for this scale ) . The Cordilleran Ice Sheet was an ice sheet that covered present-day southern Alaska and parts of western Canada . During the Vashon Glaciation , the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced into the Puget Sound region .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Vashon_Glaciation", "rank": 93, "score": 118199 }, { "content": "Title: Early March 2015 United States winter storm Content: The Early March 2015 United States winter storm was a significant snow and ice storm that plowed through much of the United States , bringing 1 -- 2 ft of snow and record cold temperatures behind it . The storm actually occurred in two phases , with the latter bringing the cold temperatures behind it in its wake . Record cold temperatures even spread down to as far as northern Florida .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Early_March_2015_United_States_winter_storm", "rank": 94, "score": 117190 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 95, "score": 117158 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-ice Content: Ice-ice is a disease condition of seaweed . Ice-ice is caused when changes in salinity , ocean temperature and light intensity cause stress to seaweeds , making them produce a `` moist organic substance '' that attracts bacteria in the water and induces the characteristic `` whitening '' and hardening of the seaweed 's tissues . Bacteria involved include those in the Vibrio-Aeromonas and Cytophaga-Flavobacteria complexes . The bacteria lyse epidermal cells and chloroplasts , turning the seaweed tissue white . The disease is known from seaweeds including Kappaphycus alvarezii and Eucheuma denticulatum , economically important sources of carrageenan . In countries where seaweed is harvested as a crop , ice-ice can wreak havoc on yields . Zamboanga , Philippines , had an outbreak of ice-ice in 2004 , and Bali , Indonesia , experienced an outbreak in 2009 . A rise in surface sea temperatures of 2-3 degrees Celsius can trigger ice-ice outbreaks .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Ice-ice", "rank": 96, "score": 117098 }, { "content": "Title: Lake North Pole Content: Lake North Pole , also known as The North Pool , is a small , shallow lake near the North Pole , and is currently the northernmost lake in the world . It came into existence in 2002 , occurring each year , then freezing over in the winter . The lake , which is approximately one foot deep , is composed almost entirely of fresh water melted from the ice beneath . A web camera is stationed beside the lake to monitor changes . It was built by the Polar Science Center . On July 26 , 2013 , the depth was estimated to be approximately 40 cm . Members of the scientific community are not alarmed by such bodies of water , stating that they occur widely , and often refer to them as `` melt ponds '' .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Lake_North_Pole", "rank": 97, "score": 116989 }, { "content": "Title: Ice shelf Content: An ice shelf is a thick floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface . Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica , Greenland , Canada and the Russian Arctic . The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ( resting on bedrock ) ice that feeds it is called the grounding line . The thickness of ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters . In contrast , sea ice is formed on water , is much thinner ( typically less than 3m ) , and forms throughout the Arctic Ocean . It also is found in the Southern Ocean around the continent of Antarctica . Ice shelves are principally driven by gravity-driven pressure from the grounded ice . That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf . The primary mechanism of mass loss from ice shelves was thought to have been iceberg calving , in which a chunk of ice breaks off from the seaward front of the shelf . A study by NASA and university researchers - published in the June 14 , 2013 issue of Science - found however that ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent 's ice shelf mass loss . Typically , a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events . Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf . Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf . The density contrast between glacial ice , which is denser than normal ice , and liquid water means that only about 1/9 of the floating ice is above the ocean surface . The world 's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica . The term captured ice shelf has been used for the ice over a subglacial lake , such as Lake Vostok .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Ice_shelf", "rank": 98, "score": 116852 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1894 -- 95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 C . Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain . Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885 -- 86 to 1894 -- 95 was 2.87 C , no winter with a CET under 3.0 C followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940 . In contrast , between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 C had lasted longer than twelve winters . Although this winter -- which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881 , 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 -- affected most of Europe and North America very severely , the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs . The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames , which froze for the last time on record . Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state , most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people . There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather , with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London 's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor , and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators . Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible , whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold .", "qid": "272", "docid": "Winter_of_1894–95_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 99, "score": 116569 }, { "content": "Title: Pliocene climate Content: During the Pliocene epoch ( 5.3 Ma to 2.6 Ma ) climate became cooler and drier , and seasonal , similar to modern climates . The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene ( 3.3 Ma -- 3 Ma ) was 2 -- 3 ° C higher than today , global sea level 25m higher and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma . The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds . Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch . The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . During the Pliocene the earth climate system response shifted from a period of high frequency-low amplitude oscillation dominated by the 41,000-year period of Earth 's obliquity to one of low-frequency , high-amplitude oscillation dominated by the 100,000-year period of the orbital eccentricity characteristic of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles . The equatorial pacific ocean sea surface temperature gradient was considerably lower than it is today , mean sea surface temperature in the east were substantially warmer than today but similar in the west , this condition has been described as a permanent El Niño state or El Padre", "qid": "272", "docid": "Pliocene_climate", "rank": 100, "score": 116567 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 1, "score": 151439 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 2, "score": 98092 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 3, "score": 95676 }, { "content": "Title: Slow Heat Content: Slow Heat ( 1998 ) is an album by the American ambient musician Steve Roach . It contains one 71-minute track composed for continuous playback . The music consists of a natural insect ambience , recorded just outside Roach 's house , and slow , pulsating electronic chords . For inspiration , during the development of this recording , Roach monitored the mix on both indoor and outdoor speakers .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Slow_Heat", "rank": 4, "score": 95171 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 5, "score": 94260 }, { "content": "Title: 8.2 kiloyear event Content: In climatology , the 8.2 kiloyear event was a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present , or c. 6,200 BCE , and which lasted for the next two to four centuries . Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it , but more severe than the Little Ice Age that would follow , the 8.2 kiloyear cooling was a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum . During the event , atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb or an emission reduction of 15 % , by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale .", "qid": "275", "docid": "8.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 6, "score": 94023 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "275", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 7, "score": 92880 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 8, "score": 92355 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 South-Eastern Australian heatwave Content: The 2014 South-Eastern Australian Heatwave was a prolonged period of time in which highly unseasonal weather was recorded across the south and south-eastern corridor of mainland Australia . The heatwave commenced during early May , and was the longest ever recorded in Australia 's modern history , lasting in some places up to 15 days . Sydney , Melbourne and Adelaide were most hard hit , with temperatures in these areas breaking late Autumn records and causing a distinct lack of precipitation , especially in Sydney , Australia 's most populous city . The cause of this phenomenon was a large blocking High pressure system situated over the Tasman sea , which pushed usual Autumn cold fronts far south of the mainland .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2014_South-Eastern_Australian_heatwave", "rank": 9, "score": 91207 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "275", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 10, "score": 88363 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 11, "score": 87689 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 12, "score": 85570 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 Eastern North America heat wave Content: The 1911 Eastern North America heat wave was an 11-day heat wave in New York City and other Eastern cities that killed 380 people starting on July 4 , 1911 . In Nashua , New Hampshire , the temperature peaked at 106 degrees Fahrenheit ( 41 C ) . In New York City , 146 people and 600 horses died . In Boston , the temperature rose to 104 ° ( 40 ° C ) on July 4 , an all-time record high that still stands today .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1911_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 13, "score": 85270 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 1999 Content: The Blizzard of 1999 was a strong winter snowstorm which struck the Midwestern United States and portions of central and eastern Canada , hitting hardest in Iowa , Wisconsin , Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , Ohio , Ontario and Quebec dumping as much as 60 cm ( 2 feet ) of snow in many areas . Chicago received a recorded 21.6 in . The storm hit just after New Year 's Day , between January 2 and January 4 , 1999 . Travel was severely disrupted throughout the areas and the cities of Chicago and Toronto were also paralyzed . Additionally , record low temperatures were measured in many towns in the days immediately after the storm ( January 4 - January 8 ) .", "qid": "275", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_1999", "rank": 14, "score": 85207 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 15, "score": 84462 }, { "content": "Title: Self accelerating decomposition temperature Content: The self-accelerating decomposition temperature ( SADT ) is the lowest temperature at which an organic peroxide in a typical vessel or shipping package will undergo a self-accelerating decomposition within one week . The SADT is the point at which the heat evolution from the decomposition reaction and the heat removal rate from the package of interest become unbalanced . When the heat removal is too low , the temperature in the package increases and the rate of decomposition increases in an uncontrollable manner . The result is therefore dependent on the formulation and the package characteristics . A self-accelerating decomposition occurs when the rate of peroxide decomposition is sufficient to generate heat at a faster rate than it can be dissipated to the environment . Temperature is the main factor in determining the decomposition rate , although the size of the package is also important since its dimensions will determine the ability to dissipate heat to the environment . All peroxides contain an oxygen-oxygen bond that , on heating , can break apart homolytically to generate two radicals . As mentioned previously , this decomposition also generates heat . But the stability of the oxygen-oxygen bond is dependent on what else is present in the molecule . Some peroxides , due to their chemical make-up , are very unstable and need to be refrigerated to avoid a self-accelerating decomposition . Others , particularly those used for crosslinking purposes , are much more stable and can be stored at normal ambient temperatures without risk of self-acceleration . Due to the large variations in the stabilities of peroxides , each is tested to determine the safe maximum temperature for which the peroxide may be stored , shipped , and handled . The result of this test is the self-accelerating decomposition temperature ( SADT ) . Although a number of organic peroxides can safely be stored at room temperature , most require some form of temperature control . For long storage periods , the organic peroxide is usually kept at a lower temperature than the maximum safe storage temperature as determined by the SADT . The SADT for an organic peroxide formulation is usually lower for more concentrated formulations . Dilution with a compatible , high boiling point diluent will usually increase the SADT since the peroxide is dilute and the diluent can absorb much of the heat minimizing the increase in temperature . Also , for an organic peroxide formulation , larger packages generally have a lower SADT because of the poorer heat transfer of the larger package due to lower surface area to volume ratio . Most organic peroxides react to some extent with their decomposition products during thermal decomposition . This often increases the rate since the decomposition proceeds more rapidly as the decomposition products are generated . The SADT measurement is made as follows : The package containing the peroxide is placed in oven set for test temperature The timer starts when product reaches 2 ° C below intended test temperature The oven is held at constant temperature for up to one week or , until a runaway event occurs . Test `` Passes '' if product does not exceed test ( oven ) temperature by 6 ° C within one week Test `` Fails '' if product exceeds test temperature by 6 ° C within one week The test is repeated in 5 ° C increments until a failure is reached Fail temperature is reported as SADT for that package and formulation Secondary information about the violence of the decomposition can also be recorded As an alternative to the oven test the SADT for larger packages can be determined by substituting a Dewar flask for the package . The heat transfer of the Dewar flask can be matched to the heat transfer of a larger package size . This test is called the Heat Accumulation Storage Test ( HAST ) .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Self_accelerating_decomposition_temperature", "rank": 16, "score": 84006 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 17, "score": 83698 }, { "content": "Title: 1998–2002 Argentine great depression Content: The 1998 -- 2002 Argentine Great Depression was an economic depression in Argentina , which began in the third quarter of 1998 and lasted until the second quarter of 2002 . It almost immediately followed the 1974 -- 1990 Great Depression after a brief period of rapid economic growth . The depression , which began after the Russian and Brazilian financial crises , caused widespread unemployment , riots , the fall of the government , a default on the country 's foreign debt , the rise of alternative currencies and the end of the peso 's fixed exchange rate to the US dollar . The economy shrank by 28 percent from 1998 to 2002 . In terms of income , over 50 percent of Argentines were poor and 25 percent , indigent ; seven out of ten Argentine children were poor at the depth of the crisis in 2002 . By the first half of 2003 , however , GDP growth had returned , surprising economists and the business media , and the economy grew by an average of 9 % for five years . Argentina 's GDP exceeded pre-crisis levels by 2005 , and Argentine debt restructuring that year were resumed payments on most of its defaulted bonds ; a second debt restructuring in 2010 brought the percentage of bonds out of default to 93 % , though holdout lawsuits led by vulture funds remained ongoing . Bondholders who participated in the restructuring have been paid punctually and have seen the value of their bonds rise . Argentina repaid its International Monetary Fund loans in full in 2006 , but had a long dispute with the 7 % of bond-holders left . In April 2016 Argentina came out of the default when the new government decided to repay the country 's debt , paying the full amount to the vulture/hedge funds .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998–2002_Argentine_great_depression", "rank": 18, "score": 83570 }, { "content": "Title: Anna Bågenholm Content: Anna Elisabeth Johansson Bågenholm ( born 1970 ) is a Swedish radiologist from Vänersborg , who survived after a skiing accident in 1999 left her trapped under a layer of ice for 80 minutes in freezing water . During this time she became a victim of extreme hypothermia and her body temperature decreased to 13.7 ° C , one of the lowest survived body temperatures ever recorded in a human with accidental hypothermia . Bågenholm was able to find an air pocket under the ice , but suffered circulatory arrest after 40 minutes in the water . After rescue , Bågenholm was transported by helicopter to the Tromsø University Hospital , where a team of more than a hundred doctors and nurses worked in shifts for nine hours to save her life . Bågenholm woke up ten days after the accident , paralyzed from the neck down and subsequently spent two months recovering in an intensive care unit . Although she has made an almost full recovery from the incident , late in 2009 she was still suffering from minor symptoms in hands and feet related to nerve injury . Bågenholm 's case has been discussed in the leading British medical journal The Lancet , and in medical textbooks .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Anna_Bågenholm", "rank": 19, "score": 83224 }, { "content": "Title: Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 Content: The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 reduced several federal taxes in the United States . Starting in 1998 , a $ 400 tax credit for each child under age 17 was introduced , which was increased to $ 500 in 1999 . This credit was phased out for high income families The top marginal long term capital gains rate fell from 28 % to 20 % , subject to certain phase-in rules . The 15 % bracket was lowered to 10 % . . Roth IRAs were established , permanently exempting these retirement accounts from capital gains taxes . The act permanently exempted from taxation the capital gains on the sale of a personal residence of up to $ 500,000 for married couples filing jointly and $ 250,000 for singles . This exemption applies to residences the taxpayer ( s ) lived in for at least two years over the last five . Taxpayers can only claim the exemption once every two years . The $ 600,000 estate tax exemption was to increase gradually to $ 1 million by the year 2006 . As inherited assets are automatically revalued to their current or `` stepped-up '' basis , any capital gains are permanently exempted from taxation . Family farms and small businesses could qualify for an exemption of $ 1.3 million , effective 1998 . Starting in 1999 , the $ 10,000 annual gift tax exclusion was to be corrected for inflation . The act also provided tax exemptions for retirement accounts as well as education savings in the Hope Scholarship Credit and Lifetime Learning Credits . Some expiring business tax provisions were extended .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Taxpayer_Relief_Act_of_1997", "rank": 20, "score": 82779 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian heat wave Content: In May 2015 , India was struck by a severe heat wave . , it has caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people in multiple regions . The heat wave occurred during the Indian dry season , which typically lasts from March to July with peak temperatures in April and May . Although it typically remains hot until late October , Indian monsoons often provide some respite from the heat . The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring Telangana , where more than 1,735 and 585 people died respectively , were the areas most affected by the heat wave . Other casualties were from the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha . The high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities . The 2015 heat wave has had the highest recorded temperatures since 1995 . In May 2016 , a new record was set in Phalodi .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2015_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 21, "score": 82650 }, { "content": "Title: Cretaceous Thermal Maximum Content: Cretaceous Thermal Maximum , also known as Cretaceous Thermal Optimum , was a period early in the Late Cretaceous notable for its dramatic increase in global temperatures .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Cretaceous_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 22, "score": 82182 }, { "content": "Title: 1999–2000 NFL playoffs Content: The National Football League playoffs for the 1999 season began on January 8 , 2000 . The postseason tournament concluded with the St. Louis Rams defeating the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV , 23 -- 16 , on January 30 , at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta , Georgia . These playoffs were notable in that all outdoor games were played with gametime temperatures of 50 ° F or higher , making for one of the warmest playoff seasons of all time . It was the first time no California-based NFL team made the playoffs since 1969 .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1999–2000_NFL_playoffs", "rank": 23, "score": 82130 }, { "content": "Title: List of Temperatures Rising episodes Content: Temperatures Rising is an American television sitcom that aired for two years on the ABC network , during which time it was presented in three different formats and cast line-ups with a total of 46 episodes . The series was originally developed , produced , and occasionally directed by William Asher for Ashmont Productions and Screen Gems and premiered on September 12 , 1972 , in the time slot of Tuesday nights at 8:00 PM . The regular cast consisted of Cleavon Little as Dr. Jerry Noland , Joan Van Ark as Nurse Annie Carlisle , Reva Rose as Nurse Mildred `` Millie '' MacInerny , Nancy Fox as Student Nurse Ellen Turner , and James Whitmore as Dr. Vincent Campanelli . The premise of the series featured Campanelli as the no-nonsense chief-of-staff of Capitol General , a ( fictional ) Washington , D.C. hospital , who is forced to deal with the outlandish antics of Noland and the three nurses , whom Campanelli refers to as `` the four horsemen of aggravation '' . During its first season -- and first format -- 26 episodes were aired with the final one broadcast on . Reruns of the season 's episodes continued until September 4 , 1973 . Despite heavy competition in the ratings from Maude on CBS and Bonanza on NBC , Temperatures Rising did well enough in its first season to be renewed for a second . For this second season , John Mitchell , the head of Screen Gems , decided to replace James Whitmore with comedian Paul Lynde , whose own sitcom , The Paul Lynde Show ( also produced by William Asher for the 1972 -- 73 season ) was to be cancelled . Asher was against the change and declined to continue with Temperatures Rising , resulting in him being replaced as producer by Duke Vincent and Bruce Johnson . Under them , Van Ark , Rose , and Fox were dropped from the cast along with Whitmore , thus retaining Little as the only returning member . The New Temperatures Rising Show , as the series was now retitled , began airing on , and starred Paul Lynde as Dr. Paul Mercy , Sudie Bond as his mother Martha Mercy , Barbara Cason as Miss Tillis , the head nurse , Jennifer Darling as Nurse `` Windy '' Winchester , Jeff Morrow as Dr. Lloyd Axton , John Dehner as Dr. Charles Cleveland Claver , and Cleavon Little as Dr. Jerry Noland , while Jerry Houser was featured in a recurring role as an intern named Haskell . In this season Mercy was presented as the penny-pinching chief-of-staff , with his nagging mother as the owner of the hospital . Little 's character was changed to the chief surgeon and `` the only sane member of this medical madhouse '' . The New Temperatures Rising Show ran for 13 episodes before being placed on hiatus on . The ratings for the show were poor and , as a result , Mitchell asked Asher to return to the series as producer and restore it to its original format -- albeit with Paul Lynde continuing in the lead . For the third format of the series -- which reverted to the original title of Temperatures Rising -- Bond , Cason , Darling , Morrow , Dehner , and Houser were dropped from the cast while Lynde and Little continued on as , respectively , Dr. Mercy and Dr. Nolan . Added to the line-up were Alice Ghostley as Nurse Edwina Moffitt , sister of Dr. Mercy , and Barbara Rucker as Nurse Kelly , while Nancy Fox , from the first-season cast , returned as Nurse Ellen Turner . Offered as a summer replacement on Thursday nights , the third format of the sitcom ran for seven episodes from July 18 to , after which it was cancelled permanently . As of , , Temperatures Rising has not been released on DVD or Blu-ray Disc .", "qid": "275", "docid": "List_of_Temperatures_Rising_episodes", "rank": 24, "score": 81998 }, { "content": "Title: Timeline of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1998 Atlantic hurricane season was an average Atlantic hurricane season in which twelve named storms formed . Although Tropical Storm Alex formed on July 27 , the season officially began on June 1 and ended on November 30 , dates that conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones develop in the Atlantic basin . The final storm , Hurricane Nicole , lasted until December 1 , one day after the official end of the season . The season produced fourteen tropical depressions , all of which intensified into tropical storms , ten became hurricanes , and three became major hurricanes . The two most significant storms of the season , in terms of loss of life and damage , were hurricanes Georges and Mitch . The former traveled across much of the Greater and Lesser Antilles and made landfall in Mississippi as a Category 2 hurricane . Resulting in extensive damage and a large number of fatalities . Hurricane Mitch 's slow movement over Central America caused catastrophic flooding , making it the second deadliest Atlantic tropical cyclone on record . This timeline includes information that was not operationally released , meaning that data from post-storm reviews by the National Hurricane Center , such as a storm that was not operationally warned upon , has been included . This timeline documents tropical cyclone formations , strengthening , weakening , landfalls , extratropical transitions , and dissipations during the season .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Timeline_of_the_1998_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 25, "score": 81968 }, { "content": "Title: 12th Lok Sabha Content: List of Members of the 12th Lok Sabha , ( 10 March 1998 -- 26 April 1999 ) after Indian general election , 1998 held during February -- March 1998 . This was the third consecutive Lok Sabha like 10th Lok Sabha and 11th Lok Sabha elections that did n't provide the country a stable government . Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the 16th prime minister of India but government lasted only about 13 month due to not clear mandate and the party was not able to get support from other parties , after withdraw of support by AIADMK . After his resignation , then President K. R. Narayanan asked Sonia Gandhi , the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha to form the government ; however , Gandhi responded that the UPA would not be able to form a government at the centre , following which President Narayan dissolved the House . The next General elections of 1999 for 13th Lok Sabha provided India a stable government that lasted for full five years .", "qid": "275", "docid": "12th_Lok_Sabha", "rank": 26, "score": 81417 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 27, "score": 81091 }, { "content": "Title: Copyright Term Extension Act Content: The Copyright Term Extension Act ( CTEA ) of 1998 extended copyright terms in the United States . It is one of several acts extending the terms of copyrights . Following the Copyright Act of 1976 , copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years , or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship . The 1976 Act also increased the extension term for works copyrighted before 1978 that had not already entered the public domain from twenty-eight years to forty-seven years , giving a total term of seventy-five years . The 1998 Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication , whichever endpoint is earlier . Copyright protection for works published before January 1 , 1978 , was increased by 20 years to a total of 95 years from their publication date . This law , also known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act , Sonny Bono Act , or ( derisively ) the Mickey Mouse Protection Act , effectively `` froze '' the advancement date of the public domain in the United States for works covered by the older fixed term copyright rules . Under this Act , additional works made in 1923 or afterwards that were still protected by copyright in 1998 will not enter the public domain until 2019 or afterward ( depending on the date of the product ) unless the owner of the copyright releases them into the public domain before then . Unlike copyright extension legislation in the European Union , the Sonny Bono Act did not revive copyrights that had already expired . The Act did extend the terms of protection set for works that were already copyrighted , and is retroactive in that sense . However , works created before January 1 , 1978 , but not published or registered for copyright until recently , are addressed in a special section and may remain protected until the end of 2047 . The Act became on October 27 , 1998 .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Copyright_Term_Extension_Act", "rank": 28, "score": 80897 }, { "content": "Title: Interglacial Content: An interglacial period ( or alternatively interglacial , interglaciation ) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age . The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene , about 11,700 years ago .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Interglacial", "rank": 29, "score": 80600 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "275", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 30, "score": 80473 }, { "content": "Title: Meteorological history of Hurricane Georges Content: The meteorological history of Hurricane Georges spanned seventeen days from September 15 to October 1 , 1998 . Hurricane Georges began as a tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa during mid-September 1998 . Tracking westward , the wave spawned an area of low pressure two days later , which quickly strengthened into a tropical depression . On September 16 , the depression was upgraded to Tropical Storm Georges , and to Hurricane Georges the next day . Over the next few days , an eye developed and deep Atmospheric convection persisted around it . Strong outflow and warm sea surface temperatures allowed the storm to intensify as it tracked towards the west-northwest . The storm reached its peak intensity on September 20 with winds of 155 mph ( 250 km/h ) , just below Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale , and a barometric pressure of 937 mbar ( hPa ; 27.68 inHg ) . Over the following five days , the hurricane tracked through the Greater Antilles , making five landfalls , four as a Category 3 hurricane and one as a Category 1 . Shortly after entering the Caribbean , the Georges weakened slightly ; however , shortly before crossing Puerto Rico , the storm re-attained major hurricane status . After weakening slightly once more , the storm rapidly organized near the Dominican Republic . A well-defined eye formed and outflow re-established , allowing the storm to reach an intensity of 120 mph ( 195 km/h ) just prior to landfall . During its passage of Hispaniola the circulation was severely disrupted , but Georges maintained hurricane-intensity . On September 23 , the storm made landfall in southeastern Cuba as a minimal hurricane . By September 25 , Georges entered the Gulf of Mexico and intensified into a Category 2 hurricane . The storm re-organized over the gulf , with the eye fully reforming and deep convection persisting around the center of circulation . By September 27 , Georges reached an intensity of 110 mph ( 175 km/h ) . Several hours prior to landfall the next day , the hurricane weakened slightly and tracked inland near Biloxi , Mississippi with winds of 105 mph ( 165 km/h ) . Upon landfall , the hurricane 's forward motion slowed , executing a brief clockwise loop before maintaining an eastward drift . Gradually weakening , the hurricane was only a tropical depression by the afternoon of September 29 . Two days later , Georges fully dissipated near the Atlantic coast of Florida .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Meteorological_history_of_Hurricane_Georges", "rank": 31, "score": 80299 }, { "content": "Title: Temperatures Rising Content: Temperatures Rising is an American television sitcom that aired on the ABC network from September 12 , 1972 to August 29 , 1974 . During its 46-episode run , it was presented in three different formats and cast line-ups . The series was developed for the network by William Asher and Harry Ackerman for Ashmont Productions and Screen Gems . Set in a fictional Washington , D.C. hospital , the series featured James Whitmore as a no-nonsense chief of staff , forced to deal with the outlandish antics of a young intern ( Cleavon Little ) and three nurses ( Joan Van Ark , Reva Rose , and Nancy Fox ) . For the first season , 26 episodes were produced and broadcast . In the second season , Whitmore was replaced in the lead role by comedian Paul Lynde , and Asher was replaced as producer by Duke Vincent and Bruce Johnson . The series was re-titled The New Temperatures Rising Show , and featured a new supporting cast : Sudie Bond , Barbara Cason , Jennifer Darling , Jeff Morrow , and John Dehner . Cleavon Little was the only returning member of the original cast . In this season , Lynde was presented as the penny-pinching chief of staff , with Bond as his nagging mother and owner of the hospital . The New Temperatures Rising Show ran for 13 episodes before being placed on hiatus in January 1974 due to poor ratings . It returned in July in yet another incarnation . Asher returned as producer and restored the series to its original format -- albeit with Lynde continuing in the lead . Reverting to the original title of Temperatures Rising , Little remained in the show 's cast , accompanied by a new line-up of supporting players : Alice Ghostley , Barbara Rucker and , returning from the first season 's cast , Nancy Fox . Offered as a summer replacement on Thursday nights , the third version of the sitcom ran for seven episodes , after which it was cancelled permanently .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Temperatures_Rising", "rank": 32, "score": 79778 }, { "content": "Title: 1998–99 Miami Heat season Content: The 1998 -- 99 NBA season was the 11th season for the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association . During the offseason , the Heat signed free agents Terry Porter and Clarence Weatherspoon . In the shortened NBA season , the Heat won 18 of their first 23 games , despite Jamal Mashburn playing just 24 games due to a knee injury , and Voshon Lenard missing 38 games with a broken leg . Miami finished with a 33 -- 17 win-loss record , which earned them the # 1 seed in the Eastern Conference . Alonzo Mourning was named Defensive Player of the Year , and finished second in MVP voting behind Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz . In the playoffs , the Heat faced the New York Knicks for the third consecutive time . The 8th-seeded Knicks defeated the Heat in the Eastern Conference First round , with Allan Houston of New York hitting a buzzer-beater basket in the winner-take-all Game 5 , which prevailed the Knicks over Miami , 78 -- 77 . This was also their final full season playing at the Miami Arena . Following the season , Porter signed as a free agent with the San Antonio Spurs , and longtime Heat forward Keith Askins retired .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998–99_Miami_Heat_season", "rank": 33, "score": 79556 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 34, "score": 79510 }, { "content": "Title: Samba effect Content: The samba effect was the nearly 35 % drop in the value of the Brazilian real that occurred in 1999 . The effect was caused by the 1997 Asian financial crisis which led Brazil to increase interest rates and to institute spending cuts and tax increases in an attempt to maintain the value of its currency . These measures failed to produce the intended effect and the Brazilian government floated its currency against the US dollar , which led to the dramatic decrease in its value . The devaluation also precipitated fears that the ongoing economic crisis in Asia would spread to South America , as many South American countries were heavily dependent on industrial exports from Brazil . These fears resulted in the Brazilian government adopting an austerity program in order to receive a $ 41.5 billion aid package from the International Monetary Fund and other world lenders . By the end of 1999 the effect was waning and the Brazilian economy was beginning to recover . However , unemployment was only slightly lower than before the effect , and remained more than twice as high as it was during the late 1980s and early 1990s .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Samba_effect", "rank": 35, "score": 79331 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 1998 Content: The 1998 Triple J Hottest 100 , announced in January , 1999 , was the sixth such countdown of the most popular songs of the year , according to listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J . As in previous years , a CD featuring 36 of the songs was released . In August 1998 a Hottest 100 of All Time was conducted separate to normal countdown .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_1998", "rank": 36, "score": 79186 }, { "content": "Title: 1E161348-5055 Content: 1E161348-5055 or 1E 161348-5055 is a neutron star found in the centre of RCW103 supernova remnant . It is a periodic X-Ray source with a period of 6.67 hours . It is approximately 2000 years old . It is 10,000 light years away in the constellation Norma . The star was discovered by the Einstein Observatory . This star is unusual because of its rotation period of 6.7 hours . Its period is too long for a star of 2000 years , which should be rotating thousands of times faster . Instead , it is behaving more like a multi-million-year-old star . Another oddity occurred between October 1999 and January 2000 . The star became 50 times brighter . The flare has faded since its peak but has not returned to its pre-1999 level . Two theories have been put forward to explain these phenomena . The first is that the star possesses a massive magnetic field . This strong field would brake against the debris disk left behind by the supernova , which has thus far been unknown to science . This theory would account for the slower than expected rotation but not for the increase in brightness . An alternate explanation is that the star has a low-mass X-ray binary . The companion star would orbit in an elongated orbit . When the companion is close to the neutron star , it would feed mass into it , creating the increased brightness . The drag created by the companion on the neutron star 's magnetic field would also slow the rotation of the neutron star . If this scenario is the case , it is the youngest such system yet observed .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1E161348-5055", "rank": 37, "score": 78651 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal shift assay Content: A thermal shift assay quantifies the change in thermal denaturation temperature of a protein under varying conditions . The differing conditions that can be examined are very diverse , e.g. pH , salts , additives , drugs , drug leads , oxidation/reduction , or mutations . The binding of low molecular weight ligands can increase the thermal stability of a protein , as described by Koshland ( 1958 ) and Linderstrom-Lang and Schellman ( 1959 ) . Almost half of enzymes require a metal ion co-factor . Thermostable proteins are often more useful than their non-thermostable counterparts , e.g. DNA polymerase in the polymerase chain reaction , so protein engineering often includes adding mutations to increase thermal stability . Protein crystallisation is more successful for proteins with a higher melting point and adding buffer components that stabilise proteins improve the likelihood of protein crystals forming . If examining pH then the possible effects of the buffer molecule on thermal stability should be taken into account along with the fact that pKa of each buffer molecule changes uniquely with temperature . Additionally , any time a charged species is examined the effects of the counterion should be accounted for . Thermal stability of proteins has traditionally been investigated using biochemical assays , circular dichroism , or differential scanning calorimetry . Biochemical assays require a catalytic activity of the protein in question as well as a specific assay . Circular dichroism and differential scanning calorimetry both consume large amounts of protein and are low-throughput methods . The thermofluor assay was the first high-throughput thermal shift assay and its utility and limitations has spurred the invention of a plethora of alternate methods . Each method has its strengths and weaknesses but they all struggle with intrinsically disordered proteins without any clearly defined tertiary structure as the essence of a thermal shift assay is measuring the temperature at which a protein goes from well-defined structure to disorder .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Thermal_shift_assay", "rank": 38, "score": 77695 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 1998 Pacific hurricane season was a below average Pacific hurricane season , It had six major hurricanes that was well above average . The season officially started on May 15 in the eastern Pacific and on June 1 in the central Pacific , and ended on November 30 ; these dates conventionally delimit the period during which most tropical cyclones form in that region . The first tropical cyclone developed on June 11 , about ten days later than the normal start of the season . The final storm of the year , Hurricane Madeline , dissipated on October 20 . Storm activity in the Central Pacific Hurricane Center 's warning zone was low , with just one tropical depression observed in the region . Two tropical cyclones from the eastern Pacific ( Darby and Estelle ) also entered the central Pacific ; the former did so as a hurricane . The season produced 13 named storms , slightly below the average of 15 named storms per season . However , the season total of nine hurricanes was one above the average , and the total of six major hurricanes surpassed the average of three . Activity during the season was hindered by the northward movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone ( ITCZ ) . The ITCZ , which is normally situated south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec , shifted northward into Central and Southern Mexico , making the cyclone closer to cooler sea surface temperatures , hence limiting the number of storms that formed during the season . Although a semi-permanent anticyclone persisted through the summer of 1998 , causing most of the storms to remain at sea , some storm did threaten the Baja California Peninsula due to a weakness in the anticyclone . Except for Hurricane Kay , all of the storms of the season originated from tropical waves . The most notable tropical cyclone of the year was Hurricane Isis , which killed fourteen people when it made landfall on southern Baja California Sur and coastal Sinaloa in Mexico . Isis caused considerable damage in the nation while destroying more than 700 homes and damaging dozens of cars . It later produced sporadic rainfall in the southwestern United States , leading to some traffic accidents . In addition to Isis , Tropical Storm Javier moved ashore the coast of Jalisco in Mexico ; the nation experienced indirect effects from four other storms , all of which remained offshore . One tropical cyclone , Hurricane Lester , affected Central America , causing two deaths in Guatemala . Three tropical cyclones brought light to moderate rainfall to the southwestern United States , and one hurricane produced rough surf along the coast of California . Hurricane Madeline contributed to a deadly and costly flood in southern Texas .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 39, "score": 77597 }, { "content": "Title: Leslie Collier Content: Leslie Harold Collier ( 9 February 1921 -- 14 March 2011 ) was a scientist responsible for developing a freeze-drying method to produce a more heat stable smallpox vaccine in the late 1940s . Collier added a key component , peptone , a soluble protein , to the process . This protected the virus , enabling the production of a heat-stable vaccine in powdered form . Previously , smallpox vaccines would become ineffective after 1 -- 2 days at ambient temperature . The development of his vaccine production method played a large role in enabling the World Health Organization to initiate its global smallpox eradication campaign in 1967 .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Leslie_Collier", "rank": 40, "score": 77147 }, { "content": "Title: March 1998 North American storm complex Content: The March 6 -- 9 , 1998 North American storm complex , was a particularly powerful snowstorm originating on March 6 . It was the biggest storm to hit Chicago since February 14 , 1990 , when 9.7 inches fell over two days . This storm dumped varying amounts of snow across the area . Chicago 's Southwest Side was also hard hit , with 10.9 inches recorded at Midway International Airport . Category : Blizzards in the United States", "qid": "275", "docid": "March_1998_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 41, "score": 77124 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 42, "score": 76845 }, { "content": "Title: Grenoble flood 1859 Content: Historically , centenarian floods did extensive damage in the Isere Valley . In October 1859 , it rained continuously for five days . A warm wind melted the snow , and the temperature suddenly increased from 12 to 19 degrees on November 2 . The simultaneity of those two events resulted in an exceptional flood . In a single night , the water in Grenoble rose at a rate of 15 to 20 cm per hour .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Grenoble_flood_1859", "rank": 43, "score": 76839 }, { "content": "Title: Convective instability Content: In meteorology , convective instability or stability of an air mass refers to its ability to resist vertical motion . A stable atmosphere makes vertical movement difficult , and small vertical disturbances dampen out and disappear . In an unstable atmosphere , vertical air movements ( such as in orographic lifting , where an air mass is displaced upwards as it is blown by wind up the rising slope of a mountain range ) tend to become larger , resulting in turbulent airflow and convective activity . Instability can lead to significant turbulence , extensive vertical clouds , and severe weather such as thunderstorms . Adiabatic cooling and heating are phenomena of rising or descending air . Rising air expands and cools due to the decrease in air pressure as altitude increases . The opposite is true of descending air ; as atmospheric pressure increases , the temperature of descending air increases as it is compressed . Adiabatic heating and adiabatic cooling are terms used to describe this temperature change . The adiabatic lapse rate is the rate at which a rising or falling air mass lowers or increases per distance of vertical displacement . The ambient lapse rate is the temperature change in the ( non-displaced ) air per vertical distance . Instability results from difference between the adiabatic lapse rate of an air mass and the ambient lapse rate in the atmosphere . If the adiabatic lapse rate is lower than the ambient lapse rate , an air mass displaced upward cools less rapidly than the air in which it is moving . Hence , such an air mass becomes warmer relative to the atmosphere . As warmer air is less dense , such an air mass would tend to continue to rise . Conversely , if the adiabatic lapse rate is higher than the ambient lapse rate , an air mass displaced upward cools more rapidly than the air in which it is moving . Hence , such an airmass becomes cooler relative to the atmosphere . As cooler air is more dense , the rise of such an airmass would tend to be resisted . When air rises , moist air cools at a lower rate than dry air . That is , for the same vertical movement , a parcel of moist air will be warmer than a parcel of dry air . This is because of the condensation of water vapor in the air parcel due to expansion cooling . As water vapor condenses , latent heat is released into the air parcel . Moist air has more water vapor than dry air , so more latent heat is released into the parcel of moist air as it rises . Dry air does not have as much water vapor , therefore dry air cools at a higher rate with vertical movement than moist air . As a result of the latent heat that is released during water vapor condensation , moist air has a relatively lower adiabatic lapse rate than dry air . This makes moist air generally less stable than dry air ( see convective available potential energy -LSB- CAPE -RSB- ) . The dry adiabatic lapse rate ( for unsaturated air ) is 3 C-change per 1,000 vertical feet ( 300 m ) . The moist adiabatic lapse rate varies from 1.1 to per 1,000 vertical feet ( 300 m ) . The combination of moisture and temperature determine the stability of the air and the resulting weather . Cool , dry air is very stable and resists vertical movement , which leads to good and generally clear weather . The greatest instability occurs when the air is moist and warm , as it is in the tropical regions in the summer . Typically , thunderstorms appear on a daily basis in these regions due to the instability of the surrounding air . The ambient lapse rate differs in different meteorological conditions , but , on average , is 2 C-change per 1,000 vertical feet ( 300 m ) .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Convective_instability", "rank": 44, "score": 76665 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 45, "score": 76502 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 46, "score": 76305 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 in British music Content: This is a summary of 1998 in music in the United Kingdom , including the official charts from that year . 1998 was a transitional year for music , when the hyped up sound of pure pop from the mid-1990s began to fade and popular artists began to experiment with different styles and new artists were brought onto the scene , while previous popular artists began to fade out . The usual domination of UK acts was continued like most other years during the 1990s . Four singles went on to sell over a million copies and throughout the year , 28 songs reached the summit . This year is also remembered for the debuts of B * Witched , the rise of the All Saints and the end of the career for girl group phenomenon , the Spice Girls . The Corrs , The Verve and George Michael all experienced great success on the albums chart .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_in_British_music", "rank": 47, "score": 76019 }, { "content": "Title: Spanish property bubble Content: The Spanish property bubble is the collapsed overshooting part of a long-term price increase of Spanish real estate prices . This long-term price increase has happened in various stages from 1985 up to 2008 . The housing bubble can be clearly divided in three periods : 1985 -- 1991 , in which the price nearly tripled ; 1992 -- 1996 , in which the price remained somewhat stable ; and 1996 -- 2008 , in which prices grew astonishingly again . Coinciding with the financial crisis of 2007 -- 08 , prices began to fall . In 2013 , Raj Badiani , an economist at IHS Global Insight in London , estimated that the value of residential real estate has dropped more than 30 percent since 2007 and that house prices would fall at least 50 percent from the peak by 2015 . According to Alcidi and Gros note , `` If construction were to continue at the still relatively high rate of today , the process of absorption of the bubble would take more than 30 years . ''", "qid": "275", "docid": "Spanish_property_bubble", "rank": 48, "score": 75998 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "275", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 49, "score": 75953 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 50, "score": 75911 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 51, "score": 75807 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1230 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 1230 , adopted unanimously on 26 February 1999 , after reaffirming resolutions 1125 ( 1997 ) , 1136 ( 1997 ) , 1152 ( 1998 ) , 1155 ( 1998 ) , 1159 ( 1998 ) , 1182 ( 1998 ) and 1201 ( 1998 ) regarding the situation in the Central African Republic , the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic ( MINURCA ) until 15 November 1999 , expressing its intention to fully terminate it by that date . Legislative elections were held in the Central African Republic on 22 November and 18 December 1998 . The Council stressed the need for the restructuring of the Central African armed forces ( FACA ) and the necessity of a secure and stable environment conducive to the holding of elections and economic recovery . In this regard , it urged the Government of the Central African Republic to set a date for presidential elections as soon as possible . After extending MINURCA 's mandate , the Council expressed its intention to commence the reduction of the operation 15 days after the holding of the presidential elections with a view to terminating the mission by 15 November 1999 . It would conduct reviews every 45 days on the mandate of MINURCA . All parties in the country were urged to take measures to resolve the current political impasse and the government in particular was requested to establish an electoral commission for the presidential elections . MINURCA 's support was necessary for this process and it was asked to recognise the role of the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP ) in the co-ordination of the elections . It was also asked to supervise the destruction of confiscated weapons and ammunition . The Central African authorities were urged to implement the following policies : ( a ) adopt draft laws and decrees regarding national defence and the structure of defence forces by 15 April 1999 ; ( b ) limit the mission of FORSDIR to the protection of those Institutions and of high-level authorities ; ( c ) continue to support the demilitarisation and reintegration programme of the UNDP ; ( d ) to establish an implementation programme to restructure the FACA , including geographical and multi-ethnic recruitment and improved working conditions , by 1 April 1999 . The authorities were also asked to refrain from intervening in foreign conflicts , and that economic recovery and reconstruction were its main priorities . Finally , the Secretary-General Kofi Annan was requested to examine the role of the United Nations in the country after the MINURCA peacekeeping mission had left .", "qid": "275", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1230", "rank": 52, "score": 75682 }, { "content": "Title: Timeline of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 1997 Pacific hurricane season was the most active season since the 1994 season , producing 24 tropical depressions , 19 of which became tropical storms or hurricanes . The season officially started on May 15 , 1997 in the Eastern Pacific -- designated as the area east of 140 ° W -- and on June 1 , 1997 in the Central Pacific , which is between the International Date Line and 140 ° W . The season officially ended in both basins on November 30 , 1997 . These dates typically limit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the eastern Pacific basin . This timeline documents all the storm formations , strengthening , weakening , landfalls , extratropical transitions , as well as dissipation . The timeline also includes information which was not operationally released , meaning that information from post-storm reviews by the National Hurricane Center , such as information on a storm that was not operationally warned on , has been included . The first storm formed on June 1 and the final storm crossed into the western Pacific on December 6 , thus ending the season . There were 24 cyclones in both the eastern and central Pacific , including 5 unnamed tropical depressions . Of these , 19 were in the east Pacific ; 8 peaked at tropical storm intensity , while 10 reached hurricane status . Seven of these reached Category 3 intensity or higher on the Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale , including central Pacific cyclones Super Typhoons Oliwa and Paka , which became typhoons after crossing into the Western Pacific . Activity in the Central Pacific was above average ; two tropical storms formed in addition to several tropical depressions . Some of the storms entered the region from the east . The 1997 season was the fourth-most active in the Central Pacific since satellite observations began . Nine tropical cyclones entered or formed in the region during that period .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Timeline_of_the_1997_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 53, "score": 75662 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "275", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 54, "score": 75552 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 55, "score": 75353 }, { "content": "Title: Thermoregulation Content: Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries , even when the surrounding temperature is very different . A thermoconforming organism , by contrast , simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature , thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation . The internal thermoregulation process is one aspect of homeostasis : a state of dynamic stability in an organism 's internal conditions , maintained far from thermal equilibrium with its environment ( the study of such processes in zoology has been called physiological ecology ) . If the body is unable to maintain a normal temperature and it increases significantly above normal , a condition known as hyperthermia occurs . For humans , this occurs when the body is exposed to constant temperatures of approximately 55 ° C , and with prolonged exposure ( longer than a few hours ) at this temperature and up to around 75 ° C death is almost inevitable . Humans may also experience lethal hyperthermia when the wet bulb temperature is sustained above 35 ° C for six hours . The opposite condition , when body temperature decreases below normal levels , is known as hypothermia . It results when the homeostatic control mechanisms of heat within the body malfunction , causing the body to lose heat faster than producing it . Normal body temperature is around 37 ° C , and hypothermia sets in when the core body temperature gets lower than 35 ° C. Usually caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures , hypothermia is usually treated by methods that attempt to raise the body temperature back to a normal range . It was not until the introduction of thermometers that any exact data on the temperature of animals could be obtained . It was then found that local differences were present , since heat production and heat loss vary considerably in different parts of the body , although the circulation of the blood tends to bring about a mean temperature of the internal parts . Hence it is important to identify the parts of the body that most closely reflect the temperature of the internal organs . Also , for such results to be comparable , the measurements must be conducted under comparable conditions . The rectum has traditionally been considered to reflect most accurately the temperature of internal parts , or in some cases of sex or species , the vagina , uterus or bladder . Occasionally the temperature of the urine as it leaves the urethra may be of use in measuring body temperature . More often the temperature is taken in the mouth , axilla , ear or groin . Some animals undergo one of various forms of dormancy where the thermoregulation process temporarily allows the body temperature to drop , thereby conserving energy . Examples include hibernating bears and torpor in bats .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Thermoregulation", "rank": 56, "score": 75345 }, { "content": "Title: Active layer Content: In environments containing permafrost , the active layer is the top layer of soil that thaws during the summer and freezes again during the autumn . In all climates , whether they contain permafrost or not , the temperature in the lower levels of the soil will remain more stable than that at the surface , where the influence of the ambient temperature is greatest . This means that , over many years , the influence of cooling in winter and heating in summer ( in temperate climates ) will decrease as depth increases . If the winter temperature is below the freezing point of water , a frost front will form in the soil . This `` frost front '' is the boundary between frozen and unfrozen soil , and with the coming of spring and summer , the soil is thawed , always from the top down . If the heating during summer exceeds the cooling during winter , the soil will be completely thawed during the summer and there will be no permafrost . This occurs when the mean annual temperature is above 0 ° C ( 32 ° F ) , but also occurs when the mean annual temperature is slightly below 0 ° C on sites exposed to the sun with coarse-textured parent materials ( vegetation ) . When there is not sufficient heat to thaw the frozen soil completely , permafrost forms . The active layer in this environment consists of the top layers of soil which thaws during the summer , while the inactive layer refers to the soil below which is frozen year-round because the heat fails to penetrate . Liquid water can not flow below the active layer , with the result that permafrost environments tend to be very poorly drained and boggy .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Active_layer", "rank": 57, "score": 75197 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 hurricane season Content:", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_hurricane_season", "rank": 58, "score": 74976 }, { "content": "Title: January 1999 North American ice storm Content: The January 1999 North American ice storm was a severe ice storm that struck the Washington D.C. metropolitan area on January 14 and 15 , 1999 . Heavy ice accumulation bringing down power lines resulted in around 745,000 people in the area losing power . Many of the major power companies supplying DC , Maryland , and Virginia had significant portions of their customer bases impacted . At the height of the storm , around one third of PEPCO 's customers were without power , with some waiting up to two weeks for power to be restored .", "qid": "275", "docid": "January_1999_North_American_ice_storm", "rank": 59, "score": 74975 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 in Pakistan Content:", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_in_Pakistan", "rank": 60, "score": 74967 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "275", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 61, "score": 74642 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1998 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the deadliest and costliest Atlantic hurricane seasons that featured the highest number of storm-related fatalities in over 200 years . It officially began on June 1 and ended on November 30 , dates which conventionally delimit the period during which most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Ocean . The first tropical cyclone , Tropical Storm Alex , developed on July 27 , and the season 's final storm , Hurricane Nicole , became extratropical on December 1 . The strongest storm , Mitch , was tied with Hurricane Dean for the seventh most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded . Mitch is also the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history . The system dropped tremendous amounts of rainfall in Central America , causing 19,000 confirmed deaths and at least $ 6.2 billion ( 1998 USD ) in damage . The season was the first since Hurricane Andrew in the 1992 season to feature a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale . Several storms made landfall or directly affected land . Hurricane Bonnie made landfall in southeastern North Carolina as a Category 2 hurricane in late August , killing five people and causing about $ 1 billion in damage . Hurricane Earl caused $ 79 million in damage and three deaths after making landfall in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane . The two deadliest and most destructive hurricanes of the season , Hurricane Georges and Mitch , caused $ 9.72 billion in damage and $ 6.2 billion in damage , respectively . Hurricane Georges was an intense Category 4 hurricane that moved through many of the Caribbean Islands , causing significant damage before making landfall near Biloxi , Mississippi . Hurricane Mitch was a very powerful and destructive late-season hurricane that affected much of Central America before making landfall in Florida as a tropical storm . The significant amount of rainfall that Mitch produced across Central America caused significant damage and killed at least 11,000 people , making the system the second deadliest hurricane in recorded history , behind only the Great Hurricane of 1780 .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 62, "score": 74514 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1894 -- 95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 C . Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain . Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885 -- 86 to 1894 -- 95 was 2.87 C , no winter with a CET under 3.0 C followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940 . In contrast , between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 C had lasted longer than twelve winters . Although this winter -- which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881 , 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 -- affected most of Europe and North America very severely , the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs . The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames , which froze for the last time on record . Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state , most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people . There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather , with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London 's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor , and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators . Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible , whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Winter_of_1894–95_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 63, "score": 74443 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1167 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 1167 , adopted unanimously on 14 May 1998 , after recalling all resolutions on the situation in Tajikistan and along the Tajik-Afghan border , the Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan ( UNMOT ) for a further six months until 15 November 1998 . In the preamble of the resolution , it was noted that progress in the peace process was very slow , with violations of the ceasefire and a precarious situation in some parts of the country . Intensified contacts between the Government of Tajikistan and United Tajik Opposition ( UTO ) had helped to contain the crises . The Security Council condemned renewed fighting in Tajikistan , calling upon all parties to implement peace and military agreements and the timetable proposed by the Commission on National Reconciliation including the appointment of UTO representatives to government positions . All measures were to be taken to create an environment to facilitate the holding of elections . The Tajik parties were also called upon to ensure the safety and security of UNMOT and peacekeeping forces from the Commonwealth of Independent States . Within three months of the adoption of the current resolution , the Secretary-General Kofi Annan was required to report on the implementation of Resolution 1167 and on all significant developments .", "qid": "275", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1167", "rank": 64, "score": 74329 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave Content: The 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave was a continuation and eastward expansion of the 2007 Western North American heat wave which began in late June 2007 . The heatwave expanded eastward starting at the very end of July and lasting into the first weeks of August . This heat wave was notable for both associated severe drought over a large swath of the southeastern United States , and parts of the Great Lakes region , and its late season ending , with temperatures continuing , although more sporadically , well into the 90s ° F ( 30s ° C ) into September and October in the mid-Atlantic region .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2007_North_America_South_and_Eastern_heatwave", "rank": 65, "score": 74187 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1990 heat wave in the United Kingdom was a particularly severe heat event with temperatures hitting record highs of 37.1 C on 3 August . The temperature was recorded at Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and was a full degree Celsius above the previous record , set in 1911 . However , this record was subsequently broken in the 2003 heatwave .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1990_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 66, "score": 74089 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave was a heat wave that commenced in late January and led to record-breaking prolonged high temperatures in the region . The heat wave is considered one of the , if not the , most extreme in the region 's history . During the heat wave , fifty separate locations set various records for consecutive , highest daytime and overnight temperatures . The highest temperature recorded during the heat wave was 48.8 ° C in Hopetoun , Victoria , a record for the state . Many locations through the region recorded all-time high temperatures including capital cities Adelaide , which reached its third-highest temperature , 45.7 ° C , and Melbourne , which recorded its highest-ever temperature on record , 46.4 ° C. Both cities broke records for the most consecutive days over 40 ° C , while Mildura , Victoria recorded an all-time record twelve consecutive days over 43 ° C. The exceptional heat wave was caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that settled over the Tasman Sea , with a combination of an intense tropical low located off the North West Australian coast and a monsoon trough over Northern Australia , which produced ideal conditions for hot tropical air to be directed down over southeastern Australia . The heat began in South Australia on 25 January but became more widespread over southeast Australia by 27 January . A weak cool change moved over the southern coastal areas bringing some relief on 30 January , including Melbourne , where the change arrived that evening , dropping temperatures to an average of 30.8 ° C. Higher temperatures returned on the following weekend with Melbourne recording its hottest day since records began in 1855 , 46.4 ° C , also the highest temperature ever recorded in an Australian capital city . The heat wave generated extreme fire conditions during the peak of the 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season , causing many bushfires in the affected region , contributing to the extreme bushfire conditions on 7 February , also known as the Black Saturday bushfires , which claimed 173 lives in Victoria . Ten months after this heat wave , a second struck the same region in November 2009 .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Early_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 67, "score": 74073 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 in New Zealand Content:", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 68, "score": 73993 }, { "content": "Title: 1998–99 Australian region cyclone season Content: The 1998 -- 99 Australian region cyclone season was an above average tropical cyclone season that featured Gwenda , the most intense tropical cyclone in Australian Region ( later tied with Inigo in 2003 ) . It began on 1 November 1998 and ended on 30 April 1999 . The regional tropical cyclone operational plan also defines a tropical cyclone year separately from a tropical cyclone season , which runs from 1 July 1998 to 30 June 1999 . Tropical cyclones in this area are monitored by four Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres ( TCWCs ) : the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in Perth , Darwin , and Brisbane ; and TCWC Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea . __ TOC __", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998–99_Australian_region_cyclone_season", "rank": 69, "score": 73978 }, { "content": "Title: Ellingham diagram Content: An Ellingham diagram is a graph showing the temperature dependence of the stability for compounds . This analysis is usually used to evaluate the ease of reduction of metal oxides and sulfides . These diagrams were first constructed by Harold Ellingham in 1944 . In metallurgy , the Ellingham diagram is used to predict the equilibrium temperature between a metal , its oxide , and oxygen -- and by extension , reactions of a metal with sulfur , nitrogen , and other non-metals . The diagrams are useful in predicting the conditions under which an ore will be reduced to its metal . The analysis is thermodynamic in nature and ignores reaction kinetics . Thus , processes that are predicted to be favourable by the Ellingham diagram can still be slow .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Ellingham_diagram", "rank": 70, "score": 73919 }, { "content": "Title: January 1998 North American ice storm Content: The North American Ice Storm of 1998 ( also known as Great Ice Storm of 1998 ) was a massive combination of five smaller successive ice storms in January 1998 that struck a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern Ontario to southern Quebec , New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada , and bordering areas from northern New York to central Maine in the United States . It caused massive damage to trees and electrical infrastructure all over the area , leading to widespread long-term power outages . Millions were left in the dark for periods varying from days to several weeks , and in some instances , months . It led to 35 fatalities , a shutdown of activities in large cities like Montreal and Ottawa , and an unprecedented effort in reconstruction of the power grid . The ice storm led to the largest deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War , with over 16,000 Canadian Forces personnel deployed , 12,000 in Quebec and 4,000 in Ontario at the height of the crisis .", "qid": "275", "docid": "January_1998_North_American_ice_storm", "rank": 71, "score": 73750 }, { "content": "Title: Goldich dissolution series Content: The Goldich dissolution series is a way of predicting the relative stability or weathering rate of various minerals on the Earth 's surface . S. S. Goldich came up with the series in 1938 after studying soil profiles . He found that minerals that form at higher temperatures and pressures are less stable on the surface than minerals that form at lower temperatures and pressures . This pattern follows the same pattern of the Bowen 's reaction series , with the minerals that are first to crystallize also the first the undergo chemical weathering .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Goldich_dissolution_series", "rank": 72, "score": 73686 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Indian heat wave Content: In April and May 2016 , India experienced a major heat wave . A national record high temperature of 51.0 ° C ( 123.8 ° F ) was set in the town of Phalodi , in the state of Rajasthan . A total of over 160 people have died and 330 million affected . There are also water shortages . Drought has worsened the heat wave .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2016_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 73, "score": 73611 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1169 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 1169 , adopted unanimously on 27 May 1998 , after considering a report by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan regarding the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force ( UNDOF ) , the Council extended its mandate for a further six months until 30 November 1998 . The resolution called upon the parties concerned to immediately implement Resolution 338 ( 1973 ) and requested that the Secretary-General submit a report on the situation at the end of that period . The Secretary-General 's report pursuant to the previous resolution on UNDOF said that the situation between Israel and Syria had remained calm though the situation in the Middle East as a whole remained dangerous until a settlement could be reached . Meanwhile , some restrictions by both sides on the freedom of movement of UNDOF were reported .", "qid": "275", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1169", "rank": 74, "score": 73575 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 75, "score": 73554 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 North American heat wave Content: The 2006 North American heat wave spread throughout most of the United States and Canada beginning on July 15 , 2006 , killing at least 225 people . That day the temperature reached 117 ° F ( 47 ° C ) in Pierre , South Dakota , with many places in South Dakota that hit well into the 120s . In early reports from this heat wave , at least three died in Philadelphia , Arkansas , and Indiana . In Maryland , the state health officials reported that three people died of heat-related causes . Another heat related death was suspected in Chicago . Although many heat related deaths go unreported , by July 19 , the Associated Press reported that the soaring heat was blamed for 12 deaths from Oklahoma City to the Philadelphia area . Reports by early morning July 20 raised the death toll to at least 16 in seven states . This period of heat also saw a wind storm ( derecho ) in St. Louis that caused widespread power outages , including for cooling centers designed to provide relief for those suffering from the heat . In addition , places on the West Coast , like California 's Central Valley and Southern California experienced humid heat , which is unusual for the area .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2006_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 76, "score": 73547 }, { "content": "Title: Sudden stratospheric warming Content: A sudden stratospheric warming ( SSW ) is an event where the polar vortex of westerly winds in the winter hemisphere slows down or even reverses direction over the course of a few days . The change is accompanied by a rise of stratospheric temperature by several tens of kelvins .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Sudden_stratospheric_warming", "rank": 77, "score": 73536 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 78, "score": 73525 }, { "content": "Title: Stock market downturn of 2002 Content: In 2001 , stock prices took a sharp downturn ( some say `` stock market crash '' or `` the Internet bubble bursting '' ) in stock markets across the United States , Canada , Asia , and Europe . After recovering from lows reached following the September 11 attacks , indices slid steadily starting in March 2002 , with dramatic declines in July and September leading to lows last reached in 1997 and 1998 . The dollar declined steadily against the euro , reaching a 1-to-1 valuation not seen since the euro 's introduction .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Stock_market_downturn_of_2002", "rank": 79, "score": 73455 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1275 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 1275 , adopted unanimously on 19 November 1999 , after recalling resolutions 1242 ( 1999 ) and 1266 ( 1999 ) concerning the Oil-for-Food Programme , the Council , acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter , extended provisions relating to the export of Iraqi petroleum or petroleum products in return for humanitarian aid for two weeks until 4 December 1999 . The Security Council had previously raised the limit on the value of oil that Iraq was allowed to export under the Programme , and the increased limit would be valid until 4 December . Though several members of the Council supported the adoption of Resolution 1275 to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of the Programme , they expressed concern that the Council was unable to reach a consensus on how to approach the Iraq situation . Disagreements amongst the Council continued to affect the adoption of further resolutions on the Oil-for-Food Programme .", "qid": "275", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1275", "rank": 80, "score": 73386 }, { "content": "Title: Negative-bias temperature instability Content: Negative-bias temperature instability ( NBTI ) is a key reliability issue in MOSFETs . NBTI manifests as an increase in the threshold voltage and consequent decrease in drain current and transconductance of a MOSFET . The degradation exhibits logarithmic dependence on time . It is of immediate concern in p-channel MOS devices , since they almost always operate with negative gate-to-source voltage ; however , the very same mechanism also affects nMOS transistors when biased in the accumulation regime , i.e. with a negative bias applied to the gate .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Negative-bias_temperature_instability", "rank": 81, "score": 73365 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 in spaceflight Content:", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_in_spaceflight", "rank": 82, "score": 73360 }, { "content": "Title: 1998–99 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season Content: The 1998 -- 99 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season was a quiet season that had the fourth-lowest number of days with tropical storm or tropical cyclone activity . Most of the storms formed either in the Mozambique Channel or in the far eastern portion of the basin , with five storms crossing from the adjacent Australian basin east of 90 ° E . As a result , few storms impacted Madagascar , and none made landfall on the African continent . Throughout most of the season , there was below-normal sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar . In February , typically the peak in activity , Réunion island recorded its highest average monthly pressure since 1953 . Due to generally unfavorable conditions , there were only six tropical storms tracked by the Météo-France office ( MFR ) on Réunion . There were only two tropical cyclones -- a storm with winds of at least 120 km/h ( 75 mph ) . Activity began late , with the first tropical storm -- Alda -- forming on January 16 , the third latest ever recorded at the time . Alda formed in the Mozambique Channel , which was one of few favorable areas for tropical cyclogenesis in the season . It brought rainfall to southwestern Madagascar that alleviated previously dry conditions . The next five tropical storms either originated or crossed into the adjacent Australian basin , where storms were monitored by the Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) . Both Tropical Storm Chikita and Tropical Cyclone Davina brought beneficial rainfall to the Mascarene Islands . The latter storm caused two drowning deaths on Réunion and caused some crop damage . The strongest storm -- Evrina -- peaked as a strong cyclone in the Australian but weakened upon crossing 90 ° E , with 10-minute maximum sustained winds of 175 km/h ( 110 mph ) in the basin . The final storm was unnamed , crossing from the Australian basin on April 21 as a minimal tropical storm before quickly dissipating . There were also several tropical disturbances or depressions , many short-lived . The first of these formed on September 3 in the northeastern portion of the basin , and there was a tropical depression in February in the Mozambique Channel that approached tropical storm status .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998–99_South-West_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_season", "rank": 83, "score": 73283 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 84, "score": 73167 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 Australian region cyclone season Content: The 1997 -- 98 Australian region cyclone season was a slightly below average tropical cyclone season . It ran from 1 November 1997 to 30 April 1998 . The regional tropical cyclone operational plan also defines a tropical cyclone year separately from a tropical cyclone season , and the `` tropical cyclone year '' ran from 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998 . Tropical cyclones in this area were monitored by four Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres ( TCWCs ) : the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in Perth , Darwin , and Brisbane ; and TCWC Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea . __ TOC __", "qid": "275", "docid": "1997–98_Australian_region_cyclone_season", "rank": 85, "score": 73113 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 86, "score": 73092 }, { "content": "Title: Late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave ( also referred to as the November 2009 heat wave and the South Australian heat wave ) was a heat wave that occurred in the southeastern Australian states of South Australia , Victoria and southern New South Wales . Daily maximum temperatures during the heat wave were roughly 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) above average in many locations . Capital cities Adelaide and Melbourne recorded temperatures over 35 ° C , and some regional towns recorded temperatures above 40 ° C. Above average temperatures in the region began in late October and persisted until mid-November 2009 . Many locations through the region broke temperature records for November . This heat wave was the second experienced in the region within a 10-month period , following the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave in January and February 2009 , to which 374 deaths were attributed . Although the earlier heat wave was far more intense , the later heat wave was more extensive and long lasting . The heat wave was caused by a combination of factors , including hot , dry winds caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that had settled over the Tasman Sea , an El Niño event occurring in the Pacific Ocean , and gradually rising temperatures across southern Australia , probably as a result of global warming .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Late_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 87, "score": 73051 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 in Russia Content: Events from the year 1998 in Russia", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_in_Russia", "rank": 88, "score": 73048 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships Content: The 1998 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships were held in Middelfart , Denmark on Saturday 31 January 1998 . The course was dry , hard and technical . Weather conditions were sunny , but freezing ( -2 ° C ) .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_UCI_Cyclo-cross_World_Championships", "rank": 89, "score": 73010 }, { "content": "Title: 2008–09 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season was the Australian bushfire season that ran from late December 2008 to April/May 2009 . Above average rainfalls in December , particularly in Victoria , delayed the start of the season , but by January 2009 , conditions throughout South eastern Australia worsened with the onset of one of the region 's worst heat waves . On 7 February , extreme bushfire conditions precipitated major bushfires throughout Victoria , involving several large fire complexes , which continued to burn across the state for around one month . 173 people lost their lives in these fires and 414 were injured . 3,500 + buildings were destroyed , including 2,029 houses , and 7,562 people displaced . Late 2008 had relatively few bushfires . Victoria in particular experienced higher than average rainfall in December , decreasing the fire danger in many regions of the state . Initial observations in October 2008 predicted an above average fire potential across Australia 's coastal regions and a below average potential in Central Australia , where drought has reduced the available fuel . In late January and early February , the effects of the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave increased temperatures across south-eastern Australia , particularly in Victoria and South Australia , where several locations broke all time temperature records . Various days of high wind speed , combined with the hot dry conditions , created extreme bushfire conditions between 25 January and 7 February 2009 .", "qid": "275", "docid": "2008–09_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 90, "score": 72996 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 in architecture Content: The year 1998 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings .", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_in_architecture", "rank": 91, "score": 72993 }, { "content": "Title: 1998–99 South Pacific cyclone season Content: The 1998 -- 99 South Pacific cyclone season was a near average South Pacific tropical cyclone season , with 8 tropical cyclones occurring within the South Pacific Ocean basin between 160 ° E and 120 ° W. Despite the season starting on November 1 , the first tropical system of the season did not form until December 1 , while the final disturbance of the season dissipated on May 27 , 1999 . During the season the most intense tropical cyclone was Severe Tropical Cyclone Cora , which had a minimum pressure of 930 hPa . After the season had ended the names Cora and Dani were retired from the naming lists , after they had caused significant impacts to South Pacific islands . During the season , tropical cyclones were officially monitored by the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center ( RSMC ) in Nadi , Fiji and the Tropical Cyclone Warning Center in Wellington , New Zealand . While the United States Navy also monitored the basin and issued unofficial warnings throughout the season , through its Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) and Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center ( NPMOC ) . Tropical cyclones that were located between 160 ° E and 120 ° W as well as the Equator and 25 ° S were monitored by TCWC Nadi while any that were located to the south of 25 ° S between 160 ° E and 120 ° W were monitored by TCWC Wellington . During the season the JTWC issued warnings on any tropical cyclone that was located between 160 ° E and the 180 ° while the NPMOC issued warnings for tropical cyclones forming between 180 ° and the American coast . RSMC Nadi and TCWC Wellington both used the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale , and measured windspeeds over a 10-minute period , while the JTWC and the NPMOC measured sustained windspeeds over a 1-minute period . For the first time this season , RSMC Nadi assigned a number and the letter F to each significant tropical disturbance that moved within the South Pacific basin , while the JTWC and NPMOC continued to assign a number and the letter P to significant tropical cyclones throughout the Southern Hemisphere . __ TOC __", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998–99_South_Pacific_cyclone_season", "rank": 92, "score": 72958 }, { "content": "Title: Center for Year 2000 Strategic Stability Content: The Center for Year 2000 Strategic Stability was a joint operation of the United States and Russian Federation designed to provide mutual assurance that neither nation was launching a nuclear first strike against the other during the transition from the year 1999 to the year 2000 . The program arose out of concerns the Year 2000 problem might generate false positives in each nation 's nuclear attack early warning systems . The center came online December 30 , 1999 and was closed January 15 , 2000 . It operated from Peterson Air Force Base .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Center_for_Year_2000_Strategic_Stability", "rank": 93, "score": 72882 }, { "content": "Title: Younger Dryas Content: The Younger Dryas is a geological period from c. 12,900 to c. 11,700 calendar years ago ( BP ) . It is named after an indicator genus , the alpine-tundra wildflower Dryas octopetala . Leaves of Dryas octopetala are occasionally abundant in the Late Glacial , often minerogenic-rich , like the lake sediments of Scandinavian lakes . The Younger Dryas saw a sharp decline in temperature over most of the northern hemisphere , at the end of the Pleistocene epoch , immediately before the current warmer Holocene . It was the most recent and longest of several interruptions to the gradual warming of the Earth 's climate since the severe Last Glacial Maximum , c. 27,000 to 24,000 calendar years BP . The change was relatively sudden , taking place in decades , and resulted in a decline of 2 to 6 degrees Celsius , advances of glaciers and drier conditions , over much of the temperate northern hemisphere . It is thought to have been caused by a decline in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation , which transports warm water from the equator towards the North Pole , and which in turn is thought to have been caused by an influx of fresh cold water from North America into the Atlantic . The Younger Dryas was a period of climatic change , but the effects were complex and variable . In the southern hemisphere , and some areas of the north such as southeastern North America , there was a slight warming . The presence of a distinct cold period at the end of the Late Glacial interval has been known for a long time . Paleobotanical and lithostratigraphic studies of Swedish and Danish bog and lake sites , e.g. the Allerød clay pit in Denmark , first recognized and described the Younger Dryas . The Younger Dryas is the youngest and longest of three stadials that resulted from typically abrupt climatic changes that took place over the last 16,000 calendar years . Within the Blytt-Sernander classification of north European climatic phases , the prefix ` Younger ' refers to the recognition that this original ` Dryas ' period was preceded by a warmer stage , the Allerød oscillation , which in turn was preceded by the Older Dryas around 14,000 calendar years BP . This is not securely dated , and estimates vary by 400 years , but it is generally accepted that it lasted around 200 years . In northern Scotland the glaciers were thicker and more extensive than during the Younger Dryas . The Older Dryas , in turn , is preceded by another warmer stage , the Bølling oscillation that separates it from a third and even older stadial . This stadial is often , but not always , known as the Oldest Dryas . The Oldest Dryas occurred approximately 1,770 calendar years before the Younger Dryas and lasted about 400 calendar years . According to the GISP2 ice core from Greenland , the Oldest Dryas occurred between about 15,070 and 14,670 calendar years BP . In Ireland , the Younger Dryas has also been known as the Nahanagan Stadial , while in Great Britain it has been called the Loch Lomond Stadial . In the Greenland Summit ice core chronology , the Younger Dryas corresponds to Greenland Stadial 1 ( GS-1 ) . The preceding Allerød warm period ( interstadial ) is subdivided into three events : Greenland Interstadial-1c to 1a ( GI-1c to GI-1a ) .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Younger_Dryas", "rank": 94, "score": 72843 }, { "content": "Title: Recession of 1949 Content: The Recession of 1949 was a downturn in the United States lasting for 11 months . According to the National Bureau of Economic Research , the recession began in November 1948 and lasted until October 1949 . The 1948 recession was a brief economic downturn ; forecasters of the time expected much worse , perhaps influenced by the poor economy in their recent lifetime . The recession began shortly after President Truman 's `` Fair Deal '' economic reforms . The recession also followed a period of monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Recession_of_1949", "rank": 95, "score": 72785 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record Content: For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Temperature_record", "rank": 96, "score": 72765 }, { "content": "Title: Heat generation in integrated circuits Content: The heat dissipation in integrated circuits problem has gained an increasing interest in recent years due to the miniaturization of semiconductor devices . The temperature increase becomes relevant for cases of relatively small-cross-sections wires , because such temperature increase may affect the normal behavior of semiconductor devices .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Heat_generation_in_integrated_circuits", "rank": 97, "score": 72752 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 in Australia Content:", "qid": "275", "docid": "1998_in_Australia", "rank": 98, "score": 72731 }, { "content": "Title: Permanent Record: Live & Otherwise Content: Permanent Record : Live & Otherwise is a DVD released by Violent Femmes on July 12 , 2005 . The first thirteen tracks were filmed during a live concert at The Boat House in Norfolk , Virginia on July 21 , 1991 . Tracks 14 through 20 are music videos . The last track is footage of an impromptu performance of `` Kiss Off '' , in front of the Downer Theater in the band 's hometown of Milwaukee , Wisconsin . Duration : 80 minutes . Tracks 1 though 13 : 49 minutes As noted in the packaging of the DVD , `` The Boat House '' concert has become famous for the intense heat endured during the performance . An unusually hot east-coast summer during 1991 added together with the heat generated by equipment and lighting had created a temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit on-stage as measured with a thermometer . The band members performed in tank-tops while many members of the audience chose to go shirtless to deal with the heat .", "qid": "275", "docid": "Permanent_Record:_Live_&_Otherwise", "rank": 99, "score": 72704 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1266 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 1266 , adopted unanimously on 4 October 1999 , after recalling all previous resolutions on Iraq , including resolutions 986 ( 1995 ) , 1111 ( 1997 ) , 1129 ( 1997 ) , 1143 ( 1997 ) , 1153 ( 1998 ) , 1175 ( 1998 ) , 1210 ( 1998 ) and 1242 ( 1999 ) concerning the Oil-for-Food Programme , the Council increased the limit on the amount of oil Iraq could export to 3.04 billion United States dollars for the current 180-day period which began on 25 May 1999 . The Security Council was determined to improve the humanitarian situation in Iraq and , acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter , increased the limit of oil that Iraq could export beyond the prior authorised limit , which had previously been US$ 5.26 billion within an 180-day period .", "qid": "275", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1266", "rank": 100, "score": 72599 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Phil Jones (climatologist) Content: Philip Douglas Jones ( born April 22 , 1952 ) retired from his positions as the Director of the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) and as a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) at the end of 2016 . Jones was replaced as CRU director by Tim Osborn and has taken up a position as a Professorial Fellow at the UEA from January 2017 . His research interests include instrumental climate change , palaeoclimatology , detection of climate change and the extension of riverflow records in the UK . He has also published papers on the temperature record of the past 1000 years . He is known for maintaining a time series of the instrumental temperature record . This work was featured prominently in both the 2001 and 2007 IPCC reports , where he was a contributing author to Chapter 12 , Detection of Climate Change and Attribution of Causes , of the Third Assessment Report and a Coordinating Lead Author of Chapter 3 , Observations : Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change , of the AR4 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Phil_Jones_(climatologist)", "rank": 1, "score": 212386 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Clark (director) Content: Phil Clark ( born Philip David Clark , Brecon ) is a theatre director and writer , specialising in work for young people . He trained at Rose Bruford College and in 2007received a Phd . in Creating and Developing a policy for young people and emerging artists in a regional theatre from the University of Glamorgan Starting as a found member of Theatre Powys in 1972 he then became the Artistic Director of Newcastle upon Tyne 's Bruvvers Theatre Company ( 1975 -- 82 ) . In 1983 he joined the Tyne Wear Theatre Company as a director and established the UK 's largest annual youth theatre festival . The position of Artistic Director of the Crucible Theatre in Education followed from 1985 to 89 . In January 1990 he became the Artistic Director of the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff , Wales , which was later renamed Sherman Cymru , a post he held until 2006 . Major productions have included : 1990 The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo and adapted by Mike Kenny , starring Iwan Tudor , Jill Richards , Fraser Cains , Siriol Jenkins and Arbel Jones ( Sherman Theatre and tour ) 2005 Danny , the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl and adapted by David Wood ( Taliesin Arts Centre , Swansea For the last four years he has been the judge of Pint Sized Plays , part of the Tenby Folk Festival , the winners of which are performed at the Theatr Gwaun , Fishguard . Books include Act One Wales , a collection of Welsh one act plays charting the rise of Welsh Drama since the 1950s , and Oscar Wilde : Three Plays for Children He is a trustee of The Theatres Trust ( the National Advisory Public Body for Theatres ) , appointed in 2008 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Phil_Clark_(director)", "rank": 2, "score": 145502 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (screenwriter/journalist) Content: Mike Jones ( born 1971 ) is an American screenwriter and journalist . Jones was born in San Antonio , Texas , and graduated from New York University 's Tisch School of the Arts for film . He began his career as an entertainment journalist working as Filmmaker Magazine 's Managing Editor and indieWIRE 's Executive Editor . During the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike he became the Managing Editor of Film Festivals for Variety where he covered the film festival and independent film beats in Variety , Daily Variety , and in a blog called The Circuit . His first screenplay , Evenhand , was produced in 2001 and screened at the AFI Film Festival , Tribeca Film Festival , and South by Southwest film festivals . He did an uncredited rewrite of City of Ghosts , directed by Matt Dillon. , as well as scripts for Columbia Pictures , United Artists , and HBO . In 2009 , The Gotham Group optioned Jones ' screenplay adaptation of Steven Sherrill 's book The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break . Jones was later hired to adapt Anthony Papa 's prison memoir 15 to Life . Jones did early work on a 3D , animated film Popeye the Sailor for Sony Pictures Animation and on Henry Selick 's untitled stop-motion film for Disney/Pixar . In 2011 , his script In the Event of a Moon Disaster was featured on The Black List ( survey ) and optioned by Film Nation . Warner Bros. later hired Jones to write a fictional action/adventure script based loosely on the life of Marco Polo . He also wrote The Second Act for Alexander Payne 's company Ad Hominem Enterprises . In 2013-2014 , Jones wrote the English adaptations of Studio Ghibli 's Oscar-nominated films `` The Wind Rises '' and `` The Tale of Princess Kaguya ( film ) '' as well as a feature adaptation of `` Sesame Street . '' In 2015 , Jones began a feature adaptation of the U.S.S. INDIANAPOLIS disaster for Team Downey/Warner Bros. . Tate Taylor will direct . Jones is a MacDowell Colony fellow , one of Filmmaker Magazine 's 25 New Faces of Independent Film , and Variety 's 10 Screenwriters to Watch . He is represented by Creative Artists Agency .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(screenwriter/journalist)", "rank": 3, "score": 126226 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit email controversy Content: The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change . The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas . The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . '' Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy", "rank": 4, "score": 125338 }, { "content": "Title: 20th Century Women Content: 20th Century Women is a 2016 U.S. comedy-drama film directed and written by Mike Mills . The film is set in 1970s Southern California and based in part on Mills ' childhood . The film stars Annette Bening , Elle Fanning , Greta Gerwig , Lucas Jade Zumann and Billy Crudup . The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival as the Centerpiece on October 8 , 2016 , and was theatrically released on December 28 , 2016 , by A24 . The film was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards , Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy and Best Actress for Bening , as well as for Best Original Screenplay at the 89th Academy Awards .", "qid": "279", "docid": "20th_Century_Women", "rank": 5, "score": 125078 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Mills (director) Content: Michael Chadbourne `` Mike '' Mills ( born March 20 , 1966 ) is an U.S , film and music video director and graphic designer . He is perhaps best known for his independent films Thumbsucker , Beginners , and 20th Century Women . For the latter film , Mills was nominated for an Academy Award for his original screenplay .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Mills_(director)", "rank": 6, "score": 124449 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Cristian Content: Phil Cristian aka Magic Cristian is an American keyboardist and singer . He is best known for being ` Magic ' Cristian , the touring keyboardist and background singer for the rock band Cheap Trick .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Phil_Cristian", "rank": 7, "score": 123980 }, { "content": "Title: Harmon Jones Content: Harmon Jones ( June 3 , 1911 -- July 10 , 1972 ) was a Canadian-born film editor and director who worked for many years at the 20th Century-Fox studio in Southern California . He is credited as the editor for about 20 feature films through 1950 . In the middle of his career , he became a film and television director . Between 1951 and 1969 , he directed about fifteen feature films as well as dozens of episodes of popular television series of the 1950s and 1960s . There is apparently no published account of the beginnings of Jones ' career ; at the time , it was common for editors at the major film studios to work as uncredited assistant editors for several years prior to an initial assignment as an editor . Between 1944 and 1951 Jones is credited as the editor for more than 20 feature films ; Hal Erickson has called him `` one of the leading lights of the 20th Century Fox film-editing department '' . John Gallagher noted that `` studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck was himself a brilliant editor and maintained the best editorial department in Hollywood . '' Jones ' credits include four of the earlier films directed by Elia Kazan , including Gentleman 's Agreement ( 1947 ) . Jones last credit as an editor is for Stella ( 1950 ) . He then became a director for 20th Century Fox . As Erickson described it , `` Jones graduated to the director 's chair with the Monty Woolley vehicle As Young as You Feel ( 1951 ) , which featured up-and-coming Marilyn Monroe . His first directorial projects showed promise , especially his brace of baseball pictures -- Pride of St. Louis ( 1952 ) and The Kid from Left Field ( 1953 ) . Soon , however , Jones was churning out routine westerns and so-so costume flicks . '' Some recent critics do not agree ; thus Toby Roan has written , `` Harmon Jones did n't direct many features before heading to TV . His five Westerns -- The Silver Whip ( 1953 ) , City of Bad Men , A Day of Fury ( 1956 ) , Canyon River ( 1956 ) and Bullwhip ( 1958 ) -- are perfect examples of what a medium-budget studio Western could be . A Day Of Fury is a fantastic film , one of the best Westerns to come out of Universal in the 50s -- and that 's saying something . If Jones had made more Westerns , I 'm sure we 'd be grouping him with directors like George Sherman , Gordon Douglas and Phil Karlson . '' Jones apparently left 20th Century Fox in 1954 ; his 1955 film Target Zero was produced by Warner Bros. , and Day of Fury ( 1956 ) by Universal Studios . In 1957 Jones began directing episodes of several popular television series such as Perry Mason , Rawhide and Death Valley Days . Jones ' last credits are from 1969 , for several episodes of television series . Jones ' editing of Gentleman 's Agreement ( 1947 ) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing . Jones was the father of Robert C. Jones , and the grandfather of Leslie Jones , both of whom are film editors who have also been nominated for Academy Awards . The editor for Jones ' last feature film , Do n't Worry , We 'll Think of a Title ( 1966 ) , was his son Robert C. Jones .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Harmon_Jones", "rank": 8, "score": 122056 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Monroe Content: Phil Monroe ( October 31 , 1916 -- July 13 , 1988 ) was an American animator and director best known for working for Warner Bros. . Cartoons under the supervision of Chuck Jones . Monroe has also worked for UPA , DePatie-Freleng , and MGM Animation/Visual Arts .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Phil_Monroe", "rank": 9, "score": 121771 }, { "content": "Title: Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike Content: Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike is an animated short film , directed by Chuck Jones and first released in March , 1944 . It features Private Snafu facing a malaria-transmitting mosquito .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Private_Snafu_vs._Malaria_Mike", "rank": 10, "score": 121702 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Gunton Content: Mike Gunton is a British television producer and a senior executive at the BBC Natural History Unit , the world 's largest production unit dedicated to wildlife film-making . In November 2009 he became the Unit 's first Creative Director . He is best known as the executive producer of Life , a nature documentary series which revealed the adaptive survival strategies of animals around the world , and as the co-author ( with Martha Holmes ) of the accompanying book . He is currently co-directing ( with Holmes ) a feature film version of Life , and is the executive producer of a major new BBC One series on African wildlife , due for broadcast in 2013 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Gunton", "rank": 11, "score": 121221 }, { "content": "Title: Back to Nature Content: Back to Nature is a 1936 American comedy film directed by James Tinling and starring Jed Prouty , Shirley Deane and Dixie Dunbar . It is part of the Jones Family series of films .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Back_to_Nature", "rank": 12, "score": 119872 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Ward (TV director) Content: Mike Ward is a British television director and producer who specialises in live programming . His credits include the 1992 and 1996 Paralympics ( both for the BBC ) , the Moscow and Seoul Olympics ( for ITV ) and a variety of specialist shows including Challenge Anneka ( BBC ) , The Prudential Awards for the Arts ( Channel 4 ) , Midweek Sports Special ( ITV ) Beauty and the Beast special ( Disney/Barnum and Bailey ) , the weddings of The Prince of Wales ( to Lady Diana Spender ) and The Prince Andrew ( to Sarah Ferguson ; both ITN ) , the India and Pakistan Cricket World Cup opening ceremony ( Grand Slam for broadcasters worldwide ) , The South African Cricket World Cup ( Sony Entertainment , India ) . Mike Ward was Executive Editor BBC Events with responsibility for the wedding of Prince Edward ( to Sophie Rhys-Jones ) , World 's Strongest Man , and the Crufts dog show . He is married and lives in Sussex .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Ward_(TV_director)", "rank": 13, "score": 118989 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (jazz musician) Content: Mike Jones ( born August 11 , 1962 ) is an American jazz pianist . He has appeared onstage with Penn and Teller since 2006 , and continues to play with them during their nightly show in Las Vegas . He first garnished praise as a young musician , performing professionally at the age of ten . Following the advice of Oscar Peterson , Jones attended Berklee School of Music , in Boston . While still attending the school he started work as a studio musician . During his time commuting from Boston to New York , Jones worked as the on-air pianist and music director of the Nancy Merrill Show . He also appeared throughout the New England area with jazz musicians Herb Pomeroy , Gray Seargent , Dick Johnson , and others . In 1994 his first solo recording on Chiaroscuro Records , Oh , Look At Me Now was released . This was followed by Runnin ' Wild recorded live in Buffalo , N.Y. , his hometown , and then Live at Steinway Hall , in New York City . Through his association with Hank O'Neal , Mike was invited to perform on the Floating Jazz Festival on the S.S. Norway and later , the Queen Elizabeth 2 . The Verve reissue of Oscar Peterson 's On the Town featured liner notes by Neil Tesser with extensive commentary by Mike Jones . Penn Jillette and his friends found him playing at a Las Vegas resort , and were invited to the recording sessions for Stretches Out , Jones 's fourth solo CD for Chiaroscuro . In February 2002 , he was invited to become part of the Penn & Teller show , and performs nightly with them at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino . Jones wrote the theme tune for Penn Jillette 's radio show Penn Radio , including many variations . ( Jillette plays bass on many of these themes . ) He also created some special themes for Monkey Tuesday and Pull of the Weasel Friday . Jones also made an appearance in an episode of Bullshit ! which was critical of twelve-step programs . Jones was introduced by Penn as having been significantly overweight , but lost ninety pounds with his `` own special one step program '' , which Penn explained as being `` like the twelve step , but with a few minor adjustments '' . Jones explained his program as `` Just stop fucking eating so much '' . His live CD is Live at The Green Mill , recorded with a trio , Kelly Sill on bass , and Tim Davis on drums , at the legendary Chicago jazz club . He signed with Capri Records in 2014 , and released Plays Well with Others , featuring Jeff Hamilton on drums and 21-year-old prodigy Mike Gurrola on bass . The album has a cover by David Silverman ( as a tribute to the Diane Arbus photograph Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park ) and liner notes by Penn Jillette . Jones lives in Las Vegas .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(jazz_musician)", "rank": 14, "score": 118551 }, { "content": "Title: List of accolades received by 20th Century Women Content: 20th Century Women is a 2016 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Mike Mills , based in part on Mills ' childhood . Starring Annette Bening , Elle Fanning , Greta Gerwig , Billy Crudup , and Lucas Jade Zumann , the film focuses on the story of three women who explore love and freedom in Southern California during the late 1970s . The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival as the Centerpiece on October 8 , 2016 , and was theatrically released on December 28 , 2016 by A24 . The film was released to universal acclaim , with Rotten Tomatoes listing an approval rating of 89 % , based on 159 reviews , with an average rating of 7.8 / 10 , and Metacritic scoring it at 83 out of 100 , based on 40 reviews . 20th Century Women received a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the Academy Awards . The film received three nominations at the Critics ' Choice Awards , including Best Actress for Bening , Best Supporting Actress for Gerwig , and Best Acting Ensemble . The film received two nominations at the Golden Globe Awards , including Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy and Best Actress -- Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Bening . The film also received a Best Actress nomination for Bening at the Satellite Awards .", "qid": "279", "docid": "List_of_accolades_received_by_20th_Century_Women", "rank": 15, "score": 118416 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit Content: The Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) is a component of the University of East Anglia and is one of the leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change . With a staff of some thirty research scientists and students , the CRU has contributed to the development of a number of the data sets widely used in climate research , including one of the global temperature records used to monitor the state of the climate system , as well as statistical software packages and climate models .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit", "rank": 16, "score": 117944 }, { "content": "Title: Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit Content: Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit featured in press discussions of disputes over access to data from instrumental temperature records , particularly during the Climatic Research Unit email controversy which began in November 2009 . The UK Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) came into effect in 2005 , and FOI requests were made to the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) for the raw data from weather stations used in developing instrumental temperature record datasets , for copies of agreements under which the raw data was obtained from meteorology institutions , and also for email correspondence relating to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report . In many cases the raw data which CRU had obtained from National Meteorological Organisations was subject to restrictions on redistribution : on 12 August 2009 CRU announced that they were seeking permission to waive these restrictions , and on 24 November 2009 the university stated that over 95 % of the CRU climate data set had already been available for several years , with the remainder to be released when permissions were obtained . In a decision announced on 27 July 2011 the Information Commissioner 's Office ( ICO ) required release of raw data even though permissions had not been obtained or in one instance had been refused , and on 27 July 2011 CRU announced release of the raw instrumental data not already in the public domain , with the exception of Poland which was outside the area covered by the FOIA request . A 2008 FOI request by David Holland for emails discussing work on the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report was refused by the university . In November 2009 he alleged that CRU emails posted online discussed deleting the emails he had requested : in January 2010 the Deputy Information Commissioner told a journalist that this indicated an offence under section 77 of the FOIA , but prosecution was time-barred by statute of limitations . Newspapers misrepresented this as a decision in relation to raw data , and the issue was discussed by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry , which found there had been a lack of openness . The ICO decision published on 7 July 2010 stated that this potential offence had not been investigated as it was time-barred . As Holland was content not to proceed with his complaint against the university , no further action was needed , but the ICO would `` consider whether further action is appropriate to secure future compliance . '' In September 2011 the ICO issued new guidance to universities . This described exceptions and exemptions to protect research , including allowance for internal exchange of views between academics and researchers free from external scrutiny , as well as commending actively disclosing information when it is in the public interest .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Freedom_of_Information_requests_to_the_Climatic_Research_Unit", "rank": 17, "score": 117803 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Jones (writer) Content: Michael Jones ( born 1944 ) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter . He began making films while teaching in St. John 's . He left teaching to train with the National Film Board of Canada 's Atlantic Studio in 1974 , and was a founding member of the Newfoundland Independent Filmmaker 's Co-op in 1975 . His credits include the films The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood , Secret Nation and Congratulations . He garnered two Genie Award nominations at the 8th Genie Awards for Faustus Bidgood , including Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing . He is the brother of comedic actors Andy Jones and Cathy Jones . He has also had minor acting roles in all of his films , including as a French teacher in Faustus Bidgood and as the voice of Leo Cryptus in Secret Nation . He was not a performing member of CODCO , the comedy troupe with which Andy and Cathy Jones were associated , but was a frequent director of their stage show and television series .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Michael_Jones_(writer)", "rank": 18, "score": 116952 }, { "content": "Title: Janet Dulin Jones Content: Janet Dulin Jones is an American screenwriter , playwright and producer . A graduate of Long Beach State University , Jones has written screenplays for various film studios in Hollywood , including Paramount Studios , Sony Pictures , Disney and Twentieth Century Fox . Screenplays include Map of the World , starring Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore ; The Ambassadors , an adaptation of the Henry James novel ; and Custom of the Country , adapted from the novel by Edith Wharton . Currently , Jones is working with director , Mike Newell on a TV pilot `` Gramery Park '' which will shoot in the UK , in association with Trademark Pictures , David Parfitt , Beantown Films , Brenda Friend and director , Scott Winant . Fox TV Studios is producing the series for US and UK cable in 2015 . Jones adapted What If God Were the Sun ? , a novel by television psychic medium John Edward , for Lifetime Television . The film starred Gena Rowlands , who was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie for her performance . Jones has also written , Kicks , an original screenplay for Diane Keaton . Her original screenplay , A Thousand Summers , is being produced in London with Julia Taylor-Stanley ( Atermis Films ) and David Parfitt ( Trademark Pictures ) , producing . The Collapsible World , an adaptation , is a contemporary drama set in San Francisco based on the novel by Anne N. Marino . Jones 's first play , A Tale of Charles Dickens , is an adaptation by herself and director Paul Lazarus from her original screenplay . A special radio version of the work was created for National Public Radio 's The Play 's The Thing in March 2006 . The play is under submission in London , England . Her newest play , `` Even '' is being prepared for production in Paris , with director , Gerald Garutti and in London the play will be produced at The Park Theatre , with Jones set to direct in 2015 . In collaboration with The Park she will put her new play , `` Trinitas '' into workshop in September 2015 . Jones was a Nicholls Award finalist for screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . She is a member of the Writers Guild of America , serves on the board of the Young Filmmaker 's Academy , and is writer-in-residence for The Antaeus Theatre Company in Los Angeles . She was a fellow at the prestigious Autumn Stories Program in France in 2009 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Janet_Dulin_Jones", "rank": 19, "score": 116372 }, { "content": "Title: Laws of Nature (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) Content: `` Laws of Nature '' is the first episode of the third season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. ( Strategic Homeland Intervention , Enforcement , and Logistics Division ) , revolving around the character of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they hunt for Inhumans , who are also being hunted by the new Advanced Threat Containment Unit and the monstrous Lash . It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ( MCU ) , sharing continuity with the films of the franchise . The episode was written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen , and directed by Vincent Misiano . Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series , and is joined by series regulars Chloe Bennet , Iain De Caestecker , Elizabeth Henstridge , Nick Blood , Adrianne Palicki , Henry Simmons , and Luke Mitchell . A third season was ordered in May 2015 , with new recurring characters portrayed by Constance Zimmer , Matthew Willig , Andrew Howard , and Juan Pablo Raba introduced , the latter as the first openly gay character in the MCU . William Sadler also guest stars , reprising his role of President Ellis from Iron Man 3 , as the episode references previous MCU films , and provides set-up for future MCU films . `` Laws of Nature '' originally aired on ABC on September 29 , 2015 , and according to Nielsen Media Research , was watched by 7.86 million viewers within a week of its release . The episode received a positive critical response , with praise going to the newly established status quo , including the elevated role of the Inhumans , and the introduction of new characters . The timeliness of the revelation of Simmons ' ( Henstridge ) whereabouts following the second season finale was also praised .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Laws_of_Nature_(Agents_of_S.H.I.E.L.D.)", "rank": 20, "score": 116090 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Caton-Jones Content: Michael Caton-Jones ( born Michael Jones ; 15 October 1957 in Broxburn , West Lothian , Scotland ) is a Scottish film director .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Michael_Caton-Jones", "rank": 21, "score": 114910 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Jones (activist) Content: Michael Jones ( born September 24 , 1964 ) is an American music talent manager , producer , director , and author . From 1984-1988 , he was a controversial activist credited with enabling the gay and lesbian community of Indianapolis to become more active and visible . His active period in Indiana was short , but in that time he was deeply involved in helping Ryan White and working to advance the rights of gays and lesbians . The controversy around him was centered on his brash and sometimes self-aggrandizing style .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Michael_Jones_(activist)", "rank": 22, "score": 114348 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Crum Content: Mike Crum ( born in Dallas , Texas on December 10 , 1973 ) was ranked as one of the best skateboarders in the world . He is a vert ramp rider and has contributed to the skateboarding industry in many ways including trick invention , endemic entrepreneurship , signature boards , signature shoes and film/media appearances .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Crum", "rank": 23, "score": 114114 }, { "content": "Title: Secret Nation Content: Secret Nation is a 1992 political thriller written by Edward Riche , directed by Mike Jones and starring Cathy Jones . The film tells the story of Frieda Vokey , a graduate history student working to complete her history thesis on confederation . She returns to her home in Newfoundland to investigate evidence that Newfoundland 's 1949 entry into Canada was a conspiracy . Following the death of a politician , whose papers contain evidence , she begins to believe that the referendum results were faked , with British spies helping the cause . This film was produced for nearly $ 2 million , with $ 1.8 million provided by First Choice and CBC . The film was invited to New York City 's Museum of Modern Art , and screened as part of the This Film is From Canada Series .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Secret_Nation", "rank": 24, "score": 113317 }, { "content": "Title: The Hide Content: The Hide is a 2008 film , the debut from director Marek Losey , who previously had an award-winning career as a director of advertisements . The film starred Alex MacQueen and Phil Campbell , based on the stage play The Sociable Plover by Tim Whitnall , who also wrote the screenplay . The film had the strapline `` No Crime Stays Hidden Forever '' . Produced by Christopher Granier-Deferre and John Schwab .", "qid": "279", "docid": "The_Hide", "rank": 25, "score": 112845 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Jones (American football) Content: Phil Jones ( born ca. 1946 ) is a former American football coach . He previously served as a head coach at Shorter University from 2005 to 2015 and at several high schools across Georgia from 1973 through 1997 before he moved to the college ranks . After he served in assistant positions at Georgia , SMU and Gardner -- Webb before he was hired in July 2004 to serve as the first head coach in the history of the Shorter football program .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Phil_Jones_(American_football)", "rank": 26, "score": 112722 }, { "content": "Title: Granville E. Jones Content: Granville E. Jones ( October 14 , 1900 -- March 7 , 1959 ) was a funeral director and Democratic politician from Philadelphia . Jones was born in 1900 in Baltimore , Maryland . He moved to Philadelphia and graduated from the H. E. Dolan 's College of Mortuary Science , after which he worked as a funeral director . Jones was also president of the Quaker City Funeral Directors Association . In 1948 , he was elected to the first of six terms in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives . In 1953 , he ran for City Treasurer of Philadelphia , but was unsuccessful . He died in office in 1959 and was buried at Mount Lawn Cemetery in Delaware County .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Granville_E._Jones", "rank": 27, "score": 112298 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (canoeist) Content: Mike Jones QGM was a 20th-century canoeist known for his expeditions on the Blue Nile and Dudh Kosi .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(canoeist)", "rank": 28, "score": 112121 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Dougherty Content: Michael Dougherty is an American film director , producer , and screenwriter , known for his work with Dan Harris on the scripts for Bryan Singer 's films X2 and Superman Returns . He 's also known for writing and directing the cult horror film Trick ' r Treat . On October 28 , 2013 , at a special screening , it was announced to the surprise of the audience that a sequel will be produced by Legendary Pictures . He also directed , co-wrote , and co-produced the horror/comedy Krampus ( 2015 ) . Dougherty will be co-writing and directing the upcoming sequel Godzilla : King of the Monsters for a March 22 , 2019 release date .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Michael_Dougherty", "rank": 29, "score": 111681 }, { "content": "Title: Timothy Osborn Content: Timothy J. Osborn is a climatologist and Professor of Climate Science at the University of East Anglia . In January 2017 he replaced Phil Jones as the Research Director of the Climatic Research Unit . Osborn graduated with a first class degree in Geophysical Sciences from the University of East Anglia in 1990 , and a PhD from the School of Environmental Sciences in 1995 . He was awarded the Hugh Robert Mill Prize by the Royal Meteorological Society in 2002 , and is a Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Timothy_Osborn", "rank": 30, "score": 111297 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (basketball, born 1984) Content: Michael `` Mike '' Jones ( born July 24 , 1984 ) is an American basketball player who played for the University of Maryland , College Park . He went to high school at Thayer Academy in Braintree , Massachusetts . Due to his success there , he was invited to the McDonald 's All-American Game . According to Joe Benson 's recruiting website Scout.com , he was the second best shooting guard in the country coming out of high school , behind LeBron James . On December 13 , 2006 , Jones earned sole possession of the all-time University of Maryland record by making nine 3-pointers in a game . He was originally projected to be a late 2nd round pick in the NBA Draft . After going undrafted in 2007 , Jones made the decision to play abroad , signing with Turkish professional team Mersin Buyuksehir Belediyesi . Jones was signed to the Cyprus-based APOEL team in January 2008 , where he played along with former University of Rhode Island guard Tyson Wheeler . He is currently with the CSU Asesoft team in Romania , where he is expected to play for the 2008-09 basketball season .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(basketball,_born_1984)", "rank": 31, "score": 111055 }, { "content": "Title: Safety Training Content: `` Safety Training '' is the twentieth episode of the third season of the American comedy television series The Office , and the show 's forty-eighth episode overall . Written by B. J. Novak , who also acts in the show as sales representative Ryan Howard , and directed by Caddyshack and National Lampoon 's Vacation director Harold Ramis , the episode aired in the United States on April 12 , 2007 on NBC . In the episode , Michael Scott ( Steve Carell ) attempts to prove life in an office is dangerous after Darryl Philbin ( Craig Robinson ) berates him about the dangers of the warehouse . The attempts lead him to the roof of the building , where he tries to show that depression caused by an office can lead to desperate circumstances . Meanwhile , gambling between the other employees of the office leads Karen Filippelli ( Rashida Jones ) to discover that she is still an outsider .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Safety_Training", "rank": 32, "score": 110531 }, { "content": "Title: Rob Jones (radio DJ) Content: Rob Jones born in Liverpool and attended Liverpool College , is a former DJ who was on 208 Radio Luxembourg from 1977 to 1984 . He joined from Radio City in Liverpool at the same time as Mike Read and Steve Wright and went on to become Director of Programmes for RTL English Language Radio and TV . During his time at Radio Luxembourg he presented `` Breakers '' for ITV an opportunity which arose when Marc Bolan was killed in a car crash in Barnes . In 1982 Jones created and ran the innovative `` Clip Connection '' on RTL TV , an English , French and German language music channel . In 1984 he moved to SKY Channel as Head of Music Programmes producing 9 hours of music programming each day with VJs Pat Sharp , Gary Davies , Tony Blackburn , Amanda Redington and Linda de Mol . He was poached by Richard Branson in 1986 to run Music Box which Branson had recently purchased from Thorn EMI with Granada TV and Yorkshire TV . During the mid eighties Music Box provided the overnight programming for much of the ITV network . In the late eighties Richard Branson 's Virgin organisation seconded Rob Jones from Music Box to develop their radio interests . He recruited GWR , Yorkshire Radio , Radio Forth and Radio Trent to form a joint venture with Virgin called Radio Radio which produced an overnight sustaining service for 24 commercial radio stations in the UK . Radio Radio , `` The Super Station '' had a stellar presenter line-up which included Jonathan Ross ( on radio for the first time ) Johnny Walker , Ruby Wax , Bob Harris , Diana Luke and even Steve Davies the snooker player . Chris Evans joined the company as a producer where he met Carol McGiffin Rob Jones 's assistant at the time . As the consultant to Talk Radio , Jones later recruited McGiffin to work with Moz Dee on a programme called The Rude Awakening . A young Andy Bird was Jones 's No2 on the project . Bird would later head Disney International . In 1989 Jones negotiated the sale of Virgin 's 40 % to Owen Oyston who owned the Transworld Radio Group in Manchester , England . Rob Jones was then hired as a consultant by Yorkshire TV and soon after started his own company , USP , in 1990 . USP was initially a programme consultancy specialising in developing programme formats for radio stations including GWR 's Classic Gold , Jazz FM , Essex FM and Talk Radio . However the company developed a branded content specialism , producing content for broadcasters that was paid for by brands like Mars , American Airlines , Cadbury , P&G and many others . USP was the first independent production company to produce not one but two breakfast programmes for UK commercial radio stations . The Jazz Breakfast for Jazz FM was hosted first by Nick Miller and then by Tim Smith . The Talk Radio Breakfast with Kirsty Young proved a critical success before Kelvin McKenzie bought the radio station and axed the show . The company was renamed USP Content in 2004 and now specialises in sport and music programming . Formula 1 is an important area for USP Content with the company contributing over 200 hours a year for BBC Radio5live . NFL , Major League Baseball and Barclays Premier League football have been mainstays of the company 's production output . USP produces RocknRoll Football for Absolute Radio . USP Content provided worldwide radio coverage of The Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 . USP Content recently mixed sport with comedy to produce `` How to be England Manager '' for BBC Three . Rob Jones and USP Content started producing The Wireless from Age UK in early 2012 . The Wireless from Age UK is an online and DAB radio station aimed at the 50 + market . USP Content produced The 2015 Olivier Awards for the Magic radio network with tv and stage star Claire Sweeney and has similarly produced radio coverage of The Oliviers in 2016 and 2017 for Magic in the UK and Sirius XM in the USA . The company is also prolific in Women 's sport covering Netball and The FA Women 's Super League ( WSL ) . USP Content has produced Britain 's Next F1 Star for Sky Sports . The series is sponsored by Scalextric . Since 2014 USP Content has produced the worldwide television coverage of the London New Year 's Day Parade . This is currently the biggest Outside Broadcast production in the capital .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Rob_Jones_(radio_DJ)", "rank": 33, "score": 110194 }, { "content": "Title: Étienne Crétu Content: Étienne Crétu was an 18th-19th-century French playwright . The son of Anthelme Crétu , managing director of the Théâtre des Variétés who associated him to the direction , his plays were presented in this theatre from 1801 to 1828 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Étienne_Crétu", "rank": 34, "score": 109926 }, { "content": "Title: T.R.A.C.K.S. Content: `` T.R.A.C.K.S. '' is the thirteenth episode of the first season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. ( Strategic Homeland Intervention , Enforcement and Logistics Division ) , revolving around the character of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they hunt for rogue businessman Ian Quinn . It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ( MCU ) , sharing continuity with the films of the franchise . The episode was written by Lauren LeFranc and Rafe Judkins , and directed by Paul Edwards . Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series , and is joined by series regulars Ming-Na Wen , Brett Dalton , Chloe Bennet , Iain De Caestecker , and Elizabeth Henstridge . David Conrad returns to portray Quinn , while J. August Richards ' recurring guest character Mike Peterson is revealed to be an adaptation and incarnation of Deathlok . `` T.R.A.C.K.S. '' originally aired on ABC on February 4 , 2014 , and according to Nielsen Media Research , was watched by 6.62 million viewers .", "qid": "279", "docid": "T.R.A.C.K.S.", "rank": 35, "score": 109046 }, { "content": "Title: Ron Jones (television director) Content: Ron Jones ( 6 August 1945 -- 9 July 1993 ) was a British television director . Born in Bristol , he joined the BBC as a studio manager in local radio then became an assistant floor manager on television . After a period as a researcher and item director on Blue Peter he worked as a production manager on series such as Bergerac and Secret Army . On completing the BBC 's internal director 's course , he was commissioned to direct for Doctor Who and contributed six stories in the 1980s : Black Orchid , Time-Flight , Arc of Infinity , Frontios , Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp . He also directed Lindenstraße ( a 1985 TV Series ) and episodes of police drama Juliet Bravo .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Ron_Jones_(television_director)", "rank": 36, "score": 108922 }, { "content": "Title: The Pillar of Fire Content: The Pillar of Fire ( Danse du feu ) , initially released in America and Britain as Haggard 's `` She '' -- The Pillar of Fire and also known as La Colonne de feu , is an 1899 short silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès .", "qid": "279", "docid": "The_Pillar_of_Fire", "rank": 37, "score": 108862 }, { "content": "Title: Richard Jones (director) Content: Richard Jones CBE ( born 7 June 1953 ) is a British theatre and opera director . He was born in London , and studied at the University of Hull and University of London . After working as a jazz musician , he spent 1982-83 on a bursary working with Scottish Opera and the Citizens Theatre . His work has become controversial and has provoked considerable reactions from the UK press . However , he is also seen as a major figure in the worlds of theatre and opera , as has been noted in a 2002 interview which appeared in London 's The Guardian : -LSB- His -RSB- gift for the thrilling , the gaudy and the wayward is one of the characteristics that marks Jones out . `` He is the best British director around at the moment , '' says director David Pountney , part of the `` powerhouse '' triumvirate that presided over English National Opera in the 1980s . `` He is extremely imaginative , he has a very individual , quirky response to the material , and a very sharp eye for humour . '' According to Nicholas Hytner , artistic director-designate of the National Theatre : `` He is one of the most genuinely original and completely individual directors around . I want him to do lots of shows at the National . Anything he 's interested in . '' `` He is indubitably top-notch , '' agrees ENO 's general director , Nicholas Payne .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Richard_Jones_(director)", "rank": 38, "score": 108207 }, { "content": "Title: Chester Gore Content: Chester Gore ( 1893 -- 1966 ) was an American art director . He worked on more than fifty films during his career . At Twentieth Century Fox he worked on series films such as Charlie Chan , Mr. Moto and the Jones Family .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Chester_Gore", "rank": 39, "score": 107599 }, { "content": "Title: Human Nature (band) Content: Human Nature is an Australian harmony pop group , which formed in 1989 , with Toby Allen , Phil Burton and brothers , Andrew and Mike Tierney . Originally they were a doo-wop group , the 4 Trax , while the members were schoolmates . After signing with Sony Music as Human Nature , they released their debut album , Telling Everybody , in 1996 . Three of their albums have reached number one on the ARIA Albums Charts , Counting Down ( May 1999 ) , Reach Out : The Motown Record ( November 2005 ) and Dancing in the Street : The Songs of Motown II ( October 2006 ) . Two other albums reached number two , Get Ready ( November 2007 ) and Jukebox ( October 2014 ) . Their top 10 hits on the related ARIA Singles Chart are `` Wishes '' ( October 1996 ) , `` Do n't Say Goodbye '' ( March 1997 ) , `` Everytime You Cry '' ( duet with John Farnham , October 1997 ) , `` Do n't Cry '' ( July 1999 ) , `` Eternal Flame '' ( October 1999 ) , `` He Do n't Love You '' ( November 2000 ) and `` When You Say You Love Me '' ( April 2004 ) . Three of their albums received multi-platinum certification from ARIA , and four have received platinum , with a total shipment of over 1.6 million records in Australia , as of April 2011 . The group have toured both nationally and internationally including as a support act for Celine Dion on her Falling Into You Around the World Tour ( March 1996 , June 1997 ) and Let 's Talk About Love World Tour ( 1998 ) . They also opened for Michael Jackson on the HIStory World Tour ( December 1996 , early to mid-1997 ) . At the ARIA Music Awards of 2006 they won Highest Selling Album for Reach Out : The Motown Record . In May 2009 they began a residency performing a Motown-themed show on the Las Vegas Strip and in April 2014 they completed their 1000th show .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Human_Nature_(band)", "rank": 40, "score": 107532 }, { "content": "Title: June Jones Content: June Sheldon Jones , III ( born February 19 , 1953 ) is an American football coach and former player . He is now the current athletics director of Saint Louis School in Honolulu , Hawaii . He was the head football coach at Southern Methodist University ( SMU ) , where he served as head coach from 2008 to 2014 , before resigning on September 8 , 2014 . Jones was also the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1999 to 2007 . Previously , he coached in the National Football League ( NFL ) : a three-year tenure as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 1994 to 1996 and a ten-game stint as interim head coach of the San Diego Chargers in 1998 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "June_Jones", "rank": 41, "score": 107299 }, { "content": "Title: Expect the Unexpected Content: Expect the Unexpected may refer to : an album by Mike Jones ( rapper ) Expect the Unexpected ( film ) , a 1998 Hong Kong film directed by Patrick Yau Tak Chi", "qid": "279", "docid": "Expect_the_Unexpected", "rank": 42, "score": 107271 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (basketball, born 1965) Content: Michael Ray Jones ( born April 29 , 1965 ) is a current college basketball head coach for Radford University . Jones ' father , Jimmy , was a star guard in the ABA from 1967-74 . In 1974 , Jimmy Jones signed with the Washington Bullets in the NBA , where he remained until 1977 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(basketball,_born_1965)", "rank": 43, "score": 107060 }, { "content": "Title: Stormy Monday (film) Content: Stormy Monday is the 1988 feature film debut of director Mike Figgis . Starring Sean Bean , Tommy Lee Jones , Sting and Melanie Griffith , and is an atmospheric , noirish thriller . The notable jazz soundtrack is also by Figgis . Being set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne , England , the film is something of an homage to Get Carter . The film 's title refers to blues guitarist/singer T-Bone Walker 's signature song `` Call It Stormy Monday ( But Tuesday Is Just As Bad ) ''", "qid": "279", "docid": "Stormy_Monday_(film)", "rank": 44, "score": 106765 }, { "content": "Title: Kids Who Kill Content: Kids Who Kill : Confronting Our Culture of Violence is a 1998 non-fiction book by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Evangelical Christian author and pastor George Grant . The book is a response to the Jonesboro massacre , arguing that the tragedy was the result of a society in decline , and that abortion , pornography , media violence , premarital sex , divorce , drug abuse and homosexuality were the cause of the decline . Huckabee 's themes are that the breakdown of the family structure leads to childhood crime , as well as to a high level of other immoral acts . Huckabee details these themes in his outline of the book ( pp. 4-5 ) as follows : `` We 'll explore the notion that at the heart of -LSB- juvenile criminal violence -RSB- are the questions of character , virtue , and cultural cohesion . `` The various contributing factors of America 's cultural demoralization are examined -LSB- including -RSB- a disregard for the value of life . `` We 'll develop the notion that the key to our recovery is the vitality of America 's basic values : faith , family , work , and community . '' The book caused some controversy when , in December 2007 , several news sources , including Mother Jones , reported that the book equates environmentalism with pornography , homosexuality with necrophilia , and nonbelievers with `` evildoers '' . During the 1998 Arkansas gubernatorial race , Democratic nominee Bill Bristow criticized Huckabee for making money off of the Jonesboro massacre .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Kids_Who_Kill", "rank": 45, "score": 106464 }, { "content": "Title: Credo (Jennifer Rush album) Content: Credo is the eighth studio album by American singer Jennifer Rush . Released in early 1997 . By this time , Rush was no longer the chart star she had been a decade earlier and was content to discover new styles . On this album she worked with Gospel and African Choirs , who backed her on three of the tracks - including the title track and lead single with a promo video filmed in the Namib desert . The album did enter the charts in her most loyal market , Germany , where it reached No. 26 and the single became a minor hit . This was followed by `` Sweet Thing '' , one of the few uptempo songs on the album , while `` Piano in the Dark '' ( a cover of the Brenda Russell song ) was released as a Promo-only single after this . Further notable songs featured on the album are the cover versions of Cheap Trick 's `` The Flame '' ( 1988 ) and `` The Places You Find Love '' , originally recorded by Barbra Streisand in 1988 and then by Quincy Jones for his Back On the Block album in 1989 , as well as a cover of John Farnham 's 1987 Australian hit `` A Touch of Paradise '' . Like her previous two albums , Credo went unreleased in the UK and US .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Credo_(Jennifer_Rush_album)", "rank": 46, "score": 106304 }, { "content": "Title: Stanley Crick Content: Stanley Sadler Crick ( 9 October 1888 -- 1955 ) was an Australian film producer , distributor and politician . He joined the Melbourne office of Pathe Freres and became manager of the Sydney branch in 1909 . He went into production , first in partnership with Herbert Finlay then helping establish the Australian Photo-Play Company . When that ended in 1912 he went into distribution as managing director of the express Film Service and in 1914 became partner of John C. Jones in another distribution service . He managed Fox Film Corporation 's Australian operation from 1919 to 1938 , during that time also serving as a chairman of director of Hoyts Theatres . He was an opponent of quotas for Australian films . He worked as an alderman on the Sydney City Council from 1935 and served as Lord Mayor of Sydney from 1940 to 1942 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Stanley_Crick", "rank": 47, "score": 106280 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Nawrocki Content: Mike Nawrocki ( born July 8 , 1966 ) is an American director , producer , writer , voice actor , animator , musician , puppeteer , and businessman best known as the co-creator of the long-running , Christian video series , VeggieTales where he voices Larry the Cucumber . He also voices many other main characters on the show , including Jerry Gourd , Jean-Claude Pea , and other various characters , is the co-founder of Big Idea Entertainment alongside Phil Vischer , and currently serves as the Executive Vice President of the company . He has directed several of their productions , including the award-winning Silly Songs with Larry segments from VeggieTales .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Nawrocki", "rank": 48, "score": 106236 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (motocross rider) Content: Michael Jones , ( born February 28 , 1966 in Export , Pennsylvania ) is an American freestyle motocross competitor , with over 35 years of professional rider experience . He started his motorcycle racing career in 1972 aged 6 , and became the 1989 world champion of Supercross . Continuing to race up until his last Fastcross in Italy 2000 , he became increasingly involved in the emerging sport of Freestyle Motocross , performing half-time jump shows at football games as early as 1987 . He is attributed as being `` one of the founding fathers of the sport of freestyle motocross '' , and became known as `` Mad '' Mike Jones after an Italian promoter described his stunts as `` Mad '' and `` the name stuck '' . He has appeared in numerous movies including Crusty Demons , and also goes around North American schools to share about his experience .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(motocross_rider)", "rank": 49, "score": 106215 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Mullally Content: E. Michael `` Mike '' Mullally ( born c. 1939 ) is an American former college athletics administrator . He was the athletic director at Eastern Illinois University ( 1974 -- 1979 ) , California State University , Fullerton ( 1979 -- 1981 ) , and Boise State University ( 1981 -- 1982 ) . At Boise State , Mullally succeeded longtime athletic director Lyle Smith in the summer of 1981 . Less than a year later , Mullally resigned in March 1982 following criticism of his proposed ticketing policy for the school 's football and basketball games . Assistant athletic director Gene Bleymaier was promoted by university president John Keiser and held the post for more than 29 years . Mullally owned several Checkers drive-in restaurants in the Kansas City area in 1990s ; by 2001 he had retired to Florida .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Mullally", "rank": 50, "score": 105943 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Darwin Content: Michael G. ( `` Mike '' ) Darwin , formerly known as Michael Federowicz , ( born April 26 , 1955 ) was the president of the cryonics organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation from 1983 to 1988 , and Research Director until 1992 . He was also the founder and president of BioPreservation , Inc. , and a cofounder , member of the Board of Directors , and Director of Research of Twenty-First Century Medicine ( a cryobiological/critical care medicine research company ) from 1993 to 1999 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Darwin", "rank": 51, "score": 105861 }, { "content": "Title: Ross Katz Content: Ross Katz ( born May 19 , 1971 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) is an American film producer , screenwriter and film director . Prior to becoming a producer , Katz was a commercial rock DJ on 94 WYSP FM in Philadelphia . He got his start in movies working as a grip on Quentin Tarantino 's Reservoir Dogs , then interned at Good Machine eventually becoming Ted Hope 's assistant . It was Hope who encouraged Katz to try his hand at producing . His first effort was Jim Fall 's Trick . The film was one of the early independents to explore homosexual cinema treated as romantic comedy . Next he co-executive produced , along with Ted Hope & Anne Carey , an HBO television mini-series of Moisés Kaufman 's play The Laramie Project . The mini-series version of The Laramie Project was adapted by Kaufman and members of New York 's Tectonic Theater Project who went to Laramie , Wyoming after the murder of Matthew Shepard . The piece is based on more than 200 interviews they conducted while there . It follows and in some cases re-enacts the chronology of Shepherd 's visit to a local bar , his kidnap and beating , the discovery of him tied to a fence , the vigil at the hospital , his death and funeral , and the trial of his homophobic killers . The mini-series mixes real news reports with actors portraying friends , family , cops , killers , and other Laramie residents in their own words . It concludes with a Laramie staging of `` Angels in America '' a year after Shephard 's death . Katz went on to co-produce two Academy Award Best Picture nominees ; Todd Field 's In the Bedroom and Sofia Coppola 's Lost in Translation . In 2009 Katz returned to HBO for another real-life story Taking Chance . This was his directorial debut and was praised by television critics for its `` reverence and sensitivity '' to the men in uniform . Based on a true story , the brief film -- it runs less than 90 minutes -- follows the journey of a fallen U.S. Marine , 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps , as his body makes its way across the country accompanied by a Marine escort , Lt. Col. Michael Strobl ( Kevin Bacon ) . Strobl wrote about the experience in 2004 and his journal entry has been e-mailed and posted online , where it gained an avid following ( read it at ChancePhelps.org ) . He was nominated for an Emmy and co-won the WGA Award ( TV ) in Long Form adaptation at the Writers Guild of America Awards 2009 with Michael Strobl . Katz has had three films in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ( producers branch ) in 2005 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Ross_Katz", "rank": 52, "score": 105716 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Hollingsworth (animator) Content: Mike Hollingsworth is an American artist , animator and stand up comedian . He has worked on The Shana Show on the Disney Channel and MTV 's Chico & Guapo . He is also the co-creator and director of the animated short The Mustache Contest which was shown at the 2006 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival and creator of the animated shorts LOW TIDE on Fuel TV 's show Stupidface . He also worked as a storyboard artist for The Mr. Men Show and an animation director for The Life and Times of Tim . He created the web series Nature Break for Shut Up ! Cartoons and he directed episodes for the animated series Brickleberry . Hollingsworth also occasionally provides voices and artwork for the popular podcast , The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Hollingsworth_(animator)", "rank": 53, "score": 105509 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (wide receiver) Content: Michael Anthony Jones ( born April 14 , 1960 ) is an American football coach and former professional wide receiver . He is currently the offensive coordinator at Tennessee State University .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(wide_receiver)", "rank": 54, "score": 105460 }, { "content": "Title: The Trick in the Sheet Content: The Trick in the Sheet ( Original title : L'imbroglio Nel Lenzuolo ) is a 2010 Italian romantic comedy film directed by Alfonso Arau . It stars Maria Grazia Cucinotta , Geraldine Chaplin , Anne Parillaud and Primo Reggiani . It was released in Italy on 18 June 2010 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "The_Trick_in_the_Sheet", "rank": 55, "score": 105181 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (rapper) Content: Michael `` Mike '' Jones ( born November 18 , 1981 ) is an American rapper , actor , and entrepreneur . He initially was affiliated with the record label Swishahouse , then left to found his own label , Ice Age Entertainment . Before he was on Swishahouse he was in a group called Souf Folk , in which he used the alias Sache . He released one album with Souf Folk called Country Thuggin in 2003 . He is also known for his catchphrase `` Mike Jones , who ? '' usually repeated several times and for handing out shirts with his cell phone number ( 281-330-8004 ) printed on the back .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(rapper)", "rank": 56, "score": 105055 }, { "content": "Title: Freak of Nature (Freak of Nature album) Content: Freak of Nature is the self-titled debut album by American hard rock / heavy metal band Freak of Nature , released on March 29 , 1993 . The band features former White Lion vocalist Mike Tramp who formed Freak of Nature following White Lion 's last album release The Best of White Lion in 1992 . The album was produced by Phil Kaffel and recorded at the Plant Studios in Sausalito , California and although the record , released through Music For Nations , did not shift in large quantities Freak of Nature 's relentless work ethic brought in many admirers . The band toured for eight months in support of the album , playing a mixture of headlining shows , mainly in Britain , including gigs at the Roskilde Festival on July 2 , and support slots for Helloween in September and Dio in November .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Freak_of_Nature_(Freak_of_Nature_album)", "rank": 57, "score": 105008 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Jones (basketball) Content: Phillip Michael `` Phil '' Jones ( born September 2 , 1985 ) is a Virgin Islands professional basketball player . He played college basketball at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and has played internationally for the U.S. Virgin Islands national basketball team . Born in Nashville , Tennessee , Jones spent part of his childhood growing up in the Virgin Islands . Jones committed to the 49ers out of Laurinburg Prep School in North Carolina after he spent a year at the school after graduating from high school in Philadelphia . Ranked as a top 100 recruit by several publications , he averaged 19 points , 10.2 rebounds , and 5.3 blocks per game while leading the school to the Prep National Championship . As a first-year sophomore for the 49ers , he averaged 3.3 points and 2.9 rebounds a game while playing 13.4 minutes per game off the bench to the 49ers . He improved in his junior season , 2008 -- 09 , averaging 7.3 points , 4 rebounds , and 1.4 blocks per game for the team . Jones competed on the U.S. Virgin Islands national basketball team for the first time at the FIBA Americas Championship 2009 . He averaged 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in four games for the team , including a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds in a preliminary round loss to Puerto Rico .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Phil_Jones_(basketball)", "rank": 58, "score": 104993 }, { "content": "Title: David Jones (director) Content: David Hugh Jones ( 19 February 1934 -- 19 September 2008 ) was an English stage , television , and film director .", "qid": "279", "docid": "David_Jones_(director)", "rank": 59, "score": 104874 }, { "content": "Title: Jamie Jones (DJ) Content: Jamie Jones is a Welsh DJ , producer and two time DJ Awards winner . He is a member of the electronic music group Hot Natured and the head of the record label Hot Creations , as well as its sub-labels Emerald City and Hottrax . Jones was voted the top DJ of 2011 by the online dance music magazine Resident Advisor . In 2012 he received mainstream success with Hot Natured 's single Benediction , which reached number 31 in the UK Singles Chart . Jones hosts his own Paradise party at Ibiza 's DC10 nightclub . In early 2016 Jones launched The House of Hot , an online shop clothing line , vinyls and artwork .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Jamie_Jones_(DJ)", "rank": 60, "score": 104426 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Taylor (public servant) Content: Michael John `` Mike '' Taylor is a former senior Australian public servant and policymaker . He is currently an Independent Director of the Bushfire CRC .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Taylor_(public_servant)", "rank": 61, "score": 104423 }, { "content": "Title: Mouse Warming Content: Mouse Warming ( stylised as Mouse-warming ) is a 1952 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones , and starring Claude Cat ( in his final solo cartoon ) , with a cameo appearance of Hector the Bulldog at the end .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mouse_Warming", "rank": 62, "score": 104212 }, { "content": "Title: Trick (film) Content: Trick is a 1999 American gay-themed romantic comedy film starring Christian Campbell , John Paul Pitoc and Tori Spelling . Independently produced by Eric d'Arbeloff , Ross Katz and Fall , the film was written by Jason Schafer and directed by Jim Fall . Trick premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1999 , and was later released theatrically by Fine Line Features that July .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Trick_(film)", "rank": 63, "score": 104117 }, { "content": "Title: Tom Jones (Philidor) Content: Tom Jones is a comédie mêlée d'ariettes , a kind of opéra comique , by the French composer François-André Danican Philidor which first appeared at the Comédie-Italienne , Paris , on 27 February 1765 . Its French libretto , by Antoine-Alexandre-Henri Poisenet and Bertin Davesne , is loosely based on the novel by Henry Fielding . The piece was initially a failure but Philidor had the libretto revised by Michel-Jean Sedaine and this new version , first performed on 30 January 1766 , proved one of the most popular opéras comiques of the late 18th century . It was produced in a number of other countries , and translated into German , Swedish and Russian .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Tom_Jones_(Philidor)", "rank": 64, "score": 103626 }, { "content": "Title: Arthur Higgins Content: Arthur Embery Higgins ( 25 October 189122 September 1963 ) was a pioneering Australian cinematographer known for his use of trick photography during the silent era . His ongoing collaborations with director Raymond Longford include The Sentimental Bloke ( 1919 ) and The Blue Mountains Mystery ( 1921 ) . He briefly turned to directing with Odds On ( 1928 ) however returned to cinematography in 1931 for the remainder of his career .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Arthur_Higgins", "rank": 65, "score": 103395 }, { "content": "Title: F. Richard Jones Content: Frank Richard Jones ( September 7 , 1893 -- December 14 , 1930 ) was an American director and producer .", "qid": "279", "docid": "F._Richard_Jones", "rank": 66, "score": 103006 }, { "content": "Title: The Bridge (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) Content: `` The Bridge '' is the tenth episode of the first season of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. ( Strategic Homeland Intervention , Enforcement and Logistics Division ) , revolving around the character of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they recruit the super-powered Mike Peterson to face the mysterious Centipede organisation . It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ( MCU ) , sharing continuity with the films of the franchise . The episode was written by Shalisha Francis and directed by Holly Dale . Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series , and is joined by series regulars Ming-Na Wen , Brett Dalton , Chloe Bennet , Iain De Caestecker , and Elizabeth Henstridge . `` The Bridge '' originally aired on ABC on December 10 , 2013 , and according to Nielsen Media Research , was watched by 6.11 million viewers .", "qid": "279", "docid": "The_Bridge_(Agents_of_S.H.I.E.L.D.)", "rank": 67, "score": 102984 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Massey Content: Michael `` Mike '' Massey ( born April 9 , 1947 ) is an American professional pocket-billiards ( pool ) player , best known as a trick-shot artist since the late 1970s , who has given substantial visibility to the sport by traveling the globe to perform exhibitions and compete in a variety of disciplines . He has won professional national and international tournaments in trick-shot competition , nine-ball , eight-ball , straight-pool ( 14.1 continuous ) , and one-pocket , and he has become even more influential in the sport as an accomplished instructor , consultant , and fund-raiser . From 1989 to 1991 he served as a contributing editor of The Snap Magazine . Massey was born in Loudon , Tennessee , and for several years lived in Chattanooga , Tennessee , where he owned a pool hall . He has the nickname of `` Tennessee Tarzan '' , but he now lives in Midway , Utah . Massey was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Billiard Congress of America on April 7 , 2005 . For 2007 he was ranked as # 8 in Pool & Billiard Magazine 's poll of the `` Fans ' Top 20 Favorite Players '' .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Massey", "rank": 68, "score": 102748 }, { "content": "Title: Charles Trick Currelly Content: Charles Trick Currelly ( January 11 , 1876 -- April 10 , 1957 ) was a Canadian clergyman and archeologist , and the first director of the Royal Ontario Museum from 1914 to 1946 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Charles_Trick_Currelly", "rank": 69, "score": 102713 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Sutton (criminologist) Content: Michael `` Mike '' Sutton ( born 1959 ) is the originator of the Market Reduction Approach ( MRA ) to theft . Described by Marcus Felson as classic research and as a simple idea , Sutton 's MRA has had a significant influence upon theory and practice regarding stolen goods markets and markets for other illicit commodities . Influential criminologists have incorporated Sutton 's work on stolen goods markets to explain the issue of offenders ' capacity to commit crimes . Hopkins Burke writes of Sutton 's earlier work on the MRA : `` He suggests that judges and their advisors should consider the social harm stolen goods markets do in stimulating the incidence and prevalence of theft -- and the unintended consequences of providing subsidies for the illicit sex and drugs industries . '' His general MRA principles have influenced work beyond research into markets for theft of high volume consumer goods , since the MRA is described as underpinning recent research into illicit markets for cultural artefacts and as a useful method for tackling the trade in endangered species . Sutton is the founding General Editor of the open access Internet Journal of Criminology . He is Reader in Criminology , teaches hi-tech crime and crime reduction , and is founding Director of the Centre for the Study and Reduction of Hate Crimes at Nottingham Trent University . In the field of Hate Crimes , Sutton has published journal articles on the subject of inter-racial relationships and violence .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Sutton_(criminologist)", "rank": 70, "score": 102637 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Woolpert Content: Phil Woolpert ( December 15 , 1915 -- May 7 , 1987 ) was an American college basketball coach . He is best known for coaching the University of San Francisco Dons to two straight national championships in 1955 and 1956 . Born in Danville , Kentucky , Woolpert attended high school in Los Angeles . He subsequently attended Los Angeles Junior College and Loyola University , Los Angeles , where he played basketball for three years and was initiated into the Alpha Delta Gamma National Fraternity . In 1946 , Woolpert was hired as basketball coach for St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco , California where he posted a 63-29 record in his four years as coach . Upon Pete Newell 's departure for Michigan State University , the University of San Francisco hired Woolpert to succeed Newell . He assumed both the posts of men 's basketball coach and athletic director . During his tenure at USF , Woolpert posted a 153-78 record , including a 60-game win streak that at the time was the longest in college basketball ( surpassed later by John Wooden 's 88 straight wins at UCLA . ) . His teams , anchored by Bill Russell , K.C. Jones , Eugene Brown and Mike Farmer , were known for their defense and held opponents below 60 points on 47 different occasions . USF won the national championship in 1955 and 1956 , and finished third in 1957 . At the time the youngest college basketball coach to win a national championship , Woolpert also won Coach of the Year honors in 1955 and 1956 . After briefly coaching the San Francisco Saints of the American Basketball League , Woolpert returned to the college ranks in 1962 , this time with the University of San Diego . While in San Diego , Woolpert posted a 90-90 record and served as both men 's basketball coach and athletic director . Phil Woolpert retired from coaching in 1969 . He later settled down in Sequim , Washington and became a school bus driver . Woolpert died of cancer in 1987 . His son Paul is the assistant coach of the D-League Los Angeles D-fenders .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Phil_Woolpert", "rank": 71, "score": 102622 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (referee) Content: Michael J. Jones ( born 18 April 1968 ) is an English professional football referee based in Chester . He is a member of the Cheshire County Football Association . He began refereeing in the Football League in 1997 and was promoted in 2008 to the list of Select Group Referees who officiate all Premier League fixtures . In 2009 , he refereed the FA Trophy final at Wembley Stadium .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(referee)", "rank": 72, "score": 102436 }, { "content": "Title: Mike McGee (gallery director) Content: Mike McGee is the gallery director for the CSUF Nicholas and Lee Begovich Gallery in Fullerton , CA He is the founder of the CSUF Grand Central Art Center and was interim acting director in 2011 for the CSUF Grand Central Art Center . McGee has been professor of the Masters program in Exhibition Design and Museum Studies at CSUF for the past 22 years . McGee has served as a board member for Arts Orange County , OCCCA , CSUF Grand Central Art Center and is an Arts Commissioner for the City of Santa Ana . McGee has written major essays for several exhibitions , including : `` Mark Ryden : Bunnies and Bees '' , Porterhouse Fine Arts Editions and GCP , 2002 `` 100 Artists See Satan '' , Grand Central Press , 2004 , co-published by Last Gasp , San Francisco , CA `` John Paul Jones-A retrospective '' , Grand Central Press , 2009 `` The Saddest Place on Earth-The Art of Camille Rose Garcia '' , Grand Central Press , 2006 , co-published by Last Gasp , San Francisco , CA `` Charles Kraff 's Villa Delirium '' , Grand Central Press , 2002 , co-published by Last Gasp , San Francisco , CA `` Allegedly - Hugh Brown , Status Factory '' , `` The Art of Ron English , in process `` Mel 's Hole '' Grand Central Press , 2008 , co-published by Last Gasp , San Francisco , CA `` Thomas Kinkade - Heaven on Earth '' , Grand Central Press , 2004 , co-published by Last Gasp , San Francisco , CA `` Jan de Swart , `` As Above So Below '' , Grand Central Press , 2004 `` Mark Ryden . Pinxit '' , Taschen , 2012 `` G. Ray Kerciu Radical Retrospective '' , Grand Central Press , 2013 , co-published by CSU Fullerton , Begovich Gallery He is also a contributing writer to `` The Curiosities of Janice Lowry '' , Grand Central Press , 2011 and `` Suggestivism '' , Gingko Press and Grand Central Press , 2011", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_McGee_(gallery_director)", "rank": 73, "score": 102354 }, { "content": "Title: Ces Cru Content: Ces Cru ( often stylized as CES Cru ) is an American rap duo from Kansas City , Missouri , currently signed to independent record label Strange Music . The duo currently consists of members Donnie `` Godemis '' King ( Born June 29 , 1979 ) and Mike `` Ubiquitous '' Viglione ( Born April 22 , 1979 ) , but has had numerous members throughout the years . Ces Cru released their debut album Capture Enemy Soldiers in 2004 . They went on to release Cesphiles , Vol . 1 Codename : irongiant ( 2008 ) and The Playground ( 2009 ) . In 2012 , the duo signed to Tech N9ne 's record label Strange Music and have released the EP 13 ( 2012 ) and Recession Proof ( 2015 ) . Their first two studio albums on the label are Constant Energy Struggles ( 2013 ) , and Codename : Ego Stripper ( 2014 ) . The most recent release from Ces Cru is their sixth studio album Catastrophic Event Specialists , released in February 2017 .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Ces_Cru", "rank": 74, "score": 102122 }, { "content": "Title: Albert Beckford Jones Content: Albert Beckford Jones ( born 1958 ) is an American executive , entrepreneur , chief adviser for the U.S. CRDF , and trustee/CEO to several international boards .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Albert_Beckford_Jones", "rank": 75, "score": 102079 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (offensive lineman) Content: Michael Jones ( born June 25 , 1985 ) is a former American football guard . He was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2007 . He played college football at Iowa . Jones has also been a member of the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings . Currently Mike Jones is the offensive coordinator at Addison Trail High School , where he also teaches .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(offensive_lineman)", "rank": 76, "score": 101979 }, { "content": "Title: Edgar C. Jones Content: Edgar Charles Jones ( December 29 , 1903 -- October 27 , 1980 ) was an American football and basketball player , college athletic director and banker . He played both sports at the University of Florida in the 1920s and set a Florida Gators football single-season scoring record ( 108 points ) that stood for 44 years . He was the university 's athletic director from 1930 to 1936 . He later served as executive vice president of Miami Federal Savings and Loan .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Edgar_C._Jones", "rank": 77, "score": 101975 }, { "content": "Title: Trick for Trick Content: Trick for Trick is a 1933 American mystery film directed by Hamilton MacFadden and written by Howard J. Green . The film stars Ralph Morgan , Victor Jory , Sally Blane , Tom Dugan , Luis Alberni and Edward Van Sloan . The film was released on April 21 , 1933 , by Fox Film Corporation .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Trick_for_Trick", "rank": 78, "score": 101934 }, { "content": "Title: Love in the Time of Monsters Content: Love in the Time of Monsters is a 2014 comedy horror film directed by Matt Jackson and starring Doug Jones , Kane Hodder , Mike McShane , Shawn Weatherly and Heather Rae Young . It was produced and distributed by TBC Films and Indican Pictures respectively . It premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival and was released on DVD and VOD in the U.S. and Canada on February 17 , 2015 . The title is a play on Love in the Time of Cholera , a novel by Gabriel García Márquez .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Love_in_the_Time_of_Monsters", "rank": 79, "score": 101932 }, { "content": "Title: Who Is Mike Jones? Content: Who Is Mike Jones ? is the debut album by Houston-based rapper Mike Jones , released on April 19 , 2005 in the United States . The most notable singles from the album are `` Still Tippin ' '' and `` Back Then '' . The CD also comes in a `` limited edition '' version , which includes a bonus CD featuring nearly all the tracks from disc 1 Chopped & Screwed by DJ Michael 5000 Watts . The album was a commercial success for the rapper , debuting number 3 on the Billboard 200 with 181,000 copies sold in its first week and was certified Platinum by the RIAA two months after its release .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Who_Is_Mike_Jones?", "rank": 80, "score": 101932 }, { "content": "Title: Frank Wentz Content: Frank Wentz is the CEO and director of Remote Sensing Systems , a company he founded in 1974 . Remote Sensing Systems specializes in satellite microwave remote sensing research . Together with Carl Mears , he is best known for developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) one . From 1978 to 1982 Frank was a member of NASA 's SeaSat Experiment Team involved in the development of physically based retrieval methods for microwave scatterometers and radiometers . He has also investigated the effect of climate change on satellite-derived evaporation , precipitation and surface wind values . His findings are different from most climate change model predictions .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Frank_Wentz", "rank": 81, "score": 101810 }, { "content": "Title: 20th Century with Mike Wallace Content: 20th Century with Mike Wallace was a documentary television program produced by CBS News Productions in association with A&E Network . It aired on The History Channel , a unit of A&E Television Networks , LLC , from approximately 1994-2005 . It was hosted by veteran CBS correspondent and anchor Mike Wallace . The program used footage gathered by CBS crews and contemporary reporting by CBS correspondents to document great events and movements of the 20th century , mainly the latter decades of that era . The range of topics is suggested by some of the program titles -- `` Underwater : The Great -LSB- Mississippi River -RSB- Flood of ' 93 '' ( no. 52 , 1996-04-10 ) ; `` Coming home : Agent Orange and the Gulf War Syndrome '' ( no. 91 , 1998-11-18 ) ; `` Search for Peace in the Middle East '' ( no. 106 , 1998-12-14 ) ; `` China after Mao '' ( no. 116 , 1999-03-05 ) .", "qid": "279", "docid": "20th_Century_with_Mike_Wallace", "rank": 82, "score": 101768 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Jones (1890s pitcher) Content: Michael Jones ( July 5 , 1865 -- March 24 , 1894 ) was a Major League Baseball pitcher . He made three starts for the American Association champion Louisville Colonels in , earning the win in two of them . He also had four hits and two walks in his eleven career plate appearances .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Jones_(1890s_pitcher)", "rank": 83, "score": 101639 }, { "content": "Title: Distinct Nature Content: Distinct Nature was a Canadian boy band . They achieved some fame during the late 1990s and early 2000s primarily in Canada . They are most known for their radio-friendly 1999 single , `` Human '' , produced by Mark Ryan . The song sampled and interpolated the 1986 hit `` Human '' , performed by the synthpop group The Human League . That single was later followed by `` You and I '' and `` Easier Said Than Done '' ( also produced by Ryan ) . They were together for 10 years prior , to finally disbanding late 2001 . Distinct Nature 's Canadian contemporaries within their genre included b4-4 , 3 Deep , The Boomtang Boys , Prozzak , Jake , Identically Different ( I.D ) , McMaster & James , Voices in Public ( VIP ) , Sugar Jones , Velvet Empire , Untamed , SoulDecision , Shawn Desman , Jacynthe , Joee , D-Cru , 11:30 , Wave", "qid": "279", "docid": "Distinct_Nature", "rank": 84, "score": 101563 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Costanza Content: Mike Costanza is an award-winning filmmaker and writer/director . Mike began his career in the Art Department on feature films . He then went on to direct short films . Mike 's short Mama Said screened at Sundance and in the prestigious Official Selection of films in Competition at The Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or award . Stylized with disorienting authenticity , Mama Said is a critique of Race relations and pop culture of 60 's America . Mama Said also screened on The Sundance Channel . The Collingswood Story is Mike 's innovative horror film . Made years before Skype and Video conferencing were mainstream , TCS explores the lives of a young couple attempting a long distance relationship via webcams . His film screened at numerous festivals including Frightfest in London , won the Best Indie Film and Best Cast Award and received worldwide praise with quotes including : `` A Low Budget Triumph '' , `` Inventive and Frightening '' , and `` The Best Low Budget Horror Movie Since The Blair Witch Project '' . Michael 's additional credits include Creator/Producer of the television series Dante 's Cove . Venturing into New media , Michael created the popular genre portal eerieTube.com . EerieTube showcases original content , stylized news and reviews , geared towards the Science fiction and Horror genre . In addition , Michael directed Music videos and EPKs for various labels including Capitol Records , Verve , and Sony Music Entertainment . in 2013 the filmmaker sued the producers of Paranormal Activity and Paramount for copyright infringement as a result `` the matter has been resolved amicably '' .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Costanza", "rank": 85, "score": 101549 }, { "content": "Title: Croupier (film) Content: Croupier is a 1999 British neo-noir film directed by Mike Hodges and starring Clive Owen . The film attracted a strong critical following in North America and helped to launch Owen 's acting career there . It uses interior monologues in the style of many early noir detective films . Croupier was released on DVD by Alliance Atlantis in Canada and Image Entertainment in the US . It was disqualified from the Academy Awards after it was shown on Dutch television .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Croupier_(film)", "rank": 86, "score": 101535 }, { "content": "Title: Ellis Jones (actor) Content: Ellis Jones ( born 15 November 1943 ) is a British director and actor . In recent years he has been involved in training and directing , for sixteen years as a resident director at London 's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art ( RADA ) , and subsequently as a guest director for other leading drama schools in London and abroad , including the Royal Central School , and the Shanghai Theatre Academy . He became known for his role as the young apprentice `` Hal Adden '' , in the 1970s children 's comedy series Pardon My Genie . He went on to appear in many other television productions , such as The Squirrels , 1914 All Out , King Lear and Measure for Measure Having worked extensively in recent years in theatre training , directing and producing , Ellis Jones recently made a cautious return to performing , as understudy to Kenneth Cranham in London 's West End and on tour in Florian Zeller 's award-winning play `` The Father '' .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Ellis_Jones_(actor)", "rank": 87, "score": 101534 }, { "content": "Title: Yus, My Dear Content: Yus , My Dear is a British sitcom that ran for nineteen episodes over two series in 1976 featuring Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts in the lead roles . It was written by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe , and produced and directed by Stuart Allen for London Weekend Television . It was screened by the ITV network during 1976 , and marked an early regular TV appearance of the comedian Mike Reid . A sequel to Chesney and Wolfe 's earlier series Romany Jones ( 1972 -- 75 ) , the characters Wally and Lily Briggs ( Mullard and Watts ) have left their caravan for a new life in a council house . The new series introduced Wally 's brother Benny , the first acting role for the EastEnders and Snatch star Mike Reid of The Comedians fame . The series , which gained modest ratings , has the reputation of being one of the worst ever sitcoms .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Yus,_My_Dear", "rank": 88, "score": 101485 }, { "content": "Title: Hide and Seek (Howard Jones song) Content: `` Hide and Seek '' was the third single by musician Howard Jones . It was released in February 1984 , and reached number 12 in the UK Singles Chart . It appears on Jones ' album Human 's Lib . Musically , the song is darker than other songs by Jones , featuring an eerie gothic-tinged sound that is comparable to dark ambient . The B-sides , `` Tao Te Ching '' and `` China Dance '' , are both instrumentals . All tracks were written by Jones . Jones performed a solo acoustic version of the song at the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert . The track reached the top 5 in many countries including Ireland and has been covered by many artists , including a version by the band Gregorian on their fourth Masters of Chant album . The theme of the song , is the story of the origin of the universe according to Buddhist , Advaita Vedanta ( Hinduism ) and other Eastern ontological philosophies . The original being manifests the universe and then ` loses ' him/herself ( Jones uses both , to defeat the duality of gender ) in the creation , as part of a game of hide and seek , with the goal of life being to discover that one is nothing other than the original primordial being .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Hide_and_Seek_(Howard_Jones_song)", "rank": 89, "score": 101465 }, { "content": "Title: Creative Response Concepts Content: Creative Response Concepts ( CRC ) Public Relations is an American public relations firm best known for helping to devise the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign attacking John Kerry 's Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential race . The company 's Alexandria , Virginia office , is run by former Pat Buchanan communications director Greg Mueller , with help from former Pat Robertson communications director Mike Russell . CRC was also hired by the Discovery Institute during the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial over teaching intelligent design in public schools . In 2006 , they were retained to help promote the 2006 film World Trade Center directed by Oliver Stone . The company was hired to promote The Case Against Barack Obama , a 2008 book by David Freddoso and put out by Regnery Publishing . CRC is also the agency of record for the National Organization for Marriage .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Creative_Response_Concepts", "rank": 90, "score": 101372 }, { "content": "Title: The Mau-Mau's Content: were a band started in 1978 by Rick Wilder ( formerly the singer of the Berlin Brats ) . The original line-up from Hollywood , California was Greg Salva on guitar , Roderick Donahue on bass , and Rick Torres on drums . They started out playing at The Masque in Hollywood . Salva was replaced by Mike R. Livingston in 1979 after Salva moved to New York City and Donahue was replaced first by Oscar Harvey and then by Scott Franklin ( onetime bassist in The Cramps ) . Wilder had been chosen to be MC of the Penelope Spheeris movie The Decline of Western Civilization but was dumped after he insisted he be able to say what he really thought of every act before their clip ( it was probably not going to be too complimentary ) . One of the original bands from The Masque era , the Mau-Mau 's are conspicuous by their absence from The Decline . Wilder 's eccentric attitude toward the record industry and the legendarily self-destructive lifestyles of himself and his band members guaranteed that no record company would risk finances on the Mau-Mau 's . This lack of recorded music contributed towards a long period of obscurity despite being well known by most in the early Los Angeles punk rock scene . The Mau-Mau 's can be seen briefly in the movie Rock 'n' Roll High School , have appeared in the movie `` Cocaine and Blue Eyes '' starring OJ Simpson and were included in the compilation Hell Comes to Your House II . Rick Wilder also showed up in The Weeknd 's music video `` Tell Your Friends '' The Mau-Mau 's long-awaited album `` SCORCHED EARTH POLICIES ... THEN AND NOW '' was released by Ratchet Blade Records in 2012 . It features the Doors ' Robbie Krieger playing guitar on the Wilder-Campbell punk classic , '' ( I 'm ) Psychotic . '' . The album was produced by L.A. punk pioneer , Geza X Gideon . Over the years and throughout the Mau-Mau 's history Rick Wilder lived between New York at his sisters apartment ( Aprile Millo ) and L.A. giving him the flexibility to work with other musicians and perform shows , there is an extensive list of members who have collaborated with Rick Wilder not just under the Mau-Mau 's name but formed new projects around Rick Wilder . Category : Punk rock groups from California Category : Musical groups established in 1978 Category : Musical groups from Los Angeles", "qid": "279", "docid": "The_Mau-Mau's", "rank": 91, "score": 101334 }, { "content": "Title: Jim Fall Content: Jim Fall ( born December 13 , 1962 ) is an American film and television director and film producer . He is best known as the director of Trick ( 1999 ) and The Lizzie McGuire Movie ( 2003 ) .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Jim_Fall", "rank": 92, "score": 101313 }, { "content": "Title: The Perfect Match (1995 film) Content: The Perfect Match is a British comedy-drama television film written by Mike Bullen and directed by Nick Hurran . It stars Saskia Reeves and Con O'Neill as Bridget and Phil , a couple whose marriage proposal is broadcast to football fans . It was first broadcast on the ITV network on 6 September 1995 . The programme was not well received by critics but it was enough of a success for producers Granada Television to ask Bullen for further ideas , leading to the commissioning of the long-running television series Cold Feet .", "qid": "279", "docid": "The_Perfect_Match_(1995_film)", "rank": 93, "score": 101294 }, { "content": "Title: Among Us Hide... Content: `` Among Us Hide ... '' is the sixth episode of the third season , and fiftieth episode overall , of the American television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. , based on the Marvel Comics organization S.H.I.E.L.D. ( Strategic Homeland Intervention , Enforcement and Logistics Division ) , revolving around the character of Phil Coulson and his team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they deal with new players and secrets . It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ( MCU ) , sharing continuity with the films of the franchise . The episode was written by Drew Z. Greenberg , and directed by Dwight Little . Clark Gregg reprises his role as Coulson from the film series , and is joined by series regulars Ming-Na Wen , Brett Dalton , Chloe Bennet , Iain De Caestecker , Elizabeth Henstridge , Nick Blood , Adrianne Palicki , Henry Simmons , and Luke Mitchell . `` Among Us Hide ... '' originally aired on ABC on November 3 , 2015 , and according to Nielsen Media Research , was watched by 3.84 million viewers .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Among_Us_Hide...", "rank": 94, "score": 101277 }, { "content": "Title: Mike L. Jones Content: Michael Lenere Jones ( born November 10 , 1966 ) is a former American football player . A native of Bridgeport , Connecticut , Jones was a three-sport star and high school all-American amassing several state championships for Warren Harding High School . He attended the University of Michigan on a football and baseball scholarship . While at Harding he played football , basketball and baseball winning 9 total state championships and was a high school All-American in all three sports . He was a 4 time all state basketball , football and 2 time baseball player . He had a tryout and was offered a contract for the NY Yankees but ultimately chose football and college . He played college football for the 1985 Michigan Wolverines football team as a backup quarterback behind Jim Harbaugh . With Harbaugh securely entrenched in the starting quarterback spot at Michigan , Jones transferred to a junior college after one year at Michigan , he stayed there for only one searson so that he would n't lose eligibility . He later played college football at the tight end position for the Texas A&M Aggies football team from 1988 to 1989 where he obtained All - American honors . He played professional football as a tight end for the Minnesota Vikings from 1990 to 1991 and for the Seattle Seahawks in 1992 . Also playing for the Indianapolis Colts . Jones has recently served as an advanced scout for the Minnesota Vikings as well as Indianapolis Colts . Jones is also a member of Alpha Mu Mu chapter of Omega Psi Phi .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_L._Jones", "rank": 95, "score": 101273 }, { "content": "Title: Ham & Cheese Content: Ham & Cheese is a 2004 Canadian film directed by Warren P. Sonoda . The story written by Mike Beaver and Jason Jones and starring Mike Beaver and Jason Jones is about two talentless actors who attempt to make it in showbiz with persistence , ready to do anything to reach their dreams without letting go .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Ham_&_Cheese", "rank": 96, "score": 101176 }, { "content": "Title: Mike Heideman Content: Mike Heideman ( born March 29 , 1948 ) is the director of men 's basketball operations at Washington State University . He previously served as head men 's basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin -- Green Bay .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Mike_Heideman", "rank": 97, "score": 101110 }, { "content": "Title: Gordon Jones (actor) Content: Gordon Wynnivo Jones ( April 5 , 1912 -- June 20 , 1963 ) was an American character actor , a member of John Wayne 's informal acting company best known for playing Lou Costello 's TV nemesis `` Mike the Cop '' and appearing as The Green Hornet in the first of two movie serials based on that old-time radio program .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Gordon_Jones_(actor)", "rank": 98, "score": 101089 }, { "content": "Title: CRX (band) Content: CRX is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 2013 , consisting of Nick Valensi ( lead vocals , guitar ) , Ralph Alexander ( drums ) , Richie Follin ( guitar , keyboard , backing vocals ) , Jon Safley ( bass ) and Darian Zahedi ( guitar , backing vocals ) . The band released their debut album , New Skin , on October 28 , 2016 . The album 's first single , `` Ways to Fake It '' , was released on September 7 through Vevo and Spotify . Valensi has described the band 's sound as a mix of power pop and heavy metal , and has named The Cars , Cheap Trick and Elvis Costello as influences .", "qid": "279", "docid": "CRX_(band)", "rank": 99, "score": 101082 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Roman Content: Philip Roman ( born December 21 , 1930 in Fresno , California ) is an American animator . He is the founder of animation studios Film Roman and Phil Roman Entertainment . Roman is of Mexican American descent . Early in his career , Roman was an animator for Chuck Jones 's independent studios , Sib Tower 12 Productions and later Chuck Jones Productions . He was a lead animator for 1966 's How the Grinch Stole Christmas ! , and also provided an audio commentary along with June Foray on the DVD release of the film . The animation studio he founded , Film Roman , is best known for producing the animation for The Simpsons and King of the Hill for 20th Century Fox and MTV , as well as the Garfield animated television specials . Roman directed eleven of the twelve prime-time Garfield animated television specials broadcast between 1982 and 1991 ( and produced the final one , Garfield Gets a Life ) . He also appeared in person in the 1988 documentary TV special Happy Birthday , Garfield ! , which went behind the scenes of both the comic strip and the animated version of Garfield . In 1992 , Roman directed Tom and Jerry : The Movie , Film Roman 's first theatrical feature . Prior to running his own company , Roman also directed several of the Peanuts specials produced at Bill Melendez ' studio . Phil Roman sold Film Roman in 1999 and formed Phil Roman Entertainment . The company produced the animated special Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer . Recently , Roman has served as the production supervisor and executive producer in the Mexican-American animated film El Americano : The Movie , set to be released in January 2016 . Following Film Roman 's purchase by Waterman Entertainment , Roman returned to the company he founded as chairman emeritus .", "qid": "279", "docid": "Phil_Roman", "rank": 100, "score": 101056 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Meirion Jones Content: Meirion Jones is a British journalist . He worked for the BBC until 2015 . In July 2016 he became Investigations Editor at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism . In 2013 he won the London Press Awards Scoop of the Year prize for his part in the investigation into Jimmy Savile . In 2010 he won the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists , Daniel Pearl Award for his investigation of the dumping of Trafigura 's toxic waste in Africa . Former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman described Jones in September 2016 as `` a dogged journalist with that obsessional , slightly nutty commitment that marks out all successful investigative reporters '' . Jones has investigated many subjects including the alleged fixing of the US Presidential Election in 2000 , toxic waste dumping in Africa , how Britain helped Israel 's nuclear weapons programme , market-rigging by multinationals , bogus bomb detectors , tsunami aid , terror and security , political scandals and financial scams . He also worked with journalist Liz Mackean in late 2011 on a Newsnight investigation into the activities of suspected paedophile Jimmy Savile . Its rejection by their superior , ( former ) Newsnight editor Peter Rippon , ultimately led to a major scandal .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Meirion_Jones", "rank": 1, "score": 123254 }, { "content": "Title: Robin Russell-Jones Content: Robin Russell-Jones ( born 5 March 1948 ) is a medical doctor with an abiding interest in environmental pollution and the way it impinges on public health . His activities have influenced several key area of environmental policy in the UK , including the decision to ban lead in petrol , introduce catalytic converters in petrol driven vehicles , and change official guidelines on exposure to ionising radiation . His letters and articles have raised awareness of ozone depletion and global warming .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Robin_Russell-Jones", "rank": 2, "score": 121072 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Jones (climatologist) Content: Philip Douglas Jones ( born April 22 , 1952 ) retired from his positions as the Director of the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) and as a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) at the end of 2016 . Jones was replaced as CRU director by Tim Osborn and has taken up a position as a Professorial Fellow at the UEA from January 2017 . His research interests include instrumental climate change , palaeoclimatology , detection of climate change and the extension of riverflow records in the UK . He has also published papers on the temperature record of the past 1000 years . He is known for maintaining a time series of the instrumental temperature record . This work was featured prominently in both the 2001 and 2007 IPCC reports , where he was a contributing author to Chapter 12 , Detection of Climate Change and Attribution of Causes , of the Third Assessment Report and a Coordinating Lead Author of Chapter 3 , Observations : Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change , of the AR4 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Phil_Jones_(climatologist)", "rank": 3, "score": 119573 }, { "content": "Title: Bruce D. Jones Content: Bruce D. Jones , Ph.D. ( born 1969 ) is an academic , an author and policy analyst . He is Director of the Foreign Policy program and Director of the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution . He is also a consulting professor at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University and chair of the advisory council of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University . Jones ' research focuses primarily on U.S. policy on global order ; the global order policies of the emerging powers ; global governance and multilateral reform , including such issues as G8/G20 and UN Security Council reform ; and international conflict management , peacekeeping , and post-conflict operations . His most recent book , Still Ours to Lead : America , Rising Powers , and the Tension between Rivalry and Restraint , examines the tension between the impulse to rival the U.S.A and the incentives for restraint and cooperation among the rising powers . Under Jones , the Center on International Cooperation has developed into one of the most influential think-tanks working on conflict and security , climate change , fragile states , peacebuilding , mediation , and global threats and challenges . Through CIC , Jones has authored several major policy reports and publications . The Annual Review of Global Peace Operations has rapidly become the reference text for data and analysis on peacekeeping . From Fragility to Resilience has provided new international definitions for resilience and statebuilding , which were adopted by OECD member states , and taken forward by the United Kingdom Department for International Development and others . He also co-authored Recovering from War , which formed the basis for a Thematic Debate at the United Nations Security Council . The follow-up to the ideas in this report were most notably visible in the United Nations Review of International Civilian Capacities initiative , for which Dr. Jones served as a member of the Senior Advisory Group , and in the OECD workstream on financing . Jones 's book , Power and Responsibility ( 2009 ) , co-authored by Ambassador Carlos Pascual and Professor Stephen Stedman , received the BookNote Awards Gold Prize in 2009 for Best Book of the Year in the domain of Political Science . Jones is also affiliated with several universities , serving at Stanford University as a Consulting Professor , at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service as an Adjunct Professor , and at New York University as a Professor by courtesy . He advises several international organizations , including the World Bank , serving as Co-Lead and Senior External Advisor for the World Bank 's 2011 World Development Report : Conflict , Security and Development ; and the United Nations , where he is Lead consultant with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations project , New Horizons for Peacekeeping . He is also a Senior Fellow with the Foreign Policy Program of the Brookings Institution . Jones is a Board member of the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation ; the Norwegian Peacebuilding Training Advisory Group ; Conciliation Resources ; and to Asia Foundation 's Aid to Subnational Conflict Areas program .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Bruce_D._Jones", "rank": 4, "score": 115734 }, { "content": "Title: Ben Jones (British actor) Content: Ben Jones ( born 14 March 1972 ) is a British actor , best known for playing Dr. Greg Robinson in the BBC One daytime soap opera Doctors . Jones was educated at Harrow School and Reading University , and is the brother of novelist Vanessa Jones and the son of Noël Jones , late Bishop of Sodor and Man . He currently lives in London . Ben Jones is also a writer and has written several episodes of Doctors for the BBC to date . Jones is a keen cricket fan and a member of the Lord 's Taverners . He has been a member of the Leukaemia Research celebrity running team since 2005 and has completed 5 London Marathons and several shorter races for the charity , including : The Great North , The Great South , The Fleet Half marathon and The BUPA London and Great Manchester 10ks . His credits include : Borgia Drifters Holby City Spooks My Family Echo Beach Moving Wallpaper Keen Eddie Longitude Time of My Life ( a play at the Theatre Royal in Northampton )", "qid": "281", "docid": "Ben_Jones_(British_actor)", "rank": 5, "score": 114554 }, { "content": "Title: David A. Jones Content: David Arfon Jones is a senior climatologist at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology . He initially studied mathematics and chemistry at university but changed to atmospheric studies . Jones obtained his PhD in Earth Science from the University of Melbourne , Australia in 1995 . He subsequently completed the postgraduate diploma in weather forecasting in 1995 at the Bureau of Meteorology . In 1995 Jones commenced work in the Climate Analysis Section of the Australian National Climate Centre , focusing on the automation of climate monitoring using objective analysis techniques . Subsequently he moved to the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre in 1997 undertaking research on the variability and change of Australia 's climate . Jones became the supervisor of Climate Analysis at the Bureau of Meteorology in 2002 . In this role he has promoted the automation of analysis , monitoring and forecasting products and the introduction of a range of innovative climate monitoring activities , with a focus on encouraging the interpretation of climate variability in the context of a rapidly changing climate . Owing to the continued misrepresentation of climate change in the Australian media Jones has written a number of public pieces correcting or explaining climate change including in The Age , and in articles for the Australian Science Media Centre . In 2006 Jones was awarded the National Australia Day Council Achievement Medallion .", "qid": "281", "docid": "David_A._Jones", "rank": 6, "score": 114411 }, { "content": "Title: Ellis Jones (sociologist) Content: Ellis McNatt Jones ( born February 25 , 1970 ) is an American sociologist and author . Jones was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Panama from 1993 to 1995 where he worked in Environmental Education . Jones has researched consumer products , rating corporations on an `` A '' through `` F '' scale based on their scores in five areas : human rights ( sweatshops , child labor , etc. ) , the environment ( global warming , rainforest destruction , etc. ) , animal protection ( animal testing , humane treatment , etc. ) , community involvement ( local business support , nonprofit alliances , etc. ) , and social justice ( fair wages , discrimination , etc. ) . In his book `` The Better World Shopping Guide : Every Dollar Makes A Difference , '' he encourages consumers to push their dollars to the `` A '' and `` B '' companies and away from the `` D '' and `` F '' companies to create a better world . He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado and is currently a professor of sociology at College of the Holy Cross .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Ellis_Jones_(sociologist)", "rank": 7, "score": 114265 }, { "content": "Title: Lloyd Owen Content: Lloyd Owen ( born 14 April 1966 ) is an English actor . Trained at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art ( RADA ) in London , he is probably best known for his portrayal of Indiana Jones 's father Professor Dr. Henry Jones , Sr. in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles between 1992 and 1993 and for playing Paul Bowman-MacDonald in the BBC Scotland series Monarch of the Glen from 2002 to 2005 . He played the role of solicitor William Heelis in the film Miss Potter ( 2006 ) . His most recent TV role was playing the US President in `` You , Me and the Apocalypse '' on Sky . However , his first love has always been the theatre . His first break on stage was the role of Nick in Who 's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? in 1996 . Other highlights of his stage career include playing Dan in Closer in 1998 , George in The York Realist in 2002 , and Peter in Paul in 2005 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Lloyd_Owen", "rank": 8, "score": 112044 }, { "content": "Title: George Fay Content: George Fay , while an officer in the United States Army , was the lead author of an investigation into the scandal at Abu Ghraib , more commonly known as the Fay Report . In June 2004 , Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez requested to be removed from oversight of the investigation and for an officer more senior than himself to replace Fay , when it became clear that he would need to answer questions regarding his role in the scandal . Military customs and procedures prohibited Fay from interviewing Sanchez because he was junior in rank . Fay was replaced by Lieutenant General Anthony Jones . Fay was Executive Vice President , Worldwide P&C Claim , for CNA Financial in Chicago , from 2006 to 2015 . In that capacity , he was `` responsible for claim strategies and operations for CNA 's Property & Casualty Operations worldwide . '' He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from St. Peter 's College and an MBA in finance from St. John 's University . He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School , Counterintelligence Officer Course , Aerial Surveillance Officer Course , Electronic Warfare Officer Course , the Command and General Staff College , and the U.S. Army War College .", "qid": "281", "docid": "George_Fay", "rank": 9, "score": 111917 }, { "content": "Title: Ronald W. Jones Content: Ronald Winthrop Jones ( born 1931 ) is an influential international trade economist and Xerox Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester . His recent highly acclaimed book Globalization and the Theory of Input Trade ( 2000 ) summarizes much of his past work and also discusses the recent market trend toward fragmentation and outsourcing of the production process . Professor Jones also is an author of World Trade and Payments ( with Richard E. Caves and Jeffrey Frankel ) , an upper-level college textbook that focuses on international economics . He earned an A.B. from Swarthmore College in 1952 and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Ronald_W._Jones", "rank": 10, "score": 111172 }, { "content": "Title: Tri Energy Content: Tri Energy , was a business enterprise run by Henry Uliomereyon Jones , better known as Dr. Henry Jones , a record producer in Marina del Rey , California running MIG Records ( later renamed Global Village Records ) and Marina Investors Group Inc. . Jones with two of his main associates , Arthur Simburg , a former marketing representative for sporting-goods manufacturer and Robert Jennings , an associate pastor at the New Life Fellowship Church in Perris , California were convicted of running a fraudulent Ponzi scheme operation and affinity fraud through Tri Energy , involving defrauding over 735 people of $ 50 million , resulting in several court actions both civil and criminal cases , and imprisonment of the three Tri Energy associates .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Tri_Energy", "rank": 11, "score": 111158 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 12, "score": 110669 }, { "content": "Title: Marion Jones Content: Marion Lois Jones ( born October 12 , 1975 ) , also known as Marion Jones-Thompson , is an American former world champion track and field athlete and a former professional basketball player for Tulsa Shock in the WNBA . She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney , Australia , but was later stripped of the titles after admitting to steroid use . Jones did retain her three gold medals as a world champion from 1997 and 1999 . At the time of her admission and subsequent guilty plea , Marion Jones was one of the most famous athletes to be linked to the BALCO scandal . The case against BALCO covered more than 20 top level athletes , including Jones 's ex-husband , shot putter C.J. Hunter , and 100 m sprinter Tim Montgomery , the father of Jones 's first child .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Marion_Jones", "rank": 13, "score": 109481 }, { "content": "Title: Miles J. Jones Content: Miles James Alfred Jones , Jr. , M.D. ( 22 November 1952 - 9 February 2013 ) was a forensic pathologist who became one of the most notorious physician-abusers of internet-mediated services . He was also cited for contempt of the U.S. Congress for failure to appear before it concerning his activities in the sale of fetal body parts . The Federal Bureau of Investigation subsequently considered criminal charges against Jones for the latter enterprise , but he was eventually imprisoned in the Federal Corrections System for failure to pay U.S. income taxes for two years .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Miles_J._Jones", "rank": 14, "score": 109030 }, { "content": "Title: Ben Owen-Jones Content: Ben Owen-Jones is a British actor . His first television appearance was as a child when he appeared in the BBC children 's programme Grange Hill . In 1995 , he had an accident which resulted in a spinal injury , leaving him paraplegic , and since then he uses a wheelchair for mobility . Following rehabilitation he studied interactive art at undergraduate level and went on to take an M.A. in multimedia . His work was shown at an art festival in Germany . In 2005 , he applied for and was selected to take part in the Talent Fund for Disabled Actors -- a bursary scheme organised by the BBC , Channel 4 and the Actors Centre . The scheme was designed to increase the pool of disabled acting talent available to TV casting directors and provided BBC masterclasses delivered by leading TV directors , and Actors Centre training . Following this he was cast in the new BBC drama , New Street Law where he played Chris Quick ; a semi-regular character who was also paraplegic . Since then he has gone on to appear in several TV dramas.In 2012 he played the part of a wounded soldier in the dramatisation of the story of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann written by Lucy Gannon . Since becoming disabled he has worked with charities in England and Wales to offer support to other people who have sustained spinal injuries .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Ben_Owen-Jones", "rank": 15, "score": 108598 }, { "content": "Title: Raymond Jones (composer) Content: Raymond Jones is a television composer who is best known for his work on Doctor Who . Jones 's work on Doctor Who was during William Hartnell 's era as the First Doctor in The Romans ( Doctor Who ) , in 1965 , but he also composed for three episodes of BBC television 's Wodehouse Playhouse in 1975 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Raymond_Jones_(composer)", "rank": 16, "score": 107698 }, { "content": "Title: Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt Content: `` Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt '' ( The world turns the wrong way ) was the Austrian representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 , performed in German by Stella Jones . The song was performed eighth on the night , following Iceland 's Bo Halldórsson with `` Núna '' and preceding Spain 's Anabel Conde with `` Vuelve conmigo '' . At the close of voting , it had received 67 points , placing 13th in a field of 23 . The song is about the effects that Jones ' lover has on her , specifically the way that he makes her world turn the wrong way whenever he is around her . It was succeeded as Austrian representative at the 1996 Contest by George Nussbaumer singing `` Weil 's dr guat got '' . Category : Eurovision songs of Austria Category : Eurovision songs of 1995 Category :1995 songs", "qid": "281", "docid": "Die_Welt_dreht_sich_verkehrt", "rank": 17, "score": 107296 }, { "content": "Title: Ron Jones (television director) Content: Ron Jones ( 6 August 1945 -- 9 July 1993 ) was a British television director . Born in Bristol , he joined the BBC as a studio manager in local radio then became an assistant floor manager on television . After a period as a researcher and item director on Blue Peter he worked as a production manager on series such as Bergerac and Secret Army . On completing the BBC 's internal director 's course , he was commissioned to direct for Doctor Who and contributed six stories in the 1980s : Black Orchid , Time-Flight , Arc of Infinity , Frontios , Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp . He also directed Lindenstraße ( a 1985 TV Series ) and episodes of police drama Juliet Bravo .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Ron_Jones_(television_director)", "rank": 18, "score": 107287 }, { "content": "Title: Richard Jones (Tasmanian politician) Content: Dr. Richard Jones ( 1936 -- 1986 ) was one of the co-founders of the United Tasmania Group ( UTG ) , the world 's first Green party and the predecessor of the Tasmanian Greens . He was the UTG 's first president when it formed in March 1972 , through to the middle 1970s . At the time Jones was an academic biologist working at the University of Tasmania . He helped form the Centre for Environmental Studies Unit at the University of Tasmania and was active in transforming the Australian Conservation Foundation from an apolitical to a political force .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Richard_Jones_(Tasmanian_politician)", "rank": 19, "score": 107100 }, { "content": "Title: John Jones (doctor) Content: John Jones ( 1729 -- June 23 , 1791 ) was an 18th-century physician who wrote the book Plain , Concise , Practical Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures . Jones was born in Jamaica , Queens County , New York . He graduated from Reims University in 1751 with a degree in medicine . Among others Jones studied medicine under Percival Pott . Jones served as a surgeon in the French and Indian War . After the war he wrote his guide on wound treatment and served as a professor of medicine at King 's College , which is today Columbia University . In his book , first published in 1775 , Jones recommended such actions as removing bullets as soon as possible and cleaning wounds . In 1777 , Jones was appointed to the New York State Senate but resigned in February 1778 , due to ill health . In 1780 , he removed to Philadelphia and became the physician of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington .", "qid": "281", "docid": "John_Jones_(doctor)", "rank": 20, "score": 106978 }, { "content": "Title: Dove World Outreach Center Quran-burning controversy Content: In July 2010 , Terry Jones , the pastor of the Christian Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville , Florida , U.S. , announced he would burn 200 Qurans on the 2010 anniversary of the September 11 attacks . He gained media coverage , resulting in international outrage over his plans and pleas from world leaders to cancel the event . Jones 's threat sparked protests in the Middle East and Asia , in which at least 20 people were killed . In early September 2010 , Jones cancelled and pledged never to burn a Quran . Nevertheless , on March 20 , 2011 , Jones held a `` trial of the Quran '' in his Gainesville church . Finding the scriptures guilty of `` crimes against humanity , '' the Quran was burned in the church sanctuary . Protesters in the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and elsewhere attacked the United Nations Assistance Mission , killing at least 30 people , including at least seven United Nations workers , and injuring at least 150 people . Jones disclaimed any responsibility . Norwegian , Swedish , Nepalese and Romanian nationals were among the UN workers killed . The killing of two US soldiers by an Afghan policeman on 4 April 2011 was attributed to anger over the burning of the Quran . American news analysts criticized and blamed Hamid Karzai , President of Afghanistan , for drawing attention to the Quran burning .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Dove_World_Outreach_Center_Quran-burning_controversy", "rank": 21, "score": 106502 }, { "content": "Title: European Academy of Environmental Affairs Content: The European Academy for Environmental Affairs ( also known as European Academy of Environmental Affairs ) is a private organization which cosponsored the 1995 conference that produced the Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change , a SEPP-initiated document in which some scientists argue against global warming theories . Founder and president of the Academy was the late Prof. Dr. hc . Helmut Metzner ( 1925-1999 ) , who was professor for chemical plant physiology . Metzner was accused of having connections to the Studienzentrum Weikersheim , a right-wing think-tank in Baden-Württemberg . In 1993 the Academy also held a conference in Mannheim under the title `` Globale Erwärmung - Tatsache oder Behauptung ? '' ( Global warming -- fact or fiction ? ) . The Academy was recognized in a consultative function by the Council of Europe , but the status was withdrawn because of the Academy 's failure to comply with its obligations . The Academy has no active web pages , and it may be defunct . A list of textbooks on ecology issued by the Academy is available online .", "qid": "281", "docid": "European_Academy_of_Environmental_Affairs", "rank": 22, "score": 106331 }, { "content": "Title: Linda Tripp Content: Linda Rose Tripp ( née Carotenuto ; born November 24 , 1949 ) is a former U.S. civil servant who figured in the Monica Lewinsky scandal of 1995 -- 1996 . Tripp 's action in secretly recording Lewinsky 's confidential phone calls about her relationship with the President caused a sensation with their links to the earlier Jones v. Clinton lawsuit and with the disclosing of notably intimate details . Tripp claimed that her motives were purely patriotic , and she was able to avoid a wiretap charge in exchange for handing in the tapes . She then claimed that her firing from the Pentagon at the end of the Clinton administration was vindictive , while the administration claimed it to be a standard routine . Tripp works with her husband in a retail business in Middleburg , Virginia .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Linda_Tripp", "rank": 23, "score": 106049 }, { "content": "Title: Steven E. Jones Content: Steven Earl Jones ( born March 25 , 1949 ) is an American physicist . Among scientists , Jones became known for his long research on muon-catalyzed fusion and geo-fusion . Jones is also known for his association with 9/11 controversies . Jones has claimed that mere airplane crashes and fires could not have resulted in so rapid and complete a fall of the World Trade Center Towers and 7 World Trade Center , suggesting controlled demolition instead , based upon his own experiments . In late 2006 , some time after Brigham Young University ( BYU ) officials placed him on paid leave , he elected to retire in an agreement with BYU . Jones continued research and writing following his early retirement from BYU , including a paper published in Europhysics News in August 2016 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Steven_E._Jones", "rank": 24, "score": 105499 }, { "content": "Title: Lewinsky scandal Content: The Lewinsky scandal was an American political sex scandal that involved 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern , Monica Lewinsky . The sexual relationship took place between 1995 and 1996 and came to light in 1998 . Clinton ended a televised speech with the statement that he did not have sexual relations with Lewinsky . Further investigation led to charges of perjury and led to the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives and his subsequent acquittal on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day Senate trial . Clinton was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Susan Webber Wright for giving misleading testimony in the Paula Jones case regarding Lewinsky and was also fined $ 90,000 by Wright . His license to practice law was suspended in Arkansas for five years ; shortly thereafter , he was disbarred from presenting cases in front of the United States Supreme Court . During Clinton 's first term in 1995 , Lewinsky -- a graduate of Lewis & Clark College -- was hired to work as an intern at the White House and was later an employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs . While Lewinsky worked at the White House , Clinton began a personal relationship with her , the details of which she later confided to Linda Tripp , her Defense Department co-worker who secretly recorded their telephone conversations . In January 1998 , Tripp discovered that Lewinsky had sworn an affidavit in the Paula Jones case , denying a relationship with Clinton . She delivered tapes to Kenneth Starr , the Independent Counsel who was investigating Clinton on other matters , including the Whitewater scandal , the White House FBI files controversy , and the White House travel office controversy . During the grand jury testimony , Clinton 's responses were carefully worded , and he argued , `` It depends on what the meaning of the word ` is ' is , '' with regard to the truthfulness of his statement that `` there is not a sexual relationship , an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship . '' The wide reporting of the scandal led to criticism of the press for over-coverage . The scandal is sometimes referred to as `` Monicagate , '' Lewinskygate , '' `` Tailgate , '' `` Sexgate , '' and `` Zippergate , '' following the '' - gate '' nickname construction that has been popular since the Watergate scandal . The improper relationship between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky was confirmed , but Clinton 's marriage with his wife , Hillary Clinton , survived the scandal .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Lewinsky_scandal", "rank": 25, "score": 105471 }, { "content": "Title: Hilary Jones (doctor) Content: Hilary Robert Jones ( born 19 June 1953 in Hammersmith , London ) is an English general practitioner , presenter and writer on medical issues , known for his media appearances , most especially on television . He is known for being part of News of the World ( now The Sun on Sunday ) magazine team `` The A Team '' as the health expert .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Hilary_Jones_(doctor)", "rank": 26, "score": 105203 }, { "content": "Title: 1996 U.S. Open (golf) Content: The 1996 U.S. Open was the 96th U.S. Open , held June 13 -- 16 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham , Michigan , a suburb northwest of Detroit . Steve Jones won his only major title , one stroke ahead of runners-up Tom Lehman and Davis Love III . Jones went through an incredible journey just to get to Oakland Hills . He had won four PGA Tour events , the last in 1989 , but in November 1991 he was involved in a dirt bike accident that threatened to end his career . He separated his shoulder and sprained an ankle , as well as suffering ligament damage in his left ring finger . Jones was sidelined for three years , not making it back on tour until 1994 . His win here came in his first U.S. Open since 1991 , and he was the first champion to go through sectional qualifying since tour rookie Jerry Pate in 1976 . After this win , Jones won three additional events on tour . This was the eighth major championship at the South Course , which previously hosted the U.S. Open in 1924 , 1937 , 1951 , 1961 , and 1985 , and the PGA Championship in 1972 and 1979 . It later hosted the PGA Championship in 2008 . It was Lehman 's third close call in a major ( 1994 Masters , 1995 U.S. Open ) ; he regrouped and won the next , The Open Championship in England . Love won the PGA Championship the following year at Winged Foot .", "qid": "281", "docid": "1996_U.S._Open_(golf)", "rank": 27, "score": 105193 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Jones (broadcaster) Content: Peter Jones ( 7 February 1930 -- 2 April 1990 ) was a Welsh-born broadcaster , best known as a sports commentator on BBC radio in the United Kingdom , although many of his commentaries were also broadcast internationally on the BBC World Service . He frequently worked alongside Maurice Edelston , Bryon Butler , Alan Parry and , latterly , Alan Green and Mike Ingham .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Peter_Jones_(broadcaster)", "rank": 28, "score": 105193 }, { "content": "Title: Geraint Stanley Jones Content: Geraint Stanley Jones CBE ( c. 1936 -- 26 August 2015 ) was a Welsh television executive . From 1981 to 1989 , Jones was the Controller of BBC Wales , from which he oversaw the launch of S4C , the Welsh-language public-service television channel , in 1982 . Jones also served as the chief executive of S4C from 1989 to 1994 . In 1960 , Jones began his career in television broadcasting as a studio manager for BBC Wales . He was elevated to a television producer , before being a appointed as head of programmes for BBC Wales in 1974 . Jones managed the production of several notable television series during his tenure as BBC Wales ' head of programmes , including Ryan and Ronnie , The Life and Times of David Lloyd George ( 1981 ) , and Grand Slam . He supported Pobol y Cwm , the long-running Welsh language soap opera , which began airing in BBC Wales in October 1974 ( and was transferred to S4C in 1982 upon that channel 's creation ) . He also oversaw the launch of BBC Radio Cymru in 1977 and BBC Radio Wales in 1978 . In 1981 , the Controller , or head , of BBC Wales , Owen Edwards , left his position at the BBC to shepherd the launch of S4C , a new Welsh language public-service television channel . Geraint Stanley Jones succeeded Edwards as the new Controller of BBC Wales in 1981 . Jones helped to establish S4C , which commenced broadcasting on 1 November 1982 , marking a significant expansion in Welsh language television programming . Jones oversaw the creation of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition , which debuted in 1983 , during his tenure as BBC Wales ' controller . Jones later served as the chief executive of S4C from 1989 to 1994 . He was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( CBE ) for his service to broadcasting , particularly in Welsh language television and radio , in 1993 . He retired from S4C in 1994 . Additionally , Jones , a member of the Arts Council of Wales , served as the vice president of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama . He was also a member of the boards of directors for several organizations , including the Wales Millennium Centre , an arts centre in Cardiff , and the Welsh National Opera . Geraint Stanley Jones died on 26 August 2015 at the age of 79 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Geraint_Stanley_Jones", "rank": 29, "score": 104570 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Bucher-Jones Content: Simon Bucher-Jones ( born Simon Jones , 6 September 1964 ) is an author , poet and amateur actor . He is best known for his Doctor Who novels for Virgin and BBC and as a contributor to the Faction Paradox spin-off series . Jones was born in Liverpool . He is known for a hard SF approach . He has written Cthulhu Mythos short stories and reviewed books for the Fortean Times and for small press papers . His poetry has appeared in the Journal of the British Fantasy Society .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Simon_Bucher-Jones", "rank": 30, "score": 104502 }, { "content": "Title: Matt Jones (writer) Content: Matthew David Jones ( born 5 August 1968 ) is a British television writer and television producer , who has worked on a variety of popular drama programmes for several television networks in the UK . Matt Jones began his writing career as a columnist for Doctor Who Magazine in 1995 , before the following year having a novel , Bad Therapy , printed in Virgin Publishing 's range of licensed Doctor Who tie-in books , the New Adventures . He later wrote Beyond the Sun for the same series . His big break in television came in 1999 , when he was the script editor on Red Production Company 's controversial drama series Queer as Folk , screened on Channel 4 . The same year , he script edited another Channel 4 drama produced by Red , the anthology series Love in the 21st Century , for which he also wrote one episode . The following year he worked as a writer on two series for Granada Television , their popular children 's drama Children 's Ward and flagship soap opera Coronation Street , both aired on the ITV network . Returning to Red , in 2000 he script edited the first series of the British Academy Television Award-winning drama Clocking Off , and in 2001 he gained his first credit as a producer when he both wrote and produced the one-off drama Now You See Her , starring Amanda Holden , for the satellite channel Sky One . In 2003 he began working for Company Pictures , creating , writing and producing the crime drama Serious and Organised , starring Martin Kemp and again screened on ITV . Moving up to become an Executive Producer , he worked on another Company series for ITV , the Second World War-set POW . In 2004 he was an Executive Producer on Company 's critically acclaimed drama series Shameless , screened on Channel 4 , and became the show 's producer for the second season in 2005 , the year in which the programme won a British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series . In April 2005 , Jones was announced as one of the writers working on the second season of the BBC revival of hugely popular science-fiction series Doctor Who , fulfilling a childhood ambition to work on the programme of which he had long been a fan . His episodes , a two-parter with the titles `` The Impossible Planet '' and `` The Satan Pit '' , were broadcast on 3 and 10 June 2006 . Jones also wrote the seventh episode of the second series of Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood , called `` Dead Man Walking '' . In 2012 Jones wrote the second episode of the BBC Four TV series Dirk Gently based on the novels by Douglas Adams .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Matt_Jones_(writer)", "rank": 31, "score": 104303 }, { "content": "Title: John Share Jones Content: Prof. John Share Jones MBE , known as Dr Share Jones ( 25 August 1873 -- 2 December 1950 ) , was a British Veterinary Surgeon and briefly a Liberal Party politician .", "qid": "281", "docid": "John_Share_Jones", "rank": 32, "score": 103893 }, { "content": "Title: News International phone hacking scandal Content: The News International phone-hacking scandal is a controversy involving the defunct News of the World and other British newspapers published by News International , a subsidiary of News Corporation . Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking , police bribery and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories . Whilst investigations conducted from 2005 to 2007 appeared to show that the paper 's phone hacking activities were limited to celebrities , politicians and members of the British Royal Family , in July 2011 it was revealed that the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler , relatives of deceased British soldiers and victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings had also been hacked . The resulting public outcry against News Corporation and its owner Rupert Murdoch led to several high-profile resignations , including that of Murdoch as News Corporation director , Murdoch 's son James as executive chairman , Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton , News International legal manager Tom Crone and chief executive Rebekah Brooks . The commissioner of London 's Metropolitan Police Service , Sir Paul Stephenson , also resigned . Advertiser boycotts led to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011 , after 168 years of publication . Public pressure shortly forced News Corporation to cancel its proposed takeover of the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB . The prime minister David Cameron announced on 6 July 2011 that a public inquiry , known as the Leveson Inquiry , would look into phone hacking and police bribery by the News of the World , consider the wider culture and ethics of the British newspaper industry and that the Press Complaints Commission would be replaced `` entirely '' . A number of arrests and convictions followed , most notably of the former News of the World managing editor Andy Coulson . Murdoch and his son , James , were summoned to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry . Over the course of his testimony , Rupert Murdoch admitted that a cover-up had taken place within the News of the World to hide the scope of the phone hacking . On 1 May 2012 , a parliamentary select committee report concluded that Murdoch `` exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications '' and stated that he was `` not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company '' . On 3 July 2013 , Channel 4 News broadcast a secret tape in which Murdoch dismissively claims that investigators were `` totally incompetent '' and acted over `` next to nothing '' and excuses his papers ' actions as `` part of the culture of Fleet Street . ''", "qid": "281", "docid": "News_International_phone_hacking_scandal", "rank": 33, "score": 103883 }, { "content": "Title: Joseph R. Jones Content: Dr. Joseph R. Jones an Associate Dean of Curriculum and Faculty Development in the College of Education and Health Professions at Columbus State University in Columbus , Georgia . He is a former high school English teacher and is known widely for his research addressing homophobia and bullying in educational environments . Dr. Jones ' work examines how bullying and homophobia impact educational environments . Jones has coined two terms in his academic community : contextual oppositions and unnormalizing education . He has been interviewed extensively by media outlets about homophobia and bullying in schools and has published multiple works on the topic . His first book , `` Making Safe Places Unsafe : A Discussion of Homophobia with Teachers , '' was nominated for a critic 's choice book award from the Association of Educational Service Agencies ( AESA ) . In addition to his publications , he has given more than 70 presentations at peer-reviewed conferences , exploring the topics of homophobia and bullying . More recently , he has co-constructed a K-12 anti-bullying program with an academic colleague that has already been implemented in some school districts . In 2014 , he was awarded a prestigious national award from Auburn University and the National Anti-Bullying Summit , the Hero Award , for his scholarship and service in attempting to create safe schools for all students . Jones proposes that bullying and homophobia exist because of social normalization and that schools must begin `` unnormalizing education to dismantle the hegemonic structures that exist within schools and society . '' Jones earned his Ph.D. from The University of Rochester after teaching high school English for a number of years . He has taught classes in qualitative research , advanced qualitative research , and curriculum development as well as courses in English education .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Joseph_R._Jones", "rank": 34, "score": 103779 }, { "content": "Title: The Very World of Milton Jones Content: The Very World of Milton Jones was a comedy show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1998 and 2001 starring English comedian Milton Jones . It ran for three series . Each programme would begin with Jones facing certain death in some bizarre circumstance or other , such as being put before a firing squad in Mexico , or being faced with a cobra in the jungles of South America . At the moment before his death , a guardian angel would appear and freeze time , then spend the rest of the show reviewing and interpreting the events which had led up to his impending demise , as well as covering hypothetical situations that Milton could have been involved in ( such as selling Watchtowers in Arthurian England ) . At the end of the show , the angel would leave , at which point Jones would be blessed with an incredibly narrow escape from death , usually related to jokes in the show ( for example , in the `` Firing Squad '' episode , Milton is revealed as a supermarket worker , and he is saved from death when the bullets rebound from his Tesco clubcard ) , thus setting him up for the next episode . In addition to Jones himself , various other performers frequently appeared on the show . These were Alexander Armstrong , Melanie Hudson , Dave Lamb , Alistair McGowan , Joanna Scanlan and former Week Ending comedian Sally Grace . All three series were produced and directed by David Tyler . The programme is often repeated on digital radio station BBC 7 / BBC Radio 4 Extra All three series are available to download as audiobooks from Audible.com .", "qid": "281", "docid": "The_Very_World_of_Milton_Jones", "rank": 35, "score": 103705 }, { "content": "Title: Elwyn Jones (writer) Content: Elwyn John Jones ( 4 May 1923 -- 19 May 1982 ) was a Welsh television writer and producer , whose best known work was perhaps the co-creation of the famous police drama series Z-Cars for BBC Television in 1962 . He went on to create Softly , Softly ( 1966 -- 69 ) , Softly , Softly : Taskforce ( 1969 -- 76 ) , Barlow at Large/Barlow ( 1971 , 1973 -- 75 ) , Jack the Ripper ( 1973 ) and Second Verdict ( 1976 ) . A prolific television drama writer from the early 1960s until the late 1970s ; from 1963 to 1966 , he was Head of Drama ( Series ) at the BBC , under Head of Drama Group Sydney Newman , the first person to hold that post after Newman divided the drama group into Series , Serials and Plays divisions . In 1966 , he co-wrote with Gerry Davis , the script for the Doctor Who serial The Highlanders .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Elwyn_Jones_(writer)", "rank": 36, "score": 103521 }, { "content": "Title: Five Ways to Save the World Content: Five Ways to Save the World is a British documentary film on environmental issues related to climate change , released in 2006 . The film was made by Karen O'Connor , for the big screen and was shot in the English language to reach an international audience . It includes interviews with five environmental scientists and experts including Paul Crutzen , James Roger Angel , John Latham , Ian Jones , and Klaus Lackner . The `` five ways '' proposed are geoengineering techniques : space lenses in orbit , to diffract sunlight away from the earth cloud seeding with seawater to increase albedo sulfur launched into the stratosphere to increase albedo ocean fertilization with iron or urea ( nitrogen fertilizer ) artificial trees ( see carbon capture and sequestration ) Since the first three methods do not remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , they would only reduce global warming but not ocean acidification . Since the last two methods would remove carbon dioxide , they could in theory reduce both global warming and ocean acidification .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Five_Ways_to_Save_the_World", "rank": 37, "score": 103423 }, { "content": "Title: Bobby Jones (academic) Content: Bobby Jones , PhD ( 13 January 1942 - 18 April 2001 ) was a noted American educator who distinguished himself by becoming the first African American to earn tenure at Mercer University , a highly selective private university . Jones later became chair of the Education Department at Mercer University . Dr. Jones was instrumental in the development of innovative teaching techniques that are used as standards throughout the education industry to this date . Dr. Jones inspired literally hundreds of students to go on to become educators as highlighted in the best selling literary work , A Joyful Passion for Teaching . Dr. Jones is also credited for assisting in destroying the racial divide that existed throughout central Georgia in the novel Macon Black and White . Dr. Jones devoted his life to helping others realize their goals . He was instrumental in the establishment of Mercer University 's first Upward Bound Program where he mentored aspiring , educationally talented , under-privileged youth . Dr. Jones assisted them in the pursuit and achievement of their collegiate aspirations .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Bobby_Jones_(academic)", "rank": 38, "score": 102679 }, { "content": "Title: Bumpus Jones Content: Charles Leander `` Bumpus '' Jones ( January 1 , 1870 -- June 25 , 1938 ) was a right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants . He was born in Cedarville , Ohio . Though Jones made only eight appearances in his brief major league career , he saved himself from baseball anonymity when he threw a no-hitter in his first major league appearance with the Cincinnati Reds on October 15 , 1892 , the last day of the season . The victims that day were the Pittsburgh Pirates , who lost 7 -- 1 . Jones was not perfect , as he gave up four walks , and he did not pitch a shutout , as an error led to an unearned run . But it was quite a start , and was his only outing of the season . This is still the latest date in the season that a no-hitter has ever been pitched in major league history . After that , Jones split 1893 between Cincinnati and the New York Giants , appearing in seven games overall , while going 1-4 with a 10.19 ERA . Jones would never pitch in the majors again . He remains the only player in Major League history to pitch a no-hitter in his first game . Only Bobo Holloman of the St. Louis Browns and Ted Breitenstein of the St. Louis Browns have managed to join Jones as pitchers to throw no-hitters in their first major league start , but they had previously appeared in a relief role . According to sabermetrician Bill James , Jones edges out Holloman for the distinction of mathematically least likely pitcher ever to have thrown a no-hitter in the major leagues . In a two-season major league career , Jones posted a 2-4 career record with 10 strikeouts and a 7.99 ERA in 41 2/3 innings of labor . After leaving the major leagues , Jones continued to pitch professionally . Jones pitched for the Grand Rapids Rippers and Sioux City Cornhuskers in 1894 . He pitched for the Columbus Clippers from 1896 to 1899 , and until recently was credited with the team record for career games pitched , with 212 . Modern research , however , indicates that the actual total may be closer to 150 . Jones finished his minor league career with the St. Paul Saints in 1901 . Jones died in Xenia , Ohio , at age 68 , and was laid to rest at North Cemetery in Cedarville , Ohio .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Bumpus_Jones", "rank": 39, "score": 102435 }, { "content": "Title: Joseph Stevens Jones Content: Joseph Stevens Jones ( born September 28 , 1809 in Boston , Massachusetts -- died December 29 , 1877 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an American actor , playwright , theater manager and surgeon . He is the son of Captain Abraham A. Jones and Mary Ann Stevens . Dr. Jones ' father , a sea captain who had been in the employ of the Russian American Company ( Alaska ) , died in 1819 in Unalaska , leaving Dr. Jones and his four siblings to be raised by his mother back in Boston . Dr. Jones debuted as an actor at the age of 18 in a production of `` The Turnpike Gate '' in Providence Rhode Island . He was at different times proprietor and manager of the Old National , Tremont , and other theatres in Boston . In 1843 he graduated from Harvard Medical School , and held the place of city physician for several years during the administrations of Mayor Wightman and Mayor Lincoln . Dr. Jones was a member of Mechanic Light Infantry , and was connected for many years with the old First Regiment as surgeon . Dr. Jones married Hannah Canterbury Dexter ( 1812 -- 1870 ) . They had four children . He married second his first wife 's sister , Louisa Goward Dexter ( 1814 -- 1890 ) . Nathaniel Dexter Jones , ( 1838 -- 1912 ) , his son , was also an actor and theater manager . He was a member of the Howard Athenaeum Stock Company for many years and was connected with the stage for 52 years . Jones was a prolific author , writing about 200 plays . The most popular among them were : Captain Kyd ; or , The Wizard of the Sea ( National Theatre , Boston , 1830 ) Eugene Aram The Liberty Tree ; or , Boston Boys in '76 ( Warren Theatre , Boston , 1832 ) . This was Jones 's first successful play . It celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Revolutionary War . Jones played the Yankee character Bill Ball . The Green Mountain Boy ( Park Theatre , New York , March 19 , 1833 ) . Provided actor George Handel Hill one of his most famous roles , as Jedediah Homebred , a Yankee servant with an inexhaustible supply of homespun sayings . The Fire Warrior The Siege of Boston The Surgeon of Paris ; or , The Mask of the Huguenots ( National Theatre Boston , January 8 , 1838 ) . Sequel to The Carpenter of Rouen . Moll Pitcher ; or , The Fortune Teller of Lynn ( National Theatre , Boston , 1839 ) . Based on the life of Moll Pitcher , a famous New England fortune-teller . Solon Shingle ; or , The People 's Lawyer ( National Theatre , Boston , 1839 ) . Jones 's best-known play tells the story of the trial of Charles Otis , a poor clerk framed by a coworker for stealing . The play 's popularity rests on the character of Solon Shingle , played by John E. Owens . Owens was a great success in the role , making his final performance as Shingle in New York in 1884 . Stephen Burroughs The Carpenter of Rouen ; or , A Revenge for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew ( Chatham Theatre , New York , November 16 , 1840 ) . `` A mechanic , sir , is one of God 's noblemen ... . The Supreme Ruler of the universe is himself the Great Mechanic . '' Job and Jacob Gray The Last Dollar The Sons of the Cape Zofara Captain Lascar Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty written in 1875 . The Silver Spoon ; or , Our Own Folks ( Boston Museum , February 16 , 1852 ) . William Warren the younger , of the Boston Museum , made a great success as Jefferson Scattering Batkins . The play concerns a humorous country delegate to the Massachusetts General Court who is tricked by the other characters . It was revived at that theater through many seasons and reprinted in 1911 . The Three Experiments of Living , a dramatization of the novel by Mrs. Hannah F. Lee . Dr. Jones also published a novel in 1871 , `` Life of Jefferson S. Batkins , Member from Cranberry Centre , Written by Himself , Assisted by the Author of The Silver Spoon '' . Jones supported copyright protection and adequate compensation for authors . Source : In this letter , Dr. Jones points to the weakness of the copyright laws , that several of his plays have been performed throughout the States without remuneration to himself . He also notes that his plays were meant to be performed , not read .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Joseph_Stevens_Jones", "rank": 40, "score": 102392 }, { "content": "Title: Moses Jones Content: Moses Jones is a British television crime drama series first broadcast on BBC Two in February 2009 . The series was written by Joe Penhall , directed by Michael Offer and produced by Cameron Roach . The series follows DI Moses Jones ( Shaun Parkes ) , a Scotland Yard detective who is seconded onto an enquiry investigating a mutilated body found floating in the Thames . The series also notably starred Matt Smith , who a month before the series aired , was cast in the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who . The complete series was released on DVD on March 9 , 2009 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Moses_Jones", "rank": 41, "score": 102191 }, { "content": "Title: Nuestra Belleza México 1995 Content: The 2nd Nuestra Belleza México pageant , was held at the Teatro Morelos of Toluca , Estado de México , Mexico on October 22 , 1995 . Thirty-two contestants of the Mexican Republic competed for the national title , which was won by Vanessa Guzmán from Chihuahua , who later competed at Miss Universe 1996 in US where she was finalist in the Top 6 . Guzmán was crowned by outgoing Nuestra Belleza México titleholder Luz María Zetina . She is the first blonde and only Chihuahuense to win this title . The Nuestra Belleza Mundo México title was won by Alejandra Quintero from Nuevo León , who later competed at Miss World 1995 in South Africa where she was a semi-finalist in the Top 10 . Quintero was crowned by outgoing Nuestra Belleza México titleholder Luz María Zetina . She was the first Neoleonesa to win this title . This year the Nuestra Belleza México Organization negotiated the license of international Miss World contest . The contest Nuestra Belleza México is strengthened by offering their candidates two options for participating in the events of greater global significance : Miss Universe and Miss World . This year , Lupita Jones won the Miss World franchise and the right to send representatives to this event .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Nuestra_Belleza_México_1995", "rank": 42, "score": 102089 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Doran Content: Peter Doran , Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University . Doran specializes in polar regions , especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems . Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal Nature in January 2002 . Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000 , his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the global warming theory , such as Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton . In an opinion piece in the July 27 , 2006 New York Times , Doran characterized this as a `` misinterpretation '' and stated , `` I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming . '' ( The temporary phenomenon is related to the `` hole '' in the ozone . As the `` hole heals '' the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly . ) Doran and his grad student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also published a paper in the Jan 27 , 2009 issue of EOS showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth 's climate . Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Peter_Doran", "rank": 43, "score": 101781 }, { "content": "Title: Expedition Global Eagle Content: Expedition Global Eagle was the first attempt in history to circumnavigate the globe using an autogyro . The flight was attempted in 2004 by Warrant Officer Barry Jones using an open-cockpit autogyro which he named Global Eagle . The purpose of the mission was twofold ; to set the world record and to raise funds for three charities ; the Dyslexia Institute , the NSPCC and the British Red Cross . Jones embarked on his mission on 26 April 2004 from the Museum of Army Flying , Middle Wallop , Hampshire with an honorary military helicopter armada accompanying him during the send off . The expedition was supported by a team of soldiers based at Dishforth , North Yorkshire , United Kingdom . The expedition encountered difficulties while flying through Europe , including the Alps and the Middle East and it was downgraded due to flight delays before finally being abandoned after it landed in Guwahati , India around the onset of monsoon season . Officer Jones had set up a website where he described the details of each stage of his trip . The images of the flight as well as details of each stage of the flight were regularly uploaded on the website .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Expedition_Global_Eagle", "rank": 44, "score": 101761 }, { "content": "Title: William Jones (Newfoundland politician) Content: Dr. William Edgar Jones ( January 23 , 1873 -- February 16 , 1930 ) was a physician and politician in Newfoundland . He represented Harbour Main in the Newfoundland House of Assembly from 1919 to 1923 as a Liberal-Progressive member . The son of Michael Jones , he was born in Harbour Grace and was educated at Saint Bonaventure 's College and the University of Maryland . After completing his medical education in 1894 , Jones set up practice in Avondale . In 1895 , he married Teresa English . In 1913 , with Louis Lawton , Jones established the Wabana Drug Company . He was elected to the Newfoundland assembly in 1919 and made an unsuccessful attempt for reelection in 1923 as an independent .", "qid": "281", "docid": "William_Jones_(Newfoundland_politician)", "rank": 45, "score": 101272 }, { "content": "Title: Norman Jones (actor) Content: Norman Jones ( 16 June 1932 -- 23 April 2013 ) was an English actor , primarily on television . He appeared in three Doctor Who serials -- The Abominable Snowmen ( 1967 , as Khrisong ) , Doctor Who and the Silurians ( 1970 , as Major Baker ) and The Masque of Mandragora ( 1976 , as Hieronymous ) . A native of Shropshire , Norman Jones was born at Donnington , son of coal miner Clar ( sic ) and his wife Florrie Jones . He was educated at Adams ' Grammar School , Newport , Shropshire . After taking part in local amateur dramatics in Donnington , employment as a cost clerk at the Lilleshall Company and Sankey 's in the area , and work at Birmingham Repertory Theatre , he began his screen career in 1962 , the year of his 30th birthday . Over the following twenty-six years he appeared in numerous episodes of British TV series such as Crossroads as milkman Ralph Palmer , The Professionals , The Sweeney , where he was cast as Detective Inspector Perrault in the 1976 episode `` Bad Apple '' . He also had roles in films , including You Only Live Twice ( 1967 ) , Oh ! What a Lovely War ( 1969 ) , The Mind of Mr. Soames ( 1970 ) and The Abominable Dr. Phibes ( 1971 ) . Another notable role for Norman Jones was his performance as Nicholas Higgins in the 1975 TV serial North and South . He also played Ernest Defarge in the 1980 TV adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities . He also appeared in the title role of The Crooked Man in the Granada Television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes . His last appearance was in the 1988 shot-on-video British independent production , The Assassinator ( released on DVD as Hitman ) . He lived and worked in the United States for a time , as well as in Manchester , Birmingham and London , before settling in Newport , Shropshire . He died , after a heart attack , at the Princess Royal Hospital , Telford on 23 April 2013 , aged 80 . He was cremated at Telford Crematorium .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Norman_Jones_(actor)", "rank": 46, "score": 101025 }, { "content": "Title: Sir Robert Jones, 1st Baronet Content: Sir Robert Jones , 1st Baronet , ( 28 June 1857 -- 14 January 1933 ) was a Welsh orthopaedic surgeon who helped to establish the modern specialty of orthopaedic surgery in Britain . He was an early proponent of the use of radiography in orthopaedics , and described the eponymous Jones fracture .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Sir_Robert_Jones,_1st_Baronet", "rank": 47, "score": 100680 }, { "content": "Title: Ellen Isabel Jones Content: Ellen Isabel Jones ( born Ellen Isabel Cotton ( date unknown ) , died circa 1948 ) was an English Suffragette and close associate of the Pankhursts . She was imprisoned in Holloway Prison , having been arrested in Downing Street for throwing stones at the windows . She did five days of `` hunger and thirst '' but was not force-fed . Details of these events are held in an archive of her papers at The Women 's Library in London . Her husband was Dr Ernest Williams Jones of Aldridge , Staffordshire , the first General Practitioner to receive the M.D. degree . They had four boys . Dr Jones was an early disciple of Freudian psychoanalysis and by coincidence friends with Freud 's biographer , also called Ernest Jones .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Ellen_Isabel_Jones", "rank": 48, "score": 100552 }, { "content": "Title: Stormie Jones Content: Stormie Dawn Jones ( May 30 , 1977 -- November 11 , 1990 ) was the world 's first recipient of a successful simultaneous heart and liver organ transplant . On February 14 , 1984 , under the direction of Dr. Thomas E. Starzl , Drs. Byers W. Shaw Jr. and Henry T. Bahnson replaced the six-year-old 's heart and liver at the Children 's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . Stormie had a condition which raised her blood cholesterol to 10 times normal levels . The condition , a severe form of familial hypercholesterolemia , and the resultant high levels of low density lipoprotein that damaged her organs , gave her two heart attacks when she was six years old . The case showed that the liver controls blood cholesterol and that high cholesterol is controllable , and was part of the research on cholesterol and the liver that won Joseph L. Goldstein and Michael S. Brown the Nobel prize in medicine in 1985 . Stormie died on November 11 , 1990 . Her death was related to rejection of the heart transplant she had received in 1984 . There were very specific reasons for performing a combined heart and liver transplant in this young girl . Due to her inherited condition , Stormie 's liver was unable to remove cholesterol , i.e. LDL-cholesterol , from her bloodstream . As a result , her LDL-cholesterol levels became very high and caused her two heart attacks by age six . On the other hand , the transplanted liver , being normal and healthy , was able to clear the LDL-cholesterol from her blood . Indeed , after the transplant , Stormie 's LDL-cholesterol declined by 81 % -- from an astounding 988 to a near-normal 184 mg per deciliter . Since she was going to require lifelong immunosuppressant therapy anyway to prevent rejection of her transplanted liver , and since her heart had been severely damaged by her previous heart attacks , it was decided to also perform a heart transplant .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Stormie_Jones", "rank": 49, "score": 100364 }, { "content": "Title: The Lazarus Experiment Content: `` The Lazarus Experiment '' is the sixth episode of the third series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who . It was broadcast on BBC One on 5 May 2007 and stars David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones as his companion , played by Freema Agyeman . On Earth , in present-day London , The Doctor , Martha and her family attend a scientific demonstration by the aged Professor Lazarus . But when the experiment goes wrong , a horrific product of genetic manipulation is unleashed , leaving a trail of death in its mission to live indefinitely . According to the BARB figures this episode was seen by 7.19 million viewers and was the twelfth most popular broadcast on British television in that week . Executive producer Russell T Davies has stated that he directed writer Stephen Greenhorn to base this episode on the typical Marvel Comics plotline : `` a good old mad scientist , with an experiment gone wrong , and an outrageous supervillain on the loose . ''", "qid": "281", "docid": "The_Lazarus_Experiment", "rank": 50, "score": 100350 }, { "content": "Title: Earth and Beyond (Doctor Who) Content: Earth and Beyond is a Doctor Who audio production produced by the BBC featuring the Eighth Doctor and Sam Jones . The release contains three adventures that are read by Paul McGann . It was released onto cassette in 1999 , as a sequel to the BBC Short Trips cassette of 1998 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Earth_and_Beyond_(Doctor_Who)", "rank": 51, "score": 100348 }, { "content": "Title: L. Gregory Jones Content: L. Gregory Jones ( born 1960 ) is the current executive vice president and provost of Baylor University . He formerly served as vice president and vice provost for global strategy and programs at Duke University ( a position that he served for a short period ) . He is also professor of theology in the Duke Divinity School . In addition , he serves as senior strategist for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity . From 1997-2010 he was Dean of Duke Divinity School . He graduated with a B.A. in communications and M.P.A. from the University of Denver , an M.Div . from Duke Divinity School and a Ph.D. in theology from Duke University . He is the author or editor of fourteen books . Dr. Jones is the younger brother of Bishop Scott J. Jones .", "qid": "281", "docid": "L._Gregory_Jones", "rank": 52, "score": 99932 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Heaton-Jones Content: Peter Heaton-Jones ( born 2 August 1963 ) , is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician who has held senior positions in the media and politics in both the UK and Australia . He was elected at the general election May 2015 the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for North Devon . In 2010 he was elected as a Borough Councillor in Swindon , Wiltshire , and was Agent for the general election campaigns of the two new Conservative MPs in Swindon . In the media , he is best known for presenting news programming on BBC national and local radio in the UK , and was the former head of marketing for ABC radio in Australia .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Peter_Heaton-Jones", "rank": 53, "score": 99402 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Global Warming Swindle Content: The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King . The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols . The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . '' Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .", "qid": "281", "docid": "The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle", "rank": 54, "score": 99298 }, { "content": "Title: Planet Relief Content: Planet Relief was a proposed BBC television special dealing with the issue of global warming , originally scheduled for broadcast in January 2008 . The programme , which had been in development for 18 months , was meant to be similar to previous BBC programmes such as Comic Relief and Sport Relief . However , it was cancelled before it was broadcast , allegedly because the BBC was concerned that it would be `` biased '' towards promoting responses based on acceptance of mainstream climate change science .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Planet_Relief", "rank": 55, "score": 99215 }, { "content": "Title: Selwyn Jones Content: Selwyn Aldridge Jones ( born May 13 , 1970 ) is a former cornerback who played six seasons in the National Football League . At the time of his entering the NFL draft , Jones had set the career record for interceptions with 15 at Colorado State University . He finished the 1990 season with 6 interceptions . Jones was invited to play in the Senior Bowl and the East West Shrine game but could n't attend due to a hip injury . Jones was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in April 1992 and placed on injured reserve . Jones returned to action for the 1993 season under Bill Belichick and Nick Saban with 24 tackles and 3 interceptions for the Cleveland Browns . Jones intercepted David Klingler of the Cincinnati Bengals twice in a September 5 , 1993 , nationally televised game . Jones hauled in another interception against Steve Young and the 49ers the very next week in a Monday night match-up . The 1994 season saw Jones get released mid-year from the Cleveland Browns and join the New Orleans Saints in late October 1994 . Jones made 2 starts and played in 7 games for the Saints . As a free agent , Jones signed a 2 year $ 1.8 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks in 1995 . He played in 12 games that season . Jones completed the 1996 season with one interception and 24 tackles . Jones signed with the Denver Broncos in May 1997 and won the starting right cornerback spot prior to sustaining a left knee injury early in the season and was placed on season-ending injured reserve . In Super Bowl XXXII , the Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers thus earning the city of Denver and Selwyn Jones their first Super Bowl ring in February 1998 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Selwyn_Jones", "rank": 56, "score": 99178 }, { "content": "Title: John Taylor Jones Content: Rev. Dr. John Taylor Jones ( July 16 , 1802 -- September 13 , 1851 ) was one of the earliest Protestant missionaries to Siam ( now Thailand ) with his wife , Eliza Grew Jones . He is credited with introducing to Siam the modern world map , and producing a translation of the New Testament in Siamese ( Thai ) from Greek .", "qid": "281", "docid": "John_Taylor_Jones", "rank": 57, "score": 99043 }, { "content": "Title: Ernest Jones Content: Alfred Ernest Jones , FRCP , MRCS ( 1 January 1879 -- 11 February 1958 ) was a British neurologist and psychoanalyst . A lifelong friend and colleague of Sigmund Freud from their first meeting in 1908 , he became his official biographer . Jones was the first English-speaking practitioner of psychoanalysis and became its leading exponent in the English-speaking world . As President of both the International Psychoanalytical Association and the British Psycho-Analytical Society in the 1920s and 1930s , Jones exercised a formative influence in the establishment of its organizations , institutions and publications .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Ernest_Jones", "rank": 58, "score": 98972 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming: What You Need to Know Content: Global Warming What You Need to Know is a 2006 global warming ( climate change ) documentary , directed by Nicolas Brown , starring Tom Brokaw , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer , and Mark Serreze . The film focuses on impacts from climate change , and Tom Brokaw interviews scientists . The documentary premiered on Discovery Channel , 16 July 2006 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Global_Warming:_What_You_Need_to_Know", "rank": 59, "score": 98855 }, { "content": "Title: Glynis Jones Content: Glynis Jones was a composer , musician and member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop . She joined the Workshop in 1973 . In 1976 , she produced the album Out of This World , on which some of her material appears . Her compositions also feature on the album The Radiophonic Workshop . Currently living in West London", "qid": "281", "docid": "Glynis_Jones", "rank": 60, "score": 98764 }, { "content": "Title: Aled Jones Content: Aled Jones MBE ( born 29 December 1970 ) is a Welsh singer who , as a teenage chorister , reached widespread fame during the mid 1980s . As an adult he has become well known for his television work with the BBC and ITV as well as his radio work ( for BBC Radio Wales and Classic FM ) . In September 2012 , Jones joined ITV Breakfast where he presented Daybreak ( 2012 -- 2014 ) , alongside Lorraine Kelly and Kate Garraway . He currently presents the weekend morning show , Weekend ( 2014 -- present ) . For the BBC , he has presented Cash in the Attic ( 2010 -- 2012 ) , Escape to the Country ( 2009 -- present ) and Going Back Giving Back ( 2016 -- present ) .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Aled_Jones", "rank": 61, "score": 98760 }, { "content": "Title: Diane Zamora Content: Diane Michelle Zamora ( born January 21 , 1978 ) , a former United States Naval Academy midshipman and her ex-fiancé , David Graham , were convicted for the December 4 , 1995 murder of Adrianne Jessica Jones . In their separate confessions to police , they describe the events similarly . Zamora believed Jones to be a romantic rival for Graham ; he had claimed that he had given her a ride home on November 4 , 1995 and had sex with her . Zamora became enraged and asked Graham to kill her . In the early morning of December 4 , he picked up Jones in Zamora 's car , while she hid in the hatchback . They went to a remote location , got into a struggle . Zamora hit Jones over the head with weights , and Graham shot her twice after she had broken away from them . Following the murder , Graham was at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and Zamora enrolled in the Naval Academy in Annapolis . Zamora confessed the crime to her roommates at the academy , which ultimately led to the notification of the local police in Texas . Both Zamora and Graham were arrested on September 6 , 1996 . There were separate trials , which resulted in guilty verdicts . During Graham 's trial , it was revealed that he had left the November 4 meet before Wendy Bartlett , Adrianne Jones , and Coach Ann Burke . They were left behind to stow equipment and Bartlett drove Jones home . This meant that Graham did not likely have sex with Jones . Both are serving life sentences for the murder . Zamora 's attorney filed an appeal in 2005 stating that prosecution withheld the information that Graham did not give Jones a ride after the meet , and probably did not have sex with Jones .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Diane_Zamora", "rank": 62, "score": 98656 }, { "content": "Title: Smith and Jones (Doctor Who) Content: `` Smith and Jones '' is the first episode of the third series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . It was first broadcast on BBC One on 31 March 2007 . It sees the debut of Freema Agyeman as new companion Martha Jones . Agyeman had previously appeared as Martha 's cousin Adeola in `` Army of Ghosts '' . The episode sees the Doctor ( David Tennant ) meeting Martha Jones ( Freema Agyeman ) , a medical student at Royal Hope Hospital . The hospital is transported to the Moon , whereupon the Doctor and Martha must contend with a Plasmavore posing as Florence Finnegan ( Anne Reid ) , as well as the Judoon ( voiced by Nicholas Briggs ) , who are hunting for Finnegan . The episode was the first to feature Martha 's family , her mother Francine ( played by Adjoa Andoh ) , father Clive ( Trevor Laird ) , sister Tish ( Gugu Mbatha-Raw ) , and brother Leo ( Reggie Yates ) . The episode was shot mainly in August 2006 , with Singleton Hospital and the University of Glamorgan doubling as the fictional Royal Hope Hospital . The Judoon wear prosthetics ; for budget reasons only one Judoon is seen to take his helmet off . According to the BARB figures this episode was seen by 8.7 million viewers and was the ninth most popular broadcast on British television in that week . It garnered an Appreciation Index of 88 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Smith_and_Jones_(Doctor_Who)", "rank": 63, "score": 98629 }, { "content": "Title: Debora Green Content: Debora Green ( née Jones ; born February 28 , 1951 ) is an American physician who pleaded no contest to setting a 1995 fire which burned down her family 's home and killed two of her children , and to poisoning her husband with ricin with the intention of causing his death . The case was sensational , and covered heavily by news media , especially in the Kansas -- Missouri area , where the crimes occurred . Though Green has petitioned for a new trial twice in recent years , her requests have not been successful . Green married Michael Farrar in 1979 while practicing as an emergency physician . The marriage was tumultuous , and Farrar filed for divorce in July 1995 . Between August and September 1995 , Farrar repeatedly fell violently ill , and despite numerous hospitalizations his doctors could not pinpoint the source of his illness . Green 's emotional stability deteriorated and she began to drink heavily , even while supervising her children . On October 24 , 1995 , the Farrar family home , occupied by Green and the couple 's three children , caught fire . Kate Farrar and Debora Green escaped without harm , but despite the efforts of firefighters , Timothy and Kelly Farrar died in the blaze . Investigation showed that trails of accelerant in the house led back to Green 's bedroom , and that the source of Michael Farrar 's intractable illness had been ricin , a poison served to him in his food by Green . Upon her arrest on November 22 , 1995 , Green was charged with two counts of first-degree murder , two counts of attempted first-degree murder , and one count of aggravated arson . She was held on $ 3,000,000 bail -- the highest ever required at that point in time by Johnson County , Kansas -- and maintained her innocence throughout pre-trial motions and a show cause hearing . However , when the defense 's own investigators verified the strength of forensic evidence against Green , she agreed to an Alford plea to all charges . On May 30 , 1996 , she was sentenced to two concurrent forty-year prison sentences . Green has petitioned for a new trial twice since her conviction . Her first request , which she eventually withdrew , was based on a claim of having been rendered incompetent for plea bargaining by the psychiatric medications she was taking at the time of her hearings ; her second , which was denied by a judge , claimed that the evidence used to convict her of arson had been rendered obsolete by scientific advances .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Debora_Green", "rank": 64, "score": 98615 }, { "content": "Title: 1963 Indianapolis 500 Content: The 47th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway , Indiana on Thursday , May 30 , 1963 . Parnelli Jones took his only Indy 500 win despite his car ( nicknamed `` Calhoun '' ) spewing oil from a cracked overflow tank for many laps , which allegedly caused at least one driver to spin and crash . USAC officials put off black-flagging Jones after car owner J. C. Agajanian ran down pit lane and convinced them that the oil leak was below the level of a known crack and would not leak any further . Lotus owner Colin Chapman , whose English-built , rear-engined Lotus-Ford finished second in the hands of Scotsman Jim Clark , accused USAC officials of being biased towards the American driver and car . The non-black flagging of Jones remains controversial . Many , including Chapman and journalist and author Brock Yates , believed that had it been an American driver and car in second place instead of Clark in the British built Lotus , officials would have black flagged him . Goodyear arrived at the track and supplied tires for some entries , but participated only in practice . No cars used Goodyear tires during time trials or the race itself . It was the first time since about 1921 that Goodyear attempted to compete at Indy . Goodyear had last won the race in 1919 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "1963_Indianapolis_500", "rank": 65, "score": 98529 }, { "content": "Title: James F. Jones (minister) Content: James Francis Marion Jones ( November 24 , 1907 -- August 12 , 1971 ) , also known as the Rt. . Rev. Dr. James F. Jones , D.D and as Prophet Jones , was a black religious leader , televangelist , faith healer and pastor who led the religious movement that developed into the Church of Universal Triumph , Dominion of God , Inc. from 1938 until his death in 1971 . As `` Prophet Jones , '' James F. Jones claimed and his followers ascribed to him , divine powers from God as a special premillennial `` incarnation of the spirit of Jesus Christ . '' Jones was a contemporary of other religious leaders at that time including Daddy Grace , Father Divine , C. L. Franklin , Charles Harrison Mason and Elijah Muhammad . Jones came to Detroit as a missionary for the southern-based Pentecostal sect , Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ . He thus led two of the largest predominately black Pentecostal churches in Detroit during the 1940s and 1950s . He broadcast live weekly sermons over Canadian stations CKLW reaching the Midwest . In 1955 he began hosting Sunday night programs on WXYZ-TV , making him the first black preacher in Detroit to host a weekly television program . He was well known for his late-night services , which were broadcast in Detroit . Jones died at sixty-three years old and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit .", "qid": "281", "docid": "James_F._Jones_(minister)", "rank": 66, "score": 98460 }, { "content": "Title: United States v. Jones (2012) Content: United States v. Jones , 132 S.Ct . 945 ( 2012 ) , was a United States Supreme Court case which held that installing a Global Positioning System ( GPS ) tracking device on a vehicle and using the device to monitor the vehicle 's movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment . In 2004 defendant Jones was suspected of drug trafficking . Police investigators asked for and received a warrant to attach a GPS tracking device to the underside of the defendant 's car but then exceeded the warrant 's scope in both geography and length of time . The Supreme Court justices voted unanimously that this was a `` search '' under the Fourth Amendment , although they were split 5-4 as to the fundamental reasons behind that conclusion . The majority held that by physically installing the GPS device on the defendant 's car , the police had committed a trespass against Jones ' `` personal effects '' -- this trespass , in an attempt to obtain information , constituted a search per se .", "qid": "281", "docid": "United_States_v._Jones_(2012)", "rank": 67, "score": 98379 }, { "content": "Title: Noel Jones (diplomat) Content: Noel Andrew Stephen Jones ( December 22 , 1940 -- November 21 , 1995 ) was an Indian-born British diplomat , British ambassador to Kazakhstan from 1993 to 1995 . He was the first British ambassador to have come from an ethnic minority . His father , Ernest Walter Jones , was a domiciled European who worked in the Telegraph Department in India ; his mother , Merlyn Edith Jones ( née Jones ) , was an Anglo-Indian woman , daughter of a Postmaster of Madras . Noel Jones came to live in England , where he married Jean Rosemary Cheval . He entered the diplomatic service and was appointed British ambassador to Kazakhstan in 1993 . His career was cut short by his death in 1995 , at the age of 54 . He was survived by his widow , Jean , and his children Mark and Alison .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Noel_Jones_(diplomat)", "rank": 68, "score": 98334 }, { "content": "Title: James Matthew Jones Content: James Matthew ( Jim ) Jones ( born April 3 , 1961 ) is an American global public health expert and consultant . Jones is the oft-quoted former communications director for U.S. Senator John Kerry . At the forefront of many of the gay rights debates in the U.S. Congress during the 1990s , Jones became known as an advocate of the rights of people living with AIDS as well as gay and lesbian Americans . In 2000 , he was tapped by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to helm the operations of their largest grantee , the Vaccine Fund , the financing arm of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization . This multibillion-dollar charity has as it mission to immunize every child in the 75 poorest countries of the world . In 2002 , Jones was a judge at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City , New Jersey . Jones was born in Nyack , New York and graduated from Georgetown University in 1983 with a degree in international relations . He also studied at the University of Munich under the auspices of the Fulbright program and has graduate degrees from Oxford University where he concentrated his studies on development and international economic policy . His husband is Broadway performer , choreographer and casting director , Joe Langworth . They married in October 2016 in West Park , Town of Esopus , New York .", "qid": "281", "docid": "James_Matthew_Jones", "rank": 69, "score": 98305 }, { "content": "Title: Frances Follin Jones Content: Dr. Frances Follin Jones ( 1912 -- 1999 ) was an American Classicist and the former curator of collections at The Art Museum , Princeton University from 1943 to 1983 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Frances_Follin_Jones", "rank": 70, "score": 98192 }, { "content": "Title: Geoffrey Jones (academic) Content: Geoffrey G. Jones is a British-born business historian . He became a U.S. citizen in 2010 . He is currently Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at the Harvard Business School . The previous holders of this Chair , which was the first in the world in business history being founded in 1927 , included Alfred D. Chandler , Jr. and Thomas K. McCraw . Jones 's works have concentrated on the historical evolution of globalization , international banking and trading , and foreign direct investment by multinationals . He has published histories of Unilever , and has more recently written on the history of sustainable business worldwide . In 2017 he published a historical study of green entrepreneurship from the nineteenth century until the present day called Profits and Sustainability . A History of Green Entrepreneurship ( Oxford , 2017 )", "qid": "281", "docid": "Geoffrey_Jones_(academic)", "rank": 71, "score": 98050 }, { "content": "Title: Gary Jones (journalist) Content: Gary Jones is a British journalist , deputy editor of The People since June 2008 . He was previously at the Daily Mirror and the News of the World . In 1995 , whilst at the News of the World under editor Piers Morgan , Jones was named `` Reporter of the Year '' at the British Press Awards . Whilst at the Daily Mirror ( also under Piers Morgan ) , Jones was one of `` three key media contacts '' for Southern Investigations , a private detective agency whose investigator Jonathan Rees is said to have `` set up -LSB- a -RSB- network of corrupt police , customs officials , taxmen and bank staff to gain valuable information '' . Rees was recorded by police telling Jones `` that some of what he was doing for the Mirror was illegal '' . In December 1999 Jones , then investigations editor at the Mirror , published detailed extracts from the medical records of Ian Brady , having paid an intermediary # 1500 . He moved to The People in November 2007 , becoming deputy editor in June 2008 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Gary_Jones_(journalist)", "rank": 72, "score": 97982 }, { "content": "Title: Wells S. Jones Content: Wells S. Jones ( August 3 , 1830 -- March 21 , 1914 ) was an American physician , politician , and soldier . He served as an infantry officer in the Union Army in the Western Theater during the American Civil War , and was breveted a brigadier general near the end of the conflict . After the war , Jones studied to become a doctor at Starling Medical College , precursor to the Ohio State University College of Medicine .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Wells_S._Jones", "rank": 73, "score": 97706 }, { "content": "Title: E. D. Jones Content: This article is about the librarian , for the Massachusetts millwright see Edward Dorr Jones . Evan David Jones CBE , PhD , FSA , ( 6 December 1903 -- 7 March 1987 ) was the Librarian of the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth from 1958 to 1969 . Dr. Jones was appointed Librarian of the National Library of Wales , the national legal deposit library of Wales , in 1958 A biographer , Jones wrote articles on Evan Lewis , David Jones and Joseph Harris among others for the Dictionary of Welsh Biography . Jones also wrote Victorian and Edwardian Wales from Old Photographs . He was the editor when the entire works of Welsh bard Lewis Glyn Cothi were published in 1953 , through the cooperation of the National Library of Wales and the University of Wales Press Board . He was survived by his wife Eleanor Jones .", "qid": "281", "docid": "E._D._Jones", "rank": 74, "score": 97508 }, { "content": "Title: Matthew Jones (historian) Content: Matthew Charles Jones is professor of international history at the London School of Economics . Jones is a specialist in British foreign and defence policy since the Second World War , British decolonization and South East Asia , the Vietnam War , nuclear history during the Cold War , American foreign relations since 1941 and Anglo-American relations . Since 2008 , Jones has been the British Cabinet Office official historian of the UK strategic nuclear deterrent and the Chevaline programme .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Matthew_Jones_(historian)", "rank": 75, "score": 97273 }, { "content": "Title: Revenge of the Judoon Content: Revenge of the Judoon is a BBC Books original novella written by Terrance Dicks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who . It features the Tenth Doctor and his companion Martha Jones . This paperback is part of the Quick Reads Initiative sponsored by the UK government , to encourage literacy . It has a similar look to BBC Books ' other new series adventures , except for its much shorter word count , being a paperback and not being numbered as part of the same series . To date it is the one of only five novels based upon the revived series that have not been published in hardcover : the first , I am a Dalek , was published in May 2006 ; the second , Made of Steel , was published in March 2007 ; the fourth , The Sontaran Games , was published in February 2009 ; and the fifth , Code of the Krillitanes , was published in March 2010 . These four books are also part of the Quick Reads Initiative . The book sees the return of the Judoon , who were first seen in the third series episode `` Smith and Jones '' , and again in `` The Stolen Earth '' . The presence of Martha Jones as the Doctor 's companion indicates it takes place prior to the trilogy of episodes that ended the third season of the revived Doctor Who the previous year , in which Martha Jones departed as the Doctor 's companion .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Revenge_of_the_Judoon", "rank": 76, "score": 97026 }, { "content": "Title: C. J. Hunter Content: Cottrell James `` C. J. '' Hunter III ( born December 14 , 1968 ) is an American former shot putter and coach . He was the 1999 World Champion , but is perhaps best known for his involvement in the BALCO scandal and as the onetime spouse of sprinter Marion Jones . His personal best was 71 ' 9 '' , ( 21,87 m ) thrown during a 2nd-place finish in the 2000 US Olympic Trials . A month later he was tested positive for the performance-enhancing steroid Nandrolone at the Bislett Games , which was revealed before he had been scheduled to compete in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games . He had previously competed at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games , finishing seventh . The 6 ' 1 '' , 330 lb Hunter was a three-time All-American at Penn State University , where he still holds the outdoor and indoor shot put record ( 65 ' 5 '' and 64 ' 4 1/2 '' , or 19.93 m and 19.62 m respectively ) . He earned his B.A. in political science there in 1991 . Hunter first began throwing the shot after repeatedly failing to make the basketball team at Hyde Park , New York 's Franklin D. Roosevelt Senior High School . Hunter met Jones in 1998 , while a coach with the University of North Carolina track team . He resigned his position there to conform with school rules that prohibited coach-athlete dating . They married on October 3 , 1998 , only to divorce in 2002 following the publicity surrounding the BALCO scandal . Hunter currently resides in Apex , North Carolina with his two children from a previous marriage , Ahny and Coryatt .", "qid": "281", "docid": "C._J._Hunter", "rank": 77, "score": 96729 }, { "content": "Title: D. G. Jones Content: Douglas Gordon `` D. G. '' Jones ( January 1 , 1929 -- March 6 , 2016 ) was a Canadian poet , translator and educator . Born in Bancroft , Ontario , Jones was educated at the private school of Lakefield College School in Ontario , at McGill University and at Queen 's University . He received his M.A. from Queen 's University in 1954 . Jones then taught English literature at the University of Guelph , then Bishop 's University and finally the Université de Sherbrooke . In 1969 , Jones co-founded the bilingual literary journal Ellipse , which continues to be the only literary periodical in Canada which provides reciprocal translations , in equal measure , of both English and French Canadian poetry . Jones has been a member of the Arts and Advisory Panel of the Canada Council . His 1978 collection , Under the Thunder the Flowers Light up the Earth , received the 1978 Governor General 's Award for Poetry . His rendition of Normand de Bellefeuille 's Categorics One , Two and Three received the 1993 Governor General 's Award for Translation . Considered a seminal figure of the mythopoeic strain of Canadian poetry , Jones is also a highly respected essayist and translator . His key work of critical writing is Butterfly on Rock : A Study of Themes and Images in Canadian Literature ( 1970 ) .", "qid": "281", "docid": "D._G._Jones", "rank": 78, "score": 96650 }, { "content": "Title: Mouse Warming Content: Mouse Warming ( stylised as Mouse-warming ) is a 1952 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones , and starring Claude Cat ( in his final solo cartoon ) , with a cameo appearance of Hector the Bulldog at the end .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Mouse_Warming", "rank": 79, "score": 96645 }, { "content": "Title: Alex Jones (radio host) Content: Alexander Emerick Jones ( born February 11 , 1974 ) is an American far-right radio show host , filmmaker , writer , and conspiracy theorist . He hosts The Alex Jones Show from Austin , Texas , which airs on the Genesis Communications Network and shortwave radio station WWCR across the United States and online . His website , InfoWars.com , has been labeled as a fake news website . Jones has been the center of many controversies , including his statements in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting , about it being staged , adding support to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting conspiracy theories , and as an argument against gun control . He has accused the U.S. government of being involved in the Oklahoma City bombing , the September 11 attacks and the filming of fake Moon landings to hide NASA 's secret technology . He says that government and big business have colluded to create a New World Order through `` manufactured economic crises , sophisticated surveillance tech and -- above all -- inside-job terror attacks that fuel exploitable hysteria '' . Jones has described himself as a libertarian and paleoconservative , and has been described by others as conservative , right-wing , alt-right , and a pro-Russia propagandist . New York magazine described Jones as `` America 's leading conspiracy theorist '' , and the Southern Poverty Law Center describes him as `` the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America '' . When asked about these labels , Jones said that he is `` proud to be listed as a thought criminal against Big Brother '' .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Alex_Jones_(radio_host)", "rank": 80, "score": 96532 }, { "content": "Title: Don A. Jones Content: Rear Admiral Don A. Jones ( 16 September 1912 -- 6 August 2000 ) was an officer in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps , its successor , the Environmental Science Services Administration Corps ( ESSA Corps ) , and the ESSA Corps 's successor , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps ( NOAA Corps ) . He served simultaneously as the second and last Director of the ESSA Corps , one of only two people to hold the position , and as the seventh and last Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey . During World War II , Jones was transferred to the United States Army and later the Office of Strategic Services before returning to the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Don_A._Jones", "rank": 81, "score": 96248 }, { "content": "Title: The New Jim Jones Content: The New Jim Jones is the debut album by rapper Dre Dog ( currently known as Andre Nickatina ) . It was released on June 17 , 1993 for independent record label , In-a-Minute Records and was produced by Dre Dog and T.C. . The album featured one single entitled `` The Ave. '' and was eventually re-released with a less controversial cover for Mo Beatz Records in 2006 .", "qid": "281", "docid": "The_New_Jim_Jones", "rank": 82, "score": 96114 }, { "content": "Title: Eli Jones Content: Eli Jones ( 1850 -- 1933 ) was a medical doctor in the 19th -- 20th centuries who claimed to be able to treat cancer . He is the author of Cancer - Its Causes , Symptoms and Treatment - Giving the Results of over Forty Years ' Experience in the Medical Treatment of this Disease and Definite Medication . Jones studied conventional medicine and practiced for five years before deciding that the medicine of the day was harmful , because of its dependence upon harsh cathartics like calomel . He then turned to eclectic medicine , which relied upon herbal extracts including those of the Native Americans , went back to school , graduated , and practiced eclectic medicine for another five years . He decided to learn homeopathy , went back to school , and then practiced as a homeopath . He next turned to Physiomedicalism and , after studying , practiced that for another five years . And finally , he studied Dr. Willhelm Heinrich Schüssler 's biochemic cell salts , which is similar to homeopathy , but relies upon salts found in the body and practiced that . After his forays into the various medical schools of his time , Jones developed a syncretic practice using all the schools he had learned . He tended to use a low dosage herbal tinctures or homeopathic mother tinctures in high doses . His Definite Medication proposed low dosage herbal extracts and engendered opposition from non-homeopaths . Jones also published A Journal of Therapeutic Facts for the Busy Doctor , which gave doctors the pro and con experience of various treatments . The 1912 and 1913 issues have been transcribed by David Winston .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Eli_Jones", "rank": 83, "score": 95893 }, { "content": "Title: Linda Medlar Content: Linda Medlar-Jones was a principal figure in a high-profile political sex scandal that triggered an exhaustive 2 1/2 year , multimillion-dollar investigation by the U.S. Office of the Independent Counsel during the first term of U.S. President Bill Clinton . The principal target of the investigation was her former lover , Housing and Urban Development secretary Henry Gabriel Cisneros of San Antonio , Texas . The illicit relationship between Medlar and Cisneros , who were both married at the time , began in 1987 while he was Mayor of San Antonio , and she was a volunteer Mayoral campaign staffer . Medlar , who according to court documents had a long history of mental illness , secretly recorded many of her telephone conversations with Cisneros . These recordings she later sold to Rupert Murdock 's Fox Network television program Inside Edition for the sum $ 15,000 . In 1994 , Medlar entered a lawsuit for $ 250,000 against Cisneros , accusing him of fraud , breach of contract , and failure to support her . This lawsuit was settled the following year for $ 49,000 . Court records reveal that Medlar had received a total of $ 250,000 from Cisneros between 1988 and 1992 , prior to his cabinet appointment . These payments continued after Cisneros ' Senate confirmation , court documents indicating that she received a total of $ 79,500 in 1993 alone . The television broadcast of transcripts of the taped conversations , as well as a televised Inside Edition interview in which Medlar charged Secretary Cisneros with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation , prompted U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to call for an independent investigation . As a result of the investigation , a Washington , D.C. grand jury handed down a 21 count indictment on December 11 , 1997 . In the 66 page indictment entitled the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. HENRY G. CISNEROS , LINDA D. MEDLAR , SYLVIA ARCE-GARCIA , and JOHN D. ROSALES , Independent Counsel David Barrett brought charges against HUD Secretary Cisneros , his former mistress Medlar , and two of Cisneros ' former employees . Medlar had previously been granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against Cisneros . This was in turn revoked due to false and misleading statements on her part during the criminal investigation . Medlar was sentenced to prison . Secretary Cisneros pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and served no jail time .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Linda_Medlar", "rank": 84, "score": 95891 }, { "content": "Title: Gregory V. Jones Content: Gregory V. Jones is a research climatologist specializing in the climatology of viticulture , with a focus on how climate variation influences vine growth , wine production and the quality of wine produced . Jones serves as the Director of the Division of Business , Communication and the Environment at Southern Oregon University in Ashland , Oregon and is Professor in the University 's Environmental Science and Policy Program .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Gregory_V._Jones", "rank": 85, "score": 95856 }, { "content": "Title: Wilson W. Jones Content: Doctor Wilson W. Jones was a California Gold Rush pioneer settler in Los Angeles , California , who acted as county clerk and was also a member of the city 's governing body , the Los Angeles Common Council . He is said to have been responsible for the Goldwater family of Arizona establishing itself in that state . Jones was an Easterner whose trek to California was financed by Preston K. Christian . According to the articles of agreement signed by Christian and Marvel M. Jones on May 11 , 1850 , the other travelers were to be Marvel and Wilson P. Jones , and Christian was to be paid $ 325 `` when they arrive in California . '' The above passage refers to a different Wilson W. Jones , and not to the subject of this entry . Jones became an assistant to Benjamin Davis Wilson , known as `` Don Benito , '' who was elected the first Los Angeles County Clerk in 1850 but who agreed to serve only if Jones would do the actual work ; at the same time Jones would receive `` all the emoluments of the title . '' It was explained later by Judge Benjamin Hayes that Mr. Wilson , occupied with his property , which was fast rising in value and which has been the foundation of a solid fortune , left his office to the care of deputies , among whom Dr. Wilson W. Jones may be mentioned for his efficiency . In a special election on September 9 , 1850 , Jones was named to the Los Angeles Common Council . His term ended in May 1851 . Jones was also for a time a part owner of Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres , which had been conveyed to him and William T.B. Sanford , an early Los Angeles postmaster . In 1852 , Jones sold his half interest in the rancho to Don Benito for $ 662.75 , or 75 cents an acre . He was a member of the California State Assembly from the First District in 1855 -- 56 . Around 1861 he was part owner of some tin mines in Temescal , California . It was said that Jones was responsible for the decision of Michael Goldwater , the grandfather of Senator Barry Goldwater , to settle in the territory of Arizona after Michael and his brother Joseph had failed to succeed in a business venture in the Sierra mining town of Sonora , California The Goldwater brothers did poorly in Sonora and fared no better when they moved to Los Angeles -LSB- , -RSB- where the brothers had a billiard parlor , bar and a tobacco shop in the Bella Union Hotel ... . A friendship with a Los Angeles doctor , Wilson W. Jones , turned around the Goldwater story . Dr. Jones had been to the Arizona mining camp at Gila City and convinced Michael of the business possibilities there . Around 1863 Jones and Michael Goldwater began a freighting business from La Paz to Prescott in Arizona . On one freighting trip , the Goldwater brothers and Dr. Jones were heading back to the river from Prescott when they were attacked by Mohave Apaches . Doc Jones and Mike were in the lead buggy and Joe was in another buggy just behind them . The Indians began firing and one bullet cut through the doctor 's hat , and two shots drilled holes in Mike 's hat . Joe was not as fortunate . He was hit in the lower back and another ball lodged in his shoulder . The Indians were driven from their ambush of the Goldwater party by ranchers who had come on the battle scene . Dr. Jones worked on Joe , treating him until the party arrived at a military camp where a surgeon was found . For years Joe carried on his watch chain the ball Dr. Jones had taken from his back . Jones also lived in Phoenix , Arizona , where his house at 1008 East Buckeye Road is noted as the `` oldest standing building '' in that city .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Wilson_W._Jones", "rank": 86, "score": 95844 }, { "content": "Title: Gordon McBean Content: Dr. Gordon McBean , , is a Canadian climatologist who serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences . He is a professor at the University of Western Ontario and Chair for Policy in the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction . Previously he was the Assistant Deputy Minister of Meteorological Service of Canada . In 1995 , McBean gave a speech to the World Meteorological Organization on global warming . In 2006 , McBean , with Dr. Andrew Weaver and Ken Denman , authored an open letter , signed by 90 climate scientists , to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling for an effective national climate change strategy . Newswire press release The letter ( PDF ) Univ. of Western Ontario page Globe and Mail article The letter was a response to an earlier open letter to Harper from 60 scientists ( 19 Canadians ) arguing against the Kyoto accord and questioning its scientific basis : National Post April 6 , 2006 , retrieved April 20 , 2007 . In addition to his involvement with the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences , McBean is member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences partnerships committee and since 2014 president of the International Council for Science ( before 2014 member of the environment advisory committee ) . He also acts as a mentor for the Loran Scholars program .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Gordon_McBean", "rank": 87, "score": 95482 }, { "content": "Title: Francis Avery Jones Content: Sir Francis Avery Jones ( 31 May 1910 -- 30 April 1998 ) was a British physician and gastroenterologist . He was born in Briton Ferry , Carmarthenshire , Wales but educated at the Sir John Leman High School , Beccles , Suffolk and at St Bartholomew 's Hospital Medical School , where he qualified in medicine in 1934 . As a house physician he became interested in gastroenterology and based his successful future clinical career on the treatment of stomach and bowel ulceration . In 1940 , he was appointed as Physician to the staff of the Central Middlesex Hospital , where he joined a group of specialist gastroenterologists , remaining in the post until 1974 . He also acted as consultant to St Mark 's Hospital ( 1948 -- 78 ) and the Royal Navy ( 1950-78 ) . He was editor of the journal Gut from 1965 to 1970 . Made a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians he delivered a Goulstonian Lecture in 1947 , a Lumleian lecture in 1956 , a Croonian Lecture in 1969 and the Harveian Oration in 1980 . He was awarded CBE in 1966 and knighted in 1970 . He served as president of the Medical Society of London in 1977-78 . He died in Chichester , West Sussex on 30 April 1998 . He had married twice , firstly in 1934 Dorothea Pfirter ( died 1983 ) with whom he had one son and secondly in 1983 Joan Edmunds .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Francis_Avery_Jones", "rank": 88, "score": 95462 }, { "content": "Title: Rob Jones (radio DJ) Content: Rob Jones born in Liverpool and attended Liverpool College , is a former DJ who was on 208 Radio Luxembourg from 1977 to 1984 . He joined from Radio City in Liverpool at the same time as Mike Read and Steve Wright and went on to become Director of Programmes for RTL English Language Radio and TV . During his time at Radio Luxembourg he presented `` Breakers '' for ITV an opportunity which arose when Marc Bolan was killed in a car crash in Barnes . In 1982 Jones created and ran the innovative `` Clip Connection '' on RTL TV , an English , French and German language music channel . In 1984 he moved to SKY Channel as Head of Music Programmes producing 9 hours of music programming each day with VJs Pat Sharp , Gary Davies , Tony Blackburn , Amanda Redington and Linda de Mol . He was poached by Richard Branson in 1986 to run Music Box which Branson had recently purchased from Thorn EMI with Granada TV and Yorkshire TV . During the mid eighties Music Box provided the overnight programming for much of the ITV network . In the late eighties Richard Branson 's Virgin organisation seconded Rob Jones from Music Box to develop their radio interests . He recruited GWR , Yorkshire Radio , Radio Forth and Radio Trent to form a joint venture with Virgin called Radio Radio which produced an overnight sustaining service for 24 commercial radio stations in the UK . Radio Radio , `` The Super Station '' had a stellar presenter line-up which included Jonathan Ross ( on radio for the first time ) Johnny Walker , Ruby Wax , Bob Harris , Diana Luke and even Steve Davies the snooker player . Chris Evans joined the company as a producer where he met Carol McGiffin Rob Jones 's assistant at the time . As the consultant to Talk Radio , Jones later recruited McGiffin to work with Moz Dee on a programme called The Rude Awakening . A young Andy Bird was Jones 's No2 on the project . Bird would later head Disney International . In 1989 Jones negotiated the sale of Virgin 's 40 % to Owen Oyston who owned the Transworld Radio Group in Manchester , England . Rob Jones was then hired as a consultant by Yorkshire TV and soon after started his own company , USP , in 1990 . USP was initially a programme consultancy specialising in developing programme formats for radio stations including GWR 's Classic Gold , Jazz FM , Essex FM and Talk Radio . However the company developed a branded content specialism , producing content for broadcasters that was paid for by brands like Mars , American Airlines , Cadbury , P&G and many others . USP was the first independent production company to produce not one but two breakfast programmes for UK commercial radio stations . The Jazz Breakfast for Jazz FM was hosted first by Nick Miller and then by Tim Smith . The Talk Radio Breakfast with Kirsty Young proved a critical success before Kelvin McKenzie bought the radio station and axed the show . The company was renamed USP Content in 2004 and now specialises in sport and music programming . Formula 1 is an important area for USP Content with the company contributing over 200 hours a year for BBC Radio5live . NFL , Major League Baseball and Barclays Premier League football have been mainstays of the company 's production output . USP produces RocknRoll Football for Absolute Radio . USP Content provided worldwide radio coverage of The Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 . USP Content recently mixed sport with comedy to produce `` How to be England Manager '' for BBC Three . Rob Jones and USP Content started producing The Wireless from Age UK in early 2012 . The Wireless from Age UK is an online and DAB radio station aimed at the 50 + market . USP Content produced The 2015 Olivier Awards for the Magic radio network with tv and stage star Claire Sweeney and has similarly produced radio coverage of The Oliviers in 2016 and 2017 for Magic in the UK and Sirius XM in the USA . The company is also prolific in Women 's sport covering Netball and The FA Women 's Super League ( WSL ) . USP Content has produced Britain 's Next F1 Star for Sky Sports . The series is sponsored by Scalextric . Since 2014 USP Content has produced the worldwide television coverage of the London New Year 's Day Parade . This is currently the biggest Outside Broadcast production in the capital .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Rob_Jones_(radio_DJ)", "rank": 89, "score": 95383 }, { "content": "Title: Marc Edmund Jones Content: Dr. Marc Edmund Jones ( October 1 , 1888 -- March 5 , 1980 , age 91 ) was an American writer , screenwriter and astrologer .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Marc_Edmund_Jones", "rank": 90, "score": 95367 }, { "content": "Title: Edward G. Jones Content: Edward ( Ted ) G. Jones ( March 26 , 1939 , Upper Hutt , New Zealand -- June 6 , 2011 , Davis , California ) was an American neuroscientist and a prolific neuroanatomist . One of his main contributions involves his Matrix-Core theory of thalamic organization . He authored a highly influential book entitled The Thalamus in 1985 . Jones resided in California and served as director for the Center for Neuroscience at the University of California , Davis . He was a former president of the Society for Neuroscience .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Edward_G._Jones", "rank": 91, "score": 95236 }, { "content": "Title: Clay Jones Content: Clay Jones , ( David Brinley Clay Jones , 6 Nov 1923 -- 4 Jul 1996 ) , was a horticulturist and broadcaster best known as the Chairman of the BBC Radio 4 programme Gardener 's Question Time . He came joint tenth with Carol Klein in the BBC poll for the nation 's all-time favourite gardener .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Clay_Jones", "rank": 92, "score": 95067 }, { "content": "Title: Emilia Jones Content: Emilia Jones ( born 23 February 2002 ) is an English child actress , best known for portraying the young Queen of Years , Merry Gejelh , in the 2013 Doctor Who episode `` The Rings of Akhaten '' and playing the part of Lottie McLeod in the BBC feature-length film What We Did on Our Holiday . She has also worked in theatre including playing Young Fiona in the original cast of Shrek the Musical at the Theatre Royal , Drury Lane and Flora in a stage adaptation of Henry James 's The Turn of the Screw .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Emilia_Jones", "rank": 93, "score": 94911 }, { "content": "Title: Suranne Jones Content: Suranne Jones ( born Sarah Anne Jones ; 27 August 1978 ) is an English actress and producer . Her first prominent television role was the character Karen McDonald , introduced to the ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street in 2000 . She left the series in 2004 and furthered her acting career in numerous television drama series , including Vincent ( 2005 -- 06 ) , Strictly Confidential ( 2006 ) , Harley Street ( 2008 ) , Five Days ( 2010 ) and Single Father ( 2010 ) . Her turn as convicted murderer Ruth Slater in the mini-series Unforgiven ( 2009 ) was critically acclaimed and noted as a breakthrough role for Jones . Between 2011 and 2016 Jones starred as lead character Detective Rachel Bailey in the police procedural Scott & Bailey , a drama developed from an original idea conceived by Jones and actress Sally Lindsay . Jones additionally served as an executive producer for the fifth and final series in 2016 . For her portrayal of Gemma Foster , a successful GP who suffers personal betrayal , in Doctor Foster ( 2015 - ) , Jones won several awards including a Broadcasting Press Guild award and the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress in 2016 . Jones 's stage credits include A Few Good Men ( 2005 ) , Blithe Spirit ( 2009 ) , Top Girls ( 2011 ) , Beautiful Thing ( 2013 ) and Orlando ( 2014 ) .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Suranne_Jones", "rank": 94, "score": 94780 }, { "content": "Title: John Jones (physician) Content: John Jones ( 1644 or 1645 -- 22 August 1709 ) was a Welsh cleric , inventor and physician .", "qid": "281", "docid": "John_Jones_(physician)", "rank": 95, "score": 94645 }, { "content": "Title: Hubert Cunliffe-Jones Content: Hubert Cunliffe-Jones ( 30 March 1905 -- 3 January 1991 ) was an Australian-born Congregational Church minister and author , who became chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales and a professor at the University of Manchester . He had an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of Edinburgh .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Hubert_Cunliffe-Jones", "rank": 96, "score": 94419 }, { "content": "Title: Are We Changing Planet Earth? Content: Are We Changing Planet Earth ? and Can We Save Planet Earth ? are two programmes that form a documentary about global warming , presented by David Attenborough . They were first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 24 May and 1 June 2006 respectively . Part of a themed season by the BBC entitled `` Climate Chaos '' , the programmes were produced in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and the Open University . They were directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Jeremy Bristow . The music was composed by Samuel Sim . Attenborough undertook the assignment in between his ` Life ' series Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood . Around the same time , the naturalist also narrated Planet Earth .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Are_We_Changing_Planet_Earth?", "rank": 97, "score": 94375 }, { "content": "Title: David Jones (darts player) Content: David Roderick Jones ( July 5 , 1949 - October 1995 ) was a former Welsh darts player who played mostly during the formative years of darts television coverage during the 1970s . He was born in Rhymney , Glamorgan and although his nickname was Roxy the media got it wrong and he would often be referred to as Rocky or David Rocky Jones . His best tournament display came in the Winmau World Masters when he reached the final in 1975 before losing to fellow countryman Alan Evans . Also during 1975 he won the Marlborough Masters and took the Unicorn World Pairs championships with Ray Phillips . He also had success in international darts with his country Wales , when they took the WDF World Cup team title in 1977 . He also appeared on television in the last darts final of Yorkshire Television 's Indoor League in 1977 - finishing runner-up to Tony Brown . The World Professional Darts Championship was first organised in 1978 , but despite his relative success around that time Jones never featured in the event .", "qid": "281", "docid": "David_Jones_(darts_player)", "rank": 98, "score": 94367 }, { "content": "Title: Alan A. Jones Content: Alan Anthony Jones ( 1944 in New York City -- May 23 , 2006 ) was an American professor of chemistry at Clark University in Worcester , Massachusetts . During his more than thirty years at Clark he served as a mentor and advisor to hundreds of undergraduate , graduate and post-doctoral students . He was a leading researcher in the field of NMR and polymer physics . His research focused on solid state NMR spectroscopy of polymer systems . This work was supported for many years through grants from agencies such as the National Science Foundation , Petroleum Research Fund and the Army Research Office . He attended Colgate University and received his B.A. in 1966 . He earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison in 1972 and worked at Clark after working as a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth College under Walter H. Stockmayer from 1972-74 . At Clark , Jones and fellow professor Paul Inglefield built a NMR facility at the university and wrote over 100 research papers . Some of Jones ' ideas led to new ideas for the use of NMR in studying polymer systems , such as his highly cited 1977 paper : Models for spin relaxation in dilute solutions of randomly coiled polymers . As a professor at Clark Dr. Jones was noted as one of the best professors and he received the institution 's Outstanding Teacher Award in 1988 . He attracted many undergraduates to do research in his laboratory , many of whom went into graduate school after graduating from Clark . During his tenure he directed more than twenty Ph.D. candidates to the successful completion of their theses . He also served Clark at the highest levels in the administration , being Acting Provost 1987 -- 88 and Dean of Graduate Studies and Research 1993 -- 95 . Jones died unexpectedly on May 23 , 2006 . Before his death , Jones had been researching synthetic polymers that would be suitable membranes for use in chemical separations , fuel cells and solid electrolytes . He used PFG NMR to follow the diffusion of small molecules or ions and determine their self-diffusion coefficient . Diffusion in these systems was observed to be enhanced by up to an order of magnitude by the addition of nanoparticles and the mechanism for this enhancement was under investigation at the time of his death . After he died , his students continued his research .", "qid": "281", "docid": "Alan_A._Jones", "rank": 99, "score": 94355 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "281", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 100, "score": 94327 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Shafat Glacier Content: The Shafat Glacier is a 14 km long glacier in the north eastern Himalayan Range situated 85 km south from Kargil and 294 km east from Srinagar on the right side of Kargil Zanskar Road in the state of Jammu and Kashmir . The Shafat Glacier gives rise to the two mountain peaks of Nun and Kun which have the elevation of more than 6800 meters , and it provides a base to climb these mountain peaks . It lies at an average elevation of 4400 meters . The melt waters add to the flow of the Suru River which is a tributary of the Indus River . The Shafat Glacier is a broken , ice falling glacier melting at an alarming rate due to the Global warming ,", "qid": "282", "docid": "Shafat_Glacier", "rank": 1, "score": 142700 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 2, "score": 141180 }, { "content": "Title: Machoi Glacier Content: The Machoi Glacier is a 9 kilometer long glacier in the north eastern Himalayan Range situated 8 kilometers east from Sonamarg on the right side of NH 1D at Zojila in the state of Jammu and Kashmir . It lies at an average elevation of 4800 meters . The highest peak named after the glacier is the Machoi Peak that lies at the eastern end of the glacier , at an elevation of 5458 meters . The glacier is the source of the Sind River that flows westwards , and the Dras river that flows eastwards . Machoi , like many other Himalayan glaciers has been melting at alarming rates due to Global warming .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Machoi_Glacier", "rank": 3, "score": 141109 }, { "content": "Title: Kolahoi Glacier Content: Kolahoi Glacier is a valley glacier in the northwestern Himalayan Range situated 26 kilometers north from Pahalgam and 16 kilometers south from Sonamarg , in the state of Jammu and Kashmir . Kolahoi glacier lies at an average elevation of 4700 m . The highest peak named after the glacier is Kolahoi Peak has an elevation of 5425 meters . The origin of the glacier is below the cirques on the north flank of Kolahoi Peak . It is the source of Lidder River and some melt waters become the tributaries of the Sind River . Its water serves the population of Anantnag district , where it is mainly being used for drinking and agricultural purposes . The water finally discharges itself into Jhelum River near Khanabal . Kolahoi Glacier is among the victims of global warming , and has shrunk in area from 13.57 km2 in 1963 to 10.69 km2 in 2005 or a loss of 2.88 km2 in three decades . In 1974 the glacier was about 5 km long and is known to have extended for at least 35 km during the Pleistocene . According to another report , Kolahoi is a hanging glacier and hollowed inside . It is a matter of great concern for Kashmir Valley . Many expeditions have failed here . A local club is trying much to summit it in 2014 .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Kolahoi_Glacier", "rank": 4, "score": 130147 }, { "content": "Title: Rupal Glacier Content: Rupal Glacier or Tashain Glacier is a glacier in the Great Himalaya subrange of Himalayas . It starts north of an unnamed 6,326 m peak and flows northeastward , north of Laila Peak ( Rupal Valley ) and south of Nanga Parbat 's many peaks . The meltwater from the glacier forms Rupal River .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Rupal_Glacier", "rank": 5, "score": 126462 }, { "content": "Title: Glaciers of Bhutan Content: The glaciers of Bhutan , which covered about 10 percent of the total surface area in the 1980s , are an important renewable source of water for Bhutan 's rivers . Fed by fresh snow each winter and slow melting in the summer , the glaciers bring millions of litres of fresh water to Bhutan and downriver areas each year . Glacial melt also adds to monsoon-swollen rivers which may be a contributing factor to flooding . Where glacial movement temporary blocks riverflows , downstream areas may be threatened by glacial lake outburst flood ( `` GLOFs '' ) . Although GLOFs are not a new phenomenon in Bhutan , their frequency has risen in the past three decades . Significant GLOFs occurred in 1957 , 1960 , 1968 and 1994 , devastating lives and property downstream . According to the Bhutan Department of Energy however , the majority of rivers in Bhutan are more susceptible to fluctuation with changing rainfall patterns than to flooding directly attributable to glacier or snow melt .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Glaciers_of_Bhutan", "rank": 6, "score": 121098 }, { "content": "Title: Ngozumpa glacier Content: The Ngozumpa glacier , below the sixth highest mountain in the world Cho Oyu in Nepal , at 36 km , is the longest glacier in the Himalayas . Ngozumpa Glacier is a large persistent body of ice . It flows slowly due to stresses induced by its weight .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Ngozumpa_glacier", "rank": 7, "score": 120735 }, { "content": "Title: Chhota Shigri Content: The Chhota Shigri Glacier lies on the northern slope of the main ridge of the Pir Panjal Range of the inner Himalayas , east of the Rohtang Pass ( H.P. ) . The high , steep ridges and mountain terrain provide an ideal condition for the development of this glacier . The Chhota Shigri Glacier is located at , covering about 16 sqkm area . The total drainage area of Chhota Shigri Glacier stream is approximately 35 sqkm . There is very high gradient from accumulation zone to ablation area and snout . The glacier meltwater drains out in a single confined stream and meets the Chandra River . Lateral moraines are present all along the body of the glacier up to the accumulation zone . This glacier is one of the best recorded in terms of mass budget studies among the other glaciers in the entire Himalayan region . Since 2002 , Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi is monitoring the glaciers for its mass balance and different hydrological aspects on an annual basis .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Chhota_Shigri", "rank": 8, "score": 120700 }, { "content": "Title: The Glacier Trust Content: The Glacier Trust is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to monitoring and publishing research on glaciers in the Himalayan mountain regions . The trust focuses on working with locals in the Himalayan countryside in order to secure and prevent the effects of climate change on the landscape .", "qid": "282", "docid": "The_Glacier_Trust", "rank": 9, "score": 120587 }, { "content": "Title: Ralam Glacier Content: Ralam Glacier is one of the main Himalayan glaciers situated on the hills of Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand , India . Munsiyari is the base for the trek . This glacier is situated near Ralam Dhura at Ralam Khal . It lies at the base of the Great Himalayan Wall . It is situated at an altitude of 2,290 m above sea level . The glacier is glaciologically divided into two parts named Upper Ralam and Lower Ralam . From Munsiyari to Ralam Glacier it is 15 km .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Ralam_Glacier", "rank": 10, "score": 120228 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 11, "score": 118621 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers of India Content: Himalayan region of India is home of some of the most notable glaciers in the world . This is a list of the notable glaciers in India . Most glaciers lie in the states of Sikkim , Jammu and Kashmir , Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand . Few glaciers are also found in Arunachal Pradesh .", "qid": "282", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_of_India", "rank": 12, "score": 117806 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Uttarakhand Content: Uttarakhand has a total geographic area of 53,483 km ² , of which 86 % is mountainous and 65 % is covered by forest . Most of the northern parts of the state are part of Greater Himalaya ranges , covered by the high Himalayan peaks and glaciers , while the lower foothills were densely forested till denuded by the British log merchants and later , after independence , by forest contractors . Recent efforts in reforestation , however , have been successful in restoring the situation to some extent . The unique Himalayan ecosystem plays host to a large number of animals ( including bharal , snow leopards , leopards and tigers ) , plants and rare herbs . Two of India 's mightiest rivers , the Ganges and the Yamuna take birth in the glaciers of Uttarakhand , and are fed by myriad lakes , glacial melts and streams in the region .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Geography_of_Uttarakhand", "rank": 13, "score": 117635 }, { "content": "Title: Panchchuli Glacier Content: Panchchuli Glacier is a Himalayan glacier , situated in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand , India . It is located in the easternmost part of Kumaun . It is in the west and east of five peaks of Panchchuli on the Johar Valley and Darma valley . Uttari Balati glacier is situated north to it . Panchachuli group of glaciers includes : Meola Sona Uttari Balati Dakshini Balati The popular trek is through the Darma Valley to East Facing glacier . Pithoragarh-Dharchula-Tawaghat-Sobla-Dar-Sela-Bailing-Son-Duktu . The glacier is the source of the Yuli River .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Panchchuli_Glacier", "rank": 14, "score": 116206 }, { "content": "Title: Rathong Glacier Content: The Rathong Glacier is an important glacier of West Sikkim . The source of the Rathong River flows from the end of Rathong Glacier . This glacier extends from Rathong La in the north almost to the top of Chowrikiang Valley in the South . It is fed by the Mt. Rathong ( 6678m ) and Ice Falls of Kabru group of peaks . Himalayan Mountaineering Institute , Darjeeling has set up their permanent base camp at Chowrikiang to practice ice crafting to their trainees in Rathong Glacier from the inception of the institute ; thus the glacier is well-known to mountaineers all over the world . At present , due to global warming , the glacier is receding rapidly and a number of glacial lakes have formed . The condition of the major lakes of the region like Dudh Pokhri and Bhale Pokhri is alarming . http://wikimapia.org/1103736/Rathong-Peak-6-678m-21-909ft", "qid": "282", "docid": "Rathong_Glacier", "rank": 15, "score": 114700 }, { "content": "Title: Glacier Content: A glacier ( -LSB- pronˈɡleɪʃər -RSB- or -LSB- ˈɡlæsiə -RSB- ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight ; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation ( melting and sublimation ) over many years , often centuries . Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight , creating crevasses , seracs , and other distinguishing features . They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines . Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water . On Earth , 99 % of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in the polar regions , but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent except Australia , and on a few high-latitude oceanic islands . Between 35 ° N and 35 ° S , glaciers occur only in the Himalayas , Andes , Rocky Mountains , a few high mountains in East Africa , Mexico , New Guinea and on Zard Kuh in Iran . Glaciers cover about 10 percent of Earth 's land surface . Continental glaciers cover nearly 5 e6sqmi or about 98 percent of Antarctica 's 5.1 e6sqmi , with an average thickness of 7,000 ft. Greenland and Patagonia also have huge expanses of continental glaciers . Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth . Many glaciers from temperate , alpine and seasonal polar climates store water as ice during the colder seasons and release it later in the form of meltwater as warmer summer temperatures cause the glacier to melt , creating a water source that is especially important for plants , animals and human uses when other sources may be scant . Within high altitude and Antarctic environments , the seasonal temperature difference is often not sufficient to release meltwater . Because glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes , e.g. , precipitation , mean temperature , and cloud cover , glacial mass changes are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change and are a major source of variations in sea level . A large piece of compressed ice , or a glacier , appears blue as large quantities of water appear blue . This is because water molecules absorb other colors more efficiently than blue . The other reason for the blue color of glaciers is the lack of air bubbles . Air bubbles , which give a white color to ice , are squeezed out by pressure increasing the density of the created ice .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Glacier", "rank": 16, "score": 114282 }, { "content": "Title: Chiring We Content: Chiring We is the Himalayan peak situated in eastern Kumaun of the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India . The altitude of the peak is 6,559 m. Chiring We is the highest peak above the Kalabaland Glacier . Chiring We massif , which include peaks like Bamba Dhura ( 6,334 m ) , Suli Top ( 6,300 m ) , Trigal ( 5,983 m ) , Suitilla ( 6,373 m ) , separates Lassar Yankti valley from Kalabaland valley . The peak literally means ` Mountain of long life ' . The route is through glaciers of Kalabaland , Sankalpa and Yankchar , icefall , crevasses , ice-pinnacles , ice walls and sharp ridges . First ascent to this peak was made in 1979 by an Indian team led by Harish Kapadia via northeast ridge . Category : Mountains of Uttarakhand Category : Geography of Pithoragarh district Category : Six-thousanders of the Himalayas", "qid": "282", "docid": "Chiring_We", "rank": 17, "score": 114193 }, { "content": "Title: Milam Glacier Content: Milam Glacier is a major glacier of the Kumaon Himalaya . It is located in the tehsil of Munsiyari , part of the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand , India , about 15 km northeast of Nanda Devi . It ranges in elevation from about 5500 m to about 3870 m at its snout . It covers around 37 km2 and is 16 km long.Milam glacier was reopened in the year 1994 . It was closed in 1962 , so it was inaccessible for trekkers and other visitors . It is a popular destination among trekkers now . The suitable time to visit the glacier is from mid of March to May . Monsoons set in during the month June which herald the menace of landslides and roadblocks . The trekking for the Milam glacier commences from Munsiyari . Milam Glacier is situated on the south facing slope of the main Himalayan range . It originates from the eastern slope of Trishuli and the southern slope of its eastern subsidiary Kohli . The subsidiary glaciers coming off the peaks of Hardeol , Mangraon ( 6,568 m ) , Deo Damla ( 6,637 m ) , and Sakram ( 6,254 m ) on the eastern rim of the Nanda Devi Sanctuary flow into it from the west , while on the east it is fed by glaciers from Nanda Gond ( 6,315 m ) and Nanda Pal ( 6,306 m ) . The glacier is the source of the Goriganga River . The village of Milam lies near the snout of the glacier ; Munsiyari , further down the Goriganga valley , is the base for the trek to the glacier .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Milam_Glacier", "rank": 18, "score": 114048 }, { "content": "Title: Sona Glacier Content: Sona Glacier is the Himalayan glacier situated in the eastern part of Uttarakhand in the Pithoragarh district of India.Sona Glacier is located at the base of five peaks of Panchchuli in the Lassar Yankti - Darma valley.With Meola glacier it forms the famous Panchchuli glacier as mixed glacial system . One can reach here as glacial trek through Tawaghat-Bailing-Son -- Duktu - . Sona glacier and Meola glacier serves the route to climb Panchchuli peaks from east facing direction . Sona glacier is situated north to Meola Glacier . It is situated just below peaks like Ngalaphu 6,410 m and Panchchuli I.It is divided into Upper and Lower.The direction of the glacier is south west to north east.It is located on right hand side ( East ) to Panchchuli massif .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Sona_Glacier", "rank": 19, "score": 113709 }, { "content": "Title: Drang-Drung Glacier Content: The Drang-Drung Glacier ( also called Durung Drung Glacier ) is a mountain glacier near the Pensi La mountain pass at the Kargil - Zanaskar Road in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir in India . The Drang-Drung Glacier is likely to be the largest glacier in Ladakh other than the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram Range , with a maximum length of 23 km at an average elevation of 4,780 m . The glacier lies in the northeastern Himalayan Range known as the Zanskar Range , 142 km south of Kargil and 331 km east of Srinagar , the capital of Jammu and Kashmir . The Drang-Drung Glacier is a long river of ice and snow , a source of the Stod River which is a tributary of the Zanskar River and the Zanskar River is a tributary of Indus River . Doda Peak with an elevation of 6,550 m rises from the glacier .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Drang-Drung_Glacier", "rank": 20, "score": 113377 }, { "content": "Title: Nangpai Gosum Glacier Content: Nangpai Gosum Glacier is a glacier located 25 km west northwest of Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Nepal . It is located at lat 28 ° 02 ′ N. , long 86 ° 36 ′ E . The ice-core drilling site is situated at 5,700 m above mean sea level . In 1998 , a 37-m ice core was extracted from the glacier by Cameron P. Wake of the University of New Hampshire and transported to the university for analysis . At the request of the USGS study team , radionuclide analyses were performed for 36Cl and 137Cs on selected sections of the ice core by Hans-Arno Synal at the Paul Scherrer Institut ( PSI ) in Villigen , Switzerland .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Nangpai_Gosum_Glacier", "rank": 21, "score": 113111 }, { "content": "Title: Lhotse Shar Glacier Content: Lhotse Shar is a glacier of the Himalayas in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal . It adjoins Imja Glacier to the northeast and with Ambulapcha Glacier forms three major glaciers . To the east is Cho Polu ( 6734m/22 ,093 ft ) .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Lhotse_Shar_Glacier", "rank": 22, "score": 112989 }, { "content": "Title: Imja Glacier Content: Imja Glacier is located in the Himalayas , in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal . It originates on the western face of Kali Himal , 7057 m , and skirts the southern slopes of Imja Tse or Island Peak , south-east of Mount Everest . It is joined by the Lhotse Shar and Ambulapcha Glaciers . The glacier forms the eastern extent of Imja Tsho , which in turn drains through the Dingboche valley to the Imja Khola , Dudh Kosi , Ganges River and finally the Indian Ocean .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Imja_Glacier", "rank": 23, "score": 112378 }, { "content": "Title: Meola Glacier Content: Meola Glacier or Athasi-Balati Glacier is the Himalayan glacier situated in the eastern part of Uttarakhand in the Pithoragarh district of India . Meola Glacier is located at the base of the five peaks of Panchchuli in the Lassar Yankti valley . The Meola Glacier combines with the Sona Glacier to form the famous Panchchuli Glacier . Sona and Meola glaciers serve as the route to climb the Panchchuli peaks from the east . Sona glacier is situated north to Meola glacier . The snout of the Meola glacier is a one-hour trek along Duktu Nala from Duktu village . The snout of Meola is situated at an altitude of 3600 m . This place also serves as base camp for Panchchuli expeditions . Meola glacier is divided into lower and upper parts .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Meola_Glacier", "rank": 24, "score": 111770 }, { "content": "Title: Ambulapcha Glacier Content: Ambulapcha Glacier is a glacier of the Himalayas in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal . It adjoins Imja Glacier to its south and with Lhotse Shar Glacier forms three major glaciers . It forms the Ambulapcha Tsho glacial lake , located at .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Ambulapcha_Glacier", "rank": 25, "score": 111063 }, { "content": "Title: Suitilla Content: Suitilla or Suj Tilla West is a Himalayan peak located on the eastern side of Uttarakhand state in Pithoragarh District of India . The peak is located above the junction of Kalabaland , Sankalp and Yankchar glaciers . Ralam Dhura pass is situated to the south of this peak , which connects Ralam valley to Darma valley . This peak is characterised by steep ice-flutings and sharp ridges , so named as Peak of needles . This peak was first climbed in 2001 by an Indo-British joint expedition by two Britishers Graham Little and Jim Lowther . The Indian navy team was led by Lt. Cdr . Satyabrata Dam . The climbers who made the summit are Divyesh Muni , Lt. Amit Pande , Sherpa Nima Dorje , Lt. K S Balaji , Lt. Amit Rajora , Chera Rajkumar , A. Chaudhury , Sherpa Tsange , Puri and Nima Thondup . The most popular route to the summit is through the south west face . About 200 m away from Suj Tilla West is Suj Tilla East ( 6394 m ) . This peak is still unclimbed due to multiple cornices on the ridge .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Suitilla", "rank": 26, "score": 110804 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 27, "score": 110577 }, { "content": "Title: Langtang Glacier Content: The Langtang Glacier is a long glacier in Nepal , located in Langtang in the Himalayan mountains .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Langtang_Glacier", "rank": 28, "score": 109970 }, { "content": "Title: Siachen Glacier Content: The Siachen Glacier ( Hindi : सियाचिन ग्लेशियर ) is a glacier located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas at about , just northeast of the point NJ9842 where the Line of Control between India and Pakistan ends . At 76 km long , it is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world 's non-polar areas . It falls from an altitude of 5,753 m ( 18,875 ft ) above sea level at its head at Indira Col on the China border down to 3,620 m ( 11,875 ft ) at its terminus . The entire Siachen Glacier , with all major passes , is currently under the administration of India since 1984 . Pakistan controls the region west of Saltoro Ridge with Pakistani posts located 3,000 ft below 100 Indian posts on Saltoro Ridge . The Siachen Glacier lies immediately south of the great drainage divide that separates the Eurasian Plate from the Indian subcontinent in the extensively glaciated portion of the Karakoram sometimes called the `` Third Pole '' . The glacier lies between the Saltoro Ridge immediately to the west and the main Karakoram range to the east . The Saltoro Ridge originates in the north from the Sia Kangri peak on the China border in the Karakoram range . The crest of the Saltoro Ridge 's altitudes range from 5,450 to 7,720 m ( 17,880 to 25,330 feet ) . The major passes on this ridge are , from north to south , Sia La at 5,589 m ( 18,336 ft ) , Bilafond La at 5,450 m ( 17,880 ft ) , and Gyong La at 5,689 m ( 18,665 ft ) . The average winter snowfall is more than 1000 cm ( 35 ft ) and temperatures can dip to -50 C. Including all tributary glaciers , the Siachen Glacier system covers about 700 km2 .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Siachen_Glacier", "rank": 29, "score": 109832 }, { "content": "Title: Balakun Content: Balakun is a Himalayan peak situated in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state of India . The Balakun peak has the summit at an altitude of 6471 m in the Garhwal Himalayas . Balakun Peak is located 16 km from Badrinath . Balakun is situated north west to Badrinath . Balakun is situated between Bhagirathi Kharak glacier and Satopanth glacier.The peak is situated north east of Nilkanth peak . The Alaknanda river originates from below this peak by the melting of these two glaciers at an altitude of 3641 m . The two glaciers rise from the eastern slopes of Chaukhamba ( 7140 m ) peak and wrap around the Balakun peak . Balakun is situated north of Kunaling ( 5471 m ) and south of the Arwa Group . The peak was first climbed in 1973 a by six-man team of ITBP led by Hukum Singh .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Balakun", "rank": 30, "score": 108542 }, { "content": "Title: Kangshung Glacier Content: The Kangshung Glacier is one of the three main glaciers of Mount Everest , and is in the Tibet region Himalayas , within the Tibet Autonomous Region of China . The other two are the Khumbu Glacier and Rongbuk Glacier .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Kangshung_Glacier", "rank": 31, "score": 108082 }, { "content": "Title: Gokyo Ri Content: Gokyo Peak ( Nepali : Gokyo Ri ) is a - high peak in the Khumbu region of the Nepal Himalayas . It is located on the west side of the Ngozumpa glacier , which is the largest glacier in Nepal and reputed to be the largest in the whole Himalayas . Gokyo ( 4,750 m , 15,583 ft above sea level ) , at the base of Gokyo Ri , is a small hamlet of a few stone houses and one of the highest settlements in the world . From Gokyo Ri it is possible to see four 8,000-metre peaks : Mount Everest , Lhotse , Makalu , and Cho Oyu . The Gokyo Lakes are in the area . The Gokyo trek is a fairly popular trekking route . The route itself ends at Gokyo Ri , and trekkers typically turn around at this point and retrace their steps back to the trailhead . There is an alternative mountaineering route that begins near the southern tip of Ngozumpa Glacier and just south of Taujun Lake . This alternative route leads east over the Cho La , a pass at 5,420 m ( 17,782 ft ) , where it meets with the main Everest Base Camp trek . There is another higher summit just north of where the main Gokyo trek route ends . It stands at an altitude of 5483 m above sea level .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Gokyo_Ri", "rank": 32, "score": 108009 }, { "content": "Title: Gangotri Glacier Content: Gangotri Glacier ( Sanskrit , Nepali and गंगोत्री ) is located in Uttarkashi District , Uttarakhand , India in a region bordering China . This glacier , one of the primary sources of the Ganges , is one of the largest in the Himalayas with an estimated volume of over 27 cubic kilometers . The glacier is about 30 kilometres ( 19 miles ) long and 2 to 4 km ( 1 to 2 mi ) wide . Around the glacier are the peaks of the Gangotri Group , including several peaks notable for extremely challenging climbing routes , such as Shivling , Thalay Sagar , Meru , and Bhagirathi III . It flows roughly northwest , originating in a cirque below Chaukhamba , the highest peak of the group . The terminus of the Gangotri Glacier is said to resemble a cow 's mouth , and the place is called Gomukh or Gaumukh ( gou , cow + mukh , face ) . Gomukh , which is about 19 km from the town of Gangotri , is the precise source of the Bhagirathi river , an important tributary of the Ganges . Gomukh is situated near the base of Shivling ; in between lies the Tapovan meadow . The Gangotri glacier is a traditional Hindu pilgrimage site . Devout Hindus consider bathing in the icy waters near Gangotri town to be a holy ritual , and many made the trek to Gomukh , with a few continuing on to Tapovan . One needs to trek from Gangotri till Gaumukh , passing Devgadh , Chirbhasa , Bhojwasa en route . Currently accommodation is available only at Bhojwasa , although forest check posts are present at both Chirbhasa and Bhowasa . The 2013 North Indian Floods destroyed much of this trail , and access is now a little difficult beyond Chirbhasa due to trail deterioration and a 2 km wide rockfall site .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Gangotri_Glacier", "rank": 33, "score": 107948 }, { "content": "Title: Tsho Rolpa Content: Tsho Rolpa ( also Cho Rolpa ) is one of the biggest glacial lakes in Nepal . The lake , which is located at an altitude of 4580 m in the Rolwaling Valley , Dolakha District , has grown considerably over the last 50 years due to glacial melting in the Himalayas .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Tsho_Rolpa", "rank": 34, "score": 107899 }, { "content": "Title: Burphu Dhura Content: Burphu Dhura is a Himalayan mountain peak situated in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand , India . The altitude of the summit is 6,334 m . It is situated at the end ridge over the Kalabaland Glacier in the eastern part of the district , left to the Milam Glacier . Kalabaland Dhura ( 6,105 m ) is situated to the west of this peak on the same massif . Burphu Dhura massif is the part of divide between Kalabaland and Goriganga valleys . This peak was first of all climbed to summit in 2000 from south on 27 September 2000 by Loveraj Dharmashaktu , Balwant Singh Kapkoti and Ramesh by an Indian team led by Wing Cdr S S Puri . The peak has two approaches -- one from the Kalabaland glacier above the icefall and another from Burphu village in the Milam valley .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Burphu_Dhura", "rank": 35, "score": 107056 }, { "content": "Title: Gomukh Content: Gomukh , the terminus or snout of the Gangotri Glacier , from where Bhagirathi River originates , is one of the primary sources of the Ganges River . The place is situated at a height of 13,200 ft ( 4,023 m ) in Uttarkashi district in the state of Uttarakhand , India . It is one of the largest in the Himalayas with an estimated volume of over 27 cubic kilometers . It is a popular Hindu pilgrimage site , along with Gangotri , as well as trekking destination . On July 26 , 2016 , following heavy rains in Uttarakhand , it was reported , the front end of Gomukh was no more , as a large chunk of the glacier had collapsed and was washed away . In 2013 , due to cloud burst in Uttarakhand , huge cracks had emerged on the glacier . Gomukh is also referred to as `` Gaumukh '' or `` Gomukhi '' ( Hindi : गौमुख or गौमुखी ; Assamese and Bengali : গোমুখ or গোমুখী ) . The word `` Gomukh '' ( go + much ) literally means `` Mouth of a Cow '' . According to some sayings , earlier the snout exactly looked like `` Mouth of a Cow '' .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Gomukh", "rank": 36, "score": 106894 }, { "content": "Title: Suj Tilla East Content: Suj Tilla East is a Himalayan mountain peak in the eastern part of Uttarakhand state in Pithoragarh district of India . The peak is located above the junction of Kalabaland , Sankalp and Yankchar glaciers . Ralam Dhura pass is situated to the south of this peak , which connects Ralam valley to Darma valley . This peak is characterised by steep ice-flutings and sharp ridges , so named as ` Peak of needles ' . This peak has not been climbed so far . The most popular route to the summit is through the south west face . Suj Tilla East is situated 200 m away from Suj Tilla West . Suj Tilla East is 21 m higher than Suj Tilla West . This peak is still an unclimbed peak due to sharp cornices and icefalls on the ridge .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Suj_Tilla_East", "rank": 37, "score": 106836 }, { "content": "Title: Imja Khola Content: The Imja Khola is a tributary of the Dudh Kosi in Nepal . It drains the slopes of Mount Everest . The Khumbu Glacier melts into the Lobujya ( Lobuche ) River , which flows southward as the Imja Khola to its confluence with the Dudh Kosi at Tengboche . The Imja Khola collects water from the Imja Glacier through the Dingboche Valley .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Imja_Khola", "rank": 38, "score": 106789 }, { "content": "Title: Imja Tsho Content: Imja Tsho ( or Imja Lake ) is a glacial lake created after melt water began collecting at the foot of the Imja Glacier on the lower part of the glacier in the 1950s . A 2009 study described this lake of melt water as one of the fastest-growing in the Himalaya . Held in place by a terminal moraine , Imja Tsho threatens downstream communities with the potential for a glacial outburst flood . Imja Tsho has been identified as one of the potentially dangerous lakes in Himalaya . It is located at 27 ° 59 ' 17 '' N latitude , 86 ° 55 ' 31 '' E longitude and at an altitude of 5010 m in Everest region of Nepal . The catchment of Imja Tsho occupies the northeastern part of the Dudh Koshi sub-basin . The lake itself is located on the lower part of the glacier at the toe of its mother glaciers ( snout of Imja and Lhotse Shar Glaciers ) . The Lhotse Shar Glacier flows in a south-westerly direction . The Imja Glacier on the other hand is oriented in a north-westerly direction and has its terminus at about 5100 m . These two glaciers coalesce approximately 3.5 km above the terminus and flow westwards just beneath the trekking path of Imja Tse . The lake was first mapped in the form of a few ponds from the satellite image taken in 1962 . The total area of the ponds was approximately 0.03 km2 then ( 27916 sq m ) . With the melting of glaciers , the ponds merged into a supra-glacial lake in the 1970s and it has grown continuously ever since . The lake area increased to approximately 0.8 km2 ( 796600 sq m ) in 2000 with an average growth rate of 0.02 km2 per year . On the basis of newly released image of 21 November 2009 on Google Earth , the Imja Tsho has attained an area of 1.055 km2 as a result of which the growth rate of the lake has increased to 0.025 km2 per year from 2000 to 2009 . The preliminary analysis has also shown that there has been an increase of almost 11 % in the lake area compared to the area calculated on the basis of satellite image received on October 2008 . In 2016 the Nepalese Army constructed an outlet and drained over 4 million cubic meters of water from the lake .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Imja_Tsho", "rank": 39, "score": 106450 }, { "content": "Title: Furtwängler Glacier Content: Furtwangler Glacier is located near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania . The glacier is named after Walter Furtwängler who , along with Siegfried König , were the fourth party to ascend to the summit of Kilimanjaro in 1912 . The glacier is a small remnant of an ice cap that once crowned the summit of Kilimanjaro . Almost 85 percent of the ice cover disappeared from October 1912 to June 2011 . At the current rate , most of the ice will disappear by 2040 and `` it is highly unlikely that any ice body will remain after 2060 '' . Furtwängler Glacier is ephemeral , existing continuously since only about 1650 CE , which corresponds with very high levels in Kenya 's Lake Naivasha and the beginning of the Maunder Minimum . Between measurements in 1976 and 2000 , the area of this glacier was cut almost in half , from 113,000 m2 to 60,000 m2 . Based on the rate of thinning observed between 2000 and 2009 , this glacier is expected to disappear by 2018 . During fieldwork conducted early in 2006 , scientists discovered a large hole near the center of the glacier . This hole , extending through the 6 m remaining thickness of the glacier to the underlying rock , was expected to grow and split the glacier in two by 2007 .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Furtwängler_Glacier", "rank": 40, "score": 105800 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 41, "score": 105695 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in Glacier National Park (U.S.) Content: There are at least 35 named glaciers in Glacier National Park ( U.S. ) . In 1850 , the area now comprising the national park had 150 glaciers . There are 25 active glaciers remaining in the park today . Since the ice ages stopped 10,000 years ago , there have been many slight climate shifts causing periods of glacier growth or melt-back . The glaciers are currently being studied to see the effect of global warming It is estimated that if current warming trends continue , there will be no glaciers left in the park by 2030 .", "qid": "282", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_Glacier_National_Park_(U.S.)", "rank": 42, "score": 104714 }, { "content": "Title: Nagalaphu Content: Nagalaphu is a Himalayan mountain peak located in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India . It is the part of Himalayan mountain massif that divides Lassar-Darma valley and Ralam-Gori Ganga valley . Its summit reaches an altitude of 6410 m above sea level . South of the peak are the five peaks of Panchchuli . Sona and Meola glaciers ( that together form the Panchchuli glacier ) are to the east of Nagalaphu . To the peak 's west is the large Uttari Balati glacier . Nagalaphu has yet to be scaled .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Nagalaphu", "rank": 43, "score": 104191 }, { "content": "Title: Mingyong Glacier Content: Mingyong Glacier is located in the Yunnan Province , People 's Republic of China , The glacier retreated 200 meters ( 656 feet ) in four years . The region has also seen a rising tree line and these events are believed to be associated with global warming . The glacier is sacred to the local peoples . The glacier is fed by snows which fall on 6,740 m ( 22,107 ft ) Mount Meili , also known as the Meili Snow Mountain . Glaciers in China 's Tibetan region are melting at 7 percent annually . At 28.5 degrees north and an elevation of 2,700 meters ( 8,858 ft ) , the glacier is located at the lowest latitude and elevation of any glacier in China .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Mingyong_Glacier", "rank": 44, "score": 103804 }, { "content": "Title: Amarnath Peak Content: Amarnath Peak is a mountain with a peak elevation of 5186 m , in Ganderbal district of Kashmir , in the vicinity of Sonamarg . Amarnath Peak is part of the Himalayas , and is located south of Zojila and west of Machoi Glacier . It lies 117 km northeast from Srinagar , 13 km from Baltal in the southeast . It lies 6 km south of Zojila . The melt waters form a major tributary of the Sind River at Baltal . Amarnath mountain is considered as a sacred mountain , it has a cave at its south face at an elevation of 3800 m known as Amarnath cave . The cave is believed to be the ancient and among most sacred places for pilgrimage in Hinduism . It is the centre for Hindu pilgrims during summer .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Amarnath_Peak", "rank": 45, "score": 103731 }, { "content": "Title: Sandy Glacier Caves Content: The Sandy Glacier Caves are a system of glacier caves within the ice of Sandy Glacier on Mount Hood , Oregon . They are thought to be the largest glacier caves in the lower 48 states of the U.S.A. Surveys done in 2011 and 2012 have measured the system at over 1 mile in length . The caves formed from internal glacial melting . As melting continues , the caves grow larger with entrances to the caves receding up the glacier 's slope . Eventually it is predicted the caves will be completely gone within 7 to 10 years once the interior melting has reached the surface of the glacier . During early summer , all three surveyed caves within the glacier are connected through perennial ice and are called the Snow Dragon Glacier Cave System . By late summer , the perennial ice melts away leaving only the disconnected glacier caves that have been individually named Snow Dragon , Pure Imagination , and Frozen Minotaur Caves . In 2013 , a fourth glacier cave was discovered on the Sandy Glacier , but so far it has not been explored .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Sandy_Glacier_Caves", "rank": 46, "score": 103616 }, { "content": "Title: Changuch Content: Changuch is a Himalayan mountain peak situated at the boundary of Pithoragarh and Bageshwar district of the Uttarakhand state of India . This peak is situated above the Pindari Glacier . This peak offers a ridge leading to Nanda Kot . On its massif Traill 's pass is situated , which connects Pindari valley to Goriganga valley . The first successful ascent to the peak was made by an Indo-British team on 9 June 2009 at 9 am .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Changuch", "rank": 47, "score": 103576 }, { "content": "Title: Swami Sundaranand Content: Swami Sundaranand ( born April , 1926 near Nellore , Andhra Pradesh , India ) is a Yogi , photographer , author and mountaineer who lectures widely in India on threats to the Ganges River and the loss of Himalayan glaciers due to global warming . Sundarananda was a student of the reclusive yoga master Swami Tapovan Maharaj ( 1889 -- 1957 ) , who wrote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries about yogic life in the Himalayas in the classic yoga book Wanderings in the Himalayas ( Himagiri Vihar ) . Sundaranand lived with Swami Tapovan in the then inaccessible area of Gangotri , at the source of the Ganges , which is considered one of India 's most sacred places . Since 1948 , he has lived by the Ganges in Gangotri , at 10,400 feet , in a modest hut ( kuti ) which his master Swami Tapovan Maharaj later bequeathed to him on his death in 1957 . There , Swami Sundaranand has lived in solitude and through the severest of winters without any comforts or conveniences . He has witnessed up close the gradual shrinking of the Gangotri Glacier from which the Ganges springs forth , and has chronicled his devotion to the natural beauty of the Indian Himalayas as an accomplished photographer . A museum devoted to environmental protection and spiritual guidance , containing Swami Sundaranand 's Himalayan photography , is now in the planning stages . It will be located in Gangotri on the property of Sundaranand and his master . As an ascetic , he took the brahmacharya sadhu vow over 59 years ago and daily devotes his life to rigorous meditation and other spiritual practices . He continues to be a principal advocate for the ecological preservation of the Himalayas , the Ganges and its source at Gangotri . He has taken more than 100,000 photos , over a 50-year period , of the shrinking Gangotri glacier in the Indian Himalayas . He now travels India raising awareness of the Gangotri 's rapid decline . Nicknamed `` the Sadhu Who Clicks '' because of his photography , he is also a noted mountain climber , having scaled over 25 Himalayan peaks , and climbing twice with Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay . Sir Edmund Hillary paid his respects to Swami Sundaranad in the 1980s at his Gangotri hut . Of the Gangotri glacier , Swami Sundaranand says : `` In 1949 , when I first saw the glacier , I felt as if all my sins were washed away and I had truly attained rebirth . But now , it is impossible to experience that Ganga of the past . '' Swami Sundaranand is the author of the book Himalaya : Through the Lens of a Sadhu with over 425 photographs spanning 60 years of his work . The book also contains a letter of endorsement from the former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee . He sought to capture the Eternal in Nature and to document the region as it once was with a special emphasis on planting the seeds of hope and inspiration to solve the environmental concerns of the area . A lookout point and plaque have been built downriver from Gangotri and dedicated to the Swami 's work and efforts . Swami Sundaranand is the subject of a feature documentary shot at his home in Gangotri titled Personal Time with Swamiji . The film was produced by The Center for Healing Arts and directed by Victor Demko .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Swami_Sundaranand", "rank": 48, "score": 103562 }, { "content": "Title: Pindari Glacier Content: The Pindari Glacier is a glacier found in the upper reaches of the Kumaon Himalayas , to the southeast of Nanda Devi , Nanda Kot . The glacier flows to the south for a short distance of about 3 km ,0.25 km in breadth and gives rise to the Pindari River which meets the Alakananda at Karnaprayag in the Garhwal district . The trail to reach the glacier crosses the villages of Saung , Loharkhet , crosses over the Dhakuri Pass , continues onto Khati village ( the last inhabited village on the trail ) , Dwali , Phurkia and finally Zero Point , Pindar , the end of the trail . Though most of the trail is along the banks of the Pindari River , the river is mostly hidden until after Khati . The Pindari Glacier trail provides for a 90 km round-trip trek that most people find comfortable to complete in six days . The Pindari Glacier is also famous for other adventure sports like ice climbing and mountain biking .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Pindari_Glacier", "rank": 49, "score": 103489 }, { "content": "Title: Meltwater Content: Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice , including glacial ice , tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans . Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers , where the rate of snow cover is reducing . Meltwater can be produced during volcanic eruptions , in a similar way in which the more dangerous lahars form . When meltwater pools on the surface rather than flowing , it forms melt ponds . As the weather gets colder meltwater will often re-freeze . Meltwater can collect or melt under the ice 's surface . These pools of water , known as subglacial lakes can form due to geothermal heat and friction .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Meltwater", "rank": 50, "score": 103054 }, { "content": "Title: Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology Content: Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology , Dehradun is an autonomous research institute for the study of Geology of the Himalaya under the Department of Science and Technology , Ministry of Science and Technology , Govt . of India . It was established in June , 1968 in the Botany Department , Delhi University , the Institute was shifted to Dehradun , Uttrakhand during April , 1976 . The institute also has three field search stations , at Naddi-Dharamsala , Dokriani Bamak Glacier Station and at Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Wadia_Institute_of_Himalayan_Geology", "rank": 51, "score": 102733 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Siachen Glacier avalanche Content: On 3 February 2016 , an avalanche hit an Indian military base in northern Siachen Glacier region , trapping 10 soldiers under deep snow .", "qid": "282", "docid": "2016_Siachen_Glacier_avalanche", "rank": 52, "score": 102705 }, { "content": "Title: Joydeep Sircar Content: Joydeep Sircar ( born 1947 ) is a mountaineer and mountain historian . In 1979 , he published his Himalayan handbook , an index of all the-then named peaks of 6096 meters ( 20000 feet ) and above in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent , giving chronological entries of expeditions up to 1975 to each peak with a brief summary of results and references to expedition reports , after a decade of solitary research . He was inspired in this formidable undertaking by the pronouncement of the late Soli S. Mehta , Hony . Local Secretary of The Himalayan Club , that the task had never been attempted before and was well-nigh impossible . This book , introduced by the famous British mountaineer-explorer J. O. M. Roberts , one of Sircar 's idols , was the first one of its kind . Printed in 500 copies only , it received excellent international notices and became a basic reference resource . In 1982 , Sircar was the first to suspect and draw public attention to the covert competition between India and Pakistan over the Siachen Glacier and coined the term Oropolitics to describe the use of mountaineering expeditions as a cloak for establishing territorial claims . His essay on this topic was published in abbreviated form in an article in The Telegraph newspaper of Calcutta . The full essay titled `` Oropolitics '' came out in Himalaya Sameeksha , a limited circulation magazine published by Kamala Mukherjee in Calcutta , and was subsequently reprinted in the prestigious Alpine Journal of London in 1984 . . India sent troops into the Siachen Glacier the same year . Sircar surmised the existence of a feasible pass in Himachal Pradesh , India on the Himalayan divide between Kullu and Spiti Districts . He led three expeditions to the high range separating the Upper Parvati valley from the unexplored Debsa Glacier in 1992 , 1993 and 1995 . The Debsa Pass ( 5340 metres ) , named by him , was reached in 1993 and crossed on 21 September 1995 , and the team descended the unexplored West Debsa Glacier and followed the Debsa stream to the Parahio Valley and from there to the Spiti Valley . The pass has become a regular route as it saves 2 -- 3 days over the traditional Kullu-Spiti route by the Pin Parvati Pass ( 5319 metres ) . Sircar has taken part in a number of other mountaineering expeditions , likes travelling to remote places , and is a poet , essayist , and wildlifer . He drew the attention of the Bombay Natural History Society in 2001 to the presence of large numbers of the endangered Bar-Headed Goose at Gharana Wetland Reserve , Jammu , which eventually led to this neglected sanctuary on the Indo-Pak border being classified as an Important Bird Area He is also avidly interested in history and military matters , particularly aviation , and was the first to compose a brief biography of the World War II Beaufighter ace Flying Officer A.M.O. Pring , DFM , a childhood hero who flew and died in combat defending Calcutta from Japanese air attack and is buried at Calcutta . He followed this up with an expanded essay called Sergeant Pring and the Calcutta Hurricane in which an outline biography of Maurice Pring is combined with the pioneering study of a rare and little-known night-fighter , the Hawker Hurricane II C ( NF ) equipped with the pilot-operated AI Mark VI radar . Both essays have won praise from aviation cognoscenti.He has followed these pieces up with an article conclusively demonstrating that the Hurricane II C ( NF ) was , in fact , the first radar-equipped single-seater night-fighter . A selection of his English poetry is available in Poemhunter In a recent article , Sircar has claimed to have solved the mystery of the Lake of No Return , Myanmar , which he visited in 2002 .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Joydeep_Sircar", "rank": 53, "score": 102556 }, { "content": "Title: Angsi Glacier Content: The Angsi Glacier is a glacier located on the northern side of the Himalayas in Burang County in China 's Tibet Autonomous Region .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Angsi_Glacier", "rank": 54, "score": 101863 }, { "content": "Title: Angel Glacier Content: The Angel Glacier flows down the north face of Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park , Canada . It is named as such because it has the appearance of an angel with out-swept wings . It was much larger when it was named in the 19th-century , but as with most glaciers worldwide , it is melting rapidly . It is not expected to maintain its distinctive appearance for much longer , and will eventually disappear from the face of Mount Edith Cavell . The glacier is visible from the Cavell Meadows hiking trail .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Angel_Glacier", "rank": 55, "score": 101802 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Stupa Content: Ice Stupa is a form of glacier grafting technique that creates artificial glaciers , used for storing winter water ( which otherwise goes waste ) in form of conical shaped ice heap . During summer , when water is scarce , the Ice Stupa melts to increase water supply for crops . Ice Stupa was innovated by Sonam Wangchuk in Ladakh , India and the project is undertaken by the NGO Students ' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh . Launched in October 2013 , the test project started in January 2014 under the project name The Ice Stupa project . On 15 November 2016 , Sonam Wangchuk was awarded Rolex Awards for Enterprise for his work on Ice Stupa .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Ice_Stupa", "rank": 56, "score": 101458 }, { "content": "Title: Heard Island glaciers Content: The Heard Island glaciers covered 79 percent of Heard Island itself , in 1947 , covering 288 km2 ; by 1988 , this had decreased by 11 percent to 257 km2 . The glaciers fall under the Antarctic Environmental Gradient , which spans 30 degrees of latitude and includes a range of macro-climatic zones from cool temperate islands to the frigid and arid Antarctic continent . Glaciers extend from 2745 m to sea level , with ice up to 150 m deep.The geologic movement of the glaciers can appear fast-flowing due to the steep slope and high precipitation , and are particularly sensitive to climatic fluctuations . Measurements between 1947 and 1980 show glacial retreat , particularly on the eastern flanks , is correlated with changes in weather patterns . A 29 % reduction in area of the Brown Glacier from 1947-2003 was observed . The volcano Big Ben , from which all the glaciers drain , has shown no sign of changing geothermal output to cause the melting ; a 1 degree Celsius warming has occurred over the same time period . Glaciologists continue to study the Brown Glacier , detailing surveys of the glacier 's snout and surface , which determine if glacial retreat is rapid or punctuated . Measurements on the mass balance of the glacier , as well as more detailed ice thickness measurements using a portable radar echo sounder , were undertaken . Monitoring of climatic conditions continues , with emphasis on the impact of Foehn winds on glacier mass balance . An expedition by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division recently visited the volcanic island in 2009 , observing glaciers that had retreated 50 metres in three years . Repairs were made to an automatic weather station established in November 2000 . Glaciologist Dr. Ian Allison cites that the latest aerial surveys that show continuous rapid melt and that satellite imagery shows the island double in size due to volcanic activity .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Heard_Island_glaciers", "rank": 57, "score": 101437 }, { "content": "Title: Rajrambha Content: Rajrambha is the name of a Himalayan mountain peak , situated in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state of India . It means ` celestial nymph ' ( Apsara ) in Hindi . This peak is situated south of the Kalabaland Glacier in eastern Kumaun in the Ralam valley . The summit of the peak is 6,537 m . The nearby peaks which form the north-south massif are Suitilla 6,373 m , Chaudhara 6,510 m , and Ngalaphu 6,410 m. Rajrambha forms a wall between Lasser Yankti and Ralam Valley . It can be approached through the Uttari Balati glacier passing the Balati plateau . Dhakar or Tidang is the base camp from where one can climb the Rajrambha peak ( 6537m ) . Dhakar is near Tawaghat in Pithoragarh district as the last motorable station on the way . On the mountain peak , several alpine flowers can be found including , Iris kumaonenis , Primula macrophylla and lillium oxypetalum .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Rajrambha", "rank": 58, "score": 101160 }, { "content": "Title: Suli Top Content: Suli Top is a Himalayan mountain peak in the Pithoragarh district of the Uttarakhand state of India . It is situated over the eastern flank of Kalabaland Glacier , east of Johar Valley . The other peaks on the massif are Chiring We ( 6,559 m ) , Trigal ( 6,983 m ) , and Bamba Dhura ( 6,334 m ) , etc. . This ridge is a geographical divide between Lassar and Kalabaland valley . The first ascent to the summit was achieved in 1986 . Category : Mountains of Uttarakhand Category : Geography of Pithoragarh district", "qid": "282", "docid": "Suli_Top", "rank": 59, "score": 100717 }, { "content": "Title: Zemu Glacier Content: Zemu Glacier is the largest glacier in the Eastern Himalaya . It is about 26 km in length and is located at the base of Kangchenjunga in the Sikkim Himalaya , India . It may be one of the sources for the Teesta River . The Zemu Glacier drains the east side of Kanchenjunga , the world 's third highest mountain . The glacier is the source of water for numerous rivers , as it feeds them when it melts . One of them is the Teesta River , which has garnered large attention in the past few years because of a proposed 3500 mW hydropower plant . At the moment the Government of Sikkim has only been able to run a 510 mW plant on the river . Owing to the location of the river in an earthquake prone area , the hydropower plants will be a run of the river project . Zemu Glacier remains a less studied and monitored glacier . Studying digital imagery shows that the glacier has receded 27 meters every year between 1967-1984 . The retreat is not massive given the great length of the glacier . There is a thick layer of debris on the glacier , preventing ablation : there are , however , small lakes that have formed on the surface of these debris-covered sections of the glacier .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Zemu_Glacier", "rank": 60, "score": 100572 }, { "content": "Title: Bhilangna River Content: Bhilangna River is a Himalayan river in Uttarakhand , India , which is the major tributary of the Bhagirathi river , the source stream of the Ganges River of India . The mainstem , Bhilangna , rises at the foot of the Khatling Glacier ( elevation 3717 m ) approximately 50 km south of the ice cave at Gaumukh , traditionally considered the source of both the Bhagirathi and the Ganges and flows into the Bhagirathi at Old Tehri , the site of the Tehri dam . It meets its major tributary the Bal Ganga at Ghyansali ( elevation 976 m ) . The Bal Ganga , whose headwaters are formed at the foot of Mount Kukhli Dhar ( elevation 4600 m ) , itself has a minor tributary , the Dharam Ganga , which meets it at Thati Kathur ( also Budha Kedar ) at elevation 1524 m The Khatling trek route passes alongside the Bhilangna , starting from the last point accessible by road , Ghuttu , until the glacier , which stands at 3700 metres . If one were to go further on the trail past the glacier , one could reach Kedarnath .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Bhilangna_River", "rank": 61, "score": 100268 }, { "content": "Title: Nupchu Glacier Content: The Nupchu Glacier is located in the eastern Himalayas in Nepal . It is north of Kanchenjunga .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Nupchu_Glacier", "rank": 62, "score": 100196 }, { "content": "Title: Roopkund Content: Roopkund ( locally known as Mystery and Skeletons Lake ) is a high altitude glacial lake in the Uttarakhand state of India . It lies in the lap of Trishul massif and is famous for the hundreds of human skeletons found at the edge of the lake . The area is uninhabited , in the Himalayas at an altitude of 5,029 metres ( 16,499 feet ) . Surrounded by rock-strewn glaciers and snow-clad mountains , the lake is a popular trekking destination . A shallow lake , having a depth of about two metres , Roopkund has attracted attention because of the human skeletal remains that are visible at its bottom when the snow melts . Researchers have concluded that the skeletons are the remains of people killed in a sudden , violent hailstorm in the 9th century . Because of the human remains , the lake has been called Skeleton Lake in recent times .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Roopkund", "rank": 63, "score": 99987 }, { "content": "Title: Kafni Glacier Content: The Kafni Glacier is located in the upper reaches of the Kumaon Himalayas , to the southeast of Nanda Devi . The glacier gives rise to the Kafni River , which is a tributary of the Pindar River . The Pinder River is a tributary to Alaknanda River , which eventually is one of the two headstreams of the Ganges . This is relatively small glacier but a popular trekking destination along with Pindari Glacier .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Kafni_Glacier", "rank": 64, "score": 99901 }, { "content": "Title: Vijay Kumar Raina Content: Vijay Kumar Raina is an Indian geologist and glaciologist , and author of a controversial discussion paper from India 's Ministry of Environment and Forests regarding Himalayan glaciers . He was formerly deputy director-general of the Geological Survey of India , and led two scientific expeditions conducted by the Indian Antarctic Program .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Vijay_Kumar_Raina", "rank": 65, "score": 99806 }, { "content": "Title: Rishi Pahar Content: Rishi Pahar is a Himalayan mountain peak , located in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India . It lies at the northeast corner of the ring of peaks surrounding the Nanda Devi Sanctuary , and on the eastern rim of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve , just south of Trishuli and Hardeol . The Milam Glacier lies on its east flank . It marks the triple divide between the Milam , Dunagiri , and Uttari Rishi Ganga valleys . Rishi Pahar means ` The Peak of Saint ' in Hindi . The first ascent to the summit of Rishi Pahar was made in 1975 via the west ridge .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Rishi_Pahar", "rank": 66, "score": 99711 }, { "content": "Title: Nanda Pal Content: Nanda Pal is the Himalayan mountain peak situated in the eastern part of Uttarakhand state in Pithoragarh district , India . The altitude of the summit is 6,306 m. Nanda Pal is situated on the eastern flank of Milam Glacier on north south massif . Other nearby peaks on the ridge are Ikualari ( 6,059 m ) , Nanda Gond ( 6,315 m ) , Nital Thaur ( 6,059 m ) . Unta Dhura pass lies north to this peak . The peak was climbed in 1974 . Category : Mountains of Uttarakhand Category : Geography of Pithoragarh district Category : Six-thousanders of the Himalayas", "qid": "282", "docid": "Nanda_Pal", "rank": 67, "score": 99456 }, { "content": "Title: Namik Glacier Content: Namik Glacier is situated in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India . The glacier is situated on the Kumaon Himalayas at an altitude of 3,600 m . This glacier is the source of the Ramganga River . The glacier is surrounded by the following peaks : Nanda Devi 7848 m , Nanda Kot 6861 m , and Trishuli 7120 m . The glacier falls on ancient Indo-Tibet trade route . It is 23 km trekking from Liti and situated at the villages of Gogina and Namik . There are a number of waterfalls and sulphur springs originating around this glacier . The glacier can be reached by trekking from gogina on the sama liti Road near . It is 63 km from Bageshwar . Jeeps can be hired from Bageshwar or Kapkot up to Gogina . ` Namik ' means a place where saline water springs are present .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Namik_Glacier", "rank": 68, "score": 99447 }, { "content": "Title: Arwa Group Content: The Arwa Group is a set of three Himalayan peaks , named Arwa Tower , Arwa Crest , and Arwa Spire , situated in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state , in northern India . They are situated on the south side of the southwest branch of the Arwa Valley , south of the dry lake Arwa Tal , and northwest of Badrinath . To their south lies the Bhagirath Kharak Glacier . Lying near the border with Tibet , these peaks have restricted access , and they have not been frequented by climbers until recently . However their steep , rocky profiles offer an extreme challenge to high-level rock climbers . The three peaks lie close together and share a base camp . Reaching the base camp in the Arwa Valley , at an elevation of 4,350 m ( 14,270 ft ) , requires a three-day trek from Badrinath . All these peaks are on the Arwa-Bagneu divide and can also be approached from the south .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Arwa_Group", "rank": 69, "score": 99210 }, { "content": "Title: Pine Island Glacier Content: Pine Island Glacier ( PIG ) is a large ice stream glacier , and the fastest melting glacier in Antarctica , responsible for about 25 % of Antarctica 's ice loss . The glacier ice streams flow west-northwest along the south side of the Hudson Mountains into Pine Island Bay , Amundsen Sea , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from surveys and United States Navy ( USN ) air photos , 1960 -- 66 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) in association with Pine Island Bay . The area drained by Pine Island Glacier comprises about 10 % of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . Satellite measurements have shown that the Pine Island Glacier Basin has a greater net contribution of ice to the sea than any other ice drainage basin in the world and this has increased due to recent acceleration of the ice stream . The ice stream is extremely remote , with the nearest continually occupied research station at Rothera , nearly 1300 km away . The area is not claimed by any nations and the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any new claims while it is in force .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Pine_Island_Glacier", "rank": 70, "score": 99210 }, { "content": "Title: Lillian Glacier Content: Lillian Glacier was located in the Olympic Mountains in Olympic National Park in the U.S. state of Washington . The remnants of the glacier are in a cirque below McCartney Peak . Between 1905 and 2010 , Lillian Glacier apparently melted away .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Lillian_Glacier", "rank": 71, "score": 99108 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Mount Everest ice avalanche Content: On 18 April 2014 , seracs on the western spur of Mount Everest failed , resulting in an ice avalanche that killed sixteen Nepalese guides in the Khumbu Icefall . This was the same icefall where the earlier 1970 Mount Everest disaster took place . Thirteen bodies were recovered within two days , while the remaining three were never recovered due to the great danger of performing such an expedition . Some Sherpa guides were angered by what they saw as the Nepalese government 's meager offer of compensation to victims ' families , and threatened a protest or strike . On 22 April , the Sherpas announced they would not work on Everest for the remainder of 2014 as a mark of respect for the victims .", "qid": "282", "docid": "2014_Mount_Everest_ice_avalanche", "rank": 72, "score": 98501 }, { "content": "Title: Chewang Norphel Content: Chewang Norphel ( born 1935 ) is an Indian civil engineer from Ladakh , who has built 15 artificial glaciers . He has earned the nickname Ice Man .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Chewang_Norphel", "rank": 73, "score": 98227 }, { "content": "Title: Heinrich event Content: A Heinrich event is a natural phenomenon in which large armadas of icebergs break off from glaciers and traverse the North Atlantic . First described by marine geologist Hartmut Heinrich ( Heinrich , H. , 1988 ) , they occurred during five of the last seven glacial periods or `` ice ages '' over the past 640,000 years ( Hodell , et al. , 2008 ) . Heinrich events are particularly well documented for the last glacial period but notably absent from the penultimate glaciation ( Obrochta et al. , 2014 ) . The icebergs contained rock mass , which has been eroded by the glaciers , and as they melted , this matter was dropped onto the sea floor as ice rafted debris ( abbreviated to `` IRD '' ) . The icebergs ' melting caused extensive amounts of fresh water to be added to the North Atlantic . Such inputs of cold and fresh water may well have altered the density-driven , thermohaline circulation patterns of the ocean , and often coincide with indications of global climate fluctuations . Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain the cause of Heinrich events , most of which imply instability of the massive Laurentide ice sheet , a continental glacier covering North America during the last glacial period . Other northern hemisphere ice sheets were potentially involved as well ( Scandinavia , Iceland , Greenland ) . However , the initial cause of this instability is still debated .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Heinrich_event", "rank": 74, "score": 97875 }, { "content": "Title: Kalabaland Glacier Content: Kalabaland Glacier of Himalaya is situated in the eastern Kumaun of the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state of India . Kalabaland is situated to the north of the Milam Valley and to the west of the Darma valley . This glacier is aligned at northwest to southeast direction and lies above the Yankcharand Sankalp glaciers . This glacier is rare in the fact that it joins with the Yankchar Glacier to form the Sankalp Glacier . It is a massive mixed glacial system of Kalabaland-Burfu and Kalganga glaciers . The length of the glacier is 15 km . A number of peaks surrounding the Kalabaland Glacier are Bamba Dhura 6,334 m , Chiring We 6,559 m , Suli Top 6,300 m , Trigal 5,983 m , Burphu Dhura 6,144 m , Suitilla 6,373 m and Kalabaland Dhura 6,105 m. Kalabaland Glacier is nestled by the horseshoe-shaped Himalayan massif separating Goriganga and Lassar Yankti valleys , and it lies a little to the east of the Milam Glacier . The Ralam Gad River originates from the Kalabaland , Yangchar and Sankalp glaciers .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Kalabaland_Glacier", "rank": 75, "score": 97822 }, { "content": "Title: Nilkantha (mountain) Content: Nilkantha ( or Neelakant , Neelkanth , Nilkanth , Nilkanta ) is a major peak of the Garhwal division of the Himalayas , in the Uttarakhand region of the Indian state of Uttarakhand . Although substantially lower than the highest peaks of the region , it towers dramatically over the valley of the Alaknanda River and rises 3474 m above the Hindu pilgrimage site of Badrinath , only 9 km to the east . Frank Smythe described the peak as `` second only to Siniolchu in Himalayan beauty . '' The Satopanth Glacier lies on the northwest side of Nilkantha , below a 2500 m face of the peak . The Panpatia Glacier lies to the southwest , and feeds the Khirao Ganga , a stream running under the south side of the peak . Further away , to the west of the peak , lies the well-known Gangotri Glacier and its associated peaks . Across the Alaknanda valley lie the Kamet and Nanda Devi groups .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Nilkantha_(mountain)", "rank": 76, "score": 97722 }, { "content": "Title: Sangemarmar Sar Content: Sangemarmar-togetherness Sangemarmar Sar ( or Sangemar Mar , Sang-e-Marmar , Sangemarmur ) is a pyramidal peak in the Batura Muztagh , at the end of a spur ridge running southwest from Pasu Sar in Pakistan . It lies between the Muchuhar Glacier , on the west , and the Shispare ( or Hasanabad ) Glacier on the east . Because it is much lower in elevation than many of the surrounding peaks , such as Batura Sar and Rakaposhi , Sangemarmar Sar is little-known , and there has been only one successful ascent of the peak , according to the Himalayan Index . However , because of its location on the southern flank of the main crest of the range , relatively near the Hunza Valley , it does enjoy tremendous vertical relief above local terrain . For example , its summit rises over 5000 m above the Hunza River , in a horizontal distance of 15 km . The mountain was named ( as `` Sangemarmur '' , meaning `` marble '' , after a conspicuous band of yellow marble crossing the summit ) in 1964 by the First Canadian Himalayan Expedition , comprising Fred Roots ( leader ) , Donald Lyon , John Ricker , Lisle Irwin , Donald Poole , Hermann Jamek , Momin Khalifa and Karl Tomm . They intended to locate and climb Hachindar Chhish , which they determined to be a peak a few kilometers to the west of Sangemarmar Sar ; however that peak proved too difficult and technical for the party to attempt . The expedition reached 6300 m but was then forced to retreat by repeated heavy snowstorms . On July 11 , 1984 , a team from Osaka University made the first ascent of the mountain via the southwest ridge . The expedition comprised Takashi Matsuo ( leader ) , Hiromi Okuyama , Takehiro Hirota , Tokio Kozuki , Masaya Oishi , Toru Sakakibara , Kenya Sato , Shinichi Miyata , Tomoyoshi Mizukawa , Hiroyuki Onishi , and Akira Noguchi . All members reached the summit , on two separate days . They encountered ice up to 50 degrees . They used three high camps , and fixed 3000 m of rope .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Sangemarmar_Sar", "rank": 77, "score": 97523 }, { "content": "Title: H. P. S. Ahluwalia Content: Major Hari Pal Singh Ahluwalia ( ਹਰਿ ਪਾਲ ਸਿ ਘ ਆਹਲੂਵਾਲੀਆ born 6 November 1936 ) is an Indian mountaineer . During his career of 45 years , he has made contributions in the fields of adventure , sports , environment , disability and social work . Following his advanced training at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute , Darjeeling , he climbed extensively in Sikkim , Nepal and later he climbed Mount Everest on 29 May 1965 . During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 , he suffered a bullet injury which resulted in his confinement to a wheelchair ... Presently , he is the Chairman of Indian Spinal Injuries Centre.He has written thirteen books which includes his autobiography Higher than Everest , which ran into several editions and languages . Eternal Himalaya , Ladakh-The Hermit Kingdom , Climbing Everest , Faces of Everest , Himalaya , Everest , where Snow Never Melts , Nubra-A Forbidden Valley and the book titled Tracing Marco Polo 's Journey of the Silk Route was recently released . He has also produced an award-winning serial , Beyond Himalaya , which has been telecast all over the world on Discovery and National Geographic channels . He is the first Indian to climb Mount Everest . He also served as an IOFS officer .", "qid": "282", "docid": "H._P._S._Ahluwalia", "rank": 78, "score": 97412 }, { "content": "Title: Chaudhara Content: Chaudhara is a Himalayan mountain peak , situated in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India . The altitude of the peak is 6,510 m . The peak lies to the south of Ralam pass and north west of Panchchuli . The peak is so named due to the peak having four corners . The peak was climbed for the first time by an Indian team led by A.R.Chandekar and Sherpa Ajeeba in 1973 . Rajrambha is its neighbouring peak . Chaudhara is situated at the south east end of Kalabaland Glacier-Sankalp Glacier-Yangchar Glacier group . Chaudhara is the part of Himalayan massif between Ralam and Lassar valley . The most popular route to the summit is via the west face .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Chaudhara", "rank": 79, "score": 97383 }, { "content": "Title: Névé Content: Névé -LSB- neɪˈveɪ -RSB- is a young , granular type of snow which has been partially melted , refrozen and compacted , yet precedes the form of ice . This type of snow is associated with glacier formation through the process of nivation . Névé that survives a full season of ablation turns into firn , which is both older and slightly denser . Firn eventually becomes glacial ice -- the long-lived , compacted ice that glaciers are composed of . Glacier formation can take days to years depending on freeze-thaw factors . Névé is annually observed in skiing slopes , and is generally disliked as an icy falling zone . Névé has a minimum density of 500 kg/m ³ , which is roughly half of the density of liquid water at 1 atm . Névé can also refer to the alpine region in which snowfall accumulates , becomes névé , and feeds a glacier .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Névé", "rank": 80, "score": 97290 }, { "content": "Title: Sarpo Laggo Glacier Content: The Sarpo Laggo Glacier ( Sarpo Laggo : young husband ) is a glacier in the autonomous region Xinjiang of China , in the Karakoram mountain range of the Himalayas . It lies north of the Baltoro Muztagh range . It could be reached from the Baltoro glacier on the Pakistani side of the Karakorams via the Old Muztagh Pass northeast of the Trango Towers . It is however easier to approach the glacier from the Chinese side , starting a long hike at Kashgar on the Karakoram Highway and finally passing K2 's northern base camp . The Glacier is named after Francis Younghusband , who was the first person to pass the Old Mustagh Pass and thus enter the Sarpo Laggo region . There is another glacier not far away , also named after him : Younghusband glacier ( also known as Biango glacier ) flows from Muztagh Tower towards the Baltoro Glacier .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Sarpo_Laggo_Glacier", "rank": 81, "score": 97217 }, { "content": "Title: Khangchendzonga National Park Content: Khangchendzonga National Park ( previously named Kanchenjunga National Park ) also Kanchenjunga Biosphere Reserve is a National Park and a Biosphere reserve located in Sikkim , India . It was inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list on July 17 , 2016 , becoming the first `` Mixed Heritage '' site of India . The park gets its name from the mountain Kanchenjunga ( alternative spelling Khangchendzonga ) which is 8586 m tall , the third-highest peak in the world . The total area of this park is 849.5 km2 . There are many glaciers in the park including the Zemu glacier . Animals like musk deer , snow leopard , Clouded Leopard , and Himalayan tahr all make their home in this park .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Khangchendzonga_National_Park", "rank": 82, "score": 96778 }, { "content": "Title: Khumbu Glacier Content: The Khumbu Glacier is located in the Khumbu region of northeastern Nepal between Mount Everest and the Lhotse-Nuptse ridge . With elevations of 4900 m at its terminus to 7600 m at its source , it is the world 's highest glacier . The Khumbu Glacier is followed for the final part of the trail to one of the Everest Base Camps . The start of the glacier is in the Western Cwm near Everest . The glacier has a large icefall , the Khumbu Icefall , at the west end of the lower Western Cwm . This icefall is the first major obstacle -- and among the more dangerous -- on the standard south col route to the Everest summit . It is also the largest Glacier of Nepal . The end of Khumbu Glacier is located at 27.932 N and 86.805 E.", "qid": "282", "docid": "Khumbu_Glacier", "rank": 83, "score": 96771 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 84, "score": 96694 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 85, "score": 96641 }, { "content": "Title: Bistra Glacier Content: Bistra Glacier ( ледник Бистра , ` Lednik Bistra ' \\ ` led-nik ` bis-tra \\ ) is the 1.75 km long and 750 m wide glacier on the northwest side of Imeon Range on Smith Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica . It is situated southwest of Chuprene Glacier and northwest of Dragoman Glacier , drains the west slopes of Mount Foster and the north slopes of Slaveykov Peak , and flows northwestwards of Zavet Saddle to enter Drake Passage south of Garmen Point . The glacier is named after the settlements of Bistra in northeastern Bulgaria .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Bistra_Glacier", "rank": 86, "score": 96526 }, { "content": "Title: Nanda Gond Content: Nanda Gond is the Himalayan mountain peak situated in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state of India . It is located in the Milam valley on the east of Milam Glacier . The altitude of the summit is 6315 m. Ikualari ( 6,059 m ) , Nanda Pal ( 6,306 m ) , Nital Thaur ( 6,236 m ) , are its neighbouring peaks . Unta Dhura Pass is located north to it . Category : Mountains of Uttarakhand Category : Geography of Pithoragarh district Category : Six-thousanders of the Himalayas", "qid": "282", "docid": "Nanda_Gond", "rank": 87, "score": 96158 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers Content: A glacier ( -LSB- ˈɡleɪʃər -RSB- ) or ( -LSB- ˈɡlæsiə -RSB- ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight ; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation ( melting and sublimation ) over many years , often centuries . Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight , creating crevasses , seracs , and other distinguishing features . Because glacial mass is affected by long-term climate changes , e.g. , precipitation , mean temperature , and cloud cover , glacial mass changes are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change .", "qid": "282", "docid": "List_of_glaciers", "rank": 88, "score": 96150 }, { "content": "Title: Himalayan snowcock Content: The Himalayan snowcock ( Tetraogallus himalayensis ) is a snowcock in the pheasant family Phasianidae found across the Himalayan ranges and parts of the adjoining Pamir range of Asia . It is found on alpine pastures and on steep rocky cliffs where they will dive down the hill slopes to escape . It overlaps with the slightly smaller Tibetan snowcock in parts of its wide range . The populations from different areas show variations in the colouration and about five subspecies have been designated . They were introduced in the mountains of Nevada in the United States in the 1960s and a wild population has established in the Ruby Mountains .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Himalayan_snowcock", "rank": 89, "score": 96136 }, { "content": "Title: Bamba Dhura Content: Bamba Dhura is a Himalayan mountain peak situated in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand , India . With a summit altitude of 6334 m , Bamba Dhura is situated on the north west ridge over the end of the Kalabaland Glacier in the eastern part of the district , left of the Milam Glacier . Kalabaland Dhura ( 6,105 m ) is situated to the west of this peak and Chiring We ( 6,559 m ) is on the same massif . Bamba Dhura massif is the part of divide between Kalabaland and Lassar valley . This peak was first climbed to the summit in 1977 from south by col between Bamba Dhura and Chiring We . The peak has since been climbed through the southeastern and western ridges between the two peaks .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Bamba_Dhura", "rank": 90, "score": 96101 }, { "content": "Title: Glacier mass balance Content: Crucial to the survival of a glacier is its mass balance or surface mass balance ( SMB ) , the difference between accumulation and ablation ( sublimation and melting ) . Climate change may cause variations in both temperature and snowfall , causing changes in the surface mass balance . Changes in mass balance control a glacier 's long-term behavior and are the most sensitive climate indicators on a glacier . From 1980 -- 2012 the mean cumulative mass loss of glaciers reporting mass balance to the World Glacier Monitoring Service is − 16 m . This includes 23 consecutive years of negative mass balances . A glacier with a sustained negative balance is out of equilibrium and will retreat , while one with a sustained positive balance is out of equilibrium and will advance . Glacier retreat results in the loss of the low elevation region of the glacier . Since higher elevations are cooler than lower ones , the disappearance of the lowest portion of the glacier reduces overall ablation , thereby increasing mass balance and potentially reestablishing equilibrium . However , if the mass balance of a significant portion of the accumulation zone of the glacier is negative , it is in disequilibrium with the local climate . Such a glacier will melt away with a continuation of this local climate . The key symptom of a glacier in disequilibrium is thinning along the entire length of the glacier . For example , Easton Glacier ( pictured below ) will likely shrink to half its size , but at a slowing rate of reduction , and stabilize at that size , despite the warmer temperature , over a few decades . However , the Grinnell Glacier ( pictured below ) will shrink at an increasing rate until it disappears . The difference is that the upper section of Easton Glacier remains healthy and snow-covered , while even the upper section of the Grinnell Glacier is bare , melting and has thinned . Small glaciers with shallow slopes such as Grinnell Glacier are most likely to fall into disequilibrium if there is a change in the local climate . In the case of positive mass balance , the glacier will continue to advance expanding its low elevation area , resulting in more melting . If this still does not create an equilibrium balance the glacier will continue to advance . If a glacier is near a large body of water , especially an ocean , the glacier may advance until iceberg calving losses bring about equilibrium .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Glacier_mass_balance", "rank": 91, "score": 96054 }, { "content": "Title: Übergossene Alm Content: The Übergossene Alm is the name of the summit region of the Hochkönig ( 2,941 m ) in the Berchtesgaden Alps . It contains the remains of a glacier that used to cover almost the entire summit plateau ; in 1888 around 5.5 km ² of the plateau was covered by an ice sheet . Since then the glacial surface has melted until it now covers just 1.5 km ² and the glacier has split into three , small crevasse-free areas . The name of the glacier goes back to a local legend .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Übergossene_Alm", "rank": 92, "score": 96002 }, { "content": "Title: Ama Dablam Content: Ama Dablam is a mountain in the Himalaya range of eastern Nepal . The main peak is 6812 m , the lower western peak is 6170 m. Ama Dablam means `` Mother 's necklace '' ; the long ridges on each side like the arms of a mother ( ama ) protecting her child , and the hanging glacier thought of as the dablam , the traditional double-pendant containing pictures of the gods , worn by Sherpa women . For several days , Ama Dablam dominates the eastern sky for anyone trekking to Mount Everest basecamp . Ama Dablam was first climbed on 13 March 1961 by Mike Gill ( NZ ) , Barry Bishop ( USA ) , Mike Ward ( UK ) and Wally Romanes ( NZ ) via the Southwest Ridge . They were well-acclimatised to altitude , having wintered over at 5800 metres near the base of the peak as part of the Silver Hut Scientific Expedition of 1960-61 , led by Sir Edmund Hillary . Ama Dablam is the third most popular Himalayan peak for permitted expeditions . The most popular route by far is the Southwest Ridge ( right skyline in the photo ) . Climbers typically set up three camps along the ridge with camp 3 just below and to the right of the hanging glacier , the Dablam . Any ice that calves off the glacier typically goes left , away from the camp . However , a 2006 avalanche proved that this is not always the case . A climbing permit and a liaison officer are required when attempting Ama Dablam . As with Mt. Everest , the best climbing months are April -- May ( before the monsoon ) and September -- October .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Ama_Dablam", "rank": 93, "score": 95757 }, { "content": "Title: Anderson Glacier Content: Anderson Glacier was a glacier located in a cirque south of Mount Anderson in the Olympic Mountains and Olympic National Park . The southward-facing glacier starts on the steep headwalls of the cirque at about 6200 ft to 6000 ft. It flows down to about 5240 ft before terminating . Meltwater from the glacier enters a lake at about 4949 ft before tumbling down a steep cliff . Between 1927 and 2009 , Anderson Glacier lost more than 90 percent of its surface area . By 2011 , the glacier was gone . The lack of glacial meltwater from the Anderson Glacier has caused the Quinault River to reach new recorded lows .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Anderson_Glacier", "rank": 94, "score": 95746 }, { "content": "Title: King Oscar Glacier Content: King Oscar Glacier ( Kong Oscar Gletscher ) is one of several glaciers that drain the north-western part of the Greenland Ice Sheet into Melville Bay . As part of a comprehensive survey of Greenland 's glaciers that was published in 2006 , scientists documented that the mass balance -- the sum of gains through snow accumulation and losses through iceberg calving and melting -- of Kong Oscar and Greenland 's other north-western glaciers was strongly negative between 1996 and 2005 : they lost more ice than they gained . The pattern was similar to the ice sheet as a whole , which has been losing ice mass at an accelerating pace in the past decade .", "qid": "282", "docid": "King_Oscar_Glacier", "rank": 95, "score": 95600 }, { "content": "Title: Dakshin Gangotri Glacier Content: The Dakshin Gangotri Glacier is a small tongue of the polar continental ice sheet impinging on the Schirmacher Oasis of central Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was discovered by the Second Indian Expedition to Antarctica in 1983 , and named for India 's first Antarctic research station . Since then its snout , and the area around it , has been regularly monitored and it has become a valuable site for tracking the impact of global warming through changes in the movement of the Antarctic ice sheet . The site is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area ( ASPA ) No. 163 .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Dakshin_Gangotri_Glacier", "rank": 96, "score": 95122 }, { "content": "Title: Hunku Glacier Content: The Hunku Glacier is located in the Khumbu of eastern Nepal and forms the southern base of Baruntse ( 7,220 m ) .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Hunku_Glacier", "rank": 97, "score": 94908 }, { "content": "Title: Khilanmarg Content: Khilanmarg , Jammu & Kashmir , India is a small valley about a 6-km walk from the Gulmarg bus stop and car park . The meadow , carpeted with flowers in the spring , is the site for Gulmarg 's winter ski runs and offers a fine view of the surrounding peaks and over the Kashmir Valley . It 's a 600-metre ascent from Gulmarg to Khilanmarg and during the early spring , as the snow melts , it can be a very muddy hour 's climb up the hill . The effort is rewarded , if it 's clear , with a sweeping view of the great Himalayas from Nanga Parbat to the twin 7,100-metre peaks of Nun and Kun to the southeast .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Khilanmarg", "rank": 98, "score": 94875 }, { "content": "Title: Geology of the Himalaya Content: The geology of the Himalaya is a record of the most dramatic and visible creations of modern plate tectonic forces . The Himalayas , which stretch over 2400 km between the Namche Barwa syntaxis in Tibet and the Nanga Parbat syntaxis in India , are the result of an ongoing orogeny -- the result of a collision between two continental tectonic plates . This immense mountain range was formed by tectonic forces and sculpted by weathering and erosion . The Himalaya-Tibet region supplies fresh water for more than one-fifth of the world population , and accounts for a quarter of the global sedimentary budget . Topographically , the belt has many superlatives : the highest rate of uplift ( nearly 10 mm/year at Nanga Parbat ) , the highest relief ( 8848 m at Mt. Everest Chomolangma ) , among the highest erosion rates at 2 -- 12 mm/yr , the source of some of the greatest rivers and the highest concentration of glaciers outside of the polar regions . This last feature earned the Himalaya its name , originating from the Sanskrit for `` the abode of the snow '' .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Geology_of_the_Himalaya", "rank": 99, "score": 94792 }, { "content": "Title: Melt pond Content: Melt ponds are pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer . The ponds are also found on glacial ice and ice shelves . Ponds of melted water can also develop under the ice . Melt ponds are usually darker than the surrounding ice , and their distribution and size is highly variable . They absorb solar radiation rather than reflecting it as ice does and , thereby , have a significant influence on Earth 's radiation balance . This differential , which had not been scientifically investigated until recently , has a large effect on the rate of ice melting and the extent of ice cover . Melt ponds can melt through to the ocean 's surface . Seawater entering the pond increases the melt rate because the salty water of the ocean is warmer than the fresh water of the pond . The increase in salinity also depresses the water 's freezing point . Water from melt ponds over land surface can run into crevasses or moulins -- tubes leading under ice sheets or glaciers -- turning into meltwater . The water may reach the underlying rock . The effect is an increase in the rate of ice flow to the oceans , as the fluid behaves like a lubricant in the basal sliding of glaciers .", "qid": "282", "docid": "Melt_pond", "rank": 100, "score": 94570 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "284", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 1, "score": 167658 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "284", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 2, "score": 153976 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 3, "score": 150250 }, { "content": "Title: Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Content: Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "qid": "284", "docid": "Surveys_of_scientists'_views_on_climate_change", "rank": 4, "score": 144496 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 5, "score": 143871 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 6, "score": 138670 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 7, "score": 137569 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Global Warming Swindle Content: The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King . The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols . The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . '' Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .", "qid": "284", "docid": "The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle", "rank": 8, "score": 132707 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 9, "score": 131339 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 10, "score": 129012 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming conspiracy theory Content: A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus . Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_warming_conspiracy_theory", "rank": 11, "score": 125611 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Doran Content: Peter Doran , Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University . Doran specializes in polar regions , especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems . Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal Nature in January 2002 . Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000 , his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the global warming theory , such as Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton . In an opinion piece in the July 27 , 2006 New York Times , Doran characterized this as a `` misinterpretation '' and stated , `` I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming . '' ( The temporary phenomenon is related to the `` hole '' in the ozone . As the `` hole heals '' the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly . ) Doran and his grad student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also published a paper in the Jan 27 , 2009 issue of EOS showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth 's climate . Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Peter_Doran", "rank": 12, "score": 122223 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 13, "score": 121276 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "284", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 14, "score": 120251 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "284", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 15, "score": 120025 }, { "content": "Title: Christopher C. Horner Content: Christopher C. Horner is an attorney in Washington , D.C. and a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who opposes the mainstream view of climate change and has been prominent in promoting climate change denial . He is the author of three books disputing the scientific evidence for man-made global warming . Horner had a financial relationship with coal companies who provided him with funds . Horner has been criticized for hounding climate scientists with frivolous requests for documentation and emails .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Christopher_C._Horner", "rank": 16, "score": 118432 }, { "content": "Title: Journal for Geoclimatic Studies Content: The Journal for Geoclimatic Studies is the name given to a nonexistent journal which published a fabricated global warming study in November 2007 entitled , `` Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria : the death of manmade global warming theory ? '' The published study identified the Journal for Geoclimatic Studies as an official publication of Okinawa University 's Institute for Geoclimatic Studies ( The Institute for Geoclimatic Studies is also fraudulent and does not exist ) . The spurious study , ostensibly authored by Daniel Klein and Mandeep J. Gupta of the University of Arizona 's Department of Climatology , and Philip Cooper and Arne FR Jansson at the University of Gothenburg 's Department of Atmospheric Physics , claimed that global warming was not human caused , but the work of carbon-dioxide emitting bacteria based on the ocean floor . The report was circulated by a number of global warming skeptics before discovery that the study authors and university departments identified in the publication did not exist . The website where the study was published was taken down once the deception was revealed , and its ownership was traced to David Thorpe , a science journalist and web designer based in the United Kingdom . The true author of the article is purportedly a man identifying himself as Mark Cox , who has claimed the hoax was designed to expose the gullibility and scientific illiteracy of global warming skeptics .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Journal_for_Geoclimatic_Studies", "rank": 17, "score": 117613 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming: The Signs and The Science Content: Global Warming : The Signs and The Science is a 2005 documentary film on global warming made by ETV , the PBS affiliate in South Carolina , and hosted by Alanis Morissette . The documentary examines the science behind global warming and pulls together segments filmed in the United States , Asia and South America and shows how people in these different locales are responding in different ways to the challenges of global warming to show some of the ways that the world can respond .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_Warming:_The_Signs_and_The_Science", "rank": 18, "score": 117183 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 19, "score": 116752 }, { "content": "Title: Myron Ebell Content: Myron Ebell is Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute ( CEI ) , a libertarian advocacy group based in Washington , D.C. . He is also the chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition , a loose coalition formed in 1997 which presents itself as `` focused on dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic , scientific , and risk analysis '' . In these organizations , Ebell has been central in promoting climate change denial , distributing his views to the media and politicians . Ebell , who is not a scientist , has been described as a climate change skeptic , a climate contrarian and a climate change denier . In September 2016 , Ebell was appointed by then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead his transition team for the United States Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Myron_Ebell", "rank": 20, "score": 116551 }, { "content": "Title: The Discovery of Global Warming Content: The Discovery of Global Warming is a book by the physicist and historian Spencer R. Weart published in 2003 ; revised and updated edition , 2008 . It traces the history of scientific discoveries that led to the current scientific opinion on climate change . It has been translated into Spanish , Japanese , Italian , Arabic , Chinese and Korean .", "qid": "284", "docid": "The_Discovery_of_Global_Warming", "rank": 21, "score": 115812 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "284", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 22, "score": 115306 }, { "content": "Title: I'm not a scientist Content: `` I 'm not a scientist '' is a phrase that has been often used by American politicians , primarily Republicans , when asked about a scientific subject , such as global warming , or the age of the earth . Politicians who have used the phrase include John Boehner , Rick Scott , Marco Rubio , Bobby Jindal , and Mitch McConnell . It has been criticized by Coral Davenport writing for The New York Times , and by Steven Benen of the Rachel Maddow Show , and was satirized by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report . President Barack Obama singled the phrase out in his 2015 State of the Union speech , saying : I 've heard some folks try to dodge the evidence -LSB- of global climate change -RSB- by saying they 're not scientists ; that we do n't have enough information to act . Well , I 'm not a scientist , either . But you know what , I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA , and at NOAA , and at our major universities . And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate , and if we do n't act forcefully , we 'll continue to see rising oceans , longer , hotter heat waves , dangerous droughts and floods , and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe . Ford O'Connell , a Republican strategist and conservative activist , has argued that the phrase `` wo n't be a winner in the presidential field '' for Republican candidates . Commenting on the phenomenon , Journalist Dan Rather deplored the antiscience attitude it evinces , but stated that the anti-science attitude was evident not just among Republicans , but throughout American society . He blamed the media for their poor coverage of science , and for presenting a false equivalency between scientific consensus and climate change denial .", "qid": "284", "docid": "I'm_not_a_scientist", "rank": 23, "score": 114968 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 24, "score": 113306 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in popular culture Content: The issue of climate change and global warming , their possible effects , and related human-environment interaction have entered popular culture since the late 20th century . Science historian Naomi Oreskes has noted , `` There 's a huge disconnect between what professional scientists have studied and learned in the last 30 years , and what is out there in the popular culture . '' An academic study contrasts the relatively rapid acceptance of ozone depletion as reflected in popular culture with the much slower acceptance of the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_change_in_popular_culture", "rank": 25, "score": 113193 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 26, "score": 112364 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom Climate Change Programme Content: The United Kingdom 's Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) . The 2000 programme was updated in March 2006 following a review launched in September 2004 . In 2008 , the UK was the world 's 9th greatest producer of man-made carbon emissions , producing around 1.8 % of the global total generated from fossil fuels .", "qid": "284", "docid": "United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 27, "score": 111809 }, { "content": "Title: Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow Content: The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow ( CFACT ) is a Washington , D.C.-based 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit organization founded in 1985 that advocates for free-market solutions to environmental issues , but has increasingly turned to climate denial . For example , CFACT co-founder Craig Rucker stated that mankind faces a threat `` not from man-made global warming , but from man-made hysteria . '' At the 29 April 2017 Climate March , leaflets distributed by CFACT claimed the scientific consensus that mankind is now driving global changes in the planet 's climate are `` bogus '' , that reports of record-setting temperatures are `` the hottest lie '' being told , and `` CO2 is not the ` control knob ' of the climate '' .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Committee_for_a_Constructive_Tomorrow", "rank": 28, "score": 111542 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 29, "score": 110818 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change opinion by country Content: Climate change opinion is the aggregate of public opinion held by the adult population . Cost constraints often restrict surveys to sample only one or two countries from each continent or focus on only one region . Because of differences among questions , wording , and methods -- it is difficult to reliably compare results or to generalize them to opinions held worldwide . In 2007 -- 2008 , the Gallup Poll surveyed individuals from 128 countries in the first comprehensive study of global opinions . The Gallup Organization aggregated opinion from the adult population fifteen years of age and older , either through the telephone or personal interviews , and in both rural and urban areas except in areas where the safety of interviewer was threatened and in scarcely populated islands . Personal interviews were stratified by population size or geography and cluster sampling was achieved through one or more stages . Although error bounds vary , they were all below ± 6 % with 95 % confidence . Weighting countries to a 2008 World Bank population estimate , sixty-one percent of individuals worldwide were aware of global warming , developed countries more aware than developing , with Africa the least aware . The median of people perceiving it as a threat was 47 % . Latin America and developed countries in Asia led the belief that climate change was a result of human activities , while Africa , parts of Asia and the Middle East , and countries from the Former Soviet Union led in the opposite . Awareness often translates to concern , although of those aware , individuals in Europe and developed countries in Asia perceived global warming as a greater threat than others .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_change_opinion_by_country", "rank": 30, "score": 110609 }, { "content": "Title: Ross McKitrick Content: Ross McKitrick is a Canadian economist specializing in environmental economics and policy analysis . He is a professor of economics at the University of Guelph , and a senior fellow of the Fraser Institute . He is a member of the academic advisory boards of the John Deutsch Institute , the Global Warming Policy Foundation , and the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation . He has authored works about climate change issues , including co-authoring the book Taken By Storm : The Troubled Science , Policy and Politics of Global Warming in 2003 . McKitrick produced a series of videos and articles for the Friends of Science in which he argued that there is a `` pause '' in global warming that reveals flaws in current climate change models . The Friends of Science argue that the sun -- not human emissions of GHG -- is the main driver of climate change .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Ross_McKitrick", "rank": 31, "score": 108398 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Balling Content: Robert C. Balling , Jr. is a professor of geography at Arizona State University , and the former director of its Office of Climatology . His research interests include climatology , global climate change , and geographic information systems . Balling has declared himself one of the scientists who oppose the consensus on global warming , arguing in a 2009 book that anthropogenic global warming `` is indeed real , but relatively modest '' , and maintaining that there is a publication bias in the scientific literature .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Robert_Balling", "rank": 32, "score": 108304 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 33, "score": 107724 }, { "content": "Title: False balance Content: False balance is a real or perceived media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports . Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the actual evidence for each side , or may omit information that would establish one side 's claims as baseless . Examples of false balance in reporting on science issues include the topics of man-made versus natural climate change , the alleged relation between thimerosal and autism and evolution versus intelligent design . An example of false balance is the `` debate '' on global warming ; although the scientific community almost unanimously attributes global warming to the effects of the industrial revolution , there is a very small number , a few dozen scientists out of tens of thousands of scientists , who dispute the conclusion . Giving equal voice to scientists on both sides makes it seem like there is a serious disagreement within the scientific community , when in fact there is an overwhelming scientific consensus that anthropogenic global warming exists . False balance can sometimes originate from similar motives as sensationalism , where producers and editors may feel that a story portrayed as a contentious debate will be more commercially successful than a more accurate account of the issue . However , unlike most other media biases , false balance may stem from an attempt to avoid bias ; producers and editors may confuse treating competing views fairly -- i.e. , in proportion to their actual merits and significance -- with treating them equally , giving them equal time to present their views even when those views may be known beforehand to be based on false information .", "qid": "284", "docid": "False_balance", "rank": 34, "score": 107693 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "284", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 35, "score": 107529 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Report Content: World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels , was produced by the Greening Earth Society , a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association . Early editions were paper based ; it was then transferred to a web-only format , having ceased publication as a physically based report with Volume 8 in 2002 . It continues to exist in blog form at www.worldclimatereport.com , although the website itself has not been updated since late 2012 . World Climate Report presents a scientific skeptical view of populist anthropogenic-driven mass global climate change , or as it describes , ` Global Warming Alarmism ' . However , it does not reject the concepts of global climate change or greenhouse theory ( or other well-established and widely accepted scientific theories or empirical studies ) , in general attempting to engender itself as giving a well balanced and scientific view of the sources ( though often at a contrary expense of its perceived adversaries : the aforementioned alleged ` Global Warming Alarmists ' ) . WCR says of itself : World Climate Report , a concise , hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press . As the nation 's leading publication in this realm , World Climate Report is exhaustively researched , impeccably referenced , and always timely . This popular biweekly newsletter points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as `` proof '' of disastrous warming . It 's the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty , such as the Kyoto Protocol , which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States ... World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what nature now calls the `` mainstream skeptic '' point of view . . In addition to Patrick Michaels ( chief editor ) , the staff is listed as Robert C. Balling , Jr ( contributing editor ) , Robert Davis ( contributing editor ) , and Paul Knappenberger ( Administrator ) . New Hope Environmental Services , an advocacy science consulting firm , claims WCR as its biweekly newsletter .", "qid": "284", "docid": "World_Climate_Report", "rank": 36, "score": 107397 }, { "content": "Title: World Scientists' Warning to Humanity Content: In late 1992 , the late Henry W. Kendall , a former chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) board of directors , wrote `` World Scientists ' Warning to Humanity '' , which begins : `` Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course . '' A majority of the Nobel Prize laureates in the sciences signed the document ; about 1,700 of the world 's leading scientists appended their signature . It is sometimes offered in opposition to the Heidelberg Appeal -- also signed by numerous scientists and Nobel laureates earlier in 1992 -- which begins by criticizing `` an irrational ideology which is opposed to scientific and industrial progress , and impedes economic and social development . '' This document is often cited by those who oppose theories relating to climate change . However , the Heidelberg Appeal offers no specific recommendations and is not an indictment of environmental science : `` We fully subscribe to the objectives of a scientific ecology for a universe whose resources must be taken stock of , monitored and preserved . But we herewith demand that this stock-taking , monitoring and preservation be founded on scientific criteria and not on irrational pre-conceptions . '' In contrast , the UCS-led petition contains specific recommendations : `` We must , for example , move away from fossil fuels to more benign , inexhaustible energy sources to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the pollution of our air and water . ... We must stabilize population . ''", "qid": "284", "docid": "World_Scientists'_Warning_to_Humanity", "rank": 37, "score": 107230 }, { "content": "Title: Friends of Science Content: Friends of Science ( FoS ) is a Canadian non-profit advocacy organization based in Calgary , Alberta . The organization takes a position that humans are largely not responsible for the currently observed global warming , contrary to the established scientific position on the subject . Rather , they propose that `` the Sun is the main direct and indirect driver of climate change , '' not human activity . They argued against the Kyoto Protocol . The society was founded in 2002 and launched its website in October of that year . They are considered by many to promote climate change denial . They are largely funded by the fossil fuel industry . Madhav Khandekar , Chris de Freitas , Tim Patterson and Sallie Baliunas act as advisers to the Friends of Science with their work cited in Friends ' publications . Douglas Leahey has been president since December , 2009 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Friends_of_Science", "rank": 38, "score": 106813 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 39, "score": 106637 }, { "content": "Title: Man on Earth Content: Man on Earth is a four-part British documentary television series presented by Tony Robinson . The programme documents the effects of climate change across 200,000 years of human history . The series premiered 7 December 2009 on Channel 4 with 1.4 million viewers . Accompanying Robinson to help explain the science are archaeologist Dr. Jago Cooper and climate modeller Dr. Joy Singarayer .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Man_on_Earth", "rank": 40, "score": 106288 }, { "content": "Title: Merchants of Doubt Content: Merchants of Doubt : How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming is a 2010 non-fiction book by American historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway . It identifies parallels between the global warming controversy and earlier controversies over tobacco smoking , acid rain , DDT , and the hole in the ozone layer . Oreskes and Conway write that in each case `` keeping the controversy alive '' by spreading doubt and confusion after a scientific consensus had been reached , was the basic strategy of those opposing action . In particular , they say that Fred Seitz , Fred Singer , and a few other contrarian scientists joined forces with conservative think tanks and private corporations to challenge the scientific consensus on many contemporary issues . The George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer , two of the subjects , have been critical of the book . Other reviewers have been more favorable . One reviewer said that Merchants of Doubt is exhaustively researched and documented , and may be one of the most important books of 2010 . Another reviewer saw the book as his choice for best science book of the year . It was made into a film , Merchants of Doubt , directed by Robert Kenner , released in 2014 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Merchants_of_Doubt", "rank": 41, "score": 106155 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 42, "score": 105998 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 43, "score": 105959 }, { "content": "Title: Field Notes from a Catastrophe Content: Field Notes from a Catastrophe : Man , Nature , and Climate Change is a 2006 non-fiction book by Elizabeth Kolbert . The book attempts to bring attention to the causes and effects of global climate change . Kolbert travels around the world where climate change is affecting the environment in significant ways . These locations include Alaska , Greenland , the Netherlands , and Iceland . The environmental effects that are apparent consist of rising sea levels , thawing permafrost , diminishing ice shelves , changes in migratory patterns , and increasingly devastating forest fires due to loss of precipitation . She also speaks with many leading scientists about their individual research and findings . Kolbert brings to attention the attempts of large corporations such as Exxon Mobil and General Motors to influence politicians and discredit scientists . She also writes about America 's reluctance in the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions . Leading this resistance , she explained , was the Bush administration , which was opposed to the Kyoto protocol since it was ratified in 2005 . Kolbert concludes the book by examining the events surrounding the events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and arguing that governments have the knowledge and technologies to prepare for such disasters but choose to ignore the signs until it is too late .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Field_Notes_from_a_Catastrophe", "rank": 44, "score": 105865 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change denial Content: Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_change_denial", "rank": 45, "score": 105754 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Research Programme Content: The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "qid": "284", "docid": "World_Climate_Research_Programme", "rank": 46, "score": 105672 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 47, "score": 105670 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming: What You Need to Know Content: Global Warming What You Need to Know is a 2006 global warming ( climate change ) documentary , directed by Nicolas Brown , starring Tom Brokaw , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer , and Mark Serreze . The film focuses on impacts from climate change , and Tom Brokaw interviews scientists . The documentary premiered on Discovery Channel , 16 July 2006 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_Warming:_What_You_Need_to_Know", "rank": 48, "score": 105380 }, { "content": "Title: Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Criticism_of_the_IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 49, "score": 105125 }, { "content": "Title: Ian Clark (geologist) Content: Ian D. Clark is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa ( Canada ) , who has been publishing research on geoscience , groundwater and geochemistry since 1982 . His graduate work in isotope hydrogeology was at the University of Waterloo and the University of Paris . Clark is among the scientists who reject the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change ; in the 2007 UK television documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle , he states that changes in global temperature correlate with solar activity , saying `` Solar activity of the last hundred years , over the last several hundred years correlates very nicely on a decadal basis , with sea ice and Arctic temperatures . ''", "qid": "284", "docid": "Ian_Clark_(geologist)", "rank": 50, "score": 105004 }, { "content": "Title: An Appeal to Reason Content: An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson .", "qid": "284", "docid": "An_Appeal_to_Reason", "rank": 51, "score": 104362 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 52, "score": 104263 }, { "content": "Title: Five Ways to Save the World Content: Five Ways to Save the World is a British documentary film on environmental issues related to climate change , released in 2006 . The film was made by Karen O'Connor , for the big screen and was shot in the English language to reach an international audience . It includes interviews with five environmental scientists and experts including Paul Crutzen , James Roger Angel , John Latham , Ian Jones , and Klaus Lackner . The `` five ways '' proposed are geoengineering techniques : space lenses in orbit , to diffract sunlight away from the earth cloud seeding with seawater to increase albedo sulfur launched into the stratosphere to increase albedo ocean fertilization with iron or urea ( nitrogen fertilizer ) artificial trees ( see carbon capture and sequestration ) Since the first three methods do not remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , they would only reduce global warming but not ocean acidification . Since the last two methods would remove carbon dioxide , they could in theory reduce both global warming and ocean acidification .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Five_Ways_to_Save_the_World", "rank": 53, "score": 103830 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 54, "score": 102702 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 55, "score": 102355 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "284", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 56, "score": 102056 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate March Content: The Global Climate March took place in various cities around the world on 29 November 2015 , the day before the opening of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The march was organized by a huge coalition of climate groups and global activists ( such as Avaaz and the international environmental organization 350 . org ) , and involved more than 2,000 events around the globe , in 175 different countries . An estimated number of 785,000 people took part at the marches . Follow-on marches scheduled in 2017 include the March for Science on 22 April 2017 ) and the People 's Climate Mobilization scheduled 29 April 2017 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_Climate_March", "rank": 57, "score": 102044 }, { "content": "Title: Climate ethics Content: Climate ethics is an area of research that focuses on the ethical dimensions of climate change ( also known as global warming ) , and concepts such as climate justice . Human-induced climate change raises many profound ethical questions , yet many believe that these ethical issues have not been addressed adequately in climate change policy debates or in the scientific and economic literature on climate change ; and that , consequently , ethical questions are being overlooked or obscured in climate negotiations , policies and discussions . It has been pointed out that those most responsible for climate change are not the same people as those most vulnerable to its effects . Terms such as climate justice and ecological justice ( ` eco justice ' ) are used worldwide , and have been adopted by various groups .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_ethics", "rank": 58, "score": 101709 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "284", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 59, "score": 101488 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick Illusion Content: The Hockey Stick Illusion : Climategate and the Corruption of Science is a book written by Andrew Montford and published by Stacey International in 2010 . Montford , an accountant and science publisher who publishes a blog called ` Bishop Hill ' provides his analysis of the history of the `` hockey stick graph '' of global temperatures for the last 1000 years and the controversy promoted by mining exploration company director Steve McIntyre about the research which produced the graph . The book describes the history of the graph from its inception to the beginning of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( `` Climategate '' ) . The book was Amazon UK 's second bestselling environment book of 2010 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_Illusion", "rank": 60, "score": 101265 }, { "content": "Title: Lavoisier Group Content: The Lavoisier Group is an Australian organisation formed by politicians and dominated by retired industrial businesspeople and engineers . It does not accept the science of global warming and works to influence attitudes of policy makers and politicians . The organisation downplays the risk of the effects of global warming , rejects the scientific conclusion that human activity causes it , and opposes policies designed to curtail it . Some members regard climate change as a `` scam . '' The group was named after French scientist Antoine Lavoisier ( 1743-1794 ) , the father of modern chemistry who disproved the Phlogiston theory of combustion .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Lavoisier_Group", "rank": 61, "score": 100633 }, { "content": "Title: John F. B. Mitchell Content: John Francis Brake Mitchell OBE FRS ( born 7 October 1948 ) is a British climatologist and climate modeller . He studied Applied Mathematics at Queen 's University Belfast in 1970 , staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973 . In 1978 , he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office 's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research . He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010 . He is the most cited scientist regarding the topic of global warming . He was a convening lead author for the first and third IPCC Working Group I reports and lead author for the second . He was also chair of the World Meteorological Organization JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008 . He now ( 2014 ) works part-time as Principal Research Fellow , advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading .", "qid": "284", "docid": "John_F._B._Mitchell", "rank": 62, "score": 100546 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Change Conference, Moscow Content: The World Climate Change Conference was held in Moscow from September 29 to October 3 , 2003 . The initiative of convening the Conference was taken by Vladimir Putin , the President of the Russian Federation . The Conference was convened by the Russian Federation , and supported by international bodies including the United Nations . It should not be confused with the World Climate Conferences . The conference summary report , which was endorsed at concluding session of the Conference , October 3 , 2003 , endorsed the consensus represented by the IPCC TAR : The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has provided the basis for much of our present understanding of knowledge in this field in its Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 . A large majority of the international scientific community has accepted its general conclusions that climate change is occurring , is primarily a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols , and that this represents a threat to people and ecosystems . Some divergent scientific interpretations were brought forward and discussed in the Conference . Andreas Fischlin , conference participant and IPCC author was critical of the conference , saying : However , concerning the scientific content of the conference , we had also to struggle with considerable difficulties . Unfortunately , there were not only leading scientists present , but also some colleagues who used the conference to express personal , political opinions based on value judgement instead of scientific facts and rigorously derived , scientific insights and thorough understanding . Thereby , I believe , principles of proper scientific conduct were violated too often and sometimes , I am afraid having to say so , even systematically . This contrasts sharply with the principles upheld by the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) , which allow only to assess the current knowledge based on the best available , peer reviewed scientific literature and which do not allow for any non-scientific value judgements , let alone policy recommendations .", "qid": "284", "docid": "World_Climate_Change_Conference,_Moscow", "rank": 63, "score": 100535 }, { "content": "Title: James Annan Content: James D. Annan is a scientist involved in climate prediction . He was a member of the Global Warming Research Program at Frontier Research Centre for Global Change which is associated with the Earth Simulator in Japan . In 2014 he left Japan , returning to the United Kingdom as a co-founder of Blue Skies Research .", "qid": "284", "docid": "James_Annan", "rank": 64, "score": 100481 }, { "content": "Title: John Christy Content: John Raymond Christy is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) whose chief interests are satellite remote sensing of global climate and global climate change . He is best known , jointly with Roy Spencer , for the first successful development of a satellite temperature record .", "qid": "284", "docid": "John_Christy", "rank": 65, "score": 100033 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 66, "score": 99687 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 67, "score": 99637 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Policy Foundation Content: The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming . It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not . The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_Warming_Policy_Foundation", "rank": 68, "score": 99540 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Network Content: The Global Climate Network ( GCN ) is an alliance of influential think tanks and research institutes in different countries that collaborate on research into climate change policy and whose stated aim is to help address the political blockages to ambitious action to tackle global warming . The Network has members in nine countries worldwide , including the USA , China , India , UK , Australia , Brazil , Norway , South Africa and Nigeria . Its Secretariat is housed at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London , UK . GCN members are engaged jointly in a programme of research projects , the results of which each member feeds into policy making at the domestic and international levels . Collectively , members of the Global Climate Network are committed to a vision of a prosperous and secure world in which greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced to a level that is no longer harmful to the climate system . Working together , the Network construct a narrative for action on climate change that is concerned with human and economic progress as well as environmental wellbeing . The Network 's patrons are Dr Rajendra Pachauri , chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and director-general of the Energy and Resources Institute in India ; John Podesta , former Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton and director of Center for American Progress , and Lord Christopher Patten of Barnes , former European Commissioner for External Affairs .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_Climate_Network", "rank": 69, "score": 99391 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Warming Content: The Great Warming is a 2006 documentary film directed by Michael Taylor . The film was hosted by Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves and even before its November 3 , 2006 première helped establish an alliance between Democrats and Evangelicals trying to shake the administration out of its inertia on Climate change mitigation . It is also the anchor for a broad , pro-active coalition ranging from Friends of the Earth to Union of Concerned Scientists to Churches of Christ . Theatre giant Regal Cinemas released the film in its top 50 markets on the weekend of November 4 to November 5 , 2006 , which makes the launch three times larger than for any other film of its kind , and highlights the growing currency of the global warming issues in the mainstream.A special program was developed for faith communities , and the film was distributed to over 500 churches , synagogues and mosques across the US . Featuring elements of the 2005 Public Broadcasting Service special Global Warming : the Signs and the Science , The Great Warming ( produced by the same team ) , it talks to key researchers and reports on social justice and day-to-day impacts as well as emission statistics . It 's also populated with everyday people from all over the United States and the planet who are feeling the brunt of global warming , and/or finding innovative ways to tackle it . While making the movie , producer Karen Coshof was determined not to lose sight of her most important advocate , the person on the street , to make the issue of global warming resonate in every household around the globe . Every person should `` feel empowered to act . '' In media interviews , Coshof explained that the film attracted an unprecedented coalition of leaders in science , religion , business , environmental activism and education . They have built bridges over historic gaps to support the message of this film to believe in the individual and collective moral responsibility to reverse the growing threats to the environment , and to the health and quality of life . The effort goes beyond the documentary : with a release timed just before the United States House elections , 2006 , the website featured a Questions for Candidates link where voters could send a questionnaire on energy , environment , and taxation to their federal and state candidates . The campaign also includes a Call to Action signed by leaders from every arena of public life , and which can be signed online by anyone who chooses . Advance DVD screenings at schools , churches , and town halls across the country have already mobilized thousands of people to change personal habits and demand action , and coalition members are working to track the effort .", "qid": "284", "docid": "The_Great_Warming", "rank": 70, "score": 99175 }, { "content": "Title: World People's Conference on Climate Change Content: The World People 's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth was a global gathering of civil society and governments hosted by the government of Bolivia in Tiquipaya , just outside the city of Cochabamba from April 19 -- 22 , 2010 . The event was attended by around 30,000 people from over 100 countries , and the proceedings were transmitted live online by OneClimate and the Global Campaign for Climate Action ( GCCA ) . The conference was viewed as a response to what some termed failed climate talks in Copenhagen during the 15th United Nations Conference of Parties ( COP15 ) climate meetings in December 2009 . There have been claims after the Conference ended that there were flaws in its organization and that the Venezuelan government funded it partially . One of the important objectives of the conference was to produce proposals for new commitments to the Kyoto Protocol and projects in the lead-up to the next UN climate negotiations scheduled during the COP16 meeting in Cancun , Mexico in December 2010 . Conference topics included a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth ( see external links below ) , a World People 's Referendum on Climate Change , and the establishment of a Climate Justice Tribunal . The World People 's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth resulted in a People 's Accord .", "qid": "284", "docid": "World_People's_Conference_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 71, "score": 98926 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 72, "score": 98861 }, { "content": "Title: Climate stabilization wedge Content: The Climate stabilization Wedges is an approach produced by Princeton University researchers looking at Climate change mitigation scenarios . The project was funded by Ford Motor Company between 2000 and 2009 and has been receiving funding from BP since 2000 . The goal of the approach , Stephen Pacala and Robert H. Socolow , is to demonstrate that global warming is a problem which can be attacked using today 's commercially available technologies to reduce emissions . The objective is to stabilize concentrations under 500ppm for the next fifty years , using wedges from a variety of different strategies which fit into the stabilization triangle . A newer estimate by the original authors indicated that by 2011 , the number of necessary wedges had increased from seven to nine . This was due to the continuing increase in emissions since the original 2004 paper which determined the number of wedges that would have been necessary , if serious action to mitigate climate change had begun then .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_stabilization_wedge", "rank": 73, "score": 98667 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 74, "score": 98612 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 75, "score": 98535 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 76, "score": 98230 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "284", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 77, "score": 98116 }, { "content": "Title: EdGCM Content: The Educational Global Climate Model or EdGCM is a fully functional global climate model ( GCM ) that has been ported for use on desktop computers ( Windows PCs and Macs ) . It operates through a graphical user interface and is integrated with a relational database and scientific visualization utllities , all of which aim at helping improve the quality of teaching and understanding of climatology by making real-world research experiences more accessible . EdGCM is designed to permit teachers and students to conduct in-depth investigations of past , present and future climate scenarios in a manner that is essentially identical to the techniques used by national and international climate research organizations . EdGCM was developed at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies as a joint project of Columbia University and NASA scientists and programmers . The Global Climate Model at the core of EdGCM is GISS Model II . During the 1980s and early 1990s this GCM was one of NASA 's primary climate research tools . Results from the model have appeared in hundreds of scientific publications . The coarser resolution of the climate model in EdGCM ( 8 ° x 10 ° , latitude x longitude ) makes it inexpensive to run . But , because it contains most of the key atmospheric physics of modern GCMs , EdGCM is also used by climate researchers who do not have access to the most recent GCM versions .", "qid": "284", "docid": "EdGCM", "rank": 78, "score": 97921 }, { "content": "Title: Christopher Field Content: Chris Field , Ph.D is an American scientist and researcher , who has contributed to the field of climate change . The author of more than 200 scientific publications , Field 's research emphasizes impacts of climate change , from the molecular to the global scale . His work includes major field experiments on responses of California grassland to multi-factor global change , integrative studies on the global carbon cycle , and assessments of impacts of climate change on agriculture . Field 's work with models includes studies on the global distribution of carbon sources and sinks , and studies on environmental consequences of expanding biomass energy .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Christopher_Field", "rank": 79, "score": 97701 }, { "content": "Title: Fate of the World Content: Fate of the World is a 2011 global warming game developed and published by Red Redemption . It features several scenarios , based on actual scientific research , in which the player is put in charge of a fictional international organization managing social , technological and environmental policies . The goals of the scenarios range from improving living conditions in Africa , to preventing catastrophic climate change , to exacerbating it . It is quickly followed by an expansion pack called Fate of the World : Tipping Point , released in late 2011 . The climate prediction models for the game are the work of Myles Allen , the head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Fate_of_the_World", "rank": 80, "score": 97592 }, { "content": "Title: Daniel Kammen Content: Daniel Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California , Berkeley and a climate Science Envoy for the State Department . He holds a dual appointment at the Energy and Resources Group ( part of the College of Natural Resources ) and the Goldman School of Public Policy . He is also a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , which won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , for their report , Climate Change 2007 , assessing man-made global warming . Kammen was elected a permanent fellow of the African Academy of Sciences in 1998 and , in 2007 , received the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Commonwealth Club of California . On September 9 , 2010 , Kammen was appointed chief technical specialist for renewable energy and energy efficiency at the World Bank . In 2016 , he was selected as a U.S. Science Envoy by the United States State Department .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Daniel_Kammen", "rank": 81, "score": 97317 }, { "content": "Title: Vincent R. Gray Content: __ NOTOC __ Vincent Richard Gray ( born 24 March 1922 ) is a New Zealand-based chemist , and a founder of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition . Born in London on 24 March 1922 , Gray was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry by the University of Cambridge after studies on incendiary bomb fluids made from aluminium soaps . In New Zealand , he was the first Director of Building Research and later , Chief Chemist of the Coal Research Association . He has also published many articles and reports , seven in peer-reviewed journals . After retirement , he had four and a half years in China and when he returned became a critic of the claim that climate was harmed by human emissions of greenhouse gases . He has commented on every publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , with 1,898 comments on the 2007 Report . He has published critical studies on all of the reports including a book `` The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of ` Climate Change 2001 ' '' . He has published `` Confessions of a Climate Sceptic '' He is sceptical of the anthropogenic global warming : `` The two main `` scientific '' claims of the IPCC are the claim that `` the globe is warming '' and `` Increases in carbon dioxide emissions are responsible '' . Evidence for both of these claims is fatally flawed . '' Gray has called for the IPCC to be abolished , claiming it is `` fundamentally corrupt '' due to his conclusion that for significant parts of the work of the IPCC , the data collection and scientific methods employed are unsound and that the IPCC resists all efforts to try to discuss or rectify these problems . Gray was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Counterpoint in a debate entitled `` Nine Lies about Global Warming '' , and was interviewed in a featured story in the New Zealand Herald as a `` prominent '' global warming skeptic . In 2002 , Gray also published a book , The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of `` Climate Change 2001 '' . In it , Gray argues `` that the quality and reliability of the IPCC 's measurements are poor , the system of determining how much weight should be attributed to different influences on the earth 's temperature is faulty , and the validity of evidence derived from computer modeling is questionable . ''", "qid": "284", "docid": "Vincent_R._Gray", "rank": 82, "score": 97305 }, { "content": "Title: Lee Hannah Content: Lee Hannah is a conservation ecologist and a Senior Researcher in Climate Change Biology at Conservation International . Hannah is one of many authors who published an article predicting that between 15 % and 37 % of species are at risk of extinction due to climate change caused by human greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Lee_Hannah", "rank": 83, "score": 97227 }, { "content": "Title: Global Change Research Act of 1990 Content: The Global Change Research Act 1990 is a United States law requiring research into global warming and related issues . It requires a report to Congress every four years on the environmental , economic , health and safety consequences of climate change . According to a summary by the Congressional Research Service , the Act : `` Directs the President , through the Federal Coordinating Council on Science , Engineering , and Technology ( Council ) , to establish the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences to carry out Council functions under specified provisions of the National Science and Technology Policy , Organization , and Priorities Act of 1976 relating to global change research , to increase the effectiveness and productivity of Federal global change research efforts . Directs the President to establish an interagency United States Global Change Research Program to improve understanding of global change . Requires the Chairman of the Council , through the Committee , to develop a National Global Change Research Plan for implementation of the Program . Sets forth required Plan contents and research elements , including that the Plan provide recommendations for collaboration within the Federal Government and among nations . Requires the Chairman to enter into an agreement with the National Research Council to : ( 1 ) evaluate the scientific content of the Plan ; and ( 2 ) provide information and advice and recommended priorities for future global change research . Requires the Committee to provide general guidance each year to each Federal agency or department participating in the Program with respect to preparation of requests for appropriations related to the Program . Requires the Council , at least every four years , through the Committee , to submit to the President and the Congress an assessment regarding the findings of the Program and associated uncertainties , the effects of global change , and current and major long-term trends in global change . Requires that the research findings of the Committee and of Federal agencies and departments be made available to the Environmental Protection Agency and all Federal agencies and departments . Title II : International Cooperation in Global Change Research - International Cooperation in Global Change Research Act of 1990 - Declares that the President should direct the Secretary of State to initiate discussions with other nations on : ( 1 ) international agreements to coordinate global change research ; and ( 2 ) an international research protocol for cooperation on the development of energy technologies which have minimally adverse effects on the environment . Directs the President to establish an Office of Global Change Research Information to disseminate to foreign governments and their citizens , businesses , and institutions scientific research useful in preventing , mitigating , or adapting to the effects of global change . Title III : Growth Decision Aid - Directs the Secretary of Commerce to : ( 1 ) conduct a study on the implications of growth and development on urban , suburban , and rural communities ; and ( 2 ) based on the study , produce a decision aid to assist State and local authorities in planning and managing growth and development while preserving community character . '' Following the publication of the first National Climate Assessment Report there were accusations that information was being suppressed , leading to complacency around public works , such as New Orleans flood defences . Greenpeace , the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth challenged the delay in federal district court on August 21 , 2007 . A judge ruled that an updated national assessment must be produced by May 31 , 2008 .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_Change_Research_Act_of_1990", "rank": 84, "score": 97170 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Third Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Third Assessment Report , Climate Change 2001 , is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the UN 's World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) '' ... to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' -LSB- IPCC website -RSB- The Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) is the third of a series of assessments ; it has been superseded by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , released in 2007 . Statements of the IPCC or information from the TAR are often used as a reference showing a scientific consensus on the subject of global warming , although a small minority of scientists take issue with the UN assessments ( see also Global warming controversy and Politics of global warming ) .", "qid": "284", "docid": "IPCC_Third_Assessment_Report", "rank": 85, "score": 97124 }, { "content": "Title: David Legates Content: David Russell Legates is a Professor of Geography at the University of Delaware . He is the former Director of the Center for Climatic Research at the same university , and a former Delaware State Climatologist . Legates has published research papers , opinion editorials , and spoken openly in opposition to the consensus scientific opinion on climate change . More recently , he has been known for his skepticism toward the anthropogenic cause of the observed global warming patterns and the severity of its consequences at the local geographical scale . Legates viewpoint , as stated in a 2015 study that he co-authored , is that the Earth will experience about 1.0 C warming over the 2000 to 2100 period .", "qid": "284", "docid": "David_Legates", "rank": 86, "score": 97015 }, { "content": "Title: United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy Content: The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "qid": "284", "docid": "United_States_House_Science_Subcommittee_on_Energy", "rank": 87, "score": 96974 }, { "content": "Title: The Deniers Content: The Deniers is a 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon , a Canadian environmentalist and writer . Subtitled `` The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria , political persecution , and fraud , '' the book draws attention to a number of scientists and others who , according to Solomon , have advanced arguments against what he calls the `` alarmist '' view of global warming , as presented by Al Gore , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , the mainstream media , and others . The book is based on a series of columns Solomon wrote for Canada 's National Post .", "qid": "284", "docid": "The_Deniers", "rank": 88, "score": 96941 }, { "content": "Title: Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Content: Cool It : The Skeptical Environmentalist 's Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg . The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist ( first published in Danish in 1998 ) , which in English translation brought the author to world attention . Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment , often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions , and may have very little impact on the world 's temperature for centuries . Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Cool_It:_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist's_Guide_to_Global_Warming", "rank": 89, "score": 96877 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 90, "score": 96688 }, { "content": "Title: List of authors of Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Content: This is a list of the 620 authors contributing to Climate Change 2007 : The Physical Science Basis , which was the 996 page contribution of Working Group I to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . Their report describes the causes and climate consequences of global warming . This list is limited to people acknowledged as authors or editors on the report . The additional several hundred reviewers acknowledged in Annex III of the report are not included on this list . Author affiliations and nationalities are summarized from the list in Annex II of the report . Each author may have contributed to one or more sections and had one or more roles during the writing process . In the table below abbreviations are used to denote the roles and sections :", "qid": "284", "docid": "List_of_authors_of_Climate_Change_2007:_The_Physical_Science_Basis", "rank": 91, "score": 96672 }, { "content": "Title: Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration Content: The Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration was created as part of the Clear Skies Initiative in February 2002 by George W. Bush , as a Cabinet-level effort to coordinate climate change science and technology research . The White House says : `` The Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of Energy will lead the effort , in close coordination with the President 's Science Advisor . The research effort will continue to be coordinated through the National Science and Technology Council in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990 . ''", "qid": "284", "docid": "Committee_on_Climate_Change_Science_and_Technology_Integration", "rank": 92, "score": 96665 }, { "content": "Title: National Climate Assessment Content: The National Climate Assessment ( NCA ) is a United States government interagency ongoing effort on climate change science conducted under the auspices of the Global Change Research Act of 1990 . The NCA is a major product of the U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which coordinates a team of experts and receives input from a Federal Advisory Committee . The Fourth National Climate Assessment is being developed . For the Third National Climate Assessment , released in 2014 , USGCRP coordinated hundreds of experts and received advice from a sixty-member Federal Advisory Committee . NCA research is integrated and summarized in the mandatory ongoing National Climate Assessment Reports . The reports are `` extensively reviewed by the public and experts , including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences . The First National Climate Assessment was published in 2000 . The First National Climate Assessment Report was `` prepared by the National Assessment Synthesis Team ( NAST ) , an advisory committee chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to help the US Global Change Research Program fulfill its mandate under the Global Change Research Act of 1990 . The National Science and Technology Council forwarded the report to the President and Congress for their consideration as required by the Global Change Research Act . Administrative support for the US Global Change Research Program is provided by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research , which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation ( NCA 2000 ) . '' Between 2002 and 2009 , USGCRP previously known as the U.S. Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) , produced twenty-one Synthesis and Assessment Products ( SAPs ) . The second NCA was published in 2009 and the third was released in 2014 . NCA 's overarching goal according to their May 20 , 2011 engagement strategy summary , `` is to enhance the ability of the U.S. to anticipate , mitigate , and adapt to changes in the global environment ( NCA 2011:2 ) . '' According to the USGCRP official website the NCA , In 2013 , the President 's Climate Action Plan released by the Executive Office of the President specifically noted the importance of the National Climate Assessments in achieving the goal of `` Using Sound Science to Manage Climate Impacts '' .", "qid": "284", "docid": "National_Climate_Assessment", "rank": 93, "score": 96524 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Raupach Content: Michael Robin Raupach ( 30 October 1950 -- 10 February 2015 ) was an Australian climate scientist . He is credited with developing the concept of a carbon budget , the amount of CO2 that is emitted and absorbed in the global ecosystem in the course of a year . When the in balance , CO2 emissions and absorption in carbon sinks are roughly the same , but when disturbed , possibly large changes in the ecosystem ensue . He was a founding co-chair of the Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) , a network of the world 's leading carbon cycle researchers . He was instrumental in publishing the Annual Carbon Budget , which draws on a large amount of scientific data to determine the level of imbalance and options for addressing it . He worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation before becoming the director of the Australian National University 's Climate Change Institute in 2014 . He was a co-chair of the Global Carbon Project from 2000 to 2008 , and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 . He chaired the steering committee of the ` Australia 2050 ' project of the Australian Academy of Science ( AAS ) . In 2009 -- 2010 he chaired the Expert Working Group on Challenges at the Intersection of Carbon , Energy and Water , reporting to the Prime Minister 's Science , Engineering and Innovation Council and the Office of the Chief Scientist of Australia . His career included the publication of 150 scientific papers and 50 reports . His research developed in three stages , the first focused on very localized flow and transport of matter and energy through and above plant canopies . At the next stage , he worked on quantification of CO2 transport through and above plant canopies , though still on a small scale . In the 1990s , his focus began to shift to global ecosystems when he became a member of the scientific steering committee of the Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle core project of the IGBP ( International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ) . One of the most fundamental and important questions that the project addressed was : does the land-surface matter in climate and weather ? His research contributed to addressing that question , through his work on turbulent fluxes near the land surface , boundary-layer budgeting and quantifying the water balance at broader scales . He was a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science , the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering , and the American Geophysical Union . Just before his death following a short illness , he co-chaired the working group of the Australian Academy of Science drafting the AAS booklet The Science of Climate Change : Questions and Answers .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Michael_Raupach", "rank": 94, "score": 96156 }, { "content": "Title: New Zealand Climate Science Coalition Content: The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition is an organisation based in New Zealand which has the aim of refuting what it claims are unfounded claims about anthropogenic global warming .", "qid": "284", "docid": "New_Zealand_Climate_Science_Coalition", "rank": 95, "score": 96134 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Coalition Content: The Global Climate Coalition ( GCC ) ( 1989 -- 2001 ) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and challenged the science behind global warming . The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations . The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol , and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States . The coalition promoted the views of climate skeptics . The GCC dissolved in 2001 after membership declined in the face of improved understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in climate change and of public criticism .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Global_Climate_Coalition", "rank": 96, "score": 95946 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Stilbs Content: Peter Stilbs ( born 1 June 1945 ) is an emeritus professor in physical chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology ( KTH ) in Stockholm , Sweden . Stilbs earned a master 's degree in chemical engineering from the Lund Institute of Technology at Lund University in 1969 , and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1974 . He served as a research assistant in physical chemistry at Uppsala University from 1976 to 1982 , and as an assistant professor from 1982 to 1986 . In 1986 he became a professor in physical chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm . His main fields of research are the techniques and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance ( NMR ) . Stilbs has also been active in the debate on global warming . He has criticised the view that there is a scientific consensus on the attribution of recent climate change , and described the climate projections conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) as inadequate and misleading . In September 2006 he was chairman of an international seminar at the Royal Institute of Technology labelled Global Warming -- Scientific Controversies in Climate Variability , where both critics and supporters of the theory of man-made global warming were invited .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Peter_Stilbs", "rank": 97, "score": 95635 }, { "content": "Title: Taken by Storm Content: Taken By Storm : The Troubled Science , Policy and Politics of Global Warming is a 2002 book about the global warming controversy by Christopher Essex and Ross McKitrick . The authors argue that politicians and others claim far more certainty than is justified by the science . The authors also argue that public policy discussions have abandoned science and resorted to ad hominem attacks . Taken by Storm was one of two runners up for the 2002 Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Taken_by_Storm", "rank": 98, "score": 95563 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 99, "score": 95527 }, { "content": "Title: Gordon Manley Content: Gordon Valentine Manley , FRGS ( 3 January 1902 -- 29 January 1980 ) was an English climatologist who has been described as `` probably the best known , most prolific and most expert on the climate of Britain of his generation '' . He assembled the Central England temperature ( CET ) series of monthly mean temperatures stretching back to 1659 , which is the longest standardised instrumental record available for anywhere in the world . It provides a benchmark for proxy records of climatic change for the period covered , and is a notable example of scientific scholarship and perseverance ( it took over thirty years to complete ) . His two papers describing the work are available online .", "qid": "284", "docid": "Gordon_Manley", "rank": 100, "score": 95447 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 1, "score": 146345 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 2, "score": 137518 }, { "content": "Title: Bjørn Lomborg Content: Bjørn Lomborg ( -LSB- bjɶɐ̯n ˈlʌmbɒˀw -RSB- ; born 6 January 1965 ) is a Danish author and adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School as well as President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center . He is former director of the Danish government 's Environmental Assessment Institute ( EAI ) in Copenhagen . He became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial book , The Skeptical Environmentalist ( 2001 ) , in which he argues that many of the costly measures and actions adopted by scientists and policy makers to meet the challenges of global warming will ultimately have minimal impact on the world 's rising temperature . In 2002 , Lomborg and the Environmental Assessment Institute founded the Copenhagen Consensus , a project-based conference where prominent economists sought to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methods based on the theory of welfare economics . In 2009 , Business Insider cited Lomborg as one of `` The 10 Most-Respected Global Warming Skeptics '' . While Lomborg campaigned against the Kyoto Protocol and other measures to cut carbon emissions in the short-term , he argued for adaptation to short-term temperature rises , and for spending money on research and development for longer-term environmental solutions . His issue is not with the reality of climate change , but rather with the economic and political approaches being taken ( or not taken ) to meet the challenges of that climate change . He is a strong advocate for focusing attention and resources on what he perceives as far more pressing world problems , such as AIDS , malaria and malnutrition . In his critique of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , Lomborg stated : `` Global warming is by no means our main environmental threat . '' In 2011 and 2012 , Lomborg was named a Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy `` for looking more right than ever on the politics of climate change '' .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Bjørn_Lomborg", "rank": 3, "score": 137163 }, { "content": "Title: Freedom and Prosperity Party Content: The Freedom and Prosperity Party , formerly known as No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics and The Climate Sceptics , were an Australian political party that describes itself as the world 's first political party representing climate sceptics , dedicated to '' ... expose the fallacy of anthropogenic climate change '' . The party was registered with the Australian Electoral Commission in early 2010 , and endorsed candidates to stand in the 2010 federal election . Prior to being registered , party supporters stood as independent candidates in the Bradfield and Higgins by-elections .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Freedom_and_Prosperity_Party", "rank": 4, "score": 133049 }, { "content": "Title: Cool tropics paradox Content: The cool tropics paradox refers to an apparent difference between modeled estimates of tropical temperatures during warm , ice-free periods of the Cretaceous and Eocene , and the colder temperatures which proxies suggested were present . The long-standing paradox was resolved when novel proxy derived temperatures showed significantly warmer tropics during past greenhouse climates . The low-gradient problem , i.e. the very warm polar regions with respect to present day , is still an issue for state-of-the-art climate models .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Cool_tropics_paradox", "rank": 5, "score": 130371 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 6, "score": 128973 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 7, "score": 126462 }, { "content": "Title: Jerry Taylor Content: Jerome Cogburn `` Jerry '' Taylor ( born August 2 , 1962 ) is an American environmental activist and policy analyst . Taylor is the president of the Niskanen Center , a Washington , D.C. based think tank that advocates for market environmentalism and the adoption of a carbon tax system to combat global warming . Before founding the Niskanen Center in 2015 , Taylor was a senior fellow at the Cato Institute , where he previously espoused a skeptical position on environmental issues . Taylor 's case is notable as an example of a former climate-change skeptic who came to embrace policies to address climate change after researching the scientific consensus behind man-made global warming . During the 1990s and 2000s Taylor made regular media appearances as a global warming skeptic , including on Penn and Teller 's show Bullshit as well as a special edition of the John Stossel show devoted to attacking climate science . Taylor changed his prior beliefs because `` the scientific evidence became stronger and stronger over time . '' In 2015 , Taylor published a recantation entitled the `` Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax '' in which he espoused a global carbon taxation system , enforced by tariffs and implemented as a revenue neutral tax swap . Taylor attended the University of Iowa as a political science major . He is also a board game designer who has released three wargames , Hammer of the Scots , Crusader Rex , and Richard III . He resides in Arlington , Virginia with his wife and their children .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Jerry_Taylor", "rank": 8, "score": 124894 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Data Records Content: A Climate Data Record ( CDR ) is a specific definition of a climate data series , developed by the Committee on Climate Data Records from NOAA Operational Satellites of the National Research Council at the request of NOAA in the context of satellite records . It is defined as `` a time series of measurements of sufficient length , consistency , and continuity to determine climate variability and change . '' . Such measurements provide an objective basis for the understanding and prediction of climate and its variability , such as global warming .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_Data_Records", "rank": 9, "score": 123256 }, { "content": "Title: Myron Ebell Content: Myron Ebell is Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute ( CEI ) , a libertarian advocacy group based in Washington , D.C. . He is also the chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition , a loose coalition formed in 1997 which presents itself as `` focused on dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic , scientific , and risk analysis '' . In these organizations , Ebell has been central in promoting climate change denial , distributing his views to the media and politicians . Ebell , who is not a scientist , has been described as a climate change skeptic , a climate contrarian and a climate change denier . In September 2016 , Ebell was appointed by then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead his transition team for the United States Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Myron_Ebell", "rank": 10, "score": 120901 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 11, "score": 119409 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 12, "score": 118656 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 13, "score": 116685 }, { "content": "Title: Skeptical Science Content: Skeptical Science ( occasionally abbreviated SkS ) is a climate science blog and information resource created in 2007 by Australian cognitive scientist John Cook . In addition to publishing articles on current events relating to climate science and climate policy , the site maintains a large database of articles analyzing the merit of arguments commonly put forth by those who oppose the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Skeptical_Science", "rank": 14, "score": 116616 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 15, "score": 114947 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental skepticism Content: Environmental skepticism is the belief that claims by environmentalists , and the environmental scientists who support them , are false or exaggerated . The term is also applied to those who are critical of environmentalism in general . Environmental skepticism is closely linked with anti-environmentalism and climate change denial . Environmental skeptics have argued that the extent of harm coming from human activities is less certain than some scientists and scientific bodies claim , or that it is too soon to be introducing curbs in these activities on the basis of existing evidence , or that further discussion is needed regarding who should pay for such environmental initiatives . One of the focus themes in the environmental skeptics movement is the idea that environmentalism is a growing threat to social and economic progress and the civil liberties . The popularity of the term was enhanced by Bjørn Lomborg 's book The Skeptical Environmentalist . Lomborg approached environmental claims from a statistical and economic standpoint , and concluded that often the claims made by environmentalists were overstated . Lomborg argued , on the basis of cost -- benefit analysis , that few environmentalist claims warranted serious concern . However , in 2010 , Lomborg stated that he believes in the need for `` tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change '' and declared global warming to be `` undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today '' and `` a challenge humanity must confront '' . He summarized his position , saying `` Global warming is real - it is man-made and it is an important problem . But it is not the end of the world . ''", "qid": "287", "docid": "Environmental_skepticism", "rank": 16, "score": 114615 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 17, "score": 113340 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "287", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 18, "score": 113062 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 19, "score": 111255 }, { "content": "Title: David Titley Content: David W. Titley is a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University and the founding director of their Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk . He was also NOAA 's chief operating officer from 2012 -- 2013 . Before assuming these positions , he was a rear admiral in , and the chief oceanographer of , the U.S. Navy , in which he served for 32 years . Titley initiated the Navy 's Task Force on Climate Change , and serves on the CNA Corporation 's Military Advisory Board . He was formerly a climate change skeptic , but later changed his mind after looking at the evidence of what factors influence climate -- which are , according to Titley , `` what are the larger things doing -- what is the ocean doing ? What is the sun doing ? And what 's our atmosphere doing ? '' Since then , he has described climate change as `` one of the driving forces in the 21st century '' and said that it contributed to the 2011 Arab Spring . The Department of Defense requested that Titley present on their behalf at both Congressional Hearings and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) meetings from 2009 to 2011 . Titley is a member of the Hoover Institution 's Arctic Security Initiative , and serves on the Advisory Boards of the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State , the Center for Climate and Security , Columbia University 's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions , and the Association of Climate Change Officers . He is a member of the National Academies of Science committee on Geoengineering and the Center for Naval Analysis ' Military Advisory Board and co-chairs the National Research Council 's `` A Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences '' committee . Titley sits on the Science and Security Board at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , which , among other things , enables him to participate in the discussions that determine the position of the Bulletin 's famed Doomsday Clock . Titley is also on the Advisory Board of Citizens Climate Lobby .", "qid": "287", "docid": "David_Titley", "rank": 20, "score": 110769 }, { "content": "Title: Geologic temperature record Content: The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth 's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion ( 109 ) year time scales . The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Geologic_temperature_record", "rank": 21, "score": 110289 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory Content: The Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory ( CMDL ) was a climate laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) / Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . In October 2005 , it was merged with five other NOAA labs to form the Earth System Research Laboratory . CMDL 's mission was to observe and understand , through accurate , long-term records of atmospheric gases , aerosol particles , and solar radiation , the Earth 's atmospheric system controlling climate forcing , ozone depletion and baseline air quality , in order to develop products that will advance global and regional environmental information and services .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_Monitoring_and_Diagnostics_Laboratory", "rank": 22, "score": 109832 }, { "content": "Title: Attorney General of Virginia's climate science investigation Content: The Attorney General of Virginia 's climate science investigation was a `` Civil Investigative Demand '' initiated in April 2010 by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for a wide range of records held by the University of Virginia related to five grant applications for research work by a leading climate scientist Michael E. Mann , who was an assistant professor at the university from 1999 to 2005 . The demand was issued under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act in connection with claims by Cuccinnelli that Mann had possibly violated state fraud laws in relation to five research grants , by allegedly manipulating data . No evidence of wrongdoing was presented to support the claim . Mann 's earlier work had been targeted by climate change skeptics in the hockey stick controversy , and allegations against him were renewed in late 2009 in the Climatic Research Unit email controversy but found to be groundless in a series of investigations . Widespread concerns were raised by University of Virginia 's faculty and numerous scientists and science organizations that Cuccinelli 's actions posed a threat to academic freedom , and would have a chilling effect on research in the state . The university filed a court petition and the judge dismissed Cuccinelli 's demand on the grounds that no justification had been shown for the investigation . Cuccinelli tried to re-open his case by issuing a revised subpoena , and appealed the case to the Virginia Supreme Court . The case was defended by the university , and the court ruled that Cuccinelli did not have the authority to make these demands . The outcome was hailed as a victory for academic freedom .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Attorney_General_of_Virginia's_climate_science_investigation", "rank": 23, "score": 109456 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Climate Challenge Content: During the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 ( COP15 ) , there was a rival conference in Copenhagen , Denmark , for sceptics , called the Copenhagen Climate Challenge . which was organised by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow . While COP15 attracted 33,200 delegates , the rival sceptic conference was attended by 60 people ( 15 journalists , 18 speakers , 27 audience ) . According to Lenore Taylor of The Australian , the attendees had an average age `` well over 60 '' . In closing his speech , Plimer stated that `` They 've got us outnumbered , but we 've got them outgunned , and that 's with the truth . '' Plimer also stated that `` It 's been freezing in Perth and bucketing down '' . Perth had below average rainfall in 2009 , and temperatures of 38 ° C were forecast for December 13 .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Copenhagen_Climate_Challenge", "rank": 24, "score": 109235 }, { "content": "Title: Hockham Mere Content: The Hockham Mere pollen data shows the rates of change in levels of vegetation using pollen samples from within the Holocene period . Hockham Mere is the site of a former lake , > 400 metres diameter , in Norfolk , East Anglia . Its biogenic sediments contain a late-Devensian & Holocene pollen record . This data can be analysed using temperature proxies to help determine climate change in the area at that time . These proxies can be the amount of pollen found in the sample , as more pollen would indicate higher flora productivity which would suggest a warmer climate . The same can be seen if data shows negligible amounts of pollen which would suggest a cooler climate . These are proxies for temperature , and not an accurate record as there are many variances that can not be monitored easily .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Hockham_Mere", "rank": 25, "score": 109185 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 26, "score": 108863 }, { "content": "Title: Journal for Geoclimatic Studies Content: The Journal for Geoclimatic Studies is the name given to a nonexistent journal which published a fabricated global warming study in November 2007 entitled , `` Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria : the death of manmade global warming theory ? '' The published study identified the Journal for Geoclimatic Studies as an official publication of Okinawa University 's Institute for Geoclimatic Studies ( The Institute for Geoclimatic Studies is also fraudulent and does not exist ) . The spurious study , ostensibly authored by Daniel Klein and Mandeep J. Gupta of the University of Arizona 's Department of Climatology , and Philip Cooper and Arne FR Jansson at the University of Gothenburg 's Department of Atmospheric Physics , claimed that global warming was not human caused , but the work of carbon-dioxide emitting bacteria based on the ocean floor . The report was circulated by a number of global warming skeptics before discovery that the study authors and university departments identified in the publication did not exist . The website where the study was published was taken down once the deception was revealed , and its ownership was traced to David Thorpe , a science journalist and web designer based in the United Kingdom . The true author of the article is purportedly a man identifying himself as Mark Cox , who has claimed the hoax was designed to expose the gullibility and scientific illiteracy of global warming skeptics .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Journal_for_Geoclimatic_Studies", "rank": 27, "score": 107159 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit email controversy Content: The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change . The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas . The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . '' Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy", "rank": 28, "score": 106446 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 29, "score": 103360 }, { "content": "Title: David Parker (climatologist) Content: David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England . He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' . In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .", "qid": "287", "docid": "David_Parker_(climatologist)", "rank": 30, "score": 103246 }, { "content": "Title: International Conference on Climate Change Content: The International Conference on Climate Change is a conference series organized and sponsored by The Heartland Institute which aims to bring together global warming skeptics who `` dispute that the science is settled on the causes , consequences , and policy implications of climate change . '' The first conference took place in 2008 . As at 2017 there have been twelve conferences . Most of the events have been held in the United States , but there has been one in Australia and two in Germany .", "qid": "287", "docid": "International_Conference_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 31, "score": 103147 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 32, "score": 103117 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 33, "score": 102628 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 34, "score": 102395 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Coalition Content: The Global Climate Coalition ( GCC ) ( 1989 -- 2001 ) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and challenged the science behind global warming . The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations . The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol , and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States . The coalition promoted the views of climate skeptics . The GCC dissolved in 2001 after membership declined in the face of improved understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in climate change and of public criticism .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Global_Climate_Coalition", "rank": 35, "score": 102178 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 36, "score": 102170 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 North American heat wave Content: In March 2012 , one of the greatest heat waves was observed in many regions of North America . Very warm air pushed northward west of the Great Lakes region , and subsequently spread eastward . The intense poleward air mass movement was propelled by an unusually intense low level southerly jet that stretched from Louisiana to western Wisconsin . Once this warm surge inundated the area , a remarkably prolonged period of record setting temperatures ensued . NOAA 's National Climate Data Center reported that over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were tied or broken from 1 March through 27 March . In some places the temperature exceeded 86 ° F ( 30 ° C ) . For instance , in Grand Rapids , Michigan , the highest temperature recorded was 87 ° F on March 21 ; in Chicago a high of 87 ° F was also recorded on that same day . Records were broken in unusual ways . Chicago , for example , saw temperatures above 80 ° F every day between March 14 -- 18 , breaking records on all five days . Chicago would go on to record eight days at or above 80 ° F during the month , with many suburban areas recording an additional day in the 80s on March 19 ( that day , the city only tied its record high of 78 ° F ) . In context , the National Weather Service 's Chicago branch noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the 80 's in April . And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80 ° F days as this March . In Traverse City , Michigan one day began with a low temperature ( 67 ° F ) higher than the previous record high for the day . Temperature records across much of southern Canada also were shattered . Some of the most impressive readings came from Nova Scotia on March 22 , when the mercury climbed to 30.0 C at a climate station in Lake Major , making it the highest March temperature recorded in Nova Scotia , and the third highest March temperature recorded in Canada . That same day , the temperature hit 29.2 C at Western Head , Nova Scotia . The heat reached as far east as Cape Breton Island , with the temperature climbing to 24.0 C at Sydney , Nova Scotia on March 22 , a place historically surrounded by ice-jammed waters , frigid winds , and snow in March . The week of March 18 also set record temperatures in Manitoba and much of Ontario as well as into the Maritime Provinces . Non-severe thunderstorms were reported on the evening hours of March 21 , through to the early morning hours March 22 into northern Ontario . In addition , NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data show that the atmospheric pattern was so persistent that much of the Midwest and Northeast , and up into Ontario , had temperature departures over periods of several days to a week or more of magnitudes which would be unusual even for a single day . Averaged over the seven-day period from March 16 to March 22 inclusive , nearly the entire area of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. and most of Ontario and Quebec had temperatures 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) or more above the 1981-2010 average . Even more dramatically , most of Iowa and Minnesota , all of Wisconsin and Michigan , and most of southeastern Ontario had seven-day mean temperatures more than 15 ° C ( 27 ° F ) above the climatological average for the same period . An 84 ° F high at Madison , WI in early March was 43 ° F above average and followed an overnight low of 60 ° F , 35 degrees above normal the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean . The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 ° F or more ; the highest temperature recorded there was 107 ° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s . This mild warm spell brought out spring peepers in northern Ontario on 23 March , which are usually not heard until mid-to-late April , or sometimes early May . The warm weather was also responsible for several early-season tornado touchdowns , such as the EF3 that struck Dexter , Michigan , near Ann Arbor .", "qid": "287", "docid": "March_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 37, "score": 101272 }, { "content": "Title: Pseudoproxy Content: A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Pseudoproxy", "rank": 38, "score": 101265 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 39, "score": 101142 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "287", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 40, "score": 100550 }, { "content": "Title: Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Content: Cool It : The Skeptical Environmentalist 's Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg . The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist ( first published in Danish in 1998 ) , which in English translation brought the author to world attention . Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment , often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions , and may have very little impact on the world 's temperature for centuries . Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Cool_It:_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist's_Guide_to_Global_Warming", "rank": 41, "score": 99752 }, { "content": "Title: Skeptic (U.S. magazine) Content: Skeptic , colloquially known as Skeptic magazine , is a quarterly science education and science advocacy magazine published internationally by The Skeptics Society , a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience , superstition , and irrational beliefs . Founded by Michael Shermer , founder of the Skeptics Society , the magazine was first published in the spring of 1992 and is published through Millennium Press . Shermer remains the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine and the magazine 's Co-publisher and Art Director is Pat Linse . Other noteworthy members of its editorial board include Oxford University evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins , Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist Jared Diamond , magician and escape artist turned educator James `` The Amazing '' Randi , actor , comedian , and Saturday Night Live alumna Julia Sweeney , professional mentalist Mark Edward , Science writer Daniel Loxton , Lawrence M. Krauss and Christof Koch Skeptic has an international circulation with over 50,000 subscriptions and is on newsstands in the U.S. and Canada as well as Europe , Australia , and other countries .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Skeptic_(U.S._magazine)", "rank": 42, "score": 99656 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "287", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 43, "score": 99510 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "287", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 44, "score": 99256 }, { "content": "Title: Abrupt climate change Content: An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states . Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Abrupt_climate_change", "rank": 45, "score": 98696 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 46, "score": 98407 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 47, "score": 98367 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Tett Content: Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Simon_Tett", "rank": 48, "score": 98281 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 49, "score": 98224 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "287", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 50, "score": 98049 }, { "content": "Title: The Skeptics Society Content: The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit , member-supported organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience , superstition , and irrational beliefs . The Skeptics Society was founded by Michael Shermer as a Los Angeles-area skeptical group to replace the defunct Southern California Skeptics . After the success of its magazine , Skeptic , introduced in early 1992 , it became a national and then international organization . The stated mission of Skeptics Society and Skeptic magazine `` is the investigation of science and pseudoscience controversies , and the promotion of critical thinking . ''", "qid": "287", "docid": "The_Skeptics_Society", "rank": 51, "score": 97912 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 52, "score": 97751 }, { "content": "Title: Twisted: The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial Content: Twisted : The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial is a 2007 book by Ian G. Enting , who is the Professorial Research Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems ( MASCOS ) based at the University of Melbourne . The book analyses the arguments of greenhouse sceptics and the use and presentation of statistics . Enting contends there are contradictions in the various arguments of the climate change sceptics . The author also presents calculations of the actual emission levels that would be required to stabilise CO2 concentrations . This is an update of calculations that he contributed to the pre-Kyoto IPCC report on Radiative Forcing of Climate .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Twisted:_The_Distorted_Mathematics_of_Greenhouse_Denial", "rank": 53, "score": 97570 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital tuning Content: Orbital tuning refers to the process of adjusting the time scale of a geologic or climate record so that the observed fluctuations correspond to the Milankovitch cycles in the Earth 's orbital motion . Because changes in the Earth 's orbit affect the amount and distribution of sunlight the Earth receives , such changes are expected to introduce periodic climate changes on time scales of 20-100 kyr . Long records of sedimentation or climate should record such variations ; however , such records often have poorly constrained age scales . As a result , scientists will sometimes adjust the timing of the features in their records to match the predictions of orbital theory in the hopes of improving the dating accuracy . However , `` overtuning '' can result in apparent features that have no basis in the real data , such as occurred with the original SPECMAP record ( Muller & MacDonald 2000 ) .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Orbital_tuning", "rank": 54, "score": 97274 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Australia Content: Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Australia", "rank": 55, "score": 97220 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "287", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 56, "score": 97123 }, { "content": "Title: Proxy (climate) Content: In the study of past climates ( `` paleoclimatology '' ) , climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth 's history . Reliable global records of climate only began in the 1880s , and proxies provide the only means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began . Examples of proxies include ice cores , tree rings , sub-fossil pollen , boreholes , corals , lake and ocean sediments , and carbonate speleothems . The character of deposition or rate of growth of the proxies ' material has been influenced by the climatic conditions of the time in which they were laid down or grew . Chemical traces produced by climatic changes , such as quantities of particular isotopes , can be recovered from proxies . Some proxies , such as gas bubbles trapped in ice , enable traces of the ancient atmosphere to be recovered and measured directly to provide a history of fluctuations in the composition of the Earth 's atmosphere . To produce the most precise results , systematic cross-verification between proxy indicators is necessary for accuracy in readings and record-keeping . Proxies can be combined to produce temperature reconstructions longer than the instrumental temperature record and can inform discussions of global warming . The distribution of proxy records , just like the instrumental record , is not at all uniform , with more records in the northern hemisphere .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Proxy_(climate)", "rank": 57, "score": 97091 }, { "content": "Title: Monthly Climatic Data for the World Content: Monthly Climatic Data for the World ( MCDW ) is a monthly publication of the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) division of the National Environmental Satellite , Data , and Information Service ( NESDIS ) division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) of the United States . According to the website , each monthly issue `` contains monthly mean temperature , pressure , precipitation , vapor pressure , and sunshine for approximately 2,000 surface data collection stations worldwide and monthly mean upper air temperatures , dew point depressions , and wind velocities for approximately 500 observing sites . This is the final quality controlled copy and generally has a 4 - 6 month time lag . '' The issues are available for download in portable document format .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Monthly_Climatic_Data_for_the_World", "rank": 58, "score": 96423 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene climatic optimum Content: The Holocene Climate Optimum ( HCO ) was a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years BP . This event has also been known by many other names , including : Hypsithermal , Altithermal , Climatic Optimum , Holocene Optimum , Holocene Thermal Maximum , and Holocene Megathermal . This warm period was followed by a gradual decline until about two millennia ago . For other temperature fluctuations see : Temperature record For other past climate fluctuation see : Paleoclimatology For the pollen zone and Blytt-Sernander period associated with the climate optimum , see : Atlantic ( period )", "qid": "287", "docid": "Holocene_climatic_optimum", "rank": 59, "score": 96283 }, { "content": "Title: State of the Climate Content: The State of the Climate is an annual report that is primarily led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center ( NOAA/NCDC ) , located in Asheville , North Carolina , but whose leadership and authorship spans roughly 100 institutions in about 50 countries .", "qid": "287", "docid": "State_of_the_Climate", "rank": 60, "score": 96185 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 61, "score": 96165 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 62, "score": 96024 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 63, "score": 95888 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record Content: For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Temperature_record", "rank": 64, "score": 95837 }, { "content": "Title: Heat (Colder album) Content: Heat is the second album from French musician Colder , released on Output Recordings on July 4 , 2005 . The album was produced in Paris , France and was released on CD , limited edition CD ( housed in a digipak ) , and limited edition red-colored 12 '' vinyl . The album was also released on CD in Mexico with two bonus tracks . All versions of the album are out of print .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Heat_(Colder_album)", "rank": 65, "score": 95743 }, { "content": "Title: Vatican Climate Forest Content: The Vatican Climate Forest , to be located in the Bükk National Park , Hungary , was donated to the Vatican City by a carbon offsetting company . The forest is to be sized to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Vatican during 2007 . The Vatican 's acceptance of the offer , at a ceremony on July 5 , 2007 , was reported as being `` purely symbolic '' , and a way to encourage Catholics to do more to safeguard the planet . No trees have been planted under the project and the carbon offsets have not materialised . In a more effective move to combat global warming , in May 2007 , the Vatican announced that the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall would be covered with photovoltaic panels . The installation was officially placed into service on November 26 , 2008 .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Vatican_Climate_Forest", "rank": 66, "score": 95699 }, { "content": "Title: The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe Content: The Skeptics ' Guide to the Universe is a weekly , 80-minute podcast hosted by Steven Novella , MD , and a panel of `` skeptical rogues '' . It is the official podcast of the New England Skeptical Society . The show features discussions of recent scientific developments in layman 's terms , and interviews authors , people in the area of science and other famous skeptics . The show also includes discussions of myths , conspiracy theories , pseudoscience , the paranormal , and many general forms of superstition , from the point of view of scientific skepticism . Steven Novella , the host of the show , has been particularly active in debunking pseudoscience in medicine . His activities include opposing the claims of anti-vaccine activists , homeopathy practitioners and individuals denying the link between HIV and AIDS .", "qid": "287", "docid": "The_Skeptics'_Guide_to_the_Universe", "rank": 67, "score": 95660 }, { "content": "Title: Central England temperature Content: The Central England Temperature ( CET ) record is a meteorological dataset originally published by Professor Gordon Manley in 1953 and subsequently extended and updated in 1974 , following many decades of painstaking work . The monthly mean surface air temperatures , for the Midlands region of England , are given ( in degrees Celsius ) from the year 1659 to the present . This record represents the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence . It is a valuable dataset for meteorologists and climate scientists . It is monthly from 1659 , and a daily version has been produced from 1772 . The monthly means from November 1722 onwards are given to a precision of 0.1 ° C . The earliest years of the series , from 1659 to October 1722 inclusive , for the most part only have monthly means given to the nearest degree or half a degree , though there is a small ` window ' of 0.1 degree precision from 1699 to 1706 inclusive . This reflects the number , accuracy , reliability and geographical spread of the temperature records that were available for the years in question .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Central_England_temperature", "rank": 68, "score": 95558 }, { "content": "Title: MSU temperature measurements Content: Microwave sounding unit temperature measurements have been obtained from the troposphere since 1979 , when they were included within NOAA weather satellites . By comparison , the usable balloon ( radiosonde ) record begins in 1958 but has less geographic coverage and is less uniform . Satellites do not measure temperature . They measure radiances in various wavelength bands , which must then be mathematically inverted to obtain indirect inferences of temperature . The resulting temperature profiles depend on details of the methods that are used to obtain temperatures from radiances . As a result , different groups that have analyzed the satellite data have obtained different temperature trends . Among these groups are Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) . The satellite series is not fully homogeneous - the record is constructed from a series of satellites with similar but not identical instrumentation . The sensors deteriorate over time , and corrections are necessary for satellite drift in orbit . Particularly large differences between reconstructed temperature series occur at the few times when there is little temporal overlap between successive satellites , making intercalibration difficult . To compare to the trend from the surface temperature record ( approximately +0.07 ° C/decade over the past century and +0.15 -0.16 ° C/decade since 1979 ) it is most appropriate to derive trends for the part of the atmosphere nearest the surface , i.e. , the lower troposphere . Doing this , through January 2012 : RSS v3 .3 finds a trend of +0.137 ° C/decade . UAH v5 .4 finds a trend of +0.136 ° C/decade . An alternative adjustment introduced by Fu et al. ( 2004 ) finds trends ( 1979 -- 2011 ) of +0.14 ° C/decade when applied to the RSS data set and +0.11 ° C/decade when applied to the UAH data set . Using the T2 channel ( which include significant contributions from the stratosphere , which has cooled ) , Mears et al. of Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) find ( through January 2012 ) a trend of +0.082 ° C/decade . Spencer and Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) , find a smaller trend of +0.046 ° C/decade . A no longer updated analysis of Vinnikov and Grody found +0.20 ° C/decade ( 1978 -- 2005 ) . Another satellite temperature analysis is provided by NOAA/NESDIS STAR Center for Satellite Application and Research and use simultaneous nadir overpasses ( SNO ) to remove satellite intercalibration biases yielding more accurate temperature trends . The SNO analysis finds a 1979-2011 trend of +0.128 ° C/decade for T2 channel . The satellite records have the advantage of greater spatial coverage , whereas the radiosonde record is longer . There have been complaints of data problems with both records , and difficulty reconciling climate model predictions with the observed data .", "qid": "287", "docid": "MSU_temperature_measurements", "rank": 69, "score": 95315 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 70, "score": 95149 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars Content: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines is a 2012 book about climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann . In the book Mann describes how he became a researcher investigating the temperature record of the past 1000 years and was lead author , with Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , on the 1999 reconstruction that was the first to be dubbed the hockey stick graph . He concisely explains the basics of climate science including statistical methodology dealing with paleoclimate proxy data , and examines the tactics which opponents of action on climate change use to distort the science and attack the reputations of climate scientists . The book describes both the hockey stick controversy and the broader context of skepticism in science and contrarians rejecting evidence of human influence on climate . The book was picked by Physics Today books editor Jermey Matthews as one of the five top books of the 49 they had reviewed in 2012 .", "qid": "287", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_and_the_Climate_Wars", "rank": 71, "score": 94897 }, { "content": "Title: Tipping points in the climate system Content: A tipping point in the climate system is a threshold that, when exceeded, can lead to large changes in the state of the system. Potential tipping points have been identified in the physical climate system, in impacted ecosystems, and sometimes in both. For instance, feedback from the global carbon cycle is a driver for the transition between glacial and interglacial periods, with orbital forcing providing the initial trigger. Earth's geologic temperature record includes many more examples of geologically rapid transitions between different climate states.Climate tipping points are of particular interest in reference to concerns about global warming in the modern era. Possible tipping point behaviour has been identified for the global mean surface temperature by studying self-reinforcing feedbacks and the past behavior of Earth's climate system. Self-reinforcing feedbacks in the carbon cycle and planetary reflectivity could trigger a cascading set of tipping points that lead the world into a hothouse climate state.Large-scale components of the Earth system that may pass a tipping point have been referred to as tipping elements. Tipping elements are found in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, possibly causing tens of meters of sea level rise. These tipping points are not always abrupt. For example, at some level of temperature rise the melt of a large part of the Greenland ice sheet and/or West Antarctic Ice Sheet will become inevitable; but the ice sheet itself may persist for many centuries. Some tipping elements, like the collapse of ecosystems, are irreversible.", "qid": "287", "docid": "Tipping_points_in_the_climate_system", "rank": 72, "score": 94819 }, { "content": "Title: Patrick Michaels Content: Patrick J. ( `` Pat '' ) Michaels ( born February 15 , 1950 ) is an American climatologist . Michaels is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute . Until 2007 he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia , where he had worked from 1980 . A self-described skeptic on the issue of global warming , he is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists . He has written a number of books and papers on climate change , including Sound and Fury : The Science and Politics of Global Warming ( 1992 ) , The Satanic Gases ( 2000 ) , and Meltdown : The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists , Politicians , and the Media ( 2004 ) . He 's also the co-author of Climate of Extremes : Global Warming Science They Do n't Want You to Know ( 2009 ) . Michaels ' viewpoint , as argued in a 2002 article in the journal Climate Research , is that the planet will see `` a warming range of 1.3 -- 3.0 ° C , with a central value of 1.9 ° C '' for the 1990 to 2100 period ( an analysis far smaller than the IPCC 's average predictions ) .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Patrick_Michaels", "rank": 73, "score": 94531 }, { "content": "Title: KBDL-LP Content: KBDL-LP ( 107.9 FM , `` NOAA Weather Radio '' ) is a low-power FM radio station licensed to Carbondale , Colorado , United States . The station is currently owned by State of Colorado Telecom Services .", "qid": "287", "docid": "KBDL-LP", "rank": 74, "score": 94510 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Mirror Content: Climate Mirror is `` an open project to mirror public climate datasets '' , that is , an open access project to mirror ( to back up ) the data of publicly owned datasets from climate science , such as data from U.S. federally funded research . Datasets from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , and NASA are considered primary examples . The idea behind Climate Mirror is comparable to the notion that lots of copies keep stuff safe from disappearing through censorship , link rot , lapses of professionalism in preserving the integrity of the scientific record , or lack of digital permanence . It offers a massively parallel type of backup .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_Mirror", "rank": 75, "score": 94460 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Audit Content: Climate Audit is a blog which was founded on 31 January 2005 by Steve Mcintyre . The New York Times has called it `` a popular skeptics ' blog '' .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_Audit", "rank": 76, "score": 94406 }, { "content": "Title: Idealized greenhouse model Content: The surface of the Sun radiates light and heat at approximately 5,500 ° C . The Earth is much cooler and so radiates heat back away from itself at much longer wavelengths , mostly in the infrared range . The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth 's atmosphere , including carbon dioxide and water vapour , are transparent to the high-frequency , high-energy solar radiation , but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving the surface of the earth . Thus heat is easily let in , but is partially trapped by these gases as it tries to leave . Rather than get hotter and hotter , Kirchhoff 's law of thermal radiation says that the gases of the atmosphere also have to re-emit the infrared energy that they absorb , and they do so , also at long infrared wavelengths , both upwards into space as well as downwards back towards the Earth 's surface . In the long-term , thermal equilibrium is reached when all the heat energy arriving on the planet is leaving again at the same rate . In this idealized model , the greenhouse gases cause the surface of the planet to be warmer than it would be without them , in order for the required amount of heat energy finally to be radiated out into space from the top of the atmosphere . The greenhouse effect can be illustrated with an idealized planet . This is a common `` textbook model '' : the planet will have a constant surface temperature Ts and an atmosphere with constant temperature Ta . For diagrammatic clarity , a gap can be depicted between the atmosphere and the surface . Alternatively , Ts could be interpreted as a temperature representative of the surface and the lower atmosphere , and Ta could be interpreted as the temperature of the upper atmosphere . In order to justify that Ta and Ts remain constant over the planet , strong ocean and atmospheric currents can be imagined to provide plentiful lateral mixing . Furthermore , any daily or seasonal cycles in temperature are assumed to be insignificant .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Idealized_greenhouse_model", "rank": 77, "score": 94197 }, { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 78, "score": 93903 }, { "content": "Title: Thomas Knutson Content: Thomas Knutson is a climate modeller at the US Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory , a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . His research covers hurricane activity , the link between climate change and hurricane incidence and intensity , and climate change detection and attribution . He served as a contributing author on working group 1 of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . He is an Associate Editor of the American Meteorological Society 's Journal of Climate . He has published in Science , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Journal of Geophysical Research , Journal of Climate , Tropical Cyclone Research and Review , Tellus A and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society . In 2004 , Knutson published a paper suggesting that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide would lead to more intense hurricanes . This finding was subsequently supported by independent research . Knutson was invited to discuss his thesis on Ron Reagan 's MSNBC talk show , but the invitation was withdrawn after the White House intervened . Source : New Scientist Magazine 2007-02-03 , p. 5", "qid": "287", "docid": "Thomas_Knutson", "rank": 79, "score": 92753 }, { "content": "Title: Skeptics in the Pub Content: Skeptics in the Pub ( abbreviated SITP ) is an informal social event designed to promote fellowship and social networking among skeptics , critical-thinkers , freethinkers , rationalists and other like-minded individuals . It provides an opportunity for skeptics to talk , share ideas and have fun in a casual atmosphere , and discuss whatever topical issues come to mind , while promoting skepticism , science , and rationality .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Skeptics_in_the_Pub", "rank": 80, "score": 92721 }, { "content": "Title: Fisheries and climate change Content: Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Fisheries_and_climate_change", "rank": 81, "score": 92703 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 82, "score": 92427 }, { "content": "Title: Michael E. Mann Content: Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data . As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences . Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Michael_E._Mann", "rank": 83, "score": 92370 }, { "content": "Title: A Cooler Climate Content: A Cooler Climate is a Showtime Original movie . It originally aired on August 22 , 1999 . It is based on a book with the same name by Zena Collier . Sally Field and Judy Davis were both nominated for their performance in the film during the 6th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards for outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or miniseries . They both also received an Emmy nomination for their performances in the film .", "qid": "287", "docid": "A_Cooler_Climate", "rank": 84, "score": 92214 }, { "content": "Title: Skeptic Society Content: The Skeptic Society ( Russian : Общество скептиков , Óbščestvo skeptikov ) is a Russian-speaking skeptical society . Its aim is to spread critical thinking , popularise science , educate the general public , promote and teach critical and skeptical thinking skills and create a platform for science and skepticism communication .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Skeptic_Society", "rank": 85, "score": 92150 }, { "content": "Title: Skeptics Apocalypse Content: Skeptics Apocalypse is the debut album from the US speed metal band Agent Steel . It was recorded in Los Angeles , California and mastered at Frankort Wayne Studios by Tom Coyne . The album was released by Combat Records in June 1985 and reissued in 1999 by Century Media .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Skeptics_Apocalypse", "rank": 86, "score": 92148 }, { "content": "Title: Business action on climate change Content: Business action on climate change includes a range of activities relating to global warming , and to influencing political decisions on global-warming-related regulation , such as the Kyoto Protocol . Major multinationals have played and to some extent continue to play a significant role in the politics of global warming , especially in the United States , through lobbying of government and funding of global warming skeptics . Business also plays a key role in the mitigation of global warming , through decisions to invest in researching and implementing new energy technologies and energy efficiency measures . ( See also individual and political action on climate change . )", "qid": "287", "docid": "Business_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 87, "score": 92083 }, { "content": "Title: NoCO2 Certification Program Content: The NoCO2 Certification Program is a ` Climate Change actions ' certification scheme administered by Australia 's Carbon Reduction Institute", "qid": "287", "docid": "NoCO2_Certification_Program", "rank": 88, "score": 91957 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 89, "score": 91942 }, { "content": "Title: Vicky Pope Content: Vicky Pope is head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre . She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation . Since October 2004 she has been Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change . Her research interests include developing and validating climate models . In an interview for The Guardian newspaper , she said : `` very few '' scientists disputed the latest IPCC report . `` The consensus on warming since the 1850s is that a large part is due to man 's activities , '' she said . `` That 's the line of the IPCC report and that position is strengthening . It is a very widespread consensus . There are a few very vocal people who are sceptics , only some of whom are actually scientists . Sceptics obviously have a place in the community . '' link", "qid": "287", "docid": "Vicky_Pope", "rank": 90, "score": 91893 }, { "content": "Title: Howard Friel Content: Howard Friel is a U.S. independent scholar and author who wrote The Lomborg Deception : Setting the Record Straight About Global Warming ( Yale University Press , 2010 , ISBN 978-0-300-16103-8 ) , a critique of Bjørn Lomborg 's books The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It : The Skeptical Environmentalist 's Guide to Global Warming . He also co-authored Israel-Palestine on Record : How the New York Times Misreports Conflict in the Middle East with Richard Falk ( Verso , 2007 ) . He co-authored The Record of the Paper : How the New York Times Misreports US Foreign Policy with Richard Falk ( Verso , 2004 , ISBN 978-1-84467-019-2 ) . In 1995 , Friel edited Guns and the Constitution : The Myth of Second Amendment Protection for Firearms in America with Dennis Henigan .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Howard_Friel", "rank": 91, "score": 91829 }, { "content": "Title: Neoglaciation Content: The neoglaciation ( `` renewed glaciation '' ) describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth 's climate during the Holocene , following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation , the most recent glacial period . Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest point in the Earth 's climate during the current interglacial stage . The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning : local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler ( and wetter ) conditions . Driven inexorably by the Milankovitch cycle , cooler summers in higher latitudes of North America , which would cease to completely melt the annual snowfall , were masked at first by the presence of the slowly disappearing continental ice sheets , which persisted long after the astronomically calculated moment of maximum summer warmth : `` the neoglaciation can be said to have begun when the cooling caught up with the warming '' , remarked E. C. Pielou . With the close of the `` Little Ice Age '' ( mid-14th to late 19th centuries ) , neoglaciation appears to have been stalled in the late 20th century , assumed to be caused by anthropogenic global warming . Whether it has been temporarily or semi-permanently stalled , neoglaciation has been marked by a retreat from the warm conditions of the Climatic Optimum and the advance or reformation of glaciers that had not existed since the last ice age . In the mountains of western North America , montane glaciers that had completely melted reformed shortly before 5000 BP . The most severe part of the best documented neoglacial period , especially in Europe and the North Atlantic , is termed the `` Little Ice Age '' . In North America , neoglaciation had ecological effects in the spread of muskeg on flat , poorly drained land , such as the bed of recently drained Lake Agassiz and in the Hudson Bay lowlands , in the retreat of grassland before an advancing forest border in the Great Plains , and in shifting ranges of forest trees and diagnostic plant species ( identified through palynology ) . The view that neoglaciation is ending in present times , is assumed by those who identify the most recent climate changes and global warming as the onset of a new period in Earth history , speculatively calling it the `` Early anthropocene '' , as a coming geological age dominated by the effects of Homo sapiens .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Neoglaciation", "rank": 92, "score": 91735 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 93, "score": 91435 }, { "content": "Title: Glasgow Skeptics Content: Glasgow Skeptics is a skeptical organisation based in Glasgow , Scotland . It aims to promote public understanding of science , critical thinking , and freedom of expression .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Glasgow_Skeptics", "rank": 94, "score": 91321 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New Zealand Content: Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 95, "score": 91178 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon literacy Content: Carbon Literacy is a term used to describe an awareness of climate change and the climate impacts of mankind 's everyday actions . The term has been used in a range of contexts in scientific literature and in casual usage ( see Research ) , but is most associated with The Carbon Literacy Project ( CLP ) .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Carbon_literacy", "rank": 96, "score": 90894 }, { "content": "Title: Microwave Sounding Unit temperature measurements Content: Microwave Sounding Unit temperature measurements refers to temperature measurement using the Microwave Sounding Unit instrument and is one of several methods of measuring Earth atmospheric temperature from satellites. Microwave measurements have been obtained from the troposphere since 1979, when they were included within NOAA weather satellites, starting with TIROS-N. By comparison, the usable balloon (radiosonde) record begins in 1958 but has less geographic coverage and is less uniform. Microwave brightness measurements do not directly measure temperature. They measure radiances in various wavelength bands, which must then be mathematically inverted to obtain indirect inferences of temperature. The resulting temperature profiles depend on details of the methods that are used to obtain temperatures from radiances. As a result, different groups that have analyzed the satellite data have obtained different temperature trends. Among these groups are Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The satellite series is not fully homogeneous – the record is constructed from a series of satellites with similar but not identical instrumentation. The sensors deteriorate over time, and corrections are necessary for satellite drift in orbit. Particularly large differences between reconstructed temperature series occur at the few times when there is little temporal overlap between successive satellites, making intercalibration difficult.", "qid": "287", "docid": "Microwave_Sounding_Unit_temperature_measurements", "rank": 97, "score": 90866 }, { "content": "Title: Skepter Content: Skepter is a popular science magazine of the Dutch skeptical foundation Stichting Skepsis . It describes paranormal or controversial theories and methods from a skeptical perspective .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Skepter", "rank": 98, "score": 90720 }, { "content": "Title: Cool the Earth Content: Cool the Earth Inc. is a non-profit educational organization based in Northern California . The mission of Cool the Earth is to educate kids and their families about climate change and motivate them to take simple measurable actions at home to reduce their carbon emissions . Currently , the organization offers programming to over 100 elementary schools .", "qid": "287", "docid": "Cool_the_Earth", "rank": 99, "score": 90603 }, { "content": "Title: An Inconsistent Truth Content: An Inconsistent Truth is a 2012 documentary film written , produced , and featuring , nationally syndicated conservative talk radio host Phil Valentine and directed by Shayne Edwards . Valentine , a skeptic of global warming theory , interviewed scientists about the validity of Al Gore 's film An Inconvenient Truth and the facts presented within . What he is told by the scientists he interviews is that there is no consensus on the issue of global warming or climate change . The film argues that global warming proponents keep changing its label , basing their argument on what Valentine says is shaky scientific ground .", "qid": "287", "docid": "An_Inconsistent_Truth", "rank": 100, "score": 90510 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Calibration Content: Calibration in measurement technology and metrology is the comparison of measurement values delivered by a device under test with those of a calibration standard of known accuracy . Such a standard could be another measurement device of known accuracy , a device generating the quantity to be measured such as a voltage , or a physical artefact , such as a metre ruler . The outcome of the comparison can result in no significant error being noted on the device under test , a significant error being noted but no adjustment made , or an adjustment made to correct the error to an acceptable level . Strictly , the term calibration means just the act of comparison , and does not include any subsequent adjustment . The calibration standard is normally traceable to a national standard held by a National Metrological Institute .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calibration", "rank": 1, "score": 115356 }, { "content": "Title: Instrument error Content: Instrument error refers to the combined accuracy and precision of a measuring instrument , or the difference between the actual value and the value indicated by the instrument ( error ) . Measuring instruments are usually calibrated on some regular frequency against a standard . The most rigorous standard is one maintained by a standards organization such as NIST in the United States , or the ISO in European countries . However , in physics -- precision , accuracy , and error are computed based upon the instrument and the measurement data . Precision is to 1/2 of the granularity of the instrument 's measurement capability . Precision is limited to the number of significant digits of measuring capability of the coarsest instrument or constant in a sequence of measurements and computations . Error is ± the granularity of the instrument 's measurement capability . Error magnitudes are also added together when making multiple measurements for calculating a certain quantity . When making a calculation from a measurement to a specific number of significant digits , rounding ( if needed ) must be done properly . Accuracy might be determined by making multiple measurements of the same thing with the same instrument , and then calculating the result with a certain type of math function , or it might mean for example , a five pound weight could be measured on a scale and then the difference between five pounds and the measured weight could be the accuracy . The second definition makes accuracy related to calibration , while the first definition does not .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Instrument_error", "rank": 2, "score": 100622 }, { "content": "Title: Calibration of radiocarbon dates Content: Radiocarbon dating measurements produce ages in `` radiocarbon years '' , which must be converted to calendar ages by a process called calibration . Calibration is needed because the atmospheric / ratio , which is a key element in calculating radiocarbon ages , has not been constant historically . Although Willard Libby , the inventor of radiocarbon dating , had pointed out as early as 1955 the possibility that the / ratio might have varied over time , it was not until discrepancies began to accumulate between measured ages and known historical dates for artefacts that it became clear that a correction would need to be applied to radiocarbon ages to obtain calendar dates . Radiocarbon years ago may be abbreviated ya ( years ago ) . A general term used reflecting evidence from any method is Before Present ( BP ) .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calibration_of_radiocarbon_dates", "rank": 3, "score": 99791 }, { "content": "Title: Vibration calibrator Content: Vibration calibrators are electromechanical instruments which enable calibration of vibration sensors and measuring instruments to traceable standards . They produce sinusoidal mechanical vibration signals with known amplitudes and frequencies . The vibrating part of the instrument is usually a cylindrical steel stud with an internal thread for attachment of the test object . An electrodynamic or piezoelectric actuator system is used to produce the vibrations . With older instruments it was necessary to adjust the vibration amplitude according to the weight of the test object . However , modern instruments contain a built-in reference accelerometer and closed-loop control , with which the amplitude is kept constant up to a maximum specified weight of test object . Older models can be used to calibrate objects weighing up to a maximum of approximately 100 g , whereas the latest instruments can work stably with test objects weighing over 500 g. Vibration calibrators are most often used for testing and checking vibration sensors and measuring instruments at the site of their operation and are , therefore , usually transportable and battery operated . The most commonly occurring vibration frequency of calibrators is 159.2 Hz , which is equivalent to a radian frequency of 1000 rad/s . The vibration displacement , velocity and acceleration of sinusoidal signals are connected with each other through the factor of the radian frequency . Advantageously , at 1000 rad/s the numerical values of the amplitudes for all three vibration quantities are the same . For example , a vibration acceleration of 10 m/s ² at 159.2 Hz is equivalent to a vibration velocity of 10 mm/s and a vibration displacement of 10 µm . With some instruments it is possible to choose between several frequencies or to finely tune a specific frequency range . Frequencies between 16 Hz and 10 kHz are common on the market . Occasionally , vibration calibrators also contain a signal conditioner for connection to various types of vibration sensors , and additionally a display for reading the sensitivity .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Vibration_calibrator", "rank": 4, "score": 94452 }, { "content": "Title: Measuring receiver Content: In telecommunication , a measuring receiver or measurement receiver is a calibrated laboratory-grade radio receiver designed to measure the characteristics of radio signals . The parameters of such receivers ( tuning frequency , receiving bandwidth , gain ) can usually be adjusted over a much wider range of values than is the case with other radio receivers . Their circuitry is optimized for stability and to enable calibration and reproducible results . Some measurement receivers also have especially robust input circuits that can survive brief impulses of more than 1000 V , as they can occur during measurements of radio signals on power lines and other conductors .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Measuring_receiver", "rank": 5, "score": 92530 }, { "content": "Title: Precision measurement equipment laboratory Content: A Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory ( PMEL ) is a United States Air Force ( USAF ) facility in which the calibration and repair of test equipment takes place . This practice is also known as metrology : the science of measurement . Metrology is defined as the science of weights & measures , while a PMEL is the place where technicians perform all of the metrology for the U.S. Air Force . Air personnel in this career field are primarily responsible for the repair , calibration , and modification of test , measurement , and diagnostic equipment ( TMDE ) , including precision measurement equipment laboratory standards and automatic test equipment . They also supervise the process and use of TMDE to perform voltage , current , power , impedance , frequency , microwave , temperature , physical-dimensional , and optical measurements . They perform these functions in a strictly controlled laboratory environment where the temperature and humidity are constantly monitored.The Air Force Specialty Code ( AFSC ) of air personnel trained to work in the PMEL is 2P0X1 replacing 324X0 where `` X '' represents a variable number which denotes the level of expertise of the individual . There are also defense contractors and government civilians who perform this job . The Air Force 's PMELs are governed by AFMETCAL ( Air Force Metrology and Calibration Program )", "qid": "293", "docid": "Precision_measurement_equipment_laboratory", "rank": 6, "score": 87177 }, { "content": "Title: Measurement microphone calibration Content: In order to take a scientific measurement with a microphone , its precise sensitivity must be known ( in volts per pascal ) . Since this may change over the lifetime of the device , it is necessary to regularly calibrate measurement microphones . This service is offered by some microphone manufacturers and by independent testing laboratories . Microphone calibration by certified laboratories should ultimately be traceable to primary standards a ( National ) Measurement Institute that is a signatory to International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation . These could include the National Physical Laboratory in the UK , PTB in Germany , NIST in the USA and the National Measurement Institute , Australia , where the reciprocity calibration ( see below ) is the internationally recognised means of realising the primary standard . Laboratory standard microphones calibrated using this method are used in-turn to calibrate other microphones using comparison calibration techniques ( ` secondary calibration ' ) , referencing the output of the ` test ' microphone against that of the reference laboratory standard microphone . A microphone 's sensitivity varies with frequency ( as well as with other factors such as environmental conditions ) and is therefore normally recorded as several sensitivity values , each for a specific frequency band ( see frequency spectrum ) . A microphone 's sensitivity can also depend on the nature of the sound field it is exposed to . For this reason , microphones are often calibrated in more than one sound field , for example a pressure field and a free field . Depending on their application , measurement microphones must be tested periodically ( every year or several months , typically ) , and after any potentially damaging event , such as being dropped or exposed to sound levels beyond the device 's operational range .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Measurement_microphone_calibration", "rank": 7, "score": 85789 }, { "content": "Title: Measuring instrument Content: A measuring instrument is a device for measuring a physical quantity . In the physical sciences , quality assurance , and engineering , measurement is the activity of obtaining and comparing physical quantities of real-world objects and events . Established standard objects and events are used as units , and the process of measurement gives a number relating the item under study and the referenced unit of measurement . Measuring instruments , and formal test methods which define the instrument 's use , are the means by which these relations of numbers are obtained . All measuring instruments are subject to varying degrees of instrument error and measurement uncertainty . Scientists , engineers and other humans use a vast range of instruments to perform their measurements . These instruments may range from simple objects such as rulers and stopwatches to electron microscopes and particle accelerators . Virtual instrumentation is widely used in the development of modern measuring instruments .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Measuring_instrument", "rank": 8, "score": 84482 }, { "content": "Title: Dimensional metrology Content: Dimensional Metrology is the science of calibrating and using physical measurement equipment to quantify the physical size of or distance from any given object . Dimensional Metrology requires the use of a variety of physical scales to determine dimension and distance based on a combination of touch and optics .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Dimensional_metrology", "rank": 9, "score": 83460 }, { "content": "Title: Radiometric calibration Content: Radiometric calibration is a general term used in science and technology for any set of calibration techniques in support of the measurement of electromagnetic radiation and atomic particle radiation . These can be for instance , in the field of Radiometry or the measurement of ionising radiation radiated from a source .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Radiometric_calibration", "rank": 10, "score": 82397 }, { "content": "Title: Multimeter Content: A multimeter or a multitester , also known as a VOM ( Volt-Ohm-Milliammeter ) , is an electronic measuring instrument that combines several measurement functions in one unit . A typical multimeter can measure voltage , current , and resistance . Analog multimeters use a microammeter with a moving pointer to display readings . Digital multimeters ( DMM , DVOM ) have a numeric display , and may also show a graphical bar representing the measured value . Digital multimeters are now far more common due to their cost and precision , but analog multimeters are still preferable in some cases , for example when monitoring a rapidly varying value . A multimeter can be a hand-held device useful for basic fault finding and field service work , or a bench instrument which can measure to a very high degree of accuracy . They can be used to troubleshoot electrical problems in a wide array of industrial and household devices such as electronic equipment , motor controls , domestic appliances , power supplies , and wiring systems . Multimeters are available in a wide range of features and prices . Cheap multimeters can cost less than US$ 10 , while laboratory-grade models with certified calibration can cost more than US$ 5,000 .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Multimeter", "rank": 11, "score": 81382 }, { "content": "Title: ISO 10012 Content: ISO 10012:2003 , Measurement management systems - Requirements for measurement processes and measuring equipment is the ISO standard that specifies generic requirements and provides guidance for the management of measurement processes and metrological confirmation of measuring equipment used to support and demonstrate compliance with metrological requirements . It specifies quality management requirements of a measurement management system that can be used by an organization performing measurements as part of the overall management system , and to ensure metrological requirements are met . ISO 10012:2003 is not intended to be used as a requisite for demonstrating conformance with ISO 9001 , ISO 14001 or any other standard . Interested parties can agree to use ISO 10012:2003 as an input for satisfying measurement management system requirements in certification activities . Other standards and guides exist for particular elements affecting measurement results , e.g. details of measurement methods , competence of personnel , and interlaboratory comparisons . ISO 10012:2003 is not intended as a substitute for , or as an addition to , the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 .", "qid": "293", "docid": "ISO_10012", "rank": 12, "score": 80903 }, { "content": "Title: Measurement system analysis Content: A measurement systems analysis ( MSA ) is a specially designed experiment that seeks to identify the components of variation in the measurement . Just as processes that produce a product may vary , the process of obtaining measurements and data may have variation and produce defects . A measurement systems analysis evaluates the test method , measuring instruments , and the entire process of obtaining measurements to ensure the integrity of data used for analysis ( usually quality analysis ) and to understand the implications of measurement error for decisions made about a product or process . MSA is an important element of Six Sigma methodology and of other quality management systems . MSA analyzes the collection of equipment , operations , procedures , software and personnel that affects the assignment of a number to a measurement characteristic . ( US Department of Agriculture , pp45 ) A measurement systems analysis considers the following : Selecting the correct measurement and approach Assessing the measuring device Assessing procedures and operators Assessing any measurement interactions Calculating the measurement uncertainty of individual measurement devices and/or measurement systems Common tools and techniques of measurement systems analysis include : calibration studies , fixed effect ANOVA , components of variance , attribute gage study , gage R&R , ANOVA gage R&R , destructive testing analysis and others . The tool selected is usually determined by characteristics of the measurement system itself .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Measurement_system_analysis", "rank": 13, "score": 80237 }, { "content": "Title: Calibration gas Content: A calibration gas is a reference gas or gas mixture used as comparative standard in the calibration of analytical instruments , like gas analysers or gas detectors . Therefore , a calibration gas has to be of a precisely defined nature or composition , like zero gas or span gas , for example 500 ppm carbon monoxide in nitrogen . To be a calibration gas , the gas must be traceable to a national or international standard . Traceability is the unbroken chain of comparisons to an acceptable international standard . The calibration gas standard establishes a known analyzer response to a certified chemical component concentration . In the calibration gas , preparation tolerance ( PT ) and certification/analytical accuracy ( CA ) are of utmost importance . Preparation tolerance is the concentration range that includes minor component and concentration . PT is measured in range of concentration . It can also be referred to as blending tolerance . For instance , a calibration gas of 500 ppm CO balance nitrogen having PT + / - 10 % contains between 450 ppm and 550 ppm . Preparation tolerance can be minimized by using latest technologies for manufacturing such gases . Preparation tolerance is decided on the basis of the manufacturer 's experience and the customer 's requirements . Certification/analytical accuracy is defined as the agreement of measured values with its true value . Certification values are determined statistically , considering the uncertainties accompanied by the international standard ( reference standard ) to which it is traceable , instrument uncertainty , and instability ( reactivity ) of gas in the container .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calibration_gas", "rank": 14, "score": 78743 }, { "content": "Title: Calibration curve Content: In analytical chemistry , a calibration curve , also known as a standard curve , is a general method for determining the concentration of a substance in an unknown sample by comparing the unknown to a set of standard samples of known concentration . A calibration curve is one approach to the problem of instrument calibration ; other standard approaches may mix the standard into the unknown , giving an internal standard . The calibration curve is a plot of how the instrumental response , the so-called analytical signal , changes with the concentration of the analyte ( the substance to be measured ) . The operator prepares a series of standards across a range of concentrations near the expected concentration of analyte in the unknown . The concentrations of the standards must lie within the working range of the technique ( instrumentation ) they are using . Analyzing each of these standards using the chosen technique will produce a series of measurements . For most analyses a plot of instrument response vs. concentration will show a linear relationship . The operator can measure the response of the unknown and , using the calibration curve , can interpolate to find the concentration of analyte . In more general use , a calibration curve is a curve or table for a measuring instrument which measures some parameter indirectly , giving values for the desired quantity as a function of values of sensor output . For example , a calibration curve can be made for a particular pressure transducer to determine applied pressure from transducer output ( a voltage ) . Such a curve is typically used when an instrument uses a sensor whose calibration varies from one sample to another , or changes with time or use ; if sensor output is consistent the instrument would be marked directly in terms of the measured unit . The data - the concentrations of the analyte and the instrument response for each standard - can be fit to a straight line , using linear regression analysis . This yields a model described by the equation y = mx + y0 , where y is the instrument response , m represents the sensitivity , and y0 is a constant that describes the background . The analyte concentration ( x ) of unknown samples may be calculated from this equation . Many different variables can be used as the analytical signal . For instance , chromium ( III ) might be measured using a chemiluminescence method , in an instrument that contains a photomultiplier tube ( PMT ) as the detector . The detector converts the light produced by the sample into a voltage , which increases with intensity of light . The amount of light measured is the analytical signal . Most analytical techniques use a calibration curve . There are a number of advantages to this approach . First , the calibration curve provides a reliable way to calculate the uncertainty of the concentration calculated from the calibration curve ( using the statistics of the least squares line fit to the data ) . Second , the calibration curve provides data on an empirical relationship . The mechanism for the instrument 's response to the analyte may be predicted or understood according to some theoretical model , but most such models have limited value for real samples . ( Instrumental response is usually highly dependent on the condition of the analyte , solvents used and impurities it may contain ; it could also be affected by external factors such as pressure and temperature . ) Many theoretical relationships , such as fluorescence , require the determination of an instrumental constant anyway , by analysis of one or more reference standards ; a calibration curve is a convenient extension of this approach . The calibration curve for a particular analyte in a particular ( type of ) sample provides the empirical relationship needed for those particular measurements . The chief disadvantages are ( 1 ) that the standards require a supply of the analyte material , preferably of high purity and in known concentration , and ( 2 ) that the standards and the unknown are in the same matrix . Some analytes - e.g. , particular proteins - are extremely difficult to obtain pure in sufficient quantity . Other analytes are often in complex matrices , e.g. , heavy metals in pond water . In this case , the matrix may interfere with or attenuate the signal of the analyte . Therefore , a comparison between the standards ( which contain no interfering compounds ) and the unknown is not possible . The method of standard addition is a way to handle such a situation .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calibration_curve", "rank": 15, "score": 77559 }, { "content": "Title: Color calibration Content: The aim of color calibration is to measure and/or adjust the color response of a device ( input or output ) to a known state . In International Color Consortium ( ICC ) terms , this is the basis for an additional color characterization of the device and later profiling . In non-ICC workflows , calibration refers sometimes to establishing a known relationship to a standard color space in one go . The device that is to be calibrated is sometimes known as a calibration source ; the color space that serves as a standard is sometimes known as a calibration target . Color calibration is a requirement for all devices taking an active part of a color-managed workflow . Color calibration is used by many industries , such as television production , gaming , photography , engineering , chemistry , medical and more .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Color_calibration", "rank": 16, "score": 77396 }, { "content": "Title: Micrometer Content: A micrometer ( -LSB- maɪˈkrɒmᵻtər -RSB- ) , sometimes known as a micrometer screw gauge , is a device incorporating a calibrated screw widely used for precise measurement of components in mechanical engineering and machining as well as most mechanical trades , along with other metrological instruments such as dial , vernier , and digital calipers . Micrometers are usually , but not always , in the form of calipers ( opposing ends joined by a frame ) , which is why micrometer caliper is another common name . The spindle is a very accurately machined screw and the object to be measured is placed between the spindle and the anvil . The spindle is moved by turning the ratchet knob or thimble until the object to be measured is lightly touched by both the spindle and the anvil . Micrometers are also used in telescopes or microscopes to measure the apparent diameter of celestial bodies or microscopic objects . The micrometer used with a telescope was invented about 1638 by William Gascoigne , an English astronomer . Colloquially the word micrometer is often shortened to mike or mic ( -LSB- / ˈmaɪk / -RSB- ) .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Micrometer", "rank": 17, "score": 76656 }, { "content": "Title: Robot calibration Content: Industrial robots are highly repeatable but not accurate , therefore , robot accuracy can be improved through robot calibration . Robot calibration is the process of identifying certain parameters in the kinematic structure of an industrial robot , such as the relative position of robot links . Depending on the type of errors modeled , the calibration can be classified in three different ways . Level-1 calibration only models differences between actual and reported joint displacement values , ( also known as mastering ) . Level-2 calibration , also known as kinematic calibration , concerns the entire geometric robot calibration which includes angle offsets and joint lengths . Level-3 calibration , also called a non-kinematic calibration , models errors other than geometric defaults such as stiffness , joint compliance and friction . Often Level-1 and Level-2 calibration are sufficient for most practical needs . Non-parametric robot calibration circumvents the parameter identification . Used with serial robots , it is based on the direct compensation of mapped errors in the work space . Used with parallel robots , non-parametric calibration can be performed by the transformation of the configuration space . Parametric robot calibration is the process of determining the actual values of kinematic and dynamic parameters of an industrial robot ( IR ) . Kinematic parameters describe the relative position and orientation of links and joints in the robot while the dynamic parameters describe arm and joint masses and internal friction . Robot calibration can remarkably improve the accuracy of robots programmed offline , also known as Off-line programming ( robotics ) . A calibrated robot has a higher absolute as well as relative positioning accuracy than an uncalibrated one , i.e. , the real position of the robot end effector corresponds better to the position calculated from the mathematical model of the robot . Absolute positioning accuracy is particularly relevant in connection with robot exchangeability and Off-line programming ( robotics ) of precision applications . Besides the calibration of the robot , the calibration of its tools and the workpieces it works with ( the so-called cell calibration ) can minimize occurring inaccuracies and improve process security .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Robot_calibration", "rank": 18, "score": 76609 }, { "content": "Title: Lufkin (brand) Content: Lufkin is a brand featuring primarily measurement tools such as calipers , gauges , micrometers , and measuring tapes . Lufkin is a brand of Apex Tool Group .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Lufkin_(brand)", "rank": 19, "score": 75751 }, { "content": "Title: Ubbelohde viscometer Content: An Ubbelohde type viscometer or suspended-level viscometer is a measuring instrument which uses a capillary based method of measuring viscosity . It is recommended for higher viscosity cellulosic polymer solutions . The advantage of this instrument is that the values obtained are independent of the total volume . The device was developed by the German chemist Leo Ubbelohde ( 1877-1964 ) . ASTM and other test methods are : ISO 3104 , ISO 3105 , ASTM D445 , ASTM D446 , ASTM D4020 , IP 71 , BS 188 . The Ubbelohde viscometer is closely related to the Ostwald viscometer . Both are u-shaped pieces of glassware with a reservoir on one side and a measuring bulb with a capillary on the other . A liquid is introduced into the reservoir then sucked through the capillary and measuring bulb . The liquid is allowed to travel back through the measuring bulb and the time it takes for the liquid to pass through two calibrated marks is a measure for viscosity . The Ubbelohde device has a third arm extending from the end of the capillary and open to the atmosphere . In this way the pressure head only depends on a fixed height and no longer on the total volume of liquid .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Ubbelohde_viscometer", "rank": 20, "score": 75604 }, { "content": "Title: Klinkenberg correction Content: In petroleum engineering , a Klinkenberg correction is a procedure for calibration of permeability data obtained from a minipermeameter device . A more accurate correction factor can be obtained using Knudsen correction . When using nitrogen gas for core plug measurements , the Klinkenberg correction is usually necessary due to the so-called Klinkenberg gas slippage effect . This takes place when the pore space approaches the mean free path of the gas", "qid": "293", "docid": "Klinkenberg_correction", "rank": 21, "score": 75556 }, { "content": "Title: Hygrometer Content: A hygrometer -LSB- haɪˈɡrɒmᵻtər -RSB- is an instrument used for measuring the moisture content in the atmosphere . Humidity measurement instruments usually rely on measurements of some other quantity such as temperature , pressure , mass or a mechanical or electrical change in a substance as moisture is absorbed . By calibration and calculation , these measured quantities can lead to a measurement of humidity . Modern electronic devices use temperature of condensation ( the dew point ) , or changes in electrical capacitance or resistance to measure humidity differences . The first crude hygrometer was invented by Leonardo da Vinci in 1480 and a more modern version was created by polymath Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1755 .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Hygrometer", "rank": 22, "score": 75499 }, { "content": "Title: K-system Content: The K-system is an audio level measuring technique proposed by mastering engineer Bob Katz in the paper An integrated approach to Metering , Monitoring and Levelling . It proposes a studio monitor calibration system and a set of meter ballistics to help engineers produce consistent sounding music while preserving appropriate dynamic range .", "qid": "293", "docid": "K-system", "rank": 23, "score": 74686 }, { "content": "Title: Chino Corporation Content: CHINO Corporation is a Japanese professional manufacturer of measuring/controlling instruments and instrumentation system . CHINO Corporation ( Well known name - CHINO ) is engaged in manufacturing and supplying in wide range of temperature sensors as thermocouple , radiation pyrometer and thermal imaging system with infrared technology , moisture/humidity sensor , recorder , temperature controller , wireless module which send the measured value in wireless and test/evaluation system for fuel cell and compressor calorimeter . Furthermore , Chino manufactures and supplies calibration systems for measuring instruments and does calibration of traceability test , has been working as a JCSS certified suppliers .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Chino_Corporation", "rank": 24, "score": 73549 }, { "content": "Title: Talyrond Content: Talyrond is a registered trademark of Taylor-Hobson Limited . Talyrond instruments comply with ANSI-B 3.12 1975 and can measure less than one-millionth of an inch . When required , the calibration can be documented in the form of a polar chart recording . Taylor-Hobson was founded by William Taylor with his brother in Leicester in 1886 this was originally a lens making company . He was responsible for developing the world 's highest quality cinema lenses which helped to develop the film industry in the early twentieth century . As they began to manufacture more accurate lenses , they realised they needed instruments that would measure the perfection of each lens .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Talyrond", "rank": 25, "score": 73481 }, { "content": "Title: On-The-Fly Calibration Content: In observational astronomy an On-The-Fly Calibration ( OTFC ) system calibrates data when a user 's request for the data is processed so that users can obtain data that are calibrated with up-to-date calibration files , parameters , and software .", "qid": "293", "docid": "On-The-Fly_Calibration", "rank": 26, "score": 73318 }, { "content": "Title: Measurement in quantum mechanics Content: The framework of quantum mechanics requires a careful definition of measurement . The issue of measurement lies at the heart of the problem of the interpretation of quantum mechanics , for which there is currently no consensus .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Measurement_in_quantum_mechanics", "rank": 27, "score": 73204 }, { "content": "Title: Calibrated orifice Content: A calibrated orifice is a restriction that is deliberately placed into a system of pipes to set the flow rate through the system . The orifice may be designed to produce proportional flow ( as in the jet in a carburetor ) , or choked flow ( as in a filtering bypass in a closed industrial cooling system , which might be designed to pass a particular flow rate through a filter assembly to maintain cleanliness of a closed-loop fluid system ) . Many pressure gauges also use an orifice ( also called a restrictor ) to limit the flow into a gauge . Since the pressure is even throughout the system , allowing only a small portion of the flow into the actual gauge allows it to be in parallel with the pressure circuit and still measure accurately . It also prevents or minimizes damage to the gauge during pressure surges at start-up , or due to any spikes in the system pressure .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calibrated_orifice", "rank": 28, "score": 73106 }, { "content": "Title: Calo tester Content: The Calo tester , also known as a ball craterer or coating thickness tester , is a quick , simple and inexpensive piece of equipment used to measure the thickness of coatings . Coatings with thicknesses typically between 0.1 to 50 micrometres , such as Physical Vapor Deposition ( PVD ) coatings or Chemical Vapor Deposition ( CVD ) coatings , are used in many industries to improve the surface properties of tools and components . The Calo tester is also used to measure the amount of coating wear after a wear test carried out using a Pin-on-Disc Tester . The Calo tester consists of a holder for the surface to be tested and a steel sphere of known diameter that is rotated against the surface by a rotating shaft connected to a motor whilst diamond paste is applied to the contact area . The sphere is rotated for a short period of time ( less than 20 seconds for a 0.1 to 5 micrometre thickness ) but due to the abrasive nature of the diamond paste this is sufficient time to wear a crater through thin coatings .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calo_tester", "rank": 29, "score": 73060 }, { "content": "Title: Beauty micrometer Content: The beauty micrometer , also known as the beauty calibrator , was a device designed in the early 1930s to help in the identification of the areas of a person 's face which need to have their appearance reduced or enhanced by make-up . The inventors include famed beautician Max Factor , Sr. . A 2013 Wired article described the device as `` a Clockwork Orange style device '' that combines `` phrenology , cosmetics and a withering pseudo-scientific analysis '' . A photograph of Max Factor , Sr. using the device on actress Marjorie Reynolds featured in a 1935 article in science magazine Modern Mechanix and , when republished by The Guardian in 2013 , the caption described it as being `` a contraption that looks like an instrument of torture '' . Placed on and around the head and face , the beauty micrometer uses flexible metal strips which align with a person 's facial features . The screws holding the strips in place allow for 325 adjustments , enabling the operator to make fine measurements with a precision of one thousandth of an inch . The inventors stated that there are two key measurements that they looked for : the heights of the nose and forehead should be the same , and the eyes should be separated by the width of one eye . When an imperfection is identified , corrective make-up can be applied to enhance or subdue the feature . The company Max Factor claims that the device helped Max Factor , Sr. to better understand the female face . The beauty micrometer was completed in 1932 and was primarily intended for use in the movie industry . When an actor 's face is shown in a very large scale their `` flaws '' are magnified and can become `` glaring distortions '' , according to the Modern Mechanix article . This device was intended to remedy the perceived problem , and the inventors also envisioned it being used in beauty shops . However , it did not become popular and did not gain widespread usage . Only one beauty micrometer is believed to exist . It is featured in a display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum and came up for auction in 2009 , falling significantly short of the $ 10,000 -- $ 20,000 estimate .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Beauty_micrometer", "rank": 30, "score": 73043 }, { "content": "Title: Calibration (statistics) Content: There are two main uses of the term calibration in statistics that denote special types of statistical inference problems . Thus `` calibration '' can mean A reverse process to regression , where instead of a future dependent variable being predicted from known explanatory variables , a known observation of the dependent variables is used to predict a corresponding explanatory variable . Procedures in statistical classification to determine class membership probabilities which assess the uncertainty of a given new observation belonging to each of the already established classes . In addition , `` calibration '' is used in statistics with the usual general meaning of calibration . For example , model calibration can be also used to refer to Bayesian inference about the value of a model 's parameters , given some data set , or more generally to any type of fitting of a statistical model .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calibration_(statistics)", "rank": 31, "score": 72824 }, { "content": "Title: Calipers Content: A caliper is a device used to measure the distance between two opposite sides of an object . A caliper can be as simple as a compass with inward or outward-facing points . The tips of the caliper are adjusted to fit across the points to be measured , the caliper is then removed and the distance read by measuring between the tips with a measuring tool , such as a ruler . It is used in many fields such as mechanical engineering , metalworking , forestry , woodworking , science and medicine .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calipers", "rank": 32, "score": 72800 }, { "content": "Title: Universal measuring machine Content: Universal measuring machines are measurement devices used for objects in which geometric relationships are the most critical element , with dimensions specified from geometric locations rather than absolute coordinates . The very first uses for these machines was the inspection of gauges and parts produced by jig grinding . While bearing some resemblance to a coordinate-measuring machine ( CMM ) its usage and accuracy envelope differs significantly . Originally , universal measuring machines were created to fill a need to continuously measure geometric features in both an absolute and comparative capacity , rather than a point based coordinate measuring system . A CMM provides a rapid method for inspecting absolute points , but geometric relationships must be calculated rather than measured directly . In theory ? By using an accurate spindle with an electronic test indicator rather than a probe , a universal measuring machine fills this need . The indicator can be accurately controlled and moved across a part , either along a linear axis or radially around the spindle , to continuously record profile and geometry . This gives the universal machine a very strong advantage over other measuring methods when profiling radii , contours , and holes , as the detail of the feature can be of any arbitrary resolution . The analog record generated by the machine can be fed directly into a compensator on computer numerical control ( CNC ) machine tools , correcting the machine on a per-job basis . In practice , the universal measuring machine is a very slow machine that requires a highly skilled and patient operator to use , and the accuracy built into these machines far outstripped the needs of most industries . As a result , the universal measuring machine today is only found as a special-purpose machine in metrology laboratories . Because the machine can make comparative length measurements without moving linear axes , it is a valuable tool in comparing master gauges and length standards . While universal measuring machines were never a mass-produced item , they are no longer available on a production basis , and are produced on a to-order basis tailored to the needs of the metrology lab purchasing it . Manufacturers that perform work that must be measured on such a machine will frequently opt to subcontract the measurement to a laboratory which specializes in such . Universal measuring machines placed under corrected interferometric control and using non-contact gauge heads can measure features to millionths of an inch across the entire machine 's envelope , where other types of machine are limited either in number of axes or accuracy of the measurement . The accuracy of the machine itself is negligible , as the environment the machine is the limiting factor to effective accuracy . The earlier mechanical machines were built to hold 10 to 20 millionths of an inch accuracy across the entire machine envelope , and due to incredible machine design and forethought , remain as accurate today without computer compensation .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Universal_measuring_machine", "rank": 33, "score": 72678 }, { "content": "Title: INCA (software) Content: INCA is a measurement , calibration and diagnostic software published by ETAS . With its large installation base in the auto industry , this development software is deployed during all phases of the development of electronic control units ( ECUs ) and ECU software programs for measuring , calibration , diagnostics and programming .", "qid": "293", "docid": "INCA_(software)", "rank": 34, "score": 72573 }, { "content": "Title: Voltmeter Content: A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring electrical potential difference between two points in an electric circuit . Analog voltmeters move a pointer across a scale in proportion to the voltage of the circuit ; digital voltmeters give a numerical display of voltage by use of an analog to digital converter . A voltmeter in a circuit diagram is represented by the letter V in a circle . Voltmeters are made in a wide range of styles . Instruments permanently mounted in a panel are used to monitor generators or other fixed apparatus . Portable instruments , usually equipped to also measure current and resistance in the form of a multimeter , are standard test instruments used in electrical and electronics work . Any measurement that can be converted to a voltage can be displayed on a meter that is suitably calibrated ; for example , pressure , temperature , flow or level in a chemical process plant . General purpose analog voltmeters may have an accuracy of a few percent of full scale , and are used with voltages from a fraction of a volt to several thousand volts . Digital meters can be made with high accuracy , typically better than 1 % . Specially calibrated test instruments have higher accuracies , with laboratory instruments capable of measuring to accuracies of a few parts per million . Meters using amplifiers can measure tiny voltages of microvolts or less . Part of the problem of making an accurate voltmeter is that of calibration to check its accuracy . In laboratories , the Weston Cell is used as a standard voltage for precision work . Precision voltage references are available based on electronic circuits .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Voltmeter", "rank": 35, "score": 72568 }, { "content": "Title: Duct leakage testing Content: A duct leakage tester is a diagnostic tool designed to measure the airtightness of forced air heating , ventilating and air-conditioning ( HVAC ) ductwork . A duct leakage tester consists of a calibrated fan for measuring an air flow rate and a pressure sensing device to measure the pressure created by the fan flow . The combination of pressure and fan flow measurements are used to determine the ductwork airtightness . The airtightness of ductwork is useful knowledge when trying to improve energy conservation .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Duct_leakage_testing", "rank": 36, "score": 72437 }, { "content": "Title: Macrometer Content: A macrometer is an instrument for measuring the size and distance of distant objects . Distant in this sense means a length that can not be readily measured by a calibrated length . The optical version of this instrument used two mirrors on a common sextant . By aligning the object on the mirrors using a precise vernier , the position of the mirrors could be used to compute the range to the object . The distance and the angular size of the object would then yield the actual size . The Macrometer Interferometric Surveyor is a commercial GPS-based system for performing geodetic measurements .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Macrometer", "rank": 37, "score": 72227 }, { "content": "Title: Water metering Content: Water metering is the process of measuring water use . In many developed countries water meters are used to measure the volume of water used by residential and commercial buildings that are supplied with water by a public water supply system . Water meters can also be used at the water source , well , or throughout a water system to determine flow through a particular portion of the system . In most of the world water meters measure flow in cubic metres ( m3 ) or litres but in the USA and some other countries water meters are calibrated in cubic feet ( ft. 3 ) or US gallons on a mechanical or electronic register . Some electronic meter registers can display rate-of-flow in addition to total usage . There are several types of water meters in common use . The choice depends on the flow measurement method , the type of end user , the required flow rates , and accuracy requirements . In North America , standards for manufacturing water meters are set by the American Water Works Association . Outside of North America , most countries use ISO standards", "qid": "293", "docid": "Water_metering", "rank": 38, "score": 72200 }, { "content": "Title: Backshop Content: A backshop or back-shop is a specialized store or workshop found in service industries , such as locomotive and aircraft repair . Most repairs are carried out in small workshops , except where an industrial service is needed . In the military , backshops repair parts known as shop-replaceable units ( SRUs ) . These are commonly stocked subassemblies of a larger system , such as circuit cards components of a line-replaceable unit ( LRU ) , designed to be repaired at the field level . Repair at this level is known as field-level maintenance or intermediate-level ( I-level ) maintenance . Calibration and repair of United States Air Force test equipment is conducted at shops known as precision measurement equipment laboratories .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Backshop", "rank": 39, "score": 72099 }, { "content": "Title: Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1 Content: The Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1 , or LCS-1 , is a large aluminium sphere in Earth orbit since 6 May 1965 . It is the oldest spacecraft still in use , having lasted for over 50 years . It was launched along with the Lincoln Experimental Satellite-2 on a Titan IIIA . It is technically the oldest operational spacecraft , but it has no power supply or fuel ; it is merely a metal sphere . It has been used for radar calibration since its launch . It was built by Rohr . Corp. for the MIT Lincoln Laboratory . LCS-1 is a hollow sphere 1.12 m in diameter with a wall thickness of 3.2 mm . The sphere was constructed from two hemispheres , made by spinning sheet metal over a mold . These hemispheres were fastened to an internal , circumferential hoop by 440 countersunk screws , then milled and polished . Before being launched to orbit , the optical cross section of the LCS-1 was measured in L , S , C , X and K microwave bands . Four other spheres were also manufactured and measured for comparison to the one in orbit .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Lincoln_Calibration_Sphere_1", "rank": 40, "score": 72007 }, { "content": "Title: Measurement tower Content: A measurement tower or met mast is a free standing tower or a removed mast , which carries measuring instruments with meteorological instruments such as thermometers and wind velocity measurers . Measuring towers are an essential component of rocket launching sites , since one must know exact wind conditions for an execution of a rocket start . Also in the proximity of some nuclear power stations ( as in Grafenrheinfeld , Germany ) there are measuring towers . Beside measurement towers , which are equipped with meteorological measuring instruments , there are also measuring towers for measuring the radiation pattern of antennas . Such towers are frequently implemented as metal-free timber constructions for the avoidance of disturbance of the radiation pattern , as the measuring towers of the antenna measuring position in bridge .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Measurement_tower", "rank": 41, "score": 71944 }, { "content": "Title: Deadweight tester Content: A dead weight tester apparatus uses known traceable weights to apply pressure to a fluid for checking the accuracy of readings from a pressure gauge . A dead weight tester ( DWT ) is a calibration standard method that uses a piston cylinder on which a load is placed to make an equilibrium with an applied pressure underneath the piston . Deadweight testers are so called primary standards which means that the pressure measured by a deadweight tester is defined through other quantities : length , mass and time . Typically deadweight testers are used in calibration laboratories to calibrate pressure transfer standards like electronic pressure measuring devices .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Deadweight_tester", "rank": 42, "score": 71919 }, { "content": "Title: Explosimeter Content: An explosimeter is a gas detector which is used to measure the amount of combustible gases present in a sample . When a percentage of the lower explosive limit ( LEL ) of an atmosphere is exceeded , an alarm signal on the instrument is activated . `` Explosimeter '' is a registered trademark of MSA . The device , also called a combustible gas detector , operates on the principle of resistance proportional to heat -- a wire is heated , and a sample of the gas is introduced to the hot wire . Combustible gases burn in the presence of the hot wire , thus increasing the resistance and disturbing a Wheatstone bridge , which gives the reading . A flashback arrestor is installed in the device to avoid the explosimeter igniting the sample external to the device . Note , that the detection readings of an explosimeter are only accurate if the gas being sampled has the same characteristics and response as the calibration gas . Most explosimeters are calibrated to methane or hydrogen .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Explosimeter", "rank": 43, "score": 71859 }, { "content": "Title: Torque tester Content: A torque tester is used as a quality control device to test or calibrate torque controlled tools . This includes electronic torque wrenches , click torque wrenches , dial torque wrenches , electric screwdrivers , air screwdrivers , pulse tools , cordless screwdrivers , nutrunners , and torque screwdrivers . Today 's advanced torque testers include the ability to measure in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions , convert to 8 engineering units ( in · oz , in · lb , ft · lb , N · m , cN · m , kgf · cm , gf · cm , kgf · fm ) , 3 modes of operation ( peak , 1st peak , track ) , and include a National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ) certificate ( or its domestic pendant ) .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Torque_tester", "rank": 44, "score": 71844 }, { "content": "Title: Camera auto-calibration Content: Camera auto-calibration is the process of determining internal camera parameters directly from multiple uncalibrated images of unstructured scenes . In contrast to classic camera calibration , auto-calibration does not require any special calibration objects in the scene . In the special effects industry , camera auto-calibration is often part of the `` Match Moving '' process where a synthetic camera trajectory and intrinsic projection model are solved to reproject synthetic content into video . Camera auto-calibration is a form of sensor ego-structure discovery ; the subjective effects of the sensor are separated from the objective effects of the environment leading to a reconstruction of the perceived world without the bias applied by the measurement device . This is achieved via the fundamental assumption that images are projected from a Euclidean space through a linear , 5 degree of freedom ( in the simplest case ) , pinhole camera model with non-linear optical distortion . The linear pinhole parameters are the focal length , the aspect ratio , the skew , and the 2D principal point . With only a set of uncalibrated ( or calibrated ) images , a scene may be reconstructed up to a six degree of freedom euclidean transform and an isotropic scaling . A mathematical theory for general multi-view camera self-calibration was originally demonstrated in 1992 by Olivier Faugeras , Q.T. Luong , and S.J. Maybank . In 3D scenes and general motions , each pair of views provides two constraints on the 5 degree-of-freedom calibration . Therefore , three views are the minimum needed for full calibration with fixed intrinsic parameters between views . Quality modern imaging sensors and optics may also provide further prior constraints on the calibration such as zero skew ( orthogonal pixel grid ) and unity aspect ratio ( square pixels ) . Integrating these priors will reduce the minimal number of images needed to two . It is possible to auto-calibrate a sensor from a single image given supporting information in a structured scene . For example , calibration may be obtained if multiple sets of parallel lines or objects with a known shape ( e.g. circular ) are identified .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Camera_auto-calibration", "rank": 45, "score": 71753 }, { "content": "Title: Proof mass Content: A proof mass or test mass is a known quantity of mass used in a measuring instrument as a reference for the measurement of an unknown quantity . A proof mass that deforms a spring in an accelerometer is sometimes called the seismic mass . A mass used to calibrate a weighing scale is sometimes called a calibration mass or calibration weight .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Proof_mass", "rank": 46, "score": 71718 }, { "content": "Title: Distance measuring equipment Content: Distance measuring equipment ( DME ) is a transponder-based radio navigation technology that measures slant range distance by timing the propagation delay of VHF or UHF radio signals . Developed in Australia , it was invented by James `` Gerry '' Gerrand under the supervision of Edward George `` Taffy '' Bowen while employed as Chief of the Division of Radiophysics of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) . Another engineered version of the system was deployed by Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited in the early 1950s operating in the 200 MHz VHF band . This Australian domestic version was referred to by the Federal Department of Civil Aviation as DME ( D ) ( or DME Domestic ) , and the later international version adopted by ICAO as DME ( I ) . DME is similar to secondary radar , except in reverse . The system was a post-war development of the IFF ( identification friend or foe ) systems of World War II . To maintain compatibility , DME is functionally identical to the distance measuring component of TACAN .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Distance_measuring_equipment", "rank": 47, "score": 71523 }, { "content": "Title: Ancient Greek units of measurement Content: Ancient Greek units of measurement varied according to location and epoch . Systems of ancient weights and measures evolved as needs changed ; Solon and other lawgivers also reformed them en bloc . Some units of measurement were found to be convenient for trade within the Mediterranean region and these units became increasingly common to different city states . The calibration and use of measuring devices became more sophisticated . By about 500 BC , Athens had a central depository of official weights and measures , the Tholos , where merchants were required to test their measuring devices against official standards .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Ancient_Greek_units_of_measurement", "rank": 48, "score": 71428 }, { "content": "Title: Pocket comparator Content: A Pocket comparator is an optical device for measuring and inspection comprising a loupe and a reticle . The instrument was developed and manufactured by the Bell & Howell Company , but similar instruments of other names are made by other manufacturers . It is used for : Linear measurements in fractions of an inch . Circular measurements in fractions of an inch . Radius measurements . Angle measurements . Narrow line width measurements . Circular measurements in decimals of an inch . Linear measurements in inches . Linear measurements in millimeters Measurements are performed by bringing the surface of the reticle as close as possible to the work inspected .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Pocket_comparator", "rank": 49, "score": 71398 }, { "content": "Title: Shop-replaceable unit Content: A shop-replaceable unit ( SRU ) or shop-replaceable component ( SRC ) is a modular component of an airplane , ship or spacecraft that is designed to be replaced by a technician at a backshop . Repair at backshops is known as field-level maintenance or intermediate-level ( I-level ) maintenance . SRUs are similar in nature to line-replaceable units ( LRUs ) , but rather than being complete functional units , represent component functions , such as circuit card assemblies , of a larger LRU . SRUs are typically assigned logistics control numbers ( LCNs ) or work unit codes ( WUCs ) to manage logistics operations . SRUs can be stocked to allow for quick remove and replace ( R&R ) operations on their parent LRUs or LLRUs , while also allowing for more extended repair operations at the backshop . Calibration and repair of United States Air Force test equipment is conducted at shops known as precision measurement equipment laboratories .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Shop-replaceable_unit", "rank": 50, "score": 71252 }, { "content": "Title: IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Content: The IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society '' ' is a professional society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ) . The society 's Field of Interest , according to its website , include metrology , analog and digital electronic instruments , systems and standards for measuring and recording electrical quantities ( in both the frequency and time domains ) , instrumentation and transducers for measurement of non-electrical variables , calibration and uncertainty , instruments with automated control and analysis functions , safety instrumentation , and new technology applications .", "qid": "293", "docid": "IEEE_Instrumentation_and_Measurement_Society", "rank": 51, "score": 71050 }, { "content": "Title: Stadiometer Content: A stadiometer is a piece of medical equipment used for measuring human height . It is usually constructed out of a ruler and a sliding horizontal headpiece which is adjusted to rest on the top of the head . Stadiometers are used in routine medical examinations and also clinical tests and experiments . Devices with similar concept , although with higher resolutions , are used in industrial metrology applications , where they are called height gauges .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Stadiometer", "rank": 52, "score": 71042 }, { "content": "Title: ISO 11171 Content: ISO 11171 is an international standard for calibrating liquid particle counters . As the functionality of hydraulic fluids suffers when contaminated with particles , particle counters are used for contamination control . The particle counter determines the concentration and the size distribution of the particles . Therefore , the accuracy of the liquid particle counter has to be established through calibration . According to ISO 11171 for the primary particle-sizing calibration NIST SRM 2806 suspension has to be used . In annex `` F '' of ISO 11171 , preparation of secondary calibration suspension is described . In general ISO 11171 specifies procedures for two different subjects : sample preparation sensor calibration ( particle-sizing calibration , coincidence error , resolution and flow rate limit determination etc. . )", "qid": "293", "docid": "ISO_11171", "rank": 53, "score": 70881 }, { "content": "Title: List of electrical and electronic measuring equipment Content: Below is the list of measuring instruments used in electrical and electronic work . Category : Measuring instruments Category : Electronic test equipment Category : Electrical test equipment", "qid": "293", "docid": "List_of_electrical_and_electronic_measuring_equipment", "rank": 54, "score": 70822 }, { "content": "Title: Preparation (physics) Content: Generally , measuring instruments are meant to get the ( pre - ) existent value of a physical quantity of a system with as little change of , or interaction with the system as possible . -- If a measuring instrument fixes a physical quantity of a physical system for further use ( post-existent ) , then the measurement process is called preparation . For example , a graduated cylinder filled to a definite mark prepares a certain volume of the liquid for further use . Though preparation measures a physical quantity -- at least by fixing it -- it often destroys previous states of the physical system . This is usually experienced in quantum mechanics . Category : Measurement Category : Quantum mechanics", "qid": "293", "docid": "Preparation_(physics)", "rank": 55, "score": 70743 }, { "content": "Title: Measuring Instruments Directive Content: The Measuring Instruments Directive 2014/32/EU ( the information is not updated and below this article refers to the old one 2004/22/EC ) , is a directive by the European Union , which seeks to harmonise many aspects of legal metrology across all member states of the EU . Its most prominent tenet is that all kinds of meters which receive a MID approval may be used in all countries across the EU . The MID covers these measuring instruments : Water meters Gas meters and volume conversion devices Active electrical energy meters Heat meters Measuring systems for the continuous and dynamic measurement of quantities of liquids other than water Automatic weighing instruments Taximeters Material measures Dimensioning systems Exhaust gas analysers Measuring instruments that comply with the MID bear : the CE mark a capital letter `` M '' and the last two digits of the year of its affixing , surrounded by a rectangle the identification number of the notified body involved in conformity assessment The Measuring Instruments Directive was published on 30 April 2004 in the Official Journal of the EU , but not applied until after 30 October 2006 and there will be a 10-year transition period . National implementations of the new legislation are currently in the works . Two amendments of the Directive were published : COMMISSION DIRECTIVE 2009/137/EC of 10 November 2009 Amending Directive 2004/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on measuring instruments in respect of exploitation of the maximum permissible errors , as regards the instrument-specific annexes MI-001 to MI-005 and Directive 2014/32/EU of the European Parliament and of the council of 26 February 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of measuring instruments", "qid": "293", "docid": "Measuring_Instruments_Directive", "rank": 56, "score": 70727 }, { "content": "Title: Calibrated airspeed Content: Calibrated airspeed ( CAS ) is indicated airspeed corrected for instrument and position error . When flying at sea level under International Standard Atmosphere conditions ( 15 ° C , 1013 hPa , 0 % humidity ) calibrated airspeed is the same as equivalent airspeed ( EAS ) and true airspeed ( TAS ) . If there is no wind it is also the same as ground speed ( GS ) . Under any other conditions , CAS may differ from the aircraft 's TAS and GS . Calibrated airspeed in knots is usually abbreviated as KCAS , while indicated airspeed is abbreviated as KIAS . In some applications , notably British usage , the expression rectified airspeed is used instead of calibrated airspeed .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calibrated_airspeed", "rank": 57, "score": 70616 }, { "content": "Title: Esthesiometer Content: An esthesiometer ( British spelling aesthesiometer ) is a device for measuring the tactile sensitivity of the skin ( or mouth , or eye , etc. ) . The measure of the degree of tactile sensitivity is called aesthesiometry . The device was invented by Edward Henry Sieveking . There are different types of aesthesiometers depending on their particular function . The simplest is a manual tool with adjustable points similar to a caliper . It can determine how short a distance between two impressions on the skin can be distinguished . To differentiate between two points and one point of equal area ( the sum of the areas of the two points equals the area of the third point ) , Dr. Sidney Weinstein created the three-point esthesiometer ( re : Weinstein Aesthesiometer ) . A scale on the instrument gives readings in millimeter gradients . Another type of manual aesthesiometer is used to test lower thresholds of touch or pain . The tool uses nylon monofilaments with varying calibrated diameters . The force needed to cause the monofilament to `` buckle '' determines the tactile reading . The filaments are calibrated by force applied , rather than by gram/mm2 pressure ratings , because sensation follows force ( when the stimulated area is small ) . The Semmes-Weinstein Aesthesiometer , and its variant the Weinstein Enhanced Sensory Test ( WEST , e.g. , WEST-hand ) , present nylon monofilaments of approximately the same length ( 38 mm ) and of varying diameters . The diameter and length are used to control the force applied . Whereas Dr. Weinstein used 3-digit numbers to reflect the force of the Semmes-Weinsein Aesthesiometer ( 3 digit number equals the common log of the force measured in tenths of a milligram ) , the WEST esthesiometers ( also created by Weinstein and group ) use grams ( e.g. , 0.70 g ) to describe the force . For small-area stimulating instruments ( e.g. , WEST ) , force , rather than area , is the appropriate measure . This is because an approximately equal area of skin is indented for the heavy and light forces ( see Weinstein et al. , Evaluation of Sensory Methods in Neuropathy , in Tendon and Nerve Surgery in the Hand -- a Third Decade , by Hunter et al. ) . The area of stimulation of the Semmes-Weinstein Aestheiometer is not correctly described by the area of the stimulating nylon ( the nylon twists on the skin , pushing a sharp edge into the skin ) . Therefore , the unit gram/mm2 is descriptive of the geometry but not the function . The WEST esthesiometer has a bulb for a contacting tip , so when the tip bends it presents the same contacting face . An non-intrusive device called a corneal aesthesiometer is used to test cornea nerve sensitivity by using a controlled pulse of air as stimulation . The device gives readouts in millibars . Also , a thermal aesthesiometer is used to determine sensitivity of thermal stimuli . Weinstein and group created an air-based corneal esthesiometer using gram-force ( tens of micrograms force ) . They also created an air-based oral esthesiometer . For example , smokers ' upper throats are much less sensitive than nonsmokers .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Esthesiometer", "rank": 58, "score": 70428 }, { "content": "Title: Salinometer Content: A salinometer is a device designed to measure the salinity , or dissolved salt content , of a solution . Since the salinity affects both the electrical conductivity and the specific gravity of a solution , a salinometer often consist of an ec meter or hydrometer and some means of converting those readings to a salinity reading . A salinometer may be calibrated in either micromhos , a unit of electrical conductivity , ( usually 0-22 ) or else directly calibrated for salt in ` grains per gallon ' ( 0-0 .5 ) . A typical reading on-board ship would be 2 micromhos or 0.05 grains per gallon . A reading of twice this may trigger a warning light or alarm .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Salinometer", "rank": 59, "score": 70410 }, { "content": "Title: Calorimetry Content: Calorimetry is the science or act of measuring changes in state variables of a body for the purpose of deriving the heat transfer associated with changes of its state due , for example , to chemical reactions , physical changes , or phase transitions under specified constraints . Calorimetry is performed with a calorimeter . The word calorimetry is derived from the Latin word calor , meaning heat and the Greek word μέτρον ( metron ) , meaning measure . Scottish physician and scientist Joseph Black , who was the first to recognize the distinction between heat and temperature , is said to be the founder of the science of calorimetry . Indirect Calorimetry calculates heat that living organisms produce by measuring either their production of carbon dioxide and nitrogen waste ( frequently ammonia in aquatic organisms , or urea in terrestrial ones ) , or from their consumption of oxygen . Lavoisier noted in 1780 that heat production can be predicted from oxygen consumption this way , using multiple regression . The Dynamic Energy Budget theory explains why this procedure is correct . Heat generated by living organisms may also be measured by direct calorimetry , in which the entire organism is placed inside the calorimeter for the measurement . A widely used modern instrument is the differential scanning calorimeter , a device which allows thermal data to be obtained on small amounts of material . It involves heating the sample at a controlled rate and recording the heat flow either into or from the specimen .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calorimetry", "rank": 60, "score": 70349 }, { "content": "Title: XCP (protocol) Content: XCP or `` Universal Measurement and Calibration Protocol '' is a network protocol originating from ASAM for connecting calibration systems to electronic control units , ECUs . It enables read and write access to variables and memory contents of microcontroller systems at runtime . Entire datasets can be acquired or stimulated synchronous to events triggered by timers or operating conditions . In addition , XCP also supports programming of flash memory . ASAM states `` The primary purpose of XCP is to adjust internal parameters and acquire the current values of internal variables of an ECU . The first letter X in XCP expresses the fact that the protocol is designed for a variety of bus systems . '' In 2003 , the protocol was standardized as `` ASAM MCD-1 XCP '' . XCP is a successor to CAN Calibration Protocol ( CCP ) that was developed back in the mid-1990s . At that time , CAN was the dominant networking system in the automobile industry . Over time , other bus systems such as LIN , MOST and FlexRay emerged and made it necessary to extend the protocol to other transport media . In addition , XCP supports synchronous and asynchronous serial interfaces . With Ethernet or USB as the transport medium , XCP can also serve as a standardized interface to analog measurement devices and to hardware interface converters to RAM emulators , JTAG or other microcontroller debug interfaces . Due to its broad range of use , a primary goal in the development of XCP was to achieve as lean an implementation in the ECU as possible and high scalability of features and resource utilization . XCP can even be implemented on 8-bit microcontrollers for CAN or SCI with few resources , and it exploits the full potential of FlexRay or Ethernet on high-performance platforms . As a two-layer protocol , XCP consistently separates the protocol and transport layers from one another and adheres to a Single-Master/Multi-Slave concept . XCP always uses the same protocol layer independent of the transport layer . The `` X '' in its name stands for the variable and interchangeable transport layer . Currently , the following transport layers are defined as standard by ASAM as of May 2010 : XCP on CAN XCP on CAN FD XCP on SxI ( SPI , SCI ) XCP on Ethernet ( TCP/IP and UDP/IP ) XCP on USB XCP on FlexRay In addition to supporting other transport layers , the successor to the CCP protocol contains many functional improvements such as : Better resource utilization in the ECU Synchronous data stimulation Support of start-up measurements Optimized communication by block transfer commands Plug & play configuration More precise measurement data acquisition by measuring the time stamps in the ECU ( Slave ) XCP allows a client to access memory on the ECU using a format defined in a separate A2L file . Because the A2L format file contains all the information to access the information , the ECU code does not have to be recompiled to access different measurements or calibrations .", "qid": "293", "docid": "XCP_(protocol)", "rank": 61, "score": 70320 }, { "content": "Title: Real ear measurement Content: Real ear measurement ( REM , also known as insitu - or probe microphone measurement ) is the measurement of sound pressure level in a patient 's ear canal developed when a hearing aid is worn . It is measured with the use of a silicone probe tube inserted in the canal connected to a microphone outside the ear and is done to verify that the hearing aid is providing suitable amplification for a patient 's hearing loss . The American Speech -- Language -- Hearing Association ( ASHA ) and American Academy of Audiology ( AAA ) recommend real ear measures as the preferred method of verifying the performance of hearing aids . Used by audiologists and other hearing healthcare practitioners in the process of hearing aid fitting , real ear measures are the most reliable and efficient method for assessing the benefit provided by the amplification . Measurement of the sound level in the ear canal allows the clinician to make informed judgements on audibility of sound in the ear and the effectiveness of hearing aid treatment . The use of real ear measurement to assess the performance of hearing aids is covered in the ANSI specification Methods of Measurement of Real-Ear Performance Characteristics of Hearing Aids , ANSI S3.46-2013 ( a revision of ANSI S3.46-1997 ) .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Real_ear_measurement", "rank": 62, "score": 70269 }, { "content": "Title: Calorimeter (particle physics) Content: In particle physics , a calorimeter is an experimental apparatus that measures the energy of particles . Most particles enter the calorimeter and initiate a particle shower and the particles ' energy is deposited in the calorimeter , collected , and measured . The energy may be measured in its entirety , requiring total containment of the particle shower , or it may be sampled . Typically , calorimeters are segmented transversely to provide information about the direction of the particle or particles , as well as the energy deposited , and longitudinal segmentation can provide information about the identity of the particle based on the shape of the shower as it develops . Calorimetry design is an active area of research in particle physics .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calorimeter_(particle_physics)", "rank": 63, "score": 70094 }, { "content": "Title: Autocollimator Content: An autocollimator is an optical instrument for non-contact measurement of angles . They are typically used to align components and measure deflections in optical or mechanical systems . An autocollimator works by projecting an image onto a target mirror and measuring the deflection of the returned image against a scale , either visually or by means of an electronic detector . A visual autocollimator can measure angles as small as 0.5 arcminute ( 0.15 mrad ) , while an electronic autocollimator can have up to 100 times more resolution . Visual autocollimators are often used for lining up laser rod ends and checking the face parallelism of optical windows and wedges . Electronic and digital autocollimators are used as angle measurement standards , for monitoring angular movement over long periods of time and for checking angular position repeatability in mechanical systems . Servo autocollimators are specialized compact forms of electronic autocollimators that are used in high-speed servo-feedback loops for stable-platform applications . An electronic autocollimator is typically calibrated to read the actual mirror angle .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Autocollimator", "rank": 64, "score": 70091 }, { "content": "Title: Provisional Low Temperature Scale of 2000 Content: The Provisional Low Temperature Scale of 2000 ( PLTS-2000 ) is an equipment calibration standard for making measurements of very low temperatures , in the range of 0.9 mK ( millikelvin ) to 1 K , adopted by the International Committee for Weights and Measures in October , 2000 . It is based on the melting pressure of solidified helium-3 . At these low temperatures , the melting pressure of helium-3 varies from about 2.9 MPa to nearly 4.0 MPa . At the temperature of approximately 315 mK , a minimum of pressure ( 2.9 MPa ) occurs . Although this gives a disadvantage of non-monotonicity , in that two different temperatures can give the same pressure , the scale is otherwise robust since the melting pressure of helium-3 is insensitive to many experimental factors .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Provisional_Low_Temperature_Scale_of_2000", "rank": 65, "score": 69846 }, { "content": "Title: Crescograph Content: A crescograph is a device for measuring growth in plants . It was invented in the early 20th century by Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose . The Bose crescograph uses a series of clockwork gears and a smoked glass plate to record the movement of the tip of a plant ( or its roots ) at magnifications of up to 10,000 . Marks are made on the plate at intervals of a few seconds , demonstrating how the rate of growth varies under varying stimuli . Bose experimented with temperature , chemicals , gases , and electricity . The Electronic Crescograph plant movement detector is capable of measurements as small as 1/1 ,000,000 of an inch . However , its normal operating range is from 1/1000 to 1/10 ,000 of an inch . The component which actually measures the movement is a differential transformer . Its movable core is hinged between two points . A micrometer is used to adjust and calibrate the system . It could record plant growth , magnifying a small movement as much as 10,000,000 times .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Crescograph", "rank": 66, "score": 69840 }, { "content": "Title: International Organization of Legal Metrology Content: The International Organization of Legal Metrology ( Organisation Internationale de Métrologie Légale - OIML ) , is an intergovernmental organization , created in 1955 and based in Paris , to promote the global harmonization of the legal metrology procedures that underpin and facilitate international trade . Such harmonisation ensures that certification of measuring devices in one country is compatible with certification in another , thereby facilitating trade in the measuring devices and in products that rely on the measuring devices . Such products include weighting devices , taxi meters , speedometers , agricultural measuring devices such as cereal moisture meters , health related devices such as exhaust measurements and alcohol content of drinks . Since its establishment , it has developed a number of guidelines to assist members , particularly developing nations , to draw up appropriate legislation concerning metrology across all facets of society and guidelines on certification and calibration requirements of new products , particularly where such calibration has a legal impact such as in trade , health care and taxation . The OIML works closely with other international organisations such as the International Bureau of Weights and Measures ( BIPM ) and International Organization for Standardization ( ISO ) to ensure compatibility between each organisation 's work . The organisation has no legal authority to impose solutions on its members , but its recommendations are often used by member states as part of their own domestic law . , 59 countries had signed up as full members and a further 67 as corresponding ( non-voting ) members including all the G20 , EU and BRICS countries . Between them , the OIML Members cover 86 % of the world 's population and 96 % of its economy .", "qid": "293", "docid": "International_Organization_of_Legal_Metrology", "rank": 67, "score": 69818 }, { "content": "Title: Urinometer Content: A Urinometer is a simple piece of equipment for determining urine specific gravity . A typical urinometer is composed of a float , a weight , and a stem . The float is an air-filled glass tube , ending in the weight on the left and the stem on the right . The weight is a bulb filled with ball bearings embedded in a red solid , probably a glue of some sort . The glass stem extends to the right , and has calibrated graduations and numbers marked off to indicate specific gravity measurements . It is placed in a tube of urine , and where the meniscus of the urine reaches displays the specific gravity of the urine . A urinometer is typically used in medical diagnostic labs .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Urinometer", "rank": 68, "score": 69649 }, { "content": "Title: Active cavity radiometer Content: Active cavity radiometer - electrically self-calibrating , cavity pyrheliometer used to measure total and spectral solar irradiance .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Active_cavity_radiometer", "rank": 69, "score": 69577 }, { "content": "Title: Tachometer Content: A tachometer ( revolution-counter , tach , rev-counter , RPM gauge ) is an instrument measuring the rotation speed of a shaft or disk , as in a motor or other machine . The device usually displays the revolutions per minute ( RPM ) on a calibrated analogue dial , but digital displays are increasingly common . The word comes from Greek ταχος ( tachos `` speed '' ) and metron ( `` measure '' ) . Essentially the words tachometer and speedometer have identical meaning : a device that measures speed . It is by arbitrary convention that in the automotive world one is used for engine and the other for vehicle speed . In formal engineering nomenclature , more precise terms are used to distinguish the two .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Tachometer", "rank": 70, "score": 69508 }, { "content": "Title: Large Aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Ages Content: The Large-Aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Ages ( LEDA ) is designed to detect the spectrum of the 21 cm Hydrogen line from the Intergalactic Medium ( IGM ) at redshifts of 15-30 , when the Universe was just ~ 1 % of its present age . LEDA principally comprises a `` large-N '' array correlator ( 512 inputs over ~ 60 MHz ) , calibration & imaging system , and instrumentation for measurement of calibrated total-power . These systems will use the station 1 of the Long Wavelength Array as an aperture . LEDA is one of several efforts seeking to study cosmological reionization and the preceding Dark Ages . Others include the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization ( PAPER ) , Low Frequency Array ( LOFAR ) , Murchison Widefield Array ( MWA ) , and Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope ( GMRT ) . LEDA will feature array-based calibration to improve the accuracy of foreground subtraction from the total-power signal . The project received funding from the National Science Foundation in August 2011 .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Large_Aperture_Experiment_to_Detect_the_Dark_Ages", "rank": 71, "score": 69438 }, { "content": "Title: Viscometer Content: A viscometer ( also called viscosimeter ) is an instrument used to measure the viscosity of a fluid . For liquids with viscosities which vary with flow conditions , an instrument called a rheometer is used . Thus , a viscometer can be considered as a special type of rheometer . Viscometers only measure under one flow condition . In general , either the fluid remains stationary and an object moves through it , or the object is stationary and the fluid moves past it . The drag caused by relative motion of the fluid and a surface is a measure of the viscosity . The flow conditions must have a sufficiently small value of Reynolds number for there to be laminar flow . At 20.00 degrees Celsius the dynamic viscosity ( kinematic viscosity x density ) of water is 1.0038 mPa · s and its kinematic viscosity ( product of flow time x Factor ) is 1.0022 mm2/s . These values are used for calibrating certain types of viscometers .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Viscometer", "rank": 72, "score": 69416 }, { "content": "Title: Trailing cone Content: Trailing cones ( or trailing wires as they are often incorrectly called or trailing static cones ) , were first developed and tested in the 1950s and 1960s as a simple means of calibrating the static pressure ( altitude reporting ) error of an aircraft 's pitot-static system . It does this by giving an accurate measurement of the ambient atmospheric pressure ( static pressure ) well clear of the aircraft 's fuselage . The trailing cone system trails generally 1 to 1.5 times the wing span length behind the aircraft via a high-strength pressure tube . Static pressure is measured forward of the cone by several static ports . The cone stabilizes and aligns the ports relative to the freestream airflow . The FAA states in FAR 91 : `` Where precision flight calibrations are used to quantify or verify altimetry system performance they may be accomplished by any of the following methods . Flight calibrations should only be performed once appropriate ground checks have been completed . Uncertainties in application of the method must be assessed and taken into account in the data package .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Trailing_cone", "rank": 73, "score": 69365 }, { "content": "Title: Quality of analytical results Content: Quality of measurements made in chemistry and other areas is an important issue in today 's world as measurements influence quality of life , cross-border trade and commerce . In this respect , EN ISO 17025 is the main standard used by testing and calibration laboratories as to appropriately tackle quality management related issues . While chapter four of the standard deals with management requirements , chapter five describes requirements for technical competence . Management related issues can be found in other standards as well e.g. ISO 9000 , however the technical requirements are specific for calibration and testing laboratories .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Quality_of_analytical_results", "rank": 74, "score": 69327 }, { "content": "Title: Automatic Pressure Tracking Adiabatic Calorimeter Content: The APTAC ( Automatic Pressure Tracking Adiabatic Calorimeter ) is an analytical instrument for measuring enthalpy changes and pressure changes quantitatively . It was originally designed by Arthur D Little .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Automatic_Pressure_Tracking_Adiabatic_Calorimeter", "rank": 75, "score": 69278 }, { "content": "Title: Absorption wavemeter Content: An absorption wavemeter is a simple electronic instrument used to measure the frequency of radio waves . It is an older method of measuring frequency , widely used from the birth of radio in the early 20th century until the 1970s , when the development of inexpensive frequency counters , which have far greater accuracy , made it largely obsolete . A wavemeter consists of an adjustable resonant circuit calibrated in frequency , with a meter or other means to measure the voltage or current in the circuit . When adjusted to resonance with the unknown frequency , the resonant circuit absorbs energy , which is indicated by a dip on the meter . Then the frequency can be read from the dial . Wavemeters are used for frequency measurements that do not require high accuracy , such as checking that a radio transmitter is operating within its correct frequency band , or checking for harmonics in the output . Many radio amateurs keep them as a simple way to check their output frequency . Similar devices can be made for detection of mobile phones . As an alternative , a dip meter can be used . There are two categories of wavemeters : transmission wavemeters , which have an input and an output port and are inserted into the signal path , or absorption wavemeters , which are loosely coupled to the radio frequency source and absorb energy from it .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Absorption_wavemeter", "rank": 76, "score": 69233 }, { "content": "Title: British standard ordnance weights and measurements Content: The British standard ordnance weights and measurements for the artillery were established by the Master General of Ordnance in 1764 , and these were not altered until 1919 when the metric system was additionally introduced . This system has largely been replaced by a calibre system , which is the standard today for most weapon systems in use by the world 's armed forces . The 18th century standards were based on projectile weight , and dated back to use of muzzle loaded cannons which fired solid cannonballs . The designations bore only an approximate relationship to the actual weight of the projectile when it was applied to modern artillery . The table below lists the metric and Imperial calibres of various British weapons , which utilised the standard after 1919 :", "qid": "293", "docid": "British_standard_ordnance_weights_and_measurements", "rank": 77, "score": 69214 }, { "content": "Title: Calorimeter Content: A calorimeter is an object used for calorimetry , or the process of measuring the heat of chemical reactions or physical changes as well as heat capacity . Differential scanning calorimeters , isothermal microcalorimeters , titration calorimeters and accelerated rate calorimeters are among the most common types . A simple calorimeter just consists of a thermometer attached to a metal container full of water suspended above a combustion chamber . To find the enthalpy change per mole of a substance A in a reaction between two substances A and B , the substances are added to a calorimeter and the initial and final temperatures ( before the reaction started and after it has finished ) are noted . Multiplying the temperature change by the mass and specific heat capacities of the substances gives a value for the energy given off or absorbed during the reaction . Dividing the energy change by how many moles of A were present gives its enthalpy change of reaction . This method is used primarily in academic teaching as it describes the theory of calorimetry . It does not account for the heat loss through the container or the heat capacity of the thermometer and container itself .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calorimeter", "rank": 78, "score": 69097 }, { "content": "Title: Dynamometer Content: A dynamometer or `` dyno '' for short , is a device for measuring force , torque , or power . For example , the power produced by an engine , motor or other rotating prime mover can be calculated by simultaneously measuring torque and rotational speed ( RPM ) . In addition to being used to determine the torque or power characteristics of a machine under test ( MUT ) , dynamometers are employed in a number of other roles . In standard emissions testing cycles such as those defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency ( US EPA ) , dynamometers are used to provide simulated road loading of either the engine ( using an engine dynamometer ) or full powertrain ( using a chassis dynamometer ) . In fact , beyond simple power and torque measurements , dynamometers can be used as part of a testbed for a variety of engine development activities , such as the calibration of engine management controllers , detailed investigations into combustion behavior , and tribology . In the medical terminology , hand-held dynamometers are used for routine screening of grip and hand strength , and the initial and ongoing evaluation of patients with hand trauma or dysfunction . They are also used to measure grip strength in patients where compromise of the cervical nerve roots or peripheral nerves is suspected . In the rehabilitation , kinesiology , and ergonomics realms , force dynamometers are used for measuring the back , grip , arm , and/or leg strength of athletes , patients , and workers to evaluate physical status , performance , and task demands . Typically the force applied to a lever or through a cable is measured and then converted to a moment of force by multiplying by the perpendicular distance from the force to the axis of the level .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Dynamometer", "rank": 79, "score": 68985 }, { "content": "Title: International Temperature Scale of 1990 Content: The International Temperature Scale of 1990 ( ITS-90 ) published by the Consultative Committee for Thermometry ( CCT ) of the International Committee for Weights and Measures ( CIPM ) is an equipment calibration standard for making measurements on the Kelvin and Celsius temperature scales . ITS -- 90 is an approximation of the thermodynamic temperature scale that facilitates the comparability and compatibility of temperature measurements internationally . It specifies fourteen calibration points ranging from 0.65 ± 0 K to ± 0 K ( -272.50 ± 0 ° C to ± 0 ° C ) and is subdivided into multiple temperature ranges which overlap in some instances . ITS-90 is the latest ( as of 2014 ) of a series of International Temperature Scales adopted by CIPM since 1927 . Adopted at the 1989 General Conference on Weights and Measures , it supersedes the International Practical Temperature Scale of 1968 ( amended edition of 1975 ) and the 1976 `` Provisional 0.5 K to 30 K Temperature Scale '' . CCT has also adopted a mise en pratique ( practical instructions ) in 2011 . The lowest temperature covered by ITS-90 is 0.65 K . In 2000 , the temperature scale was extended further , to 0.9 mK , by the adoption of a supplemental scale , known as the Provisional Low Temperature Scale of 2000 ( PLTS-2000 ) .", "qid": "293", "docid": "International_Temperature_Scale_of_1990", "rank": 80, "score": 68947 }, { "content": "Title: Gauge block Content: Gauge blocks ( also known as gage blocks , Johansson gauges , slip gauges , or Jo blocks ) are a system for producing precision lengths . The individual gauge block is a metal or ceramic block that has been precision ground and lapped to a specific thickness . Gauge blocks come in sets of blocks with a range of standard lengths . In use , the blocks are stacked to make up a desired length . An important feature of gauge blocks is that they can be joined together with very little dimensional uncertainty . The blocks are joined by a sliding process called wringing , which causes their ultra-flat surfaces to cling together . A small number of gauge blocks can be used to create accurate lengths within a wide range . By using 3 blocks from a set of 30 blocks , one may create any of the 1000 lengths from 3.000 to 3.999 mm in 0.001 mm steps ( or .3000 to .3999 inches in 0.0001 inch steps ) . Gauge blocks were invented in 1896 by Swedish machinist Carl Edvard Johansson . They are used as a reference for the calibration of measuring equipment used in machine shops , such as micrometers , sine bars , calipers , and dial indicators ( when used in an inspection role ) . Gauge blocks are the main means of length standardization used by industry .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Gauge_block", "rank": 81, "score": 68926 }, { "content": "Title: Video calibration software Content: Video calibration software is software used to improve the quality of commercial video reproduction . Organizations such as the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers ( SMPTE ) , the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage ( CIE ) , the Advanced Television Systems Committee ( ATSC ) , and the International Telecommunication Union ( ITU ) have established standards for the proper transmission and display of video signals . Commercially available televisions do not generally conform to those standards , but often possess controls that allow those with the proper training and equipment to greatly improve the quality of image reproduction . The Imaging Science Foundation ( ISF ) has promoted the value of good video reproduction and certifies candidates as ISF-trained calibrators in the techniques necessary to bring video displays in line with established broadcast , DVD , and Blu-ray standards . ISF calibrators rely upon three tools to accomplish this goal : Color analyzer : hardware that connects to a computer that measures the light and color produced by the display device . Test patterns : standard video test patterns that test the display 's ability to perform as expected . Video calibration software : software that receives the signals from the color analyzer and displays the data in numerical format which is interpreted in a human interface in the form of real-time charts and graphs . Calibrators use this information to guide decisions about how to properly adjust the displays . Though the ISF popularized the value of professional video calibration , in recent years the equipment necessary to carry out the necessary tasks has become inexpensive enough that enthusiasts and prosumers have been empowered to calibrate their own displays . There are three products that are currently available in a price range that consumers can afford . Color HCFR ChromaPure CalMan Color HCFR is a freeware program developed by enthusiasts in France . It was released in 2006 . ChromaPure is a commercial product that was released in 2009 . It was developed by a partnership between an American ISF calibrator and a programmer . CalMAN is a commercial product that was originally released as a Microsoft Excel-based program in 2002 . In 2007 it was redesigned as a standalone Windows program based around a new Calibration Optimization and Reporting Environment ( CORE ) engine . Written exclusively using 64-bit double-precision floating point math , the CORE engine outperforms even popular spreadsheet applications for calculation accuracy because it never has to drop to single-precision or integer operations for convenience or speed purposes . It was developed by a partnership between an American video engineer and a programmer with a goal to make video calibration increasingly accessible and more powerful . All video calibration software interfaces with a color analyzer that reads the luminance and the color from a commercial display . The software then interprets that data , usually in xyY format , and then displays it on a laptop PC . That data allows a calibrator to correct any errors in White point Gamma Color gamut Peak output ( the display 's output at 100 % stimulus ) Black level", "qid": "293", "docid": "Video_calibration_software", "rank": 82, "score": 68612 }, { "content": "Title: Nilometer Content: A nilometer was a structure for measuring the Nile River 's clarity and water level during the annual flood season . There were 3 main types of nilometers , calibrated in Egyptian cubits : ( 1 ) a vertical column , ( 2 ) a corridor stairway of steps leading down to the Nile , or ( 3 ) a deep well with culvert . If the water level was low , there would be famine . If it was too high , it would be destructive . There was a specific mark that indicated how high the flood should be if the fields were to get good soil . Between July and November , the reaches of the Nile running through Egypt would burst their banks and cover the adjacent flood plain . When the waters receded , around September or October , they left behind a rich alluvial deposit of exceptionally fertile black silt over the croplands . The akhet , or Season of the Inundation , was one of the three seasons into which the Ancient Egyptians divided their years . It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the annual flood to Egyptian civilization . A moderate inundation was a vital part of the agricultural cycle ; however , a lighter inundation than normal would cause famine , and too much flood water would be equally disastrous , washing away much of the infrastructure built on the flood plain . Records from AD 622-999 indicate that on average , one year out of every 4 ( 28 % ) saw an inundation that fell short of expectations , during 102 of those years . The ability to predict the volume of the coming inundation was part of the mystique of the Ancient Egyptian priesthood . The same skill also played a political and administrative role , since the quality of the year 's flood was used to determine the levels of tax to be paid . This is where the nilometer came into play , with priests monitoring the day-to-day level of the river and announcing the awaited arrival of the summer flood . The simplest nilometer design is a vertical column submerged in the waters of the river , with marked intervals indicating the depth of the water . One that follows this simple design , albeit housed in an elaborate and ornate stone structure , can still be seen on the island of Rhoda in central Cairo This nilometer dates only as far back as AD 861 , when the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil ordered its construction , overseen by the astronomer Afraganus . It was built on a site occupied by an earlier specimen which was seen by the Syrian Orthodox patriarch Dionysius of Tel Mahre in 830 . This prior nilometer had been ordered in AD 715 by Umayyid caliph Sulayman Abd al-Malek . The second nilometer design comprises a flight of stairs leading down into the water , with depth markings along the walls . The best known example of this kind can be seen on the island of Elephantine in Aswan , where a stairway of 52 steps leads down to a doorway at the Nile . This location was also particularly important , since for much of Egyptian history , Elephantine marked Egypt 's southern border and was therefore the first place where the onset of the annual flood was detected . The most elaborate design involved a channel or culvert that led from the riverbank -- often running for a considerable distance -- and then fed a well , tank , or cistern . These nilometer wells were most frequently located within the confines of temples , where only the priests and rulers were allowed access . A particularly fine example , with a deep , cylindrical well and a culvert opening in the surrounding wall , can be seen at the Temple of Kom Ombo , to the north of Aswan . While nilometers originated in Pharaonic times , they continued to be used by the later civilizations that held sway in Egypt . Some were constructed in Roman times . In the 20th century , the Nile 's annual inundation was first greatly reduced , and then eliminated entirely , with the construction of the Aswan dams . While the Aswan High Dam 's impact on Egypt and its agriculture has been controversial for other , more complex reasons , it has also had the additional effect of rendering the nilometer obsolete .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Nilometer", "rank": 83, "score": 68484 }, { "content": "Title: Focometer Content: A focometer is an instrument that measures refractive errors and is intended to provide rural or economically disadvantaged populations spherical eyeglass prescriptions without the need for complicated protocols , expensive equipment , or electricity . The focometer is monocular and hand-held , and is normally used in natural lighting . Patients rotate a collar on the focometer until the best focus is achieved . The individual 's refractive power is then read off a linear dioptre scale . The focometer was developed by Drs. Ian Berger and Larry Spitzberg at the University of Houston College of Optometry in Houston , Texas , to provide a simple , inexpensive means for measuring refractive error in human vision . The portable , hand-held instrument is highly appropriate for use in remote and poor areas . Focometers measure spherical refractive errors . Astigmatism can also be measured using a `` clock target '' with the device . A study has found , however , that the focometer is less effective for identifying astigmatism than an autorefractor , and that its axis accuracy is limited to 15 ° . The advantages of a focometer over other methods for use in developing countries are that it is lightweight , compact , relatively inexpensive , fairly quick , and easy to use with minimal training . A clinical trial compared the repeatability , validity , and ease of use of the focometer with an autorefractor . It found that the focometer results were within 0.75 dioptres of the autorefractor value 84 % of the time . The authors found that repeatability of the measurements improved when patients were allowed to `` practice '' twice on each eye before taking the real reading .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Focometer", "rank": 84, "score": 68374 }, { "content": "Title: Spectroradiometer Content: Spectroradiometers are devices designed to measure the spectral power distribution of a source . From the spectral power distribution , the radiometric , photometric , and colorimetric quantities of light can be determined in order to measure , characterize , and calibrate light sources for various applications . Spectroradiometers typically take measurements of spectral irradiance and spectral radiance . This spectral data can be used to calculate CIE tristimulus values through mathematical integration . CIE chromaticity coordinates and luminosity can then be calculated , providing a complete description of the source 's color , including chromaticity , spectral power , illuminance , and luminance . Spectroradiometers are stand-alone systems that work independently without the need to be connected to a PC . This makes them highly portable while maintaining the accuracy of a spectrometer .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Spectroradiometer", "rank": 85, "score": 68333 }, { "content": "Title: Optical power meter Content: An optical power meter ( OPM ) is a device used measure to measure the power in an optical signal . The term usually refers to a device for testing average power in fiber optic systems . Other general purpose light power measuring devices are usually called radiometers , photometers , laser power meters ( can be photodiode sensors or thermopile laser sensors ) , light meters or lux meters . A typical optical power meter consists of a calibrated sensor , measuring amplifier and display . The sensor primarily consists of a photodiode selected for the appropriate range of wavelengths and power levels . On the display unit , the measured optical power and set wavelength is displayed . Power meters are calibrated using a traceable calibration standard such as a NIST standard . A traditional optical power meter responds to a broad spectrum of light , however the calibration is wavelength dependent . This is not normally an issue , since the test wavelength is usually known , however it has a couple of drawbacks . Firstly , the user must set the meter to the correct test wavelength , and secondly if there are other spurious wavelengths present , then wrong readings will result . Sometimes optical power meters are combined with a different test function such as an Optical Light Source ( OLS ) or Visual Fault Locator ( VFL ) , or may be a sub-system in a much larger instrument . When combined with a light source , the instrument is usually called an Optical Loss Test Set . Optical Loss Test Sets ( OLTS ) are available in dedicated hand held instruments and platform-based modules to suit various network architectures and test requirements . They are used to measure optical power and power loss , and reflectance and reflected power loss . The products may also be used as optical sources or optical power meters , or to measure optical return loss or event reflectance . Three types of equipment can be used to measure optical power loss : Component equipment - Optical Power Meters ( OPMs ) and Stabilized Light Sources ( SLSs ) are packaged separately , but when used together they can provide a measurement of end-to-end optical attenuation over an optical path . Such component equipment can also be used for other measurements . Integrated test set - When an SLS and OPM are packaged in one unit , it is called an integrated test set . Traditionally , an integrated test set is usually called an OLTS . GR-198 , Generic Requirements for Hand-Held Stabilized Light Sources , Optical Power Meters , Reflectance Meters , and Optical Loss Test Sets , discusses OLTS equipment in depth . An Optical Time Domain Reflectometer ( OTDR ) can be used to measure optical link loss if its markers are set at the terminus points for which the fiber loss is desired . However a single-direction measurement may not be accurate if there are multiple fibers in a link , since the back-scatter coefficient is variable between fibers . The accuracy of such a measurement can be increased if the measurement is made as a bidirectional average of the fiber . GR-196 , Generic Requirements for Optical Time Domain Reflectometer ( OTDR ) Type Equipment , discusses OTDR equipment in depth .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Optical_power_meter", "rank": 86, "score": 68240 }, { "content": "Title: Applied Instruments Content: Applied Instruments , Inc. is a manufacturer of RF test and measurement equipment for the telecommunications industry . The company is headquartered in Indianapolis , Indiana . It was founded in 1986 . Applied Instruments , Inc. began operations in 1986 to meet the requirements of cable television operators who needed specific equipment to ensure the integrity of their new or existing systems . Its product line has evolved and expanded due to the direct input from its customers . Products include : Satellite Signal Level Meters Broadband Noise Generators Multi-Carrier RF Signal Generators RF Signal Monitors and Switch Controllers Return Band Alignment System Noise Power Ratio Test Sets Calibrators", "qid": "293", "docid": "Applied_Instruments", "rank": 87, "score": 68003 }, { "content": "Title: Retinoscopy Content: Retinoscopy ( Ret ) is a technique to obtain an objective measurement of the refractive error of a patient 's eyes . The examiner uses a retinoscope to shine light into the patient 's eye and observes the reflection ( reflex ) off the patient 's retina . While moving the streak or spot of light across the pupil the examiner observes the relative movement of the reflex or manually places lenses over the eye ( using a trial frame and trial lenses ) to `` neutralize '' the reflex . Static retinoscopy is a type of retinoscopy used in determining a patient 's refractive error . It relies on Foucault 's principle , which states that the examiner should simulate optical infinity to obtain the correct refractive power . Hence , a power corresponding to the working distance is subtracted from the gross retinoscopy value to give the patient 's refractive condition , the working distance lens being one which has a focal length of the examiner 's distance from the patient ( e.g. +1.50 dioptre lens for a 67 cm working distance ) . Myopes display an `` against '' reflex , which means that the direction of movement of light observed from the retina is a different direction to that in which the light beam is swept . Hyperopes , on the other hand , display a `` with '' movement , which means that the direction of movement of light observed from the retina is the same as that in which the light beam is swept . Static retinoscopy is performed when the patient has relaxed accommodative status . This can be obtained by the patient viewing a distance target or by the use of cycloplegic drugs ( where , for example , a child 's lack of reliable fixation of the target can lead to fluctuations in accommodation and thus the results obtained ) . Dynamic retinoscopy is performed when the patient has active accommodation from viewing a near target . Retinoscopy is particularly useful in prescribing corrective lenses for patients who are unable to undergo a subjective refraction that requires a judgement and response from the patient ( such as children or those with severe intellectual disabilities or communication problems ) . In most tests however , it is used as a basis for further refinement by subjective refraction . It is also used to evaluate accommodative ability of the eye and detect latent hyperopia .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Retinoscopy", "rank": 88, "score": 67889 }, { "content": "Title: Odometry Content: Odometry is the use of data from motion sensors to estimate change in position over time . It is used in robotics by some legged or wheeled robots to estimate their position relative to a starting location . This method is sensitive to errors due to the integration of velocity measurements over time to give position estimates . Rapid and accurate data collection , instrument calibration , and processing are required in most cases for odometry to be used effectively . The word odometry is composed from the Greek words odos ( meaning `` route '' ) and metron ( meaning `` measure '' ) .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Odometry", "rank": 89, "score": 67644 }, { "content": "Title: Old measures Content: Old measures , or simply measures , were a group of dances performed at ceremonial and festive occasions in Early Modern Britain . Some of the dances included in the measures were the pavane and the almain , and dances such as the galliard and the courante are also mentioned as accompanying or following the traditional measures . The measures are associated with the Inns of Court , the English law schools , as most of the extant sources have been found among the papers of lawyers and law students at the Inns . They are also mentioned in Shakespeare plays such as As You Like It ( Act V , scene 4 ) , Richard II ( Act III , scene 4 ) , Richard III ( Act I , scene 1 ) . One must be wary when one encounters 16th - and 17th-century references to measure or measures , as a measure could refer to a bar , or generically to dancing , as well as to this specific group of dances .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Old_measures", "rank": 90, "score": 67568 }, { "content": "Title: Volumetric flask Content: A volumetric flask ( measuring flask or graduated flask ) is a piece of laboratory glassware , a type of laboratory flask , calibrated to contain a precise volume at a particular temperature . Volumetric flasks are used for precise dilutions and preparation of standard solutions . These flasks are usually pear-shaped , with a flat bottom , and made of glass or plastic . The flask 's mouth is either furnished with a plastic snap/screw cap or fitted with a joint to accommodate a PTFE or glass stopper . The neck of the volumetric flasks is elongated and narrow with an etched ring graduation marking . The marking indicates the volume of liquid contained when filled up to that point . The marking is typically calibrated `` to contain '' ( marked `` TC '' or `` IN '' ) at 20 ° C and indicated correspondingly on a label . The flask 's label also indicates the nominal volume , tolerance , precision class , relevant manufacturing standard and the manufacturer 's logo . The volumetric flasks are of various sizes , containing from 1 to 20 000 mL of liquid .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Volumetric_flask", "rank": 91, "score": 67469 }, { "content": "Title: Vintage musical equipment Content: Vintage musical equipment is older music gear , including instruments , amplifiers and effects pedals , usually sought after , maintained and used by avid collectors , record producers , audio engineers and musicians . While any piece of equipment of sufficient age can be considered vintage , in the 2010s , the term is typically applied to instruments and gear from the 1980s and earlier . Guitars , amps , pedals , electric keyboards , sound recording equipment ( e.g. , reel to reel tape decks and microphones ) from the 1950s to 1970s are particularly sought out . Musical equipment from the 1940s and prior eras is rare and expensive , and as such , it tends to be sought out mainly by museums or serious collectors . Collectible gear is either known for its sound quality , which can be a subjective perspective , rarity , or some unusual aspect . The cost of vintage gear may be higher than the reissued model or its 2010s-era equivalent , depending on the rarity of the item , how high the demand is for it , and the condition . In assessing the condition , minor scuffs or scratches from regular use are not the key issue ; instead , a more serious issue is whether the original parts have been replaced with non-vintage equipment . If a vintage item contains substantial new parts , this will usually reduce its value , because new parts may not produce the same `` tone '' or `` feel '' as original parts . As well , for instruments that were previously owned by music celebrities such as Keith Richards or Jimi Hendrix , even burn marks or other serious damage may not harm the value .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Vintage_musical_equipment", "rank": 92, "score": 67457 }, { "content": "Title: International Measurer of Sailing Content: Measurers are a type of race official who have two principal functions in the sport of sailing : certification control and regatta equipment inspection . For classes of yacht that require it , they check that new equipment ( hulls , appendages , spas , sails , etc. ) complies with class rules before it can be used in competition . Where required by the organisers of a regatta , they check that equipment during the regatta is compliant with class rules . The most experienced may become International Measurers recognised by the International Sailing Federation .", "qid": "293", "docid": "International_Measurer_of_Sailing", "rank": 93, "score": 67377 }, { "content": "Title: Standard wind tunnel models Content: Standard wind tunnel models , also known as reference models , calibration models ( maquettes d'étalonnage ) or test check-standards are objects of relatively simple and precisely defined shapes , having known aerodynamic characteristics , that are tested in wind tunnels . Standard models are used in order to verify , by comparison of wind tunnel test results with previously published results , the complete measurement chain in a wind tunnel , including wind tunnel structure , quality of the airstream , model positioning , transducers and force balances , data acquisition system and data reduction software . More specifically , standard wind tunnel models are used for : confirmation of the reliability of the data from a new wind tunnel by comparison with results from other wind tunnel facilities ; providing baselines for correlation of results from different wind tunnels ; checkouts of data repeatability over time ; checkouts of data repeatability after repairs or modifications of the wind tunnel structure ; assessment of the wall interference effects ; identification of problems and faults in the operation of a wind tunnel ; verification of new measurement techniques or devices ; training of wind tunnel personnel . Besides , results from wind tunnel tests of standard models are used as test cases for verification of computational-fluid-dynamics ( CFD ) computer codes . In most wind tunnels , standard models are tested during the commissioning and calibration of the facility . This sometimes has an unfortunate effect that the test results are not as good as they can be , because the wind tunnel and its measurement system have not yet been optimally tuned at the time of the test . However , some laboratories have adopted the practice of periodical testing of a standard model every couple of years in order to provide a continued confidence in the reliability of measurements in their wind tunnels . Standard wind tunnel models are usually ( but not always ) intended for one of the basic wind tunnel measurement types , such as the measurement of forces and moments with force balances or measurements of pressure distribution . Results of wind tunnel tests of these models are generally published in the form of nondimensional aerodynamic coefficients ( thus being made independent of model size ) and made available to the wind-tunnel community , often in review reports containing inter-facility comparisons of data , discussing observed scatter of results , different testing conditions , production differences between models etc. . As the majority of wind tunnel tests is related to aeronautics , most standard wind tunnel models resemble simplified forms of wings , airplanes or missiles . Such are , for static tests : NACA 0012 and CLARK Y ( 2D wing-segment models with typical airfoils ) , AGARD-B / AGARD-C ( generic delta-wing-airplane shapes ) , ONERA-M ( a generic transport-airplane shape ) , HB-2 ( Hypervelocity ballistic model 2 , a shape similar to a reentry-body ) . For dynamic tests , the often-used standard models are : SDM ( Standard dynamic model , a generic fighter-like airplane shape somewhat similar to F-16 ) ) , BFM ( Basic finner model , a generic conical-cylindrical missile with four fins at the rear end ) and MBFM ( Modified basic finner model ) . A number of other standard models exists as well . With the increased use of wind tunnels in the testing of road vehicles , several standard models of generic car shapes were defined. , such as the Ahmed body , MIRA reference car , etc. . Some wind tunnel laboratories perform periodical checkouts using internally defined standard models that are selected from the repository of models previously tested in the facility Geometry of a standard wind tunnel model is defined relative to some easily identified parameter ( see figure ) , e.g. body diameter or wing chord . The geometry is published by the institution proposing the model . Beside the model itself , a standard model support , such as a sting , to be used with the model , is usually defined . An actual model is built to a size suitable for the size of a specific wind tunnel test section , in particular taking care that the frontal blockage of the model ( the ratio of the model cross-section area to wind tunnel test section area ) is kept well below 1 % ( except for wall-interference research where the models may be larger ) . In order to eliminate the effects of production differences between models in inter-facility comparisons , sometimes the same physical standard model is tested in several wind tunnels", "qid": "293", "docid": "Standard_wind_tunnel_models", "rank": 94, "score": 67341 }, { "content": "Title: Calibrated probability assessment Content: Calibrated probability assessments are subjective probabilities assigned by individuals who have been trained to assess probabilities in a way that historically represents their uncertainty . In other words , when a calibrated person says they are `` 80 % confident '' in each of 100 predictions they made , they will get about 80 % of them correct . Likewise , they will be right 90 % of the time they say they are 90 % certain , and so on . Calibration training improves subjective probabilities because most people are either `` overconfident '' or `` under-confident '' ( usually the former ) . By practicing with a series of trivia questions , it is possible for subjects to fine-tune their ability to assess probabilities . For example , a subject may be asked : True or False : `` A hockey puck fits in a golf hole '' Confidence : Choose the probability that best represents your chance of getting this question right ... 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % 100 % If a person has no idea whatsoever , they will say they are only 50 % confident . If they are absolutely certain they are correct , they will say 100 % . But most people will answer somewhere in between . If a calibrated person is asked a large number of such questions , they will get about as many correct as they expected . An uncalibrated person who is systematically overconfident may say they are 90 % confident in a large number of questions where they only get 70 % of them correct . On the other hand , an uncalibrated person who is systematically underconfident may say they are 50 % confident in a large number of questions where they actually get 70 % of them correct . Calibration training generally involves taking a battery of such tests . Feedback is provided between tests and the subjects refine their probabilities . Calibration training may also involve learning other techniques that help to compensate for consistent over - or under-confidence . Since subjects are better at placing odds when they pretend to bet money , subjects are taught how to convert calibration questions into a type of betting game which is shown to improve their subjective probabilities . Various collaborative methods have been developed , such as prediction market , so that subjective estimates from multiple individuals can be taken into account . Stochastic modeling methods such as the Monte Carlo method often use subjective estimates from `` subject matter experts '' . However , since research shows that such experts are very likely to be statistically overconfident , the model will tend to underestimate uncertainty and risk . The Applied Information Economics method systematically uses calibration training as part of a decision modeling process .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Calibrated_probability_assessment", "rank": 95, "score": 67252 }, { "content": "Title: Neutrino Array Radio Calibration Content: The Neutrino Array Radio Calibration ( NARC ) experiment is the successor to the Radio Ice Cherenkov Experiment ( RICE ) which will serve as a testbed for future development of an eventual large-scale neutrino radio-detection array . NARC involves detecting ultra high energy electron neutrinos through their interactions with ice molecules in the Antarctic icecap , based on the principle of radio coherence . Experimentally , the goal is to detect and measure long-wavelength ( radiofrequency ) pulses resulting from this interaction .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Neutrino_Array_Radio_Calibration", "rank": 96, "score": 67066 }, { "content": "Title: History of measurement Content: As civilization developed , so too did the need for units of measurement . These were required for numerous tasks such as : constructing dwellings of an appropriate size and shape , fashioning clothing , or bartering food or raw materials .", "qid": "293", "docid": "History_of_measurement", "rank": 97, "score": 66882 }, { "content": "Title: Tape measure Content: A tape measure or measuring tape is a flexible ruler . It consists of a ribbon of cloth , plastic , fibre glass , or metal strip with linear-measurement markings . It is a common measuring tool . Its design allows for a measure of great length to be easily carried in pocket or toolkit and permits one to measure around curves or corners . Today it is ubiquitous , even appearing in miniature form as a keychain fob , or novelty item . Surveyors use tape measures in lengths of over 100 m ( 300 + ft ) .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Tape_measure", "rank": 98, "score": 66766 }, { "content": "Title: Mooney viscometer Content: A mooney viscometer is an instrument used for measuring the mooney viscosity of a substance ( mainly elastomers and rubbers ) . Invented by Melvin Mooney , it contains a rotating spindle and heated dies , the substance encloses and overflows the spindle and the mooney viscosity is calculated from the torque on the spindle . Principle : The working principle of the Mooney viscometer consists in the measurement of the torque necessary to rotate a disc in a cylindrical chamber filled with the rubber compound to be vulcanized . A number proportional with the value of this torque is taken as viscosity index ( Mooney viscosity ) . Instrument description : The rubber compound is introduced under pressure into the test chamber , made up of two halves . Inside the test chamber a disc is rotated by means of a motor . In order to avoid rubber slippage during the determination , both the chamber walls and the rotor surface are striated . The conversion of the torque into viscosity units is made by means of a calibrated flat spring anchored to the rotating disc shaft . The deformations of the shaft are transmitted to the indicating scale . The elasticity of the spring is chosen so that to a torque of 84 daN.cm correspond 100 viscosity units . The chamber is electrically heated and the temperature is kept constant with an error of 0.5 degree C. Working procedure : The rubber compound , including the vulcanizing system , is shaped on the mill as 6-8 mm thick sheets . Round-shaped samples with 45 mm diameter are cut from the sheets . The samples are pierced in the middle in order to allow the rotor shaft to pass . Before the beginning of the measurement , the instrument is heated up to 118 degree C . After the sample is introduced , it takes a minute for the sample to reach the thermal equilibrium , and then the rotor is started . The value of Mooney viscosity decreases at the beginning , due to the decrease of the compound viscosity as temperature rises ( Fig. 1 , AB ) . After about 4 min , a minimum value is reached , which stays constant for a while ( Fig. 1 , BC ) This value is indicated as MV ( Fig. 1 ) . After a certain period of time , vulcanization starts and the Mooney viscosity increases ( Fig. 1 , CDEF ) . The following values are indicated on the obtained curve : minimum viscosity MV ; scorch time ( t5 ) - the time interval ( measured from rotor start ) corresponding to a viscosity increase of 5 Mooney units over MV , measured at rotor start . The t5 value indicates the prevulcanization tendency of the compound . The larger t5 is , the lower the prevulcanization tendency , and , therefore , the rubber compound can be safer processed on mill , calender or extruder . vulcanization time ( t35 ) - the time interval ( measured from rotor start ) corresponding to a viscosity increase of 35 units over the MV value . vulcanization index - Dt30 = t35 - t5 - provides indications about the vulcanizing ability of a rubber compound . A compound with a low vulcanization index , cures more rapidly than a compound with a higher vulcanization index . optimum vulcanization time at the experimental temperature employed ( top ) , which can be calculated with the relationship : top = ( t5 - tMV ) + 10 . Delta 30 where tMV is the time interval , measured form rotor start until Mooney viscosity reaches the MV value . By using the slope of the CDEF curve , the vulcanization rate can be determined . If vulcanization goes on , Mooney viscosity becomes in many cases practically constant in time . The FG part of the curve ( Fig. 1 ) is called `` plateau region of cure '' , and it is characterized by the plateau time ( tp ) . Going beyond the plateau time leads to either reversion ( Fig. 1 , GH ) , as in the case of natural rubber , or overcure ( Fig. 1 , GI ) , as in the case of synthetic elastomers .", "qid": "293", "docid": "Mooney_viscometer", "rank": 99, "score": 66515 }, { "content": "Title: Watch timing machine Content: A watch timing machine is a machine that acoustically measures the ticks of a watch so that its accuracy can be measured and effectively calibrated . These companies manufacture watch timing machines : Delph Electronics PRELIS MicoSet TYMC Vibrograf Elma Witschi", "qid": "293", "docid": "Watch_timing_machine", "rank": 100, "score": 66285 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility Content: The International Network of Engineers and Scientists for global responsibility ( INES ) is an independent non-profit-organization concerned about the impact of science and technology on society . INES efforts focus on disarmament and international peace , ethics in science , responsibilities of scientists and the responsible use of science and technology , just and sustainable development . INES was founded in 1991 in Berlin at the international congress Challenges - Science and Peace in a Rapidly Changing Environment and has become a network of over 200 organisations and individual members .", "qid": "294", "docid": "International_Network_of_Engineers_and_Scientists_for_Global_Responsibility", "rank": 1, "score": 96449 }, { "content": "Title: International Scientific Optical Network Content: The International Scientific Optical Network or ISON is an international project , currently consisting of about 30 telescopes at about 20 observatories in about ten countries ( Russia , Ukraine ( Andrushivka ) , Georgia ( Abastumani ) , Uzbekistan , Tajikistan , Moldova , Spain ( Teide ) , Switzerland ( Zimmerwald ) , Bolivia ( Tarija ) , USA ( Mayhill ) , Italy ( Collepardo ) ) which have organized to detect , monitor and track objects in space . Other observatories include the `` ISON-Kislovodsk Observatory '' , located near Kislovodsk , North Caucasus , Russia , with the observatory code D00 . ISON is managed by the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics , part of the Russian Academy of Sciences . It was credited for the discovery of comets C/2010 X1 ( Elenin ) and C/2012 S1 ( ISON ) , the latter popularly known as Comet ISON . The minor planet 365756 ISON is named for the network .", "qid": "294", "docid": "International_Scientific_Optical_Network", "rank": 2, "score": 94989 }, { "content": "Title: The Science Network Content: The Science Network ( TSN ) is a non-profit virtual forum dedicated to science and its impact on society . Initially conceived in 2003 by Roger Bingham and Terry Sejnowski as a cable science network , TSN would soon become a global digital platform . TSN currently offers free access to over 1100 videos . of lectures from scientific meetings and long form one-on-one conversations with prominent scientists and communicators of science , including Neil deGrasse Tyson , V.S. Ramachandran , Helen S. Mayberg , and Barbara Landau , on topics including education , aging , neuroscience , and stem cells . As part of its mission , TSN has also sponsored and co-sponsored scientific forums , such as the landmark Symposium and Town Hall meeting , Stem cells : science , ethics and politics at the crossroads , held at the Salk Institute in 2004 and the Beyond Belief conference series .", "qid": "294", "docid": "The_Science_Network", "rank": 3, "score": 94296 }, { "content": "Title: InterAcademy Panel Content: The InterAcademy Panel : The Global Network of Science Academies ( IAP ) is a global network consisting of over 106 national science academies . Founded in 1993 , its stated goal is to help member academies advise the public on the scientific aspects of critical global issues . It has released official statements on socially important topics , including human population growth , global warming , human reproductive cloning , and evolution . The highest decisive body of IAP is the General Council , which meets every third year , and where each member organization has one vote . In between the meetings , the work is directed by an executive committee with 11 member academies , convening each year ; by two co-chairs , and of a secretariat at the present host academy . One of the chairs shall be the president or another prominent person from an academy in a developing country ; the other shall have a similar standing in an academy from an industrialized country . Similar rules of diversity of members hold for the executive committee . The present co-chairs are Howard Alper ( serving a second three-year period 2010-2012 ) and Mohamed H.A. Hassan ( first three-year period ) . In 2000 , the panel founded the InterAcademy Council ( IAC ) , which is governed by a board including a rotating group of 15 Academy presidents from around the world . In order to represent a global view , the governing nations are of diverse levels of economic development . The current co-chairs of the board are Robbert Dijkgraaf and Lu Yongxiang . IAP has also advanced science diplomacy by bringing regional networks together to address global problems .", "qid": "294", "docid": "InterAcademy_Panel", "rank": 4, "score": 92688 }, { "content": "Title: World Federation of Scientists Content: The World Federation of Scientists is a multi-disciplinary association of scientists focused around concentrating talent to solving planetary challenges . Established in Erice , Sicily in 1973 by a group of eminent researchers led by Isidor Isaac Rabi and Antonino Zichichi , it has grown to include more than 10,000 scientists drawn from 110 countries . Notable scientists involved with the association include T. D. Lee , Laura Fermi , Eugene Wigner , Paul Dirac , and Piotr Kapitza . The federation administers the Erice Prize and the Gian Carlo Wick Gold Medal Prize . It notably holds annual seminars on planetary threats , discussing issues such as adaption to and mitigation of global climate change . Václav Klaus , then President of the Czech Republic , gave the keynote lecture of their August 2012 meeting , his skeptical views sparking debate among the attendees . It is not related to the World Federation of Science Journalists .", "qid": "294", "docid": "World_Federation_of_Scientists", "rank": 5, "score": 90861 }, { "content": "Title: GA²LEN Content: GA ² LEN , or Global Allergy and Asthma European Network '' ' , is a consortium of leading European research centres specialized in allergic diseases , which include asthma . Funded by the European Union under the 6th Framework Programme , GA ² LEN addresses the growing public health concern of allergic diseases . Research teams were chosen for their scientific excellence , their record on multidisciplinary working and international collaboration , and their educational activities . Since the launch of the Network , it has grown to include an additional 50 collaborating centres making GA ² LEN one of the largest multidisciplinary networks of researchers in allergy and asthma worldwide .", "qid": "294", "docid": "GA²LEN", "rank": 6, "score": 90565 }, { "content": "Title: AAYSP Content: The American Association of Yemeni Students ( previously scientists ) and Professionals ( AAYSP ) was founded in 2002 by two Yemeni scientists who both shared a common vision of helping promoting higher education among Yemenis . Networking was a key basis for the organization . AAYSP quickly established chapters to begin the network that would grow worldwide . Today , AAYSP enjoys a network of professionals and students throughout the world .", "qid": "294", "docid": "AAYSP", "rank": 7, "score": 89798 }, { "content": "Title: The Water Network Content: The Water Network is the largest online knowledge sharing platform for the global water professionals , researchers , technicians , private sector employees , policy makers . The world 's water problems are at its peak , and The Water Network believes that the problems could be solved by exchanging the knowledge learned and experiences gained in the field . , The Water Network has members joined from 195 countries . It is an initiative to help solve the global water crisis and water scarcity . The Water Network has worldwide volunteers to help them build a knowledge bank , which is accessible to every water professional for free .", "qid": "294", "docid": "The_Water_Network", "rank": 8, "score": 89315 }, { "content": "Title: World Association of Young Scientists Content: The World Association of Young Scientists ( WAYS ; formerly World Academy of Young Scientists ) is a global network of young scientists established in 2004 , in partnership with UNESCO and ICSU . It provides a Web 2.0 platform for scientific exchange , thereby linking individuals and existing networks with a regional or disciplinary focus .", "qid": "294", "docid": "World_Association_of_Young_Scientists", "rank": 9, "score": 88792 }, { "content": "Title: Global Virus Network Content: The Global Virus Network ( GVN ) is an international coalition of medical virologists founded in 2011 , and covering 24 countries in 2015 . It fosters research into viruses that cause human disease , with the aim of promoting the development of diagnostics , antiviral drugs and vaccines.In addition , GVN 's mission includes strengthening medical research and response mechanisms to current viral causes to human disease . It was co-founded by Robert Gallo , who is its scientific director . It is headquartered at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the USA . GVN organises task forces in the areas of chikungunya and human T-lymphotropic virus , and launched one in the area of Zika in 2016 .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Virus_Network", "rank": 10, "score": 88177 }, { "content": "Title: Scientists for Global Responsibility Content: Scientists for Global Responsibility ( SGR ) in the United Kingdom promotes the ethical practice and use of science and technology . SGR is affiliated to the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility ( INES ) . SGR 's main areas of concern are arms and arms control , including military involvement in UK universities ; effect of excessive greenhouse gas emissions on climate ; the nature of war and reducing barbarity ; topsoil and water shortages resulting from modern agricultural methods ; depletion of species of fish due to over-fishing ; continual spread of nuclear weapons , and reduction of occurrence of serious nuclear accidents . SGR evaluates the risk of new science and new technological solutions to older science-based problems and threats , while recognizing the enormous contribution science , design and technology has made to civilisation and human well-being .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Scientists_for_Global_Responsibility", "rank": 11, "score": 87508 }, { "content": "Title: Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network Content: Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network ( GLEON ) is an international grass-roots , voluntary network of researchers , educators , and community groups interested in making and utilizing time series of high-frequency observations made on and in lakes and reservoirs all over the world . GLEON includes more than 60 lakes and more than 260 individual members from 34 countries on six continents ( as of April 2011 ) .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Lake_Ecological_Observatory_Network", "rank": 12, "score": 87478 }, { "content": "Title: Global Science Opera Content: The Global Science Opera ( GSO ) is a creative education initiative that combines science , art , technology , and education in a global network of scientists , art and education institutions and projects . Using digital interaction , schools , universities and art and institutions from over 30 participating countries perform and live-stream Global Science Opera performances . One team in each participating country is invited to develop a two-minute scene for the opera , with all the scenes being performed together on a designated date as a continuous , real-time event that viewers can watch online .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Science_Opera", "rank": 13, "score": 87444 }, { "content": "Title: World Scientists' Warning to Humanity Content: In late 1992 , the late Henry W. Kendall , a former chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) board of directors , wrote `` World Scientists ' Warning to Humanity '' , which begins : `` Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course . '' A majority of the Nobel Prize laureates in the sciences signed the document ; about 1,700 of the world 's leading scientists appended their signature . It is sometimes offered in opposition to the Heidelberg Appeal -- also signed by numerous scientists and Nobel laureates earlier in 1992 -- which begins by criticizing `` an irrational ideology which is opposed to scientific and industrial progress , and impedes economic and social development . '' This document is often cited by those who oppose theories relating to climate change . However , the Heidelberg Appeal offers no specific recommendations and is not an indictment of environmental science : `` We fully subscribe to the objectives of a scientific ecology for a universe whose resources must be taken stock of , monitored and preserved . But we herewith demand that this stock-taking , monitoring and preservation be founded on scientific criteria and not on irrational pre-conceptions . '' In contrast , the UCS-led petition contains specific recommendations : `` We must , for example , move away from fossil fuels to more benign , inexhaustible energy sources to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the pollution of our air and water . ... We must stabilize population . ''", "qid": "294", "docid": "World_Scientists'_Warning_to_Humanity", "rank": 14, "score": 87226 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Sciences Network Content: The Energy Sciences Network ( ESnet ) is a high-speed computer network serving United States Department of Energy ( DOE ) scientists and their collaborators worldwide . It is managed by staff at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory . More than 40 DOE Office of Science labs and research sites are directly connected to this network . The ESnet network also connects to more than 140 other research and commercial networks , allowing DOE researchers to collaborate with scientists around the world .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Energy_Sciences_Network", "rank": 15, "score": 86504 }, { "content": "Title: IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Content: The IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society ( NPSS ) is a transnational group of about 3000 professional engineers and scientists . The IEEE-affiliated Society sponsors five major annual , and 12 biennial conferences and symposia . It also sponsors or co-sponsor four peer-reviewed academic journals . The IEEE is the world 's largest technical professional organization with more than 420,000 members in around 160 countries .", "qid": "294", "docid": "IEEE_Nuclear_and_Plasma_Sciences_Society", "rank": 16, "score": 86452 }, { "content": "Title: Billion Soul Harvest Content: The Billion Soul Harvest represents the emergence of a global movement within the Christian church to win a billion souls for Christ . At least two global leadership networks have been formed to support the movement : Global Pastors Network formed in 2003 , with 800,000 members , and Billion Soul Network formed in 2007 , with a membership of 475,000 churches worldwide . Former NYC Mayor , Rudy Giuliani , has been a conference speaker and proponent of the movement . Driving forces propelling the movement forward include conferences , books and significant prayer initiatives . Over two hundred church denominations now participate in the movement . The emergence of the movement was influenced by Bob Jones , after he reported a supernatural encounter with God in 1975 where he was told to `` Prepare the people , for I am going to bring a billion souls in one great harvest '' .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Billion_Soul_Harvest", "rank": 17, "score": 86282 }, { "content": "Title: Worldwide Universities Network Content: The Worldwide Universities Network ( WUN ) is an alliance of 20 research-intensive universities . WUN provides financial and infrastructural support to member universities to foster international research collaboration and facilitate academic mobility .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Worldwide_Universities_Network", "rank": 18, "score": 85726 }, { "content": "Title: Long Term Ecological Research Network Content: The Long Term Ecological Research ( LTER ) Network consists of a group of over 1800 scientists and students studying ecological processes over extended temporal and spatial scales . 26 LTER sites cover a diverse set of ecosystems .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Long_Term_Ecological_Research_Network", "rank": 19, "score": 85634 }, { "content": "Title: The World Academy of Sciences Content: The World Academy of Sciences ( TWAS ) is a merit-based science academy uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries . Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development in the South ( see North-South divide ) . Its headquarters are located on the premises of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics ( ICTP ) in Trieste , Italy . It was named `` Third World Academy of Sciences '' until 2004 and `` TWAS , the academy of sciences for the developing world '' before September 2012 ,", "qid": "294", "docid": "The_World_Academy_of_Sciences", "rank": 20, "score": 85454 }, { "content": "Title: Science (TV network) Content: Science is an American digital cable and satellite television network that is owned by Discovery Communications . The channel features programming focusing on the fields of wilderness survival , ufology , manufacturing , construction , technology , space , prehistory and animal science . As of February 2015 , Science is available to approximately 75.5 million pay television households ( 64.8 % of households with at least one television set ) in the United States .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Science_(TV_network)", "rank": 21, "score": 85148 }, { "content": "Title: Global Viral Content: Originally named as the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative ( GVFI ) , Global Viral is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) not-for-profit organization that supports some of the world 's research , data and policy leaders and links them together in a network aimed at addressing the most important global infectious disease threats . The goal of developing an early warning system for pandemics to monitor the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans . The initiative currently coordinates a staff of over 100 scientists in China , Cameroon , Equatorial Guinea , DR Congo , Republic of the Congo , Laos , Gabon , Central African Republic , Malaysia , Madagascar and Sao Tome . Global Viral was founded in 2007 by Nathan Wolfe and maintains its headquarters in San Francisco , CA and has ongoing activities in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Viral", "rank": 22, "score": 85058 }, { "content": "Title: USERN Content: USERN , the official acronym of universal scientific education and research network , is established in 2015 and the Basic Statute of USERN was drafted on 21 January 2015 , which was revised on 20 March 2016 to be signed by a number of top scientists worldwide . USERN organized exclusively for advancement of authentic , ethical and professional scientific research and education and consequently advancement of science for non-military purposes and public good . Making international interdisciplinary scientific projects and providing a platform for more effective communication among young researchers and experienced scientists , all over the world , is a head of USERN 's schedule .", "qid": "294", "docid": "USERN", "rank": 23, "score": 84668 }, { "content": "Title: Global biodiversity Content: Global biodiversity is the measure of biodiversity on planet Earth and is defined as the total variability of life forms . More than 99 percent of all species , that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct . Estimates on the number of Earth 's current species range from 2 million to 1012 , of which about 1.6 million have been databased thus far and over 80 percent have not yet been described . More recently , in May 2016 , scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described . The total amount of DNA base pairs on Earth , as a possible approximation of global biodiversity , is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 , and weighs 50 billion tonnes . In comparison , the total mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC ( trillion tons of carbon ) . In other related studies , around 1.9 million extant species are believed to have been described currently , but some scientists believe 20 % are synonyms , reducing the total valid described species to 1.5 million . In 2013 , a study published in Science estimated there to be 5 ± 3 million extant species on Earth . Another study , published in 2011 by PLoS Biology , estimated there to be 8.7 million ± 1.3 million eukaryotic species on Earth . Some 250,000 valid fossil species have been described , but this is believed to be a small proportion of all species that have ever lived . Global biodiversity is affected by extinction and speciation . The background extinction rate varies among taxa but it is estimated that there is approximately one extinction per million species years . Mammal species , for example , typically persist for 1 million years . Biodiversity has grown and shrunk in earth 's past due to ( presumably ) abiotic factors such as extinction events caused by geologically rapid changes in climate . Climate change 299 million years ago was one such event . A cooling and drying resulted in catastrophic rainforest collapse and subsequently a great loss of diversity , especially of amphibians . However , the current rate and magnitude of extinctions are much higher than background estimates . This , considered by some to be leading to the sixth mass extinction , is a result of human impacts on the environment .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_biodiversity", "rank": 24, "score": 84619 }, { "content": "Title: MadSci Network Content: The Madsci Network is a website known primarily for its Ask-A-Scientist forum where users can ask questions to a panel of volunteer scientists . Each question , submitted via a Web interface , is reviewed by a volunteer moderator . If the question is intelligible , not a homework assignment , and has not been answered previously , it may be answered directly by the moderator , or forwarded to one of hundreds of volunteer scientists and professionals . The moderators match each question to a volunteer 's area of expertise . After answering the question , the volunteer sends it back to the moderators who then review the answer prior to posting it on the web site . The moderator may ask the scientist to edit the answer or provide references for information . Thereafter , the majority of questions and answers are made publicly available in the extensive archives , which date back to 1996 . The Madsci Network hosts the Edible and Inedible Experiments Archive , a unique collection of easy science demos , and a guided tour of data from the Visible Human Project . The Madsci Network gets approximately 600,000 unique visitors and roughly 3 million page views per month . It is a non-profit ask-a-scientist site with over 700 scientists distributed globally and has been cited in academic publications , web awards , sites/portals like yahoo.com , etc. . The principals are : Founder and Executive Director , Dr. Lynn Bry , and Director of Research , Dr. Ricky J Sethi . Notable scientists who have answered questions on the website include Dr. Samuel Conway .", "qid": "294", "docid": "MadSci_Network", "rank": 25, "score": 83625 }, { "content": "Title: World Services Group Content: WSG , also branded as World Services Group , is a multidisciplinary professional services network of independent law , accounting and investment banking firms . It ranks as one of the largest among the more than 200 professional services networks in the world . WSG members are independent law , accounting and investment banking firms . According to the organization 's website , WSG was formed in 2002 as a multidisciplinary network with the objective of bringing together professionals in a professional services network that creates business opportunities and relationships to better service their clients globally . Its members have more than 19,000 professionals in more than 115 countries in almost 400 offices . Its global headquarters are located in the Houston , Texas ,", "qid": "294", "docid": "World_Services_Group", "rank": 26, "score": 83622 }, { "content": "Title: ALFA International Content: ALFA International The Global Legal Network Inc. , commonly known as ALFA International , is a global legal network consisting of 145 independent law firms , including 80 U.S. law firms and 65 member firms in other countries . As with other types of professional services networks , the organization serves as a business referral and resource pooling network between member law firms .", "qid": "294", "docid": "ALFA_International", "rank": 27, "score": 82798 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 28, "score": 82746 }, { "content": "Title: European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility Content: The European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility ( ENSSER ) , is an international non-profit group of scientists , academics and physicians , founded in 2009 . ENSSER organizes conferences on a variety of topics , with participants from governmental institutions , Universities and organisations .", "qid": "294", "docid": "European_Network_of_Scientists_for_Social_and_Environmental_Responsibility", "rank": 29, "score": 82694 }, { "content": "Title: Global network Content: A global network is any communication network which spans the entire Earth . The term , as used in this article refers in a more restricted way to bidirectional communication networks , and to technology-based networks . Early networks such as international mail and unidirectional communication networks , such as radio and television , are described elsewhere . The first global network was established using electrical telegraphy and global span was achieved in 1899 . The telephony network was the second to achieve global status , in the 1950s . More recently , interconnected IP networks ( principally the Internet , with estimated 2.5 billion users worldwide in 2014 ) , and the GSM mobile communication network ( with over 6 billion worldwide users in 2014 ) form the largest global networks of all . Setting up global networks requires immensely costly and lengthy efforts lasting for decades . Elaborate interconnections , switching and routing devices , laying out physical carriers of information , such as land and submarine cables and earth stations must be set in operation . In addition , international communication protocols , legislation and agreements are involved .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_network", "rank": 30, "score": 82234 }, { "content": "Title: Climate as complex networks Content: The field of complex networks has emerged as an important area of science to generate novel insights into nature of complex systems . The application of the network theory to climate science is a young and emerging field . To identify and analyze patterns in global climate , scientists model climate data as Complex Networks . Unlike most of real-world networks in which nodes and edges are well defined , nodes in climate networks are identified with the spatial grid points of underlying global climate data set , which is defined arbitrarily and can be represented at various resolutions . Two nodes are connected by an edge depending on the degree of statistical similarity ( that may be related to dependence ) between corresponding pairs of time-series taken from climate data , based on similarity shared in climatic variability . The climate network approach enables novel insights into the dynamics of the climate system over many spatial and temporal scales .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Climate_as_complex_networks", "rank": 31, "score": 81931 }, { "content": "Title: March for Science Content: The March for Science ( formerly known as the Scientists ' March on Washington ) was a series of rallies and marches held in Washington , D.C. , and more than 600 other cities across the world on Earth Day , April 22 , 2017 . According to organizers , the march is a non-partisan movement to celebrate science and the role it plays in everyday lives . The goals of the marches and rallies were to emphasize that science upholds the common good and to call for evidence-based policy in the public 's best interest . The March for Science organizers , using crowd science techniques , estimated global attendance at 1.07 million , with 100,000 participants estimated for the main March in Washington , D.C. , 70,000 in Boston , 60,000 in Chicago , and 50,000 each in Los Angeles and San Francisco . The March for Science organizers and supporters say that support for science should be nonpartisan . The march is being organized by scientists skeptical of the agenda of the Trump administration , and critical of Trump administration policies widely viewed as hostile to science . The march 's website states that an `` American government that ignores science to pursue ideological agendas endangers the world . '' Particular issues of science policy raised by the marchers include support for evidence-based policymaking , as well as support for government funding for scientific research , government transparency , and government acceptance of the scientific consensus on climate change and evolution . The march is part of growing political activity by American scientists in the wake of the November 2016 elections and the 2017 Women 's March . Robert N. Proctor , a historian of science at Stanford University , stated that the March for Science was `` pretty unprecedented in terms of the scale and breadth of the scientific community that 's involved '' and was rooted in `` a broader perception of a massive attack on sacred notions of truth that are sacred to the scientific community . ''", "qid": "294", "docid": "March_for_Science", "rank": 32, "score": 81853 }, { "content": "Title: Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology Network Content: Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Online Network ( GIDEON ) is a web-based program for decision support and informatics in the fields of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine . As of 2005 , more than 300 generic infectious diseases occur haphazardly in time and space and are challenged by over 250 drugs and vaccines . 1,500 species of pathogenic bacteria , viruses , parasites and fungi have been described . Printed media can no longer follow the dynamics of diseases , outbreaks and epidemics in `` real time . ''", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Infectious_Disease_Epidemiology_Network", "rank": 33, "score": 81843 }, { "content": "Title: Science and Development Network Content: SciDev.Net is a not-for-profit organisation that produces news , views and analysis about science and technology in the context of global development . It primarily engages with development professionals , policymakers , researchers , the media and the informed public . The organisation was founded in 2001 in response to the significant gap in scientific knowledge between rich and poor countries and with the understanding that `` those who stand to benefit the most from modern science and technology are also those with the least access to information about it '' . SciDev.Net seeks to redress this imbalance via its free-to-access website , regional networks and specialist workshops . SciDev.Net aims to help individuals and organisations apply evidence and insights from science and technology to decision-making in order to have a positive impact on equitable and sustainable development and poverty reduction . The global edition is based in London and there are six regional desks based in Latin America & Caribbean ( Spanish ) , Middle East and North and West Africa ( Arabic ) , South Asia , South-East Asia & Pacific , Sub-Saharan Africa ( English and French ) . SciDev.Net is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity in England and Wales ( registered charity number 1089590 ) .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Science_and_Development_Network", "rank": 34, "score": 81790 }, { "content": "Title: Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases Content: The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases is an advocacy initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute dedicated to raising the awareness , political will , and funding necessary to control and eliminate the most common Neglected Tropical Diseases ( NTDs ) -- a group of disabling , disfiguring , and deadly diseases affecting more than 1.4 billion people worldwide living on less than $ 1.25 a day .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Network_for_Neglected_Tropical_Diseases", "rank": 35, "score": 80978 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 36, "score": 80817 }, { "content": "Title: Global Oscillations Network Group Content: The Global Oscillation Network Group ( GONG ) is a community-based program to study solar internal structure and dynamics using helioseismology . Six solar observatories are involved , with the intention of achieving almost unbroken observation of the Sun . The six observatories are the Teide Observatory ( Canary Islands ) , the Learmonth Solar Observatory ( Western Australia ) , the Big Bear Solar Observatory ( California ) , the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory ( Hawaii ) , the Udaipur Solar Observatory ( India ) and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory ( Chile ) . In 2001 , the original GONG detectors were upgraded to 1000 x 1000 pixels and continuous magnetograms were implemented , and the new system is known as GONG + + . More recently ( c. 2010 ) , improvements to GONG observatory instrumentation have been made to enable imaging of the Hα ( `` H-alpha '' ) spectral line of hydrogen in the solar atmosphere . The GONG Program is managed by the National Solar Observatory , which is operated by AURA , Inc. under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Oscillations_Network_Group", "rank": 37, "score": 80667 }, { "content": "Title: Global Development Network Content: The Global Development Network ( GDN ) is a worldwide network of research and policy institutes working to provide new perspectives to the development challenges of our time . A spin-off of the World Bank , GDN works to make policy-relevant research accelerate the pace of global development . The Government of India has granted it the status of international organization . GDN is engaged in research issues related to social and economic development , and encourages researchers by providing platform for the research . Every year GDN invites researchers , policy-makers and policy analysts to its annual conference . Its 2012 annual conference was held in Budapest , Hungary ( co-organised by Central European University ) and the 2013 conference will be held in Manila , The Philippines in partnership with the Asian Development Bank ( ADB ) , the East Asian Development Network ( EADN ) and the Philippine Institute for Development Studies ( PIDS ) .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Development_Network", "rank": 38, "score": 80026 }, { "content": "Title: Global Network for Advanced Management Content: The Global Network for Advanced Management is a collaboration of graduate schools of business that seeks to foster intellectual ties among business schools , students and deans from both economically strong regions and those on the horizon of economic development . It was founded by a consortium of 21 schools and launched on April 27 , 2012 . The Global Network has since expanded to include 29 member schools .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Network_for_Advanced_Management", "rank": 39, "score": 79973 }, { "content": "Title: Offshoring Research Network Content: The Offshoring Research Network is an international network of researchers and practitioners studying organizations in their transition to globalizing their business functions , processes and administrative services . The ORN conducts annual surveys tracking global sourcing strategies , drivers , concrete implementations and plans across all business functions and processes . The ORN is managed by Duke University , The Fuqua School of Business , Center for International Business Education and Research ( CIBER ) . It involves partner universities in Europe , Asia and Australia . The ORN has over 3,000 corporate participants across all industries from all over the world . Based on annual surveys , the ORN research team maintains a comprehensive database of firms and governmental organizations and their implemented and planned offshore sourcing projects over time . In addition , the ORN research team collects data on service providers offering offshore services . Offshoring , according to the ORN , refers to the process of sourcing business functions or processes supporting home-based or global operations from a foreign country , either through wholly owned organizational units ( captive offshoring/shared services ) or external service providers ( offshore outsourcing ) . The ORN project captures a wide range of business functions and processes , such as information technology ( IT ) , finance & accounting , contact centers , human resources , legal services ( LPO ) , analytical and knowledge services ( KPO ) , software development , procurement , marketing and sales , engineering and new product development . The ORN studies do not cover offshoring of manufacturing activities , nor do they capture outsourcing or shared services activities onshore/domestically . Based on their research , ORN partners have published a number of academic and practitioner-oriented articles . In addition , the ORN has completed various research projects as well as case studies ; organized academic and practitioner-oriented workshops and webcasts ; delivered executive education programs and completed commissioned studies for corporate members of the ORN .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Offshoring_Research_Network", "rank": 40, "score": 79921 }, { "content": "Title: Fluxnet-Canada Research Network Content: The Fluxnet Canada Research Network is a research network of more than 100 scientists , graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from 15 Canadian universities and nine federal and provincial government laboratories . One of the priorities of FCRN is determining the factors that govern the time required for a forest to become a net carbon sink following disturbances such as harvest or fire . Tower-mounted meteorological equipment is used to measure carbon fluxes as well as water and energy exchange in 20 forested and seven peatland ecosystems in seven different provinces .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Fluxnet-Canada_Research_Network", "rank": 41, "score": 79150 }, { "content": "Title: International Union of Forest Research Organizations Content: The International Union of Forest Research Organizations ( IUFRO ) ( Union Internationale des Instituts de Recherches Forestières , Internationaler Verband Forstlicher Forschungsanstalten , Unión Internacional de Institutos de Investigación Forestal ) is a non-profit , non-governmental international network of forest scientists , headquartered in Austria . The IUFRO unites more than 15,000 scientists in almost 700 Member Organizations in over 110 countries . Scientists cooperate in IUFRO on a voluntary basis . It promotes global cooperation in forest-related research and enhances the understanding of the ecological , economic and social aspects of forests and trees . It disseminates scientific knowledge to stakeholders and decision-makers and contributes to forest policy and on-the-ground forest management . IUFRO 's vision is of science-based sustainable management of the world 's forest resources for economic , environmental and social benefits . With the Strategy 2015-2019 , IUFRO addresses five research themes and associated emphasis areas , and three institutional goals . The following five themes aim to guide the science collaboration within IUFRO 's global network in the current Strategy period : 1 Forests for People 2 Forests and Climate Change 3 Forest and Forest-based Products for a Greener Future 4 Biodivesity , Ecosystem Services and Biological Invasions 5 Forest , Soil and Water Interactions The three institutional goals are : Goal 1 - Research Excellence : Strive for quality , relevance and synergies Goal 2 - Network Cooperation : Increase communication , visibility and outreach Goal 3 - Policy Impact : Provide analysis , insights and options", "qid": "294", "docid": "International_Union_of_Forest_Research_Organizations", "rank": 42, "score": 78902 }, { "content": "Title: Global Pastors Network Content: Global Pastors Network , Inc. ( GPN ) is an incorporated educational , networking and strategic resource for evangelical leadership , founded in 2002 by Bill Bright , the late founder and chairman of Campus Crusade for Christ , and James O. Davis , founder of Cutting Edge International . Over the next decade GPN hopes to help five million churches to be planted and , in their own words , `` win 1 billion people to Christ worldwide '' . It is based in Orlando , Florida , and boasts 800,000 members worldwide .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Pastors_Network", "rank": 43, "score": 78719 }, { "content": "Title: Global Christian Network Content: The Global Christian Network ( GCN ) began in 1994 . It was a precursor to Facebook for Christians , and was the largest online community in the world at the time with around 4 million people . GCN sent out over 100,000 emails a day to subscribers . The Global Christian Network officially began on March 11 , 1994 . It was begun as a hobby site by two brothers , David and Robert Fritsche . David Fritsche founded Dynamic Systems International , a Microsoft partner that was widely regarded as a leader in the Internet and data . They used these skills to start the new site . The site allowed users to create their own online web pages . It contained subject and regional chat rooms , very much like the Facebook News of today . There were newsletters from famous Christian authors to which users could subscribe . GCN 's newsletter emails grew to over 100,000 a day . GCN also contained the first search engine dedicated to Christian content . In 1996 , Microsoft took notice and used the site as its official testing site for its SQL Server . Microsoft was adapting SQL 6.0 and 6.5 for use on the internet and using the newer TCP/IP protocol . GCN provided an excellent test base with lots of transactions and world renowned experts to help guide Microsoft . Microsoft launched its first support for the Internet with SQL on April 16 of 1996 with GCN 's help . On January 1 of 1997 , GCN 's traffic doubled in one day . At the time over 2 million hits in a day was a tremendous amount of traffic . In 1997 , GCN added events , and brought the first online events for Christian artists around the world to its community . Also in 1997 , GCN started the first Christian dating sites . Thousands of people met their future loved ones online and hundreds were married because of these sites . GCN grew to over 4 million people in this time . It merged with a public company and was valued at over $ 400 million at one point prior to the burst of the dot com bubble in 2000 . In 2001 , GCN sold to a public company for a tenth of its highest value . This company largely dismantled GCN for its parts .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Christian_Network", "rank": 44, "score": 78676 }, { "content": "Title: Template network Content: The Template Network was once called the Emin Society or the Emin Foundation , and is now an international network of independent groups . As of 2014 there are some 1600 people regularly engaged within these groups worldwide in countries including Australia , Brazil , Canada , Denmark , England , Germany , Ireland , Israel , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Norway and the United States of America . Activities are diverse with interests including personal development , spirituality , psychology , meditation , music , dance , ecology , healing , sustainable development , evolution and health and well-being .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Template_network", "rank": 45, "score": 78461 }, { "content": "Title: Global Environment for Network Innovations Content: The Global Environment for Network Innovations ( GENI ) is a facility concept being explored by the United States computing community with support from the National Science Foundation . The goal of GENI is to enhance experimental research in computer networking and distributed systems , and to accelerate the transition of this research into products and services that will improve the economic competitiveness of the United States . GENI planning efforts are organized around several focus areas , including facility architecture , the backbone network , distributed services , wireless/mobile/sensor subnetworks , and research coordination amongst these .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Environment_for_Network_Innovations", "rank": 46, "score": 78249 }, { "content": "Title: Earth System Governance Project Content: The Earth System Governance Project is a long-term , interdisciplinary social science research programme originally developed under the auspices of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change . It started in January 2009 . The Earth System Governance Project currently consists of a network of ca. 300 active and about 2,300 indirectly involved scholars from all continents . The project has evolved into the largest social science research network in the area of governance and global environmental change . The Earth System Governance Project Office is hosted at Lund University , Sweden .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Earth_System_Governance_Project", "rank": 47, "score": 78067 }, { "content": "Title: Lunar and Planetary Science Conference Content: The Lunar and Planetary Science Conference ( LPSC ) , jointly sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Institute ( LPI ) and NASA Johnson Space Center ( JSC ) , brings together international specialists in petrology , geochemistry , geophysics , geology , and astronomy to present the latest results of research in planetary science . Since its beginning in 1970 , the LPSC has been a significant focal point for planetary science research , with more than 1700 planetary scientists and students attending from all over the world .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Lunar_and_Planetary_Science_Conference", "rank": 48, "score": 77671 }, { "content": "Title: International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists Content: The International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists ( INWES ) is a global network of organizations that supports women in Science , Technology , Engineering and Mathematics ( STEM ) . INWES is a non-governmental organization issued under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act and has a consultative status as an NGO at UNESCO . It is governed by a board of directors an executive committee for daily operations .", "qid": "294", "docid": "International_Network_of_Women_Engineers_and_Scientists", "rank": 49, "score": 77665 }, { "content": "Title: Permafrost Young Researchers Network Content: The Permafrost Young Researcher 's Network ( PYRN ) is a network formed in 2005 to formally facilitate and strengthen contacts among young scientists in the permafrost community . It arose from the need for an integrated single source of information for specific resources vital to young scientists ( fellowships , conference travel funding , position opportunities , etc. ) . Additionally , the imminence of the International Polar Year ( IPY ) prompted the need for a visible representation of the young permafrost community at the international level . The Permafrost Young Researchers Network has therefore been formally established within the International Permafrost Association ( IPA ) framework and has created and maintains means of communication among young researchers involved in permafrost research . It reports on young researchers ' activities to the IPA membership and working parties and represents permafrost scientists and engineers within broader international and national assemblages .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Permafrost_Young_Researchers_Network", "rank": 50, "score": 77304 }, { "content": "Title: International Association for Danube Research Content: The International Association for Danube Research , or IAD , is an active network of scientists in the Danube River Basin of Europe . Currently the IAD board has country representatives in 12 Danube Basin countries , and has Several hundred members in all Danube countries form the network of scientists in all major fields .", "qid": "294", "docid": "International_Association_for_Danube_Research", "rank": 51, "score": 77183 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Network Content: The Global Climate Network ( GCN ) is an alliance of influential think tanks and research institutes in different countries that collaborate on research into climate change policy and whose stated aim is to help address the political blockages to ambitious action to tackle global warming . The Network has members in nine countries worldwide , including the USA , China , India , UK , Australia , Brazil , Norway , South Africa and Nigeria . Its Secretariat is housed at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London , UK . GCN members are engaged jointly in a programme of research projects , the results of which each member feeds into policy making at the domestic and international levels . Collectively , members of the Global Climate Network are committed to a vision of a prosperous and secure world in which greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced to a level that is no longer harmful to the climate system . Working together , the Network construct a narrative for action on climate change that is concerned with human and economic progress as well as environmental wellbeing . The Network 's patrons are Dr Rajendra Pachauri , chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and director-general of the Energy and Resources Institute in India ; John Podesta , former Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton and director of Center for American Progress , and Lord Christopher Patten of Barnes , former European Commissioner for External Affairs .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Climate_Network", "rank": 52, "score": 77058 }, { "content": "Title: Healthcare Information For All Content: Healthcare Information For All ( HIFA ) is a global network of health professionals , publishers , librarians , technologists , researchers , and policymakers . Formerly known as HIFA2015 ( Healthcare Information For All by 2015 ) , the network was rebranded as HIFA in 2014 . They have over 16,000 members from 2500 separate organisations in 175 countries worldwide . HIFA was formally launched in October 2006 at the 10th Congress of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa in Mombasa , Kenya . The network is administered by the Global Healthcare Information Network , a nonprofit organisation based in the United Kingdom . Universal and user-friendly access to relevant , reliable health information is considered a vital part of meeting the World Health Organization 's goal of Health For All and the United Nation 's Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Healthcare_Information_For_All", "rank": 53, "score": 76907 }, { "content": "Title: CPSX Content: The Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration ( CPSX ) is an academic unit operating at the University of Western Ontario ( UWO ) . Founded in 2007 , and dedicated in 2008 alongside the Canadian Lunar Research Network , it is the largest single group of planetary scientists ( and related research professionals ) working at an educational institution within Canada . Research focuses on planetary atmospheres , surfaces , and interiors along with cosmochemistry , dynamics , astrobiology , space systems , telerobotics , and the history of space exploration . In 2008 , CPSX became the first international partner of the NASA Lunar Science Institute , and become a node of the Canadian Lunar Research Network . In addition to its research facilities , CPSX offers degree programs through UWO for undergraduate and graduate students at umbrella programs . Graduate students enrolling must be admitted into either the Physics and Astronomy program or the Geology or Geophysics programs in order to transfer into the CPSX graduate degree programs .", "qid": "294", "docid": "CPSX", "rank": 54, "score": 76894 }, { "content": "Title: Global Recordings Network Content: Global Recordings Network ( GRN ) was founded by Joy Ridderhof in Los Angeles , California in 1939 as `` Gospel Recordings . '' The mission of GRN is `` In partnership with the church , to effectively communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ by means of culturally appropriate audio and audio-visual materials in every language . '' This is accomplished by recording the stories of the Bible in the native language or dialect , by a mother tongue speaker and providing them in an audio format to the community . Often the languages do not have a written form . GRN has recorded over 6,000 languages or dialects . GRN has offices in more than 20 countries . The language professor Alexander Arguelles notes that it is possible to use these recordings and the accompanying text in English , to start learning any of the languages . For many there is no other way to learn the language .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Recordings_Network", "rank": 55, "score": 76823 }, { "content": "Title: Urgent Call for Unity Content: The `` Urgent Call for Unity '' ( Dringender Appell für die Einheit ) was an appeal by the Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund ( ISK ) to defeat the Nazis . It was signed by nearly three dozen well-known German scientists , authors and artists in advance of the German federal election in July 1932 .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Urgent_Call_for_Unity", "rank": 56, "score": 76770 }, { "content": "Title: List of network scientists Content: This is a list of individuals who research social and other complex networks . Individuals are categorized based upon their background and training .", "qid": "294", "docid": "List_of_network_scientists", "rank": 57, "score": 76682 }, { "content": "Title: ResearchGate Content: ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers , ask and answer questions , and find collaborators . According to a study by Nature and an article in Times Higher Education , it is the largest academic social network in terms of active users , although other services have more registered users and more recent data suggests that almost as many academics have Google Scholar profiles . People that wish to use the site need to have an email address at a recognized institution or to be manually confirmed as a published researcher in order to sign up for an account . Members of the site each have a user profile and can upload research output including papers , data , chapters , negative results , patents , research proposals , methods , presentations , and software source code . Users may also follow the activities of other users and engage in discussions with them . Users are also able to block interactions with other users . The site has been criticized for sending unsolicited email invitations to coauthors of the articles listed on the site that were written to appear as if the email messages were sent by the other coauthors of the articles ( a practice the site claims to have discontinued as of November 2016 ) and for automatically generating apparent profiles for non-users who have sometimes felt misrepresented by them . A study found that over half of the uploaded papers appear to infringe copyright , because the authors uploaded the publisher 's version .", "qid": "294", "docid": "ResearchGate", "rank": 58, "score": 76522 }, { "content": "Title: International Expert Group on Earth System Preservation Content: The Institute for Earth System Preservation ( IESP ) is a global network of scientists , engineers , entrepreneurs and administrators . The institute is registered as a nonprofit association headquartered in Munich , Germany . It is treated as an institution of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts . The purpose of IESP is to contribute to advances in Earth system science through thematic-based conferences , workshops , seminars , lectures and publications . It serves as a liaison between experts , decision makers and the public to promote a mutually , beneficial exchange of concerns and knowledge , and to provide scientifically sound recommendations for action . Its activities support policy debates by providing a platform for reflection on the sustainable development of economic and societal systems in mutual relation to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems . IESP works with organizational staff located on the campus of the Technical University Munich ´ s Institute for Advanced Study in Garching , Germany .", "qid": "294", "docid": "International_Expert_Group_on_Earth_System_Preservation", "rank": 59, "score": 76369 }, { "content": "Title: GTAP Content: GTAP ( Global Trade Analysis Project ) is a global network of researchers ( mostly from universities , international organizations , or the economic ministries of governments ) who conduct quantitative analysis of international economic policy issues , especially trade policy . They cooperate to produce a consistent global economic database , covering many sectors and all parts of the world . The database describes bilateral trade patterns , production , consumption and intermediate use of commodities and services . There are satellite databases for such things as greenhouse gas emissions , and land use . There is software for aggregation to different levels of sectoral and regional detail . The GTAP project is coordinated by a team at the Center for Global Trade Analysis ( CGTA ) , based in the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue University . The team maintains a global computable general equilibrium model , which uses the GTAP database . Besides the core model , there are many variants ( including one focused on agricultural analysis ) , each focusing on a different issue in economic policy analysis .", "qid": "294", "docid": "GTAP", "rank": 60, "score": 76210 }, { "content": "Title: Global Planners Network Content: The Global Planners Network ( commonly abbreviated to GPN ) is a group of spatial planning institutes and other organisations , who have signed the Vancouver Declaration . Members sign this declaration to show their commitment to working `` together , and with others , to tackle the challenges of rapid urbanisation , the urbanisation of poverty and the hazards posed by climate change and natural disasters . '' Current GPN membership extends to 25 organisations representing more than 150,000 planners .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Planners_Network", "rank": 61, "score": 75972 }, { "content": "Title: Global Greens Content: The Global Greens is an international network of Green parties and political movements that works to implement the Global Greens Charter . As of November 2013 the network had 91 full member parties and 19 observers and associate parties .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Greens", "rank": 62, "score": 75897 }, { "content": "Title: Global Change Master Directory Content: The Global Change Master Directory is a directory of Earth Science data sets and related tools/services , many of which are targeted for the use , analysis , and display of the data . The directory holds more than 28,000 data set descriptions , known as DIFs ( Directory Interchange Format ) . This format is compatible with the Federal Geographic Data Committee 's ( FGDC ) standard and the international ISO 19115 standard . More than 2,500 descriptions of tools and services , known as SERFs ( Services Entry Resource Format ) , are also available to users . The purpose of the directory is to provide users with information on the availability of data and services that will meet their needs , along with efficient access to those data and services . Links are provided , when available , to connect directly to the data or services of interest . The directory is part of NASA 's Earth Observing System Data and Information System ( EOSDIS ) and also serves as NASA 's contribution to the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites ( CEOS ) , through which it is also known as the International Directory Network ( IDN ) . The international participants contribute descriptions of data and services that are held around the world and have provided valuable guidance in the development and direction of the project over the years . The directory also offers an online metadata authoring tools for those wishing to share knowledge of available data . One of the cornerstones to effective searches within the directory is twelve sets of controlled keywords that assist in normalizing the search . The development of these keywords was initiated over a decade ago . Currently , over 7,000 keywords are controlled , with new sets created for better search refinements , as time permits . The keyword sets are widely used throughout the world and are being translated into many languages . Within the GCMD and the IDN , these controlled keywords can be used in combination with a full-text search engine and also for search refinements . In addition , virtual subsets of the directory can be created as `` portals '' for groups wishing to identify their contributions or for those wishing to select a subset for their special interest group . The directory currently receives approximately 8 million hits per month .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Change_Master_Directory", "rank": 63, "score": 75873 }, { "content": "Title: World Scientific Content: World Scientific Publishing is an academic publisher of scientific , technical , and medical books and journals headquartered in Singapore . The company was founded in 1981 . It publishes about 500 books annually as well as more than 150 journals in various fields . In 1995 , World Scientific co-founded the London-based Imperial College Press together with the Imperial College of Science , Technology and Medicine .", "qid": "294", "docid": "World_Scientific", "rank": 64, "score": 74976 }, { "content": "Title: MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference 2009 Content: The 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria ( MIM ) Pan-African Malaria Conference is a scientific malaria conference that will bring together 1,500 leading researchers , activists , health workers , public health officials and policymakers in Nairobi , Kenya from November 1 -- 6 , 2009 . MIM is the world 's largest gathering of the malaria community , and occurs every three to four years . The conference will feature plenaries and presentations dedicated to unveiling new findings in malaria research and addressing major challenges in the field moving forward . This year 's conference will focus on the following issues : The global challenge of drug and insecticide resistance Expanding access to current interventions R&D advances currently in the pipeline Malaria eradication and elimination This is the first MIM conference to be organized by an African organization , the African Malaria Network Trust ( AMANET ) , and it is being hosted by the Kenyan Medical Research Institute ( KEMRI ) . It highlights African leadership in the ongoing effort to reach the Millennium Development Goals , which call for comprehensive , effective and affordable malaria prevention and treatment .", "qid": "294", "docid": "MIM_Pan-African_Malaria_Conference_2009", "rank": 65, "score": 74875 }, { "content": "Title: Nima Rezaei Content: Nima Rezaei ( born in Qaem Shahr , Iran ) is an Iranian scientist , distinguished associate professor of clinical immunology and allergy at Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Associate Dean of International Affairs in the School of Medicine and the Director of Global Academic Program ( GAP ) . Nima Rezaei is the mastermind , founder and current president of the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network ( USERN ) . Rezaei is known for his intellectual research in Primary Immunodeficiencies , characterization and treatment . He initiated the Iranian Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases Registry ( IPIDR ) in 1999 , which earned him the best research project award in the 4th Avicenna festival .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Nima_Rezaei", "rank": 66, "score": 74740 }, { "content": "Title: Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists Content: The Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists ( ECAS ) was founded by Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd in 1946 . Its aims were to warn the public of the dangers associated with the development of nuclear weapons , promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy , and ultimately work towards world peace , which was seen as the only way that nuclear weapons would not be used again . The Committee was established in the wake of the `` Szilárd petition '' ( July 1945 ) to United States president Harry S. Truman opposing the use of the atomic bomb on moral grounds , which was signed by 68 scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project . A majority of scientists working on the Manhattan Project did not know entirely what they were creating at the time . The Committee only ever consisted of the eight members of the Board of Trustees , who were : Albert Einstein Chairman Harold C. Urey Vice-Chairman Hans Bethe T.R. Hogness Philip M. Morse Linus Pauling Leó Szilárd Victor Weisskopf Half the members had worked directly on the Manhattan Project and all had been indirectly involved or consulted on the production of the first atomic bomb . Several members of the committee gave lecture tours to promote the committee 's message of peace . They produced supporting promotional materials , including one of the first films to illustrate what a full nuclear war might be like . ECAS was also very vocal in its opposition of the development of the first hydrogen bomb . ECAS was active for four years , until 1950 when it was gradually disbanded , although most of the members continued to campaign against nuclear war , and participated in the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Emergency_Committee_of_Atomic_Scientists", "rank": 67, "score": 74664 }, { "content": "Title: Integration and Application Network Content: The Integration and Application Network ( IAN ) is an initiative of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science . IAN 's mission is to inspire , manage and produce timely syntheses and assessments , working creatively with a wide variety of global partners . IAN helps scientists to effectively communicate their science . They do this through conceptual diagrams , science communication training , development of ecological health report cards and other assessments . IAN Press facilitates the inexpensive dissemination of these products . These tools allow scientists to build credibility with stakeholders , as well as enhancing the already substantial credibility with scientific peers .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Integration_and_Application_Network", "rank": 68, "score": 74633 }, { "content": "Title: Parliamentarians for Global Action Content: Parliamentarians for Global Action ( PGA ) is a non-profit , non-partisan international network of committed legislators , informs and mobilizes parliamentarians in all regions of the world to advocate for human rights and the rule of law , democracy , human security , non-discrimination , and gender equality . PGA Membership is open to individual legislators from elected parliaments . Currently it consists of approximately 1,300 members in 140 + parliaments . It was established circa 1978 as Parliamentarians for World Order engaged in a range of action-oriented initiatives that promote democracy , peace , justice and development throughout the world . The vision of PGA is `` to contribute to the creation of a Rules-Based International Order for a more equitable , safe and democratic world '' . The main office of PGA is located in New York City , while the seat of the PGA Foundation is in The Hague ( The Netherlands ) , in proximity to the International Court of Justice , the Hague Academy of International Law and the International Criminal Court . PGA promoted the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court ( ICC ) since 1989 and the ratification of the International Criminal Court treaty , the Rome Statute , since 1998 . PGA has contributed to the ratification of 77 out of 124 States Parties to the Rome Statute to the ICC . The most important event of the PGA International Law and Human Rights Programme is the Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians for the ICC and Rule of Law . From 2002 to 2004 , the Consultative Assembly met on an annual basis in 2002 in Ottawa , in 2003 in New York and in 2004 in New Zealand . Under its current biennial format , the fourth session took place in Japan ( 2006 ) , the fifth in Santo Domingo ( 2008 ) , the sixth in Kampala , Uganda ( 2010 ) , the seventh in Rome , Italy ( 2012 ) , and the eighth session is planned to take place in Rabat , Morocco in December 2014 . PGA 's Peace and Democracy Program focuses on marshalling global parliamentary support for improved regulation of the international arms trade , in particular where its inadequacies play a demonstrated role in destabilising countries , causing or fuelling conflict and/or delay the emergence of countries from conflict . In particular , PGA Members worldwide advocate in favour of improved regulation of Small Arms and Light Weapons ( SALW ) exports through strengthened domestic legislation , broader adherence to relevant regional Conventions and the UN Programme of Action on SALW . As of November 5 , 2014 , PGA Members have made important contributions to moving the Arms Trade Treaty ( ATT ) signature process forward in 40 of the 122 UN Member States that have signed the ATT , and in 24 of the 54 UN Member States that have ratified the ATT to date . PGA 's Gender , Equality and Population Programme promotes human dignity and the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination and to build communities where women and men have equal value . The programme focuses on promoting and protecting the rights of women and girls , especially by addressing harmful traditional practices like early , child and/or forced marriage and female genital mutilation ; and countering discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity . In 2014 , the GEP launched a Parliamentary Campaign against Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity . PGA includes among its membership a concentration of high-level politicians , including past and present Prime Ministers , Cabinet Ministers , and Chairs of Finance , Foreign Affairs , Human Rights , Population , Health , and Defense Committees . Many of PGA 's members have left parliament for higher government posts such as the Presidencies of Albania , Botswana , Iceland , the Philippines , Trinidad & Tobago , Prime Ministership of New Zealand and Pakistan , and Vice Presidency of Dominican Republic . The recently elected Vice-President of the Commission and High Representative on Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union , H.E. Federica Mogherini of Italy was also an active PGA Member prior to taking up this position .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Parliamentarians_for_Global_Action", "rank": 69, "score": 74505 }, { "content": "Title: INTEROP-VLab Content: The INTEROP V-Lab ( International Virtual Laboratory for Enterprise Interoperability ) is a network of organizations , which links scientists , research centers , representatives of industry , and small and medium-sized enterprises . The members come from several European countries as well as China and represent 250 scientists and 70 organizations . INTEROP-VLab was founded in 2007 and is the continuation of the INTEROP Network of Excellence ( Interoperability research for networked enterprise applications and software ) , a research initiative of the European Union founded early 2000s , which developed the Model Driven Interoperability ( MDI ) Framework . In 2012 Guy Doumeingts was appointed general manager of INTEROP-VLab .", "qid": "294", "docid": "INTEROP-VLab", "rank": 70, "score": 74372 }, { "content": "Title: Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network Content: The Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network ( RDCRN ) is an initiative of the Office of Rare Diseases Research ( ORDR ) . RDCRN is funded by the ORDR , the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and collaborating institute centers . The RDCRN is designed to advance medical research on rare diseases by providing support for clinical studies and facilitating collaboration , study enrollment and data sharing . Through the RDCRN consortia , physician scientists and their multidisciplinary teams work together with patient advocacy groups to study more than 200 rare diseases at sites across the nation . As of October 2014 , the network is composed of around 2,600 researchers which includes National Institutes of Health staff , academic investigators and members of 98 patient advocacy groups . There are 91 studies underway .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Rare_Diseases_Clinical_Research_Network", "rank": 71, "score": 74234 }, { "content": "Title: YPARD Content: YPARD ( Young Professionals for Agricultural Development ) is an international movement made by young professionals for young professionals . YPARD operates as a network ; it is not a formalized institution . With more than 10,000 members from 168 countries , this multi-stakeholder platform 's main mission is to serve as a collective global network that enables young professionals to realize their full potential and contribute proactively towards innovative and sustainable agricultural development . The idea of YPARD was born at EFARD ( European Forum for Agricultural Research for Development ) meeting held in Zurich , Switzerland in May 2005 and was formally launched during a side meeting at the GFAR Triennial conference in New Delhi , India , on 8 November 2006 . Its headquarters is in Rome , Italy , where it is hosted by GFAR . The current Director of YPARD is Courtney Paisley , from Canada .", "qid": "294", "docid": "YPARD", "rank": 72, "score": 74180 }, { "content": "Title: Everbridge Content: Everbridge ( formerly known as 3n Global and the National Notification Network ) is a global provider of SaaS-based critical communications and enterprise safety solutions . It began operations in 2002 . In an emergency , Everbridge sends messages via telephone , text message and email , but stop once they know that a person has read a message . An app allows emergency managers to track geotagged tweets that contain specific hashtags and use this information to respond to incidents as they occur . Their system was used in 2012 to send over 10 million messages to residents during Hurricane Sandy . During the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013 , the city of Boston used Everbridge for its critical communications . Everbridge relayed information to business operators , employees , firefighters , hospital staff , police and residents after the explosions and during the lockdown of Boston , Watertown , Waltham and surrounding areas .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Everbridge", "rank": 73, "score": 74138 }, { "content": "Title: Mohamed H.A. Hassan Content: Mohamed H. A. Hassan is co-chair of IAP , the Global Network of Science Academies , and chairman of the Council of the United Nations University ( UNU ) . He also serves on a number of Boards of international organizations worldwide , including the Board of Trustees of Bibliotheca Alexandrina , Egypt ; the Council of Science and Technology in Society ( STS ) Forum , Japan ; the Board of the International Science Programme , Sweden ; the Board of the Science Initiative Group ( SIG ) , USA ; and the International Advisory Board of the Centre for International Development ( ZEF ) , Germany . After obtaining his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Oxford , he returned to Sudan and later became Professor and Dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences , University of Khartoum . He has a long list of publications in theoretical plasma physics and fusion energy , wind erosion , and dust and sand transport in dry lands . He has also published several articles on science and technology in the developing world . Dr. Hassan was the founding Executive Director of the Academy of Science for the Developing World ( TWAS ) , President of the African Academy of Sciences , President of the Network of Academies of Science in Africa ( NASAC ) and Chairman , Honorary Presidential Advisory Council for Science and Technology , Nigeria . Among his honours : Comendator , Grand Cross , and National Order of Scientific Merit , Brazil ; and Officer , Order of Merit of the Italian Republic . He is a member of several merit-based academies of science , including TWAS ; the African Academy of Sciences ; Islamic World Academy of Sciences ; Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas , Físicas y Naturales ; Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer , Belgium ; Pakistan Academy of Sciences ; Academy of Sciences of Lebanon ; Cuban Academy of Sciences ; and Academy of Sciences of South Africa .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Mohamed_H.A._Hassan", "rank": 74, "score": 73821 }, { "content": "Title: ScienceBlogs Content: ScienceBlogs is an invitation-only blog network and virtual community . It was created by Seed Media Group in 2006 to enhance the public understanding of science . Each blog has its own theme , specialty , and author ( s ) and is not subject to editorial control . Authors include active scientists working in industry , universities and medical schools as well as college professors , physicians , professional writers , graduate students , and post-docs . On 24 January 2015 , 19 of the blogs had seen posting in the past month . 11 of these had been on ScienceBlogs since 2006 .", "qid": "294", "docid": "ScienceBlogs", "rank": 75, "score": 73790 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Watch Group Content: The Energy Watch Group ( EWG ) is an international network of scientists and parliamentarians . The EWG conducts research and publishes studies on global energy developments concerning both fossil fuels and renewables . The organization states that it seeks to provide energy policy with objective information . The EWG was founded in 2006 by the former German parliamentarian & The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany awardee Hans-Josef Fell and further parliamentarians from other countries to provide both experts and political decision makers as well as the public with information on energy issues .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Energy_Watch_Group", "rank": 76, "score": 73637 }, { "content": "Title: Erdös-Rényi Prize in Network Science Content: The Erdős -- Rényi Prize is awarded by the Network Science Society at the yearly flagship NetSci Conference to a selected young scientist ( under 40 years old on the day of the nomination deadline ) for their achievements in research activities in the area of network science , broadly construed . While the achievements can be both theoretical and experimental , the prize is aimed at emphasizing outstanding contributions relevant to the interdisciplinary progress of network science . The Prize is named for the mathematicians Paul Erdős and Alfréd Rényi , whose seminal contributions to the study of random graphs represent foundational work in the modern field of network science . Recipients are awarded the prize at a special ceremony during the annual NetSci International Conference on Network Science . The prize is presented by the chair of the prize committee and the president of the Network Science Society , who present an official citation for the basis of the award . Awardees receive a commemorative plaque noting their award , a small cash prize , and are invited to give a prize lecture at the conference .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Erdös-Rényi_Prize_in_Network_Science", "rank": 77, "score": 73563 }, { "content": "Title: Stage 32 Content: Stage 32 is a US-based social network and educational site for creative professionals who work in film , television and theater . As of June 2015 , the global web site had more than 400,000 members . Stage 32 links professionals in the entertainment industry including directors , writers , actors and entertainment staff . It caters to film industry professionals with featured bloggers , online education taught by industry executives , news from Hollywood and filming locations around the world , Stage 32 meetups page , an online lounge and a jobs page that allows members to connect with others on film ventures , along with standard social media functions .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Stage_32", "rank": 78, "score": 73538 }, { "content": "Title: Global Consciousness Project Content: The Global Consciousness Project ( GCP , also called the EGG Project ) is a parapsychology experiment begun in 1998 as an attempt to detect possible interactions of `` global consciousness '' with physical systems . The project monitors a geographically distributed network of hardware random number generators in a bid to identify anomalous outputs that correlate with widespread emotional responses to sets of world events , or periods of focused attention by large numbers of people . The GCP is privately funded through the Institute of Noetic Sciences and describes itself as an international collaboration of about 100 research scientists and engineers . Skeptics such as Robert T. Carroll , Claus Larsen , and others have questioned the methodology of the Global Consciousness Project , particularly how the data are selected and interpreted , saying the data anomalies reported by the project are the result of `` pattern matching '' and selection bias which ultimately fail to support a belief in psi or global consciousness . Other critics have stated that the open access to the test data `` is a testimony to the integrity and curiosity of those involved '' . But in analyzing the data for 11 September 2001 , May et al. concluded that the statistically significant result given by the published GCP hypothesis was fortuitous , and found that an alternative method of analysis gave only chance deviations throughout .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Consciousness_Project", "rank": 79, "score": 73462 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate March Content: The Global Climate March took place in various cities around the world on 29 November 2015 , the day before the opening of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The march was organized by a huge coalition of climate groups and global activists ( such as Avaaz and the international environmental organization 350 . org ) , and involved more than 2,000 events around the globe , in 175 different countries . An estimated number of 785,000 people took part at the marches . Follow-on marches scheduled in 2017 include the March for Science on 22 April 2017 ) and the People 's Climate Mobilization scheduled 29 April 2017 .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Climate_March", "rank": 80, "score": 73326 }, { "content": "Title: Global Hunger Alliance Content: The Global Hunger Alliance is a coalition and network of about 100 organizations from around the world , together with university researchers , and grassroots activists who distribute information and take socio-political action in favour of what they believe to be effective and morally acceptable methods of preventing famine and malnutrition .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Hunger_Alliance", "rank": 81, "score": 73273 }, { "content": "Title: I'm not a scientist Content: `` I 'm not a scientist '' is a phrase that has been often used by American politicians , primarily Republicans , when asked about a scientific subject , such as global warming , or the age of the earth . Politicians who have used the phrase include John Boehner , Rick Scott , Marco Rubio , Bobby Jindal , and Mitch McConnell . It has been criticized by Coral Davenport writing for The New York Times , and by Steven Benen of the Rachel Maddow Show , and was satirized by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report . President Barack Obama singled the phrase out in his 2015 State of the Union speech , saying : I 've heard some folks try to dodge the evidence -LSB- of global climate change -RSB- by saying they 're not scientists ; that we do n't have enough information to act . Well , I 'm not a scientist , either . But you know what , I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA , and at NOAA , and at our major universities . And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate , and if we do n't act forcefully , we 'll continue to see rising oceans , longer , hotter heat waves , dangerous droughts and floods , and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe . Ford O'Connell , a Republican strategist and conservative activist , has argued that the phrase `` wo n't be a winner in the presidential field '' for Republican candidates . Commenting on the phenomenon , Journalist Dan Rather deplored the antiscience attitude it evinces , but stated that the anti-science attitude was evident not just among Republicans , but throughout American society . He blamed the media for their poor coverage of science , and for presenting a false equivalency between scientific consensus and climate change denial .", "qid": "294", "docid": "I'm_not_a_scientist", "rank": 82, "score": 73247 }, { "content": "Title: World Academy of Art and Science Content: The World Academy of Art and Science ( WAAS ) is an international non-governmental scientific organization , a world network of more than 700 individual fellows from more than 80 countries . Fellows are elected for distinguished accomplishments in the sciences , arts and the humanities with an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach with an outstanding record of public service and are committed to addressing the pressing social problems confronting humanity today . The Academy strives to promote the growth of knowledge , enhance public awareness of the social consequences and policy implications of that growth , and provide `` leadership in thought that leads to action '' . The spirit of the academy can be expressed in the words of Albert Einstein `` The creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind '' .", "qid": "294", "docid": "World_Academy_of_Art_and_Science", "rank": 83, "score": 73140 }, { "content": "Title: Letter with Feather Content: Leather with Feather ( also known as Urgent Letter ) is a 1954 Chinese film directed by Shi Hui and written by the playwright and filmmaker , Zhang Junxiang . A war film that was targeted at children , Letter with Feather focuses on a young boy who , through his wits , delivers an important message to the 8th Route Army while evading Imperial Japanese forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Letter_with_Feather", "rank": 84, "score": 73125 }, { "content": "Title: John Gage Content: John Burdette Gage ( born 1942 ) was the 21st employee of Sun Microsystems , where he is credited with creating the phrase : `` The network is the computer . '' He served as Vice President and Chief Researcher and Director of the Science Office for Sun , until leaving on June 9 , 2008 to join Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner to work on green technologies for global warming ; he departed KPCB in 2010 to apply what he had learned `` to broader issues in other parts of the world '' . In 2006 , he joined the board of the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation , to build a school and orphanage in Kapenguria , in remote north-west Kenya . In 2012 , he helped build the Kibera Town Centre , a major water and community education center in the middle of Kibera , Kenya , the largest slum in Africa , He is also best known as one of the co-founders of NetDay in 1995 , a crowd-sourced effort to bring the Internet to every school in the world . NetDay was the first large-scale crowd-sourced mass movement on the Internet . He joined the Human Needs Project in 2012 to build a networked water source and water treatment plant in the Kibera slum in Nairobi , Kenya . For twelve years he hosted the annual JavaOne conference , bringing 20,000 Java programmers to San Francisco and establishing the Java language in over 95 % of mobile devices , and as the basis of the Android operating system .", "qid": "294", "docid": "John_Gage", "rank": 85, "score": 73088 }, { "content": "Title: Center for Effective Global Action Content: The Center for Effective Global Action ( CEGA ) , earlier known as the Center of Evaluation for Global Action , is a research network at the University of California that advances global health and development through impact evaluation and economic analysis . The Center 's researchers use randomized controlled trials and other rigorous forms of evaluation to promote sustainable social and economic development around the world .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Center_for_Effective_Global_Action", "rank": 86, "score": 72941 }, { "content": "Title: Dissernet Content: Dissernet is a volunteer community network working to clean Russian science of plagiarism . The core activity of the community is conducting examinations of doctoral and habilitation ( higher doctorate ) theses defended in Russian scientific and educational institutions since the end of the 1990s , and making the results of such examinations known to as many people as possible . The community is composed of professional scientists working in various fields of science both in Russia and abroad , and also journalists , civil activists and volunteers . Launched in early 2013 , the project had by 2016 identified around 5,600 suspected plagiarists -- focusing on officials in government and academia , and other member the country 's elite -- and released reports on around 1,300 of them . Russian media regularly report on Dissernet 's findings , and the site has been credited with raising attention for the issue of academic fraud in the country . In a 2016 exposé , Dissernet showed that 1 in 9 members of the State Duma had obtained academic degrees with theses that were substantially plagiarized and likely ghostwritten .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Dissernet", "rank": 87, "score": 72859 }, { "content": "Title: Los Angeles School Of Global Studies Content: The Los Angeles School of Global Studies ( LASGS ) , located at 322 S. Lucas Ave. Los Angeles , CA 90017 , is a separate school occupying space within the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex . LASGS opened in the fall of 2006 with only Freshman and Sophomore classes as one of four New Technology High Schools in the Los Angeles area . In the 2008-2009 school-year they reached their target and current capacity of 360 students in their first year with all four grade levels . New Tech Network schools promote the use of Project Based Learning and the team-teaching of courses . LASGS in particular has made a concerted effort to integrate those team-taught courses . Most notably all Humanities courses are taught in this model and although there are still come modifications being made to the Math and Science pairings , they are also team-taught and integrated at a far higher level than most other schools in the network . The GeoDesign course that is currently taught by Dina Mahmood , Geometry teacher , and David Brown , Design Media instructor , is another integrated , co-taught course offered to all students at LA Global Studies .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Los_Angeles_School_Of_Global_Studies", "rank": 88, "score": 72810 }, { "content": "Title: A Message from Earth Content: A Message from Earth ( AMFE ) is a high-powered digital radio signal that was sent on 9 October 2008 towards Gliese 581c , a large terrestrial extrasolar planet orbiting within the Gliese 581 planetary system . The signal is a digital time capsule containing 501 messages that were selected through a competition on the social networking site Bebo . The message was sent using the RT-70 radar telescope of Ukraine 's State Space Agency . The signal will reach the planet Gliese 581c in early 2029 . More than half a million people including celebrities and politicians participated in the AMFE project , which was the world 's first digital time capsule where the content was selected by the public . As of 22 January 2015 , the message has traveled 59.48 trillion kilometers of the total 192 trillion kilometers , which is 31.0 % of the distance to the Gliese 581 system . On 13 February 2015 , scientists ( including David Grinspoon , Seth Shostak , and David Brin ) at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , discussed Active SETI and whether transmitting a message to possible intelligent extraterrestrials in the Cosmos was a good idea ; That same week , a statement was released , signed by many in the SETI community , that a `` worldwide scientific , political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent '' . However neither Frank Drake , nor Seth Shostak signed this appeal . On 28 March 2015 , a related essay with some different point of view was written by Seth Shostak and published in The New York Times .", "qid": "294", "docid": "A_Message_from_Earth", "rank": 89, "score": 72762 }, { "content": "Title: The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics Content: The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics ( or THINCS ) is a group of scientists , physicians , and other academicians from around the world who dispute the widely accepted lipid hypothesis of atherosclerosis . THINCS was founded in January 2003 , and its founder and current spokesman is Uffe Ravnskov .", "qid": "294", "docid": "The_International_Network_of_Cholesterol_Skeptics", "rank": 90, "score": 72758 }, { "content": "Title: World Summit on Evolution Content: The World Summit on Evolution is an evolutionary biology meeting hosted at the Galapagos Islands by Universidad San Francisco de Quito ( USFQ ) , an Ecuadorian private liberal arts university . Its focus is on recent research and new advances in our understanding of evolution and the diversity of life . The summit hosts more than 150 participants presenting invited and submitted talks , poster sessions and scientific-outreach talks . It has been called `` The Woodstock of Evolution '' bringing together experts and students from widely different areas of evolutionary biology that rarely meet . It has attracted researchers working on evolution from over 15 different countries , including Peter and Rosemary Grant , Niles Eldredge , Antonio Lazcano , Douglas Futuyma , Lynn Margulis , Ada Yonath , William H. Calvin and Daniel Dennett .", "qid": "294", "docid": "World_Summit_on_Evolution", "rank": 91, "score": 72712 }, { "content": "Title: Global Memory Net Content: Global Memory Net ( GMNet ) is a world digital library of cultural , historical , and heritage image collections . It is directed by Ching-chih Chen , Professor Emeritus of Simmons College , Boston , Massachusetts and supported by the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) 's International Digital Library Program ( IDLP ) . The goal of GMNet is to provide a global collaborative network that provides universal access to educational resources to a worldwide audience . GMNet provides multilingual and multimedia content and retrieval , as well as links directly to major resources , such as OCLC , Internet Archive , Million Book Project , and Google .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Global_Memory_Net", "rank": 92, "score": 72706 }, { "content": "Title: GLORIAD Content: GLORIAD ( Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development ) is a high-speed computer network used to connect scientific organizations in Russia , China , United States , the Netherlands , Korea and Canada . India , Singapore , Vietnam , and Egypt were added in 2009 . GLORIAD is sponsored by the US National Science Foundation , a consortium of science organizations and Ministries in Russia , the Chinese Academy of Sciences , the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea , the Canadian CANARIE network , the national research network in The Netherlands SURFnet and has some telecommunications services donated by Tyco Telecommunications . GLORIAD provides bandwidth of up to 10 Gbit/s via OC-192 links , e.g. between KRLight in Korea and the Pacific NorthWest GigaPOP in the United States . The previous version of the network , `` Little GLORIAD '' , was completed in mid-2004 , and it connected Chicago , Hong Kong , Beijing , Novosibirsk , Moscow , Amsterdam and Chicago again . For this network , a direct computer link was drawn between Russia and China for the first time in history .", "qid": "294", "docid": "GLORIAD", "rank": 93, "score": 72704 }, { "content": "Title: Gesellschaft für Informatik Content: The Gesellschaft für Informatik ( abbreviated as `` GI '' and translated as `` German Informatics Society '' ) is a German organization of approximately 20,000 computer science educators , researchers , and professionals .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Gesellschaft_für_Informatik", "rank": 94, "score": 72664 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists whose names are used as SI units Content: List of scientists whose names are used as SI units is the list of those scientists whose names are assigned as the names of the international units by the International Committee for Weights and Measures . The International System of Units ( abbreviated SI from Système international d'unités ) is the most widely used system of units of measurement . There are seven base units and 22 derived units ( excluding compound units ) . These units are used both in science and in commerce . Two of the base units and 17 of the derived units are named after scientists . By this convention , their names are immortalised . Below is the list of the scientists whose names are used as SI units .", "qid": "294", "docid": "List_of_scientists_whose_names_are_used_as_SI_units", "rank": 95, "score": 72640 }, { "content": "Title: CIFAL Content: The CIFAL Global Network is part of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research ( UNITAR ) . The Network comprises 15 International Training Centres ( CIFALs ) and aims to serve as a platform for capacity-building of government authorities and civil society leaders on topics related to sustainable development , as well as on global mandates and goals of the United Nations . Since its inception in 2003 , the Network has trained more than 60,000 beneficiaries through over 600 training and knowledge-sharing events ( as of December 2015 ) . It reached more than 10,000 beneficiaries from 75 countries in 2015 . The acronym CIFAL stands for `` International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders '' ( French : ` Centre international de formation des autorités et leaders ' or in Spanish : ` Centro Internacional de Formación para Autoridades y Lideres ' ) . -LSB- 1 -RSB- Each CIFAL Centre is a hub for capacity building and knowledge sharing between local and regional authorities , national governments , international organisations , the private sector , and civil society . It is an important resource in the United Nations long-term efforts towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals .", "qid": "294", "docid": "CIFAL", "rank": 96, "score": 72622 }, { "content": "Title: GRaPH-Int Content: The Genome-based Research and Population Health International Network ( GRaPH-Int ) is an international collaboration of experts and researchers focused in the area of population health . The principal goal of the network is to promote the translation of genome-based science and technology into improvements in population health . One of GRaPH-Int 's key features is the integration of knowledge from a range of disciplines , such as genome-based science , population sciences , the humanities and social sciences . The ` Int ' underscores the interdisciplinarity of the collaboration , but also signifies that it is international and integrated .", "qid": "294", "docid": "GRaPH-Int", "rank": 97, "score": 72550 }, { "content": "Title: International Planetarium Society Content: The International Planetarium Society , Inc. ( IPS ) is the global association of planetarium professionals . Its nearly 700 members come from 35 countries around the world . They represent schools , colleges and universities , museums , and public facilities of all sizes , including both fixed and portable planetariums . The primary goal of the Society is to encourage the sharing of ideas among its members through conferences , publications , and networking . By sharing their insights and creative work , IPS members become better planetarians . IPS membership is open to anyone interested in planetariums . Members include directors , teachers , technicians , writers , artists , media specialists , digital artists and producers , presenters , vendors , scientists , students , and sponsors and friends of the planetarium dome and its starry sky . More than 20 regional and national planetarium associations from around the world are affiliated with IPS . Representatives from those affiliates , together with the elected officers , make up the Executive Council , the ruling body of the organization .", "qid": "294", "docid": "International_Planetarium_Society", "rank": 98, "score": 72466 }, { "content": "Title: Science Supercourse Content: Science Supercourse is a free online accessible educational resource currently encompassing more than 165,000 downloadable PowerPoint lectures covering four main areas of science ; Public Health , Computer Engineering , Environment and Agriculture . It represents an extension to `` Supercourse '' initiative which started out at the University of Pittsburgh by scientist Ronald LaPorte in the 80 's . It is mirrored at the Library of Alexandria , and networks over 56,000 scientists in 174 countries . Being a useful tool for at least one million students from around the globe , Supercourse has been a well-established starting point which triggered the emergence of the new Science Supercourse in 2008 with a wider scope in terms of content and functionalities .", "qid": "294", "docid": "Science_Supercourse", "rank": 99, "score": 72434 }, { "content": "Title: Communications, Computers, and Networks (Scientific American) Content: The Scientific American special Issue on Communications , Computers , and Network , is a special issue of Scientific American dedicated to articles concerning impending changes to the internet in the period prior to the expansion and mainstreaming of the world wide web via Mosaic and Netscape . This issue contained essays by a number of important computer science and internet pioneers . It bore the promotional cover title : Scientific American presents the September 1991 Single Copy Issue : Communications , Computers , and Networks", "qid": "294", "docid": "Communications,_Computers,_and_Networks_(Scientific_American)", "rank": 100, "score": 72359 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 1, "score": 175176 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (band) Content: Ice Age was a progressive band from New York City , USA . Founded by guitarist Jimmy Pappas , vocalist/keyboardist Josh Pincus , drummer Hal Aponte and bassist Arron DiCesare , the band released their debut album in 1999 , titled The Great Divide . Liberation followed in 2001 , both on Magna Carta Records . Ice Age are influenced by pop/progressive bands such as Yes , Kansas and Rush , but also by more modern progressive metal bands like Queensrÿche , and Dream Theater . In 2006 , the band officially changed their name to Soulfractured . This was accompanied by an announced shift in the band 's music - less overt progressive experimentation , with closer attention paid to melodic structure and songcraft . In this incarnation the band released the Soulfractured EP , made available through the band 's websites . They had previously released the Little Bird EP as Ice Age . Shortly after the second EP 's release , the group disbanded .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_(band)", "rank": 2, "score": 138111 }, { "content": "Title: Late Antique Little Ice Age Content: The Late Antique Little Ice Age was a long-lasting Northern Hemisphere cooling period in the 6th and 7th century AD , proposed as theory in 2015 , and subsequently confirmed as the interval from 536 to about 660 AD . This period followed three immense volcanic eruptions in 536 , 540 and 547 . One of the suspected volcanic sites for those events is the Rabaul caldera , in the western Pacific , which erupted around 540 . The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the early phenomena of the century-long global temperature decline . The evidence comes from a temperature reconstruction from the Euro-Med2k working group of the international PAGES ( Past Global Changes ) project , using new tree-ring measurements from the Altai Mountains , which closely matches the temperatures in the Alps in the last two centuries .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Late_Antique_Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 3, "score": 135794 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 4, "score": 127515 }, { "content": "Title: Pleistocene Content: The Pleistocene ( -LSB- pronˈplaɪstəˌsiːn , _ - toʊ - -RSB- , often colloquially referred to as the Ice Age ) is the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago , spanning the world 's most recent period of repeated glaciations . The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology . The Pleistocene is the first epoch of the Quaternary Period or sixth epoch of the Cenozoic Era . In the ICS timescale , the Pleistocene is divided into four stages or ages , the Gelasian , Calabrian , Ionian and Tarantian . All of these stages were defined in southern Europe . In addition to this international subdivision , various regional subdivisions are often used . Before a change finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences , the time boundary between the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being at 1.806 million years Before Present ( BP ) , as opposed to the currently accepted 2.588 million years BP : publications from the preceding years may use either definition of the period .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Pleistocene", "rank": 5, "score": 124794 }, { "content": "Title: The Ice Age Content: The Ice Age may refer to : The Last glacial period , which occurred from c. 110,000 -- c. 11,700 years ago The Pleistocene , a geological epoch lasting from c. 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago and spanning the world 's most recent period of repeated glaciations . The Plio-Pleistocene , a geological pseudo-period which begins about 5 million years ago and combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events lasting from the Quaternary period to the present . For the general period of temperature reduction , see Ice age .", "qid": "296", "docid": "The_Ice_Age", "rank": 6, "score": 122510 }, { "content": "Title: Last glacial period Content: The last glacial period , popularly known as the Ice Age , was the most recent glacial period , which occurred from years ago . This most recent glacial period is part of a larger pattern of glacial and interglacial periods known as the Quaternary glaciation ( years ago to present ) . From this point of view , scientists consider this `` ice age '' to be merely the latest glaciation event in a much larger ice age , one that dates back over two million years and is still ongoing . During this last glacial period , there were several changes between glacier advance and retreat . The Last Glacial Maximum , the maximum extent of glaciation within the last glacial period , was approximately 22,000 years ago . While the general pattern of global cooling and glacier advance was similar , local differences in the development of glacier advance and retreat make it difficult to compare the details from continent to continent ( see picture of ice core data below for differences ) . Approximately 13,000 years ago , the Late Glacial Maximum began . Around 11,700 years ago marked the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch , which includes the Holocene glacial retreat . From the point of view of human archaeology , it falls in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods . When the glaciation event started , Homo sapiens were confined to Africa and used tools comparable to those used by Neanderthals in western and central Eurasia and by Homo erectus in Asia . Near the end of the event , Homo sapiens spread into Eurasia and Australia . Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived the last glacial period in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover . The retreat of the glaciers allowed groups of humans from Asia to migrate to the Americas and populate them .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Last_glacial_period", "rank": 7, "score": 116366 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary glaciation Content: The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Quaternary_glaciation", "rank": 8, "score": 115626 }, { "content": "Title: Last ice age Content: Last ice age may refer to : Quaternary glaciation , the period of the last few million years Last glacial period , the most recent glacial period of the current ice age Little Ice Age , a hundred years of relative cold in the Middle Ages after what historians term the Medieval Warm Period", "qid": "296", "docid": "Last_ice_age", "rank": 9, "score": 115491 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Period Content: The Last Glacial Period (LGP) occurred from the end of the Eemian to the end of the Younger Dryas, encompassing the period c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago. The LGP is part of a larger sequence of glacial and interglacial periods known as the Quaternary glaciation which started around 2,588,000 years ago and is ongoing. The definition of the Quaternary as beginning 2.58 million years ago is based on the formation of the Arctic ice cap. The Antarctic ice sheet began to form earlier, at about 34 Ma, in the mid-Cenozoic (Eocene–Oligocene extinction event). The term Late Cenozoic Ice Age is used to include this early phase.During this last glacial period there were alternating episodes of glacier advance and retreat. Within the last glacial period the Last Glacial Maximum was approximately 22,000 years ago. While the general pattern of global cooling and glacier advance was similar, local differences in the development of glacier advance and retreat make it difficult to compare the details from continent to continent (see picture of ice core data below for differences). Approximately 12,800 years ago, the Younger Dryas, the most recent glacial epoch, began, a coda to the preceding 100,000 year glacial period. Its end about 11,550 years ago marked the beginning of the Holocene, the current geological epoch. From the point of view of human archaeology, the last glacial period falls in the Paleolithic and early Mesolithic periods. When the glaciation event started, Homo sapiens were confined to lower latitudes and used tools comparable to those used by Neanderthals in western and central Eurasia and by Denisovans and Homo erectus in Asia. Near the end of the event, Homo sapiens migrated into Eurasia and Australia. Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived the last glacial period in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover.", "qid": "296", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Period", "rank": 10, "score": 113566 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 11, "score": 113369 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (1975 film) Content: Ice Age ( Eiszeit ) is a 1975 West German drama film directed by Peter Zadek . It was entered into the 25th Berlin International Film Festival . Eiszeit began as a theatre play by Tankred Dorst ( 1973 ) about Knut Hamsun , a Nobel Prize-winning author but unrepentant admirer of Nazi Germany .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_(1975_film)", "rank": 12, "score": 111744 }, { "content": "Title: The Ice Age (novel) Content: The Ice Age is a 1977 novel by British Novelist Margaret Drabble . The novel follows the experiences of former BBC producer Anthony Keating as he experiences the ups and downs of life during the 1960s and 1970s . Depicting the property crisis in Britain during that period , novel diverges from her earlier psychological studies of individuals , focusing more on the `` state of England '' .", "qid": "296", "docid": "The_Ice_Age_(novel)", "rank": 13, "score": 111610 }, { "content": "Title: Timeline of glaciation Content: There have been five known ice ages in the Earth 's history , with the Earth experiencing the Quaternary Ice Age during the present time . Within ice ages , there exist periods of more severe glacial conditions and more temperate referred to as glacial periods and interglacial periods , respectively . The Earth is currently in such an interglacial period of the Quaternary Ice Age , with the last glacial period of the Quaternary having ended approximately 11,700 years ago with the start of the Holocene epoch . Based on climate proxies , paleoclimatologists study the different climate states originating from glaciation .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Timeline_of_glaciation", "rank": 14, "score": 110987 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (Magic: The Gathering) Content: Ice Age is a block of three sets in Magic : The Gathering , consisting of the Ice Age , Alliances and Coldsnap sets . It is also the titular first set in the block . The Ice Age set is the eleventh set and the sixth expansion set , released in June 1995 . Set in the years from 450 to 2934 AR , the set describes a world set in perpetual winter due to the events in Antiquities . Ice Age was followed up June 1996 with Alliances , the fourteenth Magic : The Gathering set and eighth expansion set. ; and on July 21 , 2006 with Coldsnap . The time period between Alliances and Coldsnap was the longest period of time between the beginning and the completion of a full block in Magic . Originally , the set Homelands , released in October 1995 , was the second set in the Ice Age block ( with Alliances being the third set ) , but following the release of Coldsnap , Homelands was removed from the block in favor of Coldsnap .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_(Magic:_The_Gathering)", "rank": 15, "score": 109712 }, { "content": "Title: Eemian Content: The Eemian ( also called the last interglacial , Sangamonian , Ipswichian , Mikulin , Kaydaky , Valdivia or Riss-Würm ) was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago and ended about 115,000 years ago . It corresponds to Marine Isotope Stage 5e . Although sometimes referred to as the `` last interglacial '' ( in the `` most recent previous '' sense of `` last '' ) , it was the second-to-latest interglacial period of the current Ice Age , the most recent being the Holocene which extends to the present day ( having followed the last glacial period ) . The prevailing Eemian climate is believed to have been warmer than that of the Holocene . The Eemian is known as the Ipswichian in the UK , the Mikulin interglacial in Russia , the Valdivia interglacial in Chile and the Riss-Würm interglacial in the Alps . Depending on how a specific publication defines the Sangamonian Stage of North America , the Eemian is equivalent to either all or part of it .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Eemian", "rank": 16, "score": 108131 }, { "content": "Title: Weichselian glaciation Content: The last glacial period and its associated glaciation is known in Northern Europe as the Weichselian glaciation , Weichselian ice age ( Weichsel-Eiszeit ) , Vistulian glaciation , Weichsel or , less commonly , the Weichsel glaciation , Weichselian cold period ( Weichsel-Kaltzeit ) , Weichselian glacial ( Weichsel-Glazial ) , Weichselian Stage or , rarely , the Weichselian complex ( Weichsel-Komplex ) . In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation . It was characterized by a large ice sheet that spread out from the Scandinavian Mountains and extended as far as the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein , the March of Brandenburg and Northwest Russia . In Northern Europe it was the youngest of the glacials of the Pleistocene ice age . The preceding warm period in this region was the Eemian interglacial . The last cold period began about 115,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago . Its end corresponds with the end of the Pleistocene epoch and start of the Holocene .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Weichselian_glaciation", "rank": 17, "score": 107792 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age Content: An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_age", "rank": 18, "score": 107300 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1894 -- 95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 C . Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain . Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885 -- 86 to 1894 -- 95 was 2.87 C , no winter with a CET under 3.0 C followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940 . In contrast , between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 C had lasted longer than twelve winters . Although this winter -- which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881 , 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 -- affected most of Europe and North America very severely , the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs . The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames , which froze for the last time on record . Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state , most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people . There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather , with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London 's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor , and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators . Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible , whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Winter_of_1894–95_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 19, "score": 105540 }, { "content": "Title: Karoo Ice Age Content: The Karoo Ice Age from 360 -- 260 million years ago ( Mya ) was the second major ice age of the Phanerozoic Eon . It is named after the tillite ( Dwyka Group ) found in the Karoo region of South Africa ( and adjacent areas ) , where evidence for this ice age was first clearly identified in the 19th century . The tectonic assembly of the continents of Euramerica ( later with the Uralian orogeny , into Laurasia ) and Gondwana into Pangaea , in the Hercynian-Alleghany Orogeny , made a major continental land mass within the Antarctic region , and the closure of the Rheic Ocean and Iapetus Ocean saw disruption of warm-water currents in the Panthalassa Ocean and Paleotethys Sea , which led to progressive cooling of summers , and the snowfields accumulating in winters , causing mountainous alpine glaciers to grow , and then spread out of highland areas , making continental glaciers which spread to cover much of Gondwana . At least two major periods of glaciation have been discovered : The first glacial period was associated with the Mississippian subperiod ( 359.2 -- 318.1 Mya ) : ice sheets expanded from a core in southern Africa and South America . The second glacial period was associated with the Pennsylvanian subperiod ( 318.1 -- 299 Mya ) ; ice sheets expanded from a core in Australia and India . The extent of ancient glaciations in Antarctica is not well known , because the present ice sheet hides the evidence .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Karoo_Ice_Age", "rank": 20, "score": 105448 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (2002 film) Content: Ice Age is a 2002 American computer-animated buddy comedy road film directed by Chris Wedge and co-directed by Carlos Saldanha from a story by Michael J. Wilson . Produced by Blue Sky Studios as its first feature film , it was released by 20th Century Fox on March 15 , 2002 . The film features the voices of Ray Romano , John Leguizamo , Denis Leary and Chris Wedge . The film is set during the days of the ice age ; animals begin migrating south to escape the winters . Once Manny , a no-nonsense mammoth meets Sid , a loudmouthed ground sloth and the two find a human baby , they set out to return the baby . Joining them is a saber-tooth tiger named Diego , who is commanded by his pack leader to bring the baby to him to enact revenge against the humans . This film was met with mostly positive reviews and was nominated at the 75th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature . It was a box office success by grossing over $ 383 million , starting the Ice Age franchise . It was followed by four sequels , Ice Age : The Meltdown in 2006 , Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 2009 , Ice Age : Continental Drift in 2012 , and Ice Age : Collision Course in 2016 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_(2002_film)", "rank": 21, "score": 104619 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (video game) Content: Ice Age is a 2002 platform game based on the film of the same name , developed by Artificial Mind and Movement , published by Ubi Soft Entertainment and released for the Game Boy Advance .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_(video_game)", "rank": 22, "score": 103856 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (franchise) Content: Ice Age is an American media franchise centering on a group of mammals surviving the Paleolithic ice age . It is produced by Blue Sky Studios , a division of 20th Century Fox , and featuring the voices of Ray Romano , John Leguizamo , Denis Leary , and Chris Wedge . Five films have been released in the series thus far with Ice Age in 2002 , Ice Age : The Meltdown in 2006 , Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 2009 , Ice Age : Continental Drift in 2012 , and Ice Age : Collision Course in 2016 . It has received some criticism for making no attempt to be scientifically accurate . As of April 2016 , the franchise had generated $ 6 billion in revenue , making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_(franchise)", "rank": 23, "score": 103484 }, { "content": "Title: Vashon Glaciation Content: The Vashon Glaciation or Vashon Stade was the most recent period of very cold climate in which glaciers existed at elevations at and near sea level in the western part of present-day Washington state . It occurred during a colder than present part of the current ice age . The Vashon Glaciation lasted from about 19,000 - 16,000 BP ( Before Present - present defined as January 1 , 1950 for this scale ) . The Cordilleran Ice Sheet was an ice sheet that covered present-day southern Alaska and parts of western Canada . During the Vashon Glaciation , the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced into the Puget Sound region .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Vashon_Glaciation", "rank": 24, "score": 102734 }, { "content": "Title: Warming Up to the Ice Age Content: Warming Up to the Ice Age was singer-songwriter John Hiatt 's seventh album , released in 1985 . It was his last album with Geffen Records , who dropped Hiatt after the album failed to chart . It was the last Hiatt studio album to miss the Billboard 200 . `` The Usual '' would later be covered by Bob Dylan . `` Living a Little , Laughing a Little '' , originally a hit for The Spinners , was a duet with Elvis Costello . During the recording of the album Hiatt was still doing drugs and drinking which , he felt , diminished the quality of the album and also meant he was short on material . `` The wholeness got dissipated by my personal problems , and I think that kind of showed up on ` Warming Up to the Ice Age ' . I was drinking and drugging a lot and eventually I was consumed by it . After ` Ice Age ' I got sober . '' Influencing Hiatt 's decision to become sober was the birth of his daughter Lily in 1984 . Shortly after giving birth to Lily , Hiatt 's estranged wife committed suicide , leaving him a single father . Hiatt remained sober throughout the `` Warming Up to the Ice Age '' tour , which he called a `` scary experience '' . The album failed to build on the critical momentum of its predecessor , Riding with the King , and Hiatt found himself without a label as Geffen dropped him from their roster .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Warming_Up_to_the_Ice_Age", "rank": 25, "score": 102401 }, { "content": "Title: Ice World (film) Content: Ice World is a 2002 television documentary on the Discovery Channel about humans during the last ice age . The program follows their struggle to survive in the cold and harsh environment of the Europe of 24,000 years ago .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_World_(film)", "rank": 26, "score": 101957 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 27, "score": 101695 }, { "content": "Title: Crisis of the Late Middle Ages Content: The crisis of the Late Middle Ages refers to a series of events in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that brought centuries of European prosperity and growth to a halt . Three major crises led to radical changes in all areas of society : demographic collapse , political instabilities and religious upheavals . A series of famines and plagues , beginning with the Great Famine of 1315 -- 17 and especially the Black Death of 1348 , reduced the population perhaps by half or more as the Medieval Warm Period came to a close and the first century of the Little Ice Age began . Popular revolts in late medieval Europe and civil wars between nobles within countries such as the Wars of the Roses were common -- with France fighting internally nine times -- and there were international conflicts between kings such as France and England in the Hundred Years ' War . The unity of the Roman Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism . The Holy Roman Empire was also in decline ; in the aftermath of the Great Interregnum ( 1247 -- 1273 ) , the Empire lost cohesion and politically the separate dynasties of the various German states became more important than their common empire .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Crisis_of_the_Late_Middle_Ages", "rank": 28, "score": 100806 }, { "content": "Title: Agriculture in Scotland in the early modern era Content: Agriculture in Scotland in the early modern era includes all forms of farm production in the modern boundaries of Scotland , between the establishment of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century . This era saw the impact of the Little Ice Age , which peaked towards the end of the seventeenth century . Almost half the years in the second half of the sixteenth century saw local or national scarcity , necessitating the shipping of large quantities of grain from the Baltic . In the early seventeenth century famine was relatively common , but became rarer as the century progressed . The closing decade of the seventeenth century saw a slump , followed by four years of failed harvests , in what is known as the `` seven ill years '' , but these shortages would be the last of their kind . As feudal distinctions declined in the early modern era , the barons and tenants-in-chief merged to form a new identifiable group , the lairds . With the yeomen , these heritors were the major landholding orders . Others with property rights included husbandmen and free tenants . Many young people left home to become domestic and agricultural servants . The English invasions of the 1640s had a profound impact on the Scottish economy . Under the Commonwealth , the country was relatively highly taxed , but gained access to English markets . After the Restoration customs duties with England were re-established . Economic conditions were generally favourable , as land owners promoted better tillage and cattle-raising . After the Union of 1707 there was a conscious attempt to improve agriculture among the gentry and nobility . Introductions included haymaking , the English plough , foreign grasses , rye grass and clover , turnips and cabbages . Lands were enclosed , displacing the run rig system and free pasture . Marshes were drained , lime was put down , roads built , woods planted , drilling and sowing and crop rotation were introduced . The introduction of the potato to Scotland in 1739 greatly improved the diet of the peasantry . The resulting Lowland Clearances saw hundreds of thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from central and southern Scotland were forcibly removed .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Agriculture_in_Scotland_in_the_early_modern_era", "rank": 29, "score": 99097 }, { "content": "Title: River Thames frost fairs Content: River Thames frost fairs were held on the tideway of the River Thames at London in some winters between the 17th century and early 19th century , during the period known as the Little Ice Age , when the river froze over . During that time the British winter was more severe than now , and the river was wider and slower , further impeded by the medieval Old London Bridge . Even at its peak , in the mid-17th century , the Thames freezing at London was less frequent than modern legend sometimes suggests , never exceeding about one year in ten except for four winters between 1649 and 1666 . From 1400 to the removal of the now-replaced medieval London Bridge in 1835 , there were 24 winters in which the Thames was recorded to have frozen over at London ; if `` more or less frozen over '' years ( in parentheses ) are included , the number is 26 : 1408 , 1435 , 1506 , 1514 , 1537 , 1565 , 1595 , 1608 , 1621 , 1635 , 1649 , 1655 , 1663 , 1666 , 1677 , 1684 , 1695 , 1709 , 1716 , 1740 , ( 1768 ) , 1776 , ( 1785 ) , 1788 , 1795 , and 1814 . So , of the 24 , the by-century totals are : 15th 2 , 16th 5 , 17th 10 , 18th 6 , 19th 1 . Frost fairs were far more common elsewhere in Europe , for example in the Netherlands . The Thames freezes over more often upstream , beyond the reach of the tide , especially above the weirs , of which Teddington Lock is the lowest . The last great freeze of the higher Thames was in 1962 -- 63 . During the Great Frost of 1683 -- 84 , the worst frost recorded in England , the Thames was completely frozen for two months , with the ice reaching a thickness of 11 in in London . Solid ice was reported extending for miles off the coasts of the southern North Sea ( England , France and the Low Countries ) , causing severe problems for shipping and preventing the use of many harbours . Near Manchester , the ground was frozen to 27 in Somerset , to more than 4 ft.", "qid": "296", "docid": "River_Thames_frost_fairs", "rank": 30, "score": 98750 }, { "content": "Title: 2012: Ice Age Content: 2012 : Ice Age is a 2011 disaster film produced by the independent film group The Asylum . It is the third and final film in The Asylum 's 2012 trilogy , which are mockbusters of the Roland Emmerich film 2012 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "2012:_Ice_Age", "rank": 31, "score": 97792 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age: The Meltdown Content: Ice Age : The Meltdown is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy adventure film produced by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox . As the first sequel to the 2002 film Ice Age , it focuses on the herd escaping an upcoming flood , during which Manny finds love . It was directed by Carlos Saldanha , co-director of the first film , with the music composed by John Powell . The original voice cast -- Ray Romano , John Leguizamo , Denis Leary and Chris Wedge -- is joined by Queen Latifah , Seann William Scott and Josh Peck . The film premiered in Belgium on March 1 , 2006 . It was eventually released in 70 countries , with the last release being in China , on June 9 , 2006 . The Meltdown received mixed critical reaction but was a box office success by earning over $ 660 million . Three more sequels were released -- Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 2009 , Ice Age : Continental Drift in 2012 and Ice Age : Collision Course in 2016 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age:_The_Meltdown", "rank": 32, "score": 97187 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age Entertainment Content: Ice Age Entertainment is a record label created and owned by southern rapper Mike Jones and business partner Ray `` Mello '' Moore . The record label was created around late 2001 . Mike Jones has re-signed with Swishahouse , and has come to terms with them . Swishahouse will now distribute albums released under Ice Age Entertainment . The record label is based in two cities , Houston and Atlanta .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_Entertainment", "rank": 33, "score": 97089 }, { "content": "Title: Neolithic Expansion Content: At the end of the last ice age , about 12,000 years ago , humanity entered a period of increasing technological sophistication . For reasons that are still disputed , many of the large mammals hunted by humans became extinct , driving the development of new food sources : breadmaking considerably predates this period , but people in Mesopotamia now began cultivating wild cereal and pulses . Dogs had been domesticated over thousands of years ; nomadic shepherding became possible through domestication of goats , sheep , horses , camels and cattle . About 7,000 years ago , livestock herding was sufficiently established to allow a widespread abandonment of hunter-gathering in favour of settled lifestyles . Pottery was increasingly useful , and permanent buildings , constructed from mudbrick , appeared . These technologies spread out of the Middle East through the Old World . With the arrival of bronze , stone was used less for tools and weapons and more for buildings and statues or monuments .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Neolithic_Expansion", "rank": 34, "score": 96337 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age (disambiguation) Content: __ NOTOC __ An ice age is a geologic period characterized by the presence of polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Periods of major glaciation ( commonly also referred to as ice ages ) are scientifically termed glacial periods . Ice Age may also refer to :", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_age_(disambiguation)", "rank": 35, "score": 96005 }, { "content": "Title: Riss glaciation Content: The Riss glaciation , Riss Glaciation , Riss ice age , Riss Ice Age , Riss glacial or Riss Glacial ( Riß-Kaltzeit , Riß-Glazial , Riß-Komplex or ( obsolete ) Riß-Eiszeit ) is the second youngest glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch in the traditional , quadripartite glacial classification of the Alps . The literature variously dates it to between about 300,000 to 130,000 years ago and 347,000 to 128,000 years ago . It coincides with the nocat = y glaciation of North Germany . The name goes back to Albrecht Penck and Eduard Brückner who named this cold period after the river Riss in Upper Swabia in their 3 volume work Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter ( `` The Alps in the Ice Age '' ) published between 1901 and 1909 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Riss_glaciation", "rank": 36, "score": 95860 }, { "content": "Title: Huronian glaciation Content: The Huronian glaciation ( or Makganyene glaciation ) was a glaciation that extended from 2.4 billion years ago ( Ga ) to 2.1 Ga , during the Siderian and Rhyacian periods of the Paleoproterozoic era . The Huronian glaciation followed after the Great Oxygenation Event ( GOE ) , a time when increased atmospheric oxygen decreased atmospheric methane . The oxygen combined with the methane to form carbon dioxide and water , which does not retain heat as well as methane does . It is the oldest and longest ice age , occurring at a time when , in a biological sense , only simple , unicellular life existed on Earth . This ice age led to a mass-extinction on Earth .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Huronian_glaciation", "rank": 37, "score": 95807 }, { "content": "Title: Interglacial Content: An interglacial period ( or alternatively interglacial , interglaciation ) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age . The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene , about 11,700 years ago .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Interglacial", "rank": 38, "score": 95706 }, { "content": "Title: Elster glaciation Content: The Elster glaciation ( Elster-Kaltzeit , Elster-Glazial or Elster-Zeit ) or , less commonly , the Elsterian glaciation -- in the older and popular scientific literature also called the Elster Ice Age ( Elster-Eiszeit ) -- is the oldest known ice age that resulted in the large-scale glaciation of North Germany . It is temporally identified with the south German Mindel glaciation . The Elster glaciation is currently dated to about 400,000 to 320,000 years ago . It succeeded a long period of rather warmer average temperatures , the Cromerian Complex . Two ice advances were very extensive . The Elster was followed by the Holstein interglacial . The glacial period is named after the White Elster , a right tributary of the Saale .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Elster_glaciation", "rank": 39, "score": 95556 }, { "content": "Title: 1340s Content: The 1340s were a Julian calendar decade in the 14th century , in the midst of a period in world history often referred to as the Late Middle Ages in the Old World and the pre-Columbian era in the New World . In Asia , the successors of the old Mongol Empire were in a state of gradual decline . The Ilkhanate had already fragmented into several political territories and factions struggling to place their puppet leaders over the shell of an old state ; the Chagatai Khanate was undermined by religious unrest and fell to rebellion . The Black Plague swept through the Kipchak Khanate in 1346 , and also affected the Genoese colonies under Mongol siege , thence spreading into Europe . The Yuan dynasty in China was struck by a series of disasters , including frequent flooding , widespread banditry , urban fire , declining grain , increased civil unrest and local rebellion - the seeds of resistance that would lead to its downfall . Southeast Asia remained free from Mongol power , with several small kingdoms struggling for survival . In Europe , the decade continued the period of gradual economic decline , often mistitled the `` depression '' of the 1340s . This followed the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the start of the Little Ice Age in the 1300s , and affected most of Western Europe , with the exception of a few Italian city-states . The state increasingly interfered in the social and economic life of the decade , while Europe entered a period which saw almost continuous war for the next century . The Hundred Years ' War ( 1337 -- 1453 ) between France and England continued , and Edward III of England led an invasion resulting in notable victories at the Battles of Sluys and Crécy in 1340 and 1346 respectively . The medieval crusading spirit continued in Spain , with a Castilian victory at the Battle of Río Salado and the recommencement of the Reconquista in 1340 ; and in the Baltic , with King Magnus II of Sweden 's Northern Crusades against Novgorod in 1347 -- 1348 . In the east , the Byzantine Empire , then under the Palaiologoi , saw the start of the disastrous Byzantine civil war of 1341 -- 47 . Meanwhile , a crisis of confidence in the Florentine banks caused many of them to collapse between 1341 and 1346 . The Black Plague which struck Europe in 1348 wiped out a full third of the population by the end of the decade . In Africa , the two great empires were the Christian Ethiopian Empire in the east and the Muslim Mali Empire in the west . Amda Seyon I , who had brought Ethiopia to its height , was succeeded in 1344 by Newaya Krestos , who continued to foster trade in East Africa . Mansa Suleyman assumed office in the Mali Empire in 1341 , and similarly took steep measures to reform Mali 's finances . Songhai , which had emerged in this decade , was conquered by Mali for the time being . In the Americas , cities of the Mississippian culture such as Cahokia , Kincaid and Moundville went into an accelerated state of decline in this decade . Factors such as depletion of resources , climatic change , war , disease , social unrest and declining political and economic power have been suggested , although the sites were not fully abandoned until the 15th century . Central America saw the decayed Maya civilization ruled from their capital Mayapan in the Yucatán Peninsula , while the Mexicas from their capital city of Tenochtitlan were on the rise .", "qid": "296", "docid": "1340s", "rank": 40, "score": 95458 }, { "content": "Title: Ice House on Little Muddy Creek Content: The Ice House on Little Muddy Creek is the ruins of an old stone structure meant to hold ice near Morgantown , Kentucky , placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 8 , 1987 , as part of the Early Stone Buildings of Kentucky Multiple Property Submission . The Ice House is notable for having `` exceptionally fine masonry '' . Its face has finished square stones and toothed chiseled random pattern strikings ; this tooling pattern is the only such pattern in the Commonwealth of Kentucky . This oddity is why it was placed on the National Register , whereas most ruins are unable to achieve National Register status due to no longer retaining integrity of the structure . Most ice houses are built into the earth , but this ice house was above ground , and used cavities filled with sawdust to insulate the ice .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_House_on_Little_Muddy_Creek", "rank": 41, "score": 95380 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age Giants Content: Ice Age Giants is a British television documentary series created and produced by the BBC Natural History Unit , first shown in the UK on BBC Two and BBC Two HD on 19 May 2013 . The series steps back to 20,000 years in time and follows the trail of the prehistoric mammals in the ice age on North America and European region that lived through it to life by using the latest scientific knowledge and a little graphic wizardry . The series was presented by Dr. Alice Roberts and composed by David Mitcham .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_Giants", "rank": 42, "score": 94310 }, { "content": "Title: Scandinavian prehistory Content: <font color=cyan> The Scandinavian Peninsula became ice-free around 11,000 BC , at the end of the last ice age . The Nordic Stone Age begins at that time , with the Upper Paleolithic Ahrensburg culture , giving way to the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers by the 7th millennium BC ( Maglemosian culture c. 7500 BC -- 6000 BC , Kongemose culture c. 6000 BC -- c. 5200 BC , Ertebølle culture c. 5300 BC -- 3950 BC ) . The Neolithic stage is marked by the Funnelbeaker culture ( 4000 -- 2700 BC ) , followed by the Pitted Ware culture ( 3200 BC -- 2300 BC ) . Around 2800 BC , metal was introduced in Scandinavia in the Corded Ware culture . In much of Scandinavia , a Battle Axe culture became prominent , known from some 3,000 graves . The period 2500 BC -- 500 BC also left many visible remains to modern times , most notably the many thousands rock carvings ( petroglyphs ) in western Sweden at Tanumshede and in Norway at Alta . A more advanced culture came with the Nordic Bronze Age ( c. 1800 BC -- 500 BC ) . It was followed by the Iron Age by the 4th century BC .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Scandinavian_prehistory", "rank": 43, "score": 93970 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 44, "score": 93539 }, { "content": "Title: Jean Grove Content: Jean Grove ( 10 March 1927 - 17 January 2001 ) , née Clark , was a British physical geographer and glaciologist known for her comprehensive study of climate change in the Little Ice Age across the world .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Jean_Grove", "rank": 45, "score": 93339 }, { "content": "Title: Icehouse Bottom Content: Icehouse Bottom is a prehistoric Native American site in Monroe County , Tennessee , located on the Little Tennessee River in the southeastern United States . Native Americans were using the site as a semi-permanent hunting camp as early as 7500 BC , making it one of the oldest-known habitation areas in what is now the state of Tennessee . Analysis of the site 's Woodland period ( 1000 BC - 1000 AD ) artifacts shows evidence of an extensive trade network that reached to indigenous peoples in Georgia , North Carolina , and Ohio . This was later an area of known Cherokee settlements , the historic people encountered by Anglo-European settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries . Since 1979 , the Icehouse Bottom site has been submerged by Tellico Lake , an impoundment of the Little Tennessee River created by the construction of Tellico Dam . Excavations were conducted at the site in the early 1970s prior to dam construction , in anticipation of inundation . Tellico Lake was developed by and is managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority , and the shoreline immediately above the Icehouse Bottom site is part of the McGhee-Carson Unit of the Tellico Lake Wildlife Management Area , which is managed by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Icehouse_Bottom", "rank": 46, "score": 92831 }, { "content": "Title: I See Ice Content: I See Ice is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring George Formby , Kay Walsh and Betty Stockfeld . The film depicts the adventures of a photographer working for a London newspaper . The film was made at Ealing Studios . It features the songs `` In My Little Snapshot Album '' , `` Noughts And Crosses '' and `` Mother What 'll I Do Now '' .", "qid": "296", "docid": "I_See_Ice", "rank": 47, "score": 92580 }, { "content": "Title: Group 1850 Content: Groep 1850 ( also known as Group 1850 ) was a Dutch psychedelic rock band that was founded in 1964 in The Hague . The band , despite never achieving success outside the Netherlands , are now considered one of the most innovative acid rock bands from the era . They first used the name Klits , but were renamed Groep 1850 in 1966 when their debut single , `` Misty Night '' / `` Look Around '' , appeared on the tiny Yep label . Though few copies were pressed , it established them as one of The Netherlands most original bands ( alongside the Outsiders and Q65 ) and they soon signed to Philips . More singles ensued , in a highly psychedelic vein , including the `` Mother No Head '' . Their debut album , Agemo 's Trip To Mother Earth , appeared in late 1968 . In The Netherlands its sleeve had a 3-D image on the cover , and came with a pair of 3-D glasses . A UK release ( also on Philips ) did not help the band gain a footing outside The Netherlands , and Philips dropped them soon afterwards . Their next album , Paradise Now , appeared on the Dutch Discofoon label in 1969 and was only marginally less acid-influenced than its predecessor . The band disbanded soon afterwards , but was sporadically active through the 1970s . Especially notable was another single , 1971 's `` Fire '' / `` Have You Ever Heard ? '' , which appeared on Polydor . In subsequent years related albums have appeared by S.I.X. ( Sjardin 's Invisible X-factor ) , Sjardin 's Terrible Surprise and Orange Upstairs .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Group_1850", "rank": 48, "score": 92008 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Content: Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a 2009 American computer animated comedy adventure film produced by Blue Sky Studios . It is the third installment in the Ice Age series and the sequel to Ice Age : The Meltdown ( 2006 ) . It was directed by Carlos Saldanha and co-directed by Mike Thurmeier . Ray Romano , John Leguizamo , Denis Leary and Queen Latifah reprise their roles from the first two films , with Simon Pegg joining them in the role of a weasel named Buck . The story has Sid being taken by a female Tyrannosaurus after stealing her eggs , leading the rest of the herd to rescue him in a tropical lost world inhabited by dinosaurs beneath the ice . The film was released on July 1 , 2009 by 20th Century Fox . It was the first Ice Age film and the first 20th Century Fox 's film to be released in 3D . Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics , it ranked at the time as the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time , earning $ 886.7 million worldwide . A sequel , titled Ice Age : Continental Drift , was released in 2012 , and another film , titled Ice Age : Collision Course , was released in 2016 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age:_Dawn_of_the_Dinosaurs", "rank": 49, "score": 91874 }, { "content": "Title: Ice March Content: The Ice March ( Russian : Ледяной походъ ) , also called the First Kuban Campaign ( Russian : Первый кубанскiй походъ ) , a military withdrawal lasting from February to May 1918 , was one of the defining moments in the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1921 . Under attack by the Red Army advancing from the north , the forces of the Volunteer Army , sometimes referred to as the White Guard , began a retreat from the city of Rostov south towards the Kuban , in the hope of gaining the support of the Don Cossacks against the Bolshevik government in Moscow .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_March", "rank": 50, "score": 91790 }, { "content": "Title: Little Royal and The Swingmasters Content: Little Royal and The Swingmasters was an American soul and R&B group and artist of the 1960 and 1970s . Little Royal was half-brother of James Brown . Notable people who have performed with Little Royal include Teddy Pendergrass and Bobby Parker . The title track of his album Jealous , reached # 15 on Billboard 's Best-Selling Soul Singles chart on August 5 , 1972 . His song , `` Razor Blade '' was sampled by 16 artists , including Ice-T , Lord Finesse and J Dilla Little Royal died at the age of 82 on September 29 , 2016 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Little_Royal_and_The_Swingmasters", "rank": 51, "score": 91759 }, { "content": "Title: Ice (The X-Files) Content: `` Ice '' is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files , which premiered on the Fox network on November 5 , 1993 . It was directed by David Nutter and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong . The debut broadcast of `` Ice '' was watched by 10 million viewers in 6.2 million households and received positive reviews from critics , who praised its tense atmosphere . The plot of the episode sees FBI special agents Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny ) and Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson ) investigate the deaths of an Alaskan research team . Isolated and alone , the agents and their accompanying team discover the existence of extraterrestrial parasitic organisms which drive their hosts into impulsive fits of rage . The episode was inspired by an article in Science News about an excavation in Greenland , and series creator Chris Carter also cited John W. Campbell 's 1938 novella Who Goes There ? as an influence . Although the producers hoped that `` Ice '' would save money by being shot in a single location , it ended up exceeding its production budget .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_(The_X-Files)", "rank": 52, "score": 91328 }, { "content": "Title: Iceni Content: The Iceni or Eceni -LSB- ˈaɪkeɪniː -RSB- were a Brittonic tribe of eastern Britain during the Iron Age and early Roman era . Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire , and bordered the area of the Corieltauvi to the west , and the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes to the south . In the Roman period , their capital was Venta Icenorum at modern-day Caistor St Edmund . Julius Caesar does not mention the Iceni in his account of his invasions of Britain in 55 and 54 BC , though they may be related to the Cenimagni , who Caesar notes as living north of the River Thames at that time . The Iceni were a significant power in eastern Britain during Claudius ' conquest of Britain in AD 43 , in which they allied with Rome . Increasing Roman influence on their affairs led to revolt in 47 , though they remained nominally independent under king Prasutagus until his death around AD 60 . Roman encroachment after Prasutagus ' death led his wife Boudica to launch a major revolt from 60 -- 61 . Boudica 's uprising seriously endangered Roman rule in Britain and resulted in the burning of Londinium and other cities . The Romans finally crushed the rebellion , and the Iceni were increasingly incorporated into the Roman province .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Iceni", "rank": 53, "score": 91218 }, { "content": "Title: Equus sivalensis Content: Equus sivalensis is an extinct equid , discovered in the Siwalik hills . Remains date to 2.6 million years ago , and it is assumed that it was extinct during the last Ice Age , between 75,000 and 10,000 years ago , as part of the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction . Remains have been found in middle to late Pleistocene locations in the Siwaliks and in Tamil Nadu , and recently , as a `` Great Indian horse '' in Andhra , dated to ca. 75,000 BP .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Equus_sivalensis", "rank": 54, "score": 91093 }, { "content": "Title: Late Ordovician glaciation Content: The Late Ordovician Glaciation is a period at the end of the Ordovician that started at the border between the Katian and Hirnantian about 440-460 Ma ( million years ago ) . The major glaciation during this period is widely considered to be the leading cause of the Ordovician-Silurian extinction event . Evidence of this glaciation can be seen in places such as Morocco , Libya , and Wyoming . More evidence derived from isotopic data is that during the Late Ordovician , Tropical ocean temperatures were about 5 ° C cooler than present day , this would have been a major factor that aided in the glaciation process . The Late Ordovician is the only glacial episode that appears to have coincided with a major mass extinction of nearly 61 % of marine life . Estimates of peak ice sheet volume range from 50 to 250 million cubic kilometers , and its duration from 35 million to less than 1 million years . There were also two peaks of glaciation . Also , glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere was minimal because a large amount of the land was in the southern hemisphere .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Late_Ordovician_glaciation", "rank": 55, "score": 91030 }, { "content": "Title: Early Palaeozoic Icehouse Content: The Early Palaeozoic Icehouse was a cool period that interrupted the greenhouse temperatures of the Ordovician and Silurian periods , culminating in the Hirnantian glaciation and the Ordovician extinction event . The icehouse was formerly thought only to consist of the Hirnantian glaciation itself , but has now been recognized as a longer , more gradual event .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Early_Palaeozoic_Icehouse", "rank": 56, "score": 90992 }, { "content": "Title: The Ice People Content: The Ice People is a 1998 science fiction novel by Maggie Gee , set in a future world dominated by a new ice age . The novel examines different elements of contemporary society : the fundamental roles and relationships of men and women , sexuality , politics and the issue of global warming . Global warming is the initial context , where increases in temperature are then followed by the cyclic appearance of an ice age . The reaction of society and individuals to these dramatic extremes sites the novel within the genre of dystopian science fiction , but closer to the author 's heart seem to be the changes within such a scenario of issues we face today : the changes in racism as different parts of the planet change in their attractiveness ; the changes in social position as `` Insiders '' and `` Outsiders '' -- the `` haves '' and the `` have-nots '' -- live within differing conditions ; the value , status and interpretation of marriage ; parenthood -- the increasing difficulties in conception and the subsequent single-parenthood versus family issues ; the `` gang '' mentality of men and women ; the way politics is perceived , used and power abused . The Ice People has been compared to George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley 's Brave New World .", "qid": "296", "docid": "The_Ice_People", "rank": 57, "score": 90911 }, { "content": "Title: Alan Warriner-Little Content: Alan Warriner-Little ( born Alan Warriner on 24 March 1962 in Lancaster , Lancashire ) is an English former professional darts player . He currently lives in Crosby , Cumbria and played with the nickname The Iceman . He is a former World Grand Prix champion , and a former runner-up at the World Professional Darts Championship .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Alan_Warriner-Little", "rank": 58, "score": 90585 }, { "content": "Title: Kainan Bay Content: Kainan Bay is an iceport which indents the front of the Ross Ice Shelf about 37 nmi northeast of the northwestern end of Roosevelt Island , Antarctica . It was discovered in January 1902 by the British National Antarctic Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott . It was named by the Japanese Antarctic Expedition under Lieutenant Shirase Nobu which , in January 1912 , effected a landing on the ice shelf here from the ship Kainan Maru . Little America V , the main base of U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze , 1955 -- 56 , was established at this site in late December 1955 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Kainan_Bay", "rank": 59, "score": 90359 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (video game) Content: Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a platform game based on the film of the same name , developed by Eurocom and published by Activision . It was released on June 30 , 2009 for Xbox 360 , Wii , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 2 , Games for Windows and Nintendo DS . A demo was made available in the Xbox Live Marketplace on June 15 , 2009 as well as a PC demo .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age:_Dawn_of_the_Dinosaurs_(video_game)", "rank": 60, "score": 89764 }, { "content": "Title: Ice (anime) Content: is a 2007 three-episode original video animation created by Yasushi Akimoto and directed by Makoto Kobayashi . It is set in the ruins of Tokyo in the near future , after an unspecified catastrophe has led to the death of all human males and many females . The small groups of women who survive face the impending extinction of humanity . There are suggestions that the disaster was caused by human interference with nature , possibly biological warfare experiments or genetic engineering . Many of the survivors blame men 's warlike nature and scientific arrogance for the catastrophe . However , even though men have perished , the women who remain are forced to use violence in the face of bioterrorism and other threats . While some accept their fate as the last generation of humans , others see biological engineering as a final hope for the survival of the species .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_(anime)", "rank": 61, "score": 89751 }, { "content": "Title: 1850 in paleontology Content:", "qid": "296", "docid": "1850_in_paleontology", "rank": 62, "score": 89643 }, { "content": "Title: Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi Content: Kwäday Dän Ts ' ìnchi ( meaning Long Ago Person Found in Southern Tutchone ) , or Canadian Ice Man , is a naturally mummified body found in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park in British Columbia , Canada , by a group of hunters in 1999 . Radiocarbon dating of artifacts found with the body placed the age of the body at between 300 and 550 years . The find was comparable in condition and scientific value to Ötzi the Iceman , remains dating to 3300 BC that were found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991 . DNA testing of more than 240 volunteers from the local Champagne and Aishihik First Nations revealed 17 persons who are related to the ice man through their direct maternal line . They were excited to have their deep connections to the area affirmed .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Kwäday_Dän_Ts'ìnchi", "rank": 63, "score": 89560 }, { "content": "Title: 1850 in architecture Content: The year 1850 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings .", "qid": "296", "docid": "1850_in_architecture", "rank": 64, "score": 89559 }, { "content": "Title: List of military operations on ice Content: Battles and other military operations that took place on lake or sea ice include : about 530 -- Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern , recorded in Norse sagas and referred to in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf 1242 -- Battle on the Ice on Lake Peipus 1270 -- Battle of Karuse on the frozen Baltic Sea between the Island of Muhu and the mainland 1658 -- March Across the Belts , Charles X Gustav 's march over the Little Belt and the Great Belt during the Second Northern War 1809 -- Finnish War Barclay de Tolly 's advance from Vaasa to Uumaja in Sweden , see Battle of Ratan and Sävar Bagration 's and Kulnev 's attack from the Åland Islands to Grisslehamn in Sweden 1940 -- Battle of Vyborg Bay ( 1940 ) in the Winter War 1941-44 - Road of Life , an ice road over Lake Ladoga that supplied the besieged Leningrad during the winter months ( barges kept the supply line open in warmer times ) , during World War II . 1942 -- Battle of Suursaari in the Continuation War", "qid": "296", "docid": "List_of_military_operations_on_ice", "rank": 65, "score": 89482 }, { "content": "Title: International Coalition to End Torture Content: International Coalition to End Torture ( commonly known as End Torture and ICET ) is a non-governmental organisation focused on raising awareness of human rights and the United Nations Convention Against Torture around the world by knowing them , demanding them , and defending them . The objective of the organisation is to bring `` like-minded individuals from all walks of life , all disciplines , races , creeds and nationalities and allied organizations to bring the full force of unity to bear in the human rights arena . In 2003 , Amnesty International launched a campaign called End Torture in Chinese language hoping that `` the Chinese audience will view the website as a valuable resource to raise awareness about the need to prevent torture and ill-treatment ; and to contribute to the campaign within China to stamp out torture once and for all . '' In 2003 , International Coalition to End Torture was founded to reach a global audience as an independent non-profit organization . The International Coalition to End Torture draws attention to torture by governments and campaigns for compliance with international laws and standards . It works to mobilise public opinion to put pressure on governments that let torture take place .", "qid": "296", "docid": "International_Coalition_to_End_Torture", "rank": 66, "score": 89413 }, { "content": "Title: Little America (exploration base) Content: Little America was a series of Antarctic exploration bases from 1929 to 1958 , located on the Ross Ice Shelf , south of the Bay of Whales . The coordinates are approximate .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Little_America_(exploration_base)", "rank": 67, "score": 89254 }, { "content": "Title: Dancing on Ice (series 9) Content: The ninth and final series of Dancing on Ice began airing on ITV on 5 January 2014 , and ended on 9 March 2014 . It was announced on 22 October 2013 that this series would be the show 's last , and would be an ` All-Stars ' series featuring former winners and previous contestants . Phillip Schofield and Christine Bleakley returned to present , with Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean returning as mentors . Robin Cousins , Jason Gardiner , Karen Barber and Ashley Roberts returned for their ninth , eighth , seventh and second series on The Ice Panel . Cousins was unable to appear on the ice panel during weeks 6 and 7 due to him commentating the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , Russia and was replaced by original judge Nicky Slater , while Barber acted as head judge . The competition was won by Ray Quinn with professional partner Maria Filippov .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Dancing_on_Ice_(series_9)", "rank": 68, "score": 89239 }, { "content": "Title: Young Sherlock Holmes: Black Ice Content: Young Sherlock Holmes : Black Ice is the third novel in the Young Sherlock Holmes series that depicts Arthur Conan Doyle 's detective Sherlock Holmes as a teenager in the 1860s . It was written by Andrew Lane and released in the United Kingdom on 3 June 2011 by Macmillan Books . It follows on from Young Sherlock Holmes : Red Leech and is followed by Young Sherlock Holmes : Fire Storm", "qid": "296", "docid": "Young_Sherlock_Holmes:_Black_Ice", "rank": 69, "score": 89016 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Ages (band) Content: Ice Ages is an Austrian dark electro/industrial band signed to Napalm Records . The band is a one-man band consisting of Richard Lederer from Summoning and Die Verbannten Kinder Evas .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Ages_(band)", "rank": 70, "score": 88977 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in Glacier National Park (U.S.) Content: There are at least 35 named glaciers in Glacier National Park ( U.S. ) . In 1850 , the area now comprising the national park had 150 glaciers . There are 25 active glaciers remaining in the park today . Since the ice ages stopped 10,000 years ago , there have been many slight climate shifts causing periods of glacier growth or melt-back . The glaciers are currently being studied to see the effect of global warming It is estimated that if current warming trends continue , there will be no glaciers left in the park by 2030 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_Glacier_National_Park_(U.S.)", "rank": 71, "score": 88957 }, { "content": "Title: Older Dryas Content: The Older Dryas was a stadial ( cold ) period between the Bølling and Allerød interstadials ( warmer phases ) approximately 14,000 years ago ( BP ) , towards the end of the Pleistocene epoch . Its age is not well defined , with estimates varying by 400 years , but its duration is agreed to have been around two centuries . The gradual warming since the last glacial maximum 27-24 ,000 years BP has been interrupted by two cold spells , the Older Dryas having been followed by the Younger Dryas ( c. 12,900-11 ,650 BP ) . In northern Scotland the glaciers were thicker and deeper during the Older than the succeeding Younger Dryas , and there is no evidence of human occupation of Britain . In north-west Europe an earlier Oldest Dryas is also recognised . They are named after an indicator genus , the arctic and alpine plant Dryas , the remains of which are found in higher concentrations in deposits from colder periods . The Older Dryas was a variable cold , dry Blytt-Sernander period , observed in climatological evidence in only some regions , depending on latitude . In regions where it is not observed , the Bølling-Allerød is considered a single interstadial ( warm ) period . Evidence of the Older Dryas is strongest in northern Eurasia , particularly part of North Europe roughly equivalent to Pollen zone Ic .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Older_Dryas", "rank": 72, "score": 88835 }, { "content": "Title: Ice (1998 film) Content: Ice is a 1998 television disaster film starring Grant Show , Udo Kier , and Eva La Rue . The film has a similar premise as The Day After Tomorrow , a science fiction disaster film released six years later . Though completely in English , it first premiered in Germany in 1998 before being aired on ABC in the United States in 2000 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_(1998_film)", "rank": 73, "score": 88101 }, { "content": "Title: Neoglaciation Content: The neoglaciation ( `` renewed glaciation '' ) describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth 's climate during the Holocene , following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation , the most recent glacial period . Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest point in the Earth 's climate during the current interglacial stage . The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning : local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler ( and wetter ) conditions . Driven inexorably by the Milankovitch cycle , cooler summers in higher latitudes of North America , which would cease to completely melt the annual snowfall , were masked at first by the presence of the slowly disappearing continental ice sheets , which persisted long after the astronomically calculated moment of maximum summer warmth : `` the neoglaciation can be said to have begun when the cooling caught up with the warming '' , remarked E. C. Pielou . With the close of the `` Little Ice Age '' ( mid-14th to late 19th centuries ) , neoglaciation appears to have been stalled in the late 20th century , assumed to be caused by anthropogenic global warming . Whether it has been temporarily or semi-permanently stalled , neoglaciation has been marked by a retreat from the warm conditions of the Climatic Optimum and the advance or reformation of glaciers that had not existed since the last ice age . In the mountains of western North America , montane glaciers that had completely melted reformed shortly before 5000 BP . The most severe part of the best documented neoglacial period , especially in Europe and the North Atlantic , is termed the `` Little Ice Age '' . In North America , neoglaciation had ecological effects in the spread of muskeg on flat , poorly drained land , such as the bed of recently drained Lake Agassiz and in the Hudson Bay lowlands , in the retreat of grassland before an advancing forest border in the Great Plains , and in shifting ranges of forest trees and diagnostic plant species ( identified through palynology ) . The view that neoglaciation is ending in present times , is assumed by those who identify the most recent climate changes and global warming as the onset of a new period in Earth history , speculatively calling it the `` Early anthropocene '' , as a coming geological age dominated by the effects of Homo sapiens .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Neoglaciation", "rank": 74, "score": 88011 }, { "content": "Title: Inter Ice Age 4 Content: Inter Ice Age 4 ( 第四間氷期 , Dai-Yon Kampyōki ) is an early science fiction novel by Japanese writer Kōbō Abe originally serialized in the journal Sekai from 1958 to 1959 and first translated into English by American scholar E. Dale Saunders in 1970 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Inter_Ice_Age_4", "rank": 75, "score": 87888 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age (song) Content: `` Ice Age '' is a song by American post-industrial group How to Destroy Angels from their second release , An Omen EP . It is also one of four songs from the extended play to be featured on their first full-length release , Welcome Oblivion .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_(song)", "rank": 76, "score": 87701 }, { "content": "Title: Würm glaciation Content: The Würm glaciation ( Würm-Kaltzeit or Würm-Glazial or Würm stage , colloquially often also Würmeiszeit oder Würmzeit ; c.f. ice age ) , in the literature usually just referred to as the Würm , often spelt `` Wurm '' , is the name given to the last glacial period in the Alpine region . It is the youngest of the major glaciations of the region that extended beyond the Alps themselves . It is , like most of the other ice ages of the Pleistocene epoch , named after a river , the Würm in Bavaria , a tributary of the Amper . The Würm ice age can be dated to the time about 115,000 to 11,700 years ago , the sources differing depending on whether the long transition phases between the glacials and interglacials ( warmer periods ) are allocated to one or other of these periods . The average annual temperatures during the Würm ice age in the Alpine Foreland were below − 3 ° C ( today +7 ° C ) . This has been determined from changes in the vegetation ( pollen analysis ) as well as differences in the facies .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Würm_glaciation", "rank": 77, "score": 87637 }, { "content": "Title: 1850 in science Content: The year 1850 in science and technology involved some significant events , listed below .", "qid": "296", "docid": "1850_in_science", "rank": 78, "score": 87263 }, { "content": "Title: 1850 United States Census Content: The United States Census of 1850 was the seventh census of the United States . Conducted by the Census Office on June 1 , 1850 , it determined the resident population of the United States to be 23,191,876 -- an increase of 35.9 percent over the 17,069,453 persons enumerated during the 1840 Census . The total population included 3,204,313 slaves . This was the first census where there was an attempt to collect information about every member of every household , including women , children , and slaves . Prior to 1850 , census records had recorded only the name of the head of the household and broad statistical accounting of other household members ( three children under age five , one woman between the age of 35 and 40 , etc. ) . It was also the first census to ask about place of birth . Hinton Rowan Helper made extensive use of the 1850 census results in his politically notorious book The Impending Crisis of the South ( 1857 ) .", "qid": "296", "docid": "1850_United_States_Census", "rank": 79, "score": 87146 }, { "content": "Title: Illinois Central Electric Railway Content: The Illinois Central Electric Railway ( ICE ) was an interurban line in Fulton County in western Illinois , west of Peoria . The company was founded on October 9 , 1903 . The line ran from Lewistown north to Farmington with a branch from Norris to Fairview . The line opened as follows : 1909 Canton -- Brereton -- Norris 1910 Norris -- Fairview 1911 Norris -- Gilchrist -- Maplewood -- Farmington 1912 Lewistown -- Bryant -- St. David -- Dunfermline -- Canton The railroad lost the competition to the automobile and was abandoned on July 25 , 1928 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Illinois_Central_Electric_Railway", "rank": 80, "score": 87013 }, { "content": "Title: Glacial period Content: A glacial period ( alternatively glacial or glaciation ) is an interval of time ( thousands of years ) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances . Interglacials , on the other hand , are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods . The last glacial period ended about 15,000 years ago . < ref name = `` Severinghaus1999 '' > </ref> The Holocene epoch is the current interglacial . A time when there are no glaciers on Earth is considered a greenhouse climate state .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Glacial_period", "rank": 81, "score": 86824 }, { "content": "Title: Ice (Sorokin novel) Content: Ice ( Лёд , Lyod ) is a 2002 novel by the Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin . The story is set in a brutal Russia of the near future , where the Tunguska meteor has provided a mysterious cult with a material which can make people 's hearts speak . The book is the first written part of Sorokin 's Ice Trilogy , although the second part in the narrative ; it was followed by Bro in 2004 and 23,000 in 2006 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_(Sorokin_novel)", "rank": 82, "score": 86798 }, { "content": "Title: This Is the Ice Age Content: This Is the Ice Age was Martha and the Muffins ' third album , released on LP and cassette in 1981 . The track `` Women Around the World at Work '' was released as a single in the UK and Canada . The album was a debut for Daniel Lanois as a rock music producer ; he would later ( often in partnership with Brian Eno ) produce for artists as diverse as U2 , Bob Dylan , and Dashboard Confessional . Daniel 's sister Jocelyne was a member of the band , playing bass and singing backing vocals on this album . The cover image was taken by Muffins ' guitarist Mark Gane from an apartment he was living in on Bloor Street in Toronto . It depicts the Bank of Montreal 's headquarters , First Canadian Place over a building in poor repair . After being unavailable for over 20 years , this much sought-after album was finally re-released on CD in 2005 by EMI Canada and includes two bonus tracks that were not on the original release . The CD has been released with copy protection technology which may make it difficult to play in some players or rip for use on MP3 players . The working title for this album was The Big Merge .", "qid": "296", "docid": "This_Is_the_Ice_Age", "rank": 83, "score": 86791 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Content: Ice Age : A Mammoth Christmas is a 2011 computer animated television special and part of the Ice Age franchise , produced by Blue Sky Studios and directed by Karen Disher . It premiered on November 24 , 2011 on Fox in the United States and in the United Kingdom every christmas on Channel 4 and E4 and it was released two days later to DVD and Blu-ray . Despite being produced by Blue Sky Studios , the film 's animation was actually done by some animators at Blue Sky and mainly by the Los Angeles/Dallas based special effects and animation company , Reel FX Creative Studios .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age:_A_Mammoth_Christmas", "rank": 84, "score": 86694 }, { "content": "Title: Baltic Ice Lake Content: The Baltic Ice Lake is a name given by geologists to a freshwater lake that gradually formed in the Baltic Sea basin as glaciation retreated from that region at the end of the Pleistocene . The lake , dated to 12,600-10 ,300 BP , is roughly contemporaneous with the three Pleistocene Blytt-Sernander periods . The lake followed a period of massive glaciation in the region , which followed the end of the Eemian Sea . The post-glacial Yoldia Sea was immediately subsequent to the Baltic Ice Lake .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Baltic_Ice_Lake", "rank": 85, "score": 86638 }, { "content": "Title: Iceage Content: Iceage is a Danish punk rock band from Copenhagen . They were formed in 2008 , when the members of the band averaged 17 years old . They signed to Tambourhinoceros in Denmark and Dais Records in the United States . They were then picked up by What 's Your Rupture ? Records for international release , and their debut album New Brigade was released in January 2011 in Denmark and on June 21 , 2011 , in the US . In February 2013 , Iceage released their second studio album , You 're Nothing , after signing with the independent record label Matador Records . It earned a four star rating ( out of five ) from Allmusic and four-and-a-half stars out of five from Humo . Iceage 's third studio album , Plowing Into the Field of Love , was released in October 2014 by Matador . All three albums received a nomination for IMPALA 's European Independent Album of the Year Award . Rønnenfelt also performs under the name Marching Church and has released two albums This World Is Not Enough ( 2015 ) and Telling It Like It Is ( 2016 ) .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Iceage", "rank": 86, "score": 86579 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 87, "score": 86529 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Divide (Ice Age album) Content: The Great Divide is the debut album by the progressive metal group Ice Age , released in 1999 ( see 1999 in music ) . All music written , arranged , and performed by Ice age . Lyrics by Josh Pincus except Join and To Say Goodbye also by Hal Aponte .", "qid": "296", "docid": "The_Great_Divide_(Ice_Age_album)", "rank": 88, "score": 85992 }, { "content": "Title: Lava Lake murders Content: The Lava Lake murders refers to a triple-murder that occurred near Little Lava Lake in Central Oregon in January 1924 . The victims were Edward Nickols ( aged 50 ) , Roy Wilson ( aged 35 ) , and Dewey Morris ( aged 25 ) , all of whom were working as fur trappers in the Deschutes National Forest in late 1923 -- 1924 . Their bodies were discovered in Big Lava Lake in April 1924 , where they had been deposited under the surface ice . Each of the men had been murdered via gunshot and blunt force trauma . Though police identified a potential suspect , Charles Kimzey , a conviction never reached fruition . The crime is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Oregon history , and was the subject of a 2013 investigative book titled The Trapper Murders by Melany Tupper .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Lava_Lake_murders", "rank": 89, "score": 85983 }, { "content": "Title: Late Pleistocene Content: The Late Pleistocene is a geochronological age of the Pleistocene Epoch and is associated with Upper Pleistocene or Tarantian stage Pleistocene series rocks . The beginning of the stage is defined by the base of the Eemian interglacial phase before the final glacial episode of the Pleistocene 126,000 ± 5,000 years ago . The end of the age is defined as 11,700 years ago . The age represents the end of the Pleistocene epoch and is followed by the Holocene epoch . Much of the Late Pleistocene age was dominated by glaciation ( the Wisconsin glaciation in North America and corresponding glacial periods in Eurasia ) . Many megafauna became extinct over this age , a trend that continued into the Holocene . Also , human species other than modern humans died out during the Pleistocene . Humanity spread to every continent except for Antarctica during the Late Pleistocene .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Late_Pleistocene", "rank": 90, "score": 85981 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age National Scientific Reserve Content: Ice Age National Scientific ReserveHold cursor over locations to display park name ; click to go to unit article . The Ice Age National Scientific Reserve is an affiliated area of the National Park System of the United States comprising nine sites in Wisconsin that preserve geological evidence of glaciation . To protect the scientific and scenic value of the landforms , the U.S. Congress authorized the creation of a cooperative reserve in 1964 . The scientific reserve was established in 1971 and today encompasses some 32500 acre . The landforms are the result of the Wisconsin glaciation during the last glacial period , which lasted from about 110,000 to 10,000 years ago . The nine units of the reserve , mostly Wisconsin state parks or other protected areas , are administered by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources . Several units are not yet developed for visitation , having only minimal trails and no interpretive installations . Planning was underway for the future development and management of the Cross Plains unit . Several of the sites are joined by the Ice Age National Scenic Trail , but the reserve is a separate entity . Units of the reserve that charge state park access fees also accept federal passes .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_National_Scientific_Reserve", "rank": 91, "score": 85711 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Content: The Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail or Ice Age Floods Trail is designated as the first National Geologic Trail in the United States . It will consist of a network of routes connecting facilities that will provide interpretation of the geological consequences of the Glacial Lake Missoula floods of the last glacial period that began about 110,000 years ago .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_Age_Floods_National_Geologic_Trail", "rank": 92, "score": 85703 }, { "content": "Title: Ice (TV series) Content: Ice is an American television series created by Robert Munic and Antoine Fuqua . The project , set to air in late 2016 on Audience Network was ordered straight-to-series with an order of 10 episodes on August 2 , 2016 . The project was originally ordered in 2014 but was dropped for creative reasons . The series was then released on November 16 , 2016 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ice_(TV_series)", "rank": 93, "score": 85349 }, { "content": "Title: Memoria Vetusta I – Fathers of the Icy Age Content: Memoria Vetusta I -- Fathers of the Icy Age is the second studio album by black metal band Blut Aus Nord , and currently the only one with released lyrics . The album was first released in 1996 by Impure Creations Records . The album was later reissued in 2005 by Candlelight Records with new artwork , and on vinyl on April 20 , 2012 through Debemur Morti Productions , again featuring brand new artwork by Valnoir of Metastazis .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Memoria_Vetusta_I_–_Fathers_of_the_Icy_Age", "rank": 94, "score": 84902 }, { "content": "Title: Fresco EP Content: Fresco is an early 1983 EP released by Australian rock/synthpop band , Icehouse . It contains the same versions of `` Hey Little Girl '' and `` Glam '' from their 1982 album Primitive Man together with different versions of `` Break These Chains '' , `` Street Cafe '' and `` Over the Line '' ( B-side of `` Street Cafe '' single ) . It was produced by Icehouse founder Iva Davies together with Keith Forsey for Chrysalis Records .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Fresco_EP", "rank": 95, "score": 84669 }, { "content": "Title: Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad Content: Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad ( Costa Rican Institute of Electricity ) ( ICE ) is the Costa Rican government-run electricity and telecommunications services provider . Jointly with the Radiographic Costarricense SA ( RACSA ) and Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz ( CNFL ) form the ICE Group . ICE was founded on 8 April 1949 by Decree-Law No. 449 after the Costa Rican Civil War of 1948 , in order to solve the problems of power shortages that occurred in Costa Rica in the 1940s . Since 1963 ICE provides telecommunications services throughout the country . The attempts to reform ICE throughout a set of laws in the years 1999 and 2000 generated a great social mobilization . The ruling party at that time , the Social Christian Unity Party and the main opposition National Liberation Party agreed to change the institution . Meanwhile , the citizen opposition reached 274 protests in 14days . Following the Dominican Republic -- Central America Free Trade Agreement , the telecommunication market was opened to private companies . Since 2011 , América Móvil through Claro Americas and Telefónica through Movistar , are competing against ICE in the Costa Rican mobile market . ICE Group 's generates annual revenues of around $ 1,844 million .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Instituto_Costarricense_de_Electricidad", "rank": 96, "score": 84630 }, { "content": "Title: Cold as Ice (novel) Content: Cold as Ice ( 1992 ) is a science fiction novel by Charles Sheffield . The setting takes place in the late 21st Century with humans having colonized the Solar System , and a terrible civil war recently resolved in which 50 % of humanity was wiped out . The plot follows an eclectic group of characters sorting out a mystery initiated during the early days of the war . Like most of Sheffield 's books , in addition to hard scifi descriptions of a convincing future world , intricate psychologies of the major characters play a crucial role . Cold as Ice has been through six editions and remains in print more than twenty years after initial publication .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Cold_as_Ice_(novel)", "rank": 97, "score": 84499 }, { "content": "Title: ICE Advertisements Content: iCE Advertisements ( or more commonly and accurately simply `` iCE '' ) is a digital art group founded in Canada by Many Axe ( later Frozen Tormenter ) in 1991 . Although the expanded title is rarely ever used , iCE is an acronym for Insane Creators Enterprise . iCE , along with ACiD Productions , was one of the most prominent and critically successful groups on the underground computer artscene .", "qid": "296", "docid": "ICE_Advertisements", "rank": 98, "score": 84216 }, { "content": "Title: Ray Zillmer Content: Ray Zillmer ( April 19 , 1887 -- December 13 , 1960 ) was an American attorney , mountaineer and conservationist . He is best known as the founder of the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation , Inc. ( later renamed the Ice Age Trail Alliance ) and originator of the Ice Age Trail . He was also instrumental in the conservation of land in the Kettle Moraine of southeast Wisconsin and had an indirect role in the creation of the National Trails System . He died in Milwaukee on December 13 , 1960 of heart complications .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Ray_Zillmer", "rank": 99, "score": 84159 }, { "content": "Title: Hey Little Girl Content: `` Hey Little Girl '' is a single released by Australian band Icehouse , the second single from the band 's 1982 album , Primitive Man . The album and single were co-produced by band member and the track 's writer , Iva Davies , and Keith Forsey ( Billy Idol ) . It was released in October 1982 , on Regular Records in 7 '' vinyl single and 12 '' vinyl single formats . UK and Europe releases by Chrysalis Records were also on 7 '' and 12 '' formats , but with different track listings . The single was then released in the US in 1983 on the same formats . On `` Hey Little Girl '' , Iva Davies uses the Linn drum machine -- the first for an Australian recording . It peaked at No. 7 on the Australian singles chart and No. 2 in Switzerland , No. 5 in Germany , Top 20 in UK , Sweden and Netherlands , and No. 31 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart . The US cover for the single has a still from the Russell Mulcahy music video for `` Hey Little Girl '' . In 1997 , a series of re-mixes of the song was released in Germany on the Edel Music label . Another remix version by Infusion was released on the Icehouse album Meltdown in 2002 .", "qid": "296", "docid": "Hey_Little_Girl", "rank": 100, "score": 83820 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 1, "score": 154272 }, { "content": "Title: Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Content: Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "qid": "298", "docid": "Surveys_of_scientists'_views_on_climate_change", "rank": 2, "score": 147876 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "298", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 3, "score": 141175 }, { "content": "Title: Early anthropocene Content: The Early Anthropocene Hypothesis ( sometimes called Early Anthropogenic ) was proposed by William Ruddiman . It posits that the Anthropocene era , as some scientists call the most recent period in Earth 's history when the activities of the human race first began to have a significant global impact on Earth 's climate and ecosystems , did not begin in the eighteenth century with advent of coal-burning factories and power plants of the industrial era , as was commonly assumed , but dates back to 8,000 years ago , triggered by intense farming activities after agriculture became widespread . It was at that time that atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations stopped following the periodic pattern of rises and falls that had accurately characterized their past long-term behavior , a pattern that is explained by natural variations in Earth 's orbit known as Milankovitch cycles .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Early_anthropocene", "rank": 4, "score": 134738 }, { "content": "Title: Anthropogenic Content: Anthropogenic is an adjective which may refer to : pertaining to anthropogeny , the origin of humanity Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment Anthropogenic biome Anthropogenic climate change , or global warming Anthropogenic cloud Anthropogenic greenhouse gases Anthropogenic hazards Anthropogenic metabolism", "qid": "298", "docid": "Anthropogenic", "rank": 5, "score": 130929 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "298", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 6, "score": 125494 }, { "content": "Title: AGW Content: AGW can refer to : Anthropogenic global warming ; see the following : Attribution of recent climate change Human impact on the environment Climate change Global warming Global warming controversy Actual gold weight , a measure used in gold bullion , coin or bar Agnew Airport , Queensland , Australia ( IATA code : AGW ) Access gateway , shorthand for multi-service access gateway ( MSAG ) , a device used in telecommunications . Kahua language ( ISO 639-3 code : agw )", "qid": "298", "docid": "AGW", "rank": 7, "score": 115873 }, { "content": "Title: David Legates Content: David Russell Legates is a Professor of Geography at the University of Delaware . He is the former Director of the Center for Climatic Research at the same university , and a former Delaware State Climatologist . Legates has published research papers , opinion editorials , and spoken openly in opposition to the consensus scientific opinion on climate change . More recently , he has been known for his skepticism toward the anthropogenic cause of the observed global warming patterns and the severity of its consequences at the local geographical scale . Legates viewpoint , as stated in a 2015 study that he co-authored , is that the Earth will experience about 1.0 C warming over the 2000 to 2100 period .", "qid": "298", "docid": "David_Legates", "rank": 8, "score": 114303 }, { "content": "Title: Human impact on the environment Content: Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments , biodiversity , and other resources . The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity . The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian geologist Alexey Pavlov , and was first used in English by British ecologist Arthur Tansley in reference to human influences on climax plant communities . The atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen introduced the term `` Anthropocene '' in the mid-1970s . The term is sometimes used in the context of pollution emissions that are produced as a result of human activities but applies broadly to all major human impacts on the environment .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Human_impact_on_the_environment", "rank": 9, "score": 114056 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 10, "score": 112402 }, { "content": "Title: Anthropocene Content: The Anthropocene is a proposed epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on the Earth 's geology and ecosystems . The Anthropocene thus includes , but also transcends , the duration of anthropogenic climate change . , neither the International Commission on Stratigraphy nor the International Union of Geological Sciences has yet officially approved the term as a recognized subdivision of geological time , although the Working Group on the Anthropocene ( WGA ) voted to formally designate the epoch Anthropocene and presented the recommendation to the International Geological Congress on 29 August 2016 .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Anthropocene", "rank": 11, "score": 112270 }, { "content": "Title: Anthropogenic cloud Content: An anthropogenic or artificial cloud , is a cloud induced by human activity . Although generally clouds covering the sky have only a natural origin , from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution , the use of fossil fuels and water vapor and other gases emitted by nuclear , thermal and geothermal power plants yield significant alterations of the local weather conditions . These new atmospheric conditions can thus enhance cloud formation . Homogenitus is the term used to designate the origin of clouds produced by human activities . Various methods have been proposed for creating and utilizing this weather phenomenon . Experiments have also been carried out for various studies . For example , Russian scientists have been studying artificial clouds for more than 50 years . But by far the greatest number of anthropogenic clouds are airplane contrails ( condensation trails ) and rocket trails .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Anthropogenic_cloud", "rank": 12, "score": 109778 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Report Content: World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels , was produced by the Greening Earth Society , a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association . Early editions were paper based ; it was then transferred to a web-only format , having ceased publication as a physically based report with Volume 8 in 2002 . It continues to exist in blog form at www.worldclimatereport.com , although the website itself has not been updated since late 2012 . World Climate Report presents a scientific skeptical view of populist anthropogenic-driven mass global climate change , or as it describes , ` Global Warming Alarmism ' . However , it does not reject the concepts of global climate change or greenhouse theory ( or other well-established and widely accepted scientific theories or empirical studies ) , in general attempting to engender itself as giving a well balanced and scientific view of the sources ( though often at a contrary expense of its perceived adversaries : the aforementioned alleged ` Global Warming Alarmists ' ) . WCR says of itself : World Climate Report , a concise , hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press . As the nation 's leading publication in this realm , World Climate Report is exhaustively researched , impeccably referenced , and always timely . This popular biweekly newsletter points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as `` proof '' of disastrous warming . It 's the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty , such as the Kyoto Protocol , which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States ... World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what nature now calls the `` mainstream skeptic '' point of view . . In addition to Patrick Michaels ( chief editor ) , the staff is listed as Robert C. Balling , Jr ( contributing editor ) , Robert Davis ( contributing editor ) , and Paul Knappenberger ( Administrator ) . New Hope Environmental Services , an advocacy science consulting firm , claims WCR as its biweekly newsletter .", "qid": "298", "docid": "World_Climate_Report", "rank": 13, "score": 108778 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Balling Content: Robert C. Balling , Jr. is a professor of geography at Arizona State University , and the former director of its Office of Climatology . His research interests include climatology , global climate change , and geographic information systems . Balling has declared himself one of the scientists who oppose the consensus on global warming , arguing in a 2009 book that anthropogenic global warming `` is indeed real , but relatively modest '' , and maintaining that there is a publication bias in the scientific literature .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Robert_Balling", "rank": 14, "score": 108769 }, { "content": "Title: Ozone depletion and climate change Content: Ozone depletion and climate change , or Ozone hole and global warming in more popular terms , are environmental challenges whose connections have been explored and which have been compared and contrasted , for example in terms of global regulation , in various studies and books . There is widespread scientific interest in better regulation of climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution , as in general the human relationship with the biosphere is deemed of major historiographical and political significance . Already by 1994 the legal debates about respective regulation regimes on climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution were being dubbed `` monumental '' and a combined synopsis provided . There are some parallels between atmospheric chemistry and anthropogenic emissions in the discussions which have taken place and the regulatory attempts which have been made . Most important is that the gases causing both problems have long lifetimes after emission to the atmosphere , thus causing problems which are difficult to reverse . However , the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol that amended it are seen as success stories , while the Kyoto Protocol on anthropogenic climate change has largely failed . Currently efforts are being undertaken to assess the reasons and to use synergies , for example with regard to data reporting and policy design and further exchanging of information . While the general public tends to see global warming as a subset of ozone depletion , in fact ozone and chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs ) and other halocarbons , which are held responsible for ozone depletion , are important greenhouse gasses . Furthermore , natural levels of ozone in both the stratosphere and troposphere have a warming effect .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Ozone_depletion_and_climate_change", "rank": 15, "score": 108699 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 16, "score": 106564 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 17, "score": 105989 }, { "content": "Title: Anthropogenic metabolism Content: Anthropogenic metabolism , also referred to as ` metabolism of the anthroposphere ' , is a term used in industrial ecology , material flow analysis , and waste management to describe the material and energy turnover of human society . It emerges from the application of systems thinking to the industrial and other man-made activities and it is a central concept of sustainable development . In modern societies , the bulk of anthropogenic ( man-made ) material flows is related to one of the following activities : sanitation , transportation , habitation , and communication , which were `` of little metabolic significance in prehistoric times '' . Global man-made stocks of steel in buildings , infrastructure , and vehicles , for example , amount to about 25 Gigatonnes ( more than three tonnes per person ) , a figure that is surpassed only by construction materials such as concrete . Sustainable development is closely linked to the design of a sustainable anthropogenic metabolism , which will entail substantial changes in the energy and material turnover of the different human activities . Anthropogenic metabolism can be seen as synonymous to social or socioeconomic metabolism . It comprises both industrial metabolism and urban metabolism .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Anthropogenic_metabolism", "rank": 18, "score": 105962 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 19, "score": 105643 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Global Warming Swindle Content: The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King . The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols . The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . '' Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .", "qid": "298", "docid": "The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle", "rank": 20, "score": 104553 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the European Union Content: The mitigation of anthropogenic climate change in the European Union is being addressed through a number of measures .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_European_Union", "rank": 21, "score": 103406 }, { "content": "Title: Anthropogenic biome Content: Anthropogenic biomes , also known as anthromes or human biomes , describe the terrestrial biosphere in its contemporary , human-altered form using global ecosystem units defined by global patterns of sustained direct human interaction with ecosystems . Anthromes were first named and mapped by Erle Ellis and Navin Ramankutty in their 2008 paper , `` Putting People in the Map : Anthropogenic Biomes of the World '' . Anthrome maps now appear in numerous textbooks and in the National Geographic World Atlas", "qid": "298", "docid": "Anthropogenic_biome", "rank": 22, "score": 103367 }, { "content": "Title: New Zealand Climate Science Coalition Content: The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition is an organisation based in New Zealand which has the aim of refuting what it claims are unfounded claims about anthropogenic global warming .", "qid": "298", "docid": "New_Zealand_Climate_Science_Coalition", "rank": 23, "score": 102195 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change denial Content: Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_change_denial", "rank": 24, "score": 102174 }, { "content": "Title: Anthropogenic hazard Content: Anthropogenic hazards are those hazards caused directly or indirectly by human action or inaction . They can be contrasted with natural hazards . Anthropogenic hazards may adversely affect humans , other organisms and biomes and eco-systems . The frequency and severity of hazards are key elements in some risk analysis methodologies . Hazards may also be described in relation to the impact that they have . Environmental hazards may be very different from human hazards . A hazard only exists if there is a pathway to exposure . As an example the center of the earth consists of molten material at very high temperatures which would be a severe hazard if contact was made with the core . However , there is no feasible way of making contact with the core , therefore the center of the earth currently poses no hazard .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Anthropogenic_hazard", "rank": 25, "score": 100523 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 26, "score": 99990 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Canada Content: In Canada mitigation of anthropogenic climate change is being addressed more seriously by the provinces than by the federal government . The 2015 election signals greater federal leadership as noted in Canada 's National Statement at COP21 , making climate change a top priority , and pledging actions based on the best scientific evidence and advice .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Canada", "rank": 27, "score": 99726 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Policy Foundation Content: The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming . It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not . The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Global_Warming_Policy_Foundation", "rank": 28, "score": 99400 }, { "content": "Title: Watts Up With That? Content: Watts Up With That ? ( or WUWT ) is a blog promoting climate change denial that was created by Anthony Watts in 2006 . The blog predominantly discusses climate issues with a focus on anthropogenic climate change , generally accommodating beliefs that are in opposition to the scientific consensus on climate change . Contributors include Christopher Monckton and Fred Singer as guest authors . In November 2009 , the blog was one of the first websites to publish emails and documents from the Climatic Research Unit controversy , and a driving force behind its coverage . In the early months of 2010 , it was reported the site might be `` the most read climate blog in the world , '' and in 2013 Michael E. Mann referred to it as the leading climate change denial blog .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Watts_Up_With_That?", "rank": 29, "score": 99061 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas inventory Content: Greenhouse gas inventories are a type of emission inventory that are developed for a variety of reasons . Scientists use inventories of natural and anthropogenic ( human-caused ) emissions as tools when developing atmospheric models . Policy makers use inventories to develop strategies and policies for emissions reductions and to track the progress of those policies . And , regulatory agencies and corporations rely on inventories to establish compliance records with allowable emission rates . Businesses , the public , and other interest groups use inventories to better understand the sources and trends in emissions . Unlike some other air emission inventories , greenhouse gas inventories include not only emissions from source categories , but also removals by carbon sinks . These removals are typically referred to as carbon sequestration . Greenhouse gas inventories , typically use Global warming potential ( GWP ) values to combine emissions of various greenhouse gases into a single weighted value of emissions . Some of the key examples of greenhouse gas inventories include : All Annex I countries are required to report annual emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) National governments that are Parties to the UNFCCC and/or the Kyoto Protocol are required to submit annual inventories of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals from sinks . The Kyoto Protocol includes additional requirements for national inventory systems , inventory reporting , and annual inventory review for determining compliance with Articles 5 and 8 of the Protocol . Project developers under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol prepare inventories as part of their project baselines . Corporation and other entities can prepare greenhouse gas inventories to track progress towards meeting an emission reduction goal . Scientific efforts aimed at understanding detail of total net carbon exchange . Example : Project Vulcan - a comprehensive US inventory of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_inventory", "rank": 30, "score": 98439 }, { "content": "Title: Theodor Landscheidt Content: Theodor Landscheidt ( Bremen , 1927 -- May 20 , 2004 ) was a German author , astrologer and amateur climatologist . In 1989 , Landscheidt forecast a period of sunspot minima after 1990 , accompanied by increased cold , with a stronger minimum and more intense cold which should peak in 2030 His work on solar cycles has been cited by global warming skeptics to argue that observed warming is not anthropogenic and will soon be reversed , based on an assumption that fluctuations in climate are controlled by solar activity . In 1983 he founded and financed the `` Schroeter Institute for Research in Cycles of Solar Activity '' in Lilienthal , near Bremen . The Institute later moved with him to Nova Scotia , Canada .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Theodor_Landscheidt", "rank": 31, "score": 97680 }, { "content": "Title: William Kininmonth (meteorologist) Content: William Robert Kininmonth is an Australian retired meteorologist noted for his views as an opponent of anthropogenic global warming theory and for his frequent writings on the topic of climate change .", "qid": "298", "docid": "William_Kininmonth_(meteorologist)", "rank": 32, "score": 96724 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 33, "score": 96648 }, { "content": "Title: Journal of Environmental Quality Content: The Journal of Environmental Quality is a peer-reviewed bimonthly journal publishes original research in the area of anthropogenic impacts on the environment , including terrestrial , atmospheric and aquatic systems . According to the Journal Citation Reports . The journal has a 2014 impact factor of 2.652 . The journal was a Quarterly publication for the perios of 1972 to 1993 . Since 1994 it has been a bimonthly publication journal . The journal is published by American Society of Agronomy , the Soil Science Society of America , and the Crop Science Society of America .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Journal_of_Environmental_Quality", "rank": 34, "score": 95515 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "qid": "298", "docid": "IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 35, "score": 95456 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Content: The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme ( or CPRS ) was a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme for anthropogenic greenhouse gases proposed by the Rudd government , as part of its climate change policy , which had been due to commence in Australia in 2010 . It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia . The policy began to be formulated in April 2007 , when the federal Labor Party was in Opposition and the six Labor-controlled states commissioned an independent review on energy policy , the Garnaut Climate Change Review , which published a number of reports . After Labor won the 2007 federal election and formed government , it published a Green Paper on climate change for discussion and comment . The Federal Treasury then modelled some of the financial and economic impacts of the proposed CPRS scheme . The Rudd government published a final White Paper on 15 December 2008 , and announced that legislation was intended to take effect in July 2010 ; but the legislation for the CPRS ( aka ETS ) failed to gain the numbers in the Senate and was twice rejected creating a double dissolution election trigger . A bitter political debate within the Coalition Opposition saw Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull lose the leadership to the anti-CPRS Tony Abbott . The Rudd government did not call an election and in April 2010 , Rudd deferred plans for the CPRS . After the 2010 federal election , the Gillard Government was able to get the Carbon Pricing Mechanism ( CPM ) passed into law as part of the Clean Energy Futures Package ( CEF ) in 2011 , and became effective on 1 July 2012 . However , after the 2013 federal election there was a change in government , and the Abbott Government repealed the CEF package on 17 July 2014 . Due to the great deal of policy uncertainty surrounding the scheme , organizations in Australia responded in a rather informal and tepid manner and largely withheld from making any large-scale investments in emissions reductions technology during the scheme 's operation .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Carbon_Pollution_Reduction_Scheme", "rank": 36, "score": 95289 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Scotland Content: The mitigation of anthropogenic climate change in the nation of Scotland is a matter for the devolved Scottish Parliament .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Scotland", "rank": 37, "score": 95099 }, { "content": "Title: Plows, Plagues and Petroleum Content: Plows , Plagues and Petroleum : How Humans Took Control of Climate is a 2005 book published by Princeton University Press and written by William Ruddiman , a paleoclimatologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia . He has authored and co-authored several books and academic papers on the subject of climate change . Scientists often refer to this period as the `` Anthropocene '' and define it as the era in which humans first began to alter the earth 's climate and ecosystems . Ruddiman contends that human induced climate change began as a result of the advent of agriculture thousands of years ago and resulted in warmer temperatures that could have possibly averted another ice age ; this is the early anthropocene hypothesis .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Plows,_Plagues_and_Petroleum", "rank": 38, "score": 94842 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New Zealand Content: Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 39, "score": 94787 }, { "content": "Title: Human extinction Content: In futures studies , human extinction is the hypothetical end of the human species . This may be caused by natural causes or it may be anthropogenic , i.e. the result of human action . The likelihood of human extinction in the near future by wholly natural scenarios , such as a meteorite impact or large-scale volcanism , is generally considered to be extremely low . For anthropogenic extinction , many possible scenarios have been proposed : Human global nuclear annihilation , biological warfare or the release of a pandemic-causing agent , dysgenics , overpopulation , ecological collapse , and global warming ; in addition , emerging technologies could bring about new extinction scenarios , such as advanced artificial intelligence , biotechnology or self-replicating nanobots . The probability of anthropogenic human extinction within the next hundred years is the topic of an active debate . Human extinction needs to be differentiated from the extinction of all life on Earth ( see also future of Earth ) and from the extinction of major components of human culture ( e.g. , through a global catastrophe leaving only small , scattered human populations , which might evolve in isolation ) .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Human_extinction", "rank": 40, "score": 94258 }, { "content": "Title: Paul J. Crutzen Content: Paul Jozef Crutzen ( -LSB- pʌul ˈjoːzəf ˈkrɵtsə ( n ) -RSB- ; born 3 December 1933 ) is a Dutch , Nobel Prize-winning , atmospheric chemist . He is known for work on climate change research and for popularizing the term Anthropocene to describe a proposed new era when human actions have a drastic effect on the Earth .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Paul_J._Crutzen", "rank": 41, "score": 93836 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway greenhouse effect Content: A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Runaway_greenhouse_effect", "rank": 42, "score": 93699 }, { "content": "Title: Vincent R. Gray Content: __ NOTOC __ Vincent Richard Gray ( born 24 March 1922 ) is a New Zealand-based chemist , and a founder of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition . Born in London on 24 March 1922 , Gray was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry by the University of Cambridge after studies on incendiary bomb fluids made from aluminium soaps . In New Zealand , he was the first Director of Building Research and later , Chief Chemist of the Coal Research Association . He has also published many articles and reports , seven in peer-reviewed journals . After retirement , he had four and a half years in China and when he returned became a critic of the claim that climate was harmed by human emissions of greenhouse gases . He has commented on every publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , with 1,898 comments on the 2007 Report . He has published critical studies on all of the reports including a book `` The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of ` Climate Change 2001 ' '' . He has published `` Confessions of a Climate Sceptic '' He is sceptical of the anthropogenic global warming : `` The two main `` scientific '' claims of the IPCC are the claim that `` the globe is warming '' and `` Increases in carbon dioxide emissions are responsible '' . Evidence for both of these claims is fatally flawed . '' Gray has called for the IPCC to be abolished , claiming it is `` fundamentally corrupt '' due to his conclusion that for significant parts of the work of the IPCC , the data collection and scientific methods employed are unsound and that the IPCC resists all efforts to try to discuss or rectify these problems . Gray was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Counterpoint in a debate entitled `` Nine Lies about Global Warming '' , and was interviewed in a featured story in the New Zealand Herald as a `` prominent '' global warming skeptic . In 2002 , Gray also published a book , The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of `` Climate Change 2001 '' . In it , Gray argues `` that the quality and reliability of the IPCC 's measurements are poor , the system of determining how much weight should be attributed to different influences on the earth 's temperature is faulty , and the validity of evidence derived from computer modeling is questionable . ''", "qid": "298", "docid": "Vincent_R._Gray", "rank": 43, "score": 93608 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 44, "score": 92810 }, { "content": "Title: Steven Goddard Content: Steven Goddard ( pseudonym for Tony Heller ) is a blogger and the publisher of `` Real Science , '' a website he established to assert that concerns over anthropogenic global warming are exaggerated . Before establishing his own blog , Goddard built his reputation as a challenger to anthropogenic climate change theories through frequent postings on the Watts Up with That ? blog . Goddard wrote pseudonymously until 2014 when he revealed his true real identity on his blog . He has a BS in geology from Arizona State University and a Master 's degree in electrical engineering from Rice University .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Steven_Goddard", "rank": 45, "score": 92190 }, { "content": "Title: Global Day of Action Content: Global Day of Action is a direct action protest format . Environmentalism initiatives begun to use it in 2005 in connection with Global Climate Campaign . They aimed to focus world attention on the anthropogenic effect that humans are having on global warming . Its main objective is to spearhead demands that elected representatives of their respective governments honor commitments set forth by the Kyoto Protocol , by conducting in unison peaceful demonstrations around the world . The demonstration , or rallies , are intended to coincide with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , a meeting of world leaders from 189 nations , that meet annually to discuss climate change .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Global_Day_of_Action", "rank": 46, "score": 91748 }, { "content": "Title: Headspace Gas Chromatography for Dissolved Gas Measurement Content: Headspace Gas Chromatography uses headspace gas injected directly onto a gas chromatographic column . Chemists often use the phrase `` standard temperature and pressure or STP '' to convey that they are working at a temperature of 25 ° C and one atmosphere of pressure . There are three states of matter under these conditions : solids , liquids and gases . Although all three are distinct states both solids and gases can dissolve ( or disperse ) in liquids . The most commonly occurring liquid in the biosphere is water . All components of the atmosphere are capable of dissolving in water to some degree . The bulk of the stable natural components of the atmosphere are nitrogen , oxygen , carbon dioxide , gaseous water , argon and other trace gases . Materials that exist primarily in the gas phase at STP are referred to as `` volatile . '' Many natural and man-made ( anthropogenic ) materials are stable in two states at STP , earning them the title `` semi-volatile . '' A naturally occurring volatile that is sometimes found in aqueous solution is methane , water itself is semi-volatile . Man-made or anthropogenic chemicals also occur in these classes . Examples of volatile anthropogenic chemicals include the refrigerants chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs ) and hydrofluorocarbons ( HCFCs ) . Semivolatile anthropogenics can exist as mixtures , such as petroleum distillates or as pure chemicals like trichloroethylene ( TCE ) . There is a need to analyze the dissolved gas content of aqueous solutions . Dissolved gases can directly interact with aquatic organisms or can volatilize from solution ( the latter described by Henry 's Law ) . These processes can result in exposure that , depending on the nature of the dissolved material , can have negative health effects . There is natural occurrence of various dissolved gases in groundwater and can be a measure of health for lakes , streams and rivers . Dissolved gases also occur as a result of human contamination from fuel and chlorinated spill sites . This method can be used to determine if there is natural biodegradation processes occurring in contaminated aquifers . For example , fuel hydrocarbons will break down into methane . Chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethylene , break down into ethene and chloride . Detecting these compounds can determine if biodegradation processes are occurring and possibly at what rate . Natural gas extracted from the earth also contains many low molecular weight hydrocarbon compounds such as methane , ethane , propane and butane . For example , methane has been found in many water wells in West Virginia . Chromatographic techniques are often useful when mixtures of analytes are present because they are capable of measuring multiple analytes during a single application . They require isolation of the analyte from the matrix they come in ( the body of the sample ) . One of the simpler techniques is to simply trap the analytes in a bubble of air above the sample ( headspace ) and inject part of that bubble directly into the instrument . This procedure is called headspace analysis . One of the most widely used methods for headspace analysis is described by the United States Environmental Protection Agency ( USEPA ) and is called RSKSOP-175 . This method is described below .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Headspace_Gas_Chromatography_for_Dissolved_Gas_Measurement", "rank": 47, "score": 91477 }, { "content": "Title: Climate footprint Content: The term climate footprint has emerged from the field of carbon footprinting , and refers to a measure of the full set of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) controlled under the Kyoto Protocol . A climate footprint is a more comprehensive measure of anthropogenic impact upon the climate than a carbon footprint , but is also more costly and labour-intensive to calculate . A climate footprint is a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent ( CO2e ) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_footprint", "rank": 48, "score": 91469 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 49, "score": 91455 }, { "content": "Title: Clean Power Plan Content: The Clean Power Plan is an Obama administration policy aimed at combating anthropogenic climate change ( global warming ) that was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in June 2014 . It is widely expected to be eliminated under President Donald Trump , who signed an executive order on March 28 , 2017 mandating the EPA to review the plan . The final version of the plan was unveiled by President Obama on August 3 , 2015 . The 460-page rule ( RIN 2060 -- AR33 ) titled `` Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources : Electric Utility Generating Units '' was published in the Federal Register on October 23 , 2015 . The Obama administration designed the plan to lower the carbon dioxide emitted by power generators .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Clean_Power_Plan", "rank": 50, "score": 91276 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles Content: The report Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles was the third of six scientific assessments on global metals to be published by the International Resource Panel ( IRP ) of the United Nations Environment Programme . The IRP provides independent scientific assessments and expert advice on a variety of areas , including : the volume of selected raw material reserves and how efficiently these resources are being used the lifecycle-long environmental impacts of products and services created and consumed around the globe options to meet human and economic needs with fewer or cleaner resources .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Environmental_Risks_and_Challenges_of_Anthropogenic_Metals_Flows_and_Cycles", "rank": 51, "score": 91094 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 52, "score": 91055 }, { "content": "Title: Allogenic succession Content: In ecology , allogenic succession is succession driven by the abiotic components of an ecosystem . In contrast , autogenic succession is driven by the biotic components of the ecosystem . An allogenic succession can be brought about in a number of ways which can include : Volcanic eruptions Meteor or comet strike Flooding Drought Earthquakes Non-anthropogenic climate change Allogenic succession can happen on a time scale that is proportionate with the disturbance . For example , allogenic succession that is the result of climate change can happen over thousands of years .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Allogenic_succession", "rank": 53, "score": 90209 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "298", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 54, "score": 89801 }, { "content": "Title: Peter A. Stott Content: Peter A. Stott is a climate scientist who leads the Climate Monitoring and Attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research at the Met Office in Exeter , UK . He is an expert on anthropogenic and natural causes of climate change . He was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I report , chapter 9 , for the AR4 released in 2007 and is an editor of the Journal of Climate . Peter has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Durham University and completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge . He was awarded a PhD by Imperial College London for work on atmospheric modelling of the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster . After his PhD he carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh on stratospheric ozone depletion .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Peter_A._Stott", "rank": 55, "score": 89628 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit Content: The Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) is a component of the University of East Anglia and is one of the leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change . With a staff of some thirty research scientists and students , the CRU has contributed to the development of a number of the data sets widely used in climate research , including one of the global temperature records used to monitor the state of the climate system , as well as statistical software packages and climate models .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit", "rank": 56, "score": 88628 }, { "content": "Title: Global Roundtable on Climate Change Content: The Global Roundtable on Climate Change , convened by the Earth Institute at Columbia University brought together representatives from corporations , research institutions , and government organizations to discuss the scientific consensus , economics , technology , and public policy issues associated with climate change . Following preliminary research and discussions , the group first met in 2005 and held a series of public and private meetings over the next five year . The Roundtable had five objectives : Improve global consensus on the science , technology , economics , and policy issues of anthropogenic climate change . Review technology and policy proposals for mitigating climate change while meeting global energy demand . Support research and prototypes of technologies and policies that address climate change . Provide a forum for discussion , analysis , and exchange of ideas from the represented groups . Support proposals and initiatives generated by the Roundtable 's discussions . Participants in the Roundtable meetings : ABB , Air France , Alcan , Alcoa , Alliant Energy , Allianz , American Electric Power , BASF , Bayer , Calvert Group , China Renewable Energy Industry Association , Citigroup , Coalition of Rainforest Nations , Columbia University , Deutsche Telekom , DuPont , Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand , Endesa , Environmental Defense , Eskom , Eni , Exelon , Fairfield University , FPL Group , General Electric , Iberdrola , ING Group , Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , International Gas Union , Munich Re , National Grid , NRG Energy , Rainforest Alliance , Republic of Iceland , Ricoh , Suntech Power , Swiss Re , Vattenfall , Volvo , World Council on Churches , World Petroleum Council , and many others . The Roundtable was funded by a grant from the Lenfest Foundation . Jeffrey Sachs , Director of the Earth Institute served as Chair . David L. Downie served as Director of the Global Roundtable on Climate Change before leaving the Earth Institute to join Fairfield University . On February 20 , 2007 , the Roundtable released `` The Path to Climate Sustainability : A Joint Statement by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change '' . The Joint Statement outlines a post-Kyoto framework and has been endorsed by over 100 of the Roundtable participating corporations and organizations . The Statement outlines ways to effect change at the levels of policy and industry , particularly in regards to creating sustainable energy systems necessary for achieving economic growth . In addition to its internal discussions , which were aimed at information exchange , education and consensus building , and development of the parthbreaking Joint Statement , Roundtable participants also participated in public forums . For example , David L. Downie organized two side-event panels during sessions of the global climate negotiations that featured presentations by Roundtable Participants , including himself , regarding how businesses and scientists were working together to lower greenhouse gas emissions . David L. Downie also discussed the Roundtable and related issues at other events during the climate negotiations and in other forums", "qid": "298", "docid": "Global_Roundtable_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 57, "score": 88123 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris , France , from 30 November to 12 December 2015 . It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP ) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties ( CMP ) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change , the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it . The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions . On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) , 174 countries signed the agreement in New York , and began adopting it within their own legal systems ( through ratification , acceptance , approval , or accession ) . According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks , the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius ( ° C ) compared to pre-industrial levels . The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century . In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement , the parties will also `` pursue efforts to '' limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C . The 1.5 ° C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050 , according to some scientists . Prior to the conference , 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions ( called `` Intended Nationally Determined Contributions '' , INDCs ) . These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 . For example , the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 . The agreement establishes a `` global stocktake '' which revisits the national goals to `` update and enhance '' them every five years beginning 2023 . However , no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement -- as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol . A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21 , including the Bonn Climate Change Conference , 19 to 23 October 2015 , which produced a draft agreement .", "qid": "298", "docid": "2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 58, "score": 87835 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 59, "score": 87265 }, { "content": "Title: Roger Revelle Content: Roger Randall Dougan Revelle ( March 7 , 1909 -- July 15 , 1991 ) was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California , San Diego and was among the early scientists to study anthropogenic global warming , as well as the movement of Earth 's tectonic plates . UC San Diego 's first college is named Revelle College in his honor .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Roger_Revelle", "rank": 60, "score": 87197 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation Content: Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation", "rank": 61, "score": 83863 }, { "content": "Title: International Committee on Anthropogenic Soils Content: The International Committee on Anthropogenic Soils ( ICOMANTH ) defines its mission as follows . `` ICOMANTH is charged with defining appropriate classes in soil taxonomy for soils that have their major properties derived from human activities . The committee should establish which criteria significantly reflect human activities , or when a soil 's properties are dominantly the result of human activities . ''", "qid": "298", "docid": "International_Committee_on_Anthropogenic_Soils", "rank": 62, "score": 83183 }, { "content": "Title: Anthropic Content:", "qid": "298", "docid": "Anthropic", "rank": 63, "score": 82642 }, { "content": "Title: Coral in non-tropical regions Content: The poleward migration of coral species refers to the phenomenon brought on by rising sea temperatures, wherein corals are colonising cooler climates in an attempt to circumvent coral bleaching, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. In the age of Anthropocene, the changing global climate has disrupted fundamental natural processes and brought about observable changes in the submarine sphere. Whilst coral reefs are bleaching in tropical areas like the Great Barrier Reef, even more striking, and perhaps more alarming; is the growth of tropical coral species in temperate regions, which has taken place over the past decade. Coral reefs are frequently compared to the \"canaries in the coal mine,\" who were used by miners as an indicator of air quality. In much the same way, \"coral reefs are sensitive to environmental changes that could damage other habitats in the future,\" meaning they will be the first to visually exhibit the true implications of global warming on the natural world.", "qid": "298", "docid": "Coral_in_non-tropical_regions", "rank": 64, "score": 82311 }, { "content": "Title: Hydrofluorocarbon Content: Hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , organic compounds that contain fluorine and hydrogen atoms , are the most common type of organofluorine compounds . They are commonly used in air conditioning and as refrigerants in place of the older chlorofluorocarbons such as R-12 and hydrochlorofluorocarbons such as R-21 . They do not harm the ozone layer as much as the compounds they replace ; however , they do contribute to global warming . Their atmospheric concentrations and contribution to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly increasing , causing international concern about their radiative forcing . Fluorocarbons with few C -- F bonds behave similarly to the parent hydrocarbons , but their reactivity can be altered significantly . For example , both uracil and 5-fluorouracil are colourless , high-melting crystalline solids , but the latter is a potent anti-cancer drug . The use of the C-F bond in pharmaceuticals is predicated on this altered reactivity . Several drugs and agrochemicals contain only one fluorine center or one trifluoromethyl group . Unlike other greenhouse gases in the Paris Agreement , hydrofluorocarbons have other international negotiations . In September 2016 , the so-called New York Declaration urged a global reduction in the use of HFCs . On 15 October 2016 , due to these chemicals ' contribution to climate change , negotiators from 197 nations meeting at the summit of the United Nations Environment Programme in Kigali , Rwanda reached a legally-binding accord to phase out hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) in an amendment to the Montreal Protocol .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Hydrofluorocarbon", "rank": 65, "score": 82108 }, { "content": "Title: Pandora's Promise Content: Pandora 's Promise is a 2013 documentary film about the nuclear power debate , directed by Robert Stone . Its central argument is that nuclear power , which still faces historical opposition from environmentalists , is a relatively safe and clean energy source which can help mitigate the serious problem of anthropogenic global warming . In fact , according to records at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Basel , Switzerland , nuclear power has never caused a death in an OECD country . According to the report that UNSCEAR presented to the UN General Assembly in 2011 , concerning Chernobyl , that accident was responsible for 46 deaths . So nuclear power is not just `` relatively safe , '' it is the safest-ever way to make electricity , by a very wide margin . The title is derived from the ancient Greek myth of Pandora , who released numerous evils into the world , yet as the movie 's tagline recalls : `` At the bottom of the box she found hope . ''", "qid": "298", "docid": "Pandora's_Promise", "rank": 66, "score": 82042 }, { "content": "Title: Ian Wishart (journalist) Content: Ian Wishart ( born 1964 ) is a New Zealand journalist , author and publisher , and the editor of Investigate magazine . He is a conservative Christian , an opponent to the hypothesis of anthropogenic climate change , and has been described as a `` professional controversialist '' .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Ian_Wishart_(journalist)", "rank": 67, "score": 82013 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries ranked by greenhouse-gas emissions per capita in 2000 . It is based on data for carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , perfluorocarbon , hydrofluorocarbon and sulfur hexafluoride emissions compiled by the World Resources Institute ( WRI ) from a variety of sources , including CDIAC and the US Environmental Protection Agency . Bunker-fuel emissions are not included . Two sets of per capita emissions are given , one with an estimate of the effects of land-use change ( for example , cutting down forests ) and one without . The former is based on regional estimates in Houghton ( 2003 ) . Difficulties with determining rates of deforestation and the magnitude of carbon stocks held by the remaining forests and with distributing regional carbon fluxes among individual countries mean that the land-use change components have a large margin of error , perhaps as large as + / -150 % in some cases . They are included here because , although difficult to quantify accurately at a country level , land-use change is a significant contributor to global warming . The WRI estimates that it accounted for almost a fifth of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 . For 2005 the data for a large number of countries only includes emissions ( see note 12 . )", "qid": "298", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 68, "score": 81879 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 69, "score": 81673 }, { "content": "Title: Albrecht effect Content: The Albrecht effect describes how cloud condensation nuclei ( CCN ) , possibly from anthropogenic pollution , may increase cloud lifetime and hence increase the amount of solar radiation reflected from clouds . Because it does not directly interact with incoming or outgoing radiation , it has an indirect effect on climate . Aerosol particles act as CCNs creating more droplets of a smaller size . These take more time to coalesce to raindrop size ( > 100μm ) , reducing precipitation efficiency and hence increasing the lifetime of the cloud . The increased scattering of incoming radiation leads to a cooling of -0.3 to -1.4 Wm − 2 . This effect is not as well understood as the Twomey effect . There are many other effects , indirect and semi-direct aerosol effects resulting in a large uncertainty in the radiative forcing due to aerosols .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Albrecht_effect", "rank": 70, "score": 81671 }, { "content": "Title: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 71, "score": 81579 }, { "content": "Title: Anthroposphere Content: The anthroposphere ( sometimes also referred as technosphere ) is that part of the environment that is made or modified by humans for use in human activities and human habitats . It is one of the Earth 's spheres . As human technology becomes more evolved , such as the greater ability of technology to cause deforestation , the impact of human activities on the environment potentially increases .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Anthroposphere", "rank": 72, "score": 81246 }, { "content": "Title: Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments Content: The Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments ( GLORIA ) established an international long-term monitoring program and site-based network dealing with high-mountain vegetation and its biological diversity . Its purpose is the in-situ observation and comparative assessment of alpine biodiversity patterns under the impact of accelerating anthropogenic climate change . GLORIA involves sets of permanent plots established at pristine or near-natural sites set aside and monitored to observe the migration of plant species due to climate change . Founded in 2001 , the program has grown to more than 120 sites ( status January 2016 ) around the world , distributed from the poles to the tropics . ''", "qid": "298", "docid": "Global_Observation_Research_Initiative_in_Alpine_Environments", "rank": 73, "score": 81126 }, { "content": "Title: Jennifer Marohasy Content: Jennifer Marohasy ( born 1963 ) is an Australian biologist , columnist and blogger . She was a senior fellow at the free-market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs between 2004 and 2009 and director of the Australian Environment Foundation until 2008 . She holds a PhD in biology from the University of Queensland . She is sceptical of anthropogenic global warming .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Jennifer_Marohasy", "rank": 74, "score": 81108 }, { "content": "Title: Campaign against Climate Change Content: The Campaign against Climate Change ( variously abbreviated to CCC or CaCC ) is a UK-based pressure group that aims to raise public awareness of anthropogenic climate change through mobilizing mass demonstrations . Founded in 2001 in response to President Bush 's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol , the organization saw a steady increase in attendance on marches before a sudden take-off in interest between October - December 2005 . An estimated 10,000 people attended a rally in London on December 3 , 2005 . The following year on November 4 , 2006 the Campaign organized a march from the US Embassy to the iCount event in Trafalgar Square . At least 25,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square that day making it easily the biggest demonstration on climate change in the UK to date , until The Wave march in December 2009 . The December 3rd , 2005 protests were not confined to the UK , but formed part of the first Global Day of Action on Climate Change , in which CCC played a key role in co-ordinating . The demonstrations , in more than 30 countries around the world , were timed to coincide with the crucial Montreal Climate talks in Canada , at which preliminary agreements were made for a post-Kyoto treaty to take effect after 2012 . Outside Montreal itself , a crowd of between 25,000 - 40,000 gathered in a protest organized by the American-based Climate Crisis Coalition . The December 2006 protests again had an international flavour , with the London , UK protest attracting 10,000 participants . The Campaign against Climate Change has a network of local groups around the UK , which are currently in the process of being extended . On February 9 , 2008 the Campaign against Climate Change hosted a Trade Union conference on climate change . Over 300 delegates attended and heard speakers , including several Trade Union general secretaries or their deputies , from most of the major British unions . This conference was followed by two more Trade Union events in 2009 and 2010 . The campaign has also produced a report to a number of British Trade Union 's on `` One Million Climate Jobs '' . Arguing that direct government funding must be used to create jobs that can reduce Carbon emissions . CCC is an example of a growing number of climate-related environmental pressure groups that have developed during the last decade , including organizations like Rising Tide , Climaction and the coalition group Stop Climate Chaos , of which the Campaign against Climate Change is a member . CCC was heavily involved in the campaign against the closure of the Vestas Wind Turbine plant on the Isle of Wight and the occupation of the factory by the workers . The CCC was part of the mobilisations for the demonstrations that marked the United Nations talks on Climate Change in Copenhagen , in December 2009 .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Campaign_against_Climate_Change", "rank": 75, "score": 80648 }, { "content": "Title: American Association of State Climatologists Content: The American Association of State Climatologists ( AASC ) is a professional scientific organisation for climatologists in the United States . The organisation was founded in 1976 . The core membership in the AASC consists of the 47 State Climatologists and the official climatologist of Puerto Rico . There is one State Climatologist for each state in the United States . The individual is appointed by the state and is recognised by the National Climatic Data Center of the NOAA , with whom the AASC collaborates . The other full members of the AASC are the directors of the six Regional Climate Centers . There are also associate members of the AASC , bringing the total membership to approximately 150 . Members and associate members of the AASC perform various climatological services and research . The AASC also publishes the Journal of Service Climatology . At least three of the organization 's full members ( John Christy , Alabama , Philip Mote , Washington and David Robinson , New Jersey ) served as contributing authors for the Fourth Assessment Report : Annex of the International Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . In 2007 two members came under scrutiny for their `` skeptical '' views toward anthropogenic climate change .", "qid": "298", "docid": "American_Association_of_State_Climatologists", "rank": 76, "score": 80568 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 77, "score": 80383 }, { "content": "Title: Marine cloud brightening Content: Marine cloud brightening is a proposed solar radiation management climate engineering technique that would make clouds brighter , reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight back into space in order to offset anthropogenic global warming . Along with stratospheric aerosol injection , it is one of the two solar radiation management methods that may most feasibly have a substantial climate impact . The intention is that increasing the Earth 's albedo , in combination with greenhouse gas emissions reduction , carbon dioxide removal , and adaptation , would reduce climate change and its risks to people and the environment . If implemented , the cooling effect is expected to be felt rapidly and to be reversible on fairly short time scales . However , technical barriers remain to large-scale marine cloud brightening . There are also risks with such modification of complex climate systems .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Marine_cloud_brightening", "rank": 78, "score": 79760 }, { "content": "Title: Volcanic winter Content: A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth 's albedo ( increasing the reflection of solar radiation ) after a large particularly explosive volcanic eruption . Long-term cooling effects are primarily dependent upon injection of sulfur gasses into the stratosphere where they undergo a series of reactions to create sulfuric acid which can nucleate and form aerosols . Volcanic stratospheric aerosols cool the surface by reflecting solar radiation and warm the stratosphere by absorbing terrestrial radiation . The volcanic aerosols , resulting from the 1991 Pinatubo eruption and others , have been shown to contribute to anthropogenic ozone depletion . The variations in atmospheric warming and cooling results in changes in tropospheric and stratospheric circulation .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Volcanic_winter", "rank": 79, "score": 79666 }, { "content": "Title: European Union Emission Trading Scheme Content: The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions . Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention . The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 . The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase . Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation . Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .", "qid": "298", "docid": "European_Union_Emission_Trading_Scheme", "rank": 80, "score": 79649 }, { "content": "Title: African humid period Content: The African humid period (AHP) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, trees and lakes was caused by changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun; changes in vegetation and dust in the Sahara which strengthened the African monsoon; and increased greenhouse gases, which may imply that anthropogenic global warming could result in a shrinkage of the Sahara desert. During the preceding last glacial maximum, the Sahara contained extensive dune fields and was mostly uninhabited. It was much larger than today, but its lakes and rivers such as Lake Victoria and the White Nile were either dry or at low levels. The humid period began about 14,600–14,500 years ago at the end of Heinrich event 1, simultaneously to the Bølling-Allerød warming. Rivers and lakes such as Lake Chad formed or expanded, glaciers grew on Mount Kilimanjaro and the Sahara retreated. Two major dry fluctuations occurred; during the Younger Dryas and the short 8.2 kiloyear event. The African humid period ended 6,000–5,000 years ago during the Piora Oscillation cold period. While some evidence points to an end 5,500 years ago, in the Sahel, Arabia and East Africa the period appears to have taken place in several steps such as the 4.2 kiloyear event. The AHP led to a widespread settlement of the Sahara and the Arabian Deserts, and had a profound effect on African cultures, such as the birth of the Pharaonic civilization. They lived as hunter-gatherers until the agricultural revolution and domesticated cattle, goats and sheep. They left archeological sites and artifacts such as one of the oldest ships in the world, and rock paintings such as those in the Cave of Swimmers and in the Acacus Mountains. Earlier humid periods in Africa were postulated after the discovery of these rock paintings in now-inhospitable parts of the Sahara. When the period ended, humans gradually abandoned the desert in favour of regions with more secure water supplies, such as the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia, where they gave rise to early complex societies.", "qid": "298", "docid": "African_humid_period", "rank": 81, "score": 79612 }, { "content": "Title: Stockholm Memorandum Content: The Stockholm Memorandum is a document signed in May 2011 by many Nobel Laureates based on the verdict from the trial of humanity , which opened the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium . The jury of Nobel laureates concluded that Earth has entered a new geological age , which it calls the Anthropocene , in which humans are the most significant driver of global climate change , and in which human collective actions could have abrupt and irreversible consequences for human communities and ecological systems . The memorandum was signed by 20 winner of the Nobel Prize winners or the Sveriges Riksbank Prize for Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( six in Chemistry , five in Physics , three in Physiology or Medicine , one in Literature , one Peace Prize winner and four in Economic Sciences ) was submitted to the United Nations High Level Panel on global sustainability . `` We are the first generation with the insight of the new global risks facing humanity , that people and societies are the biggest drivers of global change . The basic analysis is not in question : we can not continue on our current path and need to take action quickly . Science can guide us in identifying the pathway to global sustainability , provided that it also engages in an open dialogue with society , '' says Professor Mario Molina , who acted as judge and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Stockholm_Memorandum", "rank": 82, "score": 79594 }, { "content": "Title: Malcolm Roberts (politician) Content: Malcolm Ieuan Roberts ( born 3 May 1955 in Disergarh , India ) is an Australian Senator , a member of Pauline Hanson 's One Nation party , representing Queensland . He was elected at the 2016 election . Roberts is a former coalminer and denies that the science of anthropogenic climate change is true .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Malcolm_Roberts_(politician)", "rank": 83, "score": 79100 }, { "content": "Title: Technique for Soil Evaluation and Categorisation for Natural and Anthropogenic Soils Content: The Technique for Soil Evaluation and Categorisation for Natural and Anthropogenic Soils , also known as ( TUSEC ) , is a recently developed method for soil evaluation in the temperate zone .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Technique_for_Soil_Evaluation_and_Categorisation_for_Natural_and_Anthropogenic_Soils", "rank": 84, "score": 79075 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 85, "score": 78397 }, { "content": "Title: Aridification Content: Aridification is the process of a region becoming increasingly dry . It refers to long term change rather than seasonal variation . It is often measured as the reduction of average soil moisture content . It can be caused by natural or anthropogenic means such as climate change , reduced precipitation , increased evaporation , lowering of water tables or changes in ground cover . Its major consequences include reduced agricultural production , soil degradation , ecosystem changes and decreased water catchment runoff .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Aridification", "rank": 86, "score": 78110 }, { "content": "Title: Rare events Content: Rare events are events that occur with low frequency , and the term is often used in particular reference to infrequent or hypothetical events that have potentially widespread impact and which might destabilize society . Rare events encompass natural phenomena ( major earthquakes , tsunamis , hurricanes , floods , asteroid impacts , solar flares , etc. ) , anthropogenic hazards ( warfare and related forms of violent conflict , acts of terrorism , industrial accidents , financial and commodity market crashes , etc. ) , as well as phenomena for which natural and anthropogenic factors interact in complex ways ( epidemic disease spread , global warming-related changes in climate and weather , etc. ) .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Rare_events", "rank": 87, "score": 77767 }, { "content": "Title: Twomey effect Content: The Twomey effect describes how cloud condensation nuclei ( CCN ) , possibly from anthropogenic pollution , may increase the amount of solar radiation reflected by clouds . This is an indirect effect . Aerosol particles can act as CCN 's creating more droplets which have a smaller size distribution . The reduction in size distribution increases the Optical depth of the cloud . This increases the cloud albedo as clouds appear whiter and larger , leading to a cooling of between -0.3 and -1.8 Wm − 2 . For example , on satellite imagery we observe trails of white clouds from ships crossing the oceans due to this effect .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Twomey_effect", "rank": 88, "score": 77744 }, { "content": "Title: International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences Content: The International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences , Inc. ( CAETS ) is an organization of national engineering and technological sciences academies . Its primary mission is to advise governments and international organizations on technical and policy issues , to improve the understanding of engineering and technology by the public , to offer a forum for discussion and communication , to support cooperation , and to improve education and practice of its field of interest . CAETS was founded in 1978 by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering , the Royal Academy of Engineering , the Mexican National Academy of Engineering , the US National Academy of Engineering and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and , as of 2007 , has more than 25 members among the national academies of engineering of many major industrialized countries . CAETS is incorporated as a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit corporation in the District of Columbia , USA . In October 2007 , CAETS issued a Statement on Environment and Sustainable Growth : As reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , most of the observed global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human-produced emission of greenhouse gases and this warming will continue unabated if present anthropogenic emissions continue or , worse , expand without control . CAETS , therefore , endorses the many recent calls to decrease and control greenhouse gas emissions to an acceptable level as quickly as possible .", "qid": "298", "docid": "International_Council_of_Academies_of_Engineering_and_Technological_Sciences", "rank": 89, "score": 77530 }, { "content": "Title: Freedom and Prosperity Party Content: The Freedom and Prosperity Party , formerly known as No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics and The Climate Sceptics , were an Australian political party that describes itself as the world 's first political party representing climate sceptics , dedicated to '' ... expose the fallacy of anthropogenic climate change '' . The party was registered with the Australian Electoral Commission in early 2010 , and endorsed candidates to stand in the 2010 federal election . Prior to being registered , party supporters stood as independent candidates in the Bradfield and Higgins by-elections .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Freedom_and_Prosperity_Party", "rank": 90, "score": 77088 }, { "content": "Title: Perceptual trap Content: A perceptual trap is an ecological scenario in which environmental change , typically anthropogenic , leads an organism to avoid an otherwise high-quality habitat . The concept is related to that of an ecological trap , in which environmental change causes preference towards a low-quality habitat .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Perceptual_trap", "rank": 91, "score": 76790 }, { "content": "Title: Nature Climate Change Content: Nature Climate Change is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group covering all aspects of research on global warming , especially its effects . It was established in 2011 . Its first editor-in-chief was Olive Heffernan and the journal 's current editor-in-chief is Bronwyn Wake . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal had a 2015 impact factor of 17.184 .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Nature_Climate_Change", "rank": 92, "score": 76696 }, { "content": "Title: Global catastrophic risk Content: A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale . Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization . Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk . Potential global catastrophic risks include anthropogenic risks ( technology risks , governance risks ) and natural or external risks . Examples of technology risks are hostile artificial intelligence , biotechnology risks , or nanotechnology weapons . Insufficient global governance creates risks in the social and political domain ( potentially leading to a global war with or without a nuclear holocaust , bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms , cyberterrorism destroying critical infrastructures like the electrical grid , or the failure to manage a natural pandemic ) as well as problems and risks in the domain of earth system governance ( with risks resulting from global warming , environmental degradation , mineral resource exhaustion , fossil energy exhaustion , or famine as a result of non-equitable resource distribution , human overpopulation , crop failures and non-sustainable agriculture ) . Examples for non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact event , a supervolcanic eruption , a lethal gamma-ray burst , a geomagnetic storm destroying all electronic equipment , natural long-term climate change , or extraterrestrial life impacting life on Earth .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Global_catastrophic_risk", "rank": 93, "score": 76684 }, { "content": "Title: Pyrometamorphism Content: Pyrometamorphism is a type of metamorphism in which rocks are changed by heat coming from the fossil fuel fire . The rocks produced by pyrometamorphism include buchite , clinker and paralava , formed due to thermal changes of sedimentary rocks . Both natural and anthropogenic examples of sites with active pyrometamorphism are known . Natural pyrometamorphic rocks are known , e.g. , from the Hatrurim Formation . Xenoliths of sedimentary rocks trapped in volcanic lava may undergo pyrometamorphic transformation . Anthropogenic pyrometamorphic rocks are found in burning coal-mining dumps . A great number of minerals , sometimes very rare , are found within these rocks . Of the silicate minerals , the typical ones are especially cordierite , indialite , fayalite , mullite , tridymite and cristobalite ( both may be classified as oxide minerals , too ) , and sekaninaite . Oxide minerals include corundum , hematite , hercynite , magnesioferrite , and magnetite . Some unique minerals typical for meteorites , like oldhamite , are also found in pyrometamorphic rocks .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Pyrometamorphism", "rank": 94, "score": 76515 }, { "content": "Title: Vladimir Paar Content: Vladimir Paar ( born 1942 ) is a Croatian physicist and university professor . Paar was born in Zagreb . He graduated from the Faculty of Science , University of Zagreb , where he is currently a professor . He is a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 1992 . His scientific interests include theoretical nuclear physics , chaos theory in physics and technology , computer modeling in clinical medicine , energetics , and history of physics . To the general public he is known as a popularizer of science , being the author of two books , hundreds of newspaper articles and several television series in the field of popular science . Paar is a global warming skeptic and is an advocate of a new ice age hypothesis . He argues that the rise of carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is the effect - rather than the cause - of global climate change , and that the true cause lies in the change of Earth 's orbit due to gravitational pull of Jupiter and other planets of the Solar System . Paar believes that the evidence against anthropogenic global warming is being deliberately suppressed .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Vladimir_Paar", "rank": 95, "score": 76499 }, { "content": "Title: Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists Content: The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "qid": "298", "docid": "Bali_Declaration_by_Climate_Scientists", "rank": 96, "score": 76059 }, { "content": "Title: Human impact on the nitrogen cycle Content: Human impact on the nitrogen cycle is diverse . Agricultural and industrial nitrogen ( N ) inputs to the environment currently exceed inputs from natural N fixation . As a consequence of anthropogenic inputs , the global nitrogen cycle ( Fig. 1 ) has been significantly altered over the past century . Global atmospheric nitrous oxide ( N2O ) mole fractions have increased from a pre-industrial value of ~ 270 nmol/mol to ~ 319 nmol/mol in 2005 . Human activities account for over one-third of N2O emissions , most of which are due to the agricultural sector . This article is intended to give a brief review of the history of anthropogenic N inputs , and reported impacts of nitrogen inputs on selected terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Human_impact_on_the_nitrogen_cycle", "rank": 97, "score": 76003 }, { "content": "Title: Goddard Institute for Space Studies Content: The Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center and a unit of the Columbia University Earth Institute . The institute is located at Columbia University in New York City . Research at the GISS emphasizes a broad study of Global Change ; the natural and anthropogenic changes in our environment that affect the habitability of our planet . These effects may occur on greatly differing time scales , from one-time forcings such as volcanic explosions , to seasonal/annual effects such as El Niño , and on up to the millennia of ice ages . The Institute 's research combines analysis of comprehensive global datasets , ( derived from surface stations combined with satellite data for SSTs ) , with global models of atmospheric , land surface , and oceanic processes . Study of past climate change on Earth and of other planetary atmospheres provides an additional tool in assessing our general understanding of the atmosphere and its evolution . GISS was established in May 1961 by Robert Jastrow to do basic research in space sciences in support of Goddard programs . Formally it was the New York City office of the GSFC Theoretical Division but was known as the Goddard Space Flight Center Institute for Space Studies or in some publications as simply the Institute for Space Studies . Soon enough it became known as the Goddard Institute for Space Studies . It was separated from the Theoretical Division in July 1962 . Its offices were originally located in The Interchurch Center , and the institute moved into Columbia 's Armstrong Hall ( formerly the Ostend apartments and then the Oxford Residence Hotel ) in April 1966 . From 1981 to 2013 , GISS was directed by James E. Hansen . In June 2014 , Gavin A. Schmidt was named the institute 's third director .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Goddard_Institute_for_Space_Studies", "rank": 98, "score": 75577 }, { "content": "Title: Cirrus cloud thinning Content: Cirrus cloud thinning is a proposed form of climate engineering . Cirrus clouds are high cold ice that , like other clouds , both reflect sunlight and absorb warming infrared radiation . However , they differ from other types of clouds in that , on average , infrared absorption outweighs sunlight reflection , resulting in a net warming effect on the climate . Therefore , thinning or removing these clouds would reduce their heat trapping capacity , resulting in a cooling effect on Earth 's climate . This could be a potential tool to reduce anthropogenic global warming . Cirrus cloud thinning is an alternative category of climate engineering , in addition to solar radiation management and greenhouse gas removal .", "qid": "298", "docid": "Cirrus_cloud_thinning", "rank": 99, "score": 75462 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) is an international environmental treaty adopted on May 9 , 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . It then entered into force on 21 March 1994 , after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it . The UNFCCC objective is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . Instead , the framework outlines how specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' or `` Agreements '' ) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC . Initially an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( INC ) produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 , and opened for signature on 4 June 1992 . The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015 . The convention enjoys broad legitimacy , largely due to its nearly universal membership . The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties ( COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change . In 1997 , the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 . The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013-2020 in the Doha Amendment , which - as of December 2015 - had not entered into force . In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted , governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions . The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th , 2016 . One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and removals , which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions . Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries . The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention , with offices in Haus Carstanjen , and the UN Campus ( known as Langer Eugen ) Bonn , Germany . From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres . In July 2016 , Patricia Espinosa from Mexico succeeded Figueres . The Secretariat , augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies .", "qid": "298", "docid": "United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 100, "score": 75270 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 1, "score": 115382 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 2, "score": 112121 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Z. Jacobson Content: Mark Zachary Jacobson ( born 1965 ) is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy Program . Jacobson develops computer models about the effects of different energy technologies and their emissions on air pollution and climate . He has done influential research on the role of aerosols and black carbon on the climate and is regarded as a leading aerosol climate modeler . According to Jacobson , a speedy transition to clean , renewable energy is required to reduce the potential acceleration of global warming , including the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice . This change will also eliminate 2.5 -- 3 million deaths worldwide each year , related to air pollution , and reduce disruption associated with fossil fuel shortages .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Mark_Z._Jacobson", "rank": 3, "score": 112046 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "302", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 4, "score": 103934 }, { "content": "Title: William D. Sellers Content: William D. Sellers ( 18 August 1928 -- 27 August 2014 ) was an American meteorologist , climate scientist , and pioneer of climate modelling . He created one the earliest climate models and was one of the first scientists to recognize the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere on the earth 's climate . He published the textbook `` Physical Climatology '' .", "qid": "302", "docid": "William_D._Sellers", "rank": 5, "score": 103875 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 6, "score": 103726 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 7, "score": 103080 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 8, "score": 99293 }, { "content": "Title: North American Carbon Program Content: The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "qid": "302", "docid": "North_American_Carbon_Program", "rank": 9, "score": 98916 }, { "content": "Title: Suess effect Content: The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Suess_effect", "rank": 10, "score": 98870 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 11, "score": 98670 }, { "content": "Title: Recycled fuel Content: Fuel made of residues as CO2 produced by using a primary fuel . For example , CO2 pollution in the atmosphere , produced by petrol burning or other sources , can be extracted to produce fuel through an artificial photosynthesis based in nanotechnology , which helps to mitigate pollution , climate change and energy issues .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Recycled_fuel", "rank": 12, "score": 98301 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon neutrality Content: Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_neutrality", "rank": 13, "score": 97824 }, { "content": "Title: DayCent Content: Daycent is a daily time series biogeochemical model used in agroecosystems to simulates fluxes of carbon and nitrogen between the atmosphere , vegetation , and soil . It is a daily version of the CENTURY biogeochemical model . The United States Environmental Protection Agency , United States Department of Agriculture/ARS and the Colorado State University Natural Resource Ecology Lab are currently using the Daycent model to develop a national inventory of N2O emissions from U.S. agricultural soils . This inventory will be compared and contrasted with the existing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) agricultural N2O emissions inventory for the United States . Having more accurate data to account for nutrient cycling could have significant implications for public policy associated with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and potential future mitigation efforts in the United States . Model inputs include daily maximum/minimum air temperature and precipitation , surface soil texture class , and land cover/use data . Model outputs include daily fluxes of various N-gas species ( e.g. , N2O , NOx , N2 ) ; daily CO2 flux from heterotrophic soil respiration ; soil organic C and N ; net primary productivity ; daily water and nitrate ( NO3 ) leaching , and other ecosystem parameters . Daycent has been tested with data from various native and managed systems . In similar studies , comparisons between Daycent simulated data and measured values for annual crop yields , N2O emissions , and NO3 leaching produced r2 values of 0.72 , 0.68 , and 0.61 respectively . Other models used for simulating carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry in agricultural systems include DNDC EPIC", "qid": "302", "docid": "DayCent", "rank": 14, "score": 96555 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "302", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 15, "score": 96146 }, { "content": "Title: Ian G. Enting Content: Ian Enting ( born 25 September 1948 ) is a mathematical physicist and the AMSI/MASCOS Professorial Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems ( MASCOS ) based at The University of Melbourne . Enting is the author of Twisted , The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial in which he analyses the presentation and use of data by climate change deniers . More recently he has been addressing the claims made in Ian Plimer 's book `` Heaven + Earth '' . He has published a critique , `` Ian Plimer 's ` Heaven + Earth ' -- Checking the Claims '' , listing what Enting claims are numerous misrepresentations of the sources cited in the book . From 1980 to 2004 he worked in CSIRO Atmospheric Research , primarily on modelling the global carbon cycle . He was one of the lead authors of the chapter and the Carbon Cycle in the 1994 IPCC report on Radiative Forcing of Climate . Enting has published scientific papers , on mathematical physics and carbon cycle modelling , and a monograph on mathematical techniques for interpreting observations of carbon dioxide and other trace gases .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Ian_G._Enting", "rank": 16, "score": 95962 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 17, "score": 95877 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 18, "score": 95262 }, { "content": "Title: The Greening of Planet Earth Content: The Greening of Planet Earth is a half-hour-long video produced by the coal industry , which argues that rising CO2 levels will be beneficial to agriculture , and that policies intending to reduce CO2 levels are therefore misguided . The video argues that rising CO2 levels both directly stimulate plant growth and , as a result of their warming properties , cause winter temperatures to rise , thereby indirectly stimulating plant growth . It was produced in 1991 and released the following year . A sequel , entitled , The Greening of Planet Earth Continues , was released in 1998 . The video was narrated by Sherwood Idso . After the video was made , it was distributed to thousands of journalists by a coal industry group . The video became very popular viewing in the George H. W. Bush White House and elsewhere in Washington , where it was promoted before the 1992 Earth Summit , and , according to some reports , became especially popular with then-chief of staff John H. Sununu .", "qid": "302", "docid": "The_Greening_of_Planet_Earth", "rank": 19, "score": 94817 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 20, "score": 93445 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 21, "score": 93062 }, { "content": "Title: DICE model Content: The Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy model , referred to as the DICE model or Dice model , is a computer-based integrated assessment model developed by William Nordhaus that `` integrates in an end-to-end fashion the economics , carbon cycle , climate science , and impacts in a highly aggregated model that allows a weighing of the costs and benefits of taking steps to slow greenhouse warming . '' Nordhaus also developed the RICE model ( Regional Integrated Climate-Economy model ) , a variant of the DICE model that was updated and developed alongside the DICE model . Others who collaborated with Nordhaus to develop the model include David Popp , Zili Yang , Joseph Boyer , and other colleagues . The DICE model is one of the three main integrated assessment models used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency , and it provides estimates intermediate between the other two models .", "qid": "302", "docid": "DICE_model", "rank": 22, "score": 92619 }, { "content": "Title: Climate engineering Content: Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation . Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility . Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy . Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts . Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate_engineering", "rank": 23, "score": 92012 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 24, "score": 91380 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 25, "score": 91291 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 26, "score": 90881 }, { "content": "Title: Idealized greenhouse model Content: The surface of the Sun radiates light and heat at approximately 5,500 ° C . The Earth is much cooler and so radiates heat back away from itself at much longer wavelengths , mostly in the infrared range . The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth 's atmosphere , including carbon dioxide and water vapour , are transparent to the high-frequency , high-energy solar radiation , but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving the surface of the earth . Thus heat is easily let in , but is partially trapped by these gases as it tries to leave . Rather than get hotter and hotter , Kirchhoff 's law of thermal radiation says that the gases of the atmosphere also have to re-emit the infrared energy that they absorb , and they do so , also at long infrared wavelengths , both upwards into space as well as downwards back towards the Earth 's surface . In the long-term , thermal equilibrium is reached when all the heat energy arriving on the planet is leaving again at the same rate . In this idealized model , the greenhouse gases cause the surface of the planet to be warmer than it would be without them , in order for the required amount of heat energy finally to be radiated out into space from the top of the atmosphere . The greenhouse effect can be illustrated with an idealized planet . This is a common `` textbook model '' : the planet will have a constant surface temperature Ts and an atmosphere with constant temperature Ta . For diagrammatic clarity , a gap can be depicted between the atmosphere and the surface . Alternatively , Ts could be interpreted as a temperature representative of the surface and the lower atmosphere , and Ta could be interpreted as the temperature of the upper atmosphere . In order to justify that Ta and Ts remain constant over the planet , strong ocean and atmospheric currents can be imagined to provide plentiful lateral mixing . Furthermore , any daily or seasonal cycles in temperature are assumed to be insignificant .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Idealized_greenhouse_model", "rank": 27, "score": 90664 }, { "content": "Title: Co-benefits of climate change mitigation Content: Co-benefits of climate change mitigation as defined in the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are the positive benefits related to the reduction of greenhouse gases . Examples of such climate mitigation policies include improved energy efficiency of plants , renewable energy uptake and fuel switching which might enable a range of co-benefits such as air-pollution impacts , technological innovation , energy-supply security through increased energy diversity , reduced fuel cost and employment possibilities .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Co-benefits_of_climate_change_mitigation", "rank": 28, "score": 90542 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "302", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 29, "score": 90380 }, { "content": "Title: Individual action on climate change Content: Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Individual_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 30, "score": 90263 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 31, "score": 89752 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sequestration Content: Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_sequestration", "rank": 32, "score": 89609 }, { "content": "Title: Keith E. Idso Content: Keith E. Idso is a botanist and vice president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change . He is the brother of Craig D. Idso and son of Sherwood B. Idso . He received his B.S. in Agriculture with a major in Plant Sciences from the University of Arizona and his M.S. from the same institution with a major in Agronomy and Plant Genetics . He completed his Ph.D. in Botany at Arizona State University . In 1994 , Idso , along with his father , published a review paper on the topic of increased CO2 levels and their effects on plant growth . The paper concluded that not only did other factors not diminish the ability of CO2 to increase plant growth rates , that `` the data show the relative growth-enhancing effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment to be greatest when resource limitations and environmental stresses are most severe . '' As of 1999 , he was teaching biology in the Maricopa County Community College District as an adjunct professor , a post to which he was appointed in 1996 . In 1998 , Idso spoke at the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness ' annual meeting in Scottsdale , Arizona . His talk was entitled `` Direct Biological Effects of Increasing Levels of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide . '' In 1999 , Idso was appointed by the Arizona Speaker of the House of Representatives to serve on the Arizona Advisory Council on Environmental Education .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Keith_E._Idso", "rank": 33, "score": 89542 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "302", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 34, "score": 89457 }, { "content": "Title: List of carbon ranches Content: This is a working list of Carbon Ranches a term referring to regenerative agriculture practices that specifically accomplish carbon sequestration in the soil . `` The world 's cultivated soils have lost between 50 and 70 percent of their original carbon stock . '' ( Lal ) `` A mere two percent increase in the carbon content of the planet 's soils could offset 100 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions going into the atmosphere . '' ( Lal ) Grasslands cover 350 billion hectares , comprising 70 % of global agricultural land making carbon ranching an especially climate beneficial alternative to meat produced as part of a Concentrated animal feeding operation . Carbon ranching may include , but is not limited to Managed intensive rotational grazing , Compost application , Holistic management ( agriculture ) and Tree planting . There are many research groups and NGO 's studying and advancing this field including Arizona State University , The Carbon Cycle Institute , Holistic Management International , The Ohio State University , The Quivira Coalition , The Savory Institute , The Soil Carbon Coalition , Texas A&M University . This list does not necessarily reflect scientific or academic endorsements insofar as best practices and results vary across ranches , climates , time periods , and sources of funding and are therefore challenging to quantify and/or compare . Currently , confirmation of the carbon ranching designation is confirmed through either third party citation or Soil Organic Matter test result .", "qid": "302", "docid": "List_of_carbon_ranches", "rank": 35, "score": 88967 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 36, "score": 88622 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 37, "score": 88513 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon price Content: Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_price", "rank": 38, "score": 88197 }, { "content": "Title: Modified atmosphere Content: Modified atmosphere is the practice of modifying the composition of the internal atmosphere of a package ( commonly food packages , drugs , etc. ) in order to improve the shelf life . The modification process often tries to lower the amount of oxygen ( O2 ) , moving it from 20.9 % to 0 % , in order to slow down the growth of aerobic organisms and prevent oxidation reactions . The removed oxygen can be replaced with nitrogen ( N2 ) , commonly acknowledged as an inert gas , or carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , which can lower the pH or inhibit the growth of bacteria . Carbon monoxide can be used for preserving the red color of meat . Re-balancing of gases inside the packaging can be achieved using active techniques such as gas flushing and compensated vacuum or passively by designing `` breathable '' films known as equilibrium modified atmosphere packaging ( EMAP ) . Packets containing scavengers may be used .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Modified_atmosphere", "rank": 39, "score": 88111 }, { "content": "Title: Climate footprint Content: The term climate footprint has emerged from the field of carbon footprinting , and refers to a measure of the full set of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) controlled under the Kyoto Protocol . A climate footprint is a more comprehensive measure of anthropogenic impact upon the climate than a carbon footprint , but is also more costly and labour-intensive to calculate . A climate footprint is a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent ( CO2e ) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate_footprint", "rank": 40, "score": 87897 }, { "content": "Title: Climate model Content: Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate_model", "rank": 41, "score": 87229 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 42, "score": 86273 }, { "content": "Title: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Content: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Bio-energy_with_carbon_capture_and_storage", "rank": 43, "score": 86255 }, { "content": "Title: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Coupled Model Content: GFDL CM2.X ( Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Coupled Model , version 2 . X ) is a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model ( AOGCM ) developed at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in the United States . It is one of the leading climate models used in the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC , along with models developed at the Max Planck Institute for Climate Research , the Hadley Centre and the National Center for Atmospheric Research .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Geophysical_Fluid_Dynamics_Laboratory_Coupled_Model", "rank": 44, "score": 86230 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 45, "score": 85968 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 46, "score": 85711 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project Content: Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project ( AMIP ) is a standard experimental protocol for global atmospheric general circulation models ( AGCMs ) . It provides a community-based infrastructure in support of climate model diagnosis , validation , intercomparison , documentation and data access . Virtually the entire international climate modeling community has participated in this project since its inception in 1990 . AMIP is endorsed by the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation ( WGNE ) of the World Climate Research Programme , and is managed by the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison with the guidance of the WGNE AMIP Panel . The AMIP experiment itself is simple by design ; an AGCM is constrained by realistic sea surface temperature and sea ice from 1979 to near present , with a comprehensive set of fields saved for diagnostic research . This model configuration removes the added complexity of ocean-atmosphere feedbacks in the climate system . It is not meant to be used for climate change prediction , an endeavor that requires a coupled atmosphere-ocean model ( e.g. , see AMIP 's sister project CMIP ) .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Atmospheric_Model_Intercomparison_Project", "rank": 47, "score": 85701 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling Curve Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Keeling_Curve", "rank": 48, "score": 85667 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 49, "score": 85586 }, { "content": "Title: C4MIP Content: C4MIP ( more fully , Coupled Climate Carbon Cycle Model Intercomparison Project ) is a joint project between the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ( IGBP ) and the World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) . It is a model intercomparison project along the lines of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project , but for global climate models that include an interactive carbon cycle .", "qid": "302", "docid": "C4MIP", "rank": 50, "score": 85286 }, { "content": "Title: Mary Christina Wood Content: Mary Christina Wood ( born 1962 ) is an Oregon Philip H. Knight Professor of Law and author , best known for her writings advocating for the use of the Public trust doctrine to compel government action on climate change . Wood originated the approach , called atmospheric trust litigation , `` to hold governments worldwide accountable for reducing carbon pollution within their jurisdictions , and her research is being used in cases and petitions brought on behalf of children and youth throughout the United States and in other countries . '' In 2014 , after a number of atmospheric trust litigation and petitions were brought by young people worldwide , Forbes contributor James Conca wrote , '' ( i ) f the Supreme Court holds the government responsible for at least trying to protect our atmosphere , things could certainly change here in America . ''", "qid": "302", "docid": "Mary_Christina_Wood", "rank": 51, "score": 85115 }, { "content": "Title: Upper-atmospheric models Content: Upper-atmospheric models are simulations of the Earth 's atmosphere between 20 and 100 km ( 65,000 and 328,000 feet ) that comprises the stratosphere , mesosphere , and the lower thermosphere . Whereas most climate models simulate a region of the Earth 's atmosphere from the surface to the stratopause , there also exist numerical models which simulate the wind , temperature and composition of the Earth 's tenuous upper atmosphere , from the mesosphere to the exosphere , including the ionosphere . This region is affected strongly by the 11 year Solar cycle through variations in solar UV/EUV/Xray radiation and solar wind leading to high latitude particle precipitation and aurora . It has been proposed that these phenomena may have an effect on the lower atmosphere , and should therefore be included in simulations of climate change . For this reason there has been a drive in recent years to create whole atmosphere models to investigate whether or not this is the case .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Upper-atmospheric_models", "rank": 52, "score": 85081 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Protocol Content: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 53, "score": 84996 }, { "content": "Title: James Hansen Content: James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "qid": "302", "docid": "James_Hansen", "rank": 54, "score": 84660 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 55, "score": 84462 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Dress Content: The Climate Dress was designed in 2009 by Danish design company Diffus Design in collaboration with the Swiss embroidery company Forster-Rohner , Alexandra Institute and the Danish School of Design . The Climate Dress is laced with hundreds of light-emitting diodes ( LEDs ) that responds to the level of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) in the nearby surroundings and are powered through the conductive embroidery by an Arduino Lily pad microprocessor and a carbon dioxide detector , resulting in patterns that range from slow pulses to rapid flashes depending on the concentration of the CO2 . The Climate Dress does not rely on wiring , soldering , or crimping , which is often the case with smart textile products . All functional elements are blended into the embroidery and exposed to the viewer . The Climate Dress was presented at the Cop 15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen in 2009 , at the `` Health Environment Climate '' exhibition . In 2011 the Climate Dress won first prize in the Design That Performs contest , hosted by Samsung .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate_Dress", "rank": 56, "score": 84398 }, { "content": "Title: Biosequestration Content: Biosequestration is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by biological processes . This may be by increased photosynthesis ( through practices such as reforestation / preventing deforestation and genetic engineering ) ; by enhanced soil carbon trapping in agriculture ; or by the use of algal bio sequestration ( see algae bioreactor ) to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions from coal , petroleum ( oil ) or natural gas-fired electricity generation . Biosequestration as a natural process has occurred in the past , and was responsible for the formation of the extensive coal and oil deposits which are now being burned . It is a key policy concept in the climate change mitigation debate . It does not generally refer to the sequestering of carbon dioxide in oceans ( see carbon sequestration and ocean acidification ) or rock formations , depleted oil or gas reservoirs ( see oil depletion and peak oil ) , deep saline aquifers , or deep coal seams ( see coal mining ) ( for all see geosequestration ) or through the use of industrial chemical carbon dioxide scrubbing .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Biosequestration", "rank": 57, "score": 84285 }, { "content": "Title: Wetland methane emissions Content: As one of the most significant natural sources of atmospheric methane , wetlands remain a major area of concern with respect to climate change . Wetlands are characterized by water-logged soils and distinctive communities of plant and animal species that have evolved and adapted to the constant presence of water . Due to this high level of water saturation as well as warm weather , wetlands are one of the most significant natural sources of atmospheric methane . Most methanogenesis , or methane production , occurs in oxygen-poor environments . Because the microbes that live in warm , moist environments consume oxygen more rapidly than it can diffuse in from the atmosphere , wetlands are the ideal anaerobic , or oxygen poor , environments for fermentation . Fermentation is a process used by certain kinds of microorganisms to break down essential nutrients . In a process called acetoclastic methanogenesis , microorganisms from the classification domain archaea produce methane by fermenting acetate and H2-CO2 into methane and carbon dioxide . H3C-COOH → CH4 + CO2 Depending on the wetland and type of archaea , hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis , another process that yields methane , can also occur . This process occurs as a result of archaea oxidizing hydrogen with carbon dioxide to yield methane and water . 4H2 + CO2 → CH4 + 2H2O", "qid": "302", "docid": "Wetland_methane_emissions", "rank": 58, "score": 84264 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 59, "score": 84092 }, { "content": "Title: Revelle factor Content: The Revelle factor ( buffer factor ) is the ratio of instantaneous change in carbon dioxide to the change in total dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) , and is a measure of the resistance to atmospheric CO2 being absorbed by the ocean surface layer . The buffer factor is used to examine the distribution of CO2 between the atmosphere and the ocean , and measures the amount of CO2 that can be dissolved in the mixed surface layer . It is named after the oceanographer Roger Revelle , who was one of the first scientists to study global warming . Revelle factor = / ( Δ -LSB- DIC -RSB- / -LSB- DIC -RSB- ) where DIC is dissolved inorganic carbon . Δ -LSB- -RSB- / -LSB- -RSB- is the instantaneous change in p and Δ -LSB- DIC -RSB- / -LSB- DIC -RSB- is the instantaneous change in DIC .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Revelle_factor", "rank": 60, "score": 84055 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 61, "score": 83946 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric dispersion modeling Content: Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere . It is performed with computer programs that solve the mathematical equations and algorithms which simulate the pollutant dispersion . The dispersion models are used to estimate the downwind ambient concentration of air pollutants or toxins emitted from sources such as industrial plants , vehicular traffic or accidental chemical releases . They can also be used to predict future concentrations under specific scenarios ( i.e. changes in emission sources ) . Therefore , they are the dominant type of model used in air quality policy making . They are most useful for pollutants that are dispersed over large distances and that may react in the atmosphere . For pollutants that have a very high spatio-temporal variability ( i.e. have very steep distance to source decay such as black carbon ) and for epidemiological studies statistical land-use regression models are also used . Dispersion models are important to governmental agencies tasked with protecting and managing the ambient air quality . The models are typically employed to determine whether existing or proposed new industrial facilities are or will be in compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards ( NAAQS ) in the United States and other nations . The models also serve to assist in the design of effective control strategies to reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants . During the late 1960s , the Air Pollution Control Office of the U.S. EPA initiated research projects that would lead to the development of models for the use by urban and transportation planners . A major and significant application of a roadway dispersion model that resulted from such research was applied to the Spadina Expressway of Canada in 1971 . Air dispersion models are also used by public safety responders and emergency management personnel for emergency planning of accidental chemical releases . Models are used to determine the consequences of accidental releases of hazardous or toxic materials , Accidental releases may result in fires , spills or explosions that involve hazardous materials , such as chemicals or radionuclides . The results of dispersion modeling , using worst case accidental release source terms and meteorological conditions , can provide an estimate of location impacted areas , ambient concentrations , and be used to determine protective actions appropriate in the event a release occurs . Appropriate protective actions may include evacuation or shelter in place for persons in the downwind direction . At industrial facilities , this type of consequence assessment or emergency planning is required under the Clean Air Act ( United States ) ( CAA ) codified in Part 68 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations . The dispersion models vary depending on the mathematics used to develop the model , but all require the input of data that may include : Meteorological conditions such as wind speed and direction , the amount of atmospheric turbulence ( as characterized by what is called the `` stability class '' ) , the ambient air temperature , the height to the bottom of any inversion aloft that may be present , cloud cover and solar radiation . Source term ( the concentration or quantity of toxins in emission or accidental release source terms ) and temperature of the material Emissions or release parameters such as source location and height , type of source ( i.e. , fire , pool or vent stack ) and exit velocity , exit temperature and mass flow rate or release rate . Terrain elevations at the source location and at the receptor location ( s ) , such as nearby homes , schools , businesses and hospitals . The location , height and width of any obstructions ( such as buildings or other structures ) in the path of the emitted gaseous plume , surface roughness or the use of a more generic parameter `` rural '' or `` city '' terrain . Many of the modern , advanced dispersion modeling programs include a pre-processor module for the input of meteorological and other data , and many also include a post-processor module for graphing the output data and/or plotting the area impacted by the air pollutants on maps . The plots of areas impacted may also include isopleths showing areas of minimal to high concentrations that define areas of the highest health risk . The isopleths plots are useful in determining protective actions for the public and responders . The atmospheric dispersion models are also known as atmospheric diffusion models , air dispersion models , air quality models , and air pollution dispersion models .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Atmospheric_dispersion_modeling", "rank": 62, "score": 83311 }, { "content": "Title: Landfill gas Content: Landfill gas is a complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill . Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane , with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide . Trace amounts of other volatile organic compounds comprise the remainder ( < 1 % ) . These trace gases include a large array of species , mainly simple hydrocarbons . Landfill gases have an influence on climate change . The major components are CO2 and methane , both of which are greenhouse gas . In terms of global warming potential , methane is over 25 times more detrimental to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide . Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the US .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Landfill_gas", "rank": 63, "score": 83285 }, { "content": "Title: Land Surface Model (LSM version 1.0) Content: The Land Surface Model ( LSM ) is a unidimensional computational model developed by Gordon Bonan that describes ecological processes joined in many ecosystem models , hydrological processes found in hydrological models and flow of surface common in surface models using atmospheric models . In this way , the model examines interactions especially biogeophysics ( sensible and latent heat , momentum , albedo , emission of long waves ) and biogeochemistry ( CO2 ) of the land-atmosphere the effect of surface of the land in the climate and composition of the atmosphere . This model has a simplified treatment of the surface flows that reproduce at the very least computational cost the essential characteristics of the important interactions of the land-atmosphere for climatic simulations . As the types of surface vegetated for some species are several , have a standardization of types of covering being enclosed surfaces covered with water as lakes ( amongst others ) ; thus the model wheel for each point of independent form , with the same average of the atmospheric interactions . The model functions in a space grating that can vary of a point until global .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Land_Surface_Model_(LSM_version_1.0)", "rank": 64, "score": 83096 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Raupach Content: Michael Robin Raupach ( 30 October 1950 -- 10 February 2015 ) was an Australian climate scientist . He is credited with developing the concept of a carbon budget , the amount of CO2 that is emitted and absorbed in the global ecosystem in the course of a year . When the in balance , CO2 emissions and absorption in carbon sinks are roughly the same , but when disturbed , possibly large changes in the ecosystem ensue . He was a founding co-chair of the Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) , a network of the world 's leading carbon cycle researchers . He was instrumental in publishing the Annual Carbon Budget , which draws on a large amount of scientific data to determine the level of imbalance and options for addressing it . He worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation before becoming the director of the Australian National University 's Climate Change Institute in 2014 . He was a co-chair of the Global Carbon Project from 2000 to 2008 , and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 . He chaired the steering committee of the ` Australia 2050 ' project of the Australian Academy of Science ( AAS ) . In 2009 -- 2010 he chaired the Expert Working Group on Challenges at the Intersection of Carbon , Energy and Water , reporting to the Prime Minister 's Science , Engineering and Innovation Council and the Office of the Chief Scientist of Australia . His career included the publication of 150 scientific papers and 50 reports . His research developed in three stages , the first focused on very localized flow and transport of matter and energy through and above plant canopies . At the next stage , he worked on quantification of CO2 transport through and above plant canopies , though still on a small scale . In the 1990s , his focus began to shift to global ecosystems when he became a member of the scientific steering committee of the Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle core project of the IGBP ( International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ) . One of the most fundamental and important questions that the project addressed was : does the land-surface matter in climate and weather ? His research contributed to addressing that question , through his work on turbulent fluxes near the land surface , boundary-layer budgeting and quantifying the water balance at broader scales . He was a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science , the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering , and the American Geophysical Union . Just before his death following a short illness , he co-chaired the working group of the Australian Academy of Science drafting the AAS booklet The Science of Climate Change : Questions and Answers .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Michael_Raupach", "rank": 65, "score": 82389 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monoxide-releasing molecules Content: Carbon monoxide-releasing molecules ( CO-RMs ) are chemical compounds that release controlled amounts of carbon monoxide ( CO ) to cells and tissues and are being developed as potential therapeutic agents . Although long recognized as a poison , CO also exhibits beneficial effects in small doses . These effects include anti-inflammatory activity , vasodilatation , and cardioprotection . CO is produced in mammals during the degradation of heme by heme oxygenase-1 , a redox-sensitive enzyme induced by oxidative stress . It is this enzymatic reaction that inspired the development of synthetic CO-RMs . Therapeutic drugs have historically been developed based on the similar activity of small molecules in biological signaling , examples exist in the case of both H2S and NO-releasing drugs . Synthetic CO-RMs are typically metal carbonyl complexes . A representative CO-RM that has been extensively characterized both from a biochemical and pharmacological view point is the ruthenium ( II ) complex Ru ( glycinate ) Cl ( CO ) 3 , also known as CORM-3 .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_monoxide-releasing_molecules", "rank": 66, "score": 82258 }, { "content": "Title: Coupled model intercomparison project Content: In climatology , the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project ( CMIP ) is a framework and the analog of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project ( AMIP ) for global coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models ( GCMs ) . CMIP began in 1995 under the auspices of the Working Group on Coupled Modeling ( WGCM ) , which is in turn under auspices of CLIVAR and the Joint Scientific Committee for the World Climate Research Program . The Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory supports CMIP by helping WGCM to determine the scope of the project , by maintaining the project 's data base and by participating in data analysis . CMIP has received model output from the pre-industrial climate simulations ( `` control runs '' ) and 1 % per year increasing-CO2 simulations of about 30 coupled GCMs . More recent phases of the project ( 20C3M , ... ) include more realistic scenarios of climate forcing for both historical , paleoclimate and future scenarios .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Coupled_model_intercomparison_project", "rank": 67, "score": 82232 }, { "content": "Title: Enhanced weathering Content: Enhanced weathering refers to geoengineering approaches that use the dissolution of natural or artificially created minerals to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Since the carbon dioxide is usually first removed from ocean water , these approaches would attack the problem by first reducing ocean acidification .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Enhanced_weathering", "rank": 68, "score": 82086 }, { "content": "Title: Twisted: The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial Content: Twisted : The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial is a 2007 book by Ian G. Enting , who is the Professorial Research Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems ( MASCOS ) based at the University of Melbourne . The book analyses the arguments of greenhouse sceptics and the use and presentation of statistics . Enting contends there are contradictions in the various arguments of the climate change sceptics . The author also presents calculations of the actual emission levels that would be required to stabilise CO2 concentrations . This is an update of calculations that he contributed to the pre-Kyoto IPCC report on Radiative Forcing of Climate .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Twisted:_The_Distorted_Mathematics_of_Greenhouse_Denial", "rank": 69, "score": 81883 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 70, "score": 81868 }, { "content": "Title: COSPAR international reference atmosphere Content: The COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere ( CIRA ) is an empirical model of the atmosphere of Earth . It consists of a set of tables of average air pressures , altitudes and temperatures . The CIRA models are developed by the Committee on Space Research ( COSPAR ) and have been important for the planning of spaceflight .", "qid": "302", "docid": "COSPAR_international_reference_atmosphere", "rank": 71, "score": 81750 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon cycle re-balancing Content: The carbon cycle is the process by which carbon is exchanged between the four reservoirs of carbon : the biosphere , the earth , the air and water . Exchanges take place in several ways , including respiration , transpiration , combustion , and decomposition . The carbon balance , or carbon budget , is the balance of exchange between the four reservoirs . Debate about 're - balancing the carbon cycle ' arises from a concern that use of fossil fuels , which has accelerated since the start of the industrial revolution , has caused carbon to accumulate in the atmosphere . Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are estimated to have risen from 280 ppm to almost 400 ppm since 1800 and this is linked to global warming . It is therefore argued that the carbon cycle should be re-balanced by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere . ` Carbon cycle re-balancing ' is a useful name for a group of environmental policies listed below . The name gives a specific reason for adopting these policies . Related names , including pleas for sustainable development and participation in the green movement are politics-based rather than science-based . Carbon offset - for example by photosynthesis ( e.g. in new forests ) Carbon capture and storage - extraction of CO2 and placing it underground or underwater Carbon capture and transformation - extraction of CO2 and reacting it with hydrogen via renewable energy electrolysis to create methane as an energy store/carrier . Low to neutral cycle Sustainable energy - a shift from fossil fuels energy to wind power and solar power Nuclear power - as an alternative to fossil fuels Sustainable design - to reduce inputs and outputs of energy Sustainable transport - to reduce reliance on fossil fuels Burning domestic refuse to generate power can be promoted as a recycling , and therefore sustainable , policy . But from a carbon cycle re-balancing standpoint it is better to compost as much domestic refuse as possible .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_cycle_re-balancing", "rank": 72, "score": 81232 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 73, "score": 81185 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in China Content: The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate_change_in_China", "rank": 74, "score": 81182 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 75, "score": 80978 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide generator Content: A Carbon dioxide generator or CO2 generator is a machine used to enhance carbon dioxide levels in order to promote plant growth in greenhouses or other enclosed areas . Carbon dioxide generators have been used to help grow marijuana . They can be fueled with propane or natural gas . CO2 generators were used mostly by commercial growers until smaller and less expansive systems made the technology more widely available to hobbyists . The generators also give off heat . Using compressed CO2 is an alternative to generators .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_generator", "rank": 76, "score": 80722 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Earth Content: The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Earth", "rank": 77, "score": 80605 }, { "content": "Title: Chicago Climate Exchange Content: The Chicago Climate Exchange ( CCX ) was North America 's only voluntary , legally binding greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil . CCX employed independent verification , included six greenhouse gases , and traded greenhouse gas emission allowances from 2003 to 2010 . The companies joining the exchange committed to reducing their aggregate emissions by 6 % by 2010 . CCX had an aggregate baseline of 680 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent . CCX ceased trading carbon credits at the end of 2010 due to inactivity in the U.S. carbon markets , although carbon exchanges were intended to still be facilitated .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Chicago_Climate_Exchange", "rank": 78, "score": 80261 }, { "content": "Title: EU Allowances Content: EU Allowances are Climate credits ( or Carbon credits ) used in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) . EU Allowances are issued by the EU Member States into Member State Registry accounts . By April 30 of each year , operators of installations covered by the EU ETS must surrender an EU Allowance for each ton of CO2 emitted in the previous year . Category : Carbon emissions in the European Union", "qid": "302", "docid": "EU_Allowances", "rank": 79, "score": 80250 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 80, "score": 80191 }, { "content": "Title: Clean coal technology Content: Clean coal technology is a collection of technologies being developed to attempt to mitigate the environmental impact of coal energy generation and to mitigate climate change . When coal is used as a fuel source , the gaseous emissions generated by the thermal decomposition of the coal include sulphur dioxide ( SO2 ) , nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , mercury , and other chemical byproducts that vary depending on the type of the coal being used . These emissions have been established to have a negative impact on the environment and human health , contributing to acid rain , lung cancer and cardiovascular disease . As a result , clean coal technologies are being developed to remove or reduce pollutant emissions to the atmosphere . Some of the techniques that would be used to accomplish this include chemically washing minerals and impurities from the coal , gasification ( see also IGCC ) , improved technology for treating flue gases to remove pollutants to increasingly stringent levels and at higher efficiency , carbon capture and storage technologies to capture the carbon dioxide from the flue gas and dewatering lower rank coals ( brown coals ) to improve the calorific value , and thus the efficiency of the conversion into electricity . Clean coal technology usually addresses atmospheric problems resulting from burning coal . Historically , the primary focus was on SO2 and NOx , the most important gases in causation of acid rain , and particulates which cause visible air pollution and deleterious effects on human health . Concerns exist regarding the economic viability of these technologies and the timeframe of delivery , potentially high hidden economic costs in terms of social and environmental damage , and the costs and viability of disposing of removed carbon and other toxic matter .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Clean_coal_technology", "rank": 81, "score": 80050 }, { "content": "Title: Kenneth Hare Content: Fredrick Kenneth Hare , ( February 5 , 1919 -- September 3 , 2002 ) was a Canadian climatologist and academic , who researched atmospheric carbon dioxide , climate change , drought , and arid zone climates and was a strong advocate for preserving the natural environment .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Kenneth_Hare", "rank": 82, "score": 79902 }, { "content": "Title: Timothy Ball Content: Timothy Francis `` Tim '' Ball ( born November 5 , 1938 ) is a Canadian geographer . A retired professor , he taught in the department of geography at the University of Winnipeg from 1971 until 1996 . Ball rejects the scientific opinion on climate change , stating that `` CO2 is not a greenhouse gas . '' He has worked with the Friends of Science and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project , and is a research fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Timothy_Ball", "rank": 83, "score": 79854 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 84, "score": 79700 }, { "content": "Title: Solar radiation management Content: Solar radiation management ( SRM ) projects are a type of climate engineering which seek to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming . Proposed examples include the creation of stratospheric sulfate aerosols . Their principal advantages as an approach to climate engineering is the speed with which they can be deployed and become fully active , their potential low financial cost , and the reversibility of their direct climatic effects . Solar radiation management projects could , for example , be used as a temporary response while levels of greenhouse gases can be brought under control by mitigation and greenhouse gas removal techniques . They would not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere , and thus do not address problems such as ocean acidification caused by excess carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Solar_radiation_management", "rank": 85, "score": 79559 }, { "content": "Title: Free-air concentration enrichment Content: Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment ( FACE ) is a method used by ecologists and plant biologists that raises the concentration of in a specified area and allows the response of plant growth to be measured . Experiments using FACE are required because most studies looking at the effect of elevated concentrations have been conducted in labs and where there are many missing factors including plant competition . Measuring the effect of elevated using FACE is a better way of estimating how plant growth will change in the future as the concentration rises in the atmosphere . FACE also allows the effect of elevated on plants that can not be grown in small spaces ( trees for example ) to be measured .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Free-air_concentration_enrichment", "rank": 86, "score": 79235 }, { "content": "Title: Territorialisation of carbon governance Content: Territorialisation of Carbon Governance ( ToCG ) is a concept used in political geography or environmental policy which is considered to be a new logic of environmental governance . This method creates carbon-relevant citizens who become enrolled in the process of governing the climate . The territorialisation of carbon governance transforms climate change from a global to local issue . It embodies political practices that serve to connect the causes and consequences of global climate change to local communities . The commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions ( GHG ) has been a key component of sustainability within governance since the early 1990s . The ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments which brings together 1200 cities , towns and the associated 70 countries in their commitment to sustainable development . Further responses that seek to address these issues , include international body the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , the Rio Earth Summit and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . These organisations strive to tackle anthropogenic forces which are increasing risks of global warming . Under the territorialisation of carbon , climate and global flows of carbon are regarded as ` national sinks ' . This is a means by which the carbon cycle can be managed and territorialised through being assigned to a physical geographical space instead of being thought of as a global phenomenon . The act of territorialisation oversees the combining of material natures and state institutions into one system through the creation of carbon territories . This approach can allow individual states and governments to control and monitor their carbon emissions in order to improve their efforts in carbon governance . Carbon governance can be interpreted as the institutional arrangements under which greenhouse gas emissions are addressed and mitigated . This is achieved through regulating and controlling carbon activities . Measures and protocols exist in an attempt to address the issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions . Carbon governance is addressed via governmental decisions made through leadership and management which attempt to improve and resolve problems related to climate change .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Territorialisation_of_carbon_governance", "rank": 87, "score": 79223 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric thermodynamics Content: Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations ( and their reverse ) that take place in the earth 's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics , to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air , the formation of clouds , atmospheric convection , boundary layer meteorology , and vertical instabilities in the atmosphere . Atmospheric thermodynamic diagrams are used as tools in the forecasting of storm development . Atmospheric thermodynamics forms a basis for cloud microphysics and convection parameterizations used in numerical weather models and is used in many climate considerations , including convective-equilibrium climate models .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Atmospheric_thermodynamics", "rank": 88, "score": 79177 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon profiling Content: Carbon profiling is a mathematical process that calculates how much carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere per m2 of space in a building over one year . The analysis is in two parts which are then added together to produce an overall figure which is termed the ` Carbon Profile ' : operational carbon emissions embodied carbon emissions . Embodied carbon emissions relate to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from creating and maintaining the materials that form the building e.g. the carbon dioxide released from the baking of bricks or smelting or iron . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured as Embodied Carbon Efficiency ( ECE ) , measured as kg of CO2/m2/year . Occupational Carbon Emissions relate to the amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from the direct use of energy to run the building e.g. the heating or electricity used by the building over the year . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured in BER 's ( Building Emission Rate ) in kg of / m2/year . The BER is a United Kingdom government accepted unit of measurement that comes from an approved calculation process called sBEM ( Simplified Building Emission Model ) The purpose of Carbon Profiling is to provide a method of analyzing and comparing both operational and embodied carbon emissions at the same time . With this information it is then possible to allocate a projects resources in such a way to minimize the total amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere through the use of a given piece of space . A secondary benefit is that having quantified the Carbon Profiling of different buildings it is then possible to make comparisons and rank buildings in term of their performance . This allows investors and occupiers to identify which building are good and bad carbon investments . Simon Sturgis and Gareth Roberts of Sturgis Associates in the United Kingdom originally developed ` Carbon Profiling ' in December 2007 .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_profiling", "rank": 89, "score": 78952 }, { "content": "Title: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction Content: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction harnesses solar energy to convert into higher-energy products . The chemical conversion of CO2 already occurs on an industrial scale in the manufacture of solvents such as formic acid , but photochemical reduction differs in that it relies on a renewable energy source , the sun . Because CO2 is a greenhouse gas , there is environmental interest in producing artificial systems that are efficient photocatalysts , but the low turn-over rates of current methods have prohibited wide-scale industrial application .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Photochemical_carbon_dioxide_reduction", "rank": 90, "score": 78914 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon finance Content: Carbon finance is a new branch of Environmental finance . Carbon finance explores the financial implications of living in a carbon-constrained world , a world in which emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) carry a price . Financial risks and opportunities impact corporate balance sheets , and market-based instruments are capable of transferring environmental risk and achieving environmental objectives . Issues regarding climate change and GHG emissions must be addressed as part of strategic management decision-making . The general term is applied to investments in GHG emission reduction projects and the creation ( origination ) of financial instruments that are tradeable on the carbon market .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_finance", "rank": 91, "score": 78594 }, { "content": "Title: Community Climate System Model Content: The Community Climate System Model ( CCSM ) is a coupled global climate model ( GCM ) developed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research ( UCAR ) with funding from the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , the Department of Energy ( DoE ) , and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) . The coupled components include an atmospheric model ( Community Atmosphere Model ) , a land-surface model ( Community Land Model ) , an ocean model ( Parallel Ocean Program ) , and a sea ice model ( Community Sea Ice Model ) . CCSM is maintained by the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) . Its software design assumes a physical/dynamical component of the climate system and , as a freely available community model , is designed to work on a variety of machine architectures powerful enough to run the model . The CESM codebase is mostly public domain with some segregable components issued under under open source and other licenses . The offline chemical transport model has been described as `` very efficient '' . The model includes four submodels ( land , sea-ice , ocean and atmosphere ) connected by a coupler that exchanges information with the submodels . NCAR suggested that because of this , CCSM can not be considered a single climate model , but rather a framework for building and testing various climate models .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Community_Climate_System_Model", "rank": 92, "score": 78387 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Content: The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder ( AIRS ) is one of six instruments flying on board NASA 's Aqua satellite , launched on May 4 , 2002 . The instrument is designed to support climate research and improve weather forecasting . Working in combination with its partner microwave instrument , the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit ( AMSU-A ) , AIRS observes the global water and energy cycles , climate variation and trends , and the response of the climate system to increased greenhouse gases . AIRS uses infrared technology to create three-dimensional maps of air and surface temperature , water vapor , and cloud properties . AIRS can also measure trace greenhouse gases such as ozone , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , and methane . AIRS and AMSU-A share the Aqua satellite with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) , Clouds and the Earth 's Radiant Energy System ( CERES ) , and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS ( AMSR-E ) . Aqua is part of NASA 's `` A-train , '' a series of high-inclination , Sun-synchronous satellites in low Earth orbit designed to make long-term global observations of the land surface , biosphere , solid Earth , atmosphere , and ocean . AIRS data is free and available to the public through the Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information and Services Center . NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California , manages AIRS for NASA 's Science Mission Directorate in Washington , D.C.", "qid": "302", "docid": "Atmospheric_Infrared_Sounder", "rank": 93, "score": 78344 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sink Content: A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period . The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration . Public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol , which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset . There are also different strategies used to enhance this process .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Carbon_sink", "rank": 94, "score": 78294 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainability and environmental management Content: At the global scale sustainability and environmental management involves managing the oceans , freshwater systems , land and atmosphere , according to sustainability principles . Land use change is fundamental to the operations of the biosphere because alterations in the relative proportions of land dedicated to urbanisation , agriculture , forest , woodland , grassland and pasture have a marked effect on the global water , carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles . Management of the Earth 's atmosphere involves assessment of all aspects of the carbon cycle to identify opportunities to address human-induced climate change and this has become a major focus of scientific research because of the potential catastrophic effects on biodiversity and human communities . Ocean circulation patterns have a strong influence on climate and weather and , in turn , the food supply of both humans and other organisms .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Sustainability_and_environmental_management", "rank": 95, "score": 78084 }, { "content": "Title: General circulation model Content: A general circulation model ( GCM ) is a type of climate model . It employs a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean . It uses the Navier -- Stokes equations on a rotating sphere with thermodynamic terms for various energy sources ( radiation , latent heat ) . These equations are the basis for computer programs used to simulate the Earth 's atmosphere or oceans . Atmospheric and oceanic GCMs ( AGCM and OGCM ) are key components along with sea ice and land-surface components . GCMs and global climate models are used for weather forecasting , understanding the climate and forecasting climate change . Versions designed for decade to century time scale climate applications were originally created by Syukuro Manabe and Kirk Bryan at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton , New Jersey . These models are based on the integration of a variety of fluid dynamical , chemical and sometimes biological equations .", "qid": "302", "docid": "General_circulation_model", "rank": 96, "score": 77952 }, { "content": "Title: Community Earth System Model Content: The Community Earth System Model ( CESM ) is a fully coupled numerical simulation of the Earth system consisting of atmospheric , ocean , ice , land surface , carbon cycle , and other components . CESM includes a climate model providing state-of-art simulations of the Earth 's past , present , and future . It is the successor of the Community Climate System Model ( CCSM ) , specifically version 4 ( CCSMv4 ) , which provided the initial atmospheric component for CESM . Strong ensemble forecasting capabilities , CESM-LE ( CESM-Large Scale ) , were developed at the onset to control for error and biases across different model runs ( realizations ) . Simulations from the Earth 's surface through the thermosphere are generated utilizing the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model ( WACCM ) . CESM1 was released in 2010 with primary development by the Climate and Global Dynamics Division ( CGD ) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , and significant funding by the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and the Department of Energy ( DoE ) .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Community_Earth_System_Model", "rank": 97, "score": 77939 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 98, "score": 77893 }, { "content": "Title: Climate-friendly gardening Content: Climate-friendly gardening is gardening in ways which reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from gardens and encourage the absorption of carbon dioxide by soils and plants in order to aid the reduction of global warming . To be a climate-friendly gardener means considering both what happens in a garden and the materials brought into it and the impact they have on land use and climate . It can also include garden features or activities in the garden that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere .", "qid": "302", "docid": "Climate-friendly_gardening", "rank": 99, "score": 77892 }, { "content": "Title: ECOCITIES (software) Content: All member states of the European Union are bound to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions . For example , the EU climate and energy package requires member states to improve their energy efficiency by 20 % , increase - renewable energy production by 20 % and reduce their emissions by 20 % . With about 40 % of CO2 emissions heating , cooling and hot water production in buildings is one of the largest greenhouse gas producers . At the same time the building sector has the largest potential for energy savings . In their effort to lead a change towards greater energy efficiency and a reduction of greenhouse gas , many companies , cities and municipalities are in the process of developing low carbon action plans . However , the costs for developing optimal action plans and their continuous monitoring and optimization are very high , thus , often hindered by the tense financial situation , especially of cities and municipalities . With significant economic and environmental downsides ; the consequences are additional costs due to the non-compliance to the national and EU emission goals and untapped energy saving potential . ECOCITIES is an energy optimization system for building portfolios combining and extending the benefits of Energy Management Software ( EMS ) , Computer-aided Facility Management ( CAFM ) software and building portfolio management software . It integrates building administration and monitoring , energy accounting and building portfolio optimization . Thereby , it supports the definition of low carbon action plans in terms of environmental impact ( e.g. , carbon footprint , energy efficiency ) and financial impact ( e.g. , investment costs , running , costs ) . The system considers the following options for each building and the resulting ( inter - ) dependencies : energy-efficient building configurations ( e.g. , the compatibility of building components and its contribution to the energy efficiency level ) , energy used at the production and distribution of building components ( i.e. , gray energy ) , environmental impact ( e.g. , CO2 emissions ) , financial constraints , such as ( governmental ) funding and limited long term loans , legal constraints , e.g. , building codes , national and international standards , energy consumption for the operation of buildings , i.e. , heating , ventilation , and air conditioning ( HVAC ) as well as the electricity demand , energy production , storage and load shifting between buildings in combination with renewable energy production ( solar PV and thermal , Micro combined heat and power ) and conversion . energy flows between a building 's on-site networks ( Heating/Cooling and low voltage networks ) , the micro networks on neighborhood level and the city-wide energy networks ( district heating and district cooling networks , mid-voltage distribution networks ) , local typology ( position of buildings , energy networks ) . ECOCITIES calculates all energy - and cost-efficient development scenarios , visualizes them on the screen and allows decision makers to interactively explore the consequences of their actions ( e.g. , what are the citywide costs and the corresponding CO2 reductions of introducing a neighborhood-scale combined heat and power plant ) . ECOCITIES is an enabler for the realization of energy goals and provides synergies with existing endeavors of achieving national and European energy goals . On an operational level , ECOCITIES supports the following processes : Administration and integrated optimization of the entire building portfolio . Energy accounting and monitoring for all buildings . Identification , evaluation and definition of energy efficiency strategies ( low carbon action plans ) . Continuous monitoring , review and optimization of energy efficiency strategies ( low carbon action plans ) . Ensure the alignment of individual initiatives with the overall energy strategy of the company/city , e.g. , planning the cost - and energy efficient integration of new or refurbished single buildings , groups of buildings or entire neighborhoods into a new or existing energy efficiency strategy . Continuous monitoring of the performance related to the contribution to national and European energy goals .", "qid": "302", "docid": "ECOCITIES_(software)", "rank": 100, "score": 77890 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Floods (Fightstar song) Content: `` Floods '' is the fourth single from Fightstar 's second studio album , One Day Son , This Will All Be Yours . It was originally intended to be released as the second single , however this was changed to `` We Apologise For Nothing '' due to the recent floods in the UK at that time . Charlie Simpson has stated the song deals more with environmental issues , such as global warming and climate change , and about how people have influenced their own downfall within it . The song was released on their MySpace on 14 January 2008 . In a question and answer session in September 2007 , both Charlie and Alex confirmed that the third single from the album would most likely be Floods . Eventually , it was , in fact , `` Deathcar '' released on 3 December 2007 . However during another Q and A session on the band 's official forums on 28 November 2007 , Alex confirmed they were worked , on new tracks to be possibly used as part of a EP for the `` Floods '' release . It was confirmed via the band 's official website and Myspace , that `` Floods '' would be released as the latest single on 3 March 2008 . It reached No. 2 on the UK Rock Chart , and No. 3 in the UK Indie Chart , but failed to chart in the UK Singles Chart . The release included three brand new b-sides , `` Flotation Therapy '' , `` Zihuatanejo '' and `` Dark Star '' ( released exclusively on the Gut Records digital download bundle ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Floods_(Fightstar_song)", "rank": 1, "score": 101836 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–12 La Niña event Content: The 2010 -- 12 La Niña event was one of the strongest on record . It caused Australia to experience its wettest September on record in 2010 , and its second-wettest year on record in 2010 . It also led to an unusual intensification of the Leeuwin Current , the 2010 Pakistan floods , the 2010 -- 11 Queensland floods , and the 2011 East Africa drought . It also helped keep the average global temperature below recent trends , leading to 2011 tying with 1997 for the 14th-warmest year on record .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2010–12_La_Niña_event", "rank": 2, "score": 97184 }, { "content": "Title: Tidal flooding Content: Tidal flooding , also known as sunny day flooding or nuisance flooding , is the temporary inundation of low-lying areas , especially streets , during exceptionally high tide events , such as at full and new moons . The highest tides of the year may be known as the king tide , with the month varying by location . In Florida , controversy was created when state-level government mandated that the term `` nuisance flooding '' and other terms be used in place of terms such as sea level rise , climate change and global warming , prompting allegations of climate change denial , specifically against Governor Rick Scott . This amid Florida , specifically South Florida and the Miami metropolitan area being one of the most at risk area in the world for the potential effects of sea level rise , and where the frequency and severity of tidal flooding events increased in the 21st century . The issue is more bipartisan in South Florida , particularly in places like Miami Beach , where a several hundred million dollar project is underway to install more than 50 pumps and physically raise roads to combat the flooding , mainly along the west side of South Beach , formerly a mangrove wetland where the average elevation is less than one meter ( 3.3 feet ) . In the Miami area , where the vast majority of the land is below 10 ft , even a one-foot increase over the average high tide can cause widespread flooding . The 2015 and 2016 king tide event levels reached about 4 ft MLLW , 3 ft above mean sea level , or about 2 ft NAVD88 , and nearly the same above MHHW . While the tide range is very small in Miami , averaging about 2 ft , with the greatest range being less than 2 m , the area is very acute to minute differences down to single inches due to the vast area low elevation . NOAA tide gauge data for most stations shows current water level graphs relative to a fixed datum , as well as mean sea level trends for some stations . During the king tides , the local Miami area tide gauge at Virginia Key shows levels running at times 1 ft or more over datum . Fort Lauderdale has installed over one hundred tidal valves since 2013 to combat flooding . Fort Lauderdale is nicknamed the `` Venice of America '' due to its roughly 165 mi of canals . Tidal flooding is capable of majorly inhibiting natural gravity-based drainage systems in low-lying areas when it reaches levels that are below visible inundation of the surface , but which are high enough to incapacitate the lower drainage or sewer system . Thus , even normal rainfall or storm surge events can cause greatly amplified flooding effects . One passive solution to intrusion through drainage systems are one way back-flow valves in drainage ways . However , while this may prevent a majority of the tidal intrusion , it also inhibits drainage during exceptionally high tides that shut the valves . In Miami Beach , where resilience work is underway , the pump systems replace insufficient gravity-based systems .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Tidal_flooding", "rank": 3, "score": 91861 }, { "content": "Title: The Coming Global Superstorm Content: The Coming Global Superstorm ( ISBN 0-671-04190-8 ) is a 1999 book by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber , which warns that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects . First , the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift would generate a cordon of warm water around the North Pole , which in turn , holds in a frozen mass of Arctic air . Second , if the North Atlantic drift were to shut down , that barrier would fail , releasing a flood of frozen air into the Northern Hemisphere , causing a sudden and drastic temperature shift . The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the Gulf Stream : the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world 's oceans . Bell and Strieber explain the possibility that such current destabilizations have occurred before , as well as seemingly impossible engineering feats by the ancients . Among their examples is the island city of Nan Madol . The book claims that its construction , with exacting tolerances and extremely heavy basalt materials , necessitates a high degree of technical competency . Since no such society exists in the modern record or even , in legend , the society must have been destroyed by dramatic means . While other explanations beside a global meteorological event are possible , a correlating evidence set is presented in the woolly mammoth . Strieber and Bell assert that since mammoths have been found preserved with food still in their mouths and undigested in their stomachs , these animals must have been killed quickly , in otherwise normal conditions . They were preserved so well by quick freezing , which is taken as evidence of a rapid onset of a global blizzard or similar event . Interspersed with the analytical parts of the book are a series of interlinked short fictional scenarios , written in italics , describing what might transpire today if a destabilization of the North Atlantic Current were to occur . The fictional accounts of `` current events '' as the meteorological situation deteriorates provided background and inspiration for the 2004 science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow . Indeed , some events from the book are portrayed in the film with little modification .", "qid": "305", "docid": "The_Coming_Global_Superstorm", "rank": 4, "score": 90854 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 5, "score": 90280 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Tuvalu Content: Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 6, "score": 89259 }, { "content": "Title: Flood geology Content: Flood geology ( also creation geology or diluvial geology ) is the attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features of the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the global flood described in Genesis 6 -- 8 . In the early-19th century , diluvial geologists hypothesized that specific surface features were evidence of a worldwide flood which had followed earlier geological eras ; after further investigation they agreed that these features resulted from local floods or glaciers . In the 20th century , young Earth creationists revived flood geology as an overarching concept in their opposition to evolution , assuming a recent six-day Creation and cataclysmic geological changes during the Biblical Deluge , and incorporating creationist explanations of the sequence of rock strata . In the early stages of development of the science of geology , fossils were interpreted as evidence of past flooding . The `` theories of the Earth '' of the 17th century proposed mechanisms based on natural laws , within a timescale set by the biblical chronology . As modern geology developed , geologists found evidence of an ancient Earth , and evidence inconsistent with the notion that the Earth had developed in a series of cataclysms , the most recent of which could be attributed to the Genesis flood . In early 19th-century Britain , `` Diluvialism '' attributed landforms and surface features such as beds of gravel and erratic boulders to the destructive effects of this supposed global Deluge , but by 1830 geologists increasingly found that the evidence only showed relatively local floods . Attempts were made by so-called scriptural geologists to give primacy to literal Biblical explanations , but they lacked background in geology and were marginalised by the scientific community , as well as having little influence on the church . Flood geology was revived as a field of study within creation science , which is a part of young Earth creationism . Proponents hold to a literal reading of Genesis 6 -- 9 and view its passages to be historically accurate , using the Bible 's internal chronology to place the Flood and the story of Noah 's Ark within the last five thousand years . The key tenets of flood geology are refuted by scientific analysis . Flood geology contradicts the scientific consensus in geology , stratigraphy , geophysics , physics , paleontology , biology , anthropology , and archeology . Modern geology , its sub-disciplines and other scientific disciplines utilize the scientific method . In contrast , flood geology does not adhere to the scientific method , and it is , therefore , a pseudoscience .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flood_geology", "rank": 7, "score": 89164 }, { "content": "Title: Le Déluge (Saint-Saëns) Content: Le Déluge ( The Flood ) , Op. 45 , is a French oratorio written by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1875 and scored for orchestra , chorus , and soloists . The libretto , a `` poème biblique '' by Louis Gallet , is based on the biblical story of Noah and the flood . It was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet on March 5 , 1876 , under the direction of Edouard Colonne . Stylistically , the work shows the influence of Berlioz and Wagner in its musical illustrations of the narrative and use of recurring motifs . It also displays Saint-Saëns 's strong predilection for counterpoint ; there are three fugues incorporated into the music . The work is divided into three parts and a prelude : Prélude I. Corruption de l'homme -- Colère de Dieu -- Alliance avec Noé II . L'Arche -- Le Déluge III . La Colombe -- Sortie de l'Arche -- Bénédiction de Dieu The prelude is scored for strings only and contains a passage for solo violin . Part I describes the sinfulness of man and God 's decision to destroy the world ( `` J'exterminerai cette race '' ) . Part II is a long crescendo and decrescendo depicting the rain and rising waters of the flood . Part III evokes the flights of the dove and ends with God 's promise not to curse the earth ( `` Je ne maudirai plus la terre '' ) and a choral fugue ( `` Croissez donc et multipliez '' ) . Although Le Déluge is sometimes listed among Saint-Saëns ' best compositions , it is rarely performed today . The prelude is sometimes extracted as a concert piece .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Le_Déluge_(Saint-Saëns)", "rank": 8, "score": 89078 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "305", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 9, "score": 87075 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Thailand floods Content: Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season in Thailand . The flooding began at the end of July triggered by the landfall of Tropical Storm Nock-ten . These floods soon spread through the provinces of northern , northeastern , and central Thailand along the Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins . In October floodwaters reached the mouth of the Chao Phraya and inundated parts of the capital city of Bangkok . Flooding persisted in some areas until mid-January 2012 , and resulted in a total of 815 deaths ( with 3 missing ) and 13.6 million people affected . Sixty-five of Thailand 's 77 provinces were declared flood disaster zones , and over 20000 sqkm of farmland was damaged . The disaster has been described as `` the worst flooding yet in terms of the amount of water and people affected . '' The World Bank has estimated 1,425 trillion baht ( US$ 46.5 billion ) in economic damages and losses due to flooding , as of 1 December 2011 . Most of this was due to the manufacturing industry , as seven major industrial estates were inundated in water as much 3 meters ( 10 feet ) deep during the floods . Disruptions to manufacturing supply chains affected regional automobile production and caused a global shortage of hard disk drives which lasted throughout 2012 . The World Bank 's estimate for this disaster means it ranks as the world 's fourth costliest disaster as of 2011 surpassed only by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan , 1995 Kobe earthquake , and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 . A 2015 study suggests increasing odds for potential flooding similar to the 2011 flood intensity to occur in the future . Thailand 's southern provinces also saw seasonal flash-flooding towards the end of the year , although these were not as destructive as the floods in the more northerly provinces .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2011_Thailand_floods", "rank": 10, "score": 85588 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 11, "score": 85269 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding (psychology) Content: Flooding is a form of behavior therapy based on the principles of respondent conditioning . It is sometimes referred to as exposure therapy or prolonged exposure therapy . As a psychotherapeutic technique , it is used to treat phobia and anxiety disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder . It works by exposing the patient to their painful memories , with the goal of reintegrating their repressed emotions with their current awareness . Flooding was invented by psychologist Thomas Stampfl in 1967 . It is still used in behavior therapy today . Flooding is a psychotherapeutic method for overcoming phobias . This is a faster method of ridding fears when compared with systematic desensitization . In order to demonstrate the irrationality of the fear , a psychologist would put a person in a situation where they would face their phobia at its worst . Under controlled conditions and using psychologically-proven relaxation techniques , the subject attempts to replace their fear with relaxation . The experience can often be traumatic for a person , but may be necessary if the phobia is causing them significant life disturbances . The advantage to flooding is that it is quick and usually effective . There is , however , a possibility that a fear may spontaneously recur . This can be made less likely with systematic desensitization , another form of a classical condition procedure for the elimination of phobias .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flooding_(psychology)", "rank": 12, "score": 83534 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 13, "score": 83140 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (Baxter novel) Content: Flood is a 2008 work of hard science fiction by English author Stephen Baxter . It describes a near future world where deep submarine seismic activity leads to seabed fragmentation , and the opening of deep subterranean reservoirs of water . Human civilisation is almost destroyed by the rising inundation , which covers Mount Everest in 2052 . Baxter issued a sequel to this work , entitled Ark , in 2009 . Flood was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award in 2008 .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flood_(Baxter_novel)", "rank": 14, "score": 82776 }, { "content": "Title: Flood risk assessment Content: A flood risk assessment ( FRA ) is an assessment of the risk of flooding from all flooding mechanisms , the identification of flood mitigation measures and should provide advice on actions to be taken before and during a flood . The sources of water which produce floods include : Groundwater ( saturated groundwater ) Vadose ( water flowing the ground in an unsaturated state ) Surface water Artificial water ( burst water mains , canals or reservoirs ) Rivers , streams or watercourses Sewers and drains For each of the sources of water , different hydraulic intensities occur . Floods can occur because of a combination of sources of flooding , such as high groundwater and an inadequate surface water drainage system . The topography , hydrogeology and physical attributes of the existing or proposed development need to be considered . A flood risk assessment should be an evaluation of the flood risk and the consequences and impact and vulnerability . Non-professional flood risk assessments can be produced by members of the public , Architects , environment assessors , or others who are not specifically professionally qualified in this field . However , it is a complex evaluation and such assessments they can be rejected by Authorities as inadequate , or could be considered as negligent in the event of a flooding event , damage and a claim to insurers being made . In the UK , the writing of professional flood risk assessments is undertaken by Civil Engineering Consultants . They will have membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers and are bound by their rules of professional conduct . A key requirement is to ensure such professional flood risk assessments are independent to all parties by carrying out their professional duties with complete objectivity and impartiality . Their professional advice should be supported by professional indemnity insurance for such specific professional advice ultimately held with a Lloyd 's of London underwriter . Professional flood risk assessments can cover single buildings , or whole regions . They can part of a due-diligence process for existing householders or businesses , or can be required in England and Wales to provide independent evidence to a planning application on the flood risk .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flood_risk_assessment", "rank": 15, "score": 81731 }, { "content": "Title: May 2016 United States storm complex Content: The May 2016 United States storm complex was a flood in the United States that occurred on May 31 , 2016 , affecting the states of Arkansas , Kansas , Nebraska , Oklahoma , and Texas . The inundation set precipitation records in Texas and Oklahoma . On June 2 , 2016 , the rising of the Brazos River required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County , Texas . Ten deaths of Texans and thousands of home evacuations led Texas Governor Greg Abbott to issue a statewide Disaster Proclamation on June 1 , 2016 considering the damage in thirty-one counties including Austin , Bandera , Bastrop , Brazoria , Brazos , Burleson , Coleman , Colorado , Erath , Fayette , Fort Bend , Grimes , Hidalgo , Hood , Jasper , Kleberg , Lee , Leon , Liberty , Lubbock , Montgomery , Palo Pinto , Parker , Polk , Robertson , San Jacinto , Tyler , Walker , Waller , Washington and Wharton counties . Meteorologists attribute this storm 's devastation to the power of the El Niño climate cycle . An El Niño system is identified following fluctuation in the climate , characterized by an eastern shift of warming ocean water from the western tropical Pacific Ocean and rainfall along the equator .", "qid": "305", "docid": "May_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 16, "score": 81256 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Katrina and global warming Content: The tremendous destruction caused by recent Atlantic Ocean tropical cyclones , such as Hurricanes Katrina , Wilma , and Sandy caused a substantial upsurge in interest in the subject of global warming by news media and the wider public , and concerns that global climatic change may have played a significant role in those events . Time Magazine , for example , published an article titled , `` Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina ? '' -- however , the article itself addressed hurricanes in general , rather than Katrina specifically , and was inconclusive . Shortly after the hurricane , former Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan wrote an op-ed piece for the Globe titled , `` Katrina 's Real Name '' , declaring that the hurricane 's `` real name is global warming . '' Gelbspan went on to assert : `` Although Katrina began as a relatively small hurricane that glanced off south Florida , it was supercharged with extraordinary intensity by the relatively blistering sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico . '' Gelbspan did not single out Katrina from other recent storms in that regard ; in the article he went on to attribute other major weather events over the preceding year to global warming , including a blizzard in Los Angeles , high winds in Scandinavia , wildfires in Spain , and a drought centered in Missouri . Britain 's then deputy prime minister , John Prescott , has linked Katrina with global warming , and statements made shortly after the hurricane by Germany 's environment minister , Jürgen Trittin , indicate he believes that global warming is responsible for an increase in the frequency of destructive natural events . Kerry Emanuel had recently published a paper in the journal Nature that found a good correlation between hurricane intensity and sea surface temperatures . Some journalists have claimed Emanuel 's paper concludes that the recent increase in intense Atlantic storms is due to global warming , but Emanuel stated that `` it would be absurd to attribute the Katrina disaster to global warming '' . The Internet blog RealClimate has written that `` there is no way to prove that Katrina either was , or was not , affected by global warming '' .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Hurricane_Katrina_and_global_warming", "rank": 17, "score": 81030 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "305", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 18, "score": 80880 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "305", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 19, "score": 80648 }, { "content": "Title: Flood of 1851 Content: The Great Flood of 1851 occurred after record-setting rainfalls across the U.S. Midwest and Plains from May to August , 1851 . Hardest hit was the State of Iowa , with significant flooding extending to the Lower Mississippi River basin . Historical evidence suggest flooding occurred in the eastern Plains , from Nebraska to the Red River basin , but these areas were sparsely settled in 1851 . Heavy rainfall also occurred in the Ohio River basin .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flood_of_1851", "rank": 20, "score": 80627 }, { "content": "Title: Outburst flood Content: In geomorphology , an outburst flood , which is a type of megaflood , is a high-magnitude , low-frequency catastrophic flood involving the sudden release of water . During the last deglaciation , numerous glacial lake outburst floods were caused by the collapse of either ice sheets or glaciers that formed the dams of proglacial lakes . Examples of older outburst floods are known from the geological past of the Earth and inferred from geomorphological evidence on Mars . Landslides , lahars , and volcanic dams can also block rivers and create lakes , which trigger such floods when the rock or earthen barrier collapses or is eroded . Lakes also form behind glacial moraines , which can collapse and create outburst floods .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Outburst_flood", "rank": 21, "score": 80590 }, { "content": "Title: Before the Flood (film) Content: Before the Flood is a 2016 documentary film about climate change directed by Fisher Stevens . The film was produced as a collaboration between Stevens , Leonardo DiCaprio , James Packer , Brett Ratner , Trevor Davidoski , and Jennifer Davisson Killoran . Martin Scorsese is an executive producer . The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2016 , and was released theatrically on October 21 , before airing on the National Geographic Channel on October 30 . As part of National Geographic 's commitment to covering climate change , the documentary was made widely available and free of charge on various platforms .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Before_the_Flood_(film)", "rank": 22, "score": 80421 }, { "content": "Title: Missoula Floods Content: The Missoula Floods ( also known as the Spokane Floods or the Bretz Floods ) refer to the cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice age . The glacial flood events have been researched since the 1920s . These glacial lake outburst floods were the result of periodic sudden ruptures of the ice dam on the Clark Fork River that created Glacial Lake Missoula . After each ice dam rupture , the waters of the lake would rush down the Clark Fork and the Columbia River , flooding much of eastern Washington and the Willamette Valley in western Oregon . After the rupture , the ice would reform , creating Glacial Lake Missoula again . During the last deglaciation that followed the end of the Last Glacial Maximum , geologists estimate that a cycle of flooding and reformation of the lake lasted an average of 55 years and that the floods occurred several times over the 2,000-year period between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago . U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Jim O'Connor and Spanish Center of Environmental Studies scientist Gerard Benito have found evidence of at least twenty-five massive floods , the largest discharging ≈ 10 cubic kilometers per hour ( 2.7 million m ³ / s , 13 times the Amazon River ) . Alternate estimates for the peak flow rate of the largest flood include 17 cubic kilometers per hour and range up to 60 cubic kilometers per hour . The maximum flow speed approached 36 meters/second ( 130 km/h or 80 mph ) . Within the Columbia Basin , detailed investigation of the Missoula floods ' glaciofluvial deposits , informally known as the Hanford formation , has documented the presence of Middle and Early Pleistocene Missoula flood deposits within the Othello Channels , Columbia River Gorge , Channeled Scabland , Quincy Basin , Pasco Basin , and the Walla Walla Valley . Based on the presence of multiple interglacial calcretes interbedded with flood deposits , magnetostratigraphy , optically stimulated luminescence dating , and unconformity truncated clastic dikes , it has been estimated that the oldest of the Pleistocene Missoula floods happened before 1.5 million years ago . Because of the fragmentary nature of older glaciofluvial deposits , which have been largely removed by subsequent Missoula floods , within the Hanford formation , the exact number of older Missoula floods , which are known as Ancient Cataclysmic Floods , that occurred during the Pleistocene can not be estimated with any confidence .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Missoula_Floods", "rank": 23, "score": 79399 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding (computer networking) Content: Flooding is a simple computer network routing algorithm in which every incoming packet is sent through every outgoing link except the one it arrived on . Flooding is used in bridging and in systems such as Usenet and peer-to-peer file sharing and as part of some routing protocols , including OSPF , DVMRP , and those used in ad-hoc wireless networks ( WANETs ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flooding_(computer_networking)", "rank": 24, "score": 79023 }, { "content": "Title: Novec 1230 Content: Novec 1230 , C6F12O , ( 3M Novec 1230 ) fluid is a low global warming potential Halon replacement for use as a gaseous fire suppression agent . Novec 1230 is manufactured by 3M . It is generally used in situations where water from a fire sprinkler would damage expensive equipment or where water-based fire protection is impractical , such as museums , banks , clean rooms and hospitals . 3M Novec 1230 fluid does not deplete ozone ( ODP 0 ) and has a global warming potential of 1 over 80 years , equivalent to that of carbon dioxide . Novec 1230 fluid is a high molecular weight material , compared with the first generation halocarbon clean agents . The product has a heat of vaporization of 88.1 kJ/kg and low vapor pressure . Although it is a liquid at room temperature it gasifies immediately after being discharged in a total flooding system . The product is ideal for use in total flooding applications , localized flooding systems , directional spray type applications and may be used in portable extinguishers for specialized applications . But in addition to the conventional methods of super-pressurization using nitrogen , Novec 1230 fluid also lends itself for use in pump applications because it is a liquid . It has been used as a full-immersion fluid in a proof of concept data center cooling system by Intel and SGI Chemically , it is a fluorinated ketone with the systematic name 1,1,1,2,2,4,5,5,5-nonafluoro-4 - ( trifluoromethyl ) -3 - pentanone and the structural formula CF3CF2C ( =O ) CF ( CF3 ) 2 , a fully fluorinated analog of ethyl isopropyl ketone . The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals ( GHS ) classifies this chemical as H412 - Harmful to aquatic life with long lasting effects .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Novec_1230", "rank": 25, "score": 78622 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Turkey Content:", "qid": "305", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Turkey", "rank": 26, "score": 78451 }, { "content": "Title: Paleoflooding Content: The phenomenon of paleoflooding is apparent in the geologic record over various spatial and temporal scales . It often occurred on a large scale , and was the result of either glacial ice melt causing large outbursts of freshwater , or high sea levels breaching bodies of freshwater . If a freshwater outflow event was large enough that the water reached the ocean system , it caused changes in salinity that potentially affected ocean circulation and global climate . Freshwater flows could also accumulate to form continental glacial lakes , and this is another indicator of large-scale flooding . In contrast , periods of high global sea level ( often during interglacials ) could cause marine water to breach natural dams and flow into bodies of freshwater . Changes in salinity of freshwater and marine bodies can be detected from the analysis of organisms that inhabited those bodies at a given time , as certain organisms are more suited to live in either fresh or saline conditions .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Paleoflooding", "rank": 27, "score": 78361 }, { "content": "Title: Floods (Pantera song) Content: `` Floods '' is a power ballad by American heavy metal band Pantera from their 1996 album The Great Southern Trendkill . It is the longest song on the album , and the third longest song the band has ever recorded , after `` Cemetery Gates '' ( 7:02 ) , and `` Hard Lines , Sunken Cheeks '' ( 7:01 ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Floods_(Pantera_song)", "rank": 28, "score": 77714 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 29, "score": 77570 }, { "content": "Title: Typhoon Lynn (1987) Content: Typhoon Lynn , more commonly known in the Philippines as Typhoon Pepang , was responsible for the worst flooding in Taiwan in 40 years . Typhoon Lynn originated from an area of disturbed weather in the central north Pacific in mid-October 1987 . On October 15 , the system was upgraded into a tropical storm . Moving west-northwest , it slowly deepened over the next few days , though the intensification process briefly stopped on October 15 . Two days later , Lynn was upgraded into a typhoon , while passing northwest of Guam . Lynn maintained low-end typhoon strength until October 19 , when the storm began to rapidly intensify . On October 21 , Lynn attained its peak intensity while tracking towards the west . Weakening then commenced soon after Lynn interacted with Luzon . However , the core of the typhoon remained well offshore both the Philippines and Taiwan . On October 25 , Lynn weakened to a severe tropical storm . Three days later , it dissipated , though its remains later brought rain to China . While passing near Guam , power was knocked out and 40 residents were evacuated . Throughout the Mariana Islands , 15 families were rendered homeless and damage totaled $ 2 million ( 1987 USD ) . After brushing Luzon , seven people perished , over 30,000 homes were damaged , 100 houses were destroyed , and 7,000 individuals were left homeless . Damage in the Philippines totaled to $ 25.3 million . Even though Lynn passed a bit south of Taiwan , the storm brought widespread damage to the nation . Nine children were swept away and killed on a field trip , while another 72 survived and were evacuated . In Taipei , 13 persons perished and 2,230 people were rescued . Lynn was considered the worst tropical cyclone to affect the city in four decades . Nationwide , 168,000 people lost power and 42 casualties occurred .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Typhoon_Lynn_(1987)", "rank": 30, "score": 77032 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Depression Nine (2001) Content: Tropical Depression Nine caused minor flooding in Central America in September 2001 . The ninth tropical cyclone of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season , the depression developed from a tropical wave in the southwestern Caribbean Sea on September 19 . Without significant intensification , the depression made landfall in Puerto Cabezas , Nicaragua early on September 20 , which was about six hours after becoming a tropical cyclone . Once inland over Central America , the depression significant deteriorated and dissipated later that day , after lasting for less than 24 hours . The remnants emerged into the Pacific Ocean and later developed into Hurricane Juliette . Impact from the depression was rather minor . Although sustained winds on land did not exceed 30 mph ( 55 km/h ) , a fallen tree injured three children in El Salvador . In addition , heavy rainfall flooded at least 200 homes in San Salvador and inundated 15 farms . The depression did not result in fatalities and damage caused by it is unknown .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Tropical_Depression_Nine_(2001)", "rank": 31, "score": 76992 }, { "content": "Title: Indian Armed Forces and the Jammu and Kashmir floods, 2014 Content: In the wake of heavy monsoon rain and flash floods in Jammu and Kashmir , which have allegedly killed over four hundred and rendered hundreds of thousand homeless , the Indian Armed Forces were deployed in increasing numbers starting September 2 , 2014 to conduct search , rescue , relief , relocation , humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation missions in Jammu and Kashmir . By September 18 , over 200,000 people were rescued from the various parts of Jammu and Kashmir by the Armed forces . The Jammu and Kashmir floods , the worst in a century according to Omar Abdullah , the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir , paralyzed the state government . Omar Abdullah , responding to public criticism , told the media `` I had no government '' in the first few days following the floods , as `` My secretariat , the police headquarters , the control room , fire services , hospitals , all the infrastructure was underwater . '' Adding `` I had no cell phone and no connectivity . I am now starting to track down ministers and officers . '' The Jammu and Kashmir floods of 2014 have been blamed on heavy rainfall , about 8 inches ( 200mm ) on 4 September alone , on climate change , unplanned and uncontrolled development , encroachment of river banks , lakes , ponds , and massive loss of wet lands , absence of local government flood forecasting system , and poor governance . The Armed Forces humanitarian assistance mission in response to the floods was named Mission Sahayata ( assistances ) . Northern Command 's humanitarian assistance to Civil authorities was named ` Operation MEGH RAHAT ' . The Indian Army , Air Force , and the Navy , committed large resources to the assistance mission including over 30,000 troops ( 21,000 in Srinagar , and 9000 in Jammu ) , 15 engineer task forces , 84 Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Corps fixed wing transport aircraft and helicopters , naval commandos and rescue specialists , and Base Hospital , four field hospitals , over 106 medical detachments . `` Operation Megh Rahat '' , ended on 19 September 2014 , but `` Operation Sadbhavna '' , the relief and medical assistance support , according to government press release , will continue in `` close synergy with the civil administration and the police '' .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Indian_Armed_Forces_and_the_Jammu_and_Kashmir_floods,_2014", "rank": 32, "score": 76840 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming taxes Content:", "qid": "305", "docid": "Global_warming_taxes", "rank": 33, "score": 76819 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood (disambiguation) Content: Great Flood is a phrase used to describe the central event in any catastrophic flood . Some may be of the flood myth , whether historically accurate or mythological , while others are tragic and severe flooding events from around the world . Great Flood may also refer to : Deluge ( prehistoric ) , evidence for prehistoric floods sometimes individually referred to as great floods Flood myth and List of flood myths Genesis flood narrative in the Hebrew and Christian Bible , which includes Noah 's Ark Great Flood ( China ) , a flood dating from the 3rd millennium BC Great Flood of 1844 , the biggest flood ever recorded on the Missouri River and Upper Mississippi River in terms of discharge Great Flood of 1851 in the Midwest USA Great Flood of 1862 , a flood in California , USA Great Sheffield Flood , a flood that devastated parts of Sheffield , England on 11 March 1864 Great Flood of 1881 , a natural disaster in Omaha , Nebraska , USA Johnstown Flood , known locally as the Great Flood of 1889 1910 Great Flood of Paris , a January 1910 flooding of the River Seine Great Flood of 1913 , a natural disaster in Indiana , Ohio and ten other states in the USA Great Dayton Flood , part of the Great Flood of 1913 Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919 , known locally as the Great Molasses Flood Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 , the most destructive river flood in US history Great Flood of 1951 , a July 1951 flooding of the Kansas River , USA Great Flood of 1968 , a flood caused by very heavy rain that struck South East England and France in mid-September 1968 Great Flood of 1993 in midwest USA , one of the most costly and devastating in US history", "qid": "305", "docid": "Great_Flood_(disambiguation)", "rank": 34, "score": 76660 }, { "content": "Title: HTTP Flood Content: HTTP Flood is a type of Distributed Denial of Service ( DDoS ) attack in which the attacker manipulates HTTP and POST unwanted requests in order to attack a web server or application . These attacks often use interconnected computers that have been taken over with the aid of malware such as Trojan Horses . Instead of using malformed packets , spoofing and reflection techniques , HTTP floods require less bandwidth to attack the targeted sites or servers .", "qid": "305", "docid": "HTTP_Flood", "rank": 35, "score": 76560 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding (nuclear reactor core) Content: Flooding refers to a fluid flow phenomenon whereby counter-current two-phase flow is reversed and runs concurrent in the direction of the initial gas/vapor phase flow when filling , or `` flooding '' , a nuclear reactor core with coolant . This phenomenon is generally discussed with respect to a loss-of-coolant accident ( LOCA ) . As this phenomenon proceeds , annular flow running counter-current begins as liquid water is inserted into the system . Then if conditions are correct , the frictional force at the gas-liquid interface begins to reverse the flow of the liquid . Finally , the flow of the liquid reverses , running concurrently in a slug ( or other ) flow regime . The significance of this phenomenon is that , if not properly designed for , it can present issues when trying to fill the core with liquid ( the phenomenon works against gravity , forcing liquid out of the core ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flooding_(nuclear_reactor_core)", "rank": 36, "score": 76410 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 37, "score": 76368 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 38, "score": 75946 }, { "content": "Title: Flash flood Content: A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas : washes , rivers , dry lakes and basins . It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm , hurricane , tropical storm , or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields . Flash floods may occur after the collapse of a natural ice or debris dam , or a human structure such as a man-made dam , as occurred before the Johnstown Flood of 1889 . Flash floods are distinguished from regular floods by a timescale of less than six hours . The water that is temporarily available is often used by foliage with rapid germination and short growth cycles , and by specially adapted animal life .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flash_flood", "rank": 39, "score": 75709 }, { "content": "Title: North Sea flood of 1953 Content: The 1953 North Sea flood ( Watersnoodramp , literally `` water emergency disaster '' ) was a major flood caused by a heavy storm that occurred on the night of Saturday , 31 January 1953 and morning of Sunday , 1 February 1953 . The floods struck the Netherlands , Belgium , England and Scotland . A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea caused a storm tide ; the combination of wind , high tide , and low pressure led to a water level of more than 5.6 m above mean sea level in some locations . The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding . The Netherlands , a country with 20 % of its territory below mean sea level and 50 % less than 1 m above sea level and which relies heavily on sea defences , was worst affected , recording 1,836 deaths and widespread property damage . Most of the casualties occurred in the southern province of Zeeland . In England , 307 people were killed in the counties of Lincolnshire , Norfolk , Suffolk and Essex . Nineteen were killed in Scotland . Twenty-eight people were killed in West Flanders , Belgium . In addition , more than 230 deaths occurred on water craft along Northern European coasts as well as on ships in deeper waters of the North Sea . The ferry MV Princess Victoria was lost at sea in the North Channel east of Belfast with 133 fatalities , and many fishing trawlers sank . Realising that such infrequent events could recur , the Netherlands particularly , and the United Kingdom carried out major studies on strengthening of coastal defences . The Netherlands developed the Delta Works , an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers . The UK constructed storm surge barriers on the River Thames below London and on the River Hull where it meets the Humber estuary .", "qid": "305", "docid": "North_Sea_flood_of_1953", "rank": 40, "score": 75684 }, { "content": "Title: Texas Flood (song) Content: `` Texas Flood '' ( sometimes called `` Stormin ' in Texas '' or `` Flood Down in Texas '' ) is a blues song recorded by Larry Davis in 1958 . It is considered a blues standard and has been recorded by several artists , including Stevie Ray Vaughan , who made it part of his repertoire .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Texas_Flood_(song)", "rank": 41, "score": 75587 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood (China) Content: The Great Flood of Gun-Yu , also known as the Gun-Yu myth , was a major flood event in ancient China that allegedly continued for at least two generations , which resulted in great population displacements among other disasters , such as storms and famine . People left their homes to live on the high hills and mounts , or nest on the trees . According to mythological and historical sources , it is traditionally dated to the third millennium BCE , during the reign of Emperor Yao . Archaeological evidence of an outburst flood on the Yellow River ( possibly among the worst anywhere in the world in the past 10,000 years ) has been dated to about 1920 BCE ( several centuries later than the traditional recorded beginning of the Xia dynasty ) , and is suggested to have been the basis for the myth . Treated either historically or mythologically , the story of the Great Flood and the heroic attempts of the various human characters to control it and to abate the disaster is a narrative fundamental to Chinese culture . Among other things , the Great Flood of China is key to understanding the history of the founding of both the Xia dynasty and the Zhou dynasty , it is also one of the main flood motifs in Chinese mythology , and it is a major source of allusion in Classical Chinese poetry .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Great_Flood_(China)", "rank": 42, "score": 75550 }, { "content": "Title: Holmfirth floods Content: The Holmfirth floods refers to a number of instances when severe flooding had occurred in the Holme Valley , West Yorkshire , England affecting Holmfirth and other settlements in the valley . The earliest record dates from 1738 and the latest from 1944 . The most severe flood occurred early on the morning of 5 February 1852 , when the embankment of the Bilberry reservoir collapsed causing the deaths of 81 people . It is recorded as the 23rd most serious , worldwide , in terms of loss of life from floods and landslides in human history .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Holmfirth_floods", "rank": 43, "score": 75149 }, { "content": "Title: Operation Flood Content: Operation Flood , launched in 1970 , was a project of India 's National Dairy Development Board ( NDDB ) , which was the world 's biggest dairy development program . It transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world 's largest milk producer , surpassing the USA in 1998 , with about 17 percent of global output in 2010 -- 11 . In 30 years it doubled milk available per person , and made dairy farming India 's largest self-sustainable rural employment generator . It was launched to help farmers direct their own development , placing control of the resources they create in their own hands . All this was achieved not merely by mass production , but by production by the masses . The Anand pattern experiment at Amul , a single , cooperative dairy , was the engine behind the success of the program . Verghese Kurien , the chairman and founder of Amul , was named the chairman of NDDB by the then Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri . Kurien gave the necessary thrust using his professional management skills to the program , and is recognized as its architect .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Operation_Flood", "rank": 44, "score": 75088 }, { "content": "Title: Flood Content: A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry . The European Union ( EU ) Floods Directive defines a flood as a covering by water of land not normally covered by water . In the sense of `` flowing water '' , the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide . Flooding may occur as an overflow of water from water bodies , such as a river , lake , or ocean , in which the water overtops or breaks levees , resulting in some of that water escaping its usual boundaries , or it may occur due to an accumulation of rainwater on saturated ground in an areal flood . While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt , these changes in size are unlikely to be considered significant unless they flood property or drown domestic animals . Floods can also occur in rivers when the flow rate exceeds the capacity of the river channel , particularly at bends or meanders in the waterway . Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses if they are in the natural flood plains of rivers . While riverine flood damage can be eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water , people have traditionally lived and worked by rivers because the land is usually flat and fertile and because rivers provide easy travel and access to commerce and industry . Some floods develop slowly , while others such as flash floods , can develop in just a few minutes and without visible signs of rain . Additionally , floods can be local , impacting a neighborhood or community , or very large , affecting entire river basins .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flood", "rank": 45, "score": 75038 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Midwest flooding Content: The 2007 Midwest flooding was a major flooding event that occurred in the Midwestern United States in the third week of August 2007 . While Hurricane Dean was affecting the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico , and Tropical Storm Erin was affecting Oklahoma and Texas , a persistent storm system hung over the Midwest for several days , causing repeated flash flooding in the US states of Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Minnesota , Ohio , and Wisconsin . Cool Canadian air clashed with large quantities of warm moist air from the Gulf , producing torrential rains along a stationary front . Eighteen deaths across the central United States were attributed to the resulting flooding . Seven Minnesota counties , eight Ohio counties , fourteen counties in Wisconsin , and seven counties in Illinois were declared Federal Disaster Areas .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2007_Midwest_flooding", "rank": 46, "score": 74934 }, { "content": "Title: The Flood (band) Content: The Flood are an Australian roots music band formed by Kevin Bennett and James Gillard , both on lead vocals and guitars in 1995 . The group won the Tamworth 2006 Golden Guitar Award for Vocal Group ( or Duo of the Year ) with their track , `` Hello Blue Sky '' . In 2008 the line-up was Bennett and Gillard with Tim Wedde on keyboards , accordion , vibraphone and talent manager ; and Scottie Hills on drums ( replaced Steve Fearnley ) . At the ARIA Music Awards of 2006 the Flood were nominated for The Late Late Show in the Best Blues and Roots Album category .", "qid": "305", "docid": "The_Flood_(band)", "rank": 47, "score": 74701 }, { "content": "Title: Kerry Emanuel Content: Kerry Andrew Emanuel ( born April 21 , 1955 ) is an American professor of meteorology currently working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge . In particular he has specialized in atmospheric convection and the mechanisms acting to intensify hurricanes . He was named one of the Time 100 influential people of 2006 . In 2007 , he was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences . He hypothesized in 1994 about a superpowerful type of hurricane which could be formed if average sea surface temperature increased another 15C more than it 's ever been ( see `` hypercane '' ) . In a March 2008 paper published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society , he put forward the conclusion that global warming is likely to increase the intensity but decrease the frequency of hurricane and cyclone activity . Gabriel Vecchi , of NOAA said of Emanuel 's announcement , `` While his results do n't rule out the possibility that global warming has contributed to the recent increase in activity in the Atlantic , they suggest that other factors -- possibly in addition to global warming -- are likely to have been substantial contributors to the observed increase in activity . '' In 2013 , with other leading experts , he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers , which stated that `` continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity 's ability to avoid dangerous climate change . ''", "qid": "305", "docid": "Kerry_Emanuel", "rank": 48, "score": 74605 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 49, "score": 74522 }, { "content": "Title: Marine regression Content: Marine regression is a geological process occurring when areas of submerged seafloor are exposed above the sea level . The opposite event , marine transgression , occurs when flooding from the sea covers previously exposed land . Evidence of marine regressions and transgressions occurs throughout the fossil record , and these fluctuations are thought to have caused or contributed to several mass extinctions , among them the Permian-Triassic extinction event ( 250 million years ago ) and Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event ( 66 Ma ) . At the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction , the largest extinction event in the Earth 's history , global sea level fell 250 m ( 820 ft ) . A major regression could itself cause marine organisms in shallow seas to go extinct , but mass extinctions tend to involve both terrestrial and aquatic species , and it is harder to see how a marine regression could cause widespread extinctions of land animals . Regressions are , therefore , seen as correlates or symptoms of major extinctions , rather than primary causes . The Permian regression might have been related to the formation of Pangaea : the accumulation of all the major landmasses into one body could have facilitated a regression , by providing `` a slight enlargement of the ocean basins as the great continents coalesced . '' However , that cause could not have applied in all , or even many , other cases . During the ice ages of the Pleistocene , a clear correlation existed between marine regressions and episodes of glaciation ; as the balance shifts between the global cryosphere and hydrosphere , more of the planet 's water in ice sheets means less in the oceans . At the height of the last ice age , at around 18,000 years before the present , the global sea level was 120 to 130 m ( 390-425 ft ) lower than today . A cold spell around 6 million years ago was linked to an advance in glaciation , a marine regression , and the start of the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean basin . Some major regressions of the past , however , seem unrelated to glaciation episodes -- the regression that accompanied the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period being one example . A clear and certain understanding of major marine regressions has not yet been achieved ; according to one hypothesis , regressions may be linked to a `` slowdown in sea-floor spreading , leading to a generalized drop in sea level ( as the mid-ocean ridges would take up less space ) ... '' In that view , major marine regressions are one aspect of a normal variation in rates of plate tectonic activity , which lead to major episodes of global volcanism like the Siberian Traps and the Deccan Traps , which in turn cause large extinction events .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Marine_regression", "rank": 50, "score": 74484 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Alaska floods Content: The 2009 Alaska floods were a series of natural disasters taking place in the United States state of Alaska during April and May 2009 . The floods are a result of heavier-than-typical winter snowfall and above-average spring temperatures that resulted in rapid melting of the winter snowfall . The resulting high water levels were aggravated in places by the development of ice dams that caused catastrophic flooding . The record-breaking flood that affected Eagle , Alaska in early May is the best example of an ice dam causing flooding beyond the norm .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2009_Alaska_floods", "rank": 51, "score": 74479 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on South Asia Content:", "qid": "305", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_South_Asia", "rank": 52, "score": 74363 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 Great Britain and Ireland floods Content: The 2012 Great Britain and Ireland floods are a series of weather events that affected parts of Great Britain and Ireland periodically during the course of 2012 and on through the winter into 2013 . The beginning of 2012 saw much of the United Kingdom experiencing droughts and a heat wave in March . A series of low pressure systems steered by the jet stream brought the wettest April in 100 years , and flooding across Britain and Ireland . Continuing through May and leading to the wettest beginning to June in 150 years , with flooding and extreme events occurring periodically throughout Britain and parts of Atlantic Europe . On 27 and 28 June and again on 7 July heavy rain events occurred from powerful thunderstorms that gathered strength as they travelled across mainland Britain . Severe weather warnings and a number of flood alerts were issued by the UK 's Environment Agency , and many areas were hit by flash floods that overwhelmed properties and caused power cuts . A motorist was killed after his vehicle was caught by floodwater and landslides halted rail services between England and Scotland . The thunderstorms were the product of two fronts that collided over the British Isles -- warm air travelling from the Azores and cold water-ladened air from the west . The second batch of flooding struck the South-West of England during the afternoon of 7 July , forcing the Met Office to issue its highest alert , Red ( Take Action ) , due to the significant amounts of rainfall caused by a system travelling from Southern Europe , along with the warm , humid air the United Kingdom had seen in the run-up to the floods , which , like the June floods , caused thunderstorms . During the Autumn the most intense September low since 1981 brought widespread flooding and wind damage to the UK . Widespread flooding occurred again in November , December and January 2013 , as more heavy rains overwhelmed the saturated ground .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2012_Great_Britain_and_Ireland_floods", "rank": 53, "score": 74343 }, { "content": "Title: May 2004 Caribbean floods Content: The May 2004 Caribbean floods were a flood event that took place in the Caribbean Islands , mainly Hispaniola and some parts of Northern Puerto Rico from May 18 , 2004 to May 25 , 2004 . The storm caused significant rainfall , with over 9.7 inches of rain falling at the most in Haiti , and 10 inches falling at the most in the Dominican Republic . These floods were caused by over two weeks of persistent rain in the Caribbean area , which eventually caused the landslides that killed many people . The floods caused much damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic , with over 1,300 homes being destroyed and about 2,000 people being killed.Due to this destruction , nearly 15,000 people were displaced with nowhere to live . The area that felt the worst of the flooding was the town of Jimani , near the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.In fact , the destruction present at Jimani was so bad that Dominican president Hipolito Mejia declared a national day of mourning after seeing the effects of the storm .", "qid": "305", "docid": "May_2004_Caribbean_floods", "rank": 54, "score": 74270 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 1901–2000 Content: Floods in the United States are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , and dam failure . Below is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to the country , 1901 through 2000 , inclusive .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_1901–2000", "rank": 55, "score": 74253 }, { "content": "Title: List of flood myths Content: The flood myths or deluge myths are , taken collectively , myths of a great flood . These accounts depict global flooding , usually sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution . Flood stories are common across a wide range of cultures , extending back into Bronze Age and Neolithic prehistory .", "qid": "305", "docid": "List_of_flood_myths", "rank": 56, "score": 74203 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding the market Content: Flooding the market refers to when an excess amount of inventory for sale causes an undesired drop in price for the product , in extreme cases making the products impossible to sell at any price . Businesses take measures to avoid this . For examples , publishers will release books from popular authors under pseudonyms , as with the Kenyatta series by Donald Goines , which were published under the name Al. . C. Clarke . The same is also the case with Stephen King , when he published several books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman . The North American video game crash of 1983 was largely caused by excess inventory of low-quality games and systems . Atari so greatly over-produced the game E.T. that they were unable to sell them and buried them in a landfill . When flooding the market is done intentionally in an effort to eliminate competition , it is known as dumping .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flooding_the_market", "rank": 57, "score": 74147 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 European floods Content: In late May and early June 2016 flooding began after several days of heavy rain in Europe , mostly Germany and France , but also Austria , Belgium , Romania , Moldova , Netherlands and the United Kingdom . Among others , the German states of Bavaria , Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate , Baden-Württemberg , and North Rhine-Westphalia were affected . Beginning at the river Neckar , the Danube , Rhine , Seine and their tributaries were highly affected by high water and flooding along their banks . At least 20 people have died to date .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2016_European_floods", "rank": 58, "score": 73784 }, { "content": "Title: Internet Relay Chat flood Content: Flooding or scrolling on an IRC network is a method of disconnecting users from an IRC server ( a form of Denial of Service ) , exhausting bandwidth which causes network latency ( ` lag ' ) , or just annoying users . Floods can either be done by scripts ( written for a given client ) or by external programs .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Internet_Relay_Chat_flood", "rank": 59, "score": 73745 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on oceans Content: Global warming can affect sea levels , coastlines , ocean acidification , ocean currents , seawater , sea surface temperatures , tides , the sea floor , weather , and trigger several changes in ocean bio-geochemistry ; all of these affect the functioning of a society .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_oceans", "rank": 60, "score": 73578 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2000 Madagascar floods Content: In early 2000 , severe flooding occurred in the African nation of Madagascar after Cyclone Leon -- Eline and Severe Tropical Storm Gloria struck the nation within a two-week period . The first storm , Eline , formed on February 1 , and took an extended track across the Indian Ocean , eventually making landfall near Mahanoro on February 17 . On March 1 , Gloria struck northeastern Madagascar , and like Eline , moved southwestward across the country .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Early_2000_Madagascar_floods", "rank": 61, "score": 73567 }, { "content": "Title: St. Lucia's flood Content: St. Lucia 's flood ( Sint-Luciavloed ) was a storm tide that affected the Netherlands and Northern Germany on 14 December 1287 ( the day after St. Lucia Day ) , killing approximately 50,000 to 80,000 people in the sixth largest flood in recorded history . Meteorologically this disaster was similar to the North Sea flood of 1953 , when an extreme low pressure system coinciding with a high tide caused a huge storm surge . The St. Lucia flood had a major influence on the subsequent history of the Netherlands .", "qid": "305", "docid": "St._Lucia's_flood", "rank": 62, "score": 73543 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (disambiguation) Content: A flood is an overflow or accumulation of an expanse of water that submerges land . Flood ( s ) , The Flood , Flooded or Flooding may also refer to :", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flood_(disambiguation)", "rank": 63, "score": 73440 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 64, "score": 73438 }, { "content": "Title: St. Peter's flood Content: St. Peter 's flood ( Dutch : Sint-Pietersvloed , German : Petriflut ) refers to two separate storm tides that struck the coasts of Netherlands and Northern Germany in 1651 . During the first storm tide , on 22 February , the East Frisian island of Juist was split in two . During the second disaster , on 4 -- 5 March , the city of Amsterdam was flooded . In the past , the two storm tides were thought to have been a single event . The two disasters were confused with each other because two different calendars were in use at the time . The Julian calendar was still in use in Northern Germany and some parts of the Netherlands , while the Gregorian calendar had already been adopted in Holland , Zeeland and other parts of the Netherlands . The year 1651 was something of an annus horribilis for flooding , with many disastrous floods in Europe . In the Netherlands , for instance , another storm tide that struck during the night of 25 -- 26 February broke through a number of dikes and flooded large parts of the eastern Netherlands .", "qid": "305", "docid": "St._Peter's_flood", "rank": 65, "score": 73387 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (Halo) Content: The Flood are fictional parasitic alien life forms in the Halo video game series created by Bungie . They are introduced in Halo : Combat Evolved as a second enemy faction alongside the Covenant ; they return in sequels Halo 2 , Halo 3 , Halo Wars , and as a gametype in Halo 4 . The Flood are driven by a desire to infect any sentient life they encounter , and are depicted as such a threat that the ancient Forerunners were forced to kill themselves and all other sentient life nearly 100,000 years ago in an effort to starve the Flood to death . The Flood 's design and fiction was spearheaded by Bungie artist Robert McLees , who utilized unused concepts from the earlier Bungie game Marathon 2 . The ringworld Halo was stripped of many of its large creatures to make the Flood 's appearance more startling . Bungie environment artist Vic DeLeon spent six months of pre-production time refining the Flood 's fleshy aesthetic and designing the organic interiors of Flood-infested space ships for Halo 3 . The player 's discovery of the Flood in Halo : Combat Evolved is a major plot twist , and was one of the surprises reviewers noted positively upon release . The Flood 's return in Halo 2 and Halo 3 was less enthusiastically praised . Reaction to the Flood has varied over the years ; while some found the Flood too derivative and a cliché element of science fiction , some others ranked them among the greatest villains of all time .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flood_(Halo)", "rank": 66, "score": 73088 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding (Australian football) Content: Flooding is a tactic used in the sport of Australian rules football . It involves the coach releasing players in the forward line from their set positions and directing them to the opposition forward area , congesting the area and making it more difficult for the opposition to score . It is commonly deployed to protect a lead , to stop a rout or as a counterattack tactic based on rebounding the ball to an open forward line . This is possible due to the lack of an offside rule or similar restrictions on players field movements . The extreme defensive tactic is often bemoaned by spectators and generally regarded as `` ugly '' football .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flooding_(Australian_football)", "rank": 67, "score": 72934 }, { "content": "Title: The Flood (Cheryl song) Content: `` The Flood '' is a song by English recording artist Cheryl Cole . The song was written by Priscilla Hamilton and Wayne Wilkins , for Cole 's second studio album , Messy Little Raindrops ( 2010 ) . It was released on 2 January 2011 through Fascination Records , as the album 's second and final single . The song , produced by Wilkins and Antwoine Collins , has lyrics that refer to a `` natural disaster love '' and make many allusions to shipwreck , the sea , and water . `` The Flood '' received mixed reviews from music critics . Despite some saying the song is perfectly suited to Cole 's voice , critics questioned Cole 's effectiveness as a balladeer , while calling the song `` a flood of stool '' . `` The Flood '' achieved moderate success , peaking at number eighteen in the United Kingdom , making it Cole 's first solo single to not enter the top 5 on the chart . The song also peaked at number twenty-six in Ireland and at number forty-six in Europe . An accompanying music video for the song , directed by Sophie Muller , was released on 24 November 2010 . Filmed on the southern coast of England , it portrays Cole alone in a remote house overlooking a stormy ocean , while she struggles to adjust to life without her love . `` The Flood '' was performed at 2010 's Royal Variety Performance in front of Charles , Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla , Duchess of Cornwall . It was also performed in an acoustic form , along with `` Promise This '' , on Alan Carr : Chatty Man .", "qid": "305", "docid": "The_Flood_(Cheryl_song)", "rank": 68, "score": 72882 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 North Korean floods Content: The 2012 North Korean floods began in mid-July 2012 when Tropical Storm Khanun affected parts of the country , killing at least 88 people and leaving more than 62,000 people homeless . Torrential rains on 29 and 30 July 2012 worsened the situation , causing additional damage and casualties and forcing the government to request international assistance . Severe rainfall also affected the southern region of North Korea in August , killing at least six .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2012_North_Korean_floods", "rank": 69, "score": 72861 }, { "content": "Title: November 2000 Hawaii floods Content: The November 2000 Hawaii floods were a costly flooding event caused by an upper-level low and the remnants of Tropical Storm Paul , a weak and short-lived tropical cyclone . Rainfall totals reached 38.76 in ( 985 mm ) at Kapapala Ranch on the Big Island of Hawaii , which was the second highest precipitation total in the state related to a tropical cyclone . The floods led to $ 70 million ( 2000 USD ; $ USD ) in damage , but there were no fatalities .", "qid": "305", "docid": "November_2000_Hawaii_floods", "rank": 70, "score": 72821 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 European floods Content: In August 2002 a flood caused by over a week of continuous heavy rains ravaged Europe , killing dozens , dispossessing thousands , and causing damage of billions of euros in Russia , the Czech Republic , Austria , Germany , Slovakia , Poland , Hungary , Romania and Croatia . The flood was of a magnitude expected to occur roughly once a century .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2002_European_floods", "rank": 71, "score": 72819 }, { "content": "Title: 1872 Baltic Sea flood Content: The 1872 Baltic Sea flood ( Ostseesturmhochwasser 1872 ) , often referred to as a storm flood , ravaged the Baltic Sea coast from Denmark to Pomerania in the night of 12/13 November 1872 and was , until then , the worst storm surge in the Baltic . The highest recorded peak water level was about 3.3 m above sea level ( NN ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "1872_Baltic_Sea_flood", "rank": 72, "score": 72757 }, { "content": "Title: Watersnoodmuseum Content: The Watersnoodmuseum ( or Flood Museum ) in Ouwerkerk , the Netherlands , is the `` National Knowledge and Remembrance Centre for the Floods of 1953 '' and offers an in-depth picture of the events during and after the flood of 1 February 1953 . The museum was officially opened on 2 April 2001 . The museum also educates visitors about water safety , and the museum collects global knowledge about flooding . The museum is located in the dike south of the village of Ouwerkerk ; it is housed in the four caissons used to close the last gap in the dike following the flood .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Watersnoodmuseum", "rank": 73, "score": 72725 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Linfa (2003) Content: Severe Tropical Storm Linfa , known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Chedeng , brought deadly flooding to areas of the Philippines and Japan in May and June 2003 . The fifth named storm within the northwestern Pacific that year , Linfa developed as a tropical depression just off the western coast of Luzon on May 25 . The disturbance quickly intensified to reach tropical storm intensity a few hours after cyclogenesis . However , intensification leveled off as Linfa executed a small clockwise loop before a subsequent landfall on Luzon on May 27 . Due to land interaction the storm temporarily weakened and decoupled before reforming in the Philippine Sea . Afterwards Linfa began reintensifying and reached its peak intensity on May 29 with maximum sustained winds of 100 km/h ( 65 mph ) and a barometric pressure of 980 mbar ( hPa ; 28.94 inHg ) . Following its peak the tropical storm began to deteriorate and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on May 30 ; these extratropical remnants continued to track northward through Japan before dissipating in the Sea of Okhotsk on June 4 . The erratic and slow movement of Linfa off the western Philippines was the catalyst for extreme rainfall and flooding , killing 41 persons in the archipelago . Precipitation peaked at 723 mm near Dagupan . Rising floodwaters resulted in numerous mudslides and the temporary shutdown of government offices . In addition , strong winds caused widespread power outages . Overall damage from Linfa in the Philippines amounted to 192.3 million ( US$ 3.65 million ) . The floods also displaced 8,367 people in 1,686 families and destroyed 178 homes . Linfa and its extratropical remnants later brought torrential rainfall and widespread flooding to Japan , particularly southwestern regions . Rainfall there peaked at 727 mm ( 28.62 in ) . Flood damage was worst in Kōchi and Tokushima Prefectures , where several buildings were destroyed by floodwater . Other locations in Japan experienced considerable agricultural damage as well as numerous landslides . Overall , Linfa caused roughly $ 28.2 million in damage , much of which occurred in Japan , though the entirety of deaths associated with the cyclone took place in the Philippines .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Linfa_(2003)", "rank": 74, "score": 72574 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 2001–present Content: Floods in the United States : 2001 -- present is a list of flood events which were of significant impact to the country since 2001 , inclusive . Floods are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , storm surge from hurricanes , and dam failure .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_2001–present", "rank": 75, "score": 72554 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1968 Content: The Great Flood of 1968 was a flood caused by a pronounced trough of low pressure which brought exceptionally heavy rain and thunderstorms to South East England and France in mid-September 1968 , with the worst on Sunday 15 September 1968 , and followed earlier floods in South West England during July . The areas worst hit were Crawley , East Grinstead , Horley , Lewisham , Petersfield , Hampshire , Redhill , Tilbury , Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge . On 15 September 1968 , the 9:50 Charing Cross to Hastings was diverted along the Edenbridge line , but was surrounded by flood water at Edenbridge railway station . 150 passengers spent 12 hours stuck on the train .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1968", "rank": 76, "score": 72422 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 European floods Content: The 2009 European floods were a series of natural disasters that took place in June 2009 in Central Europe . Austria , the Czech Republic , Germany , Hungary , Poland , Romania , Serbia , Slovakia and Turkey were all affected . The heavy rains caused overflowing of the rivers Oder , Vistula , Elbe and Danube . At least 12 people were killed in the Czech Republic and one in Poland . The floods were the worst natural disaster in the Czech Republic since 2002 , when floods killed 17 people and caused billions of dollars of damage in Prague . Those same floodwaters from the Czech Republic also affected Germany , with Dresden being hit by its worst flooding for over a century and three thousand people evacuated from areas where water was said to be waist-deep . Austria also experienced its heaviest rainfalls in half a century .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2009_European_floods", "rank": 77, "score": 72282 }, { "content": "Title: Floods of Fear Content: Floods of Fear is a 1959 British thriller film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Howard Keel , Anne Heywood and Harry H. Corbett . Its plot is about a convict framed for murder who escapes during a flood and aids a woman in distress . Howard Keel recalled the filming in his autobiography Only Make Believe : My Life in Show Business : `` All the flood scenes were filmed on one of the large stages at Pinewood Studios . The water had to be both dirty and cold , and it was . They could n't heat it for fear it might get rancid . That was another tough picture . Anne Heywood never once protested about the water . -LSB- Charles -RSB- Crichton , who had a great sense of humor , had directed some very funny pictures . Cyril Cusack and I were good friends . We had a little contest over Anne . He was a real cutie , as well as a hell of an actor , but I won out . ''", "qid": "305", "docid": "Floods_of_Fear", "rank": 78, "score": 72250 }, { "content": "Title: Emotional flooding Content: Emotional flooding is a form of psychotherapy that involves attacking the unconscious and/or subconscious mind to release repressed feelings and fears . Many of the techniques used in modern emotional flooding practice have roots in history , some tracing as far back as early tribal societies . For more information on emotional flooding , see Flooding ( psychology ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Emotional_flooding", "rank": 79, "score": 72188 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Dina Content: Intense Tropical Cyclone Dina was a cyclone that caused record flooding across parts of Réunion . Originating from a tropical disturbance on 15 January 2002 near the Chagos Archipelago , the precursor to Dina quickly developed within a region favoring tropical cyclogenesis . By January 17 , the system had developed enough organized convection as it moved southwestward to be declared a tropical depression . Rapid intensification occurred shortly thereafter , with the system attaining winds in excess of 120 km/h ( 75 mph ) on January 18 . Dina achieved its peak intensity on January 20 as an intense tropical cyclone winds of 215 km/h ( 130 mph ) . Hours after reaching hits strength , the storm bypassed Rodrigues Island about 150 km to its north . On January 21 , the storm brushed Mauritius and Réunion as an intense tropical cyclone before turning southward . Once on a southward course , steady weakening ensued and the system eventually transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on January 25 . The remnants of the storm accelerated southeastward and were last noted on January 28 before being absorbed into a polar trough . Across Mauritius and Réunion , torrential rains and destructive winds from the cyclone resulted in extensive to `` catastrophic '' damage . The entire island of Mauritius lost power during the storm and widespread structural damage took place . Agricultural and property damage amounted to US$ 47 million and US$ 50 million respectively in the republic . Nine fatalities were attribute to the storm in Mauritius : five off the coast of Rodrigues Island and four on the main island . More extensive damage was seen on Réunion where up to 2,102 mm of rain fell over three days . Record to near-record flooding destroyed many homes , washed out roads , and caused catastrophic agricultural damage . Destructive winds , measured up to 280 km/h also crippled communications . In all , six people died on the island and losses were estimated at $ 200 million ( US$ 190 million ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Cyclone_Dina", "rank": 80, "score": 72155 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Papua New Guinea floods Content: The 2008 Papua New Guinea floods displaced roughly 75,000 people located in Papua New Guinea , prompting an international response to provide support for the region . The country was struck by large sea swells on 16 December , apparently caused by `` strong storms '' , which affected over eight provinces and caused at least one death .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2008_Papua_New_Guinea_floods", "rank": 81, "score": 72061 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1951 Content: In mid-July 1951 , heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River and other surrounding areas of the central United States . Flooding resulted in the Kansas , Neosho , Marais Des Cygnes , and Verdigris river basins . The damage in June and July 1951 exceeded $ 935 million in an area covering eastern Kansas and Missouri , which , adjusting for inflation , is nearly $ 8.52 billion in 2016 . The flood resulted in the loss of 17 lives and displaced 518,000 people .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1951", "rank": 82, "score": 71995 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "305", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 83, "score": 71990 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 West Africa floods Content: The 2009 West Africa floods are a natural disaster that began in June 2009 as a consequence of exceptionally heavy seasonal rainfall in large areas of West Africa . Several rivers , including the Pendjari , Niger , Volta and Senegal rivers , broke their banks , causing destruction of houses , bridges , roads and crops . The floods are reported to have affected 940,000 people across 12 countries , including Burkina Faso , Benin , Ghana , Niger , Senegal , Guinea , and caused the deaths of at least 193 people . In Burkina Faso , one of the most affected countries , 150,000 people fled their homes , mostly in the capital Ouagadougou where rainfall in one day was equal to 25 % of normal annual rainfall for the whole country .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2009_West_Africa_floods", "rank": 84, "score": 71976 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 European floods Content: Extreme flooding in Central Europe began after several days of heavy rain in late May and early June 2013 . Flooding and damages primarily affected south and east German states ( Thuringia , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , Lower Saxony , Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg ) , western regions of the Czech Republic ( Bohemia ) , and Austria . In addition , Switzerland , Slovakia , Belarus , Poland , Hungary and Serbia ( Vojvodina ) were affected to a lesser extent . The flood crest progressed down the Elbe and Danube drainage basins and tributaries , leading to high water and flooding along their banks .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2013_European_floods", "rank": 85, "score": 71924 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide flooding Content: Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_flooding", "rank": 86, "score": 71896 }, { "content": "Title: 1970 floods in Romania Content: The 1970 floods in Romania , brought on by river swelling caused by torrential rains , high winds and a heat wave that melted snow in the Carpathian Mountains , were the worst in modern Romanian history in loss of life , and caused the most damage up to the 2006 floods : at least $ 500 million ; perhaps over $ 1 billion .", "qid": "305", "docid": "1970_floods_in_Romania", "rank": 87, "score": 71822 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 African floods Content: The 2007 floods of Africa was reported by the UN to be one of the worst floodings in recorded history . The flooding started with rains on September 14 , 2007 local time . Over 14 countries had been affected in the continent of Africa , 250 people were reported to have been killed by the flooding and 1.5 million were affected . The UN had issued warnings of water borne diseases and locust infestations .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2007_African_floods", "rank": 88, "score": 71548 }, { "content": "Title: All Saints' Flood (1304) Content: The All Saints Day flood ( Allerheiligenflut ) of 1304 was a storm surge that hit the southwestern Baltic Sea coast on 1 November ( All Saints ' Day ) that year . The region of Western Pomerania was particularly badly affected by the flooding . 271 lives were lost as a result of the flood . Like most similar storm floods , it was created when water accumulated in the middle and northern Baltic as a result of several days of strong westerly winds , and then surged abruptly onto the Pomeranian coast when the wind suddenly shifted to the northeast . The All Saints Day flood resulted in substantial losses of land between the islands of Rügen and Usedom . This is based on the fact that in 1304 there had been a land bridge between the peninsula of Mönchgut on Rügen and the island of Ruden off Usedom . The Bay of Greifswald was probably still an inland lake and the present-day branch of the River Oder , the Peenestrom , flowed on through the Strelasund and did not discharge into the Baltic until the western end of the sound . In the 1304 storm flood , the southern part of the Mönchgut and most of Ruden was flooded . Whether further storm flooding was needed to finally turn drown the land under the water , is not known . The only losses recorded are those of two villages on Ruden that were drowned . The Bay of Greifswald was henceforth known as the `` low country '' ( Landtief ) or the `` New Deep '' ( Neue Tief ) . 300 years later , only the ever-shrinking island of Ruden remained , along with the small island of North Ruden , which presumably sank beneath the waves in the 17th century . The remaining island is still less than 2 metres above the water for long stretches ; the channel for the eastern approach to Stralsund has to be dredged to be kept free . Other consequences of the All Saints Day flood have not been handed down , but it is also possible that it led to breaches to the Baltic Sea at Damerow on Usedom , at the Swine estuary and on the shores of the Prorer Wiek . These areas were almost uninhabited at the end of Middle Ages because of their infertility .", "qid": "305", "docid": "All_Saints'_Flood_(1304)", "rank": 89, "score": 71544 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 Sri Lanka cyclone Content: In May 2003 , a tropical cyclone officially called Very Severe Cyclonic Storm BOB 01 produced the worst flooding in Sri Lanka in 56 years . The first storm of the 2003 North Indian Ocean cyclone season , it developed over the Bay of Bengal on May 10 . Favorable environmental conditions allowed the system to intensify steadily while moving northwestward . The storm reached peak maximum sustained winds of 140 km/h ( 85 mph ) on May 13 , making it a very severe cyclonic storm according to the India Meteorological Department ( IMD ) , which is the official Regional Specialized Meteorological Center for the basin . The cyclone drifted north over the central Bay of Bengal , gradually weakening due to heightened wind shear . Turning eastward , the storm deteriorated to a deep depression on May 16 before it curved northeastward and re-intensified into a cyclonic storm . It came ashore in western Myanmar and dissipated over land the following day . In the wake of prolonged precipitation during the first half of May , the cyclone produced torrential rains across southwest Sri Lanka while stationary in the central Bay of Bengal . The storm drew extensive moisture that coalesced in the mountainous portion of the island . A station at Ratnapura recorded 366.1 mm of rainfall in 18 hours on May 17 , including 99.8 mm in one hour . In southwestern Sri Lanka , the rainfall caused flooding and landslides that destroyed 24,750 homes and damaged 32,426 others , displacing about 800,000 people . Overall damage totaled about $ 135 million ( 2003 USD ) , and there were 260 deaths . The cyclone also produced some rainfall in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India and along the country 's eastern coast . The storm funneled moisture away from the mainland , which possibly contributed to a heat wave that killed 1,900 people , and dropped heavy rainfall in Myanmar .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2003_Sri_Lanka_cyclone", "rank": 90, "score": 71445 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Edouard (2008) Content: Tropical Storm Edouard brought coastal and minor inland flooding to Louisiana and Texas in August 2008 . The fifth tropical cyclone and fifth named storm of the hurricane season , Edouard developed from a trough in the northern Gulf of Mexico on August 3 . After developing into a tropical depression , it gradually strengthened and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Edouard on August 4 . However , northerly wind shear initially halted any further significant intensification and also caused the storm to struggle to maintain deep convection over the center . Edouard eventually intensified further and peaked as a strong tropical storm with winds of 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) on August 5 . Shortly thereafter , the storm made landfall near Gilchrist , Texas later that day . Edouard quickly weakened and was downgraded to tropical depression by early on August 6 , six hours before degenerated into a remnant low pressure area . Due to the relatively weak nature of the storm , impact was generally minor . Rip currents in Alabama and Florida led to five fatalities . The sixth death from the storm was also related to rough seas and occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana . Storm surge and high tides also caused coastal flooding in the state , especially in Cameron Parish . Relatively strong winds left more than 2,000 without electricity and damaged trees and the roofs of mobile homes . Storm surge caused coastal flooding in eastern Texas , particularly in the Gilchrist area . At least 25 homes sustained damage , while portions of a few major roads , such as Interstate 10 , were closed . Minor inland flooding occurred due to heavy rainfall , with a portion of Texas State Highway 36 being temporarily shutdown . Strong winds in the region damaged hundreds of homes , downed trees , and left about 300,000 people without electricity . Overall , damage from Tropical Storm Edouard totaled slightly more than $ 550,000 ( 2008 USD ) .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Edouard_(2008)", "rank": 91, "score": 71381 }, { "content": "Title: Jökulhlaup Content: A jökulhlaup ( -LSB- ˈjœːkʏl̥øip -RSB- ) ( literally ` glacial run ' ) is a type of glacial outburst flood . It is an Icelandic term that has been adopted in glaciological terminology in many languages . It originally referred to the well-known subglacial outburst floods from Vatnajökull , Iceland , which are triggered by geothermal heating and occasionally by a volcanic subglacial eruption , but it is now used to describe any large and abrupt release of water from a subglacial or proglacial lake/reservoir . Since jökulhlaups emerge from hydrostatically-sealed lakes with floating levels far above the threshold , their peak discharge can be much larger than that of a marginal or extra-marginal lake burst . The hydrograph of a jökulhlaup from Vatnajökull typically either climbs over a period of weeks with the largest flow near the end , or it climbs much faster during the course of some hours . These patterns are suggested to reflect channel melting , and sheet flow under the front , respectively . Similar processes on a very large scale occurred during the deglaciation of North America and Europe after the last ice age ( e.g. , Lake Agassiz and the English Channel ) , and presumably at earlier times , although the geological record is not well preserved .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Jökulhlaup", "rank": 92, "score": 71346 }, { "content": "Title: Maine flood of 1987 Content: A pair of spring storms in March and April 1987 , combined with snow-melt , resulted in heavy flooding in Maine , New Hampshire , and Massachusetts .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Maine_flood_of_1987", "rank": 93, "score": 71325 }, { "content": "Title: 1966 Venice flood Content: The 1966 Venice flood ( Alluvione di Venezia del 1966 ) was an unprecedented acqua alta , with waters reaching up to 194cm .", "qid": "305", "docid": "1966_Venice_flood", "rank": 94, "score": 71303 }, { "content": "Title: Maharashtra floods of 2005 Content: The 2005 Maharashtra floods refers to the flooding of many parts of the Indian state of Maharashtra including large areas of the metropolis Mumbai a city located on the coast of the Arabian Sea , on the Western coast of India , in which approximately 1,094 people died . It occurred just one month after the June 2005 Gujarat floods . The term 26 July , is now always used to refer to the day when the city of Mumbai came to a standstill due to flooding . A large number of people were stranded on the roads , lost their homes while many walked long distances back home from work that evening . The floods were caused by the eighth heaviest-ever recorded 24-hour rainfall figure of 944 mm ( 37.17 inches ) which lashed the metropolis on 26 July 2005 , and intermittently continued for the next day . 644mm ( 25.35 inches ) was received within the 12-hour period between 8am and 8pm . Torrential rainfall continued for the next week . The highest 24-hour period in India was 1,168 mm ( 46.0 inches ) in Aminidivi in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep on 6 May 2004 although some reports suggest that it was a new Indian record . The previous record high rainfall in a 24-hour period for Mumbai was 575 mm ( 22.6 inches ) in 1974 . Other places severely affected were Raigad , Chiplun , -LSB- -LSB- Khed , Ratna 31 July after heavy rains disrupted the city once again , grounding all flights for the day . Fukuh", "qid": "305", "docid": "Maharashtra_floods_of_2005", "rank": 95, "score": 71296 }, { "content": "Title: Droughts in the United States Content: Drought in the United States is similar to that of other portions of the globe . Below normal precipitation leads to drought , which is caused by an above average persistence of high pressure over the drought area . Changes in the track of extratropical cyclones , which can occur during climate cycles such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation , or ENSO , as well as the North Atlantic Oscillation , Pacific Decadal Oscillation , and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation , modulates which areas would be more prone to drought and when drought develops . Increased drought frequency is expected to be one of the effects of global warming . In dry areas , removing grass cover and going with a more natural vegetation for the area can reduce the impact of drought , since a significant amount of fresh water is used to keep lawns green . Droughts are periodic , alternating with floods over a series of years . The worst droughts in the history of the United States occurred during the 1930s and 1950s , periods of time known as ` Dust Bowl ' years in which droughts lead to significant economic damages and social changes . In particular , relief and health agencies became overburdened and many local community banks had to close .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Droughts_in_the_United_States", "rank": 96, "score": 71228 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–11 Philippine floods Content: Widespread flooding occurred in the eastern part of the Philippines since late December 2010 . The Visayas and the Bicol and Caraga regions have been particularly affected by abnormally heavy rains . The floods have displaced 452,999 persons in 19 provinces , and has caused the deaths of 25 people . By 12 January , the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council ( NDRRMC ) pegged those affected at 235,867 families or 1,230,022 people in 1,267 villages in 137 towns and 10 cities in 23 provinces .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2010–11_Philippine_floods", "rank": 97, "score": 71189 }, { "content": "Title: North Sea flood of 2007 Content: The North Sea flood of 2007 also known as Cyclone Tilo , and as Andrea in Norway was a storm tide of the North Sea affecting the coastlines of the Netherlands , the United Kingdom , Germany , Denmark , Norway and Belgium , starting on the night of 8 -- 9 November 2007 .", "qid": "305", "docid": "North_Sea_flood_of_2007", "rank": 98, "score": 71131 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Southeast Europe floods Content: Between 13 and 18 May 2014 a low-pressure cyclone designated Tamara and Yvette affected a large area of Southeastern and Central Europe , causing floods and landslides . Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered the greatest damage , as the rain was the heaviest in 120 years of recorded weather measurements . By 20 May , at least 62 people had died as a result of the flooding , and hundreds of thousands had been forced from their homes . Towns of Obrenovac in Serbia and Doboj in Republika Srpska account for most victims , after being inundated by several-meter high waters from nearby rivers . Floodwaters caused over 2,000 landslides across the Balkan region , spreading damage across many towns and villages . The rains activated torrents and mudslides , and subsequently several rivers in watersheds of Sava and Morava rose and flooded surrounding valleys . Official counts indicate that over 1.6 million people were affected in Serbia and Bosnia , after a week of flooding . Assessments of the damage range up to 3.5 billions $ for Serbia , Bosnia and Herzegovina . Damage in Serbia , jointly estimated by EU , World Bank group and UN officials , stands at 1,55 billion euros . Officials in Bosnia stated that the damage could exceed that of the Bosnian War . The events initiated a large international aid campaign , with numerous countries , organizations and individuals donating humanitarian , material and monetary support for the affected areas .", "qid": "305", "docid": "2014_Southeast_Europe_floods", "rank": 99, "score": 71086 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (Doyle novel) Content: Flood is a 2002 disaster thriller novel by Richard Doyle . Set in present-day London , the novel depicts a disastrous flood and fire of London , caused by a storm , and the consequential accident at an oil refinery , and failure of the Thames Barrier . The plot is similar to his 1976 novel Deluge , updated to include the construction of the Thames Flood Barrier . The book was adapted into a 2007 disaster film , Flood , directed by Tony Mitchell .", "qid": "305", "docid": "Flood_(Doyle_novel)", "rank": 100, "score": 71084 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Droughts in the United States Content: Drought in the United States is similar to that of other portions of the globe . Below normal precipitation leads to drought , which is caused by an above average persistence of high pressure over the drought area . Changes in the track of extratropical cyclones , which can occur during climate cycles such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation , or ENSO , as well as the North Atlantic Oscillation , Pacific Decadal Oscillation , and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation , modulates which areas would be more prone to drought and when drought develops . Increased drought frequency is expected to be one of the effects of global warming . In dry areas , removing grass cover and going with a more natural vegetation for the area can reduce the impact of drought , since a significant amount of fresh water is used to keep lawns green . Droughts are periodic , alternating with floods over a series of years . The worst droughts in the history of the United States occurred during the 1930s and 1950s , periods of time known as ` Dust Bowl ' years in which droughts lead to significant economic damages and social changes . In particular , relief and health agencies became overburdened and many local community banks had to close .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Droughts_in_the_United_States", "rank": 1, "score": 108879 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Saskatchewan Content: The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Saskatchewan", "rank": 2, "score": 101341 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "306", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 3, "score": 94964 }, { "content": "Title: Drought Content: A drought is a period of below-average precipitation in a given region , resulting in prolonged shortages in its water supply , whether atmospheric , surface water or ground water . A drought can last for months or years , or may be declared after as few as 15 days . It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region and harm to the local economy . Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing and subsequent bush fires . Periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour . Many plant species , such as those in the family Cactaceae ( or cacti ) , have drought tolerance adaptations like reduced leaf area and waxy cuticles to enhance their ability to tolerate drought . Some others survive dry periods as buried seeds . Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes such as deserts and grasslands . Prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and humanitarian crises . Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity . The most prolonged drought ever in the world in recorded history occurred in the Atacama Desert in Chile ( 400 Years ) .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought", "rank": 4, "score": 94556 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 5, "score": 89794 }, { "content": "Title: Roger Pulwarty Content: Roger S. Pulwarty is a scientist from Trinidad and Tobago and contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He is the director of the US National Integrated Drought Information System at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) in Boulder , Colorado . Roger Pulwarty earned a B.S. degree ( Hons . ) in Atmospheric Sciences from York University in Toronto in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Climatology from the University of Boulder at Colorado in 1994 , where he worked under Professors Roger Barry and Herbert Riehl . His research and publications are on climate , climate impacts and adaptation policy in Western North America , Latin America and the Caribbean . From 1998-2002 he was the program director for the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments . He is Professor Adjunct at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of the West Indies . Dr. Pulwarty is a lead author on Chapter 17 of the 2007 IPCC Working Group II on Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability , on the IPCC 2008 Technical Report on Climate Change and Water and on Synthesis and Assessments Reports of the US Global Change Research Program . The IPCC is an intergovernmental body mandated by the UN to study the origins and effects of climate change on society and ecosystems . Dr. Pulwarty has served on Committees of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , and has provided testimonies before the U.S. Congress on climate , water resources and adaptation . Dr. Pulwarty acts in advisory roles on climate , natural resources , and disaster management to several U.S. and international interests including the Western Governors Association , the Department of the Interior , the governments of CARICOM ( the Caribbean Economic Community ) , the Organization of American States , the UNDP , UNEP and the World Bank .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Roger_Pulwarty", "rank": 6, "score": 88545 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in India Content: Drought in India has resulted in tens of millions of deaths over the course of the 18th , 19th , and 20th centuries . Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on the climate of India : a favorable southwest summer monsoon is critical in securing water for irrigating Indian crops . In some parts of India , the failure of the monsoons result in water shortages , resulting in below-average crop yields . This is particularly true of major drought-prone regions such as southern and eastern Maharashtra , northern Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh , Odisha , Gujarat , Telangana and Rajasthan", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_India", "rank": 7, "score": 85265 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 8, "score": 84281 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–12 La Niña event Content: The 2010 -- 12 La Niña event was one of the strongest on record . It caused Australia to experience its wettest September on record in 2010 , and its second-wettest year on record in 2010 . It also led to an unusual intensification of the Leeuwin Current , the 2010 Pakistan floods , the 2010 -- 11 Queensland floods , and the 2011 East Africa drought . It also helped keep the average global temperature below recent trends , leading to 2011 tying with 1997 for the 14th-warmest year on record .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2010–12_La_Niña_event", "rank": 9, "score": 83886 }, { "content": "Title: World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought Content: The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is a United Nations observance each June 17 . Its purpose is to highlight ways to prevent desertification and recover from drought . Each annual celebration has a different theme . It should be celebrated all over the world . This day was proclaimed on January 30 , 1995 by the United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/49 / 115 after the daz when United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is drafted .", "qid": "306", "docid": "World_Day_to_Combat_Desertification_and_Drought", "rank": 10, "score": 83173 }, { "content": "Title: 2012–13 North American drought Content: The 2012 -- 13 North American drought , an expansion of the 2010 -- 13 Southern United States drought , originated in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave . Low snowfall amounts in winter , coupled with the intense summer heat from La Niña , caused drought-like conditions to migrate northward from the southern United States , wreaking havoc on crops and water supply . The drought has inflicted , and is expected to continue to inflict , catastrophic economic ramifications for the affected states . It has exceeded , in most measures , the 1988 -- 89 North American drought , the most recent comparable drought , and is on track to exceed that drought as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history . The drought includes most of the U.S. , parts of Mexico , and central and Eastern Canada . At its peak on July 17 , 2012 , it covered approximately 81 percent of the contiguous United States with at least abnormally dry ( D0 ) conditions . Out of that 81 % , 64 % was designated as at least moderate drought ( D1 ) conditions . Its area was comparable to the droughts in the 1930s and 1950s but it has not yet been in place for as long . In March 2013 , heavy winter rains broke a three-year pattern of drought in much of the Southeastern United States , while drought conditions still plague the Great Plains and other parts of the U.S. , according to the U.S. Drought Monitor . Drought continued in parts of North America through 2013 . Beginning in March 2013 , improved rainfall across the Midwest , southern Mississippi Valley , and Great Plains began gradually alleviating drought in these areas , while drought continued to intensify in the Western United States . Heavy rains across previously drought-stricken areas resulted in widespread flooding in portions of the Midwest , a phenomenon which was named `` weather whiplash '' . By June 2013 , approximately the eastern half of the United States was drought-free , while conditions continued to gradually improve across the Plains . Moderate to severe drought continues to impact and worsen throughout the western United States , with some portions of the United States being afflicted by the drought for over three years . Through the winter of 2013 -- 2014 , California continued to receive record low rainfall . For many locations , the calendar year of 2013 was the driest year in over 130 years . Some locations received less than half of their previous record low rainfall amounts .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2012–13_North_American_drought", "rank": 11, "score": 83060 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Canada Content: Prolonged , large-area droughts are among Canada 's costliest natural disasters having major impacts on a wide range of sectors including agriculture , forestry , industry , municipalities , recreation , human health , society and ecosystems . They frequently stress water availability by depleting soil moisture , reducing stream flows , lowering lake and reservoir levels , and diminishing groundwater supplies . This ultimately affects several economic activities including for example , decreased agricultural production , less hydro-electric power generation , and increased freshwater transportation costs . Droughts also create major environmental hazards such as reduced water quality , wetland loss , soil erosion and degradation , and ecological habitat destruction . Although most regions of Canada have experienced drought , many of the southern regions of the Canadian Prairies and interior British Columbia are most susceptible . During the past two centuries , at least 40 droughts have occurred in western Canada with multi-year episodes being observed in the 1890s , 1910s , 1930s , 1960s , 1980s , and the early 2000s . Droughts in southern Ontario/Quebec are usually shorter , smaller in area , less frequent , and less intense . Nonetheless , there have been some major drought occurrences there as well during the 20th century . Droughts in the Atlantic Provinces occur even less frequently . Droughts are less of a concern for northern Canada mainly due to their lower population densities . However , increased frequencies of forest fires during drought years can have serious economic impacts . Rarely has drought been as serious or extensive as the recent 1999-2004 episode . This was the worst drought for at least a hundred years in parts of the Canadian Prairies . Well below normal precipitation was reported in areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan for more than four consecutive years extending from autumn 1999 to spring 2004 . No single year on record between Medicine Hat , Kindersley , and Saskatoon was drier than in 2001 . The years 2001 and 2002 may have also brought the first coast-to-coast droughts on record , and were rare as they struck areas less accustomed to dealing with droughts including parts of Atlantic Canada and the northern agricultural prairies ( see Figure 1 ) . Canada 's Gross Domestic Product fell $ 5.8 billion for 2001 and 2002 . In addition , previously reliable water supplies such as streams , wetlands , reservoirs , and groundwater were placed under stress and often failed . For example , the number of natural Prairie ponds in May 2002 was the lowest on record while in 2001 , Great Lakes-St . Lawrence water levels plunged to their lowest point in more than 30 years , thereby significantly increasing marine transportation costs . In British Columbia and Manitoba , hydro-electric generation was curtailed , necessitating additional purchases of power from neighboring jurisdictions . In 2002 , the incidence of forest fires in Alberta increased to five times the ten-year average while in summer 2003 , populated regions of interior British Columbia were stricken by drought-enhanced fires . Long-lasting impacts include soil degradation by wind erosion and deterioration of grasslands that could take decades and longer to recover . High surface temperatures intensify droughts by enhancing evapotranspiration in summer , and increasing sublimation and melting of the snowpack during winter . During the 20th century , mean annual air temperature has increased by around 1 ° C over southern Canada with the greatest warming in the west and the largest rates during winter and spring . Over the same period , annual precipitation has significantly increased over most of southern Canada with the exception of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan . Coincident with the large increases in spring temperature , the 1980s to the present have been associated with rapid reductions in snow cover during the second half of the snow season . Over the last 30 to 50 years , average stream flow has decreased in many parts of Canada with significant reductions in the south . Great Lakes ' water levels have shown substantial variability during the 20th century with no evidence of a long-term trend . Lower levels coincided with the droughts of the 1930s , early 1960s , and the recent 1999-2001 dry period . Over the Prairies , the numbers and water levels of wetlands have shown no clear trend over the last 40 to 50 years . Indices used to measure drought show considerable decadal-scale variability with no long-term trends discernible in any portion of the country . Most southern regions of Canada , however , experienced drought conditions during the late 1990s to early 2000s . The worst and most prolonged Canadian Prairie-wide droughts during the instrumental period occurred in the early part of the 20th century ( 1920s and 1930s ) . Paleo studies over the southwestern Canadian Prairies using tree ring chronologies dating back to 1597 indicate that the 20th century lacked the prolonged droughts of the 18th and 19th Centuries when droughts were evident for decades at a time .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_Canada", "rank": 12, "score": 82697 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "306", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 13, "score": 81814 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "306", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 14, "score": 81269 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "306", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 15, "score": 81092 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in the United Kingdom Content: Droughts are a relatively common feature of the weather in the United Kingdom , with one around every 5 -- 10 years on average . These droughts are usually during the summer , when a blocking high causes hot , dry weather for an extended period . However droughts can vary in their characteristics . All types of drought cause issues across all sectors , with impacts extending to the ecosystem , agriculture and the economy of the whole country in severe cases of drought . The south east of the country usually suffers most , as it has the highest population ( and therefore demand ) and the lowest average precipitation per year , which is even lower in a drought . Even in these areas in severe droughts , the definition , impacts , effects and management are all minimal in comparison to drought prone areas such as Australia and parts of the United States . In recent years however , the summers of 2007 , 2008 , 2009 and August 2010 were wetter than normal , 2007 being wettest on record .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 16, "score": 80525 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Exchanges Content: The Global Energy and Water cycle Exchanges project (abbreviated GEWEX, formerly named the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment from 1990 to 2012) is an international research project and a core project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). In the beginning, the project intended to observe, comprehend and model the Earth's water cycle. The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives, studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed. Sunlight's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain, and dries out land masses after rain. Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes. GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere. If the Earth's climates were identical from year to year, then people could predict when, where and what crops to plant. However, instability created by solar variation, weather trends, and chaotic events creates weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales. Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities. GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data, and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future.", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Exchanges", "rank": 17, "score": 79984 }, { "content": "Title: 2000s Australian drought Content: The 2000s drought in Australia , also known as the Millennium drought is said by some to be the worst drought recorded since European settlement . The drought affected most of southern Australia , including its largest cities and largest agricultural region ( the Murray-Darling basin ) . It commenced with low rainfall conditions in late 1996 and through 1997 , and worsened through particularly dry years in 2001 and 2002 . By 2003 it was recognised as the worst drought on record . The year 2006 was the driest on record for many parts of the country and conditions remained hot and dry through to early 2010 . The emergence of La Niña weather conditions in 2010 rapidly ended the drought , and led to floods in some locations . The drought placed extreme pressure on agricultural production and urban water supply in much of southern Australia . It has led to the construction of six major seawater desalination plants to provide water to Australia 's major cities , and to changes in the management of water in the Murray-Darling basin , particularly the formation of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2000s_Australian_drought", "rank": 18, "score": 79968 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 19, "score": 79943 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 20, "score": 79498 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Afghanistan Content: There have been several seasons of drought in Afghanistan in recent decades . According to an analysis of climate and drought records Asia Development Bank , localized droughts have a periodicity of three to five years , and droughts covering large areas recur every 9-11 years . South and central areas are more affected from July through September . Afghanistan began experiencing unusual droughts beginning in 1995 , right after the Taliban emerged . It remained this way until heavy snow began falling in the 2002-2003 winter season , after the new Karzai administration took over . This relief did not last long as the country began to see more droughts in the coming years . Drought combined with conflict has created internally displaced populations that are living in extremely poor conditions . Many communities continue to depend on meager incomes derived by migrating outside their farmlands . Inadequate rains and snowfall during 2008 to 2010 in parts of Afghanistan caused significant failure of the rain-fed crops in the provinces six provinces : Herat , Jawzjan , Balkh , Badghis , Faryab and Sar-e-Pul . The situation affected the most vulnerable populations and their access to food and water , negatively impacting on communities ' health and nutrition status . However , in 2012 Afghanistan 's long drought has ended due to heavy snow .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_Afghanistan", "rank": 21, "score": 79041 }, { "content": "Title: Megadrought Content: A megadrought ( or mega-drought ) is a prolonged drought lasting two decades or longer . Past megadroughts have been associated with persistent multiyear La Niña conditions ( cooler than normal water temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean ) . The term megadrought is generally used to describe the length of a drought , and not its acute intensity . In scientific literature the term is used to describe decades-long droughts or multi-decadal droughts . Multiyear droughts of less than a decade , such as the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s , are generally not described as megadroughts even though they are of a long duration . In popular literature multiyear or even single year droughts are occasionally described as megadroughts based upon their severity , the economic damage they inflict or other criteria , but this is the exception and not the rule .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Megadrought", "rank": 22, "score": 78502 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on island nations Content: Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_island_nations", "rank": 23, "score": 78284 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 24, "score": 77815 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Spain Content: Droughts in Spain mainly happen in the south east . These droughts are usually confined to summer , with hot , dry weather for an extended period . However , droughts can vary in their characteristics . All types of drought cause issues across all sectors , with impacts extending to the ecosystem , agriculture and the economy of the whole country in severe cases of drought . The south east usually suffers most , as it has the lowest average precipitation per year , which is even lower in a drought . The drought , along with high winds and fallen cables , is being looked at as a prime causal factor in the massive forest fires . In 2012 Spain experienced the driest period since the 1940s , with rainfall decreased by up to 75 % .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_Spain", "rank": 25, "score": 77777 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Northeastern Brazil Content: The drought in the Northeast region of Brazil is a natural phenomenon resulting from lack of rain in the aforementioned region of Brazil , which has high temperatures with low rainfall during the year .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_Northeastern_Brazil", "rank": 26, "score": 77344 }, { "content": "Title: Xerochore Content: XEROCHORE is an Exercise to Assess Research Needs and Policy Choices in Areas of Drought founded by European Commission under the FP7-Theme 6 , Environment ( Including Climate Change ) , and it is aimed at assisting in the development of a European Drought Policy in accordance with the EU-Water Framework Directive ( EU-WFD .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Xerochore", "rank": 27, "score": 76672 }, { "content": "Title: 1983 United States drought Content: The 1983 United States drought , also known as the US Drought of 1983 , was an extreme drought that was accompanied by heat waves across several portions of the United States .", "qid": "306", "docid": "1983_United_States_drought", "rank": 28, "score": 76405 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming taxes Content:", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_warming_taxes", "rank": 29, "score": 75913 }, { "content": "Title: Drought (sport) Content: In sports , a drought refers to instances in which an individual or team has gone through a lengthy period of time without accomplishing some goal . For a team , this usually refers to an extended period of time without making the playoffs or winning a championship . Droughts occur for a variety of reasons , from chronic mismanagement to bad luck . Some droughts are also popularly attributed to a curse .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_(sport)", "rank": 30, "score": 75883 }, { "content": "Title: WaterGAP Content: The global freshwater model WaterGAP calculates flows and storages of water on all continents of the globe ( except Antarctica ) , taking into account the human influence on the natural freshwater system by water abstractions and dams . It supports understanding the freshwater situation across the world 's river basins during the 20th and the 21st century , and is applied to assess water scarcity , droughts and floods and to quantify the impact of human actions on freshwater . Modelling results of WaterGAP have contributed to international assessment of the global environmental situation including the UN World Water Development Reports , the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment , the UN Global Environmental Outlooks as well as to reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . They were included in the 2012 Environmental Performance Index which ranks countries according to their environmental performance ( index for impact of human water use on ecosystems ) . WaterGAP ( Water Global Assessment and Prognosis ) has been developed at the University of Kassel ( Germany ) since 1996 , and since 2003 also at the University of Frankfurt ( Germany ) . It consists of both the WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model ( WGHM ) and five water use models for the sectors irrigation , livestock , households , manufacturing and cooling of thermal power plants . An additional model component computes the fractions of total water use that are abstracted from either groundwater or surface waters ( rivers , lakes and reservoirs ) . All computations are done with a temporal resolution of 1 day and a spatial resolution of 0.5 ° geographical latitude × 0.5 ° geographical longitude , which is equivalent to 55 km × 55 km at the equator . Model input includes time series of climate data ( e.g. precipitation , temperature and solar radiation ) and physiogeographic information like characteristics of surface water bodies ( lakes , reservoirs and wetlands ) , land cover , soil type , topography and irrigated area .", "qid": "306", "docid": "WaterGAP", "rank": 31, "score": 75786 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 32, "score": 75304 }, { "content": "Title: National Integrated Drought Information System Content: The National Integrated Drought Information System ( NIDIS ) Act was signed into law in 2006 ( Public Law 109-430 ) . The Western Governors ' Association described the need for NIDIS in a 2004 report , Creating a Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century : The National Integrated Drought Information System . The NIDIS Act calls for an interagency , multi-partner approach to drought monitoring , forecasting , and early warning , led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . NIDIS is being developed to consolidate data on drought 's physical , hydrological , and socio-economic impacts on an ongoing basis , to develop drought decision support and simulation tools for critical , drought-sensitive areas , and to enable proactive planning by those affected by drought . NIDIS draws on the personnel , experience , and networks of the National Drought Mitigation Center , the NOAA Regional Climate Centers , and the Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments ( RISAs ) , among others . Federal agencies and departments partnering in NIDIS include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , the Bureau of Reclamation , the U.S. Geological Survey , NASA , the U.S. Department of Energy , the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , the National Science Foundation , and the Natural Resources Conservation Service . NIDIS is building on existing system infrastructure , data , and operational products from various agencies . For example , it incorporates data from the SNOTEL ( SNOw TELemetry ) network of the U.S. Department of Agriculture 's Natural Resources Conservation Service , reservoir and streamflow levels from the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , and river forecasts from the National Weather Service . It incorporates operational products such as the U.S. Drought Monitor and the Seasonal Drought Outlook . Researchers are working to help decision-makers in many contexts by making drought monitoring , forecasting , and impacts information available at a variety of spatial scales and geopolitical boundaries , including regional , watershed , county and tribal . NIDIS is a prototype for information services , in support of preparing for and adapting to climate variation and change . In late 2007 , NIDIS launched the U.S. Drought Portal , or drought.gov , a website that pulls together many federal , state , and academic resources for monitoring drought . The NIDIS Program is supported by the NOAA Climate Program Office and is housed at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder , Colorado .", "qid": "306", "docid": "National_Integrated_Drought_Information_System", "rank": 33, "score": 75267 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Ocean Conference Content: The 2017 United Nations Ocean Conference was a United Nations conference that took place on June 5th-9th 2017 which sought to mobilize action for the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources.The Earth's waters are said to be \"under threat as never before\", with pollution, overfishing, and the effects of climate change severely damaging the health of our oceans. For instance as oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, biodiversity is becoming reduced and changing currents will cause more frequent storms and droughts. Every year around 8 million metric tons of plastic waste leak into the ocean and make it into the circular ocean currents. This causes contamination of sediments at the sea-bottom and causes plastic waste to be embedded in the aquatic food chain. It could lead to oceans containing more plastics than fish by 2050 if nothing is done. Key habitats such as coral reefs are at risk and noise pollution are a threat to whales, dolphins, and other species. Furthermore almost 90 percent of fish stocks are overfished or fully exploited which cost more than $80 billion a year in lost revenues.UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that decisive, coordinated global action can solve the problems created by Humanity. Peter Thomson, President of the UN General Assembly, highlighted the conference's significance, saying \"if we want a secure future for our species on this planet, we have to act now on the health of the ocean and on climate change\".The conference sought to find ways and urge for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. Its theme is \"Our oceans, our future: partnering for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14\". It also asked governments, UN bodies, and civil society groups to make voluntary commitments for action to improve the health of the oceans with over 1,000 commitments − such as on managing protected areas − being made.", "qid": "306", "docid": "United_Nations_Ocean_Conference", "rank": 34, "score": 75138 }, { "content": "Title: 1955 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The UK drought of 1955 and associated heatwave were a set of severe weather events that occurred over all parts of the country . The drought was the 7th worst drought in Yorkshire , and worse than the famous 1976 drought and heatwave in the region . The drought followed a period of extremely wet weather previous to the event , limiting the effects . However , the usual impacts were seen with water levels and the water table dropping and reservoirs running low .", "qid": "306", "docid": "1955_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 35, "score": 75124 }, { "content": "Title: Drought (disambiguation) Content: A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply . Drought may also refer to : Drought ( sport ) , an instance in which a team has gone a lengthy period of time without accomplishing some goal Drought ( EP ) , an EP by Deathspell Omega", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_(disambiguation)", "rank": 36, "score": 74771 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Turkey Content:", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Turkey", "rank": 37, "score": 74643 }, { "content": "Title: Permanent Interstate Committee for drought control in the Sahel Content: The Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel ( French : Comité permanent inter-État de lutte contre la sécheresse au Sahel , abbreviated as CILSS ) is an international organization consisting of countries in the Sahel region of Africa . According to the official homepage , the organization 's mandate is to invest in research for food security and the fight against the effects of drought and desertification for a new ecological balance in the Sahel . The Sahel is a transition area between the very dry North and tropical forests on the coast . It mostly displays bushes , herbs and very small trees and does not offer regular harvests to its inhabitants . Main characteristics include : a very irregular and little predictable rainfall , from 200 mm to 2500 mm predominance of agriculture and husbandry . More than half of the inhabitants are farmers and agriculture contributes more than 40 % to the PIB high demographic growth ( around 3.1 % ) and high urban growth ( around 7 % ) The CILSS was created in 1973 during the first great drought in the region with the aim of mobilizing the population in the Sahel and the international community to facilitate urgent need and the organization of works in various domains i.e. rainfed and irrigated agriculture , environment , transport , and communication . In 1995 it centered its activities on basic food security and the use of natural resources . The executive office is located in Ouagadougou , Burkina Faso . List of countries that are a member : Burkina Faso Cape Verde Gambia Guinea-Bissau Mali Mauritania Niger Senegal Chad", "qid": "306", "docid": "Permanent_Interstate_Committee_for_drought_control_in_the_Sahel", "rank": 38, "score": 74564 }, { "content": "Title: Sahel drought Content: The Sahel has long experienced a series of historic droughts , dating back to at least the 17th century . The Sahel region is a climate zone sandwiched between the African Savannah grasslands to the south and the Sahara desert to the north , across West and Central Africa . While the frequency of drought in the region is thought to have increased from the end of the 19th century , three long droughts have had dramatic environmental and societal effects upon the Sahel nations . Famine followed severe droughts in the 1910s , the 1940s , and the 1960s , 1970s and 1980s , although a partial recovery occurred from 1975-80 . The most recent drought occurred in 2012 . While at least one particularly severe drought has been confirmed each century since the 17th century , the frequency and severity of recent Sahelian droughts stands out . Famine and dislocation on a massive scale -- from 1968 to 1974 and again in the early and mid-1980s -- was blamed on two spikes in the severity of the 1960-1980s drought period . From the late 1960s to early 1980s famine killed 100,000 people , left 750,000 dependent on food aid , and affected most of the Sahel 's 50 million people . The economies , agriculture , livestock and human populations of much of Mauritania , Mali , Chad , Niger and Burkina Faso ( known as Upper Volta during the time of the drought ) were severely impacted . As disruptive as the droughts of the late 20th century were , evidence of past droughts recorded in Ghanaian lake sediments suggest that multi-decadal megadroughts were common in West Africa over the past 3,000 years and that several droughts lasted far longer and were far more severe . Since the 1980s , summer rainfall in the Sahel has been increasing ; this has been associated with an increase in vegetation , forming what has been called a ` greening ' of the Sahel . The observed increase in rainfall is accounted for by enhancements in the African easterly jet , which is known to induce wet anomalies . A 2011 study found that the positional shifts in the African easterly jet and African easterly waves accompanied the northward migration of the Sahel rainband .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Sahel_drought", "rank": 39, "score": 74548 }, { "content": "Title: Drinking water supply and sanitation in the United States Content: Issues that affect drinking water supply and sanitation in the United States include water scarcity , pollution , a backlog of investment , concerns about the affordability of water for the poorest , and a rapidly retiring workforce . Increased variability and intensity of rainfall as a result of climate change is expected to produce both more severe droughts and flooding , with potentially serious consequences for water supply and for pollution from combined sewer overflows . Droughts are likely to particularly affect the 66 percent of Americans whose communities depend on surface water . As for drinking water quality , there are concerns about disinfection by-products , lead , perchlorates and pharmaceutical substances , but generally drinking water quality in the U.S. is good . Cities , utilities , state governments and the federal government have addressed the above issues in various ways . To keep pace with demand from an increasing population , utilities traditionally have augmented supplies . However , faced with increasing costs and droughts , water conservation is beginning to receive more attention and is being supported through the federal WaterSense program . The reuse of treated wastewater for non-potable uses is also becoming increasingly common . Pollution through wastewater discharges , a major issue in the 1960s , has been brought largely under control . Most Americans are served by publicly owned water and sewer utilities . Eleven percent of Americans receive water from private ( so-called `` investor-owned '' ) utilities . In rural areas , cooperatives often provide drinking water . Finally , up to 15 percent of Americans are served by their own wells . Water supply and wastewater systems are regulated by state governments and the federal government . At the state level , health and environmental regulation is entrusted to the corresponding state-level departments . Public Utilities Commissions or Public Service Commissions regulate tariffs charged by private utilities . In some states they also regulate tariffs by public utilities . At the federal level , drinking water quality and wastewater discharges are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , which also provides funding to utilities through State Revolving Funds . Water consumption in the United States is more than double that in Central Europe , with large variations among the states . In 2002 the average American family spent $ 474 on water and sewerage charges , which is about the same level as in Europe . The median household spent about 1.1 percent of its income on water and sewage .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drinking_water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_United_States", "rank": 40, "score": 74492 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "306", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 41, "score": 74445 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Australia Content: Drought in Australia is defined by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as rainfall over a three-month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past . This definition takes into account that drought is a relative term and rainfall deficiencies need to be compared to typical rainfall patterns including seasonal variations . Specifically drought in Australia is defined in relation to a rainfall deficiency of pastoral leases and is determined by decile analysis applied to a certain area . Note that this definition uses rainfall only because long-term records are widely available across most of Australia . However , it does not take into account other variables that might be important for establishing surface water balance , such as evaporation and condensation . Historical climatic records are now sufficiently reliable to profile climate variability taking into account expectations for regions . Bureau of Meteorology records since the 1860s show that a ` severe ' drought has occurred in Australia , on average , once every 18 years . State Governments are responsible for declaring a region drought affected and the declaration will take into account factors other than rainfall . The worst drought to affect the country occurred in the 21st century -- between the years 2003 to 2012 . Nonetheless , many regions of Australia are still in significant drought and rainfall records have showed a marked decrease in precipitation levels since 1994 , with many scientists attributing this to climate change and global warming . Deficiencies in northern Australia increased in 2013 -- 14 , leading to an extended drought period in certain parts of Queensland .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_Australia", "rank": 42, "score": 74246 }, { "content": "Title: Droughts in California Content: Throughout history , California has experienced many droughts , such as 1841 , 1864 , 1924 , 1928-1935 , 1947-1950 , 1959-1960 , 1976-1977 , 2006-2010 , and 2012-2017 . As the most populous state in the United States and a major agricultural producer , drought in California can have a severe economic as well as environmental impact . Drought may be due solely or in combination to weather conditions ; economic or political actions ; or population and farming . The article will touch on the causes of drought , such as lack of new infrastructure , limited reservoir capacity , leaky distribution systems , etc. . . Also following up with the effects of these droughts and their impacts on the state of California , short term and long term . Then discussing the top historically droughts throughout history and finishing with possible responses , which will discuss mitigation and adaptation to the droughts that can possibly be implemented .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Droughts_in_California", "rank": 43, "score": 74011 }, { "content": "Title: 1988–89 North American drought Content: The North American Drought of 1988 ranks among the worst episodes of drought in the United States . This multi-year drought began in most areas in 1988 and continued into 1989 . The drought caused $ 60 billion ( 1988 United States dollars ) in damage ( $ 120 billion in 2014 United States dollars , adjusting for inflation ) . The drought occasioned some of the worst blowing-dust events since 1977 or the 1930s in many locations in the Midwestern United States , including a protracted dust storm , which closed schools in South Dakota in late February 1988 . During the spring , several weather stations set records for lowest monthly total precipitation and longest interval between measurable precipitation , for example , 55 days in a row without precipitation in Milwaukee . During the summer , two record-setting heat waves developed , similar to those of 1934 and 1936 . The concurrent heat waves killed 4,800 to 17,000 people in the United States . During the summer of 1988 , the drought led to many wildfires in forested western North America , including the Yellowstone fires of 1988 . At its peak , the drought covered 45 % of the United States . While covering less area than the Dust Bowl , which covered 70 % of the United States , the drought of 1988 ranks as not only the costliest drought in United States history but also the costliest natural disaster in United States history before Hurricane Katrina . In Canada , drought-related losses added to $ 1.8 billion ( 1988 Canadian dollars ) .", "qid": "306", "docid": "1988–89_North_American_drought", "rank": 44, "score": 73954 }, { "content": "Title: United States Drought Monitor Content: The United States Drought Monitor is a collection of measures that allows experts to assess droughts in the United States . The monitor is not an agency but a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln , the United States Department of Agriculture , and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Different experts provide their best judgment to outline a single map every week that shows droughts throughout the United States . The effort started in 1999 as a federal , state , and academic partnership , growing out of an initiative by the Western Governors Association to provide timely and understandable scientific information on water supply and drought for policymakers . The monitor is produced by a rotating group of authors and incorporates review from a group of 250 climatologists , extension agents , and others across the nation . Each week the authors revise the previous map based on rainfall , snowfall , and other events , and observers ' reports of how drought is affecting crops , wildlife , and other indicators . Authors balance conflicting data and reports to come up with a new map every Wednesday afternoon . The map is then released on the following Thursday morning .", "qid": "306", "docid": "United_States_Drought_Monitor", "rank": 45, "score": 73669 }, { "content": "Title: Water security in Australia Content: Water security in Australia has become a major concern over the course of the late 20th and early 21st century as a result of population growth , severe drought , fears of the effects of global warming on Australia , environmental degradation from reduced environmental flows , competition between competing interests such as grazing , irrigation and urban water supplies , and competition between upstream and downstream users . Water reform was first placed on the national agenda at the 1994 Council of Australian Governments ( COAG ) meeting when a strategic framework was devised . As the knowledge of surface and groundwater systems grew and the awareness of the significance of sustainable water markets increased , further water reform was agreed to at the 2004 COAG meeting , under a national blueprint known as the National Water Initiative ( NWI ) . Australia can be divided into 12 major drainage divisions . For example , the Murray-Darling drainage division consists of the Murray River basin and the Darling River basin . Three of these drainage divisions account for 87 % of the water that Australia consumes -- the North East Coast division , the South East Coast division , and the Murray-Darling . This means that the supply of water within Australia is highly concentrated , and any defect to one of these major water divisions can cause major water security issues .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Water_security_in_Australia", "rank": 46, "score": 73272 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Vulnerable Forum Content: The Climate Vulnerable Forum ( CVF ) is a global partnership of countries that are disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming . The forum addresses the negative effects of global warming as a result of heightened socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities . These countries actively seek a firm and urgent resolution to the current intensification of climate change , domestically and internationally . The CVF was formed to increase the accountability of industrialized nations for the consequences of global climate change . It also aims to exert additional pressure for action to tackle the challenge , which includes local action by countries considered susceptible . Political leaders involved in this partnership are `` using their status as those most vulnerable to climate change to punch far above their weight at the negotiating table '' . The governments which founded the CVF agree to national commitments to pursue low-carbon development and carbon neutrality . Ethiopia became the first African Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum during the CVF High-Level Climate Policy Forum held in the Senate of the Philippines on 15 August 2016 . The Philippines was the Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris ( COP21 ) and oversaw the adoption of the body 's Manila-Paris Declaration at the Third High-Level Meeting of the Forum on 30 November 2015 . The Manila-Paris Declaration articulated the common concerns and commitments of vulnerable countries and urged the strengthening of the UNFCCC goal of limiting warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels . During this meeting the membership of the Climate Vulnerable Forum expanded to include 23 new members . In 2015 , the twenty member countries in a forum chaired by the Philippines launched the official bloc of the forum , the ` V20 ' or ` Vulnerable Twenty ' , consisting of the top 20 nations from all over the world that are most affected by the catastrophes rooted from climate change . The members of the bloc are Afghanistan , Bangladesh , Barbados , Bhutan , Costa Rica , Ethiopia , Ghana , Kenya , Kiribati , Madagascar , Maldives , Nepal , Philippines , Rwanda , Saint Lucia , Tanzania , Timor-Leste , Tuvalu , Vanuatu and Vietnam . During the 2nd V20 Ministerial Dialogue in April 2016 in Washington DC , the V20 recognized the 23 new members that joined the CVF in 2015 as incoming members in the V20 initiative . These countries are currently and diversely affected by various climate change problems such as super storms , storm surges , tsunamis , droughts , famine due to climate factors , food shortage as by-product of climate change , power cutting , flash floods , mud slides , desertification , heatwaves , reduction of fresh water sources , and other effects of climate change . Climate change is globally believed and scientifically proven to have incurred from the economic activities of developed and developing nations and regions such as China , the United States , and Europe .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Climate_Vulnerable_Forum", "rank": 47, "score": 73147 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–13 Southern United States and Mexico drought Content: The 2010 -- 2013 Southern United States and Mexico drought was a severe to extreme drought plaguing the US South , including parts of Texas , Oklahoma , Kansas , Colorado , New Mexico , Arizona , Louisiana , Arkansas , Mississippi , Alabama , Georgia , South Carolina , and North Carolina , as well as large parts of Mexico . The worst effects have been in Texas , where near-record drought has parched the state since January 2011 . Texas suffered an estimated $ 7.62 billion in crop and livestock losses , surpassing its record loss of $ 4.1 billion in 2006 . In Texas , combined with the rest of the South , at least $ 10 billion in agricultural losses were recorded in 2011 . In 2010 -- 11 , Texas experienced its driest August -- July ( 12-month ) period on record . The drought began due to a strong La Niña developing by the summer of 2010 which brings below average rainfall to the southern United States , the effects of the La Niña could be noticed immediately as much of the south receives important rainfall during the summer , and this was the driest summer for Texas and Georgia in the 21st century thus far , and much of the south received record low rainfall . Throughout 2011 , the drought was confined to the Deep South as the mid-south received flooding due to severe weather and tornadoes . However , the drought continued and intensified in the Deep South as Texas saw 2011 be its second-driest year on record , Oklahoma saw its fourth-driest , and Georgia saw its seventh-driest year on record . The winter of 2011 -- 12 was one of the driest winters on record for the eastern and central United States . In the spring of 2012 , the drought made a massive expansion from the Deep South to the Midwest , Mid south , Great Plains , and Ohio valley . At its peak in August 2012 the drought covered approximately 81 % of the United States . Throughout the winter of 2012 -- 13 , heavy rain and snow brought relief to the drought in the southern and eastern United States , even causing severe flooding . By March 2013 , the eastern United States was drought-free , effectively ending the 2010 -- 13 southern U.S. drought . Drought continued on the Great Plains until 2014 . However , drought developed in the western United States in 2013 and still exists today . The 2011 drought was the worst one-year drought in Texas since 1895 . The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that Lubbock , Texas has experienced the nation 's worst average level of drought since the beginning of 2011 . McAllen , Harlingen , Brownsville and Corpus Christi also ranked among the nine U.S. cities most affected by extreme drought .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2010–13_Southern_United_States_and_Mexico_drought", "rank": 48, "score": 73121 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Chile Content: Through its history Chile has been regularly affected by droughts . In the more arid parts of Chile droughts are produced when there are low amount of snow accumulation in the Andes . Chilean coastal basins without snow accumulation are particularly vulnerable to drought . The territory of Central Chile has been affected by long-term droughts in 1280 -- 1450 , 1570 -- 1650 and 1770 -- 1820 .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_Chile", "rank": 49, "score": 72605 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Caribbean drought Content: The 2015 Caribbean drought is an ongoing drought affecting the Caribbean islands , from Cuba to Trinidad and Tobago . A major reason for the drought is a paucity of precipitation due to a particularly harsh El Niño since March 2015 . The situation is further aggravated by the presence of an abnormal amount of dust and dry air over the southern Atlantic . Besides the especially hard hit island of Puerto Rico , other Caribbean islands are affected by drought conditions to varying degrees . These include Cuba , the Dominican Republic , Jamaica , St. Lucia , and Trinidad and Tobago . The drought region also extends to Guyana in the northeastern region of South America .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2015_Caribbean_drought", "rank": 50, "score": 72601 }, { "content": "Title: California drought manipulation conspiracy theory Content: The California drought manipulation conspiracy theory is promoted by a number of independent researchers , self-proclaimed scientists , and alternative news outlets . They claim the drought may be a deliberate , man-made phenomenon , created by weather modification . The theory has been dismissed by the scientific community and mainstream media as fringe science or pseudoscience .", "qid": "306", "docid": "California_drought_manipulation_conspiracy_theory", "rank": 51, "score": 72592 }, { "content": "Title: Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union Content: Throughout Russian history famines and droughts have been a common feature , often resulting in humanitarian crises traceable to political or economic instability , poor policy , environmental issues and war . Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union tended to occur fairly regularly , with famine occurring every 10 -- 13 years and droughts every 5 -- 7 years . Golubev and Dronin distinguish three types of drought according to productive areas vulnerable to droughts : Central ( the Volga basin , North Caucasus and the Central Chernozem Region ) , Southern ( Volga and Volga-Vyatka area , the Ural region , and Ukraine ) , and Eastern ( steppe and forest-steppe belts in Western and Eastern Siberia , and Kazakhstan ) .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Droughts_and_famines_in_Russia_and_the_Soviet_Union", "rank": 52, "score": 72523 }, { "content": "Title: The Drought (disambiguation) Content: The Drought is a 1965 science fiction novel by British author J. G. Ballard . The Drought may also refer to : The Drought ( album ) , a 2006 blues-rock album `` The Drought '' ( SATC episode ) , a 1998 television episode", "qid": "306", "docid": "The_Drought_(disambiguation)", "rank": 53, "score": 72401 }, { "content": "Title: Palmer drought index Content: The Palmer drought index , sometimes called the Palmer drought severity index and often abbreviated PDSI , is a measurement of dryness based on recent precipitation and temperature . It was developed by meteorologist Wayne Palmer , who first published his method in the 1965 paper Meteorological Drought for the Office of Climatology of the U.S. Weather Bureau . The Palmer Drought Index is based on a supply-and-demand model of soil moisture . Supply is comparatively straightforward to calculate , but demand is more complicated as it depends on many factors , not just temperature and the amount of moisture in the soil but also hard-to-calibrate factors including evapotranspiration and recharge rates . Palmer tried to overcome these difficulties by developing an algorithm that approximated them based on the most readily available data , precipitation and temperature . The index has proven most effective in determining long-term drought , a matter of several months , but it is not as good with conditions over a matter of weeks . It uses a 0 as normal , and drought is shown in terms of negative numbers ; for example , negative 2 is moderate drought , negative 3 is severe drought , and negative 4 is extreme drought . Palmer 's algorithm also is used to describe wet spells , using corresponding positive numbers . Palmer also developed a formula for standardizing drought calculations for each individual location based on the variability of precipitation and temperature at that location . The Palmer index can therefore be applied to any site for which sufficient precipitation and temperature data is available . Critics have complained that the utility of the Palmer index is weakened by the arbitrary nature of Palmer 's algorithms , including the technique used for standardization . The Palmer index 's inability to account for snow and frozen ground also is cited as a weakness . The Palmer index is widely used operationally , with Palmer maps published weekly by the United States Government 's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . It also has been used by climatologists to standardize global long-term drought analysis . Global Palmer data sets have been developed based on instrumental records beginning in the 19th century . In addition , dendrochronology has been used to generate estimated Palmer index values for North America for the past 2000 years , allowing analysis of long term drought trends . It has also been used as a means of explaining the late Bronze Age collapse . In the US , regional Palmer maps are featured on the cable channel Weatherscan .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Palmer_drought_index", "rank": 54, "score": 72214 }, { "content": "Title: Drought (EP) Content: Drought is an EP by Deathspell Omega . It is the band 's first release of new material since their 2010 album Paracletus . It is the final release included in the band 's 2012 vinyl box set incorporating the trilogy and related works , suggesting that the band regards it as thematically connected , and can be regarded as an epilogue to the trilogy .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_(EP)", "rank": 55, "score": 72107 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 56, "score": 72099 }, { "content": "Title: Hell and High Water (book) Content: Hell and High Water : Global Warming -- the Solution and the Politics -- and What We Should Do is a book by author , scientist , and former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph J. Romm , published December 26 , 2006 . The author is `` one of the world 's leading experts on clean energy , advanced vehicles , energy security , and greenhouse gas mitigation . '' The book warns of dire consequences to the U.S. and the world if wide-scale environmental changes are not enacted by the U.S. government within the next decade . It reviews the evidence that the current initial global warming changes will lead to accelerated warming . According to Romm , the oceans , soils , Arctic permafrost , and rainforests may become sources of greenhouse gas emissions . The book claims that , without serious government action within the next ten years , sea levels will rise high enough to submerge numerous coastal communities and inland areas on both U.S. coasts and around the world by the year 2100 . In April 2008 , TIME magazine wrote that `` On -LSB- Romm 's -RSB- blog and in his most recent book , Hell and High Water , you can find some of the most cogent , memorable , and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming . '' Romm was interviewed on Fox News on January 31 , 2007 about the book and the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report climate report .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Hell_and_High_Water_(book)", "rank": 57, "score": 71876 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Content: The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment ( GEWEX ) is a research program of the World Climate Research Programme intended to observe , comprehend and model the Earth 's water cycle . The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives , studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed . Sunlight 's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain , and dries out land masses after rain . Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes . GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere . If the Earth 's climates were identical from year to year , then people could predict when , where and what crops to plant . However , instability created by solar variation , weather trends , and chaotic events create weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales . Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities . GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data , and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future . GEWEX is organized into several structures . As GEWEX was conceived projects were organized by participating factions , this task is now done by the International GEWEX Project Office ( IGPO ) . IGPO oversees major initiatives and coordinates between national projects in an effort to bring about communication of researchers . IGPO claims to support communication exchange between 2000 scientist and is the instrument for publication of major reports . The Scientific Steering Group organizes the projects and assigns them to panels , which oversee progress and provide critique . The Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project ( CEOP ) the ` Hydrology Project ' is a major instrument in GEWEX . This panel includes geographic study areas such as the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas operated by NOAA , but also examines several types of climate zones ( e.g. high altitude and semi-arid ) . Another panel , the GEWEX Radiation Panel oversees the coordinated use of satellites and ground based observation to better estimate energy and water fluxes . One recent result GEWEX 's Radiation panel has assessed data on rainfall for the last 25 years and determined that global rainfall is 2.61 mm/day with a small statistical variation . While the study period is short , after 25 years of measurement regional trends are beginning to appear . The GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel takes current models and analyzes the models when climate forcing phenomena occur ( global warming as an example of a ` climate forcing ' event ) . GEWEX is now the core project of WCRP .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Cycle_Experiment", "rank": 58, "score": 71831 }, { "content": "Title: Drought Research Initiative Content: The Drought Research Initiative ( DRI ) was established to better understand the physical characteristics of and processes influencing Canadian Prairie droughts , and to contribute to their better prediction , through a focus on the recent severe drought that began in 1999 and largely ended in 2005 . It is an interdisciplinary effort that involves 15 funded investigators from 6 Canadian universities and more than 20 collaborators from other universities and federal laboratories as well as partners from three provincial governments ( Alberta , Manitoba and Saskatchewan ) . DRI is achieving its objective by focusing on five complementary research themes , including quantification , understanding , prediction , comparisons with other droughts , and implications for society . Details beyond the scope of this entry can be found in Stewart et al. ( 2008 ) or on the DRI website", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_Research_Initiative", "rank": 59, "score": 71133 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 Brazilian drought Content: The 2014 -- 16 Brazilian drought is a severe drought affecting the southeast of Brazil including the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro . In São Paulo , it has been described as the worst drought in 80 years . The city of São Paulo appeared to be affected the most and by the beginning of February many of its residents were subjected to sporadic water cutoffs . Rain at the end of 2015 and in early 2016 brought relief , however , long term problems in water supply remain in São Paulo state . Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo still being affected by drought in 2016 due to the 2014 -- 16 El Niño event . In these areas the rains are irregular since 2014 and the drought worsened from 2015 .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2014–16_Brazilian_drought", "rank": 60, "score": 71089 }, { "content": "Title: Great Green Wall Content: The Great Green Wall , or Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative ( French : Grande Muraille Verte pour le Sahara et le Sahel ) , is Africa 's flagship initiative to combat the effects of climate change and desertification . Led by the African Union , the initiative aims to transform the lives of millions of people by creating a great mosaic of green and productive landscapes across North Africa , the Sahel and the Horn . From the initial idea of a line of trees from east to west through the African desert , the vision of a Great Green Wall has evolved into that of a mosaic of interventions addressing the challenges facing the people in the Sahel and the Sahara . -LSB- 1 -RSB- As a programming tool for rural development , the overall goal of this sub-regional partnership is to strengthen the resilience of the region 's people and natural systems with sound ecosystem management , the protection of rural heritage , and the improvement of the living conditions of the local population . Contributing to improved local incomes , the Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative ( GGWSSI ) will be a global answer to the combined effect of natural resources degradation and drought in rural areas . -LSB- 2 -RSB- The Initiative is a partnership that supports the effort of local communities in the sustainable management and use of forests , rangelands and other natural resources in drylands . It also seeks to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation , as well as improve food security in the Sahel and the Sahara . -LSB- 3 -RSB-", "qid": "306", "docid": "Great_Green_Wall", "rank": 61, "score": 70901 }, { "content": "Title: 2006–08 Southeastern United States drought Content: The 2006-2008 Southeastern U.S Drought , was a crippling drought that struck the Southeast of the USA . Several reasons , including an unusually strong Bermuda high pressure and La Nina in the eastern Pacific Ocean ( which causes dry conditions across the southern U.S ) were responsible for the drought . 2007 was particularly dry across the region , with rivers and lakes dropping to record low levels and in some areas , the worst drought in over 500 years .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2006–08_Southeastern_United_States_drought", "rank": 62, "score": 70816 }, { "content": "Title: 1950s Texas drought Content: The 1950s Texas drought was a period between 1949 and 1957 , in which the state received 30 to 50 percent less rain than normal , while temperatures rose above average . During this time period , Texans experienced the second , third and eighth-driest single years ever in the state -- 1956 , 1954 and 1951 , respectively . The drought was described by a state water official as `` the most costly and one of the most devastating droughts in 600 years . ''", "qid": "306", "docid": "1950s_Texas_drought", "rank": 63, "score": 70763 }, { "content": "Title: Climarice Content: Climarice is a research project , carried out by The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research ( Bioforsk , Norway ) , Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( TNAU , India ) , International Water Management Institute ( IWMI , India ) and International Pacific Research Center ( IPRC , United States ) ; which is trying to assess the impact of climate variability on water availability and rice production in the Cauvery river basin of Tamil Nadu , India . In particular , the impacts of climate change on extreme events such as droughts , floods , heat waves and on the spatial and temporal distribution of the monsoon rains will certainly impact rice production and food security in India . However , there is a significant level of uncertainty in the climate models ' projections that cascade into impact models and thereby influence policy decisions related to adaptation . For both scientific community and policy makers , reducing the uncertainties is a big challenge . On a positive note , examination of historical observed rice production data in India shows an overall increasing trend in many regions with annual fluctuations . Will this trend continue given the projected change in climate and population increase in India ? Climarice is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , is currently assessing the impacts of climate change on rice production areas and rice productivity . Specifically , the project is assessing the behavior of the Indian monsoon in different climate scenarios , and examining its impact on the water availability , rice crop production and the resultant socio economic vulnerability and adaptation of farming communities in the Cauvery river basin , India . Since the project was started in January 2008 , relevant coping and adaptation mechanisms have been identified and techniques developed to address the issues of climate vulnerabilities in rice production .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Climarice", "rank": 64, "score": 70720 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 65, "score": 70658 }, { "content": "Title: Droughtmaster Content: The Droughtmaster is a tropical breed of beef cattle developed in North Queensland by several cattlemen from crossing Brahman and British breed cattle , principally the Beef Shorthorn during the early 1900s . The breed was conceived in response to the need in the Australian Tropics for a breed of cattle which had good tick resistance and would be able to utilise the environment and the pastures in the most efficient manner to give higher weight gains and fertility . After many years of crossbreeding and meticulous selection for : calving ease good meat quality parasite resistance heat tolerance ability to adapt to the environment high fertility docility The Droughtmaster breed emerged . Other British breeds -- mainly Hereford -- have since been used in its development to arrive at a fixed tropical breed of approximately 50 % Bos indicus and 50 % Bos taurus genetics . Droughtmasters are medium to large with good walking and foraging abilities coupled with lower nutritional requirements to give them the ability to retain condition and keep breeding , irrespective of the prevailing conditions . Their short coat is generally red in colour , although variations from golden honey to dark red can occur . The red pigmentation in Droughtmasters helps protect the cattle from cancer eye , sunburnt udders and photosensitisation . The cattle may be polled or horned , but the vast majority are polled and exhibit only a moderate hump . They have medium to large ears and an extended dewlap . In pasture and feedlot trials these cattle have shown good average daily weight gains when compared to other breeds . Large commercial Droughtmaster herds are running on native pastures in both Queensland and the Northern Territory and they are rapidly gaining prominence in the traditional `` British-bred '' areas in southern Australia . Since the 1970s Droughtmaster cattle , semen and embryos have been exported to countries throughout Asia , Africa , Latin America , South America , the Middle East and the Pacific Islands .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Droughtmaster", "rank": 66, "score": 70453 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2009 Content: Global storm activity of 2009 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2009 to December 31 , 2009 . Wintery storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Summer storms including flooding , severe thunderstorms and extratropical cyclones ( which can occur in summer or winter ) are also included in this list to a certain extent . As this occurred a heat wave and/or unforeseen monsoon weather also hit parts of Australia in 2009 and 2010 . Victoria , the scene of horrific bushfires the year before , had a far colder summer , with hot weather arriving more than a month later than usual in 2009 . August 17 saw a dust storm at Laguna Mar Chiquita as a major drought hit Argentina , and flooding and hailstorms hit southeastern Australia and Queensland in March 2010 . The lack of winter precipitation in parts of China , however , contributed to a severe drought in the southwest . Bolivia , Venezuela , Mali , Mauritania , Morocco and Spain have also seen periods of drought in 2009 and 2010 . On between May 12 and 26 , both Mauritania , the Sénégal River Area and neighbouring parts of both Senegal and Mali faced both a drought and famine in 2010 . A storm ( from Proto-Germanic * sturmaz `` noise , tumult '' ) is any disturbed state of an astronomical body 's atmosphere , especially affecting its surface , and strongly implying severe weather . Storms are created when a centre of low pressure develops , with a system of high pressure surrounding it . This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds , such as the cumulonimbus . Small , localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground , resulting in smaller meteorological disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2009", "rank": 67, "score": 70174 }, { "content": "Title: Keetch–Byram drought index Content: The Keetch -- Byram drought index ( KBDI ) , created by John Keetch and George Byram in 1968 for the United States Department of Agriculture 's Forest Service , was devised based on mathematical models for predicting the likelihood of wildfire based on soil moisture and other conditions related to drought . KBDI is a soil/duff drought index that ranges from 0 ( no drought ) to 800 ( extreme drought ) and is based on the soil capacity in 8 in of water . The depth of soil required to hold 8 inches of moisture varies . A prolonged drought ( high KBDI ) influences fire intensity largely because fuels have a lower moisture content . The KBDI is a measure of meteorological drought and reflects water gain or loss within the soil . It does not measure fuel moisture levels in the 1 -- 10-hour fuel classes , which must be measured by other means for an accurate assessment of fuel moisture regardless of the drought index readings .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Keetch–Byram_drought_index", "rank": 68, "score": 70143 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 New York drought Content: The 2016 New York Drought was by some measures the worst drought to affect Western New York and parts of the Finger Lakes Region and Southern Tier on record . By the middle of July , the percent of the state by area that was in a D-2 ( Severe Drought ) according to the United States Drought Monitor was 23.01 % , the greatest amount since the weekly reports began in 2000 . Nearly 90 % of the state was classified as `` Abnormally Dry '' or `` Moderate Drought '' . For reference , none of the state has ever been placed in D-3 ( Extreme Drought ) . Furthermore , The Buffalo News reported on July 22 that it had become the worst drought in the Buffalo area since their main weather station opened in 1943 . By July the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ( DEC ) had placed the entire state in a `` drought watch '' . While the drought is not nearly as severe as other droughts that take place in the west and midwestern United States in terms of duration and crop loss , droughts of this magnitude are rare in the temperate climate of Upstate New York . The drought began with a winter that in many areas in the northeast set a record warm December through February , leading to a weak spring meltoff . Although May saw decent rainfall , the preceding and following months saw great deficits . Streams and ponds dried or saw near record low flow rates , and the water table lowered significantly in some areas . Many large rivers , including the Genesee River , were running at about 20 % of normal , many below the fifth percentile . Historical remains were briefly visible in the Genesee riverbed including a defunct fountain and a cofferdam where trains ran during early 20th century riverbed deepening to reduce flooding , as well as historic building foundations . Some crops began to fail by July , including crops that did not germinate in the dry soil , and production and nutrition was low in crops that did mature . Perennial crops including fruit trees , Christmas trees , and strawberries were also affected , with deeper root crops such as corn about half the normal height by early August . Significant shortfalls in pasture and hay production compounded very low milk prices to put an existential strain on local dairy farms . Due to extensive watering , the 2016 Garden Walk Buffalo was not significantly impacted . By late July , the area under the severe drought widened slightly to 26.82 % despite widespread rains that exceeded an inch in parts of Western New York . The 215 ft Taughannock Falls slowed to such a minimal flow that hiking the nearly empty riverbed of Taughannock Creek was permitted in Taughannock Falls State Park . On July 27 , The Ithaca Journal reported that the Ithaca water supply reservoir was critically low , within a month of running dry , as areas creeks reached record lows . With many locations receiving less than half and as low as a third the normal amount of spring-summer rain , local wells ran dry . Anecdotally , rainfall was less than a quarter of normal with the drought being the worst in at least a half century . On August 3 the DEC , under direction of governor Andrew Cuomo , moved the entire Western portion of the state to drought warning , while the rest of the state remained under a drought watch . Statistically , it was the fifth driest spring-summer ( March -- July ) period in Buffalo ( 9.07 inches ) since record keeping began in 1871 , with 1941 ( 9 inches ) , 1915 ( 8.92 inches ) , 1898 ( 8.34 inches ) , and 1934 ( 7.75 inches ) eclipsing it . However , this does not account for the mild winter or the above average temperatures and low humidity of the 2016 summer . Additionally , the rain was intermittent in larger amounts versus multi-day periods of slower , soaking rain .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2016_New_York_drought", "rank": 69, "score": 70113 }, { "content": "Title: Drought Season Content: Drought Season is a collaboration album between American rappers Berner & The Jacka , the first album of their Drought Season series . The album features guest appearances from Michael Marshall , B-Legit and San Quinn , among other artists . Drought Season peaked at # 55 on the R&B / Hip-Hop Albums chart and at # 25 on the Rap Albums chart , making it Berner 's first charting album and one of his most successful to date . A music video has been filmed for `` Purp '' featuring B-Legit & Cozmo .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_Season", "rank": 70, "score": 69843 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Pakistan Content: Drought in Pakistan has become a frequent phenonmenon in the country . The drought of 1998 -- 2002 is considered worst in 50 years . According to a report issued by the Economic Survey of Pakistan , the drought is one of the factors responsible for poor growth performance . Balochistan especially the western and central parts of the province remain in the grip of drought almost all year round . Drought in the country is common ; if the monsoon season fails to deliver rains then drought emerges .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_in_Pakistan", "rank": 71, "score": 69828 }, { "content": "Title: 2011–17 California drought Content: California had been experiencing a drought since 2011 . The period between late 2011 and 2014 was the driest in California history since record-keeping began . 102 million trees died in total due to the drought from 2011 to 2016 , with 62 million died in 2016 only , according to the US Forest Service . By February 23 , 2017 , the percentage of the state in drought was less than during the beginning of the drought in 2011 , mainly due to a very wet pattern caused by atmospheric river-enhanced Pacific storms .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2011–17_California_drought", "rank": 72, "score": 69805 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming (Sonny Rollins album) Content: Global Warming is an album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins , released on the Milestone label in 1998 , featuring performances by Rollins with Stephen Scott , Bob Cranshaw , Idris Muhammad , Clifton Anderson , Victor See Yuen and Perry Wilson .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_Warming_(Sonny_Rollins_album)", "rank": 73, "score": 69614 }, { "content": "Title: The Drought (album) Content: The Drought is the second album from The Kill Devil Hills , released in October , 2006 . The album was recorded in late November 2005 at the Donnelly River Mill Worker 's Club and then between February and June 2006 at Studio Couch , North Fremantle , with producer Ben Franz ( The Waifs ) .", "qid": "306", "docid": "The_Drought_(album)", "rank": 74, "score": 69566 }, { "content": "Title: 4.2 kiloyear event Content: The 4.2 kiloyear BP aridification event was one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene period . Starting in about 2200 BC , it probably lasted the entire 22nd century BC . The drought may have initiated southeastward habitat tracking within the Indus Valley Civilization . The 4.2 kiloyear BP event has been hypothesised to have caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt as well as the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia , and the Liangzhu culture in the lower Yangtze River area . However , this theory has been criticised by archaeologists , with political causes for the collapse of these polities thought to be more probable .", "qid": "306", "docid": "4.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 75, "score": 69541 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on oceans Content: Global warming can affect sea levels , coastlines , ocean acidification , ocean currents , seawater , sea surface temperatures , tides , the sea floor , weather , and trigger several changes in ocean bio-geochemistry ; all of these affect the functioning of a society .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_oceans", "rank": 76, "score": 69327 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 77, "score": 69089 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–11 China drought Content: The 2010 -- 2011 China drought was a drought that began in late 2010 and impacted eight provinces in the northern part of the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) . It was the worst drought to hit the country in 60 years , and it affected most of wheat-producing regions in the PRC .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2010–11_China_drought", "rank": 78, "score": 69076 }, { "content": "Title: Drought Season 2 Content: Drought Season 2 is a collaboration album between American rappers Berner & The Jacka , the second album of their Drought Season series . It did not match the success of the first volume , but it still peaked at # 66 on the R&B / Hip-Hop Albums chart . The album includes guest appearances from Killa Tay & Messy Marv , among other artists . Music videos have been filmed for the songs `` Colder Blood '' featuring Fam Syrk and `` Traffickin ' '' featuring Lee Majors & Fed-X .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_Season_2", "rank": 79, "score": 68882 }, { "content": "Title: Drought cycle (Brazilian literature) Content: Drought Cycle is the name given to the `` drought novels cycle , '' a Brazilian literary era that had as main theme the life in the Brazilian backlands . It began with the publication of O sertanejo of José de Alencar ( 1876 ) , and lasted until the first decade of the twentieth century . The main characters of the drought cycle literature are bandits , migrants and blesseds . In the cycle stand the Ceará writers . `` Os sertões was a landmark , work of sociology , literature and war story , written by Euclides da Cunha with obvious admiration for the country people , understanding their struggles against nature and protest against the contempt with which handles the federal government . '' Gilberto Freyre was influenced by this literary tendency . Other relevant authors are Raquel de Queirós , José Lins do Rego , Jorge Amado , Graciliano Ramos , Antônio Callado , until Guimarães Rosa .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_cycle_(Brazilian_literature)", "rank": 80, "score": 68859 }, { "content": "Title: Plantesamfund Content: Plantesamfund - Grundtræk af den økologiske Plantegeografi , published in Danish in 1895 by Eugen Warming , and in English in 1909 as Oecology of Plants : An Introduction to the Study of Plant Communities , by Warming and Martin Vahl , was the first book to be published having the word ecology in its title . The book has had a lasting impact on the field of ecology , particularly in its German translation soon after its initial publication , and in its expanded and revised English translation . The book was based on Warming 's lectures on plant geography at the University of Copenhagen . It gives an introduction to all major biomes of the world . Its aim was to explain how nature solved similar problems ( drought , flooding , cold , salt , herbivory ) in similar way , despite using very different raw material ( species of different descent ) in different regions of the world . Warming , E. ( 1895 ) Plantesamfund - Grundtræk af den økologiske Plantegeografi . P.G. Philipsens Forlag , Kjøbenhavn . 335 pp .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Plantesamfund", "rank": 81, "score": 68823 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 82, "score": 68771 }, { "content": "Title: James William Drought Content: James William Drought ( November 4 , 1931 -- June 2 , 1983 ) was an American author , magazine editor , speech writer and press officer for the Office of Public Relations .", "qid": "306", "docid": "James_William_Drought", "rank": 83, "score": 68735 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on South Asia Content:", "qid": "306", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_South_Asia", "rank": 84, "score": 68731 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 North American drought Content: The 2002 North American Drought was an exceptional and damaging drought which impacted the Western United States , Midwestern United States and the Mountain States .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2002_North_American_drought", "rank": 85, "score": 68499 }, { "content": "Title: Drought refuge Content: A drought refuge is a site that provides permanent fresh water or moist conditions for plants and animals , acting as a refuge habitat when surrounding areas are affected by drought and allowing ecosystems and core species populations to survive until the drought breaks . Drought refuges are important for conserving ecosystems in places where the effects of climatic variability are exacerbated by human activities .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Drought_refuge", "rank": 86, "score": 68407 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming (Pitbull album) Content: Global Warming is the seventh studio album recorded by American rapper Pitbull . It was released on November 16 , 2012 . A teaser to accompany the release of Global Warming was first released onto Pitbull 's official Facebook and YouTube channel on September 17 , 2012 .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_Warming_(Pitbull_album)", "rank": 87, "score": 68388 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 88, "score": 68360 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 89, "score": 68229 }, { "content": "Title: Federation Drought Content: In Australia , the Federation Drought is the name given to a prolonged period of drought that occurred around the time of Federation in 1901 . Though often thought of as a long drought , until the record dry year of 1902 the period was actually one of a number of very dry spells interspersed with wetter weather . Dry conditions gradually became established during the late 1890s and several dry areas joined together to create the end result of a drought covering over half the continent .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Federation_Drought", "rank": 90, "score": 68169 }, { "content": "Title: Not Evil Just Wrong Content: Not Evil Just Wrong is a 2009 documentary film by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer that challenges Al Gore 's An Inconvenient Truth by suggesting that the evidence of global warming is inconclusive and that the impact global warming legislation will have on industry is much more harmful to humans than beneficial . The movie was filmed in 2008 and was screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and at the RightOnline conference in 2009 . Despite earlier screenings at conservative political conferences , filmmakers promoted a `` premiere '' on October 18 , 2009 . The film attempted to break a World Record for largest simultaneous premiere , which is currently held by the documentary The Age of Stupid , another global warming documentary . The film 's website claims that there were 6,500 U.S. screenings and 1,500 foreign screenings and reached 400,000 people .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Not_Evil_Just_Wrong", "rank": 91, "score": 68149 }, { "content": "Title: The Discovery of Global Warming Content: The Discovery of Global Warming is a book by the physicist and historian Spencer R. Weart published in 2003 ; revised and updated edition , 2008 . It traces the history of scientific discoveries that led to the current scientific opinion on climate change . It has been translated into Spanish , Japanese , Italian , Arabic , Chinese and Korean .", "qid": "306", "docid": "The_Discovery_of_Global_Warming", "rank": 92, "score": 68057 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Somalian drought Content: As of February 2017 a drought ravages Somalia that has left more than 6 million people , or half the country 's population , facing food shortages with several water supplies becoming undrinkable due to the possibility of infection .", "qid": "306", "docid": "2017_Somalian_drought", "rank": 93, "score": 68009 }, { "content": "Title: University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling Content: The University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling ( UCCHM ) is a campus-wide hydrologic modeling research center , located at the University of California , Irvine . The models and modeling frameworks developed at the Center address the urgent environmental and health issues related to water availability , such as how water availability will change in response to external factors like global climate change , how water availability will change with diminishing snow and ice , and how the frequency of hydrologic extremes ( flood and drought ) will affect the state of California The UCCHM team , made up of faculty , researchers and students , is working towards creating a state-of-the-art integrated model of California water resources that can influence and inform leaders of local , state and regional governments when making water management decisions . Much of the Center 's research relies on data from NASA 's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment ( GRACE ) . This data is used to follow changes in freshwater availability in aquifers and river basins , which allows the Center to track groundwater depletion throughout California . Through GRACE satellite data , the UCCHM team has found evidence of global groundwater depletion . The Center was founded in 2009 by Director Jay Famiglietti . In addition to his position as Director of the UCCHM , Famiglietti holds faculty appointments at the University of California , Irvine as a Professor of Earth System Science and Civil and Environmental Engineering . Famiglietti is a leader in the field of hydrology , and recently starred in the film , Last Call at the Oasis , a documentary about the global depletion of water resources . The Center is partnered with + H20 and Freewaters , organizations focused on water sustainability on a global scale and universal access to clean drinking water .", "qid": "306", "docid": "University_of_California_Center_for_Hydrologic_Modeling", "rank": 94, "score": 67961 }, { "content": "Title: The Coming Global Superstorm Content: The Coming Global Superstorm ( ISBN 0-671-04190-8 ) is a 1999 book by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber , which warns that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects . First , the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift would generate a cordon of warm water around the North Pole , which in turn , holds in a frozen mass of Arctic air . Second , if the North Atlantic drift were to shut down , that barrier would fail , releasing a flood of frozen air into the Northern Hemisphere , causing a sudden and drastic temperature shift . The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the Gulf Stream : the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world 's oceans . Bell and Strieber explain the possibility that such current destabilizations have occurred before , as well as seemingly impossible engineering feats by the ancients . Among their examples is the island city of Nan Madol . The book claims that its construction , with exacting tolerances and extremely heavy basalt materials , necessitates a high degree of technical competency . Since no such society exists in the modern record or even , in legend , the society must have been destroyed by dramatic means . While other explanations beside a global meteorological event are possible , a correlating evidence set is presented in the woolly mammoth . Strieber and Bell assert that since mammoths have been found preserved with food still in their mouths and undigested in their stomachs , these animals must have been killed quickly , in otherwise normal conditions . They were preserved so well by quick freezing , which is taken as evidence of a rapid onset of a global blizzard or similar event . Interspersed with the analytical parts of the book are a series of interlinked short fictional scenarios , written in italics , describing what might transpire today if a destabilization of the North Atlantic Current were to occur . The fictional accounts of `` current events '' as the meteorological situation deteriorates provided background and inspiration for the 2004 science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow . Indeed , some events from the book are portrayed in the film with little modification .", "qid": "306", "docid": "The_Coming_Global_Superstorm", "rank": 95, "score": 67833 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Tuvalu Content: Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 96, "score": 67781 }, { "content": "Title: 1980 United States heat wave Content: The 1980 United States Heat Wave was a period of intense heat and drought that wreaked havoc on much of the Midwestern United States and Southern Plains throughout the summer of 1980 . It is among the most devastating natural disasters in terms of deaths and destruction in U.S. history , claiming at least 1,700 lives and because of the massive drought , agricultural damage reached US$ 20.0 billion ( US$ 55.4 billion in 2007 dollars , adjusted for the GNP inflation index ) . It is among the billion-dollar weather disasters listed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .", "qid": "306", "docid": "1980_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 97, "score": 67748 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Content: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification , Particularly in Africa ( UNCCD ) is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through national action programs that incorporate long-term strategies supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements . The Convention , the only convention stemming from a direct recommendation of the Rio Conference 's Agenda 21 , was adopted in Paris , France on 17 June 1994 and entered into force in December 1996 . It is the only internationally legally binding framework set up to address the problem of desertification . The Convention is based on the principles of participation , partnership and decentralization -- the backbone of Good Governance and Sustainable Development . It has 196 parties , making it near universal in reach . To help publicise the Convention , 2006 was declared `` International Year of Deserts and Desertification '' but debates have ensued regarding how effective the International Year was in practice .", "qid": "306", "docid": "United_Nations_Convention_to_Combat_Desertification", "rank": 98, "score": 67632 }, { "content": "Title: Christopher C. Horner Content: Christopher C. Horner is an attorney in Washington , D.C. and a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who opposes the mainstream view of climate change and has been prominent in promoting climate change denial . He is the author of three books disputing the scientific evidence for man-made global warming . Horner had a financial relationship with coal companies who provided him with funds . Horner has been criticized for hounding climate scientists with frivolous requests for documentation and emails .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Christopher_C._Horner", "rank": 99, "score": 67465 }, { "content": "Title: Grande Seca Content: The Grande Seca , the Great Drought , or the Brazilian drought of 1877 -- 78 is the largest and most devastating drought in Brazilian history . It caused the deaths of between 400,000 and 500,000 people . Of the 800,000 people who lived in the affected Northeastern region , around 120,000 migrated to the Amazon while 68,000 migrated to other parts of Brazil .", "qid": "306", "docid": "Grande_Seca", "rank": 100, "score": 67366 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: PT Kallista Alam Content: PT Kallista Alam is a palm oil company from Indonesia . In 2014 , an Acehnese court found PT Kallista Alam guilty of burning around 1,000 hectares of the Tripa forest , which lies within Sumatra 's Leuser Ecosystem , the only place on Earth where tigers , elephants , rhinoceroses and orangutans can be found living together in the wild . Rp 114.3 billion in compensation and Rp 251.7 billion to restore the affected areas of forest . It was given the right to use 1,605 hectares of peat swamp for a plantation in the Tripa conservation zone , one of the last refuges of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan . When the peat swamp burnt , an estimated 100 orang-utans were killed .", "qid": "307", "docid": "PT_Kallista_Alam", "rank": 1, "score": 135369 }, { "content": "Title: Rudi Putra Content: Rudi Putra is an Indonesian biologist who received a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2014 for his efforts to combat illegal logging , forest encroachment for palm oil production , and policies that open endangered ecosystems to mining and plantation industries . Putra is a biologist who worked in Aceh Province , and who received a prize of $ 175,000 from his winning of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2014 . Putra was selected as the winner in the category ` Island and Island Nations ' . He was recognized for his campaign to reclaim the land under illegal palm oil plantations in the Leuser Ecosystem , Sumatra , and to clear them in order to re-establish habitat for endangered orangutans , tigers , rhinos , and elephants , as well as lobbying against political plans to remove protected status from Aceh 's primary forests . In 2013 , these activities culminated in the establishment of a petition that asked the Indonesian government to enforce conservation law and reject the proposals in Aceh . The petition received more than 1.4 million signatures , increasing awareness of environmental issues in Indonesia and attracting widespread international condemnation .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Rudi_Putra", "rank": 2, "score": 131314 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation Content: Deforestation , clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use . Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms , ranches , or urban use . The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests . About 30 % of Earth 's land surface is covered by forests . Deforestation occurs for multiple reasons : trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel , ( sometimes in the form of charcoal or timber ) , while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and plantation . The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat , biodiversity loss and aridity . It has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Deforestation has also been used in war to deprive the enemy of vital resources and cover for its forces . Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency and the United States military in Vietnam during the Vietnam War . As of 2005 , net deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$ 4,600 . Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland . Disregard of ascribed value , lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale . In many countries , deforestation , both naturally occurring and human-induced , is an ongoing issue . Deforestation causes extinction , changes to climatic conditions , desertification , and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record . More than half of all plant and land animal species in the world live in tropical forests . Between 2000 and 2012 , 2.3 e6sqkm of forests around the world were cut down . As a result of deforestation , only 6.2 e6km2 remain of the original 16 e6km2 of forest that formerly covered the Earth .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Deforestation", "rank": 3, "score": 129062 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation in Costa Rica Content: Deforestation is a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystems in Costa Rica . The country has a rich biodiversity with some 12,000 species of plants , 1,239 species of butterflies , 838 species of birds , 440 species of reptiles and amphibians , and 232 species of mammals , which have been under threat from deforestation .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Deforestation_in_Costa_Rica", "rank": 4, "score": 128778 }, { "content": "Title: Social and environmental impact of palm oil Content: Palm oil , produced from the oil palm , is a basic source of income for many farmers in South East Asia , Central and West Africa , and Central America . It is locally used as a cooking oil , exported for use in many commercial food and personal care products and is converted into biofuel . It produces up to 10 times more oil per unit area than soyabeans , rapeseed or sunflowers . Oil palms produce 38 % of the world 's vegetable-oil output on 5 % of the world 's vegetable-oil farmland . Palm oil plantations are under increasing scrutiny for their effects on the environment , including loss of carbon-sequestering forest land . There is also concern over displacement and disruption of human and animal populations due to palm oil cultivation .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Social_and_environmental_impact_of_palm_oil", "rank": 5, "score": 122640 }, { "content": "Title: American Bird Conservancy Content: The American Bird Conservancy ( ABC ) is a non-profit membership organization with the mission of conserving native birds and their habitats throughout the Americas . Its focus is on threats to birds in the Western Hemisphere -- threats which include overuse of pesticides , urban sprawl , habitat destruction , and invasive species . ABC works in cooperation with other groups and agencies , including : Fundación ProAves , The Bird Conservation Alliance , Partners in Flight , the North American Bird Conservation Initiative , and others . Their partner projects have included publication of bird guides , education on the location and construction of wind turbines , educating farmers to promote bird-friendly agriculture , and raptor conservation . Their Conservation Counterparts Program helps other organizations fundraise for Latin America and Caribbean conservation projects .", "qid": "307", "docid": "American_Bird_Conservancy", "rank": 6, "score": 122151 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation in Borneo Content: Borneo , the third largest island in the world , divided between Indonesia , Malaysia and Brunei , was once covered with dense rainforests , but along with its tropical lowland and highland forests , there has been extensive deforestation since the 1960s , as the native economies of the region experienced rapid industrialisation . In the 1980s and 1990s the forests of Borneo underwent a dramatic transition . They were levelled at a rate unparalleled in human history , burned , logged and cleared , and commonly replaced with agricultural land , or palm oil plantations . Half of the annual global tropical timber acquisition currently comes from Borneo . Furthermore , palm oil plantations are rapidly encroaching on the last remnants of primary rainforest . Much of the forest clearance is illegal . The World Wildlife Fund divides Borneo into a number of distinct ecoregions including the Borneo lowland rain forests which cover most of the island , with an area of 427500 km2 , the Borneo peat swamp forests , the Kerangas or Sundaland heath forests , the Southwest Borneo freshwater swamp forests , and the Sunda Shelf mangroves . The Borneo mountain rainforests lie in the central highlands of the island , above the 1000 m elevation . These areas represent habitat for many endangered species , such as orangutans and elephants and rare endemics such as the elusive Hose 's civet . As well as Borneo 's importance in biodiversity conservation and as a carbon sink , the forests have significance for water security and food sovereignty for local communities of indigenous peoples .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Deforestation_in_Borneo", "rank": 7, "score": 120392 }, { "content": "Title: Janzen–Connell hypothesis Content: The Janzen -- Connell hypothesis is a widely accepted explanation for the maintenance of tree species biodiversity in tropical rainforests . It was published independently in the early 1970s by Daniel Janzen and Joseph Connell . According to their hypothesis , host-specific herbivores , pathogens , or other natural enemies ( often referred to as predators ) make the areas near a parent tree ( the seed producing tree ) inhospitable for the survival of seedlings . These natural enemies are referred to as ` distance-responsive predators ' if they kill seeds or seedlings near the parent tree , or ` density-dependent predators ' if they kill seeds or seedlings where they are most abundant ( which is typically near the parent tree ) . Such predators can prevent any one species from dominating the landscape , because if that species is too common , there will be few safe places for its seedlings to survive . However , because the predators are host-specific ( also called specialists ) , they will not harm other tree species . As a result , if a species becomes very rare , then more predator-free areas will become available , giving that species ' seedlings a competitive advantage . This negative feedback allows the tree species to coexist , and can be classified as a stabilizing mechanism . The Janzen-Connell hypothesis has been called a special case of keystone predation , predator partitioning or the pest pressure hypothesis . The pest pressure hypothesis states that plant diversity is maintained by specialist natural enemies . The Janzen-Connell hypothesis expands on this , by claiming that the natural enemies are not only specialists , but also are distance-responsive or density-responsive . This mechanism has been proposed as promoting diversity of forests as it promotes survival of a number of different plant species within one localized region . While previously thought to explain the high diversity of tropical forests in particular , subsequent research has demonstrated the applicability of the Janzen -- Connell hypothesis in temperate settings as well . The Black Cherry is one such example of a temperate forest species whose growth patterns can still be explained by the Janzen -- Connell hypothesis .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Janzen–Connell_hypothesis", "rank": 8, "score": 120166 }, { "content": "Title: MIFEE Content: Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate ( MIFEE ) is a project for use of a big area for industry and also palm oil and food crops agriculture in Merauke Regency , in Indonesian West Papua province . In 2010 , up to 90 % of the area was still covered by natural forest . The MIFEE project is expected to cover a 1.2 million hectare area , or a quarter of Merauke . The presence of a large number of army units in the MIFEE area , which testifies the role of the military in protecting the interests of foreign investors against the local population . There is a major involvement of Indonesian agribusiness conglomerates . MIFEE involoves land grabbing . There is much indigenous opposition to the MIFEE project . The project threatens conservation areas , such as virgin forests and water catchment areas , as well as the habitat of indigenous peoples in Papua . There were substantial forest fires . Freeport McMoran copper and gold mine has displaced thousands of Papuans and has destroyed vast stretches of pristine forest . MIFEE is valued at approximately $ 5 billion and aims to dramatically increase agricultural output . Damage to the natural environment caused by the industrial activities of agribusinesses and palm oil plantations has severely affected the health and food security of these indigenous groups . The migrants involved in the project will dwarf Merauke 's indigenous population . Violence was used for land ownership . MIFEE involves intensive land clearing . It is likely to increase marginalization of traditional communities . The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called for a suspension of the project , until there is a free , informed consent by the indigenous population .", "qid": "307", "docid": "MIFEE", "rank": 9, "score": 119720 }, { "content": "Title: Habitat destruction Content: Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered unable to support the species present . In this process , the organisms that previously used the site are displaced or destroyed , reducing biodiversity . Habitat destruction by human activity is mainly for the purpose of harvesting natural resources for industry production and urbanization . Clearing habitats for agriculture is the principal cause of habitat destruction . Other important causes of habitat destruction include mining , logging , trawling and urban sprawl . Habitat destruction is currently ranked as the primary cause of species extinction worldwide . It is a process of natural environmental change that may be caused by habitat fragmentation , geological processes , climate change or by human activities such as the introduction of invasive species , ecosystem nutrient depletion , and other human activities The terms habitat loss and habitat reduction are also used in a wider sense , including loss of habitat from other factors , such as water and noise pollution .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Habitat_destruction", "rank": 10, "score": 119028 }, { "content": "Title: Biodiversity hotspot Content: A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction . For example forests are considered as biodiversity hotspots . Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in `` The Environmentalist '' ( 1988 ) , & 1990 revised after thorough analysis by Myers and others in `` Hotspots : Earth 's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions '' and a paper published in the journal Nature . To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot on Myers 2000 edition of the hotspot-map , a region must meet two strict criteria : it must contain at least 0.5 % or 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics , and it has to have lost at least 70 % of its primary vegetation . Around the world , 36 areas qualify under this definition . These sites support nearly 60 % of the world 's plant , bird , mammal , reptile , and amphibian species , with a very high share of those species as endemics .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Biodiversity_hotspot", "rank": 11, "score": 118502 }, { "content": "Title: Birds of the Amazon Content: An immense number of bird species live in the Amazon rainforest and river basin ( an area which is nominally home to one out of every ten known species of animal ) . Over 1,300 of these species are types of birds , which accounts for one-third of all bird species in the world . The diets of rainforest birds greatly differ between species , although , nuts , fruits and leaves are a common food for many birds in the Amazon . Birds migrate to the Amazon rainforest from the North or South . Amazon birds are threatened by deforestation since they primarily reside in the treetops . At its current rate of destruction , the rainforest will be gone in forty years . Human encroachment also negatively affects the habitat of many Amazonian birds . Agriculture and road clearings limits the habitable areas . Birds in the Amazon are distinguished by which layer of the rainforest they reside in . Each layer or community has unique plants , animals and ecosystems . Birds interact with other animals in their community through the food chain , competition , mating , altruism and symbiosis .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Birds_of_the_Amazon", "rank": 12, "score": 118043 }, { "content": "Title: Asiatic rhinoceros beetle Content: The Asiatic rhinoceros beetle , coconut rhinoceros beetle or coconut palm rhinoceros beetle , ( Oryctes rhinoceros ) is a species of rhinoceros beetle belonging to the Scarabaeidae family . O. rhinoceros attacks the developing fronds of Raffia , coconut , oil , and other palms in tropical Asia and a number of Pacific islands . Damaged fronds show typical triangular cuts . The beetle kills the palms ( particularly newly planted ones ) when the growing point is destroyed during feeding . The larvae do not damage crops , but instead grow in dead , decaying trunks and other organic matter . In 1964 , accidental introduction in some countries , and the perceived threat , led to a special United Nations fund being established through the South Pacific Forum , with the goal of `` eradication of the rhinoceros beetle and related insects in the South Pacific '' . Contributors to the fund were Australia , France , New Zealand , the United Kingdom , the United States of America , and Western Samoa . Control measures include the use of cultural methods , such as crop sanitation and the use of cover crops , pheromones , together with biological controls such as the manipulation of Metarhizium majus The beetle is an invasive species in Hawaii , where it was found on December 23 , 2013 . It is believed to have been brought there in air cargo .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Asiatic_rhinoceros_beetle", "rank": 13, "score": 116940 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in Nepal Content: Environmental issues in Nepal are numerous . Non-timber forests are threatened by deforestation , habitat degradation and unsustainable harvesting . Major threats to some protected areas are grazing all year around , poaching for high value products , illegal timber harvesting and unsustainable tourism . Rangelands are suffering from an enormous grazing pressure and wetland biodiversity is threatened by encroachment of wetland habitat , unsustainable harvesting of wetland resources , industrial pollution , agricultural runoff , the introduction of exotic and invasive species into wetland ecosystems , and siltation . Mountain biodiversity is suffering due to ecological fragility and instability of high mountain environments , deforestation , poor management of natural resources , and inappropriate farming practices ( MFSC , 2000 ) . Agrobiodiversity is under threat due to use of high yielding varieties , destruction of natural habitat , overgrazing , land fragmentation , commercialisation of agriculture and the extension of modern highyielding varieties , indiscriminate use of pesticides , population growth and urbanisation , and changes in farmer 's priorities ( MFSC , 2000 ) . More factors for loss of biodiversity include landslide and soil erosion , pollution , fire , overgrazing , illegal trade , hunting and smuggling .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_Nepal", "rank": 14, "score": 115225 }, { "content": "Title: Rhinotia haemoptera Content: Rhinotia haemoptera , the red weevil , is a beetle species in the genus Rhinotia found in Australia . It resembles a fire-coloured beetle ( Pyrochroidae ) in colour . This insect pest can destroy groves and plantations of coconut and migrate to date palms and other palms , causing economic damage to farmers and landscapers . The nematode species Heterorhabditis indica has been used effectively against the red weevil .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Rhinotia_haemoptera", "rank": 15, "score": 114951 }, { "content": "Title: Gunung Rara Forest Reserve Content: Gunung Rara Forest Reserve is a rainforest area in Malaysia , on the island of Borneo . It is located in South-Central Sabah , in Tawau Division . Borneo elephants probably were killed in a concession area of Yayasan Sabah in the reserve . The concession was originally intended to be managed into perpetuity for the benefit of all Sabahans but was instead largely decimated by overharvesting . The reserve sits between Danum Valley and Maliau Basin Conservation areas . There are palm oil plantations in the reserve . The rainforests in Sabah are endangered by palm oil plantations .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Gunung_Rara_Forest_Reserve", "rank": 16, "score": 113855 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological resilience Content: In ecology , resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a perturbation or disturbance by resisting damage and recovering quickly . Such perturbations and disturbances can include stochastic events such as fires , flooding , windstorms , insect population explosions , and human activities such as deforestation , fracking of the ground for oil extraction , pesticide sprayed in soil , and the introduction of exotic plant or animal species . Disturbances of sufficient magnitude or duration can profoundly affect an ecosystem and may force an ecosystem to reach a threshold beyond which a different regime of processes and structures predominates . Human activities that adversely affect ecosystem resilience such as reduction of biodiversity , exploitation of natural resources , pollution , land-use , and anthropogenic climate change are increasingly causing regime shifts in ecosystems , often to less desirable and degraded conditions . Interdisciplinary discourse on resilience now includes consideration of the interactions of humans and ecosystems via socio-ecological systems , and the need for shift from the maximum sustainable yield paradigm to environmental resource management which aims to build ecological resilience through `` resilience analysis , adaptive resource management , and adaptive governance '' .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Ecological_resilience", "rank": 17, "score": 112650 }, { "content": "Title: Bumitama Gunajaya Agro Content: Bumitama Gunajaya Agro is a palm oil company from South Jakarta . It is a member of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil . The company was founded in 1997 . It is a subsidiary of Bumitama Agri Ltd. . On December 19 , PT Bumitama Gunajaya Agro , acquired 15 % interest in PT Agro Sejahtera Manunggal , PT Windu Nabatindo Sejahtera , PT Bumitama Gunajaya Abadi and PT Windu Nabatindo Abadi . It cooperates or used to cooperate with Malaysian IOI Group . Bumitama Gunajaya Agro ( BGA ) has cleared Borneo rainforest areas , decreasing the habitat of the Orangutans .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Bumitama_Gunajaya_Agro", "rank": 18, "score": 112379 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of wind power Content: The environmental impact of wind power when compared to the environmental impacts of fossil fuels , is relatively minor . Compared with other low carbon power sources , wind turbines have some of the lowest global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated . According to the IPCC , in assessments of the life-cycle global warming potential of energy sources , wind turbines have a median value of between 15 and 11 ( geq/kWh ) depending on whether off - or onshore turbines are being assessed . While wind turbine installations may cover a large area , they are compatible with many land uses such as farming and grazing , as only small areas of turbine foundations and infrastructure are made unavailable for use . Wind turbines generate some noise . At a residential distance of 300 m this may be around 45 dB , which is slightly louder than a refrigerator . At 1.5 km distance most wind turbines become inaudible . From a fundamental biological point of view , it is known that loud noise increases stress and stress causes diseases . Peer-reviewed research has generally supported the view that when properly sited wind turbines do not affect human health from noise . However , when improperly sited , data from the monitoring of two groups of growing geese revealed substantially lower body weights and higher concentrations of a stress hormone in the blood of the first group of geese who were situated 50 meters away compared to a second group which was at a distance of 500 meters from the turbine . Aesthetic aspects of wind turbines and resulting changes of the visual landscape can be significant . Conflicts arise especially in scenic and heritage protected landscapes . Siting restrictions ( such as setbacks ) have often been implemented to limit any intrusive environmental impacts . There are reports of bird and bat mortality at wind turbines as there are around other artificial structures . The scale of the ecological impact may or may not be significant , depending on specific circumstances . Prevention and mitigation of wildlife fatalities , and protection of peat bogs , affect the siting and operation of wind turbines .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_wind_power", "rank": 19, "score": 112011 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in Brazil Content: Environmental issues in Brazil include deforestation in the Amazon basin , illegal wildlife trade , illegal poaching , air and water pollution , land degradation and water pollution caused by mining activities , wetland degradation and severe oil spills , among others . As the home to approximately 13 % of all known species , Brazil has one of the most diverse collections of flora and fauna on the planet . Impacts from agriculture and industrialization in the country threaten this biodiversity . As a developing or newly industrialized nation , Brazil is notable for taking a lead in environmentally friendly initiatives . In the field of biofuels , Brazil is the second-largest producer of ethanol in the world . It is also home to two sustainable cities . Nevertheless , environmental issues remain a major concern in Brazil .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_Brazil", "rank": 20, "score": 111720 }, { "content": "Title: Environment of Brazil Content: The environment of Brazil is characterized by high biodiversity with a population density that decreases away from the coast . Brazil 's large area comprises different ecosystems , which together sustain some of the world 's greatest biodiversity . Because of the country 's intense economic and demographic growth , Brazil 's ability to protect its environmental habitats has increasingly come under threat . \\ legal and illegal logging destroys forests the size of a small country per year , and with it a diverse series of species through habitat destruction and habitat fragmentation . Between 2002 and 2006 , an area of the Amazon Rainforest equivalent in size to the State of South Carolina was completely deforested for the purposes of raising cattle and woodlogging . In April 2012 Brazil 's powerful farm lobby won a long-sought victory after the National Congress of Brazil approved a controversial forestry bill that environmentalists say will speed deforestation in the Amazon as more land is opened for producing food . By 2020 , at least 50 % of the species resident in Brazil may become extinct . There is a general consensus that Brazil has the highest number of both terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates of any single country in the world . Also , Brazil has the highest primate diversity , the highest number of mammals , the highest number of amphibians , the second highest number of butterflies , the third highest number of birds , and second highest number of reptiles . There is a high number of endangered species , many of them living in threatened habitats such as the Atlantic Forest .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Environment_of_Brazil", "rank": 21, "score": 110191 }, { "content": "Title: José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva Content: José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva ( January 22 , 1957 -- May 24 , 2011 ) was a Brazilian conservationist and environmentalist who campaigned against logging and clearcutting of trees in the Amazon rainforest . Ribeiro da Silva , who was also known by the nickname Zé Cláudio , campaigned against illegal logging , deforestation and ranchers . He originally worked as a community leader at a forest reserve that produced sustainable rainforest products , such as oils and nuts . He became an anti-logging activist as illegal loggers began to encroach further into untouched areas of Pará , his largely forested homestate in northern Brazil . He and his wife , Maria do Espírito Santo , had received death threats for his activism in favor of the preservation of Brazil 's rainforest . In 2008 , a report issued by a group of Brazilian human rights groups listed Ribeiro da Silva one of a dozen activists based in the Amazon to be `` considered at risk '' of harm or assassination by opponents . In November 2010 , da Silva was invited to speak at TED conference . He told the TED audience that his particular region of Pará once had 85 % coverage of native Amazonian plants . However , since the arrival of loggers , the region 's plant biodiversity had shrunk to just 20 % native Amazonian plant life . Da Silva also acknowledged the death threats that he had received , `` I will protect the forest at all costs . That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment -- because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers . '' José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva , aged 52 , and his wife , Maria do Espírito Santo , aged 51 , were shot and killed in an ambush attack on May 24 , 2011 . The attack occurred at a settlement called Maçaranduba 2 , which is located near their home in Nova Ipixuna , Pará . José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva had been refused police protection by local authorities , according to reports by the Diário do Pará and The Guardian . Da Silva murder brought comparisons with the killings of environmentalist Chico Mendes in 1988 and American nun Dorothy Stang in 2005 . Two other environmental activist were also killed soon after Da Silva - Eremilton Pereira dos Santos , a farmer who was killed in the same area of Pará , and Adelino Ramos , a farmer and leader of the Corumbiara Peasant Movement in Rondônia , who was shot while selling vegetables on May 27 , 2011 . The Brazilian government pledged to protect Amazonian activists in an emergency cabinet meeting held on May 31 , 2011 , to deal with the crisis . Da Silva was survived by his adopted sixteen-year-old son and two children from a previous marriage . At the 2012 United Nations Forum on Forests held in New York , José and Maria were recognised posthumously by a special Forest Heroes Award .", "qid": "307", "docid": "José_Cláudio_Ribeiro_da_Silva", "rank": 22, "score": 109798 }, { "content": "Title: Modification of the Brazilian Forest Code Content: A modification of the Brazilian Forest Code ( Law project 1.876 / 99 ) has been proposed . It has passed both houses of Parliament of Brazil . Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has vetoed against parts of it . Environmentalists are opposed to the law , saying it leads to further destruction of the Amazon rainforest.It would have opened areas logged illegally before July 2008 for farming . Rainforest clearing results in the emission of 400 million tons of carbon dioxide . The bill softens forest protection . The Catholic Church urged Rousseff to completely veto the bill . Avaaz , a global activist group , collected 2 million signatures opposing the legislation .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Modification_of_the_Brazilian_Forest_Code", "rank": 23, "score": 109674 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation in India Content: Deforestation in India is the widespread destruction of major forests in India . It is mainly caused by environmental degradation by stakeholders such as farmers , ranches , loggers and plantation corporations . In 2009 , India ranked 10th worldwide in the amount of forest loss , where world annual deforestation is estimated as 13.7 million hectares a year .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Deforestation_in_India", "rank": 24, "score": 109270 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power Content: Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power . Wind power , as an alternative to burning fossil fuels , is plentiful , renewable , widely distributed , clean , produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation , consumes no water , and uses little land . The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of nonrenewable power sources . Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network . Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electric power , competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants . Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land , and offshore farms have less visual impact , but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher . Small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations . Wind power gives variable power which is very consistent from year to year but which has significant variation over shorter time scales . It is therefore used in conjunction with other electric power sources to give a reliable supply . As the proportion of wind power in a region increases , a need to upgrade the grid , and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur . Power management techniques such as having excess capacity , geographically distributed turbines , dispatchable backing sources , sufficient hydroelectric power , exporting and importing power to neighboring areas , using vehicle-to-grid strategies or reducing demand when wind production is low , can in many cases overcome these problems . In addition , weather forecasting permits the electric power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur . As of 2015 , Denmark generates 40 % of its electric power from wind , and at least 83 other countries around the world are using wind power to supply their electric power grids . In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16 % to 369,553 MW . Yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4 % of worldwide electric power usage , 11.4 % in the EU .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Wind_power", "rank": 25, "score": 108793 }, { "content": "Title: Thrips palmi Content: Thrips palmi is an insect from the genus Thrips in the order Thysanoptera . It is known commonly as the melon thrips . It is a primary vector of plant viruses . The melon thrips can cause damage to a wide range of glasshouse ornamental and vegetable crops , particularly plants in the families Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae , such as cucumber , aubergine , tomato and sweet pepper . Adults and nymphs feed by sucking the cell contents from leaves , stems , flowers and the surface of fruits , causing silvery scars and leaf chlorosis . Plants can be deformed and killed in heavy infestations . The pest almost certainly originated in Southeast Asia , but in recent decades it has been widely introduced and has been observed throughout Asia and the Pacific , Florida , the Caribbean , South America , Africa , and Australia . In Europe there have been outbreaks of T. palmi on crops in protected cultivation , including several in the Netherlands since 1988 and one in southern England in 2000 . These were eradicated . In 2004 , there was a report of T. palmi on an outdoor crop in Portugal . Thrips palmi has the potential to introduce and spread several non-indigenous plant viruses of the genus Tospovirus , which includes tomato spotted wilt virus . Thrips palmi and the viruses it transmits are not established in Europe , but they continue to present a risk , especially to a wide range of glasshouse-grown crops , and have the potential to cause significant economic impacts . If the viruses were introduced to the UK with imported plant material , thrips species already present there may become vectors , facilitating their spread . T. palmi is a notifiable pest in the UK , and all susceptible material imported into the country is rigorously checked at points of entry by DEFRA Plant Health and Seed Inspectors . Scientists in Japan report that significant reductions in larva and adult melon thrips occur when plants are illuminated with red light .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Thrips_palmi", "rank": 26, "score": 108322 }, { "content": "Title: BW Plantation Content: BW Plantation is an Indonesian company active in oil palm plantations and palm oil manufacturing . Despite risen sales , its profits plunged in 2013 . BW Plantation has 89,000 hectares of plantations in Central Kalimantan , East Kalimantan and West Kalimantan . Abdul Halim Ashari is its President Director . It has four palm oil mills in Central Kalimantan . It is based in Jakarta . Its subsidiaries include PT Bumilanggeng Perdanatrada , PT Adhyaksa Dharmasatya , PT Sawit Sukses Sejahtera , PT Wana Catur Jaya Utama , PT Satria Manunggal Sejahtera and PT Agrolestari Kencana Makmur . It had its initial public offering in 2009 . A subsidiary of BW Plantation has cleared forest habitat of the orangutan .", "qid": "307", "docid": "BW_Plantation", "rank": 27, "score": 108153 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Content: Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC ) is a significant transnational issue . In the DRC , forests are cleared for agricultural purposes by utilizing slash and burn techniques . Aside from the visible depletion of resources , deforestation of the DRC also leads to a lost habit for the mountain gorilla among other rare species like the okapi , resulting in decreased biodiversity , soil erosion , and contribute to climate change . Since 1990 , the rate of deforestation in the DRC has remained constant at 0.20 % , which equates to the loss of 311,000 hectares , or roughly 1,200 square miles , annually . This amounts to destroying forests the size of Delaware every two years . The fact that the rate of deforestation has remained constant over the last twenty years is misleading as one might believe that government or non-government organizations ( NGO ) interventions have been responsible for the decline , but reports indicate otherwise . Three reasons have been postulated as to why deforestation rates have remained relatively low : 1 ) the road network within the country has been gradually in decline making access to more remote areas more difficult , 2 ) political and regulatory changes have disincentivized investment in the country , and 3 ) agriculture has expanded outside of forest areas . Additionally , while the rates remain constant , wood removal ( measured in cubic meters ) continues to dramatically increase annually . Industrialized roundwood has increased from 3.05 million cubic meters in 1990 to 4.45 million cubic meters in 2010 ; fuelwood has increased from 44.2 million cubic meters to 75.44 million cubic meters annually in that same time . The rainforest in the Congo Basin is the largest rainforest in Africa and second only to the Amazon Basin in size , with 300 million hectare compared to the 800 million hectares in the Amazon . Roughly fifty percent ( 154 million hectare ) of the remaining rainforest in the Congo Basin lies within the boundaries of the DRC . The DRC is one of the most Flora rich countries on the continent . It is home for more than 10,000 types of plants , 600 timber species , as well as 1,000 bird species , 280 reptile species , and 400 mammal species . Many of these wildlife species are threatened animals such as large lowland gorillas and chimpanzees .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Deforestation_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo", "rank": 28, "score": 108021 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of pesticides Content: The impact of pesticides consists of the effects of pesticides on non-target species . Pesticides are chemical preparations used to kill fungal or animal pests . Over 98 % of sprayed insecticides and 95 % of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species , because they are sprayed or spread across entire agricultural fields . Runoff can carry pesticides into aquatic environments while wind can carry them to other fields , grazing areas , human settlements and undeveloped areas , potentially affecting other species . Other problems emerge from poor production , transport and storage practices . Over time , repeated application increases pest resistance , while its effects on other species can facilitate the pest 's resurgence . Each pesticide or pesticide class comes with a specific set of environmental concerns . Such undesirable effects have led many pesticides to be banned , while regulations have limited and/or reduced the use of others . Over time , pesticides have generally become less persistent and more species-specific , reducing their environmental footprint . In addition the amounts of pesticides applied per hectare have declined , in some cases by 99 % . However , the global spread of pesticide use , including the use of older/obsolete pesticides that have been banned in some jurisdictions , has increased overall .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_pesticides", "rank": 29, "score": 107990 }, { "content": "Title: Wildlife of Singapore Content: The wildlife of Singapore is surprisingly diverse despite its rapid urbanisation . The majority of fauna that still remains on the island exists in various nature reserves such as the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve . In 1819 , when a British trading post was first established on the island , Singapore was still nearly entirely covered in rainforests . During that time it still contained flora shared with the Malay Peninsula , but the biodiversity of the fauna was even then relatively low . Following the establishment of the trading post , rapid deforestation began due to crop cultivation . Deforestation of Singapore was largely completed by the 20th century . By some estimates , there has been a loss of 95 % of the natural habitats of Singapore over the course of the past 183 years . Due to the deforestation of Singapore , over twenty species of freshwater fish and 100 species of bird as well as a number of mammals have gone locally extinct . A 2003 estimate has put the amount of extinct species as over 28 % . In modern times , over half of the naturally occurring fauna and flora in Singapore is present only in nature reserves , which comprise only 0.25 % of Singapore 's land area . Estimates made in 2003 have said that the rapid habitat destruction will culminate in a loss of 13-42 % of populations in all of Southeast Asia . To combat these problems , the Singaporean government has made the Singapore Green Plan in 1992 and the new Singapore Green Plan in 2012 to continue it . The plan aims to keep tabs on the unstable populations of fauna and flora , to place new nature parks , and to connect existing parks . In addition , there are plans to set up a `` National Biodiversity Reference Centre '' ( now known as the National Biodiversity Centre ) . The last goal has been reached in 2006 when the centre was founded ( it also accomplished the establishment of two new nature reserves in 2002 ) . Since its foundation it has been formulating various specific initiatives including attempts to conserve the hornbill and the rare dragonfly Indothemis limbata .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Wildlife_of_Singapore", "rank": 30, "score": 106781 }, { "content": "Title: Intrepid Wind Farm Content: The Intrepid Wind Farm consists of 107 wind turbines , located in Sac and Buena Vista counties in north-west Iowa , has a generating capacity of 160.5 megawatts of electricity . The wind power project is MidAmerican Energy Company 's first owned and operated wind generation facility and became operational on December 31 , 2004 . When MidAmerican Energy first began planning the Intrepid site , the company worked closely with several state and national environmental groups , with a view to minimizing the environmental impact . Using input from such diverse groups as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources , the Nature Conservancy , Iowa State University , the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service , the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation , and the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club , MidAmerican created a statewide map of areas in the proposed region that contained specific bird populations or habitats . Those areas were then avoided when detailed site planning occurred . MidAmerican also worked in conjunction with the Army Corp of Engineers , to secure all necessary permits related to any potential risk to wetlands in the area . Regular inspections are also conducted to make certain that the wind farm is causing no adverse environmental impact to the region .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Intrepid_Wind_Farm", "rank": 31, "score": 106326 }, { "content": "Title: Rainforest Content: Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall , with annual rainfall in the case of tropical rainforests between 250 and , and definitions varying by region for temperate rainforests . The monsoon trough , alternatively known as the intertropical convergence zone , plays a significant role in creating the climatic conditions necessary for the Earth 's tropical rainforests . Around 40 % to 75 % of all biotic species are indigenous to the rainforests . It has been estimated that there may be many millions of species of plants , insects and microorganisms still undiscovered in tropical rainforests . Tropical rainforests have been called the `` jewels of the Earth '' and the `` world 's largest pharmacy '' , because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there . Rainforests are also responsible for 28 % of the world 's oxygen turnover , sometimes misnamed oxygen production , processing it through photosynthesis from carbon dioxide and consuming it through respiration . The undergrowth in some areas of a rainforest can be restricted by poor penetration of sunlight to ground level . If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned , the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense , tangled growth of vines , shrubs and small trees , called a jungle . The term jungle is also sometimes applied to tropical rainforests generally .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Rainforest", "rank": 32, "score": 105892 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological effects of biodiversity Content: The diversity of species and genes in ecological communities affects the functioning of these communities . These ecological effects of biodiversity in turn are affected by both climate change through enhanced greenhouse gases , aerosols and loss of land cover , and biological diversity , causing a rapid loss of ecosystems and extinctions of species and local populations . The current rate of extinction is sometimes considered a mass extinction , with current species extinction rates on the order of 100 to 1000 times as high as in the past . The two main areas where the effect of biodiversity on ecosystem function have been studied are the relationship between diversity and productivity , and the relationship between diversity and community stability . More biologically diverse communities appear to be more productive ( in terms of biomass production ) than are less diverse communities , and they appear to be more stable in the face of perturbations . Also animals that inhabit an area may alter the surviving conditions by factors assimilated by climate .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Ecological_effects_of_biodiversity", "rank": 33, "score": 105007 }, { "content": "Title: Duta Palma Content: Duta Palma is a palm oil company from Indonesia . It is a subsidiary of Darmex Agro Holdings . It has significant land banks . The Military of Indonesia has or used to have a 30 % investment in Duta Palma . Many prominent former military men have positions within the company . There were concerns over rainforest destruction . -LSB- Duta Palma is said to be one of the companies with the worst track record of burning . Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil issued a membership termination letter to PT Dutapalma Nusantara in 2013", "qid": "307", "docid": "Duta_Palma", "rank": 34, "score": 104949 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation in Indonesia Content: Deforestation in Indonesia involves the long-term loss of forests and foliage across much of the country ; it has had massive environmental and social impacts . Indonesia is home to some of the most biologically diverse forests in the world and ranks third in number of species behind Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo . As late as 1900 , Indonesia was still a densely forested country : forests represented 84 percent of the total land area . Deforestation intensified in the 1970s and has accelerated further since then . The estimated forest cover of 170 million hectares around 1900 decreased to less than 100 million hectares by the end of the 20th century . In 2008 , it was estimated that tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be logged out in a decade . Of the total logging in Indonesia , up to 80 % is reported to be performed illegally . Large areas of forest in Indonesia have been cleared by large multinational pulp companies , such as Asia Pulp and Paper , and replaced by plantations . Forests are often burned by farmers and plantation owners . Another major source of deforestation is the logging industry , driven by demand from China and Japan . Agricultural development and transmigration programs moved large populations into rainforest areas , further increasing deforestation rates . Logging and the burning of forests to clear land for cultivation has made Indonesia the world 's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases , behind China and the United States . Forest fires often destroy high capacity carbon sinks , including old-growth rainforest and peatlands . In May 2011 , Indonesia declared a moratorium on new logging contracts to help combat this . This appeared to be ineffective in the short-term , as the rate of deforestation continued to increase . By 2012 Indonesia had surpassed the rate of deforestation in Brazil , and become the fastest forest clearing nation in the world .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Deforestation_in_Indonesia", "rank": 35, "score": 104648 }, { "content": "Title: Black Law Wind Farm Content: The 42-turbine Black Law Wind Farm has a total capacity of 97 megawatts ( MW ) , sufficient to meet the average electricity needs of 70,000 homes each year - or a town the size of Paisley - and is estimated to save around 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year . The # 90 million wind farm is located near Forth in Lanarkshire and has been built on an old opencast coalmine site which was completely restored to shallow wetlands during the construction programme . It employs seven permanent staff on site and created 200 jobs during construction . Scottish Power is expected to complete a second phase which will see the installation of a further 12 turbines . The project has received wide recognition for its contribution to environmental objectives , including praise from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds , who said that the scheme was not only improving the landscape in a derelict opencast mining site , but also benefiting a range of wildlife in the area , with an extensive habitat management projects covering over 14 square kilometres .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Black_Law_Wind_Farm", "rank": 36, "score": 104278 }, { "content": "Title: Overexploitation Content: Overexploitation , also called overharvesting , refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns . Sustained overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource . The term applies to natural resources such as : wild medicinal plants , grazing pastures , game animals , fish stocks , forests , and water aquifers . In ecology , overexploitation describes one of the five main activities threatening global biodiversity . Ecologists use the term to describe populations that are harvested at a rate that is unsustainable , given their natural rates of mortality and capacities for reproduction . This can result in extinction at the population level and even extinction of whole species . In conservation biology the term is usually used in the context of human economic activity that involves the taking of biological resources , or organisms , in larger numbers than their populations can withstand . The term is also used and defined somewhat differently in fisheries , hydrology and natural resource management . Overexploitation can lead to resource destruction , including extinctions . However it is also possible for overexploitation to be sustainable , as discussed below in the section on fisheries . In the context of fishing , the term overfishing can be used instead of overexploitation , as can overgrazing in stock management , overlogging in forest management , overdrafting in aquifer management , and endangered species in species monitoring . Overexploitation is not an activity limited to humans . Introduced predators and herbivores , for example , can overexploit native flora and fauna .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Overexploitation", "rank": 37, "score": 103618 }, { "content": "Title: Windbreak Content: A windbreak ( shelterbelt ) is a plantation usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion . They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the edges of fields on farms . If designed properly , windbreaks around a home can reduce the cost of heating and cooling and save energy . Windbreaks are also planted to help keep snow from drifting onto roadways and even yards . Other benefits include contributing to a microclimate around crops ( with slightly less drying and chilling at night ) , providing habitat for wildlife , and , in some regions , providing wood if the trees are harvested . Windbreaks and intercropping can be combined in a farming practice referred to as alleycropping . Fields are planted in rows of different crops surrounded by rows of trees . These trees provide fruit , wood , or protect the crops from the wind . Alley cropping has been particularly successful in India , Africa , and Brazil , where coffee growers have combined farming and forestry . A further use for a shelterbelt is to screen a farm from a main road or motorway . This improves the farm landscape by reducing the visual incursion of the motorway , mitigating noise from the traffic and providing a safe barrier between farm animals and the road . The term `` windbreak '' is also used to describe an article of clothing worn to prevent wind chill . Americans tend to use the term `` windbreaker '' whereas Europeans favor the term `` windbreak '' . Fences called `` windbreaks '' are also used . Normally made from cotton , nylon , canvas , and recycled sails , windbreaks tend to have three or more panels held in place with poles that slide into pockets sewn into the panel . The poles are then hammered into the ground and a windbreak is formed . Windbreaks or `` wind fences '' are used to reduce wind speeds over erodible areas such as open fields , industrial stockpiles , and dusty industrial operations . As erosion is proportional to wind speed cubed a reduction of wind speed of 1/2 ( for example ) will reduce erosion by over 80 % .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Windbreak", "rank": 38, "score": 103497 }, { "content": "Title: Bukit Tigapuluh National Park Content: Bukit Tigapuluh National Park ( also called Bukit Tiga Puluh and Bukit Tigapulah ) - The Thirty Hills - is a 143,223 hectare National Park in eastern Sumatra , consisting primarily of tropical lowland forest , largely in Riau province , with a smaller part of 33,000 ha in Jambi province . It is famous as one of the last refuges of endangered species such as the Sumatran orangutan , Sumatran tiger , Sumatran elephant , Sumatran rhinoceros and Asian tapir , as well as many endangered bird species . It forms part of the Tesso Nilo Complex biodiversity hotspot . The Park is inhabited by the indigenous peoples of the Orang Rimba and Talang Mamak tribes . The Park itself has been under consistent threat from illegal logging and palm oil plantations , with two thirds of the park logged .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Bukit_Tigapuluh_National_Park", "rank": 39, "score": 103128 }, { "content": "Title: American Wind and Wildlife Institute Content: The American Wind and Wildlife Institute ( AWW ) is a U.S. nonprofit organization that seeks to encourage the development of wind energy while preserving wildlife and habitats that are at risk from the operation and development of wind farms . Located in Washington , D.C. , AWWI was founded in November 2008 by a coalition of seven conservation and science organizations -- including the Environmental Defense Fund . The Nature Conservancy and the Union of Concerned Scientists -- and 13 wind industry companies . AWWI 's initiatives have included the development of wind siting maps and identifying potential biodiversity concerns created by wind energy projects .", "qid": "307", "docid": "American_Wind_and_Wildlife_Institute", "rank": 40, "score": 103000 }, { "content": "Title: Rubber tapping Content: Rubber tapping is the process by which the latex is collected from a rubber tree . An incision is made in the tree 's bark , which cuts through the latex vessels , from which the product then flows . Timing of the incision must be planned within the planting cycle to optimise the latex yield . Rubber tapping is an environmentally attractive land use . Jungle rubber is essentially old secondary forest , strongly resembling the primary forest . Its species ' richness is about half that of the primary forest . Michon and de Foresta ( 1994 ) found that sample jungle rubber sites contained 92 tree species , 97 lianas , and 28 epiphytes compared with 171 , 89 , and 63 , respectively , in the primary forest , and compared with 1 , 1 , and 2 in monoculture estates . Thiollay ( 1995 ) estimated that jungle rubber supports about 137 bird species , against 241 in the primary forest itself . Jungle rubber is expected to resemble primary forest in its hydrological functions . Monoculture rubber tree plantations have far less of an environmental impact than other crops , such as coffee or especially oil palm .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Rubber_tapping", "rank": 41, "score": 102989 }, { "content": "Title: Wind turbine Content: A wind turbine is a device that converts the wind 's kinetic energy into electrical power . Wind turbines are manufactured in a wide range of vertical and horizontal axis types . The smallest turbines are used for applications such as battery charging for auxiliary power for boats or caravans or to power traffic warning signs . Slightly larger turbines can be used for making contributions to a domestic power supply while selling unused power back to the utility supplier via the electrical grid . Arrays of large turbines , known as wind farms , are becoming an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy and are used by many countries as part of a strategy to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Wind_turbine", "rank": 42, "score": 102552 }, { "content": "Title: Plantation Content: A plantation is a large-scale farm that specializes in cash crops . The crops grown include cotton , coffee , tea , cocoa , sugar cane , sisal , oil seeds , oil palms , rubber trees , and fruits . Protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations were located . Among the earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire , which produced large quantities of wine and olive oil for export . Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires . Like every economic activity , it has changed over time . Earlier forms of plantation agriculture were associated with large disparities of wealth and income , foreign ownership and political influence , and exploitative social systems such as indentured labour and slavery .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Plantation", "rank": 43, "score": 102337 }, { "content": "Title: Bird conservation Content: Bird conservation is a field in the science of conservation biology related to threatened birds . Humans have had a profound effect on many bird species . Over one hundred species have gone extinct in historical times , although the most dramatic human-caused extinctions occurred in the Pacific Ocean as humans colonised the islands of Melanesia , Polynesia and Micronesia , during which an estimated 750-1800 species of bird became extinct . According to Worldwatch Institute , many bird populations are currently declining worldwide , with 1,200 species facing extinction in the next century . The biggest cited reason surrounds habitat loss . Other threats include overhunting , accidental mortality due to structural collisions , long-line fishing bycatch , pollution , competition and predation by pet cats , oil spills and pesticide use and climate change . Governments , along with numerous conservation charities , work to protect birds in various ways , including legislation , preserving and restoring bird habitat , and establishing captive populations for reintroductions . See Late Quaternary prehistoric birds for birds which disappeared in prehistoric and early historic times , usually due to human activity ( i.e. , starting with the Upper Paleolithic Revolution ) . For birds having gone extinct in modern times ( since 1500 ) , see List of extinct birds .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Bird_conservation", "rank": 44, "score": 102308 }, { "content": "Title: Viking Wind Farm Content: Viking Wind Farm is a proposed wind farm being developed by Viking Energy , a partnership between Shetland Islands Council and SSE plc. . Initially proposed as a 150 turbine 600 MW project in 2009 , the scheme had significant opposition , on grounds including effects on wildlife , and the general environment ; part of the wind farm was also removed because of a potential interference with equipment at Scatsta Airport . A 370MW wind farm received planning permission in 2012 , but an objection by Sustainable Shetland was successful in Sep 2013 on the grounds of inadequate assessment of impact on the Whimbrel bird , and on licensing regulations relating to the 1989 Electricity Act . This decision was subsequently overturned by two higher courts in 2014 and 2015 .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Viking_Wind_Farm", "rank": 45, "score": 102199 }, { "content": "Title: The Burning Season (2008 film) Content: The Burning Season is a documentary about the burning of rainforests in Indonesia which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008 . The main characters featured in the film are : Dorjee Sun from Australia ; Achmadi , a small-scale palm oil farmer from Jambi province in Indonesia ; and Lone Drøscher Nielsen , a Danish conservationist based in Kalimantan , Indonesia .", "qid": "307", "docid": "The_Burning_Season_(2008_film)", "rank": 46, "score": 102165 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene extinction Content: The Holocene extinction , otherwise referred to as the Sixth extinction or Anthropocene extinction , is the ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch , mainly due to human activity . The large number of extinctions spans numerous families of plants and animals , including mammals , birds , amphibians , reptiles and arthropods . With widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats such as coral reefs and rainforest , as well as other areas , the vast majority of these extinctions is thought to be undocumented . According to the species-area theory , and based on upper-bound estimating , the present rate of extinction may be up to 140,000 species per year , making it the greatest loss of biodiversity since the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event . The Holocene extinction includes the disappearance of large land animals known as megafauna , starting at the end of the last Ice Age . Megafauna outside of the African continent , which did not evolve alongside humans , proved highly sensitive to the introduction of new predation , and many died out shortly after early humans began spreading and hunting across the Earth ( additionally , many African species have also gone extinct in the Holocene ) . These extinctions , occurring near the Pleistocene -- Holocene boundary , are sometimes referred to as the Quaternary extinction event . The arrival of humans on different continents coincides with megafaunal extinction . The most popular theory is that human overhunting of species added to existing stress conditions . Although there is debate regarding how much human predation affected their decline , certain population declines have been directly correlated with human activity , such as the extinction events of New Zealand and Hawaii . Aside from humans , climate change may have been a driving factor in the megafaunal extinctions , especially at the end of the Quaternary . The ecology of humanity has been noted as being that of an unprecedented `` global superpredator '' that regularly preys on the adults of other apex predators and has worldwide effects on food webs . Extinctions of species have occurred on every land mass and ocean , with many famous examples within Africa , Asia , Europe , Australia , North and South America , and on smaller islands . Overall , the Holocene extinction can be characterized by the human impact on the environment . The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century , with meat consumption , overfishing , ocean acidification and the amphibian crisis being a few broader examples of an almost universal , cosmopolitan decline in biodiversity . A ballooning human population along with profligate consumption are considered to be the primary drivers of this rapid decline .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Holocene_extinction", "rank": 47, "score": 101433 }, { "content": "Title: Organic farming and biodiversity Content: The effect of organic farming has been a subject of interest for researchers . Theory suggests that organic farming practices , which exclude the use of most synthetic pesticides and fertilizers , may be beneficial for biodiversity . This is generally shown to be true for soils scaled to the area of cultivated land , where species abundance is , on average , 30 % richer than that of conventional farms . However , for crop yield-scaled land the effect of organic farming on biodiversity is highly debated due to the significantly lower yields compared to conventional farms . In ancient farming practices , farmers did not possess the technology or manpower to have a significant impact on the destruction of biodiversity even as mass-production agriculture was rising . Nowadays , common farming methods generally rely on pesticides to maintain high yields . With such , most agricultural landscapes favor mono-culture crops with very little flora or fauna co-existence ( van Elsen 2000 ) . Modern organic farm practices such as the removal of pesticides and the inclusion of animal manure , crop rotation , and multi-cultural crops provides the chance for biodiversity to thrive .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Organic_farming_and_biodiversity", "rank": 48, "score": 101147 }, { "content": "Title: Sinharaja Forest Reserve Content: Sinharaja Forest Reserve is a national park and a biodiversity hotspot in Sri Lanka . It is of international significance and has been designated a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site by UNESCO . The hilly virgin rainforest , part of the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests ecoregion , was saved from the worst of commercial logging by its inaccessibility , and was designated a World Biosphere Reserve in 1978 and a World Heritage Site in 1988 . The reserve 's name translates as Lion Kingdom . The reserve is only 21 km from east to west , and a maximum of 7 km from north to south , but it is a treasure trove of endemic species , including trees , insects , amphibians , reptiles , birds , and mammals . Because of the dense vegetation , wildlife is not as easily seen as at dry-zone national parks such as Yala . There are about 3 elephants and the 15 or so leopards are rarely seen . The most common larger mammal is the endemic purple-faced langur . An interesting phenomenon is that birds tend to move in mixed feeding flocks , invariably led by the fearless greater racket-tailed drongo and the noisy orange-billed babbler . Of Sri Lanka 's 26 endemic birds , the 20 rainforest species all occur here , including the elusive red-faced malkoha , green-billed coucal and Sri Lanka blue magpie . Reptiles include the endemic green pit viper and hump-nosed vipers , and there are a large variety of amphibians , especially tree frogs . Invertebrates include the endemic common birdwing butterfly and the inevitable leeches . Peaks Sinhagala Pinipitigala Mulawella Access ways Kudawa entrance - Colombo -- > Kalawana -- > Kudawa Pitadeniya Entrance - Galle or Matara -- > Deniyaya -- > Pitadeniya Morning Side Entrance -- Galle or Matara -- > Deniyaya -- > Morning Side Estate Neluwa Side Entrance -- Colombo -- > Kalutara -- > Matugama -- > Neluwa -- > Warukandeniya ' Sinharaja Division Entrance -- Colombo -- > Kalutara -- > Matugama -- > Neluwa -- > Deniyaya -- > Beverly estate -- > Enasalwatta", "qid": "307", "docid": "Sinharaja_Forest_Reserve", "rank": 49, "score": 100963 }, { "content": "Title: Biodiversity loss Content: Loss of biodiversity or biodiversity loss refers to either the ongoing extinction of species worldwide or the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat or ecological niche or biome . The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent , depending on whether the environmental degradation that leads to the loss is reversible through ecological restoration / ecological resilience or effectively permanent ( e.g. through land loss ) . Global extinction has so far been proven to be irreversible . Even though permanent global species loss is a more dramatic phenomenon than regional changes in species composition , even minor changes from a healthy stable state can have dramatic influence on the food web and the food chain insofar as reductions in only one species can adversely affect the entire chain ( coextinction ) , leading to an overall reduction in biodiversity , possible alternative stable states of an ecosystem notwithstanding . Ecological effects of biodiversity are usually counteracted by its loss . Reduced biodiversity in particular leads to reduced ecosystem services and eventually poses an immediate danger for food security , also for humankind .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Biodiversity_loss", "rank": 50, "score": 100794 }, { "content": "Title: Vaneless ion wind generator Content: A vaneless ion wind generator or power fence is a proposed wind power device that produces electrical energy directly by using the wind to pump electric charge from one electrode to another , with no moving parts . Wind energy is usually extracted to make electricity by means of a wind turbine . The bird deaths , vibrational noise , and moving shadows associated with wind turbines would not occur with ion based power generation . One design uses water sprayed from a nozzle facing a toroidal charged electrode . This induces an opposite charge in the water , and when the water flows out of the nozzle , each drop carries a small amount of charge . These water droplets are then blown by the wind , going through the center of the charged toroid without touching it . The droplets then hit a fine mesh , adding to its charge . The other alternative is to use the Earth as the second electrode . The main advantage of this system is that it has no moving parts except the water droplets . The disadvantages are that it needs a constant supply of water , its wind profile ca n't be reduced , it requires many small parts , and it has to be well-crafted to reduce corona discharge losses . The device would produce direct current , which would need to be inverted to apply to a standard AC power grid . Lord Kelvin created a similar device that used the energy of falling water droplets to generate high voltage , sometimes called `` Kelvin 's Thunderstorm '' .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Vaneless_ion_wind_generator", "rank": 51, "score": 100785 }, { "content": "Title: Rhynchophorus vulneratus Content: The palm weevil Rhynchophorus vulneratus is one of two species of snout beetle known as the red palm weevil or Asian palm weevil . The adult beetles are relatively large , ranging between two and four centimeters long , and vary from a rusty red colour to almost entirely black ; many colour variants exist and have led to considerable confusion with other species ( e.g. , Rhynchophorus ferrugineus ) . Weevil larvae of these species can excavate holes in the trunk of a palm trees up to a metre long , thereby weakening and eventually killing the host plant . As a result , these weevils are considered major pests in palm plantations , including the coconut palm , date palm and oil palm . Originally from tropical Asia , this palm weevil has been recorded in the United States at Laguna Beach , CA late in 2010 but it was initially misidentified as the closely related species , Rhynchophorus ferrugineus , and it did not become established .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Rhynchophorus_vulneratus", "rank": 52, "score": 99753 }, { "content": "Title: Native Wind Content: Native Wind ( NAWIG ) was formed to protect the environment and promote the welfare of Native Americans by facilitating the development of wind power and other renewable energy resources on tribal lands . Directors of Native Wind include representatives of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy , Native Energy , ICLEI , Honor the Earth and American Spirit Productions . Two wind facilities have previously been built through Native Wind -- a 750kW turbine at the Rosebud Indian Reservation and another at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota . The Indian tribes of the North and South Dakota and Nebraska are presently collaborating on a project to develop the large wind resources of the northern Great Plains . Eight separate tribes are moving ahead with plans to develop the first large-scale Native owned and operated wind farms in the United States .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Native_Wind", "rank": 53, "score": 99079 }, { "content": "Title: Key Biodiversity Area Content: The Key Biodiversity Areas ( KBA ) approach helps to identify and designate areas of international importance in terms of biodiversity conservation using globally standardised criteria . KBAs extend the Important Bird Area ( IBA ) concept to other taxonomic groups and are now being identified in many parts of the world , by a range of organisations . Examples include Important Plant Areas ( IPAs ) , Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas ( EBSAs ) in the High Seas , Alliance for Zero Extinction ( AZE ) sites , Prime Butterfly Areas , Important Mammal Areas and Important Sites for Freshwater Biodiversity , with prototype criteria developed for freshwater molluscs and fish and for marine systems . The determination of KBAs often brings sites onto the conservation agenda that had n't previously been identified as needing protection due to the nature of the two non-exclusive criteria used to determine them ; vulnerability ; and irreplaceability", "qid": "307", "docid": "Key_Biodiversity_Area", "rank": 54, "score": 98957 }, { "content": "Title: Palm oil production in Malaysia Content: Palm oil production is vital for the economy of Malaysia , which is the world 's second - largest producer of the commodity after Indonesia . The Malaysian Palm Oil Board ( MPOB ) is a government agency responsible for the promotion and development of the palm oil sector in the country . The country 's palm oil industry produces about 90 million tones of lignocellulosic biomass , including empty fruit bunches , oil palm trunks , and oil palm fronds , as well as palm oil mill effluent ( POME ) . In 2010 , in response to concerns about social and environmental impact of palm oil , the Malaysian Government pledged to limit palm oil plantation expansion by retaining at least half of the nation 's land as forest cover .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Palm_oil_production_in_Malaysia", "rank": 55, "score": 98736 }, { "content": "Title: Wind turbine syndrome Content: Wind turbine syndrome or wind farm syndrome is a psychosomatic disorder primarily caused by anxiety generated by heightened awareness of turbines -- the `` nocebo effect '' -- prompted by proponents of the idea that wind turbines have adverse health effects . While proponents claim that a number of effects including death , cancer and congenital abnormality have been caused by wind farms , the distribution of recorded events correlates with media coverage of wind farm syndrome itself , and not with the presence or absence of wind farms . It is not recognised by any international disease classification system and does not appear in any title or abstract in the United States National Library of Medicine 's PubMed database . The Center for Media and Democracy 's SourceWatch website has identified at least one Australian fossil fuel industry funded astroturfing group as involved in promoting the idea of wind turbine syndrome . An investigation led to the foundation being stripped of its status as a health promotion charity .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Wind_turbine_syndrome", "rank": 56, "score": 98659 }, { "content": "Title: Pasoh Forest Reserve Content: The Pasoh Forest Reserve , a nature reserve located about 8 km from Simpang Pertang , Malaysia and around 70 km southeast of Kuala Lumpur . It has a total area of 2450 hectares , with a core area of 600ha surrounded by a buffer zone . Palm oil plantations surround the reserve on three sides while the other side adjoins a selectively logged dipterocarp forest . An average of 2 metres of rain fall each year , ranging from 1728 to 3112 mm . In 1987 a 50 hectare forest dynamics plot was established in the reserve . The reserve has largely been destroyed by loggers and miners .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Pasoh_Forest_Reserve", "rank": 57, "score": 98489 }, { "content": "Title: Kiwengwa/Pongwe Forest Reserve Content: The Kiwengwa/Pongwe Forest Reserve is located on the north east coast of Unguja , 20 km from Zanzibar Town . The reserve is an important biodiversity spot in the coral rag zone . The forest reserve is rich both in faunal and floral species . The faunal species reported from the reserve are : Endemic species of red colobus monkey , Aders ' duiker , sykes , blue monkeys , sunni antelope and several species of snakes . The avifauna species consist of 47 bird species , which includes Fischer 's turaco , Zanzibar sombre greenbul , crowned hornbill and white-browed coucal . There are 100 plant species which includes many medicinal species . There are also coral caves within the reserve where stalactites and stalagmites can be seen . There is also a spice plantation near the reserve . Coral rag forest , a sensitive ecosystem , is under threat due to timber extraction since the 1970s . Conservation measures have been undertaken to preserve the rich biodiversity of the reserve .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Kiwengwa/Pongwe_Forest_Reserve", "rank": 58, "score": 98469 }, { "content": "Title: Silence of the Songbirds Content: Silence of the Songbirds ( ISBN 978-0-8027-1609-5 ) is a book by bird lover and scientist Bridget Stutchbury about the rapid decline and loss of many species of songbirds . Some major threats covered include pesticides , sun-grown coffee , city lights , cowbirds , and global warming . The book was published by HarperCollins in 2007 , and has 243 pages . Kirkus Reviews published a review of the book on June 1 , 2007 , and compared it to Silent Spring by Rachel Carson . Stutchbury describes the link between Latin American deforestation and the loss of food for migratory birds , and the impact of large amounts of pesticides . However , deforestation is minimal for shade-grown coffee . She mentions additional threats to songbirds : light pollution , tall buildings , and wind farms . Despite the diminishing populations of songbirds in recent decades , she provides advice for their survival .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Silence_of_the_Songbirds", "rank": 59, "score": 98379 }, { "content": "Title: World Rainforest Movement Content: The World Rainforest Movement ( WRM ) is an international NGO and Indigenous Peoples ' Groups network involved in efforts to defend the world 's tropical forests against the forces that destroy them . Since its creation in 1986 , WRM has played an important role as catalyst and critic and has particularly championed the rights of forest-dwelling communities . The idea was to link peoples ' organisations and movements working on forest related policies and projects of the World Bank and other International Financial Institutions ( IFIs ) with the aim of countering the influence of the timber industry . The secretarial of the World Rainforest Movement is based in Montevideo , Uruguay , while its European support office is based in and hosted by FERN and Forest Peoples Programme in Moreton-in-Marsh , United Kingdom .", "qid": "307", "docid": "World_Rainforest_Movement", "rank": 60, "score": 98338 }, { "content": "Title: Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance Content: The Climate , Community & Biodiversity Alliance ( CCBA ) is an initiative led by Conservation International , CARE , The Nature Conservancy , Rainforest Alliance , and the Wildlife Conservation Society to promote the development of land management activities that simultaneously deliver significant benefits for climate , local communities , and biodiversity . The CCBA was established in 2003 and works to increase public and private investment in forest protection , restoration and agroforestry by developing standards that enable policy makers and project developers to demonstrate the delivery of social and environmental benefits from activities that reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases . The CCBA has two major initiatives : The Climate , Community and Biodiversity Standards , which are in use by more than 100 projects around the world . The Climate , Community & Biodiversity ( CCB ) Standards enable investors , policymakers , project managers and civil society observers to evaluate land-based climate change mitigation projects by identifying high-quality projects that adopt best practices to generate significant benefits for local communities and biodiversity while delivering credible and robust carbon offsets . The REDD + Social and Environmental Standards are a being developed in collaboration with the governments of Ecuador , Nepal and Tanzania to enable government programs to demonstrate that their programs for reducing emissions from land are designed and implemented in a way that ensures a high level of social and environmental performance .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Climate,_Community_&_Biodiversity_Alliance", "rank": 61, "score": 98270 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in Mali Content: Environmental issues in Mali include desertification , deforestation , soil erosion , drought , and inadequate supplies of potable water . Deforestation is an especially serious and growing problem . According to the Ministry of the Environment , Mali 's population consumes 6 million tons of wood per year for timber and fuel . To meet this demand , 4,000 square kilometres of tree cover are lost annually , virtually ensuring destruction of the country 's savanna woodlands . One of Mali 's major environmental issues is desertification . Mali has been in a drought for decades now and it is really affecting the country . Soil erosion , deforestation , and loss of pasture land are all major problems in Mali . Mali also has a shortening water supply . To help sustain Mali 's ever-growing problem the government has assigned 3.7 percent of Mali 's total land area protected . It has ratified international environmental agreements pertaining to biodiversity , climate change , desertification , Endangered species , and Ozone Layer Protection . According to the U.N. FAO , 10.2 % or about 12,490,000 ha of Mali is forested , according to FAO . Mali had 530,000 ha of planted forest . Change in forest cover : Between 1990 and 2010 , Mali lost an average of 79,100 ha or 0.56 % per year . In total , between 1990 and 2010 , Mali lost 11.2 % of its forest cover , or around 1,582,000 ha .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_Mali", "rank": 62, "score": 98248 }, { "content": "Title: Dypsis faneva Content: Dypsis faneva is a species of palm tree . It is endemic to Madagascar , where it grows in rainforests . It is threatened by habitat destruction . Fewer than 70 mature individuals are thought to remain .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Dypsis_faneva", "rank": 63, "score": 98041 }, { "content": "Title: PT Asiatic Persada Content: PT Asiatic Persada is a palm oil firm from Jambi , Indonesia . It was founded in 1979 . Its oil palm plantations spread over an area of approximately 270 km2 . Wilmar International has sold PT Asiatic Persada due to its alleged involvement in land grabs . The forest of Bungku village was cleared for giant palm oil plantations of PT Asiatic Persada in the mid-1980s . In the following years , the company 's bulldozers illegally claimed a further 200 km2 of rain forest -- an area about half the size of Berlin , including areas for which indigenous peoples held guaranteed land rights . Ganda Group , owned by Ganda Sitorus , the younger brother of Martua Sitorus , the co-founder of Wilmar International , bought PT Asiatic Persada in 2013 . In the same year , the governor of Jambi urged officials to review PT Asiatic Persada 's license because of violations of the law . Copies of the letter were also sent to the Justice Ministry and the national police chief .", "qid": "307", "docid": "PT_Asiatic_Persada", "rank": 64, "score": 97742 }, { "content": "Title: Bird migration perils Content: Migrating birds face many perils as they travel between breeding and wintering grounds each year . Migration is a dangerous part of a bird 's life cycle , with many trade-offs ; birds receive benefits from wintering and breeding in better quality habitats , at the price of higher predation risks and greater energy expenditure . Hazards during migration include storms , hunting , collisions with manmade objects such as wind turbines , and starvation . The risk of starvation is increased when stopover sites are lost through climate change or loss of habitat to development or agriculture . Mortality on both breeding and wintering grounds may be increased for similar reasons .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Bird_migration_perils", "rank": 65, "score": 97655 }, { "content": "Title: Lower Pierce Reservoir Park Content: Lower Pierce Reservoir Park is a park located along Old Upper Thomson Road in Singapore and overlooks Lower Pierce Reservoir , Singapore 's second oldest reservoir . A mature secondary rainforest lines the bank with numerous rubber trees and oil palms . A 900-metre boardwalk constructed in Nov 1998 provides an outdoor classroom for nature study and recreation in a natural forest environment . Interpretative boards on the flora and fauna in the forest serves as a guide together with bum rest , scenic view and picnic points along the route . The boardwalk was specially routed and built on existing trails to elevate the compaction and soil erosion caused by the overuse of these trails in the forest to ensure the protection floral and fauna on the forest floor . Flora & Fauna Some trees in the park are over 100 years old . Pitcher plants ( Nepenthes spp . ) and the Nibong Palm ( Oncosperma tigillaria ) are some of the interesting plants located within the park . Long-tailed Macaques ( Macaca fascicularis ) , Oriental Whip Snakes ( Ahaetulla prasina ) and the occasional White-bellied Sea Eagle ( Haliaeetus leucogaster ) flying above the reservoir are the common wildlife residing in that area . Freshwater species such as Snakeheads ( Channa spp . ) can also be found in the waters of the reservoir .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Lower_Pierce_Reservoir_Park", "rank": 66, "score": 97482 }, { "content": "Title: Rhynchophorus cruentatus Content: The palmetto weevil ( Rhynchophorus cruentatus ) is an insect native to Florida , but has been found as far as southern Texas to the west and South Carolina to the north . It is the largest weevil in North America and the only kind of palm weevil in the continental United States . It infests palms and is considered a pest . Its main target is the Canary Island date palm , but date palms ( a different species than the Canary Island date palm ) , sabal palms ( the palmetto weevil 's traditional target ) , saw palmetto ( the palmetto weevil 's traditional alternative target ) , Washingtonia , Pritchardia , royal palms , Latania , coconut palms , Caryota , and Bismarckia are also susceptible . Distressed palm trees are usually attacked , which makes transplanted trees a frequent target . The Palmetto Weevils mate at the base of the palm branches where the females deposit their eggs . The grubs then eat into the palm tree , killing it . After the larvae have turned into adult weevils , the damage can be seen , but by then , it is considered to be too late for the tree . The life cycle from egg to adult for a palmetto weevil is about 84 days . For prevention , it is recommended an appropriate insecticidal crown drench is done twice a year for high value palms . Palm weevil grubs are considered a delicacy in countries outside the United States . Palmetto weevil are most active in late spring and early summer .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Rhynchophorus_cruentatus", "rank": 67, "score": 97256 }, { "content": "Title: PT Adei Plantation and Industry Content: PT Adei Plantation and Industry ( PT API ) is a palm oil company from Indonesia . It is a subsidiary of Malaysia 's Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad ( KLK ) . Around 2003 , 70 % ( 19,432 hectares ) of PT API 's land in Riau was on peat soil . It owned 27760 hectares of land in Riau in around 2009 . According to a police spokesperson , there was enough evidence on PT API 's 's involvement for its use of illegal slash-and-burn methods to clear land for cultivation . It one of the few companies , that have ever been successfully prosecuted for open burning so far . The company was found guilty of fires on its land in October 2001 . Mr C. Gobi , the general manager , was sentenced to a two-year imprisonment , which was reduced to eight months . The company was fined $ 27,00 , which was reduced to $ 11,000 . Another general manager of the company was found guilty of causing forest fires in 2014 .", "qid": "307", "docid": "PT_Adei_Plantation_and_Industry", "rank": 68, "score": 97247 }, { "content": "Title: Sagalassa valida Content: Sagalassa valida , the oil palm rootworm , is a moth in the Brachodidae family . It is found in Panama , Colombia , Peru , Guyana and Brazil . The larvae feed on Elaeis guineensis . They mine in the roots of their host plant , destroying the tissue and leaving only the cortex intact .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Sagalassa_valida", "rank": 69, "score": 97244 }, { "content": "Title: Palm oil production in Indonesia Content: Palm oil production is important to the economy of Indonesia as the country is the world 's biggest producer and consumer of the commodity , providing about half the world supply . Oil palm plantations stretch across 6 million hectares ( roughly twice the size of Belgium ) . Indonesia plans by 2015 to add 4 million additional hectares towards oil palm biofuel production . As of 2012 , Indonesia produces 35 percent of the world 's certified sustainable palm oil ( CSPO ) . In addition to servicing traditional markets , Indonesia is looking to put more effort into producing biodiesel . China and India are the major importers of palm oil , accounting for more than a third of global palm oil imports .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Palm_oil_production_in_Indonesia", "rank": 70, "score": 97190 }, { "content": "Title: Fauna of Borneo Content: Borneo is the third largest island in the world . In prehistoric times it was connected to the Asian mainland due to geological and climate changes . During the recent ice ages of the Pleistocene and the Holocene separation from the mainland caused extinctions and speciation of fauna on the island . The high complexity of the Bornean tropical rain forest has created many niches that accommodate a rich diversity of fauna . Some fauna are specialised and some coexisted by having niche separation to avoid inter - and intra-specific competition within the same habitat . Ecological separation can be in the form of different feeding guilds , niche separation by stratification and different utilisation strategies by being diurnal or nocturnal . For example , vertebrate fauna ( birds and mammals ) can be defined into six communities based on vertical stratification of the rainforest . First , the small mammals and birds use the forest ground floor and underground . Second , the large herbivores and carnivorous animals range the ground floor of the forest searching for food , shelter and breed . Third , omnivorous and carnivorous mammals range up and down tree trunk from forest floor to the canopy level . Fourth , are mainly volant mammals such as bats and birds using the middle canopy . Fifth , are top canopy birds and mammals that feed on leaves , fruits , nectar and insects . Sixth , are the fast flying birds and bats using the above canopy area .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Fauna_of_Borneo", "rank": 71, "score": 96971 }, { "content": "Title: Wind farm Content: A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity . A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles , but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes . A wind farm can also be located offshore . Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in China , the United States and Germany . For example , the largest wind farm in the world , Gansu Wind Farm in China has a capacity of over 6,000 MW as of 2012 , with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020 . As of April 2013 , the 630 MW London Array in the UK is the largest offshore wind farm in the world . There are many large wind farms under construction , including Fosen Vind ( 1000 MW ) , Sinus Holding Wind Farm ( 700 MW ) , Lincs Wind Farm ( 270 MW ) , Lower Snake River Wind Project ( 343 MW ) , Macarthur Wind Farm ( 420 MW ) .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Wind_farm", "rank": 72, "score": 96861 }, { "content": "Title: Pen y Cymoedd Content: Pen y Cymoedd ( `` Head of the Valleys '' ) is a # 365m wind farm development currently under construction , located between Neath and Aberdare in south Wales . The company has signed a lease agreement with Vattenfall of Sweden , and its UK subsidiary Vattenfall United Kingdom ( formerly Nuon Renewables ) , to develop what would be the United Kingdom 's highest altitude wind farm , on a site owned by the Forestry Commission Wales , . The project would see the installation of 76 turbines that are planned to operate for 25 years , and to generate up to 256 MW , an amount enough to power up to 206,000 homes . The turbine manufacturer is Siemens Wind Power . During the planning process , Nuon agreed to contribute about # 1.85 m annually to a community fund and to invest # 3m in a habitat restoration scheme , and the following parties contributed to the debate : Glyncorrwg Action Group : the wind farm will look down on the village of Glyncorrwg in the Afan Valley . Residents of the village campaigned against the development , which they claim would destroy the character of the landscape . Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales : objected on the grounds of its potential impact on a sensitive peat habitat . Neath Port Talbot Council : the planning committee decided not to object to the scheme in January 2012 , after councillors carried out a site visit , although they set a number of conditions . The project gained final planning permission in May 2012 , The final turbine ( 76th turbine ) of Pen y Cymoedd was installed on March 2 , 2017 . The wind farm is now fully operational as of May 2017 . . The first 3.0 MW Siemens 101m turbine was fully completed on April 8 , 2016 .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Pen_y_Cymoedd", "rank": 73, "score": 96646 }, { "content": "Title: Illegal dumping of green waste and the effects on biodiversity Content: Green and garden waste illegally dumped into nature reserves directly affecting wildlife , fauna and flora .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Illegal_dumping_of_green_waste_and_the_effects_on_biodiversity", "rank": 74, "score": 96620 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation in Madagascar Content: Deforestation in Madagascar is an ongoing environmental issue . Deforestation creates agricultural or pastoral land but can also result in desertification , water resource degradation , biodiversity erosion and habitat loss , and soil loss . It has been noticed that Madagascar has lost 80 or 90 % of its ` original ' or ` pre-human ' forest cover , but this claim is difficult to prove and is not supported by evidence . What is certain is that the arrival of humans on Madagascar some 2000 + years ago began a process of fire , cultivation , logging and grazing that has reduced forest cover . Industrial forest exploitation during the Merina monarchy and French colonialism contributed to forest loss . Evidence from air photography and remote sensing suggest that by c. 2000 , around 40 % to 50 % of the forest cover present in 1950 was lost . Current hotspots for deforestation include dry forests in the southwest being converted for maize cultivation and rain forests in the northeast exploited for tropical hardwoods . Primary causes of forest loss include slash-and-burn for agricultural land ( a practice known locally as tavy ) and for pasture , selective logging for precious woods or construction material , the collection of fuel wood ( including charcoal production ) , and in certain sites , forest clearing for mining .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Deforestation_in_Madagascar", "rank": 75, "score": 96384 }, { "content": "Title: Neoveitchia storckii Content: Neoveitchia storckii is a species of palm tree . It is native to Fiji . It grows in rainforests and is endangered by habitat loss.Fuller , D. 1998 . Neoveitchia storckii . The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . Version 2015.2 . Downloaded on 08 September 2015 .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Neoveitchia_storckii", "rank": 76, "score": 96364 }, { "content": "Title: Biodiversity of Colombia Content: Colombia is the country with the second-highest biodiversity in the world , behind Brazil . As of 2016 , 56,343 species are registered in Colombia , of which 9153 endemic . The country occupies the first position worldwide in number of orchids and birds , second position in plants , amphibians , butterflies and fresh water fish , third place in species of palm trees and reptiles and globally holds the fourth position in biodiversity of mammals . The country hosts 59 nationally designated protected areas . At the establishment of the as of 2017 most recent addition , Bahía Portete -- Kaurrele National Natural Park , Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos said `` The biodiversity is to Colombia , what oil is for the Arabs '' .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Biodiversity_of_Colombia", "rank": 77, "score": 96225 }, { "content": "Title: Asian palm swift Content: The Asian palm swift ( Cypsiurus balasiensis ) is a small swift . It is very similar to the African palm swift , Cypsiurus parvus , and was formerly considered to be the same species . It is a common resident breeder in tropical Asia from India to the Philippines . The down and feather nest is glued to the underside of a palm leaf with saliva , which is also used to secure the usually two or three eggs . This is a bird of open country and cultivation , which is strongly associated with oil palms . This 13 cm long species is mainly pale brown in colour . It has long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang . The body is slender , and the tail is long and deeply forked , although it is usually held closed . The call is a loud shrill scream . Sexes are similar , and young birds differ from adults mainly in their shorter tails . Asian palm swift has very short legs which it uses only for clinging to vertical surfaces , since swifts never settle voluntarily on the ground . These swifts spend most of their lives in the air , living on the insects they catch in their beaks . Asian palm swifts often feed near the ground , and they drink on the wing .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Asian_palm_swift", "rank": 78, "score": 96130 }, { "content": "Title: Heart of Borneo Content: The Heart of Borneo is a conservation agreement initiated by the World Wide Fund for Nature to protect a 220,000 km ² forested region on Borneo island that is known as Asia 's last great rainforest . The agreement has been signed by the governments of Brunei , Indonesia and Malaysia in Bali on 12 February 2007 to support the initiative . The region provides habitat to 10 endemic species of primate , more than 350 birds , 150 reptiles and amphibians and 10,000 plants . From 2007 to 2010 a total of 123 new species have been recorded in the region . A status report from 2012 found that the lowland rain forest within the area is deteriorating and under threat . The Bornean rhinoceros was the most threatened fauna , with an estimated 25 individuals remaining . As of 2015 , they are extinct in the wild with only 3 individuals remaining in captivity in Sabah .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Heart_of_Borneo", "rank": 79, "score": 96054 }, { "content": "Title: Zealandia (wildlife sanctuary) Content: Zealandia , formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary , is a protected natural area in Wellington , New Zealand , where the biodiversity of 225 ha ( just under a square mile ) of forest is being restored . The sanctuary was previously part of the water catchment area for Wellington , between Wrights Hill ( bordering Karori ) and the Brooklyn wind turbine on Polhill . Most of New Zealand 's ecosystems have been severely modified by the introduction of land mammals that were not present during the evolution of its ecosystems , and have had a devastating impact on both native flora and fauna . The sanctuary , surrounded by a pest-exclusion fence , is a good example of an ecological island , which allows the natural ecosystems to thrive by minimising those introduced pressures . The sanctuary has become a significant tourist attraction in Wellington and is responsible for the greatly increased number of sightings of species such as tui and kākā in city 's suburbs . The sanctuary has inspired a raft of similar projects throughout New Zealand , with predator-proof fences now protecting the biodiversity of many other areas of forest . Examples include the 7.7 hectare lowland podocarp forest remnant of Riccarton bush / Putaringamotu , the 98 hectare Bushy Park and , the 3500 hectare Maungatautari Restoration Project enclosing an entire mountain .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Zealandia_(wildlife_sanctuary)", "rank": 80, "score": 95956 }, { "content": "Title: In situ conservation Content: In-situ conservation is the on-site conservation or the conservation of genetic resources in natural populations of plant or animal species , such as forest genetic resources in natural populations of tree species . It is the process of protecting an endangered plant or animal species in its natural habitat , either by protecting or cleaning up the habitat itself , or by defending the species from predators . It is applied to conservation of agricultural biodiversity in agroecosystems by farmers , especially those using unconventional farming practices . e.g. , Nilgiri biosphere in India .", "qid": "307", "docid": "In_situ_conservation", "rank": 81, "score": 95922 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of mining Content: The environmental impact of mining includes erosion , formation of sinkholes , loss of biodiversity , and contamination of soil , groundwater and surface water by chemicals from mining processes . Besides creating environmental damage , the contamination resulting from leakage of chemicals also affect the health of the local population . Mining companies in some countries are required to follow environmental and rehabilitation codes , ensuring the area mined is returned close to its original state . Some mining methods may have significant environmental and public health effects . Nuss and Eckelman ( 2014 ) provide an overview of the life-cycle wide environmental impacts of metals production associated with 62 metals in year 2008 . Erosion of exposed hillsides , mine dumps , tailings dams and resultant siltation of drainages , creeks and rivers can significantly impact the surrounding areas , a prime example being the giant Ok Tedi Mine in Papua New Guinea . In wilderness areas mining may cause destruction and disturbance of ecosystems and habitats , and in areas of farming it may disturb or destroy productive grazing and croplands . In urbanised environments mining may produce noise pollution , dust pollution and visual pollution .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_mining", "rank": 82, "score": 95860 }, { "content": "Title: Oil toxicity Content: Oil toxicity ( or oil intoxication ) is a wildlife disease resulting from the accidental exposure of animals to oil . Major sources of such oil in the environment include accidental oil spills from off-shore sites , oil tankers , pipelines , and other facilities that store and process oil . Wildlife exposure to oil can result in both external and internal damage . Oil intoxication has the greatest impact on bird species , aquatic mammals , and other aquatic organisms . Affected wildlife can usually be identified via visual inspection , and can be treated if found early on .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Oil_toxicity", "rank": 83, "score": 95860 }, { "content": "Title: Blairo Maggi Content: Blairo Borges Maggi ( born 29 May 1956 in São Miguel do Iguaçu , Paraná , Brazil ) is a soy plantation farmer and former governor of the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil . He graduated from Federal University of Paraná , majoring in agronomy . Maggi also owns the Amaggi Group , a large company that harvests , processes , and exports soybeans . The Maggi group is also involved in the infrastructure projects that are necessary to sustain the soy industry , notably soy terminals , highways , and waterways . Maggi is the world 's largest soyabean producer . His accusers hold him responsible for the destruction of the Amazon rainforest . His defenders say he is taking Brazil forward . In this respect he is unapologetic , telling the New York Times in 2003 : `` To me , a 40 percent increase in deforestation does n't mean anything at all , and I do n't feel the slightest guilt over what we are doing here -LSB- ... -RSB- We 're talking about an area larger than Europe that has barely been touched , so there is nothing at all to get worried about '' . Maggi received the Golden Chainsaw Award in 2006 from Greenpeace for being the Brazilian who most contributed to the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest . In 2014 , Maggi 's net worth is estimated by American magazine Forbes at $ 960 million , based on his 17 % stake in Grupo Andre Maggi .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Blairo_Maggi", "rank": 84, "score": 95804 }, { "content": "Title: Salvage logging Content: Salvage logging is the practice of logging trees in forest areas that have been damaged by wildfire , flood , severe wind , disease , insect infestation , or other natural disturbance in order to recover economic value that would otherwise be lost . Although the primary motivation of salvage logging is economic , it has also been suggested that salvage logging may reduce erosion , reduce intensity of future wildfires , and slow buildup of pest insects . However , there is little evidence to support such claims , and most evidence supports the view that salvage logging is harmful to forest health and function . As with other logging operations , the harvesting may be either by selection , thinning or clearcutting , and a regeneration plan may be put in place after the logging . Salvage logging may include removal of remaining live trees in predominantly dead stands .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Salvage_logging", "rank": 85, "score": 95730 }, { "content": "Title: Cumulative effects (environment) Content: Cumulative environmental effects can be defined as effects on the environment which are caused by the combined results of past , current and future activities . Over time , direct and indirect human activities combine to collectively impact the environment . These effects may differ from the original , individual activities . For example , ecosystems can be damaged by the combined effects of human activities , such as air , land , and/or water pollution , improper handling of industrial waste , and other human development activities . Global warming is the cumulative effect caused by too much greenhouse gas , and it may then cause a loss in biodiversity and acid rain . North America has contributed to creating various cumulative effects on the environment . Many states in the United States have inadequate or no formal environmental review requirements in order to assess the cumulative effects on the environment from harmful practices . The extent to which cumulative effects in each state are evaluated varies greatly . For example , some programs only require an assessment on specific natural resource issues and others require comprehensive examination of cumulative effects on the environment . Environmental assessments are a necessity to ensure the further advancement of healthy ecosystems , habitats , and wildlife .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Cumulative_effects_(environment)", "rank": 86, "score": 95548 }, { "content": "Title: Pollinator decline Content: The term pollinator decline refers to the reduction in abundance of insect and other animal pollinators in many ecosystems worldwide beginning at the end of the twentieth century , and continuing into the present day . Pollinators participate in sexual reproduction of many plants , by ensuring cross-pollination , essential for some species , or a major factor in ensuring genetic diversity for others . Since plants are the primary food source for animals , the reduction of one of the primary pollination agents , or even their possible disappearance , has raised concern , and the conservation of pollinators has become part of biodiversity conservation efforts .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Pollinator_decline", "rank": 87, "score": 95399 }, { "content": "Title: Threatened fauna of Australia Content: Threatened fauna of Australia are those species and subspecies of birds , fish , frogs , insects , mammals , molluscs , crustaceans and reptiles to be found in Australia that are in danger of becoming extinct . This list is the list proclaimed under the Australian federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 ( EPBC Act ) . The classifications are based on those used by the World Conservation Union ( IUCN ) , however IUCN and Australian rankings do differ .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Threatened_fauna_of_Australia", "rank": 88, "score": 95342 }, { "content": "Title: Broken Head Nature Reserve Content: The Broken Head Nature Reserve is a protected nature reserve located in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales , Australia , adjacent to the promontory of Broken Head which lies approximately 9 km south of Cape Byron , the easternmost point of Australia . The 98 ha reserve contains an intact segment of littoral rainforest . Much of the Australian littoral rainforests have been destroyed for agriculture , mining or housing . Species of tree include Tuckeroo , Broad-leaf Lilly Pilly , Native Elm , Pear Fruited Tamarind , Bennett 's Ash , Bangalow Palm , Rusty Rose Walnut and Hoop Pine . The extremely rare Scented Acronychia may naturally occur here . Climbers such as Whip Vine and Lawyer Cane are very common . The weed lantana is a serious problem in disturbed areas . The area is noted for its Aboriginal culture , rainforest walks , whale watching , and fishing from pristine beaches .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Broken_Head_Nature_Reserve", "rank": 89, "score": 95166 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 90, "score": 95156 }, { "content": "Title: Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Content: The palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus is one of two species of snout beetle known as the red palm weevil , Asian palm weevil or sago palm weevil . The adult beetles are relatively large , ranging between two and four centimeters long , and are usually a rusty red colour -- but many colour variants exist and have often been classified as different species ( e.g. , Rhynchophorus vulneratus ) . Weevil larvae can excavate holes in the trunk of a palm trees up to a metre long , thereby weakening and eventually killing the host plant . As a result , the weevil is considered a major pest in palm plantations , including the coconut palm , date palm and oil palm . Originally from tropical Asia , the red palm weevil has spread to Africa and Europe , reaching the Mediterranean in the 1980s . It was first recorded in Spain in 1994 , and in France in 2006 . Additional infestations have been located in Malta and Italy ( Tuscany , Sicily and Campania ) . It is also well established throughout most of Portugal , especially in the South . It also has established in Morocco , Tunisia , and other North African countries . The weevil was first reported in the Americas on Curaçao in January 2009 and sighted the same year in Aruba . It was reported in the United States at Laguna Beach , CA late in 2010 but this was a misidentification of the closely related species , Rhynchophorus vulneratus , and it did not become established .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Rhynchophorus_ferrugineus", "rank": 91, "score": 94999 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of tropical cyclones Content: The main effects of tropical cyclones include heavy rain , strong wind , large storm surges at landfall , and tornadoes . The destruction from a tropical cyclone depends mainly on its intensity , its size , and its location . Tropical cyclones act to remove forest canopy as well as change the landscape near coastal areas , by moving and reshaping sand dunes and causing extensive erosion along the coast . Even well inland , heavy rainfall can lead to mudslides and landslides in mountainous areas . Their effects can be sensed over time by studying the concentration of the Oxygen-18 isotope within caves within the vicinity of cyclones ' paths being very hazardous to people 's life . After the cyclone has passed , devastation often continues . Standing water can cause the spread of disease , and transportation or communication infrastructure may have been destroyed , hampering clean-up and rescue efforts . Nearly two million people have died globally due to tropical cyclones . Despite their devastating effects , tropical cyclones are also beneficial , by potentially bringing rain to dry areas and moving heat from the tropics poleward . Out at sea , ships take advantage of their known characteristics by navigating through their weaker , western half . When a cyclone hits it causes PST hazards . PST is an acronym standing for Primary , Secondary and Tertiary . A primary hazard involves destructive winds , debris and storm surge . Secondary hazard is flooding , fires and of course fresh water flooding . Finally Tertiary hazards involves food prices that go majorly up and other long term hazards like water poisoning .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Effects_of_tropical_cyclones", "rank": 92, "score": 94903 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation in Colombia Content: Colombia loses 2,000 km2 of forest annually to deforestation , according to the United Nations in 2003 . Some suggest that this figure is as high as 3,000 km ² due to illegal logging in the region . Deforestation results mainly from logging for timber , small-scale agricultural ranching , mining , development of energy resources such as hydro-electricity , infrastructure , cocaine production , and farming . Around one-third of the country 's original forest has been removed as a result of deforestation . Deforestation in Colombia is mainly targeted at primary rainforest which covers more than 80 % of Colombia . This has a profound ecological impact in that Colombia is extremely rich in biodiversity , with 10 % of the world 's species , making it the second most biologically diverse country on Earth .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Deforestation_in_Colombia", "rank": 93, "score": 94830 }, { "content": "Title: Rainforest Foundation US Content: The Rainforest Foundation US is a non-profit NGO working in Central and South America . It is one of the first international organizations to support the indigenous peoples of the world 's rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfill their rights to land , life and livelihood . In over 20 years of work their strategy of protecting forests by partnering with indigenous communities has proven to be effective . Multiple studies support the link between indigenous people 's having control over their lands and the protection of the forests in those areas . For example , recent studies of the Brazilian Amazon show that deforestation rates were up to 20 times lower in traditional indigenous lands than other areas , and in Ecuador over one million acres of indigenous reserve show 0 % deforestation , while the rest of Ecuador has the highest deforestation rates on the continent . The idea that the indigenous peoples of the world are holders of a specific set of rights and are also the victims of historically unique forms of discrimination is most completely/thoroughly enunciated by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples , adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007 . The Rainforest Foundation US works to protect and defend indigenous rights , thereby protecting the rainforests .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Rainforest_Foundation_US", "rank": 94, "score": 94581 }, { "content": "Title: Trachycarpus latisectus Content: Trachycarpus latisectus ( formerly Trachycarpus sikkimensis ined . ) is an attractive palm tree with large leathery leaves with exceptionally wide segments and a thick , bare and ringed trunk . Its fan-shaped leaves resemble those of Livistona . It has a bare trunk and its seeds resemble those of T. martianus . Trachycarpus latisectus is commonly known as Windamere palm , for the locality where its first botanical description was made , the garden of the famous Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling , India . It was formally photographed and collected for the first time only in 1992 during the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Sikkim Expedition . It is considered a temperate palm , and has been reported to withstand a wide range of climates , from tropical , subtropical to cold and wet conditions . It is native to Sikkim in the Himalayas , where it has been reported from a range of elevation between 3500 and 7000 feet . It remains in the wild in just one tiny , heavily altered location which is immediately threatened by deforestation . Trachycarpus latisectus is cultivated outside its native range as an ornamental . Seeds are considered very easy to germinate . They should be soaked for at least 12 hours , then placed in a mixture of moist peat with perlite or vermiculite within a plastic bag , and keep at 18 - 28 ° C. Viable seeds will sprout in a time frame between two and ten months , depending of several factors . The tree grows quickly and easily . T. latisectus requires a rich and loamy but well-drained soil . Young plants are best grown under some shade . As it does not have an invasive root system , it also grows well in containers .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Trachycarpus_latisectus", "rank": 95, "score": 94581 }, { "content": "Title: Bioreclamation of degraded lands Content: Large swathes of the Sahel region , which were once covered by grasslands , savannah , woodlands and scrub , suffer from land degradation . Soils have become degraded in locations where farmers have cleared perennial vegetation to grow crops and graze animals , exposing the soil to erosion by wind and water . In total , one-third of the world 's population lives in drylands where land degradation is reducing food supplies , biodiversity , water quality and soil fertility . The bioreclamation of degraded lands ( BDL ) system was developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics ( ICRISAT ) , with the aim of helping reverse damage to soils caused by overgrazing and intensive farming . Laterite soils have a high clay content , which means they have higher cation exchange capacity and water-holding capacity than sandy soils . However , when they become degraded , a hard crust can form on the surface , which hinders water infiltration and the emergence of seedlings . The BDL system involves using indigenous water-harvesting methods ( such as planting pits and trenches ) , applying animal and plant residues , and planting high-value fruit trees and indigenous vegetable crops that can tolerate drought conditions . ICRISAT has employed this system to rehabilitate degraded laterite soils in Niger and increase smallholder farmers ' incomes at the same time . Trials have demonstrated that a 200 m2 plot can yield an income of around US$ 100 , which is what men traditionally earn from millet production per hectare ( 10,000 m2 ) in the country . Niger 's rural women are often marginalised and tend to only be given land once it has become degraded . Using the BDL system has therefore also helped to improve livelihoods for women in Niger .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Bioreclamation_of_degraded_lands", "rank": 96, "score": 94545 }, { "content": "Title: Palm-nut vulture Content: The palm-nut vulture ( Gypohierax angolensis ) or vulturine fish eagle , is a large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae ( which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites , buzzards and harriers , vultures , and eagles ) . It is the only member of the genus Gypohierax . Unusual for birds of prey , it feeds mainly on the fruit of the oil palm , though it also feeds on crabs , molluscs , locusts , and fish , and has been known to occasionally attack domestic poultry and bats . This bird is an Old World vulture ( only distantly related to the New World vultures , which are in a separate family , the Cathartidae ) . It breeds in forest and savannah across sub-Saharan Africa , usually near water , its range coinciding with that of the oil palm . It is quite approachable , like many African vultures , and can be seen near habitation , even on large hotel lawns in the tourist areas of countries such as the Gambia .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Palm-nut_vulture", "rank": 97, "score": 94489 }, { "content": "Title: Amazon insects Content: The Amazon Rainforest and surrounding region is the most biodiverse on earth and no life form is more diverse than the insects of the Amazon . No one can put any accurate figure on how many species there are but it has been estimated to be around 2.5 million species of insect with 700 species of beetle discovered on just one tree . There are 7,000 species of butterfly compared to 20,000 worldwide . One acre may have 70,000 species of insects alone . The rate of new species being discovered annually is around 10,000 with a majority in the Amazon River basin . The insects in the Amazon , like all tropical biomes , are larger and more colorful than their temperate counterparts . The rainforest Canopy is where the greatest abundance of species of insects can be found . The canopy has only been explored for the last 20 years and is poorly documented ; almost all species are entirely new to science and rarely can two specimens be found of the same species . Methods of collecting insects include fogging the trees with insecticides or by netting them . The reason for such high diversity is the age of the forest which is around 100 million years old . Also the stable climate has allowed life forms to fill and create more niches in the ecosystem . But most of all is the relation with insects and plant , insects are almost inseparable from plants because they require each other to survive . In the Amazon most species of plants have only one species of moth or beetle to pollinate them successfully . So the enormous number of species of insects is obvious by the number of plant and tree species in the rainforest ; 100,000 trees and 400,000 plants are known in the rain forest with many more waiting to be discovered . Unfortunately the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest is driving many insect species to extinction before they can even be identified or seen by man . Each day dozens are going extinct because many species only live on a few acres range .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Amazon_insects", "rank": 98, "score": 94431 }, { "content": "Title: Jungle piralizai Content: Jungle Piralizai is located 60 km to the North West of Quetta about 2.26 km from the main Quetta Chaman Highway and 14.7 km from Killa Abdullah . The name Jungle is derived from the vast plantation of Salt cedar ( Tamarix ramosissima ) shrub or small tree typically growing 6-15 ' tall that were planted there post independence by the British Forces at that time to camouflage the military airstrip that was built near to , what is now Khamat Killi ( remanents of which can still be seen adjacent to this village ) . This habitation of Salt cedar trees were uprooted and totally destroyed by the Afghan refugees ( that camped on the outskirts of these villages during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ) in need of wood for fire to protect themselves from the harsh winter nights , whereas the bricks and stones used in the construction of the airstrip and its buildings were removed over the years and used by the villagers and the refugees in their homes . A portion of these Salt cedar trees has survived near to Khamat Killi and is pruned every year to make wood for fire during winter . Jungle Piralizai is composed of four villages Qutub Killi , Khojdad Killi , Majeryaan/Momin Killi and Khamat Killi including Shamir Killi ( nickname Nika Killi ) . Jungle Piralizai is a part of other Piralizai villages located to the North 15 km away and comprises three villages : Arambi , Shah Killi , Killi Usman Achakzai ( called `` Shom '' ) . Piralizai villages are headed by Malik Fareed Ahmad Khan Achakzai who was elected Malik ( meaning elder of the tribe ) after the demise of Malik Mohammad Yousuf . The Piralizai 's are an ethnic group belonging to the Pashtun sub-tribe Achakzai . Members of this group usually use Piralizai or Achakzai as their title or last name . Piralizai 's are the descendants of the Durrani , Zirak and Achakzai tribes . The inhabitants of Jungle Piralizai are mostly farmers and shop keepers , whereas some travel to large cities in search of employment . The people lead a simple and hard life . A bit of development work has been done due to which there is a middle school plus one Madrassah located in Qutub Killi . In addition a government hospital , a veterinary hospital and a girls school is under construction . Jungle Piralizai was home to more than a 100,000 Afghan refugees during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 , that had camped on the outskirts of the village close to the main Quetta Chaman Highway . Presently the refugee camp is still existent but the number of refugees has by far dwindled to a minimal size , as most of them either migrated back to Afghanistan or to other cities in Pakistan in search of better living standards . In the past , Jungle piralizai comprised a small number of houses with no proper roads , water or electricity , hospital except one primary school built during the times of President Ayub Khan . Wheat was grown annually and people lived a life of hardships . Drinking water was salty and scarce . There were no health facilities and people travelled on donkey to the main Quetta Chaman highway , to wait for hours to take a bus to travel to Quetta to address their medical needs . The only road available was built by the British that linked Quetta to Chaman bordering Afghanistan . People never ventured after dark and lit fires to keep themselves warm . Many attended to their herds of Camels , Goats and Sheep and cared less about the outside world . Their staple diet included hand made bread ( Dodi ) boiled Meat ( Shorwa ) and butter milk ( Sholumbay ) . Landi , dried meat , is commonly used during winter . It is generally made of mutton or goat meat . Sheep are specially fattened and slaughtered . The animal is thoroughly cleaned and then it is salted and some special ingredients are rubbed in it . The animal is hanged and exposed to the air and is ready for use after one month . When required for eating , it is boiled for 5 hours in an earthen pot over a slow fire . It is normally eaten when it is extremely cold . Tea especially Green ( Shnay chai ) was and is still taken during winter and black tea ( slaymani chai ) during the summer . The majority of the male population wear turban , shalwar and kameez , both in winter and summer . A Patu ( piece of cloth ) is always lying on their shoulders in both seasons . Women wore a long dress with beautiful embroidery on the bosom , sleeves and edges of the dress usually hand made . They also wore a shawl over their heads as they observed purdah . The women in particular used to knit their hair in thin plaits and added a gum base to stick them together . This basic style of the dress is however changing , with the spread of development and growing prosperity , dresses have become somewhat modernised . Women usually weave caps with beautiful embroidery on them for their male folk and also plait beautiful naras or nadas ( string used for tying the shalwar ) woven with wool and colorful threads which are given at times of EID . Eggs are also collected by the women folk which are boiled and colored and given to children and youngsters for Eid festivities . People were happy with their simple way of life . With the passage of time these small villages grew into larger ones , bringing changes in the lives and improved the way of living of the people .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Jungle_piralizai", "rank": 99, "score": 94333 }, { "content": "Title: Floating wind turbine Content: A floating wind turbine is an offshore wind turbine mounted on a floating structure that allows the turbine to generate electricity in water depths where bottom-mounted towers are not feasible . Locating wind farms out at sea can reduce visual pollution while providing better accommodation for fishing and shipping lanes . In addition , the wind is typically more consistent and stronger over the sea , due to the absence of topographic features that disrupt wind flow . Floating wind parks are wind farms that site several floating wind turbines closely together to take advantage of common infrastructure such as power transmission facilities .", "qid": "307", "docid": "Floating_wind_turbine", "rank": 100, "score": 94273 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Volcanic winter Content: A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth 's albedo ( increasing the reflection of solar radiation ) after a large particularly explosive volcanic eruption . Long-term cooling effects are primarily dependent upon injection of sulfur gasses into the stratosphere where they undergo a series of reactions to create sulfuric acid which can nucleate and form aerosols . Volcanic stratospheric aerosols cool the surface by reflecting solar radiation and warm the stratosphere by absorbing terrestrial radiation . The volcanic aerosols , resulting from the 1991 Pinatubo eruption and others , have been shown to contribute to anthropogenic ozone depletion . The variations in atmospheric warming and cooling results in changes in tropospheric and stratospheric circulation .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Volcanic_winter", "rank": 1, "score": 83488 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature in Canada Content:", "qid": "310", "docid": "Temperature_in_Canada", "rank": 2, "score": 83455 }, { "content": "Title: Winter Content: Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates , between autumn and spring . Winter is caused by the axis of the Earth in that hemisphere being oriented away from the Sun . Different cultures define different dates as the start of winter , and some use a definition based on weather . When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere , it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere , and vice versa . In many regions , winter is associated with snow and freezing temperatures . The moment of winter solstice is when the sun 's elevation with respect to the North or South Pole is at its most negative value ( that is , the sun is at its farthest below the horizon as measured from the pole ) , meaning this day will have the shortest day and the longest night . The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates outside the polar regions differ from the date of the winter solstice , however , and these depend on latitude , due to the variation in the solar day throughout the year caused by the Earth 's elliptical orbit ( see earliest and latest sunrise and sunset ) .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter", "rank": 3, "score": 81970 }, { "content": "Title: Winter Nights (album) Content: Winter Nights is a 1999 album by Italian-American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist Al Di Meola . The album contains a collection of Christmas songs and is Al Di Meola 's first so-called Christmas album .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_Nights_(album)", "rank": 4, "score": 80475 }, { "content": "Title: Frost (temperature) Content: Frost or freezing occurs when the temperature of air falls below the freezing point of water ( 0 ° C , 32 ° F , 273.15 K ) . This is usually measured at the height of 1.2 m above the ground surface . There is a rather subjective scale to show several degrees of frost severity : slight frost : 0 to moderate frost : − 3.6 to − 6.5 ° C ( 25.6 to 20.3 ° F ) severe frost : − 6.6 to − 11.5 ° C ( 20.2 to 11.3 ° F ) very severe frost : below -11.5 C Frost is not necessary to get ground frost or hoar frost ; they can form even if air temperature is above freezing point if the surfaces have been chilled by heat emission during a cold night .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Frost_(temperature)", "rank": 5, "score": 80277 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Mecca Content: Mecca features a hot desert climate . Mecca retains its hot temperature in winter , which can range from 18 C at night to 30 C in the day . Summer temperatures are extremely hot , often being over 40 C during the day , dropping to 30 C at night . Rain usually falls in Mecca in small amounts between November and January . The rainfall , as scant as it is , also presents the threat of flooding and has been a danger since the earliest times . According to Al-Kurdī , there had been 89 historic floods by 1965 , including several in the period . In the last century the most severe one occurred in 1942 . Since then , dams have been constructed to ameliorate the problem .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Mecca", "rank": 6, "score": 77902 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Australia Content: Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Australia", "rank": 7, "score": 76816 }, { "content": "Title: Impact winter Content: An impact winter is a hypothesized period of prolonged cold weather due to the impact of a large asteroid or comet on the Earth 's surface . If an asteroid were to strike land or a shallow body of water , it would eject an enormous amount of dust , ash , and other material into the atmosphere , blocking the radiation from the sun . This would cause the global temperature to decrease drastically . If an asteroid or comet with the diameter of about 5 km or more were to hit in a large deep body of water or explode before hitting the surface , there would still be an enormous amount of debris ejected into the atmosphere . It has been proposed that an impact winter could lead to mass extinction , wiping out many of the world 's existing species .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Impact_winter", "rank": 8, "score": 76180 }, { "content": "Title: Winternacht Content: `` Winternacht '' ( Winter night ) is an art song for voice and piano composed by Richard Strauss in 1886 , setting a poem of the same title by the German poet Adolf Friedrich von Schack ( 1815 -- 1894 ) . The song is part of his collection Five songs for middle voice and piano , Op. 15 , TrV 148 .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winternacht", "rank": 9, "score": 75830 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 10, "score": 75804 }, { "content": "Title: Aral Karakum Desert Content: Aral Karakum ( Арал қарақұмы -LSB- Приара́льские Караку́мы , p = prʲɪjɐˈralʲskʲɪjə kərɐˈkumɨ -RSB- ) is a desert in Kazakhstan , situated northeast of the Aral Sea . It borders on the Syr Darya river to the south . The desert covers an area of 40000 km2 . The landscape in the region is quite flat , with a height that varies from 55 to AMSL . The dunes can reach heights of around 25 meters . The area is very dry , and the dried-out riverbeds usually only carry water during springtime , when the winter snow melts . Annual precipitation is around 120 mm . The winter lasts from mid-November to mid-March , with varying cloud cover and frequent fog . Mean temperature during daytime is minus 5 - , and at night around -25 ° C . The lowest recorded temperature is -42 ° C. However , at any time during winter , mild weather is possible . Precipitation falls mostly in the winter as snow . Snow cover is usually around 15 cm deep , but can reach 30 cm . Summer lasts from May to mid-September . Daytime temperatures normally range 30 - , but temperatures up to 43 ° C have been recorded . At night the temperature drops to 15 - . During summer there are often dry winds and dust storms . The Aral Karakum has some vegetation , mainly grasses , and it is being used for grazing of sheep . Category : Deserts of Central Asia Category : Deserts of Kazakhstan", "qid": "310", "docid": "Aral_Karakum_Desert", "rank": 11, "score": 75380 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Budapest Content: The Climate of Budapest is humid continental . Winter ( December until early March ) is by far the coldest and cloudiest time of year . Snowfall is fairly frequent in most years , and nighttime temperatures of − 15 ° C ( 5 ° F ) are not uncommon from mid-December until mid-February . The spring months ( March and April ) see variable conditions , with a rapid increase in the average temperature . Budapest 's summer , lasting from June until September , is the warmest time of year . Budapest has as much summer sunshine as many Mediterranean resorts . Sudden heavy showers also occur , particularly in May and June . The autumn in Budapest ( mid-September until late October ) is characterized by less rain than in summer and long sunny days .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Budapest", "rank": 12, "score": 75325 }, { "content": "Title: Excessive heat watch Content: An Excessive Heat Watch is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when the heat index is expected to be greater than 105 ° F ( 41 ° C ) across the northern states or 110 ° F ( 43 ° C ) across the southern states during the day , and/or nighttime low temperature will be at least 75 ° F ( 24 ° C ) or higher for two consecutive days . Note that even with the usual northern/southern criteria , local offices , particularly those with deserts or mountainous terrain , often have their own criteria . High values of the heat index are caused by temperatures being significantly above normal and high humidities , and such high levels can pose a threat to human life through conditions such as heat stroke .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Excessive_heat_watch", "rank": 13, "score": 74837 }, { "content": "Title: Sudden stratospheric warming Content: A sudden stratospheric warming ( SSW ) is an event where the polar vortex of westerly winds in the winter hemisphere slows down or even reverses direction over the course of a few days . The change is accompanied by a rise of stratospheric temperature by several tens of kelvins .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Sudden_stratospheric_warming", "rank": 14, "score": 74548 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2010–11 in Great Britain and Ireland Content: The winter of 2010 -- 2011 was a weather event that brought heavy snowfalls , record low temperatures , travel chaos and school disruption to the islands of Britain and Ireland . It included the UK 's coldest December since Met Office records began in 1910 , with a mean temperature of -1 ° C , breaking the previous record of 0.1 ° C in December 1981 . Also it was the second-coldest December in the narrower Central England Temperature ( CET ) record series which began in 1659 , falling 0.1 ° C short of the all-time record set in 1890 . The winter of 2010 in England saw the earliest widespread winter snowfall since 1993 with snow falling as early as 24 November across Northumberland and North Yorkshire . A maximum snow depth of 30 in was recorded on 1 December in the Peak District , Sheffield , the Cotswold Hills and the Forest of Dean . In this event Scotland and Northern England were most severely affected . On 9 December temperatures recovered across much of the UK , causing a partial thaw . Later , on Thursday 16 December a cold front reintroduced a cold , arctic airstream . This cold spell brought further snow and ice chaos back to the British Isles with Southern England , Wales , the Republic of Ireland ( excluding the westerly coastal regions ) and Northern Ireland bearing the brunt of the wintry conditions . This led to severe disruption to the road and rail network with several airports being closed including London Heathrow Airport for a time . Several local temperature records were broken including a new record low for Northern Ireland of -18.7 ° C recorded at Castlederg on 23 December 2010 . By the new year a thaw had begun , and there was no recurrence of the extreme conditions for the remainder of the winter . There was some snowfall in early January , and there was an anticyclonic spell at the end of the month that brought some cold , frosty days . February was above average in temperature and ended on a mild note , although the snow returned in much of Scotland during March .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_of_2010–11_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland", "rank": 15, "score": 73836 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2010–11 in Europe Content: The winter of 2010 -- 2011 in Europe began with an unusually cold November caused by a cold weather cycle that started in southern Scandinavia and subsequently moved south and west over both Belgium and the Netherlands on 25 November and into the west of Scotland and north east England on 26 November . This was due to a low pressure zone in the Baltics , with a high pressure over Greenland on 24 November . From 22 November 2010 , cold conditions arrived in the United Kingdom , as a cold northerly wind developed and snow began to fall in northern and eastern parts , causing disruption . The winter arrived particularly early for the European climate , with temperatures dropping significantly lower than previous lows for the month of November . On 28 November , Wales recorded its lowest-ever November temperature of -17.3 C in Llysdinam , and Northern Ireland recorded its lowest ever November temperature of -9.5 C in Lough Rea . The UK Met Office issued severe-weather warnings for heavy snow for eastern Scotland and the north-east of England . From January , temperatures were more normal .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_of_2010–11_in_Europe", "rank": 16, "score": 73449 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2006 Content: Global storm activity of 2006 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2006 to December 31 , 2006 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , well-defined winter storms may form during the summer , though it would usually have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the Summer of 1816 in the Northeastern United States . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2006", "rank": 17, "score": 73300 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2009–10 in Europe Content: The winter of 2009 -- 2010 in Europe was unusually cold . Globally , unusual weather patterns brought cold , moist air from the north . Weather systems were undergoing cyclogenesis from North American storms moving across the Atlantic Ocean to the west , and saw many parts of Europe experiencing heavy snowfall and record-low temperatures . This led to a number of deaths , widespread transport disruption , power failures and postponed sporting events .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_of_2009–10_in_Europe", "rank": 18, "score": 73043 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Svalbard Content: The climate of Svalbard is principally a result of its latitude , which is between 74 ° and 81 ° north . Average July temperatures range from 3 and , and in January temperatures are normally between − 13 and . The North Atlantic Current moderates Svalbard 's temperatures , particularly during winter , giving it up to 20 C-change higher winter temperature than similar latitudes in continental Russia and Canada . This keeps the surrounding waters open and navigable most of the year . The interior fjord areas and valleys , sheltered by the mountains , have less temperature differences than the coast , giving about 2 ° C lower summer temperatures and 3 ° C higher winter temperatures . On the south of Spitsbergen , the temperature is slightly higher than further north and west . During winter , the temperature difference between south and north is typically 5 ° C , while only about 3 ° C in summer . Bear Island has average temperatures even higher than the rest of the archipelago . The archipelago is the meeting place for cold polar air from the north and mild , wet sea air from the south , creating low pressure and changing weather and fast winds , particularly in winter ; in January , a strong breeze is registered 17 % of the time at Isfjord Radio , but only 1 % of the time in July . In summer , particularly away from land , fog is common , with visibility under 1 km registered 20 % of the time in July and 1 % of the time in January , at Hopen and Bear Island . Precipitation is frequent , but falls in small quantities , typically less than 400 mm in Western Spitsbergen . More rain falls in the uninhabited east side , where there can be more than 1000 mm . The warmest temperature ever recorded was 21.3 C in July 1979 and the coldest was -46.3 C in March 1986 .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Svalbard", "rank": 19, "score": 73026 }, { "content": "Title: Winter Nights Content: Winter Nights or Old Norse vetrnætr was a specific time of year in medieval Scandinavia . According to Zoega 's Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic , vetr-nætr referred to `` the three days which begin the winter season '' . The term is attested in the narrative of some of the Fornaldarsögur , mostly to express passage of time ( `` as autumn turned into winter '' ) . The exact term `` winter nights '' is not mentioned in the Ynglinga saga by Snorri Sturluson where ( in chapter 8 ) the three great sacrifices of the year are proscribed : Þá skyldi blóta í móti vetri til árs , en at miðjum vetri blóta til gróðrar , hit þriðja at sumri , þat var sigrblót . There should be a sacrifice at the beginning of winter for a good year , and in the middle of winter for a good crop , the third in summer day , that was the sacrifice for victory . Specific sacrifices held at the beginning of winter during the Old Norse period were álfablót and dísablót . Of these , dísablót came to be a public sacrifice , according to the Ynglinga saga performed by the king of Sweden . By contrast , álfablót was a sacrifice held at each homestead separately for the local spirits , under the explicit exclusion of any strangers .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_Nights", "rank": 20, "score": 73022 }, { "content": "Title: Warm Winter Content: Warm Winter is the debut album by art-rock duo Memories of Machines ( a collaboration between No-Man singer Tim Bowness and Nosound multi-instrumentalist Giancarlo Erra . The album was released in 2011 . Warm Winter features a wide range of guest performers , including two leading members of the 1970s progressive rock movement ( Robert Fripp , Peter Hammill ) and several from its 1990s/2000s equivalent ( Jim Matheos ( of Fates Warning and OSI ) , Huxflux Nettermalm of Paatos , all current and several previous members of both Nosound and Henry Fool , and Porcupine Tree 's Colin Edwin and Steven Wilson ( the latter of whom is also Bowness ' partner in No-Man ) . Other contributors to the album include Julianne Regan ( All About Eve ) , Estonian jazz trumpeter Aleksei Saks and cellist Marianne de Chastelaine ( Samuel Smiles , Heather Nova ) . A different version of the song `` Beautiful Songs You Should Know '' appears on the 2008 No-Man album Schoolyard Ghosts ( this album shares a title with another song on Warm Winter , which is itself closely related to the No-Man track `` Mixtaped '' ) .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Warm_Winter", "rank": 21, "score": 72862 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1962–63 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1962 -- 1963 ( also known as the Big Freeze of 1963 ) was one of the coldest winters on record in the United Kingdom . Temperatures plummeted and lakes and rivers began to freeze over . In the Central England Temperature ( CET ) record , extending back to 1659 , only the winter ( defined as the months of December , January and February ) of 1683 -- 84 has been significantly colder , with 1739 -- 40 being slightly colder than 1962 -- 63 . Over Scotland and Northern Ireland , where data do not extend back to 1740 , the winters of 1813 -- 14 and 1878 -- 79 were certainly colder than 1962 -- 63 , as was the winter of 1779 -- 80 in Scotland and 1894 -- 95 in Northern Ireland . This winter remains the coldest since at least 1895 in all meteorological districts of the United Kingdom except Scotland North , where the two winters of 1978 -- 79 and 2009 -- 10 were marginally colder .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_of_1962–63_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 22, "score": 72655 }, { "content": "Title: Nightcap (garment) Content: A nightcap is a warm cloth cap worn while sleeping , often with pajamas or a nightshirt . They are similar to winter `` beanies '' worn in cold climates of Northern Europe . They were especially common in the British Isles and Scandinavia before central heating became available , as temperatures would regularly unexpectedly plummet and wildly fluctuate during winter months . Women 's night caps usually consisted of a long piece of cloth wrapped around the head . Men 's nightcaps were traditionally pointed , with a long top , usually accompanied by a small ball of some sort , which was used similar to a scarf . It kept the neck warm while not being so long that it could wrap around and become a strangulation hazard . In the Tyburn and Newgate days of British judicial hanging history , the hood used to hide the prisoner 's final agonies was actually a nightcap supplied by the prisoner themselves , if they could afford it . When they had finished their prayers , the hangman simply pulled it down over their face . In some cases , women might choose a bonnet with a veil instead . From around 1850 , a white linen hood was provided by the authorities as part of the execution process . Nightcaps are not often worn in modern times . They are often featured in animation and other media as part of a character 's nightwear .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Nightcap_(garment)", "rank": 23, "score": 72612 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2007 Content: Global storm activity of 2007 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2007 to December 31 , 2007 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , they may form in summer , though it would have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the summer of 1816 in the Northeast United States of America . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2007", "rank": 24, "score": 72611 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of radiation on perceived temperature Content: The `` radiation effect '' results from radiation heat exchange between human bodies and surrounding surfaces , such as walls and ceilings . It may lead to phenomena such as houses feeling cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer at the same temperature . For example , in a room in which air temperature is maintained at 22 ° Celsius at all times , but in which the inner surfaces of the house is estimated to be an average temperature of 10 ° Celsius in the winter or 25 ° Celsius in the summer , heat transfer from the surfaces to the individual will occur , resulting in a difference in the perceived temperature . We can observe and compare the rate of radiation heat transfer between a person and the surrounding surfaces if we first make a few simplifying assumptions : The heat exchange in the environment is in a `` steady state '' , meaning that there is a constant flow of heat either into or out of the house . The person is completely surrounded by the interior surfaces of the room . Heat transfer by convection is not considered . The walls , ceiling , and floor are all at the same temperature . For an average person , the outer surface area is 1.4 m ² , the surface temperature is 30 ° Celsius , and the emissivity is 0.95 . Emissivity is the ability of a surface to emit radiant energy compared to that of a black body at the same temperature . We will be using the following equation to find out how much heat is lost by a person standing in the same room in summertime as compared to the winter , at exactly the same thermostat reading temperature : Q ̇ = εσA_s ( T_s ^ 4-T_surr ^ 4 ) Where Q ̇ is the rate of heat loss ( W ) , ε is the emissivity ( or the ability of an objects surface to emit energy by radiation ) of a person , σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant ( 5.670 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) W/m2 ∙ K4 ) , As is the surface area of a person , Ts is the surface temperature of a person ( K ) , and Tsurr is the surface temperature of the walls , ceiling , and floor ( K ) . Please note that this equation is only valid for an object standing in a completely enclosed room , box , etc. . In the winter , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 10 degrees Celsius , was found to be 152 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 10 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 152 ) ̇ In the summer , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 25 degrees Celsius , was found to be 40.9 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 25 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 40.9 ) ̇ Thermal radiation is the form of radiation emitted by bodies because of their temperature . It differs from other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as x-rays , gamma rays , microwaves , radio waves , and television rays that are not related to temperature . Scientists have found that all bodies at a temperature above absolute zero emit thermal radiation . People are constantly radiating their body heat , but at different rates . From these values , the rate of heat loss from a person is almost four times as large in the winter than in the summer , which explains the `` chill '' we feel in the winter even if the thermostat setting is kept the same .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Effect_of_radiation_on_perceived_temperature", "rank": 25, "score": 72545 }, { "content": "Title: Winter storm Content: A winter storm is an event in which varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . In temperate continental climates , these storms are not necessarily restricted to the winter season , but may occur in the late autumn and early spring as well . Very rarely , they may form in summer , though it would have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the summer of 1816 in the Northeast United States of America .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_storm", "rank": 26, "score": 72360 }, { "content": "Title: 2004 Christmas Eve United States winter storm Content: The 2004 Christmas Eve United States winter storm was a rare weather event that took place in Louisiana and Texas in the United States on December 24 , 2004 , before the storm moved northeast to affect the coastal sections of the Mid-Atlantic states and New England in the succeeding few days . This was a different storm from the historic event that struck the Midwest and southern Canada around December 23 from another cyclone which preceded this storm . The event involved a thin band of snowfall with unusually cold temperatures for the middle Texas coast , and caused dozens of varied weather records to be shattered . It was the most significant snow for the Texas Gulf Coast , and deep South Texas , since February 1895 .", "qid": "310", "docid": "2004_Christmas_Eve_United_States_winter_storm", "rank": 27, "score": 72225 }, { "content": "Title: Winter solstice Content: The winter solstice ( or hibernal solstice ) , also known as midwinter , is an astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year . In the Northern Hemisphere this is the December solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere this is the June solstice . The axial tilt of Earth and gyroscopic effects of its daily rotation mean that the two opposite points in the sky to which the Earth 's axis of rotation points ( axial precession ) change very slowly ( making a complete circle approximately every 26,000 years ) . As the Earth follows its orbit around the Sun , the polar hemisphere that faced away from the Sun , experiencing winter , will , in half a year , face towards the Sun and experience summer . This is because the two hemispheres face opposite directions along Earth 's axis , and so as one polar hemisphere experiences winter , the other experiences summer . More evident from high latitudes , a hemisphere 's winter solstice occurs on the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year , when the sun 's daily maximum elevation in the sky is at its lowest . Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment in time , the term sometimes refers to the day on which it occurs . Other names are `` midwinter '' , the `` extreme of winter '' ( Dongzhi ) , or the `` shortest day '' . In some cultures it is seen as the middle of winter , while in others it is seen as the beginning of winter . In meteorology , winter in the Northern Hemisphere spans the entire period of December through February . The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening hours of daylight during the day . The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates differ from winter solstice , however , and these depend on latitude , due to the variation in the solar day throughout the year caused by the Earth 's elliptical orbit ( see earliest and latest sunrise and sunset ) . Worldwide , interpretation of the event has varied across cultures , but many have held a recognition of rebirth , involving holidays , festivals , gatherings , rituals or other celebrations around that time .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_solstice", "rank": 28, "score": 72213 }, { "content": "Title: Winter Night in the Mountains Content: Winter Night in the Mountains ( Norwegian : Vinternatt i Rondane ) is the name of several versions of a composition , created in several techniques by the Norwegian artist Harald Sohlberg ( 1869 -- 1935 ) . The most famous version is an oil painting from 1914 in the National Gallery in Oslo . Category :1914 paintings Category : Norwegian paintings Category : Paintings in Norway", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_Night_in_the_Mountains", "rank": 29, "score": 71910 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Scotland Content: The climate of Scotland is temperate and oceanic ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ) , and tends to be very changeable , but not normally extreme . It is warmed by the Gulf Stream from the Atlantic , and given its northerly latitude it is warmer than areas on similar latitudes , for example Labrador in Canada -- where the sea freezes over in winter and icebergs are a common feature in spring and early summer , or Fort McMurray , Canada -- where -35 ° C is not uncommon during winter . Even though most of the country has a temperate climate , the Northern islands and Highlands experience a type of weather close to the climate of the Faroe Islands or Southern Norway .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Scotland", "rank": 30, "score": 71727 }, { "content": "Title: Heat burst Content: In meteorology , a heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by gusty winds and a rapid increase in temperature and decrease in dew point ( moisture ) . Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms . Although this phenomenon is not fully understood , it is theorized that the event is caused when rain evaporates ( virga ) into a parcel of cold dry air high in the atmosphere making the air denser than its surroundings . The parcel descends rapidly , warming due to compression , overshoots its equilibrium level and reaches the surface , similar to a downburst . Recorded temperatures during heat bursts have reached well above 38 ° C , sometimes rising by 20 F-change or more within only a few minutes . More extreme events have also been documented , where temperatures have been reported to exceed 120 ° F. However , such extreme events have never been officially verified . Heat bursts are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong , even damaging , winds .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Heat_burst", "rank": 31, "score": 71491 }, { "content": "Title: Şeva Zistanê Content: The Night of Winter ( Kurdish : Şeva Zistanê , شه وی زمستان ) is an unofficial holiday celebrated by communities throughout the Kurdistan region in the Middle East . The night is considered one of the oldest holidays still observed by modern Kurds and was celebrated by ancient tribes in the region as a holy day . The holiday falls every year on the Winter Solstice . Since the night is the longest in the year , ancient tribes in the Kurdistan region believed that it was the night before a victory of light over darkness and signified a rebirth of the Sun . The Sun plays an important role in several old religions still practiced by some Kurds , including Yezidism and other religions that retain Zoroastrianism ideas in their belief systems . Several small religious communities in Kurdistan share similar ideas in regard to Şeva Zistanê . The belief of light over darkness is well documented by scholars of the various religions . The Winter Solstice is assumed to be the night when the evil spirit is at the peak of his strength . The following day is celebratory as it is believed that God and his angels have claimed victory . Since the days are getting longer and the nights shorter , this day marks the victory of light , or the Sun , over the darkness or evil . In modern times , communities in the Kurdistan region still observe the night as a holiday . Many families prepare large feasts for their communities and the children play games and are given sweets in similar fashion to modern-day Halloween practices .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Şeva_Zistanê", "rank": 32, "score": 71368 }, { "content": "Title: Cold weather rule Content: A cold weather rule or cold weather law is a law or regulation that prohibits public utility companies from disconnecting customers who are unable to pay for the energy used to heat their homes during the winter . Such regulations may also require utility companies to reconnect customers during those periods . Several U.S. states have such rules , including Kansas , Minnesota , and Missouri . The protection provided by a cold weather rule may not be automatic , and poor customers may have to register with their service provider to indicate either a complete inability to pay or to set up a special payment plan . In Minnesota , the rule is in effect between October 15 and April 15 of the next year , and requires reconnection of electricity and/or natural gas depending on which energy sources are necessary for heat . The state 's Public Utilities Commission does n't regulate liquefied petroleum gas or oil , so those services may not be provided . However , if an LP - or oil-fired heater requires electricity in order to function , the rule requires electrical service to be reconnected . In addition to providing warmth for residents , cold weather rules help prevent damage to homes . Wintertime temperatures can freeze Water pipes , potentially causing bursts in the lines as the water inside expands as it turns into ice . Cleaning up after this can lay heavy burdens upon people who are already of limited financial means . Category : Kansas law Category : Minnesota law Category : Missouri law", "qid": "310", "docid": "Cold_weather_rule", "rank": 33, "score": 71254 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Adelaide Content: Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa ) , with mild to cool winters with moderate rainfall and warm to hot , dry summers . Adelaide is the driest of the Australian capital cities and the past two decades have been far warmer than usual , with the past 8 years seeing an excess of 40 + degrees every summer . Alarmingly , the city has also recorded almost 10 consecutive years of below-average Spring rainfall , with 2014 on track to continuing this trend . A spike in heat waves , droughts and record-breaking high temperatures over the past decade has led to some concerns over the effects of global warming and Man-made climate change ( AGW ) on the city . Nine of the ten warmest years recorded in Adelaide have occurred since 2002 , with 2013 being the hottest year and summer 2015 -- 2016 being the fourth-hottest summer recorded .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Adelaide", "rank": 34, "score": 71253 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of the Arctic Content: The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long , cold winters and short , cool summers . There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic , but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter . Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice ( sea ice , glacial ice , or snow ) year-round , and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface . Average January temperatures range from about − 34 ° C to 0 ° C ( − 40 to +32 ° F ) , and winter temperatures can drop below − 50 ° C ( − 58 ° F ) over large parts of the Arctic . Average July temperatures range from about − 10 to +10 ° C ( 14 to 50 ° F ) , with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) in summer . The Arctic consists of ocean that is largely surrounded by land . As such , the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water , which can never have a temperature below − 2 ° C ( 28 ° F ) . In winter , this relatively warm water , even though covered by the polar ice pack , keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere , and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic . In summer , the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_the_Arctic", "rank": 35, "score": 70969 }, { "content": "Title: Drimys winteri Content: Drimys winteri ( winter 's bark or canelo ) is a slender tree , growing up to 20 m tall . It is native to the Magellanic and Valdivian temperate rain forests of Chile and Argentina , where it is a dominant tree in the coastal evergreen forests . It is found below 1200 m between latitude 32 ° south and Cape Horn at latitude 56 ° . In its southernmost natural range it can tolerate temperatures down to -20 C. The leaves are lanceolate , glossy green above , whitish below and can measure up to 20 cm . The flowers are white with a yellow center , and consist of a great number of petals and stamens . The fruit is a bluish berry .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Drimys_winteri", "rank": 36, "score": 70630 }, { "content": "Title: One Cold Winter's Night Content: One Cold Winter 's Night is a live album released in 2006 by the symphonic power metal band Kamelot on the SPV label Steamhammer in Germany . It is the second live album and first live DVD from the band , and was released on November 14 , 2006 . It marks the first appearance of Oliver Palotai on keyboards . The album featured guest appearances by Simone Simons while the second disc of the DVD set contained a number of interviews and videos . The CD release contained the audio from the DVD which was filmed at the Rockefeller Musichall in Oslo , Norway on 11 February 2006 .", "qid": "310", "docid": "One_Cold_Winter's_Night", "rank": 37, "score": 70489 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European cold wave Content: The 2006 European cold wave was an unusual cold wave which resulted in abnormal winter conditions over much of Europe . Southern Europe saw cold and snow , while places in northern Norway saw abnormally mild conditions . The phenomenon started on 20 January in Russia with temperatures below -40 ° C and extended to Central Europe where parts of Poland , Slovakia and Austria saw temperatures drop below -30 ° C . The cold resulted in the deaths of up to 50 people in Russia and a significant death toll in Eastern Europe including Moldova and Romania . The abnormal conditions gradually abated towards the end of the month .", "qid": "310", "docid": "2006_European_cold_wave", "rank": 38, "score": 70336 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of New York Content: The climate of New York state is generally humid continental , while the extreme southeastern portion of the state ( New York City area ) lies in the warm temperate climate zone . Winter temperatures average below freezing during January and February in much of New York state , but several degrees above freezing along the Atlantic coastline , including New York City . Seasonally , summer-like conditions prevail from June to early September statewide , while areas in far southern New York and New York City have summer conditions from late May through late September . Cold air damming east of the Appalachians leads to protracted periods of cloud cover and precipitation east of the range , primarily between the October and April months . Winter-like conditions prevail from November through April in northern New York , and from December through March in southern New York . On average , western New York is much cloudier than points south and east in New York , much of it generated from the Great Lakes . Greenhouse gas emission is low on a per capita basis when compared to most other states due to the extensive use of mass transit , particularly across New York City . The significant urbanization within New York city has led to an urban heat island , which causes temperatures to be warmer overnight in all seasons . Annual precipitation is fairly even throughout the year across New York state . The Great Lakes region of New York sees the highest annual rain and snow amounts in New York state , and heavy lake effect snow is common in western New York in winter . In the hotter months , large , long-lived complexes of thunderstorms can invade the state from Canada and the Great Lakes , while tropical cyclones can bring rains and winds from the southwest during the summer and fall . Hurricane impacts on the state occur once every 18 -- 19 years , with major hurricane impacts every 70 -- 74 years . An average of ten tornadoes touch down in New York annually .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_New_York", "rank": 39, "score": 70030 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2009–10 in Great Britain and Ireland Content: The winter of 2009 -- 10 in the United Kingdom ( also called The Big Freeze by British media ) was a meteorological event that started on 16 December 2009 , as part of the severe winter weather in Europe . January 2010 was provisionally the coldest January since 1987 across the country . A persistent pattern of cold northerly and easterly winds brought cold , moist air to the United Kingdom with many snow showers , fronts and polar lows bringing snowy weather with it . The first snowfall began on 17 December 2009 , before a respite over the Christmas period . The most severe snowy weather began on 5 January in North West England and west Scotland with temperatures hitting a low of -17.6 ° C in Greater Manchester , England . The snow spread to Southern England on 6 January and by 7 January the United Kingdom was blanketed in snow , which was captured by NASA 's Terra satellite . The thaw came a week later , as temperatures started to increase . The winter weather brought widespread transport disruption , school closures , power failures , the postponement of sporting events and 25 deaths . A low of -22.3 ° C was recorded in Altnaharra , Scotland on 8 January 2010 . Overall it was the coldest winter since 1978 -- 79 , with a mean temperature of 1.5 ° C.", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_of_2009–10_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland", "rank": 40, "score": 69796 }, { "content": "Title: Songs for a Winter's Night Content: Songs For a Winter 's Night is a studio album by American country musician George Hamilton IV released in 1982 on the TV advertised Ronco label in the UK and by Music World in New Zealand . It contained songs from a variety of genres from country , folk and contemporary .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Songs_for_a_Winter's_Night", "rank": 41, "score": 69730 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Anchorage, Alaska Content: Anchorage , Alaska has a subarctic climate with the code Dfc according to the Köppen climate classification due to its short , cool summers . Average daytime summer temperatures range from approximately 55 to ; average daytime winter temperatures are about 5 to . Anchorage has a frost-free growing season that averages slightly over one hundred days . Average January low and high temperatures at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport ( PANC ) are 11 / with an average winter snowfall of 75.5 in . The weather on any given day and indeed for entire seasons can be very unpredictable . Some winters feature several feet of snow and cold temperatures , while others like that of 1976 -- 77 ( in the January of which Anchorage amazingly averaged 2.7 F-change warmer than Atlanta almost 30 degrees closer to the equator ) , just a foot or two of snow and frequent thaws , which put dangerous ice on the streets . On March 17 , 2002 , there was a storm causing 22 inches of snow closing schools for the next two days . The storm broke the city record for the most snowfall in a single day . The storm , which started the evening of March 16 , easily surpassed the old record of 15.6 in recorded on 28 December and 29 December 1955 . On March 17 , 22 in were measured by the National Weather Service , topping the old record of 15.6 in set on December 29 , 1955 . The 2011-2012 winter had 134.5 in , which made it the snowiest winter on record while the least snowiest winter of record was 2014-2015 when 25.1 in of snow fell . The coldest temperature ever recorded at the original weather station located at Merrill Field on the East end of 5th Avenue was -38 F on February 3 , 1947 . Due to its proximity to active volcanoes , ash hazards are a significant , though infrequent , occurrence . The most recent notable incident was an August , 1992 eruption of Mt. Spurr , which is located 78 miles west of the city . The eruption deposited about 3 mm of volcanic ash on the city . The clean-up of ash resulted in excessive demands for water and caused major problems for the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility . Summers are typically mild ( although cool compared to the contiguous US and even interior Alaska ) , though it can rain frequently . Average July low and high temperatures are 52 / and the hottest reading ever recorded was 87 F on June 18 , 2013 . The average annual precipitation at the airport is 16.63 in . Because of Anchorage 's latitude , summer days are very long and winter daylight hours are very short . Anchorage is often cloudy during the winter , which decreases the amount of sunlight experienced by residents .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Anchorage,_Alaska", "rank": 42, "score": 69725 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–15 North American winter Content: The 2014 -- 15 North American winter refers to winter as it occurred across the continent from late 2014 through early 2015 . While there is no well-agreed-upon date used to indicate the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere , there are two definitions of winter which may be used . Based on the astronomical definition , winter begins at the winter solstice , which in 2014 occurred on December 21 , and ends at the March equinox , which in 2015 occurred on March 20 . Based on the meteorological definition , the first day of winter is December 1 and the last day February 28 . Both definitions involve a period of approximately three months , with some variability . While both the meteorological and astronomical definitions of winter involve the onset of winter occurring in December , many places in North America experienced their first wintry weather during mid November . A period of below-average temperatures affected much of the contiguous United States , and several records were broken . An early trace of snowfall was recorded in Arkansas . There were greater accumulations of snow across parts of Oklahoma as well . A quasi-permanent phenomenon referred to as the polar vortex may have been partly responsible for the cold weather . Temperatures in much of the United States dropped 15 to below average by November 19 following a southward `` dip '' of the polar vortex into the eastern two-thirds of the country . The effects of this dip were widespread , bringing about temperatures as low as 28 F in Pensacola , Florida . Following a significant snowstorm there , Buffalo , New York received several feet of snow from November 17 -- 21 . During the 2014 -- 15 winter season , Boston broke its all-time official seasonal 107.6 in snowfall record from the winter of 1995 -- 96 , with a total snowfall record of 108.6 in as of March 15 , 2015 . Many records for snowfall and temperature were broken , many for the month of February , with every state east of the Mississippi River being colder than average , some for the entire winter . However , this meteorological winter was the 19th-warmest of the past 120 winters over the lower 48 states , largely due to persistent warm weather in the West .", "qid": "310", "docid": "2014–15_North_American_winter", "rank": 43, "score": 69640 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 44, "score": 69544 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 45, "score": 69485 }, { "content": "Title: Against the Seasons: Cold Winter Songs from the Dead Summer Heat Content: Against the Seasons : Cold Winter Songs from the Dead Summer Heat is the first release and only EP from the Canadian black metal/doom metal group Woods of Ypres . It was recorded in August , 2002 at Spectre Sound Studios in Tecumseh , Ontario . It is Woods of Ypres ' only album featuring founding members Brian McManus and Aaron Palmer , and their only CD on which David Gold does not contribute any vocals or guitar work . This album was remastered by producer , and then-bassist , Dan Hulse in 2005 and re-released with new artwork that summer . A limited run of the album on cassette was also issued that year through Night Birds Records . The whole EP ( save for `` Awaiting the Inevitable '' ) was later re-issued as part of Woods of Ypres ' 2009 compilation CD Independent Nature 2002-2007 . Each song on the album would remain a frequent addition in Woods of Ypres setlists to varying degrees since this EP was released .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Against_the_Seasons:_Cold_Winter_Songs_from_the_Dead_Summer_Heat", "rank": 46, "score": 69436 }, { "content": "Title: August 2009 Argentine winter heat wave Content: The 2009 Argentine winter heat wave was a period of unusual and exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of the winter on August 2009 in Argentina . Several provinces of the country were most affected . Several records were broken . August 2009 was the warmest month since official measurements began . On 30 August 2009 it was hot enough to be the middle of summer late last week in the heart of Argentina even with the calendar showing more than three weeks remaining in the Southern Hemisphere winter . A shot of tropical heat drawn unusually far southward hiked temperatures 30 C-change above normal in the city of Buenos Aires and across the north-central regions of the country . Even though normal high temperatures for late August are near 16 C , readings topped 30 C degrees at midweek , then topped out above 32 C degrees during the weekend . Temperatures hit 33.8 C on 29 August and finally 34.6 C on 31 August in Buenos Aires , making it the hottest day ever recorded in winter breaking the 1996 winter record of 33.7 C. Elsewhere in Argentina , the mid-northern city of Córdoba reached a dramatic high of 37.8 C degrees on 29 August 2009 . Another northern city , Santa Fe , registered 38.3 C degrees on 30 August , compared to the normal high of around 18 C.", "qid": "310", "docid": "August_2009_Argentine_winter_heat_wave", "rank": 47, "score": 69429 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2014 North American cold wave Content: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013 -- 2014 winter season , and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States . The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex . Record-low temperatures also extended well into March . On January 2 , an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States , resulting in heavy snowfall . Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels , and low temperature records were broken across the United States . Business , school , and road closures were common , as well as mass flight cancellations . Altogether , more than 200 million people were affected , in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Early_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 48, "score": 69349 }, { "content": "Title: Urban heat island Content: An urban heat island ( UHI ) is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities . The temperature difference usually is larger at night than during the day , and is most apparent when winds are weak . UHI is most noticeable during the summer and winter . The main cause of the urban heat island effect is from the modification of land surfaces . Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor . As a population center grows , it tends to expand its area and increase its average temperature . The less-used term heat island refers to any area , populated or not , which is consistently hotter than the surrounding area . Monthly rainfall is greater downwind of cities , partially due to the UHI . Increases in heat within urban centers increases the length of growing seasons , and decreases the occurrence of weak tornadoes . The UHI decreases air quality by increasing the production of pollutants such as ozone , and decreases water quality as warmer waters flow into area streams and put stress on their ecosystems . Not all cities have a distinct urban heat island . Mitigation of the urban heat island effect can be accomplished through the use of green roofs and the use of lighter-colored surfaces in urban areas , which reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat . There are concerns raised about possible contribution from urban heat islands to global warming . Research on China and India indicates that urban heat island effect contributes to climate warming by about 30 % . On the other hand , one 1999 comparison between urban and rural areas proposed that the urban heat island effects have little influence on global mean temperature trends . Many studies reveal increases in the severity of the effect with the progress of climate change .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Urban_heat_island", "rank": 49, "score": 69252 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of Sun angle on climate Content: The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate , as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location , time of day , and season due to the Earth 's orbit around the Sun and the Earth 's rotation around its tilted axis . Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight , caused by the tilt of the Earth 's axis , is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter . Change in day length is another factor . ( See also season . )", "qid": "310", "docid": "Effect_of_Sun_angle_on_climate", "rank": 50, "score": 69194 }, { "content": "Title: Warm on a Cold Night Content: Warm on a Cold Night is the debut studio album by British electronic duo Honne . It was released on 22 July 2016 by Tatemae and Atlantic Records . The album features guest appearance by British singer-songwriter Izzy Bizu .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Warm_on_a_Cold_Night", "rank": 51, "score": 69080 }, { "content": "Title: Active layer Content: In environments containing permafrost , the active layer is the top layer of soil that thaws during the summer and freezes again during the autumn . In all climates , whether they contain permafrost or not , the temperature in the lower levels of the soil will remain more stable than that at the surface , where the influence of the ambient temperature is greatest . This means that , over many years , the influence of cooling in winter and heating in summer ( in temperate climates ) will decrease as depth increases . If the winter temperature is below the freezing point of water , a frost front will form in the soil . This `` frost front '' is the boundary between frozen and unfrozen soil , and with the coming of spring and summer , the soil is thawed , always from the top down . If the heating during summer exceeds the cooling during winter , the soil will be completely thawed during the summer and there will be no permafrost . This occurs when the mean annual temperature is above 0 ° C ( 32 ° F ) , but also occurs when the mean annual temperature is slightly below 0 ° C on sites exposed to the sun with coarse-textured parent materials ( vegetation ) . When there is not sufficient heat to thaw the frozen soil completely , permafrost forms . The active layer in this environment consists of the top layers of soil which thaws during the summer , while the inactive layer refers to the soil below which is frozen year-round because the heat fails to penetrate . Liquid water can not flow below the active layer , with the result that permafrost environments tend to be very poorly drained and boggy .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Active_layer", "rank": 52, "score": 68946 }, { "content": "Title: A Hearth's Warming Tail Content: `` A Hearth 's Warming Tail '' is the eighth episode of the sixth season of the Canadian-American animated television series My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic , and the 125th episode of the series overall . It was directed by Denny Lu and Tim Stuby , written by Michael Vogel , and produced by Devon Cody . The episode first aired on May 14 , 2016 on Discovery Family . In `` A Hearth 's Warming Tail '' , as Ponyville gets ready to celebrate Hearth 's Warming ( the series ' lore equivalent to Christmas ) in Twilight Sparkle ( Tara Strong ) 's castle , Starlight Glimmer ( Kelly Sheridan ) prefers not to be a part of the festivities . To convince her of the importance of Hearth 's Warming , Twilight tells her and Spike ( Cathy Weseluck ) the tale of Snowfall Frost , a cold-hearted unicorn who despises Hearth 's Warming and swears to erase it with her magic . The episode mainly consists of a depiction of the tale itself , with its characters being represented by the main characters of the show ; it is adapted from Charles Dickens ' classic Christmas novel A Christmas Carol , with Snowfall Frost representing Ebenezer Scrooge and being visited by three spirits who wish to teach her the importance of the holiday . `` A Hearth 's Warming Tail '' has been described as one of the series ' few true `` musical episodes '' , and features six songs composed by Daniel Ingram and orchestrated by Caleb Chan , with lyrics by Vogel and Ingram . The episode received acclaim from critics and fans ; its pacing and songs were widely praised , in particular `` Luna 's Future '' , which marks the first solo of Princess Luna ( Tabitha St. Germain , singing voice by Aloma Steele ) .", "qid": "310", "docid": "A_Hearth's_Warming_Tail", "rank": 53, "score": 68781 }, { "content": "Title: Winter cluster Content: In beekeeping , a winter cluster is a well-defined cluster of honey bees that forms inside a beehive when the air temperature dips below 10 to 14 ° C. Honey bees are one of but a few kinds of insects that survive the winter as a colony . As the outside air temperature decreases the winter cluster becomes tighter and more compact . The bees cling tightly together on the combs in the hive . The temperature within the winter cluster remains remarkably warm regardless of the outside air temperature . Larger clusters ( basketball size ) have a better chance for survival than smaller clusters ( softball size ) . The winter cluster within the hive must move throughout the winter to reach the available honey stored in the combs . Some die-off is expected during the winter . In extended cold weather periods , the incidence of Nosema disease increases and the cluster may weaken as many bees begin dying off .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_cluster", "rank": 54, "score": 68765 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 55, "score": 68663 }, { "content": "Title: Hockham Mere Content: The Hockham Mere pollen data shows the rates of change in levels of vegetation using pollen samples from within the Holocene period . Hockham Mere is the site of a former lake , > 400 metres diameter , in Norfolk , East Anglia . Its biogenic sediments contain a late-Devensian & Holocene pollen record . This data can be analysed using temperature proxies to help determine climate change in the area at that time . These proxies can be the amount of pollen found in the sample , as more pollen would indicate higher flora productivity which would suggest a warmer climate . The same can be seen if data shows negligible amounts of pollen which would suggest a cooler climate . These are proxies for temperature , and not an accurate record as there are many variances that can not be monitored easily .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Hockham_Mere", "rank": 56, "score": 68569 }, { "content": "Title: Song for a Winter's Night Content: `` Song for a Winter 's Night '' is a song written by Gordon Lightfoot , and first recorded for his 1967 album , The Way I Feel . Lightfoot actually recorded two versions of the song ; the second appears on the 1975 album Gord 's Gold , a greatest hits compilation on which other re-recordings also appeared .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Song_for_a_Winter's_Night", "rank": 57, "score": 68388 }, { "content": "Title: David Parker (climatologist) Content: David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England . He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' . In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .", "qid": "310", "docid": "David_Parker_(climatologist)", "rank": 58, "score": 68179 }, { "content": "Title: Hot summer cold winter zone Content: Hot-summer/cold-winter zone is the transient climate region between the cold and the hot zones in China . It includes the whole of Hubei , Hunan , Jiangxi , Anhui , Zhejiang provinces , Shanghai and Chongqing two municipalities , the eastern part of Sichuan and Guizhou provinces , the southern part of Henan , Jiangsu , Shanxi and Gansu provinces , and the northern part of Fujian , Guangdong and Guangxi provinces . The zone includes an area of 1800000 km2 with a population of 550 million people . This region is the most populous and economical-developed area of China , producing 48 % of the gross domestic product ( GDP ) of the whole country . The main bother of hot-summer/cold-winter zone is hot , humid summers and cold , humid winters . The temperature difference between day and night is normally small . The precipitation in an average year is large . Sun radiation is relative weak due to cloud cover . The most durable time you will ever have outside during the hottest summer month is 25 - , with peak temperatures above 40 ° C . The average outside temperature during the coldest winter month is 0 - , with lowest temperatures below 0 ° C. For historical reasons , the residential buildings in this zone do n't have central HVAC systems and are not well insulated or otherwise weatherized . With the recent and rapid economic development of this region , demand for better indoor environments is rising . Many residents install ` minisplit ' air conditioners to improve their thermal comfort . But electrical energy consumption is rising accordingly and is taxing the generation capacity . The Chinese government has created new national design standards and other efforts to lower the energy consumption while also constructing new power generating stations .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Hot_summer_cold_winter_zone", "rank": 59, "score": 68081 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Gujarat Content: The climate of Gujarat involves diverse conditions . The winters are mild , pleasant , and dry with average daytime temperatures around 29 ° C and nights around 12 ° C with 100 percent sunny days and clear nights . The summers are extremely hot and dry with daytime temperatures around 49 ° C and at night no lower than 30 ° C . In the weeks leading up to the arrival of the monsoon rains the temperatures are similar to above but with high humidity which makes the air feel hotter . Relief when the monsoon season starts around in mid June . The day temperatures are lowered to around 35 ° C but humidity is very high and nights are around 27 ° C. Most of the rainfall occurs in this season , and the rain can cause severe floods . The sun is often occluded during the monsoon season . Though mostly dry , it is desertic in the north-west , and wet in the southern districts due to a heavy monsoon season . Category : Gujarat Category : Climate of India", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Gujarat", "rank": 60, "score": 68039 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Ireland Content: The climate of Ireland is mild , moist and changeable with abundant rainfall and a lack of temperature extremes . Ireland 's climate is defined as a temperate oceanic climate , or Cfb on the Köppen climate classification system , a classification it shares with most of northwest Europe . The country receives generally cool summers and mild winters . It is considerably warmer than other areas on its latitude , because it lies in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean , and as a result is warmed by the North Atlantic Current all year . As a small island downwind of a large ocean , the climate of Ireland is profoundly impacted by that ocean . The Atlantic overturning circulation , which includes ocean currents such as the North Atlantic Current , moves heat northwards , which is then carried by the prevailing winds towards Ireland . Thermohaline circulation The prevailing wind blows from the southwest , breaking on the high mountains of the west coast . Rainfall is therefore a particularly prominent part of western Irish life , with Valentia Island , off the west coast of County Kerry , getting almost twice as much annual rainfall as Dublin on the east ( 1400 mm vs. 762 mm ) . January and February are the coldest months of the year , and mean daily air temperatures fall between 4 and during these months . July and August are the warmest , with mean daily temperatures of 14 to , whilst mean daily maximums in July and August vary from 17 to near the coast , to 19 to inland . The sunniest months are May and June , with an average of five to seven hours sunshine per day . Though extreme weather events in Ireland are comparatively rare when compared with other countries in the European Continent , they do occur . Atlantic depressions , occurring mainly in the months of December , January and February , can occasionally bring winds of up to 160 km/h to Western coastal counties , with the winter of 2013/14 being the stormiest on record . The summer months , and particularly around late July/early August , thunderstorms can develop .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Ireland", "rank": 61, "score": 67887 }, { "content": "Title: Upon a Winter's Night Content: Upon A Winter 's Night is the sixth solo album and first Christmas album by folk artist Cara Dillon . The album , produced by Dillon 's musical partner and husband Sam Lakeman , features eight arrangements of traditional carols and three original compositions . The titular track `` Upon a Winter 's Night '' was written by Sam Lakeman and the couple 's son , Noah , while `` Standing by My Christmas Tree '' and `` Mother Mary '' were written by Dillon and Lakeman . The track `` O Holy Night '' is an a cappella duet featuring Dillon 's sister Mary Dillon , who is also a folk singer .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Upon_a_Winter's_Night", "rank": 62, "score": 67864 }, { "content": "Title: Indian cold wave (2012) Content: Indian cold wave during the winter months of 2012 killed at least 92 people across northern and eastern India . The drop in temperature had a devastating effect on the hundreds of thousands of homeless people in India . Most of the dead were homeless and elderly people , living in the state of Uttar Pradesh . Other northern and eastern states such as Rajasthan , Punjab , Haryana , New Delhi , Jammu and Kashmir , Himachal Pradesh , Madhya Pradesh , Bihar and Tripura were also affected by this cold snap . New Delhi was also gripped by cold weather , with the temperature dipping to 7oC on the Christmas Day and 1oC after New Year .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Indian_cold_wave_(2012)", "rank": 63, "score": 67693 }, { "content": "Title: Warm Night Content: `` Warm Night '' is a song by Swedish band The Concretes from their debut album The Concretes . Its original Scandinavian release as a single took place in 2003 . It was re-released in the United Kingdom on December 13 , 2004 .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Warm_Night", "rank": 64, "score": 67603 }, { "content": "Title: Cold weather payment Content: Cold weather payments are paid by the United Kingdom government to recipients of certain state benefits in the event of particularly cold weather in the winter . The Social Fund Cold Weather Payments ( General ) Regulations 1988 govern the system under the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 . Each time the local temperature is less than 0 ° C for seven consecutive days between 1 November and 31 March then a payment of # 25 is made . This is in addition to the Winter Fuel Payment . Category : Pensions and benefits in the United Kingdom", "qid": "310", "docid": "Cold_weather_payment", "rank": 65, "score": 67548 }, { "content": "Title: Southwest Ontario Tornado Outbreak of 1984 Content: On the evening of September 2 , 1984 ( Labour Day ) several tornadoes hit southwestern Ontario from Windsor to London . This was the biggest severe weather event of the year for the province . During the morning hours , the surface map revealed a rather potent low pressure system ( for late summer ) over northern Michigan , moving to the northeast . A warm front was moving into southern Ontario and bringing with it a moist , unstable airmass . Thunderstorms were also reported across much of district during the early morning hours as well . The cold front however , was still back over Lake Michigan and tracking steadily towards the east . During the afternoon , the weather generally cleared up in the outbreak area and temperatures reached the upper 20 's Celsius ( low 80s F ) with dewpoints in the low 20 's Celsius ( low 70s F ) .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Southwest_Ontario_Tornado_Outbreak_of_1984", "rank": 66, "score": 67547 }, { "content": "Title: Winter Carols Content: Winter Carols is the sixth studio album by the group Blackmore 's Night , released in the United Kingdom on October , 2006 , and in the United States on November 7 , 2006 . It is a Christmas themed album . The cover artwork for this album , painted by Karsten Topelmann , is an adaptation of a street in Rothenburg ob der Tauber , Germany , in line with the band 's heavy Renaissance influence . The same street is portrayed in the cover of Blackmore 's Night 's second studio album , Under a Violet Moon . In the cover of `` Winter Carols '' the street is painted as winter time , whereas Under a Violet Moon '' 's cover takes place on apparently a summer night . While the selections `` Winter ( Basse Dance ) '' is credited to Ritchie Blackmore as composer , it is an adaptation of the second section of Joaquin Rodrigo 's `` Fantasía para un gentilhombre , '' which Rodrigo composed for classical guitar virtuoso Andres Segovia in 1954 . On December 2006 , Winter Carols '' entered at # 7 on USA Billboard New Age Charts . The album won the New Age Reporter Lifestyle Music Award as the Best Holiday Album .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_Carols", "rank": 67, "score": 67495 }, { "content": "Title: If on a Winter's Night... Content: If on a Winter 's Night ... is the ninth studio album from British musician Sting . The album is a collection of Christmas and winter-themed songs mostly written by others , including folk songs , madrigals and religious hymns from past centuries , with only the final song written by Sting . Dozens of musicians appear on the album in various configurations , including jazz , folk and classical players . It was released in most countries on 26 October 2009 , on 27 October 2009 in the United States and 2 November 2009 in the United Kingdom . The album was released in several formats : vinyl LP , a single-disc CD , a limited edition CD and making-of DVD entitled The Genesis of ` If on a Winter 's Night ... ' in Six Chapters in hardback book packaging , an Amazon.com exclusive version , as well as various import editions ( of note is the Japanese edition ) . The limited edition and Amazon exclusive both include bonus songs ; the Japanese edition include them as well but adds `` The Coventry Carol . '' The title of the album is based on the novel If on a winter 's night a traveler by Italo Calvino .", "qid": "310", "docid": "If_on_a_Winter's_Night...", "rank": 68, "score": 67420 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Vancouver Content: The climate of Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada is a moderate oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ) that borders on a warm-summer Mediterranean climate Csb . With summer months that are typically dry , often resulting in moderate drought conditions , usually in July and August . In contrast , the rest of the year is rainy , especially between October and March . Like the rest of the British Columbia Coast , the city is tempered by the North Pacific Current , which has its origins in the milder Kuroshio Current and is also to an extent , sheltered by the mountains of Vancouver Island , to the west .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Vancouver", "rank": 69, "score": 67311 }, { "content": "Title: February 2015 North American cold wave Content: The February 2015 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that affected most of Canada and the eastern half of the United States . Following an earlier cold wave in the winter , the period of below-average temperatures contributed to an already unusually cold winter for the Eastern U.S. Several places broke their records for their coldest February on record , while some areas came very close . The cause of the cold wave was due to the polar vortex advancing southwards into the eastern parts of the U.S , and even making it as far south as the Southeast , where snow is rare . By the beginning of March , although the pattern did continue for the first week , it abated and retreated near the official end of the winter . In addition to the extremely cold weather , multiple winter storms affected nearly the entire United States , especially in the snow-weary Northeast , which had already seen nearly 3 ft of snow in the latter part of January ; this was added to by roughly 3 -- 4 ft ( 36 -- 48 in ) more snow , leading to Boston having its highest seasonal snowfall on record .", "qid": "310", "docid": "February_2015_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 70, "score": 67286 }, { "content": "Title: Robert E. Davis (climatologist) Content: Robert E. Davis is a Professor of Climatology at the University of Virginia 's Department of Environmental Sciences . Davis received his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Delaware . His research contributions include the development of a system for measuring the power of Nor'easter s . In his studies of global warming , he has suggested that it may manifest more by milder winters than by hotter summers , and predicted that its effects on human population will not be severe .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Robert_E._Davis_(climatologist)", "rank": 71, "score": 67223 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Sydney Content: The climate of Sydney is humid subtropical ( Köppen Cfa ) , shifting from mild and cool in winter to warm and hot in the summer , with no extreme seasonal differences as the weather is moderated by proximity to the ocean . More contrasting temperatures are recorded in the inland western suburbs . Rainfall is spread evenly throughout the year , though it is generally highest between February and June . Precipitation varies across the region , with areas adjacent to the coast being the wettest . Sydney has 103.9 clear days annually , with the monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 53 % in January to 72 % in August . The city receives around 20 thunderstorms per year . Sydney 's heat is usually dry when temperatures soar over 35 C . In some hot days , low pressure troughs would increase humidity and southerly busters would decrease temperatures . In late autumn and winter , east coast lows can bring large amounts of rainfall . Sydney experiences an urban heat island effect , making certain parts of the city more vulnerable to extreme heat , particularly the west . Efforts have been introduced to investigate and mitigate this heat effect , including increasing shade from tree canopies , adding rooftop gardens to high rise structures and changing pavement colour . The El Niño Southern Oscillation plays an important role in determining Sydney 's weather patterns : drought and bushfire on the one hand , and storms and flooding on the other . Sydney is prone to heat waves and drought , which have become more common in recent years .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Sydney", "rank": 72, "score": 67145 }, { "content": "Title: On This Winter's Night Content: On This Winter 's Night is a Christmas and fourth studio album by American country music trio Lady Antebellum . It was released on October 22 , 2012 , by Capitol Records Nashville . This album includes the six tracks from their previous 2010 Christmas EP A Merry Little Christmas as noted below . A music video was produced for `` A Holly Jolly Christmas '' .", "qid": "310", "docid": "On_This_Winter's_Night", "rank": 73, "score": 67082 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1894 -- 95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 C . Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain . Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885 -- 86 to 1894 -- 95 was 2.87 C , no winter with a CET under 3.0 C followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940 . In contrast , between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 C had lasted longer than twelve winters . Although this winter -- which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881 , 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 -- affected most of Europe and North America very severely , the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs . The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames , which froze for the last time on record . Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state , most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people . There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather , with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London 's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor , and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators . Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible , whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_of_1894–95_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 74, "score": 66967 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1990–91 in Western Europe Content: The winter of 1990 -- 1991 was a particularly cold winter in Western Europe , noted especially for its effect on the United Kingdom , and for two significantly heavy falls of snow which occurred in December 1990 and February 1991 . Sandwiched in between was a period of high winds and heavy rain which caused widespread damage . The winter was the coldest since January 1987 , and the snowfall experienced in many parts of the United Kingdom would not be seen again until the snowfall of February 2009 .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_of_1990–91_in_Western_Europe", "rank": 75, "score": 66684 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Estonia Content: Estonia lies in the northern part of the temperate climate zone and in the transition zone between maritime and continental climate . Because Estonia ( and all of Northern Europe ) is continuously warmed by maritime air influenced by the heat content of the northern Atlantic Ocean , it has a milder climate despite its northern latitude . The Baltic Sea causes differences between the climate of coastal and inland areas . Estonia has four seasons of near-equal length . Average temperatures range from 16.3 ° C on the Baltic islands to 18.1 ° C inland in July , the warmest month , and from -3.5 ° C on the Baltic islands to -7.6 ° C inland in February , the coldest month . The average annual temperature in Estonia is 5.2 ° C . The average temperature in February , the coldest month of the year , is -5.7 ° C . The average temperature in July , which is considered the warmest month of the year , is 16.4 ° C . The climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean , the North-Atlantic Stream and the Icelandic Minimum , which is an area known for the formation of cyclones and where the average air pressure is lower than in neighbouring areas . Estonia is located in a humid zone in which the amount of precipitation is greater than total evaporation . The average precipitation in 1961 -- 1990 ranged from 535 to per year and was heaviest in late summer . There were between 102 and 127 rainy days a year , and average precipitation was most plentiful on the western slopes of the Sakala and Haanja Uplands . Snow cover , which is deepest in the south-eastern part of Estonia , usually lasts from mid-December to late March .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Estonia", "rank": 76, "score": 66668 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Finland Content: The climate of Finland is influenced most by latitude . Because of Finland 's northern location , winter is the longest season . Only in the south coast and the southeast is summer as long as winter . On the average , winter lasts from early January to late February in the outermost islands in the archipelago and the warmest locations along southwestern coast , notably in Hanko and from early October to mid-May in the most elevated locations in northwestern Lapland and the lowest valleys in northeastern Lapland . This means that southern portions of the country are snow-covered about three to four months of the year and the northern , about seven months . The long winter causes about half of the annual 500 to of precipitation in the north to fall as snow . Precipitation in the south amounts to about 600 to annually . Like that of the north , it occurs all through the year , though not so much of it is snow . In Köppen climate classification Finland belongs to the Df group ( continental subarctic or boreal climates ) . The southern coast is Dfb ( humid continental mild summer , wet all year ) , and the rest of the country is Dfc ( subarctic with cool summer , wet all year ) . The Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Eurasian continent to the east interact to modify the climate of the country . The warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift Current , play a big role in the climate of Norway , Sweden and Finland which continuously warm the region , if it were n't for these currents the winters in Scandinavia and Fennoscandia would be much colder . Westerly winds bring the warm air currents into the Baltic areas and to the country 's shores , moderating winter temperatures , specially in the south and southwest in cities like Helsinki and Turku where winter highs tend to be between 0 and but a cold snap like the one that occurred in mid-January 2016 can cause temperatures to plunge well below -20 C . These winds , because of clouds associated with weather systems accompanying the westerlies , also decrease the amount of sunshine received during the summer . By contrast , the continental high pressure system situated over the Eurasian continent counteracts the maritime influences , occasionally causing severe winters and high temperatures in the summer .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Finland", "rank": 77, "score": 66590 }, { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 78, "score": 66523 }, { "content": "Title: Thaw (weather) Content: January thaw is a term applied to a thaw or rise in temperature in mid-winter found in mid-latitude North America . Sinusoidal estimates of expected temperatures , for northern locales , usually place the lowest temperatures around January 23 and the highest around July 24 , and provide fairly accurate estimates of temperature expectations . Actual average temperatures in North America usually significantly differ twice over the course of the year : Mid-autumn temperatures tend to be warmer than predicted by the sinusoidal model , creating the impression of extended summer warmth known as Indian summer . For five days around January 25 , temperatures are usually significantly warmer than predicted by the sinusoidal estimate , and also warmer than neighboring temperatures on both sides . During this `` thaw '' period , usually lasting for about a week , temperatures are generally about 6 ° C ( 10 ° F ) above normal . This varies from year to year , and temperatures fluctuate enough that such a rise in late-January temperature would be unremarkable ; what is remarkable ( and unexplained ) is the tendency for such rises to occur more commonly in late January than in mid-January or early February , which sinusoidal estimates have to be slightly warmer . In some regions ( such as northern Canada ) this phenomenon will not be manifest as a `` thaw '' in the technical sense , since temperatures will remain below freezing . The January thaw is believed to be a weather singularity . A possible physical mechanism for such phenomena was offered in the 1950s by E.G. Bowen : he suggested that some `` calendaricities '' ( as he called them ) might be explicable in terms of meteoric particles from cometary orbits acting as ice nuclei in terrestrial clouds ; his theory then received some support from several sources . However , Bowen 's ideas later fell out of favour with the development of atmospheric dynamic modelling techniques , although one of his rainfall peaks does seem to correspond with the date of the January thaw . Data analysis has not found statistically significant support for the supposed January thaw . The authors of this study state that `` the effects of sampling in finite climate records are wholly adequate to account for the existence of January thaw ` features ' in northeastern U.S. temperature data . ''", "qid": "310", "docid": "Thaw_(weather)", "rank": 79, "score": 66516 }, { "content": "Title: Decoupling (meteorology) Content: In weather forecasting , decoupling is boundary-layer decoupling of atmospheric layers over land at night . During the day when the sun shines and warms the land , air at the surface of the earth is heated and rises . This rising air mixes the atmosphere near the earth . At night this process stops and air near the surface cools as the land loses heat by radiating in the infrared . If winds are light , air near the surface of the earth can become much colder , compared to the air above it , than if more mixing of air layers occurred . Category : Weather forecasting", "qid": "310", "docid": "Decoupling_(meteorology)", "rank": 80, "score": 66433 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of London Content: London , the capital and largest city in England and the United Kingdom has a temperate oceanic climate , with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year . Summer temperatures rarely rise much above 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) , though higher temperatures have become more common recently . The highest temperature ever recorded in London was 38.1 ° C ( 100.6 ° F ) , measured at Kew Gardens during the European Heat Wave of 2003 . In modern times , heavy snowfalls have been infrequent with snow generally only settling once or twice each winter and accumulations usually of no more than an inch ( 2.5 cm ) or so . Despite its reputation as being a rainy city , London receives less precipitation ( 601 mm ( 24 in ) in a year ) , than Rome , Bordeaux , Toulouse , Naples and less than half the precipitation of Sydney or New York City . This is despite the fact that sub-tropical regions usually receive fewer rainy or overcast days . London 's large built-up area creates a microclimate ( an `` urban heat island '' ) , with heat stored by the city 's buildings . Sometimes temperatures are 5 ° C ( 9 ° F ) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_London", "rank": 81, "score": 66372 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Saudi Arabia Content: The climate of Saudi Arabia is marked by high temperatures during the day and low temperatures at night . Most of the country follows the pattern of the desert climate , with the exception of the southwest , which features a semi-arid climate . </center>", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Saudi_Arabia", "rank": 82, "score": 66307 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 83, "score": 66272 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 84, "score": 66220 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear winter Content: Nuclear winter is the severe global-climatic-cooling-effect , hypothesized to occur after the ignition of a number of firestorms , from nuclear bomb detonations , or wide spread bombardments . Such fires , which can inject soot into the stratosphere , have historically occurred in a number of cities , with nuclear winter researchers using both Hamburg and the less ferocious Hiroshima firestorms as the principal examples . However , as firestorms are most frequently encountered in much larger area wildfires , these latter fires are the most significant today in assessing both the initial and present-day `` nuclear winter '' computer models .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Nuclear_winter", "rank": 85, "score": 66050 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Hyderabad, Sindh Content: The climate of Hyderabad features an arid climate . The days are hot and dry , usually going up to extreme highs of 40 C , while the nights are cool and breezy . Winds usually bring along clouds of dust , and people prefer staying indoors in the daytime , while the breezes at night are pleasant and clean . In recent years Hyderabad has seen heavy downpours . In February 2003 , Hyderabad received 105 mm of rain in 12 hours , due to a sudden climate change . The years 2006 , 2007 and 2009 saw close contenders to this record rainfall .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Hyderabad,_Sindh", "rank": 86, "score": 65995 }, { "content": "Title: Nunathloogagamiutbingoi Dunes Content: Nunathloogagamiutbingoi Dunes is the name of a beach on the southeastern coast of Nunivak Island in Bethel Census Area , Alaska . Summer temperatures in the area are frequently 50 to , and the night is commonly 40 to . The wintertime brings highs down to 10 to and overnight lows of -19 to . There is little precipitation ; the month of August is the wettest , while March is frequently the driest month . Nunathloogagamiutbingoi has been noted for its long place name .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Nunathloogagamiutbingoi_Dunes", "rank": 87, "score": 65904 }, { "content": "Title: Clemente Onelli, Río Negro Content: Clemente Onelli is a village and municipality in Río Negro Province in Argentina . The town is located on a relatively high steppe ( 1000 metres , or just over 3000 feet ) and is noted for low winter nighttime temperatures : although no climate stations exist nearby , there are reports of temperature below -30 ° C or -22 F . The closest city , lower-altitude Maquinchao , has reported -25.6 ° C or -14 F . In normal winter cold waves , temperatures frequently fall below -18 ° C or 0F .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Clemente_Onelli,_Río_Negro", "rank": 88, "score": 65780 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Georgia (U.S. state) Content: The climate of Georgia is typical of a humid subtropical climate with most of the state having mild winters and hot summers . The Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of Georgia and the hill country in the north impact the state 's climate . Also , the Chattahoochee River divides Georgia into separate climatic regions with the mountain region to the northwest being colder than the rest of the state , the average temperatures for that region in January and July being 39 F and 78 F respectively . Winter in Georgia is characterized by mild temperatures and little snowfall around the state , with colder , snowier , and icier weather more likely across northern and central Georgia . Summer daytime temperatures in Georgia often exceed 90 ° F . The state experiences widespread precipitation . Tornadoes and tropical cyclones are common .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_Georgia_(U.S._state)", "rank": 89, "score": 65722 }, { "content": "Title: Winter solstice (disambiguation) Content: Winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon which marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year . December solstice in the Northern Hemisphere June solstice in the Southern Hemisphere Winter solstice may also refer to : Winter Solstice ( band ) , an American Christian metalcore band , active 2000 -- 06 Winter Solstice : North ( album ) , a 1999 album by British experimental music group Coil Winter Solstice , a 2000 novel by Rosamunde Pilcher Winter Solstice , a two-part German-produced TV film from 2003 based on the novel , with Sinéad Cusack , Peter Ustinov , Geraldine Chaplin , Jean Simmons and Maureen Lipman Winter Solstice ( film ) , 2004 American film with Anthony LaPaglia", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_solstice_(disambiguation)", "rank": 90, "score": 65659 }, { "content": "Title: November 2014 North American cold wave Content: The November 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that occurred across most of Canada and the contiguous United States , including parts of the Western United States up to western California . One of the first events of the winter , the cold wave was caused by the northward movement of an extremely powerful bomb cyclone associated with Typhoon Nuri 's remnant , which shifted the jet stream far northward , creating an omega block pattern . This allowed a piece of the polar vortex to advance southward into the Central and Eastern United States , bringing record-cold temperatures to much of the region . In contrast , Alaska experienced above-average temperatures . This was the worst cold wave that the North American region had experienced since an earlier cold wave in early 2014 . The cold wave was expected to last for a few weeks , extending at least until American Thanksgiving . Although the Omega Block broke down on November 20 , due to a powerful storm moving into the Gulf of Alaska , frigid conditions continued to persist across much of the United States . There was also concern among some meteorologists that another cold wave or abnormally cold trend might persist throughout the winter of 2014 -- 15 , the chances of which were `` above average . '' On November 23 , a warming trend primarily in the Eastern United States brought an end to the cold wave ; however , below-average temperatures were forecast to return to the Midwest by November 24 . Despite the development of a second cold wave , it ended on December 6 , when a ridge of high pressure brought above-average temperatures to the region , especially in the Central United States .", "qid": "310", "docid": "November_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 91, "score": 65647 }, { "content": "Title: Winter storm warning Content: A winter storm warning ( SAME code : WSW ) is a statement made by the National Weather Service of the United States which means a winter storm is occurring or is about to occur in the area , usually within 36 hours . Generally , a Winter Storm Warning is issued if the following criteria , at least , are forecast : usually between 4 in to 7 in or more of snow or usually 3 in or more of snow with a large accumulation of ice . In the Southern United States , where severe winter weather is much less common and any snow is a more significant event , warning criteria are lower , as low as 1 in in the southernmost areas . ( Thus , as you go from south to north the necessary accumulations get higher . ) A warning can also be issued during high impact events of lesser amounts , usually early or very late in the season when trees have leaves and damage can result . Winter Storm Warnings are issued when winds are less than 35mph ; if the storm has winds above this wind speed , it becomes a blizzard warning . Usually , a large accumulation of ice alone with little to no snow will result in an ice storm warning , or in the case of light freezing rain , a winter weather advisory , a freezing rain advisory , or drizzle advisory . A similar warning is issued by Environment Canada 's Meteorological Service of Canada from their offices . Prior to the 2008 -- 09 winter storm season , there was the heavy snow warning , specific for when only a heavy amount of snow was expected in the warned area . The Winter Storm Warning for Heavy Snow has since replaced it .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_storm_warning", "rank": 92, "score": 65644 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Turkey Content:", "qid": "310", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Turkey", "rank": 93, "score": 65628 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "310", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 94, "score": 65442 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1946 -- 1947 was a harsh European winter noted for its effects in the United Kingdom . It caused severe hardships in economic terms and living conditions . There were massive disruptions of energy supply for homes , offices and factories . Animal herds froze or starved to death . No one could keep warm , and many businesses shut down temporarily . When warm weather returned , the ice thawed and flooding was severe in most low-lying areas . Beginning on 21 January 1947 , the UK experienced several cold spells that brought large drifts of snow to the country , blocking roads and railways . It was harder to bring coal to the electric power stations . Many had to shut down , forcing severe restrictions to cut power consumption , including restricting domestic electricity to 19 hours per day and cutting industrial supplies completely . In addition , radio broadcasts were limited , television services were suspended , some magazines were ordered to stop being published and newspapers were cut in size . These measures badly affected public morale and turned the Minister of Fuel and Power , Emanuel Shinwell , into a scapegoat ; he received death threats and had to be placed under police guard . Towards the end of February there were also fears of a food shortage as supplies were cut off and vegetables were frozen into the ground . Mid-March brought warmer air to the country which thawed the snow lying on the ground . This snowmelt ran off the frozen ground straight into rivers and caused widespread flooding . More than 100,000 properties were affected and the British Army and foreign aid agencies were forced to provide humanitarian aid . With the cold spell over and the ground thawing , there were no further weather problems . The winter had severe effects on British industries , causing the loss of around 10 per cent of the year 's industrial production , 10 to 20 per cent of cereal and potato crops and a quarter of sheep stocks . The ruling Labour Party began to lose popularity , which led to them losing many seats to the Conservative Party in the 1950 election . That winter is also cited as a factor in the devaluation of the pound from $ 4.03 to $ 2.80 , Britain 's decline from being a superpower and the introduction of the Marshall Plan to aid war-torn Europe . The effects on the rest of Europe were also severe , with 150 deaths from cold and famine in Berlin , civil disorder in the Netherlands and business closures in the Republic of Ireland .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Winter_of_1946–47_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 95, "score": 65374 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of East Anglia Content: The climate of East Anglia is generally dry and mild . The region is among the driest in the United Kingdom with many areas receiving less than 700mm of rainfall a yearand locations such as Lowestoft less than 600 mm on average . Rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year . Maximum temperatures range from 5 -- 10 ° C ( 41 -- 50 ° F ) in the winter to 20 -- 25 ° C ( 68 -- 77 ° F ) in the summer , although temperatures have been known to reach 35 ° C ( 95 ° F ) . Sunshine totals tend to be higher towards the coastal areas .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Climate_of_East_Anglia", "rank": 96, "score": 65244 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "310", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 97, "score": 65229 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "310", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 98, "score": 65159 }, { "content": "Title: Dragons of Winter Night Content: Dragons of Winter Night is a fantasy novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman , based on the Dungeons & Dragons gaming modules . It is the second book in the Chronicles Trilogy , preceded by Dragons of Autumn Twilight and followed by Dragons of Spring Dawning . It was the second Dragonlance novel , being released in 1985 . It is the second novel in the Chronicles Trilogy , which along with the Legends Trilogy introduces the Dragonlance world . Specifically , it details the darker days of the War of the Lance .", "qid": "310", "docid": "Dragons_of_Winter_Night", "rank": 99, "score": 65107 }, { "content": "Title: Wintertide Content: Wintertide may refer to : Winter , the coldest season of the year in temperate climates Wintertide ( Don Ross album ) , 1996 album Wintertide , 2007 album by Heather Alexander and Alexander James Adams Wintertide , 1999 novel by Linnea Sinclair Wintertide , 2010 novel from the Riyria Revelations series , by Michael J. Sullivan Wintertide , United Kingdom-registered refrigerated ship which collided with MSC Sabrina in 2000", "qid": "310", "docid": "Wintertide", "rank": 100, "score": 65099 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events of 535–536 Content: The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the most severe and protracted short-term episodes of cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2000 years . The event is thought to have been caused by an extensive atmospheric dust veil , possibly resulting from a large volcanic eruption in the tropics , or debris from space impacting the Earth . Its effects were widespread , causing unseasonal weather , crop failures and famines worldwide .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_of_535–536", "rank": 1, "score": 113144 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather Content: Extreme weather includes unexpectable , unusual , unpredictable severe or unseasonal weather ; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution -- the range that has been seen in the past . Often , extreme events are based on a location 's recorded weather history and defined as lying in the most unusual ten percent . In recent years some extreme weather events have been attributed to human-induced global warming , with studies indicating an increasing threat from extreme weather in the future .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Extreme_weather", "rank": 2, "score": 98479 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-Brunhes Event Content: The Mid-Brunhes Event ( MBE ) is a climatic shift evident in a number of marine sediment and Antarctic ice cores . It corresponds to an increase in amplitude of glacial-interglacial cycles . The MBE roughly corresponds to the transition between MIS 12 and MIS 11 ( Termination V ) about 430 kyr ago . It is characterized by a further increase of ice-volume variations with , from then to the present day , four large-amplitude 100-kyr-dominated glacial -- interglacial cycles .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Mid-Brunhes_Event", "rank": 3, "score": 92047 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercane Content: A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached 50 C , which is 15 C-change warmer than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded . Such an increase could be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact , a large supervolcanic eruption , or extensive global warming . There is some speculation that a series of hypercanes resulting from an impact by a large asteroid or comet contributed to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs . The hypothesis was created by Kerry Emanuel of MIT who also coined the term .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Hypercane", "rank": 4, "score": 90006 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events in Melbourne Content: thumb | A church destroyed by the 1918 Brighton tornado Extreme weather events in Melbourne , Australia have occurred on multiple occasions . The city has experienced a number of highly unusual weather events and extremes of weather . An increase in heat waves and record breaking temperatures over the last decade has led to much discussion over the effects of climate change in the country .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_in_Melbourne", "rank": 5, "score": 89319 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 6, "score": 88468 }, { "content": "Title: Storm Data Content: Storm Data and Unusual Weather Phenomena ( SD ) is a monthly NOAA publication with comprehensive listings and detailed summaries of severe weather occurrences in the United States . Included is information on tornadoes , high wind events , hail , lightning , floods and flash floods , tropical cyclones ( hurricanes ) , ice storms , snow , extreme temperatures such as heat waves and cold waves , droughts , and wildfires . Photographs of weather and attendant damage are used as much as possible . Maps of significant weather are also included .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Storm_Data", "rank": 7, "score": 84653 }, { "content": "Title: Rare events Content: Rare events are events that occur with low frequency , and the term is often used in particular reference to infrequent or hypothetical events that have potentially widespread impact and which might destabilize society . Rare events encompass natural phenomena ( major earthquakes , tsunamis , hurricanes , floods , asteroid impacts , solar flares , etc. ) , anthropogenic hazards ( warfare and related forms of violent conflict , acts of terrorism , industrial accidents , financial and commodity market crashes , etc. ) , as well as phenomena for which natural and anthropogenic factors interact in complex ways ( epidemic disease spread , global warming-related changes in climate and weather , etc. ) .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Rare_events", "rank": 8, "score": 83900 }, { "content": "Title: European Severe Storms Laboratory Content: The European Severe Storms Laboratory ( ESSL ) started as an informal network of European scientists with the goal to advance research on severe convective storms and extreme weather events on a European level and can be seen as the European equivalent to the National Severe Storms Laboratory . Severe weather includes extreme local meteorological events like tornados , heavy precipitation events and avalanches . The ESSL focuses on research questions concerning convective storms and other extreme weather phenomena which can be treated more efficiently on a pan-European scale .", "qid": "311", "docid": "European_Severe_Storms_Laboratory", "rank": 9, "score": 79501 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 10, "score": 78774 }, { "content": "Title: Kerry Emanuel Content: Kerry Andrew Emanuel ( born April 21 , 1955 ) is an American professor of meteorology currently working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge . In particular he has specialized in atmospheric convection and the mechanisms acting to intensify hurricanes . He was named one of the Time 100 influential people of 2006 . In 2007 , he was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences . He hypothesized in 1994 about a superpowerful type of hurricane which could be formed if average sea surface temperature increased another 15C more than it 's ever been ( see `` hypercane '' ) . In a March 2008 paper published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society , he put forward the conclusion that global warming is likely to increase the intensity but decrease the frequency of hurricane and cyclone activity . Gabriel Vecchi , of NOAA said of Emanuel 's announcement , `` While his results do n't rule out the possibility that global warming has contributed to the recent increase in activity in the Atlantic , they suggest that other factors -- possibly in addition to global warming -- are likely to have been substantial contributors to the observed increase in activity . '' In 2013 , with other leading experts , he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers , which stated that `` continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity 's ability to avoid dangerous climate change . ''", "qid": "311", "docid": "Kerry_Emanuel", "rank": 11, "score": 78653 }, { "content": "Title: Dansgaard–Oeschger event Content: Dansgaard -- Oeschger events ( often abbreviated D -- O events ) are rapid climate fluctuations that occurred 25 times during the last glacial period . Some scientists say that the events occur quasi-periodically with a recurrence time being a multiple of 1,470 years , but this is debated . The comparable climate cyclicity during the Holocene is referred to as Bond events .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Dansgaard–Oeschger_event", "rank": 12, "score": 78405 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-17 Content: NOAA-17 was a weather forecasting satellite operated by NOAA . It was launched on 24 June 2002 , in a sun-synchronous orbit , 824 km above the Earth , orbiting every 101 minutes . It hosted the AMSU , AVHRR and High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder ( HRIS ) instruments . The satellite was retired in 2013 . Automatic Picture Transmission frequency was 137.5 MHz . NOAA-17 was decommissioned on 10 April 2013 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "NOAA-17", "rank": 13, "score": 78356 }, { "content": "Title: 8.2 kiloyear event Content: In climatology , the 8.2 kiloyear event was a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present , or c. 6,200 BCE , and which lasted for the next two to four centuries . Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it , but more severe than the Little Ice Age that would follow , the 8.2 kiloyear cooling was a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum . During the event , atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb or an emission reduction of 15 % , by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale .", "qid": "311", "docid": "8.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 14, "score": 78067 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 15, "score": 77915 }, { "content": "Title: Squall Content: A squall is a sudden , sharp increase in wind speed that is usually associated with active weather , such as rain showers , thunderstorms , or heavy snow . Squalls refer to an increase in the sustained winds over a short time interval , as there may be higher gusts during a squall event . They usually occur in a region of strong mid-level height falls , or mid-level tropospheric cooling , which force strong localized upward motions at the leading edge of the region of cooling , which then enhances local downward motions just in its wake .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Squall", "rank": 16, "score": 77909 }, { "content": "Title: Systematic risk Content: In finance and economics , systematic risk ( in economics often called aggregate risk or undiversifiable risk ) is vulnerability to events which affect aggregate outcomes such as broad market returns , total economy-wide resource holdings , or aggregate income . In many contexts , events like earthquakes and major weather catastrophes pose aggregate risks -- they affect not only the distribution but also the total amount of resources . If every possible outcome of a stochastic economic process is characterized by the same aggregate result ( but potentially different distributional outcomes ) , then the process has no aggregate risk .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Systematic_risk", "rank": 17, "score": 76499 }, { "content": "Title: ARkStorm Content: An ARkStorm ( for Atmospheric River 1,000 Storm ) is a hypothetical but scientifically realistic `` megastorm '' scenario developed and published by the United States Geological Survey , Multi Hazards Demonstration Project ( MHDP ) . It describes an extreme storm that might impact much of California causing up to $ 725 billion in losses ( most caused by flooding ) , and affect a quarter of California 's homes . The event would be similar to exceptionally intense California storms which occurred between December 1861 and January 1862 . The name `` ARkStorm '' means `` Atmospheric River ( AR ) 1,000 ( k ) . ''", "qid": "311", "docid": "ARkStorm", "rank": 18, "score": 76114 }, { "content": "Title: April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides Content: The April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides was an extreme weather event that affected the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the first days of April 2010 . At least 212 people died , 161 people have been injured ( including several rescuers ) , while at least 15,000 people have been made homeless . A further 10,000 homes are thought to be at risk from mudslides , most of them in the favelas , the shanty towns built on the hillsides above downtowns . Damage from the flooding has been estimated at 23.76 billion reais ( US$ 13.3 bn , $ 9.9 bn ) , about 8 % of the gross domestic product ( GDP ) of Rio de Janeiro State . The flooding particularly affected the city of Rio de Janeiro , where at least 60 people died , and its surrounding area . Deaths were also been reported in the cities of Niterói ( 132 ) , São Gonçalo ( 16 ) , Paracambi ( 1 ) , Engenheiro Paulo de Frontin ( 1 ) , Magé ( 1 ) , Nilópolis ( 1 ) and Petrópolis ( 1 ) . Several municipalities , including Niterói and municipalities to the east such as Maricá and Araruama , have declared states of emergency or of public calamity . The Governor of Rio de Janeiro State , Sérgio Cabral , declared three days of official mourning for the dead . Heavy rain started at around 5 p.m. local time ( 2000 UTC ) on Monday 5 April in Rio de Janeiro city , and continued for 24 hours , with a total of 28.8 cm ( 11 1/2 in . ) of rain falling , more than was predicted for the whole of April and the heaviest rainfall for thirty years . The Brazilian TV station Globo said the rainfall was equivalent to 300,000 Olympic swimming pools of water . There were drivers who were forced to sleep in their cars . There were also firemen who used rubber dinghies to rescue passengers from stranded buses , and shopkeepers who worked very quickly to prevent the rainfall from destroying their businesses . Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes admitted that the city 's preparedness for heavy rainfall had been `` less than zero , '' but added `` there is n't a city that would n't have had problems with this level of rainfall . '' A further landslide hit a slum in Niterói late on 7 April . It is thought to have killed at least 150 . Around 200 people were missing in the town as of 13 April . After nearly 300 landslides hit the area , the statue of Christ the Redeemer was cut off from traffic for the first time in history . More than 300 homes were bulldozed after the landslides , and it is estimated that close to 12,000 families will need to be relocated by 2012 due to the damage from the floods .", "qid": "311", "docid": "April_2010_Rio_de_Janeiro_floods_and_mudslides", "rank": 19, "score": 76016 }, { "content": "Title: List of Storm Prediction Center high risk days Content: A high risk severe weather event is the greatest threat level issued by the Storm Prediction Center ( SPC ) for convective weather events in the United States . High risks are issued only a few times a year when forecasters at the SPC are confident that a major severe weather outbreak , namely tornadoes and occasionally derechoes , will occur on the given day . These are typically reserved for the most extreme events . Limited details are available for days before the late 1990s , and it is probable that there were additional high risk days with no online documentation , especially in the 1980s .", "qid": "311", "docid": "List_of_Storm_Prediction_Center_high_risk_days", "rank": 20, "score": 75829 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-18 Content: NOAA-18 , known before launch as NOAA-N , is a weather forecasting satellite run by NOAA . NOAA-N ( 18 ) was launched on May 20 , 2005 , into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 854 km above the Earth , with an orbital period of 102 minutes . It hosts the AMSU-A , MHS , AVHRR , Space Environment Monitor SEM/2 instrument and High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder ( HIRS ) instruments , as well as the SBUV/2 ozone-monitoring instrument . It is the first NOAA POES satellite to use MHS in place of AMSU-B . APT transmission frequency is 137.9125 MHz ( NOAA-18 changed frequencies with NOAA-19 on June 23 , 2009 ) .", "qid": "311", "docid": "NOAA-18", "rank": 21, "score": 75671 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2014 North American cold wave Content: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013 -- 2014 winter season , and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States . The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex . Record-low temperatures also extended well into March . On January 2 , an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States , resulting in heavy snowfall . Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels , and low temperature records were broken across the United States . Business , school , and road closures were common , as well as mass flight cancellations . Altogether , more than 200 million people were affected , in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Early_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 22, "score": 75266 }, { "content": "Title: Severe weather Content: Severe weather refers to any dangerous meteorological phenomena with the potential to cause damage , serious social disruption , or loss of human life . Types of severe weather phenomena vary , depending on the latitude , altitude , topography , and atmospheric conditions . High winds , hail , excessive precipitation , and wildfires are forms and effects of severe weather , as are thunderstorms , downbursts , lightning , tornadoes , waterspouts , tropical cyclones , and extratropical cyclones . Regional and seasonal severe weather phenomena include blizzards , snowstorms , ice storms , and duststorms .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Severe_weather", "rank": 23, "score": 74805 }, { "content": "Title: Tornadoes of 2017 Content: This page documents notable tornadoes and tornado outbreaks worldwide in 2017 . Strong and destructive tornadoes form most frequently in the United States , Bangladesh , and Eastern India , but they can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions . Tornadoes also develop occasionally in southern Canada during the Northern Hemisphere 's summer and somewhat regularly at other times of the year across Europe , Asia , and Australia . Tornadic events are often accompanied with other forms of severe weather , including strong thunderstorms , strong winds , and hail . There have been 935 reports of tornadoes in the United States in 2017 so far , of which at least 830 have been confirmed . A total of 40 tornado-related deaths have occurred worldwide as of May 31 : 38 in the United States , one in Brazil and Russia . 2017 got off to an exceptionally early start , having the second most active January since records began in 1950 , and one of the most active first quarters in recorded history . 2017 has also had four high risks issued by the Storm Prediction Center so far this year . This is the most active in the sense of high risks since 2011 , which had five high risks issued throughout the entire year .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Tornadoes_of_2017", "rank": 24, "score": 74358 }, { "content": "Title: Tornadoes of 2015 Content: This page documents notable tornadoes and tornado outbreaks worldwide in 2015 . Strong and destructive tornadoes form most frequently in the United States , Bangladesh , and Eastern India , but they can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions . Tornadoes also develop occasionally in southern Canada during the Northern Hemisphere 's summer and somewhat regularly at other times of the year across Europe , Asia , and Australia . Tornadic events are often accompanied with other forms of severe weather including strong thunderstorms , winds and hail . There were 1,285 tornadoes reported in the United States in 2015 according to the Storm Prediction Center ( SPC ) , of which at least 1,178 have been confirmed . Worldwide , 109 fatalities have been reported : 45 in Pakistan , 36 in the United States , 14 in Mexico , 7 in China , 3 in Myanmar , 2 in Brazil and 1 each in Italy and Russia . 2015 ended the very quiet trend of the 2012 , 2013 and 2014 seasons , and was the most active in four years .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Tornadoes_of_2015", "rank": 25, "score": 74213 }, { "content": "Title: Ordovician meteor event Content: The Ordovician meteor event was a dramatic increase in the rate at which L chondrite meteorites fell to Earth during the Middle Ordovician period , 467.3 ± 1.6 million years ago . This is indicated by the comparatively tight age clustering of L chondrite grains in sediments in southern Sweden , and an excess of fossil L chondrite meteorites in a quarry in Sweden that represents meteorite falls arriving at a much higher rate than is typical on Earth . This temporary increase in the impact rate was most likely caused by the destruction of the L-chondrite parent body 470 ± 6 million years ago having scattered fragments into Earth-crossing orbits , a chronology which is supported by shock ages in numerous L-chondrite meteorites that continue to fall to Earth today . It is hypothesized that this influx was associated with , or possibly caused , the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Ordovician_meteor_event", "rank": 26, "score": 73885 }, { "content": "Title: November 2014 North American cold wave Content: The November 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that occurred across most of Canada and the contiguous United States , including parts of the Western United States up to western California . One of the first events of the winter , the cold wave was caused by the northward movement of an extremely powerful bomb cyclone associated with Typhoon Nuri 's remnant , which shifted the jet stream far northward , creating an omega block pattern . This allowed a piece of the polar vortex to advance southward into the Central and Eastern United States , bringing record-cold temperatures to much of the region . In contrast , Alaska experienced above-average temperatures . This was the worst cold wave that the North American region had experienced since an earlier cold wave in early 2014 . The cold wave was expected to last for a few weeks , extending at least until American Thanksgiving . Although the Omega Block broke down on November 20 , due to a powerful storm moving into the Gulf of Alaska , frigid conditions continued to persist across much of the United States . There was also concern among some meteorologists that another cold wave or abnormally cold trend might persist throughout the winter of 2014 -- 15 , the chances of which were `` above average . '' On November 23 , a warming trend primarily in the Eastern United States brought an end to the cold wave ; however , below-average temperatures were forecast to return to the Midwest by November 24 . Despite the development of a second cold wave , it ended on December 6 , when a ridge of high pressure brought above-average temperatures to the region , especially in the Central United States .", "qid": "311", "docid": "November_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 27, "score": 73848 }, { "content": "Title: Meteorological disasters Content: Meteorological disasters are caused by extreme weather , e.g. rain , drought , snow , extreme heat or cold , ice , or wind . Violent , sudden and destructive change to the environment related to , produced by , or affecting the earth 's atmosphere , especially the weather-forming processes . Examples of weather disasters include blizzard , cyclones , droughts , hailstorms , heat waves , hurricanes , floods ( caused by rain ) , and tornadoes .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Meteorological_disasters", "rank": 28, "score": 73834 }, { "content": "Title: Bonnie Schneider Content: Bonnie Schneider is a national television meteorologist and the author of Extreme Weather , published by Palgrave Macmillan . She appears on The Weather Channel . Previously she worked for Headline News , and Bloomberg Television . A native of Jericho , New York , Schneider earned a bachelor 's degree in journalism from Boston University . She pursued her meteorological studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Hunter College in Manhattan . She started her career as a weekend meteorologist at KPLC-TV in Lake Charles , Louisiana . Bonnie covered Hurricane Sandy for Bloomberg Television from their world headquarters in New York City While reporting on Hurricane Sandy for Bloomberg , Schneider was asked to participate on a panel for a live chat for Huffington Post Live and provide her analysis on the storm in an interview with Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on his nationally syndicated radio show on Cumulus Media Networks . Schneider is the Co-Executive Producer and Extreme Weather Expert for a television special airing on the DIY Network , called Last House Standing . The show , which was shot on location in California , Alabama and Florida , provides home-owners tips on how to storm-proof against earthquakes , tornadoes and hurricanes . Schneider 's debut on CNN was on June 11 , 2005 , which was just in time to cover the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season , which included in-studio analysis of Hurricane Katrina . In 2008 , she contributed to CNN International 's coverage of Cyclone Nargis and the 2008 earthquake in China . During HLN 's coverage of Hurricane Irene in August 2011 . Bonnie contributed news reports for Atlanta 's NBC affiliate , WXIA throughout the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2014 Winter Olympics . Prior to CNN , Bloomberg TV , and WXIA , Schneider had been the Weekend Meteorologist/Special Assignment Reporter for `` The Ten O'Clock News '' on WLVI-TV in Boston . While in Boston , she also provided entertainment and lifestyle reporting as a special assignment reporter three days a week . Prior to WLVI , she was the weekend meteorologist at WFOR-TV in Miami . She has held several meteorology and reporting positions including : News 12 Long Island , a 24-hour cable news television network , and WXII-TV , the NBC affiliate in Winston-Salem , North Carolina . She also worked for the CBS network in New York City as a frequent fill-in meteorologist on the The Saturday Early Show . Schneider was awarded the American Meteorological Society 's Seal of Approval for broadcast meteorologists who achieve the highest standard of excellence in both technical weather knowledge and communication skills . She has also had the opportunity to interview a number of famous celebrities . While in New York at News 12 , she earned the Associated Press Award for `` Best Interview '' for her half-hour special , `` A Conversation with Billy Joel . '' She said she suffered from nerves just prior to the interview , but her uneasiness subsided after the legendary singer flashed her a smile and admitted that he watched her station 's newscasts frequently and always kept an eye out for her `` marine forecasts . '' Bonnie was inducted into the Jericho High School Hall of Fame on April 16 , 2015 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Bonnie_Schneider", "rank": 29, "score": 73406 }, { "content": "Title: January 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides Content: __ NOTOC __ The January 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides was an extreme weather event that affected the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the first days of January 2010 . At least 85 people died , with at least 29 people in the Hotel Sankey after it was destroyed by landslides , and many more have been injured . More than 4,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes . The worst affected municipality was Angra dos Reis , about 150 km southwest of the city of Rio de Janeiro . At least 35 people were killed at a resort on Ilha Grande : about forty people were staying in the hotel which was buried under a mudslide , and the death toll is expected to rise further . Brazil 's only functioning nuclear power plant , Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto , is also located within the municipality : plans were made for a temporary shutdown , as blocked roads would make any evacuation difficult or impossible in the event of an incident at the plant . In Rio Grande do Sul , at least seven people died and 20 went missing after a bridge collapsed due to heavy rains . Around 60 tons of dead fish washed up in a lagoon in Rio de Janeiro beginning in January , possibly as a result of local ocean anoxia caused by algal blooms triggered by increased eutrophication from the excess run-off produced by the flooding .", "qid": "311", "docid": "January_2010_Rio_de_Janeiro_floods_and_mudslides", "rank": 30, "score": 72881 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Australia Content: Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Australia", "rank": 31, "score": 72731 }, { "content": "Title: Tornadoes of 2008 Content: This page documents notable tornadoes and tornado outbreaks worldwide in 2008 . Strong and destructive tornadoes form most frequently in the United States , Bangladesh , and Eastern India , but they can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions . Tornadoes also develop occasionally in southern Canada during the Northern Hemisphere 's summer and somewhat regularly at other times of the year across Europe , Asia , and Australia . Tornadic events are often accompanied with other forms of severe weather , including strong thunderstorms , strong winds , and hail . There were 1,692 tornadoes confirmed in the United States in 2008 , with 126 confirmed fatalities . This made 2008 the deadliest year in that country since 1998 . Nine other fatalities have been reported elsewhere in the world : three in France , two each in Bangladesh and Poland and one each in Russia and China . With 1,692 confirmed tornadoes , 2008 ranked as the third most active US tornado season on record , only 2011 and 2004 have had more tornadoes confirmed with 1,700 and 1,817 , respectively . The US state of Kansas received the most tornadoes in the United States in 2008 with 187 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Tornadoes_of_2008", "rank": 32, "score": 72589 }, { "content": "Title: May 2009 Southern Midwest derecho Content: The May 2009 Southern Midwest Derecho was an extreme progressive derecho and mesoscale convective vortex ( MCV ) event that struck southeastern Kansas , southern Missouri , and southwestern Illinois on May 8 , 2009 . Thirty-nine tornadoes , including two of EF3 strength on the Enhanced Fujita Scale , were reported in addition to high non-tornadic winds associated with the derecho and MCV . Due to the abnormal shape of the storm on radar and the extremely strong winds , many called this an `` inland hurricane . '' A new class of storm , the Super Derecho , has been used to describe this event after analysis in 2010 . Embedded supercells produced hail up to baseball size in southern Missouri , a rare event in a derecho . A wind gust to 106 mph was recorded by a backup anemometer at the Carbondale , Illinois , airport after official National Weather Service equipment failed .", "qid": "311", "docid": "May_2009_Southern_Midwest_derecho", "rank": 33, "score": 72442 }, { "content": "Title: List of meteorological phenomena Content: A meteorological phenomenon is a weather event that can be explained by the principles of meteorology . Such events include : Acid rain Air mass Anticyclone Arctic cyclone Ball lightning Clouds Crow Instability Derecho Diamond dust Drought Dust devil Dust storm El Niño Extratropical cyclone Foehn wind Hail Halo Heat wave Hurricane Ice crystals Ice pellets Indian summer Kelvin -- Helmholtz instability La Nina Lake effect snow Light pillar Lightning Mesocyclone Morning glory cloud Novaya Zemlya Effect Rain Rain and snow mixed Rainbow Raining animals Sleet ; see Ice pellets and Rain and snow mixed Snow Squall St. Elmo 's fire Subtropical cyclone Sun dog Sun shower Supercell Temperature inversion Thunder Thundersnow Thunderstorm Tornado Tropical storm Tsunami Weather front Wind Zud", "qid": "311", "docid": "List_of_meteorological_phenomena", "rank": 34, "score": 72214 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Saudi Arabian snowstorm Content: The 2016 Saudi Arabian snowstorm was an extreme weather event in late November 2016 , in which parts of the Arabian desert in Saudi Arabia experienced subzero temperatures , snowfall and flooding . Snow was first reported in northern parts of Saudi Arabia on 23 November . By 27 November , temperatures as low as -3 C were reported in Tabarjal , in Al Jawf Region , and there was snow cover in central and northeastern regions . Normal seasonal temperatures do not fall below 20 C . Many Saudis enjoyed unusual outdoor activities such as building snowmen and sliding ; however , the snow was followed by rain and lightning that caused flooding and led to the deaths of at least 7 people . , snow had also fallen in Israel , Syria and other parts of the Middle East . Snow has occasionally occurred in Saudi Arabia in previous winters . In 2013 a video of a man somersaulting in snow there circulated on social media . In January 2015 a cleric issued a fatwa against building snowmen . In January 2016 , snow fell between Mecca and Medina for the first time in 85 years .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2016_Saudi_Arabian_snowstorm", "rank": 35, "score": 71982 }, { "content": "Title: Heat burst Content: In meteorology , a heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by gusty winds and a rapid increase in temperature and decrease in dew point ( moisture ) . Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms . Although this phenomenon is not fully understood , it is theorized that the event is caused when rain evaporates ( virga ) into a parcel of cold dry air high in the atmosphere making the air denser than its surroundings . The parcel descends rapidly , warming due to compression , overshoots its equilibrium level and reaches the surface , similar to a downburst . Recorded temperatures during heat bursts have reached well above 38 ° C , sometimes rising by 20 F-change or more within only a few minutes . More extreme events have also been documented , where temperatures have been reported to exceed 120 ° F. However , such extreme events have never been officially verified . Heat bursts are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong , even damaging , winds .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Heat_burst", "rank": 36, "score": 71896 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Madeira floods and mudslides Content: The 2010 Madeira floods and mudslides were the result of an extreme weather event that affected Madeira Island in Portugal 's autonomous Madeira archipelago on 20 February 2010 . At least 42 people died and at least 100 were injured . However , with at least eight people still missing , the final death toll is still uncertain .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2010_Madeira_floods_and_mudslides", "rank": 37, "score": 71516 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-15 Content: NOAA-15 ( designated NOAA-K before launch ) is one of the NASA-provided TIROS series of weather forecasting satellite run by NOAA . It was launched on 13 May 1998 , and is currently operational , in a sun-synchronous orbit , 807 km above the Earth , orbiting every 101 minutes . It hosts the AMSU-A and AMSU-B instruments , the AVHRR and High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder ( HIRS/3 ) instruments , as well as a Space Environment Monitor ( SEM/2 ) . APT transmission frequency is 137.62 MHz . Due to problems with the S-band transmitter high-gain antennas , NOAA-15 has been configured for High Resolution Picture Transmission using the S-Band Transmitter # 2 ( 1702.5 MHz ) omnidirectional antenna .", "qid": "311", "docid": "NOAA-15", "rank": 38, "score": 71475 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "311", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 39, "score": 71039 }, { "content": "Title: Chasing Ice Content: Chasing Ice is a 2012 documentary film about the efforts of nature photographer James Balog and his Extreme Ice Survey ( EIS ) to publicize the effects of climate change , directed by Jeff Orlowski . It was released in the United States on November 16 , 2012 . The documentary includes scenes from a glacier calving event that took place at Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland , lasting 75 minutes , the longest such event ever captured on film . Two EIS videographers waited several weeks in a small tent overlooking the glacier , and were finally able to witness 7.4 km3 of ice crashing off the glacier . `` The calving of a massive glacier believed to have produced the ice that sank the Titanic is like watching a city break apart . ''", "qid": "311", "docid": "Chasing_Ice", "rank": 40, "score": 70826 }, { "content": "Title: List of Storm Prediction Center extremely critical days Content: An extremely critical fire weather event is the greatest threat level issued by the Storm Prediction Center ( SPC ) for wildfire events in the United States . Extremely critical areas are issued only several times a year when forecasters at the SPC are confident of extremely dangerous wildfire conditions on a given day . These are typically reserved for the most extreme events . Fire weather products have been issued by the Storm Prediction Center since 1998 ; however , there is very little online documentation for days before 2002 due to the lack of SPC archives . Therefore , it is likely that there were additional extremely critical days with no online documentation .", "qid": "311", "docid": "List_of_Storm_Prediction_Center_extremely_critical_days", "rank": 41, "score": 70745 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "311", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 42, "score": 70692 }, { "content": "Title: WNG663 Content: WNG663 is a NOAA Weather Radio ( NWR ) station serving the southern part of the South Florida metropolitan area and its adjacent coastal waters as well as the northern portion of the Florida Keys , broadcasting on an assigned frequency of 162.425 MHz ; it can also be heard 35 miles into the Atlantic Ocean . It is programmed by NOAA 's National Weather Service ( NWS ) weather forecast office ( WFO ) in Miami , Florida , with its transmitter located in Princeton , near Homestead . It continuously broadcasts weather and marine forecasts , as well as civil hazards information , for the following counties in the South Florida region : Miami-Dade and parts of Monroe ( mainland and Upper Keys ) . The radio station plays a vital role in alerting the general public to hazardous weather conditions in an area prone to severe weather events such as lightning storms , tornadoes , waterspouts and hurricanes . Although its signal also reaches extreme southern Broward County , WNG663 does not issue alerts for that area . There are other adjacent NWR stations that serve the forecast area . KHB34 Andover/Miami Gardens ( 162.550 MHz ) also covers Miami-Dade , as well as Broward and much of Palm Beach counties . Other stations programmed by the Miami-South Florida WFO include : KEC50 Mangonia Park/West Palm Beach ( 162.475 MHz ) to the north , serving Palm Beach County and the adjacent coastal waters ; WXM58 Belle Glade ( 162.400 MHz ) to the northwest , in western Palm Beach County near Lake Okeechobee ; and WWG92 Naples ( 162.525 MHz ) to the northwest , near Florida 's west coast , serving Collier , Hendry and a portion of mainland Monroe County . Recognizing the need to serve the local area 's large Spanish-speaking population , NWS added a low-power station in June 2012 , WZ2531 ( 162.500 MHz ) transmitting from Hialeah - the first dedicated Spanish language NWR station in Florida . Its broadcast , featuring a computer-synthesized voice known by the nickname `` Javier '' , covers Miami-Dade and Broward counties .", "qid": "311", "docid": "WNG663", "rank": 43, "score": 70622 }, { "content": "Title: KHB34 Content: KHB34 is a NOAA Weather Radio ( NWR ) station that serves a part of the South Florida metropolitan area on an assigned frequency of 162.550 MHz ; it can also be heard about 60 mi east into the Atlantic Ocean , nearly to the Bahamas . Programming originates from NOAA 's National Weather Service ( NWS ) weather forecast office ( WFO ) in Miami , Florida , with the transmitter located in Andover/Miami Gardens . It continuously broadcasts weather and marine forecasts , as well as civil hazards information , for the following counties in the South Florida region : Miami-Dade and Broward . The radio station plays a vital role in alerting the general public to hazardous weather conditions in an area prone to severe weather events such as lightning storms , tornadoes , waterspouts and hurricanes . The signal also reaches North Key Largo and inland parts of mainland Monroe , eastern Collier , far southeastern Hendry , and most of Palm Beach counties -- however it does not issue alerts for those areas . There are other adjacent NWR stations that serve the forecast area . WNG663 ( 162.425 MHz ) also covers Miami-Dade from Princeton , near Homestead , as well as mainland Monroe and the Upper Keys . Other stations programmed by the Miami-South Florida WFO include : KEC50 Mangonia Park/West Palm Beach ( 162.475 MHz ) to the north , serving Palm Beach County and the adjacent coastal waters ; WXM58 Belle Glade ( 162.400 MHz ) to the northwest , in western Palm Beach County near Lake Okeechobee ; and WWG92 Naples ( 162.525 MHz ) to the northwest , near Florida 's west coast , serving Collier , Hendry and a portion of mainland Monroe County . Recognizing the need to serve the local area 's large Spanish-speaking population , NWS added a low-power station in June 2012 , WZ2531 ( 162.500 MHz ) transmitting from Hialeah - the first dedicated Spanish language NWR station in Florida . Its broadcast , featuring a computer-synthesized voice known by the nickname `` Javier '' , covers Miami-Dade and Broward counties .", "qid": "311", "docid": "KHB34", "rank": 44, "score": 70610 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 45, "score": 70549 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway greenhouse effect Content: A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Runaway_greenhouse_effect", "rank": 46, "score": 70245 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 47, "score": 70193 }, { "content": "Title: Carnian Pluvial Event Content: The Carnian Pluvial Event ( CPE ) is a major global climate change and biotic turnover that occurred during the Carnian , early Late Triassic , ~ 230 million years ago . The base of the CPE is marked by a ~ 0.4 % negative shift in carbon stable isotopes of fossil molecules ( n-alkanes ) from higher plants and total organic carbon . A ~ 0.15 % negative shift in oxygen stable isotopes of conodont apatite suggests a global warming . Major changes in organisms responsible for calcium carbonate production occurred during the CPE . A halt of carbonate sedimentation is observed in deep water settings of Southern Italy that was probably caused by the rise of the Carbonate Compensation Depth ( CCD ) . High extinction rates occurred among ammonoids , conodonts , bryozoa , and crinoids . Major evolutionary innovations followed the CPE , as the first occurrence of dinosaurs , calcareous nannofossils and scleractinian corals .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Carnian_Pluvial_Event", "rank": 48, "score": 70057 }, { "content": "Title: Weatheradio Canada Content: Weatheradio Canada ( Radiométéo Canada ) is a Canadian weather radio network that is owned and operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada 's Meteorological Service of Canada division . The network transmits in both official languages ( English and French ) from 230 sites across Canada . In most locations , the service broadcasts on one of seven specially-allocated VHF radio frequencies , audible only on dedicated `` weather band '' receivers or any VHF radio capable of receiving 10 kHz bandwidth FM signals centered on these assigned channels , which are located within the larger `` public service band '' . The radio frequencies used by Weatheradio Canada are the same as those used by its American counterpart , NOAA Weather Radio , and receivers designed for use in one country are compatible for use in the other . Since 2004 , the service has used Specific Area Message Encoding ( SAME ) alerting technology to disseminate severe weather bulletins . Weatheradio has indicated that , in the future , it also plans to add other hazard and civil emergency information ( such as natural disasters , technological accidents , AMBER alerts and terrorist attacks ) to its broadcasts . In some locations -- primarily national parks , provincial parks , and remote communities with little or no local media service -- a transmitter operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation carries the service on a standard AM or FM broadcast frequency . As of August 2007 , most of these AM and FM transmitters were unlicensed by the CRTC under a special license exemption granted to low-power non-commercial broadcasters . Weatheradio Canada has a national coverage rate of over 90 % . However , not every populated or forecasted region of the country is within range of a transmitter . For example , there is no Weatheradio Canada signal receivable in Princeton in British Columbia .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Weatheradio_Canada", "rank": 49, "score": 69936 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2010 Content: The global storm activity of 2010 includes major meteorological events in the Earth 's atmosphere during the year , including winter storms ( blizzards , ice storms , European windstorms ) , hailstorms , out of season monsoon rain storms , extratropical cyclones , gales , microbursts , flooding , rainstorms , tropical cyclones , and other severe weather events . The thunderstorm season for the Northern Hemisphere began this time of year , beginning on March 1 , and ending on August 31 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2010", "rank": 50, "score": 69884 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 51, "score": 69583 }, { "content": "Title: Tornadoes of 2006 Content: This page documents notable tornadoes and tornado outbreaks worldwide in 2006 . Strong and destructive tornadoes form most frequently in the United States , Bangladesh , and Eastern India , but they can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions . Tornadoes also develop occasionally in southern Canada during the Northern Hemisphere 's summer and somewhat regularly at other times of the year across Europe , Asia , and Australia . Tornadic events are often accompanied with other forms of severe weather , including strong thunderstorms , strong winds , and hail . In 2006 , there were 1,333 reported tornadoes in the US ( of which 1,103 tornadoes were confirmed ) , with 67 reported fatalities ( about half of those recorded in Tennessee ) . In addition , four other tornado-related deaths were reported in Europe - all of them in Germany where 119 tornadoes were confirmed , 12 deaths in Japan and one tornado fatality has been reported in Canada , in the province of Manitoba for a worldwide total of 84 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Tornadoes_of_2006", "rank": 52, "score": 69379 }, { "content": "Title: Bond event Content: Bond events are North Atlantic ice rafting events that are tentatively linked to climate fluctuations in the Holocene . Eight such events have been identified . Bond events were previously believed to exhibit a quasi ~ 1,500-year cycle , but the primary period of variability is now put at ~ 1,000 years . Gerard C. Bond of the Lamont -- Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University was the lead author of the 1997 paper that postulated the theory of 1470-year climate cycles in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic . However , more recent work has shown that these tracers provide little support for 1,500-year intervals of climate change , and the reported ~ 1,500 ± 500-year period was a statistical artifact . Furthermore , following publication of the Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005 ( GICC05 ) for the North GRIP ice core , it became clear that Dansgaar-Oescher Events also show no such a pattern . The North Atlantic ice-rafting events happen to correlate with episodes of lowered lake levels in the Mid-Atlantic region , USA , the most weak events of the Asian monsoon for at least the past 9,000 years , and also correlate with most aridification events in the Middle East for the past 55,000 years ( both Heinrich and Bond events ) . For reasons that are unclear , the only Holocene Bond event that has a clear temperature signal in the Greenland ice cores is the 8.2 kyr event .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Bond_event", "rank": 53, "score": 69112 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods Content: 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods may refer to : January 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides , an extreme weather event in the State of Rio de Janeiro in January 2010 . April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides , an extreme weather event in the State of Rio de Janeiro in April 2010 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2010_Rio_de_Janeiro_floods", "rank": 54, "score": 68979 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2009 Content: Global storm activity of 2009 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2009 to December 31 , 2009 . Wintery storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Summer storms including flooding , severe thunderstorms and extratropical cyclones ( which can occur in summer or winter ) are also included in this list to a certain extent . As this occurred a heat wave and/or unforeseen monsoon weather also hit parts of Australia in 2009 and 2010 . Victoria , the scene of horrific bushfires the year before , had a far colder summer , with hot weather arriving more than a month later than usual in 2009 . August 17 saw a dust storm at Laguna Mar Chiquita as a major drought hit Argentina , and flooding and hailstorms hit southeastern Australia and Queensland in March 2010 . The lack of winter precipitation in parts of China , however , contributed to a severe drought in the southwest . Bolivia , Venezuela , Mali , Mauritania , Morocco and Spain have also seen periods of drought in 2009 and 2010 . On between May 12 and 26 , both Mauritania , the Sénégal River Area and neighbouring parts of both Senegal and Mali faced both a drought and famine in 2010 . A storm ( from Proto-Germanic * sturmaz `` noise , tumult '' ) is any disturbed state of an astronomical body 's atmosphere , especially affecting its surface , and strongly implying severe weather . Storms are created when a centre of low pressure develops , with a system of high pressure surrounding it . This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds , such as the cumulonimbus . Small , localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground , resulting in smaller meteorological disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2009", "rank": 55, "score": 68662 }, { "content": "Title: Tornadoes of 2016 Content: This page documents notable tornadoes and tornado outbreaks worldwide in 2016 . Strong and destructive tornadoes form most frequently in the United States , Bangladesh , and Eastern India , but they can occur almost anywhere under the right conditions . Tornadoes also develop occasionally in southern Canada during the Northern Hemisphere 's summer and somewhat regularly at other times of the year across Europe , Asia , and Australia . Tornadic events are often accompanied with other forms of severe weather , including strong thunderstorms , strong winds , and hail . There were 1,059 tornadoes reported in the United States in 2016 , of which 976 were confirmed . Worldwide , 130 fatalities were reported : 99 in China , 18 in the United States , five in Uruguay , four in Brazil and two in Italy and Russia each . 2016 was slightly below-average in terms of tornado activity , but near-record tornado numbers occurred in February .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Tornadoes_of_2016", "rank": 56, "score": 68623 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm Content: The 2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm was a severe weather event that occurred between 2 February and 3 February 2005 which produced 120 mm ( or about 4.7 inches ) of rain in Melbourne , the highest total since records began . Every suburb in Melbourne , parts of eastern Victoria and the Geelong/Bellarine Peninsula were affected by the storm .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2005_Melbourne_Thunderstorm", "rank": 57, "score": 68388 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 North American Christmas blizzard Content: The 2009 North American Christmas blizzard was powerful winter storm and severe weather event that affected the Midwestern United States , Great Plains , Southeastern United States , the Eastern Seaboard , and parts of Ontario . The storm started on December 22 , was reported to have claimed at least 21 lives , and disrupted air travel during the Christmas travel season . In the Southeastern and Central United States , there were 27 reported tornadoes on December 23 -- 24 . The storm , a Category 5 `` Extreme '' one on the Regional Snowfall Index , was the first winter weather event to rank as such since the Blizzard of ' 96 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2009_North_American_Christmas_blizzard", "rank": 58, "score": 68367 }, { "content": "Title: WXK98 Content: WXK98 is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the Southern Idaho Panhandle and the Washington Palouse . It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Spokane , Washington with its transmitter located near Lewiston . It has two repeaters , KXI82 which broadcasts from Grangeville on a frequency of 162.450 MHz and WZ2535 which broadcasts from Norton Knob near Orofino on a frequency of 162.500 MHz . It can be heard across the Idaho Panhandle and Washington Palouse . At night , it can be heard as far north as Spokane and as far west as Moses Lake . It broadcasts weather and hazard information for Asotin , Garfield and Whitman counties in Washington ; plus Clearwater , Idaho , Idaho , Lewis and Nez Perce counties in Idaho .", "qid": "311", "docid": "WXK98", "rank": 59, "score": 68148 }, { "content": "Title: Weather or No Content: Weather or No is a one-act comic opera , styled a `` musical duologue '' , by Bertram Luard-Selby with a libretto by Adrian Ross and William Beach . It was produced at the Savoy Theatre from 10 August 1896 to 17 February 1897 as a companion piece to The Mikado , and from 2 March 1897 to 24 April 1897 with His Majesty , for a total of 209 performances . Copies of the libretto and the vocal score ( published in 1896 by J. Williams ) are found in British Library . There are five musical numbers , including three duets and a solo for each character .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Weather_or_No", "rank": 60, "score": 68001 }, { "content": "Title: WXJ85 Content: WXJ85 is a 1000-Watt NOAA Weather/All Hazards radio station transmitting from Clarksburg , West Virginia with programming from the National Weather Service in Charleston , West Virginia . on an assigned frequency of 162.550 MHz . The station coverage area serves North Central West Virginia with weather and hazard information . Counties served by this weather radio station include Barbour , Doddridge , Harrison , Lewis , Marion , Preston , Randolph , Ritchie , Taylor , Tyler , Upshur , and Wetzel . This station will also relay any AMBER Alert activation within the state of West Virginia . < references / http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/coverage/site2.php?State=WV&Site=WXJ85 >", "qid": "311", "docid": "WXJ85", "rank": 61, "score": 67812 }, { "content": "Title: 4.2 kiloyear event Content: The 4.2 kiloyear BP aridification event was one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene period . Starting in about 2200 BC , it probably lasted the entire 22nd century BC . The drought may have initiated southeastward habitat tracking within the Indus Valley Civilization . The 4.2 kiloyear BP event has been hypothesised to have caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt as well as the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia , and the Liangzhu culture in the lower Yangtze River area . However , this theory has been criticised by archaeologists , with political causes for the collapse of these polities thought to be more probable .", "qid": "311", "docid": "4.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 62, "score": 67734 }, { "content": "Title: Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event Content: The Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event , or the Cenomanian-Turonian extinction event , the Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event ( OAE 2 ) , and referred to in Europe as the Bonarelli Event , was one of two anoxic extinction events in the Cretaceous period . ( The other being the earlier Selli Event , or OAE 1a , in the Aptian . ) The OAE 2 occurred approximately 91.5 ± 8.6 Ma , though other estimates are given as 93-94 Ma . The event brought about the extinction of the Spinosauridae , Pliosauridae , and possibly Ichthyosauria ; although coracoids of Maastrichtian age may belong to ichthyosaurs , indicating the survival of the group until the latest Cretaceous . Other animals lost some diversity as well . Although the cause is still uncertain , the result starved the Earth 's oceans of oxygen for nearly half a million years , causing the extinction of approximately 27 percent of marine invertebrates . This global environmental disturbance increased atmospheric and oceanic temperatures . Boundary sediments show an enrichment of trace elements , and contain elevated δ13C values . One possible cause was sub-oceanic volcanism , possibly the Caribbean large igneous province , with increased activity approximately 500,000 years earlier . During that period , the rate of crustal production reached its highest level for 100 million years . This was largely caused by the widespread melting of hot mantle plumes under the oceans at the base of the lithosphere . This resulted in the thickening of the oceanic crust in the Pacific and Indian Oceans . This volcanism would have sent large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Within the oceans , the emission of SO2 , H2S , CO2 , and halogens would have increased the acidity of the water , causing the dissolution of carbonate , and a further release of carbon dioxide . When the volcanic activity declined , this run-away greenhouse effect would have likely been put into reverse . The increased CO2 content of the oceans could have increased organic productivity in the ocean surface waters . The consumption of this newly abundant organic life by aerobic bacteria would produce anoxia and mass extinction . The resulting elevated levels of carbon burial would account for the black shale deposition in the ocean basins .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Cenomanian-Turonian_boundary_event", "rank": 63, "score": 67729 }, { "content": "Title: 774–775 carbon-14 spike Content: The 774 -- 775 Carbon-14 Spike is an observed increase of 1.2 % in the concentration of carbon-14 isotope in tree rings dated to the years 774 or 775 AD , which is about 20 times as high as the normal background rate of variation . It was discovered during a study of Japanese cedar trees , with the year of occurrence determined through dendrochronology . A surge in beryllium isotope 10Be , detected in Antarctic ice cores , has also been associated with the 774 -- 775 event . The event appears to have been global , with the same carbon-14 signal found in tree rings from Germany , Russia , the United States , and New Zealand . The signal exhibits a sharp increase of ~ 1.2 % followed by a slow decline ( see Figure 1 ) , which is typical for an instant production of carbon-14 in the atmosphere , indicating that the event was short in duration . The globally averaged production of carbon-14 for this event is calculated as Q = ( 1.1-1 .5 ) × 108 atoms/cm2 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "774–775_carbon-14_spike", "rank": 64, "score": 67675 }, { "content": "Title: KIH36 Content: KIH36 is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves Coastal Washington . It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Seattle , Washington with its transmitter located on Bahokus Peak near Neah Bay . It has a repeater , KXI27 , that broadcasts from Mt. Octopus near Forks on a frequency of 162.425 MHz . It can be heard across Coastal Washington and Southwestern British Columbia . It broadcasts weather and hazard information for Clallam , Grays Harbor , Jefferson and Pacific counties in Washington .", "qid": "311", "docid": "KIH36", "rank": 65, "score": 67521 }, { "content": "Title: 1997 Western Plains winter storms Content: The 1997 Western Plains winter storms comprised a system of extreme snowfall and wind from October 24 -- 26 , 1997 . The storms resulted in 13 deaths ( five in Colorado , two each in Nebraska and Illinois , and one each in Michigan , Iowa , Oklahoma , and Kansas ) , and caused power outages and school closings lasting up to a week in affected areas . The event was billed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as being a `` two-hundred year storm '' . The wind caused much damage , downing trees and power poles .", "qid": "311", "docid": "1997_Western_Plains_winter_storms", "rank": 66, "score": 67200 }, { "content": "Title: Reasons for concern Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has organized many of the risks of climate change into five `` reasons for concern . '' The reasons for concern show that these risks increase with increases in the Earth 's global mean temperature ( i.e. , global warming ) . The IPCC 's five reasons for concern are : threats to endangered species and unique systems , damages from extreme climate events , effects that fall most heavily on developing countries and the poor within countries , global aggregate impacts ( i.e. , various measurements of total social , economic and ecological impacts ) , and large-scale high-impact events . The five reasons for concern are described in more detail below . The following descriptions are based on information from the IPCC 's Third ( TAR ) and Fourth Assessment Reports ( AR4 ) , published in 2001 and 2007 , respectively .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Reasons_for_concern", "rank": 67, "score": 67082 }, { "content": "Title: Global Precipitation Measurement Content: Global Precipitation Measurement ( GPM ) is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA as well as other international space agencies to make frequent ( every 2 -- 3 hours ) observations of Earth 's precipitation . It is part of NASA 's Earth Systematic Missions program and works with a satellite constellation to provide full global coverage . The project provides global precipitation maps to assist researchers in improving the forecasting of extreme events , studying global climate , and adding to current capabilities for using such satellite data to benefit society . GPM builds on the notable successes of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission ( TRMM ) , which was also a joint NASA-JAXA activity . The project is managed by NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center , and consists of a GPM Core Observatory satellite assisted by a constellation of spacecraft from other agencies and missions . The Core Observatory satellite measures the two and three dimensional structure of Earth 's precipitation patterns and provides a new calibration standard for the rest of the satellite constellation . The GPM Core Observatory was assembled and tested at Goddard Space Flight Center , and launched from Tanegashima Space Center , Japan , on a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA rocket . The launch occurred on February 28 , 2014 at 3:37 am JST on the first attempt . Agencies in the United States , Japan , India and France ( together with Eumetsat ) operate the remaining satellites in the constellation for agency-specific goals , but also cooperatively provide data for GPM . __ TOC __", "qid": "311", "docid": "Global_Precipitation_Measurement", "rank": 68, "score": 67069 }, { "content": "Title: KGJN-LP Content: KGJN-LP ( 106.7 FM `` Traffic Weather Information '' ) is a low-power FM radio station broadcasting a news talk information format . As of June 2010 , the station was rebroadcasting the local NOAA weather radio station . That station is known as WXM-55 , which originates on a frequency of 162.550 MHz . This broadcast includes local and regional weather forecasts . Licensed to Grand Junction , Colorado , United States , the station is currently owned by State of Colorado Telecom Services .", "qid": "311", "docid": "KGJN-LP", "rank": 69, "score": 67010 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 Central Pacific cyclone Content: The 2006 Central Pacific cyclone , also known as 91C . INVEST or Storm 91C , was an unusual weather event of 2006 . Forming on October 30 , from a mid-latitude cyclone in the north Pacific mid-latitudes , it moved over waters warmer than normal . The system acquired some features more typical of subtropical or even tropical cyclones . However , as it neared western North America it fell apart . Moisture from its remains then caused substantial rainfall in British Columbia . The exact status and nature of this weather event is unknown , with meteorologists and weather agencies having differing opinions .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2006_Central_Pacific_cyclone", "rank": 70, "score": 66794 }, { "content": "Title: WWH27 Content: WWH27 is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the Hermiston-Umatilla area It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Pendleton , Oregon with its transmitter located near Plymouth , Washington . It has a repeater , WWH28 , that broadcasts from a transmitter near Heppner on a frequency of 162.425 MHz . It is normally heard across North Central Oregon and South Central Washington . WWH27 can sometimes be heard as far north as Moses Lake , WA , especially at night . It broadcasts weather and hazard information for Gilliam , Morrow and Umatilla counties in Oregon , as well as Benton County in Washington", "qid": "311", "docid": "WWH27", "rank": 71, "score": 66705 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme wind warning Content: In National Weather Service ( NWS ) terminology , an extreme wind warning ( EWW ) is a warning issued when a landfalling hurricane is expected to bring winds of 100 knots ( 115 mph , 185 km/h , 51 m/s ) to a specific location . The warning is issued just prior to when the strongest winds of the eyewall are expected to impact an area . The warning is to be issued for the smallest area possible , and be valid for times of two hours or less . It was developed in response to confusion resulting from the landfall of Hurricane Katrina . NWS offices in Jackson and New Orleans/Baton Rouge issued 11 tornado warnings for areas that would not experience an actual tornado , but would experience extreme wind speeds commonly associated with tornadoes . The extreme wind warning is now expected to be used in these situations .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Extreme_wind_warning", "rank": 72, "score": 66547 }, { "content": "Title: WXK25 Content: WXK25 ( also known as El Paso English All Hazards ) is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the El Paso metropolitan area and surrounding cities . It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Santa Teresa , New Mexico with its transmitter located on Franklin Mountain in El Paso , Texas . It broadcasts weather and hazard information in English for El Paso & Hudspeth counties in Texas and Doña Ana & Otero Counties in New Mexico . El Paso was the largest city in the United States without a NOAA Weather Radio transmitter , which first made its debut in 1980 . Originally broadcasting on 162.55 MHz , its frequency was moved to 162.475 MHz by 1981 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "WXK25", "rank": 73, "score": 66476 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 Melbourne thunderstorm Content: The 2003 Melbourne thunderstorm was a severe weather event that occurred over the city of Melbourne , Australia , and surrounding areas of Victoria , from 1 to 6 December 2003 . The Australian Bureau of Meteorology called the storm a `` once in 100-year event '' . According to the Bureau of Meteorology , the storm formed at around midnight on the night of 2 December over Craigieburn , then grew in size as it moved in a south-easterly direction ( the Bureau issued a severe thunderstorm warning based on their observations at 11.38 pm ) . The two hours from midnight to 2 am saw extremely heavy rainfall , with some areas recording more than 100 mm of rain in that time . The rapid rainfall caused flash flooding , which resulted in extensive damage to property . A number of motorists were trapped on the roofs of their cars as chest-high floodwater accumulated under the Bulleen Road Bridge on the Eastern Freeway . They were rescued by Melbourne 's Metropolitan Fire Brigade using two maritime response unit boats . Severe hailstorms caused thousands of dollars of damage to cars in the suburb of Lilydale . Rail company Connex Melbourne announced that flooding and power damage at Blackburn , Surrey Hills and Boronia railway stations would cause transport delays the following day . Victoria Police arrested two people in connection with incidents of looting in Fairfield which had occurred during the height of the storms . The Bureau of Meteorology referred to the 2003 Melbourne Storms as a `` once in 100-year event '' but two similar storms , the 2005 Melbourne Thunderstorm and the 2010 Victorian storms , have hit Melbourne both which were also called a once in 100-year event .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2003_Melbourne_thunderstorm", "rank": 74, "score": 66365 }, { "content": "Title: Liebermeister's rule Content: Liebermeister 's rule concerns the increment ratio between an adult individual 's cardiac frequency and temperature when in fever . Each Celsius grade of body temperature increment corresponds to an 8 beats per minute increase in cardiac frequency . An exception to this rule by creating a relative bradycardia is known as Faget sign ( pulse-temperature dissociation ) common in some diseases , especially yellow fever and salmonella typhi . It is named for Carl von Liebermeister .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Liebermeister's_rule", "rank": 75, "score": 66351 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2006 Content: Global storm activity of 2006 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2006 to December 31 , 2006 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , well-defined winter storms may form during the summer , though it would usually have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the Summer of 1816 in the Northeastern United States . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2006", "rank": 76, "score": 66287 }, { "content": "Title: WXJ84 Content: WXJ84 is a 1000-Watt NOAA Weather/All Hazards radio station transmitting and broadcasting from Charleston , West Virginia on an assigned frequency of 162.400 MHz . The station coverage area serves Boone , Cabell , Clay , Fayette , Jackson , Kanawha , Lincoln , Mason , Nicholas , Putnam , Raleigh , and Roane Counties with weather and hazard information . This station will also relay any AMBER Alert activation within the state of West Virginia .", "qid": "311", "docid": "WXJ84", "rank": 77, "score": 66258 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2007 Content: Global storm activity of 2007 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2007 to December 31 , 2007 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , they may form in summer , though it would have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the summer of 1816 in the Northeast United States of America . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2007", "rank": 78, "score": 66217 }, { "content": "Title: List of weather records Content: This is a list of weather records , a list of the most extreme occurrences of weather phenomena for various categories . Many weather records are measured under specific conditions -- such as surface temperature and wind speed -- to keep consistency among measurements around the Earth . Each of these records is understood to be the record value officially observed , as these records may have been exceeded before modern weather instrumentation was invented , or in remote areas without an official weather station . This list does not include remotely sensed observations such as satellite measurements , since those values are not considered official records .", "qid": "311", "docid": "List_of_weather_records", "rank": 79, "score": 66171 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 80, "score": 66000 }, { "content": "Title: Warren Faidley Content: Warren Faidley ( born May 11 , 1957 ) is an American extreme weather journalist , storm and disaster survival expert , photographer and cinematographer , Faidley was the first storm chaser ( and accredited journalist ) to create a full-time , professional occupation solely from pursuing severe weather . Faidley 's interest in storm chasing can be traced to his childhood , when he spent his time riding his bicycle into dust devils . His childhood `` chases '' nearly killed him after he was swept away by a flash flood . His very first tornado chase landed him in Saragosa , Texas a small community that had been swept away by a violent F4 tornado on May 22 , 1987 . His professional career was launched after he took a photograph of lightning hitting a light pole in an oil and gasoline tank farm in Tucson , Arizona . The image was published in Life Magazine , billing him as a `` Storm Chaser '' .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Warren_Faidley", "rank": 81, "score": 65876 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme Cold Weather Clothing Content: Extreme Cold Weather clothing ECW for short , normally refers to clothing for Arctic or mountainous areas on land . The basic approach is to insulate one 's body from heat loss , and keep liquid water or ice out of the insulation .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Extreme_Cold_Weather_Clothing", "rank": 82, "score": 65825 }, { "content": "Title: Meteoropathy Content: Meteoropathy ( from Greek meteora , celestial phenomena , and pathos , feeling , pain , suffering ) is a physical condition , or symptom associated with weather conditions such as humidity , temperature or pressure . Someone subject to meteoropathy is called meteoropathic . Meteoropathy is different from historical conceptions of `` air '' causing diseases and strongly influencing people 's sense of well-being ( see Miasma theory of disease ) . There appear to be significant and measurable correlations between particular atmospherical events ( such as a sudden increase in humidity and temperature ) and the onset of disease ( such as stroke ) . A few researchers found significant effect on mood correlated with the weather , especially with regards to humidity ( a component of weather not always measured ) : `` Humidity , temperature , and hours of sunshine had the greatest effect on mood . High levels of humidity lowered scores on concentration while increasing reports of sleepiness . Rising temperatures lowered anxiety and skepticism mood scores . -LSB- ... -RSB- The number of hours of sunshine was found to predict optimism scores significantly . As the number of hours of sunshine increased , optimism scores also increased . -LSB- ... -RSB- Mood scores on the depression and anxiety scales were not predicted by any weather variable . `` Pleasant weather ( higher temperature or barometric pressure ) was related to higher mood , better memory , and `` broadened '' cognitive style during the spring as time spent outside increased . The same relationships between mood and weather were not observed during other times of year , and indeed hotter weather was associated with lower mood in the summer . ''", "qid": "311", "docid": "Meteoropathy", "rank": 83, "score": 65822 }, { "content": "Title: Climarice Content: Climarice is a research project , carried out by The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research ( Bioforsk , Norway ) , Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( TNAU , India ) , International Water Management Institute ( IWMI , India ) and International Pacific Research Center ( IPRC , United States ) ; which is trying to assess the impact of climate variability on water availability and rice production in the Cauvery river basin of Tamil Nadu , India . In particular , the impacts of climate change on extreme events such as droughts , floods , heat waves and on the spatial and temporal distribution of the monsoon rains will certainly impact rice production and food security in India . However , there is a significant level of uncertainty in the climate models ' projections that cascade into impact models and thereby influence policy decisions related to adaptation . For both scientific community and policy makers , reducing the uncertainties is a big challenge . On a positive note , examination of historical observed rice production data in India shows an overall increasing trend in many regions with annual fluctuations . Will this trend continue given the projected change in climate and population increase in India ? Climarice is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , is currently assessing the impacts of climate change on rice production areas and rice productivity . Specifically , the project is assessing the behavior of the Indian monsoon in different climate scenarios , and examining its impact on the water availability , rice crop production and the resultant socio economic vulnerability and adaptation of farming communities in the Cauvery river basin , India . Since the project was started in January 2008 , relevant coping and adaptation mechanisms have been identified and techniques developed to address the issues of climate vulnerabilities in rice production .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Climarice", "rank": 84, "score": 65633 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "311", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 85, "score": 65624 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2008 Content: Global storm activity of 2008 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2008 to December 31 , 2008 . A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Major dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . A storm ( from Proto-Germanic * sturmaz `` noise , tumult '' ) is any disturbed state of an astronomical body 's atmosphere , especially affecting its surface , and strongly implying severe weather . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Storms are created when a centre of low pressure develops , with a system of high pressure surrounding it . This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds , such as the cumulonimbus . Small , localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground , resulting in smaller meteorological disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2008", "rank": 86, "score": 65528 }, { "content": "Title: WXL36 Content: WXL36 ( sometimes referred to as Las Vegas All Hazards ) is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the Las Vegas Valley and surrounding areas . It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Enterprise , Nevada with its transmitter located on Red Mountain near Boulder City , Nevada . The station operates on a frequency of 162.550 MHz and provides primarily weather forecasts , watches , warnings and advisories for Clark County in Southern Nevada . The station 's primary forecast areas are the Las Vegas Valley and Lake Mead National Recreation Area . Hourly weather observations covers conditions for Las Vegas , North Las Vegas , Nellis Air Force Base , Desert Rock , Reno , Barstow , California and Needles , California . The Las Vegas Valley is also served by another NOAA Weather Radio transmitter , WNG634 , which until 2007 was a simulcast station of WXL36 , and transmitted on 162.400 MHz from Mount Potosi . This station 's primary focus areas are the Las Vegas Valley , Mount Charleston and Western Clark and Southern Nye Counties . Watches , warnings and advisories are issued for Clark and Southern Nye County in Nevada and San Bernardino County in California .", "qid": "311", "docid": "WXL36", "rank": 87, "score": 65506 }, { "content": "Title: WXM48 Content: WXM48 is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the Western Columbia Basin , East Slopes Northern Cascades and Okanogan Highlands . It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Spokane , Washington with its transmitter located on Birch Mountain near Wenatchee . It has a repeater , WWF49 , that broadcasts from Tunk Mountain near Omak on a frequency of 162.525 MHz . It can be heard across the Western Columbia Basin , Okanogan Highlands and the East Slopes Northern Cascades , as well as high points such as Steptoe Butte . It broadcasts weather and hazard information for Adams , Chelan , Douglas , Ferry , Grant , Kittitas , Lincoln and Okanogan counties in Washington .", "qid": "311", "docid": "WXM48", "rank": 88, "score": 65491 }, { "content": "Title: February 2015 North American cold wave Content: The February 2015 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that affected most of Canada and the eastern half of the United States . Following an earlier cold wave in the winter , the period of below-average temperatures contributed to an already unusually cold winter for the Eastern U.S. Several places broke their records for their coldest February on record , while some areas came very close . The cause of the cold wave was due to the polar vortex advancing southwards into the eastern parts of the U.S , and even making it as far south as the Southeast , where snow is rare . By the beginning of March , although the pattern did continue for the first week , it abated and retreated near the official end of the winter . In addition to the extremely cold weather , multiple winter storms affected nearly the entire United States , especially in the snow-weary Northeast , which had already seen nearly 3 ft of snow in the latter part of January ; this was added to by roughly 3 -- 4 ft ( 36 -- 48 in ) more snow , leading to Boston having its highest seasonal snowfall on record .", "qid": "311", "docid": "February_2015_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 89, "score": 65380 }, { "content": "Title: High-resolution picture transmission Content: Weather satellite pictures are often broadcast as high-resolution picture transmissions ( HRPTs ) , color high-resolution picture transmissions ( CHRPTs ) for Chinese weather satellite transmissions , or advanced high-resolution picture transmissions ( AHRPTs ) for EUMETSAT weather satellite transmissions . HRPT transmissions are available around the world and are available from both polar and geostationary weather satellites . The polar satellites rotate in orbits that allow each location on earth to be covered by the weather satellite twice per day while the geostationary satellites remain in one location at the equator taking weather images of the earth from that location over the equator . The sensor on weather satellites that picks up HRPT is referred to as an Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer ( AVHRR ) . Broadcast signal The working frequency band for HRPT is L Band at 1.670 -- 1.710 GHz and the modulation types are BPSK and QPSK . On NOAA KLM satellites the transmission power is 6.35 Watts , or 38.03 dBm . The METOP-A satellite broadcasts with a bandwidth of 4.5 MHz .", "qid": "311", "docid": "High-resolution_picture_transmission", "rank": 90, "score": 65373 }, { "content": "Title: KBA99 Content: KBA99 is a NOAA Weather Radio station that is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Honolulu , Hawaii with its transmitter located on Mt. Ka'ala in Oahu . Although this station primarily serves Honolulu and surrounding islands , several repeater translators are added , broadcasting weather and hazard information for the entire state of Hawaii and can be heard 40 miles into the Pacific Ocean . It also transmits on Oceanic Time Warner Cable digital channel 880 for all of Hawaii . It is the only NOAA station in the United States that still uses the early version of the `` Tom '' voice . Hourly conditions on this station are reported for the following cities - On Oahu : Honolulu International Airport , Kalaeloa , Kaneohe , and Wheeler Field . On Kauai : Lihue , and Barking Sands . On Molokai : Molokai Airport . On Lanai : Lanai City . On Maui : Kahului , Kapalua , and Haleakalā . On The Big Island : Hilo , Kona , and Bradshaw Field . As of June 25 , 2014 , translator WWF39 in Hawaii Kai has moved from frequency 162.400 MHz to 162.450 MHz as new upgraded equipment was installed at the station , producing an enhanced signal . This enhancement allows important emergency messages as well as weather forecasts and current conditions to be heard in portions of East Oahu where the broadcast was previously not available .", "qid": "311", "docid": "KBA99", "rank": 91, "score": 65306 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Romanian floods Content: The 2010 Romanian floods ( Inundațiile din iunie 2010 din România ) were the result of an extreme weather event that struck Romania in late June 2010 . Currently , at least 21 people died . The north-east of the country , especially Suceava County was most affected . Also affected was the Chernivtsi Oblast in neighbouring Ukraine .", "qid": "311", "docid": "2010_Romanian_floods", "rank": 92, "score": 65288 }, { "content": "Title: List of F5 and EF5 tornadoes Content: Among the most violent known meteorological events are tornadoes . Each year , more than 2,000 tornadoes occur worldwide , with the vast majority occurring in the United States and Europe . In order to assess the intensity of these events , meteorologist Ted Fujita devised a method to estimate maximum winds within the storm based on damage caused ; this became known as the Fujita scale . At the top end of the scale , which ranks from 0 to 5 , are F5 tornadoes . These storms were estimated to have had winds between 260 mph and 320 mph . Following two particularly devastating tornadoes in 1997 and 1999 , engineers questioned the reliability of the scale . Ultimately , a new scale was devised that took into account 28 different damage indicators ; this became known as the Enhanced Fujita scale . With building designs taken more into account , winds in an EF5 tornado were estimated to be in excess of 200 mph . Since 1950 , there have been 59 officially rated F5 and EF5 tornadoes in the United States and 1 F5 in Canada . Additionally , the works of tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis revealed the existence of several dozen more between 1880 and 1995 . Grazulis also put into question the ratings of several currently rated F5 tornadoes . Outside the United States and Canada , seven tornadoes have been rated F5 : two each in France , Germany , and Italy and one in Russia . Several other tornadoes are also documented as possibly attaining this status . Since structures are completely destroyed in both cases , the identification and assignment of scale between an EF4 tornado and an EF5 is often very difficult .", "qid": "311", "docid": "List_of_F5_and_EF5_tornadoes", "rank": 93, "score": 65201 }, { "content": "Title: Late Antique Little Ice Age Content: The Late Antique Little Ice Age was a long-lasting Northern Hemisphere cooling period in the 6th and 7th century AD , proposed as theory in 2015 , and subsequently confirmed as the interval from 536 to about 660 AD . This period followed three immense volcanic eruptions in 536 , 540 and 547 . One of the suspected volcanic sites for those events is the Rabaul caldera , in the western Pacific , which erupted around 540 . The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the early phenomena of the century-long global temperature decline . The evidence comes from a temperature reconstruction from the Euro-Med2k working group of the international PAGES ( Past Global Changes ) project , using new tree-ring measurements from the Altai Mountains , which closely matches the temperatures in the Alps in the last two centuries .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Late_Antique_Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 94, "score": 64834 }, { "content": "Title: Epoch of Extreme Inundations Content: The Epoch of Extreme Inundations ( EEI ) is a hypothetical epoch during which four landforms in the Pontic -- Caspian steppe -- marine lowlands ( marine transgressions ) , river valleys ( outburst floods ) , marine transgressions ( thermocarst lakes ) and slopes ( solifluction flows ) -- were widely inundated . Catastrophic events during the epoch are theorized to have influenced prehistoric human life .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Epoch_of_Extreme_Inundations", "rank": 95, "score": 64745 }, { "content": "Title: Impact event Content: An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects . Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems , though the most frequent involve asteroids , comets or meteoroids and have minimal impact . When large objects impact terrestrial planets like the Earth , there can be significant physical and biospheric consequences , though atmospheres mitigate many surface impacts through atmospheric entry . Impact craters and structures are dominant landforms on many of the Solar System 's solid objects and present the strongest empirical evidence for their frequency and scale . Impact events appear to have played a significant role in the evolution of the Solar System since its formation . Major impact events have significantly shaped Earth 's history , have been implicated in the formation of the Earth -- Moon system , the evolutionary history of life , the origin of water on Earth and several mass extinctions . Notable impact events include the Chicxulub impact , 66 million years ago , believed to be the cause of the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event . Throughout recorded history , hundreds of Earth impacts ( and exploding bolides ) have been reported , with some occurrences causing deaths , injuries , property damage , or other significant localised consequences . One of the best-known recorded impacts in modern times was the Tunguska event , which occurred in Siberia , Russia , in 1908 . The 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor event is the only known such incident in modern times to result in a large number of injuries , excluding the 1490 Ch ` ing-yang event in China , and the Chelyabinsk meteor is the largest recorded object to have encountered the Earth since the Tunguska event . The Comet Shoemaker -- Levy 9 impact provided the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects , when the comet broke apart and collided with Jupiter in July 1994 . An extrasolar impact was observed in 2013 , when a massive terrestrial planet impact was detected around the star ID8 in the star cluster NGC 2547 by NASA 's Spitzer space telescope and confirmed by ground observations . Impact events have been a plot and background element in science fiction .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Impact_event", "rank": 96, "score": 64680 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Tuvalu Content: Global warming (recent climate change) is particularly threatening in Tuvalu. This is because the average height of the islands is less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) above sea level, with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 metres (15 ft) above sea level. Between 1971 and 2014, during a period of global warming, Tuvalu islands have increased in size, according to aerial photography and satellite imagery. Over four decades, there was a net increase in land area in Tuvalu of 73.5 ha (2.9%), although the changes were not uniform, with 74% of land increasing in size and 27% of land decreasing in size. The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has risen at 3.9 mm per year, which is approximately twice the global average.Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to be significantly impacted by rising sea levels. Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut, pulaka, and taro. Research from the University of Auckland suggests that Tuvalu may remain habitable over the next century. However, as of March 2018, Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga stated that Tuvalu is not expanding and has gained no additional habitable land. Sopoaga has also said that evacuating the islands is the last resort.", "qid": "311", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 97, "score": 64343 }, { "content": "Title: WNG575 Content: WNG575 is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves Southern New Hampshire , Windham County , Vermont , and North Central and Northeast Massachusetts . Some cities served include Manchester , Nashua , Keene , Lowell , and Lawrence . However , the station can be received in parts of Central and Western Massachusetts as well as a portion of Southeast Vermont . The station is programmed by the National Weather Service office in Gray , Maine , and the station is transmitting atop Pack Monadnock near Peterborough , New Hampshire on a frequency of 162.525 megahertz .", "qid": "311", "docid": "WNG575", "rank": 98, "score": 64327 }, { "content": "Title: 993–994 carbon-14 spike Content: The 993 -- 994 carbon-14 spike was a rapid increase in carbon-14 content from tree rings , and followed the 774 -- 775 carbon-14 spike . This event is also confirmed by a sharp increase of beryllium-10 and hence considered as solar-origin . It may have come from a massive solar storm as a series of auroral observations are known to be observed in late 992 .", "qid": "311", "docid": "993–994_carbon-14_spike", "rank": 99, "score": 64282 }, { "content": "Title: Olga Zolina Content: Olga Zolina ( 6 February 1975 ) is a climate scientist , member of the GEWEX ( WCRP ) , responsible for GEWEX Radiation Panel ( extreme climate and weather events ) , member of the European Geosciences Union , German Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union .", "qid": "311", "docid": "Olga_Zolina", "rank": 100, "score": 64214 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "313", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 1, "score": 106203 }, { "content": "Title: Vicky Pope Content: Vicky Pope is head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre . She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation . Since October 2004 she has been Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change . Her research interests include developing and validating climate models . In an interview for The Guardian newspaper , she said : `` very few '' scientists disputed the latest IPCC report . `` The consensus on warming since the 1850s is that a large part is due to man 's activities , '' she said . `` That 's the line of the IPCC report and that position is strengthening . It is a very widespread consensus . There are a few very vocal people who are sceptics , only some of whom are actually scientists . Sceptics obviously have a place in the community . '' link", "qid": "313", "docid": "Vicky_Pope", "rank": 2, "score": 99428 }, { "content": "Title: Petar Gburčik Content: Prof. Petar Gburčik ( Cyrillic : Петар Гбурчик ) ( 30 October 1931 - 29 October 2006 ) was a Serbian scientist and a Professor of Meteorology at the University of Belgrade . He was the author of first mathematical models of the numerical weather prediction , which were used operationally in the Weather Service of Yugoslavia from 1970 to 1977 . In the same period he began modeling of the atmospheric diffusion of air-pollution and created the first model of the spatial distribution of air-pollution . The output of this model was used for the elaboration of the urban plan of Pančevo . For the actual research of the three-dimensional distribution of wind energy ( on the territories of Belgrade and Serbia ) he applied the integration of classic models with GIS technology . Special area of his engagements were the intentionally and inadvertently modified climates , as well as their impact on the sustainable development . These modifications destabilize the climate system and lead to big material and social damage , due to the lack of possibility of weather control . Petar Gburčik proved this with his scientific papers on weather modifications and climate change .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Petar_Gburčik", "rank": 3, "score": 96293 }, { "content": "Title: Climate model Content: Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_model", "rank": 4, "score": 94385 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan M. Gregory Content: Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Jonathan_M._Gregory", "rank": 5, "score": 93651 }, { "content": "Title: David H. Bromwich Content: David H. Bromwich is a member of the Byrd Polar Research Center and a professor at the Department of Geography , The Ohio State University . His work has involved the evaluation and diagnosis of polar weather and climate variability . He received his Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin , Madison . In 1979 he joined Ohio State 's Byrd Polar Research Center as a research scientist . His research has focused on the variability of precipitation over Antarctica , Greenland , and the Arctic Ocean , thus contributing to the understanding of climate and potential sea level changes . He has made contributions to defining aspects of U.S. science policy . Having helped identify the need to improve numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) for the Antarctic , Bromwich has been influential in the development and evaluation of the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System ( AMPS ) . In April 2001 AMPS was one of four weather models used to predict a window of opportunity for the emergency medical evacuation of Ronald Shemenski from the Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station . Flights to the base are normally halted from late February until November because of the extreme winter cold and darkness . But the airlift was successfully completed and pilot Sean Loutitt confirmed the reliance on the forecasts , stating `` The weather was the biggest concern '' .", "qid": "313", "docid": "David_H._Bromwich", "rank": 6, "score": 91833 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 7, "score": 91550 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "313", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 8, "score": 91127 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 9, "score": 91021 }, { "content": "Title: William D. Sellers Content: William D. Sellers ( 18 August 1928 -- 27 August 2014 ) was an American meteorologist , climate scientist , and pioneer of climate modelling . He created one the earliest climate models and was one of the first scientists to recognize the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere on the earth 's climate . He published the textbook `` Physical Climatology '' .", "qid": "313", "docid": "William_D._Sellers", "rank": 10, "score": 89287 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 11, "score": 87482 }, { "content": "Title: John F. B. Mitchell Content: John Francis Brake Mitchell OBE FRS ( born 7 October 1948 ) is a British climatologist and climate modeller . He studied Applied Mathematics at Queen 's University Belfast in 1970 , staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973 . In 1978 , he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office 's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research . He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010 . He is the most cited scientist regarding the topic of global warming . He was a convening lead author for the first and third IPCC Working Group I reports and lead author for the second . He was also chair of the World Meteorological Organization JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008 . He now ( 2014 ) works part-time as Principal Research Fellow , advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading .", "qid": "313", "docid": "John_F._B._Mitchell", "rank": 12, "score": 86913 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Research Programme Content: The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "qid": "313", "docid": "World_Climate_Research_Programme", "rank": 13, "score": 86496 }, { "content": "Title: Model for Prediction Across Scales Content: The Model for Prediction Across Scales ( MPAS ) is a coupled Earth system modeling package that integrates atmospheric , oceanographic and cryospheric modeling on a variety of scales from the planetary to regional and mesoscale/microscale . It includes climate and weather modeling and simulations that were first used by researchers in 2013 . The atmospheric components ( MPAS-A ) were led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) 's Earth System Laboratory ( NESL ) and the oceanographic components ( MPAS-O ) by the Climate , Ocean , and Sea Ice Modeling Group ( COSIM ) at Los Alamos National Laboratory ( LANL ) . It has been used for real-time weather as well as seasonal forecasting of convection , tornadoes and tropical cyclones , among other uses . Its atmospheric modeling aspects are intended to use and complement rather than replace the Weather Research and Forecasting Model ( WRF-ARW/NMM ) , the Global Forecast System ( GFS ) and the Community Earth System Model ( CESM ) .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Model_for_Prediction_Across_Scales", "rank": 14, "score": 86261 }, { "content": "Title: Climatology Content: Climatology ( from Greek κλίμα , klima , `` place , zone '' ; and - λογία , - logia ) or climate science is the study of climate , scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time . This modern field of study is regarded as a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield of physical geography , which is one of the Earth sciences . Climatology now includes aspects of oceanography and biogeochemistry . Basic knowledge of climate can be used within shorter term weather forecasting using analog techniques such as the El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) , the Madden -- Julian oscillation ( MJO ) , the North Atlantic oscillation ( NAO ) , the Northern Annular Mode ( NAM ) which is also known as the Arctic oscillation ( AO ) , the Northern Pacific ( NP ) Index , the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation ( IPO ) . Climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system to projections of future climate . Weather is known as the condition of the atmosphere over a period of time . While Climate has to do with the atmospheric condition over an extended to indefinite period of time .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climatology", "rank": 15, "score": 85669 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 16, "score": 85650 }, { "content": "Title: HadGEM1 Content: HadGEM1 ( abbreviation for Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model , version 1 ) is a coupled climate model developed at the Met Office 's Hadley Centre in 2006 and used in IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on climate change . It represents a significant scientific advance on its predecessor , HadCM3 . HadGEM1 also provides a basis for further development of models , particularly involving enhanced resolution and full Earth System modelling . The current version is HadGEM3 .", "qid": "313", "docid": "HadGEM1", "rank": 17, "score": 85527 }, { "content": "Title: 1980 United States heat wave Content: The 1980 United States Heat Wave was a period of intense heat and drought that wreaked havoc on much of the Midwestern United States and Southern Plains throughout the summer of 1980 . It is among the most devastating natural disasters in terms of deaths and destruction in U.S. history , claiming at least 1,700 lives and because of the massive drought , agricultural damage reached US$ 20.0 billion ( US$ 55.4 billion in 2007 dollars , adjusted for the GNP inflation index ) . It is among the billion-dollar weather disasters listed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .", "qid": "313", "docid": "1980_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 18, "score": 85240 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "313", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 19, "score": 85230 }, { "content": "Title: Numerical weather prediction Content: Numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on current weather conditions . Though first attempted in the 1920s , it was not until the advent of computer simulation in the 1950s that numerical weather predictions produced realistic results . A number of global and regional forecast models are run in different countries worldwide , using current weather observations relayed from radiosondes , weather satellites and other observing systems as inputs . Mathematical models based on the same physical principles can be used to generate either short-term weather forecasts or longer-term climate predictions ; the latter are widely applied for understanding and projecting climate change . The improvements made to regional models have allowed for significant improvements in tropical cyclone track and air quality forecasts ; however , atmospheric models perform poorly at handling processes that occur in a relatively constricted area , such as wildfires . Manipulating the vast datasets and performing the complex calculations necessary to modern numerical weather prediction requires some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world . Even with the increasing power of supercomputers , the forecast skill of numerical weather models extends to only about six days . Factors affecting the accuracy of numerical predictions include the density and quality of observations used as input to the forecasts , along with deficiencies in the numerical models themselves . Post-processing techniques such as model output statistics ( MOS ) have been developed to improve the handling of errors in numerical predictions . A more fundamental problem lies in the chaotic nature of the partial differential equations that govern the atmosphere . It is impossible to solve these equations exactly , and small errors grow with time ( doubling about every five days ) . Present understanding is that this chaotic behavior limits accurate forecasts to about 14 days even with perfectly accurate input data and a flawless model . In addition , the partial differential equations used in the model need to be supplemented with parameterizations for solar radiation , moist processes ( clouds and precipitation ) , heat exchange , soil , vegetation , surface water , and the effects of terrain . In an effort to quantify the large amount of inherent uncertainty remaining in numerical predictions , ensemble forecasts have been used since the 1990s to help gauge the confidence in the forecast , and to obtain useful results farther into the future than otherwise possible . This approach analyzes multiple forecasts created with an individual forecast model or multiple models .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Numerical_weather_prediction", "rank": 20, "score": 83771 }, { "content": "Title: Thaw (weather) Content: January thaw is a term applied to a thaw or rise in temperature in mid-winter found in mid-latitude North America . Sinusoidal estimates of expected temperatures , for northern locales , usually place the lowest temperatures around January 23 and the highest around July 24 , and provide fairly accurate estimates of temperature expectations . Actual average temperatures in North America usually significantly differ twice over the course of the year : Mid-autumn temperatures tend to be warmer than predicted by the sinusoidal model , creating the impression of extended summer warmth known as Indian summer . For five days around January 25 , temperatures are usually significantly warmer than predicted by the sinusoidal estimate , and also warmer than neighboring temperatures on both sides . During this `` thaw '' period , usually lasting for about a week , temperatures are generally about 6 ° C ( 10 ° F ) above normal . This varies from year to year , and temperatures fluctuate enough that such a rise in late-January temperature would be unremarkable ; what is remarkable ( and unexplained ) is the tendency for such rises to occur more commonly in late January than in mid-January or early February , which sinusoidal estimates have to be slightly warmer . In some regions ( such as northern Canada ) this phenomenon will not be manifest as a `` thaw '' in the technical sense , since temperatures will remain below freezing . The January thaw is believed to be a weather singularity . A possible physical mechanism for such phenomena was offered in the 1950s by E.G. Bowen : he suggested that some `` calendaricities '' ( as he called them ) might be explicable in terms of meteoric particles from cometary orbits acting as ice nuclei in terrestrial clouds ; his theory then received some support from several sources . However , Bowen 's ideas later fell out of favour with the development of atmospheric dynamic modelling techniques , although one of his rainfall peaks does seem to correspond with the date of the January thaw . Data analysis has not found statistically significant support for the supposed January thaw . The authors of this study state that `` the effects of sampling in finite climate records are wholly adequate to account for the existence of January thaw ` features ' in northeastern U.S. temperature data . ''", "qid": "313", "docid": "Thaw_(weather)", "rank": 21, "score": 83713 }, { "content": "Title: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Content: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age . `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Victor_Manuel_Velasco_Herrera", "rank": 22, "score": 83695 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Research (journal) Content: Climate Research is a small peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Inter-Research Science Center that was established in 1990 . Its founder and long time publisher was marine biologist Otto Kinne . Outside the climate research community , the journal is mostly known for its 2003 publication of a controversial and now discredited climate change article . Three volumes , each typically containing half a dozen articles , are published each year . Each of its 12 editors therefore handles an average of less than 2 articles a year . Climate Research covers all aspects of the interactions of climate with organisms , ecosystems , and human societies . In 2006 , a special issue of the journal , titled `` Advances in Applying Climate Prediction to Agriculture '' , was published under open access .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_Research_(journal)", "rank": 23, "score": 82983 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 24, "score": 82707 }, { "content": "Title: General circulation model Content: A general circulation model ( GCM ) is a type of climate model . It employs a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean . It uses the Navier -- Stokes equations on a rotating sphere with thermodynamic terms for various energy sources ( radiation , latent heat ) . These equations are the basis for computer programs used to simulate the Earth 's atmosphere or oceans . Atmospheric and oceanic GCMs ( AGCM and OGCM ) are key components along with sea ice and land-surface components . GCMs and global climate models are used for weather forecasting , understanding the climate and forecasting climate change . Versions designed for decade to century time scale climate applications were originally created by Syukuro Manabe and Kirk Bryan at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton , New Jersey . These models are based on the integration of a variety of fluid dynamical , chemical and sometimes biological equations .", "qid": "313", "docid": "General_circulation_model", "rank": 25, "score": 82164 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 26, "score": 82025 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "313", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 27, "score": 81910 }, { "content": "Title: Adam Scaife Content: Adam Arthur Scaife B.A. M.A. MSc PhD FRMetS ( born 18 March 1970 ) is a British physicist , and head of long range prediction at the Met Office . He is an honorary visiting Professor at Exeter University . Scaife carries out research into long range weather forecasting and computer modelling of the climate . Scaife has published over 100 peer reviewed studies on atmospheric dynamics , computer modelling and climate predictability and change and recently published popular science and academic books on meteorology .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Adam_Scaife", "rank": 28, "score": 81579 }, { "content": "Title: Masao Kanamitsu Content: Masao Kanamitsu ( November 6 , 1943 in Kumamoto , Japan -- August 17 , 2011 in Del Mar , California ) - was Japanese and American atmospheric scientist working in the field of data assimilation . His research greatly influenced global and regional climate change studies including development of breakthrough reanalysis and downscaling datasets and weather forecasting studies . He was the co-author of one of the most cited geophysics paper in his time . Kanamitsu was born in 1943 and was raised in Sapporo . He did his B.S. and M. Sc . in 1968 at Hokkaido University , Japan and M.Sc . and Ph. D. in 1975 at Florida State University . He was one of the large group of Japanese scientists who after the World War II greatly contributed to the development of the dynamic meteorology in the US and in the World including Syukuro Manabe , Taroh Matsuno , Kikuro Miyakoda , and Akio Arakawa . He served as a Forecaster at Japan Meteorological Agency , as a leader of the Global Modeling Branch , Development Division , and later as an Acting Chief of the Prediction Branch at the Climate Prediction Center of the National Meteorological Center . In 2001 he moved to Scripps Institution of Oceanography where he worked to the rest of his life . He had a group of young researchers working with him . Kanamitsu was instrumental in creating one of the most successful datasets used in global change studies - the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis for which he received a Group Gold Medal from the Department of Commerce in 1997 . His 1996 reanalysis paper is one of the most celebrated paper in atmospheric science and geosciences - at the time of his death this paper was cited 7985 times . His publications report ambitious , multiyear in making , and extensive project to develop regional-scale climate change dataset based on the NCEP -- NCAR reanalysis for the period 1948 -- 2005 . This downscaling paved the way for local scale understanding of climate changes . In he worked out a problem of how to produce meteorological dataset such as winds , pressures , or temperature on fine scale ( say every 10 km ) if the measurements are performed every 200 km . This led to a concept of dynamical downscaling of climate analysis using regional models . He served as an editor for the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan ( 1980 -- 1985 ) and the Monthly Weather Review ( 1991 -- 1993 ) . He was active scientifically to the end of his very productive life . At the time of his death he was a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography where in relatively short time of about 10 years he wrote 35 papers . Kanamitsu was survived by his wife Mariko and he had daughter Tomoko . He enjoyed hiking in various mountain ranges around Japan , United States and Europe . He loved dogs . He received Meteorological Society of Japan award in 1983 . He was known as Kana among his friends .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Masao_Kanamitsu", "rank": 29, "score": 81029 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 Chicago blizzard Content: The Chicago blizzard of 1979 was a major blizzard that affected northern Illinois and northwest Indiana , United States on January 13 -- 14 , 1979 . It was one of the largest Chicago snowstorms in history at the time , with 21 inches of snowfall in the two-day period . It was expected to be only 2-4 inches of snow but by the end of January 14 , the depth of snow on the ground peaked at 29 inches . The blizzard lasted for a total of 38 hours and at its peak , the wind gust reached speeds of 39 miles per hour . Five people died during the blizzard , with approximately 15 others serious injured due to conditions created by the storm . One of the five deaths came when a snow plow driver went berserk , hitting 34 cars and ramming a man . O'Hare Airport was closed and all flights grounded for 96 hours from January 13 to the 15 . The cold weather and snowfall throughout the rest of January and February resulted in frozen tracks throughout the Chicago ` L' system.At the time , `` commuters crowded onto CTA buses , quickly overwhelming capacity , resulting in bus commutes usually taking 30 to 45 minutes taking up to several hours . '' To avoid huge snowdrifts in the streets , the overcrowded buses were obliged to take numerous detours , adding additional time to the commute .", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_Chicago_blizzard", "rank": 30, "score": 80813 }, { "content": "Title: Unified Model Content: The Unified Model is a Numerical Weather Prediction and climate modeling software suite originally developed by the United Kingdom Met Office , and now both used and further developed by many weather-forecasting agencies around the world . The Unified Model gets its name because a single model is used across a range of both timescales ( nowcasting to centennial ) and spatial scales ( convective scale to climate system earth modelling ) . The models are grid-point based , rather than wave based , and are run on a variety of supercomputers around the world . The Unified Model atmosphere can be coupled to a number of ocean models . At the Met Office it is used for the main suite of Global Model , North Atlantic and Europe model ( NAE ) and a high-resolution UK model ( UKV ) , in addition to a variety of Crisis Area Models and other models that can be run on demand . Similar Unified Model suites with global and regional domains are used by many other national or military weather agencies around the world for operational forecasting . Data for numerical weather prediction is provided by observations from satellites , from the ground ( both human and from automatic weather stations ) , from buoys at sea , radar , radiosonde weather balloons , wind profilers , commercial aircraft and a background field from previous model runs . The computer model is only adjusted towards the observations using assimilation , rather than forcing the model to accept an observed value that might make the system unstable ( and could be an inaccurate observation ) . The Unified Model software suite is written in Fortran ( originally 77 but now predominantly 90 ) and uses height as the vertical variable . Because most developments of interest are at near to the ground the vertical layers are closer together near the surface .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Unified_Model", "rank": 31, "score": 80774 }, { "content": "Title: EdGCM Content: The Educational Global Climate Model or EdGCM is a fully functional global climate model ( GCM ) that has been ported for use on desktop computers ( Windows PCs and Macs ) . It operates through a graphical user interface and is integrated with a relational database and scientific visualization utllities , all of which aim at helping improve the quality of teaching and understanding of climatology by making real-world research experiences more accessible . EdGCM is designed to permit teachers and students to conduct in-depth investigations of past , present and future climate scenarios in a manner that is essentially identical to the techniques used by national and international climate research organizations . EdGCM was developed at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies as a joint project of Columbia University and NASA scientists and programmers . The Global Climate Model at the core of EdGCM is GISS Model II . During the 1980s and early 1990s this GCM was one of NASA 's primary climate research tools . Results from the model have appeared in hundreds of scientific publications . The coarser resolution of the climate model in EdGCM ( 8 ° x 10 ° , latitude x longitude ) makes it inexpensive to run . But , because it contains most of the key atmospheric physics of modern GCMs , EdGCM is also used by climate researchers who do not have access to the most recent GCM versions .", "qid": "313", "docid": "EdGCM", "rank": 32, "score": 80695 }, { "content": "Title: Fate of the World Content: Fate of the World is a 2011 global warming game developed and published by Red Redemption . It features several scenarios , based on actual scientific research , in which the player is put in charge of a fictional international organization managing social , technological and environmental policies . The goals of the scenarios range from improving living conditions in Africa , to preventing catastrophic climate change , to exacerbating it . It is quickly followed by an expansion pack called Fate of the World : Tipping Point , released in late 2011 . The climate prediction models for the game are the work of Myles Allen , the head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Fate_of_the_World", "rank": 33, "score": 80587 }, { "content": "Title: Frank Wentz Content: Frank Wentz is the CEO and director of Remote Sensing Systems , a company he founded in 1974 . Remote Sensing Systems specializes in satellite microwave remote sensing research . Together with Carl Mears , he is best known for developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) one . From 1978 to 1982 Frank was a member of NASA 's SeaSat Experiment Team involved in the development of physically based retrieval methods for microwave scatterometers and radiometers . He has also investigated the effect of climate change on satellite-derived evaporation , precipitation and surface wind values . His findings are different from most climate change model predictions .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Frank_Wentz", "rank": 34, "score": 80174 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 35, "score": 80042 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Tett Content: Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Simon_Tett", "rank": 36, "score": 79979 }, { "content": "Title: MM5 (weather model) Content: The MM5 ( short for Fifth-Generation Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Model ) is a regional mesoscale model used for creating weather forecasts and climate projections . It is a community model maintained by Penn State University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research . The MM5 is a limited-area , terrain-following sigma coordinate model that is used to replicate or forecast mesoscale and regional scale atmospheric circulation . It has been updated many times since the 1970s to fix bugs , adapt to new technologies , and work on different types of computers and software . It is used in many different ways : for research and for weather prediction . In research , it is used to compare it to other models , to see what works and what does not work . Since the MM5 has high quality three-dimensional data , it is good for looking at the atmosphere and the weather patterns . It is also used for air quality models .", "qid": "313", "docid": "MM5_(weather_model)", "rank": 37, "score": 79861 }, { "content": "Title: List of climate research satellites Content: The invention of climate research through the use of satellite remote telemetry began in the 1960s through development of space probes to study other planets . During the U.S. economic decline in 1977 , with much of NASA 's money going toward the Shuttle program , the Reagan Administration proposed to reduce spending on planetary exploration . During this time , new scientific evidence emerged from ice and sediment cores that Earth 's climate had experienced rapid changes in temperature , running contrary to the previously held belief that the climate changed on a geological time scale . These changes increased political interest in gathering remote-sensing data on the Earth itself and stimulated the science of climatology .", "qid": "313", "docid": "List_of_climate_research_satellites", "rank": 38, "score": 79485 }, { "content": "Title: Flow-following, finite-volume Icosahedral Model Content: The Flow-following , finite-volume Icosahedral Model ( FIM ) is a numerical weather prediction model that has been under development at the Earth System Research Laboratory in the United States since 2008 . The FIM is being developed as a candidate to eventually supplant the Global Forecast System , the United States 's current medium-range forecast model . The FIM was originally slated to become operational some time in 2014 ( as of autumn 2016 the model is still testing ) ; the GFS will continue to be run and maintained for several years afterward , much in the same way the GFS and its predecessor , the Nested Grid Model , ran concurrently for several years . The model currently produces similar results to the GFS , but runs slower on the NWS 's operational computers . Its three-part name derives from its key features : `` flow-following '' indicates that its vertical coordinates are based on both terrain and potential temperature ( isentropic sigma coordinates , previously used in the now-discontinued rapid update cycle model ) , and `` finite-volume '' describes the method used for calculating horizontal transport . The `` icosahedral '' portion describes the model 's most uncommon feature : whereas most grid-based forecast models have historically used rectangular grid points ( a less than ideal arrangement for a planet that is a slightly oblate spheroid ) , the FIM instead fits Earth to a truncated icosahedron , with twelve evenly spaced pentagons ( including two at the poles ) anchoring a grid of hexagons . The FIM runs as a multiscale model , with a suffix number indicating the model 's horizontal resolution . FIM7 operates at a spatial resolution of approximately 60 km , FIM8 at 30 km , FIM9 at 15km and FIM9 .5 at 10km . The FIM7 and FIM8 both run twice daily ( 0z and 12z ) with 6-hour temporal resolution out to 14 days . The FIM9 runs four times daily , also with 6-hour steps , out to 10 days . ( FIM9 .5 is not currently in operation . )", "qid": "313", "docid": "Flow-following,_finite-volume_Icosahedral_Model", "rank": 39, "score": 79361 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 in science Content: The year 1979 in science and technology involved some significant events , listed below .", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_in_science", "rank": 40, "score": 79351 }, { "content": "Title: Norman A. Phillips Content: Norman A. Phillips ( born July 9 , 1923 ) is an American meteorologist . In 1956 , he developed a mathematical model which could realistically depict monthly and seasonal patterns in the troposphere , which became the first successful General circulation model of climate . He was awarded a Benjamin Franklin Medal ( Franklin Institute ) along with Joseph Smagorinsky in 2003 . Phillips was born in 1923 . He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947 with a B.S. and in 1951 with a Ph.D. .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Norman_A._Phillips", "rank": 41, "score": 79115 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 42, "score": 78692 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 43, "score": 78652 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model Content: The Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting ( HWRF ) model is a specialized version of the Weather Research and Forecasting ( WRF ) model and is used to forecast the track and intensity of tropical cyclones . The model was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory , the University of Rhode Island , and Florida State University . It became operational in 2007 .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Hurricane_Weather_Research_and_Forecasting_model", "rank": 44, "score": 78638 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Prediction Center Content: The Climate Prediction Center ( CPC ) is one of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction , which are a part of NOAA 's National Weather Service . It is located in College Park , Maryland . Its roots trace back to the late 18th century , with the United States Army Signal Corp taking over responsibility of the climate program in the late 19th century . Once it became part of the United States Weather Bureau , it was known as the Weather Bureau Climate and Crop Services . From 1957 through 1966 , the United States Weather Bureau 's Office of Climatology , located in Washington , D.C. and then Suitland , Maryland , published the Mariners Weather Log publication . Late in the 20th century , it was known as the Climate Analysis Center for a time , before evolving into CPC in 1995 . CPC issues climate forecasts valid weeks and months in advance .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_Prediction_Center", "rank": 45, "score": 78413 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Forecast System Content: __ NOTOC __ The Climate Forecast System or Coupled Forecast System ( both names abbreviated CFS ) is a medium to long range numerical weather prediction and a climate model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) to bridge weather and climate timescales . Version 2 became operational as CFSv2 in 2011 .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_Forecast_System", "rank": 46, "score": 78115 }, { "content": "Title: ERA-40 Content: ERA-40 is an ECMWF re-analysis of the global atmosphere and surface conditions for 45-years , over the period from September 1957 through August 2002 by ECMWF . Many sources of the meteorological observations were used , including radiosondes , balloons , aircraft , buoyes , satellites , scatterometers . This data was run through the ECMWF computer model at a 125 km resolution . As the ECMWF 's computer model is one of the more highly regarded in the field of forecasting , many scientists take its reanalysis to have similar merit . The data is stored in GRIB format . The reanalysis was done in an effort to improve the accuracy of historical weather maps and aid in a more detailed analysis of various weather systems through a period that was severely lacking in computerized data . With the data from reanalyses such as this , many of the more modern computerized tools for analyzing storm systems can be utilized , at least in part , because of this access to a computerized simulation of the atmospheric state .", "qid": "313", "docid": "ERA-40", "rank": 47, "score": 78070 }, { "content": "Title: Cold wave of 1978 Content: The cold wave of 1978 was a weather event that occurred in the eastern United States . Beginning in December 1977 and lasting until March , it produced one of the coldest winters on record in all states east of the Rockies except Maine .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Cold_wave_of_1978", "rank": 48, "score": 78010 }, { "content": "Title: International Arctic Research Center Content: The International Arctic Research Center , or IARC , established in 1999 , is a research institution focused on integrating and coordinating study of climate change in the Arctic . The primary partners in IARC are Japan and the United States . Participants include organizations from Canada , China , Denmark , Germany , Japan , Norway , Russia , the United Kingdom , and the United States . The Center is located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks , in the Syun-Ichi Akasofu Building . The Keith B. Mather Library is the science library housed in the Akasofu Building , serving IARC and the Geophysical Institute of UAF . The building also houses the UAF atmospheric sciences department , the Center for Global Change and the Fairbanks forecast office of the National Weather Service . Study projects are focused within four major themes : Arctic ocean models and observation Arctic atmosphere : feedbacks , radiation , and weather analysis Permafrost/Frozen soil models and observations Arctic biota/vegetation ( ecosystem models ) IARC is devoting specific effort to answering the following three questions : To what extent is climate change due to natural vs man-made causes ? What parameters , processes and interactions are needed to understand and predict future climate change ? What are the likely impacts of climate change ?", "qid": "313", "docid": "International_Arctic_Research_Center", "rank": 49, "score": 77824 }, { "content": "Title: Joint Polar Satellite System Content: Joint Polar Satellite System ( JPSS ) is the latest generation of U.S. polar-orbiting , non-geosynchronous , environmental satellites . JPSS will provide the global environmental data used in numerical weather prediction models for forecasts , and scientific data used for climate monitoring . JPSS will aid in fulfilling the mission of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , an agency of the Department of Commerce . Data and imagery obtained from the JPSS will increase timeliness and accuracy of public warnings and forecasts of climate and weather events , thus reducing the potential loss of human life and property and advancing the national economy . The JPSS is developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , who is responsible for operation of JPSS . Two satellites are planned for the JPSS constellation of satellites . JPSS satellites will be flown and the scientific data from JPSS will be processed by the JPSS - Common Ground System ( JPSS-CGS ) .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Joint_Polar_Satellite_System", "rank": 50, "score": 77823 }, { "content": "Title: Peter A. Stott Content: Peter A. Stott is a climate scientist who leads the Climate Monitoring and Attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research at the Met Office in Exeter , UK . He is an expert on anthropogenic and natural causes of climate change . He was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I report , chapter 9 , for the AR4 released in 2007 and is an editor of the Journal of Climate . Peter has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Durham University and completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge . He was awarded a PhD by Imperial College London for work on atmospheric modelling of the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster . After his PhD he carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh on stratospheric ozone depletion .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Peter_A._Stott", "rank": 51, "score": 77751 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Programme Content: The World Climate Programme ( WCP ) was established following the first World Climate Conference in 1979 . The major sponsors are the World Meteorological Organization , United Nations Environment Programme , the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational , Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) , and the International Council for Science ( ICSU ) . The World Climate Research Programme is a component of the WCP .", "qid": "313", "docid": "World_Climate_Programme", "rank": 52, "score": 77732 }, { "content": "Title: History of numerical weather prediction Content: The history of numerical weather prediction considers how current weather conditions as input into mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather and future sea state ( the process of numerical weather prediction ) has changed over the years . Though first attempted manually in the 1920s , it was not until the advent of the computer and computer simulation that computation time was reduced to less than the forecast period itself . ENIAC was used to create the first forecasts via computer in 1950 , and over the years more powerful computers have been used to increase the size of initial datasets as well as include more complicated versions of the equations of motion . The development of global forecasting models led to the first climate models . The development of limited area ( regional ) models facilitated advances in forecasting the tracks of tropical cyclone as well as air quality in the 1970s and 1980s . Because the output of forecast models based on atmospheric dynamics requires corrections near ground level , model output statistics ( MOS ) were developed in the 1970s and 1980s for individual forecast points ( locations ) . The MOS apply statistical techniques to post-process the output of dynamical models with the most recent surface observations and the forecast point 's climatology . This technique can correct for model resolution as well as model biases . Even with the increasing power of supercomputers , the forecast skill of numerical weather models only extends to about two weeks into the future , since the density and quality of observations -- together with the chaotic nature of the partial differential equations used to calculate the forecast -- introduce errors which double every five days . The use of model ensemble forecasts since the 1990s helps to define the forecast uncertainty and extend weather forecasting farther into the future than otherwise possible .", "qid": "313", "docid": "History_of_numerical_weather_prediction", "rank": 53, "score": 77659 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 Family Circle Cup Content: The 1979 Family Circle Cup was a women 's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts at the Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island , South Carolina in the United States . The event was part of the AAAA category of the 1979 Colgate Series . It was the seventh edition of the tournament and was held from April 10 through April 15 , 1979 . Second-seeded Tracy Austin won the singles title and earned $ 30,000 first-prize money .", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_Family_Circle_Cup", "rank": 54, "score": 77330 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment Content: The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment ( SORCE ) is a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that measures incoming X-ray , ultraviolet , visible , near-infrared , and total solar radiation . These measurements specifically address long-term climate change , natural variability and enhanced climate prediction , and atmospheric ozone and UV-B radiation . These measurements are critical to studies of the Sun , its effect on our Earth system and its influence on humankind . The SORCE spacecraft launched on January 25 , 2003 on a Pegasus XL launch vehicle to provide NASA 's Earth Science Enterprise ( ESE ) with precise measurements of solar radiation . SORCE measures the Sun 's output using radiometers , spectrometers , photodiodes , detectors , and bolometers mounted on a satellite observatory . The SORCE satellite orbits the Earth accumulating solar data . Spectral measurements identify the irradiance of the Sun by characterizing the Sun 's energy and emissions in the form of color that can then be translated into quantities and elements of matter . Data obtained by the SORCE experiment can be used to model the Sun 's output and to explain and predict the effect of the Sun 's radiation on the Earth 's atmosphere and climate . Flying in a 645 km , 40 degree orbit , SORCE is operated by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics ( LASP ) at the University of Colorado at Boulder , Colorado . It will continue the precise measurements of total solar irradiance that began with the ERB instrument in 1979 and has continued to the present with the ACRIM series of measurements . SORCE will also provide the measurements of the solar spectral irradiance from 1 nm to 2000 nm , accounting for 95 % of the spectral contribution to the total solar irradiance . SORCE carries four instruments including the Total Irradiance Monitor ( TIM ) , Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment ( SOLSTICE ) , Spectral Irradiance Monitor ( SIM ) , and the XUV Photometer System ( XPS ) .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Solar_Radiation_and_Climate_Experiment", "rank": 55, "score": 77329 }, { "content": "Title: David Carson (climatologist) Content: David John Carson is a climatologist . He has been director of the Hadley Centre ( around 1990-1996 ) , director of Numerical Weather Prediction at the UKMO ( around 1999-2000 ) , and was director of the World Climate Research Programme from 2000-2005 . Carson joined the UK Meteorological Office in 1969 , following his Ph.D from the Department of Applied Mathematics , University of Liverpool , working on the structure and evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer . He did early research on the development of atmospheric general circulation models . In 1982 , he was appointed to Assistant Director within the Met Office , and led the Boundary Layer Research Branch and later the Dynamical Climatology Branch . For 1987 -- 1989 Carson was seconded to the Natural Environment Research Council ( NERC ) as their first Programme Director for atmospheric sciences . He returned to the Met . Office in January 1990 and became Director of Climate Research and then first Director of the Hadley Centre .", "qid": "313", "docid": "David_Carson_(climatologist)", "rank": 56, "score": 77217 }, { "content": "Title: Stanley B. Goldenberg Content: Stanley B. Goldenberg is a meteorologist with NOAA/AOML 's Hurricane Research Division in Miami ( Virginia Key ) , Florida . Goldenberg received his associate degree from Miami Dade College and a bachelor 's degree in 1978 and a master 's degree in 1980 both in meteorology from Florida State University . One of his main graduate advisors was James O'Brien , one of the world 's leading experts on El Niño . Goldenberg has specialized in climate studies and hurricanes . Stan 's hurricane-related research has included developing and implementing significant improvements to one of the earlier numerical hurricane-track prediction models used by the National Hurricane Center and more recently , examining the various climatic factors which influence the variability of hurricane activity in the Atlantic from intraseasonal to multidecadal time scales . He has done extensive research into the physical mechanisms responsible for the connection between El Niño and Atlantic hurricane activity . He was the first author of the research report published in Science establishing the fact that the Atlantic hurricane basin has entered a multidecadal-scale era of greatly increased hurricane activity . The paper concluded that the increase in hurricane activity was due to natural climate fluctuations rather than from any long-term temperature trends ( which some attribute to anthropogenic global warming ) . ( This paper was recognized with the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Outstanding Scientific Paper Award . ) He is one of the lead authors of NOAA 's Seasonal Hurricane Outlooks for the Atlantic basin and was a co-recipient of NOAA 's Bronze Medal for that work . Mr. Goldenberg has participated in numerous research flights into and around hurricanes on NOAA 's WP-3D and Gulfstream IV aircraft , including flights into Hurricane Katrina ( 2005 ) as it made landfall on the Louisiana/Mississippi coast . Goldenberg 's interest and experience in hurricane disaster preparedness was greatly increased when his South Florida home was destroyed as he and his family experienced the full force of Category 5 Hurricane Andrew in 1992 . His family 's personal experience , as well as his scientific expertise , have been featured in numerous TV specials such as Cyclone ! ( National Geographic/PBS ) , Storm Stories ( The Weather Channel ) and Savage Skies ( PBS ) . Goldenberg has published a number of scientific papers , is frequently interviewed by local , national and international media and has been a regular speaker at scientific , insurance , and hurricane preparedness conferences . He has also been a research scientist at the University of Washington from 1986 -- 1989 and for a short time taught Mathematics and Science at a Messianic Jewish academy .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Stanley_B._Goldenberg", "rank": 57, "score": 76957 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Modeling Center Content: The Environmental Modeling Center ( EMC ) improves numerical weather , marine and climate predictions at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) , through a broad program of research in data assimilation and modeling . In support of the NCEP operational forecasting mission , the EMC develops , improves and monitors data assimilation systems and models of the atmosphere , ocean and coupled system , using advanced methods developed internally as well as cooperatively with scientists from Universities , NOAA Laboratories and other government agencies , and the international scientific community .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Environmental_Modeling_Center", "rank": 58, "score": 76890 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Cane Content: Mark A. Cane is an American climate scientist . He obtained his PhD at MIT in 1975 . He is currently the G. Unger Vetlesen Professor Of Earth And Climate Sciences at Columbia University and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory . He actively pursues several research and teaching initiatives , and supports the Columbia climate kids corner . As of November 11 , 2015 , his publications have been cited over 22,600 times , and he has an h-index of 75 . He was involved in the first numerical prediction of El Niño-Southern Oscillation in 1986 .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Mark_Cane", "rank": 59, "score": 76868 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "313", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 60, "score": 76678 }, { "content": "Title: Kevin E. Trenberth Content: Kevin Edward Trenberth ( born November 8 , 1944 ) is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the US NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research . He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change ( see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability ( CLIVAR ) program . He chaired the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel from 2004 to 2010 and chaired the Global Energy and Water Exchanges ( GEWEX ) scientific steering group from 2010-2013 ( member 2007-14 ) . In addition , he served on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme , and has made significant contributions to research into El Niño-Southern Oscillation . Kevin 's work is highly cited and he has an h-index of 100 ( 100 papers have over 100 citations ) .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Kevin_E._Trenberth", "rank": 61, "score": 76499 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Climate Challenge Content: During the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 ( COP15 ) , there was a rival conference in Copenhagen , Denmark , for sceptics , called the Copenhagen Climate Challenge . which was organised by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow . While COP15 attracted 33,200 delegates , the rival sceptic conference was attended by 60 people ( 15 journalists , 18 speakers , 27 audience ) . According to Lenore Taylor of The Australian , the attendees had an average age `` well over 60 '' . In closing his speech , Plimer stated that `` They 've got us outnumbered , but we 've got them outgunned , and that 's with the truth . '' Plimer also stated that `` It 's been freezing in Perth and bucketing down '' . Perth had below average rainfall in 2009 , and temperatures of 38 ° C were forecast for December 13 .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Copenhagen_Climate_Challenge", "rank": 62, "score": 76433 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 in rail transport Content:", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_in_rail_transport", "rank": 63, "score": 76180 }, { "content": "Title: Forecast: Tomorrow Content: Forecast : Tomorrow is a 3-CD/1-DVD career-spanning compilation of recordings of Weather Report . The 37 tracks are presented chronologically , beginning with three tracks pre -- Weather Report , from ensemble duties with Miles Davis ( both Zawinul and Shorter ) , Cannonball Adderley ( Zawinul ) , and from a Shorter solo album . In addition to one unreleased track , the set closes with DJ Logic 's remix of a Weather Report track . The 4th disc in the package is a 2-hour DVD of a concert in Offenbach am Main , on September 29 , 1978 for the German TV program Rockpalast . The boxed set includes a 100-page book with notes on the set by compiler Bob Belden , a long essay on the band by Hal Miller , and a reminiscence of the 1978 concert by drummer Peter Erskine .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Forecast:_Tomorrow", "rank": 64, "score": 76025 }, { "content": "Title: Ken Ring (writer) Content: Ken Ring is a writer from Auckland , New Zealand , who asserts that he can use lunar cycles to predict weather and earthquakes . He terms his predictions `` alternative weather '' and has authored books about the weather and climate . Ring publishes almanacs each year for New Zealand , Australia and Ireland in which he provides weather predictions for the entire year . His New Zealand almanac covers 64 towns . Ring 's methods are unscientific and have been widely criticised as fake and pseudoscience by many scientists in the fields of meteorology and geology . Ring says he predicted the 4 September 2010 Christchurch earthquake and the deadly 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake . He also said there would probably be an earthquake in Marlborough or north Canterbury `` just before noon '' on 20 March 2011 . This caused some residents to leave Christchurch and led to criticism from scientists and sceptics . Further research into his predictions showed that his forecasting record did not hold up under scrutiny .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Ken_Ring_(writer)", "rank": 65, "score": 75984 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 66, "score": 75923 }, { "content": "Title: Model output statistics Content: Model Output Statistics ( MOS ) is a multiple linear regression technique in which predicands , often near-surface quantities , such as 2-meter ( AGL ) air temperature , horizontal visibility , and wind direction , speed and gusts , are related statistically to one or more predictors . The predictors are typically forecasts from a numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) model , climatic data , and , if applicable , recent surface observations . Thus , output from NWP models can be transformed by the MOS technique into sensible weather parameters that are familiar to the `` person on the street '' .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Model_output_statistics", "rank": 67, "score": 75916 }, { "content": "Title: National Centers for Environmental Prediction Content: The United States National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) delivers national and global weather , water , climate and space weather guidance , forecasts , warnings and analyses to its Partners and External User Communities . These products and services are based on a service-science legacy and respond to user needs to protect life and property , enhance that nation 's economy and support the nation 's growing need for environmental information . The centers form part of the National Weather Service . There are nine centers : Aviation Weather Center provides aviation warnings and forecasts of hazardous flight conditions at all levels within domestic and international air space . Climate Prediction Center monitors and forecasts short-term climate fluctuations and provides information on the effects climate patterns can have on the nation . Environmental Modeling Center develops and improves numerical weather , climate , hydrological and ocean prediction through a broad program in partnership with the research community . National Hurricane Center provides forecasts of the movement and strength of tropical weather systems and issues watches and warnings for the North Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific Ocean . NCEP Central Operations sustains and executes the operational suite of numerical analyses and forecast models and prepares NCEP products for dissemination . Ocean Prediction Center issues weather warnings and forecasts out to five days for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans north of 30 degrees North . Space Weather Prediction Center provides space weather alerts and warnings for disturbances that can affect people and equipment working in space and on earth . Storm Prediction Center provides tornado and severe weather watches for the contiguous United States along with a suite of hazardous weather forecasts . Weather Prediction Center provides nationwide analysis and forecast guidance products out through seven days .", "qid": "313", "docid": "National_Centers_for_Environmental_Prediction", "rank": 68, "score": 75885 }, { "content": "Title: Debye model Content: In thermodynamics and solid state physics , the Debye model is a method developed by Peter Debye in 1912 for estimating the phonon contribution to the specific heat ( heat capacity ) in a solid . It treats the vibrations of the atomic lattice ( heat ) as phonons in a box , in contrast to the Einstein model , which treats the solid as many individual , non-interacting quantum harmonic oscillators . The Debye model correctly predicts the low temperature dependence of the heat capacity , which is proportional to -- the Debye T3 law . Just like the Einstein model , it also recovers the Dulong -- Petit law at high temperatures . But due to simplifying assumptions , its accuracy suffers at intermediate temperatures . See M. Shubin and T. Sunada for a rigorous treatment of the Debye model .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Debye_model", "rank": 69, "score": 75826 }, { "content": "Title: Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction Content: Climate : Long range Investigation , Mapping , and Prediction , known as CLIMAP , was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a map of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum . The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration ( 1970s ) and is based in large part of the collection and analysis of a very large number of sediment cores to create a snapshot of conditions across the oceans . The CLIMAP project also resulted in maps of vegetative zones across the continents and the estimated extent of glaciation at the time . Most CLIMAP results aim to describe the Earth as it was 18 thousand years ago , but there was also an analysis to look at conditions during the previous interglacial -- 120 thousand years ago ( CLIMAP 1981 ) . CLIMAP has been a cornerstone of paleoclimate research and remains the most used sea surface temperature reconstruction of the global ocean during the last glacial maximum ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , but it has also been persistently controversial . CLIMAP resulted in estimates of global cooling of only 3.0 ± 0.6 ° C relative to the modern day ( Hoffert and Covey 1992 ) . The climate change during an ice age that occurs far from the continental ice sheets themselves is believed to be primarily controlled by changes in greenhouse gases , hence the conditions during the last glacial maximum provide a natural experiment for measuring the impact of changes in greenhouse gases on climate . The cited estimates of 3.0 ° C implies a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide changes at the low end of the range proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . However , CLIMAP also suggested that some of the tropics and in particular much of the Pacific Ocean were warmer than they are today . To date , no climate model has been able to reproduce the proposed warming in the Pacific ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , with most preferring a several degree cooling . Also , it appears that climate models which are forced to match the CLIMAP sea surface measurements are too warm to match estimates for changes at continental locations ( Pinot et al. 1999 ) . This suggests that either climate model design is missing some important unknown factor , or CLIMAP systematically overestimated the temperatures in the tropical oceans during the last glacial , though there is at present no consistent explanation for why or how this should have happened . Unfortunately cost and difficulty of collecting sediment cores from the open Pacific has limited the availability of samples that might help to confirm or disprove these observations . If the Pacific reconstruction is assumed to be in error , it would result in a larger climate sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gases .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate:_Long_range_Investigation,_Mapping,_and_Prediction", "rank": 70, "score": 75805 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 71, "score": 75805 }, { "content": "Title: The Book of Predictions Content: The Book of Predictions was a book published in 1980 and written by David Wallechinsky , Amy Wallace , and Irving Wallace , the authors of The Book of Lists . Written in the same type of style ( i.e. , lists ) , it includes lists of predictions by scientists , science fiction authors , politicians , and others . Other contents include : `` 18 Greatest Predictors of All Time '' including the Great Pyramid of Cheops , Mother Shipton , Nostradamus , and Edgar Cayce . `` The 6 Greatest Predictions of All Time '' : The Ides of March , St. Malachy 's predictions of future popes , a prediction of the Titanic 's sinking , and Jeane Dixon 's prediction of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy . `` The Worst Predictions of All Time '' , ranging from `` legitimate '' failures ( the British Parliament stating the incandescent light would never work ) to psychic fails ( Muhammad Ali would be elected to Congress in a non-election year ) . The Book of Predictions Contest . The winners receive a housekeeping robot ( if available ) or personal appointments with famous psychics . Winners were chosen in 1982 . Category :1980 books Category : Books by David Wallechinsky Category : Books by Amy Wallace Category : Books by Irving Wallace", "qid": "313", "docid": "The_Book_of_Predictions", "rank": 72, "score": 75755 }, { "content": "Title: James Annan Content: James D. Annan is a scientist involved in climate prediction . He was a member of the Global Warming Research Program at Frontier Research Centre for Global Change which is associated with the Earth Simulator in Japan . In 2014 he left Japan , returning to the United Kingdom as a co-founder of Blue Skies Research .", "qid": "313", "docid": "James_Annan", "rank": 73, "score": 75505 }, { "content": "Title: U.S. Standard Atmosphere Content: The U.S. Standard Atmosphere is an atmospheric model of how the pressure , temperature , density , and viscosity of the Earth 's atmosphere change over a wide range of altitudes or elevations . The model , based on an existing international standard , was first published in 1958 by the U.S. Committee on Extension to the Standard Atmosphere , and was updated in 1962 , 1966 , and 1976 . It is largely consistent in methodology with the International Standard Atmosphere , differing mainly in the assumed temperature distribution at higher altitudes .", "qid": "313", "docid": "U.S._Standard_Atmosphere", "rank": 74, "score": 75320 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 75, "score": 75151 }, { "content": "Title: Navy Global Environmental Model Content: The Navy Global Environmental Model ( NAVGEM ) is a global numerical weather prediction computer simulation run by the United States Navy 's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center . This mathematical model is run four times a day and produces weather forecasts . Along with the NWS 's Global Forecast System , which runs out to 16 days , the ECMWF 's Integrated Forecast System ( IFS ) and the CMC 's Global Environmental Multiscale Model ( GEM ) , both of which run out 10 days , and the UK Met Office 's Unified Model , which runs out to 6 days , it is one of five synoptic scale medium-range models in general use . The NAVGEM became operational in February 2013 , replacing the NOGAPS . It uses the same forecast range as the NOGAPS did ( three-hour intervals out 180 hours ) but also uses a refurbished dynamic core and improvements to the physics simulations compared to its predecessor . Category : Numerical climate and weather models Category : National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "qid": "313", "docid": "Navy_Global_Environmental_Model", "rank": 76, "score": 75143 }, { "content": "Title: ECHAM Content: ECHAM is a general circulation model ( GCM ) developed by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology , one of the research organisations of the Max Planck Society . It was created by modifying global forecast models developed by ECMWF to be used for climate research . The model was given its name as a combination of its origin ( the ` EC ' being short for ` ECMWF ' ) and the place of development of its parameterisation package , Hamburg . The default configuration of the model resolves the atmosphere up to 10 hPa ( primarily used to study the lower atmosphere ) , but it can be reconfigured to 0.01 hPa for use in studying the stratosphere and lower mesosphere . Different versions of ECHAM , primarily different configurations of ECHAM5 , have been the basis of many publications , listed on the ECHAM5 website .", "qid": "313", "docid": "ECHAM", "rank": 77, "score": 74966 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 78, "score": 74901 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 in spaceflight Content:", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_in_spaceflight", "rank": 79, "score": 74830 }, { "content": "Title: Central England temperature Content: The Central England Temperature ( CET ) record is a meteorological dataset originally published by Professor Gordon Manley in 1953 and subsequently extended and updated in 1974 , following many decades of painstaking work . The monthly mean surface air temperatures , for the Midlands region of England , are given ( in degrees Celsius ) from the year 1659 to the present . This record represents the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence . It is a valuable dataset for meteorologists and climate scientists . It is monthly from 1659 , and a daily version has been produced from 1772 . The monthly means from November 1722 onwards are given to a precision of 0.1 ° C . The earliest years of the series , from 1659 to October 1722 inclusive , for the most part only have monthly means given to the nearest degree or half a degree , though there is a small ` window ' of 0.1 degree precision from 1699 to 1706 inclusive . This reflects the number , accuracy , reliability and geographical spread of the temperature records that were available for the years in question .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Central_England_temperature", "rank": 80, "score": 74703 }, { "content": "Title: Thomas Knutson Content: Thomas Knutson is a climate modeller at the US Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory , a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . His research covers hurricane activity , the link between climate change and hurricane incidence and intensity , and climate change detection and attribution . He served as a contributing author on working group 1 of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . He is an Associate Editor of the American Meteorological Society 's Journal of Climate . He has published in Science , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Journal of Geophysical Research , Journal of Climate , Tropical Cyclone Research and Review , Tellus A and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society . In 2004 , Knutson published a paper suggesting that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide would lead to more intense hurricanes . This finding was subsequently supported by independent research . Knutson was invited to discuss his thesis on Ron Reagan 's MSNBC talk show , but the invitation was withdrawn after the White House intervened . Source : New Scientist Magazine 2007-02-03 , p. 5", "qid": "313", "docid": "Thomas_Knutson", "rank": 81, "score": 74646 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "313", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 82, "score": 74547 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 in the United States Content: Events from the year 1979 in the United States .", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_in_the_United_States", "rank": 83, "score": 74521 }, { "content": "Title: CCCma Content: CCCma ( Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis ) is part of the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada and is located at the University of Victoria , Victoria , British Columbia . Its purpose is to develop and apply climate models to improve understanding of climate change and make quantitative projections of future climate in Canada and globally . Its seasonal forecasting system provides climate forecasts over Canada on timescales of months to years .", "qid": "313", "docid": "CCCma", "rank": 84, "score": 74460 }, { "content": "Title: CLIVAR Content: CLIVAR ( climate variability and predictability ) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme . Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales , identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for climate modelling .", "qid": "313", "docid": "CLIVAR", "rank": 85, "score": 74330 }, { "content": "Title: Nested Grid Model Content: The Nested Grid Model ( usually known as NGM for short ) was a numerical weather prediction model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction , a division of the National Weather Service , in the United States . The NGM was , as its name suggested , derived from two levels of grids : a hemispheric-scale grid and a synoptic-scale grid , the latter of which had a resolution of approximately 90 kilometers . Its most notable feature was that it assumed the hydrostatic equation . The NGM debuted in 1987 , directly replacing the limited-area fine-mesh ( LFM ) model , which was immediately halted upon the NGM 's debut . The NGM was also used to create model output statistics . Development of the model stopped in 1993 . By 2000 , the model was seen as obsolete , particularly for mesoscale features that were not hydrostatic , and was scheduled to be superseded by the Global Forecast System ( GFS ) in 2001 . However , though the NGM ceased widespread use in the early 2000s due to the GFS and improvements in the Eta model ( later the North American Mesoscale Model ) , and the NGM 's short-range LAMP products were phased out in 2006 , NGM MOS products continued to be in significant general use ( alongside the Eta/NAM and GFS ) until March 3 , 2009 , when the NGM MOS products were finally discontinued .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Nested_Grid_Model", "rank": 86, "score": 74212 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 87, "score": 74206 }, { "content": "Title: DICE model Content: The Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy model , referred to as the DICE model or Dice model , is a computer-based integrated assessment model developed by William Nordhaus that `` integrates in an end-to-end fashion the economics , carbon cycle , climate science , and impacts in a highly aggregated model that allows a weighing of the costs and benefits of taking steps to slow greenhouse warming . '' Nordhaus also developed the RICE model ( Regional Integrated Climate-Economy model ) , a variant of the DICE model that was updated and developed alongside the DICE model . Others who collaborated with Nordhaus to develop the model include David Popp , Zili Yang , Joseph Boyer , and other colleagues . The DICE model is one of the three main integrated assessment models used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency , and it provides estimates intermediate between the other two models .", "qid": "313", "docid": "DICE_model", "rank": 88, "score": 74189 }, { "content": "Title: Tornadoes of 1979 Content: This page documents the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1979 , primarily in the United States . Most tornadoes form in the U.S. , although some events may take place internationally . Tornado statistics for older years like this often appear significantly lower than modern years due to fewer reports or confirmed tornadoes .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Tornadoes_of_1979", "rank": 89, "score": 74146 }, { "content": "Title: Great Blizzard of 1978 Content: The Great Blizzard of 1978 , also known as the White Hurricane , was a historic winter storm that struck the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes regions from Wednesday , January 25 through Friday , January 27 , 1978 . The 956.0 mb barometric pressure measurement recorded in Mount Clemens , Michigan was the third lowest non-tropical atmospheric pressure recorded in the mainland United States and the lowest in the Central United States . The lowest confirmed pressure for a non-tropical system in the continental United States was set by a January 1913 Atlantic coast storm . The lowest central pressure for the 1978 blizzard was 955.5 mb measured in Sarnia , Ontario , Canada . On rare occasions , extra-tropical cyclones with central pressures below 28 inches of mercury or about 95 kPa ( 950 mb ) have been recorded in Wiscasset , Maine ( 27.9 '' ) and Newfoundland ( 27.76 '' ) .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Great_Blizzard_of_1978", "rank": 90, "score": 74103 }, { "content": "Title: North American Mesoscale Model Content: The North American Mesoscale Model ( NAM ) , refers to a numerical weather prediction model run by National Centers for Environmental Prediction for short-term weather forecasting . Currently , the Weather Research and Forecasting Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model ( WRF-NMM ) model is run as the NAM , thus , three names ( NAM , WRF , or NMM ) typically refer to the same model output . The WRF replaced the Eta model on June 13 , 2006 . The model is run four times a day ( 00 , 06 , 12 , 18 UTC ) out to 84 hours . It is currently run with 12 km horizontal resolution and with three-hour temporal resolution , providing finer detail than other operational forecast models . The NAM ensemble is known as the Short Range Ensemble Forecast ( SREF ) and runs out 87 hours .", "qid": "313", "docid": "North_American_Mesoscale_Model", "rank": 91, "score": 73976 }, { "content": "Title: Wegman Report Content: The Wegman Report ( officially called the Ad Hoc Committee Report on the ` Hockey Stick ' Global Climate Reconstruction ) was prepared in 2006 by three statisticians led by Edward Wegman at the request of Rep. Joe Barton of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce to validate criticisms made by Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick of reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years , in particular the reconstructions by Mann , Bradley and Hughes which had become the focus of the hockey stick controversy .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Wegman_Report", "rank": 92, "score": 73873 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "313", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 93, "score": 73824 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 in paleontology Content:", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_in_paleontology", "rank": 94, "score": 73667 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 1979 Pacific hurricane season was an inactive Pacific hurricane season . It officially started on May 15 , 1979 , in the eastern Pacific , and June 1 , 1979 , in the central Pacific , and lasted until November 30 , 1979 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeast Pacific Ocean . With ten storms , less than two-thirds of the average of seventeen , this season was very inactive . There were six hurricanes , also below average . Of those hurricanes , four were major by reaching Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale . As of the 2015 Pacific hurricane season , 1979 remains the most recent year without any tropical cyclones active in the Central Pacific .", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 95, "score": 73660 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 in New Zealand Content:", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 96, "score": 73645 }, { "content": "Title: Pseudoproxy Content: A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Pseudoproxy", "rank": 97, "score": 73595 }, { "content": "Title: Climate ensemble Content: A climate ensemble involves slightly different models of the climate system . There are at least four different types , to be described below . For the equivalent in numerical weather prediction , see ensemble forecasting .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Climate_ensemble", "rank": 98, "score": 73585 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1962–63 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1962 -- 1963 ( also known as the Big Freeze of 1963 ) was one of the coldest winters on record in the United Kingdom . Temperatures plummeted and lakes and rivers began to freeze over . In the Central England Temperature ( CET ) record , extending back to 1659 , only the winter ( defined as the months of December , January and February ) of 1683 -- 84 has been significantly colder , with 1739 -- 40 being slightly colder than 1962 -- 63 . Over Scotland and Northern Ireland , where data do not extend back to 1740 , the winters of 1813 -- 14 and 1878 -- 79 were certainly colder than 1962 -- 63 , as was the winter of 1779 -- 80 in Scotland and 1894 -- 95 in Northern Ireland . This winter remains the coldest since at least 1895 in all meteorological districts of the United Kingdom except Scotland North , where the two winters of 1978 -- 79 and 2009 -- 10 were marginally colder .", "qid": "313", "docid": "Winter_of_1962–63_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 99, "score": 73510 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 in Pakistan Content:", "qid": "313", "docid": "1979_in_Pakistan", "rank": 100, "score": 73467 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Jonathan M. Gregory Content: Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Jonathan_M._Gregory", "rank": 1, "score": 110645 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 2, "score": 98319 }, { "content": "Title: Vicky Pope Content: Vicky Pope is head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre . She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation . Since October 2004 she has been Head of the Climate Prediction Programme which provides independent scientific advice on climate change . Her research interests include developing and validating climate models . In an interview for The Guardian newspaper , she said : `` very few '' scientists disputed the latest IPCC report . `` The consensus on warming since the 1850s is that a large part is due to man 's activities , '' she said . `` That 's the line of the IPCC report and that position is strengthening . It is a very widespread consensus . There are a few very vocal people who are sceptics , only some of whom are actually scientists . Sceptics obviously have a place in the community . '' link", "qid": "316", "docid": "Vicky_Pope", "rank": 3, "score": 97800 }, { "content": "Title: Climate model Content: Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Climate_model", "rank": 4, "score": 95522 }, { "content": "Title: Navy Global Environmental Model Content: The Navy Global Environmental Model ( NAVGEM ) is a global numerical weather prediction computer simulation run by the United States Navy 's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center . This mathematical model is run four times a day and produces weather forecasts . Along with the NWS 's Global Forecast System , which runs out to 16 days , the ECMWF 's Integrated Forecast System ( IFS ) and the CMC 's Global Environmental Multiscale Model ( GEM ) , both of which run out 10 days , and the UK Met Office 's Unified Model , which runs out to 6 days , it is one of five synoptic scale medium-range models in general use . The NAVGEM became operational in February 2013 , replacing the NOGAPS . It uses the same forecast range as the NOGAPS did ( three-hour intervals out 180 hours ) but also uses a refurbished dynamic core and improvements to the physics simulations compared to its predecessor . Category : Numerical climate and weather models Category : National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", "qid": "316", "docid": "Navy_Global_Environmental_Model", "rank": 5, "score": 94588 }, { "content": "Title: Unified Model Content: The Unified Model is a Numerical Weather Prediction and climate modeling software suite originally developed by the United Kingdom Met Office , and now both used and further developed by many weather-forecasting agencies around the world . The Unified Model gets its name because a single model is used across a range of both timescales ( nowcasting to centennial ) and spatial scales ( convective scale to climate system earth modelling ) . The models are grid-point based , rather than wave based , and are run on a variety of supercomputers around the world . The Unified Model atmosphere can be coupled to a number of ocean models . At the Met Office it is used for the main suite of Global Model , North Atlantic and Europe model ( NAE ) and a high-resolution UK model ( UKV ) , in addition to a variety of Crisis Area Models and other models that can be run on demand . Similar Unified Model suites with global and regional domains are used by many other national or military weather agencies around the world for operational forecasting . Data for numerical weather prediction is provided by observations from satellites , from the ground ( both human and from automatic weather stations ) , from buoys at sea , radar , radiosonde weather balloons , wind profilers , commercial aircraft and a background field from previous model runs . The computer model is only adjusted towards the observations using assimilation , rather than forcing the model to accept an observed value that might make the system unstable ( and could be an inaccurate observation ) . The Unified Model software suite is written in Fortran ( originally 77 but now predominantly 90 ) and uses height as the vertical variable . Because most developments of interest are at near to the ground the vertical layers are closer together near the surface .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Unified_Model", "rank": 6, "score": 94225 }, { "content": "Title: Theodor Landscheidt Content: Theodor Landscheidt ( Bremen , 1927 -- May 20 , 2004 ) was a German author , astrologer and amateur climatologist . In 1989 , Landscheidt forecast a period of sunspot minima after 1990 , accompanied by increased cold , with a stronger minimum and more intense cold which should peak in 2030 His work on solar cycles has been cited by global warming skeptics to argue that observed warming is not anthropogenic and will soon be reversed , based on an assumption that fluctuations in climate are controlled by solar activity . In 1983 he founded and financed the `` Schroeter Institute for Research in Cycles of Solar Activity '' in Lilienthal , near Bremen . The Institute later moved with him to Nova Scotia , Canada .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Theodor_Landscheidt", "rank": 7, "score": 93451 }, { "content": "Title: Held-Hou Model Content: The Held-Hou Model is a model for the Hadley circulation of the atmosphere that would exist in the absence of atmospheric turbulence . The model was developed by Isaac Held and Arthur Hou in 1980 . The essence of the model is that air rising from the surface at the equator conserves its angular momentum as it moves poleward . This distribution of wind , in turn , determines the distribution of temperature , which determines the latitudinal extent of the circulation by requiring energy conservation . This stands in contrast to George Hadley 's original conception of the circulation , which he argued reached the poles . The Hadley circulation has a cooling effect at and near the equator and a warming effect at higher latitudes within the Hadley Cell . This energy transport can be converted into a mass transport , to determine the strength of the circulation , by normalizing by the appropriate vertical stability . The effects of moisture and seasons on the model have been studied . Earth 's atmosphere violates the underlying assumptions of the model : angular momentum is not conserved and the tropical atmosphere is not energetically closed . As such , the Held-Hou model is a conceptual model that does not make quantitatively accurate predictions of the sensitivity of the Hadley circulation to changes in atmospheric parameters .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Held-Hou_Model", "rank": 8, "score": 92817 }, { "content": "Title: Model for Prediction Across Scales Content: The Model for Prediction Across Scales ( MPAS ) is a coupled Earth system modeling package that integrates atmospheric , oceanographic and cryospheric modeling on a variety of scales from the planetary to regional and mesoscale/microscale . It includes climate and weather modeling and simulations that were first used by researchers in 2013 . The atmospheric components ( MPAS-A ) were led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) 's Earth System Laboratory ( NESL ) and the oceanographic components ( MPAS-O ) by the Climate , Ocean , and Sea Ice Modeling Group ( COSIM ) at Los Alamos National Laboratory ( LANL ) . It has been used for real-time weather as well as seasonal forecasting of convection , tornadoes and tropical cyclones , among other uses . Its atmospheric modeling aspects are intended to use and complement rather than replace the Weather Research and Forecasting Model ( WRF-ARW/NMM ) , the Global Forecast System ( GFS ) and the Community Earth System Model ( CESM ) .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Model_for_Prediction_Across_Scales", "rank": 9, "score": 91569 }, { "content": "Title: North American Mesoscale Model Content: The North American Mesoscale Model ( NAM ) , refers to a numerical weather prediction model run by National Centers for Environmental Prediction for short-term weather forecasting . Currently , the Weather Research and Forecasting Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model ( WRF-NMM ) model is run as the NAM , thus , three names ( NAM , WRF , or NMM ) typically refer to the same model output . The WRF replaced the Eta model on June 13 , 2006 . The model is run four times a day ( 00 , 06 , 12 , 18 UTC ) out to 84 hours . It is currently run with 12 km horizontal resolution and with three-hour temporal resolution , providing finer detail than other operational forecast models . The NAM ensemble is known as the Short Range Ensemble Forecast ( SREF ) and runs out 87 hours .", "qid": "316", "docid": "North_American_Mesoscale_Model", "rank": 10, "score": 90461 }, { "content": "Title: Flow-following, finite-volume Icosahedral Model Content: The Flow-following , finite-volume Icosahedral Model ( FIM ) is a numerical weather prediction model that has been under development at the Earth System Research Laboratory in the United States since 2008 . The FIM is being developed as a candidate to eventually supplant the Global Forecast System , the United States 's current medium-range forecast model . The FIM was originally slated to become operational some time in 2014 ( as of autumn 2016 the model is still testing ) ; the GFS will continue to be run and maintained for several years afterward , much in the same way the GFS and its predecessor , the Nested Grid Model , ran concurrently for several years . The model currently produces similar results to the GFS , but runs slower on the NWS 's operational computers . Its three-part name derives from its key features : `` flow-following '' indicates that its vertical coordinates are based on both terrain and potential temperature ( isentropic sigma coordinates , previously used in the now-discontinued rapid update cycle model ) , and `` finite-volume '' describes the method used for calculating horizontal transport . The `` icosahedral '' portion describes the model 's most uncommon feature : whereas most grid-based forecast models have historically used rectangular grid points ( a less than ideal arrangement for a planet that is a slightly oblate spheroid ) , the FIM instead fits Earth to a truncated icosahedron , with twelve evenly spaced pentagons ( including two at the poles ) anchoring a grid of hexagons . The FIM runs as a multiscale model , with a suffix number indicating the model 's horizontal resolution . FIM7 operates at a spatial resolution of approximately 60 km , FIM8 at 30 km , FIM9 at 15km and FIM9 .5 at 10km . The FIM7 and FIM8 both run twice daily ( 0z and 12z ) with 6-hour temporal resolution out to 14 days . The FIM9 runs four times daily , also with 6-hour steps , out to 10 days . ( FIM9 .5 is not currently in operation . )", "qid": "316", "docid": "Flow-following,_finite-volume_Icosahedral_Model", "rank": 11, "score": 90279 }, { "content": "Title: NRLMSISE-00 Content: NRLMSISE-00 is an empirical , global model of the Earth 's atmosphere from ground to space . It models the temperatures and densities of the atmosphere 's components . A primary use of this model is to aid predictions of satellite orbital decay due to atmospheric drag . This model has also been used by astronomers to calculate the mass of air between telescopes and laser beams in order to assess the impact of laser guide stars on the non-lasing telescopes .", "qid": "316", "docid": "NRLMSISE-00", "rank": 12, "score": 90003 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 13, "score": 89846 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Tett Content: Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Simon_Tett", "rank": 14, "score": 89801 }, { "content": "Title: Model output statistics Content: Model Output Statistics ( MOS ) is a multiple linear regression technique in which predicands , often near-surface quantities , such as 2-meter ( AGL ) air temperature , horizontal visibility , and wind direction , speed and gusts , are related statistically to one or more predictors . The predictors are typically forecasts from a numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) model , climatic data , and , if applicable , recent surface observations . Thus , output from NWP models can be transformed by the MOS technique into sensible weather parameters that are familiar to the `` person on the street '' .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Model_output_statistics", "rank": 15, "score": 89171 }, { "content": "Title: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Content: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age . `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Victor_Manuel_Velasco_Herrera", "rank": 16, "score": 89083 }, { "content": "Title: ECHAM Content: ECHAM is a general circulation model ( GCM ) developed by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology , one of the research organisations of the Max Planck Society . It was created by modifying global forecast models developed by ECMWF to be used for climate research . The model was given its name as a combination of its origin ( the ` EC ' being short for ` ECMWF ' ) and the place of development of its parameterisation package , Hamburg . The default configuration of the model resolves the atmosphere up to 10 hPa ( primarily used to study the lower atmosphere ) , but it can be reconfigured to 0.01 hPa for use in studying the stratosphere and lower mesosphere . Different versions of ECHAM , primarily different configurations of ECHAM5 , have been the basis of many publications , listed on the ECHAM5 website .", "qid": "316", "docid": "ECHAM", "rank": 17, "score": 88566 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical cyclone forecast model Content: A tropical cyclone forecast model is a computer program that uses meteorological data to forecast aspects of the future state of tropical cyclones . There are three types of models : statistical , dynamical , or combined statistical-dynamic . Dynamical models utilize powerful supercomputers with sophisticated mathematical modeling software and meteorological data to calculate future weather conditions . Statistical models forecast the evolution of a tropical cyclone in a simpler manner , by extrapolating from historical datasets , and thus can be run quickly on platforms such as personal computers . Statistical-dynamical models use aspects of both types of forecasting . Four primary types of forecasts exist for tropical cyclones : track , intensity , storm surge , and rainfall . Dynamical models were not developed until the 1970s and the 1980s , with earlier efforts focused on the storm surge problem . Track models did not show forecast skill when compared to statistical models until the 1980s . Statistical-dynamical models were used from the 1970s into the 1990s . Early models use data from previous model runs while late models produce output after the official hurricane forecast has been sent . The use of consensus , ensemble , and superensemble forecasts lowers errors more than any individual forecast model . Both consensus and superensemble forecasts can use the guidance of global and regional models runs to improve the performance more than any of their respective components . Techniques used at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center indicate that superensemble forecasts are a very powerful tool for track forecasting .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Tropical_cyclone_forecast_model", "rank": 18, "score": 87480 }, { "content": "Title: Boeing Model 42 Content: The Boeing Model 42 ( also Boeing XCO-7 for Experimental Corps Observation Model 7 ) was an American biplane aircraft developed from the Airco DH .4 , taking advantage of the large amount of aircraft left over after the end of World War I.", "qid": "316", "docid": "Boeing_Model_42", "rank": 19, "score": 86311 }, { "content": "Title: General circulation model Content: A general circulation model ( GCM ) is a type of climate model . It employs a mathematical model of the general circulation of a planetary atmosphere or ocean . It uses the Navier -- Stokes equations on a rotating sphere with thermodynamic terms for various energy sources ( radiation , latent heat ) . These equations are the basis for computer programs used to simulate the Earth 's atmosphere or oceans . Atmospheric and oceanic GCMs ( AGCM and OGCM ) are key components along with sea ice and land-surface components . GCMs and global climate models are used for weather forecasting , understanding the climate and forecasting climate change . Versions designed for decade to century time scale climate applications were originally created by Syukuro Manabe and Kirk Bryan at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton , New Jersey . These models are based on the integration of a variety of fluid dynamical , chemical and sometimes biological equations .", "qid": "316", "docid": "General_circulation_model", "rank": 20, "score": 86014 }, { "content": "Title: Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System Model Content: Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System Model ( NOGAPS ) is a global numerical weather prediction computer model run by Fleet Numerical . This mathematical model is run four times a day and produces weather forecasts . Along with the ECMWF 's Integrated Forecast System ( IFS ) , the Canadian Global Environmental Multiscale Model ( GEM ) it is one of several synoptic scale medium-range models in general use .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Navy_Operational_Global_Atmospheric_Prediction_System_Model", "rank": 21, "score": 85633 }, { "content": "Title: Global Forecast System Content: The Global Forecast System ( GFS ) is a global numerical weather prediction system containing a global computer model and variational analysis run by the United States ' National Weather Service ( NWS ) . The mathematical model is run four times a day , and produces forecasts for up to 16 days in advance , but with decreased spatial resolution after 10 days . The forecast skill generally decreases with time ( as with any numerical weather prediction model ) and for longer term forecasts , only the larger scales retain significant accuracy . It is one of the predominant synoptic scale medium-range models in general use . The GFS model is a spectral model with an approximate horizontal resolution of 13 km for the first 10 days and 27 km from 240 to 384 hours ( 16 days ) . In the vertical , the model is divided into 64 layers and temporally , it produces forecast output every hour for the first 120 hours , three hourly through day 10 and 12 hourly through day 16 . The output from the GFS is also used to produce model output statistics . In addition to the main model , the GFS is also the basis of a lower resolution 20-member ( 22 , counting the control and operational members ) ensemble that runs concurrently with the operational GFS and is available on the same time scales . This ensemble is referred to as the `` Global Ensemble Forecast System '' ( GEFS ) . Ensemble model output statistics are available out to 8 days . The GFS ensemble is combined with Canada 's Global Environmental Multiscale Model ensemble to form the North American Ensemble Forecast System ( NAEFS ) . As with most works of the U.S. government , GFS data is not copyrighted and is available for free in the public domain under provisions of U.S. law . Because of this , the model serves as the basis for the forecasts of numerous private , commercial and foreign weather companies . By 2015 the GFS model had fallen behind the accuracy of other global weather models . This was most notable in the GFS model incorrectly predicting Hurricane Sandy turning out to sea until 4 days before landfall ; while the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ' model predicted landfall correctly at 7 days . Much of this was suggested to be due to limits in computational resources within the National Weather Service . In response , the NWS purchased new supercomputers , increasing processing power from 776 teraflops to 5.78 petaflops . The agency has also been testing a potential replacement model with different mechanics , the flow-following , finite-volume Icosahedral Model ( FIM ) , since the early 2010s .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Global_Forecast_System", "rank": 22, "score": 85562 }, { "content": "Title: Bio-index model Content: The Bio-index model is a forecasting model for predicting the outcome of U.S. Presidential Elections based on biographical information about candidates . The model , developed by J. Scott Armstrong and Andreas Graefe and first published in the Journal of Business Research , uses 59 biographical cues that are expected to affect the chances of a candidate on being elected .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Bio-index_model", "rank": 23, "score": 85433 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "316", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 24, "score": 84706 }, { "content": "Title: Princeton Ocean Model Content: The Princeton Ocean Model ( POM ) is a community general numerical model for ocean circulation that can be used to simulate and predict oceanic currents , temperatures , salinities and other water properties .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Princeton_Ocean_Model", "rank": 25, "score": 84616 }, { "content": "Title: Data center predictive modeling Content: Data center predictive modeling ( DCPM ) is the ability to forecast the performance of a data center into the future , be it its energy use , energy efficiency , performance of the myriad pieces of equipment , even cost . An important part of forecasting data center performance is the use of computational fluid dynamics ( CFD ) to quantify the airflow and temperatures that would occur if physical changes were made to the data center space . The use of CFD moves DCPM from a probabilistic type of forecasting to a physics-based one . The term DCPM has been in use since June 2011 and was adopted by Romonet to differentiate DCPM from data center infrastructure management ( DCIM ) which only tracks the present performance of the elements of a data center . Another example of the same technology was presented in Russia by Institute of Applied Mathematical Research , Karelian Research Centre , Russian Academy of Sciences . The technology is developed since 2011 under support of FASIE and RFBR .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Data_center_predictive_modeling", "rank": 26, "score": 84533 }, { "content": "Title: CCCma Content: CCCma ( Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis ) is part of the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada and is located at the University of Victoria , Victoria , British Columbia . Its purpose is to develop and apply climate models to improve understanding of climate change and make quantitative projections of future climate in Canada and globally . Its seasonal forecasting system provides climate forecasts over Canada on timescales of months to years .", "qid": "316", "docid": "CCCma", "rank": 27, "score": 84370 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Forecast System Content: __ NOTOC __ The Climate Forecast System or Coupled Forecast System ( both names abbreviated CFS ) is a medium to long range numerical weather prediction and a climate model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) to bridge weather and climate timescales . Version 2 became operational as CFSv2 in 2011 .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Climate_Forecast_System", "rank": 28, "score": 84253 }, { "content": "Title: Debye model Content: In thermodynamics and solid state physics , the Debye model is a method developed by Peter Debye in 1912 for estimating the phonon contribution to the specific heat ( heat capacity ) in a solid . It treats the vibrations of the atomic lattice ( heat ) as phonons in a box , in contrast to the Einstein model , which treats the solid as many individual , non-interacting quantum harmonic oscillators . The Debye model correctly predicts the low temperature dependence of the heat capacity , which is proportional to -- the Debye T3 law . Just like the Einstein model , it also recovers the Dulong -- Petit law at high temperatures . But due to simplifying assumptions , its accuracy suffers at intermediate temperatures . See M. Shubin and T. Sunada for a rigorous treatment of the Debye model .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Debye_model", "rank": 29, "score": 83822 }, { "content": "Title: Model predictive control Content: Model predictive control ( MPC ) is an advanced method of process control that has been in use in the process industries in chemical plants and oil refineries since the 1980s . In recent years it has also been used in power system balancing models . Model predictive controllers rely on dynamic models of the process , most often linear empirical models obtained by system identification . The main advantage of MPC is the fact that it allows the current timeslot to be optimized , while keeping future timeslots in account . This is achieved by optimizing a finite time-horizon , but only implementing the current timeslot . MPC has the ability to anticipate future events and can take control actions accordingly . PID and LQR controllers do not have this predictive ability . MPC is nearly universally implemented as a digital control , although there is research into achieving faster response times with specially designed analog circuitry .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Model_predictive_control", "rank": 30, "score": 83738 }, { "content": "Title: Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model Content: In the mathematics of shuffling playing cards , the Gilbert -- Shannon -- Reeds model is a probability distribution on riffle shuffle permutations that has been reported to be a good match for experimentally observed outcomes of human shuffling , and that forms the basis for a recommendation that a deck of cards should be riffled seven times in order to thoroughly randomize it . It is named after the work of Edgar Gilbert , Claude Shannon , and J. Reeds , reported in a 1955 technical report by Gilbert and in a 1981 unpublished manuscript of Reeds .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds_model", "rank": 31, "score": 83737 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Modeling Center Content: The Environmental Modeling Center ( EMC ) improves numerical weather , marine and climate predictions at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) , through a broad program of research in data assimilation and modeling . In support of the NCEP operational forecasting mission , the EMC develops , improves and monitors data assimilation systems and models of the atmosphere , ocean and coupled system , using advanced methods developed internally as well as cooperatively with scientists from Universities , NOAA Laboratories and other government agencies , and the international scientific community .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Environmental_Modeling_Center", "rank": 32, "score": 83621 }, { "content": "Title: Numerical weather prediction Content: Numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) uses mathematical models of the atmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on current weather conditions . Though first attempted in the 1920s , it was not until the advent of computer simulation in the 1950s that numerical weather predictions produced realistic results . A number of global and regional forecast models are run in different countries worldwide , using current weather observations relayed from radiosondes , weather satellites and other observing systems as inputs . Mathematical models based on the same physical principles can be used to generate either short-term weather forecasts or longer-term climate predictions ; the latter are widely applied for understanding and projecting climate change . The improvements made to regional models have allowed for significant improvements in tropical cyclone track and air quality forecasts ; however , atmospheric models perform poorly at handling processes that occur in a relatively constricted area , such as wildfires . Manipulating the vast datasets and performing the complex calculations necessary to modern numerical weather prediction requires some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world . Even with the increasing power of supercomputers , the forecast skill of numerical weather models extends to only about six days . Factors affecting the accuracy of numerical predictions include the density and quality of observations used as input to the forecasts , along with deficiencies in the numerical models themselves . Post-processing techniques such as model output statistics ( MOS ) have been developed to improve the handling of errors in numerical predictions . A more fundamental problem lies in the chaotic nature of the partial differential equations that govern the atmosphere . It is impossible to solve these equations exactly , and small errors grow with time ( doubling about every five days ) . Present understanding is that this chaotic behavior limits accurate forecasts to about 14 days even with perfectly accurate input data and a flawless model . In addition , the partial differential equations used in the model need to be supplemented with parameterizations for solar radiation , moist processes ( clouds and precipitation ) , heat exchange , soil , vegetation , surface water , and the effects of terrain . In an effort to quantify the large amount of inherent uncertainty remaining in numerical predictions , ensemble forecasts have been used since the 1990s to help gauge the confidence in the forecast , and to obtain useful results farther into the future than otherwise possible . This approach analyzes multiple forecasts created with an individual forecast model or multiple models .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Numerical_weather_prediction", "rank": 33, "score": 83494 }, { "content": "Title: Petar Gburčik Content: Prof. Petar Gburčik ( Cyrillic : Петар Гбурчик ) ( 30 October 1931 - 29 October 2006 ) was a Serbian scientist and a Professor of Meteorology at the University of Belgrade . He was the author of first mathematical models of the numerical weather prediction , which were used operationally in the Weather Service of Yugoslavia from 1970 to 1977 . In the same period he began modeling of the atmospheric diffusion of air-pollution and created the first model of the spatial distribution of air-pollution . The output of this model was used for the elaboration of the urban plan of Pančevo . For the actual research of the three-dimensional distribution of wind energy ( on the territories of Belgrade and Serbia ) he applied the integration of classic models with GIS technology . Special area of his engagements were the intentionally and inadvertently modified climates , as well as their impact on the sustainable development . These modifications destabilize the climate system and lead to big material and social damage , due to the lack of possibility of weather control . Petar Gburčik proved this with his scientific papers on weather modifications and climate change .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Petar_Gburčik", "rank": 34, "score": 83283 }, { "content": "Title: International Arctic Research Center Content: The International Arctic Research Center , or IARC , established in 1999 , is a research institution focused on integrating and coordinating study of climate change in the Arctic . The primary partners in IARC are Japan and the United States . Participants include organizations from Canada , China , Denmark , Germany , Japan , Norway , Russia , the United Kingdom , and the United States . The Center is located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks , in the Syun-Ichi Akasofu Building . The Keith B. Mather Library is the science library housed in the Akasofu Building , serving IARC and the Geophysical Institute of UAF . The building also houses the UAF atmospheric sciences department , the Center for Global Change and the Fairbanks forecast office of the National Weather Service . Study projects are focused within four major themes : Arctic ocean models and observation Arctic atmosphere : feedbacks , radiation , and weather analysis Permafrost/Frozen soil models and observations Arctic biota/vegetation ( ecosystem models ) IARC is devoting specific effort to answering the following three questions : To what extent is climate change due to natural vs man-made causes ? What parameters , processes and interactions are needed to understand and predict future climate change ? What are the likely impacts of climate change ?", "qid": "316", "docid": "International_Arctic_Research_Center", "rank": 35, "score": 83163 }, { "content": "Title: MM5 (weather model) Content: The MM5 ( short for Fifth-Generation Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Model ) is a regional mesoscale model used for creating weather forecasts and climate projections . It is a community model maintained by Penn State University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research . The MM5 is a limited-area , terrain-following sigma coordinate model that is used to replicate or forecast mesoscale and regional scale atmospheric circulation . It has been updated many times since the 1970s to fix bugs , adapt to new technologies , and work on different types of computers and software . It is used in many different ways : for research and for weather prediction . In research , it is used to compare it to other models , to see what works and what does not work . Since the MM5 has high quality three-dimensional data , it is good for looking at the atmosphere and the weather patterns . It is also used for air quality models .", "qid": "316", "docid": "MM5_(weather_model)", "rank": 36, "score": 82904 }, { "content": "Title: THORPEX Content: THORPEX ( stands for The Observing system Research and Predictability Experiment ) is an international research programme established in 2003 by the World Meteorological Organization to accelerate improvements in the utility and accuracy of weather forecasts up to two weeks ahead . It is part of the World Weather Research Programme and is a key component of the WMO Natural Disaster Reduction and Mitigation Programme .", "qid": "316", "docid": "THORPEX", "rank": 37, "score": 82803 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric model Content: An atmospheric model is a mathematical model constructed around the full set of primitive dynamical equations which govern atmospheric motions . It can supplement these equations with parameterizations for turbulent diffusion , radiation , moist processes ( clouds and precipitation ) , heat exchange , soil , vegetation , surface water , the kinematic effects of terrain , and convection . Most atmospheric models are numerical , i.e. they discretize equations of motion . They can predict microscale phenomena such as tornadoes and boundary layer eddies , sub-microscale turbulent flow over buildings , as well as synoptic and global flows . The horizontal domain of a model is either global , covering the entire Earth , or regional ( limited-area ) , covering only part of the Earth . The different types of models run are thermotropic , barotropic , hydrostatic , and nonhydrostatic . Some of the model types make assumptions about the atmosphere which lengthens the time steps used and increases computational speed . Forecasts are computed using mathematical equations for the physics and dynamics of the atmosphere . These equations are nonlinear and are impossible to solve exactly . Therefore , numerical methods obtain approximate solutions . Different models use different solution methods . Global models often use spectral methods for the horizontal dimensions and finite-difference methods for the vertical dimension , while regional models usually use finite-difference methods in all three dimensions . For specific locations , model output statistics use climate information , output from numerical weather prediction , and current surface weather observations to develop statistical relationships which account for model bias and resolution issues .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Atmospheric_model", "rank": 38, "score": 82598 }, { "content": "Title: HAT-P-7b Content: HAT-P-7b ( or Kepler-2b ) is an extrasolar planet discovered in 2008 . It orbits very close to its host star , and is both larger and more massive than Jupiter . Due to the extreme heat it receives from its star , the dayside temperature is predicted to be 2730 K.", "qid": "316", "docid": "HAT-P-7b", "rank": 39, "score": 82435 }, { "content": "Title: John F. B. Mitchell Content: John Francis Brake Mitchell OBE FRS ( born 7 October 1948 ) is a British climatologist and climate modeller . He studied Applied Mathematics at Queen 's University Belfast in 1970 , staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973 . In 1978 , he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office 's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research . He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010 . He is the most cited scientist regarding the topic of global warming . He was a convening lead author for the first and third IPCC Working Group I reports and lead author for the second . He was also chair of the World Meteorological Organization JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008 . He now ( 2014 ) works part-time as Principal Research Fellow , advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading .", "qid": "316", "docid": "John_F._B._Mitchell", "rank": 40, "score": 81882 }, { "content": "Title: Economic impacts of climate change Content: This article describes the economic impacts of climate change . Given the inherent nature of economic forecasting , which involves significant degrees of uncertainty , estimates of the results of global warming over the 21st century have varied widely . Many analyses , such as that of the Stern Review presented to the British Government , have predicted reductions by several percent of world gross domestic product due to climate related costs such as dealing with increased extreme weather events and stresses to low-lying areas due to sea level rises . Other studies by independent economists looking at the effects of climate change have found more ambiguous results around the range of net-neutral changes when all aspects of the issue are evaluated , though the issue remains intensely debated .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Economic_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 41, "score": 80762 }, { "content": "Title: Oxford model Content: The Oxford Model or the Oxford Econometric Model was created by Lawrence Klein and Sir James Ball . It included a Phillips-type relation and led to an `` explosion '' of macroeconometric forecasting .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Oxford_model", "rank": 42, "score": 80674 }, { "content": "Title: Boeing Model 7 Content: __ NOTOC __ The Boeing Model 7 was an American biplane flying boat aircraft built by Boeing in the 1920s . The pilot and two passengers all sat in the cockpit , the passengers right behind the pilot .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Boeing_Model_7", "rank": 43, "score": 80402 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological forecasting Content: Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics , ecology and physiology to predict how ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change . The ultimate goal of the approach is to provide people such as resource managers and designers of marine reserves with information that they can then use to respond , in advance , to future changes , a form of adaptation to global warming . One of the most important environmental factors for organisms today is global warming . Most physiological processes are affected by temperature , and so even small changes in weather and climate can lead to large changes in the growth , reproduction and survival of animals and plants . The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era . These changes are in turn affecting human and natural ecosystems . One major challenge is to predict where , when and with what magnitude changes are likely to occur so that we can mitigate or at least prepare for them . Ecological forecasting applies existing knowledge of how animals and plants interact with their physical environment to ask how changes in environmental factors might result in changes to the ecosystems as a whole .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Ecological_forecasting", "rank": 44, "score": 80332 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental niche modelling Content: Environmental niche modelling , alternatively known as species distribution modelling , ( ecological ) niche modelling , predictive habitat distribution modelling , and climate envelope modelling refers to the process of using computer algorithms to predict the distribution of species in geographic space on the basis of a mathematical representation of their known distribution in environmental space ( = realized ecological niche ) . The environment is in most cases represented by climate data ( such as temperature , and precipitation ) , but other variables such as soil type , water depth , and land cover can also be used . These models allow for interpolating between a limited number of species occurrence and they are used in several research areas in conservation biology , ecology and evolution . The extent to which such modelled data reflect real-world species distributions will depend on a number of factors , including the nature , complexity , and accuracy of the models used and the quality of the available environmental data layers ; the availability of sufficient and reliable species distribution data as model input ; and the influence of various factors such as barriers to dispersal , geologic history , or biotic interactions , that increase the difference between the realized niche and the fundamental niche . Environmental niche modelling may be considered a part of the discipline of biodiversity informatics .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Environmental_niche_modelling", "rank": 45, "score": 80216 }, { "content": "Title: PUFF-PLUME Content: PUFF-PLUME is a model used to help predict how air pollution disperses in the atmosphere . It is a Gaussian atmospheric transport chemical/radionuclide dispersion model that includes wet and dry deposition , real-time input of meteorological observations and forecasts , dose estimates from inhalation and gamma shine ( i.e. , radiation ) , and puff or continuous plume dispersion modes . It was first developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ( PNNL ) in the 1970s . It is the primary model for emergency response use for atmospheric releases at the Savannah River Site of the United States Department of Energy . It is one of a suite of codes for atmospheric releases and is used primarily for first-cut results in emergency situations . ( Other codes containing more detailed mathematical and physical models are available for use when a short response time is not the over-riding consideration . )", "qid": "316", "docid": "PUFF-PLUME", "rank": 46, "score": 80194 }, { "content": "Title: Predicta Content: The Philco Predicta is an American television made in several models by the Philco company in the late 1950s . The Predicta was marketed as the world 's first swivel screen television . The Predicta had a thinner picture tube than many other televisions at the time , which led it to be marketed as a more futuristic television set . Slow sales , lack of a color model and very poor reliability eventually drove Philco into bankruptcy and sale in 1960 . In the late 1990s the rights were acquired by Dave Riedel and Mike Lipscomb of Telstar LLC , who hand-made new sets on a limited basis until 2008 .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Predicta", "rank": 47, "score": 80080 }, { "content": "Title: Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System Content: The Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System ( NOGAPS ) is a global numerical weather prediction computer model run by the United States Navy 's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center . This mathematical model was run four times a day and produced weather forecasts . The NOGAPS was replaced by the NAVGEM in February 2013 .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Navy_Operational_Global_Atmospheric_Prediction_System", "rank": 48, "score": 80069 }, { "content": "Title: Weather Research and Forecasting Model Content: The Weather Research and Forecasting ( WRF ) Model -LSB- ˈwɔrf -RSB- is a numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) system designed to serve both atmospheric research and operational forecasting needs . NWP refers to the simulation and prediction of the atmosphere with a computer model , and WRF is a set of software for this . WRF features two dynamical ( computational ) cores ( or solvers ) , a data assimilation system , and a software architecture allowing for parallel computation and system extensibility . The model serves a wide range of meteorological applications across scales ranging from meters to thousands of kilometers . The effort to develop WRF began in the latter part of the 1990s and was a collaborative partnership principally among the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( represented by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) and the ( then ) Forecast Systems Laboratory ( FSL ) ) , the Air Force Weather Agency ( AFWA ) , the Naval Research Laboratory ( NRL ) , the University of Oklahoma ( OU ) , and the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) . The bulk of the work on the model has been performed or supported by NCAR , NOAA , and AFWA . WRF allows researchers to produce simulations reflecting either real data ( observations , analyses ) or idealized atmospheric conditions . WRF provides operational forecasting a flexible and robust platform , while offering advances in physics , numerics , and data assimilation contributed by the many research community developers . WRF is currently in operational use at NCEP and other forecasting centers internationally . WRF has grown to have a large worldwide community of users ( over 30,000 registered users in over 150 countries ) , and workshops and tutorials are held each year at NCAR . WRF is used extensively for research and real-time forecasting throughout the world . WRF offers two dynamical solvers for its computation of the atmospheric governing equations , and the variants of the model are known as WRF-ARW ( Advanced Research WRF ) and WRF-NMM ( Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model ) . The Advanced Research WRF ( ARW ) is supported to the community by the NCAR Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division . The WRF-NMM solver variant was based on the Eta Model , and later Nonhydrostatic Mesoscale Model , developed at NCEP . The WRF-NMM ( NMM ) is supported to the community by the Developmental Testbed Center ( DTC ) . The WRF serves as the basis for the Rapid Refresh model , an operational forecast model run regularly at NCEP . A version of WRF-NMM tailored for hurricane forecasting , HWRF ( Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting ) , became operational in 2007 . In 2009 , a polar optimized WRF was released through the Byrd Polar Research Center at the Ohio State University .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Weather_Research_and_Forecasting_Model", "rank": 49, "score": 79891 }, { "content": "Title: Predictive modelling Content: Predictive modeling uses statistics to predict outcomes . Most often the event one wants to predict is in the future , but predictive modelling can be applied to any type of unknown event , regardless of when it occurred . For example , predictive models are often used to detect crimes and identify suspects , after the crime has taken place . In many cases the model is chosen on the basis of detection theory to try to guess the probability of an outcome given a set amount of input data , for example given an email determining how likely that it is spam . Models can use one or more classifiers in trying to determine the probability of a set of data belonging to another set , say spam or ` ham ' . Depending on definitional boundaries , predictive modelling is synonymous with , or largely overlapping with , the field of machine learning , as it is more commonly referred to in academic or research and development contexts . When deployed commercially , predictive modelling is often referred to as predictive analytics .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Predictive_modelling", "rank": 50, "score": 79719 }, { "content": "Title: Muslim Seven Year Action Plan on Climate Change Content: The Muslim Seven Year Action Plan on Climate Change is a climate action plan for the global Islamic community , meant to run from 2010 to 2017 . It was developed by the British Earth Mates Dialogue Center and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs . It is one of several multi-year climate action plans developed by major religious communities , developed in coordination with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation and the United Nations Development Programme . According to the Alliance of Religions and Conservation , the plan proposes `` investigating every level of Muslim activity from daily life to annual pilgrimages , from holy cities to the future training of Imams , '' `` developing the major Muslim cities as green city models for other Islamic urban areas , '' and `` developing an Islamic label for environmentally friendly goods and services . '' Proposals were to be managed by a group called the Muslim Association for Climate Change Action ( MACCA , an acronym meant to sound like `` Mecca '' ) .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Muslim_Seven_Year_Action_Plan_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 51, "score": 79678 }, { "content": "Title: David H. Bromwich Content: David H. Bromwich is a member of the Byrd Polar Research Center and a professor at the Department of Geography , The Ohio State University . His work has involved the evaluation and diagnosis of polar weather and climate variability . He received his Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin , Madison . In 1979 he joined Ohio State 's Byrd Polar Research Center as a research scientist . His research has focused on the variability of precipitation over Antarctica , Greenland , and the Arctic Ocean , thus contributing to the understanding of climate and potential sea level changes . He has made contributions to defining aspects of U.S. science policy . Having helped identify the need to improve numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) for the Antarctic , Bromwich has been influential in the development and evaluation of the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System ( AMPS ) . In April 2001 AMPS was one of four weather models used to predict a window of opportunity for the emergency medical evacuation of Ronald Shemenski from the Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station . Flights to the base are normally halted from late February until November because of the extreme winter cold and darkness . But the airlift was successfully completed and pilot Sean Loutitt confirmed the reliance on the forecasts , stating `` The weather was the biggest concern '' .", "qid": "316", "docid": "David_H._Bromwich", "rank": 52, "score": 79662 }, { "content": "Title: Lee–Carter model Content: The Lee -- Carter model is a numerical algorithm used in mortality forecasting and life expectancy forecasting . The input to the model is a matrix of age specific mortality rates ordered monotonically by time , usually with ages in columns and years in rows . The output is another forecasted matrix of mortality rates . The model uses the singular value decomposition ( SVD ) to find a univariate time series vector `` kt '' that captures 80 -- 90 % of the mortality trend ( here the subscript `` t '' refers to time ) , a vector `` bx '' that describes the amount of mortality change at a given age for a unit of yearly total mortality change ( here the subscript `` x '' refers to age ) , and a scaling constant ( referred to here as s1 but unnamed in the literature ) . Surprisingly , kt is usually linear , implying that gains to life expectancy are fairly constant year after year in most populations . Before being input to the SVD , age specific mortality rates are transformed into `` ax , t '' , by taking their logarithms , and then centering them by subtracting their age-specific means ( calculated over time ) . ( The subscript `` x , t '' refers to the fact that ax , t spans both age and time . ) Many researchers adjust the kt vector by fitting it to empirical life expectancies for each year , using the ax and bx just generated with the SVD ; when adjusted using this approach , changes to kt are usually small . To forecast mortality , the above kt ( either adjusted or not ) is projected into the future using ARIMA time series methods , the corresponding future ax , t + n is recovered by multiplying kt + n by bx and the appropriate diagonal element of S ( when -LSB- U S V -RSB- = svd ( mort ) ) , and the actual mortality rates are recovered by taking exponentials of this vector . Because of the linearity of kt , it is generally modeled as a random walk with trend . Life expectancy and other life table measures can be calculated from this forecasted matrix after adding back the means and taking exponentials to yield regular mortality rates . In most implementations , confidence intervals for the forecasts are generated by simulating multiple mortality forecasts using Monte-Carlo methods ; a band of mortality between 5 % and 95 % percentiles of the simulated results is considered to be a valid forecast . These simulations are done by extending kt into the future using randomization based on the standard error of kt derived from the input data . In outline and Matlab-style pseudocode , the algorithm is as follows : Create ax by taking logarithms of the mortality rates and centering the results with the average log mortality at a given age . Derive kt , a scaling eigenvalue , and bx from U ( : ,1 ) , S ( 1,1 ) , V ( 1 , :) , where -LSB- U S V -RSB- = svd ( mort ) . Forecast kt with standard univariate ARIMA methods . Use the forecast kt with the original bx and ax to calculate logged mortality rates for each forecast year . Recover regular mortality rates by calculating the exponential of the forecasted log mortality rates . Without applying SVD or some other method of dimension reduction the table of mortality data is a highly correlated multivariate data series ; the complexity of these multidimensional time series makes such them almost impossible to forecast . SVD has become widely used as a method of dimension reduction in many disparate fields , including by Google in their page rank algorithm . The Lee -- Carter model was introduced by Ronald D. Lee and Lawrence Carter in 1992 with the article `` Modeling and Forecasting the Time Series of U.S. Mortality , '' ( Journal of the American Statistical Association 87 ( September ) : 659 -- 671 ) . The model grew out of their work in the late 1980s and early 1990s attempting to use inverse projection to infer rates in historical demography . The model has been used by the United States Social Security Administration , the US Census Bureau , and the United Nations . It has become the most widely used mortality forecasting technique in the world today . There have been extensions to the Lee -- Carter , most notably to account for missing years , correlated male and female populations , and large scale coherency in populations that share a mortality regime ( western Europe , for example ) . Many related papers can be found on Professor Ronald Lee 's website . There are surprisingly few software packages for forecasting with the Lee-Carter Model . LCFIT is a web-based package with interactive forms . Professor Rob J. Hyndman provides an R package for demography that includes routines for creating and forecasting a Lee-Carter Model . Professor German Rodriguez provides code for the Lee-Carter Model using Stata . Using Matlab , Professor Eric Jondeau and Professor Michael Rockinger have put together the Longevity Toolbox for parameter estimation .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Lee–Carter_model", "rank": 53, "score": 79535 }, { "content": "Title: CLIVAR Content: CLIVAR ( climate variability and predictability ) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme . Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales , identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for climate modelling .", "qid": "316", "docid": "CLIVAR", "rank": 54, "score": 79480 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model Content: The Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting ( HWRF ) model is a specialized version of the Weather Research and Forecasting ( WRF ) model and is used to forecast the track and intensity of tropical cyclones . The model was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory , the University of Rhode Island , and Florida State University . It became operational in 2007 .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Hurricane_Weather_Research_and_Forecasting_model", "rank": 55, "score": 79369 }, { "content": "Title: Ricker model Content: The Ricker model , named after Bill Ricker , is a classic discrete population model which gives the expected number N t +1 ( or density ) of individuals in generation t + 1 as a function of the number of individuals in the previous generation , Here r is interpreted as an intrinsic growth rate and k as the carrying capacity of the environment . The Ricker model was introduced in 1954 by Ricker in the context of stock and recruitment in fisheries . The model can be used to predict the number of fish that will be present in a fishery . Subsequent work has derived the model under other assumptions such as scramble competition , within-year resource limited competition or even as the outcome of a source-sink Malthusian patches linked by density-dependent dispersal . The Ricker model is a limiting case of the Hassell model which takes the form When c = 1 , the Hassell model is simply the Beverton -- Holt model .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Ricker_model", "rank": 56, "score": 79275 }, { "content": "Title: Lille Model Content: The Lille Model is a medical tool for predicting mortality in patients with alcoholic hepatitis who are not responding to steroid therapy . The model risk stratifies patients who have been receiving steroid treatment for seven days to predict who will improve and who should be considered for alternative treatment options including early referral for transplant . The model is based on : Age Albumin Bilirubin ( initial ) Bilirubin ( day 7 ) Creatinine PT Initial model was based on a study of 238 patients and published in the Journal of Hepatology in 2003 . Recent cohort studies demonstrate that those with a Lille score above 0.45 are likely non-responders to steroid therapy .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Lille_Model", "rank": 57, "score": 79175 }, { "content": "Title: Rescorla–Wagner model Content: The Rescorla -- Wagner model ( `` R-W '' ) is a model of classical conditioning , in which learning is conceptualized in terms of associations between conditioned ( CS ) and unconditioned ( US ) stimuli . A strong CS-US association means , essentially , that the CS signals or predicts the US . One might say that before conditioning , the subject is surprised by the US , but after conditioning , the subject is no longer surprised , because the CS predicts the coming of the US . The model casts the conditioning processes into discrete trials , during which stimuli may be either present or absent . The strength of prediction of the US on a trial can be represented as the summed associative strengths of all CSs present during the trial . This feature of the model represented a major advance over previous models , and it allowed a straightforward explanation of important experimental phenomena , most notably the blocking effect . Failures of the model have led to modifications , alternative models , and many additional findings . The model has had some impact on neural science in recent years , as studies have suggested that the phasic activity of dopamine neurons in mesostriatal DA projections in the midbrain encodes for the type of prediction error detailed in the model . The Rescorla -- Wagner model was created by Robert A. Rescorla of the University of Pennsylvania and Allan R. Wagner of Yale University in 1972 .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Rescorla–Wagner_model", "rank": 58, "score": 78691 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 59, "score": 78656 }, { "content": "Title: Egli model Content: The Egli model is a terrain model for radio frequency propagation . This model , which was first introduced by John Egli in his 1957 paper , was derived from real-world data on UHF and VHF television transmissions in several large cities . It predicts the total path loss for a point-to-point link . Typically used for outdoor line-of-sight transmission , this model provides the path loss as a single quantity .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Egli_model", "rank": 60, "score": 78545 }, { "content": "Title: Fate of the World Content: Fate of the World is a 2011 global warming game developed and published by Red Redemption . It features several scenarios , based on actual scientific research , in which the player is put in charge of a fictional international organization managing social , technological and environmental policies . The goals of the scenarios range from improving living conditions in Africa , to preventing catastrophic climate change , to exacerbating it . It is quickly followed by an expansion pack called Fate of the World : Tipping Point , released in late 2011 . The climate prediction models for the game are the work of Myles Allen , the head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Fate_of_the_World", "rank": 61, "score": 78487 }, { "content": "Title: Rapid Refresh Content: The Rapid Refresh ( RR or RAP ) is a numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) model . The model is designed to provide short-range hourly weather forecasts for North America . The Rapid Refresh was officially made operational on May 1 , 2012 , replacing the Rapid Update Cycle ( RUC ) . The Rapid Refresh is run at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) . It is based on the framework of the Weather Research and Forecasting model ( WRF ) ; the Global Forecast System ( GFS ) provides the boundary parameters . The grid points are spaced every 13 km , with 50 vertical intervals extending up to the 10-hectopascal ( 10 mb ) level of the atmosphere . The model runs once each hour , with forecasts given hourly out to 18 hours . An experimental version of the Rapid Refresh runs at the Earth System Research Laboratory ( ESRL ) , a NOAA unit that develops models in the research stage prior to operational implementation . This version uses more modern model framework and also has a higher-resolution mode , the High Resolution Rapid Refresh ( HRRR ) , that uses a 3 km grid spacing and gives forecasts in 15-minute intervals ( though still only issued once an hour ) .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Rapid_Refresh", "rank": 62, "score": 78485 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet model Content: In climate modelling , Ice-sheet models use numerical methods to simulate the evolution , dynamics and thermodynamics of ice sheets , such as the Greenland ice sheet , the Antarctic ice sheet or the large ice sheets on the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period . They are used for a variety of purposes , from studies of the glaciation of Earth over glacial -- interglacial cycles in the past to projections of ice-sheet decay under future global warming conditions .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Ice-sheet_model", "rank": 63, "score": 78422 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Content: The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment ( GEWEX ) is a research program of the World Climate Research Programme intended to observe , comprehend and model the Earth 's water cycle . The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives , studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed . Sunlight 's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain , and dries out land masses after rain . Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes . GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere . If the Earth 's climates were identical from year to year , then people could predict when , where and what crops to plant . However , instability created by solar variation , weather trends , and chaotic events create weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales . Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities . GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data , and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future . GEWEX is organized into several structures . As GEWEX was conceived projects were organized by participating factions , this task is now done by the International GEWEX Project Office ( IGPO ) . IGPO oversees major initiatives and coordinates between national projects in an effort to bring about communication of researchers . IGPO claims to support communication exchange between 2000 scientist and is the instrument for publication of major reports . The Scientific Steering Group organizes the projects and assigns them to panels , which oversee progress and provide critique . The Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project ( CEOP ) the ` Hydrology Project ' is a major instrument in GEWEX . This panel includes geographic study areas such as the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas operated by NOAA , but also examines several types of climate zones ( e.g. high altitude and semi-arid ) . Another panel , the GEWEX Radiation Panel oversees the coordinated use of satellites and ground based observation to better estimate energy and water fluxes . One recent result GEWEX 's Radiation panel has assessed data on rainfall for the last 25 years and determined that global rainfall is 2.61 mm/day with a small statistical variation . While the study period is short , after 25 years of measurement regional trends are beginning to appear . The GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel takes current models and analyzes the models when climate forcing phenomena occur ( global warming as an example of a ` climate forcing ' event ) . GEWEX is now the core project of WCRP .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Cycle_Experiment", "rank": 64, "score": 78419 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Z. Jacobson Content: Mark Zachary Jacobson ( born 1965 ) is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy Program . Jacobson develops computer models about the effects of different energy technologies and their emissions on air pollution and climate . He has done influential research on the role of aerosols and black carbon on the climate and is regarded as a leading aerosol climate modeler . According to Jacobson , a speedy transition to clean , renewable energy is required to reduce the potential acceleration of global warming , including the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice . This change will also eliminate 2.5 -- 3 million deaths worldwide each year , related to air pollution , and reduce disruption associated with fossil fuel shortages .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Mark_Z._Jacobson", "rank": 65, "score": 78407 }, { "content": "Title: James Annan Content: James D. Annan is a scientist involved in climate prediction . He was a member of the Global Warming Research Program at Frontier Research Centre for Global Change which is associated with the Earth Simulator in Japan . In 2014 he left Japan , returning to the United Kingdom as a co-founder of Blue Skies Research .", "qid": "316", "docid": "James_Annan", "rank": 66, "score": 78343 }, { "content": "Title: Global Environmental Multiscale Model Content: The Global Environmental Multiscale Model ( GEM ) , is an integrated forecasting and data assimilation system developed in the Recherche en Prévision Numérique ( RPN ) , Meteorological Research Branch ( MRB ) , and the Canadian Meteorological Centre ( CMC ) . Along with the NWS 's Global Forecast System ( GFS ) , which runs out to 16 days , the ECMWF 's Integrated Forecast System ( IFS ) , which runs out 10 days , the Naval Research Laboratory Navy Global Environmental Model ( NAVGEM ) , which runs out eight days , and the UK Met Office 's Unified Model , which runs out to 6 days , it is one of the five predominant synoptic scale medium-range models in general use . The GEM 's operational model , known as the Global Deterministic Prediction System ( GDPS ) , is currently operational for the global data assimilation cycle and medium-range forecasting , the regional data assimilation spin-up cycle and short-range forecasting . Furthermore , mesoscale forecasts ( distributed under the names Regional Deterministic Prediction System or RDPS for the coarser mesh and High Resolution Deterministic Prediction System or HRDPS for the finer mesh ) are produced overnight and are available to the operational forecasters . A growing number of meteorological applications are now either based on or use the GEM model . Output from the GEM goes out to 10 days , on par with the public output of the European Integrated Forecast System . The ensemble variant of the GEM is known as the Global Ensemble Prediction System ( GEPS ) . It has 20 members ( plus control ) and runs out 16 days , the same range as the American Global Forecast System . The GEPS runs alongside the GFS ensemble to form the North American Ensemble Forecast System . A Regional Ensemble Prediction System ( REPS ) , covering North America and also having 20 members plus control , runs out 72 hours . The GEM model has been developed to meet the operational weather forecasting needs of Canada for the coming years . These presently include short-range regional forecasting , medium-range global forecasting , and data assimilation . In the future they will include nowcasting at the meso-scales , and dynamic extended-range forecasting on monthly to seasonal timescales . The essence of the approach is to develop a single highly efficient model that can be reconfigured at run time to either run globally at uniform-resolution ( with possibly degraded resolution in the `` other '' hemisphere ) , or to run with variable resolution over a global domain such that high resolution is focused over an area of interest . The operational GEM model dynamics is formulated in terms of the hydrostatic primitive equations with a terrain following pressure vertical coordinate ( h ) . The time discretization is an implicit two-time-level semi-Lagrangian scheme . The spatial discretization is a Galerkin grid-point formulation on an Arakawa C-grid in the horizontal ( lat-lon ) and an unstaggered vertical discretization . The horizontal mesh can be of uniform or variable resolution , and furthermore can be arbitrarily rotated , the vertical mesh is also variable . The explicit horizontal diffusion is -2 on all prognostic variables . The operational GEM model is interfaced with a full complement of physical parametrizations , these currently include : solar and infrared radiation interactive with water vapor , carbon dioxide , ozone and clouds , prediction of surface temperature over land with the force-restore method , turbulence in the planetary boundary layer through vertical diffusion , diffusion coefficients based on stability and turbulent kinetic energy , surface layer based on Monin-Obukhov similarity theory , shallow convection scheme ( non precipitating ) , Kuo-type deep convection scheme ( global forecast system ) , Fritsch-Chappell type deep convection scheme ( regional forecast system ) , Sundqvist condensation scheme for stratiform precipitation , gravity wave drag . The next stage of development of the GEM model is to evaluate the non-hydrostatic version for mesoscale applications where the hydrostatic assumption breaks down . The limited-area ( open-boundary ) version is scheduled to follow . The distributed memory version of GEM is almost completed , it is a major recoding effort that is based upon a locally developed communication interface currently using Message Passing Interface . Research on the performance of different land surface schemes such as ISBA ( Interaction Soil-Biosphere-Atmosphere ) and CLASS ( Canadian Land Surface Scheme ) is making progress . The strategy is progressing towards a unified data assimilation and forecast system , at the heart of which lies a single multipurpose and multiscale numerical model . Output from Canadian forecast models such as the GEM is under Canadian crown copyright but is issued under a free license if properly attributed to Environment Canada . Various unofficial sites thus redistribute GEM data , including the GDPS and GEPS .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Global_Environmental_Multiscale_Model", "rank": 67, "score": 78217 }, { "content": "Title: HadGEM1 Content: HadGEM1 ( abbreviation for Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model , version 1 ) is a coupled climate model developed at the Met Office 's Hadley Centre in 2006 and used in IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on climate change . It represents a significant scientific advance on its predecessor , HadCM3 . HadGEM1 also provides a basis for further development of models , particularly involving enhanced resolution and full Earth System modelling . The current version is HadGEM3 .", "qid": "316", "docid": "HadGEM1", "rank": 68, "score": 78194 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project Content: Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project ( AMIP ) is a standard experimental protocol for global atmospheric general circulation models ( AGCMs ) . It provides a community-based infrastructure in support of climate model diagnosis , validation , intercomparison , documentation and data access . Virtually the entire international climate modeling community has participated in this project since its inception in 1990 . AMIP is endorsed by the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation ( WGNE ) of the World Climate Research Programme , and is managed by the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison with the guidance of the WGNE AMIP Panel . The AMIP experiment itself is simple by design ; an AGCM is constrained by realistic sea surface temperature and sea ice from 1979 to near present , with a comprehensive set of fields saved for diagnostic research . This model configuration removes the added complexity of ocean-atmosphere feedbacks in the climate system . It is not meant to be used for climate change prediction , an endeavor that requires a coupled atmosphere-ocean model ( e.g. , see AMIP 's sister project CMIP ) .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Atmospheric_Model_Intercomparison_Project", "rank": 69, "score": 78150 }, { "content": "Title: AquaMaps Content: AquaMaps is a collaborative project with the aim of producing computer-generated ( and ultimately , expert reviewed ) predicted global distribution maps for marine species on a 0.5 x 0.5 degree grid of the oceans based on data available through online species databases such as FishBase and SeaLifeBase and species occurrence records from OBIS or GBIF and using an environmental envelope model ( see niche modelling ) in conjunction with expert input . The underlying model represents a modified version of the relative environmental suitability ( RES ) model developed by Kristin Kaschner to generate global predictions of marine mammal occurrences . According to the AquaMaps website on August 2013 , the project held standardized distribution maps for over 17,300 species of fishes , marine mammals and invertebrates . The project is also expanding to incorporate freshwater species , with more than 600 biodiversity maps for freshwater fishes of the Americas available as at November 2009 . AquaMaps predictions have been validated successfully for a number of species using independent data sets and the model was shown to perform equally well or better than other standard species distribution models , when faced with the currently existing suboptimal input data sets . In addition to displaying individual maps per species , AquaMaps provides tools to generate species richness maps by higher taxon , plus a spatial search for all species overlapping a specified grid square . There is also the facility to create custom maps for any species via the web by modifying the input parameters and re-running the map generating algorithm in real time , and a variety of other tools including the investigation of effects of climate change on species distributions ( see relevant section of the AquaMaps search page ) .", "qid": "316", "docid": "AquaMaps", "rank": 70, "score": 77947 }, { "content": "Title: FORECAST (model) Content: FORECAST is a management-oriented , stand-level , forest-growth and ecosystem-dynamics model . The model was designed to accommodate a wide variety of silvicultural and harvesting systems and natural disturbance events ( e.g. , fire , wind , insect epidemics ) in order to compare and contrast their effect on forest productivity , stand dynamics , and a series of biophysical indicators of non-timber values .", "qid": "316", "docid": "FORECAST_(model)", "rank": 71, "score": 77908 }, { "content": "Title: Egain forecasting Content: Egain forecasting is a method of controlling building heating by calculating demand for heating energy that should be supplied to the building in each time unit . By combining physics of structures with meteorology , properties of the building , weather conditions including outdoor temperature , wind power and direction , as well as solar radiation can be taken into account . In the case of conventional heating control , only current outdoor temperature is considered . The starting point for developing the method of eGain forecasting was the ENLOSS mathematical energy balance model developed by Prof. Roger Taesler from Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute in cooperation with Thorbjörn Geiser and Stefan Berglund , who are currently both employed at eGain Sweden AB . Forecasting method began to be introduced to use in the late 1980s . Until 2010 inclusive , forecasting method has been introduced in nearly seven million square metres of floorage of residential buildings and commercial premises . Estimated data indicate 10 - 15 kWh/m2 reduction of average annual heat energy consumption . Since forecasting method contains information about future demand and is not in conflict with other methods of increasing energy efficiency , it is always a good foreground solution .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Egain_forecasting", "rank": 72, "score": 77799 }, { "content": "Title: Nested Grid Model Content: The Nested Grid Model ( usually known as NGM for short ) was a numerical weather prediction model run by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction , a division of the National Weather Service , in the United States . The NGM was , as its name suggested , derived from two levels of grids : a hemispheric-scale grid and a synoptic-scale grid , the latter of which had a resolution of approximately 90 kilometers . Its most notable feature was that it assumed the hydrostatic equation . The NGM debuted in 1987 , directly replacing the limited-area fine-mesh ( LFM ) model , which was immediately halted upon the NGM 's debut . The NGM was also used to create model output statistics . Development of the model stopped in 1993 . By 2000 , the model was seen as obsolete , particularly for mesoscale features that were not hydrostatic , and was scheduled to be superseded by the Global Forecast System ( GFS ) in 2001 . However , though the NGM ceased widespread use in the early 2000s due to the GFS and improvements in the Eta model ( later the North American Mesoscale Model ) , and the NGM 's short-range LAMP products were phased out in 2006 , NGM MOS products continued to be in significant general use ( alongside the Eta/NAM and GFS ) until March 3 , 2009 , when the NGM MOS products were finally discontinued .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Nested_Grid_Model", "rank": 73, "score": 77780 }, { "content": "Title: Normative model of decision-making Content: Victor Vroom , a professor at Yale University and a scholar on leadership and decision-making , developed the normative model of decision-making . Drawing upon literature from the areas of leadership , group decision-making , and procedural fairness , Vroom 's model predicts the effectiveness of decision-making procedures . Specifically , Vroom 's model takes into account the situation and the importance of the decision to determine which of Vroom 's five decision-making methods will be most effective .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Normative_model_of_decision-making", "rank": 74, "score": 77753 }, { "content": "Title: Forecasting (heating) Content: Forecasting is a method of controlling building heating by calculating demand for heating energy that should be supplied to the building in each time unit . By combining physics of structures with meteorology , properties of the building , weather conditions including outdoor temperature , wind power and direction , as well as solar radiation can be taken into account . In the case of conventional heating control , only current outdoor temperature is considered . The starting point for developing the method of forecasting was the ENLOSS mathematical energy balance model developed by Prof. Roger Taesler from Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute in cooperation with Thorbjörn Geiser and Stefan Berglund , who are currently both employed at eGain Sweden AB . Forecasting method began to be introduced to use in the late 1980s . Until 2010 inclusive , forecasting method has been introduced in nearly seven million square metres of floorage of residential buildings and commercial premises . Forecasting method is offered and developed by many companies and organizations . Estimated data indicate 10 - 15 kWh/m2 reduction of average annual heat energy consumption . Since forecasting method contains information about future demand and is not in conflict with other methods of increasing energy efficiency , it is always a good foreground solution .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Forecasting_(heating)", "rank": 75, "score": 77626 }, { "content": "Title: Longley–Rice model Content: The Longley -- Rice model ( LR ) is a radio propagation model : a method for predicting the attenuation of radio signals for a telecommunication link in the frequency range of 20 MHz to 20 GHz . Longley-Rice is also known as the irregular terrain model ( ITM ) . It was created for the needs of frequency planning in television broadcasting in the United States in the 1960s and was extensively used for preparing the tables of channel allocations for VHF/UHF broadcasting there . LR has two parts : a model for predictions over an area and a model for point-to-point link predictions .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Longley–Rice_model", "rank": 76, "score": 77612 }, { "content": "Title: DICE model Content: The Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy model , referred to as the DICE model or Dice model , is a computer-based integrated assessment model developed by William Nordhaus that `` integrates in an end-to-end fashion the economics , carbon cycle , climate science , and impacts in a highly aggregated model that allows a weighing of the costs and benefits of taking steps to slow greenhouse warming . '' Nordhaus also developed the RICE model ( Regional Integrated Climate-Economy model ) , a variant of the DICE model that was updated and developed alongside the DICE model . Others who collaborated with Nordhaus to develop the model include David Popp , Zili Yang , Joseph Boyer , and other colleagues . The DICE model is one of the three main integrated assessment models used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency , and it provides estimates intermediate between the other two models .", "qid": "316", "docid": "DICE_model", "rank": 77, "score": 77597 }, { "content": "Title: Adam Scaife Content: Adam Arthur Scaife B.A. M.A. MSc PhD FRMetS ( born 18 March 1970 ) is a British physicist , and head of long range prediction at the Met Office . He is an honorary visiting Professor at Exeter University . Scaife carries out research into long range weather forecasting and computer modelling of the climate . Scaife has published over 100 peer reviewed studies on atmospheric dynamics , computer modelling and climate predictability and change and recently published popular science and academic books on meteorology .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Adam_Scaife", "rank": 78, "score": 77280 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 79, "score": 77177 }, { "content": "Title: ERA-40 Content: ERA-40 is an ECMWF re-analysis of the global atmosphere and surface conditions for 45-years , over the period from September 1957 through August 2002 by ECMWF . Many sources of the meteorological observations were used , including radiosondes , balloons , aircraft , buoyes , satellites , scatterometers . This data was run through the ECMWF computer model at a 125 km resolution . As the ECMWF 's computer model is one of the more highly regarded in the field of forecasting , many scientists take its reanalysis to have similar merit . The data is stored in GRIB format . The reanalysis was done in an effort to improve the accuracy of historical weather maps and aid in a more detailed analysis of various weather systems through a period that was severely lacking in computerized data . With the data from reanalyses such as this , many of the more modern computerized tools for analyzing storm systems can be utilized , at least in part , because of this access to a computerized simulation of the atmospheric state .", "qid": "316", "docid": "ERA-40", "rank": 80, "score": 76961 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "316", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 81, "score": 76777 }, { "content": "Title: MOZART (model) Content: MOZART ( Model for OZone And Related chemical Tracers ) is a chemistry transport model ( CTM ) developed jointly by the ( US ) National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory ( GFDL ) , and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology ( MPI-Met ) to simulate changes in ozone concentrations in the Earth 's atmosphere . MOZART was designed to simulate tropospheric chemical and transport processes , but has been extended into the stratosphere and mesosphere . It can be driven by standard meteorological fields from , e.g. , the National Centers for Environmental Prediction ( NCEP ) the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ( ECMWF ) the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office ( DMAO ) or by fields generated from general circulation models .", "qid": "316", "docid": "MOZART_(model)", "rank": 82, "score": 76622 }, { "content": "Title: Integrated Forecast System Content: The Integrated Forecast System ( IFS ) is an operational global meteorological forecasting model . IFS is developed and maintained by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ( ECMWF ) based in Reading , England . Because of its source , it is often known as the `` ECMWF '' or the `` European model '' in North America , to distinguish it from the American Global Forecast System ( GFS ) . It is one of the predominant synoptic-scale medium-range models in general use worldwide ; its most prominent rivals in the 6 -- 10 day medium range include the GFS and the Canadian Global Environmental Multiscale Model ( GEM and GDPS ) . The IFS is a global model that runs every twelve hours . Its output runs out to fifteen days in one-day intervals ( although output is only made available to most members of the public out to 7 to 10 days , depending on the variable ) . The operational model runs both in a deterministic forecast mode and as a 51-member ensemble . The current deterministic mode has a horizontal resolution of 16 km while the ensemble prediction systems have resolutions of 32 and 64 km , and 137 layers in the vertical resolution in the deterministic compared to 91 layers in the ensemble ; both modes ' vertical layers follow terrain at low levels . The IFS , like the GFS , uses spectral representation rather than a grid-based system . Because the IFS only offers output on a day-by-day interval , each individual ECMWF member country typically runs its own synoptic-scale forecast for the shorter ranges of 5 days or less , separate from the IFS , with smaller time intervals ( examples include the French ARPEGE , British Unified Model and German GME/ICON ) . In contrast to the GEM/GDPS ( which is copyrighted but freely licensed ) and the GFS ( which is public domain ) , the ECMWF 's proprietary data and forecasts are heavily restricted and require a licence for most output . A limited amount of the IFS 's output is released freely to the public and licenced under a Creative Commons licence that prohibits commercial usage or derivative works .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Integrated_Forecast_System", "rank": 83, "score": 76556 }, { "content": "Title: Predictive Model Markup Language Content: The Predictive Model Markup Language ( PMML ) is an XML-based predictive model interchange format conceived by Dr. Robert Lee Grossman , then the director of the National Center for Data Mining at the University of Illinois at Chicago . PMML provides a way for analytic applications to describe and exchange predictive models produced by data mining and machine learning algorithms . It supports common models such as logistic regression and feedforward neural networks . Version 0.9 was published in 1998 . Subsequent versions have been developed by the Data Mining Group . Since PMML is an XML-based standard , the specification comes in the form of an XML schema . PMML itself is a mature standard with over 30 organizations having announced products supporting PMML .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Predictive_Model_Markup_Language", "rank": 84, "score": 76519 }, { "content": "Title: HIRLAM Content: HIRLAM , the High Resolution Limited Area Model , is a Numerical Weather Prediction ( NWP ) forecast system developed by the international HIRLAM programme .", "qid": "316", "docid": "HIRLAM", "rank": 85, "score": 76451 }, { "content": "Title: Bradley–Terry model Content: The Bradley -- Terry model is a probability model that can predict the outcome of a comparison . Given a pair of individuals and drawn from some population , it estimates the probability that the pairwise comparison turns out true , as where is a positive real-valued score assigned to individual . The comparison can be read as '' is preferred to '' , '' ranks higher than '' , or '' beats '' , depending on the application . For example , may represent the skill of a team in a sports tournament , estimated from the number of times has won a match . then represents the probability that will win a match against . Another example used to explain the model 's purpose is that of scoring products in a certain category by quality . While it 's hard for a person to draft a direct ranking of ( many ) brands of wine , it may be feasible to compare a sample of pairs of wines and say , for each pair , which one is better . The Bradley -- Terry model can then be used to derive a full ranking .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Bradley–Terry_model", "rank": 86, "score": 76363 }, { "content": "Title: Predictive state representation Content: In computer science , a predictive state representation ( PSR ) is a way to model a state of controlled dynamical system from a history of actions taken and resulting observations . PSR captures the state of a system as a vector of predictions for future tests ( experiments ) that can be done on the system . A test is a sequence of action-observation pairs and its prediction is the probability of the test 's observation - sequence happening if the test 's action-sequence were to be executed on the system . One of the advantage of using PSR is that the predictions are directly related to observable quantities . This is in contrast to other models of dynamical systems , such as partially observable Markov decision processes ( POMDPs ) where the state of the system is represented as a probability distribution over unobserved nominal states .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Predictive_state_representation", "rank": 87, "score": 76347 }, { "content": "Title: Forecast by analogy Content: Forecast by analogy is a forecasting method that assumes that two different kinds of phenomena share the same model of behaviour . For example , one way to predict the sales of a new product is to choose an existing product which `` looks like '' the new product in terms of the expected demand pattern for sales of the product . `` Used with care , an analogy is a form of scientific model that can be used to analyze and explain the behavior of other phenomena . '' According some experts , research has shown that the careful application of analogies improves the accuracy of the forecast .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Forecast_by_analogy", "rank": 88, "score": 76344 }, { "content": "Title: Erosion prediction Content: There are dozens of erosion prediction models . Some models focus on long-term ( natural or geological ) erosion , as a component of landscape evolution . However , many erosion models were developed to quantify the effects of accelerated soil erosion i.e. soil erosion as influenced by human activity . Most soil erosion models consider only soil erosion by water , however a few aim to predict wind erosion . Models which consider tillage erosion are rare . Also soil erosion models have been more commonly developed for use on agricultural landscapes , rather than on naturally vegetated areas ( such as rangeland or forests ) . A few erosion models focus on erosion on mined areas . The aim of the majority of soil erosion models is to predict average rates ( often an annual average rate ) of soil loss from an area such as a plot , a field or a catchment/watershed under various land management techniques . Some erosion models are purely statistical , others more mechanistic ( or physically based ) . Two of the more widely used soil erosion models in North America are the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation ( RUSLE ) and the Water Erosion Prediction Project erosion model ( WEPP ) . Much of the mineland erosion literature is solely focused on fitting or improving RUSLE parameters . Few soil erosion models consider gully erosion , mostly due to difficulties in modelling these large erosional features . Several studies have evaluated the ability of soil erosion models to realistically predict measured rates of erosion , mainly on agricultural landscapes . There is often a wide discrepancy between predicted and observed erosion rates . Thus soil erosion models are still better as research tools than as public policy and regulatory instruments or for prescriptive design measures for constructed landforms . However soil erosion models may provide useful guidance for the design engineer if adequately calibrated and verified for local conditions and if the design accounts for the uncertainty . Most erosion modelling is applied to existing sites of known topography and material properties to guide land management activities . Designers of constructed landforms , however , have considerable control over the topography , cover soil placement , initial revegetation , and to a lesser extent the substrate properties -- flexibility that is generally uneconomical for farmers and ranchers and most users of erosion models . On the other hand , miners have little input into post-closure land use practices and management . Methods to estimate erosion rates include : purely statistical models subjectively determined erosion rates using expert judgement combined with a database of erosion rates of natural and reclaimed sites ( natural and industrial analogs ) surveying of existing erosional or depositional features of known age ( or as determined by dating of deposits ) to determine average erosion rates . Analysis of historical aerial photographs is often employed . site-specific empirical models that relate slope , watershed size , and rainfall empirical and semi-empirical or deterministic models based on laboratory and field flume measurements of erosion under simulated rainfall or flow conditions physically based gully erosion models landform and landscape scale models , often GIS-based , that apply erosion mechanics or statistical relationships to predict changes in topography and erosion rates sediment-budget models based on watershed monitoring .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Erosion_prediction", "rank": 89, "score": 76148 }, { "content": "Title: Economic Confidence Model Content: The Economic Confidence Model is an economic cycle theory by Martin A. Armstrong . Armstrong proposes that economic waves occur every 8.6 years , or 3141 days , which approximately Pi X 1000 . At the end of each cycle is a crisis after which the economic climate improves until the next 8.6 year crisis point . The model has been profiled in The New Yorker , Time magazine , Financial Times and Barrons due to what appeared to be accurate predictions .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Economic_Confidence_Model", "rank": 90, "score": 75867 }, { "content": "Title: GME of Deutscher Wetterdienst Content: GME - operational global numerical weather prediction model of the German Weather Service . The model is on almost uniform icosahedral-hexagonal grid . The GME gridpoint approach avoids the disadvantages of spectral techniques as well as the pole problem in latitude -- longitude grids and provides a data structure well suited to high efficiency on distributed memory parallel computers . The GME 's approach to a global grid would later be utilized by the Flow-following , finite-volume Icosahedral Model ( FIM ) , an experimental model currently in development in the United States .", "qid": "316", "docid": "GME_of_Deutscher_Wetterdienst", "rank": 91, "score": 75488 }, { "content": "Title: Matchless Model 7 Content: The Matchless Model 7 is a British ` touring ' motorcycle designed and made by Harry and Charlie Collier . Based on the proven 85mm x 85mm JAP V-twin engine , the Model 7 had a two-speed transmission with a hub gear and an epicyclic gear for the low ratio , with a friction band clutch operated by a hand lever at the side of the fuel tank . Problems with unreliable belt drive were addressed by having two belts side by side , so when the first broke , the second would still work . The 770cc engine was started like a moped with pedals , and a small lever on the end of the silencer could be used to eject smoke and sparks . The paintwork was all done by hand in page grey with a forest-green panelled tank lined in gold pinstriping . Matchless also produced a three-speed model that had a variable pulley and a moveable rear wheel , similar to the Zenith Gradua . Production was limited however , and after 1912 they concentrated on making their own engines until the First World War stopped production .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Matchless_Model_7", "rank": 92, "score": 75210 }, { "content": "Title: Forecast verification Content: Forecast verification is a subfield of the climate , atmospheric and ocean sciences dealing with validating , verifying and determining the predictive power of prognostic model forecasts . Because of the complexity of these models , forecast verification goes a good deal beyond simple measures of statistical association or mean error calculations .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Forecast_verification", "rank": 93, "score": 74979 }, { "content": "Title: Explorer 7 Content: Explorer 7 was launched October 13 , 1959 at 10:36 a.m. Eastern Time by a Juno II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to an orbit of 573 km by 1073 km and inclination of 50.27 ° . It was designed to measure solar x-ray and Lyman-alpha flux , trapped energetic particles , and heavy primary cosmic rays . Also Secondary objectives included collecting data on micrometeoroid penetration and molecular sputtering and studying the Earth-atmosphere heat balance . Launch was originally scheduled for late September 1959 , but the mission was delayed for a week after a Jupiter IRBM test on an adjacent pad failed shortly after liftoff , causing flying debris to hit Explorer 7 's launch vehicle . However , the damage to the booster was minor and could be easily repaired . Significantly , it also carried Verner Suomi 's flat-plate radiometer , improved with the help of Robert Parent , that took the first Earth radiation budget measurements from space and initiated the era of satellite studies of the climate . Using both satellite observations of the Earth 's heat balance and atmospheric cooling rates measured by net flux radiosondes , Suomi established the important role played by clouds in absorbing radiated solar energy . These observations established that Earth 's energy budget varies markedly due to the effect of clouds , the surface albedo , and other absorbing constituents . Using these instruments , Suomi and his team discovered that the Earth absorbed more of the Sun 's energy than originally thought and demonstrated that it was possible to measure and quantify seasonal changes in the global heat budget . The satellite weighed 41.5 kg , was 75 cm high and 75 cm wide . Powered by solar cells it also carried 15 nickel-cadmium batteries around its equator . It transmitted data continuously through to February 1961 and went dead on August 24 , 1961 . It is still in orbit .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Explorer_7", "rank": 94, "score": 74809 }, { "content": "Title: 7H Content: 7H or 7-H can refer to : A-7H , a model of LTV A-7 Corsair II 7H-benz ( de ) anthracene-7-one , or Benzanthrone 7H , a model of SET 7 floatplanes MD 7H , see Maryland Route 7 Controlled duplicate IATA code for Corendon Airlines and Era Alaska", "qid": "316", "docid": "7H", "rank": 95, "score": 74735 }, { "content": "Title: Predictive coding Content: Predictive coding models suggest that the brain is constantly generating and updating hypotheses that predict sensory input at varying levels of abstraction . This framework is in contrast to more mainstream views of the brain as integrating exteroceptive information through a predominantly feedforward process , with feedback connections playing a more minor role in cortical processing .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Predictive_coding", "rank": 96, "score": 74533 }, { "content": "Title: 7Y Content: 7Y or 7-Y may refer to : 7 years 7Y , the IATA airline code for the Latvian company Med Airways Ford 7Y , a Ford model built in the United Kingdom between 1938 and 1939", "qid": "316", "docid": "7Y", "rank": 97, "score": 74495 }, { "content": "Title: McKinsey 7S Framework Content: The McKinsey 7S Framework is a management model developed by well-known business consultants Robert H. Waterman , Jr. and Tom Peters ( who also developed the MBWA -- `` Management By Walking Around '' motif , and authored In Search of Excellence ) in the 1980s . This was a strategic vision for groups , to include businesses , business units , and teams . The 7 Ss are structure , strategy , systems , skills , style , staff and shared values . The model is most often used as an organizational analysis tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization . The model is based on the theory that , for an organization to perform well , these seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing . So , the model can be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance , or to maintain alignment ( and performance ) during other types of change . Whatever the type of change -- restructuring , new processes , organizational merger , new systems , change of leadership , and so on -- the model can be used to understand how the organizational elements are interrelated , and so ensure that the wider impact of changes made in one area is taken into consideration .", "qid": "316", "docid": "McKinsey_7S_Framework", "rank": 98, "score": 74336 }, { "content": "Title: Masao Kanamitsu Content: Masao Kanamitsu ( November 6 , 1943 in Kumamoto , Japan -- August 17 , 2011 in Del Mar , California ) - was Japanese and American atmospheric scientist working in the field of data assimilation . His research greatly influenced global and regional climate change studies including development of breakthrough reanalysis and downscaling datasets and weather forecasting studies . He was the co-author of one of the most cited geophysics paper in his time . Kanamitsu was born in 1943 and was raised in Sapporo . He did his B.S. and M. Sc . in 1968 at Hokkaido University , Japan and M.Sc . and Ph. D. in 1975 at Florida State University . He was one of the large group of Japanese scientists who after the World War II greatly contributed to the development of the dynamic meteorology in the US and in the World including Syukuro Manabe , Taroh Matsuno , Kikuro Miyakoda , and Akio Arakawa . He served as a Forecaster at Japan Meteorological Agency , as a leader of the Global Modeling Branch , Development Division , and later as an Acting Chief of the Prediction Branch at the Climate Prediction Center of the National Meteorological Center . In 2001 he moved to Scripps Institution of Oceanography where he worked to the rest of his life . He had a group of young researchers working with him . Kanamitsu was instrumental in creating one of the most successful datasets used in global change studies - the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis for which he received a Group Gold Medal from the Department of Commerce in 1997 . His 1996 reanalysis paper is one of the most celebrated paper in atmospheric science and geosciences - at the time of his death this paper was cited 7985 times . His publications report ambitious , multiyear in making , and extensive project to develop regional-scale climate change dataset based on the NCEP -- NCAR reanalysis for the period 1948 -- 2005 . This downscaling paved the way for local scale understanding of climate changes . In he worked out a problem of how to produce meteorological dataset such as winds , pressures , or temperature on fine scale ( say every 10 km ) if the measurements are performed every 200 km . This led to a concept of dynamical downscaling of climate analysis using regional models . He served as an editor for the Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan ( 1980 -- 1985 ) and the Monthly Weather Review ( 1991 -- 1993 ) . He was active scientifically to the end of his very productive life . At the time of his death he was a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography where in relatively short time of about 10 years he wrote 35 papers . Kanamitsu was survived by his wife Mariko and he had daughter Tomoko . He enjoyed hiking in various mountain ranges around Japan , United States and Europe . He loved dogs . He received Meteorological Society of Japan award in 1983 . He was known as Kana among his friends .", "qid": "316", "docid": "Masao_Kanamitsu", "rank": 99, "score": 74088 }, { "content": "Title: David Carson (climatologist) Content: David John Carson is a climatologist . He has been director of the Hadley Centre ( around 1990-1996 ) , director of Numerical Weather Prediction at the UKMO ( around 1999-2000 ) , and was director of the World Climate Research Programme from 2000-2005 . Carson joined the UK Meteorological Office in 1969 , following his Ph.D from the Department of Applied Mathematics , University of Liverpool , working on the structure and evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer . He did early research on the development of atmospheric general circulation models . In 1982 , he was appointed to Assistant Director within the Met Office , and led the Boundary Layer Research Branch and later the Dynamical Climatology Branch . For 1987 -- 1989 Carson was seconded to the Natural Environment Research Council ( NERC ) as their first Programme Director for atmospheric sciences . He returned to the Met . Office in January 1990 and became Director of Climate Research and then first Director of the Hadley Centre .", "qid": "316", "docid": "David_Carson_(climatologist)", "rank": 100, "score": 74073 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Tropical rain belt Content: Rainfall and the tropical climate dominate the tropical rain belt , which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year , roughly following the solar equator . The tropical rain belt is an area of active rain that is positioned mostly around the tropics . According to the website Journey North , the reason the rain belt is situated near the tropics can be attributed to the fact that most of the sun 's radiation is directed toward the equator , which is located in the middle of the tropics . This solar radiation generates large amounts of heat near the equator providing tropical regions with higher temperatures than most other regions on Earth . With all this solar radiation , the air around the tropics begins to warm up . Because hot air is less dense than cold air , the hot air rises into the upper levels of the atmosphere and as a result , cold air filters down into the lower levels of the atmosphere . The dynamics that provide the tropics with the rain belt are founded on the principal that warmer air is able to retain more moisture than colder air . When the colder air replaces the warmer air in the lower atmosphere , the abundant moisture from the tropics loses the ability to be stored in the atmosphere . As a result , the excess moisture that can not be held by the colder air is then turned into thunderstorms and rain showers . These thunderstorms and rain showers are usually located along the equator , but they will extend out to the Tropic of Cancer , which is the 23.5 north latitude , as well as the Tropic of Capricorn , which is the 23.5 south latitude . It is largely a manifestation of the ITCH ( incorrect citation ) . The tropical rain belt lies in the southern hemisphere of the Indian ocean and western Pacific ocean roughly from October to March , and during this time the northern tropics experience a dry season in which precipitation is very rare , and days are typically hot and sunny throughout . From April to September , the rain belt lies in the northern hemisphere , and a wet season occurs there , while the southern tropics experience their dry season . The rain belt reaches roughly as far north as the Tropic of Cancer and as far south as the Tropic of Capricorn in the western Pacific ocean . Its variation in the Western Hemisphere is minimal , roughly between the equator and the 15th parallel north latitude . Near these latitudes , there is one wet season and one dry season annually . On the equator , there are two wet and two dry seasons as the rain belt passes over twice a year , one moving north and one moving south . Between the tropics and the equator , locations may experience both a short wet and a long wet season . Local geography may substantially modify these climate patterns .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_rain_belt", "rank": 1, "score": 154154 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "319", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 2, "score": 139077 }, { "content": "Title: Precipitation Content: In meteorology , precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity . The main forms of precipitation include drizzle , rain , sleet , snow , graupel and hail . Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor , so that the water condenses and `` precipitates '' . Thus , fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions , because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate . Two processes , possibly acting together , can lead to air becoming saturated : cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air . Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud . Short , intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called `` showers . '' Moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain . This process is typically active when freezing rain is occurring . A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain and serves as the foci for forcing and rising air . Provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content , the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds , namely stratus and cumulonimbus . Eventually , the cloud droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops and descend toward the Earth where they will freeze on contact with exposed objects . Where relatively warm water bodies are present , for example due to water evaporation from lakes , lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones . Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy . Thundersnow is possible within a cyclone 's comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands . In mountainous areas , heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation . On the leeward side of mountains , desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating . The movement of the monsoon trough , or intertropical convergence zone , brings rainy seasons to savannah climes . Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle , and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet . Approximately 505000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year ; 398000 km3 of it over the oceans and 107000 km3 over land . Given the Earth 's surface area , that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 mm , but over land it is only 715 mm . Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes . Precipitation may occur on other celestial bodies , e.g. when it gets cold , Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost , rather than rain or snow .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Precipitation", "rank": 3, "score": 136108 }, { "content": "Title: Inflow (meteorology) Content: Inflow is the flow of a fluid into a large collection of that fluid . Within meteorology , inflow normally refers to the influx of warmth and moisture from air within the Earth 's atmosphere into storm systems . Extratropical cyclones are fed by inflow focused along their cold front and warm fronts . Tropical cyclones require a large inflow of warmth and moisture from warm oceans in order to develop significantly , mainly within the lowest 1 km of the atmosphere . Once the flow of warm and moist air is cut off from thunderstorms and their associated tornadoes , normally by the thunderstorm 's own rain-cooled outflow boundary , the storms begin to dissipate . Rear inflow jets behind squall lines act to erode the broad rain shield behind the squall line , and accelerate its forward motion .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Inflow_(meteorology)", "rank": 4, "score": 131423 }, { "content": "Title: Moisture advection Content: Moisture advection is the horizontal transport of water vapor by the wind . Measurement and knowledge of atmospheric water vapor , or `` moisture '' , is crucial in the prediction of all weather elements , especially clouds , fog , temperature , humidity thermal comfort indices and precipitation .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Moisture_advection", "rank": 5, "score": 131355 }, { "content": "Title: Brown ocean effect Content: The brown ocean effect is an observed weather phenomenon where tropical cyclones , which are commonly expected to lose energy when they make landfall , instead maintain strength or intensify over land surfaces . While these systems are highly common in the United States and China , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) names Australia the most conducive environment after 30 years of research . In Australia such storm systems are called agukabams . One source of the brown ocean effect has been identified as the large amount of latent heat that can be released from extremely wet soils . A 2013 NASA study found that , from 1979-2008 , 45 of 227 tropical storms either gained or maintained strength after making landfall . The press release stated , `` The land essentially mimics the moisture-rich environment of the ocean , where the storm originated . '' Originally , countless research devoted to extratropical cyclones , storms that first derive energy from the warm ocean waters and later from the conjecture of various air masses , explained the intensification of storms after landfall . However , as research into these storms persists , Anderson and Shepherd , the two leading scientists behind the NASA study , discovered that some of these storms were not transitioning from warm-core to cold-core but were actually maintaining their warm-core dynamics , while ultimately outputting a greater measure of rainfall . In order for the brown ocean effect to take place , three land conditions must be met : `` First , the lower level of the atmosphere mimics a tropical atmosphere with minimal variation in temperature . Second , soils in the vicinity of the storms need to contain ample moisture . Finally , evaporation of the soil moisture releases latent heat , which the team found must measure at least 70 watts averaged per square meter . '' Storm systems impacted by the brown ocean effect gave rise to a new sub-category of tropical storm type called Tropical Cyclone Maintenance and Intensification Event or TCMI . Another study concluded that latent surface heat flux from land surfaces actually have the potential to be larger than from the ocean , albeit for brief periods only . Anderson and Shepherd are also examining the effects of climate change on TCMIs , looking into the potential intensification of these storms due to increase or decrease in the degree of wetness and dryness in areas susceptible to these systems .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Brown_ocean_effect", "rank": 6, "score": 130863 }, { "content": "Title: Western Disturbance Content: A Western Disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent . It is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern driven by the westerlies . The moisture in these storms usually originates over the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean . Extratropical storms are a global phenomena with moisture usually carried in the upper atmosphere , unlike their tropical counterparts where the moisture is carried in the lower atmosphere . In the case of the subcontinent , moisture is sometimes shed as rain when the storm system encounters the Himalayas . Western Disturbances are important for the development of the Rabi crop , which includes the locally important staple wheat .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Western_Disturbance", "rank": 7, "score": 130805 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical cyclogenesis Content: Tropical cyclogenesis is the development and strengthening of a tropical cyclone in the atmosphere . The mechanisms through which tropical cyclogenesis occurs are distinctly different from those through which mid-latitude cyclogenesis occurs . Tropical cyclogenesis involves the development of a warm-core cyclone , due to significant convection in a favorable atmospheric environment . There are six main requirements for tropical cyclogenesis : sufficiently warm sea surface temperatures , atmospheric instability , high humidity in the lower to middle levels of the troposphere , enough Coriolis force to develop a low pressure center , a preexisting low level focus or disturbance , and low vertical wind shear . Tropical cyclones tend to develop during the summer , but have been noted in nearly every month in most basins . Climate cycles such as ENSO and the Madden -- Julian oscillation modulate the timing and frequency of tropical cyclone development . There is a limit on tropical cyclone intensity which is strongly related to the water temperatures along its path . An average of 86 tropical cyclones of tropical storm intensity form annually worldwide . Of those , 47 reach hurricane/typhoon strength , and 20 become intense tropical cyclones ( at least Category 3 intensity on the Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale ) .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_cyclogenesis", "rank": 8, "score": 130282 }, { "content": "Title: Held-Hou Model Content: The Held-Hou Model is a model for the Hadley circulation of the atmosphere that would exist in the absence of atmospheric turbulence . The model was developed by Isaac Held and Arthur Hou in 1980 . The essence of the model is that air rising from the surface at the equator conserves its angular momentum as it moves poleward . This distribution of wind , in turn , determines the distribution of temperature , which determines the latitudinal extent of the circulation by requiring energy conservation . This stands in contrast to George Hadley 's original conception of the circulation , which he argued reached the poles . The Hadley circulation has a cooling effect at and near the equator and a warming effect at higher latitudes within the Hadley Cell . This energy transport can be converted into a mass transport , to determine the strength of the circulation , by normalizing by the appropriate vertical stability . The effects of moisture and seasons on the model have been studied . Earth 's atmosphere violates the underlying assumptions of the model : angular momentum is not conserved and the tropical atmosphere is not energetically closed . As such , the Held-Hou model is a conceptual model that does not make quantitatively accurate predictions of the sensitivity of the Hadley circulation to changes in atmospheric parameters .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Held-Hou_Model", "rank": 9, "score": 129153 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 10, "score": 129118 }, { "content": "Title: Polar High Content: The polar highs are areas of high atmospheric pressure around the north and south poles ; the north polar high being the stronger one because land gains and loses heat more effectively than sea . The cold temperatures in the polar regions cause air to descend to create the high pressure ( a process called subsidence ) , just as the warm temperatures around the equator cause air to rise to create the low pressure intertropical convergence zone . Rising air also occurs along bands of low pressure situated just below the polar highs around the 50th parallels of latitude . These extratropical convergence zones are occupied by the polar fronts where air masses of polar origin meet and clash with those of tropical or subtropical origin . This convergence of rising air completes the vertical cycle around the polar cell in each latitudinal hemisphere . Closely related to this concept is the polar vortex . Surface temperatures under the polar highs are the coldest on Earth , with no month having an average temperature above freezing . Regions under the polar high also experience very low levels of precipitation , which leads them to be known as `` polar deserts '' . Air flows outwards from the poles to create the polar easterlies in the arctic and antarctic areas .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Polar_High", "rank": 11, "score": 126630 }, { "content": "Title: Outline of tropical cyclones Content: The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to tropical cyclones : Tropical cyclone -- storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain . Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises , resulting in condensation of water vapor contained in the moist air . They are fueled by a different heat mechanism than other cyclonic windstorms such as nor'easter s , European windstorms , and polar lows . The characteristic that separates tropical cyclones from other cyclonic systems is that at any height in the atmosphere , the center of a tropical cyclone will be warmer than its surroundings ; a phenomenon called `` warm core '' storm systems .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Outline_of_tropical_cyclones", "rank": 12, "score": 125242 }, { "content": "Title: Humidity Content: Humidity is the amount of water vapor present in the air . Water vapor is the gaseous state of water and is invisible to the human eye . Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation , dew , or fog . Higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of moisture from the skin . This effect is calculated in a heat index table or humidex . The amount of water vapor that is needed to achieve saturation increases as the temperature increases . As the temperature of a parcel of water becomes lower it will eventually reach the point of saturation without adding or losing water mass . The differences in the amount of water vapor in a parcel of air can be quite large . For example , a parcel of air that is near saturation may contain 28 grams of water per cubic meter of air at 30 ° C , but only 8 grams of water per cubic meter of air at 8 ° C. There are three main measurements of humidity : absolute , relative and specific . Absolute humidity is the water content of air expressed in gram per cubic meter . Relative humidity , expressed as a percent , measures the current absolute humidity relative to the maximum ( highest point ) for that temperature . Specific humidity is the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the total mass of the moist air parcel .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Humidity", "rank": 13, "score": 124809 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane dynamics and cloud microphysics Content: Tropical convective clouds play an important part in the Earth 's climate system . Convection and release of latent heat transports energy from the surface into the upper atmosphere . Clouds have a higher albedo than the underlying ocean , which causes more incoming solar radiation to be reflected back to space . Since the tops of tropical systems are much cooler than the surface of the Earth , the presence of high convective clouds cools the climate system . The most recognizable cloud system in the tropics is the hurricane . In addition to the important climatic effects of tropical weather systems , hurricanes possess enough energy to cause massive death and destruction . Therefore , their accurate prediction is of utmost importance . Cloud microphysics describe the structure and properties of clouds on the microscopic scale .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Hurricane_dynamics_and_cloud_microphysics", "rank": 14, "score": 123121 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric circulation Content: Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air , and together with ocean circulation is the means by which thermal energy is redistributed on the surface of the Earth . The Earth 's atmospheric circulation varies from year to year , but the large scale structure of its circulation remains fairly constant . The smaller scale weather systems -- mid-latitude depressions , or tropical convective cells -- occur `` randomly '' , and long range weather predictions of those can not be made beyond ten days in practice , or a month in theory ( see Chaos theory and Butterfly effect ) . The Earth 's weather is a consequence of its illumination by the Sun , and the laws of thermodynamics . The atmospheric circulation can be viewed as a heat engine driven by the Sun 's energy , and whose energy sink , ultimately , is the blackness of space . The work produced by that engine causes the motion of the masses of air and in that process it redistributes the energy absorbed by the Earth 's surface near the tropics to space and incidentally to the latitudes nearer the poles . The large scale atmospheric circulation `` cells '' shift polewards in warmer periods ( for example , interglacials compared to glacials ) , but remain largely constant as they are , fundamentally , a property of the Earth 's size , rotation rate , heating and atmospheric depth , all of which change little . Over very long time periods ( hundreds of millions of years ) , a tectonic uplift can significantly alter their major elements , such as the jet stream , and plate tectonics may shift ocean currents . During the extremely hot climates of the Mesozoic , a third desert belt may have existed at the Equator .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmospheric_circulation", "rank": 15, "score": 122595 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric temperature Content: Atmospheric temperature is a measure of temperature at different levels of the Earth 's atmosphere . It is governed by many factors , including incoming solar radiation , humidity and altitude . When discussing surface temperature , the annual atmospheric temperature range at any geographical location depends largely upon the type of biome , as measured by the Köppen climate classification .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmospheric_temperature", "rank": 16, "score": 121095 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric moisture extraction Content: Atmospheric moisture extraction removes water vapor from air for drinking , cleaning , and other uses . Some foggy neighborhoods in Lima , Peru are using `` fog nets '' to harvest moisture as an alternative to scarce natural rainfall . Two famous fictional depictions are the moisture farms of Tatooine seen throughout the Star Wars films , and the `` windtraps '' described in the book Dune of Frank Herbert .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmospheric_moisture_extraction", "rank": 17, "score": 121049 }, { "content": "Title: Hadley cell Content: The Hadley cell , named after George Hadley , is a global scale tropical atmospheric circulation that features air rising near the equator , flowing poleward at 10 -- 15 kilometers above the surface , descending in the subtropics , and then returning equatorward near the surface . This circulation creates the trade winds , tropical rain-belts and hurricanes , subtropical deserts and the jet streams . In each hemisphere , there is one primary circulation cell known as a Hadley cell and two secondary circulation cells at higher latitudes , between 30 ° and 60 ° latitude known as the Ferrel cell , and beyond 60 ° as the Polar cell . Each Hadley cell operates between zero and 30 to 40 degrees north and south and is mainly responsible for the weather in the equatorial regions of the world .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Hadley_cell", "rank": 18, "score": 120721 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric river Content: An atmospheric river is a narrow corridor or filament of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere . Atmospheric rivers consist of narrow bands of enhanced water vapor transport , typically along the boundaries between large areas of divergent surface air flow , including some frontal zones in association with extratropical cyclones that form over the oceans . Pineapple Express storms are the most commonly represented and recognized type of atmospheric rivers ; they are given the name due to the warm water vapor plumes originating over the Hawaiian tropics that follow a path towards California . The term was originally coined by researchers Reginald Newell and Yong Zhu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1990s , to reflect the narrowness of the moisture plumes involved . Atmospheric rivers are typically several thousand kilometers long and only a few hundred kilometers wide , and a single one can carry a greater flux of water than the Earth 's largest river , the Amazon River . There are typically 3 -- 5 of these narrow plumes present within a hemisphere at any given time . In the current research field of atmospheric rivers the length and width factors described above in conjunction with an integrated water vapor depth greater than 2.0 cm are used as standards to categorize atmospheric river events . However , as data modeling techniques progress , integrated water vapor transport ( IVT ) is becoming a more common data type used to interpret atmospheric rivers . Its strength lies in its ability to show the transportation of water vapor over multiple time steps instead of a stagnant measurement of water vapor depth in a specific air column ( IWV ) . In addition IVT is more directly attributed to orographic precipitation , a key factor in the production of intense rainfall and subsequent flooding . Atmospheric rivers have a central role in the global water cycle . On any given day , atmospheric rivers account for over 90 % of the global meridional ( north-south ) water vapor transport , yet they cover less than 10 % of the Earth 's circumference . They also are the major cause of extreme precipitation events that cause severe flooding in many mid-latitude , westerly coastal regions of the world , including the West Coast of North America , Western Europe , and the west coast of North Africa . The significance atmospheric rivers have for the control of coastal water budgets juxtaposed against their creation of detrimental floods can be constructed and studied by looking at California and the surrounding coastal region of the western United States . In this region atmospheric rivers have contributed 30-50 % of total annual rainfall . In conjunction Californian land falling Atmospheric Rivers have been historically associated with approximately all major flooding events . The inconsistency of California 's rainfall is due to the variability in strength and quantity of these storms , which can produce strenuous effects on California 's water budget . The factors described above make California a perfect case study to show the importance of proper water management and prediction of these storms . __ NOTOC __", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmospheric_river", "rank": 19, "score": 120608 }, { "content": "Title: Rain Content: Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then precipitated -- that is , become heavy enough to fall under gravity . Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth . It provides suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems , as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation . The major cause of rain production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts . If enough moisture and upward motion is present , precipitation falls from convective clouds ( those with strong upward vertical motion ) such as cumulonimbus ( thunder clouds ) which can organize into narrow rainbands . In mountainous areas , heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation which forces moist air to condense and fall out as rainfall along the sides of mountains . On the leeward side of mountains , desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by downslope flow which causes heating and drying of the air mass . The movement of the monsoon trough , or intertropical convergence zone , brings rainy seasons to savannah climes . The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall , both in amounts and intensity , downwind of cities . Global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally , including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics . Antarctica is the driest continent . The globally averaged annual precipitation over land is 715 mm , but over the whole Earth it is much higher at 990 mm . Climate classification systems such as the Köppen classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes . Rainfall is measured using rain gauges . Rainfall amounts can be estimated by weather radar . Rain is also known or suspected on other planets , where it may be composed of methane , neon , sulfuric acid , or even iron rather than water .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Rain", "rank": 20, "score": 120414 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical cyclone Content: A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center , a closed low-level atmospheric circulation , strong winds , and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain . Depending on its location and strength , a tropical cyclone is referred to by names such as hurricane ( -LSB- ˈhʌrᵻkən -RSB- or -LSB- ˈhʌrᵻkeɪn -RSB- ) , typhoon -LSB- taɪ ` fuːn -RSB- , tropical storm , cyclonic storm , tropical depression , and simply cyclone . A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean , a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean , and a cyclone occurs in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean . Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm water . They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean surface , which ultimately recondenses into clouds and rain when moist air rises and cools to saturation . This energy source differs from that of mid-latitude cyclonic storms , such as nor'easter s and European windstorms , which are fueled primarily by horizontal temperature contrasts . The strong rotating winds of a tropical cyclone are a result of the conservation of angular momentum imparted by the Earth 's rotation as air flows inwards toward the axis of rotation . As a result , they rarely form within 5 ° of the equator . Tropical cyclones are typically between 100 and in diameter . Tropical refers to the geographical origin of these systems , which form almost exclusively over tropical seas . Cyclone refers to their cyclonic nature , with wind blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere . The opposite direction of circulation is due to the Coriolis effect . In addition to strong winds and rain , tropical cyclones are capable of generating high waves , damaging storm surge , and tornadoes . They typically weaken rapidly over land where they are cut off from their primary energy source . For this reason , coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to damage from a tropical cyclone as compared to inland regions . Heavy rains , however , can cause significant flooding inland , and storm surges can produce extensive coastal flooding up to 40 km from the coastline . Though their effects on human populations are often devastating , tropical cyclones can relieve drought conditions . They also carry heat energy away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes , which may play an important role in modulating regional and global climate .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_cyclone", "rank": 21, "score": 119597 }, { "content": "Title: Sea surface temperature Content: Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans . Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Sea_surface_temperature", "rank": 22, "score": 119143 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Atmosphere Ocean project Content: The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean ( TAO ) project is a major international effort that instrumented the entire tropical Pacific Ocean with approximately 70 deep ocean moorings . The development of the TAO array in 1985 was motivated by the 1982-1983 El Niño event and ultimately designed for the study of year-to-year climate variations related to El Niño and the Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) . Led by the TAO Project Office of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory ( PMEL ) , the full array of 70 moorings was completed in 1994 . The completed TAO array provides in-situ data collection of high quality oceanographic and surface meteorological data for monitoring , forecasting , and understanding of climate swings associated with El Niño and La Nina . In January 2000 , the TAO array was renamed the TAO/TRITON array in recognition of the contribution made by the TRITON ( Triangle Trans-Ocean Buoy Network ) moorings . The TRITON moorings are situated along , and to the west of , 156E and are operated and managed by JAMSTEC .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_Atmosphere_Ocean_project", "rank": 23, "score": 118194 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric convection Content: Atmospheric convection is the result of a parcel-environment instability , or temperature difference , layer in the atmosphere . Different lapse rates within dry and moist air lead to instability . Mixing of air during the day which expands the height of the planetary boundary layer leads to increased winds , cumulus cloud development , and decreased surface dew points . Moist convection leads to thunderstorm development , which is often responsible for severe weather throughout the world . Special threats from thunderstorms include hail , downbursts , and tornadoes .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmospheric_convection", "rank": 24, "score": 117620 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical marine climate Content: A tropical marine climate is usually experienced by islands and coastal areas 10 ° to 20 ° north or south of the equator . The ocean is the main influence in creating the tropical marine climate . There are two main seasons -- the wet season and the dry season . The annual rainfall is 1000 to over 1500 mm . The temperature ranges from 25 ° C to 35 ° C . The trade winds blow all year round and are moist , as they have passed over warm seas .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_marine_climate", "rank": 25, "score": 117574 }, { "content": "Title: Gulf of California moisture surge Content: A Gulf of California moisture surge , or simply gulf surge , is a meteorological event where a pulse of high humidity air is pushed up the Gulf of California . Gulf surges bring moisture to southern Arizona during the North American Monsoon . Prior to the 1970s , the consensus of meteorologists was the moisture that fueled the central and southern Arizona monsoon resulted from the movement of the Bermuda High to a more south and west position , which in turn transported water vapor to the region from the Gulf of Mexico . However , operational meteorologists in the 1970s described episodic surges of moisture that infiltrated the area that was thought to originate in the Gulf of California . It was noted that these episodes were likely to be associated with a convective system near the tip of the Baja peninsula such as a tropical cyclone or an easterly wave .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Gulf_of_California_moisture_surge", "rank": 26, "score": 116962 }, { "content": "Title: LOWERN Content: LOWERN is an acronym for 6 factors that affect climate . Latitude . Depending on how close or how far it is to the equator . Ocean currents . Certain ocean currents have different temperatures . Warm ocean currents warm the air above it , which warms the coast . Cold ocean currents cool the air above it , which cools the coast . This helps keep the coast a consistent temperature . Wind and Air masses . Heated ground causes air to rise which results in lower air pressure . As it rises it cools and descends to the ground resulting in high air pressure . This cycle repeats which creates wind . These air masses absorb the climate of the air below it . Elevation . The higher up you are , the colder and drier it will be . When air rises it expands due to low air pressure which causes it to cool . Relief . The differences in the elevation in land . As air is forced to rise over a piece of land ( e.g. a mountain ) the temperature decreases and condensation increases . As it condensates water droplets get bigger and heavier and are forced to fall . Once the air mass goes over the mountain the temperature and evaporation increases but condensations decreases , resulting in a halt in precipitation and rain shadows . Nearness to Water . Water heats up and cools down slower than land does , having a moderating effect . On colder days , the water heats up the land , whereas on hotter days , the land is cooled down by the water . These areas also experience more precipitation . Category : Climatology", "qid": "319", "docid": "LOWERN", "rank": 27, "score": 116581 }, { "content": "Title: Weather Content: Weather is the state of the atmosphere , to the degree that it is hot or cold , wet or dry , calm or stormy , clear or cloudy . Most weather phenomena occur in the lowest level of the atmosphere , the troposphere , just below the stratosphere . Weather refers to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity , whereas climate is the term for the averaging of atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time . When used without qualification , `` weather '' is generally understood to mean the weather of Earth . Weather is driven by air pressure , temperature and moisture differences between one place and another . These differences can occur due to the sun 's angle at any particular spot , which varies with latitude . The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the largest scale atmospheric circulations : the Hadley Cell , the Ferrel Cell , the Polar Cell , and the jet stream . Weather systems in the mid-latitudes , such as extratropical cyclones , are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow . Because the Earth 's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane , sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year . On Earth 's surface , temperatures usually range ± 40 ° C ( − 40 ° F to 100 ° F ) annually . Over thousands of years , changes in Earth 's orbit can affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth , thus influencing long-term climate and global climate change . Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences . Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes as most atmospheric heating is due to contact with the Earth 's surface while radiative losses to space are mostly constant . Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location . The Earth 's weather system is a chaotic system ; as a result , small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole . Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout history , and there is evidence that human activities such as agriculture and industry have modified weather patterns . Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth . A famous landmark in the Solar System , Jupiter 's Great Red Spot , is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years . However , weather is not limited to planetary bodies . A star 's corona is constantly being lost to space , creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System . The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Weather", "rank": 28, "score": 116070 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program Content: The Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program ( TOGA ) was a ten-year study ( 1985-1994 ) of the World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) aimed specifically at the prediction of climate phenomena on time scales of months to years . TOGA emphasized the tropical oceans and their relationship to the global atmosphere . Underlying TOGA is the premise that the dynamic adjustment of the ocean in the tropics is far more rapid than at higher latitudes . Thus disturbances emanating from the western Pacific Ocean ( such as El Niño ) may propagate across the basin on time scales of weeks compared to years for corresponding basin-wide propagation at higher latitudes . The significance of shorter dynamic times scales near the equator is that they are similar to those of highly energetic atmospheric modes . This similarity allows the formation of coupled modes between the ocean and the atmosphere . TOGA was instrumental in developing a comprehensive observing system for the equatorial Pacific Ocean and laid important groundwork for ENSO prediction , data assimilation and understanding of air-sea interaction .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_Ocean_Global_Atmosphere_program", "rank": 29, "score": 115402 }, { "content": "Title: Moisture recycling Content: In hydrology , moisture recycling or precipitation recycling refer to the process by which a portion of the precipitated water that evapotranspired from a given area contributes to the precipitation over the same area . Moisture recycling is thus a component of the hydrologic cycle . The ratio of the locally derived precipitation to total precipitation is known as the recycling ratio , : . The recycling ratio is a diagnostic measure of the potential for interactions between land surface hydrology and regional climate . Land use changes , such as deforestation or agricultural intensification , have the potential to change the amount of precipitation that falls in a region . The recycling ratio for the entire world is one , and for a single point is zero . Estimates for the recycling ratio for the Amazon basin range from 24 % to 56 % , and for the Mississippi basin from 21 % to 24 % . The concept of moisture recycling has been integrated into the concept of the precipitationshed . A precipitationshed is the upwind ocean and land surface that contributes evaporation to a given , downwind location 's precipitation . In much the same way that a watershed is defined by a topographically explicit area that provides surface runoff , the precipitationshed is a probabilistically defined area within which evaporation , traveling via moisture recycling , provides precipitation for a specific point . The American Institute of Biological Sciences published a paper in support of this concept in 2009 . It also has been proposed , in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics , that evaporation rates from forested areas may exceed that of the oceans , creating zones of low pressure , which enhance the development of storms and rainfall through atmospheric moisture recycling .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Moisture_recycling", "rank": 30, "score": 114241 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Easterly Jet Content: The Tropical Easterly Jet is the meteorological term referring to an upper level easterly wind that starts in late June and continues until early September . This strong flow of air that develops in the upper atmosphere during the Asian monsoon is centred on 15 ° N , 50-80 ° E and extends from South-East Asia to Africa . The strongest development of the jet is at about 15 km above the Earth 's surface with wind speeds of up to 40 m/s over the Indian Ocean .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_Easterly_Jet", "rank": 31, "score": 113810 }, { "content": "Title: South Pacific tropical cyclone Content: A South Pacific tropical cyclone ( Commonly referred to as hurricanes ) is a non frontal , low pressure system that has developed , within an environment of warm sea surface temperatures and little vertical wind shear aloft in the South Pacific Ocean . Within the Southern Hemisphere there are officially three areas where tropical cyclones develop on a regular basis , these areas are the South-West Indian Ocean between Africa and 90 ° E , the Australian region between 90 ° E and 160 ° E and the South Pacific basin between 160 ° E and 120 ° W . The South Pacific basin between 160 ° E and 120 ° W is officially monitored by the Fiji Meteorological Service and New Zealand 's MetService , while others like the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also monitor the basin . Each tropical cyclone year within this basin starts on July 1 and runs throughout the year , encompassing the tropical cyclone season which runs from November 1 and lasts until April 30 each season . Within the basin , most tropical cyclones have their origins within the South Pacific Convergence Zone or within the Northern Australian monsoon trough , both of which form an extensive area of cloudiness and are dominant features of the season . Within this region a tropical disturbance is classified as a tropical cyclone , when it has 10-minute sustained wind speeds of more than 65 km/h ( 35 mph ) , that wrap halfway around the low level circulation centre , while a severe tropical cyclone is classified when the maximum 10-minute sustained wind speeds are greater than 120 km/h ( 75 mph ) .", "qid": "319", "docid": "South_Pacific_tropical_cyclone", "rank": 32, "score": 113607 }, { "content": "Title: Heat burst Content: In meteorology , a heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by gusty winds and a rapid increase in temperature and decrease in dew point ( moisture ) . Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms . Although this phenomenon is not fully understood , it is theorized that the event is caused when rain evaporates ( virga ) into a parcel of cold dry air high in the atmosphere making the air denser than its surroundings . The parcel descends rapidly , warming due to compression , overshoots its equilibrium level and reaches the surface , similar to a downburst . Recorded temperatures during heat bursts have reached well above 38 ° C , sometimes rising by 20 F-change or more within only a few minutes . More extreme events have also been documented , where temperatures have been reported to exceed 120 ° F. However , such extreme events have never been officially verified . Heat bursts are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong , even damaging , winds .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Heat_burst", "rank": 33, "score": 113104 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric thermodynamics Content: Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations ( and their reverse ) that take place in the earth 's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics , to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air , the formation of clouds , atmospheric convection , boundary layer meteorology , and vertical instabilities in the atmosphere . Atmospheric thermodynamic diagrams are used as tools in the forecasting of storm development . Atmospheric thermodynamics forms a basis for cloud microphysics and convection parameterizations used in numerical weather models and is used in many climate considerations , including convective-equilibrium climate models .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmospheric_thermodynamics", "rank": 34, "score": 112969 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric instability Content: Atmospheric instability is a condition where the Earth 's atmosphere is generally considered to be unstable and as a result the weather is subjected to a high degree of variability through distance and time . Atmospheric stability is a measure of the atmosphere 's tendency to encourage or deter vertical motion , and vertical motion is directly correlated to different types of weather systems and their severity . In unstable conditions , a lifted thing , such as a parcel of air will be warmer than the surrounding air at altitude . Because it is warmer , it is less dense and is prone to further ascent . In meteorology , instability can be described by various indices such as the Bulk Richardson Number , lifted index , K-index , convective available potential energy ( CAPE ) , the Showalter , and the Vertical totals . These indices , as well as atmospheric instability itself , involve temperature changes through the troposphere with height , or lapse rate . Effects of atmospheric instability in moist atmospheres include thunderstorm development , which over warm oceans can lead to tropical cyclogenesis , and turbulence . In dry atmospheres , inferior mirages , dust devils , steam devils , and fire whirls can form . Stable atmospheres can be associated with drizzle , fog , increased air pollution , a lack of turbulence , and undular bore formation .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmospheric_instability", "rank": 35, "score": 112850 }, { "content": "Title: Saharan Air Layer Content: The Saharan Air Layer ( SAL ) is an extremely hot , dry and sometimes dust-laden layer of the atmosphere that often overlies the cooler , more-humid surface air of the Atlantic Ocean . In the Sahara Desert region of North Africa , where it originates , it is the prevalent atmosphere , extending from the surface upwards several kilometers . As it drives , or is driven , out over the ocean , it is lifted above the denser marine air . This arrangement is an inversion where the temperature increases with height . The boundary between the SAL and the marine layer suppresses or `` caps '' any convection originating in the marine layer . Since it is dry air , the lapse rate within the SAL itself is steep , that is , the temperature falls rapidly with height . Disturbances such as large thunderstorm complexes over North Africa periodically result in vast dust and sand storms , some of which extend as high as 6,000 meters . These can be driven out to sea within the SAL as far west as North America . In the case of Africa , winds blow twenty percent of dust from a Saharan storm out over the Atlantic Ocean , and twenty percent of that , or four percent of a single storm 's dust , reaches all the way to the western Atlantic . The remainder settles out into the ocean or washes out of the air with rainfall . Scientists think that the July 2000 measurements made in Puerto Rico , nearly 8 million tonnes , equaled about one-fifth of the total year 's dust deposits . The SAL passes over the Canary Islands where the phenomenon is named `` Calima '' and manifests as a fog that reduces visibility and deposits a layer of dust over everything . These clouds of dust are visible in satellite photos as a milky white to gray shade , similar to haze . Findings to date indicate that the iron-rich dust particles that often occur within the SAL reflect solar radiation , thus cooling the atmosphere . The particles also reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the ocean , thus reducing the amount of heating of the ocean . They also tend to increase condensation as they drift into the marine layer below , but not precipitation as the drops formed are too small to fall and tend not to readily coelesce . These tiny drops are subsequently more easily evaporated as they move into drier air laterally or dry air mixes down from the SAL aloft . Research on aerosols also shows that the presence of small particles in air tends to suppress winds . The SAL has also been observed to suppress the development and intensifying of tropical cyclones , which may be related directly to these factors . The SAL is a subject of ongoing study and research .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Saharan_Air_Layer", "rank": 36, "score": 112782 }, { "content": "Title: Dew Content: Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin , exposed objects in the morning or evening due to condensation . As the exposed surface cools by radiating its heat , atmospheric moisture condenses at a rate greater than that at which it can evaporate , resulting in the formation of water droplets . When temperatures are low enough , dew takes the form of ice ; this form is called frost . Because dew is related to the temperature of surfaces , in late summer it forms most easily on surfaces that are not warmed by conducted heat from deep ground , such as grass , leaves , railings , car roofs , and bridges . Dew should not be confused with guttation , which is the process by which plants release excess water from the tips of their leaves .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Dew", "rank": 37, "score": 112494 }, { "content": "Title: Australian region tropical cyclone Content: An Australian tropical cyclone is a non frontal , low pressure system that has developed , within an environment of warm sea surface temperatures and little vertical wind shear aloft in either the Southern Indian Ocean or the South Pacific Ocean . Within the Southern Hemisphere there are officially three areas where tropical cyclones develop on a regular basis , these areas are the South-West Indian Ocean between Africa and 90 ° E , the Australian region between 90 ° E and 160 ° E and the South Pacific basin between 160 ° E and 120 ° W . The Australian region between 90 ° E and 160 ° E is officially monitored by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology , the Papua New Guinea National Weather Service and the Badan Meteorologi Klimatologi dan Geofisika , while others like the Fiji Meteorological Service and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also monitor the basin . Each tropical cyclone year within this basin starts on July 1 and runs throughout the year , encompassing the tropical cyclone season which runs from November 1 and lasts until April 30 each season . Within the basin , most tropical cyclones have their origins within the South Pacific Convergence Zone or within the Northern Australian monsoon trough , both of which form an extensive area of cloudiness and are dominant features of the season . Within this region a tropical disturbance is classified as a tropical cyclone , when it has 10-minute sustained wind speeds of more than 65 km/h ( 35 mph ) , that wrap halfway around the low level circulation centre , while a severe tropical cyclone is classified when the maximum 10-minute sustained wind speeds are greater than 120 km/h ( 75 mph ) .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Australian_region_tropical_cyclone", "rank": 38, "score": 112461 }, { "content": "Title: Cold-core low Content: A cold-core low , also known as an upper level low or cold-core cyclone , is a cyclone aloft which has an associated cold pool of air residing at high altitude within the Earth 's troposphere . It is a low pressure system which strengthens with height in accordance with the thermal wind relationship . These systems can be referred to as upper level lows . If a weak surface circulation forms in response to such a feature at subtropical latitudes of the eastern north Pacific or north Indian oceans , it is called a subtropical cyclone . Cloud cover and rainfall mainly occurs with these systems during the day . Severe weather , such as tornadoes , can occur near the center of cold-core lows . Cold lows can help spawn cyclones with significant weather impacts , such as polar lows , and Von Karman Vortices . In regard to tropical cyclones , cold lows can lead directly to their development due to their associated cold pool of air aloft or by acting as additional outflow channels to aid in further development .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Cold-core_low", "rank": 39, "score": 112197 }, { "content": "Title: Foehn wind Content: A föhn or foehn is a type of dry , warm , down-slope wind that occurs in the lee ( downwind side ) of a mountain range . It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes ( see orographic lift ) . As a consequence of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air , the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than equivalent elevations on the windward slopes . Föhn winds can raise temperatures by as much as 14 ° C ( 25 ° F ) in just a matter of minutes . Central Europe enjoys a warmer climate due to the Föhn , as moist winds off the Mediterranean Sea blow over the Alps . In some regions , föhn winds are associated with causing `` circulatory problems '' , headaches , or similar ailments . Researchers have found , however , the foehn wind 's warm temperature to be beneficial to humans in most situations , and have theorised that the reported negative effects may be a result of secondary factors , such as changes in the electrical field or in the ion state of the atmosphere , the wind 's relatively low humidity , or the generally unpleasant sensation of being in an environment with strong and gusty winds .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Foehn_wind", "rank": 40, "score": 112138 }, { "content": "Title: Deglaciation Content: Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Deglaciation", "rank": 41, "score": 111941 }, { "content": "Title: Maritime Continent Content: Maritime Continent is the name given primarily by meteorologists and oceanographers to the region of Southeast Asia which comprises , amongst other countries , Indonesia , Philippines and Papua New Guinea . Located between the Indian and Pacific Oceans , it is situated within a warm ocean region known as the Tropical Warm Pool . The maritime continent consists of many islands , peninsulas and shallow seas . The region is significant in meteorology because it is considered the most important energy source region in the entire global circulation system owing to a number of coincident factors , the most significant being geographic location and topography , both of which contribute to the development of the Tropical Warm Pool , which is the warmest large area of ocean on Earth . Coined by Colin Ramage in 1968 , the name combines the terms maritime and continent normally used as opposites in the description of climate . Maritime air is humid , and continental air is dry . In the Southeast Asia region , land masses and bodies of water are , roughly-speaking , evenly distributed . Moreover , the land masses are characterized by high mountains , and the seas are among the warmest on the earth . This produces a widespread area of diurnal thunderstorms which pump huge quantities of moisture and heat high up into the atmosphere which in turn feeds the upper level winds which circle the globe .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Maritime_Continent", "rank": 42, "score": 111919 }, { "content": "Title: Cryosphere Content: The cryosphere ( from the Greek κρύος kryos , `` cold '' , `` frost '' or `` ice '' and σφαῖρα sphaira , `` globe , ball '' ) is those portions of Earth 's surface where water is in solid form , including sea ice , lake ice , river ice , snow cover , glaciers , ice caps , ice sheets , and frozen ground ( which includes permafrost ) . Thus , there is a wide overlap with the hydrosphere . The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes , clouds , precipitation , hydrology , atmospheric and oceanic circulation . Through these feedback processes , the cryosphere plays a significant role in the global climate and in climate model response to global changes . The term deglaciation describes the retreat of cryospheric features . Cryology is the study of cryospheres .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Cryosphere", "rank": 43, "score": 111888 }, { "content": "Title: Wind-induced surface heat exchange Content: The wind-induced surface heat exchange ( WISHE ) is a positive feedback mechanism between the ocean and atmosphere in which a stronger ocean-to-atmosphere heat flux results in a stronger atmospheric circulation , which results in a strong heat flux . It has been hypothesized that this is the mechanism by which low pressure areas in the tropics develop into tropical cyclones .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Wind-induced_surface_heat_exchange", "rank": 44, "score": 111503 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical upper tropospheric trough Content: A tropical upper tropospheric trough ( TUTT ) , also known as the mid-oceanic trough , is a trough situated in upper-level ( at about 200 hPa ) tropics . Its formation is usually caused by the intrusion of energy and wind from the mid-latitudes into the tropics . It can also develop from the inverted trough adjacent to an upper level anticyclone . TUTTs are different from mid-latitude troughs in the sense that they are maintained by subsidence warming near the tropopause which balances radiational cooling . When strong , they can present a significant vertical wind shear to the tropics and subdue tropical cyclogenesis . When upper cold lows break off from their base , they tend to retrograde and force the development , or enhance , surface troughs and tropical waves to their east . Under special circumstances , they can induce thunderstorm activity and lead to the formation of tropical cyclones .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_upper_tropospheric_trough", "rank": 45, "score": 110018 }, { "content": "Title: List of Arizona hurricanes Content: Arizona has been affected by hurricanes on numerous occasions . Usually , these storms originate in the eastern Pacific Ocean , make landfall in the Mexican states of Baja California or Sonora , and dissipate before crossing into the United States . Thus , in most cases , it is only the tropical cyclones ' remnant moisture that produces heavy rainfall -- and in some occasions , flooding -- in portions of Arizona . However , approximately every five years , a tropical cyclone retains sufficient strength to enter the state as a tropical storm or a tropical depression . Arizonans can expect indirect flash floods caused by the remnants of tropical cyclones to occur about every two years . Tropical cyclones in Arizona are not common , since the predominant wind pattern steers most storms that form in the Eastern Pacific either parallel or away from the Pacific coast of northwestern Mexico . As a result , most storms that could affect Arizona are carried away from the United States , with only 6 % of all Pacific hurricanes entering US territory . Not all Arizona hurricanes originate from the Pacific Ocean , however ; in July 2008 an Atlantic hurricane named Hurricane Dolly produced rainfall in the eastern portion of the state , and another Atlantic storm reached Arizona as a tropical depression . Many , but not all , of these systems also impacted California . Despite their rarity , hurricanes are among Arizona 's most significant weather makers . In years when Arizona is affected by a tropical cyclone , these can be responsible for up to 25 % of the rainfall in areas along the Colorado River . Arizona hurricanes are also responsible for torrential rains in localized areas , with the state 's 24-hour rainfall record -- 11.97 in of precipitation -- occurring during Hurricane Nora 's landfall in 1997 . The heavy rainfall can trigger extensive flash floods , such as the ones produced by the remnants of Tropical Storm Octave in 1983 , or the lingering moisture from Tropical Storm Emilia in 2006 .", "qid": "319", "docid": "List_of_Arizona_hurricanes", "rank": 46, "score": 109881 }, { "content": "Title: Entrainment (meteorology) Content: Entrainment is a phenomenon of the atmosphere which occurs when a turbulent flow captures a non-turbulent flow . It is typically used to refer to the capture of a wind flow of high moisture content , or in the case of tropical cyclones , the capture of drier air . Detrainment is the opposite effect when the air from a convective cloud , usually at its top , is injected in the environment .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Entrainment_(meteorology)", "rank": 47, "score": 109261 }, { "content": "Title: Upper-atmospheric models Content: Upper-atmospheric models are simulations of the Earth 's atmosphere between 20 and 100 km ( 65,000 and 328,000 feet ) that comprises the stratosphere , mesosphere , and the lower thermosphere . Whereas most climate models simulate a region of the Earth 's atmosphere from the surface to the stratopause , there also exist numerical models which simulate the wind , temperature and composition of the Earth 's tenuous upper atmosphere , from the mesosphere to the exosphere , including the ionosphere . This region is affected strongly by the 11 year Solar cycle through variations in solar UV/EUV/Xray radiation and solar wind leading to high latitude particle precipitation and aurora . It has been proposed that these phenomena may have an effect on the lower atmosphere , and should therefore be included in simulations of climate change . For this reason there has been a drive in recent years to create whole atmosphere models to investigate whether or not this is the case .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Upper-atmospheric_models", "rank": 48, "score": 108516 }, { "content": "Title: Cap carbonate Content: Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Cap_carbonate", "rank": 49, "score": 108373 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Earth Content: The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Earth", "rank": 50, "score": 107942 }, { "content": "Title: Hygrometer Content: A hygrometer -LSB- haɪˈɡrɒmᵻtər -RSB- is an instrument used for measuring the moisture content in the atmosphere . Humidity measurement instruments usually rely on measurements of some other quantity such as temperature , pressure , mass or a mechanical or electrical change in a substance as moisture is absorbed . By calibration and calculation , these measured quantities can lead to a measurement of humidity . Modern electronic devices use temperature of condensation ( the dew point ) , or changes in electrical capacitance or resistance to measure humidity differences . The first crude hygrometer was invented by Leonardo da Vinci in 1480 and a more modern version was created by polymath Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1755 .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Hygrometer", "rank": 51, "score": 107794 }, { "content": "Title: Pineapple Express Content: Pineapple Express is a non-technical term for a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong and persistent flow of atmospheric moisture and associated with heavy precipitation from the waters adjacent to the Hawaiian Islands and extending to any location along the Pacific coast of North America . A Pineapple Express is an example of an atmospheric river , which is a more general term for such narrow corridors of enhanced water vapor transport at mid-latitudes around the world .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Pineapple_Express", "rank": 52, "score": 107637 }, { "content": "Title: El Niño–Southern Oscillation Content: El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is an irregularly periodical variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean , affecting much of the tropics and subtropics . The warming phase is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña . Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component , coupled with the sea temperature change : El Niño is accompanied with high , and La Niña with low air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific . The two periods last several months each ( typically occur every few years ) and their effects vary in intensity . The two phases relate to the Walker circulation , discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century . The Walker circulation is caused by the pressure gradient force that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific Ocean , and a low pressure system over Indonesia . When the Walker circulation weakens or reverses , an El Niño results , causing the ocean surface to be warmer than average , as upwelling of cold water occurs less or not at all . An especially strong Walker circulation causes a La Niña , resulting in cooler ocean temperatures due to increased upwelling . Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study . The extremes of this climate pattern 's oscillations cause extreme weather ( such as floods and droughts ) in many regions of the world . Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are the most affected .", "qid": "319", "docid": "El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation", "rank": 53, "score": 107074 }, { "content": "Title: Convective condensation level Content: The convective condensation level ( CCL ) represents the height ( or pressure ) where an air parcel becomes saturated when heated from below and lifted adiabatically due to buoyancy . In the atmosphere , assuming a constant water vapor mixing ratio , the dew point temperature ( the temperature where the relative humidity is 100 % ) decreases with increasing height because the pressure of the atmosphere decreases with height . The CCL is determined by plotting the dew point ( 100 % RH ) verses altitude and locating the intersection with the actual measured temperature sounding . It marks where the cloud base begins when air is heated from below to the convective temperature , without mechanical lift . Once the CCL is determined , the surface temperature necessary to raise a mass of air to that height can be found by using the Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate ( DALR ) to determine the potential temperature . In the early morning , this temperature is typically larger than the surface temperature , in the mid-afternoon , it may be the same . Compare this to the Lifting Condensation Level ( LCL ) where the air is lifted and cooled without first increasing the surface temperature . The LCL is less than or equal to the CCL depending on the temperature profile . Both condensation levels indicate the altitude ( or pressure ) where relative humidity reaches 100 % . However , since the actual condensation level depends on the availability of condensation nuclei , clouds typically do not form until the relative humidity is somewhat above 100 % .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Convective_condensation_level", "rank": 54, "score": 106992 }, { "content": "Title: Dew point depression Content: The dew point depression ( T-Td ) is the difference between the temperature and dew point temperature at a certain height in the atmosphere . For a constant temperature , the smaller the difference , the more moisture there is , and the higher the relative humidity . In the lower troposphere , more moisture ( small dew point depression ) results in lower cloud bases and lifted condensation levels ( LCL ) . LCL height is an important factor modulating severe thunderstorms . One example concerns tornadogenesis , with tornadoes most likely if the dew point depression is 20 ° F ( 11 ° C ) or less , and the likelihood of large , intense tornadoes increasing as dew point depression decreases . LCL height also factors in downburst and microburst activity . Conversely , instability is increased when there is a mid-level dry layer ( large dew point depression ) known as a `` dry punch '' , which is favorable for convection if the lower layer is buoyant . As it measures moisture content in the atmosphere , the dew point depression is also an important indicator in agricultural and forest meteorology , particularly in predicting wildfires .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Dew_point_depression", "rank": 55, "score": 106854 }, { "content": "Title: Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity Content: Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity , or SMOS , is a satellite which forms part of ESA 's Living Planet Programme . It is intended to provide new insights into Earth 's water cycle and climate . In addition , it is intended to provide improved weather forecasting and monitoring of snow and ice accumulation .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Soil_Moisture_and_Ocean_Salinity", "rank": 56, "score": 106248 }, { "content": "Title: Madden–Julian oscillation Content: The Madden -- Julian oscillation ( MJO ) is the largest element of the intraseasonal ( 30 - to 90-day ) variability in the tropical atmosphere . It was discovered in 1971 by Roland Madden and Paul Julian of the American National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) . It is a large-scale coupling between atmospheric circulation and tropical deep convection . Unlike a standing pattern like the El Niño Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) , the Madden -- Julian oscillation is a traveling pattern that propagates eastward at approximately 4 to 8 m/s ( 14 to 29 km/h , 9 to 18 mph ) , through the atmosphere above the warm parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans . This overall circulation pattern manifests itself most clearly as anomalous rainfall . The Madden -- Julian oscillation is characterized by an eastward progression of large regions of both enhanced and suppressed tropical rainfall , observed mainly over the Indian and Pacific Ocean . The anomalous rainfall is usually first evident over the western Indian Ocean , and remains evident as it propagates over the very warm ocean waters of the western and central tropical Pacific . This pattern of tropical rainfall then generally becomes nondescript as it moves over the cooler ocean waters of the eastern Pacific ( except over the region of warmer water off the west coast of Central America ) but occasionally reappears at low amplitude over the tropical Atlantic and higher amplitude over the Indian Ocean . The wet phase of enhanced convection and precipitation is followed by a dry phase where thunderstorm activity is suppressed . Each cycle lasts approximately 30 -- 60 days . Because of this pattern , The Madden -- Julian oscillation is also known as the 30 - to 60-day oscillation , 30 - to 60-day wave , or intraseasonal oscillation .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Madden–Julian_oscillation", "rank": 57, "score": 105662 }, { "content": "Title: Potential evaporation Content: Potential evaporation or potential evapotranspiration ( PET ) is defined as the amount of evaporation that would occur if a sufficient water source were available . If the actual evapotranspiration is considered the net result of atmospheric demand for moisture from a surface and the ability of the surface to supply moisture , then PET is a measure of the demand side . Surface and air temperatures , insolation , and wind all affect this . A dryland is a place where annual potential evaporation exceeds annual precipitation .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Potential_evaporation", "rank": 58, "score": 105626 }, { "content": "Title: Udic moisture regime Content: The udic moisture regime is common to soils of humid climates which have well-distributed rainfall , or which have enough rain in summer so that the amount of stored moisture plus rainfall is approximately equal to , or exceeds , the amount of evapotranspiration . Water moves down through the soil at some time in most years . Some soil suborders , like udalf ( alfisol ) and udept ( inceptisol ) , have an udic moisture regime .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Udic_moisture_regime", "rank": 59, "score": 103600 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical instability waves Content: Tropical instability waves , often abbreviated TIW , are a phenomenon in which the interface between areas of warm and cold sea surface temperatures near the equator form a regular pattern of westward-propagating waves . These waves are often present in the Atlantic Ocean , extending westward from the African coast , but are more easily recognizable in the Pacific , extending westward from South America . They have an average period of about 30 days and wavelength of about 1100 kilometers , and are largest in amplitude between June and November . They are also largest during La Niña conditions , and may disappear when strong El Niño conditions are present . Tropical instability waves are not related to tropical waves , which are atmospheric disturbances that propagate westward along the Intertropical Convergence Zone , sometimes giving rise to tropical storms .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_instability_waves", "rank": 60, "score": 103018 }, { "content": "Title: Troposphere Content: The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth 's atmosphere , and is also where nearly all weather takes place . It contains approximately 75 % of the atmosphere 's mass and 99 % of the total mass of water vapor and aerosols . The average depths of the troposphere are 20 km in the tropics , 17 km in the mid latitudes , and 7 km in the polar regions in winter . The lowest part of the troposphere , where friction with the Earth 's surface influences air flow , is the planetary boundary layer . This layer is typically a few hundred meters to 2 km deep depending on the landform and time of day . Atop the troposphere is the tropopause , which is the border between the troposphere and stratosphere . The tropopause is an inversion layer , where the air temperature ceases to decrease with height and remains constant through its thickness . The word troposphere derives from the for `` turn , turn toward , trope '' and '' - sphere '' ( as in , the Earth ) , reflecting the fact that rotational turbulent mixing plays an important role in the troposphere 's structure and behaviour . Most of the phenomena associated with day-to-day weather occur in the troposphere .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Troposphere", "rank": 61, "score": 102519 }, { "content": "Title: Cloud condensation nuclei Content: Cloud condensation nuclei or CCNs ( also known as cloud seeds ) are small particles typically 0.2 µm , or 1/100th the size of a cloud droplet on which water vapor condenses . Water requires a non-gaseous surface to make the transition from a vapour to a liquid ; this process is called condensation . In the atmosphere , this surface presents itself as tiny solid or liquid particles called CCNs . When no CCNs are present , water vapour can be supercooled at about -13 ° C ( 8 ° F ) for 5-6 hours before droplets spontaneously form ( this is the basis of the cloud chamber for detecting subatomic particles ) . In above freezing temperatures the air would have to be supersaturated to around 400 % before the droplets could form . The concept of cloud condensation nuclei is used in cloud seeding , that tries to encourage rainfall by seeding the air with condensation nuclei . It has further been suggested that creating such nuclei could be used for marine cloud brightening , a climate engineering technique .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Cloud_condensation_nuclei", "rank": 62, "score": 102356 }, { "content": "Title: Evapotranspiration Content: Evapotranspiration ( ET ) is the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth 's land and ocean surface to the atmosphere . Evaporation accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the soil , canopy interception , and waterbodies . Transpiration accounts for the movement of water within a plant and the subsequent loss of water as vapor through stomata in its leaves . Evapotranspiration is an important part of the water cycle . An element ( such as a tree ) that contributes to evapotranspiration can be called an evapotranspirator . Reference evapotranspiration ( ET0 ) , sometimes incorrectly referred to as potential ET , is a representation of the environmental demand for evapotranspiration and represents the evapotranspiration rate of a short green crop ( grass ) , completely shading the ground , of uniform height and with adequate water status in the soil profile . It is a reflection of the energy available to evaporate water , and of the wind available to transport the water vapour from the ground up into the lower atmosphere . Actual evapotranspiration is said to equal reference evapotranspiration when there is ample water . Some US states utilize a full cover alfalfa reference crop that is 0.5 m in height , rather than the short green grass reference , due to the higher value of ET from the alfalfa reference .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Evapotranspiration", "rank": 63, "score": 102194 }, { "content": "Title: Subtropical Countercurrent Content: The subtropical countercurrent ( STCC ) is a narrow eastward ocean current in the central North Pacific Ocean ( 20 -- 30 ° N ) where the Sverdrup theory predicts a broad westward flow . It originates in the western North Pacific around 20 ° N , and flows eastward against the northeast trade winds and stretches northeastward to the north of Hawaii . It is accompanied by a subsurface temperature and density front called the subtropical front , in thermal wind relation with the STCC . Furthermore , the STCC maintains a sea surface temperature front during winter and spring . During April and May when the SST front is still strong , the seasonal warming makes the region conductive to atmospheric convection , and surface wind stress curls turn weakly positive along the front on the background of negative curls that drive the subtropical gyre . On the weather timescale , positive wind curls are related to low-pressure systems of a subsynoptic scale in space , energized by surface baroclinicity and latent heat release along the STF front . The SST front also anchors a meridional maximum in column-integrated water vapor , indicating a deep structure of the atmosphere response .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Subtropical_Countercurrent", "rank": 64, "score": 101740 }, { "content": "Title: Rasā Content: Rasa means `` moisture , humidity '' in Vedic Sanskrit , and appears as the name of a western tributary of the Indus in the Rigveda ( verse 5.53.9 ) . In RV 9.41.6 , RV 10.108 and in the Nirukta of Yaska , it is the name of a mythical stream supposed to flow round the earth and the atmosphere ( compare Oceanus ) , also referring to the underworld in the Mahabharata and the Puranas ( compare Styx ) . The corresponding term in Avestan is Ranha . In the Vendidad , Ranha is mentioned just after , and may possibly refer to the ocean ( Sethna 1992 ) .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Rasā", "rank": 65, "score": 101466 }, { "content": "Title: Weather front Content: A weather ( state of atmosphere ) front is a boundary separating two masses of air of different densities , and is the principal cause of meteorological phenomena outside the tropics . In surface weather analyses , fronts are depicted using various colored triangles and half-circles , depending on the type of front . The air masses separated by a front usually differ in temperature and humidity . Cold fronts may feature narrow bands of thunderstorms and severe weather , and may on occasion be preceded by squall lines or dry lines . Warm fronts are usually preceded by stratiform precipitation and fog . The weather usually clears quickly after a front 's passage . Some fronts produce no precipitation and little cloudiness , although there is invariably a wind shift . Cold fronts and occluded fronts generally move from west to east , while warm fronts move poleward . Because of the greater density of air in their wake , cold fronts and cold occlusions move faster than warm fronts and warm occlusions . Mountains and warm bodies of water can slow the movement of fronts . When a front becomes stationary , and the density contrast across the frontal boundary vanishes , the front can degenerate into a line which separates regions of differing wind velocity , known as a shearline . This is most common over the open ocean .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Weather_front", "rank": 66, "score": 101449 }, { "content": "Title: Precipitationshed Content: A precipitationshed is the upwind ocean and land surface that contributes evaporation to a given , downwind location 's precipitation . The concept has been described as an `` atmospheric watershed '' . The concept itself rests on a broad foundation of scholarly work examining the evaporative sources of rainfall . Since its formal definition , the precipitationshed has become an element in water security studies , examinations of sustainability , and mentioned as a potentially useful tool for examining vulnerability of rainfall dependent ecosystems .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Precipitationshed", "rank": 67, "score": 101401 }, { "content": "Title: Sukhovey Content: Sukhovey ( Суховей , translates to dry wind ) is a wind with high temperature and low relative humidity occurring in the steppes , the semi-deserts and the deserts of Kazakhstan and the Caspian region . The speed of sukhovey is usually moderate 5 to 20 m/s . Relative humidity is less than 30 % . Sukhovey emanates from the periphery of anticyclones in summer predominantly with the intrusion of the tropical masses of air ( analogous to khamsin , sirocco and other ) . At a high air temperature ( 20 -- 25 ° C and above ) the sukhovey causes strongly increasing evaporation from the soils . The low mobility of anticyclones causes the steady duration of the sukhovey over several days , which with the insufficient soil moisture causes drought , spoiling of the harvests of cereal and fruit crops , loss of plants . The warm and dry air masses originate above the deserts of Africa , Asia Minor , and also in South Kazakhstan , and with them sukhoveys are extended to the wooded plains of Russia and Kazakhstan , but more frequently they invade the semi-deserts and the steppes . Historically , these winds have been a major impediment to large-scale sedentary agriculture in Central Asia .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Sukhovey", "rank": 68, "score": 101039 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Uranus Content: The atmosphere of Uranus is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium . At depth it is significantly enriched in volatiles ( dubbed `` ices '' ) such as water , ammonia and methane . The opposite is true for the upper atmosphere , which contains very few gases heavier than hydrogen and helium due to its low temperature . Uranus 's atmosphere is the coldest of all the planets , with its temperature reaching as low as 49 K. The Uranian atmosphere can be divided into three main layers : the troposphere , between altitudes of − 300 and 50 km and pressures from 100 to 0.1 bar ; the stratosphere , spanning altitudes between 50 and 4000 km and pressures of between and the hot thermosphere ( and exosphere ) extending from an altitude of 4,000 km to several Uranian radii from the nominal surface at 1 bar pressure . Unlike Earth 's , Uranus 's atmosphere has no mesosphere . The troposphere hosts four cloud layers : methane clouds at about 1.2 bar , hydrogen sulfide and ammonia clouds at 3 -- 10 bar , ammonium hydrosulfide clouds at 20 -- 40 bar , and finally water clouds below 50 bar . Only the upper two cloud layers have been observed directly -- the deeper clouds remain speculative . Above the clouds lie several tenuous layers of photochemical haze . Discrete bright tropospheric clouds are rare on Uranus , probably due to sluggish convection in the planet 's interior . Nevertheless , observations of such clouds were used to measure the planet 's zonal winds , which are remarkably fast with speeds up to 240 m/s . Little is known about the Uranian atmosphere as to date only one spacecraft , Voyager 2 , which passed by the planet in 1986 , has studied it in detail . No other missions to Uranus are currently scheduled .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Uranus", "rank": 69, "score": 100801 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Africa Content: Although tropical Africa is most familiar in the West as depicted by its rain forests , this region of Africa is far more diverse . While the tropics are thought of as regions with warm to hot moist climates caused by latitude and the tropical rain belt , the geology of areas , particularly mountain chains , and geographical relation to continental and regional scale winds impact the overall parts of areas , also , making the tropics run from arid to humid in West Africa . The area has very serious overpopulation problems .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_Africa", "rank": 70, "score": 100483 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–11 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season Content: The 2010 -- 11 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season was the least active cyclone season on record in the basin , tied with 1982 -- 83 , producing only four systems of gale intensity . This was due to cooler than normal water temperatures and the Walker circulation -- a broad atmospheric circulation -- causing unusually moist conditions in the eastern Indian Ocean and unusually dry conditions in the western Indian Ocean . The basin includes the waters of the ocean south of the equator and west of 90º E to the eastern coast of Africa . There were nine tropical or subtropical cyclones during the season , including five weak tropical disturbances or depressions , mostly in the northeastern portion of the basin or to the east of Madagascar . The first of these systems developed on October 25 , 2010 , which had its origins in the northeastern portion of the basin . On November 29 , the first named storm -- Abele -- also formed in the same area , strengthening to become one of the season 's two tropical cyclones -- storms with maximum sustained winds of at least 120 km/h ( 75 mph ) . The strongest system of the season was Cyclone Bingiza , which attained peak winds of 160 km/h ( 100 mph ) off the northeastern coast of Madagascar in February . Bingiza was also the only storm to cause severe effects on land , causing heavy damage and 34 fatalities across Madagascar . Moderate Tropical Storm Cherono developed in March and traversed much of the ocean , only brushing by the island of Rodrigues . The final system was a subtropical depression that intensified south of Madagascar , becoming extratropical on April 16 to end the season . __ TOC __", "qid": "319", "docid": "2010–11_South-West_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_season", "rank": 71, "score": 100442 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Warm Pool Content: The Tropical Warm Pool ( TPW ) is a mass of ocean water located in the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean which exhibits the highest water temperatures over the largest expanse of the Earth 's surface .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_Warm_Pool", "rank": 72, "score": 100379 }, { "content": "Title: Moist static energy Content: The moist static energy is a thermodynamic variable that describes the state of an air parcel , and is similar to the equivalent potential temperature . The moist static energy is a combination of a parcel 's enthalpy due to an air parcel 's internal energy and energy required to make room for it , its potential energy due to its height above the surface , and the latent energy due to water vapor present in the air parcel . It is a useful variable for researching the atmosphere because , like several other similar variables , it is approximately conserved during adiabatic ascent and descent . The moist static energy , S , can be described mathematically as : where Cp is the specific heat at constant pressure , T is the absolute air temperature , g is the gravitational constant , z is the height above the surface , Lv is the latent heat of vaporization , and q is water vapor specific humidity . Note that many texts use mixing ratio r in place of specific humidity q because these values tend to be close ( within a few percent ) under normal atmospheric conditions , but this is an approximation and not strictly correct . Through the study of moist static energy profiles , Herbert Riehl and Joanne Malkus determined in 1958 that hot towers , small cores of convection approximately 5 km wide that extend from the planetary boundary layer to the tropopause , were the primary mechanism that transported energy out of the tropics to the middle latitudes . More recently , idealized model simulations of the tropics indicate that the moist static energy budget is dominated by advection , with shallow inflow in the lowest 2 km of the atmosphere with outflow concentrated about 10 km above the surface . Moist static energy has also been used to study the Madden -- Julian oscillation ( MJO ) . As with the tropics as a whole , the budget of moist static energy in the MJO is dominated by advection , but also is influenced by the wind-driven component of the surface latent heat flux . The relationship between the advection component and the latent heat component influence the timing of the MJO .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Moist_static_energy", "rank": 73, "score": 100336 }, { "content": "Title: Marine layer Content: A marine layer is an air mass which develops over the surface of a large body of water such as the ocean or large lake in the presence of a temperature inversion . The inversion itself is usually initiated by the cooling effect of the water on the surface layer of an otherwise warm air mass . As it cools , the surface air becomes denser than the warmer air above it , and thus becomes trapped below it . The layer may thicken through turbulence generated within the developing marine layer itself . It may also thicken if the warmer air above it is lifted by an approaching area of low pressure . The layer will also gradually increase its humidity by evaporation of the ocean or lake surface , as well as by the effect of cooling itself . Fog will form within a marine layer where the humidity is high enough and cooling sufficient to produce condensation . Stratus and stratocumulus will also form at the top of a marine layer in the presence of the same conditions there . In the case of coastal California , the offshore marine layer is typically propelled inland by a pressure gradient which develops as a result of intense heating inland , blanketing coastal communities in cooler air which , if saturated , also contains fog . The fog lingers until the heat of the sun becomes strong enough to evaporate it , often lasting into the afternoon during the `` June gloom '' period . An approaching frontal system or trough can also drive the marine layer onshore . A marine layer will disperse and break up in the presence of instability , such as may be caused by the passage of a frontal system or trough , or any upper air turbulence that reaches the surface . A marine layer can also be driven away by sufficiently strong winds . It is not unusual to hear media weather reporters discuss the marine layer as if it were synonymous with the fog or stratus it may contain , but this is erroneous . In fact , a marine layer can exist with virtually no cloudiness of any kind , although it usually does contain some . The marine layer is a medium within which clouds may form under the right conditions ; it is not the layers of clouds themselves .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Marine_layer", "rank": 74, "score": 100299 }, { "content": "Title: Pressure system Content: A pressure system is a relative peak or lull in the sea level pressure distribution . The surface pressure at sea level varies minimally , with the lowest value measured 87 kPa and the highest recorded 108.57 kPa . High - and low-pressure systems evolve due to interactions of temperature differentials in the atmosphere , temperature differences between the atmosphere and water within oceans and lakes , the influence of upper-level disturbances , as well as the amount of solar heating or radiationized cooling an area receives . Pressure systems cause weather to be experienced locally . Low-pressure systems are associated with clouds and precipitation that minimize temperature changes throughout the day , whereas high-pressure systems normally associate with dry weather and mostly clear skies with larger diurnal temperature changes due to greater radiation at night and greater sunshine during the day . Pressure systems are analyzed by those in the field of meteorology within surface weather maps .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Pressure_system", "rank": 75, "score": 99963 }, { "content": "Title: Thunderstorm Content: A thunderstorm , also known as an electrical storm , lightning storm , or thundershower , is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth 's atmosphere , known as thunder . Thunderstorms occur in association with a type of cloud known as a cumulonimbus . They are usually accompanied by strong winds , heavy rain , and sometimes snow , sleet , hail , or , in contrast , no precipitation at all . Thunderstorms may line up in a series or become a rainband , known as a squall line . Strong or severe thunderstorms , known as supercells , rotate as do cyclones . While most thunderstorms move with the mean wind flow through the layer of the troposphere that they occupy , vertical wind shear sometimes causes a deviation in their course at a right angle to the wind shear direction . Thunderstorms result from the rapid upward movement of warm , moist air , sometimes along a front . As the warm , moist air moves upward , it cools , condenses , and forms a cumulonimbus cloud that can reach heights of over 20 km . As the rising air reaches its dew point temperature , water vapor condenses into water droplets or ice , reducing pressure locally within the thunderstorm cell . Any precipitation falls the long distance through the clouds towards the Earth 's surface . As the droplets fall , they collide with other droplets and become larger . The falling droplets create a downdraft as it pulls cold air with it , and this cold air spreads out at the Earth 's surface , occasionally causing strong winds that are commonly associated with thunderstorms . Thunderstorms can form and develop in any geographic location but most frequently within the mid-latitude , where warm , moist air from tropical latitudes collides with cooler air from polar latitudes . Thunderstorms are responsible for the development and formation of many severe weather phenomena . Thunderstorms , and the phenomena that occur along with them , pose great hazards . Damage that results from thunderstorms is mainly inflicted by downburst winds , large hailstones , and flash flooding caused by heavy precipitation . Stronger thunderstorm cells are capable of producing tornadoes and waterspouts . There are four types of thunderstorms : single-cell , multi-cell cluster , multi-cell lines , and supercells . Supercell thunderstorms are the strongest and the most associated with severe weather phenomena . Mesoscale convective systems formed by favorable vertical wind shear within the tropics and subtropics can be responsible for the development of hurricanes . Dry thunderstorms , with no precipitation , can cause the outbreak of wildfires from the heat generated from the cloud-to-ground lightning that accompanies them . Several means are used to study thunderstorms : weather radar , weather stations , and video photography . Past civilizations held various myths concerning thunderstorms and their development as late as the 18th century . Beyond the Earth 's atmosphere , thunderstorms have also been observed on the planets of Jupiter , Saturn , Neptune , and , probably , Venus .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Thunderstorm", "rank": 76, "score": 99801 }, { "content": "Title: Moisture Content: Moisture refers to the presence of a liquid , especially water , often in trace amounts . Small amounts of water may be found , for example , in the air ( humidity ) , in foods , and in various commercial products . Moisture also refers to the amount of water vapour present in the air .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Moisture", "rank": 77, "score": 99789 }, { "content": "Title: Volcanic impacts on the oceans Content: Explosive volcanic eruptions affect the global climate mainly through injecting sulfur bearing gases into the stratosphere , which oxidize to form sulfate aerosols . Stratospheric sulfur aerosols spread around the globe by the atmospheric circulation , producing surface cooling by scattering solar radiation back to space . This cooling effect on the ocean surface usually lasts for several years as the lifetime of sulfate aerosols is about 2 -- 3 years . However , in the subsurface ocean the cooling signal may persist for a longer time and may have impacts on some decadal variabilities , such as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation ( AMOC ) .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Volcanic_impacts_on_the_oceans", "rank": 78, "score": 99384 }, { "content": "Title: Subsidence (atmosphere) Content: Subsidence in the Earth 's atmosphere is most commonly caused by low temperatures : as air cools , it becomes denser and moves towards the ground , just as warm air becomes less dense and moves upwards . Cool subsiding air is subject to adiabatic warming which tends to cause the evaporation of any clouds that might be present . Subsidence generally causes high barometric pressure as more air moves into the same space : the polar highs are areas of almost constant subsidence , as are the horse latitudes , and these areas of subsidence are the sources of much of the world 's prevailing wind . Subsidence also causes many smaller-scale weather phenomena , such as morning fog . An extreme form of subsidence is a downburst , which can result in damage similar to that produced by a tornado . A milder form of subsidence is referred to as downdraft . Category : Atmosphere Category : Basic meteorological concepts and phenomena", "qid": "319", "docid": "Subsidence_(atmosphere)", "rank": 79, "score": 99312 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean dynamics Content: Ocean dynamics define and describe the motion of water within the oceans . Ocean temperature and motion fields can be separated into three distinct layers : mixed ( surface ) layer , upper ocean ( above the thermocline ) , and deep ocean . Ocean dynamics has traditionally been investigated by sampling from instruments in situ . The mixed layer is nearest to the surface and can vary in thickness from 10 to 500 meters . This layer has properties such as temperature , salinity and dissolved oxygen which are uniform with depth reflecting a history of active turbulence ( the atmosphere has an analogous planetary boundary layer ) . Turbulence is high in the mixed layer . However , it becomes zero at the base of the mixed layer . Turbulence again increases below the base of the mixed layer due to shear instabilities . At extratropical latitudes this layer is deepest in late winter as a result of surface cooling and winter storms and quite shallow in summer . Its dynamics is governed by turbulent mixing as well as Ekman pumping , exchanges with the overlying atmosphere , and horizontal advection . The upper ocean , characterized by warm temperatures and active motion , varies in depth from 100 m or less in the tropics and eastern oceans to in excess of 800 meters in the western subtropical oceans . This layer exchanges properties such as heat and freshwater with the atmosphere on timescales of a few years . Below the mixed layer the upper ocean is generally governed by the hydrostatic and geostrophic relationships . Exceptions include the deep tropics and coastal regions . The deep ocean is both cold and dark with generally weak velocities ( although limited areas of the deep ocean are known to have significant recirculations ) . The deep ocean is supplied with water from the upper ocean in only a few limited geographical regions : the subpolar North Atlantic and several sinking regions around the Antarctic . Because of the weak supply of water to the deep ocean the average residence time of water in the deep ocean is measured in hundreds of years . In this layer as well the hydrostatic and geostrophic relationships are generally valid and mixing is generally quite weak .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Ocean_dynamics", "rank": 80, "score": 99151 }, { "content": "Title: Equilibrium moisture content Content: The equilibrium moisture content ( EMC ) of a hygroscopic material surrounded at least partially by air is the moisture content at which the material is neither gaining nor losing moisture . The value of the EMC depends on the material and the relative humidity and temperature of the air with which it is in contact . The speed with which it is approached depends on the properties of the material , the surface-area-to-volume ratio of its shape , and the speed with which humidity is carried away or towards the material ( e.g. diffusion in stagnant air or convection in moving air ) .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Equilibrium_moisture_content", "rank": 81, "score": 99088 }, { "content": "Title: Lifted condensation level Content: The lifted condensation level or lifting condensation level ( LCL ) is formally defined as the height at which the relative humidity ( RH ) of an air parcel will reach 100 % when it is cooled by dry adiabatic lifting . The RH of air increases when it is cooled , since the amount of water vapor in the air ( i.e. , its specific humidity ) remains constant , while the saturation vapor pressure decreases almost exponentially with decreasing temperature . If the air parcel is lifting further beyond the LCL , water vapor in the air parcel will begin condensing , forming cloud droplets . ( In the real atmosphere , it is usually necessary for air to be slightly supersaturated , normally by around 0.5 % , before condensation occurs ; this translates into about 10 meters or so of additional lifting above the LCL . ) The LCL is a good approximation of the height of the cloud base which will be observed on days when air is lifted mechanically from the surface to the cloud base ( e.g. , due to convergence of airmasses ) .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Lifted_condensation_level", "rank": 82, "score": 98902 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 83, "score": 98861 }, { "content": "Title: Subtropical cyclone Content: A subtropical cyclone is a weather system that has some characteristics of a tropical and an extratropical cyclone . As early as the 1950s , meteorologists were unclear whether they should be characterized as tropical or extratropical cyclones . They were officially recognized by the National Hurricane Center in 1972 . Subtropical cyclones began to receive names from the official tropical cyclone lists in the North Atlantic , South-west Indian Ocean and South Atlantic basins . There are two definitions currently used for subtropical cyclones . Across the north Atlantic and southwest Indian Ocean , they require central convection fairly near the center and a warming core in the mid-levels of the troposphere . Across the eastern half of the northern Pacific , they require a mid-tropospheric cyclone to cut off from the main belt of the westerlies and only a weak surface circulation . Subtropical cyclones have broad wind patterns with maximum sustained winds located farther from the center than typical tropical cyclones , and have no weather fronts linked into their center . Since they form from initially extratropical cyclones which have colder temperatures aloft than normally found in the tropics , the sea surface temperatures required for their formation are lower than the tropical cyclone threshold by 3 ° C ( 5 ° F ) , lying around 23 ° C ( 73 ° F ) . This also means that subtropical cyclones are more likely to form outside the traditional bounds of the North Atlantic hurricane season . Subtropical cyclones are also observed to form in the South Atlantic ; South Atlantic subtropical cyclones are observed in all months .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Subtropical_cyclone", "rank": 84, "score": 98778 }, { "content": "Title: Dew point Content: Dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor . When further cooled , the airborne water vapor will condense to form liquid dew . When air with a high dew point contacts surfaces at colder temperatures , then liquid dew will form on the surfaces as condensation . Dew point is sometimes called frost point when the temperature is below freezing . The measurement of dew point is related to humidity . A higher dew point means there will be more moisture in the air .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Dew_point", "rank": 85, "score": 98739 }, { "content": "Title: Trade winds Content: The trade winds are the prevailing pattern of easterly surface winds found in the tropics , within the lower portion of the Earth 's atmosphere , in the lower section of the troposphere near the Earth 's equator . The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere , strengthening during the winter and when the Arctic oscillation is in its warm phase . Trade winds have been used by captains of sailing ships to cross the world 's oceans for centuries , and enabled European empire expansion into the Americas and trade routes to become established across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans . In meteorology , the trade winds act as the steering flow for tropical storms that form over the Atlantic , Pacific , and southern Indian Oceans and make landfall in North America , Southeast Asia , and Madagascar and eastern Africa , respectively . Trade winds also transport African dust westward across the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea , as well as portions of southeastern North America . Shallow cumulus clouds are seen within trade wind regimes , and are capped from becoming taller by a trade wind inversion , which is caused by descending air aloft from within the subtropical ridge . The weaker the trade winds become , the more rainfall can be expected in the neighboring landmasses .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Trade_winds", "rank": 86, "score": 98646 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study Content: The Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study or Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study ( SOLAS ) is an international scientific research initiative that is one of the core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme . SOLAS has a goal to achieve quantitative understanding of the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere , and of how this coupled system affects and is affected by climate and environmental change . Thus , this international project is a critical component to understanding the Earth system and the effects of climate change on this system . The project includes meteorologists , oceanographers , marine biologists , and policy-makers . SOLAS has three major focus areas : Biogeochemical interactions and feedbacks between ocean and atmosphere , Exchange processes at the air-sea interface and the role of transport and transformation in the atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers , and Air-sea flux of carbon dioxide and other long-lived radiatively active gases ( this last focus is developed jointly with the Integrated Marine and Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research project ; IMBER ) . These three focuses are detailed in the project 's Science Plan and Implementation Strategy and in three separate Implementation Plans , and each focus has its own Implementation Working Group . The project is administered by a panel of scientific experts in the Scientific Steering Committee , and project coordination is handled by the SOLAS International Project Office at the University of East Anglia in Norwich UK . Scientific research is conducted by nations across the globe , and SOLAS has 23 established National Networks . SOLAS runs a successful biennial International Summer School , held at the Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques de Cargèse in Corsica France , and the next Summer School is scheduled for 2007 . Communications from SOLAS include a monthly e-bulletin , a biannual newsletter , and a website . An Open Science Meeting was held in Xiamen China in March 2007 .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Surface_Ocean_Lower_Atmosphere_Study", "rank": 87, "score": 98527 }, { "content": "Title: Moisture sorption isotherm Content: At equilibrium , the relationship between water content and equilibrium humidity of a material can be displayed graphically by a curve , the so-called moisture sorption isotherm . For each humidity value , a sorption isotherm indicates the corresponding water content value at a given , constant temperature . If the composition or quality of the material changes , then its sorption behaviour also changes . Because of the complexity of sorption processes , the isotherms can not be determined by calculation , but must be recorded experimentally for each product . The relationship between water content and water activity ( aw ) is complex . An increase in aw is usually accompanied by an increase in water content , but in a non-linear fashion . This relationship between water activity and moisture content at a given temperature is called the moisture sorption isotherm . These curves are determined experimentally and constitute the fingerprint of a food system .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Moisture_sorption_isotherm", "rank": 88, "score": 98417 }, { "content": "Title: Intermediate General Circulation Model Content: The Reading Intermediate General Circulation Model ( IGCM ) , is a simplified or `` intermediate '' Global climate model , which is developed by members of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading , and by members of the Stratospheric Dynamics and Chemistry Group of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at McGill University . The IGCM is based on the primitive-equations baroclinic model of Hoskins and Simmons , which has been converted to run on workstations . Several variations have been developed by adjusting representations of the physics . IGCM1 : Portable version of the original spectral , dry baroclinic model formulated in sigma-levels , with an option for Newtonian relaxation and Rayleigh friction , with no surface . IGCM2 : Includes simplified moist parameterisations , a cheap `` radiation scheme '' ( i.e. constant tropospheric cooling ) , a bulk formulation scheme for the boundary layer , fixed surface temperatures and humidity , uniform vertical diffusion , and can advect tracers . IGCM3x : Intermediate climate model that includes more sophisticated moisture/clouds parameterisations , a radiation scheme with various gas absorbers and a more realistic surface with an orography and land and sea surface schemes . The adiabatic version , IGCM1 , is freely available . Access to IGCM2 and IGCM3 is restricted to members of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading and collaborating researchers .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Intermediate_General_Circulation_Model", "rank": 89, "score": 98377 }, { "content": "Title: Walker circulation Content: The Walker circulation , also known as the Walker cell , is a conceptual model of the air flow in the tropics in the lower atmosphere ( troposphere ) . According to this model , parcels of air follow a closed circulation in the zonal and vertical directions . This circulation , which is roughly consistent with observations , is caused by differences in heat distribution between ocean and land . It was discovered by Gilbert Walker . In addition to motions in the zonal and vertical direction the tropical atmosphere also has considerable motion in the meridional direction as part of , for example , the Hadley Circulation . The term `` Walker circulation '' was coined in 1969 by the Norwegian-American meteorologist Jacob Bjerknes .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Walker_circulation", "rank": 90, "score": 98291 }, { "content": "Title: Thermocline Content: A thermocline ( sometimes metalimnion in lakes ) is a thin but distinct layer in a large body of fluid ( e.g. water , such as an ocean or lake , or air , such as an atmosphere ) in which temperature changes more rapidly with depth than it does in the layers above or below . In the ocean , the thermocline divides the upper mixed layer from the calm deep water below . Depending largely on season , latitude and turbulent mixing by wind , thermoclines may be a semi-permanent feature of the body of water in which they occur or they may form temporarily in response to phenomena such as the radiative heating/cooling of surface water during the day/night . Factors that affect the depth and thickness of a thermocline include seasonal weather variations , latitude and local environmental conditions , such as tides and currents .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Thermocline", "rank": 91, "score": 98215 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical wave Content: Tropical waves , easterly waves , or tropical easterly waves , also known as African easterly waves in the Atlantic region , are a type of atmospheric trough , an elongated area of relatively low air pressure , oriented north to south , which moves from east to west across the tropics causing areas of cloudiness and thunderstorms . West-moving waves can also form from the tail end of frontal zones in the subtropics and tropics and may be referred to as easterly waves , but these waves are not properly called tropical waves ; they are a form of inverted trough sharing many characteristics with fully tropical waves . All tropical waves form in the easterly flow along the equatorward side of the subtropical ridge or belt of high pressure which lies north and south of the Intertropical Convergence Zone ( ITCZ ) . Tropical waves are generally carried westward by the prevailing easterly winds along the tropics and subtropics near the equator . They can lead to the formation of tropical cyclones in the north Atlantic and eastern north Pacific basins . Tropical wave study is aided by Hovmöller diagrams , a graph of meteorological data .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Tropical_wave", "rank": 92, "score": 98154 }, { "content": "Title: Dropsonde Content: A dropsonde is an expendable weather reconnaissance device created by the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , designed to be dropped from an aircraft at altitude to more accurately measure ( and therefore track ) tropical storm conditions as the device falls to the surface . The sonde contains a GPS receiver , along with pressure , temperature , and humidity ( PTH ) sensors to capture atmospheric profiles and thermodynamic data . It typically relays these data to a computer in the aircraft by radio transmission . The device 's descent is slowed and stabilized by a small square-cone parachute , allowing for multiple readings to be taken before it reaches the ocean surface . The sonde is a lightweight system designed to be operated by one person and is launched through a chute installed in the measuring aircraft , with immediate deployment of the parachute to reduce or eliminate any pendulum effect , and typically drops from three to five minutes . The sonde has a casing of stiff cardboard . During a typical hurricane season , the 53d Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Hurricane Hunters deploys 1000 to 1500 sondes on training and storm missions .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Dropsonde", "rank": 93, "score": 97947 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of the Alps Content: The climate of the Alps is the climate , or average weather conditions over a long period of time , of the exact middle Alpine region of Europe . As air rises from sea level to the upper regions of the atmosphere the temperature decreases . The effect of mountain topography on prevailing winds is to force warm air from the lower region into an upper zone where it expands in volume at the cost of a proportionate loss of heat , often accompanied by the precipitation of moisture in the form of snow , rain or hail . The position of the Alps in the central European continent profoundly affects the climate of all the surrounding regions . The accumulation of vast masses of snow , which have gradually been converted into permanent glaciers , maintains a gradation of very different climates within the narrow space that intervenes between the foot of the mountains and their upper ridges ; it cools breezes that waft to the plains on either side , but its most important function is to regulate the water supply of the large region which is traversed by the streams of the Alps . Nearly all the moisture that is precipitated during fall , winter , and spring is stored in the form of snow and gradually diffused in the course of the succeeding summer ; even in the hottest and driest seasons the reserves accumulated during a long preceding period of years in the form of glaciers are available to maintain the regular flow of the greater streams . Nor is this all ; the lakes that fill several of the main valleys on the southern side of the Alps are somewhat above the level of the plains of Lombardy and Venetia , and afford an inexhaustible supply of water , which , from a remote period , has been used for that system of irrigation to which they owe their proverbial fertility . Six regions or zones , which are best distinguished by their characteristic vegetation , are found in the Alps . It is an error to suppose that these are indicated by absolute height above sea level . Local conditions of exposure to the Sun , protection from cold winds , or the reverse , are of primary importance in determining the climate and the corresponding vegetation .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Climate_of_the_Alps", "rank": 94, "score": 97823 }, { "content": "Title: Cloud Content: In meteorology , a cloud is an aerosol comprising a visible mass of minute liquid droplets , frozen crystals , or particles suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body . The droplets and crystals may be made of water or various chemicals . On Earth , clouds are formed as a result of saturation of the air when it is cooled to its dew point , or when it gains sufficient moisture ( usually in the form of water vapor ) from an adjacent source to raise the dew point to the ambient temperature . They are seen in the Earth 's homosphere ( which includes the troposphere , stratosphere , and mesosphere ) . Nephology is the science of clouds which is undertaken in the cloud physics branch of meteorology . There are two systems of naming clouds in their respective layers of the atmosphere ; Latin in the troposphere and mostly alpha-numeric above the troposphere . Cloud types in the troposphere , the atmospheric layer closest to Earth 's surface , have Latin names due to the universal adaptation of Luke Howard 's nomenclature . Formally proposed in 1802 , it became the basis of a modern international system that classifies clouds into five physical forms and three altitude levels ( formerly known as étages ) . These physical types , in approximate ascending order of convective activity , include stratiform sheets , cirriform wisps and patches , stratocumuliform layers ( mainly structured as rolls , ripples , and patches ) , cumuliform heaps , and very large cumulonimbiform heaps that often show complex structure . The physical forms are cross-classified by the altitude levels to produce ten basic genus-types , most of which can be divided into species , and subdivided into varieties . Two cirriform clouds that form higher up in the stratosphere and mesosphere have common names for their main types , but are sub-classified alpha-numerically . They are relatively uncommon and are mostly seen in the polar regions of Earth . Clouds have been observed in the atmospheres of other planets and moons in the Solar System and beyond . However , due to their different temperature characteristics , they are often composed of other substances such as methane , ammonia , and sulfuric acid as well as water . Homospheric types determined by cross-classification of forms and levels . '' Homospheric types include the ten tropospheric genera and two additional major types above the troposphere . The cumulus genus includes three variants as defined by vertical size .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Cloud", "rank": 95, "score": 97747 }, { "content": "Title: El Niño Content: El Niño -LSB- ɛl_ˈniːnjoʊ -RSB- ( -LSB- el ˈniɲo -RSB- ) is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation ( commonly called ENSO ) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific ( between approximately the International Date Line and 120 ° W ) , including off the Pacific coast of South America . El Niño Southern Oscillation refers to the cycle of warm and cold temperatures , as measured by sea surface temperature , SST , of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean . El Niño is accompanied by high air pressure in the western Pacific and low air pressure in the eastern Pacific . The cool phase of ENSO is called `` La Niña '' with SST in the eastern Pacific below average and air pressures high in the eastern and low in western Pacific . The ENSO cycle , both El Niño and La Niña , cause global changes of both temperatures and rainfall . Developing countries that are dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are usually most affected . In American Spanish , the capitalized term `` El Niño '' refers to `` the little boy '' , so named because the pool of warm water in the Pacific near South America is often at its warmest around Christmas . The original name , `` El Niño de Navidad '' , traces its origin centuries back to Peruvian fisherman , who named the weather phenomenon in reference to the newborn Christ . `` La Niña '' , chosen as the ` opposite ' of El Niño , literally translates to `` the little girl '' .", "qid": "319", "docid": "El_Niño", "rank": 96, "score": 97617 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Venus Content: The atmosphere of Venus is the layer of gases surrounding Venus . It is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and is much denser and hotter than that of Earth . The temperature at the surface is 740 K ( 467 ° C , 872 ° F ) , and the pressure is 93 bar ( 9.3 MPa ) , roughly the pressure found 900 m underwater on Earth . The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid , making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible . Information about the topography has been obtained exclusively by radar imaging . Aside from carbon dioxide , the other main component is nitrogen . Other chemical compounds are present only in trace amounts . Mikhail Lomonosov was the first person to hypothesize the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 in a small observatory near his house in Saint Petersburg , Russia . Aside from the very surface layers , the atmosphere is in a state of vigorous circulation . The upper layer of troposphere exhibits a phenomenon of super-rotation , in which the atmosphere circles the planet in just four Earth days , much faster than the planet 's sidereal day of 243 days . The winds supporting super-rotation blow at a speed of 100 m/s ( ~ 360 km/h or 220 mph ) or more . Winds move at up to 60 times the speed of the planet 's rotation , while Earth 's fastest winds are only 10 % to 20 % rotation speed . On the other hand , the wind speed becomes increasingly slower as the elevation from the surface decreases , with the breeze barely reaching the speed of 10 km/h ( 2.8 m/s ) on the surface . Near the poles are anticyclonic structures called polar vortices . Each vortex is double-eyed and shows a characteristic S-shaped pattern of clouds . Above there is an intermediate layer of mesosphere which separates the troposphere from the thermosphere . The thermosphere is also characterized by strong circulation , but very different in its nature - the gases heated and partially ionized by sunlight in the sunlit hemisphere migrate to the dark hemisphere where they recombine and downwell . Unlike Earth , Venus lacks a magnetic field . Its ionosphere separates the atmosphere from outer space and the solar wind . This ionised layer excludes the solar magnetic field , giving Venus a distinct magnetic environment . This is considered Venus 's induced magnetosphere . Lighter gases , including water vapour , are continuously blown away by the solar wind through the induced magnetotail . It is speculated that the atmosphere of Venus up to around 4 billion years ago was more like that of the Earth with liquid water on the surface . A runaway greenhouse effect may have been caused by the evaporation of the surface water and subsequent rise of the levels of other greenhouse gases . Despite the harsh conditions on the surface , the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth , making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System , even more so than the surface of Mars . Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air ( 21 % oxygen , 78 % nitrogen ) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth , the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization . On January 29 , 2013 , ESA scientists reported that the ionosphere of the planet Venus streams outwards in a manner similar to `` the ion tail seen streaming from a comet under similar conditions . ''", "qid": "319", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Venus", "rank": 97, "score": 97539 }, { "content": "Title: Dine's compensation Content: In meteorology , Dines ' compensation states that net mass convergence into a given column of air must be balanced by a net mass divergence from the same column of air . The implication is that rising air in the atmosphere must be balanced by equal sinking or subsiding air . Dines ' compensation applies especially in mesoscale circulations ( i.e. supercells ) and in macroscale and mesoscale tropical circulations . For instance , it is not uncommon to see anti-cyclonic cirrus outflow from a hurricane in visible satellite imagery . Dines ' compensation applies differently in the mid-latitudes , as upper-level highs are not necessarily associated with surface lows . Jet streaks and other upper level features , however , can contribute or support lower level convergence/divergence . Category : Atmospheric dynamics", "qid": "319", "docid": "Dine's_compensation", "rank": 98, "score": 97395 }, { "content": "Title: List of wettest tropical cyclones in the United States Content: Many of the wettest tropical cyclones in the United States have moved into the contiguous United States from the Atlantic Ocean , the Gulf of Mexico , and the eastern Pacific Ocean . The highest rainfall totals in the country have been measured across the Gulf Coast and lower portions of the Eastern Seaboard . Intermediate amounts have been measured across the Southwest , New England , and the Midwest . The northern Great Plains and Pacific Northwest have received the lowest amounts , as those regions lie exceptionally far from the breeding grounds of Atlantic and Eastern Pacific tropical cyclones . A measurement of 48 in of rain during Tropical Storm Amelia holds the record for the highest precipitation total observed with a tropical cyclone in the contiguous United States . Tropical Storm Claudette holds the national 24-hour rainfall record , with 42 in observed within such a timeframe . Taking place only one year apart , in 1978 and 1979 , Amelia and Claudette are also the two wettest tropical cyclones on record to have occurred in Texas . Hurricane Hiki caused significant rainfall in the mountains of Hawaii ; with 52 in of rainfall reported , this is the most rainfall reported to have been produced by a tropical cyclone within the entirety of the United States .", "qid": "319", "docid": "List_of_wettest_tropical_cyclones_in_the_United_States", "rank": 99, "score": 97306 }, { "content": "Title: Level of free convection Content: The level of free convection ( LFC ) is the altitude in the atmosphere where the temperature of the environment decreases faster than the moist adiabatic lapse rate of a saturated air parcel at the same level . The usual way of finding the LFC is to lift a parcel from a lower level along the dry adiabatic lapse rate until it crosses the mixing ratio line of the parcel : this is the lifted condensation level ( LCL ) . From there on , follow the moist adiabatic lapse rate until the temperature of the parcel reaches the air mass temperature , at the equilibrium level ( EL ) . If the temperature of the parcel along the moist adiabat is warmer than the environment on further lift , one has found the LFC . Since the volume of the parcel is larger than the surrounding air after LFC by the ideal gas law ( PV = nRT ) , it is less dense and becomes buoyant rising until its temperature ( at E ) equals the surrounding airmass . If the airmass has one or many LFC , it is potentially unstable and may lead to convective clouds like cumulus and thunderstorms .", "qid": "319", "docid": "Level_of_free_convection", "rank": 100, "score": 97265 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 1, "score": 181278 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 2, "score": 172125 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 3, "score": 170875 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 4, "score": 170808 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "320", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 5, "score": 169202 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 6, "score": 167657 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 7, "score": 156587 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 8, "score": 156540 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 9, "score": 156274 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 10, "score": 154674 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "320", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 11, "score": 153477 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 12, "score": 142939 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 13, "score": 141632 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 14, "score": 141629 }, { "content": "Title: 20th century Content: The 20th century was a century that began on January 1 , 1901 and ended on December 31 , 2000 . It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium . It is distinct from the century known as the 1900s which began on January 1 , 1900 , and ended on December 31 , 1999 . The 20th century was dominated by a chain of events that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era : World War I and World War II , nuclear power and space exploration , nationalism and decolonization , the Cold War and post-Cold War conflicts ; intergovernmental organizations and cultural homogenization through developments in emerging transportation and communications technology ; poverty reduction and world population growth , awareness of environmental degradation , ecological extinction ; and the birth of the Digital Revolution . It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication and genetic modification of life . The term `` short twentieth century '' was coined to represent the events from 1914 to 1991 . Global total fertility rates , sea level rise and ecological collapses increased ; the resulting competition for land and dwindling resources accelerated deforestation , water depletion . and the mass extinction of half the world 's estimated nine million unique species and wildlife population ; consequences which are now being dealt with . It took all of human history up to 1804 for the world 's population to reach 1 billion ; world population reached an estimated 2 billion in 1927 ; by late 1999 , the global population reached 6 billion . Global literacy averaged 80 % ; global lifespan-averages exceeded 40 + years for the first time in history , with over half achieving 70 + years ( three decades longer than it was a century ago ) .", "qid": "320", "docid": "20th_century", "rank": 15, "score": 140285 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 16, "score": 138724 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record Content: For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Temperature_record", "rank": 17, "score": 137061 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 18, "score": 136412 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 19, "score": 135216 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 20, "score": 134852 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 21, "score": 134061 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 22, "score": 133626 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 23, "score": 133617 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 24, "score": 132835 }, { "content": "Title: Thermoscope Content: A thermoscope is a device that shows changes in temperature . A typical design is a tube in which a liquid rises and falls as the temperature changes . The modern thermometer gradually evolved from it with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century and standardisation through the 17th and 18th centuries .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Thermoscope", "rank": 25, "score": 132370 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 26, "score": 132219 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 27, "score": 132029 }, { "content": "Title: Gilbert Plass Content: Gilbert Norman Plass ( 22 March 1920 -- 1 March 2004 ) was a Canadian physicist who in the 1950s made predictions about the increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 20th century and its effect on the average temperature of the planet that closely match measurements reported half a century later . Plass worked most of his life as a physicist in the United States . He graduated from Harvard University in 1941 and earned a PhD in physics from Princeton University in 1947 . He worked as an associate physicist at the Metallurgical Laboratory ( Manhattan District ) of the University of Chicago from 1942 to 1945 . He became an instructor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in 1946 , and eventually became an associate professor there . In 1955 , leaving academia , he held a job for a year as a staff scientist with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation . He then joined the advanced research staff at the Aeronutronic division of the Ford Motor Company . In 1960 , he became manager of the research lab at Ford 's theoretical physics department and a consulting editor of the journal Infrared Physics ( now called Infrared Physics and Technology ) . In 1963 , he accepted a position as the first professor of atmospheric and space science at the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies ( now the University of Texas at Arlington ) , where he remained for five years . In 1968 , he arrived at Texas A&M University , where he served as professor of physics and head of the department .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Gilbert_Plass", "rank": 28, "score": 131841 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 29, "score": 130665 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 30, "score": 130219 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "320", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 31, "score": 129628 }, { "content": "Title: Miller-Casella thermometer Content: The Miller-Casella thermometer was a Six 's thermometer with a double bulb used extensively by the Challenger expedition during the late nineteenth century . The thermomemeter was used for water temperature readings along 360 different research stations around the world 's oceans . The thermometer , which was about 9 inches in length , was enclosed in a copper case and filled with a solution of creosote in spirit . A U-shaped mercury tube recorded maximum and minimum temperature as the thermometer was lowered and raised into the ocean . This design assumed accurate measurements could be taken as long as the water closer to the surface of the ocean was always warmer than that below . Scientists aboard the HMS Challenger later questioned this assumption and made temperutare measurements with reversing thermometers instead which would n't require the coldest water to be at the ocean 's bottom .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Miller-Casella_thermometer", "rank": 32, "score": 127552 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 33, "score": 127416 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 34, "score": 126153 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 35, "score": 126000 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 36, "score": 125713 }, { "content": "Title: Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 Content: Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 ( ETM-2 ) , also called H-1 or the Elmo ( Eocene Layer of Mysterious Origin ) event , was a transient period of global warming that occurred approximately 53.7 million years ago ( Ma ) . It appears to be the second major hyperthermal that punctuated the long-term warming trend from the Late Paleocene through the early Eocene ( 58 to 50 Ma ) . The hyperthermals were geologically brief time intervals ( < 200,000 years ) of global warming and massive carbon input . The most extreme and best-studied event , the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM or ETM-1 ) , occurred about 1.8 million years before ETM-2 , at approximately 55.5 Ma . Other hyperthermals likely followed ETM-2 at nominally 53.6 Ma ( H-2 ) , 53.3 ( I-1 ) , 53.2 ( I-2 ) and 52.8 Ma ( informally called K , X or ETM-3 ) . The number , nomenclature , absolute ages and relative global impact of the Eocene hyperthermals are the source of much current research . In any case , the hyperthermals appear to have ushered in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest interval of the Cenozoic Era . They also definitely precede the Azolla event at about 49 Ma . ETM-2 is clearly recognized in sediment sequences by analyzing the stable carbon isotope composition of carbon-bearing material . The 13C/12C ratio of calcium carbonate or organic matter drops significantly across the event . This is similar to what happens when one examines sediment across the PETM , although the magnitude of the negative carbon isotope excursion is not as large . The timing of Earth system perturbations during ETM-2 and the PETM also appear different . Specifically , the onset of ETM-2 may have been longer ( perhaps 30,000 years ) while the recovery seems to have been shorter ( perhaps < 50,000 years ) . ( Note , however , that the timing of short-term carbon cycle perturbations during both events remains difficult to constrain ) . A thin clay-rich horizon marks ETM-2 in marine sediment from widely separated locations . In sections recovered from the deep-sea ( for example those recovered by Ocean Drilling Program Leg 208 on Walvis Ridge ) , this layer is caused by dissolution of calcium carbonate . However , in sections deposited along continental margins ( for example those now exposed along the Clarence River , New Zealand ) , the clay-rich horizon represents dilution by excess accumulation of terrestrial material entering into the ocean . Similar changes in sediment accumulation are found across the PETM . In sediment from Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean , intervals across both ETM-2 and the PETM shows signs of higher temperature , lower salinity and lower dissolved oxygen . The PETM and ETM-2 are thought to have a similar generic origin , although this idea is at the edge of current research . During both events , a tremendous amount of 13C-depleted carbon rapidly entered the ocean and atmosphere . This decreased the 13C/12C ratio of carbon-bearing sedimentary components , and dissolved carbonate in the deep ocean . Somehow the carbon input was coupled to an increase in Earth surface temperature and a greater seasonality in precipitation , which explains the excess terrestrial sediment discharge along continental margins . Possible explanations for changes during ETM-2 are the same as those for the PETM , and are discussed under the latter entry . The H-2 event appears to be a `` minor '' hyperthermal that follows ETM-2 ( H-1 ) by about 100,000 years . This has led to speculation that the two events are somehow coupled and paced by changes in orbital eccentricity . As in the case of the PETM , reversible dwarfing of mammals has been noted during the ETM-2 .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Eocene_Thermal_Maximum_2", "rank": 37, "score": 124965 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 38, "score": 124605 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 39, "score": 123503 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 40, "score": 123209 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "320", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 41, "score": 123005 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 42, "score": 122916 }, { "content": "Title: Recording thermometer Content: A recording thermometer is a type of thermometer that records temperature changes over a period of time . One end of the strip is attached to a long , light metal lever that holds a special pen . Tiny movement of the bimetallic strip causes much larger movement of the free end of the lever and the pen . The pen traces a rising and falling line on a strip of paper attached to a slowly turning drum . The drum usually makes one turn every seven or so days , so afterwards each strip of paper contains a complete and accurate record of temperature changes for a whole week . There are normally two types of metal on the bimetallic strip . Mostly one is steel and one is copper . Because these metals expand and contract at different rates.When one of these metals expand it curls tighter , when one contracts it uncurl slightly . When it curls or uncurls , the data is converted into electric signals , which record the temperature change . Category : Thermometers", "qid": "320", "docid": "Recording_thermometer", "rank": 43, "score": 121956 }, { "content": "Title: Pliocene climate Content: During the Pliocene epoch ( 5.3 Ma to 2.6 Ma ) climate became cooler and drier , and seasonal , similar to modern climates . The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene ( 3.3 Ma -- 3 Ma ) was 2 -- 3 ° C higher than today , global sea level 25m higher and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma . The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds . Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch . The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . During the Pliocene the earth climate system response shifted from a period of high frequency-low amplitude oscillation dominated by the 41,000-year period of Earth 's obliquity to one of low-frequency , high-amplitude oscillation dominated by the 100,000-year period of the orbital eccentricity characteristic of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles . The equatorial pacific ocean sea surface temperature gradient was considerably lower than it is today , mean sea surface temperature in the east were substantially warmer than today but similar in the west , this condition has been described as a permanent El Niño state or El Padre", "qid": "320", "docid": "Pliocene_climate", "rank": 44, "score": 121352 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 45, "score": 121074 }, { "content": "Title: Journal for Geoclimatic Studies Content: The Journal for Geoclimatic Studies is the name given to a nonexistent journal which published a fabricated global warming study in November 2007 entitled , `` Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria : the death of manmade global warming theory ? '' The published study identified the Journal for Geoclimatic Studies as an official publication of Okinawa University 's Institute for Geoclimatic Studies ( The Institute for Geoclimatic Studies is also fraudulent and does not exist ) . The spurious study , ostensibly authored by Daniel Klein and Mandeep J. Gupta of the University of Arizona 's Department of Climatology , and Philip Cooper and Arne FR Jansson at the University of Gothenburg 's Department of Atmospheric Physics , claimed that global warming was not human caused , but the work of carbon-dioxide emitting bacteria based on the ocean floor . The report was circulated by a number of global warming skeptics before discovery that the study authors and university departments identified in the publication did not exist . The website where the study was published was taken down once the deception was revealed , and its ownership was traced to David Thorpe , a science journalist and web designer based in the United Kingdom . The true author of the article is purportedly a man identifying himself as Mark Cox , who has claimed the hoax was designed to expose the gullibility and scientific illiteracy of global warming skeptics .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Journal_for_Geoclimatic_Studies", "rank": 46, "score": 120743 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric thermometer Content: A atmospheric thermometer is a device that measures the temperature of the indoor or outdoor atmosphere . The most common type consists of a long tube that contains mercury or colored alcohol at the base , although there are also other kinds , such as spring and digital thermometers . When the atmospheric temperature rises , it causes the material inside the air thermometer to expand . Conversely , when the air gets colder , the material contracts and travels back down.Thermometers use temperature scales either Fahrenheit , Celsius , Kelvin , to provide a measure of heat in degrees . Category : Thermometers", "qid": "320", "docid": "Atmospheric_thermometer", "rank": 47, "score": 120080 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 48, "score": 119693 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 49, "score": 119594 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 50, "score": 119416 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 51, "score": 119404 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "320", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 52, "score": 119194 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 53, "score": 118972 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 54, "score": 118929 }, { "content": "Title: Six's thermometer Content: Six 's thermometer is a registering thermometer which can record the maximum and minimum temperatures reached over a period of time , for example 24 hours . It is used to record the extremes of temperature at a location , for instance in meteorology and horticulture . It was invented by a British scientist James Six , born in Canterbury , in 1780 ; the same basic design remains in use . It is also commonly known as a maximum -- minimum , minimum -- maximum , maxima -- minima or minima -- maxima thermometer , of which it is the earliest practical design . The thermometer indicates the current temperature , and the highest and lowest temperatures since last reset .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Six's_thermometer", "rank": 55, "score": 118626 }, { "content": "Title: Reversing thermometer Content: Unlike most conventional mercury thermometers , a reversing thermometer is able to record a given temperature to be viewed at a later time . If the thermometer is flipped upside down , the current temperature will be shown until it is turned upright again . This was the primary device used by oceanographers to determine water temperatures below the surface of the ocean from around 1900 to 1970 . It consists of a conventional bulb connected to a capillary in which a constriction is placed so that upon reversal the mercury column breaks off in a reproducible manner . The mercury runs down into a smaller bulb at the other end of the capillary , which is graduated to read temperature . A 360 ° turn in a locally widened portion of the capillary serves as a trap to prevent further addition of mercury if the thermometer is warmed and the mercury expands past the break-off point . The remote-reading potentialities of reversing thermometers make them particularly suitable for use in measuring subsea temperature as a function of pressure . In this application , both protected thermometers and unprotected thermometers are used , each of which is provided with an auxiliary thermometer . They are generally used in pairs in Nansen bottles . They are usually read to 0.01 ° C , and after the proper corrections have been applied , their readings are considered reliable to 0.02 ° C.", "qid": "320", "docid": "Reversing_thermometer", "rank": 56, "score": 117896 }, { "content": "Title: Thermometer Content: A thermometer is a device that measures temperature or a temperature gradient . A thermometer has two important elements : ( 1 ) a temperature sensor ( e.g. the bulb of a mercury-in-glass thermometer ) in which some physical change occurs with temperature , and ( 2 ) some means of converting this physical change into a numerical value ( e.g. the visible scale that is marked on a mercury-in-glass thermometer ) . Thermometers are widely used in industry to control and regulate processes , in the study of weather , in medicine , and in scientific research . There are various principles by which different thermometers operate . They include the thermal expansion of solids or liquids with temperature , and the change in pressure of a gas on heating or cooling . Radiation-type thermometers measure the infrared energy emitted by an object , allowing measurement of temperature without contact . Most metals are good conductors of heat and they are solids at room temperature . Mercury is the only one in liquid state at room temperature , and has high coefficient of expansion . Hence , the slightest change in temperature is notable when it 's used in a thermometer . This is the reason behind mercury and alcohol being used in thermometer . Some of the principles of the thermometer were known to Greek philosophers of two thousand years ago . The modern thermometer gradually evolved from the thermoscope with the addition of a scale in the early 17th century and standardisation through the 17th and 18th centuries .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Thermometer", "rank": 57, "score": 117055 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 58, "score": 117043 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 59, "score": 116427 }, { "content": "Title: Beckmann thermometer Content: A Beckmann thermometer is a device used to measure small differences of temperature , but not absolute temperature values . It was invented by Ernst Otto Beckmann ( 1853 -- 1923 ) , a German chemist , for his measurements of colligative properties in 1905 . Today its use has largely been superseded by electronic thermometers . A Beckmann thermometer 's length is usually 40 -- 50 cm . The temperature scale typically covers about 5 ° C and it is divided into hundredths of a degree . With a magnifier it is possible to estimate temperature changes to 0.001 ° C . The peculiarity of Beckmann 's thermometer design is a reservoir ( R on diagram ) at the upper end of the tube , by means of which the quantity of mercury in the bulb can be increased or diminished so that the instrument can be set to measure temperature differences at either high or low temperature values . In contrast , the range of a typical mercury-in-glass thermometer is fixed , being set by the calibration marks etched on the glass or the marks on the printed scale .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Beckmann_thermometer", "rank": 60, "score": 116298 }, { "content": "Title: 8.2 kiloyear event Content: In climatology , the 8.2 kiloyear event was a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present , or c. 6,200 BCE , and which lasted for the next two to four centuries . Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it , but more severe than the Little Ice Age that would follow , the 8.2 kiloyear cooling was a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum . During the event , atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb or an emission reduction of 15 % , by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale .", "qid": "320", "docid": "8.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 61, "score": 116076 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and potatoes Content: Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change_and_potatoes", "rank": 62, "score": 115971 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom Climate Change Programme Content: The United Kingdom 's Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) . The 2000 programme was updated in March 2006 following a review launched in September 2004 . In 2008 , the UK was the world 's 9th greatest producer of man-made carbon emissions , producing around 1.8 % of the global total generated from fossil fuels .", "qid": "320", "docid": "United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 63, "score": 115863 }, { "content": "Title: Evangelical Climate Initiative Content: The Evangelical Climate Initiative ( ECI ) is a campaign by US-American church leaders and organizations to promote market based mechanisms to mitigate global warming . ECI 's first statement , calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions , was initially signed by 86 evangelical leaders . Signatories included Rick Warren , the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges , and the leader of the Salvation Army . The number of signatories had risen to over 100 by December 2007 , and as of July 2011 over 220 evangelical leaders had signed the call to action . David P. Gushee , a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University , helped draft the document . When the Evangelical Climate Initiative launched in February 2006 , the National Association of Evangelicals ( NAE ) was not ready to make such a commitment . Not quite a year later , the NAE worked with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to bring scientists and evangelical Christian leaders together to mitigate climate change . As ABC News reported :", "qid": "320", "docid": "Evangelical_Climate_Initiative", "rank": 64, "score": 115138 }, { "content": "Title: Early anthropocene Content: The Early Anthropocene Hypothesis ( sometimes called Early Anthropogenic ) was proposed by William Ruddiman . It posits that the Anthropocene era , as some scientists call the most recent period in Earth 's history when the activities of the human race first began to have a significant global impact on Earth 's climate and ecosystems , did not begin in the eighteenth century with advent of coal-burning factories and power plants of the industrial era , as was commonly assumed , but dates back to 8,000 years ago , triggered by intense farming activities after agriculture became widespread . It was at that time that atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations stopped following the periodic pattern of rises and falls that had accurately characterized their past long-term behavior , a pattern that is explained by natural variations in Earth 's orbit known as Milankovitch cycles .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Early_anthropocene", "rank": 65, "score": 114981 }, { "content": "Title: Age wave Content: Age Wave refers to a massive population and cultural shift caused by three converging global demographic forces : The baby boom . In the middle of the twentieth century , fertility rates increased significantly in the United States , Canada , Australia , and most of Europe . For example , nearly one-third of Americans -- 76 million people -- were born between 1946 and 1964 . This period of increased fertility era occurred between the baby busts of the Depression and World War II and the Vietnam war . Elevating longevity . Due to advances in public health , nutrition management and medical advances , life expectancy vaulted during the 20th century . For example , in the United States , life expectancy at birth in 1900 was 47 . Today , life expectancy at birth in the United States is 78 . The birth dearth . The baby boom has been followed by a period of declining fertility rates , so that many parts of the world are now experiencing sub-replacement fertility levels . According to Ken Dychtwald , Ph.D. , who first envisioned this demographically-driven transformation and coined the term , the `` age wave '' has already reshaped social and cultural trends , marketplace opportunities , productivity , and consumption patterns . Because of its enormous size and unique preferences and priorities , the men and women of this generation do n't just populate existing lifestages or consumer trends , they transform them . Some examples of trends and events driven by the age wave include : Benjamin Spock 's book , The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care , published during the first year of the baby boom , sold at least one million copies a year for eight straight years . 1.5 million cans of baby food were consumed in 1953 , almost six times as many as a decade before . Enrollment in the Cub Scouts doubled between 1950 and 1955 . The toy industry increased fifteen-fold in the 1940s and 1950s to meet the needs of rapidly growing numbers of children . 83 percent of the total population growth in the United States during the 1950s was in the suburbs as parents of the baby boomers moved out of the cities to raise their larger families . In the 1960s , teenagers accounted for 55 percent of all soft drink sales , 53 percent of all movie tickets , and 43 percent of all records sold . Fast food franchisers grew 20 percent a year . Sales of home gym equipment rose from $ 75 million in 1982 to over $ 1 billion in 1985 . Minivans and SUVs were created and came to dominate the auto industry in the 1980s and 1990s as baby boomers began raising families . The age wave will cause a massive slowdown in workforce growth in the coming years . In the next decade , America 's workforce will grow only 4 percent as the boomers begin to retire , down from 12 percent in the current decade and 29 percent in the 1970s when the boomers were entering the workforce . Dychtwald argues that as the boomer generation continues to mature , life 's second half is about to be further transformed , and that in the next several decades , this age wave will shift the epicenter of consumer activity from a focus on youth to the needs , challenges , and aspirations of maturing consumers . Because of the aging of the boomer generation , we are about to see an explosion of maturity-oriented products and services such as : nutraceuticals , cosmeceuticals , fitness communes , re-careering , philanthropreneuring , career-transition coordinators , smart homes , long-term care and longevity insurance , equity-release , reverse mortgages , college campus-based retirement housing and Internet cemeteries . However , the age wave will also put unprecedented pressure on families , communities and governments as multiplying numbers of older adults strain entitlements , eldercare , healthcare delivery and pensions . Criticisms All of these ancedotes may not reflect purely demographic changes , but also changes in norms of social present in the period . Especially activities like baby food consumption or Boy Scout attendance . Baby food consumption points to changes in beliefs about childhood nutrition , marketing and increased wealth with which to buy packaged food . Boy Scout attendance is not a stable fraction of the population ( all those of a certain age ) but rather a reflection of trends in beliefs about proper young male socialization and ideology .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Age_wave", "rank": 66, "score": 114824 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 67, "score": 114462 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris , France , from 30 November to 12 December 2015 . It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP ) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties ( CMP ) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change , the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it . The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions . On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) , 174 countries signed the agreement in New York , and began adopting it within their own legal systems ( through ratification , acceptance , approval , or accession ) . According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks , the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius ( ° C ) compared to pre-industrial levels . The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century . In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement , the parties will also `` pursue efforts to '' limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C . The 1.5 ° C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050 , according to some scientists . Prior to the conference , 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions ( called `` Intended Nationally Determined Contributions '' , INDCs ) . These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 . For example , the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 . The agreement establishes a `` global stocktake '' which revisits the national goals to `` update and enhance '' them every five years beginning 2023 . However , no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement -- as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol . A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21 , including the Bonn Climate Change Conference , 19 to 23 October 2015 , which produced a draft agreement .", "qid": "320", "docid": "2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 68, "score": 114300 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sequestration Content: Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Carbon_sequestration", "rank": 69, "score": 113976 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling Curve Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Keeling_Curve", "rank": 70, "score": 113531 }, { "content": "Title: World's tallest thermometer Content: The World 's Tallest Thermometer is a landmark located in Baker , California , USA . It is an electric sign that commemorates the record 134 degrees Fahrenheit ( 57 degrees Celsius ) recorded in nearby Death Valley on July 10 , 1913 . The sign weighs 76812 lb and is held together by 125 cuyd of concrete . It stands 134 ft tall and is capable of displaying a maximum temperature of 134 F , both of which are a reference to the temperature record .", "qid": "320", "docid": "World's_tallest_thermometer", "rank": 71, "score": 113432 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature Content: A temperature is an objective comparative measurement of hot or cold . It is measured by a thermometer . Several scales and units exist for measuring temperature , the most common being Celsius ( denoted ° C ; formerly called centigrade ) , Fahrenheit ( denoted ° F ) , and , especially in science , Kelvin ( denoted K ) . The coldest theoretical temperature is absolute zero , at which the thermal motion of atoms and molecules reaches its minimum -- classically , this would be a state of motionlessness , but quantum uncertainty dictates that the particles still possess a finite zero-point energy . Absolute zero is denoted as 0 K on the Kelvin scale , − 273.15 ° C on the Celsius scale , and − 459.67 ° F on the Fahrenheit scale . The kinetic theory offers a valuable but limited account of the behavior of the materials of macroscopic bodies , especially of fluids . It indicates the absolute temperature as proportional to the average kinetic energy of the random microscopic motions of those of their constituent microscopic particles , such as electrons , atoms , and molecules , that move freely within the material . Temperature is important in all fields of natural science including physics , geology , chemistry , atmospheric sciences , medicine and biology as well as most aspects of daily life .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Temperature", "rank": 72, "score": 113240 }, { "content": "Title: ERA-40 Content: ERA-40 is an ECMWF re-analysis of the global atmosphere and surface conditions for 45-years , over the period from September 1957 through August 2002 by ECMWF . Many sources of the meteorological observations were used , including radiosondes , balloons , aircraft , buoyes , satellites , scatterometers . This data was run through the ECMWF computer model at a 125 km resolution . As the ECMWF 's computer model is one of the more highly regarded in the field of forecasting , many scientists take its reanalysis to have similar merit . The data is stored in GRIB format . The reanalysis was done in an effort to improve the accuracy of historical weather maps and aid in a more detailed analysis of various weather systems through a period that was severely lacking in computerized data . With the data from reanalyses such as this , many of the more modern computerized tools for analyzing storm systems can be utilized , at least in part , because of this access to a computerized simulation of the atmospheric state .", "qid": "320", "docid": "ERA-40", "rank": 73, "score": 113126 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 74, "score": 113108 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 75, "score": 113007 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 76, "score": 112956 }, { "content": "Title: Interglacial Content: An interglacial period ( or alternatively interglacial , interglaciation ) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age . The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene , about 11,700 years ago .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Interglacial", "rank": 77, "score": 112783 }, { "content": "Title: Carnian Pluvial Event Content: The Carnian Pluvial Event ( CPE ) is a major global climate change and biotic turnover that occurred during the Carnian , early Late Triassic , ~ 230 million years ago . The base of the CPE is marked by a ~ 0.4 % negative shift in carbon stable isotopes of fossil molecules ( n-alkanes ) from higher plants and total organic carbon . A ~ 0.15 % negative shift in oxygen stable isotopes of conodont apatite suggests a global warming . Major changes in organisms responsible for calcium carbonate production occurred during the CPE . A halt of carbonate sedimentation is observed in deep water settings of Southern Italy that was probably caused by the rise of the Carbonate Compensation Depth ( CCD ) . High extinction rates occurred among ammonoids , conodonts , bryozoa , and crinoids . Major evolutionary innovations followed the CPE , as the first occurrence of dinosaurs , calcareous nannofossils and scleractinian corals .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Carnian_Pluvial_Event", "rank": 78, "score": 112495 }, { "content": "Title: Thermo-hygrograph Content: A thermo-hygrograph or hygrothermograph is a chart recorder that measures and records both temperature and humidity ( or dew point ) . Similar devices that record only one parameter are a thermograph for temperature and hygrograph for humidity . Thermographs where the variations are recorded using photography were described by several scientists as early as 1845 , including Francis Ronalds who was Honorary Director of the Kew Observatory . An updated model of the initial machine was deployed across the national observational network set up by the new UK Met Office in 1867 and coordinated by Kew Observatory . These instruments then saw extended use around the world . An alternative thermograph configuration has a pen that records temperature on a revolving cylinder . The pen is at the end of a lever that is controlled by a bi-metal strip of temperature-sensitive metal which bends as the temperature changes . A human hair bundle can be used for humidity in such machines .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Thermo-hygrograph", "rank": 79, "score": 112195 }, { "content": "Title: Quartz thermometer Content: The quartz thermometer is a high-precision , high accuracy temperature sensor . It measures temperature by measuring the frequency of a quartz crystal oscillator . The oscillator contains a specially cut crystal that results in a linear temperature coefficient of frequency , so the measurement of the temperature is essentially reduced to measurement of the oscillator frequency . Resolutions of .0001 ° C , and accuracy of .02 ° C from 0-100 ° C are achievable . The high linearity makes it possible to achieve high accuracy over an important temperature range that contains only one convenient temperature reference point for calibration , the triple point of water . Introduced by Hewlett-Packard in 1965 , the successor company , Agilent , has discontinued the Model 2804A Quartz Thermometer . Other manufacturers make nearly linear-in-temperature quartz crystals that may be used to construct thermometers of similar performance .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Quartz_thermometer", "rank": 80, "score": 111664 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "320", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 81, "score": 111569 }, { "content": "Title: Tall-stem thermometers Content: The tall-stem thermometers are a kind of thermoemeters , resting on branched feet . The stems carry enamel buttons indicating the degrees of one of the thermometric scales used by the Accademia del Cimento . The black buttons indicate single degrees , the white buttons ten degrees , and the blue buttons one hundred degrees . The thermometric liquid is acquarzente .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Tall-stem_thermometers", "rank": 82, "score": 111146 }, { "content": "Title: MMTS (meteorology) Content: A Maximum Minimum Temperature System or MMTS is a temperature recording system that keeps track of the maximum and minimum temperatures that have occurred over some given time period . The earliest , and still perhaps most familiar , form is the Maximum minimum thermometer invented by James Six in 1782 . Today a typical MMTS is a thermistor . This may be read locally or can transmit its results electronically .", "qid": "320", "docid": "MMTS_(meteorology)", "rank": 83, "score": 111139 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "320", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 84, "score": 110511 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 85, "score": 110420 }, { "content": "Title: James Hansen Content: James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "qid": "320", "docid": "James_Hansen", "rank": 86, "score": 110326 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide equivalent Content: Carbon dioxide equivalent ( CDE ) and equivalent carbon dioxide ( e and eq ) are two related but distinct measures for describing how much global warming a given type and amount of greenhouse gas may cause , using the functionally equivalent amount or concentration of carbon dioxide as the reference .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_equivalent", "rank": 87, "score": 109905 }, { "content": "Title: Greening Earth Society Content: The Greening Earth Society , now defunct , was a public relations organization which promoted the idea that there is considerable scientific doubt about the effects of climate change and increased levels of carbon dioxide . The Society published the World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute . It was a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association , with which it shared an office and many staff members . It has been called a `` front group created by the coal industry '' and an `` industry front '' . Fred Palmer , a Society staffer , is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy , a coal company . Although the Greening Earth Society was generally skeptical of the impact of climate change , it acknowledged some degree of global warming as real : `` Fact # 1 . The rate of global warming during the past several decades has been about 0.18 ° C per decade '' . Note that the actual increase in the global surface temperature during the 100 years ending in 2005 was 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C.", "qid": "320", "docid": "Greening_Earth_Society", "rank": 88, "score": 109902 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Protocol Content: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 89, "score": 109837 }, { "content": "Title: Politics of global warming Content: The complex politics of global warming results from numerous cofactors arising from the global economy 's interdependence on carbon dioxide emitting hydrocarbon energy sources and because carbon dioxide is directly implicated in global warming -- making global warming a non-traditional environmental challenge .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Politics_of_global_warming", "rank": 90, "score": 109806 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 91, "score": 109719 }, { "content": "Title: Virgin Earth Challenge Content: The Virgin Earth Challenge is a competition offering a $ 25 million prize for whoever can demonstrate a commercially viable design which results in the permanent removal of greenhouse gases out of the Earth 's atmosphere to contribute materially in global warming avoidance . The prize was conceived and financed by Sir Richard Branson , a successful British entrepreneur , and was announced in London on 9 February 2007 by Branson and former US Vice President and 2007 Nobel Prize winner Al Gore , creator of the 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth on climate change . Among more than 2600 applications , 11 finalists were announced on 2 November 2011 . These are Biochar Solutions , from the US ; Biorecro , Sweden ; Black Carbon , Denmark ; Carbon Engineering , Canada ; Climeworks , Switzerland ; COAWAY , US ; Full Circle Biochar , US ; Global Thermostat , US ; Kilimanjaro Energy , US ; Smartstones -- Olivine Foundation , Netherlands , and The Savory Institute , US .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Virgin_Earth_Challenge", "rank": 92, "score": 109644 }, { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 93, "score": 109549 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 94, "score": 109540 }, { "content": "Title: 20th century in literature Content: Literature of the 20th century refers to world literature produced during the 20th century ( 1901 to 2000 ) . In terms of the Euro-American tradition , the main periods are captured in the bipartite division , Modernist literature and Postmodern literature , flowering from roughly 1900 to 1940 and 1960 to 1990 respectively , divided , as a rule of thumb , by World War II . The somewhat malleable term of contemporary literature is usually applied with a post-1960 cutoff point . Although these terms ( modern , contemporary and postmodern ) are most applicable to Western literary history , the rise of globalization has allowed European literary ideas to spread into non-Western cultures fairly rapidly , so that Asian and African literatures can be included into these divisions with only minor qualifications . And in some ways , such as in Postcolonial literature , writers from non-Western cultures were on the forefront of literary development . Technological advances during the 20th century allowed cheaper production of books , resulting in a significant rise in production of popular literature and trivial literature , comparable to the similar developments in music . The division of `` popular literature '' and `` high literature '' in the 20th century is by no means absolute , and various genres such as detectives or science fiction fluctuate between the two . Largely ignored by mainstream literary criticism for the most of the century , these genres developed their own establishments and critical awards ; these include the Nebula Award ( since 1965 ) , the British Fantasy Award ( since 1971 ) or the Mythopoeic Awards ( since 1971 ) . Towards the end of the 20th century , electronic literature developed due to the development of hypertext and later the world wide web . The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded annually throughout the century ( with the exception of 1914 , 1918 , 1935 and 1940 -- 1943 ) , the first laureate ( 1901 ) being Sully Prudhomme . The New York Times Best Seller list has been published since 1942 . The best-selling literary works of the 20th century are estimated to be The Lord of the Rings ( 1954/55 , 150 million copies ) , Harry Potter and the Philosopher 's Stone ( 1997 , 120 million copies ) and And Then There Were None ( 1939 , 115 million copies ) . The Lord of the Rings was also voted `` book of the century '' in various surveys . Perry Rhodan ( 1961 to present ) proclaimed as the best-selling book series , with an estimated total of 1 billion copies sold .", "qid": "320", "docid": "20th_century_in_literature", "rank": 95, "score": 109358 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 96, "score": 109264 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 97, "score": 109138 }, { "content": "Title: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Content: Six Degrees : Our Future on a Hotter Planet ( 358 pages ) , ISBN 978-0-00-720905-7 is a 2007 ( 2008 in USA ) non-fiction book by author Mark Lynas about global warming . The book looks and attempts to summarize results from scientific papers on climate change .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Six_Degrees:_Our_Future_on_a_Hotter_Planet", "rank": 98, "score": 108815 }, { "content": "Title: Mercury-in-glass thermometer Content: The mercury-in-glass or mercury thermometer was invented by physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in Amsterdam ( 1714 ) . It consists of a bulb containing mercury attached to a glass tube of narrow diameter ; the volume of mercury in the tube is much less than the volume of the bulb . The volume of mercury changes slightly with temperature ; the small change in volume drives the narrow mercury column a relatively long way up the tube . The space above the mercury may be filled with nitrogen or it may be at less than atmospheric pressure , a partial vacuum . In order to calibrate the thermometer , the bulb is made to reach thermal equilibrium with a temperature standard such as an ice/water mixture , and then with another standard such as water/vapour , and the tube is divided into regular intervals between the fixed points . In principle , thermometers made of different material ( e.g. , coloured alcohol thermometers ) might be expected to give different intermediate readings due to different expansion properties ; in practice the substances used are chosen to have reasonably linear expansion characteristics as a function of true thermodynamic temperature , and so give similar results . The application of mercury ( 1714 ) and Fahrenheit scale ( 1724 ) for liquid-in-glass thermometers ushered in a new era of accuracy and precision in thermometry .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Mercury-in-glass_thermometer", "rank": 99, "score": 108691 }, { "content": "Title: Liquid crystal thermometer Content: A liquid crystal thermometer , temperature strip or plastic strip thermometer is a type of thermometer that contains heat-sensitive ( thermochromic ) liquid crystals in a plastic strip that change colour to indicate different temperatures . Liquid crystals possess the mechanical properties of a liquid , but have the optical properties of a single crystal . Temperature changes can affect the colour of a liquid crystal , which makes them useful for temperature measurement . The resolution of liquid crystal sensors is in the 0.1 ° C range . Disposable liquid crystal thermometers have been developed for home and medical use . For example if the thermometer is black and it is put onto someone 's forehead it will change colour depending on the temperature of the person . There are two stages in the liquid crystals : the hot nematic stage is the closest to the liquid phase where the molecules are freely moving around and only partly ordered . the cold smectic stage is closest to a solid phase where the molecules align themselves into tightly wound chiral matrixes . Liquid crystal thermometers portray temperatures as colors and can be used to follow temperature changes caused by heat flow . They can be used to observe that heat flows by conduction , convection , and radiation . In medical applications , liquid crystal thermometers may be used to read body temperature by placing against the forehead . These are safer than a mercury-in-glass thermometer , and may be advantageous in some patients , but do not always give an exact result , except the analytic liquid crystal thermometer which show the exact temperature between 35.5 to 40.5 Celsius . Liquid crystal thermometers are also commonly used in aquariums in homebrewing , and in mood rings . The Liquid crystal thermometer was invented by Bob Parker in California , one of many of the inventor 's thermochromic applications patented in the 1970s .", "qid": "320", "docid": "Liquid_crystal_thermometer", "rank": 100, "score": 108550 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Global Drifter Program Content: The Global Drifter Program ( GDP ) ( formerly known as the Surface Velocity Program ( SVP ) ) , was conceived by Prof. Peter Niiler , with the objective of collecting measurements of surface ocean currents , sea surface temperature and sea-level atmospheric pressure using drifters . It is the principal component of the Global Surface Drifting Buoy Array , a branch of NOAA 's Global Ocean Observing System ( GOOS ) and a scientific project of the Data Buoy Cooperation Panel ( DBCP ) . The project originated in February 1979 as part of the TOGA/Equatorial Pacific Ocean Circulation Experiment ( EPOCS ) and the first large-scale deployment of drifters was in 1988 with the goal of mapping the tropical Pacific Ocean 's surface circulation . The current goal of the project is to use 1250 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys to make accurate and globally dense in-situ observations of mixed layer currents , sea surface temperature , atmospheric pressure , winds and salinity , and to create a system to process the data . Horizontal transports in the oceanic mixed layer measured by the GDP are relevant to biological and chemical processes as well as physical ones .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Global_Drifter_Program", "rank": 1, "score": 189267 }, { "content": "Title: Weather buoy Content: Weather buoys are instruments which collect weather and ocean data within the world 's oceans , as well as aid during emergency response to chemical spills , legal proceedings , and engineering design . Moored buoys have been in use since 1951 , while drifting buoys have been used since 1979 . Moored buoys are connected with the ocean bottom using either chains , nylon , or buoyant polypropylene . With the decline of the weather ship , they have taken a more primary role in measuring conditions over the open seas since the 1970s . During the 1980s and 1990s , a network of buoys in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean helped study the El Niño-Southern Oscillation . Moored weather buoys range from 1.5 m to 12 m in diameter , while drifting buoys are smaller , with diameters of 30 cm to 40 cm . Drifting buoys are the dominant form of weather buoy in sheer number , with 1250 located worldwide . Wind data from buoys has smaller error than that from ships . There are differences in the values of sea surface temperature measurements between the two platforms as well , relating to the depth of the measurement and whether or not the water is heated by the ship which measures the quantity .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Weather_buoy", "rank": 2, "score": 186603 }, { "content": "Title: Self-locating datum marker buoy Content: A self-locating datum marker buoy ( SLDMB ) is a drifting surface buoy designed to measure surface ocean currents . The design is based on those of the Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment ( CODE ) and Davis-style oceanographic surface drifters -- National Science Foundation ( NSF ) funded experiments exploring ocean surface currents . The SLDMB was designed for deployment by United States Coast Guard ( USCG ) vessels in search and rescue ( SAR ) missions , and is equipped with a Global Positioning Satellite ( GPS ) sensor that , upon deployment in fresh - or saltwater , transmits its location periodically to the USCG to aid in SAR missions . Additionally , SLDMB are deployed in oceanographic research in order to study surface currents of the ocean . This design has also been utilized by Nomis Connectivity for secure ocean based communications .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Self-locating_datum_marker_buoy", "rank": 3, "score": 172026 }, { "content": "Title: Argo (oceanography) Content: Argo is an international program that uses profiling floats to observe temperature , salinity , currents , and , recently , bio-optical properties in the Earth 's oceans ; it has been operational since the early 2000s . The real-time data it provides is used in climate and oceanographic research . A special research interest is to quantify the ocean heat content ( OHC ) . The Argo fleet consists of almost 4000 drifting `` Argo floats '' ( as profiling floats used by the Argo program are often called ) deployed worldwide . Each float weighs 20 -- 30 kg . In most cases probes drift at a depth of 1000 metres ( the so-called parking depth ) and , every 10 days , by changing their buoyancy , dive to a depth of 2000 metres and then move to the sea-surface , measuring conductivity and temperature profiles as well as pressure . From these , salinity and density can be calculated . Seawater density is important in determining large-scale motions in the ocean . Average current velocities at 1000 metres are directly measured by the distance and direction a float drifts while parked at that depth , which is determined by GPS or Argos system positions at the surface . The data are transmitted to shore via satellite , and are freely available to everyone , without restrictions . The Argo program is named after the Greek mythical ship Argo to emphasize the complementary relationship of Argo with the Jason satellite altimeters .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Argo_(oceanography)", "rank": 4, "score": 150213 }, { "content": "Title: International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set Content: The International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set ( ICOADS ) is a digital database of 261 million weather observations made by ships , weather ships , and weather buoys spanning the years 1662 to 2007 . The database was initially constructed in 1985 and continues to be expanded upon and updated on a regular basis . From the original data , gridded datasets were created . ICOADS information has been useful in determining the reliability of ship and buoy wind measurements , helping to determine temperature trends in the sea surface temperature field , and updating the Atlantic hurricane database .", "qid": "322", "docid": "International_Comprehensive_Ocean-Atmosphere_Data_Set", "rank": 5, "score": 146695 }, { "content": "Title: Seasat Content: Seasat was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth 's oceans and had on board the first spaceborne synthetic aperture radar ( SAR ) . The mission was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of global satellite monitoring of oceanographic phenomena and to help determine the requirements for an operational ocean remote sensing satellite system . Specific objectives were to collect data on sea-surface winds , sea-surface temperatures , wave heights , internal waves , atmospheric water , sea ice features and ocean topography . Seasat was managed by NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was launched on 27 June 1978 into a nearly circular 800 km orbit with an inclination of 108 ° . Seasat operated for 106 days until 10 October 1978 , when a massive short circuit in the satellite 's electrical system ended the mission . Seasat carried five major instruments designed to return the maximum information from ocean surfaces : Radar altimeter to measure spacecraft height above the ocean surface Microwave scatterometer to measure wind speed and direction Scanning multichannel microwave radiometer to measure sea surface temperature Visible and infrared radiometer to identify cloud , land and water features Synthetic Aperture Radar ( SAR ) L-band , HH polarization , fixed look angle to monitor the global surface wave field and polar sea ice conditions -LCB- the antenna is the light parallelogram in the picture -RCB- . The SAR support structure was designed and manufactured by Northrop Grumman Astro Aerospace in Carpinteria , CA . The structure deployed on orbit . Many later remote sensing missions owe their legacy to Seasat . These include imaging radars flown on NASA 's Space Shuttle , altimeters on Earth-orbiting satellites such as TOPEX/Poseidon , and scatterometers on NASA Scatterometer ( NSCAT ) , QuikSCAT , and Jason 1 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Seasat", "rank": 6, "score": 143574 }, { "content": "Title: Drifter (floating device) Content: A drifter ( not to be confused with a float ) is an oceanographic device floating on the surface to investigate ocean currents and other parameters like temperature or salinity . Modern drifters are typically tracked by satellite , often GPS . They are sometimes called Lagrangian drifters since the location of the measurements they make moves with the flow . A major user of drifters is the Global Drifter Program .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Drifter_(floating_device)", "rank": 7, "score": 140869 }, { "content": "Title: CORA dataset Content: CORA ( standing for Coriolis Ocean database ReAnalysis ) is a global oceanographic temperature and salinity dataset produced and maintained by the French institute IFREMER . Most of those data are real-time data coming from different types of platforms ( research vessels , profilers , underwater gliders , drifting buoys , moored buoys , sea mammals , opportunity ships , ... ) .", "qid": "322", "docid": "CORA_dataset", "rank": 8, "score": 138825 }, { "content": "Title: Unmanned surface vehicle Content: Unmanned surface vehicles ( USV ) or autonomous surface vehicles ( ASV ) are vehicles that operate on the surface of the water ( watercraft ) without a crew . USVs are valuable in oceanography , as they are more capable than moored or drifting weather buoys , but far cheaper than the equivalent weather ships and research vessels , and more flexible than commercial-ship contributions . Wave gliders , in particular , harness wave energy for primary propulsion and , with solar cells to power their electronics , have months of marine persistence for both academic and naval applications . Military applications for USVs include powered seaborne targets and minehunting . Operational USVs with offensive capability include the Israeli Protector USV .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Unmanned_surface_vehicle", "rank": 9, "score": 135193 }, { "content": "Title: Ghrsst-pp Content: The Group for High Resolution SST ( GHRSST ) is a follow on activity form the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment ( GODAE ) high-resolution sea surface temperature pilot project ( GHRSST-PP ) provides a new generation of global high-resolution ( < 10 km ) SST data products to the operational oceanographic , meteorological , climate and general scientific community , in real time and delayed mode . See GHRSST for full details . Sea surface temperature ( SST ) measured from Earth Observation Satellites in considerable spatial detail and at high frequency , is increasingly required for use in the context of operational monitoring and forecasting of the ocean , for assimilation into coupled ocean-atmosphere model systems and for applications in short-term numerical weather prediction and longer term climate change detection . Currently there are many different SST data sets available derived from satellite systems . But , scientists and operational agencies alike are presented with a bewidering set of options in terms of SST product content , coverage , spatial resolution , timeliness , format and accuracy . The international GODAE steering committee realised that SST data products were not adequate for GODAE forecast systems and initiated the GODAE High Resolution SST Pilot Project ( GHRSST-PP ) . User Requirements were collected together to define the optimal SST data products that could be developed to suit the widest possible number of applications . In 2008 the GHRSST-PP Science Team agreed to close the Pilot Project as the GODAE project was completed . A follow on activity called the Group for High Resolution SST is now continuing the coordination of GHRSST activities .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Ghrsst-pp", "rank": 10, "score": 133862 }, { "content": "Title: Thermosalinograph Content: The Thermosalinograph or TSG is an instrument mounted near the water intake of ships to continuously measure sea surface temperature and conductivity while the ship is in motion . Various programs have been developed to assist in the collection and analysis of TSG data . The data can be used to calculate salinity , density , sound velocity , and other parameters . There are various types of thermosalinographs available on the market today .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Thermosalinograph", "rank": 11, "score": 131699 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 12, "score": 127330 }, { "content": "Title: Marine Optical Buoy Content: The Marine Optical Buoy ( MOBY ) measures light at and very near the sea surface in a specific location over a long period of time , serving as part of an ocean color observation system . Satellites are another component of the system , providing global coverage through remote sensing ; however , satellites measure light above the Earth 's atmosphere , becoming subject to interference from the atmosphere itself and other light sources . The Marine Optical Buoy helps alleviate that interference and thus improve the quality of the overall ocean color observation system .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Marine_Optical_Buoy", "rank": 13, "score": 126169 }, { "content": "Title: Weather station Content: A weather station is a facility , either on land or sea , with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate . The measurements taken include temperature , atmospheric pressure , humidity , wind speed , wind direction , and precipitation amounts . Wind measurements are taken with as few other obstructions as possible , while temperature and humidity measurements are kept free from direct solar radiation , or insolation . Manual observations are taken at least once daily , while automated measurements are taken at least once an hour . Weather conditions out at sea are taken by ships and buoys , which measure slightly different meteorological quantities such as sea surface temperature ( SST ) , wave height , and wave period . Drifting weather buoys outnumber their moored versions by a significant amount .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Weather_station", "rank": 14, "score": 124315 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-6 Content: NOAA-6 , designated NOAA-A before launch , was a weather satellite operated by NOAA as part of its National Operational Environmental Satellite System . It was launched into a Sun-synchronous orbit by NASA aboard an Atlas F launch vehicle on 27 June 1979 from Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-3W . Based on the experimental TIROS-N satellite , it performed monitoring of ice and snow cover , agriculture , oceanography , volcanism , ozone and the space environment , in addition to its regular meteorological observations . Its instruments included the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer ( AVHRR/1 ) for global cloud cover observations , the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder ( TOVS ) suite for atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiling , the Space Environment Monitor ( SEM ) for measuring proton and electron fluxes , and the Data Collection and Platform Location System ( DCPLS ) for relaying data from balloons and ocean buoys . The TOVS suite consists of three subsystems : the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder 2 ( HIRS/2 ) , the Stratospheric Sounding Unit ( SSU ) , and the Microwave Sounding Unit ( MSU ) . The HIRS/2 instrument failed on 19 September 1983 , and the spacecraft was placed in reserve in early 1984 as NOAA prioritized operations of NOAA-7 and NOAA-8 . It was returned to operational status after NOAA-8 failed in June 1984 , and continued to return data until its decommissioning on 31 March 1987 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "NOAA-6", "rank": 15, "score": 122275 }, { "content": "Title: Float (oceanographic instrument platform) Content: A float ( not to be confused with a drifter ) is an oceanographic instrument platform used for making subsurface measurements in the ocean . Common sensors carried by floats include temperature , conductivity , and pressure ( from which salinity can be calculated ) , and , for acoustically tracked floats , a hydrophone , though a wide range of other sensors have been deployed on floats as well . Often , floats are treated as disposable , as the expense of recovering them from remote areas of the ocean is prohibitive ; when the batteries fail , a float ceases to function , and drifts at depth until it runs aground or floods and sinks . In other cases , floats are deployed for a short time and recovered .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Float_(oceanographic_instrument_platform)", "rank": 16, "score": 121561 }, { "content": "Title: Sea state Content: In oceanography , a sea state is the general condition of the free surface on a large body of water -- with respect to wind waves and swell -- at a certain location and moment . A sea state is characterized by statistics , including the wave height , period , and power spectrum . The sea state varies with time , as the wind conditions or swell conditions change . The sea state can either be assessed by an experienced observer , like a trained mariner , or through instruments like weather buoys , wave radar or remote sensing satellites . In case of buoy measurements , the statistics are determined for a time interval in which the sea state can be considered to be constant . This duration has to be much longer than the individual wave period , but smaller than the period in which the wind and swell conditions vary significantly . Typically , records of one hundred to one thousand wave-periods are used to determine the wave statistics . The large number of variables involved in creating the sea state can not be quickly and easily summarized , so simpler scales are used to give an approximate but concise description of conditions for reporting in a ship 's log or similar record .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Sea_state", "rank": 17, "score": 118370 }, { "content": "Title: Miller-Casella thermometer Content: The Miller-Casella thermometer was a Six 's thermometer with a double bulb used extensively by the Challenger expedition during the late nineteenth century . The thermomemeter was used for water temperature readings along 360 different research stations around the world 's oceans . The thermometer , which was about 9 inches in length , was enclosed in a copper case and filled with a solution of creosote in spirit . A U-shaped mercury tube recorded maximum and minimum temperature as the thermometer was lowered and raised into the ocean . This design assumed accurate measurements could be taken as long as the water closer to the surface of the ocean was always warmer than that below . Scientists aboard the HMS Challenger later questioned this assumption and made temperutare measurements with reversing thermometers instead which would n't require the coldest water to be at the ocean 's bottom .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Miller-Casella_thermometer", "rank": 18, "score": 115731 }, { "content": "Title: GPS intelligent buoys Content: GPS intelligent buoy ( GIB ) systems may be classified as inverted long-baseline ( LBL ) acoustic positioning devices where the transducers are installed on GPS-equipped sonobuoys that are either drifting or moored . GIBs may be used in conjunction with an active underwater device ( such as a pinger equipped torpedo ) , or with a passive acoustic sound source ( such as an inert bomb striking the surface of the water ) . Typically the sound source or impact event is tracked or localized using a time of arrival ( TOA ) technique . Typically several GIBs are deployed over a given area of operation ; with the total number determined by the size of the test area and the accuracy of the results desired . Different methods of GPS positioning may be used for positioning the array of GIBs , with accuracies of cm to meter level in realtime possible . Buoys are manufactured by the French company ACSA-underwater-GPS ( subsidiary of the ALCEN group ) . Three off-the shelf products are available from the small portable GIB-Lite system to the large torpeado tracking GIB-FT , and including the medium-size , medium-range GIB-Plus system .", "qid": "322", "docid": "GPS_intelligent_buoys", "rank": 19, "score": 115637 }, { "content": "Title: Spar buoy Content: A spar buoy is a tall , thin buoy that floats upright in the water and is characterized by a small water plane area and a large mass . Because they tend to be stable ocean platforms , spar buoys are popular for making oceanographic measurements . Adjustment of the water plane area and the mass allows spar buoys to be tuned so they tend to not respond to wave forcing . This characteristic differentiates them from large water plane area buoys such as discus buoys that tend to be wave followers . Spar buoys are often used as stable platforms for wave measurement devices and air -- sea interaction measurements . Spar buoys range in length from a few feet to the 354-foot ( 108 meter ) RV FLIP . To avoid the difficulties inherent with shipboard launch and recovery , helicopter deployment of large spar buoys has been studied .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Spar_buoy", "rank": 20, "score": 115543 }, { "content": "Title: Satellite surface salinity Content: Satellite surface salinity refers to measurements of surface salinity made by remote sensing satellites . The radiative properties of the ocean surface are exploited in order to estimate the salinity of the water 's surface layer . The depth of the water column that a satellite surface salinity measurement is sensitive to depends on the frequency ( or wavelength ) of the radiance that is being measured . For instance , the optical depth for seawater at the 1.413 GHz microwave frequency , used for the Aquarius mission , is about 1 -- 2 cm .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Satellite_surface_salinity", "rank": 21, "score": 112487 }, { "content": "Title: AATSR Content: The Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer ( AATSR ) is one of the Announcement of Opportunity ( AO ) instruments on board the European Space Agency ( ESA ) 's Envisat satellite . This instrument is a multi-channel imaging radiometer with the principal objective of providing data concerning global Sea Surface Temperature ( SST ) to the high levels of accuracy and stability required for monitoring and carrying out research into the behaviour of the Earth 's climate . AATSR can measure Earth 's surface temperature to a precision of 0.3 K-change , for climate research . Among the secondary objectives of AATSR is the observation of environmental parameters such as aerosols , clouds , fires , gas flares , water content , biomass , and vegetal health and growth . AATSR is the successor of ATSR-1 and ATSR-2 , payloads of ERS-1 and ERS-2 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "AATSR", "rank": 22, "score": 112068 }, { "content": "Title: UAH satellite temperature dataset Content: The UAH satellite temperature dataset , developed at the University of Alabama in Huntsville , infers the temperature of various atmospheric layers from satellite measurements of radiance . It was the first global temperature datasets developed from satellite information and has been used as a tool for research into surface and atmospheric temperature changes . The dataset is published by John Christy et al. and formerly jointly with Roy Spencer .", "qid": "322", "docid": "UAH_satellite_temperature_dataset", "rank": 23, "score": 111956 }, { "content": "Title: Coastal-Marine Automated Network Content: The Coastal-Marine Automated Network ( C-MAN ) is a meteorological observation network along the coastal United States . Consisting of about sixty stations installed on lighthouses , at capes and beaches , on near shore islands , and on offshore platforms , the stations record atmospheric pressure , wind direction , speed and gust , and air temperature ; however , some C-MAN stations are designed to also measure sea surface temperature , water level , waves , relative humidity , precipitation , and visibility . The network is maintained by the National Data Buoy Center ( NDBC ) of the National Weather Service ( NWS ) , which is part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , and data is ingested into numerical weather prediction computer models . It was created in the early 1980s to maintain observations that were about to be discontinued by other programs . Data is processed and transmitted similarly to the moored buoy system . In 2002 , C-MAN was added to the NOAA Observing System Architecture ( NOSA ) .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Coastal-Marine_Automated_Network", "rank": 24, "score": 111544 }, { "content": "Title: Marine weather forecasting Content: Marine weather forecasting is the process by which mariners and meteorological organizations have attempted to forecast future weather conditions over the Earth 's oceans . Mariners have had rules of thumb regarding the navigation around tropical cyclones for many years , dividing a storm into halves and sailing through the normally weaker and more navigable half of their circulation . Marine weather forecasts by various weather organizations can be traced back to the sinking of the Royal Charter in 1859 and the RMS Titanic in 1912 . The wind is the driving force of weather at sea , as wind generates local wind waves , long ocean swells , and its flow around the subtropical ridge helps maintain warm water currents such as the Gulf Stream . The importance of weather over the ocean during World War II led to delayed or secret weather reports , in order to maintain a competitive advantage . Weather ships were established by various nations during World War II for forecasting purposes , and were maintained through 1985 to help with transoceanic plane navigation . Voluntary observations from ships , weather buoys , weather satellites , and numerical weather prediction have been used to diagnose and help forecast weather over the Earth 's ocean areas . Since the 1960s , numerical weather prediction 's role over the Earth 's seas has taken a greater role in the forecast process . Weather elements such as sea state , surface winds , tide levels , and sea surface temperature are tackled by organizations tasked with forecasting weather over open oceans and seas . Currently , the Japan Meteorological Agency , the United States National Weather Service , and the United Kingdom Met Office create marine weather forecasts for the Northern Hemisphere .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Marine_weather_forecasting", "rank": 25, "score": 110984 }, { "content": "Title: Satellite temperature measurements Content: The temperature of the atmosphere at various altitudes as well as sea and land surface temperatures can be inferred from satellite measurements . These measurements can be used to locate weather fronts , monitor the El Niño-Southern Oscillation , determine the strength of tropical cyclones , study urban heat islands and monitor the global climate . Wildfires , volcanos , and industrial hot spots can also be found via thermal imaging from weather satellites . Weather satellites do not measure temperature directly . They measure radiances in various wavelength bands . Since 1978 microwave sounding units ( MSUs ) on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration polar orbiting satellites have measured the intensity of upwelling microwave radiation from atmospheric oxygen , which is related to the temperature of broad vertical layers of the atmosphere . Measurements of infrared radiation pertaining to sea surface temperature have been collected since 1967 . Satellite datasets show that over the past four decades the troposphere has warmed and the stratosphere has cooled . Both of these trends are consistent with the influence of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Satellite_temperature_measurements", "rank": 26, "score": 109756 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Water Ocean Topography Mission Content: The Surface Water Ocean Topography ( SWOT ) Mission is a future satellite mission , jointly developed by NASA and CNES , the French space agency , to make the first global survey of Earth 's surface water and measure submesoscale ocean circulation . It is one of 15 missions that the 2007 National Research Council 's Decadal Survey of Earth Science and Applications recommends NASA implement in the coming decade . Launch by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is planned for April 2021 . SWOT is being developed by an international group of hydrologists and oceanographers to provide a better understanding of the world 's oceans and its terrestrial surface waters . It will give scientists their first comprehensive view of Earth 's freshwater bodies from space and more much detailed measurements of the ocean surface than ever before . SWOT is collaboration between NASA , CNES , the French space agency , and the Canadian Space Agency ( CSA ) . The NASA contributions are currently being designed and constructed at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) . It builds on the very successful 25-year partnership between the two agencies to use radar altimetry to measure the surface of the ocean that began with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission . The primary instrument on SWOT is based a new type of radar called the Ka-band Radar Interferometer ( KaRIN ) , which uses radar interferometery technology . The satellite will fly two radar antennae at either end of a 10-meter ( 33-foot ) mast , allowing it to measure the elevation of the surface along a 120 - kilometer ( 75-mile ) - wide swath below . The new radar system is smaller but similar to the one that flew on NASA 's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission , which made high-resolution measurements of Earth 's land surface in 2000 . The mission 's science goals are to Provide sea surface heights and terrestrial water heights over a 120-kilometer wide swath with a ± 10-kilometer gap at the nadir track . Over the deep oceans , provide sea surface heights within each swath with a posting every two kilometers x two kilometers , and a precision not to exceed 0.5 centimeters when averaged over the area . Over land , download the raw data for ground processing and produce a water mask able to resolve 100-meter-wide rivers and ( 250 m ) 2 lakes and reservoirs . Associated with this mask will be water level elevations with an accuracy of 10 centimeters and a slope accuracy of one centimeter/one kilometer . Cover at least 90 percent of the globe . Gaps are not to exceed 10 percent of Earth 's surface . SWOT will have a mission lifetime of three years . NASA contributions to the total mission costs are $ 755M , with additional contributions from CNES , including launch service costs slated at $ 112 million .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Surface_Water_Ocean_Topography_Mission", "rank": 27, "score": 109687 }, { "content": "Title: Sea ice thickness Content: Sea ice thickness spatial extent , and open water within ice packs can vary rapidly in response to weather and climate . Sea ice concentration are measured by satellites , with the Special Sensor Microwave Imager / Sounder ( SSMIS ) , and the European Space Agency 's Cryosat-2 satellite to map the thickness and shape of the Earth 's polar ice cover . The sea ice volume is calculated with the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System ( PIOMAS ) , which blends satellite-observed data , such as sea ice concentrations into model calculations to estimate sea ice thickness and volume . Sea ice thickness determines a number of important fluxes such as heat flux between the air and ocean surface -- see below -- as well as salt and fresh water fluxes between the ocean since saline water ejects much of its salt content when frozen -- see sea ice growth processes . It is also important for navigators on icebreakers since there is an upper limit to the thickness of ice any ship can sail through .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Sea_ice_thickness", "rank": 28, "score": 108271 }, { "content": "Title: John C. Swallow Content: John Crossley Swallow FRS ( October 11 , 1923 -- December 3 , 1994 ) was an English oceanographer who invented the Swallow float ( sometimes referred to as a neutral buoyancy float ) , a scientific drifting bottle based on the messages in bottles that shipwrecked sailors hoped would reach inhabited shores , summoning assistance . He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1968 . He candidature citation read : `` Dr. J.C. Swallow is internationally known both for his distinguished geophysical work on the voyages of H.M.S. `` Challenger '' , and for his measurements of deep ocean currents . He is the inventor of the `` Swallow float '' , a hydrostatically stable , freely drifting source of sound underwater , which can be followed by a ship at the surface . By numerous observations with this ingenious device , he and others have completely changed our picture of the deep circulation of the ocean , showing the presence of strong deep currents in the western North Atlantic , and a reverse flow beneath the Gulf Stream . He has recently contributed to our knowledge of the equatorial undercurrent and of other currents in the Indian Ocean . Dr. Swallow combines a devotion to his work and a careful attention to detail with a mastery of the practical handling of a research ship at sea . The quality and originality of his contributions has already been recognized in the U.S.A. by the award of the Bigelow Medal and of the Albatross Award of the American Miscellaneous Society . ''", "qid": "322", "docid": "John_C._Swallow", "rank": 29, "score": 106820 }, { "content": "Title: MSU temperature measurements Content: Microwave sounding unit temperature measurements have been obtained from the troposphere since 1979 , when they were included within NOAA weather satellites . By comparison , the usable balloon ( radiosonde ) record begins in 1958 but has less geographic coverage and is less uniform . Satellites do not measure temperature . They measure radiances in various wavelength bands , which must then be mathematically inverted to obtain indirect inferences of temperature . The resulting temperature profiles depend on details of the methods that are used to obtain temperatures from radiances . As a result , different groups that have analyzed the satellite data have obtained different temperature trends . Among these groups are Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) . The satellite series is not fully homogeneous - the record is constructed from a series of satellites with similar but not identical instrumentation . The sensors deteriorate over time , and corrections are necessary for satellite drift in orbit . Particularly large differences between reconstructed temperature series occur at the few times when there is little temporal overlap between successive satellites , making intercalibration difficult . To compare to the trend from the surface temperature record ( approximately +0.07 ° C/decade over the past century and +0.15 -0.16 ° C/decade since 1979 ) it is most appropriate to derive trends for the part of the atmosphere nearest the surface , i.e. , the lower troposphere . Doing this , through January 2012 : RSS v3 .3 finds a trend of +0.137 ° C/decade . UAH v5 .4 finds a trend of +0.136 ° C/decade . An alternative adjustment introduced by Fu et al. ( 2004 ) finds trends ( 1979 -- 2011 ) of +0.14 ° C/decade when applied to the RSS data set and +0.11 ° C/decade when applied to the UAH data set . Using the T2 channel ( which include significant contributions from the stratosphere , which has cooled ) , Mears et al. of Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) find ( through January 2012 ) a trend of +0.082 ° C/decade . Spencer and Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) , find a smaller trend of +0.046 ° C/decade . A no longer updated analysis of Vinnikov and Grody found +0.20 ° C/decade ( 1978 -- 2005 ) . Another satellite temperature analysis is provided by NOAA/NESDIS STAR Center for Satellite Application and Research and use simultaneous nadir overpasses ( SNO ) to remove satellite intercalibration biases yielding more accurate temperature trends . The SNO analysis finds a 1979-2011 trend of +0.128 ° C/decade for T2 channel . The satellite records have the advantage of greater spatial coverage , whereas the radiosonde record is longer . There have been complaints of data problems with both records , and difficulty reconciling climate model predictions with the observed data .", "qid": "322", "docid": "MSU_temperature_measurements", "rank": 30, "score": 106579 }, { "content": "Title: Sea surface temperature Content: Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans . Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Sea_surface_temperature", "rank": 31, "score": 106460 }, { "content": "Title: HadCM3 Content: HadCM3 ( abbreviation for Hadley Centre Coupled Model , version 3 ) is a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model ( AOGCM ) developed at the Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom . It was one of the major models used in the IPCC Third Assessment Report in 2001 . Unlike earlier AOGCMs at the Hadley Centre and elsewhere ( including its predecessor HadCM2 ) , HadCM3 does not need flux adjustment ( additional `` artificial '' heat and freshwater fluxes at the ocean surface ) to produce a good simulation . The higher ocean resolution of HadCM3 is a major factor in this ; other factors include a good match between the atmospheric and oceanic components ; and an improved ocean mixing scheme ( Gent and McWilliams ) . HadCM3 has been run to produce simulations for periods of over a thousand years , showing little drift in its surface climate . HadCM3 is composed of two components : the atmospheric model HadAM3 and the ocean model HadOM3 ( which includes a sea ice model ) . Simulations use a 360-day calendar , where each month is 30 days .", "qid": "322", "docid": "HadCM3", "rank": 32, "score": 106059 }, { "content": "Title: Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer Content: The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer ( GOCE ) was the first of ESA 's Living Planet Programme satellites intended to map in unprecedented detail the Earth 's gravity field . The spacecraft 's primary instrumentation was a highly sensitive gravity gradiometer consisting of three pairs of accelerometers which measured gravitational gradients along three orthogonal axes . GOCE mapped the deep structure of the Earth 's mantle and probed hazardous volcanic regions . It brought new insight into ocean behaviour ; this in particular , was a major driver for the mission . By combining the gravity data with information about sea surface height gathered by other satellite altimeters , scientists were able to track the direction and speed of geostrophic ocean currents . The low orbit and high accuracy of the system greatly improved the known accuracy and spatial resolution of the geoid ( the theoretical surface of equal gravitational potential on the Earth ) . The satellite 's unique arrow shape and fins helped keep GOCE stable as it flew through the upper thermosphere at an altitude of 255 km . Additionally , an ion propulsion system continuously compensated for the variable deceleration due to air drag without the vibration of a conventional chemically powered rocket engine , thus limiting the errors in gravity gradient measurements caused by non-gravitational forces and restoring the path of the craft as closely as possible to a purely inertial trajectory . After running out of propellant , the satellite began dropping out of orbit and made an uncontrolled reentry on 11 November 2013 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Gravity_Field_and_Steady-State_Ocean_Circulation_Explorer", "rank": 33, "score": 104854 }, { "content": "Title: Voluntary observing ship program Content: Due to the importance of surface weather observations from the surface of the ocean , the voluntary observing ship program , known as VOS , was set up to train crews how to take weather observations while at sea and also to calibrate weather sensors used aboard ships when they arrive in port , such as barometers and thermometers . An Automatic Voluntary Observing Ships ( AVOS ) System is an automated weather station that transmits VOS program reports .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Voluntary_observing_ship_program", "rank": 34, "score": 104016 }, { "content": "Title: OE buoy Content: An OE Buoy or Ocean Energy Buoy is a wave power device that uses an Oscillating Water Column design . It was deployed in half-scale test mode in Spiddal near Galway in Ireland for over two years between 2007 and 2009 . As of the 5th of March 2011 the model has been redeployed at the same site , primarily as a data collector for the EU funded Cores Project . It was developed by the HMRC in Cork and is now owned and developed by the spun off Oceanenergy . The OE Buoy is a version of a device known as the Backward Bent Duct Buoy ( BBDB ) which was invented in 1986 by wave energy pioneer and Japanese naval commander Yoshio Masuda .", "qid": "322", "docid": "OE_buoy", "rank": 35, "score": 103715 }, { "content": "Title: Seafloor mapping Content: Seafloor mapping , also called seabed imaging , is the measurement of water depth of a given body of water . Bathymetric measurements are conducted with various different methods , ranging from sonar and Lidar techniques to buoys and satellite altimetry . Various methods have advantages and disadvantages and the specific method used depends upon the scale of the area under study , financial means , desired measurement accuracy , and additional variables . Despite modern computer-based research , the ocean seabed in many locations is less measured than the topography of Mars .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Seafloor_mapping", "rank": 36, "score": 103693 }, { "content": "Title: International Arctic Buoy Program Content: The International Arctic Buoy Program is headquartered at the Polar Science Center , Applied Physics Laboratory , University of Washington , in Seattle , Washington , United States . The program 's objectives include to provide meteorological and oceanographic data in order to support operations and research for UNESCO 's World Climate Research Programme and the World Weather Watch Programme of the United Nations ' World Meteorological Organization . IABP participating countries include Canada , China , France , Germany , Japan , Norway , Russia , and the United States . Together , they share the costs of the program . The IABP has deployed more than 700 buoys since it began operations in 1991 , succeeding the Arctic Ocean Buoy Program ( operational since 1979-01-19 ) . Commonly , 25 to 40 buoys operate at any given time and provide real-time position , pressure , temperature , and interpolated ice velocity . In support of the International Polar Year , the IABP will deploy over 120 buoys , at over 80 different locations , during the period of April-August 2008 . The organization 's annual meeting provides discussion on instrumentation , forecasting , observations , and outlook .", "qid": "322", "docid": "International_Arctic_Buoy_Program", "rank": 37, "score": 102961 }, { "content": "Title: Buoy Content: A buoy ( -LSB- ˈbɔɪ -RSB- , also -LSB- ˈbwɔɪ -RSB- or -LSB- ˈbuːiː -RSB- ) is a floating device that can have many purposes . It can be anchored ( stationary ) or allowed to drift with the sea wave . The word , of Old French or Middle Dutch origin , is ( in British English ) now most commonly pronounced -LSB- ˈbɔɪ -RSB- ( identical with boy , as in buoyant ) . In American English the pronunciation is closer to `` boo-ee . ''", "qid": "322", "docid": "Buoy", "rank": 38, "score": 102935 }, { "content": "Title: QuikSCAT Content: The NASA QuikSCAT ( Quick Scatterometer ) is an Earth observation satellite carrying the SeaWinds scatterometer . Its primary mission is to measure the surface wind speed and direction over the ice-free global oceans . Observations from QuikSCAT have a wide array of applications , and have contributed to climatological studies , weather forecasting , meteorology , oceanographic research , marine safety , commercial fishing , tracking large icebergs , and studies of land and sea ice , among others . This SeaWinds scatterometer is referred to as the QuikSCAT scatterometer to distinguish it from the nearly identical SeaWinds scatterometer flown on the ADEOS-2 satellite .", "qid": "322", "docid": "QuikSCAT", "rank": 39, "score": 101857 }, { "content": "Title: RAFOS float Content: RAFOS floats are submersible devices used to map ocean currents well below the surface . They drift with these deep currents and listen for acoustic `` pongs '' emitted at designated times from multiple moored sound sources . By analyzing the time required for each pong to reach a float , researchers can pinpoint its position by triangulation . The floats are able to detect the pongs at ranges of hundreds of kilometers because they generally target a range of depths known as the SOFAR ( SOund Fixing And Ranging ) channel , which acts as a waveguide for sound . The name `` RAFOS '' derives from the earlier SOFAR floats , which emitted sounds that moored receivers picked up , allowing real-time underwater tracking . When the transmit and receive roles were reversed , so was the name : RAFOS is SOFAR spelled backward . Listening for sound requires far less energy than transmitting it , so RAFOS floats are cheaper and longer lasting than their predecessors , but they do not provide information in real-time : instead they store it onboard , and upon completing their mission , drop a weight , rise to the surface , and transmit the data to shore by satellite .", "qid": "322", "docid": "RAFOS_float", "rank": 40, "score": 101782 }, { "content": "Title: Oceansat-1 Content: OceanSat-1 or IRS-P4 is the first Indian satellite built specifically for Ocean applications . It is a part of the Indian Remote Sensing satellite series . The satellite carried Ocean Colour Monitor ( OCM ) and a Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer ( MSMR ) for oceanographic studies .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Oceansat-1", "rank": 41, "score": 101201 }, { "content": "Title: INS Sagardhwani (A74) Content: INS Sagardhwani ( A74 ) is a marine acoustic research ship ( MARS ) owned by the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory ( NPOL ) , a DRDO laboratory and is maintained and operated by the Indian Navy , and based at Southern Naval Command , Kochi . The ship was built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers , Kolkata , launched in May 1991 , and commissioned in 1994 . It is similar in design to the Sandhayak-class survey ships , but with the superstructure positioned amidships and a helipad forward . The vessel is designed to facilitate low noise and low vibration while carrying out acoustic programmes . It has floating floors for scientific laboratories , anti-vibration mountings for machinery and equipment , balloon launching container and wind weather radar to carry out those experiments . It is also equipped with VHF sets , marine radio and auto telephone exchange . Internally , the ship has eight laboratories for various scientific disciplines , and a mini-operating theatre with medical staff . At the stern is handling equipment for mooring and retrieving oceanographic and acoustic buoys . It can accommodate up to 82 persons , including 16 scientists , and a crew of 8 officers and 58 sailors .", "qid": "322", "docid": "INS_Sagardhwani_(A74)", "rank": 42, "score": 100795 }, { "content": "Title: TOPEX/Poseidon Content: Launched on August 10 , 1992 , TOPEX/Poseidon was a joint satellite mission between NASA , the U.S. space agency ; and CNES , the French space agency , to map ocean surface topography . The first major oceanographic research vessel to sail into space , TOPEX/Poseidon helped revolutionize oceanography by proving the value of satellite ocean observations . Oceanographer Walter Munk described TOPEX/Poseidon as `` the most successful ocean experiment of all time . '' A malfunction ended normal satellite operations in January 2006 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "TOPEX/Poseidon", "rank": 43, "score": 99768 }, { "content": "Title: Microwave Sounding Unit temperature measurements Content: Microwave Sounding Unit temperature measurements refers to temperature measurement using the Microwave Sounding Unit instrument and is one of several methods of measuring Earth atmospheric temperature from satellites. Microwave measurements have been obtained from the troposphere since 1979, when they were included within NOAA weather satellites, starting with TIROS-N. By comparison, the usable balloon (radiosonde) record begins in 1958 but has less geographic coverage and is less uniform. Microwave brightness measurements do not directly measure temperature. They measure radiances in various wavelength bands, which must then be mathematically inverted to obtain indirect inferences of temperature. The resulting temperature profiles depend on details of the methods that are used to obtain temperatures from radiances. As a result, different groups that have analyzed the satellite data have obtained different temperature trends. Among these groups are Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The satellite series is not fully homogeneous – the record is constructed from a series of satellites with similar but not identical instrumentation. The sensors deteriorate over time, and corrections are necessary for satellite drift in orbit. Particularly large differences between reconstructed temperature series occur at the few times when there is little temporal overlap between successive satellites, making intercalibration difficult.", "qid": "322", "docid": "Microwave_Sounding_Unit_temperature_measurements", "rank": 44, "score": 99708 }, { "content": "Title: Leeway Content: Leeway is the amount of drift motion to leeward of an object floating in the water caused by the component of the wind vector that is perpendicular to the object 's forward motion . The National Search and Rescue Supplement to the International Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue Manual defines leeway as `` the movement of a search object through water caused by winds blowing against exposed surfaces '' . However , the resultant total motion of an object is made up of the leeway drift and the movement of the upper layer of the ocean caused by the surface currents , tidal currents and ocean currents . Objects with a greater exposure to each element will experience more leeway drift and overall movement through the water than ones with less exposure . A navigator or pilot on a vessel must adjust the ordered course to compensate for the leeway drift and more important set and drift , an all encompassing term for drift that includes the steering error of the vessel . Failure to make these adjustments during a voyage will yield poor navigational results . Bowditch 's American Practical Navigator ( 1995 ) offers a comprehensive free guide to navigation principles . An object can be classified as either an active object like a ship navigating through a waterway or a passive object like a liferaft , drifting debris , or a person in the water ( PIW ) ( Figure 3 ) . A passive object will experience the greatest leeway drift and it is this drift that is of utmost importance to those involved in search and rescue ( SAR ) upon inland waterways and open oceans .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Leeway", "rank": 45, "score": 99671 }, { "content": "Title: Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction Content: The Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction , also known as RAMA , is a system of moored observation buoys in the Indian Ocean that collects meteorological and oceanographic data . The data collected by RAMA will greatly enhance the ability of scientists to understand climatic events and predict monsoon events . Climatic and oceanic events in the Indian Ocean affect weather and climate throughout the rest of the world ( such as El Niño , hurricanes , and United States weather ) , so RAMA will support weather forecasting and climate research worldwide . Although widely supported internationally , the system has only been partially implemented due to pirate activity off the coast of Somalia .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Research_Moored_Array_for_African-Asian-Australian_Monsoon_Analysis_and_Prediction", "rank": 46, "score": 99557 }, { "content": "Title: CARIACO Ocean Time Series Program Content: In 1995 , the Ocean Time Series Program called CARIACO ( Carbon Retention in a Colored Ocean ) was initiated . This time series consists of field observations using ship , mooring , and satellite platforms in the eastern Cariaco Basin at 10 ° 30 'N , 64 ° 40 ' W . The program seeks to understand the relationship between surface primary production , physical forcing variables like the wind , and the settling flux of particles in this unique location . Ship observations Monthly oceanographic cruises are conducted on board the R/V Hermano Ginés of the Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales de Venezuela . The cruises serve to collect hydrographic , nutrient and carbon concentration , primary productivity and other biogeochemical observations throughout the entire water column ( surface to 1300m ) ( Astor et al. , 2003 ; Astor et al. , 2005 ; Muller-Karger et al. , 2001 ; Muller-Karger et al. , 2009 ) . Additionally , seasonal cruises to the CARIACO station are conducted to examine chemical and microbial processes ( Scranton et al. , 2006 ; Taylor et al. , 2006 ) . Moorings A sediment trap mooring , consisting of five sediment traps ( located at depths of 150 , 275 , 400 , 800 , and 1200 m ) , is also deployed near the study site . This mooring collects the downward flux of particulate material ( Thunell et al. 2000 ; Thunell et al. , 2007 ) , derived both from the primary production at the surface and the terrestrial material from the mainland . Satellite observations The remote sensing component of the CARIACO Oceanographic Time Series Program is based on real-time and historical satellite measurements ( Muller-Karger et al. , 2005 ) . The satellite data helps observe surface variations in sea surface temperature ( SST ) and ocean color , which include chlorophyll and river plumes . Since it was initiated , this program has been supported by the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) . It has also been supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) and the Fondo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnologicas ( FONACIT , Venezuela ) . All data generated by the CARIACO program are available via the project web page .", "qid": "322", "docid": "CARIACO_Ocean_Time_Series_Program", "rank": 47, "score": 99246 }, { "content": "Title: Weather ship Content: A weather ship , or Ocean Station Vessel , was a ship stationed in the ocean as a platform for surface and upper air meteorological observations for use in weather forecasting . They were primarily located in the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans , reporting via radio . In addition to their weather reporting function , these vessels aided in search and rescue operations , supported transatlantic flights , acted as research platforms for oceanographers , monitored marine pollution , and aided weather forecasting both by weather forecasters and within computerized atmospheric models . Research vessels remain heavily used in oceanography , including physical oceanography and the integration of meteorological and climatological data in Earth system science . The idea of a stationary weather ship was proposed as early as 1921 by Météo-France to help support shipping and the coming of transatlantic aviation . They were used during World War II but had no means of defense , which led to the loss of several ships and many lives . On the whole , the establishment of weather ships proved to be so useful during World War II for Europe and North America that the International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO ) established a global network of weather ships in 1948 , with 13 to be supplied by Canada , the United States , and Europe . This number was eventually negotiated down to nine . The agreement of the use of weather ships by the international community ended in 1985 . Weather ship observations proved to be helpful in wind and wave studies , as commercial shipping tended to avoid weather systems for safety reasons , whereas the weather ships did not . They were also helpful in monitoring storms at sea , such as tropical cyclones . Beginning in the 1970s , their role was largely superseded by weather buoys because of the ships ' significant cost . The removal of a weather ship became a negative factor in forecasts leading up to the Great Storm of 1987 . The last weather ship was Polarfront , known as weather station M ( `` Mike '' ) , which was removed from operation on January 1 , 2010 . Weather observations from ships continue from a fleet of voluntary merchant vessels in routine commercial operation .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Weather_ship", "rank": 48, "score": 98745 }, { "content": "Title: Rapid Climate Change-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array Content: The Rapid Climate Change-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array ( RAPID/MOCHA ) program is a collaborative research project between the National Oceanography Centre ( Southampton , U.K. ) , the University of Miami 's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science ( RSMAS ) , and NOAA 's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory ( AOML ) that measure the meridional overturning circulation ( MOC ) and ocean heat transport in the North Atlantic Ocean . This array was deployed in March 2004 to continuously monitor the MOC and ocean heat transport that are primarily associated with the Thermohaline Circulation across the basin at 26 ° N . The RAPID-MOCHA array is planned to be continued through 2014 to provide a decade or longer continuous time series . The continuous observations are measured by an array of instruments along 26 ° N . This monitoring array directly measures the transport of the Gulf Stream in the Florida Strait using an undersea cable and a moored array measures bottom pressure and water column density ( including temperature and salinity ) at the western and eastern boundary and on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ( MAR ) . Absolute transports including barotropic circulation are monitored using precision bottom pressure gauges . `` Dynamic height '' moorings are used to estimate the spatially average geostropic velocity profile and associated transports over relatively wide mooring separations . The dynamic height moorings requires measurements on both sides of the current field only , rather both the horizontal and vertical structure of the current field to be sufficiently well resolved to estimate transports . The basin-wide MOC strength and vertical structure are estimated via Ekman transports by satellite scatterometer measurements and the geotrophic and direct current observations . RAPID-MOCHA is funded by the National Environmental Research Council ( NERC ) and the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Rapid_Climate_Change-Meridional_Overturning_Circulation_and_Heatflux_Array", "rank": 49, "score": 98541 }, { "content": "Title: Sea mark Content: A sea mark , also seamark and navigation mark , is a form of aid to navigation and pilotage aid which identifies the approximate position of a maritime channel , hazard and administrative area to allow boats , ships and seaplanes to navigate safely . There are three types of sea mark : beacons - fixed to the seabed or on shore buoys - consisting of a floating object that is usually anchored to a specific location on the bottom of the sea or to a submerged object A type of cairn built on a submerged rock/object , especially in calmer waters . Sea marks are used to indicate channels , dangerous rocks or shoals , mooring positions , areas of speed limits , traffic separation schemes , submerged shipwrecks , and for a variety of other navigational purposes . Some are only intended to be visible in daylight ( daymarks ) , others have some combination of lights , reflectors , bells , horns , whistles and radar reflectors to make them usable at night and in conditions of reduced visibility . Marks are shown on nautical charts , using symbols that indicate their colour , shape and light characteristic , and are usually identified by name or number . The International Association of Lighthouse Authorities defines one system of marks specifying the shapes , colours and characteristic lights of buoys depending on their purpose , the IALA Maritime Buoyage System . For historical reasons , there are two regions of lateral marks in use : IALA Region B in the Americas , the Philippines , South Korea and Japan IALA Region A everywhere else . The two regions differ principally in the colours used to denote the two sides of a channel . When approaching a harbour from seaward , Region A places conical green marks to starboard and cylindrical red ones to port . In Region B these are replaced with conical red marks to starboard and cylindrical green ones to port . This can be remembered ( for Region B ) with the mnemonic `` Red , right , return '' . Another Region B mnemonic , which also helps with buoy numbering is `` Even Red Left Port '' ( as in Eric the Red ) - Even Numbered buoys are red , on your left ( port ) side leaving port . In any case , since in many harbours it is not always apparent which direction is seaward , buoys should be used in connection with the appropriate nautical chart . Additionally , since marks may be off station due to collision with ships , storms or other factors , they should be used with caution and not relied on solely for navigation . The two regions are often referred to as two systems , which was the original intent . In 1980 it was decided however to combine these systems and distinguish between regions . In a wider sense the phrase `` sea mark '' is often understood to include all kinds of landmarks , structures and devices that can be used to provide warning and guiding signs to mariners . Thus a sea mark can be and often is located on dry land . Examples of land-based sea marks are various signal lights and leading marks . The latter are mainly used to indicate the centerline of a fairway in narrow passages . Sea marks may also on occasion be used to help mark the boundaries of defensive sea minefields , or the safe lanes through same , especially during wartime .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Sea_mark", "rank": 50, "score": 98539 }, { "content": "Title: MS Polarfront Content: MS Polarfront was a Norwegian weather ship located in the North Atlantic . She was the last remaining weather ship in the world , maintained by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute . A weather ship is a ship stationed in mid-ocean to make meteorological observations for weather forecasting . Since the 1960s this role has been largely superseded by satellites , long range aircraft and weather buoys . MS Polarfront was known as the weather station M ( `` Mike '' ) , and was located at 66 ° N , 02 ° E. Standard meteorological observations were performed on an hourly basis since the beginning of the 1960s . On 27 February 2009 , the cancellation of the station was announced . MS Polarfront was removed from service on 1 January 2010 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "MS_Polarfront", "rank": 51, "score": 98453 }, { "content": "Title: Oceansat-2 Content: Oceansat-2 is an Indian satellite designed to provide service continuity for operational users of the Ocean Colour Monitor ( OCM ) instrument on Oceansat-1 . It will also enhance the potential of applications in other areas . The main objectives of OceanSat-2 are to study surface winds and ocean surface strata , observation of chlorophyll concentrations , monitoring of phytoplankton blooms , study of atmospheric aerosols and suspended sediments in the water . Oceansat-2 is ISRO 's second in the series of Indian Remote Sensing satellites dedicated to ocean research , and will provide continuity to the applications of Oceansat-1 ( launched in 1999 ) . Oceansat-2 will carry three payloads including an Ocean Colour Monitor ( OCM-2 ) , similar to the device carried on Oceansat-1 . Data from all instruments will be made available to the global scientific community after the post-launch sensor characterization , which is expected to be completed within 6 months of the launch . Oceansat-2 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 23 September 2009 using PSLV-C14 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Oceansat-2", "rank": 52, "score": 98384 }, { "content": "Title: Geostationary Ocean Color Imager Content: Geostationary Ocean Color Imager ( GOCI , -LSB- gɔːθi -RSB- ) , is the world 's first geostationary orbit satellite image sensor in order to observe or monitor an ocean-color around the Korean Peninsula -LSB- 1 -RSB- -LSB- 2 -RSB- . The spatial resolution of GOCI is about 500m and the range of target area is about 2,500 km × 2,500 km centered on Korean Peninsula . GOCI was loaded on Communication , Ocean , and Meteorological Satellite ( COMS ) of South Korea which was launched in June , 2010 . It will be operated by Korea Ocean Satellite Center ( KOSC ) at Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology ( KIOST ) , and capture the images of ocean-color around the Korean Peninsula 8 times a day for 7.7 years . The ocean data products that can be derived from the measurements are mainly the chlorophyll concentration , the optical diffuse attenuation coefficients , the concentration of dissolved organic material or yellow substance , and the concentration of suspended particles in the near-surface zone of the sea . In operational oceanography , satellite derived data products are used in conjunction with numerical models and in situ measurements to provide forecasting and now casting of the ocean state . Such information is of genuine interest for many categories of users .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Geostationary_Ocean_Color_Imager", "rank": 53, "score": 98115 }, { "content": "Title: Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic Content: The Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic , also known as PIRATA , is a system of moored observation buoys in the tropical Atlantic Ocean which collect meteorological and oceanographic data . The data collected by the PIRATA array helps scientists to better understand climatic events in the Tropical Atlantic and to improve weather forecasting and climate research worldwide . Climatic and oceanic events in the tropical Atlantic , such as the Tropical Atlantic SST Dipole affect rainfall and climate in both West Africa and Northeast Brazil . The northern tropical Atlantic is also a major formation area for hurricanes affecting the West Indies and the United States . Alongside the RAMA array in the Indian Ocean and the TAO/TRITON network in the Pacific Ocean , PIRATA forms part of the worldwide system of tropical ocean observing buoys .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Prediction_and_Research_Moored_Array_in_the_Atlantic", "rank": 54, "score": 97872 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Capacity Mapping Mission Content: The Heat Capacity Mapping Mission ( HCMM ) was the first Applications Explorer Mission . HCMM provided comprehensive , accurate , high-spatial-resolution thermal surveys of the surface of the Earth . HCCM was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on April 26 , 1978 by a Scout-F rocket . Its mass was 117.0 kg . The HCMM spacecraft was placed in a circular sun-synchronous orbit , allowing the spacecraft to sense surface temperatures near the maximum and minimum of the diurnal cycle . There was no on-board data storage capability , so only real-time data were transmitted when the satellite came within reception range of seven ground stations . During February 21 -- 23 , 1980 , the HCMM orbital altitude was lowered from 620 km to 540 km to stop the drift of the orbit plane to unfavorable sun angles which in turn reduced the power collection capability of the solar panels . The operations of the spacecraft were terminated on September 30 , 1980 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Heat_Capacity_Mapping_Mission", "rank": 55, "score": 97651 }, { "content": "Title: Reversing thermometer Content: Unlike most conventional mercury thermometers , a reversing thermometer is able to record a given temperature to be viewed at a later time . If the thermometer is flipped upside down , the current temperature will be shown until it is turned upright again . This was the primary device used by oceanographers to determine water temperatures below the surface of the ocean from around 1900 to 1970 . It consists of a conventional bulb connected to a capillary in which a constriction is placed so that upon reversal the mercury column breaks off in a reproducible manner . The mercury runs down into a smaller bulb at the other end of the capillary , which is graduated to read temperature . A 360 ° turn in a locally widened portion of the capillary serves as a trap to prevent further addition of mercury if the thermometer is warmed and the mercury expands past the break-off point . The remote-reading potentialities of reversing thermometers make them particularly suitable for use in measuring subsea temperature as a function of pressure . In this application , both protected thermometers and unprotected thermometers are used , each of which is provided with an auxiliary thermometer . They are generally used in pairs in Nansen bottles . They are usually read to 0.01 ° C , and after the proper corrections have been applied , their readings are considered reliable to 0.02 ° C.", "qid": "322", "docid": "Reversing_thermometer", "rank": 56, "score": 97091 }, { "content": "Title: RP FLIP Content: R/P FLIP ( FLoating Instrument Platform ) is an open ocean research platform owned by the U.S. Office of Naval Research ( ONR ) and operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography . The platform is 355 ft long and is designed to partially flood and pitch backward 90 ° , resulting in only the front 55 ft of the platform pointing up out of the water , with bulkheads becoming decks . When flipped , most of the ballast for the platform is provided by water at depths below the influence of surface waves , hence FLIP is stable and mostly immune to wave action similar to a spar buoy . At the end of a mission , compressed air is pumped into the ballast tanks in the flooded section and the platform , which has no propulsion , returns to its horizontal position so it can be towed to a new location . The platform is frequently mistaken for a capsized ocean transport ship .", "qid": "322", "docid": "RP_FLIP", "rank": 57, "score": 96752 }, { "content": "Title: Waterline Content: The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water . Specifically , it is also the name of a special marking , also known as an international load line , Plimsoll line and water line ( positioned amidships ) , that indicates the draft of the ship and the legal limit to which a ship may be loaded for specific water types and temperatures in order to safely maintain buoyancy , particularly with regard to the hazard of waves that may arise . Varying water temperatures will affect a ship 's draft ; because warm water is less dense than cold water , providing less buoyancy . In the same way , fresh water is less dense than salinated or seawater with the same lessening effect upon buoyancy . For vessels with displacement hulls , the hull speed is determined by , among other things , the waterline length . In a sailing boat , the waterline length can change significantly as the boat heels , and can dynamically affect the speed of the boat . The waterline can also refer to any line on a ship 's hull that is parallel to the water 's surface when the ship is afloat in a normal position . Hence , all waterlines are one class of `` ships lines '' used to denote the shape of a hull in naval architecture plans . In aircraft design , the term `` waterline '' refers to the vertical location of items on the aircraft . This is ( normally ) the `` Z '' axis of an XYZ coordinate system , the other two axes being the fuselage station ( X ) and buttock line ( Y ) .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Waterline", "rank": 58, "score": 95740 }, { "content": "Title: SeaWiFS Content: SeaWIFS ( Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor ) was a satellite-borne sensor designed to collect global ocean biological data . Active from September 1997 to December 2010 , its primary mission was to quantify chlorophyll produced by marine phytoplankton ( microscopic plants ) .", "qid": "322", "docid": "SeaWiFS", "rank": 59, "score": 95260 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean surface topography Content: The ocean surface has highs and lows , similar to the hills and valleys of Earth 's land surface depicted on a topographic map . These variations , called ocean surface topography ( or sea surface topography ) , also dynamic topography , are mapped using direct ( usually satellite-based ) or indirect measurements of sea surface height relative to Earth 's geoid . Earth 's geoid is a calculated surface of equal gravitational potential energy and represents the shape the sea surface would be if the ocean were not in motion . The main purpose of measuring ocean surface topography is to understand the large-scale circulation of the ocean . On a daily basis , SSH is most obviously affected by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the Earth . Over longer timescales , SSH is influenced by ocean circulation . Typically , SSH anomalies resulting from these forces differ from the mean by less than ± 1 m at the global scale . Other influences include temperature , salinity , tides , waves , and the loading of atmospheric pressure . The slowest and largest variations are due to changes in the Earth 's gravitational field ( geoid ) due to the rearrangement of continents , formation of sea mounts and other redistribution of rock . Since the Earth 's gravitational field is relatively stable on decadal to centennial timescales , ocean circulation plays a more significant role in the observed variation of SSH . Across the seasonal cycle changes in patterns of warming , cooling and surface wind forcing affect circulation and influence SSH . Variations in SSH can be measured by satellite altimetry ( e.g. TOPEX/Poseidon ) and used to calculate determine sea level rise and properties such as ocean heat storage .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Ocean_surface_topography", "rank": 60, "score": 95107 }, { "content": "Title: Transpolar Drift Stream Content: The Transpolar Drift Stream is a major ocean current of the Arctic Ocean , transporting sea ice from the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea towards Fram Strait . Drift experiments with ships like Fram or Tara showed that the drift takes between two and four years . In 1937 , Pyotr Shirshov at the Soviet drift ice station North Pole-1 described this drift . The stream conveys water in roughly two major routes to the northern Atlantic Ocean at a rate of about 1.5 mi per day . Primarily wind-driven , it flows roughly from the northern coast of Russia and Alaska , sometimes curving toward the Beaufort Sea before exiting to the Atlantic Ocean . It has been cited as a major factor in the North Atlantic Oscillation and Arctic oscillation atmospheric changes . The drift typically takes one of two paths before exiting into the northern Atlantic Ocean . On decadal and longer timescales , the North Atlantic Oscillation ( NAO ) and the Arctic Oscillation ( AO ) indices affect the flow pattern of the transpolar drift stream . During times of positive NAO ( NAO + ) and positive AO ( AO + ) , there is a weak Arctic high and the associated surface winds produce a cyclonic ( anti-clockwise ) ice drift motion in eastern Arctic Ocean . In this case , the drift flows from the Laptev Sea towards the Beaufort Sea before exiting the Arctic Ocean through the Fram Strait . Conversely , during periods of NAO - and AO - , there is a strong Arctic high and ice motion flows in an anticyclonic ( clockwise ) motion in the Eurasian Basin . In this phase , the drift flows directly from the Laptev Sea through the Fram Strait .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Transpolar_Drift_Stream", "rank": 61, "score": 95019 }, { "content": "Title: Sea-Drift Content: `` Sea-Drift '' is the title of a section of Walt Whitman 's great poetic work Leaves of Grass , first published in 1855 . It is a compilation of poems referring to the sea or the sea-shore . Sea-Drift follows the section titled A Broadway Pageant , and precedes the section By The Roadside . The poems included in Sea-Drift are : Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking As I Ebb 'd with the Ocean of Life Tears To the Man-of War Bird Aboard at a Ship 's Helm On the Beach at Night The World Below the Brine On the Beach at Night Alone Song for All Seas , All Ships Patrolling Barnegat After the Sea-Ship", "qid": "322", "docid": "Sea-Drift", "rank": 62, "score": 94983 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Atmosphere Ocean project Content: The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean ( TAO ) project is a major international effort that instrumented the entire tropical Pacific Ocean with approximately 70 deep ocean moorings . The development of the TAO array in 1985 was motivated by the 1982-1983 El Niño event and ultimately designed for the study of year-to-year climate variations related to El Niño and the Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) . Led by the TAO Project Office of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory ( PMEL ) , the full array of 70 moorings was completed in 1994 . The completed TAO array provides in-situ data collection of high quality oceanographic and surface meteorological data for monitoring , forecasting , and understanding of climate swings associated with El Niño and La Nina . In January 2000 , the TAO array was renamed the TAO/TRITON array in recognition of the contribution made by the TRITON ( Triangle Trans-Ocean Buoy Network ) moorings . The TRITON moorings are situated along , and to the west of , 156E and are operated and managed by JAMSTEC .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Tropical_Atmosphere_Ocean_project", "rank": 63, "score": 93583 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 64, "score": 93562 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Content: The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Surface_Heat_Budget_of_the_Arctic_Ocean", "rank": 65, "score": 93461 }, { "content": "Title: PowerBuoy Content: PowerBuoy is a power station for generating electrical energy from wave power . It is a point absorber or buoy , currently in-use or in-planning at 9 locations around the world , but primarily within Australia and the United States . The PowerBuoy generates power using a hydroelectric turbine . PowerBuoys can be connected to the electrical grid by power transmission cables or can operate autonomously in a deep water environment . PowerBuoys are manufactured by Ocean Power Technologies ( OPT ) in Pennington , New Jersey . The rising and falling of the waves offshore causes the buoy to move freely up and down . The resultant mechanical stroking drives an electrical generator . The generated wave power is transmitted ashore via an underwater power cable . An OPT power station benefits from a deep water emplacement and has a very low `` surface profile '' , meaning it is barely visible from shore . They also have a small horizontal footprint and have been designed to be scalable . As such , they are ideal for wave farms . OPT power stations have been designed for extreme wave conditions . Sensors on the PowerBuoy continuously monitor the performance of the various subsystems and surrounding ocean environment . Data is transmitted to shore in real time . In the event of very large oncoming waves , the system automatically locks up and ceases power production . When the wave heights return to normal , the system unlocks and recommences energy conversion and transmission of the electrical power ashore .", "qid": "322", "docid": "PowerBuoy", "rank": 66, "score": 93432 }, { "content": "Title: Fisheries and climate change Content: Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Fisheries_and_climate_change", "rank": 67, "score": 93219 }, { "content": "Title: OSTM/Jason-2 Content: OSTM/Jason-2, or Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellite, was an international Earth observation satellite altimeter joint mission for sea surface height measurements between NASA and CNES. It was the third satellite in a series started in 1992 by the NASA/CNES TOPEX/Poseidon mission and continued by the NASA/CNES Jason-1 mission launched in 2001.", "qid": "322", "docid": "OSTM/Jason-2", "rank": 68, "score": 93130 }, { "content": "Title: French ship Océan (1790) Content: Océan was a 118-gun first-rate three-decker ship of the line of the French Navy , lead ship of her class . She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the Estates of Bourgogne . She was ordered as États de Bourgogne and was launched at Brest in 1790 . Like many French ships of the line during the Revolutionary period , she was renamed several times , becoming Côte d'Or in January 1793 , Montagne in October 1793 , Peuple on 17 May 1795 , and a matter of weeks later again renamed , to Océan . She served until 1855 . A large model at the 1/16 scale can be seen at the Musée de la Marine in Paris .", "qid": "322", "docid": "French_ship_Océan_(1790)", "rank": 69, "score": 92823 }, { "content": "Title: CLIMAT Content: CLIMAT is a code for reporting monthly climatological data assembled at land-based meteorological surface observation sites to data centres . CLIMAT-coded messages contain information on several meteorological variables that are important to monitor characteristics , changes , and variability of climate . Usually these messages are sent and exchanged via the Global Telecommunication System ( GTS ) of the World Meteorological Organisation ( WMO ) . Modifications of the CLIMAT code are the CLIMAT SHIP and CLIMAT TEMP / CLIMAT TEMP SHIP codes which serve to report monthly climatological data assembled at ocean-based meteorological surface observation sites and at land - / ocean-based meteorological upper-air observation sites , respectively . The monthly values included usually are obtained by averaging observational values of one or several daily observations over the respective month .", "qid": "322", "docid": "CLIMAT", "rank": 70, "score": 92415 }, { "content": "Title: Marine transgression Content: A marine transgression is a geologic event during which sea level rises relative to the land and the shoreline moves toward higher ground , resulting in flooding . Transgressions can be caused either by the land sinking or the ocean basins filling with water ( or decreasing in capacity ) . Transgressions and regressions may be caused by tectonic events such as orogenies , severe climate change such as ice ages or isostatic adjustments following removal of ice or sediment load . During the Cretaceous , seafloor spreading created a relatively shallow Atlantic basin at the expense of deeper Pacific basin . This reduced the world 's ocean basin capacity and caused a rise in sea level worldwide . As a result of this sea level rise , the oceans transgressed completely across the central portion of North America and created the Western Interior Seaway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean . The opposite of transgression is regression , in which the sea level falls relative to the land and exposes former sea bottom . During the Pleistocene Ice Ages , so much water was removed from the oceans and stored on land as year-round glaciers that the ocean regressed 120 m , exposing the Bering land bridge between Alaska and Asia .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Marine_transgression", "rank": 71, "score": 92393 }, { "content": "Title: RTTOV (radiative transfer code) Content: RTTOV - the fast radiative transfer model for calculations of radiances for satellite infrared or microwave nadir scanning radiometers ( see push broom scanner ) . Given an atmospheric profile of temperature , variable gas concentrations , cloud and surface properties RTTOV calculates radiances and brightness temperatures . The only mandatory input is water vapour . Optionally ozone , carbon dioxide , nitrous oxide , methane and carbon monoxide can be variable with all other constituents assumed to be constant . The range of temperatures and water vapour concentrations over which the optical depth computations are valid depends on the training datasets which were used . The spectral range of the RTTOV9 .1 model is 3-20 micrometres ( 500 -- 3000 cm-1 ) in the infrared . RTTOV contains forward , tangent linear , adjoint and K ( full Jacobian matrices ) versions of the model ; the latter three modules for variational assimilation or retrieval applications . One of several applications of RTTOV are retrievals of brightness temperature and sea surface temperature from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer sensor .", "qid": "322", "docid": "RTTOV_(radiative_transfer_code)", "rank": 72, "score": 92190 }, { "content": "Title: Planktology Content: Planktology is the study of plankton , various small drifting plants , animals and microorganisms that inhabit bodies of water . Planktology topics include primary production , energy flow and the carbon cycle . Plankton drive the `` biological pump '' , a process by which the ocean ecosystem transports carbon from the surface euphotic zone to the ocean 's depths . Such processes are vital to carbon dioxide sinks , one of several possibilities for countering global warming . Modern planktology includes behavioral aspects of drifting organisms , engaging modern in situ imaging devices . Some planktology projects allow the public to participate online , such as the Longterm Ecological Observatory .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Planktology", "rank": 73, "score": 91764 }, { "content": "Title: Leeuwin Current Content: The Leeuwin Current is a warm ocean current which flows southwards near the western coast of Australia . It rounds Cape Leeuwin to enter the waters south of Australia where its influence extends as far as Tasmania . The West Australian Current and Southern Australian Countercurrent , which are produced by the West Wind Drift on the southern Indian Ocean and at Tasmania , respectively , flow in the opposite direction , producing one of the most interesting oceanic current systems in the world . Its strength varies through the year ; it is weakest during the summer months ( winter in the northern hemisphere ) from November to March when the winds tend to blow strongly from the south west northwards . The greatest flow is in the autumn and winter ( March to November ) when the opposing winds are weakest . Evaporation from the Leeuwin current during this period contributes greatly to the rainfall in the southwest region of Western Australia . Typically the Leeuwin Current 's speed and its eddies are about 1 knot ( 50 cm/s ) , although speeds of 2 knots ( 1 m/s ) are common , and the highest speed ever recorded by a drifting satellite-tracked buoy was 3.5 kn . The Leeuwin Current is shallow for a major current system , by global standards , being about 300 m deep , and lies on top of a northwards countercurrent called the Leeuwin Undercurrent . The Leeuwin Current is very different from the cooler , equatorward flowing currents found along coasts at equivalent latitudes such as the southwest African Coast ( the Benguela Current ) ; the long Chile-Peru Coast ( the Humboldt Current ) , where upwelling of cool nutrient-rich waters from below the surface results in some of the most productive fisheries ; the California Current , which brings foggy conditions to San Francisco ; or the cool Canary current of North Africa . Because of the Leeuwin Current , the continental shelf waters of Western Australia are warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the corresponding regions off the other continents . The Leeuwin Current is also responsible for the presence of the most southerly true corals at the Abrolhos Islands and the transport of tropical marine species down the west coast and across into the Great Australian Bight . The ` core ' of the Leeuwin Current can generally be detected as a peak in the surface temperature with a strong temperature decrease further offshore . The surface temperature difference across the Current is about 1 ° C at North West Cape , 2 ° to 3 ° at Fremantle and can be over 4 ° off Albany in the Great Australian Bight . The current frequently breaks out to sea , forming both clockwise and anti-clockwise eddies . The Leeuwin Current is influenced by El Niño conditions , characterised by slightly lower sea temperatures along the Western Australian coast and a weaker Leeuwin Current , with corresponding effects upon rainfall patterns . The existence of the current was first suggested by William Saville-Kent in 1897 . Saville-Kent noted the presence of warm tropical water offshore in the Houtman Abrolhos , making the water there in winter much warmer than inshore at the adjacent coast . The existence of the current was confirmed over the years , but not characterised and named until Cresswell and Golding did so in the 1980s .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Leeuwin_Current", "rank": 74, "score": 91761 }, { "content": "Title: Community Radiative Transfer Model Content: Community Radiative Transfer Model ( CRTM ) is a fast radiative transfer model for calculations of radiances for satellite infrared or microwave radiometers . Given an atmospheric profile of temperature , variable gas concentrations , cloud and surface properties CRTM calculates radiances and brightness temperatures . The only mandatory inputs in terms of variable gases are water vapor and ozone . The range of temperatures and water vapour concentrations over which the optical depth computations are valid depends on the training datasets which were used . CRTM contains forward , tangent linear , adjoint and K ( full Jacobian matrices ) versions of the model ; the latter three modules are used in inversion methods , including variational assimilation and satellite retrievals . One of several applications of CRTM are retrievals of brightness temperature and sea surface temperature from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer sensor .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Community_Radiative_Transfer_Model", "rank": 75, "score": 91659 }, { "content": "Title: Bathythermograph Content: The bathythermograph , or BT , also known as the Mechanical Bathythermograph , or MBT ; is a small torpedo-shaped device that holds a temperature sensor and a transducer to detect changes in water temperature versus depth down to a depth of approximately 285 meters ( 935 feet ) . Lowered by a small winch on the ship into the water , the BT records pressure and temperature changes on a coated glass slide as it is dropped nearly freely through the water . While the instrument is being dropped , the wire is paid out until it reaches a predetermined depth , then a brake is applied and the BT is drawn back to the surface . Because the pressure is a function of depth ( see Pascal 's law ) , temperature measurements can be correlated with the depth at which they are recorded .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Bathythermograph", "rank": 76, "score": 91623 }, { "content": "Title: Competition Stableford Adjustment Content: In the game of golf , the Competition Stableford Adjustment ( or CSA ) is a method used to adjust a player 's score at the end of a round . With this method , every player can be added 1 , 2 or 3 or subtracted 1 stableford points from his/her score , which affects how much their handicap is modified after the match . The reason behind this amendment is to even out scores that deviate particularly from the expected average under normal conditions : this might be because of bad weather or conditions of the course which are not optimal ; on the contrary , points are subtracted on particularly favorable days . The amount of the adjustment is determined by calculating how many players performed much better or much worse compared to their ability , measured as a percentage of all competitors , and then comparing to appropriate tables published by the relevant golf association . Despite its name , this method can be applied in all types of stroke play , including medal play , though the points need to be converted in stableford format beforehand .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Competition_Stableford_Adjustment", "rank": 77, "score": 91537 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 78, "score": 90858 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program Content: The Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program ( TOGA ) was a ten-year study ( 1985-1994 ) of the World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) aimed specifically at the prediction of climate phenomena on time scales of months to years . TOGA emphasized the tropical oceans and their relationship to the global atmosphere . Underlying TOGA is the premise that the dynamic adjustment of the ocean in the tropics is far more rapid than at higher latitudes . Thus disturbances emanating from the western Pacific Ocean ( such as El Niño ) may propagate across the basin on time scales of weeks compared to years for corresponding basin-wide propagation at higher latitudes . The significance of shorter dynamic times scales near the equator is that they are similar to those of highly energetic atmospheric modes . This similarity allows the formation of coupled modes between the ocean and the atmosphere . TOGA was instrumental in developing a comprehensive observing system for the equatorial Pacific Ocean and laid important groundwork for ENSO prediction , data assimilation and understanding of air-sea interaction .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Tropical_Ocean_Global_Atmosphere_program", "rank": 79, "score": 90760 }, { "content": "Title: TEMP (meteorology) Content: TEMP ( upper air soundings ) is a set of World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) alphanumerical codes used for reporting weather observations of the upper regions of the atmosphere made by weather balloons released from the surface level ( either at land or at sea ) . The WMO designates the FM-35 numerical code for surface TEMPs and the FM-36 numerical code for ship-based TEMPs . Category : Earth sciences data formats", "qid": "322", "docid": "TEMP_(meteorology)", "rank": 80, "score": 90707 }, { "content": "Title: ERA-40 Content: ERA-40 is an ECMWF re-analysis of the global atmosphere and surface conditions for 45-years , over the period from September 1957 through August 2002 by ECMWF . Many sources of the meteorological observations were used , including radiosondes , balloons , aircraft , buoyes , satellites , scatterometers . This data was run through the ECMWF computer model at a 125 km resolution . As the ECMWF 's computer model is one of the more highly regarded in the field of forecasting , many scientists take its reanalysis to have similar merit . The data is stored in GRIB format . The reanalysis was done in an effort to improve the accuracy of historical weather maps and aid in a more detailed analysis of various weather systems through a period that was severely lacking in computerized data . With the data from reanalyses such as this , many of the more modern computerized tools for analyzing storm systems can be utilized , at least in part , because of this access to a computerized simulation of the atmospheric state .", "qid": "322", "docid": "ERA-40", "rank": 81, "score": 90262 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 82, "score": 89874 }, { "content": "Title: ISS-RapidScat Content: ISS-RapidScat was an instrument mounted to the International Space Station Columbus module that measured wind speeds . It was launched aboard SpaceX CRS-4 in September 2014 and operated until August 2016 . ISS-RapidScat was a scatterometer designed to support weather forecasting by bouncing microwaves off the ocean 's surface to measure wind speed . It featured a 75 cm rotating radar dish that operated at 13.4 GHz ( Ku band ) . It could collect data between 51.6 degrees north and south latitude , with a swath 560 mi . The ISS-RapidScat program was initiated in response to the failure of the QuikSCAT satellite 's antenna rotation mechanism in November 2009 . While the spacecraft continued to function , it could only gather data in one direction , significantly limiting its data collection ability . ISS-RapidScat was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from elements of QuikSCAT 's SeaWinds instrument engineering model , originally used to validate that instrument 's flight hardware prior to its launch in 1999 . It was constructed in 18 months ; re-using the QuikScat hardware had the double benefit of reducing cost and using already flight-proven hardware that functioned well in orbit . ISS-RapidScat was very similar to QuikSCAT in functionality . However , the instrument suffered due to peculiarities of the International Space Station , such as the station 's varying altitude due to increased drag , its variable orientation due to the demands of visiting spacecraft , and its lack of a Sun-synchronous orbit . By the time of ISS-RapidScat 's launch , the European Space Agency MetOp series were the only two satellites with fully functioning scatterometers in orbit . Some of these peculiarities were also advantages . Its mid-latitude orbit meant it was able to collect data about the same spot on Earth at different times of day , whereas the Sun-synchronous orbits used by other scatterometer-equipped spacecraft would re-visit the same location on Earth at the same time daily . This allowed scientists to study how the wind changes at one location over the course of a day . This orbit also gives better coverage of the tropics , and by crossing the orbit of other satellites , it was able to observe the same area at the same time as them , allowing for cross-calibration between the different data sets . Objectives of the ISS-RapidScat program were to mitigate the loss of and provide continuity of wind data products from the QuikSCAT SeaWinds instrument , serve as a calibration standard for the international constellation of scatterometer-equipped satellites , and to sample the diurnal and semi-diurnal wind variations that occur between ISS flight latitudes at least every two months . The scatterometer was launched as external cargo aboard the SpaceX CRS-4 mission on 21 September 2014 , attached to the unpressurized section of the Dragon capsule . Dragon was berthed to the station on 23 September . The instrument was removed from Dragon , robotically assembled and attached to Columbus between 29 and 30 September . It was powered up on 1 October and immediately began gathering data , which was first processed into an uncalibrated product on 3 October . ISS-RapidScat was declared fully operational and its data products properly calibrated on 10 November . One of ISS-RapidScat 's first observations was of Tropical Storm Simon off the coast of the Baja California Peninsula on 3 October 2014 . It also played a role in observing the Category 5 Hurricane Patricia in October 2015 , which was noted as one of the most powerful hurricanes on record , with maximum sustained winds of 185 kn . Data from ISS-RapidScat was disseminated worldwide for use in weather forecasting , and was used by the United States Navy , NOAA , and EUMETSAT , among others . On 19 August 2016 , the Columbus module , to which ISS-RapidScat was attached and reliant on for resources , suffered a power distribution unit failure , which resulted in ISS-RapidScat shutting down . This was followed by an electrical overload in the power distribution unit during recovery efforts . Attempts to restore the instrument were without success , and NASA formally terminated operations on 28 November 2016 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "ISS-RapidScat", "rank": 83, "score": 89283 }, { "content": "Title: METRIC Content: METRIC ( Mapping EvapoTranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration ) is a computer model developed by the University of Idaho , that uses Landsat satellite data to compute and map evapotranspiration ( ET ) . METRIC calculates ET as a residual of the surface energy balance , where ET is estimated by keeping account of total net short wave and long wave radiation at the vegetation or soil surface , the amount of heat conducted into soil , and the amount of heat convected into the air above the surface . The difference in these three terms represents the amount of energy absorbed during the conversion of liquid water to vapor , which is ET . METRIC expresses near-surface temperature gradients used in heat convection as indexed functions of radiometric surface temperature , thereby eliminating the need for absolutely accurate surface temperature and the need for air-temperature measurements . The surface energy balance is internally calibrated using ground-based reference ET that is based on local weather or gridded weather data sets to reduce computational biases inherent to remote sensing-based energy balance . Slope and aspect functions and temperature lapsing are used for application to mountainous terrain . METRIC algorithms are designed for relatively routine application by trained engineers and other technical professionals who possess a familiarity with energy balance and basic radiation physics . The primary inputs for the model are short-wave and long-wave thermal images from a satellite e.g. , Landsat and MODIS , a digital elevation model , and ground-based weather data measured within or near the area of interest . ET `` maps '' i.e. , images via METRIC provide the means to quantify ET on a field-by-field basis in terms of both the rate and spatial distribution . The use of surface energy balance can detect reduced ET caused by water shortage . In the decade since Idaho introduced METRIC , it has been adopted for use in Montana , California , New Mexico , Utah , Wyoming , Texas , Nebraska , Colorado , Nevada , and Oregon . The mapping method has enabled these states to negotiate Native American water rights ; assess agriculture to urban water transfers ; manage aquifer depletion , monitor water right compliance ; and protect endangered species .", "qid": "322", "docid": "METRIC", "rank": 84, "score": 89240 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Content: The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder ( AIRS ) is one of six instruments flying on board NASA 's Aqua satellite , launched on May 4 , 2002 . The instrument is designed to support climate research and improve weather forecasting . Working in combination with its partner microwave instrument , the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit ( AMSU-A ) , AIRS observes the global water and energy cycles , climate variation and trends , and the response of the climate system to increased greenhouse gases . AIRS uses infrared technology to create three-dimensional maps of air and surface temperature , water vapor , and cloud properties . AIRS can also measure trace greenhouse gases such as ozone , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , and methane . AIRS and AMSU-A share the Aqua satellite with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) , Clouds and the Earth 's Radiant Energy System ( CERES ) , and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS ( AMSR-E ) . Aqua is part of NASA 's `` A-train , '' a series of high-inclination , Sun-synchronous satellites in low Earth orbit designed to make long-term global observations of the land surface , biosphere , solid Earth , atmosphere , and ocean . AIRS data is free and available to the public through the Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information and Services Center . NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California , manages AIRS for NASA 's Science Mission Directorate in Washington , D.C.", "qid": "322", "docid": "Atmospheric_Infrared_Sounder", "rank": 85, "score": 89231 }, { "content": "Title: John V. Wehausen Content: John Vrooman Wehausen ( 23 September 1913 -- 6 October 2005 ) was an American applied mathematician considered to be one of the world 's leading researchers and pioneers in the field of marine hydrodynamics . His contributions were in the area of ship waves , ship maneuverability , floating systems in waves , and ship-generated solitary waves . In 1960 , he and Edmund V. Laitone published the comprehensive review article Surface Waves , which to this day is still an important resource for understanding the dynamics of water waves . Wehausen was emeritus professor of engineering science at the University of California , Berkeley .", "qid": "322", "docid": "John_V._Wehausen", "rank": 86, "score": 89167 }, { "content": "Title: Global Sea Level Observing System Content: The Global Sea Level Observing System ( GLOSS ) is an Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission program whose purpose is to measure sea level globally for long-term climate change studies . The program 's purpose has changed since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the program now collects realtime measurements of sea level . The project is currently upgrading the over 290 stations it currently runs , so that they can send realtime data via satellite to newly set up national tsunami centres . They are also fitting the stations with solar panels so they can continue to operate even if the mains power supply is interrupted by severe weather . The Global Sea Level Observing System does not compete with Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis as most GLOSS transducers are located close to land masses while DART 's transducers are far out in the ocean .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Global_Sea_Level_Observing_System", "rank": 87, "score": 89103 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean Surface Topography Mission Content: The Ocean Surface Topography Mission ( OSTM ) on the Jason-2 satellite is an international Earth observation satellite mission that continues the sea surface height measurements begun in 1992 by the joint NASA/CNES TOPEX/Poseidon mission and followed by the NASA/CNES Jason-1 mission launched in 2001 .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Ocean_Surface_Topography_Mission", "rank": 88, "score": 88950 }, { "content": "Title: Set and drift Content: In navigation set and drift are characteristics of the current or the velocity of water over the ground in which a ship is sailing . Drift is the magnitude , or speed of the current ( typically measured in knots ) and set is the bearing in the direction the current is flowing . Bearing is measured in degrees clockwise from either magnetic or true ( geographical ) North .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Set_and_drift", "rank": 89, "score": 88879 }, { "content": "Title: Iris hypothesis Content: The iris hypothesis is a hypothesis proposed by Richard Lindzen et al. in 2001 that suggested increased sea surface temperature in the tropics would result in reduced cirrus clouds and thus more infrared radiation leakage from Earth 's atmosphere . His study of observed changes in cloud coverage and modeled effects on infrared radiation released to space as a result supported the hypothesis . This suggested infrared radiation leakage was hypothesized to be a negative feedback in which an initial warming would result in an overall cooling of the surface . The consensus view is that increased sea surface temperature would result in increased cirrus clouds and reduced infrared radiation leakage and therefore a positive feedback . Other scientists subsequently tested the hypothesis . Some concluded that there was no evidence supporting the hypothesis . Others found evidence suggesting that increased sea surface temperature in the tropics did indeed reduce cirrus clouds but found that the effect was nonetheless a positive feedback rather than the negative feedback that Lindzen had hypothesized . A later 2007 study conducted by Roy Spencer et al. using updated satellite data potentially supported the iris hypothesis . In 2011 , Lindzen published a rebuttal to the main criticisms . In 2015 a paper was published which again suggested the possibility of an `` Iris Effect '' . It also proposed what it called a `` plausible physical mechanism for an iris effect . ''", "qid": "322", "docid": "Iris_hypothesis", "rank": 90, "score": 88493 }, { "content": "Title: Satellite laser ranging Content: In satellite laser ranging ( SLR ) a global network of observation stations measures the round trip time of flight of ultrashort pulses of light to satellites equipped with retroreflectors . This provides instantaneous range measurements of millimeter level precision which can be accumulated to provide accurate measurement of orbits and a host of important scientific data . Satellite laser ranging is a proven geodetic technique with significant potential for important contributions to scientific studies of the earth/atmosphere/ocean system . It is the most accurate technique currently available to determine the geocentric position of an Earth satellite , allowing for the precise calibration of radar altimeters and separation of long-term instrumentation drift from secular changes in ocean topography . Its ability to measure the variations over time in Earth 's gravity field and to monitor motion of the station network with respect to the geocenter , together with the capability to monitor vertical motion in an absolute system , makes it unique for modeling and evaluating long-term climate change by : providing a reference system for post-glacial rebound , sea level and ice volume change determining the temporal mass redistribution of the solid earth , ocean , and atmosphere system monitoring the response of the atmosphere to seasonal variations in solar heating . SLR provides a unique capability for verification of the predictions of the theory of general relativity , such as the frame-dragging effect . SLR stations form an important part of the international network of space geodetic observatories , which include VLBI , GPS , DORIS and PRARE systems . On several critical missions , SLR has provided failsafe redundancy when other radiometric tracking systems have failed .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Satellite_laser_ranging", "rank": 91, "score": 88472 }, { "content": "Title: Elektro–L Content: Elektro -- L is a new-generation series of meteorological satellites developed for the Russian Federal Space Agency by NPO Lavochkin . The first satellite , Elektro-L No. 1 , was launched on 20 January 2011 . It is the first Russian weather satellite that successfully operates in geostationary orbit , and is currently the second operational Russian weather satellite . The satellites have a mass of about 1620 kg and are designed to operate for 10 years each . They are capable of producing images of the Earth 's whole hemisphere in both visible and infrared frequencies , providing data for climate change and ocean monitoring in addition to their primary weather forecasting role .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Elektro–L", "rank": 92, "score": 88334 }, { "content": "Title: Mariner's astrolabe Content: The mariner 's astrolabe , also called sea astrolabe , was an inclinometer used to determine the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the sun 's noon altitude ( declination ) or the meridian altitude of a star of known declination . Not an astrolabe proper , the mariner 's astrolabe was rather a graduated circle with an alidade used to measure vertical angles . They were designed to allow for their use on boats in rough water and/or in heavy winds , which astrolabes are ill equipped to handle . In the sixteenth century , the instrument was also called a ring . The Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History in Texas , United States , contains the world 's oldest mariner 's astrolabe with a confirmed date of 1554 , salvaged from the wreck of the San Esteban .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Mariner's_astrolabe", "rank": 93, "score": 88249 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Wadhams Content: Peter Wadhams ScD ( born 14 May 1948 ) , is professor of Ocean Physics , and Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics , University of Cambridge . He is best known for his work on sea ice . He is the president of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans Commission on Sea Ice and Coordinator for the International Programme for Antarctic Buoys . Wadhams has been the leader of 40 polar field expeditions . Wadhams advocates for the use of climate engineering to mitigate climate change .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Peter_Wadhams", "rank": 94, "score": 88101 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level equation Content: The sea level equation ( SLE ) is the linear , integral equation that describes the sea-level variations associated with the Glacial Isostatic Adjustement ( GIA ) . The basic idea of the SLE dates back to 1888 , when Woodward published his pioneering work on the form and position of mean sea level , and only later has been refined by Platzman and Farrell in the context of the study of the ocean tides . In the words of Wu and Peltier , the solution of the SLE yields the space -- and time -- dependent change of ocean bathymetry which is required to keep the gravitational potential of the sea surface constant for a specific deglaciation chronology and viscoelastic earth model . The SLE theory was then developed by other authors as Mitrovica & Peltier , Mitrovica et al. and Spada & Stocchi . In its simplest form , the SLE reads where is the sea -- level change , is the sea surface variation as seen from Earth 's center of mass , and is vertical displacement . In a more explicit form the SLE can be written as follow : where is colatitude and is longitude , is time , and are the densities of ice and water , respectively , is the reference surface gravity , is the sea -- level Green 's function ( dependent upon the and viscoelastic load -- deformation coefficients - LDCs ) , is the ice thickness variation , represents the eustatic term ( i.e. the ocean -- averaged value of ) , and denote spatio-temporal convolutions over the ice - and ocean-covered regions , and the overbar indicates an average over the surface of the oceans that ensures mass conservation .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Sea_level_equation", "rank": 95, "score": 88085 }, { "content": "Title: Arktika 2007 Content: Arktika 2007 ( Российская полярная экспедиция '' Арктика-2007 '' ) was a 2007 expedition in which Russia performed the first ever crewed descent to the ocean bottom at the North Pole , as part of research related to the 2001 Russian territorial claim , one of many territorial claims in the Arctic , made possible , in part , because of Arctic shrinkage . As well as dropping a titanium tube containing the Russian flag , the submersibles collected specimens of Arctic flora and fauna and apparently recorded video of the dives . The `` North Pole-35 '' ( abbreviated as `` NP-35 '' ) manned drifting ice station was established . On January 10 , 2008 three of expedition members who performed the descent to the ocean bottom at the North Pole , Anatoly Sagalevich , Yevgeny Chernyaev and Artur Chilingarov were awarded titles Hero of the Russian Federation `` for courage and heroism showed in extremal conditions and successful completion of High-Latitude Arctic Deep-Water Expedition . ''", "qid": "322", "docid": "Arktika_2007", "rank": 96, "score": 88041 }, { "content": "Title: Satellite Cloud Image Content: A Satellite Cloud Image is an image based on data from meteorological satellite instruments . It captures the distribution of clouds in the atmosphere , to find the weather system and verify the correctness of surface weather maps that have been drawn . It can also be used with observations of sea ice distribution to determine the sea surface temperature and the medium-and long-term weather forecast oceanographic data . This technology can be a single image to show a variety of scales of weather phenomena to provide a very useful remote sensing data , weather analysis and forecasting . In general , the satellite cloud can be divided into the Infra-red satellite , visible satellite cloud images and color enhancement of satellite cloud . Category : Weather prediction", "qid": "322", "docid": "Satellite_Cloud_Image", "rank": 97, "score": 87826 }, { "content": "Title: Dosima Content: Dosima fascicularis , the buoy barnacle , is `` the most specialised pleustonic goose barnacle '' species . It hangs downwards from the water surface , held up by a float of its own construction , and is carried along by ocean currents .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Dosima", "rank": 98, "score": 87761 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on oceans Content: Global warming can affect sea levels , coastlines , ocean acidification , ocean currents , seawater , sea surface temperatures , tides , the sea floor , weather , and trigger several changes in ocean bio-geochemistry ; all of these affect the functioning of a society .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_oceans", "rank": 99, "score": 87695 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature salinity diagram Content: In oceanography , temperature-salinity diagrams , sometimes called T-S diagrams , are used to identify water masses . In a T-S diagram , rather than plotting each water property as a separate `` profile , '' with pressure or depth as the vertical coordinate , potential temperature ( on the vertical axis ) is plotted versus salinity ( on the horizontal axis ) . As long as it remains isolated from the surface , where heat or fresh water can be gained or lost , and in the absence of mixing with other water masses , a water parcel 's potential temperature and salinity are conserved . Deep water masses thus retain their T-S characteristics for long periods of time , and can be identified readily on a T-S plot . Temperature and salinity combine to determine the potential density of seawater ; contours of constant potential density are often shown in T-S diagrams .", "qid": "322", "docid": "Temperature_salinity_diagram", "rank": 100, "score": 87453 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 1, "score": 128395 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 2, "score": 106195 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 3, "score": 105655 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "331", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 4, "score": 103659 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 5, "score": 100626 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-albedo feedback Content: Ice-albedo feedback ( or snow-albedo feedback ) is a positive feedback climate process where a change in the area of snow-covered land , ice caps , glaciers or sea ice alters the albedo . This change in albedo acts to reinforce the initial alteration in ice area . Cooling tends to increase ice cover and hence the albedo , reducing the amount of solar energy absorbed and leading to more cooling . Conversely , warming tends to decrease ice cover and hence the albedo , increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed , leading to more warming . The effect also applies on the small scale to snow-covered surfaces . A small amount of snow melt exposes darker ground which absorbs more radiation , leading to more snowmelt . The effect has mostly been discussed in terms of the recent trend of declining Arctic sea ice . Internal feedback processes may also potentially occur , as land ice melts and causes eustatic sea level rise , and also potentially induces earthquakes as a result of isostatic rebound , which further acts to disrupt glaciers , ice shelves , etc. .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Ice-albedo_feedback", "rank": 6, "score": 100466 }, { "content": "Title: Cool tropics paradox Content: The cool tropics paradox refers to an apparent difference between modeled estimates of tropical temperatures during warm , ice-free periods of the Cretaceous and Eocene , and the colder temperatures which proxies suggested were present . The long-standing paradox was resolved when novel proxy derived temperatures showed significantly warmer tropics during past greenhouse climates . The low-gradient problem , i.e. the very warm polar regions with respect to present day , is still an issue for state-of-the-art climate models .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Cool_tropics_paradox", "rank": 7, "score": 98199 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 8, "score": 97983 }, { "content": "Title: 8.2 kiloyear event Content: In climatology , the 8.2 kiloyear event was a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present , or c. 6,200 BCE , and which lasted for the next two to four centuries . Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it , but more severe than the Little Ice Age that would follow , the 8.2 kiloyear cooling was a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum . During the event , atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb or an emission reduction of 15 % , by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale .", "qid": "331", "docid": "8.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 9, "score": 96835 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 10, "score": 96432 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 11, "score": 94724 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic geoengineering Content: Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Arctic_geoengineering", "rank": 12, "score": 93720 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 13, "score": 92444 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 14, "score": 92139 }, { "content": "Title: Heat (Colder album) Content: Heat is the second album from French musician Colder , released on Output Recordings on July 4 , 2005 . The album was produced in Paris , France and was released on CD , limited edition CD ( housed in a digipak ) , and limited edition red-colored 12 '' vinyl . The album was also released on CD in Mexico with two bonus tracks . All versions of the album are out of print .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Heat_(Colder_album)", "rank": 15, "score": 92113 }, { "content": "Title: LOWERN Content: LOWERN is an acronym for 6 factors that affect climate . Latitude . Depending on how close or how far it is to the equator . Ocean currents . Certain ocean currents have different temperatures . Warm ocean currents warm the air above it , which warms the coast . Cold ocean currents cool the air above it , which cools the coast . This helps keep the coast a consistent temperature . Wind and Air masses . Heated ground causes air to rise which results in lower air pressure . As it rises it cools and descends to the ground resulting in high air pressure . This cycle repeats which creates wind . These air masses absorb the climate of the air below it . Elevation . The higher up you are , the colder and drier it will be . When air rises it expands due to low air pressure which causes it to cool . Relief . The differences in the elevation in land . As air is forced to rise over a piece of land ( e.g. a mountain ) the temperature decreases and condensation increases . As it condensates water droplets get bigger and heavier and are forced to fall . Once the air mass goes over the mountain the temperature and evaporation increases but condensations decreases , resulting in a halt in precipitation and rain shadows . Nearness to Water . Water heats up and cools down slower than land does , having a moderating effect . On colder days , the water heats up the land , whereas on hotter days , the land is cooled down by the water . These areas also experience more precipitation . Category : Climatology", "qid": "331", "docid": "LOWERN", "rank": 16, "score": 91975 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 17, "score": 90806 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 18, "score": 90631 }, { "content": "Title: Thermoreceptor Content: A thermoreceptor is a non-specialised sense receptor , or more accurately the receptive portion of a sensory neuron , that codes absolute and relative changes in temperature , primarily within the innocuous range . In the mammalian peripheral nervous system , warmth receptors are thought to be unmyelinated C-fibres ( low conduction velocity ) , while those responding to cold have both C-fibers and thinly myelinated A delta fibers ( faster conduction velocity ) . The adequate stimulus for a warm receptor is warming , which results in an increase in their action potential discharge rate . Cooling results in a decrease in warm receptor discharge rate . For cold receptors their firing rate increases during cooling and decreases during warming . Some cold receptors also respond with a brief action potential discharge to high temperatures , i.e. typically above 45 ° C , and this is known as a paradoxical response to heat . The mechanism responsible for this behavior has not been determined . In humans , temperature sensation enters the spinal cord along the axons of Lissauer 's tract that synapse on second order neurons in grey matter of the dorsal horn , one or two vertebral levels up . The axons of these second order neurons then decussate , joining the spinothalamic tract as they ascend to neurons in the ventral posterolateral nucleus of the thalamus .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Thermoreceptor", "rank": 19, "score": 90479 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 20, "score": 90417 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 21, "score": 89699 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "331", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 22, "score": 89412 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 23, "score": 89226 }, { "content": "Title: Neoglaciation Content: The neoglaciation ( `` renewed glaciation '' ) describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth 's climate during the Holocene , following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation , the most recent glacial period . Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest point in the Earth 's climate during the current interglacial stage . The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning : local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler ( and wetter ) conditions . Driven inexorably by the Milankovitch cycle , cooler summers in higher latitudes of North America , which would cease to completely melt the annual snowfall , were masked at first by the presence of the slowly disappearing continental ice sheets , which persisted long after the astronomically calculated moment of maximum summer warmth : `` the neoglaciation can be said to have begun when the cooling caught up with the warming '' , remarked E. C. Pielou . With the close of the `` Little Ice Age '' ( mid-14th to late 19th centuries ) , neoglaciation appears to have been stalled in the late 20th century , assumed to be caused by anthropogenic global warming . Whether it has been temporarily or semi-permanently stalled , neoglaciation has been marked by a retreat from the warm conditions of the Climatic Optimum and the advance or reformation of glaciers that had not existed since the last ice age . In the mountains of western North America , montane glaciers that had completely melted reformed shortly before 5000 BP . The most severe part of the best documented neoglacial period , especially in Europe and the North Atlantic , is termed the `` Little Ice Age '' . In North America , neoglaciation had ecological effects in the spread of muskeg on flat , poorly drained land , such as the bed of recently drained Lake Agassiz and in the Hudson Bay lowlands , in the retreat of grassland before an advancing forest border in the Great Plains , and in shifting ranges of forest trees and diagnostic plant species ( identified through palynology ) . The view that neoglaciation is ending in present times , is assumed by those who identify the most recent climate changes and global warming as the onset of a new period in Earth history , speculatively calling it the `` Early anthropocene '' , as a coming geological age dominated by the effects of Homo sapiens .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Neoglaciation", "rank": 24, "score": 88726 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 25, "score": 87333 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in West Virginia Content: Climate change in West Virginia is of a concern due to the effects on the environment . Over the last century , the average temperature in Charleston , West Virginia , has increased 1.1 ° F ( 0.61 ° C ) , and precipitation has increased by up to 10 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future . Over the next century , climate in West Virginia may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in West Virginia could increase by 3 ° F ( 1.67 ° C ) in winter , spring , and summer ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and 4 ° F ( 2.23 ° C ) in fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to increase by 20 % ( with a range of 10-30 % ) in all seasons , slightly more in summer . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer thunderstorms is possible", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_West_Virginia", "rank": 26, "score": 86715 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 27, "score": 86411 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 28, "score": 86354 }, { "content": "Title: Mpemba effect Content: The Mpemba effect , named after Erasto Batholomeo Mpemba ( b. 1950 ) in 1963 , is the observation that , in some circumstances , warmer water can freeze faster than colder water . Although there is some conflicting published support for the effect , there is disagreement on exactly what the effect is and under what circumstances it occurs . There have been reports of similar phenomena since ancient times , although with insufficient detail for the claims to be replicated . A number of possible explanations for the effect have been proposed .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Mpemba_effect", "rank": 29, "score": 86215 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 30, "score": 86004 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 31, "score": 85793 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 32, "score": 85581 }, { "content": "Title: Colder (musician) Content: Marc Nguyen Tan ( born 1974 ) , known for his dance music as Colder , is a French dance musician , graphic designer who also is a DJ and remixer who remains actively involved in dance music and other projects . Colder 's sound is rooted in the post-punk and post-disco of the late 1970s and early 1980s . Colder is also influenced by dub and krautrock .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Colder_(musician)", "rank": 33, "score": 85321 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 34, "score": 85215 }, { "content": "Title: Serial position effect Content: Serial position effect is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a Special : Search/series best , and the middle items worst . The term was coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus through studies he performed on himself , and refers to the finding that recall accuracy varies as a function of an item 's position within a study list . When asked to recall a list of items in any order ( free recall ) , people tend to begin recall with the end of the list , recalling those items best ( the recency effect ) . Among earlier list items , the first few items are recalled more frequently than the middle items ( the primacy effect ) . One suggested reason for the primacy effect is that the initial items presented are most effectively stored in long-term memory because of the greater amount of processing devoted to them . ( The first list item can be rehearsed by itself ; the second must be rehearsed along with the first , the third along with the first and second , and so on . ) The primacy effect is reduced when items are presented quickly and is enhanced when presented slowly ( factors that reduce and enhance processing of each item and thus permanent storage ) . Longer presentation lists have been found to reduce the primacy effect . One theorised reason for the recency effect is that these items are still present in working memory when recall is solicited . Items that benefit from neither ( the middle items ) are recalled most poorly . An additional explanation for the recency effect is related to temporal context : if tested immediately after rehearsal , the current temporal context can serve as a retrieval cue , which would predict more recent items to have a higher likelihood of recall than items that were studied in a different temporal context ( earlier in the list ) . The recency effect is reduced when an interfering task is given . Intervening tasks involve working memory , as the distractor activity , if exceeding 15 to 30 seconds in duration , can cancel out the recency effect . Additionally , if recall comes immediately after test , the recency effect is consistent regardless of the length of the studied list , or presentation rate . Amnesiacs with poor ability to form permanent long-term memories do not show a primacy effect , but do show a recency effect if recall comes immediately after study . People with Alzheimer 's Disease exhibit a reduced primacy effect but do not produce a recency effect in recall .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Serial_position_effect", "rank": 35, "score": 84577 }, { "content": "Title: The Chilling Stars Content: The Chilling Stars is a non-fiction book about the possible causes and effects of global climate change by Henrik Svensmark and Nigel Calder . The paperback version was published by Totem Books on March 19 , 2003 . An updated version titled The Chilling Stars : A New Theory of Climate Change was published in 2007 . Svensmark is otherwise known as a Danish physicist and professor while Calder has worked as a science journalist . The authors argue that cloud cover changes caused by variations in cosmic rays are a major contributor to global temperature increases , and they state that human influences have been exaggerated .", "qid": "331", "docid": "The_Chilling_Stars", "rank": 36, "score": 84383 }, { "content": "Title: Gore Effect Content: The Gore Effect or Al Gore Effect refers to a perceived connection between occurrences of unseasonably cold weather and some events associated with global warming activism , particularly those attended by former Vice President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Gore_Effect", "rank": 37, "score": 84050 }, { "content": "Title: Serials crisis Content: The term serials crisis has become a common shorthand to describe the chronic subscription cost increases of many serial publications such as scholarly journals . The prices of these institutional or library subscriptions have been rising much faster than the Consumer Price Index for several decades , while the funds available to the libraries have remained static or have declined in real terms . As a result , academic and research libraries have regularly canceled serial subscriptions to accommodate price increases of the remaining current subscriptions .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Serials_crisis", "rank": 38, "score": 83838 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Cold Reversal Content: The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Antarctic_Cold_Reversal", "rank": 39, "score": 83593 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of Sun angle on climate Content: The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate , as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location , time of day , and season due to the Earth 's orbit around the Sun and the Earth 's rotation around its tilted axis . Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight , caused by the tilt of the Earth 's axis , is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter . Change in day length is another factor . ( See also season . )", "qid": "331", "docid": "Effect_of_Sun_angle_on_climate", "rank": 40, "score": 83495 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-term adjustment Content: In insurance , mid-term adjustment ( MTA ) , also called a mid-term modification or mid-term change , refers to a change to an insurance policy prior to the end of the policy period ( when coverage is offered ) . The change to the policy may cause a change in the premium : an increase is often called AP ( for additional premium ) whereas a decrease is often called RP ( returned premium ) . An additional transaction may also be payable to cover e.g. costs for revised insurance documents . Some insurers also use this fee to discourage changes , although few are willing to admit this openly . A cancellation is often treated as a special-case MTA , where the cover gets decreased to zero . Such transactions may attract special fees too . Category : Insurance terms", "qid": "331", "docid": "Mid-term_adjustment", "rank": 41, "score": 82948 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 42, "score": 82845 }, { "content": "Title: Massenerhebung effect Content: The Massenerhebung effect ( German for `` mountain mass elevation '' ) describes variation in the tree line based on mountain size and location . In general , mountains surrounded by large ranges will tend to have higher tree lines than more isolated mountains due to heat retention and wind shadowing . This effect is important for determining weather patterns in mountainous regions , as regions of similar altitude and latitude may nonetheless have much warmer or colder climates based on surrounding mountain ranges . For example , in Borneo , Gunung Palung , located on the coast , has moss forest at 900 m , while the montane forest on Gunung Mulu starts at 1200 m and at 1800 m on Mount Kinabalu .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Massenerhebung_effect", "rank": 43, "score": 82672 }, { "content": "Title: Older Dryas Content: The Older Dryas was a stadial ( cold ) period between the Bølling and Allerød interstadials ( warmer phases ) approximately 14,000 years ago ( BP ) , towards the end of the Pleistocene epoch . Its age is not well defined , with estimates varying by 400 years , but its duration is agreed to have been around two centuries . The gradual warming since the last glacial maximum 27-24 ,000 years BP has been interrupted by two cold spells , the Older Dryas having been followed by the Younger Dryas ( c. 12,900-11 ,650 BP ) . In northern Scotland the glaciers were thicker and deeper during the Older than the succeeding Younger Dryas , and there is no evidence of human occupation of Britain . In north-west Europe an earlier Oldest Dryas is also recognised . They are named after an indicator genus , the arctic and alpine plant Dryas , the remains of which are found in higher concentrations in deposits from colder periods . The Older Dryas was a variable cold , dry Blytt-Sernander period , observed in climatological evidence in only some regions , depending on latitude . In regions where it is not observed , the Bølling-Allerød is considered a single interstadial ( warm ) period . Evidence of the Older Dryas is strongest in northern Eurasia , particularly part of North Europe roughly equivalent to Pollen zone Ic .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Older_Dryas", "rank": 44, "score": 82632 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of radiation on perceived temperature Content: The `` radiation effect '' results from radiation heat exchange between human bodies and surrounding surfaces , such as walls and ceilings . It may lead to phenomena such as houses feeling cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer at the same temperature . For example , in a room in which air temperature is maintained at 22 ° Celsius at all times , but in which the inner surfaces of the house is estimated to be an average temperature of 10 ° Celsius in the winter or 25 ° Celsius in the summer , heat transfer from the surfaces to the individual will occur , resulting in a difference in the perceived temperature . We can observe and compare the rate of radiation heat transfer between a person and the surrounding surfaces if we first make a few simplifying assumptions : The heat exchange in the environment is in a `` steady state '' , meaning that there is a constant flow of heat either into or out of the house . The person is completely surrounded by the interior surfaces of the room . Heat transfer by convection is not considered . The walls , ceiling , and floor are all at the same temperature . For an average person , the outer surface area is 1.4 m ² , the surface temperature is 30 ° Celsius , and the emissivity is 0.95 . Emissivity is the ability of a surface to emit radiant energy compared to that of a black body at the same temperature . We will be using the following equation to find out how much heat is lost by a person standing in the same room in summertime as compared to the winter , at exactly the same thermostat reading temperature : Q ̇ = εσA_s ( T_s ^ 4-T_surr ^ 4 ) Where Q ̇ is the rate of heat loss ( W ) , ε is the emissivity ( or the ability of an objects surface to emit energy by radiation ) of a person , σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant ( 5.670 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) W/m2 ∙ K4 ) , As is the surface area of a person , Ts is the surface temperature of a person ( K ) , and Tsurr is the surface temperature of the walls , ceiling , and floor ( K ) . Please note that this equation is only valid for an object standing in a completely enclosed room , box , etc. . In the winter , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 10 degrees Celsius , was found to be 152 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 10 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 152 ) ̇ In the summer , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 25 degrees Celsius , was found to be 40.9 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 25 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 40.9 ) ̇ Thermal radiation is the form of radiation emitted by bodies because of their temperature . It differs from other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as x-rays , gamma rays , microwaves , radio waves , and television rays that are not related to temperature . Scientists have found that all bodies at a temperature above absolute zero emit thermal radiation . People are constantly radiating their body heat , but at different rates . From these values , the rate of heat loss from a person is almost four times as large in the winter than in the summer , which explains the `` chill '' we feel in the winter even if the thermostat setting is kept the same .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Effect_of_radiation_on_perceived_temperature", "rank": 45, "score": 82386 }, { "content": "Title: Colder Weather Content: `` Colder Weather '' is a song performed by the Zac Brown Band , an American country music group . Lead singer Zac Brown co-wrote the song with Coy Bowles ( the band 's keyboardist and guitarist ) , Wyatt Durrette and Levi Lowrey . It is the band 's seventh single release overall , and the second single from their 2010 album You Get What You Give .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Colder_Weather", "rank": 46, "score": 82007 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 47, "score": 81906 }, { "content": "Title: Lake-effect snow Content: Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water , warming the lower layer of air which picks up water vapor from the lake , rises up through the colder air above , freezes and is deposited on the leeward ( downwind ) shores . The same effect also occurs over bodies of salt water , when it is termed ocean-effect or bay-effect snow . The effect is enhanced when the moving air mass is uplifted by the orographic influence of higher elevations on the downwind shores . This uplifting can produce narrow but very intense bands of precipitation , which deposit at a rate of many inches of snow each hour , often resulting in a large amount of total snowfall . The areas affected by lake-effect snow are called snowbelts . These include areas east of the Great Lakes , the west coasts of northern Japan , the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia , and areas near the Great Salt Lake , Black Sea , Caspian Sea , Baltic Sea , and parts of the northern Atlantic Ocean . A lake-effect blizzard is the blizzard-like conditions resulting from lake-effect snow . Under certain conditions , strong winds can accompany lake-effect snows creating blizzard-like conditions ; however the duration of the event is often slightly less than that required for a blizzard warning in both the US and Canada . If the air temperature is low enough to keep the precipitation frozen , it falls as lake-effect snow . For lake-effect rain or snow to form , the air moving across the lake must be significantly cooler than the surface air ( which is likely to be near the temperature of the water surface ) . Specifically , the air temperature at an altitude where the air pressure is 850 mbar ( roughly 1.5 km vertically ) should be 13 ° C-change lower than the temperature of the air at the surface . Lake-effect occurring when the air at 850 mbar is much colder than the water surface can produce thundersnow , snow showers accompanied by lightning and thunder ( caused by larger amounts of energy available from the increased instability ) .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Lake-effect_snow", "rank": 48, "score": 81797 }, { "content": "Title: El Niño–Southern Oscillation Content: El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is an irregularly periodical variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean , affecting much of the tropics and subtropics . The warming phase is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña . Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component , coupled with the sea temperature change : El Niño is accompanied with high , and La Niña with low air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific . The two periods last several months each ( typically occur every few years ) and their effects vary in intensity . The two phases relate to the Walker circulation , discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century . The Walker circulation is caused by the pressure gradient force that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific Ocean , and a low pressure system over Indonesia . When the Walker circulation weakens or reverses , an El Niño results , causing the ocean surface to be warmer than average , as upwelling of cold water occurs less or not at all . An especially strong Walker circulation causes a La Niña , resulting in cooler ocean temperatures due to increased upwelling . Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study . The extremes of this climate pattern 's oscillations cause extreme weather ( such as floods and droughts ) in many regions of the world . Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are the most affected .", "qid": "331", "docid": "El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation", "rank": 49, "score": 81461 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "331", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 50, "score": 80894 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 51, "score": 80826 }, { "content": "Title: David Parker (climatologist) Content: David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England . He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' . In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .", "qid": "331", "docid": "David_Parker_(climatologist)", "rank": 52, "score": 80712 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 53, "score": 80633 }, { "content": "Title: Tottenham Court Road chiller Content: In the 1930s , London Transport Board installed an experimental refrigeration plant on the London Underground at Tottenham Court Road tube station . The plant was operational between 1938 and 1949 . The experimental plant was built because temperature measurements through the 1930s showed that the Underground was steadily getting warmer . Although the temperatures were not at unsafe levels ( peaks of 82 ° F / 27.8 ° C occurred at a few stations in summertime ) , the LTB perceived that if the trend continued , cooling in summer would be required at some time in the future , and it would be sensible to develop suitable technology . The chiller used water as the working fluid . The evaporators consisted of indirect heat exchangers mounted in the platform tunnels which were fed water at just above 0 ° C . The condenser was sited in the outflow air path of an existing tunnel cooling fan , which had been installed in a disused lift shaft at the station in 1933 . The outgoing air going through the condenser was warmed by 2 -- 3 ° C , before being discharged to atmosphere . Two descriptions of the cooling capacity exist . The first ( from 1939 ) gives the capacity as `` about half a million British thermal units per hour . '' The second ( 1982 ) states that it was `` equivalent to melting approximately 51 tonnes of ice per day . '' In SI units , these are 146 kW and 197 kW respectively . The experimental plant was not considered a success , mainly because the cooling it provided was at high cost . An extract fan of the same cooling capacity ( ` cooling capacity ' in the sense that a fan removes warm air in the tunnels and replaces it with cooler air from outside ) used up one-eighth of the electricity of the experimental refrigeration plant . Not only that , such a fan was easier to maintain and cost less to install . In the austere post-war years , the electrical power drawn by the chiller could not be justified . It was used intermittently during the 1940s , and was decommissioned in 1949 .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Tottenham_Court_Road_chiller", "rank": 54, "score": 80525 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Australia Content: Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Australia", "rank": 55, "score": 80197 }, { "content": "Title: Quantity adjustment Content: In economics , quantity adjustment is the process by which a market surplus leads to a cut-back in the quantity supplied or a market shortage causes an increase in supplied quantity . It is one possible result of supply and demand disequilibrium in a market . Quantity adjustment is complementary to pricing . In the textbook story , favored by the followers of Leon Walras , if the quantity demanded does not equal the quantity supplied in a market , `` price adjustment '' is the rule : if there is a market surplus or glut ( excess supply ) , prices fall , ending the glut , while a shortage ( excess demand ) causes price to rise . A simple model for price adjustment is the Evans price adjustment model , which proposes the differential equation : This says that the rate of change of the price ( P ) is proportional to the difference between the quantity demanded ( QD ) and the quantity supplied ( QS ) . However , instead of price adjustment -- or , more likely , simultaneously with price adjustment -- quantities may adjust : a market surplus leads to a cut-back in the quantity supplied , while a shortage causes a cut-back in the quantity demanded . The `` short side '' of the market dominates , with limited quantity demanded constraining supply in the first case and limited quantity supplied constraining demand in the second . Economist Alfred Marshall saw market adjustment in quantity-adjustment terms in the short run . During a given `` market day '' , the amount of goods on the market was given -- but it adjusts in the short run , a longer period : if the `` supply price '' ( the price suppliers were willing to accept ) was below the `` demand price '' ( what purchasers were willing to pay ) , the quantity in the market would rise . If the supply price exceeded the demand price , on the other hand , the quantity on the market would fall . Marshallian quantity adjustment is described as follows : This says that the rate of change of the quantity supplied is proportional to the difference between the demand price ( DP ) and the supply price ( SP ) . Quantity adjustment contrasts with the tradition of Léon Walras and general equilibrium . For Walras , ( ideal ) markets operated as if there were an Auctioneer who called out prices and asked for quantities supplied and demanded . Prices were then varied ( in a process called tatonnement or groping ) until the market `` cleared '' , with each quantity demanded equal to the corresponding quantity supplied . In this pure theory , no actual trading was allowed until the market-clearing price was determined . In the Walrasian system , only price adjustment operated to equate the quantity supplied with the quantity demanded .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Quantity_adjustment", "rank": 56, "score": 80008 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 57, "score": 79609 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 58, "score": 79563 }, { "content": "Title: Love in a Cold Climate (TV serial) Content: Love in a Cold Climate is a British television serial drama produced by the BBC in association with WGBH Boston , and first broadcast in two parts on BBC One on 4 and 11 February 2001 . The serial was adapted by Deborah Moggach from Nancy Mitford 's novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate , and was directed by Tom Hooper . It stars Rosamund Pike as Fanny , Elisabeth Dermot Walsh as Linda , Megan Dodds as Polly , Alan Bates as Uncle Matthew , and Celia Imrie as Aunt Sadie . Further roles are played by an all-star cast . The production staff researched the nature of Mitford 's novels by interviewing her surviving sister Deborah . The serial was accompanied by an Omnibus profile of Mitford and a documentary series entitled The Mitford World on BBC Knowledge . Love in a Cold Climate was nominated for two British Academy Television Awards ; Bates was nominated for Best Actor , and the production team received nominations in the Costume Design and Production Design categories . A previous mini-series adaptation of Love in a Cold Climate was broadcast in 1980 , starring Judi Dench , Michael Aldridge and Vivian Pickles .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Love_in_a_Cold_Climate_(TV_serial)", "rank": 59, "score": 79535 }, { "content": "Title: November 2014 North American cold wave Content: The November 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that occurred across most of Canada and the contiguous United States , including parts of the Western United States up to western California . One of the first events of the winter , the cold wave was caused by the northward movement of an extremely powerful bomb cyclone associated with Typhoon Nuri 's remnant , which shifted the jet stream far northward , creating an omega block pattern . This allowed a piece of the polar vortex to advance southward into the Central and Eastern United States , bringing record-cold temperatures to much of the region . In contrast , Alaska experienced above-average temperatures . This was the worst cold wave that the North American region had experienced since an earlier cold wave in early 2014 . The cold wave was expected to last for a few weeks , extending at least until American Thanksgiving . Although the Omega Block broke down on November 20 , due to a powerful storm moving into the Gulf of Alaska , frigid conditions continued to persist across much of the United States . There was also concern among some meteorologists that another cold wave or abnormally cold trend might persist throughout the winter of 2014 -- 15 , the chances of which were `` above average . '' On November 23 , a warming trend primarily in the Eastern United States brought an end to the cold wave ; however , below-average temperatures were forecast to return to the Midwest by November 24 . Despite the development of a second cold wave , it ended on December 6 , when a ridge of high pressure brought above-average temperatures to the region , especially in the Central United States .", "qid": "331", "docid": "November_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 60, "score": 79102 }, { "content": "Title: Stadial Content: Stadials and interstadials are phases dividing the Quaternary period , that last 2.6 million years . Stadial are colder periods and interstadials are warmer . Each phase has a Marine Isotope Stage ( MIS ) number , working backwards from the present , with stadial having even numbers and interstadials odd numbers . Thus the current Holocene is MIS1 and the most recent ice age is MIS2 . Stages are divided into warmer and colder intervals . MIS 5e ( the Eemian ) , the hottest of the last million years , was the oldest interstadial of MIS5 , with MIS3 and MIS1 being interstadials and MIS2 and MIS4 being colder stadials . In glacials a and c are stadials and b and d are warmer interstadials . Thus MIS 6a , 6c and 6e are stadials and 6b and 6d are interstadials . Generally , stadials endure for a thousand years or less , interstadials for less than ten thousand years , interglacials for more than ten thousand and glacials for about one hundred thousand . The Bølling Oscillation and the Allerød Oscillation , where they are not clearly distinguished in the stratigraphy , are taken together to form the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , and dated from about 14,700 to 12,700 years before the present . Greenland ice cores show 24 interstadials during the one hundred thousand years of the Wisconsin glaciation . Referred to as the Dansgaard-Oeschger events , they have been extensively studied , and in their northern European contexts are sometimes named after towns , such as the Brorup , the Odderade , the Oerel , the Glinde , the Hengelo , the Denekamp , etc. .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Stadial", "rank": 61, "score": 79053 }, { "content": "Title: Volcanic winter Content: A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth 's albedo ( increasing the reflection of solar radiation ) after a large particularly explosive volcanic eruption . Long-term cooling effects are primarily dependent upon injection of sulfur gasses into the stratosphere where they undergo a series of reactions to create sulfuric acid which can nucleate and form aerosols . Volcanic stratospheric aerosols cool the surface by reflecting solar radiation and warm the stratosphere by absorbing terrestrial radiation . The volcanic aerosols , resulting from the 1991 Pinatubo eruption and others , have been shown to contribute to anthropogenic ozone depletion . The variations in atmospheric warming and cooling results in changes in tropospheric and stratospheric circulation .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Volcanic_winter", "rank": 62, "score": 78828 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway greenhouse effect Content: A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Runaway_greenhouse_effect", "rank": 63, "score": 78816 }, { "content": "Title: Seasonal adjustment Content: Seasonal adjustment is a statistical method for removing the seasonal component of a time series that exhibits a seasonal pattern . It is usually done when wanting to analyse the trend , and cyclical deviations from trend , of a time series independently of the seasonal components . It is normal to report seasonally adjusted data for unemployment rates to reveal the underlying trends and cycles in labor markets . Many economic phenomena have seasonal cycles , such as agricultural production and consumer consumption , e.g. greater consumption leading up to Christmas . It is necessary to adjust for this component in order to understand what underlying trends are in the economy and so official statistics are often adjusted to remove seasonal components .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Seasonal_adjustment", "rank": 64, "score": 78685 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "331", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 65, "score": 78548 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 66, "score": 78277 }, { "content": "Title: Colder Content: Colder may refer to : The comparative of cold Colder ( musician ) , French electronic producer Colder ( song ) , a song by Charon Agent Colder , a fictional character played by Tanya Robb in the British web series Corner Shop Show", "qid": "331", "docid": "Colder", "rank": 67, "score": 78049 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 68, "score": 77626 }, { "content": "Title: Heat death paradox Content: Formulated in 1862 by Lord Kelvin , Hermann von Helmholtz and William John Macquorn Rankine , the heat death paradox , also known as Clausius 's paradox and thermodynamic paradox , is a reductio ad absurdum argument that uses thermodynamics to show the impossibility of an infinitely old universe . This paradox is based upon the classical model of the universe in which the universe is eternal . Clausius 's paradox is a paradox of paradigm . It was necessary to amend the fundamental ideas about the universe , which brought about the change of the paradigm . The paradox was solved when the paradigm was changed . The paradox was based upon the rigid mechanical point of view of the Second principle of thermodynamics postulated by Rudolf Clausius according to which heat can only be transferred from a warmer to a colder object . If the universe was eternal , as claimed in the classical stationary model of the universe , it should already be cold . Any hot object transfers heat to its cooler surroundings , until everything is at the same temperature . For two objects at the same temperature as much heat flows from one body as flows from the other , and the net effect is no change . If the universe were infinitely old , there must have been enough time for the stars to cool and warm their surroundings . Everywhere should therefore be at the same temperature and there should either be no stars , or everything should be as hot as stars . Since there are stars and the universe is not in thermal equilibrium it can not be infinitely old . The paradox does not arise in Big Bang or Steady State cosmology . In Big Bang cosmology , the current age of the universe is not old enough to have reached equilibrium ; while in a Steady State system , sufficient hydrogen is replenished or regenerated continuously to allow for a constant average density and preventing stars from running down .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Heat_death_paradox", "rank": 69, "score": 77517 }, { "content": "Title: Cold front Content: A cold front is defined as the leading edge of a cooler mass of air , replacing at ground level a warmer mass of air , which lies within a fairly sharp surface trough of low pressure . It forms in the wake of an extratropical cyclone , at the leading edge of its cold air advection pattern , which is also known as the cyclone 's dry conveyor belt circulation . Temperature changes across the boundary can exceed 30 C-change . When enough moisture is present , rain can occur along the boundary . If there is significant instability along the boundary , a narrow line of thunderstorms can form along the frontal zone . If instability is less , a broad shield of rain can move in behind the front , which increases the temperature difference across the boundary . Cold fronts are stronger in the fall and spring transition seasons and weakest during the summer . When a cold front catches up with the preceding warm front , the portion of the boundary that does so is then known as an occluded front .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Cold_front", "rank": 70, "score": 76928 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 71, "score": 76757 }, { "content": "Title: Iris hypothesis Content: The iris hypothesis is a hypothesis proposed by Richard Lindzen et al. in 2001 that suggested increased sea surface temperature in the tropics would result in reduced cirrus clouds and thus more infrared radiation leakage from Earth 's atmosphere . His study of observed changes in cloud coverage and modeled effects on infrared radiation released to space as a result supported the hypothesis . This suggested infrared radiation leakage was hypothesized to be a negative feedback in which an initial warming would result in an overall cooling of the surface . The consensus view is that increased sea surface temperature would result in increased cirrus clouds and reduced infrared radiation leakage and therefore a positive feedback . Other scientists subsequently tested the hypothesis . Some concluded that there was no evidence supporting the hypothesis . Others found evidence suggesting that increased sea surface temperature in the tropics did indeed reduce cirrus clouds but found that the effect was nonetheless a positive feedback rather than the negative feedback that Lindzen had hypothesized . A later 2007 study conducted by Roy Spencer et al. using updated satellite data potentially supported the iris hypothesis . In 2011 , Lindzen published a rebuttal to the main criticisms . In 2015 a paper was published which again suggested the possibility of an `` Iris Effect '' . It also proposed what it called a `` plausible physical mechanism for an iris effect . ''", "qid": "331", "docid": "Iris_hypothesis", "rank": 72, "score": 76227 }, { "content": "Title: Impact winter Content: An impact winter is a hypothesized period of prolonged cold weather due to the impact of a large asteroid or comet on the Earth 's surface . If an asteroid were to strike land or a shallow body of water , it would eject an enormous amount of dust , ash , and other material into the atmosphere , blocking the radiation from the sun . This would cause the global temperature to decrease drastically . If an asteroid or comet with the diameter of about 5 km or more were to hit in a large deep body of water or explode before hitting the surface , there would still be an enormous amount of debris ejected into the atmosphere . It has been proposed that an impact winter could lead to mass extinction , wiping out many of the world 's existing species .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Impact_winter", "rank": 73, "score": 76209 }, { "content": "Title: Global distillation Content: Global distillation or the grasshopper effect is the geochemical process by which certain chemicals , most notably persistent organic pollutants ( POPs ) , are transported from warmer to colder regions of the Earth , particularly the poles and mountain tops . Global distillation explains why relatively high concentrations of POPs have been found in the Arctic environment and in the bodies of animals and people who live there , even though most of the chemicals have not been used in the region in appreciable amounts .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Global_distillation", "rank": 74, "score": 76085 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Antarctica Content: The effects of global warming in Antarctica may include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Antarctica", "rank": 75, "score": 75890 }, { "content": "Title: Albrecht effect Content: The Albrecht effect describes how cloud condensation nuclei ( CCN ) , possibly from anthropogenic pollution , may increase cloud lifetime and hence increase the amount of solar radiation reflected from clouds . Because it does not directly interact with incoming or outgoing radiation , it has an indirect effect on climate . Aerosol particles act as CCNs creating more droplets of a smaller size . These take more time to coalesce to raindrop size ( > 100μm ) , reducing precipitation efficiency and hence increasing the lifetime of the cloud . The increased scattering of incoming radiation leads to a cooling of -0.3 to -1.4 Wm − 2 . This effect is not as well understood as the Twomey effect . There are many other effects , indirect and semi-direct aerosol effects resulting in a large uncertainty in the radiative forcing due to aerosols .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Albrecht_effect", "rank": 76, "score": 75524 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2014 North American cold wave Content: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013 -- 2014 winter season , and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States . The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex . Record-low temperatures also extended well into March . On January 2 , an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States , resulting in heavy snowfall . Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels , and low temperature records were broken across the United States . Business , school , and road closures were common , as well as mass flight cancellations . Altogether , more than 200 million people were affected , in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Early_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 77, "score": 75382 }, { "content": "Title: Glacial period Content: A glacial period ( alternatively glacial or glaciation ) is an interval of time ( thousands of years ) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances . Interglacials , on the other hand , are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods . The last glacial period ended about 15,000 years ago . < ref name = `` Severinghaus1999 '' > </ref> The Holocene epoch is the current interglacial . A time when there are no glaciers on Earth is considered a greenhouse climate state .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Glacial_period", "rank": 78, "score": 75304 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Tuvalu Content: Global warming (recent climate change) is particularly threatening in Tuvalu. This is because the average height of the islands is less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) above sea level, with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 metres (15 ft) above sea level. Between 1971 and 2014, during a period of global warming, Tuvalu islands have increased in size, according to aerial photography and satellite imagery. Over four decades, there was a net increase in land area in Tuvalu of 73.5 ha (2.9%), although the changes were not uniform, with 74% of land increasing in size and 27% of land decreasing in size. The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has risen at 3.9 mm per year, which is approximately twice the global average.Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to be significantly impacted by rising sea levels. Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut, pulaka, and taro. Research from the University of Auckland suggests that Tuvalu may remain habitable over the next century. However, as of March 2018, Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga stated that Tuvalu is not expanding and has gained no additional habitable land. Sopoaga has also said that evacuating the islands is the last resort.", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 79, "score": 75275 }, { "content": "Title: Season creep Content: In phenology , season creep is observed changes in the timing of the seasons , such as earlier indications of spring widely observed in temperate areas across the Northern Hemisphere . Phenological records analyzed by climate scientists have shown significant temporal trends in the observed time of seasonal events , from the end of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st century . In Europe , season creep has been associated with the arrival of spring moving up by approximately one week in a recent 30-year period . Other studies have put the rate of season creep measured by plant phenology in the range of 2 -- 3 days per decade advancement in spring , and 0.3 -- 1.6 days per decade delay in autumn , over the past 30 -- 80 years . Observable changes in nature related to season creep include birds laying their eggs earlier and buds appearing on some trees in late winter . In addition to advanced budding , flowering trees have been blooming earlier , for example the culturally important cherry blossoms in Japan , and Washington , D.C. Northern hardwood forests have been trending toward leafing out sooner , and retaining their green canopies longer . The agricultural growing season has also expanded by 10 -- 20 days over the last few decades . The effects of season creep have been noted by non-scientists as well , including gardeners who have advanced their spring planting times , and experimented with plantings of less hardy warmer climate varieties of non-native plants . While summer growing seasons are expanding , winters are getting warmer and shorter , resulting in reduced winter ice cover on bodies of water , earlier ice-out , earlier melt water flows , and earlier spring lake level peaks . Some spring events , or `` phenophases '' , have become intermittent or unobservable ; for example , bodies of water that once froze regularly most winters now freeze less frequently , and formerly migratory birds are now seen year-round in some areas .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Season_creep", "rank": 80, "score": 75241 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 81, "score": 75014 }, { "content": "Title: Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme Content: Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme or LCAS is a method to dynamically increase or decrease the bandwidth of virtual concatenated containers . The LCAS protocol is specified in ITU-T G. 7042 . It allows on-demand increase or decrease of the bandwidth of the virtual concatenated group in a hitless manner . This brings bandwidth-on-demand capability for data clients like Ethernet when mapped into TDM containers . LCAS is also able to temporarily remove failed members from the virtual concatenation group . A failed member will automatically cause a decrease of the bandwidth and after repair the bandwidth will increase again in a hitless fashion . Together with diverse routing this provides survivability of data traffic without requiring excess protection bandwidth allocation .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Link_Capacity_Adjustment_Scheme", "rank": 82, "score": 74837 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2012 European cold wave Content: The Early 2012 European cold wave was a deadly cold wave that started on January 27 , 2012 and brought snow and freezing temperatures to much of the European continent . There were more than 824 reported deaths . Particularly low temperatures hit several Eastern and Northern European countries , reaching as low as -42.7 C in Finland . The heaviest snow was recorded in the Balkan region . The cold weather was a result of an extensive area of very high pressure located in over the north east of the continent in northern Russia , which circulated cold air from the east .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Early_2012_European_cold_wave", "rank": 83, "score": 74833 }, { "content": "Title: Early Palaeozoic Icehouse Content: The Early Palaeozoic Icehouse was a cool period that interrupted the greenhouse temperatures of the Ordovician and Silurian periods , culminating in the Hirnantian glaciation and the Ordovician extinction event . The icehouse was formerly thought only to consist of the Hirnantian glaciation itself , but has now been recognized as a longer , more gradual event .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Early_Palaeozoic_Icehouse", "rank": 84, "score": 74747 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse effect Content: The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Greenhouse_effect", "rank": 85, "score": 74736 }, { "content": "Title: February 2015 North American cold wave Content: The February 2015 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that affected most of Canada and the eastern half of the United States . Following an earlier cold wave in the winter , the period of below-average temperatures contributed to an already unusually cold winter for the Eastern U.S. Several places broke their records for their coldest February on record , while some areas came very close . The cause of the cold wave was due to the polar vortex advancing southwards into the eastern parts of the U.S , and even making it as far south as the Southeast , where snow is rare . By the beginning of March , although the pattern did continue for the first week , it abated and retreated near the official end of the winter . In addition to the extremely cold weather , multiple winter storms affected nearly the entire United States , especially in the snow-weary Northeast , which had already seen nearly 3 ft of snow in the latter part of January ; this was added to by roughly 3 -- 4 ft ( 36 -- 48 in ) more snow , leading to Boston having its highest seasonal snowfall on record .", "qid": "331", "docid": "February_2015_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 86, "score": 74719 }, { "content": "Title: Everything's Cool (film) Content: Everything 's Cool is a 2007 documentary film that examines the divide between scientists and the general populace on the topic of global warming . Director Dan Gold said of the motivation for the film that `` I 'm optimistic that finally the message that this is real , that human beings are the cause of the most recent warming trend , and that it 's an important issue , that message is actually reaching America . On the other hand ... if that message was fully understood , we would be moving a lot faster to slow this down and to reverse this course . '' The documentary was shown at the Sundance film festival in January 2007 and at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May 2007 . The directors also took Blue Vinyl , a film about plastic pollution , to Sundance in 2002 . It was shown on CBC in Canada as part of the Passionate Eye series . The New York Times called it `` a breezy polemic about the politics of global warming ... -LSB- that -RSB- adopts a cheerful comic tone to avoid scaring audiences . '' The LA Times said that `` With wit and passion , Gold and Helfand marshal a plethora of data and developments yet never lose their narrative thread . '' . The New York Sun was less favourable , calling it `` the best movie I 've ever seen about global warming for kids in junior high school , but it 's the most annoying movie about global warming I 've ever seen for adults . ''", "qid": "331", "docid": "Everything's_Cool_(film)", "rank": 87, "score": 74711 }, { "content": "Title: A Cooler Climate Content: A Cooler Climate is a Showtime Original movie . It originally aired on August 22 , 1999 . It is based on a book with the same name by Zena Collier . Sally Field and Judy Davis were both nominated for their performance in the film during the 6th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards for outstanding performance by a female actor in a television movie or miniseries . They both also received an Emmy nomination for their performances in the film .", "qid": "331", "docid": "A_Cooler_Climate", "rank": 88, "score": 74438 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 89, "score": 74375 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "331", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 90, "score": 74303 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Nevada Content: Climate change in Nevada has been measured over the last century , with the average temperature in Elko , Nevada increasing by 0.6 F-change , and precipitation increasing by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Nevada", "rank": 91, "score": 74184 }, { "content": "Title: Cooler Content: A cooler , portable ice chest , ice box , cool box , chilly bin ( in New Zealand ) , or ` esky ' ( Australia ) most commonly is an insulated box used to keep food or drink cool . Ice cubes are most commonly placed in it to help the things inside stay cool . Ice packs are sometimes used , as they either contain the melting water inside , or have a gel sealed inside that stays cold longer than plain ice ( absorbing heat as it changes phase ) . The portable ice chest was invented by Richard C. Laramy of Joliet , Illinois . On February 24 , 1951 , Laramy filed an application with the United States Patent Office for a portable ice chest ( Serial No. 212,573 ) . The patent ( # 2,663,157 ) was issued December 22 , 1953 . The Coleman Company popularized the cooler with its initial offering of a galvanized cooler in 1954 . Three years later , Coleman developed a process to make a plastic liner for coolers and jugs . Coolers are often taken on picnics , and on vacation or holiday . Where summers are hot , they may also be used just for getting cold groceries home from the store , such as keeping ice cream from melting in a hot automobile . Even without adding ice , this can be helpful , particularly if the trip home will be lengthy . Some coolers have built-in cupholders in the lid . They are usually made with interior and exterior shells of plastic , with a hard foam in between . They come in sizes from small personal ones to large family ones with wheels . Disposable ones are made solely from polystyrene foam ( such as is a disposable coffee cup ) about 2 cm or one inch thick . Most reusable ones have molded-in handles ; a few have shoulder straps . The cooler has developed from just a means of keeping beverages cold into a mode of transportation with the ride-on cooler . A thermal bag or cooler bag is very similar in concept , but typically smaller and not rigid . In the United Kingdom the common name is a `` cool-box '' . In the United States they are usually called a `` cooler '' . In New Zealand they are generally called a `` chilly bin '' , a generic trademark ; the common Australian name of `` Esky '' is also a generic trademark .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Cooler", "rank": 92, "score": 74135 }, { "content": "Title: Cold (Annie Lennox song) Content: `` Cold '' is a song by the British singer Annie Lennox . It was released as the fourth single from her 1992 album , Diva , and reached no. 26 in the UK . The single was released as a series of three separate CD singles , titled Cold , Colder and Coldest . Each CD featured the track Cold as well as a collection of live tracks . It holds the unique distinction of being the first single to chart in the UK Top 40 without being released on 7 '' vinyl , being released solely on CD .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Cold_(Annie_Lennox_song)", "rank": 93, "score": 73980 }, { "content": "Title: Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 Content: Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 ( ETM-2 ) , also called H-1 or the Elmo ( Eocene Layer of Mysterious Origin ) event , was a transient period of global warming that occurred approximately 53.7 million years ago ( Ma ) . It appears to be the second major hyperthermal that punctuated the long-term warming trend from the Late Paleocene through the early Eocene ( 58 to 50 Ma ) . The hyperthermals were geologically brief time intervals ( < 200,000 years ) of global warming and massive carbon input . The most extreme and best-studied event , the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM or ETM-1 ) , occurred about 1.8 million years before ETM-2 , at approximately 55.5 Ma . Other hyperthermals likely followed ETM-2 at nominally 53.6 Ma ( H-2 ) , 53.3 ( I-1 ) , 53.2 ( I-2 ) and 52.8 Ma ( informally called K , X or ETM-3 ) . The number , nomenclature , absolute ages and relative global impact of the Eocene hyperthermals are the source of much current research . In any case , the hyperthermals appear to have ushered in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest interval of the Cenozoic Era . They also definitely precede the Azolla event at about 49 Ma . ETM-2 is clearly recognized in sediment sequences by analyzing the stable carbon isotope composition of carbon-bearing material . The 13C/12C ratio of calcium carbonate or organic matter drops significantly across the event . This is similar to what happens when one examines sediment across the PETM , although the magnitude of the negative carbon isotope excursion is not as large . The timing of Earth system perturbations during ETM-2 and the PETM also appear different . Specifically , the onset of ETM-2 may have been longer ( perhaps 30,000 years ) while the recovery seems to have been shorter ( perhaps < 50,000 years ) . ( Note , however , that the timing of short-term carbon cycle perturbations during both events remains difficult to constrain ) . A thin clay-rich horizon marks ETM-2 in marine sediment from widely separated locations . In sections recovered from the deep-sea ( for example those recovered by Ocean Drilling Program Leg 208 on Walvis Ridge ) , this layer is caused by dissolution of calcium carbonate . However , in sections deposited along continental margins ( for example those now exposed along the Clarence River , New Zealand ) , the clay-rich horizon represents dilution by excess accumulation of terrestrial material entering into the ocean . Similar changes in sediment accumulation are found across the PETM . In sediment from Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean , intervals across both ETM-2 and the PETM shows signs of higher temperature , lower salinity and lower dissolved oxygen . The PETM and ETM-2 are thought to have a similar generic origin , although this idea is at the edge of current research . During both events , a tremendous amount of 13C-depleted carbon rapidly entered the ocean and atmosphere . This decreased the 13C/12C ratio of carbon-bearing sedimentary components , and dissolved carbonate in the deep ocean . Somehow the carbon input was coupled to an increase in Earth surface temperature and a greater seasonality in precipitation , which explains the excess terrestrial sediment discharge along continental margins . Possible explanations for changes during ETM-2 are the same as those for the PETM , and are discussed under the latter entry . The H-2 event appears to be a `` minor '' hyperthermal that follows ETM-2 ( H-1 ) by about 100,000 years . This has led to speculation that the two events are somehow coupled and paced by changes in orbital eccentricity . As in the case of the PETM , reversible dwarfing of mammals has been noted during the ETM-2 .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Eocene_Thermal_Maximum_2", "rank": 94, "score": 73661 }, { "content": "Title: Afterdrop Content: Afterdrop is a continued cooling of a patient 's core temperature during the initial stages of rewarming from hypothermia . Afterdrop is attributed to the return of cold blood from the extremities to the core due to peripheral vasodilatation , thus causing a further decrease of deep body temperature . However a second theory explains afterdrop as a side effect of conductive heat transfer . `` The hypothermic patient cools from the outside in . Consequently , a heat gradient is established from the relatively warm core to the cool periphery . This heat gradient does not reverse immediately upon initiation of rewarming . Until the gradient is reversed , further heat transfer occurs from the warmer core to cooler peripheral tissues . '' In severe cases , afterdrop can lead to post-rescue collapse , but has not been shown to be of any clinical importance in rewarming the hypothermic patient . Afterdrop is not observed in the rewarming of all hypothermic patients . It is more common in patients who were rapidly cooled or rewarmed . Afterdrop was less common in patients for whom rewarming was delayed , or when cooling was slow and prolonged .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Afterdrop", "rank": 95, "score": 73600 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Saskatchewan Content: The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Saskatchewan", "rank": 96, "score": 73587 }, { "content": "Title: Cold and heat adaptations in humans Content: Cold and heat adaptations in humans are a part of the broad adaptability of Homo sapiens . Adaptations in humans can be physiological , genetic , or cultural , which allow people to live in a wide variety of climates . There has been a great deal of research done on developmental adjustment , acclimatization , and cultural practices , but less research on genetic adaptations to cold and heat temperatures . The human body always works to remain in homeostasis . One form of homeostasis is thermoregulation . Body temperature varies in every individual , but the average internal temperature is 37.0 ° C ( 98.6 ° F ) . Stress from extreme external temperature can cause the human body to shut down . When the body becomes hypothermic , the core temperature drops to 35 ° C ( 95 ° F ) . Hyperthermia results when the core body temperature rises above 37.5-38 .3 ° C ( 99.5-100 .9 ° F ) . These temperatures commonly result in mortality . Humans have adapted to living in these extreme climates primarily through culture and technology , such as the use of clothing and shelter .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Cold_and_heat_adaptations_in_humans", "rank": 97, "score": 73559 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on human health Content: The effects of global warming include effects on human health . The observed and projected increased frequency and severity of climate related impacts will further exacerbate the effects on human health . This article describes some of those effects on individuals and populations .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_human_health", "rank": 98, "score": 73551 }, { "content": "Title: Rewarming shock Content: Rewarming Shock ( also known as rewarming collapse ) has been described as a drop in blood pressure following the warming of a person who is very cold . The real cause of this rewarming shock is unknown . There was a theoretical concern that external rewarming rather than internal rewarming may increase the risk . These concerns were partly believed to be due to afterdrop , a situation detected during laboratory experiments where there is a continued decrease in core temperature after rewarming has been started . Recent studies have not supported these concerns , and problems are not found with active external rewarming .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Rewarming_shock", "rank": 99, "score": 73511 }, { "content": "Title: Cold Content: Cold is the presence of low temperature , especially in the atmosphere . In common usage , cold is often a subjective perception . A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero , defined as 0.00 K on the Kelvin scale , an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale . This corresponds to 0 K on the Celsius scale , 0 K on the Fahrenheit scale , and 0 K on the Rankine scale . Since temperature relates to the thermal energy held by an object or a sample of matter , which is the kinetic energy of the random motion of the particle constituents of matter , an object will have less thermal energy when it is colder and more when it is hotter . If it were possible to cool a system to absolute zero , all motion of the particles in a sample of matter would cease and they would be at complete rest in this classical sense . The object would be described as having zero thermal energy . Microscopically in the description of quantum mechanics , however , matter still has zero-point energy even at absolute zero , because of the uncertainty principle .", "qid": "331", "docid": "Cold", "rank": 100, "score": 73146 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Sunburst Shelter Content: The Sunburst Shelter , designated by the survey number 3MR94 , is an archaeological site in Marion County , Arkansas . A notable feature of the site is a pictograph depicting a sunburst . Painted in red pigment onto a limestone surface with fingers , the pictograph was described as being in fair condition in 2003 , with flaking paint and water staining , and some vandalism to the area . The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Sunburst_Shelter", "rank": 1, "score": 99409 }, { "content": "Title: Super black Content: Super black is a surface treatment developed at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom . It reflects much less light than the darkest conventional matte black paints available previously . Conventional black paint absorbs about 97.5 % of the incident light . Super black absorbs approximately 99.6 % of light at normal incidence . At other angles of incidence , super black is even more effective . At an angle of 45 ° , super black absorbs 99.9 % of light . The technique used for super black is based upon chemically etching a nickel -- phosphorus alloy . Applications for super black are in specialist optical instruments to reduce unwanted reflections . The disadvantage of this material is its low optical thickness , as it is a surface treatment . As a result , infrared light of a wavelength longer than a few micrometers penetrates through the dark layer and has much higher reflectivity . The reported spectral dependence increases from about 1 % at 3 µm to 50 % at 20 µm . In 2009 , a competitor to the super black material was developed based on carbon nanotubes called Vantablack , that has a relatively flat reflectance in a wide spectral range . In 2011 , NASA and the US Army began funding research in the use of nanotube based super black coatings in sensitive optics . Nanotube based superblack arrays and coatings have recently become commercially available .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Super_black", "rank": 2, "score": 98893 }, { "content": "Title: Fallout shelter Content: A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion . Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War . During a nuclear explosion , matter vaporized in the resulting fireball is exposed to neutrons from the explosion , absorbs them , and becomes radioactive . When this material condenses in the rain , it forms dust and light sandy materials that resembles ground pumice . The fallout emits alpha and beta particles , as well as gamma rays . Much of this highly radioactive material falls to earth , subjecting anything within the line of sight to radiation , becoming a significant hazard . A fallout shelter is designed to allow its occupants to minimize exposure to harmful fallout until radioactivity has decayed to a safer level .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Fallout_shelter", "rank": 3, "score": 98038 }, { "content": "Title: Reflective surfaces (climate engineering) Content: Reflective surfaces are surfaces that can deliver high solar reflectance ( the ability to reflect the visible , infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths of the sun , reducing heat transfer to the surface ) and high thermal emittance ( the ability to radiate absorbed , or non-reflected solar energy ) . Reflective surfaces are a form of geoengineering . The most well-known type of reflective surface is the cool roof . While cool roofs are mostly associated with white roofs , they come in a variety of colors and materials and are available for both commercial and residential buildings . Today 's `` cool roof '' pigments allow metal roofing products to be EnergyStar rated in dark colors , even black . Solar reflective cars or cool cars reflect more sunlight than dark cars , reducing the amount of heat that is transmitted into the car 's interior . Therefore , it helps decreasing the need for air conditioning , fuel consumption , and emissions of greenhouse gases and urban air pollutants . Cool color parking lots are parking lots made with a reflective layer of paint . The project is being undertaken by Jordan Woods of the Berkeley Lab .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Reflective_surfaces_(climate_engineering)", "rank": 4, "score": 96656 }, { "content": "Title: Energy absorber Content: Energy absorber may refer to : A panel to absorb the radiant energy of sunlight to heat a fluid , such as solar hot water A bolometer , a device to convert electromagnetic radiation and the momentum of energetic particles to thermal energy which in turn is easily measured A kinetic-energy absorbing medium , sometimes called a crash pit or runaway truck ramp A shock absorber , a device to dampen spring rebound by expending work by forcing a fluid through ports , and so converting the mechanical energy to heat A material or device to disperse and dissipate impact energy , such as a protective helmet for sports , motorcycling or bicycling armor such as a ballistic vest for protection in warfare Materials to protect boxed contents during shipping , such as Foam peanuts Bubble wrap A portion of vehicle such as an automobile designed to protect the occupants , usually by creating `` crumple zones '' at each end of the vehicle while preserving a stiff central cage in which the occupants are secured by seat belts and protected by inflatable air bags", "qid": "332", "docid": "Energy_absorber", "rank": 5, "score": 96446 }, { "content": "Title: Solar gain Content: Solar gain ( also known as solar heat gain or passive solar gain ) refers to the increase in temperature ( heat gain ) in a space , object or structure that results from solar radiation . The amount of solar gain increases with the strength of the sunlight , and with the ability of any intervening material to transmit or resist the radiation . Objects struck by sunlight absorb the short-wave radiation from the light and reradiate the heat at longer infrared wavelengths . Certain materials and substances , such as glass , are more transparent to the shorter wavelengths than the longer ; when the sun shines through such materials , the net result is an increase in temperature -- solar gain . This effect , the greenhouse effect , so called due to the solar gain that is experienced behind the glass of a greenhouse , has since become well known in the context of global warming .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solar_gain", "rank": 6, "score": 95656 }, { "content": "Title: Dark state Content: In atomic physics , a dark state refers to a state of an atom or molecule that can not absorb ( or emit ) photons . All atoms and molecules are described by quantum states ; different states can have different energies and a system can make a transition from one energy level to another by emitting or absorbing one or more photons . However , not all transitions between arbitrary states are allowed . A state that can not absorb an incident photon is called a dark state . This can occur in experiments using laser light to induce transitions between energy levels , when atoms can spontaneously decay into a state that is not coupled to any other level by the laser light , preventing the atom from absorbing or emitting light from that state . A dark state can also be the result of quantum interference in a three-level system , when an atom is in a coherent superposition of two states , both of which are coupled by lasers at the right frequency to a third state . With the system in a particular superposition of the two states , the system can be made dark to both lasers as the probability of absorbing a photon goes to 0 .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_state", "rank": 7, "score": 95393 }, { "content": "Title: Dark quencher Content: A dark quencher ( also known as a dark sucker ) is a substance that absorbs excitation energy from a fluorophore and dissipates the energy as heat ; while a typical ( fluorescent ) quencher re-emits much of this energy as light . Dark quenchers are used in molecular biology in conjunction with fluorophores . When the two are close together , such as in a molecule or protein , the fluorophore 's emission is suppressed . This effect can be used to study molecular geometry and motion . An example of its use is in TaqMan or invader assay , SNP genotyping methods . For instance , a hairpin loop with a fluorophore and quencher at the base of the stem is used . An unlabeled SNP specific PCR primer ( one of many ) with a specific 5 ' tail binds to the sequence to be probed , and the taq polymerase extends the sequence that will have a specific 5 ' end dependent on the SNP ( insensitive to polymorphisms upstream of the SNP in question ) . In the next run a primer , complementary to that tail , with a hairpin loop is extended . In the next run the elongation of the complementary strand will linearise the hairpin separating the fluorophore and quencher . An alternative to using quenchers is to use FRET where the combination of two dyes gives a signal .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_quencher", "rank": 8, "score": 94662 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Electric Light Fund Content: The Solar Electric Light Fund ( SELF ) is a Washington , D.C.-based nonprofit whose mission is to design and implement solar energy solutions to assist those living in energy poverty with their economic , educational , health care , and agricultural development . Since 1990 , SELF has completed projects in more than 20 countries , using solar energy to power drip irrigation in Benin , health care in Haiti , telemedicine in the Amazon rainforest , online learning in South Africa , and microenterprise development in Nigeria .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solar_Electric_Light_Fund", "rank": 9, "score": 93676 }, { "content": "Title: Phosphorescence Content: Phosphorescence is a type of photoluminescence related to fluorescence . Unlike fluorescence , phosphorescent material does not immediately re-emit the radiation it absorbs . The slower time scales of the re-emission are associated with `` forbidden '' energy state transitions in quantum mechanics . As these transitions occur very slowly in certain materials , absorbed radiation is re-emitted at a lower intensity for up to several hours after the original excitation . Everyday examples of phosphorescent materials are the glow-in-the-dark toys , stickers , paint , and clock dials that glow for some time after being charged with a bright light such as in any normal reading or room light . Typically , the glow slowly fades out , sometimes within a few minutes or up to a few hours in a dark room . The study of phosphorescent materials led to the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Phosphorescence", "rank": 10, "score": 93477 }, { "content": "Title: Dark nebula Content: A dark nebula or absorption nebula is a type of interstellar cloud that is so dense that it obscures the light from objects behind it , such as background stars and emission or reflection nebulae . The extinction of the light is caused by interstellar dust grains located in the coldest , densest parts of larger molecular clouds . Clusters and large complexes of dark nebulae are associated with Giant Molecular Clouds . Isolated small dark nebulae are called Bok globules . Like other interstellar dust or material , things it obscures are only visible using radio waves in radio astronomy or infrared in infrared astronomy . Dark clouds appear so because of sub-micrometre-sized dust particles , coated with frozen carbon monoxide and nitrogen , which effectively block the passage of light at visible wavelengths . Also present are molecular hydrogen , atomic helium , C18O ( CO with oxygen as the 18O isotope ) , CS , NH3 ( ammonia ) , H2CO ( formaldehyde ) , c-C3H2 ( cyclopropenylidene ) and a molecular ion N2H + ( diazenylium ) , all of which are relatively transparent . These clouds are the spawning grounds of stars and planets , and understanding their development is essential to understanding star formation . The form of such dark clouds is very irregular : they have no clearly defined outer boundaries and sometimes take on convoluted serpentine shapes . The largest dark nebulae are visible to the naked eye , appearing as dark patches against the brighter background of the Milky Way like the Coalsack Nebula and the Great Rift . These naked-eye objects are sometimes known as dark cloud constellations and take on a variety of names . In the inner outer molecular regions of dark nebulae , important events take place , such as the formation of stars and masers .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_nebula", "rank": 11, "score": 93287 }, { "content": "Title: Dark Sun Content: Dark Sun is an original Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting set in the fictional , post-apocalyptic desert world of Athas . Dark Sun is notable for its innovative metaplot , influential art work , dark themes , and its genre bending take on traditional fantasy role-playing game . The product line began with the original Dark Sun Boxed Set released for AD&D in 1991 , ran until 1996 , and was one of TSR 's most successful releases . In 2010 , Wizards of the Coast released an updated version of the setting using the fourth edition rules . Dark Sun deviated from the feudalistic backdrops of its contemporaries , such as Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms , in favor of a composite of dark fantasy , planetary romance , and the Dying Earth subgenre . Rather than create another pseudo-medieval , Tolkienesque fantasy world , Dark Sun 's designers presented a savage , magic-ravaged desert world where resources are scarce and survival is a daily struggle . The traditional fantasy races and character classes were altered or omitted to better suit the setting 's darker themes . Dark Sun differs further in that the game has no deities , arcane magic is reviled for causing the planet 's current ecological fragility , and psionics are extremely common due to a tie-in with the 1991 Complete Psionics Handbook . The artwork of Brom inspired the direction of the content and established a trend of game products produced under the direction of a single artist . The second edition of the setting was supported by supplements as well as novels were closely tied into the game 's metaplot . It was the first TSR setting to come with an established metaplot out of the box . Dark Sun 's popularity endured long after the setting was no longer supported by Dungeons & Dragons '' ' new parent company Wizards of the Coast with a lively online community developing in its place . Material was produced for the third edition rules by fans at Athas.org and by Paizo via open game license agreements . A new edition of Dark Sun was released in 2010 for the fourth edition of D&D . The game designers wanted to capture the feel of the original 1991 boxed set while opening up the setting to all of the possible adventures and options offered by the new edition . Though not technically a reboot , some of the characters , races , and setting details from the previous editions were changed or removed . The new setting rules continued Dark Sun 's '' tradition of innovation by introducing character themes which provided background , character elements , and additional powers to newly created characters . Many former variant classes such as elemental priests , gladiators , and templars were replaced with these character themes .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_Sun", "rank": 12, "score": 92859 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 13, "score": 92106 }, { "content": "Title: Cirrus cloud thinning Content: Cirrus cloud thinning is a proposed form of climate engineering . Cirrus clouds are high cold ice that , like other clouds , both reflect sunlight and absorb warming infrared radiation . However , they differ from other types of clouds in that , on average , infrared absorption outweighs sunlight reflection , resulting in a net warming effect on the climate . Therefore , thinning or removing these clouds would reduce their heat trapping capacity , resulting in a cooling effect on Earth 's climate . This could be a potential tool to reduce anthropogenic global warming . Cirrus cloud thinning is an alternative category of climate engineering , in addition to solar radiation management and greenhouse gas removal .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Cirrus_cloud_thinning", "rank": 14, "score": 91283 }, { "content": "Title: Shelter Me (Cinderella song) Content: `` Shelter Me '' was the lead single from Cinderella 's third album , Heartbreak Station . It peaked at # 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 . The lyrics reflect the human need for respite from the daily stressors in life and cautions about taking whatever one chooses to indulge to excess . The line `` some people wave the Bible 'cause it 's giving them a thrill '' addresses the then-current atmosphere of religious conservatism that threatened to smother the music industry .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shelter_Me_(Cinderella_song)", "rank": 15, "score": 90711 }, { "content": "Title: Solar energy use in rural Africa Content: The use of solar energy in rural areas across sub-Saharan Africa has increased over the years . With many communities lacking access to basic necessities such as electricity , clean water , and effective irrigation systems ; the innovations in solar powered technologies have led to poverty alleviation projects that combine development strategies and environmental consciousness . Another use for solar energy that has gained momentum in rural African households ( as well as some urban areas ) is that of solar cooking . Historically , the high dependency on wood collection from depleting sources have resulted in serious environmental degradation and has been considered an extremely unsustainable practice when compared to the renewable attribute of solar powered cooking . There have also been recent links made between solar energy and increased food security in the region . African development projects , mostly in rural areas seem to be recognizing the real potential of renewable energy sources especially power derived from the sun .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solar_energy_use_in_rural_Africa", "rank": 16, "score": 90528 }, { "content": "Title: International Year of Shelter for the Homeless Content: The International Year of Shelter for the Homeless ( IYSH ) was recognized in 1987 by the United Nations . It was first declared , in principle , in UN resolution 36/71 in 1981 , and proclaimed officially in 1982 in resolution 37/221 . It was mainly aimed at improving shelter / housing for the poor in general ( and not just homeless people ) , especially in developing countries . It was also a follow-up to the Habitat I conference in 1976 .", "qid": "332", "docid": "International_Year_of_Shelter_for_the_Homeless", "rank": 17, "score": 90483 }, { "content": "Title: Ubirr Content: Ubirr is within the East Alligator region of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia , and is known for its rock art . It consists of a group of rock outcrops on the edge of the Nadab floodplain where there are several natural shelters that have a collection of Aboriginal rock paintings , some of which are many thousands of years old . The art depicts certain creation ancestors as well as animals from the area such as barramundi , catfish , mullet , goannas , long-necked turtles , pig-nosed turtles , rock ringtail possums , and wallabies . From the top of Ubirr rock there is a panoramic view of the floodplains and escarpments . Ubirr is approximately 40 km from Jabiru along a sealed road . The road is low-lying , so access can be restricted during periods of heavy rain . A short walk from the car park takes visitors past the main art sites to the foot of Ubirr Rock . The rock faces at Ubirr have been continuously painted and repainted since 40,000 BCE . Most paintings there were created about 2000 years ago . Some have been repainted right up to modern times . There are three main galleries of art accessible to visitors . National Park rangers , many of them Indigenous , give talks at all of these sites .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Ubirr", "rank": 18, "score": 89259 }, { "content": "Title: Earth shelter Content: An earth shelter is a structure (usually a house) with earth (soil) against the walls, on the roof, or that is entirely buried underground. Earth acts as thermal mass, making it easier to maintain a steady indoor air temperature and therefore reduces energy costs for heating or cooling. Earth sheltering became relatively popular after the mid 1970s, especially among environmentalists. However, the practice has been around for nearly as long as humans have been constructing their own shelters.", "qid": "332", "docid": "Earth_shelter", "rank": 19, "score": 89069 }, { "content": "Title: Shelter (charity) Content: Shelter is a registered charity that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing in England and Scotland . It gives advice , information and advocacy to people in need , and tackles the root causes of bad housing by lobbying government and local authorities for new laws and policies to improve the lives of homeless and badly housed people . It works in partnership with Shelter Cymru in Wales and the Housing Rights Service in Northern Ireland Shelter helps people in housing need by providing advice and practical assistance , and fights for better investment in housing and for laws and policies to improve the lives of homeless and badly housed people . Approximately two thirds of Shelter 's expenditure goes on housing aid and one third on campaigns and education .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shelter_(charity)", "rank": 20, "score": 88234 }, { "content": "Title: Vijay Prashad Content: Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian , journalist , commentator and a Marxist intellectual . He is the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford , Connecticut . In 2013 -- 2014 , he was the Edward Said Chair at the American University of Beirut . Prashad is the author of seventeen books . In 2012 , he published five books , including Arab Spring , Libyan Winter ( AK Press ) and Uncle Swami : South Asians in America Today ( The New Press ) . His book The Darker Nations : A People 's History of the Third World ( 2007 ) was chosen as the Best Nonfiction book by the Asian American Writers ' Workshop in 2008 and it won the Muzaffar Ahmed Book Award in 2009 . In 2013 , Verso published his The Poorer Nations : A Possible History of the Global South . He is author of No Free Left : The Futures of Indian Communism ( LeftWord Books , 2015 ) and the editor of Letters to Palestine ( Verso Books , 2015 ) , a book that includes the writings of Teju Cole , Sinan Antoon , Noura Erakat , and Junot Diaz . Prashad is also a journalist . He writes regularly for Frontline , The Hindu , Alternet and BirGun , and is a contributing editor for Himal Southasian . He usually writes on the Middle Eastern politics , development economics , North-South relations and current events . In 2015 , Prashad joined as the Chief Editor of the New Delhi-based publisher LeftWord Books . He is also an advisory board member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel , part of the global BDS movement .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Vijay_Prashad", "rank": 21, "score": 87883 }, { "content": "Title: Idealized greenhouse model Content: The surface of the Sun radiates light and heat at approximately 5,500 ° C . The Earth is much cooler and so radiates heat back away from itself at much longer wavelengths , mostly in the infrared range . The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth 's atmosphere , including carbon dioxide and water vapour , are transparent to the high-frequency , high-energy solar radiation , but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving the surface of the earth . Thus heat is easily let in , but is partially trapped by these gases as it tries to leave . Rather than get hotter and hotter , Kirchhoff 's law of thermal radiation says that the gases of the atmosphere also have to re-emit the infrared energy that they absorb , and they do so , also at long infrared wavelengths , both upwards into space as well as downwards back towards the Earth 's surface . In the long-term , thermal equilibrium is reached when all the heat energy arriving on the planet is leaving again at the same rate . In this idealized model , the greenhouse gases cause the surface of the planet to be warmer than it would be without them , in order for the required amount of heat energy finally to be radiated out into space from the top of the atmosphere . The greenhouse effect can be illustrated with an idealized planet . This is a common `` textbook model '' : the planet will have a constant surface temperature Ts and an atmosphere with constant temperature Ta . For diagrammatic clarity , a gap can be depicted between the atmosphere and the surface . Alternatively , Ts could be interpreted as a temperature representative of the surface and the lower atmosphere , and Ta could be interpreted as the temperature of the upper atmosphere . In order to justify that Ta and Ts remain constant over the planet , strong ocean and atmospheric currents can be imagined to provide plentiful lateral mixing . Furthermore , any daily or seasonal cycles in temperature are assumed to be insignificant .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Idealized_greenhouse_model", "rank": 22, "score": 87496 }, { "content": "Title: World of Dark Sun Content: The World of Dark Sun consists of a number of features for the Dark Sun campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game . The Dark Sun campaign setting takes place in Athas , a land ravaged by sorcery where its savage inhabitants struggle to survive against such difficulties as ecological disaster , resource depletion , and the depredations of the powerful sorcerer-kings who lord over the few bastions of civilization . Beyond the relative safety of the city walls lie arid wastes consumed by the heat of the dying sun , a hostile ecosystem filled with ferocious monsters , and mysterious ruins of civilizations long dead . Several features distinguish Dark Sun from more traditional high fantasy worlds . The darker , grittier fantasy themes inspired creators to either eliminate or significantly change the standard fantasy races ; for example , halflings are largely cannibalistic savages rather than affable river folk , and elves are deceitful , nomadic herders and thieves rather than wise and noble forest dwellers . Athas has no true gods and arcane magic , believed to be the source of the land 's downfall , is outlawed . Lastly , Dark Sun coincided with the release of the Psionics Handbook in 1991 and these rules were tied in making psionics as common to Athas as arcane magic is to other fantasy settings .", "qid": "332", "docid": "World_of_Dark_Sun", "rank": 23, "score": 87293 }, { "content": "Title: Dark Sun (disambiguation) Content: Dark Sun is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting . Dark Sun ( s ) may also refer to : Dark Sun ( mythology ) , Mesoamerican mythology Dark Sun , the nickname of a Maya king of Tikal DarkSun , a Spanish power metal band Dark Suns , a German progressive metal band Dark Sun ( novel ) a book in the CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore Dark Sun : The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb , a 1995 book by Richard Rhodes Dark Sun Gwyndolin , a fictional character from Dark Souls The Dark Sun , a 1990 Italian film ( Il sole buio )", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_Sun_(disambiguation)", "rank": 24, "score": 86710 }, { "content": "Title: Howieson's Poort Shelter Content: Howieson 's Poort Shelter is a small rock shelter in South Africa containing the archaeological site from which the Howiesons Poort period in the Middle Stone Age gets its name . This period lasted around 5,000 years , between roughly 65,800 BP and 59,500 BP . This period is important as it , together with the Stillbay period 7,000 years earlier , provides the first evidence of human symbolism and technological skills that were later to appear in the Upper Paleolithic . __ NOTOC __", "qid": "332", "docid": "Howieson's_Poort_Shelter", "rank": 25, "score": 86354 }, { "content": "Title: Absorber Content: In high energy physics experiments , an absorber is a block of material used to absorb some of the energy of an incident particle . Absorbers can be made of a variety of materials , depending on the purpose ; lead , tungsten and liquid hydrogen are common choices . Most absorbers are used as part of a particle detector , particle accelerators use absorbers to reduce the radiation damage on accelerator components . A more recent use for absorbers is for ionization cooling , as in the International Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment . In solar power , the most important part of the collector takes up the heat of the solar radiation through a medium ( water + antifreeze ) . This is heated and circulates between the collector and the storage tank . A high degree of efficiency is achieved by using black absorbers or , even better , through selective coating . In sunscreen , ingredients which absorb UVA/UVB rays , such as avobenzone and octyl methoxycinnamate , are known as absorbers . They are contrasted with physical `` blockers '' of UV radiation such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Absorber", "rank": 26, "score": 86339 }, { "content": "Title: Stevenson screen Content: A Stevenson screen or instrument shelter is a shelter or an enclosure to shield meteorological instruments against precipitation and direct heat radiation from outside sources , while still allowing air to circulate freely around them . It forms part of a standard weather station . The Stevenson screen holds instruments that may include thermometers ( ordinary , maximum/minimum ) , a hygrometer , a psychrometer , a dewcell , a barometer and a thermograph . Stevenson screens may also be known as a cotton region shelter , an instrument shelter , a thermometer shelter , a thermoscreen or a thermometer screen . Its purpose is to provide a standardised environment in which to measure temperature , humidity , dewpoint and atmospheric pressure .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Stevenson_screen", "rank": 27, "score": 85820 }, { "content": "Title: Shade Swamp Shelter Content: Shade Swamp Shelter is a historic rustic shelter on the north side US 6 , just east of New Britain Avenue in Farmington , Connecticut . It is a modest open post-and-beam log structure , with lattice framing at the corners and diagonal support braces . The interior floor is flagstone , with a rustic bench built around the perimeter . The shelter , built in 1934 , is a well-preserved example of work by the Civilian Conservation Corps . The shelter was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shade_Swamp_Shelter", "rank": 28, "score": 85664 }, { "content": "Title: Chlorophyll b Content: Chlorophyll b is a form of chlorophyll . Chlorophyll b helps in photosynthesis by absorbing light energy . It is more soluble than chlorophyll a in polar solvents because of its carbonyl group . Its color is yellow , and it primarily absorbs blue light . In land plants , the light-harvesting antennae around photosystem II contain the majority of chlorophyll b. Hence , in shade-adapted chloroplasts , which have an increased ratio of photosystem II to photosystem I , there is a higher ratio of chlorophyll b to chlorophyll a . This is adaptive , as increasing chlorophyll b increases the range of wavelengths absorbed by the shade chloroplasts .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Chlorophyll_b", "rank": 29, "score": 85329 }, { "content": "Title: Coronal hole Content: Coronal holes are areas where the Sun 's corona is colder , hence darker , and has lower-density plasma than average because there is lower energy and gas levels . Coronal holes are part of the Sun 's corona and are constantly changing and reshaping because the corona is not uniform . The Sun contains magnetic fields that arch away from areas in the corona that are very thin due to the lower levels of energy and gas , which cause coronal holes to appear when they do not fall back . Thus , solar particles escape at a rate great enough to create a lower density and lower temperature in that area .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Coronal_hole", "rank": 30, "score": 84977 }, { "content": "Title: Sunscreen Content: Sunscreen , also known as suncream or sunblock , is a lotion , spray , gel or other topical product that absorbs or reflects some of the sun 's ultraviolet ( UV ) radiation and thus helps protect against sunburn , especially for fair-skinned individuals . Diligent use of sunscreen can also slow or temporarily prevent the development of wrinkles and sagging skin . Depending on the mode of action , sunscreens can be classified into physical sunscreens ( i.e. , those that reflect the sunlight ) or chemical sunscreens ( i.e. , those that absorb the UV light ) . Medical organizations such as the American Cancer Society recommend the use of sunscreen because it aids in the prevention of squamous cell carcinomas . Many sunscreens do not block UVA radiation , which does not primarily cause sunburn but can increase the rate of melanoma and photodermatitis . The use of broad-spectrum ( UVA/UVB ) sunscreens can address this concern . Sunscreens are commonly rated and labeled with a sun protection factor ( SPF ) that measures the fraction of sunburn-producing UV rays that reach the skin . For example , `` SPF 15 '' means that 1/15th of the burning radiation reaches the skin through the recommended thickness of sunscreen . Other rating systems indicate the degree of protection from non-burning UVA radiation .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Sunscreen", "rank": 31, "score": 84713 }, { "content": "Title: Melt pond Content: Melt ponds are pools of open water that form on sea ice in the warmer months of spring and summer . The ponds are also found on glacial ice and ice shelves . Ponds of melted water can also develop under the ice . Melt ponds are usually darker than the surrounding ice , and their distribution and size is highly variable . They absorb solar radiation rather than reflecting it as ice does and , thereby , have a significant influence on Earth 's radiation balance . This differential , which had not been scientifically investigated until recently , has a large effect on the rate of ice melting and the extent of ice cover . Melt ponds can melt through to the ocean 's surface . Seawater entering the pond increases the melt rate because the salty water of the ocean is warmer than the fresh water of the pond . The increase in salinity also depresses the water 's freezing point . Water from melt ponds over land surface can run into crevasses or moulins -- tubes leading under ice sheets or glaciers -- turning into meltwater . The water may reach the underlying rock . The effect is an increase in the rate of ice flow to the oceans , as the fluid behaves like a lubricant in the basal sliding of glaciers .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Melt_pond", "rank": 32, "score": 84553 }, { "content": "Title: Rainbow Point Comfort Station and Overlook Shelter Content: The Rainbow Point Comfort Station and Overlook Shelter in Bryce Canyon National Park , Utah were designed in 1939 by A.V. Jory of the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Designs in the National Park Service Rustic style . Located at the southern end of the Rim Road at Rainbow Point , the buildings were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1940 . The `` comfort station '' , otherwise known as a public toilet , is set back from the rim of Bryce Canyon . The comfort station is designed in the `` logs-out '' style , sheathed in V-joint wood shiplap siding , with half-round logs covering the joints . The roof is framed with log rafters . The shelter is located directly on the edge of the canyon , facing outwards . The shelter uses massive vertical log posts supporting a log-framed roof . Vertical board siding is used as an infill on the rear half , which is open to the canyon on the front . Siding encloses two small storage areas behind the main interpretive displays .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Rainbow_Point_Comfort_Station_and_Overlook_Shelter", "rank": 33, "score": 84476 }, { "content": "Title: Ubiquitous Energy Content: Ubiquitous Energy , Inc. is an American solar energy startup company headquartered in Redwood City , California that designs transparent solar technology to absorb ultraviolet and near infrared light ( NIR ) ( wavelength span of λ = 650 -- 850 nm ) while transmitting visible light through its medium called ClearView Power TM . Ubiquitous Energy is a privately funded company founded in 2011 by Miles Barr , Vladimir Bulović , and Richard Lunt . Current solar power is created in solar plants that take up lots of surface area far away from where the energy is consumed . It is estimated 15 % of the energy is lost during distribution . Ubiquitous Energy 's technology allows large cities to be solar plants themselves by converting the windows on buildings into solar energy generators . Ubiquitous Energy is implementing its ClearView Power TM technology into a wide range of products as an invisible , onboard source of electricity . Some examples of these implementations include mobile devices , windows , an digital signage .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Ubiquitous_Energy", "rank": 34, "score": 84018 }, { "content": "Title: Absorption (acoustics) Content: Acoustic absorption refers to the process by which a material , structure , or object takes in sound energy when sound waves are encountered , as opposed to reflecting the energy . Part of the absorbed energy is transformed into heat and part is transmitted through the absorbing body . The energy transformed into heat is said to have been ` lost ' . When sound from a loudspeaker collides with the walls of a room part of the sound 's energy is reflected , part is transmitted , and part is absorbed into the walls . Just as the acoustic energy was transmitted through the air as pressure differentials ( or deformations ) , the acoustic energy travels through the material which makes up the wall in the same manner . Deformation causes mechanical losses via conversion of part of the sound energy into heat , resulting in acoustic attenuation , mostly due to the wall 's viscosity . Similar attenuation mechanisms apply for the air and any other medium through which sound travels . The fraction of sound absorbed is governed by the acoustic impedances of both media and is a function of frequency and the incident angle . Size and shape can influence the sound wave 's behavior if they interact with its wavelength , giving rise to wave phenomena such as standing waves and diffraction . Acoustic absorption is of particular interest in soundproofing . Soundproofing aims to absorb as much sound energy ( often in particular frequencies ) as possible converting it into heat or transmitting it away from a certain location . In general , soft , pliable , or porous materials ( like cloths ) serve as good acoustic insulators - absorbing most sound , whereas dense , hard , impenetrable materials ( such as metals ) reflect most . How well a room absorbs sound is quantified by the effective absorption area of the walls , also named total absorption area . This is calculated using its dimensions and the absorption coefficients of the walls . The total absorption is expressed in Sabins and is useful in , for instance , determining the reverberation time of auditoria . Absorption coefficients can be measured using a reverberation room , which is the opposite of an anechoic chamber ( see below ) .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Absorption_(acoustics)", "rank": 35, "score": 83836 }, { "content": "Title: Hatch Solar Energy Center Content: The Hatch Solar Energy Center is a 5 MWp concentrated photovoltaics power station , the largest in North America when it was completed , in 2011 . It was built by Blattner Energy using 84 dual axis Amonix 7700 panels each of which contains 7,560 fresnel lens to concentrate sunlight 500 times , and multijunction photovoltaic cells , allowing a greater efficiency than other photovoltaic power plants . It uses all three of the methods available to increase efficiency - dual-axis tracking , concentrating photovoltaics , and multijunction cells . The systems are certified for operation for 50 years , but the multijunction cells will need to be replaced in 25 years . The output is being sold to El Paso Electric , under a 25 year power purchase agreement ( PPA ) . Output is expected to be 11,000 MWh/year .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Hatch_Solar_Energy_Center", "rank": 36, "score": 83794 }, { "content": "Title: Radiation effects on optical fibers Content: When optical fibers are exposed to ionizing radiation such as energetic electrons , protons , neutrons , X-rays , Ƴ-radiation , etc. , they undergo ` damage ' . The term ` damage ' primarily refers to the additional loss of the propagating optical signal leading to decreased power at the output end which could lead to premature failure of the component and or system . In the professional literature , the effect is often named Radiation Induced Attenuation ( RIA ) . The loss of power or ` darkening ' occurs because the chemical bonds forming the optical fiber core are disrupted by the impinging high energy resulting in the appearance of new electronic transition states giving rise to additional absorption in the wavelength regions of interest . Once radiation source is removed , the fiber returns to its original state to some extent ( a process called recovery ) . The extent of damage is governed by the balance between defect generation ( excess attenuation ) on one hand and defect annihilation ( recovery ) on the other hand . If the dose rate is low , an equilibrium state ( between attenuation and recovery ) is reached with some degree of darkening . On the contrary if the dose rate is high , the utility of fiber depends on the overall induced attenuation and the recovery time . Understanding these radiation induced effects is important particularly for space based applications where optical fibers are being considered for use in increasing number of applications . Intrinsic defects are present in the matrix of a single component glass material like pure silica . These include per-oxy linkages , POL ( ≡ Si-O-O-Si ≡ ) which are oxygen interstitials , and oxygen deficient centers , ODC ( ≡ Si-Si ≡ ) which are oxygen vacancies . When exposed to ionizing radiation , these sites trap holes to form per-oxy radicals , POR ( ≡ Si-O-O . ) and E ' centers ( ≡ Si . ) , respectively . In addition , rapidly cooled silica has strained ≡ Si-O-Si ≡ bonds , which are cleaved upon radiation to form non-bridging oxygen hole centers ( NBOHC ) depicted as ≡ Si-O . and E ' centers by trapping holes and electrons , respectively . When the glass contains a second network former with the same valence as silicon such as germanium , the difference in the electronegativities favors the dopant as a hole trap . Hence greater radiation damage occurs in doped silica glass . To improve radiation resistance of pure silica core fibers , it is necessary to minimize the number density of these intrinsic defects . Minimization of defects is achieved not only by reducing the incorporation of impurities in glass but also by controlling the input gas composition , optimizing the thermal history of glass at all stages of fiber manufacturing and optimizing the stress in the fiber core . Other strategies include incorporation of dopants ( such as fluorine ) in the core that minimize formation of defect centers discussed above . All optical fibers undergo some darkening depending on a number of factors that include : ionization type , optical fiber core glass composition , operating wavelength , dose rate , total accumulated dose , temperature and power propagating through the core . Since attenuation is composition dependent , it is observed that fibers having pure silica cores and fluorine down doped claddings are amongst the most radiation hard fibers . The presence of dopants in the core such as germanium , phosphorus , boron , aluminum , erbium , ytterbium , thulium , holmium etc. compromises the radiation hardness of optical fibers . To minimize damage consequences , it is better to use a pure silica core fiber at higher operating wavelength , lower dose rate , lower total accumulated dose , higher temperature ( accelerated recovery ) and higher signal power ( photo-bleaching ) . In addition to these intrinsic steps , external engineering may be required to shield the fiber from the effects of radiation . Germanium-doped core fibers can be radiation hard even at high concentrations of germanium . Such fibers reach saturation , anneal well at higher temperatures and are also responsive to photo-bleaching . In case of phosphorus-doped core fibers , attenuation increases linearly with increasing phosphorus content and these fibers do not reach saturation . Recovery is very difficult even at higher temperatures . Boron , aluminum and all the rare-earth dopants significantly affect fiber loss . Radiation performances of various SM , MM and PM fibers manufactured by different vendors that were tested in wide range of radiation environments have been compiled .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Radiation_effects_on_optical_fibers", "rank": 37, "score": 83691 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by homeless population Content: A United Nations global survey in 2005 found that an estimated 100 million people are homeless worldwide . Habitat for Humanity estimated in 2015 that 1.6 billion people around the world live in `` inadequate shelter '' .", "qid": "332", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_homeless_population", "rank": 38, "score": 83687 }, { "content": "Title: Compact linear Fresnel reflector Content: A compact linear Fresnel reflector ( CLFR ) -- also referred to as a concentrating linear Fresnel reflector -- is a specific type of linear Fresnel reflector ( LFR ) technology . Linear Fresnel reflectors use long , thin segments of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a fixed absorber located at a common focal point of the reflectors . These mirrors are capable of concentrating the sun 's energy to approximately 30 times its normal intensity . This concentrated energy is transferred through the absorber into some thermal fluid ( this is typically oil capable of maintaining liquid state at very high temperatures ) . The fluid then goes through a heat exchanger to power a steam generator . As opposed to traditional LFR 's , the CLFR utilizes multiple absorbers within the vicinity of the mirrors .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Compact_linear_Fresnel_reflector", "rank": 39, "score": 83397 }, { "content": "Title: Barnard 68 Content: Barnard 68 is a molecular cloud , dark absorption nebula or Bok globule , towards the southern constellation Ophiuchus and well within our own galaxy at a distance of about 400 light-years , so close that not a single star can be seen between it and the Sun . American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard added this nebula to his catalog of dark nebulae in 1919 . His catalog was published in 1927 , at which stage it included some 350 objects . Because of its opacity , its interior is extremely cold , its temperature being about 16 K ( − 257 ° C ) . Its mass is about twice that of the Sun and it measures about half a light-year across .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Barnard_68", "rank": 40, "score": 82940 }, { "content": "Title: Solar chemical Content: Solar chemical refers to a number of possible processes that harness solar energy by absorbing sunlight in a chemical reaction . The idea is conceptually similar to photosynthesis in plants , which converts solar energy into the chemical bonds of glucose molecules , but without using living organisms , which is why it is also called artificial photosynthesis . A promising approach is to use focused sunlight to provide the energy needed to split water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of a metallic catalyst such as zinc . This is normally done in a two-step process so that hydrogen and oxygen are not produced in the same chamber , which creates an explosion hazard . Another approach involves taking the hydrogen created in this process and combining it with carbon dioxide to create methane . The benefit of this approach is that there is an established infrastructure for transporting and burning methane for power generation , which is not true for hydrogen . One main drawback to both of these approaches is common to most methods of energy storage : adding an extra step between energy collection and electricity production drastically decreases the efficiency of the overall process . It is also possible to use solar light to directly drive industrial chemical reactions and applications , eliminating the need to burn fossil fuels for energy .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solar_chemical", "rank": 41, "score": 82601 }, { "content": "Title: Emergency shelter Content: An emergency shelter is a place for people to live temporarily when they can not live in their previous residence , similar to homeless shelters . The main difference is that an emergency shelter typically specializes in people fleeing a specific type of situation , such as natural or man-made disasters , domestic violence , or victims of sexual abuse . A more minor difference is that people staying in emergency shelters are more likely to stay all day , except for work , school , or errands , while homeless shelters usually expect people to stay elsewhere during the day , returning only to sleep or eat . Emergency shelters sometimes facilitate support groups , and/or provide meals . Post-disaster emergency shelter is often provided by organizations or governmental emergency management departments , in response to natural disasters , such as a flood or earthquake . They tend to use tents or other temporary structures , or buildings normally used for another purpose , such as a church or school . These settlements may be inhabited for the entire duration of the reconstruction process and should be thought of more as settlements than shelter , and need to be planned with respect to water / sanitation , livelihoods . A newer category of emergency shelter is the warming center . Warming centers typically open during particularly cold or rainy nights . They are available to persons who decline to accept homeless shelters , are not allowed to use homeless shelters , or are not homeless but have inadequate or malfunctioning heat in their homes .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Emergency_shelter", "rank": 42, "score": 82398 }, { "content": "Title: Homeless shelter Content: Homeless shelters are a type of homeless service agency which provide temporary residence for homeless individuals and families . Shelters exist to provide clients with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact on the community . They are similar to , but distinguishable from , various types of emergency shelters , which are typically operated for specific circumstances and populations - fleeing natural disasters or abusive social circumstances . Extreme weather conditions create problems similar to disaster management scenarios , and are handled with warming centers , which typically operate for short durations during adverse weather .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Homeless_shelter", "rank": 43, "score": 81904 }, { "content": "Title: Earth sheltering Content: Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth against building walls for external thermal mass , to reduce heat loss , and to easily maintain a steady indoor air temperature . Earth sheltering has become relatively more popular in modern times , especially among environmentalists and advocates of passive solar and sustainable architecture . However , the practice has been around for nearly as long as humans have been constructing their own shelters .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Earth_sheltering", "rank": 44, "score": 81491 }, { "content": "Title: The Shelter (New York City) Content: The Shelter , also known as Club Shelter , was a New York City house and techno nightclub in the 1990s/2000s . The club was at multiple locations including 6 Hubert Street , 157 Hudson Street , 150 Varick Street in Manhattan depending on the date . The Shelter was established by resident DJs Timmy Regisford , Merlin Bobb , and Freddy Sanon . The club is closely associated with record label 157 Shelter Records .", "qid": "332", "docid": "The_Shelter_(New_York_City)", "rank": 45, "score": 81449 }, { "content": "Title: Dark Is the Sun Content: Dark Is The Sun is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip José Farmer , first published in 1979 . It tells the story of the people and creatures left on Earth when the Sun is dead and the universe is heading towards the Big Crunch .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_Is_the_Sun", "rank": 46, "score": 81222 }, { "content": "Title: Dark (broadcasting) Content: In the broadcasting industry , a dark television or silent radio station is one that has gone off-the-air for an indefinite period of time . Unlike dead air ( broadcasting only silence ) , a station that is dark or silent does not even transmit a carrier signal .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_(broadcasting)", "rank": 47, "score": 81057 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power by country Content: Many industrialized nations have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources while an increasing number of less developed nations have turned to solar to reduce dependence on expensive imported fuels . Long distance transmission allows remote renewable energy resources to displace fossil fuel consumption . Solar power plants use one of two technologies : Photovoltaic ( PV ) systems use solar panels , either on rooftops or in ground-mounted solar farms , converting sunlight directly into electric power . Concentrated solar power ( CSP , also known as `` concentrated solar thermal '' ) plants use solar thermal energy to make steam , that is thereafter converted into electricity by a turbine . Worldwide growth of photovoltaics is extremely dynamic and varies strongly by country . By the end of 2016 , cumulative photovoltaic capacity increased by more than 75 gigawatt ( GW ) and reached at least 303 GW , sufficient to supply 1.8 percent of the world 's total electricity consumption . The top installers of 2016 were China , the United States , and India . There are more than 24 countries around the world with a cumulative PV capacity of more than one gigawatt . Austria , the Chile , and South Africa , all crossed the one gigawatt-mark in 2016 . The available solar PV capacity in Honduras is now sufficient to supply 12.5 % of the nation 's electrical power while Italy , Germany and Greece can produce between 7 % and 8 % of their respective domestic electricity consumption . After an almost two decade long hiatus , deployment of CSP resumed in 2007 , with significant growth only in the most recent years . However , the design for several new projects is being changed to cheaper photovoltaics . Most operational CSP stations are located in Spain and the United States , while large solar farms using photovoltaics are being constructed in an expanding list of geographic regions . As of January 2017 , the largest solar power plants in the world are the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in China for PV and the 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the United States for CSP . Other large CSP facilities include the 354 megawatt ( MW ) Solar Energy Generating Systems power installation in the USA , Solnova Solar Power Station ( Spain , 150 MW ) , Andasol Solar Power Station ( Spain , 150 MW ) and the first part of Shams solar power station ( United Arab Emirates , 100 MW ) .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solar_power_by_country", "rank": 48, "score": 81019 }, { "content": "Title: Photovoltaic system Content: A photovoltaic system , also PV system or solar power system , is a power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics . It consists of an arrangement of several components , including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity , a solar inverter to change the electric current from DC to AC , as well as mounting , cabling and other electrical accessories to set up a working system . It may also use a solar tracking system to improve the system 's overall performance and include an integrated battery solution , as prices for storage devices are expected to decline . Strictly speaking , a solar array only encompasses the ensemble of solar panels , the visible part of the PV system , and does not include all the other hardware , often summarized as balance of system ( BOS ) . Moreover , PV systems convert light directly into electricity and should n't be confused with other technologies , such as concentrated solar power or solar thermal , used for heating and cooling . PV systems range from small , rooftop-mounted or building-integrated systems with capacities from a few to several tens of kilowatts , to large utility-scale power stations of hundreds of megawatts . Nowadays , most PV systems are grid-connected , while off-grid or stand-alone systems only account for a small portion of the market . Operating silently and without any moving parts or environmental emissions , PV systems have developed from being niche market applications into a mature technology used for mainstream electricity generation . A rooftop system recoups the invested energy for its manufacturing and installation within 0.7 to 2 years and produces about 95 percent of net clean renewable energy over a 30-year service lifetime . Due to the exponential growth of photovoltaics , prices for PV systems have rapidly declined in recent years . However , they vary by market and the size of the system . In 2014 , prices for residential 5-kilowatt systems in the United States were around $ 3.29 per watt , while in the highly penetrated German market , prices for rooftop systems of up to 100 kW declined to $ 1.24 per watt . Nowadays , solar PV modules account for less than half of the system 's overall cost , leaving the rest to the remaining BOS-components and to soft costs , which include customer acquisition , permitting , inspection and interconnection , installation labor and financing costs .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Photovoltaic_system", "rank": 49, "score": 80938 }, { "content": "Title: Trombe wall Content: A Trombe wall is a passive solar building design where a wall is built on the winter sun side of a building with a glass external layer and a high heat capacity internal layer separated by a layer of air . Light close to UV in the electromagnetic spectrum passes through the glass almost unhindered then is absorbed by the wall that then re-radiates in the far infrared spectrum which does not pass back through the glass easily , hence heating the inside of the building . Trombe walls are commonly used to absorb heat during sunlit hours of winter then slowly release the heat over night . The essential idea was first explored by Edward S. Morse and patented by him in 1881 . In the 1960s it was fully developed as an architectural element by French engineer Félix Trombe and architect Jacques Michel . Trombe walls work on the basic greenhouse principle that heat from the sun in the form of near-visible shorter-wavelength higher-energy ultraviolet radiation passes through glass largely unimpeded . When this radiation strikes objects the energy is absorbed and then re-emitted in the form of longer-wavelength infra-red radiation that does not pass through glass as readily . Hence heat becomes trapped and builds up in an enclosed structure with high internal heat capacity and glass surfaces that face the sun How effectively objects absorb and shed radiant heat depends on a number of factors ; how dark they are in colour , how directly the surface of the object is opposed to the angle of the radiation striking it , how matte or reflective its surface is , the heat capacity of the object , and the surface conductivity of the object . For Trombe walls to work effectively they are made from high heat capacity materials such as concrete or water , whose surface is dark and matte in colour and placed in direct opposition to the sun striking them . The clearer the glass in front of a Trombe wall appears in the UV spectrum the more short wave radiation will penetrate and the more reflective or non transparent the glass appears in the infra-red spectrum the less re-emitted heat will be escape .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Trombe_wall", "rank": 50, "score": 80793 }, { "content": "Title: Women's shelter Content: A women 's shelter , also known as a women 's refuge and battered women 's shelter , is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms . The term is also frequently used to describe a location for the same purpose that is open to people of all genders at risk . Representative data samples done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that one in three women will experience physical violence during their lifetime . One in ten will experience sexual violence . Women 's shelters help individuals escape these instances of domestic violence and intimate partner violence and act as a place for protection as they choose how to move forward . Additionally , many shelters offer a variety of other services to help women and their children including Counseling and legal guidance . The ability to escape is valuable for women subjected to domestic violence or intimate partner violence . Additionally , such situations frequently involve an imbalance of power that limits the victim 's financial options when they want to leave . Shelters help women gain tangible resources to help them and their families create a new life . Lastly , shelters are valuable to Battered women because they can help them find a sense of empowerment . Women 's shelters are available in more than forty-five countries . They are supported with government resources as well as non-profit funds . Additionally , many philanthropists also help and support these institutions .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Women's_shelter", "rank": 51, "score": 80721 }, { "content": "Title: Solarization (physics) Content: Solarization refers to a phenomenon in physics where a material undergoes a temporary change in colour after being subjected to high-energy electromagnetic radiation , such as ultraviolet light or X-rays . Clear glass and many plastics will turn amber , green or other colors when subjected to X-radiation , and glass may turn blue after long-term solar exposure in the desert . It is believed that solarization is caused by the formation of internal defects , called colour centers , which selectively absorb portions of the visible light spectrum . In glass , colour center absorption can often be reversed by heating the glass to high temperatures ( a process called thermal bleaching ) to restore the glass to its initial transparent state . Solarization may also permanently degrade a material 's physical or mechanical properties , and is one of the mechanisms involved in the breakdown of plastics within the environment . Category : Atomic , molecular , and optical physics Category : Chromism", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solarization_(physics)", "rank": 52, "score": 80543 }, { "content": "Title: Saint-Martin (Paris Métro) Content: Saint-Martin is a ghost station of the Paris Métro , located on lines 8 and 9 between the stations of Strasbourg - Saint-Denis and République , on the border of the 3rd and 10th arrondissements of Paris . The station was closed on 2 September 1939 at the start of World War II . It reopened after the French Liberation with a lot of traffic passing through , but was eventually closed again as a result of its proximity to the neighboring station of Strasbourg - Saint-Denis , which lies only 100 metres away . In the past , the station served to shelter homeless persons , and the eastern section of the location is currently used as a day shelter for the homeless ( managed by the Salvation Army ) . The physical entrance to the Saint-Martin station is still available from the street . To view it , take the Metro to the Strasbourg-Saint-Denis station , exit the station , and head east on Boulevard Saint-Martin about three minutes , walking towards République . The entrance will be on the right-hand side of the street , in a sunken part of the sidewalk . The entrance is covered in graffiti . In 2008 , the tracks were cemented over . In March 2010 , the tracks of the station along line 9 hosted a publicity event for the Nissan Qashqai , with many vehicles being transported on the platforms of this ghost station , which was also redecorated for the occasion with a number of lighting effects . Bees have been flying around this station since the 1980s . Category : Ghost stations of the Paris Métro Category : Railway stations opened in 1931 Category : Railway stations closed in 1939", "qid": "332", "docid": "Saint-Martin_(Paris_Métro)", "rank": 53, "score": 80487 }, { "content": "Title: Scotophor Content: A scotophor is a material showing reversible darkening and bleaching when subjected to certain types of radiation . The name means dark bearer , in contrast to phosphor , which means light bearer . Scotophors show tenebrescence ( reversible photochromism ) and darken when subjected to an intense radiation such as sunlight . Minerals showing such behavior include hackmanite sodalite , spodumene and tugtupite . Some pure alkali halides also show such behavior . Scotophors can be sensitive to light , particle radiation ( e.g. electron beam -- see cathodochromism ) , X-rays , or other stimuli . The induced absorption bands in the material , caused by F-centers created by electron bombardment , can be returned to their non-absorbing state , usually by light and/or heating . Scotophors sensitive to electron beam radiation can be used instead of phosphors in cathode ray tubes , for creating a light absorbing instead of light emitting image . Such displays are viewable in bright light and the image is persistent , until erased . The image would be retained until erased by flooding the scotophor with a high-intensity infrared light or by electro-thermal heating . Using conventional deflection and raster formation circuity , a bi-level image could be created on the membrane and retained even when power was removed from the CRT . In Germany , scotophor tubes were developed by Telefunken as blauschrift-röhre ( `` dark-trace tube '' ) . The heating mechanism was a layer of mica with transparent thin film of tungsten . When the image was to be erased , current was applied to the tungsten layer ; even very dark images could be erased in 5 -- 10 seconds . Scotophors typically require a higher-intensity electron beam to change color than phosphors need to emit light . Screens with layers of a scotophor and a phosphor are therefore possible , where the phosphor , flooded with a dedicated wide-beam low-intensity electron gun , produces backlight for the scotophor , and optionally highlights selected areas of the screen if bombarded with electrons with higher energy but still insufficient to penetrate the phosphor and change the scotophor state . The main application of scotophors was in plan position indicators , specialized military radar displays . The achievable brightness allowed projecting the image to a larger surface . The ability to quickly record a persistent trace found its use in some oscilloscopes .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Scotophor", "rank": 54, "score": 80431 }, { "content": "Title: Solar thermal collector Content: A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight . A collector is a device for capturing solar radiation . Solar radiation is energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation from the infrared ( long ) to the ultraviolet ( short ) wavelengths . The quantity of solar energy striking the Earth 's surface ( solar constant ) averages about 1,000 watts per square meter under clear skies , depending upon weather conditions , location and orientation . The term `` solar collector '' commonly refers to solar hot water panels , but may refer to installations such as solar parabolic troughs and solar towers ; or basic installations such as solar air heaters . Concentrated solar power plants usually use the more complex collectors to generate electricity by heating a fluid to drive a turbine connected to an electrical generator . Simple collectors are typically used in residential and commercial buildings for space heating . The first solar thermal collector designed for building roofs was patented by William H. Goettl and called the `` Solar heat collector and radiator for building roof '' .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solar_thermal_collector", "rank": 55, "score": 80234 }, { "content": "Title: Selective surface Content: In solar thermal collectors , a selective surface or selective absorber is a means of increasing its operation temperature and/or efficiency . The selectivity is defined as the ratio of solar radiation-absorption ( alpha ) - to thermal infrared radiation-emission ( epsilon ) . Selective surfaces take advantage of the differing wavelengths of incident solar radiation and the emissive radiation from the absorbing surface : Solar radiation covers approximately the wavelengths 350 nm to 4000 nm ; UV-A , visible and near infrared ( NIR - or IR-A plus IR-B ) . Thermal infrared radiation , from materials with temperatures approximately in the interval -40 to 100 ° C , covers approximately the wavelengths 4000 nm to 40,000 nm = 4 um to 40 um ; The thermal infrared radiation interval being named or covered by : MIR , LWIR or IR-C .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Selective_surface", "rank": 56, "score": 80132 }, { "content": "Title: SolarFest Content: The SolarFest Renewable Energy music festival began in Vermont in 1995 . The stated goals of the nonprofit Solarfest organization are to inspire the conservation of Earth 's limited resources , to promote renewable energy , and to support the creation of sustainable communities . Solar Energy is the sun 's rays ( solar radiation ) that reach the earth . This energy can be converted into other forms of energy , such as heat and electricity . In the 1830s , the British astronomer John Herschel used a solar thermal collector box ( a device that absorbs sunlight to collect heat ) to cook food during an expedition to Africa . Today , Solar energy can be converted to thermal ( or heat ) energy and used to : Heat water -- for use in homes , buildings , or swimming pools . Solar energy can also be used to heat spaces such has homes , buildings or arenas as is seen by SolarFest . The festival spans 3 days and runs on renewable energy -- primarily solar power , but with wind and biodiesel also incorporated . The New England Renewable Energy Festival has been coined ' a party with a purpose ' . For an entire weekend , the 80 - acre Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth , owned by Marshall and Melody Squier , becomes an outdoor campus ; a place to be entertained , educated and inspired .", "qid": "332", "docid": "SolarFest", "rank": 57, "score": 79721 }, { "content": "Title: Solar panel Content: Solar panels absorb the sunlight as a source of energy to generate electricity or heat . A photovoltaic ( PV ) module is a packaged , connect assembly of typically 6x10 photovoltaic solar cells . Photovoltaic modules constitute the photovoltaic array of a photovoltaic system that generates and supplies solar electricity in commercial and residential applications . Each module is rated by its DC output power under standard test conditions ( STC ) , and typically ranges from 100 to 365 Watts ( W ) . The efficiency of a module determines the area of a module given the same rated output an 8 % efficient 230 W module will have twice the area of a 16 % efficient 230 W module . There are a few commercially available solar modules that exceed efficiency of 22 % and reportedly also exceeding 24 % . A single solar module can produce only a limited amount of power ; most installations contain multiple modules . A photovoltaic system typically includes an array of photovoltaic modules , an inverter , a battery pack for storage , interconnection wiring , and optionally a solar tracking mechanism . The most common application of solar panels is solar water heating systems . The price of solar power has continued to fall so that in many countries it is cheaper than ordinary fossil fuel electricity from the grid ( there is `` grid parity '' ) .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solar_panel", "rank": 58, "score": 79598 }, { "content": "Title: Heartbreak Station Content: Heartbreak Station is the third studio album by American rock band Cinderella , released in 1990 through Mercury Records . It hit # 19 in the US and went platinum for shipping a million albums there the same year . The band 's two previous efforts , Night Songs and Long Cold Winter , had both gone double platinum and reaching triple during the 1990s , and had each landed in the US top ten while featuring a US top 20 hit , Heartbreak Station achieved none of these things . Vocalist Tom Keifer has stated on several occasions that this is his favorite Cinderella record . The album featured three singles , which were `` Shelter Me '' , hitting # 36 in the US , the title track , which made # 44 , and `` The More Things Change '' , which did n't chart . If compared to the two previous records , this album presents some differences in its musical style , being more oriented towards blues heavy hard rock instead of glam metal and being more evidently influenced by The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Heartbreak_Station", "rank": 59, "score": 79578 }, { "content": "Title: Cryoconite Content: Cryoconite is powdery windblown dust made of a combination of small rock particles , soot and microbes which is deposited and builds up on snow , glaciers , or ice caps . The darkening , especially from small amounts of soot , absorbs solar radiation melting the snow or ice beneath the deposit , and sometimes creating a cryoconite hole . Cryoconite may contain dust from far away continental deserts or farmland , particles from volcanic eruptions or power plant emissions , and soot . It was first described and named by Nils A. E. Nordenskiöld when he traveled on Greenland 's icecap in 1870 . During summer , cryoconite holes frequently contain liquid water and thus provide a niche for cold-adapted microorganisms like bacteria , algae and animals like rotifers and tardigrades to thrive . Cryoconite typically settles and concentrates at the bottom of these holes creating a noticeable dark mass . Soot decreases the reflectivity , or albedo of ice , increasing absorption of heat . Cryoconite is constantly being added to snow and ice formations along with snow . It is buried within the snow or ice , but as the snow or ice melts increasing amounts of dark material is exposed on the surface , accelerating melting .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Cryoconite", "rank": 60, "score": 79550 }, { "content": "Title: Solarisation Content: Solarisation ( or solarization ) is a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone . Dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark . The term is synonymous with the Sabattier effect when referring to negatives . In short , the mechanism is due to halogen ions released within the halide grain by exposure diffusing to the grain surface in amounts sufficient to destroy the latent image .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solarisation", "rank": 61, "score": 79445 }, { "content": "Title: Optical solar reflector Content: An optical solar reflector ( OSR ) consists of a top layer made out of quartz , over a reflecting layer made of metal . OSRs are used for radiators on spacecraft . The quartz outer layer lets the solar light through which reflects on the metal layer . This results in a low absorption coefficient . The quartz layer is a good IR emitter . The result of these properties is a good emitting , low absorbing material , thus making it a cold material . Optical solar reflectors are a type of second surface mirror .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Optical_solar_reflector", "rank": 62, "score": 79332 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's energy budget Content: Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Earth's_energy_budget", "rank": 63, "score": 79232 }, { "content": "Title: Poor's Blanket Content: Poor 's Blanket ( La Cobija del Pobre in Spanish ) is a philanthropic Colombian organization based in Manizales , Caldas , that gives temporary shelter to persons in need . It was founded by Rosa Emilia Giraldo in Aranzazu , Colombia . By 2006 it was started in Bogotá .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Poor's_Blanket", "rank": 64, "score": 79074 }, { "content": "Title: Limb darkening Content: Limb darkening is an optical effect seen in stars ( including the Sun ) , where the center part of the disk appears brighter than the edge or limb #Etymology 2 of the image . Its understanding offered early solar astronomers an opportunity to construct models with such gradients . This encouraged the development of the theory of radiative transfer .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Limb_darkening", "rank": 65, "score": 78889 }, { "content": "Title: Absorption (electromagnetic radiation) Content: In physics , absorption of electromagnetic radiation is the way in which the energy of a photon is taken up by matter , typically the electrons of an atom . Thus , the electromagnetic energy is transformed into internal energy of the absorber , for example thermal energy . The reduction in intensity of a light wave propagating through a medium by absorption of a part of its photons is often called attenuation . Usually , the absorption of waves does not depend on their intensity ( linear absorption ) , although in certain conditions ( usually , in optics ) , the medium changes its transparency dependently on the intensity of waves going through , and saturable absorption ( or nonlinear absorption ) occurs .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Absorption_(electromagnetic_radiation)", "rank": 66, "score": 78821 }, { "content": "Title: Dark Sun (novel) Content: Dark Sun is a World Book Day novella in the popular CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore . It fits into the series between The Sleepwalker and The General .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_Sun_(novel)", "rank": 67, "score": 78811 }, { "content": "Title: Photovoltaic power station Content: A photovoltaic power station , also known as a solar park , is a large-scale photovoltaic system ( PV system ) designed for the supply of merchant power into the electricity grid . They are differentiated from most building-mounted and other decentralised solar power applications because they supply power at the utility level , rather than to a local user or users . They are sometimes also referred to as solar farms or solar ranches , especially when sited in agricultural areas . The generic expression utility-scale solar is sometimes used to describe this type of project . The solar power source is via photovoltaic modules that convert light directly to electricity . However , this differs from , and should not be confused with concentrated solar power , the other large-scale solar generation technology , which uses heat to drive a variety of conventional generator systems . Both approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages , but to date , for a variety of reasons , photovoltaic technology has seen much wider use in the field . , PV systems outnumber concentrators by about 40 to 1 . In some countries , the nameplate capacity of a photovoltaic power stations is rated in megawatt-peak ( MWp ) , which refers to the solar array 's DC power output . However , Canada , Japan , Spain and some parts of the United States often specify using the converted lower nominal power output in MWAC ; a measure directly comparable to other forms of power generation . A third and less common rating is the mega volt-amperes ( MVA ) . Most solar parks are developed at a scale of at least 1 MWp . As at the start of 2017 , the world 's largest operating photovoltaic power station has a capacity of over 800 megawatts and projects up to 1 gigawatt are planned . As at the end of 2016 , about 4,300 projects with a combined capacity of 96 GWAC were solar farms larger than 4 MWAC . Most of the existing large-scale photovoltaic power stations are owned and operated by independent power producers , but the involvement of community - and utility-owned projects is increasing . To date , almost all have been supported at least in part by regulatory incentives such as feed-in tariffs or tax credits , but as levelized costs have fallen significantly in the last decade and grid parity has been reached in an increasing number of markets , it may not be long before external incentives cease to exist .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Photovoltaic_power_station", "rank": 68, "score": 78618 }, { "content": "Title: Animal shelter Content: An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray , lost , abandoned or surrendered animals , mostly dogs and cats , and sometimes sick or wounded wildlife are brought . While no-kill shelters exist , it is sometimes policy to euthanize sick animals , and any animal that is not claimed quickly enough by a previous or new owner . In Europe , of 30 countries included in a survey , all but four ( Czech republic , Germany , Greece , and Italy ) permitted the killing of healthy stray dogs . Critics believe the new term `` animal shelter '' is generally a euphemism for the older term `` pound '' . The word `` pound '' had its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities , where stray livestock would be penned or impounded until claimed by their owners . Some shelters even have sick tropical animals .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Animal_shelter", "rank": 69, "score": 78537 }, { "content": "Title: Sunfleck Content: Sunflecks are brief increases in solar irradiance that occur in understories of an ecosystem when sunlight is able to directly reach the ground . They are caused by either wind moving branches and/or leaves in the canopy or as the sun moves during the day . Although each sunfleck only last for seconds or minutes at a time , they can be responsible more than 80 % of the photons that reach plants in the understory , and up to 35 % of carbon fixation . This makes them important sources of energy for plants in the understory of forests . The amount of energy that a sunfleck provides depends on their duration , size and shape and the intensity of photosynthetically active radiation ( PAR ) , which itself depends on the arrangement of vegetation in the canopy and the position of the sun in the sky . The abundance of sunflecks varies greatly both within and between ecosystems , generally the frequency and intensity of sunflecks decreases as tree -LCB- i.e. , plant or canopy -RCB- height and the leaf area index increase . There is no clear distinction between sunflecks and sunpatches , although the latter tend to last for at least an hour and the intensity of PAR reaches the full level of sunlight , whereas the intensity of PAR in sunflecks rarely reaches this . Because the amount of diffuse sunlight reaching the forest floor varies depending on the type of forest , there is no way to quantify an intensity of direct sunlight that qualifies as a sunfleck .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Sunfleck", "rank": 70, "score": 78454 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power Content: Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity , either directly using photovoltaics ( PV ) , or indirectly using concentrated solar power . Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam . Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect . Photovoltaics were initially solely used as a source of electricity for small and medium-sized applications , from the calculator powered by a single solar cell to remote homes powered by an off-grid rooftop PV system . Commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in the 1980s . The 392 MW Ivanpah installation is the largest concentrating solar power plant in the world , located in the Mojave Desert of California . As the cost of solar electricity has fallen , the number of grid-connected solar PV systems has grown into the millions and utility-scale solar power stations with hundreds of megawatts are being built . Solar PV is rapidly becoming an inexpensive , low-carbon technology to harness renewable energy from the Sun . The current largest photovoltaic power station in the world is the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park , in Qinghai , China . The International Energy Agency projected in 2014 that under its `` high renewables '' scenario , by 2050 , solar photovoltaics and concentrated solar power would contribute about 16 and 11 percent , respectively , of the worldwide electricity consumption , and solar would be the world 's largest source of electricity . Most solar installations would be in China and India . Currently , as of 2016 , solar power provides just 1 % of total worldwide electricity production but growing 33 % per annum .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Solar_power", "rank": 71, "score": 78374 }, { "content": "Title: Shelter 2 Content: Shelter 2 is an open world survival video game developed by Might and Delight for Windows , Mac OS X , and Linux . The game is a sequel to 2013 's Shelter . It was released on March 9 , 2015 and , like its predecessor , was made available on Steam as a digital download .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shelter_2", "rank": 72, "score": 78180 }, { "content": "Title: Metamaterial absorber Content: A metamaterial absorber is a type of metamaterial intended to efficiently absorb electromagnetic radiation such as light . Furthermore , metamaterials are an advance in materials science . Hence , those metamaterials that are designed to be absorbers offer benefits over conventional absorbers such as further miniaturization , wider adaptability , and increased effectiveness . Intended applications for the metamaterial absorber include emitters , photodetectors , sensors , spatial light modulators , infrared camouflage , wireless communication , and use in solar photovoltaics and thermophotovoltaics . For example , metamaterial absorbers can be used to improve the performance of photodetectors . Metamaterial absorbers can also be used for enhancing absorption in both solar photovoltaic and thermo-photovoltaic applications . Skin depth engineering can be used in metamaterial absorbers in photovoltaic applications as well as other optoelectronic devices , where optimizing the device performance demands minimizing resistive losses and power consumption , such as photodetectors , laser diodes , and light emitting diodes . In addition , the advent of metamaterial absorbers enable researchers to further understand the theory of metamaterials which is derived from classical electromagnetic wave theory . This leads to understanding the material 's capabilities and reasons for current limitations .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Metamaterial_absorber", "rank": 73, "score": 78059 }, { "content": "Title: Cathedral Shelter of Chicago Content: The Cathedral Shelter of Chicago was founded in 1915 . It began as a storefront mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago , attached to the former Cathedral of Sts . Peter and Paul , providing food and clothing to the poor and homeless . In 1920 , they began offering substance abuse treatment . Under the leadership of Father David Gibson , an Episcopal priest , the shelter was of great importance during the Great Depression . Cathedral Shelter is a partner agency of Episcopal Charities and Community Services . Cathedral Shelter is also a member of the West Side Collaborative , a partnership between local , non-profit organizations founded with the goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the health services their clients receive .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Cathedral_Shelter_of_Chicago", "rank": 74, "score": 78029 }, { "content": "Title: Dark Suns Content: Dark Suns is a German progressive metal band formed in 1997 . It is currently composed of guitarists Maik Knappe and Torsten Wenzel , with Maik 's brother Niko performing the vocals and drums . The band has released one demo , one EP , and five studio albums as of 2016 .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_Suns", "rank": 75, "score": 77980 }, { "content": "Title: Repaint Content: A repaint is a toy that was created entirely from a mold was previously available ; however , the colors of the plastic and/or the paint operations have been changed . Repaints differ from redecos in that repaints do not alter the actual placement of paint applications while redecos do . Since molds can be expensive to create , this is often seen as a comparatively inexpensive way for a toy company to make many different toys available in a cost-effective manner . It is also an effective way for toy manufacturers to produce exclusive figures , chase figures or other variants . The term repaint also refers to fashion dolls whose original manufacturer face paint is removed and then repainted by an artist . Repaint styles include highly realistic treatments , fantasy makeovers , and celebrity likenesses . These dolls are often OOAK , although some artists create repaints in small limited editions . In the collecting of 1:6 th Action Figures , repainting has several methods . They can generally be narrowed down to 3 categories : paint , pastel and wash .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Repaint", "rank": 76, "score": 77875 }, { "content": "Title: Shelter For Life Content: Shelter For Life International ( SFL ) is a US-based non-profit , non-governmental relief and development organization dedicated to helping severely affected people displaced or made homeless by war , conflict or natural disaster . SFL is headquartered in Minneapolis , Minnesota and is currently operating in Afghanistan , Iraq , Pakistan , Tajikistan , Haiti and Sudan . SFL addresses the need for shelter through the construction of both transitional and permanent homes . SFL provides families emergency assistance needed to shield them from dangerous living conditions and then works with them to rebuild their communities and restore lives . Families and communities share responsibility for re-constructing their homes and villages and receive help in the form of training , tools , materials and technical assistance . The majority of construction materials are purchased locally whenever available . Transitional Shelters When shelters are urgently needed and there is inadequate time to construct permanent shelters , SFL enables families to build durable transitional shelters . These shelters are temporary in nature , but utilize basic materials which can be reused in the construction of a permanent home in the future . Transitional shelters provide immediate relief to untenable living situations while offering a sustainable , long-term benefit . They are preferable to the use of tents , which are temporary and not able to withstand prolonged use over time . Permanent Shelters Most SFL shelter projects consist of building permanent , durable shelters that utilize local architecture and simple designs that are able to better withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters . Construction materials vary from country to country depending on local culture and customs , but common materials include handmade mud bricks , concrete blocks , tin sheeting , and clay tiles . Houses are largely constructed by the beneficiary family with support , training , tools , and materials supplied by SFL . Earthquake and Disaster Mitigation SFL has received international recognition for implementing shelter designs that incorporate simple , cost-effective technical measures that reduce the damage from earthquakes and other disasters . Construction techniques include reinforced walls , rigid wooden ring beams , corner bracing , and strategic door and window location . Beneficiaries who live in earthquake zones also receive awareness and preparedness training to equip them with the skills and knowledge to survive future disasters .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shelter_For_Life", "rank": 77, "score": 77858 }, { "content": "Title: Shinsulator Content: A shading insulator , or shinsulator , is used to cover a thermal mass ( e.g. roof pond ) and insulate the thermal mass as needed , either by re-radiating escaping heat back down towards the thermal mass , or by reflecting solar heat off the panel , reducing heat gathering by the thermal mass . In the summer , a roof pond system cools the building during the day using a shading insulator , or `` shinsulator '' to reflect solar energy away from the roof pond and minimize the heat gathering that occurs . At night , the shinsulator can be retracted to allow the roof pond to release stored energy into the environment . Throughout the winter , the system can be used to heat the building by absorbing solar energy during the day with the shinsulator retracted . At night , the shinsulator can be repositioned over the roof pond to minimize heat loss to the environment , allowing gathered energy to radiate into the building . Category : Thermal protection", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shinsulator", "rank": 78, "score": 77818 }, { "content": "Title: Desert Sunlight Solar Farm Content: The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm is a 550 megawatt ( MWAC ) photovoltaic power station approximately six miles north of Desert Center , California , in the Mojave Desert . It uses approximately 8.8 million cadmium telluride modules made by the US thin-film manufacturer First Solar . As of Fall 2015 , the Solar Farm has the same 550 MW installed capacity as the Topaz Solar Farm in the Carrizo Plain region of Central California , making both of them tied for the second largest completed solar plants by installed capacity .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Desert_Sunlight_Solar_Farm", "rank": 79, "score": 77783 }, { "content": "Title: Darker (magazine) Content: Darker is a Russian horror webzine . It covers various sorts of horror media , including slasher , splatter , exploitation films , as well as horror literature , videogames , comic books and dark music . The magazine is in regular publication since April , 2011 . It is part of Russian Horror Web . Darker was founded in 2011 succeeding another webzine The Darkness ( T'ma , Тьма ) . Darkness '' ' editor Mikhail Parfenov ran the new project that soon became even more successful than its predecessor . Since that time Darker '' released a lot of reviews of books and movies and also interviews with notable horrormakers including such ones like Christopher Golden and Joe Lansdale .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Darker_(magazine)", "rank": 80, "score": 77726 }, { "content": "Title: Joseph von Fraunhofer Content: Joseph Ritter von Fraunhofer ( 6 March 1787 -- 7 June 1826 ) was a German physicist . He is known for discovering the dark absorption lines known as Fraunhofer lines in the Sun 's spectrum , and for making excellent optical glass and achromatic telescope objectives .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Joseph_von_Fraunhofer", "rank": 81, "score": 77640 }, { "content": "Title: Dark-sky movement Content: The dark-sky movement is a campaign to reduce light pollution . The advantages of reducing light pollution include an increased number of stars visible at night , reducing the effects of electric lighting on the environment , and cutting down on energy usage . Earth Hour and National Dark-Sky Week are two examples of such efforts . The movement started with professional and amateur astronomers alarmed that nocturnal skyglow from urban areas was blotting out the sight of stars . For example , the world-famous Palomar Observatory in California is threatened by sky-glow from the nearby city of Escondido and local businesses . For similar reasons , astronomers in Arizona helped push the governor there to veto a bill in 2012 which would have lifted a ban on illuminated billboards . Nocturnal animals can be harmed by light pollution because they are biologically evolved to be dependent on an environment with a certain amount of hours of uninterrupted daytime and nighttime . The over-illumination of the night sky is affecting these organisms ( especially birds ) . This biological study of darkness is called scotobiology . Light pollution has also been found to affect human circadian rhythms . The dark-sky movement encourages the use of full-cutoff fixtures that cast little or no light upward in public areas and generally to encourage communities to adopt lighting regulations . A 2011 project is to establish `` dark sky oasis '' in suburban areas .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark-sky_movement", "rank": 82, "score": 77574 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of Sun angle on climate Content: The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate , as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location , time of day , and season due to the Earth 's orbit around the Sun and the Earth 's rotation around its tilted axis . Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight , caused by the tilt of the Earth 's axis , is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter . Change in day length is another factor . ( See also season . )", "qid": "332", "docid": "Effect_of_Sun_angle_on_climate", "rank": 83, "score": 77467 }, { "content": "Title: Sunspot (disambiguation) Content: A sunspot is a dark region that periodically appears on the surface of the Sun . Sun spot , Sunspot , or Sunspots may also refer to :", "qid": "332", "docid": "Sunspot_(disambiguation)", "rank": 84, "score": 77288 }, { "content": "Title: Houses of Refuge in Florida Content: The Houses of Refuge in Florida were a series of stations operated by the United States Life-Saving Service along the coast of Florida to rescue and shelter ship-wrecked sailors . Five houses were constructed on the east coast in 1876 , with five more added in 1885 . There were also two life-saving stations built , one just south of the Jupiter Inlet , the other on the Gulf coast on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola , Florida . A house of refuge was planned for the Marquesas Keys , but was never put into commission . The houses were manned by civilian contractors who lived in the houses with their families . Most of these houses remained in service as life-saving stations until 1915 or later . Some of the locations became United States Coast Guard stations after the Life Saving Service was merged into the Coast Guard in 1915 . The houses were built of Florida pine , using 8x8 heartwood timbers for the foundation and frame . They were intended to withstand hurricanes , although at least two of them were destroyed by hurricanes in later years . The main floor was divided into four rooms , and a wide porch surrounded the building . The North room was the kitchen . Next was the dining room , living room and at the South end was the bedroom . All the stations were alike and all the Keepers used the rooms in the same manner . The station keeper 's family occupied the main floor . The attic was a dormitory for ship-wrecked sailors , equipped with 20 cots with bedding and dried and salted provisions to feed 20 men for 10 days . While the houses were equipped with lifesaving equipment , they were intended as passive refuges for sailors who made it to land , and not as active lifesaving stations .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Houses_of_Refuge_in_Florida", "rank": 85, "score": 77257 }, { "content": "Title: Llanpumpsaint railway station Content: Llanpumpsaint was a railway station near the village of Llanpumpsaint , West Wales , serving the hamlet and the rural locale .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Llanpumpsaint_railway_station", "rank": 86, "score": 77233 }, { "content": "Title: Nuru Energy Content: Nuru Energy is an international social enterprise which is working to address the global problem of energy poverty and climate change in Africa and India . This is through the distribution of affordable LED lamps that are recharged using a simple to use human powered generator that is more efficient than current solar . Nuru Energy 's business model uses a unique distribution strategy to sell its products indirectly to rural customers through micro-franchise entrepreneurs who are equipped and trained by the company and financed through Kiva .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Nuru_Energy", "rank": 87, "score": 76880 }, { "content": "Title: Wiltja Content: Wiltjas are shelter made by the Pitjantjatjara people and other Indigenous Australian groups such as yankunytjatjara people/groups . They are temporary dwellings , and are abandoned and rebuilt rather than maintained . Open and semi-circular , wiltjas are meant primarily as a defense against the heat of the sun , and are not an effective shelter from rain .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Wiltja", "rank": 88, "score": 76522 }, { "content": "Title: Insulative paint Content: Insulative paints , or insulating paints , claim to use a technology where a broad spectrum thermally reflective coating is applied to a specific type of micro-spheres to block heat radiation in a much larger or broader range of thermal energy ( heat ) to dissipate heat rapidly . This type of coated thermally reflective material ( coated micro-sphere ) reduces heat transfer through the coating with 90 % of solar infrared radiation and 85 % of ultraviolet radiation being radiated back from the coated surface . An `` insulative '' or `` insulating '' paint works bi-directionally ( reflects heat coming from either direction toward the painted surface . An example of this would be an exterior wall of a building to which an `` insulative '' or `` insulating '' paint has been applied . Solar induced heat ( direct sunlight ) is reflected from the surface as well as heat ( winter months ) that is migrating through the wall outward toward the colder outside air . A `` thermal Image '' or infra-red photograph will clearly show the reduction of winter time heat loss from a home through areas that have been painted with a true `` insulative '' or `` insulating '' paint . The ability to reflect or block heat from all sources such as fireplaces , heaters , and radiators inside a building as well as sunlight is the value of a true `` insulative '' or `` insulating '' paint . These products reduce the work ( heat loading ) that `` resistance insulation '' such a fiberglass , foam , and rock wool have to do . These are typical insulation materials used in walls as well as ceilings of buildings . So far no manufacturer has provided any independent test results to substantiate any claims of improved performance over standard paint technology . All independent tests have shown that the proprietary formulas offer no advantages at all over plain old acrylic paint . In spite of impressive `` web presence '' several of these companies appear to be `` ghost ships '' operating in the cloak of obscurity offered by internet sales and unable to provide any local representation or product stocks .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Insulative_paint", "rank": 89, "score": 76515 }, { "content": "Title: Mudgegonga rock shelter Content: The ` Mudgegonga rock shelter is a large rock overhang which contains over 400 Aboriginal wall paintings and stencils and evidence of prehistoric Aboriginal occupation . The site is located in north eastern Victoria near the town of Mudgegonga , and is associated with rich artefact deposits that shows occupation of the region by 3,500 years ago and may have been used several thousand years before this . It has been described as one of the richest rock art sites in Victoria . The paintings are ochre and pipeclay on rock and include the only painting of the potoroo species in Victoria . The artefact deposits associated with the shelter , which were composed predominantly of quartz , were subject to investigation by LaTobe university in the 1980s . Plans to undertake conservation works at the site resulted in controversy when Gary Murray , co-chairman of the Dhudhuroa Native Title Group , disputed claims of another Aboriginal group to make decisions about the site and lodged an application with Heritage Minister Peter Garrett to protect the site from `` a threat of injury and desecration '' due to assessment and restoration activities being planned by Aboriginal Affairs Victoria .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Mudgegonga_rock_shelter", "rank": 90, "score": 76342 }, { "content": "Title: Sunlight Solar Energy Content: Sunlight Solar Energy is a national solar power company specializing in the design , finance , installation , and management of commercial and residential solar electric , solar hot water , solar pool , and radiant floor systems . Sunlight Solar was founded in 1988 by Paul Israel , a graduate of Temple University and co-founder of the Central Oregon Green and Solar Tour . The company opened its first location in Redmond , Oregon in 1997 and began installing solar for RV 's , solar hot water , and off-grid solar electric systems . In 2003 the company moved operations to Bend , Oregon where the office 's 3.6 Kilowatt photovoltaic system is monitored by Frank Vignola of the University of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Lab which helped the Energy Trust of Oregon and Christopher Dymond of the Oregon Department of Energy calculate performance expectations for solar power production in Central Oregon . In 2004 a state solar incentive program encouraged the company 's expansion of operations to Milford , Connecticut . In 2006 they became a premier dealer for SunPower photovoltaic panels . In 2008 Sunlight Solar was awarded Sunpower 's `` Intelegant '' award for excellence . In 2008 Sunlight Solar won the Central Oregon Builder 's Association award for `` Sub-Contractor of the Year '' . In 2009 the company expanded to Waltham , Massachusetts . In 2010 the company opened an office in Portland , Oregon . In 2010 Sunlight Solar partnered with Habitat for Humanity to install 25 photovoltaic systems on new production high performance homes .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Sunlight_Solar_Energy", "rank": 91, "score": 76306 }, { "content": "Title: Shelter (video game) Content: Shelter is a survival video game developed by Might and Delight for Windows and Mac . It was released on 28 August 2013 after being accepted through Steam Greenlight . In the game players control a mother badger who must protect and feed her cubs while travelling from their burrow to a new one . During the journey the cubs must be fed and are in danger from threats such as birds of prey and wildfires . The game was received positively and got favorable reviews on the graphics and sound , as well as the emotional impact that it evoked . Reviewers gave mixed reactions when it came to the difficulty and length .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shelter_(video_game)", "rank": 92, "score": 76298 }, { "content": "Title: Electrical system of the International Space Station Content: The electrical system of the International Space Station is a critical resource for the International Space Station ( ISS ) because it allows the crew to live comfortably , to safely operate the station , and to perform scientific experiments . The ISS electrical system uses solar cells to directly convert sunlight to electricity . Large numbers of cells are assembled in arrays to produce high power levels . This method of harnessing solar power is called photovoltaics . The process of collecting sunlight , converting it to electricity , and managing and distributing this electricity builds up excess heat that can damage spacecraft equipment . This heat must be eliminated for reliable operation of the space station in orbit . The ISS power system uses radiators to dissipate the heat away from the spacecraft . The radiators are shaded from sunlight and aligned toward the cold void of deep space .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Electrical_system_of_the_International_Space_Station", "rank": 93, "score": 76266 }, { "content": "Title: Dark Sun Boxed Set Content: The original Dark Sun Boxed Set is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game , published in 1991 . It introduces the Dark Sun campaign setting for the game .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Dark_Sun_Boxed_Set", "rank": 94, "score": 76183 }, { "content": "Title: The Shelter (The Twilight Zone) Content: `` The Shelter '' is episode 68 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone . It originally aired on September 29 , 1961 on CBS .", "qid": "332", "docid": "The_Shelter_(The_Twilight_Zone)", "rank": 95, "score": 76090 }, { "content": "Title: Shelter (2007 film) Content: Shelter is a 2007 American film produced by JD Disalvatore , and directed/written by Jonah Markowitz . It stars Trevor Wright , Brad Rowe , and Tina Holmes . It was the winner of `` Outstanding Film -- Limited Release '' at the 2009 GLAAD Media Awards , Best New Director and Favorite Narrative Feature at the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival , and the People 's Choice Award for Best Feature at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival . Shelter represents the feature directorial debut of Markowitz .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shelter_(2007_film)", "rank": 96, "score": 76083 }, { "content": "Title: Shelter (Alcest album) Content: Shelter is the fourth studio album by French shoegaze band Alcest . It was released on January 17 , 2014 via Prophecy Productions . The album 's name is related to the album 's overall concept of shelter , `` a safe place to escape , this secret thing we all have when life is going too fast and you are full of anxiety . '' The album marks a significant stylistic shift for the band , fully embracing the band 's shoegaze and dream-pop influences while eliminating the previous metal influences , with Rolling Stone writing that the album has `` more in common genetically with Sigur Rós than Satyricon . ''", "qid": "332", "docid": "Shelter_(Alcest_album)", "rank": 97, "score": 76066 }, { "content": "Title: Ramada (shelter) Content: In the southwestern United States , a ramada is a temporary or permanent shelter equipped with a roof but no walls , or only partially enclosed . Ramadas have traditionally been constructed with branches or bushes by aboriginal Americans living in the region ( deriving from the Spanish rama , meaning `` branch '' ) . However , the term today is also applied to permanent concrete , wooden , or steel structures used to shelter objects or people from the sun . For example , public parks in desert areas of the United States may contain ramadas with picnic tables , restrooms , water sources , etc. . Since sunlight is more of an environmental hazard than wind or snow or rain in this part of the world , a roof alone provides substantial shelter . And because there are no walls in the structure , airflow is unrestricted , helping to keep the temperature below the roof substantially cooler than ambient . An example of a large modern-day ramada can be seen at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Arizona , where it is used to protect ancient ruins .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Ramada_(shelter)", "rank": 98, "score": 76052 }, { "content": "Title: Radio Sunlight Content: Radio Sunlight is a community radio station serving the Medway towns in Kent , England .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Radio_Sunlight", "rank": 99, "score": 76030 }, { "content": "Title: Puertollano Solar Thermal Power Plant Content: The Puertollano Solar Thermal Power Plant is a 50-megawatt ( MW ) concentrated solar thermal power station using parabolic trough , located near Puertollano in the Province of Ciudad Real , Spain . It is owned 90 % by Iberdrola and 10 % by IDEA . It uses 352 parabolic-cylinder collectors , with 120,000 parabolic mirrors and 13,000 absorber tubes . Three additional sections are planned for operation beginning in 2013 , Puertollano 2 , 72 MW , Puertollano 3 , 12.4 MW , and Puertollano 4 , 50 MW .", "qid": "332", "docid": "Puertollano_Solar_Thermal_Power_Plant", "rank": 100, "score": 75942 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 1, "score": 169246 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "335", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 2, "score": 138555 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "335", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 3, "score": 134049 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 European heat wave Content: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540 . France was hit especially hard . The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe . Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000 . The predominant heat was recorded in July and August , partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2003_European_heat_wave", "rank": 4, "score": 127208 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 5, "score": 126609 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "335", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 6, "score": 123352 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 7, "score": 118456 }, { "content": "Title: Summer of 1976 (Europe) Content: The summer of 1976 was considered to be one of the hottest summers in Europe ( and especially the United Kingdom ) within recent memory . A large high-pressure area dominated most of Europe for all of the summer months . The pressure system moved into place in late May 1976 and remained until the first traces of rain were recorded on August 27 . Rainfall throughout the July -- August period was down by half the annual average . During this spell of hot weather temperatures exceeded 32 ° C ( 89.6 ° F ) at several weather stations within the United Kingdom every day and the town of Cheltenham had eleven , including seven successive days from the 1st of July - recording 35.9 ° C ( 96.6 ° F ) on the 3rd . For the entire period much of Europe was bathed in continual sunshine with the United Kingdom seeing an average of more than 14 hours of sunshine per day . 1976 was dubbed `` The year of the Ladybird '' in that country due to the rise in the mass numbers of ladybirds brought on by the long hot period . `` The long hot summer of 1976 which eventually ended in September of that year , was the culmination of a 16-week dry spell - the longest recorded over England and Wales since 1727 . `` Quote From Met Office The summer of 1976 is by now a firmly established reference point for discussion in the UK of contemporary hot spells .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Summer_of_1976_(Europe)", "rank": 8, "score": 118255 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 9, "score": 117833 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 European heat wave Content: The 2007 European heatwave was a heat wave that affected most of Southern Europe and the Balkans . The phenomenon began affecting Italy and Turkey on June 17 and expanded into Greece and the rest of the Balkans , Hungary and Ukraine on June 18 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2007_European_heat_wave", "rank": 10, "score": 115028 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time, 2011 Content: The Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time is a listener-voted countdown of albums run by Australian radio station Triple J in June and July 2011 . In May 2011 , Triple J music director Richard Kingsmill announced that the station would be conducting another special Triple J Hottest 100 listener-voted poll the following month , counting down the best 100 albums by Australian artists . Voting began on 6 June , and concluded on the evening of 26 June . The countdown was carried out over two weeks , starting on 28 June 2011 , and finishing at 5pm on 10 July , with Brisbane band Powderfinger 's 2000 album , Odyssey Number Five ( which contained two Hottest 100 winning tracks ; `` These Days '' in 1999 and `` My Happiness '' in 2000 ) , announced at No. 1 . During the countdown , selected tracks were played from selected albums , with some other albums being aired in full , including each of the albums to make the top twenty .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100_Australian_Albums_of_All_Time,_2011", "rank": 11, "score": 113301 }, { "content": "Title: 1976 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1976 United Kingdom heat wave led to the hottest summer average temperature in the UK since records began . At the same time , the country suffered a severe drought . It was one of the driest , sunniest and warmest summers ( June/July/August ) in the 20th century , although 1995 is now regarded as the driest . Only a few places registered more than half their average summer rainfall . In the CET record , it was the warmest summer in that series . It was the warmest summer in the Aberdeen area since at least 1864 . It was the driest summer since 1868 in Glasgow .", "qid": "335", "docid": "1976_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 12, "score": 110892 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 13, "score": 110866 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe Content: 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe were a series of severe supercell storms affecting western Europe which followed a heatwave in early June 2014 , resulting from a Spanish plume synoptic weather pattern . The weekend saw repeated convective storm development across an arc from southwest France towards Paris and on towards Belgium and northwest Germany , where warm air masses interacted with the cooler air brought in by an area of low pressure moving towards the continent from the Atlantic . Outbreaks of severe weather were reported from these storm developments with the worst damages occurring over the German state of on 9 June , where the storm was described as one of the most violent in decades by the German weather service ( Deutscher Wetterdienst ) , this storm is also referred to as low pressure area `` Ela '' in some German media .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2014_Pentecost_weekend_storms_in_Europe", "rank": 14, "score": 110658 }, { "content": "Title: Mitraba Content: Mitraba is a barren land in the northern Kuwait region , it currently holds the record of highest temperature ever recorded in Asia on 15 June 2010 when the mercury rose up to 55 ° C ( 131 ° F )", "qid": "335", "docid": "Mitraba", "rank": 15, "score": 108634 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 North American heat wave Content: The 2015 North American heat wave was a heatwave in the Northwest United States and southern British Columbia , that took place from June 18 - July 3 , 2015 . Many all time and monthly record highs and record high lows were recorded . In Canada , the heat wave mostly affected the Lower Mainland , and the Southern Interior .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2015_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 16, "score": 107404 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Adelaide heatwave Content: The 2014 Adelaide heatwave was a heat wave that occurred in Adelaide , South Australia in both January and February 2014 . The heatwaves were so strong that it broke records , becoming the hottest summer ever recorded in Adelaide . Although there were no deaths directly linked to the heatwave as of 2015 , there were at least 136 heat-related hospital admissions recorded .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2014_Adelaide_heatwave", "rank": 17, "score": 105743 }, { "content": "Title: Glastonbury Festival 2010 Content: The 2010 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts took place in Pilton , Somerset , England in June 2010 . The festival was headlined by Gorillaz , Muse , and Stevie Wonder . U2 were initially announced as headliners , but withdrew on 25 May 2010 citing Bono 's recent back surgery . Gorillaz were announced as the replacement . The festival was totally rain-free for the first time since 2002 , and experienced the hottest average temperatures since the early 1990s . The total attendance of the event was 177,500 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Glastonbury_Festival_2010", "rank": 18, "score": 104049 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 19, "score": 102801 }, { "content": "Title: June Content: June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the second month to have the length of 30 days . June contains the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere , the day with the most daylight hours , and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere , the day with the fewest daylight hours ( excluding polar regions in both cases ) . June in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to December in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa . In the Northern hemisphere , the beginning of the traditional astronomical summer is 21 June ( meteorological summer begins on 1 June ) . In the Southern hemisphere , meteorological winter begins on 1 June . At the start of June , the sun rises in the constellation of Taurus ; at the end of June , the sun rises in the constellation of Gemini . However , due to the precession of the equinoxes , June begins with the sun in the astrological sign of Gemini , and ends with the sun in the astrological sign of Cancer .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June", "rank": 20, "score": 102574 }, { "content": "Title: June beetle Content: June beetle is the common name for several scarab beetles that appear around June in temperate parts of North America : In subfamily Cetoniinae : Cotinis nitida ( Green June Beetle ) of the southeastern United States Cotinis mutabilis ( Figeater Beetle ) of the western and southwestern United States In subfamily Melolonthinae : Amphimallon solstitiale ( European June Beetle , Summer Chafer ) of Europe ( and other species of Amphimallon ) Melolontha ( cockchafers or May bugs ) of Europe Phyllophaga ( May beetles ) of the Americas Polyphylla decemlineata ( Ten-lined June Beetle ) of the western United States . Rhizotrogus marginipes ( and other species of Rhizotrogus )", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_beetle", "rank": 21, "score": 102181 }, { "content": "Title: Loo (wind) Content: The Loo ( लू , لُو , Punjabi Gurmukhi : ਲੂ ) is a strong , hot and dry summer wind from the west which blows over the western Indo-Gangetic Plain region of North India and Pakistan . It is especially strong in the months of May and June . Due to its very high temperatures ( 45 ° C -- 50 ° C or 115 ° F -- 120 ° F ) , exposure to it often leads to fatal heatstrokes . Since it causes extremely low humidity and high temperatures , the Loo also has a severe drying effect on vegetation leading to widespread browning in the areas affected by it during the months of May and June .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Loo_(wind)", "rank": 22, "score": 102074 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years, 2013 Content: The Triple J Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years was a poll conducted by Triple J to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hottest 100 's current format . Voters were allowed to vote for 20 songs that were released from 1 January 1993 until 31 December 2012 . Voting was open for 20 days from 14 May to 2 June . # 100 -- 51 was broadcast on 8 June and # 50 -- 1 was broadcast the following day .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100_of_the_Past_20_Years,_2013", "rank": 23, "score": 101787 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 United Kingdom floods Content: A series of destructive floods occurred in parts of the United Kingdom during the summer of 2007 . The worst of the flooding occurred across Scotland on 14 June ; East Yorkshire and The Midlands on 15 June ; Yorkshire , The Midlands , Gloucestershire , Herefordshire and Worcestershire on 25 June ; and Gloucestershire , Herefordshire , Worcestershire , Oxfordshire , Berkshire and South Wales on 28 July 2007 . June was one of the wettest months on record in Britain ( see List of weather records ) . Average rainfall across the country was 140 mm ; more than double the June average . Some areas received a month 's worth of precipitation in 24 hours . It was Britain 's wettest May -- July since records began in 1776 . July had unusually unsettled weather and above-average rainfall through the month , peaking on 20 July as an active frontal system dumped more than 120 mm of rain in southern England . Civil and military authorities described the June and July rescue efforts as the biggest in peacetime Britain . The Environment Agency described the July floods as critical and expected them to exceed the 1947 benchmark .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2007_United_Kingdom_floods", "rank": 24, "score": 101364 }, { "content": "Title: June Gloom Content: June Gloom is a southern California term for a weather pattern that results in cloudy , overcast skies with cool temperatures during the late spring and early summer . While it is most common in the month of June , it can occur in surrounding months , giving rise to other colloquialisms , such as `` May Gray '' , `` No Sky July '' , and , rarely , `` Fogust '' . Low-altitude stratus clouds form over the cool water of the California Current , and spread overnight into the coastal regions of Southern California . The overcast skies often are accompanied by fog and drizzle , though usually not rain . June Gloom usually clears up between mid-morning and early afternoon , depending on the strength of the marine layer , and gives way to sunny skies . On a strong June Gloom day , the clouds and fog may extend inland to the valleys and Inland Empire and may persist into the mid-afternoon or evening . A combination of atmospheric and oceanic conditions must be just right in order for June Gloom to form , and these conditions usually align only around May and June of each year . These include the marine layer effect common to the west coast of the United States , an atmospheric inversion caused by subsidence of high-pressure air from the subtropical ridge , and sufficiently cool ocean water off the coast . The June Gloom pattern is also enhanced by the Catalina eddy local to southern California . May and June together are usually the cloudiest months in coastal Southern California . June Gloom is stronger in years associated with a La Niña , and weaker or nonexistent in years with an El Niño . This weather pattern is relatively rare , and occurs only in a few other parts of the world where climates and conditions are similar . Scientists study the cloud fields that make up June Gloom to increase understanding of cloud behavior at the onset of precipitation .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_Gloom", "rank": 25, "score": 100960 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "335", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 26, "score": 100955 }, { "content": "Title: European Satellite Navigation Competition Content: The European Satellite Navigation Competition ( ESNC ) is an annual international innovation competition that recognises the best ideas in the field of downstream applications based on satellite navigation . From companies and research institutes to students and other independent individuals , anyone is free to enter . Ideas can be submitted at the competition homepage www.esnc.eu annually from 1 April to 30 June . The ESNC was inaugurated in three regions in 2004 under the patronage of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs and is organised by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen ( AZO ) . Since then , the competition has transformed into an international network that embodies innovation and expertise with the support of the most relevant stakeholders in the field , such as the European GNSS Agency ( GSA ) , the European Space Agency ( ESA ) , the German Aerospace Center ( DLR ) and the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure . Since 2011 , the competition is also supported by the European Commission . Until 2006 , the ESNC was called `` Galileo Masters '' in reference to the European satellite navigation system Galileo .", "qid": "335", "docid": "European_Satellite_Navigation_Competition", "rank": 27, "score": 100522 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 June Hong Kong Rainstorm Content: 2008 June Hong Kong Rainstorm was a rainstorm in Hong Kong on June 7th , 2008 , that caused flooding and landslides . It resulted in 2 deaths and 16 injuries . The Hong Kong Observatory recorded 145.5 mm of precipitation at its headquarters from 08:00 to 09:00 , setting the highest 1-hour precipitation record . 307.1 mm of precipitation was recorded during the whole day .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2008_June_Hong_Kong_Rainstorm", "rank": 28, "score": 100220 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Asian heat wave Content: The 2007 Asian heat wave affected the South Asian countries of India , Pakistan , Bangladesh , and Nepal , as well as Russia , Japan and the People 's Republic of China . The heat wave ran during the months of May and June , which continued to September in Japan .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2007_Asian_heat_wave", "rank": 29, "score": 99922 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Swedish heat wave Content: The summer of 2014 in Sweden was unusually warm , especially in the northern parts of the country . The notability of this event was characterised as July being the warmest ever month on record in the north-west . Although temperature records set that summer are somewhat moderate by international standards , Sweden 's northerly latitude and marine influence has to be taken into account , rendering the temperatures recorded more extreme .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2014_Swedish_heat_wave", "rank": 30, "score": 99640 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 European floods Content: In late May and early June 2016 flooding began after several days of heavy rain in Europe , mostly Germany and France , but also Austria , Belgium , Romania , Moldova , Netherlands and the United Kingdom . Among others , the German states of Bavaria , Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate , Baden-Württemberg , and North Rhine-Westphalia were affected . Beginning at the river Neckar , the Danube , Rhine , Seine and their tributaries were highly affected by high water and flooding along their banks . At least 20 people have died to date .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2016_European_floods", "rank": 31, "score": 99182 }, { "content": "Title: Seven Sleepers' Day Content: Seven Sleepers ' Day ( Siebenschläfertag ) on June 27 is a feast day commemorating the legend of the Seven Sleepers as well as one of the most well-known bits of traditional weather lore ( expressed as a proverb ) remaining in German-speaking Europe . The atmospheric conditions on that day are supposed to determine or predict the average summer weather of the next seven weeks .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Seven_Sleepers'_Day", "rank": 32, "score": 99060 }, { "content": "Title: Amphimallon solstitiale Content: Amphimallon solstitiale , also known as the summer chafer or European june beetle , is a beetle similar to the cockchafer but much smaller , approximately 20 mm in length . They are declining in numbers now , but where found they are often seen in large numbers . At dusk they actively fly around tree tops looking for a mate and can often be found drowning in pools of water the following morning . They are also attracted to light and come in through open , lit windows and fly around lamps , making quite a racket while bumping into lights . They are found throughout the Palearctic region , commonly seen from June to August , living in meadows , hedgerows , and gardens , and eating plants and tree foliage .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Amphimallon_solstitiale", "rank": 33, "score": 98101 }, { "content": "Title: Junto (album) Content: Junto is the seventh album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx , released in August 2014 by record labels Atlantic Jaxx and PIAS . It is the duo 's first full-length album since Zephyr in 2009 , and was announced on 19 May 2014 . The title is taken from the song `` Power to the People '' . The album sees a stylistic return to the duo 's house roots and away from the more pop and dance-influenced sound of their previous few records . The album earned mostly positive reviews upon release , holding an aggregate 71 out of 100 on Metacritic . It reached into the top 30 of the UK Albums Chart , among charting in Australia , Belgium , Ireland , Japan , South Korea and on the United States Billboard charts . Junto spawned five singles , which were `` Back 2 the Wild '' , `` What a Difference Your Love Makes '' , `` Unicorn '' , `` Never Say Never '' and `` Galactical '' , with `` Never Say Never '' being a topper of the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Junto_(album)", "rank": 34, "score": 97990 }, { "content": "Title: June Movement Content: The June Movement ( JuniBevægelsen ) was a Danish eurosceptic political organisation founded 23 August 1992 . It took its name from the referendum on the Maastricht Treaty that took place in Denmark in June of that year . The movement was a member of the European political party EUDemocrats - Alliance for a Europe of Democracies . The June Movement acknowledged Denmark 's membership of the European Union , but opposed the process of tighter European integration including the Lisbon Treaty , and in general the movement wanted the EU to deal with only cross-border issues such as environmental and trade policies . The movement participated in elections for the European Parliament , but neither in local elections nor in elections for the Parliament of Denmark . In 2009 the movement lost its representation in the European Parliament and disbanded on 5 September 2009 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_Movement", "rank": 35, "score": 97872 }, { "content": "Title: June List Content: The June List ( Junilistan , jl ) is a Swedish , eurosceptic political party . Founded in 2004 , it received 14 % in the European Parliament election of the same year - gaining three seats . In the elections of 2009 , however , it saw a drop of 11 percentage points in support and lost all of its seats . It currently holds no seats in parliament and does not play any active role in Swedish politics . The party also ran in the Swedish 2006 parliamentary election , but it only received 0.47 % of the votes , far below the 4 % needed to get into parliament .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_List", "rank": 36, "score": 97551 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Gwadar Content: The climate of Gwadar is located at 0 m -- 300 m meters above sea level , features dry and hot arid climate . The oceanic influence keeps the temperature lower than that in the summer and higher in winter . The mean temperature in the hottest month of June remains between 31 C and 32 C . The mean temperature in the coldest month of January varies from 18 C to 19 C . The uniformity of temperature is a unique characteristic of the coastal region in Balochistan . Occasionally , winds moving down the Balochistan plateau bring cold spells , otherwise the winter is pleasant . In Gwadar , winter is shorter than summer . Gwadar 's weather is identical to that of the Middle East as most rain occurs from December till January . The highest rainfall of 227 mm in 24 hours was recorded on 6 June 2010 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Climate_of_Gwadar", "rank": 37, "score": 97100 }, { "content": "Title: Summer 2012 North American heat wave Content: In the Summer of 2012 , a heat wave took place , leading to more than 82 heat-related deaths across the United States and Canada . An additional twenty-two lives were lost in the resultant June 2012 North American derecho . This long-lived , straight-line wind and its thunderstorms cut electrical power to 3.7 million customers . Over 500,000 were still without power on July 6 , as the heat wave continued . Temperatures generally decreased somewhat the week of July 9 in the east , but the high pressure shifted to the west , causing the core of the hot weather to the build in the Mountain States and the southwest U. S. shifting eastwards again by mid-July . By early August , the core of the heat remained over the Southern Plains .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Summer_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 38, "score": 96712 }, { "content": "Title: Hot Enough for June Content: Hot Enough for June is a 1964 British spy comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas , and featuring Dirk Bogarde , Sylva Koscina in her English film debut , Robert Morley and Leo McKern . It is based on the 1960 novel The Night of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson . The film was cut by twenty minutes and retitled Agent 8 3/4 for the US release by the American distributor Central Distributing . Part of a trend of spy films in the wake of the success of the James Bond series , its art director was Syd Cain , who had the same job on the first two Bond films . Koscina herself had been considered for the role of Tatiana Romanova in From Russia with Love .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Hot_Enough_for_June", "rank": 39, "score": 96570 }, { "content": "Title: Chak No 570 GB Content: ` Chak No 570 G.B Kalsanwala located in UC 44 , PP 53 and N.A 76 . Chak 570 GB Kalsanwala ( as does the whole district of Faisalabad ) has extreme weather . Summer lasts from May to September ; June is the hottest month with an average monthly temperature of 42 ° C with a maximum of up to 50 ° C . In winter , however , the December and January average monthly temperature is as low as a 3 to 4 ° C.", "qid": "335", "docid": "Chak_No_570_GB", "rank": 40, "score": 96322 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-year rugby union internationals Content: For the most recent Mid-year window go to 2017 mid-year rugby union internationals The mid-year tests are international rugby union matches played around the month of June each year . They include traditional summer tours by European nations to countries in the southern hemisphere , North America or Japan , as well as shorter international trips and one-off test matches . They follow the end of the domestic rugby season for northern hemisphere countries , and serve as preparation for the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship teams . In 2012 , the International Rugby Board ( IRB ) introduced a three-weekend window in June during which players are required to be released by their clubs for international matches .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Mid-year_rugby_union_internationals", "rank": 41, "score": 95844 }, { "content": "Title: June Millington Content: June Millington ( born April 14 , 1948 ) is a Filipino American guitarist , songwriter , producer , educator , and actress who is perhaps best known for being a co-founder and lead guitarist of the all-female rock band Fanny , which was active from 1970 to 1974 . Millington was once described by Guitar Player magazine as the hottest female guitarist in the music industry . Millington is also `` a godmother of women 's music '' , and the co-founder and artistic director of the Institute for the Musical Arts ( IMA ) in Goshen , Massachusetts .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_Millington", "rank": 42, "score": 95491 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian heat wave Content: In May 2015 , India was struck by a severe heat wave . , it has caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people in multiple regions . The heat wave occurred during the Indian dry season , which typically lasts from March to July with peak temperatures in April and May . Although it typically remains hot until late October , Indian monsoons often provide some respite from the heat . The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring Telangana , where more than 1,735 and 585 people died respectively , were the areas most affected by the heat wave . Other casualties were from the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha . The high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities . The 2015 heat wave has had the highest recorded temperatures since 1995 . In May 2016 , a new record was set in Phalodi .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2015_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 43, "score": 95016 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 European Games Content: The 2019 European Games ( Еўрапейскія гульні 2019 Европейские игры 2019 ) is scheduled to be the second edition of the European Games , a multi-sport event for European athletes . It will be held in June 2019 in Minsk , Belarus , having previously been awarded first to the Netherlands and then to Russia . The Netherlands withdrew citing costs and lack of support , while the next hosting agreement with Russia was provisional on the basis of it addressing concerns raised by an independent WADA investigation into doping in Russia . During the Olympic Games in 2016 , the IOC made clear they would not support a European Games in Russia in the present circumstances . Finally on 21 October 2016 it was announced , that Minsk , Belarus would be the host city for the 2019 Games .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2019_European_Games", "rank": 44, "score": 94670 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Western North American heat wave Content: The 2007 western North American heat wave was a record-breaking event that began in late June 2007 . The heat stretched from Mexico to Alberta , Saskatchewan , Manitoba and into northwestern Ontario . The record heat has exacerbated already present record-breaking drought conditions in much of the Western U.S. , allowing fires to grow to record-breaking sizes . The combination of conditions forced major freeway closures , animal and human deaths , evacuations , and destruction of property . Much of eastern North America experienced more average conditions through July 2007 , with little in the way of prolonged heat waves . However , drought remained a problem in some areas of the east , particularly parts of the southeast .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2007_Western_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 45, "score": 94648 }, { "content": "Title: National Smile Month Content: National Smile Month is the United Kingdom 's largest oral health campaign , held annually across May and June . Formerly `` National Smile Week '' it is now one of the biggest not-for-profit dental health events in Europe ; it attracts thousands of event coordinators and reaches millions of people with oral health information . National Smile Month is run by the British Dental Health Foundation ( BDHF ) , a UK-based charity . In 2015 the campaign will take place between May 18 and June 18 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "National_Smile_Month", "rank": 46, "score": 94457 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 47, "score": 94443 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 48, "score": 94352 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Lahore Content: Lahore features a five-season semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification BSh ) ( from another source : Composite monsoon climate ) with five seasons : foggy winter ( 15 Nov -- 15 Feb ) with few western disturbances causing rain ; pleasant spring ( 16 Feb -- 15 April ) ; summer ( 15 April -- June ) with dust , rain storms and heat wave periods ; rainy monsoon ( July -- 16 September ) ; and dry autumn ( 16 September -- 14 November ) . The hottest month is June , where average highs routinely exceed 40 C . The wettest month is July , with heavy rainfalls and evening thunderstorms with the possibility of cloudbursts . The coolest month is January with dense fog . The city 's highest maximum temperature was 48.3 C recorded on May 30 , 1944 . And 48 C was recorded on June 9 , 2007 . The lowest temperature recorded in Lahore is -- 1 ° C , recorded on 13 January 1967 . The highest rainfall in the city recorded during 24 hours is 221 mm , which occurred on 13 August 2008 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Climate_of_Lahore", "rank": 49, "score": 94100 }, { "content": "Title: July Content: July is the seventh month of the year ( between June and August ) in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and the fourth month to have the length of 31 days . It was named by the Roman Senate in honor of the Roman general , Julius Caesar , it being the month of his birth . Prior to that , it was called Quintilis . It is on average the warmest month in most of the Northern hemisphere ( where it is the second month of summer ) and the coldest month in much of the Southern hemisphere ( where it is the second month of winter ) . The second half of the year commences in July . In the Southern hemisphere , July is the seasonal equivalent of January in the Northern hemisphere . In the Northern Hemisphere , `` Dog days '' are considered to begin in early July , when the hot sultry weather of summer usually starts . Spring lambs , born in late winter or early spring , are usually sold before July 1 . July is the traditional period known as `` fence month '' ( the closed season for deer in England ) , the end Trinity term ( sitting of the High Court of Justice of England ) , taking place on July 31 , and also the time in which the elections of Japanese House of Councillors , replacing half of its seats , held every three years ( the latest one in 2016 ) . In Ancient Rome the festival of Poplifugia was celebrated on July 5 , Ludi Apollinares on July 13 and for several days afterwards , but these dates does not correspond to the modern Gregorian one .", "qid": "335", "docid": "July", "rank": 50, "score": 93903 }, { "content": "Title: Ǣrra-Līða Content: Ǣrra Līða ( modern English : first ` liða ' ) was the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of June .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Ǣrra-Līða", "rank": 51, "score": 93527 }, { "content": "Title: June Bootids Content: The June Boötids are a meteor shower occurring roughly between 26 June and 2 July each year . In most years their activity is weak , with a zenith hourly rate ( ZHR ) of only 1 or 2 . However , occasional outbursts have been seen , with the outburst of 1916 drawing attention to the previously unrecorded meteor shower . The most recent outburst occurred in 1998 , when the ZHR reached up to 100 . The meteor shower occurs when the Earth crosses the orbit of Comet Pons-Winnecke , a short-period comet which orbits the Sun once every 6.37 years . They can be very unpredictable . They are also considered very slow meteors , as there are much faster ones . They peak on June 27 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_Bootids", "rank": 52, "score": 93170 }, { "content": "Title: Angry Summer Content: The Australian summer of 2012 -- 2013 , known as the Angry Summer or Extreme Summer , resulted in 123 weather records being broken over a 90-day period , including the hottest day ever recorded for Australia as a whole , the hottest January on record , the hottest summer average on record , and a record seven days in a row when the whole continent averaged above 39 ° C. Single-day temperature records were broken in dozens of towns and cities , as well as single-day rainfall records , and several rivers flooded to new record highs . In January 2013 , the Bureau of Meteorology altered its weather forecasting chart 's temperature scale to include a range , coloured purple , between 52 ° and 54 ° C . The reporting of the heatwave in the Australian media attracted controversy in the scientific community , as very few articles cited a correlation between the event and climate change , which it was correlated with according to studies conducted by the University of Melbourne .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Angry_Summer", "rank": 53, "score": 93029 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 2016 Content: The 2016 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day , 26 January 2017 . It is the 24th countdown of the most popular songs of the year , as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. 2016 's countdown broke several Hottest 100 records , including number of votes ( over 2.25 million ) , number of songs by Australian acts both in the whole list ( 66 out of the 100 ) and at its top ( all of the top four ) , and longest absence between countdowns ( 16 years for Paul Kelly ) . With the first-place win of Australian producer Flume for `` Never Be like You '' , 2016 marks a record-breaking fourth consecutive annual countdown in which the number-one track was by an Australian act , after Vance Joy in 2013 , Chet Faker in 2014 , and The Rubens in 2015 . Flume became the first electronic dance music producer to top the countdown .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_2016", "rank": 54, "score": 92883 }, { "content": "Title: 1901 eastern United States heat wave Content: The 1901 eastern United States heat wave was the most severe and deadly heat wave in the United States prior to the 1930s dust bowl . Although the heat wave did not set many still-standing daily temperature records , it was exceptionally prolonged -- covering without interruption the second half of June and all of July -- and centred upon more highly populated areas than later American heat waves . The heat wave accompanied a major drought in the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest , with Illinois having what remains its driest calendar year since records have been kept , and Missouri being only 0.21 in above its driest calendar year of 1953 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "1901_eastern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 55, "score": 92880 }, { "content": "Title: Festa Junina Content: Festa Junina ( -LSB- ˈfɛstɐ ʒuˈninɐ -RSB- , June Festival ) , also known as festa de São João for their part in celebrating the nativity of St. John the Baptist , are the annual Brazilian celebrations historically related to European Midsummer that take place in the beginning of the Brazilian winter . These festivities , which were introduced by the Portuguese during the colonial period ( 1500-1822 ) , are celebrated during the month of June nationwide both in Brazil and Portugal . The feast is mainly celebrated on the eves of the Catholic solemnities of Saint Anthony , Saint John the Baptist , and Saint Peter . As Northeastern Brazil is largely arid or semi-arid these popular festivals not only coincide with the end of the rainy seasons of most states in the northeast but they also provide the people with an opportunity to give thanks to Saint John for the rain . They also celebrate rural life and feature typical clothing , food , dance ( particularly quadrilha , which is similar to square dancing ) . Like Midsummer and Saint John 's Day in Portugal and Scandinavian countries , São João celebrates marital union . The `` quadrilha '' features couple formations around a mock wedding whose bride and groom are the central attraction of the dancing . The celebrations usually take place in an arraial , a huge tent made of raw material ( with a thatched roof ) that was reserved for special parties in old rural areas . Men dress up as farm boys with large straw hats and women wear pigtails , freckles , painted gap teeth and red-checkered dresses , all in a loving tribute to the origins of Brazilian country music , and of themselves , some of whom are recent immigrants from the countryside to cities such as Olinda , Recife , Maceió and Salvador , and some of whom return to the rural areas during that season to visit family . However , nowadays , São João festivities are extremely popular in all urban areas and among all social classes . In the Northeast , they are as popular as Carnival . Like during Carnival , these festivities involve costume-wearing ( in this case , peasant costumes ) , dancing , drinking , and visual spectacles ( fireworks display and folk dancing ) . Like the original European Midsummer celebrations , during the two-week June festivities in Brazil , bonfires are lit . They can be seen everywhere in northeastern cities . Two northeastern towns in particular have competed with each other for the title of `` Biggest São João Festival in the World '' , namely Caruaru ( in the state of Pernambuco ) , and Campina Grande , in Paraíba state . In fact , Caruaru features in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding the biggest outdoor country festival . In the Southeastern states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais as well as the Southern states of Paraná , Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul , the Lusitanian celebrations of Saint Anthony , Saint John and Saint Peter underwent a fusion with the practices of other European countries during St John 's Eve or the European Festival of Midsummer 's Eve thanks to the European descendants of different nations merging their traditions . The Caipira style of quadrilha or square dancing is typical of the region and danced to country music by couples made of children but also adults usually attending a mock wedding held as a symbol of fertility of the land just like the ones held in Portugal , Norway and Sweden . Nowadays the festival resembles the origins of Pagan Midsummer festivities due the focus on rural life , agriculture , large bonfires and the praise of hinterland dishes displayed in the arraial or feira , the mocking of an ancient European country fair . The word caipira is also the name of the regional dialect or accent and prosody from the Western countryside of the state of São Paulo , north of Paraná , south of Minas Gerais , as well as Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul in the Center West , where `` arraial com quadrilha caipira '' can also be seen .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Festa_Junina", "rank": 56, "score": 92780 }, { "content": "Title: June solstice Content: The June solstice , also known as the northern solstice , is the solstice on the Earth that occurs each June falling on the 20th -- 22nd according to the Gregorian calendar . In the Northern Hemisphere , the June solstice is the summer solstice , whilst in the Southern Hemisphere it is the winter solstice .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_solstice", "rank": 57, "score": 92353 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Russian wildfires Content: The 2010 Russian wildfires were several hundred wildfires that broke out across Russia , primarily in the west in summer 2010 . They started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010 . The fires were associated with record-high temperatures , which were attributed to climate change -- the summer had been the hottest recorded in Russian history -- and drought . Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in seven regions , and 28 other regions were under a state of emergency due to crop failures caused by the drought . The fires cost roughly $ 15 billion in damages . A combination of the smoke from the fires , producing heavy smog blanketing large urban regions and the record-breaking heat wave put stress on the Russian healthcare system . Munich Re estimated that in all , 56,000 people died from the effects of the smog and the heat wave . The 2010 wildfires were the worst on record to that time ; in 2012 , however , new wildfires broke out , and they proved even more extensive and damaging .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2010_Russian_wildfires", "rank": 58, "score": 92336 }, { "content": "Title: June (disambiguation) Content: June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar , with a length of 30 days . June may also refer to : June ( given name ) , a given name used for both girls and boys in the English-speaking countries June ( Basque given name ) , a Basque female given name June , a 2004 television movie starring Felicia Day June ( 2015 film ) , a 2015 horror film starring Casper Van Dien , first yaoi manga magazine June , one of many alternative terms for yaoi , after June magazine June Bootids , a meteor shower June Lake ( disambiguation ) June , Missouri , USA June Lake Junction , California , USA June List , a political organisation June Mountain , a winter resort in northern California located southeast of Yosemite National Park June Movement , a political organisation", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_(disambiguation)", "rank": 59, "score": 91983 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Pakistan heat wave Content: A severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 49 C struck southern Pakistan in June 2015 . It caused the deaths of about 2,000 people from dehydration and heat stroke , mostly in Sindh province and its capital city , Karachi . The heat wave also claimed the lives of zoo animals and countless agricultural livestock . The event followed a separate heat wave in neighboring India that killed 2,500 people in May 2015 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2015_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 60, "score": 91694 }, { "content": "Title: Maand van het Spannende Boek Content: The Maand van het Spannende Boek ( June ) is a Dutch theme month to promote literary genres of `` exciting books '' ( detectives , thrillers ) and is organized by the Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Maand_van_het_Spannende_Boek", "rank": 61, "score": 91267 }, { "content": "Title: The Hottest State Content: The Hottest State is a 2006 drama film directed and written by Ethan Hawke , which he based on the novel of the same name that he had written and published ten years earlier , in 1996 . The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival on September 2 , 2006 , and received a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 24 , 2007 . It ran for 5 weeks and grossed $ 137,341 internationally . The film was subsequently issued on DVD in December 2007 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "The_Hottest_State", "rank": 62, "score": 91123 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 European Grand Prix Content: The 2016 European Grand Prix ( formally known as the 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe ) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 19 June 2016 at the Baku City Circuit in Baku , Azerbaijan . The race was the eighth round of the 2016 season , and marked the twenty-third running of the European Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship . It was the first time that the race has been held at the circuit and the first time that a Grand Prix has been held in Azerbaijan . Nico Rosberg entered the round holding a nine-point lead in the World Drivers ' Championship ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton . Their team , Mercedes , came in leading Ferrari by seventy-six points in the World Constructors ' Championship . Rosberg went on to win the race -- his first race win since the Russian Grand Prix -- and extended his championship lead to twenty-four points . The result also marked Rosberg 's second career Grand Slam . Sebastian Vettel finished second , with Force India driver Sergio Pérez completing the podium . In the Constructors ' Championship , Mercedes extended their lead over Ferrari to eighty-one points . Valtteri Bottas recorded the highest ever clocked speed in an official Formula One session , at 378 km/h during qualifying , breaking the previous record of 369.6 km/h , set by Antonio Pizzonia at Monza during the 2004 Italian Grand Prix .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2016_European_Grand_Prix", "rank": 63, "score": 91120 }, { "content": "Title: June 2010 Northern Plains tornado outbreak Content: The June 2010 Northern Plains tornado outbreak was one of the most prolific summer tornado outbreaks in the Northern Great Plains of the United States on record . The outbreak began on June 16 with a several tornadoes in South Dakota and Montana . The most intense storms took place the following day across much of eastern North Dakota and much of Minnesota and North Dakota . The system produced 93 tornadoes reported across four states while killing three people in Minnesota . Four of the tornadoes were rated as EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale , the most violent tornadoes in a 24-hour period since there were five within 15 hours on February 5 -- 6 , 2008 . This was the region 's first major tornado outbreak of the year and one of the largest on record in the region , comparable to a similar outbreak in June 1992 . The 48 tornadoes that touched down in Minnesota on June 17 marked the most active single day in the state 's history . June 17 was the second largest tornado day on record in the meteorological summer , behind the most prolific day of the 2003 South Dakota tornado outbreak on June 24 , 2003 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_2010_Northern_Plains_tornado_outbreak", "rank": 64, "score": 91109 }, { "content": "Title: June 21 Content: This day usually marks the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere , which is the day of the year with the most hours of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere and the fewest hours of daylight in the Southern Hemisphere .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_21", "rank": 65, "score": 91103 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Gonu Content: Super Cyclonic Storm Gonu ( also simply known as Cyclone Gonu ) is the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the Arabian Sea , and is also the strongest named cyclone in the northern Indian Ocean . The second named tropical cyclone of the 2007 North Indian Ocean cyclone season , Gonu developed from a persistent area of convection in the eastern Arabian Sea on June 1 , 2007 . With a favorable upper-level environment and warm sea surface temperatures , it rapidly intensified to attain peak winds of 235 km/h ( 145 mph ) on June 4 , according to the India Meteorological Department . Gonu weakened after encountering dry air and cooler waters , and early on June 6 , it made landfall on the easternmost tip of Oman , becoming the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Arabian Peninsula . It then turned northward into the Gulf of Oman , and dissipated on June 7 after making landfall in southern Iran , the first landfall in the country since 1898 . Intense tropical cyclones like Gonu are extremely rare over the Arabian Sea , and most storms in this area tend to be small and dissipate quickly . The cyclone caused 50 deaths and about $ 4.2 billion in damage ( 2007 USD ) in Oman , where the cyclone was considered the nation 's worst natural disaster . Gonu dropped heavy rainfall near the eastern coastline , reaching up to 610 mm ( 24 inches ) , which caused flooding and heavy damage . In Iran , the cyclone caused 28 deaths and $ in damage ( 2007 USD ) .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Cyclone_Gonu", "rank": 66, "score": 91038 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Faisalabad Content: The climate of Faisalabad features a Semi-arid climate ( BWh ) in Köppen-Geiger classification with very hot and humid summers and dry cool winters . The average maximum and minimum temperature in June are 40.5 C and 26.9 C , respectively . In January it the average maximum stands at 19.4 C and 4.1 C , respectively . The summer season starts from Mid-April and continues till late-October . May and June are the hottest months , while July , August and the first half of September can be oppressively humid , except for the days when it rains . June is the hottest month in Faisalabad when conditions are dry and dust storms are common . While the coldest month is January , which is also a dry month with significant foggy days . The fog is particularly dense at night and early morning hours . The winter season starts from November and continues till early-February . ref name = `` IP '' / > . Spring sets in after Mid February and lasts usually till late March when temperatures begin to warm up and conditions become drier and sunnier . The average annual rainfall lies only at about 375 mm , which is highly seasonal since approximately half of the yearly rainfall takes place in July and August during the monsoon season .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Climate_of_Faisalabad", "rank": 67, "score": 90974 }, { "content": "Title: Typhoon Tingting Content: Typhoon Tingting was a destructive tropical cyclone that produced record-breaking rains in Guam . The eighth named storm of the 2004 Pacific typhoon season , Tingting originated from a tropical depression over the open waters of the western Pacific Ocean . The storm gradually intensified as it traveled northwest , becoming a typhoon on June 28 and reaching its peak the following day while passing through the Mariana Islands . After maintaining typhoon intensity for three days , a combination of dry air and cooler sea surface temperatures caused the storm to weaken as it traveled northward . On July 1 , the storm passed by the Bonin Islands , off the coast of Japan , before moving out to sea . By July 4 , Tinting had transitioned into an extratropical cyclone . The remnants were last reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency , the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center for the western Pacific basin , near the international date line on July 13 . While passing through the Mariana Islands , Typhoon Tingting produced torrential rains which triggered flooding and numerous landslides . In Guam , 554.99 mm ( 21.85 in ) of rain fell in 24 hours , breaking the daily and monthly rainfall records for June . Winds gusted up to 212 km/h ( 132 mph ) , causing significant structural damage , amounting to $ 6 million in losses . One fatality occurred as a result of flooding and nine others resulted from rough seas . In the Mariana Islands , 71 homes were destroyed and hundreds were damaged ; losses totaled $ 11.2 million . In Japan , two people were killed by rough seas.All damage figures are in 2004 USD", "qid": "335", "docid": "Typhoon_Tingting", "rank": 68, "score": 90810 }, { "content": "Title: June 1 Content:", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_1", "rank": 69, "score": 90806 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2012 European cold wave Content: The Early 2012 European cold wave was a deadly cold wave that started on January 27 , 2012 and brought snow and freezing temperatures to much of the European continent . There were more than 824 reported deaths . Particularly low temperatures hit several Eastern and Northern European countries , reaching as low as -42.7 C in Finland . The heaviest snow was recorded in the Balkan region . The cold weather was a result of an extensive area of very high pressure located in over the north east of the continent in northern Russia , which circulated cold air from the east .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Early_2012_European_cold_wave", "rank": 70, "score": 90745 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 European floods Content: Extreme flooding in Central Europe began after several days of heavy rain in late May and early June 2013 . Flooding and damages primarily affected south and east German states ( Thuringia , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , Lower Saxony , Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg ) , western regions of the Czech Republic ( Bohemia ) , and Austria . In addition , Switzerland , Slovakia , Belarus , Poland , Hungary and Serbia ( Vojvodina ) were affected to a lesser extent . The flood crest progressed down the Elbe and Danube drainage basins and tributaries , leading to high water and flooding along their banks .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2013_European_floods", "rank": 71, "score": 90734 }, { "content": "Title: 43rd parallel north Content: The 43rd parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 43 degrees north of the Earth 's equatorial plane . It crosses Europe , the Mediterranean Sea , Asia , the Pacific Ocean , North America , and the Atlantic Ocean . On 21 June the sun is at 70.83 degrees in the sky . At this latitude the sun is visible for 15 hours , 22 minutes during the summer solstice and 9 hours , 0 minutes during the winter solstice .", "qid": "335", "docid": "43rd_parallel_north", "rank": 72, "score": 90448 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "335", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 73, "score": 90392 }, { "content": "Title: 5 June (film) Content: 5 June ( German : Der 5 . Juni ) is a 1942 German war film directed by Fritz Kirchhoff and starring Carl Raddatz , Joachim Brennecke and Karl Ludwig Diehl . The film depicts the events of 1940 when German forces successfully invaded France . It was shot on location in France and Germany . Constant changes to the film , often at the request of the German military , led to large cost overruns . In November 1942 the film was banned by the Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels for unspecified reasons . It has been speculated that Goebbels thought the film was not entertaining enough or wished to avoid offending the Vichy government of France .", "qid": "335", "docid": "5_June_(film)", "rank": 74, "score": 90246 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Pakistan heat wave Content: In April 2017 , a severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 51 ° C ( 124 ° F ) hit Pakistan , especially its southern parts . This heat wave broke the old temperature records of many cities in the country for the month of April . Larkana , a city in the southern province of Sindh , experienced the highest maximum temperature of 51.0 ° C on 20 April , breaking the previous day 's record of 50 ° C.", "qid": "335", "docid": "2017_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 75, "score": 90193 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 European floods Content: The 2009 European floods were a series of natural disasters that took place in June 2009 in Central Europe . Austria , the Czech Republic , Germany , Hungary , Poland , Romania , Serbia , Slovakia and Turkey were all affected . The heavy rains caused overflowing of the rivers Oder , Vistula , Elbe and Danube . At least 12 people were killed in the Czech Republic and one in Poland . The floods were the worst natural disaster in the Czech Republic since 2002 , when floods killed 17 people and caused billions of dollars of damage in Prague . Those same floodwaters from the Czech Republic also affected Germany , with Dresden being hit by its worst flooding for over a century and three thousand people evacuated from areas where water was said to be waist-deep . Austria also experienced its heaviest rainfalls in half a century .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2009_European_floods", "rank": 76, "score": 89960 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave Content: The 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave was a continuation and eastward expansion of the 2007 Western North American heat wave which began in late June 2007 . The heatwave expanded eastward starting at the very end of July and lasting into the first weeks of August . This heat wave was notable for both associated severe drought over a large swath of the southeastern United States , and parts of the Great Lakes region , and its late season ending , with temperatures continuing , although more sporadically , well into the 90s ° F ( 30s ° C ) into September and October in the mid-Atlantic region .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2007_North_America_South_and_Eastern_heatwave", "rank": 77, "score": 89861 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southeast Asian haze Content: The 2013 Southeast Asian haze was a haze crisis that affected several countries in Southeast Asia , including Brunei , Indonesia , Malaysia , Singapore and Southern Thailand , mainly during June and July 2013 . The haze period was caused by large-scale burning in many parts of Sumatra and Borneo . Satellite imagery from NASA 's Terra and Aqua satellites showed that the haze was mainly due to smoke from fires burning in Riau province , Indonesia . The 2013 Southeast Asian haze was notable for causing record high levels of pollution in Singapore and several parts of Malaysia . The 3-hour Pollution Standards Index in Singapore reached a record high of 401 on 21 June 2013 , surpassing the previous record of 226 set during the 1997 South East Asian Haze . On 23 June , the Air Pollution Index ( API ) in Muar , Johor spiked to 746 at 7 a.m. which was almost 2.5 times above the minimum range of the Hazardous level thus resulting in the declaration of emergency in Muar and Ledang ( which was afterwards lifted on 25 June in the morning ) , leaving the towns in virtual shutdown .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2013_Southeast_Asian_haze", "rank": 78, "score": 89765 }, { "content": "Title: 1968 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1968 Atlantic hurricane season was one of five Atlantic hurricane seasons during the satellite era not to feature a major hurricane , the others being 1972 , 1986 , 1994 , and 2013 . The season officially began on June 1 and lasted until November 30 , dates which conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . It was a below average season in terms of tropical storms , with a total of eight nameable storms . The first system , Hurricane Abby , developed in the northwestern Caribbean Sea on June 1 . Abby moved northward and struck Cuba , bringing heavy rainfall and flooding to western portions of the island . Making landfall in Florida on June 4 , Abby caused flooding and spawned four tornadoes , but left behind little damage . Overall , the hurricane resulted in six deaths and about $ 450,000 ( 1968 USD ) in damage . In late June , Tropical Storm Candy brought minor flooding and spawned several tornadoes across portions of the Southern United States . Overall damage from the cyclone reached approximately $ 2.7 million . Despite three named storms in June , cyclone activity slowed throughout the subsequent month , with only one tropical depression . During late August and early September , Tropical Depression Eleven brought flooding to the Jacksonville area of Florida . Hurricane Gladys , the final and also the strongest named storm of the season , developed in the southwestern Caribbean Sea on October 13 . Peaking as a Category 1 on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale , the system resulted in flooding across western Cuba , particularly in Havana , where the storm caused six deaths and about $ 12 million in damage . Rough seas , gusty winds , tornadoes , and heavy rainfall resulted in generally minor impact in Florida , with three fatalities and damage totaling $ 6.7 million . Gladys also provided relief for one of North Carolina 's worst droughts . Several other storms left negligible impact on land . Overall , the storms of the season collectively caused approximately $ 21.8 million in damage and killed 17 people .", "qid": "335", "docid": "1968_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 79, "score": 89494 }, { "content": "Title: June (TV Channel) Content: June , stylized as June and formerly called Filles TV until October 2009 , is a TV channel which launched on 1 September 2004 . This channel is mainly distributed in France and it is available on Canalsat , cable and ADSL .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_(TV_Channel)", "rank": 80, "score": 89464 }, { "content": "Title: June 2 Content:", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_2", "rank": 81, "score": 89446 }, { "content": "Title: June 2011 lunar eclipse Content: A total lunar eclipse took place on June 15 , 2011 . It was the first of two such eclipses in 2011 . The second occurred on December 10 , 2011 . This was a relatively rare central lunar eclipse , in which the center point of Earth 's shadow passes across the moon . The last time a lunar eclipse was closer to the center of the earth 's shadow was on July 16 , 2000 . The next central total lunar eclipse will be on July 27 , 2018 over South America , western Africa , and Europe , and setting over eastern Asia .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_2011_lunar_eclipse", "rank": 82, "score": 89370 }, { "content": "Title: Canadian Hot 100 Content: The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for singles , published weekly by Billboard magazine . The Canadian Hot 100 was launched on the issue dated June 16 , 2007 , and is currently the standard record chart in Canada ; a new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays . The chart is similar to Billboard 's U.S. based Hot 100 in that it combines physical and digital sales as measured by Nielsen SoundScan , streaming activity data provided by online music sources , and radio airplay as measured by Nielsen BDS . Canada 's airplay chart is the result of monitoring more than 100 stations representing rock , country , adult contemporary and Top 40 genres . The first number-one song of the Canadian Hot 100 was `` Umbrella '' by Rihanna featuring Jay Z on June 16 , 2007 . As of the issue for the week ending June 10 , 2017 , the Canadian Hot 100 has had 115 different number-one hits . The current number-one is `` Despacito '' by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Canadian_Hot_100", "rank": 83, "score": 89103 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European cold wave Content: The 2006 European cold wave was an unusual cold wave which resulted in abnormal winter conditions over much of Europe . Southern Europe saw cold and snow , while places in northern Norway saw abnormally mild conditions . The phenomenon started on 20 January in Russia with temperatures below -40 ° C and extended to Central Europe where parts of Poland , Slovakia and Austria saw temperatures drop below -30 ° C . The cold resulted in the deaths of up to 50 people in Russia and a significant death toll in Eastern Europe including Moldova and Romania . The abnormal conditions gradually abated towards the end of the month .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2006_European_cold_wave", "rank": 84, "score": 88800 }, { "content": "Title: June One Content: June One is the first album recorded by the Colorado-based power pop band Yellow Second .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_One", "rank": 85, "score": 88712 }, { "content": "Title: June 3 Content:", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_3", "rank": 86, "score": 88691 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 2008 Content: The 2008 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day , 26 January 2009 . It was the sixteenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year , as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station , Triple J. Voting commenced on Boxing Day , 26 December 2008 , and closed on 18 January 2009 . The second half of the countdown was broadcast live from Parramatta Park in New South Wales , with live crosses to the Big Day Out , held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne , Victoria . Over 800,000 votes were received , a record number .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_2008", "rank": 87, "score": 88667 }, { "content": "Title: Knockarevan Content: Knockarevan is a townland in County Fermanagh , Northern Ireland . The highest temperature in Northern Ireland recorded by the Met Office , 30.8 C , occurred at Knockarevan in County Fermanagh on 30 June 1976 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Knockarevan", "rank": 88, "score": 88617 }, { "content": "Title: Timeline of the 2015 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 2015 Pacific hurricane season was the second-most active year on record , and featured the strongest tropical cyclone ever observed in the Western Hemisphere : Hurricane Patricia . The season officially started on May 15 in the eastern Pacific -- east of 140 ° W -- and on June 1 in the central Pacific -- between the International Date Line and 140 ° W -- and lasted until November 30 . These dates typically cover the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the eastern Pacific basin . The season 's first storm , Hurricane Andres , developed on May 28 ; the season 's final storm , Hurricane Sandra , degenerated on November 28 . Throughout the season , 31 tropical depressions developed , 26 of which became tropical storms , a record-tying 16 of them reached hurricane strength , and a record-breaking 11 achieved major hurricane intensity . Of the 11 major hurricanes , a record 9 formed within the Eastern Pacific proper . Activity in the Central Pacific shattered records , with 15 tropical cyclones forming in or entering the basin ; the previous highest was 11 during the 1992 and 1994 seasons . On October 23 , Hurricane Patricia became the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere , with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 872 millibars and maximum sustained winds of 215 mph ( 345 km/h ) . Four time zones are utilized in the basin : Central for storms east of 106 ° W , Mountain between 114.9 ° W and 106 ° W , Pacific between 140 ° W and 115 ° W , and Hawaii -- Aleutian for storms between the International Date Line and 140 ° W. However , for convenience , all information is listed by Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC ) first with the respective local time included in parentheses . This timeline includes information that was not operationally released , meaning that data from post-storm reviews by the National Hurricane Center is included . This timeline documents tropical cyclone formations , strengthening , weakening , landfalls , extratropical transitions , and dissipations during the season .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Timeline_of_the_2015_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 89, "score": 88564 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Central European floods Content: The 2010 Central European floods were a devastating series of weather events which occurred across several Central European countries during May and June 2010 . Poland was the worst affected . Austria , Czech Republic , Germany , Hungary , Slovakia , Serbia and Ukraine were also affected . At least thirty-seven people died in the floods and approximately 23,000 people were evacuated . The city of Kraków declared a state of emergency . The floods forced the closure and relocation of items from the Auschwitz concentration camp museum . On 20 May , aid began arriving to Poland from several European Union countries .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2010_Central_European_floods", "rank": 90, "score": 88527 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Heat Latin Music Awards Content: The 2017 Heat Latin Music Awards will be held on June 8 , 2017 at Cap Cana , Dominican Republic , and will be broadcast live through HTV and TBS . The awards celebrates the year 's biggest Latin music acts . Farruko and J Balvin leads the nominations with four each , followed by Lali and Maluma , with three each .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2017_Heat_Latin_Music_Awards", "rank": 91, "score": 88495 }, { "content": "Title: Hot Bird 13C Content: Hot Bird 13C , formerly Hot Bird 9 , is a communications satellite operated by Eutelsat , launched 20 December 2008 aboard an Ariane 5ECA carrier rocket along with the Eutelsat W2M spacecraft . It was built by EADS Astrium , based on a Eurostar E3000 satellite bus . It was positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 13 ° E . After in-orbit testing it will provide communications services to Europe , North Africa and the Middle East , with 64 NATO J-band ( IEEE Ku band ) transponders . The satellite has a mass of 4,880 kilograms , and an expected service life of 15 years . It is identical to the Hot Bird 8 and Hot Bird 10 satellites .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Hot_Bird_13C", "rank": 92, "score": 88452 }, { "content": "Title: New European Recordings Content: New European Recordings ( NER ) is the music label of Douglas Pearce of Death In June . Founded in 1981 by Douglas Pearce , NER has released material by Death In June and various other artists since the early 1980s until present day . Distribution has varied . In the 1980s , while Pearce was employed by Rough Trade Records , the company also acted as his distributor . In 1991 , until the late 1990s , distribution was handled by World Serpent Distribution and NEROZ in Australia . After a lawsuit Pearce filed with World Serpent Distribution in the late 1990s , NER and several other labels broke relations with the company . NER moved the bulk of those effected titles to Tesco Organisation immediately after but has since split his distribution to Soleilmoon Recordings in America with the founding of NERUS .", "qid": "335", "docid": "New_European_Recordings", "rank": 93, "score": 88257 }, { "content": "Title: August 2009 Argentine winter heat wave Content: The 2009 Argentine winter heat wave was a period of unusual and exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of the winter on August 2009 in Argentina . Several provinces of the country were most affected . Several records were broken . August 2009 was the warmest month since official measurements began . On 30 August 2009 it was hot enough to be the middle of summer late last week in the heart of Argentina even with the calendar showing more than three weeks remaining in the Southern Hemisphere winter . A shot of tropical heat drawn unusually far southward hiked temperatures 30 C-change above normal in the city of Buenos Aires and across the north-central regions of the country . Even though normal high temperatures for late August are near 16 C , readings topped 30 C degrees at midweek , then topped out above 32 C degrees during the weekend . Temperatures hit 33.8 C on 29 August and finally 34.6 C on 31 August in Buenos Aires , making it the hottest day ever recorded in winter breaking the 1996 winter record of 33.7 C. Elsewhere in Argentina , the mid-northern city of Córdoba reached a dramatic high of 37.8 C degrees on 29 August 2009 . Another northern city , Santa Fe , registered 38.3 C degrees on 30 August , compared to the normal high of around 18 C.", "qid": "335", "docid": "August_2009_Argentine_winter_heat_wave", "rank": 94, "score": 88214 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 South-Eastern Australian heatwave Content: The 2014 South-Eastern Australian Heatwave was a prolonged period of time in which highly unseasonal weather was recorded across the south and south-eastern corridor of mainland Australia . The heatwave commenced during early May , and was the longest ever recorded in Australia 's modern history , lasting in some places up to 15 days . Sydney , Melbourne and Adelaide were most hard hit , with temperatures in these areas breaking late Autumn records and causing a distinct lack of precipitation , especially in Sydney , Australia 's most populous city . The cause of this phenomenon was a large blocking High pressure system situated over the Tasman sea , which pushed usual Autumn cold fronts far south of the mainland .", "qid": "335", "docid": "2014_South-Eastern_Australian_heatwave", "rank": 95, "score": 88200 }, { "content": "Title: Hot Bird 7 Content: Hot Bird 7 was a French communications satellite which was lost in a launch failure in 2002 . Intended for operation by Eutelsat , it was to have provided direct to home broadcasting services from geostationary orbit as part of Eutelsat 's Hot Bird constellation at a longitude of 13 degrees east . Hot Bird 7 was intended to replace the Hot Bird 3 satellite which had been launched in 1997 . Hot Bird 7 was constructed by Astrium , and was based on the Eurostar-2000 + satellite bus . It had a mass of 3400 kg and was expected to have an operational lifespan of 15 years . The spacecraft was equipped with 40 Ku-band transponders , for broadcasting satellite television and radio . It would have broadcast to homes in Europe , the Middle East and North Africa . Arianespace was contracted to launch Hot Bird 7 on the maiden flight of the Ariane 5 ECA carrier rocket , an upgraded version of the Ariane 5 intended to offer increased payload capacity to geosynchronous transfer orbit . The Stentor technology demonstration satellite , to have been operated by the French space agency CNES , was also aboard the rocket . The launch took place from ELA-3 at Kourou , French Guiana , at 22:22 UTC on 11 December 2002 , bound for geosynchronous transfer orbit . Around three minutes after liftoff , performance issues with the first stage 's Vulcain 2 engine -- which was making its first flight -- began to be noted . By the time of fairing separation , 183 seconds into the flight , the rocket was tumbling out of control . It began to lose altitude and speed , before being destroyed by range safety 456 seconds after launch . The failure was attributed to an engine cooling problem which developed around 96 seconds into the mission , causing the engine to destroy itself . Due to the failure the next Ariane 5 launch , which had been scheduled to carry the European Space Agency 's Rosetta spacecraft in January 2003 , was delayed - causing Rosetta to miss its launch window for a mission to comet 46P/Wirtanen . Rosetta was subsequently retargeted to 67P/Churyumov -- Gerasimenko and launched successfully in 2004 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Hot_Bird_7", "rank": 96, "score": 88200 }, { "content": "Title: 1908 Content: According to NASA reports , 1908 was the coldest recorded year since 1880 .", "qid": "335", "docid": "1908", "rank": 97, "score": 88050 }, { "content": "Title: Austria v Switzerland (1954 FIFA World Cup) Content: On June 26 , 1954 , in a quarterfinal match of the 1954 Football World Cup , Austria beat Switzerland 7 -- 5 in Lausanne , Switzerland . The 12 goals scored in the match set a World Cup record , unequalled to date , for the highest scoring match ever . The match is known by its German name , Hitzeschlacht von Lausanne ( roughly translated to `` The heat battle of Lausanne '' ) , due to the high temperature that it was played under , 40 ° C ( 104 ° F ) .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Austria_v_Switzerland_(1954_FIFA_World_Cup)", "rank": 98, "score": 87785 }, { "content": "Title: June Afternoon Content: `` June Afternoon '' , written by Per Gessle and released in 1996 , is a song by Roxette , released as the second single from their greatest hits album Do n't Bore Us , Get to the Chorus ! from 1995 . It was only released in Europe and Australia . It peaked at number 24 in Sweden and number 52 in the UK . Recorded with members of the Swedish pop group Gyllene Tider , `` June Afternoon '' was the planned centrepiece on Per Gessle 's upcoming solo album The World According to Gessle , but plans were changed and this cheerful ode to endless summer was picked as a single off Roxette 's 1995 greatest hit album . The second song on this single is a demo version of `` Seduce Me '' , which was later included on the 2006 release of The Rox Box .", "qid": "335", "docid": "June_Afternoon", "rank": 99, "score": 87758 }, { "content": "Title: Typhoon Conson (2004) Content: Typhoon Conson , known in the Philippines as Typhoon Frank , was the first of the record ten typhoons to impact Japan during the 2004 Pacific typhoon season . Developing out of a tropical depression near the northern Philippines in early June , Conson slowly traveled towards the north . Gradually strengthening , the storm reached typhoon status late on June 7 according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and several hours later according to the Japan Meteorological Agency . After turning towards the northeast , the typhoon brushed Taiwan and reached its peak intensity with winds of 150 km/h ( 90 mph 10-minute winds ) on June 9 . After reaching its peak , Conson gradually weakened , passing through Okinawa before being downgraded to a tropical storm the next day . On June 11 , the storm made landfall as a minimal tropical storm in the Kōchi Prefecture just before becoming extratropical . The extratropical remnants continued towards the northeast and were last mentioned on June 14 crossing the international date line . Typhoon Conson brought heavy rains and high winds to the Philippines , Taiwan , Okinawa , and Japan . Flooding in the Philippines killed two people and caused about PHP1 .6 million ( US$ 35,000 ) in damages . However , some reports state that up to 30 people died in the Philippines . In the Ryukyu Islands , the storm brought heavy rains and high winds to several islands , damaging crops and leaving many without power . As it became extratropical , Conson caused moderate damage in southern Japan , including a few landslides which prompted evacuations . Throughout Japan , losses reached 355.7 million yen ( US$ 3.8 million ) .", "qid": "335", "docid": "Typhoon_Conson_(2004)", "rank": 100, "score": 87746 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 1, "score": 134528 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe Content: 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe were a series of severe supercell storms affecting western Europe which followed a heatwave in early June 2014 , resulting from a Spanish plume synoptic weather pattern . The weekend saw repeated convective storm development across an arc from southwest France towards Paris and on towards Belgium and northwest Germany , where warm air masses interacted with the cooler air brought in by an area of low pressure moving towards the continent from the Atlantic . Outbreaks of severe weather were reported from these storm developments with the worst damages occurring over the German state of on 9 June , where the storm was described as one of the most violent in decades by the German weather service ( Deutscher Wetterdienst ) , this storm is also referred to as low pressure area `` Ela '' in some German media .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2014_Pentecost_weekend_storms_in_Europe", "rank": 2, "score": 125641 }, { "content": "Title: Continental climate Content: Continental climates are defined in the Köppen climate classification as having a coldest month mean temperature below -3 C ( 26.6 F ) or 0 ° C depending on which isotherm used for the coldest month and four months above 10 ° C . In the Köppen climate system , Continental climates are bordered to the south by Temperate climates or C climates ( coldest month above 0 C , but below 18 C ) and to the north by Boreal climate or E climates ( only 1 to 3 months with a mean temperature of 50 F ) . Köppen also defined continental climates as having more than 30 days with continuous snowcover on the ground . Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature ( hot summers and cold winters ) . They tend to occur in the middle latitudes ( 40 to 55 north ) , where prevailing winds come from over land , and temperatures are not moderated by bodies of water such as oceans or seas . Continental climates occur mostly in the Northern Hemisphere which has the large landmasses required for this type of climate to develop . Most of northern and northeastern China , eastern and southeastern Europe , and the central and upper eastern United States have this type of climate . In Continental climates , Precipitation tends to be moderate in amount , concentrated mostly in the warmer months . Only a few areas , in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest of North America and in Iran , northern Iraq , adjacent Turkey , Afghanistan , Pakistan , and Central Asia show a winter maximum in precipitation . A portion of the annual precipitation falls as snowfall , and snow often remains on the ground for more than a month . Summers in continental climates can feature thunderstorms and frequent cool temperatures , however summer weather is more stable than winter weather .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Continental_climate", "rank": 3, "score": 118827 }, { "content": "Title: 1982 FIFA World Cup Final Content: The 1982 FIFA World Cup Final was a football match contested between Italy and West Germany . It was the final match of the 1982 FIFA World Cup tournament and was played on 11 July 1982 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in the Spanish capital and largest city of Madrid . The conditions of this World Cup were in stark contrast to the chilly conditions of a Buenos Aires winter during the 1978 final match - the weather was , typical of a summer night in Madrid warm and pleasant . After a scoreless first half during which Antonio Cabrini fired a penalty low and wide to the right of goal , Paolo Rossi scored first , heading home a bouncing Claudio Gentile cross from the right from close range . Marco Tardelli then scored from the edge of the area with a low left footed shot before Alessandro Altobelli , at the end of a counterattack by winger Bruno Conti , made it 3 -- 0 with another low left footed shot . Italy 's lead appeared secure , encouraging Italian president Sandro Pertini to wag his finger at the cameras in a playful ` not going to catch us now ' gesture from the stands . Paul Breitner scored for Germany in the 83rd minute , firing low past the goalkeeper from the right , but Italy held on to claim their first World Cup title in 44 years , and their third in total with a 3 -- 1 victory . Coming after their 1934 and 1938 victories , Italy had now drawn level with record champions Brazil . Italy 's Paolo Rossi won the Golden Boot as the tournament 's top goalscorer , and the Golden Ball as the tournament 's best player ( awarded for the first time ) . Captain and goalkeeper Dino Zoff at forty also became the oldest player to win the World Cup .", "qid": "337", "docid": "1982_FIFA_World_Cup_Final", "rank": 4, "score": 114873 }, { "content": "Title: List of extreme temperatures in Spain Content: Here is a list of the hottest and coldest temperature recorded in spain and is getting hotter . On July 30 , 1876 and August 4 , 1881 , temperatures of 123.8 ° F ( 51 ° C ) and 122 ° F ( 50 ° C ) were both reported for Seville : these readings are unreliable , since they were measured under a standard exposure and in poor technical conditions . A temperature of 119.8 ° F ( 48.8 ° C ) was also recorded at Cazalla de la Sierra on August 30 , 1926 , but is generally not considered valid by international standards , along with other unofficial readings measured in various locations , likely taken with not proper instruments . On July 17 , 1978 , an unconfirmed temperature of 117.5 ° F ( 47.5 ° C ) was recorded at Barranco de Masca , Tenerife . * This is the highest reliable and confirmed temperature for Murcia and Spain overall . A dubious reading of 118 ° F ( 47.8 ° C ) was reported for Murcia on July 29 , 1876 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Spain", "rank": 5, "score": 113673 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Klaus Content: Klaus was a European windstorm or cyclone which made landfall over large parts of central and southern France , Spain and parts of Italy in January 2009 . The storm was the most damaging since Lothar and Martin in December 1999 . The storm caused widespread damage across France and Spain , especially in northern Spain . The storm caused twenty-six fatalities , as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies , with approximately 1.7 million homes in southwest France and tens of thousands of homes in Spain experiencing power cuts . Severe damage to property and major forest damage was caused . Peak gusts were over 200 km/h ; sustained winds of over 170 km/h were observed , which are hurricane-force winds .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Cyclone_Klaus", "rank": 6, "score": 112808 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of the Nordic countries Content: The climate of the Nordic countries is that of a region in Northern Europe that consists of Denmark , Finland , Iceland , Norway and Sweden and their associated territories , which include the Faroe Islands , Greenland and Åland . Stockholm , Sweden has on average the warmest summer of the Nordic countries , with an average maximum temperature of 23 ° C in July ; Copenhagen , Oslo and Helsinki have an average July maximum temperature of 22 ° C.", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_the_Nordic_countries", "rank": 7, "score": 111276 }, { "content": "Title: 2013–14 Atlantic winter storms in Europe Content: 2013 -- 14 Atlantic winter storms in Europe were a series of winter storms affecting areas of Atlantic Europe and beyond . The French Atlantic coastal regions ( chiefly Brittany ) , South West and Southern England , West Wales , Ireland , Spanish Atlantic coastal regions ( particularly Galicia ) were especially affected by a `` conveyor belt '' series of high-precipitation storms ( mostly not exceptional for their winds ) and by high tides . Many storms were explosively deepened by a strong jet stream , many deepening below 950 hPa . The repeated formation of large deep lows over the Atlantic brought storm surges and large waves which coincided with some of the highest astronomical tides of the year and caused coastal damage . The low pressure areas brought heavy rainfalls which led to flooding , which became most severe over parts of England such as at the Somerset Levels . The repeated storms fit into a pattern of disturbed weather in the Northern Hemisphere , which saw from November 2013 a disturbance to the jet stream in the western Pacific , which propagated eastwards bringing a warm winter to Alaska , drought to California , and repeated cold air outbreaks to the eastern USA where the 2013 -- 14 North American cold wave resulted .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2013–14_Atlantic_winter_storms_in_Europe", "rank": 8, "score": 110656 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European cold wave Content: The 2006 European cold wave was an unusual cold wave which resulted in abnormal winter conditions over much of Europe . Southern Europe saw cold and snow , while places in northern Norway saw abnormally mild conditions . The phenomenon started on 20 January in Russia with temperatures below -40 ° C and extended to Central Europe where parts of Poland , Slovakia and Austria saw temperatures drop below -30 ° C . The cold resulted in the deaths of up to 50 people in Russia and a significant death toll in Eastern Europe including Moldova and Romania . The abnormal conditions gradually abated towards the end of the month .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2006_European_cold_wave", "rank": 9, "score": 110086 }, { "content": "Title: A Day's Wait Content: `` A Day 's Wait '' is a short story by Ernest Hemingway published in his 1933 short story collection Winner Take Nothing about a nine-year-old boy who is sick during a cold winter . The story focuses on the boy and his father who calls him Schatz ( German , meaning darling ) . When the boy gets the flu , a doctor is called in and recommends three different medicines and tells the boy 's father that his temperature is 102 degrees Fahrenheit ( 39 degrees Celsius ) . He is very quiet and depressed , finally asking when he will die ; he had thought that a 102 degree temperature was lethal because he heard in France ( where Celsius is used ) that one can not live with a temperature over 44 degrees . When the father explains to him the difference in scales , the boy slowly relaxes , and the next day , `` he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance . '' The story ´ s theme is the boy 's misunderstanding leading to the fear of his death without his father realizing this . analysis : a ) A fateful misunderstanding The misunderstanding between father and son exists because they do not have the same thoughts . The boy thinks he will die but the father thinks his son is only ill . The boy uses the word `` it '' to describe the process of dying . The father also uses the word `` it '' , but to describe that it is no problem for him to stay at home with his son . Since they only use the pronoun `` it '' neither of them knows what the other person is talking about . b ) The hunting scene The landscape is described as frozen because it 's a cold day . The father 's behaviour is also cold because he is shooting birds and killing them . The father 's inability to understand his son is symbolically expressed by the layer of ice separating him from nature ( he is helpless on the icy surface ) ; the same helplessness applies to his relationship to his son . c ) Interdependence between theme and point of view The theme focuses on the misunderstanding between father and son , which is disastrous for the son due to the lack of knowledge as far as the different scales are concerned . The failure in communication leads to the son ´ s being afraid of dying . This is why Hemingway chooses the first person narrator with a limited point of view . He is therefore confined to presenting mere observations and suppositions . `` The boy was evidently holding tight onto himself about something '' , which is only one example of the father ´ s suppositions . The father is only an observer of the scene without realizing the son ´ s fears . He remains detached and can not imagine and feel the son ´ s distress . An observer narrator is the best way of expressing this distance between the two . Hemingway cleverly chooses this point of view as one means of showing the lack of mutual closeness in the relationship between father and son . The father does not imagine the son ´ s fears and can not look into his mind at all .", "qid": "337", "docid": "A_Day's_Wait", "rank": 10, "score": 109819 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 European heat wave Content: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540 . France was hit especially hard . The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe . Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000 . The predominant heat was recorded in July and August , partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2003_European_heat_wave", "rank": 11, "score": 108860 }, { "content": "Title: Summer of 1976 (Europe) Content: The summer of 1976 was considered to be one of the hottest summers in Europe ( and especially the United Kingdom ) within recent memory . A large high-pressure area dominated most of Europe for all of the summer months . The pressure system moved into place in late May 1976 and remained until the first traces of rain were recorded on August 27 . Rainfall throughout the July -- August period was down by half the annual average . During this spell of hot weather temperatures exceeded 32 ° C ( 89.6 ° F ) at several weather stations within the United Kingdom every day and the town of Cheltenham had eleven , including seven successive days from the 1st of July - recording 35.9 ° C ( 96.6 ° F ) on the 3rd . For the entire period much of Europe was bathed in continual sunshine with the United Kingdom seeing an average of more than 14 hours of sunshine per day . 1976 was dubbed `` The year of the Ladybird '' in that country due to the rise in the mass numbers of ladybirds brought on by the long hot period . `` The long hot summer of 1976 which eventually ended in September of that year , was the culmination of a 16-week dry spell - the longest recorded over England and Wales since 1727 . `` Quote From Met Office The summer of 1976 is by now a firmly established reference point for discussion in the UK of contemporary hot spells .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Summer_of_1976_(Europe)", "rank": 12, "score": 108849 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 13, "score": 108736 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Xynthia Content: Xynthia was a violent European windstorm which crossed Western Europe between 27 February and 1 March 2010 . It reached a minimum pressure of 967 mb on 27 February . In France -- where it was described by the civil defence as the most violent since Lothar and Martin in December 1999 -- at least 51 people were killed , with 12 more said to be missing . A further six people were killed in Germany , three in Spain , one in Portugal , one in Belgium and another one in England . Most of the deaths in France occurred when a powerful storm surge topped by battering waves up to 7.5 m ( 25 ft ) high , hitting at high tide , smashed through the sea wall off the coastal town of L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer . A mobile home park built close to the sea wall was particularly hard-hit . The sea wall was about two hundred years old , built in the time of Napoleon ; critics said that situating a mobile home park so close to the sea wall showed poor coastal development practices . The storm cut power to over a million homes in France and a million customers in Portugal lost power .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Cyclone_Xynthia", "rank": 14, "score": 108679 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Spain Content: The climate of Spain varies across the country . Three main climatic zones ( the three main climates ) can be distinguished , according to geographical situation and orographic conditions : The Mediterranean climate is characterized by dry and warm/hot summers and cool to mild and wet winters . According to the Köppen climate classification , it is dominant on the Iberian Peninsula , particularly the Csa variety with summer droughts covering all but the far northern part of the country where the Oceanic climate predominates . Local climatic categorizations divide this climate into `` Standard Mediterranean '' of lowland regions and `` Continentalized '' mediterranean of the interior , according to altitude and the mildness/harshness of the winter season . The standard mediterranean covers coastal areas ( excluding the northern Atlantic coast ) the Guadalquivir river basin and the lower reaches of the Tagus and Guadiana basins to the west of the country . The `` Continentalized '' Mediterranean climate predominates in Spain 's vast table lands ( Meseta Central ) of the interior . The oceanic climate ( Cfb ) is located in the northern part of the country , especially in the regions of Basque Country , Asturias , Cantabria , and Navarre . This region has regular snowfall in the winter months . The semiarid climate ( Bsh , Bsk ) is predominant in the south eastern part of the country ( Almeria province in Eastern Andalusia , Murcia region and Alicante province in Southern Valencia ) and in the middle reaches of the Ebro valley to the north east ( Zaragoza province ) , reaching as far west as southern Navarre . It is also present in large areas of the central table lands ( primarily in La Mancha region which includes parts of Cuenca , Guadalajara , Madrid and Toledo provices ) and some of the drier areas of Extremadura and the Guadalquivir valley of Andalusia . In contrast to the Mediterranean climate , the dry season continues beyond the end of summer . Apart from the three main climate zones , other sub-zones can be found , such as the alpine climate in the highest of Spain 's various mountain ranges ( notably the Cantabrian Mountains , the Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada , a tropical climate in the coastal areas of the Canary Islands and a true hot desert climate in parts of the Southeastern coastline , notably around Almeria and the Canary Islands .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Spain", "rank": 15, "score": 108363 }, { "content": "Title: August 2009 Argentine winter heat wave Content: The 2009 Argentine winter heat wave was a period of unusual and exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of the winter on August 2009 in Argentina . Several provinces of the country were most affected . Several records were broken . August 2009 was the warmest month since official measurements began . On 30 August 2009 it was hot enough to be the middle of summer late last week in the heart of Argentina even with the calendar showing more than three weeks remaining in the Southern Hemisphere winter . A shot of tropical heat drawn unusually far southward hiked temperatures 30 C-change above normal in the city of Buenos Aires and across the north-central regions of the country . Even though normal high temperatures for late August are near 16 C , readings topped 30 C degrees at midweek , then topped out above 32 C degrees during the weekend . Temperatures hit 33.8 C on 29 August and finally 34.6 C on 31 August in Buenos Aires , making it the hottest day ever recorded in winter breaking the 1996 winter record of 33.7 C. Elsewhere in Argentina , the mid-northern city of Córdoba reached a dramatic high of 37.8 C degrees on 29 August 2009 . Another northern city , Santa Fe , registered 38.3 C degrees on 30 August , compared to the normal high of around 18 C.", "qid": "337", "docid": "August_2009_Argentine_winter_heat_wave", "rank": 16, "score": 107601 }, { "content": "Title: Temps d'aventura Content: Temps d'aventura ( Time for adventure ) is a programme in Catalan made by Televisió de Catalunya - the Catalan public television corporation - dedicated to open-air sports or adventure sports or outdoor activities . It was first broadcast during the 2002 season following on from other programmes that had dealt with the same subject - L'aventura ( 1993 -- 2000 ) - and winter sports - Temps de neu ( 1985 - ) . It is a weekly programme and is broadcast on Thursday evenings by Canal 33 from May to November and can also be watched on the international channel TVCi . Most programmes are repeated over the weekend . Since the 2003 season it has been broadcast in stereo . From the 2008 season onwards it has been broadcast in 16:9 format and with subtitles in Catalan for the deaf . The DTTV broadcast also includes English subtitles . This makes it the first programme produced in-house by Televisió de Catalunya that can be watched in English . TV3 is Televisió de Catalunya 's first and main channel . All the people of Catalonia and Catalan Countries in the rest of Spain is potential viewer .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Temps_d'aventura", "rank": 17, "score": 107158 }, { "content": "Title: Humid continental climate Content: A humid continental climate ( Köppen prefix D ) is a climatic region defined by Russian-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900 , which is typified by large seasonal temperature differences , with warm to hot ( and often humid ) summers and cold ( sometimes severely cold ) winters . Precipitation is usually well distributed through the year . The definition of this climate regarding temperature is as follows : the mean temperature of the coldest month must be below − 3 ° C and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above 10 ° C . Some climatologists prefer to use the 0 ° C isotherm as it is more commonly used . In addition , the location in question must not be semi-arid or arid . Humid continental climates tend to be found between latitudes 40 ° N and 60 ° N , within the central and northeastern portions of North America , Europe , and Asia . They are much less commonly found in the Southern Hemisphere due to the larger ocean area at that latitude and the consequent greater maritime moderation . In the Northern Hemisphere some of the humid continental climates , typically in Scandinavia , Nova Scotia , and Newfoundland are heavily maritime-influenced , with relatively cool summers and winters being just below the freezing mark . More extreme humid continental climates found in southern Siberia and the American Midwest combine hotter summer maxima and colder winters than the marine-based variety . In some areas there are both strong subtropical and subarctic air mass influences depending on season , like the humid and hot summers and the frigid winters of Milwaukee , Wisconsin in the Upper Midwest of the United States .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Humid_continental_climate", "rank": 18, "score": 107040 }, { "content": "Title: Saint-Christol-lès-Alès Content: Saint-Christol-lès-Alès is a commune in the Gard department in southern France . During the 2003 European heat wave , Saint-Christol-lès-Alès , together with Conqueyrac , recorded the highest temperature ever reached in France : 44.1 ° C ( 111 ° F ) .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Saint-Christol-lès-Alès", "rank": 19, "score": 106970 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2010–11 in Europe Content: The winter of 2010 -- 2011 in Europe began with an unusually cold November caused by a cold weather cycle that started in southern Scandinavia and subsequently moved south and west over both Belgium and the Netherlands on 25 November and into the west of Scotland and north east England on 26 November . This was due to a low pressure zone in the Baltics , with a high pressure over Greenland on 24 November . From 22 November 2010 , cold conditions arrived in the United Kingdom , as a cold northerly wind developed and snow began to fall in northern and eastern parts , causing disruption . The winter arrived particularly early for the European climate , with temperatures dropping significantly lower than previous lows for the month of November . On 28 November , Wales recorded its lowest-ever November temperature of -17.3 C in Llysdinam , and Northern Ireland recorded its lowest ever November temperature of -9.5 C in Lough Rea . The UK Met Office issued severe-weather warnings for heavy snow for eastern Scotland and the north-east of England . From January , temperatures were more normal .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Winter_of_2010–11_in_Europe", "rank": 20, "score": 106857 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Estonia Content: Estonia lies in the northern part of the temperate climate zone and in the transition zone between maritime and continental climate . Because Estonia ( and all of Northern Europe ) is continuously warmed by maritime air influenced by the heat content of the northern Atlantic Ocean , it has a milder climate despite its northern latitude . The Baltic Sea causes differences between the climate of coastal and inland areas . Estonia has four seasons of near-equal length . Average temperatures range from 16.3 ° C on the Baltic islands to 18.1 ° C inland in July , the warmest month , and from -3.5 ° C on the Baltic islands to -7.6 ° C inland in February , the coldest month . The average annual temperature in Estonia is 5.2 ° C . The average temperature in February , the coldest month of the year , is -5.7 ° C . The average temperature in July , which is considered the warmest month of the year , is 16.4 ° C . The climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean , the North-Atlantic Stream and the Icelandic Minimum , which is an area known for the formation of cyclones and where the average air pressure is lower than in neighbouring areas . Estonia is located in a humid zone in which the amount of precipitation is greater than total evaporation . The average precipitation in 1961 -- 1990 ranged from 535 to per year and was heaviest in late summer . There were between 102 and 127 rainy days a year , and average precipitation was most plentiful on the western slopes of the Sakala and Haanja Uplands . Snow cover , which is deepest in the south-eastern part of Estonia , usually lasts from mid-December to late March .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Estonia", "rank": 21, "score": 106601 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1894 -- 95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 C . Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain . Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885 -- 86 to 1894 -- 95 was 2.87 C , no winter with a CET under 3.0 C followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940 . In contrast , between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 C had lasted longer than twelve winters . Although this winter -- which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881 , 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 -- affected most of Europe and North America very severely , the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs . The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames , which froze for the last time on record . Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state , most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people . There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather , with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London 's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor , and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators . Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible , whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Winter_of_1894–95_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 22, "score": 105589 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2012 European cold wave Content: The Early 2012 European cold wave was a deadly cold wave that started on January 27 , 2012 and brought snow and freezing temperatures to much of the European continent . There were more than 824 reported deaths . Particularly low temperatures hit several Eastern and Northern European countries , reaching as low as -42.7 C in Finland . The heaviest snow was recorded in the Balkan region . The cold weather was a result of an extensive area of very high pressure located in over the north east of the continent in northern Russia , which circulated cold air from the east .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Early_2012_European_cold_wave", "rank": 23, "score": 105119 }, { "content": "Title: Excessive heat watch Content: An Excessive Heat Watch is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when the heat index is expected to be greater than 105 ° F ( 41 ° C ) across the northern states or 110 ° F ( 43 ° C ) across the southern states during the day , and/or nighttime low temperature will be at least 75 ° F ( 24 ° C ) or higher for two consecutive days . Note that even with the usual northern/southern criteria , local offices , particularly those with deserts or mountainous terrain , often have their own criteria . High values of the heat index are caused by temperatures being significantly above normal and high humidities , and such high levels can pose a threat to human life through conditions such as heat stroke .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Excessive_heat_watch", "rank": 24, "score": 104926 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Madrid Content: Madrid and its metropolitan area has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa ) with continental influences , with cool winters and hot summers . According to Troll-Paffen climate classification , Madrid has warm-temperate subtropical climate ( Warmgemäßigt-subtropisches Zonenklima ) and according to Siegmund/Frankenberg climate classification , Madrid has subtropical climate .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Madrid", "rank": 25, "score": 104807 }, { "content": "Title: La Unión, Murcia Content: La Unión is situated in the Region of Murcia in the southeast of Spain . It has an area of 24.6 km ² . It has a population of 16,180 . It has the elevation of 86 m. Its average annual temperature is 17 ° C . It has balmy winters . The sun shines 320 days per year . La Unión is situated in one of the sunniest areas in Europe ; this kind climate makes possible the many leisure activities , popular fiestas , sports , and cultural activities that are held in the town . The town is linked by regular train to Cartagena which allows views of the past industrial heritage of the area ( lead , alum and silver mining ) and the more modern occupations of agriculture and tourism . The rich mines of La Union provided most of the silver and lead needed by the Late Roman Republic , as it was studied by the archaeologist Eulalia Sintas Martínez . SINTAS , E. : `` Prospección arqueológica en la Sierra Minera de La Unión '' , Evolución de la industria metalúrgica en la Región de Murcia , I Jornadas Técnicas , Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena , 1990 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "La_Unión,_Murcia", "rank": 26, "score": 104579 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 European Winter Throwing Challenge Content: The 2001 European Winter Throwing Challenge was held on 17 and 18 March at Stade Charles-Ehrmann in Nice , France . It was the first edition of the athletics competition for throwing events organised by the European Athletics Association . A total of 151 athletes from 22 countries entered the competition . The idea behind the creation of the challenge was to provide a venue for throwing athletes to compete during the European winter months . Indoor track and field competitions almost unanimously exclude long-distance throwing events . While colder climates are suitable for cross country running , most throwing athletes lacked a competitive outdoor venue during this period of the year . As a resolution , the European Athletics Association proposed the hosting of a throwing event to be held each March in the warmer areas of the continent . The competition featured men 's and women 's contests in shot put , discus throw , javelin throw and hammer throw . Athletes were seeded into `` A '' and `` B '' groups in several events due to the number of entries . In the points tally , Olga Kuzenkova , a Russian hammer thrower , delivered the best individual performance of the tournament , gaining 1164 points with her throw of . Spanish shot putter Manuel Martínez Gutiérrez produced the best mark in the men 's side , earning 1136 points for his throw of . Two national records were set during the competition , both in the women 's hammer throw ( an event which had only been added to the Olympic Games programme the previous year ) . Lorraine Shaw , third place overall , set a British record of and eighth-placed Cecilia Nilsson broke the Swedish record with her throw of . The inaugural edition of the event attracted a high calibre of participants , with ten Olympic or World Championships medallists in attendance . Three medallists in Nice went on to take medals on the global stage at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics later that year : women 's shot put winner Vita Pavlysh was the world bronze medallist , while Olga Kuzenkova and women 's discus winner Nicoleta Grasu were runner-up in their respective events .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2001_European_Winter_Throwing_Challenge", "rank": 27, "score": 104135 }, { "content": "Title: Córdoba, Spain Content: Córdoba ( -LSB- ˈkɔrdəbə -RSB- , -LSB- ˈkoɾðoβa -RSB- ) , also called Cordova ( -LSB- ˈkɔrdəvə -RSB- ) in English , is a city in Andalusia , southern Spain , and the capital of the province of Córdoba . It was a Roman settlement . It was conquered by Muslim armies in the eighth century , and then became the capital of the Islamic Emirate and then Caliphate of Córdoba , including most of the Iberian Peninsula . Caliph Al Hakam II opened many libraries in addition to the many medical schools and universities which existed at the time , making Córdoba a centre for education . During these centuries , Córdoba became a society ruled by Muslims , in which all other groups had a second-class status . It returned to Christian rule in 1236 , during the Reconquista . Today it is a moderately sized modern city ; its population in 2011 was about 330,000 . The historic centre was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Córdoba has the warmest summer high temperatures in Spain and Europe with average high temperatures around 37 C in July and similar heat in August .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Córdoba,_Spain", "rank": 28, "score": 102805 }, { "content": "Title: Otívar Content: Otívar is a municipality located at 267.80 metres above sea level in the Province of Granada , Spain . According to the 2004 census ( INE ) , the village has a population of 1113 inhabitants . Agriculture is Otívar ´ s predominant economic activity ( mainly tropical fruit ) however , due to the dramatic scenery of the surrounding mountains , a number of northern Europeans have discovered its charms and either take rural holidays here , or in a few cases have settled here and integrated with the local population . Otívar contains a cross between a subtropical micro climate and a coastal mediterranean climate , creating a perfect environment for the famous `` Níspero '' known in English as the `` loquat '' . The average yearly temperature is 14.80 ° C ( degrees Celsius ) . In the warmer months the average temperature is 28,80 ° C ( degrees Celsius ) and in the colder months the average temperature is 4,50 ° C ( degrees Celsius ) . The current mayor is Francisco Robles Carrascosa , from the political party of PP . This is the second consecutive term the mayor has won , after the PSOE ´ s defeat four years ago . Category : Municipalities in the Province of Granada Category : Populated places in the Province of Granada", "qid": "337", "docid": "Otívar", "rank": 29, "score": 102306 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Bilbao Content: Bilbao and its metropolitan area has an oceanic climate according to the Köppen climate classification ( Cfb ) with mild winters and warm summers . According to the Troll-Paffen climate classification , Bilbao has a temperate climate and according to the Siegmund/Frankenberg climate classification , Bilbao has a subtropical climate . According to the European Environment Agency , Bilbao lies within the Atlantic biogeographical region . The climate of Bilbao and the rest of the north-western part of Spain ( the so-called Green Spain ) is different from the rest of the country , characterized by a higher amount of rainfall and precipitation days , fewer sunshine hours and mild temperatures , in summer comparable to northern half of Europe with temperate climate .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Bilbao", "rank": 30, "score": 102012 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Andorra Content: Andorra is a small , landlocked country in southwestern Europe , located in the eastern Pyrenees mountain range and bordered by Spain and France . With an area of 468 km ² , it is the sixth smallest country in Europe and also the largest of the European microstates . Andorra consists predominantly of rugged mountains , the highest being the Coma Pedrosa at 2942 m , and the average elevation of Andorra is 1996 m . These are dissected by three narrow valleys in a Y shape that combine into one as the main stream , the Gran Valira river , leaves the country for Spain ( at Andorra 's lowest point of 840 m ) . Andorra 's climate is similar to that of its neighbours ' temperate climates , but its higher elevation means there is , on average , more snow in winter , lower humidity , and it is slightly cooler in summer . There are , on average , 300 days per year of sunshine . Phytogeographically , Andorra belongs to the Atlantic European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom . According to the WWF , the territory of Andorra belongs to the ecoregion of Pyrenees conifer and mixed forests . Landslides and avalanches are the main natural hazards . There are frequent earthquakes below Richter magnitude 2 . There is no historical record of any damaging earthquakes in Andorra , but the Andorran government has studied the possibility of a future one .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Geography_of_Andorra", "rank": 31, "score": 101996 }, { "content": "Title: Marin (wind) Content: The Marin is a warm , moist wind in the Gulf of Lion of France , blowing from the southeast or south-southeast onto the coast of Languedoc and Roussillon . It brings rain to this region which it has picked up crossing the Mediterranean , and also can bring coastal fog . The clouds carried by the Marin frequently cause rain on the slopes of the mountains in the interior , the Corbières , Montagne Noire , and the Cévennes . The wind is usually dried by the föhn effect when it crosses the mountains and descends on the other side . The Marin wind contributes to the creation of another regional wind , the autan . The Marin blows gently from the offshore coast of the Mediterranean towards the Cévennes and the Montagne Noire . When this occurs it creates fine weather for swimming in the gulf , but when the wind is strong it creates heavy swells which strike the coast with high breaking waves . The Marin is next in frequency and importance to the mistral , the cold , dry northwest wind in Provence . It is caused by low-pressure systems which enter the Gulf of Lion from the west or southwest after traversing southern France and northern Spain .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Marin_(wind)", "rank": 32, "score": 101938 }, { "content": "Title: UEFA Euro 2008 Final Content: The UEFA Euro 2008 Final was a football match that took place on 29 June 2008 at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna , Austria , to determine the winner of the UEFA Euro 2008 . Spain defeated Germany 1 -- 0 with a 33rd-minute goal from Fernando Torres . This was only the second time in European Championship history that the champions had won every match in the group stage ; the other team to do so was France in 1984 . Spain were also the first team since Germany in 1996 to win the tournament undefeated . Despite the one-goal margin of victory , it was a fairly dominant performance by Spain . The tournament 's closing ceremony was held immediately prior to kickoff , and featured 400 performers , including Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias , singing the tournament 's official song , `` Can You Hear Me '' .", "qid": "337", "docid": "UEFA_Euro_2008_Final", "rank": 33, "score": 101778 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Championships Content: The 2015 Rugby Europe Women 's Sevens Championships , also known as the 2015 Sevens Grand Prix Series , is an Olympic qualification tournament for Rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics which was held over two legs in the cities of Kazan and Brive . France won the 2015 Rugby Europe Women 's Sevens Championship , and qualified directly to the 2016 Summer Olympics . Russia finished second and qualified directly to the Final 2016 Women 's Olympic Qualification Tournament avoiding the Rugby Europe Repechage Tournament Belgium won the A Division Tournament and was promoted to the Top Division along with runner-up Finland for the 2016 Competition . They will replace Scotland and Germany who were both Relegated from the Top Division to Division A for the 2016 Competition . Denmark won the B Division Tournament and was promoted to Division A along with runner-up Israel for the 2016 Competition . They will replace Georgia and Lithuania who were both Relegated from Division A to Division B for the 2016 Competition . Spain won the European repechage tournament and qualified for the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in 2016 along with runner-up Ireland and third place Portugal .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2015_Rugby_Europe_Women's_Sevens_Championships", "rank": 34, "score": 101528 }, { "content": "Title: West Germany v France (1982 FIFA World Cup) Content: West Germany v France was a FIFA World Cup semi-final match that took place in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium in Seville , Spain on 8 July 1982 . The match was won by West Germany on penalty kicks ( 5 -- 4 ) ; West Germany advanced to face Italy in the final . Thanks to its back-and-forth drama , four goals in extra time , and a dramatic penalty shootout , this game is regarded not only as the best of the 1982 tournament , but one of the best World Cup games of all time . It is considered by French captain Michel Platini to be his `` most beautiful game . '' West Germany 's victory was the first time in World Cup finals history that a shootout determined the outcome .", "qid": "337", "docid": "West_Germany_v_France_(1982_FIFA_World_Cup)", "rank": 35, "score": 100803 }, { "content": "Title: Monségur Content: Monségur is a bastide town in the Gironde in France , about 75km ( 46miles ) upriver from Bordeaux in the low rolling vineyard country between the River Garonne in the South and the River Dordogne in the North . . The town -- its names means `` hill of safety '' -- was founded by charter of Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1265 . The layout follows a classic bastide design , with a town square surrounded by arches , narrow streets , parallel back lanes and ramparts . The current ( 2013 ) population is 1,469 . The town of Monségur is located in the township of Monségur part of the district of Langon . The area code for Monségur is 33289 ( also known as code INSEE ) . The zip code of the town of Monségur is 33580 . August is warmest with an average temperature of 79.16 ° F at noon . January is coldest with an average temperature of 33.8 ° F at night . Monségur has temperate cold and warm seasons , like winters and summers . Temperatures drop sharply at night . Winter can have some frost days , with the coldest month most often being January . August is on average the month with most sunshine . Rainfall and other precipitation has no distinct peak month . The town hosts festivals throughout the year , including the Fete des Fleurs every April . The most famous annual event in surely the 24 heures du Swing de Monśegur , which has been drawing enthusiasts from all over France since 1988 . For three days in July , visitors of all ages , shapes and sizes swing to the rhythm of swing jazz in a series of concerts , most held in the square . The opening ceremony is accompanied by a musical parade through the town . Monségur is the name or part of the name of the following communes in France : Monségur , Gironde , in the Gironde department Monségur , Landes , in the Landes department Monségur , Lot-et-Garonne , in the Lot-et-Garonne department Monségur , Pyrénées-Atlantiques , in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Cours-de-Monségur , in the Gironde department Saint-Vivien-de-Monségur , in the Gironde department", "qid": "337", "docid": "Monségur", "rank": 36, "score": 100485 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 European Athletics Championships – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay Content: The men 's 4 x 100 metres relay at the 2010 European Athletics Championships was held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys on 31 July and 1 August . Shortly after heat 2 , it seemed that three teams ( France , Poland and Switzerland ) would qualify from heat 1 , and five teams ( Germany , Italy , Portugal , Russia and Spain ) from heat 2 , including Italy that finished second . However , it was announced that Italian team was disqualified , and subsequently Finnish team qualified from heat 1 to final . Later on , Italy made successful protest against Russia , so that Russia was disqualified and Italy proceeded to final .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2010_European_Athletics_Championships_–_Men's_4_×_100_metres_relay", "rank": 37, "score": 100171 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 38, "score": 100060 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Muscat Content: The climate of Muscat features a hot , arid climate with long and very hot summers and mild winters . Annual rainfall in Muscat is about 100 mm ( 4 in ) , falling mostly from December to April . In general , precipitation is scarce in Muscat with several months , on average , seeing only a trace of rainfall . The climate is very hot , with temperatures reaching as high as 49 ° C ( 120 ° F ) in the summer . For sightseeing , the best time to visit Muscat is from December to March as the temperatures are moderate and pleasant , making it easy to move around . Between mid-March and October , travel is very exhausting with the average temperature between 31 ° C to 38 ° C and sunburn and dehydration are possible .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Muscat", "rank": 39, "score": 99806 }, { "content": "Title: Llevantades Content: Gales from between north-north-east and east-north-east are the most important gales of the east coast of Spain . They are known locally as llevantades ( in Catalan ) and are an intense form of the llevant or levanter , i.e. , north-easterly winds of long fetch , as opposed to diurnal coastal breezes . These gales are most frequent and dangerous in spring and autumn ( February to May and October to December ) , and are generally associated with slow-moving depressions crossing the Mediterranean between France and Algeria .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Llevantades", "rank": 40, "score": 99517 }, { "content": "Title: Il était temps Content: `` Il était temps '' ( English translation : `` It Was Time '' ) was the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 , performed in French by Virginie Pouchain . Despite France 's poor result in the 2005 Contest , their status ( along with Spain , Germany and the United Kingdom ) as one of the `` Big Four '' guaranteed the song a final berth . Thus , it was performed nineteenth on the night ( following Ukraine 's Tina Karol with `` Show Me Your Love '' and preceding Croatia 's Severina Vučković with `` Moja štikla '' ) . At the close of voting , it had received 5 points , placing 22nd in a field of 24 . Pouchain had originally been given the song `` Vous , c'est nous '' to perform at the Contest . The change came about via the French pre-selection being separate for the singer and the song . Composer and lyricist Corneille believed that the original song was more suited to a male singer , and wrote `` Il était temps '' specifically for Pouchain . The song is a minor-key ballad , with Pouchain singing that her chance to be remembered had finally come , and that she needed to seize it with both hands . She sings that , even if her chance came to nothing , she will be able to tell her children about it . Musically , Pouchain was accompanied by British cellist/composer Matheson Bayley ( who had previously written `` Stronger Every Minute '' for Cyprus at the 2004 Contest ) . It has been reported that Pouchain 's vocals were out of key . It was succeeded as French representative at the 2007 Contest by Les Fatals Picards with `` L'amour à la française '' .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Il_était_temps", "rank": 41, "score": 99277 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Mediterranean wildfires Content: The 2009 Mediterranean wildfires were a series of wildfires that broke out across France , Greece , Italy , Spain , and Turkey in July 2009 . Strong winds spread the fire during a hot , dry period of weather killing at least eight people , six of whom were in Spain . Some of the wildfires were caused by lightning , along with arson and military training .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2009_Mediterranean_wildfires", "rank": 42, "score": 99158 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "337", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 43, "score": 98675 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Lothar and Martin Content: Lothar and Martin were violent European windstorms which swept across western and central Europe during a period of 36 hours in December 1999 . The storms caused major damage in France , southern Germany , Switzerland , and Italy . Throughout the affected region , 140 people were killed and damage was estimated at $ 9.9 billion . Both of these storms were associated with an intense jet stream aloft and benefitted from latent heat release through atmosphere-ocean exchange processes . Lothar and Martin together left 3.4 million customers in France without electricity , and forced EdF to acquire all the available portable power generators in Europe , with some even being brought in from Canada . These storms brought down a quarter of France 's high-tension transmission lines and 300 high-voltage transmission pylons were toppled . It was one of the greatest energy disruptions ever experienced by a modern developed country .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Cyclone_Lothar_and_Martin", "rank": 44, "score": 98249 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 45, "score": 97979 }, { "content": "Title: Fabero Content: Fabero ( Fabeiro in Galician language ) is a small town in the province of Leon and part of the `` Castilla y Leon Autonomia '' in north west Spain , near Galicia , with a population of about 5000 inhabitants . The climate is continental , with hot and dry summer that can reach 36 ° C though only in the daytime ; it is generally cool in the evenings because of the surrounding mountains . Rainy autumns and cold winters are common .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Fabero", "rank": 46, "score": 97838 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "337", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 47, "score": 97545 }, { "content": "Title: Spanish plume Content: The Spanish Plume ( Penacho Ibérico in Spanish and Spaanse Pluim in Dutch ) is a weather pattern in which a plume of warm air moves from the Iberian plateau or the Sahara to northwest Europe giving rise to severe thunderstorms . This meteorological pattern can lead to extreme high temperatures and intense rainfall during the summer months , with potential for flash flooding , damaging hail storms and tornado formation .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Spanish_plume", "rank": 48, "score": 97543 }, { "content": "Title: Cold drop Content: The cold drop ( gota fría ) is a weather phenomenon often occurring in the Spanish autumn . It is experienced particularly along the western Mediterranean and as such , most frequently affects the east coast of Spain . It is a closed upper-level low which has become completely displaced ( cut off ) from basic westerly current , and moves independently of that current . Cutoff lows may remain nearly stationary for days , or on occasion may move westward opposite to the prevailing flow aloft ( i.e. , retrogression ) . The term is also used to describe the meteorological phenomenon associated . In Spain , it appears when a front of very cold polar air , a jet stream , advances slowly over Western Europe , at high altitude ( normally 5 -- 9 km or 3 -- 5.5 mi ) .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Cold_drop", "rank": 49, "score": 97040 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of London Content: London , the capital and largest city in England and the United Kingdom has a temperate oceanic climate , with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year . Summer temperatures rarely rise much above 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) , though higher temperatures have become more common recently . The highest temperature ever recorded in London was 38.1 ° C ( 100.6 ° F ) , measured at Kew Gardens during the European Heat Wave of 2003 . In modern times , heavy snowfalls have been infrequent with snow generally only settling once or twice each winter and accumulations usually of no more than an inch ( 2.5 cm ) or so . Despite its reputation as being a rainy city , London receives less precipitation ( 601 mm ( 24 in ) in a year ) , than Rome , Bordeaux , Toulouse , Naples and less than half the precipitation of Sydney or New York City . This is despite the fact that sub-tropical regions usually receive fewer rainy or overcast days . London 's large built-up area creates a microclimate ( an `` urban heat island '' ) , with heat stored by the city 's buildings . Sometimes temperatures are 5 ° C ( 9 ° F ) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_London", "rank": 50, "score": 96854 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 European floods Content: In late May and early June 2016 flooding began after several days of heavy rain in Europe , mostly Germany and France , but also Austria , Belgium , Romania , Moldova , Netherlands and the United Kingdom . Among others , the German states of Bavaria , Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate , Baden-Württemberg , and North Rhine-Westphalia were affected . Beginning at the river Neckar , the Danube , Rhine , Seine and their tributaries were highly affected by high water and flooding along their banks . At least 20 people have died to date .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2016_European_floods", "rank": 51, "score": 96615 }, { "content": "Title: FIBA EuroBasket 2011 Final Content: The EuroBasket 2011 final was the championship game of EuroBasket 2011 played at the Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas , Lithuania on 18 September between Spain and France . By virtue of FIBA Europe 's two outright berths in the 2012 Summer Olympic basketball tournament , both finalists qualified for the 2012 London Games . The defending European champions Spain qualified to the final after topping their preliminary round group , winning their second round group , and beating Slovenia and Macedonia in the final round . France , in their first EuroBasket final , also topped their preliminary round group , finished second in their second round group behind Spain , and defeated Greece and Russia in the final round . The Spanish team retained their European championship with a 98 -- 85 win . Guard Juan Carlos Navarro was named tournament MVP . He joined his teammate Pau Gasol and opponent Tony Parker as members of the all-tournament team who played in the final . Macedonia 's Bo McCalebb and Russia 's Andrei Kirilenko were also named to the team .", "qid": "337", "docid": "FIBA_EuroBasket_2011_Final", "rank": 52, "score": 96564 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 53, "score": 96329 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Quinten Content: Quinten was a European windstorm that swept across France , Belgium , Germany and Switzerland on February 9 -- 10 , 2009 . Wind speeds reached more than 160 km/h on some mountains .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Cyclone_Quinten", "rank": 54, "score": 96154 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Allentown, Pennsylvania Content: The climate of Allentown , Pennsylvania is classified as being in the transition between a humid continental and humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Dfa/Cfa , respectively ) , although lying closer to the former . Allentown 's warmest month ( on average ) is July with a daily average temperature of 73.4 ° F and the coldest month ( on average ) being January with a daily average of 27.8 ° F . The average precipitation of Allentown is 45.35 in per year . Allentown occasionally has some severe weather , mostly thunderstorms and flooding . Winters can bring snow , with some years receiving very little of it while others seeing several major snowstorms ( often Nor'easter s ) . Winter also brings the more dangerous ice , sleet , and freezing rain , which has caused several traffic accidents over the years . Tropical storms and hurricanes occasionally survive up the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and cross into Pennsylvania . Storms such as Hurricane Ivan and more recently Hurricane Sandy have caused light to severe damage in the area .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Allentown,_Pennsylvania", "rank": 55, "score": 96042 }, { "content": "Title: Cers (wind) Content: The Cers , also called the Narbonnais by those who live southeast of Narbonne , is a very dry wind that is colder during the winter and warmer during the summer . Originating from moist Atlantic air-masses flowing across the Toulouse area , the Cers is intensified through the Lauragais gap . Cers winds are frequent across the Aude region in south-western France . Exceptionally red sunsets and lenticularis clouds usually herald the onset of the Cers . It is closely related to the Mistral , but the term Cers refers specifically to the very strong wind in the bas-Languedoc . The opposite to this wind type is the Marin a south east wind which occurs across the Iberian Peninsula .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Cers_(wind)", "rank": 56, "score": 95939 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Alliance Content: Climate Alliance of European Cities with Indigenous Rainforest Peoples is a network of local authorities founded in 1990 and committed to the protection of the world 's climate . The European Secretariat of Climate Alliance is based in Frankfurt am Main , Germany . Climate Alliance has members in Austria , Belgium , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Bulgaria , Croatia , Czech Republic , Denmark , France , Georgia , Germany , Hungary , Italy , Luxembourg , Macedonia , Netherlands , Poland , Portugal , Romania , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland and Ukraine .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_Alliance", "rank": 57, "score": 95886 }, { "content": "Title: January 2017 European cold wave Content: A period of exceptionally cold and snowy winter weather in January 2017 occurred in Eastern and Central Europe . In some areas , flights and shipping services were suspended , and there was major disruption to power supplies and other essential infrastructure . The weather was the result of stationary high pressure over western Europe , resulting in strong winds circulating from Russia and Scandinavia towards eastern Europe . On 9 January , the Continental Arctic ( cA ) air mass extended from Germany across the Balkans , resulting in deep snow in Greece and strong bora winds affecting Croatia in particular . In addition , heavy snow in central and Southern Italy was the result of cold air flowing across the warmer Adriatic Sea . At least 61 deaths were attributed to the cold wave .", "qid": "337", "docid": "January_2017_European_cold_wave", "rank": 58, "score": 95819 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Budapest Content: The Climate of Budapest is humid continental . Winter ( December until early March ) is by far the coldest and cloudiest time of year . Snowfall is fairly frequent in most years , and nighttime temperatures of − 15 ° C ( 5 ° F ) are not uncommon from mid-December until mid-February . The spring months ( March and April ) see variable conditions , with a rapid increase in the average temperature . Budapest 's summer , lasting from June until September , is the warmest time of year . Budapest has as much summer sunshine as many Mediterranean resorts . Sudden heavy showers also occur , particularly in May and June . The autumn in Budapest ( mid-September until late October ) is characterized by less rain than in summer and long sunny days .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Budapest", "rank": 59, "score": 95810 }, { "content": "Title: Spring 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The Spring of 2011 in the United Kingdom was exceptional for the warm weather which occurred during April and the dry weather which was persistent during March and April in certain parts of the UK . April was statistically the warmest and driest in the country since records began in 1910 . There was a contrast between north-western parts of the UK which received substantial amounts of rainfall and south-eastern parts which received very little . As lack of rainfall continued in many parts during May , concerns arose that the country could submit to drought . High pressure was the cause for the warm , dry weather experienced during April . A high temperature of 27.8 ° C was recorded on 23 April at Wisley , Surrey , the highest temperature recorded in April in the UK since 1949 . Thus , the Central England Temperature for the month was 3.7 ° C above the 1971-2000 average , and daily maximum temperatures were up to 6 ° C higher than average .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Spring_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 60, "score": 95783 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature in Canada Content:", "qid": "337", "docid": "Temperature_in_Canada", "rank": 61, "score": 95585 }, { "content": "Title: Griegos Content: Griegos is a municipality located in the province of Teruel , Aragon , Spain . According to the 2004 census ( INE ) , the municipality has a population of 137 inhabitants . The climate is continental Mediterranean , characterized by long , cold winters with little snow though , where temperatures can stay several days at -15 degrees Celsius or less . The summers are mild and some days it is possible to achieve zero temperatures in midsummer .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Griegos", "rank": 62, "score": 95402 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Europe Content: Europe lies Oceanic climate , far southern Europe is a Mediterranean climate in the south , and eastern Europe is classified as Continental climate . The climate of western Europe is strongly conditioned by the Gulf Stream , which keeps mild air ( for the latitude ) over Northwestern Europe in the winter months , especially in Ireland , the UK and coastal Norway . Parts of the central European plains have a hybrid oceanic/continental climate . Four seasons occur in Eastern Europe , while southern Europe experiences distinct wet season and dry seasons , with prevailing hot and dry conditions during the summer months . The", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Europe", "rank": 63, "score": 95320 }, { "content": "Title: 1975 European Cup Final Content: The 1975 European Cup Final was a football match between Bayern Munich of Germany and Leeds United of England on 28 May 1975 at the Parc des Princes , Paris . It was the final match of the 1974 -- 75 season of Europe 's premier cup competition , the European Cup . Bayern Munich were appearing in their second final ; they had won the previous season 's competition , beating Spanish team Atlético Madrid 4 -- 0 in a replay after the first match finished 1 -- 1 . Leeds were appearing in their first final . As champions , Bayern Munich received a bye in the first round , while Leeds progressed through four rounds to reach the final . Bayern 's matches were generally close affairs , they beat Soviet team Ararat Yerevan 2 -- 1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals and won their semi-final tie against French team Saint-Étienne 2 -- 0 on aggregate . Leeds matches ranged from close affairs to comfortable victories . They beat Hungarian team Újpest 5 -- 1 on aggregate in the second round , while they beat Barcelona of Spain 3 -- 2 on aggregate in the semi-final . Bayern Munich went into the match as favourites , because they were the reigning champions . Watched by a crowd of 48,374 , Leeds had the best of the opening exchanges of the match and had two appeals for a penalty kick turned down by the referee Michel Kitabdjian . Bayern suffered two injuries in the first half to defender Björn Andersson and striker Uli Hoeneß , following strong tackles by Leeds players . A Peter Lorimer goal was disallowed for Leeds in the 62nd minute , when Billy Bremner was adjudged to be offside . Franz Roth scored in the 71st minute for Bayern and Gerd Müller extended the lead ten minutes later , to secure a 2 -- 0 victory for Bayern . It was Bayern 's second consecutive victory in the competition , although they failed to retain their Bundesliga title , finishing in 10th place . Riots by the Leeds fans during the match led to UEFA banning the club from European competition for four years , although this was reduced to two years on appeal .", "qid": "337", "docid": "1975_European_Cup_Final", "rank": 64, "score": 95317 }, { "content": "Title: Solano (wind) Content: The Solano is a south to south-easterly wind in the southern sector of Spain . In the spring and summer , from June to September , it carries hot , dry , suffocating weather over La Mancha and the Andalusian plain with the cities of Sevilla and Cádiz . It is also known as the Levant . Category : Winds pl : Solano", "qid": "337", "docid": "Solano_(wind)", "rank": 65, "score": 95313 }, { "content": "Title: Ignacio de la Llave (Municipality) Content: The current municipality of Ignacio de la Llave , previously known as San Cristobal de la Llave , is placed in the popularly known region of La Mixtequilla , which is located in the western limit of the Papaloapan river , going through the Blanco , Limón and Las Pozas rivers . The climate of the region varie between hot-humid and tropical-humid , with frequent summer rains between July and September . The average temperature is from 64 and 72 ºF , with a maximum registered in the hi 70 ºF and the lowest in the hi 40 ºF . Ignacio de la Llave is neighbor and has deep political , social and trading relationships with : Alvarado , Acula , Ixmatlahuacan , Tlalixcoyan and Tierra Blanca . The municipality celebrates its carnival in the month of March were music , dances and joy are spread by its inhabitants .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Ignacio_de_la_Llave_(Municipality)", "rank": 66, "score": 95255 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2009–10 in Europe Content: The winter of 2009 -- 2010 in Europe was unusually cold . Globally , unusual weather patterns brought cold , moist air from the north . Weather systems were undergoing cyclogenesis from North American storms moving across the Atlantic Ocean to the west , and saw many parts of Europe experiencing heavy snowfall and record-low temperatures . This led to a number of deaths , widespread transport disruption , power failures and postponed sporting events .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Winter_of_2009–10_in_Europe", "rank": 67, "score": 95194 }, { "content": "Title: Souday Content: Souday is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department in central France . Souday , a commune of the Loir-et-Cher in central France , is situated 84 kilometres south west of Paris and only 45 minutes by TGV train from nearby Vendôme . At 165 metres altitude , the village of Souday is built on a chalk plateau which is overlain by a sandy flint clay supporting profitable mixed agriculture . The average rainfall is 800 mm annually , with temperatures ranging from -18 to +42 degrees C. Extensive deciduous forest , pastures and roadside verges support a wide range of flora and fauna including wild pigs and deer . Spring is heralded by carpets of wild snowdrops followed in quick succession by bluebells , cowslips and wild orchids in the wooded valleys of the rivers Braye , Couetron and Grenne . The earliest houses in the village are timber framed , followed by flint construction and later with locally made bricks . The church of St Pierre dates back to the 9th century and the two chateaux outside the village date from the 15th and 19th centuries . The population was 563 at the last census , 465 of whom are over 18 years of age . The small village primary school accommodates 75 children , some of whom come by bus from outlying villages and farms . Facilities in the village include a restaurant , petrol station and bar , a main dealer garage , unisex hairdresser , grocery shop/post office , bakers and butchers . There is a campsite for tents and caravans with a shower block and electricity points . Outdoor activities include fishing , good walking on marked routes and cycling on quiet roads . There is a pony club , several football teams serving all ages , a village band and a hunting club .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Souday", "rank": 68, "score": 95029 }, { "content": "Title: Segarra Content: Segarra is a comarca ( county ) in Catalonia , Spain , situated on a high plain . Historically , the name referred to a larger area than the current comarca . It has a continental climate , with cold winters and hot summers , and between 350 and 450 mm ( 15-18 inches ) of rainfall per year . It is a grain-growing region , with some pine woods and a few evergreen oaks .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Segarra", "rank": 69, "score": 94753 }, { "content": "Title: Vernet-les-Bains Content: Vernet-les-Bains is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France . It is a centre for visitors and holidaymakers . The village enjoys a sunny climate ( with , on average , 300 days of sunshine each year ) and is set in a sheltered valley in the foothills of the Canigou mountain - which rises to a height of 2,785 metres ( over 9,000 feet ) . Tranquil and restful , Vernet-les-Bains has long been known for its hot water spring . There is a professional spa/therapy centre in the village .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Vernet-les-Bains", "rank": 70, "score": 94639 }, { "content": "Title: Mistral (wind) Content: The mistral ( Mestral , Μαΐστρος ) is a strong , cold , northwesterly wind that blows from southern France into the Gulf of Lion in the northern Mediterranean , with sustained winds often exceeding 66 kph , sometimes reaching 185 kph . It is most common in the winter and spring , and strongest in the transition between the two seasons . Periods of the wind exceeding 30 kph for more than sixty-five hours have been reported . In France , it refers to a violent , cold , north or northwest wind that accelerates when it passes through the valleys of the Rhone and the Durance Rivers to the coast of the Mediterranean around the Camargue region . It affects the northeast of the plain of Languedoc and Provence to the east of Toulon , where it is felt as a strong west wind . It has a major influence all along the Mediterranean coast of France , and often causes sudden storms in the Mediterranean between Corsica and the Balearic Islands . The name mistral comes from the Languedoc dialect of the Occitan and means `` masterly '' . The same wind is called mistrau in the Provençal variant of Occitan , mestral in Catalan , maestrale in Italian and Corsican , maistràle or bentu maestru in Sardinian , and majjistral in Maltese . The mistral is usually accompanied by clear , fresh weather , and it plays an important role in creating the climate of Provence . It can reach speeds of more than 90 kph , particularly in the Rhone Valley . Its average speed during the day can reach about 50 kph , calming noticeably at night . The mistral usually blows in winter or spring , though it occurs in all seasons . It sometimes lasts only one or two days , frequently lasts several days , and sometimes lasts more than a week .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Mistral_(wind)", "rank": 71, "score": 94069 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 72, "score": 93991 }, { "content": "Title: Tierra fría Content: In Latin America , tierra fría ( Spanish for cold land ) are mountain locations where high elevation results in a markedly cooler climate than that encountered in the lowlands at a comparable latitude . The combination of low latitude and high altitude -- typically between approximately 6,000 ft ( about 1,850 m ) and 10,000 ft ( about 3,600 m ) in locations within 10 ° of the equator -- produces a climate that falls into the same category as many oceanic climates found along the west coasts of the continents within the temperate zones -- mild temperatures all year round , with monthly averages ranging from about 10 ° C ( 50 ° F ) in the coldest months to about 18 ° C ( 64.4 ° F ) in the warmest months ( at places further poleward the range of altitudes where this climate exists becomes progressively lower ) . Common crops grown in the tierra fría are potatoes , wheat , barley , oats , corn , and rye . Beyond the tierra fría is a region known as the suni , puna , or páramos ; near the Equator this encompasses places with altitudes of between roughly 12,000 ft ( 3,600 m ) and 15,000 ft ( 4,500 m ) , representing the treeline and the snow line respectively . Vegetation here resembles that found in the tundra of the polar regions . Still higher is the tierra nevada , where permanent snow and ice prevail . The Peruvian geographer Javier Pulgar Vidal ( Altitudinal zonation ) used following altitudes : 2,300 m ( end of the Cloud forest or Yunga fluvial ) , 3,500 m ( Treeline ) and 4,800 m ( Puna end ) . Some of Latin America 's largest cities are found in the tierra fria , most notably Bogotá , Colombia , altitude 2,640 m , Mexico City , Mexico , altitude 2,240 m and Quito , Ecuador , altitude 2,850 m ; all three cities are also the capitals of those respective countries . Agriculture in the region resembles that which is conducted in valley areas in the temperate zones , featuring such crops as barley and potatoes .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Tierra_fría", "rank": 73, "score": 93975 }, { "content": "Title: London Underground cooling Content: In summer , temperatures on parts of the London Underground can become very uncomfortable due to its deep and poorly ventilated tube tunnels : temperatures as high as 47 ° C ( 116 ° F ) were reported in the 2006 European heat wave . Posters may be observed on the Underground network advising that passengers carry a bottle of water to help keep cool .", "qid": "337", "docid": "London_Underground_cooling", "rank": 74, "score": 93928 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 75, "score": 93887 }, { "content": "Title: Las Palmas Content: Las Palmas ( -LSB- ˌlɑːs_ˈpɑːlməs -RSB- or -LSB- ˌlɑːs_ˈpɑːməs -RSB- , -LSB- las ˈpalmas -RSB- , -LSB- laʰ ˈpalmaʰ -RSB- ) , officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria , is a city and capital of Gran Canaria island , in the Canary Islands , off the northwestern coast of Africa . It is the co-capital ( jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife ) , the most populous city in the autonomous community of the Canary Islands , and the ninth largest city in Spain with a population of 383,308 in 2010 . It is also the fifth most populous urban area in Spain and ( depending on sources ) ninth or tenth most populous metropolitan area in Spain . Las Palmas is located in the northeastern part of the island of Gran Canaria , about 150 km off the Moroccan coast in the Atlantic Ocean . It enjoys a very mild and pleasant semi-arid climateThe World map of Koppen-Geiger climate classification highly influenced by the Atlantic , with warm temperatures throughout the year.It has an average annual temperature of 21.3 ° C . According to a study carried out by Thomas Whitmore , director of research on climatology at Syracuse University in the U.S. , Las Palmas enjoys `` the best climate in the world '' . The city was founded in 1478 , and considered the de facto ( without legal recognition ) capital of the Canary Islands until the seventeenth century . It is the home of the Canarian Ministry of Presidency ( shared in a four-year term with Santa Cruz de Tenerife ) , as well as half of the Ministries and Boards of the Canarian Government , and the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands . It is the judicial and commercial capital of the Canary Islands , and is also home to a large part of the executive power .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Las_Palmas", "rank": 76, "score": 93690 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of the Arctic Content: The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long , cold winters and short , cool summers . There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic , but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter . Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice ( sea ice , glacial ice , or snow ) year-round , and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface . Average January temperatures range from about − 34 ° C to 0 ° C ( − 40 to +32 ° F ) , and winter temperatures can drop below − 50 ° C ( − 58 ° F ) over large parts of the Arctic . Average July temperatures range from about − 10 to +10 ° C ( 14 to 50 ° F ) , with some land areas occasionally exceeding 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) in summer . The Arctic consists of ocean that is largely surrounded by land . As such , the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water , which can never have a temperature below − 2 ° C ( 28 ° F ) . In winter , this relatively warm water , even though covered by the polar ice pack , keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere , and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic . In summer , the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_the_Arctic", "rank": 77, "score": 93512 }, { "content": "Title: Province of Segovia Content: Segovia ( -LSB- seˈɣoβja -RSB- ) is a province of central/northern Spain , in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León . It is bordered by the province of Burgos in the north , Soria in the northeast , Guadalajara in the east , Madrid in the south , Ávila in the west and southwest , and Valladolid in the northwest . The average temperature ranges from 10 ° C to 20 ° C.", "qid": "337", "docid": "Province_of_Segovia", "rank": 78, "score": 93512 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 79, "score": 93211 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Barcelona Content: Barcelona and its metropolitan area have a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification : Cfa ) , bordering a Mediterranean climate ( Csa ) with mild winters and hot summers . According to Troll-Paffen climate classification , Barcelona has a warm-temperate subtropical climate ( Warmgemäßigt-subtropisches Zonenklima ) . According to Siegmund/Frankenberg climate classification , Barcelona has a subtropical climate . Barcelona is located on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula , so Atlantic west winds often arrive in Barcelona with low humidity , producing no rain . The proximity of the Atlantic , its latitude , and the relief , are the reasons why the summers are not as dry as in most other Mediterranean Basin locations .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Barcelona", "rank": 80, "score": 93102 }, { "content": "Title: Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 Content: As a `` Big 4 '' member ( the four biggest financial contributors of the contest ) , Germany qualifies directly for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 alongside last year 's winner Serbia and the three other `` Big 4 '' members . France , Spain and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Germany_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest_2008", "rank": 81, "score": 93007 }, { "content": "Title: Fennec (climate program) Content: Fennec is a large-scale , international , multi-institutional , multi-platform , observational , modelling and satellite climate program in the Saharan Heat Low region ( southern Algeria , eastern Morocco , Northern Mauritania , Northern Mali and Northern Niger ) . The Saharan Heat Low is a key component of the West African Monsoon and is the location of the largest mineral aerosol loadings on the planet in the northern summer . The inhospitable , vast area of the Heat Low has virtually no routine meteorological observations . Knowledge of the key atmospheric processes in this important region is therefore very limited and this knowledge deficit results in reduced performance of both weather and climate prediction in and well beyond the north/west African region . The Fennec project is designed to address this knowledge deficit . It is the first major climate program in the central Sahara . The ideas for Fennec , which is a British , French and German initiative , grew out of the African Multidisciplinary Monsoon Analysis ( AMMA ) . Fennec is the project name -- it is not an acronym .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Fennec_(climate_program)", "rank": 82, "score": 92947 }, { "content": "Title: List of extreme temperatures in France Content: Here is a list of the hottest and coldest temperatures ever recorded in various locations in the metropolitan regions of France since 1870 , as well as of the extreme maximum and minimum temperature recorded in its overseas departments and territories .", "qid": "337", "docid": "List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_France", "rank": 83, "score": 92832 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 84, "score": 92788 }, { "content": "Title: EuroBasket 2015 Content: FIBA EuroBasket 2015 was the 39th annual edition of the EuroBasket championship that is organised by FIBA Europe . It took place in four different countries ( Croatia , France , Germany , and Latvia ) , making it the first EuroBasket held in more than one country . It started on 5 September and ended on 20 September . The top two teams ( and ) qualified to the 2016 Summer Olympics . The next five teams ( , , , and the ) advanced to the World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments . and later qualified due to Serbia and Italy hosting two of the Olympic qualifying tournaments while also qualified as an invitee . Spain won their third title by defeating Lithuania 80 -- 63 in the final . France won bronze on home soil defeating Serbia ( 81 -- 68 ) .", "qid": "337", "docid": "EuroBasket_2015", "rank": 85, "score": 92718 }, { "content": "Title: Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest Content: Spain has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 57 times since making its debut in , where they finished ninth . Since , Spain is one of the `` Big Five '' , along with France , Germany , Italy and the United Kingdom , who are automatically allowed to participate in the final because they are the five biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union . Spain has competed in the contest continuously since the country 's debut in 1961 . The only country with a longer run of uninterrupted Eurovision appearances is the United Kingdom , ever-present since 1959 . Spain has won the contest twice , first in 1968 with the song `` La , la , la '' sung by Massiel and again in 1969 , when Salomé 's `` Vivo cantando '' was involved in a four way tie with Lulu 's `` Boom Bang-a-Bang '' , representing the United Kingdom , Frida Boccara 's `` Un jour , un enfant '' , representing France , and Lennie Kuhr 's `` De troubadour '' '' , representing the Netherlands . The 1969 contest in Madrid is the only time Spain has hosted the event , since lots were drawn after 1969 's four way tie and the contest was hosted by the Netherlands . Spain has also finished second in the contest four times , with Karina in , Mocedades in , Betty Missiego in and Anabel Conde in , and third in with Bravo . The country finished last with `` Nul points '' three times : in , and , and also finished last in and . Spain has had less success in recent years , failing to reach the top 10 in 11 of the last 13 contests ( 2005 -- 2017 ) . The exceptions being 10th-place finishes for Pastora Soler in and Ruth Lorenzo in .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Spain_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest", "rank": 86, "score": 92608 }, { "content": "Title: UEFA Euro 2008 Content: The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship , commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008 , was the 13th UEFA European Football Championship , a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations . It took place in Austria and Switzerland ( both hosting the tournament for the first time ) from 7 to 29 June 2008 . The tournament was won by Spain , who defeated Germany 1 -- 0 in the final . Spain were only the second nation to win all their group stage fixtures and then the European Championship itself - an accomplishment matched by France in 1984 . Spain were also the first team since Germany in 1996 to win the tournament undefeated . Greece were the defending champions going into the tournament , having won UEFA Euro 2004 . They recorded the worst finish in Euro 2008 , losing their three group fixtures and collecting the least amount of prize money . Throughout 31 matches , the participating nations totalled 77 goals , the same as the previous tournament . Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified as hosts ; the remaining 14 teams were determined through qualifying matches , which began in August 2006 . As European champions , Spain earned the right to compete for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa .", "qid": "337", "docid": "UEFA_Euro_2008", "rank": 87, "score": 92542 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Rugby Europe Men's Sevens Championships Content: The 2015 Rugby Europe Men 's Sevens Championships , also known as the 2015 Sevens Grand Prix Series , is an Olympic qualification tournament for Rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics which will be held over three legs in the cities of Moscow , Lyon and Exeter . The top team will qualify directly to the Olympic Games , whereas the runner-up will qualify to the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in 2016 . France won the 2015 Rugby Europe Men 's Sevens Championship , and qualified directly to the 2016 Summer Olympics . Spain finished second and qualified directly to the Final 2016 Men 's Olympic Qualification Tournament avoiding the Rugby Europe Repechage Tournament Poland won the A Division Tournament and was promoted to the Top Division for the 2016 Competition . They will replace Romania who was Relegated from the Top Division to Division A for the 2016 Competition . Ireland won the B Division Tournament and was promoted to Division A along with runner-up Serbia for the 2016 Competition . They will replace Hungary and either Denmark or Sweden ( Tiebreaker TBD ) who were both Relegated from Division A to Division B for the 2016 Competition . Due to Olympic Qualification procedures , Relegation for Division C will be determined prior to next year based on the number of countries who enter . Russia won the European repechage tournament and qualified for the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in 2016 along with runner-up Germany and third place Ireland .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2015_Rugby_Europe_Men's_Sevens_Championships", "rank": 88, "score": 92402 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 North India cold wave Content: North India was devastated by a cold wave during the month of January 2017 . This occurrence had a severe effect on several North Indian states , including Himachal Pradesh , Jammu and Kashmir , Punjab , Harayana , Rajasthan , and Uttar Pradesh . The lowest temperature in Gulmarg due to the cold wave was recorded at -12.4 C . The banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar froze . Keylong of Himachal Pradesh and Kargil of Jammu and Kashmir witnessed low temperatures of -13.9 C and -15.6 C respectively . At least 40 people have died as a result of the cold front . Several army camps in Kashmir bound sectors were damaged and many people died in avalanches in Kashmir districts near the Line of Control during the last few days of January 2017 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2017_North_India_cold_wave", "rank": 89, "score": 92247 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Kolkata Content: Kolkata has a Tropical wet-and-dry climate ( Köppen climate classification Aw ) . The annual mean temperature is 24.8 ° C ( 80 ° F ) ; monthly mean temperatures range from 15 ° C to 30 ° C ( 59 ° F to 86 ° F ) . Summers are hot and humid with temperatures in the low 30 's and during dry spells the maximum temperatures often exceed 40 ° C ( 104 ° F ) during May and June . Winter tends to last for only about two and a half months , with seasonal lows dipping to 9 ° C -- 11 ° C ( 48.2 ° F -- 51.8 ° F ) between December and January . The highest recorded temperature is 43.9 ° C ( 111 ° F ) and the lowest is 3 ° C ( 37.4 ° F ) . Often during early summer , dusty squalls followed by spells of thunderstorm and heavy rains lash the city , bringing relief from the humid heat . These thunderstorms are convective in nature , and is locally known as Kal baisakhi ( কালবৈশাখী , Nor ` westers ) . Rains brought by the Bay of Bengal branch of South-West monsoon lash the city between June and September and supplies the city with most of its annual rainfall of 1,582 mm ( 62.3 inches ) . The highest rainfall occurs during the monsoon in August ( 306 mm ) . The city receives 2,528 hours of sunshine per annum , with the maximum sunlight occurring in March . Pollution is a major concern in Kolkata , and the Suspended Particulate Matter ( SPM ) level is high when compared to other major cities of India , leading to regular smog and haze . Severe air pollution in the city has caused rise in pollution-related respiratory ailments such as lung cancer .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Kolkata", "rank": 90, "score": 92228 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Gwadar Content: The climate of Gwadar is located at 0 m -- 300 m meters above sea level , features dry and hot arid climate . The oceanic influence keeps the temperature lower than that in the summer and higher in winter . The mean temperature in the hottest month of June remains between 31 C and 32 C . The mean temperature in the coldest month of January varies from 18 C to 19 C . The uniformity of temperature is a unique characteristic of the coastal region in Balochistan . Occasionally , winds moving down the Balochistan plateau bring cold spells , otherwise the winter is pleasant . In Gwadar , winter is shorter than summer . Gwadar 's weather is identical to that of the Middle East as most rain occurs from December till January . The highest rainfall of 227 mm in 24 hours was recorded on 6 June 2010 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Gwadar", "rank": 91, "score": 92183 }, { "content": "Title: MeteoGroup Content: MeteoGroup is a private weather organisation based in Europe , with forecasting offices in 17 countries and customers worldwide . It is owned by global growth equity firm General Atlantic . MeteoGroup has offices in the United Kingdom , France , Germany , Netherlands , Sweden , Spain , Belgium , Poland , US , Canada , Singapore , Switzerland , Turkey , Philippines , Italy and Ireland . MeteoGroup provides bespoke weather information to professional markets that transport , marine , agriculture , energy and the media . MeteoGroup has a portfolio of weather apps : WeatherPro , MeteoEarth and Magical Weather .", "qid": "337", "docid": "MeteoGroup", "rank": 92, "score": 92176 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Faisalabad Content: The climate of Faisalabad features a Semi-arid climate ( BWh ) in Köppen-Geiger classification with very hot and humid summers and dry cool winters . The average maximum and minimum temperature in June are 40.5 C and 26.9 C , respectively . In January it the average maximum stands at 19.4 C and 4.1 C , respectively . The summer season starts from Mid-April and continues till late-October . May and June are the hottest months , while July , August and the first half of September can be oppressively humid , except for the days when it rains . June is the hottest month in Faisalabad when conditions are dry and dust storms are common . While the coldest month is January , which is also a dry month with significant foggy days . The fog is particularly dense at night and early morning hours . The winter season starts from November and continues till early-February . ref name = `` IP '' / > . Spring sets in after Mid February and lasts usually till late March when temperatures begin to warm up and conditions become drier and sunnier . The average annual rainfall lies only at about 375 mm , which is highly seasonal since approximately half of the yearly rainfall takes place in July and August during the monsoon season .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Faisalabad", "rank": 93, "score": 92118 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Houston Content: The climate of Houston is classified as humid subtropical . August normally ranks as the warmest month at 84.6 ° F and January the coldest month at 53.1 ° F. The normal annual precipitation measures 49.77 in . Occasional severe weather of Houston mostly takes the form of flooding . Supercell thunderstorms sometimes bring tornadoes to the area , most commonly during spring . Houston sometimes experiences tropical cyclones during the Atlantic hurricane season , which can bring heavy rain and significant damage to the city . The last hurricane to hit was Hurricane Ike in 2008 .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Houston", "rank": 94, "score": 92022 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Pakistan heat wave Content: In April 2017 , a severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 51 ° C ( 124 ° F ) hit Pakistan , especially its southern parts . This heat wave broke the old temperature records of many cities in the country for the month of April . Larkana , a city in the southern province of Sindh , experienced the highest maximum temperature of 51.0 ° C on 20 April , breaking the previous day 's record of 50 ° C.", "qid": "337", "docid": "2017_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 95, "score": 92007 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Swedish heat wave Content: The summer of 2014 in Sweden was unusually warm , especially in the northern parts of the country . The notability of this event was characterised as July being the warmest ever month on record in the north-west . Although temperature records set that summer are somewhat moderate by international standards , Sweden 's northerly latitude and marine influence has to be taken into account , rendering the temperatures recorded more extreme .", "qid": "337", "docid": "2014_Swedish_heat_wave", "rank": 96, "score": 91945 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Mecca Content: Mecca features a hot desert climate . Mecca retains its hot temperature in winter , which can range from 18 C at night to 30 C in the day . Summer temperatures are extremely hot , often being over 40 C during the day , dropping to 30 C at night . Rain usually falls in Mecca in small amounts between November and January . The rainfall , as scant as it is , also presents the threat of flooding and has been a danger since the earliest times . According to Al-Kurdī , there had been 89 historic floods by 1965 , including several in the period . In the last century the most severe one occurred in 1942 . Since then , dams have been constructed to ameliorate the problem .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Mecca", "rank": 97, "score": 91644 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Joachim Content: Joachim is the name given to a European windstorm which caused major damage in much of Western Europe between December 16 -- 17 , 2011 . Winds gusting to 212 km/h were recorded on the summit of Puy de Dome in France .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Cyclone_Joachim", "rank": 98, "score": 91412 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Islamabad Content: The climate of Islamabad has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classifion , with five seasons : Winter ( Nov − Feb ) , Spring ( March − April ) , Summer ( May − June ) , Rainy Monsoon ( July − August ) and Autumn ( September − October ) . The hottest month is June , where average highs routinely exceed 38 C . The wettest month is July , with heavy rainfall and evening thunderstorms with the possibility of cloudburst . The coolest month is January , with temperatures variable by location . In Islamabad , temperatures vary from cold to mild , routinely dropping below zero . In the hills there is sparse snowfall . The weather ranges from a minimum of -3.9 C in January to a maximum of 46.1 C in June . The average low is 2 C in January , while the average high is 38.1 C in June . The highest temperature recorded was 46.5 C in June , while the lowest temperature was -4 C in January . On 23 July 2001 , Islamabad received a record breaking 620 mm of rain fell in just 10 hours . It was the heaviest rainfall in 24 hours in Islamabad and at any locality in Pakistan during the past 100 years . Following is the weather observed over Islamabad Airport , which is actually located in Rawalpindi .", "qid": "337", "docid": "Climate_of_Islamabad", "rank": 99, "score": 91212 }, { "content": "Title: Chak No 570 GB Content: ` Chak No 570 G.B Kalsanwala located in UC 44 , PP 53 and N.A 76 . Chak 570 GB Kalsanwala ( as does the whole district of Faisalabad ) has extreme weather . Summer lasts from May to September ; June is the hottest month with an average monthly temperature of 42 ° C with a maximum of up to 50 ° C . In winter , however , the December and January average monthly temperature is as low as a 3 to 4 ° C.", "qid": "337", "docid": "Chak_No_570_GB", "rank": 100, "score": 91164 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 1, "score": 177010 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 2, "score": 168698 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "338", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 3, "score": 167688 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 4, "score": 167553 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 European heat wave Content: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540 . France was hit especially hard . The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe . Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000 . The predominant heat was recorded in July and August , partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2003_European_heat_wave", "rank": 5, "score": 154938 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "338", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 6, "score": 154432 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe Content: 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe were a series of severe supercell storms affecting western Europe which followed a heatwave in early June 2014 , resulting from a Spanish plume synoptic weather pattern . The weekend saw repeated convective storm development across an arc from southwest France towards Paris and on towards Belgium and northwest Germany , where warm air masses interacted with the cooler air brought in by an area of low pressure moving towards the continent from the Atlantic . Outbreaks of severe weather were reported from these storm developments with the worst damages occurring over the German state of on 9 June , where the storm was described as one of the most violent in decades by the German weather service ( Deutscher Wetterdienst ) , this storm is also referred to as low pressure area `` Ela '' in some German media .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2014_Pentecost_weekend_storms_in_Europe", "rank": 7, "score": 150677 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 8, "score": 145420 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "338", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 9, "score": 144468 }, { "content": "Title: Seasonal Attribution Project Content: The Seasonal Attribution Project is a Climateprediction.net sub-project , with support from the WWF . It runs a high resolution model in order to try to determine the extent to which extreme weather events are attributable to human-induced global warming . The project did cease giving out more work , however there has been a project extension to try a fourth sea surface temperature pattern . Current work will still be accepted and used for collaborations and possibly revisions of papers during the review process . A further extension will start soon .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Seasonal_Attribution_Project", "rank": 10, "score": 143952 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 European heat wave Content: The 2007 European heatwave was a heat wave that affected most of Southern Europe and the Balkans . The phenomenon began affecting Italy and Turkey on June 17 and expanded into Greece and the rest of the Balkans , Hungary and Ukraine on June 18 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2007_European_heat_wave", "rank": 11, "score": 141611 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 12, "score": 140952 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 13, "score": 139187 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 14, "score": 137895 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "338", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 15, "score": 133653 }, { "content": "Title: Summer 2012 North American heat wave Content: In the Summer of 2012 , a heat wave took place , leading to more than 82 heat-related deaths across the United States and Canada . An additional twenty-two lives were lost in the resultant June 2012 North American derecho . This long-lived , straight-line wind and its thunderstorms cut electrical power to 3.7 million customers . Over 500,000 were still without power on July 6 , as the heat wave continued . Temperatures generally decreased somewhat the week of July 9 in the east , but the high pressure shifted to the west , causing the core of the hot weather to the build in the Mountain States and the southwest U. S. shifting eastwards again by mid-July . By early August , the core of the heat remained over the Southern Plains .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Summer_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 16, "score": 132270 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Pakistan heat wave Content: A severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 49 C struck southern Pakistan in June 2015 . It caused the deaths of about 2,000 people from dehydration and heat stroke , mostly in Sindh province and its capital city , Karachi . The heat wave also claimed the lives of zoo animals and countless agricultural livestock . The event followed a separate heat wave in neighboring India that killed 2,500 people in May 2015 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2015_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 17, "score": 131743 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 18, "score": 131624 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 North American heat wave Content: The 2015 North American heat wave was a heatwave in the Northwest United States and southern British Columbia , that took place from June 18 - July 3 , 2015 . Many all time and monthly record highs and record high lows were recorded . In Canada , the heat wave mostly affected the Lower Mainland , and the Southern Interior .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2015_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 19, "score": 129753 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 20, "score": 129546 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave Content: The 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave was a continuation and eastward expansion of the 2007 Western North American heat wave which began in late June 2007 . The heatwave expanded eastward starting at the very end of July and lasting into the first weeks of August . This heat wave was notable for both associated severe drought over a large swath of the southeastern United States , and parts of the Great Lakes region , and its late season ending , with temperatures continuing , although more sporadically , well into the 90s ° F ( 30s ° C ) into September and October in the mid-Atlantic region .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2007_North_America_South_and_Eastern_heatwave", "rank": 21, "score": 127989 }, { "content": "Title: Late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave ( also referred to as the November 2009 heat wave and the South Australian heat wave ) was a heat wave that occurred in the southeastern Australian states of South Australia , Victoria and southern New South Wales . Daily maximum temperatures during the heat wave were roughly 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) above average in many locations . Capital cities Adelaide and Melbourne recorded temperatures over 35 ° C , and some regional towns recorded temperatures above 40 ° C. Above average temperatures in the region began in late October and persisted until mid-November 2009 . Many locations through the region broke temperature records for November . This heat wave was the second experienced in the region within a 10-month period , following the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave in January and February 2009 , to which 374 deaths were attributed . Although the earlier heat wave was far more intense , the later heat wave was more extensive and long lasting . The heat wave was caused by a combination of factors , including hot , dry winds caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that had settled over the Tasman Sea , an El Niño event occurring in the Pacific Ocean , and gradually rising temperatures across southern Australia , probably as a result of global warming .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Late_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 22, "score": 127534 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "338", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 23, "score": 127425 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 24, "score": 126655 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 25, "score": 126313 }, { "content": "Title: 1976 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1976 United Kingdom heat wave led to the hottest summer average temperature in the UK since records began . At the same time , the country suffered a severe drought . It was one of the driest , sunniest and warmest summers ( June/July/August ) in the 20th century , although 1995 is now regarded as the driest . Only a few places registered more than half their average summer rainfall . In the CET record , it was the warmest summer in that series . It was the warmest summer in the Aberdeen area since at least 1864 . It was the driest summer since 1868 in Glasgow .", "qid": "338", "docid": "1976_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 26, "score": 123862 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Var floods Content: The 2010 Var floods were the result of heavy rainfall in southern France that caused severe floods in the department of the Var in the evening of 15 June 2010 . As well as generalized flooding , there were also flash floods . Meteorologists say the floods are the worst in the region since 1827 , with more than 400 mm of rain falling in less than 24 hours . At least 25 people have been killed , and 14 people are still missing . The worst hit municipalities were Les Arcs , Figanières , Roquebrune-sur-Argens , Trans-en-Provence , and the subprefecture of Draguignan .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2010_Var_floods", "rank": 27, "score": 121813 }, { "content": "Title: Save the Climate Content: Save The Climate ( Sauvons le Climat ) is a French association created in 2004 by Hervé Nifenecker , Roger Balian , Rémy Carle and Bernard Lerouge . In May 2012 , five associations are members and thousands of people have signed its manifesto . Its purpose is to fight against global warming and provide public information on topics fundamental to sustainable development , the environment , and energy , through eliminating the use of fossil fuels in France by maintaining the share of nuclear power generation in parallel with the use of `` heat-like '' renewable energy . The association is approved by the French government as a combination of popular education .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Save_the_Climate", "rank": 28, "score": 120244 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "338", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 29, "score": 120011 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris , France , from 30 November to 12 December 2015 . It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP ) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties ( CMP ) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change , the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it . The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions . On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) , 174 countries signed the agreement in New York , and began adopting it within their own legal systems ( through ratification , acceptance , approval , or accession ) . According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks , the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius ( ° C ) compared to pre-industrial levels . The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century . In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement , the parties will also `` pursue efforts to '' limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C . The 1.5 ° C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050 , according to some scientists . Prior to the conference , 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions ( called `` Intended Nationally Determined Contributions '' , INDCs ) . These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 . For example , the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 . The agreement establishes a `` global stocktake '' which revisits the national goals to `` update and enhance '' them every five years beginning 2023 . However , no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement -- as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol . A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21 , including the Bonn Climate Change Conference , 19 to 23 October 2015 , which produced a draft agreement .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 30, "score": 119983 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 31, "score": 119730 }, { "content": "Title: January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave was a significant heat wave event which affected most of southeastern Australia from 13 to 18 January 2014 . The main areas affected were Victoria , Tasmania , southern New South Wales away from the coast and the southern half of South Australia . The event ranked along with the 2009 heat wave , 1939 heat wave and 1908 heat wave as one of the most significant multi-day heatwaves on record . The heat wave broke a number of records for extended periods of heat . A spike in heat waves and record breaking high temperatures across Australia over the past five years has led to concerns over the effects of global warming and climate change on the country . Adelaide , South Australia suffered the brunt of the summer heat wave , recording 13 days with temperatures above 40 ° C.", "qid": "338", "docid": "January_2014_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 32, "score": 119595 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Western North American heat wave Content: The 2007 western North American heat wave was a record-breaking event that began in late June 2007 . The heat stretched from Mexico to Alberta , Saskatchewan , Manitoba and into northwestern Ontario . The record heat has exacerbated already present record-breaking drought conditions in much of the Western U.S. , allowing fires to grow to record-breaking sizes . The combination of conditions forced major freeway closures , animal and human deaths , evacuations , and destruction of property . Much of eastern North America experienced more average conditions through July 2007 , with little in the way of prolonged heat waves . However , drought remained a problem in some areas of the east , particularly parts of the southeast .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2007_Western_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 33, "score": 119029 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic geoengineering Content: Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Arctic_geoengineering", "rank": 34, "score": 118975 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 35, "score": 118282 }, { "content": "Title: Saint-Christol-lès-Alès Content: Saint-Christol-lès-Alès is a commune in the Gard department in southern France . During the 2003 European heat wave , Saint-Christol-lès-Alès , together with Conqueyrac , recorded the highest temperature ever reached in France : 44.1 ° C ( 111 ° F ) .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Saint-Christol-lès-Alès", "rank": 36, "score": 117701 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Asian heat wave Content: The 2007 Asian heat wave affected the South Asian countries of India , Pakistan , Bangladesh , and Nepal , as well as Russia , Japan and the People 's Republic of China . The heat wave ran during the months of May and June , which continued to September in Japan .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2007_Asian_heat_wave", "rank": 37, "score": 117387 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 France rugby union tour of Argentina Content: In June 2016 , France played a two-test series against Argentina as part of the 2016 mid-year rugby union tests . They played Los Pumas across the two weeks that were allocated to the June International window ( 19 June and 25 June ) , and which were part of the fourth year of the global rugby calendar established by the International Rugby Board , which runs through to 2019 . This was the first French tour to Argentina since their drawn series in 2012 . The French domestic Top 14 tournament ended later than usual , as no games were scheduled during the pool phase of the 2015 Rugby World Cup . Therefore , the semi-finals and final of the 2015 -- 16 season coincided with the June international window , clashing with the French games on the 19 and 25 June .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2016_France_rugby_union_tour_of_Argentina", "rank": 38, "score": 116926 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "338", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 39, "score": 116888 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (2011 film) Content: Heat Wave ( Après le sud ) is a 2011 French drama film and the directorial debut of Jean-Jacques Jauffret . It was screened in the Directors ' Fortnight section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(2011_film)", "rank": 40, "score": 116548 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 France rugby union tour of South Africa Content: In June 2017 , France will play a three-test series against South Africa as part of the 2017 mid-year rugby union tests . They will play the Springboks over the three-week June International window ( 5 June -- 25 June ) , and are part of the fifth year of the global rugby calendar established by the World Rugby , which runs through to 2019 . This will be France ' first visit to South Africa since 2010 and their first test series against each other since 2005 . The last time the side met was during the 2013 end-of-year international , where South Africa won 19 -- 10 in Paris .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2017_France_rugby_union_tour_of_South_Africa", "rank": 41, "score": 116309 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (2015 film) Content: Heat Wave ( original title : Coup de chaud ) is a 2015 French thriller-drama film directed by Raphaël Jacoulot . It was released on 12 August 2015 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(2015_film)", "rank": 42, "score": 116189 }, { "content": "Title: Fever In Winter, Shiver In June Content: Fever In Winter , Shiver In June is the first EP published by French artist Syd Matters in 2002 . It was released by Third Side Records . The French rock magazine Les Inrockuptibles helped with the promotion and publishing of the French artist 's work , including this EP . The first track of the album , `` Black & White Eyes '' , was aired in a live performance on national French television in 2004 . The EP was also included in the 2008 re-release of `` A Whisper and A Sigh '' by Because Music .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Fever_In_Winter,_Shiver_In_June", "rank": 43, "score": 116153 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "338", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 44, "score": 115902 }, { "content": "Title: Heat wave Content: A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather , which may be accompanied by high humidity , especially in oceanic climate countries . While definitions vary , a heat wave is measured relative to the usual weather in the area and relative to normal temperatures for the season . Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be termed a heat wave in a cooler area if they are outside the normal climate pattern for that area . The term is applied both to hot weather variations and to extraordinary spells of hot which may occur only once a century . Severe heat waves have caused catastrophic crop failures , thousands of deaths from hyperthermia , and widespread power outages due to increased use of air conditioning . A heat wave is considered extreme weather , and a danger because heat and sunlight may overheat the human body .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Heat_wave", "rank": 45, "score": 115303 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2012 European cold wave Content: The Early 2012 European cold wave was a deadly cold wave that started on January 27 , 2012 and brought snow and freezing temperatures to much of the European continent . There were more than 824 reported deaths . Particularly low temperatures hit several Eastern and Northern European countries , reaching as low as -42.7 C in Finland . The heaviest snow was recorded in the Balkan region . The cold weather was a result of an extensive area of very high pressure located in over the north east of the continent in northern Russia , which circulated cold air from the east .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Early_2012_European_cold_wave", "rank": 46, "score": 115234 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian heat wave Content: In May 2015 , India was struck by a severe heat wave . , it has caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people in multiple regions . The heat wave occurred during the Indian dry season , which typically lasts from March to July with peak temperatures in April and May . Although it typically remains hot until late October , Indian monsoons often provide some respite from the heat . The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring Telangana , where more than 1,735 and 585 people died respectively , were the areas most affected by the heat wave . Other casualties were from the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha . The high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities . The 2015 heat wave has had the highest recorded temperatures since 1995 . In May 2016 , a new record was set in Phalodi .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2015_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 47, "score": 114948 }, { "content": "Title: June Gloom Content: June Gloom is a southern California term for a weather pattern that results in cloudy , overcast skies with cool temperatures during the late spring and early summer . While it is most common in the month of June , it can occur in surrounding months , giving rise to other colloquialisms , such as `` May Gray '' , `` No Sky July '' , and , rarely , `` Fogust '' . Low-altitude stratus clouds form over the cool water of the California Current , and spread overnight into the coastal regions of Southern California . The overcast skies often are accompanied by fog and drizzle , though usually not rain . June Gloom usually clears up between mid-morning and early afternoon , depending on the strength of the marine layer , and gives way to sunny skies . On a strong June Gloom day , the clouds and fog may extend inland to the valleys and Inland Empire and may persist into the mid-afternoon or evening . A combination of atmospheric and oceanic conditions must be just right in order for June Gloom to form , and these conditions usually align only around May and June of each year . These include the marine layer effect common to the west coast of the United States , an atmospheric inversion caused by subsidence of high-pressure air from the subtropical ridge , and sufficiently cool ocean water off the coast . The June Gloom pattern is also enhanced by the Catalina eddy local to southern California . May and June together are usually the cloudiest months in coastal Southern California . June Gloom is stronger in years associated with a La Niña , and weaker or nonexistent in years with an El Niño . This weather pattern is relatively rare , and occurs only in a few other parts of the world where climates and conditions are similar . Scientists study the cloud fields that make up June Gloom to increase understanding of cloud behavior at the onset of precipitation .", "qid": "338", "docid": "June_Gloom", "rank": 48, "score": 114568 }, { "content": "Title: Loo (wind) Content: The Loo ( लू , لُو , Punjabi Gurmukhi : ਲੂ ) is a strong , hot and dry summer wind from the west which blows over the western Indo-Gangetic Plain region of North India and Pakistan . It is especially strong in the months of May and June . Due to its very high temperatures ( 45 ° C -- 50 ° C or 115 ° F -- 120 ° F ) , exposure to it often leads to fatal heatstrokes . Since it causes extremely low humidity and high temperatures , the Loo also has a severe drying effect on vegetation leading to widespread browning in the areas affected by it during the months of May and June .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Loo_(wind)", "rank": 49, "score": 114406 }, { "content": "Title: January 2017 European cold wave Content: A period of exceptionally cold and snowy winter weather in January 2017 occurred in Eastern and Central Europe . In some areas , flights and shipping services were suspended , and there was major disruption to power supplies and other essential infrastructure . The weather was the result of stationary high pressure over western Europe , resulting in strong winds circulating from Russia and Scandinavia towards eastern Europe . On 9 January , the Continental Arctic ( cA ) air mass extended from Germany across the Balkans , resulting in deep snow in Greece and strong bora winds affecting Croatia in particular . In addition , heavy snow in central and Southern Italy was the result of cold air flowing across the warmer Adriatic Sea . At least 61 deaths were attributed to the cold wave .", "qid": "338", "docid": "January_2017_European_cold_wave", "rank": 50, "score": 113977 }, { "content": "Title: 29th G8 summit Content: The 29th G8 summit was held in Évian-les-Bains , France , on June 1 -- 3 , 2003 . As is usual for G8 summits , there were a range of protests .", "qid": "338", "docid": "29th_G8_summit", "rank": 51, "score": 113541 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European cold wave Content: The 2006 European cold wave was an unusual cold wave which resulted in abnormal winter conditions over much of Europe . Southern Europe saw cold and snow , while places in northern Norway saw abnormally mild conditions . The phenomenon started on 20 January in Russia with temperatures below -40 ° C and extended to Central Europe where parts of Poland , Slovakia and Austria saw temperatures drop below -30 ° C . The cold resulted in the deaths of up to 50 people in Russia and a significant death toll in Eastern Europe including Moldova and Romania . The abnormal conditions gradually abated towards the end of the month .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2006_European_cold_wave", "rank": 52, "score": 113446 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 53, "score": 113231 }, { "content": "Title: 1901 eastern United States heat wave Content: The 1901 eastern United States heat wave was the most severe and deadly heat wave in the United States prior to the 1930s dust bowl . Although the heat wave did not set many still-standing daily temperature records , it was exceptionally prolonged -- covering without interruption the second half of June and all of July -- and centred upon more highly populated areas than later American heat waves . The heat wave accompanied a major drought in the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest , with Illinois having what remains its driest calendar year since records have been kept , and Missouri being only 0.21 in above its driest calendar year of 1953 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "1901_eastern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 54, "score": 112431 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 55, "score": 112331 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 South-Eastern Australian heatwave Content: The 2014 South-Eastern Australian Heatwave was a prolonged period of time in which highly unseasonal weather was recorded across the south and south-eastern corridor of mainland Australia . The heatwave commenced during early May , and was the longest ever recorded in Australia 's modern history , lasting in some places up to 15 days . Sydney , Melbourne and Adelaide were most hard hit , with temperatures in these areas breaking late Autumn records and causing a distinct lack of precipitation , especially in Sydney , Australia 's most populous city . The cause of this phenomenon was a large blocking High pressure system situated over the Tasman sea , which pushed usual Autumn cold fronts far south of the mainland .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2014_South-Eastern_Australian_heatwave", "rank": 56, "score": 111824 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercane Content: A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached 50 C , which is 15 C-change warmer than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded . Such an increase could be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact , a large supervolcanic eruption , or extensive global warming . There is some speculation that a series of hypercanes resulting from an impact by a large asteroid or comet contributed to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs . The hypothesis was created by Kerry Emanuel of MIT who also coined the term .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Hypercane", "rank": 57, "score": 111413 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 North American heat wave Content: The 2006 North American heat wave spread throughout most of the United States and Canada beginning on July 15 , 2006 , killing at least 225 people . That day the temperature reached 117 ° F ( 47 ° C ) in Pierre , South Dakota , with many places in South Dakota that hit well into the 120s . In early reports from this heat wave , at least three died in Philadelphia , Arkansas , and Indiana . In Maryland , the state health officials reported that three people died of heat-related causes . Another heat related death was suspected in Chicago . Although many heat related deaths go unreported , by July 19 , the Associated Press reported that the soaring heat was blamed for 12 deaths from Oklahoma City to the Philadelphia area . Reports by early morning July 20 raised the death toll to at least 16 in seven states . This period of heat also saw a wind storm ( derecho ) in St. Louis that caused widespread power outages , including for cooling centers designed to provide relief for those suffering from the heat . In addition , places on the West Coast , like California 's Central Valley and Southern California experienced humid heat , which is unusual for the area .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2006_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 58, "score": 111294 }, { "content": "Title: Seven Sleepers' Day Content: Seven Sleepers ' Day ( Siebenschläfertag ) on June 27 is a feast day commemorating the legend of the Seven Sleepers as well as one of the most well-known bits of traditional weather lore ( expressed as a proverb ) remaining in German-speaking Europe . The atmospheric conditions on that day are supposed to determine or predict the average summer weather of the next seven weeks .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Seven_Sleepers'_Day", "rank": 59, "score": 110866 }, { "content": "Title: Heat (Colder album) Content: Heat is the second album from French musician Colder , released on Output Recordings on July 4 , 2005 . The album was produced in Paris , France and was released on CD , limited edition CD ( housed in a digipak ) , and limited edition red-colored 12 '' vinyl . The album was also released on CD in Mexico with two bonus tracks . All versions of the album are out of print .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Heat_(Colder_album)", "rank": 60, "score": 110809 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "338", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 61, "score": 110596 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 62, "score": 110394 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 63, "score": 110272 }, { "content": "Title: 26 June 2015 Islamist attacks Content: On 26 June 2015 , attacks occurred in France , Kuwait , Syria , Somalia , and Tunisia , one day following a deadly massacre in Syria . The day of attacks has been dubbed `` Bloody Friday '' by international media and `` Black Friday '' ( Vendredi Noir ) among Francophone media in Europe and North Africa . One attack at a Tunisian beach resort killed 39 ; a bombing at a Shia mosque in Kuwait City killed 27 and injured several ; while in Kobanî a large-scale massacre by ISIL resulted in more than 223 civilians murdered , in line with over 79 assailants ( including 13 suicide bombers ) and 23 Kurdish militiamen , dubbed the second largest massacre by ISIL since summer 2014 ; a suicide bombing by ISIL in Al-Hasakeh , also in Syria , resulted in 20 fatalities ; Al-Shabaab militants killed 70 African Union soldiers from Burundi in Leego , Somalia ; finally , one man was decapitated , while several were injured during the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack in France . Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant senior leader Abu Mohammad al-Adnani had released an audio message three days earlier encouraging militants everywhere to attack during the month of Ramadan . ISIL also claimed responsibility for the attacks in Tunisia , Syria and Kuwait . According to The Guardian , there is no evidence that the attacks were coordinated among the perpetrators , but their timing on a single day received significant coverage . One security analyst said the attacks added up to `` an unprecedented day for terrorism . '' In total , more than 403 people died and 336 were injured , not including any attackers involved .", "qid": "338", "docid": "26_June_2015_Islamist_attacks", "rank": 64, "score": 110084 }, { "content": "Title: Paris Agreement Content: The Paris Agreement ( Accord de Paris ) is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation , adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020 . The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015 . It was opened for signature on 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) at a ceremony in New York . As of May 2017 , 195 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty , 147 of which have ratified it . After several European Union states ratified the agreement in October 2016 , there were enough countries that had ratified the agreement that produce enough of the world 's greenhouse gases for the agreement to enter into force . The agreement went into effect on 4 November 2016 . The head of the Paris Conference , France 's foreign minister Laurent Fabius , said this `` ambitious and balanced '' plan is a `` historic turning point '' in the goal of reducing global warming . One year on , the ratification of the Paris Agreement was celebrated by the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo by illuminating the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe , Paris ' most iconic monuments , in green .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Paris_Agreement", "rank": 65, "score": 110059 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 European floods Content: In late May and early June 2016 flooding began after several days of heavy rain in Europe , mostly Germany and France , but also Austria , Belgium , Romania , Moldova , Netherlands and the United Kingdom . Among others , the German states of Bavaria , Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate , Baden-Württemberg , and North Rhine-Westphalia were affected . Beginning at the river Neckar , the Danube , Rhine , Seine and their tributaries were highly affected by high water and flooding along their banks . At least 20 people have died to date .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2016_European_floods", "rank": 66, "score": 109960 }, { "content": "Title: Heat burst Content: In meteorology , a heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by gusty winds and a rapid increase in temperature and decrease in dew point ( moisture ) . Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms . Although this phenomenon is not fully understood , it is theorized that the event is caused when rain evaporates ( virga ) into a parcel of cold dry air high in the atmosphere making the air denser than its surroundings . The parcel descends rapidly , warming due to compression , overshoots its equilibrium level and reaches the surface , similar to a downburst . Recorded temperatures during heat bursts have reached well above 38 ° C , sometimes rising by 20 F-change or more within only a few minutes . More extreme events have also been documented , where temperatures have been reported to exceed 120 ° F. However , such extreme events have never been officially verified . Heat bursts are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong , even damaging , winds .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Heat_burst", "rank": 67, "score": 109861 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 68, "score": 109804 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The March 2012 United Kingdom and Ireland heat wave was a period of unseasonable warm weather with temperatures getting above 20 C in many places . The average temperature for this time of year in the United Kingdom is 10 C. Aboyne , Scotland , recorded a temperature of 23.6 C on 27 March , the highest March temperature in Scotland since records began . For around eight days no clouds were visible for the majority of places in the UK , allowing the sun to shine straight down through the blue sky and induce high air temperatures . The high pressure also meant there was little wind to act as a coolant .", "qid": "338", "docid": "March_2012_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 69, "score": 109592 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave was a period of unseasonably warm weather which arrived towards the end of September 2011 and continued into October . As a result , record-high temperatures for the country were broken for the autumn months . The autumn heat wave followed the warmest temperatures to occur on record in the spring , but also the coolest temperatures to occur in the summer months since 1993 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Autumn_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 70, "score": 109342 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 71, "score": 108801 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 72, "score": 108593 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 73, "score": 108482 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 74, "score": 108282 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American heat wave Content: The 1936 North American heat wave was the most severe heat wave in the modern history of North America . It took place in the middle of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s , and caused catastrophic human suffering and an enormous economic toll . The death toll exceeded 5,000 , and huge numbers of crops were destroyed by the heat and lack of moisture . Many state and city record high temperatures set during the 1936 heat wave stood until the Summer 2012 North American heat wave . The 1936 heat wave followed one of the coldest winters on record .", "qid": "338", "docid": "1936_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 75, "score": 108178 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Lothar and Martin Content: Lothar and Martin were violent European windstorms which swept across western and central Europe during a period of 36 hours in December 1999 . The storms caused major damage in France , southern Germany , Switzerland , and Italy . Throughout the affected region , 140 people were killed and damage was estimated at $ 9.9 billion . Both of these storms were associated with an intense jet stream aloft and benefitted from latent heat release through atmosphere-ocean exchange processes . Lothar and Martin together left 3.4 million customers in France without electricity , and forced EdF to acquire all the available portable power generators in Europe , with some even being brought in from Canada . These storms brought down a quarter of France 's high-tension transmission lines and 300 high-voltage transmission pylons were toppled . It was one of the greatest energy disruptions ever experienced by a modern developed country .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Cyclone_Lothar_and_Martin", "rank": 76, "score": 108103 }, { "content": "Title: 5 June (film) Content: 5 June ( German : Der 5 . Juni ) is a 1942 German war film directed by Fritz Kirchhoff and starring Carl Raddatz , Joachim Brennecke and Karl Ludwig Diehl . The film depicts the events of 1940 when German forces successfully invaded France . It was shot on location in France and Germany . Constant changes to the film , often at the request of the German military , led to large cost overruns . In November 1942 the film was banned by the Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels for unspecified reasons . It has been speculated that Goebbels thought the film was not entertaining enough or wished to avoid offending the Vichy government of France .", "qid": "338", "docid": "5_June_(film)", "rank": 77, "score": 108008 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 France rugby union tour of Australia Content: In June 2014 , France played a three-test series against Australia as part of the 2014 mid-year rugby union tests . They played the Wallabies across the three week June International window ( 2 June -- 22 June ) , and which were part of the third year of the global rugby calendar established by the International Rugby Board , which runs through to 2019 . This was France 's first tour to Australia since 2009 and first series since 2008 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2014_France_rugby_union_tour_of_Australia", "rank": 78, "score": 107977 }, { "content": "Title: November 2014 North American cold wave Content: The November 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that occurred across most of Canada and the contiguous United States , including parts of the Western United States up to western California . One of the first events of the winter , the cold wave was caused by the northward movement of an extremely powerful bomb cyclone associated with Typhoon Nuri 's remnant , which shifted the jet stream far northward , creating an omega block pattern . This allowed a piece of the polar vortex to advance southward into the Central and Eastern United States , bringing record-cold temperatures to much of the region . In contrast , Alaska experienced above-average temperatures . This was the worst cold wave that the North American region had experienced since an earlier cold wave in early 2014 . The cold wave was expected to last for a few weeks , extending at least until American Thanksgiving . Although the Omega Block broke down on November 20 , due to a powerful storm moving into the Gulf of Alaska , frigid conditions continued to persist across much of the United States . There was also concern among some meteorologists that another cold wave or abnormally cold trend might persist throughout the winter of 2014 -- 15 , the chances of which were `` above average . '' On November 23 , a warming trend primarily in the Eastern United States brought an end to the cold wave ; however , below-average temperatures were forecast to return to the Midwest by November 24 . Despite the development of a second cold wave , it ended on December 6 , when a ridge of high pressure brought above-average temperatures to the region , especially in the Central United States .", "qid": "338", "docid": "November_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 79, "score": 107816 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of radiation on perceived temperature Content: The `` radiation effect '' results from radiation heat exchange between human bodies and surrounding surfaces , such as walls and ceilings . It may lead to phenomena such as houses feeling cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer at the same temperature . For example , in a room in which air temperature is maintained at 22 ° Celsius at all times , but in which the inner surfaces of the house is estimated to be an average temperature of 10 ° Celsius in the winter or 25 ° Celsius in the summer , heat transfer from the surfaces to the individual will occur , resulting in a difference in the perceived temperature . We can observe and compare the rate of radiation heat transfer between a person and the surrounding surfaces if we first make a few simplifying assumptions : The heat exchange in the environment is in a `` steady state '' , meaning that there is a constant flow of heat either into or out of the house . The person is completely surrounded by the interior surfaces of the room . Heat transfer by convection is not considered . The walls , ceiling , and floor are all at the same temperature . For an average person , the outer surface area is 1.4 m ² , the surface temperature is 30 ° Celsius , and the emissivity is 0.95 . Emissivity is the ability of a surface to emit radiant energy compared to that of a black body at the same temperature . We will be using the following equation to find out how much heat is lost by a person standing in the same room in summertime as compared to the winter , at exactly the same thermostat reading temperature : Q ̇ = εσA_s ( T_s ^ 4-T_surr ^ 4 ) Where Q ̇ is the rate of heat loss ( W ) , ε is the emissivity ( or the ability of an objects surface to emit energy by radiation ) of a person , σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant ( 5.670 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) W/m2 ∙ K4 ) , As is the surface area of a person , Ts is the surface temperature of a person ( K ) , and Tsurr is the surface temperature of the walls , ceiling , and floor ( K ) . Please note that this equation is only valid for an object standing in a completely enclosed room , box , etc. . In the winter , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 10 degrees Celsius , was found to be 152 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 10 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 152 ) ̇ In the summer , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 25 degrees Celsius , was found to be 40.9 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 25 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 40.9 ) ̇ Thermal radiation is the form of radiation emitted by bodies because of their temperature . It differs from other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as x-rays , gamma rays , microwaves , radio waves , and television rays that are not related to temperature . Scientists have found that all bodies at a temperature above absolute zero emit thermal radiation . People are constantly radiating their body heat , but at different rates . From these values , the rate of heat loss from a person is almost four times as large in the winter than in the summer , which explains the `` chill '' we feel in the winter even if the thermostat setting is kept the same .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Effect_of_radiation_on_perceived_temperature", "rank": 80, "score": 107568 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Indian heat wave Content: In April and May 2016 , India experienced a major heat wave . A national record high temperature of 51.0 ° C ( 123.8 ° F ) was set in the town of Phalodi , in the state of Rajasthan . A total of over 160 people have died and 330 million affected . There are also water shortages . Drought has worsened the heat wave .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2016_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 81, "score": 107480 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 82, "score": 107137 }, { "content": "Title: June Days uprising Content: The June Days uprising ( les journées de Juin ) was an uprising staged by the workers of France from 23 June to 26 June 1848 . It was in response to plans to close the National Workshops , created by the Second Republic in order to provide work and a source of income for the unemployed ; however , only low pay , dead-end jobs were provided , which barely provided enough money to survive . The National Guard , led by General Louis Eugène Cavaignac , was called out to quell the protests . Things did not go peacefully and over 10,000 people were either killed or injured , while 4,000 insurgents were deported to Algeria . This marked the end of the hopes of a `` Democratic and Social Republic '' ( République démocratique et sociale ) and the victory of the liberals over the Radical Republicans .", "qid": "338", "docid": "June_Days_uprising", "rank": 83, "score": 107076 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 84, "score": 106802 }, { "content": "Title: French legislative election, 1869 Content: Parliamentary elections were held in France on 24 May and 1 June 1869 , with a second round on 6 and 7 June . These elections resulted in a victory for the regime of the Second Empire , but the opposition strengthened its presence in the legislature . Nationwide , the regime won 55 % of the vote . In Paris , the opposition parties ( mostly Republicans ) won 75 % of the vote ; however , the regime won large majorities in the countryside .", "qid": "338", "docid": "French_legislative_election,_1869", "rank": 85, "score": 106696 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1990 heat wave in the United Kingdom was a particularly severe heat event with temperatures hitting record highs of 37.1 C on 3 August . The temperature was recorded at Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and was a full degree Celsius above the previous record , set in 1911 . However , this record was subsequently broken in the 2003 heatwave .", "qid": "338", "docid": "1990_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 86, "score": 106649 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2014 North American cold wave Content: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013 -- 2014 winter season , and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States . The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex . Record-low temperatures also extended well into March . On January 2 , an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States , resulting in heavy snowfall . Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels , and low temperature records were broken across the United States . Business , school , and road closures were common , as well as mass flight cancellations . Altogether , more than 200 million people were affected , in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Early_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 87, "score": 106359 }, { "content": "Title: June (TV Channel) Content: June , stylized as June and formerly called Filles TV until October 2009 , is a TV channel which launched on 1 September 2004 . This channel is mainly distributed in France and it is available on Canalsat , cable and ADSL .", "qid": "338", "docid": "June_(TV_Channel)", "rank": 88, "score": 106258 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 89, "score": 106124 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 India heat wave Content: More than 1,030 people were killed in the 2002 heatwave in south India . Most of the dead were poor and elderly and a majority of deaths occurred in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh . In districts that were impacted most , the heat was so severe that ponds and rivers evaporated and in those same districts birds had fallen from the sky and animals were collapsing from the intense heat . It is said by officials to be the worst heat wave in four years . The relief commissioner of Andhra Pradesh , Rosaiah , said that the maximum number of 172 deaths related to heat took place in the East Godavari district . There were also 166 deaths in Prakasam and 144 deaths in West Godavari . Unusually high temperatures were detected across India during April of the year 2002 . In addition , this heat wave over northern zones of India lasted from the middle of April to the third week in May , thus , causing these fatalities . On May 10 the highest temperature recorded in the region of Gannavaram ( Vijayawada ) was 49 degrees Celsius ( 120.2 degrees Fahrenheit ) . According to the BBC News , `` Heatwaves are defined as periods of abnormally high temperatures and usually occur between March and June in India . May is the country 's hottest month , with an average maximum temperature of 41C ( 104F ) in Delhi . Longer , more severe heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent globally . Intense heat can cause cramps , exhaustion and heat stroke . Thousands of people have died across India during heatwaves in 2002 and 2003 . '' The heatwaves also affected the northern states of Punjab , Haryana , Orissa and 100 people suffered from heat-related sickness . 2010 Indian heatwave", "qid": "338", "docid": "2002_India_heat_wave", "rank": 90, "score": 105673 }, { "content": "Title: January 2016 East Asia cold wave Content: In late January 2016 , a cold wave struck much of East Asia , parts of mainland Southeast Asia and parts of northern South Asia , bringing record cold temperatures and snowfall to many regions . Sleet was reported in Okinawa for the first time on record , and many other regions saw their coldest temperatures in decades . Snowfall and frigid weather stranded thousands of people across four countries . At least 85 people in Taiwan died from hypothermia and cardiac arrest following a sudden drop in temperature during the weekend of January 22 -- 24 . The cold claimed a further fourteen lives in Thailand , and snowstorms resulted in six deaths across Japan . This event was driven by a fast Arctic warming that occurred within the troposphere , forcing the Arctic Oscillation to change phase rapidly from positive ( in late December ) to negative ( in late January ) , facilitating the atmospheric blocking and associated Siberian high buildup .", "qid": "338", "docid": "January_2016_East_Asia_cold_wave", "rank": 91, "score": 105589 }, { "content": "Title: France at the 2015 European Games Content: France is scheduled to participate at the 2015 European Games , in Baku , Azerbaijan from 12 to 28 June 2015 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "France_at_the_2015_European_Games", "rank": 92, "score": 105474 }, { "content": "Title: Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793 Content: The Insurrection of 31 May -- 2 June 1793 marks a significant milestone in the history of the French Revolution . The days of 31 May -- 2 June ( journées ) resulted in the fall of the Girondin party under pressure of the Parisian sans-culottes , Jacobins of the clubs , and Montagnards in the National Convention . By its impact and importance , the insurrection of 31 May -- 2 June stands as one of the three great popular insurrections of the French Revolution , following those of 14 July 1789 and 10 August 1792 .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Insurrection_of_31_May_–_2_June_1793", "rank": 93, "score": 105293 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Adelaide heatwave Content: The 2014 Adelaide heatwave was a heat wave that occurred in Adelaide , South Australia in both January and February 2014 . The heatwaves were so strong that it broke records , becoming the hottest summer ever recorded in Adelaide . Although there were no deaths directly linked to the heatwave as of 2015 , there were at least 136 heat-related hospital admissions recorded .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2014_Adelaide_heatwave", "rank": 94, "score": 105128 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 95, "score": 104904 }, { "content": "Title: List of extreme temperatures in France Content: Here is a list of the hottest and coldest temperatures ever recorded in various locations in the metropolitan regions of France since 1870 , as well as of the extreme maximum and minimum temperature recorded in its overseas departments and territories .", "qid": "338", "docid": "List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_France", "rank": 96, "score": 104781 }, { "content": "Title: February 2015 North American cold wave Content: The February 2015 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that affected most of Canada and the eastern half of the United States . Following an earlier cold wave in the winter , the period of below-average temperatures contributed to an already unusually cold winter for the Eastern U.S. Several places broke their records for their coldest February on record , while some areas came very close . The cause of the cold wave was due to the polar vortex advancing southwards into the eastern parts of the U.S , and even making it as far south as the Southeast , where snow is rare . By the beginning of March , although the pattern did continue for the first week , it abated and retreated near the official end of the winter . In addition to the extremely cold weather , multiple winter storms affected nearly the entire United States , especially in the snow-weary Northeast , which had already seen nearly 3 ft of snow in the latter part of January ; this was added to by roughly 3 -- 4 ft ( 36 -- 48 in ) more snow , leading to Boston having its highest seasonal snowfall on record .", "qid": "338", "docid": "February_2015_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 97, "score": 104732 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "338", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 98, "score": 104694 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 99, "score": 104611 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "338", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 100, "score": 104104 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Heat wave Content: A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather , which may be accompanied by high humidity , especially in oceanic climate countries . While definitions vary , a heat wave is measured relative to the usual weather in the area and relative to normal temperatures for the season . Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be termed a heat wave in a cooler area if they are outside the normal climate pattern for that area . The term is applied both to hot weather variations and to extraordinary spells of hot which may occur only once a century . Severe heat waves have caused catastrophic crop failures , thousands of deaths from hyperthermia , and widespread power outages due to increased use of air conditioning . A heat wave is considered extreme weather , and a danger because heat and sunlight may overheat the human body .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_wave", "rank": 1, "score": 122623 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 2, "score": 107245 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 3, "score": 103639 }, { "content": "Title: Heat burst Content: In meteorology , a heat burst is a rare atmospheric phenomenon characterized by gusty winds and a rapid increase in temperature and decrease in dew point ( moisture ) . Heat bursts typically occur during night-time and are associated with decaying thunderstorms . Although this phenomenon is not fully understood , it is theorized that the event is caused when rain evaporates ( virga ) into a parcel of cold dry air high in the atmosphere making the air denser than its surroundings . The parcel descends rapidly , warming due to compression , overshoots its equilibrium level and reaches the surface , similar to a downburst . Recorded temperatures during heat bursts have reached well above 38 ° C , sometimes rising by 20 F-change or more within only a few minutes . More extreme events have also been documented , where temperatures have been reported to exceed 120 ° F. However , such extreme events have never been officially verified . Heat bursts are also characterized by extremely dry air and are sometimes associated with very strong , even damaging , winds .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_burst", "rank": 4, "score": 100893 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (magazine) Content: Heatwave was a short-lived libertarian socialist journal launched by Charles Radcliffe . Only two issues of the journal were produced , appearing in July and September 1966 . The first issue positioned itself as an ` experimental , perhaps slightly crazed libertarian socialist journal ' , and included a statement of intent : ` HEATWAVE is not a rival to existing publications on the libertarian left , but an addition to the libertarian press and an extension of its ideology , both conscious and unconscious , into new fields . HEATWAVE wants to generate heat in every field . We believe the time is ripe for an explosion of revolutionary energy which would alter the face of the earth . HEATWAVE advocates the use of any and all means that may bring to a climax the crisis of capitalism and authoritarianism , and result in the total extinction of all forms of exploitation or authority . ' The journal 's formation was inspired by , and aspired to be the British counterpart of a similar , Chicago based publication , The Rebel Worker , which was associated with the Industrial Workers of the World .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(magazine)", "rank": 5, "score": 99815 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "340", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 6, "score": 98748 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 India heat wave Content: More than 1,030 people were killed in the 2002 heatwave in south India . Most of the dead were poor and elderly and a majority of deaths occurred in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh . In districts that were impacted most , the heat was so severe that ponds and rivers evaporated and in those same districts birds had fallen from the sky and animals were collapsing from the intense heat . It is said by officials to be the worst heat wave in four years . The relief commissioner of Andhra Pradesh , Rosaiah , said that the maximum number of 172 deaths related to heat took place in the East Godavari district . There were also 166 deaths in Prakasam and 144 deaths in West Godavari . Unusually high temperatures were detected across India during April of the year 2002 . In addition , this heat wave over northern zones of India lasted from the middle of April to the third week in May , thus , causing these fatalities . On May 10 the highest temperature recorded in the region of Gannavaram ( Vijayawada ) was 49 degrees Celsius ( 120.2 degrees Fahrenheit ) . According to the BBC News , `` Heatwaves are defined as periods of abnormally high temperatures and usually occur between March and June in India . May is the country 's hottest month , with an average maximum temperature of 41C ( 104F ) in Delhi . Longer , more severe heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent globally . Intense heat can cause cramps , exhaustion and heat stroke . Thousands of people have died across India during heatwaves in 2002 and 2003 . '' The heatwaves also affected the northern states of Punjab , Haryana , Orissa and 100 people suffered from heat-related sickness . 2010 Indian heatwave", "qid": "340", "docid": "2002_India_heat_wave", "rank": 7, "score": 98504 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 South-Eastern Australian heatwave Content: The 2014 South-Eastern Australian Heatwave was a prolonged period of time in which highly unseasonal weather was recorded across the south and south-eastern corridor of mainland Australia . The heatwave commenced during early May , and was the longest ever recorded in Australia 's modern history , lasting in some places up to 15 days . Sydney , Melbourne and Adelaide were most hard hit , with temperatures in these areas breaking late Autumn records and causing a distinct lack of precipitation , especially in Sydney , Australia 's most populous city . The cause of this phenomenon was a large blocking High pressure system situated over the Tasman sea , which pushed usual Autumn cold fronts far south of the mainland .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2014_South-Eastern_Australian_heatwave", "rank": 8, "score": 97233 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal low Content: Thermal lows , or heat lows , are non-frontal low-pressure areas that occur over the continents in the subtropics during the warm season , as the result of intense heating when compared to their surrounding environments . Thermal lows occur near the Sonoran Desert , on the Mexican plateau , in California 's Great Central Valley , the Sahara , over north-west Argentina in South America , over the Kimberley region of north-west Australia , the Iberian peninsula , and the Tibetan plateau . Over land , intense , rapid solar heating of the land surface results in heating of the lowest layers of the atmosphere via reradiated energy in the infrared spectrum . The resulting hotter air is less dense than surrounding cooler air . This , combined with the rising of the hot air , results in the formation of a low pressure area . Elevated areas can enhance the strength of the thermal low as they warm more quickly than the atmosphere which surrounds them at the same altitude . Over the water , instability lows form during the winter when the air overlying the land is colder than the warmer water body . Thermal lows tend to have weak circulations , and can extend to 3100 m in height . Thermal lows over the western and southern portions of North America , northern Africa , and southeast Asia are strong enough to lead to summer monsoon conditions . Development of thermal lows inland of the coastline lead to the development of sea breezes . Sea breezes combined with rugged topography near the coast can encourage poor air quality .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Thermal_low", "rank": 9, "score": 97144 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 10, "score": 96910 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 European heat wave Content: The 2007 European heatwave was a heat wave that affected most of Southern Europe and the Balkans . The phenomenon began affecting Italy and Turkey on June 17 and expanded into Greece and the rest of the Balkans , Hungary and Ukraine on June 18 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2007_European_heat_wave", "rank": 11, "score": 96837 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (English band) Content: Heatwave was the original London pop group ( 1969 -- 1972 ) by that name . Known as The Moving Targets , featuring John Fellows ( bass & vocals ) , Terry Shea ( rhythm guitar & vocals ) ; Richard Steen ( lead guitar & vocals ) , they auditioned for a drummer in 1969 and Martin Samuel ( drums & pyrotechnics ) was signed on and they became Heatwave . They were a progressive pop harmony group , doing local gigs , playing cover versions of the popular artists of the day with lead vocals shared between Terry and John with a few songs from Richard . In the winter of 1969 , Johnny Edward Entertainment Agency was looking for pop groups , Heatwave auditioned and the band was asked to sign that same night . Touring the country as a four-piece , playing four sets a night , they became a tight vocal harmony band with a solid dance beat , often ` opening ' for ` name ' acts while earning a large fan following . John Edward believed the band needed a stronger voice to be a successful recording group and set up auditions with an advert in the Melody Maker . Peter Allatt ( lead vocals & percussion ) then completed the group as a five-piece . Playing one night stands around the country , The Pheasantry ( London ) , California Ballroom ( Dunstable ) and the Cavern Club ( Liverpool ) , where they have a brick in the Wall of Fame , were but three of many favourite venues played . The band 's stage gear was made by The Carnaby Cavern in Ganton Street , just off Carnaby Street . A stage act was later suggested whereupon , Martin incorporated a pyrotechnic display of fire eating . Heatwave was invited to appear on the Terry Wogan radio show without having the usual audition and , from that , were given the opportunity to record for the Dave Cash , Kenny Everett , Dave Lee Travis , Jimmy Young and Radio One Club shows -- Heatwave became one of the most-oft heard ` live ' professional bands on BBC Radio One between 1969 and 1970 . On 16 October 1970 , Heatwave released `` Sister Simon ( Funny Man ) '' b/w `` Rastus Ravel ( Is A Mean Old Man ) '' ( PEN 738 ) on the Larry Page Penny Farthing Records label . Both songs were written and produced by John Edward for Instant Sound Productions . The single featured Rick Wakeman on keyboards and Doris Troy with Maggie Stredder , Gloria George and Marian Davis , The Ladybirds , as back-up singers . On 2 April 2013 , `` Rastus Ravel ( Is A Mean Old Man ) '' , was re-released as track 4 on Piccadilly Sunshine , Part Twelve -- British Pop Psych and Other Flavours 1967-1971 , on the bootleg Particles label . On 11 April 2013 , Paul Martin reviewed Piccadilly Sunshine , Part Twelve in Shindig magazine , and wrote , `` So here 's another hamper of low calorie sooth-sayers with pictures to paint . The indulgence food in this particular feast comes from Heatwave 's `` phat '' mod-soul funker , `` Rastus Ravel '' '' . On 24 April 2013 , Newtracks ( Germany ) selected `` Rastus Ravel ( Is Mean Old Man ) '' for the music game , Bands , for Facebook and mobile devices .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(English_band)", "rank": 12, "score": 96775 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (festival) Content: Heatwave was a rock festival August 23 , 1980 , outside of Toronto at Mosport Park , Bowmanville , Ontario . The slogans used to promote the show were variously the `` Punk Woodstock '' , the `` New Wave Woodstock '' , or `` The 1980s Big Beat Rock and Roll Party '' . The festival was noteworthy because of the importance of the headliner bands that played and the timing in the evolution of new wave music , and from the size of the crowd .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(festival)", "rank": 13, "score": 96706 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (band) Content: Heatwave is an international funk/disco band formed in 1975 . Its most popular lineup featured Americans Johnnie Wilder Jr. and Keith Wilder ( vocals ) of Dayton , Ohio ; Englishman Rod Temperton ( keyboards ) ; Swiss Mario Mantese ( bass ) ; Czechoslovak Ernest `` Bilbo '' Berger ( drums ) ; Jamaican Eric Johns ( guitar ) ; and Briton Roy Carter ( guitar ) . They were known for their singles `` Boogie Nights '' , `` The Groove Line '' , and `` Always and Forever '' .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(band)", "rank": 14, "score": 96529 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (album) Content: Heatwave is the fifth album by Belgian RIO band Univers Zero . Released in 1986 , the album is a continued exploration of the Middle Eastern influences , which first appeared on Uzed . The instrumentation here is more electronic than in their previous works . The album was recorded and mixed by Didier de Roos at Daylight Studio , Brussels . The album is unusual among Univers Zero albums in that drummer/bandleader Daniel Denis did not write the majority of the material . Keyboardist Andy Kirk takes the compositional lead instead , penning both the title track and `` The Funeral Plain . '' The latter is notable for being the second longest Univers Zero song ( Only the track `` La Faulx '' , off the Heresie album , is longer ) . `` The Funeral Plain '' is dedicated to `` all living hardships that lead into self-awareness . '' The band would not release their next album , The Hard Quest , until 1999 . Denis temporarily broke up the band after the release of Heatwave due to financial difficulties and tension within the group .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(album)", "rank": 15, "score": 95794 }, { "content": "Title: Abrupt climate change Content: An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states . Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Abrupt_climate_change", "rank": 16, "score": 95763 }, { "content": "Title: Heat wave (disambiguation) Content: A heat wave is a prolonged period of unusually hot weather . Heat Wave , or similar , may refer to :", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_wave_(disambiguation)", "rank": 17, "score": 95611 }, { "content": "Title: 1955 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The UK drought of 1955 and associated heatwave were a set of severe weather events that occurred over all parts of the country . The drought was the 7th worst drought in Yorkshire , and worse than the famous 1976 drought and heatwave in the region . The drought followed a period of extremely wet weather previous to the event , limiting the effects . However , the usual impacts were seen with water levels and the water table dropping and reservoirs running low .", "qid": "340", "docid": "1955_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 18, "score": 95019 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian heat wave Content: In May 2015 , India was struck by a severe heat wave . , it has caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people in multiple regions . The heat wave occurred during the Indian dry season , which typically lasts from March to July with peak temperatures in April and May . Although it typically remains hot until late October , Indian monsoons often provide some respite from the heat . The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring Telangana , where more than 1,735 and 585 people died respectively , were the areas most affected by the heat wave . Other casualties were from the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha . The high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities . The 2015 heat wave has had the highest recorded temperatures since 1995 . In May 2016 , a new record was set in Phalodi .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2015_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 19, "score": 94804 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 20, "score": 94629 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave! (1974 film) Content: Heatwave ! is an American disaster movie that was broadcast on the ABC television network on January 26 , 1974 . It was an ABC Movie of the Week . Its running time was 90 minutes . The film was directed by Jerry Jameson , produced by Herbert F. Solow and Harve Bennett . The plot focuses upon the effect an intense and prolonged heat wave and water shortage has on Frank Taylor and his pregnant wife Laura Taylor , both while they are in the city where they live and after they decide to relocate .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave!_(1974_film)", "rank": 21, "score": 94530 }, { "content": "Title: Late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave ( also referred to as the November 2009 heat wave and the South Australian heat wave ) was a heat wave that occurred in the southeastern Australian states of South Australia , Victoria and southern New South Wales . Daily maximum temperatures during the heat wave were roughly 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) above average in many locations . Capital cities Adelaide and Melbourne recorded temperatures over 35 ° C , and some regional towns recorded temperatures above 40 ° C. Above average temperatures in the region began in late October and persisted until mid-November 2009 . Many locations through the region broke temperature records for November . This heat wave was the second experienced in the region within a 10-month period , following the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave in January and February 2009 , to which 374 deaths were attributed . Although the earlier heat wave was far more intense , the later heat wave was more extensive and long lasting . The heat wave was caused by a combination of factors , including hot , dry winds caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that had settled over the Tasman Sea , an El Niño event occurring in the Pacific Ocean , and gradually rising temperatures across southern Australia , probably as a result of global warming .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Late_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 22, "score": 94317 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (Robin Schulz song) Content: `` Heatwave '' is a song by German DJ and record producer Robin Schulz featuring vocals from American singer , rapper and songwriter Akon . The song was released as a digital download in Germany on 12 February 2016 as the fourth and final single from his second studio album Sugar ( 2015 ) . The song was written by Thomas Troelsen , Aliaune Thiam and Bryan Nelson .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(Robin_Schulz_song)", "rank": 23, "score": 93876 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (film) Content: Heatwave is a 1982 Australian film directed by Phillip Noyce based on the murder of Juanita Nielsen . It was the second of two films inspired by this story that came out around this time , the first being The Killing of Angel Street ( 1981 ) .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(film)", "rank": 24, "score": 93835 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (Wiley song) Content: `` Heatwave '' is a single from British grime artist Wiley , featuring vocals from Ms D - known for singing on the Chipmunk song `` Oopsy Daisy '' . It was released as the lead single from his eighth studio album The Ascent on 27 July 2012 for digital download in the United Kingdom . It was written by Wiley , Dayo Olatunji and produced by Rymez , who is unofficially credited as a featured artist . `` Heatwave '' received major radio airplay , while managing to enter on BBC Radio 1 's A-list . The song debuted at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart on 5 August 2012 , selling over 114,000 copies , while becoming Wiley 's first ever solo number 1 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(Wiley_song)", "rank": 25, "score": 93526 }, { "content": "Title: January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave was a significant heat wave event which affected most of southeastern Australia from 13 to 18 January 2014 . The main areas affected were Victoria , Tasmania , southern New South Wales away from the coast and the southern half of South Australia . The event ranked along with the 2009 heat wave , 1939 heat wave and 1908 heat wave as one of the most significant multi-day heatwaves on record . The heat wave broke a number of records for extended periods of heat . A spike in heat waves and record breaking high temperatures across Australia over the past five years has led to concerns over the effects of global warming and climate change on the country . Adelaide , South Australia suffered the brunt of the summer heat wave , recording 13 days with temperatures above 40 ° C.", "qid": "340", "docid": "January_2014_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 26, "score": 92963 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 North American heat wave Content: The 2015 North American heat wave was a heatwave in the Northwest United States and southern British Columbia , that took place from June 18 - July 3 , 2015 . Many all time and monthly record highs and record high lows were recorded . In Canada , the heat wave mostly affected the Lower Mainland , and the Southern Interior .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2015_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 27, "score": 92464 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "340", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 28, "score": 92195 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal radiation Content: Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation generated by the thermal motion of charged particles in matter . All matter with a temperature greater than absolute zero emits thermal radiation . When the temperature of a body is greater than absolute zero , inter-atomic collisions cause the kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules to change . This results in charge-acceleration and/or dipole oscillation which produces electromagnetic radiation , and the wide spectrum of radiation reflects the wide spectrum of energies and accelerations that occur even at a single temperature . Examples of thermal radiation include the visible light and infrared light emitted by an incandescent light bulb , the infrared radiation emitted by animals is detectable with an infrared camera , and the cosmic microwave background radiation . Thermal radiation is different from thermal convection and thermal conduction -- a person near a raging bonfire feels radiant heating from the fire , even if the surrounding air is very cold . Sunlight is part of thermal radiation generated by the hot plasma of the Sun . The Earth also emits thermal radiation , but at a much lower intensity and different spectral distribution ( infrared rather than visible ) because it is cooler . The Earth 's absorption of solar radiation , followed by its outgoing thermal radiation are the two most important processes that determine the temperature and climate of the Earth . If a radiation-emitting object meets the physical characteristics of a black body in thermodynamic equilibrium , the radiation is called blackbody radiation . Planck 's law describes the spectrum of blackbody radiation , which depends only on the object 's temperature . Wien 's displacement law determines the most likely frequency of the emitted radiation , and the Stefan -- Boltzmann law gives the radiant intensity . Thermal radiation is one of the fundamental mechanisms of heat transfer .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Thermal_radiation", "rank": 29, "score": 92190 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "340", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 30, "score": 91840 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal runaway Content: Thermal runaway occurs in situations where an increase in temperature changes the conditions in a way that causes a further increase in temperature , often leading to a destructive result . It is a kind of uncontrolled positive feedback . In other words , `` thermal runaway '' describes a process which is accelerated by increased temperature , in turn releasing energy that further increases temperature . In chemistry ( and chemical engineering ) , it is associated with strongly exothermic reactions that are accelerated by temperature rise . In electrical engineering , thermal runaway is typically associated with increased current flow and power dissipation , although exothermic chemical reactions can be of concern here too . Thermal runaway can occur in civil engineering , notably when the heat released by large amounts of curing concrete is not controlled -LCB- Citation needed -RCB- . In astrophysics , runaway nuclear fusion reactions in stars can lead to nova and several types of supernova explosions , and also occur as a less dramatic event in the normal evolution of solar mass stars , the `` helium flash '' . There are also concerns regarding global warming that a global average increase of 3 -- 4 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial baseline could lead to a further unchecked increase in surface temperatures . For example , releases of methane , a greenhouse gas more potent than CO2 , from wetlands , melting permafrost and continental margin seabed clathrate deposits could be subject to positive feedback .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Thermal_runaway", "rank": 31, "score": 91225 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 32, "score": 90889 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave Content: The 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave was a continuation and eastward expansion of the 2007 Western North American heat wave which began in late June 2007 . The heatwave expanded eastward starting at the very end of July and lasting into the first weeks of August . This heat wave was notable for both associated severe drought over a large swath of the southeastern United States , and parts of the Great Lakes region , and its late season ending , with temperatures continuing , although more sporadically , well into the 90s ° F ( 30s ° C ) into September and October in the mid-Atlantic region .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2007_North_America_South_and_Eastern_heatwave", "rank": 33, "score": 90837 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 34, "score": 90669 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave (comics) Content: Heatwave is a comic book character from Top Cow Productions . He was also a member of the Cyberforce .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_(comics)", "rank": 35, "score": 90420 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "340", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 36, "score": 90328 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 37, "score": 90182 }, { "content": "Title: Central Heating (Heatwave album) Content: Central Heating is the second album by funk-disco band Heatwave , released in 1977 on the GTO label in the UK and in '78 on the Epic label in the US . It was produced by Barry Blue . It was the last Heatwave album to feature bassist Mario Mantese and guitarist Eric Johns , as well as the first to feature new member Roy Carter on guitar . The album was also the final performance of Rod Temperton as an official member of Heatwave , although he would continue to write songs for the band after his departure . The album was remastered and reissued with bonus tracks in 2015 by Big Break Records .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Central_Heating_(Heatwave_album)", "rank": 38, "score": 89025 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of Sun angle on climate Content: The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate , as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location , time of day , and season due to the Earth 's orbit around the Sun and the Earth 's rotation around its tilted axis . Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight , caused by the tilt of the Earth 's axis , is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter . Change in day length is another factor . ( See also season . )", "qid": "340", "docid": "Effect_of_Sun_angle_on_climate", "rank": 39, "score": 88659 }, { "content": "Title: Outgoing longwave radiation Content: Outgoing Longwave Radiation ( OLR ) is the energy radiating from the Earth as infrared radiation at low energy to Space . OLR is electromagnetic radiation emitted from Earth and its atmosphere out to space in the form of thermal radiation . The flux of energy transported by outgoing longwave radiation is measured in W/m ² . Over 99 % of outgoing longwave radiation has wavelengths between 4 µm and 100 µm , in the thermal infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum . Contributions with wavelengths larger than 40 µm are small , therefore often only wavelengths up to 50 µm are considered . In the wavelength range between 4 µm and 10 µm the spectrum of outgoing longwave radiation overlaps that of solar radiation , and for various applications different cut-off wavelengths between the two may be chosen . Radiative cooling by outgoing longwave radiation is the primary way the Earth System loses energy . The balance between this loss and the energy gained by radiative heating from incoming solar shortwave radiation determines global heating or cooling of the Earth system ( Energy budget of Earth 's climate ) . Local differences between radiative heating and cooling provide the energy that drives atmospheric dynamics .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Outgoing_longwave_radiation", "rank": 40, "score": 88529 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Adelaide heatwave Content: The 2014 Adelaide heatwave was a heat wave that occurred in Adelaide , South Australia in both January and February 2014 . The heatwaves were so strong that it broke records , becoming the hottest summer ever recorded in Adelaide . Although there were no deaths directly linked to the heatwave as of 2015 , there were at least 136 heat-related hospital admissions recorded .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2014_Adelaide_heatwave", "rank": 41, "score": 88520 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal fade Content: A thermal fade is a phenomenon of wireless signal degradation ( fading ) caused by temperature and relative humidity factors . As the prevailing environmental conditions change , for example , from hot to cool , humid to arid or day to night , the electromagnetic waves refract differently thus altering the power distribution and possibly the direction of the signal . This is the same process that causes visible light to `` bend '' on hot days over a road or other surfaces . This is a serious problem for AM broadcasting but less so with FM broadcasting . Thermal fading can occur in almost any frequency band .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Thermal_fade", "rank": 42, "score": 87611 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (Ahmad Jamal album) Content: Heat Wave is an album by American jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal featuring performances recorded in 1966 and released on the Cadet label .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(Ahmad_Jamal_album)", "rank": 43, "score": 87341 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 44, "score": 87302 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 45, "score": 87271 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (Alphabeat song) Content: `` Heat Wave '' is a song by Danish pop band Alphabeat from their second studio album , The Spell ( 2009 ) . The song was released in Denmark on 21 June 2010 as the album 's fourth and final single . `` Heat Wave '' peaked at number four on the Danish Singles Chart , and was certified gold by IFPI Denmark in October 2010 , denoting sales in excess of 15,000 copies .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(Alphabeat_song)", "rank": 46, "score": 87124 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 47, "score": 86695 }, { "content": "Title: Climate model Content: Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Climate_model", "rank": 48, "score": 86684 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (1935 film) Content: Heat Wave is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Albert Burdon , Cyril Maude and Les Allen . A British vegetable salesman accidentally gets mixed up in a planned revolution in South America . It was made at Islington Studios by Gainsborough Pictures . The film 's sets were designed by the Austrian art director Oscar Friedrich Werndorff .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(1935_film)", "rank": 49, "score": 86664 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave was a period of unseasonably warm weather which arrived towards the end of September 2011 and continued into October . As a result , record-high temperatures for the country were broken for the autumn months . The autumn heat wave followed the warmest temperatures to occur on record in the spring , but also the coolest temperatures to occur in the summer months since 1993 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Autumn_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 50, "score": 86441 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 51, "score": 86269 }, { "content": "Title: 1980 United States heat wave Content: The 1980 United States Heat Wave was a period of intense heat and drought that wreaked havoc on much of the Midwestern United States and Southern Plains throughout the summer of 1980 . It is among the most devastating natural disasters in terms of deaths and destruction in U.S. history , claiming at least 1,700 lives and because of the massive drought , agricultural damage reached US$ 20.0 billion ( US$ 55.4 billion in 2007 dollars , adjusted for the GNP inflation index ) . It is among the billion-dollar weather disasters listed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .", "qid": "340", "docid": "1980_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 52, "score": 86110 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 North American heat wave Content: The 2006 North American heat wave spread throughout most of the United States and Canada beginning on July 15 , 2006 , killing at least 225 people . That day the temperature reached 117 ° F ( 47 ° C ) in Pierre , South Dakota , with many places in South Dakota that hit well into the 120s . In early reports from this heat wave , at least three died in Philadelphia , Arkansas , and Indiana . In Maryland , the state health officials reported that three people died of heat-related causes . Another heat related death was suspected in Chicago . Although many heat related deaths go unreported , by July 19 , the Associated Press reported that the soaring heat was blamed for 12 deaths from Oklahoma City to the Philadelphia area . Reports by early morning July 20 raised the death toll to at least 16 in seven states . This period of heat also saw a wind storm ( derecho ) in St. Louis that caused widespread power outages , including for cooling centers designed to provide relief for those suffering from the heat . In addition , places on the West Coast , like California 's Central Valley and Southern California experienced humid heat , which is unusual for the area .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2006_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 53, "score": 85972 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal Content: A thermal column ( or thermal ) is a column of rising air in the lower altitudes of Earth 's atmosphere , a form of atmospheric updraft . Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth 's surface from solar radiation , and are an example of convection , specifically atmospheric convection . The Sun warms the ground , which in turn warms the air directly above it .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Thermal", "rank": 54, "score": 85541 }, { "content": "Title: Blast Furnace and the Heatwaves Content: Blast Furnace and the Heatwaves were a London-based rhythm & blues band , that flourished in the 1970s . Lead singer and harmonica player , Blast Furnace , was the alter-ego of then New Musical Express journalist and rock and blues historian , Charles Shaar Murray . The band recorded a four track EP Blue Wave , which included two original songs and two rocking r 'n b tracks , one of which was recorded live at London 's Roundhouse . The EP also featured backing vocals from Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats . This was followed by a single South Of The River . Members of the band included Charles Shaar Murray ( vocals , guitar & harp ) , Skid Stuart ( harp & vocals ) and Andy Eastwood ( guitars ) . The original rhythm section of Andy St Clare ( bass ) and Nigel Elliott ( drums ) was replaced by Kevin Allen ( bass ) and John Mackie ( drums ) , both from The Stukas , for the South Of The River tour with Wilko Johnson 's Solid Senders . Category : Pub rock musical groups Category : British rhythm and blues musical groups", "qid": "340", "docid": "Blast_Furnace_and_the_Heatwaves", "rank": 55, "score": 85428 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (2011 film) Content: Heat Wave ( Après le sud ) is a 2011 French drama film and the directorial debut of Jean-Jacques Jauffret . It was screened in the Directors ' Fortnight section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(2011_film)", "rank": 56, "score": 85238 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (comics) Content: Heat Wave ( Mick Rory ) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics , commonly as an enemy of The Flash .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(comics)", "rank": 57, "score": 85184 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1990 heat wave in the United Kingdom was a particularly severe heat event with temperatures hitting record highs of 37.1 C on 3 August . The temperature was recorded at Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and was a full degree Celsius above the previous record , set in 1911 . However , this record was subsequently broken in the 2003 heatwave .", "qid": "340", "docid": "1990_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 58, "score": 84970 }, { "content": "Title: Tidal heating of Io Content: Tidal heating ( also known as tidal working ) occurs through the tidal friction processes : orbital and rotational energy are dissipated as heat in the crust of the moons and planets involved . Io has a similar mass and size as the Moon , but Io is the most geologically active body in the Solar System . This is caused by the heating mechanism of Io . The major heating source of Earth and its moon is radioactive heating , but the heating source on Io is tidal heating . As Jupiter is very massive , the side of Io nearest to Jupiter has a slightly larger gravitational pull than the opposite side . This difference in gravitational forces cause distortion of Io 's shape . Differently from the Earth 's only moon , Jupiter has several moons ( i.e. Io , Europa , Ganymede and Callisto ) . As Io is the innermost moon of Jupiter , Jupiter pulls Io inward and other moons pull Io outward . This causes Io 's orbit to be elliptical and eccentric . The distance between Jupiter and Io changes all the time and the distortion of Io likewise changes all the time . The constant change in the shape of Io results in a large amount of friction in the moon and the friction-induced heating drives strong volcanic activities on the surface of Io . Although there is general agreement that the cause of the heat as manifested in Io 's many volcanoes is tidal heating from the pull of gravity from Jupiter and its moon Europa , the volcanoes are not in the positions predicted with tidal heating . They are shifted 30 to 60 degrees to the East . A study published in 2015 , explains the eastern shift by an ocean of molten rock under the surface . The movement of this magma would generate extra heat . Liquids especially if they are sticky ( or viscous ) can produce heat through friction . The team who wrote the paper , believe that the subsurface ocean is a mixture of molten and solid rock . When the molten rock flows , it may swirl and rub against the surrounding rock , thus generating heat . Other moons in the Solar System undergo tidal heating , and they too may have more heat generated by this process , including heat from the movement of water . This ability to generate heat in a subsurface ocean increases the chance of life on bodies like Europa and Enceladus .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Tidal_heating_of_Io", "rank": 59, "score": 84923 }, { "content": "Title: Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 Content: Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 ( ETM-2 ) , also called H-1 or the Elmo ( Eocene Layer of Mysterious Origin ) event , was a transient period of global warming that occurred approximately 53.7 million years ago ( Ma ) . It appears to be the second major hyperthermal that punctuated the long-term warming trend from the Late Paleocene through the early Eocene ( 58 to 50 Ma ) . The hyperthermals were geologically brief time intervals ( < 200,000 years ) of global warming and massive carbon input . The most extreme and best-studied event , the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM or ETM-1 ) , occurred about 1.8 million years before ETM-2 , at approximately 55.5 Ma . Other hyperthermals likely followed ETM-2 at nominally 53.6 Ma ( H-2 ) , 53.3 ( I-1 ) , 53.2 ( I-2 ) and 52.8 Ma ( informally called K , X or ETM-3 ) . The number , nomenclature , absolute ages and relative global impact of the Eocene hyperthermals are the source of much current research . In any case , the hyperthermals appear to have ushered in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest interval of the Cenozoic Era . They also definitely precede the Azolla event at about 49 Ma . ETM-2 is clearly recognized in sediment sequences by analyzing the stable carbon isotope composition of carbon-bearing material . The 13C/12C ratio of calcium carbonate or organic matter drops significantly across the event . This is similar to what happens when one examines sediment across the PETM , although the magnitude of the negative carbon isotope excursion is not as large . The timing of Earth system perturbations during ETM-2 and the PETM also appear different . Specifically , the onset of ETM-2 may have been longer ( perhaps 30,000 years ) while the recovery seems to have been shorter ( perhaps < 50,000 years ) . ( Note , however , that the timing of short-term carbon cycle perturbations during both events remains difficult to constrain ) . A thin clay-rich horizon marks ETM-2 in marine sediment from widely separated locations . In sections recovered from the deep-sea ( for example those recovered by Ocean Drilling Program Leg 208 on Walvis Ridge ) , this layer is caused by dissolution of calcium carbonate . However , in sections deposited along continental margins ( for example those now exposed along the Clarence River , New Zealand ) , the clay-rich horizon represents dilution by excess accumulation of terrestrial material entering into the ocean . Similar changes in sediment accumulation are found across the PETM . In sediment from Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean , intervals across both ETM-2 and the PETM shows signs of higher temperature , lower salinity and lower dissolved oxygen . The PETM and ETM-2 are thought to have a similar generic origin , although this idea is at the edge of current research . During both events , a tremendous amount of 13C-depleted carbon rapidly entered the ocean and atmosphere . This decreased the 13C/12C ratio of carbon-bearing sedimentary components , and dissolved carbonate in the deep ocean . Somehow the carbon input was coupled to an increase in Earth surface temperature and a greater seasonality in precipitation , which explains the excess terrestrial sediment discharge along continental margins . Possible explanations for changes during ETM-2 are the same as those for the PETM , and are discussed under the latter entry . The H-2 event appears to be a `` minor '' hyperthermal that follows ETM-2 ( H-1 ) by about 100,000 years . This has led to speculation that the two events are somehow coupled and paced by changes in orbital eccentricity . As in the case of the PETM , reversible dwarfing of mammals has been noted during the ETM-2 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Eocene_Thermal_Maximum_2", "rank": 60, "score": 84904 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 61, "score": 84829 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (2009 American film) Content: Heat Wave is a made for television film in the action / adventure genre . It is about a heat wave that threatens to turn Los Angeles County into a parched , lifeless desert .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(2009_American_film)", "rank": 62, "score": 84749 }, { "content": "Title: Heat lightning Content: Heat lightning , sometimes known as silent lightning , is the name used for the faint flashes of lightning on the horizon or other clouds from distant thunderstorms that do not have accompanying sounds of thunder . This often occurs because of inter-cloud and intra-cloud lightning , where lightning charges travel from cloud-to-cloud or merely areas of differing electric potential within a single cloud , respectively . Because of this nature , heat lightning can often be seen from great distances , and thus can be an early warning sign that thunderstorms are approaching . The term could be considered a misnomer because it has nothing to do with the heat of the lightning itself . Heat lightning can also occur if cloud-to-ground lightning occurs very far away and the sound dissipates before it reaches the observer . At night , it is possible to see the flashes of lightning from very far distances , up to 100 miles , but the sound does not carry that far . In Florida , heat lightning is often seen over the water at night , the remnants of storms that formed during the day along a sea breeze front coming in from the opposite coast . Heat lightning also occurs where airborne matter muffles the thunder , such as heavy snow in winter storms ( thundersnow ) and dust and sand storms . In some instances , heavy falling snow has silenced thunder from cloud to ground lightning strikes as close as one to two miles ( 1.6 to 3.2 km ) from the observer and severe dust storms are even more effective in many cases . Heat lightning is not to be confused with electrically-induced luminosity actually generated at mesospheric altitudes above thunderstorm systems ( and likewise visible at exceedingly great ranges ) , a phenomenon known as `` sprites '' .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_lightning", "rank": 63, "score": 84737 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's energy budget Content: Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Earth's_energy_budget", "rank": 64, "score": 84734 }, { "content": "Title: Heatwave Interactive Content: Heatwave Interactive is an Austin , Texas based video game developer founded in 2007 by Anthony Castoro and Donn Clendenon .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heatwave_Interactive", "rank": 65, "score": 84616 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "340", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 66, "score": 84299 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New York City Content: Climate change in New York City could affect buildings/structures , wetlands , water supply , health , and energy demand , due to the high population and extensive infrastructure in the region . New York is especially at risk if the sea level rises , due to many of the bridges connecting to boroughs , and entrances to roads and rail tunnels . High-traffic locations such as the airports , the Holland Tunnel , the Lincoln Tunnel , and the New York Passenger Ship Terminal are located in areas vulnerable to flooding . Flooding would be expensive to reverse . Rising temperatures could bring a higher risk of heat related deaths from heat waves and increased concentrations of ground-level ozone ( potentially causing asthma and other health concerns ) .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_York_City", "rank": 67, "score": 84281 }, { "content": "Title: Solar phenomena Content: Solar phenomena are the natural phenomena occurring within the magnetically heated outer atmospheres in the Sun . These phenomena take many forms , including solar wind , radio wave flux , energy bursts such as solar flares , coronal mass ejection or solar eruptions , coronal heating and sunspots . These phenomena are generated by a helical dynamo near the center of the Sun 's mass that generates strong magnetic fields and a chaotic dynamo near the surface that generates smaller magnetic field fluctuations . The total sum of all solar fluctuations is referred to as solar variation . The collective effect of all solar variations within the Sun 's gravitational field is referred to as space weather . A major weather component is the solar wind , a stream of plasma released from the Sun 's upper atmosphere . It is responsible for the aurora , natural light displays in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic . Space weather disturbances can cause solar storms on Earth , disrupting communications , as well as geomagnetic storms in Earth 's magnetosphere and sudden ionospheric disturbances in the ionosphere . Variations in solar intensity also affect Earth 's climate . These variations can explain events such as ice ages and the Great Oxygenation Event , while the Sun 's future expansion into a red giant will likely end life on Earth . Solar activity and related events have been recorded since the 8th century BCE . Babylonians inscribed and possibly predicted solar eclipses , while the earliest extant report of sunspots dates back to the Chinese Book of Changes , . The first extant description of the solar corona was in 968 , while the earliest sunspot drawing was in 1128 and a solar prominence was described in 1185 in the Russian Chronicle of Novgorod . The invention of the telescope allowed major advances in understanding , allowing the first detailed observations in the 1600s . Solar spectroscopy began in the 1800s , from which properties of the solar atmosphere could be determined , while the creation of daguerreotypy led to the first solar photographs on 2 April 1845 . Photography assisted in the study of solar prominences , granulation and spectroscopy . Early in the 20th century , interest in astrophysics surged in America . A number of new observatories were built with solar telescopes around the world . The 1931 invention of the coronagraph allowed the corona to be studied in full daylight .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Solar_phenomena", "rank": 68, "score": 84168 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (novel) Content: Heat Wave is the first in a series of mystery novels featuring the characters Nikki Heat , an NYPD homicide detective , and Jameson Rook , a journalist . The novel and its sequels are published by Hyperion Books as a tie-in to the U.S. crime series Castle , and are attributed to that show 's lead character Richard Castle . Heat Wave was published in 2009 and has been followed by Naked Heat ( 2010 ) , Heat Rises ( 2011 ) , Frozen Heat ( 2012 ) , Deadly Heat ( 2013 ) , Raging Heat ( 2014 ) and `` Driving Heat '' ( 2015 ) .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(novel)", "rank": 69, "score": 83963 }, { "content": "Title: Summer 2012 North American heat wave Content: In the Summer of 2012 , a heat wave took place , leading to more than 82 heat-related deaths across the United States and Canada . An additional twenty-two lives were lost in the resultant June 2012 North American derecho . This long-lived , straight-line wind and its thunderstorms cut electrical power to 3.7 million customers . Over 500,000 were still without power on July 6 , as the heat wave continued . Temperatures generally decreased somewhat the week of July 9 in the east , but the high pressure shifted to the west , causing the core of the hot weather to the build in the Mountain States and the southwest U. S. shifting eastwards again by mid-July . By early August , the core of the heat remained over the Southern Plains .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Summer_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 70, "score": 83603 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (2009 Canadian film) Content: Heat Wave ( Les Grandes Chaleurs ) is a 2009 Canadian drama film directed by Sophie Lorain .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(2009_Canadian_film)", "rank": 71, "score": 83472 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (The Jazz Crusaders album) Content: Heat Wave is the fifth album by The Jazz Crusaders recorded in 1963 and released on the Pacific Jazz label .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(The_Jazz_Crusaders_album)", "rank": 72, "score": 83320 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 73, "score": 83249 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (Martha and the Vandellas album) Content: Heat Wave is the second album released by American Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas . Released in 1963 on Motown 's Gordy imprint , intended to capitialize on the success of the title track , which rose to number four on the pop singles chart and number-one on the R&B singles chart . The album was produced by the likes of Holland-Dozier-Holland ( who composed the group 's first five hit singles ) and Mickey Stevenson . This was the last album to feature original Vandella Annette Beard . The material is composed almost entirely of cover versions of songs that were popular at the time . These range from pop tunes like `` Then He Kissed Me '' and `` My Boyfriend 's Back '' to mainstream standards such as `` More '' ( the theme from the 1962 film Mondo Cane ) and `` Danke Schoen . '' The folk song `` If I Had a Hammer '' is also included as the Peter , Paul , and Mary version was big at the time . On its original release Heat Wave charted lowly at 125 on the U.S. albums chart .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(Martha_and_the_Vandellas_album)", "rank": 74, "score": 83223 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (2015 film) Content: Heat Wave ( original title : Coup de chaud ) is a 2015 French thriller-drama film directed by Raphaël Jacoulot . It was released on 12 August 2015 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(2015_film)", "rank": 75, "score": 83168 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "340", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 76, "score": 83044 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal fluctuations Content: In statistical mechanics , thermal fluctuations are random deviations of a system from its average state , that occur in a system at equilibrium . All thermal fluctuations become larger and more frequent as the temperature increases , and likewise they decrease as temperature approaches absolute zero . Thermal fluctuations are a basic manifestation of the temperature of systems : A system at nonzero temperature does not stay in its equilibrium microscopic state , but instead randomly samples all possible states , with probabilities given by the Boltzmann distribution . Thermal fluctuations generally affect all the degrees of freedom of a system : There can be random vibrations ( phonons ) , random rotations ( rotons ) , random electronic excitations , and so forth . Thermodynamic variables , such as pressure , temperature , or entropy , likewise undergo thermal fluctuations . For example , for a system that has an equilibrium pressure , the system pressure fluctuates to some extent about the equilibrium value . Only the ` control variables ' of statistical ensembles ( such as N , V and E in the microcanonical ensemble ) do not fluctuate . Thermal fluctuations are a source of noise in many systems . The random forces that give rise to thermal fluctuations are a source of both diffusion and dissipation ( including damping and viscosity ) . The competing effects of random drift and resistance to drift are related by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem . Thermal fluctuations play a major role in phase transitions and chemical kinetics .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Thermal_fluctuations", "rank": 77, "score": 82964 }, { "content": "Title: Arizona Heatwave Content: The Arizona Heatwave were an American women 's soccer team , founded in 2003 , which played in the USL W-League for three years , until 2005 , when they left the league and the franchise was terminated . The Heatwave played their home games in the stadium at Sandra Day O'Connor High School in the city of Glendale , Arizona . The team 's colors were green and white .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Arizona_Heatwave", "rank": 78, "score": 82820 }, { "content": "Title: California HeatWave Content: The California Heatwave was a semi-professional basketball team in the American Basketball Association ( ABA ) team based in Madera , California . The team began play in the fall of 2003 at Selland Arena in Fresno , California . The founder of the Fresno Heatwave was Albert Ellis and Richard Hanna . The Fresno Heatwave was coached by Sean Higgins , and its Vice President was Janine Nkosi . Originally , the team was called the Fresno Heat , but it was renamed Fresno Heatwave to avoid brand confusion with the National Basketball Association 's Miami Heat .", "qid": "340", "docid": "California_HeatWave", "rank": 79, "score": 82812 }, { "content": "Title: Climate oscillation Content: A climate oscillation or climate cycle is any recurring cyclical oscillation within global or regional climate , and is a type of climate pattern . These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature , sea surface temperature , precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic , often occurring on inter-annual , multi-annual , decadal , multidecadal , century-wide , millennial or longer timescales . They are not perfectly periodic and a Fourier analysis of the data does not give a sharp spectrum . A prominent example is the El Niño Southern Oscillation , involving sea surface temperatures along a stretch of the equatorial Central and East Pacific Ocean and the western coast of tropical South America , but which affects climate worldwide . Records of past climate conditions are recovered through geological examination of proxies , found in glacier ice , sea bed sediment , tree ring studies or otherwise .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Climate_oscillation", "rank": 80, "score": 82771 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (Cal Tjader and Carmen McRae album) Content: Heat Wave is a 1982 studio album by vibraphonist Cal Tjader and jazz singer Carmen McRae . Tjader died four months after the completion of Heat Wave , it was his final recording . The album was arranged by pianists Mark Levine and Marshall Otwell . McRae and Tjader did not get on well during the recording , and Tjader later overdubbed his parts without McRae present . McRae chose to sing `` Besame Mucho '' in its original Spanish language lyrics , and Willie Bobo helped her with the pronunciation . Heat Wave peaked at 25 on Billboard 's Jazz Albums chart .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(Cal_Tjader_and_Carmen_McRae_album)", "rank": 81, "score": 82716 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Pakistan heat wave Content: A severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 49 C struck southern Pakistan in June 2015 . It caused the deaths of about 2,000 people from dehydration and heat stroke , mostly in Sindh province and its capital city , Karachi . The heat wave also claimed the lives of zoo animals and countless agricultural livestock . The event followed a separate heat wave in neighboring India that killed 2,500 people in May 2015 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2015_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 82, "score": 82654 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "340", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 83, "score": 82575 }, { "content": "Title: ECW Heat Wave Content: In professional wrestling , Heat Wave was an event held by the Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States-based professional wrestling promotion Eastern Championship Wrestling/Extreme Championship Wrestling ( ECW ) annually from 1994 to 2000 . The 1998 , 1999 and 2000 iterations of Heat Wave aired on pay-per-view ( PPV ) , while the 1997 iteration was an Internet pay-per-view ( iPPV ) . The footage from the seven Heat Wave events is owned by WWE .", "qid": "340", "docid": "ECW_Heat_Wave", "rank": 84, "score": 82573 }, { "content": "Title: Heat Wave (Martha and the Vandellas song) Content: `` Heat Wave '' is a 1963 song penned by the Holland -- Dozier -- Holland songwriting team . The song was first made popular by the American Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas . Released as a 45 RPM single on July 9 , 1963 , on the Motown subsidiary Gordy label , it hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B chart -- where it held for four weeks running -- and reached fourth place on the Billboard Hot 100 . It was later covered by Rock vocalist Linda Ronstadt on her Platinum-selling 1975 album Prisoner in Disguise . Ronstadt 's version of the song was released as a single in September 1975 , reaching number 5 in Billboard , 4 in Cash Box , and 6 in Record World . In 2010 , British musician Phil Collins spent a single week ( number 29 ) on the Billboard Adult Contemporary listing with his retooling of the song -- a smooth combination of both versions .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Heat_Wave_(Martha_and_the_Vandellas_song)", "rank": 85, "score": 82227 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-albedo feedback Content: Ice-albedo feedback ( or snow-albedo feedback ) is a positive feedback climate process where a change in the area of snow-covered land , ice caps , glaciers or sea ice alters the albedo . This change in albedo acts to reinforce the initial alteration in ice area . Cooling tends to increase ice cover and hence the albedo , reducing the amount of solar energy absorbed and leading to more cooling . Conversely , warming tends to decrease ice cover and hence the albedo , increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed , leading to more warming . The effect also applies on the small scale to snow-covered surfaces . A small amount of snow melt exposes darker ground which absorbs more radiation , leading to more snowmelt . The effect has mostly been discussed in terms of the recent trend of declining Arctic sea ice . Internal feedback processes may also potentially occur , as land ice melts and causes eustatic sea level rise , and also potentially induces earthquakes as a result of isostatic rebound , which further acts to disrupt glaciers , ice shelves , etc. .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Ice-albedo_feedback", "rank": 86, "score": 82223 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave was a heat wave that commenced in late January and led to record-breaking prolonged high temperatures in the region . The heat wave is considered one of the , if not the , most extreme in the region 's history . During the heat wave , fifty separate locations set various records for consecutive , highest daytime and overnight temperatures . The highest temperature recorded during the heat wave was 48.8 ° C in Hopetoun , Victoria , a record for the state . Many locations through the region recorded all-time high temperatures including capital cities Adelaide , which reached its third-highest temperature , 45.7 ° C , and Melbourne , which recorded its highest-ever temperature on record , 46.4 ° C. Both cities broke records for the most consecutive days over 40 ° C , while Mildura , Victoria recorded an all-time record twelve consecutive days over 43 ° C. The exceptional heat wave was caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that settled over the Tasman Sea , with a combination of an intense tropical low located off the North West Australian coast and a monsoon trough over Northern Australia , which produced ideal conditions for hot tropical air to be directed down over southeastern Australia . The heat began in South Australia on 25 January but became more widespread over southeast Australia by 27 January . A weak cool change moved over the southern coastal areas bringing some relief on 30 January , including Melbourne , where the change arrived that evening , dropping temperatures to an average of 30.8 ° C. Higher temperatures returned on the following weekend with Melbourne recording its hottest day since records began in 1855 , 46.4 ° C , also the highest temperature ever recorded in an Australian capital city . The heat wave generated extreme fire conditions during the peak of the 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season , causing many bushfires in the affected region , contributing to the extreme bushfire conditions on 7 February , also known as the Black Saturday bushfires , which claimed 173 lives in Victoria . Ten months after this heat wave , a second struck the same region in November 2009 .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Early_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 87, "score": 82125 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 88, "score": 81784 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of radiation on perceived temperature Content: The `` radiation effect '' results from radiation heat exchange between human bodies and surrounding surfaces , such as walls and ceilings . It may lead to phenomena such as houses feeling cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer at the same temperature . For example , in a room in which air temperature is maintained at 22 ° Celsius at all times , but in which the inner surfaces of the house is estimated to be an average temperature of 10 ° Celsius in the winter or 25 ° Celsius in the summer , heat transfer from the surfaces to the individual will occur , resulting in a difference in the perceived temperature . We can observe and compare the rate of radiation heat transfer between a person and the surrounding surfaces if we first make a few simplifying assumptions : The heat exchange in the environment is in a `` steady state '' , meaning that there is a constant flow of heat either into or out of the house . The person is completely surrounded by the interior surfaces of the room . Heat transfer by convection is not considered . The walls , ceiling , and floor are all at the same temperature . For an average person , the outer surface area is 1.4 m ² , the surface temperature is 30 ° Celsius , and the emissivity is 0.95 . Emissivity is the ability of a surface to emit radiant energy compared to that of a black body at the same temperature . We will be using the following equation to find out how much heat is lost by a person standing in the same room in summertime as compared to the winter , at exactly the same thermostat reading temperature : Q ̇ = εσA_s ( T_s ^ 4-T_surr ^ 4 ) Where Q ̇ is the rate of heat loss ( W ) , ε is the emissivity ( or the ability of an objects surface to emit energy by radiation ) of a person , σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant ( 5.670 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) W/m2 ∙ K4 ) , As is the surface area of a person , Ts is the surface temperature of a person ( K ) , and Tsurr is the surface temperature of the walls , ceiling , and floor ( K ) . Please note that this equation is only valid for an object standing in a completely enclosed room , box , etc. . In the winter , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 10 degrees Celsius , was found to be 152 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 10 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 152 ) ̇ In the summer , the amount of heat loss from a person , when the inner surfaces of the room were 25 degrees Celsius , was found to be 40.9 Watts . ( Q ̇ = ( 0.95 ) ( 5.67 x 10 ^ ( -8 ) ) ( 1.4 ) -LSB- ( 30 +273 ) ^ 4 - ( 25 +273 ) ^ 4 -RSB- = 40.9 ) ̇ Thermal radiation is the form of radiation emitted by bodies because of their temperature . It differs from other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as x-rays , gamma rays , microwaves , radio waves , and television rays that are not related to temperature . Scientists have found that all bodies at a temperature above absolute zero emit thermal radiation . People are constantly radiating their body heat , but at different rates . From these values , the rate of heat loss from a person is almost four times as large in the winter than in the summer , which explains the `` chill '' we feel in the winter even if the thermostat setting is kept the same .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Effect_of_radiation_on_perceived_temperature", "rank": 89, "score": 81632 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane dynamics and cloud microphysics Content: Tropical convective clouds play an important part in the Earth 's climate system . Convection and release of latent heat transports energy from the surface into the upper atmosphere . Clouds have a higher albedo than the underlying ocean , which causes more incoming solar radiation to be reflected back to space . Since the tops of tropical systems are much cooler than the surface of the Earth , the presence of high convective clouds cools the climate system . The most recognizable cloud system in the tropics is the hurricane . In addition to the important climatic effects of tropical weather systems , hurricanes possess enough energy to cause massive death and destruction . Therefore , their accurate prediction is of utmost importance . Cloud microphysics describe the structure and properties of clouds on the microscopic scale .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Hurricane_dynamics_and_cloud_microphysics", "rank": 90, "score": 81608 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Content: The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Surface_Heat_Budget_of_the_Arctic_Ocean", "rank": 91, "score": 81597 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 92, "score": 81582 }, { "content": "Title: El Niño–Southern Oscillation Content: El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is an irregularly periodical variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean , affecting much of the tropics and subtropics . The warming phase is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña . Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component , coupled with the sea temperature change : El Niño is accompanied with high , and La Niña with low air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific . The two periods last several months each ( typically occur every few years ) and their effects vary in intensity . The two phases relate to the Walker circulation , discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century . The Walker circulation is caused by the pressure gradient force that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific Ocean , and a low pressure system over Indonesia . When the Walker circulation weakens or reverses , an El Niño results , causing the ocean surface to be warmer than average , as upwelling of cold water occurs less or not at all . An especially strong Walker circulation causes a La Niña , resulting in cooler ocean temperatures due to increased upwelling . Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study . The extremes of this climate pattern 's oscillations cause extreme weather ( such as floods and droughts ) in many regions of the world . Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are the most affected .", "qid": "340", "docid": "El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation", "rank": 93, "score": 81533 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Indian heat wave Content: In April and May 2016 , India experienced a major heat wave . A national record high temperature of 51.0 ° C ( 123.8 ° F ) was set in the town of Phalodi , in the state of Rajasthan . A total of over 160 people have died and 330 million affected . There are also water shortages . Drought has worsened the heat wave .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2016_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 94, "score": 81524 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 95, "score": 81483 }, { "content": "Title: Zero-curtain effect Content: The zero-curtain effect occurs in cold ( particularly periglacial ) environments where the phase transition of water to ice is slowed down due to latent heat release . The effect is notably found in arctic and alpine permafrost sediments , and occurs where the air temperature falls below 0 ° C ( the freezing point of water ) followed by a rapid drop in soil temperature . Because of this effect , the lowering of temperature in moist , cold ground does not happen at a uniform rate . The loss of heat through conduction is reduced when water freezes , and latent heat is released . This heat of fusion is continually released until all the subsurface water has frozen , at which point temperatures can continue to fall . Therefore , for as long as water is available to the system ( for example , through cryosuction/capillary action ) the temperature of the sediment will remain at a constant temperature .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Zero-curtain_effect", "rank": 96, "score": 81383 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 European heat wave Content: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540 . France was hit especially hard . The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe . Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000 . The predominant heat was recorded in July and August , partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2003_European_heat_wave", "rank": 97, "score": 81346 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Pacific Northwest heat wave Content: The 2009 Pacific Northwest heat wave was a heat wave that affected the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada in late July 2009 , particularly areas west of the Cascade Mountains in British Columbia , Oregon and Washington . The heat wave set many new heat records across the area , and broke the previous all-time record high temperature in Seattle by three Fahrenheit degrees ( 1.7 Celsius degrees ) . Because the temperatures reached in the heat wave are rare in the Pacific Northwest , few residents own air conditioners .", "qid": "340", "docid": "2009_Pacific_Northwest_heat_wave", "rank": 98, "score": 81160 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 99, "score": 81015 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "340", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 100, "score": 80949 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 1, "score": 92612 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 2, "score": 88009 }, { "content": "Title: The Weatherman LP Content: The Weatherman LP is the first album by Dilated Peoples member Evidence , released March 20 , 2007 by ABB .", "qid": "342", "docid": "The_Weatherman_LP", "rank": 3, "score": 87050 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "342", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 4, "score": 85656 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "342", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 5, "score": 84879 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 6, "score": 82702 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 7, "score": 78811 }, { "content": "Title: Weather Proof Content: Weather Proof is a non-fiction television series aired on The Weather Channel in the United States hosted by meteorologist Stephanie Abrams , special effects expert Newton Wimer , and narrated by Mark Avery . Weather Proof showcases protection against the weather and life preservation when overtaken by weather . The show covers all types of situations from flooding to fires , snow to tornadoes , and more . Often , Abrams and Newton find themselves caught in some very precarious predicaments while demonstrating how extreme weather and conditions can create dangerous and destructive situations . Now in its second season , Weather Proof is produced and distributed by the Emmy Award winning Peacock Productions team .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Weather_Proof", "rank": 8, "score": 78054 }, { "content": "Title: False balance Content: False balance is a real or perceived media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports . Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the actual evidence for each side , or may omit information that would establish one side 's claims as baseless . Examples of false balance in reporting on science issues include the topics of man-made versus natural climate change , the alleged relation between thimerosal and autism and evolution versus intelligent design . An example of false balance is the `` debate '' on global warming ; although the scientific community almost unanimously attributes global warming to the effects of the industrial revolution , there is a very small number , a few dozen scientists out of tens of thousands of scientists , who dispute the conclusion . Giving equal voice to scientists on both sides makes it seem like there is a serious disagreement within the scientific community , when in fact there is an overwhelming scientific consensus that anthropogenic global warming exists . False balance can sometimes originate from similar motives as sensationalism , where producers and editors may feel that a story portrayed as a contentious debate will be more commercially successful than a more accurate account of the issue . However , unlike most other media biases , false balance may stem from an attempt to avoid bias ; producers and editors may confuse treating competing views fairly -- i.e. , in proportion to their actual merits and significance -- with treating them equally , giving them equal time to present their views even when those views may be known beforehand to be based on false information .", "qid": "342", "docid": "False_balance", "rank": 9, "score": 77990 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather Content: Extreme weather includes unexpectable , unusual , unpredictable severe or unseasonal weather ; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution -- the range that has been seen in the past . Often , extreme events are based on a location 's recorded weather history and defined as lying in the most unusual ten percent . In recent years some extreme weather events have been attributed to human-induced global warming , with studies indicating an increasing threat from extreme weather in the future .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Extreme_weather", "rank": 10, "score": 77466 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Change (journal) Content: Climatic Change is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science + Business Media covering cross-disciplinary work on all aspects of climate change and variability . It was established in 1978 and the editors-in-chief are Michael Oppenheimer ( Princeton University ) and Gary Yohe ( Wesleyan University ) .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climatic_Change_(journal)", "rank": 11, "score": 77369 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 12, "score": 76958 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "342", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 13, "score": 73510 }, { "content": "Title: Weather pains Content: Weather pains or weather-related pain , is a phenomenon that occurs when people with conditions such as arthritis claim to feel pain , particularly with changes in barometric pressure , humidity or other weather phenomena . Scientific evidence , however , does not support a connection between weather and such symptoms and concludes that it is largely or entirely due to perceptual errors such as confirmation bias .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Weather_pains", "rank": 14, "score": 73323 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "342", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 15, "score": 71956 }, { "content": "Title: United States temperature extremes Content: For the United States , the extremes are 134 F in Death Valley , California in 1913 and -79.8 F recorded in Prospect Creek , Alaska in 1971 . The largest recorded temperature change in one place over a 24-hour period occurred on January 15 , 1972 in Loma , Montana , when the temperature rose from -54 to . The most dramatic temperature changes occur in North American climates susceptible to Chinook winds . For example , the largest 2-minute temperature change of 49 F-change occurred in Spearfish , South Dakota , a rise from -4 to .", "qid": "342", "docid": "United_States_temperature_extremes", "rank": 16, "score": 71777 }, { "content": "Title: Pan-African Media Alliance on Climate Change Content: The Pan-African Media Alliance for Climate Change ( PAMACC ) is one of Africa 's associations of environment journalists . It was created in June 2013 at a workshop the PanAfrican Climate Justice Alliance organised for African journalists . PAMACC 's aim is to support journalists to improve their reporting on climate change and has set up a website to share their stories . It has regional coordinators , who will encourage journalists to set up national bodies in each country . The coordinator for Southern Africa , Sellina Nkowani from Malawi , has also stated that she wants the alliance to encourage more women journalists to report on climate change . The other regional coordinators are Elias Ngalame from Cameroon ( for Central Africa ) , Atayi Babs Opaluwah from Nigeria ( for West Africa ) and Kizito Makoye from Tanzania ( for East Africa ) . Isaiah Esipisu from Kenya will act as the continent-wide coordinator .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Pan-African_Media_Alliance_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 17, "score": 71732 }, { "content": "Title: The Changes (TV series) Content: The Changes is a British children 's science fiction television serial filmed in 1973 and first broadcast in 1975 by the BBC . It was directed by John Prowse and is based on the trilogy written by Peter Dickinson : The Weathermonger ( 1968 ) , Heartsease ( 1969 ) , and The Devil 's Children ( 1970 ) ( the books were written in reverse order : the events of The Devil 's Children happen first , Heartsease second , and The Weathermonger third ) .", "qid": "342", "docid": "The_Changes_(TV_series)", "rank": 18, "score": 71413 }, { "content": "Title: Sagan standard Content: The Sagan standard is an aphorism which asserts that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence . The aphorism was made popular by astronomer Carl Sagan . Others have put forward this idea but phrased it differently . Pierre-Simon Laplace ( 1749 -- 1827 ) said `` The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness '' . In 1808 , Thomas Jefferson also said `` A thousand phenomena present themselves daily which we can not explain , but where facts are suggested , bearing no analogy with the laws of nature as yet known to us , their verity needs proofs proportioned to their difficulty . '' In `` On the Extraordinary : An Attempt at Clarification '' ( 1978 ) , sociologist Marcello Truzzi said `` an extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof . ''", "qid": "342", "docid": "Sagan_standard", "rank": 19, "score": 71312 }, { "content": "Title: Migration and global environmental change (Report) Content: Migration and Global Environmental Change was a report about the influence of climate change on patterns of human migration and displacement published in 2011 . The report was produced by the Foresight unit at the UK 's Government Office of Science . It became known colloquially as ` The Foresight Report ' among people working in the field of climate-linked migration . The report was led by Professor Richard Black of Sussex University . The report was one of the first assessments of all the existing evidence and research on the connections between climate change and migration . The report authors also commissioned a number of new peer reviewed articles on migration and climate change , significant adding to the evidence base of the topic . The report attracted significant media attention on its release . The report was critical of previous predictions of the number of people who could be forced to move by climate change . It argued that making such numerical predictions was impossible because attributing climate change as the sole cause of someone 's migration was difficult . The report popularized the idea of trapped populations . The report argued that as well as being forced to move by climate change impacts , people might also be forced to stay where they are . The report drew on evidence showing that as people become poorer as a result of a degraded environment , they become less able to migrate . The idea of trapped populations had been present in the academic literature for sometime , however the media attention results from the release of the report brought the idea to a wider public for the first time . The report also popularized the idea of migration as climate change adaptation . Again , the authors drew on existing academic literature on the topic . They made the case that migration should be seen as a legitimate and empowering way for some people to adapt to the impacts of climate change .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Migration_and_global_environmental_change_(Report)", "rank": 20, "score": 71270 }, { "content": "Title: List of climate research satellites Content: The invention of climate research through the use of satellite remote telemetry began in the 1960s through development of space probes to study other planets . During the U.S. economic decline in 1977 , with much of NASA 's money going toward the Shuttle program , the Reagan Administration proposed to reduce spending on planetary exploration . During this time , new scientific evidence emerged from ice and sediment cores that Earth 's climate had experienced rapid changes in temperature , running contrary to the previously held belief that the climate changed on a geological time scale . These changes increased political interest in gathering remote-sensing data on the Earth itself and stimulated the science of climatology .", "qid": "342", "docid": "List_of_climate_research_satellites", "rank": 21, "score": 71128 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Thejll Content: Peter Andreas Thejll ( born 1956 ) is a Danish astrophysicist and climate researcher . His research in solar variation helped provide evidence of the greenhouse effect on the Earth 's climate in the late 20th century . In particular , his study with Knud Lassen on Northern Hemisphere land air temperature showed that the rise of 0.4 degrees Celsius since 1980 could not be accounted for by the solar cycle . Climatologists have pointed to this finding as an `` actual piece of evidence for greenhouse warming '' . Thejll received his undergraduate education at the University of Copenhagen . He received an M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Delaware . Thejll was a Carlsberg Fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and worked at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics . Thejll currently is a senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen . He is currently involved in the creation of a global automatic system to observe the Earth 's reflectivity - albedo - using observations of the earthshine on the Moon . Such data can be used for climate change studies and calibration of satellite data as the measurements deliver independent data on the albedo . A telescope is now installed on Hawaii at the Mauna Loa Observatory . The Swedish research agency VINNOVA is funding this project .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Peter_Thejll", "rank": 22, "score": 71020 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Saskatchewan Content: The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Saskatchewan", "rank": 23, "score": 70930 }, { "content": "Title: Climate fiction Content: Climate fiction , or climate change fiction , popularly abbreviated as cli-fi ( modelled after the assonance of `` sci-fi '' ) is literature that deals with climate change and global warming . Not necessarily speculative in nature , works of cli-fi may take place in the world as we know it or in the near future . University courses on literature and environmental issues may include climate change fiction in their syllabi . This body of literature has been discussed by a variety of publications , including The New York Times , The Guardian , and Dissent magazine , among other international media outlets .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_fiction", "rank": 24, "score": 70103 }, { "content": "Title: A Change in the Weather Content: A Change in the Weather is a 1995 work of interactive fiction by Andrew Plotkin , in which the player-character is caught in a rainstorm while out in the countryside . It won the Inform category at the inaugural 1995 Interactive Fiction Competition . The game was included on Activision 's 1996 commercial release of Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom . The game is unusual in that its objective - to prevent a bridge , that the hero crosses early in the game , from being destroyed by the storm - is not apparent from the outset . The player has the option of simply walking away at the start of the game and never crossing the bridge , which ends the game immediately . Once the bridge has been crossed , the game ends immediately if the bridge is destroyed - although the ending states that the player character was able to safely return by other means , regardless . Likewise , if the player manages to save the bridge , they are simply returned to the start location , where all they can do is to leave by the same means that was available at the very start of the game , yielding the same ending message , but with an additional quote at the end . The game is thus taken to represent a literary message about the intrinsic value of personal experiences . On June 24 , 2014 the author released the source code for educational purposes .", "qid": "342", "docid": "A_Change_in_the_Weather", "rank": 25, "score": 69526 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events in Melbourne Content: thumb | A church destroyed by the 1918 Brighton tornado Extreme weather events in Melbourne , Australia have occurred on multiple occasions . The city has experienced a number of highly unusual weather events and extremes of weather . An increase in heat waves and record breaking temperatures over the last decade has led to much discussion over the effects of climate change in the country .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_in_Melbourne", "rank": 26, "score": 68493 }, { "content": "Title: National Climatic Data Center Content: The United States National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , previously known as the National Weather Records Center ( NWRC ) , in Asheville , North Carolina was the world 's largest active archive of weather data . Starting as a tabulation unit in New Orleans , Louisiana in 1934 , the climate records were transferred to Asheville in 1951 , becoming named the National Weather Records Center ( NWRC ) . It was later renamed the National Climatic Data Center , with relocation occurring in 1993 . In 2015 , it was merged with the National Geophysical Data Center ( NGDC ) and the National Oceanic Data Center ( NODC ) into the National Centers for Environmental Information ( NCEI ) .", "qid": "342", "docid": "National_Climatic_Data_Center", "rank": 27, "score": 68461 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather Makers Content: The Weather Makers : The History and Future Impact of Climate Change is a 2005 book by Tim Flannery . The book received critical acclaim . It won the major prize at the 2006 New South Wales Premier 's Literary Awards , and was short-listed for the 2010 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature .", "qid": "342", "docid": "The_Weather_Makers", "rank": 28, "score": 68358 }, { "content": "Title: Weather media in the United States Content: The weather media in the United States includes coverage of weather and weather forecasting by farmers ' almanacs , newspapers , radio , television stations , and the internet . Farmers ' Almanacs have taken a stab at forecasting for the following year or so for around two centuries . At first , weather media included reporting on past events , with forecasting playing a role from the late 19th century onward . Weather-related information proliferated to near real-time after the invention of the telegraph . Radio and satellite broadcasts made weather-related communication ever quicker , with the World Wide Web making broadcasting and reporting nearly instantaneous . By the 1990s , sensationalism played a role in weather coverage .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Weather_media_in_the_United_States", "rank": 29, "score": 68060 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change (general concept) Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_(general_concept)", "rank": 30, "score": 67687 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and agriculture Content: -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_and_agriculture", "rank": 31, "score": 67199 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "342", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 32, "score": 67126 }, { "content": "Title: Public opinion on climate change Content: Public opinion on climate change is the aggregate of attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population concerning the science , economics , and politics of global warming . It is affected by media coverage of climate change .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Public_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 33, "score": 67098 }, { "content": "Title: Weathering nodule of ear Content: Weathering nodules of ear is a cutaneous condition seen on the helices of the ears of Caucasian men who have a history of significant cumulative sun exposure .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Weathering_nodule_of_ear", "rank": 34, "score": 66884 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 35, "score": 66353 }, { "content": "Title: Change the Weather Content: Change the Weather is the second album released by Underworld , in 1989 . It contains the single `` Stand Up '' , which became the band 's biggest US hit , peaking at # 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 and # 14 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1989", "qid": "342", "docid": "Change_the_Weather", "rank": 36, "score": 66173 }, { "content": "Title: Evidence (short story) Content: `` Evidence '' is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov . It was first published in the September 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I , Robot ( 1950 ) , The Complete Robot ( 1982 ) , and Robot Visions ( 1990 ) . Orson Welles purchased the movie rights for `` Evidence '' . Asimov was initially gleeful , imagining that a grand , Citizen Kane-style motion picture would soon be in the works . However , Welles did nothing further , and Asimov earned nothing except two hundred fifty dollars and Welles ' letter . His then-wife , Gertrude Blugerman , advised him to hold out for more money , but neither of them considered option payments which could be renewed every several years , allowing the movie rights to relapse if Welles took no action .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Evidence_(short_story)", "rank": 37, "score": 66159 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand Content: Climate Change Denial : Heads in the Sand is a non-fiction book about climate change denial , coauthored by Haydn Washington and John Cook , with a foreword by Naomi Oreskes . Washington had a background in environmental science prior to authoring the work , and Cook was educated in physics and founded the website Skeptical Science which compiles peer-reviewed evidence of global warming . The book was first published in hardcover and paperback formats in 2011 by Earthscan , a division of Routledge . The book presents an in-depth analysis and refutation of climate change denial , going over several arguments point-by-point and disproving them with peer-reviewed evidence from the scientific consensus for climate change . The authors assert that those denying climate change engage in tactics including cherry picking data purported to support their specific viewpoints , and attacking the integrity of climate scientists . They use social science theory to examine the phenomenon of climate change denial in the wider public , and call this phenomenon a form of pathology . The book traces financial support for climate change denial to the fossil fuel industry , asserting these companies have attempted to influence public opinion on the matter . Washington and Cook write that politicians have a tendency to use weasel words as part of a propaganda tactic through use of spin , as a way to deflect public interest away from climate change and remain passive on the issue . The authors conclude that if the public ceased engaging in denial , the problem of climate change could be realistically addressed . For his research on the book , and efforts in communicating the essence of climate change science to the general public , John Cook won the 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge . Climate Change Denial received a positive reception in reviews from publications including : The Ecologist , ECOS magazine , academic journal Natures Sciences Sociétés , the journal Education published by the New South Wales Teachers Federation , . An article in The New American was critical , describing the labels of `` deniers '' and `` denialists '' as cruel and forms of character assassination .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_Change_Denial:_Heads_in_the_Sand", "rank": 38, "score": 65991 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change denial Content: Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_denial", "rank": 39, "score": 65856 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 40, "score": 65711 }, { "content": "Title: Meteorological disasters Content: Meteorological disasters are caused by extreme weather , e.g. rain , drought , snow , extreme heat or cold , ice , or wind . Violent , sudden and destructive change to the environment related to , produced by , or affecting the earth 's atmosphere , especially the weather-forming processes . Examples of weather disasters include blizzard , cyclones , droughts , hailstorms , heat waves , hurricanes , floods ( caused by rain ) , and tornadoes .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Meteorological_disasters", "rank": 41, "score": 65636 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New Zealand Content: Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 42, "score": 65362 }, { "content": "Title: National Oceanographic Data Center Content: The National Oceanographic Data Center ( NODC ) was one of the national environmental data centers operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) of the U.S. Department of Commerce . The main NODC facility was located in Silver Spring , Maryland and was made up of five divisions . The NODC also had field offices collocated with major government or academic oceanographic laboratories in Stennis Space Center , MS ; Miami , FL ; La Jolla , San Diego , California ; Seattle , WA ; Austin , Texas ; Charleston , South Carolina ; Norfolk , Virginia ; and Honolulu , Hawaii . In 2015 , NODC was merged with the National Climatic Data Center and the National Geophysical Data Center into the National Centers for Environmental Information ( NCEI ) . NOAA also operated two other data centers : National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , Asheville , North Carolina and National Geophysical Data Center ( NGDC ) , Boulder , Colorado . In 2015 , the three merged to form the National Centers for Environmental Information ( NCEI ) . Also , the National Snow and Ice Data Center ( NSIDC ) in Boulder , Colorado is operated for NGDC by the University of Colorado through the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences ( CIRES ) . These discipline-oriented centers served as national repositories and dissemination facilities for global environmental data . The data archives amassed by the NODC and the other centers provide a record of Earth 's changing environment , and support numerous research and operational applications and are still available through the NCEI . Working cooperatively , the centers provided data products and services to scientists , engineers , resource managers , policy makers , and other users in the United States and around the world .", "qid": "342", "docid": "National_Oceanographic_Data_Center", "rank": 43, "score": 65098 }, { "content": "Title: Bonnie Schneider Content: Bonnie Schneider is a national television meteorologist and the author of Extreme Weather , published by Palgrave Macmillan . She appears on The Weather Channel . Previously she worked for Headline News , and Bloomberg Television . A native of Jericho , New York , Schneider earned a bachelor 's degree in journalism from Boston University . She pursued her meteorological studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Hunter College in Manhattan . She started her career as a weekend meteorologist at KPLC-TV in Lake Charles , Louisiana . Bonnie covered Hurricane Sandy for Bloomberg Television from their world headquarters in New York City While reporting on Hurricane Sandy for Bloomberg , Schneider was asked to participate on a panel for a live chat for Huffington Post Live and provide her analysis on the storm in an interview with Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on his nationally syndicated radio show on Cumulus Media Networks . Schneider is the Co-Executive Producer and Extreme Weather Expert for a television special airing on the DIY Network , called Last House Standing . The show , which was shot on location in California , Alabama and Florida , provides home-owners tips on how to storm-proof against earthquakes , tornadoes and hurricanes . Schneider 's debut on CNN was on June 11 , 2005 , which was just in time to cover the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season , which included in-studio analysis of Hurricane Katrina . In 2008 , she contributed to CNN International 's coverage of Cyclone Nargis and the 2008 earthquake in China . During HLN 's coverage of Hurricane Irene in August 2011 . Bonnie contributed news reports for Atlanta 's NBC affiliate , WXIA throughout the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2014 Winter Olympics . Prior to CNN , Bloomberg TV , and WXIA , Schneider had been the Weekend Meteorologist/Special Assignment Reporter for `` The Ten O'Clock News '' on WLVI-TV in Boston . While in Boston , she also provided entertainment and lifestyle reporting as a special assignment reporter three days a week . Prior to WLVI , she was the weekend meteorologist at WFOR-TV in Miami . She has held several meteorology and reporting positions including : News 12 Long Island , a 24-hour cable news television network , and WXII-TV , the NBC affiliate in Winston-Salem , North Carolina . She also worked for the CBS network in New York City as a frequent fill-in meteorologist on the The Saturday Early Show . Schneider was awarded the American Meteorological Society 's Seal of Approval for broadcast meteorologists who achieve the highest standard of excellence in both technical weather knowledge and communication skills . She has also had the opportunity to interview a number of famous celebrities . While in New York at News 12 , she earned the Associated Press Award for `` Best Interview '' for her half-hour special , `` A Conversation with Billy Joel . '' She said she suffered from nerves just prior to the interview , but her uneasiness subsided after the legendary singer flashed her a smile and admitted that he watched her station 's newscasts frequently and always kept an eye out for her `` marine forecasts . '' Bonnie was inducted into the Jericho High School Hall of Fame on April 16 , 2015 .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Bonnie_Schneider", "rank": 44, "score": 64943 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New York City Content: Climate change in New York City could affect buildings/structures , wetlands , water supply , health , and energy demand , due to the high population and extensive infrastructure in the region . New York is especially at risk if the sea level rises , due to many of the bridges connecting to boroughs , and entrances to roads and rail tunnels . High-traffic locations such as the airports , the Holland Tunnel , the Lincoln Tunnel , and the New York Passenger Ship Terminal are located in areas vulnerable to flooding . Flooding would be expensive to reverse . Rising temperatures could bring a higher risk of heat related deaths from heat waves and increased concentrations of ground-level ozone ( potentially causing asthma and other health concerns ) .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_York_City", "rank": 45, "score": 64582 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 46, "score": 64451 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "342", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 47, "score": 64398 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 48, "score": 64317 }, { "content": "Title: The Nod Content: The Nod was an American Indie-Rock band from Madison , Wisconsin , formed in 2008 at the University of Wisconsin . Their debut EP , Shoddy Heart , earned the band live TV appearances on Urban Theater and WBUW TV , as well as opening appearances for national touring acts OK GO , Cage the Elephant and Third Eye Blind . To this date the band has released three studio albums : Shoddy Heart ( 2009 ) , Easy , Maverick ( 2010 ) and Tomorrow Compadre ( 2011 ) . Their music is distributed by independent record label Yes Please Records - a label created by singer Brett Newski to produce Nod albums . After playing countless shows in support of Shoddy Heart , drummer Alex Murrell and lead guitarist Marc Zazzaro left the band to pursue professional work opportunities in Minneapolis , Minnesota . Leaving the group in between drummers , singer/songwriter Brett Newski and bassist Eric Maloney recorded The Nod 's first full-length album `` Easy , Maverick '' by renting out a basement under a late night liquor store . `` Easy Maverick '' earned the band positive press , including reviews in the Wisconsin State Journal and New York City 's Zeitgeist Report noting the album as `` contagiously melodic and intellectual . '' Newski played drums on the album before replacement Nathan Devroy was found . After the `` Easy , Maverick '' era , the band remained a three-piece with drummer Charlie Lynch , playing harder-driving indie rock that had been compared to early Weezer , Cake , or a `` grittier version of Phoenix . '' In June 2011 , The Nod announced they would be parting ways after playing out a string of US dates . The band 's final LP `` Tomorrow Compadre '' was released the day of the band 's farewell show at the Memorial Union Terrace in Madison , WI . The band 's entire discography remains available as `` pay what you want '' on Bandcamp . After the breakup , Maloney would go on to pursue law at the University of Minnesota while Newski would continue his path as a writer/musician . He is set to release a folk/rock solo album titled `` In Between Exits . ''", "qid": "342", "docid": "The_Nod", "rank": 49, "score": 63815 }, { "content": "Title: Historical climatology Content: Historical climatology is the study of historical changes in climate and their effect on human history and development . This differs from paleoclimatology which encompasses climate change over the entire history of Earth . The study seeks to define periods in human history where temperature or precipitation varied from what is observed in the present day . The primary sources include written records such as sagas , chronicles , maps and local history literature as well as pictorial representations such as paintings , drawings and even rock art . The archaeological record is equally important in establishing evidence of settlement , water and land usage .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Historical_climatology", "rank": 50, "score": 63636 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 51, "score": 63570 }, { "content": "Title: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod Content: `` Wynken , Blynken , and Nod '' is a popular poem for children written by American writer and poet Eugene Field and published on March 9 , 1889 . The original title was Dutch Lullaby . The poem is a fantasy bed-time story about three children sailing and fishing amongst the stars from a boat which is a wooden shoe . The little fishermen symbolize a sleepy child 's blinking eyes and nodding head .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Wynken,_Blynken,_and_Nod", "rank": 52, "score": 63456 }, { "content": "Title: Climate variability Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_variability", "rank": 53, "score": 63271 }, { "content": "Title: Weather testing of polymers Content: Weather testing of polymers is the controlled polymer degradation and polymer coating degradation under lab or natural conditions . Just like erosion of rocks , natural phenomena can cause degradation in polymer systems . The elements of most concern to polymers are ultraviolet radiation , moisture and humidity , high temperatures and temperature fluctuations . Polymers are used in everyday life , so it is important for scientists and polymer producers to understand durability and expected lifespan of polymer products . Paint , a common polymer coating , is used to change the colour , change the reflectance ( gloss ) , as well as forming a protective coating . The structure of paint consists of pigments in a matrix of resin . A typical example is painted steel roofing and walling products , which are constantly exposed to harmful weathering conditions .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Weather_testing_of_polymers", "rank": 54, "score": 63183 }, { "content": "Title: Hard Choices (Coward book) Content: Hard Choices : Climate Change in Canada is a non-fiction compilation book about climate change in Canada , edited by Harold Coward and Andrew J. Weaver . It was published in paperback format by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in 2004 . Hard Choices received favorable reviews in academic journals including Great Plains Research : A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences , Environmental Reviews , Annals of the Association of American Geographers , and Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Hard_Choices_(Coward_book)", "rank": 55, "score": 63010 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Australia Content: Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Australia", "rank": 56, "score": 62855 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 57, "score": 62344 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 58, "score": 62322 }, { "content": "Title: A Change of Climate Content: A Change of Climate is a novel by English author Hilary Mantel , first published in 1994 by Viking Books . At the time The Observer described it as the best book she had written . It was published in the United States by Henry Holt in 1997 and was recognised by the New York Times Book Review as one of the notable books of that year . The novel has also been identified as one of the best of the 1990s .", "qid": "342", "docid": "A_Change_of_Climate", "rank": 59, "score": 62252 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change policy of the United States Content: Global climate change was first addressed in United States policy beginning in the early 1960s . The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) defines climate change as `` any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time . '' Essentially , climate change includes major changes in temperature , precipitation , or wind patterns , as well as other effects , that occur over several decades or longer . Climate change policy in the US has transformed rapidly over the past twenty years and is being developed at both the state and federal level . The politics of global warming and climate change have polarized certain political parties and other organizations . This article focuses on climate change policy within the United States , as well as exploring the positions of various parties and the influences on policy making and environmental justice repercussions .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_policy_of_the_United_States", "rank": 60, "score": 62248 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "342", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 61, "score": 62188 }, { "content": "Title: Christopher C. Horner Content: Christopher C. Horner is an attorney in Washington , D.C. and a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who opposes the mainstream view of climate change and has been prominent in promoting climate change denial . He is the author of three books disputing the scientific evidence for man-made global warming . Horner had a financial relationship with coal companies who provided him with funds . Horner has been criticized for hounding climate scientists with frivolous requests for documentation and emails .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Christopher_C._Horner", "rank": 62, "score": 62021 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit email controversy Content: The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change . The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas . The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . '' Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy", "rank": 63, "score": 61791 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events of 535–536 Content: The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the most severe and protracted short-term episodes of cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2000 years . The event is thought to have been caused by an extensive atmospheric dust veil , possibly resulting from a large volcanic eruption in the tropics , or debris from space impacting the Earth . Its effects were widespread , causing unseasonal weather , crop failures and famines worldwide .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_of_535–536", "rank": 64, "score": 61762 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 65, "score": 61615 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 66, "score": 61565 }, { "content": "Title: Evidence (disambiguation) Content: Evidence , in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion . Evidence may also refer to : Scientific evidence Evidence ( law ) , which governs testimony and exhibits presented in a case Evidence ( policy debate ) `` Evidence '' ( short story ) , a 1946 short story by Isaac Asimov Evidence , an Enlightenment Foundation Libraries file manager", "qid": "342", "docid": "Evidence_(disambiguation)", "rank": 67, "score": 61532 }, { "content": "Title: Rethinking the Weather Content:", "qid": "342", "docid": "Rethinking_the_Weather", "rank": 68, "score": 61483 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 69, "score": 61479 }, { "content": "Title: Heavy Weather (Sterling novel) Content: Heavy Weather is a science fiction novel by Bruce Sterling , first published in 1994 , about a group of storm chasers in a world where global warming has produced incredibly destructive weather .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Heavy_Weather_(Sterling_novel)", "rank": 70, "score": 61408 }, { "content": "Title: Geologic temperature record Content: The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth 's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion ( 109 ) year time scales . The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Geologic_temperature_record", "rank": 71, "score": 61383 }, { "content": "Title: Manchester Climate Monthly Content: Manchester Climate Monthly ( formerly Manchester Climate Fortnightly ) is a digest of local , national and global climate news and campaign group activity based in Manchester , England . It aims to contribute to the fight against climate change by filling , what the editors describe , as a local media deficit on the issue . The newsletter aims to network local green groups , arm them with the latest climate change science , hold local influential forces to account and provide an accessible source of information for individuals who are curious about climate change campaigning in Manchester .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Manchester_Climate_Monthly", "rank": 72, "score": 61274 }, { "content": "Title: Abrupt climate change Content: An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states . Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Abrupt_climate_change", "rank": 73, "score": 61226 }, { "content": "Title: Weatherman (short story) Content: `` Weatherman '' is a science fiction short story included in The Space Opera Renaissance collection . It was written by Lois McMaster Bujold and was first published in the February 1990 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact and is a prelude story starring a character she also used in the Vorkosigan Saga . It was republished as the first six chapters of The Vor Game . `` Weatherman '' was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novella , while The Vor Game won the Hugo Award for Best Novel .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Weatherman_(short_story)", "rank": 74, "score": 61084 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in popular culture Content: The issue of climate change and global warming , their possible effects , and related human-environment interaction have entered popular culture since the late 20th century . Science historian Naomi Oreskes has noted , `` There 's a huge disconnect between what professional scientists have studied and learned in the last 30 years , and what is out there in the popular culture . '' An academic study contrasts the relatively rapid acceptance of ozone depletion as reflected in popular culture with the much slower acceptance of the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_popular_culture", "rank": 75, "score": 60619 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change (album) Content: Climate Change is the tenth studio album by rapper and songwriter Pitbull . It was released on March 17 , 2017 . through RCA Records , Polo Grounds Music and Mr. 305 Inc. . It features Enrique Iglesias , Flo Rida , Jennifer Lopez and Jason Derulo .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_Change_(album)", "rank": 76, "score": 60596 }, { "content": "Title: When Weather Changed History Content: When Weather Changed History is a high-definition television series from The Weather Channel . It chronicles major events in history and the effect weather had on them .", "qid": "342", "docid": "When_Weather_Changed_History", "rank": 77, "score": 60491 }, { "content": "Title: Attorney General of Virginia's climate science investigation Content: The Attorney General of Virginia 's climate science investigation was a `` Civil Investigative Demand '' initiated in April 2010 by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for a wide range of records held by the University of Virginia related to five grant applications for research work by a leading climate scientist Michael E. Mann , who was an assistant professor at the university from 1999 to 2005 . The demand was issued under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act in connection with claims by Cuccinnelli that Mann had possibly violated state fraud laws in relation to five research grants , by allegedly manipulating data . No evidence of wrongdoing was presented to support the claim . Mann 's earlier work had been targeted by climate change skeptics in the hockey stick controversy , and allegations against him were renewed in late 2009 in the Climatic Research Unit email controversy but found to be groundless in a series of investigations . Widespread concerns were raised by University of Virginia 's faculty and numerous scientists and science organizations that Cuccinelli 's actions posed a threat to academic freedom , and would have a chilling effect on research in the state . The university filed a court petition and the judge dismissed Cuccinelli 's demand on the grounds that no justification had been shown for the investigation . Cuccinelli tried to re-open his case by issuing a revised subpoena , and appealed the case to the Virginia Supreme Court . The case was defended by the university , and the court ruled that Cuccinelli did not have the authority to make these demands . The outcome was hailed as a victory for academic freedom .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Attorney_General_of_Virginia's_climate_science_investigation", "rank": 78, "score": 60411 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "342", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 79, "score": 60265 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United Kingdom Content: Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 80, "score": 60201 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 81, "score": 60134 }, { "content": "Title: Nodal (software) Content: Nodal is a generative software application for composing music . The software was produced at the Centre for Electronic Media Art ( CEMA ) , Monash University , Australia . It uses a novel method for the notation and playing of MIDI based music . This method is based around the concept of a user-defined graph . The graph consists of nodes ( musical events ) and edges ( connections between events ) . The composer interactively defines the graph , which is then traversed by any number of virtual players that play the musical events as they encounter them on the graph . The time taken by a player to travel from one node to another is based on the length of the edges that connect the nodes .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Nodal_(software)", "rank": 82, "score": 60124 }, { "content": "Title: Burtoni Award Content: The Burtoni Award was created in 2003 by a group of leading experts and policy makers in the field of climate change . Its purpose is to recognize outstanding contributions to the science of adaptation to climate change . The award is named after the first recipient of the award , Ian Burton , an Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto and a pioneer in the field of adaptation to climate change and extreme events and disasters . Ian has contributed to three Assessment Reports of the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) and the recent Special Report on Extremes ( SREX ) . Subsequent recipients of the Burtoni Award are : Roger Jones ( Australia ) 2005 . Saleemul Huq ( Bangladesh ) 2007 . Coleen Vogel ( South Africa ) 2010 . Karen O'Brien ( Norway/USA ) 2012 . Mark Pelling ( United Kingdom ) 2015 . Richard J.T. Klein ( the Netherlands ) 2016 . Short biographies of the awardees follow : Roger Jones is Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Economic Research , Victoria University Australia . He was a Coordinating Lead Author in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and has the same role in the Fifth Assessment Report . The Burtoni was awarded in recognition of his innovations in research methods for assessing adaptation to climate change , particularly in the application of risk management to adaptation . Saleemul Huq is a Senior Fellow with the International Institute for Environment and Development in London and Director of ICCCD ( International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka , Bangladesh . He received the award for his work linking adaptation and development , his research on decision making and his efforts to build capacity . It was awarded during a three-day workshop on Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change in Dhaka . Coleen Vogel is an Independent Consultant and previously Professor of Sustainability at the University of Witwatersrand , Johannesburg . She was Lead Author for the IPCC 4th assessment Report Working Group 2 Chapter on Africa , and she chaired the International Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Climate Change . Karen O'Brien is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo , Norway . She was Lead Author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report for Working Group II ( Chapter 20 : Climate-resilient pathways : adaptation , mitigation , and sustainable development ) . She was a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation ( SREX ) in Chapter 8 ` Towards a Resilient and Sustainable Future ' . She was Chair of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security ( GECHS ) project of the IHDP from 2005-2010 . Mark Pelling is Professor of Geography at King 's College London . His research interests are in the institutions and social relationships that shape vulnerability and adaptation to natural disasters , including those associated with climate change , and in the ways in which conflicting values and practices of development inform resilience and transformation in the face of environmental change . He served as a coordinating author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation ( SREX ) and its Fifth Assessment Report . He also sits on the Scientific Steering Committees for the IGBP-IHDP core project Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone ( LOICZ ) and the ICSU core project Integrated Research on Disaster Risk ( IRDR ) . Richard J.T. Klein is a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Climate and Development . He was awarded the Burtoni in recognition of his work to advance knowledge through international research , capacity-building and educational collaborations , including as co-director and chief scientist of the Nordic Centre of Excellence for Strategic Adaptation Research ( NORD-STAR ) and as a member , until 2015 , of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability , Impacts and Adaptation ( PROVIA ) . He was only 24 when he became lead author of a chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Second Assessment Report , published in 1994 . He has been a lead author or coordinating lead author of every IPCC Assessment Report since , as well as two Special Reports .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Burtoni_Award", "rank": 83, "score": 59973 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in West Virginia Content: Climate change in West Virginia is of a concern due to the effects on the environment . Over the last century , the average temperature in Charleston , West Virginia , has increased 1.1 ° F ( 0.61 ° C ) , and precipitation has increased by up to 10 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future . Over the next century , climate in West Virginia may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in West Virginia could increase by 3 ° F ( 1.67 ° C ) in winter , spring , and summer ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and 4 ° F ( 2.23 ° C ) in fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to increase by 20 % ( with a range of 10-30 % ) in all seasons , slightly more in summer . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer thunderstorms is possible", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_West_Virginia", "rank": 84, "score": 59913 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars Content: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines is a 2012 book about climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann . In the book Mann describes how he became a researcher investigating the temperature record of the past 1000 years and was lead author , with Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , on the 1999 reconstruction that was the first to be dubbed the hockey stick graph . He concisely explains the basics of climate science including statistical methodology dealing with paleoclimate proxy data , and examines the tactics which opponents of action on climate change use to distort the science and attack the reputations of climate scientists . The book describes both the hockey stick controversy and the broader context of skepticism in science and contrarians rejecting evidence of human influence on climate . The book was picked by Physics Today books editor Jermey Matthews as one of the five top books of the 49 they had reviewed in 2012 .", "qid": "342", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_and_the_Climate_Wars", "rank": 85, "score": 59842 }, { "content": "Title: Patrick Michaels Content: Patrick J. ( `` Pat '' ) Michaels ( born February 15 , 1950 ) is an American climatologist . Michaels is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute . Until 2007 he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia , where he had worked from 1980 . A self-described skeptic on the issue of global warming , he is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists . He has written a number of books and papers on climate change , including Sound and Fury : The Science and Politics of Global Warming ( 1992 ) , The Satanic Gases ( 2000 ) , and Meltdown : The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists , Politicians , and the Media ( 2004 ) . He 's also the co-author of Climate of Extremes : Global Warming Science They Do n't Want You to Know ( 2009 ) . Michaels ' viewpoint , as argued in a 2002 article in the journal Climate Research , is that the planet will see `` a warming range of 1.3 -- 3.0 ° C , with a central value of 1.9 ° C '' for the 1990 to 2100 period ( an analysis far smaller than the IPCC 's average predictions ) .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Patrick_Michaels", "rank": 86, "score": 59805 }, { "content": "Title: News-Press NOW Content: News-Press NOW is a 24-hour local cable news and weather channel based in St. Joseph , Missouri and serves Buchanan , Nodaway , and Andrew counties . Owned by News-Press & Gazette Company , the channel is based out of the company 's corporate headquarters at Edmond and Seventh Streets ( near Interstate 29 ) in downtown Saint Joseph . News-Press NOW is one of a handful of flagship properties owned by News-Press & Gazette Company , which also publishes the St. Joseph News-Press and owns local Fox affiliate KNPN-LD , NBC affiliate KNPG-LD , and Telemundo ( to be CBS ) affiliate KBJO-LD , all four of which also share offices with the channel at News-Press & Gazette 's Edmond Street headquarters . It is carried on Suddenlink cable channel 3 and in high definition on digital channel 603 throughout the St. Joseph metropolitan area ( including the communities of Maryville , Savannah , Country Club , and Agency ) . Since June 2 , 2012 , it is also rebroadcast as a second digital subchannel of KNPN-LD , broadcasting over-the-air on UHF channel 26.2 .", "qid": "342", "docid": "News-Press_NOW", "rank": 87, "score": 59791 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Canada Content: In Canada mitigation of anthropogenic climate change is being addressed more seriously by the provinces than by the federal government . The 2015 election signals greater federal leadership as noted in Canada 's National Statement at COP21 , making climate change a top priority , and pledging actions based on the best scientific evidence and advice .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Canada", "rank": 88, "score": 59757 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Ancient Rome Content: The climate of Ancient Rome varied throughout the existence of that civilization . In the first half of the 1st millennium BC the climate of Italy was more humid and cool than now and the presently arid south saw more precipitation . The northern regions were situated in the temperate climate zone , while the rest of Italy was in the subtropics , having a warm and mild climate . During the annual melt of the mountain snow even small rivers would overflow , swamping the terrain ( Tuscany and the Pontine Marshes were deemed impassable in antiquity ) . The existence of Roman civilization ( including the Eastern Roman Empire ) spanned three climatological periods : Early Subatlantic ( 900 BC -- 175 AD ) , Mid-Subatlantic ( 175 -- 750 ) and Late Subatlantic ( since 750 ) . The written , archaeological and natural-scientific proxy evidence independently but consistently shows that during the period of the Roman Empire 's maximum expansion and final crisis , the climate underwent changes . The Empire 's greatest extent under Trajan coincided with the Roman climatic optimum . The climate change occurred at different rates , from apparent near stasis during the early Empire to rapid fluctuations during the late Empire . Still , there is some controversy in the notion of a generally moister period in the eastern Mediterranean in AD -- 600 AD due to conflicting publications .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_of_Ancient_Rome", "rank": 89, "score": 59744 }, { "content": "Title: Restless Feeling Content: Restless Feeling is a blues album by Carl Weathersby . It was released in 1998 on the Evidence Records label # ECD 26099-2 . It was produced by John Snyder and recorded May 11 -- 15 , 1998 at Dockside Studios in Maurice , Louisiana .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Restless_Feeling", "rank": 90, "score": 59727 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme Evidence Content: Extreme Evidence is an American reality television series that premiered on Court TV on September 29 , 2003 . Each half-hour episode attempts to use forensic science to uncover the cause of a catastrophic event . 3-D animation , and first-hand accounts from eyewitnesses , are also used to illuminate the investigations . As of late January 2015 , the show is now in reruns on the Justice Network .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Extreme_Evidence", "rank": 91, "score": 59717 }, { "content": "Title: The Chilling Stars Content: The Chilling Stars is a non-fiction book about the possible causes and effects of global climate change by Henrik Svensmark and Nigel Calder . The paperback version was published by Totem Books on March 19 , 2003 . An updated version titled The Chilling Stars : A New Theory of Climate Change was published in 2007 . Svensmark is otherwise known as a Danish physicist and professor while Calder has worked as a science journalist . The authors argue that cloud cover changes caused by variations in cosmic rays are a major contributor to global temperature increases , and they state that human influences have been exaggerated .", "qid": "342", "docid": "The_Chilling_Stars", "rank": 92, "score": 59693 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 93, "score": 59592 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 94, "score": 59306 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 95, "score": 59285 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Grenada Content: The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Grenada", "rank": 96, "score": 59275 }, { "content": "Title: Physical impacts of climate change Content: This article is about the physical impacts of climate change . For some of these physical impacts , their effect on social and economic systems are also described . This article refers to reports produced by the IPCC . In their usage , `` climate change '' refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties , and that persists for extended periods , typically decades or longer ( IPCC , 2007d :30 ) . The climate change referred to may be due to natural causes and/or the result of human activity .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Physical_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 97, "score": 59200 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 98, "score": 59113 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 99, "score": 59038 }, { "content": "Title: Lakes on Mars Content: In summer 1965 , the first close-up pictures from Mars showed a cratered desert with no signs of water . However , over the decades , as more parts of the planet were imaged with better cameras on more sophisticated satellites , Mars showed evidence of past river valleys , lakes , and ice in glaciers and in the ground . It was discovered that the climate of Mars displays huge changes over geologic time because its axis is not stabilized by a large moon , as Earth 's is . Also , some researchers maintain that water could exist for periods of time due to geothermal effects or asteroid impacts . Besides seeing features that were signs of past water , researchers found other types of evidence for past water . Minerals detected in many locations needed water to form . An instrument in the Mars Odyssey , an orbiting spacecraft , mapped the distribution of water in the near surface . When the Phoenix spacecraft fired its rockets to land in the far north , ice was exposed . When water enters a large body of water , such as a lake , a delta may form . Many craters and other depressions on Mars show deltas that resemble those on Earth . In addition , if a lake lies in a depression , channels entering it will all stop at the same altitude . Such an arrangement is visible around places on Mars that are supposed to have contained large bodies of water -- including around a possible ocean in the North . Lake formation has been proposed by various researchers for quite some time . One study found 205 possible closed-basin lakes in craters on Mars . The basins have an inlet valley that cuts the crater rim and flows into the basin , but they have no visible outlet valley . The total volume of the basins is equivalent to a depth of 1.2 meters spread evenly over the Martian surface . However , this amount is a small fraction of the current water ice stores on Mars . Another study found 210 open-basin lakes . These were lakes with both an inlet and an outlet ; hence water must have entered the basin , and reached the height of the outlet . Some of these lakes had volumes similar to Earth 's Caspian Sea , Black Sea , and Lake Baikal . Moreover , some basins on Mars form part of long chains of lakes . The Naktong/Scamander/Mamers Valles lake-chain system is about 4500 km ( 2800 miles ) long , with a drainage area similar to that of the Missouri-Mississippi rivers . Another , the Samara/Himera Vallis system , is 1800 km long . Many of the long chains of lakes are found in the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle . Some of the lakes appear to have had a high volume as compared to their drainage area ; hence , it is believed that some of the water was groundwater . Further evidence is the existence of knobby material on the basin floors . These knobs can be formed when large amounts of water left the ground . This article describes some of the places that could have held large lakes .", "qid": "342", "docid": "Lakes_on_Mars", "rank": 100, "score": 58916 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Loss and damage Content: The term Loss and damage denotes impacts of climate-related stressors that occur despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climatic changes . Loss and damage can result from sudden-onset events ( climate disasters , such as cyclones ) as well as slow-onset processes ( such as sea level rise ) . Loss and damage can occur in human systems ( such as livelihoods ) as well as natural systems ( such as biodiversity ) , though the emphasis in research and policy is on human impacts . Within the realm of loss and damage to human systems , a distinction is made between economic losses and non-economic losses . The main difference between the two is that non-economic losses involve things that are not commonly traded in markets . At the 18th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2012 in Doha , Qatar , it took 36 hours of negotiation between 195 nations to arrive at a plan to address loss and damage associated with adverse effects of climate change particularly in countries most vulnerable to climate change . A new website was launched at the conference by the Loss and Damage Vulnerable Countries Initiative . It described its aim as being `` the first dedicated site for news , resources and opinion on the issue of loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change '' . Examples of types of loss and damage include farmers who can no longer grow crops to eat , or grass to feed cattle , because their soil has become too salty , and fishermen who have lost their livelihoods because rivers have dried up . In popular press , and in statements by some parties in the climate negotiations , the terms loss and damage is often associated with liability and compensation . This explains why the topic raises heated debates , and tends to widen the divide between developed countries , which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions , and developing countries that are more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . For vulnerable countries , loss and damage is most of all about recognizing that past and current efforts to avoid dangerous climate change , and that there are limits and constraints to adaptation . The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has developed a work programme on loss and damage which aims to find ways to address the issue in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change . On 12 -- 14 September 2013 , it held a meeting in Fiji to consider how best to address loss and damage from ` slow-onset events ' . These are impacts of climate change that occur over time , such as sea-level rise , rather than in a single , destructive event . Bangladesh is already suffering from loss and damage resulting from sea-level rise , due to its flat terrain in the coastal region . At the 19th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2013 in Warsaw , Poland , the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts was established . At the 20th Conference of the Parties in Lima , Peru ( 2014 ) , the work plan of the executive committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism was approved . The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 2013-2014 had no separate chapter on loss and damage , but WG2 Chapter 16 about adaptation limits and constraints , is very relevant for people interested in loss and damage . A qualitative data analysis ( QDA ) of what the IPCC 5th Assessment Report has to say about loss and damage surprisingly showed that the term was used much more often in statements about Annex 1 countries ( e.g. US , Australia or European countries ) than in text about non-Annex 1 countries ( most countries in Africa , Asia Latin America and the Pacific ) , which tend to be more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . Whether or not the IPCC 6th Assessment Report will have a chapter on loss and damage has not yet been decided .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Loss_and_damage", "rank": 1, "score": 170670 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 2, "score": 165111 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 3, "score": 154059 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 4, "score": 151655 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 5, "score": 149199 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "343", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 6, "score": 148348 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 7, "score": 145234 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 8, "score": 144420 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 9, "score": 143227 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 10, "score": 141386 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 11, "score": 139313 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "343", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 12, "score": 139262 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "343", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 13, "score": 136539 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change scenario Content: This article is about climate change scenarios . Socioeconomic scenarios are used by analysts to make projections of future greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and to assess future vulnerability to climate change ( Carter et al. , 2001:151 ) . Producing scenarios requires estimates of future population levels , economic activity , the structure of governance , social values , and patterns of technological change . Economic and energy modelling ( such as via the World3 or the POLES models ) can be used to analyse and quantify the effects of such drivers .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_scenario", "rank": 14, "score": 135767 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 15, "score": 134847 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 16, "score": 131935 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 17, "score": 130951 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 18, "score": 129935 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 19, "score": 126941 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 20, "score": 126032 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Grenada Content: The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Grenada", "rank": 21, "score": 125359 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway greenhouse effect Content: A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Runaway_greenhouse_effect", "rank": 22, "score": 125047 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 23, "score": 124414 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 24, "score": 124193 }, { "content": "Title: Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp. Content: __ NOTOC __ Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corporation , et al. is a lawsuit filed on February 26 , 2008 , in a United States district court . The suit , based on the common law theory of nuisance , claims monetary damages from the energy industry for the destruction of Kivalina , Alaska by flooding caused by climate change . The damage estimates made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Government Accountability Office are placed between $ 95 million and $ 400 million . This lawsuit is an example of greenhouse gas emission liability . The suit was dismissed by the United States district court on September 30 , 2009 , on the grounds that regulating greenhouse emissions was a political rather than a legal issue and one that needed to be resolved by Congress and the Administration rather than by courts . An appeal was filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in November 2009 . In September 2012 , the panel of appeals judges decided not to reinstate the case . The city appealed the court of appeals decision to the U.S. Supreme Court and on May 20 , 2013 the Supreme Court justices decided not hear the case , effectively ending the city 's legal claim .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Kivalina_v._ExxonMobil_Corp.", "rank": 25, "score": 123933 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "343", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 26, "score": 123669 }, { "content": "Title: Representative Concentration Pathways Content: Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs ) are four greenhouse gas concentration ( not emissions ) trajectories adopted by the IPCC for its fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) in 2014 . It supersedes Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( SRES ) projections published in 2000 . The pathways are used for climate modeling and research . They describe four possible climate futures , all of which are considered possible depending on how much greenhouse gases are emitted in the years to come . The four RCPs , RCP2 .6 , RCP4 .5 , RCP6 , and RCP8 .5 , are named after a possible range of radiative forcing values in the year 2100 relative to pre-industrial values ( +2.6 , +4.5 , +6.0 , and +8.5 W/m2 , respectively ) .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Representative_Concentration_Pathways", "rank": 27, "score": 123231 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emissions reporting Content: Human activities continue to impact Earth 's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases . One of the proposed ways to combat this climate change is through reporting by businesses on the impact of their activities . Large power stations and manufacturing plants are often required to report their emissions to appropriate government entities , for example to the European Union as part of the Emissions Trading System or to the US EPA as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program . In the United Kingdom , Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) has described climate change as the `` greatest environmental challenge facing the world today , '' and it is now a legal requirement for all quoted companies to report their annual greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Carbon_emissions_reporting", "rank": 28, "score": 123053 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 29, "score": 122742 }, { "content": "Title: Stratospheric aerosol injection (climate engineering) Content: The ability of stratospheric sulfate aerosols to create a global dimming effect has made them a possible candidate for use in solar radiation management climate engineering projects to limit the effect and impact of climate change due to rising levels of greenhouse gases . Delivery of precursor sulfide gases such as sulfuric acid , hydrogen sulfide or sulfur dioxide by artillery , aircraft and balloons has been proposed . It presently appears that this proposed method could counter most climatic changes , take effect rapidly , have very low direct implementation costs , and be reversible in its direct climatic effects . One study calculated the impact of injecting sulfate particles , or aerosols , every one to four years into the stratosphere in amounts equal to those lofted by the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 , but did not address the many technical and political challenges involved in potential solar radiation management efforts . If found to be economically , environmentally and technologically viable , such injections could provide a `` grace period '' of up to 20 years before major cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions would be required , the study concludes . It has been suggested that the direct delivery of precursors could be achieved using sulfide gases such as dimethyl sulfide , sulfur dioxide , carbonyl sulfide , or hydrogen sulfide . These compounds would be delivered using artillery , aircraft ( such as the high-flying F-15C ) or balloons , and result in the formation of compounds with the sulfate anion SO42 − . According to estimates , `` one kilogram of well placed sulfur in the stratosphere would roughly offset the warming effect of several hundred thousand kilograms of carbon dioxide . ''", "qid": "343", "docid": "Stratospheric_aerosol_injection_(climate_engineering)", "rank": 30, "score": 122688 }, { "content": "Title: Economic impacts of climate change Content: This article describes the economic impacts of climate change . Given the inherent nature of economic forecasting , which involves significant degrees of uncertainty , estimates of the results of global warming over the 21st century have varied widely . Many analyses , such as that of the Stern Review presented to the British Government , have predicted reductions by several percent of world gross domestic product due to climate related costs such as dealing with increased extreme weather events and stresses to low-lying areas due to sea level rises . Other studies by independent economists looking at the effects of climate change have found more ambiguous results around the range of net-neutral changes when all aspects of the issue are evaluated , though the issue remains intensely debated .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Economic_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 31, "score": 122412 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 32, "score": 122030 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 33, "score": 121858 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 34, "score": 121027 }, { "content": "Title: Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation Content: Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation , sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries ( REDD + ) was first negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) since 2005 , with the objective of mitigating climate change through reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management in developing countries . Most of the key REDD + decisions were completed by 2013 , with the final pieces of the rulebook finished in 2015 . In the last two decades , various studies estimate that land use change , including deforestation and forest degradation , accounts for 12-29 % of global greenhouse gas emissions . For this reason the inclusion of reducing emissions from land use change is considered essential to achieve the objectives of the UNFCCC . During the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol , and then in particular its Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) , the inclusion of tropical forest management was debated but eventually dropped due to anticipated methodological difficulties in establishing -- in particular -- additionality and leakage ( detrimental effects outside of the project area attributable to project activities ) . What remained on forestry was `` Afforestation and Reforestation '' , sectoral scope 14 of the CDM . Under this sectoral scope areas of land that had no forest cover since 1990 could be replanted with commercial or indigenous tree species . In its first eight years of operation 52 projects had been registered under the `` Afforestation and Reforestation '' scope of the CDM . The cumbersome administrative procedures and corresponding high transaction costs are often blamed for this slow uptake . Beyond the CDM , all developed countries that were parties to the Kyoto Protocol also committed to measuring and reporting on efforts to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions from forests . The United States also measures and reports on the net greenhouse gas sequestration in its forests . In response to what many perceived to be a failure to address a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions , the Coalition for Rainforest Nations ( CfRN ) was established and in 2005 they proposed to the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC policy approaches and positive incentives for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases stemming from tropical deforestation and forest degradation as a climate change mitigation measure .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Reducing_emissions_from_deforestation_and_forest_degradation", "rank": 35, "score": 118903 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "343", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 36, "score": 118631 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 37, "score": 116751 }, { "content": "Title: Fugitive emissions Content: Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Fugitive_emissions", "rank": 38, "score": 116179 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 39, "score": 115972 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 40, "score": 115650 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 41, "score": 115609 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New York City Content: Climate change in New York City could affect buildings/structures , wetlands , water supply , health , and energy demand , due to the high population and extensive infrastructure in the region . New York is especially at risk if the sea level rises , due to many of the bridges connecting to boroughs , and entrances to roads and rail tunnels . High-traffic locations such as the airports , the Holland Tunnel , the Lincoln Tunnel , and the New York Passenger Ship Terminal are located in areas vulnerable to flooding . Flooding would be expensive to reverse . Rising temperatures could bring a higher risk of heat related deaths from heat waves and increased concentrations of ground-level ozone ( potentially causing asthma and other health concerns ) .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_York_City", "rank": 42, "score": 115239 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 43, "score": 114686 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 44, "score": 114536 }, { "content": "Title: Rising Tide UK Content: Rising Tide UK is the United Kingdom part of the International Rising Tide Network , both of which were created in 2000 to carry out direct action against the root causes of climate change , and to work towards a fossil fuel free future . RTUK takes a no-compromise position and believes that only the complete dismantling of the fossil fuel industry and a shift to low consumption lifestyles will be sufficient to halt climate change . Rising Tide UK is formed of regional and local groups in the UK , and supports networks of similar groups around the country . Actions carried out by Rising Tide UK groups range from protests and street-theatre style events , to mass occupations of petrol stations , and blockades of key fossil fuel industrial sites .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Rising_Tide_UK", "rank": 45, "score": 114381 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "343", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 46, "score": 114372 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 47, "score": 114345 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse effect Content: The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Greenhouse_effect", "rank": 48, "score": 114183 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Tett Content: Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Simon_Tett", "rank": 49, "score": 113850 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 50, "score": 113675 }, { "content": "Title: Reasons for concern Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has organized many of the risks of climate change into five `` reasons for concern . '' The reasons for concern show that these risks increase with increases in the Earth 's global mean temperature ( i.e. , global warming ) . The IPCC 's five reasons for concern are : threats to endangered species and unique systems , damages from extreme climate events , effects that fall most heavily on developing countries and the poor within countries , global aggregate impacts ( i.e. , various measurements of total social , economic and ecological impacts ) , and large-scale high-impact events . The five reasons for concern are described in more detail below . The following descriptions are based on information from the IPCC 's Third ( TAR ) and Fourth Assessment Reports ( AR4 ) , published in 2001 and 2007 , respectively .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Reasons_for_concern", "rank": 51, "score": 112762 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Act 2008 Content: The Climate Change Act 2008 ( c 27 ) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . The Act makes it the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for all six Kyoto greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at least 80 % lower than the 1990 baseline , toward avoiding dangerous climate change . The Act aims to enable the United Kingdom to become a low-carbon economy and gives ministers powers to introduce the measures necessary to achieve a range of greenhouse gas reduction targets . An independent Committee on Climate Change has been created under the Act to provide advice to UK Government on these targets and related policies . In the act Secretary of State refers to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_Change_Act_2008", "rank": 52, "score": 112642 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change feedback Content: Climate change feedback is important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes may amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing , and so play an important part in determining the climate sensitivity and future climate state . Feedback in general is the process in which changing one quantity changes a second quantity , and the change in the second quantity in turn changes the first . Positive feedback amplifies the change in the first quantity while negative feedback reduces it . The term `` forcing '' means a change which may `` push '' the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling . An example of a climate forcing is increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases . By definition , forcings are external to the climate system while feedbacks are internal ; in essence , feedbacks represent the internal processes of the system . Some feedbacks may act in relative isolation to the rest of the climate system ; others may be tightly coupled ; hence it may be difficult to tell just how much a particular process contributes . Forcings , feedbacks and the dynamics of the climate system determine how much and how fast the climate changes . The main positive feedback in global warming is the tendency of warming to increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere , which in turn leads to further warming . The main negative feedback comes from the Stefan -- Boltzmann law , the amount of heat radiated from the Earth into space changes with the fourth power of the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere . Some observed and potential effects of global warming are positive feedbacks , which contribute directly to further global warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that `` Anthropogenic warming could lead to some effects that are abrupt or irreversible , depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change . ''", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_feedback", "rank": 53, "score": 112550 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "343", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 54, "score": 112344 }, { "content": "Title: Droughts in the United States Content: Drought in the United States is similar to that of other portions of the globe . Below normal precipitation leads to drought , which is caused by an above average persistence of high pressure over the drought area . Changes in the track of extratropical cyclones , which can occur during climate cycles such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation , or ENSO , as well as the North Atlantic Oscillation , Pacific Decadal Oscillation , and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation , modulates which areas would be more prone to drought and when drought develops . Increased drought frequency is expected to be one of the effects of global warming . In dry areas , removing grass cover and going with a more natural vegetation for the area can reduce the impact of drought , since a significant amount of fresh water is used to keep lawns green . Droughts are periodic , alternating with floods over a series of years . The worst droughts in the history of the United States occurred during the 1930s and 1950s , periods of time known as ` Dust Bowl ' years in which droughts lead to significant economic damages and social changes . In particular , relief and health agencies became overburdened and many local community banks had to close .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Droughts_in_the_United_States", "rank": 55, "score": 111680 }, { "content": "Title: Cumulative effects (environment) Content: Cumulative environmental effects can be defined as effects on the environment which are caused by the combined results of past , current and future activities . Over time , direct and indirect human activities combine to collectively impact the environment . These effects may differ from the original , individual activities . For example , ecosystems can be damaged by the combined effects of human activities , such as air , land , and/or water pollution , improper handling of industrial waste , and other human development activities . Global warming is the cumulative effect caused by too much greenhouse gas , and it may then cause a loss in biodiversity and acid rain . North America has contributed to creating various cumulative effects on the environment . Many states in the United States have inadequate or no formal environmental review requirements in order to assess the cumulative effects on the environment from harmful practices . The extent to which cumulative effects in each state are evaluated varies greatly . For example , some programs only require an assessment on specific natural resource issues and others require comprehensive examination of cumulative effects on the environment . Environmental assessments are a necessity to ensure the further advancement of healthy ecosystems , habitats , and wildlife .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Cumulative_effects_(environment)", "rank": 56, "score": 111576 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 57, "score": 111439 }, { "content": "Title: Fisheries and climate change Content: Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Fisheries_and_climate_change", "rank": 58, "score": 110906 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Saskatchewan Content: The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Saskatchewan", "rank": 59, "score": 110795 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and agriculture Content: -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_and_agriculture", "rank": 60, "score": 110489 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 61, "score": 110380 }, { "content": "Title: May 2016 United States storm complex Content: The May 2016 United States storm complex was a flood in the United States that occurred on May 31 , 2016 , affecting the states of Arkansas , Kansas , Nebraska , Oklahoma , and Texas . The inundation set precipitation records in Texas and Oklahoma . On June 2 , 2016 , the rising of the Brazos River required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County , Texas . Ten deaths of Texans and thousands of home evacuations led Texas Governor Greg Abbott to issue a statewide Disaster Proclamation on June 1 , 2016 considering the damage in thirty-one counties including Austin , Bandera , Bastrop , Brazoria , Brazos , Burleson , Coleman , Colorado , Erath , Fayette , Fort Bend , Grimes , Hidalgo , Hood , Jasper , Kleberg , Lee , Leon , Liberty , Lubbock , Montgomery , Palo Pinto , Parker , Polk , Robertson , San Jacinto , Tyler , Walker , Waller , Washington and Wharton counties . Meteorologists attribute this storm 's devastation to the power of the El Niño climate cycle . An El Niño system is identified following fluctuation in the climate , characterized by an eastern shift of warming ocean water from the western tropical Pacific Ocean and rainfall along the equator .", "qid": "343", "docid": "May_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 62, "score": 110313 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation Content: Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation", "rank": 63, "score": 110222 }, { "content": "Title: America's Climate Security Act of 2007 Content: The America 's Climate Security Act of 2007 was a global warming bill that was considered by the United States Senate to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the United States . Also known as the Lieberman-Warner bill , bill number , the legislation was introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman ( I-CT ) and John Warner ( R-VA ) on October 18 , 2007 . The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in December 2007 , and was debated in the Senate during the week of June 2 . The bill would create a national cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions , in which polluters would mostly be allocated right-to-emit credits based on how much greenhouse gas they currently emit . The cap would get tighter over time , until by 2050 , emissions would be reduced to 63 % below 2005 levels . Several environmental groups express their encouragement at the progress in legislation on the global warming issue while at the same time expressing disappointment that the bill does n't reduce emissions enough . On June 6 , 2008 , the bill was killed by Senate Republicans over worries that it would damage the economy .", "qid": "343", "docid": "America's_Climate_Security_Act_of_2007", "rank": 64, "score": 109017 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 65, "score": 108382 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse debt Content: Greenhouse debt or carbon debt is the measure to which an individual person , incorporated association , business enterprise , government instrumentality or geographic community exceeds its permitted greenhouse footprint and contributes greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and climate change . The concept makes no sense without a clear numerical value for the permitted greenhouse footprint . It is not clear what this value is . Friends of the Earth and similar organisations put forward the concept to define specifically the environmental harm caused by developed countries ' past and present policies . Some governments , at least the Australian Labor leadership , have a tendency to accept such a line of reasoning . The greenhouse debt assessment thus forms an ecological footprint analysis but can be used separately . Taken conjointly with a ` water debt ' analysis and an ecological impact assessment , greenhouse debt analysis is basic to giving individuals , organisations , governments and communities an understanding of the effects they are having on Gaia , life , and global warming . Ensuring that the greenhouse debt is zero is essential towards achieving ecologically sustainable development or a sustainable retreat . Any greenhouse debt incurred will contribute to making life harder for future generations of humans and non-human lifeforms . There are three possible consequences that occur as a result of a greenhouse debt . Mitigation : finding compensatory ways of reducing the greenhouse debt so its effects are neutralised Adaptation : finding ways of adjusting to the resulting global warming or climate change Suffering : having one 's quality of life reduced as a result of the consequences", "qid": "343", "docid": "Greenhouse_debt", "rank": 66, "score": 108149 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Climate Change conference Content: The United Nations Climate Change Conferences are yearly conferences held in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . They serve as the formal meeting of the UNFCCC Parties ( Conference of the Parties , COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change , and beginning in the mid-1990s , to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions . From 2005 the Conferences have also served as the `` Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol '' ( CMP ) ; also parties to the Convention that are not parties to the Protocol can participate in Protocol-related meetings as observers . From 2011 the meetings have also been used to negotiate the Paris Agreement as part of the Durban platform activities until its conclusion in 2015 , which created a general path towards climate action . The first UN Climate Change Conference was held in 1995 in Berlin .", "qid": "343", "docid": "United_Nations_Climate_Change_conference", "rank": 67, "score": 108019 }, { "content": "Title: Echo of Miles: Scattered Tracks Across the Path Content: Echo of Miles : Scattered Tracks Across the Path is a 3-CD compilation album by the American rock band Soundgarden . It was released on November 24 , 2014 . The album is a collection of rarities , live tracks , and unreleased material spanning the group 's history . It includes previously released songs , such as `` Live to Rise '' , `` Black Rain '' , `` Birth Ritual '' , and others , as well as a newly recorded rendition of a song from the band 's pre-Matt Cameron 1985 demo , `` The Storm '' , now simply titled `` Storm '' , which was produced by Jack Endino . While almost fully comprehensive , there are some notable absentees from this compilation : `` Incessant Mace '' from 1985 's Pyrrhic Victory compilation cassette ( with Chris Cornell on drums ) , `` Heretic '' and `` Tears to Forget '' from 1986 's Deep Six compilation ( with Scott Sundquist on drums - note that `` All Your Lies '' from this compilation was previously released on 2010 's Telephantasm ) , and a re-recording of `` New Damage '' featuring Brian May from 1993 's Alternative NRG compilation . Kim Thayil has also mentioned in past interviews that there are more unreleased tracks that still have n't seen the light of day , including tracks like `` Dirty Candy '' , `` Ocean Fronts '' , `` Open Up '' , `` Summation '' , `` Beast '' and `` No Shame '' . None of these tracks are on Echo of Miles , despite the fact that Thayil has expressed that he wanted to release a b-sides compilation featuring these tracks .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Echo_of_Miles:_Scattered_Tracks_Across_the_Path", "rank": 68, "score": 107777 }, { "content": "Title: Executive Order 13653 Content: Executive Order 13653 Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change was issued by President Barack Obama on November 1 , 2013 . EO 13653 is the Federal Government 's response to the rising issue of climate change . It was issued in order to prepare the Nation for the impending impacts on the environment brought by climate change and to implement risk management strategies to lessen the harm done by these impacts on the Nation . EO 13653 mandates that the Federal Government , as well stakeholders , must manage these risks with deliberate preparation , cooperation , and coordination in order to effectively improve climate preparedness and resilience . With preparedness and resilience come a safer economy , infrastructure , environment , and supply of natural resources - allowing the continuation of department and agency operations , services , and programs . Agencies are called on to promote open lines of sharing and communication throughout all levels of government , make both informed and strategic decisions , quickly adapt and adjust future plans when needed , and to effectively prepare for the future by planning . The order was rescinded by President Donald Trump on March 28 , 2017 . The previous Order attempted to plan for the following Environmental Impacts : High Temperatures Heavy Downpours Permafrost Thawing Ocean Acidification Sea Level Rise", "qid": "343", "docid": "Executive_Order_13653", "rank": 69, "score": 107736 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 70, "score": 107305 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 71, "score": 107168 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 72, "score": 106338 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 73, "score": 106037 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 74, "score": 105353 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas Content: The effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas were crippling and long-lasting . Ike 's effects included deaths , widespread damage , and impacts to the price and availability of oil and gas . Hurricane Ike also had a long-term impact on the U.S. economy . Making landfall over Galveston , at 2:10 a.m. CDT on September 13 , 2008 , `` giant '' Hurricane Ike caused extensive damage in Texas , with sustained winds of 110 mph ( 175 km/h ) , a 22 ft ( 6.8 m ) storm surge , and widespread coastal flooding . More than 140,000 residents in the Texas Gulf Coast danger zones in Ike 's path had failed to evacuate , partly due to fears of multi-hour traffic jams as during Hurricane Rita , but over 940 were rescued from rising waters , and nearly 2,000 rescued afterward . As of December 27 , 2008 , 37 people are known to have lost their lives in Texas due to Ike while hundreds are still missing . The storm had come ashore hours before daybreak with 110-mph ( 175 km/h ) winds and towering waves , pushing boats ashore , smashing many houses , flooding thousands of homes , knocking out windows in Houston 's skyscrapers , uprooting trees , and cutting electric power to millions of customers ( estimates range from 2.8 million to 4.5 million customers ) for weeks or months . Some people survived by punching holes in attics , climbing to rooftops or trees , using nearby boats , or floating on debris until reaching solid ground . Afterward , an estimated 100,000 homes had been flooded in Texas , and numerous boats washed ashore . Galveston was declared uninhabitable , and Houston imposed a week-long nighttime curfew due to limited electric power .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Ike_in_Texas", "rank": 75, "score": 105312 }, { "content": "Title: Clathrate gun hypothesis Content: The clathrate gun hypothesis is the popular name given to the hypothesis that increases in sea temperatures ( and/or drops in sea levels ) can trigger the sudden release of methane from methane clathrate compounds buried in seabeds and that are contained within seabed permafrost which , because methane itself is a powerful greenhouse gas , leads to further temperature rise and further methane clathrate destabilization -- in effect initiating a runaway process as irreversible , once started , as the firing of a gun . In its original form , the hypothesis proposed that the `` clathrate gun '' could cause abrupt runaway warming on a timescale less than a human lifetime . It was thought to be responsible for warming events in and at the end of the last glacial maximum , however this is now thought to be unlikely . However , there is stronger evidence that runaway methane clathrate breakdown may have caused drastic alteration of the ocean environment ( such as ocean acidification and ocean stratification ) and of the atmosphere of earth on a number of occasions in the past , over timescales of tens of thousands of years . These events include the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum 56 million years ago , and most notably the Permian -- Triassic extinction event , when up to 96 % of all marine species became extinct , 252 million years ago .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Clathrate_gun_hypothesis", "rank": 76, "score": 105044 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway climate change Content: Runaway climate change or runaway global warming is hypothesized to follow a tipping point in the climate system , after accumulated climate change initiates a reinforcing positive feedback . This is thought to cause the climate to rapidly change until it reaches a new stable condition . These phrases may be used with reference to concerns about rapid global warming . Some astronomers use the expression runaway greenhouse effect to describe a situation where the climate deviates catastrophically and permanently from the original state -- as happened on Venus . Although these terms are rarely used in the peer-reviewed climatological literature , that literature does use the similar phrase `` runaway greenhouse effect '' , which refers specifically to climate changes that cause a planetary body 's water to boil off .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Runaway_climate_change", "rank": 77, "score": 105024 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological effects of biodiversity Content: The diversity of species and genes in ecological communities affects the functioning of these communities . These ecological effects of biodiversity in turn are affected by both climate change through enhanced greenhouse gases , aerosols and loss of land cover , and biological diversity , causing a rapid loss of ecosystems and extinctions of species and local populations . The current rate of extinction is sometimes considered a mass extinction , with current species extinction rates on the order of 100 to 1000 times as high as in the past . The two main areas where the effect of biodiversity on ecosystem function have been studied are the relationship between diversity and productivity , and the relationship between diversity and community stability . More biologically diverse communities appear to be more productive ( in terms of biomass production ) than are less diverse communities , and they appear to be more stable in the face of perturbations . Also animals that inhabit an area may alter the surviving conditions by factors assimilated by climate .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Ecological_effects_of_biodiversity", "rank": 78, "score": 104430 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 79, "score": 104419 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 80, "score": 104224 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on Australia Content: Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that global warming will negatively impact the continent 's environment , economy , and communities . Australia has been designated as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change , according to the Stern Review and others , due partially to the importance of its agricultural sector and the prominence of its coast . Australia is vulnerable to the effects of global warming projected for the next 50 to 100 years because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas , an already warm climate , high annual rainfall variability , and existing pressures on water supply . The continent 's high fire risk increases this susceptibility to change in temperature and climate . Additionally , Australia 's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas , and its important tourism industry depends on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and other fragile ecosystems . The impacts of climate change in Australia will be complex and to some degree uncertain , but increased foresight may enable the country to safeguard its future through planned mitigation and adaptation . Mitigation may reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impacts , but requires global solutions and cooperation , while adaptation can be performed at national and local levels .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_Australia", "rank": 81, "score": 104111 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in West Virginia Content: Climate change in West Virginia is of a concern due to the effects on the environment . Over the last century , the average temperature in Charleston , West Virginia , has increased 1.1 ° F ( 0.61 ° C ) , and precipitation has increased by up to 10 % in many parts of the state . These past trends may or may not continue into the future . Over the next century , climate in West Virginia may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in West Virginia could increase by 3 ° F ( 1.67 ° C ) in winter , spring , and summer ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and 4 ° F ( 2.23 ° C ) in fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to increase by 20 % ( with a range of 10-30 % ) in all seasons , slightly more in summer . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer thunderstorms is possible", "qid": "343", "docid": "Climate_change_in_West_Virginia", "rank": 82, "score": 103833 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "qid": "343", "docid": "IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 83, "score": 103693 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological forecasting Content: Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics , ecology and physiology to predict how ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change . The ultimate goal of the approach is to provide people such as resource managers and designers of marine reserves with information that they can then use to respond , in advance , to future changes , a form of adaptation to global warming . One of the most important environmental factors for organisms today is global warming . Most physiological processes are affected by temperature , and so even small changes in weather and climate can lead to large changes in the growth , reproduction and survival of animals and plants . The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era . These changes are in turn affecting human and natural ecosystems . One major challenge is to predict where , when and with what magnitude changes are likely to occur so that we can mitigate or at least prepare for them . Ecological forecasting applies existing knowledge of how animals and plants interact with their physical environment to ask how changes in environmental factors might result in changes to the ecosystems as a whole .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Ecological_forecasting", "rank": 84, "score": 103670 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) is an international environmental treaty adopted on May 9 , 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . It then entered into force on 21 March 1994 , after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it . The UNFCCC objective is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . Instead , the framework outlines how specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' or `` Agreements '' ) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC . Initially an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( INC ) produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 , and opened for signature on 4 June 1992 . The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015 . The convention enjoys broad legitimacy , largely due to its nearly universal membership . The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties ( COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change . In 1997 , the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 . The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013-2020 in the Doha Amendment , which - as of December 2015 - had not entered into force . In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted , governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions . The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th , 2016 . One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and removals , which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions . Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries . The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention , with offices in Haus Carstanjen , and the UN Campus ( known as Langer Eugen ) Bonn , Germany . From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres . In July 2016 , Patricia Espinosa from Mexico succeeded Figueres . The Secretariat , augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies .", "qid": "343", "docid": "United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 85, "score": 103306 }, { "content": "Title: Compact of Mayors Content: The Compact of Mayors is a global coalition of city leaders addressing climate change by pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the future impacts of climate change . The Compact highlights cities ' climate impact while measuring their relative risk levels and carbon pollution . The Compact of Mayors seeks to show the importance of city climate action , both at the local level and around the world . The Compact was launched in 2014 by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg , the UN Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change . The Compact represents a common effort from global city networks C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group ( C40 ) , ICLEI , and United Cities and Local Governments ( UCLG ) , as well as UN-Habitat , to unite against climate change . 428 global cities have committed to the Compact of Mayors . The collective member cities comprise over 376 million people and 5.19 % of the global population .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Compact_of_Mayors", "rank": 86, "score": 103303 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on island nations Content: Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_island_nations", "rank": 87, "score": 102975 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "343", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 88, "score": 102829 }, { "content": "Title: Decarbonisation measures in proposed UK electricity market reform Content: The United Kingdom is committed to legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets of 34 % by 2020 and 80 % by 2050 , compared to 1990 levels , as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 . DECC ( 2008 ) . Climate Change Act . Decarbonisation of electricity generation will form a major part of this reduction and is essential before other sectors of the economy can be successfully decarbonised.DECC ( 2011a ) . Planning Our Electric Future : A White Paper for Secure , Affordable and Low-Carbon Electricity . The Government 's proposals for electricity market reform , published in a White Paper in July 2011 , included three initiatives to encourage decarbonisation of electricity generation in the UK : A Carbon Price Floor to complement the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) ; Feed-in tariffs which will eventually replace the Renewables Obligation ; and an Emissions Performance Standard to restrict future use of the most carbon intensive forms of generation . In implementing these proposals , the Government aims to attract investment in low-carbon generation , deliver security of supply through an appropriate mix of electricity sources and ensure a minimum amount of impact on consumer bills ; all this at a time when security of supply is threatened by scheduled closures of existing plants and both the demand for , and subsequently the price of , electricity is increasing .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Decarbonisation_measures_in_proposed_UK_electricity_market_reform", "rank": 89, "score": 102760 }, { "content": "Title: Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases Content: The Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases , created in 1985 , was an advisory body for the review of studies into the greenhouse effect . The group was created by the International Council of Scientific Unions , the United Nations Environment Programme , and the World Meteorological Organization to follow up on the recommendations of the International conference of the Assessment of the role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts , held at Villach , Austria , in October 1985 . The seven-member panel included Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin and Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare . The group held its last meeting in 1990 . It was gradually replaced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Advisory_Group_on_Greenhouse_Gases", "rank": 90, "score": 102755 }, { "content": "Title: Lee Hannah Content: Lee Hannah is a conservation ecologist and a Senior Researcher in Climate Change Biology at Conservation International . Hannah is one of many authors who published an article predicting that between 15 % and 37 % of species are at risk of extinction due to climate change caused by human greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Lee_Hannah", "rank": 91, "score": 102620 }, { "content": "Title: European Climate Change Programme Content: The European Climate Change Programme ( ECCP ) was launched in June 2000 by the European Union 's European Commission , with the purpose of avoiding dangerous climate change . The goal of the ECCP is to identify , develop and implement all the necessary elements of an EU strategy to implement the Kyoto Protocol . All EU countries ' ratifications of the Kyoto Protocol were deposited simultaneously on 31 May 2002 . The European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) is perhaps the most significant contribution of the ECCP , and the EU ETS is the largest greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world . In 1996 the EU adopted a target of a maximum 2 ° C rise in global mean temperature , compared to pre-industrial levels . Since then , European Leaders have reaffirmed this goal several times . Due to only minor efforts in global Climate change mitigation it is highly likely that the world will not be able to reach this particular target . The EU might then be forced to accept a less ambitious target or to change its climate policy paradigm .", "qid": "343", "docid": "European_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 92, "score": 102429 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport Content: The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport", "rank": 93, "score": 102307 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "343", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 94, "score": 102040 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 95, "score": 101955 }, { "content": "Title: List of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC or FCCC ) is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) , informally known as the Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . The objective of the treaty is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The treaty itself set no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . In that sense , the treaty is considered legally non-binding . Instead , the treaty provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' ) that may set binding limits on greenhouse gases . The UNFCCC was opened for signature on 9 May 1992 , after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . It entered into force on 21 March 1994 . As of December 2015 , UNFCCC has 197 parties .", "qid": "343", "docid": "List_of_parties_to_the_United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 96, "score": 101900 }, { "content": "Title: Individual and political action on climate change Content: Individual and political action on climate change can take many forms . Many actions aim to build social and political support to limit , and subsequently reduce , the concentration of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) in the atmosphere , with the goal of mitigating climate change . Other actions seek to address the ethical and moral aspects of climate justice , especially with regard to the anticipated unequal impacts of climate change adaptation .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Individual_and_political_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 97, "score": 101509 }, { "content": "Title: List of Australian environmental books Content: This is a list of Australian environmental books : Global Spin : The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism ( 1997 ) , by Sharon Beder Human Ecology , Human Economy : Ideas for an Ecologically Sustainable Future ( 1997 ) , edited by Mark Diesendorf and Clive Hamilton Running from the Storm : The Development of Climate Change Policy in Australia ( 2001 ) , by Clive Hamilton A Big Fix : Radical Solutions for Australia 's Environmental Crisis ( 2005 ) , by Ian Lowe Living in the Hothouse : How Global Warming Affects Australia ( 2005 ) , by Ian Lowe The Weather Makers ( 2005 ) , by Tim Flannery Environmental Principles and Policies ( 2006 ) , by Sharon Beder Patriots : Defending Australia 's Natural Heritage ( 2006 ) , by William J Lines Chasing Kangaroos ( 2007 ) , by Tim Flannery Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy ( 2007 ) , by Mark Diesendorf High and Dry : John Howard , Climate Change and the Selling of Australia 's Future ( 2007 ) , by Guy Pearse The 3rd Degree : Frontline in Australia 's Climate War ( 2007 ) , by Murray Hogarth Maralinga : Australia 's Nuclear Waste Cover-up ( 2007 ) , by Alan Parkinson Reaction Time : Climate Change and the Nuclear Option ( 2007 ) , by Ian Lowe Scorcher : The Dirty Politics of Climate Change ( 2007 ) , by Clive Hamilton Climate Code Red : The Case for Emergency Action ( 2008 ) , by David Spratt and Philip Sutton Now or Never : A Sustainable Future for Australia ? ( 2008 ) , by Tim Flannery Quarry Vision : Coal , Climate Change and the End of the Resources Boom ( 2009 ) , by Guy Pearse Requiem for a Species ( 2010 ) , by Clive Hamilton", "qid": "343", "docid": "List_of_Australian_environmental_books", "rank": 98, "score": 101338 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on plant biodiversity Content: Environmental conditions play a key role in defining the function and distribution of plants , in combination with other factors . Changes in long term environmental conditions that can be collectively coined climate change are known to have had enormous impacts on current plant diversity patterns ; further impacts are expected in the future . It is predicted that climate change will remain one of the major drivers of biodiversity patterns in the future .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_plant_biodiversity", "rank": 99, "score": 101217 }, { "content": "Title: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "qid": "343", "docid": "Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 100, "score": 101139 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Meteorological disasters Content: Meteorological disasters are caused by extreme weather , e.g. rain , drought , snow , extreme heat or cold , ice , or wind . Violent , sudden and destructive change to the environment related to , produced by , or affecting the earth 's atmosphere , especially the weather-forming processes . Examples of weather disasters include blizzard , cyclones , droughts , hailstorms , heat waves , hurricanes , floods ( caused by rain ) , and tornadoes .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Meteorological_disasters", "rank": 1, "score": 143644 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 2, "score": 133128 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2009 Content: Global storm activity of 2009 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2009 to December 31 , 2009 . Wintery storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Summer storms including flooding , severe thunderstorms and extratropical cyclones ( which can occur in summer or winter ) are also included in this list to a certain extent . As this occurred a heat wave and/or unforeseen monsoon weather also hit parts of Australia in 2009 and 2010 . Victoria , the scene of horrific bushfires the year before , had a far colder summer , with hot weather arriving more than a month later than usual in 2009 . August 17 saw a dust storm at Laguna Mar Chiquita as a major drought hit Argentina , and flooding and hailstorms hit southeastern Australia and Queensland in March 2010 . The lack of winter precipitation in parts of China , however , contributed to a severe drought in the southwest . Bolivia , Venezuela , Mali , Mauritania , Morocco and Spain have also seen periods of drought in 2009 and 2010 . On between May 12 and 26 , both Mauritania , the Sénégal River Area and neighbouring parts of both Senegal and Mali faced both a drought and famine in 2010 . A storm ( from Proto-Germanic * sturmaz `` noise , tumult '' ) is any disturbed state of an astronomical body 's atmosphere , especially affecting its surface , and strongly implying severe weather . Storms are created when a centre of low pressure develops , with a system of high pressure surrounding it . This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds , such as the cumulonimbus . Small , localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground , resulting in smaller meteorological disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2009", "rank": 3, "score": 133025 }, { "content": "Title: Droughts in the United States Content: Drought in the United States is similar to that of other portions of the globe . Below normal precipitation leads to drought , which is caused by an above average persistence of high pressure over the drought area . Changes in the track of extratropical cyclones , which can occur during climate cycles such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation , or ENSO , as well as the North Atlantic Oscillation , Pacific Decadal Oscillation , and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation , modulates which areas would be more prone to drought and when drought develops . Increased drought frequency is expected to be one of the effects of global warming . In dry areas , removing grass cover and going with a more natural vegetation for the area can reduce the impact of drought , since a significant amount of fresh water is used to keep lawns green . Droughts are periodic , alternating with floods over a series of years . The worst droughts in the history of the United States occurred during the 1930s and 1950s , periods of time known as ` Dust Bowl ' years in which droughts lead to significant economic damages and social changes . In particular , relief and health agencies became overburdened and many local community banks had to close .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Droughts_in_the_United_States", "rank": 4, "score": 131120 }, { "content": "Title: Storm Data Content: Storm Data and Unusual Weather Phenomena ( SD ) is a monthly NOAA publication with comprehensive listings and detailed summaries of severe weather occurrences in the United States . Included is information on tornadoes , high wind events , hail , lightning , floods and flash floods , tropical cyclones ( hurricanes ) , ice storms , snow , extreme temperatures such as heat waves and cold waves , droughts , and wildfires . Photographs of weather and attendant damage are used as much as possible . Maps of significant weather are also included .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Storm_Data", "rank": 5, "score": 128495 }, { "content": "Title: 1982–83 El Niño event Content: The 1982 -- 83 El Niño event was one of the strongest El Niño events since records were kept . It led to widespread flooding across the southern United States , droughts in Indonesia and Australia , and lack of snow in northern areas of the United States . The estimated economic impact was over US$ 8 billion . This El Niño event also led to an abnormal amount of hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean during this time span ; the strongest hurricane up to 1983 hit Hawaii during this El Niño event . It led to declines of 77 % among Galápagos penguins and 49 % among flightless cormorants . In addition to these losses in penguins and cormorants , this El Niño event caused a quarter of adult native sea lions and fur seals on Peru 's coast to starve , while the entirety of both seals ' pup populations perished . In Ecuador heavy rainfall and flooding led to high fish and shrimp harvests , however the large amounts of standing water also allowed mosquito populations to thrive , leading to large outbreaks of malaria .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1982–83_El_Niño_event", "rank": 6, "score": 126674 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–12 La Niña event Content: The 2010 -- 12 La Niña event was one of the strongest on record . It caused Australia to experience its wettest September on record in 2010 , and its second-wettest year on record in 2010 . It also led to an unusual intensification of the Leeuwin Current , the 2010 Pakistan floods , the 2010 -- 11 Queensland floods , and the 2011 East Africa drought . It also helped keep the average global temperature below recent trends , leading to 2011 tying with 1997 for the 14th-warmest year on record .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2010–12_La_Niña_event", "rank": 7, "score": 126036 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 8, "score": 124489 }, { "content": "Title: Natural hazard Content: A natural hazard is a natural phenomenon that might have a negative effect on people or the environment . Natural hazard events can be grouped into two broad categories . Geophysical hazards encompass geological and meteorological phenomena such as earthquakes , volcanic eruption , wildfire , cyclonic storms , flood , drought , and coastal erosion . Biological hazards can refer to a diverse array of disease and infestation . Many geophysical hazards are related ; for example , submarine earthquakes can cause tsunamis , and hurricanes can lead to coastal flooding and erosion . Floods and wildfires can result from a combination of geological , hydrological , and climatic factors . It is possible that some natural hazards are intertemporally correlated as well . An example of the division between a natural hazard and a natural disaster is that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a disaster , whereas living on a fault line is a hazard . Some natural hazards can be provoked or affected by anthropogenic processes ( e.g. land-use change , drainage and construction ) .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Natural_hazard", "rank": 9, "score": 124130 }, { "content": "Title: Rare events Content: Rare events are events that occur with low frequency , and the term is often used in particular reference to infrequent or hypothetical events that have potentially widespread impact and which might destabilize society . Rare events encompass natural phenomena ( major earthquakes , tsunamis , hurricanes , floods , asteroid impacts , solar flares , etc. ) , anthropogenic hazards ( warfare and related forms of violent conflict , acts of terrorism , industrial accidents , financial and commodity market crashes , etc. ) , as well as phenomena for which natural and anthropogenic factors interact in complex ways ( epidemic disease spread , global warming-related changes in climate and weather , etc. ) .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Rare_events", "rank": 10, "score": 123988 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2007 Content: Global storm activity of 2007 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2007 to December 31 , 2007 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , they may form in summer , though it would have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the summer of 1816 in the Northeast United States of America . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2007", "rank": 11, "score": 122392 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2006 Content: Global storm activity of 2006 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2006 to December 31 , 2006 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , well-defined winter storms may form during the summer , though it would usually have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the Summer of 1816 in the Northeastern United States . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2006", "rank": 12, "score": 121930 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2010 Content: The global storm activity of 2010 includes major meteorological events in the Earth 's atmosphere during the year , including winter storms ( blizzards , ice storms , European windstorms ) , hailstorms , out of season monsoon rain storms , extratropical cyclones , gales , microbursts , flooding , rainstorms , tropical cyclones , and other severe weather events . The thunderstorm season for the Northern Hemisphere began this time of year , beginning on March 1 , and ending on August 31 .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2010", "rank": 13, "score": 119423 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2008 Content: Global storm activity of 2008 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2008 to December 31 , 2008 . A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Major dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . A storm ( from Proto-Germanic * sturmaz `` noise , tumult '' ) is any disturbed state of an astronomical body 's atmosphere , especially affecting its surface , and strongly implying severe weather . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Storms are created when a centre of low pressure develops , with a system of high pressure surrounding it . This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds , such as the cumulonimbus . Small , localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground , resulting in smaller meteorological disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2008", "rank": 14, "score": 118161 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "344", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 15, "score": 116899 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events of 535–536 Content: The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the most severe and protracted short-term episodes of cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2000 years . The event is thought to have been caused by an extensive atmospheric dust veil , possibly resulting from a large volcanic eruption in the tropics , or debris from space impacting the Earth . Its effects were widespread , causing unseasonal weather , crop failures and famines worldwide .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_of_535–536", "rank": 16, "score": 112946 }, { "content": "Title: Natural disasters in India Content: Natural disasters in India , many of them related to the climate of India , cause massive losses of life and property . Droughts , flash floods , cyclones , avalanches , landslides brought on by torrential rains , and snowstorms pose the greatest threats . A natural disaster might be caused by earthquakes , flooding , volcanic eruption , landslides , hurricanes etc. . In order to be classified as a disaster it will have profound environmental effect and/or human loss and frequently incurs financial loss . Other dangers include frequent summer dust storms , which usually track from north to south ; they cause extensive property damage in North India and deposit large amounts of dust from arid regions . Hail is also common in parts of India , causing severe damage to standing crops such as rice and wheat .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Natural_disasters_in_India", "rank": 17, "score": 111811 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Midwest flooding Content: The 2007 Midwest flooding was a major flooding event that occurred in the Midwestern United States in the third week of August 2007 . While Hurricane Dean was affecting the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico , and Tropical Storm Erin was affecting Oklahoma and Texas , a persistent storm system hung over the Midwest for several days , causing repeated flash flooding in the US states of Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Minnesota , Ohio , and Wisconsin . Cool Canadian air clashed with large quantities of warm moist air from the Gulf , producing torrential rains along a stationary front . Eighteen deaths across the central United States were attributed to the resulting flooding . Seven Minnesota counties , eight Ohio counties , fourteen counties in Wisconsin , and seven counties in Illinois were declared Federal Disaster Areas .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2007_Midwest_flooding", "rank": 18, "score": 110683 }, { "content": "Title: Natural disaster Content: A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth ; examples include floods , hurricanes , tornadoes , volcanic eruptions , earthquakes , tsunamis , and other geologic processes . A natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage , and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake , the severity of which depends on the affected population 's resilience , or ability to recover and also on the infrastructure available . An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population . In a vulnerable area , however , such as Nepal during the 2015 earthquake , an earthquake can have disastrous consequences and leave lasting damage , requiring years to repair .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Natural_disaster", "rank": 19, "score": 110671 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 Great Britain and Ireland floods Content: The 2012 Great Britain and Ireland floods are a series of weather events that affected parts of Great Britain and Ireland periodically during the course of 2012 and on through the winter into 2013 . The beginning of 2012 saw much of the United Kingdom experiencing droughts and a heat wave in March . A series of low pressure systems steered by the jet stream brought the wettest April in 100 years , and flooding across Britain and Ireland . Continuing through May and leading to the wettest beginning to June in 150 years , with flooding and extreme events occurring periodically throughout Britain and parts of Atlantic Europe . On 27 and 28 June and again on 7 July heavy rain events occurred from powerful thunderstorms that gathered strength as they travelled across mainland Britain . Severe weather warnings and a number of flood alerts were issued by the UK 's Environment Agency , and many areas were hit by flash floods that overwhelmed properties and caused power cuts . A motorist was killed after his vehicle was caught by floodwater and landslides halted rail services between England and Scotland . The thunderstorms were the product of two fronts that collided over the British Isles -- warm air travelling from the Azores and cold water-ladened air from the west . The second batch of flooding struck the South-West of England during the afternoon of 7 July , forcing the Met Office to issue its highest alert , Red ( Take Action ) , due to the significant amounts of rainfall caused by a system travelling from Southern Europe , along with the warm , humid air the United Kingdom had seen in the run-up to the floods , which , like the June floods , caused thunderstorms . During the Autumn the most intense September low since 1981 brought widespread flooding and wind damage to the UK . Widespread flooding occurred again in November , December and January 2013 , as more heavy rains overwhelmed the saturated ground .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2012_Great_Britain_and_Ireland_floods", "rank": 20, "score": 109963 }, { "content": "Title: 2004 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 2004 Pacific hurricane season was notable in that no tropical cyclone of at least tropical storm intensity moved ashore , an unusual occurrence . The season officially began on May 15 in the eastern Pacific , and on June 1 in the central Pacific ; it officially ended in both basins on November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period during each year when a majority of tropical cyclones form . Activity throughout the year fell slightly below the long-term average , with 12 named storms , 6 hurricanes , and 3 major hurricanes . The season was reflected by an Accumulated Cyclone Energy ( ACE ) index of 71 units . Impact throughout the season was minimal and no deaths were recorded . In early August , the remnants of Hurricane Darby aided in localized heavy rainfall in Hawaii , causing minor street and stream flooding ; coffee and macadamia trees were damaged as well . In early September , Hurricane Howard resulted in significant flooding across Baja California Peninsula that damaged agricultural land and 393 homes . Large swells also resulted in about 1,000 lifeguard rescues in California . In mid-September , Javier caused three fishermen to go missing and helped alleviate a multi-year drought across the Southwest United States . It produced record rainfall in the state of Wyoming . In mid - to late October , Tropical Storm Lester and Tropical Depression Sixteen-E caused localized flooding ; the latter may have produced a tornado near Culiacán , Mexico .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2004_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 21, "score": 109821 }, { "content": "Title: Climarice Content: Climarice is a research project , carried out by The Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research ( Bioforsk , Norway ) , Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( TNAU , India ) , International Water Management Institute ( IWMI , India ) and International Pacific Research Center ( IPRC , United States ) ; which is trying to assess the impact of climate variability on water availability and rice production in the Cauvery river basin of Tamil Nadu , India . In particular , the impacts of climate change on extreme events such as droughts , floods , heat waves and on the spatial and temporal distribution of the monsoon rains will certainly impact rice production and food security in India . However , there is a significant level of uncertainty in the climate models ' projections that cascade into impact models and thereby influence policy decisions related to adaptation . For both scientific community and policy makers , reducing the uncertainties is a big challenge . On a positive note , examination of historical observed rice production data in India shows an overall increasing trend in many regions with annual fluctuations . Will this trend continue given the projected change in climate and population increase in India ? Climarice is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , is currently assessing the impacts of climate change on rice production areas and rice productivity . Specifically , the project is assessing the behavior of the Indian monsoon in different climate scenarios , and examining its impact on the water availability , rice crop production and the resultant socio economic vulnerability and adaptation of farming communities in the Cauvery river basin , India . Since the project was started in January 2008 , relevant coping and adaptation mechanisms have been identified and techniques developed to address the issues of climate vulnerabilities in rice production .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Climarice", "rank": 22, "score": 108862 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Amelia (1978) Content: Tropical Storm Amelia was a weak , poorly organized tropical storm that formed during the 1978 Atlantic hurricane season . It caused a severe flooding disaster in Texas after it dissipated . Amelia developed from a tropical wave that moved through the Atlantic Ocean uneventfully . The disturbance then entered an area of the Gulf of Mexico that was conducive to tropical cyclogenesis and became the first tropical depression of the season , after which it was forecast to make landfall before any significant intensification . However , the tropical depression defied predictions , quickly strengthening into a weak tropical storm just hours before making landfall in Corpus Christi . The storm lasted roughly a day over land before becoming unidentifiable after being active for just under 48 hours . Amelia affected the Texas coast for two days , causing several shipping incidents and minor damage in Corpus Christi and South Padre Island . While active , there were no deaths linked to the storm . However , the biggest impact from the storm followed its dissipation , when its remnants contributed to record rainfall totals over the state . The state , already suffering from a previous drought , believed that the rain would help alleviate the conditions . However , the dry ground aided the flooding from the storm . The rainfall caused several rivers and creeks to flood , especially around the Texas Hill Country and northern Texas , leading to severe damage . Following the storm , President Jimmy Carter declared six counties in the state as federal disaster areas , allowing residents to seek aid from the government . Additional aid was brought in from as far away as New York . Overall , Amelia caused 33 fatalities with an estimated $ 110 million in damages in what then-governor Dolph Briscoe called one of the worst floods in the history of the state .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Amelia_(1978)", "rank": 23, "score": 108524 }, { "content": "Title: Water resources management in the Dominican Republic Content: With surface water resources of 20 billion m3 ( BCM ) per year , of which 12 BCM are groundwater recharge , water resources in the Dominican Republic ( DR ) could be considered abundant . But irregular spatial and seasonal distribution , coupled with high consumption in irrigation and urban water supply , translates into water scarcity . Rapid economic growth and increased urbanization have also affected environmental quality and placed strains on the DR 's water resources base . In addition , the DR is exposed to a number of natural hazards , such as hurricanes , storms , floods , Drought , earthquakes , and fires . Global climate change is expected to induce permanent climate shocks to the Caribbean region , which will likely affect the DR in the form of sea level rise , higher surface air and sea temperatures , extreme weather events ( such as tropical storms and hurricanes ) , increased rainfall intensity ( leading to both more frequent and severe flooding ) and more frequent and more severe `` El Niño-like '' conditions . Water resources management in the country , in particular water quality , quantity and Watershed management faces major challenges today . Despite of the lack of systematic data limiting an accurate and detailed assessment of the scope of the problems , there is a consensus that : ( i ) the overall poor quality of surface , groundwater and coastal water resources is the result of a lack of waste water management and agricultural run-off , causing health problems that disproportionally affect the poor ; ( ii ) water scarcity is a regional problem resulting from poor demand management in irrigation , urban water supply and tourist infrastructure in drier regions ; ( iii ) weak watershed management leads to soil erosion and amplifies the damage and frequency of flooding ; and ( iv ) the overall lack of solid waste management pollutes water sources , causes disease and is a nuisance for inhabitants and visitors alike . The DR government is in the process of reducing its role as main investor for water resources infrastructure and services provider decentralizing some responsibilities to local and regional government , water users organizations , and private companies .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Water_resources_management_in_the_Dominican_Republic", "rank": 24, "score": 107105 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Katrina and global warming Content: The tremendous destruction caused by recent Atlantic Ocean tropical cyclones , such as Hurricanes Katrina , Wilma , and Sandy caused a substantial upsurge in interest in the subject of global warming by news media and the wider public , and concerns that global climatic change may have played a significant role in those events . Time Magazine , for example , published an article titled , `` Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina ? '' -- however , the article itself addressed hurricanes in general , rather than Katrina specifically , and was inconclusive . Shortly after the hurricane , former Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan wrote an op-ed piece for the Globe titled , `` Katrina 's Real Name '' , declaring that the hurricane 's `` real name is global warming . '' Gelbspan went on to assert : `` Although Katrina began as a relatively small hurricane that glanced off south Florida , it was supercharged with extraordinary intensity by the relatively blistering sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico . '' Gelbspan did not single out Katrina from other recent storms in that regard ; in the article he went on to attribute other major weather events over the preceding year to global warming , including a blizzard in Los Angeles , high winds in Scandinavia , wildfires in Spain , and a drought centered in Missouri . Britain 's then deputy prime minister , John Prescott , has linked Katrina with global warming , and statements made shortly after the hurricane by Germany 's environment minister , Jürgen Trittin , indicate he believes that global warming is responsible for an increase in the frequency of destructive natural events . Kerry Emanuel had recently published a paper in the journal Nature that found a good correlation between hurricane intensity and sea surface temperatures . Some journalists have claimed Emanuel 's paper concludes that the recent increase in intense Atlantic storms is due to global warming , but Emanuel stated that `` it would be absurd to attribute the Katrina disaster to global warming '' . The Internet blog RealClimate has written that `` there is no way to prove that Katrina either was , or was not , affected by global warming '' .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Hurricane_Katrina_and_global_warming", "rank": 25, "score": 106182 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 2001–present Content: Floods in the United States : 2001 -- present is a list of flood events which were of significant impact to the country since 2001 , inclusive . Floods are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , storm surge from hurricanes , and dam failure .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_2001–present", "rank": 26, "score": 106131 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather Content: Extreme weather includes unexpectable , unusual , unpredictable severe or unseasonal weather ; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution -- the range that has been seen in the past . Often , extreme events are based on a location 's recorded weather history and defined as lying in the most unusual ten percent . In recent years some extreme weather events have been attributed to human-induced global warming , with studies indicating an increasing threat from extreme weather in the future .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Extreme_weather", "rank": 27, "score": 104846 }, { "content": "Title: 1955 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The UK drought of 1955 and associated heatwave were a set of severe weather events that occurred over all parts of the country . The drought was the 7th worst drought in Yorkshire , and worse than the famous 1976 drought and heatwave in the region . The drought followed a period of extremely wet weather previous to the event , limiting the effects . However , the usual impacts were seen with water levels and the water table dropping and reservoirs running low .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1955_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 28, "score": 104708 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Visayas and Mindanao floods Content: The 2017 Visayas and Mindanao floods was an event that caused extreme flooding within parts of the Philippines , caused by several low-pressure systems . In mid-January 2017 , several parts of Visayas and Mindanao experienced flooding as a result of a low-pressure area , combined with the tail-end of a cold front .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2017_Visayas_and_Mindanao_floods", "rank": 29, "score": 104592 }, { "content": "Title: Field Notes from a Catastrophe Content: Field Notes from a Catastrophe : Man , Nature , and Climate Change is a 2006 non-fiction book by Elizabeth Kolbert . The book attempts to bring attention to the causes and effects of global climate change . Kolbert travels around the world where climate change is affecting the environment in significant ways . These locations include Alaska , Greenland , the Netherlands , and Iceland . The environmental effects that are apparent consist of rising sea levels , thawing permafrost , diminishing ice shelves , changes in migratory patterns , and increasingly devastating forest fires due to loss of precipitation . She also speaks with many leading scientists about their individual research and findings . Kolbert brings to attention the attempts of large corporations such as Exxon Mobil and General Motors to influence politicians and discredit scientists . She also writes about America 's reluctance in the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions . Leading this resistance , she explained , was the Bush administration , which was opposed to the Kyoto protocol since it was ratified in 2005 . Kolbert concludes the book by examining the events surrounding the events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and arguing that governments have the knowledge and technologies to prepare for such disasters but choose to ignore the signs until it is too late .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Field_Notes_from_a_Catastrophe", "rank": 30, "score": 103164 }, { "content": "Title: International Early Warning Programme Content: The International Early Warning Program ( IEWP ) , was first proposed at the Second International Early Warning Conference ( EWCII ) in 2003 in Bonn , Germany . It developed increasing importance in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami , which claimed over 200,000 lives and injured over half a million people . In January 2005 , the United Nations ( UN ) launched extensive plans to create a global warning system to lessen the impact of deadly natural disasters at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction , held in Kobe , Japan . The UN programme would help improve prevention and resilience to all types of natural disasters , including droughts , wildfires , floods , typhoons , hurricanes , landslides , volcanoes and tsunamis , by using a comprehensive set of methods including rapid information sharing and training communities at risk . It is believed that the loss of human life would have been dramatically reduced , if a tsunami warning system , like the one that exists for the volcano-and-earthquake prone Pacific Rim , had been operational in the Indian Ocean . Technology , such as tremor and tidal gauges , fast data transfer and alarm mechanisms , used in combination with training in the danger zones , would have given hundreds of thousands of people time to move to the safety of higher ground . Early warning systems are now widely recognized as worthwhile and necessary investments to help save lives . In 2004 , millions of people in the Americas and Asia were evacuated when tropical storms struck , which saved thousands of lives . According to Michel Jarraud , Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation , about 90 % of all natural disasters were caused by hazards related to weather and water . Speaking at the conference , he said : `` It is WMO 's aim to halve the number of deaths due to natural disasters of meteorological , hydrological and climatic origin over the next 15 years , more specifically to reduce by half the associated ten-year average fatality from the period 1995-2004 to the period 2010-2019 for these disasters . '' There was unanimous support among participants to the January 2005 conference , as an initial step towards an International Early Warning Programme , for UN-led efforts to establish an Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System .", "qid": "344", "docid": "International_Early_Warning_Programme", "rank": 31, "score": 103047 }, { "content": "Title: List of meteorological phenomena Content: A meteorological phenomenon is a weather event that can be explained by the principles of meteorology . Such events include : Acid rain Air mass Anticyclone Arctic cyclone Ball lightning Clouds Crow Instability Derecho Diamond dust Drought Dust devil Dust storm El Niño Extratropical cyclone Foehn wind Hail Halo Heat wave Hurricane Ice crystals Ice pellets Indian summer Kelvin -- Helmholtz instability La Nina Lake effect snow Light pillar Lightning Mesocyclone Morning glory cloud Novaya Zemlya Effect Rain Rain and snow mixed Rainbow Raining animals Sleet ; see Ice pellets and Rain and snow mixed Snow Squall St. Elmo 's fire Subtropical cyclone Sun dog Sun shower Supercell Temperature inversion Thunder Thundersnow Thunderstorm Tornado Tropical storm Tsunami Weather front Wind Zud", "qid": "344", "docid": "List_of_meteorological_phenomena", "rank": 32, "score": 102657 }, { "content": "Title: List of New Mexico hurricanes Content: The inland U.S. state of New Mexico has experienced impacts from 81 known tropical cyclones and their remnants . There have been 68 known tropical cyclones from the Eastern Pacific that affected the state , compared to only 13 such Atlantic hurricanes . The biggest threat from such storms in the state is their associated rainfall and flooding . The wettest storm was from the remnants of an Atlantic storm in 1941 that produced 11.33 in of precipitation . Since 1950 , the highest rainfall total recorded was 9.8 in in Canton , also associated with an Atlantic storm in 1954 . The rains in 1954 resulted in flooding in six towns that killed at least four people . Other deadly rainfall events from tropical cyclone remnants include Hurricane Dolly in 2008 and Tropical Storm Georgette in 2010 . The former swept away a person along the Rio Ruidoso and caused $ 25 million in damage ( 2008 USD ) , which was the most damaging storm event . The floods damaged 500 buildings and destroyed 13 bridges . The latter caused heavy rains that resulted in one death in the Rio Grande .", "qid": "344", "docid": "List_of_New_Mexico_hurricanes", "rank": 33, "score": 102522 }, { "content": "Title: 2016–17 Zimbabwe floods Content: The 2016 -- 17 Zimbabwe floods began in December 2016 , following a severe drought . The flooding has killed at least 250 people and injured another 128 over three months and left around 2,000 people homeless , according to Zimbabwean officials . At least seventy bridges on major highways have been swept away , according to Transport Minister Joram Gumbo . The President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe has declared the floods a national disaster .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2016–17_Zimbabwe_floods", "rank": 34, "score": 102141 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Louisiana floods Content: In August 2016 , prolonged rainfall in southern parts of the U.S. state of Louisiana resulted in catastrophic flooding that submerged thousands of houses and businesses . Louisiana 's governor , John Bel Edwards , called the disaster a `` historic , unprecedented flooding event '' and declared a state of emergency . Many rivers and waterways , particularly the Amite and Comite rivers , reached record levels , and rainfall exceeded 20 in in multiple parishes . Because of the large number of homeowners without flood insurance that were affected , the federal government is providing disaster aid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) . The flood has been called the worst US natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 . 13 deaths have been reported as a result of the flooding .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2016_Louisiana_floods", "rank": 35, "score": 102067 }, { "content": "Title: Epoch of Extreme Inundations Content: The Epoch of Extreme Inundations ( EEI ) is a hypothetical epoch during which four landforms in the Pontic -- Caspian steppe -- marine lowlands ( marine transgressions ) , river valleys ( outburst floods ) , marine transgressions ( thermocarst lakes ) and slopes ( solifluction flows ) -- were widely inundated . Catastrophic events during the epoch are theorized to have influenced prehistoric human life .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Epoch_of_Extreme_Inundations", "rank": 36, "score": 100817 }, { "content": "Title: October 2015 North American storm complex Content: The October 2015 North American storm complex was a high precipitation event that caused historic flash flooding across North and South Carolina . The incipient cold front traversed the Eastern United States on September 29 -- 30 , producing heavy rain in multiple states . The system subsequently stalled just offshore . Tapping into moisture from the nearby Hurricane Joaquin , a developing surface low brought heavy , continuous rain to southeastern States , with the worst effects concentrated in South Carolina where catastrophic flooding occurred . The event culminated in South Carolina on October 4 when numerous rivers burst their banks , washing away roads , bridges , vehicles , and homes . Hundreds of people required rescue and the state 's emergency management department urged everyone in the state not to travel . Some areas of the state saw rainfall equivalent to a 1-in-1000-year event . At least 25 deaths have been attributed to the weather complex : 19 in South Carolina , 2 in New York , 2 in North Carolina , 1 in Florida , and 1 in New Brunswick . Damage reached $ 2 billion .", "qid": "344", "docid": "October_2015_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 37, "score": 100594 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Victorian floods Content: The 2010 Victorian floods were a widespread series of flood events across the state of Victoria , Australia . The floods , which followed heavy rain across southeastern Australia in early September 2010 , caused the inundation of about 250 homes , hundreds of evacuations and millions of dollars of damage . Weather warnings were initially issued for Victoria on Thursday 2 September and rain began to fall on the Friday , continuing through the weekend to Tuesday . Heavy rain fell in most regions of the state , particularly at higher altitudes in the state 's west and northeast , flooding the upper reaches of many of Victoria 's major rivers . A state of emergency was declared with State Emergency Service crews arriving from Queensland , South Australia and Tasmania . The floods proceeded an extensive drought period that had effected the entirety of Australia . While the flooding was widespread , swelling many major rivers , little flash flooding occurred in urban areas . Melbourne remained relatively unaffected , though several large regional towns , such as Ballarat , Benalla and others , experienced urban flooding . The heavy rainfall and flooding was accompanied by wind gusts of up to 110 km/h ( 68 mph ) in the state 's southeast and Melbourne 's eastern suburbs . The highest rainfall was recorded at Mount Buffalo , with 180 mm ( 7.08 in ) recorded between Saturday and Sunday ( 4 and 5 September ) . Authorities expected floodwaters to move downstream , affecting further towns and regions over the following days . Residents in affected areas were advised to boil their water and avoid driving or travelling through floodwaters .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2010_Victorian_floods", "rank": 38, "score": 100317 }, { "content": "Title: 1983 United States drought Content: The 1983 United States drought , also known as the US Drought of 1983 , was an extreme drought that was accompanied by heat waves across several portions of the United States .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1983_United_States_drought", "rank": 39, "score": 100024 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Paine (1986) Content: Hurricane Paine contributed to one of the most significant flooding events in Oklahoma history . The 16th tropical storm and 8th hurricane of the 1986 Pacific hurricane season , Paine formed on September 28 off the southeast coast of Mexico . It moved around a ridge , later turning to the north and brushing the Baja California Peninsula . By that time , Paine had attained peak winds of 100 mph ( 155 km/h ) , but it weakened slightly before hitting the Mexican state of Sonora . The remnant moisture combined with a cold front to produce heavy rainfall in the south-central United States . In Mexico , Paine produced rainfall along much of the coastline , with maxima in inland Oaxaca , Jalisco , and Sonora where it moved ashore . Prior to the arrival of the remnants of Paine in the United States , there was an extended period of heavy rainfall , which caused at least 10 deaths , forced thousands of people from their homes , and resulted in heavy flooding damage . The moisture from Paine produced the highest daily rainfall for any station in Oklahoma . Severe river flooding occurred along the Osage and Arkansas Rivers . The overall flooding event caused $ 350 million in damage , of which half came from crop losses .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Hurricane_Paine_(1986)", "rank": 40, "score": 99599 }, { "content": "Title: ARkStorm Content: An ARkStorm ( for Atmospheric River 1,000 Storm ) is a hypothetical but scientifically realistic `` megastorm '' scenario developed and published by the United States Geological Survey , Multi Hazards Demonstration Project ( MHDP ) . It describes an extreme storm that might impact much of California causing up to $ 725 billion in losses ( most caused by flooding ) , and affect a quarter of California 's homes . The event would be similar to exceptionally intense California storms which occurred between December 1861 and January 1862 . The name `` ARkStorm '' means `` Atmospheric River ( AR ) 1,000 ( k ) . ''", "qid": "344", "docid": "ARkStorm", "rank": 41, "score": 99331 }, { "content": "Title: Climate pattern Content: A climate pattern is any recurring characteristic of the climate . Climate patterns can last tens of thousands of years , like the glacial and interglacial periods within ice ages , or repeat each year , like monsoons . A climate pattern may come in the form of a regular cycle , like the diurnal cycle or the seasonal cycle ; a quasi periodic event , like El Niño ; or a highly irregular event , such as a volcanic winter . The regular cycles are generally well understood and may be removed by normalization . For example , graphs which show trends of temperature change will usually have the effects of seasonal variation removed .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Climate_pattern", "rank": 42, "score": 99179 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Canada Content: Prolonged , large-area droughts are among Canada 's costliest natural disasters having major impacts on a wide range of sectors including agriculture , forestry , industry , municipalities , recreation , human health , society and ecosystems . They frequently stress water availability by depleting soil moisture , reducing stream flows , lowering lake and reservoir levels , and diminishing groundwater supplies . This ultimately affects several economic activities including for example , decreased agricultural production , less hydro-electric power generation , and increased freshwater transportation costs . Droughts also create major environmental hazards such as reduced water quality , wetland loss , soil erosion and degradation , and ecological habitat destruction . Although most regions of Canada have experienced drought , many of the southern regions of the Canadian Prairies and interior British Columbia are most susceptible . During the past two centuries , at least 40 droughts have occurred in western Canada with multi-year episodes being observed in the 1890s , 1910s , 1930s , 1960s , 1980s , and the early 2000s . Droughts in southern Ontario/Quebec are usually shorter , smaller in area , less frequent , and less intense . Nonetheless , there have been some major drought occurrences there as well during the 20th century . Droughts in the Atlantic Provinces occur even less frequently . Droughts are less of a concern for northern Canada mainly due to their lower population densities . However , increased frequencies of forest fires during drought years can have serious economic impacts . Rarely has drought been as serious or extensive as the recent 1999-2004 episode . This was the worst drought for at least a hundred years in parts of the Canadian Prairies . Well below normal precipitation was reported in areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan for more than four consecutive years extending from autumn 1999 to spring 2004 . No single year on record between Medicine Hat , Kindersley , and Saskatoon was drier than in 2001 . The years 2001 and 2002 may have also brought the first coast-to-coast droughts on record , and were rare as they struck areas less accustomed to dealing with droughts including parts of Atlantic Canada and the northern agricultural prairies ( see Figure 1 ) . Canada 's Gross Domestic Product fell $ 5.8 billion for 2001 and 2002 . In addition , previously reliable water supplies such as streams , wetlands , reservoirs , and groundwater were placed under stress and often failed . For example , the number of natural Prairie ponds in May 2002 was the lowest on record while in 2001 , Great Lakes-St . Lawrence water levels plunged to their lowest point in more than 30 years , thereby significantly increasing marine transportation costs . In British Columbia and Manitoba , hydro-electric generation was curtailed , necessitating additional purchases of power from neighboring jurisdictions . In 2002 , the incidence of forest fires in Alberta increased to five times the ten-year average while in summer 2003 , populated regions of interior British Columbia were stricken by drought-enhanced fires . Long-lasting impacts include soil degradation by wind erosion and deterioration of grasslands that could take decades and longer to recover . High surface temperatures intensify droughts by enhancing evapotranspiration in summer , and increasing sublimation and melting of the snowpack during winter . During the 20th century , mean annual air temperature has increased by around 1 ° C over southern Canada with the greatest warming in the west and the largest rates during winter and spring . Over the same period , annual precipitation has significantly increased over most of southern Canada with the exception of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan . Coincident with the large increases in spring temperature , the 1980s to the present have been associated with rapid reductions in snow cover during the second half of the snow season . Over the last 30 to 50 years , average stream flow has decreased in many parts of Canada with significant reductions in the south . Great Lakes ' water levels have shown substantial variability during the 20th century with no evidence of a long-term trend . Lower levels coincided with the droughts of the 1930s , early 1960s , and the recent 1999-2001 dry period . Over the Prairies , the numbers and water levels of wetlands have shown no clear trend over the last 40 to 50 years . Indices used to measure drought show considerable decadal-scale variability with no long-term trends discernible in any portion of the country . Most southern regions of Canada , however , experienced drought conditions during the late 1990s to early 2000s . The worst and most prolonged Canadian Prairie-wide droughts during the instrumental period occurred in the early part of the 20th century ( 1920s and 1930s ) . Paleo studies over the southwestern Canadian Prairies using tree ring chronologies dating back to 1597 indicate that the 20th century lacked the prolonged droughts of the 18th and 19th Centuries when droughts were evident for decades at a time .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Drought_in_Canada", "rank": 43, "score": 99095 }, { "content": "Title: April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides Content: The April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides was an extreme weather event that affected the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the first days of April 2010 . At least 212 people died , 161 people have been injured ( including several rescuers ) , while at least 15,000 people have been made homeless . A further 10,000 homes are thought to be at risk from mudslides , most of them in the favelas , the shanty towns built on the hillsides above downtowns . Damage from the flooding has been estimated at 23.76 billion reais ( US$ 13.3 bn , $ 9.9 bn ) , about 8 % of the gross domestic product ( GDP ) of Rio de Janeiro State . The flooding particularly affected the city of Rio de Janeiro , where at least 60 people died , and its surrounding area . Deaths were also been reported in the cities of Niterói ( 132 ) , São Gonçalo ( 16 ) , Paracambi ( 1 ) , Engenheiro Paulo de Frontin ( 1 ) , Magé ( 1 ) , Nilópolis ( 1 ) and Petrópolis ( 1 ) . Several municipalities , including Niterói and municipalities to the east such as Maricá and Araruama , have declared states of emergency or of public calamity . The Governor of Rio de Janeiro State , Sérgio Cabral , declared three days of official mourning for the dead . Heavy rain started at around 5 p.m. local time ( 2000 UTC ) on Monday 5 April in Rio de Janeiro city , and continued for 24 hours , with a total of 28.8 cm ( 11 1/2 in . ) of rain falling , more than was predicted for the whole of April and the heaviest rainfall for thirty years . The Brazilian TV station Globo said the rainfall was equivalent to 300,000 Olympic swimming pools of water . There were drivers who were forced to sleep in their cars . There were also firemen who used rubber dinghies to rescue passengers from stranded buses , and shopkeepers who worked very quickly to prevent the rainfall from destroying their businesses . Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes admitted that the city 's preparedness for heavy rainfall had been `` less than zero , '' but added `` there is n't a city that would n't have had problems with this level of rainfall . '' A further landslide hit a slum in Niterói late on 7 April . It is thought to have killed at least 150 . Around 200 people were missing in the town as of 13 April . After nearly 300 landslides hit the area , the statue of Christ the Redeemer was cut off from traffic for the first time in history . More than 300 homes were bulldozed after the landslides , and it is estimated that close to 12,000 families will need to be relocated by 2012 due to the damage from the floods .", "qid": "344", "docid": "April_2010_Rio_de_Janeiro_floods_and_mudslides", "rank": 44, "score": 99078 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 European floods Content: Extreme flooding in Central Europe began after several days of heavy rain in late May and early June 2013 . Flooding and damages primarily affected south and east German states ( Thuringia , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , Lower Saxony , Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg ) , western regions of the Czech Republic ( Bohemia ) , and Austria . In addition , Switzerland , Slovakia , Belarus , Poland , Hungary and Serbia ( Vojvodina ) were affected to a lesser extent . The flood crest progressed down the Elbe and Danube drainage basins and tributaries , leading to high water and flooding along their banks .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2013_European_floods", "rank": 45, "score": 98908 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Madeira floods and mudslides Content: The 2010 Madeira floods and mudslides were the result of an extreme weather event that affected Madeira Island in Portugal 's autonomous Madeira archipelago on 20 February 2010 . At least 42 people died and at least 100 were injured . However , with at least eight people still missing , the final death toll is still uncertain .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2010_Madeira_floods_and_mudslides", "rank": 46, "score": 98710 }, { "content": "Title: 1985 Election day floods Content: The 1985 Election Day floods ( also known as the Killer Floods of 1985 in West Virginia ) produced the costliest floods in both West Virginia and Virginia in November 1985 . The event occurred after Hurricane Juan , a tropical cyclone in the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season , meandered near the coast of Louisiana before striking just west of Pensacola , Florida late on October 31 . Juan moved northward into Canada , but spawned another system that spread moderate rainfall across the Mid-Atlantic States , wetting soils . On November 3 , a low pressure area developed south of Florida and moved northeastward along a cold front , bringing a plume of moisture influenced by Juan 's previous track . The storm moved through the southeastern United States , stalling on November 5 west of Washington , D.C. before turning out to sea the next day . The event was known as the Election Day floods due to its concurrence with elections in Virginia . Damage was heaviest in Virginia and West Virginia . In the former state , the rainfall peaked at 19.77 in just northeast of Montebello . The rains increased levels along many rivers to record heights across Virginia , including the James River which crested at 42.15 ft at a station called Holcomb Rock , the highest level in the state . In Roanoke , the Roanoke River rose 18.57 ft in ten hours to a peak of 23.35 ft , considered a 1 in 200 year event . In the city , many residents had to be rescued after they were trapped , and three people drowned by driving into flooded waters . Considered the worst flood on record in the city , Roanoke sustained $ 225 million in damage , with 3,100 damaged homes and businesses . There was also flooding in Richmond after the James River crested at the second-highest level on record . Throughout Virginia , damage was estimated at $ 753 million , making it the state 's costliest flood at the time , and there were 22 deaths . In West Virginia , 27 river gauging stations were 1 in 100 year events , mostly along the Potomac and Monongahela basins . As most of West Virginia 's liveable land is along flood plains , the river flooding caused heavy damage in the state , mostly in the eastern portion . High waters washed away topsoil and thousands of trees , and over 13,000 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in the state . Damage was estimated at nearly $ 700 million , making it West Virginia 's costliest flood , and there were 38 deaths . Flooding also affected Maryland , although to a lesser degree than neighboring Virginia , with $ 21 million in damage and one death . There was also tidal flooding in the state along the Chesapeake Bay from the storm , which washed away beaches just weeks after Hurricane Gloria affected the coastline . In Pennsylvania , flooding was worst along the Monongahela River in the state 's southwest portion . During the storm , a power company opened the flood gates of the Lake Lynn dam along the river to preserve its integrity , triggering a class action lawsuit that ultimately failed . The floods damaged or destroyed 3,349 houses in Pennsylvania , causing $ 83 million in damage , as well as one death . Overall damage was estimated at $ 1.4 billion , which would have been the fourth costliest United States hurricanes if it were a tropical cyclone , and there were 62 overall deaths . The flooding spurred changes to warning practices by the National Weather Service and the Government of Virginia . In December 2011 , the United States Army Corps of Engineers completed a flood mitigation project in Roanoke , Virginia that began following the 1985 floods .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1985_Election_day_floods", "rank": 47, "score": 98348 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Exchanges Content: The Global Energy and Water cycle Exchanges project (abbreviated GEWEX, formerly named the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment from 1990 to 2012) is an international research project and a core project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). In the beginning, the project intended to observe, comprehend and model the Earth's water cycle. The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives, studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed. Sunlight's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain, and dries out land masses after rain. Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes. GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere. If the Earth's climates were identical from year to year, then people could predict when, where and what crops to plant. However, instability created by solar variation, weather trends, and chaotic events creates weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales. Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities. GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data, and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future.", "qid": "344", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Exchanges", "rank": 48, "score": 98293 }, { "content": "Title: 1986 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 1986 Pacific hurricane season saw several tropical cyclones contribute to significant flooding to the Central United States . The hurricane season officially started May 15 , 1986 , in the eastern Pacific , and June 1 , 1986 in the central Pacific , and lasted until November 30 , 1986 in both regions . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean . A total of 17 named storms and 9 hurricanes developed during the season ; this is slightly above the averages of 15 named storms and 8 hurricanes , respectively . In addition , 25 tropical depressions formed in the eastern Pacific during 1986 , which , at the time , was the second most ever recorded ; only the 1982 Pacific hurricane season saw a higher total . Several storms throughout the season affected land . Hurricane Estelle passed south of Hawaii , resulting in $ 2 million in damage and two deaths . Hurricanes Newton , Paine and Roslyn each struck Northwestern Mexico . While damage was minimal from these three systems near their location of landfall , Paine brought considerable flooding to the Great Plains . The overall flooding event resulted in $ 350 million in damage , with the worst effects being recorded in Oklahoma . Hurricane Roslyn was the strongest storm of the season , attaining peak winds of 145 mph ( 230 km/h ) .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1986_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 49, "score": 98186 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in Thailand Content: Floods in Thailand are regular natural disasters in Thailand which happen nearly every year during the monsoon season . The monsoon seasons in the country are distinct by region , the southern part mirrors the Malay Peninsula and monsoon begins in Oct and ends in March . The rest of the nation has monsoons and/or frequent thundershowers from April/May through October , but often lasts beyond October . Thailand cycles yearly between drought and flooding . Breaking this cycle was the subject of the `` Sustainable Water Management Forum 2016 '' in Bangkok . The event hosted water management specialists from countries which have dealt with water management challenges such as the Netherlands , Israel , and Singapore . One attendee observed that , `` In Thailand , we receive around 754,000 million m3 of rain per year . That is more than enough for the annual water demand of around 100,000 million m3 ... . However , only 5.7 percent of rainfall , 70,370 million m3 , empties into the reservoirs . ''", "qid": "344", "docid": "Floods_in_Thailand", "rank": 50, "score": 97908 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 1901–2000 Content: Floods in the United States are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , and dam failure . Below is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to the country , 1901 through 2000 , inclusive .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_1901–2000", "rank": 51, "score": 97804 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Southeast Africa floods Content: The 2015 Southeast Africa floods , partially related to Cyclone Bansi and Tropical Storm Chedza , killed at least 176 people in Malawi , 86 in Mozambique , and at least 46 in Madagascar over the course of a week while leaving hundreds more missing . Vice President of Malawi Saulos Chilima stated that over 200,000 Malawian people have been displaced by the flood . About 400,000 African people have been displaced in total , and 153 were declared missing . Flooding began on January 14 , 2015 , subsiding at the end of the month . Due to the flooding , the soil in some areas became over saturated and caused landslides , leading to more deaths . The rainfall of Southeast Africa was recorded as being 150 % higher than normal , flooding roughly 63,000 hectares in total . Through years of research , Africa is said to have shown a complex pattern of rainfall , causing droughts and floods in the same season . Much of the damage from the 2014-2015 rain season can be attributed to the effects of El Niño .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2015_Southeast_Africa_floods", "rank": 52, "score": 97721 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Thailand floods Content: Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season in Thailand . The flooding began at the end of July triggered by the landfall of Tropical Storm Nock-ten . These floods soon spread through the provinces of northern , northeastern , and central Thailand along the Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins . In October floodwaters reached the mouth of the Chao Phraya and inundated parts of the capital city of Bangkok . Flooding persisted in some areas until mid-January 2012 , and resulted in a total of 815 deaths ( with 3 missing ) and 13.6 million people affected . Sixty-five of Thailand 's 77 provinces were declared flood disaster zones , and over 20000 sqkm of farmland was damaged . The disaster has been described as `` the worst flooding yet in terms of the amount of water and people affected . '' The World Bank has estimated 1,425 trillion baht ( US$ 46.5 billion ) in economic damages and losses due to flooding , as of 1 December 2011 . Most of this was due to the manufacturing industry , as seven major industrial estates were inundated in water as much 3 meters ( 10 feet ) deep during the floods . Disruptions to manufacturing supply chains affected regional automobile production and caused a global shortage of hard disk drives which lasted throughout 2012 . The World Bank 's estimate for this disaster means it ranks as the world 's fourth costliest disaster as of 2011 surpassed only by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan , 1995 Kobe earthquake , and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 . A 2015 study suggests increasing odds for potential flooding similar to the 2011 flood intensity to occur in the future . Thailand 's southern provinces also saw seasonal flash-flooding towards the end of the year , although these were not as destructive as the floods in the more northerly provinces .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2011_Thailand_floods", "rank": 53, "score": 97143 }, { "content": "Title: It Could Happen Tomorrow Content: It Could Happen Tomorrow is a television series that premiered on January 15 , 2006 on The Weather Channel . It explores the possibilities of various weather and other natural phenomena severely damaging or destroying America 's cities . This includes : a Category 3 hurricane hitting New York City , an F4 tornado destroying Washington , D.C. , dormant volcano Mount Rainier re-activating and destroying towns in the surrounding valleys , a tsunami flooding the Pacific Northwest coast , an intraplate earthquake impacting Memphis , Tennessee , wildfires spreading into the heart of San Diego , a huge earthquake leveling San Francisco , a flash flood in Boulder , Colorado , and a flood in Sacramento . Newer episodes that were aired included an earthquake in Las Vegas , an F5 tornado ripping its way through Chicago and Dallas , and more . So far , the only scenario that has come true is the Colorado floods , which started on September 9 , 2013 . Because Hurricane Sandy was only a category 1 and not a 3 when New York was hit , the first episode technically has n't come true -- yet , although Sandy was the closest call since the series was ended .", "qid": "344", "docid": "It_Could_Happen_Tomorrow", "rank": 54, "score": 97115 }, { "content": "Title: Catastrophism Content: Catastrophism is the theory that the Earth has been affected in the past by sudden , short-lived , violent events , possibly worldwide in scope . This was in contrast to uniformitarianism ( sometimes described as gradualism ) , in which slow incremental changes , such as erosion , created all the Earth 's geological features . Uniformitarianism held that the present is the key to the past , and that all things continued as they were from the indefinite past . Since the early disputes , a more inclusive and integrated view of geologic events has developed , in which the scientific consensus accepts that there were some catastrophic events in the geologic past , but these were explicable as extreme examples of natural processes which can occur . Catastrophism held that geological epochs had ended with violent and sudden natural catastrophes such as great floods and the rapid formation of major mountain chains . Plants and animals living in the parts of the world where such events occurred were killed off , being replaced abruptly by the new forms whose fossils defined the geological strata . Some catastrophists attempted to relate at least one such change to the Biblical account of Noah 's flood . The concept was first popularised by the early 19th-century French scientist Georges Cuvier , who proposed that new life forms had moved in from other areas after local floods , and avoided religious or metaphysical speculation in his scientific writings .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Catastrophism", "rank": 55, "score": 96931 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Helene (2000) Content: Tropical Storm Helene was a long-lived tropical cyclone that oscillated for ten days between a tropical wave and a 70 mph tropical storm . It was the twelfth tropical cyclone and eighth tropical storm of the 2000 Atlantic hurricane season , forming on September 15 east of the Windward Islands . After degenerating into a tropical wave , the system produced flooding and mudslides in Puerto Rico . It reformed into a tropical depression on September 19 south of Cuba , and crossed the western portion of the island the next day while on the verge of dissipation . However , it intensified into a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico , reaching its peak intensity while approaching the northern Gulf Coast . The storm rapidly weakened before moving ashore near Fort Walton Beach , Florida on September 22 . It produced heavy rainfall along the Florida Panhandle that reached 9.56 in . The rains flooded hundreds of houses and caused the Sopchoppy River to reach a record crest . Gusty winds left about 5,000 people without power , though the rains alleviated drought conditions . In South Carolina , Helene spawned a tornado that killed one person and injured six others ; heavy rainfall in the state also led to a death when a driver hydroplaned into a tree . The rainfall extended northeastward into Delaware . Overall damage in the United States was estimated at $ 16 million . Helene emerged from North Carolina as a tropical storm , and re-intensified to near-hurricane strength before being absorbed by a cold front on September 25 .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Helene_(2000)", "rank": 56, "score": 96652 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 China floods Content: The 2011 China floods are a series of floods from June to September 2011 that occurred in central and southern parts of the People 's Republic of China . They were caused by heavy rain that inundated portions of 12 provinces , leaving other provinces still suffering a prolonged drought , a total of over 36 million people have been affected , killing at least 355 and with direct economic losses of nearly US$ 6.5 billion .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2011_China_floods", "rank": 57, "score": 96544 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods Content: 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods may refer to : January 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides , an extreme weather event in the State of Rio de Janeiro in January 2010 . April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides , an extreme weather event in the State of Rio de Janeiro in April 2010 .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2010_Rio_de_Janeiro_floods", "rank": 58, "score": 96371 }, { "content": "Title: 4.2 kiloyear event Content: The 4.2 kiloyear BP aridification event was one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene period . Starting in about 2200 BC , it probably lasted the entire 22nd century BC . The drought may have initiated southeastward habitat tracking within the Indus Valley Civilization . The 4.2 kiloyear BP event has been hypothesised to have caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt as well as the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia , and the Liangzhu culture in the lower Yangtze River area . However , this theory has been criticised by archaeologists , with political causes for the collapse of these polities thought to be more probable .", "qid": "344", "docid": "4.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 59, "score": 96098 }, { "content": "Title: Tornado outbreak and floods of April 28 – May 1, 2017 Content: The tornado outbreak and floods of April 28 -- May 1 , 2017 were a series of severe weather events that affected the central United States , producing life-threatening flooding and a major tornado outbreak . It formed out of a disturbance in the Southwestern United States on April 28 , and caused significant impacts , including a heavy snowstorm in the Rockies , and other types of severe weather . Up to 3 ft of snow fell on the cold side of the system , and up to a foot of rain fell in and around the central parts of the nation . The most significant and damaging events of the storm unfolded late on April 29 , when two large , long-tracked , and powerful wedge tornadoes struck areas near Canton , Texas , the strongest being an EF4 . Together , the two tornadoes caused four deaths and many injuries .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Tornado_outbreak_and_floods_of_April_28_–_May_1,_2017", "rank": 60, "score": 95823 }, { "content": "Title: Flash flood Content: A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas : washes , rivers , dry lakes and basins . It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm , hurricane , tropical storm , or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields . Flash floods may occur after the collapse of a natural ice or debris dam , or a human structure such as a man-made dam , as occurred before the Johnstown Flood of 1889 . Flash floods are distinguished from regular floods by a timescale of less than six hours . The water that is temporarily available is often used by foliage with rapid germination and short growth cycles , and by specially adapted animal life .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Flash_flood", "rank": 61, "score": 95810 }, { "content": "Title: May 2004 Caribbean floods Content: The May 2004 Caribbean floods were a flood event that took place in the Caribbean Islands , mainly Hispaniola and some parts of Northern Puerto Rico from May 18 , 2004 to May 25 , 2004 . The storm caused significant rainfall , with over 9.7 inches of rain falling at the most in Haiti , and 10 inches falling at the most in the Dominican Republic . These floods were caused by over two weeks of persistent rain in the Caribbean area , which eventually caused the landslides that killed many people . The floods caused much damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic , with over 1,300 homes being destroyed and about 2,000 people being killed.Due to this destruction , nearly 15,000 people were displaced with nowhere to live . The area that felt the worst of the flooding was the town of Jimani , near the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.In fact , the destruction present at Jimani was so bad that Dominican president Hipolito Mejia declared a national day of mourning after seeing the effects of the storm .", "qid": "344", "docid": "May_2004_Caribbean_floods", "rank": 62, "score": 95547 }, { "content": "Title: January 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides Content: __ NOTOC __ The January 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides was an extreme weather event that affected the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the first days of January 2010 . At least 85 people died , with at least 29 people in the Hotel Sankey after it was destroyed by landslides , and many more have been injured . More than 4,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes . The worst affected municipality was Angra dos Reis , about 150 km southwest of the city of Rio de Janeiro . At least 35 people were killed at a resort on Ilha Grande : about forty people were staying in the hotel which was buried under a mudslide , and the death toll is expected to rise further . Brazil 's only functioning nuclear power plant , Central Nuclear Almirante Álvaro Alberto , is also located within the municipality : plans were made for a temporary shutdown , as blocked roads would make any evacuation difficult or impossible in the event of an incident at the plant . In Rio Grande do Sul , at least seven people died and 20 went missing after a bridge collapsed due to heavy rains . Around 60 tons of dead fish washed up in a lagoon in Rio de Janeiro beginning in January , possibly as a result of local ocean anoxia caused by algal blooms triggered by increased eutrophication from the excess run-off produced by the flooding .", "qid": "344", "docid": "January_2010_Rio_de_Janeiro_floods_and_mudslides", "rank": 63, "score": 95302 }, { "content": "Title: International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction Content: The United Nations General Assembly designated the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction ( IDNDR ) . Its basic objective was to decrease the loss of life , property destruction and social and economic disruption caused by natural disasters , such as earthquakes , tsunamis , floods , landslides , volcanic eruptions , droughts , locust infestations , and other disasters of natural origin . An International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction , beginning on 1 January 1990 , was launched by the United Nations , following the adoption of Resolution 44/236 ( 22 December 1989 ) . The decade was intended to reduce , through concerted international action , especially in developing countries , loss of life , property damage and social and economic disruption caused by natural disasters . To support the activities of the decade , a Secretariat was established at the United Nations Office in Geneva , in close association with UNDRO .", "qid": "344", "docid": "International_Decade_for_Natural_Disaster_Reduction", "rank": 64, "score": 95184 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Depression One (1993) Content: Tropical Depression One was a weak tropical cyclone that struck Cuba and the Bahamas in May and June 1993 . It formed in the western Caribbean Sea on May 31 and produced heavy rainfall along its path . In Cuba , the precipitation reached 12.4 inches ( 31.5 cm ) , which caused widespread flooding and damage in nine provinces . Over 16,500 houses were damaged , and a further 1,860 were destroyed . At least seven people were killed in the country . In neighboring Haiti , the flooding killed thirteen people , as well as thousands of livestock . Rainfall was also reported in southern Florida , which eased drought conditions . The depression eventually crossed the Bahamas and became extratropical .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Tropical_Depression_One_(1993)", "rank": 65, "score": 95134 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Romanian floods Content: The 2010 Romanian floods ( Inundațiile din iunie 2010 din România ) were the result of an extreme weather event that struck Romania in late June 2010 . Currently , at least 21 people died . The north-east of the country , especially Suceava County was most affected . Also affected was the Chernivtsi Oblast in neighbouring Ukraine .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2010_Romanian_floods", "rank": 66, "score": 94997 }, { "content": "Title: Atlantic hurricane season Content: The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year when hurricanes usually form in the Atlantic Ocean . Tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic are called hurricanes , tropical storms , or tropical depressions . In addition , there have been several storms over the years that have not been fully tropical and are categorized as subtropical depressions and subtropical storms . Worldwide , tropical cyclone activity peaks in late summer , when the difference between temperatures aloft and sea surface temperatures is the greatest . However , each particular basin has its own seasonal patterns . On a worldwide scale , May is the least active month , while September is the most active . In the Northern Atlantic Ocean , a distinct hurricane season occurs from June 1 to November 30 , sharply peaking from late August through September ; the season 's climatological peak of activity occurs around September 10 each season . Tropical disturbances that reach tropical storm intensity are named from a pre-determined list . On average , 10.1 named storms occur each season , with an average of 5.9 becoming hurricanes and 2.5 becoming major hurricanes ( Category 3 or greater ) . The most active season was 2005 , during which 28 tropical cyclones formed , of which a record 15 became hurricanes . The least active season was 1914 , with only one known tropical cyclone developing during that year . The Atlantic hurricane season is a time when most tropical cyclones are expected to develop across the northern Atlantic Ocean . It is currently defined as the time frame from June 1 through November 30 , though in the past the season was defined as a shorter time frame . During the season , regular tropical weather outlooks are issued by the National Hurricane Center , and coordination between the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center and National Hurricane Center occurs for systems which have not formed yet , but could develop during the next three to seven days .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 67, "score": 94755 }, { "content": "Title: 1850 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1850 Atlantic hurricane season was the most recent season excluded from the scope of the official Atlantic hurricane database . Although meteorological records are sparse and generally incomplete , they indicate that three significant tropical cyclones affected land , each causing some degree of damage . The first system struck North Carolina on July 18 , causing significant damage before battering the Mid-Atlantic states with high tides , strong winds , and heavy rainfall . Torrential rainfall caused river flooding from Baltimore to Philadelphia , particularly along the Schuylkill River , which took the lives of 20 people in various incidents . Strong winds damaged property and public facilities in and around New York City , and damaging floods extended into central and northern New England . Crops and railroad infrastructure suffered throughout the entire region . On August 22 , a strong hurricane impacted Havana , Cuba , destroying fruit trees and disrupting shipping , before making landfall on the Florida Panhandle with an enormous storm surge . Coastal flooding was severe around Apalachicola , and as the storm moved inland , it generated destructive winds across the southeastern United States . Abundant precipitation fell from Georgia through Virginia , causing extensive flooding ; one river swelled over 20 feet ( 6 m ) above its normal height . The storm blew down crops and trees along its course , and toppled a large railroad bridge near Halifax , North Carolina . Offshore , a pilot boat collided with a larger ship in the rough seas and sank . Considered the worst storm in nearly 30 years in the tidewater region of Virginia , the cyclone briefly reentered the Atlantic off New Jersey before making landfall over New England . Strong winds and moderate to heavy rains plagued much of New England on August 24 and 25 . On September 7 and 8 , a hurricane brushed the coastline from New York to Cape Cod with gusty winds and appreciable rainfall , and left many ships in distress . The system later struck Atlantic Canada , likely causing `` great loss of property and lives '' , though damage reports were limited . Fragmented records exist of other hurricanes , including two which remained over open seas in early September and the middle of October .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1850_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 68, "score": 94676 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Colorado floods Content: The 2013 Colorado floods was a natural disaster occurring in the U.S. state of Colorado . Starting on September 9 , 2013 , a slow-moving cold front stalled over Colorado , clashing with warm humid monsoonal air from the south . This resulted in heavy rain and catastrophic flooding along Colorado 's Front Range from Colorado Springs north to Fort Collins . The situation intensified on September 11 and 12 . Boulder County was worst hit , with 9.08 in recorded September 12 and up to 17 in of rain recorded by September 15 , which is comparable to Boulder County 's average annual precipitation ( 20.7 inches , 525 mm ) . This event has also been referred to as the 2013 Colorado Front Range Flood , reflecting a more precise geographic extent in and along the Colorado Front Range mountains . The National Weather Service 's Hydrometeorological Design Studies Center stated in a document that the annual exceedance probability ( AEP ) for the entire rainfall event was as low as 1/1000 ( 0.1 % ) in places . The flood waters spread across a range of almost 200 mi from north to south , affecting 17 counties . Governor John Hickenlooper declared a disaster emergency on September 12 , 2013 , in 14 counties : Adams , Arapahoe , Broomfield , Boulder , Denver , El Paso , Fremont , Jefferson , Larimer , Logan , Morgan , Pueblo , Washington and Weld . By September 15 , federal emergency declarations covered those 14 counties as well as Clear Creek County .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2013_Colorado_floods", "rank": 69, "score": 94512 }, { "content": "Title: Paleoflooding Content: The phenomenon of paleoflooding is apparent in the geologic record over various spatial and temporal scales . It often occurred on a large scale , and was the result of either glacial ice melt causing large outbursts of freshwater , or high sea levels breaching bodies of freshwater . If a freshwater outflow event was large enough that the water reached the ocean system , it caused changes in salinity that potentially affected ocean circulation and global climate . Freshwater flows could also accumulate to form continental glacial lakes , and this is another indicator of large-scale flooding . In contrast , periods of high global sea level ( often during interglacials ) could cause marine water to breach natural dams and flow into bodies of freshwater . Changes in salinity of freshwater and marine bodies can be detected from the analysis of organisms that inhabited those bodies at a given time , as certain organisms are more suited to live in either fresh or saline conditions .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Paleoflooding", "rank": 70, "score": 94509 }, { "content": "Title: October 2008 Central America floods Content: The October 2008 Central America floods were caused by a series of low-pressure areas including Tropical Depression Sixteen , a short-lived tropical cyclone in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season that made landfall in Honduras . Heavy rainfall began in early October 2008 while a tropical wave passed through the region . On October 14 , Tropical Depression Sixteen formed just off the northeast coast of Honduras , and at the same time a low pressure system was on the Pacific coast . Both systems increased rainfall across the region , although the depression dropped heavy rainfall close to its center when it moved ashore on October 15 . Although Tropical Depression Sixteen quickly dissipated over land , its remnants persisted for several days . Another low pressure area interacted with a cold front on October 21 , adding to the rainfall in the region . Heavy rainfall extended from Costa Rica to southeastern Mexico , causing what was considered the worst natural disaster in the region since Hurricane Mitch in 1998 . In the former country , rainfall totaled 2100 mm over several weeks , making the week ending October 17 the wettest in San José since 1944 . Floods in Costa Rica damaged 32 bridges and roads in 174 locations , while 1,396 homes were damaged , killing seven people . In Nicaragua to the north , weeks of heavy rainfall killed 16 people and damaged or destroyed 1,333 houses . In Honduras where the tropical depression made landfall , rainfall reached 1.2 m in some areas , although the highest official total there related to the depression was 360 mm on the offshore Roatán over six days . About 40 % of municipalities in the country experienced flooding , forcing over 50,000 people to leave their homes . The floods damaged about 50 % of roads in Honduras , and over 10,000 houses were damaged or destroyed . Damage totaled about 3 billion lempiras ( HNL , $ 225 million USD ) , and there were 60 deaths . In northern Guatemala , the floods damaged about 67000 ha of crop fields , accounting for Q128 .9 million ( 2008 GTQ , $ 16.8 million USD ) in crop damage . There were 17 deaths and about 4,000 damaged houses in Guatemala . In neighboring El Salvador , the rains contributed to October 2008 being the third-wettest month across the country , after Hurricane Stan in 2005 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998 . One person died , and hundreds were forced to evacuate their houses . In Belize , the rains flooded about 1,000 homes , forcing the evacuation of one entire town due to health reasons . The rains caused additional flooding following Tropical Storm Arthur striking the country in May , damaging a bridge that was rebuilt after Arthur . Nationwide , the floods caused BZ$ 54.1 million ( BZD , $ 27.1 million USD ) in damage and two deaths .", "qid": "344", "docid": "October_2008_Central_America_floods", "rank": 71, "score": 94337 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Flossy (1956) Content: Hurricane Flossy originated from a tropical disturbance in the eastern Pacific Ocean and moved across Central America into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical depression on September 21 , 1956 , which became a tropical storm on September 22 and a hurricane on September 23 . The hurricane peaked with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph ( 150 km/h ) before it struck the central Gulf coast of the United States as a Category 1 hurricane on September 24 , and evolved into an extratropical cyclone on September 25 . It was the first hurricane to affect oil refining in the Gulf of Mexico . The tropical cyclone led to flooding in New Orleans , and broke a drought across the eastern United States . The death toll was 15 , and total damages reached $ 24.8 million ( 1956 USD ) .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Hurricane_Flossy_(1956)", "rank": 72, "score": 94270 }, { "content": "Title: May 2016 United States storm complex Content: The May 2016 United States storm complex was a flood in the United States that occurred on May 31 , 2016 , affecting the states of Arkansas , Kansas , Nebraska , Oklahoma , and Texas . The inundation set precipitation records in Texas and Oklahoma . On June 2 , 2016 , the rising of the Brazos River required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County , Texas . Ten deaths of Texans and thousands of home evacuations led Texas Governor Greg Abbott to issue a statewide Disaster Proclamation on June 1 , 2016 considering the damage in thirty-one counties including Austin , Bandera , Bastrop , Brazoria , Brazos , Burleson , Coleman , Colorado , Erath , Fayette , Fort Bend , Grimes , Hidalgo , Hood , Jasper , Kleberg , Lee , Leon , Liberty , Lubbock , Montgomery , Palo Pinto , Parker , Polk , Robertson , San Jacinto , Tyler , Walker , Waller , Washington and Wharton counties . Meteorologists attribute this storm 's devastation to the power of the El Niño climate cycle . An El Niño system is identified following fluctuation in the climate , characterized by an eastern shift of warming ocean water from the western tropical Pacific Ocean and rainfall along the equator .", "qid": "344", "docid": "May_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 73, "score": 94258 }, { "content": "Title: November 2000 Hawaii floods Content: The November 2000 Hawaii floods were a costly flooding event caused by an upper-level low and the remnants of Tropical Storm Paul , a weak and short-lived tropical cyclone . Rainfall totals reached 38.76 in ( 985 mm ) at Kapapala Ranch on the Big Island of Hawaii , which was the second highest precipitation total in the state related to a tropical cyclone . The floods led to $ 70 million ( 2000 USD ; $ USD ) in damage , but there were no fatalities .", "qid": "344", "docid": "November_2000_Hawaii_floods", "rank": 74, "score": 94019 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 75, "score": 94006 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Dennis in Haiti Content: In early July 2005 , Hurricane Dennis brushed the southern coast of Haiti and produced deadly flash flooding across the nation . Forming from a tropical depression on July 4 , Dennis began impacting Haiti two days later with heavy rains . Civil authorities and international agencies acted quickly to protect lives , ordering evacuations -- approximately 1,000 people complied -- and prepositioning emergency supplies . Over the subsequent two days , the hurricane 's outer bands continued to impact the nation before effects abated . Widespread flash floods and landslides caused substantial damage , with areas along the Tiburon Peninsula taking the brunt of the impact . A bridge collapse near Grand-Goâve left 15 people dead or missing . All told , Dennis killed 56 people and wrought US$ 50 million in damage . The nation 's government released emergency relief funds on July 7 and international agencies provided considerable assistance to residents in the months after the storm . World Concern aided roughly 18,000 residents and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies assisted approximately 4,000 people .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Dennis_in_Haiti", "rank": 76, "score": 93719 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 77, "score": 93669 }, { "content": "Title: History of flooding in Canada Content: The history of flooding in Canada includes floods caused by snowmelt runoff or freshet flooding , storm-rainfall and `` flash flooding '' , ice jams during ice formation and spring break-up , natural dams , coastal flooding on ocean or lake coasts from storm surges , hurricanes and tsunamis . Urban flooding can be caused by stormwater runoff , riverine flooding and structural failure when engineered flood management structures , including dams and levees , prove inadequate to manage the quantities and force of flood waters . Floods can also occur when groundwater levels rise entering buildings cracks in foundation , floors and basements . . Flooding is part of the natural environmental process . Flooding along large river systems is more frequent in spring where peak flows are often governed by runoff volume due to rainfall and snowmelt , but can take place in summer with flash floods in urban systems that respond to short-duration , heavy rainfall . Flooding due to hurricanes , or downgraded severe storms , is a concern from August to October when tropical storms can affect Eastern North America . Flood events have had a significant effect on various regions of the country . Flooding is the costliest natural disaster for Canadians . Most home insurance claims in Canada deal with water damage due to sewer back-up , not fire . Floods occur five times as often as wildfires , the second most frequent natural hazard in Canada . Between 1900 and 2005 there were 241 flood disasters in Canada . `` Events in the Canadian Disaster Database meet at least one of the following criteria : 10 or more people killed ; 100 or more people affected/injured/evacuated or homeless ; An appeal for national or international assistance was made ; It was an event of historical significance ; There was a level of damage/disruption such that the community affected could not recover on its own ( PSC ,2007 ) Canadian Disaster Database . The 1894 Fraser River flood had a return period of slightly more than 500 years and the 1948 flood was close to a 200-year event . The 1997 Red River flood was named the ` flood of the century ' . The International Joint Commission ( IJC ) ` sThe Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 `` established the International Joint Commission ( IJC ) as an organization designed to resolve disputes and to avoid conflicts between Canada and the United States from coast to coast . '' 1998 report warned that although the 1997 Red River flood had a `` return interval ranging from 100 to 500 years , depending on the location '' , there was a `` statistical probability of a similar flood each year . '' The 2011 Assiniboine River Flood was estimated to have a return interval of 300 years . The Calgary flood had a return interval ranging from 70 to 100 years . A 100-year flood has a 1-percent annual exceedance probability ( AEP ) flood . `` In the 1960s , the United States government decided to use the 1-percent annual exceedance probability ( AEP ) flood as the basis for the National Flood Insurance Program . The 1-percent AEP flood was thought to be a fair balance between protecting the public and overly stringent regulation . Because the 1-percent AEP flood has a 1 in 100 chance of being equalled or exceeded in any 1 year , and it has an average recurrence interval of 100 years , it often is referred to as the `` 100-year flood '' USGS 2010 . `` The 100-year flood is generally expressed as a flowrate . Based on the expected 100-year flood flow rate in a given creek , river or surface water system , the flood water level can be mapped as an area of inundation . The resulting floodplain map is referred to as the 100-year floodplain , which may figure very importantly in building permits , environmental regulations , and flood insurance . with a flow of the Bow River in Calgary measured at c. 1,740 m3/s when the flood reached its peak level on June 21 , 2013 .", "qid": "344", "docid": "History_of_flooding_in_Canada", "rank": 78, "score": 93652 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 West African floods Content: The 2010 Nigerien floods were floods across Niger which left over 111,000 people homeless . Niger was already suffering acute food shortages following prolonged drought in the Sahel region . As of 24 August 2010 , at least 6 to 8 people had died . The Niger river was pushed to its highest levels in 80 years . The floods subsequently spread along the River Niger into Nigeria , Ghana , Burkina Faso , Togo and Benin over the next few months . Later storms also brewed up in the CAR , Morocco and northern Algeria .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2010_West_African_floods", "rank": 79, "score": 93646 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercane Content: A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached 50 C , which is 15 C-change warmer than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded . Such an increase could be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact , a large supervolcanic eruption , or extensive global warming . There is some speculation that a series of hypercanes resulting from an impact by a large asteroid or comet contributed to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs . The hypothesis was created by Kerry Emanuel of MIT who also coined the term .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Hypercane", "rank": 80, "score": 93378 }, { "content": "Title: 1896 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1896 Atlantic hurricane season was fairly inactive but produced one of the costliest hurricanes ever to strike the United States until that point , along with several other destructive tropical cyclones . The season began in early July with a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and ended in late November with a slow-moving tropical storm over the Lesser Antilles . Of the season 's seven documented systems , six are believed to have become hurricanes , and two intensified into major hurricanes -- the equivalence of Category 3 or greater on the modern-day Saffir -- Simpson scale . All but one of the systems directly affected land to some degree ; Hurricane `` Six '' remained over open water and only posed a threat to shipping lanes . In addition , a possible storm was identified off the coast of North Carolina on August 28 -- 29 , but modern reanalysis efforts have found insufficient evidence to classify it as a tropical cyclone . Tropical systems in the 1896 season killed at least 286 people and inflicted more than $ 10 million ( 1896 USD ) in damage . The first hurricane made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on July 7 , causing wind damage and coastal flooding in Pensacola , and destroying boats at port . No activity was observed until late August when a hurricane triggered widespread river flooding in Puerto Rico . After moving north , this storm struck eastern New England . Hurricane `` Three '' avoided land , but its outer periphery generated gusty winds in the Outer Banks of North Carolina . On September 29 , fast-moving Hurricane `` Four '' became one of the costliest United States hurricanes on record at the time after swamping Florida 's Cedar Keys with a large storm surge and subsequently causing extensive devastation in the eastern United States . The hurricane caused 202 deaths and more than $ 9 million in damage across eight states , plus Washington , D.C. and the Great Lakes . About two weeks later , Hurricane `` Five '' roughly paralleled the U.S. East Coast , causing substantial coastal flooding and destruction of beachfront property . Little is known about the season 's sixth hurricane which never affected land . Torrential rainfall associated with the final tropical storm of the season triggered deadly flooding on Montserrat , where nearly 50 people drowned and many more lost their homes . __ TOC __", "qid": "344", "docid": "1896_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 81, "score": 92782 }, { "content": "Title: June 2008 Midwest floods Content: The June 2008 Midwestern United States floods were flooding events which affected portions of the Midwest United States . After months of heavy precipitation , a number of rivers overflowed their banks for several weeks at a time and broke through levees at numerous locations . Flooding continued into July . States affected by the flooding included Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , and Wisconsin . The American Red Cross assisted the victims of flooding and tornadoes across seven states and the National Guard was mobilized to assist in disaster relief and evacuation . Flooding continued as long as two weeks with central Iowa and Cedar Rapids being hardest hit . The upper Mississippi Valley experienced flooding in Missouri and Illinois as the region 's estuaries drained the floodwater into the river . The flood left thirteen dead and damage region-wide was estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars .", "qid": "344", "docid": "June_2008_Midwest_floods", "rank": 82, "score": 92663 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn 2000 western Europe floods Content: The Autumn of 2000 was the wettest recorded in the United Kingdom since records began in 1766 . Several regions of Atlantic Europe from France to Norway received double their average rainfall and there were severe floods and landslides in the southern Alps . In October and November 2000 a successive series of extratropical cyclones caused severe flooding across the UK . The United Kingdom saw the most extensive nationwide flooding event since the snow-melt of 1947 . Prior to 1947 , three similar events occurred in the second half of the 19th century where prolonged rainfall led to widespread flooding throughout England in the month of November , namely 1894 , 1875 , and 1852 . The combined effect of the storms across Western Europe caused flooding throughout the United Kingdom . Two storm events ( Nicole and Oratia ) 28 November to 3 November , and the storm Rebekka from 4 November , resulted in continuous flooding . 10,000 homes were flooded in 700 locations . Peak flows on the Rivers Thames , Trent , Severn , Wharfe and Dee were the highest for 60 years . The River Ouse in Yorkshire reached the highest level since the 17th century . In the United Kingdom a series of severe floods affected large parts of the country in the Autumn of 2000 . The worst affected areas were Kent and Sussex during October and Shropshire , Worcestershire and Yorkshire in November . The Autumn of 2000 was the wettest on record in the England and Wales precipitation record with several major rainfall events causing flooding in different parts of the country during October and November . England and Wales had an average of 503 mm of rain from September -- November exceeding the previous record by nearly 50 mm .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Autumn_2000_western_Europe_floods", "rank": 83, "score": 92448 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–13 Southern United States and Mexico drought Content: The 2010 -- 2013 Southern United States and Mexico drought was a severe to extreme drought plaguing the US South , including parts of Texas , Oklahoma , Kansas , Colorado , New Mexico , Arizona , Louisiana , Arkansas , Mississippi , Alabama , Georgia , South Carolina , and North Carolina , as well as large parts of Mexico . The worst effects have been in Texas , where near-record drought has parched the state since January 2011 . Texas suffered an estimated $ 7.62 billion in crop and livestock losses , surpassing its record loss of $ 4.1 billion in 2006 . In Texas , combined with the rest of the South , at least $ 10 billion in agricultural losses were recorded in 2011 . In 2010 -- 11 , Texas experienced its driest August -- July ( 12-month ) period on record . The drought began due to a strong La Niña developing by the summer of 2010 which brings below average rainfall to the southern United States , the effects of the La Niña could be noticed immediately as much of the south receives important rainfall during the summer , and this was the driest summer for Texas and Georgia in the 21st century thus far , and much of the south received record low rainfall . Throughout 2011 , the drought was confined to the Deep South as the mid-south received flooding due to severe weather and tornadoes . However , the drought continued and intensified in the Deep South as Texas saw 2011 be its second-driest year on record , Oklahoma saw its fourth-driest , and Georgia saw its seventh-driest year on record . The winter of 2011 -- 12 was one of the driest winters on record for the eastern and central United States . In the spring of 2012 , the drought made a massive expansion from the Deep South to the Midwest , Mid south , Great Plains , and Ohio valley . At its peak in August 2012 the drought covered approximately 81 % of the United States . Throughout the winter of 2012 -- 13 , heavy rain and snow brought relief to the drought in the southern and eastern United States , even causing severe flooding . By March 2013 , the eastern United States was drought-free , effectively ending the 2010 -- 13 southern U.S. drought . Drought continued on the Great Plains until 2014 . However , drought developed in the western United States in 2013 and still exists today . The 2011 drought was the worst one-year drought in Texas since 1895 . The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that Lubbock , Texas has experienced the nation 's worst average level of drought since the beginning of 2011 . McAllen , Harlingen , Brownsville and Corpus Christi also ranked among the nine U.S. cities most affected by extreme drought .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2010–13_Southern_United_States_and_Mexico_drought", "rank": 84, "score": 92425 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Arlene (2011) Content: Tropical Storm Arlene , the first named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season , brought blustery conditions to much of eastern Mexico in late June to early July 2011 . Arlene originated from an Atlantic tropical wave , which crossed the Yucatán Peninsula before emerging over warm waters in the Bay of Campeche . Despite moderate wind shear , the disturbance strengthened and developed a surface circulation , prompting the National Hurricane Center to declare it a tropical storm on June 28 . Arlene remained vigorous for most of its existence ; the storm peaked in intensity with winds of 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) on June 30 , just before making landfall on the coast of Veracruz . Crossing the mountains of eastern Mexico , Arlene weakened to a depression before dissipating early on July 1 . The precursor disturbance to Arlene brought significant rainfall to parts of Central America , killing three people and triggering widespread flooding and landslides . Throughout Mexico , prolonged rains from Arlene and subsequent flooding affected hundreds of homes and several roads , causing many residents to seek shelter . At the height of the storm , power was lost to 285,000 homes . At least 22 people in Mexico were killed by Arlene . Elsewhere , rainfall from the storm alleviated ongoing drought conditions in southern Texas and Florida .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Arlene_(2011)", "rank": 85, "score": 92415 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 European floods Content: The 2005 European floods hit mainly Romania , Switzerland , Austria and Germany , as well as several other countries in Central Europe and Eastern Europe during August 2005 . The disaster came at a time when Portugal was suffering from intense forest fires which left 15 dead and days before the powerful Hurricane Katrina hit the United States .", "qid": "344", "docid": "2005_European_floods", "rank": 86, "score": 92371 }, { "content": "Title: 1972 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 1972 Pacific hurricane season was an ongoing event in tropical cyclone meteorology . There were few notable storms this year . No one was killed and storm effects were generally not serious . The most notable systems were Hurricane Celeste and Joanne . Celeste was the strongest storm of the season , and caused heavy damage to Johnston Atoll . Hurricane Joanne brought gale-force winds to the Continental United States and caused flooding in Arizona and northern Mexico , which killed one person . The only other system to directly impact land was Hurricane Annette . The season began on May 15 , 1972 , in the east Pacific , and on June 1 , 1972 , in the central Pacific . It ended on November 30 , 1972 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of time when tropical cyclones form in the east Pacific Ocean . This season had a below average number of storms . There were twenty tropical cyclones , four of which were in the central Pacific . Of those , four were tropical storms , eight were hurricanes , and four were major hurricanes that reached Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale . In the central Pacific , two tropical storms and two tropical depressions formed . One of the depressions and one of the storms crossed the International Date Line to become typhoons in the 1972 Pacific typhoon season . __ TOC __", "qid": "344", "docid": "1972_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 87, "score": 92162 }, { "content": "Title: Global catastrophic risk Content: A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale . Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization . Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk . Potential global catastrophic risks include anthropogenic risks ( technology risks , governance risks ) and natural or external risks . Examples of technology risks are hostile artificial intelligence , biotechnology risks , or nanotechnology weapons . Insufficient global governance creates risks in the social and political domain ( potentially leading to a global war with or without a nuclear holocaust , bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms , cyberterrorism destroying critical infrastructures like the electrical grid , or the failure to manage a natural pandemic ) as well as problems and risks in the domain of earth system governance ( with risks resulting from global warming , environmental degradation , mineral resource exhaustion , fossil energy exhaustion , or famine as a result of non-equitable resource distribution , human overpopulation , crop failures and non-sustainable agriculture ) . Examples for non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact event , a supervolcanic eruption , a lethal gamma-ray burst , a geomagnetic storm destroying all electronic equipment , natural long-term climate change , or extraterrestrial life impacting life on Earth .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Global_catastrophic_risk", "rank": 88, "score": 92058 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme Evidence Content: Extreme Evidence is an American reality television series that premiered on Court TV on September 29 , 2003 . Each half-hour episode attempts to use forensic science to uncover the cause of a catastrophic event . 3-D animation , and first-hand accounts from eyewitnesses , are also used to illuminate the investigations . As of late January 2015 , the show is now in reruns on the Justice Network .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Extreme_Evidence", "rank": 89, "score": 91943 }, { "content": "Title: 1933 Trinidad hurricane Content: The 1933 Trinidad hurricane was one of three North Atlantic tropical cyclones on record to produce hurricane-force winds in Venezuela . The second tropical storm and first hurricane of the 1933 Atlantic hurricane season , the system formed on June 24 to the east of the Lesser Antilles . It moved westward and attained hurricane status before striking Trinidad on June 27 . The storm caused heavy damage on the island , estimated at around $ 3 million . The strong winds downed trees and destroyed hundreds of houses , leaving about 1,000 people homeless . Later , the hurricane crossed the northeastern portion of Venezuela , where power outages and damaged houses were reported . After entering the Caribbean Sea , the hurricane maintained a northwest trajectory . It passed south of Jamaica on July 1 , where heavy rainfall flooded roads and railways . The hurricane crossed western Cuba on July 3 . High winds on the island destroyed hundreds of houses , and the storm 's rainfall damaged the tobacco crop . Upon entering the Gulf of Mexico , the hurricane turned to the west and attained peak winds of 110 mph ( 175 km/h ) on July 5 . It struck northeastern Mexico on July 8 and quickly dissipated . Upon its final landfall , the storm caused heavy damage in Mexico , and in southern Texas the storm ended a prolonged drought .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1933_Trinidad_hurricane", "rank": 90, "score": 91831 }, { "content": "Title: 1911–16 Australian drought Content: The 1911 -- 1916 Australian drought consisted of a series of droughts that affected various regions of Australia between the years of 1911 and 1916 . Most of the dry spells during this period can be related to three El Niño events in 1911 , 1913 and 1914 , though rainfall deficiencies actually began in northern Australia before the first of these El Niños set in and did not ease in coastal districts of New South Wales until well after the last El Niño had firmly dissipated and trends toward very heavy rainfall developed in other areas of the continent . The years before the drought had generally been had satisfactory rainfall and impressive crop yields throughout most of the continent except Gippsland , coastal districts of New South Wales and southeastern Queensland where the rainfall deficiencies of the Federation Drought had never disappeared at any point during the decade of the 1900s .", "qid": "344", "docid": "1911–16_Australian_drought", "rank": 91, "score": 91733 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Narelle Content: Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle was a Category 4 cyclone in early January 2013 that brought light rains to areas in South Australia suffering from a drought and heat wave . On 4 January , a tropical low developed within a monsoon trough over the Timor Sea . Over the following several days , the system gradually tracked westward and intensified , being classified Tropical Cyclone Narelle on 8 January . Turning southward into a region of low wind shear , Narelle intensified into a severe tropical cyclone on 9 January . Over the following two days , the cyclone 's structure fluctuated , temporarily featuring an eye , before it maintained its organisation and intensified further on 11 January . The storm attained its peak intensity later on 11 January as a Category 4 cyclone with winds of 185 km/h ( 115 mph ) . The following day , Narelle passed approximately 330 km northwest of Exmouth as it moved on a south-southwesterly course . The system steadily weakened and ultimately fell below tropical cyclone strength on 15 January well to the west of Geraldton . Early in the storm 's existence , Narelle brought strong winds , heavy rain , and high winds to many areas in Indonesia . More than 10,000 homes were flooded and many others were damaged by thunderstorms . A total of 14 people were killed by the storm , and 17 others were listed as missing . In Western Australia , scattered strong thunderstorms caused minor damage and produced a possible tornado .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Cyclone_Narelle", "rank": 92, "score": 91491 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States before 1901 Content: Floods in the United States before 1901 is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to the country , before 1901 . Floods are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , and dam failure .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States_before_1901", "rank": 93, "score": 91464 }, { "content": "Title: Northeast U.S. flooding of October 2005 Content: In October 2005 , remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy and Subtropical Depression Twenty-Two merged with incoming continental cold fronts to produce torrential rains over interior New England , as well as over parts of New Jersey and New York . Particularly hard hit was the state of New Hampshire , which saw roads and bridges wiped out , several reported deaths , and whole buildings destroyed . Rain lingered over some areas for several weeks . Rainfall from both rain events totaled well over 20 in in some areas .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Northeast_U.S._flooding_of_October_2005", "rank": 94, "score": 91403 }, { "content": "Title: Tidal flooding Content: Tidal flooding , also known as sunny day flooding or nuisance flooding , is the temporary inundation of low-lying areas , especially streets , during exceptionally high tide events , such as at full and new moons . The highest tides of the year may be known as the king tide , with the month varying by location . In Florida , controversy was created when state-level government mandated that the term `` nuisance flooding '' and other terms be used in place of terms such as sea level rise , climate change and global warming , prompting allegations of climate change denial , specifically against Governor Rick Scott . This amid Florida , specifically South Florida and the Miami metropolitan area being one of the most at risk area in the world for the potential effects of sea level rise , and where the frequency and severity of tidal flooding events increased in the 21st century . The issue is more bipartisan in South Florida , particularly in places like Miami Beach , where a several hundred million dollar project is underway to install more than 50 pumps and physically raise roads to combat the flooding , mainly along the west side of South Beach , formerly a mangrove wetland where the average elevation is less than one meter ( 3.3 feet ) . In the Miami area , where the vast majority of the land is below 10 ft , even a one-foot increase over the average high tide can cause widespread flooding . The 2015 and 2016 king tide event levels reached about 4 ft MLLW , 3 ft above mean sea level , or about 2 ft NAVD88 , and nearly the same above MHHW . While the tide range is very small in Miami , averaging about 2 ft , with the greatest range being less than 2 m , the area is very acute to minute differences down to single inches due to the vast area low elevation . NOAA tide gauge data for most stations shows current water level graphs relative to a fixed datum , as well as mean sea level trends for some stations . During the king tides , the local Miami area tide gauge at Virginia Key shows levels running at times 1 ft or more over datum . Fort Lauderdale has installed over one hundred tidal valves since 2013 to combat flooding . Fort Lauderdale is nicknamed the `` Venice of America '' due to its roughly 165 mi of canals . Tidal flooding is capable of majorly inhibiting natural gravity-based drainage systems in low-lying areas when it reaches levels that are below visible inundation of the surface , but which are high enough to incapacitate the lower drainage or sewer system . Thus , even normal rainfall or storm surge events can cause greatly amplified flooding effects . One passive solution to intrusion through drainage systems are one way back-flow valves in drainage ways . However , while this may prevent a majority of the tidal intrusion , it also inhibits drainage during exceptionally high tides that shut the valves . In Miami Beach , where resilience work is underway , the pump systems replace insufficient gravity-based systems .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Tidal_flooding", "rank": 95, "score": 91280 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Vamco (2015) Content: Tropical Storm Vamco was a weak tropical cyclone which affected Indochina in mid-September 2015 . Formed from a tropical disturbance on September 13 , the system developed into a tropical storm and reached its peak intensity on September 14 . Vamco made landfall in Vietnam and affected Laos , Thailand and Cambodia . The storm caused flooding in these countries and damages amounted to US$ 13.8 million . Fifteen people died in the floods . In Vietnam , Vamco was known as known as Cơn bão số 3 năm 2015 ( 3rd storm in 2015 ) . Heavy rains caused by the storm in Central Vietnam ended the drought in this area , after many hot days because of the strong El Niño .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Vamco_(2015)", "rank": 96, "score": 91071 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2000 Madagascar floods Content: In early 2000 , severe flooding occurred in the African nation of Madagascar after Cyclone Leon -- Eline and Severe Tropical Storm Gloria struck the nation within a two-week period . The first storm , Eline , formed on February 1 , and took an extended track across the Indian Ocean , eventually making landfall near Mahanoro on February 17 . On March 1 , Gloria struck northeastern Madagascar , and like Eline , moved southwestward across the country .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Early_2000_Madagascar_floods", "rank": 97, "score": 90924 }, { "content": "Title: Great Coastal Gale of 2007 Content: The Great Coastal Gale of 2007 was a series of three powerful Pacific storms that affected the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia between December 1 , 2007 and December 4 , 2007 . The storms on December 2 and 3 produced an extreme long-duration wind event with hurricane-force wind gusts of up to 137 mph at Holy Cross , Washington on the Washington Coast , and 129 mph at Bay City , Oregon on the Oregon Coast . The storm also brought heavy rains and produced widespread record flooding throughout the region , and was blamed for at least 18 deaths . Meteorologists at the Oregon Climate Service named the storm in January 2008 , drawing from the Great Gale of 1880 , a similar powerful storm that affected the region in 1880 .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Great_Coastal_Gale_of_2007", "rank": 98, "score": 90642 }, { "content": "Title: Marine regression Content: Marine regression is a geological process occurring when areas of submerged seafloor are exposed above the sea level . The opposite event , marine transgression , occurs when flooding from the sea covers previously exposed land . Evidence of marine regressions and transgressions occurs throughout the fossil record , and these fluctuations are thought to have caused or contributed to several mass extinctions , among them the Permian-Triassic extinction event ( 250 million years ago ) and Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event ( 66 Ma ) . At the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction , the largest extinction event in the Earth 's history , global sea level fell 250 m ( 820 ft ) . A major regression could itself cause marine organisms in shallow seas to go extinct , but mass extinctions tend to involve both terrestrial and aquatic species , and it is harder to see how a marine regression could cause widespread extinctions of land animals . Regressions are , therefore , seen as correlates or symptoms of major extinctions , rather than primary causes . The Permian regression might have been related to the formation of Pangaea : the accumulation of all the major landmasses into one body could have facilitated a regression , by providing `` a slight enlargement of the ocean basins as the great continents coalesced . '' However , that cause could not have applied in all , or even many , other cases . During the ice ages of the Pleistocene , a clear correlation existed between marine regressions and episodes of glaciation ; as the balance shifts between the global cryosphere and hydrosphere , more of the planet 's water in ice sheets means less in the oceans . At the height of the last ice age , at around 18,000 years before the present , the global sea level was 120 to 130 m ( 390-425 ft ) lower than today . A cold spell around 6 million years ago was linked to an advance in glaciation , a marine regression , and the start of the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean basin . Some major regressions of the past , however , seem unrelated to glaciation episodes -- the regression that accompanied the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period being one example . A clear and certain understanding of major marine regressions has not yet been achieved ; according to one hypothesis , regressions may be linked to a `` slowdown in sea-floor spreading , leading to a generalized drop in sea level ( as the mid-ocean ridges would take up less space ) ... '' In that view , major marine regressions are one aspect of a normal variation in rates of plate tectonic activity , which lead to major episodes of global volcanism like the Siberian Traps and the Deccan Traps , which in turn cause large extinction events .", "qid": "344", "docid": "Marine_regression", "rank": 99, "score": 90618 }, { "content": "Title: October 1999 Mexico floods Content: In October 1999 , severe flooding affected portions of eastern Mexico and Central America . Rainfall in September preceded the primary event in Mexico , which moistened soils . On October 4 , Tropical Depression Eleven developed in the Gulf of Mexico , which drew humidity from the gulf and the Pacific Ocean to produce torrential rainfall in mountainous regions of eastern Mexico , reaching 43.23 in in Jalacingo , Veracruz . This was the third-highest tropical cyclone-related rainfall total in Mexico from 1980-2006 , and the event caused the highest rainfall related to tropical cyclones in Veracruz , Hidalgo , and Puebla . In some locations , the daily rainfall represented over 10 % of the annual precipitation total . The heaviest rainfall occurred in mountainous regions that were the mouths of several rivers . A broad trough absorbed the depression on October 6 , and rainfall continued for the next few days . Additional rainfall occurred in Tabasco state on October 18 . The floods were estimated as a 1 in 67 year event in one location , although such floods are expected to affect eastern Mexico twice per century , the last time being 1944 . Throughout Mexico , the floods killed at least 379 people , according to the federal government , and as many as 600 according to relief agencies ; the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters later estimated there were 636 deaths , and damage in Mexico was estimated at $ 451.3 million ( 4.3 billion pesos ) . Nationwide , the floods damaged or destroyed 90,000 houses , which left about 500,000 people homeless . Flooding caused thousands of landslides , many in more populated areas than the flooding in 1944 . The floods also caused 39 rivers to overflow , and the combination of floods and landslides destroyed bridges , houses , widespread crop fields , schools , and electrical networks . Impact was worst in Puebla , where damage totaled $ 240 million ( 2.1 billion pesos ) and many roads were washed out . Landslides in the state killed 107 people in Teziutlán . Elsewhere in the country , the floods washed crocodiles into the streets of Villahermosa , the capital of Tabasco , and in Oaxaca , the rainfall occurred after an earthquake left thousands homeless . Flooding also extended into Central America in late September through early October , causing $ 40 million ( 385 million pesos ) in crop damage and 70 deaths . After the floods receded , Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo ordered the Department of National Defense to utilize all resources to assist the people affected by the floods . More than 94,000 people stayed at 896 shelters after being evacuated due to the floods . The federal government allocated $ 234 million ( 2.34 billion pesos ) in relief , which was smaller than the damage total . Widespread medical teams assisted tens of thousands of homes , and due to prevention measures , there were no outbreaks of diseases . Roads and electrical systems were gradually restored , and students returned to school after repairs were made . Residents throughout Mexico sent supplies to the Mexican Red Cross , including 500 tons of food and water , and international agencies sent money and supplies to the flood victims .", "qid": "344", "docid": "October_1999_Mexico_floods", "rank": 100, "score": 90568 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 2007 Midwest flooding Content: The 2007 Midwest flooding was a major flooding event that occurred in the Midwestern United States in the third week of August 2007 . While Hurricane Dean was affecting the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico , and Tropical Storm Erin was affecting Oklahoma and Texas , a persistent storm system hung over the Midwest for several days , causing repeated flash flooding in the US states of Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Minnesota , Ohio , and Wisconsin . Cool Canadian air clashed with large quantities of warm moist air from the Gulf , producing torrential rains along a stationary front . Eighteen deaths across the central United States were attributed to the resulting flooding . Seven Minnesota counties , eight Ohio counties , fourteen counties in Wisconsin , and seven counties in Illinois were declared Federal Disaster Areas .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2007_Midwest_flooding", "rank": 1, "score": 130360 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Connie Content: Hurricane Connie in August 1955 contributed to significant flooding across the eastern United States , just days before Hurricane Diane affected the same general area . Connie formed on August 3 from a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic Ocean . It moved quickly west-northwestward , strengthening into a well-developed hurricane by August 5 . Initially , it posed a threat to the Lesser Antilles , although it passed about 50 mi north of the region . The outer rainbands produced hurricane-force wind gusts and intense precipitation , reaching 8.65 in in Puerto Rico . In the United States Virgin Islands , three people died due to the hurricane , and a few homes were destroyed . In Puerto Rico , Connie destroyed 60 homes and caused crop damage . After affecting Puerto Rico , Connie turned to the northwest , reaching peak winds of 140 mph ( 220 km/h ) . The hurricane weakened while slowing and turning to the north , and struck North Carolina on August 12 at Category 2 intensity , the first of three damaging tropical cyclones in the 1955 Atlantic hurricane season to hit the state . Ahead of the storm , the United States Weather Bureau issued widespread hurricane warnings , resulting in 14,000 people evacuating southeastern North Carolina . Connie produced strong winds , high tides , and heavy rainfall as it moved ashore , causing heavy crop damage and 27 deaths in the state . Connie tracked roughly along the eastern coast of Virginia before turning northwest , and it progressed inland until dissipating on August 15 near Sault Ste. Marie , Michigan . Four people were killed in Washington , D.C. due to a traffic accident . In Chesapeake Bay , Connie capsized a boat , killing 14 people and prompting a change in Coast Guard regulation . There were six deaths each in Pennsylvania and New Jersey , and eleven deaths in New York , where record rainfall flooded homes and subways . At least 225,000 people lost power during the storm . Damage in the United States totaled around $ 86 million , although the rains from Connie contributed to flooding from Hurricane Diane that caused $ 700 million in damage . The remnants of Connie destroyed a few houses and boats in Ontario and killed three people in Ontario .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Connie", "rank": 2, "score": 125270 }, { "content": "Title: 1850 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1850 Atlantic hurricane season was the most recent season excluded from the scope of the official Atlantic hurricane database . Although meteorological records are sparse and generally incomplete , they indicate that three significant tropical cyclones affected land , each causing some degree of damage . The first system struck North Carolina on July 18 , causing significant damage before battering the Mid-Atlantic states with high tides , strong winds , and heavy rainfall . Torrential rainfall caused river flooding from Baltimore to Philadelphia , particularly along the Schuylkill River , which took the lives of 20 people in various incidents . Strong winds damaged property and public facilities in and around New York City , and damaging floods extended into central and northern New England . Crops and railroad infrastructure suffered throughout the entire region . On August 22 , a strong hurricane impacted Havana , Cuba , destroying fruit trees and disrupting shipping , before making landfall on the Florida Panhandle with an enormous storm surge . Coastal flooding was severe around Apalachicola , and as the storm moved inland , it generated destructive winds across the southeastern United States . Abundant precipitation fell from Georgia through Virginia , causing extensive flooding ; one river swelled over 20 feet ( 6 m ) above its normal height . The storm blew down crops and trees along its course , and toppled a large railroad bridge near Halifax , North Carolina . Offshore , a pilot boat collided with a larger ship in the rough seas and sank . Considered the worst storm in nearly 30 years in the tidewater region of Virginia , the cyclone briefly reentered the Atlantic off New Jersey before making landfall over New England . Strong winds and moderate to heavy rains plagued much of New England on August 24 and 25 . On September 7 and 8 , a hurricane brushed the coastline from New York to Cape Cod with gusty winds and appreciable rainfall , and left many ships in distress . The system later struck Atlantic Canada , likely causing `` great loss of property and lives '' , though damage reports were limited . Fragmented records exist of other hurricanes , including two which remained over open seas in early September and the middle of October .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1850_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 3, "score": 123559 }, { "content": "Title: List of New Mexico hurricanes Content: The inland U.S. state of New Mexico has experienced impacts from 81 known tropical cyclones and their remnants . There have been 68 known tropical cyclones from the Eastern Pacific that affected the state , compared to only 13 such Atlantic hurricanes . The biggest threat from such storms in the state is their associated rainfall and flooding . The wettest storm was from the remnants of an Atlantic storm in 1941 that produced 11.33 in of precipitation . Since 1950 , the highest rainfall total recorded was 9.8 in in Canton , also associated with an Atlantic storm in 1954 . The rains in 1954 resulted in flooding in six towns that killed at least four people . Other deadly rainfall events from tropical cyclone remnants include Hurricane Dolly in 2008 and Tropical Storm Georgette in 2010 . The former swept away a person along the Rio Ruidoso and caused $ 25 million in damage ( 2008 USD ) , which was the most damaging storm event . The floods damaged 500 buildings and destroyed 13 bridges . The latter caused heavy rains that resulted in one death in the Rio Grande .", "qid": "348", "docid": "List_of_New_Mexico_hurricanes", "rank": 4, "score": 123314 }, { "content": "Title: 1896 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1896 Atlantic hurricane season was fairly inactive but produced one of the costliest hurricanes ever to strike the United States until that point , along with several other destructive tropical cyclones . The season began in early July with a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and ended in late November with a slow-moving tropical storm over the Lesser Antilles . Of the season 's seven documented systems , six are believed to have become hurricanes , and two intensified into major hurricanes -- the equivalence of Category 3 or greater on the modern-day Saffir -- Simpson scale . All but one of the systems directly affected land to some degree ; Hurricane `` Six '' remained over open water and only posed a threat to shipping lanes . In addition , a possible storm was identified off the coast of North Carolina on August 28 -- 29 , but modern reanalysis efforts have found insufficient evidence to classify it as a tropical cyclone . Tropical systems in the 1896 season killed at least 286 people and inflicted more than $ 10 million ( 1896 USD ) in damage . The first hurricane made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on July 7 , causing wind damage and coastal flooding in Pensacola , and destroying boats at port . No activity was observed until late August when a hurricane triggered widespread river flooding in Puerto Rico . After moving north , this storm struck eastern New England . Hurricane `` Three '' avoided land , but its outer periphery generated gusty winds in the Outer Banks of North Carolina . On September 29 , fast-moving Hurricane `` Four '' became one of the costliest United States hurricanes on record at the time after swamping Florida 's Cedar Keys with a large storm surge and subsequently causing extensive devastation in the eastern United States . The hurricane caused 202 deaths and more than $ 9 million in damage across eight states , plus Washington , D.C. and the Great Lakes . About two weeks later , Hurricane `` Five '' roughly paralleled the U.S. East Coast , causing substantial coastal flooding and destruction of beachfront property . Little is known about the season 's sixth hurricane which never affected land . Torrential rainfall associated with the final tropical storm of the season triggered deadly flooding on Montserrat , where nearly 50 people drowned and many more lost their homes . __ TOC __", "qid": "348", "docid": "1896_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 5, "score": 122599 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-Atlantic United States flood of 2006 Content: The Mid-Atlantic United States flood of 2006 was a significant flood that affected much of the Mid-Atlantic region of the eastern United States . The flooding was very widespread , affecting numerous rivers , lakes and communities from upstate New York to North Carolina . It was widely considered to be the worst flooding in the region since Hurricane David in 1979 . It was also one of the worst floodings in the United States since Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 . At least 16 deaths were related to the flooding .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Mid-Atlantic_United_States_flood_of_2006", "rank": 6, "score": 121961 }, { "content": "Title: 1987 Gulf Coast tropical storm Content: The 1987 Gulf Coast tropical storm caused flooding along the Gulf Coast of the United States . The second tropical cyclone and first tropical storm of the 1987 Atlantic hurricane season , it originated from a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico , southeast of Texas , on August 9 . Initially a tropical depression , the cyclone moved north-northwestward and slightly intensified into a tropical storm later that day . By August 10 , it made landfall between Galveston and Beaumont . The system weakened after moving inland and turned towards the east and later southeast . Briefly reemerging over the Gulf on August 15 , the depression moved onshore a second time in Florida , before dissipating over eastern Georgia on August 17 . Due to the relatively weak nature of the system , it caused relatively little damage . However , the system dropped heavy rainfall , peaking at 21.05 in in southern Mississippi . This resulted in flooding , which forced more than 400 people to evacuate their homes , some of which had 2 to of water . Flash flooding was reported in a few others states , including Alabama , Florida , and Louisiana . In all , losses from the unnamed storm reached $ 7.4 million ( 1987 USD ) and one person was reported missing after being thrown overboard a boat in rough seas .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1987_Gulf_Coast_tropical_storm", "rank": 7, "score": 120879 }, { "content": "Title: 1940 Louisiana hurricane Content: The 1940 Louisiana hurricane caused record flooding across much of the Southern United States in August 1940 . The second tropical cyclone and hurricane of the annual hurricane season , it formed from a frontal low off the west coast of Florida on August 3 . Initially a weak disturbance , it moved generally westward , slowly gaining in intensity . Early on August 4 , the depression attained tropical storm intensity . Ships in the vicinity of the storm reported a much stronger tropical cyclone than initially suggested . After reaching hurricane strength on August 5 south of the Mississippi River Delta , the storm strengthened further into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and a minimum barometric pressure of 972 mbar ( hPa ; 28.71 inHg ) at 0600 UTC on August 7 . The hurricane moved ashore near Sabine Pass , Texas later that day at peak strength . Once inland , the storm executed a sharp curve to the north and quickly weakened , degenerating into a tropical storm on August 8 before dissipating over Arkansas on August 10 . Reports of a potentially destructive hurricane near the United States Gulf Coast forced thousands of residents in low-lying areas to evacuate prior to the storm moving inland . Offshore , the hurricane generated rough seas and a strong storm surge , peaking at 6.4 ft ( 1.95 m ) on the western edge of Lake Pontchartrain . The anomalously high tides flooded many of Louisiana 's outlying islands , inundating resorts . Strong winds caused moderate infrastructural damage , primarily in Texas , though its impact was mainly to communication networks along the US Gulf Coast which were disrupted by the winds . However , much of the property and crop damage wrought by the hurricane was due to the torrential rainfall it produced in low-lying areas , setting off record floods . Rainfall peaked at 37.5 in ( 953 mm ) in Miller Island off Louisiana , making it the wettest tropical cyclone in state history . Nineteen official weather stations in both Texas and Louisiana recorded 24-hour rainfall totals for the month of August as a result of the slow-moving hurricane . Property , livestock , and crops -- especially cotton , corn , and pecan crops -- were heavily damaged . Entire ecosystems were also altered by the rainfall . Overall , the storm caused $ 10.75 million in damages and seven fatalities .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1940_Louisiana_hurricane", "rank": 8, "score": 120824 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 2001–present Content: Floods in the United States : 2001 -- present is a list of flood events which were of significant impact to the country since 2001 , inclusive . Floods are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , storm surge from hurricanes , and dam failure .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_2001–present", "rank": 9, "score": 120217 }, { "content": "Title: May 2016 United States storm complex Content: The May 2016 United States storm complex was a flood in the United States that occurred on May 31 , 2016 , affecting the states of Arkansas , Kansas , Nebraska , Oklahoma , and Texas . The inundation set precipitation records in Texas and Oklahoma . On June 2 , 2016 , the rising of the Brazos River required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County , Texas . Ten deaths of Texans and thousands of home evacuations led Texas Governor Greg Abbott to issue a statewide Disaster Proclamation on June 1 , 2016 considering the damage in thirty-one counties including Austin , Bandera , Bastrop , Brazoria , Brazos , Burleson , Coleman , Colorado , Erath , Fayette , Fort Bend , Grimes , Hidalgo , Hood , Jasper , Kleberg , Lee , Leon , Liberty , Lubbock , Montgomery , Palo Pinto , Parker , Polk , Robertson , San Jacinto , Tyler , Walker , Waller , Washington and Wharton counties . Meteorologists attribute this storm 's devastation to the power of the El Niño climate cycle . An El Niño system is identified following fluctuation in the climate , characterized by an eastern shift of warming ocean water from the western tropical Pacific Ocean and rainfall along the equator .", "qid": "348", "docid": "May_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 10, "score": 119463 }, { "content": "Title: October 2015 North American storm complex Content: The October 2015 North American storm complex was a high precipitation event that caused historic flash flooding across North and South Carolina . The incipient cold front traversed the Eastern United States on September 29 -- 30 , producing heavy rain in multiple states . The system subsequently stalled just offshore . Tapping into moisture from the nearby Hurricane Joaquin , a developing surface low brought heavy , continuous rain to southeastern States , with the worst effects concentrated in South Carolina where catastrophic flooding occurred . The event culminated in South Carolina on October 4 when numerous rivers burst their banks , washing away roads , bridges , vehicles , and homes . Hundreds of people required rescue and the state 's emergency management department urged everyone in the state not to travel . Some areas of the state saw rainfall equivalent to a 1-in-1000-year event . At least 25 deaths have been attributed to the weather complex : 19 in South Carolina , 2 in New York , 2 in North Carolina , 1 in Florida , and 1 in New Brunswick . Damage reached $ 2 billion .", "qid": "348", "docid": "October_2015_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 11, "score": 119309 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane How (1951) Content: Hurricane How was the only tropical cyclone to make landfall on the United States in 1951 . It was the eighth storm of the season , forming on September 28 in the northwest Caribbean and , after entering the Gulf of Mexico , turned eastward and became a tropical storm . The storm brought heavy rainfall to Florida , causing flooding and $ 2 million in damage . Tropical Storm How later became a hurricane , passing near the Outer Banks of North Carolina where it produced strong winds and high tides . A ship called the `` Southern Isles '' capsized off Cape Hatteras , killing 17 out of the crew of 23 . Rains and high tides occurred in southeastern New England , before the hurricane moved out to sea and became extratropical .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_How_(1951)", "rank": 12, "score": 118952 }, { "content": "Title: 1986 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 1986 Pacific hurricane season saw several tropical cyclones contribute to significant flooding to the Central United States . The hurricane season officially started May 15 , 1986 , in the eastern Pacific , and June 1 , 1986 in the central Pacific , and lasted until November 30 , 1986 in both regions . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean . A total of 17 named storms and 9 hurricanes developed during the season ; this is slightly above the averages of 15 named storms and 8 hurricanes , respectively . In addition , 25 tropical depressions formed in the eastern Pacific during 1986 , which , at the time , was the second most ever recorded ; only the 1982 Pacific hurricane season saw a higher total . Several storms throughout the season affected land . Hurricane Estelle passed south of Hawaii , resulting in $ 2 million in damage and two deaths . Hurricanes Newton , Paine and Roslyn each struck Northwestern Mexico . While damage was minimal from these three systems near their location of landfall , Paine brought considerable flooding to the Great Plains . The overall flooding event resulted in $ 350 million in damage , with the worst effects being recorded in Oklahoma . Hurricane Roslyn was the strongest storm of the season , attaining peak winds of 145 mph ( 230 km/h ) .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1986_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 13, "score": 118616 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Able (1952) Content: Hurricane Able was the only hurricane to make landfall in the United States in the 1952 season . Forming on August 18 off the west coast of Africa , Able moved generally west - to west-northwestward for much of its duration . It was first observed by the Hurricane Hunters on August 25 to the north of the Lesser Antilles . Two days later , Able attained hurricane status , and on August 30 it turned sharply to the north-northwest in response to a cold front . The hurricane reached peak winds of 105 mph just prior to moving ashore near Beaufort , South Carolina on August 31 . Although it quickly weakened below hurricane force , Able maintained tropical storm force for almost two days over land , eventually dissipating over Maine on September 2 . The threat of the storm prompted hurricane warnings in the southeastern United States , resulting in the evacuation of tourists on Labor Day Weekend . Able produced heavy rainfall from Florida through New England , which caused widespread flooding . The city struck by the hurricane was heavily damaged and briefly isolated due to downed power and telephone lines . Overall damage in the United States totaled $ 2.75 million ( 1952 USD , $ USD ) , mostly from crop damage in South Carolina . Further north , Able produced flooding and gusty winds , which washed out a portion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Able_(1952)", "rank": 14, "score": 118226 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Hilary (1993) Content: Hurricane Hilary was a Category 3 hurricane that caused significant flooding in the Midwestern United States in August 1993 . A westward moving tropical depression gradually developed on August 17 south of the Mexican coast , attaining hurricane status two days later . The storm further intensified into a Category 3 hurricane , attaining peak winds of 120 mph ( 195 km/h ) . By August 23 , the hurricane nearly stalled while interacting with Tropical Storm Irwin . Executing a small counter-clockwise loop , Hilary degraded to tropical storm intensity and took a northerly track for the remainder of its existence . The storm made two landfalls in Mexico , one in Baja California Sur on August 25 and one in Sonora the following day . Tropical cyclone warnings and watches were issued for much of the southern Mexican coastline ; however , they were later discontinued when the threat ended , but were issued again when the system posed a threat to the Baja California Peninsula . Hilary dropped in excess of 5 in rain along its path in some areas , and flash flooding in California and Iowa .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Hilary_(1993)", "rank": 15, "score": 117820 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 European floods Content: The 2005 European floods hit mainly Romania , Switzerland , Austria and Germany , as well as several other countries in Central Europe and Eastern Europe during August 2005 . The disaster came at a time when Portugal was suffering from intense forest fires which left 15 dead and days before the powerful Hurricane Katrina hit the United States .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2005_European_floods", "rank": 16, "score": 117181 }, { "content": "Title: 1999 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1999 Atlantic hurricane season had five Category 4 hurricanes -- the highest number recorded in a single season in the Atlantic basin , later tied in 2005 . The season officially began on June 1 , and ended on November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . It was a fairly active season , mostly due to a persistent La Niña that developed in the latter half of 1998 . The first storm , Arlene , formed on June 11 to the southeast of Bermuda . It meandered slowly for a week and caused no impact on land . Other tropical cyclones that did not affect land were Hurricane Cindy , Tropical Storm Emily , and Tropical Depression Twelve . Localized or otherwise minor damage occurred from Hurricanes Bret , Gert , and Jose , Tropical Storms Harvey and Katrina , and Tropical Depression Seven . The most significant storm of the season was Hurricane Floyd , a strong Category 4 hurricane that caused devastating flooding along the East Coast of the United States , especially in North Carolina . Damage from the storm totaled approximately $ 6.9 billion ( 1999 USD ) and there were at least 77 fatalities , making it the deadliest hurricane in the United States since Hurricane Agnes in 1972 . Flooding from Floyd in North Carolina followed Hurricane Dennis , a slow and erratic -- moving storm that dropped heavy rainfall in the eastern portion of the state . Tropical Depression Eleven in October contributed to extreme flooding in Mexico , which left 636 people dead and caused $ 491.3 million in damage , though impact could not be distinguished from the storm itself . Hurricane Irene caused extensive flooding in Cuba and Florida , with lesser effects in the Bahamas and North Carolina . Irene was the second -- costliest storm of the season , with about $ 800 million in damage . Hurricane Lenny was an unusual eastward -- moving storm in the Caribbean Sea and a strong late -- season storm . It caused extensive damage in the Lesser Antilles in the month of November . Collectively , the storms of the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season caused at least 123 fatalities and $ 8.58 billion in losses .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1999_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 17, "score": 116767 }, { "content": "Title: September 1921 San Antonio floods Content: In early September 1921 , the remnants of a Category 1 hurricane brought damaging floods to areas of Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas , particularly in the San Antonio region . On September 4 , a tropical cyclone developed in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico near the Bay of Campeche . Moving slowly in a general westward direction , the disturbance reached hurricane intensity on September 7 prior to making landfall south of Tampico , Mexico the following day . The storm weakened over land , and lost cyclonic characteristics later that day . However , a nearby high-pressure area forced the remnants of the system northward into Texas . Due to an orthographic lifting effect , the remnants were able to produce torrential and record rainfall over the state . Precipitation peaked over Central Texas , where the highest rainfall amount measured was 40 in ( 1,016 mm ) near Thrall , Texas ; this was the fourth-highest tropical cyclone-related rainfall total in Texas since record keeping began . Similarly , an observation of 36.40 in ( 925 mm ) elsewhere in Williamson County , Texas ranked as the sixth-highest tropical cyclone-related rainfall total for the state . The high precipitation totals set nationwide records which would stand for several years .", "qid": "348", "docid": "September_1921_San_Antonio_floods", "rank": 18, "score": 115254 }, { "content": "Title: Northeast U.S. flooding of October 2005 Content: In October 2005 , remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy and Subtropical Depression Twenty-Two merged with incoming continental cold fronts to produce torrential rains over interior New England , as well as over parts of New Jersey and New York . Particularly hard hit was the state of New Hampshire , which saw roads and bridges wiped out , several reported deaths , and whole buildings destroyed . Rain lingered over some areas for several weeks . Rainfall from both rain events totaled well over 20 in in some areas .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Northeast_U.S._flooding_of_October_2005", "rank": 19, "score": 115198 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Katrina Content: Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States . The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone , behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969 . Overall , at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods , making it the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane . Total property damage was estimated at $ 108 billion ( 2005 USD ) , roughly four times the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in the United States . The eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season , Katrina originated over the Bahamas on August 23 from the interaction between a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten . Early the following day , the new depression intensified into Tropical Storm Katrina . The cyclone headed generally westward toward Florida and strengthened into a hurricane only two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach and Aventura on August 25 . After very briefly weakening to a tropical storm , Katrina emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and began to rapidly deepen . The storm strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico , but weakened before making its second landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on August 29 in southeast Louisiana . The storm caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas , much of it due to the storm surge and levee failure . Severe property damage occurred in coastal areas , such as Mississippi beachfront towns ; over 90 percent of these were flooded . Boats and casino barges rammed buildings , pushing cars and houses inland ; water reached 6 - from the beach . Over fifty breaches in New Orleans 's hurricane surge protection were the cause of the majority of the death and destruction during Katrina on August 29 , 2005 . Eventually 80 % of the city and large tracts of neighboring parishes became flooded , and the floodwaters lingered for weeks . According to a modeling exercise conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ( USACE ) , two-thirds of the deaths in Greater New Orleans were due to levee and floodwall failure . All of the major studies concluded that the USACE , the designers and builders of the levee system as mandated by the Flood Control Act of 1965 , is responsible . This is mainly due to a decision to use shorter steel sheet pilings in an effort to save money . In January 2008 , Judge Stanwood Duval , U.S. District Court , ruled that despite the Corps ' role in the flooding , the agency could not be held financially liable because of sovereign immunity in the Flood Control Act of 1928 . Exactly ten years after Katrina , J. David Rogers , lead author of a new report in the official journal of the World Water Council concluded that the flooding during Katrina `` could have been prevented had the corps retained an external review board to double-check its flood-wall designs . '' There was also an investigation of the responses from federal , state and local governments , resulting in the resignation of Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) director Michael D. Brown , and of New Orleans Police Department ( NOPD ) Superintendent Eddie Compass . Many other government officials were criticized for their responses , especially New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin , Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco , and President George W. Bush . Several agencies including the United States Coast Guard ( USCG ) , National Hurricane Center ( NHC ) , and National Weather Service ( NWS ) were commended for their actions . They provided accurate hurricane weather tracking forecasts with sufficient lead time .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Katrina", "rank": 20, "score": 115097 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Paine (1986) Content: Hurricane Paine contributed to one of the most significant flooding events in Oklahoma history . The 16th tropical storm and 8th hurricane of the 1986 Pacific hurricane season , Paine formed on September 28 off the southeast coast of Mexico . It moved around a ridge , later turning to the north and brushing the Baja California Peninsula . By that time , Paine had attained peak winds of 100 mph ( 155 km/h ) , but it weakened slightly before hitting the Mexican state of Sonora . The remnant moisture combined with a cold front to produce heavy rainfall in the south-central United States . In Mexico , Paine produced rainfall along much of the coastline , with maxima in inland Oaxaca , Jalisco , and Sonora where it moved ashore . Prior to the arrival of the remnants of Paine in the United States , there was an extended period of heavy rainfall , which caused at least 10 deaths , forced thousands of people from their homes , and resulted in heavy flooding damage . The moisture from Paine produced the highest daily rainfall for any station in Oklahoma . Severe river flooding occurred along the Osage and Arkansas Rivers . The overall flooding event caused $ 350 million in damage , of which half came from crop losses .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Paine_(1986)", "rank": 21, "score": 114622 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history , shattering numerous records . The impact of the season was widespread and ruinous with an estimated 3,913 deaths and record damage of about $ 159.2 billion . Of the storms that made landfall , five of the season 's seven major hurricanes -- Dennis , Emily , Katrina , Rita , and Wilma -- were responsible for most of the destruction . The Mexican states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán and the US states of Florida and Louisiana were each struck twice by major hurricanes ; Cuba , the Bahamas , Haiti , Mississippi , Texas , Alabama , and Tamaulipas were each struck once and in each case brushed by at least one more . The most catastrophic effects of the season were felt on the United States ' Gulf Coast , where a 30 ft ( 10 m ) storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused devastating flooding that destroyed most structures on the Mississippi coastline ; subsequent levee failures in New Orleans , Louisiana caused by the storm crippled the city . Furthermore , Hurricane Stan combined with an extratropical system to cause deadly mudslides across Central America , with Guatemala being hardest-hit . The 2005 season was the first to observe more tropical cyclones in the Atlantic than the West Pacific ; on average , the latter experiences 26 while the Atlantic only averages 12 . This event was repeated in the 2010 season ; however , the 2010 typhoon season broke the record for the fewest storms observed in a single year , while the 2005 typhoon season featured near average activity . The season officially began on June 1 , 2005 , and lasted until November 30 , although it effectively persisted into January 2006 due to continued storm activity . A record twenty-eight tropical and subtropical storms formed , of which a record fifteen became hurricanes . Of these , a record seven strengthened into major hurricanes , a record-tying five became Category 4 hurricanes and a record four reached Category 5 strength , the highest categorization for hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale . Among these Category 5 storms were hurricanes Katrina and Wilma , respectively the costliest and the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record . This year was also notable because the list of storm names was used up and six Greek letter names had to be used .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2005_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 22, "score": 114512 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Tammy Content: Tropical Storm Tammy was a short lived tropical storm during October in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season which caused minor damage to the southeastern United States . More significant , however , were its remnants , which contributed to the Northeast U.S. flooding of October 2005 . Tropical Storm Tammy formed from a non-tropical system off the Florida coast on October 5 . It moved north just offshore before making landfall later that day . The tropical storm rapidly weakened as it moved overland and dissipated the next day . Its remnant circulation moved south towards the Gulf of Mexico , while the moisture was absorbed by a northeasterly moving cold front . There were no fatalities directly related to Tammy ; however , ten people were killed by the remnants of the storm in combination with the remnants of Subtropical Depression Twenty-Two . Total damages from the storm were $ 30 million .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Tammy", "rank": 23, "score": 114366 }, { "content": "Title: 1985 Election day floods Content: The 1985 Election Day floods ( also known as the Killer Floods of 1985 in West Virginia ) produced the costliest floods in both West Virginia and Virginia in November 1985 . The event occurred after Hurricane Juan , a tropical cyclone in the 1985 Atlantic hurricane season , meandered near the coast of Louisiana before striking just west of Pensacola , Florida late on October 31 . Juan moved northward into Canada , but spawned another system that spread moderate rainfall across the Mid-Atlantic States , wetting soils . On November 3 , a low pressure area developed south of Florida and moved northeastward along a cold front , bringing a plume of moisture influenced by Juan 's previous track . The storm moved through the southeastern United States , stalling on November 5 west of Washington , D.C. before turning out to sea the next day . The event was known as the Election Day floods due to its concurrence with elections in Virginia . Damage was heaviest in Virginia and West Virginia . In the former state , the rainfall peaked at 19.77 in just northeast of Montebello . The rains increased levels along many rivers to record heights across Virginia , including the James River which crested at 42.15 ft at a station called Holcomb Rock , the highest level in the state . In Roanoke , the Roanoke River rose 18.57 ft in ten hours to a peak of 23.35 ft , considered a 1 in 200 year event . In the city , many residents had to be rescued after they were trapped , and three people drowned by driving into flooded waters . Considered the worst flood on record in the city , Roanoke sustained $ 225 million in damage , with 3,100 damaged homes and businesses . There was also flooding in Richmond after the James River crested at the second-highest level on record . Throughout Virginia , damage was estimated at $ 753 million , making it the state 's costliest flood at the time , and there were 22 deaths . In West Virginia , 27 river gauging stations were 1 in 100 year events , mostly along the Potomac and Monongahela basins . As most of West Virginia 's liveable land is along flood plains , the river flooding caused heavy damage in the state , mostly in the eastern portion . High waters washed away topsoil and thousands of trees , and over 13,000 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in the state . Damage was estimated at nearly $ 700 million , making it West Virginia 's costliest flood , and there were 38 deaths . Flooding also affected Maryland , although to a lesser degree than neighboring Virginia , with $ 21 million in damage and one death . There was also tidal flooding in the state along the Chesapeake Bay from the storm , which washed away beaches just weeks after Hurricane Gloria affected the coastline . In Pennsylvania , flooding was worst along the Monongahela River in the state 's southwest portion . During the storm , a power company opened the flood gates of the Lake Lynn dam along the river to preserve its integrity , triggering a class action lawsuit that ultimately failed . The floods damaged or destroyed 3,349 houses in Pennsylvania , causing $ 83 million in damage , as well as one death . Overall damage was estimated at $ 1.4 billion , which would have been the fourth costliest United States hurricanes if it were a tropical cyclone , and there were 62 overall deaths . The flooding spurred changes to warning practices by the National Weather Service and the Government of Virginia . In December 2011 , the United States Army Corps of Engineers completed a flood mitigation project in Roanoke , Virginia that began following the 1985 floods .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1985_Election_day_floods", "rank": 24, "score": 114164 }, { "content": "Title: 1912 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1912 Atlantic hurricane season featured the first major hurricane -- Category 3 or higher on the modern day Saffir -- Simpson scale -- in the month of November . There were eleven tropical cyclones , seven of which became tropical storms ; four of those strengthened into hurricanes , and one reached major hurricane intensity . The season 's first cyclone developed on April 4 , while the final dissipated on November 21 . The season 's most intense and most devastating tropical cyclone was the final storm , known as the Jamaica hurricane . It produced heavy rainfall on Jamaica , leading to at least 100 fatalities and about $ 1.5 million ( 1912 USD ) in damage . The storm was also blamed for five deaths in Cuba . Other tropical cyclones that left notable impact include the fourth and sixth hurricanes . The former brought rough seas and storm surge to portions of the Gulf Coast of the United States , leaving locally severe damage , particularly in Mobile , Alabama , and Pensacola , Florida , totaling about $ 39,000 . One fatality occurred after a barge capsized . The sixth hurricane brought rough seas and heavy precipitation to northeastern Mexico and south Texas , with flooding reported inland . The storm left 15 deaths and about $ 28,000 in damage . Overall , the tropical cyclones of this season collectively caused at least 122 fatalities and just under $ 1.6 million in damage . The season 's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy ( ACE ) rating of 57 . ACE is , broadly speaking , a measure of the power of the hurricane multiplied by the length of time it existed , so storms that last a long time , as well as particularly strong hurricanes , have high ACEs .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1912_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 25, "score": 114003 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Alberto (1994) Content: Tropical Storm Alberto was the costliest storm of the 1994 Atlantic hurricane season . The storm was the first named storm of the season . It hit Florida across the Southeast United States in July , causing a massive flooding disaster while stalling over Georgia and Alabama . Alberto caused $ 1 billion in damage ( 1994 USD ) and 30 deaths .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Alberto_(1994)", "rank": 26, "score": 113559 }, { "content": "Title: 1934 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1934 Atlantic hurricane season ran through the summer and the first half of fall in 1934 . The 1934 season was fairly quiet . However , it was a continuation of deadly seasons that had been going on since 1928 . A June hurricane carved an erratic path across Central America and the Gulf of Mexico , causing catastrophic flooding in Central America that killed 1,000-3 ,000 people . Elsewhere , a tropical storm formed and existed entirely during the month of May , striking Florida and South Carolina and causing $ 155,000 in damage . A Category 1 hurricane passed over north Florida as a tropical storm and made landfall in central Texas , causing 11 casualties and $ 1 -- 2 million in damage . Another Category 1 grazed Galveston . The extratropical remnant of a hurricane moved up the US East Coast , bringing hurricane-force winds .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1934_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 27, "score": 113383 }, { "content": "Title: 1960 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1960 Atlantic hurricane season was the least active season since 1952 . The season officially began on June 15 , and lasted until November 15 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . The first system , an unnamed storm , developed in the Bay of Campeche on June 22 . It brought severe local flooding to southeastern Texas and was considered the worst disaster in some towns since a hurricane in 1945 . The unnamed storm moved across the United States for almost a week before dissipating on June 29 . In July , Hurricane Abby resulted in minor damage in the Leeward Islands , before impacting a few Central American counties -- the remnants of the storm would go on to form Hurricane Celeste in the East Pacific . Later that month , Tropical Storm Brenda caused flooding across much of the East Coast of the United States . The next storm , Hurricane Cleo , caused no known impact , despite its close proximity to land . The most significant storm of the season was Hurricane Donna , which at the time was among the ten costliest United States hurricanes . After the precursor caused a deadly plane crash in Senegal , the storm itself brought severe flooding and wind impacts to the Lesser Antilles and Florida , where Donna made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane . It moved northeast and struck North Carolina and Long Island , New York , while still at hurricane intensity . Donna caused at least 227 fatalities and $ 900 million ( 1960 USD ) in damage . Hurricane Ethel reached Category 3 intensity , but rapidly weakened before making landfall in Mississippi , resulting in only 1 fatality and $ 1.5 million in losses . The final storm , Florence , developed on September 17 . It remained weakened and moved erratically over Cuba and Florida . Only minor flooding was reported . Collectively , the tropical cyclones in 1960 caused at least 250 deaths and about $ 910.74 million in damage .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1960_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 28, "score": 113242 }, { "content": "Title: July 2013 Southeastern United States floods Content: The 2013 Southeastern United States floods were ongoing flooding across the southeastern U.S. Flash floods began on the morning of July 2 and continued through Independence Day and into the next day . The hardest-hit areas as of Friday afternoon are the Florida Panhandle , northwest Alabama and the area around Columbus , Mississippi . A plume of tropical moisture caused heavy rain to train over the same areas , for more than 36 hours in some cases , leading to flash flooding . The system also caused sporadic damaging winds and one tornado in Destin , Florida .", "qid": "348", "docid": "July_2013_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 29, "score": 112738 }, { "content": "Title: 1964 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1964 Atlantic hurricane season featured the highest number of U.S.-landfalling hurricanes since 1933 . The season officially began on June 15 , and lasted until November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . The season was slightly above average , with twelve total storms and six hurricanes . All of the hurricanes strengthened into major hurricanes , an event that had not occurred since 1930 . The first system , an unnamed tropical storm , developed on June 2 , almost two weeks before the official start of the season . Striking Florida on June 6 , the storm brought localized flooding to portions of Cuba and the Southeastern United States , leaving about $ 1 million in damage . The next storm , also unnamed , developed near the end of July ; it did not impact land . The effects of Hurricanes Cleo , Dora , and Isbell combined were devastating to Florida . Cleo also brought destruction to portions of the Caribbean , especially Guadeloupe and Haiti . After moving inland , Cleo brought flooding to states such as Virginia . Overall , the storm caused 219 deaths and about $ 187.5 million in damage . Dora lashed much of North Florida and southeastern Georgia with hurricane-force winds , leaving five fatalities and around $ 280 million in damage . In October , Isbell brought strong winds and several tornadoes to Florida , as well as flooding to Cuba and The Carolinas . Isbell killed seven people and left approximately $ 30 million in damage . The strongest tropical cyclone of the season was Hurricane Hilda , a powerful Category 4 hurricane that devastated portions of the Gulf Coast of the United States , especially Mississippi and Louisiana . Upon striking the latter as a Category 3 , Hilda brought heavy rainfall , strong winds , tornadoes , and coastal flooding . Many other areas of the Southern United States experienced flooding from Hilda and its remnants . Overall , Hilda caused 38 deaths and about $ 126 million in damage . The names Cleo , Dora , and Hilda were retired following the season . Collectively , the tropical cyclones resulted in 270 fatalities and approximately $ 609.5 million in damage .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1964_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 30, "score": 112401 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Florence (1988) Content: Hurricane Florence was the third of four named tropical cyclones to make landfall on the United States during the 1988 Atlantic hurricane season . The seventh tropical storm and second hurricane of the season , Florence developed on September 7 from an area of convection associated with a dissipating frontal trough in the southern Gulf of Mexico . After initially moving eastward , the storm turned northward and strengthened . Florence reached hurricane status and later peak winds of 80 mph ( 130 km/h ) on September 9 shortly before striking southeastern Louisiana . The storm rapidly weakened over land and dissipated on September 11 over northeastern Texas . Early in its duration , the storm dropped rainfall across the Yucatán Peninsula . Upon striking Louisiana , Florence produced a moderate storm surge , causing severe beach erosion in some locations . Gusty winds were also reported , causing power outages to over 100,000 people . In Alabama , one man died while trying to secure his boat . Rainfall from the hurricane caused severe river flooding in portions of the Florida Panhandle in an area already severely affected by heavy rainfall ; the flooding damaged or destroyed dozens of houses in Santa Rosa County . Throughout its path , damage totaled about $ 2.9 million ( 1988 USD , $ 5.3 million 2008 USD ) .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Florence_(1988)", "rank": 31, "score": 112303 }, { "content": "Title: 1896 East Coast hurricane Content: The 1896 East Coast hurricane was a slow-moving tropical cyclone that battered the East Coast of the United States from Florida to New England in mid-October 1896 . The fifth tropical cyclone of the 1896 Atlantic hurricane season , it formed on October 7 in the southern Gulf of Mexico , and caused minor damage in Florida while crossing the state two days later . From October 10 through 13 , the hurricane drifted northeastward along the coast , reaching its peak intensity as the equivalence of a Category 2 hurricane on the modern-day Saffir -- Simpson scale . The hurricane subjected many areas along the East Coast to days of high seas and damaging northeasterly winds , which halted shipping operations . The Mid-Atlantic coastline experienced flooding storm tides that submerged and heavily eroded Cobb 's Island , part of the Virginia Barrier Islands . Hotels and cottages there were extensively damaged , and the hurricane brought about the end of the island 's stint as a popular summer resort . Along the Jersey Shore , low-lying railroads were flooded , boardwalks were destroyed , and many beach houses sustained damage . The hurricane did $ 200,000 in damage to coastal installations on New York 's Coney Island . To the north , wind gusts as high as 80 mph affected eastern New England . Four sailors died in two maritime incidents attributed to the hurricane , and overall damage amounted to $ 500,000 .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1896_East_Coast_hurricane", "rank": 32, "score": 112164 }, { "content": "Title: Storm Desmond Content: Storm Desmond was an extratropical cyclone and fourth named storm of the 2015 -- 16 UK and Ireland windstorm season , notable for directing a plume of moist air , known as an atmospheric river , which brought record amounts of orographic rainfall to upland areas of northern Atlantic Europe and subsequent major floods . In the United Kingdom the worst affected areas were centred on Cumbria , parts of Lancashire and the Scottish Borders . In Ireland the worst affected areas were in the Shannon River Basin in the west and Irish midlands . The extent of damage caused in such a short period across wide areas brought into focus the performance of UK central government flood defence strategies . Expensive flood defence systems were proven ineffective and in some cases appeared to increase the problem . Professor Dieter Helm , Chair of the UK government 's Natural Capital Committee stated in January 2016 : `` Flooding crises tend to follow an established pattern . First , there is immediate help and assistance . Then second , there is a `` review '' . On occasions , this leads to a third stage of genuine reform , but in most cases `` sticking plasters '' are applied . These are incremental and often sensible , but typically fail to address the core issues and hence provide only a temporary respite . There are very good reasons why '' sticking plasters '' will not work this time . The conventional approach to flood defence , carried out by the Environment Agency ( EA ) , and financed largely by the Treasury , is at best inefficient . Sometimes it is even counterproductive , encouraging the sorts of land use and land management decisions that can actually make flooding worse in the medium term . '' The Chairman of the UK 's Environment Agency , the body responsible for main river maintenance resigned in early 2016 . The UK government House of Commons Select Committee for the environment challenged the Chief Executive Officer of the Environment Agency on its performance by stating : `` You -LSB- Sir James Bevan , CEO -RSB- said `` The capacity of a river does n't matter ! '' You 've got to be certain the leopard has changed its spots . And I will keep repeating this . You have n't really given us an answer as to whether you have monitored the situation . I 'm fearful . You allowed the River Parrett -LSB- Somerset -RSB- to silt up , you allowed the Tone to silt up , you allowed the tributaries to silt up , and then it flooded . '' The Committee added : `` The EA do n't provide -LSB- quotes for work -RSB- when doing projects so we ca n't compare like with like -LSB- with other project providers -RSB- . There is an argument for transparency on your spending ... You say the right words and hold onto your power . '' Severe rain and some flooding was also being reported in Northumberland , north Wales and Yorkshire . Disruption from flooding , high winds , and damage to infrastructure led to the suspension of hundreds of rail services across the country , with the West Coast Main Line closed for several days due to flooding and a landslide . Sports fixtures were also cancelled and more than 43,000 homes across the north of England were left without power , as well as over 2,000 homes in the Republic of Ireland and around 700 in Wales . The expected heavy rainfall was considered to be an extreme weather event by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute , who named it Synne . The Free University of Berlin named the low Ted , as part of its Adopt -- a -- vortex programme .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Storm_Desmond", "rank": 33, "score": 112067 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Gabrielle (2001) Content: Hurricane Gabrielle was a North Atlantic hurricane that caused flooding in both Florida and Newfoundland in September 2001 . It developed in the Gulf of Mexico on the same day as the September 11 attacks ; after the attacks , flights were canceled nationwide for two days , and when Gabrielle struck Florida on September 14 , it caused a day of additional cancellations . The storm moved ashore with winds of 70 mph near Venice , a city located south of the Tampa Bay area . The combination of the winds and heavy rainfall , which peaked at 15.1 in in Parrish , left 570,000 customers without power along the west coast and 126,000 customers without power on the east coast . The storm caused about $ 230 million ( 2001 USD ) in damage in Florida . In the Gulf of Mexico , high waves contributed to two deaths , one of which was indirect ; there was also a death due to flooding in Winter Haven . After crossing the state , Gabrielle had the appearance of an occluded frontal low or subtropical cyclone ; this was after the convection decreased near the center . However , Gabrielle gradually re-intensified and became a hurricane on September 17 as it passed northwest of Bermuda . The hurricane reached peak winds of 80 mph , but weakened subsequently due to wind shear . Gabrielle transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on September 19 , and later that day it passed just southeast of Newfoundland . The storm produced record rainfall that caused what was described the `` worst flooding in 100 years '' in St. John 's . Several roads and houses were flooded in the region . The extratropical remnants of Gabrielle continued to the northeast and dissipated on September 21 .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Gabrielle_(2001)", "rank": 34, "score": 112039 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 2015 Atlantic hurricane season was somewhat a below average season that produced twelve tropical cyclones , eleven named storms , four hurricanes , and two major hurricanes . The Accumulated Cyclone Energy ( ACE ) for the season was 68 % of the long-term median value . It officially began on June 1 , 2015 , and ended on November 30 , 2015 . These dates historically describe the period each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . However , the first named storm , Ana , developed on May 8 , nearly a month before the official start of the season , the first pre-season cyclone since Beryl in 2012 and the earliest since Ana in 2003 . The season concluded with Kate transitioning into an extratropical cyclone on November 11 , almost three weeks before the official end . Although most of the storms impacted land , overall effects were minimal . Ana caused minor flooding and wind damage in the Carolinas and left two dead in North Carolina . Tropical Storm Bill and its remnants caused flooding primarily in the South Central , Midwestern , and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States , while its precursor also left flooding in Central America and Mexico . The storm resulted in two deaths in Honduras , two in Guatemala , one in Mexico , and three deaths in the United States . Additionally , the United States suffered about $ 17.9 million ( 2015 USD ) in damage . Claudette and Danny left very minimal impact on land . In late August , Tropical Storm Erika brought heavy rainfall to Dominica , leading to devastating floods . Erika caused nearly $ 500 million in damage and 30 fatalities , making it the island 's deadliest natural disaster since Hurricane David in 1979 . The storm also flooded other nearby islands , but to a much lesser degree , such as Guadeloupe , Puerto Rico , and Hispaniola . Five additional deaths occurred in Haiti . Fred prompted a hurricane warning for Cape Verde for the first time ever and was the first storm to pass through the islands as a hurricane since 1892 . Strong winds there left about $ 1.1 million in damage . Two deaths were presumed to have occurred after two fishermen never returned to port . Seven other sailors likely drowned offshore Guinea-Bissau after their fishing boat collapsed . Tropical storms Grace , Henri , and Ida left negligible impact on land . Hurricane Joaquin 's intensity and slow movement in the vicinity of the Bahamas resulted in severe damage on some islands . Additionally , the American cargo ship SS El Faro went missing near Crooked Island and eventually capsized during the storm , drowning 33 people . Rough seas in Haiti also caused damage and one death from a fisherman drowning . Joaquin was the most intense satellite era tropical cyclone of non-tropical origins . The remnants of Kate affected the British Isles , particularly Wales in the United Kingdom . Throughout the season , these storms collectively caused at least $ 730.4 million in damage and 89 deaths . With the exception of Tropical Storm Risk 's initial season prediction in December 2014 , all major forecasting agencies called for a below or near-average season , mainly due to the strong possibility of an El Niño and colder than average sea surface temperatures . Overall , the forecasts were fairly accurate .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2015_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 35, "score": 112022 }, { "content": "Title: 1903 Florida hurricane Content: The 1903 Florida hurricane was an Atlantic hurricane that caused extensive wind and flood damage on the Florida peninsula and over the adjourning Southeastern United States in early to mid September 1903 . The third tropical cyclone and third hurricane of the season , this storm was first observed near Mayaguana island in the Bahamas early on September 9 . Moving northwestward , it became a hurricane the next day and passed near Nassau . The cyclone then turned to the west-northwest on September 11 and passed just north of the Bimini Islands . As it crossed the Bahamas , the cyclone produced hurricane-force winds that caused damage to crops and buildings , but no deaths were reported over the island chain . Late on September 11 , the cyclone struck near Fort Lauderdale , Florida . The Inchulva capsized near Delray Beach , drowning nine of her crew members . The cyclone caused severe wind damage in present-day Broward and Palm Beach counties , although most of the losses were to crops such as sugarcane . The cyclone weakened to a tropical storm while crossing Florida , but re-intensified into a hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico on September 17 . Peaking at 90 mph ( 150 km/h ) , equivalent to a strong Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale , the storm made landfall near Panama City early on September 14 . In Northwest Florida , Alabama , and Georgia , the cyclone produced widespread rainfall , causing some crop damage . Additionally , a storm surge caused boats to be blown ashore in the Florida Panhandle . In all , the storm killed 14 people in Florida and produced $ 500,000 in damage . After falling to tropical storm intensity early on September 14 , the storm weakened to a tropical depression on September 16 , several hours before dissipating over South Carolina .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1903_Florida_hurricane", "rank": 36, "score": 111849 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Louisiana floods Content: In August 2016 , prolonged rainfall in southern parts of the U.S. state of Louisiana resulted in catastrophic flooding that submerged thousands of houses and businesses . Louisiana 's governor , John Bel Edwards , called the disaster a `` historic , unprecedented flooding event '' and declared a state of emergency . Many rivers and waterways , particularly the Amite and Comite rivers , reached record levels , and rainfall exceeded 20 in in multiple parishes . Because of the large number of homeowners without flood insurance that were affected , the federal government is providing disaster aid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) . The flood has been called the worst US natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 . 13 deaths have been reported as a result of the flooding .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2016_Louisiana_floods", "rank": 37, "score": 111788 }, { "content": "Title: North Sea flood of 2007 Content: The North Sea flood of 2007 also known as Cyclone Tilo , and as Andrea in Norway was a storm tide of the North Sea affecting the coastlines of the Netherlands , the United Kingdom , Germany , Denmark , Norway and Belgium , starting on the night of 8 -- 9 November 2007 .", "qid": "348", "docid": "North_Sea_flood_of_2007", "rank": 38, "score": 111750 }, { "content": "Title: 1955 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1955 Atlantic hurricane season was , at the time , the costliest season ever recorded . The hurricane season officially began on June 15 , 1955 , and ended on November 15 , 1955 . It was slightly above average , with 13 recorded tropical cyclones . The first storm , Alice , had persisted since December 30 , 1954 . Alice caused relatively minor impact as it tracked through the Lesser Antilles and eastern Caribbean Sea in early January . Tropical Storm Brenda caused two deaths and minor damage along the Gulf Coast of the United States in early August . The quick succession of Hurricanes Connie and Diane caused significant flooding in the Northeastern United States , with nearly $ 1 billion ( 1955 USD ) in losses and at least 232 fatalities . The next three storms -- Hurricanes Edith and Flora and Tropical Storm Five -- caused very minor or no impact . In early August , Hurricane Gladys caused severe localized flooding in Mexico , primarily in Mexico City . Additionally , an offshoot of Gladys inflicted minor impact in Texas . Hurricane Hilda struck the Greater Antilles and then Mexico . It was attributed to at least 304 deaths and $ 120 million in losses . In mid-September , Hurricane Ione struck eastern North Carolina and contributed the flooding from Connie and Diane , resulting in seven fatalities and $ 88 million in damage . Later that month , Hurricane Janet , which peaked as a Category 5 hurricane , lashed several countries adjacent to the Caribbean Sea , as well as Mexico and British Honduras . Janet resulted in $ 53.8 million in damage and at least 716 deaths . An unnamed tropical storm in the month of October did not impact land . Hurricane Katie , the final storm , caused minor damage in a sparsely populated area of Hispaniola , totaling to at least $ 200,000 ; 7 fatalities were also reported . Collectively , the storms caused 1518 deaths and $ 1.2 billion in losses , making it the costliest season at the time . A record number of names -- four -- were retired following the season , which was tied by 1995 and 2004 , and then surpassed in 2005 ( when five names were retired ) .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1955_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 39, "score": 111704 }, { "content": "Title: 2004 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 2004 Pacific hurricane season was notable in that no tropical cyclone of at least tropical storm intensity moved ashore , an unusual occurrence . The season officially began on May 15 in the eastern Pacific , and on June 1 in the central Pacific ; it officially ended in both basins on November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period during each year when a majority of tropical cyclones form . Activity throughout the year fell slightly below the long-term average , with 12 named storms , 6 hurricanes , and 3 major hurricanes . The season was reflected by an Accumulated Cyclone Energy ( ACE ) index of 71 units . Impact throughout the season was minimal and no deaths were recorded . In early August , the remnants of Hurricane Darby aided in localized heavy rainfall in Hawaii , causing minor street and stream flooding ; coffee and macadamia trees were damaged as well . In early September , Hurricane Howard resulted in significant flooding across Baja California Peninsula that damaged agricultural land and 393 homes . Large swells also resulted in about 1,000 lifeguard rescues in California . In mid-September , Javier caused three fishermen to go missing and helped alleviate a multi-year drought across the Southwest United States . It produced record rainfall in the state of Wyoming . In mid - to late October , Tropical Storm Lester and Tropical Depression Sixteen-E caused localized flooding ; the latter may have produced a tornado near Culiacán , Mexico .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2004_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 40, "score": 111665 }, { "content": "Title: Floods (Pantera song) Content: `` Floods '' is a power ballad by American heavy metal band Pantera from their 1996 album The Great Southern Trendkill . It is the longest song on the album , and the third longest song the band has ever recorded , after `` Cemetery Gates '' ( 7:02 ) , and `` Hard Lines , Sunken Cheeks '' ( 7:01 ) .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Floods_(Pantera_song)", "rank": 41, "score": 111630 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of the 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in Florida Content: The effects of the 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in Florida produced significant flooding , damage to vegetation , and beach erosion in the Miami metropolitan area . After forming off West Africa on September 2 , the storm moved on a parabolic path that brought it through The Bahamas as a Category 3 hurricane on September 16 , eventually striking the city of Fort Lauderdale in South Florida as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on the following day . The hurricane later crossed the state , entered the Gulf of Mexico near Naples less than 24 hours later , and went on to strike Louisiana before dissipating on September 21 . The hurricane roduced heavy rainfall of up to 10.12 in , exacerbating existing flood conditions across all of southernmost Florida . High waves pounded the southeast coast , heavily damaging beachfront structures , washing out much of the coastal highway , and piling deep sand drifts on nearby grounds . In the Everglades , many cattle were drowned and the dike on Lake Okeechobee nearly overtopped . Off the west coast , the storm caused a ship to get lost and another to sink . In all , the storm claimed 17 lives and caused $ 31.6 million in damage .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Effects_of_the_1947_Fort_Lauderdale_hurricane_in_Florida", "rank": 42, "score": 111317 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 2013 Pacific hurricane season featured a high quantity of storms , although most remained weak . It officially began on May 15 , 2013 in the Eastern Pacific and started on June 1 , 2013 in the Central Pacific . Both ended on November 30 , 2013 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the eastern Pacific basin . However , the formation of a storm is possible at any time . The second storm of the season , Hurricane Barbara , brought widespread heavy rains to much of Southwestern Mexico and Central America . Damage estimates from the storm range from $ 750,000 to $ 1 million ( 2013 USD ) ; four people were killed and four others are reportedly missing . In addition to Barbara , Hurricane Cosme killed three people despite remaining far offshore the Mexican coast . Hurricane Erick also brought slight effects to the region as well , killing two people . Later that month , Tropical Storm Flossie threatened to become the first storm to make a `` direct hit '' on Hawaii in 20 years , causing minimal damage . Ivo and Juliette both threatened Baja California Sur , and the former triggered flash floods across the Southwestern United States . In mid-September , Hurricane Manuel killed at least 169 people in Mexico , and was responsible for significant damage to the western coast and the area around Acapulco . In late October , Hurricane Raymond became the strongest storm of the season .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2013_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 43, "score": 111275 }, { "content": "Title: Flash flood Content: A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas : washes , rivers , dry lakes and basins . It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm , hurricane , tropical storm , or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields . Flash floods may occur after the collapse of a natural ice or debris dam , or a human structure such as a man-made dam , as occurred before the Johnstown Flood of 1889 . Flash floods are distinguished from regular floods by a timescale of less than six hours . The water that is temporarily available is often used by foliage with rapid germination and short growth cycles , and by specially adapted animal life .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Flash_flood", "rank": 44, "score": 111244 }, { "content": "Title: April 2016 United States storm complex Content: The April 2016 United States storm complex was a major storm system that resulted from an upper-level low in the United States stalling and producing a major snowstorm in the Rocky Mountains , and record-breaking rain in and around Houston , Texas , resulting in severe flooding . There were more than 17 inches of rain in one day in parts of the city , and up to 4 inches of rain per hour that morning at George Bush Intercontinental Airport . It is described as the wettest April in the city on record . As the most widespread flood event there since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 , it caused a state of emergency to be declared in nine counties . __ TOC __", "qid": "348", "docid": "April_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 45, "score": 111204 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Chris (1988) Content: Tropical Storm Chris caused minor flooding in the Greater Antilles and the Eastern United States in August 1988 . The seventh tropical cyclone and third named storm of the annual hurricane season , Chris developed from a tropical wave while roughly midway between Africa and the Lesser Antilles on August 21 . Forming as a tropical depression , it remained weak for several days , crossing the Lesser Antilles , Hispaniola , and The Bahamas during this time . While offshore the coast of Florida on August 28 , the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Chris . Thereafter , the system tracked rapidly north-northwestward and came ashore near Savannah , Georgia later that day . Once inland , Chris quickly weakened , and by early on the following day , it weakened to a tropical depression over South Carolina . Six hours later , Chris was absorbed by a cold front while over North Carolina , though the remnants of the system tracked across the Eastern United States and Atlantic Canada before dissipating on August 30 . In the Leeward Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands , Chris produced only light rainfall , that caused no damage or fatalities . Heavy rainfall occurred in Puerto Rico , which damaged 100 homes and caused three fatalities . Large amounts of precipitation also fell in Hispaniola , though no damage was reported . In the United States , much of the damage occurred due to tornadoes , especially in The Carolinas . A tornado in South Carolina destroyed at least 15 mobile homes , caused one fatality , and resulted in a brief shutdown of U.S. Route 301 . Flooding was minimal , as rainfall totals amounted to 5 in or less , though standing water was reported on Interstate 26 . Another destructive tornado occurred in Virginia . Two additional deaths were reported in New York , two from drowning and one from a tree falling onto a car . Although winds were light , at least 118,000 people from South Carolina to Maine were left without electricity . The dissipating storm produced light winds and precipitation in Nova Scotia . Overall , Tropical Storm Chris was attributed to four fatalities and $ 2.25 million ( 1988 USD ) in losses .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Chris_(1988)", "rank": 46, "score": 110990 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 1901–2000 Content: Floods in the United States are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , and dam failure . Below is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to the country , 1901 through 2000 , inclusive .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_1901–2000", "rank": 47, "score": 110707 }, { "content": "Title: 1962 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1962 Atlantic hurricane season was the least active since 1939 , with only five named storms . Although the season officially began on June 15 , the first storm did not form until August 26 . Hurricane Alma brushed the Outer Banks before becoming extratropical southeast of New England , destroying hundreds of boats and producing beneficial rainfall . In late August , Tropical Storm Becky developed unusually far east in the Atlantic Ocean , becoming the easternmost storm on record to recurve to the northeast . Celia followed in the September , forming east of the Lesser Antilles and executing a loop near Bermuda before dissipating . Hurricane Daisy was the costliest of the season , leaving about $ 1.1 million in damage in New England ( 1962 USD ) . The storm dropped the highest rainfall total on record in Maine , and its precipitation caused 22 traffic fatalities . The final hurricane -- Ella -- was also the strongest , remaining offshore of the eastern United States but causing two deaths . In addition to the five named storms , there were three non-developing tropical depressions . The first struck Texas in August , causing street flooding and killing three . The second of three formed off the west coast of Florida and flooded widespread areas after 1 in 100 year rainfall . The floods affected 5,000 houses and caused millions in damage . The third of three non-developing storms moved across the Caribbean before striking Nicaragua in October . The season officially ended on November 15 .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1962_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 48, "score": 110688 }, { "content": "Title: 1947 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1947 Atlantic hurricane season was the first Atlantic hurricane season to have tropical storms named by the United States Air Force . The season officially began on June 16 , 1947 , and ended on November 1 , 1947 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . However , the first tropical cyclone developed on June 13 , while the final system was absorbed by a cold front on December 1 . There were 10 tropical storms ; 5 of them attained hurricane status , while two became major hurricanes , which are Category 3 or higher on the modern day Saffir -- Simpson scale . Operationally , the third tropical storm was considered two separate tropical cyclones , resulting in the storm receiving two names . The eighth tropical storm went undetected and was not listed in HURDAT until 2014 . Nearly all tropical storms impacted land during the season , some of which caused many fatalities and left destruction . The second storm caused severe flooding and mudslides in Mexico , leaving at least 48 dead and 43 others missing . In September , the strongest and costliest hurricane of the season , the Fort Lauderdale hurricane , left severe damage in Florida , Louisiana , and Mississippi due to strong winds , heavy rainfall , and abnormally high tides . There were 51 fatalities and about $ 160.2 million ( 1947 USD ) in damage . The ninth storm , also known as the Cape Sable hurricane , caused additional flooding in South Florida and left wind damage in Georgia and South Carolina . The storm left about $ 20 million in damage . Overall , the systems of the season caused about $ 184.2 million in damage and at least 101 fatalities . __ TOC __", "qid": "348", "docid": "1947_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 49, "score": 110502 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Andrea (2013) Content: Tropical Storm Andrea brought flooding to Cuba , the Yucatan Peninsula , and portions of the East Coast of the United States in June 2013 . The first tropical cyclone and named storm of the annual hurricane season , Andrea originated from an area of low pressure in the eastern Gulf of Mexico on June 5 . Despite strong wind shear and an abundance of dry air , the storm strengthened while initially heading north-northeastward . Later on June 5 , it re-curved northeastward and approached the Big Bend region of Florida . Andrea intensified and peaked as a strong tropical storm with winds at 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) on June 6 . A few hours later , the storm weakened slightly and made landfall near Steinhatchee , Florida later that day . It began losing tropical characteristics while tracking across Florida and Georgia . Andrea transitioned into an extratropical cyclone over South Carolina on June 7 , though the remnants continued to move along the East Coast of the United States , until being absorbed by another extratropical system offshore Maine on June 10 . Prior to becoming a tropical cyclone , the precursor to Andrea dropped nearly 12 inches ( 300 mm ) of rainfall on the Yucatán Peninsula . In Cuba , the storm brought flooding , especially in Pinar del Río Province . Over 1,000 people fled their homes , mainly along the Cuyaguateje River . A tornado was also spawned in the area , damaging three homes . In Florida , the storm brought heavy rainfall to some areas , causing localized flooding . There were nine tornadoes in Florida , the worst of which touched down in The Acreage and downed power lines and trees , causing significant roof damage to several houses ; there was also one injury . After Andrea transition into an extratropical storm , the remnants that also spawned one tornado in North Carolina , though damage was minor . Additionally , minor flooding was reported in some areas of the Northeastern United States . Three fatalities occurred due to weather-related traffic accidents in Virginia and New Jersey . There was a direct death reported after a surfer in South Carolina went missing and was presumed to have drowned . The remnants of Andrea also brought gusty winds to Atlantic Canada , causing thousands of power outages in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Andrea_(2013)", "rank": 50, "score": 110220 }, { "content": "Title: 1969 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1969 Atlantic hurricane season was the busiest Atlantic hurricane season since 1933 . The hurricane season officially began on June 1 , and lasted until November 30 . The season had the highest number of systems reach hurricane status -- twelve -- in a single season , until that record was surpassed in 2005 . Activity began with a series of five tropical depressions , the first of which developed on May 29 . The third system in that series , Tropical Depression Seven , caused extensive flooding in Cuba and Jamaica in early June . The final in the series formed on July 25 , the same day that Tropical Storm Anna developed . Neither the former nor latter caused significant impact on land . Later in the season , Tropical Depression Twenty-Nine caused severe local flooding in the Florida Panhandle and southwestern Georgia in September . Hurricane Blanche was a small and short-lived tropical cyclone in mid-August that resulted in minimal effects . The most significant storm of the season was Hurricane Camille , which peaked as a Category 5 hurricane on August 17 and devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States upon striking Mississippi the next day . Strong winds and storm surge heights especially impacted Mississippi and Louisiana . Later in its duration , the storm caused severe flooding Virginia and West Virginia . Camille alone was responsible for 259 deaths and $ 1.4 billion . All damage figures are in 1969 USD , unless otherwise noted . It was the costliest United States hurricane at the time , until Hurricane Agnes in 1972 . In early September , Hurricane Francelia caused deadly floods in Central America , with 271 people killed in Central America . Hurricane Inga had the third longest duration of an Atlantic tropical cyclone . The last storm , Hurricane Martha , was the only known tropical cyclone to make landfall in Panama . Martha caused minor flooding in the former and Costa Rica . Overall , the systems of the season collectively caused 535 deaths and over $ 1.49 billion in losses .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1969_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 51, "score": 110103 }, { "content": "Title: 1860 Atlantic hurricane season Content: During the 1860 Atlantic hurricane season , three severe hurricanes struck Louisiana and the Gulf Coast of the United States within a period of seven weeks . The season effectively began on August 8 with the formation of a tropical cyclone in the eastern Gulf of Mexico , and produced seven known tropical storms and hurricanes until the dissipation of the last known system on October 24 . Six of the seven storms were strong enough to be considered hurricanes on the modern-day Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale , of which four attained Category 2 status and one attained Category 3 major hurricane strength . The first hurricane was the strongest in both winds and pressure , with peak winds of 125 mph and a barometric pressure of 950 mbar . Until contemporary reanalysis discovered four previously unknown tropical cyclones that did not affect land , only three hurricanes were known to have existed ; all three made landfall in Louisiana , causing severe damage . The first two hurricanes to strike the Gulf Coast -- in August and September , respectively -- caused significant inundation of low-lying and coastal communities , inflicting severe damage and killing dozens of people . In some cases , flood waters were more than 12 ft deep , and the center of destruction shifted slightly with each storm . Sugar cane crops were destroyed by these two systems as well as the succeeding storm in early October . Property and infrastructure suffered with all three events . With the third storm that made landfall , extreme winds blasted the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas . All other storms remained away from land with no effects except on shipping .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1860_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 52, "score": 110024 }, { "content": "Title: 1947 Cape Sable hurricane Content: The 1947 Cape Sable hurricane , sometimes known informally as Hurricane King , was a weak tropical cyclone that became a hurricane and caused catastrophic flooding in South Florida and the Everglades in mid-October 1947 . The eighth tropical storm and fourth hurricane of the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season , it first developed on October 9 in the southern Caribbean Sea and hence moved north by west until a few days later it struck western Cuba . The cyclone then turned sharply to the northeast , accelerated , and strengthened to a hurricane , within 30 hours crossing the southern Florida peninsula . Across South Florida , the storm produced widespread rainfall up to 15 in and severe flooding , among the worst ever recorded in the area , that led to efforts by the United States Congress to improve drainage in the region . Once over the Atlantic Ocean on October 13 , the storm made history when it was the first to be targeted for modification by government and private agencies ; dry ice was spread by airplanes throughout the storm in an unsuccessful effort to weaken the hurricane , though changes in the track were initially blamed upon the experiment . On the same day as that of the seeding , the cyclone slowed dramatically and turned westward , making landfall on the morning of October 15 south of Savannah , Georgia . Across the U.S. states of Georgia and South Carolina , the small hurricane produced tides up to 12 ft and significant damage to 1,500 structures , but the death toll was limited to one person . The system dissipated the next day over Alabama , after causing $ 3.26 million in losses along its path .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1947_Cape_Sable_hurricane", "rank": 53, "score": 109871 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Kathleen (1976) Content: Hurricane Kathleen was a tropical cyclone that caused destructive impacts in California . On September 7 , 1976 , a tropical depression formed ; two days later it accelerated north towards the Baja California Peninsula . Kathleen brushed the Pacific coast of the peninsula as a hurricane on September 9 and made landfall as a fast-moving tropical storm the next day . With its circulation intact and still a tropical storm , Kathleen headed north into the United States and affected California and Arizona . Kathleen finally dissipated late on September 11 . Damage in the United States was considerable . California received record rainfall , with over a foot of rain falling in some areas . Flooding caused catastrophic destruction to Ocotillo , and six people drowned . Flooding extended west ; railway tracks were destroyed in Palm Desert and high winds and severe flooding were recorded in Arizona . Overall , the damage total was $ 160 million ( 1976 USD ) and 12 deaths were attributed to the storm .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Kathleen_(1976)", "rank": 54, "score": 109771 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Carol Content: Hurricane Carol was among the worst tropical cyclones on record to affect the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island in the United States . It developed from a tropical wave near the Bahamas on August 25 , 1954 , and slowly strengthened as it moved northwestward . On August 27 , Carol intensified to reach winds of 105 mph ( 165 km/h ) , but weakened as its motion turned to a northwest drift . A strong trough of low pressure turned the hurricane northeastward , and Carol later intensified into a major hurricane . While paralleling the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States , the storm produced strong winds and rough seas that caused minor coastal flooding and slight damage to houses in North Carolina , Virginia , Washington , D.C. , Delaware , and New Jersey . The well-organized hurricane accelerated north-northeastward and made landfall on eastern Long Island , New York , and then over eastern Connecticut on August 31 with sustained winds estimated at 110-mph and a barometric pressure near 956 mb . Carol transitioned into an extratropical cyclone over New Hampshire later on August 31 , 1954 . In New York , strong winds on Long Island damaged about 1,000 houses , left 275,000 people without electricity , downed many trees , and resulted in heavy crop losses . Storm surge flooded LaGuardia Airport and inundated the Montauk Highway , which left the eastern portion of Long Island isolated . Carol also brought strong winds and rough seas to coastal Connecticut , Rhode Island , and southeastern Massachusetts . Throughout the region , about 150,000 people were left without electricity and telephone service . 1,545 houses were destroyed and another 9,720 were damaged . Approximately 3,500 cars and 3,000 boats were destroyed . There were 65 deaths and 1,000 injuries in New England . The storm caused an additional $ 1 million in damage in Canada as well as two deaths . Overall , Carol caused 72 fatalities and damage totaled $ 462 million ( 1954 USD ) , making it the costliest hurricane in the history of the United States , at the time . Following the storm , Carol was retired , becoming the first name to be removed from the naming lists in the Atlantic basin .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Carol", "rank": 55, "score": 109704 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Ismael (1983) Content: Hurricane Ismael was responsible for significant flooding throughout the Inland Empire of the United States in August 1983 . The origins of Hurricane Ismael were from a northward bulge of the Intertropical Convergence Zone ( ITCZ ) in early August , which resulted in the formation of a tropical depression on August 8 . Six hours later , it was upgraded into Tropical storm Ismael . Continuing to intensify , Ismael was upgraded into a hurricane late on August 10 and subsequently developed an eye . After bypassing the Revillagigedo Islands , the storm reached its peak wind speed of 100 mph . Late on August 11 , Hurricane Ismael began to weaken as it encountered cooler waters . The following day , Ismael was downgraded into a tropical storm . On August 14 , the storm was downgraded into a tropical depression approximately 250 mi west of Point Ensenada . After turning north , Ismael dissipated later that day near Guadalupe Island . While still out at sea , Ismael brought 6 - waves to Southern California , though waves from the storm were less than expected . One person was swept away at a beach . The remnants of the storm later moved over the region , resulting in moderate rainfall . The Yucca Valley was the worst hit by the storm , where nearly every road was washed out . Almost 50,000 residents were isolated due to rains . A tornado was spotted near Los Angeles , causing minor damage . In San Bernardino , many buildings were destroyed . Around 80,000 homes were left without power across the Inland Empire . Moreover , three interstates were closed . In all , minor injuries were reported , three people died in San Bernardino when their car swept into a channel , and an engineer was killed returning to China Lake when her car was swept into a wash . Damage in the region totaled $ 19 million ( 1983 USD ) . After affecting California , the remnants of the hurricane moved into Nevada . Many parking lots in Laughlin were flooded ; two small towns in Clark County were also isolated . Furthermore , several major streets along the outskirts of Las Vegas were closed because of flooding .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Ismael_(1983)", "rank": 56, "score": 109612 }, { "content": "Title: Reconstruction of New Orleans Content: Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city of New Orleans in 2005 . The storm caused levees to fail , releasing tens of billions of gallons of water . The levee failure contributed to extensive flooding in New Orleans area and surrounding parishes . 80 % of all structures in Orleans Parish sustained water damage . Over 204,000 homes were damaged or destroyed , and more than 800,000 citizens displaced -- the greatest displacement in the United States since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s . Wind damage was less severe than predicted . Reconstruction was hindered by bureaucratic problems and funding issues with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) . Relief agencies provided supplemental relief . By mid-June 2006 , the city was again hosting conventions and promoting tourism .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Reconstruction_of_New_Orleans", "rank": 57, "score": 109594 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Dennis (1999) Content: Hurricane Dennis caused flooding in North Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic states in early September 1999 , which would later be compounded by Hurricane Floyd . The fifth tropical cyclone of the season , Dennis developed from a tropical wave to the north of Puerto Rico on August 24 . Originally a tropical depression , the system strengthened into a tropical storm despite unfavorable wind shear . The storm became a hurricane by August 26 . After striking the Abaco Islands , conditions improved , allowing for Dennis to strengthen into a Category 2 on the Saffir -- Simpson scale by August 28 . Around this time , Dennis began to move parallel to the Southeastern United States . Early on August 30 , the storm peaked with winds of 105 mph ( 165 km/h ) . By the following day , steering currents collapsed and the storm interacted with a cold front , causing Dennis to move erratically offshore North Carolina . Wind shear and cold air associated with the front weakened Dennis to a tropical storm on September 1 and removed some of its tropical characteristics . Eventually , warmer ocean temperatures caused some re-strengthening . By September 4 , Dennis turned northwestward and made landfall in Cape Lookout , North Carolina , as a strong tropical storm . The storm slowly weakened inland , before transitioning into an extratropical cyclone over western New York on September 7 . In the Bahamas , Dennis produced moderate winds , rain , and storm surge on San Salvador , Crooked Island , Eleuthera , and Abaco Islands , resulting in damage to roofs and coastal properties . Dennis brought 6 - waves to the east coast of Florida , causing minor erosion and four drowning deaths . The waves left severe erosion and coastal flooding along the Outer Banks of North Carolina . An 8 ft deep channel created along Highway 12 isolated three towns on Hatteras Island . In Carteret , Craven , and Dare counties , the storm damaged at least 2,025 homes and businesses to some degree . Heavy rainfall fell in eastern North Carolina . Although the precipitation was generally beneficial due to drought conditions , it also damaged crops . Two indirect deaths occurred in Richlands during a weather-related car accident . Similar inland flooding occurred in northern and eastern Virginia . A tornado in Hampton severely damaged five apartment complexes , three of which were condemned completely , as well an assisted living facility ; about 460 people were forced to evacuate from the buildings , and as many as 800 vehicles may have been damaged . Overall , damage in North Carolina and Virginia totaled about $ 157 million ( 1999 USD ) . Generally minor flooding occurred in the Mid-Atlantic and New England .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Dennis_(1999)", "rank": 58, "score": 109369 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Lee (2011) Content: Tropical Storm Lee was the twelfth named storm and thirteenth system overall of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season , developing from a broad tropical disturbance over the Gulf on September 1 . It was designated as Tropical Storm Lee the next day . The system was rather large , and due to drifting , Lee brought flash flooding to the Gulf Coast . Flooding associated with the rains caused significant property damage in the areas , with drowning deaths reported in both Mississippi and Georgia . Elsewhere , the storm helped spread wildfires that destroyed homes and killed two people in Texas , and a traffic accident in Alabama resulted in one death . Rough surf offshore drowned one person in each of these states . Lee spawned 30 confirmed tornadoes in the United States . After becoming extratropical , Lee caused historic flooding in Pennsylvania , New York , and Canada , mainly Quebec and Ontario . Lee was the first subtropical or tropical storm to make landfall in Louisiana since Hurricane Gustav in 2008 . Damage total is estimated to be around $ 1.6 billion .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Lee_(2011)", "rank": 59, "score": 109335 }, { "content": "Title: 1815 North Carolina hurricane Content: The 1815 North Carolina hurricane caused the most severe flooding in New Bern , North Carolina since 1795 . First detected east of the Lesser Antilles on 26 August , the disturbance drifted toward the northwestern Leeward Islands , arriving by 29 August . The hurricane soon approached Charleston , South Carolina , on 1 September , and subsequently made landfall near Cape Lookout in North Carolina on 3 September . The gale reached New England by 5 September , departing the region on 6 September . The hurricane caused significant impact even before coming ashore : many vessels were damaged , grounded , capsized , or destroyed offshore throughout the course of the storm . Extensive damage to corn , cotton , and rice crops was also noted . Flood waters brought rivers as much as 8 ft above normal , inundating streets and structures . Overall , the hurricane inflicted at least 15 deaths throughout its existence , and more than $ 60,000 ( 1815 USD ) in property damage .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1815_North_Carolina_hurricane", "rank": 60, "score": 109256 }, { "content": "Title: 1933 Outer Banks hurricane Content: The 1933 Outer Banks hurricane lashed portions of the North Carolina and Virginia coasts less than a month after another hurricane hit the general area . The twelfth tropical storm and sixth hurricane of the 1933 Atlantic hurricane season , it formed by September 8 to the east of the Lesser Antilles . It moved generally to the north-northwest and strengthened quickly to peak winds of 140 mph ( 220 km/h ) on September 12 . This made it a major hurricane and a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale . The hurricane remained at or near that intensity for several days while tracking to the northwest . It weakened approaching the southeastern United States , and on September 16 passed just east of Cape Hatteras , North Carolina with winds of about 100 mph ( 160 km/h ) . Turning to the northeast , the hurricane became extratropical on September 18 before moving across Atlantic Canada , eventually dissipating four days later . The threat of the hurricane prompted widespread tropical cyclone warnings and watches along the eastern United States and prompted some people to evacuate . Damage was heaviest in southeastern North Carolina near New Bern , where the combination of high tides and swollen rivers flooded much of the town . Across North Carolina , the hurricane caused power outages , washed out roads , and damaged crops . Several houses were damaged , leaving about 1,000 people homeless . Damage was estimated at $ 4.5 million , and there were 21 deaths in the state , mostly from drowning . Hurricane-force winds extended into southeastern Virginia , where there were two deaths . High tides isolated a lighthouse near Norfolk and covered several roads . Farther north , two people on a small boat were left missing in Maine , and another person was presumed killed when his boat sank in Nova Scotia .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1933_Outer_Banks_hurricane", "rank": 61, "score": 109220 }, { "content": "Title: 1978 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1978 Atlantic hurricane season was the last Atlantic hurricane season to use an all-female naming list . The hurricane season officially began on June 1 , and ended on November 30 . It was an above average season due to a subsiding El Niño . The first storm , a subtropical storm , developed unusually early -- on January 18 -- and dissipated five days later without causing any damage . At the end of July and early August , short-lived Tropical Storm Amelia caused extensive flooding in Texas after dropping as much as 48 in of rain . There were 33 deaths and $ 110 million ( 1978 USD ) in damage . Tropical Storm Bess and Hurricane Cora resulted in only minor land impacts , while the latter was attributed to one fatality . Later in August , Tropical Storm Debra produced widespread effects , though damage was also relatively minor . Hurricane Ella became the northernmost Category 4 hurricane while located at 38 ° N , and lashed the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada with gusty winds and rip currents . Hurricanes Flossie and Kendra as well as Tropical Storms Hope , Irma , and Juliet caused minimal land impacts as a tropical cyclone . However , the precursor to Hurricane Kendra caused flooding in Puerto Rico . Hurricane Greta brought strong winds , high tides , and flooding to Central America , particularly Belize and Honduras . Greta resulted in about $ 25 million in damage and at least five fatalities . Overall , the storms of this season collectively caused $ 191 million in damage and 42 fatalities . Hurricane Greta crossed into the eastern pacific and was renamed Olivia .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1978_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 62, "score": 108886 }, { "content": "Title: 1989 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1989 Atlantic hurricane season featured the costliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin at the time , Hurricane Hugo . The season officially began on June 1 , and ended on November 30 . It was a near average season with 11 named storms . The first storm , Tropical Depression One , developed on June 15 , and dissipated two days later without effects on land . Later that month , Tropical Storm Allison caused severe flooding , especially in Texas and Louisiana . Tropical Storm Barry , Tropical Depressions Six , Nine , and Thirteen , and Hurricanes Erin and Felix caused negligible impact . Hurricane Gabrielle and Tropical Storm Iris caused light effects on land , with the former resulting in nine fatalities from rip currents offshore the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada , while the latter produced minor flooding in the United States Virgin Islands . The most notable storm of the season was Hurricane Hugo , a Category 5 hurricane that caused at least $ 10 billion ( 1989 USD ) in damage and 88 fatalities as it ravaged the Lesser Antilles and the United States , especially the state of South Carolina . Hugo ranked as the costliest Atlantic hurricane until Hurricane Andrew in 1992 , and has since fallen further due to destructive storms in the 2000s and early 2010s . Few other storms in 1989 caused significant damage ; hurricanes Chantal and Jerry both resulted in flooding and wind impacts in Texas . Hurricane Dean also caused light damage in Bermuda and the Canadian province of Newfoundland . Tropical Storm Karen , the final storm of the season , brought heavy rainfall and a tornado to Cuba , before dissipating on December 4 . Overall , the storms of the season collectively caused 124 fatalities and at least $ 10.54 billion in damage .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1989_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 63, "score": 108710 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of Hurricane Jeanne in the Mid-Atlantic region Content: The effects of Hurricane Jeanne in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States included two fatalities and $ 530 million ( 2004 USD ; $ USD ) in damage . Originating from a tropical wave off the coast of Africa in early September 2004 , Hurricane Jeanne tracked through the Leeward Islands and Hispaniola for several days , resulting in extensive damage and an immense loss of life . After completing a clockwise loop between September 22 and 24 , the storm intensified into a major hurricane before striking the Bahamas and Florida . Substantially weaker , the system turned northeastward over Georgia before affecting Delaware , District of Columbia , Maryland , New Jersey , New York , Pennsylvania , Virginia , and West Virginia ; all of those states are in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States . By the evening of September 26 , the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center took over responsibility of monitoring the former hurricane over Virginia . Throughout September 28 and much of the following day , the remnants of Jeanne produced heavy , flooding rains in many states . Severe weather associated with the storm also resulted in isolated tornadoes in a few states . Overall damage was severe , with Pennsylvania suffering nearly $ 300 million ( 2004 USD ; $ USD ) in losses alone . Two fatalities were also linked to the passage of Jeanne , one in both Virginia and Pennsylvania . Damage in the Mid-Atlantic states was estimated at $ 530 million ( 2004 USD ; $ USD )", "qid": "348", "docid": "Effects_of_Hurricane_Jeanne_in_the_Mid-Atlantic_region", "rank": 64, "score": 108669 }, { "content": "Title: 1970 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1970 Atlantic hurricane season was the first season in which reconnaissance aircraft flew into all four quadrants of a tropical cyclone . The season officially began on June 1 and lasted until November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . The season was fairly average , with 10 total storms forming , of which five were hurricanes . Two of those five became major hurricanes , which are Category 3 or higher on the Saffir -- Simpson scale . The first system , Hurricane Alma , developed on May 17 . The storm killed eight people , seven from flooding in Cuba and one from a lightning strike in Florida . In July , Tropical Storm Becky brought minor flooding to Florida and other parts of the Southern United States , leaving one death and about $ 500,000 ( 1970 USD ) in damage . The most significant storm of the season was Hurricane Celia , a Category 3 hurricane that slammed South Texas in early August . Celia resulted in about $ 930 million in damage and was the costliest hurricane in Texas until Alicia in 1983 . There were 28 fatalities , with four in Cuba , eight in Florida , and sixteen in Texas . Later that month , Tropical Storm Dorothy caused severe flooding in Martinique , which left up to 51 deaths and $ 34 million in damage . One death occurred in Mexico as a result of Hurricane Ella after a house collapsed . In October , Tropical Depression Fifteen brought a devastating flood to Puerto Rico . At least 22 fatalities and $ 65.5 million in damage occurred . Collectively , the storms of this season left at least $ 1.03 billion in damage and 115 deaths . __ TOC __", "qid": "348", "docid": "1970_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 65, "score": 108650 }, { "content": "Title: 1837 Racer's hurricane Content: Racer 's hurricane was a destructive tropical cyclone that had severe effects on northeastern Mexico and the Gulf Coast of the United States in early October 1837 . It takes its name from the Royal Navy ship Racer , which sustained some damage when it encountered the hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean Sea . The storm first affected Jamaica with flooding rainfall and strong winds on September 26 and 27 , before entering the Gulf of Mexico by October 1 . As the hurricane approached northern Tamaulipas and southern Texas , it slowed to a crawl and turned sharply eastward . The storm battered the Gulf Coast from Texas to the Florida Panhandle between October 3 and 7 , and after crossing the Southeastern United States , it emerged into the Atlantic shipping lanes off the Carolinas . For most of the storm 's duration , the strongest winds and heaviest rains were confined to the northern side of its track . The effects of the tropical cyclone were far-reaching . Matamoros , on the southern bank of the Rio Grande , faced hurricane conditions for several days , with significant damage to ships . Many towns along the Texas shoreline were inundated by the storm surge , which flooded the coastal plains for miles inland . Galveston Island was devastated , with nearly every building washed away and most vessels driven ashore . To the east , a water level rise of 8 ft on Lake Pontchartrain submerged low-lying areas of New Orleans , where strong winds unroofed houses . Many buildings along the shores of the lake were swept away , and multiple steamboats were destroyed . The hurricane destroyed the first American lighthouse constructed outside the Thirteen Colonies . Storm surge and wind damage extended into Mississippi and Alabama , but to a lesser degree of severity . In the interior Southeast , sugar cane and cotton crops took heavy losses . As the weakening storm buffeted the Outer Banks of North Carolina on October 9 , a passenger steamboat called the SS Home ran aground about 300 ft off Cape Hatteras , and rapidly broke up in the pounding surf . Of the 130 passengers and crewmen , about 90 perished . Overall , Racer 's hurricane killed an estimated 105 people .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1837_Racer's_hurricane", "rank": 66, "score": 108544 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Marco (1990) Content: Tropical Storm Marco was the only tropical cyclone to make landfall on the United States during the 1990 Atlantic hurricane season . The 13th named storm of the season , Marco formed from a cold-core low pressure area along the northern coast of Cuba on October 9 , and tracked northwestward through the eastern Gulf of Mexico . With most of its circulation over the western portion of Florida , Tropical Storm Marco produced 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) winds over land . However , it weakened to a tropical depression before moving ashore near Cedar Key . The cyclone combined with a cold front and the remnants of Hurricane Klaus to produce heavy rainfall in Georgia and the Carolinas . After interacting with the nearby Hurricane Lili , Marco continued northward until being absorbed by a cold front on October 13 . In Florida , the cyclone triggered flooding of some houses and roadways . Rainfall across its path peaked at 19.89 inches ( 505 mm ) in Louisville , Georgia , though several locations received over 10 inches ( 250 mm ) of precipitation . The flooding caused a total of 12 deaths , mostly due to drowning , as well as $ 57 million in damage ( 1990 USD , $ USD ) .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Marco_(1990)", "rank": 67, "score": 108255 }, { "content": "Title: List of Arizona hurricanes Content: Arizona has been affected by hurricanes on numerous occasions . Usually , these storms originate in the eastern Pacific Ocean , make landfall in the Mexican states of Baja California or Sonora , and dissipate before crossing into the United States . Thus , in most cases , it is only the tropical cyclones ' remnant moisture that produces heavy rainfall -- and in some occasions , flooding -- in portions of Arizona . However , approximately every five years , a tropical cyclone retains sufficient strength to enter the state as a tropical storm or a tropical depression . Arizonans can expect indirect flash floods caused by the remnants of tropical cyclones to occur about every two years . Tropical cyclones in Arizona are not common , since the predominant wind pattern steers most storms that form in the Eastern Pacific either parallel or away from the Pacific coast of northwestern Mexico . As a result , most storms that could affect Arizona are carried away from the United States , with only 6 % of all Pacific hurricanes entering US territory . Not all Arizona hurricanes originate from the Pacific Ocean , however ; in July 2008 an Atlantic hurricane named Hurricane Dolly produced rainfall in the eastern portion of the state , and another Atlantic storm reached Arizona as a tropical depression . Many , but not all , of these systems also impacted California . Despite their rarity , hurricanes are among Arizona 's most significant weather makers . In years when Arizona is affected by a tropical cyclone , these can be responsible for up to 25 % of the rainfall in areas along the Colorado River . Arizona hurricanes are also responsible for torrential rains in localized areas , with the state 's 24-hour rainfall record -- 11.97 in of precipitation -- occurring during Hurricane Nora 's landfall in 1997 . The heavy rainfall can trigger extensive flash floods , such as the ones produced by the remnants of Tropical Storm Octave in 1983 , or the lingering moisture from Tropical Storm Emilia in 2006 .", "qid": "348", "docid": "List_of_Arizona_hurricanes", "rank": 68, "score": 107994 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Alberto (1982) Content: Hurricane Alberto caused the worst flooding in western Cuba in 32 years . The first tropical storm and hurricane of the 1982 Atlantic hurricane season , Alberto developed from a tropical disturbance on June 2 in the southern Gulf of Mexico . It rapidly organized and attained hurricane status the following day , the earliest date for a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean since Hurricane Alma in May 1970 . Shortly after reaching peak winds off 85 mph ( 140 km/h ) , Alberto rapidly weakened due to approaching upper-level winds . Initial forecasts predicted the hurricane would continue northeastward into Florida ; it turned sharply westward and drifted erratically for several days across the eastern Gulf of Mexico , before dissipating on June 6 . Alberto produced heavy rainfall in western Cuba , causing flash flooding and severe damage . The storm damaged 8,745 houses and destroyed 154 buildings , leaving hundreds homeless . Heavy rainfall continued in the country for several weeks after the storm , and damage from Alberto totaled about $ 85 million ( 1982 USD , $ USD ) . At least 23 people were killed in the country . Initially , Alberto was forecast to continue northeastward and strike Florida , though it turned and rapidly weakened , resulting in minor effects in the state .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Alberto_(1982)", "rank": 69, "score": 107851 }, { "content": "Title: 1982–83 El Niño event Content: The 1982 -- 83 El Niño event was one of the strongest El Niño events since records were kept . It led to widespread flooding across the southern United States , droughts in Indonesia and Australia , and lack of snow in northern areas of the United States . The estimated economic impact was over US$ 8 billion . This El Niño event also led to an abnormal amount of hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean during this time span ; the strongest hurricane up to 1983 hit Hawaii during this El Niño event . It led to declines of 77 % among Galápagos penguins and 49 % among flightless cormorants . In addition to these losses in penguins and cormorants , this El Niño event caused a quarter of adult native sea lions and fur seals on Peru 's coast to starve , while the entirety of both seals ' pup populations perished . In Ecuador heavy rainfall and flooding led to high fish and shrimp harvests , however the large amounts of standing water also allowed mosquito populations to thrive , leading to large outbreaks of malaria .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1982–83_El_Niño_event", "rank": 70, "score": 107844 }, { "content": "Title: 1954 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1954 Atlantic hurricane season resulted in over $ 750 million in damage , the most of any season at the time . The season officially began on June 15 , and nine days later the first named storm developed . Hurricane Alice developed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved inland along the Rio Grande , producing significant precipitation and record flooding that killed 55 people . Activity was slow until late August ; only Barbara , a minimal tropical storm , developed in July . In the span of two weeks , hurricanes Carol and Edna followed similar paths before both striking New England as major hurricanes . The latter became the costliest hurricane in Maine 's history . In late September , Tropical Storm Gilda killed 29 people after drenching northern Honduras . A tropical depression in early October was captured by a high-altitude photograph on a rocket , thus producing the first large-scale image of a tropical cyclone . The strongest and deadliest hurricane of the season was Hurricane Hazel , which killed thousands in Haiti before striking near the North Carolina/South Carolina border in October . It caused heavy damage in the United States before becoming extratropical and affecting Ontario . Intense rainfall affected Toronto with severe flooding , leaving significant damage . The season officially ended on November 15 , although another hurricane named Alice developed on December 30 to the northeast of the Lesser Antilles ; it lasted until January 6 of the following year . In total , there were 16 tropical storms , 7 hurricanes , and 3 major hurricanes .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1954_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 71, "score": 107794 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Alberto Content: The name Alberto has been used for six tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean : Hurricane Alberto ( 1982 ) -- a Category 1 hurricane that formed near Cuba , where it caused 23 deaths from heavy flooding Tropical Storm Alberto ( 1988 ) -- moved offshore up the east coast of the United States and crossed the Canadian Maritimes ; caused no major damage Tropical Storm Alberto ( 1994 ) -- made landfall in Florida , continued over Georgia and Alabama , causing significant damage from flooding ; caused 30 deaths and $ 500 million ( 1994 USD ) damages , mostly in Georgia Hurricane Alberto ( 2000 ) -- a long-lasting Category 3 hurricane in the Atlantic which did not approach land Tropical Storm Alberto ( 2006 ) -- made landfall about 50 miles southeast of Tallahassee , Florida , before causing minor damage and flooding in the Carolinas Tropical Storm Alberto ( 2012 ) -- a short-lived tropical storm which did not affect land . Category : Atlantic hurricane disambiguation pages", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Alberto", "rank": 72, "score": 107615 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Frances (1998) Content: Tropical Storm Frances caused extensive flooding in Mexico and Texas in September 1998 . The sixth tropical cyclone and sixth named storm of the annual hurricane season , Frances developed from a low pressure area in the Gulf of Mexico on September 8 . The cyclone moved northward through the western Gulf of Mexico , making landfall across the central Texas coastline before recurving across the Midwest through southeast Canada and New England . A large tropical cyclone for the Atlantic Basin , yet an average sized system by western Pacific standards , the storm produced heavy rains across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec , Texas , western Louisiana and the Great Plains . The interaction between developing Frances and Pacific Tropical Storm Javier produced torrential rainfall in southeastern Mexico , causing flooding that killed over 200 people and caused $ 63 million in damage . Coastal flooding overran the coasts of Louisiana and Texas , which worsened river flooding across the region . Federal disaster declarations were made for the states of Louisiana and Texas on September 23 for damage relating to this tropical cyclone . Damage totaled US$ 500 million ( 1998 dollars ) , mainly from flooding . There was one direct death and one indirect death associated with the tropical storm . Frances was the second tropical cyclone to hit Texas during the 1998 season , with Charley being the other .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Frances_(1998)", "rank": 73, "score": 107613 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Jerry (1995) Content: Tropical Storm Jerry was a tropical storm that caused severe flooding throughout the southeast United States in August of the 1995 Atlantic hurricane season . Jerry , the tenth tropical storm of the season , formed from a tropical wave that moved off the African coast in early August , which organized into a tropical depression and tropical storm between the Bahamas and Florida later in the month , before striking Florida in the latter part of the month . Its remnant circulation persisted until five days after landfall . The rainfall it produced , amounting to over 12 in in several locations across Florida , Georgia , and South Carolina , was responsible for $ 40 million ( 2005 USD ) in damage and 6 deaths . At the time , Jerry was the earliest tenth storm to form in a season on record , until Jose in the 2005 season overtook it . Tropical Storm Jerry was also the first tropical cyclone to make landfall in South Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Jerry_(1995)", "rank": 74, "score": 107568 }, { "content": "Title: Coastal flood warning Content: A Coastal Flood Warning is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when coastal flooding is either imminent or occurring along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean , Pacific Ocean , or the Gulf of Mexico . The flooding must be due to water being forced from the nearby body of water onto the land , and not from rainfall . Nor'easter s , hurricanes , tropical storms , and thunderstorms can all lead to the issuance of a Coastal Flood Warning .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Coastal_flood_warning", "rank": 75, "score": 107438 }, { "content": "Title: 1888 Louisiana hurricane Content: The 1888 Louisiana hurricane was a major hurricane that caused significant flooding and wind damage to the Mississippi River Delta and the Mississippi Valley in late August 1888 . It was the third tropical cyclone and second hurricane of the 1888 Atlantic hurricane season . The cyclone first appeared north-northeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands , but may have formed earlier , undetected . It moved west-northwest , reaching hurricane intensity and making several landfalls in the Bahamas . In the island chain , the hurricane caused some damage to shipping , fruit groves , and fences , but apparently caused no known deaths . The storm then peaked as the equivalence of a strong Category 3 hurricane before hitting South Florida near present-day Miami Beach . Few people then lived in the area , so damage was mostly minimal , but a large storm surge affected the coast , and areas farther north on the peninsula reported damage to fruit groves , communications wires , and boats . Afterward , the cyclone crossed the thinly populated southern peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico , which it reached as a weaker hurricane . Re-intensifying over the Gulf of Mexico , the hurricane attained a secondary peak intensity of 110 mi/h before hitting Louisiana at that intensity . Areas along the Gulf Coast reported significant , widespread destruction from heavy rains , storm surge , and high tides , especially in Louisiana , where the storm destroyed crops and blew down buildings . The storm then curved northeast into New England before transitioning into an extratropical low-pressure area . The outer bands of the storm produced gale-force winds in the region and nearby Mid-Atlantic states , downing loose objects such as tree branches , awnings , and wires . Heavy rains washed out transportation networks like roads and railroads , but the worst effects were from a tornado outbreak ; several significant tornadoes hit the Mid-Atlantic region , one of which caused 10 of the 12 reported deaths in the outbreak .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1888_Louisiana_hurricane", "rank": 76, "score": 107356 }, { "content": "Title: 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane Content: The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane was an intense tropical cyclone that affected the Bahamas , southernmost Florida , and the Gulf Coast of the United States in September 1947 . The fourth Atlantic tropical cyclone of the year , it formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean on September 4 , becoming a hurricane , the third of the 1947 Atlantic hurricane season , less than a day later . After moving south by west for the next four days , it turned to the northwest and rapidly attained strength beginning on September 9 . It reached a peak intensity of 145 mph on September 15 while approaching the Bahamas . In spite of contemporaneous forecasts that predicted a strike farther north , the storm then turned to the west and poised to strike South Florida , crossing first the northern Bahamas at peak intensity . In the Bahamas , the storm produced a large storm surge and heavy damage , but with no reported fatalities . A day later , the storm struck South Florida as a Category 4 hurricane , its eye becoming the first and only of a major hurricane to strike Fort Lauderdale . In Florida , advance warnings and stringent building codes were credited with minimizing structural damage and reducing loss of life to 17 people , but nevertheless widespread flooding and coastal damage resulted from heavy rainfall and high tides . Many vegetable plantings , citrus groves , and cattle were submerged or drowned as the storm exacerbated already high water levels and briefly threatened to breach the dikes surrounding Lake Okeechobee . However , the dikes held firm , and evacuations were otherwise credited with minimizing the potential death toll . On the west coast of the state , the storm caused further flooding , extensive damage south of the Tampa Bay Area , and the loss of a ship at sea . On September 18 , the hurricane entered the Gulf of Mexico and threatened the Florida Panhandle , but later its track moved farther west than expected , ultimately leading to a landfall southeast of New Orleans , Louisiana . Upon making landfall , the storm killed 34 people on the Gulf Coast of the United States and produced a storm tide as high as 15.2 ft , flooding millions of square miles and destroying thousands of homes . The storm was the first major hurricane to test Greater New Orleans since 1915 , and the widespread flooding that resulted spurred flood-protection legislature and an enlarged levee system to safeguard the flood-prone area . In all , the powerful storm killed 51 people and caused $ 110 million ( 1947 US$ ) in damage .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1947_Fort_Lauderdale_hurricane", "rank": 77, "score": 107328 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1990 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active Atlantic hurricane season since 1969 . It officially began on June 1 , 1990 , and lasted until November 30 , 1990 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . One tropical depression did form before the season officially started , however . Though very active , the season featured relatively weak systems , most of which stayed at sea . The 1990 season was unusual in that no tropical cyclone of at least tropical storm strength made landfall in the United States , although Tropical Storm Marco weakened to a depression just before landfall . 1962 was the last season prior to this one when no storm of at least tropical storm strength made landfall in the US . There have been a total of 6 such seasons in which no storms have made landfall in the United States at at least tropical storm strength ; these were the 1853 , 1862 , 1864 , 1922 , 1962 , and 1990 seasons . Two of the season 's hurricanes were notable . Hurricane Diana killed an estimated 139 in the Mexican states of Veracruz and Hidalgo ; property damage estimates are unavailable , but damage was widespread . Hurricane Klaus brought flooding to Martinique , and caused torrential rainfall across the southeastern United States after combining with Tropical Storm Marco and a frontal boundary . As a result of effects from Diana and Klaus , both names were retired following the season .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1990_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 78, "score": 107227 }, { "content": "Title: Coastal flood advisory Content: A Coastal Flood Advisory is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when coastal flooding along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean , Pacific Ocean , or the Gulf of Mexico is occurring or imminent , but does not pose a serious threat to lives or property , but rather will simply pose a nuisance to people in the affected area . The flooding must be due to water being forced from the nearby body of water onto land , and not from rainfall . Nor'easter s , hurricanes , tropical storms , and thunderstorms can all lead to the issuance of a Coastal Flood Advisory .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Coastal_flood_advisory", "rank": 79, "score": 107134 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Gladys (1964) Content: Hurricane Gladys was a tropical cyclone that caused minor impact along the East Coast of the United States and in Bermuda and Atlantic Canada . The ninth named storm and fifth hurricane of the 1964 Atlantic hurricane season , Gladys developed from a tropical wave located east of the Lesser Antilles on September 13 . Shortly thereafter , it strengthened into a tropical storm . On September 14 , Gladys abruptly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale . However , early on the following day , Gladys weakened slightly to a Category 1 hurricane . Between late on September 16 and late on September 17 , the storm rapidly strengthened , peaking as a 145 mph ( 230 km/h ) Category 4 hurricane on the latter . Gladys began weakening on the following day and curved northward on September 19 . The storm turned northwestward on September 22 and briefly threatened the East Coast of the United States . However , it veered northeastward on September 23 and moved rapidly toward Atlantic Canada . By 0000 UTC on September 25 , Gladys became extratropical while centered between Sable Island and Nova Scotia . Along the East Coast of the United States , Gladys produced light rainfall , gusty winds , and storm surge . Coastal flooding was reported in North Carolina and Virginia . In the former , high tides inundated homes and buildings with 2 ft of water in two small villages on the Outer Banks and flooded a highway to Manteo . In the state of Virginia , one death occurred when a man was fatally struck in the throat by debris . Tides also effected the Mid-Atlantic , New England , and Atlantic Canada .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Gladys_(1964)", "rank": 80, "score": 107078 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Hazel Content: Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest and costliest hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season . The storm killed at least 400 people in Haiti before striking the United States near the border between North and South Carolina , as a Category 4 hurricane . After causing 95 fatalities in the US , Hazel struck Canada as an extratropical storm , raising the death toll by 81 people , mostly in Toronto . As a result of the high death toll and the damage caused by Hazel , its name was retired from use for North Atlantic hurricanes . In Haiti , Hazel destroyed 40 % of the coffee trees and 50 % of the cacao crop , affecting the economy for several years to come . The hurricane made landfall near Calabash , North Carolina , and destroyed most waterfront dwellings near its point of impact . From North Carolina , it traveled north along the Atlantic coast . Hazel affected Virginia , West Virginia , Maryland , Delaware , New Jersey , Pennsylvania , and New York ; it brought gusts near 160 km/h and caused $ 281 million ( 1954 USD ) in damage . When it was over Pennsylvania , Hazel consolidated with a cold front , and turned northwest towards Canada . When it hit Ontario as an extratropical storm , rivers and streams in and around Toronto overflowed their banks , which caused severe flooding . As a result , many residential areas located in the local floodplains , such as the Raymore Drive area , were subsequently converted to parkland . In Canada alone , over C$ 135 million ( 2016 : $ 1.2 billion ) of damage was incurred . The effects of Hazel were particularly unprecedented in Toronto , due to a combination of heavy rainfall during the preceding weeks , a lack of experience in dealing with tropical storms and the storm 's unexpected retention of power . Hazel had traveled 1100 km over land , but while approaching Canada , it had merged with an existing powerful cold front . The storm stalled over the Greater Toronto Area , and although it was now extratropical , it remained as powerful as a category 1 hurricane . To help with the cleanup , 800 members of the military were summoned , and a Hurricane Relief Fund was established that distributed $ 5.1 million ( 2009 : $ 41.7 million ) in aid . __ TOC __", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Hazel", "rank": 81, "score": 107067 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Rosa (1994) Content: Hurricane Rosa was the only Pacific hurricane to make landfall during the above-average 1994 Pacific hurricane season . It killed at least 4 people in Mexico . Moisture from the hurricane was a factor in widespread flooding in the U.S. state of Texas that killed 22 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in October 1994 . The pre-Rosa tropical depression formed on October 8 before degenerating the next day . It reformed on October 10 and steadily strengthened as it approached Mexico . Ultimately peaking as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale right before landfall , Rosa was the final hurricane , nineteenth tropical storm , and second-last tropical cyclone of the 1994 Pacific hurricane season .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Rosa_(1994)", "rank": 82, "score": 107033 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Danny (1997) Content: Hurricane Danny was the only hurricane to make landfall in the United States during the 1997 Atlantic hurricane season , and the second hurricane and fourth tropical storm of the season . The system became the earliest-formed fifth tropical or subtropical storm of the Atlantic season in history when it attained tropical storm strength on July 17 , and held that record until the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season when Tropical Storm Emily broke that record by several days . Like the previous four tropical or subtropical cyclones of the season , Danny had a non-tropical origin , after a trough spawned convection that entered the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico . Danny was guided northeast through the Gulf of Mexico by two high pressure areas , a rare occurrence in the middle of July . After making landfall on the Gulf Coast , Danny tracked across the southeastern United States and ultimately affected parts of New England with rain and wind . Danny is notable for its extreme rainfall , the tornadoes generated by it , and the destruction it produced on its path , causing a total of nine fatalities and $ ( 1997 USD , $ USD ) in damage . The storm dropped a record amount of rainfall for Alabama , as at least 36.71 inches ( 932 mm ) fell on Dauphin Island . Flooding , power outages , and erosion occurred in many areas of the Gulf Coast , and rescues had to be executed from flooded roadways . Tornadoes generated by Danny on the East Coast caused a great amount of damage . Of the nine fatalities caused by Danny , one happened off the coast of Alabama , four occurred in Georgia , two occurred in South Carolina , and two occurred in North Carolina .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Danny_(1997)", "rank": 83, "score": 106991 }, { "content": "Title: June 2008 Midwest floods Content: The June 2008 Midwestern United States floods were flooding events which affected portions of the Midwest United States . After months of heavy precipitation , a number of rivers overflowed their banks for several weeks at a time and broke through levees at numerous locations . Flooding continued into July . States affected by the flooding included Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , and Wisconsin . The American Red Cross assisted the victims of flooding and tornadoes across seven states and the National Guard was mobilized to assist in disaster relief and evacuation . Flooding continued as long as two weeks with central Iowa and Cedar Rapids being hardest hit . The upper Mississippi Valley experienced flooding in Missouri and Illinois as the region 's estuaries drained the floodwater into the river . The flood left thirteen dead and damage region-wide was estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars .", "qid": "348", "docid": "June_2008_Midwest_floods", "rank": 84, "score": 106991 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Earl (1998) Content: Hurricane Earl was an atypical , short-lived Category 2 hurricane that caused moderate damage throughout the Southeast United States . It formed out of a poorly organized tropical disturbance over the southwest Gulf of Mexico late on August 31 , 1998 . Tracking towards the northeast , the storm quickly intensified into a hurricane on September 2 and made landfall early the next day near Panama City , Florida . Rapidly tracking towards Atlantic Canada , the extratropical remnants of Earl significantly intensified before passing over Newfoundland on September 6 . The remnants were absorbed by former Hurricane Danielle two days later . Moderate beach erosion occurred along the coasts of Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama , and Florida as waves reached 20 ft. Throughout Florida , nearly 2,000 homes were damaged and a few were destroyed . Severe flooding caused by storm surge and heavy rains was the main cause of damage in the state . Offshore , two men drowned after their boat capsized during the storm . A minor tornado outbreak took place in relation to Earl in Florida , Georgia , South Carolina , and North Carolina . A tornado in South Carolina killed one person after completely destroying the occupants home . In all , three people were killed by Earl and damages were $ 79 million ( 1998 USD ; $ 104.4 million 2009 USD ) .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Earl_(1998)", "rank": 85, "score": 106955 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Southeastern United States floods Content: The 2009 Southeastern United States floods were a group of floods that affected several counties throughout northern Georgia , Tennessee , Alabama , Mississippi and Arkansas . The worst flooding occurred across the Atlanta metropolitan area . Continuous rain , spawned by moisture pulled from the Gulf of Mexico , fell faster than the local watersheds could drain the runoff . Initial damages from around the state were estimated at $ 250 million . On September 26 , Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine raised the estimated cost to $ 500 million with the potential for it to rise . Some 20,000 homes , businesses and other buildings received major damage and 17 Georgia counties received Federal Disaster Declarations . The flood is blamed for at least ten deaths . The floods were historic , breaking records that went back more than a century in some locations . The Chattahoochee River , the largest river in the region , measured water levels at a 500-year flood level .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2009_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 86, "score": 106858 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Henri (2003) Content: Tropical Storm Henri was a moderate tropical storm that formed in the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season . The eighth storm of the season , Henri was one of six tropical cyclones to hit the United States in the year . Henri formed from a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico in early September , and crossed over Florida as a tropical depression . Its remnants later moved into the Mid-Atlantic before dissipating completely . Henri caused little damage as a tropical cyclone . In Florida , it dropped heavy rainfall , though damage was limited to minor flooding damage . In Delaware and Pennsylvania , damage was greater , where heavy rainfall damaged hundreds of houses and businesses . The resulting floods in Delaware were described as a 1 in 500 year event . The total damage by Henri along its path amounted to $ 19.6 million ( 2003 USD , $ 21.5 million 2006 USD ) , but no deaths were reported .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Henri_(2003)", "rank": 87, "score": 106611 }, { "content": "Title: January 2013 Southeastern United States floods Content: The January 2013 Southeastern United States floods occurred from January 14 to 17 , and resulted in mudslides and washouts throughout the southern Appalachian Mountains region . At the height of the flooding , 50 roads were declared impassable in Greene County , Tennessee alone . A similar storm system brought more flooding rain to the region from January 27 to 31 .", "qid": "348", "docid": "January_2013_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 88, "score": 106328 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Cosme (2013) Content: Hurricane Cosme caused flooding along the Pacific coast of Mexico in June 2013 . The third named tropical cyclone of the 2013 Pacific hurricane season , the storm system formed from a tropical wave south of Manzanillo , Colima , on June 23 . The cyclone intensified into a tropical storm on June 24 , and soon after strengthened into a hurricane on June 25 . Early the following day , Cosme attained its peak intensity as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson scale with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph ( 140 km/h ) and a minimum barometric pressure of 980 mbar . However , Cosme then began to encounter stable air and lower sea surface temperatures , causing the system to weaken to a tropical storm late on June 26 . The system continued to weaken and degenerated into a remnant low pressure surface trough about 690 mi ( 1,110 km ) west-southwest of Cabo San Lucas , Mexico , on June 27 . The remnants persisted until dissipating well east-southeast of the Hawaiian Islands on July 1 . The storm impacted the Revillagigedo Islands , bringing rough seas and winds of 42 mph to Socorro Island . In anticipation of the storm , the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional of Mexico issued a blue alert ( minimum risk ) for the states of Guerrero , Nayarit , and Baja California Sur ; and a green alert ( low risk ) for Michoacan , Jalisco , and Colima . The outer rainbands brought moderate rains to Guerrero , causing minor flooding in Acapulco . Across the state , the storm generated 24 landslides , which blocked highways . Two people were killed in the Guerrero , one a tourist that drowned in Zihuatanejo and the other a police officer in an airplane crash that injured 19 others . High seas flooded numerous buildings across coastal towns in Colima , damaging 34 tourist facilities and killing one person . Additionally , many restaurants built of wood and coconut were damaged . In Manzanillo , the port was closed to small craft , as was the port of Mazatlan . Overall , 50 homes were damaged by the storm .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Cosme_(2013)", "rank": 89, "score": 106213 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Chris (1982) Content: Tropical Storm Chris caused minor flooding along the Gulf Coast of the United States in September 1982 . The fifth tropical cyclone and third named storm of the 1982 Atlantic hurricane season , Chris developed from a surface low-pressure area in the northern Gulf of Mexico on September 9 . Although initially displaying subtropical characteristics , the low pressure area gradually acquired tropical characteristics , and was reclassified as Tropical Depression Four within 24 hours of development . The depression then began to intensify and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Chris on September 10 . Thereafter , the storm turned north-northeastward and strengthened further . On September 11 , Chris peaked as a 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) tropical storm . Later that day , it made landfall near Sabine Pass , Port Arthur , Texas . By September 13 , Chris dissipated over Arkansas . When Chris moved ashore , it caused high waves and tides along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico . Though the storm made landfall in Texas , minimal impact was recorded in that state , though a restaurant suffered significant damage . Much of the impact occurred to the east , in Louisiana . Rainfall was relatively light in that state , though a few isolated areas experienced precipitation amounts higher than 15 in . The storm caused steady rainfall in parts of the Midwestern United States . Outside of Louisiana , there were rainfall totals higher than 10 in in western Tennessee and slightly less as the storm progressed northward . Due to minor flooding , damage in Louisiana was around $ 1 million ( 1982 USD ) . Elsewhere , impact was limited to mostly light to moderate rainfall , though local flooding was reported in Tennessee and Kentucky . Overall , Chris caused $ 2 million ( 1982 USD ) in damage and no fatalities .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Chris_(1982)", "rank": 90, "score": 106055 }, { "content": "Title: Fox Point Hurricane Barrier Content: The Fox Point Hurricane Barrier is a 3000 ft long tidal flood barrier spanning the Providence River in Providence , Rhode Island , located 750 ft upstream from Fox Point . It was constructed between 1960 and 1966 to protect the low-lying downtown area of the city from damaging storm surge and floods associated with hurricanes and other major storm events . The Fox Point Hurricane Barrier consists of five main parts : river gates , rock and earthen dikes along each shore , vehicular gates along each shore where roads pass through the dikes , canal gates at the west end of the barrier associated with the nearby electric power station , and a pumping station to control the flow of water .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Fox_Point_Hurricane_Barrier", "rank": 91, "score": 105963 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Gordon (2000) Content: Hurricane Gordon caused minor damage in the Eastern United States . The seventh named storm and fourth hurricane of the 2000 Atlantic hurricane season , Gordon developed in the extreme western Caribbean Sea from a tropical wave on September 14 . Shortly thereafter , the depression moved inland over the Yucatán Peninsula and later emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on September 15 . The depression began to quickly organize , and by early on September 16 , it was upgraded to Tropical Storm Gordon . After becoming a tropical storm , Gordon continued to intensify and was reclassified as a hurricane about 24 hours later ; eventually , the storm peaked as an 80 mph ( 130 km/h ) Category 1 hurricane . However , southwesterly upper-level winds caused Gordon to weaken as it approached land , and it was downgraded to a tropical storm by late on September 17 . At 0300 UTC on September 18 , Gordon made landfall near Cedar Key , Florida as a strong tropical storm . After moving inland , Gordon rapidly weakened and had deteriorated to tropical depression status by nine hours later . Later that day , Gordon merged with a frontal boundary while centered over Georgia . Prior to becoming a tropical cyclone , the precursor tropical wave caused severe flooding in Guatemala , killing 23 people . While crossing the Yucatán Peninsula , the storm dropped heavy rainfall , with a few areas experiencing more than 10 in of precipitation . Similarly , portions of western Cuba reported rainfall totals reaching 10 in . Gordon brought moderate storm surge to the west coast of Florida ; one person drowned due to rough seas . Numerous trees and power lines sustained damage , which left 120,000 people without electricity . In the Tampa Bay area and Cedar Key , minor roof damage to houses and street flooding occurred . In addition , two tornadoes caused some damage in Cape Coral and Ponce Inlet . Elsewhere , affects were minimal , though two indirect fatalities occurred in North Carolina , and minor flooding was reported in South Carolina , Virginia , West Virginia , Maryland , Delaware , Pennsylvania , New Jersey , and New York . Overall , Gordon caused $ 10.8 million ( 2000 USD ) in damage and 26 fatalities .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Gordon_(2000)", "rank": 92, "score": 105940 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1994 Atlantic hurricane season produced seven named tropical cyclones and three hurricanes , a total below the Atlantic hurricane season average . It officially started on June 1 and ended on November 30 , dates which conventionally limit the period during which most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Ocean . The first tropical cyclone , Tropical Storm Alberto , developed on June 30 , while the last storm , Hurricane Gordon , dissipated on November 21 . The season was unusual in that it produced no major hurricanes , which are those of Category 3 status or higher on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane scale . The most intense hurricane , Hurricane Florence , peaked as a Category 2 storm with winds of 110 mph . Aside from Chris , Florence , and Gordon , none of the storms exceeded tropical storm intensity . Tropical Storm Alberto produced significant rainfall and flooding in the Southeastern United States , damaging or destroying over 18,000 homes . In August , Tropical Storm Beryl produced heavy rainfall in Florida , Georgia , South Carolina , and North Carolina , with moderate to heavy rainfall throughout several other states . Beryl caused numerous injuries , many of which occurred from a tornado associated with the tropical storm . Tropical Storm Debby killed nine people in the Caribbean in September . Hurricane Gordon was the most significant storm of the season , causing damage from Costa Rica to North Carolina among its six landfalls . Extreme flooding and mudslides from Gordon caused approximately 1,122 fatalities in Haiti . In addition , a nor'easter in December may have had tropical characteristics , though due to the uncertainty , it was not classified as a tropical system .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1994_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 93, "score": 105875 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Linda (2015) Content: Hurricane Linda was a strong tropical cyclone in September 2015 that resulted in heavy rains across portions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States . The seventeenth named storm and eleventh hurricane of the season , Linda developed southwest of Mexico from a low pressure area on September 5 . Under warm sea surface temperatures and low to moderate wind shear , the system intensified into Tropical Storm Linda by September 6 and a hurricane by the next day . A well-defined eye soon formed within the storm 's central dense overcast and Linda reached its peak intensity as a 125 mph ( 205 km/h ) Category 3 major hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale on September 8 . Thereafter , the storm moved into a stable environment and an area of lower sea surface temperatures , causing rapid weakening . Convective activity dissipated and Linda degenerated into a remnant low on September 10 . The lingering system persisted southwest of Baja California , ultimately opening up into a trough on September 14 . In Mexico , the storm brought rainfall to nine states , causing flooding , especially in Oaxaca , Sinaloa , and Zacatecas . In Oaxaca , mudslides resulted in the closure of multiple highways and damage to over a dozen homes . Flooding in Sinola affected approximately 1,000 homes with hundreds damaged , prompting dozens of families to evacuate . Several small communities were temporarily isolated after flood waters covered bridges . Localized flooding in Zacatecas damaged crops and 25 dwellings ; damage reached approximately 500,000 pesos ( US$ 30,000 ) . Although Linda did not directly impact land , moisture from the storm was pulled northeast into the Southwestern United States and enhanced the local monsoon . Los Angeles received 2.39 in of rain , contributing to the city 's second wettest September on record . One fatality in the state occurred from a drowning at San Bernardino National Forest . Utah was impacted by major flash flooding incidents -- with rainfall amounting to 1-in-100 year levels -- which left 21 deaths in the state : 14 near Hildale and 7 in Zion National Park . Damage across the Southwest amounted to US$ 3.7 million .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Linda_(2015)", "rank": 94, "score": 105742 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Dolly (1996) Content: Hurricane Dolly caused flooding throughout Mexico in August 1996 . The fourth named storm and third hurricane of the season , Dolly developed from a tropical wave to the west-southwest of Jamaica on August 19 . Initially a tropical depression , the system strengthened into a tropical storm about twelve hours later . Dolly headed westward and intensified into a Category 1 hurricane late on August 20 . It then made landfall near Chetumal , Quintana Roo . The system weakened to a tropical depression on August 21 . Later that day or early on August 22 , Dolly emerged into the Bay of Campeche and quickly re-strengthened into a tropical storm . The storm deepened further and was upgraded to a hurricane again by midday on August 23 ; Dolly simultaneously peaked with winds of 80 mph ( 130 km/h ) . Around that time , it struck between Tuxpan , Veracruz , and Tampico , Tamaulipas . Dolly quickly weakened to a tropical depression early on August 24 , but remained intact while crossing Mexico and dissipated over the eastern Pacific Ocean on August 25 . The storm brought heavy rainfall to much of Mexico , peaking at 37.41 in . In Quintana Roo , flooding destroyed a large amount of farmlands . Widespread flooding occurred after a river in the Pueblo Viejo area overflowed its banks . Hundreds of homes were destroyed , displacing about 35,000 people . Large scale evacuations occurred in San Luis Potosí , while about 6,500 fled their homes in the Tampico area . Communications and power outages were reported as far west as Mazatlán , Sinaloa . Throughout Mexico , there were fourteen fatalities reported , including six in Veracruz , three in Nuevo León , one in Monterrey , and another in Pueblo Viejo . Additionally , two people were left missing in Nuevo León . The outer bands of Dolly brought rainfall to southern Texas , which caused minor flooding , but was mostly beneficial due to drought conditions in the state .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Dolly_(1996)", "rank": 95, "score": 105724 }, { "content": "Title: 1951 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1951 Atlantic hurricane season was the first hurricane season in which tropical cyclones were officially named by the United States Weather Bureau . The season officially started on June 15 , when the United States Weather Bureau began its daily monitoring for tropical cyclone activity ; the season officially ended on November 15 . It was the first year since 1937 in which no hurricanes made landfall on the United States ; as Hurricane How was the only tropical storm to hit the nation , the season had the least tropical cyclone damage in the United States since the 1939 season . As in the 1950 season , names from the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet were used to name storms this season . The first hurricane of the season , Able , formed prior to the official start of the season ; before reanalysis in 2015 , it was once listed as the earliest major hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin . It formed on May 16 and executed a counterclockwise loop over the Bahamas ; later it brushed the North Carolina coastline . Hurricane Charlie was a powerful Category 4 hurricane that struck Jamaica as a major hurricane , killing hundreds and becoming the worst disaster in over 50 years . The hurricane later struck Mexico twice as a major hurricane , producing deadly flooding outside of Tampico , Tamaulipas . The strongest hurricane , Easy , spent its duration over the open Atlantic Ocean , briefly threatening Bermuda , and was formerly listed as one of a relatively few Category 5 hurricanes on record over the Atlantic Ocean . It briefly neared Category 5 status and interacted with Hurricane Fox , marking the first known instance of a hurricane affecting another 's path .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1951_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 96, "score": 105718 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 Pacific hurricane season Content: The 2005 Pacific hurricane season continued the trend of generally below-average activity that began a decade prior . The season officially began on May 15 in the eastern Pacific , and on June 1 in the central Pacific ; it lasted until November 30 in both basins . These dates conventionally delimit the period during each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean . Activity began with the formation of Hurricane Adrian , the fourth-earliest-forming tropical storm on record in the basin at the time . Adrian led to flash flooding and several landslides across Central America , resulting in five deaths and $ 12 million ( 2005 USD ) in damage . Tropical storms Calvin and Dora caused minor damage along the coastline , while Tropical Storm Eugene led to one death in Acapulco . In early October , Otis produced tropical storm-force winds and minor flooding across the Baja California peninsula . The remnants of Tropical Depression One-C in the central Pacific , meanwhile , caused minor impacts in Hawaii . The strongest storm of the period was Hurricane Kenneth , which attained peak winds of 130 mph ( 215 km/h ) over the open Pacific . Cooler than average ocean temperatures throughout the year aided in below-average activity through the course of the season , which ended with 15 named storms , 7 hurricanes , 2 major hurricanes , and an Accumulated cyclone energy index of 75 units .", "qid": "348", "docid": "2005_Pacific_hurricane_season", "rank": 97, "score": 105715 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Depression One (1992) Content: Tropical Depression One in June 1992 produced 100-year floods in portions of southwestern Florida . The first tropical depression and second tropical cyclone of the 1992 Atlantic hurricane season , the depression developed on June 25 from a tropical wave . Located in an environment of strong wind shear , much of the convection in the system was located well to the southeast of the poorly defined center of circulation . The depression moved northeastward and made landfall near Tampa , Florida on June 26 shortly before dissipating over land . The depression , in combination with an upper-level trough to its west , produced heavy rainfall to the east of its path , peaking at 33.43 inches ( 849 mm ) in Cuba and 25 inches ( 635 mm ) in Florida . In Cuba , the rainfall destroyed hundreds of homes and caused two fatalities . In Florida , particularly in Sarasota and Manatee counties , the rainfall caused severe flooding . 4,000 houses were affected , forcing thousands to evacuate . The flooding killed two in the state and was indirectly responsible for a traffic casualty . Damage in Florida totaled over $ 2.6 million ( 1992 USD , $ 4 million 2009 USD ) .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Tropical_Depression_One_(1992)", "rank": 98, "score": 105614 }, { "content": "Title: 1968 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1968 Atlantic hurricane season was one of five Atlantic hurricane seasons during the satellite era not to feature a major hurricane , the others being 1972 , 1986 , 1994 , and 2013 . The season officially began on June 1 and lasted until November 30 , dates which conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . It was a below average season in terms of tropical storms , with a total of eight nameable storms . The first system , Hurricane Abby , developed in the northwestern Caribbean Sea on June 1 . Abby moved northward and struck Cuba , bringing heavy rainfall and flooding to western portions of the island . Making landfall in Florida on June 4 , Abby caused flooding and spawned four tornadoes , but left behind little damage . Overall , the hurricane resulted in six deaths and about $ 450,000 ( 1968 USD ) in damage . In late June , Tropical Storm Candy brought minor flooding and spawned several tornadoes across portions of the Southern United States . Overall damage from the cyclone reached approximately $ 2.7 million . Despite three named storms in June , cyclone activity slowed throughout the subsequent month , with only one tropical depression . During late August and early September , Tropical Depression Eleven brought flooding to the Jacksonville area of Florida . Hurricane Gladys , the final and also the strongest named storm of the season , developed in the southwestern Caribbean Sea on October 13 . Peaking as a Category 1 on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale , the system resulted in flooding across western Cuba , particularly in Havana , where the storm caused six deaths and about $ 12 million in damage . Rough seas , gusty winds , tornadoes , and heavy rainfall resulted in generally minor impact in Florida , with three fatalities and damage totaling $ 6.7 million . Gladys also provided relief for one of North Carolina 's worst droughts . Several other storms left negligible impact on land . Overall , the storms of the season collectively caused approximately $ 21.8 million in damage and killed 17 people .", "qid": "348", "docid": "1968_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 99, "score": 105534 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Waldo (1985) Content: Hurricane Waldo was a Pacific hurricane that caused significant flooding in Kansas during October 1985 . After developing into a tropical depression on October 7 , it steadily intensified , becoming a tropical storm within a day . Waldo reached hurricane intensity on October 8 . After peaking as a moderate Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale , it re-curved to the east , making landfall at peak intensity near Culiacan . Afterward , it rapidly dissipated . In all , Waldo caused moderate damage in Sonora . The remnants of the storm combined with a cold front over the Great Plains . Significant flooding and one death was recorded in Kansas . Many rivers and creeks overflowed its banks .", "qid": "348", "docid": "Hurricane_Waldo_(1985)", "rank": 100, "score": 105362 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Flood geology Content: Flood geology ( also creation geology or diluvial geology ) is the attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features of the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the global flood described in Genesis 6 -- 8 . In the early-19th century , diluvial geologists hypothesized that specific surface features were evidence of a worldwide flood which had followed earlier geological eras ; after further investigation they agreed that these features resulted from local floods or glaciers . In the 20th century , young Earth creationists revived flood geology as an overarching concept in their opposition to evolution , assuming a recent six-day Creation and cataclysmic geological changes during the Biblical Deluge , and incorporating creationist explanations of the sequence of rock strata . In the early stages of development of the science of geology , fossils were interpreted as evidence of past flooding . The `` theories of the Earth '' of the 17th century proposed mechanisms based on natural laws , within a timescale set by the biblical chronology . As modern geology developed , geologists found evidence of an ancient Earth , and evidence inconsistent with the notion that the Earth had developed in a series of cataclysms , the most recent of which could be attributed to the Genesis flood . In early 19th-century Britain , `` Diluvialism '' attributed landforms and surface features such as beds of gravel and erratic boulders to the destructive effects of this supposed global Deluge , but by 1830 geologists increasingly found that the evidence only showed relatively local floods . Attempts were made by so-called scriptural geologists to give primacy to literal Biblical explanations , but they lacked background in geology and were marginalised by the scientific community , as well as having little influence on the church . Flood geology was revived as a field of study within creation science , which is a part of young Earth creationism . Proponents hold to a literal reading of Genesis 6 -- 9 and view its passages to be historically accurate , using the Bible 's internal chronology to place the Flood and the story of Noah 's Ark within the last five thousand years . The key tenets of flood geology are refuted by scientific analysis . Flood geology contradicts the scientific consensus in geology , stratigraphy , geophysics , physics , paleontology , biology , anthropology , and archeology . Modern geology , its sub-disciplines and other scientific disciplines utilize the scientific method . In contrast , flood geology does not adhere to the scientific method , and it is , therefore , a pseudoscience .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood_geology", "rank": 1, "score": 101850 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (Baxter novel) Content: Flood is a 2008 work of hard science fiction by English author Stephen Baxter . It describes a near future world where deep submarine seismic activity leads to seabed fragmentation , and the opening of deep subterranean reservoirs of water . Human civilisation is almost destroyed by the rising inundation , which covers Mount Everest in 2052 . Baxter issued a sequel to this work , entitled Ark , in 2009 . Flood was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award in 2008 .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood_(Baxter_novel)", "rank": 2, "score": 97751 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Thailand floods Content: Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season in Thailand . The flooding began at the end of July triggered by the landfall of Tropical Storm Nock-ten . These floods soon spread through the provinces of northern , northeastern , and central Thailand along the Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins . In October floodwaters reached the mouth of the Chao Phraya and inundated parts of the capital city of Bangkok . Flooding persisted in some areas until mid-January 2012 , and resulted in a total of 815 deaths ( with 3 missing ) and 13.6 million people affected . Sixty-five of Thailand 's 77 provinces were declared flood disaster zones , and over 20000 sqkm of farmland was damaged . The disaster has been described as `` the worst flooding yet in terms of the amount of water and people affected . '' The World Bank has estimated 1,425 trillion baht ( US$ 46.5 billion ) in economic damages and losses due to flooding , as of 1 December 2011 . Most of this was due to the manufacturing industry , as seven major industrial estates were inundated in water as much 3 meters ( 10 feet ) deep during the floods . Disruptions to manufacturing supply chains affected regional automobile production and caused a global shortage of hard disk drives which lasted throughout 2012 . The World Bank 's estimate for this disaster means it ranks as the world 's fourth costliest disaster as of 2011 surpassed only by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan , 1995 Kobe earthquake , and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 . A 2015 study suggests increasing odds for potential flooding similar to the 2011 flood intensity to occur in the future . Thailand 's southern provinces also saw seasonal flash-flooding towards the end of the year , although these were not as destructive as the floods in the more northerly provinces .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2011_Thailand_floods", "rank": 3, "score": 96692 }, { "content": "Title: Flood of 1851 Content: The Great Flood of 1851 occurred after record-setting rainfalls across the U.S. Midwest and Plains from May to August , 1851 . Hardest hit was the State of Iowa , with significant flooding extending to the Lower Mississippi River basin . Historical evidence suggest flooding occurred in the eastern Plains , from Nebraska to the Red River basin , but these areas were sparsely settled in 1851 . Heavy rainfall also occurred in the Ohio River basin .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood_of_1851", "rank": 4, "score": 96232 }, { "content": "Title: Floods (Fightstar song) Content: `` Floods '' is the fourth single from Fightstar 's second studio album , One Day Son , This Will All Be Yours . It was originally intended to be released as the second single , however this was changed to `` We Apologise For Nothing '' due to the recent floods in the UK at that time . Charlie Simpson has stated the song deals more with environmental issues , such as global warming and climate change , and about how people have influenced their own downfall within it . The song was released on their MySpace on 14 January 2008 . In a question and answer session in September 2007 , both Charlie and Alex confirmed that the third single from the album would most likely be Floods . Eventually , it was , in fact , `` Deathcar '' released on 3 December 2007 . However during another Q and A session on the band 's official forums on 28 November 2007 , Alex confirmed they were worked , on new tracks to be possibly used as part of a EP for the `` Floods '' release . It was confirmed via the band 's official website and Myspace , that `` Floods '' would be released as the latest single on 3 March 2008 . It reached No. 2 on the UK Rock Chart , and No. 3 in the UK Indie Chart , but failed to chart in the UK Singles Chart . The release included three brand new b-sides , `` Flotation Therapy '' , `` Zihuatanejo '' and `` Dark Star '' ( released exclusively on the Gut Records digital download bundle ) .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Floods_(Fightstar_song)", "rank": 5, "score": 95614 }, { "content": "Title: Missoula Floods Content: The Missoula Floods ( also known as the Spokane Floods or the Bretz Floods ) refer to the cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice age . The glacial flood events have been researched since the 1920s . These glacial lake outburst floods were the result of periodic sudden ruptures of the ice dam on the Clark Fork River that created Glacial Lake Missoula . After each ice dam rupture , the waters of the lake would rush down the Clark Fork and the Columbia River , flooding much of eastern Washington and the Willamette Valley in western Oregon . After the rupture , the ice would reform , creating Glacial Lake Missoula again . During the last deglaciation that followed the end of the Last Glacial Maximum , geologists estimate that a cycle of flooding and reformation of the lake lasted an average of 55 years and that the floods occurred several times over the 2,000-year period between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago . U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Jim O'Connor and Spanish Center of Environmental Studies scientist Gerard Benito have found evidence of at least twenty-five massive floods , the largest discharging ≈ 10 cubic kilometers per hour ( 2.7 million m ³ / s , 13 times the Amazon River ) . Alternate estimates for the peak flow rate of the largest flood include 17 cubic kilometers per hour and range up to 60 cubic kilometers per hour . The maximum flow speed approached 36 meters/second ( 130 km/h or 80 mph ) . Within the Columbia Basin , detailed investigation of the Missoula floods ' glaciofluvial deposits , informally known as the Hanford formation , has documented the presence of Middle and Early Pleistocene Missoula flood deposits within the Othello Channels , Columbia River Gorge , Channeled Scabland , Quincy Basin , Pasco Basin , and the Walla Walla Valley . Based on the presence of multiple interglacial calcretes interbedded with flood deposits , magnetostratigraphy , optically stimulated luminescence dating , and unconformity truncated clastic dikes , it has been estimated that the oldest of the Pleistocene Missoula floods happened before 1.5 million years ago . Because of the fragmentary nature of older glaciofluvial deposits , which have been largely removed by subsequent Missoula floods , within the Hanford formation , the exact number of older Missoula floods , which are known as Ancient Cataclysmic Floods , that occurred during the Pleistocene can not be estimated with any confidence .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Missoula_Floods", "rank": 6, "score": 94943 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1951 Content: In mid-July 1951 , heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River and other surrounding areas of the central United States . Flooding resulted in the Kansas , Neosho , Marais Des Cygnes , and Verdigris river basins . The damage in June and July 1951 exceeded $ 935 million in an area covering eastern Kansas and Missouri , which , adjusting for inflation , is nearly $ 8.52 billion in 2016 . The flood resulted in the loss of 17 lives and displaced 518,000 people .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1951", "rank": 7, "score": 94325 }, { "content": "Title: Coastal flood advisory Content: A Coastal Flood Advisory is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when coastal flooding along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean , Pacific Ocean , or the Gulf of Mexico is occurring or imminent , but does not pose a serious threat to lives or property , but rather will simply pose a nuisance to people in the affected area . The flooding must be due to water being forced from the nearby body of water onto land , and not from rainfall . Nor'easter s , hurricanes , tropical storms , and thunderstorms can all lead to the issuance of a Coastal Flood Advisory .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Coastal_flood_advisory", "rank": 8, "score": 93804 }, { "content": "Title: Holmfirth floods Content: The Holmfirth floods refers to a number of instances when severe flooding had occurred in the Holme Valley , West Yorkshire , England affecting Holmfirth and other settlements in the valley . The earliest record dates from 1738 and the latest from 1944 . The most severe flood occurred early on the morning of 5 February 1852 , when the embankment of the Bilberry reservoir collapsed causing the deaths of 81 people . It is recorded as the 23rd most serious , worldwide , in terms of loss of life from floods and landslides in human history .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Holmfirth_floods", "rank": 9, "score": 93448 }, { "content": "Title: January 1992 nor'easter Content: The January 1992 nor'easter was the second in a series of nor'easter s in a 14 month period that produced strong winds , high tides , and flooding along the East Coast of the United States . It was a small , short-lived storm that was poorly forecast , intensifying rapidly on January 4 before striking the Eastern Shore of Virginia . The strongest quadrant of the storm moved over Delaware , and winds in the state reached 58 mph . The nor'easter weakened as it moved westward , and it dissipated over Virginia before the energy reformed and redeveloped offshore . In North Carolina , the storm flooded the main highway connecting the Outer Banks . The nor'easter struck shortly during a new moon , producing high tides that resulted in significant beach erosion along the Delmarva Peninsula . The highest wind gust was 89 mph , reported in Chincoteague , Virginia . The cost of the lost beach near Ocean City , Maryland was estimated at over $ 10 million ( 1992 USD ) . In the city , the storm destroyed the tidal gauge , although the storm surge was estimated at 6.6 ft. The strongest quadrant of the storm moved over Delaware ; in the state , strong easterly winds produced significant tidal flooding , and 500 houses were damaged . A high tide of 9.02 ft at Dewey Beach was the second highest tide on record in the entire state . Flooding also affected South Jersey in many areas that experienced flooding from the 1991 Perfect Storm in the previous October . Damage was estimated at $ 45 million ( 1992 USD ) . Strong winds reached as far north as New York , where a fallen tree seriously injured a person driving a car . Freezing rain associated with the storm caused a traffic fatality in New York , as well as several accidents in Maine .", "qid": "349", "docid": "January_1992_nor'easter", "rank": 10, "score": 92974 }, { "content": "Title: March 2010 nor'easter Content: The March 2010 nor'easter or St. Patrick 's Day nor'easter was a powerful nor'easter that impacted the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada from March 12 -- 16 , 2010 , resulting in at least nine deaths . The slow-moving storm produced over 10 in of rain in New England , causing widespread flooding of urban and low-lying areas . Winds of up to 70 mph snapped trees and power lines , resulting in over 1 million homes and businesses left without electricity . The storm also caused extensive coastal flooding and beach erosion . The nor'easter was the fifth major winter storm to impact the Mid-Atlantic and New England in the 2009 -- 10 North American winter storm season .", "qid": "349", "docid": "March_2010_nor'easter", "rank": 11, "score": 92904 }, { "content": "Title: Tidal flooding Content: Tidal flooding , also known as sunny day flooding or nuisance flooding , is the temporary inundation of low-lying areas , especially streets , during exceptionally high tide events , such as at full and new moons . The highest tides of the year may be known as the king tide , with the month varying by location . In Florida , controversy was created when state-level government mandated that the term `` nuisance flooding '' and other terms be used in place of terms such as sea level rise , climate change and global warming , prompting allegations of climate change denial , specifically against Governor Rick Scott . This amid Florida , specifically South Florida and the Miami metropolitan area being one of the most at risk area in the world for the potential effects of sea level rise , and where the frequency and severity of tidal flooding events increased in the 21st century . The issue is more bipartisan in South Florida , particularly in places like Miami Beach , where a several hundred million dollar project is underway to install more than 50 pumps and physically raise roads to combat the flooding , mainly along the west side of South Beach , formerly a mangrove wetland where the average elevation is less than one meter ( 3.3 feet ) . In the Miami area , where the vast majority of the land is below 10 ft , even a one-foot increase over the average high tide can cause widespread flooding . The 2015 and 2016 king tide event levels reached about 4 ft MLLW , 3 ft above mean sea level , or about 2 ft NAVD88 , and nearly the same above MHHW . While the tide range is very small in Miami , averaging about 2 ft , with the greatest range being less than 2 m , the area is very acute to minute differences down to single inches due to the vast area low elevation . NOAA tide gauge data for most stations shows current water level graphs relative to a fixed datum , as well as mean sea level trends for some stations . During the king tides , the local Miami area tide gauge at Virginia Key shows levels running at times 1 ft or more over datum . Fort Lauderdale has installed over one hundred tidal valves since 2013 to combat flooding . Fort Lauderdale is nicknamed the `` Venice of America '' due to its roughly 165 mi of canals . Tidal flooding is capable of majorly inhibiting natural gravity-based drainage systems in low-lying areas when it reaches levels that are below visible inundation of the surface , but which are high enough to incapacitate the lower drainage or sewer system . Thus , even normal rainfall or storm surge events can cause greatly amplified flooding effects . One passive solution to intrusion through drainage systems are one way back-flow valves in drainage ways . However , while this may prevent a majority of the tidal intrusion , it also inhibits drainage during exceptionally high tides that shut the valves . In Miami Beach , where resilience work is underway , the pump systems replace insufficient gravity-based systems .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Tidal_flooding", "rank": 12, "score": 92475 }, { "content": "Title: Coastal flood warning Content: A Coastal Flood Warning is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when coastal flooding is either imminent or occurring along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean , Pacific Ocean , or the Gulf of Mexico . The flooding must be due to water being forced from the nearby body of water onto the land , and not from rainfall . Nor'easter s , hurricanes , tropical storms , and thunderstorms can all lead to the issuance of a Coastal Flood Warning .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Coastal_flood_warning", "rank": 13, "score": 92165 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding the market Content: Flooding the market refers to when an excess amount of inventory for sale causes an undesired drop in price for the product , in extreme cases making the products impossible to sell at any price . Businesses take measures to avoid this . For examples , publishers will release books from popular authors under pseudonyms , as with the Kenyatta series by Donald Goines , which were published under the name Al. . C. Clarke . The same is also the case with Stephen King , when he published several books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman . The North American video game crash of 1983 was largely caused by excess inventory of low-quality games and systems . Atari so greatly over-produced the game E.T. that they were unable to sell them and buried them in a landfill . When flooding the market is done intentionally in an effort to eliminate competition , it is known as dumping .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flooding_the_market", "rank": 14, "score": 91581 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide flooding Content: Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_flooding", "rank": 15, "score": 91497 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding (computer networking) Content: Flooding is a simple computer network routing algorithm in which every incoming packet is sent through every outgoing link except the one it arrived on . Flooding is used in bridging and in systems such as Usenet and peer-to-peer file sharing and as part of some routing protocols , including OSPF , DVMRP , and those used in ad-hoc wireless networks ( WANETs ) .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flooding_(computer_networking)", "rank": 16, "score": 91380 }, { "content": "Title: HTTP Flood Content: HTTP Flood is a type of Distributed Denial of Service ( DDoS ) attack in which the attacker manipulates HTTP and POST unwanted requests in order to attack a web server or application . These attacks often use interconnected computers that have been taken over with the aid of malware such as Trojan Horses . Instead of using malformed packets , spoofing and reflection techniques , HTTP floods require less bandwidth to attack the targeted sites or servers .", "qid": "349", "docid": "HTTP_Flood", "rank": 17, "score": 91031 }, { "content": "Title: Grenoble flood 1859 Content: Historically , centenarian floods did extensive damage in the Isere Valley . In October 1859 , it rained continuously for five days . A warm wind melted the snow , and the temperature suddenly increased from 12 to 19 degrees on November 2 . The simultaneity of those two events resulted in an exceptional flood . In a single night , the water in Grenoble rose at a rate of 15 to 20 cm per hour .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Grenoble_flood_1859", "rank": 18, "score": 90279 }, { "content": "Title: Outburst flood Content: In geomorphology , an outburst flood , which is a type of megaflood , is a high-magnitude , low-frequency catastrophic flood involving the sudden release of water . During the last deglaciation , numerous glacial lake outburst floods were caused by the collapse of either ice sheets or glaciers that formed the dams of proglacial lakes . Examples of older outburst floods are known from the geological past of the Earth and inferred from geomorphological evidence on Mars . Landslides , lahars , and volcanic dams can also block rivers and create lakes , which trigger such floods when the rock or earthen barrier collapses or is eroded . Lakes also form behind glacial moraines , which can collapse and create outburst floods .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Outburst_flood", "rank": 19, "score": 90200 }, { "content": "Title: Operation Flood Content: Operation Flood , launched in 1970 , was a project of India 's National Dairy Development Board ( NDDB ) , which was the world 's biggest dairy development program . It transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world 's largest milk producer , surpassing the USA in 1998 , with about 17 percent of global output in 2010 -- 11 . In 30 years it doubled milk available per person , and made dairy farming India 's largest self-sustainable rural employment generator . It was launched to help farmers direct their own development , placing control of the resources they create in their own hands . All this was achieved not merely by mass production , but by production by the masses . The Anand pattern experiment at Amul , a single , cooperative dairy , was the engine behind the success of the program . Verghese Kurien , the chairman and founder of Amul , was named the chairman of NDDB by the then Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri . Kurien gave the necessary thrust using his professional management skills to the program , and is recognized as its architect .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Operation_Flood", "rank": 20, "score": 89862 }, { "content": "Title: List of deadliest floods Content: This is a list consisting of the deadliest floods worldwide with a minimum of 50 deaths .", "qid": "349", "docid": "List_of_deadliest_floods", "rank": 21, "score": 89798 }, { "content": "Title: Floods (Pantera song) Content: `` Floods '' is a power ballad by American heavy metal band Pantera from their 1996 album The Great Southern Trendkill . It is the longest song on the album , and the third longest song the band has ever recorded , after `` Cemetery Gates '' ( 7:02 ) , and `` Hard Lines , Sunken Cheeks '' ( 7:01 ) .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Floods_(Pantera_song)", "rank": 22, "score": 89741 }, { "content": "Title: The Flood (Of Mice & Men album) Content: The Flood is the second studio album by American metalcore band Of Mice & Men . It was released on June 14 , 2011 , through Rise Records . On May 13 , 2011 they released the song `` Still YDG ` N '' . The album was leaked onto the internet on June 10 , 2011 , with Rise Records countering the leak by uploading the album on to their YouTube page 4 days before the release . The album debuted at No. 28 on the Billboard 200 , selling over 13,000 copies in its first week , making it one of Rise Records ' best-selling releases at the time . It is also the last release to feature bassist and clean vocalist Shayley Bourget . It marks a considerably heavier , technical musical approach from the band , and a stronger use of clean vocals from Bourget , having him lead two songs on the album ( My Understandings , Purified ) . The album was re-released on July 24 , 2012 . The re-release has four new songs , all written and performed without Bourget , new artwork , and the acoustic bonus track `` When You Ca n't Sleep at Night '' .", "qid": "349", "docid": "The_Flood_(Of_Mice_&_Men_album)", "rank": 23, "score": 89734 }, { "content": "Title: 2004 Bihar flood Content: The 2004 Bihar flood was one of the worst floods in Bihar , India in a decade . 885 people and 3272 animals had lost their lives and nearly 21.299 million human were affected . 20 districts of Bihar were affected . An alarming rise in water level due to heavy rains inundated fresh areas in Bhagalpur district , Begusarai district , Katihar district , Darbhanga district , Samastipur district and Khagaria district . According to the Central Water Commission Bagmati , Budhi Gandak , Kamla Balan , Adhwara , Kosi and Mahananda rivers were flowing above the red mark at various places , while the Ganges crossed the danger mark for the first time at Farakka Barrage .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2004_Bihar_flood", "rank": 24, "score": 89725 }, { "content": "Title: 1910 Great Flood of Paris Content: The 1910 Great Flood of Paris ( Crue de la Seine de 1910 ) was a catastrophe in which the Seine River , carrying winter rains from its tributaries , flooded the Paris conurbation , France . The Seine water level rose eight metres above the ordinary level .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1910_Great_Flood_of_Paris", "rank": 25, "score": 89616 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 European floods Content: The 2011 floods in Europe , caused by low-pressure area Meeno , occurred in late October -- early November in France , Italy and Ireland . In Italy the river Po rose 4 m ( 13 feet ) in Turin and a number of people ( including two children ) died in Genoa . A state of emergency in the Italian regions of Liguria and Tuscany was declared after floods killed 10 people on 27 October , causing mudslides . In Ireland , a state of emergency was declared in Dublin three days before . The same low-pressure area also induced heavy rain and flooding in parts of North Africa .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2011_European_floods", "rank": 26, "score": 89591 }, { "content": "Title: November 2006 nor'easter Content: The November 2006 nor'easter was a powerful extratropical cyclone that formed offshore of the Southeastern United States on November 20 , bringing heavy rains , high winds , beach erosion , and coastal flooding to the Carolinas and southern New England . In addition , the earliest snowfall ever noted in both Charleston , South Carolina and Savannah , Georgia occurred on the southwest side of this cyclone . Over 10,000 were without power during the storm . No longer a nor'easter , the extratropical cyclone accelerated rapidly across the North Atlantic while rapidly strengthening , becoming a cyclonic storm again by November 25 , but this time with hurricane-force sustained winds . The intense low made a cyclonic loop west of Iceland , before being absorbed by another strengthening extratropical cyclone to the west of Great Britain , late on December 1 .", "qid": "349", "docid": "November_2006_nor'easter", "rank": 27, "score": 89284 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding (psychology) Content: Flooding is a form of behavior therapy based on the principles of respondent conditioning . It is sometimes referred to as exposure therapy or prolonged exposure therapy . As a psychotherapeutic technique , it is used to treat phobia and anxiety disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder . It works by exposing the patient to their painful memories , with the goal of reintegrating their repressed emotions with their current awareness . Flooding was invented by psychologist Thomas Stampfl in 1967 . It is still used in behavior therapy today . Flooding is a psychotherapeutic method for overcoming phobias . This is a faster method of ridding fears when compared with systematic desensitization . In order to demonstrate the irrationality of the fear , a psychologist would put a person in a situation where they would face their phobia at its worst . Under controlled conditions and using psychologically-proven relaxation techniques , the subject attempts to replace their fear with relaxation . The experience can often be traumatic for a person , but may be necessary if the phobia is causing them significant life disturbances . The advantage to flooding is that it is quick and usually effective . There is , however , a possibility that a fear may spontaneously recur . This can be made less likely with systematic desensitization , another form of a classical condition procedure for the elimination of phobias .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flooding_(psychology)", "rank": 28, "score": 89268 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Sindh floods Content: The flood was originated mostly because of rainfall and observed the highest ever recorded monsoon rain in Sindh started from Aug 11 , 2011 to Sept 14 , 2011 . So the inundated area increased respectively with rainfall and ceased on Sept 15 , 2011 effectively with the stop of rainfall . After Sept 15 , 2011 the inundated area was reduced with the rate of 167 km2/day . The floods caused considerable damage ; an estimated 434 civilians were killed , with 5.3 million people and 1,524,773 homes affected . Sindh is a fertile region and often called the `` breadbasket '' of the country ; the damage and toll of the floods on the local agrarian economy was extensive . At least 1.7 million acres of arable land was inundated as a result of the flooding . The flooding followed the previous year 's historic 2010 Pakistan floods , which devastated the entire country . Unprecedented torrential monsoon rains caused severe flooding in 16 districts of Sindh province .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2011_Sindh_floods", "rank": 29, "score": 89190 }, { "content": "Title: 1954 Yangtze River floods Content: From June to September 1954 , the Yangtze River Floods were a series of catastrophic floodings that occurred mostly in Hubei Province . Due to unusually high volume of precipitation as well as an extraordinarily long rainy season in the middle stretch of the Yangtze River late in the spring of 1954 , the river started to rise above its usual level in around late June . Despite efforts to open three important flood gates to alleviate the rising water by diverting it , the flood level continued to rise until it hit the historic high of 44.67 m in Jingzhou , Hubei and 29.73 m in Wuhan . The number of dead from this flood was estimated at around 33,000 , including those who died of plague in the aftermath of the disaster .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1954_Yangtze_River_floods", "rank": 30, "score": 89179 }, { "content": "Title: Flood Content: A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry . The European Union ( EU ) Floods Directive defines a flood as a covering by water of land not normally covered by water . In the sense of `` flowing water '' , the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide . Flooding may occur as an overflow of water from water bodies , such as a river , lake , or ocean , in which the water overtops or breaks levees , resulting in some of that water escaping its usual boundaries , or it may occur due to an accumulation of rainwater on saturated ground in an areal flood . While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt , these changes in size are unlikely to be considered significant unless they flood property or drown domestic animals . Floods can also occur in rivers when the flow rate exceeds the capacity of the river channel , particularly at bends or meanders in the waterway . Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses if they are in the natural flood plains of rivers . While riverine flood damage can be eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water , people have traditionally lived and worked by rivers because the land is usually flat and fertile and because rivers provide easy travel and access to commerce and industry . Some floods develop slowly , while others such as flash floods , can develop in just a few minutes and without visible signs of rain . Additionally , floods can be local , impacting a neighborhood or community , or very large , affecting entire river basins .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood", "rank": 31, "score": 88907 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood (disambiguation) Content: Great Flood is a phrase used to describe the central event in any catastrophic flood . Some may be of the flood myth , whether historically accurate or mythological , while others are tragic and severe flooding events from around the world . Great Flood may also refer to : Deluge ( prehistoric ) , evidence for prehistoric floods sometimes individually referred to as great floods Flood myth and List of flood myths Genesis flood narrative in the Hebrew and Christian Bible , which includes Noah 's Ark Great Flood ( China ) , a flood dating from the 3rd millennium BC Great Flood of 1844 , the biggest flood ever recorded on the Missouri River and Upper Mississippi River in terms of discharge Great Flood of 1851 in the Midwest USA Great Flood of 1862 , a flood in California , USA Great Sheffield Flood , a flood that devastated parts of Sheffield , England on 11 March 1864 Great Flood of 1881 , a natural disaster in Omaha , Nebraska , USA Johnstown Flood , known locally as the Great Flood of 1889 1910 Great Flood of Paris , a January 1910 flooding of the River Seine Great Flood of 1913 , a natural disaster in Indiana , Ohio and ten other states in the USA Great Dayton Flood , part of the Great Flood of 1913 Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919 , known locally as the Great Molasses Flood Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 , the most destructive river flood in US history Great Flood of 1951 , a July 1951 flooding of the Kansas River , USA Great Flood of 1968 , a flood caused by very heavy rain that struck South East England and France in mid-September 1968 Great Flood of 1993 in midwest USA , one of the most costly and devastating in US history", "qid": "349", "docid": "Great_Flood_(disambiguation)", "rank": 32, "score": 88904 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood (China) Content: The Great Flood of Gun-Yu , also known as the Gun-Yu myth , was a major flood event in ancient China that allegedly continued for at least two generations , which resulted in great population displacements among other disasters , such as storms and famine . People left their homes to live on the high hills and mounts , or nest on the trees . According to mythological and historical sources , it is traditionally dated to the third millennium BCE , during the reign of Emperor Yao . Archaeological evidence of an outburst flood on the Yellow River ( possibly among the worst anywhere in the world in the past 10,000 years ) has been dated to about 1920 BCE ( several centuries later than the traditional recorded beginning of the Xia dynasty ) , and is suggested to have been the basis for the myth . Treated either historically or mythologically , the story of the Great Flood and the heroic attempts of the various human characters to control it and to abate the disaster is a narrative fundamental to Chinese culture . Among other things , the Great Flood of China is key to understanding the history of the founding of both the Xia dynasty and the Zhou dynasty , it is also one of the main flood motifs in Chinese mythology , and it is a major source of allusion in Classical Chinese poetry .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Great_Flood_(China)", "rank": 33, "score": 88670 }, { "content": "Title: North Sea flood of 1953 Content: The 1953 North Sea flood ( Watersnoodramp , literally `` water emergency disaster '' ) was a major flood caused by a heavy storm that occurred on the night of Saturday , 31 January 1953 and morning of Sunday , 1 February 1953 . The floods struck the Netherlands , Belgium , England and Scotland . A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea caused a storm tide ; the combination of wind , high tide , and low pressure led to a water level of more than 5.6 m above mean sea level in some locations . The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding . The Netherlands , a country with 20 % of its territory below mean sea level and 50 % less than 1 m above sea level and which relies heavily on sea defences , was worst affected , recording 1,836 deaths and widespread property damage . Most of the casualties occurred in the southern province of Zeeland . In England , 307 people were killed in the counties of Lincolnshire , Norfolk , Suffolk and Essex . Nineteen were killed in Scotland . Twenty-eight people were killed in West Flanders , Belgium . In addition , more than 230 deaths occurred on water craft along Northern European coasts as well as on ships in deeper waters of the North Sea . The ferry MV Princess Victoria was lost at sea in the North Channel east of Belfast with 133 fatalities , and many fishing trawlers sank . Realising that such infrequent events could recur , the Netherlands particularly , and the United Kingdom carried out major studies on strengthening of coastal defences . The Netherlands developed the Delta Works , an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers . The UK constructed storm surge barriers on the River Thames below London and on the River Hull where it meets the Humber estuary .", "qid": "349", "docid": "North_Sea_flood_of_1953", "rank": 34, "score": 88611 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in Saint Petersburg Content: Floods in Saint Petersburg refer to a rise of water on the territory of St. Petersburg , a major city in Russia and its former capital . They are usually caused by the overflow of the delta of Neva River and surging water in the eastern part of Neva Bay but sometimes caused by melting snow . Floods are registered when the water rises above 160 cm with respect to a gauge at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute . More than 300 floods have occurred since the city was founded in 1703 . The construction of Saint Petersburg Dam , started in 1978 and completed in 2011 , is expected to protect the city from devastating floods . The dam is the last completed part of the Saint Petersburg Ring Road . Its first use to hold back the incoming Baltic water into Neva bay took place 28 November 2011 and had resulted in decrease of water rise to 1.3 MASL , that is below flood level equal to 1.6 masl , which prevented the 309th flood in the history of the city and saved some 1.3 billion roubles of possible damage .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Floods_in_Saint_Petersburg", "rank": 35, "score": 88569 }, { "content": "Title: The Flood (band) Content: The Flood are an Australian roots music band formed by Kevin Bennett and James Gillard , both on lead vocals and guitars in 1995 . The group won the Tamworth 2006 Golden Guitar Award for Vocal Group ( or Duo of the Year ) with their track , `` Hello Blue Sky '' . In 2008 the line-up was Bennett and Gillard with Tim Wedde on keyboards , accordion , vibraphone and talent manager ; and Scottie Hills on drums ( replaced Steve Fearnley ) . At the ARIA Music Awards of 2006 the Flood were nominated for The Late Late Show in the Best Blues and Roots Album category .", "qid": "349", "docid": "The_Flood_(band)", "rank": 36, "score": 88497 }, { "content": "Title: Watersnoodmuseum Content: The Watersnoodmuseum ( or Flood Museum ) in Ouwerkerk , the Netherlands , is the `` National Knowledge and Remembrance Centre for the Floods of 1953 '' and offers an in-depth picture of the events during and after the flood of 1 February 1953 . The museum was officially opened on 2 April 2001 . The museum also educates visitors about water safety , and the museum collects global knowledge about flooding . The museum is located in the dike south of the village of Ouwerkerk ; it is housed in the four caissons used to close the last gap in the dike following the flood .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Watersnoodmuseum", "rank": 37, "score": 88183 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Southeastern United States floods Content: The 2009 Southeastern United States floods were a group of floods that affected several counties throughout northern Georgia , Tennessee , Alabama , Mississippi and Arkansas . The worst flooding occurred across the Atlanta metropolitan area . Continuous rain , spawned by moisture pulled from the Gulf of Mexico , fell faster than the local watersheds could drain the runoff . Initial damages from around the state were estimated at $ 250 million . On September 26 , Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine raised the estimated cost to $ 500 million with the potential for it to rise . Some 20,000 homes , businesses and other buildings received major damage and 17 Georgia counties received Federal Disaster Declarations . The flood is blamed for at least ten deaths . The floods were historic , breaking records that went back more than a century in some locations . The Chattahoochee River , the largest river in the region , measured water levels at a 500-year flood level .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2009_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 38, "score": 88145 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 European floods Content: In late May and early June 2016 flooding began after several days of heavy rain in Europe , mostly Germany and France , but also Austria , Belgium , Romania , Moldova , Netherlands and the United Kingdom . Among others , the German states of Bavaria , Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate , Baden-Württemberg , and North Rhine-Westphalia were affected . Beginning at the river Neckar , the Danube , Rhine , Seine and their tributaries were highly affected by high water and flooding along their banks . At least 20 people have died to date .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2016_European_floods", "rank": 39, "score": 87948 }, { "content": "Title: Coastal flood watch Content: A Coastal Flood Watch is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States when coastal flooding along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean , Pacific Ocean , or the Gulf of Mexico is possible . The flooding must be due to water being forced from the nearby body of water onto land , and not from rainfall . Nor'easter s , hurricanes , tropical storms , and thunderstorms can all lead to the issuance of a Coastal Flood Watch .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Coastal_flood_watch", "rank": 40, "score": 87868 }, { "content": "Title: Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Content: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States , with 27000 sqmi inundated up to a depth of 30 ft. To try to prevent future floods , the federal government built the world 's longest system of levees and floodways . Ninety-four percent of the more than 630,000 people affected by the flood lived in the states of Arkansas , Mississippi , and Louisiana , most in the Mississippi Delta . More than 200,000 African Americans were displaced from their homes along the Lower Mississippi River and had to live for lengthy periods in relief camps . As a result of this disruption , many joined the Great Migration from the South to northern and Midwestern industrial cities rather than return to rural agricultural labor . This massive population movement increased from World War II until 1970 .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927", "rank": 41, "score": 87653 }, { "content": "Title: April 2007 nor'easter Content: The April or Spring Nor ' easter of 2007 was a nor'easter that affected mainly the eastern parts of North America during its four-day course , from April 14 to April 17 , 2007 . The combined effects of high winds , heavy rainfall , and high tides led to flooding , storm damages , power outages , and evacuations , and disrupted traffic and commerce . In the north , heavy wet snow caused the loss of power for several thousands of homes in Ontario and Quebec . The storm caused at least 18 fatalities .", "qid": "349", "docid": "April_2007_nor'easter", "rank": 42, "score": 87250 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Karachi floods Content: The 2009 Karachi floods ( -LSB- ) in Pakistan 's financial centre , Karachi , have killed at least 26 people . The death toll is expected to rise , and more than 150 people have been injured in a series of related incidents . The floods are the result of the heaviest rains in the region in thirty years . Hundreds of homes were also damaged . Those killed either drowned , were electrocuted or died under collapsing roofs . A bit of a building 's sixth floor collapsed in Ramswami -- debris dropping onto a nearby house , killing four members of a family and injuring 10 . Several others were injured as a result of a roof collapse in the Orangi area and two people died in a similar incident . Eleven people were injured after a house wall fell through in Manghopir . Seven people were electrocuted in separate sections of Karachi . One resident reported the death of his neighbor 's son to Reuters , saying he drowned in a drain and his body was pulled out . Knee-deep water stranded several thousand people in their homes for several hours . Commercial markets were waterlogged and several hundred vehicles were trapped on the city 's roads . Most of Karachi had no electricity on the night of 18 July 2009 . Relief efforts are ongoing as water is removed from residential areas . According to Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry , the country 's chief meteorologist , Pakistan 's commercial hub received 14.7 cm ( 6 in ) of rain between the evening of 17 July and the morning of 19 July . However , the rains began around two weeks later than usual and thus are expected to lead to a 30 % reduction in rainfall for the 2009 season . But then another monsoon system was expected to lash the city which was to generate very heavy rains and the citizens were still recovering from the last monsoon rains which broke the record of 1977 rain in Karachi , which was of 207 mm . However it only dumped 18 mm rain and the system dissipated quickly on 26 July . Then on August 30 and 31 sudden heavy rains started to lash the city which dumped 147.7 mm rain , Thus again Karachiites were forced to spend the night sleepless due to power breakdown and thousands were forced to end their fasting in traffic jams , as it was the holy month of Ramadan .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2009_Karachi_floods", "rank": 43, "score": 87231 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 1901–2000 Content: Floods in the United States are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , and dam failure . Below is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to the country , 1901 through 2000 , inclusive .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_1901–2000", "rank": 44, "score": 87208 }, { "content": "Title: Flash flood Content: A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas : washes , rivers , dry lakes and basins . It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm , hurricane , tropical storm , or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields . Flash floods may occur after the collapse of a natural ice or debris dam , or a human structure such as a man-made dam , as occurred before the Johnstown Flood of 1889 . Flash floods are distinguished from regular floods by a timescale of less than six hours . The water that is temporarily available is often used by foliage with rapid germination and short growth cycles , and by specially adapted animal life .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flash_flood", "rank": 45, "score": 86988 }, { "content": "Title: St. Lucia's flood Content: St. Lucia 's flood ( Sint-Luciavloed ) was a storm tide that affected the Netherlands and Northern Germany on 14 December 1287 ( the day after St. Lucia Day ) , killing approximately 50,000 to 80,000 people in the sixth largest flood in recorded history . Meteorologically this disaster was similar to the North Sea flood of 1953 , when an extreme low pressure system coinciding with a high tide caused a huge storm surge . The St. Lucia flood had a major influence on the subsequent history of the Netherlands .", "qid": "349", "docid": "St._Lucia's_flood", "rank": 46, "score": 86818 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Lake Champlain and Richelieu River floods Content: The 2011 Lake Champlain and Richelieu River floods were a series of water level increases that began at the end of April 2011 and caused a subsequent overflow of the Richelieu River in Canada and Lake Champlain in the United States . The flooding occurred due to record snowfall in the area followed by its snowmelt and in combination with intense spring rains . Lake Champlain stayed at flood stage for 67 days from April to June , and on May 10 , 2011 , the lake broke its previous flood level set in 1869 by reaching 102.8 ft. at Rouses Point , New York . < ref : https://www.google.ca/search?q=google+maps+rouses+point+n.y.&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=haIRWbXSNeSCjwSL1ZqADA > The floods affected about 3,000 homes in Montérégie and caused an estimated six million U.S. dollars of damage in seven counties in the northern area of Vermont . The damage was so bad that a state of emergency was declared by Vermont on May 5 , 2011 . Similar damage was reported in New York State . In Quebec , the major cities affected by the flooding were Venise-en-Quebec , Noyan , Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu , Henryville , Saint-Paul-de-l'Île-aux-Noix , and Sainte-Anne-de-Sabrevois . Citizens of Quebec were supplied with safe drinking water by the government due to the prolonged period of time in which the city 's water supplies were likely contaminated . On May 5 , the Canadian Forces were requested to help evacuate residents and build dikes to try to protect areas at risk .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2011_Lake_Champlain_and_Richelieu_River_floods", "rank": 47, "score": 86736 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 European floods Content: In August 2002 a flood caused by over a week of continuous heavy rains ravaged Europe , killing dozens , dispossessing thousands , and causing damage of billions of euros in Russia , the Czech Republic , Austria , Germany , Slovakia , Poland , Hungary , Romania and Croatia . The flood was of a magnitude expected to occur roughly once a century .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2002_European_floods", "rank": 48, "score": 86622 }, { "content": "Title: Internet Relay Chat flood Content: Flooding or scrolling on an IRC network is a method of disconnecting users from an IRC server ( a form of Denial of Service ) , exhausting bandwidth which causes network latency ( ` lag ' ) , or just annoying users . Floods can either be done by scripts ( written for a given client ) or by external programs .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Internet_Relay_Chat_flood", "rank": 49, "score": 86586 }, { "content": "Title: Early November 2010 Nor'easter Content: The Early November 2010 Nor'easter was an unusual , early season coastal storm that affected New England and Atlantic Canada . It developed from an area of low pressure off the New England coast , that moved northward , then curved southwest , due to a high pressure to its west . Once off the New England coast , it began to rapidly intensify , exhibiting traits of a tropical system , including the formation of an eye . It attained a minimum central pressure of 985 millibars on November 7 , and after turning southwestward , it made landfall in Provincetown , Massachusetts and southeastern Massachusetts at maximum intensity . The coastal storm caused the first snowfall of the season over southern New England , with snowfall totals generally ranging from 0.5 -- 3 inches across southern New England , with higher amounts in Northern New England . The developing storm also caused minor to moderate coastal flooding on the eastern coast of Massachusetts . As of November 8 , National Grid reported over 75,000 power outages across New England , due to high winds , which gusted over 60 mph . The National Weather Service issued several wind advisories and coastal flood warnings across New England , due to the strong winds and coastal flooding .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Early_November_2010_Nor'easter", "rank": 50, "score": 86546 }, { "content": "Title: Ship floodability Content: Floodability is the susceptibility of a ship 's construction to flooding . It also refers to the ability to intentionally flood certain areas of the hull for damage control purposes , or to increase stability , which is particularly important in combat vessels , which often face the possibility of serious hull breach due to enemy action , and which rely on well-trained Damage Controlmen to equalize and then stop flooding of the hull . Floodability is reduced by dividing the volume of the hull into watertight compartments with decks and bulkheads ( which also increase the strength of ships ) , use of double bottom ( or double hull ) , and by other means . If a ship 's hull is divided into watertight compartments , any flooding resulting from a breach of the hull can be contained in the compartments where the flooding occurs . In most case , the watertight compartments are fitted with a system of automatic doors , which can be triggered either remotely or locally as soon as flooding is detected ( and early example of such as system was used on the RMS Titanic , which sank in spite of its watertight bulkheads ) . Smaller vessels and submarines generally feature watertight hatches between compartments , which are closed manually to block water from escaping the flooded compartment . As long as the flooding is localised , this can allow a ship to retain sufficient buoyancy to remain afloat , but if numerous compartments are opened to the sea , the ship can sink regardless . If a ship is fitted with longitudinal bulkheads ( running fore and aft ) as well as transverse bulkheads , flooding along one side of the ship can cause a serious list , which can threaten to capsize the vessel . In such cases , damage control parties can intentionally flood the corresponding compartment on the other side , equalizing the list ( although this can happen in ships without longitudinal bulkheads , as well ) . Such techniques can work fore-and-aft as well , for example , if a flooded bow is holding the rudder and propellers out of the water . The Song Dynasty Chinese author Zhu Yu wrote of watertight compartments in his book , Pingzhou Table Talks , written from AD 1111 to 1117 and published in 1119 . Watertight compartments were frequently implemented in Asian ships , and had been implemented in the warships of Kubla Khan . Chinese seagoing junks often had 14 crosswalls , some of which could be flooded to increase stability or for the carriage of liquids . Some types of ships , such as certain heavy lift vessels , can intentionally flood their own hulls or tanks within their hulls , to sink below the water , and then pump all of the water back out and re-float themselves with the salvaged object on deck . Similarly , submersibles and submarines also produce negative buoyancy by allowing compartments ( called `` ballast tanks '' ) to flood . Alexei Krylov and Stepan Makarov worked extensively on ship floodability in the early 20th century .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Ship_floodability", "rank": 51, "score": 86392 }, { "content": "Title: Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 Content: The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 was a United States Congress bill that would have delayed the increases in flood insurance premiums that were part of the Biggert -- Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 . The reforms from that law were meant to require flood insurance premiums to actually reflect the real risk of flooding , which led to an increase in premiums . At the time of the bill , the National Flood Insurance Program was $ 24 billion in debt . The bill passed in the United States Senate during the 113th United States Congress , but was superseded by a similar bill which had originated in the United States House of Representatives . That bill ultimately became law as the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2013 .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Homeowner_Flood_Insurance_Affordability_Act_of_2014", "rank": 52, "score": 86344 }, { "content": "Title: 1958 Yellow River flood Content: The 1958 Yellow River flood was an extraordinarily large rise in the water flow of the Yellow River in China that coincided with the onset of the Great Leap Forward . In July 1958 , the peak discharge of the Yellow River at Huayuankou was 22,300 m3/s and the flood water level was so high that it rose up to the top of the levee in several places .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1958_Yellow_River_flood", "rank": 53, "score": 86146 }, { "content": "Title: European Flood Awareness System Content: The European Flood Awareness System is a European Commission initiative to increase preparedness for riverine floods across Europe . The disastrous floods in Elbe and Danube rivers in 2002 confronted the European Commission with non-coherent flood warning information from different sources and of variable quality , complicating planning and organization of aid . In response to this event , the European Commission initiated the development of a European Flood Awareness System ( EFAS ) to increase the preparedness for floods in Europe . Following a Communication of the Commission in 2002 on the Elbe and Danube floods in 2002 , the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission was assigned with the task to develop EFAS . Its development has been financially supported by DG ENTR , DG ECHO , the European Parliament as well as Germany , the Czech Republic , Austria , Hungary and Slovakia through detachment of National Experts . The aim of EFAS is to gain time for preparedness measures before major flood events strike particularly for trans-national river basins both in the Member States as well as on European level . This is achieved by providing complementary , added value information to the National hydrological services and by keeping the European Response and Coordination Centre informed about ongoing floods and about the possibility of upcoming floods across Europe . From 2005 to 2010 EFAS was tested in real-time mode , first with the National hydrological services and later also with the European Civil Protection . In 2011 EFAS became part of the Emergency Management Service of the COPERNICUS Initial Operations and in support to European Civil Protection . The operational components have been outsourced to Member State organisations . EFAS is running fully operational since autumn 2012 .", "qid": "349", "docid": "European_Flood_Awareness_System", "rank": 54, "score": 86120 }, { "content": "Title: The Flood (Cheryl song) Content: `` The Flood '' is a song by English recording artist Cheryl Cole . The song was written by Priscilla Hamilton and Wayne Wilkins , for Cole 's second studio album , Messy Little Raindrops ( 2010 ) . It was released on 2 January 2011 through Fascination Records , as the album 's second and final single . The song , produced by Wilkins and Antwoine Collins , has lyrics that refer to a `` natural disaster love '' and make many allusions to shipwreck , the sea , and water . `` The Flood '' received mixed reviews from music critics . Despite some saying the song is perfectly suited to Cole 's voice , critics questioned Cole 's effectiveness as a balladeer , while calling the song `` a flood of stool '' . `` The Flood '' achieved moderate success , peaking at number eighteen in the United Kingdom , making it Cole 's first solo single to not enter the top 5 on the chart . The song also peaked at number twenty-six in Ireland and at number forty-six in Europe . An accompanying music video for the song , directed by Sophie Muller , was released on 24 November 2010 . Filmed on the southern coast of England , it portrays Cole alone in a remote house overlooking a stormy ocean , while she struggles to adjust to life without her love . `` The Flood '' was performed at 2010 's Royal Variety Performance in front of Charles , Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla , Duchess of Cornwall . It was also performed in an acoustic form , along with `` Promise This '' , on Alan Carr : Chatty Man .", "qid": "349", "docid": "The_Flood_(Cheryl_song)", "rank": 55, "score": 86087 }, { "content": "Title: 1947 Thames flood Content: The 1947 Thames flood was worst overall 20th century flood of the River Thames , affecting much of the Thames Valley as well as elsewhere in England during the middle of March 1947 after a severe winter . The floods were caused by 117 mm ( 4.6 inches ) of precipitation ( including snow ) ; the peak flow was 61.7 billion litres of water per day and the damage cost a total of # 12 million to repair . War damage to some of the locks made matters worse . Other significant Thames floods since 1947 have occurred in 1968 , 1993 , 1998 , 2000 , 2003 , 2006 and 2014 .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1947_Thames_flood", "rank": 56, "score": 86068 }, { "content": "Title: 1982–83 Paraguay floods Content: The 1982 -- 83 Paraguay floods refers to major flooding that primarily affected the Paraná River basin in the La Plata Basin of Paraguay in the fall of 1982 and beginning of 1983 . The flooding was caused by El Niño and also affected parts of Brazil , Argentina and Bolivia . Although only 170 were killed as a direct result of the floods , 600,000 people were evacuated from their homes and in the end the damage rose to around $ 3 billion . Affecting an estimate of 85,000 people solely in Paraguay , the flood waters had risen from an average of 2.6 meters to above 9 meters . This resulted in several national and international voluntary agencies donating over $ 70,000 . The floods caused a great deal of damage to housing , prompting a structural redesign in building in Paraguay in the aftermath . Houses were constructed , designed to provide safe shelter , even if the floods submerged single storey houses .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1982–83_Paraguay_floods", "rank": 57, "score": 85995 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (Halo) Content: The Flood are fictional parasitic alien life forms in the Halo video game series created by Bungie . They are introduced in Halo : Combat Evolved as a second enemy faction alongside the Covenant ; they return in sequels Halo 2 , Halo 3 , Halo Wars , and as a gametype in Halo 4 . The Flood are driven by a desire to infect any sentient life they encounter , and are depicted as such a threat that the ancient Forerunners were forced to kill themselves and all other sentient life nearly 100,000 years ago in an effort to starve the Flood to death . The Flood 's design and fiction was spearheaded by Bungie artist Robert McLees , who utilized unused concepts from the earlier Bungie game Marathon 2 . The ringworld Halo was stripped of many of its large creatures to make the Flood 's appearance more startling . Bungie environment artist Vic DeLeon spent six months of pre-production time refining the Flood 's fleshy aesthetic and designing the organic interiors of Flood-infested space ships for Halo 3 . The player 's discovery of the Flood in Halo : Combat Evolved is a major plot twist , and was one of the surprises reviewers noted positively upon release . The Flood 's return in Halo 2 and Halo 3 was less enthusiastically praised . Reaction to the Flood has varied over the years ; while some found the Flood too derivative and a cliché element of science fiction , some others ranked them among the greatest villains of all time .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood_(Halo)", "rank": 58, "score": 85994 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Gascoyne River flood Content: The 2010 Gascoyne River flood was regarded as the most severe flood to take place along the Gascoyne River in Western Australia on record . Triggered by record-breaking rainfall , amounting to over 6,000 percent of the monthly mean , 313.6 mm and 5 mm respectively , in just four days , the floods caused widespread damage in the region . By 17 December , the river began to rise in response to the heavy rains , eventually exceeding its banks within two days . Water levels reached record values at three stations along the river , cresting at 15.53 m near Fishy Pool . Evacuation orders were issued for several towns affected by rising waters . The most substantial impact was felt in Carnarvon where entire homes were washed away . Following the disaster , emergency supplies and funds were distributed to affected residents to aid them in restoring their livelihoods . Though no people died in the event , an estimated two thousand head of cattle perished and damage was estimated at A$ 100 million .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2010_Gascoyne_River_flood", "rank": 59, "score": 85897 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Grand Rapids flood Content: The 2013 Grand Rapids flood lasted from April 12 to 25 , 2013 , affecting multiple areas in the Grand Rapids metropolitan area . Sudden heavy rainfall , saturation of the ground from rainwater and the flow of tributaries caused the Grand River to rise dramatically , with the river cresting at 21.85 ft in Grand Rapids on April 21 , 2013 . The flooding caused thousands of residents in the area to evacuate their homes .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2013_Grand_Rapids_flood", "rank": 60, "score": 85807 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Saint Patrick's Day Flood Content: The Great Saint Patrick 's Day Flood is a novella for children by the American writer Mildred S. Flaherty based on events of the Pittsburgh Flood of 1936 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . Set in March , the Allegheny , Monongahela , and Ohio Rivers are rising . Eleven-year-old Billy Flynn and his seven-year-old brother Tommy are happy when school is cancelled . The boys ' excitement soon turns to fear and awe as the rivers overflow their banks and people are forced to flee from their homes and work . Soon they experience life as they 've never known it , discovering real courage and honor along the way .", "qid": "349", "docid": "The_Great_Saint_Patrick's_Day_Flood", "rank": 61, "score": 85742 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2000 Madagascar floods Content: In early 2000 , severe flooding occurred in the African nation of Madagascar after Cyclone Leon -- Eline and Severe Tropical Storm Gloria struck the nation within a two-week period . The first storm , Eline , formed on February 1 , and took an extended track across the Indian Ocean , eventually making landfall near Mahanoro on February 17 . On March 1 , Gloria struck northeastern Madagascar , and like Eline , moved southwestward across the country .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Early_2000_Madagascar_floods", "rank": 62, "score": 85558 }, { "content": "Title: 1878 flood in Miskolc Content: The Hungarian city of Miskolc lies on the drainage area of the river Sajó and the stream Szinva . Both the river and the stream played an important part in the development of the city , but during great rains they also meant danger . There were floods in 1691 , 1788 , 1813 , 1845 and 1853 , but the largest , which had the most victims and is still remembered as the `` Great Flood '' , was the one which destroyed the city in 1878 . Of all the floods in 19th century Hungary , this one killed the most people . On August 30 , 1878 , large storms coming from the Transdanubian region arrived in Northern Hungary -- first in Eger , next in Óhuta , Diósgyőr and Miskolc , and then in Tállya , Golop and Mád . The rainfall swelled the streams Szinva and Pece , and destroyed the largest part of Downtown Miskolc . The water swept away bridges , mills and houses , carrying a large amount of debris . The water level rose by half a meter per minute , making it impossible for many people to escape . In some parts of the city the water was 4 -- 5 meters deep . The flood destroyed 2000 buildings and killed almost 300 people ( or 400 if people in neighbouring areas are also included in the count ) . In the small village of Óhuta , 73 houses were destroyed . After the flood the citizens of Miskolc had to rebuild the city with almost no help . In previous and following years , the cities of Pest ( 1838 ) and Szeged ( 1879 ) were rebuilt in countrywide collaboration , with the help of generous donations . However , in the case of Miskolc , the fact that other , then more important , cities were threatened by flood diverted the nation 's attention , even though the flood in Miskolc killed more victims than the floods in Szeged and Pest combined .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1878_flood_in_Miskolc", "rank": 63, "score": 85538 }, { "content": "Title: Maharashtra floods of 2005 Content: The 2005 Maharashtra floods refers to the flooding of many parts of the Indian state of Maharashtra including large areas of the metropolis Mumbai a city located on the coast of the Arabian Sea , on the Western coast of India , in which approximately 1,094 people died . It occurred just one month after the June 2005 Gujarat floods . The term 26 July , is now always used to refer to the day when the city of Mumbai came to a standstill due to flooding . A large number of people were stranded on the roads , lost their homes while many walked long distances back home from work that evening . The floods were caused by the eighth heaviest-ever recorded 24-hour rainfall figure of 944 mm ( 37.17 inches ) which lashed the metropolis on 26 July 2005 , and intermittently continued for the next day . 644mm ( 25.35 inches ) was received within the 12-hour period between 8am and 8pm . Torrential rainfall continued for the next week . The highest 24-hour period in India was 1,168 mm ( 46.0 inches ) in Aminidivi in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep on 6 May 2004 although some reports suggest that it was a new Indian record . The previous record high rainfall in a 24-hour period for Mumbai was 575 mm ( 22.6 inches ) in 1974 . Other places severely affected were Raigad , Chiplun , -LSB- -LSB- Khed , Ratna 31 July after heavy rains disrupted the city once again , grounding all flights for the day . Fukuh", "qid": "349", "docid": "Maharashtra_floods_of_2005", "rank": 64, "score": 85529 }, { "content": "Title: List of flood myths Content: The flood myths or deluge myths are , taken collectively , myths of a great flood . These accounts depict global flooding , usually sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution . Flood stories are common across a wide range of cultures , extending back into Bronze Age and Neolithic prehistory .", "qid": "349", "docid": "List_of_flood_myths", "rank": 65, "score": 85509 }, { "content": "Title: St. Peter's flood Content: St. Peter 's flood ( Dutch : Sint-Pietersvloed , German : Petriflut ) refers to two separate storm tides that struck the coasts of Netherlands and Northern Germany in 1651 . During the first storm tide , on 22 February , the East Frisian island of Juist was split in two . During the second disaster , on 4 -- 5 March , the city of Amsterdam was flooded . In the past , the two storm tides were thought to have been a single event . The two disasters were confused with each other because two different calendars were in use at the time . The Julian calendar was still in use in Northern Germany and some parts of the Netherlands , while the Gregorian calendar had already been adopted in Holland , Zeeland and other parts of the Netherlands . The year 1651 was something of an annus horribilis for flooding , with many disastrous floods in Europe . In the Netherlands , for instance , another storm tide that struck during the night of 25 -- 26 February broke through a number of dikes and flooded large parts of the eastern Netherlands .", "qid": "349", "docid": "St._Peter's_flood", "rank": 66, "score": 85441 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 Santa Fe flood Content: This article is about the flooding of Santa Fe , capital of the , in April 2003 . Santa Fe is the fifth most populated city in Argentina ( ~ 370,000 inhabitants ) , and it is surrounded by rivers . The flooding was described as the worst since the city was founded in 1573 . At the end of April 2003 , several days of heavy rainfall caused some major rivers in the Santa Fe area to rise as much as 50 cm in 12 hours . The water level of the Salado River ( which flows through the north of the province and empties into the Paraná ) rose by almost two metres in just three hours . On 28 April , the Salado overflowed its margins and flooded large sections of Santa Fe . About 100,000 people had to be evacuated , 154 people died , and 28,000 houses were damaged or destroyed . A dyke had to be blown up in order for ease the flow of the floodwaters out of the city . In this key area for the agricultural and ranching industries , over 30,000 km ² of farmland were destroyed . The flood hit the capital hardest , but many other communities were also affected . The flood was unusual because it is generally the east side of Santa Fe , beside the Paraná , which is affected by floodings . Salado River floodings are less usual . Soon after the initial flooding , President Eduardo Duhalde declared the province a `` disaster zone '' and announced a $ 2 million emergency aid package . The World Bank later offered an additional $ 110 million . The Red Cross launched an emergency appeal in response to the flooding on 6 May . According to a UN assessment requested by the provincial governor Carlos Reutemann , the total damages were about $ 1,000 million , and implied the loss of about 12 % of Santa Fe 's GDP . The rains continued into the next days , exacerbating the catastrophe . As of 8 May , a quarter of Santa Fe remained under water . Precarious evacuation centres appeared in the capital and nearby towns to accommodate the evacuees . The provincial government was heavily criticized for ignoring warnings about the possibility of a sudden rise of the Salado River , and for ignoring appeals to build the necessary preventive infrastructure to contain or divert floods . The official treatment of the people who lost their homes , possessions and jobs was also questioned ; food relief and promised subsidies for reconstruction were insufficient . Governor Reutemann saw the end of his term in office marked by these problems . The critical situation of Argentina at the time ( recovering from a major economic crisis ) did not help . On 30 January 2004 , nine months after the flood and under the administration of Jorge Obeid , a demonstration asking for government assistance to those affected by the flood ended with the burning of the government house 's facade and several offices destroyed .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2003_Santa_Fe_flood", "rank": 67, "score": 85418 }, { "content": "Title: Flood stage Content: Flood stage is the level at which a body of water 's surface has risen to a sufficient level to cause sufficient inundation of areas that are not normally covered by water , causing an inconvenience or a threat to life and/or property . When a body of water rises to this level , it is considered a flood event . Flood stage does not apply to areal flooding . Because areal flooding occurs , by definition , over areas not normally covered by water , any water at all creates a flood . Usually , Moderate and Major stages are not defined for areal floodplains .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood_stage", "rank": 68, "score": 85310 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–11 Philippine floods Content: Widespread flooding occurred in the eastern part of the Philippines since late December 2010 . The Visayas and the Bicol and Caraga regions have been particularly affected by abnormally heavy rains . The floods have displaced 452,999 persons in 19 provinces , and has caused the deaths of 25 people . By 12 January , the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council ( NDRRMC ) pegged those affected at 235,867 families or 1,230,022 people in 1,267 villages in 137 towns and 10 cities in 23 provinces .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2010–11_Philippine_floods", "rank": 69, "score": 85288 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding (nuclear reactor core) Content: Flooding refers to a fluid flow phenomenon whereby counter-current two-phase flow is reversed and runs concurrent in the direction of the initial gas/vapor phase flow when filling , or `` flooding '' , a nuclear reactor core with coolant . This phenomenon is generally discussed with respect to a loss-of-coolant accident ( LOCA ) . As this phenomenon proceeds , annular flow running counter-current begins as liquid water is inserted into the system . Then if conditions are correct , the frictional force at the gas-liquid interface begins to reverse the flow of the liquid . Finally , the flow of the liquid reverses , running concurrently in a slug ( or other ) flow regime . The significance of this phenomenon is that , if not properly designed for , it can present issues when trying to fill the core with liquid ( the phenomenon works against gravity , forcing liquid out of the core ) .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flooding_(nuclear_reactor_core)", "rank": 70, "score": 85267 }, { "content": "Title: Texas Flood (song) Content: `` Texas Flood '' ( sometimes called `` Stormin ' in Texas '' or `` Flood Down in Texas '' ) is a blues song recorded by Larry Davis in 1958 . It is considered a blues standard and has been recorded by several artists , including Stevie Ray Vaughan , who made it part of his repertoire .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Texas_Flood_(song)", "rank": 71, "score": 85209 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Benin floods Content: The 2008 Benin floods struck the nation of Benin between July and October 2008 , and affected the other West African nations of Burkina Faso , Mali , Mauritania , Niger and Togo . According to the Red Cross of Benin , the flooding in Benin initially affected almost 7,000 people , including the displacement of 1,560 children . and by August 19 , 2008 , the World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimated that the flooding had displaced at least 150,000 people . Some 500,000 people in total were at risk of additional flooding .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2008_Benin_floods", "rank": 72, "score": 85152 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 African floods Content: The 2007 floods of Africa was reported by the UN to be one of the worst floodings in recorded history . The flooding started with rains on September 14 , 2007 local time . Over 14 countries had been affected in the continent of Africa , 250 people were reported to have been killed by the flooding and 1.5 million were affected . The UN had issued warnings of water borne diseases and locust infestations .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2007_African_floods", "rank": 73, "score": 85133 }, { "content": "Title: Marine regression Content: Marine regression is a geological process occurring when areas of submerged seafloor are exposed above the sea level . The opposite event , marine transgression , occurs when flooding from the sea covers previously exposed land . Evidence of marine regressions and transgressions occurs throughout the fossil record , and these fluctuations are thought to have caused or contributed to several mass extinctions , among them the Permian-Triassic extinction event ( 250 million years ago ) and Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event ( 66 Ma ) . At the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction , the largest extinction event in the Earth 's history , global sea level fell 250 m ( 820 ft ) . A major regression could itself cause marine organisms in shallow seas to go extinct , but mass extinctions tend to involve both terrestrial and aquatic species , and it is harder to see how a marine regression could cause widespread extinctions of land animals . Regressions are , therefore , seen as correlates or symptoms of major extinctions , rather than primary causes . The Permian regression might have been related to the formation of Pangaea : the accumulation of all the major landmasses into one body could have facilitated a regression , by providing `` a slight enlargement of the ocean basins as the great continents coalesced . '' However , that cause could not have applied in all , or even many , other cases . During the ice ages of the Pleistocene , a clear correlation existed between marine regressions and episodes of glaciation ; as the balance shifts between the global cryosphere and hydrosphere , more of the planet 's water in ice sheets means less in the oceans . At the height of the last ice age , at around 18,000 years before the present , the global sea level was 120 to 130 m ( 390-425 ft ) lower than today . A cold spell around 6 million years ago was linked to an advance in glaciation , a marine regression , and the start of the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean basin . Some major regressions of the past , however , seem unrelated to glaciation episodes -- the regression that accompanied the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period being one example . A clear and certain understanding of major marine regressions has not yet been achieved ; according to one hypothesis , regressions may be linked to a `` slowdown in sea-floor spreading , leading to a generalized drop in sea level ( as the mid-ocean ridges would take up less space ) ... '' In that view , major marine regressions are one aspect of a normal variation in rates of plate tectonic activity , which lead to major episodes of global volcanism like the Siberian Traps and the Deccan Traps , which in turn cause large extinction events .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Marine_regression", "rank": 74, "score": 84938 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 West Africa floods Content: The 2009 West Africa floods are a natural disaster that began in June 2009 as a consequence of exceptionally heavy seasonal rainfall in large areas of West Africa . Several rivers , including the Pendjari , Niger , Volta and Senegal rivers , broke their banks , causing destruction of houses , bridges , roads and crops . The floods are reported to have affected 940,000 people across 12 countries , including Burkina Faso , Benin , Ghana , Niger , Senegal , Guinea , and caused the deaths of at least 193 people . In Burkina Faso , one of the most affected countries , 150,000 people fled their homes , mostly in the capital Ouagadougou where rainfall in one day was equal to 25 % of normal annual rainfall for the whole country .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2009_West_Africa_floods", "rank": 75, "score": 84857 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 European floods Content: The 2009 European floods were a series of natural disasters that took place in June 2009 in Central Europe . Austria , the Czech Republic , Germany , Hungary , Poland , Romania , Serbia , Slovakia and Turkey were all affected . The heavy rains caused overflowing of the rivers Oder , Vistula , Elbe and Danube . At least 12 people were killed in the Czech Republic and one in Poland . The floods were the worst natural disaster in the Czech Republic since 2002 , when floods killed 17 people and caused billions of dollars of damage in Prague . Those same floodwaters from the Czech Republic also affected Germany , with Dresden being hit by its worst flooding for over a century and three thousand people evacuated from areas where water was said to be waist-deep . Austria also experienced its heaviest rainfalls in half a century .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2009_European_floods", "rank": 76, "score": 84789 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 China floods Content: The 2011 China floods are a series of floods from June to September 2011 that occurred in central and southern parts of the People 's Republic of China . They were caused by heavy rain that inundated portions of 12 provinces , leaving other provinces still suffering a prolonged drought , a total of over 36 million people have been affected , killing at least 355 and with direct economic losses of nearly US$ 6.5 billion .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2011_China_floods", "rank": 77, "score": 84764 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 European floods Content: Extreme flooding in Central Europe began after several days of heavy rain in late May and early June 2013 . Flooding and damages primarily affected south and east German states ( Thuringia , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , Lower Saxony , Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg ) , western regions of the Czech Republic ( Bohemia ) , and Austria . In addition , Switzerland , Slovakia , Belarus , Poland , Hungary and Serbia ( Vojvodina ) were affected to a lesser extent . The flood crest progressed down the Elbe and Danube drainage basins and tributaries , leading to high water and flooding along their banks .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2013_European_floods", "rank": 78, "score": 84717 }, { "content": "Title: Zanclean flood Content: The Zanclean flood or Zanclean Deluge is a flood theorized to have refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.33 million years ago . This flooding ended the Messinian salinity crisis and marks the beginning of the Zanclean age . The term was coined by Maria Bianca Cita in 1972 during the Deep Sea Drilling Project study that investigated the transition between the Messinian and Zanclean ages in the Mediterranean . According to this model , water from the Atlantic Ocean refilled the cut-off inland seas through the modern-day Strait of Gibraltar . The Mediterranean Basin flooded mostly during a period estimated to have been between several months and two years . Sea level rise in the basin may have reached rates at times greater than 10 m/d . Based on the erosion features preserved until modern times under the Pliocene sediment , these authors estimate that water rushed down a drop of more than 1 km with a discharge of up to 2e8 m3/s , about 1,000 times that of the present day Amazon River . Studies of the underground structures at the Gibraltar Strait show that the flooding channel descended in a rather gradual way toward the bottom of the basin rather than forming a steep waterfall . Not all scientific studies have agreed with the catastrophistic interpretation of this event . Some researchers have estimated that the reinstallment of a `` normal '' Mediterranean Sea basin following the Messinian `` Lago Mare '' episode took place in a much more gradual way , taking as long as 10,000 years .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Zanclean_flood", "rank": 79, "score": 84688 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Papua New Guinea floods Content: The 2008 Papua New Guinea floods displaced roughly 75,000 people located in Papua New Guinea , prompting an international response to provide support for the region . The country was struck by large sea swells on 16 December , apparently caused by `` strong storms '' , which affected over eight provinces and caused at least one death .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2008_Papua_New_Guinea_floods", "rank": 80, "score": 84647 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–15 floods in Southeast Asia and South Asia Content: Beginning on 14 December 2014 , a series of floods from the northeast monsoon hit Indonesia , West Malaysia , Southern Thailand , and later Sri Lanka in South Asia . More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in Indonesia , 200,000 in Malaysia , and several thousand in Thailand . Floods are also affecting 1,100,000 in Sri Lanka .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2014–15_floods_in_Southeast_Asia_and_South_Asia", "rank": 81, "score": 84625 }, { "content": "Title: Flood, British Columbia Content: Flood is a rural community in the District of Hope , British Columbia , Canada , located west of the town of Hope on the south bank of the Fraser River in the far eastern end of the Fraser Valley region . It is primarily agricultural in nature . Its official name is Floods though it is usually referred to by its post office name in the singular , Flood .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood,_British_Columbia", "rank": 82, "score": 84505 }, { "content": "Title: 1966 Venice flood Content: The 1966 Venice flood ( Alluvione di Venezia del 1966 ) was an unprecedented acqua alta , with waters reaching up to 194cm .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1966_Venice_flood", "rank": 83, "score": 84434 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1968 Content: The Great Flood of 1968 was a flood caused by a pronounced trough of low pressure which brought exceptionally heavy rain and thunderstorms to South East England and France in mid-September 1968 , with the worst on Sunday 15 September 1968 , and followed earlier floods in South West England during July . The areas worst hit were Crawley , East Grinstead , Horley , Lewisham , Petersfield , Hampshire , Redhill , Tilbury , Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge . On 15 September 1968 , the 9:50 Charing Cross to Hastings was diverted along the Edenbridge line , but was surrounded by flood water at Edenbridge railway station . 150 passengers spent 12 hours stuck on the train .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1968", "rank": 84, "score": 84380 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding (Australian football) Content: Flooding is a tactic used in the sport of Australian rules football . It involves the coach releasing players in the forward line from their set positions and directing them to the opposition forward area , congesting the area and making it more difficult for the opposition to score . It is commonly deployed to protect a lead , to stop a rout or as a counterattack tactic based on rebounding the ball to an open forward line . This is possible due to the lack of an offside rule or similar restrictions on players field movements . The extreme defensive tactic is often bemoaned by spectators and generally regarded as `` ugly '' football .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flooding_(Australian_football)", "rank": 85, "score": 84241 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 North Korean floods Content: Flooding in North Korea in August 2007 caused extensive damage and loss of life . The flooding affected most of the southern half of the country including the capital and some of its most productive agricultural regions . Aid officials feared the loss of crop land could seriously hinder the North 's ability to feed its people , causing widespread famine .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2007_North_Korean_floods", "rank": 86, "score": 84190 }, { "content": "Title: 1997 Central European flood Content: The 1997 Central European flood or the 1997 Oder Flood of the Oder and Morava river basins in July 1997 affected Poland , Germany , and the Czech Republic , taking the lives of about 100 people ( in the Czech Republic and Poland ) and causing material damages estimated at $ 4.5 billion ( 3.8 billion euros in the Czech Republic and Poland and 330 million euros in Germany ) . The flooding began in the Czech Republic , then spread to Poland and Germany . In Poland , where it was one of the most disastrous floods in the history of that country , it was named the Millennium Flood ( Powódź tysiąclecia ) . The term was also used in Germany ( Jahrtausendflut ) . The flood has also been referred to as the Great Flood of 1997 .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1997_Central_European_flood", "rank": 87, "score": 84179 }, { "content": "Title: March 2007 floods in Argentina's Litoral region Content: The Litoral region of Argentina underwent heavy rainstorms in the early autumn season of 2007 . Starting in late March and ending in mid-April , the rains caused several major rivers to rise and/or overflow their banks , partly or completely flooded many towns and large cities , ruined a significant part of the crops in a wide region , and severely damaged the physical infrastructure . At least 15 people were killed as a result of the flooding .", "qid": "349", "docid": "March_2007_floods_in_Argentina's_Litoral_region", "rank": 88, "score": 84179 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (disambiguation) Content: A flood is an overflow or accumulation of an expanse of water that submerges land . Flood ( s ) , The Flood , Flooded or Flooding may also refer to :", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood_(disambiguation)", "rank": 89, "score": 84128 }, { "content": "Title: May 2004 Caribbean floods Content: The May 2004 Caribbean floods were a flood event that took place in the Caribbean Islands , mainly Hispaniola and some parts of Northern Puerto Rico from May 18 , 2004 to May 25 , 2004 . The storm caused significant rainfall , with over 9.7 inches of rain falling at the most in Haiti , and 10 inches falling at the most in the Dominican Republic . These floods were caused by over two weeks of persistent rain in the Caribbean area , which eventually caused the landslides that killed many people . The floods caused much damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic , with over 1,300 homes being destroyed and about 2,000 people being killed.Due to this destruction , nearly 15,000 people were displaced with nowhere to live . The area that felt the worst of the flooding was the town of Jimani , near the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.In fact , the destruction present at Jimani was so bad that Dominican president Hipolito Mejia declared a national day of mourning after seeing the effects of the storm .", "qid": "349", "docid": "May_2004_Caribbean_floods", "rank": 90, "score": 84118 }, { "content": "Title: Emotional flooding Content: Emotional flooding is a form of psychotherapy that involves attacking the unconscious and/or subconscious mind to release repressed feelings and fears . Many of the techniques used in modern emotional flooding practice have roots in history , some tracing as far back as early tribal societies . For more information on emotional flooding , see Flooding ( psychology ) .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Emotional_flooding", "rank": 91, "score": 84102 }, { "content": "Title: California flood of 1605 Content: The California flood of 1605 was a massive flood that covered large sections of present-day California . It was a result of sustained major rain storms across the region . The flooding affected the indigenous peoples of California , in pre-European colonization populations . Similar major floods happened in the California region in : 212 , 440 , 603 , 1029 , 1418 , and 1862 . In 1861 -- 62 , the Great Flood of 1862 caused the state capital to be temporarily moved from flooded Sacramento to San Francisco , with Southern California and other adjacent western states also flooded . Many floods of California in the 20th century were controlled by pumping stations , dams and man made canals such the Los Angeles River running within the city of Los Angeles .", "qid": "349", "docid": "California_flood_of_1605", "rank": 92, "score": 84009 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 India floods Content: The 2009 India floods affected various states of India in July 2009 , killing at least 36 people in Orissa and 13 in Kerala . The most affected states were Karnataka , Orissa , Kerala , Gujarat and North-East Indian states . Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 36 people in the eastern Indian state of Orissa alone and inundated half a million homes . On 13 July , seven people were killed and many others missing when a bus fell into a rivulet after being swept away by flood waters in Nayagarh district in Orissa . Nayagarh is 87 km from the Orissa state capital , Bhubaneswar . The world-famous Sun Temple at Konark is also water-logged , causing hardship for tourists . The most flood affected districts in Orissa are Nayagarh , Cuttack , Ganjam , Keonjhar , Koraput and Kandhamal . Several parts of Kerala were affected with the torrential rains with losses amounting to crores of rupees . At least 13 people in Kerala state are reported dead due to floods in the state . The most affected districts of Kerala are Kannur , Ernakulam , Kozhikode , Kollam Thrissur , Malappuram , Wayanad , Kasaragod and Alappuzha districts . A number of relief camps are opened throughout the state . The Revenue Minister of Kerala state , K. P. Rajendran at Kozhikode has convened a meeting on 20 July 2009 to review the damage caused by rain . District Collectors and officials of the various departments of Kasaragod , Kannur , Wayanad , Kozhikode , Malappuram and Palakkad districts are likely attend the meeting . Over three lakh people have been hit after incessant rains in Assam and other north eastern states of India . At least 10 people , including four children and two women , were killed and nine others injured on 27 July 2009 when a wall collapsed due to heavy rains in the satellite township Noida of the national capital of Delhi .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2009_India_floods", "rank": 93, "score": 83944 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Pakistan floods Content: The floods in Pakistan began in late July 2010 , resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Sindh , Punjab and , Balochistan regions of Pakistan , which affected the Indus River basin . Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan 's total land area was affected by floods . According to Pakistani government data , the floods directly affected about 20 million people , mostly by destruction of property , livelihood and infrastructure , with a death toll of close to 2,000 . UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had initially asked for US$ 460 million ( $ 420 million ) for emergency relief , noting that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen . Only 20 % of the relief funds requested had been received on 15 August 2010 . The U.N. had been concerned that aid was not arriving fast enough , and the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water . The Pakistani economy was harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops . Damage to structures was estimated to exceed US$ 4 billion ( $ 2.5 billion ) , and wheat crop damages were estimated to be over US$ 500 million ( $ 425 million ) . Total economic impact may have been as much as US$ 43 billion ( $ 35 billion ) .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2010_Pakistan_floods", "rank": 94, "score": 83912 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (They Might Be Giants album) Content: Flood is the third studio album by Brooklyn-based alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants , released in January 1990 . Flood was the duo 's first album on the major label Elektra Records . It generated three singles : `` Birdhouse in Your Soul '' , `` Istanbul ( Not Constantinople ) '' , and the domestic promotional track `` Twisting '' . The album is generally considered to be the band 's definitive release , as it is their best-selling and most recognizable album . Despite minimal stylistic and instrumental differences from previous releases , Flood is distinguished by contributions from seasoned producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley . John Linnell and John Flansburgh also took advantage of new equipment and recording techniques , including unconventional , home-recorded samples , which were programmed through Casio FZ-1 synthesizers . The album was recorded in New York City at Skyline Studios , which was better equipped than studios the band had worked in previously . Promotion for Flood included television appearances , promotional videos , and an international tour . The album 's mainstream promotion and success contributed to its status as the band 's most well known album . Many fans , including young viewers of Tiny Toon Adventures , were first exposed to They Might Be Giants 's music through Flood . The album was initially issued on CD , LP , and cassette . Upon its release , Flood was met with praise from critics and achieved moderate success on sales charts . In 2013 , the album was reissued as part of a CD series spanning They Might Be Giants ' four Elektra releases . In 2014 , it was reissued on LP in Europe by Music On Vinyl and in the United States by Asbestos Records for Record Store Day Black Friday . Another LP reissue is anticipated for 2015 from the band 's label , Idlewild Recordings .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Flood_(They_Might_Be_Giants_album)", "rank": 95, "score": 83897 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 North Korean floods Content: The 2012 North Korean floods began in mid-July 2012 when Tropical Storm Khanun affected parts of the country , killing at least 88 people and leaving more than 62,000 people homeless . Torrential rains on 29 and 30 July 2012 worsened the situation , causing additional damage and casualties and forcing the government to request international assistance . Severe rainfall also affected the southern region of North Korea in August , killing at least six .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2012_North_Korean_floods", "rank": 96, "score": 83826 }, { "content": "Title: Great flood of 99 Content: The Great flood of '99 occurred when the River Periyar in Kerala state of India flooded in the month of July , 1924 . This is the year 1099 ME in the Malayalam Calendar . As the Malayalam Calendar was popular in Kerala , this flood is generally called the flood of 99 . The rain continued for about three weeks . Many districts of the present day Kerala were deeply submerged in water by this flood - From Trichur , to Ernakulam to Idukki , Kottayam even up to Alappuzha and Kuttanad . Even a huge mountain called Karinthiri Malai was washed away by this flood and the road to Munnar also went along with it . As the road to Munnar was lost by this flood , a new road from Ernakulam to Munnar became necessary - the present day road from Ernakulam to Munnar was constructed after this . Kundala Valley Railway which was the first monorail system in India was also completely destroyed .", "qid": "349", "docid": "Great_flood_of_99", "rank": 97, "score": 83733 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 Glasgow floods Content: The 2002 Glasgow floods were a series of Flash floods that occurred after Thunderstorms in the Scottish Lowlands in late July and early August 2002 . The heaviest rainfall fell on the night of Tuesday 30 July 2002 . The East End of Glasgow was the worst affected district of the city , 200 people were evacuated from their homes in Greenfield and Shettleston on the Tuesday night . The antiquated 19th century storm drain and sewer system in that area , having received minimal investment from Scottish Water , was blamed due to its inability to deal with the high capacity of Surface runoff . Many of the homes affected were in working class areas , and as a result , did not have contents insurance . The West Coast Main Line , Glasgow to Edinburgh via Carstairs Line and Queen Street station were closed as a result of flooding and landslides . A number of roads were also badly affected by flooding in Sighthill , Springburn as well as the main A82 and A8 roads . Buchanan Street subway station on the Glasgow Subway was closed , although trains continued to run through the station without stopping . Parts of the Argyle Line were also flooded , with low level stations from Dalmarnock through to Exhibition Centre closed for a number of weeks . On 4 August 2002 , the water parasite cryptosporidium was discovered in Mugdock Reservoir at Milngavie water treatment works as a result of the flooding . Cryptosporidium can cause severe diarrhoea . About 140,000 people in Glasgow were affected , they were told not to drink tap water without boiling it first . This later led to a major redevelopment of the water treatment works .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2002_Glasgow_floods", "rank": 98, "score": 83660 }, { "content": "Title: 1965 Philmont Scout Ranch flash flood Content: On June 17 , 1965 , a large flash flood occurred in the Scouting camp Philmont Scout Ranch , which is near Cimarron , New Mexico , United States . Heavy rain throughout the area caused waters in Rayado Canyon and the Cimarron River to rise to extreme levels ; up to 12.42 feet at the highest . After June 17 , water levels gradually decreased over the course of several days . The impacts of the flood included the destruction of several campsites and the loss of many old photographs and documents kept at Philmont , however no injuries or deaths resulted from the flood . The 1965 flash flood was the largest flash flood in the history of Philmont until the 2015 flood , which occurred 50 years later in the same month . Both of the floods occurred in El Niño years as well .", "qid": "349", "docid": "1965_Philmont_Scout_Ranch_flash_flood", "rank": 99, "score": 83650 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Alaska floods Content: The 2009 Alaska floods were a series of natural disasters taking place in the United States state of Alaska during April and May 2009 . The floods are a result of heavier-than-typical winter snowfall and above-average spring temperatures that resulted in rapid melting of the winter snowfall . The resulting high water levels were aggravated in places by the development of ice dams that caused catastrophic flooding . The record-breaking flood that affected Eagle , Alaska in early May is the best example of an ice dam causing flooding beyond the norm .", "qid": "349", "docid": "2009_Alaska_floods", "rank": 100, "score": 83577 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 1965 Philmont Scout Ranch flash flood Content: On June 17 , 1965 , a large flash flood occurred in the Scouting camp Philmont Scout Ranch , which is near Cimarron , New Mexico , United States . Heavy rain throughout the area caused waters in Rayado Canyon and the Cimarron River to rise to extreme levels ; up to 12.42 feet at the highest . After June 17 , water levels gradually decreased over the course of several days . The impacts of the flood included the destruction of several campsites and the loss of many old photographs and documents kept at Philmont , however no injuries or deaths resulted from the flood . The 1965 flash flood was the largest flash flood in the history of Philmont until the 2015 flood , which occurred 50 years later in the same month . Both of the floods occurred in El Niño years as well .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1965_Philmont_Scout_Ranch_flash_flood", "rank": 1, "score": 148468 }, { "content": "Title: Flood Control Act of 1965 Content: The Flood Control Act of 1965 , Title II of , was enacted on October 27 , 1965 , by the 89th Congress and authorized the United States Army Corps of Engineers to design and construct numerous flood control projects including the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity , Louisiana Hurricane Protection Project in the New Orleans region of south Louisiana . The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1965 was also part of ( Title III ) .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Flood_Control_Act_of_1965", "rank": 2, "score": 137418 }, { "content": "Title: Christmas flood of 1964 Content: The Christmas flood of 1964 was a major flood in the Pacific Northwest and some of Northern California between December 18 , 1964 , and January 7 , 1965 , spanning the Christmas holiday . Considered a 100-year flood , it was the worst flood in recorded history on nearly every major stream and river in coastal Northern California and one of the worst to affect the Willamette River in Oregon . It also affected parts of southwest Washington , Idaho , and Nevada . In Oregon , 17 or 18 people died as a result of the disaster , and it caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage . The flooding on the Willamette covered 152789 acre . The National Weather Service rated the flood as the fifth most destructive weather event in Oregon in the 20th century . California Governor Pat Brown was quoted as saying that a flood of similar proportions could `` happen only once in 1,000 years , '' and it was often referred to later as the Thousand Year Flood . The flood killed 19 people , heavily damaged or completely devastated at least 10 towns , destroyed all or portions of more than 20 major highway and county bridges , carried away millions of board feet of lumber and logs from mill sites , devastated thousands of acres of agricultural land , killed 4,000 head of livestock , and caused $ 100 million in damage in Humboldt County , California , alone .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Christmas_flood_of_1964", "rank": 3, "score": 135587 }, { "content": "Title: 1966 Venice flood Content: The 1966 Venice flood ( Alluvione di Venezia del 1966 ) was an unprecedented acqua alta , with waters reaching up to 194cm .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1966_Venice_flood", "rank": 4, "score": 132527 }, { "content": "Title: 1966 flood of the Arno Content: The 1966 flood of the Arno ( Alluvione di Firenze del 4 novembre 1966 ) in Florence killed 101 people and damaged or destroyed millions of masterpieces of art and rare books . It is considered the worst flood in the city 's history since 1557 . With the combined effort of Italian and foreign volunteers alike , or angeli del fango ( `` Mud Angels '' ) , many of these fine works have been restored . New methods in conservation were devised and restoration laboratories established . However , even decades later , much work remains to be done .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1966_flood_of_the_Arno", "rank": 5, "score": 131664 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1951 Content: In mid-July 1951 , heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River and other surrounding areas of the central United States . Flooding resulted in the Kansas , Neosho , Marais Des Cygnes , and Verdigris river basins . The damage in June and July 1951 exceeded $ 935 million in an area covering eastern Kansas and Missouri , which , adjusting for inflation , is nearly $ 8.52 billion in 2016 . The flood resulted in the loss of 17 lives and displaced 518,000 people .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1951", "rank": 6, "score": 129432 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 1901–2000 Content: Floods in the United States are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , and dam failure . Below is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to the country , 1901 through 2000 , inclusive .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_1901–2000", "rank": 7, "score": 126266 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 2001–present Content: Floods in the United States : 2001 -- present is a list of flood events which were of significant impact to the country since 2001 , inclusive . Floods are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , storm surge from hurricanes , and dam failure .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_2001–present", "rank": 8, "score": 125621 }, { "content": "Title: Rivers and Harbors Act of 1965 Content: The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1965 , Title III of , was enacted October 27 , 1965 , by the 89th United States Congress . The act authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design and construct numerous navigation and beach erosion projects . The Flood Control Act of 1965 was also part of ( Title II ) .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Rivers_and_Harbors_Act_of_1965", "rank": 9, "score": 125440 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Midwest flooding Content: The 2007 Midwest flooding was a major flooding event that occurred in the Midwestern United States in the third week of August 2007 . While Hurricane Dean was affecting the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico , and Tropical Storm Erin was affecting Oklahoma and Texas , a persistent storm system hung over the Midwest for several days , causing repeated flash flooding in the US states of Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Minnesota , Ohio , and Wisconsin . Cool Canadian air clashed with large quantities of warm moist air from the Gulf , producing torrential rains along a stationary front . Eighteen deaths across the central United States were attributed to the resulting flooding . Seven Minnesota counties , eight Ohio counties , fourteen counties in Wisconsin , and seven counties in Illinois were declared Federal Disaster Areas .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2007_Midwest_flooding", "rank": 10, "score": 124486 }, { "content": "Title: July 2013 Southeastern United States floods Content: The 2013 Southeastern United States floods were ongoing flooding across the southeastern U.S. Flash floods began on the morning of July 2 and continued through Independence Day and into the next day . The hardest-hit areas as of Friday afternoon are the Florida Panhandle , northwest Alabama and the area around Columbus , Mississippi . A plume of tropical moisture caused heavy rain to train over the same areas , for more than 36 hours in some cases , leading to flash flooding . The system also caused sporadic damaging winds and one tornado in Destin , Florida .", "qid": "350", "docid": "July_2013_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 11, "score": 122205 }, { "content": "Title: June 2008 Midwest floods Content: The June 2008 Midwestern United States floods were flooding events which affected portions of the Midwest United States . After months of heavy precipitation , a number of rivers overflowed their banks for several weeks at a time and broke through levees at numerous locations . Flooding continued into July . States affected by the flooding included Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , and Wisconsin . The American Red Cross assisted the victims of flooding and tornadoes across seven states and the National Guard was mobilized to assist in disaster relief and evacuation . Flooding continued as long as two weeks with central Iowa and Cedar Rapids being hardest hit . The upper Mississippi Valley experienced flooding in Missouri and Illinois as the region 's estuaries drained the floodwater into the river . The flood left thirteen dead and damage region-wide was estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars .", "qid": "350", "docid": "June_2008_Midwest_floods", "rank": 12, "score": 121834 }, { "content": "Title: Flood of 1851 Content: The Great Flood of 1851 occurred after record-setting rainfalls across the U.S. Midwest and Plains from May to August , 1851 . Hardest hit was the State of Iowa , with significant flooding extending to the Lower Mississippi River basin . Historical evidence suggest flooding occurred in the eastern Plains , from Nebraska to the Red River basin , but these areas were sparsely settled in 1851 . Heavy rainfall also occurred in the Ohio River basin .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Flood_of_1851", "rank": 13, "score": 120997 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-Atlantic United States flood of 2006 Content: The Mid-Atlantic United States flood of 2006 was a significant flood that affected much of the Mid-Atlantic region of the eastern United States . The flooding was very widespread , affecting numerous rivers , lakes and communities from upstate New York to North Carolina . It was widely considered to be the worst flooding in the region since Hurricane David in 1979 . It was also one of the worst floodings in the United States since Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 . At least 16 deaths were related to the flooding .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Mid-Atlantic_United_States_flood_of_2006", "rank": 14, "score": 118952 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn 2000 western Europe floods Content: The Autumn of 2000 was the wettest recorded in the United Kingdom since records began in 1766 . Several regions of Atlantic Europe from France to Norway received double their average rainfall and there were severe floods and landslides in the southern Alps . In October and November 2000 a successive series of extratropical cyclones caused severe flooding across the UK . The United Kingdom saw the most extensive nationwide flooding event since the snow-melt of 1947 . Prior to 1947 , three similar events occurred in the second half of the 19th century where prolonged rainfall led to widespread flooding throughout England in the month of November , namely 1894 , 1875 , and 1852 . The combined effect of the storms across Western Europe caused flooding throughout the United Kingdom . Two storm events ( Nicole and Oratia ) 28 November to 3 November , and the storm Rebekka from 4 November , resulted in continuous flooding . 10,000 homes were flooded in 700 locations . Peak flows on the Rivers Thames , Trent , Severn , Wharfe and Dee were the highest for 60 years . The River Ouse in Yorkshire reached the highest level since the 17th century . In the United Kingdom a series of severe floods affected large parts of the country in the Autumn of 2000 . The worst affected areas were Kent and Sussex during October and Shropshire , Worcestershire and Yorkshire in November . The Autumn of 2000 was the wettest on record in the England and Wales precipitation record with several major rainfall events causing flooding in different parts of the country during October and November . England and Wales had an average of 503 mm of rain from September -- November exceeding the previous record by nearly 50 mm .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Autumn_2000_western_Europe_floods", "rank": 15, "score": 118485 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Southeastern United States floods Content: The 2009 Southeastern United States floods were a group of floods that affected several counties throughout northern Georgia , Tennessee , Alabama , Mississippi and Arkansas . The worst flooding occurred across the Atlanta metropolitan area . Continuous rain , spawned by moisture pulled from the Gulf of Mexico , fell faster than the local watersheds could drain the runoff . Initial damages from around the state were estimated at $ 250 million . On September 26 , Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine raised the estimated cost to $ 500 million with the potential for it to rise . Some 20,000 homes , businesses and other buildings received major damage and 17 Georgia counties received Federal Disaster Declarations . The flood is blamed for at least ten deaths . The floods were historic , breaking records that went back more than a century in some locations . The Chattahoochee River , the largest river in the region , measured water levels at a 500-year flood level .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2009_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 16, "score": 118082 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Mississippi River floods Content: The Mississippi River floods in April and May 2011 were among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century , comparable in extent to the major floods of 1927 and 1993 . In April 2011 , two major storm systems deposited record levels of rainfall on the Mississippi River watershed . When that additional water combined with the springtime snowmelt , the river and many of its tributaries began to swell to record levels by the beginning of May . Areas along the Mississippi itself experiencing flooding included Illinois , Missouri , Kentucky , Tennessee , Arkansas , Mississippi , and Louisiana . U.S. President Barack Obama declared the western counties of Kentucky , Tennessee , and Mississippi federal disaster areas . For the first time in 37 years , the Morganza Spillway was opened on May 14 , deliberately flooding 4600 sqmi of rural Louisiana to save most of Baton Rouge and New Orleans . Fourteen people were killed in Arkansas , with 392 killed across seven states in the preceding storms . Thousands of homes were ordered evacuated , including over 1,300 in Memphis , Tennessee , and more than 24,500 in Louisiana and Mississippi , though some people disregarded mandatory evacuation orders . The flood crested in Memphis on May 10 and artificially crested in southern Louisiana on May 15 , a week earlier than it would have if spillways had not been opened . The United States Army Corps of Engineers stated that an area in Louisiana between Simmesport and Baton Rouge was expected to be inundated with 20 - of water . Baton Rouge , New Orleans , and many other river towns were threatened , but officials stressed that they should be able to avoid catastrophic flooding . From April 14 -- 16 , the storm system responsible for one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history also produced large amounts of rainfall across the southern and midwestern United States . Two more storm systems , each with heavy rain and tornadoes , hit in the third week of April . In the fourth week of April , from April 25 -- 28 , another , even more extensive and deadly storm system passed through the Mississippi Valley dumping more rainfall resulting in deadly flash floods . The unprecedented extensive rainfall from these four storms , combined with springtime snow melt from the Upper Midwest , created the perfect situation for a 500-year flood along the Mississippi .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2011_Mississippi_River_floods", "rank": 17, "score": 117513 }, { "content": "Title: Northeast U.S. flooding of October 2005 Content: In October 2005 , remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy and Subtropical Depression Twenty-Two merged with incoming continental cold fronts to produce torrential rains over interior New England , as well as over parts of New Jersey and New York . Particularly hard hit was the state of New Hampshire , which saw roads and bridges wiped out , several reported deaths , and whole buildings destroyed . Rain lingered over some areas for several weeks . Rainfall from both rain events totaled well over 20 in in some areas .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Northeast_U.S._flooding_of_October_2005", "rank": 18, "score": 116895 }, { "content": "Title: January 2013 Southeastern United States floods Content: The January 2013 Southeastern United States floods occurred from January 14 to 17 , and resulted in mudslides and washouts throughout the southern Appalachian Mountains region . At the height of the flooding , 50 roads were declared impassable in Greene County , Tennessee alone . A similar storm system brought more flooding rain to the region from January 27 to 31 .", "qid": "350", "docid": "January_2013_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 19, "score": 115916 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States before 1901 Content: Floods in the United States before 1901 is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to the country , before 1901 . Floods are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , and dam failure .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States_before_1901", "rank": 20, "score": 115256 }, { "content": "Title: Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Content: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States , with 27000 sqmi inundated up to a depth of 30 ft. To try to prevent future floods , the federal government built the world 's longest system of levees and floodways . Ninety-four percent of the more than 630,000 people affected by the flood lived in the states of Arkansas , Mississippi , and Louisiana , most in the Mississippi Delta . More than 200,000 African Americans were displaced from their homes along the Lower Mississippi River and had to live for lengthy periods in relief camps . As a result of this disruption , many joined the Great Migration from the South to northern and Midwestern industrial cities rather than return to rural agricultural labor . This massive population movement increased from World War II until 1970 .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927", "rank": 21, "score": 114911 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1913 Content: The Great Flood of 1913 occurred between March 23 and March 26 , after major rivers in the central and eastern United States flooded from runoff and several days of heavy rain . Related deaths and damage in the United States were widespread and extensive . While the exact number is not certain , flood-related deaths in Ohio , Indiana , and eleven other states are estimated at approximately 650 . The official death toll range for Ohio falls between 422 and 470 . Flood-related death estimates in Indiana range from 100 to 200 . More than a quarter million people were left homeless . The death toll from the flood of 1913 places it second to the Johnstown Flood of 1889 as one of the deadliest floods in the United States . The flood remains Ohio 's largest weather disaster . In the Midwest damage estimates exceeded a third of a billion dollars . Damage from the Great Dayton Flood at Dayton , Ohio , exceeded $ 73 million . Indiana 's damages were estimated at $ 25 million ( in 1913 dollars ) . Further south , along the Mississippi River , damages exceeded $ 200 million . Devastation from the flood of 1913 and later floods along the Mississippi River eventually changed the country 's management of its waterways and increased federal support for comprehensive flood prevention and funding for flood control projects . The Ohio Conservancy Act , which was signed by the governor of Ohio in 1914 , became a model for other states to follow . The act allowed for the establishment of conservancy districts with the authority to implement flood control projects . The storm system that produced the flood in late March 1913 began with a typical winter storm pattern , but developed characteristics that promoted heavy precipitation . Strong Canadian winds stalled a high-pressure system off Bermuda and delayed the normal easterly flow of a low-pressure system . In the meantime , moist air from the Gulf of Mexico moved into the Midwest through the Mississippi River valley as a second Canadian high-pressure system arrived from the west , creating a low-pressure trough that stretched from southern Illinois , across central Indiana , and into northern Ohio . At least two low-pressure systems moving along the trough caused heavy rain over the four-day period between March 23 and March 26 . As the storm gained strength on Sunday , March 23 , high winds , hail , sleet , and tornadoes arrived in the Great Plains , the South , and the Midwest . Major tornadoes hit Omaha , Nebraska ; Lone Peach , Arkansas ; and Terre Haute , Indiana . On Monday and Tuesday , March 24 and 25 , 3 to of rain fell in Ohio , Indiana , and southern Illinois . Major rivers in Indiana and Ohio experienced heavy runoff . Downstream , where the Ohio River enters the Mississippi River , the water level broke record highs to that time as the water flowed south to the Gulf of Mexico . By Tuesday , March 25 , the Ohio River and its tributaries flooded cities such as Indianapolis , Indiana , and Cincinnati and Columbus , Ohio . Dayton , Ohio , was particularly hard-hit . On Wednesday , March 26 , the storm moved east into Pennsylvania and New York , while heavy rain continued in the Ohio River valley . The heaviest rainfall , 6 to or more , covered an area from southern Illinois into northwestern Pennsylvania . As the storm continued eastward , flooding began in New York , Massachusetts , Vermont , and Virginia . The Potomac River overflowed its banks in Maryland . State and local communities handled much of their own disaster response and relief in 1913 . The American Red Cross , a small organization at that time , focused its efforts in more than one hundred of Ohio 's hardest-hit communities , including Dayton , and served six of Indiana 's hardest-hit counties . Ohio governor James M. Cox called on the state legislature to appropriate $ 250,000 ( about $ 11 million in today 's dollars ) for emergency aid . Indiana governor Samuel M. Ralston appealed to Indiana cities and other states for relief assistance . Many communities cared for their own flood victims with Red Cross assistance , charitable donations , and contributions from local businesses , industries , and service organizations .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1913", "rank": 22, "score": 114870 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 European floods Content: In late May and early June 2016 flooding began after several days of heavy rain in Europe , mostly Germany and France , but also Austria , Belgium , Romania , Moldova , Netherlands and the United Kingdom . Among others , the German states of Bavaria , Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate , Baden-Württemberg , and North Rhine-Westphalia were affected . Beginning at the river Neckar , the Danube , Rhine , Seine and their tributaries were highly affected by high water and flooding along their banks . At least 20 people have died to date .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2016_European_floods", "rank": 23, "score": 114807 }, { "content": "Title: 1964 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1964 Atlantic hurricane season featured the highest number of U.S.-landfalling hurricanes since 1933 . The season officially began on June 15 , and lasted until November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . The season was slightly above average , with twelve total storms and six hurricanes . All of the hurricanes strengthened into major hurricanes , an event that had not occurred since 1930 . The first system , an unnamed tropical storm , developed on June 2 , almost two weeks before the official start of the season . Striking Florida on June 6 , the storm brought localized flooding to portions of Cuba and the Southeastern United States , leaving about $ 1 million in damage . The next storm , also unnamed , developed near the end of July ; it did not impact land . The effects of Hurricanes Cleo , Dora , and Isbell combined were devastating to Florida . Cleo also brought destruction to portions of the Caribbean , especially Guadeloupe and Haiti . After moving inland , Cleo brought flooding to states such as Virginia . Overall , the storm caused 219 deaths and about $ 187.5 million in damage . Dora lashed much of North Florida and southeastern Georgia with hurricane-force winds , leaving five fatalities and around $ 280 million in damage . In October , Isbell brought strong winds and several tornadoes to Florida , as well as flooding to Cuba and The Carolinas . Isbell killed seven people and left approximately $ 30 million in damage . The strongest tropical cyclone of the season was Hurricane Hilda , a powerful Category 4 hurricane that devastated portions of the Gulf Coast of the United States , especially Mississippi and Louisiana . Upon striking the latter as a Category 3 , Hilda brought heavy rainfall , strong winds , tornadoes , and coastal flooding . Many other areas of the Southern United States experienced flooding from Hilda and its remnants . Overall , Hilda caused 38 deaths and about $ 126 million in damage . The names Cleo , Dora , and Hilda were retired following the season . Collectively , the tropical cyclones resulted in 270 fatalities and approximately $ 609.5 million in damage .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1964_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 24, "score": 113052 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Debbie (1965) Content: Tropical Storm Debbie of the 1965 Atlantic hurricane season broke the daily rainfall record in Mobile , Alabama , despite dissipating offshore . It developed on September 24 in the western Caribbean Sea , and moved northwestward for several days without intensifying . On September 27 , Debbie turned toward the northeast in the Gulf of Mexico , and the next day briefly attained tropical storm status . However , the intrusion of cooler air imparted weakening , and the storm dissipated on September 30 just off the east coast of Louisiana . It initially threatened areas of Louisiana that sustained significant damage from Hurricane Betsy in early September , although Debbie only caused light rainfall and some flooding in the state . In southern Alabama , the storm dropped 17.2 in of rainfall , which resulted in significant flooding of roads and cars . Damage totaled $ 25 million in the Mobile , Alabama area , although there was little damage elsewhere .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Debbie_(1965)", "rank": 25, "score": 112995 }, { "content": "Title: May 2016 United States storm complex Content: The May 2016 United States storm complex was a flood in the United States that occurred on May 31 , 2016 , affecting the states of Arkansas , Kansas , Nebraska , Oklahoma , and Texas . The inundation set precipitation records in Texas and Oklahoma . On June 2 , 2016 , the rising of the Brazos River required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County , Texas . Ten deaths of Texans and thousands of home evacuations led Texas Governor Greg Abbott to issue a statewide Disaster Proclamation on June 1 , 2016 considering the damage in thirty-one counties including Austin , Bandera , Bastrop , Brazoria , Brazos , Burleson , Coleman , Colorado , Erath , Fayette , Fort Bend , Grimes , Hidalgo , Hood , Jasper , Kleberg , Lee , Leon , Liberty , Lubbock , Montgomery , Palo Pinto , Parker , Polk , Robertson , San Jacinto , Tyler , Walker , Waller , Washington and Wharton counties . Meteorologists attribute this storm 's devastation to the power of the El Niño climate cycle . An El Niño system is identified following fluctuation in the climate , characterized by an eastern shift of warming ocean water from the western tropical Pacific Ocean and rainfall along the equator .", "qid": "350", "docid": "May_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 26, "score": 112796 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 European floods Content: Extreme flooding in Central Europe began after several days of heavy rain in late May and early June 2013 . Flooding and damages primarily affected south and east German states ( Thuringia , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , Lower Saxony , Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg ) , western regions of the Czech Republic ( Bohemia ) , and Austria . In addition , Switzerland , Slovakia , Belarus , Poland , Hungary and Serbia ( Vojvodina ) were affected to a lesser extent . The flood crest progressed down the Elbe and Danube drainage basins and tributaries , leading to high water and flooding along their banks .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2013_European_floods", "rank": 27, "score": 112526 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Myanmar floods Content: Severe flooding in Myanmar began in July 2015 and continued into September , affecting 12 of the country 's 14 states , resulting in about 103 deaths and affecting up to 1,000,000 people . Most of the casualties were reported from the Irrawaddy Delta . Torrential rains that began on 16 July destroyed farmland , roads , rail tracks , bridges and houses , leading the government to declare a state of emergency on 30 July in the four worst-hit regions in the west -- Magway Division , Sagaing Division , Chin State and Rakhine State . Myanmar 's Ministry of Agriculture reported that more than 1.29 million acres of farm land have been inundated and 687,200 acres damaged . Moreover , 15,239 houses were destroyed , according to OCHA figures .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2015_Myanmar_floods", "rank": 28, "score": 112035 }, { "content": "Title: 1997 Red River flood in the United States Content: The Red River flood of 1997 in the United States was a major flood that occurred in April 1997 , along the Red River of the North in North Dakota and Minnesota . The flood reached throughout the Red River Valley , affecting the cities of Fargo and Winnipeg , while Grand Forks and East Grand Forks received the most damage , where floodwaters reached over 3 miles ( 5 km ) inland , inundating virtually everything in the twin communities . Total damages for the Red River region were US$ 3.5 billion . The flood was the result of abundant snowfall and extreme temperatures . Although river levels in Fargo reached record heights , the city was protected by several dikes and received minimal damage . In Grand Forks , however , the river crested at 54 ft , surpassing the 49 ft estimate of flooding set by the National Weather Service . Within East Grand Forks , all but eight homes were damaged by floodwaters . Grand Forks mayor Pat Owens had to order the evacuation of over 50,000 people as a large portion of the city would eventually be flooded . A large fire started in Grand Forks , engulfing eleven buildings and sixty apartment units before being extinguished . Those affected by the flood received donations from across the nation , along with billions in federal aid . City officials and flood-forecasters were criticized for the difference in estimates and actual flood levels . Fargo , Grand Forks , and East Grand Forks built new dikes to prevent damage from future floods and the Greater Grand Forks area began to rebuild around the river , developing a campground recreation area , park , and shopping districts where homes once stood .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1997_Red_River_flood_in_the_United_States", "rank": 29, "score": 111779 }, { "content": "Title: 2005 European floods Content: The 2005 European floods hit mainly Romania , Switzerland , Austria and Germany , as well as several other countries in Central Europe and Eastern Europe during August 2005 . The disaster came at a time when Portugal was suffering from intense forest fires which left 15 dead and days before the powerful Hurricane Katrina hit the United States .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2005_European_floods", "rank": 30, "score": 111602 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 European floods Content: The 2011 floods in Europe , caused by low-pressure area Meeno , occurred in late October -- early November in France , Italy and Ireland . In Italy the river Po rose 4 m ( 13 feet ) in Turin and a number of people ( including two children ) died in Genoa . A state of emergency in the Italian regions of Liguria and Tuscany was declared after floods killed 10 people on 27 October , causing mudslides . In Ireland , a state of emergency was declared in Dublin three days before . The same low-pressure area also induced heavy rain and flooding in parts of North Africa .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2011_European_floods", "rank": 31, "score": 111484 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1862 Content: The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon , Nevada , and California , occurring from December 1861 to January 1862 . It was preceded by weeks of continuous rains and snows in the very high elevations that began in Oregon in November 1861 and continued into January 1862 . This was followed by a record amount of rain from January 9 -- 12 , and contributed to a flood that extended from the Columbia River southward in western Oregon , and through California to San Diego , and extended as far inland as Idaho in the Washington Territory , Nevada and Utah in the Utah Territory , and Arizona in the western New Mexico Territory . Immense snowfalls in the mountains of the far western United States caused more flooding in Idaho , Arizona , New Mexico , and Sonora , Mexico the following spring and summer as the snow melted . The event was capped by a warm intense storm that melted the high snow load . The resulting snow-melt flooded valleys , inundated or swept away towns , mills , dams , flumes , houses , fences , and domestic animals , and ruined fields .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1862", "rank": 32, "score": 111387 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1968 Content: The Great Flood of 1968 was a flood caused by a pronounced trough of low pressure which brought exceptionally heavy rain and thunderstorms to South East England and France in mid-September 1968 , with the worst on Sunday 15 September 1968 , and followed earlier floods in South West England during July . The areas worst hit were Crawley , East Grinstead , Horley , Lewisham , Petersfield , Hampshire , Redhill , Tilbury , Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge . On 15 September 1968 , the 9:50 Charing Cross to Hastings was diverted along the Edenbridge line , but was surrounded by flood water at Edenbridge railway station . 150 passengers spent 12 hours stuck on the train .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1968", "rank": 33, "score": 110941 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1993 Content: The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 ( or `` Great Flood of 1993 '' ) occurred in the American Midwest , along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries , from April to October 1993 . The flood was among the most costly and devastating to ever occur in the United States , with $ 15 billion in damages . The hydrographic basin affected cover around 745 miles in length and 435 miles in width , totaling about 320000 mi2 . Within this zone , the flooded area totaled around 30000 mi2 and was the worst such U.S. disaster since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 , as measured by duration , area inundated , persons displaced , crop and property damage , and number of record river levels . In some categories , the 1993 flood even surpassed the 1927 flood , at the time the largest flood ever recorded on the Mississippi .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1993", "rank": 34, "score": 110870 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 United Kingdom floods Content: In June 2016 , parts of the United Kingdom were struck by serious flash floods . Starting on 7 June , thunderstorms caused intense rainfall in many locations across the country , particularly in the north of England and in London , causing repeated flash floods in several locations on a daily basis . The flooding in the United Kingdom followed further flooding on the European mainland throughout May and June 2016 , although the two events were caused by different weather systems .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2016_United_Kingdom_floods", "rank": 35, "score": 110456 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Lake Champlain and Richelieu River floods Content: The 2011 Lake Champlain and Richelieu River floods were a series of water level increases that began at the end of April 2011 and caused a subsequent overflow of the Richelieu River in Canada and Lake Champlain in the United States . The flooding occurred due to record snowfall in the area followed by its snowmelt and in combination with intense spring rains . Lake Champlain stayed at flood stage for 67 days from April to June , and on May 10 , 2011 , the lake broke its previous flood level set in 1869 by reaching 102.8 ft. at Rouses Point , New York . < ref : https://www.google.ca/search?q=google+maps+rouses+point+n.y.&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=haIRWbXSNeSCjwSL1ZqADA > The floods affected about 3,000 homes in Montérégie and caused an estimated six million U.S. dollars of damage in seven counties in the northern area of Vermont . The damage was so bad that a state of emergency was declared by Vermont on May 5 , 2011 . Similar damage was reported in New York State . In Quebec , the major cities affected by the flooding were Venise-en-Quebec , Noyan , Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu , Henryville , Saint-Paul-de-l'Île-aux-Noix , and Sainte-Anne-de-Sabrevois . Citizens of Quebec were supplied with safe drinking water by the government due to the prolonged period of time in which the city 's water supplies were likely contaminated . On May 5 , the Canadian Forces were requested to help evacuate residents and build dikes to try to protect areas at risk .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2011_Lake_Champlain_and_Richelieu_River_floods", "rank": 36, "score": 109535 }, { "content": "Title: Flood Ladies Content: The Flood Ladies were a group of international female artists who contributed artworks to the city of Florence following the catastrophic 1966 flood of the Arno as a sign of solidarity and to help repair the psychological damage done by the flood . The group was formed in Florence , Italy in 1966 . Contributors to the collection lived all over the world . In 2014 the organization Advancing Women Artist Foundation headed an effort to preserve , exhibit and acknowledge the contribution of these women .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Flood_Ladies", "rank": 37, "score": 109477 }, { "content": "Title: June 2007 Texas flooding Content: The June 2007 Texas flooding occurred after heavy rains hit the Southern Plains of the United States . Moisture from the Gulf Mexico flowed north creating a slow-moving frontal system . Approximately 200 millimeters ( 8 inches ) of rain poured in northern Texas , and 11 flood-related deaths were reported .", "qid": "350", "docid": "June_2007_Texas_flooding", "rank": 38, "score": 109324 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 North Dakota floods Content: The US State of North Dakota experienced significant flooding in its major river basins in 2009 , following abnormally heavy winter snows atop saturated and frozen ground .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2009_North_Dakota_floods", "rank": 39, "score": 108879 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Sudan floods Content: On 3 July 2007 , flash floods started to devastate many parts of Sudan , including some areas in Darfur and Southern Sudan .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2007_Sudan_floods", "rank": 40, "score": 108614 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 West Virginia flood Content: On June 23 , 2016 , a flood hit areas of the U.S. state of West Virginia and nearby parts of Virginia , resulting in 23 deaths . The flooding was the result of 8 to of rain falling over a period of 12 hours , resulting in a flood that was among the deadliest in West Virginia history . It is also the deadliest flash flood event in the United States since the 2010 Tennessee floods .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2016_West_Virginia_flood", "rank": 41, "score": 108418 }, { "content": "Title: Northeast blackout of 1965 Content: The Northeast blackout of 1965 was a significant disruption in the supply of electricity on Tuesday , November 9 , 1965 , affecting parts of Ontario in Canada and Connecticut , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New York , Rhode Island , Pennsylvania , and Vermont in the United States . Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles ( 207,000 km2 ) were left without electricity for up to 13 hours .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Northeast_blackout_of_1965", "rank": 42, "score": 108175 }, { "content": "Title: 1982–83 El Niño event Content: The 1982 -- 83 El Niño event was one of the strongest El Niño events since records were kept . It led to widespread flooding across the southern United States , droughts in Indonesia and Australia , and lack of snow in northern areas of the United States . The estimated economic impact was over US$ 8 billion . This El Niño event also led to an abnormal amount of hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean during this time span ; the strongest hurricane up to 1983 hit Hawaii during this El Niño event . It led to declines of 77 % among Galápagos penguins and 49 % among flightless cormorants . In addition to these losses in penguins and cormorants , this El Niño event caused a quarter of adult native sea lions and fur seals on Peru 's coast to starve , while the entirety of both seals ' pup populations perished . In Ecuador heavy rainfall and flooding led to high fish and shrimp harvests , however the large amounts of standing water also allowed mosquito populations to thrive , leading to large outbreaks of malaria .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1982–83_El_Niño_event", "rank": 43, "score": 107840 }, { "content": "Title: New England Flood of May 2006 Content: The New England Flood of May 2006 was a flood event that occurred in New England , especially in New Hampshire and Massachusetts , during the month of May , 2006 . It started on May 11 , 2006 as a result of an unusually strong low pressure system that stalled over the central United States , drawing copious amounts of moisture from the Atlantic Ocean . Most of this moisture was drawn directly over New England , producing continuous heavy rain that led to record flooding near several rivers . It was described as the worst flooding since the New England Hurricane of 1938 . There were no reports of injuries or fatalities . Some called it the Mother 's Day Flood , since it occurred on that holiday .", "qid": "350", "docid": "New_England_Flood_of_May_2006", "rank": 44, "score": 107828 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Louisiana floods Content: In August 2016 , prolonged rainfall in southern parts of the U.S. state of Louisiana resulted in catastrophic flooding that submerged thousands of houses and businesses . Louisiana 's governor , John Bel Edwards , called the disaster a `` historic , unprecedented flooding event '' and declared a state of emergency . Many rivers and waterways , particularly the Amite and Comite rivers , reached record levels , and rainfall exceeded 20 in in multiple parishes . Because of the large number of homeowners without flood insurance that were affected , the federal government is providing disaster aid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) . The flood has been called the worst US natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 . 13 deaths have been reported as a result of the flooding .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2016_Louisiana_floods", "rank": 45, "score": 107741 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Sindh floods Content: The flood was originated mostly because of rainfall and observed the highest ever recorded monsoon rain in Sindh started from Aug 11 , 2011 to Sept 14 , 2011 . So the inundated area increased respectively with rainfall and ceased on Sept 15 , 2011 effectively with the stop of rainfall . After Sept 15 , 2011 the inundated area was reduced with the rate of 167 km2/day . The floods caused considerable damage ; an estimated 434 civilians were killed , with 5.3 million people and 1,524,773 homes affected . Sindh is a fertile region and often called the `` breadbasket '' of the country ; the damage and toll of the floods on the local agrarian economy was extensive . At least 1.7 million acres of arable land was inundated as a result of the flooding . The flooding followed the previous year 's historic 2010 Pakistan floods , which devastated the entire country . Unprecedented torrential monsoon rains caused severe flooding in 16 districts of Sindh province .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2011_Sindh_floods", "rank": 46, "score": 107621 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–11 Philippine floods Content: Widespread flooding occurred in the eastern part of the Philippines since late December 2010 . The Visayas and the Bicol and Caraga regions have been particularly affected by abnormally heavy rains . The floods have displaced 452,999 persons in 19 provinces , and has caused the deaths of 25 people . By 12 January , the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council ( NDRRMC ) pegged those affected at 235,867 families or 1,230,022 people in 1,267 villages in 137 towns and 10 cities in 23 provinces .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2010–11_Philippine_floods", "rank": 47, "score": 107602 }, { "content": "Title: 2016–17 South America floods Content: Starting in December 2016 and continuing through at least April 2017 , South America has been plagued by persistent heavy rain events . Multiple countries suffered substantial losses , with Colombia and Peru being particularly hard-hit .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2016–17_South_America_floods", "rank": 48, "score": 107418 }, { "content": "Title: 1997 Red River flood Content: The Red River flood of 1997 was a major flood that occurred in April and May 1997 along the Red River of the North in Minnesota , North Dakota , and Southern Manitoba . It was the most severe flood of the river since 1826 . The flood reached throughout the Red River Valley , affecting the cities of Fargo and Winnipeg , but none so greatly as Grand Forks and East Grand Forks , where floodwaters reached more than 3 mi inland . They inundated virtually everything in the twin communities . Total damages for the Red River region were US$ 3.5 billion . The flood was the result of abundant snowfall and extreme temperatures . Flooding in Manitoba resulted in over $ 500 million in damages . The Red River Floodway , an artificial waterway completed in 1968 and known as `` Duff 's Ditch , '' diverted some floodwaters around Winnipeg , saving it from flooding . As a result of the 1997 flood and its extensive property losses , the United States and state governments made additional improvements to the flood protection system in North Dakota and Minnesota . They converted former areas of development in the floodplain on both sides of the river to the Greater Grand Forks Greenway , providing year-round recreation areas for residents as well as a natural way to absorb floodwaters . A dike system was built to protect the twin Forks cities . In Grand Forks , thousands of people , including Air Force personnel from Grand Forks Air Force Base , tried to prepare for the 1997 flood by building sandbag dikes . These dikes were constructed based on a 49-foot estimate of flooding set by the National Weather Service . The river crested at 54 feet in Grand Forks . Grand Forks mayor Pat Owens had to order the evacuation of more than 50,000 people , most of the population of the city , as a huge area was flooded . A large fire started in Grand Forks , engulfing eleven buildings and sixty apartment units before being extinguished . Those affected by the flood in the U.S. received donations from across the nation , along with billions of dollars in federal aid . City officials and flood-forecasters were criticized for the difference in estimates and actual flood levels . In the aftermath , the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) worked with the cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks to clear residential and business development from a large area of floodplain , because of the certainty of future regional floods . A system of new dikes was built beyond this on both sides of the river to prevent damage to the cities from future floods . They also redeveloped the floodplain along the river as the Greater Grand Forks Greenway , including several parks , a Minnesota state campground recreation area , and a 20-mile biking and walking trail .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1997_Red_River_flood", "rank": 49, "score": 107357 }, { "content": "Title: North Sea flood of 1953 Content: The 1953 North Sea flood ( Watersnoodramp , literally `` water emergency disaster '' ) was a major flood caused by a heavy storm that occurred on the night of Saturday , 31 January 1953 and morning of Sunday , 1 February 1953 . The floods struck the Netherlands , Belgium , England and Scotland . A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea caused a storm tide ; the combination of wind , high tide , and low pressure led to a water level of more than 5.6 m above mean sea level in some locations . The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding . The Netherlands , a country with 20 % of its territory below mean sea level and 50 % less than 1 m above sea level and which relies heavily on sea defences , was worst affected , recording 1,836 deaths and widespread property damage . Most of the casualties occurred in the southern province of Zeeland . In England , 307 people were killed in the counties of Lincolnshire , Norfolk , Suffolk and Essex . Nineteen were killed in Scotland . Twenty-eight people were killed in West Flanders , Belgium . In addition , more than 230 deaths occurred on water craft along Northern European coasts as well as on ships in deeper waters of the North Sea . The ferry MV Princess Victoria was lost at sea in the North Channel east of Belfast with 133 fatalities , and many fishing trawlers sank . Realising that such infrequent events could recur , the Netherlands particularly , and the United Kingdom carried out major studies on strengthening of coastal defences . The Netherlands developed the Delta Works , an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers . The UK constructed storm surge barriers on the River Thames below London and on the River Hull where it meets the Humber estuary .", "qid": "350", "docid": "North_Sea_flood_of_1953", "rank": 50, "score": 106884 }, { "content": "Title: Florence: Days of Destruction Content: Florence : Days of Destruction ( Italian : Per Firenze ) is a 1966 documentary about the 1966 Flood of the Arno River and its catastrophic effect on the city of Florence . Directed by Franco Zeffirelli , it is Zeffirelli 's only documentary , and features the only known film footage of the flood . The film is 50 minutes long , and was produced by RAI . Released less than a month after the disaster , the film reputedly raised more than $ 20 million for the reconstruction efforts . The film was narrated in English and Italian by actor Richard Burton , who had been making The Taming of the Shrew with Zeffirelli at the time . Variety described the film as a `` magnificent , frightening document '' .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Florence:_Days_of_Destruction", "rank": 51, "score": 106861 }, { "content": "Title: 1966 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1966 Atlantic hurricane season featured the tropical cyclone with the longest track in the Atlantic basin -- Hurricane Faith . Also during the year , the Miami , Florida Weather Office was re-designated the National Hurricane Center . The season officially began on June 1 , and lasted until November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . It was a near average season in terms of tropical storms , with a total of 11 named storms . The first system , Hurricane Alma , developed over eastern Nicaragua on June 4 . Alma brought severe flooding to Honduras and later to Cuba , after crossing the western Caribbean Sea . The storm also brought relatively minor impact to the Southeastern United States . Alma caused 91 deaths and about $ 210.1 million ( 1966 USD ) in damage . Hurricanes Becky , Celia , and Dorothy , and Tropical Storm Ella all resulted in minimal or no impact on land . The next system , Hurricane Faith , developed near Cape Verde on August 21 . It tracked westward across the Atlantic Ocean until north of Hispaniola . After paralleling the East Coast of the United States , Faith moved northeastward across the open Atlantic and later became extratropical near Scotland on September 6 . Overall , Faith traveled about 6,850 mi ( 11,020 km ) across the Atlantic . Although it never made landfall , the storm generated rough seas that resulted in five deaths . The two next tropical storms -- Greta and Hallie -- caused negligible impact . The strongest tropical cyclone of the season was Hurricane Inez , a powerful Category 4 hurricane that devastated a large majority of the Caribbean , the Florida Keys , and parts of Mexico . Throughout its path , the storm caused about $ 226.5 million in damage and more than 1,000 deaths . Tropical Storm Judith left only minor impacts in the Windward Islands . The final system , Hurricane Lois , developed east of Bermuda on November 4 . Later in its duration , Lois passed west of the Azores , bringing gale-force winds to Corvo Island . The storm became extratropical northeast of the islands on November 11 . A possible tropical cyclone in June and July and another in July brought minor damage to Florida and Louisiana , respectively . Overall , the storms of this season collectively caused at least 1,096 fatalities and about $ 436.6 million in damage .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1966_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 52, "score": 106704 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Alaska floods Content: The 2009 Alaska floods were a series of natural disasters taking place in the United States state of Alaska during April and May 2009 . The floods are a result of heavier-than-typical winter snowfall and above-average spring temperatures that resulted in rapid melting of the winter snowfall . The resulting high water levels were aggravated in places by the development of ice dams that caused catastrophic flooding . The record-breaking flood that affected Eagle , Alaska in early May is the best example of an ice dam causing flooding beyond the norm .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2009_Alaska_floods", "rank": 53, "score": 106337 }, { "content": "Title: Maine flood of 1987 Content: A pair of spring storms in March and April 1987 , combined with snow-melt , resulted in heavy flooding in Maine , New Hampshire , and Massachusetts .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Maine_flood_of_1987", "rank": 54, "score": 106309 }, { "content": "Title: 1900 Western Australian floods Content: The 1900 Western Australian floods were a series of flooding events from March to May 1900 that affected large areas of Western Australia , primarily in the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions , though it extended to cover most of the state except the more humid Kimberley and South West regions . The flooding had its beginnings in heavy rain in March 1900 over a very broad area extending from North West Cape to the southeastern corner of the state . It was in the middle of April over the Easter long weekend , however , that flooding began in earnest , and at the end of the month the majority of the normally arid parts of the state were completely inundated : by Easter Monday , all houses in Roebourne were completely surrounded by water from the Harding River . During April and May , the rain was associated with what was described in the press of the time as `` a gentle easterly flow '' but today is recognised to be a northwest cloudband . There were several of these cloudbands during the month , and the result was some astonishing rainfall totals , for instance Wiluna received 527.1 mm and Cossack ( near Port Hedland ) as much as 636.4 mm . The heaviest rainfall of all occurred in the Pilbara during the middle of the month , and resulted in rivers such as the Gascoyne , Ashburton and Murchison overflowing their banks for extraordinarily sustained periods . ( Unfortunately , there were no gauges at the time so we do not know what the exact heights were ) . So heavy indeed was the rainfall that the normally arid `` North West '' ( as the region was known at the time ) was completely boggy and the primitive horse-drawn carts could not traverse the country not only in April , but well into May , especially as another major rainband affected the State early that month , with Onslow recording as much as 9.31 in in a day on the third . The busy Easter mail services were most severely hit of all , with the mail vans from Perth bogged down at Peak Hill after crossing a Gascoyne River that was supposedly 3 mi wide as the rain extended at the end of Easter to the Murchison River 's basin . Wash-outs on the telegraph line with which the remote regions affected by the floods communicated with Perth were indeed not repaired until well into June , a month after flooding peaked in the Pilbara and Gascoyne and had spread eastward to the goldfields of Western Australia . In the interim , communication about the flooding was delayed almost uniformly by at least three or four days , aided by a severe famine and shortage of food for pack horses and salt lakes in the Goldfields such as Lake Carnegie and Lake Maitland filled for probably the only time in centuries - they were never seen with any water between the first European settlement of Western Australia and these floods were thus unprecedented for an extremely long period of time .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1900_Western_Australian_floods", "rank": 55, "score": 106278 }, { "content": "Title: Tornadoes of 1965 Content: This page documents the tornadoes and tornado outbreaks of 1965 , primarily in the United States . Most tornadoes form in the U.S. , although some events may take place internationally . Tornado statistics for older years like this often appear significantly lower than modern years due to fewer reports or confirmed tornadoes .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Tornadoes_of_1965", "rank": 56, "score": 106146 }, { "content": "Title: 1982–83 Paraguay floods Content: The 1982 -- 83 Paraguay floods refers to major flooding that primarily affected the Paraná River basin in the La Plata Basin of Paraguay in the fall of 1982 and beginning of 1983 . The flooding was caused by El Niño and also affected parts of Brazil , Argentina and Bolivia . Although only 170 were killed as a direct result of the floods , 600,000 people were evacuated from their homes and in the end the damage rose to around $ 3 billion . Affecting an estimate of 85,000 people solely in Paraguay , the flood waters had risen from an average of 2.6 meters to above 9 meters . This resulted in several national and international voluntary agencies donating over $ 70,000 . The floods caused a great deal of damage to housing , prompting a structural redesign in building in Paraguay in the aftermath . Houses were constructed , designed to provide safe shelter , even if the floods submerged single storey houses .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1982–83_Paraguay_floods", "rank": 57, "score": 106103 }, { "content": "Title: October 2015 North American storm complex Content: The October 2015 North American storm complex was a high precipitation event that caused historic flash flooding across North and South Carolina . The incipient cold front traversed the Eastern United States on September 29 -- 30 , producing heavy rain in multiple states . The system subsequently stalled just offshore . Tapping into moisture from the nearby Hurricane Joaquin , a developing surface low brought heavy , continuous rain to southeastern States , with the worst effects concentrated in South Carolina where catastrophic flooding occurred . The event culminated in South Carolina on October 4 when numerous rivers burst their banks , washing away roads , bridges , vehicles , and homes . Hundreds of people required rescue and the state 's emergency management department urged everyone in the state not to travel . Some areas of the state saw rainfall equivalent to a 1-in-1000-year event . At least 25 deaths have been attributed to the weather complex : 19 in South Carolina , 2 in New York , 2 in North Carolina , 1 in Florida , and 1 in New Brunswick . Damage reached $ 2 billion .", "qid": "350", "docid": "October_2015_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 58, "score": 106055 }, { "content": "Title: 1947 Thames flood Content: The 1947 Thames flood was worst overall 20th century flood of the River Thames , affecting much of the Thames Valley as well as elsewhere in England during the middle of March 1947 after a severe winter . The floods were caused by 117 mm ( 4.6 inches ) of precipitation ( including snow ) ; the peak flow was 61.7 billion litres of water per day and the damage cost a total of # 12 million to repair . War damage to some of the locks made matters worse . Other significant Thames floods since 1947 have occurred in 1968 , 1993 , 1998 , 2000 , 2003 , 2006 and 2014 .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1947_Thames_flood", "rank": 59, "score": 105999 }, { "content": "Title: Chew Stoke flood of 1968 Content: Chew Stoke Flood was a heavy rain event and severe flash flood which occurred on 10 July 1968 , affecting Somerset and Southwest England in particular the Chew Valley and some areas of Bristol , notably Bedminster . The River Chew suffered a major flood in 1968 with serious damage to towns and villages along its route , including sweeping away the bridge at Pensford . On 10 July 1968 , torrential rainfall , with 175 mm falling in 18 hours on Chew Stoke , double the area 's average rainfall for the whole of July , led to widespread flooding in the Chew Valley , and water reached the first floor of many buildings . The damage in Chew Stoke was not as severe as in some of the surrounding villages , such as Pensford where it swept away the bridge over the A37 and damaged the railway viaduct so badly that it never reopened . It also flooded 88 properties in Chew Magna with many being inundated with 8 ft of water . Fears that the Chew Valley Lake dam would be breached caused considerable anxiety . On the southern side of the Mendip Hills at Cheddar the flow of water swept large boulders down the gorge and damaged the cafe and entrance to Gough 's Cave , washing away cars . In the cave itself the flooding lasted for three days . A Spanish plume weather pattern saw a low over the northwest of Spain track across the Bay of Biscay , hot and humid air advected to the eastern side of the low leading to severe storms . The wake of the storm left 7 fatalities in the United Kingdom .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Chew_Stoke_flood_of_1968", "rank": 60, "score": 105989 }, { "content": "Title: Willamette Valley Flood of 1996 Content: The Willamette Valley Flood of 1996 was part of a larger series of floods in the Pacific Northwest of the United States which took place between late January and mid-February 1996 . It was Oregon 's largest flood event in terms of fatalities and monetary damage during the 1990s . The floods spread beyond Oregon 's Willamette Valley , extending west to the Oregon Coast and east toward the Cascade Mountains . Significant flood damage also impacted the American states of Washington , Idaho ( particularly the north of the state ) and California . The floods were directly responsible for eight deaths in Oregon , as well as over US $ 500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest . Three thousand residents were displaced from their homes .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Willamette_Valley_Flood_of_1996", "rank": 61, "score": 105816 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Maryland flood Content: The 2016 Maryland flood was a natural disaster in the United States that took place on July 30 , 2016 . The flooding , which occurred in the Baltimore area , affected low-lying areas of the Patapsco and Jones Falls valleys . The storm caused significant damage to the historic downtown area of Ellicott City , Maryland .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2016_Maryland_flood", "rank": 62, "score": 105771 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 European floods Content: In August 2002 a flood caused by over a week of continuous heavy rains ravaged Europe , killing dozens , dispossessing thousands , and causing damage of billions of euros in Russia , the Czech Republic , Austria , Germany , Slovakia , Poland , Hungary , Romania and Croatia . The flood was of a magnitude expected to occur roughly once a century .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2002_European_floods", "rank": 63, "score": 105458 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 India floods Content: The 2009 India floods affected various states of India in July 2009 , killing at least 36 people in Orissa and 13 in Kerala . The most affected states were Karnataka , Orissa , Kerala , Gujarat and North-East Indian states . Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 36 people in the eastern Indian state of Orissa alone and inundated half a million homes . On 13 July , seven people were killed and many others missing when a bus fell into a rivulet after being swept away by flood waters in Nayagarh district in Orissa . Nayagarh is 87 km from the Orissa state capital , Bhubaneswar . The world-famous Sun Temple at Konark is also water-logged , causing hardship for tourists . The most flood affected districts in Orissa are Nayagarh , Cuttack , Ganjam , Keonjhar , Koraput and Kandhamal . Several parts of Kerala were affected with the torrential rains with losses amounting to crores of rupees . At least 13 people in Kerala state are reported dead due to floods in the state . The most affected districts of Kerala are Kannur , Ernakulam , Kozhikode , Kollam Thrissur , Malappuram , Wayanad , Kasaragod and Alappuzha districts . A number of relief camps are opened throughout the state . The Revenue Minister of Kerala state , K. P. Rajendran at Kozhikode has convened a meeting on 20 July 2009 to review the damage caused by rain . District Collectors and officials of the various departments of Kasaragod , Kannur , Wayanad , Kozhikode , Malappuram and Palakkad districts are likely attend the meeting . Over three lakh people have been hit after incessant rains in Assam and other north eastern states of India . At least 10 people , including four children and two women , were killed and nine others injured on 27 July 2009 when a wall collapsed due to heavy rains in the satellite township Noida of the national capital of Delhi .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2009_India_floods", "rank": 64, "score": 105147 }, { "content": "Title: Heppner flood of 1903 Content: The Heppner flood of 1903 was a major flash flood along Willow Creek responsible for destroying a large portion of Heppner , Oregon , United States , on June 14 , 1903 . With a death toll of 247 people , it remains the deadliest natural disaster in Oregon , and the second deadliest flash flood in the entire United States , behind the 1889 Johnstown Flood and ahead of the 1972 Black Hills Flood . The flood caused over $ 600,000 in damage , equivalent to $ today . After an exceptionally dry spring , strong thunderstorms moved over the Heppner area on June 14 , 1903 . Torrential rain and hail began falling on the watersheds of Willow Creek and two of its largest tributaries , Balm Fork and Hinton Creek , by 16:30 . The region 's arid climate and little vegetation coupled with the ground already being wet from a storm three days earlier caused very little water to be absorbed by the soil , and soon the streams were flooding . Within fifteen minutes after the rain began to fall , water rushed down the streams ( mainly the Balm Fork ) , towards Heppner . A steam laundry building on the southern edge of Heppner built across Willow Creek acted as a dam when the water arrived , failing under the stress several minutes later . This sent a 15 to wall of water cascading down Willow Creek that quickly reduced many of Heppner 's structures to rubble . Some structures were ripped off their foundations and floated downstream . At its peak , over 36000 ft3/s of water raced down Willow Creek , more than the average flow of the much larger Willamette River to the west . Many people were able to escape to higher ground , but 247 -- nearly a quarter of Heppner 's population at the time -- died . The waters finally receded around an hour later . Numerous houses in Heppner were destroyed , and around 140 total structures , about one-third of Heppner , were washed away . Heppner 's population did not completely recover to pre-1903 levels for several decades . After the flood inundated Heppner , two of its residents , Les Matlock and Bruce Kelly , rode on horseback to warn the cities of Lexington and Ione , 9 and downstream , respectively . The flood washed through Lexington at about 19:00 , just before they arrived , destroying several buildings . Matlock and Kelly continued north to Ione , overtaking the flood and warning the bewildered residents to evacuate . No one was killed in Ione or Lexington . However , the floodwaters washed raw sewage from Heppner downstream , contaminating wells in both Lexington and Ione . As a result , at least 18 people died from typhoid fever over the next several months . The flood led to flood control studies in 1962 , 1965 , and 1979 . The Willow Creek Dam was completed in 1983 to prevent such a flood in the future . It is the first major roller-compacted concrete dam . Pendleton , Oregon photographer Walter S. Bowman captured images of the aftermath .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Heppner_flood_of_1903", "rank": 65, "score": 105079 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1881 Content: The Great Flood of 1881 refers to flooding events along the Missouri River during the spring of 1881 . The flood began around Pierre , South Dakota and struck areas down river in Yankton , South Dakota , Omaha , Nebraska , Council Bluffs , Iowa , Nebraska City , Nebraska , Kansas City , Missouri and further south between April 1 , 1881 and April 27 , 1881 . The events provided the first detailed reporting of Missouri River flooding , and caused millions of dollars in damage .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1881", "rank": 66, "score": 105040 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 North Korean floods Content: The 2012 North Korean floods began in mid-July 2012 when Tropical Storm Khanun affected parts of the country , killing at least 88 people and leaving more than 62,000 people homeless . Torrential rains on 29 and 30 July 2012 worsened the situation , causing additional damage and casualties and forcing the government to request international assistance . Severe rainfall also affected the southern region of North Korea in August , killing at least six .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2012_North_Korean_floods", "rank": 67, "score": 104929 }, { "content": "Title: Grenoble flood 1859 Content: Historically , centenarian floods did extensive damage in the Isere Valley . In October 1859 , it rained continuously for five days . A warm wind melted the snow , and the temperature suddenly increased from 12 to 19 degrees on November 2 . The simultaneity of those two events resulted in an exceptional flood . In a single night , the water in Grenoble rose at a rate of 15 to 20 cm per hour .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Grenoble_flood_1859", "rank": 68, "score": 104913 }, { "content": "Title: Flood of 1955 (Connecticut) Content: The Flood of 1955 in Connecticut is one of the worst floods in Connecticut 's history . Two back-to-back hurricanes saturated the land and several river valleys in the state , causing severe flooding in August 1955 . The hardest hit were the Mad and Still Rivers in Winsted , the Naugatuck River , the Farmington River and the Quinebaug River . Towns that suffered much loss include Farmington , Putnam , Waterbury , and Winsted . Almost 90 people died during the flooding , and property damage across the state was estimated at more than $ 200 million , in 1955 figures . The floods prompted changes in safety measures , river monitoring and zoning laws .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Flood_of_1955_(Connecticut)", "rank": 69, "score": 104661 }, { "content": "Title: California flood of 1605 Content: The California flood of 1605 was a massive flood that covered large sections of present-day California . It was a result of sustained major rain storms across the region . The flooding affected the indigenous peoples of California , in pre-European colonization populations . Similar major floods happened in the California region in : 212 , 440 , 603 , 1029 , 1418 , and 1862 . In 1861 -- 62 , the Great Flood of 1862 caused the state capital to be temporarily moved from flooded Sacramento to San Francisco , with Southern California and other adjacent western states also flooded . Many floods of California in the 20th century were controlled by pumping stations , dams and man made canals such the Los Angeles River running within the city of Los Angeles .", "qid": "350", "docid": "California_flood_of_1605", "rank": 70, "score": 104660 }, { "content": "Title: 1965 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 1965 Atlantic hurricane season was the first to use the modern-day bounds for an Atlantic hurricane season , which are June 1 to November 30 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin . It was one of the least active seasons on record , with only 6 tropical cyclones developing and reaching tropical storm intensity . Four of the storms strengthened into hurricanes . One system reached major hurricane intensity -- Category 3 or higher on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane scale . The first system , an unnamed tropical storm , developed during the month of June in the Pacific Ocean , while located south of Guatemala . The storm moved northward across Central America , but caused no known impact in the region . It struck the Florida Panhandle and caused minor impact across much of the Southern United States . Tropical cyclogenesis halted for over two months , until Anna formed on August 21 . The storm remained well away from land in the far North Atlantic Ocean and caused no impact . Hurricane Betsy was the strongest and most devastating storm of the season . Extensive damage from Betsy was reported in The Bahamas , Florida , and Louisiana , particularly the New Orleans area . It was the first hurricane in the history of the United States to result in at least $ 1 billion ( 1965 USD ) in losses . Hurricane Carol meandered in the eastern Atlantic for over two weeks from mid-September to very early October . Impact on land from Carol was minimal . In late September , Tropical Storm Debbie developed in the northwestern Caribbean Sea and moved slowly across the region , before later reaching the Gulf of Mexico . The storm dissipated just offshore of Louisiana , which resulted in only minor impact along the Gulf Coast of the United States . The final tropical cyclone , Hurricane Elena , formed on October 12 . Elena remained at sea for nearly a week and caused no damage on land . Collectively , the storms of the 1965 Atlantic hurricane season caused 76 fatalities and $ 1.45 billion in damage , almost entirely due to Hurricane Betsy .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1965_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 71, "score": 104602 }, { "content": "Title: May 2004 Caribbean floods Content: The May 2004 Caribbean floods were a flood event that took place in the Caribbean Islands , mainly Hispaniola and some parts of Northern Puerto Rico from May 18 , 2004 to May 25 , 2004 . The storm caused significant rainfall , with over 9.7 inches of rain falling at the most in Haiti , and 10 inches falling at the most in the Dominican Republic . These floods were caused by over two weeks of persistent rain in the Caribbean area , which eventually caused the landslides that killed many people . The floods caused much damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic , with over 1,300 homes being destroyed and about 2,000 people being killed.Due to this destruction , nearly 15,000 people were displaced with nowhere to live . The area that felt the worst of the flooding was the town of Jimani , near the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.In fact , the destruction present at Jimani was so bad that Dominican president Hipolito Mejia declared a national day of mourning after seeing the effects of the storm .", "qid": "350", "docid": "May_2004_Caribbean_floods", "rank": 72, "score": 104403 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Pakistan floods Content: The floods in Pakistan began in late July 2010 , resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Sindh , Punjab and , Balochistan regions of Pakistan , which affected the Indus River basin . Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan 's total land area was affected by floods . According to Pakistani government data , the floods directly affected about 20 million people , mostly by destruction of property , livelihood and infrastructure , with a death toll of close to 2,000 . UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had initially asked for US$ 460 million ( $ 420 million ) for emergency relief , noting that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen . Only 20 % of the relief funds requested had been received on 15 August 2010 . The U.N. had been concerned that aid was not arriving fast enough , and the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water . The Pakistani economy was harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops . Damage to structures was estimated to exceed US$ 4 billion ( $ 2.5 billion ) , and wheat crop damages were estimated to be over US$ 500 million ( $ 425 million ) . Total economic impact may have been as much as US$ 43 billion ( $ 35 billion ) .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2010_Pakistan_floods", "rank": 73, "score": 104391 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 West Africa floods Content: The 2009 West Africa floods are a natural disaster that began in June 2009 as a consequence of exceptionally heavy seasonal rainfall in large areas of West Africa . Several rivers , including the Pendjari , Niger , Volta and Senegal rivers , broke their banks , causing destruction of houses , bridges , roads and crops . The floods are reported to have affected 940,000 people across 12 countries , including Burkina Faso , Benin , Ghana , Niger , Senegal , Guinea , and caused the deaths of at least 193 people . In Burkina Faso , one of the most affected countries , 150,000 people fled their homes , mostly in the capital Ouagadougou where rainfall in one day was equal to 25 % of normal annual rainfall for the whole country .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2009_West_Africa_floods", "rank": 74, "score": 104136 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Colorado floods Content: The 2013 Colorado floods was a natural disaster occurring in the U.S. state of Colorado . Starting on September 9 , 2013 , a slow-moving cold front stalled over Colorado , clashing with warm humid monsoonal air from the south . This resulted in heavy rain and catastrophic flooding along Colorado 's Front Range from Colorado Springs north to Fort Collins . The situation intensified on September 11 and 12 . Boulder County was worst hit , with 9.08 in recorded September 12 and up to 17 in of rain recorded by September 15 , which is comparable to Boulder County 's average annual precipitation ( 20.7 inches , 525 mm ) . This event has also been referred to as the 2013 Colorado Front Range Flood , reflecting a more precise geographic extent in and along the Colorado Front Range mountains . The National Weather Service 's Hydrometeorological Design Studies Center stated in a document that the annual exceedance probability ( AEP ) for the entire rainfall event was as low as 1/1000 ( 0.1 % ) in places . The flood waters spread across a range of almost 200 mi from north to south , affecting 17 counties . Governor John Hickenlooper declared a disaster emergency on September 12 , 2013 , in 14 counties : Adams , Arapahoe , Broomfield , Boulder , Denver , El Paso , Fremont , Jefferson , Larimer , Logan , Morgan , Pueblo , Washington and Weld . By September 15 , federal emergency declarations covered those 14 counties as well as Clear Creek County .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2013_Colorado_floods", "rank": 75, "score": 104100 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 North India floods Content: In June 2013 , a multi-day cloudburst centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand caused devastating floods and landslides becoming the country 's worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami . The reason the floods occurred was that the rainfall received was on a larger scale than the regular rainfall the state usually received . The debris blocked up the rivers , causing major overflow . The main day of the flood is said to be on 16 June 2013 . Though some parts of Himachal Pradesh , Haryana , Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in India experienced the flood , some regions of Western Nepal , and some parts of Western Tibet also experienced heavy rainfall , over 89 % of the casualties occurred in Uttarakhand . , according to figures provided by the Uttarakhand government , more than 5,700 people were `` presumed dead . '' This total included 934 local residents . Destruction of bridges and roads left about 100,000 pilgrims and tourists trapped in the valleys leading to three of the four Hindu Chota Char Dham pilgrimage sites . The Indian Air Force , the Indian Army , and paramilitary troops evacuated more than 110,000 people from the flood ravaged area .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2013_North_India_floods", "rank": 76, "score": 104076 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Alberta floods Content: In the days leading up to June 19 , 2013 , Alberta , Canada , experienced heavy rainfall that triggered catastrophic flooding described by the provincial government as the worst in Alberta 's history . Areas along the Bow , Elbow , Highwood , Red Deer , Sheep , Little Bow , and South Saskatchewan rivers and their tributaries were particularly affected . A total of 32 states of local emergency were declared and 28 emergency operations centres were activated as water levels rose and numerous communities were placed under evacuation orders . Five people were confirmed dead as a direct result of the flooding and over 100,000 people were displaced throughout the region . Some 2,200 Canadian Forces ( CF ) troops were deployed to help in flooded areas . Total damage estimates exceeded C$ 5 billion and in terms of insurable damages , made the 2013 Alberta floods the costliest disaster in Canadian history at $ 1.7 billion , until the occurrence of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire . Receding waters gave way to a mammoth cleanup of affected areas , aided by a spontaneous volunteer campaign in which many home owners were assisted by complete strangers .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2013_Alberta_floods", "rank": 77, "score": 104035 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Tennessee floods Content: The May 2010 Tennessee floods were 1000-year floods in Middle Tennessee , West Tennessee , south-central and western Kentucky and northern Mississippi areas of the United States of America as the result of torrential rains on May 1 and 2 , 2010 . Floods from these rains affected the area for several days afterwards , resulting in a number of deaths and widespread property damage . Two-day rain totals in some areas were greater than 19 in . The Cumberland River crested at 51.86 ft in Nashville , a level not seen since 1937 , which was before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control measures were in place . All-time record crests were observed on the Cumberland River at Clarksville , the Duck River at Centerville and Hurricane Mills , the Buffalo River at Lobelville , the Harpeth River at Kingston Springs and Bellevue , and the Red River at Port Royal .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2010_Tennessee_floods", "rank": 78, "score": 103927 }, { "content": "Title: Great Vermont Flood of 1927 Content: The Great Vermont Flood of 1927 was a major flooding event in Vermont which occurred November 2 -- 4 , 1927 . Following a very wet October , record levels of rainfall were reached in November . The U.S. Geological Survey estimated 53 % of the state received more than six inches of rain , with the greatest recorded amount being 9.86 inches in Somerset , Vermont , caused rivers throughout the state to flood . The flood is considered the worst flood in Vermont , with the only comparison , being the 2011 Hurricane Irene . The flood destroyed 1285 bridges , killed at least eighty-four people , and destroyed many buildings and infrastructure . Environmental historians attribute a number of possible causes for the extreme flooding , including deforestation , saturation of the soil , and the lack of living greenery because of the fall season .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Great_Vermont_Flood_of_1927", "rank": 79, "score": 103899 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–15 floods in Southeast Asia and South Asia Content: Beginning on 14 December 2014 , a series of floods from the northeast monsoon hit Indonesia , West Malaysia , Southern Thailand , and later Sri Lanka in South Asia . More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in Indonesia , 200,000 in Malaysia , and several thousand in Thailand . Floods are also affecting 1,100,000 in Sri Lanka .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2014–15_floods_in_Southeast_Asia_and_South_Asia", "rank": 80, "score": 103884 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 South Indian floods Content: The 2015 South Indian floods resulted from heavy rainfall generated by the annual northeast monsoon in November -- December 2015 . They affected the Coromandel Coast region of the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh , and the union territory of Puducherry , with Tamil Nadu and the city of Chennai particularly hard-hit . More than 500 people were killed and over 18 lakh ( 1.8 million ) people were displaced . With estimates of damages and losses ranging from nearly to over , the floods were the costliest to have occurred in 2015 , and were among the costliest natural disasters of the year . The flooding has been attributed to the 2014 -- 16 El Niño event .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2015_South_Indian_floods", "rank": 81, "score": 103806 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Red River flood Content: The 2009 Red River flood along the Red River of the North in North Dakota and Minnesota in the United States and Manitoba in Canada brought record flood levels to the Fargo-Moorhead area . The flood was a result of saturated and frozen ground , Spring snowmelt exacerbated by additional rain and snow storms , and virtually flat terrain . Communities along the Red River prepared for more than a week as the U.S. National Weather Service continuously updated the predictions for the city of Fargo , North Dakota with an increasingly higher projected river crest . Originally predicted to reach a level of near 43 ft at Fargo by March 29 , the river in fact crested at 40.84 ft at 12:15 a.m. March 28 , and started a slow decline . The river continued to rise to the north as the crest moved downstream .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2009_Red_River_flood", "rank": 82, "score": 103767 }, { "content": "Title: 1910 Great Flood of Paris Content: The 1910 Great Flood of Paris ( Crue de la Seine de 1910 ) was a catastrophe in which the Seine River , carrying winter rains from its tributaries , flooded the Paris conurbation , France . The Seine water level rose eight metres above the ordinary level .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1910_Great_Flood_of_Paris", "rank": 83, "score": 103730 }, { "content": "Title: St. Peter's flood Content: St. Peter 's flood ( Dutch : Sint-Pietersvloed , German : Petriflut ) refers to two separate storm tides that struck the coasts of Netherlands and Northern Germany in 1651 . During the first storm tide , on 22 February , the East Frisian island of Juist was split in two . During the second disaster , on 4 -- 5 March , the city of Amsterdam was flooded . In the past , the two storm tides were thought to have been a single event . The two disasters were confused with each other because two different calendars were in use at the time . The Julian calendar was still in use in Northern Germany and some parts of the Netherlands , while the Gregorian calendar had already been adopted in Holland , Zeeland and other parts of the Netherlands . The year 1651 was something of an annus horribilis for flooding , with many disastrous floods in Europe . In the Netherlands , for instance , another storm tide that struck during the night of 25 -- 26 February broke through a number of dikes and flooded large parts of the eastern Netherlands .", "qid": "350", "docid": "St._Peter's_flood", "rank": 84, "score": 103717 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Mozambican flood Content: The 2007 Mozambican flood began in late December 2006 when the Cahora Bassa Dam overflowed from heavy rains on Southern Africa . It worsened on February 22 , 2007 when the Category 4 Cyclone Favio made landfall on the central province of Inhambane ; experts tracking the cyclone predicted that it would worsen flooding in the Zambezi River valley . The Zambezi River broke its banks , flooding the surrounding areas in Mozambique . The Chire and Rivubue rivers also flooded . 80,600 people had been evacuated from their homes in the Tete , Manica , Sofala and Zambezia provinces by February 14 . By February 22 , the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that approximately 121,000 people had been displaced by the flooding . Some people refused to leave their homes and livestock . There were 29 confirmed casualties and a further 10 unconfirmed deaths . In early February , the Mozambican authorities did not think the flooding would be as devastating as the 2000 and 2001 floods . Paulo Zucula , head of Mozambique 's national relief agency , said `` We expect more water than we had in 2001 . The situation is deteriorating and it will get worse but this time we are better prepared than in 2001 '' . The World Food Program ( WFP ) estimated that up to 285,000 people may require food aid . Delivery of food aid by the WFP began on February 15 . A single UN helicopter was made available for the delivery of aid to evacuation centres . However , thousands of people had not yet received food or drinking water , and the threat of disease outbreaks had also increased ; Paulo Zucula retracted his earlier comments about readiness , saying `` We were not prepared ... it 's another disaster '' .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2007_Mozambican_flood", "rank": 85, "score": 103687 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 floods in Thailand and north Malaysia Content: A series of flash floods hit different areas of Thailand and Malaysia in 2010 . Separate but related floods began in the Northeast and Central Thailand ( per the six-region definition ) in early October due to abnormally late monsoon moisture over the Bay of Bengal , overflowed the Chao Phraya where the rivers meet , and affected Bangkok , and in the South were triggered by a tropical depression about 2 weeks later , and was later aggravated by related La Niña monsoon rains . Floods subsequently occurred in the Malaysian states of Kedah and Perlis in November 2010 . Although flooding is a common and annual occurrence in this part of the world , a combination of inadequate drainage and higher than average rainfall in the month of October and November 2010 which caught the nation off guard and led to disaster . The death toll in Thailand stands at 232 people . According to the Thai government data the floods affected nearly 7 million people in more than 25,000 villages , mostly by destruction of property , livelihood and infrastructure . The government announced that 38 provinces have been hit by floods from 1 October until 13 November and waters have receded in 8 provinces leaving 30 provinces still affected including 12 in the southern region of the country .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2010_floods_in_Thailand_and_north_Malaysia", "rank": 86, "score": 103638 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 China floods Content: The 2011 China floods are a series of floods from June to September 2011 that occurred in central and southern parts of the People 's Republic of China . They were caused by heavy rain that inundated portions of 12 provinces , leaving other provinces still suffering a prolonged drought , a total of over 36 million people have been affected , killing at least 355 and with direct economic losses of nearly US$ 6.5 billion .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2011_China_floods", "rank": 87, "score": 103602 }, { "content": "Title: Johnstown Flood Content: The Johnstown Flood ( locally , the Great Flood of 1889 ) occurred on May 31 , 1889 , after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 mi upstream of the town of Johnstown , Pennsylvania . The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall , releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water ( 16 million US tons ) from the reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh . With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled that of the Mississippi River , the flood killed 2,209 people and caused US$ 17 million of damage ( about $ 450 million in 2015 dollars ) . The American Red Cross , led by Clara Barton and with 50 volunteers , undertook a major disaster relief effort . Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries . After the flood , survivors suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam 's owners . Public indignation at that failure prompted the development in American law changing a fault-based regime to strict liability .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Johnstown_Flood", "rank": 88, "score": 103592 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Indian floods Content: The 2008 Indian floods were a series of floods in various states of India during the 2008 monsoon season . The floods mostly affected the western regions of Maharashtra state and Andhra Pradesh as well as northern Bihar . In India , the monsoon season generally lasts from June to September . According to Ministry of Home Affairs ( India ) 's disaster management unit , the countrywide death toll from floods in various states was 2,404 between June to September .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2008_Indian_floods", "rank": 89, "score": 103564 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 United Kingdom floods Content: A series of destructive floods occurred in parts of the United Kingdom during the summer of 2007 . The worst of the flooding occurred across Scotland on 14 June ; East Yorkshire and The Midlands on 15 June ; Yorkshire , The Midlands , Gloucestershire , Herefordshire and Worcestershire on 25 June ; and Gloucestershire , Herefordshire , Worcestershire , Oxfordshire , Berkshire and South Wales on 28 July 2007 . June was one of the wettest months on record in Britain ( see List of weather records ) . Average rainfall across the country was 140 mm ; more than double the June average . Some areas received a month 's worth of precipitation in 24 hours . It was Britain 's wettest May -- July since records began in 1776 . July had unusually unsettled weather and above-average rainfall through the month , peaking on 20 July as an active frontal system dumped more than 120 mm of rain in southern England . Civil and military authorities described the June and July rescue efforts as the biggest in peacetime Britain . The Environment Agency described the July floods as critical and expected them to exceed the 1947 benchmark .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2007_United_Kingdom_floods", "rank": 90, "score": 103559 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Missouri River Flood Content: The 2011 Missouri River floods was a flooding event on the Missouri River in the United States . The flooding was triggered by record snowfall in the Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming along with near-record spring rainfall in central and eastern Montana . All six major dams along the Missouri River released record amounts of water to prevent overflow which led to flooding threatening several towns and cities along the river from Montana to Missouri ; in particular Bismarck , North Dakota ; Pierre , South Dakota ; Dakota Dunes , South Dakota ; South Sioux City , Nebraska , Sioux City , Iowa ; Omaha , Nebraska ; Council Bluffs , Iowa ; Kansas City , Missouri ; Jefferson City , Missouri , as well as putting many smaller towns at risk . According to the National Weather Service , in the second half of the month of May 2011 , almost a year 's worth of rain fell over the upper Missouri River basin . Extremely heavy rainfall in conjunction with an estimated 212 percent of normal snowpack in the Rocky Mountains contributed to this flooding event .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2011_Missouri_River_Flood", "rank": 91, "score": 103517 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Hazel (1965) Content: Tropical Storm Hazel was a weak East Pacific tropical cyclone that caused heavy damage in Mexico . The costliest storm of the 1965 Pacific hurricane season , it formed from a northward-moving disturbance that originated southeast of Socorro Island . After reaching tropical storm strength on the Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale , the cyclone turned to the east-northeast . The storm made landfall near Mazatlán on September 26 and quickly transitioned an extratropical cyclone . Although fairly weak , the system was responsible for causing heavy damage to the Mexican economy . Flooding in Mazatlán washed out many houses and submerged others in muddy water . At least six people died with damages totaling $ 10 million ( 1965 USD ) and possibly higher . The name Hazel was retired following this storm .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Hazel_(1965)", "rank": 92, "score": 103418 }, { "content": "Title: Hurricane Gladys (1964) Content: Hurricane Gladys was a tropical cyclone that caused minor impact along the East Coast of the United States and in Bermuda and Atlantic Canada . The ninth named storm and fifth hurricane of the 1964 Atlantic hurricane season , Gladys developed from a tropical wave located east of the Lesser Antilles on September 13 . Shortly thereafter , it strengthened into a tropical storm . On September 14 , Gladys abruptly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale . However , early on the following day , Gladys weakened slightly to a Category 1 hurricane . Between late on September 16 and late on September 17 , the storm rapidly strengthened , peaking as a 145 mph ( 230 km/h ) Category 4 hurricane on the latter . Gladys began weakening on the following day and curved northward on September 19 . The storm turned northwestward on September 22 and briefly threatened the East Coast of the United States . However , it veered northeastward on September 23 and moved rapidly toward Atlantic Canada . By 0000 UTC on September 25 , Gladys became extratropical while centered between Sable Island and Nova Scotia . Along the East Coast of the United States , Gladys produced light rainfall , gusty winds , and storm surge . Coastal flooding was reported in North Carolina and Virginia . In the former , high tides inundated homes and buildings with 2 ft of water in two small villages on the Outer Banks and flooded a highway to Manteo . In the state of Virginia , one death occurred when a man was fatally struck in the throat by debris . Tides also effected the Mid-Atlantic , New England , and Atlantic Canada .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Hurricane_Gladys_(1964)", "rank": 93, "score": 103384 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Tabasco flood Content: The 2007 Tabasco flood occurred in late October and early November 2007 in the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas , in which as much as 80 % of the former was left under water . At least 20,000 people were forced to seek emergency shelter . Over 1,000,000 residents were affected .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2007_Tabasco_flood", "rank": 94, "score": 103196 }, { "content": "Title: Chicago flood Content: The Chicago flood occurred on April 13 , 1992 , when the damaged wall of a utility tunnel beneath the Chicago River opened into a breach which flooded basements and underground facilities throughout the Chicago Loop with an estimated 250 e6USgal of water .", "qid": "350", "docid": "Chicago_flood", "rank": 95, "score": 103107 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 China floods Content: In mid-June 2016 , heavy rainfall began across southern China , triggering deadly floods . Over the following month , additional rain events exacerbated flooding and affected more of the country . Areas along the Yangtze River and Huai River have been particularly hard-hit . An estimated 32 million people across 26 provinces were affected and more than 300 people were killed . 700000 acre of cropland was destroyed , with state damage estimates of around US$ 5.73 billion . According to Aon Benfield , the damage estimate has reached US$ 22 billion . Flooding of this magnitude was last seen in the country in 1998 .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2016_China_floods", "rank": 96, "score": 102987 }, { "content": "Title: 1954 Yangtze River floods Content: From June to September 1954 , the Yangtze River Floods were a series of catastrophic floodings that occurred mostly in Hubei Province . Due to unusually high volume of precipitation as well as an extraordinarily long rainy season in the middle stretch of the Yangtze River late in the spring of 1954 , the river started to rise above its usual level in around late June . Despite efforts to open three important flood gates to alleviate the rising water by diverting it , the flood level continued to rise until it hit the historic high of 44.67 m in Jingzhou , Hubei and 29.73 m in Wuhan . The number of dead from this flood was estimated at around 33,000 , including those who died of plague in the aftermath of the disaster .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1954_Yangtze_River_floods", "rank": 97, "score": 102886 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 Great Britain and Ireland floods Content: The 2012 Great Britain and Ireland floods are a series of weather events that affected parts of Great Britain and Ireland periodically during the course of 2012 and on through the winter into 2013 . The beginning of 2012 saw much of the United Kingdom experiencing droughts and a heat wave in March . A series of low pressure systems steered by the jet stream brought the wettest April in 100 years , and flooding across Britain and Ireland . Continuing through May and leading to the wettest beginning to June in 150 years , with flooding and extreme events occurring periodically throughout Britain and parts of Atlantic Europe . On 27 and 28 June and again on 7 July heavy rain events occurred from powerful thunderstorms that gathered strength as they travelled across mainland Britain . Severe weather warnings and a number of flood alerts were issued by the UK 's Environment Agency , and many areas were hit by flash floods that overwhelmed properties and caused power cuts . A motorist was killed after his vehicle was caught by floodwater and landslides halted rail services between England and Scotland . The thunderstorms were the product of two fronts that collided over the British Isles -- warm air travelling from the Azores and cold water-ladened air from the west . The second batch of flooding struck the South-West of England during the afternoon of 7 July , forcing the Met Office to issue its highest alert , Red ( Take Action ) , due to the significant amounts of rainfall caused by a system travelling from Southern Europe , along with the warm , humid air the United Kingdom had seen in the run-up to the floods , which , like the June floods , caused thunderstorms . During the Autumn the most intense September low since 1981 brought widespread flooding and wind damage to the UK . Widespread flooding occurred again in November , December and January 2013 , as more heavy rains overwhelmed the saturated ground .", "qid": "350", "docid": "2012_Great_Britain_and_Ireland_floods", "rank": 98, "score": 102804 }, { "content": "Title: 1974 Brisbane flood Content: The 1974 Brisbane flood occurred in January 1974 in Brisbane , Queensland , Australia . It took place when the waterways in the city experienced significant flooding . The Brisbane River , which runs through the heart of the city , broke its banks and flooded the surrounding areas . In total , there were 14 fatalities , 300 people injured , 8000 homes destroyed and an estimated A$ 68 million in damages .", "qid": "350", "docid": "1974_Brisbane_flood", "rank": 99, "score": 102740 }, { "content": "Title: North American hundred-year floods of 2011 Content: Several hundred-year flooding events occurred in 2011 . In North America , the following events occurred on separate rivers and tributaries : 2011 Mississippi River floods 2011 Assiniboine River flood 2011 Lake Champlain and Richelieu River Floods 2011 Missouri River floods 2011 Souris River flood", "qid": "350", "docid": "North_American_hundred-year_floods_of_2011", "rank": 100, "score": 102645 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1951 Content: In mid-July 1951 , heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River and other surrounding areas of the central United States . Flooding resulted in the Kansas , Neosho , Marais Des Cygnes , and Verdigris river basins . The damage in June and July 1951 exceeded $ 935 million in an area covering eastern Kansas and Missouri , which , adjusting for inflation , is nearly $ 8.52 billion in 2016 . The flood resulted in the loss of 17 lives and displaced 518,000 people .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1951", "rank": 1, "score": 138981 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Pakistan floods Content: The floods in Pakistan began in late July 2010 , resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Sindh , Punjab and , Balochistan regions of Pakistan , which affected the Indus River basin . Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan 's total land area was affected by floods . According to Pakistani government data , the floods directly affected about 20 million people , mostly by destruction of property , livelihood and infrastructure , with a death toll of close to 2,000 . UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had initially asked for US$ 460 million ( $ 420 million ) for emergency relief , noting that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen . Only 20 % of the relief funds requested had been received on 15 August 2010 . The U.N. had been concerned that aid was not arriving fast enough , and the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water . The Pakistani economy was harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops . Damage to structures was estimated to exceed US$ 4 billion ( $ 2.5 billion ) , and wheat crop damages were estimated to be over US$ 500 million ( $ 425 million ) . Total economic impact may have been as much as US$ 43 billion ( $ 35 billion ) .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2010_Pakistan_floods", "rank": 2, "score": 129727 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–11 Queensland floods Content: A series of floods hit Queensland , Australia , beginning in December 2010 . The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities . At least 90 towns and over 200,000 people were affected . Damage initially was estimated at around A$ 1 billion before it was raised to $ 2.38 billion . The estimated reduction in Australia 's GDP is about A$ 30 billion . Three-quarters of the council areas within the state of Queensland were declared disaster zones . Communities along the Fitzroy and Burnett Rivers were particularly hard hit , while the Condamine , Ballone and Mary Rivers recorded substantial flooding . An unexpected flash flood caused by a thunderstorm raced through Toowoomba 's central business district . Water from the same storm devastated communities in the Lockyer Valley . A few days later thousands of houses in Ipswich and Brisbane were inundated as the Brisbane River rose and Wivenhoe Dam used a considerable proportion of its flood mitigation capacity . Volunteers were quick to offer assistance , and sympathy was expressed from afar . A large mobilisation of the Australian Defence Force was activated and a relief fund created . The head of the recovery taskforce was Major General Michael Slater . The Queensland Reconstruction Authority ( CEO was Graeme Newton ) was formed to coordinate the rebuilding program beyond the initial task force , and a Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate all matters related to the floods . The 2010 -- 11 floods killed 38 people in Queensland . As of 26 January , an additional nine people were missing . The state 's coal industry was particularly hard hit . The Queensland floods were followed by the 2011 Victorian floods which saw more than fifty communities in western and central Victoria also grapple with significant flooding .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2010–11_Queensland_floods", "rank": 3, "score": 129306 }, { "content": "Title: Grenoble flood 1859 Content: Historically , centenarian floods did extensive damage in the Isere Valley . In October 1859 , it rained continuously for five days . A warm wind melted the snow , and the temperature suddenly increased from 12 to 19 degrees on November 2 . The simultaneity of those two events resulted in an exceptional flood . In a single night , the water in Grenoble rose at a rate of 15 to 20 cm per hour .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Grenoble_flood_1859", "rank": 4, "score": 125551 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Southeastern United States floods Content: The 2009 Southeastern United States floods were a group of floods that affected several counties throughout northern Georgia , Tennessee , Alabama , Mississippi and Arkansas . The worst flooding occurred across the Atlanta metropolitan area . Continuous rain , spawned by moisture pulled from the Gulf of Mexico , fell faster than the local watersheds could drain the runoff . Initial damages from around the state were estimated at $ 250 million . On September 26 , Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine raised the estimated cost to $ 500 million with the potential for it to rise . Some 20,000 homes , businesses and other buildings received major damage and 17 Georgia counties received Federal Disaster Declarations . The flood is blamed for at least ten deaths . The floods were historic , breaking records that went back more than a century in some locations . The Chattahoochee River , the largest river in the region , measured water levels at a 500-year flood level .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2009_Southeastern_United_States_floods", "rank": 5, "score": 124472 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1913 Content: The Great Flood of 1913 occurred between March 23 and March 26 , after major rivers in the central and eastern United States flooded from runoff and several days of heavy rain . Related deaths and damage in the United States were widespread and extensive . While the exact number is not certain , flood-related deaths in Ohio , Indiana , and eleven other states are estimated at approximately 650 . The official death toll range for Ohio falls between 422 and 470 . Flood-related death estimates in Indiana range from 100 to 200 . More than a quarter million people were left homeless . The death toll from the flood of 1913 places it second to the Johnstown Flood of 1889 as one of the deadliest floods in the United States . The flood remains Ohio 's largest weather disaster . In the Midwest damage estimates exceeded a third of a billion dollars . Damage from the Great Dayton Flood at Dayton , Ohio , exceeded $ 73 million . Indiana 's damages were estimated at $ 25 million ( in 1913 dollars ) . Further south , along the Mississippi River , damages exceeded $ 200 million . Devastation from the flood of 1913 and later floods along the Mississippi River eventually changed the country 's management of its waterways and increased federal support for comprehensive flood prevention and funding for flood control projects . The Ohio Conservancy Act , which was signed by the governor of Ohio in 1914 , became a model for other states to follow . The act allowed for the establishment of conservancy districts with the authority to implement flood control projects . The storm system that produced the flood in late March 1913 began with a typical winter storm pattern , but developed characteristics that promoted heavy precipitation . Strong Canadian winds stalled a high-pressure system off Bermuda and delayed the normal easterly flow of a low-pressure system . In the meantime , moist air from the Gulf of Mexico moved into the Midwest through the Mississippi River valley as a second Canadian high-pressure system arrived from the west , creating a low-pressure trough that stretched from southern Illinois , across central Indiana , and into northern Ohio . At least two low-pressure systems moving along the trough caused heavy rain over the four-day period between March 23 and March 26 . As the storm gained strength on Sunday , March 23 , high winds , hail , sleet , and tornadoes arrived in the Great Plains , the South , and the Midwest . Major tornadoes hit Omaha , Nebraska ; Lone Peach , Arkansas ; and Terre Haute , Indiana . On Monday and Tuesday , March 24 and 25 , 3 to of rain fell in Ohio , Indiana , and southern Illinois . Major rivers in Indiana and Ohio experienced heavy runoff . Downstream , where the Ohio River enters the Mississippi River , the water level broke record highs to that time as the water flowed south to the Gulf of Mexico . By Tuesday , March 25 , the Ohio River and its tributaries flooded cities such as Indianapolis , Indiana , and Cincinnati and Columbus , Ohio . Dayton , Ohio , was particularly hard-hit . On Wednesday , March 26 , the storm moved east into Pennsylvania and New York , while heavy rain continued in the Ohio River valley . The heaviest rainfall , 6 to or more , covered an area from southern Illinois into northwestern Pennsylvania . As the storm continued eastward , flooding began in New York , Massachusetts , Vermont , and Virginia . The Potomac River overflowed its banks in Maryland . State and local communities handled much of their own disaster response and relief in 1913 . The American Red Cross , a small organization at that time , focused its efforts in more than one hundred of Ohio 's hardest-hit communities , including Dayton , and served six of Indiana 's hardest-hit counties . Ohio governor James M. Cox called on the state legislature to appropriate $ 250,000 ( about $ 11 million in today 's dollars ) for emergency aid . Indiana governor Samuel M. Ralston appealed to Indiana cities and other states for relief assistance . Many communities cared for their own flood victims with Red Cross assistance , charitable donations , and contributions from local businesses , industries , and service organizations .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1913", "rank": 6, "score": 123207 }, { "content": "Title: 1947 Thames flood Content: The 1947 Thames flood was worst overall 20th century flood of the River Thames , affecting much of the Thames Valley as well as elsewhere in England during the middle of March 1947 after a severe winter . The floods were caused by 117 mm ( 4.6 inches ) of precipitation ( including snow ) ; the peak flow was 61.7 billion litres of water per day and the damage cost a total of # 12 million to repair . War damage to some of the locks made matters worse . Other significant Thames floods since 1947 have occurred in 1968 , 1993 , 1998 , 2000 , 2003 , 2006 and 2014 .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1947_Thames_flood", "rank": 7, "score": 121597 }, { "content": "Title: April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides Content: The April 2010 Rio de Janeiro floods and mudslides was an extreme weather event that affected the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in the first days of April 2010 . At least 212 people died , 161 people have been injured ( including several rescuers ) , while at least 15,000 people have been made homeless . A further 10,000 homes are thought to be at risk from mudslides , most of them in the favelas , the shanty towns built on the hillsides above downtowns . Damage from the flooding has been estimated at 23.76 billion reais ( US$ 13.3 bn , $ 9.9 bn ) , about 8 % of the gross domestic product ( GDP ) of Rio de Janeiro State . The flooding particularly affected the city of Rio de Janeiro , where at least 60 people died , and its surrounding area . Deaths were also been reported in the cities of Niterói ( 132 ) , São Gonçalo ( 16 ) , Paracambi ( 1 ) , Engenheiro Paulo de Frontin ( 1 ) , Magé ( 1 ) , Nilópolis ( 1 ) and Petrópolis ( 1 ) . Several municipalities , including Niterói and municipalities to the east such as Maricá and Araruama , have declared states of emergency or of public calamity . The Governor of Rio de Janeiro State , Sérgio Cabral , declared three days of official mourning for the dead . Heavy rain started at around 5 p.m. local time ( 2000 UTC ) on Monday 5 April in Rio de Janeiro city , and continued for 24 hours , with a total of 28.8 cm ( 11 1/2 in . ) of rain falling , more than was predicted for the whole of April and the heaviest rainfall for thirty years . The Brazilian TV station Globo said the rainfall was equivalent to 300,000 Olympic swimming pools of water . There were drivers who were forced to sleep in their cars . There were also firemen who used rubber dinghies to rescue passengers from stranded buses , and shopkeepers who worked very quickly to prevent the rainfall from destroying their businesses . Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes admitted that the city 's preparedness for heavy rainfall had been `` less than zero , '' but added `` there is n't a city that would n't have had problems with this level of rainfall . '' A further landslide hit a slum in Niterói late on 7 April . It is thought to have killed at least 150 . Around 200 people were missing in the town as of 13 April . After nearly 300 landslides hit the area , the statue of Christ the Redeemer was cut off from traffic for the first time in history . More than 300 homes were bulldozed after the landslides , and it is estimated that close to 12,000 families will need to be relocated by 2012 due to the damage from the floods .", "qid": "351", "docid": "April_2010_Rio_de_Janeiro_floods_and_mudslides", "rank": 8, "score": 121221 }, { "content": "Title: Heppner flood of 1903 Content: The Heppner flood of 1903 was a major flash flood along Willow Creek responsible for destroying a large portion of Heppner , Oregon , United States , on June 14 , 1903 . With a death toll of 247 people , it remains the deadliest natural disaster in Oregon , and the second deadliest flash flood in the entire United States , behind the 1889 Johnstown Flood and ahead of the 1972 Black Hills Flood . The flood caused over $ 600,000 in damage , equivalent to $ today . After an exceptionally dry spring , strong thunderstorms moved over the Heppner area on June 14 , 1903 . Torrential rain and hail began falling on the watersheds of Willow Creek and two of its largest tributaries , Balm Fork and Hinton Creek , by 16:30 . The region 's arid climate and little vegetation coupled with the ground already being wet from a storm three days earlier caused very little water to be absorbed by the soil , and soon the streams were flooding . Within fifteen minutes after the rain began to fall , water rushed down the streams ( mainly the Balm Fork ) , towards Heppner . A steam laundry building on the southern edge of Heppner built across Willow Creek acted as a dam when the water arrived , failing under the stress several minutes later . This sent a 15 to wall of water cascading down Willow Creek that quickly reduced many of Heppner 's structures to rubble . Some structures were ripped off their foundations and floated downstream . At its peak , over 36000 ft3/s of water raced down Willow Creek , more than the average flow of the much larger Willamette River to the west . Many people were able to escape to higher ground , but 247 -- nearly a quarter of Heppner 's population at the time -- died . The waters finally receded around an hour later . Numerous houses in Heppner were destroyed , and around 140 total structures , about one-third of Heppner , were washed away . Heppner 's population did not completely recover to pre-1903 levels for several decades . After the flood inundated Heppner , two of its residents , Les Matlock and Bruce Kelly , rode on horseback to warn the cities of Lexington and Ione , 9 and downstream , respectively . The flood washed through Lexington at about 19:00 , just before they arrived , destroying several buildings . Matlock and Kelly continued north to Ione , overtaking the flood and warning the bewildered residents to evacuate . No one was killed in Ione or Lexington . However , the floodwaters washed raw sewage from Heppner downstream , contaminating wells in both Lexington and Ione . As a result , at least 18 people died from typhoid fever over the next several months . The flood led to flood control studies in 1962 , 1965 , and 1979 . The Willow Creek Dam was completed in 1983 to prevent such a flood in the future . It is the first major roller-compacted concrete dam . Pendleton , Oregon photographer Walter S. Bowman captured images of the aftermath .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Heppner_flood_of_1903", "rank": 9, "score": 119640 }, { "content": "Title: 1997 Central European flood Content: The 1997 Central European flood or the 1997 Oder Flood of the Oder and Morava river basins in July 1997 affected Poland , Germany , and the Czech Republic , taking the lives of about 100 people ( in the Czech Republic and Poland ) and causing material damages estimated at $ 4.5 billion ( 3.8 billion euros in the Czech Republic and Poland and 330 million euros in Germany ) . The flooding began in the Czech Republic , then spread to Poland and Germany . In Poland , where it was one of the most disastrous floods in the history of that country , it was named the Millennium Flood ( Powódź tysiąclecia ) . The term was also used in Germany ( Jahrtausendflut ) . The flood has also been referred to as the Great Flood of 1997 .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1997_Central_European_flood", "rank": 10, "score": 119536 }, { "content": "Title: 1982–83 Paraguay floods Content: The 1982 -- 83 Paraguay floods refers to major flooding that primarily affected the Paraná River basin in the La Plata Basin of Paraguay in the fall of 1982 and beginning of 1983 . The flooding was caused by El Niño and also affected parts of Brazil , Argentina and Bolivia . Although only 170 were killed as a direct result of the floods , 600,000 people were evacuated from their homes and in the end the damage rose to around $ 3 billion . Affecting an estimate of 85,000 people solely in Paraguay , the flood waters had risen from an average of 2.6 meters to above 9 meters . This resulted in several national and international voluntary agencies donating over $ 70,000 . The floods caused a great deal of damage to housing , prompting a structural redesign in building in Paraguay in the aftermath . Houses were constructed , designed to provide safe shelter , even if the floods submerged single storey houses .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1982–83_Paraguay_floods", "rank": 11, "score": 119390 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Gascoyne River flood Content: The 2010 Gascoyne River flood was regarded as the most severe flood to take place along the Gascoyne River in Western Australia on record . Triggered by record-breaking rainfall , amounting to over 6,000 percent of the monthly mean , 313.6 mm and 5 mm respectively , in just four days , the floods caused widespread damage in the region . By 17 December , the river began to rise in response to the heavy rains , eventually exceeding its banks within two days . Water levels reached record values at three stations along the river , cresting at 15.53 m near Fishy Pool . Evacuation orders were issued for several towns affected by rising waters . The most substantial impact was felt in Carnarvon where entire homes were washed away . Following the disaster , emergency supplies and funds were distributed to affected residents to aid them in restoring their livelihoods . Though no people died in the event , an estimated two thousand head of cattle perished and damage was estimated at A$ 100 million .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2010_Gascoyne_River_flood", "rank": 12, "score": 118731 }, { "content": "Title: Johnstown Flood Content: The Johnstown Flood ( locally , the Great Flood of 1889 ) occurred on May 31 , 1889 , after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 mi upstream of the town of Johnstown , Pennsylvania . The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall , releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water ( 16 million US tons ) from the reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh . With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled that of the Mississippi River , the flood killed 2,209 people and caused US$ 17 million of damage ( about $ 450 million in 2015 dollars ) . The American Red Cross , led by Clara Barton and with 50 volunteers , undertook a major disaster relief effort . Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries . After the flood , survivors suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam 's owners . Public indignation at that failure prompted the development in American law changing a fault-based regime to strict liability .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Johnstown_Flood", "rank": 13, "score": 117180 }, { "content": "Title: July 2012 Beijing flood Content: In a twenty-hour period on July 21 , 2012 , a flash flood hit the city of Beijing in the People 's Republic of China . Within a day of the flooding , 56,933 people had been evacuated , while the floodwaters killed 79 people , causing at least 10 billion Yuan ( US $ 1.6 billion ) in damages and destroying at least 8,200 homes . In the city , more than 1.6 million people were affected by the flood overall . Fangshan District was the most heavily affected area of Beijing , located in the southwest , which received a record-setting 460 mm of rain , while on average the city received 170 mm during the same period , the highest recorded since 1951 . The Juma River flooded its banks and reached a flow rate of 2500 m3 per second . A woman in Fangshan reported the river rose 1.3 metres on her home in approximately ten minutes . At Beijing Capital International Airport , the floods resulted in the cancellation of over 500 flights , stranding 80,000 travellers .", "qid": "351", "docid": "July_2012_Beijing_flood", "rank": 14, "score": 116878 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Colombo floods Content: The 2010 Colombo floods were an isolated incident that took place during the evening of 10 November to approximately noon on 11 November , in Colombo . As a low-pressure area developed over the city , up to 490 mm of rain fell during the short period of 15 hours overnight , causing widespread damage and flooding in the area ; the highest amount of rainfall in 18 years . A joint Government-UN assessment was launched on the 13th to understand the level of damage in the affected areas .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2010_Colombo_floods", "rank": 15, "score": 116030 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Colombia floods Content: A series of floods in Colombia began in late April 2011 , coinciding with the country 's rainy season . Torrential rains triggered extensive flooding and landslides that killed at least 111 people and left more than 69,000 homeless . Estimates have placed damage at US$ 5 billion . After September , a second wave of flooding and landslides ( coinciding with the year 's second rainy season ) killed another 81 people , wounded 65 more and affected approximately 289,000 ( including 61,000 families ) .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2011_Colombia_floods", "rank": 16, "score": 115145 }, { "content": "Title: 100-year flood Content: A one-hundred-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 % probability of occurring in any given year . The 100-year flood is also referred to as the 1 % flood , since its annual exceedance probability is 1 % . For river systems , the 100-year flood is generally expressed as a flowrate . Based on the expected 100-year flood flow rate , the flood water level can be mapped as an area of inundation . The resulting floodplain map is referred to as the 100-year floodplain . Estimates of the 100-year flood flowrate and other streamflow statistics for any stream in the United States are available . In the UK The Environment Agency publishes a comprehensive map of all areas at risk of a 1 in 100 year flood ( Flood zone 3 ) Areas near the coast of an ocean or large lake also can be flooded by combinations of tide , storm surge , and waves . Maps of the riverine or coastal 100-year floodplain may figure importantly in building permits , environmental regulations , and flood insurance .", "qid": "351", "docid": "100-year_flood", "rank": 17, "score": 114682 }, { "content": "Title: May 2004 Caribbean floods Content: The May 2004 Caribbean floods were a flood event that took place in the Caribbean Islands , mainly Hispaniola and some parts of Northern Puerto Rico from May 18 , 2004 to May 25 , 2004 . The storm caused significant rainfall , with over 9.7 inches of rain falling at the most in Haiti , and 10 inches falling at the most in the Dominican Republic . These floods were caused by over two weeks of persistent rain in the Caribbean area , which eventually caused the landslides that killed many people . The floods caused much damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic , with over 1,300 homes being destroyed and about 2,000 people being killed.Due to this destruction , nearly 15,000 people were displaced with nowhere to live . The area that felt the worst of the flooding was the town of Jimani , near the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.In fact , the destruction present at Jimani was so bad that Dominican president Hipolito Mejia declared a national day of mourning after seeing the effects of the storm .", "qid": "351", "docid": "May_2004_Caribbean_floods", "rank": 18, "score": 113941 }, { "content": "Title: Ohio River flood of 1937 Content: The Ohio River flood of 1937 took place in late January and February 1937 . With damage stretching from Pittsburgh to Cairo , Illinois , one million people were left homeless , with 385 dead and property losses reaching $ 500 million ( $ 8.7 billion in 2015 dollars ) . Federal and state resources were strained to aid recovery , as the disaster occurred during the depths of the Great Depression and a few years after the Dust Bowl .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Ohio_River_flood_of_1937", "rank": 19, "score": 113558 }, { "content": "Title: 1973 Saint John River flood Content: The 1973 Saint John River flood in late April 1973 was the most significant flood ever recorded on the Saint John River . The flood inundated many parts of the city of Fredericton , New Brunswick and its surrounding farmlands killing at least one person and causing nearly 12 million dollars ( 78 million adjusted to 2008 dollars ) in damages . The flood was created by a combination of heavy rain in the watershed and snow melt . `` Flooding occurred in several places along the St. John that spring -- among them , Edmundston , Grand Falls , Perth-Andover , Hartland , Woodstock and parts of Maine . But by far the most dramatic effects were in the lower valley . In Fredericton , the river level reached 28.3 feet ( 8.6 m ) , or 25 feet ( 7.6 m ) above its normal summer level . Water spilled into older residential areas , lapped against newer subdivisions , and welled up around public buildings . ''", "qid": "351", "docid": "1973_Saint_John_River_flood", "rank": 20, "score": 112590 }, { "content": "Title: Rosenfeld's law Content: Rosenfeld 's law is an axiom relating physics to economics , that states that the amount of energy required to produce one dollar of GDP has decreased by about one percent per year since 1845 . The original quote by Arthur H. Rosenfeld is : From 1845 to the present , the amount of energy required to produce the same amount of gross national product has steadily decreased at the rate of about 1 percent per year . This is not quite as spectacular as Moore 's Law of integrated circuits , but it has been tested over a longer period of time . One percent per year yields a factor of 2.7 when compounded over 100 years . It took 56 BTUs ( 59,000 joules ) of energy consumption to produce one ( 1992 ) dollar of GDP in 1845 . By 1998 , the same dollar required only 12.5 BTUs ( 13,200 joules ) .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Rosenfeld's_law", "rank": 21, "score": 112380 }, { "content": "Title: 1940 South Carolina hurricane Content: The 1940 South Carolina hurricane was a Category 2 hurricane that struck the Georgia and South Carolina coast between August 11 and 12 , 1940 . After forming north of the Leeward Islands , the storm moved west-northwest , moving east of the Bahamas before resuming a west-northwest track towards the Southeastern United States . Hurricane warnings were in effect for the United States coastline near and north of where the center made landfall . A 13-foot storm tide was measured along the South Carolina coast , while over 15 in of rain fell across northern North Carolina . Significant flooding and landslides struck Georgia , North Carolina , Tennessee , and Virginia during the system 's slow trek as a weakening tropical storm , and then as an extratropical cyclone , through the Southeast . The landslides which struck North Carolina were considered a once in a century event . Damages relating to the storm totaled $ 13 million ( 1940 USD ) and 50 people perished .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1940_South_Carolina_hurricane", "rank": 22, "score": 112275 }, { "content": "Title: 1940 Louisiana hurricane Content: The 1940 Louisiana hurricane caused record flooding across much of the Southern United States in August 1940 . The second tropical cyclone and hurricane of the annual hurricane season , it formed from a frontal low off the west coast of Florida on August 3 . Initially a weak disturbance , it moved generally westward , slowly gaining in intensity . Early on August 4 , the depression attained tropical storm intensity . Ships in the vicinity of the storm reported a much stronger tropical cyclone than initially suggested . After reaching hurricane strength on August 5 south of the Mississippi River Delta , the storm strengthened further into a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and a minimum barometric pressure of 972 mbar ( hPa ; 28.71 inHg ) at 0600 UTC on August 7 . The hurricane moved ashore near Sabine Pass , Texas later that day at peak strength . Once inland , the storm executed a sharp curve to the north and quickly weakened , degenerating into a tropical storm on August 8 before dissipating over Arkansas on August 10 . Reports of a potentially destructive hurricane near the United States Gulf Coast forced thousands of residents in low-lying areas to evacuate prior to the storm moving inland . Offshore , the hurricane generated rough seas and a strong storm surge , peaking at 6.4 ft ( 1.95 m ) on the western edge of Lake Pontchartrain . The anomalously high tides flooded many of Louisiana 's outlying islands , inundating resorts . Strong winds caused moderate infrastructural damage , primarily in Texas , though its impact was mainly to communication networks along the US Gulf Coast which were disrupted by the winds . However , much of the property and crop damage wrought by the hurricane was due to the torrential rainfall it produced in low-lying areas , setting off record floods . Rainfall peaked at 37.5 in ( 953 mm ) in Miller Island off Louisiana , making it the wettest tropical cyclone in state history . Nineteen official weather stations in both Texas and Louisiana recorded 24-hour rainfall totals for the month of August as a result of the slow-moving hurricane . Property , livestock , and crops -- especially cotton , corn , and pecan crops -- were heavily damaged . Entire ecosystems were also altered by the rainfall . Overall , the storm caused $ 10.75 million in damages and seven fatalities .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1940_Louisiana_hurricane", "rank": 23, "score": 112173 }, { "content": "Title: 1997 Red River flood in the United States Content: The Red River flood of 1997 in the United States was a major flood that occurred in April 1997 , along the Red River of the North in North Dakota and Minnesota . The flood reached throughout the Red River Valley , affecting the cities of Fargo and Winnipeg , while Grand Forks and East Grand Forks received the most damage , where floodwaters reached over 3 miles ( 5 km ) inland , inundating virtually everything in the twin communities . Total damages for the Red River region were US$ 3.5 billion . The flood was the result of abundant snowfall and extreme temperatures . Although river levels in Fargo reached record heights , the city was protected by several dikes and received minimal damage . In Grand Forks , however , the river crested at 54 ft , surpassing the 49 ft estimate of flooding set by the National Weather Service . Within East Grand Forks , all but eight homes were damaged by floodwaters . Grand Forks mayor Pat Owens had to order the evacuation of over 50,000 people as a large portion of the city would eventually be flooded . A large fire started in Grand Forks , engulfing eleven buildings and sixty apartment units before being extinguished . Those affected by the flood received donations from across the nation , along with billions in federal aid . City officials and flood-forecasters were criticized for the difference in estimates and actual flood levels . Fargo , Grand Forks , and East Grand Forks built new dikes to prevent damage from future floods and the Greater Grand Forks area began to rebuild around the river , developing a campground recreation area , park , and shopping districts where homes once stood .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1997_Red_River_flood_in_the_United_States", "rank": 24, "score": 111657 }, { "content": "Title: 1970 floods in Romania Content: The 1970 floods in Romania , brought on by river swelling caused by torrential rains , high winds and a heat wave that melted snow in the Carpathian Mountains , were the worst in modern Romanian history in loss of life , and caused the most damage up to the 2006 floods : at least $ 500 million ; perhaps over $ 1 billion .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1970_floods_in_Romania", "rank": 25, "score": 111575 }, { "content": "Title: Chew Stoke flood of 1968 Content: Chew Stoke Flood was a heavy rain event and severe flash flood which occurred on 10 July 1968 , affecting Somerset and Southwest England in particular the Chew Valley and some areas of Bristol , notably Bedminster . The River Chew suffered a major flood in 1968 with serious damage to towns and villages along its route , including sweeping away the bridge at Pensford . On 10 July 1968 , torrential rainfall , with 175 mm falling in 18 hours on Chew Stoke , double the area 's average rainfall for the whole of July , led to widespread flooding in the Chew Valley , and water reached the first floor of many buildings . The damage in Chew Stoke was not as severe as in some of the surrounding villages , such as Pensford where it swept away the bridge over the A37 and damaged the railway viaduct so badly that it never reopened . It also flooded 88 properties in Chew Magna with many being inundated with 8 ft of water . Fears that the Chew Valley Lake dam would be breached caused considerable anxiety . On the southern side of the Mendip Hills at Cheddar the flow of water swept large boulders down the gorge and damaged the cafe and entrance to Gough 's Cave , washing away cars . In the cave itself the flooding lasted for three days . A Spanish plume weather pattern saw a low over the northwest of Spain track across the Bay of Biscay , hot and humid air advected to the eastern side of the low leading to severe storms . The wake of the storm left 7 fatalities in the United Kingdom .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Chew_Stoke_flood_of_1968", "rank": 26, "score": 111429 }, { "content": "Title: 1986 Jamaica floods Content: The 1986 Jamaica floods killed 50 people in the country , comparable to flooding that occurred in June 1979 . The floods originated as a stationary front on May 24 that produced rainfall across much of the central Caribbean Sea for two weeks . Rainfall totals in Jamaica reached 635 mm at Norman Manley International Airport . The flooding left heavy agriculture damage totaling $ 22.5 million , and 40,000 residents per day received meals after the event . Roads and bridges were damaged across the country , and one damaged bridge resulted in eight deaths after a bus crashed . The floods left 2,000 Jamaicans homeless . Elsewhere , the floods were the worst in Haiti in decades . There , a swollen river destroyed several homes in Les Cayes , and there were 21 deaths nationwide . In neighboring Dominican Republic , flooding isolated several towns and caused mudslides that killed 12 people . In Cuba , flooding was worst in the easternmost four provinces , and there were five deaths . The overall system spawned a subtropical cyclone on June 5 that later became Tropical Storm Andrew .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1986_Jamaica_floods", "rank": 27, "score": 110725 }, { "content": "Title: 1979 Easter flood Content: The 1979 Easter flood was among the most costly and devastating floods ever to occur in Mississippi , with $ 500-700 million in damages . This is equivalent to $ billion in present-day terms . It was the result of the Pearl River being overwhelmed by severe rain upstream . Floodwaters sent the Pearl 15 feet above flood stage . More than 17,000 residents of Jackson , Flowood , Pearl , Richland and other communities were forced from their homes . The flooding of the Pearl River placed most of Jackson , the state 's capital city , under water .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1979_Easter_flood", "rank": 28, "score": 110544 }, { "content": "Title: 1950 Red River flood Content: The 1950 Red River flood was a devastating flood that took place along the Red River in The Dakotas and Manitoba from April 15 to June 12 , 1950 . Damage was particularly severe in the city of Winnipeg and its environs , which were inundated on May 5 , also known as Black Friday to some residents . An estimated 70,000 to 100,000 residents had to be evacuated , and four of eleven bridges were destroyed . In that year , the Red River reached its highest level since 1861 and flooded most of the Red River Valley , more than 550 square miles . One man died , and property losses due to the flood were estimated at more than $ 600 million to one billion . To prevent and reduce future damage , the government constructed the Red River Floodway , which was completed in 1968 . It has been estimated to have prevented more than $ 100 billion ( CAD ) in cumulative flood damage .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1950_Red_River_flood", "rank": 29, "score": 110476 }, { "content": "Title: Chicago flood Content: The Chicago flood occurred on April 13 , 1992 , when the damaged wall of a utility tunnel beneath the Chicago River opened into a breach which flooded basements and underground facilities throughout the Chicago Loop with an estimated 250 e6USgal of water .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Chicago_flood", "rank": 30, "score": 110293 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 China floods Content: In mid-June 2016 , heavy rainfall began across southern China , triggering deadly floods . Over the following month , additional rain events exacerbated flooding and affected more of the country . Areas along the Yangtze River and Huai River have been particularly hard-hit . An estimated 32 million people across 26 provinces were affected and more than 300 people were killed . 700000 acre of cropland was destroyed , with state damage estimates of around US$ 5.73 billion . According to Aon Benfield , the damage estimate has reached US$ 22 billion . Flooding of this magnitude was last seen in the country in 1998 .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2016_China_floods", "rank": 31, "score": 109502 }, { "content": "Title: 1999 Vietnamese floods Content: The 1999 Vietnamese floods affected Vietnam in late 1999 and were the worst floods the country had experienced in a century . The floods were caused by a series of storms that brought heavy rain to the central part of the country in October and November . The first storm to hit was Tropical Storm Eve on October 19 and the main event occurred from November 1-November 6 . In total 793 people lost their lives and 55,000 were made homeless . The floods caused $ 290 million of damage to the region and caused a further $ 490 million of economic losses . It is estimated that 1.7 million people in the central Provinces of Vietnam were affected by the floods .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1999_Vietnamese_floods", "rank": 32, "score": 109319 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1993 Content: The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 ( or `` Great Flood of 1993 '' ) occurred in the American Midwest , along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries , from April to October 1993 . The flood was among the most costly and devastating to ever occur in the United States , with $ 15 billion in damages . The hydrographic basin affected cover around 745 miles in length and 435 miles in width , totaling about 320000 mi2 . Within this zone , the flooded area totaled around 30000 mi2 and was the worst such U.S. disaster since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 , as measured by duration , area inundated , persons displaced , crop and property damage , and number of record river levels . In some categories , the 1993 flood even surpassed the 1927 flood , at the time the largest flood ever recorded on the Mississippi .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1993", "rank": 33, "score": 109174 }, { "content": "Title: 1978 Singapore flood Content: The 1978 Singapore flood was one of the worst floods in Singapore 's history . Monsoon rains contributed to this disaster on 2 December 1978 . There were seven casualties , and more than a thousand residents were evacuated from their homes by the army and police boats from five affected areas . Total damage reached S$ 10 million , the worst flood since the Hari Raya floods that hit the island in December 1969 .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1978_Singapore_flood", "rank": 34, "score": 109145 }, { "content": "Title: Great Depression in Canada Content: Canada was hit hard by the Great Depression . The worldwide depression that started in the United States in late 1929 quickly reached Canada . Between 1929 and 1939 , the gross domestic product dropped 40 % ( compared to 37 % in the US ) . Unemployment reached 27 % at the depth of the Depression in 1933 . Many companies closed , as corporate profits of $ 398 million in 1929 turned into losses of $ 98 million as prices fell . Farmers in the Prairies were hit especially hard by the collapse of wheat prices . Despite the emergence of numerous radical parties , the government was run by the major parties . The Depression ended in 1939 as World War II began .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Depression_in_Canada", "rank": 35, "score": 108380 }, { "content": "Title: Flood of 1955 (Connecticut) Content: The Flood of 1955 in Connecticut is one of the worst floods in Connecticut 's history . Two back-to-back hurricanes saturated the land and several river valleys in the state , causing severe flooding in August 1955 . The hardest hit were the Mad and Still Rivers in Winsted , the Naugatuck River , the Farmington River and the Quinebaug River . Towns that suffered much loss include Farmington , Putnam , Waterbury , and Winsted . Almost 90 people died during the flooding , and property damage across the state was estimated at more than $ 200 million , in 1955 figures . The floods prompted changes in safety measures , river monitoring and zoning laws .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Flood_of_1955_(Connecticut)", "rank": 36, "score": 107168 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 European floods Content: In August 2002 a flood caused by over a week of continuous heavy rains ravaged Europe , killing dozens , dispossessing thousands , and causing damage of billions of euros in Russia , the Czech Republic , Austria , Germany , Slovakia , Poland , Hungary , Romania and Croatia . The flood was of a magnitude expected to occur roughly once a century .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2002_European_floods", "rank": 37, "score": 106834 }, { "content": "Title: Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Content: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States , with 27000 sqmi inundated up to a depth of 30 ft. To try to prevent future floods , the federal government built the world 's longest system of levees and floodways . Ninety-four percent of the more than 630,000 people affected by the flood lived in the states of Arkansas , Mississippi , and Louisiana , most in the Mississippi Delta . More than 200,000 African Americans were displaced from their homes along the Lower Mississippi River and had to live for lengthy periods in relief camps . As a result of this disruption , many joined the Great Migration from the South to northern and Midwestern industrial cities rather than return to rural agricultural labor . This massive population movement increased from World War II until 1970 .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927", "rank": 38, "score": 106585 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1844 Content: The Great Flood of 1844 is the biggest flood ever recorded on the Missouri River and Upper Mississippi River , in North America , in terms of discharge . The adjusted economic impact was not as great as subsequent floods because of the small population in the region at the time . The flood devastation was particularly widespread since the region had few or no levees at the time , so the waters were able to spread far from the normal banks . Among the hardest hit in terms of mortality were the Wyandot Indians , who lost 100 people in the diseases that occurred after the flood in the vicinity of today 's Kansas City , Kansasthe Wyandot were a people formed from the war and disease depopulated elements of the once mighty Huron Confederacy and the Petun Indian tribes who had migrated south and west . The flood also placed a major obstacle , a sandbar in front of the Wayne City Landing at Independence , Missouri which was to cause and encourage settlers to go further east to Westport Landing in Kansas City causing significant local economic and cultural impact . Independence had been the jumping off place for several key emigrant trails , prior to 1846 notably both the Santa Fe Trail and one alternative eastern starting branch of the Oregon Trail . After the Mexican -- American War settlement of 1846 , the Oregon 's start quickly also became a start of the California Trail and an alternative beginning also for the Mormon Trail ( Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints migration to Utah ) . Congress in 1849 passed the Swamp Act providing land grants to build stronger levees . The flood also is the highest recorded for the Mississippi River at St. Louis ( 1,300,000 cubic feet second in 1844 vs. 782,000 in 1951 and 1,030,000 in 1993 ) . The 1844 flood was the backdrop to the death of Mormon leaders , brothers Joseph and Hyrum Smith , at the hands of a mob numbering over a hundred men in Carthage , Illinois . Carthage is located a bit over ten miles from the Mississippi river and the northern border of Missouri .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1844", "rank": 39, "score": 106170 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Turkish flash floods Content: The 2009 Turkish flash floods were a series of flash floods that occurred on 9 September 2009 in and around Istanbul , Tekirdağ , and the rest of the Marmara Region of Turkey . The floods led to the death of at least 31 people and the cost of damage has been estimated as being in excess of $ 70 million .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2009_Turkish_flash_floods", "rank": 40, "score": 106159 }, { "content": "Title: 1974 Brisbane flood Content: The 1974 Brisbane flood occurred in January 1974 in Brisbane , Queensland , Australia . It took place when the waterways in the city experienced significant flooding . The Brisbane River , which runs through the heart of the city , broke its banks and flooded the surrounding areas . In total , there were 14 fatalities , 300 people injured , 8000 homes destroyed and an estimated A$ 68 million in damages .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1974_Brisbane_flood", "rank": 41, "score": 106148 }, { "content": "Title: Great Recession in the United States Content: Following the bursting of the housing bubble in mid-2007 , and the housing market correction and subprime mortgage crisis the following year , the United States entered a severe recession . The National Bureau of Economic Research ( NBER ) dates the beginning of the recession as December 2007 . According to the Department of Labor , roughly 8.7 million jobs were shed from February 2008 to February 2010 , and GDP contracted by 5.1 % , making the Great Recession the worst since the Great Depression . Unemployment rose from 4.7 % in November 2007 to peak at 10 % in October 2009 . The bottom , or trough , was reached in the second quarter of 2009 ( marking the technical end of the recession , defined as at least two consecutive quarters of declining GDP ) . The NBER , dating by month , points to June 2009 as the final month of the recession . The recovery after the 2009 trough was weak and both GDP and job growth erratic and uneven . A solid , strong pace of job growth was not seen until 2011 . By August 2015 , the unemployment rate was 5.1 % , below the historical average of 5.6 % but still barely above the 5 % when the recession started in December 2007 , with roughly 12,639,000 jobs added since the Great Recession 's payroll trough in February 2010 . American household net worth fell from a pre-recession peak of $ 68 trillion in Q3 2007 to $ 55 trillion by Q1 2009 , while real median household income fell from $ 56,436 in 2007 to $ 51,758 by 2012 . The poverty rate increased from 2006 to 2010 , reaching a peak of 15 % , and held there through 2012 before dropping to 14.5 % in 2013 .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Recession_in_the_United_States", "rank": 42, "score": 105943 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Sudan floods Content: Continuous and heavy rains in much of Sudan , starting in early August 2013 , resulted in flood damage in at least 14 of 18 Sudanese states . Over 300,000 people are reported to have been affected , with over 25,000 homes reported destroyed . Government agencies report that nearly 50 people have been killed .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2013_Sudan_floods", "rank": 43, "score": 105617 }, { "content": "Title: Napa River flood of 1986 Content: The Napa River flood of 1986 is considered by many to be the worst flood experienced by Napa , California during the 20th century . 7,000 people were evacuated , 250 homes were destroyed , 3 people died and damages totaled $ 100 million . Following the flood , residents expressed a renewed urgency to mitigate flooding caused by winter storms and man made created obstacles that slowed the flow of the river on its course to the San Francisco Bay . Since the flood , the Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District has been working on controlling the floods by way of the Napa River Flood Project . Another flood of lesser proportions occurred on December 31 , 2005 after over a week of rain . Other smaller floods occurred in 1995 and 1997 .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Napa_River_flood_of_1986", "rank": 44, "score": 105344 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Jeddah floods Content: The 2009 Saudi Arabian floods affected Jeddah , on the Red Sea ( western ) coast of Saudi Arabia , and other areas of Makkah Province . They have been described by civil defence officials as the worst in 27 years . As of 3 January 2010 , some 122 people had been reported to have been killed , and more than 350 were missing . Some roads were under a metre ( three feet ) of water on 26 November , and many of the victims were believed to have drowned in their cars . At least 3,000 vehicles were swept away or damaged . The death toll was expected to rise as flood waters receded , allowing rescuers to reach stranded vehicles . More than 70 millimetres ( 2.76 inches ) of rain fell in Jeddah in just four hours on Wednesday 25 November . This is nearly twice the average for an entire year and the heaviest rainfall in Saudi Arabia in a decade . The flooding came just two days before the expected date of the Eid al-Adha festival and during the annual Hajj pilgrimage to nearby Mecca . Business losses were estimated at a billion riyals ( US$ 270 million ) . The poorer neighbourhoods in the south of Jeddah were particularly hard hit , as was the area around King Abdulaziz University . The university was closed for vacation at the time of the floods , preventing even higher casualties .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2009_Jeddah_floods", "rank": 45, "score": 105277 }, { "content": "Title: November 2000 Hawaii floods Content: The November 2000 Hawaii floods were a costly flooding event caused by an upper-level low and the remnants of Tropical Storm Paul , a weak and short-lived tropical cyclone . Rainfall totals reached 38.76 in ( 985 mm ) at Kapapala Ranch on the Big Island of Hawaii , which was the second highest precipitation total in the state related to a tropical cyclone . The floods led to $ 70 million ( 2000 USD ; $ USD ) in damage , but there were no fatalities .", "qid": "351", "docid": "November_2000_Hawaii_floods", "rank": 46, "score": 105115 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Sindh floods Content: The flood was originated mostly because of rainfall and observed the highest ever recorded monsoon rain in Sindh started from Aug 11 , 2011 to Sept 14 , 2011 . So the inundated area increased respectively with rainfall and ceased on Sept 15 , 2011 effectively with the stop of rainfall . After Sept 15 , 2011 the inundated area was reduced with the rate of 167 km2/day . The floods caused considerable damage ; an estimated 434 civilians were killed , with 5.3 million people and 1,524,773 homes affected . Sindh is a fertile region and often called the `` breadbasket '' of the country ; the damage and toll of the floods on the local agrarian economy was extensive . At least 1.7 million acres of arable land was inundated as a result of the flooding . The flooding followed the previous year 's historic 2010 Pakistan floods , which devastated the entire country . Unprecedented torrential monsoon rains caused severe flooding in 16 districts of Sindh province .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2011_Sindh_floods", "rank": 47, "score": 105109 }, { "content": "Title: 1897 Red River flood Content: The 1897 Red River flood took place in April 1897 , along the Red River resulting in significant damage to the city of Fargo , North Dakota . The conditions which led to the flood of 1897 were similar to the conditions behind the 2009 flood , however the 1897 flood was different in terms of the human response to it . Although the river gage was not installed on the Red River until 1901 , other sources indicate that the crest of the 1897 flood at a site 1.5 mi downstream from the present Fargo gage would have been 40.10 ft ( with a discharge rate of 25,000 ft3/s ) according to the present datum . Until the 2009 flood the 1897 flood was the highest water recorded in the Fargo-Moorhead area and has since served as the benchmark for which many other floods of the Red River were measured against .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1897_Red_River_flood", "rank": 48, "score": 104427 }, { "content": "Title: 1987 Bihar flood Content: The 1987 Bihar flood , caused by high levels of annual flooding of the Koshi River ( nicknamed `` the sorrow of Bihar '' ) , was one of the worst floods in Bihar , India , in a decade caused by a landslide that blocked the main route of Bhote Kosi River . This resulted from chunks of earth falling into the river ; thus , building a damn approximately 1 km in length . An enormous lake formed behind the damn causing the tragic flood that held between 28 and 32 lakh cusecs of water . 1399 people and 5302 animals lost their lives and nearly 29 million people were affected in 30 districts , 382 blocks , 6,112 panchayat , and 24,518 villages . Government figures list damage to crops at an estimated 68 billion Indian rupees and damage to public property at 68 million rupees . This particular flood is one of many floods that happen in Bihar , India . In fact , the state of Bihar has the most severe flooding as compared to other areas of the India . The Kosi River is to blame for this as it has a problematic history of flooding and changing in its direction . Furthermore , this river is located at the northern part of the Bihar plains in eastern India and is an important tributary in the Ganga river system .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1987_Bihar_flood", "rank": 49, "score": 104409 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Kentuckiana Flash Flood Content: On August 4 at 9:25 am EST a major thunderstorm producing large hail and winds in excess of 60 mph advanced at the leading edge of a cold front moving across the American Midwest , causing a flash flood that struck Louisville and portions of the surrounding Kentuckiana region . The National Weather Service estimated that between three and six inches of rain fell ( 14 -- 24 cm ) across the city in less than one hour , breaking all previous one-hour rainfall records in the area . Most of the downtown area was underwater , with the deluge reaching 4 ft deep in places . The flood was the third major disaster to strike the region in less than one year . Early damage estimates were in the hundreds of millions of dollars . The University of Louisville and the Louisville Public Library 's main branch each sustained millions of dollars in damage . On August 12 , Governor of Kentucky Steve Beshear requested the federal government declare all of Jefferson County , Kentucky a major disaster area .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2009_Kentuckiana_Flash_Flood", "rank": 50, "score": 104388 }, { "content": "Title: Flooding the market Content: Flooding the market refers to when an excess amount of inventory for sale causes an undesired drop in price for the product , in extreme cases making the products impossible to sell at any price . Businesses take measures to avoid this . For examples , publishers will release books from popular authors under pseudonyms , as with the Kenyatta series by Donald Goines , which were published under the name Al. . C. Clarke . The same is also the case with Stephen King , when he published several books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman . The North American video game crash of 1983 was largely caused by excess inventory of low-quality games and systems . Atari so greatly over-produced the game E.T. that they were unable to sell them and buried them in a landfill . When flooding the market is done intentionally in an effort to eliminate competition , it is known as dumping .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Flooding_the_market", "rank": 51, "score": 104354 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 Nigeria floods Content: The 2012 Nigeria floods began in early July 2012 , and killed 363 people and displaced over 2.1 million people as of 5 November 2012 . According to the National Emergency Management Agency ( NEMA ) , 30 of Nigeria 's 36 states were affected by the floods . The floods were termed as the worst in 40 years , and affected an estimated total of seven million people . The estimated damages and losses caused by the floods were worth N2 .6 trillion .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2012_Nigeria_floods", "rank": 52, "score": 104287 }, { "content": "Title: Los Angeles flood of 1938 Content: The Los Angeles flood of 1938 was responsible for inundating much of Los Angeles , Orange , and Riverside counties , California during February and March 1938 . The flood was caused by a pair of Pacific storms that swept inland across the Los Angeles Basin , causing abnormally high rainfall across much of coastal Southern California . Between 113 to 115 people were killed in what ultimately became one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in Southern California history . The flood caused the Santa Ana , Los Angeles , and San Gabriel Rivers to burst their banks , washing away roads , bridges , and buildings , and stranding hundreds of people . Damage in some parts of Los Angeles County was mitigated by dams in the San Gabriel Mountains , while Orange and Riverside Counties experienced more damage because of the lack of flood-control works in the Santa Ana River system . The flooding event of 1938 is considered a 50-year flood . It resulted in $ 40 million of damages , and the Red Cross deemed it the `` fifth largest flood in history '' . In response to the floods , the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began channelizing local streams and building more flood control dams . Dams built in the aftermath of the flood include Sepulveda Dam , Hansen Dam , Prado Dam , and Whittier Narrows Dam , which hydrologically connects the San Gabriel River to the Rio Hondo . These works have been instrumental in protecting coastal Southern California from subsequent flooding events , although the storms of 1969 and 2005 , which had larger volume than the 1938 flood , still caused major damage and forced the evacuation of low-lying areas .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Los_Angeles_flood_of_1938", "rank": 53, "score": 104016 }, { "content": "Title: Montreal flood of 1987 Content: The Montreal flood of 1987 happened on July 14 of that year when a series of strong thunderstorms crossed the island of Montreal , Canada , between the noon hour and 2:30 p.m. Over 100 mm of rain fell during this very short period of time . The sewer systems were overwhelmed by the deluge and the city was paralyzed by the flooded roads . Autoroute 15 , a sunken highway also known as the Decarie Expressway , soon filled with water , trapping motorists . Some 350,000 houses lost electricity , and tens of thousands had flooded basements . Two people died , one in a submerged car and another who was electrocuted .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Montreal_flood_of_1987", "rank": 54, "score": 103941 }, { "content": "Title: Willamette Valley Flood of 1996 Content: The Willamette Valley Flood of 1996 was part of a larger series of floods in the Pacific Northwest of the United States which took place between late January and mid-February 1996 . It was Oregon 's largest flood event in terms of fatalities and monetary damage during the 1990s . The floods spread beyond Oregon 's Willamette Valley , extending west to the Oregon Coast and east toward the Cascade Mountains . Significant flood damage also impacted the American states of Washington , Idaho ( particularly the north of the state ) and California . The floods were directly responsible for eight deaths in Oregon , as well as over US $ 500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest . Three thousand residents were displaced from their homes .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Willamette_Valley_Flood_of_1996", "rank": 55, "score": 103692 }, { "content": "Title: 1997 Red River flood Content: The Red River flood of 1997 was a major flood that occurred in April and May 1997 along the Red River of the North in Minnesota , North Dakota , and Southern Manitoba . It was the most severe flood of the river since 1826 . The flood reached throughout the Red River Valley , affecting the cities of Fargo and Winnipeg , but none so greatly as Grand Forks and East Grand Forks , where floodwaters reached more than 3 mi inland . They inundated virtually everything in the twin communities . Total damages for the Red River region were US$ 3.5 billion . The flood was the result of abundant snowfall and extreme temperatures . Flooding in Manitoba resulted in over $ 500 million in damages . The Red River Floodway , an artificial waterway completed in 1968 and known as `` Duff 's Ditch , '' diverted some floodwaters around Winnipeg , saving it from flooding . As a result of the 1997 flood and its extensive property losses , the United States and state governments made additional improvements to the flood protection system in North Dakota and Minnesota . They converted former areas of development in the floodplain on both sides of the river to the Greater Grand Forks Greenway , providing year-round recreation areas for residents as well as a natural way to absorb floodwaters . A dike system was built to protect the twin Forks cities . In Grand Forks , thousands of people , including Air Force personnel from Grand Forks Air Force Base , tried to prepare for the 1997 flood by building sandbag dikes . These dikes were constructed based on a 49-foot estimate of flooding set by the National Weather Service . The river crested at 54 feet in Grand Forks . Grand Forks mayor Pat Owens had to order the evacuation of more than 50,000 people , most of the population of the city , as a huge area was flooded . A large fire started in Grand Forks , engulfing eleven buildings and sixty apartment units before being extinguished . Those affected by the flood in the U.S. received donations from across the nation , along with billions of dollars in federal aid . City officials and flood-forecasters were criticized for the difference in estimates and actual flood levels . In the aftermath , the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) worked with the cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks to clear residential and business development from a large area of floodplain , because of the certainty of future regional floods . A system of new dikes was built beyond this on both sides of the river to prevent damage to the cities from future floods . They also redeveloped the floodplain along the river as the Greater Grand Forks Greenway , including several parks , a Minnesota state campground recreation area , and a 20-mile biking and walking trail .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1997_Red_River_flood", "rank": 56, "score": 103661 }, { "content": "Title: Saguenay flood Content: The Saguenay flood ( Déluge du Saguenay ) was a series of flash floods on July 19 and 20 , 1996 that hit the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec , Canada . It was the biggest overland flood in 20th-century Canadian history . Problems started after two weeks of constant rain , which severely engorged soils , rivers and reservoirs . The Saguenay region is a geological graben , which increased the effect of the sudden massive rains of July 19 , 1996 . In two days , rainfall accumulated that was `` equivalent to the volume of water that tumbles over Niagara Falls in four weeks . '' Over 8 ft of water flooded parts of Chicoutimi and La Baie , completely levelling an entire neighbourhood . More than 16,000 people were evacuated . The official death toll was seven , but other sources ( notably Canadian Geographic ) cite ten . Estimates reach CAD $ 1.5 billion in damages , a cost made greater by the disaster 's occurrence at the height of the tourist season . Post-flood enquiries discovered that the network of dikes and dams protecting the city of Chicoutimi was poorly maintained . In the end , 488 homes were destroyed , 1,230 damaged , and 16,000 people evacuated from the entire area . An additional ten persons died in the mudslides produced by the incredible rain . A small white house ( referred to in French as La petite maison blanche , `` The little white house '' ) stood nearly unharmed in Chicoutimi while torrents of water rushed in every side , and it became the symbol of surviving the flood . It was owned Mme Jeanne d'Arc Lavoie-Genest . With its foundation still highly exposed after the flooding , it has been preserved in Saguenay ( the city name has changed ) as a historical park and museum commemorating the flood . An unexpected effect of the flood was to cover the heavily contaminated sediments at the bottom of the Saguenay and Ha ! Ha ! Rivers with 10 to of new , relatively clean sediments . Because of this , research has shown that the old sediments are no longer a threat to ecosystems and the river will not have to be dredged and treated to control contamination .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Saguenay_flood", "rank": 57, "score": 103107 }, { "content": "Title: 1966 flood of the Arno Content: The 1966 flood of the Arno ( Alluvione di Firenze del 4 novembre 1966 ) in Florence killed 101 people and damaged or destroyed millions of masterpieces of art and rare books . It is considered the worst flood in the city 's history since 1557 . With the combined effort of Italian and foreign volunteers alike , or angeli del fango ( `` Mud Angels '' ) , many of these fine works have been restored . New methods in conservation were devised and restoration laboratories established . However , even decades later , much work remains to be done .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1966_flood_of_the_Arno", "rank": 58, "score": 103020 }, { "content": "Title: Great Vermont Flood of 1927 Content: The Great Vermont Flood of 1927 was a major flooding event in Vermont which occurred November 2 -- 4 , 1927 . Following a very wet October , record levels of rainfall were reached in November . The U.S. Geological Survey estimated 53 % of the state received more than six inches of rain , with the greatest recorded amount being 9.86 inches in Somerset , Vermont , caused rivers throughout the state to flood . The flood is considered the worst flood in Vermont , with the only comparison , being the 2011 Hurricane Irene . The flood destroyed 1285 bridges , killed at least eighty-four people , and destroyed many buildings and infrastructure . Environmental historians attribute a number of possible causes for the extreme flooding , including deforestation , saturation of the soil , and the lack of living greenery because of the fall season .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Vermont_Flood_of_1927", "rank": 59, "score": 102949 }, { "content": "Title: Bridgeton flood of 1934 Content: The Flood of 1934 was a natural disaster that hit the town of Bridgeton , New Jersey in August 1934 . Over the course of three days , heavy rains fell in the region , swelling Sunset Lake and other local interconnected waterways . At the time , there were two earthen dams holding the water back at Sunset Lake and Mary Elmer Lake . Eventually the pressure was too much and the dams gave way sending a torrent of water down the Cohansey River as well as tributaries connected to the Lakes . The wall of water surged down through the banks of the Cohansey , emptying the lakes and the Raceway and flowing into and through downtown Bridgeton , which straddles the river . All the bridges that connected the east and west sides of the town were destroyed . Also damaged was Tumbling Dam Park , where the dam that held the water of Sunset Lake was located .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Bridgeton_flood_of_1934", "rank": 60, "score": 102851 }, { "content": "Title: Flood Control Act of 1939 Content: Flood Control Act of 1939 ( FCA 1939 ) ( ch . 699 , 53 Stat . 1414 ) , enacted on August 11 , 1939 by the 76th Congress , is U.S. legislation that authorized construction of flood control projects across the United States . The passage of FCA 1939 , authorized the transfer of ownership of the local and state dams to the United States Army Corps of Engineers .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Flood_Control_Act_of_1939", "rank": 61, "score": 102774 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Thailand floods Content: Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season in Thailand . The flooding began at the end of July triggered by the landfall of Tropical Storm Nock-ten . These floods soon spread through the provinces of northern , northeastern , and central Thailand along the Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins . In October floodwaters reached the mouth of the Chao Phraya and inundated parts of the capital city of Bangkok . Flooding persisted in some areas until mid-January 2012 , and resulted in a total of 815 deaths ( with 3 missing ) and 13.6 million people affected . Sixty-five of Thailand 's 77 provinces were declared flood disaster zones , and over 20000 sqkm of farmland was damaged . The disaster has been described as `` the worst flooding yet in terms of the amount of water and people affected . '' The World Bank has estimated 1,425 trillion baht ( US$ 46.5 billion ) in economic damages and losses due to flooding , as of 1 December 2011 . Most of this was due to the manufacturing industry , as seven major industrial estates were inundated in water as much 3 meters ( 10 feet ) deep during the floods . Disruptions to manufacturing supply chains affected regional automobile production and caused a global shortage of hard disk drives which lasted throughout 2012 . The World Bank 's estimate for this disaster means it ranks as the world 's fourth costliest disaster as of 2011 surpassed only by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan , 1995 Kobe earthquake , and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 . A 2015 study suggests increasing odds for potential flooding similar to the 2011 flood intensity to occur in the future . Thailand 's southern provinces also saw seasonal flash-flooding towards the end of the year , although these were not as destructive as the floods in the more northerly provinces .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2011_Thailand_floods", "rank": 62, "score": 102735 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Karachi floods Content: The 2009 Karachi floods ( -LSB- ) in Pakistan 's financial centre , Karachi , have killed at least 26 people . The death toll is expected to rise , and more than 150 people have been injured in a series of related incidents . The floods are the result of the heaviest rains in the region in thirty years . Hundreds of homes were also damaged . Those killed either drowned , were electrocuted or died under collapsing roofs . A bit of a building 's sixth floor collapsed in Ramswami -- debris dropping onto a nearby house , killing four members of a family and injuring 10 . Several others were injured as a result of a roof collapse in the Orangi area and two people died in a similar incident . Eleven people were injured after a house wall fell through in Manghopir . Seven people were electrocuted in separate sections of Karachi . One resident reported the death of his neighbor 's son to Reuters , saying he drowned in a drain and his body was pulled out . Knee-deep water stranded several thousand people in their homes for several hours . Commercial markets were waterlogged and several hundred vehicles were trapped on the city 's roads . Most of Karachi had no electricity on the night of 18 July 2009 . Relief efforts are ongoing as water is removed from residential areas . According to Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry , the country 's chief meteorologist , Pakistan 's commercial hub received 14.7 cm ( 6 in ) of rain between the evening of 17 July and the morning of 19 July . However , the rains began around two weeks later than usual and thus are expected to lead to a 30 % reduction in rainfall for the 2009 season . But then another monsoon system was expected to lash the city which was to generate very heavy rains and the citizens were still recovering from the last monsoon rains which broke the record of 1977 rain in Karachi , which was of 207 mm . However it only dumped 18 mm rain and the system dissipated quickly on 26 July . Then on August 30 and 31 sudden heavy rains started to lash the city which dumped 147.7 mm rain , Thus again Karachiites were forced to spend the night sleepless due to power breakdown and thousands were forced to end their fasting in traffic jams , as it was the holy month of Ramadan .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2009_Karachi_floods", "rank": 63, "score": 102713 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Southern Thailand floods Content: The 2017 Southern Thailand floods are the biggest floods in over 30 years in the southern part of the country during the regional annual monsoon season , which is distinct from other parts of the nation and mirrors that the Malay Peninsula . They have also caused damages in Kelantan and Terengganu states in Malaysia the weeks prior . The floods began in early January . Some 120 billion baht ( $ 4 billion USD ) in damages are foreseen as of mid-January , much of this due to lost production in agriculture tourism and infrastructure . Rubber supply is particularly impacted . Deaths have exceeded 85 . Particularly hard hit are palm and rubber plantations .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2017_Southern_Thailand_floods", "rank": 64, "score": 102687 }, { "content": "Title: Burchardi flood Content: The Burchardi flood ( also known as the second Grote Mandrenke ) was a storm tide that struck the North Sea coast of North Frisia and Dithmarschen on the night between 11 and 12 October 1634 . Overrunning dikes , it shattered the coastline and caused thousands of deaths ( 8,000 to 15,000 people drowned ) and catastrophic material damage . Much of the island of Strand washed away , forming the islands Nordstrand , Pellworm and several Halligen .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Burchardi_flood", "rank": 65, "score": 102679 }, { "content": "Title: North Sea flood of 1953 Content: The 1953 North Sea flood ( Watersnoodramp , literally `` water emergency disaster '' ) was a major flood caused by a heavy storm that occurred on the night of Saturday , 31 January 1953 and morning of Sunday , 1 February 1953 . The floods struck the Netherlands , Belgium , England and Scotland . A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea caused a storm tide ; the combination of wind , high tide , and low pressure led to a water level of more than 5.6 m above mean sea level in some locations . The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding . The Netherlands , a country with 20 % of its territory below mean sea level and 50 % less than 1 m above sea level and which relies heavily on sea defences , was worst affected , recording 1,836 deaths and widespread property damage . Most of the casualties occurred in the southern province of Zeeland . In England , 307 people were killed in the counties of Lincolnshire , Norfolk , Suffolk and Essex . Nineteen were killed in Scotland . Twenty-eight people were killed in West Flanders , Belgium . In addition , more than 230 deaths occurred on water craft along Northern European coasts as well as on ships in deeper waters of the North Sea . The ferry MV Princess Victoria was lost at sea in the North Channel east of Belfast with 133 fatalities , and many fishing trawlers sank . Realising that such infrequent events could recur , the Netherlands particularly , and the United Kingdom carried out major studies on strengthening of coastal defences . The Netherlands developed the Delta Works , an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers . The UK constructed storm surge barriers on the River Thames below London and on the River Hull where it meets the Humber estuary .", "qid": "351", "docid": "North_Sea_flood_of_1953", "rank": 66, "score": 102679 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Slovenia floods Content: The 2010 Slovenia floods , on the weekend of 17 -- 19 September 2010 , were caused by heavy rains in Slovenia , resulting in one of the worst floods in the country 's history . Among the regions affected were the capital Ljubljana , the Central Sava Valley , Laško , the Slovene Littoral and Lower Carniola . Initial damage was estimated to reach $ 15 million . Three people died . In Ljubljana , the river Gradaščica -- together with the Mali Graben stream -- flooded several parts of the Vič District , and record water levels were reached . Several transformers were shut down to prevent accidents , leaving some 3,000 people without electricity . In Zagorje ob Savi , a great part of the town was flooded by the Sava river and several landslides were reported . The town of Laško was flooded by the Savinja river and road connections were cut by the flood waters . In the Littoral region , the Rižana and Dragonja rivers flooded several roads , closing all three border crossings with Croatia in the region . Parts of Portorož Airport and the Sečovlje salt fields were flooded as well . The Vipava River was flooding in the northern Littoral . The Sava , Krka and Kolpa rivers flooded in the Lower Carniola . The towns of Krško , Brežice and Otočec were partially flooded . In Upper Carniola , the town of Žiri was affected by the Poljane Sora . In Železniki , a town that was most affected in the floods exactly three years before , no bigger problems were reported . Some parts of Croatia along the Sava river were also flooded , around 20 people were evacuated around Zagreb . By Monday , 20 September , the water levels began to decrease , although landslides in some regions remained a threat . Four days after the flooding , the area of the Municipality of Dobrepolje was still 6 meters above the usual water-level .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2010_Slovenia_floods", "rank": 67, "score": 102558 }, { "content": "Title: Great flood of 99 Content: The Great flood of '99 occurred when the River Periyar in Kerala state of India flooded in the month of July , 1924 . This is the year 1099 ME in the Malayalam Calendar . As the Malayalam Calendar was popular in Kerala , this flood is generally called the flood of 99 . The rain continued for about three weeks . Many districts of the present day Kerala were deeply submerged in water by this flood - From Trichur , to Ernakulam to Idukki , Kottayam even up to Alappuzha and Kuttanad . Even a huge mountain called Karinthiri Malai was washed away by this flood and the road to Munnar also went along with it . As the road to Munnar was lost by this flood , a new road from Ernakulam to Munnar became necessary - the present day road from Ernakulam to Munnar was constructed after this . Kundala Valley Railway which was the first monorail system in India was also completely destroyed .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_flood_of_99", "rank": 68, "score": 102555 }, { "content": "Title: Christmas flood of 1964 Content: The Christmas flood of 1964 was a major flood in the Pacific Northwest and some of Northern California between December 18 , 1964 , and January 7 , 1965 , spanning the Christmas holiday . Considered a 100-year flood , it was the worst flood in recorded history on nearly every major stream and river in coastal Northern California and one of the worst to affect the Willamette River in Oregon . It also affected parts of southwest Washington , Idaho , and Nevada . In Oregon , 17 or 18 people died as a result of the disaster , and it caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage . The flooding on the Willamette covered 152789 acre . The National Weather Service rated the flood as the fifth most destructive weather event in Oregon in the 20th century . California Governor Pat Brown was quoted as saying that a flood of similar proportions could `` happen only once in 1,000 years , '' and it was often referred to later as the Thousand Year Flood . The flood killed 19 people , heavily damaged or completely devastated at least 10 towns , destroyed all or portions of more than 20 major highway and county bridges , carried away millions of board feet of lumber and logs from mill sites , devastated thousands of acres of agricultural land , killed 4,000 head of livestock , and caused $ 100 million in damage in Humboldt County , California , alone .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Christmas_flood_of_1964", "rank": 69, "score": 102514 }, { "content": "Title: List of North Carolina hurricanes (1900–49) Content: The list of North Carolina hurricanes between 1900 and 1949 encompasses 75 tropical cyclones or their remnants that affected the U.S. state of North Carolina . Collectively , cyclones in North Carolina during that time period resulted in 53 total fatalities , as well as about $ 328 million in damage in 2008 USD . Tropical cyclone affected the state in all but nine seasons . In the 1916 season , five storms affected the state , which makes it the season with the most storms impacting the state . The strongest hurricanes to affect the state during the time period were the 1933 Outer Banks hurricane and the 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane , which produced winds of Category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale within the state . The 1933 Outer Banks hurricane was the deadliest hurricane in the state during the time period , which killed 21 people . The remnants of a hurricane in 1940 dropped heavy rainfall in the state , which caused over $ 150 million in damage ( 2008 USD ) from flooding and landslides . Most storms affected the state in September , though in the first half of the 20th century , cyclones impacted the state between May and December .", "qid": "351", "docid": "List_of_North_Carolina_hurricanes_(1900–49)", "rank": 70, "score": 102356 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Myanmar floods Content: Severe flooding in Myanmar began in July 2015 and continued into September , affecting 12 of the country 's 14 states , resulting in about 103 deaths and affecting up to 1,000,000 people . Most of the casualties were reported from the Irrawaddy Delta . Torrential rains that began on 16 July destroyed farmland , roads , rail tracks , bridges and houses , leading the government to declare a state of emergency on 30 July in the four worst-hit regions in the west -- Magway Division , Sagaing Division , Chin State and Rakhine State . Myanmar 's Ministry of Agriculture reported that more than 1.29 million acres of farm land have been inundated and 687,200 acres damaged . Moreover , 15,239 houses were destroyed , according to OCHA figures .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2015_Myanmar_floods", "rank": 71, "score": 102346 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Victorian floods Content: The 2010 Victorian floods were a widespread series of flood events across the state of Victoria , Australia . The floods , which followed heavy rain across southeastern Australia in early September 2010 , caused the inundation of about 250 homes , hundreds of evacuations and millions of dollars of damage . Weather warnings were initially issued for Victoria on Thursday 2 September and rain began to fall on the Friday , continuing through the weekend to Tuesday . Heavy rain fell in most regions of the state , particularly at higher altitudes in the state 's west and northeast , flooding the upper reaches of many of Victoria 's major rivers . A state of emergency was declared with State Emergency Service crews arriving from Queensland , South Australia and Tasmania . The floods proceeded an extensive drought period that had effected the entirety of Australia . While the flooding was widespread , swelling many major rivers , little flash flooding occurred in urban areas . Melbourne remained relatively unaffected , though several large regional towns , such as Ballarat , Benalla and others , experienced urban flooding . The heavy rainfall and flooding was accompanied by wind gusts of up to 110 km/h ( 68 mph ) in the state 's southeast and Melbourne 's eastern suburbs . The highest rainfall was recorded at Mount Buffalo , with 180 mm ( 7.08 in ) recorded between Saturday and Sunday ( 4 and 5 September ) . Authorities expected floodwaters to move downstream , affecting further towns and regions over the following days . Residents in affected areas were advised to boil their water and avoid driving or travelling through floodwaters .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2010_Victorian_floods", "rank": 72, "score": 102268 }, { "content": "Title: Revenue Act of 1940 Content: The Revenue Act of 1940 temporarily and permanently increased individual income tax rates , temporarily and permanently increased corporate tax rates ( top rate rose from 19 % to 33 % ) , and temporarily increased most excise tax rates to 30-50 % . The personal exemption fell from $ 2,500 to $ 2,000 ( married couples ) .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Revenue_Act_of_1940", "rank": 73, "score": 102131 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Maryland flood Content: The 2016 Maryland flood was a natural disaster in the United States that took place on July 30 , 2016 . The flooding , which occurred in the Baltimore area , affected low-lying areas of the Patapsco and Jones Falls valleys . The storm caused significant damage to the historic downtown area of Ellicott City , Maryland .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2016_Maryland_flood", "rank": 74, "score": 101862 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 1901–2000 Content: Floods in the United States are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , and dam failure . Below is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to the country , 1901 through 2000 , inclusive .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_1901–2000", "rank": 75, "score": 101636 }, { "content": "Title: Boscastle flood of 2004 Content: The Boscastle flood of 2004 ( An Lanwes Kastel Boterel 2004 ) occurred on Monday , 16 August 2004 in the two villages of Boscastle and Crackington Haven in Cornwall , England , United Kingdom . The villages suffered extensive damage after flash floods caused by an exceptional amount of rain that fell over eight hours that afternoon . The flood in Boscastle was filmed and extensively reported but the floods in Crackington Haven and Rocky Valley were not mentioned beyond the local news . The floods were the worst in local memory . A study commissioned by the Environment Agency from hydraulics consulting firm HR Wallingford concluded that it was among the most extreme ever experienced in Britain . The peak flow was about 140 m ³ / s , between 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm BST . The annual chance of this ( or a greater ) flood in any one year is about 1 in 400 . The probability each year of the heaviest three-hour rainfall is about 1 in 1300 ( although rainfall probability is not the same as flood probability ) . At midday on 16 August 2004 , heavy thundery showers had developed across the South West due to a weak disturbance to the northeast of the United Kingdom . The last time Boscastle had suffered notable flooding was in 1996 as a result of Hurricane Lili , but floods are recorded in 1847 , 1957 , 3 June 1958 ( one man drowned ) and 1963 . On 16 August 1952 the small town of Lynmouth , 50 mi north-east along the north coast in Devon near Exmoor , suffered extensive damage in a catastrophic flood , in which 34 people lost their lives . Coincidentally , this was 52 years to the day before Boscastle 's 2004 flood .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Boscastle_flood_of_2004", "rank": 76, "score": 101417 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Alberta floods Content: In the days leading up to June 19 , 2013 , Alberta , Canada , experienced heavy rainfall that triggered catastrophic flooding described by the provincial government as the worst in Alberta 's history . Areas along the Bow , Elbow , Highwood , Red Deer , Sheep , Little Bow , and South Saskatchewan rivers and their tributaries were particularly affected . A total of 32 states of local emergency were declared and 28 emergency operations centres were activated as water levels rose and numerous communities were placed under evacuation orders . Five people were confirmed dead as a direct result of the flooding and over 100,000 people were displaced throughout the region . Some 2,200 Canadian Forces ( CF ) troops were deployed to help in flooded areas . Total damage estimates exceeded C$ 5 billion and in terms of insurable damages , made the 2013 Alberta floods the costliest disaster in Canadian history at $ 1.7 billion , until the occurrence of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire . Receding waters gave way to a mammoth cleanup of affected areas , aided by a spontaneous volunteer campaign in which many home owners were assisted by complete strangers .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2013_Alberta_floods", "rank": 77, "score": 101253 }, { "content": "Title: Lynmouth Flood Content: On 15 and 16 August 1952 , a storm of tropical intensity broke over south-west England , depositing 229 mm of rain within 24 hours on the already saturated soil of Exmoor , Devon . It is thought that a cold front scooped up a thunderstorm , and the orographic effect worsened the storm . Debris-laden floodwaters cascaded down the northern escarpment of the moor , converging upon the village of Lynmouth ; in particular , in the upper West Lyn valley , a dam was formed by fallen trees etc. , which in due course gave way , sending a huge wave of water and debris down the river . A guest at the Lyndale Hotel described the night to the Sunday Express : The River Lyn through the town had been culverted to gain land for business premises ; this culvert soon choked with flood debris , and the river flowed through the town . Much of the debris was boulders and trees . Overnight , more than 100 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged along with 28 of the 31 bridges , and 38 cars were washed out to sea . In total , 34 people died , with a further 420 made homeless . The seawall and lighthouse survived the main flood , but were seriously undermined . The lighthouse collapsed into the river the next day . At the same time , the River Bray at Filleigh also flooded , costing the lives of three Scouts from Manchester who had been camping alongside the river .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Lynmouth_Flood", "rank": 78, "score": 101173 }, { "content": "Title: Reconstruction of New Orleans Content: Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city of New Orleans in 2005 . The storm caused levees to fail , releasing tens of billions of gallons of water . The levee failure contributed to extensive flooding in New Orleans area and surrounding parishes . 80 % of all structures in Orleans Parish sustained water damage . Over 204,000 homes were damaged or destroyed , and more than 800,000 citizens displaced -- the greatest displacement in the United States since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s . Wind damage was less severe than predicted . Reconstruction was hindered by bureaucratic problems and funding issues with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) . Relief agencies provided supplemental relief . By mid-June 2006 , the city was again hosting conventions and promoting tourism .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Reconstruction_of_New_Orleans", "rank": 79, "score": 100986 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 Santa Fe flood Content: This article is about the flooding of Santa Fe , capital of the , in April 2003 . Santa Fe is the fifth most populated city in Argentina ( ~ 370,000 inhabitants ) , and it is surrounded by rivers . The flooding was described as the worst since the city was founded in 1573 . At the end of April 2003 , several days of heavy rainfall caused some major rivers in the Santa Fe area to rise as much as 50 cm in 12 hours . The water level of the Salado River ( which flows through the north of the province and empties into the Paraná ) rose by almost two metres in just three hours . On 28 April , the Salado overflowed its margins and flooded large sections of Santa Fe . About 100,000 people had to be evacuated , 154 people died , and 28,000 houses were damaged or destroyed . A dyke had to be blown up in order for ease the flow of the floodwaters out of the city . In this key area for the agricultural and ranching industries , over 30,000 km ² of farmland were destroyed . The flood hit the capital hardest , but many other communities were also affected . The flood was unusual because it is generally the east side of Santa Fe , beside the Paraná , which is affected by floodings . Salado River floodings are less usual . Soon after the initial flooding , President Eduardo Duhalde declared the province a `` disaster zone '' and announced a $ 2 million emergency aid package . The World Bank later offered an additional $ 110 million . The Red Cross launched an emergency appeal in response to the flooding on 6 May . According to a UN assessment requested by the provincial governor Carlos Reutemann , the total damages were about $ 1,000 million , and implied the loss of about 12 % of Santa Fe 's GDP . The rains continued into the next days , exacerbating the catastrophe . As of 8 May , a quarter of Santa Fe remained under water . Precarious evacuation centres appeared in the capital and nearby towns to accommodate the evacuees . The provincial government was heavily criticized for ignoring warnings about the possibility of a sudden rise of the Salado River , and for ignoring appeals to build the necessary preventive infrastructure to contain or divert floods . The official treatment of the people who lost their homes , possessions and jobs was also questioned ; food relief and promised subsidies for reconstruction were insufficient . Governor Reutemann saw the end of his term in office marked by these problems . The critical situation of Argentina at the time ( recovering from a major economic crisis ) did not help . On 30 January 2004 , nine months after the flood and under the administration of Jorge Obeid , a demonstration asking for government assistance to those affected by the flood ended with the burning of the government house 's facade and several offices destroyed .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2003_Santa_Fe_flood", "rank": 80, "score": 100775 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 North Korean floods Content: Flooding in North Korea in August 2007 caused extensive damage and loss of life . The flooding affected most of the southern half of the country including the capital and some of its most productive agricultural regions . Aid officials feared the loss of crop land could seriously hinder the North 's ability to feed its people , causing widespread famine .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2007_North_Korean_floods", "rank": 81, "score": 100536 }, { "content": "Title: May 1995 Louisiana flood Content: The May 1995 Louisiana flood , also known as the May 8 -- 10 , 1995 , New Orleans area flood event , struck the New Orleans metropolitan area , shutting down the city for two days . The entire 40-hour event from the evening of Monday , May 8 , through the morning of Wednesday , May 10 , consisted of two distinct heavy rainfalls . By Wednesday morning , storm total rainfall amounts of 10 to were common across portions of southeast Louisiana and south Mississippi . Six people were killed . The event was later estimated to have caused more than $ 3.1 billion in damage .", "qid": "351", "docid": "May_1995_Louisiana_flood", "rank": 82, "score": 100250 }, { "content": "Title: North Sea flood of 1962 Content: The North Sea flood of 1962 was a natural disaster affecting mainly the coastal regions of Germany and in particular the city of Hamburg in the night from 16 February to 17 February 1962 . In total , the homes of about 60,000 people were destroyed , and the death toll amounted to 315 in Hamburg . In addition , three people were killed in the United Kingdom by high winds , which damaged around 175,000 houses in the worst affected city , Sheffield .", "qid": "351", "docid": "North_Sea_flood_of_1962", "rank": 83, "score": 100174 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Tennessee floods Content: The May 2010 Tennessee floods were 1000-year floods in Middle Tennessee , West Tennessee , south-central and western Kentucky and northern Mississippi areas of the United States of America as the result of torrential rains on May 1 and 2 , 2010 . Floods from these rains affected the area for several days afterwards , resulting in a number of deaths and widespread property damage . Two-day rain totals in some areas were greater than 19 in . The Cumberland River crested at 51.86 ft in Nashville , a level not seen since 1937 , which was before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control measures were in place . All-time record crests were observed on the Cumberland River at Clarksville , the Duck River at Centerville and Hurricane Mills , the Buffalo River at Lobelville , the Harpeth River at Kingston Springs and Bellevue , and the Red River at Port Royal .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2010_Tennessee_floods", "rank": 84, "score": 100011 }, { "content": "Title: Lost Decade (Japan) Content: The is a period of economic stagnation in Japan following the Japanese asset price bubble 's collapse in late 1991 and early 1992 . The term originally referred to the years from 1991 to 2000 , but recently the decade from 2001 to 2010 is often included , so that the whole period is referred to as the Lost Score or the Lost 20 Years ( 失われた二十年 , Ushinawareta Nijūnen ) . Broadly impacting the entire Japanese economy , over the period of 1995 to 2007 , GDP fell from $ 5.33 to $ 4.36 trillion in nominal terms , real wages fell around 5 % , while the country experienced a stagnant price level . While there is some debate on the extent and measurement of Japan 's setbacks , the economic effect of the Lost Decade is well established and Japanese policymakers continue to grapple with its consequences . It took longer to recover from the impact of these events because the conditions imposed by the new environment were not favorable to the Japanese management style at that time .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Lost_Decade_(Japan)", "rank": 85, "score": 99827 }, { "content": "Title: Los Angeles County flood of 2005 Content: The Los Angeles County flood of 2005 was the first large flood in Los Angeles County since 1938 . It centered in communities near the Los Angeles River or near creeks connected to the Los Angeles River , and affected areas ranging from Santa Barbara County in the north to Orange and San Diego Counties in the south , as well as Riverside and San Bernardino Counties to the east . Large amounts of rain in the Los Angeles County area caused the Los Angeles River basin to overflow . Three people were killed . The flood caused a bridge to collapse ( near Malibu , California ) and major rockslides that washed away hillside houses and caused people in some areas to evacuate their homes . Although the flood was considered large , the Red Cross did not evaluate the damage it caused .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Los_Angeles_County_flood_of_2005", "rank": 86, "score": 99608 }, { "content": "Title: February flood of 1825 Content: The February flood of 1825 , also known in Germany as the Great Hallig Flood ( Große Halligflut ) , was a devastating flood that occurred from 3 to 5 February 1825 on the North Sea coast , in which about 800 people were drowned . Particularly affected was the German North Sea coast , with its islets , known as Halligen , where many dykes had already been damaged in November of the year before by a severe storm surge . The village of Pellworm was completely flooded . In East Frisia , the town of Emden was particularly hard hit . But because the levees in the East Frisian area had been raised significantly in many places in the preceding years , the number of casualties - about 200 - was less than it might have been . In the Netherlands , the February flood was the worst natural disaster of the 19th century . Most of the dead and the worst damage was in Groningen , Friesland and Overijssel . The reaction at national level was quite similar to that during the flood of 1953 ; yet the event was surprisingly quickly forgotten once the damage had been repaired and had no political or engineering consequences . It needed the disaster of 1953 in order for a delta law to be passed and to improve coastal protection significantly .", "qid": "351", "docid": "February_flood_of_1825", "rank": 87, "score": 99382 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 North Korean floods Content: The 2012 North Korean floods began in mid-July 2012 when Tropical Storm Khanun affected parts of the country , killing at least 88 people and leaving more than 62,000 people homeless . Torrential rains on 29 and 30 July 2012 worsened the situation , causing additional damage and casualties and forcing the government to request international assistance . Severe rainfall also affected the southern region of North Korea in August , killing at least six .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2012_North_Korean_floods", "rank": 88, "score": 99216 }, { "content": "Title: Flood (Baxter novel) Content: Flood is a 2008 work of hard science fiction by English author Stephen Baxter . It describes a near future world where deep submarine seismic activity leads to seabed fragmentation , and the opening of deep subterranean reservoirs of water . Human civilisation is almost destroyed by the rising inundation , which covers Mount Everest in 2052 . Baxter issued a sequel to this work , entitled Ark , in 2009 . Flood was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award in 2008 .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Flood_(Baxter_novel)", "rank": 89, "score": 99212 }, { "content": "Title: 100-year flood (disambiguation) Content: A 100-year flood is calculated to be the level of flood water expected to be equaled or exceeded every 100 years on average . 100-year flood may also refer to :", "qid": "351", "docid": "100-year_flood_(disambiguation)", "rank": 90, "score": 99202 }, { "content": "Title: 1957 Valencia flood Content: The 1957 Valencia flood ( gran riada de Valencia ) was a natural disaster that occurred on 13 and 14 October 1957 in Valencia , Spain . The flood resulted in significant damage to property and caused the deaths of at least 81 people . In response to the tragedy , the Spanish government devised and enacted the Plan Sur , which rerouted the city 's main river , the Turia .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1957_Valencia_flood", "rank": 91, "score": 98891 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 China floods Content: The 2011 China floods are a series of floods from June to September 2011 that occurred in central and southern parts of the People 's Republic of China . They were caused by heavy rain that inundated portions of 12 provinces , leaving other provinces still suffering a prolonged drought , a total of over 36 million people have been affected , killing at least 355 and with direct economic losses of nearly US$ 6.5 billion .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2011_China_floods", "rank": 92, "score": 98861 }, { "content": "Title: 2004 Bihar flood Content: The 2004 Bihar flood was one of the worst floods in Bihar , India in a decade . 885 people and 3272 animals had lost their lives and nearly 21.299 million human were affected . 20 districts of Bihar were affected . An alarming rise in water level due to heavy rains inundated fresh areas in Bhagalpur district , Begusarai district , Katihar district , Darbhanga district , Samastipur district and Khagaria district . According to the Central Water Commission Bagmati , Budhi Gandak , Kamla Balan , Adhwara , Kosi and Mahananda rivers were flowing above the red mark at various places , while the Ganges crossed the danger mark for the first time at Farakka Barrage .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2004_Bihar_flood", "rank": 93, "score": 98780 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1881 Content: The Great Flood of 1881 refers to flooding events along the Missouri River during the spring of 1881 . The flood began around Pierre , South Dakota and struck areas down river in Yankton , South Dakota , Omaha , Nebraska , Council Bluffs , Iowa , Nebraska City , Nebraska , Kansas City , Missouri and further south between April 1 , 1881 and April 27 , 1881 . The events provided the first detailed reporting of Missouri River flooding , and caused millions of dollars in damage .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1881", "rank": 94, "score": 98434 }, { "content": "Title: Flood Re Content: Flood Re is a levy and pool system in the United Kingdom , which replaced the Statement of Principles agreed between the government and insurance companies to provide flood insurance coverage to domestic properties deemed at significant risk of flooding ( this is generally defined as no worse than a 1.3 % or 1 in 75 annual probability of flooding ) . It is estimated that it will ultimately cover the most at risk 2 % , or 250,000 homes , though the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy suggest 370,000 homes are eligible .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Flood_Re", "rank": 95, "score": 98353 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in the United States: 2001–present Content: Floods in the United States : 2001 -- present is a list of flood events which were of significant impact to the country since 2001 , inclusive . Floods are generally caused by excessive rainfall , excessive snowmelt , storm surge from hurricanes , and dam failure .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Floods_in_the_United_States:_2001–present", "rank": 96, "score": 98298 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Southeast Asian floods Content: The 2011 monsoon season saw one record flood event in Indochina across several countries and a few separate limited flood events parts of the same nations : Thailand , Cambodia and Myanmar and heavy flooding in Vietnam . Meanwhile , Laos also sustained flood damage . By late October 2011 , 2.3 million people have been hit by flooding in Thailand , while the flooding in Cambodia has affected close to 1.2 million people , according to estimates by the United Nations . Unrelated to the northern floods , Southern Thailand near Malaysia has been lashed with flooding in early November and again in December also affecting as far north as Chumporn . In the November event , Southern Thailand near Hat Yai was hit , North-central Vietnam had their own event in October . Myanmar had reported a series of limited but still deadly and destructive events from June to October . The 2011 typhoon season in Philippines overlapped the monsoon season in Indochina , and the country was hit by a series of storms over the course of 4 months : Typhoon Nesat in September , which was followed shortly after by Typhoon Nalgae , and then in December by Tropical Storm Washi , which hit on an unusual track , timing and location . All told , well over 2,828 have lost their lives to a series of flooding events of varying origins in Southeast Asia since August 2011 in the above-mentioned nations , world-wide supply-chain disruptions occurred in technology sector , and billion-dollar losses and severe parts shortages rippled to corporations of developed nations , and the assumption of safety from flood waters was put into question in many nations thought or assumed to be prepared .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2011_Southeast_Asian_floods", "rank": 97, "score": 98237 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 North Korean floods Content: Flooding in North Korea in July 2006 caused extensive damage and loss of life , although reports differ about its extent .", "qid": "351", "docid": "2006_North_Korean_floods", "rank": 98, "score": 98072 }, { "content": "Title: Gale of January 1976 Content: The Gale of January 1976 , widely known as the `` Capella '' storm in Germany and the Ruisbroek flood in Belgium , was one in a series of extratropical cyclones and storm surges , which occurred over January 1976 . The gale of 2 -- 5 January resulted in severe wind damage across western and central Europe and coastal flooding around the southern North Sea coasts . At the time , this was the most severe storm of the century to date over the British Isles . Total fatalities reached 82 across Europe , although a figure of 100 is given by the World Meteorological Organization . Of these 24 were reported in Britain and 4 in Ireland . Overall losses of US$ 1,300 million were incurred , with insured losses standing at US$ 500 million ( 1976 ) .", "qid": "351", "docid": "Gale_of_January_1976", "rank": 99, "score": 97925 }, { "content": "Title: 1972 Black Hills flood Content: The Black Hills Flood of 1972 , also known as the Rapid City Flood , was one of the most detrimental floods in the history of South Dakota . It took place on June 9 -- 10 , 1972 in the Black Hills of Western South Dakota . 15 in of rainfall over six hours sent Rapid Creek and other waterways overflowing , flooding many residential and commercial properties in Rapid City . It also caused flooding of Battle , Spring , Bear Butte , and Boxelder Creeks . During the night of June 9 , Canyon Lake Dam became clogged with debris and failed , resulting in 238 deaths and 3,057 injuries . Several bodies were never found . Over 1,335 homes and 5,000 automobiles were destroyed . The value of the damaged property was over US $ 160 million in 1972 dollars .", "qid": "351", "docid": "1972_Black_Hills_flood", "rank": 100, "score": 97795 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 1, "score": 94602 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 2, "score": 90016 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "353", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 3, "score": 83828 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather Content: Extreme weather includes unexpectable , unusual , unpredictable severe or unseasonal weather ; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution -- the range that has been seen in the past . Often , extreme events are based on a location 's recorded weather history and defined as lying in the most unusual ten percent . In recent years some extreme weather events have been attributed to human-induced global warming , with studies indicating an increasing threat from extreme weather in the future .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Extreme_weather", "rank": 4, "score": 83091 }, { "content": "Title: Glacier mass balance Content: Crucial to the survival of a glacier is its mass balance or surface mass balance ( SMB ) , the difference between accumulation and ablation ( sublimation and melting ) . Climate change may cause variations in both temperature and snowfall , causing changes in the surface mass balance . Changes in mass balance control a glacier 's long-term behavior and are the most sensitive climate indicators on a glacier . From 1980 -- 2012 the mean cumulative mass loss of glaciers reporting mass balance to the World Glacier Monitoring Service is − 16 m . This includes 23 consecutive years of negative mass balances . A glacier with a sustained negative balance is out of equilibrium and will retreat , while one with a sustained positive balance is out of equilibrium and will advance . Glacier retreat results in the loss of the low elevation region of the glacier . Since higher elevations are cooler than lower ones , the disappearance of the lowest portion of the glacier reduces overall ablation , thereby increasing mass balance and potentially reestablishing equilibrium . However , if the mass balance of a significant portion of the accumulation zone of the glacier is negative , it is in disequilibrium with the local climate . Such a glacier will melt away with a continuation of this local climate . The key symptom of a glacier in disequilibrium is thinning along the entire length of the glacier . For example , Easton Glacier ( pictured below ) will likely shrink to half its size , but at a slowing rate of reduction , and stabilize at that size , despite the warmer temperature , over a few decades . However , the Grinnell Glacier ( pictured below ) will shrink at an increasing rate until it disappears . The difference is that the upper section of Easton Glacier remains healthy and snow-covered , while even the upper section of the Grinnell Glacier is bare , melting and has thinned . Small glaciers with shallow slopes such as Grinnell Glacier are most likely to fall into disequilibrium if there is a change in the local climate . In the case of positive mass balance , the glacier will continue to advance expanding its low elevation area , resulting in more melting . If this still does not create an equilibrium balance the glacier will continue to advance . If a glacier is near a large body of water , especially an ocean , the glacier may advance until iceberg calving losses bring about equilibrium .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Glacier_mass_balance", "rank": 5, "score": 82654 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change policy of the United States Content: Global climate change was first addressed in United States policy beginning in the early 1960s . The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) defines climate change as `` any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time . '' Essentially , climate change includes major changes in temperature , precipitation , or wind patterns , as well as other effects , that occur over several decades or longer . Climate change policy in the US has transformed rapidly over the past twenty years and is being developed at both the state and federal level . The politics of global warming and climate change have polarized certain political parties and other organizations . This article focuses on climate change policy within the United States , as well as exploring the positions of various parties and the influences on policy making and environmental justice repercussions .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_policy_of_the_United_States", "rank": 6, "score": 82438 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 7, "score": 79694 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 8, "score": 79227 }, { "content": "Title: Connect4Climate Content: Connect4Climate is a global partnership program under the Communication for Climate Change Multi-Donor Trust Fund of the World Bank Group . The Trust Fund was initiated by the Italian Ministry of Environment , and in 2014 it was joined by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Connect4Climate", "rank": 9, "score": 78641 }, { "content": "Title: Ozone depletion and climate change Content: Ozone depletion and climate change , or Ozone hole and global warming in more popular terms , are environmental challenges whose connections have been explored and which have been compared and contrasted , for example in terms of global regulation , in various studies and books . There is widespread scientific interest in better regulation of climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution , as in general the human relationship with the biosphere is deemed of major historiographical and political significance . Already by 1994 the legal debates about respective regulation regimes on climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution were being dubbed `` monumental '' and a combined synopsis provided . There are some parallels between atmospheric chemistry and anthropogenic emissions in the discussions which have taken place and the regulatory attempts which have been made . Most important is that the gases causing both problems have long lifetimes after emission to the atmosphere , thus causing problems which are difficult to reverse . However , the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol that amended it are seen as success stories , while the Kyoto Protocol on anthropogenic climate change has largely failed . Currently efforts are being undertaken to assess the reasons and to use synergies , for example with regard to data reporting and policy design and further exchanging of information . While the general public tends to see global warming as a subset of ozone depletion , in fact ozone and chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs ) and other halocarbons , which are held responsible for ozone depletion , are important greenhouse gasses . Furthermore , natural levels of ozone in both the stratosphere and troposphere have a warming effect .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Ozone_depletion_and_climate_change", "rank": 10, "score": 78154 }, { "content": "Title: Human Rights and Climate Change Content: Human Rights and Climate Change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied , analyzed , and addressed . The framework has been employed by governments , United Nations organs , intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations , human rights and environmental advocates , and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the core international human rights instruments . Human rights and climate change analysis focuses on the anticipated consequences to humans associated with global environmental phenomena including sea level rise , desertification , temperature increases , extreme weather events , and changes in precipitation , as well as adaptation and mitigation measures taken by governments in response to those phenomena that may involve human rights or related legal protections .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Human_Rights_and_Climate_Change", "rank": 11, "score": 78145 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather Makers Content: The Weather Makers : The History and Future Impact of Climate Change is a 2005 book by Tim Flannery . The book received critical acclaim . It won the major prize at the 2006 New South Wales Premier 's Literary Awards , and was short-listed for the 2010 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature .", "qid": "353", "docid": "The_Weather_Makers", "rank": 12, "score": 78039 }, { "content": "Title: Economic impacts of climate change Content: This article describes the economic impacts of climate change . Given the inherent nature of economic forecasting , which involves significant degrees of uncertainty , estimates of the results of global warming over the 21st century have varied widely . Many analyses , such as that of the Stern Review presented to the British Government , have predicted reductions by several percent of world gross domestic product due to climate related costs such as dealing with increased extreme weather events and stresses to low-lying areas due to sea level rises . Other studies by independent economists looking at the effects of climate change have found more ambiguous results around the range of net-neutral changes when all aspects of the issue are evaluated , though the issue remains intensely debated .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Economic_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 13, "score": 78026 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Australia Content: Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Australia", "rank": 14, "score": 77999 }, { "content": "Title: Climate risk Content: Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_risk", "rank": 15, "score": 77980 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 16, "score": 77904 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 17, "score": 77484 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change (general concept) Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_(general_concept)", "rank": 18, "score": 76447 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New Zealand Content: Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 19, "score": 75697 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New York City Content: Climate change in New York City could affect buildings/structures , wetlands , water supply , health , and energy demand , due to the high population and extensive infrastructure in the region . New York is especially at risk if the sea level rises , due to many of the bridges connecting to boroughs , and entrances to roads and rail tunnels . High-traffic locations such as the airports , the Holland Tunnel , the Lincoln Tunnel , and the New York Passenger Ship Terminal are located in areas vulnerable to flooding . Flooding would be expensive to reverse . Rising temperatures could bring a higher risk of heat related deaths from heat waves and increased concentrations of ground-level ozone ( potentially causing asthma and other health concerns ) .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_York_City", "rank": 20, "score": 75567 }, { "content": "Title: Table of historic and prehistoric climate indicators Content: This table is a reference tool for rapidly locating Wikipedia articles on Historic and Prehistoric climate indicators of all types . To Add : Alkenone analysis TEX-86 analysis Nile river flood levels Trace mineral ratios in deltaic sediment Wildlife distribution Pollen analysis Historic storm-related sinkings Sea temperature and atmospheric pressure ( ENSO ) Scientific meteorological measurements ( since 1800s ) air temperature air pressure wind speed and direction Ocean currents and marine productivity Flooding and drought observations on land Volcanic activity elevated charcoal in lake sediments sand dune activation records eolian ( wind-borne ) sediment deposition", "qid": "353", "docid": "Table_of_historic_and_prehistoric_climate_indicators", "rank": 21, "score": 74839 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Connections Content: Climate Connections was the 2008-09 FIRST Lego League competition . Its theme centered on understanding the effects of climate and climate change .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Connections", "rank": 22, "score": 74790 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "353", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 23, "score": 74562 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 24, "score": 74284 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "353", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 25, "score": 74090 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change (album) Content: Climate Change is the tenth studio album by rapper and songwriter Pitbull . It was released on March 17 , 2017 . through RCA Records , Polo Grounds Music and Mr. 305 Inc. . It features Enrique Iglesias , Flo Rida , Jennifer Lopez and Jason Derulo .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Change_(album)", "rank": 26, "score": 73278 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "353", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 27, "score": 73212 }, { "content": "Title: Climate variability Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_variability", "rank": 28, "score": 73070 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 29, "score": 73058 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events of 535–536 Content: The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the most severe and protracted short-term episodes of cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2000 years . The event is thought to have been caused by an extensive atmospheric dust veil , possibly resulting from a large volcanic eruption in the tropics , or debris from space impacting the Earth . Its effects were widespread , causing unseasonal weather , crop failures and famines worldwide .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_of_535–536", "rank": 30, "score": 72939 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 31, "score": 72841 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and agriculture Content: -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_and_agriculture", "rank": 32, "score": 72506 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 33, "score": 72482 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 34, "score": 72352 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 35, "score": 72352 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Change (journal) Content: Climatic Change is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science + Business Media covering cross-disciplinary work on all aspects of climate change and variability . It was established in 1978 and the editors-in-chief are Michael Oppenheimer ( Princeton University ) and Gary Yohe ( Wesleyan University ) .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climatic_Change_(journal)", "rank": 36, "score": 72127 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Grenada Content: The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Grenada", "rank": 37, "score": 72112 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 38, "score": 71633 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 39, "score": 71553 }, { "content": "Title: The Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment Content: The Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment ( RAINEX ) is a project to improve hurricane intensity forecasting via measuring interactions between rainbands and the eyewalls of tropical cyclones . The experiment was planned for the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season . This coincidence of RAINEX with the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season led to the study and exploration of infamous hurricanes Katrina , Ophelia , and Rita . Where Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita . would go on to cause major damage to the US Gulf coast . Hurricane Ophelia provided an interesting contrast to these powerful cyclones as it never developed greater than a category 1 . The RAINEX project was a collaboration between the University of Miami ( UM ) , Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science ( RSMAS ) , The University of Washington , Department of Atmospheric Sciences , The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) and the US Navy , Office of Naval Research . The objective of the research was to study the mechanism by which hurricane eyewall replacement cycle occurs . Luckily for the sake of the research , one such case of eyewall replacement occurred during the study of Hurricane Rita . In tropical cyclones maximum wind speed of the storm , which occurs at the eyewall , is a primary indicator of its overall strength which is important in predicting overall intensity . Just beyond this eyewall is a moat which separates the inner rainbands ( eventually the outer eyewall ) from the ( inner ) eyewall . Better understanding the dynamics of this region before , and during eyewall replacement could aid in better intensity predictions .", "qid": "353", "docid": "The_Hurricane_Rainband_and_Intensity_Change_Experiment", "rank": 40, "score": 71540 }, { "content": "Title: Climate ethics Content: Climate ethics is an area of research that focuses on the ethical dimensions of climate change ( also known as global warming ) , and concepts such as climate justice . Human-induced climate change raises many profound ethical questions , yet many believe that these ethical issues have not been addressed adequately in climate change policy debates or in the scientific and economic literature on climate change ; and that , consequently , ethical questions are being overlooked or obscured in climate negotiations , policies and discussions . It has been pointed out that those most responsible for climate change are not the same people as those most vulnerable to its effects . Terms such as climate justice and ecological justice ( ` eco justice ' ) are used worldwide , and have been adopted by various groups .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_ethics", "rank": 41, "score": 71534 }, { "content": "Title: Proxy (climate) Content: In the study of past climates ( `` paleoclimatology '' ) , climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth 's history . Reliable global records of climate only began in the 1880s , and proxies provide the only means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began . Examples of proxies include ice cores , tree rings , sub-fossil pollen , boreholes , corals , lake and ocean sediments , and carbonate speleothems . The character of deposition or rate of growth of the proxies ' material has been influenced by the climatic conditions of the time in which they were laid down or grew . Chemical traces produced by climatic changes , such as quantities of particular isotopes , can be recovered from proxies . Some proxies , such as gas bubbles trapped in ice , enable traces of the ancient atmosphere to be recovered and measured directly to provide a history of fluctuations in the composition of the Earth 's atmosphere . To produce the most precise results , systematic cross-verification between proxy indicators is necessary for accuracy in readings and record-keeping . Proxies can be combined to produce temperature reconstructions longer than the instrumental temperature record and can inform discussions of global warming . The distribution of proxy records , just like the instrumental record , is not at all uniform , with more records in the northern hemisphere .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Proxy_(climate)", "rank": 42, "score": 71456 }, { "content": "Title: Climate fiction Content: Climate fiction , or climate change fiction , popularly abbreviated as cli-fi ( modelled after the assonance of `` sci-fi '' ) is literature that deals with climate change and global warming . Not necessarily speculative in nature , works of cli-fi may take place in the world as we know it or in the near future . University courses on literature and environmental issues may include climate change fiction in their syllabi . This body of literature has been discussed by a variety of publications , including The New York Times , The Guardian , and Dissent magazine , among other international media outlets .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_fiction", "rank": 43, "score": 71359 }, { "content": "Title: Rapid Climate Change-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array Content: The Rapid Climate Change-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array ( RAPID/MOCHA ) program is a collaborative research project between the National Oceanography Centre ( Southampton , U.K. ) , the University of Miami 's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science ( RSMAS ) , and NOAA 's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory ( AOML ) that measure the meridional overturning circulation ( MOC ) and ocean heat transport in the North Atlantic Ocean . This array was deployed in March 2004 to continuously monitor the MOC and ocean heat transport that are primarily associated with the Thermohaline Circulation across the basin at 26 ° N . The RAPID-MOCHA array is planned to be continued through 2014 to provide a decade or longer continuous time series . The continuous observations are measured by an array of instruments along 26 ° N . This monitoring array directly measures the transport of the Gulf Stream in the Florida Strait using an undersea cable and a moored array measures bottom pressure and water column density ( including temperature and salinity ) at the western and eastern boundary and on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ( MAR ) . Absolute transports including barotropic circulation are monitored using precision bottom pressure gauges . `` Dynamic height '' moorings are used to estimate the spatially average geostropic velocity profile and associated transports over relatively wide mooring separations . The dynamic height moorings requires measurements on both sides of the current field only , rather both the horizontal and vertical structure of the current field to be sufficiently well resolved to estimate transports . The basin-wide MOC strength and vertical structure are estimated via Ekman transports by satellite scatterometer measurements and the geotrophic and direct current observations . RAPID-MOCHA is funded by the National Environmental Research Council ( NERC ) and the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Rapid_Climate_Change-Meridional_Overturning_Circulation_and_Heatflux_Array", "rank": 44, "score": 71336 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events in Melbourne Content: thumb | A church destroyed by the 1918 Brighton tornado Extreme weather events in Melbourne , Australia have occurred on multiple occasions . The city has experienced a number of highly unusual weather events and extremes of weather . An increase in heat waves and record breaking temperatures over the last decade has led to much discussion over the effects of climate change in the country .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_in_Melbourne", "rank": 45, "score": 71314 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 46, "score": 71295 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in popular culture Content: The issue of climate change and global warming , their possible effects , and related human-environment interaction have entered popular culture since the late 20th century . Science historian Naomi Oreskes has noted , `` There 's a huge disconnect between what professional scientists have studied and learned in the last 30 years , and what is out there in the popular culture . '' An academic study contrasts the relatively rapid acceptance of ozone depletion as reflected in popular culture with the much slower acceptance of the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_popular_culture", "rank": 47, "score": 71240 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Saskatchewan Content: The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Saskatchewan", "rank": 48, "score": 71236 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "353", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 49, "score": 71186 }, { "content": "Title: Solar activity and climate Content: Solar irradiance variation has been a main driver of climate change over geologic time , but its role in the recent warming has been found to be insignificant .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Solar_activity_and_climate", "rank": 50, "score": 71093 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Texas Content: Over the next century , climate in Texas could experience additional changes . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Texas could increase by about 3 ° F ( ~ 1.7 ° C ) in spring ( with a range of 1-6 ° F ) and about 4 ° F ( ~ 2.2 ° C ) in other seasons ( with a range of 1-9 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease by 5-30 % in winter and increase by about 10 % in the other seasons . Increases in summer could be slightly larger ( up to 30 % ) than in spring and fall . Other climate models may show different results . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to decrease , and the amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how severe storms such as hurricanes would change .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Texas", "rank": 51, "score": 70956 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 52, "score": 70756 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and gender Content: Climate change and gender is concerned with gender differences in the context of climate change and the complex and intersecting power relations arising from it . By altering the ecosystems of the planet , climate change , and more specifically global warming , directly impacts the human race . These effects vary for different segments of the population , specifically for people of different genders . In many cases , women are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change because of their lower social status in most countries . Many impoverished women , especially those in the developing world , are farmers and depend on the natural environment for subsistence and income . By further limiting their already constrained access to physical , social , political , and fiscal resources , climate change often burdens women more than men . Locally and globally , both governments and non-governmental organizations respond to climate change . Some of these efforts focus on mitigating the effects of climate change while others aid societies in adapting their lifestyles to changes in their environment . Most policy responses in the late 20th and early 21st century either did not focus on the social effects of climate change or did not consider gender in these efforts . Analysis of gender in climate change , however , not only means applying a binary male/female system of analysis on sets of quantitative data but also scrutinizing discursive constructions that shapes power relations connected to climate change .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_and_gender", "rank": 53, "score": 70722 }, { "content": "Title: Nature Climate Change Content: Nature Climate Change is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group covering all aspects of research on global warming , especially its effects . It was established in 2011 . Its first editor-in-chief was Olive Heffernan and the journal 's current editor-in-chief is Bronwyn Wake . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal had a 2015 impact factor of 17.184 .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Nature_Climate_Change", "rank": 54, "score": 70662 }, { "content": "Title: Weather Stress Index Content: The Weather Stress Index , or WSI , is a relative measure of the weather conditions , often used as a comfort indicator . The index , a number between 0 and 100 , represents the percentage of time in the past with temperatures below the current temperature , for a given location , day and time . This makes the index a local measure based in past weather conditions . For example , if for a given location , on the 25th of July at 13:00 UTC the WSI is 85 for a temperature of 42 C , this means that the temperature was inferior to 42 ° C in 85 % of the time in the past , on the same place , on the 25th of July at 13:00 UTC ( and superior to 42 ° C in 15 % of the time on the same place , day and hour ) . In other words , the WSI gives the probability of finding a smaller temperature in the local weather history , at a given day and time , than that of the present measurement . Therefore , high values of WSI predict a relative discomfort from excessive heat for local inhabitants .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Weather_Stress_Index", "rank": 55, "score": 70581 }, { "content": "Title: Climate justice Content: Climate justice is a term used for framing global warming as an ethical and political issue , rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature . This is done by relating the effects of climate change to concepts of justice , particularly environmental justice and social justice and by examining issues such as equality , human rights , collective rights , and the historical responsibilities for climate change . A fundamental proposition of climate justice is that those who are least responsible for climate change suffer its gravest consequences . Occasionally , the term is also used to mean actual legal action on climate change issues .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_justice", "rank": 56, "score": 70128 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and poverty Content: In an ever-progressing world with an increasing demand for energy and animal agriculture , it is difficult to avoid climate change and its impacts on societies both locally and globally . Climate change affects social development factors , such as , poverty , infrastructure , technology , security , and economics across the globe . Although climate change affects everything we see around us , the interrelation between climate change and social vulnerability and inequality is particularly evident in impoverished communities . In particular , impoverished communities experience reductions in safe drinking water as well as food security as a result of climate change ( OECD 2013 ) . These typically rural , isolated communities do not exhibit sufficient financial and technical capacities to manage the risks associated with climate change ( climate risk ) ( Skoufias 2012 ) . Energy development and policy alteration could adjust the severity of climate change impacts ; this is being tested now , as renewable energy sources develop .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_and_poverty", "rank": 57, "score": 70079 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United Kingdom Content: Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 58, "score": 69856 }, { "content": "Title: Tectonic–climatic interaction Content: Tectonic -- climatic interaction is the interrelationship between tectonic processes and the climate system . The tectonic processes in question include orogenesis , volcanism , and erosion , while relevant climatic processes include atmospheric circulation , orographic lift , monsoon circulation and the rain shadow effect . As the geological record of past climate changes over millions of years is sparse and poorly resolved , many questions remain unresolved regarding the nature of tectonic-climate interaction , although it is an area of active research by geologists and palaeoclimatologists .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Tectonic–climatic_interaction", "rank": 59, "score": 69658 }, { "content": "Title: Meteorological disasters Content: Meteorological disasters are caused by extreme weather , e.g. rain , drought , snow , extreme heat or cold , ice , or wind . Violent , sudden and destructive change to the environment related to , produced by , or affecting the earth 's atmosphere , especially the weather-forming processes . Examples of weather disasters include blizzard , cyclones , droughts , hailstorms , heat waves , hurricanes , floods ( caused by rain ) , and tornadoes .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Meteorological_disasters", "rank": 60, "score": 69442 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 61, "score": 69383 }, { "content": "Title: Abrupt climate change Content: An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states . Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Abrupt_climate_change", "rank": 62, "score": 69226 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming game Content: A global warming game , also known as a climate game or a climate change game , is a type of serious game . As a serious game , it attempts to simulate and explore real life issues to educate players through an interactive experience . The issues particular to a global warming video game are usually energy efficiency and the implementation of green technology as ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus counteract global warming . Global warming games also include more traditional board games , video games , as well as other varieties .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Global_warming_game", "rank": 63, "score": 69147 }, { "content": "Title: James Balog Content: James Balog ( pronounced BAY-log ; born July 15 , 1952 ) is an American photographer whose work explores the relationship between humans and nature . Since the early 1980s Balog has photographed such subjects as endangered animals , North America 's old-growth forests , and polar ice . His work aims to combine insights from art and science to produce innovative , dynamic and sometimes shocking interpretations of our changing world . Balog 's best-known project explores the impact of climate change on the world 's glaciers . In 2007 he initiated the Extreme Ice Survey , the most wide-ranging ground-based photographic glacier study ever conducted . National Geographic magazine showcased Balog 's ice work in June 2007 and June 2010 , and the project is featured in the 2009 NOVA documentary Extreme IceSee Extreme Ice . as well as the 75-minute film Chasing Ice , which premiered in January 2012 . Balog 's book Ice : Portraits of the World 's Vanishing Glaciers summarizes the work of the Extreme Ice Survey through 2012 . Balog has received many awards for his work , including the Royal Photographic Society Hood Medal , a 2010 Heinz Award , the Duke University LEAF Award , the Same Rose '58 and Julie Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism at Dickinson College , the Aspen Institute 's Visual Arts & Design Award , the Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure , the Leica Medal of Excellence , and the International League of Conservation Photographers League Award . He was the North American Nature Photography Association 's Outstanding Photographer of the Year in 2008 and PhotoMedia 's Person of the Year for 2011 . In 1996 he became the first photographer ever commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service to create a full set of stamps . He is the author of seven books , including Extreme Ice Now : Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate : A Progress Report ( 2009 ) , Tree : A New Vision of the American Forest ( 2004 ) , and Survivors : A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife ( 1990 ) , hailed as a conceptual breakthrough in nature photography . Balog received an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the University of Alberta . As a consequence of this historic work , in 2009 , he served as a U.S. / NASA representative at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change ( COP-15 ) in Copenhagen . In 2015 , he made four presentations at COP-21 in Paris . In January 2016 , Balog began production on another feature-length documentary film , Life Tectonic ( working title ) , exploring the environmental effects of the Anthropocene . The film is scheduled to debut in early 2018 . He is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers . He lives in the foothills of the Rockies above Boulder , Colorado , with his wife , Suzanne , and two daughters .", "qid": "353", "docid": "James_Balog", "rank": 64, "score": 69144 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "353", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 65, "score": 69111 }, { "content": "Title: Adam Sobel Content: Adam H. Sobel ( born 1967 ) is a Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics and of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He directs its Initiative on Extreme Weather and Climate . His research area is meteorology with a focus on atmospheric and climate dynamics , tropical meteorology , and extreme weather . He obtained his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998 and won the American Geophysical Union Atmospheric Science Section Ascent Award in 2014 . Along with Tapio Schneider , he co-edited the review book The Global Circulation of the Atmosphere ( 2007 ) . He was also featured in the 2012 NOVA documentary `` Inside the Megastorm '' about Hurricane Sandy , and later published the book Storm Surge : Hurricane Sandy , Our Changing Climate , and Extreme Weather of the Past and Future ( 2014 ) . Overall his publications have been cited close to 5,000 times , and he has an h-index of 38 as of November 5 , 2015 .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Adam_Sobel", "rank": 66, "score": 69088 }, { "content": "Title: Historical impacts of climate change Content: Climate has affected human life and civilization from the emergence of hominins to the present day . These historical impacts of climate change can improve human life and cause societies to flourish , or can be instrumental in civilization 's societal collapse .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Historical_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 67, "score": 68872 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Museum Content: The Climate Museum is a new museum proposed for New York City that will focus on climate change . The founding director is Miranda Massie . The Museum was given a 5-year Charter by the New York State Board of Regents in July , 2015 . As of July 2015 , the museum is in its initial fund-raising and planning phase and has not yet selected a location .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Museum", "rank": 68, "score": 68823 }, { "content": "Title: Anthony Leiserowitz Content: Anthony Leiserowitz is the Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University . He is also a principal investigator at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University and a research scientist at Decision Research . Leiserowitz also hosts a national radio show called Yale Climate Connections and is the recipient of the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA 's ) 2011 Environmental Merit Award , which recognizes outstanding contributions toward preserving and protecting the nation 's natural resources .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Anthony_Leiserowitz", "rank": 69, "score": 68736 }, { "content": "Title: Climate movement Content: The climate movement is the collective of nongovernmental organizations engaged in activism related to the issues of climate change . It is a subset of the broader environmental movement , but some regard it as a new social movement itself given its scope , strength and activities .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_movement", "rank": 70, "score": 68695 }, { "content": "Title: Mish Michaels Content: Mish Michaels is a broadcast meteorologist , environmental reporter and author . Michaels was born in Kolkata , India . She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from Cornell University in Ithaca , New York , and a Master 's degree in Technology from Harvard University . Michaels worked at WHDH and The Weather Channel . She joined the WBZ-TV weather team in September 2001 and left in July 2009 . After leaving WBZ , she spent time raising her children and writing books in her spare time . In late 2010 , she contributed to the book , Extreme New England Weather written by Josh Judge , with her story of a deadly microburst in Stratham , New Hampshire in 1991 . On January 31 , 2017 , Michaels announced via Twitter her employment with WGBH as a science reporter . As of February 8 , 2017 , it has been made public that she has been fired from this position as she '' ... has been outspoken in her controversial belief that vaccines cause autism ... '' as well as a disbelief in man made climate change . Michaels later disputed these claims on her personal website .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Mish_Michaels", "rank": 71, "score": 68663 }, { "content": "Title: Reasons for concern Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has organized many of the risks of climate change into five `` reasons for concern . '' The reasons for concern show that these risks increase with increases in the Earth 's global mean temperature ( i.e. , global warming ) . The IPCC 's five reasons for concern are : threats to endangered species and unique systems , damages from extreme climate events , effects that fall most heavily on developing countries and the poor within countries , global aggregate impacts ( i.e. , various measurements of total social , economic and ecological impacts ) , and large-scale high-impact events . The five reasons for concern are described in more detail below . The following descriptions are based on information from the IPCC 's Third ( TAR ) and Fourth Assessment Reports ( AR4 ) , published in 2001 and 2007 , respectively .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Reasons_for_concern", "rank": 72, "score": 68627 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower Content: The Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower ( CCT ) is a 34-meter research tower installed in Ny-Ålesund , Svalbard , Norway , for the study of various physical parameters in the boundary layer of the lower troposphere . In particular it continuously measured meteorological parameters ( temperature , relative humidity , intensity and direction of the wind ) at four different levels of height , and the four components of solar radiation and infrared at the top of the tower itself . They also measure the height of the layer of snow and its temperature at two depths . The tower was funded by the Department of Earth and Environment ( DTA ) of the National Research Council of Italy ( CNR ) and installed by Kings Bay in science village of Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard island . The inauguration took place on30 April 2009 . The CCT is an important point of reference for the study of the energy balance at the surface , and the processes of interaction and exchange between the various components of the climate system . The structure is dedicated to the Arctic expeditions of Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Italian Umberto Nobile explorers .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Amundsen-Nobile_Climate_Change_Tower", "rank": 73, "score": 68620 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 74, "score": 68620 }, { "content": "Title: Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change Content: See Also : climate change mitigation , emissions trading . The Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate ( MEF ) was launched on March 28 , 2009 . The MEF is intended to facilitate a candid dialogue among major developed and developing economies , help generate the political leadership necessary to achieve a successful outcome at the December UN climate change conference in Copenhagen , and advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions . The 17 major economies are : Australia , Brazil , Canada , China , the European Union , France , Germany , India , Indonesia , Italy , Japan , South Korea , Mexico , Russia , South Africa , the United Kingdom , and the United States . Denmark , in its capacity as the President of the December 2009 Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change , and the United Nations have also participated in this dialogue along with Observers .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Major_Economies_Forum_on_Energy_and_Climate_Change", "rank": 75, "score": 68583 }, { "content": "Title: Business action on climate change Content: Business action on climate change includes a range of activities relating to global warming , and to influencing political decisions on global-warming-related regulation , such as the Kyoto Protocol . Major multinationals have played and to some extent continue to play a significant role in the politics of global warming , especially in the United States , through lobbying of government and funding of global warming skeptics . Business also plays a key role in the mitigation of global warming , through decisions to invest in researching and implementing new energy technologies and energy efficiency measures . ( See also individual and political action on climate change . )", "qid": "353", "docid": "Business_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 76, "score": 68402 }, { "content": "Title: Physical impacts of climate change Content: This article is about the physical impacts of climate change . For some of these physical impacts , their effect on social and economic systems are also described . This article refers to reports produced by the IPCC . In their usage , `` climate change '' refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties , and that persists for extended periods , typically decades or longer ( IPCC , 2007d :30 ) . The climate change referred to may be due to natural causes and/or the result of human activity .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Physical_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 77, "score": 68285 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Challenge Content: Climate Challenge is a Flash-based global warming game produced by the BBC and developed by Red Redemption . Players manage the economy and resources of the ` European Nations ' as its president , while reducing emissions of to combat climate change and managing crises . Climate Challenge is an environmental serious game , designed to give players an understanding of the science behind climate change , as well as the options available to policy makers and the difficulties in their implementation .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Challenge", "rank": 78, "score": 68274 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Act 2008 Content: The Climate Change Act 2008 ( c 27 ) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . The Act makes it the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for all six Kyoto greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at least 80 % lower than the 1990 baseline , toward avoiding dangerous climate change . The Act aims to enable the United Kingdom to become a low-carbon economy and gives ministers powers to introduce the measures necessary to achieve a range of greenhouse gas reduction targets . An independent Committee on Climate Change has been created under the Act to provide advice to UK Government on these targets and related policies . In the act Secretary of State refers to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Change_Act_2008", "rank": 79, "score": 68250 }, { "content": "Title: Fisheries and climate change Content: Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Fisheries_and_climate_change", "rank": 80, "score": 68186 }, { "content": "Title: A Change of Climate Content: A Change of Climate is a novel by English author Hilary Mantel , first published in 1994 by Viking Books . At the time The Observer described it as the best book she had written . It was published in the United States by Henry Holt in 1997 and was recognised by the New York Times Book Review as one of the notable books of that year . The novel has also been identified as one of the best of the 1990s .", "qid": "353", "docid": "A_Change_of_Climate", "rank": 81, "score": 68130 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom Climate Change Programme Content: The United Kingdom 's Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) . The 2000 programme was updated in March 2006 following a review launched in September 2004 . In 2008 , the UK was the world 's 9th greatest producer of man-made carbon emissions , producing around 1.8 % of the global total generated from fossil fuels .", "qid": "353", "docid": "United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 82, "score": 68041 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on island nations Content: Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_island_nations", "rank": 83, "score": 68040 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 84, "score": 68020 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 Content: The Climate Change ( Scotland ) Act 2009 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament . The Act includes an emissions target , set for the year 2050 , for a reduction of at least 80 % from the baseline year , 1990 . Annual targets for greenhouse gas emissions must also be set , after consultation the relevant advisory bodies . Provisions are included in the Act for the creation of a Scottish Committee on Climate Change , as at present the only advisory body is the UK-wide Committee on Climate Change . Ministers in parliament must now report on the progress of these targets . As of January 2011 , public sector bodies in Scotland must comply with new guidelines set out by the Scottish Government .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Change_(Scotland)_Act_2009", "rank": 85, "score": 67890 }, { "content": "Title: Weather and climate Content: There is often confusion between weather and climate . Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a particular place over a short period of time , whereas climate refers to the weather pattern of a place over a long period , long enough to yield meaningful averages . Meteorology studies weather , while climatology studies climate ; both are atmospheric sciences .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Weather_and_climate", "rank": 86, "score": 67852 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "353", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 87, "score": 67802 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Research Centre Content: The Climate Change Research Centre ( abbreviated CCRC ) is a research initiative established in 2007 at the University of New South Wales . The foundation Directors of the CCRC were the Australian Research Council ( ARC ) Federation Fellow Professor Matthew England , who established the Climate and Environmental Dynamics Laboratory in 2005 , and Professor Andrew Pitman , the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science . The current Director is Professor Steven Sherwood ( an ARC Laureate Fellow ) . The Centre 's research falls into ten broad categories : Climate Oceanography Atmospheric Science Ecosystems Carbon Cycle Terrestrial Processes Climate Impacts Energy Policy Climate Model Evaluation Palaeoclimatology The CCRC is the University of New South Wales lead of the Australian Research Council 's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science ( 2011 -- 2018 ) .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Change_Research_Centre", "rank": 88, "score": 67428 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Authority Content: The Climate Change Authority is an Australian statutory agency established under the Climate Change Authority Act 2011 . It began operations on 1 July 2012 . Its role is to review various climate change policies , including the Carbon Farming Initiative and National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting system , and to advise the Australian Government and Parliament on other matters as requested . The Authority has no legislative or executive powers , which remain with the Government and Parliament of the day . The Authority is presently undertaking a Special Review into Australia 's policies and targets for reducing emissions in the context of its international commitments and those of other countries . The Special Review is due to be completed by 30 June 2016 . The Authority has a Board comprising a Chair and eight permanent members : Dr Wendy Craik ( Chair ) , Stuart Allinson ( Acting Chair ) , Kate Carnell AO , Professor David Karoly , Professor John Quiggin , Professor Clive Hamilton , The Hon. John Sharp , Dr Alan Finkel and Danny Price . A tenth member , Andrew Macintosh , sits as an associate member until the conclusion of the Special Review . Dr Finkel is an ex officio member of the Authority as Australia 's Chief Scientist , replacing the former Chief Scientist Ian Chubb . The original Chair of the Authority was former Reserve Bank of Australia Governor and Treasury Secretary , Bernie Fraser . He resigned from the position in September 2015 . The agency is based in Melbourne where it has the advantage of being able to work closely with the Productivity Commission . The agency was allocated A$ 6.2 million in the 2012-13 financial year . The Australian Government , under Liberal leadership , is in the process of abolishing the Climate Change Authority , a move which has been heavily criticised .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Change_Authority", "rank": 89, "score": 67318 }, { "content": "Title: The Climate Monologues Content: The Climate Monologues is an episodic one-woman play , created and performed by Sharon Abreu . Inspired by The Vagina Monologues , The Climate Monologues consists of a series of monologues and original songs from the point of view of people affected by and working to prevent climate change . The play premiered at the Orcas Island Grange in Eastsound , WA , on May 16 , 2010 . On March 11 , 2011 , Abreu received The Spirit of Nature , Ecology and Society Environmental Justice Award . at The Culture of Climate Change colloquium at the City University of New York ( CUNY ) Graduate Center in New York City , for her presentation of The Climate Monologues . Abreu performed an updated version of the show on March 27 , 2016 , in the Los Angeles Women 's Theatre Festival . Orcas Issues said in a review of a September 8 , 2016 , performance at Random Howse in Eastsound , WA : `` Sharon Abreu is an inspired listener . She listens to the stories of West Virginian coal mining families , NW activists , Tribal leaders , Mississippi teachers , a Colorado cowgirl and Orcas ' own Lea Bossler and tells them back to us in compelling , non-scientific language about the world we live in . '' Theater reviewer Lexi Orphanos wrote , `` Abreu 's monologues bring a humanity to the statistics that plaster our newspapers and Facebook feeds . She does n't just give you the facts , she gives you a human life , bent and reshaped by environmental abuse . '' A September 24 , 2016 , performance at the United Solo Theatre Festival sold out , was listed as a bestseller and a repeat performance was added which took place on November 18 , 2016 . The play was featured in chapter 6 , Orcas Island 's Irthlingz : Community Art as Activism in the 2016 book , A Song to Save the Salish Sea : Musical Performance as Environmental Activism , by Mark Pedelty , published by Indiana University Press .", "qid": "353", "docid": "The_Climate_Monologues", "rank": 90, "score": 67284 }, { "content": "Title: Andrew Simms Content: Andrew Simms is an author , analyst and co-director of the New Weather Institute . He is a research associate with the Centre for Global Political Economy at the University of Sussex and Fellow at the New Economics Foundation . He also served as Policy Director for ten years , Communications Director , and established the Climate Change Programme for the foundation . He co-authored The Green New Deal and co-founded the Green New Deal Group , the climate campaign onehundredmonths.org and cooperative think tank the New Weather Institute . He was a Principal Speaker of the Green Party . A political economist and environmentalist , Simms studied at the London School of Economics for a master 's degree in development and international political economy , and has written a number of reports on climate change , globalisation and localisation , development issues , debt ( conventional and ecological debt ) , finance and banking , corporate accountability , genetic engineering and food security . He coined the term ` clone towns ' to describe the economic and homogenising effects of chain retailers on town centres . Simms advocates the notion of ` ecological debt ' as an illustration of the degree to which economies operate beyond environmental thresholds , and initiated the annual marking of the day when the world is estimated to enter ` overshoot ' .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Andrew_Simms", "rank": 91, "score": 67270 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Capital Content: Climate Change Capital is a private asset management and advisory group founded in 2003 to support efforts to develop solutions to climate change and resource depletion .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_Change_Capital", "rank": 92, "score": 67243 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 93, "score": 67196 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Content: Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate", "rank": 94, "score": 67168 }, { "content": "Title: Australian flying fox die-offs Content: In the last two decades tens of thousands of Australian flying foxes have died during extreme heat events . Flying fox die-offs feature arguably among the most dramatic mass mortality events witnessed in nature , but they can be indicators of heat stress in more cryptic fauna where impacts are more difficult to assess . The die-offs are important additional threats to Australian flying-foxes and the ecosystem services they provide , and highlight the complex implications of climate change for behaviour , demography , and species survival .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Australian_flying_fox_die-offs", "rank": 95, "score": 67039 }, { "content": "Title: Climate across Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary Content: The climate across the Cretaceous -- Paleogene boundary ( K -- Pg or formerly the K -- T boundary ) is very important to geologic time as it marks a catastrophic global extinction event . Numerous theories have been proposed as to why this extinction event happened including an asteroid known as the Chicxulub asteroid , volcanism , or sea level changes . While the mass extinction is well documented , there is much debate about the immediate and long-term climatic and environmental changes caused by the event . The terrestrial climates at this time are poorly known , which limits the understanding of environmentally driven changes in biodiversity that occurred before the Chicxulub crater impact . Oxygen isotopes across the K -- T boundary suggest that oceanic temperatures fluctuated in the Late Cretaceous and through the boundary itself . Carbon isotope measurements of benthic foramifinera at the K -- T boundary suggest rapid , repeated fluctuations in oceanic productivity in the 3 million years before the final extinction , and that productivity and ocean circulation ended abruptly for at least tens of thousands of years just after the boundary , indicating devastation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems . Some researchers suggest that climate change is the main connection between the impact and the extinction . The impact perturbed the climate system with long-term effects that were much worse than the immediate , direct consequences of the impact .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Climate_across_Cretaceous–Paleogene_boundary", "rank": 96, "score": 67016 }, { "content": "Title: 4Change Content: 4Change , formerly known as the Climate Change Coalition ( CCC ) , was an Australian political party , which was formed in 2007 with a view to accelerate action by politicians from all parties on global warming and climate change . Its position on working towards addressing climate change , stresses cooperation with big business in order to achieve significant progress on the issue . The party therefore advocates a close working relationship between environmentalists and the business community . The CCC was registered as a political party with the Australian Electoral Commission ( AEC ) on 4 September 2007 and deregistered on 25 March 2010 .", "qid": "353", "docid": "4Change", "rank": 97, "score": 67005 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 98, "score": 67002 }, { "content": "Title: Chasing Ice Content: Chasing Ice is a 2012 documentary film about the efforts of nature photographer James Balog and his Extreme Ice Survey ( EIS ) to publicize the effects of climate change , directed by Jeff Orlowski . It was released in the United States on November 16 , 2012 . The documentary includes scenes from a glacier calving event that took place at Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland , lasting 75 minutes , the longest such event ever captured on film . Two EIS videographers waited several weeks in a small tent overlooking the glacier , and were finally able to witness 7.4 km3 of ice crashing off the glacier . `` The calving of a massive glacier believed to have produced the ice that sank the Titanic is like watching a city break apart . ''", "qid": "353", "docid": "Chasing_Ice", "rank": 99, "score": 66905 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Climate Challenge Content: During the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 ( COP15 ) , there was a rival conference in Copenhagen , Denmark , for sceptics , called the Copenhagen Climate Challenge . which was organised by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow . While COP15 attracted 33,200 delegates , the rival sceptic conference was attended by 60 people ( 15 journalists , 18 speakers , 27 audience ) . According to Lenore Taylor of The Australian , the attendees had an average age `` well over 60 '' . In closing his speech , Plimer stated that `` They 've got us outnumbered , but we 've got them outgunned , and that 's with the truth . '' Plimer also stated that `` It 's been freezing in Perth and bucketing down '' . Perth had below average rainfall in 2009 , and temperatures of 38 ° C were forecast for December 13 .", "qid": "353", "docid": "Copenhagen_Climate_Challenge", "rank": 100, "score": 66876 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Global catastrophic risk Content: A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale . Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization . Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk . Potential global catastrophic risks include anthropogenic risks ( technology risks , governance risks ) and natural or external risks . Examples of technology risks are hostile artificial intelligence , biotechnology risks , or nanotechnology weapons . Insufficient global governance creates risks in the social and political domain ( potentially leading to a global war with or without a nuclear holocaust , bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms , cyberterrorism destroying critical infrastructures like the electrical grid , or the failure to manage a natural pandemic ) as well as problems and risks in the domain of earth system governance ( with risks resulting from global warming , environmental degradation , mineral resource exhaustion , fossil energy exhaustion , or famine as a result of non-equitable resource distribution , human overpopulation , crop failures and non-sustainable agriculture ) . Examples for non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact event , a supervolcanic eruption , a lethal gamma-ray burst , a geomagnetic storm destroying all electronic equipment , natural long-term climate change , or extraterrestrial life impacting life on Earth .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Global_catastrophic_risk", "rank": 1, "score": 147311 }, { "content": "Title: Existential risk from artificial general intelligence Content: The existential risk from artificial general intelligence is the hypothetical threat that dramatic progress in artificial intelligence ( AI ) could someday result in human extinction ( or some other unrecoverable global catastrophe ) . The argument for the existence of the threat is that the human race currently dominates other species because the human brain has some distinctive capabilities that the brains of other animals lack . If AI surpasses humanity in general intelligence and becomes `` superintelligent '' , then this new superintelligence could become powerful and difficult to control . By way of example , just as the fate of the mountain gorilla depends on human goodwill , so might the fate of humanity depend on the actions of a future machine superintelligence . The severity of different AI risk scenarios is widely debated , and rests on a number of unresolved questions about future progress in computer science . Two sources of concern are that a sudden and unexpected `` intelligence explosion '' might take an unprepared human race by surprise , and that controlling a superintelligent machine ( or even instilling it with human-compatible values ) may be an even harder problem than naively supposed .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_risk_from_artificial_general_intelligence", "rank": 2, "score": 127841 }, { "content": "Title: Biotechnology risk Content: Biotechnology risk is a form of existential risk that could come from biological sources , such as genetically engineered biological agents . These can come either intentionally ( in the form of bioterrorism/biological weapons ) or unintentionally ( through the accidental release of engineerer viruses ) . A chapter in biotechnology and biosecurity was published in Nick Bostrom 's Global Catastrophic Risks , which covered risks such as viral agents . Since then , new technologies like CRISPR and gene drives have been introduced . While the ability to deliberately engineer pathogens has been constrained to high-end labs run by top researchers , the technology to achieve this ( and other astonishing feats of bioengineering ) is rapidly becoming cheaper and more widespread . Such examples include the diminishing cost of sequencing the human genome ( from $ 10M USD to $ 1000 ) , the accumulation of large datasets of genetic information , the discovery of gene drives , and the discovery of CRISPR .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Biotechnology_risk", "rank": 3, "score": 126779 }, { "content": "Title: Seth Baum Content: Seth Baum is an American research involved in the field of risk . He is the executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute ( GCRI ) , a think tank focused on existential risk . -LSB- He is also affiliated with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science and the Columbia University Center for Research on Environmental Decisions .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Seth_Baum", "rank": 4, "score": 117061 }, { "content": "Title: Centre for the Study of Existential Risk Content: The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk ( CSER ) is a research centre at the University of Cambridge , intended to study possible extinction-level threats posed by present or future technology . The co-founders of the centre are Huw Price ( a philosophy professor at Cambridge ) , Martin Rees ( a cosmologist , astrophysicist , and former President of the Royal Society ) and Jaan Tallinn ( a computer programmer and co-founder of Skype ) . CSER 's advisors include philosopher Peter Singer , computer scientist Stuart J. Russell , statistician David Spiegelhalter , and cosmologists Stephen Hawking and Max Tegmark . Their `` goal is to steer a small fraction of Cambridge 's great intellectual resources , and of the reputation built on its past and present scientific pre-eminence , to the task of ensuring that our own species has a long-term future . ''", "qid": "356", "docid": "Centre_for_the_Study_of_Existential_Risk", "rank": 5, "score": 105441 }, { "content": "Title: IT risk Content: Information technology risk , or IT risk , IT-related risk , is any risk related to information technology . While information has long been appreciated as a valuable and important asset , the rise of the knowledge economy and the Digital Revolution has led to organizations becoming increasingly dependent on information , information processing and especially IT . Various events or incidents that compromise IT in some way can therefore cause adverse impacts on the organization 's business processes or mission , ranging from inconsequential to catastrophic in scale . Assessing the probability of likelihood of various types of event/incident with their predicted impacts or consequences should they occur is a common way to assess and measure IT risks . Alternative methods of measuring IT risk typically involve assessing other contributory factors such as the threats , vulnerabilities , exposures , and asset values .", "qid": "356", "docid": "IT_risk", "rank": 6, "score": 95273 }, { "content": "Title: Global Catastrophic Risks (book) Content: Global Catastrophic Risks ( 2011 ) is a non-fiction book edited by philosopher Nick Bostrom and astronomer Milan M. Ćirković . The book is about issues such as asteroid impacts , gamma-ray bursts , Earth-based natural catastrophes , nuclear war , terrorism , global warming , biological weapons , totalitarianism , advanced nanotechnology , artificial general intelligence , and social collapse . The book also addresses overarching issues such as policy responses and methods for predicting and managing catastrophes .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Global_Catastrophic_Risks_(book)", "rank": 7, "score": 89227 }, { "content": "Title: Nick Bostrom Content: Nick Bostrom ( -LSB- langˈbɒstrəm -RSB- Niklas Boström , -LSB- ˈbuːˌstrœm -RSB- ; born 10 March 1973 ) is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk , the anthropic principle , human enhancement ethics , superintelligence risks , the reversal test , and consequentialism . In 2011 , he founded the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology , and he is currently the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University . He is the author of over 200 publications , including Superintelligence : Paths , Dangers , Strategies ( 2014 ) , a New York Times bestseller and Anthropic Bias : Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy ( 2002 ) . In 2009 and 2015 , he was included in Foreign Policys Top 100 Global Thinkers list . Bostrom 's work on superintelligence -- and his concern for its existential risk to humanity over the coming century -- has brought both Elon Musk and Bill Gates to similar thinking .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Nick_Bostrom", "rank": 8, "score": 87647 }, { "content": "Title: Probabilistic risk assessment Content: Probabilistic risk assessment ( PRA ) is a systematic and comprehensive methodology to evaluate risks associated with a complex engineered technological entity ( such as an airliner or a nuclear power plant ) or the effects of stressors on the environment ( Probabilitic Environmental Risk Assessment - PERA ) for example . Risk in a PRA is defined as a feasible detrimental outcome of an activity or action . In a PRA , risk is characterized by two quantities : the magnitude ( severity ) of the possible adverse consequence ( s ) , and the likelihood ( probability ) of occurrence of each consequence . Consequences are expressed numerically ( e.g. , the number of people potentially hurt or killed ) and their likelihoods of occurrence are expressed as probabilities or frequencies ( i.e. , the number of occurrences or the probability of occurrence per unit time ) . The total risk is the expected loss : the sum of the products of the consequences multiplied by their probabilities . The spectrum of risks across classes of events are also of concern , and are usually controlled in licensing processes -- it would be of concern if rare but high consequence events were found to dominate the overall risk , particularly as these risk assessments are very sensitive to assumptions ( how rare is a high consequence event ? ) . Probabilistic Risk Assessment usually answers three basic questions : What can go wrong with the studied technological entity or stressor , or what are the initiators or initiating events ( undesirable starting events ) that lead to adverse consequence ( s ) ? What and how severe are the potential detriments , or the adverse consequences that the technological entity ( or the ecological system in the case of a PERA ) may be eventually subjected to as a result of the occurrence of the initiator ? How likely to occur are these undesirable consequences , or what are their probabilities or frequencies ? Two common methods of answering this last question are Event Tree Analysis and Fault Tree Analysis - for explanations of these , see safety engineering . In addition to the above methods , PRA studies require special but often very important analysis tools like human reliability analysis ( HRA ) and common-cause-failure analysis ( CCF ) . HRA deals with methods for modeling human error while CCF deals with methods for evaluating the effect of inter-system and intra-system dependencies which tend to cause simultaneous failures and thus significant increase in overall risk .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Probabilistic_risk_assessment", "rank": 9, "score": 84555 }, { "content": "Title: Risk matrix Content: A Risk matrix is a matrix that is used during risk assessment to define the level of risk by considering the category of probability or likelihood against the category of consequence severity . This is a simple mechanism to increase visibility of risks and assist management decision making . A risk is the amount of harm that can be expected to occur during a given time period due to specific harm event ( e.g. , an accident ) . Statistically , the level of risk can be calculated as the product of the probability that harm occurs ( e.g. , that an accident happens ) multiplied by the severity of that harm ( i.e. , the average amount of harm or more conservatively the maximum credible amount of harm ) . In practice , the risk matrix is a useful approach where either the probability nor harm severity can not be estimated with accuracy and precision . Although many standard risk matrices exist in different contexts ( US DoD , NASA , ISO ) , individual projects and organizations may need to create their own or tailor an existing risk matrix . For example , the harm severity can be categorized as : Catastrophic -- Multiple Deaths Critical -- One Death or Multiple Severe Injuries Marginal -- One Severe Injury or Multiple Minor Injuries Negligible -- One Minor Injury The probability of harm occurring might be categorized as ` Certain ' , ` Likely ' , ` Possible ' , ` Unlikely ' and ` Rare ' . However it must be considered that very low probabilities may not be very reliable . The resulting Risk Matrix could be : The company or organization then would calculate what levels of Risk they can take with different events . This would be done by weighing up the risk of an event occurring against the cost to implement safety and the benefit gained from it .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_matrix", "rank": 10, "score": 80773 }, { "content": "Title: Existential therapy Content: Existential psychotherapy is a philosophical method of therapy that operates on the belief that inner conflict within a person is due to that individual 's confrontation with the givens of existence . These givens , as noted by Irvin D. Yalom , are : the inevitability of death , freedom and its attendant responsibility , existential isolation , and finally meaninglessness . These four givens , also referred to as ultimate concerns , form the body of existential psychotherapy and compose the framework in which a therapist conceptualizes a client 's problem in order to develop a method of treatment . In the British School of existential therapy ( Cooper , 2003 ) , these givens are seen as predictable tensions and paradoxes of the four dimensions of human existence , the physical , social , personal and spiritual realms ( Umwelt , Mitwelt , Eigenwelt and Überwelt ) . The Viennese School of Existential therapy ( Längle , 2003b ) describes four fundamental existential dimensions as a structural model of therapy . Their accomplishment ( therapeutically endorsed by the method of Personal Existential Analysis ) leads to personal existential fulfillment . It is important to note another view of existential psychotherapy -- that life has meaning under all circumstances . Viktor Frankl 's logotherapy includes as one of its basic tenets that life has meaning under all circumstances -- even under suffering . Meaninglessness then is meaning not yet discovered . He had comprised the theory in the 1920s and actually put it to the test while incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_therapy", "rank": 11, "score": 79682 }, { "content": "Title: Systemic risk Content: In finance , systemic risk is the risk of collapse of an entire financial system or entire market , as opposed to risk associated with any one individual entity , group or component of a system , that can be contained therein without harming the entire system . It can be defined as `` financial system instability , potentially catastrophic , caused or exacerbated by idiosyncratic events or conditions in financial intermediaries '' . It refers to the risks imposed by interlinkages and interdependencies in a system or market , where the failure of a single entity or cluster of entities can cause a cascading failure , which could potentially bankrupt or bring down the entire system or market . It is also sometimes erroneously referred to as `` systematic risk '' .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Systemic_risk", "rank": 12, "score": 78750 }, { "content": "Title: Catastrophic interference Content: Catastrophic interference , also known as catastrophic forgetting , is the tendency of an artificial neural network to completely and abruptly forget previously learned information upon learning new information . Neural networks are an important part of the network approach and connectionist approach to cognitive science . These networks use computer simulations to try and model human behaviours , such as memory and learning . Catastrophic interference is an important issue to consider when creating connectionist models of memory . It was originally brought to the attention of the scientific community by research from McCloskey and Cohen ( 1989 ) , and Ractcliff ( 1990 ) . It is a radical manifestation of the ` sensitivity-stability ' dilemma or the ` stability-plasticity ' dilemma . Specifically , these problems refer to the issue of being able to make an artificial neural network that is sensitive to , but not disrupted by , new information . Lookup tables and connectionist networks lie on the opposite sides of the stability plasticity spectrum . The former remains completely stable in the presence of new information but lacks the ability to generalize , i.e. infer general principles , from new inputs . On the other hand , connectionist networks like the standard backpropagation network are very sensitive to new information and can generalize on new inputs . Backpropagation models can be considered good models of human memory insofar as they mirror the human ability to generalize but these networks often exhibit less stability than human memory . Notably , these backpropagation networks are susceptible to catastrophic interference . This is considered an issue when attempting to model human memory because , unlike these networks , humans typically do not show catastrophic forgetting . Thus , the issue of catastrophic interference must be eradicated from these backpropagation models in order to enhance the plausibility as models of human memory .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Catastrophic_interference", "rank": 13, "score": 77673 }, { "content": "Title: Insurable risk Content: An insurable risk is a risk that meets the ideal criteria for efficient insurance . The concept of insurable risk underlies nearly all insurance decisions . For a risk to be insurable , several things need to be true : The insurer must be able to charge a premium high enough to cover not only claims expenses , but also to cover the insurer 's expenses . In other words , the risk can not be catastrophic , or so large that no insurer could hope to pay for the loss . The nature of the loss must be definite and financially measurable . That is , there should not be room for argument as to whether or not payment is due , nor as to what amount the payment should be . The loss should be random in nature , else the insured may engage in adverse selection ( antiselection ) . Insurance is not effective for risks that are not insurable risks . For example , risks that are too large can not be insured , or the premiums would be so high as to make purchasing the insurance infeasible . Also , risks that are not measurable , if insured , will be difficult if not impossible for the insurer to quantify , and thus they can not charge the correct premium . They will need to charge a conservatively high premium in order to mitigate the risk of paying too large a claim . The premium will thus be higher than ideal , and inefficient . Passing of risk involves both party to the contract . The general rule is that unless otherwise agreed , risk passes with title . An agreement to the contrary may be either expressed or implied . EXCEPTIONS TO THE GENERAL RULE : ( A ) RISK INCIDENTAL TO TRANSIT : The law provided that where the seller undertakes to make delivery of the goods to the buyer , risk attendant to the system of transportation or voyage contemplated will be borne by the buyer unless the parties agreed to the contrary . This is referred to as insurable risk . ( B ) RISK ATTRIBUTABLE TO FAULT OF EITHER PARTY : Any damage or loss which arises as a result of the fault or neglect of the seller or the buyer or their respective agents as the case may be shall be borne by that party at fault . ( C ) GOODS PERISHING : Goods perish not only when they cease to exist physically but also when they cease to exist in a commercial sense , e.g. fresh milk gone sour .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Insurable_risk", "rank": 14, "score": 77312 }, { "content": "Title: Existential crisis Content: An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life : whether this life has any meaning , purpose , or value . It is commonly tied with depression and/or a feeling of a lack of purpose in life , e.g. `` One day I will be forgotten ... what is the point of all of my work . '' This issue of the meaning and purpose of existence is the focus of the philosophical study of ontology .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_crisis", "rank": 15, "score": 77240 }, { "content": "Title: Future of Life Institute Content: The Future of Life Institute ( FLI ) is a volunteer-run research and outreach organization in the Boston area that works to mitigate existential risks facing humanity , particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence ( AI ) . Its founders include MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark , Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn , and its board of advisors includes cosmologist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Elon Musk .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Future_of_Life_Institute", "rank": 16, "score": 76659 }, { "content": "Title: Global Risks Report Content: The Global Risks Report is an annual study published by the World Economic Forum ahead of the Forum 's Annual Meeting in Davos , Switzerland . Based on the work of the Global Risk Network , the report describes changes occurring in the global risks landscape from year to year and identifies global catastrophic risks . The report also explores the interconnectedness of risks , and considers how the strategies for the mitigation of global risks might be structured . Sources for the report include an assessment by several major insurance and reinsurance companies and focus workshops , interviews and a survey of internationally recognised experts . The report is intended to raise awareness about the need for a multi-stakeholder approach to the mitigation of global risk .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Global_Risks_Report", "rank": 17, "score": 74792 }, { "content": "Title: Risk aversion (psychology) Content: Risk-aversion is a preference for a sure outcome over a gamble with higher or equal expected value . Conversely , the rejection of a sure thing in favor of a gamble of lower or equal expected value is known as risk-seeking behavior . The psychophysics of chance induce overweighting of sure things and of improbable events , relative to events of moderate probability . Underweighting of moderate and high probabilities relative to sure things contributes to risk-aversion in the realm of gains by reducing the attractiveness of positive gambles . The same effect also contributes to risk-seeking in losses by attenuating the aversiveness of negative gambles . Low probabilities , however , are overweighted , which reverses the pattern described above : low probabilities enhance the value of long-shots and amplify aversion to a small chance of a severe loss . Consequently , people are often risk-seeking in dealing with improbable gains and risk-averse in dealing with unlikely losses .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_aversion_(psychology)", "rank": 18, "score": 73158 }, { "content": "Title: Existential clause Content: An existential clause is a clause that refers to the existence or presence of something . Examples in English include the sentences `` There is a God '' and `` There are boys in the yard '' . The use of such clauses can be considered analogous to existential quantification in predicate logic ( often expressed with the phrase `` There exist ( s ) ... '' ) . Different languages have different ways of forming and using existential clauses . For details about English , see English grammar : There as pronoun .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_clause", "rank": 19, "score": 72957 }, { "content": "Title: Consorcio de Compensacion de Seguros Content: The Consorcio de Compensacion de Seguros is a compulsory Government catastrophic risk insurance in Spain . It is an insurance tax charged on prescribed classes of insurance issued by private insurers , providing cover against a series of extraordinary perils and `` political risks '' Note : This Government scheme covers direct physical damage only . It is expected that a company ensures their commercial insurance policy covers them against any resulting Business Interruption losses if necessary .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Consorcio_de_Compensacion_de_Seguros", "rank": 20, "score": 72722 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of nuclear power Content: The environmental impact of nuclear power results from the nuclear fuel cycle , operation , and the effects of nuclear accidents . The greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear fission power are much smaller than those associated with coal , oil and gas , and the routine health risks are much smaller than those associated with coal . However , there is a `` catastrophic risk '' potential if containment fails , which in nuclear reactors can be brought about by overheated fuels melting and releasing large quantities of fission products into the environment . This potential risk could wipe out the benefits . The most long-lived radioactive wastes , including spent nuclear fuel , must be contained and isolated from the environment for a long period of time . On the other side , spent nuclear fuel could be reused , yielding even more energy , and reducing the amount of waste to be contained . The public has been made sensitive to these risks and there has been considerable public opposition to nuclear power . The 1979 Three Mile Island accident and 1986 Chernobyl disaster , along with high construction costs , also compounded by delays resulting from a steady schedule of demonstrations , injunctions and political actions , caused by the anti-nuclear opposition , ended the rapid growth of global nuclear power capacity . A release of radioactive materials followed the 2011 Japanese tsunami which damaged the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant , resulting in hydrogen gas explosions and partial meltdowns classified as a Level 7 event . The large-scale release of radioactivity resulted in people being evacuated from a 20 km exclusion zone set up around the power plant , similar to the 30 km radius Chernobyl Exclusion Zone still in effect . But published works suggest that the radioactivity levels have lowered enough to now have only a limited impact on wildlife . In Japan , on July 2016 , Fukushima Prefecture announced that the number of evacuees following the Great East Japan earthquake events , had fallen below 90,000 , in part following the lifting of evacuation orders issued in some municipalities .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_nuclear_power", "rank": 21, "score": 72715 }, { "content": "Title: Existential counselling Content: Existential counselling is a philosophical form of counselling which addresses the situation of a person 's life and situates the person firmly within the predictable challenges of the human condition . Well known authors on existential counselling are Irvin Yalom in the USA through his book Existential Psychotherapy ( 1981 ) , and Emmy van Deurzen , who created the British School and published Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in 1988 .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_counselling", "rank": 22, "score": 71951 }, { "content": "Title: El Existential Content: El Existential is a studio album by the American band Grupo Fantasma , released in 2010 through the record label Nat Geo Music . In 2011 , the album earned the band the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock , Alternative or Urban Album .", "qid": "356", "docid": "El_Existential", "rank": 23, "score": 71405 }, { "content": "Title: Existential humanism Content: Existential humanism is humanism that validates the human subject as struggling for self-knowledge and self-responsibility .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_humanism", "rank": 24, "score": 71046 }, { "content": "Title: Ambiguity aversion Content: In decision theory and economics , ambiguity aversion ( also known as uncertainty aversion ) is a preference for known risks over unknown risks . An ambiguity-averse individual would rather choose an alternative where the probability distribution of the outcomes is known over one where the probabilities are unknown . This behavior was first introduced through the Ellsberg paradox ( people prefer to bet on the outcome of an urn with 50 red and 50 blue balls rather than to bet on one with 100 total balls but for which the number of blue or red balls is unknown ) . There are two categories of imperfectly predictable events between which choices must be made : risky and ambiguous events . Risky events have a known probability distribution over outcomes while in ambiguous events the probability distribution is not known . The reaction is behavioral and still being formalized . Ambiguity aversion can be used to explain incomplete contracts , volatility in stock markets , and selective abstention in elections ( Ghirardato & Marinacci , 2001 ) . The concept is expressed in the English proverb : `` Better the devil you know than the devil you do n't '' .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Ambiguity_aversion", "rank": 25, "score": 70717 }, { "content": "Title: Existential theory of the reals Content: In mathematical logic , computational complexity theory , and computer science , the existential theory of the reals is the set of all true sentences of the form where is a quantifier-free formula involving equalities and inequalities of real polynomials . The decision problem for the existential theory of the reals is the problem of finding an algorithm that decides , for each such formula , whether it is true or false . Equivalently , it is the problem of testing whether a given semialgebraic set is non-empty . This decision problem is NP-hard and lies in PSPACE . Thus it has significantly lower complexity than Alfred Tarski 's quantifier elimination procedure for deciding statements in the first-order theory of the reals without the restriction to existential quantifiers . However , in practice , general methods for the first-order theory remain the preferred choice for solving these problems . Many natural problems in geometric graph theory , especially problems of recognizing geometric intersection graphs and straightening the edges of graph drawings with crossings , may be solved by translating them into instances of the existential theory of the reals , and are complete for this theory . The complexity class , which lies between NP and PSPACE , has been defined to describe this class of problems .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_theory_of_the_reals", "rank": 26, "score": 70427 }, { "content": "Title: Risk Content: Risk is the potential of gaining or losing something of value . Values ( such as physical health , social status , emotional well-being , or financial wealth ) can be gained or lost when taking risk resulting from a given action or inaction , foreseen or unforeseen . Risk can also be defined as the intentional interaction with uncertainty . Uncertainty is a potential , unpredictable , and uncontrollable outcome ; risk is a consequence of action taken in spite of uncertainty . Risk perception is the subjective judgment people make about the severity and probability of a risk , and may vary person to person . Any human endeavor carries some risk , but some are much riskier than others .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk", "rank": 27, "score": 70364 }, { "content": "Title: Pin risk (options) Content: Pin risk occurs when the market price of the underlier of an option contract at the time of the contract 's expiration is close to the option 's strike price . In this situation , the underlier is said to have pinned . The risk to the writer ( seller ) of the option is that they can not predict with certainty whether the option will be exercised or not . So the writer can not hedge his position precisely and may end up with a loss or gain . There is a chance that the price of the underlier may move adversely , resulting in an unanticipated loss to the writer . In other words , an option position may result in a large , undesired risky position in the underlier immediately after expiration , regardless of the actions of the writer .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Pin_risk_(options)", "rank": 28, "score": 70163 }, { "content": "Title: Risk pool Content: A risk pool is one of the forms of risk management mostly practiced by insurance companies . Under this system , insurance companies come together to form a pool , which can provide protection to insurance companies against catastrophic risks such as floods or earthquakes . The term is also used to describe the pooling of similar risks that underlies the concept of insurance . While risk pooling is necessary for insurance to work , not all risks can be effectively pooled . In particular , it is difficult to pool dissimilar risks in a voluntary insurance bracket , unless there is a subsidy available to encourage participation . Risk pooling is an important concept in supply chain management . Risk pooling suggests that demand variability is reduced if one aggregates demand across locations because as demand is aggregated across different locations , it becomes more likely that high demand from one customer will be offset by low demand from another . This reduction in variability allows a decrease in safety stock and therefore reduces average Inventory . For example : in the centralized distribution system , the warehouse serves all customers , which leads to a reduction in variability measured by either the standard deviation or the coefficient of variation . The three critical points to risk pooling are : Centralized inventory saves safety stock and average inventory in the system . When demands from markets are negatively correlated , the higher the coefficient of variation , the greater the benefit obtained from centralized systems ; that is , the greater the benefit from risk pooling . The benefits from risk pooling depend directly on the relative market behavior . This is explained as follows : If we compare two markets and when demand from both markets are more or less than the average demand , we say that the demands from the market are positively correlated . Thus the benefits derived from risk pooling decreases as the correlation between demands from the two markets becomes more positive .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_pool", "rank": 29, "score": 70085 }, { "content": "Title: Risk analysis (engineering) Content: Risk analysis is the science of risks and their probability and evaluation . Probabilistic risk assessment is one analysis strategy usually employed in science and engineering .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_analysis_(engineering)", "rank": 30, "score": 69645 }, { "content": "Title: Existential fallacy Content: The existential fallacy , or existential instantiation , is a formal fallacy . In the existential fallacy , we presuppose that a class has members when we are not supposed to do so ; that is , when we should not assume existential import . One example would be : `` Every unicorn definitely has a horn on its forehead '' . It does not imply that there are any unicorns at all in the world , and thus it can not be assumed that , if the statement is true , somewhere there is a unicorn in the world ( with a horn on its forehead ) . The statement , if assumed true , only implies that if there were any unicorns , each would definitely have a horn on its forehead . An existential fallacy is committed in a medieval categorical syllogism because it has two universal premises and a particular conclusion with no assumption that at least one member of the class exists , which is not established by the premises . In modern logic , the presupposition that a class has members is seen as unacceptable . In 1905 , Bertrand Russell wrote an essay entitled `` The Existential Import of Proposition '' , in which he called this Boolean approach `` Peano 's interpretation '' . The fallacy does not occur in enthymemes , where hidden premises required to make the syllogism valid assume the existence of at least one member of the class .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_fallacy", "rank": 31, "score": 69533 }, { "content": "Title: The Existential Negation Campaign Content: The Existential Negation Campaign was a former project of the now-defunct Flat Earth Society website ( http://www.flat-earth.org ) . The Campaign was an absurdist venture . Visitors to the website could download an image that read , `` WARNING : THIS OBJECT DOES NOT EXIST '' and were encouraged to make stickers or signs out of them . These stickers or signs could then be placed on random objects . The mission statement from the Flat Earth Society website : `` This campaign focuses on the consensus-reality definition of existence and existential status . This definition is challenged by affixing to various objects which are popularly believed to exist labels which read `` WARNING : THIS OBJECT DOES NOT EXIST '' . ''", "qid": "356", "docid": "The_Existential_Negation_Campaign", "rank": 32, "score": 69401 }, { "content": "Title: Existentialism Content: Existentialism ( -LSB- ɛgzɪˈstɛnʃəlɪzəm -RSB- ) is the work of certain late-19th - and 20th-century European philosophers who , despite profound doctrinal differences , shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject -- not merely the thinking subject , but the acting , feeling , living human individual . While the predominant value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom , its primary virtue is authenticity . In the view of the existentialist , the individual 's starting point is characterized by what has been called `` the existential attitude '' , or a sense of disorientation , confusion , or dread in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world . Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies , in both style and content , as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience . Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher , though he did not use the term existentialism . He proposed that each individual -- not society or religion -- is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely , or `` authentically '' . Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II , and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy , including theology , drama , art , literature , and psychology .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existentialism", "rank": 33, "score": 69395 }, { "content": "Title: Feminist existentialism Content: Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining , establishing , and defending equal political , economic , and social rights for women . Existentialism is a philosophical and cultural movement which holds that the starting point of philosophical thinking must be the individual and the experiences of the individual , that moral thinking and scientific thinking together are not sufficient for understanding all of human existence , and , therefore , that a further set of categories , governed by the norm of authenticity , is necessary to understand human existence . ( Authenticity , in the context of existentialism , is to recognise the responsibility we have for our existence . ) This philosophy analyzes relationships between the individual and things , or other human beings , and how they limit or condition choice . Existentialist feminists emphasize concepts such as freedom , interpersonal relationships , and the experience of living as a human body . They value the capacity for radical change , but recognize that factors such as self-deception and the anxiety caused by the possibility of change can limit it . Many are dedicated to exposing and undermining socially imposed gender roles and cultural constructs limiting women 's self-determination , and criticize post-structuralist third-wave feminists who deny the intrinsic freedom of individual women . A female who makes considered choices regarding her way of life and suffers the anxiety associated with that freedom , isolation , or nonconformity , yet remains free , demonstrates the tenets of existentialism . The novels of Kate Chopin , Doris Lessing , Joan Didion , Margaret Atwood , and Margaret Drabble include such existential heroines . Simone de Beauvoir was a renowned existentialist and one of the principal founders of second-wave feminism . De Beauvoir examined women 's subordinate role as the ` Other ' in her book , The Second Sex . The book includes the famous line , `` One is not born but becomes a woman , '' introducing what has come to be called the sex-gender distinction . Beauvoir 's The Second Sex provided the vocabulary for analyzing the social constructions of femininity and the structure for critiquing those constructions , which was used as a liberating tool by attending to the ways in which patriarchal structures used sexual difference to deprive women of the intrinsic freedom of their `` can do '' bodies .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Feminist_existentialism", "rank": 34, "score": 69246 }, { "content": "Title: Existential generalization Content: In predicate logic , existential generalization ( also known as existential introduction , ∃ I ) is a valid rule of inference that allows one to move from a specific statement , or one instance , to a quantified generalized statement , or existential proposition . In first-order logic , it is often used as a rule for the existential quantifier in formal proofs . Example : `` Rover loves to wag his tail . Therefore , something loves to wag its tail . '' In the Fitch-style calculus : Where a replaces all free instances of x within Q ( x ) .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_generalization", "rank": 35, "score": 68519 }, { "content": "Title: Knowledge ark Content: A Knowledge Ark ( also known as a doomsday ark or doomsday vault ) is a collection of knowledge preserved in such a way that future generations would have access to said knowledge if current means of access were lost . Scenarios where availability to information ( such as the Internet ) would be lost could be described as Existential Risks or Extinction Level Events . A knowledge ark could take the form of a traditional Library or a modern computer database . It could also include images only ( such as photographs of important information , or diagrams of critical processes ) . A knowledge ark would have to be resistant to the effects of natural or man-made disasters to be viable . Such an ark should include , but would not be limited to , information or material relevant to the survival and prosperity of human civilization . Current examples include the Svalbard Global Seed Vault , a seedbank which is intended to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds ( such as important crops ) in case of their extinction . A Lunar ark has been proposed which would store and transmit valuable information to receiver stations on Earth . The success of this would also depend on the availability of compatible receiver equipment on Earth , and adequate knowledge of that equipment 's operation . Other types of knowledge arks might include genetic material . With the potential for widespread personal DNA sequencing becoming a reality , an individual might agree to store their genetic code in a digital or analog storage format which would enable later retrieval of that code . If a species was sequenced before extinction , its genome would remain available for study even in the case of extinction .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Knowledge_ark", "rank": 36, "score": 68116 }, { "content": "Title: Risk management Content: Risk management is the identification , assessment , and prioritization of risks ( defined in ISO 31000 as the effect of uncertainty on objectives ) followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize , monitor , and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities . Risk management 's objective is to assure uncertainty does not deflect the endeavor from the business goals . Risks can come from various sources including uncertainty in financial markets , threats from project failures ( at any phase in design , development , production , or sustainment life-cycles ) , legal liabilities , credit risk , accidents , natural causes and disasters , deliberate attack from an adversary , or events of uncertain or unpredictable root-cause . There are two types of events i.e. negative events can be classified as risks while positive events are classified as opportunities . Several risk management standards have been developed including the Project Management Institute , the National Institute of Standards and Technology , actuarial societies , and ISO standards . Methods , definitions and goals vary widely according to whether the risk management method is in the context of project management , security , engineering , industrial processes , financial portfolios , actuarial assessments , or public health and safety . Strategies to manage threats ( uncertainties with negative consequences ) typically include avoiding the threat , reducing the negative effect or probability of the threat , transferring all or part of the threat to another party , and even retaining some or all of the potential or actual consequences of a particular threat , and the opposites for opportunities ( uncertain future states with benefits ) . Certain aspects of many of the risk management standards have come under criticism for having no measurable improvement on risk ; whereas the confidence in estimates and decisions seem to increase . For example , it has been shown that one in six IT projects experience cost overruns of 200 % on average , and schedule overruns of 70 % .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_management", "rank": 37, "score": 68054 }, { "content": "Title: Existential nihilism Content: Existential nihilism is the philosophical theory that life has no intrinsic meaning or value . With respect to the universe , existential nihilism posits that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant , without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence . According to the theory , each individual is an isolated being born into the universe , barred from knowing `` why '' , yet compelled to invent meaning . The inherent meaninglessness of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism , where one can potentially create their own subjective `` meaning '' or `` purpose '' . Of all types of nihilism , existential nihilism has received the most literary and philosophical attention .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_nihilism", "rank": 38, "score": 68049 }, { "content": "Title: Existential Psychotherapy (book) Content: Existential Psychotherapy is a nonfiction book by the American existential psychiatrist and author Irvin D. Yalom . In this book , the author offers a brief and pragmatic introduction , addressed to clinical practitioners , to European existential philosophy , as well as to existential approaches to psychotherapy . He presents his four ultimate concerns of life -- death , freedom , isolation , and meaninglessness -- and discusses developmental changes , psychopathology and psychotherapeutic strategies with regard to these four concerns . This work is considered , aside his groundbreaking textbook on group therapy The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy ( 1970 ) , to be among one of Yalom 's most influential books .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_Psychotherapy_(book)", "rank": 39, "score": 67862 }, { "content": "Title: List of diving hazards and precautions Content: Divers face specific physical and health risks when they go underwater with scuba or other diving equipment , or use high pressure breathing gas . Some of these factors also affect people who work in raised pressure environments out of water , for example in caissons . This article lists hazards that a diver may be exposed to during a dive , and possible consequences of these hazards , with some details of the proximate causes of the listed consequences . A listing is also given of precautions that may be taken to reduce vulnerability , either by reducing the risk or mitigating the consequences . A hazard that is understood and acknowledged may present a lower risk if appropriate precautions are taken , and the consequences may be less severe if mitigation procedures are planned and in place . A hazard is any agent or situation that poses a level of threat to life , health , property , or environment . Most hazards remain dormant or potential , with only a theoretical risk of harm , and when a hazard becomes active , and produces undesirable consequences , it is called an incident and may culminate in an emergency or accident . Hazard and vulnerability interact with likelihood of occurrence to create risk , which can be the probability of a specific undesirable consequence of a specific hazard , or the combined probability of undesirable consequences of all the hazards of a specific activity . The presence of a combination of several hazards simultaneously is common in diving , and the effect is generally increased risk to the diver , particularly where the occurrence of an incident due to one hazard triggers other hazards with a resulting cascade of incidents . Many diving fatalities are the result of a cascade of incidents overwhelming the diver , who should be able to manage any single reasonably foreseeable incident . The assessed risk of a dive would generally be considered unacceptable if the diver is not expected to cope with any single reasonably foreseeable incident with a significant probability of occurrence during that dive . Precisely where the line is drawn depends on circumstances . Commercial diving operations tend to be less tolerant of risk than recreational , particularly technical divers , who are less constrained by occupational health and safety legislation . Decompression sickness and arterial gas embolism in recreational diving are associated with certain demographic , environmental , and dive style factors . A statistical study published in 2005 tested potential risk factors : age , gender , body mass index , smoking , asthma , diabetes , cardiovascular disease , previous decompression illness , years since certification , dives in last year , number of diving days , number of dives in a repetitive series , last dive depth , nitrox use , and drysuit use . No significant associations with decompression sickness or arterial gas embolism were found for asthma , diabetes , cardiovascular disease , smoking , or body mass index . Increased depth , previous DCI , days diving , and being male were associated with higher risk for decompression sickness and arterial gas embolism . Nitrox and drysuit use , greater frequency of diving in the past year , increasing age , and years since certification were associated with lower risk , possibly as indicators of more extensive training and experience . According to a North American 1972 analysis of calendar year 1970 data , diving was , based on man hours , 96 times riskier than driving an automobile , and according to a 2000 Japanese study , every hour of recreational diving is 36 to 62 times riskier than automobile driving .", "qid": "356", "docid": "List_of_diving_hazards_and_precautions", "rank": 40, "score": 67674 }, { "content": "Title: Existential Psychotherapy Content: Existential Psychotherapy can refer to : Existential psychotherapy , an approach in the field of psychotherapy Existential Psychotherapy ( book ) , a book ( 1980 ) on existential psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_Psychotherapy", "rank": 41, "score": 67484 }, { "content": "Title: Existential quantification Content: In predicate logic , an existential quantification is a type of quantifier , a logical constant which is interpreted as `` there exists '' , `` there is at least one '' , or `` for some '' . Some sources use the term existentialization to refer to existential quantification . It is usually denoted by the turned E logical operator symbol , which , when used together with a predicate variable , is called an existential quantifier ( '' ∃ x '' or '' ∃ ( x ) '' ) . Existential quantification is distinct from universal quantification ( `` for all '' ) , which asserts that the property or relation holds for all members of the domain .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_quantification", "rank": 42, "score": 67478 }, { "content": "Title: Catastrophe: Risk and Response Content: Catastrophe : Risk and Response is a 2004 nonfiction book by Judge Richard Posner , in which Posner advocates the use of a cost -- benefit framework to address potential major disasters such as runaway global warming and planet-obliterating asteroids .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Catastrophe:_Risk_and_Response", "rank": 43, "score": 67371 }, { "content": "Title: Existentialist anarchism Content: Some observers believe existentialism forms a philosophical ground for anarchism . Anarchist historian Peter Marshall claims , `` there is a close link between the existentialists ' stress on the individual , free choice , and moral responsibility and the main tenets of anarchism . ''", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existentialist_anarchism", "rank": 44, "score": 67359 }, { "content": "Title: Systematic risk Content: In finance and economics , systematic risk ( in economics often called aggregate risk or undiversifiable risk ) is vulnerability to events which affect aggregate outcomes such as broad market returns , total economy-wide resource holdings , or aggregate income . In many contexts , events like earthquakes and major weather catastrophes pose aggregate risks -- they affect not only the distribution but also the total amount of resources . If every possible outcome of a stochastic economic process is characterized by the same aggregate result ( but potentially different distributional outcomes ) , then the process has no aggregate risk .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Systematic_risk", "rank": 45, "score": 67240 }, { "content": "Title: Evidential existentiality Content: The principle of evidential existentiality in Philosophy is a principle that explains and gives value to the existence of entities . The principle states that the reality of an entity 's existence gives greater value to prove its existence than would be given through any outward studies . The principle has become a backbone of the God argument , stating that because God is a self-evident entity , His existence can only be shared by humans , thus proof of God is unnecessary and moot . It appears that the existence is primarily evident to the self only . The God or Supreme self is perceivable to the self . So evidentially self perception is followed by God perception and so on .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Evidential_existentiality", "rank": 46, "score": 66941 }, { "content": "Title: Jason Gaverick Matheny Content: Jason Gaverick Matheny became director of Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity in 2015 , after serving as a program manager , associate office director , and office director . He previously worked for the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University , where his work focused on existential risks . He holds a PhD in Applied Economics and a Master 's in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University , an MBA from Duke University , and a BA from the University of Chicago . He was the cofounder of New Harvest , which supports the development of new agricultural biotechnologies . His work was called one of the `` ideas of the year '' by The New York Times .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Jason_Gaverick_Matheny", "rank": 47, "score": 66938 }, { "content": "Title: Catastrophic illness Content: A catastrophic illness is a severe illness requiring prolonged hospitalization or recovery . Examples would include coma , cancer , leukemia , heart attack or stroke . These illnesses usually involve high costs for hospitals , doctors and medicines and may incapacitate the person from working , creating a financial hardship . They are the type intended to be covered by high-deductible health plans . Research indicates that the unusual economic environment of the delivery of catastrophic illness care encourages the use of innovative therapies . Medicare contains a benefit for catastrophic illness .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Catastrophic_illness", "rank": 48, "score": 66907 }, { "content": "Title: Hazards of outdoor recreation Content: Outdoor recreation , such as hiking , camping , canoeing , cycling , or skiing , entails risks , even if participants do not recklessly place themselves in harm 's way . In some circumstances , such as being in remote locations or in extreme weather conditions , even a minor accident may create a dangerous situation that requires survival skills . However , with correct precautions , even fairly adventurous outdoor recreation can be enjoyable and safe .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Hazards_of_outdoor_recreation", "rank": 49, "score": 66762 }, { "content": "Title: Existential instantiation Content: In predicate logic , existential instantiation ( also called existential elimination ) is a valid rule of inference which says that , given a formula of the form , one may infer for a new constant or variable symbol c . The rule has the restriction that the constant or variable c introduced by the rule must be a new term that has not occurred earlier in the proof . In one formal notation , the rule may be denoted where a is an arbitrary term that has not been a part of our proof thus far .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_instantiation", "rank": 50, "score": 66618 }, { "content": "Title: NUREG-1150 Content: NUREG-1150 ( `` Severe Accident Risks : An Assessment for Five U.S. Nuclear Power Plants '' , published December 1990 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ( NRC ) is a follow-up to the WASH-1400 and CRAC-II safety studies that employs the methodology of plant-specific Probabilistic Risk Assessment ( PRA ) . The research team , led by Denwood Ross , Joseph Murphy , and Mark Cunningham , concluded that the current generation of nuclear power plants exceeded NRC safety goals . `` This study was a significant turning point in the use of risk-based concepts in the regulatory process and enabled the NRC to greatly improve its methods for assessing containment performance after core damage and accident progression . '' However significant , and sometimes unrealistic , conservatisms were applied in this study and it is being replaced with a new state-of-the-art study entitled State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analyses ( see below ) .", "qid": "356", "docid": "NUREG-1150", "rank": 51, "score": 66466 }, { "content": "Title: Risk assessment Content: Risk assessment is the determination of quantitative or qualitative estimate of risk related to a well-defined situation and a recognized threat ( also called hazard ) . Quantitative risk assessment requires calculations of two components of risk ( R ) : the magnitude of the potential loss ( L ) , and the probability ( p ) that the loss will occur . An acceptable risk is a risk that is understood and tolerated usually because the cost or difficulty of implementing an effective countermeasure for the associated vulnerability exceeds the expectation of loss . `` Health risk assessment '' includes variations , such as risk as the type and severity of response , with or without a probabilistic context . In all types of engineering of complex systems sophisticated risk assessments are often made within safety engineering and reliability engineering when it concerns threats to life , environment or machine functioning . The agriculture , nuclear , aerospace , oil , rail and military industries have a long history of dealing with risk assessment . Also , medical , hospital , social service and food industries control risks and perform risk assessments on a continual basis . Methods for assessment of risk may differ between industries and whether it pertains to general financial decisions or environmental , ecological , or public health risk assessment .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_assessment", "rank": 52, "score": 66432 }, { "content": "Title: Existential graph Content: An existential graph is a type of diagrammatic or visual notation for logical expressions , proposed by Charles Sanders Peirce , who wrote on graphical logic as early as 1882 , and continued to develop the method until his death in 1914 .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_graph", "rank": 53, "score": 66071 }, { "content": "Title: The Royal Existentials Content: The Royal Existentials is an Indian webcomic written by Aarthi Parthasarathy and further produced by Chaitanya Krishnan . Using Mughal miniature paintings with overlaid dialogue , The Royal Existentials comments upon contemporary politics , social issues , and philosophy .", "qid": "356", "docid": "The_Royal_Existentials", "rank": 54, "score": 66015 }, { "content": "Title: Hazard analysis Content: Note : Parts of this article are written from the perspective of aircraft safety analysis techniques and definitions ; these may not represent current best practice and the article needs to be updated to represent a more generic description of hazard analysis and discussion of more modern standards and techniques . A hazard analysis is used as the first step in a process used to assess risk . The result of a hazard analysis is the identification of different type of hazards . A hazard is a potential condition and exists or not ( probability is 1 or 0 ) . It may in single existence or in combination with other hazards ( sometimes called events ) and conditions become an actual Functional Failure or Accident ( Mishap ) . The way this exactly happens in one particular sequence is called a scenario . This scenario has a probability ( between 1 and 0 ) of occurrence . Often a system has many potential failure scenarios . It also is assigned a classification , based on the worst case severity of the end condition . Risk is the combination of probability and severity . Preliminary risk levels can be provided in the hazard analysis . The validation , more precise prediction ( verification ) and acceptance of risk is determined in the Risk assessment ( analysis ) . The main goal of both is to provide the best selection of means of controlling or eliminating the risk . The term is used in several engineering specialties , including avionics , chemical process safety , safety engineering , reliability engineering and food safety .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Hazard_analysis", "rank": 55, "score": 65890 }, { "content": "Title: Risk financing Content: In business economics , risk financing is concerned with providing funds to cover the financial effect of unexpected losses experienced by a firm . Traditional forms of finance include risk transfer , funded retention by way of reserves ( often called self-insurance ) and risk pooling . Alternative risk finance is the use of products and solutions which have grown out of the convergence of the banking and insurance industry . They include captive insurance companies and catastrophic bonds , and finite risk products such loss portfolio transfers and adverse development covers . Professor Lawrence A. Cunningham of George Washington University suggests adapting cat bonds to the risks that large auditing firms face in cases asserting massive securities law damages .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_financing", "rank": 56, "score": 65754 }, { "content": "Title: California Affiliated Risk Management Authority Content: California Affiliated Risk Management Authority ( CARMA ) is a California public agency dedicated to innovative approaches in providing financial protection for its public entity members against catastrophic loss . CARMA is an excess general liability pool consisting of five ( 5 ) member Joint Powers Authorities ( JPA ) , with over 135 underlying members . CARMA provides excess liability coverage up to $ 29,000,000 per occurrence in the event of a catastrophic loss .", "qid": "356", "docid": "California_Affiliated_Risk_Management_Authority", "rank": 57, "score": 65705 }, { "content": "Title: Meaning (existential) Content: In existentialism , meaning is understood as the worth of life . Meaning in existentialism is descriptive ; therefore it is unlike typical , prescriptive conceptions of `` the meaning of life '' . Due to the methods of existentialism , prescriptive or declarative statements about meaning are unjustified . Meaning is something only for an individual , it has a home only in one person . The verb `` to mean '' implies something exists to be taken or learned from something else ; and since subjects mean different things to every individual , meaning is purely subjective . Thus it is ` subjective ' or should be understood to have an ` anti-system ' or ` anti-answer ' sensibility .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Meaning_(existential)", "rank": 58, "score": 65659 }, { "content": "Title: Business risks Content: The term business risk refers to the possibility of inadequate profits or even losses due to uncertainties e.g. , changes in tastes , preferences of consumers , strikes , increased competition , change in government policy , obsolescence etc . Every business organization contains various risk elements while doing the business . Business risks implies uncertainty in profits or danger of loss and the events that could pose a risk due to some unforeseen events in future , which causes business to fail . For example , an owner of a business may face different risks like in production , risks due to irregular supply of raw materials , machinery breakdown , labor unrest , etc. . In marketing , risks may arise due to different market price fluctuations , changing trends and fashions , error in sales forecasting , etc. . In addition , there may be loss of assets of the firm due to fire , flood , earthquakes , riots or war and political unrest which may cause unwanted interruptions in the business operations . Thus business risks may take place in different forms depending upon the nature and size of the business . Business risks can arise due to the influence by two major risks : internal risks ( risks arising from the events taking place within the organization ) and external risks ( risks arising from the events taking place outside the organization ) . Internal risks arise from factors ( endogenous variables , which can be controlled ) such as human factors ( talent management , strikes ) , technological factors ( emerging technologies ) , physical factors ( failure of machines , fire or theft ) , operational factors ( access to credit , cost cutting , advertisement ) . External risks arise from factors ( exogenous variables , which can not be controlled ) such as economic factors ( market risks , pricing pressure ) , natural factors ( floods , earthquakes ) , political factors ( compliance and regulations of government ) .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Business_risks", "rank": 59, "score": 65472 }, { "content": "Title: Structural risk minimization Content: Structural risk minimization ( SRM ) is an inductive principle of use in machine learning . Commonly in machine learning , a generalized model must be selected from a finite data set , with the consequent problem of overfitting -- the model becoming too strongly tailored to the particularities of the training set and generalizing poorly to new data . The SRM principle addresses this problem by balancing the model 's complexity against its success at fitting the training data . The SRM principle was first set out in a 1974 paper by Vladimir Vapnik and Alexey Chervonenkis and uses the VC dimension .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Structural_risk_minimization", "rank": 60, "score": 65264 }, { "content": "Title: Loss of significance Content: Loss of significance is an undesirable effect in calculations using finite-precision arithmetic . It occurs when an operation on two numbers increases relative error substantially more than it increases absolute error , for example in subtracting two nearly equal numbers ( known as catastrophic cancellation ) . The effect is that the number of significant digits in the result is reduced unacceptably . Ways to avoid this effect are studied in numerical analysis .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Loss_of_significance", "rank": 61, "score": 65211 }, { "content": "Title: Risk (disambiguation) Content: Risk is the possibility of loss or injury . Risk , Risks , or Risky may also refer to :", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_(disambiguation)", "rank": 62, "score": 65068 }, { "content": "Title: Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies Content: Superintelligence : Paths , Dangers , Strategies is a 2014 book by the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom from the University of Oxford . It argues that if machine brains surpass human brains in general intelligence , then this new superintelligence could replace humans as the dominant lifeform on Earth . Sufficiently intelligent machines could improve their own capabilities faster than human computer scientists , and the outcome could be an existential catastrophe for humans . Bostrom 's book has been translated into many languages and is available as an audiobook .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Superintelligence:_Paths,_Dangers,_Strategies", "rank": 63, "score": 64914 }, { "content": "Title: Our Final Hour Content: Our Final Hour is a 2003 book by the British Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees . The full title of the book is Our Final Hour : A Scientist 's Warning : How Terror , Error , and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind 's Future In This Century - On Earth and Beyond . It was published in the United Kingdom under the more prosaic title Our Final Century : Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century ? . The premise of the book is that the Earth and human survival are in far greater danger from the potential effects of modern technology than is commonly realised , and that the 21st century may be a critical moment in history when humanity 's fate is decided . Rees discusses a range of existential risks confronting humanity , and controversially estimates that the probability of extinction before 2100 CE is around 50 percent , based on the possibility of malign or accidental release of destructive technology .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Our_Final_Hour", "rank": 64, "score": 64868 }, { "content": "Title: Catastrophic failure Content: A catastrophic failure is a sudden and total failure from which recovery is impossible . Catastrophic failures often lead to cascading systems failure . The term is most commonly used for structural failures , but has often been extended to many other disciplines in which total and irrecoverable loss occurs . Such failures are investigated using the methods of forensic engineering , which aims to isolate the cause or causes of failure . For example , catastrophic failure can be observed in steam turbine rotor failure , which can occur due to peak stress on the rotor ; stress concentration increases up to a point at which it is excessive , leading ultimately to the failure of the disc . In firearms , catastrophic failure usually refers to a rupture or disintegration of the barrel or receiver of the gun when firing it . Some possible causes of this are an out-of-battery gun , an inadequate headspace , the use of incorrect ammunition , the use of ammunition with an incorrect propellant charge , a partially or fully obstructed barrel , or weakened metal in the barrel or receiver . A failure of this type , known colloquially as a `` kaboom '' , or `` kB '' failure , can pose a threat not only to the user ( s ) but even many bystanders . In chemical engineering , thermal runaway can cause catastrophic failure .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Catastrophic_failure", "rank": 65, "score": 64850 }, { "content": "Title: Jewish existentialism Content: Jewish existentialism is a category of work by Jewish authors dealing with existentialist themes and concepts ( e.g. debate about the existence of God and the meaning of human existence ) , and intended to answer theological questions that are important in Judaism . The existential angst of Job is an example from the Hebrew Bible of the existentialist theme . Theodicy and post-Holocaust theology make up a large part of 20th century Jewish existentialism . Examples of Jewish thinkers and philosophers whose works include existentialist themes are Martin Buber , Joseph B. Soloveitchik , Lev Shestov , Franz Kafka , Franz Rosenzweig , Hans Jonas , Emmanuel Levinas , Hannah Arendt , Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel , and Emil Fackenheim .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Jewish_existentialism", "rank": 66, "score": 64828 }, { "content": "Title: List of existentialists Content: Existentialism is a movement within Continental philosophy that developed in the late-19th and 20th centuries . As a loose philosophical school , some persons associated with Existentialism explicitly rejected the label ( e.g. Martin Heidegger ) , and others are not remembered primarily as philosophers , but as writers ( Fyodor Dostoyevsky ) or theologians ( Paul Tillich ) . It is related to several movements within Continental philosophy including Phenomenology , Nihilism , Absurdism and Post-modernism .", "qid": "356", "docid": "List_of_existentialists", "rank": 67, "score": 64821 }, { "content": "Title: Existence precedes essence Content: The proposition that existence precedes essence ( l'existence précède l'essence ) is a central claim of existentialism , which reverses the traditional philosophical view that the essence ( the nature ) of a thing is more fundamental and immutable than its existence ( the mere fact of its being ) . To existentialists , human beings -- through their consciousness -- create their own values and determine a meaning for their life because the human being does not possess any inherent identity or value . That identity or value must be created by the individual . By posing the acts that constitute them , they make their existence more significant . The idea can be found in the works of philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in the 19th century , but was explicitly formulated by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in the 20th century . The three-word formula originated in his 1946 lecture `` Existentialism Is a Humanism '' , though antecedent notions can be found in Heidegger 's Being and Time .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existence_precedes_essence", "rank": 68, "score": 64811 }, { "content": "Title: Tragic triad Content: The tragic triad is a term used in logotherapy , coined by Dr. Viktor Frankl . The tragic triad refers to three experiences which often lead to existential crisis , namely , guilt , suffering or death . The concept of the tragic triad is used in identifying the life meanings of patients , or the relatives of patients , experiencing guilt , suffering or death . These life meanings are analyzed using logotherapy 's existential analysis with the intent of assisting the patient overcome their existential crisis by discovering meaning or purpose in the experience . Frankl argued that all human beings at one point in their lives will encounter the tragic triad .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Tragic_triad", "rank": 69, "score": 64612 }, { "content": "Title: Risk management tools Content: Risk management tools allow planners to explicitly address uncertainty by identifying and generating metrics , parameterizing , prioritizing , and developing responses , and tracking risk . These activities may be difficult to track without tools and techniques , documentation and information systems . There are two distinct types of risk tools : Two are identified by their approach , Capital asset pricing model ( CAP-M ) and Probabilistic risk assessment ( PRA ) , is the mainstay of project risk management . These are classified by the quality and fidelity of information required for their calculations . Market-Level tools use market forces to make risk decisions between securities . System-Level tools use project constraints to make risk decisions between projects . Component-Level tools use the functions of probability and impact of individual risks to make decisions between resource allocations .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_management_tools", "rank": 70, "score": 64431 }, { "content": "Title: Prudent avoidance principle Content: Prudent avoidance is a precautionary principle in risk management . It states that reasonable efforts to minimise potential risks should be taken when the actual magnitude of the risks is unknown . The principle was proposed by Prof. Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University in 1989 in the context of electromagnetic radiation safety ( in particular , fields produced by power lines ) . A report for the Office of Technology Assessment of the US Congress described prudent avoidance of power line fields as : '' ... looking systematically for strategies which can keep people out of 60 Hz fields arising from all sources but only adopt those which look to be `` prudent '' investments given their cost and our current level of scientific understanding about possible risks . '' The principle has been adopted in a number of countries , for example Sweden , Denmark , Norway , Australia and New Zealand . While not adopted by any regulatory body at the national level in the USA , the principle has been adopted in some form by a number of local regulatory bodies , for example the public utility commissions in California , Colorado , Connecticut and Hawaii . The Colorado Public Commission states : `` The utility shall include the concept of prudent avoidance with respect to planning , siting , construction , and operation of transmission facilities . Prudent avoidance shall mean the striking of a reasonable balance between the potential health effects of exposure to magnetic fields and the cost of impacts of mitigation of such exposure , by taking steps to reduce the exposure at reasonable or modest cost . Such steps might include , but are not limited to 1 ) design alternatives considering the spatial arrangement of phasing of conductors ; 2 ) routing lines to limit exposures to areas of concentrated population and group facilities such as schools and hospitals ; 3 ) installing higher structures ; 4 ) widening right of way corridors ; and 5 ) burial of lines . '' The prudent avoidance principle is seen as a better alternative than other proposed approaches to risk management , such as ALARA , because it makes reasonable efforts to reduce possible risk without creating a specific numeric standard that is not supported by strong scientific evidence .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Prudent_avoidance_principle", "rank": 71, "score": 64406 }, { "content": "Title: Risk analysis Content: Risk analysis can be defined in many different ways , and much of the definition depends on how risk analysis relates to other concepts . Risk analysis can be `` broadly defined to include risk assessment , risk characterization , risk communication , risk management , and policy relating to risk , in the context of risks of concern to individuals , to public - and private-sector organizations , and to society at a local , regional , national , or global level . '' A useful construct is to divide risk analysis into two components : ( 1 ) risk assessment ( identifying , evaluating , and measuring the probability and severity of risks ) and ( 2 ) risk management ( deciding what to do about risks ) . Some books take a slightly different approach and define risk management as the overarching concept , where risk analysis is the component that seeks to identify and measure the risks and risk mitigation is determining what to do about the risks . Risk analysis can be qualitative or quantitative . Qualitative risk analysis uses words or colors to identify and evaluate risks or presents a written description of the risk , and quantitative risk analysis ( QRA ) calculates numerical probabilities over the possible consequences .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk_analysis", "rank": 72, "score": 64261 }, { "content": "Title: Existentialism and Humanism Content: Existentialism and Humanism ( L'existentialisme est un humanisme , `` Existentialism is a Humanism '' ) is a 1946 work by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre , based on a lecture called `` Existentialism is a Humanism '' he gave at Club Maintenant in Paris , on 29 October 1945 . Existentialism and Humanism was the title used in the United Kingdom ; the work was originally published in the United States as Existentialism . Once a popular starting-point in discussions of Existentialist thought , the work has been criticized by several philosophers . Sartre himself later rejected some of the views he expressed in it and regretted its publication .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existentialism_and_Humanism", "rank": 73, "score": 64199 }, { "content": "Title: Hazard Content: A hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat to life , health , property , or environment . Hazards can be dormant or potential , with only a theoretical risk of harm ; however , once a hazard becomes `` active '' , it can create an emergency . A hazardous situation that has come to pass is called an incident . Hazard , consequence and probability interact together to create risk . Identification of hazard risks is the first step in performing a risk assessment .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Hazard", "rank": 74, "score": 64172 }, { "content": "Title: Abandonment (existentialism) Content: Abandonment , in philosophy , refers to the infinite freedom of humanity without the existence of a condemning or omnipotent higher power . Original existentialism explores the liminal experiences of anxiety , death , `` the nothing '' and nihilism ; the rejection of science ( and above all , causal explanation ) as an adequate framework for understanding human being ; and the introduction of `` authenticity '' as the norm of self-identity , tied to the project of self-definition through freedom , choice , and commitment . Existential thought bases itself fundamentally in the idea that one 's identity is constituted neither by nature nor by culture , since to `` exist '' is precisely to constitute such an identity . It is from this foundation that one can begin to understand abandonment and forlornness .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Abandonment_(existentialism)", "rank": 75, "score": 64045 }, { "content": "Title: Worst-case scenario Content: A worst-case scenario is a concept in risk management wherein the planner , in planning for potential disasters , considers the most severe possible outcome that can reasonably be projected to occur in a given situation . Conceiving of worst-case scenarios is a common form of strategic planning , specifically scenario planning , to prepare for and minimize contingencies that could result in accidents , quality problems , or other issues .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Worst-case_scenario", "rank": 76, "score": 63812 }, { "content": "Title: Risk-based inspection Content: Risk Based Inspection ( RBI ) is an Optimal maintenance business process used to examine equipment such as pressure vessels , heat exchangers and piping in industrial plants . It examines the Health , Safety and Environment ( HSE ) and business risk of ` active ' and ` potential ' Damage Mechanisms ( DMs ) to assess and rank failure probability and consequence . This ranking is used to optimize inspection intervals based on site-acceptable risk levels and operating limits , while mitigating risks as appropriate . RBI analysis can be qualitative , quantitative or semi-quantitative in nature . Accuracy is a function of analysis methodology , data quality and consistency of execution . Precision is a function of the selected metrics and computational methods . Risk presented as a single numeric value ( as in a quantitative analysis ) does not guarantee greater accuracy compared to a risk matrix ( as in a qualitative analysis ) , because of uncertainty that is inherent with probabilities and consequences . RBI is most often used in engineering industries and is predominant in the oil and gas industry . Assessed risk levels are used to develop a prioritized inspection plan . It is related to ( or sometimes a part of ) Risk Based Asset Management ( RBAM ) , Risk Based Integrity Management ( RBIM ) and Risk Based Management ( RBM ) . Generally , RBI is part of Risk and Reliability Management ( RRM ) . The basis of most RBI programs the the Corrosion Circuit , in which each circuit can be compared for relative risk levels to aid in inspection and maintenance planning . Inspections typically employ non-destructive testing ( NDT ) .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk-based_inspection", "rank": 77, "score": 63598 }, { "content": "Title: Existential phenomenology Content: Existential phenomenology is Martin Heidegger 's brand of phenomenology .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_phenomenology", "rank": 78, "score": 63502 }, { "content": "Title: Balancing of rotating masses Content: The balancing of rotating bodies is important to avoid vibration . In heavy industrial machines such as gas turbines and electric generators , vibration can cause catastrophic failure , as well as noise and discomfort . In the case of a narrow wheel , balancing simply involves moving the centre of gravity to the centre of rotation . For a system to be in complete balance both force and couple polygons should be closed .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Balancing_of_rotating_masses", "rank": 79, "score": 62950 }, { "content": "Title: Christian existentialism Content: Christian existentialism is a theo-philosophical movement which takes an existentialist approach to Christian theology . The school of thought is often traced back to the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard ( 1813 -- 1855 ) , who some consider the father of existentialism . The existential approach to Christian theology has a long and diverse history including Augustine , Aquinas , Pascal and Maritain , ( see section 4 , paragraph 2 below , where some but not all contributors to Christian existentialism are noted ) .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Christian_existentialism", "rank": 80, "score": 62861 }, { "content": "Title: The Exies Content: The Exies were an American rock band from Los Angeles , California , formed in 1997 . Their name , `` The Exies '' , is short for `` The Existentialists '' . Their two Virgin Records releases , Inertia ( 2003 ) and Head for the Door ( 2004 ) , have sold over 400,000 copies combined .", "qid": "356", "docid": "The_Exies", "rank": 81, "score": 62582 }, { "content": "Title: Zero-risk bias Content: Zero-risk bias is a tendency to prefer the complete elimination of a risk even when alternative options produce a greater reduction in risk ( overall ) . This effect on decision making has been observed in surveys presenting hypothetical scenarios and certain real-world policies ( e.g. war against terrorism as opposed to reducing the risk of traffic accidents or gun violence ) have been interpreted as being influenced by it .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Zero-risk_bias", "rank": 82, "score": 62550 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme risk Content: Extreme risks are risks of very bad outcomes or `` high consequence '' , but of low probability . They include the risks of terrorist attack , biosecurity risks such as the invasion of pests , and extreme natural disasters such as major earthquakes .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Extreme_risk", "rank": 83, "score": 62440 }, { "content": "Title: Existential migration Content: Existential migration is a term coined by Greg Madison ( 2006 ) in Existential Analysis , the journal of the Society for Existential Analysis . Madison 's term describes expatriates ( voluntary emigrants ) who supposedly have an `` existential '' motivation , unlike economic migration , simple wanderlust , exile , or variations of forced migration . ` Existential migration ' is conceived as a chosen attempt to express something fundamental about existence by leaving one 's homeland and becoming a foreigner .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existential_migration", "rank": 84, "score": 62191 }, { "content": "Title: Error (linguistics) Content: In Applied linguistics , an error is a deviation from accepted rules of a language made by a learner of a second language . Such errors result from the learner 's lack of knowledge of correct rules of the target language . A significant distinction is generally made between errors and mistakes which are not treated the same from a linguistic viewpoint . The study of learners ' errors was the main area of investigation by linguists in the history of second-language acquisition research .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Error_(linguistics)", "rank": 85, "score": 62008 }, { "content": "Title: Proactive learning Content: Proactive learning is a generalization of active learning designed to relax unrealistic assumptions and thereby reach practical applications . `` Active learning seeks to select the most informative unlabeled instances and ask an omniscient oracle for their labels , so as to retrain a learning algorithm maximizing accuracy . However , the oracle is assumed to be infallible ( never wrong ) , indefatigable ( always answers ) , individual ( only one oracle ) , and insensitive to costs ( always free or always charges the same ) . '' `` In real life , it is possible and more general to have multiple sources of information with differing reliabilities or areas of expertise . Active learning also assumes that the single oracle is perfect , always providing a correct answer when requested . In reality , though , an `` oracle '' ( if we generalize the term to mean any source of expert information ) may be incorrect ( fallible ) with a probability that should be a function of the difficulty of the question . Moreover , an oracle may be reluctant -- it may refuse to answer if it is too uncertain or too busy . Finally , active learning presumes the oracle is either free or charges uniform cost in label elicitation . Such an assumption is naive since cost is likely to be regulated by difficulty ( amount of work required to formulate an answer ) or other factors . '' Proactive learning relaxes all four of these assumptions , relying on a decision-theoretic approach to jointly select the optimal oracle and instance , by casting the problem as a utility optimization problem subject to a budget constraint .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Proactive_learning", "rank": 86, "score": 61448 }, { "content": "Title: Bayesian Program Synthesis Content: In machine learning , Bayesian Program Synthesis ( BPS ) , Bayesian Programs write ( synthesize ) new Bayesian programs . This is in contrast to the field of probabilistic programs where humans write new probabilistic ( Bayesian ) programs . Bayesian probabilities is a strategy to learn distributions over Bayesian programs . Gamalon , a machine learning company started by Ben Vigoda , invented the term as describing their framework for using Bayesian probabilistic programs to learn specialized probabilistic programs based on input data . Bayesian Program Synthesis can be compared to the work on Bayesian Program Learning by Lake , Salakhutdinov , and Tenenbaum 's , where probabilistic program components were hand-written , pre-trained on data , and then hand assembled in order to recognize handwritten characters .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Bayesian_Program_Synthesis", "rank": 87, "score": 61430 }, { "content": "Title: Why Does the World Exist? Content: Why Does the World Exist ? : An Existential Detective Story is a nonfiction work authored by Jim Holt . He and the book were on the LA Times bestseller list during the last quarter of 2012 , and the first quarter of 2013 . The book was also a 2012 National Book Critics Award finalist for nonfiction .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Why_Does_the_World_Exist?", "rank": 88, "score": 61318 }, { "content": "Title: Agnostic existentialism Content: Agnostic existentialism is a type of existentialism which makes no claim to know whether there is a `` greater picture '' ; rather , it simply asserts that the greatest truth is that which the individual chooses to act upon . It feels that to know the greater picture , whether there is one or not , is impossible , or impossible so far , or of little value . Like the Christian existentialist , the agnostic existentialist believes existence is subjective .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Agnostic_existentialism", "rank": 89, "score": 61303 }, { "content": "Title: Black existentialism Content: Black existentialism or Africana critical theory is a school of thought that `` critiques domination and affirms the empowerment of Black people in the world '' . Although it shares a word with existentialism and that philosophy 's concerns with existence and meaning in life , it `` is predicated on the liberation of all black people in the world from oppression '' . It may also be seen as method , which allows one to read works by African-American writers such as W. E. B. Du Bois , James Baldwin , and Ralph Ellison in an existentialist frame . Lewis Gordon argues that black existentialism is not only existential philosophy produced by black philosophers but is also thought that addresses the intersection of problems of existence in black contexts .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Black_existentialism", "rank": 90, "score": 61215 }, { "content": "Title: European Risk Observatory Content: The European Risk Observatory is based at the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work ( EU-OSHA ) . It aims to provide : An overview of health at work in Europe A description of the trends and underlying factors A description of the risk factors Anticipation of changes in work and their likely consequences on health By doing so , the Observatory intends ( in particular ) to draw attention to new and emerging risks and enable preventive action . These monitoring and forecasting activities are based ( as much as possible ) on the collection , analysis and consolidation of existing data from national and international sources such as : Labour Force Surveys Workers ' surveys Accident registers Occupational-disease registers Death registers Exposure registers Beyond the collation of data , the Observatory also provides more qualitative information to support the identification of new and emerging risks . This information is mainly based on expert forecast and research reviews but may extend to other sources , such as information collected by control bodies . EU-OSHA is responsible for the management of the Observatory and consolidation of data . External contractors and an EU-wide network of national institutes contributing to the collection and analysis of the data support the Agency in its mission .", "qid": "356", "docid": "European_Risk_Observatory", "rank": 91, "score": 61074 }, { "content": "Title: Factor analysis of information risk Content: Factor analysis of information risk ( FAIR ) is a taxonomy of the factors that contribute to risk and how they affect each other . It is primarily concerned with establishing accurate probabilities for the frequency and magnitude of data loss events . It is not a methodology for performing an enterprise ( or individual ) risk assessment . FAIR is also a risk management framework developed by Jack A. Jones , and it can help organizations understand , analyze , and measure information risk according to . A number of methodologies deal with risk management in an IT environment or IT risk , related to information security management systems and standards like ISO/IEC 27000-series . FAIR seeks to provide a foundation and framework for performing risk analyses . Much of the FAIR framework can be used to strengthen , rather than replace , existing risk analysis processes like those mentioned above . FAIR is not another methodology to deal with risk management , but it complements existing methodologies . FAIR is not in direct competition with the other risk assessment frameworks , but actually is complementary to many of them .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Factor_analysis_of_information_risk", "rank": 92, "score": 61055 }, { "content": "Title: Ellen West Content: Ellen West ( 1888-1921 ) was a troubled patient of Dr. Ludwig Binswanger who suffered from anorexia nervosa and possibly other mental illness . She became a famous example of existential analysis who committed suicide at age 33 by poisoning .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Ellen_West", "rank": 93, "score": 60952 }, { "content": "Title: Laboratory safety Content: Many laboratories contain significant risks , and the prevention of laboratory accidents requires great care and constant vigilance . Examples of risk factors include high voltages , high and low pressures and temperatures , corrosive and toxic chemicals , and biohazards including infective organisms and their toxins . Measures to protect against laboratory accidents include safety training and enforcement of laboratory safety policies , safety review of experimental designs , the use of personal protective equipment , and the use of the buddy system for particularly risky operations . In many countries , laboratory work is subject by health and safety legislation . In some cases , laboratory activities can also present environmental health risks , for example , the accidental or deliberate discharge of toxic or infective material from the laboratory into the environment .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Laboratory_safety", "rank": 94, "score": 60646 }, { "content": "Title: Christian existential apologetics Content: Christian existential apologetics differs from traditional approaches to Christian apologetics by basing arguments for Christian theism on the satisfaction of existential needs rather than on strictly logical or evidential arguments . Christian existential apologetics may also be distinguished from Christian existentialism and from experiential apologetics . The former is a philosophic outlook concerned with the human condition in general ; the latter consists of evidential argumentation based on religious experience .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Christian_existential_apologetics", "rank": 95, "score": 60522 }, { "content": "Title: Worry Content: Worry refers to the thoughts , images , and emotions of a negative nature in a repetitive , uncontrollable manner that results from a proactive cognitive risk analysis made to avoid or solve anticipated potential threats and their potential consequences . Worry is described as a response to a moderate challenge for when the subject has inadequate skills . Worry turns to be problematic if one has been excessively apprehensive more days than not for at least six months .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Worry", "rank": 96, "score": 60179 }, { "content": "Title: Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy Content: Risk , Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Policy Studies Organization . The journal was established in 2010 and the editor-in-chief is Scott Robinson ( Texas A&M University ) . The journal focuses on public policy relating to risk situations such as natural disasters , terrorist attacks , and public health crises . It is abstracted and indexed in the ProQest databases Social Services Abstractsand Worldwide Political Sciences Abstracts", "qid": "356", "docid": "Risk,_Hazards_&_Crisis_in_Public_Policy", "rank": 97, "score": 60088 }, { "content": "Title: Existentially closed model Content: In model theory , a branch of mathematical logic , the notion of an existentially closed model ( or existentially complete model ) of a theory generalizes the notions of algebraically closed fields ( for the theory of fields ) , real closed fields ( for the theory of ordered fields ) , existentially closed groups ( for the class of groups ) , and dense linear orders without endpoints ( for the class of linear orders ) .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Existentially_closed_model", "rank": 98, "score": 60006 }, { "content": "Title: CRESTA Content: CRESTA ( Catastrophe Risk Evaluation and Standardizing Target Accumulations ) was founded as a joint project of Swiss Reinsurance Company , Gerling-Konzern Globale Reinsurance Company , and Munich Reinsurance Company . CRESTA has set itself the aim of establishing a globally uniform system for the accumulation risk control of natural hazards - particularly earthquakes , storms and floods . Those risk zones are essentially based on the observed and expected seismic activity , as well as on other natural disasters , such as droughts , floods and storms . CRESTA zones regard the distribution of insured values within a region or country for easier assessment of risks . CRESTA Zones are the essential basis for reinsurance negotiation and portfolio analysis . Nowadays , CRESTA sets widely accepted standards which apply throughout the international insurance industry . CRESTA zone information is used by most insurers for assessing the insurance catastrophe premiums they will charge .", "qid": "356", "docid": "CRESTA", "rank": 99, "score": 59965 }, { "content": "Title: Catastrophic injury Content: For a description of catastrophic injuries that do not apply to the central nervous system , see Major trauma . A catastrophic injury is a severe injury to the spine , spinal cord , or brain , and may also include skull or spinal fractures . This is a subset of the definition for the legal term catastrophic injury , which is based on the definition used by the American Medical Association . The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research in the United States classifies catastrophic injuries based on the three outcomes associated with them : fatality , those causing permanent severe functional disability , and those causing severe head or neck trauma with no permanent disability . A fatal injury may be a direct result of trauma sustained during an activity , or may occur indirectly . Indirect nonfatal catastrophic injury may occur as a result of systemic failure from exertion during an activity , such as from cardiovascular conditions , heat illness , exertional hyponatremia , or dehydration , or a complication to a nonfatal injury . Indirect fatalities are usually caused by cardiovascular conditions , such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and coronary artery disease . Fatal injury may reveal an unknown `` underlying anatomical or physiological abnormality '' . Individuals with certain anatomical anomalies should not participate in some activities . For example , contact sports are contraindicated for individuals with an anomalous odontoid process , as any violent impact may result in a catastrophic injury . This is because a malformed odontoid process may lead to instability between the atlas and axis ( the C1 and C2 cervical vertebrae ) . Those with atlanto-occipital fusion should also avoid contact sports .", "qid": "356", "docid": "Catastrophic_injury", "rank": 100, "score": 59771 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years Content: 2052 -- A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years is a 2012 book describing trends in global development . It is written by Jørgen Randers and is a follow-up to The Limits to Growth , which in 1972 was the first worldwide report by the Club of Rome . It differs in three ways from the previous report . First , it does not describe an impending disaster scenario , but shows only trends . Secondly , it is to be read in the light of experience since 1972 , namely , that all of humanity has responded to the report , but with a delay of 20 to 40 years . Thirdly , it offers not only future scenarios , it makes concrete proposals on how the individual should respond to emerging developments . Randers repeatedly points out that he does not want to predict specific events , only general trends .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2052:_A_Global_Forecast_for_the_Next_Forty_Years", "rank": 1, "score": 170312 }, { "content": "Title: Earth 2100 Content: Earth 2100 is a television program that was presented by the American Broadcasting Company ( ABC ) network on June 2 , 2009 and was aired on the History Channel in January 2010 and was shown through the year . Hosted by ABC journalist Bob Woodruff , the two-hour special explored what `` a worst-case '' future might look like if humans do not take action on current or impending problems that could threaten civilization . The problems addressed in the program include current climate change , overpopulation , and misuse of energy resources . The events following the life of a fictitious storyteller , `` Lucy '' ( told through the use of motion comics , or limited animation ) , as she describes how the events affect her life . The program included predictions of a dystopian Earth in the years 2015 , 2030 , 2050 , 2085 , and 2100 by scientists , historians , social anthropologists , and economists , including Jared Diamond , Thomas Homer-Dixon , Peter Gleick , James Howard Kunstler , Heidi Cullen , Alex Steffen and Joseph Tainter . It ended with a quote from writer Alex Steffen , saying `` Kids born today will see us navigate past the first greatest test of humanity , which is : can we actually be smart enough to live on a planet without destroying it ? '' According to Executive Producer Michael Bicks , `` this program was developed to show the worst-case scenario for human civilization . Again , we are not saying that these events will happen -- rather , that if we fail to seriously address the complex problems of climate change , resource depletion and overpopulation , they are much more likely to happen . ''", "qid": "357", "docid": "Earth_2100", "rank": 2, "score": 144031 }, { "content": "Title: The Next Hundred Million Content: The Next Hundred Million : America in 2050 is a non-fiction book by American economist and demographer Joel Kotkin . The author outlines a world in which the growing US population reaches four hundred million by 2050 . He argues that the US will become more diverse ( with a trend towards ethnic/racial mixing ) and more competitive , and he predicts that the US will experience continual economic growth that advances the populations ' standard of living . Kotkin writes that the US `` should emerge by mid-century as the most affluent , culturally rich and successful nation in human history '' .", "qid": "357", "docid": "The_Next_Hundred_Million", "rank": 3, "score": 135463 }, { "content": "Title: Human extinction Content: In futures studies , human extinction is the hypothetical end of the human species . This may be caused by natural causes or it may be anthropogenic , i.e. the result of human action . The likelihood of human extinction in the near future by wholly natural scenarios , such as a meteorite impact or large-scale volcanism , is generally considered to be extremely low . For anthropogenic extinction , many possible scenarios have been proposed : Human global nuclear annihilation , biological warfare or the release of a pandemic-causing agent , dysgenics , overpopulation , ecological collapse , and global warming ; in addition , emerging technologies could bring about new extinction scenarios , such as advanced artificial intelligence , biotechnology or self-replicating nanobots . The probability of anthropogenic human extinction within the next hundred years is the topic of an active debate . Human extinction needs to be differentiated from the extinction of all life on Earth ( see also future of Earth ) and from the extinction of major components of human culture ( e.g. , through a global catastrophe leaving only small , scattered human populations , which might evolve in isolation ) .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Human_extinction", "rank": 4, "score": 132143 }, { "content": "Title: 2050s Content: The 2050s is a decade of the Gregorian calendar that will begin on January 1 , 2050 and will end on December 31 , 2059 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2050s", "rank": 5, "score": 131185 }, { "content": "Title: Projections of population growth Content: Projections of population growth established in 2015 predict that the human population will keep growing until at least 2050 , reaching an estimated 8 billion people in 2024 and 9 billion by 2040 , while the 7 billion milestone was reached in 2011 . As the demographic transition follows its course worldwide , the population will age significantly , with most countries outside Africa trending towards a rectangular age pyramid . According to the 2015 edition of the United Nations ' World Population Prospects report , the world population is currently growing by approximately 83 million people each year . The growth rate keeps slowing , having decreased from 1.55 % per year in 1995 to 1.25 % in 2005 and 1.18 % in 2015 . The median estimate for future growth sees the world population reaching 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100 , assuming a continuing decrease in average fertility rate from 2.5 in 2015 to 2.25 in 2050 and 2.0 in 2100 . With longevity trending towards uniform and stable values worldwide , the main driver of future population growth is the evolution of the fertility rate . While most scenarios still predict continued growth into the 22nd century , there is a roughly 23 % chance that the total population could stabilize or begin to fall before 2100 . Longer-term speculative scenarios over the next two centuries can predict anything between runaway growth to radical decline ( 36.4 billion or 2.3 billion people in 2300 ) , with the median projection showing a slight decrease followed by a stabilization around 9 billion people . By 2050 , the bulk of the world 's population growth will take place in Africa : of the additional 2.4 billion people projected between 2015 and 2050 , 1.3 billion will be added in Africa , 0.9 billion in Asia and only 0.2 billion in the rest of the world . Africa 's share of global population is projected to grow from 16 % in 2015 to 25 % in 2050 and 39 % by 2100 , while the share of Asia will fall from 60 % in 2015 to 54 % in 2050 and 44 % in 2100 . The strong growth of the African population will happen regardless of the rate of decrease of fertility , because of the exceptional proportion of young people already living today . For example , the UN projects that the population of Nigeria will surpass that of the United States by 2050 . The population of the more developed regions is slated to remain mostly unchanged , at 1.2 billion , as international migrations from high-growth regions compensate the fertility deficit of richer countries .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Projections_of_population_growth", "rank": 6, "score": 129428 }, { "content": "Title: 2050 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2050", "rank": 7, "score": 127421 }, { "content": "Title: Job Simulator Content: Job Simulator : The 2050 Archives is a virtual reality simulation video game developed and published by Owlchemy Labs for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 , in which players participate in comical approximations of real-world jobs .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Job_Simulator", "rank": 8, "score": 125496 }, { "content": "Title: The World in 2050 Content: `` The World in 2050 '' was a global futurist writing contest co-sponsored by The Economist magazine and Royal Dutch Shell . It carried a first prize of $ 20,000 , which included publication of the winning piece in The Economist 's annual flagship publication , `` The World In '' . Entries were accepted from around the world via a website set up for the purpose , worldin2050.com , and at various Royal Dutch Shell offices worldwide . The judging panel was chaired by Richard O'Brien , co-founder of Outsights , a scenario planning consultancy , and included : Bill Emmott , author and then-editor of The Economist Esther Dyson , an angel investor and philanthropist Sir Mark Moody-Stuart , then-chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Matt Ridley , a British scientist and member of the House of Lords Peter Warshall , an ecologist , activist and former editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and Whole Earth magazine Over 3,000 entries were submitted from 75 countries , and the $ 20,000 first prize was awarded to Bill Douglass , an American communications consultant . Two second prizes of $ 10,000 each and five $ 5,000 third prizes were also awarded .", "qid": "357", "docid": "The_World_in_2050", "rank": 9, "score": 119815 }, { "content": "Title: Life in 2050 Content: Life in 2050 is a 2011 futurology book by Ulrich Eberl . The book deals with the effects that climate change , peak oil and the 2000s energy crisis has on the year of the mid-21st century . This book is intended primarily for students , young professionals , university professors and politicians .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Life_in_2050", "rank": 10, "score": 119565 }, { "content": "Title: 2040s Content: The 2040s is a decade of the Gregorian calendar that will begin on January 1 , 2040 and will end on December 31 , 2049 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2040s", "rank": 11, "score": 118522 }, { "content": "Title: 2030s Content: The 2030s ( pronounced `` twenty-thirties '' ) is a decade of the Gregorian calendar that will begin on January 1 , 2030 and will end on December 31 , 2039 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2030s", "rank": 12, "score": 118322 }, { "content": "Title: Predator Free 2050 Content: Predator Free 2050 is a plan put forth by the New Zealand government with the goal of eradicating all marsupial and mammalian introduced predators from New Zealand by 2050 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Predator_Free_2050", "rank": 13, "score": 118099 }, { "content": "Title: German Climate Action Plan 2050 Content: The German Climate Action Plan 2050 ( Klimaschutzplan 2050 ) is a climate protection policy document approved by the German government on 14November 2016 . The plan outlines measures by which Germany can meet its various national greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals through to 2050 ( see table ) and service its international commitments under the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement . The Federal Ministry for the Environment , Nature Conservation , Building and Nuclear Safety ( BMUB ) , under minister Barbara Hendricks , led the development of the plan . The plan was progressively watered down since a draft was first leaked in 2016 . Projections from the environment ministry in September 2016 indicate that Germany will likely miss its 2020 climate target . The Climate Action Plan2050 should not be confused with an earlier document , the Climate Action Programme2020 ( Aktionsprogramm Klimaschutz ) , approved in December 2014 and which only covers the period until 2020 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "German_Climate_Action_Plan_2050", "rank": 14, "score": 116908 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear holocaust Content: A nuclear holocaust or nuclear apocalypse is a theoretical scenario involving widespread destruction and radioactive fallout causing the collapse of civilization , through the use of nuclear weapons . Under such a scenario , some of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear warfare in future world wars . Besides the obvious direct destruction of cities by nuclear blasts , the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms , a nuclear winter , widespread radiation sickness from fallout , and/or the temporary loss of much modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses . Some scientists , such as Alan Robock , have speculated that a thermonuclear war could result in the end of modern civilization on Earth , in part due to a long-lasting nuclear winter . In one model , temperatures following a full thermonuclear war fall for several years by 7 to 8 degrees Celsius on average . The accuracy of such models are often the subject of partisan dispute . Early Cold War-era studies suggested that billions of humans would nonetheless survive the immediate effects of nuclear blasts and radiation following a global thermonuclear war . Some scholars argue that nuclear war could indirectly contribute to human extinction via secondary effects , including environmental consequences , societal breakdown , and economic collapse . Additionally , it has been argued that even a relatively small-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan involving 100 Hiroshima yield weapons , could cause a nuclear winter and kill more than a billion people . Since 1947 , the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has visualized how close the world is from a nuclear war . The threat of a nuclear holocaust plays an important role in the popular perception of nuclear weapons . It features in the security concept of mutually assured destruction ( MAD ) and is a common scenario in survivalism . Nuclear holocaust is a common feature in literature and film , especially in speculative genres such as science fiction , dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Nuclear_holocaust", "rank": 15, "score": 115547 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2050 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2050 was unanimously adopted on 12 June 2012 . It extends the UN 's mandate to monitor nuclear , chemical and biological weapons possessed by North Korea .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2050", "rank": 16, "score": 113795 }, { "content": "Title: Love Story 2050 Content: Love Story 2050 is a 2008 Indian science fiction-romance film starring producer Pammi Baweja and director Harry Baweja 's son Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra . Some parts were filmed in Adelaide , Australia . Initially the film was supposed to release on 21 December 2007 but got postponed to 4 July 2008 due to extensive post-production work . The premiere was held on 2 July 2008 in London . The film draws a lot of similarity to the 1991 Telugu film Aditya 369 ; while the Telugu film dealt with travel to the past as well as distopian post-apocalyptic future , Love Story 2050 was exclusively about travelling to an utopian future-city of Mumbai in the year 2050 . It is the first utopian time travel film of Bollywood . The movie was released on 4 July 2008 to negative reviews and was a commercial disaster . However , it was noted that the film helps ` understand the cultural anxieties about India 's neoliberal future captured in the cinematic imagination of the utopian city ' .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Love_Story_2050", "rank": 17, "score": 113120 }, { "content": "Title: Isotopes of thallium Content: Thallium ( 81Tl ) has 37 isotopes with atomic masses that range from 176 to 212 . 203Tl and 205Tl are the only stable isotopes and 204Tl is the most stable radioisotope with a half-life of 3.78 years . 207Tl , with a half-life of 4.77 minutes , has the longest half-life of naturally occurring radioisotopes . Thallium-202 ( half-life 12.23 days ) can be made in a cyclotron while thallium-204 ( half-life 3.78 years ) is made by the neutron activation of stable thallium in a nuclear reactor . In the fully ionized state , the isotope 205Tl becomes beta-radioactive , decaying to 205Pb , but 203Tl remains stable .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Isotopes_of_thallium", "rank": 18, "score": 112584 }, { "content": "Title: Physics of the Future Content: Physics of the Future : How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 is a 2011 book by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku , author of Hyperspace and Physics of the Impossible . In it Kaku speculates about possible future technological development over the next 100 years . He interviews notable scientists about their fields of research and lays out his vision of coming developments in medicine , computing , artificial intelligence , nanotechnology , and energy production . The book was on the New York Times Bestseller List for five weeks . Kaku writes how he hopes his predictions for 2100 will be as successful as science fiction writer Jules Verne 's 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century . Kaku contrasts Verne 's foresight against U.S. Postmaster General John Wanamaker , who in 1893 predicted that mail would still be delivered by stagecoach and horseback in 100 years ' time , and IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson , who in 1943 is alleged to have said `` I think there is a world market for maybe five computers . '' Kaku points to this long history of failed predictions against progress to underscore his notion `` that it is very dangerous to bet against the future '' .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Physics_of_the_Future", "rank": 19, "score": 112302 }, { "content": "Title: Kosmos 2050 Content: Kosmos 2050 ( Космос 2050 meaning Cosmos 2050 ) is a Soviet US-K missile early warning satellite which was launched in 1989 as part of the Soviet military 's Oko programme . The satellite is designed to identify missile launches using optical telescopes and infrared sensors . Kosmos 2050 was launched from Site 16/2 at Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Russian SSR . A Molniya-M carrier rocket with a 2BL upper stage was used to perform the launch , which took place at 20:35 UTC on 23 November 1989 . The launch successfully placed the satellite into a molniya orbit . It subsequently received its Kosmos designation , and the international designator 1989-091A . The United States Space Command assigned it the Satellite Catalog Number 20330 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Kosmos_2050", "rank": 20, "score": 110711 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic geoengineering Content: Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Arctic_geoengineering", "rank": 21, "score": 109327 }, { "content": "Title: 2057 (TV series) Content: 2057 is a Discovery Channel television program hosted by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku . It premiered on January 28 , 2007 and attempts to predict what the world will be like in 50 years based on current trends . The show takes the form of a docu-drama with three separate episodes , each having informative stories ingrained into the plot . All three episodes aired on January 28 , 2007 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2057_(TV_series)", "rank": 22, "score": 109193 }, { "content": "Title: 2040 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2040", "rank": 23, "score": 108208 }, { "content": "Title: Joseph Zornado Content: Joseph Zornado is an American college professor , author of a well-received book in the field of children 's literature ( Inventing the Child , Garland , 2000/Routledge 2006 ) as well as a science fiction novel , 2050 : Gods of Little Earth , originally published by Speculative Fiction Review in 2007 . Inventing the Child is an account of childhood at the start of a new millennium . Zornado analyzes several of the dominant notions of childhood which lead to this moment , such as those of Calvin , Freud , and Rousseau , and finally the `` consumer childhood '' era of Dr. Spock and television . He argues that the stories we tell our children , from fairy tales to Disney videos , perpetuate the materialism and conformity of our dominant culture . The book has been praised by writers such as Daniel Quinn , who calls it `` among the two or three most eye-opening , illuminating , and important books I 've ever read . '' The first two volumes of Zornado 's 2050 trilogy have been published by Iron Diesel Press . 2050 is set two thousand years after the fall of civilization , when a wanderer named Vilb sets out on a personal journey , only to discover that he may be little more than a pawn of `` the gods , '' a remnant of ancient human beings who have been waiting for this very moment to fulfill their destiny , not his . It is set in a post-apocalyptic version of Antarctica , which though habitable remains extremely dry ; the lack of water and food has set this new `` Little Earth '' on a course for crisis , and Vilb holds - though he hardly knows it - both its cause and its resolution . Zornado is Professor of English and Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at Rhode Island College in Providence , Rhode Island .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Joseph_Zornado", "rank": 24, "score": 106106 }, { "content": "Title: 2060s Content: The 2060s is a decade of the Gregorian calendar that will begin on January 1 , 2060 , and will end on December 31 , 2069 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2060s", "rank": 25, "score": 105746 }, { "content": "Title: 2053 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2053", "rank": 26, "score": 105615 }, { "content": "Title: Subwar 2050 Content: Subwar 2050 is a futuristic 3D submarine simulator computer game developed by Particle Systems , Michael Powell acting as the lead designer , and published by MicroProse Software , Inc. . The game was released in 1993 for DOS and 1994 for Amiga and Amiga CD32 . In 1994 an expansion pack , Subwar 2050 : The Plot Deepens was released for DOS . Subwar 2050 was sold to Interplay Entertainment on March 27 , 2009 . In 2013 Subwar 2050 was released on Gog.com for XP/Vista/Windows 7 and is available for download .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Subwar_2050", "rank": 27, "score": 105247 }, { "content": "Title: 2055 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2055", "rank": 28, "score": 105067 }, { "content": "Title: 2057 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2057", "rank": 29, "score": 103960 }, { "content": "Title: 2051 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2051", "rank": 30, "score": 103951 }, { "content": "Title: Death Race 2050 Content: Death Race 2050 is a 2017 political satire action film directed by G.J. Echternkamp , and starring Manu Bennett , Marci Miller and Malcolm McDowell . It is a sequel to the 1975 film Death Race 2000 . Both films were produced by Roger Corman , who described the film as `` a car-racing picture with some black humor . ''", "qid": "357", "docid": "Death_Race_2050", "rank": 31, "score": 103658 }, { "content": "Title: 2054 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2054", "rank": 32, "score": 103321 }, { "content": "Title: 2059 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2059", "rank": 33, "score": 102911 }, { "content": "Title: 2058 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2058", "rank": 34, "score": 102860 }, { "content": "Title: Bloodfist 2050 Content: Bloodfist 2050 is a 2005 action/adventure film directed by prolific B-movie director Cirio H. Santiago and starring Matt Mullins , Joe Sabatino , Glen Meadows and Beverly Lynne .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Bloodfist_2050", "rank": 35, "score": 102741 }, { "content": "Title: Odyssey 2050 Content: Odyssey 2050 is a film project that incorporates digital animation as well as documentary and live action sequences with the aim of motivating young people from around the world into taking constructive action on climate change . Odyssey 2050 is a registered NGO and the film is being produced in Costa Rica by Daniel and Miguel Bermejo of the Synchro Film company , Bruce Callow of the UK Embassy in Costa Rica , and with the collaboration and assistance of various organisations , such as the Earth Charter Initiative and the British Council . The film was launched in 2012 . Odyssey 2050 blends animation and graphics with real life images of environmental destruction , and aims to raise awareness , create positive change and to reach young people across the world . Odyssey 2050 is managed by the Odyssey 2050 Association , which enjoys the backing of the British Embassy in Costa Rica , and along with the production of the film , the team at Odyssey 2050 are engaged worldwide in running workshops at schools and universities , climate change conferences and businesses .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Odyssey_2050", "rank": 36, "score": 102561 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 37, "score": 102171 }, { "content": "Title: Scenario analysis Content: Scenario analysis is a process of analyzing possible future events by considering alternative possible outcomes ( sometimes called `` alternative worlds '' ) . Thus , scenario analysis , which is one of the main forms of projection , does not try to show one exact picture of the future . Instead , it presents several alternative future developments . Consequently , a scope of possible future outcomes is observable . Not only are the outcomes observable , also the development paths leading to the outcomes . In contrast to prognoses , the scenario analysis is not based on extrapolation of the past or the extension of past trends . It does not rely on historical data and does not expect past observations to remain valid in the future . Instead , it tries to consider possible developments and turning points , which may only be connected to the past . In short , several scenarios are fleshed out in a scenario analysis to show possible future outcomes . Each scenario normally combines optimistic , pessimistic , and more and less probable developments . However , all aspects of scenarios should be plausible . Although highly discussed , experience has shown that around three scenarios are most appropriate for further discussion and selection . More scenarios risks making the analysis overly complicated .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Scenario_analysis", "rank": 38, "score": 101821 }, { "content": "Title: Space programme 2040 Content: The Space Programme 2040 is a satellite development and launch programme of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission ( Suparco ) , Pakistan 's supreme space research authority . The Space programme 2040 intends to replace the Badr satellite programme and geo-stationary communication satellite . On 11 August , Paksat-IR was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center by China , making it first satellite to be launched under this programme . According to Suparco , five GEO satellites and six low earth orbit ( LEO ) satellites will be launched between 2011 and 2040 . The stated goals of the program are expected to gain significant experience in satellite development , practising of space medicine , and to promote socio-economic sector in the country . While the programme intends to learn to develop the military and space technologies and to conduct experiments on fundamental sciences in space frontier , the government maintained that Space programme-2040 's prime purpose is to bring the benefits of the full spectrum of space technology to the people of Pakistan . On 15 July 2011 , Prime minister Yousaf Gillani gave official approval of the programme with the 2011 Pakistan fiscal year budget .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Space_programme_2040", "rank": 39, "score": 101482 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 205 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 205 , adopted on May 22 , 1965 , in the face of a potentially widening conflict in the Dominican Republic , the Council requested that the temporary suspension of hostilities in Santo Domingo called for in United Nations Security Council Resolution 203 be transformed into a permanent cease-fire and invited the Secretary-General to submit a report to the Council on the implementation of this resolution . The resolution was adopted by ten votes to none ; the United States abstained . In the days following the resolution , a de facto cessation of hostilities took place in Santo Domingo .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_205", "rank": 40, "score": 101407 }, { "content": "Title: 2056 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2056", "rank": 41, "score": 101401 }, { "content": "Title: 2052 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2052", "rank": 42, "score": 101048 }, { "content": "Title: Farm to Market Road 2050 Content: Farm to Market 2050 or FM 2050 is a 24.6 mi road that connects State Highway 359 in Bruni , Texas in Webb County with U.S. Highway 59 ( Future Interstate 69W ) .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Farm_to_Market_Road_2050", "rank": 43, "score": 100398 }, { "content": "Title: Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy Content: Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy ( also called `` 2050 Strategy '' ) during his annual state of the nation address on December 15 , 2012 . The 2050 Strategy calls for widespread economic , social and political reforms to position Kazakhstan among the top 30 global economies by 2050 . The 2050 strategy calls for the economic diversification of single-industry towns and the direct election of regional governors , which were previously presidential appointments . In order to create favorable environment for executing the Kazakhstan 2050 strategy , the president of Kazakhstan approved the new Foreign Policy Concept of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2014-2020 . The concept calls for adherence to a multivector foreign policy and supports regional integration and conflict resolution . According to Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov , Kazakhstan 's accession to the top 30 developed states of the world requires strengthening of regional and nationals security , active development of economic and trading diplomacy as well as intensification of international cooperation .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Kazakhstan_2050_Strategy", "rank": 44, "score": 100255 }, { "content": "Title: 2030 Content:", "qid": "357", "docid": "2030", "rank": 45, "score": 100045 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 46, "score": 99474 }, { "content": "Title: May 2050 lunar eclipse Content: A total lunar eclipse will take place on May 6 , 2050 . This lunar eclipse is first of a tetrad , four total lunar eclipses in series . The last series was in 2043 and 2044 , starting with an March 2043 lunar eclipse . This is the 58th member of Lunar Saros 122 . The previous event was the April 2032 lunar eclipse .", "qid": "357", "docid": "May_2050_lunar_eclipse", "rank": 47, "score": 99089 }, { "content": "Title: 2033 (film) Content: 2033 also billed as 2033 : Future Apocalypse ( in Spanish as 2033 and 2033 : La Ilusion de un Futuro Mejor ) is a Mexican film that premiered on 24 September 2009 at the Fantastisk Film Festival Lund , Sweden ) . It was the directorial debut for the director , Francisco Laresgoiti . Regarding the title , Laresgotiti said that he `` initially call it VCR 2026 , ( Viva Cristo Rey 2026 ) , the motto of the Cristeros , as this would define the ideology of the tape , but decided to use 2033 as this will be the two thousandth anniversary the death of Jesus Christ . '' The film was intended to be a trilogy , but the two sequels had not been written as of 2008 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2033_(film)", "rank": 48, "score": 98029 }, { "content": "Title: Future Soldier 2030 Initiative Content: Future Soldier 2030 Initiative was a US Army program that was launched in 2009 with the mission to research and develop future soldiers ' equipments , weapons and body armors . The program investigates various futuristic technologies , including mind boosting drugs , powered exoskeletons and artificially intelligent assistants .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Future_Soldier_2030_Initiative", "rank": 49, "score": 98023 }, { "content": "Title: China 2030 Content: China 2030 : Building a Modern , Harmonious , and Creative High-Income Society is an extensive study of the Economy of China published in 2012 by the World Bank , Washington , D.C. , and the Development Research Center of the State Council , People 's Republic of China , Beijing . China 2030 attempts to set forth a possible development path for China that would result in attainment of the status of a `` rich country '' by 2030 . An earlier report `` China 2020 '' was prepared under World Bank auspices in 1998 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "China_2030", "rank": 50, "score": 97987 }, { "content": "Title: 2030 – Aufstand der Alten Content: 2030 -- Aufstand der Alten ( 2030 - Rise of the Elderly ) is a three-part German television miniseries which aired in January 2007 . The docudrama , about demographics or `` demographic crime '' , is written and directed by Jörg Lühdorff . The first part is titled `` Die Geiselnahme ( Taking a Hostage ) '' , the second is titled `` Das Leben im Untergrund ( Living in the Underground ) '' , and the third is titled `` Das Geheimnis in der Wüste ( Tower of the Firstborn ) '' .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2030_–_Aufstand_der_Alten", "rank": 51, "score": 97855 }, { "content": "Title: British Rail Class 204 Content: The British Rail Class 204 designation has been used twice for two similar types of diesel-electric multiple units . The original units , numbered in the range 1119-1122 , were two-car versions of the Class 205 ' 3H ' units , and were classified as 2H under the old system . In 1979 , BR decided to augment the two-car units to three-car formation . Three of the four units were reformed with the addition of centre trailers taken from 3H ( Class 205 ) units , and thus were themselves reclassified as Class 205 . The fourth 2H unit , and the three former 3H units which had given up their trailers , were augmented by reusing the ex-2EPB driving trailers from redundant Class 206 units . The Class 204 designation was re-applied to these four newly formed units ( which were also given the classification 3T under the old system ) . They were renumbered into the range 1401-1404 . In 1986 , the units were renumbered to 204001-004 to conform with the TOPS numbering system .", "qid": "357", "docid": "British_Rail_Class_204", "rank": 52, "score": 97076 }, { "content": "Title: Existential risk from artificial general intelligence Content: The existential risk from artificial general intelligence is the hypothetical threat that dramatic progress in artificial intelligence ( AI ) could someday result in human extinction ( or some other unrecoverable global catastrophe ) . The argument for the existence of the threat is that the human race currently dominates other species because the human brain has some distinctive capabilities that the brains of other animals lack . If AI surpasses humanity in general intelligence and becomes `` superintelligent '' , then this new superintelligence could become powerful and difficult to control . By way of example , just as the fate of the mountain gorilla depends on human goodwill , so might the fate of humanity depend on the actions of a future machine superintelligence . The severity of different AI risk scenarios is widely debated , and rests on a number of unresolved questions about future progress in computer science . Two sources of concern are that a sudden and unexpected `` intelligence explosion '' might take an unprepared human race by surprise , and that controlling a superintelligent machine ( or even instilling it with human-compatible values ) may be an even harder problem than naively supposed .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Existential_risk_from_artificial_general_intelligence", "rank": 53, "score": 97034 }, { "content": "Title: Peugeot 205 Content: The Peugeot 205 is a supermini car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1983 to 1998 . It was declared `` car of the decade '' by CAR Magazine in 1990 . It also won What Car ? 's Car of the Year for 1984 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Peugeot_205", "rank": 54, "score": 96297 }, { "content": "Title: British Rail Class 205 Content: The British Rail Class 205 ( or 2H ) diesel-electric multiple units were built by BR at Eastleigh from 1957 -- 1962 . They were replaced by Turbostar units . The fleet 's lifespan was 47 years .", "qid": "357", "docid": "British_Rail_Class_205", "rank": 55, "score": 95046 }, { "content": "Title: 205 Content: Year 205 ( CCV ) was a common year starting on Tuesday ( link will display the full calendar ) of the Julian calendar . At the time , it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Geta ( or , less frequently , year 958 Ab urbe condita ) . The denomination 205 for this year has been used since the early medieval period , when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years .", "qid": "357", "docid": "205", "rank": 56, "score": 94832 }, { "content": "Title: Imperial 2030 Content: Imperial 2030 is a German-style board game designed by Mac Gerdts and published by Imperial in 2009 . Whereas Imperial was set in the nineteenth century , Imperial 2030 takes place in the 21st century , with the BRIC countries - Brazil , Russia , India and China accompanying the United States and Europe ( i.e.the European Union ) as the world powers . The map covers the whole world . The game provides two canals to allow movement between sea territories . However if a nation controls Colombia , they may deny the use of the Panama Canal to other nations . Likewise , if a nation controls North Africa , they may deny the use of the Suez Canal to other nations . The game features Gerdts ' hallmark , the Rondel alongside a number of other game mechanisms : Area Control / Area Influence Area movement Commodity Speculation Stock Holding As with Imperial , players do not take on the role of different countries , but rather invest in countries , with the strongest investor managing the government of each nation-state in turn . Switzerland however remains a neutral territory , and a player who does not control a great power can make investments through the Swiss Bank . Each great power has four provinces on which factories can be built , with the United States having three shipyards , China having three armaments facilities , and the other great powers having two of each . As the Great Powers develop more factories and plant their flag on the independent countries or the oceans , their Power factor can be increased by landing on the Taxation segment of the rondel . The end of the game is triggered by one Great Power taking its power factor up to 25 . The winner is determined by each player multiplying the sum of the interest accruing to the bonds of each nation by its power factor for each nation in turn . These are then added together with the cash in hand also being included in the final figure .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Imperial_2030", "rank": 57, "score": 94694 }, { "content": "Title: National Development Plan 2030 Content: The National Development Plan 2030 is an important policy document of the South African government drafted in August 2012 by the National Planning Commission , a special ministerial body first constituted in 2009 by President Jacob Zuma . The Plan contains a series of proposals to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "National_Development_Plan_2030", "rank": 58, "score": 94407 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainable Development Goals Content: The Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) , officially known as Transforming our world : the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a set of 17 `` Global Goals '' with 169 targets between them . Spearheaded by the United Nations through a deliberative process involving its 193 Member States , as well as global civil society , the goals are contained in paragraph 54 United Nations Resolution A/RES/70 / 1 of 25 September 2015 . The Resolution is a broader intergovernmental agreement that acts as the Post 2015 Development Agenda ( successor to the Millennium Development Goals ) . The SDGs build on the Principles agreed upon under Resolution A/RES/66 / 288 , popularly known as The Future We Want . The SDGs were in large measure informed by the often quoted assertion by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that `` we do n't have plan B because there is no planet B '' . On 19 July 2014 , the UN General Assembly 's Open Working Group ( OWG ) on Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) forwarded a proposal for the SDGs to the Assembly . The proposal contained 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues . These included ending poverty and hunger , improving health and education , making cities more sustainable , combating climate change , and protecting oceans and forests . On 5 December 2014 , the UN General Assembly accepted the Secretary-General 's Synthesis Report which stated that the agenda for the post-2015 SDG process would be based on the OWG proposals . The Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post 2015 Development Agenda ( IGN ) began in January 2015 and ended in August 2015 . Following the negotiations , a final document was adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit September 25 -- 27 , 2015 in New York , USA . The title of the agenda is Transforming our world : the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Sustainable_Development_Goals", "rank": 59, "score": 93220 }, { "content": "Title: Isotopes of lead Content: Lead ( 82Pb ) has four stable isotopes : 204Pb , 206Pb , 207Pb , 208Pb . Lead-204 is entirely a primordial nuclide and is not a radiogenic nuclide . The three isotopes lead-206 , lead-207 , and lead-208 represent the ends of three decay chains : the uranium series ( or radium series ) , the actinium series , and the thorium series , respectively . These series represent the decay chain products of long-lived primordial U-238 , U-235 , and Th-232 , respectively . However , each of them also occurs , to some extent , as primordial isotopes that were made in supernovae , rather than radiogenically as daughter products . The fixed ratio of lead-204 to the primordial amounts of the other lead isotopes may be used as the baseline to estimate the extra amounts of radiogenic lead present in rocks as a result of decay from uranium and thorium . ( See lead-lead dating and uranium-lead dating ) . The longest-lived radioisotopes are 205Pb with a half-life of ≈ 15.3 million years and 202Pb with a half-life of ≈ 53,000 years . Of naturally occurring radioisotopes , the longest half-life is 22.3 years for 210Pb , which is useful for studying the sedimentation chronology of environmental samples on time scales shorter than 100 years . The relative abundances of the four stable isotopes are approximately 1.5 % , 24 % , 22 % , and 52.5 % , combining to give a relative atomic mass ( abundance-weighted average of the stable isotopes ) of 207.2 ( 1 ) . Lead is the element with the heaviest stable isotope , 208Pb . ( The more massive 209Bi , long considered to be stable , actually has a half-life of 1.9 × 1019 years ) . A total of 38 Pb isotopes are now known , including very unstable synthetic species . In its fully ionized state the isotope 205Pb also becomes stable .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Isotopes_of_lead", "rank": 60, "score": 93070 }, { "content": "Title: O-2050 Content: O-2050 is a drug that is a classical cannabinoid derivative , which acts as an antagonist for the CB1 receptor . This gives it an advantage in research over many commonly used cannabinoid antagonists such as rimonabant , which at higher doses act as inverse agonists at CB1 as well as showing off-target effects . However while O-2050 acts as a silent antagonist in vitro , some tests in vivo have suggested it may show agonist activity under certain circumstances .", "qid": "357", "docid": "O-2050", "rank": 61, "score": 93051 }, { "content": "Title: Diaz (musician) Content: Diaz ( full name Andres Rafael Diaz ) is a rapper from Jessheim , Norway , born 26 July 1976 . His father , Andres Rafael Diaz Rosa , is Spanish and his mother , Inger , is Norwegian . He has released three solo albums : 2050 , Velkommen Hjem , Andres ( Welcome Home , Andres ) and Jessheimfanden , all paying homage to his hometown of Jessheim , a tiny rural town some 40 km N/NE of Norway 's capital , Oslo , close to the city 's airport , Gardermoen . 2050 is the postal code for Jessheim . Velkommen Hjem , Andres is a reference to the Norwegian film Velkommen Hjem , Anders which was filmed in 1985 in Jessheim with a cast of local actors . In addition to this he has collaborated on numerous singles and albums by artists like Warlocks , Opaque , Tommy Tee and Wu-Tang Clan 's RZA . The album Velkommen Hjem Andres includes the song `` Mitt Terningkast '' made in collaboration with Diaz 's childhood friends Shagrath and Galder of the symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir . The song `` Hats Off to Aruto '' , a tribute to another childhood friend , was briefly popular in the United States . Diaz started working as a DJ when he was 13 , and has worked as a presenter on Norwegian Channel 24 . He also used to run a record shop in Oslo , T&D Records , with mentor and producer Tommy Tee . Tommy Tee has produced much of Diaz 's work and runs Tee Productions , the record label that publishes albums by Diaz , Warlocks , Gatas Parlament and others . He also used to work as a label manager for BMG Music ( Norway ) and as a promoter for Universal Music ( Norway ) . By 2003 he was one of Norway 's foremost hip-hip artists . Diaz has retired from rap music although he made a comeback appearance in October 2009 . He has studied business at the Norwegian School of Management . He has worked with the Salvation Army , and for the past three years , he has worked for the Norwegian Red Cross ( Oslo Red Cross ) with inner city youth .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Diaz_(musician)", "rank": 62, "score": 92281 }, { "content": "Title: Our Final Hour Content: Our Final Hour is a 2003 book by the British Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees . The full title of the book is Our Final Hour : A Scientist 's Warning : How Terror , Error , and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind 's Future In This Century - On Earth and Beyond . It was published in the United Kingdom under the more prosaic title Our Final Century : Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century ? . The premise of the book is that the Earth and human survival are in far greater danger from the potential effects of modern technology than is commonly realised , and that the 21st century may be a critical moment in history when humanity 's fate is decided . Rees discusses a range of existential risks confronting humanity , and controversially estimates that the probability of extinction before 2100 CE is around 50 percent , based on the possibility of malign or accidental release of destructive technology .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Our_Final_Hour", "rank": 63, "score": 91991 }, { "content": "Title: 205 BC Content: __ NOTOC __ Year 205 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar . At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Africanus and Dives ( or , less frequently , year 549 Ab urbe condita ) . The denomination 205 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period , when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years .", "qid": "357", "docid": "205_BC", "rank": 64, "score": 90947 }, { "content": "Title: 2090s Content: The 2090s is a decade of the Gregorian calendar that will begin on January 1 , 2090 and will end on December 31 , 2099 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2090s", "rank": 65, "score": 90754 }, { "content": "Title: 2030 (novel) Content: 2030 : The Real Story of What Happens to America is the first novel by American actor and comedian Albert Brooks .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2030_(novel)", "rank": 66, "score": 90530 }, { "content": "Title: 204th Street (IRT Third Avenue Line) Content: 204th Street was a local station on the demolished IRT Third Avenue Line . It had three tracks and two side platforms . The next stop to the north was 210th Street -- Williamsbridge . The next stop to the south was 200th Street . The station opened on October 4 , 1920 , and closed on April 29 , 1973 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "204th_Street_(IRT_Third_Avenue_Line)", "rank": 67, "score": 90480 }, { "content": "Title: Dollo's law of irreversibility Content: Dollo 's law of irreversibility ( also known as Dollo 's law and Dollo 's principle ) is a hypothesis proposed in 1893 by French-born Belgian paleontologist Louis Dollo which states that evolution is not reversible . This hypothesis was first stated by Dollo in this way : `` An organism is unable to return , even partially , to a previous stage already realized in the ranks of its ancestors . '' The statement is often misinterpreted as a less stringent hypothesis regarding the likelihood of regain of lost structures or organs , which are unlikely to reappear in the ( loosely defined ) ` same form . ' According to Richard Dawkins , the law is `` really just a statement about the statistical improbability of following exactly the same evolutionary trajectory twice ( or , indeed , any particular trajectory ) , in either direction . '' Stephen Gould suggested that irreversibility forecloses certain evolutionary pathways once broad forms have emerged : '' -LSB- For example -RSB- , once you adopt the ordinary body plan of a reptile , hundreds of options are forever closed , and future possibilities must unfold within the limits of inherited design . ''", "qid": "357", "docid": "Dollo's_law_of_irreversibility", "rank": 68, "score": 90305 }, { "content": "Title: Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Content: is a Japanese anime series produced by Anime International Company ( AIC ) . A retelling of the 1987 original video animation Bubblegum Crisis , the series premiered on TV Tokyo on October 8 , 1998 where it ran for 26 episodes until its conclusion on March 31 , 1999 . Toshiba EMI released the episodes on both VHS and Laserdisc across 13 volumes , each containing two episodes . The first volume was released on January 21 , 1999 ; the final volume was released July 26 , 2000 . The series was later released on DVD , however the Japanese versions were simply the American DVD releases encoded to play for Region 2 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Bubblegum_Crisis_Tokyo_2040", "rank": 69, "score": 90026 }, { "content": "Title: GEC 2050 Content: The GEC 2050 was an 8-bit minicomputer produced during the 1970s , initially by Marconi Elliott Computer Systems of the UK , before the company renamed itself GEC Computers Limited . The first models were labeled MECS 2050 , before being renamed GEC 2050 . The GEC 2050 was commonly used as a Remote Job Entry station , supporting a punched card reader , line printer , system console , and a data link to a remote mainframe computer system , and GEC Computers sold a complete RJE package including the system , peripherals , and RJE software . Another turnkey application was a ticketing system , whose customers included Arsenal Football Club . The system was also commonly used for road traffic control and industrial process automation . The GEC 2050 supported up to 64KiB of magnetic core memory in 4KiB , 8KiB and 16KiB modules . The system had a single Channel Controller for performing autonomous I/O , and used the same peripheral I/O controllers as the GEC 4000 series minicomputer .", "qid": "357", "docid": "GEC_2050", "rank": 70, "score": 89720 }, { "content": "Title: Cool Earth 50 Content: Cool Earth 50 ( also known as Cool Earth ) is a plan developed by Japan to reduce global CO2 emissions 50 % by 2050 , which was discussed at the 34th G8 summit . Cool Earth 50 is planned to be a framework that would continue towards the goals set forth in the Kyoto Protocols . This plan includes three proposals : a long-term strategy , a mid-term strategy and launching a national campaign for achieving the Kyoto Protocol Target . The plan was first proposed on May 24 , 2007 at an international conference called Asian Future and was initiated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe . The program 's goal is to reduce current global green house emissions by 50 % by the year 2050 the . The goal of reduction was aimed particular towards the largest green house emitting countries The United States , China , Japan , and India . Also , for the major green house emitters to create a frame work for reduction . Cool Earth aims at reducing green house emissions by improve technology in energy fields . A large goal of Cool Earth is to promote economic prosperity through green technology and to encourage political stability domestically and internationally .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Cool_Earth_50", "rank": 71, "score": 89706 }, { "content": "Title: Future Evolution Content: Future Evolution is a book written by paleontologist Peter Ward and illustrated by Alexis Rockman . He addresses his own opinion of future evolution and compares it with Dougal Dixon 's After Man : A Zoology of the Future and H. G. Wells 's The Time Machine . According to Ward , humanity may exist for a long time . Nevertheless , we are impacting our world . He splits his book in different chronologies , starting with the near future ( the next 1,000 years ) . Humanity would be struggling to support a massive population of 11 billion . Global warming raises sea levels . The ozone layer weakens . Most of the available land is devoted to agriculture due to the demand for food . Despite all this , the oceanic wildlife remains untethered by most of these impacts , specifically the commercial farmed fish . This is , according to Ward , an era of extinction that would last about 10 million years ( note that many human-caused extinctions have already occurred ) . After that , the world gets stranger . Ward labels the species that have the potential to survive in a human-infested world . These include dandelions , raccoons , owls , pigs , cattle , rats , snakes , and crows to name but a few . In the human-infested ecosystem , those preadapted to live amongst man survived and prospered . Ward describes garbage dumps in the future infested with multiple species of rats , a snake with a sticky frog-like tongue to snap up rodents , and pigs with snouts specialized for rooting through garbage . The story 's time traveller who views this new refuse-covered habitat is gruesomely attacked by ravenous flesh-eating crows . Ward then questions the potential for humanity to evolve into a new species . According to him , this is incredibly unlikely . For this to happen a human population must isolate itself and interbreed until it becomes a new species . Then he questions if humanity would survive or extinguish itself by climate change , nuclear war , disease , or the posing threat of nanotechnology as terrorist weapons .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Future_Evolution", "rank": 72, "score": 89296 }, { "content": "Title: Mobility 2030 (Atlanta) Content: Mobility 2030 is the regional transportation plan released in 2003/2004 for the Metro Atlanta , Georgia region . It was developed by the Atlanta Regional Commission and includes projected population growths and possible transportation improvements . The majority of the transit plan calls for the construction of additional roads , with some improvements and expansion in public transportation . The plan was developed to address the transit needs for Atlanta for the next 20 years while also minimizing traffic congestion and air pollution . Critics of the plan have complained that the plan does not provide solutions to limit urban sprawl , decrease traffic congestion , or significantly expand public transit , bicycle and pedestrian options . Funding for MARTA projects is also limited ; the transportation plan calls for the use of bus rapid transit ( BRT ) in some areas instead of light or heavy rail .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Mobility_2030_(Atlanta)", "rank": 73, "score": 89182 }, { "content": "Title: Junkers Jumo 205 Content: The Junkers Jumo 205 aircraft engine was the most famous of a series of aircraft diesel engines that were the first , and for more than half a century the only successful aviation diesel powerplants . The Jumo 204 first entered service in 1932 . Later engines in the series were styled Jumo 206 , Jumo 207 and Jumo 208 , and differed in stroke and bore and supercharging arrangements . In all more than 900 of these engines were produced , in the 1930s and through most of World War II .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Junkers_Jumo_205", "rank": 74, "score": 88901 }, { "content": "Title: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Content: Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed ( titled Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive for the British edition ) is a 2005 book by academic and popular science author Jared Diamond , in which Diamond reviews the causes of historical and pre-historical instances of societal collapse -- particularly those involving significant influences from environmental changes , the effects of climate change , hostile neighbors , and trade partners -- and considers the responses different societies have had to such threats . While the bulk of the book is concerned with the demise of these historical civilizations , Diamond also argues that humanity collectively faces , on a much larger scale , many of the same issues , with possibly catastrophic near-future consequences to many of the world 's populations .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed", "rank": 75, "score": 88627 }, { "content": "Title: Evacuate Earth Content: Evacuate Earth is a National Geographic Channel documentary that portrays the hypothetical scenario of humans evacuating the planet Earth before it is destroyed by a rogue neutron star . The documentary details the technical and social complications of building a generation ship to save humanity and other Earth organisms by relocating to a planet in another solar system .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Evacuate_Earth", "rank": 76, "score": 88526 }, { "content": "Title: Plan Bay Area Content: Plan Bay Area 2040 is a state-mandated law that aims to integrate sustainable strategies to reduce transportation-related pollution and external greenhouse gas emission within the nine-counties of the San Francisco Bay Area . It is also known as the implementation of the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 or SB 375 . The plan addresses methods of transportation , land-use , and housing . Over the next 25 years , the Bay Area is expected to grow by an estimated 2 million people and because of the projected growth and the growing economy , the Bay Area must provide more housing and transportation choices that will reduce their carbon footprint . This adopted plan will invest in increasing methods of transportation with the goal of reducing CO2 emissions . To do so , the plan will invest in extending ferry services , freeway express lanes , and developing newer BART Stations to expand travel reach . The goal of this plan is to improve on their earlier efforts of network and growth within the context of finance and environmental responsibility . Like all plans , it is a work in progress that is updated every four years to reflect on new priorities and changes with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . The plan was approved on July 18 , 2013 by the Association of Bay Area Governments and by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission . The adoption of the plan by regional planners was covered by the San Francisco Chronicle .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Plan_Bay_Area", "rank": 77, "score": 88003 }, { "content": "Title: Global catastrophic risk Content: A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale . Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization . Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk . Potential global catastrophic risks include anthropogenic risks ( technology risks , governance risks ) and natural or external risks . Examples of technology risks are hostile artificial intelligence , biotechnology risks , or nanotechnology weapons . Insufficient global governance creates risks in the social and political domain ( potentially leading to a global war with or without a nuclear holocaust , bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms , cyberterrorism destroying critical infrastructures like the electrical grid , or the failure to manage a natural pandemic ) as well as problems and risks in the domain of earth system governance ( with risks resulting from global warming , environmental degradation , mineral resource exhaustion , fossil energy exhaustion , or famine as a result of non-equitable resource distribution , human overpopulation , crop failures and non-sustainable agriculture ) . Examples for non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact event , a supervolcanic eruption , a lethal gamma-ray burst , a geomagnetic storm destroying all electronic equipment , natural long-term climate change , or extraterrestrial life impacting life on Earth .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Global_catastrophic_risk", "rank": 78, "score": 87889 }, { "content": "Title: Solar eclipse of May 20, 2050 Content: A total solar eclipse will occur on May 20 , 2050 . It is a hybrid event , being short duration total eclipse for a middle portion of its path , starting and ending as an annular eclipse . A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun , thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth . An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon 's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun 's , blocking most of the Sun 's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus ( ring ) . An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Solar_eclipse_of_May_20,_2050", "rank": 79, "score": 87545 }, { "content": "Title: Canadia: 2056 Content: Canadia : 2056 is a Canadian radio comedy series which premiered on CBC Radio One in April 2007 . A science fiction comedy written by Matt Watts , the series centres on Max Anderson , the American liaison on board the only Canadian spaceship in an otherwise American space fleet headed toward a galactic war with the planet Ipampilash . The premise of the series was summed up for promotional purposes : It is the year 2056 . The United States has launched an armada to destroy an alien threat . Canada sends the nation 's only publicly funded spacecraft , The Canadia -- a ship with a single purpose . To plunge the Americans ' toilets . Travel with them . In the second season , the Canadia became lost in time . Canadia : 2056 first aired on CBC Radio One , on Fridays from 11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.", "qid": "357", "docid": "Canadia:_2056", "rank": 80, "score": 87429 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2053 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2053 was unanimously adopted on 27 June 2012 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2053", "rank": 81, "score": 87373 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2051 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2051 was unanimously adopted on 12 June 2012 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2051", "rank": 82, "score": 87367 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2055 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2055 was unanimously adopted on 29 June 2012 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2055", "rank": 83, "score": 87019 }, { "content": "Title: USA-205 Content: USA-205 , also known as Space Tracking and Surveillance System Advanced Technology Risk Reduction ( STSS-ATRR ) , and previously as Block 2010 Spacecraft Risk Reduction is a satellite formerly operated by the United States Missile Defense Agency . It was launched to demonstrate new technology for missile detection early warning systems . The technology demonstrated on STSS-ATRR will be used in the development of the Space Tracking and Surveillance System part of the Space-Based Infrared System . It was launched on a Delta II 7920-10C rocket from Space Launch Complex 2W at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California , USA at 20:24:25 UTC on 5 May 2009 into a sun-synchronous orbit . The launch was conducted by United Launch Alliance . Operational and administrative control of the Space Tracking and Surveillance System Advanced Technology Risk Reduction ( STSS ATRR ) satellite was transferred to Air Force Space Command effective 31 January 2011 . In addition to successfully demonstrating required on orbit system performance parameters for a prototype sensor technology , STSS ATRR conducted Space Situational Awareness and related operations on an as-capable basis .", "qid": "357", "docid": "USA-205", "rank": 84, "score": 86803 }, { "content": "Title: Hong Kong International Airport Master Plan 2030 Content: The Hong Kong International Airport ( `` HKIA '' ) , is connected to about 180 destinations , through over 1,000 daily flight by more than 100 airlines . In order to meet future demand until 2030 and beyond , the Airport Authority Hong Kong ( `` AAHK '' ) proposed the expansion of HKIA into a three-runway system ( `` 3RS '' ) to support the two currently operated runways , through the introduction of Master Plan 2030 ( `` MP 2030 '' ) in 2011 . Facing a projected increase in air traffic , the Airport Authority Hong Kong promulgated the Hong Kong International Airport Master Plan 2030 on 2 June 2011 . Its main project aimed at expanding the current airport infrastructure to a Third-Runway System to maintain the position of the Hong Kong International Airport as a leading international and regional aviation hub .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Hong_Kong_International_Airport_Master_Plan_2030", "rank": 85, "score": 86258 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2056 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2056 was unanimously adopted on 5 July 2012 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2056", "rank": 86, "score": 85956 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2052 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2052 was unanimously adopted on 27 June 2012 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2052", "rank": 87, "score": 85666 }, { "content": "Title: 2030 CE Content: 2030 CE is a Canadian children 's television series that aired for two seasons on YTV in 2002 . It aired in the United States on Showtime . The series was created by Angela Bruce , Dennis Foon and Yan Moore . A third season had been planned , but was cancelled after financial supporters backed out , presumably due to low ratings . It was filmed in Winnipeg , Manitoba .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2030_CE", "rank": 88, "score": 85665 }, { "content": "Title: 2070s Content: The 2070s is a decade of the Gregorian calendar that will begin on January 1 , 2070 and will end on December 31 , 2079 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "2070s", "rank": 89, "score": 85608 }, { "content": "Title: Scenario (artwork) Content: Scenario is an Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) computer graphic interactive installation , directed by the artist Dennis Del Favero , and developed in collaboration with scriptwriter Stephen Sewell , AI scientist Maurice Pagnucco working with computer scientists Anuraag Sridhar , Arcot Sowmya and Paul Compton . It is a 360-degree 3D cinematic work whose narrative is interactively produced by the audience and humanoid characters . The title is a Commedia dell ` arte term ( ʃeˈnarjo ) referring to the way dramatic action is dependent on the way actors and audience interact . Scenario was developed at the iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research at the University of New South Wales .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Scenario_(artwork)", "rank": 90, "score": 85155 }, { "content": "Title: Tollmann's hypothetical bolide Content: Alexander Tollmann 's bolide , proposed by Kristan-Tollmann and Tollmann in 1994 , is a hypothesis presented by Austrian geologist Alexander Tollmann , suggesting that one or several bolides ( asteroids or comets ) struck the Earth at 7640 BCE ( ± 200 ) , with a much smaller one at 3150 BCE ( ± 200 ) . If true , this hypothesis explains early Holocene extinctions and possibly legends of the Universal Deluge . The claimed evidence for the event includes stratigraphic studies of tektites , dendrochronology , and ice cores ( from Camp Century , Greenland ) containing hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid ( indicating an energetic ocean strike ) as well as nitric acids ( caused by extreme heating of air ) . Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas in their book , Uriel 's Machine , argue that the 7640 BCE evidence is consistent with the dates of formation of a number of extant salt flats and lakes in dry areas of North America and Asia . They argue that these lakes are the result remains of multiple-kilometer-high waves that penetrated deeply into continents as the result of oceanic strikes that they proposed occurred .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Tollmann's_hypothetical_bolide", "rank": 91, "score": 85099 }, { "content": "Title: Timex Sinclair 2050 Content: The Timex Sinclair 2050 ( TS2050 ) was a computer modem built by Westridge for Timex Computer Corp. . Very few were sold with Timex Sinclair label , most with the designed Timex case was sold with the label Westridge 2050 because Timex exited the computer market when the modem started to be manufactured . A lot of people bought the modem board and made custom casing . Because it was very slow ( 300bit/s ) , a magazine published a way to modify the modem to convert it to a serial port , allowing users to connect faster modems . A cassette was released with the modem with software for TS1000/TS1500 on side A and for TS2068 on side B , to control it . At least two bulletin board systems based on the TS2068 and TS2050 existed as of 1988 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Timex_Sinclair_2050", "rank": 92, "score": 84961 }, { "content": "Title: Graphical timeline from Big Bang to Heat Death Content: This is the timeline of the Universe from Big Bang to Heat Death scenario . The different eras of the universe are shown . The heat death will occur in 10103 years , if protons decay . Usually the logarithmic scale is used for such timelines but it compresses the most interesting Stelliferous Era too much as this example shows . Therefore , a double-logarithmic scale s ( s * 100 in the graphics ) is used instead . The minimum of it is unfortunately only 1 , not 0 as needed , and the negative outputs for inputs smaller than 10 are useless . Therefore , the time from 0.1 to 10 years is collapsed to a single point 0 , but that does n't matter in this case because nothing special happens in the history of the universe during that time . The seconds in the timescale have been converted to years by using the Julian year .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Graphical_timeline_from_Big_Bang_to_Heat_Death", "rank": 93, "score": 84927 }, { "content": "Title: Lost Decade (Japan) Content: The is a period of economic stagnation in Japan following the Japanese asset price bubble 's collapse in late 1991 and early 1992 . The term originally referred to the years from 1991 to 2000 , but recently the decade from 2001 to 2010 is often included , so that the whole period is referred to as the Lost Score or the Lost 20 Years ( 失われた二十年 , Ushinawareta Nijūnen ) . Broadly impacting the entire Japanese economy , over the period of 1995 to 2007 , GDP fell from $ 5.33 to $ 4.36 trillion in nominal terms , real wages fell around 5 % , while the country experienced a stagnant price level . While there is some debate on the extent and measurement of Japan 's setbacks , the economic effect of the Lost Decade is well established and Japanese policymakers continue to grapple with its consequences . It took longer to recover from the impact of these events because the conditions imposed by the new environment were not favorable to the Japanese management style at that time .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Lost_Decade_(Japan)", "rank": 94, "score": 84912 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2054 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2054 was unanimously adopted on 29 June 2012 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2054", "rank": 95, "score": 84844 }, { "content": "Title: 205 (number) Content: 205 ( two hundred -LSB- and -RSB- five ) is the natural number following 204 and preceding 206 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "205_(number)", "rank": 96, "score": 84730 }, { "content": "Title: The 2030 °Challenge Content: The 2030 ° Challenge is an initiative by Edward Mazria and Architecture 2030 asking the global architecture and construction community to adopt a series of greenhouse gas reduction targets for new and renovated buildings . In many developed countries the construction and use of buildings is the leading consumer of energy and producer of greenhouse gas emissions . Stabilizing and reversing emissions in this sector is key to keeping future global warming under one degree celsius ( ° C ) above today 's level , in order to avoid increased global warming , potentially to reach a tipping point .", "qid": "357", "docid": "The_2030_°Challenge", "rank": 97, "score": 84584 }, { "content": "Title: Melbourne 2030 Content: The Metropolitan Strategy Melbourne 2030 is a Victorian Government strategic planning policy framework for the metropolitan area of Greater Melbourne , intended to cover the period 2001 -- 2030 . During this period the population of the metropolitan area is expected to grow by a million people to over 5 million . Population projections now predict Melbourne 's population could reach 7 million by that time and the State Government has since changed its strategy on the policy , abandoning the urban growth boundary in the north and west of Melbourne and compromising green wedges . Introduced by the Bracks ( ALP ) government , its main elements are based on well-established planning principles for Transit-oriented development : reducing the proportion of new development occurring at low densities on Melbourne 's fringe from about 60 % of annual construction to 40 % by redirecting new development to defined areas of established inner and middle-ring suburbs . concentrating development within designated activity centres close to transport nodes . The policy has particular emphasis on public transport over car-based suburbs dependent on the private motor car . However the strategy itself does not detail further investment in the public transport system . reducing urban sprawl by establishing legislated urban growth boundaries , with the aim of containing urban development . protecting areas of open space known as green wedges left between areas defined by the urban growth boundaries from development . The existence of Melbourne 2030 gives the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ( VCAT ) the policy rationale to determine planning disputes in favour of developments that it judges to be in accordance with the metropolitan strategy 's objectives . The policy was amended in late 2008 to become Melbourne @ Five Million in response to increased population forecasts and an increased demand for housing . The update provisioned for an extended growth boundary and is reinforcing the aim of a multi-centre metropolitan area by lifting the hierarchic level of six Principal Activity Centres ( PAC ) to Central Activities Districts ( CAD ) . The centres of Box Hill , Broadmeadows , Dandenong , Footscray , Frankston and Ringwood will thus have to provide similar services and functions as central Melbourne .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Melbourne_2030", "rank": 98, "score": 84042 }, { "content": "Title: Ticking time bomb scenario Content: The ticking time bomb scenario is a thought experiment that has been used in the ethics debate over whether torture can ever be justified . As a thought experiment , there is no need that the scenario be plausible ; it need only serve to highlight ethical considerations . The scenario can be formulated as follows : Suppose that a person with knowledge of an imminent terrorist attack , that will kill many people , is in the hands of the authorities and that he will disclose the information needed to prevent the attack only if he is tortured . Should he be tortured ? The scenario can be better understood through the arguments of those who respond to it ; the consequentialist argument is that nations , even those that legally disallow torture , can justify its use if they have a terrorist in custody who possesses critical knowledge , such as the location of a time bomb or a weapon of mass destruction that will soon explode and cause great loss of life . Opponents to the argument usually begin by exposing certain assumptions that tend to be hidden by initial presentations of the scenario and tend to obscure the true costs of permitting torture in `` real-life '' scenarios -- e.g. , the assumption that the person is in fact a terrorist , whereas in real life there usually remains uncertainty about whether the person is in fact a terrorist and that he has useful information -- and rely on legal , philosophical/moral , and empirical grounds to reaffirm the need for the absolute prohibition of torture . There is also uncertainty about the effectiveness of torture , and much opposition to torture is based on the fact it is not effective rather than any moral issue .", "qid": "357", "docid": "Ticking_time_bomb_scenario", "rank": 99, "score": 83921 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2059 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2059 was unanimously adopted on 20 July 2012 .", "qid": "357", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2059", "rank": 100, "score": 83919 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Existential risk from artificial general intelligence Content: The existential risk from artificial general intelligence is the hypothetical threat that dramatic progress in artificial intelligence ( AI ) could someday result in human extinction ( or some other unrecoverable global catastrophe ) . The argument for the existence of the threat is that the human race currently dominates other species because the human brain has some distinctive capabilities that the brains of other animals lack . If AI surpasses humanity in general intelligence and becomes `` superintelligent '' , then this new superintelligence could become powerful and difficult to control . By way of example , just as the fate of the mountain gorilla depends on human goodwill , so might the fate of humanity depend on the actions of a future machine superintelligence . The severity of different AI risk scenarios is widely debated , and rests on a number of unresolved questions about future progress in computer science . Two sources of concern are that a sudden and unexpected `` intelligence explosion '' might take an unprepared human race by surprise , and that controlling a superintelligent machine ( or even instilling it with human-compatible values ) may be an even harder problem than naively supposed .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Existential_risk_from_artificial_general_intelligence", "rank": 1, "score": 140830 }, { "content": "Title: Global catastrophic risk Content: A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale . Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization . Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk . Potential global catastrophic risks include anthropogenic risks ( technology risks , governance risks ) and natural or external risks . Examples of technology risks are hostile artificial intelligence , biotechnology risks , or nanotechnology weapons . Insufficient global governance creates risks in the social and political domain ( potentially leading to a global war with or without a nuclear holocaust , bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms , cyberterrorism destroying critical infrastructures like the electrical grid , or the failure to manage a natural pandemic ) as well as problems and risks in the domain of earth system governance ( with risks resulting from global warming , environmental degradation , mineral resource exhaustion , fossil energy exhaustion , or famine as a result of non-equitable resource distribution , human overpopulation , crop failures and non-sustainable agriculture ) . Examples for non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact event , a supervolcanic eruption , a lethal gamma-ray burst , a geomagnetic storm destroying all electronic equipment , natural long-term climate change , or extraterrestrial life impacting life on Earth .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Global_catastrophic_risk", "rank": 2, "score": 138327 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change scenario Content: This article is about climate change scenarios . Socioeconomic scenarios are used by analysts to make projections of future greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and to assess future vulnerability to climate change ( Carter et al. , 2001:151 ) . Producing scenarios requires estimates of future population levels , economic activity , the structure of governance , social values , and patterns of technological change . Economic and energy modelling ( such as via the World3 or the POLES models ) can be used to analyse and quantify the effects of such drivers .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_change_scenario", "rank": 3, "score": 128880 }, { "content": "Title: Centre for the Study of Existential Risk Content: The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk ( CSER ) is a research centre at the University of Cambridge , intended to study possible extinction-level threats posed by present or future technology . The co-founders of the centre are Huw Price ( a philosophy professor at Cambridge ) , Martin Rees ( a cosmologist , astrophysicist , and former President of the Royal Society ) and Jaan Tallinn ( a computer programmer and co-founder of Skype ) . CSER 's advisors include philosopher Peter Singer , computer scientist Stuart J. Russell , statistician David Spiegelhalter , and cosmologists Stephen Hawking and Max Tegmark . Their `` goal is to steer a small fraction of Cambridge 's great intellectual resources , and of the reputation built on its past and present scientific pre-eminence , to the task of ensuring that our own species has a long-term future . ''", "qid": "358", "docid": "Centre_for_the_Study_of_Existential_Risk", "rank": 4, "score": 128617 }, { "content": "Title: Future of Earth Content: The biological and geological future of Earth can be extrapolated based upon the estimated effects of several long-term influences . These include the chemistry at Earth 's surface , the rate of cooling of the planet 's interior , the gravitational interactions with other objects in the Solar System , and a steady increase in the Sun 's luminosity . An uncertain factor in this extrapolation is the ongoing influence of technology introduced by humans , such as climate engineering , which could cause significant changes to the planet . The current Holocene extinction is being caused by technology and the effects may last for up to five million years . In turn , technology may result in the extinction of humanity , leaving the planet to gradually return to a slower evolutionary pace resulting solely from long-term natural processes . Over time intervals of hundreds of millions of years , random celestial events pose a global risk to the biosphere , which can result in mass extinctions . These include impacts by comets or asteroids with diameters of 5 -- or more , and the possibility of a massive stellar explosion , called a supernova , within a 100-light-year radius of the Sun , called a Near-Earth supernova . Other large-scale geological events are more predictable . If the long-term effects of global warming are disregarded , Milankovitch theory predicts that the planet will continue to undergo glacial periods at least until the Quaternary glaciation comes to an end . These periods are caused by variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit . As part of the ongoing supercontinent cycle , plate tectonics will probably result in a supercontinent in 250 -- 350 million years . Some time in the next 1.5 -- 4.5 billion years , the axial tilt of the Earth may begin to undergo chaotic variations , with changes in the axial tilt of up to 90 ° . During the next four billion years , the luminosity of the Sun will steadily increase , resulting in a rise in the solar radiation reaching the Earth . This will result in a higher rate of weathering of silicate minerals , which will cause a decrease in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . In about 600 million years from now , the level of CO2 will fall below the level needed to sustain C3 carbon fixation photosynthesis used by trees . Some plants use the C4 carbon fixation method , allowing them to persist at concentrations as low as 10 parts per million . However , the long-term trend is for plant life to die off altogether . The extinction of plants will be the demise of almost all animal life , since plants are the base of the food chain on Earth . In about one billion years , the solar luminosity will be 10 % higher than at present . This will cause the atmosphere to become a `` moist greenhouse '' , resulting in a runaway evaporation of the oceans . As a likely consequence , plate tectonics will come to an end , and with them the entire carbon cycle . Following this event , in about 2 − 3 billion years , the planet 's magnetic dynamo may cease , causing the magnetosphere to decay and leading to an accelerated loss of volatiles from the outer atmosphere . Four billion years from now , the increase in the Earth 's surface temperature will cause a runaway greenhouse effect , heating the surface enough to melt it . By that point , all life on the Earth will be extinct . The most probable fate of the planet is absorption by the Sun in about 7.5 billion years , after the star has entered the red giant phase and expanded to cross the planet 's current orbit .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Future_of_Earth", "rank": 5, "score": 110367 }, { "content": "Title: Scenario analysis Content: Scenario analysis is a process of analyzing possible future events by considering alternative possible outcomes ( sometimes called `` alternative worlds '' ) . Thus , scenario analysis , which is one of the main forms of projection , does not try to show one exact picture of the future . Instead , it presents several alternative future developments . Consequently , a scope of possible future outcomes is observable . Not only are the outcomes observable , also the development paths leading to the outcomes . In contrast to prognoses , the scenario analysis is not based on extrapolation of the past or the extension of past trends . It does not rely on historical data and does not expect past observations to remain valid in the future . Instead , it tries to consider possible developments and turning points , which may only be connected to the past . In short , several scenarios are fleshed out in a scenario analysis to show possible future outcomes . Each scenario normally combines optimistic , pessimistic , and more and less probable developments . However , all aspects of scenarios should be plausible . Although highly discussed , experience has shown that around three scenarios are most appropriate for further discussion and selection . More scenarios risks making the analysis overly complicated .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Scenario_analysis", "rank": 6, "score": 109262 }, { "content": "Title: Future of Life Institute Content: The Future of Life Institute ( FLI ) is a volunteer-run research and outreach organization in the Boston area that works to mitigate existential risks facing humanity , particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence ( AI ) . Its founders include MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark , Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn , and its board of advisors includes cosmologist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Elon Musk .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Future_of_Life_Institute", "rank": 7, "score": 106183 }, { "content": "Title: Sentry (monitoring system) Content: Since 2002 , Sentry has been a highly automated collision monitoring system that continually scans the most current asteroid catalog for possibilities of future impact with Earth over the next 100 + years . Whenever a potential impact is detected it will be analyzed and the results immediately published on the Near Earth Object Program . However , several weeks of optical data are not enough to conclusively identify an impact years in the future . By contrast , eliminating an entry on the risk page is a negative prediction ; a prediction of where it will not be . Scientists warn against worrying about the possibility of impact with an object based on only a few weeks of optical data that show a possible Earth encounter years from now .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Sentry_(monitoring_system)", "rank": 8, "score": 104955 }, { "content": "Title: Climate risk Content: Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_risk", "rank": 9, "score": 104092 }, { "content": "Title: Planetary phase of civilization Content: The planetary phase of civilization is a concept defined by the Global Scenario Group ( GSG ) , an environmental organization that specialized in scenario analysis and forecasting . Proponents state that increasing global interdependence and risks , such as climate change , are binding the world into a unitary socio-ecological system . This unprecedented condition signals a historic shift from the period of modernity , characterized by sovereign states , perennial growth of population and economies , abundant resources , and disregard for environmental impacts . The Planetary Phase has many manifestations : economic globalization , biospheric destabilization , mass migration , new global institutions ( like the United Nations and the World Trade Organization ) , the Internet , new forms of transboundary conflict , and shifts in culture and consciousness . Others consider each of these phenomena separately , but give little credence to the theory of a holistic shift in historical dynamics .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Planetary_phase_of_civilization", "rank": 10, "score": 104033 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 11, "score": 103828 }, { "content": "Title: Climate security Content: Climate security describes serious threats to the security and prosperity of countries , due to climate warming , and climate actions to adapt and mitigate impacts .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_security", "rank": 12, "score": 103439 }, { "content": "Title: James Canton Content: James Canton ( born April 29 , 1951 ) is a futurist , author , entrepreneur , CEO & Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures . He forecasts global trends in business , technology , globalization , trade , health care , population , science , climate , workforce and security . He is noted for his keynote presentations and consulting with organizations , assisting them to better understand and benefit from complex change and opportunities in technology , energy , medicine , finance , climate , population , entertainment , security and media . He also assists clients in creating global alliances , investments , strategy and in developing new products or services . He has worked with the leading organizations in the world including IBM , General Mills , Deloitte , Fedex , General Electric , Apple , Phillips , Seimans , Cisco , McKinsey , Tata , Pepsi , Fujitsu , Sony , Pfizer and the US Department of Defense . He has advised three White House administrations , the National Science Foundation , American Association for the Advancement of Science , and the National Science and Technology Council . Canton is the co-developer of Trend Trakker , a network based forecasting platform that analyzes and tracks trends , innovations , threats and global risks . Canton received his Ph.D. in Management and social science from the Union Institute & University in 1982 . His thesis was on Global Systems and High Technology Organizations which he completed while working at Apple Computer . He was born and raised in New York City area . Canton studied and worked with the noted futurist and author of Future Shock Alvin Toffler at the Anticipatory Democracy Network . This was a project designed to incorporate foresight and strategic planning into government . He was Executive Director and founder of the Health Policy Council , a health policy think tank he founded and lead from 1976 -- 79 , while serving as an adviser to the United States Department of Health and Human Services working on wellness , prevention health policy and strategic planning . This was an early effort to transform the health care system by introducing prevention policy and led to the wellness revolution . Canton served on the California Governor 's Council on Wellness and was appointed Chairman , The Work and Health Task Force , Wellness Council . Canton joined Apple Computer as Business and Strategic Planning Executive at Apple Computer , Inc. , in 1981 , where he worked on the introduction of the Macintosh Computer , artificial intelligence and next generation computing applications for business , medicine and science . He held a number of positions in global investment banking ( Swiss Occidental AG ) , high technology ( Ultimate Media Corp ) and trade finance ( Oxynet ) from 1985-1990 . In 1990 , he founded the Institute for Global Futures , a San Francisco-based think tank that advises on business strategy and forecasts innovations and trends for global companies and governments . Starting with IT innovations he expanded the practice to include other technologies such as life sciences and telecommunications but also other trend domains -- climate , energy , workforce , population , security and medicine . He developed a Trend Convergence Model which is used today for forecasting . Having identified the Internet , before the web , as a major disruptive innovation in the 1980s Canton become recognized for his insights into the key trends that will shape the future . Canton participated in the early projects to identify the social and business impact of advanced technologies on the global economy -- nanotechnology , biotechnology , information technology , telecommunications , neurotechnology and quantum technology . As a serial entrepreneur , he started five companies working on early developments in virtual reality , media , avatars , artificial intelligence , e-commerce , Voice Over IP telephony , software as services , cloud computing , data science and digital transactions . He was an Adviser appointed to the National Science and Technology Council on nanoscience , nanoengineering and nanotechnology in his work with the National Science Foundation in the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2003 . He was the first private sector adviser to the National Science Foundation on nanoscience , nanoengineering and nanotechnology . He served on the advisory board of MIT 's Media Lab Europe where he advised on the futures research projects involving emerging technologies . He was a Fellow at the Knowledge Innovation Network at the Kellogg School of Management , Northwestern University from 2009-2011 . Canton is an Adviser Emeritus of the International Advisory Council , Economic Development Board ( EDB ) for the State of Singapore . Canton serves on the Corporate Eco-Forum Advisory Board where he advises on global business strategy and future trends affecting business and environmental sustainability . He was an Academic Fellow at the Center for Neurotechnology , Potomac Institute for Policy Studies where his interest is in forecasting the emerging NeuroFuture and developments in neuroscience . He was the founding Co-Chairman of the Futures and Forecasting Track for NASA and Google sponsored Singularity University , a graduate school focused on the convergence of exponential technologies and future trends affecting grand challenges : population , energy , climate , security and health care . He is the founder of FutureLab , a traveling virtual and showcase on innovation and advanced technologies that teaches youth about the future of science and education . Canton is a director serving on boards of a number of companies supporting innovation in education , finance , clean tech , life sciences , media and telecommunications including SLFC , IKOR inc. and IGF . Canton books have been translated into seven languages and have chronicled from 1998 many of the innovations that have shaped our world today . He is the author of three books Technofutures , The Extreme Future and the forthcoming Future Smart : The Game Changing Trends that will Transform Your World . He has been recognized by the Economist Magazine for his forecasts . CNN dubbed him `` the Digital Guru '' and Yahoo named him `` Dr. Future '' . Mike Wallace of CBS 's 60 Minutes profiled , him as `` one of the world 's greatest minds '' in his book , 50 Years From Today , Thomas Nelson , 2008 . He is a frequent commentator on CNN , MSNBC and Fox where he reports on the global trends that are shaping the future of our lives , work and society . He has been interviewed at Forbes , Fortune , the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal and been featured by the Discovery Channel in a documentary on the future . He is also a producer and writer of innovative new media . He produced the award winning film series The Time Travelers , http://www.ourtimetravelers.com/p/about.html Winner Los Angeles Film Awards and was the producer for NanoDoc , the first interactive game on nano science which won the How Design Award for leading interactive media . Current interests include : Innovation cultures , how business can be more predictive , entrepreneurship , the social enterprise , Big Data science , complexity and social networks , emergent smart machines and robots , strong AI , quantum computing , innovation economics , predictive analytics , simulation , mixed reality media , supermaterials , neuromarketing , synthetic biology , cloud computing and geo-engineering .", "qid": "358", "docid": "James_Canton", "rank": 13, "score": 103047 }, { "content": "Title: Future Earth Content: Future Earth is a 10-year international research programme which aims to build knowledge about the environmental and human aspects of Global change , and to find solutions for sustainable development . It aims to increase the impact of scientific research on sustainable development . Future Earth is an interdisciplinary research programme bringing together natural and social sciences , as well as the humanities , engineering and law , and focused on designing and producing research together with stakeholders from outside the scientific community .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Future_Earth", "rank": 14, "score": 101999 }, { "content": "Title: Nick Bostrom Content: Nick Bostrom ( -LSB- langˈbɒstrəm -RSB- Niklas Boström , -LSB- ˈbuːˌstrœm -RSB- ; born 10 March 1973 ) is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk , the anthropic principle , human enhancement ethics , superintelligence risks , the reversal test , and consequentialism . In 2011 , he founded the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology , and he is currently the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University . He is the author of over 200 publications , including Superintelligence : Paths , Dangers , Strategies ( 2014 ) , a New York Times bestseller and Anthropic Bias : Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy ( 2002 ) . In 2009 and 2015 , he was included in Foreign Policys Top 100 Global Thinkers list . Bostrom 's work on superintelligence -- and his concern for its existential risk to humanity over the coming century -- has brought both Elon Musk and Bill Gates to similar thinking .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Nick_Bostrom", "rank": 15, "score": 101134 }, { "content": "Title: Global Scenario Group Content: The Global Scenario Group ( GSG ) was an international , interdisciplinary body convened in 1995 by the Tellus Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute to develop scenarios for world development in the twenty-first century . The GSG 's underlying scenario development work was rooted in the long-range integrated scenario analysis that Tellus Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute had undertaken through the PoleStar Project . Initially conceived in 1991 as a tool for integrated sustainability planning and long-range scenario analysis , PoleStar was inspired by the 1987 Brundtland Commission report Our Common Future , which first put the concept of `` sustainable development '' on the international agenda . The work of the Global Scenario Group was widely adopted in high-level intergovernmental settings . The scenarios informed numerous international assessments , including the World Water Council 's World Water Vision report in 1999 -- 2000 , the OECD Environmental Outlook in 2001 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's greenhouse gas emission mitigation assessment in 2001 , the United Nations Environment Programme 's Third GEO Report in 2002 , and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 . Several of the GSG participants who actively participated in the IPCC assessments have been recognized for contributing to the 2007 award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Global_Scenario_Group", "rank": 16, "score": 100506 }, { "content": "Title: Biotechnology risk Content: Biotechnology risk is a form of existential risk that could come from biological sources , such as genetically engineered biological agents . These can come either intentionally ( in the form of bioterrorism/biological weapons ) or unintentionally ( through the accidental release of engineerer viruses ) . A chapter in biotechnology and biosecurity was published in Nick Bostrom 's Global Catastrophic Risks , which covered risks such as viral agents . Since then , new technologies like CRISPR and gene drives have been introduced . While the ability to deliberately engineer pathogens has been constrained to high-end labs run by top researchers , the technology to achieve this ( and other astonishing feats of bioengineering ) is rapidly becoming cheaper and more widespread . Such examples include the diminishing cost of sequencing the human genome ( from $ 10M USD to $ 1000 ) , the accumulation of large datasets of genetic information , the discovery of gene drives , and the discovery of CRISPR .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Biotechnology_risk", "rank": 17, "score": 96824 }, { "content": "Title: Climate appraisal Content: A climate appraisal is a unique , location-based report for a specific property on climate change ( from global warming ) and other environmental risks . Information in a climate appraisal report enables property owners and/or buyers to assess for themselves how climate change risks could impact a specific property address in the future , probably by utilizing both historical and projected data from scientific modeling to display those potential risks . A climate appraisal report may include historical and projected information in the following categories : shoreline reduction from sea level rise , risk from hurricanes , tornadoes , earthquakes , volcanoes , droughts , wildfires , floods , diseasees , and industrial pollution . A report may integrate a wide range of environmental risk information after geocoding a location .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_appraisal", "rank": 18, "score": 95510 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 19, "score": 95433 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 20, "score": 95416 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Emissions Scenarios Content: The Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( SRES ) is a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) that was published in 2000 . The greenhouse gas emissions scenarios described in the Report have been used to make projections of possible future climate change . The SRES scenarios , as they are often called , were used in the IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , published in 2001 , and in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , published in 2007 . The SRES scenarios were designed to improve upon some aspects of the IS92 scenarios , which had been used in the earlier IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . The SRES scenarios are `` baseline '' ( or `` reference '' ) scenarios , which means that they do not take into account any current or future measures to limit greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions ( e.g. , the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ) . Emissions projections of the SRES scenarios are broadly comparable in range to the baseline emissions scenarios that have been developed by the scientific community . The SRES scenarios , however , do not encompass the full range of possible futures : emissions may change less than the scenarios imply , or they could change more . SRES was superseded by Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs ) in 2014 .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Emissions_Scenarios", "rank": 21, "score": 95188 }, { "content": "Title: Stephen Mbogo Content: Steve Mbogo , a Kenyan development journalist and a regional security analyst is the winner of Earth Journalism Awards ( 2009 ) . Awarded in December 2009 in Denmark , the awards reward excellence in Climate Change Reporting . He most often writes on topics that highlight social development trends ranging from how smallholder agriculture is being transformed into business rather than just a source of household food in Africa , to how affordable contributory social health insurance schemes can help Africa 's poor access almost free healthcare services . Mbogo takes assignments on these and other issues about Africa from local and foreign media .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Stephen_Mbogo", "rank": 22, "score": 94318 }, { "content": "Title: Surviving the Century Content: Surviving the Century : Facing Climate Chaos and Other Global Challenges , edited by Herbert Girardet , is the first major book from the World Future Council , published by Earthscan in 2007 . Eight main issues relating to the politics of climate change are covered in the book : countering climate chaos , renewable energy policy , creating sustainable cities , local farming systems , rainforests and climate change , cradle to cradle production systems , an alternative vision for trade and creating a living democracy .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Surviving_the_Century", "rank": 23, "score": 94114 }, { "content": "Title: Hazard analysis Content: Note : Parts of this article are written from the perspective of aircraft safety analysis techniques and definitions ; these may not represent current best practice and the article needs to be updated to represent a more generic description of hazard analysis and discussion of more modern standards and techniques . A hazard analysis is used as the first step in a process used to assess risk . The result of a hazard analysis is the identification of different type of hazards . A hazard is a potential condition and exists or not ( probability is 1 or 0 ) . It may in single existence or in combination with other hazards ( sometimes called events ) and conditions become an actual Functional Failure or Accident ( Mishap ) . The way this exactly happens in one particular sequence is called a scenario . This scenario has a probability ( between 1 and 0 ) of occurrence . Often a system has many potential failure scenarios . It also is assigned a classification , based on the worst case severity of the end condition . Risk is the combination of probability and severity . Preliminary risk levels can be provided in the hazard analysis . The validation , more precise prediction ( verification ) and acceptance of risk is determined in the Risk assessment ( analysis ) . The main goal of both is to provide the best selection of means of controlling or eliminating the risk . The term is used in several engineering specialties , including avionics , chemical process safety , safety engineering , reliability engineering and food safety .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Hazard_analysis", "rank": 24, "score": 93262 }, { "content": "Title: Paul Raskin Content: Paul Raskin is the founding President of the Tellus Institute , which has conducted over 3,500 research and policy projects throughout the world on environmental issues , resource planning , scenario analysis , and sustainable development . His research and writing has centered on formulating and analyzing alternative global and regional scenarios , and the requirements for a transition to a sustainable , just , and livable future , called the Great Transition . Dr. Raskin has served as a lead author on a number of high profile international reports , including the U.S. National Academy of Science 's Board on Sustainability , the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment , the United Nations Environment Programme 's Global Environment Outlook , the Earth Charter , and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Assessment Report .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Paul_Raskin", "rank": 25, "score": 93031 }, { "content": "Title: Reasons for concern Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has organized many of the risks of climate change into five `` reasons for concern . '' The reasons for concern show that these risks increase with increases in the Earth 's global mean temperature ( i.e. , global warming ) . The IPCC 's five reasons for concern are : threats to endangered species and unique systems , damages from extreme climate events , effects that fall most heavily on developing countries and the poor within countries , global aggregate impacts ( i.e. , various measurements of total social , economic and ecological impacts ) , and large-scale high-impact events . The five reasons for concern are described in more detail below . The following descriptions are based on information from the IPCC 's Third ( TAR ) and Fourth Assessment Reports ( AR4 ) , published in 2001 and 2007 , respectively .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Reasons_for_concern", "rank": 26, "score": 92956 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 27, "score": 92658 }, { "content": "Title: Information security management Content: Information security ( InfoSec ) describes activities that relate to the protection of information and information infrastructure assets against the risks of loss , misuse , disclosure or damage . Information security management ( ISM ) describes controls that an organization needs to implement to ensure that it is sensibly managing these risks . The risks to these assets can be calculated by analysis of the following issues : Threats to your assets : These are unwanted events that could cause the deliberate or accidental loss , damage or misuse of the assets Vulnerabilities : How susceptible your assets are to attack Impact : The magnitude of the potential loss or the seriousness of the event . Standards that are available to assist organizations implement the appropriate programmes and controls to mitigate these risks are for example BS7799/ISO 27000 , Information Technology Infrastructure Library , O-ISM3 and COBIT .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Information_security_management", "rank": 28, "score": 92427 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "358", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 29, "score": 92224 }, { "content": "Title: Stockholm Memorandum Content: The Stockholm Memorandum is a document signed in May 2011 by many Nobel Laureates based on the verdict from the trial of humanity , which opened the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium . The jury of Nobel laureates concluded that Earth has entered a new geological age , which it calls the Anthropocene , in which humans are the most significant driver of global climate change , and in which human collective actions could have abrupt and irreversible consequences for human communities and ecological systems . The memorandum was signed by 20 winner of the Nobel Prize winners or the Sveriges Riksbank Prize for Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( six in Chemistry , five in Physics , three in Physiology or Medicine , one in Literature , one Peace Prize winner and four in Economic Sciences ) was submitted to the United Nations High Level Panel on global sustainability . `` We are the first generation with the insight of the new global risks facing humanity , that people and societies are the biggest drivers of global change . The basic analysis is not in question : we can not continue on our current path and need to take action quickly . Science can guide us in identifying the pathway to global sustainability , provided that it also engages in an open dialogue with society , '' says Professor Mario Molina , who acted as judge and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Stockholm_Memorandum", "rank": 30, "score": 92042 }, { "content": "Title: Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction Content: Climate : Long range Investigation , Mapping , and Prediction , known as CLIMAP , was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a map of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum . The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration ( 1970s ) and is based in large part of the collection and analysis of a very large number of sediment cores to create a snapshot of conditions across the oceans . The CLIMAP project also resulted in maps of vegetative zones across the continents and the estimated extent of glaciation at the time . Most CLIMAP results aim to describe the Earth as it was 18 thousand years ago , but there was also an analysis to look at conditions during the previous interglacial -- 120 thousand years ago ( CLIMAP 1981 ) . CLIMAP has been a cornerstone of paleoclimate research and remains the most used sea surface temperature reconstruction of the global ocean during the last glacial maximum ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , but it has also been persistently controversial . CLIMAP resulted in estimates of global cooling of only 3.0 ± 0.6 ° C relative to the modern day ( Hoffert and Covey 1992 ) . The climate change during an ice age that occurs far from the continental ice sheets themselves is believed to be primarily controlled by changes in greenhouse gases , hence the conditions during the last glacial maximum provide a natural experiment for measuring the impact of changes in greenhouse gases on climate . The cited estimates of 3.0 ° C implies a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide changes at the low end of the range proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . However , CLIMAP also suggested that some of the tropics and in particular much of the Pacific Ocean were warmer than they are today . To date , no climate model has been able to reproduce the proposed warming in the Pacific ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , with most preferring a several degree cooling . Also , it appears that climate models which are forced to match the CLIMAP sea surface measurements are too warm to match estimates for changes at continental locations ( Pinot et al. 1999 ) . This suggests that either climate model design is missing some important unknown factor , or CLIMAP systematically overestimated the temperatures in the tropical oceans during the last glacial , though there is at present no consistent explanation for why or how this should have happened . Unfortunately cost and difficulty of collecting sediment cores from the open Pacific has limited the availability of samples that might help to confirm or disprove these observations . If the Pacific reconstruction is assumed to be in error , it would result in a larger climate sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gases .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate:_Long_range_Investigation,_Mapping,_and_Prediction", "rank": 31, "score": 91705 }, { "content": "Title: Earth 2100 Content: Earth 2100 is a television program that was presented by the American Broadcasting Company ( ABC ) network on June 2 , 2009 and was aired on the History Channel in January 2010 and was shown through the year . Hosted by ABC journalist Bob Woodruff , the two-hour special explored what `` a worst-case '' future might look like if humans do not take action on current or impending problems that could threaten civilization . The problems addressed in the program include current climate change , overpopulation , and misuse of energy resources . The events following the life of a fictitious storyteller , `` Lucy '' ( told through the use of motion comics , or limited animation ) , as she describes how the events affect her life . The program included predictions of a dystopian Earth in the years 2015 , 2030 , 2050 , 2085 , and 2100 by scientists , historians , social anthropologists , and economists , including Jared Diamond , Thomas Homer-Dixon , Peter Gleick , James Howard Kunstler , Heidi Cullen , Alex Steffen and Joseph Tainter . It ended with a quote from writer Alex Steffen , saying `` Kids born today will see us navigate past the first greatest test of humanity , which is : can we actually be smart enough to live on a planet without destroying it ? '' According to Executive Producer Michael Bicks , `` this program was developed to show the worst-case scenario for human civilization . Again , we are not saying that these events will happen -- rather , that if we fail to seriously address the complex problems of climate change , resource depletion and overpopulation , they are much more likely to happen . ''", "qid": "358", "docid": "Earth_2100", "rank": 32, "score": 91060 }, { "content": "Title: Potential future exposure Content: Potential Future Exposure ( PFE ) is defined as the maximum expected credit exposure over a specified period of time calculated at some level of confidence ( i.e. at a given quantile ) . PFE is a measure of counterparty risk/credit risk . It is calculated by evaluating existing trades done against the possible market prices in future during the lifetime of transactions . It can be called sensitivity of risk w.r.t market prices . The calculated expected maximum exposure value is not to be confused with the maximum credit exposure possible . Instead , the maximum credit exposure indicated by the PFE analysis is an upper bound on a confidence interval for future credit exposure . Credit risk managers have traditionally remained focused on current exposure measurement ( i.e. , current mark-to-market exposure , plus outstanding receivables ) and collateral management . The problem with this focus is that it places excessive emphasis on the present and fails to provide an acceptable indication of credit risk at some point in the future . Because losses from credit risk take a relatively long time to evolve , a more useful measure of exposure is potential exposure . Potential exposure is not like current exposure . It exists in the future and therefore represents a range or distribution of outcomes rather than a single point estimate .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Potential_future_exposure", "rank": 33, "score": 90877 }, { "content": "Title: Climate risk management Content: Climate Risk Management ( CRM ) is a term is used for a large and growing body of work , bridging the climate change adaptation , disaster management and development sectors , amongst many others .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_risk_management", "rank": 34, "score": 90809 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions Content: Climate Change : Global Risks , Challenges and Decisions was a conference on Climate Change held at the Bella Center by the University of Copenhagen . The event was organised with the assistance of other universities in the International Alliance of Research Universities . The stated aim of the conference was to provide `` a summary of existing scientific knowledge two years after the last IPCC report . '' The conference took place on 10 -- 12 March 2009 .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_Change:_Global_Risks,_Challenges_and_Decisions", "rank": 35, "score": 90796 }, { "content": "Title: Terminal value (finance) Content: In finance , the terminal value ( continuing value or horizon value ) of a security is the present value at a future point in time of all future cash flows when we expect stable growth rate forever . It is most often used in multi-stage discounted cash flow analysis , and allows for the limitation of cash flow projections to a several-year period . Forecasting results beyond such a period is impractical and exposes such projections to a variety of risks limiting their validity , primarily the great uncertainty involved in predicting industry and macroeconomic conditions beyond a few years . Thus , the terminal value allows for the inclusion of the value of future cash flows occurring beyond a several-year projection period while satisfactorily mitigating many of the problems of valuing such cash flows . The terminal value is calculated in accordance with a stream of projected future free cash flows in discounted cash flow analysis . For whole-company valuation purposes , there are two methodologies used to calculate the Terminal Value .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Terminal_value_(finance)", "rank": 36, "score": 90051 }, { "content": "Title: Our Final Hour Content: Our Final Hour is a 2003 book by the British Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees . The full title of the book is Our Final Hour : A Scientist 's Warning : How Terror , Error , and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind 's Future In This Century - On Earth and Beyond . It was published in the United Kingdom under the more prosaic title Our Final Century : Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century ? . The premise of the book is that the Earth and human survival are in far greater danger from the potential effects of modern technology than is commonly realised , and that the 21st century may be a critical moment in history when humanity 's fate is decided . Rees discusses a range of existential risks confronting humanity , and controversially estimates that the probability of extinction before 2100 CE is around 50 percent , based on the possibility of malign or accidental release of destructive technology .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Our_Final_Hour", "rank": 37, "score": 89345 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and poverty Content: In an ever-progressing world with an increasing demand for energy and animal agriculture , it is difficult to avoid climate change and its impacts on societies both locally and globally . Climate change affects social development factors , such as , poverty , infrastructure , technology , security , and economics across the globe . Although climate change affects everything we see around us , the interrelation between climate change and social vulnerability and inequality is particularly evident in impoverished communities . In particular , impoverished communities experience reductions in safe drinking water as well as food security as a result of climate change ( OECD 2013 ) . These typically rural , isolated communities do not exhibit sufficient financial and technical capacities to manage the risks associated with climate change ( climate risk ) ( Skoufias 2012 ) . Energy development and policy alteration could adjust the severity of climate change impacts ; this is being tested now , as renewable energy sources develop .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_change_and_poverty", "rank": 38, "score": 89061 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 39, "score": 88209 }, { "content": "Title: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Content: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age . `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Victor_Manuel_Velasco_Herrera", "rank": 40, "score": 88168 }, { "content": "Title: Jason Gaverick Matheny Content: Jason Gaverick Matheny became director of Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity in 2015 , after serving as a program manager , associate office director , and office director . He previously worked for the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University , where his work focused on existential risks . He holds a PhD in Applied Economics and a Master 's in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University , an MBA from Duke University , and a BA from the University of Chicago . He was the cofounder of New Harvest , which supports the development of new agricultural biotechnologies . His work was called one of the `` ideas of the year '' by The New York Times .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Jason_Gaverick_Matheny", "rank": 41, "score": 87608 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 42, "score": 87396 }, { "content": "Title: 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years Content: 2052 -- A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years is a 2012 book describing trends in global development . It is written by Jørgen Randers and is a follow-up to The Limits to Growth , which in 1972 was the first worldwide report by the Club of Rome . It differs in three ways from the previous report . First , it does not describe an impending disaster scenario , but shows only trends . Secondly , it is to be read in the light of experience since 1972 , namely , that all of humanity has responded to the report , but with a delay of 20 to 40 years . Thirdly , it offers not only future scenarios , it makes concrete proposals on how the individual should respond to emerging developments . Randers repeatedly points out that he does not want to predict specific events , only general trends .", "qid": "358", "docid": "2052:_A_Global_Forecast_for_the_Next_Forty_Years", "rank": 43, "score": 87043 }, { "content": "Title: Seth Baum Content: Seth Baum is an American research involved in the field of risk . He is the executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute ( GCRI ) , a think tank focused on existential risk . -LSB- He is also affiliated with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science and the Columbia University Center for Research on Environmental Decisions .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Seth_Baum", "rank": 44, "score": 86953 }, { "content": "Title: Coastal Risk Consulting Content: Coastal Risk Consulting , LLC . ( commonly referred to as Coastal Risk or CRC ) is an American startup climate adaptation technology and consulting company with headquarters in Plantation , Florida . Coastal Risk provides individuals , small businesses , and local governments with climate impact modeling technology , available as an online software-as-a-service ( SaaS ) , that allows property owners to assess their vulnerability to flooding related to sea level rise and climate change impacts and assists in adaptation and resiliency decision-making . Coastal Risk uses data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , the Federal Emergency Management Agency , the National Flood Insurance Program , the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , high-resolution LIDAR , local tide gauges , and various other geographic information systems to create their cloud-based climate impact risk analyses . However , Coastal Risk 's risk scores differ from FEMA flood maps by including sea level rise projections into their flood risk calculations . The company has partnered with International Business Machines Corporation , Battelle , TetraTech , and Trexin . Some of the company 's past clients have included the City of Miami , the Village of Pinecrest , Cleveland Clinic , and Atlantic Broadband . Coastal Risk has received a number of awards , including two Stevies ® at the 14th Annual American Business Awards for `` Startup of the Year '' and `` Tech Startup of the Year , '' a finalist in the Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge 2015 , and named `` 3rd Coolest Startup '' by Broward Palm Beach New Times .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Coastal_Risk_Consulting", "rank": 45, "score": 86708 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "358", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 46, "score": 86404 }, { "content": "Title: Ministry of Earth Sciences Content: The Ministry of Earth Sciences was formed in 2006 from a merger of the India Meteorological Department ( IMD ) , the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting ( NCMRWF ) , the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology ( IITM ) , Pune , and Earth Risk Evaluation Centre ( EREC ) , and the Ministry of Ocean Development . Currently , the ministry is headed by Dr. Harsh Vardhan .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Ministry_of_Earth_Sciences", "rank": 47, "score": 86269 }, { "content": "Title: Investor Network on Climate Risk Content: The Investor Network on Climate Risk is a network of investors and financial institutions that promotes better understanding of the financial risks and investment opportunities posed by climate change . INCR is coordinated by Ceres , a coalition of investors and environmental groups working to advance sustainable prosperity .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Investor_Network_on_Climate_Risk", "rank": 48, "score": 86263 }, { "content": "Title: CCCma Content: CCCma ( Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis ) is part of the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada and is located at the University of Victoria , Victoria , British Columbia . Its purpose is to develop and apply climate models to improve understanding of climate change and make quantitative projections of future climate in Canada and globally . Its seasonal forecasting system provides climate forecasts over Canada on timescales of months to years .", "qid": "358", "docid": "CCCma", "rank": 49, "score": 86131 }, { "content": "Title: Calculated Risk Content: Calculated Risk is a finance and economics blog . It was started in early 2005 by former technology executive Bill McBride ( pseudonym Calculated Risk ) , with frequent posts by Doris Dungey ( under the pseudonym Tanta ) until her death on November 30 , 2008 from ovarian cancer . As an early predictor of the United States housing bubble , Calculated Risk developed a `` cult following '' and influence over US fiscal policy . In January 2009 , it received approximately 75,000 page views a day , and was the top economics blog by traffic statistics .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Calculated_Risk", "rank": 50, "score": 85919 }, { "content": "Title: Climate state Content: Climate state describes a state of climate on Earth and similar terrestrial planets based on a thermal energy budget , such as the greenhouse or icehouse climate state . The main climate state change is between periodical glacial and interglacial cycles in Earth history , studied from climate proxies . The climate system is responding to the current climate forcing and adjusts following climate sensitivity to reach a climate equilibrium , Earth 's energy balance . Model simulations suggest that the current interglacial climate state will continue for at least another 100,000 years , due to emissions - including complete deglaciation of the Northern Hemisphere .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_state", "rank": 51, "score": 85865 }, { "content": "Title: Urban seismic risk Content: Urban seismic risk is a subset of the general term seismic risk which describes the problems specific to centers of population when they are subjected to earthquakes . Many risks can be minimized with good earthquake construction , and seismic analysis . One of the best ways to deal with the issue is through an earthquake scenario analysis .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Urban_seismic_risk", "rank": 52, "score": 85648 }, { "content": "Title: Dan Steinbock Content: Dan Steinbock ( born 1954 ) is a global economic and policy analyst . He is an internationally recognized expert of the multipolar world and the founder of Difference Group , which `` guides clients in the new risk environment '' focusing on international business , international relations , investment and risk , and markets across advanced , emerging and developing economies . '' Before the global crisis , Dr. Steinbock made contrarian predictions about future economic , political and strategic trends in advanced , emerging and developing economies that proved valid . Unlike most analysts , he emphasizes the values and interests of both advanced and emerging economies , not just those of advanced nations . `` Dominant scenarios are biased scenarios , '' he says . He divides his time between New York City , Shanghai , European capitals , emerging Asia and other world regions .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Dan_Steinbock", "rank": 53, "score": 85516 }, { "content": "Title: Sentinel-3 Content: Sentinel-3 is an Earth observation satellite constellation developed by the European Space Agency as part of the Copernicus Programme . Copernicus , formerly Global Monitoring for Environment and Security , is the European programme to establish a European capacity for Earth observation designed to provide European policy makers and public authorities with accurate and timely information to better manage the environment , and to understand and mitigate the effects of climate change .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Sentinel-3", "rank": 54, "score": 85096 }, { "content": "Title: NASA Earth Science Content: NASA Earth Science , formerly called the NASA Earth Science Enterprise ( ESE ) , formerly called Mission To Planet Earth ( MTPE ) , is a NASA research program `` to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced changes to enable improved prediction of climate , weather , and natural hazards for present and future generations '' .", "qid": "358", "docid": "NASA_Earth_Science", "rank": 55, "score": 84404 }, { "content": "Title: Security management Content: Security management is the identification of an organization 's assets ( including information assets ) , followed by the development , documentation , and implementation of policies and procedures for protecting these assets . An organisation uses such security management procedures as information classification , risk assessment , and risk analysis to identify threats , categorise assets , and rate system vulnerabilities so that they can implement effective controls .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Security_management", "rank": 56, "score": 84203 }, { "content": "Title: MEHARI Content: MEHARI ( MEthod for Harmonized Analysis of RIsk ) is a free , open-source information risk analysis assessment and risk management method , for the use of information security professionals . MEHARI enables business managers , information security/risk management professionals and other stakeholders to evaluate and manage the organization 's risks relating to information , information systems and information processes ( not just IT ) . It is designed to align with and support information security risk management according to ISO/IEC 27005 , particularly in the context of an ISO/IEC 27001-compliant Information Security Management System ( ISMS ) or a similar overarching security management or governance framework .", "qid": "358", "docid": "MEHARI", "rank": 57, "score": 84111 }, { "content": "Title: Risk assessment Content: Risk assessment is the determination of quantitative or qualitative estimate of risk related to a well-defined situation and a recognized threat ( also called hazard ) . Quantitative risk assessment requires calculations of two components of risk ( R ) : the magnitude of the potential loss ( L ) , and the probability ( p ) that the loss will occur . An acceptable risk is a risk that is understood and tolerated usually because the cost or difficulty of implementing an effective countermeasure for the associated vulnerability exceeds the expectation of loss . `` Health risk assessment '' includes variations , such as risk as the type and severity of response , with or without a probabilistic context . In all types of engineering of complex systems sophisticated risk assessments are often made within safety engineering and reliability engineering when it concerns threats to life , environment or machine functioning . The agriculture , nuclear , aerospace , oil , rail and military industries have a long history of dealing with risk assessment . Also , medical , hospital , social service and food industries control risks and perform risk assessments on a continual basis . Methods for assessment of risk may differ between industries and whether it pertains to general financial decisions or environmental , ecological , or public health risk assessment .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Risk_assessment", "rank": 58, "score": 84087 }, { "content": "Title: Berkeley Earth Content: Berkeley Earth is a Berkeley , California based independent 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit focused on land temperature data analysis for climate science . Berkeley Earth was founded in early 2010 ( originally called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project ) with the goal of addressing the major concerns from outside the scientific community regarding global warming and the instrumental temperature record . The project 's stated aim was a `` transparent approach , based on data analysis . '' In February 2013 , Berkeley Earth became an independent non-profit . In August 2013 , Berkeley Earth was granted 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) tax-exempt status by the US government . The primary product is air temperatures over land , but they also produce a global dataset resulting from a merge of their land data with HadSST . Berkeley Earth founder Richard A. Muller told The Guardian '' ... we are bringing the spirit of science back to a subject that has become too argumentative and too contentious , ... we are an independent , non-political , non-partisan group . We will gather the data , do the analysis , present the results and make all of it available . There will be no spin , whatever we find . We are doing this because it is the most important project in the world today . Nothing else comes close . '' Berkeley Earth has been funded by unrestricted educational grants totaling ( as of December 2013 ) about $ 1,394,500 . Large donors include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , the Charles G. Koch Foundation , the Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research ( FICER ) , and the William K. Bowes , Jr. . Foundation . The donors have no control over how Berkeley Earth conducts the research or what they publish . The team 's preliminary findings , data sets and programs were published in journals operated by OMICS Group , a predatory open access publisher beginning in December 2012 . The study addressed scientific concerns including urban heat island effect , poor station quality , and the risk of data selection bias . The Berkeley Earth group concluded that the warming trend is real , that over the past 50 years ( between the decades of the 1950s and 2000s ) the land surface warmed by 0.91 ± 0.05 ° C , and their results mirror those obtained from earlier studies carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the Hadley Centre , NASA 's Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) Surface Temperature Analysis , and the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia . The study also found that the urban heat island effect and poor station quality did not bias the results obtained from these earlier studies .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Berkeley_Earth", "rank": 59, "score": 83863 }, { "content": "Title: America's Climate Security Act of 2007 Content: The America 's Climate Security Act of 2007 was a global warming bill that was considered by the United States Senate to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the United States . Also known as the Lieberman-Warner bill , bill number , the legislation was introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman ( I-CT ) and John Warner ( R-VA ) on October 18 , 2007 . The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in December 2007 , and was debated in the Senate during the week of June 2 . The bill would create a national cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions , in which polluters would mostly be allocated right-to-emit credits based on how much greenhouse gas they currently emit . The cap would get tighter over time , until by 2050 , emissions would be reduced to 63 % below 2005 levels . Several environmental groups express their encouragement at the progress in legislation on the global warming issue while at the same time expressing disappointment that the bill does n't reduce emissions enough . On June 6 , 2008 , the bill was killed by Senate Republicans over worries that it would damage the economy .", "qid": "358", "docid": "America's_Climate_Security_Act_of_2007", "rank": 60, "score": 83589 }, { "content": "Title: The Existential Negation Campaign Content: The Existential Negation Campaign was a former project of the now-defunct Flat Earth Society website ( http://www.flat-earth.org ) . The Campaign was an absurdist venture . Visitors to the website could download an image that read , `` WARNING : THIS OBJECT DOES NOT EXIST '' and were encouraged to make stickers or signs out of them . These stickers or signs could then be placed on random objects . The mission statement from the Flat Earth Society website : `` This campaign focuses on the consensus-reality definition of existence and existential status . This definition is challenged by affixing to various objects which are popularly believed to exist labels which read `` WARNING : THIS OBJECT DOES NOT EXIST '' . ''", "qid": "358", "docid": "The_Existential_Negation_Campaign", "rank": 61, "score": 83210 }, { "content": "Title: Coupled model intercomparison project Content: In climatology , the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project ( CMIP ) is a framework and the analog of the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project ( AMIP ) for global coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models ( GCMs ) . CMIP began in 1995 under the auspices of the Working Group on Coupled Modeling ( WGCM ) , which is in turn under auspices of CLIVAR and the Joint Scientific Committee for the World Climate Research Program . The Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory supports CMIP by helping WGCM to determine the scope of the project , by maintaining the project 's data base and by participating in data analysis . CMIP has received model output from the pre-industrial climate simulations ( `` control runs '' ) and 1 % per year increasing-CO2 simulations of about 30 coupled GCMs . More recent phases of the project ( 20C3M , ... ) include more realistic scenarios of climate forcing for both historical , paleoclimate and future scenarios .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Coupled_model_intercomparison_project", "rank": 62, "score": 83208 }, { "content": "Title: Climatological normal Content: Climatological normal is a 30-year average of a weather variable . Climatological normals are used as an average or baseline to evaluate climate events and provide context for year-to-year variability . Normals can be calculated for a variety of weather variables including temperature and precipitation and rely on data from weather stations . Variability from the 30-year averages is typical and climate variability looks at the magnitude of extremes .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climatological_normal", "rank": 63, "score": 83130 }, { "content": "Title: List of Storm Prediction Center high risk days Content: A high risk severe weather event is the greatest threat level issued by the Storm Prediction Center ( SPC ) for convective weather events in the United States . High risks are issued only a few times a year when forecasters at the SPC are confident that a major severe weather outbreak , namely tornadoes and occasionally derechoes , will occur on the given day . These are typically reserved for the most extreme events . Limited details are available for days before the late 1990s , and it is probable that there were additional high risk days with no online documentation , especially in the 1980s .", "qid": "358", "docid": "List_of_Storm_Prediction_Center_high_risk_days", "rank": 64, "score": 82613 }, { "content": "Title: Economic impacts of climate change Content: This article describes the economic impacts of climate change . Given the inherent nature of economic forecasting , which involves significant degrees of uncertainty , estimates of the results of global warming over the 21st century have varied widely . Many analyses , such as that of the Stern Review presented to the British Government , have predicted reductions by several percent of world gross domestic product due to climate related costs such as dealing with increased extreme weather events and stresses to low-lying areas due to sea level rises . Other studies by independent economists looking at the effects of climate change have found more ambiguous results around the range of net-neutral changes when all aspects of the issue are evaluated , though the issue remains intensely debated .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Economic_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 65, "score": 82479 }, { "content": "Title: RNPV Content: In finance , rNPV ( risk-adjusted net present value ) or eNPV ( expected NPV ) is a method to value risky future cash flows . rNPV modifies the standard NPV calculation of discounted cash flow ( DCF ) analysis by adjusting ( multiplying ) each cash flow by the estimated probability that it occurs ( the estimated success rate ) . In the language of probability theory , the rNPV is the expected value . rNPV is the standard valuation method in the drug development industry , where sufficient data exists to estimate success rates for all R&D phases . A similar technique is used in the probability model of credit default swap ( CDS ) valuation , but in other financial contexts , risk is incorporated by adding a risk premium percentage to the discount rate .", "qid": "358", "docid": "RNPV", "rank": 66, "score": 82407 }, { "content": "Title: Lorraine Lisiecki Content: Lorraine Lisiecki is an American paleoclimatologist . She is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California , Santa Barbara . She has proposed a new analysis of the 100,000-year problem in the Milankovitch theory of climate change . She also created the analytical software behind the LR04 , a `` standard representation of the climate history of the last five million years '' .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Lorraine_Lisiecki", "rank": 67, "score": 82372 }, { "content": "Title: Executive Order 13653 Content: Executive Order 13653 Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change was issued by President Barack Obama on November 1 , 2013 . EO 13653 is the Federal Government 's response to the rising issue of climate change . It was issued in order to prepare the Nation for the impending impacts on the environment brought by climate change and to implement risk management strategies to lessen the harm done by these impacts on the Nation . EO 13653 mandates that the Federal Government , as well stakeholders , must manage these risks with deliberate preparation , cooperation , and coordination in order to effectively improve climate preparedness and resilience . With preparedness and resilience come a safer economy , infrastructure , environment , and supply of natural resources - allowing the continuation of department and agency operations , services , and programs . Agencies are called on to promote open lines of sharing and communication throughout all levels of government , make both informed and strategic decisions , quickly adapt and adjust future plans when needed , and to effectively prepare for the future by planning . The order was rescinded by President Donald Trump on March 28 , 2017 . The previous Order attempted to plan for the following Environmental Impacts : High Temperatures Heavy Downpours Permafrost Thawing Ocean Acidification Sea Level Rise", "qid": "358", "docid": "Executive_Order_13653", "rank": 68, "score": 81776 }, { "content": "Title: Knowledge ark Content: A Knowledge Ark ( also known as a doomsday ark or doomsday vault ) is a collection of knowledge preserved in such a way that future generations would have access to said knowledge if current means of access were lost . Scenarios where availability to information ( such as the Internet ) would be lost could be described as Existential Risks or Extinction Level Events . A knowledge ark could take the form of a traditional Library or a modern computer database . It could also include images only ( such as photographs of important information , or diagrams of critical processes ) . A knowledge ark would have to be resistant to the effects of natural or man-made disasters to be viable . Such an ark should include , but would not be limited to , information or material relevant to the survival and prosperity of human civilization . Current examples include the Svalbard Global Seed Vault , a seedbank which is intended to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds ( such as important crops ) in case of their extinction . A Lunar ark has been proposed which would store and transmit valuable information to receiver stations on Earth . The success of this would also depend on the availability of compatible receiver equipment on Earth , and adequate knowledge of that equipment 's operation . Other types of knowledge arks might include genetic material . With the potential for widespread personal DNA sequencing becoming a reality , an individual might agree to store their genetic code in a digital or analog storage format which would enable later retrieval of that code . If a species was sequenced before extinction , its genome would remain available for study even in the case of extinction .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Knowledge_ark", "rank": 69, "score": 81706 }, { "content": "Title: MSRAM Content: Maritime Security Risk Analysis Model ( MSRAM ) is a process and model that supports the U.S. Coast Guard 's mission to understand and mitigate the risk of terrorist attacks on targets in U.S. ports and waterways . MSRAM began as a Captain of the Port-level risk analysis tool developed shortly after 9/11/2001 . In 2005 , the USCG began development and implementation of MSRAM in order to take advantage of lessons learned with the initial effort and to apply a risk approach that can be applied at both the field and headquarter levels . To develop this program , USCG HQ invited representatives from headquarters , and all levels of command to define requirements and identify milestones . This led to an action plan that fielded the first MSRAM system in 2006 . Since the first MSRAM rollout , USCG is in the third iteration of MSRAM as of 2008 . Following is a summary of the use of MSRAM data and future enhancements .", "qid": "358", "docid": "MSRAM", "rank": 70, "score": 81549 }, { "content": "Title: Dynamic financial analysis Content: Dynamic financial analysis ( DFA ) is a simulation approach that looks at an insurance enterprise 's risks holistically as opposed to traditional actuarial analysis , which analyzes risks individually . Specifically , DFA reveals the dependencies of hazards and their impacts on the insurance company 's financial well being such as business mix , reinsurance , asset allocation , profitability , solvency , and compliance . In addition to projecting stochastic future economic scenarios through using scenario generators such as interest rate , underwriting cycle and jurisdictional risk models , DFA also links the scenarios with the financial models of the targeted insurance company that is being analyzed . Such models not only reveal the operation and the business structure of the company , but also uncover the dependencies among its business practices . Because DFA tries to account for every aspect of the company , it produces a vast amount of data . As a result , analyzing and presenting the outputs effectively is of great importance .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Dynamic_financial_analysis", "rank": 71, "score": 81469 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 72, "score": 81353 }, { "content": "Title: Man on Earth Content: Man on Earth is a four-part British documentary television series presented by Tony Robinson . The programme documents the effects of climate change across 200,000 years of human history . The series premiered 7 December 2009 on Channel 4 with 1.4 million viewers . Accompanying Robinson to help explain the science are archaeologist Dr. Jago Cooper and climate modeller Dr. Joy Singarayer .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Man_on_Earth", "rank": 73, "score": 81207 }, { "content": "Title: UCERF3 Content: The 2015 Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast , Version 3 , or UCERF3 , is the latest official earthquake rupture forecast ( ERF ) for the state of California , superseding UCERF2 . It provides authoritative estimates of the likelihood and severity of potentially damaging earthquake ruptures in the long - and near-term . Combining this with ground motion models produces estimates of the severity of ground shaking that can be expected during a given period ( seismic hazard ) , and of the threat to the built environment ( seismic risk ) . This information is used to inform engineering design and building codes , planning for disaster , and evaluating whether earthquake insurance premiums are sufficient for the prospective losses . A variety of hazard metrics can be calculated with UCERF3 ; a typical metric is the likelihood of a magnitude M 6.7 earthquake ( the size of the 1994 Northridge earthquake ) in the 30 years ( typical life of a mortgage ) since 2014 . UCERF3 was prepared by the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities ( WGCEP ) , a collaboration between the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) , the California Geological Survey ( CGS ) , and the Southern California Earthquake Center ( SCEC ) , with significant funding from the California Earthquake Authority ( CEA ) .", "qid": "358", "docid": "UCERF3", "rank": 74, "score": 81207 }, { "content": "Title: Security Analysis (book) Content: Security Analysis is a book written by professors Benjamin Graham and David Dodd of Columbia Business School , which laid the intellectual foundation for what would later be called value investing . The first edition was published in 1934 , shortly after the Wall Street crash and start of the Great Depression . Among other terms , Graham and Dodd coined the term margin of safety in Security Analysis .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Security_Analysis_(book)", "rank": 75, "score": 81116 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 76, "score": 81008 }, { "content": "Title: CME SPAN Content: The Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk , or SPAN , is a system for calculating margin requirements for futures and options on futures . It was developed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1988 . SPAN is a portfolio margining method that uses grid simulation . It calculates the likely loss in a set of derivative positions ( also called a portfolio ) and sets this value as the initial margin payable by the firm holding the portfolio . In this manner , SPAN provides for offsets between correlated positions and enhances margining efficiency .", "qid": "358", "docid": "CME_SPAN", "rank": 77, "score": 81004 }, { "content": "Title: IT risk Content: Information technology risk , or IT risk , IT-related risk , is any risk related to information technology . While information has long been appreciated as a valuable and important asset , the rise of the knowledge economy and the Digital Revolution has led to organizations becoming increasingly dependent on information , information processing and especially IT . Various events or incidents that compromise IT in some way can therefore cause adverse impacts on the organization 's business processes or mission , ranging from inconsequential to catastrophic in scale . Assessing the probability of likelihood of various types of event/incident with their predicted impacts or consequences should they occur is a common way to assess and measure IT risks . Alternative methods of measuring IT risk typically involve assessing other contributory factors such as the threats , vulnerabilities , exposures , and asset values .", "qid": "358", "docid": "IT_risk", "rank": 78, "score": 80948 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 XL7 Content: ( also written 2014 XL7 ) was the most dangerous potentially hazardous asteroid discovered in 2014 that remained on the Sentry Risk Table at the end of 2014 . The Apollo near-Earth asteroid is estimated to be roughly 230 meters in diameter and had a cumulative 1 in 83000 chance of impacting Earth on 4 -- 5 June between the years 2048 and 2084 . It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 15 January 2015 using JPL solution 9 with an observation arc of 35 days . On 1 September 2014 the asteroid passed about 0.259 AU from Earth , but at that time the asteroid had an apparent magnitude of 25 and was roughly 25 degrees from the Sun . It was discovered on 11 December 2014 by the Mount Lemmon Survey at an apparent magnitude of 20 using a 1.5 m reflecting telescope . The asteroid has an observation arc of 35 days with an uncertainty parameter of 6 . The asteroid was last observed on 15 January 2015 , and is still being actively observed to better constrain the orbit . The asteroid will not drop below magnitude 25 until March 2015 . With an absolute magnitude of 21 , the asteroid is about 170 -- 380 meters in diameter . With an observation arc of 19 days , it had a cumulative Palermo Scale rating of -- 2.85 and was briefly the 9th most dangerous asteroid known . It was calculated that on 4 June 2065 there was a 1 in 270000 chance of impact and on 4 June 2076 there was a 1 in 137000 chance of impact . On 15 January 2015 the asteroid was recovered by Cerro Paranal Observatory which extended the observation arc to 35 days , and was removed from the Sentry Risk Table .", "qid": "358", "docid": "2014_XL7", "rank": 79, "score": 80881 }, { "content": "Title: Security Risk Certificate Content: A Security Risk Certificate is part of a New Zealand legal process whereby a person suspected of being a security risk can be incarcerated prior to expulsion from the country . The Security Risk Certificate is based on unchallengeable `` classified security information '' ( Immigration Act 1987 s 114B ( 1 ) ) . This is information that , in the opinion of the Director of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service `` can not be divulged to the individual in question or to other persons '' ( s 114B ( 1 ) ) for various reasons , including those listed below .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Security_Risk_Certificate", "rank": 80, "score": 80667 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 81, "score": 80458 }, { "content": "Title: Earthquake scenario Content: Earthquake scenario is a planning tool to determine the appropriate emergency responses or building systems in areas exposed to earthquake hazards . It uses the basics of seismic hazard studies , but usually places a set earthquake on a specific fault , most likely near a high-population area . Most scenarios relate directly to urban seismic risk , and seismic risk in general . Some earthquake scenarios follow some of the latest methodologies from the nuclear industry , namely a Seismic Margin Assessment ( SMA ) . In the process , a Review Level Earthquake ( RLE ) is chosen that challenges the system , has a reasonable probability , and is not totally overwhelming . Scenarios have been developed for Seattle , New York City , and many of the faults in California . In general , areas west of the Rockies use urban earthquakes of M7 ( moment magnitude ) , and eastern cities use an M6 . Some eastern cities do not have an earthquake scenario . As an example , the Greater Toronto area in Ontario , Canada has a local seismicity with about as much a chance for an M6 as most of the moderate earthquake zones of Eastern North America ( ENA ) , including New York City . As seen on the map , the RLE would be an M6 located in the western end of Lake Ontario . It could be suspected that the damage would follow the New York City scenario , with extensive damage to lifelines , and brick buildings on soft ground .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Earthquake_scenario", "rank": 82, "score": 80392 }, { "content": "Title: Representative Concentration Pathways Content: Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs ) are four greenhouse gas concentration ( not emissions ) trajectories adopted by the IPCC for its fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) in 2014 . It supersedes Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( SRES ) projections published in 2000 . The pathways are used for climate modeling and research . They describe four possible climate futures , all of which are considered possible depending on how much greenhouse gases are emitted in the years to come . The four RCPs , RCP2 .6 , RCP4 .5 , RCP6 , and RCP8 .5 , are named after a possible range of radiative forcing values in the year 2100 relative to pre-industrial values ( +2.6 , +4.5 , +6.0 , and +8.5 W/m2 , respectively ) .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Representative_Concentration_Pathways", "rank": 83, "score": 80346 }, { "content": "Title: (163132) 2002 CU11 Content: , provisionally known as 2002 CU11 , is a near-Earth asteroid and potentially hazardous object . It was discovered on 7 February 2002 by Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research ( LINEAR ) at an apparent magnitude of 19 using a 1.0 m reflecting telescope . It has an estimated diameter of 730 m . The asteroid was listed on Sentry Risk Table with a Torino Scale rating of 1 on 20 March 2002 . With an observation arc of 44 days , showed a 1 in 9,300 chance of impacting Earth in 2049 . It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 26 April 2002 . It is now known that on 3 September 2049 the asteroid will be 0.0843 AU from Earth . Even though using an epoch of 27 June 2015 gives an Earth-MOID of 0.0000093 AU , the asteroid does not make any threatening approaches to Earth in the foreseeable future .", "qid": "358", "docid": "(163132)_2002_CU11", "rank": 84, "score": 80258 }, { "content": "Title: Fate of the World Content: Fate of the World is a 2011 global warming game developed and published by Red Redemption . It features several scenarios , based on actual scientific research , in which the player is put in charge of a fictional international organization managing social , technological and environmental policies . The goals of the scenarios range from improving living conditions in Africa , to preventing catastrophic climate change , to exacerbating it . It is quickly followed by an expansion pack called Fate of the World : Tipping Point , released in late 2011 . The climate prediction models for the game are the work of Myles Allen , the head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Fate_of_the_World", "rank": 85, "score": 80233 }, { "content": "Title: Human extinction Content: In futures studies , human extinction is the hypothetical end of the human species . This may be caused by natural causes or it may be anthropogenic , i.e. the result of human action . The likelihood of human extinction in the near future by wholly natural scenarios , such as a meteorite impact or large-scale volcanism , is generally considered to be extremely low . For anthropogenic extinction , many possible scenarios have been proposed : Human global nuclear annihilation , biological warfare or the release of a pandemic-causing agent , dysgenics , overpopulation , ecological collapse , and global warming ; in addition , emerging technologies could bring about new extinction scenarios , such as advanced artificial intelligence , biotechnology or self-replicating nanobots . The probability of anthropogenic human extinction within the next hundred years is the topic of an active debate . Human extinction needs to be differentiated from the extinction of all life on Earth ( see also future of Earth ) and from the extinction of major components of human culture ( e.g. , through a global catastrophe leaving only small , scattered human populations , which might evolve in isolation ) .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Human_extinction", "rank": 86, "score": 80150 }, { "content": "Title: Risk Analysis (journal) Content: Risk Analysis is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of risk analysis published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society for Risk Analysis . The editor-in-chief is Michael Greenberg ( Rutgers University ) . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal has a 2011 impact factor of 2.366 , ranking it 4th out of 45 journals in the category `` Social Sciences , Mathematical Methods '' and 7th out of 92 journals in the category `` Mathematics , Interdisciplinary Applications '' .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Risk_Analysis_(journal)", "rank": 87, "score": 79936 }, { "content": "Title: Risk analysis (business) Content: Risk analysis is a technique used to identify and assess factors that may jeopardize the success of a project or achieving a goal . This technique also helps to define preventive measures to reduce the probability of these factors from occurring and identify countermeasures to successfully deal with these constraints when they develop to avert possible negative effects on the competitiveness of the company . One of the more popular methods to perform a risk analysis in the computer field is called facilitated risk analysis process ( FRAP ) .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Risk_analysis_(business)", "rank": 88, "score": 79807 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 VK184 Content: ( also written 2007 VK184 ) is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid estimated to be about 130 m in diameter . It was listed on the Sentry Risk Table with a Torino Scale rating of 1 . A Torino scale rating of 1 is a routine discovery in which a pass near the Earth is predicted that poses no unusual level of danger . was discovered on November 12 , 2007 , by the Catalina Sky Survey . It was recovered on March 26 , 2014 by Mauna Kea , and removed from the Sentry Risk Table on March 28 , 2014 . By January 4 , 2008 , with an observation arc of 52 days , there was a 1 in 2700 chance of an impact with Earth on June 3 , 2048 . The Sentry Risk Table , using an observation arc of 60 days , showed the asteroid had a 1 in 1820 chance ( 0.055 % ) of impacting Earth on June 3 , 2048 . Since the March 2014 recovery , it is known that the asteroid will pass 0.013 AU from Earth on June 2 , 2048 .", "qid": "358", "docid": "2007_VK184", "rank": 89, "score": 79725 }, { "content": "Title: Community Earth System Model Content: The Community Earth System Model ( CESM ) is a fully coupled numerical simulation of the Earth system consisting of atmospheric , ocean , ice , land surface , carbon cycle , and other components . CESM includes a climate model providing state-of-art simulations of the Earth 's past , present , and future . It is the successor of the Community Climate System Model ( CCSM ) , specifically version 4 ( CCSMv4 ) , which provided the initial atmospheric component for CESM . Strong ensemble forecasting capabilities , CESM-LE ( CESM-Large Scale ) , were developed at the onset to control for error and biases across different model runs ( realizations ) . Simulations from the Earth 's surface through the thermosphere are generated utilizing the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model ( WACCM ) . CESM1 was released in 2010 with primary development by the Climate and Global Dynamics Division ( CGD ) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) , and significant funding by the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and the Department of Energy ( DoE ) .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Community_Earth_System_Model", "rank": 90, "score": 79503 }, { "content": "Title: Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability Content: The Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability is a public policy think tank founded in 1992 . The Institute convenes scholars and practitioners who conduct research to address interconnected global problems such as threats of nuclear war , urban and energy insecurity , and climate change in the Asia Pacific region . The Institute has been mentioned in stories in media such as the Financial Times , Foreign Policy , Radio Australia , and others .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Nautilus_Institute_for_Security_and_Sustainability", "rank": 91, "score": 79356 }, { "content": "Title: (292220) 2006 SU49 Content: ( also written 2006 SU49 ) is a near-Earth asteroid that had a 1 in 42,000 chance of impacting Earth on January 22 , 2029 . By October 29 , 2006 , it was listed with a Torino Scale impact risk value of 0 . It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on November 23 , 2006 . It is now known that on January 28 , 2029 , the asteroid will be 0.00818 AU from Earth . It is a near-Earth asteroid that received minor attention in late September and early October 2006 because initial observations indicated a higher than usual probability that it would strike the Earth in 2029 . However , the Near-Earth Object ( NEO ) Office at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) removed from its risk list as additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon through 2106 . Similarly , NEODyS estimates show a zero impact probability through 2080 . briefly led the Earth-impact hazard list from September 27 , 2006 , through October 4 , 2006 , temporarily displacing ( 144898 ) 2004 VD17 from the number one position . At the time , both held a Torino scale of level 1 and were the only asteroids to hold a Torino value greater than 0 . Even though has an Earth MOID of 0.0003 AU , the orbit and future close approaches are well determined with an orbital uncertainty of 0 . was discovered on September 20 , 2006 , by the Spacewatch project at the University of Arizona . The object is estimated at 380 meters in diameter with a mass of about 7.3 kg .", "qid": "358", "docid": "(292220)_2006_SU49", "rank": 92, "score": 79309 }, { "content": "Title: GO-ESSP Content: The Global Organization of Earth System Science Portals or ( GO-ESSP ) is an international collaboration , formed in 2003 , that is developing software infrastructure to support the distribution , and analysis of climate model data and related observations . GO-ESSP is playing a central role in coordinating United States and European efforts to document and distribute data for the 5th coupled model intercomparison project , which will be part of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report .", "qid": "358", "docid": "GO-ESSP", "rank": 93, "score": 79301 }, { "content": "Title: Risk factor (computing) Content: In Information security , Risk factor is a collectively name for circumstances affecting the likelihood or the impact of a security risk .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Risk_factor_(computing)", "rank": 94, "score": 79273 }, { "content": "Title: Earth Simulator Content: The , developed by the Japanese government 's initiative `` Earth Simulator Project '' , was a highly parallel vector supercomputer system for running global climate models to evaluate the effects of global warming and problems in solid earth geophysics . The system was developed for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency , Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute , and Japan Marine Science and Technology Center ( JAMSTEC ) in 1997 . Construction started in October 1999 , and the site officially opened on March 11 , 2002 . The project cost 60 billion yen . Built by NEC , ES was based on their SX-6 architecture . It consisted of 640 nodes with eight vector processors and 16 gigabytes of computer memory at each node , for a total of 5120 processors and 10 terabytes of memory . Two nodes were installed per 1 metre x 1.4 metre x 2 metre cabinet . Each cabinet consumed 20 kW of power . The system had 700 terabytes of disk storage ( 450 for the system and 250 for the users ) and 1.6 petabytes of mass storage in tape drives . It was able to run holistic simulations of global climate in both the atmosphere and the oceans down to a resolution of 10 km . Its performance on the LINPACK benchmark was 35.86 TFLOPS , which was almost five times faster than the previous fastest supercomputer , ASCI White . ES was the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004 . Its capacity was surpassed by IBM 's Blue Gene/L prototype on September 29 , 2004 . ES was replaced by the Earth Simulator 2 ( ES2 ) in March 2009 . ES2 is an NEC SX-9 / E system , and has a quarter as many nodes each of 12.8 times the performance ( 3.2 x clock speed , four times the processing resource per node ) , for a peak performance of 131 TFLOPS . With a delivered LINPACK performance of 122.4 TFLOPS , ES2 was the most efficient supercomputer in the world at that point . In November 2010 , NEC announced that ES2 topped the Global FFT , one of the measures of the HPC Challenge Awards , with the performance number of 11.876 TFLOPS . ES2 was replaced by the Earth Simulator 3 ( ES3 ) in March 2015 . ES3 is a NEC SX-ACE system with 5120 nodes .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Earth_Simulator", "rank": 95, "score": 79002 }, { "content": "Title: Global Catastrophic Risks (book) Content: Global Catastrophic Risks ( 2011 ) is a non-fiction book edited by philosopher Nick Bostrom and astronomer Milan M. Ćirković . The book is about issues such as asteroid impacts , gamma-ray bursts , Earth-based natural catastrophes , nuclear war , terrorism , global warming , biological weapons , totalitarianism , advanced nanotechnology , artificial general intelligence , and social collapse . The book also addresses overarching issues such as policy responses and methods for predicting and managing catastrophes .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Global_Catastrophic_Risks_(book)", "rank": 96, "score": 78974 }, { "content": "Title: Risk analysis (engineering) Content: Risk analysis is the science of risks and their probability and evaluation . Probabilistic risk assessment is one analysis strategy usually employed in science and engineering .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Risk_analysis_(engineering)", "rank": 97, "score": 78773 }, { "content": "Title: The European Security Order Recast Content: The European Security Order Recast : Scenarios for the Post-Cold War Era was a 1990 international relations book by Barry Buzan , Morten Kelstrup , Pierre Lemaitre , Elzbieta Tromer and Ole Waever . The book focused on structural transformations in European security at the end of the Cold War and argues that concerns about traditional military security would decrease and that the issue of societal security would become more important in the future . The work is considered to be belong to the Copenhagen School of security studies .", "qid": "358", "docid": "The_European_Security_Order_Recast", "rank": 98, "score": 78711 }, { "content": "Title: Calculated Risk (novel) Content: Calculated Risk is a 1960 science fiction novel -- specifically , a time travel story -- by Charles Eric Maine . It was first published in the U. K. by Hodder & Stoughton ; a paperback version by Corgi Books appeared in 1962 . The novel explores themes of personal moral responsibility , and in particular the responsibility of scientists to prevent abuse of the results of their research . It uses the device of `` psychological time travel '' whereby a person 's mind could be sent across time and take over the brain and body of another person living in that time -- similar to the device in Maine 's earlier and better-known `` Timeliner '' .", "qid": "358", "docid": "Calculated_Risk_(novel)", "rank": 99, "score": 78683 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 AU118 Content: ( also written 2010 AU118 ) is an Amor near-Earth asteroid with an observation arc of only two days and thus a poorly determined orbit . It was announced on 27 May 2010 based on images taken by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ) on 13 -- 15 January 2010 . It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 14 June 2014 as a result of an update to the Sentry software . Another software update restored it to the Sentry Risk Table in 2017 . WISE estimates the asteroid to be 1900 m in diameter . It has a poorly constrained orbit with an uncertainty parameter of 9 . Until the June 2014 solution , virtual clones of the asteroid , that fit the uncertainty region in the known trajectory , showed a 1 in 769,231,000 chance that the asteroid could impact the Earth on 2020 October 20 . With a Palermo Technical Scale of − 4.26 , the odds of an impact by in 2020 were about 18000 times less than the background hazard level of Earth impacts , which is defined as the average risk posed by objects of the same size or larger over the years until the date of the potential impact .", "qid": "358", "docid": "2010_AU118", "rank": 100, "score": 78510 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 2007 Western North American heat wave Content: The 2007 western North American heat wave was a record-breaking event that began in late June 2007 . The heat stretched from Mexico to Alberta , Saskatchewan , Manitoba and into northwestern Ontario . The record heat has exacerbated already present record-breaking drought conditions in much of the Western U.S. , allowing fires to grow to record-breaking sizes . The combination of conditions forced major freeway closures , animal and human deaths , evacuations , and destruction of property . Much of eastern North America experienced more average conditions through July 2007 , with little in the way of prolonged heat waves . However , drought remained a problem in some areas of the east , particularly parts of the southeast .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2007_Western_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 1, "score": 179843 }, { "content": "Title: 1988–89 North American drought Content: The North American Drought of 1988 ranks among the worst episodes of drought in the United States . This multi-year drought began in most areas in 1988 and continued into 1989 . The drought caused $ 60 billion ( 1988 United States dollars ) in damage ( $ 120 billion in 2014 United States dollars , adjusting for inflation ) . The drought occasioned some of the worst blowing-dust events since 1977 or the 1930s in many locations in the Midwestern United States , including a protracted dust storm , which closed schools in South Dakota in late February 1988 . During the spring , several weather stations set records for lowest monthly total precipitation and longest interval between measurable precipitation , for example , 55 days in a row without precipitation in Milwaukee . During the summer , two record-setting heat waves developed , similar to those of 1934 and 1936 . The concurrent heat waves killed 4,800 to 17,000 people in the United States . During the summer of 1988 , the drought led to many wildfires in forested western North America , including the Yellowstone fires of 1988 . At its peak , the drought covered 45 % of the United States . While covering less area than the Dust Bowl , which covered 70 % of the United States , the drought of 1988 ranks as not only the costliest drought in United States history but also the costliest natural disaster in United States history before Hurricane Katrina . In Canada , drought-related losses added to $ 1.8 billion ( 1988 Canadian dollars ) .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1988–89_North_American_drought", "rank": 2, "score": 168372 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2014 North American cold wave Content: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013 -- 2014 winter season , and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States . The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex . Record-low temperatures also extended well into March . On January 2 , an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States , resulting in heavy snowfall . Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels , and low temperature records were broken across the United States . Business , school , and road closures were common , as well as mass flight cancellations . Altogether , more than 200 million people were affected , in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Early_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 3, "score": 166723 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "362", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 4, "score": 163960 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave Content: The 2007 North America South and Eastern heatwave was a continuation and eastward expansion of the 2007 Western North American heat wave which began in late June 2007 . The heatwave expanded eastward starting at the very end of July and lasting into the first weeks of August . This heat wave was notable for both associated severe drought over a large swath of the southeastern United States , and parts of the Great Lakes region , and its late season ending , with temperatures continuing , although more sporadically , well into the 90s ° F ( 30s ° C ) into September and October in the mid-Atlantic region .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2007_North_America_South_and_Eastern_heatwave", "rank": 5, "score": 155349 }, { "content": "Title: 2012–13 North American drought Content: The 2012 -- 13 North American drought , an expansion of the 2010 -- 13 Southern United States drought , originated in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave . Low snowfall amounts in winter , coupled with the intense summer heat from La Niña , caused drought-like conditions to migrate northward from the southern United States , wreaking havoc on crops and water supply . The drought has inflicted , and is expected to continue to inflict , catastrophic economic ramifications for the affected states . It has exceeded , in most measures , the 1988 -- 89 North American drought , the most recent comparable drought , and is on track to exceed that drought as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history . The drought includes most of the U.S. , parts of Mexico , and central and Eastern Canada . At its peak on July 17 , 2012 , it covered approximately 81 percent of the contiguous United States with at least abnormally dry ( D0 ) conditions . Out of that 81 % , 64 % was designated as at least moderate drought ( D1 ) conditions . Its area was comparable to the droughts in the 1930s and 1950s but it has not yet been in place for as long . In March 2013 , heavy winter rains broke a three-year pattern of drought in much of the Southeastern United States , while drought conditions still plague the Great Plains and other parts of the U.S. , according to the U.S. Drought Monitor . Drought continued in parts of North America through 2013 . Beginning in March 2013 , improved rainfall across the Midwest , southern Mississippi Valley , and Great Plains began gradually alleviating drought in these areas , while drought continued to intensify in the Western United States . Heavy rains across previously drought-stricken areas resulted in widespread flooding in portions of the Midwest , a phenomenon which was named `` weather whiplash '' . By June 2013 , approximately the eastern half of the United States was drought-free , while conditions continued to gradually improve across the Plains . Moderate to severe drought continues to impact and worsen throughout the western United States , with some portions of the United States being afflicted by the drought for over three years . Through the winter of 2013 -- 2014 , California continued to receive record low rainfall . For many locations , the calendar year of 2013 was the driest year in over 130 years . Some locations received less than half of their previous record low rainfall amounts .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2012–13_North_American_drought", "rank": 6, "score": 153462 }, { "content": "Title: November 2014 North American cold wave Content: The November 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that occurred across most of Canada and the contiguous United States , including parts of the Western United States up to western California . One of the first events of the winter , the cold wave was caused by the northward movement of an extremely powerful bomb cyclone associated with Typhoon Nuri 's remnant , which shifted the jet stream far northward , creating an omega block pattern . This allowed a piece of the polar vortex to advance southward into the Central and Eastern United States , bringing record-cold temperatures to much of the region . In contrast , Alaska experienced above-average temperatures . This was the worst cold wave that the North American region had experienced since an earlier cold wave in early 2014 . The cold wave was expected to last for a few weeks , extending at least until American Thanksgiving . Although the Omega Block broke down on November 20 , due to a powerful storm moving into the Gulf of Alaska , frigid conditions continued to persist across much of the United States . There was also concern among some meteorologists that another cold wave or abnormally cold trend might persist throughout the winter of 2014 -- 15 , the chances of which were `` above average . '' On November 23 , a warming trend primarily in the Eastern United States brought an end to the cold wave ; however , below-average temperatures were forecast to return to the Midwest by November 24 . Despite the development of a second cold wave , it ended on December 6 , when a ridge of high pressure brought above-average temperatures to the region , especially in the Central United States .", "qid": "362", "docid": "November_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 7, "score": 152668 }, { "content": "Title: 1955 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The UK drought of 1955 and associated heatwave were a set of severe weather events that occurred over all parts of the country . The drought was the 7th worst drought in Yorkshire , and worse than the famous 1976 drought and heatwave in the region . The drought followed a period of extremely wet weather previous to the event , limiting the effects . However , the usual impacts were seen with water levels and the water table dropping and reservoirs running low .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1955_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 8, "score": 150783 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events of 535–536 Content: The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the most severe and protracted short-term episodes of cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2000 years . The event is thought to have been caused by an extensive atmospheric dust veil , possibly resulting from a large volcanic eruption in the tropics , or debris from space impacting the Earth . Its effects were widespread , causing unseasonal weather , crop failures and famines worldwide .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_of_535–536", "rank": 9, "score": 150666 }, { "content": "Title: Storm Data Content: Storm Data and Unusual Weather Phenomena ( SD ) is a monthly NOAA publication with comprehensive listings and detailed summaries of severe weather occurrences in the United States . Included is information on tornadoes , high wind events , hail , lightning , floods and flash floods , tropical cyclones ( hurricanes ) , ice storms , snow , extreme temperatures such as heat waves and cold waves , droughts , and wildfires . Photographs of weather and attendant damage are used as much as possible . Maps of significant weather are also included .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Storm_Data", "rank": 10, "score": 150205 }, { "content": "Title: February 2015 North American cold wave Content: The February 2015 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that affected most of Canada and the eastern half of the United States . Following an earlier cold wave in the winter , the period of below-average temperatures contributed to an already unusually cold winter for the Eastern U.S. Several places broke their records for their coldest February on record , while some areas came very close . The cause of the cold wave was due to the polar vortex advancing southwards into the eastern parts of the U.S , and even making it as far south as the Southeast , where snow is rare . By the beginning of March , although the pattern did continue for the first week , it abated and retreated near the official end of the winter . In addition to the extremely cold weather , multiple winter storms affected nearly the entire United States , especially in the snow-weary Northeast , which had already seen nearly 3 ft of snow in the latter part of January ; this was added to by roughly 3 -- 4 ft ( 36 -- 48 in ) more snow , leading to Boston having its highest seasonal snowfall on record .", "qid": "362", "docid": "February_2015_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 11, "score": 149209 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "362", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 12, "score": 146551 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 13, "score": 146217 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 14, "score": 145722 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 15, "score": 144665 }, { "content": "Title: Severe weather Content: Severe weather refers to any dangerous meteorological phenomena with the potential to cause damage , serious social disruption , or loss of human life . Types of severe weather phenomena vary , depending on the latitude , altitude , topography , and atmospheric conditions . High winds , hail , excessive precipitation , and wildfires are forms and effects of severe weather , as are thunderstorms , downbursts , lightning , tornadoes , waterspouts , tropical cyclones , and extratropical cyclones . Regional and seasonal severe weather phenomena include blizzards , snowstorms , ice storms , and duststorms .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Severe_weather", "rank": 16, "score": 144527 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 2008 Content: The North American blizzard of 2008 was a winter storm that struck most of southern and eastern North America from March 6 to March 10 , 2008 . The storm was most notable for a major winter storm event from Arkansas to Quebec . It also produced severe weather across the east coast of the United States with heavy rain , damaging winds and tornadoes , causing locally significant damage . The hardest hit areas by the wintry weather were from the Ohio Valley to southern Quebec where up to a half a meter of snow fell locally including the major cities of Columbus , Ohio , Cleveland , Ohio , and Ottawa , Ontario . For many areas across portions of the central United States , Ontario and Quebec , it was the worst winter storm in the past several years . The blizzard and its aftermath caused at least 17 deaths across four US states and three Canadian provinces , while hundreds others were injured mostly in weather-related accidents and tornadoes .", "qid": "362", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_2008", "rank": 17, "score": 142895 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 North American heat wave Content: The 2015 North American heat wave was a heatwave in the Northwest United States and southern British Columbia , that took place from June 18 - July 3 , 2015 . Many all time and monthly record highs and record high lows were recorded . In Canada , the heat wave mostly affected the Lower Mainland , and the Southern Interior .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2015_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 18, "score": 142795 }, { "content": "Title: Summer 2012 North American heat wave Content: In the Summer of 2012 , a heat wave took place , leading to more than 82 heat-related deaths across the United States and Canada . An additional twenty-two lives were lost in the resultant June 2012 North American derecho . This long-lived , straight-line wind and its thunderstorms cut electrical power to 3.7 million customers . Over 500,000 were still without power on July 6 , as the heat wave continued . Temperatures generally decreased somewhat the week of July 9 in the east , but the high pressure shifted to the west , causing the core of the hot weather to the build in the Mountain States and the southwest U. S. shifting eastwards again by mid-July . By early August , the core of the heat remained over the Southern Plains .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Summer_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 19, "score": 141132 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2007 Content: Global storm activity of 2007 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2007 to December 31 , 2007 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , they may form in summer , though it would have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the summer of 1816 in the Northeast United States of America . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2007", "rank": 20, "score": 140952 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 21, "score": 140476 }, { "content": "Title: October 2010 North American storm complex Content: The October 2010 North American storm complex is the name given to a historic extratropical cyclone that impacted North America . The massive storm complex caused a wide range of weather events including a major serial derecho stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes , a widespread tornado outbreak across the Southeast United States and Midwest and a blizzard across portions of the Canadian Prairies and the Dakotas . The cyclone 's lowest minimum pressure of 955.2 mb made it the second most intense non-tropical system recorded in the continental United States ( CONUS ) . The lowest confirmed pressure for a non-tropical system in the continental United States was set by a January 1913 Atlantic coast storm .", "qid": "362", "docid": "October_2010_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 22, "score": 140007 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 1996 Content: The Blizzard of 1996 was a severe nor'easter that paralyzed the U.S. East Coast with up to 4 ft of wind-driven snow from January 6 to January 8 , 1996 . It was followed by another storm , an Alberta Clipper , on January 12 , then unusually warm weather and torrential rain which caused rapid melting and river flooding . Along with the March Superstorm of 1993 , it is one of only two snowstorms to receive the top rating of 5 , or `` Extreme '' , on the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale ( NESIS ) .", "qid": "362", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_1996", "rank": 23, "score": 139844 }, { "content": "Title: Meteorological disasters Content: Meteorological disasters are caused by extreme weather , e.g. rain , drought , snow , extreme heat or cold , ice , or wind . Violent , sudden and destructive change to the environment related to , produced by , or affecting the earth 's atmosphere , especially the weather-forming processes . Examples of weather disasters include blizzard , cyclones , droughts , hailstorms , heat waves , hurricanes , floods ( caused by rain ) , and tornadoes .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Meteorological_disasters", "rank": 24, "score": 139797 }, { "content": "Title: December 2013 North American storm complex Content: The December 2013 North American storm complex was a significant storm complex that had all sorts of severe weather , including a winter storm , a crippling ice storm and a tornado outbreak that impacted the central and eastern portions of Canada , parts of the Central Great Plains , the Southern United States , and the northeastern United States from December 20 to 23 , 2013 . Formed in the South Central United States , the storm headed across the Great Plains towards Canada into Atlantic Canada and northeastern United States where the storm dissipated on December 23 , 2013 . The storm produced freezing rain and snow to the affected areas which caused massive damage to electric power transmission and trees . The storm resulted in 27 deaths , loss of power to over a million of residents and over $ 200 million in damages . The storm produced similar conditions to the ice storm of 1998 which affected similar areas .", "qid": "362", "docid": "December_2013_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 25, "score": 139143 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2009 Content: Global storm activity of 2009 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2009 to December 31 , 2009 . Wintery storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Summer storms including flooding , severe thunderstorms and extratropical cyclones ( which can occur in summer or winter ) are also included in this list to a certain extent . As this occurred a heat wave and/or unforeseen monsoon weather also hit parts of Australia in 2009 and 2010 . Victoria , the scene of horrific bushfires the year before , had a far colder summer , with hot weather arriving more than a month later than usual in 2009 . August 17 saw a dust storm at Laguna Mar Chiquita as a major drought hit Argentina , and flooding and hailstorms hit southeastern Australia and Queensland in March 2010 . The lack of winter precipitation in parts of China , however , contributed to a severe drought in the southwest . Bolivia , Venezuela , Mali , Mauritania , Morocco and Spain have also seen periods of drought in 2009 and 2010 . On between May 12 and 26 , both Mauritania , the Sénégal River Area and neighbouring parts of both Senegal and Mali faced both a drought and famine in 2010 . A storm ( from Proto-Germanic * sturmaz `` noise , tumult '' ) is any disturbed state of an astronomical body 's atmosphere , especially affecting its surface , and strongly implying severe weather . Storms are created when a centre of low pressure develops , with a system of high pressure surrounding it . This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds , such as the cumulonimbus . Small , localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground , resulting in smaller meteorological disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2009", "rank": 26, "score": 138573 }, { "content": "Title: February 25–27, 2010 North American blizzard Content: The February 25 -- 27 , 2010 North American blizzard ( also known as the `` Snowicane '' ) was a winter storm and severe weather event that occurred in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions of the United States between February 24 -- 26 , 2010 . The storm dropped its heaviest snow of 12 to ( locally as much as 36 in ) across a wide area of interior New England , New York , and Pennsylvania . The storm also brought flooding rains to coastal sections of New England , with some areas experiencing as much as 4 in . Aside from precipitation , the Nor'easter brought hurricane-force sustained winds to coastal New England . This storm was a complex combination of multiple systems , including an upper air low from the northern Great Plains states , and a surface low from the Gulf Coast states . As the surface low tracked northeast from the coast of North Carolina , the upper air low transferred its energy to it , eventually enabling the new storm to undergo rapid intensification near the shore of eastern Long Island . A strong blocking regime of high pressure over the Canadian Maritime provinces prevented the storm system from exiting to the east . This resulted in a cutoff low ( not influenced by the predominant jet stream currents ) , which took a highly unusual track , retrograding west into New York state before looping back out to sea .", "qid": "362", "docid": "February_25–27,_2010_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 27, "score": 136270 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 North American drought Content: The 2002 North American Drought was an exceptional and damaging drought which impacted the Western United States , Midwestern United States and the Mountain States .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2002_North_American_drought", "rank": 28, "score": 136256 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 29, "score": 133884 }, { "content": "Title: December 2015 North American storm complex Content: The December 2015 North American storm complex was a major storm complex that produced a tornado outbreak , a winter storm , a blizzard and an ice storm in areas ranging from the Southwestern United States to New England . Tornadoes impacted areas around Dallas , Texas . Several states , especially Missouri , were hit with heavy rain and snow causing severe floods . As the system moved through the Great Lakes region , heavy rain , ice pellets and heavy snow fell in the entire region . Wintry mix moved through southern Ontario and Quebec had significant snowfall on December 29 . Almost 60 people were killed in the storm system and its aftermath , which made it one of the deadliest of such systems of 2015 in the United States .", "qid": "362", "docid": "December_2015_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 30, "score": 133660 }, { "content": "Title: 1980 United States heat wave Content: The 1980 United States Heat Wave was a period of intense heat and drought that wreaked havoc on much of the Midwestern United States and Southern Plains throughout the summer of 1980 . It is among the most devastating natural disasters in terms of deaths and destruction in U.S. history , claiming at least 1,700 lives and because of the massive drought , agricultural damage reached US$ 20.0 billion ( US$ 55.4 billion in 2007 dollars , adjusted for the GNP inflation index ) . It is among the billion-dollar weather disasters listed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1980_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 31, "score": 133549 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 California wildfires Content: The 2014 California wildfire season saw several notable wildfires ignited in the state of California , especially during the month of May , when multiple fires were ablaze concurrently in Southern California , and during September , when several massive wildfires were burning in Northern California . In the context of the 2012 -- 15 North American drought ( especially the 2011 -- 15 California drought ) , as well as powerful Santa Ana winds , weather conditions were ideal for wildfires . The season began unusually early when a wildfire ignited on January 1 , followed by 6 more fires igniting later within the same month . During a heat wave and dry Santa Ana conditions in May 2014 , multiple wildfires broke out simultaneously in San Diego County , along with several other wildfires elsewhere in California . By mid-May , fire officials said they had already dealt with 1,400 wildfires in California in 2014 - twice the normal amount for that time of year - and a spokesman for CAL FIRE described the conditions as `` unprecedented . '' The May 2014 San Diego County wildfires were estimated to have caused at least $ 60 million ( 2014 USD ) in damage . In late June to early August , another group of wildfires ignited across the state , some of which reached over twenty thousand acres in size . In mid-September , the largest group of wildfires erupted , with some wildfires becoming larger than 50,000 acres in size . In early September 2014 , the Happy Complex Fire became the largest wildfire of the season , eventually topping out at 135369 acres in size on September 27 . On October 8 , an aerial tanker crashed during a firefighting effort at the Dog Rock Fire , which killed the pilot and sparked a small wildfire . From late September to late October , the latest flare-up of major wildfires were extinguished by cooler weather and precipitation . From December 10 -- 13 , a powerful winter storm extinguished the remaining wildfires that were present . In mid-December through late December , several more small wildfires sparked , but they were all extinguished by December 31 . A total of 5,620 wildfires ignited throughout the year , which burned at least 631434 acres of land . The wildfires caused a total of 146 injuries and 2 fatalities , in addition to causing at least $ 184.02 million ( 2014 USD ) in damage .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2014_California_wildfires", "rank": 32, "score": 133543 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2006 Content: Global storm activity of 2006 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2006 to December 31 , 2006 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , well-defined winter storms may form during the summer , though it would usually have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the Summer of 1816 in the Northeastern United States . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2006", "rank": 33, "score": 132702 }, { "content": "Title: List of meteorological phenomena Content: A meteorological phenomenon is a weather event that can be explained by the principles of meteorology . Such events include : Acid rain Air mass Anticyclone Arctic cyclone Ball lightning Clouds Crow Instability Derecho Diamond dust Drought Dust devil Dust storm El Niño Extratropical cyclone Foehn wind Hail Halo Heat wave Hurricane Ice crystals Ice pellets Indian summer Kelvin -- Helmholtz instability La Nina Lake effect snow Light pillar Lightning Mesocyclone Morning glory cloud Novaya Zemlya Effect Rain Rain and snow mixed Rainbow Raining animals Sleet ; see Ice pellets and Rain and snow mixed Snow Squall St. Elmo 's fire Subtropical cyclone Sun dog Sun shower Supercell Temperature inversion Thunder Thundersnow Thunderstorm Tornado Tropical storm Tsunami Weather front Wind Zud", "qid": "362", "docid": "List_of_meteorological_phenomena", "rank": 34, "score": 132315 }, { "content": "Title: January 2007 North American Ice Storm Content: The January 2007 North American ice storm was a severe ice storm that affected a large swath of North America from the Rio Grande Valley to New England and southeastern Canada starting on January 11 , 2007 through January 16 , followed by a second wave in the Southern United States from Texas to the Carolinas from January 16 through January 18 and a third one that hit the southern Plains and mid-Atlantic states as well as Newfoundland and Labrador from January 19 to January 24 . It resulted in at least 74 deaths across 12 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces , and caused hundreds of thousands of residents across the U.S and Canada to lose electric power . The event was similar to the 1998 Ice storm that struck portions of eastern Canada and northern New England , which were affected by multiple waves of ice precipitation over a period of five days .", "qid": "362", "docid": "January_2007_North_American_Ice_Storm", "rank": 35, "score": 132075 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Russian wildfires Content: The 2010 Russian wildfires were several hundred wildfires that broke out across Russia , primarily in the west in summer 2010 . They started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010 . The fires were associated with record-high temperatures , which were attributed to climate change -- the summer had been the hottest recorded in Russian history -- and drought . Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in seven regions , and 28 other regions were under a state of emergency due to crop failures caused by the drought . The fires cost roughly $ 15 billion in damages . A combination of the smoke from the fires , producing heavy smog blanketing large urban regions and the record-breaking heat wave put stress on the Russian healthcare system . Munich Re estimated that in all , 56,000 people died from the effects of the smog and the heat wave . The 2010 wildfires were the worst on record to that time ; in 2012 , however , new wildfires broke out , and they proved even more extensive and damaging .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2010_Russian_wildfires", "rank": 36, "score": 131944 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 North American heat wave Content: The 2006 North American heat wave spread throughout most of the United States and Canada beginning on July 15 , 2006 , killing at least 225 people . That day the temperature reached 117 ° F ( 47 ° C ) in Pierre , South Dakota , with many places in South Dakota that hit well into the 120s . In early reports from this heat wave , at least three died in Philadelphia , Arkansas , and Indiana . In Maryland , the state health officials reported that three people died of heat-related causes . Another heat related death was suspected in Chicago . Although many heat related deaths go unreported , by July 19 , the Associated Press reported that the soaring heat was blamed for 12 deaths from Oklahoma City to the Philadelphia area . Reports by early morning July 20 raised the death toll to at least 16 in seven states . This period of heat also saw a wind storm ( derecho ) in St. Louis that caused widespread power outages , including for cooling centers designed to provide relief for those suffering from the heat . In addition , places on the West Coast , like California 's Central Valley and Southern California experienced humid heat , which is unusual for the area .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2006_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 37, "score": 131499 }, { "content": "Title: Texas-Oklahoma wildfires of 2005–06 Content: The Texas-Oklahoma wildfires of 2005 -- 06 were a series of wildfires , primarily in the states of Texas and Oklahoma , that began November 27 , 2005 and continued into April 2006 . Surrounding states were also affected to a lesser extent . The fires were triggered by a combination of record-high temperatures , drought , and high winds in the region . The situation was exacerbated , at least in Texas , by plentiful rains in recent years . The rains encouraged vegetation growth , which then dried out over the winter drought leaving more potential fuel . The unusually dry conditions have been attributed to La Niña . At Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City , only 0.36 in of rain fell in the first two months of the year . On January 1 , fires continued to develop throughout the two states . By January 3 , many of the fires were reported to be under control ; but outbreaks continued through January , February , and March . In Texas , 12 people were killed . Eight Texas towns were evacuated in March 2006 . From December 26 , 2005 to April 3 , 2006 , Texas suffered 11,048 wildfires which burned 4903851 acre and destroyed 423 homes . In Oklahoma , 869 homes were damaged ; 300 of them were destroyed . As of April 5 , 2006 , there had been over 22,564 wildfires across the country in the year to date , burning 1872701 acre . Texas governor Rick Perry declared the entire state a disaster area , describing it as a `` tinderbox '' , and called for firefighters and fire equipment to combat the blazes . In addition , the governor of Oklahoma , Brad Henry , declared a disaster and pleaded for federal aid . On January 10 , President Bush declared several Oklahoma counties to be disaster areas ; the list was amended to include 26 counties by late March . Heavy rains in late March promised at least temporary relief to the affected areas . Governor Henry lifted the burn ban ( which had been instated in November ) throughout Oklahoma on March 22 , but reinstated it for most counties only five days later , on March 27 . Much of Texas was also placed under a burn ban .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Texas-Oklahoma_wildfires_of_2005–06", "rank": 38, "score": 131232 }, { "content": "Title: December 2014 North American storm complex Content: The December 2014 North American storm complex was a powerful winter storm ( referred to by some as California 's `` Storm of the Decade '' ) that impacted the West Coast of the United States , beginning on the night of December 10 , 2014 , resulting in snow , wind , and flood watches . Fueled by the Pineapple Express , an atmospheric river originating in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean adjacent to the Hawaiian Islands , the storm was the strongest to affect California since January 2010 . The system was also the single most intense storm to impact the West Coast , in terms of minimum low pressure , since a powerful winter storm in January 2008 . The National Weather Service classified the storm as a significant threat , and issued 15 warnings and advisories , including a Blizzard Warning for the Northern Sierra Nevada ( the first issued in California since January 2008 ) .", "qid": "362", "docid": "December_2014_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 39, "score": 130800 }, { "content": "Title: October 2015 North American storm complex Content: The October 2015 North American storm complex was a high precipitation event that caused historic flash flooding across North and South Carolina . The incipient cold front traversed the Eastern United States on September 29 -- 30 , producing heavy rain in multiple states . The system subsequently stalled just offshore . Tapping into moisture from the nearby Hurricane Joaquin , a developing surface low brought heavy , continuous rain to southeastern States , with the worst effects concentrated in South Carolina where catastrophic flooding occurred . The event culminated in South Carolina on October 4 when numerous rivers burst their banks , washing away roads , bridges , vehicles , and homes . Hundreds of people required rescue and the state 's emergency management department urged everyone in the state not to travel . Some areas of the state saw rainfall equivalent to a 1-in-1000-year event . At least 25 deaths have been attributed to the weather complex : 19 in South Carolina , 2 in New York , 2 in North Carolina , 1 in Florida , and 1 in New Brunswick . Damage reached $ 2 billion .", "qid": "362", "docid": "October_2015_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 40, "score": 130735 }, { "content": "Title: Early February 2013 North American blizzard Content: The Early February 2013 North American blizzard was a powerful blizzard that developed from the combination of two areas of low pressure , primarily affecting the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada , causing heavy snowfall and hurricane-force winds . The storm crossed the Atlantic Ocean , affecting Ireland and the United Kingdom . The nor'easter 's effects in the United States received a Category 3 rank on the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale , classifying it as a `` Major '' Winter Storm . The first low-pressure system , originating from the Northern Plains of the United States , produced moderate amounts of snow across the Great Lakes region of the U.S. and Canada . The second low , originating across the state of Texas , produced heavy rains and flooding across much of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic parts of the U.S. . As the two systems merged off the Northeast coast on February 8 , 2013 , they produced heavy snowfall over a large region from North Jersey and inland from New York City through eastern New England up to coastal Maine and inland to Ontario . Total snowfall in Boston , Massachusetts , reached 24.9 in , the fifth-highest total ever recorded in the city . New York City officially recorded 11.4 in of snow at Central Park , and Portland , Maine , set a record of 31.9 in . Hamden , Connecticut recorded the highest snowfall of the storm at 40 in . Many surrounding cities picked up at least 1 ft. In addition to the significant snowfall totals , hurricane-force wind gusts were recorded , reaching 102 mph in Nova Scotia , 89 mph at Mount Desert Rock , Maine , and 84 mph off the coast of Cuttyhunk , Massachusetts . Boston experienced a storm surge of 4.2 ft , its fourth-highest . The storm affected Atlantic Canada after hitting the Northeastern United States . Watches and warnings were issued in preparation for the storm , and state governors declared states of emergency in all states in New England and in New York . Flights at many major airports across the region were canceled , and travel bans were put into place on February 8 in several states . Hundreds ended up stranded on Long Island late on February 8 as a result of the rapidly accumulating snowfall . A combination of strong winds and heavy , wet snow left 700,000 customers without electricity at the height of the storm . At least eighteen deaths were attributed to the storm .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Early_February_2013_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 41, "score": 130548 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 North American Christmas blizzard Content: The 2009 North American Christmas blizzard was powerful winter storm and severe weather event that affected the Midwestern United States , Great Plains , Southeastern United States , the Eastern Seaboard , and parts of Ontario . The storm started on December 22 , was reported to have claimed at least 21 lives , and disrupted air travel during the Christmas travel season . In the Southeastern and Central United States , there were 27 reported tornadoes on December 23 -- 24 . The storm , a Category 5 `` Extreme '' one on the Regional Snowfall Index , was the first winter weather event to rank as such since the Blizzard of ' 96 .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2009_North_American_Christmas_blizzard", "rank": 42, "score": 130250 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American heat wave Content: The 1936 North American heat wave was the most severe heat wave in the modern history of North America . It took place in the middle of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s , and caused catastrophic human suffering and an enormous economic toll . The death toll exceeded 5,000 , and huge numbers of crops were destroyed by the heat and lack of moisture . Many state and city record high temperatures set during the 1936 heat wave stood until the Summer 2012 North American heat wave . The 1936 heat wave followed one of the coldest winters on record .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1936_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 43, "score": 129735 }, { "content": "Title: February 2007 North American blizzard Content: The February 2007 North American blizzard was a massive winter storm that affected most of the eastern half of North America , starting on February 12 , 2007 and peaking on Valentine 's Day , February 14 . The storm produced heavy snowfalls across the midwestern United States from Nebraska to Ohio and produced similar conditions across parts of the northeastern United States , and into Canada in Ontario , Quebec and New Brunswick . Significant sleet and freezing rain fell across the southern Ohio Valley and affected portions of the east coast of the United States , including the cities of Boston , Baltimore , Washington , D.C. , New York City and Philadelphia . The southern portion of the storm produced severe thunderstorms with numerous tornadoes reported . One tornado hit a subdivision of New Orleans that was still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina , which hit the region in August 2005 . In total , this storm system was responsible for 37 deaths across 13 U.S. states and Canadian provinces of New Brunswick , Ontario and Quebec . The NOAA classified the storm as a Category 3 `` Major '' storm . The National Weather Service has determined that this storm was one of the three largest snowstorms to hit the inland areas of the northeastern United States since 1940 .", "qid": "362", "docid": "February_2007_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 44, "score": 129612 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–13 Southern United States and Mexico drought Content: The 2010 -- 2013 Southern United States and Mexico drought was a severe to extreme drought plaguing the US South , including parts of Texas , Oklahoma , Kansas , Colorado , New Mexico , Arizona , Louisiana , Arkansas , Mississippi , Alabama , Georgia , South Carolina , and North Carolina , as well as large parts of Mexico . The worst effects have been in Texas , where near-record drought has parched the state since January 2011 . Texas suffered an estimated $ 7.62 billion in crop and livestock losses , surpassing its record loss of $ 4.1 billion in 2006 . In Texas , combined with the rest of the South , at least $ 10 billion in agricultural losses were recorded in 2011 . In 2010 -- 11 , Texas experienced its driest August -- July ( 12-month ) period on record . The drought began due to a strong La Niña developing by the summer of 2010 which brings below average rainfall to the southern United States , the effects of the La Niña could be noticed immediately as much of the south receives important rainfall during the summer , and this was the driest summer for Texas and Georgia in the 21st century thus far , and much of the south received record low rainfall . Throughout 2011 , the drought was confined to the Deep South as the mid-south received flooding due to severe weather and tornadoes . However , the drought continued and intensified in the Deep South as Texas saw 2011 be its second-driest year on record , Oklahoma saw its fourth-driest , and Georgia saw its seventh-driest year on record . The winter of 2011 -- 12 was one of the driest winters on record for the eastern and central United States . In the spring of 2012 , the drought made a massive expansion from the Deep South to the Midwest , Mid south , Great Plains , and Ohio valley . At its peak in August 2012 the drought covered approximately 81 % of the United States . Throughout the winter of 2012 -- 13 , heavy rain and snow brought relief to the drought in the southern and eastern United States , even causing severe flooding . By March 2013 , the eastern United States was drought-free , effectively ending the 2010 -- 13 southern U.S. drought . Drought continued on the Great Plains until 2014 . However , drought developed in the western United States in 2013 and still exists today . The 2011 drought was the worst one-year drought in Texas since 1895 . The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that Lubbock , Texas has experienced the nation 's worst average level of drought since the beginning of 2011 . McAllen , Harlingen , Brownsville and Corpus Christi also ranked among the nine U.S. cities most affected by extreme drought .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2010–13_Southern_United_States_and_Mexico_drought", "rank": 45, "score": 129331 }, { "content": "Title: Bushfires in Australia Content: Bushfires in Australia are frequent events during the warmer months of the year , due to Australia 's mostly hot , dry climate . Each year , such fires impact extensive areas . On one hand , they can cause property damage and loss of human life . On the other hand , certain native flora in Australia have evolved to rely on bushfires as a means of reproduction , and fire events are an interwoven and an essential part of the ecology of the continent . For thousands of years , Indigenous Australians have used fire to foster grasslands for hunting and to clear tracks through dense vegetation . Major firestorms that result in severe loss of life are often named based on the day on which they occur , such as Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday . Some of the most intense , extensive and deadly bushfires commonly occur during droughts and heat waves , such as the 2009 Southern Australia heat wave , which precipitated the conditions during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in which 173 people lost their lives . Other major conflagrations include the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires , the 2003 Eastern Victorian alpine bushfires and the 2006 December Bushfires . Global warming is increasing the frequency and severity of bushfires .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Bushfires_in_Australia", "rank": 46, "score": 128940 }, { "content": "Title: Early January 2017 North American winter storm Content: The early January 2017 North American winter storm was a major snow and ice storm that affected the Lower 48 of the United States with severe weather . Moving ashore on the West Coast on January 3 , the system produced heavy snowfall in the Sierra Mountains , with nearly 4 feet of snowfall falling in the highest elevations . After impacting the Northwest and Southwest , the winter storm went on to strike the Southeast on January 5 -- 6 with snow and ice , with snowfall accumulations up to 4 in . Afterwards , it began to morph into a nor'easter as it moved off the Southeast coast late on January 6 , while producing blizzard conditions in the Carolinas . It then began to affect the Northeastern United States as it tracked northwards early on January 7 . It produced a swath of moderate snowfall accumulations up the East Coast , with easternmost areas such as parts of Massachusetts receiving up to 1.5 ft of snow . Fearful of another disaster reminiscent of that from late January 2014 , residents of states such as Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama , and Georgia prepared in advance for the storm . Multiple advisories were issued in advance for winter weather in the affected areas . The storm caused nearly 35,000 or more power outages in the south , with at least five fatalities confirmed .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Early_January_2017_North_American_winter_storm", "rank": 47, "score": 128877 }, { "content": "Title: Early Winter 2006 North American storm complex Content: The Early Winter 2006 North American storm complex was a severe winter storm that occurred on November 26 , 2006 , and continued into December 1 . It affected much of North America in some form , producing all kinds of severe weather including a major ice storm , blizzard conditions , high winds , extreme cold , a serial derecho and some tornadoes .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Early_Winter_2006_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 48, "score": 128352 }, { "content": "Title: Droughts in the United States Content: Drought in the United States is similar to that of other portions of the globe . Below normal precipitation leads to drought , which is caused by an above average persistence of high pressure over the drought area . Changes in the track of extratropical cyclones , which can occur during climate cycles such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation , or ENSO , as well as the North Atlantic Oscillation , Pacific Decadal Oscillation , and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation , modulates which areas would be more prone to drought and when drought develops . Increased drought frequency is expected to be one of the effects of global warming . In dry areas , removing grass cover and going with a more natural vegetation for the area can reduce the impact of drought , since a significant amount of fresh water is used to keep lawns green . Droughts are periodic , alternating with floods over a series of years . The worst droughts in the history of the United States occurred during the 1930s and 1950s , periods of time known as ` Dust Bowl ' years in which droughts lead to significant economic damages and social changes . In particular , relief and health agencies became overburdened and many local community banks had to close .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Droughts_in_the_United_States", "rank": 49, "score": 128198 }, { "content": "Title: February 9–10, 2010 North American blizzard Content: The February 9 -- 10 , 2010 North American blizzard was a winter and severe weather event that afflicted the Midwest , Mid-Atlantic and New England regions of the United States between February 9 -- 11 , 2010 , affecting some of the same regions that had experienced a historic Nor'easter three days prior . The storm brought 10 to of snow across a wide swath from Washington , DC to New York City , with parts of the Baltimore metro area receiving more than 20 in . This storm began as a classic `` Alberta clipper '' , starting out in Canada and then moving southeast , and finally curving northeast while rapidly intensifying off the New Jersey coast , forming an eye . The National Weather Service , in an interview with The Baltimore Sun 's weather reporter Frank Roylance , likened this storm to a Category 1 hurricane . Forecasters told Roylance that `` Winds topped 58 mph over part of the Chesapeake Bay , and 40 mph gusts were common across the region as the storm 's center deepened and drifted slowly along the mid-Atlantic coast '' . This storm system , in conjunction with the first storm 3 days prior , has been nicknamed Snoverkill .", "qid": "362", "docid": "February_9–10,_2010_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 50, "score": 128123 }, { "content": "Title: March 2017 North American blizzard Content: The March 2017 North American blizzard was a major late-season blizzard that affected the Northeastern United States , New England and Canada , dumping up to 3 ft of snow in the hardest hit areas , mainly New York , Vermont , New Hampshire and Southern Quebec . Forming out of an extratropical cyclone near the Northwest , the storm system dived into the northern portions of the United States , dropping light to moderate snow across the Great Lakes , Upper Midwest on March 11 -- 12 before reaching the Ohio Valley the next day . It later coalesced into a powerful nor'easter off the East Coast , producing a swath of heavy snowfall across a large portion of the Northeast . The storm was given various unofficial names , such as Winter Storm Stella , Blizzard Eugene , and Blizzard of 2017 . Ahead of the storm , residents prepared in advance for the major nor'easter , with blizzard warnings issued for several states , including New York , Pennsylvania , New Jersey , Connecticut , Rhode Island , and Massachusetts . Several officials had crews with salt trucks ready to deploy to clear roads . The system also disrupted travel across the country , with numerous flight cancellations at most of the major airports in the Northeast . It dropped a swath of moderate snow accumulation as it moved across the northern tier of the country , with as much as 13 in reported . The storm was also responsible for ending a record streak without snowfall in Chicago , Illinois , where no snow had occurred since December 25 , 2016 .", "qid": "362", "docid": "March_2017_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 51, "score": 127494 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-December 2007 North American winter storms Content: The Mid-December 2007 North American winter storms were a series of winter storms that affected much of central and eastern North America , from December 8 to December 18 , 2007 . The systems affected areas from Oklahoma to Newfoundland and Labrador with freezing rain , thunderstorms , sleet , snow , damaging winds , and blizzard-like conditions in various areas . The first two storms produced copious amounts of ice across the Midwestern United States and Great Plains from December 8 to December 11 , knocking out power to approximately 1.5 million customers from Oklahoma north to Iowa . The second storm moved northeast , producing heavy snow across New York and New England . A third storm was responsible for a major winter storm from Kansas to the Canadian Maritimes , bringing locally record-breaking snowfalls to Ontario , an icestorm across the Appalachians , and thunderstorms and tornadoes to the Southeastern United States . The ice storms were responsible for at least 22 deaths across three states . At least 25 additional deaths were blamed on the December 15 -- 16 Midwest and Eastern snowstorm , and its aftermath across six US States and three Canadian provinces ; 1 additional death was caused by the severe weather outbreak in the Southeast .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Mid-December_2007_North_American_winter_storms", "rank": 52, "score": 127075 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 53, "score": 126505 }, { "content": "Title: February 2017 North American blizzard Content: The February 2017 North American blizzard was a fast-moving but powerful blizzard that affected the Northeastern United States with severe weather in the time span of February 8 -- 9 . Forming as an Alberta clipper in the northern United States , the system initially produced light snowfall from the Midwest to the Ohio Valley as it tracked southeastwards . It eventually reached the East Coast of the United States and began to rapidly grow into a powerful nor'easter . Up to 18 in of snow as well as blizzard conditions were recorded in some of the hardest hit areas before the system moved away from the coastline early on February 10 . Prior to the blizzard , unprecedented and record-breaking warmth had enveloped the region , with record highs of above 60 F recorded in several areas , including Central Park in New York City . Some were caught off guard by the warmth and had little time to prepare for the snowstorm , with some meteorologists calling the extreme weather changes `` unprecedented '' .", "qid": "362", "docid": "February_2017_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 54, "score": 126351 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 2005 Content: The North American blizzard of 2005 was a three-day storm that affected large areas of the northern United States , dropping more than 3 feet ( 0.9 m ) of snow in parts of southeastern Massachusetts , as well as much of the Boston metropolitan area . While this was by far the hardest hit region , it was also a significant snowstorm for the Philadelphia and New York City areas , which both suffered occasional blizzard conditions and 12-15 inch ( 30 -- 38 cm ) snow accumulations . The storm began dropping snow on the upper Midwest on Thursday , January 20 , 2005 . It slowly moved eastward affecting the Great Lakes region and the Mid-Atlantic states on Friday and Saturday , January 21 and January 22 , 2005 . On Saturday evening the storm entered the Southern New England area . The strength of the storm , coupled with the extreme Arctic temperatures , created a light , fluffy snow which increased the snowfall totals . The storm shut down Logan International Airport in Boston , Massachusetts and T. F. Green Airport in Rhode Island , while also impairing travel throughout much of Massachusetts due to the high amount of snow covering the roads . Practically all schools in the Metrowest and South East regions of Massachusetts were closed for at least two days . Cape Cod Community College , as well as all public schools on Cape Cod , Martha 's Vineyard and Nantucket were closed for up to a week . After traveling across the Atlantic Ocean , the storm system hit parts of Great Britain and Ireland and the Scandinavian peninsula , causing even more widespread blackouts and a small number of deaths in the region .", "qid": "362", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_2005", "rank": 55, "score": 126267 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "362", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 56, "score": 125454 }, { "content": "Title: List of California wildfires Content: California has dry , windy , and often hot weather conditions from late spring through autumn that can produce moderate to devastating wildfires . At times , these wildfires are fanned or made worse from strong , dry winds , known as Diablo winds in the northern part of the state and Santa Ana Winds to the south . Wildfires in California are growing more dangerous and costly . U.S. taxpayers are paying about $ 3 billion a year to fight wildfires , triple what it cost in the 1990s , and big fires can lead to billions of dollars in property losses . The following is a list of major wildfires of various sizes that have occurred in California .", "qid": "362", "docid": "List_of_California_wildfires", "rank": 57, "score": 125429 }, { "content": "Title: January 31 – February 2, 2011 North American blizzard Content: The January 31 -- February 2 , 2011 North American winter storm , also called the 2011 Groundhog Day Blizzard , was a powerful and historic winter storm , situated around the United States and Canada on Groundhog Day . During the initial stages of the storm , some meteorologists predicted that the system would affect over 100 million people in the United States . The storm brought cold air , heavy snowfall , blowing snow , and mixed precipitation on a path from New Mexico and northern Texas to New England and Eastern Canada . The Chicago area saw between 1 and 2 feet of snow and blizzard conditions , with winds of over 60 mph . With such continuous winds , the Blizzard continued to the north and affected Eastern and Atlantic Canada . The most notable area affected in Canada was Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area . Blizzard conditions affected many other large cities along the storm 's path , including Tulsa , Oklahoma City , Kansas City , St. Louis , Springfield , El Paso , Las Cruces , Des Moines , Milwaukee , Detroit , Indianapolis , Dayton , Cleveland , New York City , New York 's Capital District , and Boston . Many other areas not normally used to extreme winter conditions , including Albuquerque , Dallas and Houston , experienced significant snowfall or ice accumulation . The central Illinois National Weather Service in Lincoln , Illinois issued only their fourth blizzard warning in the forecast office 's 16-year history . Snowfall amounts of 20 to 28 inches were forecast for much of Northern and Western Illinois . An ice storm ahead of the winter storm 's warm front also brought hazardous conditions to much of the American Midwest and New England , and many areas saw well over 1 in of ice accumulation . Numerous power outages , flight cancellations , airport closures , road closures , roof collapses , rail and bus cancellations , mail stoppages , and school , government , and business closures took place ahead of and after the storm ; many of these disruptions lasted several days . Several tornado touchdowns were reported in Texas and a tornado watch was issued for parts of Alabama , ahead of the cold front in the warm sector of the storm . In addition , thundersnow was recorded at some locations , including downtown Chicago . At least 24 deaths were reported to be related to the storm , many of them in shoveling or auto-related incidents . The total damages from the ice storm alone may exceed US $ 1 billion .", "qid": "362", "docid": "January_31_–_February_2,_2011_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 58, "score": 124802 }, { "content": "Title: October 1997 North American storm complex Content: The October 1997 North American storm complex was a blizzard and tornado outbreak that affected the Northwest , Rockies , much of the Midwest and Deep south . 84 tornadoes were confirmed as the system moved eastward across the eastern half of the United States , including four that were rated as F3 on the Fujita scale . The storms resulted in 13 deaths ( five in Colorado , two each in Nebraska and Illinois , and one each in Michigan , Iowa , Oklahoma , and Kansas ) , and caused power outages and school closings lasting up to a week in affected areas . The event was famously billed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as being a `` two-hundred year storm '' . The wind caused much damage , downing trees and power poles . Category :1997 in North America Category : Tornadoes in the United States Category : Tornadoes of 1997 Category : October 1997 events", "qid": "362", "docid": "October_1997_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 59, "score": 124287 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 60, "score": 124256 }, { "content": "Title: Adelaide Hills bushfires Content: The Adelaide Hills bushfires of 1939 were a series of bushfires in the Adelaide Hills , South Australia , which burned from 10 -- 14 January . There had been ample rain during the winter of 1938 resulting in heavy understorey , but drought set in toward the end of the year . A heatwave in early January 1939 ensured the fuel load was very dry and particularly susceptible to fire . The fires were finally extinguished when thunderstorms arrived during the evening of the 14th . Damage was assessed at ₤ 650,000 , including the destruction of ninety houses . No lives were lost , but the fire highlighted the inadequacy of South Australia 's fire-fighting capability . Six thousand city volunteers had helped to combat the fires , using mainly branches and wet bags . As a result , the Emergency Fire Service was set up , the precursor to the modern Country Fire Service .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Adelaide_Hills_bushfires", "rank": 61, "score": 123942 }, { "content": "Title: January 2008 North American storm complex Content: The January 2008 Western North American storm complex was a powerful Pacific extratropical cyclone that affected a large area North America , primarily stretching from western British Columbia to near the Tijuana , Mexico area , starting on January 3 , 2008 . The system was responsible for flooding rains across many areas in California along with very strong winds locally exceeding hurricane force strength as well as heavy mountain snows across the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain chains as well as those in Idaho , Utah and Colorado . The storms were responsible for the death of at least 12 people across three states , and extensive damage to utility services as well , as damage to some other structures . The storm was also responsible for most of the January 2008 tornado outbreak from January 7 -- 8 .", "qid": "362", "docid": "January_2008_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 62, "score": 123907 }, { "content": "Title: December 2008 North American snowstorms Content: The December 2008 North American snowstorms were a series of snowstorms that struck across Canada and the US . The snowstorms caused snow to fall across Canada and many parts of the United States , and broke records for the amount of snow accumulated in many cities on Christmas Day .", "qid": "362", "docid": "December_2008_North_American_snowstorms", "rank": 63, "score": 123686 }, { "content": "Title: North American ice storm of January 1961 Content: The North American ice storm of January 1961 was a massive ice storm that struck areas of northern Idaho in the United States on January 1 -- 3 , 1961 . The storm set a record for thickest recorded ice accumulation from a single storm in the United States , at 8 inches . The storm 's swath covered areas from Grangeville , in north central Idaho , to the Canada -- United States border . According to the National Weather Service , a combination of dense fog , sub-freezing temperatures , and occasional freezing rain led to the heavy ice accretions . Catastrophic damage to trees and utilities resulted , resulting in widespread power outages . Prior to this storm , previous records of between 4 and 6 inches of ice were recorded in New York City and Texas .", "qid": "362", "docid": "North_American_ice_storm_of_January_1961", "rank": 64, "score": 123650 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 North American cold wave Content: The 1994 North American cold wave occurred over the midwestern United States , eastern United States , and southern Canada during January 1994 . Two notable cold air events occurred from January 18-19 and from January 21-22 . There were 67 minimum temperature records set on January 19 . Indiana and Kentucky both set state records on January 19 . The United States experienced its coldest temperature month since February 1934 , although much of the West experienced mild temperatures . Washington and Idaho experienced the second warmest January recorded in the previous 100 years . During the same period , the western United States experienced one of its most damaging earthquakes ever , and the eastern United States experienced a major snowfall that significantly delayed traffic . Over 100 deaths occurred in the United States as a result of the cold wave .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1994_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 65, "score": 123355 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 1999 Content: The Blizzard of 1999 was a strong winter snowstorm which struck the Midwestern United States and portions of central and eastern Canada , hitting hardest in Iowa , Wisconsin , Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , Ohio , Ontario and Quebec dumping as much as 60 cm ( 2 feet ) of snow in many areas . Chicago received a recorded 21.6 in . The storm hit just after New Year 's Day , between January 2 and January 4 , 1999 . Travel was severely disrupted throughout the areas and the cities of Chicago and Toronto were also paralyzed . Additionally , record low temperatures were measured in many towns in the days immediately after the storm ( January 4 - January 8 ) .", "qid": "362", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_1999", "rank": 66, "score": 123181 }, { "content": "Title: 2008–09 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season was the Australian bushfire season that ran from late December 2008 to April/May 2009 . Above average rainfalls in December , particularly in Victoria , delayed the start of the season , but by January 2009 , conditions throughout South eastern Australia worsened with the onset of one of the region 's worst heat waves . On 7 February , extreme bushfire conditions precipitated major bushfires throughout Victoria , involving several large fire complexes , which continued to burn across the state for around one month . 173 people lost their lives in these fires and 414 were injured . 3,500 + buildings were destroyed , including 2,029 houses , and 7,562 people displaced . Late 2008 had relatively few bushfires . Victoria in particular experienced higher than average rainfall in December , decreasing the fire danger in many regions of the state . Initial observations in October 2008 predicted an above average fire potential across Australia 's coastal regions and a below average potential in Central Australia , where drought has reduced the available fuel . In late January and early February , the effects of the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave increased temperatures across south-eastern Australia , particularly in Victoria and South Australia , where several locations broke all time temperature records . Various days of high wind speed , combined with the hot dry conditions , created extreme bushfire conditions between 25 January and 7 February 2009 .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2008–09_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 67, "score": 122943 }, { "content": "Title: 2013–14 Atlantic winter storms in Europe Content: 2013 -- 14 Atlantic winter storms in Europe were a series of winter storms affecting areas of Atlantic Europe and beyond . The French Atlantic coastal regions ( chiefly Brittany ) , South West and Southern England , West Wales , Ireland , Spanish Atlantic coastal regions ( particularly Galicia ) were especially affected by a `` conveyor belt '' series of high-precipitation storms ( mostly not exceptional for their winds ) and by high tides . Many storms were explosively deepened by a strong jet stream , many deepening below 950 hPa . The repeated formation of large deep lows over the Atlantic brought storm surges and large waves which coincided with some of the highest astronomical tides of the year and caused coastal damage . The low pressure areas brought heavy rainfalls which led to flooding , which became most severe over parts of England such as at the Somerset Levels . The repeated storms fit into a pattern of disturbed weather in the Northern Hemisphere , which saw from November 2013 a disturbance to the jet stream in the western Pacific , which propagated eastwards bringing a warm winter to Alaska , drought to California , and repeated cold air outbreaks to the eastern USA where the 2013 -- 14 North American cold wave resulted .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2013–14_Atlantic_winter_storms_in_Europe", "rank": 68, "score": 122178 }, { "content": "Title: 1983 United States drought Content: The 1983 United States drought , also known as the US Drought of 1983 , was an extreme drought that was accompanied by heat waves across several portions of the United States .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1983_United_States_drought", "rank": 69, "score": 121655 }, { "content": "Title: List of Storm Prediction Center extremely critical days Content: An extremely critical fire weather event is the greatest threat level issued by the Storm Prediction Center ( SPC ) for wildfire events in the United States . Extremely critical areas are issued only several times a year when forecasters at the SPC are confident of extremely dangerous wildfire conditions on a given day . These are typically reserved for the most extreme events . Fire weather products have been issued by the Storm Prediction Center since 1998 ; however , there is very little online documentation for days before 2002 due to the lack of SPC archives . Therefore , it is likely that there were additional extremely critical days with no online documentation .", "qid": "362", "docid": "List_of_Storm_Prediction_Center_extremely_critical_days", "rank": 70, "score": 121610 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 1966 Content: The Blizzard of 1966 swept across most of the United States and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains on January 29 , 1966 , and brought record low temperatures , high winds and heavy snowfall in its wake . Within days , at least 142 people had been killed -- 31 had frozen to death , 46 died in fires that started while people were trying to heat their home . Others died from heart attacks while shoveling snow or pushing cars , or traffic accidents caused by slick roads . The death toll reached 201 by Wednesday , February 2 , as the storm eased . On Monday , January 31 , federal government employees in Washington were excused from reporting to work and international airports were closed from Boston to Washington , D.C. . Sixty inches ( five feet or 152 cm ) of snow fell on Oswego , New York , and the additional accumulation raised the snow level to 13 inches in Norfolk , Virginia . By February 1 , additional snow brought the level to 102 inches ( 8 1/2 feet ) to Oswego . ( This held the record for the most snowfall in a single storm in Oswego until the Lake Effect snow storm of February 2007 ) . The storm began as a nor'easter , which affected the New York City metro area and was followed by heavy `` wraparound '' lake effect snows . Winds were more than 60 mph during the storm , and at Fair Haven , New York they are believed to have exceeded 100 mph . The snow was badly drifted and roads and schools closed as long as a week . Drifts covered entire 2 story houses . A total of 103 inches of snow was recorded at Oswego , 50 inches of this falling on the last day of the storm alone . 50 inches of snow were also recorded at Camden , New York on the same day . The last day of the blizzard the winds subsided and snowburst conditions prevailed , with the snow falling straight down . Fair Haven did not have official snowfall records at the time , but state troopers reported measuring 100 inches of snow on the level , where none had been prior to the storm . Syracuse , New York received a record snowfall of 42.3 inches which remained their heaviest storm on record , until the Blizzard of 1993 . The storm lasted from January 27 to January 31 , 1966 , a total of 4 1/2 days . The daily snowfall totals for Oswego are as follows . January 27 , 1966 : 8 '' January 28 , 1966 : 12 '' January 29 , 1966 : 11 '' January 30 , 1966 : 21 '' January 31 , 1966 : 50 '' On January 22 -- 23 of 1966 , two other New York counties , Batavia and Genesee , each had 2 feet of snow fall on that Saturday night alone . The only thing that prevented that snowstorm from becoming a true blizzard like this infamous one of the very next weekend was the lack of high winds .", "qid": "362", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_1966", "rank": 71, "score": 121570 }, { "content": "Title: December 17–22, 2012 North American blizzard Content: The December 17 -- 22 , 2012 North American blizzard was a massive winter storm that affected the Midwestern and Eastern United States . Forming on December 17 , the winter storm moved across the midwest , forcing schools to close throughout the region . Numerous warnings and advisories had been posted by the National Weather Service for many states , including Iowa , Nebraska , Illinois , and Wisconsin . Both O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport in Chicago , Illinois canceled most departures and arrivals . According to flight tracking website FlightStats.com , more than 1,000 flights were canceled across the region . More than 130,000 customers are without power across the west and midwest . In addition to snow , strong thunderstorms and possible tornadoes went across the Southern United States . A multiple-car pileup on Interstate 35 in Fort Dodge , Iowa killed two people , according to the Iowa State Patrol . American Airlines , American Eagle Airlines , and Southwest Airlines collectively canceled a total of 573 flights in the midwest . Greyhound Lines also canceled service in Chicago , Minneapolis , and Indianapolis . The storm moved east towards the Northeast and New England . Winter storm and blizzard warnings were issued from north New York to western Pennsylvania .", "qid": "362", "docid": "December_17–22,_2012_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 72, "score": 121508 }, { "content": "Title: December 2005 North American ice storm Content: The December 2005 North American ice storm was a damaging winter storm that produced extensive ice damage in a large portion of the Southern United States from December 14 -- 16 , 2005 , while extensive snowfall was reported across portions of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec . The ice storm led to enormous and widespread power outages , and at least 7 deaths .", "qid": "362", "docid": "December_2005_North_American_ice_storm", "rank": 73, "score": 121361 }, { "content": "Title: Early December 2007 North American winter storm Content: The Early December 2007 North American winter storm was a major winter storm which affected the majority of the United States and portions of southern Canada from November 29 to December 5 , hitting the Intermountain West and Midwestern United States , the Great Lakes region and the Northeast . The storm brought significant snows to portions of the Upper Midwest , Great Plains and Great Lakes regions of the United States and Canada on December 1 with a major winter storm for Quebec , Ontario and parts of the Northeast region on December 2 and 3 as well as the Canadian Maritimes on December 4 and 5 . The system was also responsible for a major ice storm across the Midwestern states which caused disruptions to several major cities including Des Moines , Chicago , Detroit , Milwaukee and Toronto . The storm was blamed for at least 16 deaths across nine US states and one Canadian province . 10 traffic deaths had been reported , as of 2 December 2007 .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Early_December_2007_North_American_winter_storm", "rank": 74, "score": 121131 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–15 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2014 -- 15 Australian bushfire season was expected to have the potential for many fires in eastern Australia after lower than expected rainfall was received in many areas . Authorities released warnings in the early spring that the season could be particularly bad . Warmer and drier weather conditions were experienced during winter and extended into 2015 , due to a developing El Niño event . Sydney was on track to record its hottest autumn on record and only had one fifth of the average rainfall in May . Adelaide recorded sixteen consecutive days of 20 C in May 2014 . Queensland sweltered through a heatwave , with record October temperatures being set in many towns through the state . New October records included Toowoomba with 36.4 C , St George with 42.6 C , Amberley with 41.3 C and Roma with 41.6 C. Throughout 2014 and the first 6 months of 2015 , 18 fires were declared `` national disasters '' affecting a total of 68 local government areas across New South Wales , South Australia , Victoria and the Northern Territory .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2014–15_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 75, "score": 120922 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 California wildfires Content: The 2016 California wildfires were a series of wildfires that burned across the state of California during 2016 . A total of 6,986 fires had burned 565,070 acres , according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection . Climatologists had predicted an extreme version of El Niño known as Super El Niño to occur during the winter of 2015 -- 16 . Although the Pacific Ocean 's warming water had been expected to bring strong storms to parts of the southwestern United States , actual precipitation totals generally underperformed those expectations . Early in 2016 , The National Interagency Fire Center predicted that conditions from May through at least August would put much of the western United States in above-normal wildfire danger .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2016_California_wildfires", "rank": 76, "score": 120834 }, { "content": "Title: February 5–6, 2010 North American blizzard Content: The February 5 -- 6 , 2010 North American blizzard , commonly referred to as Snowmageddon , was a paralyzing and crippling blizzard that had major and widespread impact in the Northeastern United States . The storm 's center tracked from Baja California Sur on February 2nd , 2010 to the East coast on February 6 , 2010 , before heading east out into the Atlantic . Effects were felt to the north and west of this track in northern Mexico , California , and the Southwestern , Midwestern , Southeastern , and most notably Mid-Atlantic States . Severe weather , including extensive flooding and landslides in Mexico , and historic snowfall totals in every one of the Mid-Atlantic states , brought deaths to Mexico , New Mexico , Virginia , Pennsylvania and Maryland . Most crippling was the widespread 20 to 35 in ( 50 to 90 cm ) of snow accumulated across southern Pennsylvania , the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia , northern Virginia , Washington , D.C. , Maryland , Delaware , and southern New Jersey , bringing air and Interstate Highway travel to a halt . While rail service south and west of Washington , D.C. was suspended , rail travel between D.C. and Boston was available with limited service . Blizzard conditions were reported in a relatively small area of Maryland , but near-blizzard conditions occurred across much of the Mid-Atlantic region . This event was the second of four nor'easter s during the 2009-2010 winter that brought heavy snow to enough of the Northeast 's population to be numerically recognized by NOAA 's NESIS intensity rating . The first and third of these systems , the December 2009 Nor'Easter and the February 9 -- 10 , 2010 North American blizzard , respectively , combined with this event to bring the snowiest winter on record to much of the Mid-Atlantic . Additionally , this event was the second of three major Mid-Atlantic snowstorms that occurred over a 12-day period ; each subsequent storm focused its heaviest snow slightly farther north : the January 30 , 2010 storm ( not recognized by NESIS ) dropped more than a foot of snow across Virginia and the lower Chesapeake Bay region , while the February 9 -- 10 , 2010 North American blizzard bulls-eyed the Maryland-Pennsylvania border with as much as 38.3 inches .", "qid": "362", "docid": "February_5–6,_2010_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 77, "score": 120788 }, { "content": "Title: October 2013 North American storm complex Content: The October 2013 North American storm complex was a blizzard and tornado outbreak that affected the Northwest , Rockies , and much of the Midwest . 22 tornadoes were confirmed as the system moved eastward across the eastern half of the United States , including two that were rated as EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale .", "qid": "362", "docid": "October_2013_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 78, "score": 120768 }, { "content": "Title: January 2015 North American blizzard Content: The January 2015 North American blizzard was a powerful nor'easter that affected Canada and the Central and Eastern United States , and eventually , parts of Southern Greenland and Western Europe . The nor'easter disrupted transportation , with snow emergencies declared in six states and travel bans enacted in four of these states -- Connecticut , New Jersey , Massachusetts , and Rhode Island -- as well as in New York City . Most passenger rail service was suspended , and thousands of flights were cancelled . Schools and activities saw weather-related cancellations for one or more days . The storm was also given unofficial names , such as Blizzard of 2015 , and Winter Storm Juno .", "qid": "362", "docid": "January_2015_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 79, "score": 120618 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 80, "score": 120098 }, { "content": "Title: October 2009 North American storm complex Content: The October 2009 North American storm complex was a powerful extratropical cyclone , associated with the remnants of Typhoon Melor that brought extreme amounts of rainfall to California . The system started out as a weak area of low pressure ( an Aleutian Low ) , that formed in the northern Gulf of Alaska on October 7 . Late on October 11 , the system quickly absorbed Melor 's remnant moisture , which resulted in the system strengthening significantly offshore , before moving southeastward to impact the West Coast of the United States , beginning very early on October 13 . Around the same time , an atmospheric river opened up ( the Pineapple Express ) , channeling large amounts of moisture into the storm , resulting in heavy rainfall across California and other parts of the Western United States .", "qid": "362", "docid": "October_2009_North_American_storm_complex", "rank": 81, "score": 119656 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in the United Kingdom Content: Droughts are a relatively common feature of the weather in the United Kingdom , with one around every 5 -- 10 years on average . These droughts are usually during the summer , when a blocking high causes hot , dry weather for an extended period . However droughts can vary in their characteristics . All types of drought cause issues across all sectors , with impacts extending to the ecosystem , agriculture and the economy of the whole country in severe cases of drought . The south east of the country usually suffers most , as it has the highest population ( and therefore demand ) and the lowest average precipitation per year , which is even lower in a drought . Even in these areas in severe droughts , the definition , impacts , effects and management are all minimal in comparison to drought prone areas such as Australia and parts of the United States . In recent years however , the summers of 2007 , 2008 , 2009 and August 2010 were wetter than normal , 2007 being wettest on record .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Drought_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 82, "score": 119108 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American cold wave Content: The 1936 North American cold wave ranks among the most intense cold waves in recorded North American meteorological history . The states of the Midwest United States and the Prairie Provinces of Canada were hit the hardest , but only the Southwest and California largely escaped its effects . February 1936 was the coldest month recorded in the states of North Dakota , South Dakota , and Minnesota , and rivals that of 1899 the coldest February on record for the continent as a whole . Only a few parts of the Great Basin , the Bering Sea coast of Alaska and the Labrador Sea coast of Canada were even close to their long-term means . The 1930s had previously seen some of the mildest winters in recorded North American climatic history -- 1930/1931 in the northern Plains and Western Canada , 1931/1932 in the East , 1932/1933 in New England and 1933/1934 in the Western United States . The northern plains had during the previous eleven years experienced six of their ten warmest Februaries between 1895 and 1976 -- those of 1925 , 1926 , 1927 , 1930 , 1931 and 1935 -- with only February 1929 being severe during this period . Despite a warm March over most areas east of the Rockies , the extended winter from October to March was the fifth-coldest on record over the conterminous United States and the coldest since 1917 . The cold wave was followed by one of the hottest summers on record , the 1936 North American heat wave .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1936_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 83, "score": 118976 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Canadian wildfires Content: 2015 Canadian wildfires were a series of wildfires across Canada and Alaska in July 2015 which spread smoke across most of North America . Over two hundred fires were ablaze across British Columbia , Saskatchewan , and Alberta . Tens of thousand of people had been evacuated and more than 1900000 hectare of forest had burned . Fire-fighters from Mexico , Western Australia , and New Zealand were sent to assist . The Canadian military also fought the fires . Since the smoke was so dense , warnings had been given across central and Western Canada ; additionally , parts of the western United States were also issued air advisories because of the amount of smoke . Wildfires have burned one million hectares ( 2.4 million acres ) in Saskatchewan in the past year according to statistics posted on the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre . The words people have used to describe this natural disaster is `` extreme , unprecedented , and historic . A majority of the ecosystem where the fire had been burning consists of boreal forests . Circumstances for catastrophic fires were created as a result of the fuel buildup starting in the 1950s caused fire inhibition . This outcome created a change in the landscape-age mosaic . Initially , this fuel buildup was created for closed canopy ecosystems such as the Pinus ponderosa located in the western United States .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2015_Canadian_wildfires", "rank": 84, "score": 118840 }, { "content": "Title: Pagami Creek Fire Content: The Pagami Creek Fire was a wildfire in Northern Minnesota , United States , that began with a lightning strike on August 18 , 2011 . After weeks of slow growth , the wildfire quickly spread to over 92000 acre during several days of hot , dry , windy weather in mid-September . The fire spread beyond the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to threaten homes and businesses . Smoke from the fires drifted east and south as far as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan , Ontario , Chicago , Poland , Ukraine , and Russia .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Pagami_Creek_Fire", "rank": 85, "score": 118620 }, { "content": "Title: December 21–24, 2004 North American winter storm Content: An historic snowstorm struck the Ohio Valley of the United States , as well as Ontario in Canada , on December 22 and December 23 and is not the same storm that led to snow in Texas on Christmas Eve . It lasted roughly 30 hours , and brought snowfall amounts up to 37 inches ( 73.7 cm ) to portions of the Midwestern United States . Damages from the storm totaled US$ 900 million ( 2004 dollars ) . A total of 18 died during the storm , one from Canada , mainly due to car accidents .", "qid": "362", "docid": "December_21–24,_2004_North_American_winter_storm", "rank": 86, "score": 118318 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 2003 Content: The Blizzard of 2003 , also known as the Presidents ' Day Storm II or simply PDII , was a historical and record-breaking snowstorm on the East Coast of the United States and Canada , which lasted from February 14 to February 19 , 2003 . It spread heavy snow across the major cities of the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states , making it the defining snowstorm of the very snowy winter of 2002-2003 . All cities from Washington DC to Boston were covered in 15 - of snow and those cities were brought to a standstill due to problems caused by temperatures and the snow . In Baltimore and Boston , this was the biggest snowstorm on record , with 28.2 and 27.5 inches ( 71.6 and 69.9 cm ) respectively .", "qid": "362", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_2003", "rank": 87, "score": 118060 }, { "content": "Title: November 13–21, 2014 North American winter storm Content: From November 13 -- 21 , 2014 , a potent winter storm and particularly severe lake-effect snowstorm ( given the code name Knife by local governments and colloquially nicknamed Snowvember ) affected the United States , originating from the Pacific Northwest on November 13 , which brought copious amounts of lake-effect snow to the Central US and New England from November 15 until November 21 , when the system departed the East Coast of the United States . The snowstorm elicited an enormous response from emergency crews and the National Guard , requiring more manpower than any other snowstorm in the history of New York state as it buried cars and stranded thousands of people in their homes in Western New York . Eight months after the storm , the snow 's remnants still remained in Buffalo , New York .", "qid": "362", "docid": "November_13–21,_2014_North_American_winter_storm", "rank": 88, "score": 118055 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Saudi Arabian snowstorm Content: The 2016 Saudi Arabian snowstorm was an extreme weather event in late November 2016 , in which parts of the Arabian desert in Saudi Arabia experienced subzero temperatures , snowfall and flooding . Snow was first reported in northern parts of Saudi Arabia on 23 November . By 27 November , temperatures as low as -3 C were reported in Tabarjal , in Al Jawf Region , and there was snow cover in central and northeastern regions . Normal seasonal temperatures do not fall below 20 C . Many Saudis enjoyed unusual outdoor activities such as building snowmen and sliding ; however , the snow was followed by rain and lightning that caused flooding and led to the deaths of at least 7 people . , snow had also fallen in Israel , Syria and other parts of the Middle East . Snow has occasionally occurred in Saudi Arabia in previous winters . In 2013 a video of a man somersaulting in snow there circulated on social media . In January 2015 a cleric issued a fatwa against building snowmen . In January 2016 , snow fell between Mecca and Medina for the first time in 85 years .", "qid": "362", "docid": "2016_Saudi_Arabian_snowstorm", "rank": 89, "score": 117286 }, { "content": "Title: 1901 eastern United States heat wave Content: The 1901 eastern United States heat wave was the most severe and deadly heat wave in the United States prior to the 1930s dust bowl . Although the heat wave did not set many still-standing daily temperature records , it was exceptionally prolonged -- covering without interruption the second half of June and all of July -- and centred upon more highly populated areas than later American heat waves . The heat wave accompanied a major drought in the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest , with Illinois having what remains its driest calendar year since records have been kept , and Missouri being only 0.21 in above its driest calendar year of 1953 .", "qid": "362", "docid": "1901_eastern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 90, "score": 117187 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2010 Content: The global storm activity of 2010 includes major meteorological events in the Earth 's atmosphere during the year , including winter storms ( blizzards , ice storms , European windstorms ) , hailstorms , out of season monsoon rain storms , extratropical cyclones , gales , microbursts , flooding , rainstorms , tropical cyclones , and other severe weather events . The thunderstorm season for the Northern Hemisphere began this time of year , beginning on March 1 , and ending on August 31 .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2010", "rank": 91, "score": 117186 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-February 2015 North American blizzard Content: From February 14 -- 15 , 2015 , a potent blizzard occurred in the Northeast United States . The storm dropped up to 25 in of snow in the regions already hit hard with snow from the past 2 weeks . The storm system also brought some of the most coldest temperatures to the Northeast in its wake .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Mid-February_2015_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 92, "score": 116770 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-January 2017 North American ice storm Content: The mid-January 2017 North American ice storm was a major ice storm that impacted the Great Plains , Pacific Northwest , and American Midwest . During the storm , multiple U.S. states declared states of emergency , and icy road conditions caused traffic incidents and fatalities .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Mid-January_2017_North_American_ice_storm", "rank": 93, "score": 116498 }, { "content": "Title: List of NESIS storms Content: The Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale ( NESIS ) is a scale used to categorize winter storms in the Northeast United States . The scale was developed by meteorologists Paul Kocin and Louis Uccellini , and ranks snowstorms from Category 1 ( `` notable '' ) to Category 5 ( `` extreme '' ) . Only two historical blizzards , the 1993 Storm of the Century and the North American blizzard of 1996 are rated in the 5 `` extreme '' category . The scale differs from the Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale and Fujita Scale , which are used to classify tropical cyclones and tornadoes , respectively , in that it takes into account the number of people affected by the storm . The scale , as devised , is intended chiefly to assess past storms rather than assist in forecasts .", "qid": "362", "docid": "List_of_NESIS_storms", "rank": 94, "score": 116422 }, { "content": "Title: Winter 1985 cold wave Content: The Winter 1985 cold wave was a meteorological event , the result of the shifting of the polar vortex further south than is normally seen . Blocked from its normal movement , polar air from the north pushed into nearly every section of the eastern half of the United States and Canada , shattering record lows in a number of areas . The event was preceded by unusually warm weather in the eastern U.S. in December 1984 , suggesting that there was a build-up of cold air that was suddenly released from the Arctic , a meteorological event known as a Mobile Polar High , a weather process identified by Professor Marcel Leroux .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Winter_1985_cold_wave", "rank": 95, "score": 116383 }, { "content": "Title: January 31 – February 2, 2015 North American blizzard Content: The January 31 -- February 2 , 2015 North American blizzard was a major winter storm that plowed through the majority of the United States , dumping as much as 2 ft of new snowfall across a path from Iowa to New England , as well as blizzard conditions in early February of 2015 . It came less than a week after another crippling blizzard which impacted the Northeast with 2 -- 3 feet of snow . It was the first of many intense winter storms to occur in the nation during the month of February , partly in due to an ongoing cold wave that was beginning to take shape shortly after the storm subsided . Ahead of the storm , residents mainly in the Midwest prepared for potential whiteout or even blizzard conditions . The storm dropped as much as 19 in in the city of Chicago , Illinois , making it their fifth heaviest snowstorm on record . Up to 15 people were killed by the blizzard , and it knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people .", "qid": "362", "docid": "January_31_–_February_2,_2015_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 96, "score": 116098 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events in Melbourne Content: thumb | A church destroyed by the 1918 Brighton tornado Extreme weather events in Melbourne , Australia have occurred on multiple occasions . The city has experienced a number of highly unusual weather events and extremes of weather . An increase in heat waves and record breaking temperatures over the last decade has led to much discussion over the effects of climate change in the country .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_in_Melbourne", "rank": 97, "score": 115907 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in Spain Content: Droughts in Spain mainly happen in the south east . These droughts are usually confined to summer , with hot , dry weather for an extended period . However , droughts can vary in their characteristics . All types of drought cause issues across all sectors , with impacts extending to the ecosystem , agriculture and the economy of the whole country in severe cases of drought . The south east usually suffers most , as it has the lowest average precipitation per year , which is even lower in a drought . The drought , along with high winds and fallen cables , is being looked at as a prime causal factor in the massive forest fires . In 2012 Spain experienced the driest period since the 1940s , with rainfall decreased by up to 75 % .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Drought_in_Spain", "rank": 98, "score": 115619 }, { "content": "Title: December 2010 North American blizzard Content: The December 2010 North American blizzard was a major nor'easter and historic blizzard affecting the Contiguous United States and portions of Canada from December 5 -- 29 , 2010 . From January 4 -- 15 , the system was known as Windstorm Benjamin in Europe . It was the first significant winter storm of the 2010 -- 11 North American winter storm season and the fifth North American blizzard of 2010 . The storm system affected the northeast megalopolis , which includes major cities such as Norfolk , Philadelphia , Newark , New York City , Hartford , Providence , and Boston . The storm brought between 12 and of snow in many of these areas .", "qid": "362", "docid": "December_2010_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 99, "score": 115612 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-February 2014 North American winter storm Content: The Mid-February 2014 North American winter storm was a major snow and ice storm that affected the American South and East Coast of the United States , bringing with it up to a foot of snow and crippling ice across parts of the South . Thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people were left in the dark for days , possibly even up to 2 weeks without power . The world 's largest carrier Delta Air Lines canceled over 2,000 flights , and it was reported by 8:00 p.m. Thursday , February 13 , that as many as 6,500 flights originating in or destined for the United States had been canceled . On that day 70 percent of flights were cancelled at airports in Baltimore , Philadelphia , Washington , D.C. , and Charlotte . As of February 14 , 22 people had died from the storm . Approximately 1.2 million homes and businesses lost power as the storm moved from the South through the Northeast . By the evening of Thursday , February 13 , about 550,000 customers remained in the dark , mostly in South Carolina and Georgia .", "qid": "362", "docid": "Mid-February_2014_North_American_winter_storm", "rank": 100, "score": 115490 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: East Asian Monsoon Content: The East Asian monsoon is a monsoonal flow that carries moist air from the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean to East Asia . It affects approximately one-third of the global population , influencing the climate of Japan ( including Okinawa ) , the Koreas , Taiwan , Hong Kong , Macau , the Philippines , Indochina , and much of mainland China . It is driven by temperature differences between the Asian continent and the Pacific Ocean . The East Asian monsoon is divided into a warm and wet summer monsoon and a cold and dry winter monsoon . This cold and dry winter monsoon is responsible for the aeolian dust deposition and pedogenesis that resulted in the creation of the Loess Plateau . The monsoon influences weather patterns as far north as Siberia , causing wet summers that contrasts the cold and dry winters caused by the Siberian High , which counter-balances the monsoon 's effect on northerly latitudes . In most years , the monsoonal flow shifts in a very predictable pattern , with winds being southeasterly in late June , bringing significant rainfall to the Korean Peninsula and Japan ( in Taiwan and Okinawa this flow starts in May ) . This leads to a reliable precipitation spike in July and August . However , this pattern occasionally fails , leading to drought and crop failure . In the winter , the winds are northeasterly and the monsoonal precipitation bands move back to the south , and intense precipitation occurs over southern China and Taiwan . The East Asian monsoon is known as jangma in Korea . In Japan the monsoon boundary is referred to as the as it advances northward during the spring , while it is referred to as the shurin when the boundary retreats back southward during the autumn months . Over Japan and Korea , the monsoon boundary typically takes the form of a quasi-stationary front separating the cooler air mass associated with the Okhotsk High to the north from the hot , humid air mass associated with the subtropical ridge to the south . After the monsoon boundary passes north of a given location , it is not uncommon for daytime temperatures to exceed 32 C with dewpoints of 24 C or higher .", "qid": "363", "docid": "East_Asian_Monsoon", "rank": 1, "score": 192474 }, { "content": "Title: China tropical cyclone rainfall climatology Content: China is a mountainous country , which leads to rapid dissipation of cyclones that move inland as well as significant amounts of rain from those dissipating cyclones . Typhoon Nina in 1975 caused the collapse of two huge reservoirs and ten smaller dams when 1062 mm ( 41.81 inches ) of rain fell in Henan Province during a 24‑hour period . Super Typhoon Carla was the wettest tropical cyclone on record for mainland China . Since 1957 , there has been a downward trend in tropical cyclone rainfall for the country .", "qid": "363", "docid": "China_tropical_cyclone_rainfall_climatology", "rank": 2, "score": 157130 }, { "content": "Title: Asian Dust Content: Asian Dust ( also yellow dust , yellow sand , yellow wind or China dust storms ) is a meteorological phenomenon which affects much of East Asia year round but especially during the spring months . The dust originates in the deserts of Mongolia , northern China and Kazakhstan where high-speed surface winds and intense dust storms kick up dense clouds of fine , dry soil particles . These clouds are then carried eastward by prevailing winds and pass over China , North and South Korea , and Japan , as well as parts of the Russian Far East . Sometimes , the airborne particulates are carried much further , in significant concentrations which affect air quality as far east as the United States . Since the turn of the 21st Century it has become a serious problem due to the increase of industrial pollutants contained in the dust and intensified desertification in China causing longer and more frequent occurrences , as well as in the last few decades when the Aral Sea of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan started drying up due to the diversion of the Amu River and Syr River following a Soviet agricultural program to irrigate Central Asian deserts , mainly for cotton plantations .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Asian_Dust", "rank": 3, "score": 149935 }, { "content": "Title: East Asian rainy season Content: The East Asian rainy season , commonly called the plum rain ( ; Russian : затяжные , zatyazhnie ) , is caused by precipitation along a persistent stationary front known as the Mei-Yu front for nearly two months during the late spring and early summer between eastern Russia , China , Taiwan , Korea , and Japan . The wet season ends during the summer when the subtropical ridge becomes strong enough to push this front north of the region .", "qid": "363", "docid": "East_Asian_rainy_season", "rank": 4, "score": 146105 }, { "content": "Title: Zhuye Lake Content: Zhuye Lake is the terminal lake of the Shiyang River , which is located in the east of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province , China . Zhuye Lake is located in the marginal area of the Asian monsoon and is affected by both the Asian monsoon system and the Westerly jet . By understanding the Holocene record in Zhuye Lake , the interaction of different climate systems during the Holocene can be studied . At the same time , the Asian monsoon system is climatically dynamic ; changes in its sphere of influence can result in severe drought or flood over large , densely populated , regions . In addition , Zhuye Lake and the surrounding area in arid NW China are in ecological imbalance -- a consequence of human impacts and climate . Understanding the environmental history here can assist climatological forecasting of the Asian monsoon system and ecosystem reconstruction .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Zhuye_Lake", "rank": 5, "score": 144115 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 China drought and dust storms Content: The 2010 China drought and dust storms were a series of severe droughts during the spring of 2010 that affected Yunnan , Guizhou , Guangxi , Sichuan , Shanxi , Henan , Shaanxi , Chongqing , Hebei and Gansu in the People 's Republic of China as well as parts of Southeast Asia including Vietnam and Thailand , and dust storms in March and April that affected much of East Asia . The drought has been referred to as the worst in a century in southwestern China .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2010_China_drought_and_dust_storms", "rank": 6, "score": 138777 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 China floods Content: In mid-June 2016 , heavy rainfall began across southern China , triggering deadly floods . Over the following month , additional rain events exacerbated flooding and affected more of the country . Areas along the Yangtze River and Huai River have been particularly hard-hit . An estimated 32 million people across 26 provinces were affected and more than 300 people were killed . 700000 acre of cropland was destroyed , with state damage estimates of around US$ 5.73 billion . According to Aon Benfield , the damage estimate has reached US$ 22 billion . Flooding of this magnitude was last seen in the country in 1998 .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2016_China_floods", "rank": 7, "score": 138490 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 China floods Content: The 2011 China floods are a series of floods from June to September 2011 that occurred in central and southern parts of the People 's Republic of China . They were caused by heavy rain that inundated portions of 12 provinces , leaving other provinces still suffering a prolonged drought , a total of over 36 million people have been affected , killing at least 355 and with direct economic losses of nearly US$ 6.5 billion .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2011_China_floods", "rank": 8, "score": 137823 }, { "content": "Title: Eastern China flood of 1991 Content: In the summer of 1991 , continuous , heavy rainfall in Eastern China caused rivers and water loggings to overflow and flood the area , leading to the Chinese government requesting international aid .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Eastern_China_flood_of_1991", "rank": 9, "score": 136142 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Asia Content: The Climate of Asia is wet across southeast sections , and dry across much of the interior . Some of the largest daily temperature ranges on Earth occur in western sections of Asia . The monsoon circulation dominates across southern and eastern sections , due to the presence of the Himalayas forcing the formation of a thermal low which draws in moisture during the summer . Southwestern sections of the continent experience low relief as a result of the subtropical high pressure belt ; they are hot in the summer , warm to cool in winter , and may snow at higher altitudes . Siberia is one of the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere , and can act as a source of arctic air masses for North America . The most active place on Earth for tropical cyclone activity lies northeast of the Philippines and south of Japan , and the phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation modulates where in Asia landfall is more likely to occur ,", "qid": "363", "docid": "Climate_of_Asia", "rank": 10, "score": 134794 }, { "content": "Title: Monsoon of South Asia Content: The monsoon of South Asia is among several geographically distributed global monsoons . It affects the Indian subcontinent , where it is one of the oldest and most anticipated weather phenomena and an economically important pattern every year from June through September . Yet it is only partly understood and notoriously difficult to predict . Several theories have been proposed to explain the origin , process , strength , variability , distribution , and general vagaries of the monsoon , but understanding and predictability are still evolving . The unique geographical features of the Indian subcontinent , along with associated atmospheric , oceanic , and geophysical factors , influence the behavior of the monsoon . Because of its effect on agriculture , on flora and fauna , and on the climates of nations such as Nepal , India , Bangladesh , Bhutan , Pakistan , and Sri Lanka -- among other economic , social , and environmental effects -- the monsoon is one of the most anticipated , tracked , and studied weather phenomena in the region . It has a significant effect on the overall well-being of residents and has even been dubbed the `` real finance minister of India . ''", "qid": "363", "docid": "Monsoon_of_South_Asia", "rank": 11, "score": 133300 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwest China floods Content: In early July 2013 , much of southwest China experienced heavy rainfall that led to widespread flooding . Sichuan was the hardest hit . At least 73 people were killed as a result of the flooding , with 180 people missing . An estimated 6 million lives were disrupted by the floods .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2013_Southwest_China_floods", "rank": 12, "score": 128496 }, { "content": "Title: North American Monsoon Content: The North American monsoon , variously known as the Southwest monsoon , the Mexican monsoon , or the Arizona monsoon , is a pattern of pronounced increase in thunderstorms and rainfall over large areas of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico , typically occurring between July and mid September . During the monsoon , thunderstorms are fueled by daytime heating and build up during the late afternoon-early evening . Typically , these storms dissipate by late night , and the next day starts out fair , with the cycle repeating daily . The monsoon typically loses its energy by mid-September when drier and cooler conditions are reestablished over the region . Geographically , the North American monsoon precipitation region is centered over the Sierra Madre Occidental in the Mexican states of Sinaloa , Durango , Sonora and Chihuahua .", "qid": "363", "docid": "North_American_Monsoon", "rank": 13, "score": 128446 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Kammuri (2002) Content: Severe Tropical Storm Kammuri , known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Lagalag , killed hundreds of people in the wake of a deadly flood season in China . The system developed from a large monsoonal system that persisted toward the end of July 2002 near the Philippines . On August 2 , a tropical depression formed off the northwest coast of Luzon and moved west-northwestward . Late on August 3 , it intensified into Tropical Storm Kammuri off the coast of Hong Kong . A weakening ridge turned the storm northward toward the coast of China . The storm made landfall with late on August 4 , after reaching peak winds of 100 km/h ( 65 mph ) . The system dissipated over the mountainous coastline of eastern China and merged with a cold front on August 7 . High rainfall from Kammuri affected large portions of China , particularly in Guangdong Province where it moved ashore . In that province , over 100,000 people had to evacuate due to flooding and after 6,810 houses were destroyed . The floods damaged roads , railroads , and tunnels , and left power and water outages across the region . Rainfall was beneficial in alleviating drought conditions in Guangdong , although further inland the rains occurred after months of deadly flooding . In Hunan Province , the storm 's remnants merged with a cold front , destroying 12,400 houses . Across its path , the floods damaged or destroyed 245,000 houses and destroyed 60 ha of crop fields . Kammuri caused 153 deaths , most of which were related to the remnants , and damage was estimated at $ 509 million ( ¥ 4.219 billion yuan ) .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Kammuri_(2002)", "rank": 14, "score": 127778 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southeast Asian floods Content: The 2013 monsoon season ( August 2013 -- December 2013 ) saw large-scale flooding return to Indochina after a calmer 2012 monsoon season . Poverty stricken Cambodia was hardest hit , with some 83 deaths . Countries affected also include Vietnam , Thailand , Laos , and Myanmar . Philippines has seen the annual typhoon related occurrences , which often pummel into Indochina .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2013_Southeast_Asian_floods", "rank": 15, "score": 127298 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Vongfong (2002) Content: Tropical Storm Vongfong affected China after a deadly flood season . The 14th named storm of the 2002 Pacific typhoon season , Vongfong developed as a tropical depression on August 10 . Initially it was disorganized due to hostile conditions , and it failed to intensify significantly before crossing the Philippine island of Luzon . There , flooding forced 3,500 people to evacuate their homes . In the Philippines , the storm killed 35 people and caused $ 3.3 million in damage . After affecting the Philippines , the tropical depression dissipated in the South China Sea , although it reformed on August 15 . It moved northwestward , strengthening into Tropical Storm Vongfong . It brushed eastern Hainan before making landfall on August 19 in southern China near Wuchuan , Guangdong . Soon after it dissipated , the storm dropped heavy rainfall across the region , causing one traffic accident in Hong Kong and killing twelve people due to landslides . The storm destroyed 6,000 houses , mostly in Guangdong , and damage in the country totaled at least $ 86 million .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Vongfong_(2002)", "rank": 16, "score": 126751 }, { "content": "Title: United States rainfall climatology Content: The characteristics of United States rainfall climatology differ significantly across the United States and those under United States sovereignty . Late summer and fall extratropical cyclones bring a majority of the precipitation which falls across western , southern , and southeast Alaska annually . During the winter , and spring , Pacific storm systems bring Hawaii and the western United States most of their precipitation . Nor'easter s moving down the East coast bring cold season precipitation to the Carolinas , Mid-Atlantic and New England states . Lake-effect snows add to precipitation potential downwind of the Great Lakes , as well as Great Salt Lake and the Finger Lakes during the cold season . The snow to liquid ratio across the contiguous United States averages 13:1 , meaning 13 in of snow melts down to 1 in of water . During the summer , the North American monsoon combined with Gulf of California and Gulf of Mexico moisture moving around the subtropical ridge in the Atlantic Ocean bring the promise of afternoon and evening air-mass thunderstorms to the southern tier of the country as well as the Great Plains . Equatorward of the subtropical ridge , tropical cyclones enhance precipitation across southern and eastern sections of the country , as well as Puerto Rico , the United States Virgin Islands , the Northern Mariana Islands , Guam , and American Samoa . Over the top of the ridge , the jet stream brings a summer precipitation maximum to the Great Lakes . Large thunderstorm areas known as mesoscale convective complexes move through the Plains , Midwest , and Great Lakes during the warm season , contributing up to 10 % of the annual precipitation to the region . The El Niño -- Southern Oscillation affects the precipitation distribution , by altering rainfall patterns across the West , Midwest , the Southeast , and throughout the tropics . There is also evidence that global warming is leading to increased precipitation to the eastern portions of North America , while droughts are becoming more frequent in the western portions .", "qid": "363", "docid": "United_States_rainfall_climatology", "rank": 17, "score": 125151 }, { "content": "Title: Monsoon Content: Monsoon ( UK : -LSB- mɒnˈsuːn -RSB- US : -LSB- mɑːnˈsuːn -RSB- ) is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation , but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea . Usually , the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern , although technically there is also a dry phase . The term is sometimes incorrectly used for locally heavy but short-term rains , although these rains meet the dictionary definition of monsoon . The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African and Asia-Australian monsoons . The inclusion of the North and South American monsoons with incomplete wind reversal has been debated . The term was first used in English in British India ( now India , Bangladesh and Pakistan ) and neighbouring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Monsoon", "rank": 18, "score": 124087 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Vietnam floods Content: The 2008 Vietnam floods affected north and central Vietnam , as well as southern parts of the People 's Republic of China after three days of heavy raining . The rainfall , which began October 30 , is the heaviest in 24 years , a state meteorological official told the Vietnam News Agency , and were the worst floods in Hanoi since 1984 . At least 66 in Vietnam and 34 in China have been killed because of the flooding . Overall , 15,000 families evacuated their homes , and almost 100 schools , 100,000 houses , 241,000 hectares of crops , and 25,400 hectares of fish farms were submerged or damaged in the floodwaters .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2008_Vietnam_floods", "rank": 19, "score": 122796 }, { "content": "Title: Wet season Content: The rainy season , or monsoon season , is the time of year when most of a region 's average annual rainfall occurs . It usually lasts one or more months . The term `` green season '' is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities . Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics and subtropics . Under the Köppen climate classification , for tropical climates , a wet season month is defined as a month where average precipitation is 60 mm or more . In contrast to areas with savanna climates and monsoon regimes , Mediterranean climates have wet winters and dry summers . Dry and rainy months are characteristic of tropical seasonal forests : in contrast to tropical rainforests , which do not have dry or wet seasons , since their rainfall is equally distributed throughout the year . Some areas with pronounced rainy seasons will see a break in rainfall mid-season , when the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon trough moves to higher latitudes in the middle of the warm season . When the wet season occurs during a warm season , or summer , precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon and early evening . In the wet season , air quality improves , fresh water quality improves , and vegetation grows substantially , leading to crop yields late in the season . Rivers overflow their banks , and some animals retreat to higher ground . Soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases . The incidence of malaria increases in areas where the rainy season coincides with high temperatures , particularly in tropical areas . Some animals have adaptation and survival strategies for the wet season . Often , the previous dry season leads to food shortages in the wet season , as the crops have yet to mature .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Wet_season", "rank": 20, "score": 122320 }, { "content": "Title: Water management in Beijing Content: Water management in Beijing , the capital of China , is characterized by intense water scarcity during the long dry season as well as heavy flooding during the brief wet season . Beijing is one of the most water-scarce cities in the world . Total water use is 3.6 billion cubic meters , compared to renewable fresh water resources of about 3 billion cubic meters . The difference is made up by the overexploitation of groundwater . Two thirds of the water supply comes from groundwater , one third from surface water . Average rainfall has substantially declined since the 1950s . Furthermore , one of the two main rivers supplying the city , the Yongding River , had to be abandoned as a source of drinking water because of pollution . Water savings in industry and agriculture have compensated for these losses and freed up water for residential uses . Water tariffs have been increased to provide an incentive to curb residential water demand , but the impact has been limited . Residential demand increases due to population growth , and the city taps new water sources . For example , water reclamation has been aggressively promoted since the turn of the century . The city 's 15 central municipal wastewater treatment plants and more than 300 small , decentralized plants now provide reclaimed water for non-potable uses . An additional 1.2 billion cubic meter is expected to be provided through the southern section of the South-North Water Transfer Project 's central route from the Han River , more than 1,000 km to the south , until the end of 2014 . The supply of desalinated seawater from existing desalination plants near Tianjin is also being contemplated .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Water_management_in_Beijing", "rank": 21, "score": 121512 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–15 floods in Southeast Asia and South Asia Content: Beginning on 14 December 2014 , a series of floods from the northeast monsoon hit Indonesia , West Malaysia , Southern Thailand , and later Sri Lanka in South Asia . More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in Indonesia , 200,000 in Malaysia , and several thousand in Thailand . Floods are also affecting 1,100,000 in Sri Lanka .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2014–15_floods_in_Southeast_Asia_and_South_Asia", "rank": 22, "score": 121369 }, { "content": "Title: Central Asian northern desert Content: The Central Asian northern desert is an ecoregion in the deserts and xeric shrublands biome , located in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan . The annual precipitation ranges from 100 to , the winters are cold at -10 to and the summers hot at around 25 ° C . There are a range of habitat types including salt flats , clay desert , rocky desert and some sand desert . The vegetation consists of scanty xeric shrubs including Artemisia and Salsola . The fauna is varied , as well as mammals and birds , there are a large number of reptiles and many species of invertebrate . Some protected areas are included in this ecoregion but other parts are being degraded by conversion to farmland , overgrazing and poaching .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Central_Asian_northern_desert", "rank": 23, "score": 121210 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 North Indian Ocean cyclone season Content: The 2001 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was fairly quiet , although activity was evenly spread between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal . There were six depressions tracked by the India Meteorological Department ( IMD ) , which is the official Regional Specialized Meteorological Center for the northern Indian Ocean . The agency also tracked four cyclonic storms , which have maximum winds of at least 65 km/h ( 40 mph ) sustained over 3 minutes . The American-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center tracked an additional storm -- Tropical Storm Vamei -- which crossed from the South China Sea at a record-low latitude . The first storm originated on May 21 , and became the strongest recorded storm in the Arabian Sea at the time . The IMD estimated peak 3 minute winds of 215 km/h ( 135 mph ) while the storm was off the west coast of India . The storm weakened greatly before making landfall in Gujarat , and although impact on land was minor , it left up to 950 fishermen missing . A few weeks later , the first Bay of Bengal system originated -- a short-lived depression that dropped heavy rainfall upon striking Odisha . After a period of inactivity during the monsoon season , there were cyclonic storms in September and October in the northern Arabian Sea . Both lasted only a few days and dissipated due to unfavorable wind shear . Another cyclonic storm formed in the Bay of Bengal and struck Andhra Pradesh , which dropped heavy rainfall that was equivalent to 300 % of the average October precipitation total . The rains caused flooding , particularly in Cuddapah , where a dam was deliberately opened and inundated the town overnight . There were 153 deaths due to the storm and RS5 billion ( Indian rupees , $ 104 million USD ) in damage . The final storm of the season tracked by the IMD was a short-lived depression in November in the Bay of Bengal . __ TOC __", "qid": "363", "docid": "2001_North_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_season", "rank": 24, "score": 121035 }, { "content": "Title: Tarim River Content: The Tarim River ( Mandarin Tǎlǐmù Hé , 塔里木河 ; Uyghur : تارىم دەرياسى , Тарим дәряси ) , known in Sanskrit as the Śītā is an endorheic river in Xinjiang , China . It is the principal river of the Tarim Basin , a desert region of Central Asia between the Tian Shan and Kunlun Mountains . The river historically terminated at Lop Nur , but today reaches no further than Taitema Lake before drying out . It is the longest inland river in China with an annual flow of 4 to or 158.5 m3/s . Its basin is home to nearly 10 million Uyghur and other ethnic minorities .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tarim_River", "rank": 25, "score": 120592 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Chinese winter storms Content: The 2008 Chinese winter storms ( 2008年中国雪灾 、 2008年中国南方雪灾 ) were a series of winter storm events that affected large portions of southern and central China starting on 25 January 2008 until 6 February 2008 . The systems affected most of the area with heavy snows , ice and cold temperatures causing extensive damage and transportation disruption for several thousand travelers . It became China 's worst winter weather in half a century . According to some media sources the storms were directly responsible for at least 129 deaths .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2008_Chinese_winter_storms", "rank": 26, "score": 120568 }, { "content": "Title: Interandean Valles Content: Dry valleys in the central Andes of Peru , Bolivia , and Argentina , known as `` valles '' , are marked by a rain shadow effect of the surrounding mountains , and thus rainfall is limited , and mostly falls in a brief rainy season . The interandean valles comprise most of the mid-elevation areas of the `` sierra '' of Peru , `` los valles '' of Bolivia and the `` cuyo '' region of Argentina", "qid": "363", "docid": "Interandean_Valles", "rank": 27, "score": 119445 }, { "content": "Title: July 2016 North China cyclone Content: The July 2016 North China cyclone was a devastating extratropical cyclone which produced torrential precipitation and caused widespread flash floods over North China and portions of nearby regions , resulting in at least 184 deaths and ¥ 33.19 billion ( US$ 4.96 billion ) of damage in China .", "qid": "363", "docid": "July_2016_North_China_cyclone", "rank": 28, "score": 119163 }, { "content": "Title: List of rivers of Madhya Pradesh Content: Madhya Pradesh , a state in north-central India , is subtropical with substantial ( 1400 mm ) monsoon rains that feed a large number of streams and rivers . The largest of these by volume is the Narmada , followed by the Tapti . Madhya Pradesh falls in five major river basins . The northern part of the state falls within the Ganges Basin where the Betwa , Chambal and Son flow . South of the Ganges Basin is the Narmada Basin , the second largest by surface area . The other three basins cover small portions of Madhya Pradesh , namely the Mahi Basin to the west , the Tapi Basin and the Godavari Basin to the south .", "qid": "363", "docid": "List_of_rivers_of_Madhya_Pradesh", "rank": 29, "score": 119163 }, { "content": "Title: Monsoon trough Content: The monsoon trough is a portion of the Intertropical Convergence Zone as depicted by a line on a weather map showing the locations of minimum sea level pressure , and as such , is a convergence zone between the wind patterns of the southern and northern hemispheres . Westerly monsoon winds lie in its equatorward portion while easterly trade winds exist poleward of the trough . Right along its axis , heavy rains can be found which usher in the peak of a location 's respective rainy season . As it passes poleward of a location , hot and dry conditions develop . The monsoon trough plays a role in creating many of the world 's rainforests . The term `` monsoon trough '' is most commonly used in monsoonal regions of the Western Pacific such as Asia and Australia . The migration of the ITCZ/monsoon trough into a landmass heralds the beginning of the annual rainy season during summer months . Depressions and tropical cyclones often form in the vicinity of the monsoon trough , with each capable of producing a year 's worth of rainfall in a relatively short time frame .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Monsoon_trough", "rank": 30, "score": 118966 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical cyclone rainfall forecasting Content: Tropical cyclone rainfall forecasting involves using scientific models and other tools to predict the precipitation expected in tropical cyclones such as hurricanes and typhoons . Knowledge of tropical cyclone rainfall climatology is helpful in the determination of a tropical cyclone rainfall forecast . More rainfall falls in advance of the center of the cyclone than in its wake . The heaviest rainfall falls within its central dense overcast and eyewall . Slow moving tropical cyclones , like Hurricane Danny and Hurricane Wilma , can lead to the highest rainfall amounts due to prolonged heavy rains over a specific location . However , vertical wind shear leads to decreased rainfall amounts , as rainfall is favored downshear and slightly left of the center and the upshear side is left devoid of rainfall . The presence of hills or mountains near the coast , as is the case across much of Mexico , Haiti , the Dominican Republic , much of Central America , Madagascar , Réunion , China , and Japan act to magnify amounts on their windward side due to forced ascent causing heavy rainfall in the mountains . A strong system moving through the mid latitudes , such as a cold front , can lead to high amounts from tropical systems , occurring well in advance of its center . Movement of a tropical cyclone over cool water will also limit its rainfall potential . A combination of factors can lead to exceptionally high rainfall amounts , as was seen during Hurricane Mitch in Central America . Use of forecast models can help determine the magnitude and pattern of the rainfall expected . Climatology and persistence models , such as r-CLIPER , can create a baseline for tropical cyclone rainfall forecast skill . Simplified forecast models , such as the Kraft technique and the eight and sixteen-inch rules , can create quick and simple rainfall forecasts , but come with a variety of assumptions which may not be true , such as assuming average forward motion , average storm size , and a knowledge of the rainfall observing network the tropical cyclone is moving towards . The forecast method of TRaP assumes that the rainfall structure the tropical cyclone currently has changes little over the next 24 hours . The global forecast model which shows the most skill in forecasting tropical cyclone-related rainfall in the United States is the GFS ( Global Forecasting System ) .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_cyclone_rainfall_forecasting", "rank": 31, "score": 118314 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 South China floods Content: The 2008 South China floods began on 26 May 2008 . Four rounds of torrential rains with landslides and flooding lasted for 20 days and affected fifteen provinces in Eastern and Southern China . The first round of floods affected twelve provinces in South China and killed 93 people as of 30 May . A new round of floods began on 6 June and swept nine provinces in southern China killing 55 people with 7 missing and forcing 1.3 million to evacuate as of 14 June . China 's National Meteorological Centre has said that heavy rain would continue and that precipitation in the provinces of Guizhou , Sichuan and Yunnan would be 30 to 70 % greater than in the same period last year .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2008_South_China_floods", "rank": 32, "score": 118270 }, { "content": "Title: Winter storms of 2009–10 in East Asia Content: The East Asian snowstorms of 2009 -- 2010 were heavy winter storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , that affected East Asia from 8 May 2009 to 28 February 2010 . The areas affected included Mongolia , China ( the P.R.C. ) , Nepal , the Korean Peninsula , Japan , Kuril Islands , Sea of Okhotsk , Primorsky , and Sakhalin Island .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Winter_storms_of_2009–10_in_East_Asia", "rank": 33, "score": 118123 }, { "content": "Title: Drought in India Content: Drought in India has resulted in tens of millions of deaths over the course of the 18th , 19th , and 20th centuries . Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on the climate of India : a favorable southwest summer monsoon is critical in securing water for irrigating Indian crops . In some parts of India , the failure of the monsoons result in water shortages , resulting in below-average crop yields . This is particularly true of major drought-prone regions such as southern and eastern Maharashtra , northern Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh , Odisha , Gujarat , Telangana and Rajasthan", "qid": "363", "docid": "Drought_in_India", "rank": 34, "score": 117922 }, { "content": "Title: Kelantan River Content: The Kelantan River ( named Sungai Kelantan in the standard Malay language or Sunga Kelate as it is pronounced in Kelantanese dialect ) is the major river in Kelantan , Malaysia . It drains a catchment area of about 11900 km ² in north-east Malaysia including part of the Taman Negara National Park , and flows northwards into the South China Sea . The rainfall over the area varies between 0 mm in the dry season ( March -- May ) to 1750 mm in the monsoon season ( November -- January ) . The average runoff from the area is about 500 m ³ / s.", "qid": "363", "docid": "Kelantan_River", "rank": 35, "score": 117329 }, { "content": "Title: Storm Desmond Content: Storm Desmond was an extratropical cyclone and fourth named storm of the 2015 -- 16 UK and Ireland windstorm season , notable for directing a plume of moist air , known as an atmospheric river , which brought record amounts of orographic rainfall to upland areas of northern Atlantic Europe and subsequent major floods . In the United Kingdom the worst affected areas were centred on Cumbria , parts of Lancashire and the Scottish Borders . In Ireland the worst affected areas were in the Shannon River Basin in the west and Irish midlands . The extent of damage caused in such a short period across wide areas brought into focus the performance of UK central government flood defence strategies . Expensive flood defence systems were proven ineffective and in some cases appeared to increase the problem . Professor Dieter Helm , Chair of the UK government 's Natural Capital Committee stated in January 2016 : `` Flooding crises tend to follow an established pattern . First , there is immediate help and assistance . Then second , there is a `` review '' . On occasions , this leads to a third stage of genuine reform , but in most cases `` sticking plasters '' are applied . These are incremental and often sensible , but typically fail to address the core issues and hence provide only a temporary respite . There are very good reasons why '' sticking plasters '' will not work this time . The conventional approach to flood defence , carried out by the Environment Agency ( EA ) , and financed largely by the Treasury , is at best inefficient . Sometimes it is even counterproductive , encouraging the sorts of land use and land management decisions that can actually make flooding worse in the medium term . '' The Chairman of the UK 's Environment Agency , the body responsible for main river maintenance resigned in early 2016 . The UK government House of Commons Select Committee for the environment challenged the Chief Executive Officer of the Environment Agency on its performance by stating : `` You -LSB- Sir James Bevan , CEO -RSB- said `` The capacity of a river does n't matter ! '' You 've got to be certain the leopard has changed its spots . And I will keep repeating this . You have n't really given us an answer as to whether you have monitored the situation . I 'm fearful . You allowed the River Parrett -LSB- Somerset -RSB- to silt up , you allowed the Tone to silt up , you allowed the tributaries to silt up , and then it flooded . '' The Committee added : `` The EA do n't provide -LSB- quotes for work -RSB- when doing projects so we ca n't compare like with like -LSB- with other project providers -RSB- . There is an argument for transparency on your spending ... You say the right words and hold onto your power . '' Severe rain and some flooding was also being reported in Northumberland , north Wales and Yorkshire . Disruption from flooding , high winds , and damage to infrastructure led to the suspension of hundreds of rail services across the country , with the West Coast Main Line closed for several days due to flooding and a landslide . Sports fixtures were also cancelled and more than 43,000 homes across the north of England were left without power , as well as over 2,000 homes in the Republic of Ireland and around 700 in Wales . The expected heavy rainfall was considered to be an extreme weather event by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute , who named it Synne . The Free University of Berlin named the low Ted , as part of its Adopt -- a -- vortex programme .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Storm_Desmond", "rank": 36, "score": 117162 }, { "content": "Title: Prehistoric Mongolia Content: The climate of Central Asia became dry after the large tectonic collision between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate . This impact threw up the massive chain of mountains known as the Himalayas . The Himalayas , Greater Khingan and Lesser Khingan mountains act like a high wall , blocking the warm and wet climate from penetrating into Central Asia . Many of the mountains of Mongolia were formed during the Late Neogene and Early Quaternary periods . The Mongolian climate was more humid hundreds of thousands of years ago .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Prehistoric_Mongolia", "rank": 37, "score": 116938 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Pakistan flood Content: Following heavy rains and flash floods in Pakistan , at least 71 people were killed and another 34 hospitalized . Beginning the night of Saturday , April 3 , rainfall began to spur floods in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region in the northwest . Heavy rainfall is common in Southern Asia during the pre-monsoon season . Following the floods , the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government began to administer relief for those affected . Rural areas with poor infrastructure were highly susceptible , and , consequently , some 150 homes were destroyed in the event . The floods also caused deadly landslides that killed another 23 people . However , 5 survived and were rescued . Furthermore , the rain washed away bridges and roads in the area , as well as causing crop loss . Another flood began in August . At least 82 people were killed during the floods , including a disaster involving a bus which resulted in the deaths of 27 people and the disappearance of four .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2016_Pakistan_flood", "rank": 38, "score": 116624 }, { "content": "Title: Floods in Thailand Content: Floods in Thailand are regular natural disasters in Thailand which happen nearly every year during the monsoon season . The monsoon seasons in the country are distinct by region , the southern part mirrors the Malay Peninsula and monsoon begins in Oct and ends in March . The rest of the nation has monsoons and/or frequent thundershowers from April/May through October , but often lasts beyond October . Thailand cycles yearly between drought and flooding . Breaking this cycle was the subject of the `` Sustainable Water Management Forum 2016 '' in Bangkok . The event hosted water management specialists from countries which have dealt with water management challenges such as the Netherlands , Israel , and Singapore . One attendee observed that , `` In Thailand , we receive around 754,000 million m3 of rain per year . That is more than enough for the annual water demand of around 100,000 million m3 ... . However , only 5.7 percent of rainfall , 70,370 million m3 , empties into the reservoirs . ''", "qid": "363", "docid": "Floods_in_Thailand", "rank": 39, "score": 116513 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 Luzon southwest monsoon floods Content: The 2012 Luzon southwest monsoon floods ( informally known in Tagalog as Hagupít ng Habagat , `` wrath of the monsoon '' and Bagsík ng Habagat , `` fierceness of the monsoon '' , from habagat , the Filipino term for the southwest monsoon ) , was an eight-day period of torrential rain and thunderstorms in the Philippines from August 1 to August 8 , 2012 . Its effects centered on Metro Manila , the surrounding provinces of the Calabarzon Region ( Quezon , Cavite , Laguna and Rizal ) and the provinces of Region 3 ( Bulacan , Pampanga and Bataan ) . Not a typhoon in its own right , the storm was a strong movement of the southwest monsoon ( Habagat ) caused by the pull of Typhoon Saola ( Gener ) from August 1 -- 3 , strengthened by Typhoon Haikui . It caused typhoon-like damage : the most damage caused by rain since September 2009 , when Typhoon Ketsana ( Ondoy ) struck Metro Manila . The heavy rain caused the Marikina River to overflow , destroying areas also affected by Ketsana , triggering a landslide in the Commonwealth area and collapsing the northbound Marcos Highway . Its damage was nearly as severe as Ketsana 's , although the storm did not reach typhoon intensity when the rain reached its peak on August 7 . The floods and rain left 95 people dead , 8,428 homes destroyed and 6,706 damaged . Nationwide losses totaled at least 604.63 million ( US$ 14.31 million ) .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2012_Luzon_southwest_monsoon_floods", "rank": 40, "score": 116049 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 European floods Content: Extreme flooding in Central Europe began after several days of heavy rain in late May and early June 2013 . Flooding and damages primarily affected south and east German states ( Thuringia , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , Lower Saxony , Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg ) , western regions of the Czech Republic ( Bohemia ) , and Austria . In addition , Switzerland , Slovakia , Belarus , Poland , Hungary and Serbia ( Vojvodina ) were affected to a lesser extent . The flood crest progressed down the Elbe and Danube drainage basins and tributaries , leading to high water and flooding along their banks .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2013_European_floods", "rank": 41, "score": 115489 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Vietnam floods Content: The 2016 Vietnam floods affected central Vietnam , resulting in estimated 27.000 thousands of homes entirely submerged by rising water . Meteorologists cited the 2016 Asian monsoon , among the strongest in years , and the El Niño as the cause . The last time the area was heavily flooded was during the 2008 Vietnam floods .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2016_Vietnam_floods", "rank": 42, "score": 114495 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Bangladesh Content: Bangladesh is a low-lying , riverine country located in South Asia with a largely marshy jungle coastline of 580 km on the northern littoral of the Bay of Bengal . Formed by a delta plain at the confluence of the Ganges ( Padma ) , Brahmaputra ( Jamuna ) , and Meghna Rivers and their tributaries , Bangladesh 's alluvial soil is highly fertile , but vulnerable to flood and drought . Hills rise above the plain only in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the far southeast and the Sylhet division in the northeast . Straddling the Tropic of Cancer , Bangladesh has a tropical monsoon climate characterised by heavy seasonal rainfall , high temperatures , and high humidity . Natural disasters , such as floods , tornadoes , and tidal bores affect the country yearly . Bangladesh also is affected by major cyclones , on average 16 times a decade . A cyclone struck the southeastern coast in May 1991 , killing 136,000 people . Cyclone Sidr struck the southwestern coast on 15 November 2007 , affecting not only the coastal districts of the administrative division Khulna but also about half of the tropical forest Sundarbans .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Geography_of_Bangladesh", "rank": 43, "score": 114215 }, { "content": "Title: Natural disasters in China Content: China is one of the countries most affected by natural disasters . It had 5 of the world 's top 10 deadliest natural disasters ; the top 3 occurred in China : the 1931 China floods , death toll 3 million to 4 million , the 1887 Yellow River flood , death toll 0.9 million to 2 million , and the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake , death toll 0.83 million . `` Natural disasters occur frequently in China , affecting more than 200 million people every year . They have become an important restricting factor for economic and social development . '' In the course of recorded history , many types of natural disasters -- except volcano eruptions -- have occurred in China , which include floods , droughts , meteorological , seismic , geological , maritime and ecological disasters as well as forestry and grassland fires . These natural disasters pose serious threats to life and property safety to China and its people and severely affect the comprehensive , coordinated and sustainable development of that country 's economy and society . In addition , they threaten China 's national security and social stability and stand in the way of economic development in some regions and poverty alleviation of certain rural population .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Natural_disasters_in_China", "rank": 44, "score": 114091 }, { "content": "Title: Mango showers Content: Mango showers , or ` mango rains ' , is a colloquial term to describe the occurrence of pre-monsoon rainfall . Sometimes these rains are referred to generically as ` April rains ' or ` Summer showers ' . They are notable across much of South and Southeast Asia , including India , and Cambodia . In southern Asia , these rains greatly influence human activities because the control the rains have on crops that are culturally significant like mangoes and coffee . These rains normally occur from March to April , although their arrival is often difficult to predict . Their intensity can range from light showers to heavy and persistent thunderstorms . In India , the mango showers occurs as the result of thunderstorm development over the Bay of Bengal.They are also known as ` Kalbaishakhi ' in Bengal , the calamity of Baishakhi ( March to April ) . Towards the close of the summer season , pre-monsoon showers are common , especially in Kerala , Karnataka and parts of Tamil Nadu in India . They help in the early ripening of mangoes , and often referred to as ` mango showers ' . Mango showers occurs due to * Himalayas *", "qid": "363", "docid": "Mango_showers", "rank": 45, "score": 113787 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 floods in Thailand and north Malaysia Content: A series of flash floods hit different areas of Thailand and Malaysia in 2010 . Separate but related floods began in the Northeast and Central Thailand ( per the six-region definition ) in early October due to abnormally late monsoon moisture over the Bay of Bengal , overflowed the Chao Phraya where the rivers meet , and affected Bangkok , and in the South were triggered by a tropical depression about 2 weeks later , and was later aggravated by related La Niña monsoon rains . Floods subsequently occurred in the Malaysian states of Kedah and Perlis in November 2010 . Although flooding is a common and annual occurrence in this part of the world , a combination of inadequate drainage and higher than average rainfall in the month of October and November 2010 which caught the nation off guard and led to disaster . The death toll in Thailand stands at 232 people . According to the Thai government data the floods affected nearly 7 million people in more than 25,000 villages , mostly by destruction of property , livelihood and infrastructure . The government announced that 38 provinces have been hit by floods from 1 October until 13 November and waters have receded in 8 provinces leaving 30 provinces still affected including 12 in the southern region of the country .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2010_floods_in_Thailand_and_north_Malaysia", "rank": 46, "score": 113730 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 North Indian Ocean cyclone season Content: The 2003 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was mostly focused in the Bay of Bengal , where six of the seven depressions developed . The remaining system was a tropical cyclone that developed in the Arabian Sea in November , which was also the only system that did not affect land . There were three cyclonic storms , which is below the average of 5.4 . Only one storm formed before the start of the monsoon season in June , although it was also the most notable . On May 10 , a depression formed in the central Bay of Bengal , and within a few days became a very severe cyclonic storm . After it stalled , it drew moisture from the southwest to produce severe flooding across Sri Lanka , killing 254 people and becoming the worst floods there since 1947 . Damage on the island totaled $ 135 million ( 2003 USD ) . The storm eventually made landfall in Myanmar on May 19 . It is possible that the storm contributed to a deadly heat wave in India due to shifting air currents . In late July , a monsoon depression moved across much of India , and another monsoon disturbance persisted off the coast of Pakistan . The interaction between the two systems resulted in heavy rainfall across the region , flooding dozens of villages . Monsoonal rainfall killed 285 people between Pakistan and India in the summer of 2003 . In late August , another monsoon depression moved across northeastern India . A depression that struck Andhra Pradesh in India killed 21 people in early October . Later that month , a tropical depression crossed Thailand from the western Pacific Ocean , contributing to ongoing flooding that killed 19 . Once in the Indian Ocean , this system struck southeastern India without causing much damage . The last system of the year was a cyclonic storm that struck southeastern India in December , killing 81 people and causing $ 28 million in damage ( 2003 USD ) . __ TOC __", "qid": "363", "docid": "2003_North_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_season", "rank": 47, "score": 113707 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Southeast Asian floods Content: The 2011 monsoon season saw one record flood event in Indochina across several countries and a few separate limited flood events parts of the same nations : Thailand , Cambodia and Myanmar and heavy flooding in Vietnam . Meanwhile , Laos also sustained flood damage . By late October 2011 , 2.3 million people have been hit by flooding in Thailand , while the flooding in Cambodia has affected close to 1.2 million people , according to estimates by the United Nations . Unrelated to the northern floods , Southern Thailand near Malaysia has been lashed with flooding in early November and again in December also affecting as far north as Chumporn . In the November event , Southern Thailand near Hat Yai was hit , North-central Vietnam had their own event in October . Myanmar had reported a series of limited but still deadly and destructive events from June to October . The 2011 typhoon season in Philippines overlapped the monsoon season in Indochina , and the country was hit by a series of storms over the course of 4 months : Typhoon Nesat in September , which was followed shortly after by Typhoon Nalgae , and then in December by Tropical Storm Washi , which hit on an unusual track , timing and location . All told , well over 2,828 have lost their lives to a series of flooding events of varying origins in Southeast Asia since August 2011 in the above-mentioned nations , world-wide supply-chain disruptions occurred in technology sector , and billion-dollar losses and severe parts shortages rippled to corporations of developed nations , and the assumption of safety from flood waters was put into question in many nations thought or assumed to be prepared .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2011_Southeast_Asian_floods", "rank": 48, "score": 113595 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical monsoon climate Content: A Tropical monsoon climate , occasionally known as a tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate , is a type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category `` Am '' . Tropical monsoon climates have monthly mean temperatures above 18 ° C in every month of the year and feature wet and dry seasons , as Tropical savanna climates do . Tropical monsoon climates however features its driest month seeing on average less than 60 mm but more than 100 -- -LSB- total annual precipitation -LCB- mm -RCB- / 25 -RSB- of precipitation . This latter fact is in direct contrast to a tropical savanna climate , whose driest month sees less than 60 mm of precipitation and also less than 100 -- -LSB- total annual precipitation -LCB- mm -RCB- / 25 -RSB- of precipitation . In essence , a tropical monsoon climate tends to either see more rainfall than a tropical savanna climate or have less pronounced dry seasons . Additionally , a tropical monsoon climate tends to see less variance in temperatures during the course of the year than a tropical savanna climate . This climate has a driest month which nearly always occurs at or soon after the `` winter '' solstice for that side of the equator .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_monsoon_climate", "rank": 49, "score": 113559 }, { "content": "Title: Typhoon Matsa Content: Typhoon Matsa , known in the Philippines as Typhoon Gorio , was the second of eight Pacific tropical cyclones to make landfall on China during the 2005 Pacific typhoon season . The ninth tropical storm and fifth typhoon of the season , Matsa developed on July 30 to the east of the Philippines . Matsa intensified as it tracked northwestward , and attained peak 10-minute sustained winds of 150 km/h ( 90 mph ) near Taiwan before weakening and striking the Chinese province of Zhejiang on August 5 . The system continued northward into the Yellow Sea , and on August 7 Matsa became extratropical after again moving ashore along the Liaodong Peninsula . Matsa is a Laotian name for a lady fish . In Taiwan , Matsa dropped torrential rainfall of up to 1,270 mm ( 50 in ) , which caused mudslides and moderate damage across the island . Flooding from the rainfall contaminated some water supplies , leaving around 80,000 homes without water at one point ; much of Taoyuan County ( now Taoyuan City ) was without water for at least 5 days . As in Taiwan , the typhoon dropped heavy precipitation in the People 's Republic of China , and in combination with strong winds destroyed about 59,000 houses and damaged more than 20,000 km2 of croplands . Throughout the country , Matsa caused 25 direct fatalities and ￥ 18 billion ( 2005 CNY , $ 2.23 billion 2005 USD ) in damage .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Typhoon_Matsa", "rank": 50, "score": 113029 }, { "content": "Title: Rainfall in Karnataka Content: The state of Karnataka in India has a bittersweet relationship with rains . While its regions of Malnad and coastal Karnataka receive copious amount of rainfall ; its north Bayaluseemae region in the Deccan Plateau is one of the most arid regions in the country . Most of the rains received in the state is during the monsoon season . Being an agrarian economy with a large percentage of its citizens engaged in agriculture , the failure of rains can have a crippling effect on the economy of the state . Apart from the benefits in agriculture , the Government of Karnataka has tried to avail other benefits of rainfall using scientific methods . An example of this is the project , Rainwater Harvesting in Rural Karnataka which is initiated by the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology and is one of the largest rainwater harvesting projects in the world . Agumbe in the Shimoga district is known as one of the places with the highest annual rainfall in India .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Rainfall_in_Karnataka", "rank": 51, "score": 112746 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Sri Lanka floods Content: The southwest monsoon and cyclone Mora caused flooding and landslides throughout Sri Lanka in last week of May 2017 . 15 districts have been affected , killing 203 people and leaving 96 people missing . As of 31 May , 631,346 people are affected , 7,617 houses partially and 1,508 houses are fully damaged . The monsoon struck heavily on the river system near Rathnapura , and did affect most of the South-West . Heavy rain caused raise of water level 300 mm - 500 mm in 24 hours on the 25th of May 2017 , and it resulted raise of water level rivers , particularly the Kelani river water level raised by 15.44 meters . In the evening , 25th May National Building Research Organisation ( NBRO ) of Sri Lanka issued Landslide warning for 7 districts . Part of the Southern Expressway closed due to flooding .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2017_Sri_Lanka_floods", "rank": 52, "score": 112581 }, { "content": "Title: October 2008 Central America floods Content: The October 2008 Central America floods were caused by a series of low-pressure areas including Tropical Depression Sixteen , a short-lived tropical cyclone in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season that made landfall in Honduras . Heavy rainfall began in early October 2008 while a tropical wave passed through the region . On October 14 , Tropical Depression Sixteen formed just off the northeast coast of Honduras , and at the same time a low pressure system was on the Pacific coast . Both systems increased rainfall across the region , although the depression dropped heavy rainfall close to its center when it moved ashore on October 15 . Although Tropical Depression Sixteen quickly dissipated over land , its remnants persisted for several days . Another low pressure area interacted with a cold front on October 21 , adding to the rainfall in the region . Heavy rainfall extended from Costa Rica to southeastern Mexico , causing what was considered the worst natural disaster in the region since Hurricane Mitch in 1998 . In the former country , rainfall totaled 2100 mm over several weeks , making the week ending October 17 the wettest in San José since 1944 . Floods in Costa Rica damaged 32 bridges and roads in 174 locations , while 1,396 homes were damaged , killing seven people . In Nicaragua to the north , weeks of heavy rainfall killed 16 people and damaged or destroyed 1,333 houses . In Honduras where the tropical depression made landfall , rainfall reached 1.2 m in some areas , although the highest official total there related to the depression was 360 mm on the offshore Roatán over six days . About 40 % of municipalities in the country experienced flooding , forcing over 50,000 people to leave their homes . The floods damaged about 50 % of roads in Honduras , and over 10,000 houses were damaged or destroyed . Damage totaled about 3 billion lempiras ( HNL , $ 225 million USD ) , and there were 60 deaths . In northern Guatemala , the floods damaged about 67000 ha of crop fields , accounting for Q128 .9 million ( 2008 GTQ , $ 16.8 million USD ) in crop damage . There were 17 deaths and about 4,000 damaged houses in Guatemala . In neighboring El Salvador , the rains contributed to October 2008 being the third-wettest month across the country , after Hurricane Stan in 2005 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998 . One person died , and hundreds were forced to evacuate their houses . In Belize , the rains flooded about 1,000 homes , forcing the evacuation of one entire town due to health reasons . The rains caused additional flooding following Tropical Storm Arthur striking the country in May , damaging a bridge that was rebuilt after Arthur . Nationwide , the floods caused BZ$ 54.1 million ( BZD , $ 27.1 million USD ) in damage and two deaths .", "qid": "363", "docid": "October_2008_Central_America_floods", "rank": 53, "score": 112540 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Morakot (2003) Content: Tropical Storm Morakot , known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Juaning , brought significant rainfall to Taiwan before alleviating drought conditions in mainland China in August 2003 . The tenth named storm in the western Pacific that year , Morakot spawned from an area of disturbed weather in the Philippine Sea on July 31 . Tracking northwest , favorable conditions allowed for the intensification of the system to tropical storm strength on August 2 . Morakot reached peak intensity later that day with winds of 85 km/h ( 50 mph ) and a minimum barometric pressure of 992 mbar ( hPa ; 28.29 inHg ) . This intensity was held for several hours until less conducive atmospheric conditions slightly weakened the system ; this was followed by Morakot making landfall on southern Taiwan on August 3 . Subsequently , the storm weakened and moved into the Taiwan Strait before making its final landfall near Quanzhou , China the next day . The storm quickly weakened over the Chinese mainland , and dissipated entirely several hours after landfall . In Taiwan , where Morakot first made landfall , heavy rainfall resulted in flooding . Commercial flights , schools , and rail service in some areas was cancelled in advance of the storm . Precipitation there peaked at 653 mm ( 25.71 in ) over a period of nearly two days in Taitung County . Crop damage also resulted from the rainfall , and was estimated at over NT$ 70 million ( US$ 2 million ) . In China , record rainfall was reported . The worst impacted city was Quanzhou , where losses due to Morakot reached CN ¥ 240 million ( US$ 29 million ) and one death was reported . Power outages were also widespread across southeastern China . Due to preexisting drought conditions , 703 cloud seeding operations took place in order to artificially generate added rainfall ; such operations resulted in moderate precipitation over the targeted area . Overall , Morakot caused roughly $ 31 million in damage and three deaths .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Morakot_(2003)", "rank": 54, "score": 112268 }, { "content": "Title: Ammopiptanthus Content: The genus Ammopiptanthus ( Leguminosae ) , endemic to the eastern desert of Central Asia , includes two species : A. mongolicus ( Maxim . ) Cheng f. and A. nanus ( M. Pop . ) Cheng f. Ammopiptanthus is the only genus of evergreen broadleaf shrub in the northwest desert of China and both species are dominant in the local vegetation , so this genus plays an important role in fixing moving sands and delaying further desertification . The biological property of Ammopiptanthus evergreen broadleaf has been viewed as an ancestral trait that identifies it as a Tertiary relict taxon . The vegetation in northwest China was dominated by evergreen and/or deciduous broadleaf forests in the early Tertiary period according to the fossil evidence . When subsequent changes made the climate colder and drier from the early Miocene ( 24 -- 16 Ma ) in Central Asia -LSB- 8 -RSB- , the forests were gradually replaced by steppe and then by desert . Today , their habitats are stony and/or sandy deserts where the climate is arid ( annual precipitation ranges from 100 -- 160 mm ) and the temperature varies from below -30 ° C in the winter to +40 ° C in the summer . Because of low seed germination rates in the harsh environments and increasing anthropogenic pressures in their natural range , both A. mongolicus and A. nanus have been categorized as ` endangered ' species . As a relict survivor of the evergreen broadleaf forest in this region from the Tertiary period , Ammopiptanthus has acquired the strong ability to adapt to the dry and extremely cold environments . The characteristics described above have recently attracted scientific attention to their anatomy , cold and drought stress resistance -LSB- 11-13 -RSB- , and genetic diversity and geographic differentiation .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Ammopiptanthus", "rank": 55, "score": 112205 }, { "content": "Title: Mountains of Central Asia Content: South of the northern low lands is a great belt of mountains and plateaus . The Pamir plateau in central Asia forms mountainous chains running out in different directions . The mountain chains of the Himalayas , Karakoram and Kunlun run towards the east . The plateau of Tibet , enclosed by the Himalayas and Kunlun , is the largest and highest plateau of the world . Mount Everest in the Himalayas is the highest peak in the world . The vast cool desert of Gobi is in this region . The Mountains of Central Asia is a biodiversity hot spot designated by Conservation International which covers several montane and alpine ecoregions of Central Asia , including those of the Pamir and Tian Shan ranges , and extending across portions of Afghanistan , China , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , and Uzbekistan . The hotspot encompasses several habitat types , including montane grasslands and shrublands , temperate coniferous forests , and alpine tundra . The ecoregions in the hotspot include : Alai-Western Tien Shan steppe Gissaro-Alai open woodlands Pamir alpine desert and tundra Tian Shan montane steppe and meadows Tian Shan montane conifer forests", "qid": "363", "docid": "Mountains_of_Central_Asia", "rank": 56, "score": 111800 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–11 China drought Content: The 2010 -- 2011 China drought was a drought that began in late 2010 and impacted eight provinces in the northern part of the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) . It was the worst drought to hit the country in 60 years , and it affected most of wheat-producing regions in the PRC .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2010–11_China_drought", "rank": 57, "score": 111617 }, { "content": "Title: Shuang River Cave Group Content: Shuang River Cave Group , is the longest cave in China , the second longest in Asia , and 20th longest in the world . It is located near the town of Wenquan in Suiyang County , Guizhou Province . This gypsum and dolomite cave has carbon dioxide levels of approximately 400ppm , with a constant temperature of about 13 degrees Celsius year round . The cave contains numerous waterfalls , and at least three underground rivers , some of which contain cave shrimp , and fish weighing several pounds . Also found , have been tadpoles , frogs , insects , spiders , bats , leeches , blind fish , and mushrooms . Since 1987 , at least 5 expeditions from France and Japan have explored the cave .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Shuang_River_Cave_Group", "rank": 58, "score": 111164 }, { "content": "Title: July 2012 Beijing flood Content: In a twenty-hour period on July 21 , 2012 , a flash flood hit the city of Beijing in the People 's Republic of China . Within a day of the flooding , 56,933 people had been evacuated , while the floodwaters killed 79 people , causing at least 10 billion Yuan ( US $ 1.6 billion ) in damages and destroying at least 8,200 homes . In the city , more than 1.6 million people were affected by the flood overall . Fangshan District was the most heavily affected area of Beijing , located in the southwest , which received a record-setting 460 mm of rain , while on average the city received 170 mm during the same period , the highest recorded since 1951 . The Juma River flooded its banks and reached a flow rate of 2500 m3 per second . A woman in Fangshan reported the river rose 1.3 metres on her home in approximately ten minutes . At Beijing Capital International Airport , the floods resulted in the cancellation of over 500 flights , stranding 80,000 travellers .", "qid": "363", "docid": "July_2012_Beijing_flood", "rank": 59, "score": 110583 }, { "content": "Title: Lai Nullah Content: Lai Nullah ( Urdu : نالہ لئی ) , commonly called Nullah Lai , is a rain water fed natural stream flowing through the city of Rawalpindi . Every monsoon season the stream floods after being fed by its catchment basin in the Margalla Hills bordering Islamabad , Pakistan . The Lai Nullah Basin has a catchment area of 234.8 km2 , extending to the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi . A record level of 620 mm of rainfall fell in Islamabad , Pakistan one in just 10 hours brought in its wake huge urban storm flooding in the famous Lai Nullah flowing through the twin cities on 23 July 2001. , Islamabad and Rawalpindi are situated along the Margallah hills . In this paper severe rainfall spell 4 -- 9 July 2008 is analyzed . Our main focus is the flooding which occurred on 5 July due to 104mm rainfall received in only 100 minutes ; 162 mm rainfall was recorded only in 5 hours at PMD Headquarters Islamabad . Densely populated low-lying areas along Lai Nullah faced flood like situation causing massive destruction of property and life . Three people died in the flash flood . It was the heaviest short period rainfall in last six years , reminding the cloud burst of 23 July 2001 . Temporal coincidence of July 2001 and July 2008 shows that both the events occurred between 00-09 UTC . The Nai Nullah river has six major tributaries , three originating in the foothills of Islamabad in the higher plain area ; it then flows down through the lower lying city of Rawalpindi , where another three tributaries join the river . Lai Nullah starts from the IJP Road in Islamabad at the administrative boundary between the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad . Apart from flow from Islamabad area , 11 main drains of Rawalpindi City also contributes to Nullah Lai . REF RDA DOC The Lai Nullah combined with its tributaries such as Saidpur Kasi , Kanitwali , Badarwali Kasi and Tenawali Kasi , originating from Margala Hills enter in Rawalpindi city from CDA area at IJ principal Road and Khayaban-e - Sir Syed . The additional tributaries including Niki Lai , Dhoke Hassu Nullah , Dhoke Ellahi Bakhash and PAF Colony Nullah join the main stream of Lai Nullah within Rawalpindi City . REF RDA DOC", "qid": "363", "docid": "Lai_Nullah", "rank": 60, "score": 110545 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Central Asia energy crisis Content: The 2008 Central Asia energy crisis was an energy shortage in Central Asia , which , combined with the severe weather of the 2007-08 winter ( the coldest since 1969 ) and high prices for food and fuel , caused considerable hardship for many . The abnormally cold weather has pushed demand up for electricity , exacerbating the crisis . The situation is most dire in Tajikistan . An international appeal was made by the United Nations , NGOs , and the Red Cross and Red Crescent for around US$ 25 million to assist the government . At the time , The UN warned that millions face starvation during the 2008-09 winter .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2008_Central_Asia_energy_crisis", "rank": 61, "score": 110506 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Bihar flood Content: The monsoon season in the northern areas of Bihar , continuing rain in Himalayas , and a rise in water levels of the Ganges , Kosi , Gandak , Baghmati , and the Punpun gave rise to anticipated flooding for 2013 .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2013_Bihar_flood", "rank": 62, "score": 110186 }, { "content": "Title: Chilseok Content: Chilseok is a Korean traditional festival which falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Korean lunisolar calendar , originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival . Chilseok is a period where the heat starts to dwindle and the monsoon season begins , and the rain that falls during this period is called Chilseok water . As pumpkins , cucumbers , and melons start to flourish during this period , people traditionally offered fried pumpkin to the Great Dipper .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Chilseok", "rank": 63, "score": 109496 }, { "content": "Title: Huangguoshu Waterfall Content: Huangguoshu Waterfall , is one of the largest waterfalls in China and East Asia located on the Baishui River in Anshun , Guizhou province . It is 77.8 m high and 101 m wide . The main waterfall is 67 m high and 83.3 m wide .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Huangguoshu_Waterfall", "rank": 64, "score": 109441 }, { "content": "Title: Central Asia Content: Central Asia stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north . It is also colloquially referred to as `` the - stans '' as the five countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix '' - stan '' , meaning `` land of '' . Central Asia 's five former Soviet republics are Kazakhstan ( pop . 17 million ) , Kyrgyzstan ( 5.7 million ) , Tajikistan ( 8.0 million ) , Turkmenistan ( 5.2 million ) , and Uzbekistan ( 30 million ) , giving the region a total population of about 66 million . Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road . It has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people , goods , and ideas between Europe , Western Asia , South Asia , and East Asia . The Silk Road connected Muslim lands with the people of Europe , India , and China . This crossroads position has intensified the conflict between tribalism and traditionalism and modernization . In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times , Central Asia was predominantly Iranian , peopled by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians , Sogdians and Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Parthians . After expansion by Turkic peoples , Central Asia also became the homeland for the Kazakhs , Uzbeks , Turkmen , Kyrgyz and Uyghurs and Turkic languages largely replaced the Iranian languages spoken in the area . Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan . From the mid-19th century until almost the end of the 20th century , most of Central Asia was part of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union , both Slavic-majority countries , and the five former Soviet '' - stans '' are still home to about 7 million Russians and 500,000 Ukrainians .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Central_Asia", "rank": 65, "score": 109263 }, { "content": "Title: Great Flood of 1951 Content: In mid-July 1951 , heavy rains led to a great rise of water in the Kansas River and other surrounding areas of the central United States . Flooding resulted in the Kansas , Neosho , Marais Des Cygnes , and Verdigris river basins . The damage in June and July 1951 exceeded $ 935 million in an area covering eastern Kansas and Missouri , which , adjusting for inflation , is nearly $ 8.52 billion in 2016 . The flood resulted in the loss of 17 lives and displaced 518,000 people .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Great_Flood_of_1951", "rank": 66, "score": 109249 }, { "content": "Title: Indian famine of 1899–1900 Content: The Indian famine of 1899 -- 1900 began with the failure of the summer monsoons in 1899 over west and Central India and , during the next year , affected an area of 476000 sqmi and a population of 59.5 million . The famine was acute in the Central Provinces and Berar , the Bombay Presidency , the minor province of Ajmer-Merwara , and the Hissar District of the Punjab ; it also caused great distress in the princely states of the Rajputana Agency , the Central India Agency , Hyderabad and the Kathiawar Agency . In addition , small areas of the Bengal Presidency , the Madras Presidency and the North-Western Provinces were acutely afflicted by the famine . The population in many areas had barely recovered from the famine of 1896 -- 1897 . As in that famine , this one too was preceded by a drought . The Meteorological Office of India in its report of 1900 , stated , `` The mean average rainfall of India is 45 in . In no previous famine year has it been in greater defect than 5 in . But in 1899 the defect exceeded 11 inches . '' There were also large crop failures in the rest of India and , as a result , inter-regional trade could not be relied upon to stabilise food prices . The resulting mortality was high . In the Deccan , an estimated 166,000 people died , and in the entire Bombay Presidency a total of 462,000 . In the Presidency , the famine of 1899 -- 1900 had the highest mortality -- at 37.9 deaths per 1000 -- among all famines and scarcities there between 1876 -- 77 and 1918 -- 19 . According to a 1908 estimate of the Imperial Gazetteer , in the British administered districts alone , approximately 1,000,000 individuals died of starvation or accompanying disease ; in addition , as a result of acute shortage of fodder , cattle in the millions perished . Other estimates vary between 1 million and 4.5 million deaths .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Indian_famine_of_1899–1900", "rank": 67, "score": 109123 }, { "content": "Title: 2006–07 Southeast Asian floods Content: The 2006 -- 2007 Southeast Asian floods were a series of floods that mostly affected Malaysia from 18 December 2006 to 13 January 2007 . The floods were caused by above average rainfall , which was attributed to Typhoon Utor which had hit the Philippines and Vietnam a few days earlier . By the third week of January 2007 , Johor had been affected by a larger flood . Singapore and certain parts of Indonesia were flooded due to the same typhoon . Throughout the week starting 18 December 2006 , a series of floods hit Johor , Malacca , Pahang and Negeri Sembilan . During this period , these southern Malaysian states , along with Singapore , experienced abnormally high rainfall which resulted in massive floods . The rainfall recorded in the city of Johor Bahru on 19 December amounted to 289mm compared to the average annual rainfall of the city which is 2400mm . In Singapore , the 24-hour rainfall recorded on 20 December was 366 mm , the third highest recorded rainfall in 75 years . The flooding began when torrential downpours since Sunday caused rivers and dams to overflow . Weather officials described the flooding as the worst in the area in a century . At least six people died . Later that week , beginning 22 December , North Sumatra experienced abnormally high rainfall which also caused flooding", "qid": "363", "docid": "2006–07_Southeast_Asian_floods", "rank": 68, "score": 109095 }, { "content": "Title: Changsha Content: Changsha ( -LSB- tsã13 -RSB- -LSB- sɔ33 -RSB- -LSB- sɿ21 -RSB- ; ) is the capital of Hunan province , south central China . It covers 11,819 km2 and is bordered by Yueyang and Yiyang to the north , Loudi to the west , Xiangtan and Zhuzhou to the south , Yichun and Pingxiang of Jiangxi province to the east . According to 2010 Census , Changsha has 7,044,118 residents , constituting 10.72 % of the province 's population . Changsha is located in the Xiang River valley plain , bordering on Luoxiao Mountains on the east , Wuling Mountains on the west , edging in Dongting Lake on the north and bounded on the south by Hengshan Mountains . It has a moist monsoon climate of the subtropical zone . The average annual air temperature is 16.8 -- 17.3 ° C and the rainfall 1,358.6 -- 1,552.5 mm . Changsha is a famous historical and cultural city with a history of over 3,000 years . Changsha is famous for that it was the capital of Changsha State in the Han Dynasty ( 206 BC -- 220 AD ) , and the capital of Chu State ( 907 -- 951 ) in Ten Kingdoms period . The lacquerware and Silk Texts recovered from Mawangdui ( 2nd century BC ) there are an indication of the richness of local craft traditions . In 1904 , Changsha was opened to foreign trade , and large numbers of Europeans and Americans settled there . Changsha was the site of Mao Zedong 's conversion to communism . It was also the scene of major battles in the Sino-Japanese War ( 1931 -- 1945 ) and was briefly occupied by the Japanese . Nowadays , Changsha is an important commercial , manufacturing and transportation center in China .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Changsha", "rank": 69, "score": 109076 }, { "content": "Title: Central Asiatic frog Content: The Central Asiatic frog or Asian frog ( Rana asiatica ) is a species of frog in the Ranidae family , found in China , Kazakhstan , and Kyrgyzstan . Its natural habitats are temperate forests , temperate shrubland , temperate grassland , rivers , intermittent rivers , swamps , freshwater lakes , intermittent freshwater lakes , freshwater marshes , intermittent freshwater marshes , freshwater springs , inland deltas , arable land , pastureland , rural gardens , urban areas , water storage areas , ponds , aquaculture ponds , and irrigated land . It is not considered threatened by the IUCN .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Central_Asiatic_frog", "rank": 70, "score": 108738 }, { "content": "Title: Central Asian salamander Content: The Central Asian salamander ( Ranodon sibiricus ) is a species of salamander in the monotypic genus Ranodon of the Hynobiidae family . In Kazakhstan and Russia , it is called the Semirechensk salamander , while in China , it is called the Xinjiang salamander ( ; ug = شىنجاڭ سالاماندراسى ) . The Central Asian salamander is found in the Dzungarian Alatau mountains on the border of China and Kazakhstan . Its natural habitats are temperate forests , tundra , temperate grassland , rivers , intermittent rivers , freshwater marshes , and freshwater springs . The species is threatened by habitat loss .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Central_Asian_salamander", "rank": 71, "score": 108585 }, { "content": "Title: Mu Us Sandyland Content: The Mu Us Sandy Land ( also known as the Maowusu Desert ; 毛乌素沙漠 / 毛烏素沙漠 Máowūsù Shāmò or 毛乌素沙地 / 毛烏素沙地Máowūsù Shādì ) is a desert in Central China . It is crossed by the Great Wall of China at the south-eastern end of the desert . The Mu Us Sandy Land forms the southern portion of the Ordos Desert and part of the Ordos Loop . The Wuding River drains the area , and then flows into the Yellow River .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Mu_Us_Sandyland", "rank": 72, "score": 108394 }, { "content": "Title: Wangmo County Content: Wangmo County is a county of Guizhou , China . It is under the administration of the Qianxinan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture . Wangmo , recorded 122.5 mm of rainfall in one hour , on 9 June 2011 , the most rainfall in the county in 200 years . And on 20 June 2011 , 312 mm of rain fell in 3hrs in the county as part of significant flooding across the region . Category : County-level divisions of Guizhou Category : Qianxinan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture", "qid": "363", "docid": "Wangmo_County", "rank": 73, "score": 108331 }, { "content": "Title: North China Plain Content: The North China Plain is based on the deposits of the Yellow River and is the largest alluvial plain of China . The plain is bordered to the north by the Yanshan Mountains , to the west by the Taihang Mountains , to the south by the Dabie and Tianmu Mountains , and to the east by the Yellow Sea . The Yellow River flows through the middle of the plain into Bohai Sea . Below the Sanmenxia Dam is the multipurpose Xiaolangdi Dam , located in the river 's last valley before the North China Plain , a great delta created from silt dropped at the Yellow River 's mouth over the millennia . The North China Plain extends over much of Henan , Hebei , and Shandong provinces . and merges with the Yangtze delta in northern Jiangsu and Anhui provinces . The Yellow River meanders over the fertile , densely populated plain emptying into the Bohai Sea . The plain is one of China 's most important agricultural regions , producing corn , sorghum , winter wheat , vegetables , and cotton . Its nickname is `` Land of the yellow earth . '' The southern part of the plain is traditionally referred to as the Central Plain , which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization . The plain covers an area of about 409,500 km2 , most of which is less than 50 m above sea level . This flat yellow-soil plain is the main area of sorghum , millet , maize , and Kaleb Cotten production in China . Wheat , sesame seed , and peanuts are also grown here . The plain is one of the most densely populated regions in the world . Beijing , the national capital , is located on the northeast edge of the plain , with Tianjin , an important industrial city and commercial port , near its northeast coast . Shengli Oilfield in Shandong is an important petroleum base . It is also home to the Yellow River .", "qid": "363", "docid": "North_China_Plain", "rank": 74, "score": 108270 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Asia Content: Through a crop-based biodiversity , natural resources and animals ( birds , fruits , and forests ) , Tropical Asia is economically and physiogeographically rich . There are 16 countries of Tropical Asia ranging in size from around 610 km ² ( Singapore ) to 3,000,000 km ² ( India ) . Its population , is dominantly rural -- however , in 1995 , a census showed that a region with 6 out of 25 of the large cities . The population is 1.6 billion , likely to reach 2.4 billion in 2025 . Climate in Tropical Asia is subject to seasonal weather patterns with the two monsoons and the amount of tropical cyclones in the three core areas of cyclogenesis ( the Bay of Bengal , north Pacific Ocean and South China Sea ) . The climate varies over several environmental factors such as : growing urbanization , land industrialization and economic development or the opposite land degradation , environmental issues , and increased pollution .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_Asia", "rank": 75, "score": 108107 }, { "content": "Title: Indian Armed Forces and the Jammu and Kashmir floods, 2014 Content: In the wake of heavy monsoon rain and flash floods in Jammu and Kashmir , which have allegedly killed over four hundred and rendered hundreds of thousand homeless , the Indian Armed Forces were deployed in increasing numbers starting September 2 , 2014 to conduct search , rescue , relief , relocation , humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation missions in Jammu and Kashmir . By September 18 , over 200,000 people were rescued from the various parts of Jammu and Kashmir by the Armed forces . The Jammu and Kashmir floods , the worst in a century according to Omar Abdullah , the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir , paralyzed the state government . Omar Abdullah , responding to public criticism , told the media `` I had no government '' in the first few days following the floods , as `` My secretariat , the police headquarters , the control room , fire services , hospitals , all the infrastructure was underwater . '' Adding `` I had no cell phone and no connectivity . I am now starting to track down ministers and officers . '' The Jammu and Kashmir floods of 2014 have been blamed on heavy rainfall , about 8 inches ( 200mm ) on 4 September alone , on climate change , unplanned and uncontrolled development , encroachment of river banks , lakes , ponds , and massive loss of wet lands , absence of local government flood forecasting system , and poor governance . The Armed Forces humanitarian assistance mission in response to the floods was named Mission Sahayata ( assistances ) . Northern Command 's humanitarian assistance to Civil authorities was named ` Operation MEGH RAHAT ' . The Indian Army , Air Force , and the Navy , committed large resources to the assistance mission including over 30,000 troops ( 21,000 in Srinagar , and 9000 in Jammu ) , 15 engineer task forces , 84 Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Corps fixed wing transport aircraft and helicopters , naval commandos and rescue specialists , and Base Hospital , four field hospitals , over 106 medical detachments . `` Operation Megh Rahat '' , ended on 19 September 2014 , but `` Operation Sadbhavna '' , the relief and medical assistance support , according to government press release , will continue in `` close synergy with the civil administration and the police '' .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Indian_Armed_Forces_and_the_Jammu_and_Kashmir_floods,_2014", "rank": 76, "score": 107894 }, { "content": "Title: Rain Content: Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then precipitated -- that is , become heavy enough to fall under gravity . Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth . It provides suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems , as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation . The major cause of rain production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts . If enough moisture and upward motion is present , precipitation falls from convective clouds ( those with strong upward vertical motion ) such as cumulonimbus ( thunder clouds ) which can organize into narrow rainbands . In mountainous areas , heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation which forces moist air to condense and fall out as rainfall along the sides of mountains . On the leeward side of mountains , desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by downslope flow which causes heating and drying of the air mass . The movement of the monsoon trough , or intertropical convergence zone , brings rainy seasons to savannah climes . The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall , both in amounts and intensity , downwind of cities . Global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally , including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics . Antarctica is the driest continent . The globally averaged annual precipitation over land is 715 mm , but over the whole Earth it is much higher at 990 mm . Climate classification systems such as the Köppen classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes . Rainfall is measured using rain gauges . Rainfall amounts can be estimated by weather radar . Rain is also known or suspected on other planets , where it may be composed of methane , neon , sulfuric acid , or even iron rather than water .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Rain", "rank": 77, "score": 107796 }, { "content": "Title: Manas Lake Content: The Manas Lake is a salt lake in China 's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region . It is located in the western part of the Dzungarian Basin , within the Gurbantünggüt Desert . Administratively , the lake is in Hoboksar Mongol Autonomous County ; the closest urban settlement is Urho District of Karamay City , some 40 km to the northwest of the lake . The Manas Lake used to be known as the Yihehake Lake ( 伊赫哈克湖 , Yīhèhākè hú ) in the past . Notionally , Lake Manas is considered the end point of the Manas River , flowing from the Tian Shan mountains . In practice , however , the river bed is usually dry where it reaches the lake , and little river water reaches the lake . The Manas Lake area is characterized by arid climate with hot summers ; the average annual precipitation of merely 63.7 mm , as compared to the average annual evaporation of 3,110.5 mm ; which means that without an inflow of water from outside , the lake 's water level can drop very quickly . Over the second half of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st century , it went through the cycle of shrinking , drying up , recovering , or existing as an intermittent lake .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Manas_Lake", "rank": 78, "score": 107789 }, { "content": "Title: Zhongyuan Content: Zhongyuan , Chungyuan , or the Central Plain , also known as Zhongtu , Chungtu or Zhongzhou , Chungchou , is the area on the lower reaches of the Yellow River which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization . It forms part of the North China Plain . In its narrowest sense , the Central Plain covers modern-day Henan , the southern part of Hebei , the southern part of Shanxi , and the western part of Shandong province . A broader interpretation of the Central Plain 's extent would add the Guanzhong plain of Shaanxi , the northwestern part of Jiangsu , and parts of Anhui and northern Hubei . Since the beginning of recorded history , the Central Plain has been an important site for Chinese civilization . In the pre-Qin era , present-day Luoyang and its nearby areas were considered the `` Center of the World '' , as the political seat of the Xia dynasty was located around Songshan and the Yi-Luo river basin . Inscriptions on some bronze objects from this era contain references to the ` Central States ' ( Zhongguo ) , ` Eastern States ' , or ` Southern States ' . This indicates that the Central Plain , which was referred to as the ` Central States ' in these inscriptions , was considered to occupy the center of the world . In a broader context , the term Zhongyuan refers to Chinese civilization and China proper , regions directly governed by centralized Chinese governments and dynasties . However , when used to describe the Chinese civilization , Zhongyuan often connotes Huaxia and Han Chinese cultural dominance . The Dungans , a Chinese-affiliated ethnic group , are referred to using terms linked to Zhongyuan .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Zhongyuan", "rank": 79, "score": 107671 }, { "content": "Title: Typhoon Hal (1985) Content: Typhoon Hal , known in the Philippines as Typhoon Kuring , was the strongest storm to affect southern China since 1983 . Hal originated from a monsoon trough that formed in early June 1985 . It gradually became better organized , and on June 20 , the storm attained tropical storm . Intensification continued and the storm reached typhoon intensity later that day . On the evening of June 21 , Hal reached peak intensity , before passing south of Taiwan . The storm weakened slightly on June 22 , and lost typhoon intensity two days later . Later on June 24 , Hal moved onshore northeast of Hong Kong . Hal dissipated three days later . Across the Philippines , 46 people were killed , 10 of which perished due to drownings . Roughly 80 % of one Pangasinan municipality was flooded . Widespread power outages were reported , and two radio towers were brought down . A total of 127,440 persons were directly affected by the typhoon . In all , about 13,000 families , or 77,000 people , were homeless and damage totaled $ 10.5 million . Throughout Taiwan , flooding occurred . There , seven people were killed and 15 others were injured . Prior to landfall in China , 200 shelters were opened , but only 19 people used these shelters . A total of 26 flights were cancelled in Hong Kong . Additionally , eight people were hurt and three others were reportedly missing .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Typhoon_Hal_(1985)", "rank": 80, "score": 107174 }, { "content": "Title: Xinminbao Group Content: The Xīnmínbǎo Group is a group of geological formations in north central China . They occur across a large depression between the Altai mountains of Mongolia to the north and the Qilian mountains of the Qinghai Plateau to the south , in the Gōngpóquán and Suànjǐngzi basins , and also in the neighbouring Jiuquan Basin . Both of these areas are inland basins consisting of fluvial ( river ) , lacustrine ( lake ) , and intermontane ( between mountains ) alluvial fan ( floodplain ) sediments that were deposited during the Early Cretaceous , probably during the Aptian or possibly late Barremian stage , when the climate was semi-arid and subtropical . The Group has been visited by many expeditions including the Silk Road dinosaur expedition of 1992 which concentrated on the area around Mazong Shan .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Xinminbao_Group", "rank": 81, "score": 107144 }, { "content": "Title: Baihe County Content: Baihe is located in the southeastern portion of Shaanxi province , China and is under the jurisdiction of Ankang City . It is by the eastern part of the Daba Mountains and approaches the Han River on the north . On the east it borders Yun County ( Hubei ) , on the south Zhushan County ( Hubei ) , on the west Xunyang County , and is separated from Yunxi County ( Hubei ) by a river . Baihe County is approximately the area from E 109 ° 37 to 110 ° 10 ' and N 32 ° 34 ' to 32 ° 55 ' . It is in the north subtropical to warm temperate transitional climatic zone , and is part of the continental seasonal monsoon climate zone . The average temperature is 12.2 ℃ - 16.5 ℃ , average yearly sunlight 1753.8 hours , average rainfall 787.5 millimeters , and has 234 to 261 frost-free days each year . Baihe was historically nicknamed `` The Head of Qin and the Tail of Wei . '' It is a largely rural county , populated mainly by Han Chinese . Divisions contained in Baihe County are : Chengguan Town , Zhongchang Town , Gouba Town , Kazi Town , Maoping Town , Songjia Town , Xiying Town , Cangshang Town , Lengshui Town , as well as Sixi Village , Taoyuan Village , Shuanghe Village , Xiaoshuang Village , Dashuang Village , and Mahu Village . Baihe 's main outside transportation connection is the Xiangyu Railway . Category : County-level divisions of Shaanxi Category : Ankang", "qid": "363", "docid": "Baihe_County", "rank": 82, "score": 107133 }, { "content": "Title: 2016–17 South America floods Content: Starting in December 2016 and continuing through at least April 2017 , South America has been plagued by persistent heavy rain events . Multiple countries suffered substantial losses , with Colombia and Peru being particularly hard-hit .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2016–17_South_America_floods", "rank": 83, "score": 107090 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 China floods Content: The 1998 China floods ( 1998年中国洪水 ) were a series of floods that lasted from middle of June to the beginning of September 1998 in China at the Yangtze River as well as the Nen River , Songhua River and the Pearl River .", "qid": "363", "docid": "1998_China_floods", "rank": 84, "score": 106977 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Aere (2016) Content: Severe Tropical Storm Aere , known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Julian , was a long-lived tropical cyclone that struck Central Vietnam in October 2016 . The nineteenth named storm of the annual typhoon season , Aere formed on October 4 , 2016 as a tropical depression to the east of Luzon , Philippines shortly after the JMA had started tracking Songda . On the next day , the system had become a tropical storm and it moved into South China Sea . During October 7 , it intensified into a severe tropical storm and reached peak intensity with 10-minute winds of 110 km/h ( 70 mph ) . Shortly thereafter , due to remaining in almost the same area for hours , Aere began to weaken to a tropical storm , and on October 10 , it weakened to a tropical depression , before weakening to a low-pressure area late on October 11 . On October 13 , Aere re-generated into a tropical depression and it made landfall in Huế , Vietnam late that day . The system moved towards Laos and Thailand before it fully dissipated on October 14 . Aere affected parts of Southeast Asia in October 2016 , but its impact was most severe in Vietnam . Heavy flooding triggered by the remnants of Aere from October 13 to October 17 , 2016 in North-Central Vietnam caused severe damage . A total of 35 people were killed and total damage reached US$ 112 million . The remnants of Aere also caused heavy rains in northeast Thailand .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Aere_(2016)", "rank": 85, "score": 106972 }, { "content": "Title: 1938 Yellow River flood Content: The 1938 Yellow River flood ( , literally `` Huayuankou embankment breach incident '' ) was a flood created by the Nationalist Government in central China during the early stage of the Second Sino-Japanese War in an attempt to halt the rapid advance of Japanese forces . It has been called the `` largest act of environmental warfare in history . ''", "qid": "363", "docid": "1938_Yellow_River_flood", "rank": 86, "score": 106837 }, { "content": "Title: Nullah Content: A nullah or nulla ( -LSB- or `` nallah '' in Punjabi ) is an ` arm of the sea ' , stream , or watercourse , a steep narrow valley . Like the wadi of the Arabs , the nullah is characteristic of mountainous or hilly country where there is little rainfall . In the drier parts of India and Pakistan , and in many parts of Australia , there are small steep-sided valleys penetrating the hills , clothed with rough brushwood or small trees growing in the stony soil . During occasional heavy rains , torrents rush down the nullahs and quickly disappear . There is little local action upon the sides , while the bed is lowered , and consequently these valleys are narrow and steep . In cities on the Delhi plain in India , nullahs are concrete or brick-lined ditches about 3 m deep and 6 m wide , used to divert monsoon rain away from the cities . In East Asia , a nullah refers to an open , usually concrete-lined channel designed to allow rapid drainage of storm precipitation or industrial wastewater from high ground , to prevent flooding of urbanised coastal areas . It basically is a canal that is dry most of the time . One such example is the Kai Tak Nullah in Hong Kong .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Nullah", "rank": 87, "score": 106774 }, { "content": "Title: Loess Plateau Content: The Loess Plateau , also known as the Huangtu Plateau , is a 640,000 km ² plateau located around the Wei River valley and the southern half of the Ordos Loop of the Yellow River in central China . It covers almost all of the provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi and extends into parts of Gansu , Ningxia , and Inner Mongolia . It was enormously important to Chinese history , as it formed the cradle of Chinese civilization and its eroded silt is responsible for the great fertility of the North China Plain , along with the repeated and massively destructive floods of the Yellow River . Its soil has been called `` most highly erodible ... on earth '' and conservation efforts and land management are a major focus of modern Chinese agriculture .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Loess_Plateau", "rank": 88, "score": 106742 }, { "content": "Title: Beijing Weather Modification Office Content: The Beijing Weather Modification Office is a unit of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau tasked with weather control in Beijing , China , and its surrounding areas , including parts of Hebei and Inner Mongolia . The Beijing Weather Modification Office form a part of China 's nationwide weather control effort , believed to be the world 's largest ; it employs 37,000 people nationwide , who seed clouds by firing rockets and shells loaded with silver iodide into them . According to Zhang Qiang , head of the Office , cloud seeding increased precipitation in Beijing by about one-eighth in 2004 ; nationwide , similar efforts added 7.4 Tcuft of rain between 1995 and 2003 . The work of the Office is largely aimed at hail storm prevention or making rain to end droughts ; they have also induced precipitation for purposes of firefighting or counteracting the effect of severe dust storms , as they did in the aftermath of one storm in April 2006 which dropped 300,000 tonnes of dust and sand on the city and was believed to have been the largest in five years . Their technology was also used to create snow on New Year 's Day in 1997 . Other proposed future uses for induced precipitation include lowering temperatures in summer , in hopes of reducing electricity consumption . More prominently , they were enlisted by the Chinese government to ensure that the 2008 Summer Olympics are free of rain , by breaking up clouds headed towards the capital and forcing them to drop rain on outlying areas instead . The office created a snowstorm in November 2009 .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Beijing_Weather_Modification_Office", "rank": 89, "score": 106635 }, { "content": "Title: 2004 Myanmar cyclone Content: The 2004 Myanmar cyclone was considered the worst to strike the country since 1968 . The second tropical cyclone of the 2004 North Indian Ocean cyclone season , it formed as a depression on May 16 in the central Bay of Bengal . With low wind shear and a surge in the monsoon trough , the storm intensified while meandering over open waters . The storm eventually began a steady northeastward motion due to a ridge to the north over India . While approaching land , an eye developed in the center of the storm , indicative of a strong cyclone . On May 19 , the cyclone made landfall along northwestern Myanmar near Sittwe , with maximum sustained winds estimated at 165 km/h ( 105 mph ) by the India Meteorological Department . The storm rapidly weakened over land , although its remnants spread rainfall into northern Thailand and Yunnan province in China . Winds from the cyclone reached 157 km/h ( 98 mph ) in Myanmar , occurring in conjunction with heavy rainfall and a high storm surge . Despite the storm 's ferocity , the government did not report about the cyclone for ten days , as they usually under-report on landfalling storms . The cyclone caused heavy damage throughout Rakhine State , destroying or heavily damaging 4,035 homes and leaving 25,000 people homeless . There was widespread crop damage , resulting in food shortages , and damaged roads disrupted subsequent relief efforts . Damage in Myanmar totaled over K621 million kyat ( $ 99.2 million USD ) , making it the worst storm in the country since 1968 , and there were 236 deaths , with an unofficial death toll as high as 1,000 . Although damage was heaviest in Myanmar , the cyclone 's effects also spread into neighboring Bangladesh , where strong winds knocked over trees and capsized two ships .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2004_Myanmar_cyclone", "rank": 90, "score": 106554 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Linfa (2015) Content: Severe Tropical Storm Linfa , known in the Philippines as Severe Tropical Storm Egay , was a tropical cyclone that affected the northern Philippines , Taiwan and southern China in early July 2015 . The tenth named storm of the annual typhoon season , Linfa developed on July 1 over in the Philippine Sea . It moved erratically westward toward the Philippines , eventually striking the island of Luzon on July 4 . Linfa weakened across the island , but reorganized over the South China Sea . It turned northward and strengthened to near typhoon intensity , or winds of 120 km/h ( 75 mph ) , but weakened as it curved to the northwest toward southern China . On July 9 , the storm made landfall along the Chinese province of Guangdong , dissipating the next day west of Hong Kong . Interacting with the monsoon , Linfa brought heavy rainfall across much of the Philippines for several days , causing flooding and landslides that resulted in traffic accidents and power outages . Across Luzon , Linfa damaged 198 houses and destroyed another seven , causing 214.6 million ( $ 4.8 million USD ) in damage . The storm briefly threatened Taiwan , prompting warnings and restricted ferry travel . Over China , Linfa produced heavy rainfall and gusty winds that wrecked 288 homes . Damage in the country totaled ¥ 1.7 billion ( $ 284 million USD ) , and there was one death .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Linfa_(2015)", "rank": 91, "score": 106502 }, { "content": "Title: 1958 Yellow River flood Content: The 1958 Yellow River flood was an extraordinarily large rise in the water flow of the Yellow River in China that coincided with the onset of the Great Leap Forward . In July 1958 , the peak discharge of the Yellow River at Huayuankou was 22,300 m3/s and the flood water level was so high that it rose up to the top of the levee in several places .", "qid": "363", "docid": "1958_Yellow_River_flood", "rank": 92, "score": 106262 }, { "content": "Title: Water resources in India Content: India experiences an average precipitation of 1170 mm per year , or about 4000 km3 of rains annually or about 1720 m3 of fresh water per person every year . Some 80 percent of its area experiences rains of 750 mm or more a year . However , this rain is not uniform in time or geography . Most of the rains occur during its monsoon seasons ( June to September ) , with the north east and north receiving far more rains than India 's west and south . Other than rains , the melting of snow over the Himalayas after winter season feeds the northern rivers to varying degrees . The southern rivers , however experience more flow variability over the year . For the Himalayan basin , this leads to flooding in some months and water scarcity in others . Despite extensive river system , safe clean drinking water as well as irrigation water supplies for sustainable agriculture are in shortage across India , in part because it has , as yet , harnessed a small fraction of its available and recoverable surface water resource . India harnessed 761 km3 ( 20 percent ) of its water resources in 2010 , part of which came from unsustainable use of groundwater . Of the water it withdrew from its rivers and groundwater wells , India dedicated about 688 km3 to irrigation , 56 km3 to municipal and drinking water applications and 17 km3 to industry . Vast area of India is under tropical climate which is conducive throughout the year for agriculture due to favourable warm and sunny conditions provided perennial water supply is available to cater to the high rate of evapotranspiration from the cultivated land . Though the overall water resources are adequate to meet all the requirements of the country , the water supply gaps due to temporal and spatial distribution of water resources are to be bridged by interlinking the rivers . The total water resources going waste to the sea are nearly 1200 billion cubic meters after sparing moderate environmental / salt export water requirements of all rivers . Food security in India is possible by achieving water security first which in turn is possible with energy security to supply the electricity for the required water pumping as part of its rivers interlinking . Instead of opting for centralised mega water transfer projects which would take long time to give results , it would be cheaper alternative to deploy extensively shade nets over the cultivated lands for using the locally available water sources efficiently to crops throughout the year . Plants need less than 2 % of total water for metabolism requirements and rest 98 % is for cooling purpose through transpiration . Shade nets or polytunnels installed over the agriculture lands suitable for all weather conditions would reduce the potential evaporation drastically by reflecting the excessive and harmful sun light without falling on the cropped area .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Water_resources_in_India", "rank": 93, "score": 106229 }, { "content": "Title: Simian Mountain Content: Simian Mountain ( 四面山 , Simian Shan ） , located on the north part of Jiangjin , Chongqing , China , is a transitive zone between the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the Sichuan Basin . So , with the help of favorable climate and sufficient rainfall , the whole zone is decked with luxuriant forests . Besides , it is the home to waterfalls . Wangxiangtai ( the Balcony of Nostalgia ) Waterfall , 150 meters high and 40 meters wide , is one of the well-known waterfalls in China consisted of many small waterfalls ; Shuikoushi Waterfall is noted for its grand scale . Snaking its way among the valleys on Simian Mountain , the current of Chaba River has brought about a number of lakes , of which the most majestic one is known as Great Red Sea .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Simian_Mountain", "rank": 94, "score": 106201 }, { "content": "Title: Vũ Quang Content: Vu Quang , in the Hà Tĩnh Province of Vietnam 's North Central Coast , is an area of steep mountains and dense rainforest . It is a very wet , hot area , whose mountains trap moisture coming in from the South China Sea . This creates a very stable , but inhospitable climate . It rains continually in the rainy season , and in the dry season there is much fog ; consequently most surfaces are algae-coated and slippery . The local hunters prefer to stay out of the forest , setting snares and using dogs to chase animals into more accessible areas . As of 2003 the district had a population of 32,242 . The district covers an area of 646 km ² . The district capital lies at Vũ Quang .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Vũ_Quang", "rank": 95, "score": 106171 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Cecil (1989) Content: Severe Tropical Storm Cecil in May of 1989 caused devastating floods in central Vietnam , killing 751 people . The storm developed as a tropical depression over the South China Sea on May 22 . Tracking north-northwestward , the system steadily intensified , attaining peak winds of 110 km/h ( 70 mph ) . The Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) assessed Cecil to have been slightly stronger with one-minute sustained winds of 140 km/h ( 85 mph ) . The storm made landfall near Hoi An , Vietnam late on May 24 and quickly weakened . The system later dissipated over Laos on May 26 . In Vietnam , heavy rains accompanied the storm , amounting to over 510 mm in some areas , triggered catastrophic and deadly flooding . Widespread structural and agricultural losses took place in addition to the significant loss of life , with damage estimated at 300 billion ( $ 71.7 million ) . In the wake of the flooding , some international aid was sent to Vietnam , though most relief work was conducted by the nation 's government , local agencies , and the Red Cross .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Cecil_(1989)", "rank": 96, "score": 105957 }, { "content": "Title: Chubasco Content: A chubasco is a violent squall with thunder and lightning , encountered during the rainy season along the Pacific coast of Mexico , Central America , and South America . It is also widely used when rain is accompanied by strong winds in other Spanish-speaking countries . The word chubasco has its origins in the Portuguese word chuva which means rain . The monsoon storms that regularly pass over the southwestern United States , including the Southern regions of Arizona and New Mexico , are sometimes referred to as ChubascosIn the northern parts of Mexico , especially the northeast and north central , the word chubasco is used especially for suddenly occurring localised storms that produce very strong winds , sometimes as much as 90 miles/hour , and intense rains of as much as 5 - 6 inches in less than an hour . Straight-line winds can topple windmills , and break large limbs of large , sometimes ancient trees.The phenomena normally occurs during the hottest days of the year ( May through October ) .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Chubasco", "rank": 97, "score": 105859 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Asian heat wave Content: The 2007 Asian heat wave affected the South Asian countries of India , Pakistan , Bangladesh , and Nepal , as well as Russia , Japan and the People 's Republic of China . The heat wave ran during the months of May and June , which continued to September in Japan .", "qid": "363", "docid": "2007_Asian_heat_wave", "rank": 98, "score": 105798 }, { "content": "Title: Typhoon Goni (2015) Content: Typhoon Goni ( -LSB- ɡo.ni -RSB- ) , known in the Philippines as Typhoon Ineng , was a powerful tropical cyclone that affected much of East Asia in late August 2015 . Developing in tandem with Typhoon Atsani to its east , Goni formed on August 13 , and passed through the Mariana Islands two days later . By that time , radar imagery showed a formative eye , signaling an intensifying storm . Goni evolved into an intense typhoon in the Philippine Sea before weakening and stalling north of Luzon . The typhoon re-intensified and attained peak winds of 185 km/h ( 115 mph ) on August 23 while moving through the southern Ryukyu Islands . Goni weakened slightly and moved across the Japanese island of Kyushu . The tropical cyclone transitioned into an extratropical cyclone in the Sea of Japan on August 25 , crossed into eastern Russia and China a day later , and dissipated on August 30 . Along its path , Goni killed 74 people and left $ 831.7 million ( USD ) in damage . On Guam , one of the first landmasses affected , heavy rainfall caused flooding and power outages . Across northern Luzon in the Philippines , Goni also dropped intense precipitation . This resulted in deadly landslides , flooded fields , and the destruction of thousands of houses . The typhoon also brought heavy rainfall and rough seas to Taiwan and the east coast of China . In the southern Ryukyu Islands and Kyushu , high wind overturned vehicles , damaged buildings , and left over 490,000 homes without power . Off the coast of Kyushu , a man drowned amid high waves . Flooding killed 40 people in North Korea . The extratropical remnants of Goni damaged crops and flooded a zoo in eastern Russia .", "qid": "363", "docid": "Typhoon_Goni_(2015)", "rank": 99, "score": 105763 }, { "content": "Title: Lhasa River Content: The Lhasa River , also called Kyi River , is a northern tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in the south of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China . The Yarlung Tsangpo is the upper section of the Brahmaputra River . The Lhasa River is subject to flooding with the summer monsoon rains , and structures have been built to control the floods . In its lower reaches the river valley is an important agricultural area . The city of Lhasa , named after the river , lies on the river . There are two large hydroelectric power stations on the river , the Zhikong Hydro Power Station ( 100 MW ) and the Pangduo Hydro Power Station ( 160 MW )", "qid": "363", "docid": "Lhasa_River", "rank": 100, "score": 105720 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: National Health Security Strategy Content: The National Health Security Strategy ( NHSS ) is a strategic plan for 2010 developed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to help minimize the consequences associated with significant health incidents . The purpose of the plan is to provide coordination between separate organisations in order to reduce the social and economic cost in the case of a significant health incident . The strategy covers coordination of preparation and contingency planning , incident identification and recovery strategies relevant to each stakeholder in the event of a national health incident . The aim of the document is that when a health incident occurs , all appropriate organisations will coordinate and minimise the effect of the incident on the nation . In addition to this the strategy includes a framework for the accountability and assessment of implementation including eventual assessment criteria . The document was initially developed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services in consultation with stakeholder organisations as required by the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act . These include local , state , territorial , tribal and federal governments ; community focus groups , private sector firms and academic advisers . The National Health Security Strategy was first published in 2009 with an implementation schedule extending until 2014 . In addition to this an interim implementation guide was published in 2010 and then every two years in order to provide additional guidance as the project matures .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Health_Security_Strategy", "rank": 1, "score": 103266 }, { "content": "Title: Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act Content: On December 19 , 2006 , the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act ( PAHPA ) , Public Law No. 109-417 , was signed into law by President George W. Bush . PAHPA has broad implications for the United States Department of Health and Human Services 's ( HHS ) preparedness and response activities . Among other things , the act amended the Public Health Service Act to establish within the department a new Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response ( ASPR ) ; provided new authorities for a number of programs , including the advanced development and acquisitions of medical countermeasures ; and called for the establishment of a quadrennial National Health Security Strategy . The purpose of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act is `` to improve the Nation 's public health and medical preparedness and response capabilities for emergencies , whether deliberate , accidental , or natural . ''", "qid": "365", "docid": "Pandemic_and_All-Hazards_Preparedness_Act", "rank": 2, "score": 103099 }, { "content": "Title: Outbreak Content: In epidemiology , an outbreak is a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease in a particular time and place . It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire continent . Two linked cases of a rare infectious disease may be sufficient to constitute an outbreak . Outbreaks include epidemics , which term is normally only used for infectious diseases , as well as diseases with an environmental origin , such as a water or foodborne disease . They may affect a region in a country or a group of countries . Pandemics are near-global disease outbreaks .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Outbreak", "rank": 3, "score": 101072 }, { "content": "Title: Global alert Content: Global alert is used as the global radio-communications network during times of international crises or threats to international security . Global Alerts are also issued by agencies such as the World Health Organization ( WHO ) , when there is a perceived threat of international pandemic , ( global epidemic ) , such as the threat of a SARS , ( Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ) , pandemic during March 2003 , due to its high contagion level which was rapidly spread by travelers sharing international flights . The global alert released by the World Health Organization regarding the SARS outbreak and its rapid contagion saved many lives : The alert about the disease , precautionary measures , and preventive measures to be taken by individuals , including specific hygiene information needed to arrest the spread of SARS was communicated instantly throughout the world .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Global_alert", "rank": 4, "score": 100384 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Ukraine Content: The 2009 flu pandemic is a global outbreak of a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 , first identified in April 2009 , termed Pandemic H1N1/09 virus by the World Health Organization ( WHO ) and colloquially called swine flu . The outbreak was first observed in Mexico , and quickly spread globally . On the 11th June 2009 , WHO declared the outbreak to be a pandemic . The overwhelming majority of patients experience mild symptoms '' , but some persons are at higher risk of suffering more serious effects ; such as those with asthma , diabetes , obesity , heart disease , or those who are pregnant or have a weakened immune system . In the rare severe cases , around 3 -- 5 days after symptoms manifest , the sufferer 's condition declines quickly , often to the point respiratory failure . Although Ukraine was not ( very ) affected at first there was on outbreak of the virus in Western Ukraine early November 2009 which led to the closing of public buildings and meetings for three weeks . As of December 2009 more than two million people had fallen ill since Ukraine 's flu epidemic began and about 500 people of those died of flu and flu-like illnesses and its complications ( pneumonia ) of the 46 million people living in Ukraine . Ukraine is one of the most affected ( 8th ) by swine flu country 's in Europe . According to Ukrainian Justice Minister Mykola Onischuk the epidemiological situation during October -- December 2009 has n't influenced the death rate in Ukraine . Ukraine has two laboratories capable of identifying influenza strains .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Ukraine", "rank": 5, "score": 99379 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in the United Kingdom Content: The 2009 flu pandemic was a global outbreak of a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 , first identified in April 2009 , termed Pandemic H1N1/09 virus by the World Health Organization ( WHO ) and colloquially called swine flu . The outbreak was first observed in Mexico , and quickly spread globally . On 11 June 2009 , the WHO declared the outbreak to be a pandemic . The overwhelming majority of patients experience mild symptoms '' , but some persons are in higher risk groups , such as those with asthma , diabetes , obesity , heart disease , or who are pregnant or have a weakened immune system . In the rare severe cases , around 3 -- 5 days after symptoms manifest , the sufferer 's condition declines quickly , often to the point of respiratory failure . The virus reached the United Kingdom in April 2009 . The first cases were confirmed on 27 April 2009 in passengers returning from Mexico . The first case of person to person transmission within the UK was announced on 1 May 2009 . In the UK , 5 - to 14-year-olds are the age group predominantly affected . Laboratory tests have demonstrated that older people have some immunity . After a slow start , the virus spread rapidly in the UK in July 2009 , with new cases peaking at 110,000 in the last week of that month , according to The Health Protection Agency 's modelling estimate , but declining sharply in the first week of August 2009 . Cases fell progressively down to 3,000 in the first week of September 2009 , then began to rise again . The decline in cases during the summer had been predicted , but a large surge was expected in the autumn to coincide with the normal flu season . Cases rose to 84,000 by the end of October , well below the summer 's peak and then declined during November . __ TOC __", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 6, "score": 98831 }, { "content": "Title: 1917–18 National Challenge Cup Content: The United States had recently entered World War I , and the soccer world felt the effects as increasing numbers of players joined the armed forces to wage battle in Europe . Soccer was not as hard-hit as some other sports , but all leagues felt the impact ; in fact the Cechie team of Chicago lost every member of its roster to enlistment . The United States Soccer Football Association issued a call to its member associations for teams to resist the temptation to strengthen their teams at the expense of others -- when wealthy , but decimated teams eye the poorer but complete teams , their wallets and checkbooks should remain pocketed in the name of fair play . A welcome consequence of the war situation was a willingness of the USFA 's own warring factions to end their dispute and work together in relative harmony during those trying times . Many soccer organizations launched fund raising campaigns and benefit matches to raise money to provide support for US soldiers through , among other means , the provision of soccer equipment and gear to enhance their recreational opportunities . One such project was the Soccer Football Chain Letter Fund launched by Thomas Cahill and the USFA . Other welcome events included record attendance figures in some late-round games of the National Challenge Cup that were well promoted . One of the major topics of discussion was the pros and cons of substitutes . At the time the laws did not specifically allow nor outlaw substitutes per se , but the consensus was that eventually they would become a reality . For the 1917-18 year , the USFA reported receipts of $ 6,318.64 and disbursements of $ 3,034.39 , giving the USFA a net worth of $ 2,784.25 in cash and one $ 500.00 Liberty Bond .", "qid": "365", "docid": "1917–18_National_Challenge_Cup", "rank": 7, "score": 96625 }, { "content": "Title: Pandemic Content: A pandemic ( from Greek πᾶν pan `` all '' and δῆμος demos `` people '' ) is an epidemic of infectious disease that has spread through human populations across a large region ; for instance multiple continents , or even worldwide . A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic . Further , flu pandemics generally exclude recurrences of seasonal flu . Throughout history , there have been a number of pandemics , such as smallpox and tuberculosis . One of the most devastating pandemics was the Black Death , killing over 75 million people in 1350 . The most recent pandemics include the HIV pandemic as well as the 1918 and 2009 H1N1 pandemics .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Pandemic", "rank": 8, "score": 96281 }, { "content": "Title: Knock-on Content: Knock-on may refer to : Knock-on electron Knock-on effect Knock-on ( rugby league ) , an error by the player in possession of the ball in rugby league football Knock-on ( rugby union ) , an event where the ball is knocked forward in rugby union", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock-on", "rank": 9, "score": 95182 }, { "content": "Title: Strategic National Stockpile Content: The Strategic National Stockpile ( SNS ) is the United States ' national repository of antibiotics , vaccines , chemical antidotes , antitoxins , and other critical medical equipment and supplies . In the event of a national emergency involving bioterrorism or a natural pandemic , the SNS has the capability to supplement and re-supply local health authorities that may be overwhelmed by the crisis , with response time as little as 12 hours . The SNS is managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) with support from other agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Government . The SNS represents a pillar of the United States biological defense program .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Strategic_National_Stockpile", "rank": 10, "score": 94693 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in France Content: The 2009 flu pandemic , involving an outbreak of a new strain of influenza commonly known as swine flu ( usually referred as grippe A or grippe porcine in French ) , reached France in early May 2009 . In order to respond to flu epidemics in France , the government has a `` national plan '' , which is also applied for this flu pandemic . In this plan , the different phases of the flu , which are slightly different from the World Health Organization phases , are detailed .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_France", "rank": 11, "score": 94692 }, { "content": "Title: Consequences of the Black Death Content: Consequences of the Black Death included a series of religious , social and economic upheavals , which had profound effects on the course of European history . The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history , peaking in Europe between 1347 and 1350 with 30 % to 60 % of the population killed . It reduced world population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million . It took 150 and in some areas more than 80 years for Europe 's population to recover . From the perspective of many of the survivors , however , the impact was much more benign , for their labor was in higher demand . Hilton has argued that those English peasants who survived found their situation to be much improved . For English peasants the 15th century was a golden age of prosperity and new opportunities . Land was plentiful , wages high , and serfdom had all but disappeared . A century later , as population growth resumed , the peasants again faced deprivation and famine .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Consequences_of_the_Black_Death", "rank": 12, "score": 92548 }, { "content": "Title: Global Health Security Initiative Content: The Global Health Security Initiative ( GHSI ) is an international partnership between countries in order to supplement and strengthen their preparedness to respond to threats of biological , chemical , radio-nuclear terrorism ( CBRN ) and pandemic influenza .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Global_Health_Security_Initiative", "rank": 13, "score": 91485 }, { "content": "Title: 3D security Content: 3D security is a framework promoting development , diplomacy , and defense as security strategies . The 3D security framework recognizes that security challenges like terrorism , nuclear proliferation , global warming , and SARS or Avian Flu epidemics require a variety of tools in addressing complex threats . These tools can be categorized broadly under the headings of Development , Diplomacy and Defense ; the 3Ds of security . 3D security or `` whole of government '' approaches have been promoted by countries like Canada and the U.K. for a number of years . Now bi-partisan Congressional leaders and the Bush administration promote 3D security as a new vision for rethinking security as detailed in the 2006 National Security Strategy . Development refers to governmental and nongovernmental ( NGO ) efforts to build the economic , social , and political foundations of stable communities and societies . Diplomacy refers to communication or negotiation between people to solve shared problems and address conflicts through political and legal channels . Official State Department negotiations ( Track I ) and unofficial diplomacy ( Track II ) between religious , business , academic , or other civil society leaders work best on parallel tracks resulting in agreements that are legitimate , widely supported , and sustainable . Defense refers to a wide range of military tasks including waging war , peacekeeping or coordinating disaster response .", "qid": "365", "docid": "3D_security", "rank": 14, "score": 91259 }, { "content": "Title: Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 Content: The Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 is a law enacted by the 113th United States Congress . The Act amends the Public Health Service Act in order to extend , fund , and improve several programs designed to prepare the United States and health professionals in the event of a pandemic , epidemic , or biological , chemical , radiological , or nuclear accident or attack . The Act clarifies the authority of different American officials , makes it easier to temporarily reassign personnel to respond to emergency situations , and alters the process for testing and producing medical countermeasures . The Act is focused on improving preparedness for any public health emergency .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Pandemic_and_All-Hazards_Preparedness_Reauthorization_Act_of_2013", "rank": 15, "score": 90774 }, { "content": "Title: Pandemic (board game) Content: Pandemic is a cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock and published by Z-Man Games in 2007 . Pandemic is based on the premise that four diseases have broken out in the world , each threatening to wipe out a region . The game accommodates 2 to 4 players , each playing one of five possible specialists : dispatcher , medic , scientist , researcher , or operations expert . The game is unlike most board games in that the gameplay is cooperative , rather than competitive . Through the combined effort of all the players , the goal is to discover all four cures before any of several game-losing conditions are reached . Three expansions , Pandemic : On the Brink , Pandemic : In the Lab , and Pandemic : State of Emergency , co-designed by Matt Leacock and Tom Lehmann , each add several new roles and special events , as well as rule adjustments to allow a fifth player or to play in teams . In addition , several rule expansions are included , referred to as `` challenge kits '' . Pandemic is considered one of the most successful cooperative games that has reached mainstream market sales , condensing the type of deep strategy offered by earlier cooperative games , like Arkham Horror , into a game that can be played in a limited time by a wider range of players . Pandemic Legacy : Season 1 , a spinoff version of Pandemic , which adds an ongoing storyline to the game , is currently rated by the website Board Game Geek as the greatest board game ever made .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Pandemic_(board_game)", "rank": 16, "score": 90702 }, { "content": "Title: Andrew Price-Smith Content: Dr. Andrew Price-Smith ( born 1968 , Toronto , Canada ) is a Professor of Political Science , and academic writer , best known for his work on ` health security ' and ` environmental security . ' An expert on the effects of Pandemic Influenza , and government efforts to contain it , his consilient works analyze the complex linkages between environmental change , infectious disease , history , economics and security . He has held prior appointments at Columbia University , and the University of South Florida . In 2005 , he moved to Colorado College to join the faculty of Political Science there . Price-Smith was also the first to empirically model an index for State Capacity variables . Although Price-Smith 's findings are often espoused by the Human Security community , his work suggests that he is a National Security ( IR ) theoretician who invokes elements of republican theory ( see Daniel Deudney ) , coupled with facets of political psychology ( perception , cognition , and affect ) see Robert Jervis .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Andrew_Price-Smith", "rank": 17, "score": 90384 }, { "content": "Title: High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change Content: The United Nations ' High-level Panel on Threats , Challenges and Change was created in 2003 to analyse threats and challenges to international peace and security , and to recommend action based on this analysis . It was chaired by former Prime Minister of Thailand Anand Panyarachun , and its members included former United States National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft , as well as several former heads of government and foreign ministers as members . In December 2004 , it produced a report on threats to peace and security .", "qid": "365", "docid": "High-level_Panel_on_Threats,_Challenges_and_Change", "rank": 18, "score": 90243 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Turkey Content: The 2009 flu pandemic was a global outbreak of a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 , first identified in April 2009 , termed Pandemic H1N1/09 virus by the World Health Organization ( WHO ) and colloquially called swine flu . The outbreak was first observed in Mexico , and quickly spread globally . On 11 June 2009 , WHO declared the outbreak to be a pandemic . The overwhelming majority of patients experience mild symptoms '' , but some persons are in higher risk groups , such as those with asthma , diabetes , obesity , heart disease , or who are pregnant or have a weakened immune system . In the rare severe cases , around 3 -- 5 days after symptoms manifest , the sufferer 's condition declines quickly , often to the point respiratory failure . The virus reached Turkey in May 2009 . A U.S. citizen , flying from the United States via Amsterdam was found to be suffering from the swine flu after arriving at Istanbul 's Atatürk International Airport . Turkey is the 17th country in Europe and the 36th country in the world to report an incident of swine flu . The Turkish Government has taken measures at the international airports , using thermal imaging cameras to check passengers coming from international destinations . The first case of person to person transmission within Turkey was announced on 26 July 2009 . On 2 November , the Turkish Health Ministry began administering vaccines against H1N1 influenza , starting with health workers . After a slow start , the virus spread rapidly in Turkey and the number of cases reached 12,316 . First death confirmed on 24 October and death toll reached 627 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Turkey", "rank": 19, "score": 90156 }, { "content": "Title: Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act Content: The Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act is a bill introduced on October 5 , 2005 by U.S. Senators Harry Reid , Evan Bayh , Dick Durbin , Ted Kennedy , Barack Obama , and Tom Harkin in response to the growing threat of an outbreak of avian influenza . The bill calls for : Preparing for a pandemic by finalizing , implementing and funding pandemic preparedness and response plans . Improving surveillance and international partnerships to monitor the spread of avian flu and detect the emergence of a flu strain with pandemic potential immediately . Protecting Americans through the development , production and distribution of an effective vaccine . Planning ahead for a pandemic by stockpiling antivirals , vaccines and other essential medications and supplies . Strengthening the public health infrastructure . Increasing awareness and education about pandemic flu . Devoting adequate resources to pandemic preparedness . `` This bill never became law . This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress . Sessions of Congress last two years , and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that have n't passed are cleared from the books . Members often reintroduce bills that did not come up for debate under a new number in the next session . ... Sometimes the text of one bill or resolution is incorporated into another , and in those cases the original bill or resolution , as it would appear here , would seem to be abandoned . '' ( http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-1821 )", "qid": "365", "docid": "Pandemic_Preparedness_and_Response_Act", "rank": 20, "score": 89257 }, { "content": "Title: Match fixing in association football Content: The issue of match fixing in association football has been described , in 2013 , by Chris Eaton , the former Head of Security of FIFA ( the sport 's world governing body ) , as a `` crisis '' , while UEFA 's president Michel Platini has said that if it continues , `` football is dead . '' Zhang Jilong , president of the Asian Football Confederation , has stated that it is a `` pandemic . '' The issue also affects a number of other sports across the world . In May 2011 , world governing body FIFA announced an anti-match fixing plan , and in September 2012 FIFA President Sepp Blatter warned that match-fixing endangered `` the integrity of the game . '' In September 2014 the Council of Europe also announced they would tackle the problem . A number of clubs in countries across the world have been subject to match fixing , including Australia , China , and Spain . The South African national team has also been investigated . In the 18 months prior to February 2013 , Europol investigated 680 matches in 30 countries . In November 2013 , 11 men were charged in Estonia with fixing 17 matches . The problem is often attributed to criminal gangs based in Asia , who generate `` hundreds of billions of euros per year . '' Players who have publicly rejected bribes have been praised .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Match_fixing_in_association_football", "rank": 21, "score": 88924 }, { "content": "Title: Social effects of H5N1 Content: See Influenza pandemic for government preparation for an H5N1 pandemic The social impact of H5N1 is the effect or influence of H5N1 in human society ; especially the financial , political , social , and personal responses to both actual and predicted deaths in birds , humans , and other animals . Billions of dollars are being raised and spent to research H5N1 and prepare for a potential avian influenza pandemic . Over ten billion dollars have been lost and over two hundred million birds have been killed to try to contain H5N1 . People have reacted by buying less chicken causing poultry sales and prices to fall . Many individuals have stockpiled supplies for a possible flu pandemic .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Social_effects_of_H5N1", "rank": 22, "score": 88783 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Malaysia Content: The 2009 flu outbreak in Malaysia is part of a larger flu pandemic involving a new type of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 ( A ( H1N1 ) ) virus . As of 11 August 2009 , the country has over 2,253 cases , beginning with `` imported '' cases from affected countries , including the United States and Australia from 15 May 2009 onwards , and the first identified local transmission on 17 June 2009 . From 12 August , the Malaysian Health Ministry said that it had discontinue officially updating the total number of H1N1 cases within Malaysia in line with guidelines issued by the World Health Organisation . As of 21 August 2009 the unofficial number of cases reported in the media is 5,876 so far . The first death related to the A ( H1N1 ) virus was reported on 23 July 2009 and so far there have been 78 deaths reported . On 6 July 2009 Malaysia announced that it was shifting from containment to mitigation to tackle the spread of the virus . The federal government has declared a national health emergency in Malaysia because of the A ( H1N1 ) outbreak and is considering imposing a health curfew similar to the week-long shutdown of non-essential services and industries in Mexico .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Malaysia", "rank": 23, "score": 88126 }, { "content": "Title: National security Content: National Security is a concept that a government , along with its parliaments , should protect the state and its citizens against all kind of `` national '' crises through a variety of power projections , such as political power , diplomacy , economic power , military might , and so on . The concept developed all in the United States after World War II . Initially focusing on military might , it now encompasses a broad range of facets , all of which impinge on the non-military or economic security of the nation and the values espoused by the national society . Accordingly , in order to possess national security , a nation needs to possess economic security , energy security , environmental security , etc. . Security threats involve not only conventional foes such as other nation-states but also non-state actors such as violent non-state actors , narcotic cartels , multinational corporations and non-governmental organisations ; some authorities include natural disasters and events causing severe environmental damage in this category . Measures taken to ensure national security include : using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats marshalling economic power to facilitate or compel cooperation maintaining effective armed forces implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness measures ( including anti-terrorism legislation ) ensuring the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage , and to protect classified information using counterintelligence services or secret police to protect the nation from internal threats There is no single universally accepted definition of national security . The variety of definitions provide an overview of the many usages of this concept . The concept still remains ambiguous , having originated from simpler definitions which initially emphasised the freedom from military threat and political coercion to later increase in sophistication and include other forms of non-military security as suited the circumstances of the time . A typical dictionary definition , in this case from the Macmillan Dictionary ( online version ) , defines the term as `` the protection or the safety of a country 's secrets and its citizens '' emphasising the overall security of a nation and a nation state . Walter Lippmann , in 1943 , defined it in terms of war saying that `` a nation has security when it does not have to sacrifice its legitimate ínterests to avoid war , and is able , if challenged , to maintain them by war '' . A later definition by Harold Lasswell , a political scientist , in 1950 , looks at national security from almost the same aspect , that of external coercion : `` The distinctive meaning of national security means freedom from foreign dictation . '' In 1960 , Arnold Wolfers , while recognising the need to segregate the subjectivity of the conceptual idea from the objectivity , talks of threats to acquired values : `` An ambiguous symbol meaning different things to different people . National security objectively means the absence of threats to acquired values and subjectively , the absence of fear that such values will be attacked . '' The 1996 definition propagated by the National Defence College of India accretes the elements of national power : `` National security is an appropriate and aggressive blend of political resilience and maturity , human resources , economic structure and capacity , technological competence , industrial base and availability of natural resources and finally the military might . '' Harold Brown , U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1981 in the Carter administration , enlarged the definition of national security by including elements such as economic and environmental security : National security then is the ability to preserve the nation 's physical integrity and territory ; to maintain its economic relations with the rest of the world on reasonable terms ; to preserve its nature , institution , and governance from disruption from outside ; and to control its borders.In 1990 , Harvard University history professor Charles Maier defined national security through the lens of national power : `` National security ... is best described as a capacity to control those domestic and foreign conditions that the public opinion of a given community believes necessary to enjoy its own self-determination or autonomy , prosperity and wellbeing . '' According to Prabhakaran Paleri , author of National Security , Imperatives and Challenges , national security may be defined as : The measurable state of the capability of a nation to overcome the multi-dimensional threats to the apparent well-being of its people and its survival as a nation-state at any given time , by balancing all instruments of state policy through governance , that can be indexed by computation , empirically or otherwise , and is extendable to global security by variables external to it . A concise working definition by Premaratne that paraphrases the aspects of the definitions of Brown , Romm and Paleri defines national security as Safeguarding the sovereignty , territorial integrity , citizenry and socioeconomic functionality of a nation from an aggressor intent on undermining a particular valued aspect of a nation through violent or unjust means", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_security", "rank": 24, "score": 86843 }, { "content": "Title: Knock Shrine Content: Knock Shrine ( Cnoc Mhuire , `` Hill of Mary '' or `` Mary 's Hill '' ) is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site and National Shrine in the village of Knock , County Mayo , Ireland , where observers stated that there was an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary , Saint Joseph , Saint John the Evangelist , angels , and Jesus Christ ( the Lamb of God ) in 1879 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock_Shrine", "rank": 25, "score": 86021 }, { "content": "Title: National Biodefense Strategy Act of 2016 Content: The National Biodefense Strategy Act of 2016 is a bill introduced in the United States Senate by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson ( R-Wisconsin ) . The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 by requiring the government to change its current policy and programs to coordinate and improve biodefense preparedness . Johnson is the current chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs . The bill was placed on the Senate legislative calendar and is currently awaiting further action . Johnson wrote the bill in response to the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense 's findings on the state of US preparedness for biological disaster , either as a result of terrorist activity , inadvertent release of hazardous pathogens or a disease pandemic . In October 2015 the panel found the government 's preparation for biodefense lacking in that it was fragmented across a multiplicity of federal agencies , among other problems . The bipartisan panel , with members such as former senators Joe Lieberman ( I-Connecticut ) and Tom Daschle ( D -- South Dakota ) was organized by the first Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge . Lieberman and Ridge concluded that biological threats are `` ... among the most sinister -- and potentially catastrophic -- our nation faces . '' They emphasized the need for Congress and the Executive to pay attention to these potential disasters and formulate a plan to defend all Americans . Johnson 's bill currently lingers in the Senate , after being reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Biodefense_Strategy_Act_of_2016", "rank": 26, "score": 85947 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear organization Content: Nuclear organization refers to the spatial distribution of chromatin within a cell nucleus . There are many different levels and scales of nuclear organisation . At the smallest scale , DNA is packaged into units called nucleosomes . The quantity and organisation of these nucleosomes can affect the accessibility of local chromatin . This has a knock-on effect on the expression of nearby genes , additionally determining whether or not they can be regulated by transcription factors . At slightly larger scales , DNA looping can physically bring together DNA elements that would otherwise be separated by large distances . These interactions allow regulatory signals to cross over large genomic distances - for example , from enhancers to promoters . In contrast , on a large-scale , the arrangement of chromosomes can determine their properties . Chromosomes are organised into two compartments labelled A ( `` active '' ) and B ( `` inactive '' ) , each with distinct properties . Moreover , entire chromosomes segregate into distinct regions called chromosome territories .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Nuclear_organization", "rank": 27, "score": 85770 }, { "content": "Title: Knock-and-announce Content: Knock-and-announce , in United States law criminal procedure , is an ancient common law principle , incorporated into the Fourth Amendment , which requires law enforcement officers to announce their presence and provide residents with an opportunity to open the door prior to a search . The rule is currently codified in the United States Code , which governs Fourth Amendment searches conducted by the federal government . Most states have similarly codified the rule into their own statutes , and remain free to interpret or augment the rule and its consequences in any fashion that remains consistent with Fourth Amendment principles . A state 's knock-and-announce rule will govern searches by state actors pursuant to state-issued warrants , assuming that Federal actors are not extensively involved in the search .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock-and-announce", "rank": 28, "score": 85473 }, { "content": "Title: Knocking (film) Content: Knocking is a 2006 documentary film directed by Joel Engardio and Tom Shepard that focuses on the civil liberties fought for by Jehovah 's Witnesses . It focuses primarily on the stories of three Jehovah 's Witnesses , and how their lives demonstrate three fundamental Witness teachings that have affected society in general : Conscientious objection , and rejection of blood transfusions and saluting the flag . Knocking explored how the unpopular religion of Jehovah 's Witnesses played a major role in First Amendment history , setting Supreme Court precedents that expanded individual liberties for all Americans . In interviews , director Joel Engardio said Knocking is not about the theology of Jehovah 's Witnesses but instead uses the religion as a case study to examine how disparate and disagreeable groups can hold their unique beliefs without marginalizing or limiting the freedom of others . `` We may not be each others ' cup of tea , '' Engardio said on NPR , `` but tolerance allows a variety of kettles to peacefully share the stove . '' Knocking won several film festival awards including Best Documentary at the USA Film Festival and was covered in Newsweek , USA Today and newspapers across the United States . Entertainment Weekly named it `` What to Watch . '' Knocking was broadcast in the United States on PBS . It was also broadcast in Australia , Canada , Greece and Israel . Knocking was released on DVD in English , Spanish , Portuguese , Russian and Korean .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knocking_(film)", "rank": 29, "score": 84690 }, { "content": "Title: Influenza pandemic Content: An Influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads on a worldwide scale and infects a large proportion of the world population . In contrast to the regular seasonal epidemics of influenza , these pandemics occur irregularly - there have been about 9 Influenza pandemics during the last 300 years . Pandemics can cause high levels of mortality , with the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic being the worst in recorded history - estimated to be responsible for the deaths of approximately 50-100 million people . There have been about three influenza pandemics in each century for the last 300 years , the most recent one being the 2009 flu pandemic . Influenza pandemics occur when a new strain of the influenza virus is transmitted to humans from another animal species . Species that are thought to be important in the emergence of new human strains are pigs , chickens and ducks . These novel strains are unaffected by any immunity people may have to older strains of human influenza and can therefore spread extremely rapidly and infect very large numbers of people . Influenza A viruses can occasionally be transmitted from wild birds to other species causing outbreaks in domestic poultry and may give rise to human influenza pandemics . The propagation of influenza viruses throughout the world is thought in part to be by bird migrations , though commercial shipments of live bird products might also be implicated , as well as human travel patterns . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) has produced a six-stage classification that describes the process by which a novel influenza virus moves from the first few infections in humans through to a pandemic . This starts with the virus mostly infecting animals , with a few cases where animals infect people , then moves through the stage where the virus begins to spread directly between people , and ends with a pandemic when infections from the new virus have spread worldwide . One strain of virus that may produce a pandemic in the future is a highly pathogenic variation of the H5N1 subtype of influenza A virus . On 11 June 2009 , a new strain of H1N1 influenza was declared to be a global pandemic ( Stage 6 ) by the WHO after evidence of spreading in the southern hemisphere . The 13 November 2009 worldwide update by the WHO stated that '' -LSB- a -RSB- s of 8 November 2009 , worldwide more than 206 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported -LSB- 503,536 -RSB- laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 , including over 6,250 deaths . ''", "qid": "365", "docid": "Influenza_pandemic", "rank": 30, "score": 84619 }, { "content": "Title: National Security Study Memorandum 200 Content: National Security Study Memorandum 200 : Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests ( NSSM200 ) was completed on December 10 , 1974 by the United States National Security Council under the direction of Henry Kissinger . It was adopted as official U.S. policy by President Gerald Ford in November 1975 . It was originally classified , but was later declassified and obtained by researchers in the early 1990s .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Security_Study_Memorandum_200", "rank": 31, "score": 84367 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Mexico Content: In March and April 2009 , an outbreak of a new strain of influenza commonly referred to as `` swine flu '' infected many people in Mexico and other parts of the world , causing illness ranging from mild to severe . Initial reports suggested that the outbreak had started in February due to farming practices at a pig farm half-owned by Smithfield Foods . Smithfield Foods stated that it had found no clinical signs or symptoms of the presence of swine influenza in the company 's swine herd , or among its employees at its joint ventures in Mexico , that it routinely administers influenza virus vaccination to their swine herds and that it conducts monthly testing for the presence of swine influenza . The new strain was identified as a combination of several different strains of Influenzavirus A , subtype H1N1 , including separate strains of this subtype circulating in humans and in pigs . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) have expressed serious concerns that the new strain , which transmits between humans and has had a relatively high mortality rate in the possible and confirmed Mexican cases , has the potential to become an influenza pandemic . It is reported that , because the virus is already widespread , containment will be impossible . As of April 27 , 2009 , all schools nationwide remained closed until at least May 6 . Health Minister Córdova noted that the number of new cases had declined during the three days : from 141 on Saturday to 119 on Sunday and 110 on Monday . It is unclear why there were more deaths in Mexico than in other areas , as there were multiple potential variables , such as a stronger strain of the virus or more exposure to it . No definite conclusion had been reached , however the CDC reported that swine flu viruses in the US and Mexico matched .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Mexico", "rank": 32, "score": 84257 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Challenge Cup Content: The 2007 Carnegie Challenge Cup began in February 2007 . The Challenge Cup is the most prestigious knock-out competition in the world of rugby league , featuring teams from across Europe including England , Scotland , Wales , France and Russia . In 2007 the preliminary round was dropped , reducing the number of amateur clubs involved . Teams from the National League were given byes to round three , and teams from the Super League entered in round four . Teams from outside of the UK were introduced at various stages . St. Helens successfully defended their title after beating Catalans Dragons ( who were the first French club ever to take part in the competition 's final ) 30 -- 8 in the final at the new Wembley Stadium on 26 August .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2007_Challenge_Cup", "rank": 33, "score": 84201 }, { "content": "Title: Knock (Banffshire) railway station Content: Knock railway station was an intermediate stop situated on the Great North of Scotland Railway ( GNoSR ) line from Grange and Cairnie Junction to . Knock served the rural community and later the Knockdhu Distillery in Banffshire . The line northwards ran to Tillynaught where it split to reach Banff by a branch line or Elgin by the Moray Coast line . Knock was opened in 1859 by the Banff , Portsoy and Strathisla Railway , and in 1867 was absorbed by the GNoSR who took over the line and then operating it until grouping in 1923 . Passing into British Railways ownership in 1948 , the line was , like the rest of the ex-GNoSR lines along the Moray coast , considered for closure as part of the Beeching report and closure notices were issued in 1963 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock_(Banffshire)_railway_station", "rank": 34, "score": 83882 }, { "content": "Title: Knock, Isle of Lewis Content: Knock , from the Gaelic , An Cnoc ( a small hill ) , is a village in Point peninsula on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland . Point ( an Rubha in Gaelic ) is connected by road across a narrow isthmus ( barely 100 metres wide ) to Stornoway , the main administrative centre of the Western Isles . The village of Knock consists of between fifty and one hundred houses and is bordered to the south with Swordale and to the north with Aignish . Knock used to have a primary school and post office . The post office closed in 2008 along with a large number of Post offices in the north west of Scotland . Knock Primary school opened on 29 October 1878 . and closed for the last time on 30 June 2011 when the pupils were moved to a new school in Bayble . The old school is now a locally run shop and cafe `` Buth an Rubha & Cafe Roo '' sellning a wide range of everyday essentials and local produce . It opened on 7 March 2014 . There is another village called Knock , in the district of Carloway , in the Uig Parish of Lewis .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock,_Isle_of_Lewis", "rank": 35, "score": 83868 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Challenge Cup Content: The 2008 Challenge Cup ( also known as the Carnegie Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons ) was the 107th staging of the most prestigious knock-out competition in the world of Rugby League , featuring teams from across Europe , including England , Scotland , Wales , France and Russia . It began in February 2008 . Teams from the National League were given byes to round three , and teams from the Super League entered in round four . Teams from outside of the UK were introduced at various stages . St. Helens successfully defended their title after beating Hull F.C. 28 - 16 in the final .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2008_Challenge_Cup", "rank": 36, "score": 83675 }, { "content": "Title: Panzootic Content: A panzootic ( from Greek παν pan all + ζόιον zoion animal ) is an epizootic ( an outbreak of an infectious disease of animals ) that spreads across a large region ( for example a continent ) , or even worldwide . The equivalent in human populations is called a pandemic . A panzootic can start when three conditions have been met : the emergence of a disease new to the population . the agent infects a species and causes serious illness . the agent spreads easily and sustainably among animals . A disease or condition is not a panzootic merely because it is widespread or kills a large number of animals ; it must also be infectious . For example , cancer is responsible for a large number of deaths but is not considered a panzootic because the disease is , generally speaking , not infectious . Unlike an epizootic , a panzootic covers all or nearly all species over a large surface area ( ex . rabies , anthrax ) . Typically an enzootic or an epizootic , or their cause , may act as a potential preparatory factor .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Panzootic", "rank": 37, "score": 83635 }, { "content": "Title: Ahmadu Giade Content: Ahmadu Giade , a retired deputy commissioner of police , was appointed chairman of the Nigerian National Drug Law Enforcement Agency ( NDLEA ) in November 2005 . He replaced Bello Lafiaji , who was dismissed by President Obasanjo due to allegations of corruption . Speaking in October 2008 before a United Nations committee discussing crime prevention , criminal justice and international drug control , Giade said that one of the most significant problems faced in Nigeria was the misuse of cannabis . Nigeria needed the help of the international community to fully tackle the situation . In a 2009 paper he said adverse consequences of cannabis cultivation include political instability , drug addiction , money laundering , health problems , criminality and untimely death . He has described drug barons as agents of death who always work towards a failed state wherever they are allowed to operate .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Ahmadu_Giade", "rank": 38, "score": 83419 }, { "content": "Title: Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve Content: Knockan Crag is a line of cliffs on the Ross-Shire and Sutherland border area of Scotland 21 km north of Ullapool . The name is an anglicisation of the Gaelic Creag a ' Chnocain meaning ` crag of the small hill ' . The Crag itself is located within the Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve , managed by Scottish Natural Heritage , and which is designated for its outstanding geological features . The Moine Thrust runs through the crag and there is a small visitor centre providing interpretation and artwork that explains the background to the ` Highlands Controversy ' concerning the geology of the area . Knockan Crag was declared a National Nature Reserve ( NNR ) on 25th February , 2004 . Knockan Crag NNR is owned and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage ( SNH ) and is part of the wider Knockan Crag Cliff Site of Special Scientific Interest . It also lies within the North West Highlands Geopark , part of the International Network of Geoparks . Scottish Natural Heritage provides an interpretation centre , car park and various walks along the crag explaining the features and including artwork such as ` The Globe ' by Joe Smith .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knockan_Crag_National_Nature_Reserve", "rank": 39, "score": 83352 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in the Philippines Content: The 2009 flu pandemic in the Philippines is a part of larger global flu epidemic that involves new Influenza A virus strain , H1N1 . The pandemic reached the Philippines on May 21 , 2009 when a young Filipina girl first contracted the A ( H1N1 ) virus while vacationing in Houston , Texas , US . In the following days , several local cases were reported to be caused by contact with two infected Taiwanese women who attended a wedding ceremony in Zambales . The 10-year-old Filipina girl arrived at the country on May 18 and was hospitalized the day after at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City . On May 21 , Department of Health ( DOH ) secretary Francisco Duque confirmed the case being the first Philippine swine flu case . On a May 22 press conference at World Health Organization Regional Office in Manila , Secretary Duque announced the first A ( H1N1 ) case in the country : Since the outbreak of A ( H1N1 ) in the Americas , President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo urged the Department of Health , the Bureau of Immigration , the Bureau of Quarantine and other concerned agencies to control monitor airport and seaport arrivals for possible flu infection . Thermal imaging equipment were installed at major airports to screen passengers coming from infected countries for flu symptoms . The Philippines may quarantine travelers arriving from Mexico with fever . Also , the importation of hogs from the U.S. and Mexico was manned , and the restriction of swine influenza vaccine use was retracted . First death was reported on June 19 , 2009 , a 49-year-old Filipina employee of the Congress , as well as the first death in Asia .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_the_Philippines", "rank": 40, "score": 83193 }, { "content": "Title: Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure Content: Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure ( CPNI ) is the United Kingdom government authority which provides protective security advice to businesses and organisations across the national infrastructure . Their advice aims to reduce the vulnerability of the national infrastructure to terrorism and other threats , keeping the UK 's essential services ( delivered by the communications , emergency services , energy , finance , food , government , health , transport and water sectors ) safer . Without these services , the UK could suffer serious consequences , including severe economic damage , grave social disruption , or even large scale loss of life . CPNI advice is targeted primarily at the critical national infrastructure ( CNI ) - those key elements of the national infrastructure which are crucial to the continued delivery of essential services to the UK . CPNI was formed on 1 February 2007 from the merger of predecessor bodies the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre ( NISCC ) and the National Security Advice Centre ( NSAC ) . NISCC existed to provide advice to companies operating critical national infrastructure , and NSAC was a unit within MI5 that provided security advice to other parts of the UK government . CPNI is accountable to the Director General of the Security Service and operates under the Security Service Act 1989 . As a part of MI5 , it is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act . In 2016 the cyber-security related aspects of the CPNI 's role were taken over by the National Cyber Security Centre , itself a child agency of GCHQ .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Centre_for_the_Protection_of_National_Infrastructure", "rank": 41, "score": 83181 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Canada Content: The 2009 flu pandemic in Canada is part of an epidemic in 2009 of a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 causing what has been commonly called swine flu . In Canada , roughly 10 % of the populace ( or 3.5 million ) has been infected with the virus , with 428 confirmed deaths ( as of 20 February 2010 ) ; non-fatal individual cases are for the most part no longer being recorded . About 40 % of Canadians have been immunized against H1N1 since a national vaccination campaign began in October , with Canada among the countries in the world leading in the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated . The widespread effect of H1N1 in Canada has raised concerns during the months leading to the XXI Olympic Winter Games , which took place in Vancouver on February 2010 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Canada", "rank": 42, "score": 82948 }, { "content": "Title: Global spread of H5N1 in 2005 Content: The global spread of ( highly pathogenic ) H5N1 in birds is considered a significant pandemic threat . While prior H5N1 strains have been known , they were significantly different from the current H5N1 strain on a genetic level , making the global spread of this new strain unprecedented . The current H5N1 strain is a fast-mutating , highly pathogenic avian influenza virus ( HPAI ) found in multiple bird species . It is both epizootic ( an epidemic in non-humans ) and panzootic ( a disease affecting animals of many species especially over a wide area ) . Unless otherwise indicated , `` H5N1 '' in this article refers to the recent highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 . In January 2005 an outbreak of avian influenza affected thirty three out of sixty four cities and provinces in Vietnam , leading to the forced killing of nearly 1.2 million poultry . Up to 140 million birds are believed to have died or been killed because of the outbreak . In April 2005 an unprecedented die-off began of over 6,000 migratory birds at Qinghai Lake in central China over three months . This strain of H5N1 is the same strain as is spread west by migratory birds over at least the next ten months . In August 2005 H5N1 spread to Kazakhstan , Mongolia and Russia . On September 29 , 2005 , David Nabarro , the newly appointed Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza , warned the world that an outbreak of avian influenza could kill 5 to 150 million people . David Nabarro later stated that as the virus had spread to migratory birds , an outbreak could start in Africa or the Middle East . Later in 2005 H5N1 spread to Turkey , Romania , Croatia and Kuwait .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Global_spread_of_H5N1_in_2005", "rank": 43, "score": 82646 }, { "content": "Title: Office of National Security Intelligence Content: The Office of National Security Intelligence ( ONSI ) is a division of the Drug Enforcement Administration that facilitates intelligence coordination and information sharing with other members of the U.S. Intelligence Community ( IC ) . ONSI also aims to enhance the efforts of the U.S. to reduce the supply of illegal drugs , protect U.S. national security and fight global terrorism . It became a member of the IC in 2006 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Office_of_National_Security_Intelligence", "rank": 44, "score": 82324 }, { "content": "Title: Epidemic Content: An epidemic ( from Greek ἐπί epi `` upon or above '' and δῆμος demos `` people '' ) is the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time , usually two weeks or less . For example , in meningococcal infections , an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic . Epidemics of infectious disease are generally caused by several factors including a change in the ecology of the host population ( e.g. increased stress or increase in the density of a vector species ) , a genetic change in the pathogen reservoir or the introduction of an emerging pathogen to a host population ( by movement of pathogen or host ) . Generally , an epidemic occurs when host immunity to either an established pathogen or newly emerging novel pathogen is suddenly reduced below that found in the endemic equilibrium and the transmission threshold is exceeded . An epidemic may be restricted to one location ; however , if it spreads to other countries or continents and affects a substantial number of people , it may be termed a pandemic . The declaration of an epidemic usually requires a good understanding of a baseline rate of incidence ; epidemics for certain diseases , such as influenza , are defined as reaching some defined increase in incidence above this baseline . A few cases of a very rare disease may be classified as an epidemic , while many cases of a common disease ( such as the common cold ) would not .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Epidemic", "rank": 45, "score": 82301 }, { "content": "Title: Project on National Security Reform Content: The Project on National Security Reform ( PNSR ) is a nonpartisan non-profit organization mandated by the United States Congress to recommend improvements to the U.S. national security system . Advocates of reform of the U.S. national security system contend that the fundamental components of the system , which includes the National Security Council , the Department of Defense , the Department of State , the Central Intelligence Agency , among others , were largely designed via the National Security Act of 1947 in order to combat the Soviet Union . Today 's global security environment , largely due to globalization , is much more complex than it was during the Cold War . PNSR argues that government structures need to be more agile and efficient in order to combat new threats such as terrorism , transnational crime , and rogue states . PNSR issued their final report in December 2008 entitled `` Forging a New Shield . '' Over 300 national security experts from think tanks , universities , federal agencies , law firms and corporations contributed to the report . PNSR is currently transforming into an advocacy organization for comprehensive reform of the national security system .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Project_on_National_Security_Reform", "rank": 46, "score": 82254 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in South America Content: The 2009 flu pandemic in South America was part of a global epidemic in 2009 of a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 , causing what has been commonly called swine flu . As of 9 June 2009 , the virus had afflicted at least 2,000 people in South America , with at least 4 confirmed deaths . On 3 May 2009 , the first case of the flu in South America was confirmed in a Colombian man who recently travelled from Mexico -- since then , it has spread throughout the continent . By far , the most affected country has been Chile , with more than 12,000 confirmed cases , 104 deaths , and the highest per capita incidence in the world . The World Health Organization warned about the arrival of the winter in the southern hemisphere , where there are seasonal peaks of flu , that could increase the number of infections .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_South_America", "rank": 47, "score": 81994 }, { "content": "Title: Center for Advanced Defense Studies Content: The Center for Advanced Defense Studies is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit research organization that employs academics , national security operators , and local experts from existing and emerging conflict zones around the world . It works to address evolving and nontraditional security challenges . The Center describes and predicts the security implications of human behavior and intent . Its work focuses on understanding the drivers of global conflict and instability through research , education , and implementation programs . The goal is to understand and explain the impact of both traditional cultural systems and emerging technologies on conflict environments , joining observation and data to generate new knowledge and insight .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Center_for_Advanced_Defense_Studies", "rank": 48, "score": 81604 }, { "content": "Title: Knock-for-knock agreement Content: A knock-for-knock agreement is an agreement between two insurance companies whereby , when both companies ' policy-holders incur losses in the same insured event ( usually a motor accident ) , each insurer pays the losses sustained by its own policy-holder regardless of who was responsible .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock-for-knock_agreement", "rank": 49, "score": 81539 }, { "content": "Title: PKA (irradiation) Content: A Primary Knock-on Atom or PKA is an atom that is displaced from its lattice site by irradiation ; it is , by definition , the first atom that an incident particle encounters in the target . After it is displaced from its initial lattice site , the PKA can induce the subsequent lattice site displacements of other atoms if it possesses sufficient energy , or come to rest in the lattice at an interstitial site if it does not . Most of the displaced atoms resulting from electron irradiation and some other types of irradiation are PKAs , since these are usually below the threshold displacement energy and do not have sufficient energy to displace more atoms . In other cases like fast neutron irradiation , most of the displacements result from higher energy PKAs colliding with other atoms as they slow down to rest .", "qid": "365", "docid": "PKA_(irradiation)", "rank": 50, "score": 81425 }, { "content": "Title: 1918 flu pandemic Content: The 1918 flu pandemic ( January 1918 -- December 1920 ) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic , the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It infected 500 million people across the world , including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic , and resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million ( three to five percent of the world 's population ) , making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history . Disease had already greatly limited life expectancy in the early 20th century . A considerable spike occurred at the time of the pandemic , specifically the year 1918 . Life expectancy in the United States alone dropped by about 12 years . Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile , elderly , or already weakened patients ; in contrast , the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults . There are several possible explanations for the high mortality rate of the 1918 influenza pandemic . Some research suggests that the specific variant of the virus had an unusually aggressive nature . One group of researchers recovered the original virus from the bodies of frozen victims , and found that transfection in animals caused a rapid progressive respiratory failure and death through a cytokine storm ( overreaction of the body 's immune system ) . It was then postulated that the strong immune reactions of young adults ravaged the body , whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths among those groups . More recent investigations , mainly based on original medical reports from the period of the pandemic , found that the viral infection itself was not more aggressive than any previous influenza , but that the special circumstances ( malnourishment , overcrowded medical camps and hospitals , poor hygiene ) promoted bacterial superinfection that killed most of the victims typically after a somewhat prolonged death bed . Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the pandemic 's geographic origin . It was implicated in the outbreak of encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s . To maintain morale , wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany , Britain , France , and the United States . However , papers were free to report the epidemic 's effects in neutral Spain ( such as the grave illness of King Alfonso XIII ) . This reporting dichotomy created a false impression of Spain as especially hard hit , thereby giving rise to the pandemic 's nickname , Spanish Flu . In Spain , a different nickname was adopted , the Naples Soldier ( Soldado de Nápoles ) , which came from a musical operetta ( zarzuela ) titled La canción del olvido ( The Song of Forgetting ) , which premiered in Madrid during the first epidemic wave . Federico Romero , one of the librettists , quipped that the play 's most popular musical number , Naples Soldier , was as catchy as the flu .", "qid": "365", "docid": "1918_flu_pandemic", "rank": 51, "score": 80996 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Argentina Content: The influenza A virus subtype H1N1 ( initially known as swine influenza virus or as new flu ) arrived in Argentina in late April 2009 , through air traffic contact with endemic areas , especially Mexico and the United States . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) and the Argentine health authorities expressed their concern from the beginning of the outbreak , that the imminent arrival of the southern winter could cause `` more serious '' effects in the southern hemisphere than those caused in Mexico , and could lead to a rebound of the epidemic around the world . The flu or influenza is mainly a seasonal disease that becomes most prevalent in winter . The first infection was confirmed on May 7 in a man who had come from Mexico City and had entered the country without symptoms on April 24 . The second case was detected on May 22 . Towards the end of May infection started in some schools in the northern community of the City of Buenos Aires and its suburbs , the main part of the country affected by the epidemic . On June 15 the first death was announced : a three-month-old baby in the Greater Buenos Aires area . In the second half of June , coinciding with the onset of winter , the virus was widely transmitted in Buenos Aires and spread to other parts of the country , especially the Province of Santa Fe , with its center in the city of Rosario . On June 29 , the Government decided to close schools throughout the month of July , a measure which affected 11 million students . Pregnant women and other categories at risk were also dispensed from working . The measures taken by the authorities were primarily targeted to limit contagion during the winter months until the start of spring . The peak of infection lasted from the end of June until the beginning of July , increasing normal hospital demand fivefold and causing the collapse of the systems organizing hospital wards , home doctors and work place doctors . The most affected area was Greater Buenos Aires , home to some 12 million people . It was estimated that up to 10 % of the population of that region ( approximately 1,200,000 people ) could be affected by the pandemic of influenza A. In Argentina , seasonal flu outbreaks kill about 4,000 people each year , equivalent to a rate of 10 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants . The contingency plan developed in 2006 to face a possible influenza pandemic estimated that the dead could reach 13,000 in the event of a moderate rate of infection ( 15 % ) and 30,000 in the event of a serious infection rate ( 35 % ) .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Argentina", "rank": 52, "score": 80828 }, { "content": "Title: Port knocking Content: In computer networking , port knocking is a method of externally opening ports on a firewall by generating a connection attempt on a set of prespecified closed ports . Once a correct sequence of connection attempts is received , the firewall rules are dynamically modified to allow the host which sent the connection attempts to connect over specific port ( s ) . A variant called single packet authorization exists , where only a single `` knock '' is needed , consisting of an encrypted packet . The primary purpose of port knocking is to prevent an attacker from scanning a system for potentially exploitable services by doing a port scan , because unless the attacker sends the correct knock sequence , the protected ports will appear closed .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Port_knocking", "rank": 53, "score": 80808 }, { "content": "Title: Knockbride Content: Knockbride is a parish in County Cavan , Ireland located outside the town of Bailieborough . There are two Roman Catholic churches namely West Knockbride and East Knockbride . There is also a Church of Ireland church and parish and a Presbyterian Church in Corraneary . There are two shops , Laws and McCabes . Knockbride has one pub , `` The Bridge Tavern '' .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knockbride", "rank": 54, "score": 80494 }, { "content": "Title: Knock railway station Content: Knock railway station was on the Belfast and County Down Railway which ran from Belfast to Newcastle , County Down in Northern Ireland .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock_railway_station", "rank": 55, "score": 80365 }, { "content": "Title: Homeland Security Advisory System Content: In the United States , the Homeland Security Advisory System was a color-coded terrorism threat advisory scale . The different levels triggered specific actions by federal agencies and state and local governments , and they affected the level of security at some airports and other public facilities . It was often called the `` terror alert level '' by the U.S. media . The system was replaced on April 27 , 2011 with a new system called the National Terrorism Advisory System .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Homeland_Security_Advisory_System", "rank": 56, "score": 80298 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian swine flu outbreak Content: 2015 Indian swine flu outbreak refers to an outbreak of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus in India , which is still ongoing as of March 2015 . The states of Gujarat and Rajasthan are the worst affected . India had reported 937 cases and 218 deaths from swine flu in the year 2014 . By mid-February 2015 , the reported cases and deaths in 2015 had surpassed the previous numbers . The total number of laboratory confirmed cases crossed 33,000 mark with death of more than 2,000 people .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2015_Indian_swine_flu_outbreak", "rank": 57, "score": 80068 }, { "content": "Title: National Strategy for Homeland Security Content: The United States National Strategy for Homeland Security is a formal government response to the events of September 11 , 2001 at the Pentagon and World Trade Center . The document issued by President George W. Bush outlines the overall strategic considerations for cooperation between the federal government , states , private enterprises , and ordinary citizens in anticipating future terrorism attacks as well as natural disasters and other incidents of national significance . The National Response Framework is the part of the homeland security national strategy that is a Comprehensive Emergency Management guideline for implementing scalable responses to disasters and other incidents of national significance .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Strategy_for_Homeland_Security", "rank": 58, "score": 80058 }, { "content": "Title: Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Content: The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security ( abbreviated CHS ; previously the UPMC Center for Health Security , the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC , and the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies ) is an independent , nonprofit organization of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that works in the area of health consequences from epidemics and disasters . It is a think tank that does policy research and gives policy recommendations to the United States government .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Johns_Hopkins_Center_for_Health_Security", "rank": 59, "score": 80057 }, { "content": "Title: Knocking Hoe Content: Knocking Hoe is a 7.7 hectare National Nature Reserve and biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Pegsdon in Bedfordshire . It is mentioned in A Nature Conservation Review . It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , and is managed by Natural England . The site is a flat bottomed valley with steep sides . The unimproved chalk grassland has several nationally rare plants , including moon carrot , spotted catsear , field fleawort , burnt tip orchid and pasque flower . There are also a variety of wild flowers such as the autumn lady 's tresses , which has been studied on the site for over fifty years . The ancient strip lynchet field system is of archaeological interest . There is access by a footpath from Hitchin Road in Pegsdon .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knocking_Hoe", "rank": 60, "score": 79838 }, { "content": "Title: Pandemic (disambiguation) Content: A pandemic is a large epidemic . Pandemic may also refer to : Pandemic ( board game ) , a board game by Z-Man Games Pandemic ( comics ) , a Marvel Comics fictional character Pandemic ( film ) , a 2016 American science-fiction film Pandemic ( novel ) , 2014 sci-fi novel by Scott Sigler `` Pandemic '' ( South Park ) , the 177th episode of Comedy Central 's South Park `` Pandemic 2 : The Startling '' , the 178th episode of Comedy Central 's South Park ( continuation of above episode ) Pandemic ( TV miniseries ) , a 2007 Hallmark production starring Tiffani Thiessen and Faye Dunaway Pandemic Studios , a defunct video game developer ( The Saboteur , Star Wars Battlefront I and II )", "qid": "365", "docid": "Pandemic_(disambiguation)", "rank": 61, "score": 79613 }, { "content": "Title: Roof knocking Content: Roof knocking or `` knocks on the roof '' is a term used by the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF ) to describe its practice of dropping non-explosive or low-yield devices on the roofs of targeted civilian homes in the Palestinian territories as a prior warning of imminent bombing attacks to give the inhabitants time to flee the attack . The practice was employed by the IDF during the 2008 -- 2009 Gaza War , Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 , and Operation Protective Edge in 2014 to target the homes of police officers or Hamas political or military leaders .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Roof_knocking", "rank": 62, "score": 79514 }, { "content": "Title: Global spread of H5N1 in 2007 Content: The global spread of ( highly pathogenic ) H5N1 in birds is considered a significant pandemic threat . While prior H5N1 strains have been known , they were significantly different from the current H5N1 strain on a genetic level , making the global spread of this new strain unprecedented . The current H5N1 strain is a fast-mutating , highly pathogenic avian influenza virus ( HPAI ) found in multiple bird species . It is both epizootic ( an epidemic in non-humans ) and panzootic ( a disease affecting animals of many species especially over a wide area ) . Unless otherwise indicated , `` H5N1 '' in this article refers to the recent highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 . In January , Japan , Hungary , Russia , and the United Kingdom joined the list of nations seeing a resurgence of bird deaths due to H5N1 . In February , Pakistan , Turkey , Afghanistan , and Myanmar joined the list and Kuwait saw its first major outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza . In March , Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia each saw their first major outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza and Ghana in May . As H5N1 continued killing many birds and a few people throughout the spring in countries where it is now endemic , in June Malaysia and Germany saw a resurgence of bird deaths due to H5N1 , while the Czech Republic and Togo experienced their first major outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza . In July , France and India also saw a resurgence of bird deaths due to H5N1 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Global_spread_of_H5N1_in_2007", "rank": 63, "score": 79500 }, { "content": "Title: Knock, Cumbria Content: Knock is a small village in the Eden district of Cumbria , England , near the larger village of Dufton and the town of Appleby-in-Westmorland . It once had a Methodist chapel , but that was closed and the chapel at Dufton was renamed `` Dufton with Knock Methodist Church '' .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock,_Cumbria", "rank": 64, "score": 79408 }, { "content": "Title: Knock, County Clare Content: Knock ( Irish : An Cnoc ) is a village in County Clare , Ireland . The village is located at the northern banks of the Clonderalaw Bay , a bay connected with the Shannon , and the R486 is passing through the village . According to the geographer Samuel Lewis the parish counted 180 inhabitants in 1837 . The Census 2006 showed ongoing depopulating , returning 228 inhabitants for Knock , compared with 252 inhabitants in 2002 The river Crompaun which enters the Shannon near Knock , was the subject of questions in the Dáil Éireann in 1949 . Problem was that 14 sluices had broken down . The Commissioners of Public Works was not responsible for the repair , according to minister Michael Donnelan . The fate of the sluices is unknown .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock,_County_Clare", "rank": 65, "score": 79367 }, { "content": "Title: Knock basilica Content: The basilica of Knock is a Roman Catholic Church of the Latin Rite located in the small town of Knock , in County Mayo in the West Region of Ireland . It was designed in modern architecture style with concrete materials by architect Daithi Hanly , and completed in 1976 . The basilica , which can accommodate approximately 10,000 people , serves the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam , and it is part of the Knock Shrine grounds that incorporates four other churches , including the Apparition Church , the place where , on Thursday evening of 21 August 1879 , the Blessed Virgin Mary , Saint Joseph , and Saint John the Evangelist appeared , the old Parish church , the Blessed Sacrament Chapel , and the Chapel of Reconciliation . In this Ireland 's National Marian shrine there are also a religious books ' centre , a caravan and camping park , the Knock House Hotel , and the Knock Museum .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock_basilica", "rank": 66, "score": 79337 }, { "content": "Title: Gene knockin Content: In molecular cloning and biology , a knock-in ( or gene knock-in ) refers to a genetic engineering method that involves the one-for-one substitution of DNA sequence information in a genetic locus or the insertion of sequence information not found within the locus . Typically , this is done in mice since the technology for this process is more refined and there is a high degree of shared sequence complexity between mice and humans . The difference between knock-in technology and traditional transgenic techniques is that a knock-in involves a gene inserted into a specific locus , and is thus a `` targeted '' insertion . A common use of knock-in technology is for the creation of disease models . It is a technique by which scientific investigators may study the function of the regulatory machinery ( e.g. promoters ) that governs the expression of the natural gene being replaced . This is accomplished by observing the new phenotype of the organism in question . The BACs and YACs are used in this case so that large fragments can be transferred .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Gene_knockin", "rank": 67, "score": 79186 }, { "content": "Title: No-knock warrant Content: In the United States , a no-knock warrant is a warrant issued by a judge that allows law enforcement officers to enter a property without immediate prior notification of the residents , such as by knocking or ringing a doorbell . In most cases , law enforcement will identify themselves just before they forcefully enter the property . It is issued under the belief that any evidence they hope to find can be destroyed during the time that police identify themselves and the time they secure the area , or in the event where there is a large perceived threat to officer safety during the execution of the warrant .", "qid": "365", "docid": "No-knock_warrant", "rank": 68, "score": 79180 }, { "content": "Title: Airport security repercussions due to the September 11 attacks Content: After the September 11 attacks , questions were raised regarding the effectiveness of airport security at the time , as all 19 hijackers involved in 9/11 managed to pass existing checkpoints and board the airplanes without incident . In the months and years following September 11 , 2001 , security at many airports worldwide was escalated to deter similar terrorist plots .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Airport_security_repercussions_due_to_the_September_11_attacks", "rank": 69, "score": 79010 }, { "content": "Title: Knock, County Mayo Content: Knock ( , meaning The Hill -- but now more generally known in Irish as Cnoc Mhuire , `` Hill of ( the Virgin ) Mary '' ) is a village in County Mayo , Ireland . Its notability is derived from the Knock Shrine , at which the Virgin Mary , together with Saint Joseph and John the Evangelist , allegedly appeared on 21 August 1879 . In the 20th century Knock became one of Europe 's major Catholic Marian shrines , alongside Lourdes and Fatima . One and a half million pilgrims visit Knock Shrine annually . Pope John Paul II , a supporter of devotion to the Virgin Mary , visited Knock in 1979 to commemorate the centenary of the apparition .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock,_County_Mayo", "rank": 70, "score": 78918 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Portugal Content: The 2009 flu pandemic , an influenza outbreak commonly known as `` swine flu '' , affected Portugal from May 2009 to early 2010 . The outbreak caused 122 deaths in the country .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Portugal", "rank": 71, "score": 78885 }, { "content": "Title: National Intelligence Assessments on Infectious Diseases Content: The United States intelligence community ( IC ) has a long history of producing assessments on infectious diseases . Most of these papers are distributed to government administrators and inform the choices of policymakers . Three of these assessments stand out as analytical products that have had important impact on the awareness , funding and treatment of infectious diseases around the world . The first paper is the National Intelligence Estimate on the Global Infectious Disease Threat , the second paper is the assessment on the Next Wave of HIV/AIDS , and the third paper was the assessment on SARS . This page summarizes the findings of these three papers and provides information about their impact .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Intelligence_Assessments_on_Infectious_Diseases", "rank": 72, "score": 78528 }, { "content": "Title: Discrimination and National Security Initiative Content: Discrimination & National Security Initiative ( DNSI ) is a research organization affiliated with the Pluralism Project , a Harvard University project that studies religious diversity in the United States . Following the terrorists attacks of September 11 , 2001 , several communities within the United States experienced and continue to endure a prolonged and wanton backlash . In particular , Sikh , Muslim , Arab , South Asian , and other American communities have confronted verbal harassment , employment discrimination , physical assault , and even murder . For example , Balbir Singh Sodhi , a turbaned Sikh , was murdered just days after 9/11 . In response to the post-9 / 11 climate and the need to understand how discrimination has impacted these targeted communities in the United States , DNSI was created . The purpose of the project is to examine the mistreatment of minority communities in times of war or national crisis . DNSI is specifically interested in the human consequences of such mistreatment . In addition to performing research and releasing substantive reports , DNSI regularly notes relevant incidents and developments on its blog . DNSI was officially established on December 18 , 2004 , the 60th anniversary of Korematsu v. United States , the Supreme Court of the United States case that upheld the forced exclusion of citizens of Japanese ancestry ( see , Japanese American Internment ) . The dissenting justices warned of the use of perceived race , ethnicity , or national origin as a proxy for suspect qualities , including subversion and disloyalty to the union , during wartime . DNSI examines discrimination and its social impact not just in the aftermath of September 11 , 2001 , but also in other historical and international contexts that implicate the tension between equality and concerns for national security , such as the backlash against Muslims after the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the broader debate regarding assimilation and multiculturalism that is taking place in several Western societies ( see , United Kingdom debate over veils ) . DNSI is directed by Valarie Kaur ( creator , writer , and producer of the documentary , `` Divided We Fall '' ) and Dawinder `` Dave '' S. Sidhu ( civil rights attorney ) . DNSI issued its first report , `` We are Americans Too : A Comparative Study of the Effects of 9/11 on South Asian Communities , '' on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks . The report addresses the impact of and the responses to the discrimination that South Asians faced since 9/11 , focusing specifically on Indian Hindus , Pakistani Muslims , and Sikhs in the Washington , DC area . Its second report , `` The Sikh Turban : Post-911 Challenges to this Article of Faith , '' examines the tangible and intangible discrimination faced by turbaned Sikhs in the wake of the 9/11 , terrorist attacks . This report , issued in the spring of 2008 , provides an overview of Sikhism , incidents of discrimination , broader challenges to Sikh identity , and legal remedies available to victims . The report is currently being adapted into an academic text .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Discrimination_and_National_Security_Initiative", "rank": 73, "score": 78470 }, { "content": "Title: National Hotel disease Content: The National Hotel epidemic was a mysterious sickness which afflicted persons who stayed at the National Hotel in Washington , D.C. beginning in early January 1857 . At the time , the hotel was the largest in the city . By some accounts , as many as 400 people became sick and nearly three dozen died . The illness was considered by some medical experts to have originated from an attempt to poison hotel boarders . It affected mostly patrons of the hotel 's dining room and not those who frequented the bar . It began to spread more noticeably by the middle of January 1857 . New cases of the illness began to decrease in number by the end of January 1857 and continued to abate until the middle of February . When the numbers of guests increased for the presidential inauguration of March 4 , 1857 , the sickness returned again forcefully .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Hotel_disease", "rank": 74, "score": 78354 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in the United States Content: The 2009 flu pandemic in the United States was a pandemic experienced in the United States of a novel strain of the Influenza A/H1N1 virus , commonly referred to as `` swine flu '' , that began in the spring of 2009 . The virus had spread to the US from an outbreak in Mexico . As of mid-March 2010 , the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) estimated that about 59 million Americans contracted the H1N1 virus , 265,000 were hospitalized as a result , and 12,000 died .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_the_United_States", "rank": 75, "score": 78333 }, { "content": "Title: Dastak Content: Dastak ( The Knock ) is a Hindi film made in 1970 . It was written and directed by Rajinder Singh Bedi and was his directorial debut . The film is known for its performances by its leading cast , Sanjeev Kumar , and the newcomer , Rehana Sultan , and for its memorable songs by Madan Mohan . He won his first National Film Award for it and the lyrics of Majrooh Sultanpuri . Hrishikesh Mukherjee , the famous film director-turned-editor of this black-and-white film and won a Filmfare Award , his second after Madhumati in 1958 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Dastak", "rank": 76, "score": 78028 }, { "content": "Title: Knockanore Content: Knockanore is a rural village in County Waterford , situated approximately 9 miles ( 15 km ) from neighbouring towns Youghal ( County Cork ) and Tallow ( also in County Waterford ) . The name itself is derived from the Irish Cnoc an Fhómhair , or Cnoc an Óir , which translates as `` The Hill of Autumn/Gold '' , an ode to the many yellow furze bushes which once were plentiful in the area . Today , the village and the surrounding parish serves agricultural purposes primarily and a significant percentage of local families have some connection with agriculture in Knockanore . It is a very ancient parish , being formerly known as the parishes of Kilcockan , Kilwatermoy and Templemichael . Knockanore is also situated on a designated scenic routeway .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knockanore", "rank": 77, "score": 78006 }, { "content": "Title: Challenge Cup (disambiguation) Content: Challenge Cup is a knock-out competition for European rugby league clubs . Clubs from other continents are invited to compete . Challenge Cup may also refer to :", "qid": "365", "docid": "Challenge_Cup_(disambiguation)", "rank": 78, "score": 77937 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Australia Content: As at 18 December 2009 , Australia had 37,537 confirmed cases of H1N1 Influenza 2009 ( Human Swine Influenza ) and 191 deaths reported by Department of Health but only 77 deaths reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics . The actual numbers are much larger , as only serious cases are being tested and treated . Suspected cases have not been reported by the Department of Health and Ageing since 18 May 2009 because they are changing too quickly to report . As many as 1600 Australians may have died as a result of this virus . On 23 May The federal government classified the outbreak as CONTAIN phase except in Victoria where it was escalated to the SUSTAIN phase on 3 June . This gives government authorities permission to close schools to slow the spread of the disease . On 17 June 2009 the Department of Health and Ageing introduced a new phase called PROTECT . This modified the response to focus on people with high risk of complications from the disease . Testing at airports is to be discontinued . The national stockpile of antiviral drugs will no longer be made available to people with the flu unless there are more than mild symptoms or a high risk of dying . Australia has a stockpile of 8.7 million doses of Tamiflu and Relenza . Under the earlier DELAY and CONTAIN phases Airlines were required to report passengers with influenza symptoms , and thermal imaging and nurses were deployed at international airports . Passengers arriving were required to fill in a health declaration card . A large scale immunization effort against swine flu started on Monday 28 September 2009 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Australia", "rank": 79, "score": 77865 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Brazil Content: The 2009 swine flu outbreak in Brazil began on April 25 , 2009 with two people , spreading to 34 over the first two weeks . Today Brazil is the country with the highest amount of deaths in the world . Two people who had arrived in Brazil from Mexico with symptoms of an undefined illness were hospitalized in São Paulo on April 25 . It was initially suspected that they were suffering from the swine flu virus . The Brazilian Ministry of Health later issued a press release stating that while the exact cause of the two patients illnesses remained unknown , they `` did not meet the definition of suspected cases of swine influenza because they did not have signs and symptoms consistent with the disease : fever over 39 ° C , accompanied by coughing and/or a headache , muscle and joint pain . '' The press release also stated that airports would monitor travelers arriving from affected areas , under the direction of the National Sanitary Surveillance Agency ( ANVISA ) . Air crews are also being trained on signs and symptoms of swine influenza so that passengers displaying symptoms may receive guidance from ANVISA upon arrival .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Brazil", "rank": 80, "score": 77645 }, { "content": "Title: Knock on Wood Content: Knock on Wood may refer to : Knocking on wood , an act of superstition", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knock_on_Wood", "rank": 81, "score": 77564 }, { "content": "Title: Cordon and search Content: Cordon and search is a military tactic to cordon off an area and search the premises for weapons or insurgents . It is one of the basic counter insurgency operations . Two types of cordon and search operations are cordon and knock and cordon and kick ( or cordon and enter ) . In a cordon and knock operation , counterinsurgency forces assemble around an area to provide security ( `` cordon '' ) and then obtain permission to search the area from residents ( `` knock '' ) . The occupants may be asked to leave buildings prior to the search , to avoid physical contact and conflict between the search party and the building occupants . This is called a tactical callout . A cordon and ask operation involves the assistance of local authorities . If permission is denied but the residents are thought to be friendly or neutral , counterinsurgency force leaders may decide not to search an area . A cordon and kick or cordon and enter operation is more forceful than cordon and knock . It is performed without obtaining permission of the occupants . It may be done because permission is not given for a cordon and knock operation ; however , if resistance is expected , a cordon and kick operation may be planned from the start . The type of force used to enter the building may range from simply opening a door to using explosives . Cordon and knock is a relatively new technique in military operations . It has taken over the old term of a simple house search . It is part of new doctrine called Stability and Support Operations or SASO . It is a technique used where there is no hard intelligence of weapons in the house and therefore is less intense than a normal house search . It is used in urban neighborhoods . The purpose of the mission is to search a house with as little inconvenience to the resident family as possible .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Cordon_and_search", "rank": 82, "score": 77320 }, { "content": "Title: Zepherinus Joseph Content: Zepherinus Joseph ( born 13 August 1975 , in Mon Repos , Saint Lucia ) is a Saint Lucian athlete , specialising in middle and long distance events . Zepherinus holds the Saint Lucia National Records for every outdoor track and road event from the 1500m to the marathon . Better known as Knockay or Straws , Zepherinus attended Micoud Secondary School before taking up athletics scholarships at Central Arizona College and University of North Florida , where he studied Building Construction . He was a member of Creation Sports Club in Saint Lucia . Before leaving for Central Arizona College in 1999 , Zepherinus had already established himself as the best distance runner St Lucia had ever produced . By the time he got to Arizona on a scholarship sourced by Saint Lucia Pole Vault record-holder Dominic Johnson , `` Knockay '' was St Lucia 's national champion at 1500m and 5000m , and he held the national records at both distances . In 1998 , he had completed the 1500m in 3:57.33 at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Maracaibo , Venezuela .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Zepherinus_Joseph", "rank": 83, "score": 77276 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 883 Content: UN Security Council Resolution 883 , adopted on 11 November 1993 , after reaffirming resolutions 731 ( 1992 ) and 748 ( 1992 ) , the Council noted that , twenty months later , Libya had not complied with previous Security Council resolutions and as a consequence imposed further international sanctions on the country . The Council expressed its determination to eliminate international terrorism and that those responsible for acts of terrorism would be brought to justice . In the context that the suppression of these acts is essential for international peace and security , it was noted that Libya had refused to comply with previous Security Council resolutions and its renunciation of terrorism , which the Council determined to be a threat to international peace and security . At the same time , letters from representatives of Libya in which it stated its intention to encourage those accused of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie , Scotland and the bombing of UTA Flight 772 over Chad and Niger to co-operate with the concerned authorities was noted . Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter , the Council demanded that Libya comply with resolutions 731 and 748 . To ensure the Libyan government 's compliance with the aforementioned resolutions , the following measures would take effect as of 00:01 EST on 1 December 1993 . Firstly , all countries were required to freeze Libyan funds or other financial resources in their territory , though this would not apply to funds or other financial resources derived from the sale or supply of petroleum and petroleum products , natural gas and gas products and agricultural products . Furthermore , sales , marketing or licensing of the following were prohibited : ( a ) large pumps and motors used for transporting oil and gas ; ( b ) equipment for oil terminals ; ( c ) large pumps that could be used for oil transport ; ( d ) refining equipment ; ( e ) spare parts for any of the above . The Council also decided that , to make the provisions of Resolution 748 effective , all countries should : ( a ) close offices of Libyan Arab Airlines ; ( b ) prohibit commercial transactions , including tickets , with Libyan Arab Airlines ; ( c ) prohibit aircraft or accessories available for service , and maintenance or servicing of aircraft in Libya ; ( d ) prohibit the supply of construction materials , improvement or maintenance of Libyan airports ; ( e ) prohibit advice , assistance or training to Libyan pilots , flight engineers or maintenance personnel ; ( f ) prohibit any renewal of insurance for Libyan aircraft ( g ) continue to significantly reduce staff at Libyan diplomatic missions and consular posts . The Committee established by the Security Council in Resolution 748 was instructed to draw up guidelines for the implementation of the above measures and to deal with requests for assistance under Article 50 of the United Nations Charter for countries that suffered indirectly as a result of the sanctions . All states and international organisations were urged to co-operate with the provisions of the current resolution and to report to the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on measures they had taken to implement the resolution . At the same time , Libya was urged to co-operate , while the Council affirmed that the present resolution did not affect its Libya 's duty to adhere to all of its obligations concerning servicing and repayment of foreign debt . Measures taken by the Council would be reviewed after noting co-operation by Libya with regard to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 . Resolution 883 was adopted by 11 votes to none , with four abstentions from China , Djibouti , Morocco and Pakistan . Russia had previously threatened to veto the resolution , but after negotiations supported the provisions after stating its intention to recover the debt owed to it by Libya over purchases of weapons . Libya responded by closing its borders with Tunisia and Egypt for three days , denouncing the resolution as a product of hostile policy from the United Nations and affirming the need to seek a resolution to the crisis as soon as possible .", "qid": "365", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_883", "rank": 84, "score": 77172 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in Costa Rica Content: In March and April 2009 , an outbreak of a new strain of flu ( also known as influenza ) , popularly known as swine flu was discovered to have infected several people in Mexico and the states of California and Texas in the United States . On April 28 Costa Rica became the first Central American country to report the outbreak of the virus , with a confirmed infection . As of November 4 the Costa Rican Ministry of Health had 1,596 confirmed cases , 1,275 pending cases , 8,000 already discarded , and 38 deaths . On July 31 local authorities announced that the country was selected among the sample countries that will be part of the test of the vaccine developed by Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis . The local sample will include 784 Costa Ricans ages 3 to 64 . Besides Costa Rica , this vaccine prototype will be tested also in Mexico and the United States . On August 11 was confirmed that Costa Rica 's President , Óscar Arias Sánchez , was infected with the A ( H1N1 ) virus , becoming the first head of state sick with the A ( H1N1 ) virus President Arias returned to his normal activities after one week of isolation at his home .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_Costa_Rica", "rank": 85, "score": 77127 }, { "content": "Title: Crime and violence in Latin America Content: Crime and violence are affecting the lives of millions of people in Latin America . Some consider social inequality to be a major contributing factor to levels of violence in Latin America , where the state fails to prevent crime and organized crime takes over State control in areas where the State is unable to assist the society such as in impoverished communities . In the years following the transitions from authoritarianism to democracy , crime and violence have become major problems in Latin America . Several studies indicated the existence of an epidemic in the region ; the Pan American Health Organization called violence in Latin America `` the social pandemic of the 20th century . '' Apart from the direct human cost , the rise in crime and violence has imposed significant social costs and has made much more difficult the processes of economic and social development , democratic consolidation and regional integration in the Americas .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Crime_and_violence_in_Latin_America", "rank": 86, "score": 77126 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic timeline Content: This article covers the chronology of the 2009 novel influenza A ( H1N1 ) pandemic . Flag icons denote the first announcements of confirmed cases by the respective nation-states , their first deaths ( and other major events such as their first intergenerational cases , cases of zoonosis , and the start of national vaccination campaigns ) , and relevant sessions and announcements of the World Health Organization ( WHO ) , the European Union ( and its agency the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control ) , and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control ( CDC ) . Unless otherwise noted , references to terms like S-OIV , H1N1 and such , all refer to this new A ( H1N1 ) strain and not to sundry other strains of H1N1 which are endemic in humans , birds and pigs .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_timeline", "rank": 87, "score": 76888 }, { "content": "Title: National Security Authority (Norway) Content: The National Security Authority ( NSM ) ( Nasjonal sikkerhetsmyndighet ) is a Norwegian security agency ( Direktorat ) established on 1 January 2003 as the successor to Forsvarets sikkerhetsstab ( FO/S ) . It is responsible for preventative national security , ICT security matters , including the national computer emergency response team ( NorCERT ) , identifying national objects of special interest and reducing their vulnerability to internal and external threats . The agency performs threat analysis at the national level , and is also known to work with experts on computer security and with data encryption . The cooperation with the Police Security Agency ( PST ) and the Norwegian Intelligence Service ( NIS ) has been identified as a very important part of the task of maintaining an overview of potential threats to objects , and instituting proactive activities . NSM also cooperates with the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning ( DSB ) , to prevent loss of life and maintain health , environment , important society functions , and material assets in connection with accidents , catastrophes , terrorism and other unwanted events in peace , crisis and war . NSM is administratively governed and funded by the Ministry of Defence , but also reports to the Ministry of Justice and the Police in civilian matters .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Security_Authority_(Norway)", "rank": 88, "score": 76710 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic timeline summary Content: This article covers the chronology of the 2009 novel influenza A ( H1N1 ) pandemic . Flag icons denote the first announcements of confirmed cases by the respective nation-states , their first deaths ( and other major events such as their first intergenerational cases , cases of zoonosis , and the start of national vaccination campaigns ) , and relevant sessions and announcements of the World Health Organization ( WHO ) , the European Union ( and its agency the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control ) , and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control ( CDC ) . Unless otherwise noted , references to terms like S-OIV , H1N1 and such , all refer to this new A ( H1N1 ) strain and not to sundry other strains of H1N1 which are endemic in humans , birds and pigs .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_timeline_summary", "rank": 89, "score": 76545 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 flu pandemic in India Content: 2009 flu pandemic in India is the outbreak of swine flu in various parts of India . Soon after the outbreak of H1N1 virus in the United States and Mexico in March , the Government of India started screening people coming from the affected countries at airports for swine flu symptoms . The first case of the flu in India was found on the Hyderabad airport on 13 May , when a man traveling from US to India was found H1N1 positive . Subsequently , more confirmed cases were reported and as the rate of transmission of the flu increased in the beginning of August , with the first death due to swine flu in India in Pune , panic began to spread . As of 24 May 2010 , 10193 cases of swine flu have been confirmed with 1035 deaths . The only known drug to work against H1N1 ( Tamiflu ) was not sold in general medical stores , to prevent the virus from developing antibiotic resistance due to excessive use . The government feared that people would pop in pills for no reason , thereby making the virus resistant to its only known cure . The problem facing the state machinery was the fact that flu infected cases were coming from across the country . Generic version of Tamiflu ( Oseltamivir ) was made available in Indian market , after several months of swine flu attack . Natco Pharma and Strides Arcolabs have launched their generic version of Oseltamivir , Natflu and Starflu . These drugs were made available to the customers directly under prescription . On August 8 , 2010 the Indian government reported there had been 1833 deaths from swine flu in the country . On October 18 , 2010 a biotechnology firm announced the launch of India 's first indigenously developed cell culture H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine under the brand name HNVAC .", "qid": "365", "docid": "2009_flu_pandemic_in_India", "rank": 90, "score": 76465 }, { "content": "Title: National Terrorism Advisory System Content: The National Terrorism Advisory System ( NTAS ) is a terrorism threat advisory scale used by the United States Department of Homeland Security since April 26 2011 . The NTAS is the replacement for the often-criticized , color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System introduced by the George W. Bush administration in 2002 . Napolitano said the color-coded system often presented `` little practical information '' to the public , and that the NTAS will provide alerts `` specific to the threat '' with `` a specified end date . '' On December 16 , 2015 , Secretary Johnson activated the bulletin capability for the first time . The alert capability has not been activated as of June 25 , 2016 . The DHS added an intermediate threat level in 2015 after the department identified a `` new phase '' in the global terrorist threat against the homeland .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Terrorism_Advisory_System", "rank": 91, "score": 76442 }, { "content": "Title: Global spread of H5N1 in 2004 Content: The global spread of ( highly pathogenic ) H5N1 in birds is considered a significant pandemic threat . While prior H5N1 strains have been known , they were significantly different from the current H5N1 strain on a genetic level , making the global spread of this new strain unprecedented . The current H5N1 strain is a fast-mutating , highly pathogenic avian influenza virus ( HPAI ) found in multiple bird species . It is both epizootic ( an epidemic in non-humans ) and panzootic ( a disease affecting animals of many species especially over a wide area ) . Unless otherwise indicated , `` H5N1 '' in this article refers to the recent highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 . H5N1 caused flu outbreaks in 1959 and in 1991 but these strains were very different from the current highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 . Evolution from 1999 to 2002 created the Z genotype which became the dominant strain of highly pathogenic H5N1 in 2004 . In January 2004 a major new outbreak of H5N1 surfaced in Vietnam and Thailand 's poultry industry , and within weeks spread to ten countries and regions in Asia , including Indonesia , South Korea , Japan and China . In October 2004 researchers discovered H5N1 is far more dangerous than previously believed because waterfowl were directly spreading the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 to chickens , crows , pigeons , and other birds and that it was increasing its ability to infect mammals as well . From this point on , avian influenza experts increasingly refer to containment as a strategy that can delay but not prevent a future avian flu pandemic .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Global_spread_of_H5N1_in_2004", "rank": 92, "score": 76302 }, { "content": "Title: Knocknabola Content: Knocknabola ( Knocknaboley ) is a small townland located in the parish of Kilmeena which is nestled between Newport and Westport in County Mayo , Ireland . The Irish translation is hill of the lowing cow . Population is approximately 319 according to the 2006 census central statistics office This is made up of 164 males and 155 females . Category : County Mayo", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knocknabola", "rank": 93, "score": 76216 }, { "content": "Title: Y-12 National Security Complex Content: The Y-12 National Security Complex is a United States Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Oak Ridge , Tennessee , near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory . It was built as part of the Manhattan Project for the purpose of enriching uranium for the first atomic bombs . In the years after World War II , it has been operated as a manufacturing facility for nuclear weapons components and related defense purposes . Y-12 is managed and operated under contract by Consolidated Nuclear Security , LLC ( CNS ) , which is composed of member companies Bechtel National , Inc. , Lockheed Martin Services , Inc. , ATK Launch Systems , Inc. , and SOC LLC , with Booz Allen Hamilton , Inc. as a teaming subcontractor . CNS also operates Pantex Plant in Texas .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Y-12_National_Security_Complex", "rank": 94, "score": 76214 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1177 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 1177 , adopted unanimously on 26 June 1998 , after recognising the deteriorating situation between Eritrea and Ethiopia , the Council condemned the outbreak of war and demanded an immediate ceasefire in their border dispute . There was serious concern about the consequences of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea , with the Council affirming that disputes should be settled in a peaceful manner and the use of armed force was unacceptable . It noted pledges by the Government of Ethiopia and Government of Eritrea to end air strikes and of their goal to demarcate and delimit their border in a mutually agreeable way . The Security Council condemned the use of force and demanded that both sides ceased hostilities with immediate effect . It called for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in co-operation with the Organisation of African Unity ( OAU ) . The parties were also asked to refrain from actions that would escalate the situation and to adopt measures that would boost confidence between the two sides including the guaranteeing of the rights and safety of each other 's nationals . The Secretary-General Kofi Annan was directed to establish a Trust Fund and to provide technical assistance in the process of both parties demarcating their common border . Both parties welcomed the resolution ; Eritrea said that for the first time the concerns of both countries were being addressed , while Ethiopia was aware that its adoption appeared to reinforce a demand by Rwanda , the United States and OAU that Eritrea withdraw to territory it occupied before the outbreak of the conflict .", "qid": "365", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1177", "rank": 95, "score": 76184 }, { "content": "Title: Knockin Content: Knockin is a village and civil parish lying on the B4396 some 8 km south-east of the town of Oswestry in north-west Shropshire , England .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Knockin", "rank": 96, "score": 76020 }, { "content": "Title: The Knock Content: The Knock was a British television crime drama , created by Anita Bronson and broadcast on ITV , which portrayed the activities of customs officers from the London City & South Collection Investigation Unit of HM Customs and Excise . The series derived its name from the distinctive `` Knock knock knock '' command used over the radio to synchronise a raid . Five series were broadcast from 10 April 1994 , until 11 November 2000 . The series had a rotating cast , with only a small number of cast members appearing throughout the series ' run . The only two cast members to appear in every series were Caroline Lee-Johnson and Steve Toussaint . The series also adopted a number of different formats : while the early series interspersed various storylines and had running plots across the series ; later series adopted a multi-part format resulting in two or three cases per series ; while the final series adopted a stand-alone week by-week format . The series was axed in 2001 following poor viewing figures for the final series . This was blamed on the loss of several main cast members , a change in the format and the overall look of the series which changed dramatically following an overhaul by ITV executives in 1999 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "The_Knock", "rank": 97, "score": 75918 }, { "content": "Title: National Security Strategy (United States) Content: The National Security Strategy ( NSS ) is a document prepared periodically by the executive branch of the government of the United States for Congress which outlines the major national security concerns of the United States and how the administration plans to deal with them . The legal foundation for the document is spelled out in the Goldwater-Nichols Act . The document is purposely general in content ( contrast with the National Military Strategy , NMS ) and its implementation relies on elaborating guidance provided in supporting documents ( including the NMS ) .", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_Security_Strategy_(United_States)", "rank": 98, "score": 75916 }, { "content": "Title: National security group Content: A National Security Group is a non-governmental organization ( NGO ) , think-tank , research center , or institute that formulates national security theories and finds solutions to defense challenges through research , education , and development . These organizations differ from other NGOs and think tanks by not only producing original concepts and solutions but also by finding the necessary means and mechanisms to implement them . Covering a broad range of areas , from defense strategy to national security and defense innovation , a national security group integrates theory , policy , science , law , and technology . Usually operating as non-profit organizations , national security groups also partner with government agencies , other NGOs , international organizations ( e.g. United Nations ) , industry , academia , foundations , and private donors in order to fund research and development , thus benefiting both partners and national security as a whole . Although classical think tanks tend to merely generate ideas , national security groups research , design , and produce innovative defense concepts necessary for a nation 's security . Category : National security institutions", "qid": "365", "docid": "National_security_group", "rank": 99, "score": 75902 }, { "content": "Title: Lady of Knock Content: Lady of Knock ( Irish : Banthiarna Cnoic ) is a Marian hymn to Our Lady of Knock , written by Irish singer Dana Rosemary Scallon . The hymn is popular with some Irish Catholics , especially at funeral services . The song tells of the story of Knock in County Mayo , Ireland , where there was an apparation of the Virgin Mary , Saint Joseph and St. John the Evangelist at the south gable of Knock Parish Church in 1879 .", "qid": "365", "docid": "Lady_of_Knock", "rank": 100, "score": 75876 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Conflict escalation Content: Conflict escalation is the process by which conflicts grow in severity over time . This may refer to conflicts between individuals or groups in interpersonal relationships , or it may refer to the escalation of hostilities in a political or military context . In systems theory , the process of conflict escalation is modeled by positive feedback . While the word escalation was used as early as in 1938 , it was popularized during the Cold War by two important books : On Escalation ( Herman Kahn , 1965 ) and Escalation and the Nuclear Option ( Bernard Brodie , 1966 ) . In these contexts , it especially referred to war between two states with weapons of mass destruction -- the Cold War . Conflict escalation has a tactical role in military conflict , and is often formalized with explicit rules of engagement . Highly successful military tactics exploit a particular form of conflict escalation ; for example , controlling an opponent 's reaction time allows the tactician to pursue or trap his opponent . Napoleon and Heinz Guderian both advocated this approach . Sun Tzu elaborated it in a more abstract form , and additionally maintained that military strategy was about minimizing escalation , and diplomacy about eliminating it .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Conflict_escalation", "rank": 1, "score": 153432 }, { "content": "Title: Stability–instability paradox Content: The stability -- instability paradox is an international relations theory regarding the effect of nuclear weapons and mutually assured destruction . It states that when two countries each have nuclear weapons , the probability of a direct war between them greatly decreases , but the probability of minor or indirect conflicts between them increases . This occurs because rational actors want to avoid nuclear wars , and thus they neither start major conflicts nor allow minor conflicts to escalate into major conflicts -- thus making it safe to engage in minor conflicts . For instance , during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union never engaged each other in warfare , but fought proxy wars in Korea , Vietnam , Angola , the Middle East , Nicaragua and Afghanistan and spent substantial amounts of money and manpower on gaining relative influence over the third world . A study published in the journal of conflict resolution in 2009 quantitatively evaluated the nuclear peace hypothesis , and found support for the existence of the stability -- instability paradox . The study determined that while nuclear weapons promote strategic stability , and prevent large scale wars , they simultaneously allow for more lower intensity conflicts . When a nuclear monopoly exists between two states , and their opponent does not , there is a greater chance of war . In contrast , when there is mutual nuclear weapon ownership with both states possessing nuclear weapons , the odds of war drop precipitously . This effect can be seen in the India -- Pakistan relationship .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Stability–instability_paradox", "rank": 2, "score": 141828 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear peace Content: Nuclear peace is a theory of international relations that argues that under some circumstances nuclear weapons can induce stability and decrease the chances of crisis escalation . In particular , nuclear weapons are said to have induced stability during the Cold War , when both the US and the USSR possessed mutual second strike retaliation capability , eliminating the possibility of nuclear victory for either side . Proponents of nuclear peace argue that controlled nuclear proliferation may be beneficial for inducing stability . Critics of nuclear peace argue that nuclear proliferation not only increases the chance of interstate nuclear conflict , but increases the chances of nuclear material falling into the hands of violent non-state groups who are free from the threat of nuclear retaliation . The major debate on this issue has been between Kenneth Waltz , the founder of neorealist theory in international relations , and Scott Sagan , a leading proponent of organizational theories in international politics . Waltz generally argues that `` more may be better , '' contending that new nuclear states will use their acquired nuclear capabilities to deter threats and preserve peace . Sagan argues that `` more will be worse '' , since new nuclear states often lack adequate organizational controls over their new weapons , which makes for a high risk of either deliberate or accidental nuclear war , or theft of nuclear material by terrorists to perpetrate nuclear terrorism .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_peace", "rank": 3, "score": 134983 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear warfare Content: Nuclear warfare ( sometimes atomic warfare or thermonuclear warfare ) is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is used to inflict damage on the enemy . Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction ; in contrast to conventional warfare , nuclear warfare can produce destruction in a much shorter time-frame and can have a long-lasting radiological warfare dimension . A major nuclear exchange would have long-term effects , primarily from the fallout released , and could also lead to a `` nuclear winter '' that could last for decades , centuries , or even millennia after the initial attack . Some activists had claimed in the 1980s that with this potential nuclear winter side-effect of a nuclear war , almost every human on Earth could starve to death . However analysts , who dismiss the nuclear winter hypothesis , calculate that with nuclear weapon stockpiles at Cold War highs , in a surprise countervalue global nuclear war , billions of casualties would have resulted in the nuclear holocaust with billions of more rural people , nevertheless surviving . So far , two nuclear weapons have been used in the course of warfare , both by the United States near the end of World War II . On August 6 , 1945 , a uranium gun-type device ( code name `` Little Boy '' ) was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima . Three days later , on August 9 , a plutonium implosion-type device ( code name `` Fat Man '' ) was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki . These two bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 120,000 people . After World War II , nuclear weapons were also developed by the Soviet Union ( 1949 ) , the United Kingdom ( 1952 ) , France ( 1960 ) , and the People 's Republic of China ( 1964 ) , which contributed to the state of conflict and extreme tension that became known as the Cold War . In 1974 , India , and in 1998 , Pakistan , two countries that were openly hostile toward each other , developed nuclear weapons . Israel ( 1960s ) and North Korea ( 2006 ) are also thought to have developed stocks of nuclear weapons , though it is not known how many . The Israeli government has never admitted to having nuclear weapons , although it is known to have constructed the reactor and reprocessing plant necessary for building nuclear weapons . South Africa also manufactured several complete nuclear weapons in the 1980s , but subsequently became the first country to voluntarily destroy their domestically made weapons stocks and abandon further production ( 1990s ) . Nuclear weapons have been detonated on over 2,000 occasions for testing purposes and demonstrations . After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resultant end of the Cold War , the threat of a major nuclear war between the two nuclear superpowers was generally thought to have declined . Since then , concern over nuclear weapons has shifted to the prevention of localized nuclear conflicts resulting from nuclear proliferation , and the threat of nuclear terrorism .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_warfare", "rank": 4, "score": 122039 }, { "content": "Title: Brinkmanship Content: Brinkmanship ( also brinksmanship ) is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict . It occurs in international politics , foreign policy , labour relations , and ( in contemporary settings ) military strategy involving the threat of nuclear weapons , and high-stakes litigation . This maneuver of pushing a situation with the opponent to the brink succeeds by forcing the opponent to back down and make concessions . This might be achieved through diplomatic maneuvers by creating the impression that one is willing to use extreme methods rather than concede . During the Cold War , the threat of nuclear force was often used as such an escalating measure .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Brinkmanship", "rank": 5, "score": 118380 }, { "content": "Title: World War III Content: World War III ( WWIII or WW3 ) and Third World War are names given to a hypothetical third worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II . The term has been in use since the end of World War II . Some have applied it loosely to refer to limited or smaller conflicts such as the Cold War or the War on Terror , while others have operated under the assumption that such a conflict would surpass both prior World Wars in both the level of its widespread scope and of its overall destructive impact . Because of the development and use of nuclear weapons near the end of World War II and their subsequent acquisition and deployment by many countries , the potential risk of a nuclear devastation of Earth 's civilization and life is a common theme in speculations of a Third World War . Another major concern is that biological warfare could cause a very large number of casualties , either intentionally or inadvertently by an accidental release of a biological agent , the unexpected mutation of an agent , or its adaptation to other species after use . High-scale apocalyptic events like these , caused by advanced technology used for destruction , could potentially make Earth 's surface uninhabitable , what prompts many to believe that after the war , humans would live either in underground facilities or in colonies in space ( such as on the Moon or Mars or in a space vehicle ) . Prior to the advent of the Second World War , the First World War ( 1914 -- 1918 ) was believed to have been the `` war to end all wars , '' as it was popularly believed that never again could there possibly be a global conflict of such magnitude . During the inter-war period between the two World Wars , WWI was typically referred to simply as `` The Great War '' . The outbreak of World War II in 1939 disproved the hope that mankind might have already `` outgrown '' the need for such widespread global wars . With the advent of the Cold War in 1947 and with the spread of nuclear weapons technology to the Soviet Union , the possibility of a third global conflict became more plausible . During the Cold War years the possibility of a Third World War was anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities in many countries . Scenarios ranged from conventional warfare to limited or total nuclear warfare . At the height of the Cold War , a scenario referred to as MAD ( Mutually Assured Destruction ) , had been calculated which determined that an all-out nuclear confrontation would most certainly destroy all or nearly all human life on the planet . The spectre of the potential of the absolute destruction of the human race may have contributed to the ability of both American and Soviet leaders to avoid such a scenario . The Cold War ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed , leaving the United States as the sole global superpower . With the end of the Cold War , it was believed that the likelihood of a fully unrestricted nuclear confrontation between two superpowers was significantly diminished .", "qid": "366", "docid": "World_War_III", "rank": 6, "score": 115286 }, { "content": "Title: Conflict early warning Content: The field of conflict early warning seeks to forecast the outbreak of armed conflict , or , at minimum , to detect the early escalation of violence , with the objective of preventing the outbreak or the further escalation of violence in order to save lives . Initial conceptions of conflict early warning materialized in the 1970s and 1980s but the field really emerged on the international policy agenda after the end of the Cold War . Both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been developed for conflict forecasting and conflict monitoring . Qualitative methodologies typically draw on local area experts with extensive knowledge on one country or region . This is the approach taken by the International Crisis Group , for example . In contrast , quantitative methodologies quantify conflict trends and use mathematical techniques to forecast future trends or `` events of interest '' ( EOIs ) such as the onset of conflicts . For example , the Integrated Conflict Early Warning System ( ICEWS ) project at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) takes this approach . Some approaches to conflict early warning combine both qualitative and quantitative methodologies , such as Swisspeace 's formerly operational project called FAST .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Conflict_early_warning", "rank": 7, "score": 113835 }, { "content": "Title: Military threat Content: A military threat , sometimes expressed as danger of military action , a military challenge , or a military risk , is a concept in military intelligence that identifies an imminent capability for use of military force in resolving diplomatic or economic disputes . It is the ultimate escalation in international relations conflicts , and follows explicit diplomatic threat to use force as a means of coercion . In general a military threat is identified when military personnel are detected conducting operations that can be interpreted as a phase that precedes combat , i.e. occupying positions , preparing weapons for use , and concentrating forces in an offensive manner . Category : Military intelligence", "qid": "366", "docid": "Military_threat", "rank": 8, "score": 110145 }, { "content": "Title: Undeclared war Content: An undeclared war is a military conflict between two or more nations without either side issuing a formal declaration of war . The term is sometimes used to include any disagreement or conflict fought about without an official declaration . Since the United Nations `` police action '' in Korea followed the example set by the United Kingdom during the so-called Malaysian Emergency , a number of democratic governments have pursued disciplinary actions and limited warfare by characterizing them as something else , such as a `` military action '' or `` armed response '' . The United States has not formally declared war since World War II . Most notably , the United States never officially declared war during its more than decade-long involvement in Vietnam ; the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized the escalation of the Vietnam War without a declaration of war . Nations such as France , which had extensive colonies in which its military provided order , continued to intervene in their former colonies ' affairs as police actions . Category : Wars by type", "qid": "366", "docid": "Undeclared_war", "rank": 9, "score": 109286 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear Escalation Content: NATO doctrine about Nuclear Escalation in the cold war .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_Escalation", "rank": 10, "score": 108349 }, { "content": "Title: 2012–13 escalation of the Syrian Civil War Content: The 2012 -- 13 escalation of the Syrian Civil War refers to the third phase of the Syrian Civil War , which gradually escalated from a UN-mediated cease fire attempt during April -- May 2012 , but deteriorated into radical violence , escalating the conflict level to a full-fledged civil war . Following the Houla massacre of 25 May 2012 , in which 108 people were summarily executed , and the subsequent Free Syrian Army ( FSA ) ultimatum to the Syrian Ba'athist government , the ceasefire practically collapsed , as the FSA began nationwide offensives against government troops . On 1 June 2012 , President Assad vowed to crush the anti-government uprising . On 12 June 2012 , the UN for the first time officially proclaimed Syria to be in a state of civil war . The conflict began moving into the two largest cities , Damascus and Aleppo . Following October 2012 ceasefire failure , during winter of 2012 -- 13 and early spring of 2013 , the rebels continued advances on all fronts . In mid-December 2012 , American officials said that the Syrian military began firing Scud ballistic missiles at rebel positions in Syria . On 11 January 2013 , Islamist groups , including the al-Nusra Front , took full control of the Taftanaz air base in the Idlib Governorate , after weeks of fighting . In mid-January 2013 , as clashes re-erupted between rebels and Kurdish forces in Ras al-Ayn , YPG forces moved to expel government forces from oil-rich areas in the Hasakah Governorate . By 6 March 2013 , the rebels had captured the city of Raqqa , effectively making it the first provincial capital to be lost by the Assad government . The advances of rebels were finally arrested in April 2013 , as the Syrian Arab Army reorganized and initiated offensives . On 17 April 2013 , government forces breached a six-month rebel blockade on the Wadi Deif base near Idlib . Heavy fighting was reported around the town of Babuleen after government troops attempt to secure control of a main highway leading to Aleppo . The break in the siege also allowed government forces to resupply two major military bases in the region which had been relying on sporadic airdrops . In April 2013 , government and Hezbollah forces , who have increasingly become involved in the fighting , launched an offensive to capture areas near al-Qusayr . On 21 April , pro-Assad forces captured the towns of Burhaniya , Saqraja and al-Radwaniya near the Lebanon -- Syria border . From July 2013 , however the situation became a stalemate , with fighting continuing on all fronts between various factions with numerous casualties , but without major territorial changes . On 28 June 2013 , rebel forces captured a major military checkpoint in the southern city of Daraa . Shortly after , some Syrian rebel groups declared war on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( ISIL ) which turned increasingly dominant throughout the war zone with indiscriminate killing both loyalist troops and rebels . A major advance took place on 6 August 2013 , as rebels and ISIL captured Menagh Military Airbase after a 10-month siege . On 21 August a chemical attack took place in the Ghouta region of the Damascus countryside , leading to thousands of casualties and several hundred dead in the opposition-held stronghold . The attack was followed by a military offensive by government forces into the area , which had been hotbeds of the opposition . The attack , largely attributed to Assad forces caused the international community to seek disarmanent of the Syrian Arab Army from chemical weapons . In late 2013 , the period was marked by increased initiative of the Syrian Arab Army , which led offensives against opposition fighters on several fronts . The Syrian Arab Army along with its allies , Hezbollah and the al-Abas brigade , launched an offensive on Damascus and Aleppo in November . Fighting between Kurdish forces , rebels and al-Nusra front continued in other locations .", "qid": "366", "docid": "2012–13_escalation_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War", "rank": 11, "score": 108225 }, { "content": "Title: Horizontal Escalation Content: Horizontal Escalation is the process by which conflicts are heightened through geographical expansion with reasoning including diplomatic , economic , informational , and military components . This also includes international intervention as well as the geographical widening of combat operations . Horizontal escalation is a direct contrast to vertical escalation which employs types of weapons not previously used in the conflict . That type of escalation also allows attacking new types of targets in order to have an upper hand to the other combatant . The word escalation was used for a variety of different facets , but it was not until the year 1973 that the American Heritage Dictionary related the term to military events of increasing scope and intensity . During the Cold War , the risks associated with using escalation were much broader and more diverse , due to the intensity of the current world events . Counterinsurgency and counter-terrorist operations were very prone to using horizontal escalation as a means of defense . Those two types of warfare are more likely to lead to horizontal escalation , because the area of conflict widens in efforts to eliminate enemy holdings or to punish other parties that support their enemy . In an era of such high intensity , in order to gain an upper hand , horizontal escalation was implemented . Escalation in Depth There are many aspects associated with escalation , thus making it a difficult concept to comprehend . Rightly so , we can begin to encompass its many form through its different ideas , while also trying to understand the motives behind escalation and the mechanisms of manifestation . The most recognized form of escalation is deliberate escalation , which is carried out for instrumental reasons . Deliberate escalation entails a combatant deliberately increasing the intensity of the operation to gain an advantage . This advantage sets in motion the idea that the one side that chooses to give up escalating first , loses . This sends the signal to the enemy that they are willing to overcome anything to have the lead or that the enemy 's previous attempt to gain control shall be punished . Deliberate escalation demands actions to be taken one after another . There is intention from both sides to become the last man standing . In order to have the upper hand in deliberate escalation , one side needs to focus more of its time and energy on deterrence . Deterrence is the threat of punishment when serious actions are intended , which means if one combatant has the upper-hand in weapons , strategy , and technology , the other side would withhold any future attacks due to the fear of consequences . Deterrence is the way to an end . It sends the statement to the other combatant that one is not only trying to get an advantage , but that one is willing to implement many different blockades or tough punishments , in order to continue prevention of escalation . Deterrence is a way to get into the enemy 's mind . It creates the idea that if one were to step out of line , there would be serious consequences for the actions . It puts the cost-risk thinking into perspective , making the route with much less costs to the actions the most favorable outcome . Meaning that during a serious battle that requires much deliberation , the less risky choice will most likely be taken . Another form of escalation is inadvertent escalation , which entails an action being interpreted as deliberate , when the action was meant to be plain and simple . This inadvertent escalation stems from the thresholds and subjective thought of escalation . This form of escalation can be prevented by defining thresholds by both sides of the conflict . If there are clear rules of engagements , any misinterpretations could be prevented , because both sides would know the difference between an actual attack or something much simpler . The third form of escalation is accidental escalation . This happens when individuals make mistakes , such as bombing the wrong location , or when military leaders fail to set the rules of engagement . These accidental risks are hard to eliminate , but one can use effective force management to lessen the risks . Accidental escalation is very problematic , because minor mistakes could eventually lead to the enemy thinking the worst , then one can face much more terrific outcomes like actual warfare . Dimensions of Escalation The dimensions of escalation also range from vertical , horizontal , and political . Vertical escalation contains the notion of increasing the intensity of armed conflict , such as creating new weapons not previously used in combat . The United States had a pivotal role in vertical escalation during the development of nuclear weapons during World War II . This development changed all of mankind and had other nations trying to vertically escalate as well , such as the Soviet Union following closely behind with nuclear weapons of their own . Vertical escalation has the means to end war , but it usually just results in another nation trying to play catch up . The reason for nuclear weapons is due to the fear of a neighboring country or a high power nation using the weapons for personal gain . Aside from vertical escalation , we have horizontal escalation that seeks to expand the geographic scope of conflict , such as operating in a territory previously set as a neutral zone . Horizontal escalation could be used to lure an enemy to familiar territory . This familiar territory can mean a significant advantage in the battlefield , breaking the opponents stance in the matter . Horizontal escalation could also be used to create tension within the battles . Meaning , if one were to place nuclear missiles around an enemies known allies , it could create an unsettling environment for the opponent , having them to make or move or forfeit the ally . Political escalation derives its ideas from any leftover categories not suited for previously mentioned escalation methods . This can be the ideas one develops to respond to someone else 's , such as what technology to use to develop nuclear weapons and the steps needed to reach the goal . Horizontal escalation means to increase the intensity of conflict , whether to gain objectives or an advantage viewpoint to avoid defeat . If left undisturbed , horizontal escalation could potentially result in a mutually assured destruction , forgetting about the initial problem that lead up to the conflict . The thinking throughout the Cold War made it so the group with the most power , such as the number of nuclear weapons held by the United States compared to the other nations , would deter other combatants from escalating due to the potential catastrophic risks involved . Many challenges faced by the United States had escalation in high regard , because the United States needed to be ready to face any powerful adversary , the United States had to protect regions in which high interest was involved , and lastly the United States had to face many irregular war threats , asking for a new strategy of Horizontal Escalation . This new strategy was implemented by Ronald Reagan in response to the Warsaw Pact in Western Europe . This was done by attacking the Soviet Union or their allies in areas in which the United States had a clear military advantage . Unilateral Escalation When strategizing about escalation and the actions surrounding it , the form for which it takes is usually seen as an interactive process in which combatants escalate threats or force in response to the other 's actions . This is not always the case though , it can also be unilateral escalation , in which the one escalating the battles does so independently without any interference from the other side . To clarify this point , in 1945 the United States strategically fire-bombed Tokyo to ensure devastating urban decay to prevent Japan from gathering up and setting a foothold to retaliate . This eventually led up to the nuclear age , inadvertently leading with the destruction of Hiroshima , crushing the Japanese economy without any previous change in terms of conflict . A response is usually not warranted , because the combatant 's capabilities are much less fearful than what the higher power has in store . This means no matter how much tries to overcome the threat , there will always be something more to stop the action , making it a lose lose situation . Another aspect of unilateral escalation is that a response may be unattractive to the public eye . This can be largely due to the risks being higher than what the cost ensures , such as violating morals to overcome a problem . The act of retaliating , in Japan 's instance , would result in more substantial loss than any real gain . Japan would have to shell out tremendous amounts of resources in order to keep up with the demand of retaliating . If a response is not taken , this makes the escalation is unilateral . This way of thinking insures the most powerful nation the capability to have all the power . A unilateral form of escalation is only possible when there is a clear distinction of power between the two combatants . If the two powers are equal in strength , Like the Soviet Union and the United States , a unilateral form of escalation could almost be impossible . This is because both sides of the conflict have the power to continue retaliating . There is almost a mindset instilled in both powerhouses that it is best to continue fighting than to give up to the lesser power . This is where other forms of escalation come into play . When thinking about unilateral escalation , it is best implemented when the higher power knows they will always have an upper hand .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Horizontal_Escalation", "rank": 12, "score": 106686 }, { "content": "Title: Peace and conflict studies Content: Peace and conflict studies is a social science field that identifies and analyses violent and nonviolent behaviours as well as the structural mechanisms attending conflicts ( including social conflicts ) with a view towards understanding those processes which lead to a more desirable human condition . A variation on this , peace studies ( irenology ) , is an interdisciplinary effort aiming at the prevention , de-escalation , and solution of conflicts by peaceful means , thereby seeking `` victory '' for all parties involved in the conflict . This is in contrast to war studies ( polemology ) , which has as its aim on the efficient attainment of victory in conflicts , primarily by violent means to the satisfaction of one or more , but not all , parties involved . Disciplines involved may include philosophy , political science , geography , economics , psychology , sociology , international relations , history , anthropology , religious studies , and gender studies , as well as a variety of others . Relevant sub-disciplines of such fields , such as peace economics , may be regarded as belonging to peace and conflict studies also .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Peace_and_conflict_studies", "rank": 13, "score": 104542 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear utilization target selection Content: Nuclear Utilisation Target Selection ( NUTS ) is a hypothesis regarding the use of nuclear weapons often contrasted with mutually assured destruction ( MAD ) . NUTS theory at its most basic level asserts that it is possible for a limited nuclear exchange to occur and that nuclear weapons are simply one more rung on the ladder of escalation pioneered by Herman Kahn . This leads to a number of other conclusions regarding the potential uses of and responses to nuclear weapons .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_utilization_target_selection", "rank": 14, "score": 104207 }, { "content": "Title: Broken-Backed War Theory Content: Broken-Backed War Theory is a form of conflict that could transpire after a massive nuclear exchange . Assuming that following a nuclear exchange all the participants have not been utterly annihilated , there may arise a scenario unique to military strategy and theory , one in which all or some of the parties involved strive to continue fighting until the other side is decisively defeated .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Broken-Backed_War_Theory", "rank": 15, "score": 103512 }, { "content": "Title: Bernard Brodie (military strategist) Content: Bernard Brodie ( May 20 , 1910 -- November 24 , 1978 ) was an American military strategist well known for establishing the basics of nuclear strategy . Known as `` the American Clausewitz , '' and `` the original nuclear strategist , '' he was an initial architect of nuclear deterrence strategy and tried to ascertain the role and value of nuclear weapons after their creation . Brodie was initially a strong supporter of the concept of escalating responses ; he promoted the view that a war in Europe would be started with conventional forces and escalate to nuclear only if and when necessary . After a meeting with French counterparts in 1960 he came to espouse a very different policy , one based purely on nuclear deterrence with the stated position that the US would use nuclear arms at the first instance of hostilities of any sort . He felt that anything short of this seriously eroded the concept of deterrence and might lead to situations where one side might enter hostilities believing it could remain non-nuclear . This change in policy made Brodie increasingly at odds with his contemporaries .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Bernard_Brodie_(military_strategist)", "rank": 16, "score": 103089 }, { "content": "Title: Perpetual war Content: Perpetual War , `` Endless War , '' or `` The Forever War '' is a lasting state of war with no clear ending conditions . These wars are situations of ongoing tension that may escalate at any moment , similar to the Cold War . Today , the concepts have been used to critique the US military intervention in foreign nations and the Military Industrial Complex , specifically wars with ambiguous enemies such as the War on Terror or the War on Drugs .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Perpetual_war", "rank": 17, "score": 102388 }, { "content": "Title: Conflict resource Content: Conflict resources are natural resources extracted in a conflict zone and sold to perpetuate the fighting . There is both anecdotal and statistical evidence that belligerent accessibility to precious commodities can prolong conflicts ( a `` resource curse '' ) . The most prominent contemporary example has been the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC ) , where various armies , rebel groups , and outside actors have profited from mining while contributing to violence and exploitation during wars in the region . The four most commonly mined conflict minerals ( known as 3TGs , from their initials ) are cassiterite ( for tin ) , wolframite ( for tungsten ) , coltan ( for tantalum ) , and gold ore , which are extracted from the eastern Congo , and passed through a variety of intermediaries before being purchased . These minerals are essential in the manufacture of a variety of devices , including consumer electronics such as mobile phones , laptops , and MP3 players . The extraction and sale of blood diamonds , also known as `` conflict diamonds '' , is a better-known phenomenon which occurs under virtually identical conditions . Even petroleum can be a conflict resource ; ISIL uses oil revenue to finance its military and terrorist activities . International efforts to reduce trade in conflict resources , tried to reduce incentives to extract and fight over them . For example , in the United States , the 2010 Dodd -- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act required manufacturers to audit their supply chains and report use of conflict minerals . In 2015 a US federal appeals court struck down some aspects of the reporting requirements as a violation of corporations ' freedom of speech , but left others in place .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Conflict_resource", "rank": 18, "score": 102322 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear holocaust Content: A nuclear holocaust or nuclear apocalypse is a theoretical scenario involving widespread destruction and radioactive fallout causing the collapse of civilization , through the use of nuclear weapons . Under such a scenario , some of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear warfare in future world wars . Besides the obvious direct destruction of cities by nuclear blasts , the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms , a nuclear winter , widespread radiation sickness from fallout , and/or the temporary loss of much modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses . Some scientists , such as Alan Robock , have speculated that a thermonuclear war could result in the end of modern civilization on Earth , in part due to a long-lasting nuclear winter . In one model , temperatures following a full thermonuclear war fall for several years by 7 to 8 degrees Celsius on average . The accuracy of such models are often the subject of partisan dispute . Early Cold War-era studies suggested that billions of humans would nonetheless survive the immediate effects of nuclear blasts and radiation following a global thermonuclear war . Some scholars argue that nuclear war could indirectly contribute to human extinction via secondary effects , including environmental consequences , societal breakdown , and economic collapse . Additionally , it has been argued that even a relatively small-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan involving 100 Hiroshima yield weapons , could cause a nuclear winter and kill more than a billion people . Since 1947 , the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has visualized how close the world is from a nuclear war . The threat of a nuclear holocaust plays an important role in the popular perception of nuclear weapons . It features in the security concept of mutually assured destruction ( MAD ) and is a common scenario in survivalism . Nuclear holocaust is a common feature in literature and film , especially in speculative genres such as science fiction , dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_holocaust", "rank": 19, "score": 102053 }, { "content": "Title: World War III in popular culture Content: World War III is a common theme in popular culture . Since the 1940s , countless books , films , and television programmes have used the theme of nuclear weapons and a third global war . The presence of the Soviet Union as an international rival armed with nuclear weapons created a persistent fear in the United States and vice versa . There was a pervasive dread of a nuclear World War III , and popular culture reveals the fears of the public at the time . This theme in the arts was also a way of exploring a range of issues far beyond nuclear war . The historian Spencer R. Weart called nuclear weapons a `` symbol for the worst of modernity . '' During the Cold War , concepts such as mutual assured destruction ( MAD ) led lawmakers and government officials in both the United States and the Soviet Union to avoid entering a nuclear war that could have had catastrophic consequences on the entire world . Various scientists and authors , such as Carl Sagan , predicted massive , possibly life-ending destruction of the Earth as the result of such a conflict . Strategic analysts assert that nuclear weapons prevented the United States and the Soviet Union from fighting World War III with conventional weapons . Nevertheless , the possibility of such a war became the basis for speculative fiction , and its simulation in books , films and video games became a way to explore the issues of a war that has thus far not occurred in reality . The only places a global nuclear war has ever been fought are in expert scenarios , theoretical models , war games , and the art , film , and literature of the nuclear age . The concept of mutually assured destruction was also the focus of numerous movies and films . Prescient stories about nuclear war were written before the invention of the atomic bomb . The most notable of these is The World Set Free , written by H. G. Wells in 1914 . During World War II , several nuclear war stories were published in science fiction magazines such as Astounding . In Robert A. Heinlein 's story `` Solution Unsatisfactory '' the US develops radioactive dust as the ultimate weapon of war and uses it to destroy Berlin in 1945 and end the war with Germany . The Soviet Union then develops the same weapon independently , and war between it and the US follows . The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 made stories of a future global nuclear war look less like fiction and more like prophecy . When William Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 , he spoke about Cold War themes in art . He worried that younger writers were too preoccupied with the question of `` When will I be blown up ? ''", "qid": "366", "docid": "World_War_III_in_popular_culture", "rank": 20, "score": 101728 }, { "content": "Title: Arms race Content: An arms race , in its original usage , is a competition between two or more parties/groups to have the best armed forces . Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons , greater armies , superior military technology , etc. in a technological escalation . International conflict specialist Theresa Clair Smith , defines the term as `` the participation of two or more nation-states in apparently competitive or interactive increases in quantity or quality of war material and/or persons under arms . '' The term is also used to describe a competitive situation , in which the purpose is only to be more successful than one 's competitors .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Arms_race", "rank": 21, "score": 101047 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear War (video game) Content: Nuclear War is a single player turn-based strategy game developed by New World Computing and released for the Amiga in 1989 and later for MS-DOS . It presents a satirical , cartoonish nuclear battle between five world powers , in which the winner is whoever retains some population when everyone else on earth is dead .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_War_(video_game)", "rank": 22, "score": 100769 }, { "content": "Title: Escalation hypothesis Content: The Escalation Hypothesis is a theory put forward by Geerat J. Vermeij . It states that organisms are in constant conflict with one another and therefore devote lots of resources to thwarting the adaptations evolution brings to all competing organisms as time advances . This is in contrast to adaptations evolution may bring that are unrelated to competition with other organisms such as adapting to ecological niches based upon other factors such as geology and climate . Vermeij 's extensive work with the characteristics of marine gastropod fossils informed his development of thoughts on escalation . One prediction of the Escalation Hypothesis is that individual species having fewer adaptations that enable them to compete with other life forms are more likely to survive a mass extinction event such as one of The Big Five . This is because there is more flexibility to fit into new ecological niches that arduous adaptations such as heavy shells or energy consuming venom production would hinder .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Escalation_hypothesis", "rank": 23, "score": 100124 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear famine Content: Nuclear famine is a hypothesized famine considered a potential threat following global or regional nuclear exchange . It is thought that even subtle cooling effects resulting from a regional nuclear exchange could have a substantial impact on agriculture production , triggering a food crisis amongst the world 's survivors . While belief in the `` nuclear winter '' hypothesis is popular , despite issues such as the defection of a major previous supporter and active climate modeler of it , revealing that it was `` politically motivated from the beginning '' . The uncontroversial issue of potential food supply disruption from blast and fallout effects following a nuclear war has together resulted in the following books being penned , beginning approximately with , Fallout Protection , Nuclear War Survival Skills , Would the Insects Inherit the Earth and Other Subjects of Concern to Those Who Worry About Nuclear War and most recently the extreme `` nuclear winter/comet impact '' countermeasuring Feeding Everyone No Matter What . Together with these largely introductory texts , more official tomes with a focus on organization , agriculture and radioecology include Nutrition in the postattack environment by the RAND Corporation , the continuity of government plans for preventing a famine in , On Reorganizing After Nuclear Attack , and Survival of the relocated population of the U.S. after a nuclear attack by Nobel Prize winner , Eugene Wigner . While those focused solely on radioecology and agriculture include , Effects of fallout radiation on crop production , Behavior of Radioactive Fallout in Soils and Plants , and practical countermeasures that were intended to be taken on the individual level in Defense against radioactive fallout on the farm .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_famine", "rank": 24, "score": 99968 }, { "content": "Title: Able Archer 83 Content: Able Archer 83 is the codename for a command post exercise carried out in November 1983 by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ( NATO ) . As with Able Archer exercises from previous years , the purpose of the exercise was to simulate a period of conflict escalation , culminating in a simulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear attack . Coordinated from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe ( SHAPE ) headquarters in Casteau , Belgium , it involved NATO forces throughout Western Europe , beginning on November 7 , 1983 , and lasting for five days . The 1983 exercise introduced several new elements not seen in previous years , including a new , unique format of coded communication , radio silences , and the participation of heads of government . This increase in realism , combined with deteriorating relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and the anticipated arrival of Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe , led some members of the Soviet Politburo and military to believe that Able Archer 83 was a ruse of war , obscuring preparations for a genuine nuclear first strike . In response , the Soviets readied their nuclear forces and placed air units in East Germany and Poland on alert . The apparent threat of nuclear war ended with the conclusion of the exercise on November 11 . Some historians have since argued that Able Archer 83 was one of the times when the world has come closest to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 . Others incidents that also brought the world close to such a war include the Soviet nuclear false alarm incident that occurred a month earlier and the Norwegian rocket incident of 1995 .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Able_Archer_83", "rank": 25, "score": 99910 }, { "content": "Title: Exercise Able Archer Content: Exercise Able Archer was an annual exercise by the United States Military in Europe that practiced command and control procedures , with emphasis on transition from just convention operations to chemical , nuclear , and conventional operations during a time of war . When it was active , it was seen as the culmination of Exercise Autumn Forge . The exercise is best known for Able Archer 83 , which nearly started a nuclear war with the Soviet Union . The exercises themselves simulated a period of conflict escalation , culminating in a simulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear attack .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Exercise_Able_Archer", "rank": 26, "score": 99813 }, { "content": "Title: Evil empire Content: The phrase evil empire was first applied to the Soviet Union in 1983 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan , who took an aggressive , hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union 's strategic and global military capabilities , in calling for a rollback strategy that would , in his words , `` write the final pages of the history of the Soviet Union . '' The characterization demeaned the Soviet Union and angered Soviet leaders . According to G. Thomas Goodnight , the `` Evil Empire '' speech along with the `` Zero Option '' and `` Star Wars '' speeches represented the rhetorical side of the United States ' escalation of the Cold War . In the former , Reagan depicted nuclear warfare as an extension of the `` age old struggle between good and evil '' , while arguing that an increased nuclear inventory as well as progress in science and technology were necessary to prevent global conflict . Through these speeches , the Reagan administration used rhetoric to reshape public knowledge about and attitudes toward nuclear warfare .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Evil_empire", "rank": 27, "score": 99141 }, { "content": "Title: Wargame: European Escalation Content: Wargame : European Escalation is a real-time tactics video game developed by Eugen Systems and published by Focus Home Interactive , released on February 23 , 2012 . It is set in Europe during the Cold War , most specifically in the years 1975 -- 85 with alternate history scenarios portraying open war between NATO and the Warsaw pact .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Wargame:_European_Escalation", "rank": 28, "score": 99060 }, { "content": "Title: Dragon Fire (novel) Content: Dragon Fire is a 2000 novel by BBC political and foreign correspondent Humphrey Hawksley about a 2007 war between China , India and Pakistan , which draws in Australia , Bhutan , Myanmar , Nepal , New Zealand , Tibet , the United Kingdom , and the United States , and threatens to escalate to nuclear war . While a work of fiction , the novel attempts to raise awareness of real geopolitical issues in the region . This novel gives us nightmare scenarios where the world 's worst fears begin on 10:00 a.m. on 3 May 2007 . A SFF ( Special Frontier Force ) Major , Gendun Choedrak Assaults Drapchi prison with paratroopers to free Tibetan religious leaders who are being incarcerated there . Far out west , Pakistan launches an attack on the strategic outpost of Kargil , promptly raising the green crescent flag on Indian soil . China accuses India of attacking Chinese soil and declares war . It 's Pakistan and China vs India now , 3 nuclear powers . Nuclear arsenals are being mobilized . Later Pakistan is devastated while India and China are threatening nuclear war . Russia says whoever is involved in this matter will have to face her first . The West 's greatest nightmares are becoming true .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Dragon_Fire_(novel)", "rank": 29, "score": 98507 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear strike Content: Nuclear strike may refer to : Nuclear warfare , a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is used to inflict damage on the enemy Nuclear Strike , an installment in the Strike series of video games `` Nuclear Strike '' ( Spooks ) , a 2008 episode of the BBC television series Spooks", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_strike", "rank": 30, "score": 98175 }, { "content": "Title: Timeline of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present) Content: This is the timeline of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict . The Kurdish insurgency is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups , which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan , or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey . The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers ' Party or PKK , which was founded on November 27 , 1978 , and started a full-scale insurgency on August 15 , 1984 when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising . The first insurgency lasted until September 1 , 1999 , when the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire after the capture of its leader Abdullah Öcalan . The armed conflict was later resumed on June 1 , 2004 , when the PKK declared an end to its cease-fire .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Timeline_of_the_Kurdish–Turkish_conflict_(1978–present)", "rank": 31, "score": 97633 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1177 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 1177 , adopted unanimously on 26 June 1998 , after recognising the deteriorating situation between Eritrea and Ethiopia , the Council condemned the outbreak of war and demanded an immediate ceasefire in their border dispute . There was serious concern about the consequences of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea , with the Council affirming that disputes should be settled in a peaceful manner and the use of armed force was unacceptable . It noted pledges by the Government of Ethiopia and Government of Eritrea to end air strikes and of their goal to demarcate and delimit their border in a mutually agreeable way . The Security Council condemned the use of force and demanded that both sides ceased hostilities with immediate effect . It called for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in co-operation with the Organisation of African Unity ( OAU ) . The parties were also asked to refrain from actions that would escalate the situation and to adopt measures that would boost confidence between the two sides including the guaranteeing of the rights and safety of each other 's nationals . The Secretary-General Kofi Annan was directed to establish a Trust Fund and to provide technical assistance in the process of both parties demarcating their common border . Both parties welcomed the resolution ; Eritrea said that for the first time the concerns of both countries were being addressed , while Ethiopia was aware that its adoption appeared to reinforce a demand by Rwanda , the United States and OAU that Eritrea withdraw to territory it occupied before the outbreak of the conflict .", "qid": "366", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1177", "rank": 32, "score": 97072 }, { "content": "Title: No-fly zone Content: This article is about the prevention of flight in a region of airspace by the application or threat of military power . For information on prevention of flight ordinarily enforced by civil regulation or legal means , see Prohibited airspace . A no-fly zone ( or no-flight zone ) ( NFZ ) is a territory or an area over which aircraft are not permitted to fly . Such zones are usually set up in a military context , somewhat like a demilitarized zone in the sky , and usually prohibit military aircraft of a belligerent power from operating in the region . Aircraft that break the no-fly zone may be shot down , depending on the terms of the NFZ . No-fly zones are a modern phenomenon . They can be distinguished from traditional air power missions by their coercive appropriation of another nation 's airspace only , to achieve aims on the ground within the target nation . While the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) conducted prototypical air control operations over contentious colonial possessions between the two World Wars of the 20th century , no-fly zones did not assume their modern form until the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 . During the Cold War , the risk of local conflict escalating into nuclear showdown dampened the appeal of military intervention as a tool of U.S. statecraft . Perhaps more importantly , air power was a relatively blunt instrument until the operational maturation of stealth and precision-strike technologies . Before the Gulf War of 1991 , air power had not demonstrated the `` fidelity '' needed to perform nuanced attacks against transitory , difficult-to-reach targets -- it lacked the ability to produce decisive political effects short of total war . However , the demise of the Soviet Union and the rise in aerospace capabilities engendered by the technology revolution made no-fly zones viable in both political and military contexts .", "qid": "366", "docid": "No-fly_zone", "rank": 33, "score": 97020 }, { "content": "Title: Modern-war pacifism Content: Modern-war pacifism , sometimes known as `` just-war pacifism '' or `` nuclear pacifism '' is a moral position that holds that modern war can never be morally justified . It is distinct however from other forms of pacifism in that it recognizes that , in certain historical contexts , wars might have been capable of being justified , and thus it presupposes the validity of the Just War Theory . In the view of modern-war pacifism , the destructive potential of modern ( especially nuclear ) weapons makes it impossible for any modern war to meet the proportionality criterion of the Just War Theory .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Modern-war_pacifism", "rank": 34, "score": 96499 }, { "content": "Title: Opposition to military action against Iran Content: According to most U.S. news networks , a majority of Americans support United States or Israeli military action against Iran . Other , more recent , polls point out that Americans `` back a newly brokered nuclear deal with Iran by a 2-to-1 margin and are very wary of the United States resorting to military action against Tehran even if the historic diplomatic effort falls '' . Organised opposition to a possible future military attack against Iran by the United States ( US ) and/or Israel is known to have started during 2005 -- 2006 . Beginning in early 2005 , journalists , activists and academics such as Seymour Hersh , Scott Ritter , Joseph Cirincione and Jorge E. Hirsch began publishing claims that United States ' concerns over the allege threat posed by the possibility that Iran may have a nuclear weapons program might lead the US government to take military action against that country . These reports , and the concurrent escalation of tensions between Iran and some Western governments , prompted the formation of grassroots organisations , including Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran in the US and the United Kingdom , to advocate against potential military strikes on Iran . Additionally , several individuals , grassroots organisations and international governmental organisations , including the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency , Mohamed ElBaradei , a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq , Scott Ritter , Nobel Prize winners including Shirin Ebadi , Mairead Corrigan-Maguire and Betty Williams , Harold Pinter and Jody Williams , Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , Code Pink , the Non-Aligned Movement of 118 states , and the Arab League , have publicly stated their opposition to such an attack .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Opposition_to_military_action_against_Iran", "rank": 35, "score": 96139 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear War (disambiguation) Content: A Nuclear War is a war in which nuclear weapons are used . Nuclear War may also refer to : Nuclear War ( card game ) Nuclear War ( video game ) Nuclear War MUD , a text-based online role-playing game Nuclear War , an album by Sun Ra , and its title track Nuclear War , an EP by Yo La Tengo `` Nuclear War ( On the Dance Floor ) '' , a song by Electric Six from Fire", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_War_(disambiguation)", "rank": 36, "score": 95988 }, { "content": "Title: Pax Atomica Content: Pax Atomica is one of the terms used to describe the period of severe tensions without a major military conflict between the United States of America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War . The phrase refers to the argument that the stability between the two superpowers was caused by each side 's large nuclear arsenals which led to a state of Mutually Assured Destruction ( MAD ) . That is , if one of the superpowers would have launched a nuclear attack , the other would have responded in the same way . This threatened the complete destruction of both countries and probably the entire northern hemisphere . John Lewis Gaddis has described the period as the Long Peace . The phrase Pax Atomica is derived from the more popular terms Pax Britannica , which describes the period of stability under British hegemony during the century preceding the First World War , and Pax Americana , which describes the period of stability under US hegemony beginning around the middle of the 20th century and continuing to this day .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Pax_Atomica", "rank": 37, "score": 95716 }, { "content": "Title: Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen Content: The al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen '' ' refers to the armed conflict between the Yemeni government with United States assistance , and al-Qaeda-affiliated cells . The strife is often categorized as a sub-conflict in the greater Global War on Terror . Government crackdown against al-Qaeda cells began in 2001 , and reached an escalation point on January 14 , 2010 , when Yemen declared open war on al-Qaeda . In addition to battling al Qaeda across several provinces , Yemen is also contending with Shia insurgency in the north and militant separatists in the south . Fighting with al-Qaeda escalated during the course of the 2011 Yemeni revolution , with Jihadists seizing most of the Abyan Governorate and declaring it an Emirate at the close of March . A second wave of violence occurred throughout early 2012 , with militants claiming territory across the southwest amid heavy combat with government forces . In May 2013 , attackers blew up Yemen 's main oil pipeline , halting the flow of crude oil . On 18 March 2015 , the conflict escalated into a full-scale civil war .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Al-Qaeda_insurgency_in_Yemen", "rank": 38, "score": 95701 }, { "content": "Title: Friedrich Glasl's model of conflict escalation Content: Friedrich Glasl 's model of conflict escalation assists in the analysis of conflicts . Appropriate reactions can be derived from this analysis . The model has nine stages -- in contrast to the earlier model of Kurt R. Spillmann , which describes five distinct stages of escalation . These stages are grouped into three levels , which each contain three stages .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Friedrich_Glasl's_model_of_conflict_escalation", "rank": 39, "score": 95347 }, { "content": "Title: War in Ingushetia Content: The War in Ingushetia began in 2007 as an escalation of an insurgency in Ingushetia connected to the separatist conflict in Chechnya . The conflict has been described as a civil war by local human rights activists and opposition politicians ; others have referred to it as an uprising . By mid-2009 Ingushetia had surpassed Chechnya as the most violent of the North Caucasus republics . However , by 2015 the insurgency in the Republic had greatly weakened , and the casualty toll declined substantially in the intervening years .", "qid": "366", "docid": "War_in_Ingushetia", "rank": 40, "score": 95168 }, { "content": "Title: Realistic conflict theory Content: Realistic conflict theory ( initialized RCT ) , also known as realistic group conflict theory ( initialized RGCT ) , is a social psychological model of intergroup conflict . The theory explains how intergroup hostility can arise as a result of conflicting goals and competition over limited resources , and it also offers an explanation for the feelings of prejudice and discrimination toward the outgroup that accompany the intergroup hostility . Groups may be in competition for a real or perceived scarcity of resources such as money , political power , military protection , or social status . Feelings of resentment can arise in the situation that the groups see the competition over resources as having a zero-sums fate , in which only one group is the winner ( obtained the needed or wanted resources ) and the other loses ( unable to obtain the limited resource due to the `` winning '' group achieving the limited resource first ) . The length and severity of the conflict is based upon the perceived value and shortage of the given resource . According to RCT , positive relations can only be restored if superordinate goals are in place .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Realistic_conflict_theory", "rank": 41, "score": 95157 }, { "content": "Title: De-escalation Content: De-escalation refers to behavior that is intended to escape escalations of conflicts . It may also refer to approaches in conflict resolution . Escalations of commitment are often hard from spiraling out of proportions without specific measures being taken .", "qid": "366", "docid": "De-escalation", "rank": 42, "score": 94732 }, { "content": "Title: Food Race Content: American environmental author Daniel Quinn coined the term Food Race ( by analogy to the Cold War 's `` nuclear arms race '' ) to describe an understanding of the current overpopulation emergency as a perpetually escalating crisis between growing human population and growing food production , fueled by the latter . Quinn argues that as the worldwide human population increases , the typical international response is to more intensely produce and distribute food to feed these greater numbers of people . However , assuming that population increases according to increased food availability , Quinn argues that this response only ends up leading to an even larger population and thus greater starvation in the end . Therefore , Quinn 's clear solution to the Food Race -- to stop producing so much food -- is not generally a common-sense or intuitive response ; instead , it derives from seemingly counter-intuitive or `` outside-the-box '' thinking . Quinn bases the Food Race on the premise that the total human population , like that of all other animals , is influenced by food supply . Thus , larger populations are the result of more abundant food supplies , and intensification of food cultivation in response to population growth merely leads to still more population growth . Quinn compared this to the arms race in the Cold War , noting that any increase in food supply is met with a corresponding increase in population . Like Garrett Hardin , then , Quinn sees the only possible conclusions to the Food Race as either abandonment ( of such a `` race '' ) or catastrophe . The superficial similarities between this concept and a Malthusian catastrophe are obvious , but Quinn himself notes certain key differences . The primary problem in a Malthusian catastrophe is a population growing larger than its food supply can support ; in Quinn 's view , this is impossible , as population is a function of food supply , and not merely some independent variable . The problem for Quinn is not the chaos caused by a scarcity of food during a time of overpopulation , but , rather , the chaos of overpopulation itself . So , in some ways , Quinn 's `` Food Race '' is in fact the opposite of the Malthusian problem , which Quinn characterizes as `` How are we going to FEED all these people ? '' in contrast to the Quinnian problem : `` How are we going to stop PRODUCING all these people ? '' The idea that human population is tied to food supply is contentious , however . Many biologists disagree with Quinn 's assessment . While food supply certainly imposes an upper limit on population growth , they point out that culture , living standards , human intelligence and free will can impose lower , secondary limits to population growth . Critics also point out that the most significant population growth is occurring in the Third World , where regional food production is lowest . Meanwhile , the First World , where food is most plentiful , is undergoing a decline in birth rates . Quinn has suggested this results from international food distribution and has claimed that the farms of the First World fuel population growth in the Third . United Nations projections that world population will level off sometime in the near future also contradict Quinn 's statements . In November 1998 , Daniel Quinn made a video exploring these topics with Dr. Alan Thornhill of the Society for Conservation Biology , entitled , Food Production And Population Growth . Russell Hopfenberg has written at least two papers attempting to prove Quinn 's ideas , one paper with David Pimentel entitled `` Human Population Numbers as a Function of Food Supply '' and another , `` Human Carrying Capacity is Determined by Food Availability '' . Hopfenberg has also made available a narrated slide show entitled `` World Food and Human Population Growth '' . Jason Godesky wrote an article in 2005 , entitled `` The Opposite of Malthus '' , which attempts to ground Quinn 's work in a more solid , scientific framework .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Food_Race", "rank": 43, "score": 93891 }, { "content": "Title: Steps To War (international relations) Content: The Steps to War explanation is a theory of international relations based on the issue paradigm that empirically establishes the war-proneness of territorial issues and the use of power politics practices . The framework is established by Paul D. Senese and John A. Vasquez in the 2008 book The Steps to War : An Empirical Study , though many of key insights , such as the role of alliances , arms races , and territory in promoting escalation of disputes to war , have been elaborated in previous works . The Steps to War explanation makes two major contributions to the war literature . First , it shows that not all disputes are equally likely to escalate to war . In particular , it presents a theoretical and empirical case for the war-proneness of territorial disputes . And second , the theory demonstrates that the very power politics practices that political realists claim prevent war actually increase its probability of occurring .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Steps_To_War_(international_relations)", "rank": 44, "score": 93634 }, { "content": "Title: Proxy war Content: A proxy war is a conflict between two states or non-state actors where neither entity directly engages the other . While this can encompass a breadth of armed confrontation , its core definition hinges on two separate powers utilizing external strife to somehow attack the interests or territorial holdings of the other . This frequently involves both countries fighting their opponent 's allies , or assisting their allies in fighting their opponent . Proxy wars have been especially common since the close of World War II and the rise of the Cold War , and were a defining aspect of global conflict during the latter half of the 20th century . Much of this was motivated by fears that direct conflict between the United States and Soviet Union would result in nuclear holocaust , rendering proxy wars a safer way of exercising hostilities . There were also more immediate reasons for the emergence of proxy war on the global stage . During its later years , the USSR often found it less expensive to arm or otherwise prop up NATO-antagonistic parties in lieu of direct engagement . In addition , the proliferation of televised media and its impact on public perception made the U.S. public especially susceptible to war-weariness and skeptical of risking American life abroad . This led to the practice of arming insurgent forces , such as the funneling of supplies to the Mujahideen during the Soviet -- Afghan War . Proxy wars can also emerge from independent conflicts escalating due to the intervention of external powers . For example , the Spanish Civil War began as a civil war between the pro-fascist revolutionary Nationalists , and the supporters of the Spanish Republic , called Republicans . However , it evolved into a proxy war as Nazi Germany and its allies began supporting the Nationalists , while the USSR , Mexico and various international volunteers supported the Republicans .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Proxy_war", "rank": 45, "score": 93410 }, { "content": "Title: Kuma\\War Content: Kuma \\ War ( stylized as KUMA \\ WAR ) is a free tactical first and third-person shooter game created by developer Kuma Reality Games . Kuma \\ War is an episodic game that re-creates real-world conflicts in video game format using information culled from news accounts , military experts , Department of Defense records and original research . Episodes consist of a playable mission , extensive background text , and often include interviews with military experts , soldiers and other actual participants in the events described . Kuma \\ War is notable for its current free-to-play ad-supported business model , its ardent Iraqi fan base and continuous updates , delivering new episodes each month . Every episode from the collection of Kuma \\ War missions can be downloaded for free and played as a single-player first-person shooter . Popular past missions can also be played as a free online multiplayer experience .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Kuma\\War", "rank": 46, "score": 92733 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear War (card game) Content: Nuclear War is a card game designed by Douglas Malewicki , and originally published in 1965 . It is currently ( as of 2012 ) published by Flying Buffalo , and has inspired several expansions . It is a satirical simulation of an end-of-the-world scenario fought mostly with nuclear weapons .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_War_(card_game)", "rank": 47, "score": 92651 }, { "content": "Title: Balance of terror Content: The phrase `` balance of terror '' is usually , but not invariably , used in reference to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War . It describes the tenuous peace that existed between the two countries as a result of both governments being terrified at the prospect of a world-destroying nuclear war . The term is usually used for rhetorical purposes , and was probably coined by Lester Pearson in June 1955 at the 10th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter : `` the balance of terror has replaced the balance of power '' . Some political scientists use this phrase as a means of differentiating the world situation that followed World War II from that which preceded it . Previously , empires had prevented war between each other by maintaining a relative balance of their ability ( economic , military , and political ) to wage war against each other -- the phrase `` balance of power '' was often used to describe this kind of tentative peace . The atomic bomb created a new political reality , in which two superpowers had the ability to destroy all of human civilization . The obstacle to war between the communists and capitalists was no longer the fear that the other side was more powerful , but rather the realization that nuclear arsenals were now large enough and deadly enough that winning would still likely result in the destruction of one 's country ( and the rest of the world as well ) . In this counterintuitive way , the existence of the most powerful weapons ever created actually supported a kind of peace : while many wars were fought around the world during the Cold War , the superpowers never fought each other directly , nor have atomic bombs been dropped in war since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 . Lawrence Summers , after the financial meltdown of 2008 , adopted the term as appropriate for the situation of a ` financial balance of terror ' in global markets .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Balance_of_terror", "rank": 48, "score": 92607 }, { "content": "Title: Water conflict Content: Water conflict is a term describing a conflict between countries , states , or groups over an access to water resources . The United Nations recognizes that water disputes result from opposing interests of water users , public or private . A wide range of water conflicts appear throughout history , though rarely are traditional wars waged over water alone . Instead , water has historically been a source of tension and a factor in conflicts that start for other reasons . However , water conflicts arise for several reasons , including territorial disputes , a fight for resources , and strategic advantage . A comprehensive online database of water-related conflicts -- the Water Conflict Chronology -- has been developed by the Pacific Institute . This database lists violence over water going back nearly 5,000 years . These conflicts occur over both freshwater and saltwater , and both between and within nations . However , conflicts occur mostly over freshwater ; because freshwater resources are necessary , yet limited , they are the center of water disputes arising out of need for potable water and irrigation . As freshwater is a vital , yet unevenly distributed natural resource , its availability often impacts the living and economic conditions of a country or region . The lack of cost-effective water supply options in areas like the Middle East , among other elements of water crises can put severe pressures on all water users , whether corporate , government , or individual , leading to tension , and possibly aggression . Recent humanitarian catastrophes , such as the Rwandan Genocide or the war in Sudanese Darfur , have been linked back to water conflicts . A recent report `` Water Cooperation for a Secure World '' published by Strategic Foresight Group concludes that active water cooperation between countries reduces the risk of war . This conclusion is reached after examining trans-boundary water relations in over 200 shared river basins in 148 countries , though as noted below , a growing number of water conflicts are sub-national .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Water_conflict", "rank": 49, "score": 92245 }, { "content": "Title: Escalation Content: Escalation is the process of increasing or rising , derived from the concept of an escalator . Specific uses of the term include : Cost escalation , an increase in the price of goods Conflict escalation , an increase in the intensity of a conflict Escalation of commitment , an aspect of game theory Privilege escalation , a computer security process Technological escalation , a technological version of an arms race", "qid": "366", "docid": "Escalation", "rank": 50, "score": 92210 }, { "content": "Title: Resource holding potential Content: In biology , resource holding potential ( RHP ) is the ability of an animal to win an all-out fight if one were to take place . The term was coined by Geoff Parker to disambiguate physical fighting ability from the motivation to persevere in a fight ( Parker , 1974 ) . Originally the term used was ` Resource Holding Power ' , but ` Resource Holding Potential ' has come to be preferred . The latter emphasis on ` potential ' serves as a reminder that the individual with greater RHP does not always prevail . An individual with more RHP may lose a fight if , for example , it is less motivated ( has less to gain by winning ) than its opponent . Mathematical models of RHP and motivation ( resource value or V ) have traditionally been based on the hawk-dove game ( e.g. Hammerstein , 1981 ) in which subjective resource value is represented by the variable ` V ' . In addition to RHP and V , George Barlow ( Barlow et al. , 1986 ) proposed that a third variable , which he termed ` daring ' , played a role in determining fight outcome . Daring ( a.k.a. aggressiveness ) represents an individual 's tendency to initiate or escalate a contest independent of the effects of RHP and V.", "qid": "366", "docid": "Resource_holding_potential", "rank": 51, "score": 92027 }, { "content": "Title: Koshamain's War Content: was an armed struggle between the Ainu and Wajin that took place on the Oshima Peninsula of southern Hokkaidō , Japan , in 1457 . Escalating out of a dispute over a sword , Koshamain and his followers sacked , before being overcome by superior forces under Takeda Nobuhiro . The principal record of the conflict is Shinra no Kiroku .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Koshamain's_War", "rank": 52, "score": 91986 }, { "content": "Title: Iran–Israel proxy conflict Content: The Israel -- Iran proxy conflict or Israeli -- Iranian proxy war is the ongoing indirect conflict between Israel and Iran . The conflict is bound in the political struggle between Iranian leadership and Israel , with the counter aim of Israel to prevent alleged nuclear weapons from the Iranian government and downgrading its allies and proxies such as Hezbollah party in Lebanon . Iranian forces are operating in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad 's government . Israel and Syria have observed a truce since Israel reaffirmed its control over most of the Golan Heights in the 1973 war , but the Syrian Civil War , which began in 2011 , has led to several incidents of fire exchange across the once-peaceful borders . The Israeli military is reportedly preparing itself for potential threats should there be a power vacuum in Syria . `` After Assad and after establishing or strengthening their foothold in Syria they are going to move and deflect their effort and attack Israel , '' an Israeli official told The Associated Press in January 2014 . Some experts say that while the encroaching militant forces on Israel 's border will heighten security measures , the advancements are not likely to create significant changes to Israel 's policy disengagement in the Syria crisis . On the course of the Syrian Civil War , in a number of incidents Israel has allegedly clashed with Hezbollah and Iranian forces in the region . On several occasions , Israel was suspected of perpetrating or supporting attacks on Hezbollah and Iranian targets within Syrian territories or Lebanon . The first incident of this kind took place on January 30 , 2013 , when Israeli aircraft were accused of allegedly striking a Syrian convoy transporting Iranian weapons to Hezbollah . More incidents were attributed to IAF on May 2013 , December 2014 , April 2015 . Some of those reports were confirmed by the Syrian Arab Republic , whereas others denied . Israel systematically refused to comment on alleged targeting of Hezbollah and Ba'athist Syrian targets in Syrian territory . In 2015 , suspected Hezbollah militants launched an attack on Israeli forces in Shebaa farms . On March 2017 , Syria launched anti-aircraft missiles towards Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights , allegedly targeting Israeli IAF aircraft , which Syria claimed were on their way to attack targets in Palmyra ( Syria ) . After the incident , the State of Israel has stated it was targeting weapons shipments headed toward anti-Israeli forces , specifically Hezbollah , located in Lebanon . Israel denied Syria 's claim that one jet fighter was shot down and another damaged . Israel has not reported any pilots or aircraft missing in Syria , or anywhere else in the Middle East following the incident . According to some sources , the incident was the first time Israeli officials clearly confirmed an Israeli strike on a Hezbollah convoy during the Syrian Civil War . Iran declares its foreign policy is based on aiding the oppressed vulnerables around the world - not for material gains , but as a humanitarian religious positive action . In Iran 's foreign policy Israel is conceptualized as a Zionist regime that threatens vulnerable people and Islamic religion itself . It is known as ideological enemy for Iran . Iran , in contact with the U.S. over the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has said that Israel would be at risk if the U.S. and its coalition sought to topple Assad . Hezbollah 's October 7 , 2014 attack on Israeli forces , its first declared such operation since 2006 , proved the seriousness of the threat . Though the Islamic Republic of Iran has been known for its anti-Israeli stance from the very beginning , its continuous support for Hezbollah evolved into almost a direct confrontation with Israel , as Revolutionary Guards have allegedly infiltrated Lebanon and directly supported Hezbollah during the past decade . The Hamas-dominated Gaza had also been considered a proxy of Iran .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Iran–Israel_proxy_conflict", "rank": 53, "score": 91308 }, { "content": "Title: Conflict (process) Content: For other kinds of conflict see conflict ( disambiguation ) . Conflict refers to some form of friction , disagreement , or discord arising within a group when the beliefs or actions of one or more members of the group are either resisted by or unacceptable to one or more members of another group . Conflict can arise between members of the same group , known as intragroup conflict , or it can occur between members of two or more groups , and involve violence , interpersonal discord , and psychological tension , known as intergroup conflict . Conflict in groups often follows a specific course . Routine group interaction is first disrupted by an initial conflict , often caused by differences of opinion , disagreements between members , or scarcity of resources . At this point , the group is no longer united , and may split into coalitions . This period of conflict escalation in some cases gives way to a conflict resolution stage , after which the group can eventually return to routine group interaction once again .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Conflict_(process)", "rank": 54, "score": 91283 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 582 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 582 , adopted unanimously on 24 February 1986 , after noting that the Council had been seized for six years and the continued conflict between Iran and Iraq , the Council deplored the initial acts that started the Iran -- Iraq War and continuation of the conflict . The Council then condemned the escalation of the conflict , including territorial incursions , the bombing of civilian areas , attacks on neutral shipping , violation of international law and use of chemical weapons by Iraq , contrary to the Geneva Protocol of 1925 . The resolution called upon Iran and Iraq to cease hositilies and observe a ceasefire , with a complete withdrawal of military forces to their internationally recognised borders , as well as an exchange of prisoners of war facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross . It also urged both parties to submit all aspects of the conflict immediately to mediation and requested the Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar to continue his efforts in the mediation process . Compliance with Resolution 582 was voluntary , and both parties refused to implement it .", "qid": "366", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_582", "rank": 55, "score": 90859 }, { "content": "Title: Cold War Conflicts Content: Cold War Conflicts is a real-time strategy game set in the historical period of the Cold War era from 1950 to 1973 . In four campaigns you take control of the military forces of eight different nations ( United States , Israel , Egypt , North Korea , Great Britain , Syria , USSR and China ) . Some of the campaigns are non-linear which means that success or failure in some missions results in a different starting point and strength of military forces in the following mission . The game is designed to present an accurate account of battlefield warfare , so most missions must be accomplished using a limited number of available units and supplies ; the focus is on real military strategy and tactics , instead of resource gathering and base development .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Cold_War_Conflicts", "rank": 56, "score": 90824 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of war Content: Effects of war are widespread and can be long term or short term . Soldiers experience war differently than civilians , although either suffer in times of war , and women and children suffer unspeakable atrocities in particular . In the past decade , up to two million of those killed in armed conflicts were children . The widespread trauma caused by these atrocities and suffering of the civilian population is another legacy of these conflicts , the following creates extensive emotional and psychological stress . Present-day internal wars generally take a larger toll on civilians than state wars . This is due to the increasing trend where combatants have made targeting civilians a strategic objective . In state conflict is an armed conflict that occurs with the use of armed force between two parties , of which one is the government of a state . `` The three problems posed by intra‐state conflict are the willingness of UN members , particularly the strongest member , to intervene ; the structural ability of the UN to respond ; and whether the traditional principles of peacekeeping should be applied to intra‐state conflict '' . Effects of war also include mass destruction of cities and have long lasting effects on a country 's economy . Armed conflict have important indirect negative consequences on , infrastructure , public health provision , and social order . These indirect consequences are often overlooked and underappreciated .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Effects_of_war", "rank": 57, "score": 90790 }, { "content": "Title: Conflict Content: Conflict most commonly refers to : Conflict ( process ) , the general pattern of groups dealing with disparate ideas War , often known as armed conflict Undeclared war , a conflict that is not recognised by some parties as a war Social conflict , the struggle for agency or power in society Conflict may also refer to :", "qid": "366", "docid": "Conflict", "rank": 58, "score": 90669 }, { "content": "Title: Transition to war Content: Transition to war ( TTW ) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) military term referring to a period of international tension during which government and society move to an open ( but not necessarily declared ) war footing . The period after this is considered to be war , conventional or otherwise , but the term TTW found its origins in the peak of the Cold War as a key NATO concept within the tripwire escalation of the DEFCON status . This could include the suspension of peacetime services , closing motorways to all but military traffic and the internment of subversives without charge or trial .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Transition_to_war", "rank": 59, "score": 90450 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear ethics Content: Nuclear ethics is a cross-disciplinary field of academic and policy-relevant study in which the problems associated with nuclear warfare , nuclear deterrence , nuclear arms control , nuclear disarmament , or nuclear energy are examined through one or more ethical or moral theories or frameworks . In contemporary security studies , the problems of nuclear warfare , deterrence , proliferation , and so forth are often understood strictly in political , strategic , or military terms . In the study of international organizations and law , however , these problems are also understood in legal terms . Nuclear ethics assumes that the very real possibilities of human extinction , mass human destruction , or mass environmental damage which could result from nuclear warfare are deep ethical or moral problems . Specifically , it assumes that the outcomes of human extinction , mass human destruction , or environmental damage count as moral evils . Another area of inquiry concerns future generations and the burden that nuclear waste and pollution imposes on them . Some scholars have concluded that it is therefore morally wrong to act in ways that produce these outcomes , which means it is morally wrong to engage in nuclear warfare . Nuclear ethics is interested in examining policies of nuclear deterrence , nuclear arms control and disarmament , and nuclear energy insofar as they are linked to the cause or prevention of nuclear warfare . Ethical justifications of nuclear deterrence , for example , emphasize its role in preventing great power nuclear war since the end of World War II . Indeed , some scholars claim that nuclear deterrence seems to be the morally rational response to a nuclear-armed world . Moral condemnation of nuclear deterrence , in contrast , emphasizes the seemingly inevitable violations of human and democratic rights which arise .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_ethics", "rank": 60, "score": 90072 }, { "content": "Title: Mutual assured destruction Content: Mutual assured destruction or mutually assured destruction ( MAD ) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender ( see pre-emptive nuclear strike and second strike ) . It is based on the theory of deterrence , which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy 's use of those same weapons . The strategy is a form of Nash equilibrium in which , once armed , neither side has any incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Mutual_assured_destruction", "rank": 61, "score": 89830 }, { "content": "Title: Atomic Wars Content: The Atomic Wars or Great Atom War is a fictional event in the Judge Dredd universe . In 2070 , the possibly psychotic president of the United States Robert L. Booth started World War III by starting a nuclear war which dragged in all the major superpowers . This created the third key component in the setting for Judge Dredd ( the others being the Judge System and Mega Cities ) . Although the Mega Cities had their own laser defence systems , the rest of the world was reduced to vast irradiated wasteland , the most famous being the Cursed Earth , from which many threats have sprung including Shojun the Warlord ( from the radlands of Ji in Eastern Asia ) .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Atomic_Wars", "rank": 62, "score": 89473 }, { "content": "Title: Image and Reality of the Israel–Palestine Conflict Content: Image and Reality of the Israel -- Palestine Conflict is a non-fiction book by Norman G. Finkelstein , first published in 1995 . It is a study of the Israeli -- Palestinian conflict . Finkelstein examines and scrutinizes popular historical versions of the conflict by authors such as Joan Peters , Benny Morris , Anita Shapira and Abba Eban . The text draws upon Finkelstein 's doctoral political science work . The 2003 revised edition offers an additional appendix devoted to criticism of Michael Oren 's 2002 bestseller Six Days of War : June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East . Finkelstein , expanding upon his doctorate thesis , writes that the modern Zionist historical tradition is based on a series of ideologically-charged systematic biases , all of which face considerable problems when measured up with the actual record in his view . For example , he specifically refers to the Palestinian exodus before Israeli independence and the purported causes . Finkelstein credits Zionist military aggression upon Palestinian villages and calls for a transfer of populations as driving Palestinian refugees out of their lands , rather than a voluntary exodus occurring mixed in with orders to leave from Arabic leaders and other factors as Israeli historians have written . He goes into detail on issues such as Israel 's exploitation of water rights . Supportive reviews appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs , The Guardian and the London Review of Books . Critical reviews drawing problems with Finkelstein 's historical work appeared in publications such as the Middle East Quarterly .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Image_and_Reality_of_the_Israel–Palestine_Conflict", "rank": 63, "score": 89396 }, { "content": "Title: Superpower disengagement Content: Superpower disengagement is a foreign policy option whereby the most powerful nations , the superpowers , reduce their interventions in an area . Such disengagement could be multilateral among superpowers or lesser powers , or bilateral between two superpowers , or unilateral . It could mean an end to either direct or indirect interventions . For instance , disengagement could mean that the superpowers remove their support of proxies in proxy wars in order to de-escalate a superpower conflict back to a local problem based on local disputes . Disengagement can create buffers between superpowers that might prevent conflicts or reduce the intensity of conflicts . The term usually refers to various policy proposals during the Cold War which attempted to defuse tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States , largely because of the risk of any superpower conflict to escalate to nuclear war . Examples of one-sided disengagement include when Joseph Stalin decided to end Soviet support for the communist guerrillas in Greece during the Greek Civil War , and when Richard Nixon withdrew US troops from Vietnam in the early 1970s . The more important candidates for disengagement were where Soviet and US forces faced each other directly such as in Germany and Austria . The Austrian State Treaty is an example of formal , multilateral , superpower disengagement which left Austria as neutral for the duration of the Cold War , with Austria staying out of the Warsaw Pact , NATO , and the European Economic Community . The 1952 Stalin Note is perhaps the most controversial proposal of superpower disengagement from Germany .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Superpower_disengagement", "rank": 64, "score": 88769 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear weapons debate Content: The nuclear weapons debate refers to the controversies surrounding the threat , use and stockpiling of nuclear weapons . Even before the first nuclear weapons had been developed , scientists involved with the Manhattan Project were divided over the use of the weapon . The only time nuclear weapons have been used in warfare was during the final stages of World War II when United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945 . The role of the bombings in Japan 's surrender and the U.S. 's ethical justification for them have been the subject of scholarly and popular debate for decades . Nuclear disarmament refers both to the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world . Proponents of disarmament typically condemn a priori the threat or use of nuclear weapons as immoral and argue that only total disarmament can eliminate the possibility of nuclear war . Critics of nuclear disarmament say that it would undermine deterrence and make conventional wars more likely , more destructive , or both . The debate becomes considerably complex when considering various scenarios for example , total vs partial or unilateral vs multilateral disarmament .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Nuclear_weapons_debate", "rank": 65, "score": 88555 }, { "content": "Title: Des Ball Content: Desmond John `` Des '' Ball ( 20 May 1947 -- 12 October 2016 ) was an Australian academic and expert on defence and security . He was credited with successfully advising the US against nuclear escalation in the 1970s .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Des_Ball", "rank": 66, "score": 88490 }, { "content": "Title: Outline of war Content: The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to war : War -- organised and often prolonged armed conflict that is carried out by states and/or non-state actors -- is characterised by extreme violence , social disruption , and economic destruction . War should be understood as an actual , intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities , and therefore is defined as a form of political violence or intervention . An absence of war is peace .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Outline_of_war", "rank": 67, "score": 88429 }, { "content": "Title: Geneva Accord Content: Geneva Accord may refer to : Geneva interim agreement on Iranian nuclear program , an interim agreement on Iranian nuclear program between the P5 +1 and Iran Geneva Initiative ( 2003 ) , a peace plan in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict also referred to as the Geneva Accord Geneva Accord ( 1991 ) , a peace plan in the Croatian War of Independence Geneva Accords ( 1988 ) , a settlement that concerned Afghanistan Geneva Accords ( 1954 ) , a plan concerning Indochina and Vietnam Geneva Statement on Ukraine , an agreement to de-escalate the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine", "qid": "366", "docid": "Geneva_Accord", "rank": 68, "score": 88414 }, { "content": "Title: List of nuclear close calls Content: A nuclear close call is an incident that could lead to , or could have led to , at least one unintended nuclear detonation/explosion . These incidents typically involve a perceived imminent threat to a nuclear-armed country which could lead to retaliatory strikes against the perceived aggressor . The damage caused by international nuclear exchange is not necessarily limited to the participating countries , as the hypothesized rapid climate change associated with even small-scale regional nuclear war could threaten food production worldwide -- a scenario known as nuclear famine . Despite a reduction in global nuclear tensions after the end of the Cold War , estimated nuclear warhead stockpiles total roughly 15,000 worldwide , with the United States and Russia holding 90 % of the total . Although exact details on many of these nuclear close calls are hard to come by , the analysis of particular cases has highlighted the importance of a variety of factors in preventing accidents . At an international level , this includes the importance of context and outside mediation ; at the national level , effectiveness in government communications , and involvement of key decision-makers ; and , at the individual level , the decisive role of individuals in following intuition and prudent decision-making , often in violation of protocol .", "qid": "366", "docid": "List_of_nuclear_close_calls", "rank": 69, "score": 88267 }, { "content": "Title: Irish War of Independence Content: The Irish War of Independence ( Cogadh na Saoirse ) or Anglo-Irish War or the Tan War was a guerrilla war fought from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army ( IRA , the army of the Irish Republic ) and the British security forces in Ireland . It was an escalation of the Irish revolutionary period into armed conflict . In the December 1918 election , the Irish republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland . On 21 January 1919 they formed a breakaway government ( Dáil Éireann ) and declared independence from Britain . Later that day , two members of the British-organized armed police force , the Royal Irish Constabulary ( RIC ) , were shot dead in County Tipperary by IRA members acting on their own initiative . This is often seen as the beginning of the conflict . For much of 1919 , IRA activity primarily involved capturing weapons and freeing republican prisoners . In September that year the British government outlawed the Dáil and Sinn Féin , and the conflict intensified thereafter . The IRA began ambushing RIC and British Army patrols , attacking their barracks and forcing isolated barracks to be abandoned . The British government bolstered the RIC with recruits from Britain -- the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries -- who became notorious for ill-discipline and reprisal attacks on civilians . The conflict as a result is often referred to as the Black and Tan War or simply the Tan War . While around 300 people had been killed in the conflict up to late 1920 , there was a major escalation of violence in November that year . On Bloody Sunday , 21 November 1920 , fourteen British intelligence operatives were assassinated in Dublin in the morning ; then in the afternoon the RIC opened fire on a crowd at a football match in the city , killing fourteen civilians and wounding 65 . A week later , seventeen Auxiliaries were killed by the IRA in an ambush at Kilmichael in County Cork . The British government declared martial law in much of southern Ireland . The centre of Cork City was burnt out by British forces in December 1920 . Violence continued to escalate over the next seven months , when 1,000 people were killed and 4,500 republicans were interned . The fighting was heavily concentrated in Munster ( particularly County Cork ) , Dublin and Belfast . These three locations saw over 75 % of the conflict 's fatalities . Violence in Ulster , especially Belfast , was notable for its sectarian character and its high number of Catholic civilian victims . Both sides agreed to a truce on 11 July 1921 . In May , Ireland had been partitioned by an Act of the British Parliament , which created Northern Ireland . The post-ceasefire talks led to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921 . This treaty ended British rule in 26 counties of Ireland and , after a ten-month transitional period overseen by a provisional government , the Irish Free State was created as a self-governing state with Dominion status on 6 December 1922 . However , six north-eastern counties remained within the United Kingdom . After the ceasefire , political and sectarian violence between republicans ( usually Catholics ) and loyalists ( usually Protestants ) continued in Northern Ireland for many months . In June 1922 , disagreement among republicans over the Anglo-Irish Treaty led to an eleven-month civil war . The Irish Free State awarded 62,868 medals for service during the War of Independence , of which 15,224 were issued to fighting men of the flying columns .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Irish_War_of_Independence", "rank": 70, "score": 87690 }, { "content": "Title: Preventive diplomacy Content: Preventive diplomacy is action to prevent disputes from arising between parties , to prevent existing disputes from escalating into conflicts and to limit the spread of the latter when they occur . Michael S. Lund , the author of `` Preventing Violent Conflict : A Strategy for Preventive Diplomacy '' , identifies it as `` action taken in vulnerable places and times to avoid the threat or use of armed force and related forms of coercion by states or groups to settle the political disputes that can arise from the destabilizing effects of economic , social , political , and international change . '' Since the end of the Cold War the international community through international institutions has been focusing on preventive diplomacy . As the United Nations and regional organizations as well as global and regional powers discovered the high costs of managing conflict , there is a strong common perception of benevolence of preventive diplomacy . Preventive diplomacy actions can be implemented by the UN , regional organizations , NGO networks and individual states . One of the examples of preventive diplomacy is the UN peacekeeping mission in Macedonia ( UNPREDEP ) in 1995 -- 1999 . It was the first UN preventive action . Preventive measures include : conflict early warning , fact-finding , confidence-building measures , early deployment , humanitarian assistance , and demilitarized zones .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Preventive_diplomacy", "rank": 71, "score": 87627 }, { "content": "Title: Conflict (video game) Content: Conflict is a hex-based NES war game where the player is a commander who must lead his forces to victory . The player can earn fame points by occupying cities and airports and destroying units of the opponent 's army ; fame points are lost by losing units of one 's army in battle or retreating from battles . The goal of each of the 16 scenarios is to destroy the enemy 's flag tank . The first player controls the blue ( Western Bloc ) forces while the computer ( or second player ) controls red ( Eastern Bloc ) troops . Each player starts with two or three factories , at least one of which specializes in air combat units and at least one of which specializes in ground warfare units . On each turn , the player can , if he still has a factory that has not been destroyed , produce one military unit . The more fame points the player has , the more powerful units he can produce ( e.g. tanks instead of infantry ) . The computer always starts with more fame points than the human ; since this state of affairs tends to produce an increasingly overwhelming materiel advantage if left unaddressed , the goal of depleting the computer 's fame points , usually by destroying powerful red Army units , tends to be a high priority at the beginning of the game . The hexagons can be plains , woods , mountains , barren terrain , shoals , seas , bridges , airports , towns , or factories . The terrain in each hexagon has an effect on maneuverability and the extent to which forces can take evasive action . Units can be repaired , refueled , and rearmed at cities or airports , depending on whether the unit is a ground or air unit . A sequel was released for the Super NES entitled Super Conflict .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Conflict_(video_game)", "rank": 72, "score": 87615 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 822 Content: United Nations Security Council resolution 822 , adopted unanimously on 30 April 1993 , after expressing concern at the deterioration of relations between the Armenia and Azerbaijan , and the subsequent escalation of armed hostilities and humanitarian situation in the region , the Council demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces in the Kalbajar district near Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan . The Council urged the parties concerned to resume negotiations to bring about an end to the conflict within the framework of the peace process proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group , and refraining from any action that would disrupt the process . While it acknowledged Armenian involvement , it did not directly accuse Armenia of aggression . The resolution then called for unimpeded access for international humanitarian relief efforts in the region to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population by way of humanitarian aid , reminding the parties to meet their obligationsn under international humanitarian law . It concluded by requesting the Secretary-General , in consultation with the Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe as well as the Chairman of the Minsk Group of the Conference to assess the situation and report back to the Security Council . Both sides welcomed the adoption of the resolution .", "qid": "366", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_822", "rank": 73, "score": 87509 }, { "content": "Title: List of Korean War Medal of Honor recipients Content: This list represents all of the 146 United States military personnel who received the Medal of Honor for valor in combat during the Korean War . 98 Medals of Honor were awarded posthumously . The Korean War was an escalation of border clashes between two rival Korean regimes ( each of which was supported by external powers ) with each Korean regime trying to topple the other through political and guerrilla tactics . In a very narrow sense , some may refer to it as a civil war , though many other factors were at play . After failing to strengthen their cause in the free elections held in South Korea during May 1950 and the refusal of South Korea to hold new elections per North Korean demands , the communist North Korean Army moved south on June 25 , 1950 to attempt to reunite the Korean peninsula , which had been formally divided since 1948 . The conflict was then expanded by the United States and the Soviet Union 's involvement as part of the larger Cold War . The main hostilities were during the period from June 25 , 1950 until the armistice was signed on July 27 , 1953 .", "qid": "366", "docid": "List_of_Korean_War_Medal_of_Honor_recipients", "rank": 74, "score": 87448 }, { "content": "Title: Black War Content: The Black War was the period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Australians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832 . The conflict , fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides , claimed the lives of more than 200 European colonists and between 600 and 900 Aboriginal people , all but annihilating the island 's indigenous population . The near-destruction of the Aboriginal Tasmanians , and the frequent incidence of mass killings , has sparked debate among historians over whether the Black War should be defined as an act of genocide . The escalation of violence in the late 1820s prompted Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur to declare martial law -- effectively providing legal immunity for killing Aboriginal people -- and in late 1830 to order a massive six-week military offensive known as the Black Line , in which 2200 civilians and soldiers formed a series of moving cordons stretching hundreds of kilometres across the island in order to drive Aboriginal people from the colony 's settled districts to the Tasman Peninsula in the southeast , where it was intended they would remain permanently confined . The Black War was prompted by the rapid spread of British settlers and agricultural livestock throughout areas of Tasmania that had been traditional Aboriginal hunting grounds . Historian Nicholas Clements has described the Aboriginal violence as a resistance movement -- the use of force against an invading or occupying enemy . He said the Aboriginal attacks were motivated by revenge for European atrocities and the widespread kidnapping , rape and murder of Aboriginal women and girls by convicts , settlers and soldiers , but particularly from the late 1820s the Aboriginal people were also driven by hunger to plunder settlers ' homes for food as their hunting grounds shrank , native game disappeared and the dangers of hunting on open ground grew . European violence , meanwhile , was motivated by mounting terror of Aboriginal attacks and a conviction that extermination of the Aboriginal population was the only means by which peace could be secured . Clements noted : `` As black violence grew in intensity , so too did the frequency of revenge attacks and pre-emptive strikes by frontiersmen . '' Attacks were launched by groups of Aboriginal people almost always in daylight with a variety of weapons including spears , rocks and waddies used to kill and maim settlers and shepherds , as well as their livestock , while homes , haystacks and crops were often set alight . European attacks , in contrast , were mainly launched at night or in the early hours of dawn by pursuit parties or roving parties of civilians or soldiers who aimed to strike as their quarry slept in bush camps . Women and children were commonly casualties on both sides . From 1830 Arthur offered rewards for the capture of Aboriginal people , but bounties were also paid when Aboriginal people were killed . From 1829 efforts were made with the aid of humanitarian George Augustus Robinson to launch a `` friendly mission '' to persuade Aboriginal people to surrender and be removed to an island sanctuary ; from November 1830 to December 1831 several groups accepted his offer and 46 were initially placed on Flinders Island , from which escape was deemed to be impossible . Although conflict between Aboriginal people and settlers almost completely ceased from January 1832 , another 148 Aboriginal people were captured in the island 's northwest over the next four years as a `` clean up '' and forcibly removed to Hunter Island and then Flinders Island . The terms `` Black War '' and `` Black Line '' were coined by journalist Henry Melville in 1835 , but historian Lyndall Ryan has argued that it should be known as the Tasmanian War . She has also called for the erection of a public memorial to the fallen from both sides of the war .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Black_War", "rank": 75, "score": 87418 }, { "content": "Title: Conflict economics Content: Conflict economics is a branch of economics that puts the allocation of resources by means of violent fighting , i.e. conflict , into economic models . In traditional economics , appropriation is a non-violent process that is guaranteed by perfect property rights and their costless enforcement . Conflict economics sheds a different light on appropriation . It is set in a model of contest between two players . Conflict economics introduces the idea that agents have to decide between production of resources and production of guns , i.e. tools that have the sole purposes of appropriating the resources produced by the other player . Different models are introduced to illustrate various situations that have similarities to real life conflicts .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Conflict_economics", "rank": 76, "score": 87163 }, { "content": "Title: Peace Content: Peace is a lack of conflict and freedom from fear of violence between heterogeneous social groups . Benevolent leaders throughout history have shown restraint establishing regional peace and economic growth through peace treaties that resulted from de-escalating conflicts and multilateral and bilateral peace talks . Commonly understood as the absence of war or violent hostility , peace often involves compromise , and therefore is initiated with thoughtful active listening and communication to enhance and create genuine mutual understanding . Because peaceful behavior can result from calm or happy emotional states , people are sometimes understood to `` feel peaceful . '' De-escalating conflicts therefore can involve reducing or improving emotions through compliments and generosity . Small gestures of generosity that are reciprocated are sometimes followed with even more gestures . Benevolent generosity can eventually become a pattern that is a lasting basis for improved relations . Peace talks often start without preconditions and preconceived notions because they are more than just negotiating opportunities . They place attention on peace in a way that itself is influential . Peace talks are sometimes also uniquely important learning opportunities .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Peace", "rank": 77, "score": 87155 }, { "content": "Title: Limited war Content: A limited war is one in which the belligerents do not expend all of the resources at their disposal , whether human , industrial , agricultural , military , natural , technological , or otherwise in a specific conflict . This may be to preserve those resources for other purposes , or because it might be more difficult for the participants to use all of an area 's resources rather than part of them . Limited war is the opposite concept to total war .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Limited_war", "rank": 78, "score": 86982 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–12 Myanmar border clashes Content: The 2010 -- 2012 Myanmar border clashes were a series of skirmishes between the Tatmadaw ( Myanmar Armed Forces ) and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army ( also known as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army - Brigade 5 or DKBA-5 ) . The clashes erupted along the border with Thailand shortly after the general election on 7 November 2010 . An estimated 10,000 refugees have fled into nearby neighbouring Thailand to escape the violent conflict . There is concern that due to discontent with the elections , and speculations of electoral fraud , that the conflict could escalate into a civil war .", "qid": "366", "docid": "2010–12_Myanmar_border_clashes", "rank": 79, "score": 86923 }, { "content": "Title: 1940: Myth and Reality Content: 1940 : Myth and Reality is a controversial 1990 book by Clive Ponting and published by Hamish Hamilton . It is a revisionist history of the Second World War , particularly the divergences between the rhetoric and the reality in relation to popular British narratives . The revisionism is different from that of , for example , ` The Battle of Britain : Myth and Reality , a 2000 book by Richard Overy , and draws different ( arguably more pessimistic ) conclusions . The book caused a minor sensation when published , but few of the revelations were new , most having been published in other books in the previous 21 years . The historiography of the period is a contentious one . Ponting claims that underlying realities that are far more complex and troubling are masked by the notions of ` Britain 's finest hour ' in the year of the Battle of Britain and the evacuation of Dunkirk , the other eulogising about the conflict and the lionisation of the premiership of Winston Churchill . The lesson of 1940 in particular , according to Ponting , was that Britain was no longer a superpower : `` So vulnerable was Britain in the summer of 1940 that secret plans were laid to sell out Ulster to Eire and the Falklands ( a nice touch , this ) to Argentina . As the money ran out , the British forfeited their independence and became a client state of the United States . '' Ponting also analyses the role of propaganda transmitted by the government that also led to the creation of a façade that masked underlying German casualty levels and the parlous situation that led to Dunkirk . The question of the leadership of Churchill is examined and foreshadows Ponting 's 1994 biography of Churchill , with the point made that the latter then addressed Parliament but rarely broadcast to the nation . The latter point has itself been contested , however , for example in the view that the idea that actors recorded Churchill 's speeches is itself a myth .", "qid": "366", "docid": "1940:_Myth_and_Reality", "rank": 80, "score": 86823 }, { "content": "Title: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age Content: War and Peace in the Nuclear Age is a 1989 PBS television series focusing on the effect of nuclear weapons development on international relations and warfare during the Cold War . The 13-part series was funded by the Annenberg/CPB Project and produced by WGBH in Boston in association with NHK and Central Independent Television . The New York Times called it `` public television 's equivalent of a nuclear explosion , '' praising it as `` intelligently conceived and fastidiously balanced . ''", "qid": "366", "docid": "War_and_Peace_in_the_Nuclear_Age", "rank": 81, "score": 86807 }, { "content": "Title: Military production during World War II Content: Military production during World War II includes the arms , ammunitions , personnel and financing which were mobilized for the war . Military production , in this article , means everything produced by the belligerents from the occupation of Austria in early 1938 to the surrender and occupation of Japan in late 1945 . The mobilization of funds , people , natural resources and matériel for the production and supply of military equipment and military forces during World War II was a critical component of the war effort . During the conflict , the Allies outpaced the Axis powers in most production categories . Access to the funding and industrial resources necessary to sustain the war effort was linked to their respective economic and political alliances . As formerly neutral powers ( such as the United States ) joined the escalating conflict , territory changed hands , combatants were defeated , the balance of power shifted in favour of the Allies ( as did the means to sustain the military production required to win the war ) .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Military_production_during_World_War_II", "rank": 82, "score": 86725 }, { "content": "Title: Endemic warfare Content: __ NOTOC __ Endemic warfare is a state of continual or frequent warfare , such as is found in some tribal societies ( but is not limited to tribal societies ) . Ritual fighting ( or ritual battle or ritual warfare ) permits the display of courage , masculinity and the expression of emotion while resulting in relatively few wounds and even fewer deaths . Thus one can view such a practice as a form of conflict-resolution and/or as a psycho-social exercise . Native Americans often engaged in this activity , but the frequency of warfare in most hunter-gatherer cultures is a matter of dispute . Warfare is known to several tribal societies , but some societies develop a particular emphasis of warrior culture ( such as the Nuer of South Sudan , the Māori of New Zealand , the Dugum Dani of Papua , the Yanomami ( dubbed `` the Fierce People '' ) of the Amazon , or the Germanic tribes of Iron Age Europe ) . Communal societies are well capable of escalation to all-out wars of annihilation between tribes . Thus , in Amazonas , there was perpetual animosity between the neighboring tribes of the Jívaro . A fundamental difference between wars enacted within the same tribe and against neighboring tribes is such that `` wars between different tribes are in principle wars of extermination '' . The Yanomami of Amazonas traditionally practiced a system of escalation of violence in several discrete stages . The chest-pounding duel , the side-slapping duel , the club fight , and the spear-throwing fight . Further escalation results in raiding parties with the purpose of killing at least one member of the hostile faction . Finally , the highest stage of escalation is Nomohoni or all-out massacres brought about by treachery . Similar customs were known to the Dugum Dani and the Chimbu of New Guinea , the Nuer of Sudan and the North American Plains Indians . Among the Chimbu and the Dugum Dani , pig theft was the most common cause of conflict , even more frequent than abduction of women , while among the Yanomamö , the most frequent initial cause of warfare was accusations of sorcery . Warfare serves the function of easing intra-group tensions and has aspects of a game , or `` overenthusiastic football '' . Especially Dugum Dani `` battles '' have a conspicuous element of play , with one documented instance of a battle interrupted when both sides were distracted by throwing stones at a passing cuckoo dove .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Endemic_warfare", "rank": 83, "score": 86657 }, { "content": "Title: American University speech Content: The American University speech , titled A Strategy of Peace , was a commencement address delivered by President John F. Kennedy at the American University in Washington , D.C. , on Monday , June 10 , 1963 . Delivered at the height of his rhetorical powers and widely considered one of his most powerful speeches , Kennedy not only outlined a plan to curb nuclear arms , but also `` laid out a hopeful , yet realistic route for world peace at a time when the U.S. and Soviet Union faced the potential for an escalating nuclear arms race . '' In the speech , Kennedy announced his agreement to negotiations `` toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty '' ( which resulted in the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty ) and also announced , for the purpose of showing `` good faith and solemn convictions '' , his decision to unilaterally suspend all US atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons as long as all other nations would do the same . Noteworthy are his comments that the United States was seeking a goal of `` complete disarmament '' of nuclear weapons and his vow that America `` will never start a war '' . The speech was unusual in its peaceful outreach to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War , and is remembered as one of Kennedy 's finest and most important speeches .", "qid": "366", "docid": "American_University_speech", "rank": 84, "score": 86569 }, { "content": "Title: Blood diamond Content: Blood diamonds ( also called conflict diamonds , war diamonds , hot diamonds , or red diamonds '' ) is a term used for a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency , an invading army 's war efforts , or a warlord 's activity . The term is used to highlight the negative consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas , or to label an individual diamond as having come from such an area . Diamonds mined during the recent civil wars in Angola , Ivory Coast , Sierra Leone , and other nations have been given the label . The term conflict resource refers to analogous situations involving other natural resources .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Blood_diamond", "rank": 85, "score": 86539 }, { "content": "Title: Protests of 1968 Content: The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts , predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against military and bureaucratic elites , who responded with an escalation of political repression . In capitalist countries , these protests marked a turning point for the civil rights movement in the United States , which produced revolutionary movements like the Black Panther Party . In reaction to the Tet Offensive , protests also sparked a broad movement in opposition to the Vietnam War all over the United States and even into London , Paris , Berlin and Rome . Mass socialist movements grew not only in the United States but also in most European countries . The most spectacular manifestation of this were the May 1968 protests in France , in which students linked up with wildcat strikes of up to ten million workers , and for a few days the movement seemed capable of overthrowing the government . In many other capitalist countries , struggles against dictatorships , state repression , and colonization were also marked by protests in 1968 , such as the beginning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland , the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City , and the escalation of guerrilla warfare against the military dictatorship in Brazil . In the socialist countries there were also protests against lack of freedom of speech and violation of other civil rights by the Communist bureaucratic and military elites . In Central and Eastern Europe there were widespread protests that escalated , particularly in the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia , in Warsaw in Poland and in Yugoslavia .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Protests_of_1968", "rank": 86, "score": 86329 }, { "content": "Title: Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project Content: The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project ( ACLED ) is a project that collates data on political violence in developing states , from 1997 to the present . As of early 2015 , ACLED has recorded over 90,000 individual events , with ongoing data collection focused on Africa . Data on South and South-East Asia are also available .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Armed_Conflict_Location_and_Event_Data_Project", "rank": 87, "score": 85566 }, { "content": "Title: Future Character of Conflict Content: The Future Character of Conflict was a study produced by the UK Ministry of Defence 's Development , Concepts and Doctrine Centre ( DCDC ) . It was undertaken alongside the Centre 's Global Strategic Trends Programme . The report details global trends that indicate increasing instability and growing opportunity for confrontation and group conflict . State failure , extremists , increased competition for resources and the changing global balance of power will dictate why , where and how conflict occurs . The study concludes that the character of conflict will continue to evolve . Though it is impossible to accurately predict the exact character of the future conflict , in many future operations the armed forces are likely to face a range of simultaneous threats and adversaries in an anarchic and extended operating area . This report is now outdated , and is replaced by the document Future Operating Environment 2035 . ( See", "qid": "366", "docid": "Future_Character_of_Conflict", "rank": 88, "score": 85497 }, { "content": "Title: Menstad conflict Content: The Menstad conflict ( Menstadkonflikten ) or ( Menstadslaget ) `` The Menstad battle '' was a Norwegian policing and political débâcle on 8 June 1931 at Norsk Hydro 's Menstad plant , near Skien in the Norwegian province of Telemark . Since March , Norway had been feeling significant industrial tension as the full effects of the Great Depression began to be felt in Norway . It was in this atmosphere that the Norwegian Employers ' Confederation ( NAF ) announced a pay cut of 15 and 20 percent . When the Workers ' National Trade Union rejected this suggest and counter-proposed a reduction of working hours , the NAF responded with a programme of lockouts . During the lockouts , two companies , Norsk Hydro and Norske Skog Union , chose to allow some contract workers to perform some work . This was perceived as strikebreaking and led to an escalation of the conflict level . It was an angry mood in which the Secretary of the Labor party ( and later Prime Minister ) Einar Gerhardsen called strikebreakers `` skabbdyr '' ( scabs ) and director of Norsk Hydro Bjarne Eriksen described the dispute as being one between Labour and the community . In the afternoon of 8 June 2,000 workers marched to the Norsk Hydro trans-shipment port and warehouse at Menstad , where 100 police officers guarded the contract workers . The brief `` battle '' , between police and strikers , saw law-and-order forces overwhelmed by demonstrators , who threw stones and iron piping before the protesters retreated . The government response ( passed on by Minister of Defence , Vidkun Quisling ) was to send the army into the province with the stated aim of protecting nearby weapons depots . Although there was no further incident and law and order in the area was duly restored , the government response was heavily criticised by the Communist party , who had led the original demonstrations .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Menstad_conflict", "rank": 89, "score": 85490 }, { "content": "Title: Conflict (board game) Content: Conflict is a military board game that was produced by Parker Brothers from about 1940 to about 1972 . It had a large board divided into many small squares . The board was 24 squares by 24 squares . The squares representing land were colored two shades of brown . The squares representing the sea were colored two shades of blue . Artillery pieces could travel on land , ships on the sea , and airplanes over land or sea . The pieces ( made of metal ) were various colors ( red , orange , sea green , and yellow ) so that up to four people could play . Each person started by putting their pieces on one of the four corners of the board . The number of squares the pieces could move were determined by the roll of the dice .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Conflict_(board_game)", "rank": 90, "score": 85457 }, { "content": "Title: War Content: War is a state of armed conflict between societies . It is generally characterized by extreme aggression , destruction , and mortality , using regular or irregular military forces . An absence of war is usually called `` peace '' . Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war , or of wars in general . Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets , and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant casualties . While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature , others argue it is a result of specific socio-cultural or ecological circumstances . The deadliest war in history , in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start , is the Second World War , from 1939 to 1945 , with 60 -- 85 million deaths , followed by the Mongol conquests at up to 60 million . As concerns a belligerent 's losses in proportion to its prewar population , the most destructive war in modern history may have been the Paraguayan War ( see Paraguayan War casualties ) . In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths , down from 72,000 deaths in 1990 . In 2003 , Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth ( of ten ) biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years . War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem , a decrease in social spending , famine , large-scale emigration from the war zone , and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians . For instance , of the nine million people who were on the territory of Soviet Belarus in 1941 , some 1.6 million were killed by the Germans in actions away from battlefields , including about 700,000 prisoners of war , 500,000 Jews , and 320,000 people counted as partisans ( the vast majority of whom were unarmed civilians ) . Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict , and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers .", "qid": "366", "docid": "War", "rank": 91, "score": 85329 }, { "content": "Title: Rif Dimashq clashes (November 2011–March 2012) Content: The Rif Dimashq clashes were a series of unrests and armed clashes in and around Damascus , the capital of Syria , from November 2011 till a stalemate in March 2012 . The violence was part of the wider early insurgency phase of the Syrian Civil War . Large pro-government and anti-government protests took place in the suburbs and center of Damascus , with the situation escalating when members of the Free Syrian Army started attacking military targets in November . It is claimed that in January 2012 , parts of rural Damascus and the Damascus suburbs started to fall under opposition control . On 27 January 2012 , the Syrian Army launched a military operation which retook the Damascus suburbs and the town of Zabadani with the offensive ending on 11 February . However , fighting still continued , when on 15 February FSA fighters were seen on the streets of a district in the Damascus centre , trying to recruit and mingling with opposition protesters . A few anti-government protests were still ongoing after the army offensive . On 12 March 2012 , major clashes were reported in central Damascus between the FSA and Loyalist army for the first time . By April 2012 a fragile cease-fire was brokered by the UN peace envoy Kofi Annan . However , following the cease fire collapse , by July 2012 , rebels erupted again into most Damascus suburbs and rural areas around the city , launching the Battle of Damascus , also known as Operation Volcano .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Rif_Dimashq_clashes_(November_2011–March_2012)", "rank": 92, "score": 85321 }, { "content": "Title: South African Wars (1879–1915) Content: Ethnic , political and social tensions among European colonial powers , indigenous Africans , and English and Dutch settlers led to open conflict in a series of wars and revolts between 1879 and 1915 that would have lasting repercussions on the entire region of southern Africa . Pursuit of commercial empire as well as individual aspirations , especially after the discovery of diamonds ( 1867 ) and gold ( 1886 ) , were key factors driving these developments . The various wars of this era are usually studied separately , as independent conflicts . They include the first and second Anglo-Boer War , the Anglo-Zulu War , the Basotho Gun War , the 9th Frontier War and others . However it is instructive also to see them as outbreaks in a far larger wave of change and conflict effecting the subcontinent - beginning with the `` Confederation Wars '' of the 1870s and 80s ; escalating with the rise of Cecil Rhodes and the struggle for control of gold and diamond resources ; and leading up to the Second Anglo-Boer War and the Union of South Africa in 1910 .", "qid": "366", "docid": "South_African_Wars_(1879–1915)", "rank": 93, "score": 85207 }, { "content": "Title: Russo-Turkish confrontation in Syria Content: The Turco-Russian confrontation refers to an conflict between Turkey and , initially , the Syrian government which turned into a military crisis between Turkey and Russia after the November 2015 shoot-down of a Russian Air Force Su-24 by the Turkish Air Force after an alleged airspace violation . Increased Russian military aggression and hostile Turkish territorial responses have all contributed to increasing escalation . Aerial confrontations between two nations have grown more common . Turkey accuses Russian Forces of violating Turkish sovereign airspace and war crimes against Syrian Turkmens . The Russian military has accused Turkey of illegal economic ties with ISIS and planning a military intervention in Syria .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Russo-Turkish_confrontation_in_Syria", "rank": 94, "score": 85071 }, { "content": "Title: Marketing of war Content: The marketing of war is a concept introduced by Professor Kostas Gouliamos ( European University Cyprus ) and Dr. Antonis L. Theocharous ( Cyprus University of Technology ) in 2008 . In their paper `` Harming Democracy in Mediolatry Societies : Decoding the Marketing of War and Animosities through Photo Images '' , the authors consider consumption of war through utilization of marketing and , in particular , of social marketing . The marketing of war has been described as a key element of the form of militarism known as neomilitarism . Neomilitarism has been defined as a form of militarism that is distinguished by the reliance on a relatively small number of volunteer fighters ; heavy reliance on complex technologies ; and the rationalization and expansion of government advertising and recruitment programs designed to promote military service . The concept has been further developed in the book The Marketing of War in the Age of Neo-Militarism , co-edited the same authors . For Gouliamos and Kassimeris , the marketing of war is shaped by the mechanisms of manufacturing decision-making of the lobbying industry on both sides of Atlantic . As a result of the intensification and escalation of the ` marketing of war ' , the whole civil society is heavily militarized while the LifeWorld is colonized by the apparatus of stratocracy . Moreover , the book assesses the inherent meaning of such militarization from a critical , interdisciplinary perspective . Against the background of democracy and capitalism , The Marketing of War in the Age of Neo-Militarism challenges prevailing accounts of the `` military -- industrial complex '' as it explores significant interrelated themes denoting the accelerating process of militarization of society .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Marketing_of_war", "rank": 95, "score": 85020 }, { "content": "Title: Susurluk scandal Content: The Susurluk scandal was a scandal involving the close relationship between the Turkish government , the armed forces , and organized crime . It took place during the peak of the Kurdish -- Turkish conflict , in the mid-1990s . The relationship came into existence after the National Security Council ( MGK ) posited the need for the marshaling of the nation 's resources to combat the Kurdistan Workers ' Party ( PKK ) . The scandal surfaced with a car crash on 3 November 1996 , near Susurluk , in the province of Balıkesir . The victims included the deputy chief of the Istanbul Police Department , a Member of Parliament , and Abdullah Çatlı , the leader of the Grey Wolves ( who was a contract killer on Interpol 's red list ) . The state had been engaged in an escalating low intensity conflict with the PKK since 1984 . The conflict reached an apex when the PKK planned to proclaim their independence by 1994 . Towards the end of 1992 , a furious debate in the NSC about how to proceed was taking place . Doves such as President Turgut Özal and General Eşref Bitlis favored a non-military solution . However , both of these people died in 1993 . The same year , the NSC prescribed a co-ordinated Black Operations campaign using special forces . The Turkish branch of Operation Gladio , the `` Counter-Guerrilla '' , contributed much of these special forces . Deputy prime minister Tansu Çiller tasked the police force , then under the leadership of Mehmet Ağar , with crippling the PKK and assassinating its leader , Abdullah Öcalan . The police unit responsible for this job was the Special Operations Department ( Özel Harekat Dairesi , ÖHD ) . Abdullah Çatlı also took part . This caused consternation in the National Intelligence Organization ( Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı , MİT ) , which had formerly counted on Çatlı to undertake reprisals against the militant Armenian organization , ASALA . Especially concerned was Mehmet Eymür of the MİT 's Operations/Counter-Terrorism Department , who had irreconcilable differences with Ağar . The scandal has hence been pithily described as `` the battle of the two Mehmets '' . Turkish authorities had claimed that those security officers , politicians and other authorities who had been involved in drug trafficking were initially hired to prevent Turkish mafia and the PKK from profiting from different kind of alleged illegal activities , such as smuggling of drugs but these factions captured the business and fought over who would take its place . Intelligence expert Mahir Kaynak described the police camp as `` pro-European '' , and the MİT camp as `` pro-American '' . The authorities pocketed billions of dollars in profits from the drug smuggling . This illegal activity on the state 's part was partly motivated , or at least justified as such , by the tens of billions of dollars in loss of trade with Iraq due to the Gulf War . To put this into perspective the heroin trade , then worth $ 50 billion , exceeded the state budget of $ 48 billion . ( Other sources quote the 1998 budget as $ 62 billion and the drug market as $ 70 billion , though only a fraction of this was tapped as commission . ) Although Ağar and Çiller resigned after the scandal , no-one received any punitive sentences . Ağar was eventually re-elected to Parliament ( as a leader of the True Path Party , DYP ) , and the sole survivor of the crash , chieftain Sedat Bucak , was released . Some reforms were made ; e.g. , the intelligence agency was restructured to end the infighting ( with Eymür 's department entirely dismantled ) . Some hold that the scandal was made possible by the wresting of control of the MİT away from military leadership in 1992 .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Susurluk_scandal", "rank": 96, "score": 85004 }, { "content": "Title: Joseph Cirincione Content: Joseph Cirincione ( born November 13 , 1949 ) is the President of the Ploughshares Fund , a public grant-making foundation focused on nuclear weapons policy and conflict resolution . He was appointed to the presidency by the Ploughshares board of directors on March 5 , 2008 . He is the author of Bomb Scare : The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons ( Columbia University Press , 2007 ) and Deadly Arsenals : Nuclear , Biological and Chemical Threats ( Carnegie Endowment , second edition 2006 ) and the co-author of Universal Compliance : A Strategy for Nuclear Security ( Carnegie Endowment , 2005 ) . Cirincione has advocated for negotiations to end the diplomatic stalemate regarding the nuclear program of Iran . His many public espousals of nonviolent conflict resolution include an appearance on The Colbert Report . Cirincione previously served as vice president for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress in Washington , DC . For eight years he was the director for non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , where he chaired and organized five of the annual Carnegie International Non-Proliferation Conferences . The 2005 conference included Cirincione 's 15-minute slide and film presentation , `` A Brief History of the Nuclear Age . '' He worked for nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives , beginning in 1985 as a professional staff member of the Committee on Armed Services . He also served as a staff member of the Committee on Government Operations , and served as staff director of the bipartisan Military Reform Caucus .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Joseph_Cirincione", "rank": 97, "score": 84916 }, { "content": "Title: Trinity's Child Content: Trinity 's Child is a 1983 novel by William Prochnau . The book depicts a nuclear war waged between the United States of America and the Soviet Union . During the waning years of the Cold War , the United States has engaged in a massive military buildup , hoping to press the economy of the Soviet Union to breaking point and so force them into political compromise . In the book 's scenario , hardline elements pressure the Soviet Premier into launching an attack on the US before it has the chance to squeeze the Soviets any more . The attack goes forward , and all the consequences of the doomsday scenario are laid bare , with conflicting claimants to the US Presidency as the line of succession breaks apart , devastation on the ground , and military staff having to choose between a treason which might save what 's left of their country , and a duty which might lead to the extinction of the human race itself . The novel covers fifteen hours in which critical decisions are made .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Trinity's_Child", "rank": 98, "score": 84787 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of war Content: The environmental impact of war focuses on the modernization of warfare and its increasing effects on the environment . Scorched earth methods have been used for much of recorded history . However , methods of modern warfare cause far greater devastation on the environment . The progression of warfare from chemical weapons to nuclear weapons has increasingly created stress on ecosystems and the environment . Specific examples of the environmental impact of war include : World War I , World War II , the Vietnam War , the Rwandan Civil War , the Kosovo War and the Gulf War .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_war", "rank": 99, "score": 84680 }, { "content": "Title: Michael L. Gross (ethicist) Content: Michael L. Gross ( born 1954 ) is a political ethicist and professor of political science at the University of Haifa where he is Chair of the Division of International Relations . He is the author of Bioethics and Armed Conflict , the first comprehensive study of medical ethics in conventional , unconventional , and low-intensity war which examines the dilemmas that arise when bioethical principles clash with military necessity . His contention is that medical ethics in time of war can not be identical to medical ethics in peacetime . He is also the author of Moral Dilemmas of Modern War : Torture , Assassination , and Blackmail in an Age of Asymmetric Conflict ( 2010 ) , Cambridge University Press , a wide-ranging study of military ethics , terrorism , modern weaponry and civilian immunity in contemporary armed conflict .", "qid": "366", "docid": "Michael_L._Gross_(ethicist)", "rank": 100, "score": 84513 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "368", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 1, "score": 199410 }, { "content": "Title: Paris Agreement Content: The Paris Agreement ( Accord de Paris ) is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation , adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020 . The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Paris and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015 . It was opened for signature on 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) at a ceremony in New York . As of May 2017 , 195 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty , 147 of which have ratified it . After several European Union states ratified the agreement in October 2016 , there were enough countries that had ratified the agreement that produce enough of the world 's greenhouse gases for the agreement to enter into force . The agreement went into effect on 4 November 2016 . The head of the Paris Conference , France 's foreign minister Laurent Fabius , said this `` ambitious and balanced '' plan is a `` historic turning point '' in the goal of reducing global warming . One year on , the ratification of the Paris Agreement was celebrated by the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo by illuminating the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe , Paris ' most iconic monuments , in green .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Paris_Agreement", "rank": 2, "score": 170782 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris , France , from 30 November to 12 December 2015 . It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP ) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties ( CMP ) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change , the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it . The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions . On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) , 174 countries signed the agreement in New York , and began adopting it within their own legal systems ( through ratification , acceptance , approval , or accession ) . According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks , the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius ( ° C ) compared to pre-industrial levels . The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century . In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement , the parties will also `` pursue efforts to '' limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C . The 1.5 ° C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050 , according to some scientists . Prior to the conference , 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions ( called `` Intended Nationally Determined Contributions '' , INDCs ) . These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 . For example , the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 . The agreement establishes a `` global stocktake '' which revisits the national goals to `` update and enhance '' them every five years beginning 2023 . However , no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement -- as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol . A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21 , including the Bonn Climate Change Conference , 19 to 23 October 2015 , which produced a draft agreement .", "qid": "368", "docid": "2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 3, "score": 157789 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 4, "score": 150619 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: Climate Change 2007 , the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , is the fourth in a series of reports intended to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects , and options for adaptation and mitigation . The report is the largest and most detailed summary of the climate change situation ever undertaken , produced by thousands of authors , editors , and reviewers from dozens of countries , citing over 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies . It supersedes the Third Assessment Report ( 2001 ) , and is superseded by the Fifth Assessment Report . The headline findings of the report were : `` warming of the climate system is unequivocal '' , and `` most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations . ''", "qid": "368", "docid": "IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 5, "score": 148602 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 6, "score": 147944 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 7, "score": 144724 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "368", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 8, "score": 143122 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "368", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 9, "score": 140400 }, { "content": "Title: Reasons for concern Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has organized many of the risks of climate change into five `` reasons for concern . '' The reasons for concern show that these risks increase with increases in the Earth 's global mean temperature ( i.e. , global warming ) . The IPCC 's five reasons for concern are : threats to endangered species and unique systems , damages from extreme climate events , effects that fall most heavily on developing countries and the poor within countries , global aggregate impacts ( i.e. , various measurements of total social , economic and ecological impacts ) , and large-scale high-impact events . The five reasons for concern are described in more detail below . The following descriptions are based on information from the IPCC 's Third ( TAR ) and Fourth Assessment Reports ( AR4 ) , published in 2001 and 2007 , respectively .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Reasons_for_concern", "rank": 10, "score": 138280 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Third Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Third Assessment Report , Climate Change 2001 , is an assessment of available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change by the IPCC . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the UN 's World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) '' ... to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' -LSB- IPCC website -RSB- The Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) is the third of a series of assessments ; it has been superseded by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , released in 2007 . Statements of the IPCC or information from the TAR are often used as a reference showing a scientific consensus on the subject of global warming , although a small minority of scientists take issue with the UN assessments ( see also Global warming controversy and Politics of global warming ) .", "qid": "368", "docid": "IPCC_Third_Assessment_Report", "rank": 11, "score": 134790 }, { "content": "Title: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions Content: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ( INDCs ) is a term used under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that all countries that signed the UNFCCC were asked to publish in the lead up to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris , France in December 2015 . These intended contributions were determined without prejudice to the legal nature of the contributions . The term was intended as a compromise between `` quantified emissions limitation and reduction objective '' ( QUELROs ) and `` nationally appropriate mitigation actions '' ( NAMAs ) that the Kyoto Protocol used to describe the different legal obligations of developed and developing countries . Under the Paris Agreement , adopted in December 2015 , the INDC will become the first Nationally Determined Contribution when a country ratifies the agreement , unless they decide to submit a new NDC at the same time . Once the Paris Agreement is ratified , the NDC will become the first greenhouse gas targets under the UNFCCC that applied equally to both developed and developing countries . On 3 August 2016 China and US ratified 2015 agreement on INDC . Together they both constitute 38 % of total global emission , with China 's alone emitting total of 20 % . India that has a Global share of GHGs emission at 4.1 % of that of world ratified Paris climate agreement on October 2 , 2016 by depositing the Instrument of ratification with the United nations .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Intended_Nationally_Determined_Contributions", "rank": 12, "score": 134456 }, { "content": "Title: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations , set up at the request of member governments , dedicated to the task of providing the world with an objective , scientific view of climate change and its political and economic impacts . It was first established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations , the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) , and later endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 43/53 . Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP . The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , which is the main international treaty on climate change . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic -LSB- i.e. , human-induced -RSB- interference with the climate system '' . IPCC reports cover `` the scientific , technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change , its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation . '' The IPCC does not carry out its own original research , nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself . The IPCC bases its assessment on the published literature , which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources . Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute ( on a voluntary basis , without payment from the IPCC ) to writing and reviewing reports , which are then reviewed by governments . IPCC reports contain a `` Summary for Policymakers '' , which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments . Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries . The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change , producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments . The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in equal parts , between the IPCC and Al Gore .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Intergovernmental_Panel_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 13, "score": 133353 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 14, "score": 132144 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 15, "score": 132075 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature Content: In its AR4 , WG1 report , Chapter3 , the IPCC explains global temperature in these words :", "qid": "368", "docid": "Global_temperature", "rank": 16, "score": 132067 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 17, "score": 131228 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Content: The Fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) is the fifth in a series of such reports . The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) and the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) to assess scientific , technical and socio-economic information concerning climate change , its potential effects and options for adaptation and mitigation . The Fifth Assessment Report was finalized in 2014 . As had been the case in the past , the outline of the AR5 was developed through a scoping process which involved climate change experts from all relevant disciplines and users of IPCC reports ; in particular representatives from governments . Governments and organizations involved in the Fourth Report were asked to submit comments and observations in writing with the submissions analysed by the panel . The report was delivered in stages , starting with Working Group I 's report on the physical science basis , based on 9,200 peer-reviewed studies . The summaries for policy makers were released on 27 September 2013 for the first report , on 31 March 2014 for the second report entitled `` Impacts , Adaptation , and Vulnerability '' , and on 14 April 2014 for the third report entitled `` Mitigation of Climate Change '' . The Synthesis Report was released on 2 November 2014 , in time to pave the way for negotiations on reducing carbon emissions at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris during late 2015 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "IPCC_Fifth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 18, "score": 127834 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation Content: The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) published a special report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation ( SRREN ) on May 9 , 2011 . The report developed under the leadership of Ottmar Edenhofer evaluates the global potential for using renewable energy to mitigate climate change . This IPCC special report provides broader coverage of renewable energy than was included in the IPCC 's 2007 climate change assessment report , as well as stronger renewable energy policy coverage . Renewable energy can contribute to `` social and economic development , energy access , secure energy supply , climate change mitigation , and the reduction of negative environmental and health impacts '' . Under favourable circumstances , cost savings in comparison to non-renewable energy use exist .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Sources_and_Climate_Change_Mitigation", "rank": 19, "score": 127801 }, { "content": "Title: Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification Content: The Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification ( or IPC ) , also known as the IPC Agreement , was signed in Strasbourg , France , on March 24 , 1971 and entered into force on October 7 , 1975 . It establishes a common classification for patents for invention , inventors ' certificates , utility models and utility certificates , known as the `` International Patent Classification '' ( IPC ) . The Agreement was amended on September 28 , 1979 . States party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property ( 1883 ) may become party to the Strasbourg Agreement . As of May 2013 , there are 62 contracting parties to the Strasbourg Agreement . The Holy See , the Iran and Liechtenstein signed the Agreement in 1971 but have not ratified it .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Strasbourg_Agreement_Concerning_the_International_Patent_Classification", "rank": 20, "score": 127747 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "368", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 21, "score": 127656 }, { "content": "Title: Climate risk Content: Climate risk means a risk resulting from climate change and affecting natural and human systems and regions . In the course of increasing global temperature and extreme weather phenomena the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has been founded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) and the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) for a better understanding of climate change and meeting concerns of these observations . Its main aim is evaluating climate risks and exploring strategies for the prevention of these risks .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_risk", "rank": 22, "score": 126958 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Change Conference, Moscow Content: The World Climate Change Conference was held in Moscow from September 29 to October 3 , 2003 . The initiative of convening the Conference was taken by Vladimir Putin , the President of the Russian Federation . The Conference was convened by the Russian Federation , and supported by international bodies including the United Nations . It should not be confused with the World Climate Conferences . The conference summary report , which was endorsed at concluding session of the Conference , October 3 , 2003 , endorsed the consensus represented by the IPCC TAR : The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) has provided the basis for much of our present understanding of knowledge in this field in its Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 . A large majority of the international scientific community has accepted its general conclusions that climate change is occurring , is primarily a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols , and that this represents a threat to people and ecosystems . Some divergent scientific interpretations were brought forward and discussed in the Conference . Andreas Fischlin , conference participant and IPCC author was critical of the conference , saying : However , concerning the scientific content of the conference , we had also to struggle with considerable difficulties . Unfortunately , there were not only leading scientists present , but also some colleagues who used the conference to express personal , political opinions based on value judgement instead of scientific facts and rigorously derived , scientific insights and thorough understanding . Thereby , I believe , principles of proper scientific conduct were violated too often and sometimes , I am afraid having to say so , even systematically . This contrasts sharply with the principles upheld by the IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) , which allow only to assess the current knowledge based on the best available , peer reviewed scientific literature and which do not allow for any non-scientific value judgements , let alone policy recommendations .", "qid": "368", "docid": "World_Climate_Change_Conference,_Moscow", "rank": 23, "score": 124989 }, { "content": "Title: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Content: Six Degrees : Our Future on a Hotter Planet ( 358 pages ) , ISBN 978-0-00-720905-7 is a 2007 ( 2008 in USA ) non-fiction book by author Mark Lynas about global warming . The book looks and attempts to summarize results from scientific papers on climate change .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Six_Degrees:_Our_Future_on_a_Hotter_Planet", "rank": 24, "score": 124156 }, { "content": "Title: List of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC or FCCC ) is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) , informally known as the Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . The objective of the treaty is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The treaty itself set no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . In that sense , the treaty is considered legally non-binding . Instead , the treaty provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' ) that may set binding limits on greenhouse gases . The UNFCCC was opened for signature on 9 May 1992 , after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . It entered into force on 21 March 1994 . As of December 2015 , UNFCCC has 197 parties .", "qid": "368", "docid": "List_of_parties_to_the_United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 25, "score": 122796 }, { "content": "Title: Long-term effects of global warming Content: See also Effects of global warming . The focus of this article is on the effects beyond 2100 . There are expected to be various long-term effects of global warming . Most discussion and research , including that by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports , concentrates on the effects of global warming up to 2100 , with only an outline of the effects beyond this .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Long-term_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 26, "score": 122439 }, { "content": "Title: Roger Pulwarty Content: Roger S. Pulwarty is a scientist from Trinidad and Tobago and contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He is the director of the US National Integrated Drought Information System at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) in Boulder , Colorado . Roger Pulwarty earned a B.S. degree ( Hons . ) in Atmospheric Sciences from York University in Toronto in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Climatology from the University of Boulder at Colorado in 1994 , where he worked under Professors Roger Barry and Herbert Riehl . His research and publications are on climate , climate impacts and adaptation policy in Western North America , Latin America and the Caribbean . From 1998-2002 he was the program director for the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments . He is Professor Adjunct at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of the West Indies . Dr. Pulwarty is a lead author on Chapter 17 of the 2007 IPCC Working Group II on Impacts , Adaptation and Vulnerability , on the IPCC 2008 Technical Report on Climate Change and Water and on Synthesis and Assessments Reports of the US Global Change Research Program . The IPCC is an intergovernmental body mandated by the UN to study the origins and effects of climate change on society and ecosystems . Dr. Pulwarty has served on Committees of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , and has provided testimonies before the U.S. Congress on climate , water resources and adaptation . Dr. Pulwarty acts in advisory roles on climate , natural resources , and disaster management to several U.S. and international interests including the Western Governors Association , the Department of the Interior , the governments of CARICOM ( the Caribbean Economic Community ) , the Organization of American States , the UNDP , UNEP and the World Bank .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Roger_Pulwarty", "rank": 27, "score": 121151 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "368", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 28, "score": 118445 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 29, "score": 118279 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "368", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 30, "score": 117587 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 31, "score": 117030 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) is an international environmental treaty adopted on May 9 , 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . It then entered into force on 21 March 1994 , after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it . The UNFCCC objective is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . Instead , the framework outlines how specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' or `` Agreements '' ) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC . Initially an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( INC ) produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 , and opened for signature on 4 June 1992 . The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015 . The convention enjoys broad legitimacy , largely due to its nearly universal membership . The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties ( COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change . In 1997 , the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 . The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013-2020 in the Doha Amendment , which - as of December 2015 - had not entered into force . In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted , governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions . The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th , 2016 . One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and removals , which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions . Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries . The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention , with offices in Haus Carstanjen , and the UN Campus ( known as Langer Eugen ) Bonn , Germany . From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres . In July 2016 , Patricia Espinosa from Mexico succeeded Figueres . The Secretariat , augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies .", "qid": "368", "docid": "United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 32, "score": 116762 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Second Assessment Report Content: The Second Assessment Report ( SAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 1996 , is an assessment of the then available scientific and socio-economic information on climate change . It was superseded by the Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) in 2001 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "IPCC_Second_Assessment_Report", "rank": 33, "score": 116708 }, { "content": "Title: An Appeal to Reason Content: An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson .", "qid": "368", "docid": "An_Appeal_to_Reason", "rank": 34, "score": 115183 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 35, "score": 114820 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 36, "score": 114576 }, { "content": "Title: Criticism of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Content: The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) is a report on climate change created with the help of a large number of contributors , both scientists and governmental representatives . There has been considerable political controversy over a small number of errors found in the report , and there have been calls for review of the process used to formulate the report . The overwhelming majority view of scientists with expertise in climate change is that errors , when found , are corrected , and the issues as identified do not undermine the conclusions of the report that the climate system is warming in response to increased levels of greenhouse gases , largely due to human activities .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Criticism_of_the_IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report", "rank": 37, "score": 113621 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "368", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 38, "score": 113556 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 39, "score": 113196 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Emissions Scenarios Content: The Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( SRES ) is a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) that was published in 2000 . The greenhouse gas emissions scenarios described in the Report have been used to make projections of possible future climate change . The SRES scenarios , as they are often called , were used in the IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , published in 2001 , and in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , published in 2007 . The SRES scenarios were designed to improve upon some aspects of the IS92 scenarios , which had been used in the earlier IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . The SRES scenarios are `` baseline '' ( or `` reference '' ) scenarios , which means that they do not take into account any current or future measures to limit greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions ( e.g. , the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ) . Emissions projections of the SRES scenarios are broadly comparable in range to the baseline emissions scenarios that have been developed by the scientific community . The SRES scenarios , however , do not encompass the full range of possible futures : emissions may change less than the scenarios imply , or they could change more . SRES was superseded by Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs ) in 2014 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Emissions_Scenarios", "rank": 40, "score": 112671 }, { "content": "Title: 1973 world oil market chronology Content: January 11 : U.S. Phase III price controls begin . Allows for voluntary instead of mandatory price control on all U.S. prices . This does not prevent a sharp rise in heating oil prices caused by a severe winter and shortage of product . January 17 : President Richard Nixon suspends mandatory oil import quota on No. 2 heating oil through April 30 . January 23 : Shah of Iran announces that the 1954 operating agreement between a consortium of oil companies and Iran will not be renewed when it expires in 1979 . The consortium was formed in 1954 as a means to settle a dispute between a new ministry in Iran and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company ( AIOC ) . The consortium included Standard Oil of New Jersey , Standard Oil of California , SOCONY-Vacuum , the Texas Company , Gulf , Royal Dutch-Shell , the Compagnie Francaise de Petroles , and the AIOC . February 28 : Iraq and IPC reach an agreement on compensation for nationalization . March : Special Rule No. 1 reimposes mandatory ( Phase II ) price controls on the 23 largest oil companies . Smaller companies , representing 5 percent of the market , enjoy uncontrolled prices . March 16 : Shah of Iran and Consortium members agree to nationalize all assets immediately in return for an assured 20-year supply of Iranian oil . March 16 : OPEC discusses raising prices to offset decline of U.S. dollar value . April 1 : OPEC increases posted prices by 5.7 percent . April 18 : U.S. Government ends Mandatory Oil Import Program . Program , established in 1959 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower , had limited imports of crude and product east of the Rocky Mountains to a percentage of domestic crude production . June 1 : Eight OPEC countries raise posted prices by 11.9 percent . June 11 : Libya nationalizes Bunker Hunt concession ; Nigeria acquires 35 percent participation in Shell-BP concession . June 14 : Nixon administration imposes 60-day economy-wide price freeze , superseding Special Rule No. 1 for oil companies . Aug : Libya nationalizes 51 percent of Occidental Petroleum concession and of the Oasis consortium . August 17 : President Nixon 's Cost of Living Council imposes two-tier price ceiling on crude petroleum sales : production of `` old '' oil ( that produced at or below 1972 levels from existing wells ) to be sold at March 1973 prices plus 35 cents ; production of `` new '' oil ( that produced above 1972 levels from existing wells and oil produced from new wells ) to be sold at uncontrolled prices . September 1 : Libya nationalizes 51 percent of nine other companies ' concessions : Esso , Libya/Sirte , Mobil , Shell , Gelensberg , Texaco , SoCal , Libyan-American ( ARCO ) , and Grace . September 5 : Conference of less developed countries approves forming `` producers ' associations , '' calls for withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Arab lands . September 15 : OPEC supports price hikes and designates six Persian Gulf countries to negotiate collectively with companies over prices . Other members to negotiate individually . September : Kuwait rejects gradual participation increase plan , insists on immediate 60 percent participation . October 6 : Beginning of fourth Arab-Israeli War . October 7 : Iraq nationalizes Exxon and Mobil shares in Basrah Petroleum Company representing 23.75 percent equity in the company . October 8 : OPEC meets with oil companies to discuss revision of 1971 Tehran agreement and oil prices . Negotiations fail . October 16 : The Gulf Six ( Iran , Iraq , Abu Dhabi , Kuwait , Saudi Arabia and Qatar ) unilaterally raise the posted price of Saudi Light marker crude 17 percent from $ 3.12 to $ 3.65 per barrel and announce production cuts . October 17 : OPEC oil ministers agree to use oil weapon in Arab-Israeli War , mandate cut in exports , and recommend embargo against unfriendly states . October 19 : President Nixon requests Congress to appropriate $ 2.2 billion in emergency aid for Israel . Libya , Saudi Arabia and other Arab states proclaim an embargo on oil exports to the United States . October 23 : Arab oil embargo extended to the Netherlands . November 5 : Arab producers announce 25 percent cut in production below September levels . Further cuts of five percent are threatened . November 18 : Arab oil ministers cancel the scheduled 5 percent cut in production for EEC . November 23 : Arab summit conference adopts open and secret resolutions on the use of the oil weapon . Embargo extended to Portugal , Rhodesia , and South Africa . November 27 : President Nixon signs the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act ( EPAA ) . Authorizes petroleum price , production , allocation and marketing controls . December 9 : Arab oil ministers announce a further production cut of 5 percent for January for non-friendly countries . December 22 : OPEC Gulf Six decides to raise the posted price of marker crude from $ 5.12 to $ 11.65 per barrel effective January 1 , 1974 . December 25 : Arab oil ministers cancel January 5 percent production cut . Saudi Arabian oil minister promises 10 percent OPEC production rise . | - | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | previous year :1972 world oil market chronology | width = `` 40 % '' align = `` center '' | This article is part of theChronology of world oil market events ( 1970-2005 ) | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | following year :1974 world oil market chronology | - Category : Oil market timelines World oil market chronology World Oil Market Chronology , 1973", "qid": "368", "docid": "1973_world_oil_market_chronology", "rank": 41, "score": 112485 }, { "content": "Title: United States House Science Subcommittee on Energy Content: The Science Subcommittee on Energy is one of six subcommittees of the United States House Committee on Science , Space and Technology . In 2007 , the subcommittee held the first Congressional hearing on global climate change for the 110th Congress . The Hearing on the State of Climate Change Science 2007 : The Findings of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , Working Group I Report , included four climate scientists who authored the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) assessment report and Speaker Nancy Pelosi .", "qid": "368", "docid": "United_States_House_Science_Subcommittee_on_Energy", "rank": 42, "score": 111204 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 43, "score": 110597 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 44, "score": 110435 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change litigation and the California Environmental Quality Act Content: Litigation related to climate change and greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions has become increasingly common in federal and state courts . Following adoption of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 ( AB 32 ) and publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , additional pressure was placed on California public agencies to evaluate potential adverse effects to global climate change caused by GHG emissions . In particular , several lawsuits have been filed against agencies for failure to analyze GHG emissions generated by projects subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ( CEQA ) . Court decisions prior to the 2010 revisions to the CEQA guidelines gave early insights as to how CEQA would be used as a vehicle to identify and mitigate GHG emissions within the state . Decisions issued after adoption of the revised guidelines are now being used to interpret CEQA 's new requirement to evaluate GHG emissions and climate change .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_change_litigation_and_the_California_Environmental_Quality_Act", "rank": 45, "score": 109540 }, { "content": "Title: Global Scenario Group Content: The Global Scenario Group ( GSG ) was an international , interdisciplinary body convened in 1995 by the Tellus Institute and the Stockholm Environment Institute to develop scenarios for world development in the twenty-first century . The GSG 's underlying scenario development work was rooted in the long-range integrated scenario analysis that Tellus Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute had undertaken through the PoleStar Project . Initially conceived in 1991 as a tool for integrated sustainability planning and long-range scenario analysis , PoleStar was inspired by the 1987 Brundtland Commission report Our Common Future , which first put the concept of `` sustainable development '' on the international agenda . The work of the Global Scenario Group was widely adopted in high-level intergovernmental settings . The scenarios informed numerous international assessments , including the World Water Council 's World Water Vision report in 1999 -- 2000 , the OECD Environmental Outlook in 2001 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's greenhouse gas emission mitigation assessment in 2001 , the United Nations Environment Programme 's Third GEO Report in 2002 , and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 . Several of the GSG participants who actively participated in the IPCC assessments have been recognized for contributing to the 2007 award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Global_Scenario_Group", "rank": 46, "score": 109486 }, { "content": "Title: Representative Concentration Pathways Content: Representative Concentration Pathways ( RCPs ) are four greenhouse gas concentration ( not emissions ) trajectories adopted by the IPCC for its fifth Assessment Report ( AR5 ) in 2014 . It supersedes Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( SRES ) projections published in 2000 . The pathways are used for climate modeling and research . They describe four possible climate futures , all of which are considered possible depending on how much greenhouse gases are emitted in the years to come . The four RCPs , RCP2 .6 , RCP4 .5 , RCP6 , and RCP8 .5 , are named after a possible range of radiative forcing values in the year 2100 relative to pre-industrial values ( +2.6 , +4.5 , +6.0 , and +8.5 W/m2 , respectively ) .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Representative_Concentration_Pathways", "rank": 47, "score": 109049 }, { "content": "Title: Post–Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions Content: Post-Kyoto negotiations refers to high level talks attempting to address global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions . Generally part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , these talks concern the period after the first `` commitment period '' of the Kyoto Protocol , which expired at the end of 2012 . Negotiations have been mandated by the adoption of the Bali Road Map and Decision 1/CP .13 ( `` The Bali Action Plan '' ) . UNFCCC negotiations are conducted within two subsidiary bodies , the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention ( AWG-LCA ) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol ( AWG-KP ) and were expected to culminate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in December 2009 in Copenhagen ( COP-15 ) ; negotiations are supported by a number of external processes , including the G8 process , a number of regional meetings and the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate that was launched by US President Barack Obama in March 2009 . High level talks were held at the meeting of the G8 +5 Climate Change Dialogue in February 2007 and at a number of subsequent G8 meetings , most recently leading to the adoption of the G8 leaders declaration `` Responsible Leadership for a Sustainable Future '' during the G8 summit in L ´ Aquila , Italy , in July 2009 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Post–Kyoto_Protocol_negotiations_on_greenhouse_gas_emissions", "rank": 48, "score": 108992 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC Summary for Policymakers Content: The Summary for policymakers ( SPM ) is a summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports intended to aid policymakers . The form is approved line by line by governments : `` Negotiations occur over wording to ensure accuracy , balance , clarity of message , and relevance to understanding and policy . ''", "qid": "368", "docid": "IPCC_Summary_for_Policymakers", "rank": 49, "score": 108420 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 50, "score": 108232 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 51, "score": 107724 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Coalition Content: The Global Climate Coalition ( GCC ) ( 1989 -- 2001 ) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and challenged the science behind global warming . The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations . The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol , and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States . The coalition promoted the views of climate skeptics . The GCC dissolved in 2001 after membership declined in the face of improved understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in climate change and of public criticism .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Global_Climate_Coalition", "rank": 52, "score": 107296 }, { "content": "Title: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera Content: Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM ) . He disagrees with predictions about future climate change , arguing that they ignore the most important factor , which is sun activity . In the summer of 2008 , he also predicted the world to soon enter a little ice age . `` The models and forecasts of the U.N. IPCC `` are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include , for example , solar activity . '' -- Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Victor_Manuel_Velasco_Herrera", "rank": 53, "score": 106906 }, { "content": "Title: Yuri Izrael Content: Yuri Antonovich Izrael ( Юрий Антониевич Израэль 15 May 1930 , Tashkent -- 23 January 2014 , Moscow ) was a vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) until September 2008 , when the new bureau was elected . He was the `` most influential scientific adviser '' for Vladimir Putin , the former president of Russia , according to CNN . Izrael was former chairman of the Committee for Hydrometeorology . He also served as director of the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology , which is a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences . He was a first vice-president of the World Meteorological Organization and helped develop the World Weather Watch . In 1992 , Izrael won the International Meteorological Organization Prize and the UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize for , among other accomplishments , contributing to the `` success of Working Group I I '' of the IPCC .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Yuri_Izrael", "rank": 54, "score": 106012 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change adaptation in Nepal Content: Climate change ( CC ) refers `` to the change of earth 's global or regional climate over a long period of time , whether due to natural variability or as the result of human activities '' IPCC , 2007d :30 . By the impact of climate change , as systems become more vulnerable to natural hazards , there is a greater need to develop responses ( that is , adjustments in existing practices , processes or structures ) that are able to counter potential future disasters . Such a response is known as adaptation to climate change IPCC , 2001b ; Smit et al. , 1999 . Community forest user group ( CFUG ) is main areas to act climate change adaptation in Nepa", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_change_adaptation_in_Nepal", "rank": 55, "score": 105653 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 56, "score": 105544 }, { "content": "Title: Heat (Colder album) Content: Heat is the second album from French musician Colder , released on Output Recordings on July 4 , 2005 . The album was produced in Paris , France and was released on CD , limited edition CD ( housed in a digipak ) , and limited edition red-colored 12 '' vinyl . The album was also released on CD in Mexico with two bonus tracks . All versions of the album are out of print .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Heat_(Colder_album)", "rank": 57, "score": 105503 }, { "content": "Title: Bert Metz Content: Bert Metz ( born 15 August 1945 , The Hague ) is a Dutch climate policy expert . He was Co-chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Working Group III on mitigation on climate change for the third and fourth assessment report of the IPCC . Currently he is a fellow at the european climate foundation . Metz obtained an Engineer 's degree in Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology and subsequently his Ph.D. degree at the same university . From 1976 to 1987 he worked for Dutch Ministry of Housing , Spatial Planning and Environment in the fields of air pollution , external safety , noise pollution , chemical waste and the enforcement of environmental laws . From 1987 until 1992 he was Counsellor for Health and Environment at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington DC . In 1992 he became Deputy Director for Air and Energy of the Netherlands Ministry of Housing , Spatial Planning and Environment , with responsibility for climate policy . He led the Netherlands delegation to the negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Convention . In 1997 he moved to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency at RIVM to head the group on climate change and global sustainability and was elected as co-chairman of the Working Group on Climate Change Mitigation of the IPCC for the preparation of the Third Assessment Report . In 2002 he was re-elected in that position for the 4th Assessment Report cycle . Although formally retired , Bert Metz is still very active in the climate policy arena , among others as advisor for the European Climate Foundation and as steering group member of UNEP 's annual Emissions Gap Report . In 2008 he was named Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau . .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Bert_Metz", "rank": 58, "score": 104727 }, { "content": "Title: HadGEM1 Content: HadGEM1 ( abbreviation for Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model , version 1 ) is a coupled climate model developed at the Met Office 's Hadley Centre in 2006 and used in IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on climate change . It represents a significant scientific advance on its predecessor , HadCM3 . HadGEM1 also provides a basis for further development of models , particularly involving enhanced resolution and full Earth System modelling . The current version is HadGEM3 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "HadGEM1", "rank": 59, "score": 104562 }, { "content": "Title: Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change Content: The Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change ( or CSCCC ) is an entity that maintains a website and describes itself as a global group of non-profit organizations with a mission of `` seek -LSB- ing -RSB- to educate the public about the science and economics of climate change in an impartial manner . '' The Coalition identifies its membership as including 60 independent nonprofit organisations from 40 countries `` who share a commitment to improving public understanding about a range of public policy issues . '' It calls itself `` a free-market alternative to mainstream environmentalism . '' An Indian news media report states that it was founded by the International Policy Network , a London-based organization that receives support from Exxon Mobil . The group publishes background papers and opinion editorials on the science and economics of climate change and maintains a blog . Its Civil Society Report on Climate Change was published in 2007 , shortly before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Bali . CSCCC experts make media appearances , such as Julian Morris 's 2007 feature on Larry King Live and his televised debate in 2008 with IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri . This IPN in the UK has Julian Morris as Executive Director . It is actually a part of the Atlas Group/Network ( aka Atlas Economic Research Institute ) which was founded by UK factory-chicken king , Sir Antony Fisher ( one of PM Margaret Thatcher 's economic gurus ) and American Loctite millionaire Richard Krieble . They had funding support from Krieble , Richard Mellon Scaife , and Philip Morris . Fisher is reputed to have had a primary hand in establishing up to 150 libertarian think-tanks around the world . Fisher 's daughter , Linda Whetstone , now works for the ( Fisher-founded ) Adam Smith Institute . She is also the chairperson of the International Policy Network , and is on the Boards of Directors of the Mont Pelerin Society , the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Atlas Group in the USA . Coalitions and networks of this kind a common with Atlas Group think-tanks , and many of their key staff and directors serve on many different organisations . This faux-multiplicity amplifies the apparent strength of the public attacks on climate-change science . See also the Stockholm Network . and", "qid": "368", "docid": "Civil_Society_Coalition_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 60, "score": 104475 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 61, "score": 103898 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal work limit Content: Thermal Work Limit ( TWL ) is defined as the limiting ( or maximum ) sustainable metabolic rate that well-hydrated , acclimatized individuals can maintain in a specific thermal environment , within a safe deep body core temperature ( < 38.2 ° C ) and sweat rate ( < 1.2 kg per hour ) . The index is designed for self-paced workers and does not rely on estimation of actual metabolic rates , a process that is difficult and subject to considerable error . The index has been introduced into the United Arab Emirates and Australia , resulting in a substantial and sustained fall in the incidence of heat illness in the latter .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Thermal_work_limit", "rank": 62, "score": 103377 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 63, "score": 103010 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions Content: Climate Change : Global Risks , Challenges and Decisions was a conference on Climate Change held at the Bella Center by the University of Copenhagen . The event was organised with the assistance of other universities in the International Alliance of Research Universities . The stated aim of the conference was to provide `` a summary of existing scientific knowledge two years after the last IPCC report . '' The conference took place on 10 -- 12 March 2009 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_Change:_Global_Risks,_Challenges_and_Decisions", "rank": 64, "score": 102437 }, { "content": "Title: International Patent Classification Content: The International Patent Classification ( IPC ) is a hierarchical patent classification system used in over 100 countries to classify the content of patents in a uniform manner . It was created under the Strasbourg Agreement ( 1971 ) , one of a number of treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO ) . The classification is updated on a regular basis by a Committee of Experts , consisting of representatives of the Contracting States of that Agreement with observers from other organisations , such as the European Patent Office .", "qid": "368", "docid": "International_Patent_Classification", "rank": 65, "score": 101992 }, { "content": "Title: List of authors of Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Content: This is a list of the 620 authors contributing to Climate Change 2007 : The Physical Science Basis , which was the 996 page contribution of Working Group I to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . Their report describes the causes and climate consequences of global warming . This list is limited to people acknowledged as authors or editors on the report . The additional several hundred reviewers acknowledged in Annex III of the report are not included on this list . Author affiliations and nationalities are summarized from the list in Annex II of the report . Each author may have contributed to one or more sections and had one or more roles during the writing process . In the table below abbreviations are used to denote the roles and sections :", "qid": "368", "docid": "List_of_authors_of_Climate_Change_2007:_The_Physical_Science_Basis", "rank": 66, "score": 101986 }, { "content": "Title: Christiana Figueres Content: Karen Christiana Figueres Olsen ( born 7 August 1956 ) is a Costa Rican diplomat with 35 years of experience in high level national and international policy and multilateral negotiations . She was appointed Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) in July 2010 , six months after the failed COP15 in Copenhagen . During the next six years she dedicated herself to rebuilding the global climate change negotiating process based on fairness , transparency and collaboration , leading to the 2015 Paris Agreement , widely recognized as a historical achievement . Over the years she has worked in the fields of climate change , sustainable development , energy , land use , technical and financial cooperation . She is a frequent public speaker and widely published author . She is the mother of two young women , and speaks Spanish , English , and German .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Christiana_Figueres", "rank": 67, "score": 101772 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Protocol Content: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 68, "score": 101586 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 69, "score": 101540 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC (disambiguation) Content: IPCC may refer to : Independent Police Complaints Commission of England and Wales Independent Police Complaints Council of Hong Kong Integrated Professional Competency Course , a course of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , a scientific body under the auspices of the United Nations . Interworld Police Coordinating Company , a fictional organization in Jack Vance 's novels Irish Peatland Conservation Council", "qid": "368", "docid": "IPCC_(disambiguation)", "rank": 70, "score": 101099 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan M. Gregory Content: Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Jonathan_M._Gregory", "rank": 71, "score": 99237 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 72, "score": 99094 }, { "content": "Title: United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement Content: On June 1, 2017, United States President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, and begin negotiations to re-enter the agreement \"on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers,\" or form a new agreement. In withdrawing from the agreement, Trump stated that \"The Paris accord will undermine (the U.S.) economy,\" and \"puts (the U.S.) at a permanent disadvantage.\" Trump stated that the withdrawal would be in accordance with his America First policy. In accordance with Article 28 of the Paris Agreement, a country cannot give notice of withdrawal from the agreement before three years of its start date in the relevant country, which was on November 4, 2016 in the case of the United States. The White House later clarified that the U.S. will abide by the four-year exit process. On November 4, 2019, the administration gave a formal notice of intention to withdraw, which takes 12 months to take effect. Until the withdrawal took effect, the United States was obligated to maintain its commitments under the Agreement, such as the requirement to continue reporting its emissions to the United Nations. The withdrawal took effect on November 4, 2020, one day after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.While celebrated by some members of the Republican Party, international reactions to the withdrawal were overwhelmingly negative from across the political spectrum, and the decision received substantial criticism from religious organizations, businesses, political leaders of all parties, environmentalists, and scientists and citizens from the United States and internationally.Following Trump's announcement, the governors of several U.S. states formed the United States Climate Alliance to continue to advance the objectives of the Paris Agreement at the state level despite the federal withdrawal. As of July 1, 2019, 24 states, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico have joined the alliance, and similar commitments have also been expressed by other state governors, mayors, and businesses.Trump's withdrawal from the Paris agreement will impact other countries by reducing its financial aid to the Green Climate fund. The termination of the $3 billion U.S. funding will ultimately impact climate change research and decrease society's chance of reaching the Paris Agreement goals, as well as omit U.S. contributions to the future IPCC reports. Trump's decision will also affect the carbon emission space as well as the carbon price. The U.S.'s withdrawal will also mean that the spot to take over the global climate regime will be obtainable for China and the EU.President-elect Joe Biden vowed to rejoin the Paris Agreement on his first day in office.", "qid": "368", "docid": "United_States_withdrawal_from_the_Paris_Agreement", "rank": 73, "score": 99049 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 74, "score": 99031 }, { "content": "Title: Planetary equilibrium temperature Content: The planetary equilibrium temperature is a theoretical temperature that a planet would be at when considered simply as if it were a black body being heated only by its parent star . In this model , the presence or absence of an atmosphere ( and therefore any greenhouse effect ) is not considered , and one treats the theoretical black body temperature as if it came from an idealized surface of the planet . Other authors use different names for this concept , such as equivalent blackbody temperature of a planet , or the effective radiation emission temperature of the planet . Similar concepts include the global mean temperature , global radiative equilibrium , and global-mean surface air temperature , which includes the effects of global warming .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Planetary_equilibrium_temperature", "rank": 75, "score": 98935 }, { "content": "Title: Kevin E. Trenberth Content: Kevin Edward Trenberth ( born November 8 , 1944 ) is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the US NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research . He was a lead author of the 2001 and 2007 IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change ( see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report ) and serves on the Scientific Steering Group for the Climate Variability and Predictability ( CLIVAR ) program . He chaired the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel from 2004 to 2010 and chaired the Global Energy and Water Exchanges ( GEWEX ) scientific steering group from 2010-2013 ( member 2007-14 ) . In addition , he served on the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme , and has made significant contributions to research into El Niño-Southern Oscillation . Kevin 's work is highly cited and he has an h-index of 100 ( 100 papers have over 100 citations ) .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Kevin_E._Trenberth", "rank": 76, "score": 98648 }, { "content": "Title: Wegman Report Content: The Wegman Report ( officially called the Ad Hoc Committee Report on the ` Hockey Stick ' Global Climate Reconstruction ) was prepared in 2006 by three statisticians led by Edward Wegman at the request of Rep. Joe Barton of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce to validate criticisms made by Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick of reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years , in particular the reconstructions by Mann , Bradley and Hughes which had become the focus of the hockey stick controversy .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Wegman_Report", "rank": 77, "score": 98221 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation Content: Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation", "rank": 78, "score": 97881 }, { "content": "Title: Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project Content: The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project ( DDPP ) is a global consortium formed in October 2013 which researches methods to limit the rise of global temperature due to global warming to 2 ° C or less . The focus of the DDPP is on sustainable energy systems , other sectors of the economy , such as agriculture and land-use , are not directly considered .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Deep_Decarbonization_Pathways_Project", "rank": 79, "score": 97630 }, { "content": "Title: John T. Houghton Content: Sir John Theodore Houghton ( born 30 December 1931 ) is a Welsh scientist who was the co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) scientific assessment working group . He was the lead editor of first three IPCC reports . He was professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford , former Director General at the Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre . He is the president of the John Ray Initiative , an organisation `` connecting Environment , Science and Christianity '' , where he has compared the stewardship of the Earth , to the stewardship of the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve . He is a founder member of the International Society for Science and Religion . He is also the current president of the Victoria Institute .", "qid": "368", "docid": "John_T._Houghton", "rank": 80, "score": 96898 }, { "content": "Title: Campaign against Climate Change Content: The Campaign against Climate Change ( variously abbreviated to CCC or CaCC ) is a UK-based pressure group that aims to raise public awareness of anthropogenic climate change through mobilizing mass demonstrations . Founded in 2001 in response to President Bush 's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol , the organization saw a steady increase in attendance on marches before a sudden take-off in interest between October - December 2005 . An estimated 10,000 people attended a rally in London on December 3 , 2005 . The following year on November 4 , 2006 the Campaign organized a march from the US Embassy to the iCount event in Trafalgar Square . At least 25,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square that day making it easily the biggest demonstration on climate change in the UK to date , until The Wave march in December 2009 . The December 3rd , 2005 protests were not confined to the UK , but formed part of the first Global Day of Action on Climate Change , in which CCC played a key role in co-ordinating . The demonstrations , in more than 30 countries around the world , were timed to coincide with the crucial Montreal Climate talks in Canada , at which preliminary agreements were made for a post-Kyoto treaty to take effect after 2012 . Outside Montreal itself , a crowd of between 25,000 - 40,000 gathered in a protest organized by the American-based Climate Crisis Coalition . The December 2006 protests again had an international flavour , with the London , UK protest attracting 10,000 participants . The Campaign against Climate Change has a network of local groups around the UK , which are currently in the process of being extended . On February 9 , 2008 the Campaign against Climate Change hosted a Trade Union conference on climate change . Over 300 delegates attended and heard speakers , including several Trade Union general secretaries or their deputies , from most of the major British unions . This conference was followed by two more Trade Union events in 2009 and 2010 . The campaign has also produced a report to a number of British Trade Union 's on `` One Million Climate Jobs '' . Arguing that direct government funding must be used to create jobs that can reduce Carbon emissions . CCC is an example of a growing number of climate-related environmental pressure groups that have developed during the last decade , including organizations like Rising Tide , Climaction and the coalition group Stop Climate Chaos , of which the Campaign against Climate Change is a member . CCC was heavily involved in the campaign against the closure of the Vestas Wind Turbine plant on the Isle of Wight and the occupation of the factory by the workers . The CCC was part of the mobilisations for the demonstrations that marked the United Nations talks on Climate Change in Copenhagen , in December 2009 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Campaign_against_Climate_Change", "rank": 81, "score": 96691 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 82, "score": 96459 }, { "content": "Title: Deglaciation Content: Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Deglaciation", "rank": 83, "score": 96386 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change acronyms Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) use tens of acronyms and initialisms in documents relating to climate change policy .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_change_acronyms", "rank": 84, "score": 96211 }, { "content": "Title: List of environmental reports Content: This is a list of notable environmental reports . In this context they relate to the impacts of human activity on the environment . City-level Decoupling : Urban Resource Flows and the Governance of Infrastructure Transitions - by the International Resource Panel Clean Energy Trends - a series of reports by Clean Edge - beginning in 2002 Copeland Report - for the U.S. government , completed in 1933 Copenhagen Diagnosis - written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries Dioxin Reassessment Report - by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Impact of the Big Cypress Swamp Jetport ( `` Leopold Report '' ) - United States Department of the Interior ( 1969 ) Environmental Risks and Challenges of Anthropogenic Metals Flows and Cycles - by the International Resource Panel Forest Principles - United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) The Global 2000 Report to the President - Council on Environmental Quality ( 1981 ) Global Environment Outlook - United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP ) Hirsch report ( Peaking of World Oil Production : Impacts , Mitigation , and Risk Management ) - United States Department of Energy Index of Leading Environmental Indicators - Pacific Research Institute IPCC First Assessment Report - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) IPCC supplementary report , 1992 - IPCC IPCC Second Assessment Report - IPCC IPCC Third Assessment Report Climate Change 2001 - IPCC ( 2001 ) IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 - IPCC ( 2007 ) IPCC Fifth Assessment Report ( 2014 ) Leopold Report ( `` Wildlife Management in the National Parks '' ) - Special Advisory Board on Wildlife Management ( 1963 ) Livestock 's Long Shadow - Environmental Issues and Options - United Nations ( 2006 ) Living Planet Report - WWF , every two years Making Sweden an Oil-Free Society - Government of Sweden ( 2006 ) Meat Atlas - published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Friends of the Earth Europe Nuclear Power and the Environment - UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution - 1976 Our Common Future - World Commission on Environment and Development ( 1987 ) Outlook On Renewable Energy In America ( 2 volumes ) - American Council on Renewable Energy - 2007 Phase I Environmental Site Assessment - generic Planning Policy Statement 10 : Planning for Sustainable Waste Management ( PPS 10 ) - British Government Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation - United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) - planned for 2010 Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification - Royal Commission on Genetic Modification ( 2001 ) State of the Climate - NOAA/NCDC ( published annually ) The State of the World - Worldwatch Institute ( published yearly since 1984 ) Wegman Report - to validate criticisms of reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years Windscale : Britain 's Biggest Nuclear Disaster ( 2007 ) World Climate Report - Greening Earth Society The World 's 25 Most Endangered Primates - selected and published by the IUCN Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group ( IUCN/SSC PSG ) , the International Primatological Society ( IPS ) , and Conservation International ( CI )", "qid": "368", "docid": "List_of_environmental_reports", "rank": 85, "score": 96148 }, { "content": "Title: Bert Bolin Content: Bert Rickard Johannes Bolin ( -LSB- bæʈː bʊliːn -RSB- ; 15 May 1925 -- 30 December 2007 ) was a Swedish meteorologist who served as the first chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , from 1988 to 1997 . He was professor of meteorology at Stockholm University from 1961 until his retirement in 1990 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Bert_Bolin", "rank": 86, "score": 95939 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 87, "score": 95867 }, { "content": "Title: Richard A. Betts Content: Richard A. Betts is Head of the Climate Impacts strategic area at the Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter , United Kingdom . He is also Chair in Climate Impacts at the University of Exeter and the Principal Investigator of the EU FP7 project HELIX ( High-End cLimate Impacts and eXtremes ) . He was a lead author for Working Group I and a contributing author for Working Group II of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . He was a lead author for Working Group II of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report . He is an editor for the International Journal of Global Warming , the Journal of Environmental Investing , and for Earth System Dynamics . After studying physics at the University of Bristol , Betts switched to meteorology at the University of Birmingham and then studied for a doctorate in meteorology at the University of Reading . He is noted for engaging with critics of climate science on Twitter and was selected by TIME as one of the 140 best Twitter feeds of 2012 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Richard_A._Betts", "rank": 88, "score": 94975 }, { "content": "Title: Heat gun Content: A heat gun is a device used to emit a stream of hot air , usually at temperatures between 100 ° C and 550 ° C ( 200-1000 ° F ) , with some hotter models running around 760 ° C ( 1400 ° F ) , which can be held by hand . Heat guns usually have the form of an elongated body pointing at what is to be heated , with a handle fixed to it at right angles and a trigger , in the same general layout as a handgun , hence the name .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Heat_gun", "rank": 89, "score": 94256 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway greenhouse effect Content: A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Runaway_greenhouse_effect", "rank": 90, "score": 94088 }, { "content": "Title: Paris Peace Conference Content: Paris Peace Conference may refer to : Congress of Paris ( 1856 ) , negotiations ending the Crimean War Paris Peace Conference , 1919 , negotiations ending World War I Paris Peace Treaties , 1947 , which ended World War II for most nations Paris Peace Accords , 1973 treaty ending American involvement in the Vietnam War The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Paris and led to the Paris Agreement to fight global warming", "qid": "368", "docid": "Paris_Peace_Conference", "rank": 91, "score": 94035 }, { "content": "Title: Rajendra K. Pachauri Content: Rajendra Kumar Pachauri ( born 20 August 1940 ) was the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . He held the post from 2002 until his resignation in 2015 , during which time the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize . He resigned from IPCC in February 2015 . Following a media trial , The Energy and Resources Institute ( TERI ) Governing Council asked him to step down from the post of Director-General of the institute . The Governing Council of TERI in a meeting in February 2016 appointed Ashok Chawla , a Gujarat cadre Indian Administrative Service Office who was former Union Finance Secretary and former Chairman of the Competition Commission , as its new chairman . Ajay Mathur , a technocrat in the Bureau of Energy Efficiency , was appointed as the Director General of TERI by the Governing Council in July 2015 .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Rajendra_K._Pachauri", "rank": 92, "score": 93763 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 93, "score": 93243 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "368", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 94, "score": 93167 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Environment Organization Content: Proposals for the creation of a United Nations Environmental Organization ( UNEO ) have come as some question the efficacy of the current United Nations Environmental Program ( UNEP ) at dealing with the scope of global environmental issues . Created to act as an anchor institution in the system of Global Environmental Governance ( GEG ) , it has failed to meet those demands . The UNEP has been hindered by its title as a Programme as opposed to a Specialized agency like the WTO or WHO , in addition to a lack of voluntary funding , and a location removed from the centers of political power , in Nairobi , Kenya . These factors have led to widespread calls for UNEP reform , and following the publication of Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC in February 2007 , a `` Paris Call for Action '' read out by French President Chirac and supported by 46 countries , called for the UNEP to be replaced by a new and more powerful United Nations Environment Organization , to be modelled on the World Health Organization . The 52 countries included the European Union nations , but notably did not include the United States and BRIC ( Brasil , Russia , India , and China ) , the top five emitters of greenhouse gases .", "qid": "368", "docid": "United_Nations_Environment_Organization", "rank": 95, "score": 93057 }, { "content": "Title: Vincent R. Gray Content: __ NOTOC __ Vincent Richard Gray ( born 24 March 1922 ) is a New Zealand-based chemist , and a founder of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition . Born in London on 24 March 1922 , Gray was awarded a PhD in physical chemistry by the University of Cambridge after studies on incendiary bomb fluids made from aluminium soaps . In New Zealand , he was the first Director of Building Research and later , Chief Chemist of the Coal Research Association . He has also published many articles and reports , seven in peer-reviewed journals . After retirement , he had four and a half years in China and when he returned became a critic of the claim that climate was harmed by human emissions of greenhouse gases . He has commented on every publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , with 1,898 comments on the 2007 Report . He has published critical studies on all of the reports including a book `` The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of ` Climate Change 2001 ' '' . He has published `` Confessions of a Climate Sceptic '' He is sceptical of the anthropogenic global warming : `` The two main `` scientific '' claims of the IPCC are the claim that `` the globe is warming '' and `` Increases in carbon dioxide emissions are responsible '' . Evidence for both of these claims is fatally flawed . '' Gray has called for the IPCC to be abolished , claiming it is `` fundamentally corrupt '' due to his conclusion that for significant parts of the work of the IPCC , the data collection and scientific methods employed are unsound and that the IPCC resists all efforts to try to discuss or rectify these problems . Gray was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Counterpoint in a debate entitled `` Nine Lies about Global Warming '' , and was interviewed in a featured story in the New Zealand Herald as a `` prominent '' global warming skeptic . In 2002 , Gray also published a book , The Greenhouse Delusion : A Critique of `` Climate Change 2001 '' . In it , Gray argues `` that the quality and reliability of the IPCC 's measurements are poor , the system of determining how much weight should be attributed to different influences on the earth 's temperature is faulty , and the validity of evidence derived from computer modeling is questionable . ''", "qid": "368", "docid": "Vincent_R._Gray", "rank": 96, "score": 92976 }, { "content": "Title: Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment Content: The Indian Network on Climate Change Assessment ( INCCA ) is a proposed network of scientists in India to be set up to publish peer-reviewed findings on climate change in India . It was announced on 7 October 2009 , saying : It was re-announced on 25 January 2012 by an official of the climate change division in the Environment Ministry after a strategy meeting chaired by Joint Secretary ( Climate ) J.M. Mausker , which also dealt with the framing of India 's National Action Plan on Climate Change ( NAPCC ) . On 4 February 2010 India 's environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced that it would bring together 250 scientists from 125 Indian research institutions and collaborate with international organisations.its first assessment of greenhouse gas emission was released on May 11 , 2010 and Its second climate assessment to be published in November 2010 would include reports on the Himalayas , the coastline of India , the Western Ghat highlands and the north-eastern region of India . He said it would operate as a `` sort of Indian IPCC '' , but will not rival the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Ramesh also announced the initiation of an Indian National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology . He said that although he respected the IPCC , it was unequal to the task and its weakness was that it did not conduct its own research . Ramesh also indicated its biases made it insensitive to regional realities , and instead relied on compiling assessments of other reports , which , led to `` goof-ups '' on the Amazon forests , Himalayan glaciers , and ice caps .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Indian_Network_on_Climate_Change_Assessment", "rank": 97, "score": 92935 }, { "content": "Title: Heater (aquarium) Content: An aquarium heater is a device used in the fishkeeping hobby to warm the temperature of water in aquariums . Most tropical freshwater and marine aquariums are maintained at temperatures that range from 22-30 ° C ( 71-86 ° F ) . The types include glass immersion heaters and undergravel heating . There are also heating mats that may be placed under the aquarium .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Heater_(aquarium)", "rank": 98, "score": 92736 }, { "content": "Title: 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years Content: 2052 -- A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years is a 2012 book describing trends in global development . It is written by Jørgen Randers and is a follow-up to The Limits to Growth , which in 1972 was the first worldwide report by the Club of Rome . It differs in three ways from the previous report . First , it does not describe an impending disaster scenario , but shows only trends . Secondly , it is to be read in the light of experience since 1972 , namely , that all of humanity has responded to the report , but with a delay of 20 to 40 years . Thirdly , it offers not only future scenarios , it makes concrete proposals on how the individual should respond to emerging developments . Randers repeatedly points out that he does not want to predict specific events , only general trends .", "qid": "368", "docid": "2052:_A_Global_Forecast_for_the_Next_Forty_Years", "rank": 99, "score": 92640 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "368", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 100, "score": 92478 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Tipping points in the climate system Content: A tipping point in the climate system is a threshold that, when exceeded, can lead to large changes in the state of the system. Potential tipping points have been identified in the physical climate system, in impacted ecosystems, and sometimes in both. For instance, feedback from the global carbon cycle is a driver for the transition between glacial and interglacial periods, with orbital forcing providing the initial trigger. Earth's geologic temperature record includes many more examples of geologically rapid transitions between different climate states.Climate tipping points are of particular interest in reference to concerns about global warming in the modern era. Possible tipping point behaviour has been identified for the global mean surface temperature by studying self-reinforcing feedbacks and the past behavior of Earth's climate system. Self-reinforcing feedbacks in the carbon cycle and planetary reflectivity could trigger a cascading set of tipping points that lead the world into a hothouse climate state.Large-scale components of the Earth system that may pass a tipping point have been referred to as tipping elements. Tipping elements are found in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, possibly causing tens of meters of sea level rise. These tipping points are not always abrupt. For example, at some level of temperature rise the melt of a large part of the Greenland ice sheet and/or West Antarctic Ice Sheet will become inevitable; but the ice sheet itself may persist for many centuries. Some tipping elements, like the collapse of ecosystems, are irreversible.", "qid": "369", "docid": "Tipping_points_in_the_climate_system", "rank": 1, "score": 206535 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 2, "score": 175070 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland ice sheet Content: The Greenland ice sheet ( Grønlands indlandsis , Sermersuaq ) is a vast body of ice covering 1710000 km ² , roughly 80 % of the surface of Greenland . It is the second largest ice body in the world , after the Antarctic ice sheet . The ice sheet is almost 2400 km long in a north-south direction , and its greatest width is 1100 km at a latitude of 77 ° N , near its northern margin . The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 m . The thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point . It is not the only ice mass of Greenland -- isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76000 and around the periphery . If the entire 2850000 km3 of ice were to melt , it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m . The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice , or its Danish equivalent , indlandsis . It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Greenland_ice_sheet", "rank": 3, "score": 173133 }, { "content": "Title: Ice sheet Content: An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50000 km2 , thus also known as continental glacier . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland ; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of North America , the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America . Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers . Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap . An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery . Although the surface is cold , the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat . In places , melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly . This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet -- these are ice streams . The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms . The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap ( maybe several ) in the early Oligocene , but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene , when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica . The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene , but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation . This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Ice_sheet", "rank": 4, "score": 172956 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West ( or Lesser ) Antarctica , the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains which lies in the Western Hemisphere . The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet , meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves . The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf , the Ronne Ice Shelf , and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea . It is estimated that the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet is about 25.4 million km3 ( 6.1 million cu mi ) , and the WAIS contains just under 10 % of this , or 2.2 million km3 ( 530,000 cu mi ) . The weight of the ice has caused the underlying rock to sink by between 0.5 and 1 kilometres ( 0.31 -- 0.62 mi ) in a process known as isostatic depression . Under the force of its own weight , the ice sheet deforms and flows . The interior ice flows slowly over rough bedrock . In some circumstances , ice can flow faster in ice streams , separated by slow-flowing ice ridges . The inter-stream ridges are frozen to the bed while the bed beneath the ice streams consists of water-saturated sediments . Many of these sediments were deposited before the ice sheet occupied the region , when much of West Antarctica was covered by the ocean . The rapid ice-stream flow is a non-linear process still not fully understood ; streams can start and stop for unclear reasons . When ice reaches the coast , it either calves or continues to flow outward onto the water . The result is a large , floating ice shelf affixed to the continent .", "qid": "369", "docid": "West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 5, "score": 167578 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary glaciation Content: The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Quaternary_glaciation", "rank": 6, "score": 167445 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic ice sheet Content: The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Antarctic_ice_sheet", "rank": 7, "score": 165288 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Bindschadler Content: Dr. Robert Bindschadler is a senior fellow at NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center and has been an active field researcher in the Antarctic for over 25 years . He is a past president of the International Glaciological Society , chairs the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative , is an editor for the Journal of Glaciology and has led 14 expeditions to Antarctica and has participated in numerous other expeditions around the world including Greenland . He has also testified before Congress and has briefed the U.S. vice president concerning ice-sheet stability and is often quoted or featured in the media . He was born in Pittsburgh and received a B.S. in astronomy and physics in 1971 from the University of Michigan and earned his Ph.D in Geophysics from the University of Washington in 1978 and did post doctoral work in Switzerland prior to working at NASA . His work revolves around the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets using remote sensing technology . He has developed applications used to measure ice velocity and elevation using radar imagery which monitors the melting of ice sheets and detects changes in the volume of ice-sheets using radar altimetry . He has received numerous awards including Exceptional scientific achievement by NASA in 1994 as well as the Goddard Senior fellow in 2000 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Robert_Bindschadler", "rank": 8, "score": 162139 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctica Content: West Antarctica , or Lesser Antarctica , one of the two major regions of Antarctica , is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere , and includes the Antarctic Peninsula . It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It lies between the Ross Sea ( partly covered by the Ross Ice Shelf ) , and the Weddell Sea ( largely covered by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf ) . It may be considered a giant peninsula stretching from the South Pole towards the tip of South America . West Antarctica is largely covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , but there have been signs that climate change is having some effect and that this ice sheet may have started to shrink slightly . The coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula are the only parts of West Antarctica that become ( in summer ) ice-free . These constitute the Marielandia Antarctic tundra and have the warmest climate in Antarctica . The rocks are clad in mosses and lichens that can cope with the intense cold of winter and the short growing-season .", "qid": "369", "docid": "West_Antarctica", "rank": 9, "score": 161486 }, { "content": "Title: Konrad Steffen Content: Konrad `` Koni '' Steffen ( born 1952 ) is a glaciologist and the former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder , a position he held from 2005 until he took office as the director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest , Snow and Landscape Research on July 1 , 2012 . He is known for his research into Arctic sea ice and the glaciers of Greenland , and how they are affected by global warming . He has often traveled to Greenland to study these glaciers firsthand ; for example , when studying Petermann Glacier for three weeks in 2004 , Steffen did so from a camp set up 4,000 feet up the flanks of the glacier 's ice cap . He also operates a network of 20 weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet , the first of which , Swiss Camp , he established in 1990 . He has argued that due to this ice sheet melting faster than anticipated , sea levels could rise by about 3 feet by 2100 , considerably higher than the IPCC 's upper limit of 59 cm , and that Greenland might lose all its ice in 10,000 years , but Antarctica would take considerably longer , since it is so much bigger .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Konrad_Steffen", "rank": 10, "score": 161463 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland Ice Sheet Project Content: The Greenland Ice Sheet Project ( GISP ) was a decade-long project to drill ice cores in Greenland that involved scientists and funding agencies from Denmark , Switzerland and the United States . Besides the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , funding was provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Danish Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland . The ice cores provide a proxy archive of temperature and atmospheric constituents that help to understand past climate variations . The preliminary GISP field work started in 1971 at Dye 3 , where a 372 meter deep , 10.2 cm diameter core was recovered . After this , annual field expeditions were carried out to drill intermediate depth cores at various locations on the ice sheet . The first was a 398 m core at Milcent and another was a 405 m core at the Crete station in 1974 . After working out various logistical and engineering problems related to the development of a more sophisticated drilling rig , drilling to bedrock at Dye 3 began in the summer of 1979 using a new Danish electro-mechanical ice drill . In the first year , an 18 cm diameter hole was drilled and cased to a depth of 80 m. Coring continued for two more seasons , and on August 10 , 1981 , bedrock was reached at a depth of 2037 m . The Dye 3 site was a compromise : glaciologically , a higher site on the ice divide with smooth bedrock would have been better ; logistically , such a site would have been too remote .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Greenland_Ice_Sheet_Project", "rank": 11, "score": 158368 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice Content: The West Ice is a patch of the Greenland Sea covered by pack ice during winter time . It is located north of Iceland , between Greenland and Jan Mayen island . The West Ice is a major breeding ground for seals , especially harp seals and hooded seals . It was discovered in the early 18th century by British whalers . At the time , whalers were not interested in seal hunting as long as there was ample stock of bowhead whales in the area . However , after the 1750s , the whale population had been depleted in the area , and systematic seal hunting started , first by British ships and then by German , Dutch , Danish , Norwegian , and Russian ships . The annual catches were 120,000 animals around 1900 , mostly by Norway and Russia , and rose to 350,000 by the 1920s . They then declined , first because of imposed restrictions on total allowable catch and then in response to decreasing market demand . Nevertheless , the seal population in the West Ice was rapidly falling , from an estimated 1,000,000 in 1956 to 100,000 in the 1980s . In the 1980s -- 1990s , takings of harp seals totaled 8,000 -- 10,000 , and annual catches of hooded seals totaled a few thousand between 1997 and 2001 . Norway accounts for all recent seal hunting in the West Ice , as Russia has not hunted hooded seals since 1995 , and catches harp seals at the East Ice in the White Sea -- Barents Sea . Seal hunting in the West Ice was a dangerous occupation , as floating ice , storms and winds posed constant threat to the ships ; in the 19th century , the hunters often encountered frozen human bodies on the West Ice . A major accident occurred around 5 April 1952 when a sudden storm surprised 53 ships hunting in the area . Seven of them sank and five vanished , namely Ringsel , Brattind and Vårglimt from Troms and Buskøy and Pels from Sunnmøre , with 79 men on board . The search for them involved ships and planes and continued for many days , but no trace of the missing boats was found .", "qid": "369", "docid": "West_Ice", "rank": 12, "score": 157325 }, { "content": "Title: Ice cap climate Content: An ice cap climate is a polar climate where the temperature never exceeds 0 C . The climate covers areas in or near the polar regions , such as Antarctica and Greenland , as well as the highest mountaintops . Such areas are covered by a permanent layer of ice and have no vegetation , but they may have animal life , that usually feeds from the oceans . Ice cap climates are inhospitable to human life . Antarctica , the coldest continent on Earth , sustains no permanent human residents , but has some civil inhabitants in proximity to research stations in coastal settlements that are maritime polar and there are some communities that are situated in a transitional zone between the two climates , but barely qualify as a tundra . Some places like Antarctica had a different climate before having an ice cap climate", "qid": "369", "docid": "Ice_cap_climate", "rank": 13, "score": 156886 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet model Content: In climate modelling , Ice-sheet models use numerical methods to simulate the evolution , dynamics and thermodynamics of ice sheets , such as the Greenland ice sheet , the Antarctic ice sheet or the large ice sheets on the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period . They are used for a variety of purposes , from studies of the glaciation of Earth over glacial -- interglacial cycles in the past to projections of ice-sheet decay under future global warming conditions .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Ice-sheet_model", "rank": 14, "score": 156294 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet dynamics Content: Ice sheet dynamics describe the motion within large bodies of ice , such those currently on Greenland and Antarctica . Ice motion is dominated by the movement of glaciers , whose gravity-driven activity is controlled by two main variable factors : the temperature and strength of their bases . A number of processes alter these two factors , resulting in cyclic surges of activity interspersed with longer periods of inactivity , on both hourly and centennial time scales . Ice-sheet dynamics are of interest in modelling future sea level rise . __ TOC __", "qid": "369", "docid": "Ice-sheet_dynamics", "rank": 15, "score": 155698 }, { "content": "Title: North Ice Content: North Ice was a research station of the British North Greenland Expedition ( 1952 to 1954 ) on the inland ice of Greenland . The coordinates of the station were , at an altitude of 2341 m above sea level . The British North Greenland Expedition was led by Commander James Simpson RN . The station recorded the lowest temperature ever in North America with -66.1 C on 9 January 1954 . The name of the station contrasts to the former British South Ice station in Antarctica .", "qid": "369", "docid": "North_Ice", "rank": 16, "score": 155349 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland ice core project Content: The Greenland Ice Core Project ( GRIP ) was a multinational European research project , organized through the European Science Foundation . Funding came from 8 nations ( Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Iceland , Italy , Switzerland , and United Kingdom ) , and from the European Union . The project ran from 1989 to 1995 , with drilling seasons from 1990 to 1992 . GRIP successfully drilled a 3029-metre ice core to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet at Summit , Central Greenland from 1989 to 1992 at . Studies of isotopes and various atmospheric constituents in the core have revealed a detailed record of climatic variations reaching more than 100,000 years back in time . The results indicate that Holocene climate has been remarkably stable and have confirmed the occurrence of rapid climatic variation during the last ice age ( the Wisconsin ) . Delta-O-18 variations observed in the core part believed to date from the Eemian Stage have not been confirmed by other records including the NGRIP core and are now believed not to represent climate events : the interglacial climate of Eemian Stage appears to have been as stable as the Holocene .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Greenland_ice_core_project", "rank": 17, "score": 153719 }, { "content": "Title: Ice shelf Content: An ice shelf is a thick floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface . Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica , Greenland , Canada and the Russian Arctic . The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ( resting on bedrock ) ice that feeds it is called the grounding line . The thickness of ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters . In contrast , sea ice is formed on water , is much thinner ( typically less than 3m ) , and forms throughout the Arctic Ocean . It also is found in the Southern Ocean around the continent of Antarctica . Ice shelves are principally driven by gravity-driven pressure from the grounded ice . That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf . The primary mechanism of mass loss from ice shelves was thought to have been iceberg calving , in which a chunk of ice breaks off from the seaward front of the shelf . A study by NASA and university researchers - published in the June 14 , 2013 issue of Science - found however that ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent 's ice shelf mass loss . Typically , a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events . Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf . Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf . The density contrast between glacial ice , which is denser than normal ice , and liquid water means that only about 1/9 of the floating ice is above the ocean surface . The world 's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica . The term captured ice shelf has been used for the ice over a subglacial lake , such as Lake Vostok .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Ice_shelf", "rank": 18, "score": 153705 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet ( EAIS ) is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica , and the largest on the entire planet . The EAIS lies between 45 ° west and 168 ° east longitudinally . The EAIS is considerably larger in area and mass than the West Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) . It is separated from the WAIS by the Transantarctic Mountains . The EAIS rests upon a large land mass , contrary to that of the WAIS , which rests mainly on bedrock below sea level . The EAIS is also home to the thickest ice on the frozen white continent , at 15,700 ft ( 4,800 m ) . More well known , however , is that the EAIS is home to the geographic South Pole as well as of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station .", "qid": "369", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 19, "score": 153659 }, { "content": "Title: Echelmeyer Ice Stream Content: The Echelmeyer Ice Stream , formerly known as Ice Stream F , is a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It is an ice stream flowing west to the Shirase Coast to the north of the MacAyeal Ice Stream , and is one of several major ice streams draining from Marie Byrd Land into the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice streams were investigated and mapped by U.S. Antarctic Research Program personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983 -- 84 and originally named Ice Stream A , B , C , etc. , according to their position from south to north . The name was changed from Ice Stream F by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2002 to honor Dr. Keith A. Echelmeyer of the Geophysical Institute , University of Alaska , Fairbanks , who studied the flow of Marie Byrd Land ice streams , 1992 -- 93 and 1994 -- 95 , as well as the fast flow of surging glaciers in Alaska and Greenland . Dr. Echelmeyer was a student of Barclay Kamb for whom Kamb Ice Stream is named .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Echelmeyer_Ice_Stream", "rank": 20, "score": 153059 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 21, "score": 150877 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 22, "score": 150742 }, { "content": "Title: Julie Palais Content: Julie Michelle Palais ( * September 2 , 1956 in Massachusetts ) is an award-winning polar glaciologist who has made great contributions to climate change research studying volcanic fallout in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica . Since 1990 , she has played a pivotal role working at the National Science Foundation as Program Director of the Antarctic Glaciology Program in the Division of Polar Programs . Both the Palais Glacier and Palais Bluff in Antarctica were named in her honor . She has made twenty-eight trips to Antarctica and three trips to Greenland , and was the co-recipient of the Explorer Club 's Lowell Thomas Award .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Julie_Palais", "rank": 23, "score": 149928 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 24, "score": 149737 }, { "content": "Title: European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Content: The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica ( EPICA ) is a multinational European project for deep ice core drilling in Antarctica . Its main objective is to obtain full documentation of the climatic and atmospheric record archived in Antarctic ice by drilling and analyzing two ice cores and comparing these with their Greenland counterparts ( GRIP and GISP ) . Evaluation of these records will provide information about the natural climate variability and mechanisms of rapid climatic changes during the last glacial epoch . The European Science Foundation EPICA Programme ( 1996 -- 2005 ) provides co-ordination for EPICA drilling activities at Dome Concordia and Kohnen Station , which are supported by the European Commission and by national contributions from Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Italy , the Netherlands , Norway , Sweden , Switzerland and the United Kingdom . Deep drilling took place at two sites in Antarctica : Concordia Station at Dome C and Kohnen Station . In 2008 the project received the Descartes Prize for Research .", "qid": "369", "docid": "European_Project_for_Ice_Coring_in_Antarctica", "rank": 25, "score": 149269 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age Content: An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Ice_age", "rank": 26, "score": 148771 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic geoengineering Content: Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Arctic_geoengineering", "rank": 27, "score": 148171 }, { "content": "Title: GROVER Content: GROVER or Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research is an Earth-bound autonomous student-designed rover developed by the Goddard Space Flight Center . With this solar-powered rover , scientists hope to get cheaper data about the Greenland ice sheet that lies in a rapidly warming region . The test drive started in Summit Camp in Greenland on a three kilometer thick ice sheet , which is the highest spot on the largest island of the World . The science team is led by the glaciologist Lora Koenig from NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Md. . The test began on 3 May 2013 at temperatures as low as -30 ° C and is planned to continue till 8 June 2013 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "GROVER", "rank": 28, "score": 147615 }, { "content": "Title: Glacial earthquake Content: Glacial earthquakes are earthquakes as large as magnitude 5.1 that occur in glaciated areas where the glacier moves faster than one kilometer per year . The number of glacial earthquakes in Greenland shows a peak every year in July , August and September , and the number is increasing over time . In a study using data from January 1993 through October 2005 , more events were detected every year since 2002 , and twice as many events were recorded in 2005 as there were in any other year . This increase in the numbers of glacial earthquakes in Greenland may be a response to global warming . Seismic waves are also generated by the Whillans Ice Stream , a large , fast-moving river of ice pouring from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Ice Shelf . Two bursts of seismic waves are released every day , each one equivalent to a magnitude 7 earthquake , and are seemingly related to the tidal action of the Ross Sea . During each event a 96 by 193 kilometer ( 60 by 120 mile ) region of the glacier moves as much as .67 meters ( 2.2 feet ) over about 25 minutes , remains still for 12 hours , then moves another half-meter . The seismic waves are recorded at seismographs around Antarctica , and even as far away as Australia , a distance of more than 6,400 kilometers . Because the motion takes place of such a long period of time 10 to 25 minutes , it can not be felt by scientists standing on the moving glacier . It is not known if these events are related to global warming .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Glacial_earthquake", "rank": 29, "score": 146764 }, { "content": "Title: Kendrick Taylor Content: Kendrick Cashman Taylor , Jr. is a climate change researcher working with ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica . While a Research Professor at the Desert Research Institute in Reno , Nevada , he was the Chief Scientist for the Siple Dome and WAIS Divide ice core projects in Antarctica . He has also done work on near shore clarity at Lake Tahoe and teaching World Vision how to use geophysics to find favorable locations for shallow water wells in West Africa . His ResearcherID is A-3469-2016 and ORCID is 0000-0001-8535-1261 . Kendrick Cashman Taylor , Sr. ( 1922 -- 1995 ) was an engineer who specialized in vacuum metallurgy , especially related to depositing thin films on mylar . He is listed as the inventor on the follow U.S.A. patents : US3185565 , US3314826 , US3278331 , US3326177 , US3601179 , US3215423 , US3330900 , US3180633 , US3554268 , US3235243 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Kendrick_Taylor", "rank": 30, "score": 146692 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland's Grand Canyon Content: Greenland 's Grand Canyon or Grand Canyon of Greenland is a tentative canyon of record length discovered underneath the Greenland ice sheet as reported in the journal Science on 30 August 2013 ( submitted 29 April 2013 ) , by scientists from the University of Bristol , University of Calgary , and University of Urbino , who described it as a mega-canyon . Ice-penetrating radar data collected during NASA 's Operation IceBridge showed a huge subglacial canyon running from the central region of the island northward into the Arctic Ocean , to the fjord of the Petermann Glacier . The bottom of the canyon is below sea level ; the canyon is likely to have influenced basal water flow from the ice sheet interior to the margin . Jonathan Bamber , a geographer at University of Bristol , stated , `` The distinctive V-shaped walls and flat bottom suggests water carved the buried valley , not ice . '' The canyon is more than 750 km long , up to 800 m deep and 10 km wide , making it the longest canyon discovered on the Earth to date . There are , however , many canyons -- including Arizona 's Grand Canyon and Tibet 's Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon , previously the world 's longest -- that are deeper . The canyon predates ice sheet inception and has influenced basal hydrology in Greenland over past glacial cycles .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Greenland's_Grand_Canyon", "rank": 31, "score": 146166 }, { "content": "Title: Ice core Content: An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet , most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica , Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere . As the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow , lower layers are older than upper , and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years . The properties of the ice and the recrystallized inclusions within the ice can then be used to reconstruct a climatic record over the age range of the core , normally through isotopic analysis . This enables the reconstruction of local temperature records and the history of atmospheric composition . Ice cores contain an abundance of information about climate . Inclusions in the snow of each year remain in the ice , such as wind-blown dust , ash , pollen , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . The length of the record depends on the depth of the ice core and varies from a few years up to 800 kyr ( 800,000 years ) for the EPICA core . The time resolution ( i.e. the shortest time period which can be accurately distinguished ) depends on the amount of annual snowfall , and reduces with depth as the ice compacts under the weight of layers accumulating on top of it . Upper layers of ice in a core correspond to a single year or sometimes a single season . Deeper into the ice the layers thin and annual layers become indistinguishable . An ice core from the right site can be used to reconstruct an uninterrupted and detailed climate record extending over hundreds of thousands of years , providing information on a wide variety of aspects of climate at each point in time . It is the simultaneity of these properties recorded in the ice that makes ice cores such a powerful tool in paleoclimate research .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Ice_core", "rank": 32, "score": 145571 }, { "content": "Title: South Ice Content: South Ice was a British support base 560 km from the South Pole at 82 ° 05 'S , 30 ° 00 ' W in Edith Ronne Land , Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year , established by Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , where three men overwintered during the Antarctic winter of 1957 . In the same winter , men overwintered for the first time at the South Pole . The name of the station contrasts to North Ice which was a British research station in Greenland .", "qid": "369", "docid": "South_Ice", "rank": 33, "score": 145094 }, { "content": "Title: National Ice Core Laboratory Content: The National Ice Core Laboratory ( NICL ) located at the Denver Federal Center is the primary repository for ice cores collected by the United States . The facility is managed by the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) , and jointly funded by the USGS , National Science Foundation , and the University of New Hampshire . NICL currently houses ~ 17,000 m of ice cores collected from Greenland and Antarctica , including the GISP2 , Siple Dome , and portions of the Vostok cores . The facility is also the lead organization for the handling and storage of the upcoming West Antarctic Ice Sheet ice core . In addition to providing a large storage facility , maintained at -35 ° C , NICL also has one of the largest sub-zero research and sample preparation spaces in the world . NICL is responsible for distributing samples of ice cores in their collection to researchers around the world , following approved research proposals . In addition to research activities , NICL also participates in public outreach and gives ~ 100 tours per year .", "qid": "369", "docid": "National_Ice_Core_Laboratory", "rank": 34, "score": 144687 }, { "content": "Title: Scesa Point Content: Scesa Point is a rounded , low ice-free tipped point on the west coast of Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula , western Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica forming the north side of the entrance to Zornitsa Cove .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Scesa_Point", "rank": 35, "score": 144678 }, { "content": "Title: John H. Mercer Content: John H. Mercer ( Cheltenham , England , 19 October 1922 -- Columbus , Ohio 3 July 1987 ) was a glaciologist , chiefly known for his theoretical work on , and field studies of Antarctic ice streams , especially in the Transantarctic Mountains and in West Antarctica . Following John T. Hollin 's work ( 1962 ) suggesting that climatic warming and rising sea-level cause Antarctic ice shelves to retreat , Mercer postulated that the West Antarctic ice sheet , being grounded well below sea-level and terminating in floating ice shelves , was vulnerable to these changes and may have collapsed altogether during the last interglacial when Antarctica may have been warmer and sea-level may have been higher . In 1978 , in the science magazine Nature , Mercer pointed out that `` green-house '' warming from burning fossil fuel could have the same effect during the present interglacial . Two studies published 12 May 2014 confirm Mercer 's assumption . Climate scientist James Hansen has coined the term , `` John Mercer effect . '' After Mercer published his paper suggesting that the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse in response to warming , he struggled to get funding . Others , including Hansen , had similar problems . Many climate scientists censor their own work to avoid losing funding , especially regarding prospects for limiting warming to 2 ° C above pre-industrial temperatures . John H. Mercer was the third child of Harriet and John W. Mercer . He was educated at private schools in Cheltenham and , later , at Gordonstoun in Scotland . During World War II he served in the British Merchant Marines ( 1940 -- 46 ) as a radio man . After the war he went to University of Cambridge and studied geography . At that time he came under the influence of William Vaughan Lewis . After finishing his B.A. in 1949 Mercer went to Canada , where he received his PhD in geography from McGill University in 1954 . He was a Research Scholar from 1954 to 1956 at the Australian National University in Canberra , where he studied land use and population in western Samoa . He returned to Canada and worked in the Canadian Hydro-graphic Office in Ottawa as a geographer in 1957 and 1958 . During 1959 -- 60 , 1961 -- 62 , 1964 , and 1966 , the American Geographical Society employed him at its World Data Center A for Glaciology in New York . The turning point in his career as a glaciologist was in 1960 , when he became a Research Associate at The Ohio State University , in the Institute of Polar Studies ( renamed the Byrd Polar Research Center ) . He remained at The Ohio State University until his death , becoming its first Senior Research Scientist .", "qid": "369", "docid": "John_H._Mercer", "rank": 36, "score": 144334 }, { "content": "Title: Dye 3 Content: Dye 3 is an ice core site and previously part of the Distant Early Warning ( DEW ) line , located at ( , 2480 masl ) in Greenland . As a DEW line base , it was disbanded in years 1990/1991 . An ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice that has re-crystallized and trapped air bubbles over many years . The composition of these ice cores , especially the presence of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes , provides a picture of the climate at the time . Ice cores contain an abundance of climate information . Inclusions in the snow , such as wind-blown dust , ash , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances , remain in the ice . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . Typical ice cores are removed from an ice sheet such as the ice cap internal to Greenland . Greenland is , by area , the world 's largest island . The Greenland ice sheet covers about 1.71 million km2 and contains about 2.6 million km3 of ice .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Dye_3", "rank": 37, "score": 143827 }, { "content": "Title: Negra Point Content: Negra Point is the ice-free tipped point on the southwest coast of Robert Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica forming the southeast side of the entrance to Mitchell Cove . The area was visited by early 19th century sealers . The feature was named descriptively by one of the Chilean Antarctic expeditions .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Negra_Point", "rank": 38, "score": 142705 }, { "content": "Title: West Greenland Current Content: The West Greenland Current is a weak cold water current that flows to the north along the west coast of Greenland . The current results from the movement of water flowing around the southernmost point of Greenland caused by the East Greenland Current . According to Lloyd et al. , 2007 , the WGC is a WARM current connected to a broader scale North Atlantic climate via the combined influences of Atlantic water from the Irminger Current ( IC ) and polar water from the East Greenland Current . Paleoclimatology records derived from foraminifera abundance show that periodic influxes of warm subsurface temperatures and near-bottom temperatures occurred throughout the Late Holocene epoch , particularly during the Holocene climatic optimum . The increased flow from the nearby East Greenland Current was associated with increased glacial iceberg calving from the large Jakobshavn Isbrae glacial outlet within the western Greenland Ice Sheet , causing rapid melting and destabilization events . Following the Neoglaciation , the Jakobshavn outlet formed a floating ice tongue around 2000 years before present .", "qid": "369", "docid": "West_Greenland_Current", "rank": 39, "score": 142608 }, { "content": "Title: East Greenland Ice-Core Project Content: The East Greenland Ice-Core Project , known as EGRIP , is a scientific project that plans to retrieve an ice core from the Northeast Greenland ice stream . The first season in the field was 2015 ; the project is expected to be drilling through to the base of the ice sheet by 2020 . Much of the camp set up for the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling Project ( NEEM ) was moved to the EGRIP location in 2015 . The equipment was towed by several tractors . The team ran low on fuel and had to abandon some equipment , arriving at the EGRIP location on 26 May , after nine days of towing .", "qid": "369", "docid": "East_Greenland_Ice-Core_Project", "rank": 40, "score": 142237 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica Content: The Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica is a research program consisting of two overland traverses of East Antarctica : the first from the Norwegian Troll Station to the South Pole in the 2007/2008 season ; and a return traverse via a different route in 2008/2009 . The main research focus of the program is climate change , the stated goals being to : Investigate climate variability in Dronning Maud Land of East Antarctica on time scales of years to a thousand years . Establish spatial and temporal variability in snow accumulation over this area of Antarctica to understand its impact on sea level . Investigate the impact of atmospheric and oceanic variability on the chemical composition of firn and ice in the region . Revisit areas and sites first explored by traverses in the 1960s , for detection of possible changes and to establish benchmark data sets for future research efforts . The program is part of Trans-Antarctic Scientific Traverse Expeditions -- Ice Divide of East Antarctica ( TASTE-IDEA ) , and the International Partners in Ice Coring Sciences ( IPICS ) , both of which have ISCU-WMO endorsement for the International Polar Year 2007-2009 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Norwegian-U.S._Scientific_Traverse_of_East_Antarctica", "rank": 41, "score": 142096 }, { "content": "Title: Zabel Point Content: Zabel Point ( нос Забел , ` Nos Zabel ' \\ ` nos ` za-bel \\ ) is the ice-covered , rock-tipped point on the southwest side of the entrance to Buragara Cove on the west coast of Brabant Island in the Palmer Archipelago , Antarctica . It was formed as a result of the retreat of Rush Glacier near the start of the 21st century . The point is named after the settlement of Zabel in Western Bulgaria .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Zabel_Point", "rank": 42, "score": 141325 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Content: The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment ( ACIA ) is a study describing the ongoing climate change in the Arctic and its consequences : rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , unprecedented melting of the Greenland ice sheet , and many impacts on ecosystems , animals , and people . The ACIA is the first comprehensively researched , fully referenced , and independently reviewed evaluation of Arctic climate change and its impacts for the region and for the world . The project was guided by the intergovernmental Arctic Council and the non-governmental International Arctic Science Committee . Three hundred scientists participated in the study over a span of three years . The 140-page synthesis report Impacts of a Warming Arctic was released in November 2004 , and the scientific report later in 2005 . The ACIA Secretariat is located at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Arctic_Climate_Impact_Assessment", "rank": 43, "score": 140637 }, { "content": "Title: Batuliya Point Content: Batuliya Point ( нос Батулия , ` Nos Batuliya ' \\ ` nos ba - ` tu-li-ya \\ ) is an ice-free tipped point forming the east extremity of Robert Island and the south side of the entrance to Tsepina Cove in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica . The point , projecting 550 m into Bransfield Strait , is situated 5.4 km northeast of the southeast extremity of Robert Point , 3 km north-northeast of Sadala Point , and 1.9 km south ( and a trifle to the east ) of Kitchen Point . The feature is named after the settlement of Batuliya in western Bulgaria .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Batuliya_Point", "rank": 44, "score": 140598 }, { "content": "Title: ICESat Content: ICESat ( Ice , Cloud , and land Elevation Satellite ) , part of NASA 's Earth Observing System , was a satellite mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance , cloud and aerosol heights , as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics . ICESat was launched 13 January 2003 on a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into a near-circular , near-polar orbit with an altitude of approximately 600 km . It operated for seven years before being retired in February 2010 , after its scientific payload shut down and scientists were unable to restart it . The ICESat mission was designed to provide elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as cloud property information , especially for stratospheric clouds common over polar areas . It provides topography and vegetation data around the globe , in addition to the polar-specific coverage over the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets . The satellite was found useful in assessing important forest characteristics , including tree density .", "qid": "369", "docid": "ICESat", "rank": 45, "score": 140464 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice accidents Content: The West Ice accidents ( Ulykkene i Vestisen ) occurred around April 5 , 1952 when the five Norwegian seal hunting vessels Ringsel , Brattind and Vårglim from Troms and Buskøy and Pels from Sunnmøre with a total crew of 78 men vanished in the midst of a severe storm in the area of the West Ice in the Greenland Sea east of Greenland . Despite search and rescue operations for many days involving planes and naval ships , no traces of the missing boats were discovered . During Easter that year 53 Norwegian vessels were participating in seal hunting in the West Ice Pack . Of these 7 shipwrecked , 5 disappeared without a trace . The first vessel to shipwreck was the Møre boat `` Vestis '' , however the crew of this boat was rescued .", "qid": "369", "docid": "West_Ice_accidents", "rank": 46, "score": 140281 }, { "content": "Title: Joughin Glacier Content: Joughin Glacier is a glacier east of the Watson Peaks , flowing southeast into Wright Inlet on the Lassiter Coast . Named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2008 after Ian Joughin , an electrical engineer who pioneered the use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar to estimate surface motion and topography of ice sheets both in Antarctica and Greenland . He has used remote sensing , field work , and modeling to study ice dynamics since the early 1990s .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Joughin_Glacier", "rank": 47, "score": 140191 }, { "content": "Title: Veyka Point Content: Veyka Point ( нос Вейка , ` Nos Veyka ' \\ ` nos ` vey-ka \\ ) is the ice-free tipped point on the east side of the entrance to Lesura Cove forming the south extremity of Two Hummock Island in the Palmer Archipelago , Antarctica . The minor Cobălcescu Island is lying 1.2 km east-southeast of the point . The point is named after Veyka Peak in the Rhodope Mountains , Bulgaria .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Veyka_Point", "rank": 48, "score": 139351 }, { "content": "Title: Butrointsi Point Content: Butrointsi Point ( нос Бутроинци , ` Nos Butrointsi ' \\ ` nos bu - ` tro-in-tsi \\ ) is the ice-free tipped point on the southeast side of the entrance to Kotev Cove on the northeast coast of Two Hummock Island in the Palmer Archipelago , Antarctica . The point is named after the settlement of Butrointsi in Western Bulgaria .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Butrointsi_Point", "rank": 49, "score": 138961 }, { "content": "Title: Belousov Point Content: Belousov Point is an ice-covered headland forming the southern tip of the Anderson Peninsula , located just north of the terminus of Suvorov Glacier , situated in Victoria Land , Antarctica . The geographical headland was first mapped by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition of 1958 and named for the Soviet polar captain Mikhail P. Belousov , 1904 -- 46 . The headland lies on the Pennell Coast , a portion of Antarctica lying between Cape Williams and Cape Adare .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Belousov_Point", "rank": 50, "score": 138170 }, { "content": "Title: Dakshin Gangotri Glacier Content: The Dakshin Gangotri Glacier is a small tongue of the polar continental ice sheet impinging on the Schirmacher Oasis of central Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was discovered by the Second Indian Expedition to Antarctica in 1983 , and named for India 's first Antarctic research station . Since then its snout , and the area around it , has been regularly monitored and it has become a valuable site for tracking the impact of global warming through changes in the movement of the Antarctic ice sheet . The site is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area ( ASPA ) No. 163 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Dakshin_Gangotri_Glacier", "rank": 51, "score": 137795 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 52, "score": 137437 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Sastrugi Content: Cape Sastrugi is a sharply projecting point on the west side of Deep Freeze Range , standing 1.5 nautical miles ( 2.8 km ) northwest of Snowy Point and overlooking the north portion of Nansen Ice Sheet , in Victoria Land . First explored by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910 -- 13 , and so named by them because of large and extensive sastrugi that impeded the travel of this party in approaching the point . Category : Headlands of Victoria Land Category : Scott Coast", "qid": "369", "docid": "Cape_Sastrugi", "rank": 53, "score": 137237 }, { "content": "Title: Kuivinen Ridge Content: Kuivinen Ridge is a transverse ridge extending southwest-northeast across the Saint Johns Range between an unnamed glacier and the Ringer Glacier in Victoria Land . The ridge is 5 nmi long and rises to 1750 m at Lanyon Peak . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2005 after ice coring specialist Karl C. Kuivinen , University of Nebraska-Lincoln ( UNL ) , 1974-2003 ; Field Operations Manager , Ross Ice Shelf Project Management Office , UNL , for the 1974-1978 season ; Director , Polar Ice Coring Office , UNL , 1979-1989 and 1994-2001 ; 15 summer field seasons in Antarctica , between 1968 and 2000 ; and 24 summer field seasons in Greenland and Alaska between 1974-99 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Kuivinen_Ridge", "rank": 54, "score": 136841 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen Bay Content: Amundsen Bay , also known as Ice Bay , is a long embayment 24 mi wide , close west of the Tula Mountains in Enderby Land , Antarctica . The bay was seen as a large pack-filled recession in the coastline by Sir Douglas Mawson on January 14 , 1930 . Seen by Captain Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen in charge of a Norwegian expedition during an airplane flight on January 15 and subsequently mapped nearer its true position by the Norwegians . The bay was mapped in detail by an Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions party landed by aircraft in 1956 and another landed by launch from Thala Dan in February 1958 . It was named by Mawson after Roald Amundsen , the Norwegian explorer who was first to reach the South Pole .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Amundsen_Bay", "rank": 55, "score": 136801 }, { "content": "Title: Uunartoq Qeqertaq Content: Uunartoq Qeqertaq , Greenlandic for `` The Warming Island '' , is an island off the east central coast of Greenland , 550 km north of the Arctic Circle . It became recognised as an island only in September 2005 , by US explorer Dennis Schmitt . It was attached to the mainland of Liverpool Land by glacial ice even in 2002 , when the ice shelves began retreating rapidly in this area , so that by 2005 it was no longer attached to the mainland . Members of the scientific community believe this newly discovered island is a direct result of global warming . The island has three large peninsulas , and thus resembles the letter W , or the Chinese character 山 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Uunartoq_Qeqertaq", "rank": 56, "score": 136011 }, { "content": "Title: King Oscar Glacier Content: King Oscar Glacier ( Kong Oscar Gletscher ) is one of several glaciers that drain the north-western part of the Greenland Ice Sheet into Melville Bay . As part of a comprehensive survey of Greenland 's glaciers that was published in 2006 , scientists documented that the mass balance -- the sum of gains through snow accumulation and losses through iceberg calving and melting -- of Kong Oscar and Greenland 's other north-western glaciers was strongly negative between 1996 and 2005 : they lost more ice than they gained . The pattern was similar to the ice sheet as a whole , which has been losing ice mass at an accelerating pace in the past decade .", "qid": "369", "docid": "King_Oscar_Glacier", "rank": 57, "score": 135878 }, { "content": "Title: Hans Tausen Iskappe Content: Hans Tausen Iskappe is an ice cap in northern Greenland . It is about 75 km from north to south and 50 km from east to west and sits on a 1000 m high plateau . Ice cores show it is around 3500 -- 4000 years old . It formed since the Holocene climatic optimum of 6000-8000 BP . It is the source of many glaciers , including Ymer Gletscher , Lurgletscher and the Tjalfe Gletscher . It is a well studied ice cap , and is important to understanding the last Climactic Optimum . ( Holocene climatic optimum )", "qid": "369", "docid": "Hans_Tausen_Iskappe", "rank": 58, "score": 135847 }, { "content": "Title: Sartorius Point Content: Sartorius Point is a sharp ice-free tipped point formed by an offshoot of Viskyar Ridge and marking the south extremity of Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica . The point separates the termini of Zheravna Glacier to the west and Targovishte Glacier to the east . The area was visited by early 19th century sealers . The feature 's name derives from ` Sartorius Island ' , the name used for Greenwich Island by James Weddell in connection with Admiral Sir George R. Sartorius ( 1790 -- 1885 ) , Royal Navy .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Sartorius_Point", "rank": 59, "score": 135831 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Greenland Content: Greenland is located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean , northeast of Canada and northwest of Iceland . The territory comprises the island of Greenland -- the largest island in the world -- and more than a hundred other smaller islands ( see alphabetic list ) . As an island , Greenland has no land boundaries and 44,087 km of coastline . A sparse population is confined to small settlements along certain sectors of the coast . Greenland possesses the world 's second largest ice sheet . Greenland sits atop the Greenland plate , a subplate of the North American plate . The Greenland craton is made up of some of the oldest rocks on the face of the earth . The Isua greenstone belt in southwestern Greenland contains the oldest known rocks on Earth , dated at 3.7 -- 3.8 billion years old . The vegetation is generally sparse , with the only patch of forested land being found in Nanortalik Municipality in the extreme south near Cape Farewell . The climate is arctic to subarctic , with cool summers and cold winters . The terrain is mostly a flat but gradually sloping icecap that covers all land except for a narrow , mountainous , barren , rocky coast . The lowest elevation is sea level and the highest elevation is the summit of Gunnbjørn Fjeld , the highest point in the Arctic at 3694 m . The northernmost point of the Island of Greenland is Cape Morris Jesup , discovered by Admiral Robert Peary in 1909 . Natural resources include zinc , lead , iron ore , coal , molybdenum , gold , platinum , uranium , hydropower and fish .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Geography_of_Greenland", "rank": 60, "score": 135613 }, { "content": "Title: Summit Camp Content: Summit Camp , also Summit Station , is a year-round research station on the apex of the Greenland Ice Sheet . Its coordinates are variable , since the ice is moving . The coordinates provided here are as of July 2009 . The station is located 3216 m above sea level . The population of the station is typically five in wintertime , and has peaked at 55 in the summer . The station is operated by the American-based CH2M HILL Polar Services ( formerly known as Veco Polar Resources ) , with support from the United States ' National Science Foundation . A permit from the Danish Polar Center ( Dansk Polarcenter ) under the auspices of the Home Rule Government of Greenland ( Kalaallit Nunaanni Inatsisartut ) is required to visit the station .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Summit_Camp", "rank": 61, "score": 134697 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice Shelf Content: The West Ice Shelf is a prominent ice shelf extending about 288 km in an east-west direction along the Leopold and Astrid Coast in East Antarctica between Barrier Bay and Posadowsky Bay . It was discovered and named by the First German Antarctica Expedition , 1901 -- 1903 , under Dr. Erich von Drygalski . The toponym describes the direction in which the German expedition first viewed the ice shelf . Their limited westward view became a prolonged one ; on February 21 , 1902 , the ship became stuck in the ice . It remained there imprisoned by the pack ice until February 8 , 1903 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "West_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 62, "score": 134314 }, { "content": "Title: Wiesław Masłowski Content: Wiesław Masłowski is a research professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey , California since 2009 . He obtained his MS from the University of Gdańsk in 1987 , and his PhD from the University of Alaska , Fairbanks in 1994 with a dissertation entitled `` Numerical modeling study of the circulation of the Greenland Sea '' . He became well known in 2007 for stating that the Arctic Ocean might be nearly ice free in the summer as early as 2013 , based on projection of the declining ice volume trend . While later revised to 2016 + / - 3 years based on computer modeling , this prediction became controversial when the Arctic was not sea-ice free in 2013 , having increased from the record low set in 2012 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Wiesław_Masłowski", "rank": 63, "score": 134221 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland Content: Greenland ( -LSB- ˈɡriːnlənd -RSB- Kalaallit Nunaat -LSB- kaˈlaːɬit ˈnunaːt -RSB- Grønland -LSB- ˈɡ̊ʁɶnˌlanˀ -RSB- ) is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America , Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe ( specifically Norway and Denmark , the colonial powers , as well as the nearby island of Iceland ) for more than a millennium . The majority of its residents are Inuit , whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century , gradually settling across the island . Greenland is the world 's largest island ( Australia , although larger , is generally considered to be a continental landmass rather than an island ) . Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica . With a population of about 56,480 ( 2013 ) , it is the least densely populated country in the world . The Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland , connecting the various cities and settlements . Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada . Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century , and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century . The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century . Soon after their demise , beginning in 1499 , the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island , naming it Terra do Lavrador ( later applied to Labrador in Canada ) . In the early 18th century , Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again . To strengthen trading and power , Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island . Denmark -- Norway claimed Greenland for centuries . Greenland was settled by Vikings ( of Norwegian origin ) more than a thousand years ago , who had previously settled Iceland to escape persecution from the King of Norway and his central government . Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland , encountering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached the Caribbean islands . They attempted to colonize land . Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians , Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262 . The Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century . Norway was dramatically hit with a larger death toll than Denmark by the Black Death , forcing Norway to accept a union in which the central government , university and other fundamental institutions were located in Copenhagen . Thus , the two kingdoms ' resources were directed at creating Copenhagen . Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved . Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814 , and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark . In 1973 , Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark . However , in a referendum in 1982 , a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985 . Greenland contains the world 's largest and most northernly national park , Northeast Greenland National Park ( Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq ) . Established in 1974 and expanded to its present size in 1988 , it protects 972001 km2 of the interior and northeastern coast of Greenland and is bigger than all but twenty-nine countries in the world . Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq , Kujalleq , Qaasuitsup , and Qeqqata . In 1979 , Denmark had granted home rule to Greenland , and in 2008 , Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act , which transferred more power from the Danish royal government to the local Greenlandic government . Under the new structure , in effect since 21 June 2009 , Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing , judicial system , company law , accounting , and auditing ; mineral resource activities ; aviation ; law of legal capacity , family law and succession law ; aliens and border controls ; the working environment ; and financial regulation and supervision , while the Danish government retains control of foreign affairs and defence . It also retains control of monetary policy , providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK 3.4 billion , which is planned to diminish gradually over time . Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources . The capital , Nuuk , held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games . At 70 % , Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world , mostly coming from hydropower .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Greenland", "rank": 64, "score": 134022 }, { "content": "Title: Muller Ice Shelf Content: Muller Ice Shelf , also known as Müller Ice Shelf according to the original German spelling of the family name Müller , was an ice shelf lying southwest of Hooke Point in southwest Lallemand Fjord , Arrowsmith Peninsula , Loubet Coast . It was nurtured by Bruckner Glacier and Antevs Glacier . It collapsed `` recently '' ( as at late March 2008 ) . The name was given by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1981 in memory of Fritz Muller ( 1926 -- 80 ) , a Swiss glaciologist , who carried out research in Switzerland , Greenland , the Canadian Arctic , and the Himalayas .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Muller_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 65, "score": 133751 }, { "content": "Title: Victor Bay Content: Victor Bay is a bay about 16 nmi wide and 7 nmi long , indenting the coast between Pourquoi Pas Point and Mathieu Rock , Antarctica . The bay is marked by an extensive chain of icebergs breaking away from the high tongue of Commandant Charcot Glacier . It was delineated from aerial photographs taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Paul-Emile Victor , the Director of the Expeditions Polaires Francaises , who organized French expeditions to Greenland in 1948-51 and Antarctica in 1948-53 and 1955-56 . Category : Bays of Adélie Land", "qid": "369", "docid": "Victor_Bay", "rank": 66, "score": 133747 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic sea ice Content: Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean . It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer . Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few meters thick . This is in contrast to ice shelves , which are formed by glaciers , float in the sea , and are up to a kilometer thick . There are two subdivisions of sea ice : fast ice , which is attached to land ; and ice floes , which are not . Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow . As a result , melt ponds are rarely observed . On average , Antarctic sea ice is younger , thinner , warmer , saltier , and more mobile than Arctic sea ice . Due to its inaccessibility , it is not as well-studied as Arctic ice .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Antarctic_sea_ice", "rank": 67, "score": 133488 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 68, "score": 133375 }, { "content": "Title: Hutchinson Glacier Content: The Hutchinson Glacier ( Hutchinson Gletscher ) is a large active glacier on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet . This glacier was named after American aviator George R. Hutchinson who crash-landed and was stranded in the area in 1932 during an attempted around-the-world flight with his family and was rescued and brought to Ammasalik by a fishing trawler .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Hutchinson_Glacier", "rank": 69, "score": 133335 }, { "content": "Title: Petermann Glacier Content: Petermann Glacier is a large glacier located in North-West Greenland to the east of Nares Strait . It connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic Ocean near 81 degrees north latitude . It is named after the German cartographer August Heinrich Petermann", "qid": "369", "docid": "Petermann_Glacier", "rank": 70, "score": 132566 }, { "content": "Title: Bentley Subglacial Trench Content: Bentley Subglacial Trench is a vast topographic trench in Marie Byrd Land , West Antarctica , 80 ° S , 115 ° W . At 2,555 meters ( 8,382 ft ) below sea level , it is the lowest point on the surface of the earth not covered by ocean , although it is covered by ice . Normally , it is not counted as the lowest point on land , since the overlying ice sheet makes it essentially subterranean . ( See Extremes on Earth and Vestfold Hills ) Also , if the ice melted , the area would be under water . The trench was named in 1961 after Charles R. Bentley who was the geophysicist in charge of the scientific expeditions in West Antarctica in 1957 -- 59 that led to its discovery .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Bentley_Subglacial_Trench", "rank": 71, "score": 132445 }, { "content": "Title: Waltershausen Glacier Content: Waltershausen Glacier ( Waltershausen Gletscher ) is one of the major glaciers in Greenland . It has its terminus on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet . This glacier was named after German geologist Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen by the Second German North Polar Expedition led by Carl Koldewey that first surveyed and partially explored the Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord in 1869 -- 70 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Waltershausen_Glacier", "rank": 72, "score": 132304 }, { "content": "Title: ANDRILL Content: ANDRILL ( ANtarctic DRILLing Project ) is a scientific drilling project in Antarctica gathering information about past periods of global warming and cooling . The project involves scientists from Germany , Italy , New Zealand , and the United States . At two sites in 2006 and 2007 , ANDRILL team members drilled through ice , seawater , sediment and rock to a depth over more than 1,200 m and recovered a virtually continuous core record from the present to nearly 20 million years ago . The project is based at McMurdo Station in Antarctica . In studying the cores , ANDRILL scientists from various disciplines are gathering detailed information about past periods of global warming and cooling . A major goal of the project is to significantly improve the understanding of Antarctica 's impact on the world 's oceans currents and the atmosphere by reconstructing the behavior of Antarctic sea-ice , ice-shelves , glaciers and sea currents over tens of millions of years . Initial results imply rapid changes and dramatically different climates at various times on the southernmost continent.Quirin Scheirmeier , `` Sediment cores reveal Antarctica 's warmer past , '' Nature News , April 24 , 2008 . The $ 30 million project has achieved its operational goal of retrieving a continuous core record of the last 17 million years , filling crucial gaps left by previous drilling projects . Making use of knowledge gained through prior Antarctic drilling projects , ANDRILL employed novel techniques to reach record depths at its two drilling sites . Among the innovations deployed were a hot-water drilling system that allowed for easier ice-boring and a flexible drill pipe that could accommodate tidal oscillations and strong currents . On December 16 , 2006 , ANDRILL broke the previous record of 999.1 m set in 2000 by the Ocean Drilling Program 's drill ship , the Joides Resolution . The Antarctic-record 1285 m of core ANDRILL went on to recover represents geologic time to about 13 million years ago . In 2007 , drilling at the Southern McMurdo Sound , ANDRILL scientists recovered another 1138 meters ( 3733.6 ft ) of core . One goal in 2006 was to look at a period of around 3 to 5 million years ago in the Pliocene , which scientists know to be warmer . The team 's sedimentologists identified more than 60 cycles in which ice sheets or glaciers advanced and retreated across McMurdo Sound .", "qid": "369", "docid": "ANDRILL", "rank": 73, "score": 132088 }, { "content": "Title: Eldred Point Content: Eldred Point is an ice-covered point which marks the west side of the terminus of Land Glacier on the coast of Marie Byrd Land . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy aerial photographs , 1959 -- 65 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for David T. Eldred , a member of the U.S. Navy winter-over support unit at McMurdo Station in 1958 , 1965 and 1969 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Eldred_Point", "rank": 74, "score": 132088 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Cold Reversal Content: The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Antarctic_Cold_Reversal", "rank": 75, "score": 132039 }, { "content": "Title: Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment Content: The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems . Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind . The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Sea_Ice_Physics_and_Ecosystem_eXperiment", "rank": 76, "score": 131867 }, { "content": "Title: NEEM Camp Content: NEEM Camp was a small research facility on the northern Greenland Ice Sheet , used as a base for ice core drilling . It is located about 313 km east of the closest coast , Peabody Bay in northern Greenland , 275 km northwest of the historical ice sheet camp North Ice , and 484 km ENE of Siorapaluk , the closest settlement . There is only one heavy-duty tent for accommodation of the researchers during summer . Access is by skiway ( snow runway ) . The acronym NEEM stands for North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling . The ice at the NEEM coring location ( 77 ° 27 'N 51 ° 3.6 ` W ) was predicted to be 2545 m thick . Drilling started at NEEM in June 2009 and drillers expected to hit bedrock in 2010 . The drilling progressed well and reached through the brittle zone ( ~ 800 m ) in mid-July 2009 . The plan was to process the ice below the brittle zone , per decision at the steering committee meeting in November 2008 in Copenhagen . By September 1 , 2009 , the coring had reached 1757.84 m for this season , setting a single-season deep ice core drilling record in 100 days . On July 26 , 2010 , drilling reached bedrock at 2537.36 m. The November/December 2007 issue of Technology Review magazine and its website carried a report on early efforts to establish this camp . The research goal is seek preserved ice from the Eemian , which included a warming period in Earth 's history . http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19504/ After the conclusion of the drilling activities , the machinery and dome of the NEEM camp was moved to a new location in the NEEM-EastGRIP traverse , forming the EastGRIP camp at location in 2015 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "NEEM_Camp", "rank": 77, "score": 131788 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Streten Content: Cape Streten is an ice cape at the northeast tip of Sakellari Peninsula , forming the west side of the entrance to Amundsen Bay . Plotted from air photos taken by ANARE ( Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions ) in November 1956 . Named by Antarctic Names Committee of Australia ( ANCA ) for Neil Anthony Streten , meteorologist at Mawson Station in 1960 . Streten", "qid": "369", "docid": "Cape_Streten", "rank": 78, "score": 131521 }, { "content": "Title: Isolation Point Content: Isolation Point is a small volcanic peak projecting through the ice sheet covering the southeastern extremity of White Island , in the Ross Archipelago , Antarctica . It was so named because of its remote position by the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition , 1958 -- 59 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Isolation_Point", "rank": 79, "score": 131379 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen Sea Content: The Amundsen Sea , an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica , lies between Cape Flying Fish ( the northwestern tip of Thurston Island ) to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west . Cape Flying Fish marks the boundary between the Amundsen Sea and the Bellingshausen Sea . West of Cape Dart there is no named marginal sea of the Southern Ocean between the Amundsen and Ross Seas . The Norwegian expedition of 1928 -- 1929 under Captain Nils Larsen named the body of water for the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen while exploring this area in February 1929 . The sea is mostly ice-covered , and the Thwaites Ice Tongue protrudes into it . The ice sheet which drains into the Amundsen Sea averages about 3 km in thickness ; roughly the size of the state of Texas , this area is known as the Amundsen Sea Embayment ( ASE ) ; it forms one of the three major ice-drainage basins of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Amundsen_Sea", "rank": 80, "score": 131364 }, { "content": "Title: British North Greenland expedition Content: The British North Greenland expedition was a British scientific mission , led by Commander James Simpson RN , which lasted from July 1952 to August 1954 . A total of 30 men took part , though not all stayed for both years . The purpose of BNGE was primarily to carry out scientific studies in glaciology , meteorology , geology and physiology . Gravimetric and seismological surveys were made , and radio wave propagation was also studied from their station codenamed `` North Ice '' . It also provided information useful to the Armed Forces about operating in Arctic environments , and the majority of the team were serving members . Travel over the icecap was either on foot , by dog sled , or by M29 Weasel tracked vehicles . Expedition members also made pioneering ascents in the Barth Mountains and Queen Louise Land .", "qid": "369", "docid": "British_North_Greenland_expedition", "rank": 81, "score": 131249 }, { "content": "Title: Monroe Point, South Shetland Islands Content: Monroe Point is an ice-free tipped point projecting 1.1 km into Boyd Strait from the west coast of Snow Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica , and forming the south side of the entrance to Barutin Cove . The feature 's name derives from the name ` Monroe Island ' applied to Snow Island by 19th century sealers .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Monroe_Point,_South_Shetland_Islands", "rank": 82, "score": 131131 }, { "content": "Title: Willan Nunatak Content: Willan Nunatak is an ice-free tipped peak rising to 449 m on the glacial divide between Huntress Glacier and Balkan Snowfield on Hurd Peninsula in eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica . It is linked to Burdick South Peak to the northeast by Willan Saddle and , via Castillo Nunatak and Charrúa Gap , to Charrúa Ridge to the west . The nunatak is named after the British geologist Robert Charles Richard Willan ( b. 1952 ) who has carried out field work in the area .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Willan_Nunatak", "rank": 83, "score": 131055 }, { "content": "Title: Triangle Point Content: Triangle Point is the low ice-free tipped point forming the northwest side of the entrance to Shopski Cove in the south coast of Parvomay Neck linking the northwest and southeast parts of Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica . The area was frequented by early 19th century sealers operating from Yankee Harbour . The feature was charted and descriptively named by the Discovery Investigations in 1935 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Triangle_Point", "rank": 84, "score": 130889 }, { "content": "Title: Tim Naish Content: Tim Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist . He is the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre , Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand . He has written about the collapse of Antarctica 's Larsen B ice shelf . In 2002 , between January 31 and March 7 the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed and broke up . Tim Naish warned that the ice shelf of Weddell Sea is imperiled , and if the temperature rises by 3 ° C , the ice shelves of Antarctica will become thinner . `` These are dramatic changes '' -- said Tim Naish . In 2009 , Professor Naish was awarded a New Zealand Antarctic Medal ( NZAM ) for services to Antarctic climate science .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Tim_Naish", "rank": 85, "score": 130582 }, { "content": "Title: Operation Highjump Content: Operation Highjump , officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program , 1946 -- 1947 , was a United States Navy operation organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd , Jr. , USN ( Ret ) , Officer in Charge , Task Force 68 , and led by Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen , USN , Commanding Officer , Task Force 68 . Operation Highjump commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947 . Task Force 68 included 4,700 men , 13 ships , and 33 aircraft . Operation Highjump 's primary mission was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV . Highjump 's objectives , according to the U.S. Navy report of the operation , were : Training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions ; Consolidating and extending the United States ' sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent ( publicly denied as a goal even before the expedition ended ) ; Determining the feasibility of establishing , maintaining , and utilizing bases in the Antarctic and investigating possible base sites ; Developing techniques for establishing , maintaining , and utilizing air bases on ice , with particular attention to later applicability of such techniques to operations in interior Greenland , where conditions are comparable to those in the Antarctic ; Amplifying existing stores of knowledge of electromagnetic , geological , geographic , hydrographic , and meteorological propagation conditions in the area ; Supplementary objectives of the Nanook expedition ( a smaller equivalent conducted off eastern Greenland ) .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Operation_Highjump", "rank": 86, "score": 130524 }, { "content": "Title: Jakobshavn Glacier Content: Jakobshavn Glacier , also known as Sermeq Kujalleq ( in Greenlandic ) and the Jakobshavn Isbræ ( in Danish ) , is a large outlet glacier in West Greenland . It is located near the Greenlandic town of Ilulissat ( Jakobshavn ) and ends at the sea in the Ilulissat Icefjord . Jakobshavn Glacier drains 6.5 % of the Greenland ice sheet and produces around 10 % of all Greenland icebergs . Some 35 billion tonnes of icebergs calve off and pass out of the fjord every year . Icebergs breaking from the glacier are often so large ( up to a kilometer in height ) that they are too tall to float down the fjord and lie stuck on the bottom of its shallower areas , sometimes for years , until they are broken up by the force of the glacier and icebergs further up the fjord . Studied for over 250 years , Jakobshavn Glacier has helped develop our understanding of climate change and icecap glaciology . Ilulissat Icefjord ( Ilulissat Kangerlua ) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Jakobshavn_Glacier", "rank": 87, "score": 130420 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Peninsula Content: The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica , located at the base of the Southern Hemisphere . At the surface , it is the biggest , most prominent peninsula in Antarctica as it extends 1300 km from a line between Cape Adams ( Weddell Sea ) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands . Beneath the ice sheet which covers it , the Antarctic Peninsula consists of a string of bedrock islands ; these are separated by deep channels whose bottoms lie at depths considerably below current sea level . They are joined together by a grounded ice sheet . Tierra del Fuego , the southernmost tip of South America , lies only about 1000 km away across the Drake Passage . The Antarctic Peninsula is currently dotted with numerous research stations and nations have made multiple claims of sovereignty . The peninsula is part of disputed and overlapping claims by Argentina , Chile and the United Kingdom . None of these claims has international recognition and , under the Antarctic Treaty System , the respective countries do not attempt to enforce their claims . Argentina has the most bases and personnel stationed on the peninsula .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Antarctic_Peninsula", "rank": 88, "score": 130316 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic Content: There are many glaciers in the Antarctic . This set of lists does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . The lists include outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of these lists , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "369", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 89, "score": 129998 }, { "content": "Title: Gostun Point Content: Gostun Point ( нос Гостун , ` Nos Gostun ' \\ ` nos go - ` stun \\ ) is the ice-free point on the north coast of Snow Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica situated 2.4 km west-northwest of Karposh Point , and 2.45 km east-southeast of Cape Timblón . The point is named after the Bulgar ruler Khan Gostun , predecessor of the creator of Old Great Bulgaria Khan Kubrat ( 7th Century AD ) .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Gostun_Point", "rank": 90, "score": 129799 }, { "content": "Title: Midnight sun Content: The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle , when the sun remains visible at the local midnight . Around the summer solstice ( approximately 21 June in the Northern Hemisphere and 22 December in the Southern Hemisphere ) the sun is visible for the full 24 hours , given fair weather . The number of days per year with potential midnight sun increases the farther towards either pole one goes . Although approximately defined by the polar circles , in practice the midnight sun can be seen as much as 55 miles ( 90 km ) outside the polar circle , as described below , and the exact latitudes of the farthest reaches of midnight sun depend on topography and vary slightly year-to-year . Because there are no permanent human settlements south of the Antarctic Circle , apart from research stations , the countries and territories whose populations experience the midnight sun are limited to those crossed by the Arctic Circle : Canada ( Yukon , Northwest Territories , and Nunavut ) , Greenland , Iceland , Finland , Norway , Russia , Sweden , and the United States ( Alaska ) . A quarter of Finland 's territory lies north of the Arctic Circle , and at the country 's northernmost point the sun does not set at all for 60 days during summer . In Svalbard , Norway , the northernmost inhabited region of Europe , there is no sunset from approximately 19 April to 23 August . The extreme sites are the poles , where the sun can be continuously visible for half the year . North Pole has midnight sun for Least 6 months from late March to late September . The opposite phenomenon , polar night , occurs in winter , when the sun stays below the horizon throughout the day . Since the axial tilt of the Earth is considerable ( approximately 23 degrees 27 minutes ) , the sun does not set at high latitudes in local summer . The duration of sunlight increases from one day during the summer solstice at the polar circle , to several weeks only 100 km closer to the pole , to six months at the poles . At extreme latitudes , the midnight sun is usually referred to as polar day . At the poles themselves , the sun rises and sets only once each year . During the six months that the sun is above the horizon , it spends the days continuously moving in circles around the observer , gradually spiralling higher and reaching its highest circuit of the sky at the summer solstice . Because of atmospheric refraction , and also because the sun is a disc rather than a point , the midnight sun may be experienced at latitudes slightly below the polar circle , though not exceeding one degree ( depending on local conditions ) . For example , Iceland is known for its midnight sun , even though most of it ( Grímsey is the exception ) is slightly south of the Arctic Circle . For the same reasons , the period of sunlight at the poles is slightly longer than six months . Even the northern extremities of Scotland ( and places at similar latitudes , such as St. Petersburg ) experience twilight throughout the night in the northern sky at around the summer solstice . Observers at heights appreciably above sea level can experience extended periods of midnight sun as a result of the `` dip '' of the horizon viewed from altitude .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Midnight_sun", "rank": 91, "score": 129547 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Kolosov Content: Cape Kolosov is a point along the west side of the ice-covered peninsula that forms the east side of the entrance to Amundsen Bay , Antarctica . It was photographed in 1956 from Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions aircraft , and rephotographed in 1958 by a Soviet expedition . The cape was named after the polar aviation navigator V. Kolosov , who died in the Arctic .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Cape_Kolosov", "rank": 92, "score": 129473 }, { "content": "Title: Isunngua Content: Isunngua ( old spelling : Isúngua ) is a highland in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland , located immediately west of the Greenland Ice Sheet edge . In large part it is covered by the tundra , although in the immediate vicinity of the Sermersuaq ice sheet it gradually becomes exposed , barren , and largely devoid of life . The climate is polar continental , with the area receiving very little rainfall . Isunngua is a calving site for reindeer .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Isunngua", "rank": 93, "score": 129332 }, { "content": "Title: Mathewson Point Content: Mathewson Point is a steep , rocky point at the northern tip of Shepard Island , which lies on the seaward edge of the Getz Ice Shelf , Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . The point , the site of an Adélie penguin rookery , was charted by personnel of the on February 4 , 1962 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Lieutenant David S. Mathewson , U.S. Navy , then supply officer of the Glacier .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Mathewson_Point", "rank": 94, "score": 129300 }, { "content": "Title: Nansen Ice Sheet Content: Nansen Ice Sheet , or Nansen Ice Shelf , is a 30 mi by 10 mi ice shelf . It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abutting the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue , along the coast of Victoria Land , Antarctica . This feature was explored by the South Magnetic Polar Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1907-09 and by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910-13 . Frank Debenham , geologist with the latter expedition , applied the name Nansen Sheet as the feature is adjacent to Mount Nansen , the dominating summit in the area .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Nansen_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 95, "score": 129064 }, { "content": "Title: Mount Wegener Content: Mount Wegener is a mountain rising to 1,385 m in central Read Mountains , Shackleton Range . The feature was photographed from the air by the U.S. Navy in 1967 and was surveyed by the British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) from 1968-71 . It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in association with the names of geologists grouped in this area after Alfred L. Wegener ( 1880 -- 1930 ) , a German astronomer , meteorologist , Arctic explorer , and a pioneer of the theory of continental drift . Wegener was a professor of geophysics and meteorology at the University of Graz in Austria between 1924 -- 30 and was the leader of German expeditions to Greenland in 1929 and 1930 before losing his life on the ice cap in November of that year . Category : Mountains of Coats Land", "qid": "369", "docid": "Mount_Wegener", "rank": 96, "score": 129014 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica: A Year on Ice Content: Antarctica : A Year on Ice is the first feature film by New Zealand filmmaker Anthony B. Powell . This documentary is set in Antarctica , specifically in the Ross Island region , which is home to two research bases : United States ' McMurdo Station and New Zealand 's Scott Base . It chronicles a year of time spent living and working at these remote stations ; the summer season ( October to February ) when the sun shines 24 hours a day and the long dark winter ( February to October ) where the sun goes down for four long months and darkness envelopes the environment . The film focuses on the everyday workers that keep the stations and the equipment running so the scientists can complete their work . Interviewees include a helicopter pilot , fireman , firehouse dispatcher , cook , mechanic , storekeeper , storeman , finance person , administrative person , and operations manager . Extensive use of time-lapse photography is used to document the changing seasons and the Antarctic landscapes . Powell had to invent many of his own camera systems to survive the extreme conditions of the deep Antarctic winter . Powell 's previous work includes footage for Discovery , National Geographic , and was featured in BBC 's Frozen Planet . The film also touches upon topics such as ` T3 Syndrome , ' a term that describes what happens to people during the winter , when the T3 hormone in the brain is reassigned to the muscles of the body in an effort to protect it against the extreme cold . The film also describes how the community works and plays together including the annual New Year 's party `` Ice Stock '' . The film 's post-production was completed at Park Road Post Production in Wellington , New Zealand .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Antarctica:_A_Year_on_Ice", "rank": 97, "score": 128871 }, { "content": "Title: Twickler Cone Content: Twickler Cone is a cone-shaped peak in the Asgard Range , Victoria Land , rising to 1,950 m on the ridge separating the upper reaches of Bartley Glacier and Newall Glacier . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) in 1997 after Mark S. Twickler , a specialist in recovery , analysis , and interpretation of ice core records , with many seasons in Antarctica and Greenland , 1984 -- 95 ; Executive Director , National Ice Core Laboratory-Science Management Office , from 1997 . As a member of a University of New Hampshire field party , 1988 -- 89 , Twickler participated in glaciochemical investigations that collected two ice cores , 150 and 175 m deep , from upper Newall Glacier , in proximity of this peak . Category : Mountains of Victoria Land Category : McMurdo Dry Valleys", "qid": "369", "docid": "Twickler_Cone", "rank": 98, "score": 128868 }, { "content": "Title: Fahnestock Glacier Content: Fahnestock Glacier is a glacier about 30 nmi long draining to the Sulzberger Ice Shelf . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Mark A. Fahnestock , a faculty member of the University of New Hampshire , who was a field and theoretical researcher in Greenland and in the West Antarctic Ice Stream area from the 1980s onwards .", "qid": "369", "docid": "Fahnestock_Glacier", "rank": 99, "score": 128753 }, { "content": "Title: Pliocene climate Content: During the Pliocene epoch ( 5.3 Ma to 2.6 Ma ) climate became cooler and drier , and seasonal , similar to modern climates . The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene ( 3.3 Ma -- 3 Ma ) was 2 -- 3 ° C higher than today , global sea level 25m higher and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma . The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds . Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch . The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . During the Pliocene the earth climate system response shifted from a period of high frequency-low amplitude oscillation dominated by the 41,000-year period of Earth 's obliquity to one of low-frequency , high-amplitude oscillation dominated by the 100,000-year period of the orbital eccentricity characteristic of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles . The equatorial pacific ocean sea surface temperature gradient was considerably lower than it is today , mean sea surface temperature in the east were substantially warmer than today but similar in the west , this condition has been described as a permanent El Niño state or El Padre", "qid": "369", "docid": "Pliocene_climate", "rank": 100, "score": 128639 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climatic adaptation Content: Climate adaptation refers to specific adaptations in a living organism that develop in response to changes in climate and habitat . Such adaptations could include physical changes , such as skin or fur color and composition changes , or the adaptations could be behavioral , such as burrowing into the ground or spending more time in water . These are not necessarily permanently expressed traits , instead encompassing the potential for the individual to adapt to certain environments . The change in the environment triggers a change in behavior which would not have been present had the organism not been exposed to that specific stimuli . Climate adaptation is constrained by the genetic variability of the species in question .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Climatic_adaptation", "rank": 1, "score": 124068 }, { "content": "Title: Niche adaptation Content: Niche adaptation refers to the ability of some organisms to adapt to changing environments , or niches . Genetic mechanisms of this adaptation include horizontal gene transfer , gene duplication , and gene shuffling . Adaptations are the result of Evolution and allow an organism to live in new environments . All organisms must fill some ecological niche and , at some point , species must adapt to fill newer niches if they are to survive in a changing world . Mechanisms involved in evolving new abilities to exploit new environments happen on the genetic scale . Genes mix and match in processes like horizontal gene transfer and gene or genome duplications . Transposable elements and plasmid or phage introduced genomic islands also provide organisms with the genetic tools they need to adapt to newer environments . Adaptations can result in obviously visible morphological differences or increased metabolic pathways that are not as easily detectable and require genetic analysis to confirm . For pathogenic organisms , this usually means increasing virulence . In the case of wilt-fungi like Verticillium dahliae and Verticillium albo-atrum , the increased virulence is dependent on homologous genes picked up from some incidence of horizontal gene transfer with a bacterium early in its evolutionary history . For ocean dwelling cyanobacteria , adapting to colonize new territories has led to clades of Prochlorococcus becoming specialized to thrive in the low light and colder temperatures of the deeper depths in the ocean . Additionally , resistance to harsh compounds is also important for adaptation . The aerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria Nitrosomonas eutropha C91 contains genomic islands that house genes important in providing resistance to heavy metals and oxidizing nitrogen . As a result , the species occupies environments with elevated N2 concentrations . Some of these genes are unique to this species meaning no other ammonia oxidizing bacteria could survive in the climates that N. eutropha C91 does , giving it a significant fitness advantage .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Niche_adaptation", "rank": 2, "score": 121645 }, { "content": "Title: Organisms at high altitude Content: Organisms can live at high altitude , either on land , in water , or while flying . Decreased oxygen availability and decreased temperature make life at such altitudes challenging , though many species have been successfully adapted via considerable physiological changes . As opposed to short-term acclimatisation ( immediate physiological response to changing environment ) , high-altitude adaptation means irreversible , evolved physiological responses to high-altitude environments , associated with heritable behavioural and genetic changes . Among animals , only few mammals ( such as yak , ibex , Tibetan gazelle , vicunas , llamas , mountain goats , etc. ) and certain birds are known to have completely adapted to high-altitude environments . Human populations such as the Tibetans , the South Americans and the Ethiopians live in the otherwise uninhabitable high mountains of the Himalayas , Andes and Ethiopia respectively . The adaptation of humans to high altitude is an example of natural selection in action . High-altitude adaptations provide examples of convergent evolution , with adaptations occurring simultaneously on three continents . Tibetan humans and Tibetan domestic dogs share a genetic mutation , EPAS1 , but it has not been seen in Andean humans .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Organisms_at_high_altitude", "rank": 3, "score": 115906 }, { "content": "Title: Acclimatization Content: Acclimatization or acclimatisation ( also called acclimation or acclimatation ) is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment ( such as a change in altitude , temperature , humidity , photoperiod , or pH ) , allowing it to maintain performance across a range of environmental conditions . Acclimatization occurs in a short period of time ( hours to weeks ) , and within the organism 's lifetime ( compared to adaptation , which is a development that takes place over many generations ) . This may be a discrete occurrence ( for example , when mountaineers acclimate to high altitude over hours or days ) or may instead represent part of a periodic cycle , such as a mammal shedding heavy winter fur in favor of a lighter summer coat . Organisms can adjust their morphological , behavioral , physical , and/or biochemical traits in response to changes in their environment . While the capacity to acclimate to novel environments has been well documented in thousands of species , researchers still know very little about how and why organisms acclimate the way that they do .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Acclimatization", "rank": 4, "score": 111775 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptation Content: In biology , an adaptation , also called an adaptive trait , is a trait with a current functional role in the life of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection . Adaptation is both the current state of being adapted and the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to such a state . Adaptations enhance the evolutionary fitness of individuals . Organisms face a succession of environmental challenges as they grow and develop and are equipped with an adaptive plasticity as the phenotype of traits develop in response to the imposed conditions . The developmental norm of reaction for any given trait is essential to the correction of adaptation as it affords a kind of biological insurance or resilience to varying environments .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptation", "rank": 5, "score": 109977 }, { "content": "Title: Neural adaptation Content: Neural adaptation or sensory adaptation is a change over time in the responsiveness of the sensory system to a constant stimulus . It is usually experienced as a change in the stimulus . For example , if one rests one 's hand on a table , one immediately feels the table 's surface on one 's skin . Within a few seconds , however , one ceases to feel the table 's surface . The sensory neurons stimulated by the table 's surface respond immediately , but then respond less and less until they may not respond at all ; this is an example of neural adaptation . All sensory and neural systems have a form of adaptation to constantly detect changes in the environment . Neural receptor cells that process and receive stimulation go through constant changes for mammals and other living organisms to sense vital changes in their environment . Some key players in several neural systems include Ca2 + ions ( see Calcium in biology ) that send negative feedback in second messenger pathways that allow the neural receptor cells to close or open channels in response to the changes of ion flow.There are also mechanoreception systems that use calcium inflow to physically affect certain proteins and move them to close or open channels . Functionally , it is highly possible that adaptation may enhance the limited response range of neurons to encode sensory signals with much larger dynamic ranges by shifting the range of stimulus amplitudes . Also , in neural adaptation there is a sense of returning to baseline from a stimulated response . Recent work suggests that these baseline states are actually determined by long-term adaptation to the environment . Varying rates or speed of adaptation is an important indicator for tracking different rates of change in the environment or the organism itself . Current Research Current research shows that although adaptation occurs at multiple stages of each sensory pathway , it is often stronger and more stimulus specific at `` cortical '' level rather than `` subcortical stages . '' In short , neural adaptation is thought to happen at a more central level at the cortex .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Neural_adaptation", "rank": 6, "score": 109658 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change adaptation Content: Climate change adaptation is a response to global warming and climate change , that seeks to reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to relatively sudden change and thus offset the effects of global warming . Even if emissions are stabilized relatively soon , global warming and its effects will last many years , and adaptation will be necessary to the resulting changes in climate . Adaptation is especially important in developing countries since those countries are predicted to bear the brunt of the effects of global warming . That is , the capacity and potential for humans to adapt ( called adaptive capacity ) is unevenly distributed across different regions and populations , and developing countries generally have less capacity to adapt ( Schneider et al. , 2007 ) . Furthermore , the degree of adaptation correlates to the situational focus on environmental issues . Therefore , adaptation requires the situational assessment of sensitivity and vulnerability to environmental impacts . Adaptive capacity is closely linked to social and economic development ( IPCC , 2007 ) . The economic costs of adaptation to climate change are likely to cost billions of dollars annually for the next several decades , though the amount of money needed is unknown . Donor countries promised an annual $ 100 billion by 2020 through the Green Climate Fund for developing countries to adapt to climate change . However , while the fund was set up during COP16 in Cancún , concrete pledges by developed countries have not been forthcoming . The adaptation challenge grows with the magnitude and the rate of climate change . Another response to climate change , known as climate change mitigation ( Verbruggen , 2007 ) is to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and/or enhance the removal of these gases from the atmosphere ( through carbon sinks ) . Even the most effective reductions in emissions , however , would not prevent further climate change impacts , making the need for adaptation unavoidable ( Klein et al. , 2007 ) . In a literature assessment , Klein et al. ( 2007 ) assessed options for adaptation . They concluded , with very high confidence , that in the absence of mitigation efforts , the effects of climate change would reach such a magnitude as to make adaptation impossible for some natural ecosystems . Others are concerned that climate adaptation programs might interfere with the existing development programs and thus lead to unintended consequences for vulnerable groups . For human systems , the economic and social costs of unmitigated climate change would be very high .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Climate_change_adaptation", "rank": 7, "score": 107929 }, { "content": "Title: Cellular adaptation Content: In cell biology and pathophysiology , cellular adaptation refers to changes made by a cell in response to adverse environmental changes . The adaptation may be physiologic ( al ) ( normal ) or pathologic ( al ) ( abnormal ) . Five minor types of adaptation include atrophy , hypertrophy , hyperplasia , dysplasia , and metaplasia .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Cellular_adaptation", "rank": 8, "score": 104470 }, { "content": "Title: Phenotypic plasticity Content: Phenotypic plasticity refers to the changes in an organism 's behavior , morphology and physiology due to its adaption to a unique environment . Fundamental to the way in which organisms cope with environmental variation , phenotypic plasticity encompasses all types of environmentally induced changes ( e.g. morphological , physiological , behavioural , phenological ) that may or may not be permanent throughout an individual 's lifespan . The term was originally used to describe developmental effects on morphological characters , but is now more broadly used to describe all phenotypic responses to environmental change , such as acclimation or acclimatization , as well as learning . The special case when differences in environment induce discrete phenotypes is termed polyphenism . Generally , phenotypic plasticity is more important for immobile organisms ( e.g. plants ) than mobile organisms ( e.g. most animals ) , as mobile organisms can often move away from unfavourable environments . Nevertheless , mobile organisms also have at least some degree of plasticity in at least some aspects of the phenotype . One mobile organism with substantial phenotypic plasticity is Acyrthosiphon pisum of the aphid family , which exhibits the ability to interchange between asexual and sexual reproduction , as well as growing wings between generations when plants become too populated .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Phenotypic_plasticity", "rank": 9, "score": 103864 }, { "content": "Title: Psychological adaptation Content: A psychological adaptation is a functional , cognitive or behavioral trait that benefits an organism in its environment . Psychological adaptations fall under the scope of evolved psychological mechanisms ( EPMs ) , however , EPMs refer to a less restricted set . Psychological adaptations include only the functional traits that increase the fitness of an organism , while EPMs refer to any psychological mechanism that developed through the processes of evolution . These additional EPMs are the bi-product traits of a species ' evolutionary development ( see spandrels ) , as well as the vestigial traits that no longer benefit the species ' fitness . It can be difficult to tell whether a trait is vestigial or not , so some literature is more lenient and refers to vestigial traits as adaptations , even though they may no longer have adaptive functionality . For example , xenophobic attitudes and behaviors appear to have certain EPM influences relating to disease aversion , however , in certain environments these behaviors may actually have a poor effect on a person 's fitness . The principles of psychological adaptation rely on Darwin 's theory of evolution and are important to the fields of evolutionary psychology , biology , and cognitive science .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Psychological_adaptation", "rank": 10, "score": 102392 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological forecasting Content: Ecological forecasting uses knowledge of physics , ecology and physiology to predict how ecosystems will change in the future in response to environmental factors such as climate change . The ultimate goal of the approach is to provide people such as resource managers and designers of marine reserves with information that they can then use to respond , in advance , to future changes , a form of adaptation to global warming . One of the most important environmental factors for organisms today is global warming . Most physiological processes are affected by temperature , and so even small changes in weather and climate can lead to large changes in the growth , reproduction and survival of animals and plants . The scientific consensus is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era . These changes are in turn affecting human and natural ecosystems . One major challenge is to predict where , when and with what magnitude changes are likely to occur so that we can mitigate or at least prepare for them . Ecological forecasting applies existing knowledge of how animals and plants interact with their physical environment to ask how changes in environmental factors might result in changes to the ecosystems as a whole .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Ecological_forecasting", "rank": 11, "score": 101428 }, { "content": "Title: Local adaptation Content: A population is said to be locally adapted if organisms in that population have differentially evolved as compared to other populations within their species in response to selective pressures imposed by some aspect of their local environment , be that aspect biotic or abiotic . Therefore , Local adaptation is simply when a population of organisms has evolved to be more well-suited to its environment than other members of the same species . Local adaptation is often determined via reciprocal transplant experiments , where organisms from one population are transplanted into another population , and vice versa , and their finesses measured . If the transplanted organisms have lower fitness in the novel environment , than the native population can be said to be locally adapted . Populations located in different environments may be faced with different biotic and abiotic pressures , consequently natural selection may drive the evolution of these populations in different directions . This divergent natural selection can lead to differences in trait values among populations for those traits that are heritable and impact organism fitness . Local adaptation of a variety of traits has been demonstrated in numerous , phylogenetically disparate organisms . Examples of local adaptation abound in the natural world . For instance , many plant populations exhibit local adaptation . This has been established by reciprocally transplanting plants from one population into another population , and vice versa . The transplanted plants often do worse in the novel environment , than their conspecifics that are locally adapted . Many examples of local adaptation exist in host-parasite systems as well . For instance , a host may be resistant to a locally-abundant pathogen or parasite , but conspecific hosts from elsewhere where that pathogen is not abundant may have no evolved no such adaptation . -", "qid": "373", "docid": "Local_adaptation", "rank": 12, "score": 101267 }, { "content": "Title: High-altitude adaptation in humans Content: High-altitude adaptation in humans is an instance of evolutionary modification in certain human populations , including those of Tibet in Asia , the Andes of the Americas , and Ethiopia in Africa , who have acquired the ability to survive at extremely high altitudes . This adaptation means irreversible , long-term physiological responses to high-altitude environments , associated with heritable behavioural and genetic changes . While the rest of the human population would suffer serious health consequences , the indigenous inhabitants of these regions thrive well in the highest parts of the world . These people have undergone extensive physiological and genetic changes , particularly in the regulatory systems of oxygen respiration and blood circulation , when compared to the general lowland population . This special adaptation is now recognised as an example of natural selection in action . The adaptation account of the Tibetans has become the fastest case of human evolution in the scientific record , as it is estimated to have occurred in less than 3,000 years . Humans evolved in Africa and dispersed from it less than 100,000 years ago , eventually colonising the rest of the world , including the harshest environments of extreme cold and high mountains . The abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere is inversely related to altitude from the sea level ; hence , the highest mountain ranges of the world are considered unsuitable for human habitation . Nevertheless , around 140 million people , just under 2 % of the world 's human population , live permanently at high altitudes , that is , at heights above 2,500 m in South America , East Africa , and South Asia . These populations have done so for millennia without apparent complications . The overwhelming majority , over 98 % of humans from other parts of the world , normally suffer symptoms of altitude sickness in these regions , often resulting in life-threatening trauma and even death . Studies on the detail biological mechanism have revealed that adaptation of the Tibetans , Andeans and Ethiopians is indeed an observable instance of the process of natural selection in acting on favourable characters such as enhanced respiratory mechanisms in humans .", "qid": "373", "docid": "High-altitude_adaptation_in_humans", "rank": 13, "score": 98484 }, { "content": "Title: Alloplastic adaptation Content: Alloplastic adaptation ( from the Greek word allos ) is a form of adaptation where the subject attempts to change the environment when faced with a difficult situation . Criminality , mental illness , and activism can all be classified as categories of alloplastic adaptation . The concept of alloplastic adaptation was developed by Sigmund Freud , Sándor Ferenczi , and Franz Alexander . They proposed that when an individual was presented with a stressful situation , he could react in one of two ways : Autoplastic adaptation : The subject tries to change himself , i.e. the internal environment . Alloplastic adaptation : The subject tries to change the situation , i.e. the external environment .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Alloplastic_adaptation", "rank": 14, "score": 98216 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptive system Content: An adaptive system is a set of interacting or interdependent entities , real or abstract , forming an integrated whole that together are able to respond to environmental changes or changes in the interacting parts , in a way analogous to either continuous physiological homeostasis or evolutionary adaptation in biology . Feedback loops represent a key feature of adaptive systems , such as ecosystems and individual organisms ; or in the human world , communities , organizations , and families . Artificial adaptive systems include robots with control systems that utilize negative feedback to maintain desired states .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptive_system", "rank": 15, "score": 96775 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptation (computer science) Content: The term `` adaptation '' in computer science refers to a process , in which an interactive system ( adaptive system ) adapts its behaviour to individual users based on information acquired about its user ( s ) and its environment .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptation_(computer_science)", "rank": 16, "score": 95290 }, { "content": "Title: Biostasis Content: Biostasis is the ability of an organism to tolerate environmental changes without having to actively adapt to them . Biostasis is found in organisms that live in habitats that likely encounter unfavorable living conditions , such as drought , freezing temperatures , change in pH levels , pressure , or temperature . Insects undergo a type of dormancy to survive these conditions , called diapause . Diapause may be obligatory for these insects to survive . The insect may also be able to undergo change prior to the arrival of the initiating event . Biostasis is also used as a synonym for the terms cryostasis or cryonics . Cryonics is a medical procedure concept that is a well established trope in Science Fiction , that may at some point in the future become a possible option for individuals who are terminally ill . The patients would be frozen in what is known as cryonic suspension . The patients are suspended so that when technology advances both to enable them to be unfrozen and brought back to life but also for their illness to be treated , they can be re-animated and their disease can be cured or treated , accordingly . Medical biostasis can be put to use in humans to help repair brain damage . There is evidence that suggests , in the next decade medical biostasis procedures can be performed by trauma surgeons by 2026 .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Biostasis", "rank": 17, "score": 94264 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental change Content: Environmental change is a change or disturbance of the environment most often caused by human influences and natural ecological processes . Environmental changes can include any number of things , including natural disasters , human interference , or animal interaction . Environmental change does not only encompass physical changes , but it can be things like an infestation of invasive species is also environmental changes .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Environmental_change", "rank": 18, "score": 93691 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptive radiation Content: In evolutionary biology , adaptive radiation is a process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into a multitude of new forms , particularly when a change in the environment makes new resources available , creates new challenges , or opens new environmental niches . Starting with a recent single ancestor , this process results in the speciation and phenotypic adaptation of an array of species exhibiting different morphological and physiological traits . An example of adaptive radiation would be the avian species of the Hawaiian honeycreepers . Via natural selection , these birds adapted rapidly and converged based on the different environments of the Hawaiian islands . Much research has been done on adaptive radiation due to its dramatic effects on the diversity of a population . However , more research is needed , especially to fully understand the many factors affecting adaptive radiation . Both empirical and theoretical approaches are helpful , though each has its disadvantages . In order to procure the largest amount of data , empirical and theoretical approaches must be united .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptive_radiation", "rank": 19, "score": 93401 }, { "content": "Title: Autoplastic adaptation Content: Autoplastic adaptation ( from the Greek word auto ) is a form of adaptation where the subject attempts to change itself when faced with a difficult situation . The concept of autoplastic adaptation was developed by Sigmund Freud , Sándor Ferenczi , and Franz Alexander . They proposed that when an individual was presented with a stressful situation , he could react in one of two ways : Autoplastic adaptation : The subject tries to change himself , i.e. the internal environment . Alloplastic adaptation : The subject tries to change the situation , i.e. the external environment .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Autoplastic_adaptation", "rank": 20, "score": 93133 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptationism Content: Adaptationism is the Darwinian view that many physical and psychological traits of organisms are evolved adaptations . Adaptationists perform research to try to distinguish adaptations ( e.g. , the umbilical cord ) from byproducts ( e.g. , the belly button ) or random variation ( e.g. , convex or concave shape of the belly button ) . George Williams ' Adaptation and Natural Selection ( 1966 ) was highly influential in its development , defining some of the heuristics , such as complex functional design , species universality , and reliability used to identify adaptations .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptationism", "rank": 21, "score": 92988 }, { "content": "Title: Niche construction Content: Niche construction is the process by which an organism alters its own ( or another species ) environment . These alterations can be a physical change to the organism 's environment or even encompass when an organism leaves one habitat for another . Although these alterations are often beneficial to the constructor they do not always increase chances of survival . The process of niche construction can be very broad but for an organism to be considered a niche constructor then the change must follow certain rules . When determining if an organism is undergoing niche construction that organism must satisfy the following three criteria : 1 ) the organism must significantly modify environmental conditions , 2 ) these modifications must influence selection pressures on a recipient organism , & 3 ) There must be an evolutionary response in at least one recipient population caused by the environmental modification . Recently , some biologists have argued that niche construction is as important to evolution as natural selection . They believe that not only does an environment select for changes in a species but a species also can cause changes in their environment through niche construction . This intricate back-and-forth creates a feedback relationship between natural selection and niche-construction : when organisms affect their environment , that change can then cause a shift in what traits are being naturally selected for . The effect of niche construction is especially pronounced in situations where environmental alterations persist for several generations , introducing the evolutionary role of ecological inheritance . This theory , in conjunction with natural selection , shows that organisms inherit two legacies from their ancestors : genes and a modified environment . Together , these two evolutionary mechanisms determine a population 's fitness and what adaptations those organisms develop in the continuation for their survival . A niche constructing organism may or may not be considered an ecosystem engineer . Ecosystem engineering is a more specific concept being precisely tied to structural changes brought about in the environment , while the former encompasses any kind of change .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Niche_construction", "rank": 22, "score": 90544 }, { "content": "Title: Skeletal changes of organisms transitioning from water to land Content: Innovations conventionally associated with terrestrially first appeared in aquatic elpistostegalians such as Panderichthys rhombolepis , Elpistostege watsoni , and Tiktaalik roseae . Phylogenetic analyses distribute the features that developed along the tetrapod stem and display a stepwise process of character acquisition , rather than abrupt . The complete transition occurred over a period of 25 million years beginning with the tetrapodomorph diversification in the Middle Devonian ( 380 myr ) . By the Upper Devonian period , the fin-limb transition as well as other skeletal changes such as gill arch reduction , opercular series loss , mid-line fin loss , and scale reduction were already completed in many aquatic organisms . As aquatic tetrapods began their transition to land , several skeletal changes are thought to have occurred to allow for movement and respiration on land . Some adaptations required to adjust to non-aquatic life include the movement and use of alternating limbs , the use of pelvic appendages as sturdy propulsors , and the use of a solid surface at the organism 's base to generate propulsive force required for walking .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Skeletal_changes_of_organisms_transitioning_from_water_to_land", "rank": 23, "score": 90245 }, { "content": "Title: Red Queen hypothesis Content: The Red Queen hypothesis , also referred to as Red Queen 's , Red Queen 's race or the Red Queen effect , is an evolutionary hypothesis which proposes that organisms must constantly adapt , evolve , and proliferate not merely to gain reproductive advantage , but also simply to survive while pitted against ever-evolving opposing organisms in an ever-changing environment . The hypothesis intends to explain two different phenomena : the constant extinction rates as observed in the paleontological record caused by co-evolution between competing species , and the advantage of sexual reproduction ( as opposed to asexual reproduction ) at the level of individuals . Leigh Van Valen proposed the hypothesis to explain the `` Law of Extinction '' , showing that , in many populations , the probability of extinction does not depend on the lifetime of the population , instead being constant over millions of years for a given population . This could be explained by the coevolution of species . At other times , established species have evolved cooperatively by assuming adaptive coevolutionary dependencies . These complementary relationships develop through graduated symbiosis , directing punctuated advantages specialized enough to ensure a greater survivability and fitness rate for both species , coupled . Indeed , however , an adaptation in a population of one species ( e.g. predators , parasites ) may change the natural selection pressure on a population of another species ( e.g. prey , hosts ) , giving rise to common antagonistic coevolutions . If this positive feedback occurs reciprocally , a potential dynamic coevolution may result . In another idea , the Red Queen hypothesis is used independently by Hartung and Bell to explain the evolution of sex , by John Jaenike to explain the maintenance of sex and W. D. Hamilton to explain the role of sex in response to parasites . In all cases , sexual reproduction confers species variability and a faster generational response to selection by making offspring genetically unique . Sexual species are able to improve their genotype in changing conditions . Consequently , co-evolutionary interactions , between host and parasite , for example , may select for sexual reproduction in hosts in order to reduce the risk of infection . Oscillations in genotype frequencies are observed between parasites and hosts in an antagonistic coevolutionary way without necessitating changes to the phenotype . In multi-host and multi-parasite coevolution , the Red Queen dynamics could affect what host and parasite types will become dominant or rare .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Red_Queen_hypothesis", "rank": 24, "score": 88719 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptation (disambiguation) Content: Adaptation , in biology , is the process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat . Adaptation may also refer to :", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptation_(disambiguation)", "rank": 25, "score": 88500 }, { "content": "Title: Host adaptation Content: When considering pathogens , host adaptation can have varying descriptions . For example , in the case of Salmonella , host adaptation is used to describe the `` ability of a pathogen to circulate and cause disease in a particular host population . '' Another usage of host adaptation , still considering the case of Salmonella , refers to the evolution of a pathogen such that it can infect , cause disease , and circulate in another host species . While there might be pathogens that can infect other hosts and cause disease , the inability to pervade , or spread , throughout the infected host species indicates that the pathogen is not adapted to that host species . In this case , the ability or lack thereof of a pathogen to adapt to its host environment is an indicator of the pathogen 's fitness or virulence . If a pathogen has high fitness in the host environment , or is virulent , it will be able to grow and spread quickly within its host . Conversely , if the pathogen is not well adapted to its host environment , then it will not spread or infect the way a well adapted pathogen would . Pathogens like Salmonella , which is a food borne pathogen , are able to adapt to the host environment and maintain virulence via several pathways . In a paper by Baumler et al 1998 , characters of Salmonella , such as its ability to cause intestinal infection were attributed to virulence factors like its ability to invade intestinal epithelial cells , induce neutrophil recruitment and interfere with the secretion of intestinal fluid . Phylogenetic analysis also revealed that many strains or lineages of Salmonella exist , which is advantageous for the pathogen because its genetic diversity can acts as fodder for natural selection to tinder with . For instance , if a particular Salmonella strain is more fit in the host stomach environment , compared to other Salmonella strains , then the former will be positively selected for and increase in prevalence . Eventually this strain will colonize and infect the stomach . The other less fit strains will be selected against and will thus not persist . Another major host adaptation on the part of Salmonella was its adaptation to host blood temperatures . Because Salmonella can thrive at the human host temperature , 98.6 degrees F , it is fit for the host environment and hence survive well in it . Adaptations like these are simple yet very effective ways of infecting hosts because they use the host 's body and important feature of its body as a stepping stone in the infection process . Another intestinal pathogen in the genus Cryptosporidium , which was not always a human pathogen , `` recently '' adapted to the human host environment . Numerous phylogenetic analyses in a paper by Xiao et al 2002 indicated that the Cryptosporidium parvum bovine genotype and Cryptosporidium meleagridis were originally parasites of rodents and mammals , respectively . However , this parasite ` recently ' expanded into humans . As was previously mentioned , the ability to survive in different host species is an adaptation that is highly advantageous to pathogens because it increases their chances for survival and circulation . Some pathogens can evolve to become resistant to the body 's natural immune defenses and/or to outside intervention like drugs . For instance , Clostridium difficile is the most frequent cause of nosocomial diarrhea worldwide , and reports in the early 2000s indicated the advent of a hypervirulent strain in North America and Europe . In study by Stabler et al 2006 , comparative phylogenomics ( whole-genome comparisons using DNA microarrays combined with Bayesian phylogenies ) were used to model the phylogeny of C. difficile . Phylogenetic analysis identified four distinct statistically significant ` clusters ' making a hypervirulent clade , a toxin A − B + clade , and two clades with human and animal isolates . Genetic differences between the four groups revealed significant findings related to virulence . The authors saw that hypervirulent strains had undergone various types of niche adaptation like antibiotic resistance , motility , adhesion , and enteric metabolism . Some commensal organisms , or organisms that occur in the body naturally and benefit from living in the host without causing it harm or conferring any significant benefit , also have the potential to become pathogens . This specific type of commensal/pathogen hybrid is called an opportunistic pathogen . Not all commensals are opportunistic pathogens . However , opportunistic pathogens are commensals by nature . They are not harmful for the body when the body 's immune system is functioning normally , but if the host immune system becomes compromised , or loses its ability to function at its full or near-full potential , opportunistic pathogens switch from being a commensal organism to a pathogen . This is where the name opportunistic pathogen comes from : they are only pathogens when the opportunity to infect the host is there . An example of an opportunistic pathogen is Candida albicans . Candida albicans is a type of fungus/yeast found in the intestines and mucous membranes ( like the vagina and throat ) of healthy humans . It is also found on the skin of healthy humans . In healthy humans - meaning humans with functioning immune systems - Candida will not cause infections . It will simply co-exist with the host . However , if a person is in chemo therapy or has HIV/AIDS , which weakens the immune system ( thus compromising it ) , Candida albicans will cause infections . It can cause infections as innocuous as yeast infections or thrush and it can cause infections as serious as systemic candidiasis which is fatal in about 50 % of cases . Though the mechanisms Candida albicans uses to switch from being a commensal to a pathogen are largely unknown , the reasons for its strength as a pathogen are broadly known . Candida has plenty of phenotypic and genotypic plasticity which means it generates change quickly . As a result of constant diversification , candida has many opportunities to make advantageous mutations . Additionally , Candida can change morphology . It can convert from the yeast for to the filamentous form and vice versa , depending on which stage of infection it is in . In the beginning stages of infection , Candida is more likely to be in the filamentous form because this allows it to adhere to and infect cells more efficiently . Other adaptations of the commensal pathogen include the ability to grow at host temperature , create biofilms , resist reactive oxygen species ( ROS ) created as part of the human immune response to fight off infection , adapt to different pHs ( relevant for being carried in the blood in different parts of the body ) and adapt to low nutrient or low glucose environments like the liver Because Candida albicans is very good at adapting to the fluctuating environments of the humans body ( i.e. its changing temperature , pH , oxygen reactivity and more ) candida albicans is a good pathogen . Host adaptation can also be used in reference to the host . Hosts have the ability to adapt to protect themselves against pathogens . For instance , the innate and acquired immune responses are adaptations of the human body that exist for the sole purpose of warding off disease . Additionally , as was previously mentioned with the case of reactive oxygen species , the body has various other ways off warding off threats . Sexual reproduction is also a feature that humans and other sexually reproducing organisms have to protect themselves against pathogens . For instance , in what 's called the red queen hypothesis , hosts are constantly shifting genetically via sexual reproduction in order to continue changing so pathogens have less of a chance to be well adjusted to the host . If the host keeps changing via gene shuffling in the form of reproduction , then hosts will have to continuously evolve with the host to keep up with its changes . This sets up a moving target for co-evolving pathogens .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Host_adaptation", "rank": 26, "score": 88124 }, { "content": "Title: Motor adaptation Content: Motor adaptation is a form of motor learning , described as a process of acquiring and restoring movement skills . The Central nervous system adapt to environmental forces , in order to eliminate kinematic errors .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Motor_adaptation", "rank": 27, "score": 86526 }, { "content": "Title: Niche microdifferentiation Content: Niche Microdifferentiation is the process a species undergoes to reach genetic diversity within that species ; it is the process by which an ecotype is created . This process is regulated by various environmental influences whether they be morphological , spatial , and/or temporal . This means that a trait of one organism in one area is not advantageous for the same species in a different location : `` the trait that alters the environment in a manner that is favorable to growth tends to be reinforced and this positive feedback can further , to a certain extent , modify the selection pressure on itself '' . For example , a species of moth which is white and lives in an area where tree bark is stripped and tree color is white will more easily survive than a white moth in a different location where trees are moss-covered and green . This leads to adaptations that allow the species to exist in a slightly different environment . Organisms within the same species can undergo phenotypic and genotypic changes due to niche microdifferentiation . Conspecific organisms can vary in color , size , diet , behavior , and morphology due to differences in environmental pressures . Related topics include epigenetics , niche differentiation , and evolutionary biology .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Niche_microdifferentiation", "rank": 28, "score": 86410 }, { "content": "Title: Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index Content: Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index is a program of the University of Notre Dame 's Environmental Change Initiative . The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index , or ND-GAIN , ranks the climate adaptation performance for 177 countries over the last 17 years . One of ND-GAIN 's goals is to assist decision-makers in the public and private sectors to gain a better understanding of the climate adaptation . Metrics can help decision makers identify and prioritize adaptation measures to allocate investment most effectively and build resilience to climate change . Standard and Poor used a composite of three variables , including ND-GAIN `` to capture facets of potential vulnerability to arrive at a ranking '' of 116 sovereigns for their report `` Climate Change Is A Global Mega-Trend For Sovereign Risk . '' The ND-GAIN Country Profiles provide all of the data and their sources , organized by specific vulnerability and readiness measures such as water availability , food security and education level . According to ND-GAIN as of 2013 , it will take more than 100 years for the world 's poorest countries to reach the current adaptive capacity of higher-income OECD countries . In 2014 ND-GAIN found Norway , New Zealand , Sweden , Finland and Denmark the countries most prepared to adapt to climate change while the Democratic Republic of Congo , Central African Republic , Eritrea , Burundi and Chad were found the most vulnerable .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Notre_Dame_Global_Adaptation_Index", "rank": 29, "score": 86246 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 30, "score": 85476 }, { "content": "Title: Experimental evolution Content: Experimental evolution is the use of experiments or controlled field manipulations to explore evolutionary dynamics . Evolution may be observed in the laboratory as populations adapt to new environmental conditions and/or change by such stochastic processes as random genetic drift . With modern molecular tools , it is possible to pinpoint the mutations that selection acts upon , what brought about the adaptations , and to find out how exactly these mutations work . Because of the large number of generations required for adaptation to occur , evolution experiments are typically carried out with microorganisms such as bacteria , yeast or viruses , or other organisms with rapid generation times . However , laboratory studies with foxes and with rodents ( see below ) have shown that notable adaptations can occur within as few as 10 -- 20 generations and experiments with wild guppies have observed adaptations within comparable numbers of generations . More recently , experimentally evolved individuals or populations are often analyzed using whole genome sequencing , an approach known as Evolve and Resequence ( E&R ) .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Experimental_evolution", "rank": 31, "score": 85450 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change adaptation in Nepal Content: Climate change ( CC ) refers `` to the change of earth 's global or regional climate over a long period of time , whether due to natural variability or as the result of human activities '' IPCC , 2007d :30 . By the impact of climate change , as systems become more vulnerable to natural hazards , there is a greater need to develop responses ( that is , adjustments in existing practices , processes or structures ) that are able to counter potential future disasters . Such a response is known as adaptation to climate change IPCC , 2001b ; Smit et al. , 1999 . Community forest user group ( CFUG ) is main areas to act climate change adaptation in Nepa", "qid": "373", "docid": "Climate_change_adaptation_in_Nepal", "rank": 32, "score": 84224 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptability Content: Adaptability ( adaptō `` fit to , adjust '' ) is a feature of a system or of a process . This word has been put to use as a specialised term in different disciplines and in business operations . Word definitions of adaptability as a specialised term differ little from adaptability . According to Andresen and Gronau adaptability in the field of organizational management can in general be seen as an ability to change something or oneself to fit to occurring changes . In ecology , adaptability has been described as the ability to cope with unexpected disturbances in the environment . With respect to business and manufacturing systems and processes adaptability has come to be seen increasingly as an important factor for their efficiency and economic success . In contrast , adaptability and efficiency are held to be in opposition to each other in biological and ecological systems , requiring a trade-off , since both are important factors in the success of such systems . To determine the adaptability of a process or a system , it should be validated concerning some criteria .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptability", "rank": 33, "score": 83586 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptive type Content: Adaptive type -- in evolutionary biology -- is any population or taxon which have the potential for a particular or total occupation of given free of underutilized home habitats or position in the general economy of nature . In evolutionary sense , the emergence of new adaptive type is usually a result of adaptive radiation certain groups of organisms in which they arise categories that can effectively exploit temporary , or new conditions of the environment . Such evolutive units with its distinctive -- morphological and anatomical , physiological and other characteristics , ie . genetic and adjustments ( feature ) have a predispositiona for a occupation certain home habitats or position in the general nature economy . Simply , the adaptive type is one group organisms whose general biological properties represent a key to open the entrance to the observed adaptive zone in the observed natural ecological complex . Adaptive types are spatially and temporally specific . Since the frames of general biological properties these types of substantially genetic are defined between , in effect the emergence of new adaptive types of the corresponding change in population genetic structure and eternal contradiction between the need for optimal adapted well the conditions of living environment , while maintaining genetic variation for survival in a possible new circumstances . For example , the specific place in the economy of nature existed millions of years before the appearance of human type . However , just when the process of evolution of primates ( order Primates ) reached a level that is able to occupy that position , it is open , and then ( in leaving world ) an unprecedented acceleration increasingly spreading . Culture , in the broadest sense , is a key adaptation of adaptive type type of Homo sapiens the occupation of existing adaptive zone through work , also in the broadest sense of the term .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptive_type", "rank": 34, "score": 82780 }, { "content": "Title: Standard anatomical position Content: Because animals can change orientation with respect to their environment , and because appendages ( arms , legs , tentacles , etc. ) can change position with respect to the main body , it is important that anatomical terms of location refer to the organism when it is in its standard anatomical position . Thus , all descriptions are with respect to the organism in its standard anatomical position , even when the organism in question has appendages in another position . However , a straight position is assumed when describing the proximo-distal axis . This helps avoid confusion in terminology when referring to the same organism in different postures .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Standard_anatomical_position", "rank": 35, "score": 82351 }, { "content": "Title: Aquatic adaptation Content: Several animal groups have undergone aquatic adaptation , going from being purely terrestrial animals to living at least part of the time in water . The adaptations in early speciation tend to develop as the animal ventures into water in order to find available food . As successive generations spend more time in the water , natural selection causes the acquisition of more adaptations . Animals of later generations may spend the majority of their life in the water , coming ashore for mating . Finally , fully adapted animals may take to mating and birthing in water .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Aquatic_adaptation", "rank": 36, "score": 82239 }, { "content": "Title: Predictive adaptive response Content: A predictive adaptive response ( PAR ) is a developmental trajectory taken by an organism during a period of developmental plasticity in response to perceived environmental cues . This PAR does not confer an immediate advantage to the developing organism ; however , if the PAR correctly anticipates the postnatal environment it will be advantageous in later life , if the environment the organism is born into differs from that anticipated by the PAR it will result in a mismatch . Examples of PARs include greater helmet development in Daphnia cucullata in response to maternal exposure to predator pheromones , coat thickness determination in vole pups by the photoperiod length experienced by the mother , and the tendency of humans that experienced maternal undernutrition in utero to become glucose intolerant and develop type II diabetes in later life as described in the thrifty phenotype hypothesis . PARs are thought to occur through epigenetic mechanisms that alter gene expression , such as DNA methylation and histone modification , and do not involve changes to the DNA sequence of the developing organism .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Predictive_adaptive_response", "rank": 37, "score": 81701 }, { "content": "Title: Evolvability Content: Evolvability is defined as the capacity of a system for adaptive evolution . Evolvability is the ability of a population of organisms to not merely generate genetic diversity , but to generate adaptive genetic diversity , and thereby evolve through natural selection . In order for a biological organism to evolve by natural selection , there must be a certain minimum probability that new , heritable variants are beneficial . Random mutations , unless they occur in DNA sequences with no function , are expected to be mostly detrimental . Beneficial mutations are always rare , but if they are too rare , then adaptation can not occur . Early failed efforts to evolve computer programs by random mutation and selection showed that evolvability is not a given , but depends on the representation of the program . Analogously , the evolvability of organisms depends on their genotype-phenotype map . This means that biological genomes are structured in ways that make beneficial changes less unlikely than they would otherwise be . This has been taken as evidence that evolution has created not just fitter organisms , but populations of organisms that are better able to evolve .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Evolvability", "rank": 38, "score": 81249 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptive performance Content: Adaptive performance in the work environment refers to adjusting to and understanding change in the workplace . An employee who is versatile is valued and important in the success of an organization . Employers seek employees with high adaptability , due to the positive outcomes that follow , such as excellent work performance , work attitude , and ability to handle stress . Employees , who display high adaptive performance in an organization , tend to have more advantages in career opportunities unlike employees who are not adaptable to change . In previous literature , Pulakos and colleagues established eight dimensions of adaptive performance .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptive_performance", "rank": 39, "score": 81183 }, { "content": "Title: Bacterial morphological plasticity Content: Bacterial morphological plasticity refers to changes in the shape and size that bacterial cells undergo when they encounter stressful environments . Although bacteria have evolved complex molecular strategies to maintain their shape , many are able to alter their shape as a survival strategy in response to protist predators , antibiotics , the immune response , and other threats .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Bacterial_morphological_plasticity", "rank": 40, "score": 80761 }, { "content": "Title: Cultural ecology Content: Cultural ecology is the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments . Human adaptation refers to both biological and cultural processes that enable a population to survive and reproduce within a given or changing environment . This may be carried out diachronically ( examining entities that existed in different epochs ) , or synchronically ( examining a present system and its components ) . The central argument is that the natural environment , in small scale or subsistence societies dependent in part upon it , is a major contributor to social organization and other human institutions . In the academic realm , when combined with study of political economy , the study of economies as polities , it becomes political ecology , another academic subfield . It also helps interrogate historical events like the Easter Island Syndrome .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Cultural_ecology", "rank": 41, "score": 80603 }, { "content": "Title: Terrestrial locomotion Content: Terrestrial locomotion has evolved as animals adapted from aquatic to terrestrial environments . Locomotion on land raises different problems than that in water , with reduced friction being replaced by the effects of gravity . There are three basic forms of locomotion found among terrestrial animals Legged - Moving by using appendages Limbless locomotion - moving without legs , primarily using the body itself as a propulsive structure . Rolling - rotating the body over the substrate", "qid": "373", "docid": "Terrestrial_locomotion", "rank": 42, "score": 80527 }, { "content": "Title: Arboreal locomotion Content: Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees . In habitats in which trees are present , animals have evolved to move in them . Some animals may scale trees only occasionally , but others are exclusively arboreal . The habitats pose numerous mechanical challenges to animals moving through them and lead to a variety of anatomical , behavioral and ecological consequences as well as variations throughout different species . Furthermore , many of these same principles may be applied to climbing without trees , such as on rock piles or mountains . The earliest known tetrapod with specializations that adapted it for climbing trees was Suminia , a synapsid of the late Permian , about 260 million years ago . Some invertebrate animals are exclusively arboreal in habitat , such as the tree snail .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Arboreal_locomotion", "rank": 43, "score": 80439 }, { "content": "Title: The Brain That Changes Itself Content: The Brain That Changes Itself : Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science is a book on neuroplasticity by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge , M.D. . It features numerous case studies of patients suffering from neurological disorders and details how in each case the brain adapts to compensate for the disabilities of the individual patients , often in unusual and unexpected ways . Interviews with the patients , clinicians , and research scientists involved in these studies make up a large portion of the contents . Doidge uses examples of previous work carried out by neuroscientists such as Paul Broca , Sigmund Freud , Alexander Luria , Donald O. Hebb , Paul Bach-y-Rita , and Eric Kandel to show that the brain is adaptive , and thus plastic . Through the case studies , Doidge demonstrates both the beneficial and detrimental effects that neuroplasticity can have on a patient , saying , '' ... neuroplasticity contributes to both the constrained and unconstrained aspects of our nature . '' However , according to Doige , neuroplasticity '' ... renders our brains not only more resourceful , but also more vulnerable to outside influences . ''", "qid": "373", "docid": "The_Brain_That_Changes_Itself", "rank": 44, "score": 80356 }, { "content": "Title: Anti-predator adaptation Content: Anti-predator adaptations are mechanisms developed through evolution that assist prey organisms in their constant struggle against predators . Throughout the animal kingdom , adaptations have evolved for every stage of this struggle . The first line of defence consists in avoiding detection , through mechanisms such as camouflage , living underground , or nocturnality . Alternatively , prey animals may ward off attack , whether by advertising the presence of strong defences in aposematism , by mimicking animals which do possess such defences , by startling the attacker , by signalling to the predator that pursuit is not worthwhile , by distraction , by using defensive structures such as spines , and by living in a group . Members of groups are at reduced risk of predation , despite the increased conspicuousness of a group , through improved vigilance , predator confusion , and the likelihood that the predator will attack some other individual . Some prey species are capable of fighting back against predators , whether with chemicals , through communal defence , or by ejecting noxious materials . Many animals can escape by fleeing rapidly , outrunning or outmanoeuvring their attacker . Finally , some species are able to escape even when caught by sacrificing certain body parts : crabs can shed a claw , while lizards can shed their tails , often distracting predators long enough to permit the prey to escape .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Anti-predator_adaptation", "rank": 45, "score": 80032 }, { "content": "Title: Chemotaxis Content: Chemotaxis ( from chemo - + taxis ) is the movement of an organism in response to a chemical stimulus . Somatic cells , bacteria , and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment . This is important for bacteria to find food ( e.g. , glucose ) by swimming toward the highest concentration of food molecules , or to flee from poisons ( e.g. , phenol ) . In multicellular organisms , chemotaxis is critical to early development ( e.g. , movement of sperm towards the egg during fertilization ) and subsequent phases of development ( e.g. , migration of neurons or lymphocytes ) as well as in normal function . In addition , it has been recognized that mechanisms that allow chemotaxis in animals can be subverted during cancer metastasis . Positive chemotaxis occurs if the movement is toward a higher concentration of the chemical in question ; negative chemotaxis if the movement is in the opposite direction . Chemically prompted kinesis ( randomly directed or nondirectional ) can be called chemokinesis .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Chemotaxis", "rank": 46, "score": 79609 }, { "content": "Title: Self-preservation Content: Self-preservation is a behavior that ensures the survival of an organism . It is almost universal among living organisms . Pain and fear are integral parts of this mechanism . Pain motivates the individual to withdraw from damaging situations , to protect a damaged body part while it heals , and to avoid similar experiences in the future . Most pain resolves promptly once the painful stimulus is removed and the body has healed , but sometimes pain persists despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body ; and sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus , damage or disease . Fear causes the organism to seek safety and may cause a release of adrenaline , which has the effect of increased strength and heightened senses such as hearing , smell , and sight . Self-preservation may also be interpreted figuratively , in regard to the coping mechanisms one needs to prevent emotional trauma from distorting the mind ( see : defence mechanism . ) Even the most simple of living organisms ( for example , the single-celled bacteria ) are typically under intense selective pressure to evolve a response to avoid a damaging environment , if such an environment exists . Organisms also evolve while adapting - even thriving - in a benign environment ( for example , a marine sponge modifies its structure in response to current changes , in order to better absorb and process nutrients ) . Self-preservation is therefore an almost universal hallmark of life . However , when introduced to a novel threat , many species will have a self-preservation response either too specialised , or not specialised enough , to cope with that particular threat . An example is the dodo , which evolved in the absence of natural predators and hence lacked an appropriate , general self-preservation response to heavy predation by humans and rats , showing no fear of them .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Self-preservation", "rank": 47, "score": 79518 }, { "content": "Title: Rate of evolution Content: The rate of evolution is a variable of considerable interest in evolutionary biology . It concerns the limits of adaptation to natural environments as well as the limits of artificial selection . Humans have created a wide range of new species , and varieties within those species , of both domesticated animals and plants . Other human activity also impacts evolution . This has been achieved in a very short geological period of time , spanning only a few tens of thousands of years , and sometimes less . Maize , Zea mays , for instance , is estimated to have been created in what is now known as Mexico in only a few thousand years , starting between about 7 000 and 12 000 years ago , from still uncertain origins . In the light of this extraordinarily rapid rate of evolution , through ( prehistoric ) artificial selection , George C. Williams and others , have remarked the following : The question of evolutionary change in relation to available geological time is indeed a serious theoretical challenge , but the reasons are exactly the opposite of that inspired by most people 's intuition . Organisms in general have not done nearly as much evolving as we should reasonably expect . Long term rates of change , even in lineages of unusual rapid evolution , are almost always far slower than they theoretically could be . The basis for such expectation is to be found most clearly in observed rates of evolution under artificial selection , along with the often high rates of change in environmental conditions that must imply rapid change in intensity and direction of selection in nature . Evolution is imposed on species or groups . It is not planned or striven for in some Lamarckist way . The mutations on which the process depends are random events , and , except for the `` silent mutations '' which do not affect the functionality or appearance of the carrier , are thus usually disadvantageous , and their chance of proving to be useful in the future is vanishingly small . Therefore , while a species or group might benefit from being able to adapt to a new environment by accumulating a wide range of genetic variation , this is to the detriment of the individuals who have to carry these mutations until a small , unpredictable minority of them ultimately contributes to such an adaptation . Thus , the capability to evolve is a group adaptation , a concept discredited by ( for example ) George C. Williams , John Maynard Smith and Richard Dawkins as selectively disadvantageous to the individual . . If sexual creatures avoid mates with strange or unusual characteristics , in the process called koinophilia , then mutations that affect the external appearance of their carriers will seldom be passed on to the next and subsequent generations . They will therefore seldom be tested by natural selection . Evolution is , therefore , effectively halted or slowed down considerably . The only mutations that can accumulate in a population are ones that have no noticeable effect on the outward appearance and functionality of their bearers ( i.e. , they are `` silent '' or `` neutral mutations '' , which can be , and are , used to trace the relatedness and age of populations and species . ) This implies that evolution can only occur if mutant mates can not be avoided , as a result of a severe scarcity of potential mates . This is most likely to occur in small , isolated communities . These occur most commonly on small islands , in remote valleys , lakes , river systems , or caves , or during the aftermath of a mass extinction . Under these circumstances , not only is the choice of mates severely restricted but population bottlenecks , founder effects , genetic drift and inbreeding cause rapid , random changes in the isolated population 's genetic composition . Furthermore , hybridization with a related species trapped in the same isolate might introduce additional genetic changes . If an isolated population such as this survives its genetic upheavals , and subsequently expands into an unoccupied niche , or into a niche in which it has an advantage over its competitors , a new species , or subspecies , will have come in being . In geological terms this will be an abrupt event . A resumption of avoiding mutant mates will , thereafter , result , once again , in evolutionary stagnation . Thus the fossil record of an evolutionary progression typically consists of species that suddenly appear , and ultimately disappear , in many cases close to a million years later , without any change in external appearance . Graphically , these fossil species are represented by horizontal lines , whose lengths depict how long each of them existed . The horizontality of the lines illustrates the unchanging appearance of each of the fossil species depicted on the graph . During each species ' existence new species appear at random intervals , each also lasting many hundreds of thousands of years before disappearing without a change in appearance . The exact relatedness of these concurrent species is generally impossible to determine . This is illustrated in the following diagram depicting the evolution of modern humans from the time that the Hominins separated from the line that led to the evolution of our closest living primate relatives , the chimpanzees . For similar evolutionary time lines see , for instance , the paleontological list of African dinosaurs , Asian dinosaurs , the Lampriformes and Amiiformes .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Rate_of_evolution", "rank": 48, "score": 79060 }, { "content": "Title: Respiratory adaptation Content: Respiratory adaptation is the specific changes that the respiratory system undergoes in response to the demands of physical exertion . Intense physical exertion , such as that involved in fitness training , places elevated demands on the respiratory system . Over time , this results in respiratory changes as the system adapts to these requirements . These changes ultimately result in an increased exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide , which is accompanied by an increase in metabolism . Respiratory adaptation is a physiological determinant of peak endurance performance , and in elite athletes , the pulmonary system is often a limiting factor to exercise under certain conditions .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Respiratory_adaptation", "rank": 49, "score": 78948 }, { "content": "Title: Evolutionary mismatch Content: Evolutionary mismatch , also known as mismatch theory or evolutionary trap , is a concept in evolutionary biology that refers to evolved traits that were once advantageous but became maladaptive due to changes in the environment . This can take place in humans and animals and is often attributed to rapid environmental change . Mismatch theory represents the idea that traits that evolved in an organism in one environment can be disadvantageous in a different environment . This environmental change leading to evolutionary mismatch can be broken down into two major categories : temporal ( change of the existing environment over time , e.g. a climate change ) or spatial ( placing organisms into a new environment , e.g. a population migrating ) . Since environmental change occurs naturally and constantly , there will certainly be examples of evolutionary mismatch over time . However , because large-scale natural environmental change -- like a natural disaster -- is often rare , it is less often observed . Another more prevalent kind of environmental change is anthropogenic ( human-caused ) . In recent times , humans have had a large , rapid , and trackable impact on our environment , thus creating scenarios where it is easier to observe evolutionary mismatch . Because of the mechanism of evolution by natural selection , the environment ( `` nature '' ) determines ( `` selects '' ) which traits will persist in a population . Therefore , there will be a gradual weeding out of disadvantageous traits over several generations as the population becomes more adapted to its environment . Any significant change in a population 's traits that can not be attributed to other factors ( such as genetic drift and mutation ) will be responsive to a change in that population 's environment ; in other words , natural selection is inherently reactive . Shortly following an environmental change , traits that evolved in the previous environment , whether they were advantageous or neutral , are persistent for several generations in the new environment . Because evolution is gradual and environmental changes often occur very quickly on a geological scale , there is always a period of `` catching-up '' as the population evolves to become adapted to the environment . It is this temporary period of `` disequilibrium '' that is referred to as mismatch . Mismatched traits are ultimately addressed in one of several possible ways : the organism may evolve such that the maladaptive trait is no longer expressed , the organism may decline and/or become extinct as a result of the disadvantageous trait , or the environment may change such that the trait is no longer selected against .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Evolutionary_mismatch", "rank": 50, "score": 78834 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental gradient Content: An environmental gradient is a gradual change in abiotic factors through space ( or time ) . Environmental gradients can be related to factors such as altitude , temperature , depth , ocean proximity and soil humidity . Species abundances usually change along environmental gradients in a more or less predictive way . However , the species abundance along an environmental gradient is not only determined by the abiotic factor but , also by the change in the biotic interactions , like competition , along the environmental gradient . At an ecotone , species abundances change relatively quickly compared to the environmental gradient . The species distribution along environmental gradients has been studied intensively due to large databases of species presence data ( e.g. GBIF ) Environmental Gradients are linked to Connectivity and natural disturbance when considering river systems . A river restoration scheme must consider all of these factors before undertaking a program as these three factors are what leads to a larger biodiversity . Each species are not found in every type of habitat or in every part of the world . Within the environment there are multiple factors which affects organisms . The organisms in the polar region can not survive the climate at the equator .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Environmental_gradient", "rank": 51, "score": 78572 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme environment Content: An extreme environment contains conditions that are hard to survive for most known life forms . These conditions may be extremely high or low temperature or pressure ; high or low content of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ; high levels of radiation , acidity , or alkalinity ; absence of water ; water containing a high concentration of salt or sugar ; presence of sulphur , petroleum , and other toxic substances . Examples of extreme environments include the geographical poles , very dry deserts , volcanoes , deep ocean trenches , upper atmosphere , Mt Everest , outer space , and the environments of every planet in the Solar System except the Earth . Any organisms living in these conditions are often very well adapted to their living circumstances , which is usually a result of long-term evolution . Physiologists have long known that organisms living in extreme environments are especially likely to exhibit clear examples of evolutionary adaptation because of the presumably intense past natural selection they have experienced .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Extreme_environment", "rank": 52, "score": 78435 }, { "content": "Title: Ecophysiology Content: Ecophysiology ( from Greek οἶκος , oikos , `` house ( hold ) '' ; φύσις , physis , `` nature , origin '' ; and - λογία , - logia ) , environmental physiology or physiological ecology is a biological discipline that studies the adaptation of an organism 's physiology to environmental conditions . It is closely related to comparative physiology and evolutionary physiology . Ernst Haeckel 's coinage bionomy is sometimes employed as a synonym .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Ecophysiology", "rank": 53, "score": 78321 }, { "content": "Title: Kiribati Adaptation Program Content: The Kiribati Adaptation Program ( KAP ) is a US $ 5.5 million initiative that was originally enacted by the national government of Kiribati with the support of the Global Environment Facility ( GEF ) , the World Bank , the United Nations Development Program , and the Japanese Government . Australia later joined the coalition , donating US $ 1.5 million to the effort . The program aims to take place over 6 years , supporting measures that reduce Kiribati 's vulnerability to the effects of climate change and sea level rise by raising awareness of climate change , assessing and protecting available water resources , and managing inundation . At the start of the Adaptation Program , representatives from each of the inhabited atolls identified key climatic changes that had taken place over the past 20 -- 40 years , and proposed coping mechanisms to deal with these changes under 4 categories of urgency of need . The program is now focusing on the country 's most vulnerable sectors in the most highly populated areas . Initiatives include improving water supply management in and around Tarawa ; coastal management protection measures such as mangrove re-plantation and protection of public infrastructure ; strengthening laws to reduce coastal erosion ; and population settlement planning to reduce personal risks .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Kiribati_Adaptation_Program", "rank": 54, "score": 78130 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Change Institute Content: The Environmental Change Institute was founded in 1987 in Oxford University in England `` to organize and promote interdisciplinary research on the nature , causes and impact of environmental change and to contribute to the development of management strategies for coping with future environmental change . '' This statement still embodies the ECI 's ethos of purposeful environmental research and knowledge exchange . With an annual research income of # 4.7 million in 2013/14 , a portfolio of 50 active projects , 350 partners and 60 researchers working across 40 countries , the ECI is an active and influential player in environmental change science . The ECI 's research is interdisciplinary , both in outlook and approach . ECI has a well - established track record in relation to climate , energy and ecosystems and a growing expertise in relation to food and water . ECI is a leading player in number of large research activities , including : the UK Climate Impacts Programme ( UKCIP ) which develops new tools to link climate science with stakeholders in business and government in order to create innovative adaptations to the impacts of climate change ; Climateprediction.net the world 's largest citizen science climate ensemble with 350,000 individuals running climate simulations in order to better understand regional climate patterns ; leaders of major EU consortium programmes including one on the impacts and risks of extreme climate change ( Impressions ) ; and coordinators of GEM , a global ecological monitoring programme across remote forest locations in South America , Africa and Asia . The ECI 's full portfolio of projects has led to academic papers and citations totaling over 45,000 since 2000 . The ECI is also home to the MSc in Environmental Change and Management ( ECM ) , the School 's first taught postgraduate masters ' programme , and Oxford 's most popular graduate science course . The Institute is led by Professor Jim Hall .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Environmental_Change_Institute", "rank": 55, "score": 77367 }, { "content": "Title: Homeostat Content: The Homeostat is one of the first devices capable of adapting itself to the environment ; it exhibited behaviours such as habituation , reinforcement and learning through its ability to maintain homeostasis in a changing environment . It was built by William Ross Ashby in 1948 at Barnwood House Hospital . After a few technical hiccups with short-circuits causing burn-outs , the homeostat was finally completed on the 16th March , 1948 . It was an adaptive ultrastable system , consisting of four interconnected Royal Air Force bomb control units with inputs , feedback , and magnetically driven , water-filled potentiometers . It illustrated his law of requisite variety -- automatically adapting its configuration to stabilize the effects of any disturbances introduced into the system . In 1946 , Ashby described the design of the units thus `` Its principle is that it uses multiple coils in a milliammeter & uses the needle movement to dip in a trough carrying a current , so getting a potential which goes to the grid of a valve , the anode of which provides an output current . '' It was the realization of what he had described in 1946 as an `` Isomorphism making machine '' . When Alan Turing heard of Ashby 's intention to build the Homeostat , he wrote to Ashby to suggest that he could run a simulation on Turing 's Automatic Computing Engine ( ACE ) instead of building a special machine . The first published account of the homeostat appeared under the title of `` Design for a Brain '' in the December 1948 issue of ` Electronic Engineering ' , where he speculates about a perfected homeostat that could eventually play chess `` with a subtlety and depth of strategy beyond that of the man who designed it . '' In 1949 Time described it as `` the closest thing to a synthetic brain so far designed by man '' . In 1952 , Ashby demonstrated it at the ninth Macy conference on cybernetics . In the same year he published a description of the Homeostat in his influential book Design for a brain . In total , between 1946 and 1967 , he wrote 38 entries about the Homeostat in his journal .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Homeostat", "rank": 56, "score": 77087 }, { "content": "Title: Cursorial Content: A cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to run . There are different ways of distinguishing cursorial organisms ; for example , they can be distinguished by feeding habits so that a horse is a cursorial grazer and a wolf a cursorial predator . Cursorial organisms are typically adapted to long-distance running at high speeds , rather than animals with high acceleration over short distances ; thus , a leopard is considered cursorial , while a cheetah is not . Among vertebrates , animals under 1 kg of mass are rarely considered cursorial , as they typically move in a series of short bursts rather than at a constant speed . All extant cursorial vertebrates are endothermic , allowing high metabolic rates and high endurance , though it is possible some extinct species were ectothermic . Some species of spiders are also considered cursorial , as they walk much of the day , looking for prey .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Cursorial", "rank": 57, "score": 76666 }, { "content": "Title: The Adaptation Fund Content: The Adaptation Fund is an international fund that finances projects and programs aimed at helping developing countries to adapt to the harmful effects of climate change . It is set up under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) .", "qid": "373", "docid": "The_Adaptation_Fund", "rank": 58, "score": 76480 }, { "content": "Title: Animal locomotion Content: Animal locomotion , in ethology , is any of a variety of movements or methods that animals use to move from one place to another . Some modes of locomotion are ( initially ) self-propelled , e.g. , running , swimming , jumping , flying , hopping , soaring and gliding . There are also many animal species that depend on their environment for transportation , a type of mobility called passive locomotion , e.g. , sailing ( some jellyfish ) , kiting ( spiders ) and rolling ( some beetles and spiders ) . Animals move for a variety of reasons , such as to find food , a mate , a suitable microhabitat , or to escape predators . For many animals , the ability to move is essential for survival and , as a result , natural selection has shaped the locomotion methods and mechanisms used by moving organisms . For example , migratory animals that travel vast distances ( such as the Arctic tern ) typically have a locomotion mechanism that costs very little energy per unit distance , whereas non-migratory animals that must frequently move quickly to escape predators are likely to have energetically costly , but very fast , locomotion . The anatomical structures that animals use for movement , including cilia , legs , wings , arms , fins , or tails , in various modes and through various media are sometimes referred to as locomotory organs or locomotory structures .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Animal_locomotion", "rank": 59, "score": 76119 }, { "content": "Title: Troglomorphism Content: Troglomorphism is the morphological adaptation of an animal to living in the constant darkness of caves , characterised by features such as loss of pigment , reduced eyesight or blindness , and frequently with attenuated bodies and/or appendages . The terms troglobitic , stygobitic , stygofauna , troglofauna , and hypogean or hypogeic , are often used for cave-dwelling organisms . A 2012 study by a team from the National University of Singapore found that reductive changes in freshwater cave crabs evolved at the same rate as constructive changes . Troglomorphism occurs in molluscs , velvet worms , arachnids , myriapods , crustaceans , insects , fish , amphibians ( notably cave salamanders ) and reptiles . To date no mammals or birds have been found to live exclusively in caves . Pickerel frogs are classed as either trogloxenes , or possibly troglophiles .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Troglomorphism", "rank": 60, "score": 76108 }, { "content": "Title: Inheritance of acquired characteristics Content: The inheritance of acquired characteristics is a hypothesis that physiological changes acquired over the life of an organism ( such as the enlargement of a muscle through repeated use ) may be transmitted to offspring . It is also commonly referred to as the theory of adaptation equated with the evolutionary theory of French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ( 1744-1829 ) known as Lamarckism .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Inheritance_of_acquired_characteristics", "rank": 61, "score": 76002 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental movement Content: The environmental movement ( sometimes referred to as the ecology movement ) , also including conservation and green politics , is a diverse scientific , social , and political movement for addressing environmental issues . Environmentalists advocate the sustainable management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behavior . In its recognition of humanity as a participant in ( not enemy of ) ecosystems , the movement is centered on ecology , health , and human rights . The environmental movement is an international movement , represented by a range of organizations , from the large to grassroots and varies from country to country . Due to its large membership , varying and strong beliefs , and occasionally speculative nature , the environmental movement is not always united in its goals . The movement also encompasses some other movements with a more specific focus , such as the climate movement . At its broadest , the movement includes private citizens , professionals , religious devotees , politicians , scientists , nonprofit organizations and individual advocates .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Environmental_movement", "rank": 62, "score": 75994 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclomorphosis Content: Cyclomorphosis ( also known as seasonal polyphenism ) is the name given to the occurrence of cyclic or seasonal changes in the phenotype of an organism through successive generations . It occurs in small aquatic invertebrates that reproduce by parthenogenesis and give rise to several generations annually . It occurs especially in marine planktonic animals , and is thought to be caused by the interaction of environmental cues with the organism 's genes , thereby altering the course of their development . Category : Biological processes Category : Animal physiology", "qid": "373", "docid": "Cyclomorphosis", "rank": 63, "score": 75492 }, { "content": "Title: Behavioral plasticity Content: Behavioral plasticity refers to a change in an organism 's behavior that results from exposure to stimuli , such as changing environmental conditions . Behavior is one of the most variable traits and can be influenced by many factors .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Behavioral_plasticity", "rank": 64, "score": 75439 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological fitting Content: Ecological fitting is `` the process whereby organisms colonize and persist in novel environments , use novel resources or form novel associations with other species as a result of the suites of traits that they carry at the time they encounter the novel condition . '' It can be understood as a situation in which a species ' interactions with its biotic and abiotic environment seem to indicate a history of coevolution , when in actuality the relevant traits evolved in response to a different set of biotic and abiotic conditions . The simplest form of ecological fitting is resource tracking , in which an organism continues to exploit the same resources , but in a new host or environment . In this framework , the organism occupies a multidimensional operative environment defined by the conditions in which it can persist , similar to the idea of the Hutchinsonian niche . In this case , a species can colonize new environments ( e.g. an area with the same temperature and water regime ) and/or form new species interactions ( e.g. a parasite infecting a new host ) which can lead to the misinterpretation of the relationship as coevolution , although the organism has not evolved and is continuing to exploit the same resources it always has . The more strict definition of ecological fitting requires that a species encounter an environment or host outside of its original operative environment and obtain realized fitness based on traits developed in previous environments that are now co-opted for a new purpose . This strict form of ecological fitting can also be expressed either as colonization of new habitat or the formation of new species interactions .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Ecological_fitting", "rank": 65, "score": 75256 }, { "content": "Title: Pleomorphism (microbiology) Content: In microbiology , pleomorphism ( from greek πλέω - more , and - μορφή form ) is the ability of some micro-organisms to alter their shape or size in response to environmental conditions . Pleomorphism has been observed in some members of the Deinococcaceae family . The modern definition of pleomorphism in the context of bacteriology is based on variation of size or shape of the cell , rather than a change of shape as previously believed .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Pleomorphism_(microbiology)", "rank": 66, "score": 75249 }, { "content": "Title: Euryhaline Content: Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities . An example of a euryhaline fish is the molly ( Poecilia sphenops ) which can live in fresh water , brackish water , or salt water . The green crab ( Carcinus maenas ) is an example of a euryhaline invertebrate that can live in salt and brackish water . Euryhaline organisms are commonly found in habitats such as estuaries and tide pools where the salinity changes regularly . However , some organisms are euryhaline because their life cycle involves migration between freshwater and marine environments , as is the case with salmon and eels . The opposite of euryhaline organisms are stenohaline ones , which can only survive within a narrow range of salinities . Most freshwater organisms are stenohaline , and will die in seawater , and similarly most marine organisms are stenohaline , and can not live in fresh water .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Euryhaline", "rank": 67, "score": 74912 }, { "content": "Title: Conformational change Content: In biochemistry , a conformational change is a change in the shape of a macromolecule , often induced by environmental factors . A macromolecule is usually flexible and dynamic . It can change its shape in response to changes in its environment or other factors ; each possible shape is called a conformation , and a transition between them is called a conformational change . Factors that may induce such changes include : temperature , pH , voltage , ion concentration , phosphorylation , or the binding of a ligand .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Conformational_change", "rank": 68, "score": 74738 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptive behavior (ecology) Content: In behavioral ecology , an adaptive behavior is a behavior which contributes directly or indirectly to an individual 's survival or reproductive success and is thus subject to the forces of natural selection . Examples include favoring kin in altruistic behaviors , female selection of the most fit male , and defending a territory or harem from rivals . Conversely , a non-adaptive behavior is a behavior or trait that is counterproductive to an individual 's survival or reproductive success . These might include altruistic behaviors which do not favor kin , adoption of unrelated young , and being a subordinate in a dominance hierarchy . Adaptations are commonly defined as evolved solutions to recurrent environmental problems of survival and reproduction . Individual differences commonly arise through both heritable and nonheritable adaptive behavior . Both have been proven to be influential in the evolution of species adaptive behaviors , although heritable adaptation remains a controversial subject .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptive_behavior_(ecology)", "rank": 69, "score": 74705 }, { "content": "Title: Modifications (genetics) Content: In opposition to mutations , modifications are included in the band width of the genome of an individual creature . Mutation takes place when the DNA structures is partnered by the wrong structure ( Proper rule : A = T and G = C for DNA and for mutation : A = G or A = C or T = G or T = C and G = A or G = T or C = A or C = T ) . Modifications are dependent on the plentiful of the substrate , light , warmth , stress , training , and so on . A modification is a change in the physical appearance of an organism ( phenotype ) caused by environmental factors . Modifications can either be uninheritable or inheritable . In both cases , there is no change to the primary DNA sequence ( genotype ) , rather an influence on gene expression which is the cause of the altered phenotype .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Modifications_(genetics)", "rank": 70, "score": 74675 }, { "content": "Title: ADAPT Content: ADAPT is a grassroots United States disability rights organization with chapters in 30 states . It had once been part of the militant wing of the disability rights movement due to its history of nonviolent direct action in order to bring attention and awareness to the lack of civil rights the disability community has . ADAPT strategies included using civil disobedience if necessary as a tool to gain public attention , so that they can change laws , policies , and services affecting persons with disabilities . ADAPT now practices legislative policy advocacy , grassroots education and mobilization , and individual members may engage in legal advocacy , as in the case of individual ADAPT members suing the Chicago Transit Authority in the 1980s .", "qid": "373", "docid": "ADAPT", "rank": 71, "score": 74608 }, { "content": "Title: Deconditioning Content: Deconditioning is adaptation of an organism to less demanding environment , or , alternatively , the decrease of physiological adaptation to normal conditions . Decondition may result from decreased physical activity , prescribed bed rest , orthopedic casting , paralysis , aging , etc. . A particular interest in the study of deconditioning is in aerospace medicine , to diagnose , fight , and prevent adverse effects of the conditions of space flight . Deconditioning due to decreased physical effort results in muscle loss , including heart muscles . Deconditioning due to lack of gravity or non-standard gravity action ( e.g. , during bed rest ) results in abnormal distribution of body fluids .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Deconditioning", "rank": 72, "score": 74581 }, { "content": "Title: Natural selection Content: Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype . It is a key mechanism of evolution , the change in heritable traits of a population over time . Charles Darwin popularised the term `` natural selection '' , and compared it with artificial selection . Variation exists within all populations of organisms . This occurs partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism , and offspring can inherit such mutations . Throughout the lives of the individuals , their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits . The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell , other cells , other individuals , populations , species , as well as the abiotic environment . Individuals with certain variants of the trait may survive and reproduce more than individuals with other , less successful , variants ; therefore , the population evolves . Factors that affect reproductive success are also important , including sexual selection ( now often included in natural selection ) and fecundity selection . Natural selection acts on the phenotype , or the observable characteristics of an organism , but the genetic ( heritable ) basis of any phenotype that gives a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population . Over time , this process can result in populations that specialise for particular ecological niches ( microevolution ) and may eventually result in speciation ( the emergence of new species , macroevolution ) . In other words , natural selection is a key process in the evolution of a population . Natural selection can be contrasted with artificial selection , in which humans intentionally choose specific traits , whereas in natural selection there is no intentional choice . Natural selection is one of the cornerstones of modern biology . The concept , published by Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in a joint presentation of papers in 1858 , was elaborated in Darwin 's influential 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection , or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , which described natural selection as analogous to artificial selection , a process by which animals and plants with traits considered desirable by human breeders are systematically favoured for reproduction . The concept of natural selection originally developed in the absence of a valid theory of heredity ; at the time of Darwin 's writing , science had yet to develop modern theories of genetics . The union of traditional Darwinian evolution with subsequent discoveries in classical genetics formed the modern synthesis of the mid-20th century . The addition of molecular genetics has led to evolutionary developmental biology , which explains evolution at the molecular level . While genotypes can slowly change by random genetic drift , natural selection remains the primary explanation for adaptive evolution .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Natural_selection", "rank": 73, "score": 74532 }, { "content": "Title: Visual adaptation Content: Visual adaptation is the temporary change in sensitivity or perception when exposed to a new or intense stimulus , and the lingering afterimage that may result when the stimulus is removed . These continuous small adjustments reflect the neural coding process of the visual system , and exist so the brain can attempt to `` normalize '' the visual experience .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Visual_adaptation", "rank": 74, "score": 74236 }, { "content": "Title: Co-adaptation Content: In biology , co-adaptation , or coadaptation is the process by which two or more species , traits , organs , or genes undergo adaptation as a pair or group . This occurs when two or more characteristics undergo natural selection together in response to the same selective pressure . While the parts may be functionally independent they are only beneficial when together , sometimes leading to increased interdependence . Coadaptation and its specific examples are often seen as evidence for the broader process of coevolution .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Co-adaptation", "rank": 75, "score": 73979 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptive capacity Content: Adaptive capacity is the capacity of a system to adapt if the environment where the system exists is changing . It is applied to e.g. , ecological systems and human social systems . As applied to ecological systems , the adaptive capacity is determined by : genetic diversity of species biodiversity of particular ecosystems heterogeneous ecosystem mosaics as applied to specific landscapes or biome regions . As applied to human social systems , the adaptive capacity is determined by : the ability of institutions and networks to learn , and store knowledge and experience . creative flexibility in decision making and problem solving the existence of power structures that are responsive and consider the needs of all stakeholders . Adaptive capacity is associated with r and K selection strategies in ecology and with a movement from explosive positive feedback to sustainable negative feedback loops in social systems and technologies . The Resilience Alliance , as illustrated by the work of C. S. Holling and L. H. Gunderson , shows how the logistic curve of the r phase positive feedback , becoming replaced by the K negative feedback strategy is an important part of adaptive capacity . The r strategy is associated with situations of low complexity , high resilience , and growing potential . K strategies are associated with situations of high complexity , high potential and high resilience , but if the perturbations exceed certain limits , adaptive capacity may be exceeded and the system collapses into another so-called Omega state , of low potential , low complexity and low resilience .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptive_capacity", "rank": 76, "score": 73818 }, { "content": "Title: Rotating locomotion in living systems Content: Several organisms are capable of rolling locomotion ; however , true wheels and propellers -- despite their utility in human vehicles -- do not appear to play a significant role in the movement of living things ( with the notable exception of certain flagella , which function like corkscrews ) . Biologists have expounded on the reasons for this apparent absence of biological wheels , and wheeled creatures have appeared often in speculative fiction . Given the ubiquity of the wheel in human technology , and the existence of biological analogues of many other technologies ( such as wings and lenses ) , the lack of wheels in the natural world would seem to demand explanation -- and the phenomenon is broadly explained by two main factors . First , there are several developmental and evolutionary obstacles to the advent of a wheel by natural selection -- addressing the question `` Why ca n't life evolve wheels ? '' . Secondly , wheels are often at a competitive disadvantage when compared with other means of propulsion ( such as walking , running , or slithering ) in natural environments -- addressing the question `` If wheels could evolve , why would they be rare nonetheless ? '' . Incidentally , this environment-specific disadvantage also explains why some historical civilizations have abandoned wheels .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Rotating_locomotion_in_living_systems", "rank": 77, "score": 73793 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological trap Content: Ecological traps are scenarios in which rapid environmental change leads organisms to prefer to settle in poor-quality habitats . The concept stems from the idea that organisms that are actively selecting habitat must rely on environmental cues to help them identify high-quality habitat . If either the habitat quality or the cue changes so that one does not reliably indicate the other , organisms may be lured into poor-quality habitat .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Ecological_trap", "rank": 78, "score": 73632 }, { "content": "Title: Fission–fusion society Content: In ethology , a fission -- fusion society is one in which the size and composition of the social group change as time passes and animals move throughout the environment ; animals merge into a group ( fusion ) -- e.g. sleeping in one place -- or split ( fission ) -- e.g. foraging in small groups during the day . For species that live in fission -- fusion societies , group composition is a dynamic property . This social organization is found in several primates , African elephants , cetaceans , ungulates and some fish .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Fission–fusion_society", "rank": 79, "score": 73622 }, { "content": "Title: Wolff's law Content: Wolff 's law , developed by the German anatomist and surgeon Julius Wolff ( 1836 -- 1902 ) in the 19th century , states that bone in a healthy person or animal will adapt to the loads under which it is placed . If loading on a particular bone increases , the bone will remodel itself over time to become stronger to resist that sort of loading . The internal architecture of the trabeculae undergoes adaptive changes , followed by secondary changes to the external cortical portion of the bone , perhaps becoming thicker as a result . The inverse is true as well : if the loading on a bone decreases , the bone will become less dense and weaker due to the lack of the stimulus required for continued remodeling . This reduction in bone density ( osteopenia ) is known as stress shielding and can occur as a result of a hip replacement ( or other prosthesis ) . The normal stress on a bone is shielded from that bone by being placed on a prosthetic implant .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Wolff's_law", "rank": 80, "score": 73308 }, { "content": "Title: EU Cities Adapt Content: EU Cities Adapt or Adaptation Strategies for European Cities is a project commissioned by the European Commission 's Directorate-General for Climate Action DG CLIMA . The aim of the project is to provide capacity building and assistance for cities across Europe in developing and implementing a climate change adaptation strategy by raising awareness throughout Europe on the importance of preparing for climate change in cities , exchanging knowledge and good practices , and developing tools and guidance for cities on adaptation . It ultimately aims to mainstream urban climate adaptation throughout Europe . The EU Cities Adapt project is the beginning of DG CLIMA 's engagement and support for European cities on urban climate adaptation . It will provide input into the EU strategy on adaptation to climate change that the Commission is currently developing . Twenty-one cities will be immediately involved in the project as pilots to set an example for other cities . EU Cities Adapt was launched together with the European Climate Adaptation Platform ( CLIMATE-ADAPT ) on 23 March 2012 at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen . The project is foreseen to run until June 2013 .", "qid": "373", "docid": "EU_Cities_Adapt", "rank": 81, "score": 73278 }, { "content": "Title: Adaptive architecture Content: Adaptive architecture is a system which changes its structure , behaviour or resources according to demand . The adaptation made is usually -LSB- always ? -RSB- to non-functional characteristics rather than functional ones . Something of a misnomer , because the thing that adapts is the working system , rather than the ( more abstract ) architecture which defines the adaptability that is required of that system . Adaptive software architecture : Used by programmers in relation to a program . An adaptive algorithm `` is an algorithm which changes its behavior based on the resources available . For example ... in the C++ Standard Library , the stable partition -LSB- program -RSB- acquires as much memory as it can get ( up to what it would need at most ) and applies the algorithm using that available memory . '' Adaptive infrastructure architecture : Used by infrastructure engineers in relation to the configuration of processors . The computing resources used by applications ( the partition size , or the number of servers in a cluster , or the share of a processor , or the number of processes ) are configured so that they shrink or grow with demand . Adaptive business architecture : Could also be used ( for example ) in connection with a workflow system that assigns human resources to a task or service to match the demand for that task or service . Or an organisation structure that flexes in response to business changes .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Adaptive_architecture", "rank": 82, "score": 72987 }, { "content": "Title: Synurbization Content: Synurbization -- adaptation of animal wildlife to urban development . Term created by theriologists -- ecologists . It denotes an adjustment animal populations to specific conditions of the urban environment , in the connection with regular existence there in the wild state . The term is not applied to individual animals which have come to an urban area accidentally and witch live there for limiter time . Synurbization is related to two other terms used in the field : synanthropization ( refers to the adaptation of animal populations to human -- created conditions in general ) and urbanization ( refers to changes in landscape coursed by urban development ) .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Synurbization", "rank": 83, "score": 72880 }, { "content": "Title: Gretchen Hofmann Content: Gretchen Hofmann is professor of ecological physiology of marine organisms at the University of California , Santa Barbara . She holds a B.S. from the University of Wyoming , and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in Environmental , Population and Organismal Biology . She works on the ecological physiology of marine organisms , in particular kelp , invertebrates and perciform fishes . Hofman 's work on the effects of changing seawater acidity and temperature on marine life has drawn wide attention . Hofmann told The Times of India that as marine invertebrates deal with increasing acidity , the larvae have to `` re-tune '' their metabolism in order to still make a shell . `` But this is done at a cost . The physiological changes that are a response to the acidity make the animals less able to withstand warmer waters , and they are smaller , '' which causes `` catastrophic '' problems on up the food chain as larger organisms fail to get enough food to survive . In 2006 , Reuters followed her to Antarctica where she drilled through the ice to explore the impact of warming global temperatures on fish . She explained that '' `` If we learn how the most cold-adapted organisms -- the organisms that are most used to cold and no temperature change -- how they respond , we might learn something about the processes in temperate species , figuring out what pathways to look at that might be changing -- or might not be changing . ''", "qid": "373", "docid": "Gretchen_Hofmann", "rank": 84, "score": 72763 }, { "content": "Title: Use of animals during the Gravettian period Content: The Gravettian period occurred in Europe between 30,000 and 22,000 years ago ( during the Upper Paleolithic ) . Gravettian lifestyle was shaped by the climate . Pleniglacial environmental changes forced early humans to adapt . West and Central Europe were extremely cold during this period . Gravettian culture thrived on their ability to hunt animals . They utilized a variety of tools and hunting strategies . Compared to theorized hunting techniques of Neanderthals and earlier human groups , Gravettian hunting culture appears much more mobile and complex .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Use_of_animals_during_the_Gravettian_period", "rank": 85, "score": 72752 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Change and Security Program Content: The Environmental Change and Security Program ( ECSP ) is one of several programs and projects that make up the Global Resilience and Sustainability Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars . ECSP was founded in 1994 to study the connections among environmental , health , and population dynamics and their links to conflict , human insecurity , and foreign policy .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Environmental_Change_and_Security_Program", "rank": 86, "score": 72684 }, { "content": "Title: Migration and global environmental change (Report) Content: Migration and Global Environmental Change was a report about the influence of climate change on patterns of human migration and displacement published in 2011 . The report was produced by the Foresight unit at the UK 's Government Office of Science . It became known colloquially as ` The Foresight Report ' among people working in the field of climate-linked migration . The report was led by Professor Richard Black of Sussex University . The report was one of the first assessments of all the existing evidence and research on the connections between climate change and migration . The report authors also commissioned a number of new peer reviewed articles on migration and climate change , significant adding to the evidence base of the topic . The report attracted significant media attention on its release . The report was critical of previous predictions of the number of people who could be forced to move by climate change . It argued that making such numerical predictions was impossible because attributing climate change as the sole cause of someone 's migration was difficult . The report popularized the idea of trapped populations . The report argued that as well as being forced to move by climate change impacts , people might also be forced to stay where they are . The report drew on evidence showing that as people become poorer as a result of a degraded environment , they become less able to migrate . The idea of trapped populations had been present in the academic literature for sometime , however the media attention results from the release of the report brought the idea to a wider public for the first time . The report also popularized the idea of migration as climate change adaptation . Again , the authors drew on existing academic literature on the topic . They made the case that migration should be seen as a legitimate and empowering way for some people to adapt to the impacts of climate change .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Migration_and_global_environmental_change_(Report)", "rank": 87, "score": 72637 }, { "content": "Title: Link adaptation Content: Link adaptation , or adaptive coding and modulation ( ACM ) , is a term used in wireless communications to denote the matching of the modulation , coding and other signal and protocol parameters to the conditions on the radio link ( e.g. the pathloss , the interference due to signals coming from other transmitters , the sensitivity of the receiver , the available transmitter power margin , etc. ) . For example , WiMAX uses a rate adaptation algorithm that adapts the modulation and coding scheme ( MCS ) according to the quality of the radio channel , and thus the bit rate and robustness of data transmission . The process of link adaptation is a dynamic one and the signal and protocol parameters change as the radio link conditions change -- for example in High-Speed Downlink Packet Access ( HSDPA ) in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System ( UMTS ) this can take place every 2 ms. Adaptive modulation systems invariably require some channel state information at the transmitter . This could be acquired in time division duplex systems by assuming the channel from the transmitter to the receiver is approximately the same as the channel from the receiver to the transmitter . Alternatively , the channel knowledge can also be directly measured at the receiver , and fed back to the transmitter . Adaptive modulation systems improve rate of transmission , and/or bit error rates , by exploiting the channel state information that is present at the transmitter . Especially over fading channels which model wireless propagation environments , adaptive modulation systems exhibit great performance enhancements compared to systems that do not exploit channel knowledge at the transmitter .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Link_adaptation", "rank": 88, "score": 72470 }, { "content": "Title: Ecomorphology Content: Ecomorphology or ecological morphology is the study of the relationship between the ecological role of an individual and its morphological adaptations . The term `` morphological '' here is in the anatomical context . Both the morphology and ecology exhibited by an organism are directly or indirectly influenced by their environment , and ecomorphology aims to identify the differences Current research places emphasis on linking morphology and ecological niche by measuring the performance of traits ( i.e. sprint speed , bite force , etc. ) associated behaviours , and fitness outcomes of the relationships . Current ecomorphological research focuses on a functional approach and application to the science . A broadening of this field welcomes further research in the debate regarding differences between both the ecological and morphological makeup of an organism .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Ecomorphology", "rank": 89, "score": 72201 }, { "content": "Title: Socioemotional Adaptation Theory Content: Socioemotional Adaptation Theory is a theory of emotional changes associated with Alzheimer 's disease . The emotional reactions associated with Alzheimer 's disease tend to present as cognitive or behavioral symptoms , leading to interventions that do not treat the underlying emotional trigger . Socioemotional Adaptation Theory outlines four contextual domains that interact to result in emotional states which manifest independent of Alzheimer 's disease . Specifically , emotions of depression/sadness , apathy , concern/fear , anger/frustration , and acceptance are entwined within a set of complex binary ( positive/negative ) interactions including : relationship with the formal support ( i.e. , patient vs. disengaged ) , relationship with the support partner ( i.e. , teamwork vs. infantilization ) , coping ( i.e. , adaptive vs. non-adaptive ) , and perceived control ( i.e. , internal vs. external locus-of-control ) . Understanding the factors which may contribute to emotional changes in persons with Alzheimer 's disease may help patients , informal support partners , and formal caregivers identify and address the root cause of these emotional changes .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Socioemotional_Adaptation_Theory", "rank": 90, "score": 72121 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological crisis Content: An ecological crisis occurs when the environment of a species or a population changes in a way that it destabilizes its continued survival . There are many possible causes of such crisis : It may be that the environment quality degrades compared to the species ' needs , after a change of abiotic ecological factor ( for example , an increase of temperature , less significant rainfalls ) . It may be that the environment becomes unfavourable for the survival of a species ( or a population ) due to an increased pressure of predation . Lastly , it may be that the situation becomes unfavourable to the quality of life of the species ( or the population ) due to raise in the number of individuals ( overpopulation ) . The evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium sees infrequent ecological crises as a potential driver of rapid evolution .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Ecological_crisis", "rank": 91, "score": 72074 }, { "content": "Title: Desiccation tolerance Content: Desiccation tolerance refers to the ability of an organism to withstand or endure extreme dryness , or drought-like conditions . Plants and animals living in arid or periodically arid environments such as temporary streams or ponds may face the challenge of desiccation , therefore physiological or behavioral adaptations to withstand these periods are necessary to ensure survival . In particular , insects occupy a wide range of ecologically diverse niches and , so , exhibit a variety of strategies to avoid desiccation . In general , desiccation resistance in insects is measured by the change in mass during dry conditions . The overall mass difference between measurements before and after aridity exposure is attributed to body water loss , as respiratory water loss is generally considered negligible .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Desiccation_tolerance", "rank": 92, "score": 71971 }, { "content": "Title: Developmental homeostasis Content: Developmental homeostasis is a process in which animals develop more or less normally , despite defective genes and deficient environments . It is an organisms ability to overcome certain circumstances in order to develop normally . This can be either a physical or mental circumstance that interferes with either a physical or mental trait . Many species have a specific norm , where those who fit that norm prosper while those who do n't are killed or find it difficult to thrive . It is important that the animal be able to interact with the other group members effectively . Animals must learn their species ' norms early to live a normal , successful life for that species . Developmental homeostasis determines how a species adapts to live a normal life . Therefore , it has been the focus of many experiments . These experiments are geared and designed to test the threshold for certain species to overcome and prosper despite certain circumstances . Due to the fact that survival of the species is based on the ability to interact with their own in a normal manner , these experiments -- which usually interfere with that -- walk a fine line for animal rights and what is acceptable . The rhesus monkey experiments show how the young monkey needs the physical contact with other monkeys to learn the social behaviors and interact with each other effectively . This is one of the ways mental developmental homeostasis has been researched . One way physical developmental homeostasis was tested was in the facial symmetry experiment where people were asked to rate which of the faces they saw as better looking . This experiment resulted in the pictures with more symmetrical faces being called better looking . This is not just found in humans but other experiments such as the brush-legged wolf spider and the barn swallow birds . Favored traits give the bearer an advantage in attracting high quality mates . In species that value developmental homeostasis , both physically and mentally , the ability of one to adapt to social norms seems to increase the likelihood of having a reproductive advantage being able to attract mates and leave offspring .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Developmental_homeostasis", "rank": 93, "score": 71600 }, { "content": "Title: Environment (biophysical) Content: The biophysical environment is the biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population , and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival , development and evolution . The biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic to global in extent . It can also be subdivided according to its attributes . Examples include the marine environment , the atmospheric environment and the terrestrial environment . The number of biophysical environments is countless , given that each living organism has its own environment . The term environment is often used as a short form for the biophysical environment , e.g. the UK 's Environment Agency . The expression `` the environment '' often refers to a singular global environment in relation to humanity .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Environment_(biophysical)", "rank": 94, "score": 71566 }, { "content": "Title: Motility Content: In biology , motility is the ability to move spontaneously and actively , consuming energy in the process . It is not to be confused with mobility , which describes the ability of an object to be moved . Motility is genetically determined ( see genetic determinism ) but may be affected by environmental factors . For instance , muscles give animals motility but the consumption of hydrogen cyanide ( the environmental factor in this case ) would adversely affect muscle physiology causing them to stiffen leading to rigor mortis . Most animals are motile but the term applies to unicellular and simple multicellular organisms , as well as to some mechanisms of fluid flow in multicellular organs , in addition to animal locomotion . Motile marine animals are commonly called free-swimming . Motility may also refer to an organism 's ability to move food through its digestive tract , i.e. peristalsis ( gut motility , intestinal motility , etc. ) . An example of intestinal motility is the contraction of smooth muscles in the gastrointestinal tract . This is referred to as the motility of the gastrointestinal tract and it serves two functions , which are to mix the luminal contents with various secretions and to move contents through the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Motility", "rank": 95, "score": 71395 }, { "content": "Title: Evolution in Variable Environment Content: Evolution in Variable Environment ( EVE ) is a computer program designed to simulate microbial cellular behavior in various environments . The prediction of cellular responses is a rapidly evolving topic in systems biology and computational biology . The goal is to predict the behavior a particular organism in response to a set of environmental stimuli in silico . Such predictions can have a significant impact on preventive medicine , biotechnology , and microbe re-engineering . Computational prediction of behavior has two major components : the integration and simulation of vast biological networks and the creation of external stimuli . Current limitations of the method are : lack of comprehensive experimental data on the various cellular subsystems and inadequate computational algorithms .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Evolution_in_Variable_Environment", "rank": 96, "score": 71247 }, { "content": "Title: Behavioral ecology Content: Behavioral ecology , also spelled behavioural ecology , is the study of the evolutionary basis for animal behavior due to ecological pressures . Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined four questions to address when studying animal behavior which are the proximate causes , ontogeny , survival value , and phylogeny of behavior . If an organism has a trait which provides them with a selective advantage ( i.e. has an adaptive significance ) in its environment , then natural selection can potentially favor it . Adaptive significance therefore refers to the beneficial qualities ( such as in terms of increased survival and reproduction ) , any given modified trait conveys . For example , genetic differences between individuals may lead to behavioral differences , some of which in turn may drive differences in reproductive success , and ultimately over generations , the increase of individuals with those favoured traits , i.e. evolution . Individuals are always in competition with others for limited resources , including food , territories , and mates . Conflict will occur between predators and prey , between rivals for mates , between siblings , mates , and even between parents and their offspring .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Behavioral_ecology", "rank": 97, "score": 70993 }, { "content": "Title: Evolutionary rescue Content: Evolutionary rescue is a theoretical situation in which a population recovers from environmental pressure through advantageous genetic change rather than increased gene flow , migration , dispersal or other demographic rescue techniques . While the term was first used in 1995 in Richard Gomulkiewicz and Robert Holt 's essay in the journal Evolution , the theory has since academically matured through review and modeling . The most commonly used meaning of the term was established in Gonzalez et al ( 2012 ) , which states that evolutionary rescue `` occurs when genetic adaptation allows a population to recover from demographic effects initiated by environmental change that would otherwise cause extirpation '' .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Evolutionary_rescue", "rank": 98, "score": 70817 }, { "content": "Title: Environment Directorates Content: The Scottish Government Rural Affairs , Environment and Services Directorates were a group of civil service Directorates in the Scottish Government until a December 2010 re-organisation . The Environment Directorates reported to the Director-General , Paul Gray . A general concordat , drawn up in 1999 , set out agreed frameworks for co-operation between the Environment Directorates and the United Kingdom government Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs and there is another specifically on the subject of genetically modified organisms . After December 2010 many of the department 's responsibilities became those of the Enterprise , Environment and Digital Directorates . This changed again to the Enterprise , Environment and Innovation Directorates after a June 2014 rebranding .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Environment_Directorates", "rank": 99, "score": 70525 }, { "content": "Title: Dormancy Content: Dormancy is a period in an organism 's life cycle when growth , development , and ( in animals ) physical activity are temporarily stopped . This minimizes metabolic activity and therefore helps an organism to conserve energy . Dormancy tends to be closely associated with environmental conditions . Organisms can synchronize entry to a dormant phase with their environment through predictive or consequential means . Predictive dormancy occurs when an organism enters a dormant phase before the onset of adverse conditions . For example , photoperiod and decreasing temperature are used by many plants to predict the onset of winter . Consequential dormancy occurs when organisms enter a dormant phase after adverse conditions have arisen . This is commonly found in areas with an unpredictable climate . While very sudden changes in conditions may lead to a high mortality rate among animals relying on consequential dormancy , its use can be advantageous , as organisms remain active longer and are therefore able to make greater use of available resources .", "qid": "373", "docid": "Dormancy", "rank": 100, "score": 70384 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 1, "score": 244925 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 2, "score": 214867 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of global warming in Australia Content: Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming . This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming , which involves taking action to minimise the effects of global warming . Scientific consensus on global warming , together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions , is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming . Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions . However , CCS can not deliver in time to avoid dangerous increases in temperatures , as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030 . Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets , more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power , photovoltaics , and solar thermal technologies . The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases . A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions . It requires large businesses ( defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually ) to pay a price for emissions permits . The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticised and highly publicised move .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Mitigation_of_global_warming_in_Australia", "rank": 3, "score": 208275 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Content: The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme ( or CPRS ) was a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme for anthropogenic greenhouse gases proposed by the Rudd government , as part of its climate change policy , which had been due to commence in Australia in 2010 . It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia . The policy began to be formulated in April 2007 , when the federal Labor Party was in Opposition and the six Labor-controlled states commissioned an independent review on energy policy , the Garnaut Climate Change Review , which published a number of reports . After Labor won the 2007 federal election and formed government , it published a Green Paper on climate change for discussion and comment . The Federal Treasury then modelled some of the financial and economic impacts of the proposed CPRS scheme . The Rudd government published a final White Paper on 15 December 2008 , and announced that legislation was intended to take effect in July 2010 ; but the legislation for the CPRS ( aka ETS ) failed to gain the numbers in the Senate and was twice rejected creating a double dissolution election trigger . A bitter political debate within the Coalition Opposition saw Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull lose the leadership to the anti-CPRS Tony Abbott . The Rudd government did not call an election and in April 2010 , Rudd deferred plans for the CPRS . After the 2010 federal election , the Gillard Government was able to get the Carbon Pricing Mechanism ( CPM ) passed into law as part of the Clean Energy Futures Package ( CEF ) in 2011 , and became effective on 1 July 2012 . However , after the 2013 federal election there was a change in government , and the Abbott Government repealed the CEF package on 17 July 2014 . Due to the great deal of policy uncertainty surrounding the scheme , organizations in Australia responded in a rather informal and tepid manner and largely withheld from making any large-scale investments in emissions reductions technology during the scheme 's operation .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_Pollution_Reduction_Scheme", "rank": 4, "score": 200434 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions Content: -RSB- This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity , based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2015 . The following table lists the 2015 annual emissions estimates ( in thousands of tonnes ) along with a list of emissions per capita ( in tonnes of per year ) from same source . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use , land-use change and forestry . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The top 10 largest emitter countries account for 67.6 % of the world total . Other powerful , more potent greenhouse gases , including methane , are not included in this data .", "qid": "375", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions", "rank": 5, "score": 198966 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 6, "score": 198225 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 7, "score": 197811 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 8, "score": 197280 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 9, "score": 194913 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 10, "score": 194604 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 11, "score": 193754 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 12, "score": 192671 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 13, "score": 191862 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport Content: The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport", "rank": 14, "score": 191711 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 15, "score": 190606 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emissions reporting Content: Human activities continue to impact Earth 's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases . One of the proposed ways to combat this climate change is through reporting by businesses on the impact of their activities . Large power stations and manufacturing plants are often required to report their emissions to appropriate government entities , for example to the European Union as part of the Emissions Trading System or to the US EPA as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program . In the United Kingdom , Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) has described climate change as the `` greatest environmental challenge facing the world today , '' and it is now a legal requirement for all quoted companies to report their annual greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_emissions_reporting", "rank": 16, "score": 190340 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon pricing in Australia Content: A carbon pricing scheme in Australia , commonly dubbed by its critics as a `` carbon tax '' , was introduced by the Gillard Labor Government in 2011 as the Clean Energy Act 2011 which came into effect on 1 July 2012 . It was in operation until it was repealed on 17 July 2014 , and backdated to 1 July 2014 . In its place the Abbott Government set up the Emission Reduction Fund in December 2014 . As a result of being in place for such a short time , regulated organisations responded in a rather tepid and informal manner , with very few investments in emissions reductions being made . The 2011 scheme required entities which emit over 25,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases and which were not in the transport or agriculture sectors to obtain emissions permits , called carbon units . Carbon units were either purchased from the government or issued free as part of industry assistance measures . The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency stated that in June 2013 only 260 entities were subject to the scheme , of which approximately 185 were liable to pay for carbon units under the carbon price scheme . The carbon price was part of a broad energy reform package called the Clean Energy Futures Plan , which aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia by 5 % below 2000 levels by 2020 and 80 % below 2000 levels by 2050 . The plan set out to achieve these targets by encouraging Australia 's largest emitters to increase energy efficiency and invest in sustainable energy . The scheme was administered by the Clean Energy Regulator . Compensation to industry and households was funded by the revenue derived from the charge . As part of the scheme , personal income tax was reduced for those earning less than $ 80,000 per year and the tax-free threshold was increased from $ 6,000 to $ 18,200 . Initially the price of a permit for one tonne of carbon was fixed at $ 23 for the 2012 -- 13 financial year , with unlimited permits being available from the government . The fixed price rose to $ 24.15 for 2013 -- 14 . The government had announced that the scheme was part of a transition to an emissions trading scheme in 2014 -- 15 , where the available permits will be limited in line with a pollution cap . The scheme primarily applied to electricity generators and industrial sectors . It did not apply to road transport and agriculture . Domestic aviation did not face the carbon price scheme per se , but was subject to an additional fuel excise levy of approximately 6 cents per litre . In February 2012 , the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Clean Energy Future carbon price scheme had not deterred new investment in the coal industry , as spending on exploration had increased by 62 % in 2010-2011 , more than any other mineral commodity . The government agency Geoscience Australia reported that investment in coal prospecting reached $ 520 million in 2010-2011 . Falls in carbon emissions were observed following implementation of this policy . It was noted that emissions from sectors subject to the pricing mechanism were 1.0 % lower and nine months after the introduction of the pricing scheme , Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation had fallen to a 10-year low , with coal generation down 11 % from 2008 to 2009 . However , attribution of these trends to carbon pricing have been disputed , with Frontier Economics claiming trends are largely explained by factors unrelated to the carbon tax . Electricity demand had been falling and in 2012 was at the lowest level seen since 2006 in the National Electricity Market .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_pricing_in_Australia", "rank": 17, "score": 188330 }, { "content": "Title: Coal in Australia Content: Coal in Australia is mined primarily in Queensland , New South Wales and Victoria . Coal is used to generate electricity and most of the coal mined in Australia is exported , mostly to eastern Asia . In fiscal year 2013/14 , 430.9 million tonnes of coal was mined , and 375.1 million tonnes was exported . Coal provides about 69 % of Australia 's electricity production . In fiscal year 2008/09 , 487 million tonnes of coal was mined , and 261 million tonnes was exported . In 2013 , Australia was the world 's fifth-largest coal producer , after China , the United States , India , and Indonesia . However , in terms of proportion of production exported , Australia was the world 's second largest coal exporter , with exports accounting for roughly 73 % of coal production . Indonesia exports about 87 % of its coal production . Coal mining in Australia has been criticised by members of the environmental movement , due to carbon dioxide emissions during combustion . This criticism is primarily directed at thermal coal , for its connection to coal-fired power stations as a major source of carbon dioxide emissions , and the link to climate change and the effects of global warming on Australia . The burning of coal for electricity produces 29 % of Australia 's total greenhouse gas emissions , based on 2013-2014 Clean Energy Regulator data . Both Greenpeace Australia Pacific ( Energy -LSB- R -RSB- evolution ) and Beyond Zero Emissions ( Zero Carbon Australia 2020 ) have produced reports claiming a transition can be made to renewable energy and Greenpeace has called for a just transition for coal based communities , but others argue at present there is no strong evidence of a viable alternative for the vast majority of Australia 's electricity generation , or for the significant economic and social benefits coal mining delivers to regional communities . Many of these arguments specifically ignore the differentiation between thermal and metallurgical coal , and the different application they play in modern society . Coal Seam Gas , methane-based gas associated with deposits of coal has historically been flared , however over the past 10 years has been recovered and used to generate further electricity . The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme , which followed the draft report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review , has placed a price on carbon emissions through a reducing cap and trade emissions trading scheme and this would be likely to impact most heavily on brown coal usage within Australia ( particularly in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria ) for power generation .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Coal_in_Australia", "rank": 18, "score": 188282 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Protocol Content: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 19, "score": 186333 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 20, "score": 185755 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of shipping Content: The environmental impact of shipping includes greenhouse gas emissions , acoustic , and oil pollution . The International Maritime Organization ( IMO ) estimates that Carbon dioxide emissions from shipping were equal to 2.2 % of the global human-made emissions in 2012 and expects them to rise by as much as 2 to 3 times by 2050 if no action is taken . The First Intersessional Meeting of the IMO Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships took place in Oslo , Norway on 23 -- 27 June 2008 . It was tasked with developing the technical basis for the reduction mechanisms that may form part of a future IMO regime to control greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping , and a draft of the actual reduction mechanisms themselves , for further consideration by IMO 's Marine Environment Protection Committee ( MEPC ) .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_shipping", "rank": 21, "score": 185045 }, { "content": "Title: Kaya identity Content: The Kaya identity is an identity stating that the total emission level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be expressed as the product of four factors : human population , GDP per capita , energy intensity ( per unit of GDP ) , and carbon intensity ( emissions per unit of energy consumed ) . It is a concrete form of the more general I = PAT equation relating factors that determine the level of human impact on climate . The Kaya identity is both simple and tricky , as it can be reduced to only two terms , but it is developed so that the carbon emission calculation becomes easy , as per the available data , or generally in which format the data is available .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Kaya_identity", "rank": 22, "score": 184871 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 23, "score": 182718 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 24, "score": 181431 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 25, "score": 181268 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 26, "score": 178557 }, { "content": "Title: New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme Content: The New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme ( also known as GGAS ) was a mandatory greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme that aimed to lower greenhouse gas emissions in New South Wales , Australia , to 7.27 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita by the year 2007 , which commenced on 1 January 2003 . The Scheme imposed obligations on NSW electricity retailers and certain other parties , including large electricity users who elected to manage their own benchmark to abate a portion of the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to their sales/consumption of electricity in NSW . They did this by purchasing and acquitting NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates ( also known as NGACs ) created by accredited `` Abatement Certificate Providers '' ( ACPs ) . The NSW Minister for Energy , Chris Hartcher , announced closure of the scheme in April 2012 , effective from 30 June 2012 . The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme ( GGAS ) closed on 30 June 2012 . The NSW Government closed GGAS to avoid duplication with the Commonwealth 's carbon price which commenced on 1 July 2012 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "New_South_Wales_Greenhouse_Gas_Abatement_Scheme", "rank": 27, "score": 177878 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 28, "score": 177566 }, { "content": "Title: Emission Reduction Unit Content: The emission reduction unit ( ERU ) is an emissions unit issued under a Joint Implementation project in terms of the Kyoto Protocol . An ERU represents a reduction of greenhouse gases under the Joint Implementation mechanism , where it represents one tonne of equivalent reduced . To allow comparison between the different effects of gases on the environment , scientists have defined multipliers for gases that compare their greenhouse potency ( global warming potential ) relative to that of carbon dioxide . One example of a Joint Implementation project resulting in an emission reduction unit , is the production of biogases by landfill sites . These gases consist of mainly methane which escapes to the atmosphere if it is not collected . The main reason for dealing with methane is that it has a 100-year global warming potential multiplier of 25 compared to carbon dioxide ( i.e. has 25 times the greenhouse potency ) . Collection of methane is usually accompanied by its combustion . Burning one tonne of methane produces nearly 3 tonnes of , thus reducing its greenhouse effect by ( 25-3 = 22 ) ERU . In December 2012 , ERU prices crashed to a low of 15 euro cents before recovering to 23c after news that EU 's Climate Change Committee was to vote on a ban of ERUs from countries that have not signed up to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol . In January 2013 , Bloomberg reported that emission reduction unit prices declined 89 percent in 2012", "qid": "375", "docid": "Emission_Reduction_Unit", "rank": 29, "score": 177303 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "375", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 30, "score": 176641 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 31, "score": 176018 }, { "content": "Title: Clean Energy Act 2011 Content: The Clean Energy Act 2011 is the main Act in a package of legislation that established an Australian emissions trading scheme , to be preceded by a three-year period of fixed carbon pricing designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and limit global warming . The package was introduced by the Gillard Labor Government in February 2011 and repealed on 17 July 2014 by the Abbott Government .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Clean_Energy_Act_2011", "rank": 32, "score": 175553 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 33, "score": 173680 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 34, "score": 173498 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Raupach Content: Michael Robin Raupach ( 30 October 1950 -- 10 February 2015 ) was an Australian climate scientist . He is credited with developing the concept of a carbon budget , the amount of CO2 that is emitted and absorbed in the global ecosystem in the course of a year . When the in balance , CO2 emissions and absorption in carbon sinks are roughly the same , but when disturbed , possibly large changes in the ecosystem ensue . He was a founding co-chair of the Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) , a network of the world 's leading carbon cycle researchers . He was instrumental in publishing the Annual Carbon Budget , which draws on a large amount of scientific data to determine the level of imbalance and options for addressing it . He worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation before becoming the director of the Australian National University 's Climate Change Institute in 2014 . He was a co-chair of the Global Carbon Project from 2000 to 2008 , and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 . He chaired the steering committee of the ` Australia 2050 ' project of the Australian Academy of Science ( AAS ) . In 2009 -- 2010 he chaired the Expert Working Group on Challenges at the Intersection of Carbon , Energy and Water , reporting to the Prime Minister 's Science , Engineering and Innovation Council and the Office of the Chief Scientist of Australia . His career included the publication of 150 scientific papers and 50 reports . His research developed in three stages , the first focused on very localized flow and transport of matter and energy through and above plant canopies . At the next stage , he worked on quantification of CO2 transport through and above plant canopies , though still on a small scale . In the 1990s , his focus began to shift to global ecosystems when he became a member of the scientific steering committee of the Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle core project of the IGBP ( International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ) . One of the most fundamental and important questions that the project addressed was : does the land-surface matter in climate and weather ? His research contributed to addressing that question , through his work on turbulent fluxes near the land surface , boundary-layer budgeting and quantifying the water balance at broader scales . He was a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science , the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering , and the American Geophysical Union . Just before his death following a short illness , he co-chaired the working group of the Australian Academy of Science drafting the AAS booklet The Science of Climate Change : Questions and Answers .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Michael_Raupach", "rank": 35, "score": 172773 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries ranked by greenhouse-gas emissions per capita in 2000 . It is based on data for carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , perfluorocarbon , hydrofluorocarbon and sulfur hexafluoride emissions compiled by the World Resources Institute ( WRI ) from a variety of sources , including CDIAC and the US Environmental Protection Agency . Bunker-fuel emissions are not included . Two sets of per capita emissions are given , one with an estimate of the effects of land-use change ( for example , cutting down forests ) and one without . The former is based on regional estimates in Houghton ( 2003 ) . Difficulties with determining rates of deforestation and the magnitude of carbon stocks held by the remaining forests and with distributing regional carbon fluxes among individual countries mean that the land-use change components have a large margin of error , perhaps as large as + / -150 % in some cases . They are included here because , although difficult to quantify accurately at a country level , land-use change is a significant contributor to global warming . The WRI estimates that it accounted for almost a fifth of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 . For 2005 the data for a large number of countries only includes emissions ( see note 12 . )", "qid": "375", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 36, "score": 172529 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in China Content: The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_change_in_China", "rank": 37, "score": 172305 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place from October 23 to November 1 , 2002 , in New Delhi , India . The conference included the 8th Conference of the Parties ( COP8 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The conference adopted the Delhi Ministerial Declaration that , amongst others , called for efforts by developed countries to transfer technology and minimize the impact of climate change on developing countries . It is also approved the New Delhi work programme on Article 6 of the Convention . The COP8 was marked by Russia 's hesitation , stating that it needed more time to think it over . The Kyoto Protocol could enter into force once it was ratified by 55 countries , including countries responsible for 55 per cent of the developed world 's 1990 carbon dioxide emissions . With the United States ( 36.1 per cent share of developed-world carbon dioxide ) and Australia refusing ratification , Russia 's agreement ( 17 % of global emissions in 1990 ) was required to meet the ratification criteria and therefore Russia could delay the process .", "qid": "375", "docid": "2002_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 38, "score": 171951 }, { "content": "Title: Beyond Zero Emissions Content: Beyond Zero Emissions ( BZE ) is an Australia-based , not-for-profit climate change solutions think-tank . BZE was founded in 2006 by Matthew Wright and Adrian Whitehead under the guidance of Philip Sutton . The group coordinates research and education into how the Australian economy can rapidly reduce human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to ` zero and below ' by implementing changes to stationary energy , transport , buildings , agricultural activities , industrial processes and fossil fuel export sectors . In 2010 BZE released its first publication , the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan ( Wright , Hearps 2010 ) a research collaboration between Beyond Zero Emissions and the University of Melbourne Energy Research Institute . The aim of the report was to provide a detailed , fully realisable , fully costed 10-year plan to replace all stationary energy needs with 100 % renewable energy sources , using only current proven technologies and engineering . This report addressed the common perception that renewables can not replace fossil fuels , either due to immaturity of the technology or due to cost concerns . The group invited pro-bono contributions from engineers , scientists , and industry specialists to work on this and all subsequent projects , similar to the way open source software is developed . Since 2006 Beyond Zero Emissions has released the following publications : Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan ( 2010 ) , Repowering Port Augusta ( 2012 ) , Health and Social Harms of Mining in Local Communities : Spotlight on the Hunter Region report ( 2012 ) . Laggard to Leader : How Australia Can Lead the World to Zero Carbon Prosperity ( 2012 ) Zero Carbon Australia Buildings Plan ( 2013 ) , Zero Carbon Australia High Speed Rail ( 2014 ) Fossil Economy ( 2014 ) , Zero Carbon Australia Land Use - Agriculture and Forestry ( 2014 ) , Carbon Capture and Storage Report ( 2014 ) , Carbon Crisis : Systemic Risk of Carbon Emission Liabilities report ( 2015 ) Zero Carbon Australia Renewable Energy Superpower ( 2015 ) , Zero Carbon Australia Electric Vehicles ( 2016 ) , A full list of Beyond Zero Emissions publications is also available with links to free pdf downloads at the BZE website .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Beyond_Zero_Emissions", "rank": 39, "score": 171638 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 40, "score": 169609 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 41, "score": 169114 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita from 1990 through 2011 . All data was calculated by the US Department of Energy 's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) , mostly based on data collected from country agencies by the United Nations Statistics Division . Countries are ranked by their metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2009 . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use such as deforestation . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The carbon dioxide emissions of a country are only an indicator of one greenhouse gas . For a more complete idea of how a country influences climate change , gases such as methane and nitrous oxide should be taken into account . This is particularly so in agricultural economies . Carbon dioxide emissions are also known for earlier periods . A study of a global sample of twelve countries provide estimates for emissions since 1800 and explores the long-run drivers of carbon dioxide emissions by decomposing changes in carbon emissions into population , income , technological and energy mix changes .", "qid": "375", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 42, "score": 168650 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 43, "score": 167878 }, { "content": "Title: Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading Content: Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading was a Task Group set up on 10 December 2006 by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to develop an Australian Carbon Trading Scheme . The terms of reference of the task group was : Australia enjoys major competitive advantages through the possession of large reserves of fossil fuels and uranium . In assessing Australia 's further contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions , these advantages must be preserved . Against this background the Task Group will be asked to advise on the nature and design of a workable global emissions trading system in which Australia would be able to participate . The Task Group will advise and report on additional steps that might be taken , in Australia , consistent with the goal of establishing such a system . The Prime Ministerial Task Group submitted its final report on 31 May 2007 . The scheme proposed by the Task Group had some similarities to the `` hybrid scheme '' developed by Warwick McKibbin . Prime Minister John Howard announced on 4 June 2007 the government 's plan for a carbon trading scheme to be launched in 2012 . Howard took the draft carbon trading scheme to the 2007 federal election .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Prime_Ministerial_Task_Group_on_Emissions_Trading", "rank": 44, "score": 167872 }, { "content": "Title: California Senate Bill 32 Content: The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 : emissions limit , or SB-32 , is a California Senate bill expanding upon AB-32 to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions . The lead author is Senator Fran Pavley and the principal co-author is Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia . SB-32 was signed into law on September 8 , 2016 , by Governor Edmund Gerald `` Jerry '' Brown Jr. . SB-32 sets into law the mandated reduction target in GHG emissions as written into Executive Order B-30-15 . The Senate bill requires that there be a reduction in GHG emissions to 40 % below the 1990 levels by 2030 . Greenhouse gas emissions include carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , sulfur hexafluoride , hydrofluorocarbons , and perfluorocarbons . The California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) is responsible for ensuring that California meets this goal . The provisions of SB-32 were added to Section 38566 of the Health and Safety Code subsequent to the bill 's approval . The bill goes into effect January 1 , 2017 . SB-32 builds onto Assembly Bill ( AB ) 32 written by Senator Fran Pavley and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez passed into law on September 27 , 2006 . AB-32 required California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and SB-32 continues that timeline to reach the targets set in Executive Order B-30-15 . SB-32 provides another intermediate target between the 2020 and 2050 targets set in Executive Order S-3-05 . SB-32 was contingent on the passing of AB-197 , which increases legislative oversight of CARB and is intended to ensure CARB must report to the Legislature . AB-197 also passed and was signed into law on September 8 , 2016 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "California_Senate_Bill_32", "rank": 45, "score": 166998 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United Kingdom Content: Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 46, "score": 166839 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon diet Content: A low-carbon diet refers to making lifestyle choices to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGe ) resulting from consumption decisions . It is estimated that the U.S. food system is responsible for at least 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases . This estimate may be low , as it counts only direct sources of GHGe . Indirect sources , such as demand for products from other countries , are often not counted . A low-carbon diet minimizes the emissions released from the production , packaging , processing , transport , preparation and waste of food . Major tenets of a low-carbon diet include eating less industrial meat and dairy , eating less industrially produced food in general , eating food grown locally and seasonally , eating less processed and packaged foods and reducing waste from food by proper portion size , recycling or composting .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Low-carbon_diet", "rank": 47, "score": 164951 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 48, "score": 164741 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon price Content: Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_price", "rank": 49, "score": 164479 }, { "content": "Title: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions Content: Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ( INDCs ) is a term used under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that all countries that signed the UNFCCC were asked to publish in the lead up to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris , France in December 2015 . These intended contributions were determined without prejudice to the legal nature of the contributions . The term was intended as a compromise between `` quantified emissions limitation and reduction objective '' ( QUELROs ) and `` nationally appropriate mitigation actions '' ( NAMAs ) that the Kyoto Protocol used to describe the different legal obligations of developed and developing countries . Under the Paris Agreement , adopted in December 2015 , the INDC will become the first Nationally Determined Contribution when a country ratifies the agreement , unless they decide to submit a new NDC at the same time . Once the Paris Agreement is ratified , the NDC will become the first greenhouse gas targets under the UNFCCC that applied equally to both developed and developing countries . On 3 August 2016 China and US ratified 2015 agreement on INDC . Together they both constitute 38 % of total global emission , with China 's alone emitting total of 20 % . India that has a Global share of GHGs emission at 4.1 % of that of world ratified Paris climate agreement on October 2 , 2016 by depositing the Instrument of ratification with the United nations .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Intended_Nationally_Determined_Contributions", "rank": 50, "score": 163857 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 51, "score": 163647 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon governance in England Content: The reduction of carbon emissions , along with other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , has become a vitally important task of international , national and local actors . If we understand governance as the creation of `` conditions for ordered rule and collective action '' then , given the fact that the reduction of carbon emissions will require concerted collective action , it follows that the governance of carbon will be of paramount concern . We have seen numerous international conferences over the past 20 years tasked with finding a way of facilitating this , and while international agreements have been infamously difficult to reach , action at the national level has been much more effective . In the UK , the Climate Change Act 2008 committed the government to meeting significant carbon reduction targets . In England , these carbon emissions are governed using numerous different instruments , which involve a variety of actors . While it has been argued by authors like Rhodes that there has been a `` hollowing out '' of the nation state , and that governments have lost their capabilities to govern to a variety of non-state actors and the European Union , the case of carbon governance in England actually runs counter to this . The government body responsible for the task , the Department of Energy and Climate Change ( DECC ) , is the `` main external dynamic '' behind governing actions in this area , and `` rather than hollowing out ( there has actually been a strengthening of ) central co-ordination '' . The department may rely on other bodies to deliver its desired outcomes , but it is still ultimately responsible for the imposition of the rules and regulations that `` steer ( carbon ) governmental action at the national level '' . It is therefore evident that carbon governance in England is hierarchical in nature , in that `` legislative decisions and executive decisions '' are the main dynamic behind carbon governance action . This does not deny the existence of a network of bodies around DECC who are part of the process , but they are supplementary actors who are steered by central decisions . This article focuses on carbon governance in England as the other countries of the UK ( Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland ) all have devolved assemblies who are responsible for the governance of carbon emissions in their respective countries .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_governance_in_England", "rank": 52, "score": 163643 }, { "content": "Title: Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate Content: The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate , also known as APP , was an international , voluntary , public-private partnership among Australia , Canada , India , Japan , the People 's Republic of China , South Korea , and the United States announced July 28 , 2005 at an Association of South East Asian Nations ( ASEAN ) Regional Forum meeting and launched on January 12 , 2006 at the Partnership 's inaugural Ministerial meeting in Sydney . As of 5 April 2011 , the Partnership formally concluded although a number of individual projects continue . The conclusion of the APP and cancellation of many of its projects attracted almost no media comment . Foreign , Environment and Energy Ministers from partner countries agreed to co-operate on the development and transfer of technology which enables reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that is consistent with and complementary to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other relevant international instruments , and is intended to complement but not replace the Kyoto Protocol. , Ministers agreed to a Charter , Communique and Work Plan that `` outline a ground-breaking new model of private-public task forces to address climate change , energy security and air pollution . '' Member countries account for over 50 % of the world 's greenhouse gas emissions , energy consumption , GDP and population . Unlike the Kyoto Protocol ( currently unratified by the United States ) , which imposes mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions , the Partnership engages member countries to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies , with no mandatory enforcement mechanism . This has led to criticism that the Partnership is worthless , by other governments , climate scientists and environmental groups . Proponents , on the other hand , argue that unrestricted economic growth and emission reductions can only be brought about through active engagement by all major polluters , which includes India and China , within the Kyoto Protocol framework neither India nor China are yet required to reduce emissions . Canada became the 7th member of the APP at the Second Ministerial Meeting in New Delhi on October 15 , 2007 . Canada 's Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier expressed his intention to join the Partnership in August 2007 , despite some domestic opposition .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Asia-Pacific_Partnership_on_Clean_Development_and_Climate", "rank": 53, "score": 163514 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act Content: __ NOTOC __ The Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act of the Canadian province of Alberta was the first law of its type to impose greenhouse gas cuts on large industrial facilities . Starting from July 1 , 2007 , Alberta facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year will be required to reduce their emissions intensity by 12 percent under the Climate Change and Emissions Management Amendment Act . Companies have three ways to meet their reductions : they can make operating improvements , buy an Alberta-based credit , or contribute to the Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund . The regulations apply to about 100 large facilities which emit more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year . Those facilities account for about 70 per cent of Alberta 's industrial greenhouse gas emissions . The annual cost of compliance is estimated to be $ 177 million - or less than one tenth of one per cent of Alberta 's nominal GDP ( $ 242 billion in 2006 ) .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_Change_and_Emissions_Management_Amendment_Act", "rank": 54, "score": 162634 }, { "content": "Title: Fugitive emissions Content: Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Fugitive_emissions", "rank": 55, "score": 162540 }, { "content": "Title: Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation Content: Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation , sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries ( REDD + ) was first negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) since 2005 , with the objective of mitigating climate change through reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management in developing countries . Most of the key REDD + decisions were completed by 2013 , with the final pieces of the rulebook finished in 2015 . In the last two decades , various studies estimate that land use change , including deforestation and forest degradation , accounts for 12-29 % of global greenhouse gas emissions . For this reason the inclusion of reducing emissions from land use change is considered essential to achieve the objectives of the UNFCCC . During the negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol , and then in particular its Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) , the inclusion of tropical forest management was debated but eventually dropped due to anticipated methodological difficulties in establishing -- in particular -- additionality and leakage ( detrimental effects outside of the project area attributable to project activities ) . What remained on forestry was `` Afforestation and Reforestation '' , sectoral scope 14 of the CDM . Under this sectoral scope areas of land that had no forest cover since 1990 could be replanted with commercial or indigenous tree species . In its first eight years of operation 52 projects had been registered under the `` Afforestation and Reforestation '' scope of the CDM . The cumbersome administrative procedures and corresponding high transaction costs are often blamed for this slow uptake . Beyond the CDM , all developed countries that were parties to the Kyoto Protocol also committed to measuring and reporting on efforts to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions from forests . The United States also measures and reports on the net greenhouse gas sequestration in its forests . In response to what many perceived to be a failure to address a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions , the Coalition for Rainforest Nations ( CfRN ) was established and in 2005 they proposed to the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC policy approaches and positive incentives for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases stemming from tropical deforestation and forest degradation as a climate change mitigation measure .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Reducing_emissions_from_deforestation_and_forest_degradation", "rank": 56, "score": 162485 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 57, "score": 162007 }, { "content": "Title: Regional climate change initiatives in the United States Content: Twenty-eight states have climate action plans and nine have statewide emission targets . The states of California and New Mexico have committed most recently to emission reductions targets , joining New Jersey , Maine , Massachusetts , Connecticut , New York , Washington and Oregon . Regional initiatives can be more efficient than programs at the state level , as they encompass a broader geographical area , eliminate duplication of work , and create more uniform regulatory environments . Over the past few years , a number of regional initiatives have begun developing systems to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants , increase renewable energy generation , track renewable energy credits , and research and establish baselines for carbon sequestration .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Regional_climate_change_initiatives_in_the_United_States", "rank": 58, "score": 161696 }, { "content": "Title: Australian Greenhouse Office Content: The Australian Greenhouse Office ( AGO ) was formed in 1998 within the Government of Australia as a stand-alone agency within the environment portfolio to provide a whole of government approach to greenhouse matters . It was the world 's first government agency dedicated to cutting greenhouse gas emissions , managed Australia 's response to climate change , and provided government-sanctioned information to the public . Writer Guy Pearse was employed by the agency as a consultant . Dr David Evans was employed by the office from 1999 to 2005 to conduct carbon accounting and to build models .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Australian_Greenhouse_Office", "rank": 59, "score": 161514 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Z. Jacobson Content: Mark Zachary Jacobson ( born 1965 ) is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy Program . Jacobson develops computer models about the effects of different energy technologies and their emissions on air pollution and climate . He has done influential research on the role of aerosols and black carbon on the climate and is regarded as a leading aerosol climate modeler . According to Jacobson , a speedy transition to clean , renewable energy is required to reduce the potential acceleration of global warming , including the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice . This change will also eliminate 2.5 -- 3 million deaths worldwide each year , related to air pollution , and reduce disruption associated with fossil fuel shortages .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Mark_Z._Jacobson", "rank": 60, "score": 161341 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 61, "score": 160936 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 62, "score": 160811 }, { "content": "Title: America's Climate Security Act of 2007 Content: The America 's Climate Security Act of 2007 was a global warming bill that was considered by the United States Senate to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the United States . Also known as the Lieberman-Warner bill , bill number , the legislation was introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman ( I-CT ) and John Warner ( R-VA ) on October 18 , 2007 . The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in December 2007 , and was debated in the Senate during the week of June 2 . The bill would create a national cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions , in which polluters would mostly be allocated right-to-emit credits based on how much greenhouse gas they currently emit . The cap would get tighter over time , until by 2050 , emissions would be reduced to 63 % below 2005 levels . Several environmental groups express their encouragement at the progress in legislation on the global warming issue while at the same time expressing disappointment that the bill does n't reduce emissions enough . On June 6 , 2008 , the bill was killed by Senate Republicans over worries that it would damage the economy .", "qid": "375", "docid": "America's_Climate_Security_Act_of_2007", "rank": 63, "score": 160111 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon finance Content: Carbon finance is a new branch of Environmental finance . Carbon finance explores the financial implications of living in a carbon-constrained world , a world in which emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) carry a price . Financial risks and opportunities impact corporate balance sheets , and market-based instruments are capable of transferring environmental risk and achieving environmental objectives . Issues regarding climate change and GHG emissions must be addressed as part of strategic management decision-making . The general term is applied to investments in GHG emission reduction projects and the creation ( origination ) of financial instruments that are tradeable on the carbon market .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_finance", "rank": 64, "score": 160010 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "375", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 65, "score": 159701 }, { "content": "Title: Evangelical Climate Initiative Content: The Evangelical Climate Initiative ( ECI ) is a campaign by US-American church leaders and organizations to promote market based mechanisms to mitigate global warming . ECI 's first statement , calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions , was initially signed by 86 evangelical leaders . Signatories included Rick Warren , the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges , and the leader of the Salvation Army . The number of signatories had risen to over 100 by December 2007 , and as of July 2011 over 220 evangelical leaders had signed the call to action . David P. Gushee , a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University , helped draft the document . When the Evangelical Climate Initiative launched in February 2006 , the National Association of Evangelicals ( NAE ) was not ready to make such a commitment . Not quite a year later , the NAE worked with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to bring scientists and evangelical Christian leaders together to mitigate climate change . As ABC News reported :", "qid": "375", "docid": "Evangelical_Climate_Initiative", "rank": 66, "score": 158108 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Authority Content: The Climate Change Authority is an Australian statutory agency established under the Climate Change Authority Act 2011 . It began operations on 1 July 2012 . Its role is to review various climate change policies , including the Carbon Farming Initiative and National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting system , and to advise the Australian Government and Parliament on other matters as requested . The Authority has no legislative or executive powers , which remain with the Government and Parliament of the day . The Authority is presently undertaking a Special Review into Australia 's policies and targets for reducing emissions in the context of its international commitments and those of other countries . The Special Review is due to be completed by 30 June 2016 . The Authority has a Board comprising a Chair and eight permanent members : Dr Wendy Craik ( Chair ) , Stuart Allinson ( Acting Chair ) , Kate Carnell AO , Professor David Karoly , Professor John Quiggin , Professor Clive Hamilton , The Hon. John Sharp , Dr Alan Finkel and Danny Price . A tenth member , Andrew Macintosh , sits as an associate member until the conclusion of the Special Review . Dr Finkel is an ex officio member of the Authority as Australia 's Chief Scientist , replacing the former Chief Scientist Ian Chubb . The original Chair of the Authority was former Reserve Bank of Australia Governor and Treasury Secretary , Bernie Fraser . He resigned from the position in September 2015 . The agency is based in Melbourne where it has the advantage of being able to work closely with the Productivity Commission . The agency was allocated A$ 6.2 million in the 2012-13 financial year . The Australian Government , under Liberal leadership , is in the process of abolishing the Climate Change Authority , a move which has been heavily criticised .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_Change_Authority", "rank": 67, "score": 157981 }, { "content": "Title: Climate-friendly gardening Content: Climate-friendly gardening is gardening in ways which reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from gardens and encourage the absorption of carbon dioxide by soils and plants in order to aid the reduction of global warming . To be a climate-friendly gardener means considering both what happens in a garden and the materials brought into it and the impact they have on land use and climate . It can also include garden features or activities in the garden that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate-friendly_gardening", "rank": 68, "score": 157140 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monitoring Content: Carbon monitoring refers to tracking how much carbon dioxide or methane is produced by particular activity at a particular point in time . For example , it may refer to tracking methane emissions from agriculture , or carbon dioxide emissions from land use changes , such as deforestation , or from burning fossil fuels , whether in a power plant , automobile , or other device . Because carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emitted in the largest quantities , and methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas , monitoring carbon emissions is widely seen as crucial to any effort to reduce emissions and thereby slow climate change . Monitoring carbon emissions is key to the cap-and-trade program currently being used in Europe , as well as the one in California , and will be necessary for any such program in the future , like the Paris Agreement . The lack of reliable sources of consistent data on carbon emissions is a significant barrier to efforts to reduce emissions .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_monitoring", "rank": 69, "score": 157136 }, { "content": "Title: CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Content: The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme ( the CRC , formerly the Carbon Reduction Commitment ) is a mandatory carbon emissions reduction scheme in the United Kingdom that applies to large non-energy-intensive organisations in the public and private sectors . It has been estimated that the scheme will reduce carbon emissions by 1.2 million tonnes of carbon per year by 2020 . In an effort to avoid dangerous climate change , the British Government first committed to cutting UK carbon emissions by 60 % by 2050 ( compared to 1990 levels ) , and in October 2008 increased this commitment to 80 % . The scheme has also been credited with driving up demand for energy-efficient goods and services . The CRC was announced in the 2007 Energy White Paper , published on 23 May 2007 . A consultation in 2006 showed strong support for it to be mandatory , rather than voluntary . The Commitment was introduced under enabling powers in Part 3 of the Climate Change Act 2008 . A consultation into the scheme 's implementation was launched in June 2007 . The Scheme is being introduced under the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Order 2010 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "CRC_Energy_Efficiency_Scheme", "rank": 70, "score": 157042 }, { "content": "Title: Wildland fire emission Content: Wildland fire and wildland fire atmospheric emissions have been a part of the global biosphere for millennia . The major wildland fire emissions include greenhouse gasses and several criteria pollutants that impact human health and welfare. : Compared to the preindustrial era , wildland land fire in the conterminous U.S. has been reduced 90 percent with proportional reductions in wildland fire emissions . Land use changes ( agriculture and urbanization ) are responsible for roughly 50 percent of this decrease , and land management decisions ( land fragmentation , suppression actions , etc. ) are responsible for the remainder . Anthropogenic activities ( e.g. , industrial production , transportation , agriculture , etc. ) today have more than replaced the lost preindustrial wildland fire atmospheric emissions . The following charts compare preindustrial wildland fire emissions with contemporary emissions .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Wildland_fire_emission", "rank": 71, "score": 156620 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas inventory Content: Greenhouse gas inventories are a type of emission inventory that are developed for a variety of reasons . Scientists use inventories of natural and anthropogenic ( human-caused ) emissions as tools when developing atmospheric models . Policy makers use inventories to develop strategies and policies for emissions reductions and to track the progress of those policies . And , regulatory agencies and corporations rely on inventories to establish compliance records with allowable emission rates . Businesses , the public , and other interest groups use inventories to better understand the sources and trends in emissions . Unlike some other air emission inventories , greenhouse gas inventories include not only emissions from source categories , but also removals by carbon sinks . These removals are typically referred to as carbon sequestration . Greenhouse gas inventories , typically use Global warming potential ( GWP ) values to combine emissions of various greenhouse gases into a single weighted value of emissions . Some of the key examples of greenhouse gas inventories include : All Annex I countries are required to report annual emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) National governments that are Parties to the UNFCCC and/or the Kyoto Protocol are required to submit annual inventories of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals from sinks . The Kyoto Protocol includes additional requirements for national inventory systems , inventory reporting , and annual inventory review for determining compliance with Articles 5 and 8 of the Protocol . Project developers under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol prepare inventories as part of their project baselines . Corporation and other entities can prepare greenhouse gas inventories to track progress towards meeting an emission reduction goal . Scientific efforts aimed at understanding detail of total net carbon exchange . Example : Project Vulcan - a comprehensive US inventory of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_inventory", "rank": 72, "score": 156384 }, { "content": "Title: Chicago Climate Exchange Content: The Chicago Climate Exchange ( CCX ) was North America 's only voluntary , legally binding greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil . CCX employed independent verification , included six greenhouse gases , and traded greenhouse gas emission allowances from 2003 to 2010 . The companies joining the exchange committed to reducing their aggregate emissions by 6 % by 2010 . CCX had an aggregate baseline of 680 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent . CCX ceased trading carbon credits at the end of 2010 due to inactivity in the U.S. carbon markets , although carbon exchanges were intended to still be facilitated .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Chicago_Climate_Exchange", "rank": 73, "score": 156048 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 74, "score": 155822 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse Mafia Content: Greenhouse Mafia is the title of a TV program aired by the ABC on the 13 February 2006 episode of its weekly current affairs program Four Corners . The program says the term greenhouse mafia is the `` in house '' name used by Australia 's carbon lobby for itself . The program featured former Liberal Party member Guy Pearse and Four Corners host Janine Cohen , while others concerned about the influence exerted by the fossil fuel lobby also participated . The report was based on a thesis Pearse wrote at the Australian National University between 1999 and 2005 regarding the response of Australian business to global warming . According to the program , lobby groups representing the coal , car , oil , and aluminium industries have wielded their power to prevent Australia from reducing its greenhouse gas emissions , which were already among the highest per capita in the world in 1990 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Greenhouse_Mafia", "rank": 75, "score": 155707 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation Content: Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation", "rank": 76, "score": 155167 }, { "content": "Title: Landfill gas Content: Landfill gas is a complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill . Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane , with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide . Trace amounts of other volatile organic compounds comprise the remainder ( < 1 % ) . These trace gases include a large array of species , mainly simple hydrocarbons . Landfill gases have an influence on climate change . The major components are CO2 and methane , both of which are greenhouse gas . In terms of global warming potential , methane is over 25 times more detrimental to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide . Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the US .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Landfill_gas", "rank": 77, "score": 155121 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse debt Content: Greenhouse debt or carbon debt is the measure to which an individual person , incorporated association , business enterprise , government instrumentality or geographic community exceeds its permitted greenhouse footprint and contributes greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and climate change . The concept makes no sense without a clear numerical value for the permitted greenhouse footprint . It is not clear what this value is . Friends of the Earth and similar organisations put forward the concept to define specifically the environmental harm caused by developed countries ' past and present policies . Some governments , at least the Australian Labor leadership , have a tendency to accept such a line of reasoning . The greenhouse debt assessment thus forms an ecological footprint analysis but can be used separately . Taken conjointly with a ` water debt ' analysis and an ecological impact assessment , greenhouse debt analysis is basic to giving individuals , organisations , governments and communities an understanding of the effects they are having on Gaia , life , and global warming . Ensuring that the greenhouse debt is zero is essential towards achieving ecologically sustainable development or a sustainable retreat . Any greenhouse debt incurred will contribute to making life harder for future generations of humans and non-human lifeforms . There are three possible consequences that occur as a result of a greenhouse debt . Mitigation : finding compensatory ways of reducing the greenhouse debt so its effects are neutralised Adaptation : finding ways of adjusting to the resulting global warming or climate change Suffering : having one 's quality of life reduced as a result of the consequences", "qid": "375", "docid": "Greenhouse_debt", "rank": 78, "score": 154994 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Massachusetts Content: Formet Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed into law three global warming and energy-related bills that will promote advanced biofuels , support the growth of the clean energy technology industry , and cut the emissions of greenhouse gases within the state . The Clean Energy Biofuels Act , signed in late July , exempts cellulosic ethanol from the state 's gasoline tax , but only if the ethanol achieves a 60 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline . The act also requires all diesel motor fuels and all No. 2 fuel oil sold for heating to include at least 2 % `` substitute fuel '' by July 2010 , where substitute fuel is defined as a fuel derived from renewable non-food biomass that achieves at least a 50 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions . The requirement for both motor diesel fuel and heating oil increases by a percentage point per year until 2013 , after which it holds steady 5 % . The act also allows the state to expand the requirement to other forms of fuel oil , and it requires the state to work to establish a low-carbon fuel standard under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative . In early August of 2008 , Governor Patrick signed two additional bills : the Green Jobs Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act . The Green Jobs Act will support the growth of a clean energy technology industry within the state , backed by $ 68 million in funding over 5 years . The Global Warming Solutions Act requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 10 % -25 % below 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050 . Under the act , the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will carry the burdens of determining the baseline level of emissions in 1990 and creating a plan to meet the future emissions limits , including the establishment of interim limits for 2030 and 2040", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Massachusetts", "rank": 79, "score": 154940 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Mexico Content: Mexico highly depends on the burning of its fossil fuels , and for the same reason , it is in its interest to look into mitigation solutions for its corresponding emissions . In the General Law on Climate Change on 2012 , Mexico promised to reduce 20 % of its GHG emissions by 2020 and 50 % by 2050 , as well as in the Paris Agreement . 19 % of the this new mitigation plan will be dedicated to carbon capture and storage and specifically 10 % to the energetic industry .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Mexico", "rank": 80, "score": 154933 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon neutrality Content: Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_neutrality", "rank": 81, "score": 154656 }, { "content": "Title: Zero-carbon city Content: A zero-carbon city runs entirely on renewable energy ; it has no carbon footprint and will in this respect not cause harm to the planet . Most cities throughout the world produce energy by burning coal , oil and gas , unintentionally emitting carbon . Almost every activity humans do involves burning one of these fossil fuels . To become a zero carbon city , an established modern city must collectively reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to zero and all practices that emit greenhouse gases must cease . Also , renewable energy must supersede other non-renewable energy sources and become the sole source of energy , so a zero-carbon city is a renewable-energy-economy city . This transition which includes decarbonising electricity ( increasing the importance of the sources of renewable electricity ) and zero-emission transport , is undertaken as a response to climate change . Zero-carbon cities maintain optimal living conditions while eliminating environmental impact . Instead of using established cities , many developers are starting from scratch in order to create a zero-carbon city . This way they can make sure every aspect of a city contributes to it being carbon free .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Zero-carbon_city", "rank": 82, "score": 153837 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 83, "score": 153734 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 84, "score": 153714 }, { "content": "Title: German response to Kyoto Protocol Content: Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany . Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states . As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms . In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible . Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .", "qid": "375", "docid": "German_response_to_Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 85, "score": 152432 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom Climate Change Programme Content: The United Kingdom 's Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) . The 2000 programme was updated in March 2006 following a review launched in September 2004 . In 2008 , the UK was the world 's 9th greatest producer of man-made carbon emissions , producing around 1.8 % of the global total generated from fossil fuels .", "qid": "375", "docid": "United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 86, "score": 152246 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and agriculture Content: -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Climate_change_and_agriculture", "rank": 87, "score": 152097 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance Content: The Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance ( CNCA or `` Alliance '' ) is a collaboration of leading global cities working to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 % or more by 2050 or sooner ( `` 80x50 '' ) -- the most aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets undertaken by any cities across the globe . The Alliance aims to address what it will take for leading international cities to achieve these deep emissions reductions and how they can work together to meet their respective goals more efficiently and effectively .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_Neutral_Cities_Alliance", "rank": 88, "score": 152086 }, { "content": "Title: Assigned amount units Content: An Assigned Amount Unit ( AAU ) is a tradable ` Kyoto unit ' or ` carbon credit ' representing an allowance to emit greenhouse gases comprising one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalents calculated using their Global Warming Potential . Assigned Amount Units are issued up to the level of initial `` assigned amount '' of an Annex 1 Party to the Kyoto Protocol . The `` assigned amounts '' are the Kyoto Protocol Annex B emission targets ( or `` quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives '' ) expressed as levels of allowed emissions over the 2008-2012 commitment period .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Assigned_amount_units", "rank": 89, "score": 151953 }, { "content": "Title: Chinese national carbon trading scheme Content: The Chinese national carbon trading scheme is a cap and trade system for carbon dioxide emissions set to be implemented in July 2017 . This emission trading scheme ( ETS ) creates a carbon market where emitters can buy and sell emission credits . From this scheme , China can limit emissions , but allow economic freedom for emitters to reduce emissions or purchase emission allowances from other emitters . China is currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and many major Chinese cities have severe air pollution . With this plan , China will soon be the largest market in carbon trading . The scheme will limit emissions from six of China 's top carbon dioxide emitting industries , including coal-fired power plants . China was able to gain experience in drafting and implementation of an ETS plan from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , where China was part of the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) . From this experience with carbon markets , and lengthy discussions with the next largest carbon market , the European Union ( EU ) , as well as analysis of small scale pilot markets in major Chinese cities and provinces , China 's national ETS will be the largest of its kind and will help China achieve its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution ( INDC ) from the Paris Agreement in 2016 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Chinese_national_carbon_trading_scheme", "rank": 90, "score": 151493 }, { "content": "Title: Decarbonisation measures in proposed UK electricity market reform Content: The United Kingdom is committed to legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets of 34 % by 2020 and 80 % by 2050 , compared to 1990 levels , as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 . DECC ( 2008 ) . Climate Change Act . Decarbonisation of electricity generation will form a major part of this reduction and is essential before other sectors of the economy can be successfully decarbonised.DECC ( 2011a ) . Planning Our Electric Future : A White Paper for Secure , Affordable and Low-Carbon Electricity . The Government 's proposals for electricity market reform , published in a White Paper in July 2011 , included three initiatives to encourage decarbonisation of electricity generation in the UK : A Carbon Price Floor to complement the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) ; Feed-in tariffs which will eventually replace the Renewables Obligation ; and an Emissions Performance Standard to restrict future use of the most carbon intensive forms of generation . In implementing these proposals , the Government aims to attract investment in low-carbon generation , deliver security of supply through an appropriate mix of electricity sources and ensure a minimum amount of impact on consumer bills ; all this at a time when security of supply is threatened by scheduled closures of existing plants and both the demand for , and subsequently the price of , electricity is increasing .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Decarbonisation_measures_in_proposed_UK_electricity_market_reform", "rank": 91, "score": 151460 }, { "content": "Title: Asia-Pacific Emissions Trading Forum Content: The Asia-Pacific Emissions Trading Forum ( AETF ) was an information service and business network dealing with domestic and international developments in emissions trading policy in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region . The AETF was originally called the Australasian Emissions Trading Forum , and was founded in 1998 under the auspices of the Sydney Futures Exchange following a proposal from Beck Consulting Services . From 2001 until 2011 the AETF published the AETF Review ( Bib ID 3998494 ) , held regular member meetings and convened numerous events and conferences . The AETF Review was published six times per year and included original articles on emissions trading developments and related topics . In 2011 the AETF formed the foundation of the new Carbon Market Institute , a not-for-profit institute , established in Melbourne , Australia to continue and develop the AETF programs . The AETF was founded to assist all potential stakeholders understand and respond to emissions trading developments both domestically and internationally . Emissions trading is a key element of the Kyoto Protocol and subsequent proposals to manage global greenhouse gas emissions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . National or regional schemes are operating in the European Union , New Zealand and the United States and are under active consideration in China , Japan and elsewhere . In Australia , legislation under Clean Energy Future Scheme has been passed to introduce a national emissions trading scheme from 2015 .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Asia-Pacific_Emissions_Trading_Forum", "rank": 92, "score": 150596 }, { "content": "Title: Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project Content: The Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project is part of the Gorgon Project , the world 's largest natural gas project . The Gorgon Project , located on Barrow Island in Western Australia , includes a liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) plant , a domestic gas plant , and a Carbon Dioxide Injection Project . The initial carbon dioxide injections are planned to take place by the end of 2017 . Once launched , the Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project will be the world 's largest CO2 injection plant , with an ability to store up to 4 million tons of CO2 per year -- approximately 120 million tons over the project 's lifetime , and 40 percent of total Gorgon Project emissions .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Gorgon_Carbon_Dioxide_Injection_Project", "rank": 93, "score": 150503 }, { "content": "Title: Air pollution in Germany Content: Air pollution in Germany has significantly decreased over the past decade . Air pollution occurs when harmful substances are released into the Earth 's atmosphere . These pollutants are released through human activity and natural sources . Germany took interest in reducing its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by switching to renewable energy sources . Renewable energy use rose from 6.3 % in 2000 to 34 % in 2016 . Through the transition to renewable energy sources , Germany has become the climate change policy leader and renewable energy leader in the European Union ( EU ) and in the world with ambitious climate change programs . The current goal of the German government was approved on 14 November 2016 in the German Climate Action Plan 2050 , which outlines measures by which Germany can meet its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 . By 2050 , Germany wants to reduce their GHGs by 80 to 95 % and by 2030 they want to reduce it by 55 % , compared to the EU target of 40 % . In order to achieve these goals , a variety of strategies and policies are used rather than legislation . The four strategies the German government bases air pollution control on are laying down environmental quality standards , emission reduction requirements according to the best available technology , production regulations , and laying down emission ceilings . Through these strategies , policy instruments have been put in place that have contributed to the success of the significant air pollution reduction in Germany . These instruments include the Federal Emission Control Act and Implementing Ordinances , Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control ( TA Luft ) , Amendment to Ordinance on Small Firing Installations , Implementation of the directive on industrial emissions , and Transboundary air pollution control policy . The German Feed-in-Tariff policy introduced in 2000 led to the significant increase in renewable energy use and decreasing air pollution . They have been introduced in Germany to increase the use of renewables , such as wind power , biomass , hydropower , geothermal power , and photovoltaics , thereby reducing GHG emissions causing air pollution and combating climate change . The German government has been an agenda setter in international climate policy negotiations since the late 1980s . However , national and global climate policies have become a top priority since the conservative-social democratic government came into power in 2005 , pushing both European and international climate negotiations . Positive path dependency in Germany 's climate and energy policies has occurred over the past 20 years . There are three main triggers that put Germany on this positive path dependency and what led them to becoming a climate change policy leader . The first being the widespread damages to health , due to smog , and to nature , due to acid rain , caused by air pollution . The second being the shock of the two oil price crises , in 1973 and 1979 , that highlighted the problem of the German economy 's strong dependence on unsure foreign sources . The third being the growing opposition to the country 's growing reliance on nuclear energy . Air pollution began to be seen as a problem in Germany due to these three triggers , causing Germany to put policies into place to control air pollution . This has now developed from controlling air pollution to being a leader in climate change politics . __ TOC __", "qid": "375", "docid": "Air_pollution_in_Germany", "rank": 94, "score": 150216 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emission label Content: A carbon emission label or carbon label describes the carbon dioxide emissions created as a by-product of manufacturing , transporting , or disposing of a consumer product . This information is important to consumers wishing to minimize their ecological footprint and contribution to global warming made by their purchases .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_emission_label", "rank": 95, "score": 149967 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon offset Content: A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere . Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent ( CO2e ) and may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases : carbon dioxide , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , and sulfur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases . There are two markets for carbon offsets . In the larger , compliance market , companies , governments , or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit . This market exists in order to achieve compliance with obligations of Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol , and of liable entities under the EU Emission Trading Scheme . In 2006 , about $ 5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market , representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions . In the much smaller , voluntary market , individuals , companies , or governments purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation , electricity use , and other sources . For example , an individual might purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by personal air travel . Many companies ( see list ) offer carbon offsets as an up-sell during the sales process so that customers can mitigate the emissions related with their product or service purchase ( such as offsetting emissions related to a vacation flight , car rental , hotel stay , consumer good , etc. ) . In 2008 , about $ 705 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market , representing about 123.4 million metric tons of CO2e reductions . Some fuel suppliers in the UK offer fuel which has been carbon offset such as Fuel dyes . Offsets are typically achieved through financial support of projects that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the short - or long-term . The most common project type is renewable energy , such as wind farms , biomass energy , or hydroelectric dams . Others include energy efficiency projects , the destruction of industrial pollutants or agricultural byproducts , destruction of landfill methane , and forestry projects . Some of the most popular carbon offset projects from a corporate perspective are energy efficiency and wind turbine projects . Carbon offsetting has gained some appeal and momentum mainly among consumers in western countries who have become aware and concerned about the potentially negative environmental effects of energy-intensive lifestyles and economies . The Kyoto Protocol has sanctioned offsets as a way for governments and private companies to earn carbon credits that can be traded on a marketplace . The protocol established the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) , which validates and measures projects to ensure they produce authentic benefits and are genuinely `` additional '' activities that would not otherwise have been undertaken . Organizations that are unable to meet their emissions quota can offset their emissions by buying CDM-approved Certified Emissions Reductions . Emissions from burning fuel , such as red diesel , has pushed one UK fuel supplier to create a carbon offset fuel named Carbon Offset Red Diesel . Offsets may be cheaper or more convenient alternatives to reducing one 's own fossil-fuel consumption . However , some critics object to carbon offsets , and question the benefits of certain types of offsets . Due diligence is recommended to help businesses in the assessment and identification of `` good quality '' offsets to ensure offsetting provides the desired additional environmental benefits , and to avoid reputational risk associated with poor quality offsets . Offsets are viewed as an important policy tool to maintain stable economies and to improve sustainability . One of the hidden dangers of climate change policy is unequal prices of carbon in the economy , which can cause economic collateral damage if production flows to regions or industries that have a lower price of carbon -- unless carbon can be purchased from that area , which offsets effectively permit , equalizing the price .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_offset", "rank": 96, "score": 149727 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "375", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 97, "score": 149722 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon footprint Content: A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual , event , organisation , or product , expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent . In most cases , the total carbon footprint can not be exactly calculated because of inadequate knowledge of and data about the complex interactions between contributing processes , especially which including the influence on natural processes storing or releasing carbon dioxide . For this reason , Wright , Kemp , and Williams , have suggested to define the carbon footprint as : A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and methane ( CH4 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) . Greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) can be emitted through land clearance and the production and consumption of food , fuels , manufactured goods , materials , wood , roads , buildings , transportation and other services . For simplicity of reporting , it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide , or its equivalent of other GHGs , emitted . Most of the carbon footprint emissions for the average U.S. household come from `` indirect '' sources , i.e. fuel burned to produce goods far away from the final consumer . These are distinguished from emissions which come from burning fuel directly in one 's car or stove , commonly referred to as `` direct '' sources of the consumer 's carbon footprint . The concept name of the carbon footprint originates from ecological footprint , discussion , which was developed by Rees and Wackernagel in the 1990s which estimates the number of `` earths '' that would theoretically be required if everyone on the planet consumed resources at the same level as the person calculating their ecological footprint . However , given that ecological footprints are a measure of failure , Anindita Mitra ( CREA , Seattle ) chose the more easily calculated `` carbon footprint '' to easily measure use of carbon , as an indicator of unsustainable energy use . In 2007 , carbon footprint was used as a measure of carbon emissions to develop the energy plan for City of Lynnwood , Washington . Carbon footprints are much more specific than ecological footprints since they measure direct emissions of gases that cause climate change into the atmosphere . Carbon footprint is one of a family of footprint indicators , which also includes water footprint and land footprint .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Carbon_footprint", "rank": 98, "score": 149649 }, { "content": "Title: Anna Skarbek Content: Anna Skarbek ( born 1976 ) is an Australian businesswoman and former investment banker . In 2009 she became the executive director of ClimateWorks Australia , a non-profit group which develops projects to reduce carbon emissions . Under her directorship , the company was awarded a Eureka Prize in 2010 for developing a `` low carbon growth plan '' with applications for business . Skarbek studied law and commerce at Monash University before taking a job in Macquarie Bank 's energy and utilities division . In 2002 she became a climate change adviser to the Victorian deputy premier , John Thwaites . From 2007 to 2009 she worked as an investment manager at Climate Change Capital in London . Skarbek sits on the Government of South Australia 's low-carbon expert panel with former Liberal party politician John Hewson and ANU Professor Frank Jotzo .", "qid": "375", "docid": "Anna_Skarbek", "rank": 99, "score": 149620 }, { "content": "Title: International Carbon Action Partnership Content: The International Carbon Action Partnership ( ICAP ) was founded in 2007 by more than 15 government representatives as an international cooperative forum , bringing together states and sub-national jurisdictions that have implemented or are planning to implement emissions trading systems ( ETS ) . Then governor of California , Arnold Schwarzenegger , stated at ICAP 's founding ceremony : `` This first of its kind partnership will provide more incentives for clean-tech investment and economic growth while not letting polluters off the hook . And it will help renew the health of our planet . '' José Sócrates , the Portuguese prime minister further added that ICAP was launched in order to join carbon markets all over the world and by that be more successful in combating climate change . ICAP includes members from the European Union Emission Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) , Western Climate Initiative ( WCI ) , Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) , Australia , New Zealand , Norway , and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government . Japan and Ukraine are observers.Member jurisdictions share best practices and discuss ETS design elements with a view to creating a well-functioning global carbon market . The rationale behind ICAP 's work is that linking carbon cap and trade systems would lead to economic , social and environmental benefits .", "qid": "375", "docid": "International_Carbon_Action_Partnership", "rank": 100, "score": 149606 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 1, "score": 150280 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "376", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 2, "score": 147679 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 3, "score": 126949 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide Content: Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide", "rank": 4, "score": 125121 }, { "content": "Title: Free-air concentration enrichment Content: Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment ( FACE ) is a method used by ecologists and plant biologists that raises the concentration of in a specified area and allows the response of plant growth to be measured . Experiments using FACE are required because most studies looking at the effect of elevated concentrations have been conducted in labs and where there are many missing factors including plant competition . Measuring the effect of elevated using FACE is a better way of estimating how plant growth will change in the future as the concentration rises in the atmosphere . FACE also allows the effect of elevated on plants that can not be grown in small spaces ( trees for example ) to be measured .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Free-air_concentration_enrichment", "rank": 5, "score": 121112 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 6, "score": 116663 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 7, "score": 114304 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 8, "score": 112330 }, { "content": "Title: Afterdamp Content: Afterdamp is the toxic mixture of gases left in a mine following an explosion caused by firedamp , which itself can initiate a much larger explosion of coal dust . It consists of carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide and nitrogen . Hydrogen sulfide , another highly toxic gas , may also be present . However , it is the high content of carbon monoxide which kills by depriving victims of oxygen by combining preferentially with haemoglobin in the blood . Afterdamp was the deadly gas which caused the majority of casualties in the many pit disasters of the British coalfields , such as the Senghenydd colliery disaster and elsewhere in the world . Such disasters continue to afflict working mines , especially in mainland China .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Afterdamp", "rank": 9, "score": 111905 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide generator Content: A Carbon dioxide generator or CO2 generator is a machine used to enhance carbon dioxide levels in order to promote plant growth in greenhouses or other enclosed areas . Carbon dioxide generators have been used to help grow marijuana . They can be fueled with propane or natural gas . CO2 generators were used mostly by commercial growers until smaller and less expansive systems made the technology more widely available to hobbyists . The generators also give off heat . Using compressed CO2 is an alternative to generators .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_generator", "rank": 10, "score": 111137 }, { "content": "Title: Soil respiration Content: Soil respiration refers to the production of carbon dioxide when soil organisms respire . This includes respiration of plant roots , the rhizosphere , microbes and fauna . Soil respiration is a key ecosystem process that releases carbon from the soil in the form of CO2 . CO2 is acquired from the atmosphere and converted into organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis . Plants use these organic compounds to build structural components or respire them to release energy . When plant respiration occurs below-ground in the roots , it adds to soil respiration . Over time , plant structural components are consumed by heterotrophs . This heterotrophic consumption releases CO2 and when this CO2 is released by below-ground organisms , it is considered soil respiration . The amount of soil respiration that occurs in an ecosystem is controlled by several factors . The temperature , moisture , nutrient content and level of oxygen in the soil can produce extremely disparate rates of respiration . These rates of respiration can be measured in a variety of methods . Other methods can be used to separate the source components , in this case the type of photosynthetic pathway ( C3/C4 ) , of the respired plant structures . Soil respiration rates can be largely affected by human activity . This is because humans have the ability to and have been changing the various controlling factors of soil respiration for numerous years . Global climate change is composed of numerous changing factors including rising atmospheric CO2 , increasing temperature and shifting precipitation patterns . All of these factors can affect the rate of global soil respiration . Increased nitrogen fertilization by humans also has the potential to effect rates over the entire Earth . Soil respiration and its rate across ecosystems is extremely important to understand . This is because soil respiration plays a large role in global carbon cycling as well as other nutrient cycles . The respiration of plant structures releases not only CO2 but also other nutrients in those structures , such as nitrogen . Soil respiration is also associated with positive feedbacks with global climate change . Positive feedbacks are when a change in a system produces response in the same direction of the change . Therefore , soil respiration rates can be effected by climate change and then respond by enhancing climate change .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Soil_respiration", "rank": 11, "score": 110469 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 12, "score": 110007 }, { "content": "Title: Keith E. Idso Content: Keith E. Idso is a botanist and vice president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change . He is the brother of Craig D. Idso and son of Sherwood B. Idso . He received his B.S. in Agriculture with a major in Plant Sciences from the University of Arizona and his M.S. from the same institution with a major in Agronomy and Plant Genetics . He completed his Ph.D. in Botany at Arizona State University . In 1994 , Idso , along with his father , published a review paper on the topic of increased CO2 levels and their effects on plant growth . The paper concluded that not only did other factors not diminish the ability of CO2 to increase plant growth rates , that `` the data show the relative growth-enhancing effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment to be greatest when resource limitations and environmental stresses are most severe . '' As of 1999 , he was teaching biology in the Maricopa County Community College District as an adjunct professor , a post to which he was appointed in 1996 . In 1998 , Idso spoke at the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness ' annual meeting in Scottsdale , Arizona . His talk was entitled `` Direct Biological Effects of Increasing Levels of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide . '' In 1999 , Idso was appointed by the Arizona Speaker of the House of Representatives to serve on the Arizona Advisory Council on Environmental Education .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Keith_E._Idso", "rank": 13, "score": 109384 }, { "content": "Title: C3 carbon fixation Content: carbon fixation is one of three metabolic pathways for carbon fixation in photosynthesis , along with and CAM . This process converts carbon dioxide and ribulose bisphosphate ( RuBP , a 5-carbon sugar ) into 3-phosphoglycerate through the following reaction : CO2 + H2O + RuBP → ( 2 ) 3-phosphoglycerate This reaction occurs in all plants as the first step of the Calvin -- Benson cycle . In plants , carbon dioxide is drawn out of malate and into this reaction rather than directly from the air . Plants that survive solely on fixation ( plants ) tend to thrive in areas where sunlight intensity is moderate , temperatures are moderate , carbon dioxide concentrations are around 200 ppm or higher , and groundwater is plentiful . The plants , originating during Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras , predate the plants and still represent approximately 95 % of Earth 's plant biomass . plants lose 97 % of the water taken up through their roots to transpiration . Examples include rice and barley . plants can not grow in very hot areas because RuBisCO incorporates more oxygen into RuBP as temperatures increase . This leads to photorespiration ( also known as the oxidative photosynthetic carbon cycle , or C2 photosynthesis ) , which leads to a net loss of carbon and nitrogen from the plant and can , therefore , limit growth . In dry areas , plants shut their stomata to reduce water loss , but this stops from entering the leaves and , therefore , reduces the concentration of in the leaves . This lowers the : O2 ratio and , therefore , also increases photorespiration . and CAM plants have adaptations that allow them to survive in hot and dry areas , and they can , therefore , out-compete plants in these areas . The isotopic signature of plants shows higher degree of 13C depletion than the plants .", "qid": "376", "docid": "C3_carbon_fixation", "rank": 14, "score": 108442 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 15, "score": 107977 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling Curve Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Keeling_Curve", "rank": 16, "score": 107652 }, { "content": "Title: Bicarbonate indicator Content: A bicarbonate indicator ( hydrogencarbonate indicator ) is a type of pH indicator that is sensitive enough to show a color change as the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in an aqueous solution increases . The indicator is used in photosynthesis and respiration experiments to find out whether carbon dioxide is being liberated . It is also used to test the carbon dioxide content during gaseous exchange of organisms . When the carbon dioxide content is higher than 0.04 % , the initial red color changes to yellow as the pH becomes more acidic . If the carbon dioxide content is lower than 0.04 % , it changes from red to magenta and , in relatively very low carbon dioxide concentrations , to purple . Carbon dioxide , even in the concentrations found in exhaled air , will dissolve in the indicator to form carbonic acid , a weak acid , which will lower the pH and give the characteristic colour change . A colour change to purple during photosynthesis shows a reduction in the percentage of carbon dioxide and is sometimes inferred as production of oxygen , but there is not actually any direct evidence for it . Great care must be taken to avoid acidic or alkaline contamination of the apparatus in such experiments , since the test is not directly specific to carbon dioxide .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Bicarbonate_indicator", "rank": 17, "score": 106804 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 18, "score": 105151 }, { "content": "Title: Bomb pulse Content: The bomb pulse is the sudden increase of carbon-14 ( 14C ) in the Earth 's atmosphere due to the hundreds of aboveground nuclear bombs tests started in 1945 and intensified between 1950 until 1963 when the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States , the Soviet Union and Great Britain . These hundreds of blasts were followed by a doubling of the concentration of 14C in the atmosphere . Since then , the concentration of 14C has decreased towards the previous level . Carbon-14 , the radioisotope of carbon-12 , is naturally developed in trace amounts in the atmosphere and it can be detected in all living organisms . Carbon of all types is continually used to form the molecules of the cells of organisms . Doubling of the concentration of 14C in the atmosphere is reflected in the tissues and cells of all organisms that lived around the period of nuclear testing . This property has many applications in the fields of biology and forensics .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Bomb_pulse", "rank": 19, "score": 104566 }, { "content": "Title: 1953 Menzengraben mining accident Content: The Menzengraben mining accident was the explosion of a large pocket of carbon dioxide in a salt mine in Menzengraben , East Germany , July 7 , 1953 . During a planned , nightly explosives detonation in the mine , an unusually large pocket of pressurized carbon dioxide was suddenly released , resulting in the ejection of large blocks of salt through the mine shaft at very high velocities . The expanding gas as well as the blocks of salt demolished the building above the mine shaft , resulting in blocks of concrete being ejected as well . Three died as a consequence , one from being hit by debris , two from asphyxiation .", "qid": "376", "docid": "1953_Menzengraben_mining_accident", "rank": 20, "score": 103748 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 21, "score": 103678 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 22, "score": 102269 }, { "content": "Title: Individual action on climate change Content: Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Individual_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 23, "score": 102109 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide scrubber Content: A carbon dioxide scrubber is a device which absorbs carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) . It is used to treat exhaust gases from industrial plants or from exhaled air in life support systems such as rebreathers or in spacecraft , submersible craft or airtight chambers . Carbon dioxide scrubbers are also used in controlled atmosphere ( CA ) storage . They have also been researched for carbon capture .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_scrubber", "rank": 24, "score": 102076 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 25, "score": 101486 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 26, "score": 100539 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 content Content: content ( also known as `` Total '' ) is a blood test that usually appears on a `` Chem 19 '' or an electrolyte panel . The value measures the total dissolved Carbon dioxide in blood . It is determined by combining the Bicarbonate and the partial pressure of multiplied by a factor which estimates the amount of pure that is dissolved in its natural form ( usually 0.03 ) . One given reference range is 24 -- 32 mEq/L .", "qid": "376", "docid": "CO2_content", "rank": 27, "score": 100526 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercapnia Content: Hypercapnia , also known as hypercarbia and CO2 retention , is a condition of abnormally elevated carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in the blood . Carbon dioxide is a gaseous product of the body 's metabolism and is normally expelled through the lungs . Hypercapnia normally triggers a reflex which increases breathing and access to oxygen ( O2 ) , such as arousal and turning the head during sleep . A failure of this reflex can be fatal , for example as a contributory factor in sudden infant death syndrome . Hypercapnia is the opposite of hypocapnia , the state of having abnormally reduced levels of carbon dioxide in the blood . The word is from the Greek hyper = `` above '' or `` too much '' and kapnos = `` smoke '' .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Hypercapnia", "rank": 28, "score": 100277 }, { "content": "Title: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Content: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Bio-energy_with_carbon_capture_and_storage", "rank": 29, "score": 99898 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 30, "score": 99838 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sequestration Content: Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_sequestration", "rank": 31, "score": 99262 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 32, "score": 98984 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 33, "score": 97887 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monitoring Content: Carbon monitoring refers to tracking how much carbon dioxide or methane is produced by particular activity at a particular point in time . For example , it may refer to tracking methane emissions from agriculture , or carbon dioxide emissions from land use changes , such as deforestation , or from burning fossil fuels , whether in a power plant , automobile , or other device . Because carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emitted in the largest quantities , and methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas , monitoring carbon emissions is widely seen as crucial to any effort to reduce emissions and thereby slow climate change . Monitoring carbon emissions is key to the cap-and-trade program currently being used in Europe , as well as the one in California , and will be necessary for any such program in the future , like the Paris Agreement . The lack of reliable sources of consistent data on carbon emissions is a significant barrier to efforts to reduce emissions .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_monitoring", "rank": 34, "score": 97885 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 35, "score": 97884 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monoxide Content: Carbon monoxide ( CO ) is a colorless , odorless , and tasteless gas that is slightly less dense than air . It is toxic to hemoglobic animals ( both invertebrate and vertebrate , including humans ) when encountered in concentrations above about 35 ppm , although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities , and is thought to have some normal biological functions . In the atmosphere , it is spatially variable and short lived , having a role in the formation of ground-level ozone . Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom , connected by a triple bond that consists of two covalent bonds as well as one dative covalent bond . It is the simplest oxocarbon and is isoelectronic with the cyanide anion , the nitrosonium cation and molecular nitrogen . In coordination complexes the carbon monoxide ligand is called carbonyl .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_monoxide", "rank": 36, "score": 97791 }, { "content": "Title: Cap carbonate Content: Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Cap_carbonate", "rank": 37, "score": 97605 }, { "content": "Title: Homoiohydry Content: Homoiohydry is the capacity of plants to regulate , or achieve homeostasis of , cell and tissue water content . Homoiohydry evolved in land plants to a lesser or greater degree during their transition to land more than 500 million years ago , and is most highly developed in the vascular plants . It is the consequence of a suite of morphological innovations and strategies that enable plant shoots exploring aerial environments to conserve water by internalising the gas exchange surfaces , enclosing them in a waterproof membrane and providing a variable aperture control mechanism , the stomatal guard cells , which regulate the rates of water transpiration and CO2 exchange . In vascular plants , water is acquired from the soil by roots and transported via the xylem to aerial portions of the plant . Water evaporation from the aerial surfaces of the plant is controlled by a waterproof covering of cuticle . Gas exchange with the atmosphere is controlled by stomata , which can open and close to control water loss , and diffusion of carbon dioxide to the chloroplasts takes place in intercellular spaces between chlorenchyma cells in the stem or in the mesophyll tissue of the leaf . The antonym of homoiohydry is poikilohydry , a condition in which plant water content is passively reduced or increased in equilibrium with environmental water status .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Homoiohydry", "rank": 38, "score": 97351 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Earth Content: The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Earth", "rank": 39, "score": 97123 }, { "content": "Title: 993–994 carbon-14 spike Content: The 993 -- 994 carbon-14 spike was a rapid increase in carbon-14 content from tree rings , and followed the 774 -- 775 carbon-14 spike . This event is also confirmed by a sharp increase of beryllium-10 and hence considered as solar-origin . It may have come from a massive solar storm as a series of auroral observations are known to be observed in late 992 .", "qid": "376", "docid": "993–994_carbon-14_spike", "rank": 40, "score": 96846 }, { "content": "Title: 774–775 carbon-14 spike Content: The 774 -- 775 Carbon-14 Spike is an observed increase of 1.2 % in the concentration of carbon-14 isotope in tree rings dated to the years 774 or 775 AD , which is about 20 times as high as the normal background rate of variation . It was discovered during a study of Japanese cedar trees , with the year of occurrence determined through dendrochronology . A surge in beryllium isotope 10Be , detected in Antarctic ice cores , has also been associated with the 774 -- 775 event . The event appears to have been global , with the same carbon-14 signal found in tree rings from Germany , Russia , the United States , and New Zealand . The signal exhibits a sharp increase of ~ 1.2 % followed by a slow decline ( see Figure 1 ) , which is typical for an instant production of carbon-14 in the atmosphere , indicating that the event was short in duration . The globally averaged production of carbon-14 for this event is calculated as Q = ( 1.1-1 .5 ) × 108 atoms/cm2 .", "qid": "376", "docid": "774–775_carbon-14_spike", "rank": 41, "score": 96663 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 42, "score": 96587 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) ( or carbon capture and sequestration ) is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide from large point sources , such as fossil fuel power plants , transporting it to a storage site , and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere , normally an underground geological formation . The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of into the atmosphere ( from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries ) . It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification . Although has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes , including enhanced oil recovery , the long term storage of is a relatively new concept . The first commercial example was the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project in 2000 . Other examples include SaskPower 's Boundary Dam and Mississippi Power 's Kemper Project . ` CCS ' can also be used to describe the scrubbing of from ambient air as a climate engineering technique . An integrated pilot-scale CCS power plant was to begin operating in September 2008 in the eastern German power plant Schwarze Pumpe run by utility Vattenfall , to test the technological feasibility and economic efficiency . CCS applied to a modern conventional power plant could reduce emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80 -- 90 % compared to a plant without CCS . The IPCC estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until year 2100 . Carbon dioxide can be captured out of air or fossil fuel power plant flue gas using adsorption ( or carbon scrubbing ) , membrane gas separation , or adsorption technologies . Amines are the leading carbon scrubbing technology . Capturing and compressing may increase the energy needs of a coal-fired CCS plant by 25 -- 40 % . These and other system costs are estimated to increase the cost per watt energy produced by 21 -- 91 % for fossil fuel power plants . Applying the technology to existing plants would be more expensive , especially if they are far from a sequestration site . A 2005 industry report suggests that with successful research , development and deployment ( RD&D ) , sequestered coal-based electricity generation in 2025 may cost less than unsequestered coal-based electricity generation today . Storage of the is envisaged either in deep geological formations , or in the form of mineral carbonates . Deep ocean storage is not currently considered feasible due to the associated effect of ocean acidification . Geological formations are currently considered the most promising sequestration sites . The National Energy Technology Laboratory ( NETL ) reported that North America has enough storage capacity for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates . A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are very difficult and uncertain , and there is still the risk that might leak into the atmosphere .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage", "rank": 43, "score": 96449 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 44, "score": 96409 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide flooding Content: Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_flooding", "rank": 45, "score": 96237 }, { "content": "Title: Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project Content: The Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project is part of the Gorgon Project , the world 's largest natural gas project . The Gorgon Project , located on Barrow Island in Western Australia , includes a liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) plant , a domestic gas plant , and a Carbon Dioxide Injection Project . The initial carbon dioxide injections are planned to take place by the end of 2017 . Once launched , the Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project will be the world 's largest CO2 injection plant , with an ability to store up to 4 million tons of CO2 per year -- approximately 120 million tons over the project 's lifetime , and 40 percent of total Gorgon Project emissions .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Gorgon_Carbon_Dioxide_Injection_Project", "rank": 46, "score": 96211 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide laser Content: The carbon dioxide laser ( CO2 laser ) was one of the earliest gas lasers to be developed . It was invented by Kumar Patel of Bell Labs in 1964 , and is still one of the most useful . Carbon dioxide lasers are the highest-power continuous wave lasers that are currently available . They are also quite efficient : the ratio of output power to pump power can be as large as 20 % . The CO2 laser produces a beam of infrared light with the principal wavelength bands centering on 9.4 and 10.6 micrometers ( μm ) .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_laser", "rank": 47, "score": 96139 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "376", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 48, "score": 95110 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 49, "score": 94894 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide reforming Content: Carbon dioxide reformation ( also known as dry reformation ) is a method of producing synthesis gas ( mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide ) from the reaction of carbon dioxide with hydrocarbons such as methane . Synthesis gas is conventionally produced via the steam reforming reaction . In recent years , increased concerns on the contribution of greenhouse gases to global warming have increased interest in the replacement of steam as reactant with carbon dioxide . The dry reforming reaction may be represented by : CO2 + CH4 → 2 H2 + 2 CO Thus , two greenhouse gases are consumed and useful chemical building blocks , hydrogen and carbon monoxide , are produced . A challenge to the commercialization of this process is that the hydrogen that is produced tends to react with the carbon dioxide . For example , the following reaction typically proceeds with a lower activation energy than the dry reforming reaction itself : CO2 + H2 → H2O + CO Typical catalysts are noble metals , Ni or Ni alloys . In addition , a group of researchers in China investigated the use of activated carbon as an alternative catalyst .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_reforming", "rank": 50, "score": 94717 }, { "content": "Title: Kaya identity Content: The Kaya identity is an identity stating that the total emission level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be expressed as the product of four factors : human population , GDP per capita , energy intensity ( per unit of GDP ) , and carbon intensity ( emissions per unit of energy consumed ) . It is a concrete form of the more general I = PAT equation relating factors that determine the level of human impact on climate . The Kaya identity is both simple and tricky , as it can be reduced to only two terms , but it is developed so that the carbon emission calculation becomes easy , as per the available data , or generally in which format the data is available .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Kaya_identity", "rank": 51, "score": 94715 }, { "content": "Title: Biosequestration Content: Biosequestration is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by biological processes . This may be by increased photosynthesis ( through practices such as reforestation / preventing deforestation and genetic engineering ) ; by enhanced soil carbon trapping in agriculture ; or by the use of algal bio sequestration ( see algae bioreactor ) to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions from coal , petroleum ( oil ) or natural gas-fired electricity generation . Biosequestration as a natural process has occurred in the past , and was responsible for the formation of the extensive coal and oil deposits which are now being burned . It is a key policy concept in the climate change mitigation debate . It does not generally refer to the sequestering of carbon dioxide in oceans ( see carbon sequestration and ocean acidification ) or rock formations , depleted oil or gas reservoirs ( see oil depletion and peak oil ) , deep saline aquifers , or deep coal seams ( see coal mining ) ( for all see geosequestration ) or through the use of industrial chemical carbon dioxide scrubbing .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Biosequestration", "rank": 52, "score": 94519 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "376", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 53, "score": 94092 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-neutral fuel Content: Carbon-neutral fuels can refer to a variety of energy fuels or energy systems which have no net greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint . One class is synthetic fuel ( including methane , gasoline , diesel fuel , jet fuel or ammonia ) produced from sustainable or nuclear energy used to hydrogenate waste carbon dioxide recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater . Other types can be produced from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines , solar panels , and hydroelectric power stations . Such fuels are potentially carbon-neutral because they do not result in a net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases . Until captured carbon is used for plastics feedstock , carbon neutral fuel synthesis is the primary means of carbon capture and utilization or recycling . To the extent that carbon-neutral fuels displace fossil fuels , or if they are produced from waste carbon or seawater carbonic acid , and their combustion is subject to carbon capture at the flue or exhaust pipe , they result in negative carbon dioxide emission and net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere , and thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas remediation . Such power to gas carbon-neutral and carbon-negative fuels can be produced by the electrolysis of water to make hydrogen used in the Sabatier reaction to produce methane which may then be stored to be burned later in power plants as synthetic natural gas , transported by pipeline , truck , or tanker ship , or be used in gas to liquids processes such as the Fischer -- Tropsch process to make traditional fuels for transportation or heating . Carbon-neutral fuels are used in Germany and Iceland for distributed storage of renewable energy , minimizing problems of wind and solar intermittency , and enabling transmission of wind , water , and solar power through existing natural gas pipelines . Such renewable fuels could alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels , enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles . A 250 kilowatt synthetic methane plant has been built in Germany and it is being scaled up to 10 megawatts .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon-neutral_fuel", "rank": 54, "score": 94041 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Guangxi chemical plant explosions Content: A series of explosions caused by an industrial accident occurred on August 26 , 2008 in Yizhou city in Guangxi province in southwest China . The disaster occurred at a factory owned by Guangxi Guangwei Chemical Co. in the development zone of Yizhou city According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency , `` the plant mainly produces polyvinyl acetate ( PVA ) , which is used in adhesives , calcium carbide , and vinyl acetate monomer ( VAM ) , which is used in paints , adhesives and coatings . '' The first explosion occurred at about 6 a.m. on August 26 at an organic compound workshop inside the plant ; the cause is unknown . Other explosions continued until 1 p.m. Fire spread over an area of nearly 108,000 square feet ( 10,000 m ² ) . The explosions caused the leak of toxic substances , including ammonia , formaldehyde , acetylene , sulfurated hydrogen and carbon monoxide . At least 20 people were killed and at least 60 were injured ; six people remained missing following the explosions . Fearing further explosions and leaks , the government evacuated 11,500 residents . Xinhua quoted the provincial toxic substances emergency center director as saying that the explosions causes no serious air or water pollution . The director also said that dams had been erected to prevent discharge of pollutants into the nearby Long River ( Longjiang ) .", "qid": "376", "docid": "2008_Guangxi_chemical_plant_explosions", "rank": 55, "score": 93886 }, { "content": "Title: Thomas D. Sharkey (plant biochemist) Content: Thomas D. Sharkey is a plant biochemist who studies gas exchange between plants and the atmosphere . His research has covered ( 1 ) carbon metabolism of photosynthesis from carbon dioxide uptake to carbon export from the Calvin-Benson Cycle , ( 2 ) isoprene emission from plants , and ( 3 ) abiotic stress tolerance . Four guiding questions are : ( 1 ) how leaf photosynthesis affects plant yield , ( 2 ) does some carbon fixation follow an oxidative pathway that reduces sugar output but stabilizes photosynthesis , ( 3 ) why plants make isoprene , and ( 4 ) how plants cope with high temperature .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Thomas_D._Sharkey_(plant_biochemist)", "rank": 56, "score": 93765 }, { "content": "Title: Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide Content: Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide are used to help answer questions about Earth 's carbon cycle . There are a variety of active and planned instruments for measuring carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere from space . The first satellite mission designed to measure was the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases ( IMG ) on board the ADEOS I satellite in 1996 . This mission lasted less than a year . Since then , additional space-based measurements have begun , including those from two high-precision ( better than 0.3 % or 1 ppm ) satellites ( GOSAT and OCO-2 ) . Different instrument designs may reflect different primary missions .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Space-based_measurements_of_carbon_dioxide", "rank": 57, "score": 93458 }, { "content": "Title: Capnophile Content: Capnophiles are microorganisms that thrive in the presence of high concentrations of carbon dioxide . Some capnophiles may have a metabolic requirement for carbon dioxide , while others merely compete more successfully for resources under these conditions . The term is a generally descriptive one and has less relevance as a means of establishing a taxonomic or evolutionary relationship among organisms with this characteristic . For example , the ability of capnophiles to tolerate ( or utilize ) the amount of oxygen that is also in their environment may vary widely and may be far more critical to their survival . Species of Campylobacter are bacterial capnophiles that are more easily identified because they are also microaerophiles , organisms that can grow in high carbon dioxide as long as a small amount of free oxygen is present , but at a dramatically reduced concentration . ( In the earth 's atmosphere carbon dioxide levels are approximately five hundred times lower than that of oxygen , 0.04 % and 21 % of the total , respectively . ) Obligate anaerobes are microbes that will die in the presence of oxygen without respect to the concentration of carbon dioxide in their environment , and typically acquire energy through anaerobic respiration , or fermentation ( biochemistry ) . In 2004 , a capnophilic bacterium was characterized that appears to require carbon dioxide . This organism , Mannheimia succiniciproducens , has a unique metabolism involving carbon fixation . While carbon fixation is common to most plant life on earth since it is the key initial step in the biosynthesis of complex carbon compounds during photosynthesis ( the Calvin cycle ) , it is found in relatively few microorganisms and not found in animals . Mannheimia succiniciproducens can attach carbon dioxide to the three-carbon backbone of phosphoenolpyruvate , an endproduct in glycolysis , to generate the four-carbon compound , oxaloacetic acid , an intermediate in the Krebs cycle . Although Mannheimia succiniciproducens has most of the intermediates in the Krebs cycle , it is not capable of oxidative phosphorylation , the final step in the electron transport chain that would allow it to carry out the highly efficient process of harvesting energy by aerobic respiration .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Capnophile", "rank": 58, "score": 93358 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 59, "score": 93263 }, { "content": "Title: Chinese national carbon trading scheme Content: The Chinese national carbon trading scheme is a cap and trade system for carbon dioxide emissions set to be implemented in July 2017 . This emission trading scheme ( ETS ) creates a carbon market where emitters can buy and sell emission credits . From this scheme , China can limit emissions , but allow economic freedom for emitters to reduce emissions or purchase emission allowances from other emitters . China is currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and many major Chinese cities have severe air pollution . With this plan , China will soon be the largest market in carbon trading . The scheme will limit emissions from six of China 's top carbon dioxide emitting industries , including coal-fired power plants . China was able to gain experience in drafting and implementation of an ETS plan from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , where China was part of the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) . From this experience with carbon markets , and lengthy discussions with the next largest carbon market , the European Union ( EU ) , as well as analysis of small scale pilot markets in major Chinese cities and provinces , China 's national ETS will be the largest of its kind and will help China achieve its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution ( INDC ) from the Paris Agreement in 2016 .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Chinese_national_carbon_trading_scheme", "rank": 60, "score": 92274 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere Content: An atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other material body , that is held in place by the gravity of that body . An atmosphere is more likely to be retained if the gravity it is subject to is high and the temperature of the atmosphere is low . The atmosphere of Earth is mostly composed of nitrogen ( about 78 % ) , oxygen ( about 21 % ) , argon ( about 0.9 % ) with carbon dioxide and other gases in trace amounts . Oxygen is used by most organisms for respiration , nitrogen is fixed by bacteria and lightning to produce ammonia used in the construction of nucleotides and amino acids and carbon dioxide is used by plants , algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis . The atmosphere helps protect living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation , solar wind and cosmic rays . Its current composition is the product of billions of years of biochemical modification of the paleoatmosphere by living organisms . The term stellar atmosphere describes the outer region of a star , and typically includes the portion starting from the opaque photosphere outwards . Stars with sufficiently low temperatures may form compound molecules in their outer atmosphere .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Atmosphere", "rank": 61, "score": 92215 }, { "content": "Title: Kim reformer Content: The Kim reformer is a type of syngas plant invented by Dr. Kim , Hyun Yong . It is a high temperature furnace ( as shown in figure 1 ) , filled with steam and/or carbon dioxide gas and maintaining a thermal equilibrium at a temperature just above 1200 ° C , in which the reforming reaction is at its thermodynamic equilibrium and carbonaceous substance is reformed with the highest efficiency . Dr. Kim , Hyun Yong discovered , in December 2000 , that the reforming reaction ( C + H2O ↔ CO + H2 ) proceeds at a temperature just above 1200 ° C , but not below it . This work was published in International Journal -LSB- 1 -RSB- and registered in KR patent -LSB- 2 -RSB- , US patent -LSB- 3 -RSB- , CN patent -LSB- 4 -RSB- and JP patent -LSB- 5 -RSB- .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Kim_reformer", "rank": 62, "score": 92117 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 63, "score": 92089 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 64, "score": 91653 }, { "content": "Title: The Greening of Planet Earth Content: The Greening of Planet Earth is a half-hour-long video produced by the coal industry , which argues that rising CO2 levels will be beneficial to agriculture , and that policies intending to reduce CO2 levels are therefore misguided . The video argues that rising CO2 levels both directly stimulate plant growth and , as a result of their warming properties , cause winter temperatures to rise , thereby indirectly stimulating plant growth . It was produced in 1991 and released the following year . A sequel , entitled , The Greening of Planet Earth Continues , was released in 1998 . The video was narrated by Sherwood Idso . After the video was made , it was distributed to thousands of journalists by a coal industry group . The video became very popular viewing in the George H. W. Bush White House and elsewhere in Washington , where it was promoted before the 1992 Earth Summit , and , according to some reports , became especially popular with then-chief of staff John H. Sununu .", "qid": "376", "docid": "The_Greening_of_Planet_Earth", "rank": 65, "score": 91653 }, { "content": "Title: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction Content: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction harnesses solar energy to convert into higher-energy products . The chemical conversion of CO2 already occurs on an industrial scale in the manufacture of solvents such as formic acid , but photochemical reduction differs in that it relies on a renewable energy source , the sun . Because CO2 is a greenhouse gas , there is environmental interest in producing artificial systems that are efficient photocatalysts , but the low turn-over rates of current methods have prohibited wide-scale industrial application .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Photochemical_carbon_dioxide_reduction", "rank": 66, "score": 91330 }, { "content": "Title: Oceanic carbon cycle Content: The oceans contain around 36,000 gigatons of carbon , mostly in the form of bicarbonate ion ( over 90 % , with most of the remainder being carbonate ) . At the surface of the oceans towards the poles , seawater becomes cooler and more carbonic acid is formed as CO2 becomes more soluble . This is coupled to the ocean 's thermohaline circulation which transports dense surface water into the ocean 's interior ( see the entry on the solubility pump ) . Although the deep ocean contains much more dissolved inorganic carbon than the surface ocean , the concentration is only 15 % higher in the deep ocean as compared to the surface ocean due to the higher volume of the deep ocean . In upper ocean areas of high biological productivity , organisms convert reduced carbon to tissues , or carbonates to hard body parts such as shells and tests . These are , respectively , oxidized ( soft-tissue pump ) and redissolved ( carbonate pump ) at lower average levels of the ocean than those at which they formed , resulting in a downward flow of carbon ( see entry on the biological pump ) . The flux or absorption of carbon dioxide into the world 's oceans is influenced by the presence of widespread viruses within ocean water , that infect many species of bacteria . The resulting bacterial deaths spawn a sequence of events that lead to greatly enlarged respiration of carbon dioxide , enhancing the role of the oceans as a carbon sink . The balance of dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) : dissolved organic carbon ( DOC ) : particle organic carbon is about 2000:38:1 . The CaCO3 counter pump increases the partial pressure of CO2 in the ocean , thus leading to higher outgasing of carbon dioxide . Higher ocean temperatures lead to stronger layering , thus less mixing and less capacity for thermohaline circulation to bring carbon into lower ocean layers . The weathering of silicate rock ( see carbonate-silicate cycle ) . Carbonic acid reacts with weathered rock to produce bicarbonate ions . The bicarbonate ions produced are carried to the ocean , where they are used to make marine carbonates . Unlike dissolved CO2 in equilibrium or tissues , which decay , weathering does not move the carbon into a reservoir from which it can readily return to the atmosphere . Much remains to be learned about the cycling of carbon in the deep ocean . For example , a recent discovery is that larvacean mucus houses ( commonly known as `` sinkers '' ) are created in such large numbers that they can deliver as much carbon to the deep ocean as has been previously detected by sediment traps . Because of their size and composition , these houses are rarely collected in such traps , so most biogeochemical analyses have erroneously ignored them . The amount of dissolved inorganic carbon in the ocean is significantly higher in the deep layer ( below 300 m depth ) . This is caused by the solubility pump and the biological pump .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Oceanic_carbon_cycle", "rank": 67, "score": 91230 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon shifting Content: Carbon shifting is the tendency for an individual to increase carbon dioxide emissions in one area of their lifestyle as a result of reducing emissions elsewhere . ` Carbon shifting ' might more accurately be termed ` domestic carbon shifting ' to distinguish it from carbon leakage which has occasionally also been called carbon shifting . Many attempts to encourage people to change aspects of their lifestyle and so reduce their carbon dioxide emissions make a virtue of the financial savings . In the United Kingdom the Energy Saving Trust lists various ways of saving energy , e.g. `` Energy saving light bulbs last up to 12 times longer than ordinary lightbulbs and can save you # 9 per year in electricity ( and 38 kilograms of ) or # 100 over the bulbs lifetime . '' However , whether or not carbon dioxide emissions are ultimately reduced will depend on how that saved money is spent . If the amount of money saved through walking to work is eventually spent on an extra city break involving air travel the net emissions may well increase . The problem of carbon shifting may undermine many voluntary piecemeal attempts at reducing carbon dioxide emissions . However , carbon shifting is not inherently negative . If a person can be persuaded to avoid activities that produce a high level of emissions for a given financial outlay then they may shift to activities that produce lower emissions for that same amount of money . Positive carbon shifting might be encouraged through the use of a carbon tax or the implementation of a Personal carbon trading scheme . The phenomenon of carbon shifting also suggests that for some comparative purposes the most appropriate measure of emissions would be emissions per unit of currency rather than total emissions . An activity that produces slightly lower emissions at a significantly lower cost may not necessarily be the best activity to promote as it leaves the individual with more money to spend on other emitting activities . Similarly , if two passengers are traveling on the same aircraft they might be deemed to be emitting the same total amount of carbon dioxide . However , if one of them paid a lower fare then , by this measure , they would be deemed to be damaging the environment more .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_shifting", "rank": 68, "score": 91205 }, { "content": "Title: Soil gas Content: Soil gases are the gases found in the air space between soil components . The primary natural soil gases include nitrogen , carbon dioxide and oxygen . The oxygen is critical because it allows for respiration of both plant roots and soil organisms . Other natural soil gases are atmospheric methane and radon . Some environmental contaminants below ground produce gas which diffuses through the soil such as from landfill wastes , mining activities , and contamination by petroleum hydrocarbons which produce volatile organic compounds . Soil gases can diffuse into buildings , the chief concerns among these pollutants are radon which is radioactive and causes cancer and methane which can be flammable at only 4.4 % concentration . Gases fill soil pores in the soil structure as water drains or is removed from a soil pore by evaporation or root absorption . The network of pores within the soil aerates , or ventilates , the soil . This aeration network becomes blocked when water enters soil pores . Not only are both soil air and soil water very dynamic parts of soil , but both are often inversely related . Composition of air in soil and atmosphere : Nitrogen : Soil Air : 79.2 % Atmosphere : 79.0 % Oxygen : Soil Air : 20.6 % Atmosphere : 20.9 % Carbon Dioxide : Soil Air : 0.25 % Atmosphere : 0.04 % Gas molecules in soil are in continuous thermal motion according to the kinetic theory of gases , there is also collision between molecules - a random walk . In soil , a concentration gradient causes net movement of molecules from high concentration to low concentration , this gives the movement of gas by diffusion . Numerically , it is explained by Fick 's law of diffusion .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Soil_gas", "rank": 69, "score": 91122 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 70, "score": 90654 }, { "content": "Title: Fugitive emissions Content: Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Fugitive_emissions", "rank": 71, "score": 90639 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon finance Content: Carbon finance is a new branch of Environmental finance . Carbon finance explores the financial implications of living in a carbon-constrained world , a world in which emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) carry a price . Financial risks and opportunities impact corporate balance sheets , and market-based instruments are capable of transferring environmental risk and achieving environmental objectives . Issues regarding climate change and GHG emissions must be addressed as part of strategic management decision-making . The general term is applied to investments in GHG emission reduction projects and the creation ( origination ) of financial instruments that are tradeable on the carbon market .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_finance", "rank": 72, "score": 90578 }, { "content": "Title: Supercritical carbon dioxide Content: Supercritical carbon dioxide ( s ) is a fluid state of carbon dioxide where it is held at or above its critical temperature and critical pressure . Carbon dioxide usually behaves as a gas in air at standard temperature and pressure ( STP ) , or as a solid called dry ice when frozen . If the temperature and pressure are both increased from STP to be at or above the critical point for carbon dioxide , it can adopt properties midway between a gas and a liquid . More specifically , it behaves as a supercritical fluid above its critical temperature ( 304.25 K ) and critical pressure ( 72.9 atm ) , expanding to fill its container like a gas but with a density like that of a liquid . Supercritical is becoming an important commercial and industrial solvent due to its role in chemical extraction in addition to its low toxicity and environmental impact . The relatively low temperature of the process and the stability of also allows most compounds to be extracted with little damage or denaturing . In addition , the solubility of many extracted compounds in varies with pressure , permitting selective extractions .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Supercritical_carbon_dioxide", "rank": 73, "score": 90524 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 74, "score": 90333 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon neutrality Content: Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_neutrality", "rank": 75, "score": 90253 }, { "content": "Title: The Green Initiative Content: The Green Initiative has as its main objective the offsetting of Greenhouse gases emitted by human activities that can range from complex industrial production processes to simply driving a car , with reforestation projects in riparian areas that need to be recovered . The trees planted will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide , as well as environmental benefits , such as water and air quality preservation , and biodiversity protection .", "qid": "376", "docid": "The_Green_Initiative", "rank": 76, "score": 90061 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 77, "score": 89694 }, { "content": "Title: Lake Monoun Content: Lake Monoun is a lake in West Province , Cameroon , that lies in the Oku Volcanic Field . On August 15 , 1984 , the lake exploded in a limnic eruption , which resulted in the release of a large amount of carbon dioxide that killed 37 people . At first , the cause of the deaths was a mystery , and causes such as terrorism were suspected . Further investigation and a similar event two years later at Lake Nyos led to the currently accepted explanation .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Lake_Monoun", "rank": 78, "score": 89550 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions Content: -RSB- This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity , based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2015 . The following table lists the 2015 annual emissions estimates ( in thousands of tonnes ) along with a list of emissions per capita ( in tonnes of per year ) from same source . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use , land-use change and forestry . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The top 10 largest emitter countries account for 67.6 % of the world total . Other powerful , more potent greenhouse gases , including methane , are not included in this data .", "qid": "376", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions", "rank": 79, "score": 89184 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme environment Content: An extreme environment contains conditions that are hard to survive for most known life forms . These conditions may be extremely high or low temperature or pressure ; high or low content of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ; high levels of radiation , acidity , or alkalinity ; absence of water ; water containing a high concentration of salt or sugar ; presence of sulphur , petroleum , and other toxic substances . Examples of extreme environments include the geographical poles , very dry deserts , volcanoes , deep ocean trenches , upper atmosphere , Mt Everest , outer space , and the environments of every planet in the Solar System except the Earth . Any organisms living in these conditions are often very well adapted to their living circumstances , which is usually a result of long-term evolution . Physiologists have long known that organisms living in extreme environments are especially likely to exhibit clear examples of evolutionary adaptation because of the presumably intense past natural selection they have experienced .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Extreme_environment", "rank": 80, "score": 88828 }, { "content": "Title: Al-Mishraq Content: Al-Mishraq is a state run sulfur plant near Mosul , Iraq . In June 2003 , it was the site of the largest human-made release of sulfur dioxide ever recorded when a fire ( thought to have been deliberately started ) gained control and burned for about three weeks . At its height , the fire was putting 21,000 tons of sulfur dioxide a day into the atmosphere . The pollution in Mosul , which is about 45 kilometres from Mishraq , reached a catastrophic level . For over 48 hours the white smoke from sulfur dioxide could be seen in the air . Many people were taken into hospitals and most vegetation was killed . On 22 October 2016 the plant was set alight by ISIL militants as part of the Battle of Mosul . Two civilians died and nearly 1,000 people were treated for toxic gas inhalation . Shifting winds sent the gas to Qayyarah Airfield West , where U.S. and coalition forces were forced to use gas masks .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Al-Mishraq", "rank": 81, "score": 88628 }, { "content": "Title: RuBisCO Content: Ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase , commonly known by the abbreviations RuBisCO , RuBPCase , or RuBPco , is an enzyme involved in the first major step of carbon fixation , a process by which atmospheric carbon dioxide is converted by plants and other photosynthetic organisms to energy-rich molecules such as glucose . In chemical terms , it catalyzes the carboxylation of ribulose-1 ,5 - bisphosphate ( also known as RuBP ) . It is probably the most abundant enzyme on Earth .", "qid": "376", "docid": "RuBisCO", "rank": 82, "score": 88564 }, { "content": "Title: Black carbon Content: Chemically , black carbon ( BC ) is a component of fine particulate matter ( PM ≤ 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter ) . Black carbon consists of pure carbon in several linked forms . It is formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels , biofuel , and biomass , and is emitted in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot . Black carbon causes human morbidity and premature mortality . In climatology , black carbon is a climate forcing agent . Black carbon warms the Earth by absorbing sunlight and heating the atmosphere and by reducing albedo when deposited on snow and ice ( direct effects ) and indirectly by interaction with clouds , with the total forcing of 1.1 W/m2 . Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks , whereas carbon dioxide has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years . The term black carbon is also used in soil sciences and geology , referring either to deposited atmospheric black carbon or to directly incorporated black carbon from vegetation fires . Especially in the tropics , black carbon in soils significantly contributes to fertility as it is able to absorb important plant nutrients .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Black_carbon", "rank": 83, "score": 88421 }, { "content": "Title: Katsuko Saruhashi Content: was a geochemist who made some of the first measurements of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in seawater and subsequently showed the evidence in seawater and the atmosphere of the dangers of radioactive fallout .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Katsuko_Saruhashi", "rank": 84, "score": 88395 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 85, "score": 88306 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "376", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 86, "score": 88247 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon footprint Content: A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual , event , organisation , or product , expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent . In most cases , the total carbon footprint can not be exactly calculated because of inadequate knowledge of and data about the complex interactions between contributing processes , especially which including the influence on natural processes storing or releasing carbon dioxide . For this reason , Wright , Kemp , and Williams , have suggested to define the carbon footprint as : A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and methane ( CH4 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) . Greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) can be emitted through land clearance and the production and consumption of food , fuels , manufactured goods , materials , wood , roads , buildings , transportation and other services . For simplicity of reporting , it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide , or its equivalent of other GHGs , emitted . Most of the carbon footprint emissions for the average U.S. household come from `` indirect '' sources , i.e. fuel burned to produce goods far away from the final consumer . These are distinguished from emissions which come from burning fuel directly in one 's car or stove , commonly referred to as `` direct '' sources of the consumer 's carbon footprint . The concept name of the carbon footprint originates from ecological footprint , discussion , which was developed by Rees and Wackernagel in the 1990s which estimates the number of `` earths '' that would theoretically be required if everyone on the planet consumed resources at the same level as the person calculating their ecological footprint . However , given that ecological footprints are a measure of failure , Anindita Mitra ( CREA , Seattle ) chose the more easily calculated `` carbon footprint '' to easily measure use of carbon , as an indicator of unsustainable energy use . In 2007 , carbon footprint was used as a measure of carbon emissions to develop the energy plan for City of Lynnwood , Washington . Carbon footprints are much more specific than ecological footprints since they measure direct emissions of gases that cause climate change into the atmosphere . Carbon footprint is one of a family of footprint indicators , which also includes water footprint and land footprint .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_footprint", "rank": 87, "score": 87767 }, { "content": "Title: Maximilian Auffhammer Content: Maximilian Auffhammer ( born 1973 ) is a UC-Berkeley based environmental economist who has produced some important forecasts of Chinese carbon dioxide releases . Auffhammer is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in International Area Studies and Agricultural and Resource Economics . He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at San Diego . His research agenda focuses on forecasting Greenhouse Gas Emissions as well as studying the impacts of air pollution on agriculture . Geographically he is mainly interested in China and India as well as his chosen home -- California . Said Auffhammer regarding China 's carbon pollution output , `` The only solution is for a massive transfer of technology and wealth from the West . ''", "qid": "376", "docid": "Maximilian_Auffhammer", "rank": 88, "score": 87536 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon price Content: Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Carbon_price", "rank": 89, "score": 87512 }, { "content": "Title: Modified atmosphere Content: Modified atmosphere is the practice of modifying the composition of the internal atmosphere of a package ( commonly food packages , drugs , etc. ) in order to improve the shelf life . The modification process often tries to lower the amount of oxygen ( O2 ) , moving it from 20.9 % to 0 % , in order to slow down the growth of aerobic organisms and prevent oxidation reactions . The removed oxygen can be replaced with nitrogen ( N2 ) , commonly acknowledged as an inert gas , or carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , which can lower the pH or inhibit the growth of bacteria . Carbon monoxide can be used for preserving the red color of meat . Re-balancing of gases inside the packaging can be achieved using active techniques such as gas flushing and compensated vacuum or passively by designing `` breathable '' films known as equilibrium modified atmosphere packaging ( EMAP ) . Packets containing scavengers may be used .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Modified_atmosphere", "rank": 90, "score": 87485 }, { "content": "Title: Limnic eruption Content: A limnic eruption , also referred to as a lake overturn , is a rare type of natural disaster in which dissolved carbon dioxide suddenly erupts from deep lake waters , forming a gas cloud that can suffocate wildlife , livestock , and humans . Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis in the lake as the rising displaces water . Scientists believe earthquakes , volcanic activity , or explosions can be a trigger for such phenomenon . Lakes in which such activity occurs may be known as limnically active lakes or exploding lakes . Some features of limnically active lakes include : - saturated incoming water A cool lake bottom indicating an absence of direct volcanic interaction with lake waters An upper and lower thermal layer with differing saturations Proximity to areas with volcanic activity Scientists have recently determined , from investigations into the mass casualties in the 1980s at Lake Monoun and Lake Nyos , that although limnic eruptions can be indirectly related to volcanic eruptions , they are actually separate types of disaster events .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Limnic_eruption", "rank": 91, "score": 87454 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 92, "score": 87417 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 93, "score": 87158 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of shipping Content: The environmental impact of shipping includes greenhouse gas emissions , acoustic , and oil pollution . The International Maritime Organization ( IMO ) estimates that Carbon dioxide emissions from shipping were equal to 2.2 % of the global human-made emissions in 2012 and expects them to rise by as much as 2 to 3 times by 2050 if no action is taken . The First Intersessional Meeting of the IMO Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships took place in Oslo , Norway on 23 -- 27 June 2008 . It was tasked with developing the technical basis for the reduction mechanisms that may form part of a future IMO regime to control greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping , and a draft of the actual reduction mechanisms themselves , for further consideration by IMO 's Marine Environment Protection Committee ( MEPC ) .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_shipping", "rank": 94, "score": 87103 }, { "content": "Title: Lake Nyos Content: Lake Nyos is a crater lake in the Northwest Region of Cameroon , located about 315 km northwest of Yaoundé . Nyos is a deep lake high on the flank of an inactive volcano in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity . A volcanic dam impounds the lake waters . A pocket of magma lies beneath the lake and leaks carbon dioxide into the water , changing it into carbonic acid . Nyos is one of only three known exploding lakes to be saturated with carbon dioxide in this way , the others being Lake Monoun , also in Cameroon , and Lake Kivu in Democratic Republic of Congo . In 1986 , possibly as the result of a landslide , Lake Nyos suddenly emitted a large cloud of , which suffocated 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock in nearby towns and villages . Though not completely unprecedented , it was the first known large-scale asphyxiation caused by a natural event . To prevent a recurrence , a degassing tube that siphons water from the bottom layers of water to the top allowing the carbon dioxide to leak in safe quantities was installed in 2001 , and two additional tubes were installed in 2011 . Today , the lake also poses a threat because its natural wall is weakening . A geological tremor could cause this natural levée to give way , allowing water to rush into downstream villages all the way into Nigeria and allowing large amounts of carbon dioxide to escape .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Lake_Nyos", "rank": 95, "score": 87031 }, { "content": "Title: Nitrosomonas Content: Nitrosomonas is a genus of rod-shaped chemoautotrophic bacteria . This organism oxidizes ammonia into nitrite as a metabolic process . Nitrosomonas are useful in bioremediation . They are important in the nitrogen cycle by increasing the availability of nitrogen to plants while limiting carbon dioxide fixation . The genus is found in soil , freshwater , and on building surfaces , especially in areas that contains high levels of nitrogen compounds . Nitrosomonas prefers an optimum pH of 6.0-9 .0 and a temperature range of 20 to 30 ° C. Most species are motile with a flagellum located in the polar regions . The organism has power generating membranes , which form long , thin tubes inside the cell . These use electrons from the oxidation of ammonia to produce energy . It obtains the carbon it requires from the atmosphere via carbon fixation , which converts carbon in a gaseous form into carbon bound in organic molecules . Unlike plants , which fix carbon into sugar through energy gained through the process of photosynthesis , Nitrosomonas use energy gained through the oxidation of ammonia to fix gaseous carbon dioxide into organic molecules . Nitrosomonas must consume large amounts of ammonia before cell division can occur , and the process of cell division may take up to several days . This microbe is photophobic , and will generate a biofilm matrix or form clumps with other microbes to avoid light . The species Nitrosomonas europaea has been identified as also being able to degrade a variety of halogenated compounds including trichloroethylene , benzene , and vinyl chloride . Some Nitrosomonas species possess the enzyme urease , which catalyzes the conversion of the urea molecule to two ammonia molecules and one carbon dioxide molecule . Nitrosomonas europaea , as well as populations of soil-dwelling ammonia-oxidizing bacteria ( AOB ) , have been shown to assimilate the carbon dioxide released by the reaction to make biomass via the Calvin Cycle , and harvest energy by oxidizing ammonia ( the other product of urease ) to nitrite . This feature may explain enhanced growth of AOB in the presence of urea in acidic environments . Some sources regard Nitrobacteraceae to be the family of the genus Nicosomonas .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Nitrosomonas", "rank": 96, "score": 86903 }, { "content": "Title: Cofiring Content: Co-firing is the combustion of two different types of materials at the same time . One of the advantages of co-firing is that an existing plant can be used to burn a new fuel , which may be cheaper or more environmentally friendly . For example , biomass is sometimes co-fired in existing coal plants instead of new biomass plants . Co-firing can also be used to improve the combustion of fuels with low energy content . For example , landfill gas contains a large amount of carbon dioxide , which is non-combustible . If the landfill gas is burned without removing the carbon dioxide , the equipment may not perform properly or emissions of pollutants may increase . Co-firing it with natural gas increases the heat content of the fuel and improves combustion and equipment performance . As long as the electricity or heat produced with the biomass and landfill gas was otherwise going to be produced with non-renewable fuels , the benefits are essentially equivalent whether they are cofired or combusted alone . Also , co-firing can be used to lower the emission of some pollutants . For example , co-firing biomass with coal results in less sulfur emissions than burning coal by itself .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Cofiring", "rank": 97, "score": 86727 }, { "content": "Title: Steptoean positive carbon isotope excursion Content: The Steptoean Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion ( SPICE ) was a geological event which occurred about 500 million years ago at the end of the Cambrian Period . The SPICE event was a sudden reversal of the anoxia ( lack of oxygen ) that had steadily spread throughout the oceans during the Cambrian which also affected the atmosphere . After the SPICE event , oxygen levels recovered and levels in the atmosphere may have risen as high as 30 % , higher than the 21 % of the atmosphere that prevails today . The sudden increase in oxygen led to an explosion of life across the globe .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Steptoean_positive_carbon_isotope_excursion", "rank": 98, "score": 86711 }, { "content": "Title: Climate-friendly gardening Content: Climate-friendly gardening is gardening in ways which reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from gardens and encourage the absorption of carbon dioxide by soils and plants in order to aid the reduction of global warming . To be a climate-friendly gardener means considering both what happens in a garden and the materials brought into it and the impact they have on land use and climate . It can also include garden features or activities in the garden that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere .", "qid": "376", "docid": "Climate-friendly_gardening", "rank": 99, "score": 86674 }, { "content": "Title: C4 carbon fixation Content: C4 carbon fixation or the Hatch-Slack pathway is a photosynthetic process in some plants . It is the first step in extracting carbon from carbon dioxide to be able to use it in sugar and other biomolecules . It is one of three known processes for carbon fixation . The C4 in one of the names refers to the 4-carbon molecule that is the first product of this type of carbon fixation . fixation is an elaboration of the more common carbon fixation and is believed to have evolved more recently . overcomes the tendency of the enzyme RuBisCO to wastefully fix oxygen rather than carbon dioxide in the process of photorespiration . This is achieved by ensuring that RuBisCo works in an environment where there is a lot of carbon dioxide and very little oxygen . is shuttled via malate or aspartate from mesophyll cells to bundle-sheath cells . In these bundle-sheath cells is released by decarboxylation of the malate . C4 plants use PEP carboxylase to capture more in the mesophyll cells . PEP Carboxylase ( 3 carbons ) binds to to make oxaloacetic acid ( OAA ) . The OAA then makes malate ( 4 carbons ) . Malate enters bundle sheath cells and releases the . These additional steps , however , require more energy in the form of ATP . Using this extra energy , plants are able to more efficiently fix carbon in drought , high temperatures , and limitations of nitrogen or . Since the more common pathway does not require this extra energy , it is more efficient in the other conditions . The naming Hatch-Slack pathway is in honor of Marshall Davidson Hatch and C. R. Slack , who elucidated it in Australia in 1966 .", "qid": "376", "docid": "C4_carbon_fixation", "rank": 100, "score": 86396 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 1, "score": 126908 }, { "content": "Title: Haldane effect Content: The Haldane effect is a property of hemoglobin first described by John Scott Haldane . Oxygenation of blood in the lungs displaces carbon dioxide from hemoglobin which increases the removal of carbon dioxide . This property is the Haldane effect . Conversely , oxygenated blood has a reduced affinity for carbon dioxide .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Haldane_effect", "rank": 2, "score": 120637 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "377", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 3, "score": 120474 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Earth Content: The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Earth", "rank": 4, "score": 117206 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sequestration Content: Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_sequestration", "rank": 5, "score": 116997 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 6, "score": 113352 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 7, "score": 109052 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 8, "score": 108811 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 9, "score": 107959 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 10, "score": 107382 }, { "content": "Title: Modified atmosphere Content: Modified atmosphere is the practice of modifying the composition of the internal atmosphere of a package ( commonly food packages , drugs , etc. ) in order to improve the shelf life . The modification process often tries to lower the amount of oxygen ( O2 ) , moving it from 20.9 % to 0 % , in order to slow down the growth of aerobic organisms and prevent oxidation reactions . The removed oxygen can be replaced with nitrogen ( N2 ) , commonly acknowledged as an inert gas , or carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , which can lower the pH or inhibit the growth of bacteria . Carbon monoxide can be used for preserving the red color of meat . Re-balancing of gases inside the packaging can be achieved using active techniques such as gas flushing and compensated vacuum or passively by designing `` breathable '' films known as equilibrium modified atmosphere packaging ( EMAP ) . Packets containing scavengers may be used .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Modified_atmosphere", "rank": 11, "score": 107115 }, { "content": "Title: Asphyxiant gas Content: An asphyxiant gas is a nontoxic or minimally toxic gas which reduces or displaces the normal oxygen concentration in breathing air . Breathing of oxygen-depleted air can lead to death by asphyxiation ( suffocation ) . Because asphyxiant gases are relatively inert and odorless , their presence in high concentration may not be noticed , except in the case of carbon dioxide ( hypercapnia ) . Toxic gases , by contrast , cause death by other mechanisms , such as competing with oxygen on the cellular level ( e.g. carbon monoxide ) or directly damaging the respiratory system ( e.g. phosgene ) . Far smaller quantities of these are deadly . Notable examples of asphyxiant gases are nitrogen , argon , helium , butane and propane . Along with trace gases such as carbon dioxide and ozone , these compose 79 % of Earth 's atmosphere . The atmosphere is mostly harmless because the remaining 21 % is O2 .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Asphyxiant_gas", "rank": 12, "score": 105205 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 13, "score": 104328 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide Content: Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide", "rank": 14, "score": 103325 }, { "content": "Title: Biosequestration Content: Biosequestration is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by biological processes . This may be by increased photosynthesis ( through practices such as reforestation / preventing deforestation and genetic engineering ) ; by enhanced soil carbon trapping in agriculture ; or by the use of algal bio sequestration ( see algae bioreactor ) to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions from coal , petroleum ( oil ) or natural gas-fired electricity generation . Biosequestration as a natural process has occurred in the past , and was responsible for the formation of the extensive coal and oil deposits which are now being burned . It is a key policy concept in the climate change mitigation debate . It does not generally refer to the sequestering of carbon dioxide in oceans ( see carbon sequestration and ocean acidification ) or rock formations , depleted oil or gas reservoirs ( see oil depletion and peak oil ) , deep saline aquifers , or deep coal seams ( see coal mining ) ( for all see geosequestration ) or through the use of industrial chemical carbon dioxide scrubbing .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Biosequestration", "rank": 15, "score": 102652 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon price Content: Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_price", "rank": 16, "score": 101034 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 17, "score": 100315 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 18, "score": 99042 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 19, "score": 97290 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide scrubber Content: A carbon dioxide scrubber is a device which absorbs carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) . It is used to treat exhaust gases from industrial plants or from exhaled air in life support systems such as rebreathers or in spacecraft , submersible craft or airtight chambers . Carbon dioxide scrubbers are also used in controlled atmosphere ( CA ) storage . They have also been researched for carbon capture .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_scrubber", "rank": 20, "score": 97208 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "377", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 21, "score": 97204 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon shifting Content: Carbon shifting is the tendency for an individual to increase carbon dioxide emissions in one area of their lifestyle as a result of reducing emissions elsewhere . ` Carbon shifting ' might more accurately be termed ` domestic carbon shifting ' to distinguish it from carbon leakage which has occasionally also been called carbon shifting . Many attempts to encourage people to change aspects of their lifestyle and so reduce their carbon dioxide emissions make a virtue of the financial savings . In the United Kingdom the Energy Saving Trust lists various ways of saving energy , e.g. `` Energy saving light bulbs last up to 12 times longer than ordinary lightbulbs and can save you # 9 per year in electricity ( and 38 kilograms of ) or # 100 over the bulbs lifetime . '' However , whether or not carbon dioxide emissions are ultimately reduced will depend on how that saved money is spent . If the amount of money saved through walking to work is eventually spent on an extra city break involving air travel the net emissions may well increase . The problem of carbon shifting may undermine many voluntary piecemeal attempts at reducing carbon dioxide emissions . However , carbon shifting is not inherently negative . If a person can be persuaded to avoid activities that produce a high level of emissions for a given financial outlay then they may shift to activities that produce lower emissions for that same amount of money . Positive carbon shifting might be encouraged through the use of a carbon tax or the implementation of a Personal carbon trading scheme . The phenomenon of carbon shifting also suggests that for some comparative purposes the most appropriate measure of emissions would be emissions per unit of currency rather than total emissions . An activity that produces slightly lower emissions at a significantly lower cost may not necessarily be the best activity to promote as it leaves the individual with more money to spend on other emitting activities . Similarly , if two passengers are traveling on the same aircraft they might be deemed to be emitting the same total amount of carbon dioxide . However , if one of them paid a lower fare then , by this measure , they would be deemed to be damaging the environment more .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_shifting", "rank": 22, "score": 97013 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 23, "score": 96877 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 24, "score": 96729 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere Content: An atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other material body , that is held in place by the gravity of that body . An atmosphere is more likely to be retained if the gravity it is subject to is high and the temperature of the atmosphere is low . The atmosphere of Earth is mostly composed of nitrogen ( about 78 % ) , oxygen ( about 21 % ) , argon ( about 0.9 % ) with carbon dioxide and other gases in trace amounts . Oxygen is used by most organisms for respiration , nitrogen is fixed by bacteria and lightning to produce ammonia used in the construction of nucleotides and amino acids and carbon dioxide is used by plants , algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis . The atmosphere helps protect living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation , solar wind and cosmic rays . Its current composition is the product of billions of years of biochemical modification of the paleoatmosphere by living organisms . The term stellar atmosphere describes the outer region of a star , and typically includes the portion starting from the opaque photosphere outwards . Stars with sufficiently low temperatures may form compound molecules in their outer atmosphere .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Atmosphere", "rank": 25, "score": 96644 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 26, "score": 96478 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling Curve Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Keeling_Curve", "rank": 27, "score": 94886 }, { "content": "Title: Reducing atmosphere Content: A reducing atmosphere is an atmospheric condition in which oxidation is prevented by removal of oxygen and other oxidizing gases or vapours , and which may contain actively reducing gases such as hydrogen , carbon monoxide , and gases such as hydrogen sulfide that would be oxidized by any present oxygen .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Reducing_atmosphere", "rank": 28, "score": 94596 }, { "content": "Title: Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide Content: Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide are used to help answer questions about Earth 's carbon cycle . There are a variety of active and planned instruments for measuring carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere from space . The first satellite mission designed to measure was the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases ( IMG ) on board the ADEOS I satellite in 1996 . This mission lasted less than a year . Since then , additional space-based measurements have begun , including those from two high-precision ( better than 0.3 % or 1 ppm ) satellites ( GOSAT and OCO-2 ) . Different instrument designs may reflect different primary missions .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Space-based_measurements_of_carbon_dioxide", "rank": 29, "score": 94501 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 30, "score": 94266 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) ( or carbon capture and sequestration ) is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide from large point sources , such as fossil fuel power plants , transporting it to a storage site , and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere , normally an underground geological formation . The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of into the atmosphere ( from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries ) . It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification . Although has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes , including enhanced oil recovery , the long term storage of is a relatively new concept . The first commercial example was the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project in 2000 . Other examples include SaskPower 's Boundary Dam and Mississippi Power 's Kemper Project . ` CCS ' can also be used to describe the scrubbing of from ambient air as a climate engineering technique . An integrated pilot-scale CCS power plant was to begin operating in September 2008 in the eastern German power plant Schwarze Pumpe run by utility Vattenfall , to test the technological feasibility and economic efficiency . CCS applied to a modern conventional power plant could reduce emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80 -- 90 % compared to a plant without CCS . The IPCC estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until year 2100 . Carbon dioxide can be captured out of air or fossil fuel power plant flue gas using adsorption ( or carbon scrubbing ) , membrane gas separation , or adsorption technologies . Amines are the leading carbon scrubbing technology . Capturing and compressing may increase the energy needs of a coal-fired CCS plant by 25 -- 40 % . These and other system costs are estimated to increase the cost per watt energy produced by 21 -- 91 % for fossil fuel power plants . Applying the technology to existing plants would be more expensive , especially if they are far from a sequestration site . A 2005 industry report suggests that with successful research , development and deployment ( RD&D ) , sequestered coal-based electricity generation in 2025 may cost less than unsequestered coal-based electricity generation today . Storage of the is envisaged either in deep geological formations , or in the form of mineral carbonates . Deep ocean storage is not currently considered feasible due to the associated effect of ocean acidification . Geological formations are currently considered the most promising sequestration sites . The National Energy Technology Laboratory ( NETL ) reported that North America has enough storage capacity for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates . A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are very difficult and uncertain , and there is still the risk that might leak into the atmosphere .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage", "rank": 31, "score": 94094 }, { "content": "Title: Primordial soup Content: `` Primordial soup '' is a term introduced by Soviet biologist Alexander Oparin and English scientist John Burdon Sanderson Haldane . In 1924 , he proposed a theory of the origin of life on Earth through the transformation , during the gradual chemical evolution of particles that contain carbon in the primordial soup . Biochemist Robert Shapiro has summarized the `` primordial soup '' theory of Oparin and Haldane in its `` mature form '' as follows : Early Earth had a chemically reducing atmosphere . This atmosphere , exposed to energy in various forms , produced simple organic compounds ( `` monomers '' ) . These compounds accumulated in a `` soup '' , which may have been concentrated at various locations ( shorelines , oceanic vents etc. ) . By further transformation , more complex organic polymers -- and ultimately life -- developed in the soup .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Primordial_soup", "rank": 32, "score": 94081 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Now! Content: Kyoto Now ! ( stylized as KyotoNOW ! ) is a student-led movement at colleges and universities across the United States , through which students hope to make American universities commit to reducing carbon dioxide emissions . The name of the movement reflects the Kyoto Protocol , which the USA currently is not considering ratifying . Cornell University 's Kyoto Now ! was the first of such groups formed , after a sit-in protest in then President Rawlings ' office . The group demanded that the University commit `` to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent below the 1990 levels of emissions by 2007 . These reductions are not on a square foot basis , but based on the total campus emissions . '' Hal Craft , VP at the time , signed the Protocol , committing the University to emissions reductions , and the school is now on track to meet that commitment through construction of a combined heat and power plant that will take waste heat produced by the cogen plant and use it to heat the campus buildings . Punk band Bad Religion wrote a song called `` Kyoto Now ! '' for their 2002 album , The Process of Belief , which spoke about the Kyoto Protocol and their opinions on it . It can be considered an anthem for the Kyoto Now ! movement . The writer of `` Kyoto Now ! '' , Greg Graffin , is , in fact , an alumnus of Cornell University . Category : Student political organizations", "qid": "377", "docid": "Kyoto_Now!", "rank": 33, "score": 93478 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide accumulation in Earth's atmosphere Content: The following articles relate to Carbon dioxide accumulation in Earth 's atmosphere : Carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere Global warming Greenhouse effect", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_accumulation_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 34, "score": 93253 }, { "content": "Title: Photoelectrochemical reduction of CO2 Content: Photoelectrochemical reduction of CO2 is a chemical process whereby carbon dioxide is reduced to carbon monoxide or hydrocarbons by the energy of incident light . This process needs to be catalyzed either homogeneously or heterogeneously in order to proceed , and current research is aimed at developing these catalysts , most of which are semiconducting materials . Semiconducting catalysts provide favourable electron transfer kinetics . Motivation for research in this area is strong due to the current attention to atmospheric carbon dioxide as the reduction of carbon dioxide would be one route for removal and sequestration . Furthermore , the reduced species may prove to be a valuable feedstock for other processes . If the incident light utilized is solar in nature then this process also potentially represents energy routes which combine renewable energy with CO2 reduction .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Photoelectrochemical_reduction_of_CO2", "rank": 35, "score": 93097 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon neutrality Content: Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_neutrality", "rank": 36, "score": 93076 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon retirement Content: Carbon retirement involves retiring allowances from emission trading schemes as a method for offsetting carbon emissions . Under schemes such as the European Union Emission Trading Scheme , EU Emission Allowances ( EUAs ) represent the right to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere , and are issued to all the largest polluters . Buying these allowances and permanently removing them forces industrial companies to reduce their emissions . Over time , the scheme will offer fewer allowances , making it much harder for industrial companies to sustain high emission levels without incurring financial penalties . Unlike traditional offsetting projects , retirement is straightforward and transparent . There are no complex projects , methodologies , brokers or intermediaries and the issue of additionality is overcome . Category : Carbon finance", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_retirement", "rank": 37, "score": 92511 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide reforming Content: Carbon dioxide reformation ( also known as dry reformation ) is a method of producing synthesis gas ( mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide ) from the reaction of carbon dioxide with hydrocarbons such as methane . Synthesis gas is conventionally produced via the steam reforming reaction . In recent years , increased concerns on the contribution of greenhouse gases to global warming have increased interest in the replacement of steam as reactant with carbon dioxide . The dry reforming reaction may be represented by : CO2 + CH4 → 2 H2 + 2 CO Thus , two greenhouse gases are consumed and useful chemical building blocks , hydrogen and carbon monoxide , are produced . A challenge to the commercialization of this process is that the hydrogen that is produced tends to react with the carbon dioxide . For example , the following reaction typically proceeds with a lower activation energy than the dry reforming reaction itself : CO2 + H2 → H2O + CO Typical catalysts are noble metals , Ni or Ni alloys . In addition , a group of researchers in China investigated the use of activated carbon as an alternative catalyst .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_reforming", "rank": 38, "score": 91940 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sink Content: A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period . The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration . Public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol , which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset . There are also different strategies used to enhance this process .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_sink", "rank": 39, "score": 91914 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercapnia Content: Hypercapnia , also known as hypercarbia and CO2 retention , is a condition of abnormally elevated carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in the blood . Carbon dioxide is a gaseous product of the body 's metabolism and is normally expelled through the lungs . Hypercapnia normally triggers a reflex which increases breathing and access to oxygen ( O2 ) , such as arousal and turning the head during sleep . A failure of this reflex can be fatal , for example as a contributory factor in sudden infant death syndrome . Hypercapnia is the opposite of hypocapnia , the state of having abnormally reduced levels of carbon dioxide in the blood . The word is from the Greek hyper = `` above '' or `` too much '' and kapnos = `` smoke '' .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Hypercapnia", "rank": 40, "score": 91842 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 41, "score": 91651 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 42, "score": 91078 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 43, "score": 91056 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 44, "score": 90972 }, { "content": "Title: Orbiting Carbon Observatory Content: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory ( OCO ) is a NASA satellite mission intended to provide global space-based observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) . The original spacecraft was lost in a launch failure on 24 February 2009 , when the payload fairing of the Taurus rocket which was carrying it failed to separate during ascent . The added mass of the fairing prevented the satellite from reaching orbit . It subsequently re-entered the atmosphere and crashed into the Indian Ocean near Antarctica . The replacement satellite , Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 , was launched 2 July 2014 aboard a Delta II rocket . The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 , a stand-alone payload built from the spare OCO-2 flight instrument , will be installed on the International Space Station Kibō Exposed Facility in December 2016 .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Orbiting_Carbon_Observatory", "rank": 45, "score": 90918 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 46, "score": 90731 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 47, "score": 90298 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 48, "score": 90255 }, { "content": "Title: ISS ECLSS Content: The International Space Station Environmental Control and Life Support System ( ECLSS ) is a life support system that provides or controls atmospheric pressure , fire detection and suppression , oxygen levels , waste management and water supply . The highest priority for the ECLSS is the ISS atmosphere , but the system also collects , processes , and stores waste and water produced and used by the crew -- a process that recycles fluid from the sink , shower , toilet , and condensation from the air . The Elektron system aboard Zvezda and a similar system in Destiny generate oxygen aboard the station . The crew has a backup option in the form of bottled oxygen and Solid Fuel Oxygen Generation ( SFOG ) canisters . Carbon dioxide is removed from the air by the Russian Vozdukh system in Zvezda , one Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly ( CDRA ) located in the U.S. Lab module , and one CDRA in the U.S. Node 3 module . Other by-products of human metabolism , such as methane from the intestines and ammonia from sweat , are removed by activated charcoal filters or by the Trace Contaminant Control System ( TCCS ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "ISS_ECLSS", "rank": 49, "score": 90172 }, { "content": "Title: The Nitrogen Fix Content: The Nitrogen Fix is a 1980 science fiction novel by Hal Clement . The plot revolves around a nomadic family in a future where all oxygen in the Earth 's atmosphere has combined with nitrogen , so the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen with traces of water , nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide , and the seas are very dilute nitric acid .", "qid": "377", "docid": "The_Nitrogen_Fix", "rank": 50, "score": 90129 }, { "content": "Title: Bicarbonate indicator Content: A bicarbonate indicator ( hydrogencarbonate indicator ) is a type of pH indicator that is sensitive enough to show a color change as the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in an aqueous solution increases . The indicator is used in photosynthesis and respiration experiments to find out whether carbon dioxide is being liberated . It is also used to test the carbon dioxide content during gaseous exchange of organisms . When the carbon dioxide content is higher than 0.04 % , the initial red color changes to yellow as the pH becomes more acidic . If the carbon dioxide content is lower than 0.04 % , it changes from red to magenta and , in relatively very low carbon dioxide concentrations , to purple . Carbon dioxide , even in the concentrations found in exhaled air , will dissolve in the indicator to form carbonic acid , a weak acid , which will lower the pH and give the characteristic colour change . A colour change to purple during photosynthesis shows a reduction in the percentage of carbon dioxide and is sometimes inferred as production of oxygen , but there is not actually any direct evidence for it . Great care must be taken to avoid acidic or alkaline contamination of the apparatus in such experiments , since the test is not directly specific to carbon dioxide .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Bicarbonate_indicator", "rank": 51, "score": 89973 }, { "content": "Title: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction Content: Photochemical carbon dioxide reduction harnesses solar energy to convert into higher-energy products . The chemical conversion of CO2 already occurs on an industrial scale in the manufacture of solvents such as formic acid , but photochemical reduction differs in that it relies on a renewable energy source , the sun . Because CO2 is a greenhouse gas , there is environmental interest in producing artificial systems that are efficient photocatalysts , but the low turn-over rates of current methods have prohibited wide-scale industrial application .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Photochemical_carbon_dioxide_reduction", "rank": 52, "score": 89845 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 53, "score": 89779 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon offset Content: A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere . Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent ( CO2e ) and may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases : carbon dioxide , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , and sulfur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases . There are two markets for carbon offsets . In the larger , compliance market , companies , governments , or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit . This market exists in order to achieve compliance with obligations of Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol , and of liable entities under the EU Emission Trading Scheme . In 2006 , about $ 5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market , representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions . In the much smaller , voluntary market , individuals , companies , or governments purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation , electricity use , and other sources . For example , an individual might purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions caused by personal air travel . Many companies ( see list ) offer carbon offsets as an up-sell during the sales process so that customers can mitigate the emissions related with their product or service purchase ( such as offsetting emissions related to a vacation flight , car rental , hotel stay , consumer good , etc. ) . In 2008 , about $ 705 million of carbon offsets were purchased in the voluntary market , representing about 123.4 million metric tons of CO2e reductions . Some fuel suppliers in the UK offer fuel which has been carbon offset such as Fuel dyes . Offsets are typically achieved through financial support of projects that reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the short - or long-term . The most common project type is renewable energy , such as wind farms , biomass energy , or hydroelectric dams . Others include energy efficiency projects , the destruction of industrial pollutants or agricultural byproducts , destruction of landfill methane , and forestry projects . Some of the most popular carbon offset projects from a corporate perspective are energy efficiency and wind turbine projects . Carbon offsetting has gained some appeal and momentum mainly among consumers in western countries who have become aware and concerned about the potentially negative environmental effects of energy-intensive lifestyles and economies . The Kyoto Protocol has sanctioned offsets as a way for governments and private companies to earn carbon credits that can be traded on a marketplace . The protocol established the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) , which validates and measures projects to ensure they produce authentic benefits and are genuinely `` additional '' activities that would not otherwise have been undertaken . Organizations that are unable to meet their emissions quota can offset their emissions by buying CDM-approved Certified Emissions Reductions . Emissions from burning fuel , such as red diesel , has pushed one UK fuel supplier to create a carbon offset fuel named Carbon Offset Red Diesel . Offsets may be cheaper or more convenient alternatives to reducing one 's own fossil-fuel consumption . However , some critics object to carbon offsets , and question the benefits of certain types of offsets . Due diligence is recommended to help businesses in the assessment and identification of `` good quality '' offsets to ensure offsetting provides the desired additional environmental benefits , and to avoid reputational risk associated with poor quality offsets . Offsets are viewed as an important policy tool to maintain stable economies and to improve sustainability . One of the hidden dangers of climate change policy is unequal prices of carbon in the economy , which can cause economic collateral damage if production flows to regions or industries that have a lower price of carbon -- unless carbon can be purchased from that area , which offsets effectively permit , equalizing the price .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_offset", "rank": 54, "score": 89652 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "377", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 55, "score": 89516 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Z. Jacobson Content: Mark Zachary Jacobson ( born 1965 ) is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy Program . Jacobson develops computer models about the effects of different energy technologies and their emissions on air pollution and climate . He has done influential research on the role of aerosols and black carbon on the climate and is regarded as a leading aerosol climate modeler . According to Jacobson , a speedy transition to clean , renewable energy is required to reduce the potential acceleration of global warming , including the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice . This change will also eliminate 2.5 -- 3 million deaths worldwide each year , related to air pollution , and reduce disruption associated with fossil fuel shortages .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Mark_Z._Jacobson", "rank": 56, "score": 89345 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical peat Content: Areas of tropical peat are found mostly in South East Asia ( about 70 % by area ) although are also found in Africa , Central and South America and elsewhere around the Pacific Ocean . Tropical peatlands are significant carbon sinks and store large amounts of carbon and their destruction can significantly impact on the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Tropical peatlands are vulnerable to destabilisation through human and climate induced changes . Estimates of the area ( and hence volume ) of tropical peatland vary but a reasonable estimate is in the region of 380,000 square kilometres . Although tropical peatlands only cover about 0.25 % of the Earth 's land surface they contain 50,000-70 ,000 million tonnes of carbon ( about 3 % global soil carbon ) . In addition , tropical peatlands support diverse ecosystems and are home to a number of endangered species including the orang utan . The native peat swamp forests contain a number of valuable timber-producing trees plus a range of other products of value to local communities , such as bark , resins and latex . Land-use changes and fire , mainly associated with plantation development and logging ( deforestation and drainage ) , are reducing this carbon store and contributing to greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions . The problems that result from development of tropical peatland stem mainly from a lack of understanding of the complexities of this ecosystem and the fragility of the relationship between peat and forest . Once the forest is removed and the peat is drained , the surface peat oxidises and loses stored carbon rapidly to the atmosphere ( as carbon dioxide ) . This results in progressive loss of the peat surface , leading to local flooding and , due to the large areas involved , global climate change . Failure to account for such emissions results in underestimates of the rate of increase in atmospheric GHGs and the extent of human induced climate change .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Tropical_peat", "rank": 57, "score": 88930 }, { "content": "Title: Carbonyl reduction Content: In organic chemistry , carbonyl reduction is the organic reduction of any carbonyl group by a reducing agent . Typical carbonyl compounds are ketones , aldehydes , carboxylic acids , esters , and acid halides . Carboxylic acids , esters , and acid halides can be reduced to either aldehydes or a step further to primary alcohols , depending on the strength of the reducing agent ; aldehydes and ketones can be reduced respectively to primary and secondary alcohols . In deoxygenation , the alcohol can be further reduced and removed altogether . Metal hydrides based on boron and aluminum are common reducing agents ; catalytic hydrogenation is also an important method of reducing carbonyls . Before the discovery of soluble hydride reagents , esters were reduced by the Bouveault -- Blanc reduction , employing a mixture of sodium metal in the presence of alcohols .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbonyl_reduction", "rank": 58, "score": 88663 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 59, "score": 88551 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Engineering Content: Carbon Engineering is a Calgary , Alberta-based company commercializing technology to capture carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) directly from the atmosphere . The company was founded in 2009 by David Keith , now a professor of public policy and applied physics at Harvard University . It is based on his research conducted at the University of Calgary . Carbon Engineering is funded by several government and sustainability-focused agencies as well as by private investors , including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and oil sands financier N. Murray Edwards .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_Engineering", "rank": 60, "score": 88487 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monitoring Content: Carbon monitoring refers to tracking how much carbon dioxide or methane is produced by particular activity at a particular point in time . For example , it may refer to tracking methane emissions from agriculture , or carbon dioxide emissions from land use changes , such as deforestation , or from burning fossil fuels , whether in a power plant , automobile , or other device . Because carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emitted in the largest quantities , and methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas , monitoring carbon emissions is widely seen as crucial to any effort to reduce emissions and thereby slow climate change . Monitoring carbon emissions is key to the cap-and-trade program currently being used in Europe , as well as the one in California , and will be necessary for any such program in the future , like the Paris Agreement . The lack of reliable sources of consistent data on carbon emissions is a significant barrier to efforts to reduce emissions .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_monitoring", "rank": 61, "score": 88376 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 62, "score": 88180 }, { "content": "Title: Terrestrial biological carbon cycle Content: Carbon is an essential part of life on Earth . About half the dry weight of most living organisms is carbon . It plays an important role in the structure , biochemistry , and nutrition of all living cells . Living biomass holds between 600 and 1,000 gigatons of carbon , most of which is wood , while some 1,200 gigatons of carbon are stored in the terrestrial biosphere as dead biomass . Carbon is cycled through the terrestrial biosphere with varying speeds , depending on what form it is stored in and under which circumstances . It is exchanged most quickly with the atmosphere , although small amounts of carbon leave the terrestrial biosphere and enter the oceans as dissolved organic carbon ( DOC ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Terrestrial_biological_carbon_cycle", "rank": 63, "score": 88173 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 64, "score": 88055 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues with coral reefs Content: Human impact on coral reefs is significant . Coral reefs are dying around the world . In particular , coral mining , pollution ( organic and non-organic ) , overfishing , blast fishing and the digging of canals and access into islands and bays are serious threats to these ecosystems . Coral reefs also face high dangers such as diseases , destructive fishing practices and warming oceans . In order to find answers for these problems , researchers study the various factors that impact reefs . The list of factors is long , including the ocean 's role as a carbon dioxide sink , atmospheric changes , ultraviolet light , ocean acidification , viruses , impacts of dust storms carrying agents to far-flung reefs , pollutants , algal blooms and others . Reefs are threatened well beyond coastal areas . In 2008 estimates assembled from coral reef specialists from around the world indicated that 19 % of the existing area of coral reefs has already been lost , and that a further 17 % is likely to be lost over the subsequent 10 -- 20 years . Only 46 % of the world 's reefs could be currently regarded as in good health . About 60 % of the world 's reefs may be at risk due to destructive , human-related activities . The threat to the health of reefs is particularly strong in Southeast Asia , where 80 % of reefs are endangered . By the 2030s , 90 % of reefs are expected to be at risk from both human activities and climate change ; by 2050 , all coral reefs will be in danger . Coral Reef loss has been cause for concern for a long time , but is now starting to gain traction as one of the worlds greatest environmental threats . The current greatest threat to the reefs are coral bleaching , which is the loss of the endosymbiotic algae from the coral ( the thing that gives coral it 's vibrant color ) due to rising ocean water temperatures . Some other threats that are not as prominent but still play a factor to the loss of the world 's reefs are poisonous fishing practices , explosive fishing practices , careless tourism , and pollution . The loss of the coral reefs will come with consequences such as human vulnerability , environmental chaos , and a massive , relatively unseen , economic cost .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Environmental_issues_with_coral_reefs", "rank": 65, "score": 87847 }, { "content": "Title: Free-air concentration enrichment Content: Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment ( FACE ) is a method used by ecologists and plant biologists that raises the concentration of in a specified area and allows the response of plant growth to be measured . Experiments using FACE are required because most studies looking at the effect of elevated concentrations have been conducted in labs and where there are many missing factors including plant competition . Measuring the effect of elevated using FACE is a better way of estimating how plant growth will change in the future as the concentration rises in the atmosphere . FACE also allows the effect of elevated on plants that can not be grown in small spaces ( trees for example ) to be measured .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Free-air_concentration_enrichment", "rank": 66, "score": 87672 }, { "content": "Title: Capnophile Content: Capnophiles are microorganisms that thrive in the presence of high concentrations of carbon dioxide . Some capnophiles may have a metabolic requirement for carbon dioxide , while others merely compete more successfully for resources under these conditions . The term is a generally descriptive one and has less relevance as a means of establishing a taxonomic or evolutionary relationship among organisms with this characteristic . For example , the ability of capnophiles to tolerate ( or utilize ) the amount of oxygen that is also in their environment may vary widely and may be far more critical to their survival . Species of Campylobacter are bacterial capnophiles that are more easily identified because they are also microaerophiles , organisms that can grow in high carbon dioxide as long as a small amount of free oxygen is present , but at a dramatically reduced concentration . ( In the earth 's atmosphere carbon dioxide levels are approximately five hundred times lower than that of oxygen , 0.04 % and 21 % of the total , respectively . ) Obligate anaerobes are microbes that will die in the presence of oxygen without respect to the concentration of carbon dioxide in their environment , and typically acquire energy through anaerobic respiration , or fermentation ( biochemistry ) . In 2004 , a capnophilic bacterium was characterized that appears to require carbon dioxide . This organism , Mannheimia succiniciproducens , has a unique metabolism involving carbon fixation . While carbon fixation is common to most plant life on earth since it is the key initial step in the biosynthesis of complex carbon compounds during photosynthesis ( the Calvin cycle ) , it is found in relatively few microorganisms and not found in animals . Mannheimia succiniciproducens can attach carbon dioxide to the three-carbon backbone of phosphoenolpyruvate , an endproduct in glycolysis , to generate the four-carbon compound , oxaloacetic acid , an intermediate in the Krebs cycle . Although Mannheimia succiniciproducens has most of the intermediates in the Krebs cycle , it is not capable of oxidative phosphorylation , the final step in the electron transport chain that would allow it to carry out the highly efficient process of harvesting energy by aerobic respiration .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Capnophile", "rank": 67, "score": 87006 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 content Content: content ( also known as `` Total '' ) is a blood test that usually appears on a `` Chem 19 '' or an electrolyte panel . The value measures the total dissolved Carbon dioxide in blood . It is determined by combining the Bicarbonate and the partial pressure of multiplied by a factor which estimates the amount of pure that is dissolved in its natural form ( usually 0.03 ) . One given reference range is 24 -- 32 mEq/L .", "qid": "377", "docid": "CO2_content", "rank": 68, "score": 86851 }, { "content": "Title: Suess effect Content: The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Suess_effect", "rank": 69, "score": 86848 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon profiling Content: Carbon profiling is a mathematical process that calculates how much carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere per m2 of space in a building over one year . The analysis is in two parts which are then added together to produce an overall figure which is termed the ` Carbon Profile ' : operational carbon emissions embodied carbon emissions . Embodied carbon emissions relate to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from creating and maintaining the materials that form the building e.g. the carbon dioxide released from the baking of bricks or smelting or iron . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured as Embodied Carbon Efficiency ( ECE ) , measured as kg of CO2/m2/year . Occupational Carbon Emissions relate to the amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere from the direct use of energy to run the building e.g. the heating or electricity used by the building over the year . In the Carbon Profiling Model these emissions are measured in BER 's ( Building Emission Rate ) in kg of / m2/year . The BER is a United Kingdom government accepted unit of measurement that comes from an approved calculation process called sBEM ( Simplified Building Emission Model ) The purpose of Carbon Profiling is to provide a method of analyzing and comparing both operational and embodied carbon emissions at the same time . With this information it is then possible to allocate a projects resources in such a way to minimize the total amount of Carbon Dioxide emitted into the atmosphere through the use of a given piece of space . A secondary benefit is that having quantified the Carbon Profiling of different buildings it is then possible to make comparisons and rank buildings in term of their performance . This allows investors and occupiers to identify which building are good and bad carbon investments . Simon Sturgis and Gareth Roberts of Sturgis Associates in the United Kingdom originally developed ` Carbon Profiling ' in December 2007 .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_profiling", "rank": 70, "score": 86688 }, { "content": "Title: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage Content: Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage ( BECCS ) is a future greenhouse gas mitigation technology which produces negative carbon dioxide emissions by combining bioenergy ( energy from biomass ) use with geologic carbon capture and storage . The concept of BECCS is drawn from the integration of trees and crops , which extract carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the atmosphere as they grow , the use of this biomass in processing industries or power plants , and the application of carbon capture and storage via CO2 injection into geological formations . There are other non-BECCS forms of carbon dioxide removal and storage that include technologies such as biochar , carbon dioxide air capture and biomass burial . According to a recent Biorecro report , there is 550 000 tonnes CO2/year in total BECCS capacity currently operating , divided between three different facilities ( as of January 2012 ) . In the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , BECCS was indicated as a key technology for reaching low carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration targets . The negative emissions that can be produced by BECCS has been estimated by the Royal Society to be equivalent to a 50 to 150 ppm decrease in global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and according to the International Energy Agency , the BLUE map climate change mitigation scenario calls for more than 2 gigatonnes of negative CO2 emissions per year with BECCS in 2050 . According to Stanford University , 10 gigatonnes is achievable by this date . The Imperial College London , the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research , the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research , the Walker Institute for Climate System Research , and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change issued a joint report on carbon dioxide removal technologies as part of the AVOID : Avoiding dangerous climate change research program , stating that `` Overall , of the technologies studied in this report , BECCS has the greatest maturity and there are no major practical barriers to its introduction into today 's energy system . The presence of a primary product will support early deployment . '' According to the OECD , `` Achieving lower concentration targets ( 450 ppm ) depends significantly on the use of BECCS '' .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Bio-energy_with_carbon_capture_and_storage", "rank": 71, "score": 86582 }, { "content": "Title: TanSat Content: TanSat , also known as CarbonSat , is a Chinese Earth observation satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . It is generally classified as a minisatellite , and is the first dedicated carbon mission of the Chinese space program . The mission was formally proposed in 2010 , and work began in January 2011 . It is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology ( MOST ) and was built by the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem And Information Technology ( SIMIT ) . TanSat carries two instruments : the Carbon Dioxide Spectrometer and the Cloud and Aerosol Polarimetry Imager . The Carbon Dioxide Spectrometer ( CDS ) , also called CarbonSpec , is a high-resolution grating spectrometer which measures absorption at 1.61 µm and 2.06 µm , and absorption in reflected sunlight at 0.76 µm . The Cloud and Aerosol Polarimetry Imager ( CAPI ) is a wide-field , moderate-resolution , imaging spectrometer which works in concert with CDS by compensating for measurement errors caused by clouds and aerosols . It makes observations in ultraviolet ( 0.38 µm ) , visible ( 0.67 µm ) , and near infrared ( 0.87 µm , 1.375 µm , and 1.64 µm ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "TanSat", "rank": 72, "score": 86397 }, { "content": "Title: Carbonation Content: In chemistry , carbonation refers to two chemical processes involving the binding of carbon dioxide to substrates . Various applications or manifestations of this reaction are listed in order of their relative scale . In biochemistry . Carbon-based life originates from a carbonation reaction that is most often catalysed by the enzyme RuBisCO . So important is this carbonation process that a significant fraction of leaf mass consists of this carbonating enzyme . The production of urea , a widely used fertilizer , involves the combination of carbon dioxide and ammonia : 2 NH3 + CO2 → ( H2N ) 2CO + H2O In inorganic chemistry , carbonation occurs widely . Metal oxides and metal hydroxides react with CO2 to give complexes of carbonate and bicarbonate . In reinforced concrete construction , the chemical reaction between carbon dioxide in the air and calcium hydroxide and hydrated calcium silicate in the concrete is known as neutralisation . Low valent metal complexes react with CO2 to give metal carbon dioxide complexes . In organometallic chemistry , carbonation involves the insertion of CO2 into metal-carbon bonds . The topic has attracted great interest for organic synthesis and even as a means of utilizing CO2 as a feedstock .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbonation", "rank": 73, "score": 86346 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monoxide Content: Carbon monoxide ( CO ) is a colorless , odorless , and tasteless gas that is slightly less dense than air . It is toxic to hemoglobic animals ( both invertebrate and vertebrate , including humans ) when encountered in concentrations above about 35 ppm , although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities , and is thought to have some normal biological functions . In the atmosphere , it is spatially variable and short lived , having a role in the formation of ground-level ozone . Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom , connected by a triple bond that consists of two covalent bonds as well as one dative covalent bond . It is the simplest oxocarbon and is isoelectronic with the cyanide anion , the nitrosonium cation and molecular nitrogen . In coordination complexes the carbon monoxide ligand is called carbonyl .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_monoxide", "rank": 74, "score": 86338 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon finance Content: Carbon finance is a new branch of Environmental finance . Carbon finance explores the financial implications of living in a carbon-constrained world , a world in which emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) carry a price . Financial risks and opportunities impact corporate balance sheets , and market-based instruments are capable of transferring environmental risk and achieving environmental objectives . Issues regarding climate change and GHG emissions must be addressed as part of strategic management decision-making . The general term is applied to investments in GHG emission reduction projects and the creation ( origination ) of financial instruments that are tradeable on the carbon market .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_finance", "rank": 75, "score": 86320 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon cycle Content: The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere , pedosphere , geosphere , hydrosphere , and atmosphere of the Earth . Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major component of many minerals such as limestone . Along with the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle , the carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to make Earth capable of sustaining life . It describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused throughout the biosphere , as well as long-term processes of carbon sequestration to and release from carbon sinks . The global carbon budget is the balance of the exchanges ( incomes and losses ) of carbon between the carbon reservoirs or between one specific loop ( e.g. , atmosphere and biosphere ) of the carbon cycle . An examination of the carbon budget of a pool or reservoir can provide information about whether the pool or reservoir is functioning as a source or sink for carbon dioxide . The carbon cycle was initially discovered by Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier , and popularized by Humphry Davy .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_cycle", "rank": 76, "score": 86101 }, { "content": "Title: Enhanced weathering Content: Enhanced weathering refers to geoengineering approaches that use the dissolution of natural or artificially created minerals to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Since the carbon dioxide is usually first removed from ocean water , these approaches would attack the problem by first reducing ocean acidification .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Enhanced_weathering", "rank": 77, "score": 85772 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 78, "score": 85712 }, { "content": "Title: Individual action on climate change Content: Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Individual_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 79, "score": 85553 }, { "content": "Title: Cap carbonate Content: Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Cap_carbonate", "rank": 80, "score": 85398 }, { "content": "Title: Respiratory acidosis Content: Respiratory acidosis is a medical emergency in which decreased ventilation ( hypoventilation ) increases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood and decreases the blood 's pH ( a condition generally called acidosis ) . Carbon dioxide is produced continuously as the body 's cells respire , and this CO2 will accumulate rapidly if the lungs do not adequately expel it through alveolar ventilation . Alveolar hypoventilation thus leads to an increased PaCO2 ( a condition called hypercapnia ) . The increase in PaCO2 in turn decreases the HCO3 − / PaCO2 ratio and decreases pH.", "qid": "377", "docid": "Respiratory_acidosis", "rank": 81, "score": 85382 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide flooding Content: Carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil . When a reservoir 's pressure is depleted through primary and secondary production , carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method . It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. , where will be in a supercritical state , with API oil gravity greater than 22 -- 25 ° and remaining oil saturation greater than 20 % . It should also be noted that carbon dioxide flooding is not affected by the lithology of the reservoir area , but simply by the reservoir porosity and permeability , so that it is viable in both sandstone and carbonate reservoirs . By injecting CO2 into the reservoir , the viscosity of any hydrocarbon will be reduced and hence will be easier to sweep to the production well . As an oil field matures and production rates decline , there is growing incentive to intervene and attempt to increase oil output utilizing tertiary recovery techniques ( also termed improved or enhanced oil recovery ) . Petroleum engineers assess available options for increasing well productivity , options that include chemical injection , thermal/steam injection , and CO2 injection . Based on data-gathering and computer simulations , the most optimal enhanced oil-recovery technique to maximize well-productivity is determined . To increase the rate of oil production , the pressure within the reservoir must be increased . In CO2 flooding , the first step is injection of water into the reservoir , which will cause the reservoir pressure to increase . Once the reservoir has sufficient pressure , the next step is to pump the CO2 down through the same injection wells . The CO2 gas is forced into the reservoir to come into contact with the oil . This creates a miscible zone that can be moved more easily to the production well . Normally the CO2 injection is alternated with water injection and the water acts to sweep the oil towards the production zone . CO2 flooding is the second most common tertiary recovery technique and is used in facilities around the world . In connection with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , CO2 flooding sequesters underground and therefore offsets CO2 emissions elsewhere .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_flooding", "rank": 82, "score": 85291 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 83, "score": 85143 }, { "content": "Title: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Carbon Neutral Resolution Content: The Presbyterian Church ( USA ) Carbon Neutral Resolution was a resolution passed at the June , 2006 , 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church ( USA ) strongly urging all Presbyterians to ` immediately aspire to live carbon neutral lives ' . It is believed that resolution was the first in the world by a major religious denomination for its followers to become carbon neutral . The resolution also directed the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy to make available detail of how Presbyterians could take to reduce their energy consumption and recognised that ` the Christian mandate to care for creation and the biblical promise of the restoration of right relationships between God , human beings , and the rest of creation impels and inspires Presbyterians to act to reduce -LSB- their -RSB- energy usage ' . The resolution was based on a report by a task force prepared for the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy . After the Advisory Committee voted to postpone consideration of the report until the 2008 General Assembly , two General Assembly Commissioners bypassed the committee and were successful in getting the resolution adopted . The Church first noted its ` serious concern ' over global warming at the 1990 General Assembly , when it warned that ` the global atmospheric warming trend ( the greenhouse effect ) represents one of the most serious global environmental challenges to the health , security , and stability of human life and natural ecosystems ' . Despite this , a survey carried out in 2004 revealed that over half of all Presbyterians had not taken even the ` simplest steps to decrease their energy usage ' , and that most congregations had not implemented energy conservation programs .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Presbyterian_Church_(U.S.A.)_Carbon_Neutral_Resolution", "rank": 84, "score": 85121 }, { "content": "Title: Total Carbon Column Observing Network Content: The Total Carbon Column Observing Network ( TCCON ) is a global network of instruments that measure the amount of carbon dioxide , methane , carbon monoxide , nitrous oxide and other trace gases in the Earth 's atmosphere . The TCCON ( -LSB- ˈtiːkɒn -RSB- ) began in 2004 with the installation of the first instrument in Park Falls , Wisconsin , USA , and has since grown to 23 operational instruments worldwide , with 7 former sites . The TCCON is designed to investigate several things , including the flow ( or flux ) of carbon between the atmosphere , land , and ocean ( the so-called carbon budget or carbon cycle ) . This is achieved by measuring the atmospheric mass of carbon ( the airborne fraction ) . The TCCON measurements have improved the scientific community 's understanding of the carbon cycle , and urban greenhouse gas emissions . The TCCON supports several satellite instruments by providing an independent measurement to compare ( or validate ) the satellite measurements of the atmosphere over the TCCON site locations . The TCCON provides the primary measurement validation dataset for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory ( OCO-2 ) mission , and has been used to validate other space-based measurements of carbon dioxide .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Total_Carbon_Column_Observing_Network", "rank": 85, "score": 84884 }, { "content": "Title: Blackdamp Content: Blackdamp ( also known as stythe or choke damp ) is an asphyxiant , reducing the available oxygen content of air to a level incapable of sustaining human or animal life . It is not a single gas but a mixture of unbreathable gases left after oxygen is removed from the air and typically consists of nitrogen , carbon dioxide and water vapour . The suffix damp is believed to derive from the German word for vapours ( `` Dampf '' ) . The word damp is used in similar mining terms such as white damp ( carbon monoxide ) , fire damp ( typically methane ) and stink damp ( hydrogen sulfide ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Blackdamp", "rank": 86, "score": 84698 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon cycle re-balancing Content: The carbon cycle is the process by which carbon is exchanged between the four reservoirs of carbon : the biosphere , the earth , the air and water . Exchanges take place in several ways , including respiration , transpiration , combustion , and decomposition . The carbon balance , or carbon budget , is the balance of exchange between the four reservoirs . Debate about 're - balancing the carbon cycle ' arises from a concern that use of fossil fuels , which has accelerated since the start of the industrial revolution , has caused carbon to accumulate in the atmosphere . Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are estimated to have risen from 280 ppm to almost 400 ppm since 1800 and this is linked to global warming . It is therefore argued that the carbon cycle should be re-balanced by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere . ` Carbon cycle re-balancing ' is a useful name for a group of environmental policies listed below . The name gives a specific reason for adopting these policies . Related names , including pleas for sustainable development and participation in the green movement are politics-based rather than science-based . Carbon offset - for example by photosynthesis ( e.g. in new forests ) Carbon capture and storage - extraction of CO2 and placing it underground or underwater Carbon capture and transformation - extraction of CO2 and reacting it with hydrogen via renewable energy electrolysis to create methane as an energy store/carrier . Low to neutral cycle Sustainable energy - a shift from fossil fuels energy to wind power and solar power Nuclear power - as an alternative to fossil fuels Sustainable design - to reduce inputs and outputs of energy Sustainable transport - to reduce reliance on fossil fuels Burning domestic refuse to generate power can be promoted as a recycling , and therefore sustainable , policy . But from a carbon cycle re-balancing standpoint it is better to compost as much domestic refuse as possible .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon_cycle_re-balancing", "rank": 87, "score": 84417 }, { "content": "Title: Paleoatmosphere Content: A paleoatmosphere ( or palaeoatmosphere ) is an atmosphere , particularly that of Earth , at some unspecified time in the geological past . The composition of Earth 's paleoatmosphere can be inferred today from the study of the abundance of proxy materials such as iron oxides , charcoal and the stomatal density of fossil leaves in geological deposits . Although today 's atmosphere is dominated by nitrogen ( about 78 % ) , oxygen ( about 21 % ) , and argon ( about 1 % ) , the pre-biological atmosphere is thought to have been a highly reducing atmosphere , having virtually no free oxygen , virtually no argon , which is generated by the radioactive decay of 40K , and to have been dominated by nitrogen , carbon dioxide and methane . Appreciable concentrations of free oxygen were probably not present until about 2,500 million years ago ( Ma ) . After the Great Oxygenation Event , quantities of oxygen produced as a by-product of photosynthesis by cyanobacteria or blue-green algae began to exceed the quantities of chemically reducing materials , notably dissolved iron . By the beginning of the Cambrian period 541 Ma , free oxygen concentrations had increased sufficiently to enable the evolution of multicellular organisms . Following the subsequent appearance , rapid evolution and radiation of land plants , which covered much of the Earth 's land surface , beginning about 450 Ma , oxygen concentrations reached and later exceeded current values during the early Carboniferous , when atmospheric carbon dioxide was drawn down below current concentrations . This may have contributed to the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse during the Moscovian and Kasimovian ages of the Pennsylvanian subperiod .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Paleoatmosphere", "rank": 88, "score": 84257 }, { "content": "Title: Kenneth Hare Content: Fredrick Kenneth Hare , ( February 5 , 1919 -- September 3 , 2002 ) was a Canadian climatologist and academic , who researched atmospheric carbon dioxide , climate change , drought , and arid zone climates and was a strong advocate for preserving the natural environment .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Kenneth_Hare", "rank": 89, "score": 84161 }, { "content": "Title: Controlled atmosphere Content: A controlled atmosphere is an agricultural storage method in which the concentrations of oxygen , carbon dioxide and nitrogen , as well as the temperature and humidity of a storage room are regulated . Both dry commodities and fresh fruit and vegetables can be stored in controlled atmospheres .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Controlled_atmosphere", "rank": 90, "score": 83924 }, { "content": "Title: Hyperventilation Content: Hyperventilation ( also called overbreathing ) occurs when the rate and quantity of alveolar ventilation of carbon dioxide exceeds the body 's production of carbon dioxide . A person may regularly hyperventilate , a condition called hyperventilation syndrome . When alveolar ventilation is excessive , more carbon dioxide will be removed from the blood stream than the body can produce . This causes the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood stream to fall and produces a state known as hypocapnia . The body normally attempts to compensate for this metabolically . If excess ventilation can not be compensated metabolically , it will lead to a rise in blood pH. This rise in blood pH is known as respiratory alkalosis . When hyperventilation leads to respiratory alkalosis , it may cause a number of physical symptoms : dizziness , tingling in the lips , hands or feet , headache , weakness , fainting and seizures . In extreme cases it can cause carpopedal spasms ( flapping and contraction of the hands and feet ) . There are factors that initiate hyperventilation and others can sustain it ; for example , physiological stress or a feeling of anxiety can initiate it ; anxiety may also sustain it . Other factors that initiate or sustain hyperventilation include reduced air pressure at high altitudes , head injury , stroke , respiratory disorders such as asthma and pneumonia , cardiovascular problems such as pulmonary embolisms , anemia , and adverse reactions to certain drugs . Hyperventilation can also be mechanically produced in people on respirators and can also be brought about voluntarily , by taking many deep breaths in rapid succession .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Hyperventilation", "rank": 91, "score": 83825 }, { "content": "Title: Mazuku Content: In geology , a mazuku ( Swahili : evil wind ) is a pocket of carbon dioxide-rich air that can be lethal to any human or animal life inside . Mazuku are created when carbon dioxide accumulates in pockets low to the ground . CO2 is heavier than air , which causes it to stay close to the ground , and is also undetectable by human olfactory or visual senses in most conditions . Mazuku can be related to volcanic activity or to a natural disaster known as a limnic eruption . In the first case , noxious gases are released from the Earth 's crust into the atmosphere , whereas in the second case the gases originate deep in a lake and boil rapidly to the surface . Because of their nature as sporadic and subtle events , few mazuku have been recorded , but there is a growing understanding of them based on historical and fossil evidence .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Mazuku", "rank": 92, "score": 83822 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean acidification Content: Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth 's oceans , caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Seawater is slightly basic ( meaning pH > 7 ) , and the process in question is a shift towards pH-neutral conditions rather than a transition to acidic conditions ( pH < 7 ) . Ocean alkalinity is not changed by the process , or may increase over long time periods due to carbonate dissolution . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the carbon dioxide from human activity released into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes . To achieve chemical equilibrium , some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid . Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion , thus increasing ocean acidity ( H + ion concentration ) . Between 1751 and 1996 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14 , representing an increase of almost 35 % in H + ion concentration in the world 's oceans . Earth System Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogues and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and disrupt the provision of many goods and services associated with the ocean . Increasing acidity is thought to have a range of potentially harmful consequences for marine organisms , such as depressing metabolic rates and immune responses in some organisms , and causing coral bleaching . By increasing the presence of free hydrogen ions , each molecule of carbonic acid that forms in the oceans ultimately results in the conversion of two carbonate ions into bicarbonate ions . This net decrease in the amount of carbonate ions available makes it more difficult for marine calcifying organisms , such as coral and some plankton , to form biogenic calcium carbonate , and such structures become vulnerable to dissolution . Ongoing acidification of the oceans threatens food chains connected with the oceans . As members of the InterAcademy Panel , 105 science academies have issued a statement on ocean acidification recommending that by 2050 , global emissions be reduced by at least 50 % compared to the 1990 level . While ongoing ocean acidification is anthropogenic in origin , it has occurred previously in Earth 's history . The most notable example is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , which occurred approximately 56 million years ago . For reasons that are currently uncertain , massive amounts of carbon entered the ocean and atmosphere , and led to the dissolution of carbonate sediments in all ocean basins . Ocean acidification has been called the `` evil twin of global warming '' and `` the other problem '' .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Ocean_acidification", "rank": 93, "score": 83703 }, { "content": "Title: Emission Reduction Unit Content: The emission reduction unit ( ERU ) is an emissions unit issued under a Joint Implementation project in terms of the Kyoto Protocol . An ERU represents a reduction of greenhouse gases under the Joint Implementation mechanism , where it represents one tonne of equivalent reduced . To allow comparison between the different effects of gases on the environment , scientists have defined multipliers for gases that compare their greenhouse potency ( global warming potential ) relative to that of carbon dioxide . One example of a Joint Implementation project resulting in an emission reduction unit , is the production of biogases by landfill sites . These gases consist of mainly methane which escapes to the atmosphere if it is not collected . The main reason for dealing with methane is that it has a 100-year global warming potential multiplier of 25 compared to carbon dioxide ( i.e. has 25 times the greenhouse potency ) . Collection of methane is usually accompanied by its combustion . Burning one tonne of methane produces nearly 3 tonnes of , thus reducing its greenhouse effect by ( 25-3 = 22 ) ERU . In December 2012 , ERU prices crashed to a low of 15 euro cents before recovering to 23c after news that EU 's Climate Change Committee was to vote on a ban of ERUs from countries that have not signed up to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol . In January 2013 , Bloomberg reported that emission reduction unit prices declined 89 percent in 2012", "qid": "377", "docid": "Emission_Reduction_Unit", "rank": 94, "score": 83613 }, { "content": "Title: Black carbon Content: Chemically , black carbon ( BC ) is a component of fine particulate matter ( PM ≤ 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter ) . Black carbon consists of pure carbon in several linked forms . It is formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels , biofuel , and biomass , and is emitted in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot . Black carbon causes human morbidity and premature mortality . In climatology , black carbon is a climate forcing agent . Black carbon warms the Earth by absorbing sunlight and heating the atmosphere and by reducing albedo when deposited on snow and ice ( direct effects ) and indirectly by interaction with clouds , with the total forcing of 1.1 W/m2 . Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks , whereas carbon dioxide has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years . The term black carbon is also used in soil sciences and geology , referring either to deposited atmospheric black carbon or to directly incorporated black carbon from vegetation fires . Especially in the tropics , black carbon in soils significantly contributes to fertility as it is able to absorb important plant nutrients .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Black_carbon", "rank": 95, "score": 83374 }, { "content": "Title: Kaya identity Content: The Kaya identity is an identity stating that the total emission level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be expressed as the product of four factors : human population , GDP per capita , energy intensity ( per unit of GDP ) , and carbon intensity ( emissions per unit of energy consumed ) . It is a concrete form of the more general I = PAT equation relating factors that determine the level of human impact on climate . The Kaya identity is both simple and tricky , as it can be reduced to only two terms , but it is developed so that the carbon emission calculation becomes easy , as per the available data , or generally in which format the data is available .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Kaya_identity", "rank": 96, "score": 83295 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-neutral fuel Content: Carbon-neutral fuels can refer to a variety of energy fuels or energy systems which have no net greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint . One class is synthetic fuel ( including methane , gasoline , diesel fuel , jet fuel or ammonia ) produced from sustainable or nuclear energy used to hydrogenate waste carbon dioxide recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater . Other types can be produced from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines , solar panels , and hydroelectric power stations . Such fuels are potentially carbon-neutral because they do not result in a net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases . Until captured carbon is used for plastics feedstock , carbon neutral fuel synthesis is the primary means of carbon capture and utilization or recycling . To the extent that carbon-neutral fuels displace fossil fuels , or if they are produced from waste carbon or seawater carbonic acid , and their combustion is subject to carbon capture at the flue or exhaust pipe , they result in negative carbon dioxide emission and net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere , and thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas remediation . Such power to gas carbon-neutral and carbon-negative fuels can be produced by the electrolysis of water to make hydrogen used in the Sabatier reaction to produce methane which may then be stored to be burned later in power plants as synthetic natural gas , transported by pipeline , truck , or tanker ship , or be used in gas to liquids processes such as the Fischer -- Tropsch process to make traditional fuels for transportation or heating . Carbon-neutral fuels are used in Germany and Iceland for distributed storage of renewable energy , minimizing problems of wind and solar intermittency , and enabling transmission of wind , water , and solar power through existing natural gas pipelines . Such renewable fuels could alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels , enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles . A 250 kilowatt synthetic methane plant has been built in Germany and it is being scaled up to 10 megawatts .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Carbon-neutral_fuel", "rank": 97, "score": 83243 }, { "content": "Title: Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide Content: The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide ( ERC ) is the conversion of carbon dioxide to more reduced chemical species using electrical energy . The first examples of electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide are from the 19th century , when carbon dioxide was reduced to carbon monoxide using a zinc cathode . Research in this field intensified in the 1980s following the oil embargoes of the 1970s . Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide represents a possible means of producing chemicals or fuels , converting carbon dioxide to organic feedstocks such as formic acid ( HCOOH ) , methanol ( CH3OH ) , ethylene ( C2H4 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Electrochemical_reduction_of_carbon_dioxide", "rank": 98, "score": 83218 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse effect Content: The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Greenhouse_effect", "rank": 99, "score": 83009 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "377", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 100, "score": 82978 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Future of Earth Content: The biological and geological future of Earth can be extrapolated based upon the estimated effects of several long-term influences . These include the chemistry at Earth 's surface , the rate of cooling of the planet 's interior , the gravitational interactions with other objects in the Solar System , and a steady increase in the Sun 's luminosity . An uncertain factor in this extrapolation is the ongoing influence of technology introduced by humans , such as climate engineering , which could cause significant changes to the planet . The current Holocene extinction is being caused by technology and the effects may last for up to five million years . In turn , technology may result in the extinction of humanity , leaving the planet to gradually return to a slower evolutionary pace resulting solely from long-term natural processes . Over time intervals of hundreds of millions of years , random celestial events pose a global risk to the biosphere , which can result in mass extinctions . These include impacts by comets or asteroids with diameters of 5 -- or more , and the possibility of a massive stellar explosion , called a supernova , within a 100-light-year radius of the Sun , called a Near-Earth supernova . Other large-scale geological events are more predictable . If the long-term effects of global warming are disregarded , Milankovitch theory predicts that the planet will continue to undergo glacial periods at least until the Quaternary glaciation comes to an end . These periods are caused by variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit . As part of the ongoing supercontinent cycle , plate tectonics will probably result in a supercontinent in 250 -- 350 million years . Some time in the next 1.5 -- 4.5 billion years , the axial tilt of the Earth may begin to undergo chaotic variations , with changes in the axial tilt of up to 90 ° . During the next four billion years , the luminosity of the Sun will steadily increase , resulting in a rise in the solar radiation reaching the Earth . This will result in a higher rate of weathering of silicate minerals , which will cause a decrease in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . In about 600 million years from now , the level of CO2 will fall below the level needed to sustain C3 carbon fixation photosynthesis used by trees . Some plants use the C4 carbon fixation method , allowing them to persist at concentrations as low as 10 parts per million . However , the long-term trend is for plant life to die off altogether . The extinction of plants will be the demise of almost all animal life , since plants are the base of the food chain on Earth . In about one billion years , the solar luminosity will be 10 % higher than at present . This will cause the atmosphere to become a `` moist greenhouse '' , resulting in a runaway evaporation of the oceans . As a likely consequence , plate tectonics will come to an end , and with them the entire carbon cycle . Following this event , in about 2 − 3 billion years , the planet 's magnetic dynamo may cease , causing the magnetosphere to decay and leading to an accelerated loss of volatiles from the outer atmosphere . Four billion years from now , the increase in the Earth 's surface temperature will cause a runaway greenhouse effect , heating the surface enough to melt it . By that point , all life on the Earth will be extinct . The most probable fate of the planet is absorption by the Sun in about 7.5 billion years , after the star has entered the red giant phase and expanded to cross the planet 's current orbit .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Future_of_Earth", "rank": 1, "score": 165642 }, { "content": "Title: Impact event Content: An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects . Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems , though the most frequent involve asteroids , comets or meteoroids and have minimal impact . When large objects impact terrestrial planets like the Earth , there can be significant physical and biospheric consequences , though atmospheres mitigate many surface impacts through atmospheric entry . Impact craters and structures are dominant landforms on many of the Solar System 's solid objects and present the strongest empirical evidence for their frequency and scale . Impact events appear to have played a significant role in the evolution of the Solar System since its formation . Major impact events have significantly shaped Earth 's history , have been implicated in the formation of the Earth -- Moon system , the evolutionary history of life , the origin of water on Earth and several mass extinctions . Notable impact events include the Chicxulub impact , 66 million years ago , believed to be the cause of the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event . Throughout recorded history , hundreds of Earth impacts ( and exploding bolides ) have been reported , with some occurrences causing deaths , injuries , property damage , or other significant localised consequences . One of the best-known recorded impacts in modern times was the Tunguska event , which occurred in Siberia , Russia , in 1908 . The 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor event is the only known such incident in modern times to result in a large number of injuries , excluding the 1490 Ch ` ing-yang event in China , and the Chelyabinsk meteor is the largest recorded object to have encountered the Earth since the Tunguska event . The Comet Shoemaker -- Levy 9 impact provided the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects , when the comet broke apart and collided with Jupiter in July 1994 . An extrasolar impact was observed in 2013 , when a massive terrestrial planet impact was detected around the star ID8 in the star cluster NGC 2547 by NASA 's Spitzer space telescope and confirmed by ground observations . Impact events have been a plot and background element in science fiction .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Impact_event", "rank": 2, "score": 122109 }, { "content": "Title: Earth Changes Content: The phrase `` Earth Changes '' was coined by the American psychic Edgar Cayce ( 1877-1945 ) to refer to the belief that the world would soon enter on a series of cataclysmic events causing major alterations in human life on the planet . This includes `` natural events '' ( such as major earthquakes , the melting of the polar ice caps , a pole shift of the planetary axis , major weather events , solar flares and so on ) as well as huge changes of the local and global social , economical and political systems .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Earth_Changes", "rank": 3, "score": 121611 }, { "content": "Title: History of Earth Content: The history of Earth concerns the development of the planet Earth from its formation to the present day . Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to the understanding of the main events of the Earth 's past . The age of Earth is approximately one-third of the age of the universe . An immense amount of geological change has occurred in that timespan , accompanied by the emergence of life and its subsequent evolution . Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago by accretion from the solar nebula . Volcanic outgassing probably created the primordial atmosphere and then the ocean ; but the atmosphere contained almost no oxygen and so would have been toxic to most modern life including humans . Much of the Earth was molten because of frequent collisions with other bodies which led to extreme volcanism . A giant impact collision with a planet-sized body named Theia while Earth was in its earliest stage , also known as Early Earth , is thought to have been responsible for forming the Moon . Over time , the Earth cooled , causing the formation of a solid crust , and allowing liquid water to exist on the surface . The geological time scale ( GTS ) clock ( see graphic ) depicts the larger spans of time from the beginning of the Earth as well as a chronology of some definitive events of Earth history . The Hadean Eon represents time before the reliable ( fossil ) record of life beginning on Earth ; it began with the formation of the planet and ended at 4.0 billion years ago as defined by international convention . The Archean and Proterozoic eons follow ; they produced the abiogenesis of life on Earth and then the evolution of early life . The succeeding eon is the Phanerozoic , which is represented by its three component eras : the Palaeozoic ; the Mesozoic , which spanned the rise , reign , and climactic extinction of the huge dinosaurs ; and the Cenozoic , which presented the subsequent development of dominant mammals on Earth . Hominins , the earliest direct ancestors of the human clade , rose sometime during the latter part of the Miocene epoch ; the precise time marking the first hominins is broadly debated over a current range of 13 to 4 mya . The succeeding Quaternary period is the time of recognizable humans , i.e. , the genus Homo , but that period 's two million-year-plus term of the recent times is too small to be visible at the scale of the GTS graphic . ( Notes re the graphic : Ga means `` billion years '' ; Ma , `` million years '' . ) The earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates at least from 3.5 billion years ago , during the Eoarchean Era after a geological crust started to solidify following the earlier molten Hadean Eon . There are microbial mat fossils such as stromatolites found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia . Other early physical evidence of a biogenic substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks discovered in southwestern Greenland as well as `` remains of biotic life '' found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia . According to one of the researchers , `` If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in the universe . '' Living forms derived from photosynthesis appeared between 3.2 and 2.4 billion years ago and began enriching the atmosphere with oxygen . Life remained mostly small and microscopic until about 580 million years ago , when complex multicellular life arose , developed over time , and culminated in the Cambrian Explosion about 541 million years ago . This event drove a rapid diversification of life forms on Earth that produced most of the major phyla known today ; and it marked the end of the Proterozoic Eon and the beginning of the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era . More than 99 percent of all species , amounting to over five billion species , that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct . Estimates on the number of Earth 's current species range from 10 million to 14 million , of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described . More recently , in May 2016 , scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described . Geological change has been a constant of Earth 's crust since the time of its formation , and biological change since the first appearance of life . Species continue to evolve , taking on new forms , splitting into daughter species or going extinct in the process of adapting or dying in response to ever-changing physical environments . The process of plate tectonics continues to play a dominant role in the shaping of Earth 's oceans and continents and the living species they harbor . Changes in the biosphere -- now dominated by human activity -- continue , in turn , to produce significant effects on the atmosphere and other systems of the Earth 's surface , such as the integrity of the ozone layer , the proliferation of greenhouse gases , the conditions of productive soils and clean air and water , and others .", "qid": "378", "docid": "History_of_Earth", "rank": 4, "score": 114906 }, { "content": "Title: Geological history of Earth Content: The geological history of Earth follows the major events in Earth 's past based on the geologic time scale , a system of chronological measurement based on the study of the planet 's rock layers ( stratigraphy ) . Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago by accretion from the solar nebula , a disk-shaped mass of dust and gas left over from the formation of the Sun , which also created the rest of the Solar System . Earth was initially molten due to extreme volcanism and frequent collisions with other bodies . Eventually , the outer layer of the planet cooled to form a solid crust when water began accumulating in the atmosphere . The Moon formed soon afterwards , possibly as a result of the impact of a planetoid with the Earth . Outgassing and volcanic activity produced the primordial atmosphere . Condensing water vapor , augmented by ice delivered from comets , produced the oceans . As the surface continually reshaped itself over hundreds of millions of years , continents formed and broke apart . They migrated across the surface , occasionally combining to form a supercontinent . Roughly , the earliest-known supercontinent Rodinia , began to break apart . The continents later recombined to form Pannotia , , then finally Pangaea , which broke apart . The present pattern of ice ages began about , then intensified at the end of the Pliocene . The polar regions have since undergone repeated cycles of glaciation and thaw , repeating every 40,000 -- 100,000 years . The last glacial period of the current ice age ended about 10,000 years ago .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Geological_history_of_Earth", "rank": 5, "score": 113640 }, { "content": "Title: Near-Earth supernova Content: A near-Earth supernova is an explosion resulting from the death of a star that occurs close enough to the Earth ( roughly less than 10 to 300 parsecs ( 30 to 1000 light-years ) away ) to have noticeable effects on its biosphere .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Near-Earth_supernova", "rank": 6, "score": 113629 }, { "content": "Title: Milankovitch cycles Content: Milankovitch cycles describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth 's movements on its climate over thousands of years . The term is named after Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković . In the 1920s , he theorized that variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit resulted in cyclical variation in the solar radiation ( insolation ) reaching the Earth , and that this orbital forcing strongly influenced climatic patterns on Earth . The Earth 's orbit varies between nearly circular and mildly elliptical ( its eccentricity varies ) . When the orbit is more elongated , there is more variation in the distance between the Earth and the Sun , and in the amount of solar radiation , at different times in the year . In addition , the rotational tilt of the Earth ( its obliquity ) , which causes the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun , changes slightly . A greater tilt makes the seasons more extreme . Finally , the direction in the fixed stars pointed to by the Earth 's axis changes ( axial precession ) , while the Earth 's elliptical orbit around the Sun rotates ( apsidal precession ) . The combined effect of the two precessions is a cycle in which proximity to the Sun occurs during different astronomical seasons . If the Earth is closer to the Sun while the northern or southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun ( is in summer ) , then both effects work together to heat that hemisphere . If the Earth is further from the Sun during summer , the greater distance slightly reduces the heat of summer . Similar astronomical theories had been advanced in the 19th century by Joseph Adhemar , James Croll and others , but verification was difficult because there was no reliably dated evidence , and because it was unclear which periods were important . Now , materials on Earth that have been unchanged for millennia are being studied to indicate the history of Earth 's climate . A study of the chronology of Antarctic ice cores using oxygen-nitrogen ratios in air bubbles trapped in the ice , which appear to respond directly to the local insolation , concluded that the climatic response documented in the ice cores was driven by northern hemisphere insolation as proposed by the Milankovitch hypothesis . Analysis of deep-ocean cores and a seminal paper by Hays , Imbrie , and Shackleton provide additional validation of the Milankovitch hypothesis through physical artifacts . However , there are still several observations that the hypothesis does not explain .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Milankovitch_cycles", "rank": 7, "score": 110504 }, { "content": "Title: Pole shift hypothesis Content: The cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis suggests that there have been geologically rapid shifts in the relative positions of the modern-day geographic locations of the poles and the axis of rotation of the Earth , creating calamities such as floods and tectonic events . There is evidence of precession and changes in axial tilt , but this change is on much longer time-scales and does not involve relative motion of the spin axis with respect to the planet . However , in what is known as true polar wander , the solid Earth can rotate with respect to a fixed spin axis . Research shows that during the last 200 million years a total true polar wander of some 30 ° has occurred , but that no super-rapid shifts in the Earth 's pole were found during this period . A characteristic rate of true polar wander is 1 ° or less per million years . Between approximately 790 and 810 million years ago , when the supercontinent Rodinia existed , two geologically rapid phases of true polar wander may have occurred . In each of these , the magnetic poles of the Earth shifted by approximately 55 ° .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Pole_shift_hypothesis", "rank": 8, "score": 110473 }, { "content": "Title: Asteroid impact avoidance Content: Asteroid impact avoidance comprises a number of methods by which near-Earth objects ( NEO ) could be diverted , preventing destructive impact events . A sufficiently large impact by an asteroid or other NEOs would cause , depending on its impact location , massive tsunamis , multiple firestorms and an impact winter caused by the sunlight-blocking effect of placing large quantities of pulverized rock dust , and other debris , into the stratosphere . A collision between the Earth and an approximately 10-kilometre-wide object 66 million years ago is thought to have produced the Chicxulub Crater and the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event , widely held responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs . While the chances of a major collision are not great in the near term , there is a high probability that one will happen eventually unless defensive actions are taken . Recent astronomical events -- such as the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor along with the growing number of objects on the Sentry Risk Table -- have drawn renewed attention to such threats . NASA warns that the earth is unprepared .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Asteroid_impact_avoidance", "rank": 9, "score": 110027 }, { "content": "Title: SN 2008D Content: SN 2008D is a supernova detected with NASA 's Swift X-ray telescope . The explosion of the supernova precursor star , in the spiral galaxy NGC 2770 ( 88 million light years away ( 27 Mpc ) , was detected on January 9 , 2008 , by Carnegie-Princeton fellows Alicia Soderberg and Edo Berger , and Albert Kong and Tom Maccarone independently using Swift . They alerted eight other orbiting and ground-based observatories to record the event . This was the first time that astronomers have ever observed a supernova as it occurred . The supernova was determined to be of Type Ibc . The velocities measured from SN2008D indicated expansion rates of more than 10,000 kilometers per second . The explosion was off-center , with gas on one side of the explosion moving outward faster than on the other . This was the first time the X-ray emission pattern of a supernova ( which only lasted about five minutes ) was captured at the moment of its birth . Now that it is known what X-ray pattern to look for , the next generation of X-ray satellites is expected to find hundreds of supernovae every year exactly when they explode , which will allow searches for neutrino and gravitational wave bursts that are predicted to accompany the collapse of stellar cores and the birth of neutron stars .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_2008D", "rank": 10, "score": 109070 }, { "content": "Title: Toba catastrophe theory Content: The Toba supereruption was a supervolcanic eruption that occurred about 75,000 years ago at the site of present-day Lake Toba ( Sumatra , Indonesia ) . It is one of the Earth 's largest known eruptions . The Toba catastrophe theory holds that this event caused a global volcanic winter of 6 -- 10 years and possibly a 1,000-year-long cooling episode . In 1993 , science journalist Ann Gibbons suggested a link between the eruption and a population bottleneck in human evolution , and Michael R. Rampino of New York University and Stephen Self of the University of Hawaii at Manoa gave support to the idea . In 1998 , the bottleneck theory was further developed by Stanley H. Ambrose of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . Both the link and global winter theories are highly controversial . The Toba event is the most closely studied supereruption .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Toba_catastrophe_theory", "rank": 11, "score": 107403 }, { "content": "Title: Manson crater Content: The Manson impact crater is near the site of Manson , Iowa where an asteroid or comet nucleus struck the Earth during the Cretaceous Period , 74 Ma ( million years ago ) . It was one of the largest known impact events to have happened in North America . Previously it was thought to have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs until isotopic ages proved that it was too old . No surface evidence exists due to comparatively recent coverage by glacial till , and the site where the crater lies buried is now a flat landscape . But , hidden about 20 to below the surface is a buried structure about 38 km in diameter . It lies under the southeast corner of Pocahontas County and extends under portions of three adjoining counties . That an anomalous structure underlaid the area was known from unusual water well drill cuttings in 1912 of deformed rock , `` crystalline clast breccia with a melt matrix '' as a later report described it . A research investigation was started in 1955 , and it was labeled a `` cryptovolcanic structure '' ( a hypothetical volcanic steam explosion ) . Further investigation was undertaken by Robert S. Dietz who proposed an impact origin in 1959 and by Nicholas Short in 1966 who produced evidence of shocked quartz grains which confirmed the impact origin of the structure . In 1991 and 1992 the U.S. Geological Survey along with others including the Iowa Geological Survey conducted detailed research in part to test the possible connection of the Manson Crater with the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event . The / isotope ratio dating of the core from the impact structure gave an age of about 74 Ma , or about 10 Ma older than the K -- T boundary . The impactor is considered to have been a stoney meteorite about 2 km in diameter . The site at the time was the shore of a shallow inland sea the Western Interior Seaway . The impact disrupted granite , gneiss , and shales of the Precambrian basement as well as sedimentary formations of Paleozoic age , Devonian through Cretaceous . Limestone layers that give the rest of Iowa hard water were instantaneously vaporized down to the basement rocks , giving Manson the anomalous soft water that it has today .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Manson_crater", "rank": 12, "score": 107254 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 13, "score": 106996 }, { "content": "Title: Chicxulub impactor Content: The Chicxulub impactor ( -LSB- ˈtʃiːkʃəluːb -RSB- ) , also known as the K/Pg impactor and ( more speculatively ) as the Chicxulub asteroid , was an asteroid or comet at least 15 kilometres in diameter which struck the Earth at the end of the Cretaceous , approximately 66 million years ago , creating the Chicxulub crater . It impacted a few miles from the present-day town of Chicxulub in Mexico , after which the impactor and its crater are named . Because the estimated date of the object 's impact and the Cretaceous -- Paleogene boundary ( K -- Pg boundary ) coincide , there is a scientific consensus that its impact was the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event which caused the death of the planet 's non-avian dinosaurs and many other species . The impactor 's crater is more than 180 kilometers in diameter , making it the third largest known impact crater on Earth .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Chicxulub_impactor", "rank": 14, "score": 105744 }, { "content": "Title: E0102 Content: E0102 is the remnant of a supernova that exploded in the neighbouring galaxy known as the Small Magellanic Cloud . The supernova was caused when a star much more massive than the Sun collapsed under its own gravity . The explosion would have been visible from the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth over 1000 years ago . The appearance of E0102 is best explained by a model in which the ejecta is shaped like a cylinder that is being viewed almost exactly end-on . This model suggests that the explosion that created the E0102 remnant may itself have been strongly asymmetric , consistent with the rapid kicks given to neutron stars after supernova explosions . Another possibility is that the star exploded into a disk of material formed when material was shed from the equator of the pre-supernova red giant star . Such asymmetries have been observed in winds from lower mass red giants that form planetary nebulas . The remnant consists of an outer blast wave produced by the supernova , and an inner ring of cooler material . This inner ring is probably expanding ejecta from the explosion that is being heated by a shock wave travelling backwards into the ejecta .", "qid": "378", "docid": "E0102", "rank": 15, "score": 105467 }, { "content": "Title: Tunguska event Content: The Tunguska event was a large explosion that occurred near the Stony Tunguska River , in Yeniseysk Governorate ( now Krasnoyarsk Krai ) , Russia , on the morning of 30 June 1908 ( N.S. ) . The explosion over the sparsely populated Eastern Siberian Taiga flattened 2000 sqkm of forest yet caused no known human casualties . The explosion is generally attributed to the air burst of a meteoroid . It is classified as an impact event , even though no impact crater has been found ; the object is thought to have disintegrated at an altitude of 5 to rather than hit the surface of the Earth . The Tunguska event is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history . Studies have yielded different estimates of the meteoroid 's size , on the order of 60 to , depending on whether the body was a comet or a denser asteroid . Since the 1908 event , there have been an estimated 1,000 scholarly papers ( most in Russian ) published on the Tunguska explosion . In 2013 , a team of researchers published analysis results of micro-samples from a peat bog near the center of the affected area showing fragments that may be of meteoritic origin . Early estimates of the energy of the air burst range from 10 - to 30 megatons of TNT ( 130 PJ ) , depending on the exact height of burst estimated when the scaling-laws from the effects of nuclear weapons are employed . However , modern supercomputer calculations that include the effect of the object 's momentum find that more of the energy was focused downward than would be the case from a nuclear explosion and estimate that the airburst had an energy range from 3 to 5 megatons of TNT ( 13 to 21 PJ ) . The 15 megaton ( Mt ) estimate represents an energy about 1,000 times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima , Japan -- roughly equal to that of the United States ' Castle Bravo ( 15.2 Mt ) ground-based thermonuclear detonation on 1 March 1954 , and about one-third that of the Soviet Union 's Tsar Bomba explosion on October 30 , 1961 ( which , at 50 Mt , was the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated ) . It is estimated that the Tunguska explosion knocked down some 80 million trees over an area of 2150 km2 , and that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter magnitude scale . An explosion of this magnitude would be capable of destroying a large metropolitan area , but , due to the remoteness of the location , no fatalities were documented . This event has helped to spark discussion of asteroid impact avoidance .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Tunguska_event", "rank": 16, "score": 105443 }, { "content": "Title: Late Heavy Bombardment Content: The Late Heavy Bombardment ( abbreviated LHB and also known as the lunar cataclysm ) is an event thought to have occurred approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ( Ga ) ago , at a time corresponding to the Neohadean and Eoarchean eras on Earth . During this interval , a disproportionately large number of asteroids are theorized to have collided with the early terrestrial planets in the inner Solar System , including Mercury , Venus , Earth , and Mars . The LHB happened after the Earth and other rocky planets had formed and accreted most of their mass , but still quite early in Earth 's history . Evidence for the LHB derives from lunar samples brought back by the Apollo astronauts . Isotopic dating of Moon rocks implies that most impact melts occurred in a rather narrow interval of time . Several hypotheses attempt to explain the apparent spike in the flux of impactors ( i.e. asteroids and comets ) in the inner Solar System , but no consensus yet exists . The Nice model , popular among planetary scientists , postulates that the giant planets underwent orbital migration and in doing so , scattered objects in the asteroid and/or Kuiper belts into eccentric orbits , and into the path of the terrestrial planets . Other researchers argue that the lunar sample data do not require a cataclysmic cratering event near 3.9 Ga , and that the apparent clustering of impact-melt ages near this time is an artifact of sampling materials retrieved from a single large impact basin . They also note that the rate of impact cratering could differ significantly between the outer and inner zones of the Solar System .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Late_Heavy_Bombardment", "rank": 17, "score": 105271 }, { "content": "Title: Alvarez hypothesis Content: The Alvarez hypothesis posits that the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and many other living things during the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth . Prior to 2013 , it was commonly cited as having happened about 65 million years ago , but a 2013 paper by Renne et al. gave an updated value of 66 million years . Evidence indicates that the asteroid fell in the Yucatán Peninsula , at Chicxulub , Mexico . The hypothesis is named after the father-and-son team of scientists Luis and Walter Alvarez , who first suggested it in 1980 . In March 2010 , an international panel of scientists endorsed the asteroid hypothesis , specifically the Chicxulub impact , as being the cause of the extinction . A team of 41 scientists reviewed 20 years of scientific literature and in so doing also ruled out other theories such as massive volcanism . They had determined that a 10 -- space rock hurtled into earth at Chicxulub . For comparison , the Martian moon Phobos is 11 km and Mount Everest is almost 9 km . The collision would have released the same energy as 100000000 MtTNT , over a billion times the energy of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Alvarez_hypothesis", "rank": 18, "score": 104454 }, { "content": "Title: Impact winter Content: An impact winter is a hypothesized period of prolonged cold weather due to the impact of a large asteroid or comet on the Earth 's surface . If an asteroid were to strike land or a shallow body of water , it would eject an enormous amount of dust , ash , and other material into the atmosphere , blocking the radiation from the sun . This would cause the global temperature to decrease drastically . If an asteroid or comet with the diameter of about 5 km or more were to hit in a large deep body of water or explode before hitting the surface , there would still be an enormous amount of debris ejected into the atmosphere . It has been proposed that an impact winter could lead to mass extinction , wiping out many of the world 's existing species .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Impact_winter", "rank": 19, "score": 103625 }, { "content": "Title: Super Comet: After the Impact Content: Super Comet : After The Impact is a 2007 speculative documentary produced by ZDF and the Discovery Channel . It was directed by Stefan Schneider . The two-hour production hypothesizes the effects on modern-day earth of a large comet impacting in Mexico near the same location of the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event , the ancient impact of a comet or meteor that is believed to have triggered the mass extinction of the dinosaurs . The film alternates between interviews with climatologists and researchers and dramatized scenes following several groups of people as they attempt to survive in the days and months after the disaster : a separated family in France , a pair of scientists in Hawaii , a man who manages to survive for a period of time near the ground zero impact in Mexico , and a tribe in Cameroon .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Super_Comet:_After_the_Impact", "rank": 20, "score": 103429 }, { "content": "Title: SN 1054 Content: SN 1054 is a supernova that was first observed on 4 July 1054 , and remained visible for around two years . The event was recorded in contemporary Chinese astronomy , and references to it are also found in a later ( 13th-century ) Japanese document , and in a document from the Arab world . Furthermore , there are a number of proposed , but doubtful , references from European sources recorded in the 15th century , and perhaps a pictograph associated with the Ancestral Puebloan culture found near the Peñasco Blanco site in New Mexico . The remnant of SN 1054 , which consists of debris ejected during the explosion , is known as the Crab Nebula . It is located in the sky near the star Zeta Tauri ( ζ Tauri ) . The core of the exploding star formed a pulsar , called the Crab Pulsar ( or PSR B0531 +21 ) . The nebula and the pulsar that it contains are some of the most studied astronomical objects outside the Solar System . It is one of the few Galactic supernovae where the date of the explosion is well known . The two objects are the most luminous in their respective categories . For these reasons , and because of the important role it has repeatedly played in the modern era , SN 1054 is the best known supernova in the history of astronomy . The Crab Nebula is easily observed by amateur astronomers thanks to its brightness , and was also catalogued early on by professional astronomers , long before its true nature was understood and identified . When the French astronomer Charles Messier watched for the return of Halley 's Comet in 1758 , he confused the nebula for the comet , as he was unaware of the former 's existence . Due to this error , he created his catalogue of non-cometary nebulous objects , the Messier Catalogue , to avoid such mistakes in the future . The nebula is catalogued as the first Messier object , or M1 .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_1054", "rank": 21, "score": 102943 }, { "content": "Title: Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System Content: The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System ( ATLAS ) is an astronomical survey system for detection of dangerous asteroids a few weeks to days before their impacting Earth . The project was developed at the University of Hawaii with US$ 5 million funding from NASA , and its first element was deployed in 2015 . The automated system provides a one-week warning for a 45 m diameter asteroid , and a three-week warning for a 120 m one , as long as their radiant is not too close to the Sun and not too far into the Southern hemisphere . By comparison , the February 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor impact was from an object estimated at 17 m. Its radiant 's closeness to the Sun put it in the blind zone of any ATLAS-like system , but ATLAS would detect a similar object arriving from a dark direction approximately one day in advance . The first telescope became fully operational at the end of 2015 and the second one in March 2017 . ATLAS may be expanded geographically to several other locations in both hemispheres to provide continuous coverage , resilience to bad weather , and additional information on the orbit from the parallax effect . Additionally , ATLAS looks for dwarf planets , non-impacting asteroids , variable stars , and supernovae .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Asteroid_Terrestrial-impact_Last_Alert_System", "rank": 22, "score": 101995 }, { "content": "Title: SN 1987A Content: SN 1987A was a supernova in the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud ( a nearby dwarf galaxy ) . It occurred approximately 51.4 kpc from Earth . This was close enough that it was easily visible to the naked eye and it could be seen from the Southern Hemisphere . It was the closest observed supernova since SN 1604 , which occurred in the Milky Way itself . The light from the new supernova reached Earth on February 23 , 1987 . As the first supernova discovered in 1987 , it was labeled `` 1987A '' . Its brightness peaked in May with an apparent magnitude of about 3 and slowly declined in the following months . It was the first opportunity for modern astronomers to study the development of a supernova in great detail , and its observations have provided much insight into core-collapse supernovae . Of special importance , SN1987A provided the first chance to confirm by direct observation the radioactive source of the energy for visible light emissions by detection of predicted gamma-ray line radiation from two of its abundant radioactive nuclei , 56Co and 57Co . This definitely proved the radioactive nature of the long-duration post-explosion glow of supernovae .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_1987A", "rank": 23, "score": 101909 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene Impact Working Group Content: The Holocene Impact Working Group is a group of six scientists who hypothesize that meteorite impacts on Earth are more common than according to current scientific consensus . The group posits one large impact ( equivalent to a 10-megaton bomb ) every 1,000 years . This estimate is based on evidence of five to ten large impact events in the last 10,000 years . Satellite observations suggest the presence of many recent impact craters and landforms such as chevrons which some scientists believe were caused by megatsunamis . The chevrons often point in the direction of specific hypothesized impact craters , the supposition being that the chevrons were deposited by tsunamis originating from the impacts which formed those proposed craters . However , a study of chevrons by University of Washington geologist and tsunami expert Jody Bourgeois shows they are not consistent with the tsunami hypothesis . The group claims an impact event off the coasts of Australia and Madagascar around 2800 BCE , created an underwater feature it calls Burckle Crater . When the group made the hypothesis public in 2006 , they acknowledged it was likely to be controversial : `` I would n't expect 99.9 per cent of ( the scientific community ) to agree with us '' The hypothesis is contradicted by much of what is currently understood about impacts and tsunamis . The group is profiled in a 2012 episode of History 's Universe series , titled When Space Changed History . Current and past group members include : Associate Professor Ted Bryant , geomorphologist , Wollongong University , Australia Dr. Dallas Abbott , research scientist , Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory , New York City Slava Gusiakov , Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory , Russia Marie-Agnès Courty , soil scientist , European Center for Prehistoric Research , Tautavel , France Dee Breger , director of microscopy , Drexel University , Philadelphia Bruce Masse , environmental archaeologist , Los Alamos National Laboratory , New Mexico", "qid": "378", "docid": "Holocene_Impact_Working_Group", "rank": 24, "score": 101665 }, { "content": "Title: SNR 0509-67.5 Content: SNR 0509-67 .5 is a remnant from a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud ( LMC ) , that is 160,000 light years away in the constellation Dorado . It was probably a type Ia supernova , as indicated by the detection in 2004 of the elements silicon and iron . Any surviving stars have not moved far from the site of the explosion . The supernova occurred about 400 years delayed in Earth 's time frame . However , researchers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore , Md. have identified light from the supernova that was reflected off of interstellar dust , delaying its arrival at Earth by 400 years . This delay , called a light echo of the supernova explosion also allowed the astronomers to measure the spectral signature of the light from the explosion . By virtue of the color signature , astronomers were able to deduce it was a Type Ia supernova . Scientists have also observed the supernova remnant at X-ray and visible wavelengths , and studied a light echo that helps assess the energy involved in this unusually energetic supernova .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SNR_0509-67.5", "rank": 25, "score": 101578 }, { "content": "Title: Popigai crater Content: The Popigai crater ( or astrobleme ) in Siberia , Russia is tied with the Manicouagan Crater as the fourth largest verified impact crater on Earth . A large bolide impact created the 100 km diameter crater approximately 35 million years ago during the late Eocene epoch ( Priabonian stage ) . It is conjectured that it may have influenced the Eocene -- Oligocene extinction event . The crater is 300 km east from the outpost of Khatanga and 880 km NE of the city of Norilsk . It is designated by UNESCO as a Geopark , a site of special geological heritage . There is a small possibility that Popigai impact crater formed simultaneous with the approximately 35-million-year-old Chesapeake Bay and Toms Canyon impact craters . For decades the Popigai crater has fascinated paleontologists and geologists , but the entire area was completely off limits because of the diamonds found there and the mines constructed by gulag prisoners under Stalin . However , a major investigatory expedition was undertaken in 1997 , which greatly advanced understanding of the enigmatic structure . The impactor in this event has been identified as either an 8 km diameter chondrite asteroid , or a 5 km diameter stony asteroid . The shock pressures from the impact instantaneously transformed graphite in the ground into diamonds within a 13.6 km radius of the impact point . These diamonds are usually 0.5 to in diameter , though a few exceptional specimens are 10 mm in size . The diamonds not only inherited the tabular shape of the original graphite grains but they additionally preserved the original crystals ' delicate striations .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Popigai_crater", "rank": 26, "score": 101447 }, { "content": "Title: Climate across Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary Content: The climate across the Cretaceous -- Paleogene boundary ( K -- Pg or formerly the K -- T boundary ) is very important to geologic time as it marks a catastrophic global extinction event . Numerous theories have been proposed as to why this extinction event happened including an asteroid known as the Chicxulub asteroid , volcanism , or sea level changes . While the mass extinction is well documented , there is much debate about the immediate and long-term climatic and environmental changes caused by the event . The terrestrial climates at this time are poorly known , which limits the understanding of environmentally driven changes in biodiversity that occurred before the Chicxulub crater impact . Oxygen isotopes across the K -- T boundary suggest that oceanic temperatures fluctuated in the Late Cretaceous and through the boundary itself . Carbon isotope measurements of benthic foramifinera at the K -- T boundary suggest rapid , repeated fluctuations in oceanic productivity in the 3 million years before the final extinction , and that productivity and ocean circulation ended abruptly for at least tens of thousands of years just after the boundary , indicating devastation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems . Some researchers suggest that climate change is the main connection between the impact and the extinction . The impact perturbed the climate system with long-term effects that were much worse than the immediate , direct consequences of the impact .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Climate_across_Cretaceous–Paleogene_boundary", "rank": 27, "score": 101348 }, { "content": "Title: GRB 101225A Content: GRB 101225A , also known as the `` Christmas burst '' , was a cosmic explosion first detected by NASA 's Swift observatory on Christmas Day 2010 . The gamma-ray emission lasted at least 28 minutes , which is unusually long . Follow-up observations of the burst 's afterglow by the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories were unable to determine the object 's distance using spectroscopic methods . In papers published in the journal Nature , two different groups of astronomers proposed different theories about the event 's origin . Sergio Campana 's group proposes that the event was caused by a comet crashing onto a neutron star within our own galaxy . Christina Thöne 's group prefers a more conventional supernova mechanism , involving a merger between a helium star and a neutron star at a distance of about 5.5 billion light years from Earth .", "qid": "378", "docid": "GRB_101225A", "rank": 28, "score": 101228 }, { "content": "Title: Supercontinent cycle Content: The supercontinent cycle , sometimes called the Wilson cycle ( after its originator J. Tuzo Wilson ) , is the quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth 's continental crust . There are varying opinions as to whether the amount of continental crust is increasing , decreasing , or staying about the same , but it is agreed that the Earth 's crust is constantly being reconfigured . One complete supercontinent cycle is said to take 300 to 500 million years . Continental collision makes fewer and larger continents while rifting makes more and smaller continents .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Supercontinent_cycle", "rank": 29, "score": 100918 }, { "content": "Title: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event Content: The Cretaceous -- Paleogene ( K -- Pg ) extinction event , also known as the Cretaceous -- Tertiary ( K -- T ) extinction , was a mass extinction of some three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth that occurred over a geologically short period of time approximately 65 million years ago . With the exception of some ectothermic species like the leatherback sea turtle and crocodiles , no tetrapods weighing more than 25 kg survived . It marked the end of the Cretaceous period and with it , the entire Mesozoic Era , opening the Cenozoic Era that continues today . In the geologic record , the K -- Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K -- Pg boundary , which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks . The boundary clay shows high levels of the metal iridium , which is rare in the Earth 's crust but abundant in asteroids . As originally proposed in 1980 by a team of scientists led by Luis Alvarez , it is now generally thought that the K -- Pg extinction was caused by a massive comet or asteroid impact , estimated to be 10 km wide , 66 million years ago and its catastrophic effects on the global environment , including a lingering impact winter that made it impossible for plants and plankton to carry out photosynthesis . The impact hypothesis , also known as the Alvarez hypothesis , was bolstered by the discovery of the 180 km Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1990s , which provided conclusive evidence that the K -- Pg boundary clay represented debris from an asteroid impact . The fact that the extinctions occurred at the same time as the impact provides strong situational evidence that the K -- Pg extinction was caused by the asteroid . It was possibly accelerated by the creation of the Deccan Traps . However , some scientists maintain the extinction was caused or exacerbated by other factors , such as volcanic eruptions , climate change , or sea level change , separately or together . A wide range of species perished in the K -- Pg extinction . The best-known victims are the non-avian dinosaurs . However , the extinction also destroyed a plethora of other terrestrial organisms , including certain mammals , pterosaurs , birds , lizards , insects , and plants . In the oceans , the K -- Pg extinction killed off plesiosaurs and the giant marine lizards ( Mosasauridae ) and devastated fish , sharks , mollusks ( especially ammonites , which became extinct ) and many species of plankton . It is estimated that 75 % or more of all species on Earth vanished . Yet the devastation caused by the extinction also provided evolutionary opportunities . In the wake of the extinction , many groups underwent remarkable adaptive radiations -- a sudden and prolific divergence into new forms and species within the disrupted and emptied ecological niches resulting from the event . Mammals in particular diversified in the Paleogene , producing new forms such as horses , whales , bats , and primates . Birds , fish and perhaps lizards also radiated .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Cretaceous–Paleogene_extinction_event", "rank": 30, "score": 100697 }, { "content": "Title: Supervolcano Content: A supervolcano is an informal term that describes a volcano which has erupted more than 1015 kg ( 1012 t ) of ejecta . This corresponds to larger eruptions of Volcanic Explosivity Index ( VEI ) 7 , and all eruptions of VEI-8 and higher , or around 500 km3 or more of ejecta . A supervolcanic eruption may be a single short-term event , or a long-term massive lava flow lasting up to millions of years . Supervolcanoes occur when magma in the mantle rises into the crust but is unable to break through it and pressure builds in a large and growing magma pool until the crust is unable to contain the pressure . This can occur at hotspots ( for example , Yellowstone Caldera ) or at subduction zones ( for example , Toba ) . Another setting for the eruption of very large amounts of volcanic material is in large igneous provinces , which can cover huge areas with lava and volcanic ash , causing long-lasting climate change ( such as the triggering of a small ice age or global warming ) , which can threaten species with extinction . The Oruanui eruption of New Zealand 's Taupo Volcano ( around 25,360 years ago ) was the world 's most recent supereruption and a VEI-8 eruption .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Supervolcano", "rank": 31, "score": 99868 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 Eastern Mediterranean event Content: The 2002 Eastern Mediterranean Event was a high-energy upper atmosphere explosion over the Mediterranean Sea , around 34 ° N 21 ° E ( between Libya and Crete ) on June 6 , 2002 . This explosion , similar in power to a small atomic bomb , has been related to a small asteroid undetected while approaching Earth . The object disintegrated in an air burst impact and no meteorite fragments were recovered . The air burst occurred over the sea . The event occurred during the 2001 -- 2002 India -- Pakistan standoff , and there were concerns by General Simon Worden of the U.S. Air Force that if the upper atmosphere explosion had occurred closer to Pakistan or India , it could have sparked a nuclear war between the two countries .", "qid": "378", "docid": "2002_Eastern_Mediterranean_event", "rank": 32, "score": 99827 }, { "content": "Title: Bond event Content: Bond events are North Atlantic ice rafting events that are tentatively linked to climate fluctuations in the Holocene . Eight such events have been identified . Bond events were previously believed to exhibit a quasi ~ 1,500-year cycle , but the primary period of variability is now put at ~ 1,000 years . Gerard C. Bond of the Lamont -- Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University was the lead author of the 1997 paper that postulated the theory of 1470-year climate cycles in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic . However , more recent work has shown that these tracers provide little support for 1,500-year intervals of climate change , and the reported ~ 1,500 ± 500-year period was a statistical artifact . Furthermore , following publication of the Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005 ( GICC05 ) for the North GRIP ice core , it became clear that Dansgaar-Oescher Events also show no such a pattern . The North Atlantic ice-rafting events happen to correlate with episodes of lowered lake levels in the Mid-Atlantic region , USA , the most weak events of the Asian monsoon for at least the past 9,000 years , and also correlate with most aridification events in the Middle East for the past 55,000 years ( both Heinrich and Bond events ) . For reasons that are unclear , the only Holocene Bond event that has a clear temperature signal in the Greenland ice cores is the 8.2 kyr event .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Bond_event", "rank": 33, "score": 99421 }, { "content": "Title: List of meteor air bursts Content: Many explosions have been recorded in Earth 's atmosphere that are likely caused by the air burst that results from a meteor burning up as it hits the atmosphere . These types of meteors are also known as fireballs ( or bolides ) with the brightest known as superbolides . Contrary to smaller and common `` shooting stars '' , these larger meteors were originally asteroids and comets of a few to several tens of meters in diameter before impacting with Earth 's atmosphere . The best known is the 1908 Tunguska event . The appearance of extremely bright fireballs traveling across the sky is often witnessed from a distance , such as the 1947 Sikhote-Alin meteor and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor , both in Russia . If the bolide is large enough , fragments may survive such as the Chelyabinsk meteorite . Modern developments in infrasound detection by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization ( preparatory commission est. 1997 ) and infrared DSP satellite technology have increased the likelihood of detecting airbursts .", "qid": "378", "docid": "List_of_meteor_air_bursts", "rank": 34, "score": 99256 }, { "content": "Title: Tollmann's hypothetical bolide Content: Alexander Tollmann 's bolide , proposed by Kristan-Tollmann and Tollmann in 1994 , is a hypothesis presented by Austrian geologist Alexander Tollmann , suggesting that one or several bolides ( asteroids or comets ) struck the Earth at 7640 BCE ( ± 200 ) , with a much smaller one at 3150 BCE ( ± 200 ) . If true , this hypothesis explains early Holocene extinctions and possibly legends of the Universal Deluge . The claimed evidence for the event includes stratigraphic studies of tektites , dendrochronology , and ice cores ( from Camp Century , Greenland ) containing hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid ( indicating an energetic ocean strike ) as well as nitric acids ( caused by extreme heating of air ) . Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas in their book , Uriel 's Machine , argue that the 7640 BCE evidence is consistent with the dates of formation of a number of extant salt flats and lakes in dry areas of North America and Asia . They argue that these lakes are the result remains of multiple-kilometer-high waves that penetrated deeply into continents as the result of oceanic strikes that they proposed occurred .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Tollmann's_hypothetical_bolide", "rank": 35, "score": 98917 }, { "content": "Title: Anglo-Australian Near-Earth Asteroid Survey Content: The Anglo-Australian Near-Earth Asteroid Survey ( AANEAS ) operated from 1990-96 , becoming one of the most prolific programs of its type in the world . Apart from leading to the discovery of 38 near-Earth asteroids , 9 comets , 63 supernovae , several other astronomical phenomena and the delivery of a substantial proportion of all NEA astrometry obtained worldwide ( e.g. , 30 % in 1994-95 ) , AANEAS also led to many other scientific advances which were reported in the refereed literature .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Anglo-Australian_Near-Earth_Asteroid_Survey", "rank": 36, "score": 98814 }, { "content": "Title: Permian–Triassic extinction event Content: The Permian -- Triassic ( P -- Tr or P -- T ) extinction event , colloquially known as the Great Dying , the End-Permian Extinction or the Great Permian Extinction , occurred about 252 Ma ( million years ) ago , forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods , as well as the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras . It is the Earth 's most severe known extinction event , with up to 96 % of all marine species and 70 % of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct . It is the only known mass extinction of insects . Some 57 % of all families and 83 % of all genera became extinct . Because so much biodiversity was lost , the recovery of life on Earth took significantly longer than after any other extinction event , possibly up to 10 million years . Studies in Bear Lake County near the Idaho city of Paris showed a quick and dynamic rebound in a marine ecosystem , illustrating the remarkable resiliency of life . There is evidence for one to three distinct pulses , or phases , of extinction . Suggested mechanisms for the latter include one or more large meteor impact events , massive volcanism such as that of the Siberian Traps , and the ensuing coal or gas fires and explosions , and a runaway greenhouse effect triggered by sudden release of methane from the sea floor due to methane clathrate dissociation or methane-producing microbes known as methanogens ; possible contributing gradual changes include sea-level change , increasing anoxia , increasing aridity , and a shift in ocean circulation driven by climate change .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Permian–Triassic_extinction_event", "rank": 37, "score": 98128 }, { "content": "Title: David J. Lane (astronomer) Content: David J. Lane ( born 1963 ) is a Canadian astronomer at Saint Mary 's University , the past president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada , director of the Burke-Gaffney astronomical observatory , owner of the Abbey-Ridge Observatory , and creator of the planetarium software entitled the Earth Centered Universe . Asteroid 117032 Davidlane is named in his honour , and the asteroid lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter . Lane created the first software that enables Twitter users to request images of the Universe from an astronomical observatory ( i.e. , the Burke-Gaffney Observatory ) . The impetus is to foster awareness of the Universe by enabling citizens to readily access an observatory using social media , a project that has been heralded as an important innovation by international media . Lane , and fellow Canadian astronomer Paul Gray , discovered supernovas 1995F in NGC 2726 , SN 2005B in UGC 11066 , and 2005ea in MCG +10 -16 -61 . Kathryn Aurora Gray examined images acquired by Lane via his Abbey-Ridge Observatory and discovered a supernova in UGC 3378 ( SN 2010lt ) . Kathryn subsequently became the youngest person to have discovered a supernova . Lane was a featured guest on comet hunter David H. Levy 's internet radio show : Let 's Talk Stars . Observations from Lane 's astronomical observatory have also been used to improve the cosmic distance ladder .", "qid": "378", "docid": "David_J._Lane_(astronomer)", "rank": 38, "score": 98016 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Carancas impact event Content: The Carancas impact event refers to the fall of the Carancas chondritic meteorite on September 15 , 2007 , near the village of Carancas in Peru , close to the Bolivian border and Lake Titicaca . The impact created a crater and scorched earth around its location . A local official , Marco Limache , said that `` boiling water started coming out of the crater , and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby '' , as `` fetid , noxious '' gases spewed from the crater . Surface impact occurred above 3,800 m ( 12,467 ft ) . After the impact , villagers who had approached the impact site grew sick from a then-unexplained illness , with a wide array of symptoms . Two days later , Peruvian scientists confirmed that there had indeed been a meteorite strike , quieting widespread speculation that it may have been a geophysical rather than a celestial event . At that point , no further information on the cause of the mystery illness was known . The ground water in the local area is known to contain arsenic compounds , and the illness is now believed to have been caused by arsenic poisoning incurred when residents of the area inhaled the vapor of the boiling arsenic-contaminated water .", "qid": "378", "docid": "2007_Carancas_impact_event", "rank": 39, "score": 97733 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 40, "score": 96920 }, { "content": "Title: Solar cycle Content: The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is the nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun 's activity ( including changes in the levels of solar radiation and ejection of solar material ) and appearance ( changes in the number and size of sunspots , flares , and other manifestations ) . They have been observed ( by changes in the sun 's appearance and by changes seen on Earth , such as auroras ) for centuries . The changes on the sun cause effects in space , in the atmosphere , and on Earth 's surface . While it is the dominant variable in solar activity , aperiodic fluctuations also occur .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Solar_cycle", "rank": 41, "score": 96756 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 HQ124 Content: ( also written 2014 HQ124 ) is an Aten near-Earth asteroid roughly 370 m in diameter that passed 3.25 lunar distances ( LD ) from Earth on 8 June 2014 . It was discovered on 23 April 2014 by NEOWISE . It is estimated that an impact event would have had the energy equivalent of 2,000 megatons of TNT and would have created a 5 km impact crater . The news media misleadingly nicknamed it , The Beast . previously passed this close to Earth in 1952 and will not again until at least 2307 . Radar imaging suggests it may be a contact binary .", "qid": "378", "docid": "2014_HQ124", "rank": 42, "score": 96745 }, { "content": "Title: Earth Content: Earth ( from Eorðe -LSB- Γαῖα , Gaia -RSB- Terra ) , otherwise known as the World or the Globe , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Earth 's gravity interacts with other objects in space , especially the Sun and the Moon , Earth 's only natural satellite . During one orbit around the Sun , Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times ; thus , an Earth year is about 365.26 days long . Earth 's axis of rotation is tilted , producing seasonal variations on the planet 's surface . The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides , stabilizes the Earth 's orientation on its axis , and gradually slows its rotation . Earth 's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years . About 71 % of Earth 's surface is covered with water , mostly by its oceans . The remaining 29 % is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes , rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere . The majority of Earth 's polar regions are covered in ice , including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack . Earth 's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core , a liquid outer core that generates the Earth 's magnetic field , and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics . Within the first billion years of Earth 's history , life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth 's atmosphere and surface , leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms . Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , physical properties , and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive . In the history of the Earth , biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion , occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events . Over 99 % of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct . Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely ; most species have not been described . Over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival . Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures ; politically , the world has about 200 sovereign states .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Earth", "rank": 43, "score": 96243 }, { "content": "Title: Global change Content: Global change refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system . The system consists of the land , oceans , atmosphere , polar regions , life , the planet 's natural cycles and deep Earth processes . These constituent parts influence one another . The Earth system now includes human society , so global change also refers to large-scale changes in society . More completely , the term `` global change '' encompasses : population , climate , the economy , resource use , energy development , transport , communication , land use and land cover , urbanization , globalization , atmospheric circulation , ocean circulation , the carbon cycle , the nitrogen cycle , the water cycle and other cycles , sea ice loss , sea-level rise , food webs , biological diversity , pollution , health , over fishing , and more .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Global_change", "rank": 44, "score": 95896 }, { "content": "Title: Gamma-ray burst Content: In gamma-ray astronomy , Gamma-ray bursts ( GRBs ) are extremely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies . They are the brightest electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe . Bursts can last from ten milliseconds to several hours . After an initial flash of gamma rays , a longer-lived `` afterglow '' is usually emitted at longer wavelengths ( X-ray , ultraviolet , optical , infrared , microwave and radio ) . The intense radiation of most observed GRBs is believed to be released during a supernova or hypernova as a rapidly rotating , high-mass star collapses to form a neutron star , quark star , or black hole . A subclass of GRBs ( the `` short '' bursts ) appear to originate from a different process : the merger of binary neutron stars . The cause of the precursor burst observed in some of these short events may be the development of a resonance between the crust and core of such stars as a result of the massive tidal forces experienced in the seconds leading up to their collision , causing the entire crust of the star to shatter . The sources of most GRBs are billions of light years away from Earth , implying that the explosions are both extremely energetic ( a typical burst releases as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun will in its entire 10-billion-year lifetime ) and extremely rare ( a few per galaxy per million years ) . All observed GRBs have originated from outside the Milky Way galaxy , although a related class of phenomena , soft gamma repeater flares , are associated with magnetars within the Milky Way . It has been hypothesized that a gamma-ray burst in the Milky Way , pointing directly towards the Earth , could cause a mass extinction event . GRBs were first detected in 1967 by the Vela satellites , which had been designed to detect covert nuclear weapons tests . Following their discovery , hundreds of theoretical models were proposed to explain these bursts , such as collisions between comets and neutron stars . Little information was available to verify these models until the 1997 detection of the first X-ray and optical afterglows and direct measurement of their redshifts using optical spectroscopy , and thus their distances and energy outputs . These discoveries , and subsequent studies of the galaxies and supernovae associated with the bursts , clarified the distance and luminosity of GRBs , definitively placing them in distant galaxies .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Gamma-ray_burst", "rank": 45, "score": 95680 }, { "content": "Title: Younger Dryas impact hypothesis Content: The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis or Clovis comet hypothesis originally proposed that a large air burst or earth impact of one or more comets initiated the Younger Dryas cold period about 12,900 BP calibrated ( 10,900 14C uncalibrated ) years ago . The hypothesis has been contested by research showing that most of the conclusions can not be repeated by other scientists , and criticized because of misinterpretation of data and the lack of confirmatory evidence . The current impact hypothesis states that the air burst ( s ) or impact ( s ) of a swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comet fragments set areas of the North American continent on fire , causing the extinction of most of the megafauna in North America and the demise of the North American Clovis culture after the last glacial period . The Younger Dryas ice age lasted for about 1,200 years before the climate warmed again . This swarm is hypothesized to have exploded above or possibly on the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the region of the Great Lakes , though no impact crater has yet been identified and no physical model by which such a swarm could form or explode in the air has been proposed . Nevertheless , the proponents suggest that it would be physically possible for such an air burst to have been similar to , but orders of magnitude larger than , the Tunguska event of 1908 . The hypothesis proposed that animal and human life in North America not directly killed by the blast or the resulting coast-to-coast wildfires would have likely starved on the burned surface of the continent .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothesis", "rank": 46, "score": 95380 }, { "content": "Title: Shiva Hypothesis Content: William Napier ( astronomer ) and Victor Clube in their 1979 Nature Magazine article , ' A Theory of Terrestrial Catstrophism ' proposed the idea that gravitational disturbances caused by the Solar System crossing the plane of the Milky Way galaxy are enough to disturb comets in the Oort cloud surrounding the Solar System . This sends comets in towards the inner Solar System , which raises the chance of an impact . According to the hypothesis , this results in the Earth experiencing large impact events about every 30 million years ( such as the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event ) . Over 15 years later , Rampino and Haggerty fancifully re-named Napier and Clube 's Theory of Terrestrial Catstrophism after Shiva , the Hindu god of destruction . Though Rampino and Haggerty do not reference Napier and Clube 's original 1979 article in Nature Magazine , they do reference Clube and Napier 's later paper which demonstrates the requisite gravitational forces . Certainly Rampino was aware of Napier and Clube 's much earlier publication , as Rampino and Stothers ' letter to Nature Magazine in 1984 references it .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Shiva_Hypothesis", "rank": 47, "score": 95247 }, { "content": "Title: SN 1992bd Content: SN 1992bd was a type II supernova event in NGC 1097 , positioned some 1.5 ″ east and 9 ″ south of the galactic nucleus . It was discovered by astronomers Chris Smith and Lisa Wells on October 12 , 1992 . Spectra of the object collected October 17 showed it to have an expansion velocity of 7,500 km/s . Subsequent examination of archival images from the Hubble Space Telescope showed an image of the supernova had been captured on September 20 , 1992 , 12 days prior to its discovery with ground-based telescopes . The eruption occurred in the circumnuclear star-forming region of the galaxy .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_1992bd", "rank": 48, "score": 94480 }, { "content": "Title: Supernova Content: A supernova is an astronomical event that occurs during the last stellar evolutionary stages of a massive star 's life , whose dramatic and catastrophic destruction is marked by one final titanic explosion . This causes the sudden appearance of a `` new '' bright star , before slowly fading from sight over several weeks or months . Supernovae are more energetic than novae . In Latin , nova means `` new '' , referring astronomically to what appears to be a temporary new bright star . Adding the prefix `` super - '' distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae , which are far less luminous . The word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1931 . It is pronounced -LSB- ˌsuːpɚnoʊvə -RSB- with the plural supernovae -LSB- ˌsuːpɚnoʊviː -RSB- or supernovas ( abbreviated SN , plural SNe after `` supernovae '' ) . Only three Milky Way naked-eye supernova events have been observed during the last thousand years , though many have been seen in other galaxies using telescopes . The most recent directly observed supernova in the Milky Way was Kepler 's Supernova in 1604 , but the remnants of two more recent supernovae have also been found . Statistical observations of supernovae in other galaxies suggest they occur on average about three times every century in the Milky Way , and that any galactic supernova would almost certainly be observable with modern astronomical telescopes . Supernovae may expel much , if not all , of the material away from a star , at velocities up to or 10 % of the speed of light . This drives an expanding and fast-moving shock wave into the surrounding interstellar medium , and in turn , sweeping up an expanding shell of gas and dust , which is observed as a supernova remnant . Supernovae create , fuse and eject the bulk of the chemical elements produced by nucleosynthesis . Supernovae play a significant role in enriching the interstellar medium with the heavier atomic mass chemical elements . Furthermore , the expanding shock waves from supernovae can trigger the formation of new stars . Supernova remnants are expected to accelerate a large fraction of galactic primary cosmic rays , but direct evidence for cosmic ray production was found only in a few of them so far . They are also potentially strong galactic sources of gravitational waves . Theoretical studies indicate that most supernovae are triggered by one of two basic mechanisms : the sudden re-ignition of nuclear fusion in a degenerate star or the sudden gravitational collapse of a massive star 's core . In the first instance , a degenerate white dwarf may accumulate sufficient material from a binary companion , either through accretion or via a merger , to raise its core temperature enough to trigger runaway nuclear fusion , completely disrupting the star . In the second case , the core of a massive star may undergo sudden gravitational collapse , releasing gravitational potential energy as a supernova . While some observed supernovae are more complex than these two simplified theories , the astrophysical collapse mechanics have been established and accepted by most astronomers for some time . Due to the wide range of astrophysical consequences of these events , astronomers now deem supernovae research , across the fields of stellar and galactic evolution , as an especially important area for investigation .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Supernova", "rank": 49, "score": 94347 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 TC3 Content: ( Catalina Sky Survey temporary designation 8TA9D69 ) was an 80 t , 4.1 m diameter asteroid that entered Earth 's atmosphere on October 7 , 2008 . It exploded at an estimated 37 km above the Nubian Desert in Sudan . Some 600 meteorites , weighing a total of 10.5 kg , were recovered ; many of these belonged to a rare type known as ureilites , which contain , among other minerals , nanodiamonds . It was the first time that an asteroid impact had been predicted prior to its entry into the atmosphere as a meteor .", "qid": "378", "docid": "2008_TC3", "rank": 50, "score": 94049 }, { "content": "Title: Solar storm of 2012 Content: The solar storm of 2012 was an unusually large and strong coronal mass ejection ( CME ) event that occurred on July 23 that year . It missed the Earth with a margin of approximately nine days , as the Sun rotates around its own axis with a period of about 25 days . The region that produced the outburst was thus not pointed directly towards the Earth at that time . The strength of the eruption was comparable to the 1859 Carrington event that caused damage to electric equipment worldwide , which at that time consisted mostly of telegraph stations . The eruption tore through Earth 's orbit , hitting the STEREO-A spacecraft . The spacecraft is a solar observatory equipped to measure such activity , and because it was far away from the Earth and thus not exposed to the strong electrical currents that can be induced when a CME hits the Earth 's magnetosphere , it survived the encounter and provided researchers with valuable data . Based on the collected data , the eruption consisted of two separate ejections which were able to reach exceptionally high strength as the interplanetary medium around the Sun had been cleared by a smaller CME four days earlier . Had the CME hit the Earth , it is likely that it would have inflicted serious damage to electronic systems on a global scale . A 2013 study estimated that the economic cost to the United States would have been between $ 0.6 and 2.6 trillion USD . Ying D. Liu , professor at China 's State Key Laboratory of Space Weather , estimated that the recovery time from such a disaster would have been about four to ten years . The event occurred at a time of high sunspot activity during Solar cycle 24 .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Solar_storm_of_2012", "rank": 51, "score": 93672 }, { "content": "Title: Earth (Wu Xing) Content: In Chinese philosophy , earth , is the changing point of the matter . Earth is the third element in the Wu Xing cycle . Earth is a balance of both yin and yang , the feminine and masculine together . Its motion is inward and centering , and its energy is stabilizing and conserving . It is associated with the color yellow and the planet Saturn , and it lies at the center of the compass in the Chinese cosmos . It is associated with the turn of each of the four seasons and with damp weather . It governs the Spleen , Stomach , mouth and muscles . Its negative emotion is anxiety and its positive emotion is empathy . Its Primal Spirit is represented by the Yellow Dragon . Colour Yellow , Golden ( Sun )", "qid": "378", "docid": "Earth_(Wu_Xing)", "rank": 52, "score": 93657 }, { "content": "Title: Last Days on Earth Content: The Last Days on Earth is a 20/20 science special which aired on ABC in August 2006 and has been aired on The History Channel . The show counts down the seven most likely ways in which human life could end , including gamma ray bursts , black holes , machine rule , asteroids , super volcanoes , nuclear war , pandemic flu , and climate change . It includes input from a number of scientists including Michio Kaku , Neil deGrasse Tyson , Stephen Hawking and Kevin Warwick . In 2007 it received an Emmy nomination for its graphic and artistic design .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Last_Days_on_Earth", "rank": 53, "score": 93537 }, { "content": "Title: Type Ia supernova Content: A type Ia supernova ( type one-a ) is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems ( two stars orbiting one another ) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf . The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white dwarf . Physically , carbon -- oxygen white dwarfs with a low rate of rotation are limited to below 1.44 solar masses . Beyond this , they re-ignite and in some cases trigger a supernova explosion . Somewhat confusingly , this limit is often referred to as the Chandrasekhar mass , despite being marginally different from the absolute Chandrasekhar limit where electron degeneracy pressure is unable to prevent catastrophic collapse . If a white dwarf gradually accretes mass from a binary companion , the general hypothesis is that its core will reach the ignition temperature for carbon fusion as it approaches the limit . If the white dwarf merges with another white dwarf ( a very rare event ) , it will momentarily exceed the limit and begin to collapse , again raising its temperature past the nuclear fusion ignition point . Within a few seconds of initiation of nuclear fusion , a substantial fraction of the matter in the white dwarf undergoes a runaway reaction , releasing enough energy ( 1 -- ) to unbind the star in a supernova explosion . This type Ia category of supernovae produces consistent peak luminosity because of the uniform mass of white dwarfs that explode via the accretion mechanism . The stability of this value allows these explosions to be used as standard candles to measure the distance to their host galaxies because the visual magnitude of the supernovae depends primarily on the distance . In May 2015 , NASA reported that the Kepler space observatory observed KSN 2011b , a Type Ia supernova in the process of exploding . Details of the pre-nova moments may help scientists better judge the quality of Type Ia supernovae as standard candles , which is an important link in the argument for dark energy .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Type_Ia_supernova", "rank": 54, "score": 92922 }, { "content": "Title: Supernova (disambiguation) Content: A supernova is an astronomical event , a type of stellar explosion . Supernova or Super Nova may also refer to :", "qid": "378", "docid": "Supernova_(disambiguation)", "rank": 55, "score": 92849 }, { "content": "Title: T Pyxidis Content: T Pyxidis ( T Pyx ) is a recurrent nova and nova remnant in the constellation Pyxis . It is a binary star system and its distance is estimated at about 4783 pc from Earth . It contains a Sun-like star and a white dwarf . Because of their close proximity and the larger mass of the white dwarf , the latter draws matter from the larger , less massive star . The influx of matter on the white dwarf 's surface causes periodic thermonuclear explosions to occur . The usual apparent magnitude of this star system is 15.5 , but there occurred eruptions with maximal apparent magnitude of about 7.0 in the years 1890 , 1902 , 1920 , 1944 , 1966 and 2011 . Evidence seems to indicate that T Pyxidis may have increased in mass despite the nova eruptions , and is now close to the Chandrasekhar limit when it might explode as a supernova . When a white dwarf reaches this limit it will collapse under its own weight and cause a type 1a supernova .", "qid": "378", "docid": "T_Pyxidis", "rank": 56, "score": 92700 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 phenomenon Content: The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or otherwise transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012 . This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar , and as such , festivities to commemorate the date took place on 21 December 2012 in the countries that were part of the Maya civilization ( Mexico , Guatemala , Honduras , and El Salvador ) , with main events at Chichén Itzá in Mexico , and Tikal in Guatemala . Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae were proposed as pertaining to this date . A New Age interpretation held that the date marked the start of a period during which Earth and its inhabitants would undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation , and that 21 December 2012 would mark the beginning of a new era . Others suggested that the date marked the end of the world or a similar catastrophe . Scenarios suggested for the end of the world included the arrival of the next solar maximum , an interaction between Earth and the black hole at the center of the galaxy , or Earth 's collision with a planet called Nibiru . Scholars from various disciplines quickly dismissed predictions of concomitant cataclysmic events as they arose . Professional Mayanist scholars stated that no extant classic Maya accounts forecast impending doom , and that the idea that the Long Count calendar ends in 2012 misrepresented Maya history and culture , while astronomers rejected the various proposed doomsday scenarios as pseudoscience , easily refuted by elementary astronomical observations .", "qid": "378", "docid": "2012_phenomenon", "rank": 57, "score": 92666 }, { "content": "Title: Monte Agliale Supernovae and Asteroid Survey Content: The Monte Agliale Supernovae and Asteroid Survey ( MASAS ) is an offshoot of the Monte Agliale Supernovae Search ( MASS ) , conducted from the Monte Agliale Astronomical Observatory . It has netted , on September 11 , 2000 ( IAUC 7494 , September 22 , 2000 ) , the discovery by Matteo M. M. Santangelo of supernova SN 2000dl in the distant galaxy UGC 1191 , near the center of the galaxy cluster Abell 240 . The distance is estimated at roughly 1,000,000,000 light-years , making it the ` first ' most distant supernova discovered by an amateur .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Monte_Agliale_Supernovae_and_Asteroid_Survey", "rank": 58, "score": 92549 }, { "content": "Title: Catastrophism Content: Catastrophism is the theory that the Earth has been affected in the past by sudden , short-lived , violent events , possibly worldwide in scope . This was in contrast to uniformitarianism ( sometimes described as gradualism ) , in which slow incremental changes , such as erosion , created all the Earth 's geological features . Uniformitarianism held that the present is the key to the past , and that all things continued as they were from the indefinite past . Since the early disputes , a more inclusive and integrated view of geologic events has developed , in which the scientific consensus accepts that there were some catastrophic events in the geologic past , but these were explicable as extreme examples of natural processes which can occur . Catastrophism held that geological epochs had ended with violent and sudden natural catastrophes such as great floods and the rapid formation of major mountain chains . Plants and animals living in the parts of the world where such events occurred were killed off , being replaced abruptly by the new forms whose fossils defined the geological strata . Some catastrophists attempted to relate at least one such change to the Biblical account of Noah 's flood . The concept was first popularised by the early 19th-century French scientist Georges Cuvier , who proposed that new life forms had moved in from other areas after local floods , and avoided religious or metaphysical speculation in his scientific writings .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Catastrophism", "rank": 59, "score": 92485 }, { "content": "Title: G1.9+0.3 Content: Supernova remnant G1 .9 +0.3 in the constellation Sagittarius is the youngest known supernova remnant ( SNR ) in the Milky Way Galaxy . The remnant 's young age was established by combining data from NASA 's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the VLA radio observatory . It was a type Ia supernova believed to have exploded about 25,000 years ago , and the signal began reaching Earth around 1890-1908 . The light from the supernova would have been visible to astronomers at that time had it not been obscured by the dense gas and dust of the Galactic Center , where it resides . Prior to this discovery , the youngest-known Milky Way supernova remnant was Cassiopeia A , at about 330 years . The remnant has a radius of over 1.3 light years .", "qid": "378", "docid": "G1.9+0.3", "rank": 60, "score": 92204 }, { "content": "Title: Supernovae in fiction Content: Supernovae in works of fiction often serve as plot devices . In the 1999 RTS game Homeworld , one of the missions take place in a dust belt near an active supernova . The protagonists ' target is a nearby research station observing the event . Despite the supernova being located lightyears from the mission area , its intense radiation is highly dangerous to ships wandering outside the dust banks . In the Star Trek universe , trilithium-based weapons can cause stars to go supernova by inhibiting their fusion processes . In the Star Wars universe , the Sun Crusher can cause stars to go supernova with its resonance torpedoes . In addition , Centerpoint Station can cause supernovae . In the mythos of the comic book character Superman , his home planet of Krypton is destroyed . Some interpretations of this origin story , such as the 2006 film Superman Returns depict the destruction of Krypton as being caused by its sun ( identified in the comics by the name Rao ) going supernova . In the Justice League Unlimited episode Patriot Act , many League members are away trying to prevent or smother a supernova explosion threatening a distant star system . In the 2000 film Supernova , the crew of the Nightingale is threatened by a blue giant that can explode at any moment ; the star is later destroyed , but by a 9th-dimensional bomb rather than a supernova . The 2005 film Supernova deals with the possibility of the Sun exploding . The 2009 direct-to-video film 2012 : Supernova is about life on Earth potentially being destroyed by a nearby supernova . The Futurama episode Roswell That Ends Well involves the main characters being sent back in time after radiation from a nearby supernova interacts with radiation produced by metal being heated in the ship 's microwave . The Algae Planet in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series is destroyed by its star going nova . In the PC-game FreeSpace 2 , the crucial Battle of Capella ends in the explosion of the star in a supernova . The French cartoon Once Upon a Time ... Space has one episode in which the protagonists must help to evacuate a planet near of a star that has gone supernova . In Antonella Gambotto-Burke 's novel The Pure Weight of the Heart , Angelica , the protagonist , gets stoned with William Grieve , the famous novelist , and says : `` The first known galactic supernovae were seen in - were seen in Lupus in 1006 . And ... then ... in , um ... in 1054 in Taurus ... and then in ... was it 1572 or 1575 ? One or the other . At any rate , they were observed in Cassiopeia . And then ... then ... um , then ... did I mention Taurus ? I did ? Excellent . But there were more . More Supernovae . More supernovae in Serpens . Fifteenth century . Which is interesting . I think so , do n't you ? Because I do . Think so . Supernovae in Serpens . Supernovae everywhere . '' Grieve narrows his eyes and replies : `` No supernovae in here . '' As Angelica is an astrophysicist , there are mentions of supernovae throughout the book . In the Star Trek : Voyager episode The Q and the Grey , several stars had exploded at one time . It later turned out that this was caused by the Q Civil War . In the Star Trek episode All Our Yesterdays , the Enterprise attempts to evacuate a planet before its sun becomes a supernova . In the Stargate SG-1 season two episode `` A Matter of Time '' , SG-10 travelled to the planet P3W-451 , observing a binary star where one of the stars is an active supernova . As they were watching , the supernova collapsed into a black hole dangerously close to the planet , the team being stranded by time dilation . In the season four closer `` Exodus '' the team , working with the Tok ` ra , force a star to go nova . They do this by dialing a Stargate to P3W-451 and sending the gate into the star , protected by a force field . When the Stargate entered the star in question , the shield collapsed , and a good deal of stellar matter was sucked through the gate , disrupting the star and forcing it to nova . The Supernova affected the hyperspace windows of escaping ships in such a way that they accelerated out of control and emerged four million light-years away . There is also a short story , ASOV , from the 1960s , which tells the story of an Automated ( or Automatic ) Stellar Observation Vehicle ( hence the name ASOV ) . One of thousand of millions produced by civilisations strung throughout the galaxy , it observes stars , sending data back ` home ' . A chance hit from a passing rock diasables ` our ' ASOV . It drifts , seemingly for ever , for aeons at least , to a time when the galaxy is clearly dying ; ASOV is re-awakened by the energy of a nearby supernova . The story , written by James Inglis , was reprinted as `` Night Watch '' in the anthology Space Odysseys edited by Brian Aldiss . In the 2009 movie Star Trek , a `` supernova '' ( depicted as a Hypernova ) destroys the Romulan home planet . The Christopher Rowley novel Starhammer sees the Laowon Empire brought to its knees with the said weapon which induces a Supernova . In the Fantastic Four ( movie ) , Johnny Storm , the Human Torch is said to create temperatures near to those measured in supernovae . In the 1952 novel The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov , a scientist is assaulted when he predicts a star will go supernova . Although the orbiting planet Florinia is inhabited , it is also an important source of raw materials . A humanitarian crisis is averted when the colonial powers are convinced to evacuate the planet . In the 2002 Disney film Treasure Planet , the crew of the Legacy encounters a supernova on their travels , as well as the resulting black hole . During the supernova , Jim Hawkins ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) saves the life of Long John Silver ( Brian Murray ) when he falls overboard . In the Poul Anderson short story Supernova , part of his Technic History sequence , published in Analog science-fiction magazine January 1967 with a Chesley Bonestell cover illustration , the homeworld of the reptilian Merseians is threatened by a nearby supernova . Nicolas Falkayn of the Solar Spice and Liquor company , negotiates a trade deal that provides them with the technology to survive the event , but also overturns their social structures . The Merseians do not forget , and figure prominenently as inveterate enemies of the Terran empire in the Dominic Flandry stories , later in the sequence . In the Arthur C. Clarke short story ` The Star ' ( Infinity Science Fiction , 1955 ) an earth spaceship finds a museum of a people whose star went supernova . A priest officer wonders why God chose their sun as the Star of Bethlehem . In the Christmas episode of Svensson , Svensson ( 1994 ) , Sara tells her friend Lena she noticed in the newspaper that the Sun will explode within 3000 years , contrary to scientific theories that the Sun will go through the circle red yellow dwarf star-giant star-white giant star through the leap of millions of years , rather than go supernova . In Robert J. Sawyer 's 2000 novel Calculating God a race of aliens who had uploaded their consciousness to computers crash a plane full of chemicals into Betelgeuse to cause it to go supernova and sterilize the surrounding area . However , the radiation is then covered up by what is believed to be the hand of God , thus showing that God exists and has a `` master plan '' for the Universe . The plot of Jeffrey Carver 's novel From a Changeling Star is based around the artificial induction of a supernova on Betelgeuse . In Michael McCollum 's Antares series Antares becomes a supernova , isolating some of Earth 's colonies from the bulk of human-occupied worlds . It also opens new travel routes which brings humanity in contact with a xenophobic alien species which attack , thus starting the Antares war . Charles Sheffield 's Supernova Alpha series ( Aftermath and Star Fire ) , one of the Alpha Centauri stars goes supernova , affecting Earth first with an electromagnetic pulse ( Aftermath ) , and then with a particle storm ( Star Fire ) . In the 2007 Doctor Who mini-episode `` Time Crash '' , after their two versions of the TARDIS merge at the same space-time coordinates , the Fifth and Tenth Doctors save their TARDIS from the massive black hole caused by the paradox by creating a supernova at the same exact instant . In the 2006 Doctor Who episode `` Doomsday ( Doctor Who ) '' , the Doctor explains to Rose that his TARDIS is orbiting around a star going supernova and that he 's `` burning up a sun just to say goodbye '' . In The Lost Fleet book series , the destruction of a system 's hypernet gate threatens to release a supernova explosion , which will wipe out much of the solar system .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Supernovae_in_fiction", "rank": 61, "score": 92185 }, { "content": "Title: Live Earth (2007 concert) Content: Live Earth was a one off event developed to combat climate change . The first series of benefit concerts were held on July 7 , 2007 . The concerts brought together more than 150 musical acts in eleven locations around the world which were broadcast to a mass global audience through televisions , radio , and streamed via the Internet .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Live_Earth_(2007_concert)", "rank": 62, "score": 92081 }, { "content": "Title: Puppis A Content: Puppis A is a supernova remnant ( SNR ) about 100 lightyears in diameter and roughly 6500 -- 7000 lightyears distant . Its apparent angular diameter is about 1 degree . The light of the supernova explosion reached Earth approximately 3700 years ago . Although it overlaps the Vela Supernova Remnant , it is four times more distant . A hypervelocity neutron star known as the Cosmic Cannonball has been found in this SNR .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Puppis_A", "rank": 63, "score": 92057 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercane Content: A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached 50 C , which is 15 C-change warmer than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded . Such an increase could be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact , a large supervolcanic eruption , or extensive global warming . There is some speculation that a series of hypercanes resulting from an impact by a large asteroid or comet contributed to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs . The hypothesis was created by Kerry Emanuel of MIT who also coined the term .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Hypercane", "rank": 64, "score": 91686 }, { "content": "Title: Laschamp event Content: The Laschamp event was a short reversal of the Earth 's magnetic field . It occurred 41,400 ( ± 2,000 ) years ago during the last ice age and was first recognised in the late 1960s as a geomagnetic reversal recorded in the Laschamp lava flows in the Clermont-Ferrand district of France . The magnetic excursion has since been demonstrated in geological archives from many parts of the world . The period of reversed magnetic field was approximately 440 years , with the transition from the normal field lasting approximately 250 years . The reversed field was 75 % weaker whereas the strength dropped to only 5 % of the current strength during the transition . This reduction in geomagnetic field strength resulted in more cosmic rays reaching the Earth , causing greater production of the cosmogenic isotopes beryllium 10 and carbon 14 .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Laschamp_event", "rank": 65, "score": 91457 }, { "content": "Title: Miguel Hurtado Content: Miguel Hurtado ( born 22 April 1978 in Málaga , Spain ) is a Spanish astronomer and a software developer at OAM 's La Sagra Observatory , where he participated in the discovery of minor planets , comets , and supernovae . Miguel Hurtado has listed the discovery of more than 2300 asteroids including 76 near-earth objects such as 2012 DA14 , as well as 5 comets and 19 supernovae . As of 2017 , all numbered asteroids are credited by the Minor Planet Center to Mallorca Observatory , OAM . Jaime Nomen , his college and collaborator at the La Sagra Sky Survey ( LSSS ) , was awarded the Shoemaker NEO Grant in 2010 . The main-belt asteroid 362911 Miguelhurtado , discovered at OAM -- La Sagra Observatory in 2009 , was named in his honor .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Miguel_Hurtado", "rank": 66, "score": 90866 }, { "content": "Title: PSR J0738-4042 Content: PSR J0738-4042 is the first pulsar observed to have been affected by asteroids . It was originally discovered in 1968 . In 2013 scientists at the University of Oxford , Hartebeesthoek Observatory and CSIRO announced that they had observed changes in the pulsar 's spin rate and the shape of its radio pulse indicating that asteroids were encountering it , including one with a mass of about a billion tons . The scientists suggested that the material blown out from the explosion which formed the pulsar could have fallen back towards it , developing a disk of debris including asteroids .", "qid": "378", "docid": "PSR_J0738-4042", "rank": 67, "score": 90556 }, { "content": "Title: SN 2011dh Content: SN 2011dh is a supernova in the Whirlpool Galaxy ( M51 ) . On 31 May 2011 an apparent magnitude 13.5 type II supernova ( the explosion of a single massive star ) was detected in M51 at coordinates 13:30:05.08 +47:10:11.2 . It was discovered by Tom Reiland ; Thomas Griga ; Amédée Riou ; and Stephane Lamotte Bailey and confirmed by several sources , including the Palomar Transient Factory . A candidate progenitor has been detected in Hubble Space Telescope images at coordinates 13:30:05.119 +47:10:11.55 . The progenitor may have been a highly luminous yellow supergiant with an initial mass of 18-24 solar masses . The supernova appears to have peaked near apparent magnitude 12.1 on 19 June 2011 . Emission spectra from W. M. Keck Observatory , obtained by Palomar Transient Factory indicate that this is a type II supernova with a relatively blue continuum with P Cygni profiles in the Balmer series . This is a unique event , because it occurs in a galaxy that is imaged almost constantly . It is expected to be observable for northern hemisphere observers for several months . This is the third supernova to be recorded in the Whirlpool galaxy in 17 years ( following SN 1994I and SN 2005cs ) which is a lot for a single galaxy . The galactic supernova frequency is estimated to be around one event every 40 years .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_2011dh", "rank": 68, "score": 90538 }, { "content": "Title: Global and Planetary Change Content: Global and Planetary Change is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research into the earth sciences , particularly pertaining to changes in aspects thereof such as sea level and the chemical composition of the atmosphere . It has been published by Elsevier since it was established in 1989 . The editors-in-chief are S.A.P.L. Cloetingh ( Utrecht University ) , T.M. Cronin ( United States Geological Survey ) , K. McGuffie ( University of Technology Sydney ) , and H. Oberhänsli ( Museum für Naturkunde ) . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal has a 2012 impact factor of 3.155 , ranking it 9th out of 45 journals in the category `` Geography , Physical '' .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Global_and_Planetary_Change", "rank": 69, "score": 90442 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's location in the Universe Content: Knowledge of Earth 's location in the Universe has been shaped by 400 years of telescopic observations , and has expanded radically in the last century . Initially , Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe , which consisted only of those planets visible with the naked eye and an outlying sphere of fixed stars . After the acceptance of the heliocentric model in the 17th century , observations by William Herschel and others showed that the Sun lay within a vast , disc-shaped galaxy of stars . By the 20th century , observations of spiral nebulae revealed that our galaxy was one of billions in an expanding universe , grouped into clusters and superclusters . By the end of the 20th century , the overall structure of the visible universe was becoming clearer , with superclusters forming into a vast web of filaments and voids . Superclusters , filaments and voids are the largest coherent structures in the Universe that we can observe . At still larger scales ( over 1000 megaparsecs ) the Universe becomes homogeneous meaning that all its parts have on average the same density , composition and structure . Since there is believed to be no `` center '' or `` edge '' of the Universe , there is no particular reference point with which to plot the overall location of the Earth in the universe . Because the observable universe is defined as that region of the Universe visible to terrestrial observers , Earth is , by definition , the center of the observable universe . Reference can be made to the Earth 's position with respect to specific structures , which exist at various scales . It is still undetermined whether the Universe is infinite . There have been numerous hypotheses that our universe may be only one such example within a higher multiverse ; however , no direct evidence of any sort of multiverse has ever been observed , and some have argued that the hypothesis is not falsifiable .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Earth's_location_in_the_Universe", "rank": 70, "score": 90139 }, { "content": "Title: Supermoon Content: A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit , resulting in the largest apparent size of the lunar disk as seen from Earth . The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth -- Moon -- Sun system . The term supermoon is not astronomical , but originated in modern astrology . The association of the Moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with increased risk of events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions , but there is no evidence of such a link . The opposite phenomenon , an apogee-syzygy , has been called a micromoon , though this term is not as widespread as supermoon . The most recent supermoon occurrence was on May 25 , 2017 , and the next one will be on June 24 , 2017 . . The one on November 14 , 2016 was the closest supermoon since January 26 , 1948 , and will not be surpassed until November 25 , 2034 . The closest supermoon of the century will occur on December 6 , 2052 . Occasionally , a supermoon coincides with a total lunar eclipse . The most recent occurrence of this was in September 2015 , while the next will be in October 2033 .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Supermoon", "rank": 71, "score": 89912 }, { "content": "Title: Iron catastrophe Content: The iron catastrophe was a postulated major event early in the history of Earth . The original accretion of the Earth 's material into a spherical mass is thought to have resulted in a relatively uniform composition . While residual heat from the collision of the material that formed the Earth was significant , heating from radioactive materials in this mass gradually increased the temperature until a critical condition was reached . As material became molten enough to allow movement , the denser iron and nickel , evenly distributed throughout the mass , began to migrate to the center of the planet to form the core . The gravitational potential energy released by the sinking of the dense NiFe globules , along with any cooler , denser solid material , is thought to have been a runaway process , increasing the temperature of the protoplanet above the melting point of most components , resulting in the rapid formation of a molten iron core covered by a deep global silicate magma . This event , an important process of planetary differentiation , occurred at about 500 million years into the formation of the planet .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Iron_catastrophe", "rank": 72, "score": 89609 }, { "content": "Title: Earth Impact Database Content: The Earth Impact Database is the authoritative source for information on confirmed impact structures or craters on Earth . It was initiated in 1955 by the Dominion Observatory , Ottawa , under the direction of Dr. Carlyle S. Beals . Since 2001 , it has been maintained as a not-for-profit source of information at the Planetary and Space Science Centre at the University of New Brunswick , Canada . , the database lists 190 confirmed impact sites . Other comprehensive lists are wider in scope by including more than just confirmed sites , such as probable , possible , suspected and rejected/discredited impact sites on their lists . These are used for screening and tracking study of possible impact sites . The reason to retain rejected sites on such a list is because they may be , and often are , reported again . Sites will appear first in these lists while under study and may `` graduate '' to UNB 's Earth Impact Database after confirmation and collection of enough information about the site to satisfy the database 's strict entry criteria . Impact Database ( formerly Suspected Earth Impact Sites ( SEIS ) ) , Impact Field Studies Group ( IFSG ) Catalogue of the Earth 's Impact structures , Siberian Center for Global Catastrophes", "qid": "378", "docid": "Earth_Impact_Database", "rank": 73, "score": 89419 }, { "content": "Title: 1999 CW8 Content: 1999 CW8 is an Apollo asteroid and near-Earth object that is a B-type asteroid , relatively rare in the asteroid belt but common in the inner solar system . The asteroid never approaches Earth closer than 0.2 AU , but occasionally makes close approaches to Mars of 0.07 AU . It makes one such approach in 2073 , at 0.067 AU , and another one in 2103 , at 0.094 AU . Due to 1999 CW8 's relatively high inclination , although it passes closer to the Sun than the Earth ( 0.9 AU ) , it never comes closer than 0.2 AU . Based on absolute magnitude , and assuming an albedo between 0.05 and 0.3 , typical of most asteroids , the asteroid is between 500 and 1100 meters across , and if it impacted the Earth would cause significant damage , but not as much as the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event progenitor , which brought about a mass extinction , as it is only 1/20 to 1/10 the size . However , it is unlikely to come close enough to Earth to impact it , or even become a risk of impact .", "qid": "378", "docid": "1999_CW8", "rank": 74, "score": 89257 }, { "content": "Title: SN 2003fg Content: SN 2003fg , sometimes called the `` Champagne Supernova '' , was an unusual Type Ia supernova . It was discovered in 2003 with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the Keck Telescope , both on Mauna Kea in Hawaii , and announced by researchers at the University of Toronto . The supernova occurred in a galaxy some 4 billion light-years from Earth . It was nicknamed after the 1996 song `` Champagne Supernova '' by English rock band Oasis . It was unusual because of the mass of its progenitor . According to the current understanding , white dwarf stars explode as Type Ia supernovas when their mass approaches 1.4 solar masses , termed the Chandrasekhar limit . The mass added to the star is believed to be donated by a companion star , either from the companion 's stellar wind or the overflow of its Roche lobe as it evolves . However , the progenitor of SN 2003fg reached two solar masses before exploding . The primary mechanism invoked to explain how a white dwarf can exceed the Chandrasekhar mass is unusually rapid rotation ; the added support effectively increases the critical mass . An alternative explanation is that the explosion resulted from the merger of two white dwarfs . The evidence indicating a higher than normal mass comes from the light curve and spectra of the supernova -- while it was particularly overluminous , the kinetic energies measured from the spectra appeared smaller than usual . One proposed explanation is that more of the total kinetic energy budget was expended climbing out of the deeper than usual potential well . This is important because the brightness of type Ia supernovae was thought to be essentially uniform , making them useful `` standard candles '' in measuring distances in the universe . Such an aberrant type Ia supernova could throw distances and other scientific work into doubt ; however , the light curve characteristics of SN 2003fg were such that it would never have been mistaken for an ordinary high-redshift Type Ia supernova .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_2003fg", "rank": 75, "score": 89060 }, { "content": "Title: Cassiopeia A Content: Cassiopeia A ( Cas A ) is a supernova remnant ( SNR ) in the constellation Cassiopeia and the brightest extrasolar radio source in the sky at frequencies above 1 GHz . The supernova occurred approximately 11000 ly away within the Milky Way . The expanding cloud of material left over from the supernova now appears approximately 10 ly across from Earth 's perspective . In wavelengths of visible light , it has been seen with amateur telescopes down to 234mm ( 9.25 in ) with filters . It is believed that first light from the stellar explosion reached Earth approximately 300 years ago but there are no historical records of any sightings of the supernova that created the remnant , probably due to interstellar dust absorbing optical wavelength radiation before it reached Earth ( although it is possible that it was recorded as a sixth magnitude star 3 Cassiopeiae by John Flamsteed on August 16 , 1680 ) . Possible explanations lean toward the idea that the source star was unusually massive and had previously ejected much of its outer layers . These outer layers would have cloaked the star and re-absorbed much of the light released as the inner star collapsed . Cas A was among the first discrete astronomical radio sources found . Its discovery was reported in 1948 by Martin Ryle and Francis Graham-Smith , astronomers at Cambridge , based on observations with the Long Michelson Interferometer . The optical component was first identified in 1950 . Cas A is 3C461 in the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources and G111.7-2 .1 in the Green Catalog of Supernova Remnants .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Cassiopeia_A", "rank": 76, "score": 88830 }, { "content": "Title: Transient astronomical event Content: A transient astronomical event , often shortened by astronomers to a transient , is an astronomical object or phenomenon whose duration may be from seconds to days , weeks , or even several years . This is in contrast to the timescale of the millions or billions of years during which the galaxies and their component stars in our universe have evolved . Singularly , the term is used for violent deep sky events such as supernovae , gamma ray bursts , transits , gravitational microlensing , and tidal disruption events , etc. . These events are part of the broader topic of time domain astronomy .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Transient_astronomical_event", "rank": 77, "score": 88543 }, { "content": "Title: Chicxulub crater Content: The Chicxulub crater ( -LSB- pronˈtʃiːkʃᵿluːb -RSB- -LSB- tʃʼikʃuluɓ -RSB- ) is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico . Its center is located near the town of Chicxulub , after which the crater is named . It was formed by a large asteroid or comet about 10 to 15 kilometres ( 6 to 9 miles ) in diameter , the Chicxulub impactor , striking the Earth . The date of the impact coincides precisely with the Cretaceous -- Paleogene boundary ( K -- Pg boundary ) , slightly less than 66 million years ago , and a widely accepted theory is that worldwide climate disruption from the event was the cause of the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event , a mass extinction in which 75 % of plant and animal species on Earth suddenly became extinct , including all non-avian dinosaurs . The crater is more than 180 km in diameter and 20 km in depth , well into the continental crust of the region of about 10 -- 30 km depth . It makes the feature the third of the largest confirmed impact structures on Earth . The crater was discovered by Antonio Camargo and Glen Penfield , geophysicists who had been looking for petroleum in the Yucatán during the late 1970s . Penfield was initially unable to obtain evidence that the geological feature was a crater and gave up his search . Later , through contact with Alan Hildebrand in 1990 , Penfield obtained samples that suggested it was an impact feature . Evidence for the impact origin of the crater includes shocked quartz , a gravity anomaly , and tektites in surrounding areas .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Chicxulub_crater", "rank": 78, "score": 88461 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 YQ1 Content: 2012 YQ1 is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid discovered on 19 December 2012 by astronomers Andrey Oreshko and Timur Kryachko using an `` Elena '' Telescope located in the Chilean Atacama desert . With a 4-day observation arc , the asteroid had a 1 in 3 million chance of impacting in 2106 . With a 10-day observation arc , the asteroid had a 1 in 10 million chance of impacting in 2106 . On 5 January 2013 , the asteroid passed 0.10 AU from Earth . It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 8 January 2013 . It has an observation arc of 32 days and an orbital uncertainty of 7 . Since the asteroid has a poorly known orbit , the cone of uncertainty quickly multiplies as a result of perturbations by the inner planets and prevents precise/reliable ephemeris data . Eliminating an entry on the Sentry Risk Table is a negative prediction ; a prediction of where it will NOT be .", "qid": "378", "docid": "2012_YQ1", "rank": 79, "score": 88358 }, { "content": "Title: Earth-grazing meteoroid of 13 October 1990 Content: On 13 October 1990 , meteoroid EN131090 , with an estimated mass of 44 kg , entered the Earth 's atmosphere above Czechoslovakia and Poland and , after a few seconds , returned to space . Observations of such events are quite rare ; this was the second recorded using scientific astronomical instruments ( after the 1972 Great Daylight Fireball ) and the first recorded from two distant positions , which enabled the calculation of several of its orbital characteristics . The encounter with Earth significantly changed its orbit and , to a smaller extent , some of its physical properties ( mass and structure of its outer layer ) .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Earth-grazing_meteoroid_of_13_October_1990", "rank": 80, "score": 88225 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events of 535–536 Content: The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the most severe and protracted short-term episodes of cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2000 years . The event is thought to have been caused by an extensive atmospheric dust veil , possibly resulting from a large volcanic eruption in the tropics , or debris from space impacting the Earth . Its effects were widespread , causing unseasonal weather , crop failures and famines worldwide .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_of_535–536", "rank": 81, "score": 87790 }, { "content": "Title: SN 185 Content: SN 185 was an AD 185 transient astronomical event that was likely a supernova . The transient occurred in the direction of Alpha Centauri , between the constellations Circinus and Centaurus , centered at RA Dec , in Circinus . This `` guest star '' was observed by Chinese astronomers in the Book of Later Han , and might have been recorded in Roman literature . It remained visible in the night sky for eight months . This is believed to be the first supernova for which records exist . The following record was given by the Chinese of the supernova : In the 2nd year of the epoch Zhongping -LSB- 中平 -RSB- , the 10th month , on the day Kwei Hae -LSB- December 7 -RSB- , a strange star appeared in the middle of Nan Mun -LSB- asterism containing Alpha Centauri -RSB- , It was like a large bamboo mat . It displayed the five colors , both pleasing and otherwise . It gradually lessened . In the 6th month of the succeeding year it disappeared . The gaseous shell RCW 86 is probably the supernova remnant of this event and has a relatively large angular size of roughly 45 arc minutes ( larger than the apparent size of the full moon , which varies from 29 to 34 arc minutes ) . The distance to RCW 86 is estimated to be 2800 parsec . Recent X-ray studies show a good match for the expected age . Infrared observations from NASA 's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ) reveal how the supernova occurred and how its shattered remains ultimately spread out to great distances . The findings show that the stellar explosion took place in a hollowed-out cavity , allowing material expelled by the star to travel much faster and farther than it would have otherwise . Differing modern interpretations of the Chinese records of the guest star have led to quite different suggestions for the astronomical mechanism behind the event , from a core-collapse supernova to a distant , slow-moving comet -- with correspondingly wide-ranging estimates of its apparent visual magnitude ( − 8 to +4 ) . The recent Chandra results suggest that it was most likely a Type Ia supernova ( a type with consistent absolute magnitude ) , similar therefore to Tycho 's Supernova ( SN 1572 ) , which had apparent magnitude − 4 at a similar distance .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_185", "rank": 82, "score": 87731 }, { "content": "Title: Marie-Agnès Courty Content: Marie-Agnès Courty is a French geologist of the CNRS who works at the European Centre for Prehistoric Research , in Tautavel ( Pyrénées-Orientales ) . She has theorised that the impact of an object ( asteroid or comet ) of around 1 km in diameter hit the Earth , in the Southern Hemisphere close to the Kerguelen Islands around 4000 years ago ( around 2350 BC ) . This cataclysm led to a great deal of incandescent material , which could explain myths such as the Apocalypse and Sodom and Gomorrah . She arrived at this conclusion after discovering pockets of earth dating from this era that had been heated to more than 1500 ° C in a number of areas , notably in Syria and France . A series of chevrons point toward a spot in the middle of the Indian Ocean where newly discovered Burckle crater , 18 miles in diameter , lies 12,500 feet below the surface . This thesis has been criticized by other scientists because of the absence of craters and of iridium in the pockets of land from this time . Critics have not provided adequate data showing that all impacts contain iridium and other metals such as higher proportions of nickel or other heavier metals may also be proposed alternatives for distinct proof of an impact signature .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Marie-Agnès_Courty", "rank": 83, "score": 87455 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 UR116 Content: ( also known as 2008 XB ) is an asteroid categorized as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid with a diameter of roughly 400 m. On 21 October 2014 , the asteroid passed 0.0854 AU from Earth . On 10 April 2047 , the asteroid will safely pass 0.0296 AU from Earth . Although some inaccurate press reports have suggested that it may pose an impact risk to Earth , the NASA/JPL Near Earth Object Program Office reported that it poses no risk of impact to any planet for at least 150 years . Between 1904 and 2174 , the closest approach it makes to any planet was on 9 June 2008 when it passed 0.0144 AU from Mars . The asteroid has never been listed on the Sentry Risk Table and has a well determined orbit with an observation arc of 6 years .", "qid": "378", "docid": "2014_UR116", "rank": 84, "score": 87407 }, { "content": "Title: Hydrothermal explosion Content: Hydrothermal explosions occur when superheated water trapped below the surface of the earth rapidly converts from liquid to steam , violently disrupting the confining rock . Boiling water , steam , mud , and rock fragments called breccia are ejected over an area of a few meters up to several kilometers in diameter . Although the energy inherently comes from a deep igneous source , this energy is transferred to the surface by circulating meteoric water rather than by magma , as occurs in volcanic eruptions . The energy is stored as heat in hot water and rock within a few hundred feet of the surface . Hydrothermal explosions are caused by the same instability and chain reaction mechanism as geysers but are so violent that rocks and mud are expelled along with water and steam .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Hydrothermal_explosion", "rank": 85, "score": 87322 }, { "content": "Title: Global catastrophic risk Content: A global catastrophic risk is a hypothetical future event that has the potential to damage human well-being on a global scale . Some events could cripple or destroy modern civilization . Any event that could cause human extinction is known as an existential risk . Potential global catastrophic risks include anthropogenic risks ( technology risks , governance risks ) and natural or external risks . Examples of technology risks are hostile artificial intelligence , biotechnology risks , or nanotechnology weapons . Insufficient global governance creates risks in the social and political domain ( potentially leading to a global war with or without a nuclear holocaust , bioterrorism using genetically modified organisms , cyberterrorism destroying critical infrastructures like the electrical grid , or the failure to manage a natural pandemic ) as well as problems and risks in the domain of earth system governance ( with risks resulting from global warming , environmental degradation , mineral resource exhaustion , fossil energy exhaustion , or famine as a result of non-equitable resource distribution , human overpopulation , crop failures and non-sustainable agriculture ) . Examples for non-anthropogenic risks are an asteroid impact event , a supervolcanic eruption , a lethal gamma-ray burst , a geomagnetic storm destroying all electronic equipment , natural long-term climate change , or extraterrestrial life impacting life on Earth .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Global_catastrophic_risk", "rank": 86, "score": 86681 }, { "content": "Title: SN 1979C Content: SN 1979C was a supernova about 50 million light-years away in Messier 100 , a spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices . The Type II supernova was discovered April 19 , 1979 by Gus Johnson , a school teacher and amateur astronomer . This type of supernova is known as a core collapse and is the result of the internal collapse and violent explosion of a large star . A star must have at least 9 times the mass of the Sun in order to undergo this type of collapse . The star that resulted in this supernova was estimated to be in the range of 20 solar masses . On November 15 , 2010 NASA announced that evidence of a black hole had been detected as a remnant of the supernova explosion . Scientists led by Dr. Dan Patnaude from the Harvard -- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge , MA evaluated data gathered between 1995 and 2007 from several space based observatories . NASA 's Chandra X-ray Observatory , the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission , as well as the European Space Agency 's XMM-Newton , and Germany 's ROSAT all participated in the examination . The researchers observed a steady source of X-rays and determined that it was likely that this was material being fed into the object either from the supernova or a binary companion . However , an alternative explanation would be that the X-ray emissions could be from the pulsar wind nebula from a rapidly spinning pulsar , similar to the one in the center of the Crab Nebula . These two ideas account for several types of known X-ray sources . In the case of black holes the material that falls into the black hole emits the X-rays and not the black hole itself . Gas is heated by the fall into the strong gravitational field . SN 1979C has also been studied in the radio frequency spectrum . A light curve study was performed between 1985 and 1990 using the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_1979C", "rank": 87, "score": 86573 }, { "content": "Title: Impact crater Content: An impact crater is an approximately circular depression in the surface of a planet , moon , or other solid body in the Solar System or elsewhere , formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller body . In contrast to volcanic craters , which result from explosion or internal collapse , impact craters typically have raised rims and floors that are lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain . Although Meteor Crater is perhaps the best-known example of a small impact crater on Earth , impact craters range from small , simple , bowl-shaped depressions to large , complex , multi-ringed impact basins . Impact craters are the dominant geographic features on many solid Solar System objects including the Moon , Mercury , Callisto , Ganymede and most small moons and asteroids . On other planets and moons that experience more active surface geological processes , such as Earth , Venus , Mars , Europa , Io and Titan , visible impact craters are less common because they become eroded , buried or transformed by tectonics over time . Where such processes have destroyed most of the original crater topography , the terms impact structure or astrobleme are more commonly used . In early literature , before the significance of impact cratering was widely recognised , the terms cryptoexplosion or cryptovolcanic structure were often used to describe what are now recognised as impact-related features on Earth . The cratering records of very old surfaces , such as Mercury , the Moon , and the southern highlands of Mars , record a period of intense early bombardment in the inner Solar System around 3.9 billion years ago . The rate of crater production on Earth has since been considerably lower , but it is appreciable nonetheless ; Earth experiences from one to three impacts large enough to produce a 20 km diameter crater about once every million years on average . This indicates that there should be far more relatively young craters on the planet than have been discovered so far . The cratering rate in the inner solar system fluctuates as a consequence of collisions in the asteroid belt that create a family of fragments that are often sent cascading into the inner solar system . Formed in a collision 160 million years ago , the Baptistina family of asteroids is thought to have caused a large spike in the impact rate , perhaps causing the Chicxulub impact that may have triggered the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago . Note that the rate of impact cratering in the outer Solar System could be different from the inner Solar System . Although Earth 's active surface processes quickly destroy the impact record , about 190 terrestrial impact craters have been identified . These range in diameter from a few tens of meters up to about 300 km , and they range in age from recent times ( e.g. the Sikhote-Alin craters in Russia whose creation was witnessed in 1947 ) to more than two billion years , though most are less than 500 million years old because geological processes tend to obliterate older craters . They are also selectively found in the stable interior regions of continents . Few undersea craters have been discovered because of the difficulty of surveying the sea floor , the rapid rate of change of the ocean bottom , and the subduction of the ocean floor into Earth 's interior by processes of plate tectonics . Impact craters are not to be confused with landforms that may appear similar , including calderas , sinkholes , glacial cirques , ring dikes , salt domes , and others .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Impact_crater", "rank": 88, "score": 86497 }, { "content": "Title: Early Earth Content: The early Earth ( sometimes referred to as Gaia ) is loosely defined as Earth in its first one billion years , or gigayear . On the geologic time scale , this comprises all of the Hadean eon ( starting with the formation of the Earth about 4.6 billion years ago ) , as well as the Eoarchean ( starting 4 billion years ago ) and part of the Paleoarchean ( starting 3.6 billion years ago ) eras of the Archean eon . This period of Earth 's history involved the planet 's formation from the solar nebula via a process known as accretion . This time period included intense meteorite bombardment as well as giant impacts , including the Moon-forming impact , which resulted in a series of magma oceans and episodes of core formation . After formation of the core , delivery of meteoritic or cometary material in a `` late veneer '' may have delivered water and other volatile compounds to the Earth . Although little crustal material from this period survives , the oldest dated specimen is a zircon mineral of 4.404 ± 0.008 Ga enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone conglomerate in the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane of Western Australia . The earliest supracrustals ( such as the Isua greenstone belt ) date from the latter half of this period , about 3.8 gya , around the same time as peak Late Heavy Bombardment . According to evidence from radiometric dating and other sources , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Within its first billion years , life appeared in its oceans and began to affect its atmosphere and surface , promoting the proliferation of aerobic as well as anaerobic organisms . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , its physical properties and its geological history have allowed life to emerge , develop photosynthesis , and , later , evolve further and thrive . The earliest life on Earth arose at least 3.5 billion years ago . Earlier possible evidence of life includes graphite , which may have a biogenic origin , in 3.7-billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks discovered in southwestern Greenland , as well as 4.1-billion-year-old zircon grains in Western Australia .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Early_Earth", "rank": 89, "score": 86487 }, { "content": "Title: Super-Earth Content: A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth 's , but substantially below the masses of the Solar System 's ice giants , Uranus and Neptune , which contain 15 and 17 Earth masses respectively . The term super-Earth refers only to the mass of the planet , and so does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability . The alternative term gas dwarfs may be more accurate for those at the higher end of the mass scale , as suggested by MIT professor Sara Seager , although mini-Neptunes is a more common term .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Super-Earth", "rank": 90, "score": 86386 }, { "content": "Title: SN 1181 Content: First observed between August 4 and August 6 , 1181 , Chinese and Japanese astronomers recorded the supernova now known as SN 1181 in eight separate texts . One of only eight supernovae in the Milky Way observable with the naked eye in recorded history , it appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia and was visible in the night sky for about 185 days . The radio and X-ray pulsar J0205 +6449 ( also known as 3C 58 ) , which rotates about 15 times per second , is possibly the remnant from this event . If the supernova and pulsar are associated , the star is still rotating about as quickly as it did when it first formed . This is in contrast to the Crab pulsar , known to be the remnant of the SN 1054 supernova in the year 1054 , which has lost two-thirds of its rotational energy in essentially the same time span . Recent radio surveys of 3C 58 , however , indicate that this supernova remnant may be much older and thus not associated with SN 1181 .", "qid": "378", "docid": "SN_1181", "rank": 91, "score": 85996 }, { "content": "Title: Ordovician meteor event Content: The Ordovician meteor event was a dramatic increase in the rate at which L chondrite meteorites fell to Earth during the Middle Ordovician period , 467.3 ± 1.6 million years ago . This is indicated by the comparatively tight age clustering of L chondrite grains in sediments in southern Sweden , and an excess of fossil L chondrite meteorites in a quarry in Sweden that represents meteorite falls arriving at a much higher rate than is typical on Earth . This temporary increase in the impact rate was most likely caused by the destruction of the L-chondrite parent body 470 ± 6 million years ago having scattered fragments into Earth-crossing orbits , a chronology which is supported by shock ages in numerous L-chondrite meteorites that continue to fall to Earth today . It is hypothesized that this influx was associated with , or possibly caused , the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Ordovician_meteor_event", "rank": 92, "score": 85955 }, { "content": "Title: Are We Changing Planet Earth? Content: Are We Changing Planet Earth ? and Can We Save Planet Earth ? are two programmes that form a documentary about global warming , presented by David Attenborough . They were first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 24 May and 1 June 2006 respectively . Part of a themed season by the BBC entitled `` Climate Chaos '' , the programmes were produced in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and the Open University . They were directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Jeremy Bristow . The music was composed by Samuel Sim . Attenborough undertook the assignment in between his ` Life ' series Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood . Around the same time , the naturalist also narrated Planet Earth .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Are_We_Changing_Planet_Earth?", "rank": 93, "score": 85750 }, { "content": "Title: (454101) 2013 BP73 Content: ( also written 2013 BP73 ) is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid and potentially hazardous object . From discovery until August 2013 when Sentry updated to planetary ephemeris ( DE431 ) , it had the 4th highest impact threat on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale . It was discovered on 22 January 2013 by the Mount Lemmon Survey at an apparent magnitude of 21 using a 1.5 m reflecting telescope . It has an estimated diameter of 310 m. Six Precovery images from April 2003 have been located . It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 3 January 2014 . It has an observation arc of 10 years with an uncertainty parameter of 2 . Perturbations by Earth , Venus , and Mercury will increase the orbital uncertainty over time . When the asteroid only had an observation arc of 52 days , virtual clones of the asteroid that fit the uncertainty region in the known trajectory showed a 1 in 588,000 chance that the asteroid could impact Earth on 11 December 2096 . With a 2096 Palermo Technical Scale of − 3.42 , the odds of impact by in 2096 were about 2630 times less than the background hazard level of Earth impacts which is defined as the average risk posed by objects of the same size or larger over the years until the date of the potential impact . Using the nominal orbit , JPL Horizons shows that the asteroid will be 0.9 AU from Earth on 11 December 2096 . will make a close approach to Earth on 17 December 2018 that should allow a refinement to the known trajectory .", "qid": "378", "docid": "(454101)_2013_BP73", "rank": 94, "score": 85729 }, { "content": "Title: Failed supernova Content: A failed supernova is an astronomical event in time domain astronomy in which a star suddenly brightens as in the early stage of a supernova , but then does not increase to the massive flux of a supernova . They could be counted as a subcategory of supernova imposters . They have sometimes mis-leadingly been called unnovae . Failed supernovae are thought to create stellar black holes by the collapsing of a red supergiant star in the early stages of a supernova . When the star can no longer support itself , the core collapses completely , forming a stellar-mass black hole , and consuming the nascent supernova without having the massive explosion . For a distant observer , the red supergiant star will seem to wink out of existence with little or no flare-up . The observed instances of these disappearances seem to involve supergiant stars with masses above 17 solar masses . Failed supernovae are one of several events that theoretically signal the advent of a black hole born from an extremely massive star , others being hypernovae ( SLSN ) , long-duration gamma-ray bursts ( GRB ) , etc. .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Failed_supernova", "rank": 95, "score": 85729 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 Vitim event Content: The 2002 Vitim event or Bodaybo event is believed to be an impact by a bolide in the Vitim River basin . It occurred near the town of Bodaybo in the Mamsko-Chuisky district of Irkutsk Oblast , Siberia , Russia on September 25 , 2002 at approximately 22:00 ( local time , UTC/GMT +9 hours : ISO 8601 format 2002-09-25T13 :00 Z ) . The event was detected by a US military missile-defense satellite . Attempts were made to define the magnitude of the explosion . U.S. military analysts calculated it was around 0.86 TJ . Peter Brown estimates the total yield of both Bodiabo and Tagish Lake at about 2 kilotons -- a factor of roughly 10,000 less than the Tunguska event . Russian physicist Andrey Olkhovatov estimates it at 4 -- 5 kilotons . Information about the event appeared in the mass media and among scientists after only a week . A small expedition , sent by the Institute of Sun -- Earth Physics ( Irkutsk ) , tried to find a meteorite within about 10 km from Bodaybo town ( people told them -- `` it has fallen beyond the nearest mountain '' ) .", "qid": "378", "docid": "2002_Vitim_event", "rank": 96, "score": 85728 }, { "content": "Title: Pangaea Ultima Content: Pangaea Ultima ( also called Pangaea Proxima , Neopangaea , and Pangaea II ) is a possible future supercontinent configuration . Consistent with the supercontinent cycle , Pangaea Ultima could occur within the next 250 million years . This potential configuration , hypothesized by Christopher Scotese , earned its name from its similarity to the previous Pangaea supercontinent . The concept was based on examination of past cycles of formation and breakup of supercontinents , not on current understanding of the mechanisms of tectonic change , which are too imprecise to project that far into the future . `` It 's all pretty much fantasy to start with '' , Scotese has said . `` But it 's a fun exercise to think about what might happen . And you can only do it if you have a really clear idea of why things happen in the first place . '' Supercontinents describe the merger of all , or nearly all , of the Earth 's landmass into a single contiguous continent . In the Pangaea Ultima scenario , subduction at the western Atlantic , east of the Americas , leads to the subduction of the Atlantic mid-ocean ridge followed by subduction destroying the Atlantic and Indian basin , causing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to close , bringing the Americas back together with Africa and Europe . As with most supercontinents , the interior of Pangaea Proxima would probably become a semi-arid desert prone to extreme temperatures .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Pangaea_Ultima", "rank": 97, "score": 85619 }, { "content": "Title: Maniitsoq structure Content: The Maniitsoq structure is a 100 km wide circular region with unusual geological features believed to be the results of a massive asteroid or comet impact about three billion years ago . The region is centered about 55 km south-east of the town of Maniitsoq , Greenland , at coordinates . During the 3 billion years following the impact , the crater has eroded down , and the features now exposed were buried 20 to 25 km ( 12 to 16 mi ) below the surface at the time the event occurred . This erosion processes is the reason that very few remaining craters are visible on Earth . According to a study published in 2012 , scientist believe that it is an impact structure created by a single event involving intense crushing and heating , rather than a deformation in the earth 's crust formed by the interaction of tectonic plates . According to the study , the inferred scale , strain rates and temperatures necessary to create the Maniitsoq structure rule out a terrestrial origin . More research is needed before the Maniitsoq structure can be definitely confirmed as an impact crater because present diagnostic tools used to identify impacting in the upper crust are inadequate for giant , deeply eroded structures . If confirmed as an impact crater , this crater would be older than other old impact craters such as the much smaller 16 km wide , 2.4 billion year old , Suavjärvi crater in Russia and the larger 300 km wide , 2.0 billion year old , Vredefort crater in South Africa . The 2012 study was published by scientists from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland ( GEUS ) , along with members from Cardiff University , Lund University in Sweden , and the Institute of Planetary Science in Moscow .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Maniitsoq_structure", "rank": 98, "score": 85478 }, { "content": "Title: Schiaparelli (Martian crater) Content: Schiaparelli is an impact crater on Mars named after Giovanni Schiaparelli located near Mars 's equator . It is 461 km in diameter and located at latitude 3 ° south and longitude 344 ° . A crater within Schiaparelli shows many layers that may have formed by the wind , volcanoes , or deposition under water . Layers can be a few meters thick or tens of meters thick . Recent research on these layers suggests that ancient climate change on Mars , caused by regular variation in the planet 's tilt , may have caused the patterns in layers . On Earth , similar changes ( astronomical forcing ) of climate results in ice-age cycles . The regular appearance of rock layers suggests that regular changes in climate may be the root cause . Regular changes in climate may be due to variations of a planet 's tilt ( called obliquity ) . The tilt of the Earth 's axis changes by only a little more than 2 degrees since our moon is relatively large . In contrast Mars 's tilt varies by tens of degrees . When the tilt is low ( current situation on Mars ) , the poles are the coldest places on the planet , while the equator is the warmest ( as on Earth ) . This could cause gases in the atmosphere , like water and carbon dioxide , to migrate poleward , where they would freeze . When the obliquity is higher , the poles receive more sunlight , causing those materials to migrate away . When carbon dioxide moves from the Martian poles , the atmospheric pressure increases , possibly causing a difference in the ability of winds to transport and deposit sand . Also , with more water in the atmosphere sand grains may stick and cement together to form layers .", "qid": "378", "docid": "Schiaparelli_(Martian_crater)", "rank": 99, "score": 85402 }, { "content": "Title: 101955 Bennu Content: 101955 Bennu ( provisional designation ) is a carbonaceous asteroid in the Apollo group that was discovered by the LINEAR Project on September 11 , 1999 . It is a potential Earth impactor that is listed on the Sentry Risk Table with the third-highest rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale , due to a 1-in-2 ,700 chance of impacting Earth in the late 22nd century . It is the planned target of the OSIRIS-REx mission which is intended to return samples to Earth in 2023 for further study . has a mean diameter of approximately 492 m and has been observed extensively with the Arecibo Observatory Planetary Radar and the Goldstone Deep Space Network .", "qid": "378", "docid": "101955_Bennu", "rank": 100, "score": 85320 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Mitigation of global warming in Australia Content: Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming . This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming , which involves taking action to minimise the effects of global warming . Scientific consensus on global warming , together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions , is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming . Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions . However , CCS can not deliver in time to avoid dangerous increases in temperatures , as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030 . Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets , more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power , photovoltaics , and solar thermal technologies . The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases . A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions . It requires large businesses ( defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually ) to pay a price for emissions permits . The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticised and highly publicised move .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Mitigation_of_global_warming_in_Australia", "rank": 1, "score": 161341 }, { "content": "Title: Energy in Victoria Content: Energy in Victoria , Australia is generated using a number of fuels or technologies , including coal , natural gas and renewable energy sources - hydro , wind and solar . Brown coal is the primary energy source in the generation of electricity in the State of Victoria , Australia . Brown coal is also one of the largest contributors to Australia 's total domestic greenhouse gas emissions and a source of huge controversy for the country . Australia is one the highest polluters of greenhouse gas per capita in the world . Brown coal is used for the generation of approximately 85 % of Victoria 's household , commercial and industrial electricity consumption .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Energy_in_Victoria", "rank": 2, "score": 157702 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 3, "score": 155580 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 4, "score": 155013 }, { "content": "Title: Energy subsidy Content: Energy subsidies are measures that keep prices for consumers below market levels or for producers above market levels, or reduce costs for consumers and producers. Energy subsidies may be direct cash transfers to producers, consumers, or related bodies, as well as indirect support mechanisms, such as tax exemptions and rebates, price controls, trade restrictions, and limits on market access. Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies would greatly reduce global carbon emissions and would reduce the health risks of air pollution.", "qid": "381", "docid": "Energy_subsidy", "rank": 5, "score": 154594 }, { "content": "Title: Electricity Security and Affordability Act Content: The Electricity Security and Affordability Act is a bill that would repeal a pending rule published by the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) on January 8 , 2014 . The proposed rule would establish uniform national limits on greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions from new electricity-generating facilities that use coal or natural gas . The rule also sets new standards of performance for those power plants , including the requirement to install carbon capture and sequestration technology . The bill passed in the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Electricity_Security_and_Affordability_Act", "rank": 6, "score": 152052 }, { "content": "Title: Clean coal technology Content: Clean coal technology is a collection of technologies being developed to attempt to mitigate the environmental impact of coal energy generation and to mitigate climate change . When coal is used as a fuel source , the gaseous emissions generated by the thermal decomposition of the coal include sulphur dioxide ( SO2 ) , nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , mercury , and other chemical byproducts that vary depending on the type of the coal being used . These emissions have been established to have a negative impact on the environment and human health , contributing to acid rain , lung cancer and cardiovascular disease . As a result , clean coal technologies are being developed to remove or reduce pollutant emissions to the atmosphere . Some of the techniques that would be used to accomplish this include chemically washing minerals and impurities from the coal , gasification ( see also IGCC ) , improved technology for treating flue gases to remove pollutants to increasingly stringent levels and at higher efficiency , carbon capture and storage technologies to capture the carbon dioxide from the flue gas and dewatering lower rank coals ( brown coals ) to improve the calorific value , and thus the efficiency of the conversion into electricity . Clean coal technology usually addresses atmospheric problems resulting from burning coal . Historically , the primary focus was on SO2 and NOx , the most important gases in causation of acid rain , and particulates which cause visible air pollution and deleterious effects on human health . Concerns exist regarding the economic viability of these technologies and the timeframe of delivery , potentially high hidden economic costs in terms of social and environmental damage , and the costs and viability of disposing of removed carbon and other toxic matter .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Clean_coal_technology", "rank": 7, "score": 151147 }, { "content": "Title: Energiewende in Germany Content: The Energiewende ( German for energy transition ) is the transition by Germany to a low carbon , environmentally sound , reliable , and affordable energy supply . The new system will rely heavily on renewable energy ( particularly wind , photovoltaics , and hydroelectricity ) , energy efficiency , and energy demand management . Most if not all existing coal-fired generation will need to be retired . The phase-out of Germany 's fleet of nuclear reactors , to be complete by 2022 , is a key part of the program . Legislative support for the Energiewende was passed in late 2010 and includes greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reductions of 80 -- 95 % by 2050 ( relative to 1990 ) and a renewable energy target of 60 % by 2050 . These targets are ambitious . The Berlin-based policy institute Agora Energiewende noted that `` while the German approach is not unique worldwide , the speed and scope of the Energiewende are exceptional '' . The Energiewende also seeks a greater transparency in relation to national energy policy formation . Germany has made significant progress on its GHG emissions reduction target , achieving a 27 % decrease between 1990 and 2014 . However Germany will need to maintain an average GHG emissions abatement rate of 3.5 % per annum to reach its Energiewende goal , equal to the maximum historical value thus far . Germany spends $ 1.5 billion per annum on energy research ( 2013 figure ) in an effort to solve the technical and social issues raised by the transition . This includes a number of computer studies that have confirmed the feasibility and a similar cost ( relative to business-as-usual and given that carbon is adequately priced ) of the Energiewende . The term Energiewende is regularly used in English language publications without being translated ( a loanword ) .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Energiewende_in_Germany", "rank": 8, "score": 149735 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power Content: Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power . Wind power , as an alternative to burning fossil fuels , is plentiful , renewable , widely distributed , clean , produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation , consumes no water , and uses little land . The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of nonrenewable power sources . Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network . Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electric power , competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants . Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land , and offshore farms have less visual impact , but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher . Small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations . Wind power gives variable power which is very consistent from year to year but which has significant variation over shorter time scales . It is therefore used in conjunction with other electric power sources to give a reliable supply . As the proportion of wind power in a region increases , a need to upgrade the grid , and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur . Power management techniques such as having excess capacity , geographically distributed turbines , dispatchable backing sources , sufficient hydroelectric power , exporting and importing power to neighboring areas , using vehicle-to-grid strategies or reducing demand when wind production is low , can in many cases overcome these problems . In addition , weather forecasting permits the electric power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur . As of 2015 , Denmark generates 40 % of its electric power from wind , and at least 83 other countries around the world are using wind power to supply their electric power grids . In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16 % to 369,553 MW . Yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4 % of worldwide electric power usage , 11.4 % in the EU .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Wind_power", "rank": 9, "score": 149662 }, { "content": "Title: Zero-carbon city Content: A zero-carbon city runs entirely on renewable energy ; it has no carbon footprint and will in this respect not cause harm to the planet . Most cities throughout the world produce energy by burning coal , oil and gas , unintentionally emitting carbon . Almost every activity humans do involves burning one of these fossil fuels . To become a zero carbon city , an established modern city must collectively reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to zero and all practices that emit greenhouse gases must cease . Also , renewable energy must supersede other non-renewable energy sources and become the sole source of energy , so a zero-carbon city is a renewable-energy-economy city . This transition which includes decarbonising electricity ( increasing the importance of the sources of renewable electricity ) and zero-emission transport , is undertaken as a response to climate change . Zero-carbon cities maintain optimal living conditions while eliminating environmental impact . Instead of using established cities , many developers are starting from scratch in order to create a zero-carbon city . This way they can make sure every aspect of a city contributes to it being carbon free .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Zero-carbon_city", "rank": 10, "score": 147654 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 11, "score": 146847 }, { "content": "Title: Financial incentives for photovoltaics Content: Financial incentives for photovoltaics are incentives offered to electricity consumers to install and operate solar-electric generating systems , also known as photovoltaics ( PV ) . A government may offer incentives in order to encourage the PV industry to achieve the economies of scale needed to compete where the cost of PV-generated electricity is above the cost from the existing grid . Such policies are implemented to promote national or territorial energy independence , high tech job creation and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions which cause climate change . When , in a given country or territory , the cost of solar electricity falls to meet the rising cost of grid electricity , then ` grid parity ' is reached , and in principle incentives are no longer needed . In some places , the price of electricity varies as a function of time and day ( due to demand variations ) . In places where high demand ( and high electricity prices ) coincide with high sunshine ( usually hot places with air conditioning ) then grid parity is reached before the cost solar electricity meets the average price of grid electricity .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Financial_incentives_for_photovoltaics", "rank": 12, "score": 145839 }, { "content": "Title: Energy policy of Australia Content: The energy policy of Australia is subject to the regulatory and fiscal influence of all three levels of government in Australia , although only the State and Federal levels determine policy for primary industries such as coal . As of 2016 , Federal energy policies continue to support the coal mining and natural gas industries through subsidies for fossil fuel use and production as the exports by those industries contribute significantly to the earnings of foreign exchange and government revenues . Australia is one of the most coal-dependent countries in the world . Coal and natural gas , along with oil-based products , are currently the primary sources of Australian energy usage and the coal industry produces approximately 38 % of Australia 's total greenhouse gas emissions . In 2015 Federal policy reverted to a pro-coal economy with cuts to alternate and renewable energy government offices , targets and subsidies Federal climate change policy changed following the election of the Labor Rudd Government in December 2007 , which committed to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme in 2010 , and to expand the mandatory renewable energy target to ensure 20 % of electricity supply in Australia was from renewable sources by 2020 . After a contentious political debate , a carbon pricing mechanism entered force on 1 July 2012 under Prime Minister Julia Gillard , but was repealed by the Abbott Government in 2014 . In June 2015 the Abbott Government downgraded the renewable energy target from 41,000 GWh per year to 33,000 GWh . As of 2013 , Australia was now only the 12th highest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita in the world , and 16th ( behind China , Russia . the US , Germany , the UK , Japan , India and other major developed nations ) , in total CO2 emissions ( kt per year ) . Renewable energy commercialisation in Australia is an area of growing activity . Australia 's renewable energy industries are diverse , covering numerous energy sources and scales of operation , and currently contribute about 8 -- 10 % of Australia 's total energy supply . The major area where renewable energy is growing is in electricity generation following the introduction of government Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets . The two most populous states , New South Wales and Victoria have renewable energy targets of 20 % and 25 % respectively by 2020 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Energy_policy_of_Australia", "rank": 13, "score": 145248 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Certificate (United States) Content: Renewable Energy Certificates ( RECs ) , also known as Green tags , Renewable Energy Credits , Renewable Electricity Certificates , or Tradable Renewable Certificates ( TRCs ) , are tradable , non-tangible energy commodities in the United States that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour ( MWh ) of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource ( renewable electricity ) and was fed into the shared system of power lines which transport energy . Solar renewable energy certificates ( SRECs ) are RECs that are specifically generated by solar energy . Renewable Energy Certificates provide a mechanism for the purchase of renewable energy that is added to and pulled from the electrical grid . These certificates can be sold and traded or bartered , and the owner of the REC can claim to have purchased renewable energy . According to the U.S. Department of Energy 's Green Power Network , RECs represent the environmental attributes of the power produced from renewable energy projects and are sold separately from commodity electricity . While traditional carbon emissions trading programs use penalties and incentives to achieve established emissions targets , RECs simply incentivize carbon-neutral renewable energy by providing a production subsidy to electricity generated from renewable sources . A green energy provider ( such as a wind farm ) is credited with one REC for every 1,000 kWh or 1 MWh of electricity it produces ( for reference , an average residential customer consumes about 800 kWh in a month ) . A certifying agency gives each REC a unique identification number to make sure it does n't get double-counted . The green energy is then fed into the electrical grid ( by mandate ) , and the accompanying REC can then be sold on the open market . `` Retirement occurs when a Renewable Energy Certificate ( REC ) is used by the owner of the REC . Use of the REC may include , but is not limited to , ( 1 ) use of the REC by an end-use customer , marketer , generator , or utility to comply with a statutory or regulatory requirement , ( 2 ) a public claim associated with a purchase of RECs by an end-use customer , or ( 3 ) the sale of any component attributes of a REC for any purpose . Once a REC is retired , it may not be sold , donated , or transferred to any other party . No party other than the owner may make claims associated with retired RECs . '' Energy from any grid-tied source is bought and sold with contracts specifying the generator and purchaser . In the trade of renewable energy , RECs specify that a unit of renewable energy was generated . Because once electricity is placed on the electrical grid it mixes with electricity from multiple sources and becomes indistinguishable , RECs are used to track the ownership of environmental and social benefits of the renewable energy . The majority of RECs are sold separately from the electricity itself . In these cases , the electricity is sold as `` null '' energy without its environmental and social benefits , as if it were generated by non-renewable resources such as coal , nuclear or natural gas . When RECs are purchased in combination with non-renewable electricity this constitutes the legal purchase of renewable energy . This is how electrical grid connected renewable energy is traded in the U.S. Grid-connected renewable energy is used by electric utility companies in meeting their regulatory requirements and by individuals and businesses wishing to lessen their environmental impact . RECs allow for purchasers to support renewable energy generation and allows the economic forces of supply and demand to spur the further development of renewable energy generation .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Certificate_(United_States)", "rank": 14, "score": 144422 }, { "content": "Title: American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity Content: The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity ( ACCCE , formerly ABEC or Americans for Balanced Energy Choices ) is a U.S. non-profit advocacy group representing major American coal producers , utility companies and railroads . The organization seeks to influence public opinion and legislation in favor of coal-generated electricity in the United States , placing emphasis on the development and deployment of clean coal technologies . Since carbon capture and sequestration -- which ACCCE and its member companies advocate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal burning -- has yet to be tested on a large scale , some have questioned whether this approach is feasible or realistic . ACCCE faced a Congressional investigation when it was discovered that a lobbying firm hired by ACCCE had sent forged letters to lawmakers . The letters , purporting to come from a variety of minority-focused non-profit groups , were in fact forged by a lobbying firm hired by ACCCE .", "qid": "381", "docid": "American_Coalition_for_Clean_Coal_Electricity", "rank": 15, "score": 142392 }, { "content": "Title: Energy subsidies Content: Energy subsidies are measures that keep prices for consumers below market levels or for producers above market levels , or reduce costs for consumers and producers . Energy subsidies may be direct cash transfers to producers , consumers , or related bodies , as well as indirect support mechanisms , such as tax exemptions and rebates , price controls , trade restrictions , and limits on market access . They may also include energy conservation subsidies . The development of today 's major modern energy industries have all relied on substantial subsidy support . Global fossil fuel subsidies represented 6.5 % of global GDP in 2015 . The elimination of these subsidies is widely seen as one of the most effective ways of reducing global carbon emissions .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Energy_subsidies", "rank": 16, "score": 142225 }, { "content": "Title: Black Law Wind Farm Content: The 42-turbine Black Law Wind Farm has a total capacity of 97 megawatts ( MW ) , sufficient to meet the average electricity needs of 70,000 homes each year - or a town the size of Paisley - and is estimated to save around 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year . The # 90 million wind farm is located near Forth in Lanarkshire and has been built on an old opencast coalmine site which was completely restored to shallow wetlands during the construction programme . It employs seven permanent staff on site and created 200 jobs during construction . Scottish Power is expected to complete a second phase which will see the installation of a further 12 turbines . The project has received wide recognition for its contribution to environmental objectives , including praise from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds , who said that the scheme was not only improving the landscape in a derelict opencast mining site , but also benefiting a range of wildlife in the area , with an extensive habitat management projects covering over 14 square kilometres .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Black_Law_Wind_Farm", "rank": 17, "score": 141583 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in the United Kingdom Content: The United Kingdom is one of the best locations for wind power in the world , and is considered to be the best in Europe . Wind power contributed 11 % of UK electricity generation in 2015 , and 17 % in December 2015 . Allowing for the costs of pollution , particularly the carbon emissions of other forms of production , onshore wind power is the cheapest form of energy in the United Kingdom . In 2016 , the UK generated more electricity from wind power than from coal . Wind power delivers a growing percentage of the energy of the United Kingdom and at the end of May 2017 , it consisted of 7,520 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of almost 15.5 gigawatts : 10,128 megawatts of onshore capacity and 5,356 megawatts of offshore capacity . This placed the United Kingdom at this time as the world 's sixth largest producer of wind power ( behind 1 . China , 2 . USA , 3 . Germany , 4 . India and 5 . Spain ) , having overtaken France and Italy in 2012 . Polling of public opinion consistently shows strong support for wind power in the UK , with nearly three quarters of the population agreeing with its use , even for people living near onshore wind turbines . In 2015 , 40.4 TW · h of energy was generated by wind power , and the quarterly generation record was set in the three-month period from October to December 2015 , with 13 % of the nation 's electricity demand met by wind . 2015 saw 1.2 GW of new wind power capacity brought online , a 9.6 % increase of the total UK installed capacity . Three large offshore wind farms came on stream in 2015 , Gwynt y Môr ( 576 MW max . capacity ) , Humber Gateway ( 219 MW ) and Westermost Rough ( 210 MW ) . Through the Renewables Obligation , British electricity suppliers are now required by law to provide a proportion of their sales from renewable sources such as wind power or pay a penalty fee . The supplier then receives a Renewables Obligation Certificate ( ROC ) for each MW · h of electricity they have purchased . Within the United Kingdom , wind power is the largest source of renewable electricity , and the second largest source of renewable energy after biomass . However , the UK 's Conservative government is opposed to onshore wind power and has attempted to cancel existing subsidies for onshore wind turbines a year early from April 2016 , although the House of Lords have struck these changes down . Overall , wind power raises costs of electricity slightly . In 2015 , it was estimated that the use of wind power in the UK had added # 18 to the average yearly electricity bill . This was the additional cost to consumers of using wind to generate about 9.3 % of the annual total ( see table below ) -- about # 2 for each 1 % . Nevertheless , offshore wind power is significantly more expensive than onshore , which raises costs . Offshore wind projects completed in 2012 -- 14 had a levelised cost of electricity of # 131/MW · h compared to a wholesale price of # 40 -- 50/MW · h ; the industry hopes to get the cost down to # 100/MW · h for projects approved in 2020 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Wind_power_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 18, "score": 140103 }, { "content": "Title: Peat energy in Finland Content: Peat energy in Finland describes peat energy use in Finland . Peat has high global warming emissions and high environmental concerns . It may be compared to brown coal ( lignite ) or worse than this lowest rank of coal . Peat is the most harmful energy source for global warming in Finland . ( Hard coal , which is more harmful , is only used as an emergency back-up source for energy , and not in every year . ) According to IEA the Finnish subsidies for peat in 2007-2010 undermined the goal to reduce emissions and counteracted other environmental policies and The European Union emissions trading scheme .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Peat_energy_in_Finland", "rank": 19, "score": 138970 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 20, "score": 138785 }, { "content": "Title: Coal pollution mitigation Content: Coal pollution mitigation , often referred to by the public relations term clean coal , is a series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate the pollution and other environmental effects normally associated with the burning ( though not the mining or processing ) of coal , which is widely regarded as the dirtiest of the common fuels for industrial processes and power generation . The preferred industry term `` clean coal '' has been described as `` Orwellian '' , an oxymoron , and a myth . Approaches attempt to mitigate emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and other greenhouse gases , and radioactive materials , that arise from the use of coal , mainly for electrical power generation , using various technologies . Historical efforts to reduce coal pollution focused on flue-gas desulfurization starting in the 1850s and clean burn technologies . More recent developments include carbon capture and storage , which pumps and stores CO2 emissions underground , and integrated gasification combined cycle ( IGCC ) involve coal gasification , which provides a basis for increased efficiency and lower cost in capturing CO2 emissions . There are seven technologies deployed or proposed for deployment in the United States : carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) , flue-gas desulfurization , fluidized-bed combustion , integrated gasification combined cycle ( IGCC ) , low nitrogen oxide burners , selective catalytic reduction ( SCR ) , and electrostatic precipitators . Of the 22 demonstration projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy since 2003 , none are in operation as of February 2017 , having been abandoned or delayed due to capital budget overruns or discontinued because of excessive operating expenses .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Coal_pollution_mitigation", "rank": 21, "score": 138497 }, { "content": "Title: Coal in Australia Content: Coal in Australia is mined primarily in Queensland , New South Wales and Victoria . Coal is used to generate electricity and most of the coal mined in Australia is exported , mostly to eastern Asia . In fiscal year 2013/14 , 430.9 million tonnes of coal was mined , and 375.1 million tonnes was exported . Coal provides about 69 % of Australia 's electricity production . In fiscal year 2008/09 , 487 million tonnes of coal was mined , and 261 million tonnes was exported . In 2013 , Australia was the world 's fifth-largest coal producer , after China , the United States , India , and Indonesia . However , in terms of proportion of production exported , Australia was the world 's second largest coal exporter , with exports accounting for roughly 73 % of coal production . Indonesia exports about 87 % of its coal production . Coal mining in Australia has been criticised by members of the environmental movement , due to carbon dioxide emissions during combustion . This criticism is primarily directed at thermal coal , for its connection to coal-fired power stations as a major source of carbon dioxide emissions , and the link to climate change and the effects of global warming on Australia . The burning of coal for electricity produces 29 % of Australia 's total greenhouse gas emissions , based on 2013-2014 Clean Energy Regulator data . Both Greenpeace Australia Pacific ( Energy -LSB- R -RSB- evolution ) and Beyond Zero Emissions ( Zero Carbon Australia 2020 ) have produced reports claiming a transition can be made to renewable energy and Greenpeace has called for a just transition for coal based communities , but others argue at present there is no strong evidence of a viable alternative for the vast majority of Australia 's electricity generation , or for the significant economic and social benefits coal mining delivers to regional communities . Many of these arguments specifically ignore the differentiation between thermal and metallurgical coal , and the different application they play in modern society . Coal Seam Gas , methane-based gas associated with deposits of coal has historically been flared , however over the past 10 years has been recovered and used to generate further electricity . The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme , which followed the draft report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review , has placed a price on carbon emissions through a reducing cap and trade emissions trading scheme and this would be likely to impact most heavily on brown coal usage within Australia ( particularly in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria ) for power generation .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Coal_in_Australia", "rank": 22, "score": 136858 }, { "content": "Title: Collinsville Power Station Content: Collinsville Power Station is located south of Townsville , Queensland , Australia . It has five coal powered steam turbines with a combined generation capacity of 190 MW of electricity . The coal for Collinsville comes from local open-cut mines . Collinsville was commissioned in 1968 with four 30 MW steam turbines . A 60 MW machine was later commissioned in 1976 . These were refurbished in 1999 , and upgraded to 66 MW and 31 MW respectively . Carbon Monitoring for Action estimates this power station emitted 1.34 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year as a result of burning coal . The Australian Government has announced the introduction of a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme commencing in 2010 to help combat climate change . It is expected to impact on emissions from power stations . The National Pollutant Inventory provides details of other pollutant emissions , but , as at 23 November 2008 , not . RATCH-Australia , the operator of the plant , is in the process of decommissioning and putting under care and maintenance the Collinsville coal-fired power station . It is investigating options to redevelop the site with one or more new forms of electricity generation . As of 20 February 2013 , RATCH is partnering with the University of Queensland to investigate replacing all the coal-fired power generators with solar thermal generators . On the 10 of July 2014 it was announced that the solar thermal plans for Collinsville would not be proceeding . On the 8th of May 2017 it was announced that it will be replaced by a 42MW solar farm .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Collinsville_Power_Station", "rank": 23, "score": 135702 }, { "content": "Title: Coal power in the United States Content: Coal power in the United States accounted for 39 % of the country 's electricity production at utility-scale facilities in 2014 , 33 % in 2015 , and 30.4 % in 2016 Coal supplied 16.5 quadrillion BTUs of primary energy to electric power plants in 2013 , which made up nearly 92 % of coal 's contribution to energy supply . Utilities buy more than 90 percent of the coal consumed in the United States . Coal has been used to generate electricity in the United States since an Edison plant was built in New York City in 1882 . The first alternating current power station was opened by General Electric in Ehrenfeld , Pennsylvania in 1902 , servicing the Webster Coal and Coke Company . By the mid-twentieth century , coal had become the leading fuel for generating electricity in the US . The long , steady rise of coal-fired generation of electricity shifted to a decline after 2007 . The decline has been linked to the increased availability of natural gas , decreased consumption , renewable power , and more stringent environmental regulations . The Environmental Protection Administration has advanced restrictions on coal plants to counteract mercury pollution , smog , and global warming .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Coal_power_in_the_United_States", "rank": 24, "score": 135525 }, { "content": "Title: Kogan Creek Power Station Content: The Kogan Creek Power Station is a 750 megawatt coal fired power station owned by CS Energy on the Darling Downs in Queensland . The $ 1.2 billion plant is situated at Brigalow , in the Surat Basin between Dalby and Chinchilla . The power station uses supercritical steam technology , which produces lower greenhouse gases emissions per energy unit delivered , and air-cooled surface condensers , which reduces water consumption . The plant consumes 90 % less water when compared to conventional power stations through the use of dry cooling technology . The plant runs at 40 per cent efficiency , and requires 42 per cent less fuel input than conventional power stations .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Kogan_Creek_Power_Station", "rank": 25, "score": 134689 }, { "content": "Title: Zero-emissions vehicle Content: A zero-emissions vehicle , or ZEV , is a vehicle that emits no tailpipe pollutants from the onboard source of power . Harmful pollutants to the health and the environment include particulates ( soot ) , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , ozone , lead , and various oxides of nitrogen . Although not considered emission pollutants by the original California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) definitions , the most recent common use of the term also includes volatile organic compounds , several air toxics ( most notably 1,3-Butadiene ) , and global pollutants such as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases . Examples of zero emission vehicles include muscle-powered vehicles such as bicycles ; gravity racers ; battery electric vehicles , which typically shift emissions to the location where the electricity is generated e.g. coal or natural gas power plant ; and fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen , which typically shift emissions to the location where the hydrogen is generated . Hydrogen-powered vehicles are not strictly zero-emissions , as they do emit water or water vapor , although they are still usually included in this category . Emissions from the manufacturing process are ignored in this definition , although the emissions that are created during manufacture are of an order of magnitude that is comparable to the one of the emissions that are created during a vehicle 's operating lifetime .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Zero-emissions_vehicle", "rank": 26, "score": 134534 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport in Australia Content: The environmental impact of transport in Australia is considerable . Australia subsidizes fossil fuel energy , keeping prices artificially low and raising greenhouse gas emissions due to the increased use of fossil fuels as a result of the subsidies . The Australian Energy Regulator and state agencies such as the New South Wales ' Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal set and regulate electricity prices , thereby lowering production and consumer cost . According to a report by The Institute for Sustainable Futures ( ISF ) at University of Technology Sydney , titled : `` Energy and Transport Subsidies in Australia '' , roughly 70 % of the country 's greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the energy and transport industries . The uptake of renewable energy in these sectors is slow because of subsidies to fossil fuels and the high cost of acquiring the sophisticated technology required to produce cleaner fuels . Furthermore , fossil fuels are easier to transport and use , compared to renewable energy , which often require sophisticated instruments to acquire and store . The report revealed that for the 2005 -- 2006 financial year , transport subsidies were measured to reach up to $ 10.1 billion , of which 74 % related to transport , 18 % to electricity and 4 % to renewable and efficient energy . These subsidies help energy generation companies increase their profits , therefore encouraging the building of additional coal-fuel power plants . Investing in other , more sustainable , types of electricity generation plants would have cost less than continuing to subsidize the building of these power plants . On a positive note , alternative transport fuels such as natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas are excused from fuel excise/tax . Tax calculated for the use of a company car is calculated as such : the further the person drives the car , the higher the business use and the lower the personal use . Since tax is calculated based on personal use , drivers tend to drive longer distances to lessen the amount of tax that they have to pay . This leads to a higher consumption of vehicular fossil fuels and , subsequently , higher greenhouse gas emissions . Dr Hal Turton , the Group Leader of the Energy Economics Group at Swiss research establishment , the Paul Scherrer Institute , discussed in his report for Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute titled : `` The Aluminium Smelting Industry : Structure , Market Power , Subsidies and Greenhouse Gas Emissions '' , that the yearly electrical use subsidy for the use of the six aluminium smelters in Australia is at least A$ 210 million . According to the report , Australia 's aluminium smelting industry is party to one of the most subsidized electricity charges as compared to other similar establishments . The ISF report found that removing electrical subsidies would bring up electricity prices by 3.9 % , which would lead to a fall in demand of electricity by 1.4 % in the long run . Reducing transport subsidies would increase prices by 32 % , which would lead to a fall in demand worth 18 % . It suggests that subsidies should be removed gradually so as not to hurt drivers who have no choice but to use petrol ( due to the lack of alternatives ) , and that taxpayer 's funds be channeled to subsidize the sustainable energy industry instead . The National Roads and Motorists ' Association ( NRMA ) is pushing for Australian petrol consumption to be reduced by 50 % by 2050 . It is advocating a move towards greener transport , and has called for a reduction of the A$ 10 billion subsidies given to the nation 's fossil fuel industry .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport_in_Australia", "rank": 27, "score": 133011 }, { "content": "Title: Emissions trading Content: Emissions trading or cap and trade is a government-mandated , market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants . In contrast to command-and-control environmental regulations such as best available technology ( BAT ) standards and government subsidies , cap and trade ( CAT ) schemes are a type of flexible environmental regulation that allows organizations to decide how best to meet policy targets . Various countries , states and groups of companies have adopted such trading systems , notably for mitigating climate change . A central authority ( usually a governmental body ) allocates or sells a limited number of permits to discharge specific quantities of a specific pollutant per time period . Polluters are required to hold permits in amount equal to their emissions . Polluters that want to increase their emissions must buy permits from others willing to sell them . Financial derivatives of permits can also be traded on secondary markets . In theory , polluters who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so , achieving the emission reduction at the lowest cost to society . Cap and trade is meant to provide the private sector with the flexibility required to reduce emissions while stimulating technological innovation and economic growth . There are active trading programs in several air pollutants . For greenhouse gases , which cause climate change , permit units are often called carbon credits . The largest greenhouse gases trading program is the European Union Emission Trading Scheme , which trades primarily in European Union Allowances ( EUAs ) ; the Californian scheme trades in California Carbon Allowances , the New Zealand scheme in New Zealand Units and the Australian scheme in Australian Units . The United States has a national market to reduce acid rain and several regional markets in nitrogen oxides .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Emissions_trading", "rank": 28, "score": 132539 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport Content: The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport", "rank": 29, "score": 131161 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 30, "score": 130463 }, { "content": "Title: Hazelwood Power Station Content: The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned brown coal-fuelled thermal power station located in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria , Australia . Built between 1964 and 1971 , the 1,600 megawatt capacity power station was made up of eight 200MW units , and supplied up to 25 % of Victoria 's base load electricity and more than 5 % of Australia 's total electricity demand . It was a ` subcritical ' pulverized coal-fired boiler . The station was listed as the least carbon efficient power station in the OECD in a 2005 report by WWF Australia , making it one of the most polluting power stations in the world . At 1.56 tonnes of CO2 for each megawatt hour of electricity , it was 50 percent more polluting than the average black coal power station in NSW or Queensland . Hazelwood emitted 14 % of Victoria 's annual greenhouse gas emissions and 3 % of Australia 's greenhouse gas emissions . International Power plc purchased Hazelwood Power Station and the adjoining mine from the Victorian Government in 1996 with an expected 40-year life . In 2005 the Bracks Labor Government approved an environmental effects statement ( EES ) that allowed Hazelwood to relocate a road and a section of the Morwell river to allow access to an additional 43 million tonnes of coal in addition to that allowed under the mining licence boundaries set at the time of privatisation . This was estimated to provide sufficient coal for the plant to operate to at least 2030 ( prior to decommissioning plans ) . The EES also capped its expected total greenhouse output at 445 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over its life , after which Hazelwood may have been made to cease operation . Hazelwood was jointly owned by Engie ( formerly GDF Suez ) , with a 72 % share and Mitsui & Co. with a 28 % share . , Hazelwood employed 495 staff directly and on average 300 contractors . On 3 November 2016 , Engie announced that the entire Hazelwood plant would be closed as of the end of March 2017 , giving the workers and local communities only five months notice of the closure .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Hazelwood_Power_Station", "rank": 31, "score": 129383 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon power Content: Low-carbon power comes from processes or technologies that , produce power with substantially lower amounts of carbon dioxide emissions than is emitted from conventional fossil fuel power generation . It includes low carbon power generation sources such as wind power , solar power , hydropower and , including fuel preparation and decommissioning , nuclear power . The term largely excludes conventional fossil fuel plant sources , and is only used to describe a particular subset of operating fossil fuel power systems , specifically , those that are successfully coupled with a flue gas carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) system .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Low-carbon_power", "rank": 32, "score": 128521 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy debate Content: There is a renewable energy debate about the constraints and opportunities associated with the use of renewable energy . Renewable electricity production , from sources such as wind power and solar power , is sometimes criticized for being variable or intermittent . However , the International Energy Agency has stated that this only applies to certain renewables , mainly wind and solar photovoltaics , and its significance depends on a range of factors , such as the penetration of the renewables concerned . There have been `` not in my back yard '' ( NIMBY ) concerns relating to the visual and other impacts of some wind farms , with local residents sometimes fighting or blocking construction . In the USA , the Massachusetts Cape Wind project was delayed for years partly because of aesthetic concerns . However , residents in other areas have been more positive and there are many examples of community wind farm developments . According to a town councillor , the overwhelming majority of locals believe that the Ardrossan Wind Farm in Scotland has enhanced the area . The market for renewable energy technologies has continued to grow . Climate change concerns , coupled with high oil prices , peak oil , and increasing government support , are driving increasing renewable energy legislation , incentives and commercialization . New government spending , regulation and policies helped the industry weather the 2009 economic crisis better than many other sectors .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Renewable_energy_debate", "rank": 33, "score": 127108 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Grenada Content: The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "qid": "381", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Grenada", "rank": 34, "score": 127052 }, { "content": "Title: Boardman Coal Plant Content: The Boardman Coal Plant is a coal-fired power plant located in Boardman , Oregon . The facility has a nameplate capacity of 550 megawatts ( MWs ) and is operated by Portland General Electric . The plant is the only remaining coal powered plant in Oregon and has received much attention from the regional media in recent years due to its being the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state with environmental groups such as the Sierra Club calling for its closing .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Boardman_Coal_Plant", "rank": 35, "score": 127050 }, { "content": "Title: Muja Power Station Content: Muja Power Station is a power station 22 km east of Collie , Western Australia . It has eight steam turbines served by coal-fired boilers that together generate a total capacity of 854 MW of electricity . The coal is mined in the nearby Collie Sub-basin . The station was first commissioned on 21 April 1966 . Currently four of the eight turbines are running ( Units 5 to 8 ) . Muja has four 60MW units ( Stages A & B ) , two 200 MW units ( Stage C ) and two 227 MW units ( Stage D ) . The four smallest unit and least efficient units , Stages A and B , were closed in April 2007 . In June 2008 it was announced that these older generator units would be recommissioned , due to a statewide natural gas shortage . According to the National Pollutant Inventory ( NPI ) , Muja Power Station is one of the biggest emitters of air pollution in Australia , including high emissions of beryllium , fluoride and particulate matter . Carbon Monitoring for Action estimates this power station emits 5.56 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year as a result of burning coal .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Muja_Power_Station", "rank": 36, "score": 126965 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 37, "score": 126696 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 38, "score": 125817 }, { "content": "Title: Electricity sector in the United Kingdom Content: The electricity sector in the United Kingdom relies mainly on fossil fuelled power and 15-20 % in nuclear power and similar amounts of renewable power . Fossil fuel generator use in general and coal use in particularly is shrinking , with coal generators now only mainly being run in Winter due to pollution and costs . In 2008 nuclear electricity production was 860 kWh pro person . In 2014 , 28.1 TW · h of energy was generated by wind power , which contributed 9.3 % of the UK 's electricity requirement . In 2015 , 40.4 TW · h of energy was generated by wind power , and the quarterly generation record was set in the three-month period from October to December 2015 , with 13 % of the nation 's electricity demand met by wind . 2015 saw 1.2 GW of new wind power capacity brought online , a 9.6 % increase of the total UK installed capacity . The United Kingdom voluntarily ended the use of incandescent lightbulbs in 2011 . Between 2007 and 2012 , the UK 's peak electrical demand has fallen from 61.5 GW to 57.5 GW The use of electricity declined 11 % in 2009 compared to 2004 and respectively . The UK is planning to reform its Electricity Market . It plans to introduce a capacity mechanism and contracts for difference to encourage the building of new generation .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Electricity_sector_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 39, "score": 125798 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the United Kingdom Content: Renewable energy in the United Kingdom '' ' can be divided into the generation of renewable electricity , the generation of renewable heat and renewable energy use in the transport sector . From the mid-1990s renewable energy began to contribute to the electricity generated in the United Kingdom , adding to a small hydroelectricity generating capacity . The total of all renewable electricity sources provided for 14.9 % of the electricity generated in the United Kingdom in 2013 , reaching 53.7 TWh of electricity generated . In the second quarter of 2015 , renewable electricity penetration exceeded 25 % and coal generation for the first time . Renewable energy contributions to meeting the UK 's 15 % target reduction in total energy consumption by 2020 , in accordance with the 2009 EU Renewable Directive , totalled 5.2 % in 2013 as measured in accordance with the methodology set out in the Directive . By 2016 provisional calculations show that the figure had risen again to 8.3 per cent of energy consumption ( all sources ) coming from renewable sources in 2015 . Interest in renewable energy in the UK has increased in recent years due to new UK and EU targets for reductions in carbon emissions and the promotion of renewable electricity power generation through commercial incentives such as the Renewable Obligation Certificate scheme ( ROCs ) and Feed in tariffs ( FITs ) and the promotion of renewable heat through the Renewable Heat Incentive . Historically hydroelectric schemes were the largest producers of renewable electricity in the UK , but these have now been surpassed by wind power schemes , for which the UK has large potential resources .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 40, "score": 125581 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in China Content: China is the world 's leading country in electricity production from renewable energy sources , with over double the generation of the second-ranking country , the United States . China 's renewable energy sector is growing faster than its fossil fuels and nuclear power capacity . In 2013 the country had a total capacity of 378 GW of renewable power , mainly from hydroelectric and wind power . Although China currently has the world 's largest installations of hydro , solar and wind power , its energy needs are so large that in 2013 renewables provided just a little over 20 % of its power generation , with most of the remainder provided by traditional coal power facilities . Nevertheless , the share of renewables in the energy mix had been gradually rising from 2013 and targets from 2015 onwards have represented a step change in ambition . China sees renewables as a source of energy security and not just only to reduce carbon emission . China 's Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution issued by China 's State Council in September 2013 , illustrates the government 's desire to increase the share of renewables in China 's energy mix . Unlike oil , coal and gas , the supplies of which are finite and subject to geopolitical tensions , renewable energy systems can be built and used wherever there is sufficient water , wind , and sun . From 2005 to 2014 , production of solar cells in China has expanded 100-fold . As Chinese renewable manufacturing has grown , the costs of renewable energy technologies have dropped dramatically . Innovation has helped , but the main driver of reduced costs has been market expansion . In 2015 China became the world 's largest producer of photovoltaic power , with 43 GW of total installed capacity .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_China", "rank": 41, "score": 124345 }, { "content": "Title: Pleasant Prairie Power Plant Content: Pleasant Prairie Power Plant is a base load , coal fired , electrical power station located in Pleasant Prairie , Wisconsin in Kenosha County . In 2009 , it was listed as the largest generating station in Wisconsin with a net summer capacity of 1,210 MW and generates roughly 13 % of Wisconsin 's electricity , burning around 13,000 tons of coal daily . The plant uses experimental technology designed by French Alstom SA to separate carbon dioxide from the exhaust , and is seen as a proving ground for clean coal technology . The plant is owned by We Energies . The 30-year-old power plant has developed and applied a retrofit system that has helped reduce nitrogen oxide by up to 90 percent and sulfur dioxide by up to 95 percent . The Pleasant Prairie plant produces `` 8.6 million tons of annually -- about as much as ( that produced by ) 1.7 million US cars , '' according to the Wall Street Journal In an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions , the plant uses a chilled ammonia process developed by Alstom Power , Inc. that captures up to 90 percent of carbon emissions as it escapes the flue gas . The demonstration project began in March 2008 and will last for two years . In 2009 , the America 's Power Factuality Tour stopped at the Pleasant Prairie Power Plant to report on its role in generating electricity in the United States .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Pleasant_Prairie_Power_Plant", "rank": 42, "score": 123585 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-neutral fuel Content: Carbon-neutral fuels can refer to a variety of energy fuels or energy systems which have no net greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint . One class is synthetic fuel ( including methane , gasoline , diesel fuel , jet fuel or ammonia ) produced from sustainable or nuclear energy used to hydrogenate waste carbon dioxide recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater . Other types can be produced from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines , solar panels , and hydroelectric power stations . Such fuels are potentially carbon-neutral because they do not result in a net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases . Until captured carbon is used for plastics feedstock , carbon neutral fuel synthesis is the primary means of carbon capture and utilization or recycling . To the extent that carbon-neutral fuels displace fossil fuels , or if they are produced from waste carbon or seawater carbonic acid , and their combustion is subject to carbon capture at the flue or exhaust pipe , they result in negative carbon dioxide emission and net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere , and thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas remediation . Such power to gas carbon-neutral and carbon-negative fuels can be produced by the electrolysis of water to make hydrogen used in the Sabatier reaction to produce methane which may then be stored to be burned later in power plants as synthetic natural gas , transported by pipeline , truck , or tanker ship , or be used in gas to liquids processes such as the Fischer -- Tropsch process to make traditional fuels for transportation or heating . Carbon-neutral fuels are used in Germany and Iceland for distributed storage of renewable energy , minimizing problems of wind and solar intermittency , and enabling transmission of wind , water , and solar power through existing natural gas pipelines . Such renewable fuels could alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels , enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles . A 250 kilowatt synthetic methane plant has been built in Germany and it is being scaled up to 10 megawatts .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Carbon-neutral_fuel", "rank": 43, "score": 123506 }, { "content": "Title: Healy Clean Coal Project Content: Healy Clean Coal Project is a clean coal technology demonstration program consisting of a coal fired electrical power station located in Healy , Alaska in Denali Borough . The project was a demonstration of the TRW Clean Coal Combustion System and the Babcock & Wilcox/Joy Spray Dryer Absorber ( SDA ) System designed to reduce oxides of nitrogen ( NOX ) and sulfur dioxide ( SO2 ) emissions while burning a variety of coal types , including waste coal . The project constructed a plant adjacent to Golden Valley Electric Association ( GVEA ) 25 MW coal plant Healy Unit 1 . Construction occurred from 1995-1997 at a cost of around $ 300 million . The facility operated briefly following its construction as part of the demonstration program , but has been shut down since 2000 . The research project is considered `` complete '' by the Department of Energy . The plant is being sold to the GVEA to resume power production in 2012 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Healy_Clean_Coal_Project", "rank": 44, "score": 123127 }, { "content": "Title: Chinese national carbon trading scheme Content: The Chinese national carbon trading scheme is a cap and trade system for carbon dioxide emissions set to be implemented in July 2017 . This emission trading scheme ( ETS ) creates a carbon market where emitters can buy and sell emission credits . From this scheme , China can limit emissions , but allow economic freedom for emitters to reduce emissions or purchase emission allowances from other emitters . China is currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and many major Chinese cities have severe air pollution . With this plan , China will soon be the largest market in carbon trading . The scheme will limit emissions from six of China 's top carbon dioxide emitting industries , including coal-fired power plants . China was able to gain experience in drafting and implementation of an ETS plan from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , where China was part of the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) . From this experience with carbon markets , and lengthy discussions with the next largest carbon market , the European Union ( EU ) , as well as analysis of small scale pilot markets in major Chinese cities and provinces , China 's national ETS will be the largest of its kind and will help China achieve its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution ( INDC ) from the Paris Agreement in 2016 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Chinese_national_carbon_trading_scheme", "rank": 45, "score": 122929 }, { "content": "Title: 21st-century fossil fuel regulations in the United States Content: Fossil fuel regulations are part of the energy policy in the United States and have gained major significance with the strong dependence on fossil fuel based energy . Regulatory processes are established at the federal and state level due to the immense economic , socio-political and environmental impact of fossil fuel extraction and production . Over 80 % of the United States ' energy comes from fossil fuels such as coal , natural gas , and oil . The Bush administration was marked by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 , which provided a monetary incentive for renewable energy adoption and addressed the issue of climate change . The Obama administration was made up of advocates for renewable energy and natural gas , while Donald Trump built his campaign on promises to revive the coal industry . Oil , gas , and coal companies have been at odds with policy makers who have supported a wider implementation of renewable energy , with the former often spending millions of dollars to lobby against cleaner energy . The Washington Post reported on February 22 , 2017 Scott Pruitt 's potential special interests with the fossil fuel industry as he began his term as the appointed head of the EPA under the Trump administration . Fossil fuel emission disproportionately affects working class , poor and minority populations . The people most adversely affected also have the least political influence and least access to health care .", "qid": "381", "docid": "21st-century_fossil_fuel_regulations_in_the_United_States", "rank": 46, "score": 122927 }, { "content": "Title: Cofiring Content: Co-firing is the combustion of two different types of materials at the same time . One of the advantages of co-firing is that an existing plant can be used to burn a new fuel , which may be cheaper or more environmentally friendly . For example , biomass is sometimes co-fired in existing coal plants instead of new biomass plants . Co-firing can also be used to improve the combustion of fuels with low energy content . For example , landfill gas contains a large amount of carbon dioxide , which is non-combustible . If the landfill gas is burned without removing the carbon dioxide , the equipment may not perform properly or emissions of pollutants may increase . Co-firing it with natural gas increases the heat content of the fuel and improves combustion and equipment performance . As long as the electricity or heat produced with the biomass and landfill gas was otherwise going to be produced with non-renewable fuels , the benefits are essentially equivalent whether they are cofired or combusted alone . Also , co-firing can be used to lower the emission of some pollutants . For example , co-firing biomass with coal results in less sulfur emissions than burning coal by itself .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Cofiring", "rank": 47, "score": 122855 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Portugal Content: At the end of 2013 , Portugal had 277.9 MWp of photovoltaics and produced an estimated 437 GWh of electricity which supplied nearly 166 500 homes and saved approximately 107 074 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions . In 2013 , solar power was responsible for 0,58 % of the total electricity produced . Portugal also increased its solar capacity by 25 % when comparing to 2012 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Portugal", "rank": 48, "score": 122388 }, { "content": "Title: Presidential Climate Action Plan Content: President Barack Obama 's Climate Action Plan proposed a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions . It included preserving forests , encouraging the use of alternate fuels , and increased study of climate change . The plan was first established in 2008 and updated every two years since . The plan would support conservation of land and water resources and developing actionable climate science , and to encourage other countries to take action to address climate change , including reducing deforestation and lowering subsidies that increase use of fossil fuels . The plan specifically mentions methane , building efficiency , wind , solar and hydroelectricity . White House staff members who were directly tasked with implementation of the plan include Heather Zichal and Michelle Patron . On the first day of the presidency of Donald Trump , the White House website announced that The Climate Action Plan would be eliminated , stating it is ` harmful and unnecessary ' .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Presidential_Climate_Action_Plan", "rank": 49, "score": 121513 }, { "content": "Title: Copper in renewable energy Content: Renewable energy sources such as solar , wind , tidal , hydro , biomass , and geothermal have become significant sectors of the energy market . The rapid growth of these sources in the 21st century has been prompted by increasing costs of fossil fuels as well as their negative environmental impacts . While the average capacity of renewable energy sources was only 7 % globally in 2010 , most installation of new capacity has been with renewables . Few new installations were from fossil fuel-based power plants . The trend towards new power capacity by renewables is expected to continue through 2020 . Since renewable energy supplies offset the amount of fossil fuels that need to be combusted in power plants , the use of renewables indirectly helps to reduce CO2 emissions . Hence , renewable energy supplies enable societies to progress towards lower-carbon-based economies . Copper plays an important role in renewable energy systems . Since copper is an excellent thermal and electrical conductor among the engineering metals ( second only to silver ) , power systems that utilize copper generate and transmit energy with high efficiency and with minimum environmental impacts . By using copper instead of other lower electrical energy-efficient metal conductors , less electricity needs to be generated to satisfy a given power demand . This article discusses the role of copper in various renewable energy generation systems .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Copper_in_renewable_energy", "rank": 50, "score": 120717 }, { "content": "Title: Energy in the United Kingdom Content: Energy use in the United Kingdom stood at 2,249 TWh ( 193.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent ) in 2014 . This equates to energy consumption per capita of 34.82 MWh ( 3.00 tonnes of oil equivalent ) compared to a 2010 world average of 21.54 MWh ( 1.85 tonnes of oil equivalent ) . Demand for electricity in 2014 was 34.42 GW on average ( 301.7 TWh over the year ) coming from a total electricity generation of 335.0 TWh . Successive UK governments have outlined numerous commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions . One such announcement was the Low Carbon Transition Plan launched by the Brown ministry in July 2009 , which aimed to generate 30 % electricity from renewable sources , and 40 % from low carbon content fuels by 2020 . Notably , the UK is one of the best sites in Europe for wind energy , and wind power production is its fastest growing supply , in 2014 it generated 9.3 % of the UK 's total electricity . Government commitments to reduce emissions are occurring against a backdrop of economic crisis across Europe . During the European financial crisis , Europe 's consumption of electricity shrank by 5 % , with primary production also facing a noticeable decline . Britain 's trade deficit was reduced by 8 % due to substantial cuts in energy imports . Between 2007 and 2015 , the UK 's peak electrical demand fell from 61.5 GW to 52.7 . GW . UK government energy policy aims to play a key role in limiting greenhouse gas emissions , whilst meeting energy demand . Shifting availabilities of resources and development of technologies also change the country 's energy mix through changes in costs . In 2016 , the United Kingdom was ranked 12th in the World on the Environmental Performance Index , which measures how well a country carries through environmental policy .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Energy_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 51, "score": 120212 }, { "content": "Title: American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut Content: American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut , , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court , in an 8 -- 0 decision , held that corporations can not be sued for greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) under federal common law , primarily because the Clean Air Act ( CAA ) delegates the management of carbon dioxide and other GHG emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) . Brought to court in July 2004 in the Southern District of New York , this was the first global warming case based on a public nuisance claim .", "qid": "381", "docid": "American_Electric_Power_Co._v._Connecticut", "rank": 52, "score": 120170 }, { "content": "Title: Hydrogen Energy California Content: Hydrogen Energy California ( HECA ) was an alternative energy , hydrogen power project in development with support from the U.S. Department of Energy in Kern County , California . The facility proposed to convert coal and refinery waste into an impure hydrogen fuel that would be used to generate electricity and fertilizer . HECA was supposed to capture ninety percent of its carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions to theoretically minimize greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and inject it , ironically , for enhanced oil recovery . If it had become fully operational , HECA would have generated nearly 300MW of clean electricity and will produce one million tons of locally manufactured , low-carbon fertilizer . But , most of the electricity produced by HECA would have been consumed by the different processes at the plant . On March 4 , 2016 , the California Energy Commission ordered the HECA application to be terminated . HECA would have produced over 500 tons of criteria air pollutants . This air pollution would have been added to an area that already has the worst air pollution in the entire United States . The facility was to be located on 542 acres of prime farmland in western Kern County , about 7 mi west of Bakersfield and 1.5 mi northwest of the unincorporated community of Tupman . The site is near the Elk Hills Oil Field where the captured CO2 was to be used for enhanced oil recovery by Occidental of Elk Hills , Inc. . HECA would have employed an expected 2,000 union workers to construct the facility and would have created approximately 200 permanent jobs . HECA was a project of SCS Energy LLC , an independent developer of clean power . HECA was cofunded by the U.S. Department of Energy 's Office of Fossil Energy and administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory . The HECA project was awarded a $ 408 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy under Clean Coal Power Initiative Round 3 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Hydrogen_Energy_California", "rank": 53, "score": 119959 }, { "content": "Title: Acid Rain Program Content: The Acid Rain Program is a market-based initiative taken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to reduce overall atmospheric levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides , which cause acid rain . The program is an implementation of emissions trading that primarily targets coal-burning power plants , allowing them to buy and sell emission permits ( called `` allowances '' ) according to individual needs and costs . In 2011 , the trading program that existed since 1995 was supplemented by four separate trading programs under the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule ( CSAPR ) . On August 21 , 2012 , the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued its Opinion and Order in the appeal of the Cross State Air Pollution Rule ( CSAPR ) for two independent legal reasons . The stay on CSAPR was lifted in October 2014 , allowing implementation of the law and its trading programs to begin .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Acid_Rain_Program", "rank": 54, "score": 119719 }, { "content": "Title: Prunéřov Power Station Content: The Prunéřov Power Station ( Elektrárna Prunéřov , EPRU ) is the largest coal-fired power station in the Czech Republic with installed capacity of 1,490 MW . It is located near Kadaň . According to the study Dirty Thirty , issued in May 2007 by the WWF , Prunéřov Power Station is the twelfth-worst power station in Europe in terms of the relation of energy efficiency to carbon dioxide emissions . Power station is largest single source of in Czech Republic . In 2008 it emitted 9,210 millions of metric tons of . Unit 2 ( EPRU II ) of Prunéřov power station has a 300 m tall flue gas stack . CEZ planned to modernize unit 2 , a plan which was challenged in 2010 by Micronesia in the framework of the Espoo Convention on the grounds that the expansion of the power station would impact global warming and through this the environment of Micronesia . According to the Czech environment ministry that modernization plan does not include best available technology . On January 26 , 2010 Czech minister of the Environment Jan Dusík ( Green Party member ) informed he was calling in international experts to carry out an environmental impact assessment of plans to modernize the power station . In March he publicly released the report from Det Norske Veritas , that proved lack of best available technology in the CEZ plan EIA . Shortly after this Minister Dusík resigned , claiming he was under pressure from prime minister Jan Fischer to approve CEZ plan EIA . As a result , the Green party also withdrew his second minister from government . After a short lead by Minister of Agriculture Jakub Šebesta , former CEZ employee Rút Bízková was appointed as Minister of the Environment and after two weeks in office he approved CEZ plan EIA in April .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Prunéřov_Power_Station", "rank": 55, "score": 119672 }, { "content": "Title: Alternative energy Content: Alternative energy is any energy source that is an alternative to fossil fuel . These alternatives are intended to address concerns about such fossil fuels , such as its high carbon dioxide emissions , an important factor in global warming . Marine energy , hydroelectric , wind , geothermal and solar power are all alternative sources of energy . The nature of what constitutes an alternative energy source has changed considerably over time , as have controversies regarding energy use . Because of the variety of energy choices and differing goals of their advocates , defining some energy types as `` alternative '' is considered very controversial .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Alternative_energy", "rank": 56, "score": 119035 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Spain Content: Spain is one of the most advanced countries in the development of solar energy , and it is one of the European countries with the most hours of sunshine . Through a ministerial ruling in March 2004 , the Spanish government removed economic barriers to the connection of renewable energy technologies to the electricity grid . The Royal Decree 436/2004 equalized conditions for large-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic plants and guaranteed feed-in tariffs . In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis , the Spanish government drastically cut its subsidies for solar power and capped future increases in capacity at 500 MW per year , with effects upon the industry worldwide . In 2008 the Spanish government committed to achieving a target of 12 % of primary energy from renewable energy by 2010 and by 2020 expects the installed solar generating capacity of 10 GW . Spain is the fourth largest manufacturer in the world of solar power technology and exports 80 % of this output to Germany . Spain added a record 2.6 GW of solar photovoltaic power in 2008 , increasing capacity to 3.5 GW . In 2016 , nearly 8 TWh was produced from photovoltaics , and 5 TWh from solar thermal . By the end of 2012 , 4.5 GW had been installed , and that year 8.2 TWh of electricity was produced . Since then , new installations of solar photovoltaics have slowed down significantly . Since 2010 , Spain has been the world 's leader in concentrated solar power ( CSP ) , and by the end of 2012 had installed over 2,000 MW of CSP .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Spain", "rank": 57, "score": 118371 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 58, "score": 117624 }, { "content": "Title: ACWA Power Content: ACWA Power is a company that provides electricity and desalination . Its energy portfolio includes solar ( Photovoltaic PV ) and Concentrated Solar Power ( CSP ) , geothermal , wind , waste-to-energy ( WtE ) and coal pollution mitigation .", "qid": "381", "docid": "ACWA_Power", "rank": 59, "score": 116904 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 60, "score": 116502 }, { "content": "Title: Taichung Power Plant Content: The Taichung Power Plant is a coal-fired power plant in Longjing , Taichung , Taiwan . With an installed coal-fired generation capacity of 5,500 MW , it is the largest coal-fired power station in the world , and also the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide with approximately 40 million tons annually ( or about as much as the country of Switzerland as a whole ) . Together with its gas-fired and wind generation units , the total installed capacity of the plant is 5,824 MW .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Taichung_Power_Plant", "rank": 61, "score": 116256 }, { "content": "Title: Decarbonisation measures in proposed UK electricity market reform Content: The United Kingdom is committed to legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets of 34 % by 2020 and 80 % by 2050 , compared to 1990 levels , as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 . DECC ( 2008 ) . Climate Change Act . Decarbonisation of electricity generation will form a major part of this reduction and is essential before other sectors of the economy can be successfully decarbonised.DECC ( 2011a ) . Planning Our Electric Future : A White Paper for Secure , Affordable and Low-Carbon Electricity . The Government 's proposals for electricity market reform , published in a White Paper in July 2011 , included three initiatives to encourage decarbonisation of electricity generation in the UK : A Carbon Price Floor to complement the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) ; Feed-in tariffs which will eventually replace the Renewables Obligation ; and an Emissions Performance Standard to restrict future use of the most carbon intensive forms of generation . In implementing these proposals , the Government aims to attract investment in low-carbon generation , deliver security of supply through an appropriate mix of electricity sources and ensure a minimum amount of impact on consumer bills ; all this at a time when security of supply is threatened by scheduled closures of existing plants and both the demand for , and subsequently the price of , electricity is increasing .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Decarbonisation_measures_in_proposed_UK_electricity_market_reform", "rank": 62, "score": 116246 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in the United Arab Emirates Content: Solar power in the United Arab Emirates has the potential to provide most of the country 's electricity demand . While being a major oil producing country , the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) has taken steps to introduce solar power on a large scale . However , solar power still accounts for a small share of energy production in the country . Until 2013 , there was no operational solar power in the UAE . The country was the 6th top carbon dioxide emitter per capita in the world in 2009 , with 40.31 tonnes , but is planning to generate the vast majority of its electrical energy by 2050 from solar and nuclear sources .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Solar_power_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 63, "score": 116199 }, { "content": "Title: Longview Power Plant Content: Longview Power Plant is the cleanest , most efficient coal-fired power plant in the 13-state PJM Interconnection and one of the most efficient in the United States , producing 700 net megawatts of electric power . Located near Morgantown , West Virginia , Longview has a heat rate of 8,700 Btu/kwh , surpassing that of other comparable coal-fired power plants in the country . Longview 's advanced supercritical boiler , low cost fuel , minimal water usage and other efficiencies combine to produce the lowest cost of dispatch ( delivery of electricity ) of any coal-fired plant in the region . The Longview Power plant includes a new air pollution control system that results in emissions that are among the lowest in the nation for coal plants . In addition , Longview emits less CO2 than most other coal plants because of its fuel efficiency . The Longview Power plant is fully integrated with its fuel source , utilizing `` run-of-mine '' coal , and thus avoiding the added cost and environmental impacts of fuel preparation . Mepco , an affiliated fuel supplier , transports coal from its underground mine to Longview by a 4.5 mile conveyor that minimizes transportation costs and avoids the local impacts of trucking coal . The Longview Power project cost approximately $ 2.2 billion -- the largest private investment in West Virginia 's history . After the plant began operations in 2011 , construction defects and major changes in the power markets lead to the company 's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013 . In early 2015 the company reached a comprehensive settlement of all construction claims , and two of its major contractors agreed to remediate plant defects at their own expense . As a result , Longview Power emerged from bankruptcy in April 2015 with the full remediation of the plant underway and new ownership led by private equity firms KKR , Centerbridge , Ascribe , and Third Avenue . The $ 120 million in improvements by Longview and its contractors has turned the facility into `` the most efficient coal-fired power plant in the U.S. , '' as assessed by a key industry magazine , POWER , which awarded Longview its 2016 Reinvention Award . The Wall Street Journal of January 11 , 2015 , states that coal , according to the Energy Information Administration , will still compromise around 30 % of the fuel source of U.S. electricity by 2030 . Longview and Mepco are described as exemplifying the new era in the coal and power industry . They operate at a profit in a challenging economy and provide employment for miners and power plant workers , producing electricity efficiently and using as many filters as possible to reduce carbon emissions , the article states . SNL Financial , a key trade , reported April 21 , 2016 , on Longview 's 155 days of continuous operation during which it exceeded its operational metrics , with steady environmental performance and at an affordable cost . Longview also used some of its fuel flexibility and took advantage of historically low natural gas prices and co-fired natural gas for up to 20 % of unit heat input without any additional investment . Longview said its carbon dioxide emissions are about 15 % below its peers and that it met its permit limitations despite having some of the most stringent in the nation . Longview was recently visited by Sen. Joe Manchin , D-W . Va. and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito , R-W . Va. . Manchin stated the plant was an example of a cleaner future for coal-fired power . Ernest Moniz , United States Secretary of Energy , also visited the plant .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Longview_Power_Plant", "rank": 64, "score": 116029 }, { "content": "Title: Summit Power Content: Summit Power Group is a Seattle-based energy development company , responsible for developing electric power plants and other energy-related facilities , which are primarily natural gas-fired and wind-powered , with solar power recently added . Summit does not develop conventional coal-fired power plants without carbon capture . Summit 's prospective IGCC/CCS projects include the Texas Clean Energy Project , the Renewable Energy Corporation Project in Montana , and surface facilities for underground coal gasification ( UCG ) projects in the early stages of development by Laurus Energy as a licensee of Ergo Exergy .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Summit_Power", "rank": 65, "score": 115941 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions in Kentucky Content: The report `` Kentucky Greenhouse Gas Inventory '' provides a detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks for Kentucky in 1990 . Emissions were estimated using methods from EPA 's 1995 guidance document State Workbook : Methodologies for Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions . In 1990 , Kentucky emitted 35.4 million metric tons of carbon equivalent ( MMTCE ) . In addition , Kentucky estimated emissions of 0.4 MMTCE from biofuels . Emissions from biofuels are not included . The principal greenhouse gases were carbon dioxide , comprising 87.9 million metric tons ( 24.0 MMTCE ) , and methane , with 1.1 million metric tons ( 6.4 MMTCE ) . Other emissions included 0.0016 million metric tons of perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) ( 4.8 MMTCE ) , and 0.003 million metric tons of nitrous oxide ( 0.2 MMTCE ) The major source of carbon dioxide emissions was fossil fuel combustion ( 96 % ) , the majority of which is utility coal . Minor emissions came from cement and lime production and forest/grassland conversion . Carbon dioxide sinks ( i.e. , an increase in forest carbon storage ) offset about 26 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions . Sources of methane emissions were coal mining ( 73 % ) , domesticated animals ( 12 % ) , landfills ( 10 % ) , manure management ( 3 % ) , and natural gas/oil extraction ( 2 % ) . Nitrous oxide emissions were from fertilizer use . Sources of perfluorocarbons were HCFC-22 production ( 91 % ) and aluminum production ( 9 % ) . Kentucky 's emissions in 1990 were 9.6 MTCE per capita , compared to 1990 U.S. emissions of 6.4 MTCE per capita . Kentucky 's per capita emissions are high due to the large volume of coal-related activities in the state .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_in_Kentucky", "rank": 66, "score": 115011 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in the United Kingdom Content: Solar power represented a very small part of electricity production in United Kingdom until 2011 . The installed base has increased rapidly in recent years as a result of reductions in the cost of photovoltaic ( PV ) panels , and the introduction of a feed-in tariff ( FIT ) subsidy in April 2010 . As of January 2017 , there is a total installed capacity of 11,642 megawatt ( MW ) of PV solar power . placing the United Kingdom in sixth place internationally in terms of total installed capacity . In 2012 , the government announced that 4 million homes across the UK will be powered by the sun within eight years , representing 22 GW of installed solar power capacity by 2020 . The 72MW ( DC ) Shotwick Solar Farm is the largest in the United Kingdom .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Solar_power_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 67, "score": 114759 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of nuclear power Content: The environmental impact of nuclear power results from the nuclear fuel cycle , operation , and the effects of nuclear accidents . The greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear fission power are much smaller than those associated with coal , oil and gas , and the routine health risks are much smaller than those associated with coal . However , there is a `` catastrophic risk '' potential if containment fails , which in nuclear reactors can be brought about by overheated fuels melting and releasing large quantities of fission products into the environment . This potential risk could wipe out the benefits . The most long-lived radioactive wastes , including spent nuclear fuel , must be contained and isolated from the environment for a long period of time . On the other side , spent nuclear fuel could be reused , yielding even more energy , and reducing the amount of waste to be contained . The public has been made sensitive to these risks and there has been considerable public opposition to nuclear power . The 1979 Three Mile Island accident and 1986 Chernobyl disaster , along with high construction costs , also compounded by delays resulting from a steady schedule of demonstrations , injunctions and political actions , caused by the anti-nuclear opposition , ended the rapid growth of global nuclear power capacity . A release of radioactive materials followed the 2011 Japanese tsunami which damaged the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant , resulting in hydrogen gas explosions and partial meltdowns classified as a Level 7 event . The large-scale release of radioactivity resulted in people being evacuated from a 20 km exclusion zone set up around the power plant , similar to the 30 km radius Chernobyl Exclusion Zone still in effect . But published works suggest that the radioactivity levels have lowered enough to now have only a limited impact on wildlife . In Japan , on July 2016 , Fukushima Prefecture announced that the number of evacuees following the Great East Japan earthquake events , had fallen below 90,000 , in part following the lifting of evacuation orders issued in some municipalities .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_nuclear_power", "rank": 68, "score": 114290 }, { "content": "Title: Aire valley power stations Content: Aire valley power station may refer to one or all of : Ferrybridge power station Eggborough power station Drax power station By the 1990s the collection of three power stations generated 20 % of Britain 's electricity , and contributed 56 % of the Yorkshire and Humber regions greenhouse gas emissions , which was primarily CO2 ( ~ 2010 ) . In 2006 the generating capacity was approximately 8 GW total ( Ferrybridge C , 2 GW ; Eggborough , 2 GW , Drax 4 GW ) . The power stations were built during the post-Beeching era , close to the Selby Coalfield which supplied them via Gascoigne Wood until the field 's closure at the beginning of the 21st century . After the Selby field closure coal was imported to fuel the power stations , much of it through the Humber ports ( primarily Immingham Port , also Port of Hull ) and other east coast ports ( Redcar , Tyne , Blyth ) , additionally coal was supplied from open cast coal mines in Ayrshire , Scotland , as well as being imported via Scotland ( Hunterston Terminal ) . Ferrybridge and Eggborough power stations were scheduled to close in March 2016 . Ferrybridge closed according to schedule on 31 March 2016 , while Eggborough will continue to operate at least until March 2017 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Aire_valley_power_stations", "rank": 69, "score": 114135 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in Pristina Content: Pristina is the capital and the most populated city of Kosovo . It is also considered as the most polluted city in Kosovo . Basic reason for Pristina 's air pollution is coal mining and energy emitted by the single producer of energy , Kosovo Energy Corporation J.S.C. KEK operates through two power plants , Kosovo A and B located 5 km near Pristina . Furthermore , the diesel-spitting car traffic highly contributes to the pollution of air , along with the wood and coal household heating system and central coal-heating company `` Termokos '' that operates in Pristina .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_Pristina", "rank": 70, "score": 113845 }, { "content": "Title: List of active coal fired power stations in the United Kingdom Content: There are currently 9 active coal fired power stations operating in the United Kingdom which have a total generating capacity of 14.4 GW . In 2016 three power stations closed at Rugeley , Ferrybridge and Longannet . In November 2015 it was announced by the UK Government that all coal fired power stations would be closed by 2025 . The use of coal power fell by a fifth in 2014 to historic lows not seen since before the Industrial Revolution . Coal supplied 9 % of UK electricity in 2016 , down from 23 % in 2015 and 30 % in 2014 . In May 2016 , for the first time solar power produced more electricity than coal , producing 1.33 GWh compared to 0.9 GWh from coal . On 21 April 2017 for the first time since the 19th century the UK had a 24 hour period without any generation from coal power .", "qid": "381", "docid": "List_of_active_coal_fired_power_stations_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 71, "score": 113735 }, { "content": "Title: Biosequestration Content: Biosequestration is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by biological processes . This may be by increased photosynthesis ( through practices such as reforestation / preventing deforestation and genetic engineering ) ; by enhanced soil carbon trapping in agriculture ; or by the use of algal bio sequestration ( see algae bioreactor ) to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions from coal , petroleum ( oil ) or natural gas-fired electricity generation . Biosequestration as a natural process has occurred in the past , and was responsible for the formation of the extensive coal and oil deposits which are now being burned . It is a key policy concept in the climate change mitigation debate . It does not generally refer to the sequestering of carbon dioxide in oceans ( see carbon sequestration and ocean acidification ) or rock formations , depleted oil or gas reservoirs ( see oil depletion and peak oil ) , deep saline aquifers , or deep coal seams ( see coal mining ) ( for all see geosequestration ) or through the use of industrial chemical carbon dioxide scrubbing .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Biosequestration", "rank": 72, "score": 113670 }, { "content": "Title: Zero Emissions Race Content: The Zero Emissions Race is an annual trip around the world , launched in Geneva in 2010 by Louis Palmer , a Swiss teacher who had previously driven an electric car dubbed the `` Solar Taxi '' around the world primarily powered by solar energy . That journey took 18 months and was completed in December 2008 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Zero_Emissions_Race", "rank": 73, "score": 113351 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 74, "score": 112778 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Content: The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme ( or CPRS ) was a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme for anthropogenic greenhouse gases proposed by the Rudd government , as part of its climate change policy , which had been due to commence in Australia in 2010 . It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia . The policy began to be formulated in April 2007 , when the federal Labor Party was in Opposition and the six Labor-controlled states commissioned an independent review on energy policy , the Garnaut Climate Change Review , which published a number of reports . After Labor won the 2007 federal election and formed government , it published a Green Paper on climate change for discussion and comment . The Federal Treasury then modelled some of the financial and economic impacts of the proposed CPRS scheme . The Rudd government published a final White Paper on 15 December 2008 , and announced that legislation was intended to take effect in July 2010 ; but the legislation for the CPRS ( aka ETS ) failed to gain the numbers in the Senate and was twice rejected creating a double dissolution election trigger . A bitter political debate within the Coalition Opposition saw Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull lose the leadership to the anti-CPRS Tony Abbott . The Rudd government did not call an election and in April 2010 , Rudd deferred plans for the CPRS . After the 2010 federal election , the Gillard Government was able to get the Carbon Pricing Mechanism ( CPM ) passed into law as part of the Clean Energy Futures Package ( CEF ) in 2011 , and became effective on 1 July 2012 . However , after the 2013 federal election there was a change in government , and the Abbott Government repealed the CEF package on 17 July 2014 . Due to the great deal of policy uncertainty surrounding the scheme , organizations in Australia responded in a rather informal and tepid manner and largely withheld from making any large-scale investments in emissions reductions technology during the scheme 's operation .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Carbon_Pollution_Reduction_Scheme", "rank": 75, "score": 112478 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental aspects of the electric car Content: Although electric cars have several benefits over conventional internal combustion engine automobiles , they are still subject to environmental regulation due to heavy reliance of rare earth elements such as neodymium , most of which are from China . However , several key environmental benefits includes a significant reduction of local air pollution , especially in cities , as they do not emit harmful tailpipe pollutants such as particulates ( soot ) , volatile organic compounds , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , ozone , lead , and various oxides of nitrogen . The amount of carbon dioxide emitted depends on the emission intensity of the power sources used to charge the vehicle , the efficiency of the said vehicle and the energy wasted in the charging process . For mains electricity the emission intensity varies significantly per country and within a particular country , and on the demand , the availability of renewable sources and the efficiency of the fossil fuel-based generation used at a given time .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Environmental_aspects_of_the_electric_car", "rank": 76, "score": 112290 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Portugal Content: Wind power in Portugal describes wind power in Portugal as part of energy in Portugal and renewable energy in Portugal . As of December 2013 , wind power capacity in Portugal ( Madeira and Azores included ) was of 4,731 MW . Wind share of total electricity consumption was 23 % saving nearly 8,182,900 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions . The major wind turbine manufacturers in the Portuguese market are Enercon , Vestas , Gamesa and Nordex . The largest owners of wind farms , as of December 2013 , are ENEOP2 ( 23,9 % ) , Iberwind ( 14,5 % ) ( EDP Renováveis ) ( 13 % ) , Generg ( 9,2 % ) and EEVM ( 6,2 % ) . The record of wind power generation utilization was achieved on October 24 , 2013 at 02:00 with 3844 MW or 84 % of the total used electricity .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Portugal", "rank": 77, "score": 112188 }, { "content": "Title: Energy in Hawaii Content: Energy production in Hawaii is a difficult issue due to the islands ' isolated location and lack of local resources . The state relies heavily on imports of petroleum and coal for power although recent initiatives have increased use of alternative resources . High levels of solar photovoltaic and wind power use have led to power balance issues which have made Hawaii a study case for renewable use . Commercial-scale batteries and upgraded grid resources and management are among the solutions being advanced . Hawaii has the most expensive electricity prices in the United States . In 2016 the average cost of electricity was $ 0.24 per kilowatt-hour , with the next highest state being Alaska at $ 0.19 . The U.S. average was $ 0.10 per kilowatt-hour across all sectors .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Energy_in_Hawaii", "rank": 78, "score": 112113 }, { "content": "Title: Cap and dividend Content: Cap and dividend is a market-based trading system which retains the original capping method of cap and trade , but also includes compensation for energy consumers . This compensation is to offset the cost of products produced by companies that raise prices to consumers as a result of this policy . The process begins with some governments setting aggregate pollution quotas ( e.g. , for carbon emissions ) and selling pollution permits to the public respectively . Polluters are required to buy those credits to match their pollution outputs . Some of the cost producers pay for pollution will result in higher costs for consumers , who as citizens are additionally faced with the environmental costs of the pollution . Under the cap and dividend system , public revenues raised from the sale of pollution credits is rebated to citizens or to consumers as a subsidy for increasing efficiency .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Cap_and_dividend", "rank": 79, "score": 111867 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in New Zealand Content: Solar power in New Zealand currently contributes less than 0.1 percent to the country 's overall electricity generation . In the 2015 calendar year , an estimated 33 GWh of solar-generated electricity was contributed to the national grid , out of a total of 42,928 GWh . Although there are no subsidies , the declining costs of photovoltaics has caused a large increase in demand over the last few years . In 2009 , the average turnkey price for a standard PV system of three kilowatts ( kW ) was about NZ$ 40,000 , and has since dropped by 75 percent to NZ$ 10,000 ( US$ 7,800 or US$ 2.60 / W ) .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Solar_power_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 80, "score": 111414 }, { "content": "Title: TPP Kostolac B3 Content: TPP Kostolac B3 is a plan to build a third unit of the Kostolac B coal fired thermal power plant which installed capacity of 350 MW . For the purposes of running the new plant , expansion of an open pit mine Drmno from 9 to 12 tons of coal annually is planned . There are already existing units Kostolac A1 , A2 , B1 and B2 and Drmno and Cirikovac open cast mines at the site . On 20 November 2013 , Elektroprivreda Srbije , Tеrmoеlеktranе i kopovi Kostolac and Chinese corporation CMEC signed an agreement on construction . Authorities announced that the construction of the power plant is expected to begin by the end of 2014 and to be finished by 2019 . Together with the existing blocks B1 and B2 the new plan will satisfy about 20 % of Serbia 's electricity needs . Zhang Chun , president and CEO of CMEC said that the new thermal power plant will have a positive impact on the environment , because it will comply with the emissions requirements of the European Union scheduled for 2018 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "TPP_Kostolac_B3", "rank": 81, "score": 111411 }, { "content": "Title: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Content: ` The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI , pronounced `` Reggie '' ) is the first mandatory market based program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . RGGI is a cooperative effort among the states of Connecticut , Delaware , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , New York , Rhode Island , and Vermont to cap and reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector . RGGI compliance obligations apply to fossil-fueled power plants 25MW and larger within the nine-state region . RGGI establishes a regional cap on the amount of CO2 pollution that power plants can emit by issuing a limited number of tradable CO2 allowances . Each allowance represents an authorization for a regulated power plant to emit one short ton of CO2 . Individual CO2 budget trading programs in each RGGI state together create a regional market for CO2 allowances . The RGGI states distribute over 90 percent of allowances through quarterly auctions . These allowance auctions generate proceeds , which participating states are able to invest in strategic energy and consumer benefit programs . Programs funded through RGGI have included energy efficiency , clean and renewable energy , greenhouse gas abatement , and direct bill assistance . An initial milestone program 's development occurred in 2005 , when seven states signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU ) announcing an agreement to implement RGGI . The RGGI states then established individual CO2 budget trading programs , based on the RGGI Model Rule . The first pre-compliance RGGI auction took place in September 2008 , and the program became effective on January 1 , 2009 . The RGGI program is currently in its third three-year compliance period , which began January 1 , 2015 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Regional_Greenhouse_Gas_Initiative", "rank": 82, "score": 111302 }, { "content": "Title: 10:10 Content: 10:10 is a charity that enables people to take practical action on climate change , and combines these local actions to inspire a more ambitious approach to the issue at every level of society . Founded in 2009 , 10:10 began by campaigning for a 10 % reduction in carbon emissions in 2010 , and has since broadened its approach to include a range of projects focused on carbon reduction and renewable energy . Its three main projects are Solar Schools , which helps communities crowdfund the cost of solar panels for their local schools ; #itshappening , which showcases positive examples of progress on climate change ; and Back Balcombe , which supports a solar power cooperative in the Sussex village targeted for oil drilling , and promotes community-scale renewable energy nationally .", "qid": "381", "docid": "10:10", "rank": 83, "score": 111073 }, { "content": "Title: Clean Power Plan Content: The Clean Power Plan is an Obama administration policy aimed at combating anthropogenic climate change ( global warming ) that was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in June 2014 . It is widely expected to be eliminated under President Donald Trump , who signed an executive order on March 28 , 2017 mandating the EPA to review the plan . The final version of the plan was unveiled by President Obama on August 3 , 2015 . The 460-page rule ( RIN 2060 -- AR33 ) titled `` Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources : Electric Utility Generating Units '' was published in the Federal Register on October 23 , 2015 . The Obama administration designed the plan to lower the carbon dioxide emitted by power generators .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Clean_Power_Plan", "rank": 84, "score": 110545 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 85, "score": 110142 }, { "content": "Title: Wind Power Production Incentive Content: The Wind Power Production Incentive , or WPPI , was a program of the Canadian Government that promoted the generation of electricity from wind power in Canada to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas that would otherwise enter the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels . During the 5 years field trial projects were performed to test the performance based on various weather conditions . Provision of economic incentives were guaranteed for up to 1,000 MW of new installed capacity by 2007 . New installations in 2003 included the MacBride Wind Farm ( 75.9 MW ) in Alberta , the North Cape Wind Farm Expansion ( 5.3 MW ) , and the Aeolous Wind Turbine ( 3 MW ) in PEI , the Parc éolien du Renard ( 2.25 MW ) in Quebec , the Cypress Hill Wind Farm Expansion ( 4.6 MW ) in Saskatchewan , and the Ontario Place Wind turbine ( 0.75 MW ) in Ontario . ( IEA Wind 2002 Annual Report pg . 79 ) The government paid about half the excess cost of producing electricity from wind , compared to conventional sources , for the first 10 years of a project . The Canadian WPPI Program started in 2002 and ended on March 31 , 2007 after a change of government . A different program partly replaced it . A wind farm costs about the same to build per watt of nameplate capacity as a coal-fired power station of similar rating , but the economies of scale are fewer for a wind farm due to the lower quantity of power produced over the life of a station . Depending on location , wind farms may produce nearly full power output only about 28 % of the time , whereas a base-loaded coal-fired station runs at full output more than 85 % of the time . The WPPI provided a direct subsidy per kilowatthour of wind energy produced , from 1.2 cents down to 0.8 cents depending on the startup date of a project . Measures were taken to distribute the incentive across the country . The total estimated cost of the program was ( CDN ) $ 260 million . The program lived a short 5 year life .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Wind_Power_Production_Incentive", "rank": 86, "score": 110092 }, { "content": "Title: War on coal Content: In the United States , the war on coal is a phrase used by the coal industry and its supporters to describe what they claim is an effort by the Obama administration to impose stringent regulations on coal power in the United States and thereby make such power uneconomical . Proponents of this phrase also often identify the Environmental Protection Agency as one of the chief entities waging this putative war , although Michael Grunwald has claimed that the war on coal , although real , does not primarily happen at the national level but at the state and local level , and that the `` boots on the ground '' in the war are lawyers from the Sierra Club 's Beyond Coal campaign . The Obama administration has denied that they are waging a war on coal , noting that it may be possible to upgrade older power plants with more efficient turbines , and also pointing to the possibility of carbon sequestration techniques . On March 28 , 2017 , in announcing an executive order aimed at revoking various rules regarding carbon emissions enacted during the Obama administration , President Donald Trump stated that `` Our administration is putting an end to the war on coal . ''", "qid": "381", "docid": "War_on_coal", "rank": 87, "score": 110080 }, { "content": "Title: Refined coal Content: Refined coal is the product of the application of a coal upgrading technology that removes moisture and certain pollutants from lower-rank coals such as sub-bituminous and lignite ( brown ) coals and raising their calorific values . Coal refining or upgrading technologies are typically pre-combustion treatments and/or processes that alter the characteristics of a coal before it is burned . The goals of pre-combustion coal upgrading technologies are to increase efficiency and reduce emissions when coal is burned . Depending on the situation , pre-combustion technology can be used in place of or as a supplement to post-combustion technologies to control emissions from coal-fueled boilers . A primary benefit of refined coal is the capacity to reduce the net volume of carbon emissions that is currently emitted from power generators and would reduce the amount of emissions that is proposed to be managed via emerging carbon sequestration methodologies . Refined coal technologies have primarily been developed in the United States , several similar technologies have been researched , developed and tested in Victoria , Australia , including the Densified coal technology ( Coldry Process ) developed to alter the chemical bonds of brown coal to create a product that is cleaner , stable ( not prone to spontaneous combustion ) , exportable and of sufficiently high calorific value to be a black coal equivalent .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Refined_coal", "rank": 88, "score": 110075 }, { "content": "Title: Solar updraft tower Content: The solar updraft tower ( SUT ) is a renewable-energy power plant for generating electricity from low temperature solar heat . Sunshine heats the air beneath a very wide greenhouse-like roofed collector structure surrounding the central base of a very tall chimney tower . The resulting convection causes a hot air updraft in the tower by the chimney effect . This airflow drives wind turbines placed in the chimney updraft or around the chimney base to produce electricity . Plans for scaled-up versions of demonstration models will allow significant power generation , and may allow development of other applications , such as water extraction or distillation , and agriculture or horticulture . Commercial investment may have been discouraged by the high initial cost of building a very large novel structure , the large land area required and by the risk of investment , however , there appears to be a renewed interest in solar updraft towers especially in sunny remote areas . A few prototypes have recently been constructed and projects are being proposed for parts of Africa , USA and Australia . An important fact to consider is that solar updraft towers appear to be the only renewable energy technology that can generate electricity from low temperature heat . Functional or mechanical feasibility is not so much an issue now as capitalisation . A comprehensive review of theoretical and experimental aspects of the solar updraft tower power plant ( SUTPP ) development is available , with a recommendation for commercial development . A popular update with interview of an informed engineering proponent has been published in National Geographic in 2014 .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Solar_updraft_tower", "rank": 89, "score": 110015 }, { "content": "Title: Volume source (pollution) Content: A Volume source of pollution is a three-dimensional source of pollutant emissions . Essentially , it is an area source with a third dimension . Examples of a volume source of pollution are : Dust emissions from the wind erosion of uncovered gravel piles , sand piles , limestone piles , coal piles , etc. . Fugitive gaseous emissions from pipe flanges , packed valve seals , gas compressor seals , control valve seals , piping and vessel seals within industrial facilities such as oil refineries and petrochemical plants . Buildings , containing air pollutant emission sources , with no singular emission vent ( i.e. , buildings with multiple roof vents or multiple open windows ) .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Volume_source_(pollution)", "rank": 90, "score": 109801 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 91, "score": 109779 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Jamaica Content: Jamaica 's electricity sector is dominated by non-renewable generators that use petroleum products , primarily Bunker C fuel oil and automotive diesel which generated 93 % of the annual output for 2014 . There is a small contribution from a few small hydroelectric plants and a couple of wind farms , one of which , Wigton Wind Farm , contributes a very small amount despite being the largest wind farm in the Caribbean . In 2005 , Jamaica embarked on the preparation of a 25-year National Development Plan called `` Vision 2030 '' which encompassed the National Energy Policy 2009 -- 2030 . The policy was adopted in late 2009 and followed in 2010 by a National Renewable Energy Policy 2009 -- 2030 . According to the message from the then minister responsible for energy , `` Since 2005 , Jamaica has embarked upon the preparation of a 25-year National Development Plan called Vision 2030 which is expected to put the country in a path to achieve developed country status by 2030 . One of the expected outcomes of the plan is the diversification of Jamaica 's energy supply to increase energy security and to contribute to the cost efficiency of the country 's energy sector . '' After the National Energy Policy was approved the authorities set about creating a regulatory and technical framework for the interconnection of solar PV systems to the national grid in consultation with the grid operator . The result was the formulation of a Standard Offer Contract for the sale of electricity to the grid under a net billing arrangement . Under the net billing arrangement any electricity not consumed on the premises it is produced , is delivered to the grid and is purchased by the grid operator at a price set by the Office of Utilities Regulation to be close to the avoided cost of generation by the existing suppliers . That price is available at the regulators web site . Any electricity consumed from the grid is billed at the regular retail prices and at the end of the month the difference between the delivered and consumed amounts is settled . Technical guidelines for the interconnection to the grid are also now available and the Government Electrical Inspectorate is prepared to perform inspection of installations . This is the basis on which most major installations have proceeded .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Jamaica", "rank": 92, "score": 109235 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Mississippi Content: Solar power in Mississippi is an underutilized generation method ; however , large changes are expected by 2016 . The state reached only 1 MW of grid-connected solar electricity in 2013 . Rooftop photovoltaics can provide 31.2 % of all electricity used in Mississippi from 11,700 MW of solar panels . In 2011 , the Sierra Club sued the U.S. Department of Energy which was providing investment in a coal gasification plant being built by Mississippi Power . In 2012 Mississippi Power had only 0.05 % renewables in its power mix . In a settlement in 2014 , Mississippi Power agreed to allow net metering , and to offer 100 MW of wind or solar power purchase agreements . Mississippi is one of only two states , along with Florida , to have no potential for standard commercial wind power , having no locations that would provide at least 30 % capacity factor , although 30,000 MW of 100 meter high turbines would operate at 25 % capacity factor . Georgia Power which provides energy in southeast Mississippi has started a program to contract for 210 MW of solar power in 2014 , possibly increasing to 525 MW . 100 MW would be from small scale distributed installations . Offering net metering is required by federal law , but Mississippi is one of only four states to not have adopted a statewide policy on net metering , which means it needs to be negotiated with the utility .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Mississippi", "rank": 93, "score": 109001 }, { "content": "Title: Integrated gasification combined cycle Content: An integrated gasification combined cycle ( IGCC ) is a technology that uses a high pressure gasifier to turn coal and other carbon based fuels into pressurized gas -- synthesis gas ( syngas ) . It can then remove impurities from the syngas prior to the power generation cycle . Some of these pollutants , such as sulfur , can be turned into re-usable byproducts through the Claus process . This results in lower emissions of sulfur dioxide , particulates , mercury , and in some cases carbon dioxide . With additional process equipment , a water-gas shift reaction can increase gasification efficiency and reduce carbon monoxide emissions by converting it to carbon dioxide . The resulting carbon dioxide from the shift reaction can be separated , compressed , and stored through sequestration . Excess heat from the primary combustion and syngas fired generation is then passed to a steam cycle , similar to a combined cycle gas turbine . This process results in improved thermodynamic efficiency compared to conventional pulverized coal combustion .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Integrated_gasification_combined_cycle", "rank": 94, "score": 108862 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon shifting Content: Carbon shifting is the tendency for an individual to increase carbon dioxide emissions in one area of their lifestyle as a result of reducing emissions elsewhere . ` Carbon shifting ' might more accurately be termed ` domestic carbon shifting ' to distinguish it from carbon leakage which has occasionally also been called carbon shifting . Many attempts to encourage people to change aspects of their lifestyle and so reduce their carbon dioxide emissions make a virtue of the financial savings . In the United Kingdom the Energy Saving Trust lists various ways of saving energy , e.g. `` Energy saving light bulbs last up to 12 times longer than ordinary lightbulbs and can save you # 9 per year in electricity ( and 38 kilograms of ) or # 100 over the bulbs lifetime . '' However , whether or not carbon dioxide emissions are ultimately reduced will depend on how that saved money is spent . If the amount of money saved through walking to work is eventually spent on an extra city break involving air travel the net emissions may well increase . The problem of carbon shifting may undermine many voluntary piecemeal attempts at reducing carbon dioxide emissions . However , carbon shifting is not inherently negative . If a person can be persuaded to avoid activities that produce a high level of emissions for a given financial outlay then they may shift to activities that produce lower emissions for that same amount of money . Positive carbon shifting might be encouraged through the use of a carbon tax or the implementation of a Personal carbon trading scheme . The phenomenon of carbon shifting also suggests that for some comparative purposes the most appropriate measure of emissions would be emissions per unit of currency rather than total emissions . An activity that produces slightly lower emissions at a significantly lower cost may not necessarily be the best activity to promote as it leaves the individual with more money to spend on other emitting activities . Similarly , if two passengers are traveling on the same aircraft they might be deemed to be emitting the same total amount of carbon dioxide . However , if one of them paid a lower fare then , by this measure , they would be deemed to be damaging the environment more .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Carbon_shifting", "rank": 95, "score": 108604 }, { "content": "Title: Stand-alone power system Content: A stand-alone power system ( SAPS or SPS ) , also known as remote area power supply ( RAPS ) , is an off-the-grid electricity system for locations that are not fitted with an electricity distribution system . Typical SAPS include one or more methods of electricity generation , energy storage , and regulation . Electricity is typically generated by one or more of the following methods : Photovoltaic system using solar panels Wind turbine Geothermal source Micro combined heat and power Micro hydro Diesel or biofuel generator Thermoelectric generator ( TEGs ) Storage is typically implemented as a battery bank , but other solutions exist including fuel cells . Power drawn directly from the battery will be direct current extra low voltage ( DC ELV ) , and this is used especially for lighting as well as for DC appliances . An inverter is used to generate AC low voltage , which more typical appliances can be used with . Stand-alone photovoltaic power systems are independent of the utility grid and may use solar panels only or may be used in conjunction with a diesel generator , a wind turbine or batteries .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Stand-alone_power_system", "rank": 96, "score": 108393 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Mexico Content: Renewable energy in Mexico contributes to 26 percent of electricity generation in Mexico . As of 2009 , electricity generation from renewable energy comes from hydro power , geothermal , solar power and wind . There is a long term effort established to increase the use of renewable energy sources . The amount of geothermal energy used and harvested , places Mexico as number four in the world . As one of the leading countries in renewable energy , more specifically , geothermal placing Mexico as the 4th ranked country in the world . As the importance of clean sustainable energy becomes more prevalent , the country and government officials continue to invest in research and innovations to continue to allow Mexico to be a leading example of renewable energy . Predictions based on current energy standings lead the country to anticipate by the year 2035 , the 26 percent renewable energy in Mexico will rise to 35 percent . Not only will this prove a more sustainable future it also increases jobs in rural areas . Jobs increased by 14 percent within the last 8 years in the renewable energy sector . With the objection to create more in home jobs for residents of Mexico , an increase in sustainable energy , results in a lower demand for conventional fuels such as fuel oil , petrol gas , coal and natural gas . With a lower demand on these fuels , mainly gasoline and diesel and on the rise jet fuel , this will result in a lower need for imports . With relying on fewer imports , national security is higher .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Mexico", "rank": 97, "score": 108290 }, { "content": "Title: Energy in Bhutan Content: Energy in Bhutan has been a primary focus of development in the kingdom under its Five-Year Plans . In cooperation with India , Bhutan has undertaken several hydroelectric projects whose output is traded between the countries . Though Bhutan 's many hydroelectric plants provide energy far in excess of its needs in the summer , dry winters and increased fuel demand makes the kingdom a marginal net importer of energy from India . As of 2011 , the Bhutanese government supplied electricity to 60 percent of rural households , a significant increase from about 20 percent in 2003 . About 2,500 people used solar power throughout Bhutan . Even where electricity was available for lighting , most rural households cooked by wood fire . Rural homes were often heated with firewood , kerosene , or liquid petroleum gas . Bhutan has no natural petroleum or natural gas reserves . The kingdom has some 1.3 million tonnes of coal reserves , but extracts only about 1,000 tonnes of coal yearly , entirely for domestic consumption . Bhutan also imports oil at some 1,000 barrels per day . Most oil imports supplied fuel for automobiles . Bhutan remains overall carbon-neutral and a net sink for greenhouse gases . As Bhutan develops and modernizes , however , its domestic demand for energy in household , commercial , and industrial sectors has steadily increased .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Energy_in_Bhutan", "rank": 98, "score": 108231 }, { "content": "Title: Electricity sector in New Zealand Content: The electricity sector in New Zealand uses mainly renewable energy sources such as hydropower , geothermal power and increasingly wind energy . 75 % of energy for electricity generation is from renewable sources , making New Zealand one of the lowest carbon dioxide emitting countries in terms of electricity generation . Electricity demand has grown by an average of 2.1 % per year from 1974 to 2010 but decreased by 1.2 % from 2010 to 2013 . Regulation of the electricity market is the responsibility of the Electricity Authority ( formerly the Electricity Commission ) . Electricity lines businesses , including Transpower and the distribution lines companies , are regulated by the Commerce Commission . Control is also exerted by the Minister of Energy in the New Zealand Cabinet , though the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises and the Minister for Climate Change also have some powers by virtue of their positions and policy influence in the government .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Electricity_sector_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 99, "score": 108080 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emissions reporting Content: Human activities continue to impact Earth 's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases . One of the proposed ways to combat this climate change is through reporting by businesses on the impact of their activities . Large power stations and manufacturing plants are often required to report their emissions to appropriate government entities , for example to the European Union as part of the Emissions Trading System or to the US EPA as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program . In the United Kingdom , Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) has described climate change as the `` greatest environmental challenge facing the world today , '' and it is now a legal requirement for all quoted companies to report their annual greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "381", "docid": "Carbon_emissions_reporting", "rank": 100, "score": 107904 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Renewable energy debate Content: There is a renewable energy debate about the constraints and opportunities associated with the use of renewable energy . Renewable electricity production , from sources such as wind power and solar power , is sometimes criticized for being variable or intermittent . However , the International Energy Agency has stated that this only applies to certain renewables , mainly wind and solar photovoltaics , and its significance depends on a range of factors , such as the penetration of the renewables concerned . There have been `` not in my back yard '' ( NIMBY ) concerns relating to the visual and other impacts of some wind farms , with local residents sometimes fighting or blocking construction . In the USA , the Massachusetts Cape Wind project was delayed for years partly because of aesthetic concerns . However , residents in other areas have been more positive and there are many examples of community wind farm developments . According to a town councillor , the overwhelming majority of locals believe that the Ardrossan Wind Farm in Scotland has enhanced the area . The market for renewable energy technologies has continued to grow . Climate change concerns , coupled with high oil prices , peak oil , and increasing government support , are driving increasing renewable energy legislation , incentives and commercialization . New government spending , regulation and policies helped the industry weather the 2009 economic crisis better than many other sectors .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_debate", "rank": 1, "score": 125358 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the United States Content: Renewable energy in the United States accounted for 13.44 percent of the domestically produced electricity in 2015 , and 11.1 percent of total energy generation . As of 2016 , more than 260,000 people work in the solar industry and 43 states deploy net metering , where energy utilities buy back excess power generated by solar arrays . Renewable energy reached a major milestone in the first quarter of 2011 , when it contributed 11.7 percent of total U.S. energy production ( 2.245 quadrillion BTU of energy ) , surpassing energy production from nuclear power ( 2.125 quadrillion BTU ) . 2011 was the first year since 1997 that renewables exceeded nuclear in US total energy production . Hydroelectric power is currently the largest producer of renewable power in the U.S. . It produced around 6.14 % of the nation 's total electricity in 2015 which was 45.71 % of the total renewable power in the U.S. . The United States is the fourth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world after China , Canada and Brazil . The Grand Coulee Dam is the 5th largest hydroelectric power station in the world . U.S. wind power installed capacity now exceeds 72,000 MW and supplies 4.1 % of the nation 's electricity . Texas is firmly established as the leader in wind power development , followed by Iowa and California . Since the U.S. pioneered the technology in 1981 with Solar One , several solar thermal power stations have also been built . The largest of these solar thermal power stations are the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility ( 392 MW ) , southwest of Las Vegas , and the SEGS group of plants in the Mojave Desert , with a total generating capacity of 354 MW . Large photovoltaic power plants in the USA include Solar Star ( 579 MW ) , near Rosamond , California , the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm , a 550 MW solar power plant in Riverside County , California and the Topaz Solar Farm , a 550 MW photovoltaic power plant , in San Luis Obispo County , California . The Geysers in Northern California is the largest complex of geothermal energy production in the world . The development of renewable energy and energy efficiency marks `` a new era of energy exploration '' in the United States , according to President Barack Obama . In a joint address to the Congress on February 24 , 2009 , President Obama called for doubling renewable energy within the next three years . In his 2012 State of the Union address , President Barack Obama restated his commitment to renewable energy and mentioned the long-standing Interior Department commitment to permit 10,000 MW of renewable energy projects on public land in 2012 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_United_States", "rank": 2, "score": 115677 }, { "content": "Title: First Wind Content: Founded in 2002 , First Wind was an independent renewable energy company that develops and operates utility-scale power projects in the United States . It grew to employ more than 220 people across the country . Headquartered in Boston , the company develops or operates renewable energy projects in Maine , Vermont , Massachusetts , New York , Utah , Idaho , Washington and Hawaii with a combined capacity of nearly 1,300 megawatts . In addition to renewable energy projects , the company developed and operates two generator leads . First Wind began as a utility-scale wind power developer and operator , but in 2014 the company brought its first solar energy projects online . In November 2014 First Wind was purchased by SunEdison and its yieldco TerraForm Power for $ 2.4 billion . In February 2015 , as part of the merger integration , First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor , who led the company since 2004 , was appointed EVP Of North America Utility And Global Wind at SunEdison .", "qid": "382", "docid": "First_Wind", "rank": 3, "score": 115487 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Jamaica Content: Jamaica 's electricity sector is dominated by non-renewable generators that use petroleum products , primarily Bunker C fuel oil and automotive diesel which generated 93 % of the annual output for 2014 . There is a small contribution from a few small hydroelectric plants and a couple of wind farms , one of which , Wigton Wind Farm , contributes a very small amount despite being the largest wind farm in the Caribbean . In 2005 , Jamaica embarked on the preparation of a 25-year National Development Plan called `` Vision 2030 '' which encompassed the National Energy Policy 2009 -- 2030 . The policy was adopted in late 2009 and followed in 2010 by a National Renewable Energy Policy 2009 -- 2030 . According to the message from the then minister responsible for energy , `` Since 2005 , Jamaica has embarked upon the preparation of a 25-year National Development Plan called Vision 2030 which is expected to put the country in a path to achieve developed country status by 2030 . One of the expected outcomes of the plan is the diversification of Jamaica 's energy supply to increase energy security and to contribute to the cost efficiency of the country 's energy sector . '' After the National Energy Policy was approved the authorities set about creating a regulatory and technical framework for the interconnection of solar PV systems to the national grid in consultation with the grid operator . The result was the formulation of a Standard Offer Contract for the sale of electricity to the grid under a net billing arrangement . Under the net billing arrangement any electricity not consumed on the premises it is produced , is delivered to the grid and is purchased by the grid operator at a price set by the Office of Utilities Regulation to be close to the avoided cost of generation by the existing suppliers . That price is available at the regulators web site . Any electricity consumed from the grid is billed at the regular retail prices and at the end of the month the difference between the delivered and consumed amounts is settled . Technical guidelines for the interconnection to the grid are also now available and the Government Electrical Inspectorate is prepared to perform inspection of installations . This is the basis on which most major installations have proceeded .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Jamaica", "rank": 4, "score": 114807 }, { "content": "Title: Acciona Energy Content: Acciona Energy , a subsidiary of Acciona based in Madrid , is a Spanish company developing renewable energy projects , including small hydro , biomass , solar energy and thermal energy , and the marketing of biofuels . It also has assets in the field of co-generation and wind turbine manufacture . , it is carrying out research projects to produce hydrogen from wind power and to manufacture more efficient photovoltaic cells . , Acciona Energy has 164 wind farms in nine countries representing over 4,500 megawatts ( MW ) of wind power installed or under construction . Acciona Energy is also the developer , owner and operator of Nevada Solar One , the world 's first solar thermal plant built in more than 16 years , and the third largest facility of its kind . On September 18 , 2009 , the 100.5 MW EcoGrove Wind Farm in Lena , Illinois , U.S. became operational . The wind farm comprises 67 Acciona Windpower 1.5 MW turbines , and will produce enough to power 25,000 homes and offset 176,000 tons of carbon annually . The EcoGrove facility is spread across 7000 acre . Acciona Windpower 's main product is the AW1500 , a 1.545 MW output machine . There is a prototype AW3000 , a 3 MW model , operational in Pamplona , Spain . The company has a manufacturing facility in West Branch , Iowa which manufactures wind turbines . In June 2014 , Kohlberg Kravis Roberts announced it was taking a one-third stake in the international energy business of the company , at a cost of $ 417 million ( $ 567 million ) . The renewable energy generation business operates renewable assets , largely wind farms , across 14 countries including the United States , Italy and South Africa .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Acciona_Energy", "rank": 5, "score": 114455 }, { "content": "Title: Invenergy Content: Invenergy , LLC develops , builds , owns and operates power generation and energy storage projects in North America and Europe . Its portfolio includes wind , solar , and natural gas-fueled power generation and energy storage facilities . It is one of the six largest owners of wind generation plants in the United States and is North America 's largest independent wind power generation company . According to Invenergy , the company has developed 5,539 MW of wind farms in operation ; 3,159 MW of natural gas-fueled facilities in operation ; 144 MW of solar projects in operation ; and 88 MW of energy storage facilities in operation . At least 3,982 MW of renewable and clean energy projects are under contract or in construction . Wind production is spread over 56 operating projects , with several others currently in development and construction . Founded in 2001 after the sale of SkyGen Energy to Calpine Corporation by energy veteran Michael Polsky who also serves as president and CEO , Invenergy is based in Chicago , Illinois . Invenergy also has North American offices in Denver , Toronto , and Mexico City . European activity is centered in Warsaw . The company also has an office in Tokyo . In January 2013 , Quebec 's public pension fund manager , the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec , invested $ 500 million in the company 's portfolio of operating wind farms . A now bankrupt , yieldco of SunEdison , named TerraForm Power agreed to acquire wind assets in 2015 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Invenergy", "rank": 6, "score": 112044 }, { "content": "Title: Mass Megawatts Wind Power Content: Mass Megawatts Wind Power , Inc. is a company that produces wind turbines and sells wind-generated electricity . The company intends to build and operate wind energy power plants and plans to sell the electricity to the electric power exchange . Mass Megawatts Wind Power was founded on May 27 , 1997 and is headquartered in Worcester , Massachusetts , United States . In late 2014 , the company announced plans to enter the American solar power market . The Solar Tracking System ( STS ) utilizes minimal moving parts and electrical components , resulting in increased stability and lower operating costs . The STS claims to improve solar energy production levels by more than 20 % .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Mass_Megawatts_Wind_Power", "rank": 7, "score": 112006 }, { "content": "Title: Windorah Solar Farm Content: The Windorah Solar Farm is Ergon Energy 's first solar farm trial near the town of Windorah in Queensland . The plant uses five concentrated solar dishes or reflectors which were manufactured and installed by Solar Systems . This is expected to save up to 100,000 litres of diesel fuel per year . The integration of solar farm and diesel power is a first for Ergon Energy . The dishes contain 112 square mirrors each measuring 1.1 m across . The five solar reflectors sit atop 13 m masts and can rotate 360 ° . The array will produce about 180 kilowatts of electricity for up to 10 months of the year . The total cost of the project was A$ 4.5 million with $ 1 million being provided by the federal government . The solar farm was opened in December 2008 , and on sunny days will supply the total daytime electricity requirements for the town of Windorah , with a population of 100 . When the solar power runs low the existing diesel power station provides electricity . Not all of the dishes are used all the time . Some dishes are parked depending on the town 's energy requirements . In 2013 , Ergon Energy reported that the plant was operating effectively , with environmental conditions such as dust and wildlife having some impact on the reliability of the solar farm .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Windorah_Solar_Farm", "rank": 8, "score": 111482 }, { "content": "Title: Katy Deacon Content: Katy Deacon , an Energy Engineer working for Kirklees Metropolitan Council , has been a figurehead in the implementation of a number of renewable energy systems in West Yorkshire and has been presented with several awards . Use of wind turbines and solar power in schools is just one of these such projects that Katy has worked on . As part of her master 's degree , she has created a renewable energy ` tool kit ' for architects , engineers and other developers to maximise efficiency and integration of renewable energy into the development of buildings . This ` toolkit ' won the NICEIC Energy Efficiency Product of the Year in 2006 . Currently she is developing a reading system to automatically monitor consumption of electricity , gas and water across building complexes . Katy was presented with ` The IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year ' award in 2007 . She attained Chartered Engineer Status in 2008 and received the Women 's Engineering Society ( WES ) ` Karen Burt Award ' in 2009 . This award is presented to the most outstanding newly chartered female engineer across the UK Engineering and IT institutions .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Katy_Deacon", "rank": 9, "score": 111309 }, { "content": "Title: Kennedy Energy Park Content: Kennedy Energy Park is a proposed wind , solar and storage hybrid power station to be located approx 20 km south east of Hughenden and 290 km southwest of Townsville in Queensland . Stage one of the project is a `` proof-of-concept '' expected to commence construction early 2017 , consisting of 30 MW of wind turbines , 20 MW of single axis tracking Solar Panels , and 2 MW of Li ion battery storage , costing $ 120 million to build and expected to be operational early in 2018 . Stage two is expected to be capable of producing 1200 MW of renewable energy , costing $ 2 Billion and hoped to commence construction before the end of the decade .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Kennedy_Energy_Park", "rank": 10, "score": 111003 }, { "content": "Title: Energy park Content: An energy park is a separate area used and planned for the purpose of clean energy development , like wind and solar generation facilities . Energy parks create many other economic development benefits too . In Ohio , energy parks are creating thousands of green jobs . In Minnesota , community wind parks are also popular . In England , wind parks are commonly known as wind farms . A more `` lightweight '' version of an energy park is a wind park or solar park . These have one type of clean energy generation , rather than two or more technologies , as in an energy park . Some energy parks feature additional features beyond clean energy generation . Additional benefits include : green job creation , Smart grid connections , as well as new recreational , technology innovation and agricultural opportunities . The Stamford Energy Park in Vermont is one example of an integrated energy park .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Energy_park", "rank": 11, "score": 110940 }, { "content": "Title: Solar updraft tower Content: The solar updraft tower ( SUT ) is a renewable-energy power plant for generating electricity from low temperature solar heat . Sunshine heats the air beneath a very wide greenhouse-like roofed collector structure surrounding the central base of a very tall chimney tower . The resulting convection causes a hot air updraft in the tower by the chimney effect . This airflow drives wind turbines placed in the chimney updraft or around the chimney base to produce electricity . Plans for scaled-up versions of demonstration models will allow significant power generation , and may allow development of other applications , such as water extraction or distillation , and agriculture or horticulture . Commercial investment may have been discouraged by the high initial cost of building a very large novel structure , the large land area required and by the risk of investment , however , there appears to be a renewed interest in solar updraft towers especially in sunny remote areas . A few prototypes have recently been constructed and projects are being proposed for parts of Africa , USA and Australia . An important fact to consider is that solar updraft towers appear to be the only renewable energy technology that can generate electricity from low temperature heat . Functional or mechanical feasibility is not so much an issue now as capitalisation . A comprehensive review of theoretical and experimental aspects of the solar updraft tower power plant ( SUTPP ) development is available , with a recommendation for commercial development . A popular update with interview of an informed engineering proponent has been published in National Geographic in 2014 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_updraft_tower", "rank": 12, "score": 108633 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Total Energy Project Content: The Solar Total Energy Project ( STEP ) was the world 's first and largest solar thermal cogeneration project having an industrial application . Built and operated during the 1980s in Coweta County , Georgia , STEP used solar energy to provide electricity and process heat to a manufacturing facility . Developed as part of the National Solar Thermal Energy Program , which was instituted after the oil crises of the 1970s , STEP was jointly financed by the United States Department of Energy and Georgia Power to advance development of nonconventional renewable energy technology . The objective was to design , construct , operate and evaluate a solar thermal energy system that could provide electrical power , process steam and absorption air conditioning to an adjacent knitwear factory . Georgia Power has expressed continuing , long-term interest for nonconventional renewable energy technology , investing millions of dollars in initiatives for development of solar thermal , solar photovoltaic ( PV ) , wind , and biomass . Significant investment began in the 1980s with STEP and construction of the new Georgia Power Building in Atlanta , which included active and passive solar energy systems . Georgia Power also supported a major PV project to provide energy for the swimming pool on the Georgia Tech campus , used for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_Total_Energy_Project", "rank": 13, "score": 108567 }, { "content": "Title: Enlight Renewable Energy Content: Enlight Renewable Energy is a publicly traded company , headquartered in Israel , that builds and operates solar and wind power facilities . Its shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Enlight_Renewable_Energy", "rank": 14, "score": 107780 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Canada Content: Canada generates a significant majority of its electricity from hydroelectric dams ( 59 % in 2006 ) . Wind power is growing quickly with Canada in 2011 being the 6th largest producer of wind power in the world . Canada has built a number of photovoltaic power plants , mainly in Ontario , with one in Sarnia being the largest in the world at the time of construction . A 15 megawatt tidal plant sits at Annapolis , Nova Scotia , and uses the daily tides of the Bay of Fundy . Politicians have expressed interest in increasing the percentage of Canada 's electricity generated by renewable methods . Ontario has created a subsidy to assist wind and solar power producers .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Canada", "rank": 15, "score": 106971 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Turbine Plants Content: A solar turbine power plant uses the energy in solar radiation captured by so-called solar collectors . Solar power is a renewable source of energy . The solar radiant energy reaching the earth 's surface is around 1.783 * 1014 KJ or 1.353 kJ/s per square meter . Solar power plants , such as the Blythe Solar Power Project , operate mainly on closed power cycles : Rankine cycles ( for low temperature ranges ) and Brayton cycles ( for high temperature ranges ) . Solar plants provide energy ranging from a few kilowatts to a few megawatts . The constraints associated with solar plants are size , space , high capital cost , and the inevitable fluctuations in the daily supply of solar radiant energy .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_Turbine_Plants", "rank": 16, "score": 106923 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power Content: Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power . Wind power , as an alternative to burning fossil fuels , is plentiful , renewable , widely distributed , clean , produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation , consumes no water , and uses little land . The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of nonrenewable power sources . Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network . Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electric power , competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants . Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land , and offshore farms have less visual impact , but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher . Small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations . Wind power gives variable power which is very consistent from year to year but which has significant variation over shorter time scales . It is therefore used in conjunction with other electric power sources to give a reliable supply . As the proportion of wind power in a region increases , a need to upgrade the grid , and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur . Power management techniques such as having excess capacity , geographically distributed turbines , dispatchable backing sources , sufficient hydroelectric power , exporting and importing power to neighboring areas , using vehicle-to-grid strategies or reducing demand when wind production is low , can in many cases overcome these problems . In addition , weather forecasting permits the electric power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur . As of 2015 , Denmark generates 40 % of its electric power from wind , and at least 83 other countries around the world are using wind power to supply their electric power grids . In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16 % to 369,553 MW . Yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4 % of worldwide electric power usage , 11.4 % in the EU .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Wind_power", "rank": 17, "score": 106870 }, { "content": "Title: BeauVent Content: BeauVent ( cooperative ) is a Belgian energy cooperative . The cooperative was established on June 21 , 2000 with the goal to : invest in production facilities for renewable energy production , and to acquire the financial means for this by a cooperative model ; promote the production and use of renewable energy sources ; unite the consumers of this energy and convince them to consume less energy . The first two wind turbines were built and operational since March 2005 , in the village of Nieuwkapelle near Diksmuide . A third wind turbine ( a turbine with rotor diameter of 70 m and 2.3 MW capacity ) was constructed in May 2007 in the village Gistel . A project with the production of rapeseed oil was not successful and had been stopped . Since 2006 the cooperative is also active with solar energy production , starting from the wish of individual cooperative members to invest in rooftop solar panels , and evolved to the installation of PV-systems to external clients . The total capacity of solar panels installed surpassed 1.5 MW in 2010 . Since 2014 the cooperative is also active in energy efficiency measures and the use of cogeneration of heat and power . The cooperative is a member of the European federation of renewable energy cooperatives REScoop.eu .", "qid": "382", "docid": "BeauVent", "rank": 18, "score": 106457 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Energy (journal) Content: Solar Energy is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on solar energy such as photovoltaics and solar heating , but also its indirect usages like wind power or bioenergy . It is published by Elsevier on behalf of the International Solar Energy Society . The editor-in-chief is Yogi Goswami . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal has a 2013 impact factor of 3.541 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_Energy_(journal)", "rank": 19, "score": 105615 }, { "content": "Title: California Proposition 7 (2008) Content: California Proposition 7 , would have required California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025 . In order to make that goal , levels of production of solar , wind and other renewable energy resources would more than quadruple from their current output of 10.9 % . It would also require California utilities to increase their purchase of electricity generated from renewable resources by 2 % annually to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard ( RPS ) requirements of 40 % in 2020 and 50 % in 2025 . Current law AB32 requires an RPS of 20 % by 2010 . The 42 page measure , 7 pages of which is new law , is an initiated state statute that had qualified for the November 2008 ballot in California , and was disapproved by voters on November 4 of that year .", "qid": "382", "docid": "California_Proposition_7_(2008)", "rank": 20, "score": 105431 }, { "content": "Title: Solar powered stadiums Content: Energy efficient stadiums is the latest trend of environmentalism in sports . Many stadiums are beginning to take measures to become more environmentally friendly and energy efficient , such as using solar energy to power the stadiums and using reusable raw materials . The first stadium successfully built to use 100 percent solar power is the Kaohsiung National Stadium in Kaohsiung , Taiwan . It earned the nickname of the ` dragon ' stadium . Completed in 2009 , the 55,000 capacity stadium was built for the World Games , which took place in July 2009 . After the conclusion of the World Games , the stadium will be used mainly for rugby games and other athletic events . Japanese architect Toyo Ito designed the stadium which incorporates 8,844 solar panels on the roof . These solar panels provide enough energy to power the 3,300 lights and two giant television screens . The stadium provides so much power , and not all of it is needed to power the stadium . The Taiwanese government plans to sell the excess energy . The stadium will prevent 660 tons of carbon dioxide from being released . Not only is the Kaohsiung National Stadium 100 percent solar powered , but all of the raw materials used in the stadium are reusable .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_powered_stadiums", "rank": 21, "score": 105347 }, { "content": "Title: SolarFest Content: The SolarFest Renewable Energy music festival began in Vermont in 1995 . The stated goals of the nonprofit Solarfest organization are to inspire the conservation of Earth 's limited resources , to promote renewable energy , and to support the creation of sustainable communities . Solar Energy is the sun 's rays ( solar radiation ) that reach the earth . This energy can be converted into other forms of energy , such as heat and electricity . In the 1830s , the British astronomer John Herschel used a solar thermal collector box ( a device that absorbs sunlight to collect heat ) to cook food during an expedition to Africa . Today , Solar energy can be converted to thermal ( or heat ) energy and used to : Heat water -- for use in homes , buildings , or swimming pools . Solar energy can also be used to heat spaces such has homes , buildings or arenas as is seen by SolarFest . The festival spans 3 days and runs on renewable energy -- primarily solar power , but with wind and biodiesel also incorporated . The New England Renewable Energy Festival has been coined ' a party with a purpose ' . For an entire weekend , the 80 - acre Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth , owned by Marshall and Melody Squier , becomes an outdoor campus ; a place to be entertained , educated and inspired .", "qid": "382", "docid": "SolarFest", "rank": 22, "score": 105338 }, { "content": "Title: Nevada Solar One Content: Nevada Solar One is a concentrated solar power plant , with a nominal capacity of 64 MW and maximum steam turbine power output up to 72 MW net ( 75 MW gross ) , spread over an area of 400 acre . The projected CO2 emissions avoided is equivalent to taking approximately 20,000 cars off the road annually . The project required an investment of $ 266 million USD , and the project officially went into operation in June 2007 . Electricity production is estimated to be 134 million kilowatt hours per year . It is the second solar thermal energy ( STE ) power plant built in the United States in more than 16 years , and the largest STE plant built in the world since 1991 . It is located in Eldorado Valley in the southwest fringe of Boulder City , Nevada , and was built in that city 's Energy Resource Zone , which requires renewable generation as part of plant development permits ; Nevada Solar One was approved as part of Duke Energy 's larger El Dorado Energy project that built 1 GW of electrical generation capacity . The solar trough generation was built by Acciona Solar Power , a partially owned subsidiary of Spanish conglomerate Acciona Energy . Lauren Engineers & Constructors ( Abilene , TX ) was the EPC contractor for the project . Acciona purchased a 55 percent stake in Solargenix ( formerly Duke Solar ) and Acciona owns 95 percent of the project . Nevada Solar One is unrelated to the Solar One power plant in California .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Nevada_Solar_One", "rank": 23, "score": 105184 }, { "content": "Title: Energy in Arkansas Content: The U.S. state of Arkansas is a significant producer of natural gas and a minor producer of petroleum . Though a small percentage of total consumption , its many waterways provide for a higher than average hydroelectric generation capacity . A higher than average solar exposure has recently begun to be taken advantage of in the state , with three solar photovoltaic generation facilities going online in 2016 and more under construction . Wind power potential is modest in Arkansas and the state has no utility-scale wind generation facilities . A network of 17 regional cooperatives , four investor-owned companies , and a number of municipal providers generate and deliver electricity to Arkansas customers . Five utilities deliver natural gas .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Energy_in_Arkansas", "rank": 24, "score": 104638 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Mexico Content: Mexico is the world 's twenty-fourth-biggest producer of wind power , and its installed capacity is expected to reach 2 GW by the end of 2012 . It has a capacity 330 MW under construction . As of 2008 , there were three wind farms in the country . The Eurus Wind Farm is the largest wind farm in Latin America . 18 of 27 wind farms construction projects are based in La Ventosa in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca . According to the Mexican Wind Energy Association , the country will rank twentieth worldwide in wind capacity by the end of 2012 , and will produce four percent of the country 's total electricity production . It also believes that the nation will have 12 GW of wind generation capacity by 2020 , and will be able to provide fifteen percent of Mexico 's production . Brian Gardner , Economist Intelligence Unit 's energy analyst , said , `` With strong wind through the south , consistent sunlight in the north and a stable market , Mexico is well positioned for continued renewables growth '' . Wind power is in partial competition with Solar power in Mexico .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Mexico", "rank": 25, "score": 104609 }, { "content": "Title: Renewables.ninja Content: Renewables.ninja is a web tool developed by Imperial College London and ETH Zürich that shows the estimate amount of energy that could be generated by wind or solar farms at any location . The model has been tested by Dr Iain Staffell who is the Co-developer of renewables.ninja , from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London , and Dr Stefan Pfenninger from ETH Zürich to estimate the productivity of all wind farms planned or under construction in Europe for the next 20 years.German electrical supplier RWE are using it to test their own models of output .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewables.ninja", "rank": 26, "score": 104110 }, { "content": "Title: EDF Énergies Nouvelles Content: EDF Énergies Nouvelles is a French renewable energy Group with more than 9 GW of renewable energy worldwide . As an integrated operator , the Group develops and finances the construction of renewable energy facilities , and manages operations and maintenance for its own account and for third parties . Wind power is the primary sector of activity of EDF Energies Nouvelles . It represents more than 87 % of EDF Energies Nouvelles ' total installed capacity mainly spread over North America and Western Europe . Solar photovoltaic development is EDF Energies Nouvelles ' second growth priority . EDF Energies Nouvelles is a wholly owned subsidiary of French electric utility EDF . EDF Energies Nouvelles is primarily involved in the production of wind power in Europe and the United States , although it is investing heavily in solar energy . It also has interests in marine energy ( tidal stream generator ) and energy storage . EDF Energies Nouvelles operates in 21 countries and has recently entered new emerging markets ( South Africa , India , Brazil , Chile and China ) .", "qid": "382", "docid": "EDF_Énergies_Nouvelles", "rank": 27, "score": 104053 }, { "content": "Title: Northland Power Content: Northland Power is an independent power producer founded in 1987 , and publicly traded since 1997 . Northland develops , builds , owns and operates facilities that produce ` clean ' ( natural gas ) and ` green ' ( wind and solar ) energy . The Company owns or has a net economic interest in 1,394 MW of operating generating capacity and 932 MW ( 642 MW net to Northland ) of generating capacity under construction , including a 60 % equity stake in Gemini , a 600 MW offshore wind project , and an 85 % equity stake in Nordsee One , a 332 MW offshore wind project , both located in the North Sea . Northland 's cash flows are diversified over four geographically separate regions and regulatory jurisdictions in Canada and Europe . Northland 's common shares , Series 1 and Series 3 preferred shares and Series B and Series C convertible debentures trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols NPI , NPI.PR.A , NPI.PR.C , NPI.DB.B , and NPI.DB.C , respectively .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Northland_Power", "rank": 28, "score": 103989 }, { "content": "Title: COMES Content: The French Solar Energy Authority ( Commissariat à l'Energie Solaire , ComES ) , a public scientific and industrial entity , was set up in 1978 to promote a comprehensive energy policy based on energy savings , on efficient energy management , and on renewable sources of energy ( photovoltaic , solar thermal , wind , hydraulic , biomass ) . It was supervised by the Ministry for Industry and by the Ministry for Research . When it was discontinued , its duties were taken up by the French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management , ADEME . The first Managing Director and Chief Executive of ComES was M. Henry Durand , an engineer . As a national agency , COMES defined , financed and evaluated projects using renewable energies . Shortly after this agency was created , its Department of International Affairs was set up ( by Jean-Jacques Subrenat , a career diplomat ) , and became involved in a number of projects , both multilateral and in the context of bilateral relations between France and partner countries . A new distribution of tasks among public agencies led to the French Solar Energy Authority being discontinued : its tasks were taken over , and expanded , by the Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie ( ADEME ) which , compared with its predecessors , has a wider purview which includes the environment . Category :1978 establishments in France Category : Renewable energy organizations Category : Organizations established in 1978", "qid": "382", "docid": "COMES", "rank": 29, "score": 103148 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the Netherlands Content: Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain , the Netherlands today lags behind most EU countries in the production of energy from renewable sources . The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass , wind , solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power ( mostly from ground source and air source heat pumps ) . In 2014 , the Netherlands produced only 5.5 % of its total energy from renewables , a small rise from 3.7 % in 2010 and just 1 % in 1990 . Among the EU countries , only Malta and Luxembourg had lower percentages . The low take up of renewable energy may be partially explained by the flat and often sub-sea level landscape and subsequent limits to hydropower resources , although hydro poor resource countries such as Denmark have still managed to make renewables the focus of their energy needs . In 2015 , Dutch wind turbines had a total nameplate capacity of 3,431 MW . Wind and solar power installations had a record breaking year during 2015 and this may move the Netherlands closer to its target of 37 % of electricity production coming from renewables by 2020 . A number of large offshore windfarms have either come online recently ( Gemini wind farm ) or have been granted authorisation ( Borsellee 1 and 2 , and Borsellee 3 and 4 wind farms ) . Most of the tiny contribution made to electricity generation by hydroelectricity came from three power plants . A large part of the renewable electricity sold in the Netherlands comes from Norway , a country which generates almost all its electricity from hydropower plants . In the Netherlands , household consumers can choose to buy renewable electricity . Since 2008 , the amount of renewable energy used by household users has been increasing , rising from 38 % in 2008 to 41 % by 2009 . and up to 44 % by mid 2010 . One area in which the Netherlands is a relative leader is in the adoption of electric plug in vehicles . In 2015 PEV vehicles in the Netherlands represented 9.74 % of car sales , making it the world 's second highest share after Norway . Electric vehicles are able to run on renewable electricity with zero emissions and have the potential to provide grid power storage facilities . An interesting source of heat recovery used in the Netherlands is sourced from freshly milked milk , or warm milk . However at 0.3 % of total renewable energy production ( 2010 figures ) this source is not likely to accelerate energy transition in the country . Warm milk is still not mentioned in the EU Renewable Energy Directive , nor in international energy statistics and so is not included is gross final consumption figures . It does however provide Dutch farmers with plenty of hot water .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_Netherlands", "rank": 30, "score": 103015 }, { "content": "Title: Solar wind Content: The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun . This plasma consists of mostly electrons , protons and alpha particles with thermal energies between 1.5 and 10 keV . Embedded within the solar-wind plasma is the interplanetary magnetic field . The solar wind varies in density , temperature and speed over time and over solar latitude and longitude . Its particles can escape the Sun 's gravity because of their high energy resulting from the high temperature of the corona , which in turn is a result of the coronal magnetic field . At a distance of more than a few solar radii from the sun , the solar wind is supersonic and reaches speeds of 250 to 750 kilometers per second . The flow of the solar wind is no longer supersonic at the termination shock . The Voyager 2 spacecraft crossed the shock more than five times between 30 August and 10 December 2007 . Voyager 2 crossed the shock about a billion kilometers closer to the Sun than the 13.5 billion kilometer distance where Voyager 1 came upon the termination shock . The spacecraft moved outward through the termination shock into the heliosheath and onward toward the interstellar medium . Other related phenomena include the aurora ( northern and southern lights ) , the plasma tails of comets that always point away from the Sun , and geomagnetic storms that can change the direction of magnetic field lines .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_wind", "rank": 31, "score": 102849 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power by country Content: Many industrialized nations have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources while an increasing number of less developed nations have turned to solar to reduce dependence on expensive imported fuels . Long distance transmission allows remote renewable energy resources to displace fossil fuel consumption . Solar power plants use one of two technologies : Photovoltaic ( PV ) systems use solar panels , either on rooftops or in ground-mounted solar farms , converting sunlight directly into electric power . Concentrated solar power ( CSP , also known as `` concentrated solar thermal '' ) plants use solar thermal energy to make steam , that is thereafter converted into electricity by a turbine . Worldwide growth of photovoltaics is extremely dynamic and varies strongly by country . By the end of 2016 , cumulative photovoltaic capacity increased by more than 75 gigawatt ( GW ) and reached at least 303 GW , sufficient to supply 1.8 percent of the world 's total electricity consumption . The top installers of 2016 were China , the United States , and India . There are more than 24 countries around the world with a cumulative PV capacity of more than one gigawatt . Austria , the Chile , and South Africa , all crossed the one gigawatt-mark in 2016 . The available solar PV capacity in Honduras is now sufficient to supply 12.5 % of the nation 's electrical power while Italy , Germany and Greece can produce between 7 % and 8 % of their respective domestic electricity consumption . After an almost two decade long hiatus , deployment of CSP resumed in 2007 , with significant growth only in the most recent years . However , the design for several new projects is being changed to cheaper photovoltaics . Most operational CSP stations are located in Spain and the United States , while large solar farms using photovoltaics are being constructed in an expanding list of geographic regions . As of January 2017 , the largest solar power plants in the world are the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in China for PV and the 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the United States for CSP . Other large CSP facilities include the 354 megawatt ( MW ) Solar Energy Generating Systems power installation in the USA , Solnova Solar Power Station ( Spain , 150 MW ) , Andasol Solar Power Station ( Spain , 150 MW ) and the first part of Shams solar power station ( United Arab Emirates , 100 MW ) .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_by_country", "rank": 32, "score": 102741 }, { "content": "Title: Building Energy Content: Building Energy S.p.A. is a vertical integrated renewable energy company that develops , engineers , constructs , and operates projects across the world . The company employ approximately 130 full-time professionals working throughout 4 continents ( Europe , Africa , Asia and the Americas ) andown a diversified portfolio of renewable assets within solar energy , energy storage , wind energy , biomass and hydropower .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Building_Energy", "rank": 33, "score": 102737 }, { "content": "Title: Solar credits Content: Solar credits are an initiative of the Australian Federal Government used as a multiplier to increase the number of Small-scale Technology Certificates ( STC 's ) able to be created for eligible solar panel , wind and hydro energy systems . Solar credits apply to Small Generation Units and create multiple Small-scale Technology Certificates for the eligible part of their capacity . This applies to the first 1.5 kilowatts ( kW ) for eligible mains connected systems . Off-grid systems may be eligible for Solar Credits for the first 20 kW if an annual capacity limit is not reached .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_credits", "rank": 34, "score": 102544 }, { "content": "Title: Jasper Solar Energy Project Content: The Jasper Solar Energy Project ( or Jasper PV Project ) is a 96 megawatt ( MW ) photovoltaic power station , located near Kimberley , in South Africa 's Northern Cape . The project completed construction in October 2014 and is fully operational to power up to 80,000 homes . Google has a recent history of investing in wind and solar power , and since 2010 has committed to more than US$ 1 billion in renewable energy projects worldwide . Until 2013 little of this was spent on renewable energy in Africa . A new $ 12 million investment in the Jasper power project , at a project cost of approximately ZAR2 .3 billion ( $ 260 million ) signals a change in policy . It is one of the largest solar installations in Africa , comprising over 325,000 PV modules .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Jasper_Solar_Energy_Project", "rank": 35, "score": 102078 }, { "content": "Title: PS20 solar power plant Content: The PS20 solar power plant ( PS20 ) solar power plant is a solar thermal energy plant in Sanlucar la Mayor near Seville in Andalusia , Spain . It was the world 's most powerful solar power tower until the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California became operational in 2014 . The 20 megawatt ( MW ) solar power tower produces electricity with large movable mirrors called heliostats . Construction of PS20 was started in 2006 and it commenced operation in 2009 . It features several significant technological improvements over the earlier PS10 . These include a receiver with higher efficiency , various improvements in the control and operational systems , and a better thermal energy storage system . `` PS20 consists of a solar field of 1,255 mirrored heliostats designed by Abengoa Solar . Each heliostat , with a surface area of 120 m2 , reflects the solar radiation it receives onto the receiver , located on the top of a 165 m tower , producing steam which is converted into electricity by a turbine generator . '' `` The remaining power plants will be built over the next few years . They will include low - and high-concentration photovoltaic , tower thermoelectric , parabolic-trough collector and Stirling dish plants . Abengoa Solar 's parabolic trough plants , Solnova 1 , 3 and 4 , which can generate 150 MW of power , are under construction at the Solar Platform . '' Resulting from cooperation between Ciemat , the IDEA , and the University of Seville , the whole plant is to be completed by 2013 , when it will produce approximately 300 MW -- energy for around 180,000 homes , equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville . PS20 produces about 48,000 megawatt-hours ( MW · h ) per year , for which it receives $ 271 ( US$ 360 ) per MW · h under its power purchase agreement .", "qid": "382", "docid": "PS20_solar_power_plant", "rank": 36, "score": 102048 }, { "content": "Title: Solar energy use in rural Africa Content: The use of solar energy in rural areas across sub-Saharan Africa has increased over the years . With many communities lacking access to basic necessities such as electricity , clean water , and effective irrigation systems ; the innovations in solar powered technologies have led to poverty alleviation projects that combine development strategies and environmental consciousness . Another use for solar energy that has gained momentum in rural African households ( as well as some urban areas ) is that of solar cooking . Historically , the high dependency on wood collection from depleting sources have resulted in serious environmental degradation and has been considered an extremely unsustainable practice when compared to the renewable attribute of solar powered cooking . There have also been recent links made between solar energy and increased food security in the region . African development projects , mostly in rural areas seem to be recognizing the real potential of renewable energy sources especially power derived from the sun .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_energy_use_in_rural_Africa", "rank": 37, "score": 101801 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Spain Content: Electricity from renewable sources in Spain represented 42.8 % of electricity demand coverage during 2014 . The country has a very large wind power capability built up over many years and is one of the world leaders in wind power generation . Initially Spain also positioned itself as a European leader in Solar power , by 2007-2010 the country was second only to Germany in installed capacity , however other countries ( Italy in particular ) have since leapfrogged Spanish development . By 2015 solar power in Spain though significant produced less than a third of that of wind power in 2015 . Spain has set the target of generating 20 % of all its energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2020 and an additional 0.8 % may be available for other EU countries under the cooperation mechanism bringing the total to 20.8 % . By the end of 2014 Spain had reached a level of 16.2 % of all its energy needs from renewable energy sources . The story of renewable energy development in Spain is both a mixed and unfinished one . Under previous subsidies the country expanded its renewable base rapidly and helped establish a domestic industry in both wind turbine and solar energy . However , support was drastically cut back following the global financial crisis and new installations stagnated between 2012 and 2015 . The debts incurred during the boom period have led to tougher and retrospective revisions of contracts to providers of renewable energy reducing returns considerably . In being one of the first-to-market countries , Spain faces the challenge of powerful competitors from countries such as Denmark , Germany and China and ironically a cheaper and more mature renewable energy sector which Spain itself helped to pioneer . In 2015 solar power suddenly demonstrated a possible way through the impasse . The continued fall in prices for solar systems and Spain 's abundant sunshine led to prices for solar power reaching grid price parity . Suddenly there was the potential for sustained and spontaneous growth in solar installations in Spain as households and producers could produce power more economically . However the Spanish government introduced what has been dubbed the world 's first `` sun tax '' on solar installations making them economically less viable as well as draconian fines ( up to 60 million Euros ) for anyone not complying with the tax . The tax has proved highly controversial . On the one hand the government has argued that those generating their own power still rely on the national grid for power backup and so should be liable for contributing to the cost . On the other hand , the solar industry has argued that the government is simply trying to protect the centralised established power producers whose revenues would be threatened by this competitive solar threat . Environmentalists have criticised the tax for artificially blocking Spain from continuing its long standing movement to renewable energy production . Whatever the merits of both arguments , the controversy can only become more heightened as the price of solar energy continues to fall and if PV solar power installed capacity in Spain were to continue sliding down the EU league from 12th position in 2014 ( 102.9 kW per 1000 inhabitants ) . In the same year in terms of wind energy production Spain was much stronger in 3rd position ( 495 kW per 1000 inhabitants ) .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Spain", "rank": 38, "score": 101800 }, { "content": "Title: List of renewable energy topics by country Content: This is a list of renewable energy topics by country . These links can be used to compare developments in renewable energy in different countries and to help and encourage new writers to participate in writing about developments in their own countries or countries of interest . The list refers to renewable energy in general , as well as solar power , wind power , geothermal energy , biofuel , and hydro-electricity . As of 2013 , China , Germany , and Japan , three of the world 's four largest economies , as well as India , generate more electricity from renewables than from nuclear power . Based on REN21 's 2014 report , renewables contributed 19 percent to humans ' global energy consumption . This energy consumption is divided as 9 % coming from traditional biomass , 4.2 % as heat energy ( non-biomass ) , 3.8 % hydro electricity and 2 % is electricity from wind , solar , geothermal , and biomass . China is the world 's largest producer of hydroelectricity , followed by Canada . Wind power capacity is growing at the rate of 26 % annually , and is widely used in Europe , Asia , and the United States . Wind power accounts for approximately 30 % of electricity use in Denmark , 20 % in Portugal , and 18 % in Spain . PV power stations are popular in Japan , China and the United States . The world 's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California , with a rated capacity of 750 MW . Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world , involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane , and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country 's automotive fuel . Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA . Plug-in electric vehicles in Norway reached a market share of 22.4 % in 2015 . the highest in the world . While many renewable energy projects are large-scale , renewable technologies are also suited to developing countries , where energy is often crucial in human development . Small solar PV systems provide electricity to a few million households , and micro-hydro configured into mini-grids serves many more .", "qid": "382", "docid": "List_of_renewable_energy_topics_by_country", "rank": 39, "score": 101714 }, { "content": "Title: Native Wind Content: Native Wind ( NAWIG ) was formed to protect the environment and promote the welfare of Native Americans by facilitating the development of wind power and other renewable energy resources on tribal lands . Directors of Native Wind include representatives of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy , Native Energy , ICLEI , Honor the Earth and American Spirit Productions . Two wind facilities have previously been built through Native Wind -- a 750kW turbine at the Rosebud Indian Reservation and another at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota . The Indian tribes of the North and South Dakota and Nebraska are presently collaborating on a project to develop the large wind resources of the northern Great Plains . Eight separate tribes are moving ahead with plans to develop the first large-scale Native owned and operated wind farms in the United States .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Native_Wind", "rank": 40, "score": 101692 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy Content: Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources , which are naturally replenished on a human timescale , such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , waves , and geothermal heat . Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas : electricity generation , air and water heating/cooling , transportation , and rural ( off-grid ) energy services . Based on REN21 's 2016 report , renewables contributed 19.2 % to humans ' global energy consumption and 23.7 % to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015 , respectively . This energy consumption is divided as 8.9 % coming from traditional biomass , 4.2 % as heat energy ( modern biomass , geothermal and solar heat ) , 3.9 % hydro electricity and 2.2 % is electricity from wind , solar , geothermal , and biomass . Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$ 286 billion in 2015 , with countries like China and the United States heavily investing in wind , hydro , solar and biofuels . Globally , there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries , with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer . As of 2015 worldwide , more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable . Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas , in contrast to other energy sources , which are concentrated in a limited number of countries . Rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security , climate change mitigation , and economic benefits . The results of a recent review of the literature concluded that as greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emitters begin to be held liable for damages resulting from GHG emissions resulting in climate change , a high value for liability mitigation would provide powerful incentives for deployment of renewable energy technologies . In international public opinion surveys there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power and wind power . At the national level , at least 30 nations around the world already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply . National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade and beyond . Some places and at least two countries , Iceland and Norway generate all their electricity using renewable energy already , and many other countries have the set a goal to reach 100 % renewable energy in the future . For example , in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply ( electricity , mobility and heating/cooling ) to 100 % renewable energy by 2050 . While many renewable energy projects are large-scale , renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries , where energy is often crucial in human development . United Nations ' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity . As most of renewables provide electricity , renewable energy deployment is often applied in conjunction with further electrification , which has several benefits : Electricity can be converted to heat ( where necessary generating higher temperatures than fossil fuels ) , can be converted into mechanical energy with high efficiency and is clean at the point of consumption . In addition to that electrification with renewable energy is much more efficient and therefore leads to a significant reduction in primary energy requirements , because most renewables do n't have a steam cycle with high losses ( fossil power plants usually have losses of 40 to 65 % ) . Renewable energy systems are rapidly becoming more efficient and cheaper . Their share of total energy consumption is increasing . Growth in consumption of coal and oil could end by 2020 due to increased uptake of renewables and natural gas .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy", "rank": 41, "score": 101551 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Systems (company) Content: Solar Systems is an Australian company that constructed three concentrator dish power stations in the Northern Territory of Australia , which together generate 720 kW and 1,555,000 kWh per year . This represents a saving of 420,000 litres of diesel fuel and 1550 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions . In 2003 , Solar Systems completed construction of the first concentrator dish power station at Umuwa in South Australia . Solar Systems is a winner in the 2005 Engineering Excellence Awards . Solar Systems was placed under voluntary administration on 7 September 2009 placing the Mildura Solar Power Station project and the jobs of two-thirds of the workforce at risk . In March 2010 , Silex Systems purchased the assets of Solar Systems . The power stations that were then in service were purchased by the electrical utilities that had agreed to buy the power from them .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_Systems_(company)", "rank": 42, "score": 101516 }, { "content": "Title: Lifeline Energy Content: Lifeline Energy ( formerly Freeplay Foundation ) is a non-profit social enterprise that provides technology solutions for off-grid learning . The organization designs , manufactures and distributes solar and wind-up media players and radios for classroom and group listening and was behind the first solar and wind-up radio for humanitarian use which launched in 2003 . Since it began operations in 1999 more than 550,000 wind-up and solar powered radios and media players have been distributed , mainly in sub-Saharan Africa . Millions of listeners have been reached , as classrooms of up to 60 children or listening groups can use each radio or media player . Lifeline Energy is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) US charity and a Section 18A and 21 South African public benefit organisation , and relies on contributions from individuals , family foundations , corporate funding and government-sponsored programmes . It collaborates with governments , international relief organizations and in-country NGO partners to implement education and information projects . In 2009 , it established Lifeline Technologies Trading Ltd , a for-profit new product development and trading arm that designs and develops the products that Lifeline Energy uses in its projects . This is a relatively unique hybrid business structure with Lifeline Technology 's profits accruing to the charity . The Times , a UK newspaper , selected Lifeline Energy ( then known as Freeplay Foundation ) as a beneficiary for its 2005/2006 Christmas Charity Appeal . The organization was also awarded the first annual Tech Museum of Innovation Award in the education category in 2001 and won the Energy Project award in the World Bank 's Development Marketplace in 2006 . The Lifeplayer MP3 was awarded a top prize in the inaugural SAB Foundation Innovation awards in 2011 and was also chosen as a finalist in the INDEX : Design to Improve Life award in the same year . Lifeline Energy 's current on-going projects include a radio distance education programme in Zambia and providing information and education access to Somali women refugees in Kenya 's Dadaab camps .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Lifeline_Energy", "rank": 43, "score": 100364 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in South Africa Content: Solar power in South Africa includes photovoltaics ( PV ) as well as concentrated solar power ( CSP ) . Installed capacity is expected to reach 8,400 MW by 2030 , along with 8,400 MW of wind power . In 2014 several solar farms were commissioned , including the 96 MW Jasper Solar Energy Project , one of Africa 's largest photovoltaic power stations providing enough solar power for 30,000 homes .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_South_Africa", "rank": 44, "score": 100363 }, { "content": "Title: List of books about renewable energy Content: This is a bibliography of renewable energy . Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , and geothermal heat , which are renewable ( naturally replenished ) . About 16 % of global final energy consumption comes from renewables , with 10 % coming from traditional biomass , which is mainly used for heating , and 3.4 % from hydroelectricity . New renewables ( small hydro , modern biomass , wind , solar , geothermal , and biofuels ) account for another 3 % and are growing very rapidly . Total investment in renewable energy reached $ 244 billion in 2012 . The top countries for investment in recent years were China , Germany , Spain , the United States , Italy , and Brazil . Leading renewable energy companies include BrightSource Energy , Enercon , First Solar , Gamesa , GE Energy , Goldwind , Nordex , Sinovel , Suntech , Trina Solar , Vestas and Yingli .", "qid": "382", "docid": "List_of_books_about_renewable_energy", "rank": 45, "score": 99875 }, { "content": "Title: National Renewable Energy Corporation Content: The National Renewable Energy Corporation ( NARENCO ) is an American solar energy company that sites , develops , finances , constructs , owns , and operates utility scale solar facilities . The company is headquartered in Charlotte , NC with a satellite office in Washington , D.C. .", "qid": "382", "docid": "National_Renewable_Energy_Corporation", "rank": 46, "score": 99791 }, { "content": "Title: SunEdison Content: SunEdison , Inc. is a global renewable energy company headquartered in the U.S. . In addition to developing , building , owning , and operating solar power plants and wind energy plants , it also manufactures high purity polysilicon , monocrystalline silicon ingots , silicon wafers , solar modules , solar energy systems , and solar module racking systems . Originally a silicon-wafer manufacturer established in 1959 as the Monsanto Electronic Materials Company , a former business unit of Monsanto Company , Monsanto sold the company in 1989 . Prior to May 30 , 2013 , the company was known as MEMC Electronic Materials ; the name change to SunEdison reflects the company 's focus on solar energy . SunEdison 's corporate headquarters are in Maryland Heights , Missouri , and the company 's operational and solar headquarters are in Belmont , California with offices throughout the world . Established in the early stages of the semiconductor electronics industry in 1959 , MEMC was for the next half century a major and pioneering manufacturer of silicon wafers , the most basic element of semiconductor-chip manufacturing . The company entered the solar market in a major way beginning in 2006 , with longterm contracts to manufacture and sell solar wafers to several large Asian solar-energy companies . Contracts with other solar-energy companies followed , as did joint-venture projects on solar power plants . With the acquisition of the large , successful , and pioneering solar-energy systems company SunEdison LLC in late 2009 and the smaller solar-power companies Axio and Fotowatio in 2011 , MEMC focused increasingly on the burgeoning solar-energy industry to offset the cyclical downturns in the semiconductor market . The company now develops , finances , and maintains solar power systems and plants for a widespread commercial , public-sector , and power-plant customer base , and its name change in 2013 to SunEdison , Inc. reflects its main focus . It is one of the leading solar-power companies worldwide , and with its acquisition of wind-energy company First Wind in 2014 , SunEdison is the leading renewable energy development company in the world . SunEdison 's subsidiaries TerraForm Power and TerraForm Global own and operate renewable-energy projects around the globe . In 2015 , SunEdison sold off its subsidiary SunEdison Semiconductor , which manufactures silicon wafers for the electronics industry . The divestiture marked the completion of SunEdison , Inc. 's transition from a semiconductor-wafer company to a dedicated renewable-energy corporation . Following years of major expansion and the announcement of the intent -- which eventually fell through -- to acquire the residential-rooftop solar company Vivint Solar in 2015 , SunEdison 's stock plummeted and its more than $ 11billion in debt caused it to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 21 , 2016 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "SunEdison", "rank": 47, "score": 99632 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Texas Content: Solar power in Texas , along with wind power , have the potential to allow Texas to remain an energy-exporting state . Texas has the largest solar and wind potential in the country . Texas is in a separate electrical grid from the rest of the country , but there is a proposal to connect ERCOT to the Eastern Grid and the Western Grid through the Tres Amigas SuperStation , located near Clovis , New Mexico , to allow up to 30,000 MW to be transferred .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Texas", "rank": 48, "score": 98977 }, { "content": "Title: Copper in renewable energy Content: Renewable energy sources such as solar , wind , tidal , hydro , biomass , and geothermal have become significant sectors of the energy market . The rapid growth of these sources in the 21st century has been prompted by increasing costs of fossil fuels as well as their negative environmental impacts . While the average capacity of renewable energy sources was only 7 % globally in 2010 , most installation of new capacity has been with renewables . Few new installations were from fossil fuel-based power plants . The trend towards new power capacity by renewables is expected to continue through 2020 . Since renewable energy supplies offset the amount of fossil fuels that need to be combusted in power plants , the use of renewables indirectly helps to reduce CO2 emissions . Hence , renewable energy supplies enable societies to progress towards lower-carbon-based economies . Copper plays an important role in renewable energy systems . Since copper is an excellent thermal and electrical conductor among the engineering metals ( second only to silver ) , power systems that utilize copper generate and transmit energy with high efficiency and with minimum environmental impacts . By using copper instead of other lower electrical energy-efficient metal conductors , less electricity needs to be generated to satisfy a given power demand . This article discusses the role of copper in various renewable energy generation systems .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Copper_in_renewable_energy", "rank": 49, "score": 98927 }, { "content": "Title: ReNew Power Content: ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian renewable energy company headquartered in Gurgaon , Haryana , India . It is an Independent Power Producer ( IPP ) of clean energy with an installed capacity of more than 1000 MegaWatt across the states of Rajasthan , Madhya Pradesh , Haryana , Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh , Telangana , Maharashtra and Gujarat , ReNew Power commissioned its first wind farm project in Rajkot district in Gujarat in 2012 . Shri . Narendra Modi , the Prime Minister of India , inaugurated the 25.2 MW wind farm at Jasdan . Gamesa Wind Turbines Ltd. successfully competed for a contract from ReNew to supply wind turbines for different projects worth 75 MW , in the state of Maharashtra in 2012 . ReNew Power also awarded a 100 MW project worth Rs .750 crore to Suzlon Energy in June 2014 and won a 57.5 MWp ground mounted grid connected Solar PV project in Madhya Pradesh in 2014 . With an active foray into solar and solar rooftop , it has recently commissioned a 300 kWp roof top grid connected Solar PV project in the National Capital Territory of Delhi in 2014 . In September 2015 , ReNew launched the first ever infrastructure bond issuance credit enhanced by IIFCL . The issuance of Bonds is to the extent of Rs .451 crore by ReNew Wind Energy ( Jath ) Ltd. , a subsidiary of ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd. , for replacement of the existing debt of the infrastructure project company . ReNew Power commissioned first hybrid towers in India at Bhesada , Rajasthan . These towers are the tallest wind turbines in India and this is the first time that hybrid towers are installed on shore anywhere in the world . ReNew Power has a pipeline of close to 1400 MW solar and wind projects . ReNew Power aims to take its project portfolio to more than 2000 MW by 2017 end .", "qid": "382", "docid": "ReNew_Power", "rank": 50, "score": 98661 }, { "content": "Title: Energy in the United States Content: The United States was the 2nd largest energy consumer in 2010 ( after China ) considering total use . The U.S. ranks seventh in energy consumption per-capita after Canada and a number of small nations . Not included is the significant amount of energy used overseas in the production of retail and industrial goods consumed in the U.S. The majority of this energy is derived from fossil fuels : in 2010 , data showed 25 % of the nation 's energy came from petroleum , 22 % from coal , and 22 % from natural gas . Nuclear power supplied 8.4 % and renewable energy supplied 8 % , which was mainly from hydroelectric dams and biomass but also included other renewable sources such as wind power , geothermal and solar energy . Energy consumption has increased at a faster rate than domestic energy production over the last fifty years in the U.S. ( when they were roughly equal ) . This difference is now largely met through imports . According to the Energy Information Administration 's statistics , the per-capita energy consumption in the US has been somewhat consistent from the 1970s to today . The average has been 334 million British thermal units ( BTUs ) per person from 1980 to 2010 . One explanation suggested for this is that the energy required to produce the increase in US consumption of manufactured equipment , cars , and other goods has been shifted to other countries producing and transporting those goods to the US with a corresponding shift of green house gases and pollution . In comparison , the world average has increased from 63.7 in 1980 to 75 million BTU 's per person in 2008 . On the other hand , US `` off-shoring '' of manufacturing is sometimes exaggerated : US domestic manufacturing has grown by 50 % since 1980 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Energy_in_the_United_States", "rank": 51, "score": 98609 }, { "content": "Title: NextEra Energy Resources Content: NextEra Energy Resources is a wholesale electricity supplier based in Juno Beach , Florida . It is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy , a Fortune 200 company . Prior to 2009 , NextEra Energy Resources ( NER ) was known as FPL Energy . NER is North America 's largest owner and operator of wind and solar electricity generating assets . The company has 85 wind facilities in seventeen US states and three Canadian provinces . NER also co-owns and operates Solar Energy Generating Systems ( SEGS ) , the world 's largest solar power generating facility . In addition to wind and solar , NextEra Energy Resources owns and operates generating plants powered by natural gas , nuclear fuel , and oil . The combined capacity of NER 's facilities is 18.9 gigawatts ( GW ) .", "qid": "382", "docid": "NextEra_Energy_Resources", "rank": 52, "score": 98399 }, { "content": "Title: Solarlite Content: Solarlite CSP Technology GmbH , located in Mecklenburg-Pomerania , Germany , develops and builds decentralized solar-thermal parabolic trough power plants ( CSP -- Concentrated Solar Power ) and process heat plants . For the first time worldwide , Solarlite is using direct steam generation commercially in a power plant.Solar thermal facilities offer the most sustainable form of energy recovery in terms of the environment , resources and availability . The technology has the advantage that as direct solar radiation increases , so does the efficiency of the facilities . The facilities are also characterized by a high degree of flexibility . They can be combined with all other fossil and renewable energy sources and are thus base-load capable . Another plus is the option of producing electricity and process heat at the same time or independently of one another . In addition , the residual heat can be used for further industrial applications for example desalination and cooling . The first commercial solar thermal parabolic trough power plant with Direct Steam Generation in the world is producing electricity since Fall 2011 . The 5 MWe solar thermal power plant located in Kanchanaburi/Thailand is unique in three different ways . First parabolic trough commercial power plant based on direct steam generation . Solarlite Trough SL4600 a new generation of parabolic trough made of composite material combined with an efficient thin-glass mirror which reflects more than 95 % of the sun radiation . The construction method allows island solutions and smaller solar thermal parabolic trough plants starting from 500 kWe . Solarlite has tested the DSG concept successfully in three pilot projects in Thailand and Germany . The DSG concept is environment friendly and allows significant reductions of the total investment costs and levelized electricity cost . With DSG a higher operating temperature will be achievable . The Solarlite SL 4600 parabolic trough is a newly developed highly efficient product that can generate temperatures of up to 400 ° C. Each panel has an aperture width of 4,6 m and is made of composite materials combined with an efficient thinglass mirror . This mirror reflects up to 95 % of the sun 's radiation onto the absorber pipe positioned at the ideal focus of the parabolic mirror .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solarlite", "rank": 53, "score": 98386 }, { "content": "Title: A Power Energy Systems ltd. Content: A-Power Energy Generation Systems is a provider of distributed generation systems in China . In 2008 , A-Power entered the wind energy market and has built the largest wind turbine manufacturing facility , located in Shenyang , Liaoning Province , China , with technologies licensed from German FUHRLÄNDER AG and Denmark-based Norwin , and a total annual production capacity of 1,125 MW .", "qid": "382", "docid": "A_Power_Energy_Systems_ltd.", "rank": 54, "score": 98324 }, { "content": "Title: 100% renewable energy Content: The endeavor to use 100 % renewable energy for electricity , heating and cooling , and transport is motivated by global warming , pollution and other environmental issues , as well as economic and energy security concerns . Shifting the total global primary energy supply to renewable sources requires a transition of the energy system . In 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that there are few fundamental technological limits to integrating a portfolio of renewable energy technologies to meet most of total global energy demand . Renewable energy use has grown much faster than even advocates anticipated . In 2014 , renewable sources such as wind , geothermal , solar , biomass , and burnt waste provided 19 % of the total energy consumed worldwide , with roughly half of that coming from traditional use of biomass . The most important sector is electricity with a renewable share of 22.8 % , most of it coming from hydropower with a share of 16.6 % , followed by wind with 3.1 % . There are many places around the world with grids that are run almost exclusively on renewable energy . At the national level , at least 30 nations already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 % of the energy supply . Professors S. Pacala and Robert H. Socolow of Princeton University have developed a series of `` Climate stabilization wedges '' that can allow us to maintain our quality of life while avoiding catastrophic climate change , and `` renewable energy sources , '' in aggregate , constitute the largest number of their `` wedges . '' Mark Z. Jacobson , professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy program , says that producing all new energy with wind power , solar power , and hydropower by 2030 is feasible , and that existing energy supply arrangements could be replaced by 2050 . Barriers to implementing the renewable energy plan are seen to be `` primarily social and political , not technological or economic '' . Jacobson says that energy costs today with a wind , solar , and water system should be similar to today 's energy costs from other optimally cost-effective strategies . The main obstacle against this scenario is the lack of political will . Similarly , in the United States , the independent National Research Council has noted that `` sufficient domestic renewable resources exist to allow renewable electricity to play a significant role in future electricity generation and thus help confront issues related to climate change , energy security , and the escalation of energy costs ... Renewable energy is an attractive option because renewable resources available in the United States , taken collectively , can supply significantly greater amounts of electricity than the total current or projected domestic demand . '' The main barriers to the widespread implementation of large-scale renewable energy and low-carbon energy strategies are political rather than technological . According to the 2013 Post Carbon Pathways report , which reviewed many international studies , the key roadblocks are : climate change denial , the fossil fuels lobby , political inaction , unsustainable energy consumption , outdated energy infrastructure , and financial constraints .", "qid": "382", "docid": "100%_renewable_energy", "rank": 55, "score": 98323 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in the Republic of Ireland Content: , Ireland has in total 2,990 MegaWatts of installed wind power nameplate capacity , and 1 MW of solar power . In 2015 wind turbines generated 24 % of Ireland 's average electricity demand , one of the highest electric grid penetration values in the world . Ireland 's 188 wind farms , are almost exclusively onshore , with only the 25MW Arklow Bank Wind Park situated offshore as of 2015 . Ireland 's wind power fluctuates between near nothing and 2,815 MW due to the weather , with an average ( the capacity factor ) of 32.3 % in 2015 . Irish wind power has higher dependability in the gustier Winter months and lower in the Summer . Ireland uses an EU industry subsidy known as the Public Service Obligation to support development of wind and other domestic power generation , currently levied at $ 72 per annum per household . In the 2016/17 period , $ 308 million raised through this levy was planned to be granted to supporting domestic renewable energy schemes . $ 120.90 million was planned to be granted to peat generation .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Wind_power_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland", "rank": 56, "score": 98274 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power Content: Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity , either directly using photovoltaics ( PV ) , or indirectly using concentrated solar power . Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam . Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect . Photovoltaics were initially solely used as a source of electricity for small and medium-sized applications , from the calculator powered by a single solar cell to remote homes powered by an off-grid rooftop PV system . Commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in the 1980s . The 392 MW Ivanpah installation is the largest concentrating solar power plant in the world , located in the Mojave Desert of California . As the cost of solar electricity has fallen , the number of grid-connected solar PV systems has grown into the millions and utility-scale solar power stations with hundreds of megawatts are being built . Solar PV is rapidly becoming an inexpensive , low-carbon technology to harness renewable energy from the Sun . The current largest photovoltaic power station in the world is the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park , in Qinghai , China . The International Energy Agency projected in 2014 that under its `` high renewables '' scenario , by 2050 , solar photovoltaics and concentrated solar power would contribute about 16 and 11 percent , respectively , of the worldwide electricity consumption , and solar would be the world 's largest source of electricity . Most solar installations would be in China and India . Currently , as of 2016 , solar power provides just 1 % of total worldwide electricity production but growing 33 % per annum .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power", "rank": 57, "score": 98248 }, { "content": "Title: Innergex Renewable Energy Content: Innergex Renewable Energy is a developer , owner and operator of run-of-river hydroelectric facilities , wind energy , and solar farms in North America . While many of the firm 's operational assets are located in its home province of Québec , it has expanded into Ontario , British Columbia , and Idaho .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Innergex_Renewable_Energy", "rank": 58, "score": 98158 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in New York Content: Solar power in New York includes the largest solar farm on the east coast , the 37 MW Long Island Solar Farm , as well as the 17 MW enXco Eastern Long Island Solar Project , which consists of seven projects , three at LIRR station carports . New York City is planning to build a 50 MW solar farm on 250 acres of a closed land fill . New York has a renewable portfolio standard of 30 % from renewable sources by 2015 . In 2015 24 % was renewable , 6 % short of the goal . Wind is the predominant generating technology . In 2012 , LIPA adopted a Power Purchase Agreement ( limited to 50 MW ) , which will pay $ 0.22 / kWh for solar generation for installations ranging from 50 kW to 20 MW . A $ 500 to $ 5000 application fee favors larger power plants represents roughly the first 10 days of generation for a 50 kW to 500 kW system , but less than 2 hours of generation for a 20 MW installation . The term of the agreement is 20 years , and systems must be interconnected to the grid at the 13.2 kV level . Unlike the feed-in tariff programs in many other places , customers pay for their own electricity as if they were not generating any , making this actually a power purchase agreement , and not a feed-in tariff . LIPA owns the SRECs ( which could be worth more than they are paying for the electricity ) . A bill to establish SRECs in New York failed to pass in 2012 . 50 MW of solar power will meet the average needs of about 7,000 households , or less than 1 % of the electricity supplied by LIPA . 5 MW is reserved for systems less than 150 kW , and 10 MW for systems from 150 to 500 kW . The remaining 35 MW is available to systems of all sizes . If fully subscribed in the first year , the average household will pay an estimated $ 0.44 / month to pay for the program , which will generate an estimated 79.4 million kWh/year . Estimated costs are based on an average avoided cost rate of $ 0.075 / kWh , although peak generation costs can exceed $ 0.22 / kWh , eliminating any cost . LIPA 's total generation capacity , in 2011 , was 6,800 MW . Solar Splash , a solar powered boat race , was held in Buffalo , New York , in 2002 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_New_York", "rank": 59, "score": 97930 }, { "content": "Title: Hambantota Solar Power Station Content: The Hambantota Solar Power Station ( also known as the Buruthakanda Solar Park ) is the first commercial-scale solar power station in Sri Lanka . The photovoltaic solar facility was constructed in Buruthakanda , in the Hambantota District . The plant is owned and operated by the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority , a state-run organization responsible for renewable resources . The facility was built in two stages , with the first stage of 737 kilowatt ( kW ) , and the second stage of in installed capacities . The construction cost of the first phase is expected to top up to , of which the funds will be provided by the Japanese Government . While the second stage would top a cost of , of which would be provided by the Korean Government , and would be borne by the local government . Upon completion in late 2012 , the entire facility was expected to produce up to 1.7 gigawatt-hour ( GWh ) of energy annually , from the first stage , and from the second stage . The generated power would be sold to the state-run power company Ceylon Electricity Board , while the revenue would be used to promote rural electrification projects .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Hambantota_Solar_Power_Station", "rank": 60, "score": 97847 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy law in Pennsylvania Content: Pennsylvania approved a bill that establishes a $ 500 million fund to support renewable energy projects . Special Session House Bill 1 authorizes the Commonwealth Financing Authority to borrow $ 500 million , most of which will be split into six funding sources relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy : $ 80 million in grants and loans for solar energy projects ; $ 100 million in grants , loans , and rebates for up to 35 % of the cost of solar energy projects at residences and small businesses ; $ 165 million in grants and loans for alternative energy projects , excluding solar energy , at businesses and local government facilities ; $ 25 million for wind and geothermal energy projects ; $ 40 million to help start-up businesses involved in energy efficiency technologies ; and $ 25 million in grants and loans to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing homes and small business buildings . An additional $ 65 million will go toward pollution control technologies and to help low-income families pay their energy bills . In addition to the $ 500 million fund , the bill creates a Consumer Energy Program that is funded at $ 15 million for the next 3 fiscal years , then gradually decreases to $ 8 million by the 2015 -- 2016 fiscal year , for a total of $ 100 million . Of that , $ 92.5 million will support loans , grants , and rebates for up to 25 % of the cost of energy efficiency improvements to homes and small businesses , while $ 5 million will support low-interest loans for energy efficiency improvements to homes . An additional $ 50 million will be available over the next 8 years to support tax credits for 15 % of the cost of alternative energy projects , capped at $ 1 million per year for each project .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_law_in_Pennsylvania", "rank": 61, "score": 97841 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Africa Content: The developing nations of Africa are popular locations for the application of renewable energy technology . Currently , many nations already have small-scale solar , wind , and geothermal devices in operation providing energy to urban and rural populations . These types of energy production are especially useful in remote locations because of the excessive cost of transporting electricity from large-scale power plants . The applications of renewable energy technology has the potential to alleviate many of the problems that face Africans every day , especially if done so in a sustainable manner that prioritizes human rights . Access to energy is essential for the reduction of poverty and promotion of economic growth . Communication technologies , education , industrialization , agricultural improvement and expansion of municipal water systems all require abundant , reliable , and cost-effective energy access .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Africa", "rank": 62, "score": 97679 }, { "content": "Title: Green Infra Content: Green Infra Limited is a renewable energy company that generates power and currently operating in India . The company is operating under diverse portfolio of Wind , Solar , Hydro Energy , Biomass , and Energy Efficiency , and currently supplies 406 MW of clean energy to India 's power grid . '' This company operates under portfolio of Wind , Solar , Hydro , Biomass and Energy Efficiency and currently operating in the states of Tamil Nadu , Rajasthan , Karnataka , Maharashtra and Gujarat in India . Company has wind operating asset of 406 MW , has recently commissioned its first Solar project in the Rajkot district of Gujarat in India of 10 MW . This 10 MW project is expected to generate 16 Million units annually and expects to save 12,000 tonnes of carbon emissions .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Green_Infra", "rank": 63, "score": 97668 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Energy Generating Systems Content: Solar Energy Generating Systems ( SEGS ) in California , with the combined capacity from three separate locations at 354 megawatts ( MW , 474,700 hp ) , is now the world 's second largest solar thermal energy generating facility , after the commissioning of the even larger Ivanpah facility in 2014 . It consists of nine solar power plants in California 's Mojave Desert , where insolation is among the best available in the United States . SEGS I -- II ( 44 MW ) are located at Daggett , SEGS III -- VII ( 150 MW ) are installed at Kramer Junction , and SEGS VIII -- IX ( 160 MW ) are placed at Harper Lake . NextEra Energy Resources operates and partially owns the plants located at Kramer Junction and Harper Lake . A tenth plant ( SEGS X , 80 MW ) had been in construction and SEGS XI and SEGS XII had been planned by Luz Industries , but the developer filed for bankruptcy in 1992 , because it was unable to secure construction financing .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_Energy_Generating_Systems", "rank": 64, "score": 97561 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable portfolio standard Content: A renewable portfolio standard ( RPS ) is a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources , such as wind , solar , biomass , and geothermal . Other common names for the same concept include Renewable Electricity Standard ( RES ) at the United States federal level and Renewables Obligation in the UK . The RPS mechanism places an obligation on electricity supply companies to produce a specified fraction of their electricity from renewable energy sources . Certified renewable energy generators earn certificates for every unit of electricity they produce and can sell these along with their electricity to supply companies . Supply companies then pass the certificates to some form of regulatory body to demonstrate their compliance with their regulatory obligations . RPS can rely on the private market for its implementation . In jurisdictions such as California , minimum RPS requirements are legislated . California Senate Bill 350 passed in October 2015 requires retail sellers and publicly owned utilities to procure 50 percent of their electricity from eligible renewable energy resources by 2030 . RPS programs tend to allow more price competition between different types of renewable energy , but can be limited in competition through eligibility and multipliers for RPS programs . Those supporting the adoption of RPS mechanisms claim that market implementation will result in competition , efficiency , and innovation that will deliver renewable energy at the lowest possible cost , allowing renewable energy to compete with cheaper fossil fuel energy sources . RPS-type mechanisms have been adopted in several countries , including Britain , Italy , Poland , Sweden , Belgium , and Chile , as well as in 29 of 50 U.S. states , and the District of Columbia .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_portfolio_standard", "rank": 65, "score": 97519 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in India Content: Renewable energy in India comes under the purview of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy ( MNRE ) . Newer renewable electricity sources are targeted to grow massively by 2022 , including a more than doubling of India 's large wind power capacity and an almost 15 fold increase in solar power from April 2016 levels . Such ambitious targets would place India amongst the world leaders in renewable energy use and place India at the centre of its International Solar Alliance project promoting the growth and development of solar power internationally to over 120 countries . India was the first country in the world to set up a ministry of non-conventional energy resources , in early 1980s . As of September 30 , 2016 India 's cumulative grid interactive or grid tied renewable energy capacity ( excluding large hydropower ) reached about 50.02 GW . 61 % of the renewable power came from wind , while solar contributed nearly 19 % . Large hydro installed capacity was 44.41 GW as of February 28 , 2017 and is administered separately by the Ministry of Power and not included in MNRE targets . From 2015 onwards the MNRE began laying down actionable plans for the renewable energy sector under its ambit to make a quantum jump , building on strong foundations already established in the country . MNRE renewable electrictricity targets have been upscaled to grow from just under 43 GW in April 2016 to 175 GW by the year 2022 , including 100 GW from solar power , 60 GW from wind power , 10 GW from bio power and 5 GW from small hydro power . The Ministry of Power has announced that no new coal-based capacity addition is required for the 10 years to 2027 beyond the 50 GW under different stages of construction and likely to come online between 2017 and 2022 The ambitious targets would see India quickly becoming one of the leading green energy producers in the world and surpassing numerous developed countries . The government intends to achieve 40 % cumulative electric power capacity from non fossil fuel sources by 2030 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_India", "rank": 66, "score": 97389 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Systems Content: The RES Group ( Renewable Energy Systems ) is a global renewable energy company which has been active in the renewable energy industry for over 30 years . Its core business is to develop , construct and operate large-scale , grid-connected renewable energy projects worldwide for commercial , industrial and utility clients ' . RES is active in the wind ( onshore and offshore wind ) and solar energy sectors and is increasingly focussed on the transition to a low-carbon economy providing transmission , energy storage and demand side management expertise .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Systems", "rank": 67, "score": 97243 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Germany Content: Germany 's renewable energy sector is among the most innovative and successful worldwide . Net-generation from renewable energy sources in the German electricity sector has increased from 6.3 % in 2000 to about 34 % in 2016 . On Sunday 15 May 2016 at 14:00 hours , renewables supplied nearly all of domestic electricity demand . While peak-generation from combined wind and solar reached a previous all-time high of 74 % in April 2014 , wind power saw its best day ever on December 12 , 2014 , generating 562 GWh . Germany has been called `` the world 's first major renewable energy economy '' . More than 23,000 wind turbines and 1.4 million solar PV systems are distributed all over the country 's area of 357,000 square kilometers . As of 2011 , Germany 's federal government is working on a new plan for increasing renewable energy commercialization , with a particular focus on offshore wind farms . A major challenge is the development of sufficient network capacities for transmitting the power generated in the North Sea to the large industrial consumers in southern parts of the country . According to official figures , some 370,000 people were employed in the renewable energy sector in 2010 , especially in small and medium-sized companies . This is an increase of around 8 % compared to 2009 ( around 339,500 jobs ) , and well over twice the number of jobs in 2004 ( 160,500 ) . About two-thirds of these jobs are attributed to the Renewable Energy Sources Act . Germany 's energy transition , the Energiewende , designates a significant change in energy policy from 2011 . The term encompasses a reorientation of policy from demand to supply and a shift from centralized to distributed generation ( for example , producing heat and power in very small cogeneration units ) , which should replace overproduction and avoidable energy consumption with energy-saving measures and increased efficiency .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Germany", "rank": 68, "score": 96969 }, { "content": "Title: Maximum power point tracking Content: Maximum power point tracking ( MPPT or sometimes just PPT ) is a technique used commonly with wind turbines and photovoltaic ( PV ) solar systems to maximize power extraction under all conditions . Although solar power is mainly covered , the principle applies generally to sources with variable power : for example , optical power transmission and thermophotovoltaics . PV solar systems exist in many different configurations with regard to their relationship to inverter systems , external grids , battery banks , or other electrical loads . Regardless of the ultimate destination of the solar power , though , the central problem addressed by MPPT is that the efficiency of power transfer from the solar cell depends on both the amount of sunlight falling on the solar panels and the electrical characteristics of the load . As the amount of sunlight varies , the load characteristic that gives the highest power transfer efficiency changes , so that the efficiency of the system is optimized when the load characteristic changes to keep the power transfer at highest efficiency . This load characteristic is called the maximum power point and MPPT is the process of finding this point and keeping the load characteristic there . Electrical circuits can be designed to present arbitrary loads to the photovoltaic cells and then convert the voltage , current , or frequency to suit other devices or systems , and MPPT solves the problem of choosing the best load to be presented to the cells in order to get the most usable power out . Solar cells have a complex relationship between temperature and total resistance that produces a non-linear output efficiency which can be analyzed based on the I-V curve . It is the purpose of the MPPT system to sample the output of the PV cells and apply the proper resistance ( load ) to obtain maximum power for any given environmental conditions . MPPT devices are typically integrated into an electric power converter system that provides voltage or current conversion , filtering , and regulation for driving various loads , including power grids , batteries , or motors . Solar inverters convert the DC power to AC power and may incorporate MPPT : such inverters sample the output power ( I-V curve ) from the solar modules and apply the proper resistance ( load ) so as to obtain maximum power . The power at the MPP ( Pmpp ) is the product of the MPP voltage ( Vmpp ) and MPP current ( Impp ) .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Maximum_power_point_tracking", "rank": 69, "score": 96908 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Nebraska Content: Solar power in Nebraska is used for only a very small percentage of the state 's electricity , although it is rapidly becoming competitive with grid electricity , due to the decrease in cost and the eight-year extension to the 30 % tax credit , which can be used to install any size system . In 2015 , the state ranked 47th among the 50 U.S. states with 1.1 MW of installed capacity . Solar power and wind power are easily able to provide all of Nebraska 's energy need , although they would require either transmission lines to provide power when neither is available or storage . Estimates show that Nebraska could generate 3,832,600 GWh/year from wind , and 34.1 % of demand from rooftop solar panels , using 8,200 MW of solar panels . Large-area solar farms would generate many times demand . Nebraska 's largest solar installation is the 200 kW system in Central City . A group of arrays totaling 108.9 kW was installed at Creighton University . The second largest is the 45 kW array at the Norfolk Operations Center of Nebraska Public Power District . A 3.6 MW community solar plant at Lincoln is expected to be finished in 2016 . Source : NREL", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Nebraska", "rank": 70, "score": 96870 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in developing countries Content: Renewable energy technology has sometimes been seen as a costly luxury item by critics , and affordable only in the affluent developed world . This erroneous view has persisted for many years , but 2015 was the first year when investment in non-hydro renewables , was higher in developing countries , with $ 156 billion invested , mainly in China , India , and Brazil . Most developing countries have abundant renewable energy resources , including solar energy , wind power , geothermal energy , and biomass , as well as the ability to manufacture the relatively labor-intensive systems that harness these . By developing such energy sources developing countries can reduce their dependence on oil and natural gas , creating energy portfolios that are less vulnerable to price rises . In many circumstances , these investments can be less expensive than fossil fuel energy systems . In isolated rural areas , electricity grid extensions are often not economical . Off‐grid renewable technologies provide a sustainable and cost‐effective alternative to the diesel generators that would be otherwise be deployed in such areas . Renewable technologies can also help to displace other unsustainable energy sources such as kerosene lamps and traditional biomass . Kenya is the world leader in the number of solar power systems installed per capita ( but not the number of watts added ) . More than 30,000 small solar panels , each producing 12 to 30 watts , are sold in Kenya annually . Kenya was the first African country to use geothermal power , and still has the largest installed capacity of geothermal power in Africa at 200 MW , with a potential of up to 10 GW .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_developing_countries", "rank": 71, "score": 96775 }, { "content": "Title: The Phoenix Project: Shifting from Oil to Hydrogen Content: The Phoenix Project : Shifting from Oil To Hydrogen is a 360-page book authored by Harry Braun that provides a plan for the USA to shift from oil and other fossil and nuclear fuels to wind powered hydrogen production systems by 2020 . From a technology perspective , wind machines are no more difficult to manufacture than automobiles , which is why they could have been mass-produced for large-scale hydrogen production in the 1920s . Making hydrogen from the wind and water is the `` silver bullet '' that can make the USA energy independent of all fossil and nuclear fuels . Indeed , it is the only energy option that is pollution-free , carbon-free and can displace all fossil and nuclear fuels worldwide forever because it is completely renewable . Every green plant on the earth is a solar hydrogen machine that extracts hydrogen from water ( H20 ) with the energy of the sun . Rather than waiting for fuel cells or hybrid vehicles , the Phoenix Project advocates simply modifying every existing vehicle ( and power plant ) to use hydrogen . Category : Hydrogen economy Category : Environmental non-fiction books", "qid": "382", "docid": "The_Phoenix_Project:_Shifting_from_Oil_to_Hydrogen", "rank": 72, "score": 96766 }, { "content": "Title: Solar energy Content: Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating , photovoltaics , solar thermal energy , solar architecture , molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis . It is an important source of renewable energy and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power . Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems , concentrated solar power and solar water heating to harness the energy . Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun , selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties , and designing spaces that naturally circulate air . The large magnitude of solar energy available makes it a highly appealing source of electricity . The United Nations Development Programme in its 2000 World Energy Assessment found that the annual potential of solar energy was 1,575 -- 49,837 exajoules ( EJ ) . This is several times larger than the total world energy consumption , which was 559.8 EJ in 2012 . In 2011 , the International Energy Agency said that `` the development of affordable , inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits . It will increase countries ' energy security through reliance on an indigenous , inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource , enhance sustainability , reduce pollution , lower the costs of mitigating global warming , and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise . These advantages are global . Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments ; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared '' .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_energy", "rank": 73, "score": 96702 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power tower Content: The solar power tower , also known as ` central tower ' power plants or ` heliostat ' power plants or power towers , is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive the focused sunlight . It uses an array of flat , movable mirrors ( called heliostats ) to focus the sun 's rays upon a collector tower ( the target ) . Concentrated solar thermal is seen as one viable solution for renewable , pollution-free energy . Early designs used these focused rays to heat water , and used the resulting steam to power a turbine . Newer designs using liquid sodium have been demonstrated , and systems using molten salts ( 40 % potassium nitrate , 60 % sodium nitrate ) as the working fluids are now in operation . These working fluids have high heat capacity , which can be used to store the energy before using it to boil water to drive turbines . These designs also allow power to be generated when the sun is not shining .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_tower", "rank": 74, "score": 96607 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Chile Content: Northern Chile has the highest solar incidence in the world . In October 2015 Chile 's Ministry of Energy announced its `` Roadmap to 2050 : A Sustainable and Inclusive Strategy '' , which plans for 19 % of the country 's electricity to be from solar energy , 23 % wind power and 29 % hydroelectric power . In June 2014 , the 100-megawatt ( MW ) Amanecer Solar CAP , a photovoltaic power plant located near Copiapó in the Atacama Desert was inaugurated . It was developed by the company with the same name , Amanecer Solar CAP , and was the largest in Latin America at the time . It is capable of generating 270 gigawatt-hours ( GWh ) of electricity per year . The 70 MW photovoltaic Salvador Solar Park went online in November 2014 , followed by an official inauguration ceremony on January 23 , 2015 . It was expected to produce 200 GWh of electricity per year . The plant is located approximately 5 kilometres south of El Salvador , in the Atacama region . It is one of the first in the world to supply competitively priced solar energy to the open market without government subsidy . The 60 MW photovoltaic Lalackama I plant went online in 2014 and is expected to produce 160 GWh of electricity per year . The nearby 18 MW Lalackama II plant went online in May 2015 and is capable of generating approximately 50 GWh per year . Both plants feature photovoltaic inverters designed and manufactured by Elettronica Santerno , an Italian company . The 141 MW photovoltaic Luz Del Norte ( Light of the North ) plant , located 58 kilometres northeast of the city of Copiapó in the Atacama region , began construction in October 2014 and is scheduled for completion in December 2015 . It uses more than 1.7 million cadmium telluride modules . The first two blocks of this project ( approximately half of the project 's total capacity ) was connected to Chile 's central power grid in October 2015 . The Atacama 1 solar complex was proposed as a 110 MW solar thermal electric plant ( the first in Latin America ) and a 100 MW photovoltaic plant . The solar thermal plant will include 17.5 hours of thermal storage . These technologies complement each other to supply clean and stable energy 24 hours a day . The complex is located in the commune of María Elena , Segunda Región . Construction of the solar thermal electric plant commenced in 2014 and the plant is scheduled to begin operating in the second quarter of 2017 . Construction of the photovoltaic plant commenced in January 2015 and the plant began operating in June 2016 with 160 MW of panels , the largest solar plant in Chile at the time . The 79 MW Pampa Norte PV solar plant began operating in April 2016 at a site 32 kilometres southwest of Taltal in Chile 's Antofagasta Region . It uses approximately 258,000 polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic modules and is capable of generating more than 200 GWh per year . The plant was developed by Enel Green Power and features photovoltaic inverters designed and manufactured by Elettronica Santerno . The 97 MW Carrera Pinto photovoltaic plant began is located 60 kilometres from the city of Copiapó in the Atacama Region . The first 20 MW of the plant was connected to the grid in early January 2016 , with the remaining 77 MW connected in August 2016 . The plant is capable of generating over 260 GWh per year . The 246 MW El Romero solar photovoltaic plant began operating in November 2016 at Vallenar in the Atacama region , with a 493 GWh annual average output . It was the largest solar farm in Latin America when it opened . It uses 776,000 polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic modules . In 2016 , SolarPack won an electricity auction by bidding $ 29.1 / MWh ; a record low price .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Chile", "rank": 75, "score": 96563 }, { "content": "Title: Wind Powering America Content: Wind Powering America ( WPA ) is an initiative of the United States Department of Energy ( DOE ) that seeks to increase the use of wind energy throughout the United States . WPA collaborates with key state and regional stakeholders , including farmers , ranchers , Native Americans , rural electric cooperatives , consumer-owned utilities , and schools to break down barriers associated with wind energy development . Throughout its history , WPA has focused on states with strong potential for wind energy generation but with few operational projects . WPA provides fair and unbiased information about the challenges , benefits , and impacts of wind technology implementation . This information allows policymakers , organizations , and citizens to make educated and informed decisions about wind energy implementation in their communities .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Wind_Powering_America", "rank": 76, "score": 96515 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable portfolio standard (United States) Content: A Renewable Portfolio Standard ( RPS ) is a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources , such as wind , solar , biomass , and geothermal . The federal RPS is called the Renewable Electricity Standard ( RES ) . The RPS mechanism generally places an obligation on electricity supply companies to produce a specified fraction of their electricity from renewable energy sources . Certified renewable energy generators earn certificates for every unit of electricity they produce and can sell these along with their electricity to supply companies . Supply companies then pass the certificates to some form of regulatory body to demonstrate their compliance with their regulatory obligations . Because it is a market mandate , the RPS relies almost entirely on the private market for its implementation . Unlike feed-in tariffs which guarantee purchase of all renewable energy regardless of cost , RPS programs tend to allow more price competition between different types of renewable energy , but can be limited in competition through eligibility and multipliers for RPS programs . Those supporting the adoption of RPS mechanisms claim that market implementation will result in competition , efficiency , and innovation that will deliver renewable energy at the lowest possible cost , allowing renewable energy to compete with cheaper fossil fuel energy sources . RPS programs have been adopted in 29 of 50 U.S. states , and the District of Columbia .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_portfolio_standard_(United_States)", "rank": 77, "score": 96397 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Algeria Content: Algeria has the highest technical and economical potential for solar power exploitation in the MENA region , with about 170 TWh per year . First industrial scale solar thermal power project has been initiated by inauguration of Hassi R'Mel power station in 2011 . This new hybrid power plant combines a 25-megawatt ( MW ) concentrating solar power array in conjunction with a 130 MW combined cycle gas turbine plant . In addition , Algeria has launched in 2011 a national program to develop renewable energy based on photovoltaics ( PV ) , concentrated solar power ( CSP ) and wind power , and to promote energy efficiency . The program consists of installing up to 12 GW of power generating capacity from renewable sources to meet the domestic electricity demand by 2030 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Algeria", "rank": 78, "score": 96375 }, { "content": "Title: Net metering Content: Net metering ( or net energy metering , NEM ) allows consumers who generate some or all of their own electricity to use that electricity anytime , instead of when it is generated . This is particularly important with wind and solar , which are non-dispatchable . Monthly net metering allows consumers to use solar power generated during the day at night , or wind from a windy day later in the month . Annual net metering rolls over a net kilowatt credit to the following month , allowing solar power that was generated in July to be used in December , or wind power from March in August . Net metering policies can vary significantly by country and by state or province : if net metering is available , if and how long banked credits can be retained , and how much the credits are worth ( retail/wholesale ) . Most net metering laws involve monthly roll over of kWh credits , a small monthly connection fee , require monthly payment of deficits ( i.e. normal electric bill ) , and annual settlement of any residual credit . Unlike a feed-in tariff ( FIT ) , which requires two meters , net metering uses a single , bi-directional meter and can measure current flowing in two directions . Net metering can be implemented solely as an accounting procedure , and requires no special metering , or even any prior arrangement or notification . Net metering is an enabling policy designed to foster private investment in renewable energy .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Net_metering", "rank": 79, "score": 96274 }, { "content": "Title: SolarReserve Content: SolarReserve is a developer of utility-scale solar power projects which include Concentrated Solar Power ( CSP ) and Photovoltaic ( PV ) technology . The company has commercialized solar thermal energy storage technology that enables solar power tower CSP plants to deliver electricity day and night . In this technology , a molten salt is used to capture the energy from the sun and store it . When electricity is needed , the stored liquid salt is used to turn water into steam to turn a turbine and generate electricity . As of May 2015 , SolarReserve has developed and secured long-term power contracts for 482 megawatts ( MW ) of solar projects representing $ 2.8 billion of project capital , with a development pipeline of more than 6.6 gigawatts ( GW ) globally . SolarReserve reached its lowest price yet at cents 6.3 / kWh for the 2019 Copiapó Solar Project . In addition to its headquarters in Santa Monica , California , SolarReserve has offices in Spain , Chile , South Africa , Turkey , Australia , and the United Arab Emirates .", "qid": "382", "docid": "SolarReserve", "rank": 80, "score": 96160 }, { "content": "Title: Global Wind Energy Council Content: The Global Wind Energy Council ( GWEC ) was established in 2005 to provide a credible and representative forum for the entire wind energy sector at an international level . GWEC 's mission is to ensure that wind power is established as one of the world 's leading energy sources , providing substantial environmental and economic benefits . A new report launched by the Global Wind Energy Council predicts that , despite temporary supply chain difficulties , international wind markets are set to continue their strong growth . In 2006 , total installed wind power capacity increased by 25 % globally , generating some $ 18 billion ( US$ 23 billion ) worth of new generating equipment and bringing global wind power capacity up to more than 74GW . While the European Union is still the leading market in wind energy with over 48GW of installed capacity , other continents such as North America and Asia are developing quickly .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Global_Wind_Energy_Council", "rank": 81, "score": 96010 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Wind (comics) Content: Solar Wind is a British small press comics anthology . Edited by Cosmic Ray ( a pseudonym for small press comics publisher Paul Scott ) , the comic is devoted to gentle parodies of British boys ' comics of the 1970s and 80s . Eight issues in all were produced between 2003 and 2007 , with the final issue published in November 2007 as the Solar Wind Summer Special . Emerging originally from the fanbase of best selling British comic 2000AD , Solar Wind has featured writers and artists including Gordon Rennie , Rufus Dayglo , Al Ewing and PJ Holden .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_Wind_(comics)", "rank": 82, "score": 96007 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Colorado Content: Solar power in Colorado has grown rapidly , partly because of one of the most favorable net metering laws in the country , with no limit on the number of users . Colorado was the first state where Dow introduced their solar shingles . General Electric is planning on building a solar panel plant in Aurora , Colorado , to produce 400 MW of thin film CdTe panels each year , but has delayed construction for at least 18 months with the drop in worldwide photovoltaics prices . The largest solar installation company in the state is E Light Wind and Solar , followed by Quanta Power Generation and juwi solar .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Colorado", "rank": 83, "score": 95883 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Italy Content: Renewable energy has developed rapidly in Italy over the past decade and provided the country a means of diversifying from its historical dependency on imported fuels . Solar energy production alone accounted for around 8 % of the total electric production in the country in 2014 , making Italy the country with the highest contribution from solar energy in the world . Rapid growth in the deployment of solar , wind and bio energy in recent years lead to Italy producing over 40 % of its electricity from renewable sources in 2014 . The share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption ( all energy uses ) had risen to 17.1 % in 2014 . This number has been growing steadily and today accounts for one of the principal components of national energy consumption . In 2014 , 38.2 % of the national electric energy consumption came from renewable sources ( in 2005 this value was 15.4 % ) , covering 16 % of the total energy consumption of the country ( 5.3 % in 2005 ) . The corresponding figure for electricity generation was even higher as consumption figures are reduced by electricity imports ( 13.6 % of the total in 2014 . Imported electricity may also contain a high proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources but these are not accounted for in consumption figures . All 8,047 Italian municipalities ( comune ) have deployed some source of renewable energy , with hydroelectric power being the leading renewable energy source in terms of production . Bio energy , wind power and geothermal power also make an important contribution to national energy demands . By 2013 , renewable energy primary consumption in Italy had grown to 14.6 Mtoe ( Million tonnes of oil equivalent ) . Italy has implemented generous incentive schemes to encourage the development of renewable energy production . Its largest scheme incentivised solar PV production and lead Italy from a low base of installed PV in 2010 to become the world 's fourth largest country by installations by the end of 2014 , ahead of the USA at that time . All sources of renewable energy have grown in Italy during recent years and many continue to receive incentives .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Italy", "rank": 84, "score": 95778 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in California Content: Solar power in California has been growing rapidly because of high insolation , community support , declining solar costs , and a Renewable Portfolio Standard which requires that 33 % of California 's electricity come from renewable resources by 2020 , and 50 % by 2030 . Much of this is expected to come from solar power . At noon on July 12 , 2016 , California generated 8 GW of utility scale solar power and around 4 GW of behind-the-meter private solar power . In 2014 , utility-scale solar power in California generated 9.9 million megawatt-hours , more than double the amount generated in 2013 , and more than five percent of total utility-scale electrical generation in the state . The American Solar Energy Industries Association reports that a further 19,200 MW of utility-scale solar projects are under construction or development in the state as of August 2014 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_California", "rank": 85, "score": 95758 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Energy Perspectives Content: Solar Energy Perspectives is a 2011 book by the International Energy Agency . Solar energy technologies come in various forms -- solar heating , solar photovoltaics , solar thermal electricity -- and can make considerable contributions to solving some of the most urgent problems the world now faces : The development of affordable , inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits . It will increase countries ' energy security through reliance on an indigenous , inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource , enhance sustainability , reduce pollution , lower the costs of mitigating climate change , and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise . These advantages are global . Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments ; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared . Solar Energy Perspectives builds upon past analyses of solar energy deployment contained in the World Energy Outlook , Energy Technology Perspectives and several IEA Technology Roadmaps . It aims at `` offering an updated picture of current technology trends and markets , as well as new analyses on how solar energy technologies for electricity , heat and fuels can be used in the various energy consuming sectors , now and in the future '' .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_Energy_Perspectives", "rank": 86, "score": 95633 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Utah Content: Wind power in Utah is in the early stages of development . As of 2013 Utah had 325 MW of wind generation capacity . Wind thus plays a small role in the state 's renewable portfolio standard goals . A 2009 Utah Renewable Energy Zone Taskforce estimated that the state could produce over 9,000 megawatts of wind power . As about 80 % of Utah 's population is concentrated along the foot of the Wasatch Front mountain range , reliable and predictable canyon winds offer opportunities for wind power generation and efficient wind energy distribution without long-distance transmission . Utah Power , now PacifiCorp , launched the Blue Sky Program in 2000 to give customers an opportunity to purchase imported wind power , giving customers the option of purchasing 100-kilowatt hour ( kWh ) `` blocks '' of renewable energy for a monthly fee through their electricity bills . In the spring 2003 , radio station KZMU began operating solely on wind power . Kinkos also participates . PacifiCorp , the major provider in Utah , imports much of it renewable energy in the state and does not intend to build facilities within it until at least 2024 . The first utility scale wind farm was built at Spanish Fork in 2008 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Utah", "rank": 87, "score": 95586 }, { "content": "Title: Karapınar Renewable Energy Resource Area Content: Karapınar Renewable Energy Resource Area ( Karapınar Yenilenebilir Enerji Kaynak Alanı , YEKA ) is a proposed photovoltaic power station in Konya Province , central Turkey . To be built at the YEKA area of Karapınar district in Konya Province , the plant will have 1,000 MW installed power . With this capacity , it will be one of the world 's largest solar power plant of its kind . The project includes annual production of 500 MWp photovoltaic solar modules and a R&D Center . The tender for the construction was won on March 20 , 2017 by a consortium of Turkish Kalyon Group and South Korean Hanwha , which offered the lowest kW · h-price with 6.99 US cent valid for an energy purchase term of 15 years . The amount of the investment is expected to exceed US$ 1.3 billion . It is planned that more than 1,500 people will be employed in the project . Start of the energy production is scheduled end 2018 . When completed , the solar power station will generate annually 1,700 GW · h electrical energy , sufficient to supply 600,000 households .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Karapınar_Renewable_Energy_Resource_Area", "rank": 88, "score": 95578 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Ark Content: The Solar Ark is an ark-shaped solar photovoltaic power generation facility which offers activities to cultivate a better appreciation of solar power generation , and thereby benefitting both ecology and science . This 315-meter-wide , 37-meter-tall facility is located in Anpachi , Gifu Prefecture , in the geographical center of Japan , and can be seen from the JR Tōkaidō bullet train , which runs past on an adjacent railway . It has over 5000 panels that produce approximately 530,000 kilowatt-hours on an annual basis and a maximum system power of 630 kilowatts . Stationed at the center of the Solar Ark is the Solar Lab , a museum of solar energy . A hands-on , outdoor light exhibition was planned for opening in 2005 . The Solar Ark was an enterprise partner with the 2005 World Exhibition , Aichi Prefecture , Japan . It is one of the largest solar buildings in the world .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_Ark", "rank": 89, "score": 95518 }, { "content": "Title: Solar savings fraction Content: In discussing solar energy , the solar savings fraction or solar fraction ( f ) is the amount of energy provided by the solar technology divided by the total energy required . The solar savings fraction thus is zero for no solar energy utilization , to 1.0 for all energy provided by solar . The solar savings fraction of a particular system is dependent on many factors such as the load , the collection and storage sizes , the operation , and the climate . As an example , the same solar-thermal water heating system installed in a single-family house in Arizona might have f = 0.75 ( 75 % ) , while in a much colder and cloudier climate , like Pittsburgh , PA , might only have a solar fraction of f = 0.3 ( 30 % ) or so . Great care is thus needed in designing such systems , and in evaluating their economics . To increase the solar savings fraction , energy conservation measures should be employed first before expanding the size of the solar energy collection system . Doing so reduces the need for hot water or space heating , for example , and typically provides the best economic return on the total investment , including the solar energy system .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_savings_fraction", "rank": 90, "score": 95456 }, { "content": "Title: Photovoltaic power station Content: A photovoltaic power station , also known as a solar park , is a large-scale photovoltaic system ( PV system ) designed for the supply of merchant power into the electricity grid . They are differentiated from most building-mounted and other decentralised solar power applications because they supply power at the utility level , rather than to a local user or users . They are sometimes also referred to as solar farms or solar ranches , especially when sited in agricultural areas . The generic expression utility-scale solar is sometimes used to describe this type of project . The solar power source is via photovoltaic modules that convert light directly to electricity . However , this differs from , and should not be confused with concentrated solar power , the other large-scale solar generation technology , which uses heat to drive a variety of conventional generator systems . Both approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages , but to date , for a variety of reasons , photovoltaic technology has seen much wider use in the field . , PV systems outnumber concentrators by about 40 to 1 . In some countries , the nameplate capacity of a photovoltaic power stations is rated in megawatt-peak ( MWp ) , which refers to the solar array 's DC power output . However , Canada , Japan , Spain and some parts of the United States often specify using the converted lower nominal power output in MWAC ; a measure directly comparable to other forms of power generation . A third and less common rating is the mega volt-amperes ( MVA ) . Most solar parks are developed at a scale of at least 1 MWp . As at the start of 2017 , the world 's largest operating photovoltaic power station has a capacity of over 800 megawatts and projects up to 1 gigawatt are planned . As at the end of 2016 , about 4,300 projects with a combined capacity of 96 GWAC were solar farms larger than 4 MWAC . Most of the existing large-scale photovoltaic power stations are owned and operated by independent power producers , but the involvement of community - and utility-owned projects is increasing . To date , almost all have been supported at least in part by regulatory incentives such as feed-in tariffs or tax credits , but as levelized costs have fallen significantly in the last decade and grid parity has been reached in an increasing number of markets , it may not be long before external incentives cease to exist .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Photovoltaic_power_station", "rank": 91, "score": 95377 }, { "content": "Title: Serpa solar power plant Content: Construction of the 11 megawatt Serpa solar power plant began in June 2006 and was completed as planned in January 2007 , at the cost of 58 million euro . The facility is located in Serpa , in Portugal 's Alentejo agricultural region , 200 km southeast of Lisbon . The plant uses SunPower subsidiary PowerLight 's PowerTracker system to follow the sun 's daily path across the sky and generate more electricity than conventional fixed-mounted systems . The plant provides enough electricity to supply approximately 8,000 homes . The Serpa solar power plant was developed by the Portuguese company Catavento and it incorporates photovoltaic modules from SunPower , Sanyo , Sharp and Suntech . General Electric Financial Services provided the financing for the project as part of its Ecomagination program . Generating electricity from the sun with no fuel costs or emissions , the Serpa plant is on a 60-hectare ( 150-acre ) hillside and is a model of clean power generation integrated with agriculture . The project supports a European Union initiative by saving more than 30,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions compared to equivalent fossil fuel generation . The EU agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 , from 1990 levels . Portugal relies heavily on imported fossil fuels , and its carbon dioxide emissions have increased 34 percent since 1990 , which is among the fastest rates in the world . To address this , the country is implementing some of the world 's most advanced incentives for installing renewable energy . The Serpa project relies on a preferential tariff mandated by the Portuguese government . Solar power enjoys widespread support in Portugal , with the backing of 77 percent of the population , according to a European Commission study published in January 2007 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Serpa_solar_power_plant", "rank": 92, "score": 95353 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the Philippines Content: Renewable energy accounts for 26.44 % of the total electrical energy needs in the Philippines , according to a 2013 survey . Renewable energy sources provided 19,903 gigawatt-hours of electrical energy out of a total need of 75,266 gigawatt-hours in 2013 . There are five main types of renewable energy used in the Philippines , hydropower , geothermal power , wind power , solar power and biomass power . There has been pressure to increase the Philippines ' usage of renewable energy sources in recent years due to the negative effects of fossil fuels -- such as pollution , accelerated climate change and fluctuating prices . A number of laws have been passed by the Philippine Congress to support the use of renewable energy including the Electric Power Industry Reform Act ( 2001 ) , which promotes the use of local and sustainable energy sources to replace imported fossil fuel sources ; the Biofuels Act ( 2006 ) , which encourages the use of biomass fuels ; the Renewable Energy Act ( 2008 ) ; and the Climate Change Act ( 2009 ) , which provides a legal basis for the tackling of climate change through sustainable development . The laws enacted by Congress have resulted in a significant degree of cooperation from private companies producing renewable energy , many of which have contracts with the Philippine Government .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_Philippines", "rank": 93, "score": 95241 }, { "content": "Title: Solar energy in the European Union Content: Solar energy in the European Union consists of photovoltaics ( PV ) and solar thermal energy . In 2010 , the $ 2.6 billion European solar heating sector consisted of small and medium-sized businesses , generated 17.3 terawatt-hours ( TWh ) of energy , employed 33,500 workers , and created one new job for every 80 kW of added capacity . During 2011 , an additional 21.9 gigawatts ( GW ) of photovoltaics systems were connected to the grid in the European Union , a steep increase from 13.4 GW in 2010 . Turnover of the European PV market amounted to approximately $ 36 billion for this period .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_energy_in_the_European_Union", "rank": 94, "score": 94944 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Louisiana Content: Solar power in Louisiana is assisted by the eight-year extension to the 30 percent tax credit , which can be used to install any size system . Solar power can provide all of Louisiana 's energy needs , and 23 per cent of demand from rooftop solar panels . Beginning January 1 , 2008 , Louisiana offers a 50 per cent tax credit up to $ 12,500 for the installation of a wind or solar system , which allows a small photovoltaic system , adequate to generate the electricity used by an average home , to be installed for 20 per cent of its cost . New Orleans ' largest solar array is the 60 kW array mounted on the top of a LEED certified building built in 2011 . The largest solar project in the state of Louisiana was a statewide project ( 1MW ) that was installed on Liberty Mini Storage facilities by a New Orleans solar company , South Coast Solar . Source : NREL Note : Source gives conflicting information for 2011 and 2012 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Louisiana", "rank": 95, "score": 94809 }, { "content": "Title: Scout Moor Wind Farm Content: Scout Moor Wind Farm is the second largest onshore wind farm in England . The wind farm , which was built for Peel Wind Power Ltd , produces electricity from 26 Nordex N80 wind turbines . It has a total nameplate capacity of 65 MW of electricity , providing 154,000 MW · h per year ; enough to serve the average needs of 40,000 homes . The site occupies 1347 acre of open moorland between Edenfield , Rawtenstall and Rochdale , and is split between the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in northern Greater Manchester and the Borough of Rossendale in south-eastern Lancashire . The turbines are visible from as far away as south Manchester , 15 - away . A protest group was formed to resist the proposed construction , and attracted support from the botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy . Despite the opposition , planning permission was granted in 2005 and construction began in 2007 . Although work on the project was hampered by harsh weather , difficult terrain , and previous mining activity , the wind farm was officially opened on 25 September 2008 after `` years of controversy '' , at a cost of # 50 million . In 2012 Peel Energy sold its 50 % share in the facility to Munich Re 's asset management division MEAG . The other 50 % holding was also purchased by MEAG from HgCapital Renewable Power Partners .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Scout_Moor_Wind_Farm", "rank": 96, "score": 94804 }, { "content": "Title: Solar-powered pump Content: A solar-powered pump is a pump running on electricity generated by photovoltaic panels or the radiated thermal energy available from collected sunlight as opposed to grid electricity or diesel run water pumps . The operation of solar powered pumps is more economical mainly due to the lower operation and maintenance costs and has less environmental impact than pumps powered by an internal combustion engine ( ICE ) . Solar pumps are useful where grid electricity is unavailable and alternative sources ( in particular wind ) do not provide sufficient energy .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar-powered_pump", "rank": 97, "score": 94742 }, { "content": "Title: Sunlight Solar Energy Content: Sunlight Solar Energy is a national solar power company specializing in the design , finance , installation , and management of commercial and residential solar electric , solar hot water , solar pool , and radiant floor systems . Sunlight Solar was founded in 1988 by Paul Israel , a graduate of Temple University and co-founder of the Central Oregon Green and Solar Tour . The company opened its first location in Redmond , Oregon in 1997 and began installing solar for RV 's , solar hot water , and off-grid solar electric systems . In 2003 the company moved operations to Bend , Oregon where the office 's 3.6 Kilowatt photovoltaic system is monitored by Frank Vignola of the University of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Lab which helped the Energy Trust of Oregon and Christopher Dymond of the Oregon Department of Energy calculate performance expectations for solar power production in Central Oregon . In 2004 a state solar incentive program encouraged the company 's expansion of operations to Milford , Connecticut . In 2006 they became a premier dealer for SunPower photovoltaic panels . In 2008 Sunlight Solar was awarded Sunpower 's `` Intelegant '' award for excellence . In 2008 Sunlight Solar won the Central Oregon Builder 's Association award for `` Sub-Contractor of the Year '' . In 2009 the company expanded to Waltham , Massachusetts . In 2010 the company opened an office in Portland , Oregon . In 2010 Sunlight Solar partnered with Habitat for Humanity to install 25 photovoltaic systems on new production high performance homes .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Sunlight_Solar_Energy", "rank": 98, "score": 94685 }, { "content": "Title: Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project Content: The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is a 110 megawatt ( MW ) net solar thermal power project with 1.1 gigawatt-hours of energy storage , located near Tonopah , about 190 mi northwest of Las Vegas . It is the first utility-scale concentrating solar power ( CSP ) plant with a central receiver tower and advanced molten salt energy storage technology from SolarReserve . The project , developed by SolarReserve and owned by Tonopah Solar Energy , LLC . was anticipated to cost less than $ 1 billion . EPC Contractor was ACS Cobra , which carried out the engineering design , procured the equipment and materials necessary , and then constructed and delivered the facility to Tonopah Solar Energy . The project includes 10,347 heliostats that collect and focus the sun 's thermal energy to heat molten salt flowing through an approximately 640 ft tall solar power tower . The molten salt circulates from the tower to a storage tank , where it is then used to produce steam and generate electricity . Excess thermal energy is stored in the molten salt and can be used to generate power for up to ten hours , including during the evening hours and when direct sunlight is not available . The storage technology also eliminates the need for any backup fossil fuels , such as natural gas . Each heliostat is made up of 35 6 × 6 ft mirror facets , yielding a heliostat overall usable area of 1245 sqft . Total solar field aperture adds up to 12882015 sqft . Under a power purchase agreement ( PPA ) between SolarReserve and NV Energy , all power generated by the Crescent Dunes project in the next 25 years will be sold to Nevada Power Company for $ 0.135 per kilowatt-hour . In late September , 2011 , Tonopah Solar Energy received a $ 737 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ) . The capital stack included $ 170,000,000 in EB-5 investment through SolarReserve/ACS Cobra partner CMB Regional Centers . Ground was broken on the project in September 2011 . Construction terminated at the end of 2013 , followed by several months of testing the plant systems . Melting about 70000000 lb of salt takes two months . Once melted , the salt stays melted for the life of the plant and gets cycled through the receiver for reheating . The project entered commissioning phase in February 2014 following completion of construction . It has been operational since September 2015 .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Crescent_Dunes_Solar_Energy_Project", "rank": 99, "score": 94410 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Canada Content: Historically , the main applications of solar energy technologies in Canada have been non-electric active solar system applications for space heating , water heating and drying crops and lumber . In 2001 , there were more than 12,000 residential solar water heating systems and 300 commercial / industrial solar hot water systems in use . These systems presently comprise a small fraction of Canada 's energy use , but some government studies suggest they could make up as much as five per cent of the country 's energy needs by the year 2025 . Photovoltaic ( PV ) cells are increasingly used as standalone units , mostly as off-grid distributed electricity generation to power remote homes , telecommunications equipment , oil and pipeline monitoring stations and navigational devices . The Canadian PV market has grown quickly and Canadian companies make solar modules , controls , specialized water pumps , high efficiency refrigerators and solar lighting systems . Grid-connected solar PV systems have grown significantly in recent years , and reached over 1.8 GW of cumulative installed capacity by the end of 2014 . One of the most important uses for PV cells is in northern communities , many of which depend on high-cost diesel fuel to generate electricity . Since the 1970s , the federal government and industry has encouraged the development of solar technologies for these communities . Some of these efforts have focused on the use of hybrid systems that provide power 24 hours a day , using solar power when sunlight is available , in combination with another energy source .", "qid": "382", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Canada", "rank": 100, "score": 94305 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Content: The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability ( OE ) is a program office within the United States Department of Energy . The mission of OE is `` to lead national efforts to modernize the electric grid ; enhance security and reliability of the energy infrastructure ; and facilitate recovery from disruptions to energy supply . ''", "qid": "383", "docid": "Office_of_Electricity_Delivery_and_Energy_Reliability", "rank": 1, "score": 142674 }, { "content": "Title: Assistant Secretary of Energy for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Content: The Assistant Secretary of Energy for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability is the head of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability within the United States Department of Energy . The Office leads efforts to modernize the electric grid . It does this through the development and implementation of national policy pertaining to electric grid reliability , and through the management of research , development , and demonstration activities for `` next generation '' electric grid infrastructure technologies . Under the supervision of the Under Secretary of Energy for Energy and Environment , the Assistant Secretary is responsible of for the analysis of electricity congestion , the designation of draft National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors , the coordination of energy corridors across federal lands , and workforce issues related to the electricity utility industry . The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability also works with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to enhance the security of the nation 's critical energy infrastructure . The Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate . The Assistant Secretary is paid at level IV of the Executive Schedule , meaning he or she receives a basic annual salary of $ 143,000 . The incumbent Assistant Secretary is Patricia Hoffman", "qid": "383", "docid": "Assistant_Secretary_of_Energy_for_Electricity_Delivery_and_Energy_Reliability", "rank": 2, "score": 135984 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in developing countries Content: Renewable energy technology has sometimes been seen as a costly luxury item by critics , and affordable only in the affluent developed world . This erroneous view has persisted for many years , but 2015 was the first year when investment in non-hydro renewables , was higher in developing countries , with $ 156 billion invested , mainly in China , India , and Brazil . Most developing countries have abundant renewable energy resources , including solar energy , wind power , geothermal energy , and biomass , as well as the ability to manufacture the relatively labor-intensive systems that harness these . By developing such energy sources developing countries can reduce their dependence on oil and natural gas , creating energy portfolios that are less vulnerable to price rises . In many circumstances , these investments can be less expensive than fossil fuel energy systems . In isolated rural areas , electricity grid extensions are often not economical . Off‐grid renewable technologies provide a sustainable and cost‐effective alternative to the diesel generators that would be otherwise be deployed in such areas . Renewable technologies can also help to displace other unsustainable energy sources such as kerosene lamps and traditional biomass . Kenya is the world leader in the number of solar power systems installed per capita ( but not the number of watts added ) . More than 30,000 small solar panels , each producing 12 to 30 watts , are sold in Kenya annually . Kenya was the first African country to use geothermal power , and still has the largest installed capacity of geothermal power in Africa at 200 MW , with a potential of up to 10 GW .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_developing_countries", "rank": 3, "score": 134586 }, { "content": "Title: Electrical grid Content: An electrical grid is an interconnected network for delivering electricity from producers to consumers . It consists of generating stations that produce electrical power , high voltage transmission lines that carry power from distant sources to demand centers , and distribution lines that connect individual customers . Power stations may be located near a fuel source , at a dam site , or to take advantage of renewable energy sources , and are often located away from heavily populated areas . They are usually quite large to take advantage of the economies of scale . The electric power which is generated is stepped up to a higher voltage at which it connects to the electric power transmission network . The bulk power transmission network will move the power long distances , sometimes across international boundaries , until it reaches its wholesale customer ( usually the company that owns the local electric power distribution network ) . On arrival at a substation , the power will be stepped down from a transmission level voltage to a distribution level voltage . As it exits the substation , it enters the distribution wiring . Finally , upon arrival at the service location , the power is stepped down again from the distribution voltage to the required service voltage ( s ) . Electrical grids vary in size from covering a single building through national grids which cover whole countries , to transnational grids which can cross continents .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Electrical_grid", "rank": 4, "score": 130498 }, { "content": "Title: Grid parity Content: Grid parity ( or socket parity ) occurs when an alternative energy source can generate power at a levelized cost of electricity ( LCOE ) that is less than or equal to the price of purchasing power from the electricity grid . The term is most commonly used when discussing renewable energy sources , notably solar power and wind power . Grid parity depends upon whether you are calculating from the point of view of a utility or of a retail consumer . Reaching grid parity is considered to be the point at which an energy source becomes a contender for widespread development without subsidies or government support . It is widely believed that a wholesale shift in generation to these forms of energy will take place when they reach grid parity . Germany was one of the first countries to reach parity for solar PV in 2011 and 2012 for utility-scale solar and rooftop solar PV , respectively . By January 2014 , grid parity for solar PV systems had already been reached in at least nineteen countries .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Grid_parity", "rank": 5, "score": 128832 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy Content: Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources , which are naturally replenished on a human timescale , such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , waves , and geothermal heat . Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas : electricity generation , air and water heating/cooling , transportation , and rural ( off-grid ) energy services . Based on REN21 's 2016 report , renewables contributed 19.2 % to humans ' global energy consumption and 23.7 % to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015 , respectively . This energy consumption is divided as 8.9 % coming from traditional biomass , 4.2 % as heat energy ( modern biomass , geothermal and solar heat ) , 3.9 % hydro electricity and 2.2 % is electricity from wind , solar , geothermal , and biomass . Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$ 286 billion in 2015 , with countries like China and the United States heavily investing in wind , hydro , solar and biofuels . Globally , there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries , with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer . As of 2015 worldwide , more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable . Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas , in contrast to other energy sources , which are concentrated in a limited number of countries . Rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security , climate change mitigation , and economic benefits . The results of a recent review of the literature concluded that as greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emitters begin to be held liable for damages resulting from GHG emissions resulting in climate change , a high value for liability mitigation would provide powerful incentives for deployment of renewable energy technologies . In international public opinion surveys there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power and wind power . At the national level , at least 30 nations around the world already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply . National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade and beyond . Some places and at least two countries , Iceland and Norway generate all their electricity using renewable energy already , and many other countries have the set a goal to reach 100 % renewable energy in the future . For example , in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply ( electricity , mobility and heating/cooling ) to 100 % renewable energy by 2050 . While many renewable energy projects are large-scale , renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries , where energy is often crucial in human development . United Nations ' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity . As most of renewables provide electricity , renewable energy deployment is often applied in conjunction with further electrification , which has several benefits : Electricity can be converted to heat ( where necessary generating higher temperatures than fossil fuels ) , can be converted into mechanical energy with high efficiency and is clean at the point of consumption . In addition to that electrification with renewable energy is much more efficient and therefore leads to a significant reduction in primary energy requirements , because most renewables do n't have a steam cycle with high losses ( fossil power plants usually have losses of 40 to 65 % ) . Renewable energy systems are rapidly becoming more efficient and cheaper . Their share of total energy consumption is increasing . Growth in consumption of coal and oil could end by 2020 due to increased uptake of renewables and natural gas .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy", "rank": 6, "score": 126319 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Asia Content: Renewable energy is a viable means of generating energy in Asia . For solar power , South Asia has the ideal combination of both high solar insolation and a high density of potential customers . Cheap solar can bring electricity to a major chunk of subcontinent 's people who still live off-grid , bypassing the need of installation of expensive grid lines . Also since the costs of energy consumed for temperature control squarely influences a regions energy intensity , and with cooling load requirements roughly in phase with the sun 's intensity , cooling from intense solar radiation could make perfect energy-economic sense in the subcontinent .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Asia", "rank": 7, "score": 126143 }, { "content": "Title: Smart grid in China Content: China is the world 's larges consumer of electricity , and its demand is expected to double by next decade , and triple by 2035 . In 2010 , 70 percent of China 's electricity generation came from coal-fired power plants , but now the Chinese government is investing heavily in renewable energy technologies . As of 2013 , 21 percent of China 's electricity generation comes from renewable sources . This represents only 9 percent of China 's overall primary energy use coming from renewable resources . China 's latest goal is to increase renewable energy to 9.5 percent of overall primary energy use by 2015 . To implement China 's new clean energy capacity into the national power grid , and to improve the reliability of the country 's existing infrastructure , requires significant upgrades and ultimately , a smart grid . A smart grid differs from a conventional power grid in that it includes a system of information and communication technologies to bidirectionally transmit and distribute electricity more efficiently and reliably . Additionally , this technology allows consumers to manage their power usage and make choices for economically efficient products and services . China 's national utility , the State Grid Corporation of China ( SGCC ) , is responsible for the oversight of these upgrades .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Smart_grid_in_China", "rank": 8, "score": 125696 }, { "content": "Title: Growth of photovoltaics Content: Worldwide growth of photovoltaics has been fitting an exponential curve for more than two decades . During this period of time , photovoltaics ( PV ) , also known as solar PV , has evolved from a pure niche market of small scale applications towards becoming a mainstream electricity source . When solar PV systems were first recognized as a promising renewable energy technology , programs , such as feed-in tariffs , were implemented by a number of governments in order to provide economic incentives for investments . For several years , growth was mainly driven by Japan and pioneering European countries . As a consequence , cost of solar declined significantly due to Experience curve effects like improvements in technology and economies of scale . Experience curves describe that the price of a thing decreases with the sum-total ever produced . PV growth increased even more rapidly when production of solar cells and modules started to ramp up in the USA with their Millions solar roofs project , and when renewables were added to China 's 5-year-plans for energy production . Since then , deployment of photovoltaics is gaining momentum on a worldwide scale , particularly in Asia but also in North America and other regions , where solar PV is now increasingly competing with conventional energy sources as grid parity has already been reached in about 30 countries . Projections for photovoltaic growth are difficult and burdened with many uncertainties . Official agencies , such as the International Energy Agency consistently increased their estimates over the years , but still fell short of actual deployment . Historically , the United States had been the leader of installed photovoltaics for many years , and its total capacity amounted to 77 megawatts in 1996 -- more than any other country in the world at the time . Then , Japan stayed ahead as the world 's leader of produced solar electricity until 2005 , when Germany took the lead . The country is currently approaching the 40,000 megawatt mark . China is expected to continue its rapid growth and to triple its PV capacity to 70,000 megawatts by 2017 . In 2015 , China became world 's largest producer of photovoltaic power . By the end of 2016 , cumulative photovoltaic capacity reached at least 302 gigawatts ( GW ) , sufficient to supply 1.8 % of global electricity demands . Solar now contributes 8 % , 7.4 % and 7.1 % to the respective annual domestic consumption in Italy , Greece and Germany . For 2016 , worldwide deployment of up to 77 GW is being forecasted , and installed capacity is projected to more than double or even triple beyond 500 GW between now and 2020 . By 2050 , solar power is anticipated to become the world 's largest source of electricity , with solar photovoltaics and concentrated solar power contributing 16 % and 11 % , respectively . This will require PV capacity to grow to 4,600 GW , of which more than half is forecasted to be deployed in China and India .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Growth_of_photovoltaics", "rank": 9, "score": 122501 }, { "content": "Title: Intermittent energy source Content: An intermittent energy source is any source of energy or electrical power that is not continuously available due to some factor outside direct control . The intermittent source may be quite predictable , for example , tidal power , but can not be dispatched to meet the demand of a power system . Effective use of intermittent sources in an electric power grid usually relies on using the intermittent sources to displace fuel that would otherwise be consumed by non-renewable power stations , or by storing energy in the form of renewable pumped storage , compressed air or ice , or in batteries , for use when needed , or as electrode heating for district heating schemes . The capacity of a reliable renewable power supply , can be fulfilled by the use of backup or extra infrastructure and technology , using mixed renewables to produce electricity above the intermittent average , which may be utilised to meet regular and unanticipated supply demands . Additionally , the storage of energy to fill the shortfall intermittency or for emergencies can be part of a reliable power supply . The penetration of intermittent renewables in most power grids is low , global electricity production in 2014 was supplied by 3.1 % wind , and 1 % solar . Wind generates roughly 16 % of electric energy in Spain and Portugal , 15.3 % in Ireland , and 7 % in Germany . , wind provides 39 % of the electricity generated in Denmark . To operate with this level of penetration , Denmark exports surpluses and imports during shortfalls to and from neighbouring countries , particularly hydroelectric power from Norway , to balance supply with demand . It also uses large numbers of combined heat and power ( CHP ) stations which can rapidly adjust output . The use of small amounts of intermittent power has little effect on grid operations . Using larger amounts of intermittent power may require upgrades or even a redesign of the grid infrastructure .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Intermittent_energy_source", "rank": 10, "score": 119893 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Electricity and the Grid Content: Renewable Electricity and the Grid : The Challenge of Variability is a 2007 book edited by Godfrey Boyle which examines the significance of the issue of variability of renewable energy supplies in the electricity grid .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_Electricity_and_the_Grid", "rank": 11, "score": 119717 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy debate Content: There is a renewable energy debate about the constraints and opportunities associated with the use of renewable energy . Renewable electricity production , from sources such as wind power and solar power , is sometimes criticized for being variable or intermittent . However , the International Energy Agency has stated that this only applies to certain renewables , mainly wind and solar photovoltaics , and its significance depends on a range of factors , such as the penetration of the renewables concerned . There have been `` not in my back yard '' ( NIMBY ) concerns relating to the visual and other impacts of some wind farms , with local residents sometimes fighting or blocking construction . In the USA , the Massachusetts Cape Wind project was delayed for years partly because of aesthetic concerns . However , residents in other areas have been more positive and there are many examples of community wind farm developments . According to a town councillor , the overwhelming majority of locals believe that the Ardrossan Wind Farm in Scotland has enhanced the area . The market for renewable energy technologies has continued to grow . Climate change concerns , coupled with high oil prices , peak oil , and increasing government support , are driving increasing renewable energy legislation , incentives and commercialization . New government spending , regulation and policies helped the industry weather the 2009 economic crisis better than many other sectors .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_debate", "rank": 12, "score": 119648 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power Content: Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power . Wind power , as an alternative to burning fossil fuels , is plentiful , renewable , widely distributed , clean , produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation , consumes no water , and uses little land . The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of nonrenewable power sources . Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network . Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electric power , competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants . Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land , and offshore farms have less visual impact , but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher . Small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations . Wind power gives variable power which is very consistent from year to year but which has significant variation over shorter time scales . It is therefore used in conjunction with other electric power sources to give a reliable supply . As the proportion of wind power in a region increases , a need to upgrade the grid , and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur . Power management techniques such as having excess capacity , geographically distributed turbines , dispatchable backing sources , sufficient hydroelectric power , exporting and importing power to neighboring areas , using vehicle-to-grid strategies or reducing demand when wind production is low , can in many cases overcome these problems . In addition , weather forecasting permits the electric power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur . As of 2015 , Denmark generates 40 % of its electric power from wind , and at least 83 other countries around the world are using wind power to supply their electric power grids . In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16 % to 369,553 MW . Yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4 % of worldwide electric power usage , 11.4 % in the EU .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Wind_power", "rank": 13, "score": 116602 }, { "content": "Title: Microgeneration Content: Microgeneration is the small-scale generation of heat and electric power by individuals , small businesses and communities to meet their own needs , as alternatives or supplements to traditional centralized grid-connected power . Although this may be motivated by practical considerations , such as unreliable grid power or long distance from the electrical grid , the term is mainly used currently for environmentally conscious approaches that aspire to zero or low-carbon footprints or cost reduction . It differs from micropower in that it is principally concerned with fixed power plants rather than for use with mobile devices .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Microgeneration", "rank": 14, "score": 116539 }, { "content": "Title: Tres Amigas SuperStation Content: The Tres Amigas SuperStation is a planned project to unite North America 's two major power grids ( the Eastern Interconnection and the Western Interconnection ) and one minor grid ( the Texas Interconnection ) , with the goal to enable faster adoption of renewable energy and increase the reliability of the U.S. grid . The project will use superconducting wires from Massachusetts-based American Superconductor Corp for electrical distribution and to interconvert alternating current ( AC ) and direct current ( DC ) power . Proposed by Tres Amigas , LLC in 2009 , the project is in the process of finalizing funding . Permits and construction contracts are in place . CEO Phillip G. Harris is the former CEO of PJM Interconnection , an East Coast regional transmission organization ( RTO ) .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Tres_Amigas_SuperStation", "rank": 15, "score": 116538 }, { "content": "Title: Energy in Hawaii Content: Energy production in Hawaii is a difficult issue due to the islands ' isolated location and lack of local resources . The state relies heavily on imports of petroleum and coal for power although recent initiatives have increased use of alternative resources . High levels of solar photovoltaic and wind power use have led to power balance issues which have made Hawaii a study case for renewable use . Commercial-scale batteries and upgraded grid resources and management are among the solutions being advanced . Hawaii has the most expensive electricity prices in the United States . In 2016 the average cost of electricity was $ 0.24 per kilowatt-hour , with the next highest state being Alaska at $ 0.19 . The U.S. average was $ 0.10 per kilowatt-hour across all sectors .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Energy_in_Hawaii", "rank": 16, "score": 115661 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Saudi Arabia Content: Solar power in Saudi Arabia has become more important to the country as oil prices have risen . In 2011 , over 50 % of electricity was produced by burning oil . The Saudi agency in charge of developing the nations renewable energy sector , Ka-care , announced in May 2012 that the nation would install 41 gigawatts ( GW ) of solar capacity by 2032 . It is projected to be composed of 25 GW of solar thermal , and 16 GW of photovoltaics . At the time of this announcement , Saudi Arabia had only 0.003 gigawatts of installed solar energy capacity . A total of 24 GW of renewable energy is expected by 2020 , and 54 GW by 2032 . In January 2015 , it was announced that the plan was delayed with completion not occurring until 2040 . A 200 kW rooftop installation is planned for Riyadh , and is expected to generate 330 MWh/year . 1,100 megawatts ( MW ) of photovoltaics and 900 megawatts of concentrated solar thermal ( CSP ) is expected to be completed by early 2013 . Due to rising oil prices and decreasing costs of utility-scale solar installations , solar power in Saudi Arabia has achieved grid parity and can produce electricity at costs comparable to conventional sources .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Saudi_Arabia", "rank": 17, "score": 115293 }, { "content": "Title: Grid balancing Content: Grid balancing has become an important aspect for the power grid in matching the supply of energy to demand . In more recent years this has become less predictable with more renewable energy being installed into the grid . This has resulted in wind farms being turned off at night time , when it is windy , but there is no demand . In Scotland this has resulted in payouts , most recently over # 6m in 33 days has been paid by the grid to wind farms to not generate electricity . Constraint payments are made to other electricity suppliers as well as wind . In 2011/2012 , payments by the National Grid in the UK totaled # 324 million of which # 31 million went to wind . In 2012/2013 , thanks to improved transmission capability , they were # 130 million of which only # 7 million were for wind . This temporarily excess electric energy could alternatively be used in electrolysis of water to make high purity hydrogen fuel used in fuel cells . In areas with little hydroelectricity , pumped storage systems such as the Dinorwig Power Station can allow the energy to be used for operational reserve or at times of peak demand rather than run a natural gas peaking power plant .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Grid_balancing", "rank": 18, "score": 115111 }, { "content": "Title: List of renewable energy companies by stock exchange Content: Several renewable energy companies became listed on stock exchanges in the period after 2000 . The early 21st century was a very productive time for the renewable energy industry , since many governments set long term renewable energy targets . Some chose to directly subsidize the renewables with feed-in tariffs and other temporary measures to bridge the gap to full cost accounting that would properly reward these technologies for their low emissions and lack of interference with ecosystem services , and also to ensure some capacity and motivation to install conservation-focused smart grid technologies . Smart grid policy in the United States was especially important in driving renewable energy in that country ( see also load shedding , energy internet , home area network and cleantech for more on the structure of the industry and why renewables vendors are closely aligned industrially and politically with the vendors of networking technology ) , smart appliances and energy conservation software , and opposed in general to those of other `` energy '' firms , which effectively depend on the lack of this intelligence or accounting to appear competitive . For instance , coal vendors rely on a lack of accounting of about US$ 345 billion in harms done by coal to remain competitive in the US . In 2004 Russia ratified the United Nations ' Kyoto Protocol and the first order under this agreement came into force for the period 2008 to 2012 . The period from 2002 to 2008 was a period of rapid growth for the renewable energy industry with the photovoltaics industry experiencing an average of 60 % growth per annum , the biodiesel industry 42 % and the wind industry 25 % . As of the end of 2007 the renewable energy industry was worth an estimated US $ 77.3 billion . As a result of this growth several companies listed IPOs . Many public companies involved in the development of this industry and responsible for large market share do not participate exclusively in renewable energy and have been omitted for this list , most notable of these are BP , GE Energy and Sharp . This list consists of companies whose primary produce is either renewable energy or renewable energy products and services .", "qid": "383", "docid": "List_of_renewable_energy_companies_by_stock_exchange", "rank": 19, "score": 114948 }, { "content": "Title: Renewables Obligation (United Kingdom) Content: The Renewables Obligation ( RO ) is designed to encourage generation of electricity from eligible renewable sources in the United Kingdom . It was introduced in England and Wales and in a different form ( the Renewables Obligation ( Scotland ) ) in Scotland in April 2002 and in Northern Ireland in April 2005 , replacing the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation which operated from 1990 . The RO places an obligation on licensed electricity suppliers in the United Kingdom to source an increasing proportion of electricity from renewable sources , similar to a renewable portfolio standard . In 2010/11 it is 11.1 % ( 4.0 % in Northern Ireland ) . This figure was initially set at 3 % for the period 2002/03 and under current political commitments will rise to 15.4 % ( 6.3 % in Northern Ireland ) by the period 2015/16 and then it runs until 2037 ( 2033 in Northern Ireland ) . The extension of the scheme from 2027 to 2037 was declared on 1 April 2010 and is detailed in the National Renewable Energy Action Plan . Since its introduction the RO has more than tripled the level of eligible renewable electricity generation ( from 1.8 % of total UK supply to 7.0 % in 2010 ) .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewables_Obligation_(United_Kingdom)", "rank": 20, "score": 113383 }, { "content": "Title: Grid energy storage Content: Grid energy storage ( also called large-scale energy storage ) is a collection of methods used to store electrical energy on a large scale within an electrical power grid . Electrical energy is stored during times when production ( especially from intermittent power plants such as renewable electricity sources such as wind power , tidal power , solar power ) exceeds consumption , and returned to the grid when production falls below consumption . , by far the largest form of grid energy storage on grids is dammed hydroelectricity , with both conventional hydroelectric generation as well as pumped storage . An alternative to grid storage is the use of peaking power plants to fill in demand gaps .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Grid_energy_storage", "rank": 21, "score": 112819 }, { "content": "Title: Asian Super Grid Content: The Asian Super Grid is a project to establish an electrical power transmission network , or super grid , connecting China , South Korea , Russia , and Japan . It will transmit electrical power from renewable sources from areas of the world that are best able to produce it to consumers in other parts of the world . The idea is dependent on development of an ultra-high voltage grid operating at more than 1,000 kilovolts AC and 800 kilovolts DC over thousands of kilometers . It envisions interconnecting grids across regions , nations , and even continents with a capacity of over 10 gigawatts . The concept is the result of an idea by Masayoshi Son , founder and head of the telecom and Internet giant SoftBank Group . After the devastation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake , Son was so shocked by events that he established the Renewable Energy Institute soon aftewards to help develop and promote renewable energy .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Asian_Super_Grid", "rank": 22, "score": 112120 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport in Australia Content: The environmental impact of transport in Australia is considerable . Australia subsidizes fossil fuel energy , keeping prices artificially low and raising greenhouse gas emissions due to the increased use of fossil fuels as a result of the subsidies . The Australian Energy Regulator and state agencies such as the New South Wales ' Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal set and regulate electricity prices , thereby lowering production and consumer cost . According to a report by The Institute for Sustainable Futures ( ISF ) at University of Technology Sydney , titled : `` Energy and Transport Subsidies in Australia '' , roughly 70 % of the country 's greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the energy and transport industries . The uptake of renewable energy in these sectors is slow because of subsidies to fossil fuels and the high cost of acquiring the sophisticated technology required to produce cleaner fuels . Furthermore , fossil fuels are easier to transport and use , compared to renewable energy , which often require sophisticated instruments to acquire and store . The report revealed that for the 2005 -- 2006 financial year , transport subsidies were measured to reach up to $ 10.1 billion , of which 74 % related to transport , 18 % to electricity and 4 % to renewable and efficient energy . These subsidies help energy generation companies increase their profits , therefore encouraging the building of additional coal-fuel power plants . Investing in other , more sustainable , types of electricity generation plants would have cost less than continuing to subsidize the building of these power plants . On a positive note , alternative transport fuels such as natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas are excused from fuel excise/tax . Tax calculated for the use of a company car is calculated as such : the further the person drives the car , the higher the business use and the lower the personal use . Since tax is calculated based on personal use , drivers tend to drive longer distances to lessen the amount of tax that they have to pay . This leads to a higher consumption of vehicular fossil fuels and , subsequently , higher greenhouse gas emissions . Dr Hal Turton , the Group Leader of the Energy Economics Group at Swiss research establishment , the Paul Scherrer Institute , discussed in his report for Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute titled : `` The Aluminium Smelting Industry : Structure , Market Power , Subsidies and Greenhouse Gas Emissions '' , that the yearly electrical use subsidy for the use of the six aluminium smelters in Australia is at least A$ 210 million . According to the report , Australia 's aluminium smelting industry is party to one of the most subsidized electricity charges as compared to other similar establishments . The ISF report found that removing electrical subsidies would bring up electricity prices by 3.9 % , which would lead to a fall in demand of electricity by 1.4 % in the long run . Reducing transport subsidies would increase prices by 32 % , which would lead to a fall in demand worth 18 % . It suggests that subsidies should be removed gradually so as not to hurt drivers who have no choice but to use petrol ( due to the lack of alternatives ) , and that taxpayer 's funds be channeled to subsidize the sustainable energy industry instead . The National Roads and Motorists ' Association ( NRMA ) is pushing for Australian petrol consumption to be reduced by 50 % by 2050 . It is advocating a move towards greener transport , and has called for a reduction of the A$ 10 billion subsidies given to the nation 's fossil fuel industry .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport_in_Australia", "rank": 23, "score": 111990 }, { "content": "Title: 100% renewable energy Content: The endeavor to use 100 % renewable energy for electricity , heating and cooling , and transport is motivated by global warming , pollution and other environmental issues , as well as economic and energy security concerns . Shifting the total global primary energy supply to renewable sources requires a transition of the energy system . In 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that there are few fundamental technological limits to integrating a portfolio of renewable energy technologies to meet most of total global energy demand . Renewable energy use has grown much faster than even advocates anticipated . In 2014 , renewable sources such as wind , geothermal , solar , biomass , and burnt waste provided 19 % of the total energy consumed worldwide , with roughly half of that coming from traditional use of biomass . The most important sector is electricity with a renewable share of 22.8 % , most of it coming from hydropower with a share of 16.6 % , followed by wind with 3.1 % . There are many places around the world with grids that are run almost exclusively on renewable energy . At the national level , at least 30 nations already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 % of the energy supply . Professors S. Pacala and Robert H. Socolow of Princeton University have developed a series of `` Climate stabilization wedges '' that can allow us to maintain our quality of life while avoiding catastrophic climate change , and `` renewable energy sources , '' in aggregate , constitute the largest number of their `` wedges . '' Mark Z. Jacobson , professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy program , says that producing all new energy with wind power , solar power , and hydropower by 2030 is feasible , and that existing energy supply arrangements could be replaced by 2050 . Barriers to implementing the renewable energy plan are seen to be `` primarily social and political , not technological or economic '' . Jacobson says that energy costs today with a wind , solar , and water system should be similar to today 's energy costs from other optimally cost-effective strategies . The main obstacle against this scenario is the lack of political will . Similarly , in the United States , the independent National Research Council has noted that `` sufficient domestic renewable resources exist to allow renewable electricity to play a significant role in future electricity generation and thus help confront issues related to climate change , energy security , and the escalation of energy costs ... Renewable energy is an attractive option because renewable resources available in the United States , taken collectively , can supply significantly greater amounts of electricity than the total current or projected domestic demand . '' The main barriers to the widespread implementation of large-scale renewable energy and low-carbon energy strategies are political rather than technological . According to the 2013 Post Carbon Pathways report , which reviewed many international studies , the key roadblocks are : climate change denial , the fossil fuels lobby , political inaction , unsustainable energy consumption , outdated energy infrastructure , and financial constraints .", "qid": "383", "docid": "100%_renewable_energy", "rank": 24, "score": 111647 }, { "content": "Title: Smart grid policy in the United States Content: The term smart grid `` has come to describe a next-generation electrical power system that is typified by the increased use of communications and information technology in the generation , delivery and consumption of electrical energy . '' Some of the main benefits to smart grid technology are that individual consumers have more control over their electricity consumption , which can lead to greater overall energy efficiency . Home appliances can be programmed to run at specific times when electrical demand is lowest . This has a two-pronged benefit of reducing the occurrence of brownouts and blackouts that frequent the current U.S. electrical grid , as well as reducing the need for peak power plants , which are typically more expensive to run . The reliability and efficiency of the electrical grid can be enhanced by implementing smart grid technologies , however this would require modifications to the current electrical system , and advances towards its adoption in the United States have been slow . The history of smart grid related policies and their implications on the American electrical system , as well as Title XIII of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and potential future regulations and policy pertaining to smart grid will be discussed to give some indication as to the status of Smart Grid policy and potential adoption in the United States .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Smart_grid_policy_in_the_United_States", "rank": 25, "score": 111464 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power by country Content: Many industrialized nations have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources while an increasing number of less developed nations have turned to solar to reduce dependence on expensive imported fuels . Long distance transmission allows remote renewable energy resources to displace fossil fuel consumption . Solar power plants use one of two technologies : Photovoltaic ( PV ) systems use solar panels , either on rooftops or in ground-mounted solar farms , converting sunlight directly into electric power . Concentrated solar power ( CSP , also known as `` concentrated solar thermal '' ) plants use solar thermal energy to make steam , that is thereafter converted into electricity by a turbine . Worldwide growth of photovoltaics is extremely dynamic and varies strongly by country . By the end of 2016 , cumulative photovoltaic capacity increased by more than 75 gigawatt ( GW ) and reached at least 303 GW , sufficient to supply 1.8 percent of the world 's total electricity consumption . The top installers of 2016 were China , the United States , and India . There are more than 24 countries around the world with a cumulative PV capacity of more than one gigawatt . Austria , the Chile , and South Africa , all crossed the one gigawatt-mark in 2016 . The available solar PV capacity in Honduras is now sufficient to supply 12.5 % of the nation 's electrical power while Italy , Germany and Greece can produce between 7 % and 8 % of their respective domestic electricity consumption . After an almost two decade long hiatus , deployment of CSP resumed in 2007 , with significant growth only in the most recent years . However , the design for several new projects is being changed to cheaper photovoltaics . Most operational CSP stations are located in Spain and the United States , while large solar farms using photovoltaics are being constructed in an expanding list of geographic regions . As of January 2017 , the largest solar power plants in the world are the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in China for PV and the 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the United States for CSP . Other large CSP facilities include the 354 megawatt ( MW ) Solar Energy Generating Systems power installation in the USA , Solnova Solar Power Station ( Spain , 150 MW ) , Andasol Solar Power Station ( Spain , 150 MW ) and the first part of Shams solar power station ( United Arab Emirates , 100 MW ) .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Solar_power_by_country", "rank": 26, "score": 111315 }, { "content": "Title: Medgrid Content: Medgrid project , created at the end of 2010 in Paris , is a large industrial project planned in North Africa , which aims to promote and develop a Euro-Mediterranean electricity network that would provide North Africa & Europe with inexpensive renewable electricity , mostly from solar . The goal is to install 20 gigawatts ( GW ) of generating capacity , with 5 GW being devoted for exports to Europe . The Medgrid project was envisioned by a consortium of twenty plus utilities , grid operators , equipment makers , financing institutions and investors , mostly European . On 24 Nov 2011 , a MoU was signed between Medgrid and Desertec Industry Initiative ( Dii ) to study , design and promote an interconnected electrical grid with the 400 billion euro ( $ 536 billion ) renewable energy ` Desertec ' project in North Africa . The medgrid together with Desertec would serve as the backbone of the ` European Supergrid ' and the benefits of investing in HVDC technology are being assessed to reach the final goal -- the ` SuperSmart Grid ( SSG ) ' .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Medgrid", "rank": 27, "score": 110922 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable portfolio standard (United States) Content: A Renewable Portfolio Standard ( RPS ) is a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources , such as wind , solar , biomass , and geothermal . The federal RPS is called the Renewable Electricity Standard ( RES ) . The RPS mechanism generally places an obligation on electricity supply companies to produce a specified fraction of their electricity from renewable energy sources . Certified renewable energy generators earn certificates for every unit of electricity they produce and can sell these along with their electricity to supply companies . Supply companies then pass the certificates to some form of regulatory body to demonstrate their compliance with their regulatory obligations . Because it is a market mandate , the RPS relies almost entirely on the private market for its implementation . Unlike feed-in tariffs which guarantee purchase of all renewable energy regardless of cost , RPS programs tend to allow more price competition between different types of renewable energy , but can be limited in competition through eligibility and multipliers for RPS programs . Those supporting the adoption of RPS mechanisms claim that market implementation will result in competition , efficiency , and innovation that will deliver renewable energy at the lowest possible cost , allowing renewable energy to compete with cheaper fossil fuel energy sources . RPS programs have been adopted in 29 of 50 U.S. states , and the District of Columbia .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_portfolio_standard_(United_States)", "rank": 28, "score": 110784 }, { "content": "Title: German Renewable Energy Sources Act Content: The Renewable Energy Sources Act or EEG ( Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz or EEG ) is a series of German laws that originally provided a feed-in tariff ( FIT ) scheme to encourage the generation of renewable electricity . The , the current version of the law , instead specifies the transition to an auction system for most technologies by 2017 . The EEG first came into force on 1April 2000 and has been modified several times since . The original legislation guaranteed a grid connection , preferential dispatch , and a government-set feed-in tariff for 20years , dependant on the technology and size of project . The scheme was funded by a surcharge on electricity consumers , with electricity-intensive manufacturers and the railways later being required to contribute as little as 0.05 cents / kWh . For 2017 , the unabated EEG surcharge is . The EEG was preceded by the Electricity Feed-in Act ( 1991 ) which entered into force on 1January 1991 . This law initiated the first green electricity feed-in tariff scheme in the world . The original EEG is credited with a rapid uptake of wind power and photovoltaics ( PV ) and is regarded nationally and internationally as an innovative and successful energy policy measure . The act also covers biomass ( including cogeneration ) , hydroelectricity , and geothermal energy . A significant revision to the EEG came into effect on 1August 2014 . The prescribed feed-in tariffs will soon be gone for most technologies . Specific deployment corridors now stipulate the extent to which renewable electricity is to be expanded in the future and the funding rates will no longer be set by the government , but will be determined by auction . Plant operators will market their production directly and will receive a market premium to make up the difference between the their bid price and the average monthly spot market price for electricity . The EEG surcharge remains in place to cover this shortfall . This new system is being rolled out in stages , starting with ground-mounted photovoltaics . More legislative revisions are scheduled for introduction on 1January 2017 . The current EEG has been criticized for setting the deployment corridors ( see table ) too low to meet Germany 's long-term climate protection goals , particularly given the likely electrification of the transport sector . The government target for the share of renewables in power generation is at least 80 % by 2050 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "German_Renewable_Energy_Sources_Act", "rank": 29, "score": 110607 }, { "content": "Title: Central Electricity Generating Board Content: The Central Electricity Generating Board ( CEGB ) was the cornerstone of the British electricity industry for almost forty years , from 1957 to privatisation in the 1990s . Because of its origins in the immediate post-war period , when electricity demand grew rapidly but plant and fuel availability was often unreliable , most of the industry saw its mission as to provide an adequate and secure electricity supply , or `` to keep the lights on '' as they put it , rather than pursuing the cheapest generation route . It was created in 1957 from the Central Electricity Authority , which had replaced the British Electricity Authority . The Electricity Council was also created at that time , as a policy-making body for the electricity supply industry .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Central_Electricity_Generating_Board", "rank": 30, "score": 108446 }, { "content": "Title: Smart grids by country Content: The term Smart Grid is most commonly defined as an electric grid that has been digitized to enable two way communication between producers and consumers . The objective of the Smart Grid is to update electricity infrastructure to include more advanced communication , control , and sensory technology with the hope of increasing communication between consumers and energy producers . The potential benefits from a Smart Grid include increased reliability , more efficient electricity use , better economics , and improved sustainability . The concept of a Smart Grid began to emerge in the early 2000s . Since then , many countries have been pursuing a Smart Grid . Each country has their own unique definition of a Smart Grid based on their own policies and objectives . Therefore , every country approaches achieving a Smart Grid a little different . Below is an overview of major Smart Grid legislation and projects in select countries .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Smart_grids_by_country", "rank": 31, "score": 108418 }, { "content": "Title: California electricity crisis Content: The California electricity crisis , also known as the Western U.S. Energy Crisis of 2000 and 2001 , was a situation in which the United States state of California had a shortage of electricity supply caused by market manipulations , illegal shutdowns of pipelines by the Texas energy consortium Enron , and capped retail electricity prices . The state suffered from multiple large-scale blackouts , one of the state 's largest energy companies collapsed , and the economic fall-out greatly harmed Governor Gray Davis ' standing . Drought , delays in approval of new power plants , and market manipulation decreased supply . This caused an 800 % increase in wholesale prices from April 2000 to December 2000 . In addition , rolling blackouts adversely affected many businesses dependent upon a reliable supply of electricity , and inconvenienced a large number of retail consumers . California had an installed generating capacity of 45 GW . At the time of the blackouts , demand was 28 GW . A demand supply gap was created by energy companies , mainly Enron , to create an artificial shortage . Energy traders took power plants offline for maintenance in days of peak demand to increase the price . Traders were thus able to sell power at premium prices , sometimes up to a factor of 20 times its normal value . Because the state government had a cap on retail electricity charges , this market manipulation squeezed the industry 's revenue margins , causing the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric Company ( PG&E ) and near bankruptcy of Southern California Edison in early 2001 . The financial crisis was possible because of partial deregulation legislation instituted in 1996 by the California Legislature ( AB 1890 ) and Governor Pete Wilson . Enron took advantage of this deregulation and was involved in economic withholding and inflated price bidding in California 's spot markets . The crisis cost between US$ 40 to $ 45 billion .", "qid": "383", "docid": "California_electricity_crisis", "rank": 32, "score": 108385 }, { "content": "Title: Feed-in tariffs in Germany Content: Feed-in electricity tariffs ( FiT ) have been introduced in Germany to encourage the use of new energy technologies such as wind power , biomass , hydropower , geothermal power and solar photovoltaics . Feed-in tariffs are a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies by providing them remuneration ( a `` tariff '' ) above the retail or wholesale rates of electricity . The mechanism provides long-term security to renewable energy producers , typically based on the cost of generation of each technology . Technologies such as wind power , for instance , are awarded a lower per-kWh price , while technologies such as solar PV and tidal power are offered a higher price , reflecting higher costs . As of July 2014 , feed-in tariffs range from 3.33 cents / kWh ( 4.4 cents / kWh ) for hydropower facilities over 50 MW to 12.88 cents / kWh ( 17.3 cents / kWh ) for solar installations on buildings up to 30kWp and 19 cents / kWh ( 25.5 cents / kWh ) for offshore wind . On 1 August 2014 , a revised Renewable Energy Sources Act or EEG ( 2014 ) ( colloquially called EEG2 .0 ) entered into force . The government will now stipulate specific deployment corridors to control the uptake of renewables and the feed-in tariffs themselves will be determined by auction . The aim is to meet Germany 's renewable energy goals of 40 to 45 % of electricity consumption in 2025 and 55 % to 60 % in 2035 . The policy also aims to encourage the development of renewable technologies , reduce external costs , and increase security of energy supply . In the first half of 2014 , 28.5 % of gross electricity production in Germany came from renewable sources . The Federal Environment Ministry estimated that renewables were to save 87 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2012 . The average level of feed-in tariff was 9.53 cents / kWh in 2005 ( compared to an average cost of displaced energy of 4.7 cents / kWh ) . In 2004 , the total level of reallocated EEG surcharges was $ 2.4 billion , at a cost per consumer of 0.56 cents / kWh ( 3 % of household electricity costs ) . By 2013 , the figure had risen to $ 20.4 billion . The tariffs are lowered every year to encourage more efficient production of renewable energy . By 2014 , the EEG surcharge -- which pays for the additional costs through feed-in tariffs -- had increased to 6.24 cents / kWh . As of July 2014 , the regular reductions ( degressions ) were 1.5 % per year for electricity from onshore wind and 1 % per month for electricity from photovoltaics . The solar sector employed about 56,000 people in 2013 , a strong decline from previous years , due to many insolvencies and business closures . Although most of the installed solar panels are nowadays imported from China , the Fraunhofer institute estimates , that only about 30 % of the EEG apportionment outflows to China , while the rest is still spent domestically . The institute also predicts that Germany 's solar manufacturing sector will improve its competitive situation in the future .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Feed-in_tariffs_in_Germany", "rank": 33, "score": 108000 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in Florida Content: Solar power in Florida has been increasing , as the cost of solar power systems using photovoltaics ( PV ) has decreased in recent years . In 2008 , Florida adopted a net metering rule that allows any electric utility customer generating up to 2 MW ( 2,000 kW ) of power to use net metering , which provides a retail rate credit for kilowatt-hours of electricity delivered to the utility , rolled over from month to month , and paid out in cash by the utility once a year at the avoided cost rate . In 2006 , the State of Florida enacted the Florida Renewable Energy Technologies and Energy Efficiency Act , which provided consumers with rebates and tax credits for solar photovoltaic systems . The program was closed in 2010 . Later , the Florida Public Service Commission mandated that the state 's large utilities offer individual solar rebates . The program opened in 2011 and was closed in 2015 after the Commission deemed it to not be cost-effective for non-solar customers . The federal Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit ( income tax credit on IRS Form 5695 ) for residential PV and solar thermal was extended in December 2015 to remain at 30 % of system cost ( parts and installation ) for systems put into service by the end of 2019 , then 26 % until the end of 2020 , and then 22 % until the end of 2021 . It applies to a taxpayer 's principal and/or second residences , but not to a property that is rented out . There is no maximum cap on the credit , and the credit can be applied toward the Alternative Minimum Tax , and any excess credit ( greater than that year 's tax liability ) can be rolled into the following year . In 2009 , Florida Power & Light built the state 's first solar power plant , the FPL DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center . At the time , the 25-MW plant was the largest of its kind . In 2010 , FPL built the world 's first hybrid solar-natural gas energy center . Florida has low electricity costs compared with other states , which makes individual solar investment less attractive . Florida ranks ninth nationally in solar resource strength according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and tenth in solar generation by the Solar Energy Industries Association .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Solar_power_in_Florida", "rank": 34, "score": 107925 }, { "content": "Title: Electricity sector in India Content: The utility electricity sector in India has one National Grid with an installed capacity of 329.20 GW ( as of 30 April 2017 ) . Renewable power plants constituted 30.8 % of total installed capacity . During the fiscal year 2015-16 , the gross electricity generated by utilities in India was 1,116.84 TWh and the total electricity generation ( utilities and non utilities ) in the country was 1,352 TWh or 1,075.64 kWh per capita . India is the world 's third largest producer and fourth largest consumer of electricity . Electric energy consumption in agriculture was recorded highest ( 17.89 % ) in 2015-16 among all countries . The per capita electricity consumption is low compared to many countries despite cheaper electricity tariff in India . In order to address the lack of adequate electricity availability to all the people in the country by March 2019 , the Government of India launched a scheme called `` Power for All '' . This scheme will ensure continuous and uninterrupted electricity supply to all households , industries and commercial establishments by creating and improving necessary infrastructure . Its a joint collaboration of GoI with states to share funding and create overall economic growth . Draft National Electricity Plan , 2016 prepared by GoI states that India does not need additional non-renewable power plants till 2027 with the commissioning of 50,025 MW coal based power plants under construction and additional 100,000 MW renewable power capacity .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Electricity_sector_in_India", "rank": 35, "score": 107559 }, { "content": "Title: Distribution management system Content: In the recent years , utilization of electrical energy increased exponentially and customer requirement and quality definitions of power were changed enormously . As the electric energy became an essential part of the daily life , its optimal usage and reliability became important . Real-time network view and dynamic decisions have become instrumental for optimizing resources and managing demands , thus making a distribution management system which could handle proper work flows , very critical .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Distribution_management_system", "rank": 36, "score": 107103 }, { "content": "Title: Kevin Kolevar Content: Kevin M. Kolevar is Vice President , Government Affairs and Public Policy at the Dow Chemical Company . He joined Dow Chemical in 2009 after serving as the Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability within the United States Department of Energy . He was confirmed to the position in August 2007 . He had led the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability since its creation in February 2005 . Kolevar served as chief of staff to the Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow from January 2003 to January 2005 . He also worked as a senior policy advisor to the Secretary of Energy on security and technology issues . While working at the Department of Energy , he was chair of the Department of Energy National Security Working Group . He also served as an advisor to the U.S.-Canada Task Force investigating the 2003 blackout . Prior joining the Department of Energy , he spent over ten years serving as a member of United States Senate staff in the offices of Senators Spencer Abraham and Connie Mack III . He is a graduate of the University of Michigan .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Kevin_Kolevar", "rank": 37, "score": 106961 }, { "content": "Title: Grid friendly Content: Electrical devices are considered grid friendly if they operate in a manner that supports electrical power grid reliability . Basic grid-friendly devices may incorporate features that work to offset short-term undesirable changes in line frequency or voltage ; more sophisticated devices may alter their operating profile based on the current market price for electricity , reducing load when prices are at a peak . Grid-friendly devices can include major appliances found in homes , commercial building systems such as HVAC , and many industrial systems .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Grid_friendly", "rank": 38, "score": 106854 }, { "content": "Title: Ladakh Renewable Energy Development Agency Content: Ladakh Renewable Energy Development Agency ( LREDA ) is a renewable energy initiative in Ladakh , a mountainous region of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir . It has been called `` the largest off-grid renewable energy project in the world . '' The Himalayan mountains make it difficult to connect the Ladakh region to the main national grid . Historically most electricity was created using diesel generators . However , Ladakh has been called the `` roof of the world '' with abundant sunlight and clear air making it unusually suitable for solar energy technologies . LREDA was founded in 2000 by the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council that `` studied and advised the local government to harness solar energy in the mountainous region . '' In 2012 , Jigmet Takpa , director of LREDA said , `` Diesel is highly polluting and its cost is extremely high . In the next five years , the whole of Ladakh will be electrified by hydro , solar or geothermal generated renewable power . '' LREDA has a number of initiatives including the Ladakh Renewable Energy Initiative Project ( LREI ) , an off-grid renewable energy development program establish in 2011 , which sought to install over the next three years : `` 11 micro-hydro projects with a total capacity of 11.2 MW , 125 solar-photovoltaic power plants of varying capacities , solar water heaters for 40 % of the building in Leh , 3000 solar greenhouses , 4500 solar cookers , solar driers , solar passive housing projects and ground based heat pumping for space heating . '' In 2013 , LREDA was awarded the Renewtech India Excellence Award . LREDA also conferred with UNDP GEF 's Award 2013 , securing first position in capacity addition of solar water heating systems during the year 2013 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Ladakh_Renewable_Energy_Development_Agency", "rank": 39, "score": 106477 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable portfolio standard Content: A renewable portfolio standard ( RPS ) is a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources , such as wind , solar , biomass , and geothermal . Other common names for the same concept include Renewable Electricity Standard ( RES ) at the United States federal level and Renewables Obligation in the UK . The RPS mechanism places an obligation on electricity supply companies to produce a specified fraction of their electricity from renewable energy sources . Certified renewable energy generators earn certificates for every unit of electricity they produce and can sell these along with their electricity to supply companies . Supply companies then pass the certificates to some form of regulatory body to demonstrate their compliance with their regulatory obligations . RPS can rely on the private market for its implementation . In jurisdictions such as California , minimum RPS requirements are legislated . California Senate Bill 350 passed in October 2015 requires retail sellers and publicly owned utilities to procure 50 percent of their electricity from eligible renewable energy resources by 2030 . RPS programs tend to allow more price competition between different types of renewable energy , but can be limited in competition through eligibility and multipliers for RPS programs . Those supporting the adoption of RPS mechanisms claim that market implementation will result in competition , efficiency , and innovation that will deliver renewable energy at the lowest possible cost , allowing renewable energy to compete with cheaper fossil fuel energy sources . RPS-type mechanisms have been adopted in several countries , including Britain , Italy , Poland , Sweden , Belgium , and Chile , as well as in 29 of 50 U.S. states , and the District of Columbia .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_portfolio_standard", "rank": 40, "score": 106156 }, { "content": "Title: European super grid Content: The European super grid is a possible future super grid that would ultimately interconnect the various European countries and the regions around Europe 's borders -- including North Africa , Kazakhstan , and Turkey -- with a high-voltage direct current ( HVDC ) power grid . It is envisaged that a European super grid would : lower the cost of power in all participating countries by allowing the entire region to share the most efficient power plants ; pool load variability and power station unreliability , reducing the margin of inefficient spinning reserve and standby that have to be supplied ; allow for wider use of renewable energy , particularly wind energy , from the concept that `` it is always windy somewhere '' -- in particular it tends to be windy in the summer in North Africa , and windy in the winter in Europe ; allow wide sharing of the total European hydro power resource , which is about 6 weeks of full load European output ; significantly increase the use of ` renewables ' ; decrease Europe 's dependence of imported fuels .", "qid": "383", "docid": "European_super_grid", "rank": 41, "score": 105339 }, { "content": "Title: Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation Content: The Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation ( NFFO ) refers to a collection of orders requiring the electricity Distribution Network Operators in England and Wales to purchase electricity from the nuclear power and renewable energy sectors . Similar mechanisms operate in Scotland ( the Scottish Renewable Orders under the Scottish Renewables Obligation ) and Northern Ireland ( the Northern Ireland Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation ) . Five orders were made under the NFFO before the UK government replaced it with the Renewables Obligation , the first order or ` tranche ' was on October 1 , 1990 with an average price of 7.51 pence per kWh being paid to renewable energy generators , the fifth and last was in September 1998 at an average of 2.71 pence per kWh . Although the Renewables Obligation is now the Government 's main mechanism for expanding the renewables sector , the last of the existing orders will continue in effect until it expires in 2018 . Contracts resulting from the first two tranches however terminated in 1998 , allowing generators from these rounds to now sell electricity under the new mechanism .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Non-Fossil_Fuel_Obligation", "rank": 42, "score": 105083 }, { "content": "Title: Ministry of Power (India) Content: The Ministry of Power is an Indian government ministry . The current Union Minister of State ( Independent charge ) is Piyush Goyal . The ministry is charged with overseeing electricity production and infrastructure development , including generation , transmission , and delivery , as well as maintenance projects . India faces challenges in electrical supply and delivery , and is often unable to meet demand , even in very large cities . The ministry acts as a liaison between the central government and state electricity operations , as well as with the private sector . The ministry also oversees rural electrification projects . The Ministry of Power became a ministry on July 2 , 1992 during the P. V. Narasimha Rao government . Prior to that time it had been a department ( the Department of Power ) in the Ministry of Power , Coal and Non-Conventional Energy Sources . That ministry was split into the Ministry of Power , Ministry of Coal , and Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources ( renamed the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in 2006 ) . In 2012 , the Ministry of Power inaugurated the Smart Grid project in Puducherry .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Ministry_of_Power_(India)", "rank": 43, "score": 104920 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Certificate (United States) Content: Renewable Energy Certificates ( RECs ) , also known as Green tags , Renewable Energy Credits , Renewable Electricity Certificates , or Tradable Renewable Certificates ( TRCs ) , are tradable , non-tangible energy commodities in the United States that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour ( MWh ) of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource ( renewable electricity ) and was fed into the shared system of power lines which transport energy . Solar renewable energy certificates ( SRECs ) are RECs that are specifically generated by solar energy . Renewable Energy Certificates provide a mechanism for the purchase of renewable energy that is added to and pulled from the electrical grid . These certificates can be sold and traded or bartered , and the owner of the REC can claim to have purchased renewable energy . According to the U.S. Department of Energy 's Green Power Network , RECs represent the environmental attributes of the power produced from renewable energy projects and are sold separately from commodity electricity . While traditional carbon emissions trading programs use penalties and incentives to achieve established emissions targets , RECs simply incentivize carbon-neutral renewable energy by providing a production subsidy to electricity generated from renewable sources . A green energy provider ( such as a wind farm ) is credited with one REC for every 1,000 kWh or 1 MWh of electricity it produces ( for reference , an average residential customer consumes about 800 kWh in a month ) . A certifying agency gives each REC a unique identification number to make sure it does n't get double-counted . The green energy is then fed into the electrical grid ( by mandate ) , and the accompanying REC can then be sold on the open market . `` Retirement occurs when a Renewable Energy Certificate ( REC ) is used by the owner of the REC . Use of the REC may include , but is not limited to , ( 1 ) use of the REC by an end-use customer , marketer , generator , or utility to comply with a statutory or regulatory requirement , ( 2 ) a public claim associated with a purchase of RECs by an end-use customer , or ( 3 ) the sale of any component attributes of a REC for any purpose . Once a REC is retired , it may not be sold , donated , or transferred to any other party . No party other than the owner may make claims associated with retired RECs . '' Energy from any grid-tied source is bought and sold with contracts specifying the generator and purchaser . In the trade of renewable energy , RECs specify that a unit of renewable energy was generated . Because once electricity is placed on the electrical grid it mixes with electricity from multiple sources and becomes indistinguishable , RECs are used to track the ownership of environmental and social benefits of the renewable energy . The majority of RECs are sold separately from the electricity itself . In these cases , the electricity is sold as `` null '' energy without its environmental and social benefits , as if it were generated by non-renewable resources such as coal , nuclear or natural gas . When RECs are purchased in combination with non-renewable electricity this constitutes the legal purchase of renewable energy . This is how electrical grid connected renewable energy is traded in the U.S. Grid-connected renewable energy is used by electric utility companies in meeting their regulatory requirements and by individuals and businesses wishing to lessen their environmental impact . RECs allow for purchasers to support renewable energy generation and allows the economic forces of supply and demand to spur the further development of renewable energy generation .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Certificate_(United_States)", "rank": 44, "score": 104832 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Tuvalu Content: Renewable energy in Tuvalu is a growing sector of the country 's energy supply . Tuvalu has committed to becoming the first country to get 100 % of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020 . This is considered possible because of the small size of the population of Tuvalu and its abundant solar energy resources due to its tropical location . It is somewhat complicated because Tuvalu consists of nine inhabited islands . The Tuvalu National Energy Policy ( TNEP ) was formulated in 2009 , and the Energy Strategic Action Plan defines and directs current and future energy developments so that Tuvalu can achieve the ambitious target of 100 % renewable energy for power generation by 2020 . The program is expected to cost 20 million US dollars and is supported by the e8 , a group of 10 electric companies from G8 countries . The Government of Tuvalu worked with the e8 group to develop the Tuvalu Solar Power Project , which is a 40 kW grid-connected solar system that is intended to provide about 5 % of Funafuti 's peak demand , and 3 % of the Tuvalu Electricity Corporation 's annual household consumption . Tuvalu participates in the Alliance of Small Island States ( AOSIS ) , which is a coalition of small island and low-lying coastal countries that have concerns about their vulnerability to the adverse effects of global climate change . Under the Majuro Declaration , which was signed on 5 September 2013 , Tuvalu has commitment to implement power generation of 100 % renewable energy ( between 2013 and 2020 ) , which is proposed to be implemented using Solar PV ( 95 % of demand ) and biodiesel ( 5 % of demand ) . The feasibility of wind power generation will be considered . In November 2015 Tuvalu committed to reduction of emissions of green-house gases from the electricity generation ( power ) sector to almost zero emissions by 2025 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 45, "score": 104741 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in India Content: Renewable energy in India comes under the purview of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy ( MNRE ) . Newer renewable electricity sources are targeted to grow massively by 2022 , including a more than doubling of India 's large wind power capacity and an almost 15 fold increase in solar power from April 2016 levels . Such ambitious targets would place India amongst the world leaders in renewable energy use and place India at the centre of its International Solar Alliance project promoting the growth and development of solar power internationally to over 120 countries . India was the first country in the world to set up a ministry of non-conventional energy resources , in early 1980s . As of September 30 , 2016 India 's cumulative grid interactive or grid tied renewable energy capacity ( excluding large hydropower ) reached about 50.02 GW . 61 % of the renewable power came from wind , while solar contributed nearly 19 % . Large hydro installed capacity was 44.41 GW as of February 28 , 2017 and is administered separately by the Ministry of Power and not included in MNRE targets . From 2015 onwards the MNRE began laying down actionable plans for the renewable energy sector under its ambit to make a quantum jump , building on strong foundations already established in the country . MNRE renewable electrictricity targets have been upscaled to grow from just under 43 GW in April 2016 to 175 GW by the year 2022 , including 100 GW from solar power , 60 GW from wind power , 10 GW from bio power and 5 GW from small hydro power . The Ministry of Power has announced that no new coal-based capacity addition is required for the 10 years to 2027 beyond the 50 GW under different stages of construction and likely to come online between 2017 and 2022 The ambitious targets would see India quickly becoming one of the leading green energy producers in the world and surpassing numerous developed countries . The government intends to achieve 40 % cumulative electric power capacity from non fossil fuel sources by 2030 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_India", "rank": 46, "score": 104711 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in West Virginia Content: Solar power in West Virginia on rooftops can provide 22.9 % of all electricity used in West Virginia from 6,300 MW of solar panels , but West Virginia will be the last state in the United States to reach grid parity - the point where solar panels are cheaper than grid electricity - without incentives , due to the low cost of electricity - about 6.2 cents / kWh . The point where grid parity is reached is a product of the average insolation and the average cost of electricity . At 6.2 cents / kWh and 4.3 sun hours/day solar panels would need to come down to the neighborhood of $ 1,850 / kW installed to achieve grid parity . The first state in the US to achieve grid parity was Hawaii . Cost , though , is not the only reason to choose solar power . The primary reason is to stop using coal and oil , and switch to renewable sources of energy . There are many disadvantages to using coal as an energy source . Net metering is available continuously to residential consumers generating up to 25 kW and up to 2 MW for industrial users but is limited to 3 % of peak demand the previous year . West Virginia was given an A for net metering and a B for interconnection policies . In addition to the 30 % federal tax credit , West Virginia has a 30 % tax credit , but unlike the federal credit , is limited to $ 2,000 . A $ 7,000 system can therefore be installed for $ 2,900 . In 2012 the largest solar array in West Virginia was the 407 kW array installed on a carport at the American Public University System financial center in Charles Town , which includes 15 charging stations for electric cars .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Solar_power_in_West_Virginia", "rank": 47, "score": 104283 }, { "content": "Title: Lists of renewable energy topics Content: Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale , such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , waves , and geothermal heat . Renewable energy replaces conventional fuels in four distinct areas : electricity generation , air and water heating/cooling , motor fuels , and rural ( off-grid ) energy services . Based on REN21 's 2014 report , renewables contributed 19 percent to our global energy consumption and 22 percent to our electricity generation in 2012 and 2013 , respectively . These are lists about renewable energy : Index of solar energy articles List of books about renewable energy List of concentrating solar thermal power companies List of countries by electricity production from renewable sources List of energy storage projects Lists of environmental topics List of geothermal power stations List of hydroelectric power stations List of largest hydroelectric power stations List of offshore wind farms Lists of offshore wind farms by country Lists of offshore wind farms by water area List of onshore wind farms List of onshore wind farms in the United Kingdom List of people associated with renewable energy List of photovoltaics companies List of photovoltaic power stations List of pioneering solar buildings List of renewable energy companies by stock exchange List of renewable energy organizations List of renewable energy topics by country List of rooftop photovoltaic installations List of solar car teams List of solar powered products List of solar thermal power stations List of U.S. states by electricity production from renewable sources Lists of wind farms by country List of wind farms in Australia List of wind farms in Canada List of wind farms in Iran List of wind farms in Romania List of wind farms in Sweden List of wind farms in the United States List of wind turbine manufacturers", "qid": "383", "docid": "Lists_of_renewable_energy_topics", "rank": 48, "score": 103791 }, { "content": "Title: Duck curve Content: In commercial-scale electricity generation , the duck curve is a graph of power production over the course of a day that shows the timing imbalance between peak demand and renewable energy production . In many energy markets the peak demand occurs after sunset , when solar power is no longer available . In locations where a substantial amount of solar electric capacity has been installed , the amount of power that must be generated from sources other than solar or wind displays a rapid increase around sunset and peaks in the mid-evening hours , producing a graph that resembles the silhouette of a duck . In Hawaii , the more pronounced curve is known as the Nessie Curve . Without any form of energy storage , after times of high solar generation generating companies must rapidly increase power output around the time of sunset to compensate for the loss of solar generation , a major concern for grid operators where there is rapid growth of photovoltaics . Storage can fix these issues if it can be implemented . Flywheels have shown to provide excellent frequency regulation . Short term use batteries , at a large enough scale of use , can help to flatten the duck curve and prevent generator use fluctuation and can help to maintain voltage profile . However , cost is a major limiting factor for energy storage as each technique is expensive to produce at scale and comparatively not energy dense compared to liquid fossil fuels .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Duck_curve", "rank": 49, "score": 103705 }, { "content": "Title: Sunlabob Content: Sunlabob Renewable Energy is a Lao commercial company that provides sustainable renewable solutions to areas that are off the electrical grid . It was licensed in 2001 and its headquarters and base are in Vientiane , the capital of the Lao People 's Democratic Republic . The company operates as a profitable , full-service renewable energy provider selling hardware and providing commercially viable energy services . Besides Laos , Sunlabob also has operations in other parts of the world . In January 2008 , Sunlabob extended its activities to the Kingdom of Thailand through their franchise partner Samui Service Solarpower Ltd. . While the focus in the Lao PDR is more on rural electrification , the market in Thailand is more focused on promoting solar water heating and energy efficiency consulting , both for homes and businesses . In May 2009 after being approached by United States Agency for International Development ( USAID ) , Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development ( ASMED ) , and ( Development Alternatives , Inc. ) DAI , Sunlabob carried out an assessment of the feasibility of the solar lamp project in Afghanistan , taking into account the local human , social and technical constraints . One of the aims was to evaluate whether the Sunlabob approach to financing and establishing franchised SME energy service hubs in small remote villages could be replicated in Afghanistan . In April 2009 , Sunlabob embarked on its first development in Africa . Together with its Ugandan franchise partner , TSSD , Sunlabob visited Ssazi village in Northern Uganda and introduced its Solar Lantern Programme . Sunlabob has partnered with private , public and non-governmental organizations such as engineering company Comin Khmere , the Laos Ministry of Energy and Mines , Electricite du Laos and Engineers Without Borders . It is the winner of the 2008 UNEP Sasakawa Prize and the European Parliament 's 2007 , 2008 and 2009 National Energy Globe Award . Sunlabob is located in Vientiane . In 2007 Sunlabob won an Ashden Award for their work with solar powered lighting . In 2010 , Sunlabob established Sunlabob International Pte Ltd and broadened its international presence in Singapore , principally to enhance marketing and business development operations . In 2012 , Sunlabob won a Best Practice in CSR Award at the World CSR Day held in India . List of awards/prizes : 2012 : Best practice in CSR Award 2010 : Winner Cleantech National Competition in Singapore 2010 : Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship Winner ( Asia Region ) 2009 : National Energy Globe Award 2009 : Asia Forum for Clean Energy Financing Finalist 2008 : UNEP Sasakawa Prize 2008 : Lighting Africa 2008 : National Energy Globe Award 2008 : Tech Awards Laureate 2007 : Ashden Award 2007 : National Energy Globe Award 2006 : World Challenge Finalist 2005 : Development Marketplace ( World Bank ) 2005 : DGS Solar Prize", "qid": "383", "docid": "Sunlabob", "rank": 50, "score": 103507 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the Philippines Content: Renewable energy accounts for 26.44 % of the total electrical energy needs in the Philippines , according to a 2013 survey . Renewable energy sources provided 19,903 gigawatt-hours of electrical energy out of a total need of 75,266 gigawatt-hours in 2013 . There are five main types of renewable energy used in the Philippines , hydropower , geothermal power , wind power , solar power and biomass power . There has been pressure to increase the Philippines ' usage of renewable energy sources in recent years due to the negative effects of fossil fuels -- such as pollution , accelerated climate change and fluctuating prices . A number of laws have been passed by the Philippine Congress to support the use of renewable energy including the Electric Power Industry Reform Act ( 2001 ) , which promotes the use of local and sustainable energy sources to replace imported fossil fuel sources ; the Biofuels Act ( 2006 ) , which encourages the use of biomass fuels ; the Renewable Energy Act ( 2008 ) ; and the Climate Change Act ( 2009 ) , which provides a legal basis for the tackling of climate change through sustainable development . The laws enacted by Congress have resulted in a significant degree of cooperation from private companies producing renewable energy , many of which have contracts with the Philippine Government .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_Philippines", "rank": 51, "score": 103401 }, { "content": "Title: Granite Reliable Wind Farm Content: Granite Reliable Wind Farm is a 99-megawatt wind farm , opened in 2011 in Millsfield and Dixville , New Hampshire , in the northeast United States . Owned by Brookfield Renewable , it is the second major wind-power installation in the state of New Hampshire . Most of the electricity generated will be sold to utilities in Vermont , Central Vermont Public Service and Green Mountain Power . Power from the wind turbines is connected through three 34.5 kV lines to a substation and from there through a 115 kV line . The wind farm was constructed by Madison , Wisconsin-based RMT Inc. . Located in Millsfield and Dixville , in Coos County , it has 33 V90-3 .0 MW Vestas turbines wind turbines , in four sections , with seven wind turbines on Dixville Peak , eight located on Mount Kelsey , six on Owlhead Mountain , and 12 wind turbines along Fishbrook Ridge . It was originally developed by Noble Energy , and sold to Brookfield .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Granite_Reliable_Wind_Farm", "rank": 52, "score": 103304 }, { "content": "Title: Copper in renewable energy Content: Renewable energy sources such as solar , wind , tidal , hydro , biomass , and geothermal have become significant sectors of the energy market . The rapid growth of these sources in the 21st century has been prompted by increasing costs of fossil fuels as well as their negative environmental impacts . While the average capacity of renewable energy sources was only 7 % globally in 2010 , most installation of new capacity has been with renewables . Few new installations were from fossil fuel-based power plants . The trend towards new power capacity by renewables is expected to continue through 2020 . Since renewable energy supplies offset the amount of fossil fuels that need to be combusted in power plants , the use of renewables indirectly helps to reduce CO2 emissions . Hence , renewable energy supplies enable societies to progress towards lower-carbon-based economies . Copper plays an important role in renewable energy systems . Since copper is an excellent thermal and electrical conductor among the engineering metals ( second only to silver ) , power systems that utilize copper generate and transmit energy with high efficiency and with minimum environmental impacts . By using copper instead of other lower electrical energy-efficient metal conductors , less electricity needs to be generated to satisfy a given power demand . This article discusses the role of copper in various renewable energy generation systems .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Copper_in_renewable_energy", "rank": 53, "score": 102765 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Africa Content: The developing nations of Africa are popular locations for the application of renewable energy technology . Currently , many nations already have small-scale solar , wind , and geothermal devices in operation providing energy to urban and rural populations . These types of energy production are especially useful in remote locations because of the excessive cost of transporting electricity from large-scale power plants . The applications of renewable energy technology has the potential to alleviate many of the problems that face Africans every day , especially if done so in a sustainable manner that prioritizes human rights . Access to energy is essential for the reduction of poverty and promotion of economic growth . Communication technologies , education , industrialization , agricultural improvement and expansion of municipal water systems all require abundant , reliable , and cost-effective energy access .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Africa", "rank": 54, "score": 102462 }, { "content": "Title: Intelligent hybrid inverter Content: An intelligent hybrid inverter or smart grid inverter is a trending generation of inverter for solar applications using renewable energy for home consumption , especially for solar photovoltaic installations . Some see this a new technology , however in some parts of the world the application of such products has been around since the 1990 's . Electricity from solar panels is generated only during the day , with peak generation around midday . This electricity is fluctuating and not synchronized with the household 's electricity consumption . To overcome this gap between what is produced and what is consumed during the evening when there is no solar electricity production , it is necessary to store energy for later use and manage energy storage and consumption in an intelligent hybrid ( smart grid ) inverter . With the development of systems that include renewable energy sources and rising electricity prices , private companies and research laboratories have developed smart inverters for synchronizing energy production and consumption .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Intelligent_hybrid_inverter", "rank": 55, "score": 102373 }, { "content": "Title: Electric power industry Content: The electric power industry is the generation , transmission , distribution and sale of electric power to the general public . The electrical industry started with introduction of electric lighting in 1882 . Throughout the 1880s and 1890s , growing economic and safety concerns lead to the regulation of the industry . Once an expensive novelty limited to the most densely populated areas , reliable and economical electric power has become a requirement for normal operation of all elements of developed economies . By the middle of the 20th century , electric power was seen as a `` natural monopoly '' , only efficient if a restricted number of organizations participated in the market ; in some areas , vertically-integrated companies provides all stages from generation to retail , and only governmental supervision regulated the rate of return and cost structure . Since the 1990s , many regions have opened up the generation and distribution of electric power to provide a more competitive electricity market . While such markets can be abusively manipulated with consequent adverse price and reliability impact to consumers , generally competitive production of electrical energy leads to worthwhile improvements in efficiency . However , transmission and distribution are harder problems since returns on investment are not as easy to find . The largest electric power companies in the world that deal with all aspects of production and sales of electric power are :", "qid": "383", "docid": "Electric_power_industry", "rank": 56, "score": 102361 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the United Kingdom Content: Renewable energy in the United Kingdom '' ' can be divided into the generation of renewable electricity , the generation of renewable heat and renewable energy use in the transport sector . From the mid-1990s renewable energy began to contribute to the electricity generated in the United Kingdom , adding to a small hydroelectricity generating capacity . The total of all renewable electricity sources provided for 14.9 % of the electricity generated in the United Kingdom in 2013 , reaching 53.7 TWh of electricity generated . In the second quarter of 2015 , renewable electricity penetration exceeded 25 % and coal generation for the first time . Renewable energy contributions to meeting the UK 's 15 % target reduction in total energy consumption by 2020 , in accordance with the 2009 EU Renewable Directive , totalled 5.2 % in 2013 as measured in accordance with the methodology set out in the Directive . By 2016 provisional calculations show that the figure had risen again to 8.3 per cent of energy consumption ( all sources ) coming from renewable sources in 2015 . Interest in renewable energy in the UK has increased in recent years due to new UK and EU targets for reductions in carbon emissions and the promotion of renewable electricity power generation through commercial incentives such as the Renewable Obligation Certificate scheme ( ROCs ) and Feed in tariffs ( FITs ) and the promotion of renewable heat through the Renewable Heat Incentive . Historically hydroelectric schemes were the largest producers of renewable electricity in the UK , but these have now been surpassed by wind power schemes , for which the UK has large potential resources .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 57, "score": 102171 }, { "content": "Title: Electricity sector in the United Kingdom Content: The electricity sector in the United Kingdom relies mainly on fossil fuelled power and 15-20 % in nuclear power and similar amounts of renewable power . Fossil fuel generator use in general and coal use in particularly is shrinking , with coal generators now only mainly being run in Winter due to pollution and costs . In 2008 nuclear electricity production was 860 kWh pro person . In 2014 , 28.1 TW · h of energy was generated by wind power , which contributed 9.3 % of the UK 's electricity requirement . In 2015 , 40.4 TW · h of energy was generated by wind power , and the quarterly generation record was set in the three-month period from October to December 2015 , with 13 % of the nation 's electricity demand met by wind . 2015 saw 1.2 GW of new wind power capacity brought online , a 9.6 % increase of the total UK installed capacity . The United Kingdom voluntarily ended the use of incandescent lightbulbs in 2011 . Between 2007 and 2012 , the UK 's peak electrical demand has fallen from 61.5 GW to 57.5 GW The use of electricity declined 11 % in 2009 compared to 2004 and respectively . The UK is planning to reform its Electricity Market . It plans to introduce a capacity mechanism and contracts for difference to encourage the building of new generation .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Electricity_sector_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 58, "score": 101868 }, { "content": "Title: Coober Pedy Solar Power Station Content: The Coober Pedy Solar Power Station was planned to be Australia 's largest off-grid solar power station , located at remote Coober Pedy in South Australia 's far north . The project would cost $ 7.1 million and the Australian Government promised providing $ 3.55 million under its Renewable Remote Power Generation program . When completed at the end of 2009 , the power station was to consist of 26 solar dishes , each one 14 metres high , which would track the arc of the sun . The power plant was to generate about 1860 megawatt hours a year , 13 per cent of Coober Pedy 's total electricity requirements . It would cut diesel fuel consumption by up to 520,000 litres a year , saving 1,500 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions . The Government had negotiations with two proponents and failed to convince either of the viability of the project . The project never went ahead .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Coober_Pedy_Solar_Power_Station", "rank": 59, "score": 101403 }, { "content": "Title: Unified Smart Grid Content: Unified National Smart Grid as well as Unified Solar is a proposal for a United States wide area grid that is a national interconnected network relying on a high capacity backbone of electric power transmission lines linking all the nation 's local electrical networks that have been upgraded to smart grids . Europe 's analogous project is sometimes referred to as the SuperSmart Grid , a term that also appears in the literature describing the Unified Smart Grid . President Barack Obama asked the United States Congress `` to act without delay '' to pass legislation that included doubling renewable energy production in the next three years and building a new electricity `` smart grid '' .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Unified_Smart_Grid", "rank": 60, "score": 101297 }, { "content": "Title: List of books about renewable energy Content: This is a bibliography of renewable energy . Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , and geothermal heat , which are renewable ( naturally replenished ) . About 16 % of global final energy consumption comes from renewables , with 10 % coming from traditional biomass , which is mainly used for heating , and 3.4 % from hydroelectricity . New renewables ( small hydro , modern biomass , wind , solar , geothermal , and biofuels ) account for another 3 % and are growing very rapidly . Total investment in renewable energy reached $ 244 billion in 2012 . The top countries for investment in recent years were China , Germany , Spain , the United States , Italy , and Brazil . Leading renewable energy companies include BrightSource Energy , Enercon , First Solar , Gamesa , GE Energy , Goldwind , Nordex , Sinovel , Suntech , Trina Solar , Vestas and Yingli .", "qid": "383", "docid": "List_of_books_about_renewable_energy", "rank": 61, "score": 101219 }, { "content": "Title: Wind turbine prognostics Content: The growing demand for renewable energy has spurred global adoption and expansion of wind turbine technology . To increase energy capacity for existing and future wind farm projects , prognostics and health management ( PHM ) techniques are considered as a critical approach , whose functionality to diagnose and prognose system degradation and failure is capable to enhance reliability and reduce downtime .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Wind_turbine_prognostics", "rank": 62, "score": 101201 }, { "content": "Title: Green certificate Content: A Green Certificate - terminology predominantly used in Europe but now becoming more widespread globally - are a tradable commodity proving that certain electricity is generated using renewable energy sources . Typically one certificate represents generation of 1 Megawatthour of electricity . What is defined as `` renewable '' varies from certificate trading scheme to trading scheme . Usually , at least the following sources are considered as renewable : Wind ( often further divided into onshore and offshore ) Solar ( often further divided into photovoltaic and thermal ) Wave ( often further divided into onshore and offshore ) and tidal ( often further divided into onshore and offshore ) Geothermal Hydro ( often further divided into small - microhydro - and large ) Biomass ( mainly biofuels , often further divided by actual fuel used ) . Green certificates represent the environmental value of renewable energy generated . The certificates can be traded separately from the energy produced . Several countries use green certificates as a mean to make the support of green electricity generation closer to a market economy instead of more bureaucratic investment support and feed-in tariffs . Such national trading schemes are in use in e.g. Poland , Sweden , the UK , Italy , Belgium ( Wallonia and Flanders ) , and some US states . Once in the grid , renewable energy is impossible to separate from the conventionally generated energy . This makes purchasing of a green certificate equal to purchasing a claim , that the certificate owner consumed energy from the renewable portion of the whole energy in the grid . Therefore certificate purchase does not affect how much renewable energy was actually generated - only how it was distributed . In contrast to CO2e-Reduction certificates , e.g. AAU 's or CER 's under the UNFCC , which can be exchanged worldwide , Green Certificates can not be exchanged/traded between e.g. Belgium and Italy , let alone the USA and the EU member States .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Green_certificate", "rank": 63, "score": 101124 }, { "content": "Title: CleanPowerSF Content: CleanPowerSF is the City and County of San Francisco 's Community Choice Aggregation ( CCA ) program , whose purpose is to significantly increase the proportion of electrical energy supplied to the San Francisco electrical grid from local renewable sources , decrease San Francisco 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , and help combat global climate change , while meeting or exceeding California 's Renewable Portfolio Standard ( RPS ) . The RPS requires that 33 % of energy supplied by `` investor-owned utilities , electric service providers , and community choice aggregators '' should be from eligible renewable sources by 2020 . CleanPowerSF is administered by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission ( SFPUC ) and monitored by the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission ( LAFCo ) , which is currently chaired by Supervisor John Avalos . San Francisco 's electricity supplier , Pacific Gas & Electric ( PG&E ) , is on track but has not yet met California RPS requirements . In 2008 , the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a goal of a GHG-free electric system by 2030 . The city has the Electricity Resource Plan to generate , deploy and procure all of its energy from renewable , zero-GHG electric energy sources . The report identified a strong CleanPowerSF as an important part of that change .", "qid": "383", "docid": "CleanPowerSF", "rank": 64, "score": 100849 }, { "content": "Title: California Proposition 7 (2008) Content: California Proposition 7 , would have required California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025 . In order to make that goal , levels of production of solar , wind and other renewable energy resources would more than quadruple from their current output of 10.9 % . It would also require California utilities to increase their purchase of electricity generated from renewable resources by 2 % annually to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard ( RPS ) requirements of 40 % in 2020 and 50 % in 2025 . Current law AB32 requires an RPS of 20 % by 2010 . The 42 page measure , 7 pages of which is new law , is an initiated state statute that had qualified for the November 2008 ballot in California , and was disapproved by voters on November 4 of that year .", "qid": "383", "docid": "California_Proposition_7_(2008)", "rank": 65, "score": 99989 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in South Australia Content: South Australia 's renewable energy infrastructure and capacity has grown due the completion of many wind projects and a gross feed in tariff : `` Electricity ( Feed-In Scheme-Solar Systems ) Amendment Bill 2008 '' , which lasts until June 2028 . Normal tariff for electricity : $ 0.22 / kWh Feed-in tariff : $ 0.44 / kWh .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_South_Australia", "rank": 66, "score": 99759 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean Renewable Power Company Content: Ocean Renewable Power Company ( ORPC ) is a tidal energy company based in Portland , Maine . The company develops new technologies to produce hydrokinetic electric power from tidal , river , and ocean currents . It completed an eight-month pilot project to generate energy using the technology in 2013 . After five years of planning , the company installed an underwater turbine to use the tides to generate clean , renewable energy . The unit is nearly 100 feet long and sixty feet below the water 's surface . The project , located in Cobscook Bay , on the west side of Eastport , Maine transmitted the first electricity ever delivered to an electricity grid from an ocean resource in North or South America . The only comparable project uses a dam in Nova Scotia . ORPC completed an eight-month pilot project to generate energy from its Cobscook Bay project . The turbines are a cross-flow design in which the axis of rotation is perpendicular to the flow of water and shaped like stretched out and twisted water wheels and work on the same principle : as the tide comes and goes the turbine spins , generating electricity , which is then transmitted through a buried power cable to a small on shore station . And from there it is fed to the public electrical grid . The equipment 's below water . There are marker buoys for the project area . The technology does n't just apply to tidal , it applies to river and offshore ocean currents , such as the Gulf Stream . It is a $ 21 million project funded almost equally between private and public sources . The Energy Department invested $ 10 million in it . It produces enough electricity for 25 homes . Said Jose Zayas , director of the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office at the Department of Energy , `` These first pioneering projects are complicated ( and ) really breaking new ground . '' Said Paul Jacobson , an ocean energy expert at the Palo Alto , Calif.-based Electric Power Research Institute . `` With this project , these tidal power devices have finally crossed the threshold into commercial development . '' ORPC pursued and won the first contract with the Maine Public Utilities Commission to provide up to 5 megawatts of tidal power . ORPC will receive 21.5 cents per kilowatt hour produced , which is higher than the fluctuating price paid to producers on the open electricity market . They determined that the economic benefits that would accrue to the state would be a factor of 1.8 , meaning more money would be returned to the Maine economy through jobs and taxes than was being invested in the higher rate paid . Maine 's state senate president , Kevin Raye , described the deal as major milestone `` in the 80-year effort to commercially harness the vast power of the tides '' . ORPC plans to deploy additional TidGens at the 60-acre site in Cobscook Bay . The project will come online in phases .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Ocean_Renewable_Power_Company", "rank": 67, "score": 99581 }, { "content": "Title: Sistema Eléctrico de Aysén Content: The Sistema Eléctrico de Aysén ( SEA ) ( Spanish for Electric System of Aysén ) is an alternating current power grid serving the Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region of Chile . It is operated by a private company called EDELAYSEN , whose motto is La Luz del Sur ( Spanish for The Light of the South ) . ` Of the four main electric grids in Chile , the SEA has the largest share of renewable energy ; constituted by 54.2 % thermoelectric , 41.7 % hydroelectric , and 4.1 % wind power . ' The SEA has three wind turbines which collectively produce 2 MW . '' '' Despite being amongst the four largest grids in Chile , the SEA accounts for only 0.3 % of the national coverage , powering approximately 26,000 homes and supplying approximately 105.7 GWh . As of November , 2010 , it had a total installed capacity of 50 MW ( gross )", "qid": "383", "docid": "Sistema_Eléctrico_de_Aysén", "rank": 68, "score": 99103 }, { "content": "Title: Alberta electricity policy Content: In 1996 , Alberta began to restructure its electricity market away from traditional regulation to a market-based system . The market now includes a host of buyers and sellers , and an increasingly diverse infrastructure . Consumers range from residential buyers to huge industrial consumers mining the oil sands , operating pipelines and milling forest products . On the supply side , generators range from wind farms east of Crowsnest Pass to huge coal-fired plants near Edmonton . The diversity of Alberta 's electricity supply has increased substantially . To a large extent because of deregulation , the province has more technology , fuels , locations , ownership , and maintenance diversity than in the past . The system 's reliability , its cost structure and Alberta 's collective exposure to risk are now met by a complex system based on diverse power sources , mainly coal and natural gas , with some wind and hydroelectric energy sources .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Alberta_electricity_policy", "rank": 69, "score": 98951 }, { "content": "Title: Sault Ste. Marie Solar Park Content: The Sault Ste. Marie Solar Park near Sault Ste. Marie , Ontario , Canada , in 2011 became Canada 's second largest photovoltaic plant with an installed capacity of 68 MWp . In 2009 , Ontario introduced a feed-in tariff for renewable energy payments program paying up to CDN 44.3 cents per kilowatt-hour ( kW · h ) for large ground arrays such as Sault Ste. Marie . This makes Ontario 's one of the top feed in tariff programs in the world . All of the power produced will be sold for CDN 42 cents per kW · h for the first 20 years . Consisting of six 10 MW Ac projects , the first two were completed , by the POD Generating Group , in October , 2010 , the Baseline Road Facility on the west side of the city , also known as SSM1 , using 87,000 Q.BASE modules from Q-Cells . The project was acquired by Starwood Energy , in June , 2010 . The remainder of the project was completed by Q-Cells . SSM2 is 30 MW Ac , and SSM3 is 10 MW Ac , both near Black Road on the east side of Sault Ste Marie . The total electricity peak demand for Sault Ste. Marie is 90-100 MW in summer and 140-150 MW in winter . The instantaneous demand is displayed on the SSM PUC website . The project was completed in 2011 , with about 270,000 panels . Energy generated from each of the three stations will be sold to SSM PUC through 20 year Power Purchase Agreements using Ontario Power Authority 's Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program . 8 km northwest is the Prince Township Wind Farm , Canada 's 3rd largest wind farm , rated at 189 MW , which along with 203 MW of hydroelectricity , further makes Sault Ste. Marie a green city .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Sault_Ste._Marie_Solar_Park", "rank": 70, "score": 98839 }, { "content": "Title: Energy for All Content: Energy for All is the name of an initiative and partnership , both founded by the Asian Development Bank ( ADB ) , to reduce energy poverty in Asia and the Pacific . The initiative aims to develop approaches for providing access to reliable and affordable energy services , and to scale them up . This includes household access to electricity from renewable energy technologies such as micro-hydro , solar , biomass , and small wind power , as well as access to clean cooking fuel , such as LPG or biogas from livestock manure . The partnership was created to allow entities from different sectors in the region to cooperate . Its stated goal is to provide access to energy to 100 million people in the region by 2015 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Energy_for_All", "rank": 71, "score": 98816 }, { "content": "Title: Decarbonisation measures in proposed UK electricity market reform Content: The United Kingdom is committed to legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets of 34 % by 2020 and 80 % by 2050 , compared to 1990 levels , as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 . DECC ( 2008 ) . Climate Change Act . Decarbonisation of electricity generation will form a major part of this reduction and is essential before other sectors of the economy can be successfully decarbonised.DECC ( 2011a ) . Planning Our Electric Future : A White Paper for Secure , Affordable and Low-Carbon Electricity . The Government 's proposals for electricity market reform , published in a White Paper in July 2011 , included three initiatives to encourage decarbonisation of electricity generation in the UK : A Carbon Price Floor to complement the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) ; Feed-in tariffs which will eventually replace the Renewables Obligation ; and an Emissions Performance Standard to restrict future use of the most carbon intensive forms of generation . In implementing these proposals , the Government aims to attract investment in low-carbon generation , deliver security of supply through an appropriate mix of electricity sources and ensure a minimum amount of impact on consumer bills ; all this at a time when security of supply is threatened by scheduled closures of existing plants and both the demand for , and subsequently the price of , electricity is increasing .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Decarbonisation_measures_in_proposed_UK_electricity_market_reform", "rank": 72, "score": 98422 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable electricity in New Zealand Content: Renewable electricity in New Zealand is primarily from hydropower . In 2015 , 83 % of the electricity generated in New Zealand came from renewable sources . In September 2007 , former Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a national target of 90 % renewable electricity by 2025 , with wind energy to make up much of that increase . The resource consent process has favoured non-renewable energy projects . This century , thermal projects have received consents ( Rodney , Stratford ) while several renewable energy projects have had consent applications declined ( Awhitu , Mokau hydro , Mount Cass , Project Hayes , Te Waka , Waitahora ) .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_electricity_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 73, "score": 98407 }, { "content": "Title: Electricity sector in China Content: China 's electric power industry is the world 's largest electricity consumer , passing the United States in 2011 after rapid growth since the early 1990s . Most of the electricity comes from coal which accounted for an estimated 73 % of domestic electricity production in 2014 . Coal-fired electricity production has declined since 2013 coinciding with a major boom in renewable energy . China currently lacks a single national grid . There are currently 6 wide area synchronous grids . The lack of a single grid frequently creates power shortages . China has abundant energy with the world 's third-largest coal reserves and massive hydroelectric resources . There is however a geographical mismatch between the location of the coal fields in the north-east ( Heilongjiang , Jilin , and Liaoning ) and north ( Shanxi , Shaanxi , and Henan ) , hydropower in the south-west ( Sichuan , Yunnan , and Tibet ) , and the fast-growing industrial load centers of the east ( Shanghai-Zhejiang ) and south ( Guangdong , Fujian ) .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Electricity_sector_in_China", "rank": 74, "score": 98406 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the United States Content: Renewable energy in the United States accounted for 13.44 percent of the domestically produced electricity in 2015 , and 11.1 percent of total energy generation . As of 2016 , more than 260,000 people work in the solar industry and 43 states deploy net metering , where energy utilities buy back excess power generated by solar arrays . Renewable energy reached a major milestone in the first quarter of 2011 , when it contributed 11.7 percent of total U.S. energy production ( 2.245 quadrillion BTU of energy ) , surpassing energy production from nuclear power ( 2.125 quadrillion BTU ) . 2011 was the first year since 1997 that renewables exceeded nuclear in US total energy production . Hydroelectric power is currently the largest producer of renewable power in the U.S. . It produced around 6.14 % of the nation 's total electricity in 2015 which was 45.71 % of the total renewable power in the U.S. . The United States is the fourth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world after China , Canada and Brazil . The Grand Coulee Dam is the 5th largest hydroelectric power station in the world . U.S. wind power installed capacity now exceeds 72,000 MW and supplies 4.1 % of the nation 's electricity . Texas is firmly established as the leader in wind power development , followed by Iowa and California . Since the U.S. pioneered the technology in 1981 with Solar One , several solar thermal power stations have also been built . The largest of these solar thermal power stations are the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility ( 392 MW ) , southwest of Las Vegas , and the SEGS group of plants in the Mojave Desert , with a total generating capacity of 354 MW . Large photovoltaic power plants in the USA include Solar Star ( 579 MW ) , near Rosamond , California , the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm , a 550 MW solar power plant in Riverside County , California and the Topaz Solar Farm , a 550 MW photovoltaic power plant , in San Luis Obispo County , California . The Geysers in Northern California is the largest complex of geothermal energy production in the world . The development of renewable energy and energy efficiency marks `` a new era of energy exploration '' in the United States , according to President Barack Obama . In a joint address to the Congress on February 24 , 2009 , President Obama called for doubling renewable energy within the next three years . In his 2012 State of the Union address , President Barack Obama restated his commitment to renewable energy and mentioned the long-standing Interior Department commitment to permit 10,000 MW of renewable energy projects on public land in 2012 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_United_States", "rank": 75, "score": 98366 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Turkey Content: Turkey is one of the richest country in the world in terms of renewable resources . For geothermal energy Turkey is ranked first in Europe and seventh in the world . Installed capacity of wind energy in Turkey is increasing rapidly from 20MW in 2002 to 4503MW in 2015 . Turkey has a national renewable energy action plan , published in 2014 by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources . Turkey 's renewable energy capacity of 24 gigawatts in 2013 is projected to reach 39 gigawatts in 2020 . Solar energy potential in Turkey is 977,000 ( TWh/year ) from which 6105 ( TWh/year ) is technically possible . However due to the high price of the solar energy only 305 ( TWh/year ) is economic potential.Wind energy technical potential is 290 TWh/year . Technical potential of hydraulic energy is 216 TWh/year and economical potential is 127.4 TWh/year . The World Bank has announced a credit line of $ 350 million to support the financing of renewable energy projects in Turkey . Grid parity for solar is forecast for 2018 and for onshore wind 2019 . Biomass is also one of the major resources for the renewable energy in Turkey , yearly biomass economical potential of the Turkeyis 8.6 mtoe/year .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Turkey", "rank": 76, "score": 98360 }, { "content": "Title: Smart Grid Energy Research Center Content: The UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center ( SMERC ) , located on the University of California Los Angeles ( UCLA ) campus , is an organization focused on developing the next generation of technologies and innovation for the SmartGrid . Partnerships with government , technology providers , DOE research labs and universities , utilities , policy makers , and electric vehicle and appliance manufacturers provide SMERC with diverse capabilities and exceptional , matured leadership . The organizations ever-growing developments are created with the intention to satisfy the Smart Grid by allowing an increase in grid flexibility , integration of renewable energy sources , competitive energy pricing , improved efficiencies , and reduce power outages and losses . Overall SMERC 's developments will provide a service by being more responsive to the market , consumer , and society in general . Currently , SMERC is performing research on Microgrids , Automated Demand Response , Electric Vehicle Integration ( G2V and V2g ) , Cybersecurity , and Distributed and renewable integration . All technology and research is being developed and collected at UCLA 's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science by a team of well experienced staff and the school 's graduate students . SMERC has collaborations with USC and Caltech/JPL , LADWP in a smart grid demonstration project . Internationally , SMERC has connected with the Korea Institute of Energy Research ( KIER ) . `` The partnership involves SMERC testing for the development of the software and platform involved in smart grid technology , while KIER focuses on various renewable energy technologies , such as solar , wind and fuel cells , as well as wireless communications and semiconductor systems . ''", "qid": "383", "docid": "Smart_Grid_Energy_Research_Center", "rank": 77, "score": 98224 }, { "content": "Title: Geothermal power in New Zealand Content: Geothermal power in New Zealand is a small but significant part of the energy generation capacity of the country , providing approximately 13 % of the country 's electricity with installed capacity of 854 MW . New Zealand , like only a small number of other countries worldwide , has numerous geothermal sites that could be developed for exploitation , and also boasts some of the earliest large-scale use of geothermal energy in the world . Geothermal energy has been described as New Zealand 's most reliable renewable energy source , above wind , solar and even hydroelectricity , due to its lack of dependence on the weather . It has also been described as the currently ( 2000s and 2010s ) most attractive new source of energy for New Zealand , as petrochemical fuel prices rise and easy hydro power sites have been tapped - though some warn that the easier geothermal sites now have also been built on , making future large-scale projects more cost-intensive .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Geothermal_power_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 78, "score": 98213 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy credit Content: A Renewable energy credit ( REC ) is any tax credit offered by a local or federal taxation authority as an incentive for the installation and operation of renewable energy systems such as solar or wind power . In the United States , as part of the new economic stimulus package , new renewable Energy Rebate Programs are in place . Residential and commercial customers may receive a lump sum cash rebate or , for larger systems , a five-year payback program from their local utility company . In addition , there is new 30 % uncapped federal tax credit and state tax credits around 10 % . Renewable Energy Credit is one of two main outputs or benefits from generation of new power from renewable sources . Renewable power generation creates actual power in the form of electricity , and environmental benefits to society from `` green '' power production -- such as minimizing pollution and slowing the rate finite fuel resources are used . The actual power is sold into the local grid , and the societal benefits are sold in the form of Renewable Energy Credits or `` RECs '' , sold separately as a commodity into the marketplace . While RECs are not actually a measure of power , each REC represents one megawatt hour ( MWh ) of renewable-generated energy . For each REC purchased the customer is able to claim the equivalent MWh of energy reduction as on offset to their conventional energy use . Opponents declare that by using RECs a customer can claim energy `` reduction '' even if they do not actually reduce their end-use at all - or even increase it . Proponents counter that more REC purchases drive increased production of renewable power which can replace conventional production .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_credit", "rank": 79, "score": 98192 }, { "content": "Title: EU Directive on Electricity Production from Renewable Energy Sources 2001/77/EC Content: The Directive on Electricity Production from Renewable Energy Sources 2001/77/EC is a European Union Directive for promoting renewable energy use in electricity generation . It is popularly known as the RES Directive . The directive , which took effect in October 2001 , sets national indicative targets for renewable energy production from individual member states . As the name implies , the EU does not strictly enforce these targets . However , The European Commission monitors the progress of the member states of the European Union -- and will , if necessary , propose mandatory targets for those who miss their goals . These objectives contribute toward achieving the overall indicative EU targets , which are listed in the white paper on renewable sources of energy . Regulators want a 12 % share of gross renewable domestic energy consumption by 2010 and a 20 % share by 2020 . The directive was superseded by Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC , published on 23April 2009 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "EU_Directive_on_Electricity_Production_from_Renewable_Energy_Sources_2001/77/EC", "rank": 80, "score": 97614 }, { "content": "Title: Financial incentives for photovoltaics Content: Financial incentives for photovoltaics are incentives offered to electricity consumers to install and operate solar-electric generating systems , also known as photovoltaics ( PV ) . A government may offer incentives in order to encourage the PV industry to achieve the economies of scale needed to compete where the cost of PV-generated electricity is above the cost from the existing grid . Such policies are implemented to promote national or territorial energy independence , high tech job creation and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions which cause climate change . When , in a given country or territory , the cost of solar electricity falls to meet the rising cost of grid electricity , then ` grid parity ' is reached , and in principle incentives are no longer needed . In some places , the price of electricity varies as a function of time and day ( due to demand variations ) . In places where high demand ( and high electricity prices ) coincide with high sunshine ( usually hot places with air conditioning ) then grid parity is reached before the cost solar electricity meets the average price of grid electricity .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Financial_incentives_for_photovoltaics", "rank": 81, "score": 97602 }, { "content": "Title: Energy in Rwanda Content: Energy use in Rwanda is undergoing rapid change at the beginning of the 21st century . The extent of grid electricity is limited and mainly concentrated near Kigali . Most of the country uses firewood as its main energy source . With its limited electrical infrastructure , Rwanda has a very high degree of renewable energy usage . Most of the country 's electricity comes from hydropower . Solar power produces over 7 % of electricity in the country . The country is in the midst of a rapid expansion of its electrical grid and many new plants are proposed or under construction . Rwanda is planning to expand from 45 MW of grid power in 2006 to 563 MW in 2018 and may import as much as an additional 450 MW from neighboring countries . In addition , it is installing small solar units throughout the country to ensure electricity to buildings not connected to the national grid , or to help deal with power outages . Currently , the government plans to bring electricity access to 70 % of the population by 2018 , as opposed to 22 % in December 2014 . Biomass is the most important energy source utilized through firewood and agricultural waste for cooking . In 2014 , this represented 85 % of Rwanda 's energy use . Peat from peat marshes in southwestern Rwanda will power two electrical plants . The first 15MW plant is expected online in 2015 with the second , a 80MW plant , expected in 2017 . Petroleum , mainly for transportation , represented 11 % of Rwanda 's power in 2014 . Although Rwanda is thought to have crude oil and natural gas reserves near Lake Kivu , as of 2014 , there was no production of these resources and demand was met by imports . KivuWatt project is an energy project to extract natural gas dissolved in Lake Kivu and use the extracted gas to generate electricity . In 2016 , the operational 25MW power plant is able to provide enough energy for 45,000 people in Rwanda . The ongoing expansion project is expected to add 26MW of generating capacity in its first phase , and eventually scale up to 100MW in the coming years . The Kenya -- Uganda -- Rwanda Petroleum Products Pipeline would transport oil between these countries if it is built . Electrical production accounted for 4 % of energy use in the country in 2014 , with 53 % of electricity generated by hydropower . At the beginning of 2015 , Rwanda 's grid-connected power plants supplied 154MW . The use of off-grid solar power has increased as solar panel prices have fallen and many areas do not expect grid connections in the near future . The first utility-scale solar farm in Sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa is the 8.5 MW plant at Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village , in the Rwamagana District , Eastern Province of Rwanda . It leased 20 hectare of land from the village which is a charity to house and educate Rwandan genocide victims . The plant uses 28,360 photovoltaic panels and produces 6 % of total electrical supply of the country . The project was built with U.S. , Israeli , Dutch , Norwegian , Finnish and UK funding and expertise .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Energy_in_Rwanda", "rank": 82, "score": 97496 }, { "content": "Title: Mandatory renewable energy target Content: Mandatory renewable energy targets are part of government legislated schemes which require electricity retailers to source specific proportions of total electricity sales from renewable energy sources according to a fixed time frame . The purpose of these schemes is to promote renewable energy and reduce dependency on fossil fuels . If this results in an additional cost of electricity , the additional cost is distributed across most customers by increases in other tariffs . The cost of this measure is therefore not funded by government budgets , except for costs of establishing and monitoring the scheme and any audit and enforcement actions . As the cost of renewable energy has become cheaper than other sources , meeting and exceeding a renewable energy target will also reduce the cost of electricity to consumers . At least 67 countries have renewable energy policy targets of some type . In Europe , 28 European Union members states and 8 Energy Community Contracting Parties have legally binding renewable energy targets . The EU baseline target is 20 % by 2020 , while the United States also has a national RET of 20 % . Similarly , Canada has 9 provincial RETs but no national target . Targets are typically for shares of electricity production , but some are defined as by primary energy supply , installed capacity , or otherwise . While some targets are based on 2010-2012 data , many are now for 2020 , which ties in with the IPCC suggested greenhouse gas emission cuts of 25 to 40 % by Annex I countries by 2020 , although some are for 2025 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Mandatory_renewable_energy_target", "rank": 83, "score": 97443 }, { "content": "Title: Energiewende in Germany Content: The Energiewende ( German for energy transition ) is the transition by Germany to a low carbon , environmentally sound , reliable , and affordable energy supply . The new system will rely heavily on renewable energy ( particularly wind , photovoltaics , and hydroelectricity ) , energy efficiency , and energy demand management . Most if not all existing coal-fired generation will need to be retired . The phase-out of Germany 's fleet of nuclear reactors , to be complete by 2022 , is a key part of the program . Legislative support for the Energiewende was passed in late 2010 and includes greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reductions of 80 -- 95 % by 2050 ( relative to 1990 ) and a renewable energy target of 60 % by 2050 . These targets are ambitious . The Berlin-based policy institute Agora Energiewende noted that `` while the German approach is not unique worldwide , the speed and scope of the Energiewende are exceptional '' . The Energiewende also seeks a greater transparency in relation to national energy policy formation . Germany has made significant progress on its GHG emissions reduction target , achieving a 27 % decrease between 1990 and 2014 . However Germany will need to maintain an average GHG emissions abatement rate of 3.5 % per annum to reach its Energiewende goal , equal to the maximum historical value thus far . Germany spends $ 1.5 billion per annum on energy research ( 2013 figure ) in an effort to solve the technical and social issues raised by the transition . This includes a number of computer studies that have confirmed the feasibility and a similar cost ( relative to business-as-usual and given that carbon is adequately priced ) of the Energiewende . The term Energiewende is regularly used in English language publications without being translated ( a loanword ) .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Energiewende_in_Germany", "rank": 84, "score": 97364 }, { "content": "Title: Electric Reliability Council of Texas Content: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas ( ERCOT ) manages the flow of electric power on the Texas Interconnection that supplies power to 24 million Texas customers -- representing 85 percent of the state 's electric load . ERCOT is the first independent system operator ( ISO ) in the United States and one of nine ISOs in North America . ERCOT works with the Texas Reliability Entity ( TRE ) , one of eight regional entities within the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ( NERC ) that coordinate to improve reliability of the bulk power grid . As the ISO for the region , ERCOT dispatches power on an electric grid that connects 40,500 miles of transmission lines and more than 550 generation units . ERCOT also performs financial settlements for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for 6.7 million premises in competitive choice areas . ERCOT is a membership-based 501 ( c ) ( 4 ) nonprofit corporation , governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas ( PUC ) and the Texas Legislature . ERCOT 's members include consumers , electric cooperatives , generators , power marketers , retail electric providers , investor-owned electric utilities ( transmission and distribution providers ) , and municipally owned electric utilities . Power demands in the ERCOT region are highest in summer , primarily due to air conditioning use in homes and businesses . The ERCOT region 's all-time record peak hour occurred on August 10 , 2015 , when consumer demand hit 69,877 MW . A megawatt of electricity can power about 200 Texas homes during periods of peak demand .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Electric_Reliability_Council_of_Texas", "rank": 85, "score": 97341 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Brazil Content: Renewable energy in Brazil accounted for more than 85.4 % of the domestically produced electricity used in Brazil , according to data from the 2009 National Energy Balance , conducted by the Energy Research Corporation ( EPE ) . After the oil shocks of the 1970s , Brazil started focusing on developing alternative sources of energy , mainly sugarcane ethanol . Its large sugarcane farms helped . In 1985 , 91 % of cars produced that year ran on sugarcane ethanol . The success of flexible-fuel vehicles , introduced in 2003 , together with the mandatory E25 blend throughout the country , have allowed ethanol fuel consumption in the country to achieve a 50 % market share of the gasoline-powered fleet by February 2008 . Brazil held its first wind-only energy auction in 2009 , in a move to diversify its energy portfolio . Foreign companies scrambled to take part . In January 2015 , a drought in Brazil that cut water to the country 's hydroelectric dams prompted severe energy shortages . The crisis , which ravaged the country 's economy and led to electricity rationing , underscored Brazil 's pressing need to diversify away from water power . The bidding is expected to lead to the construction of two gigawatts of wind production with an investment of about US$ 6 billion over the next two years . Brazil counts on hydroelectricity for more than 3/4 of its electricity , but authorities are pushing biomass and wind as primary alternatives . Wind energy 's greatest potential in Brazil is during the dry season , so it is considered a hedge against low rainfall and the geographical spread of existing hydro resources . Brazil 's technical potential for wind energy is 143 gigawatts due to the country 's blustery 7,400-km coastline , where most projects are based . The Brazilian Wind Energy Association and the government have set a goal of achieving 20 gigawatts of wind energy capacity by 2020 from the current 5 gigawatts ( 2014 ) . The industry hopes the auction will help kick-start the wind-energy sector , which already accounts for 70 % of the total in all of Latin America .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Brazil", "rank": 86, "score": 97148 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Mexico Content: Renewable energy in Mexico contributes to 26 percent of electricity generation in Mexico . As of 2009 , electricity generation from renewable energy comes from hydro power , geothermal , solar power and wind . There is a long term effort established to increase the use of renewable energy sources . The amount of geothermal energy used and harvested , places Mexico as number four in the world . As one of the leading countries in renewable energy , more specifically , geothermal placing Mexico as the 4th ranked country in the world . As the importance of clean sustainable energy becomes more prevalent , the country and government officials continue to invest in research and innovations to continue to allow Mexico to be a leading example of renewable energy . Predictions based on current energy standings lead the country to anticipate by the year 2035 , the 26 percent renewable energy in Mexico will rise to 35 percent . Not only will this prove a more sustainable future it also increases jobs in rural areas . Jobs increased by 14 percent within the last 8 years in the renewable energy sector . With the objection to create more in home jobs for residents of Mexico , an increase in sustainable energy , results in a lower demand for conventional fuels such as fuel oil , petrol gas , coal and natural gas . With a lower demand on these fuels , mainly gasoline and diesel and on the rise jet fuel , this will result in a lower need for imports . With relying on fewer imports , national security is higher .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Mexico", "rank": 87, "score": 96974 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable heat Content: Renewable heat is an application of renewable energy and it refers to the renewable generation of heat , rather than electrical power ( e.g. replacing a fossil fuel boiler using concentrating solar thermal to feed radiators ) . Renewable heat technologies include renewable biofuels , solar heating , geothermal heating , heat pumps and heat exchangers to recover lost heat . Significant attention is also applied to insulation . Many colder countries consume more energy for heating than electrical power . For example , in 2005 the United Kingdom consumed 354 TWh of electric power , but had a heat requirement of 907 TWh , the majority of which ( 81 % ) was met using gas . The residential sector alone consumed a massive 550 TWh of energy for heating , mainly in the form of gas . Almost half of the final energy consumed in the UK ( 49 % ) was in the form of heat , of which 70 % was used by households and in commercial and public buildings . Households used heat mainly for space heating ( 69 % ) and heating water . The relative competitiveness of renewable electricity and renewable heat depends on a nation 's approach to energy and environment policy . Few renewable technologies ( whether for heat , electricity or transport ) are competitive with fossil fuels without some form of carbon valuation or subsidy . In those countries , such as Sweden , Denmark and Finland , where government intervention has been closest to a technology-neutral form of carbon valuation ( i.e. carbon and energy taxes ) , renewable heat has played the leading role in a very substantial renewable contribution to final energy consumption . In those countries , such as Germany , Spain , the USA , and the UK , where government intervention has been set at different levels for different technologies , uses and scales , the contributions of renewable heat and renewable electricity technologies have depended on the relative levels of support , and have resulted generally in a lower renewable contribution to final energy consumption .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_heat", "rank": 88, "score": 96883 }, { "content": "Title: NERC Tag Content: A NERC Tag , also commonly referred to as an E-Tag , represents a transaction on the North American bulk electricity market scheduled to flow within , between or across electric utility company territories . The NERC Tag is named for the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ( NERC ) , which is the entity that was responsible for the implementation of the first energy tagging processes . NERC Tags were first introduced in 1997 , in response to the need to track the increasingly complicated energy transactions which were produced as a result of the beginning of electric deregulation in North America .", "qid": "383", "docid": "NERC_Tag", "rank": 89, "score": 96862 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Systems Content: The RES Group ( Renewable Energy Systems ) is a global renewable energy company which has been active in the renewable energy industry for over 30 years . Its core business is to develop , construct and operate large-scale , grid-connected renewable energy projects worldwide for commercial , industrial and utility clients ' . RES is active in the wind ( onshore and offshore wind ) and solar energy sectors and is increasingly focussed on the transition to a low-carbon economy providing transmission , energy storage and demand side management expertise .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Systems", "rank": 90, "score": 96765 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy commercialization Content: Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years . First-generation technologies , which are already mature and economically competitive , include biomass , hydroelectricity , geothermal power and heat . Second-generation technologies are market-ready and are being deployed at the present time ; they include solar heating , photovoltaics , wind power , solar thermal power stations , and modern forms of bioenergy . Third-generation technologies require continued R&D efforts in order to make large contributions on a global scale and include advanced biomass gasification , hot-dry-rock geothermal power , and ocean energy . As of 2012 , renewable energy accounts for about half of new nameplate electrical capacity installed and costs are continuing to fall . Public policy and political leadership helps to `` level the playing field '' and drive the wider acceptance of renewable energy technologies . Countries such as Germany , Denmark , and Spain have led the way in implementing innovative policies which has driven most of the growth over the past decade . As of 2014 , Germany has a commitment to the `` Energiewende '' transition to a sustainable energy economy , and Denmark has a commitment to 100 % renewable energy by 2050 . There are now 144 countries with renewable energy policy targets . Renewable energy continued its rapid growth in 2015 , providing multiple benefits . There was a new record set for installed wind and photovoltaic capacity ( 64GW and 57GW ) and a new high of US$ 329 Billion for global renewables investment . A key benefit that this investment growth brings is a growth in jobs . The top countries for investment in recent years were China , Germany , Spain , the United States , Italy , and Brazil . Renewable energy companies include BrightSource Energy , First Solar , Gamesa , GE Energy , Goldwind , Sinovel , Trina Solar , Vestas , and Yingli . Climate change concerns are also driving increasing growth in the renewable energy industries . According to a 2011 projection by the ( IEA ) International Energy Agency , solar power generators may produce most of the world 's electricity within 50 years , reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions . Renewable power has been more effective in creating jobs than coal or oil in the United States .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_commercialization", "rank": 91, "score": 96588 }, { "content": "Title: Nessie Curve Content: When an electric grid includes significant amount of solar energy ( more than 100 % of circuit minimum daytime load ) , it becomes more challenging for local utilities to stably match supply and demand for electricity . The term Nessie Curve or `` Duck curve '' refers to the shape of the curve of grid demand over the course of a day , which resembles the Loch Ness Monster . Solar energy is produced almost entirely during the midday and electricity demand typically peaks in the late afternoon or early evening . This leads to both a small `` hump '' of on-grid demand in the morning , and a much larger peak in the evening . This in turn creates a problem for local utilities , who must quickly ramp-up electricity production when solar energy generation decreases later in the day at the same time that demand is typically increasing .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Nessie_Curve", "rank": 92, "score": 96457 }, { "content": "Title: Solar power in New Zealand Content: Solar power in New Zealand currently contributes less than 0.1 percent to the country 's overall electricity generation . In the 2015 calendar year , an estimated 33 GWh of solar-generated electricity was contributed to the national grid , out of a total of 42,928 GWh . Although there are no subsidies , the declining costs of photovoltaics has caused a large increase in demand over the last few years . In 2009 , the average turnkey price for a standard PV system of three kilowatts ( kW ) was about NZ$ 40,000 , and has since dropped by 75 percent to NZ$ 10,000 ( US$ 7,800 or US$ 2.60 / W ) .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Solar_power_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 93, "score": 96273 }, { "content": "Title: Ursula Sladek Content: Ursula Sladek ( 1946-09-06 ) owns a small local power company , Schönau Power Supply , located in Schönau im Schwarzwald , Germany , that provides electricity from renewable energy sources to the German electricity grid . Her company `` gets much of its energy from small local energy producers , including a handful of hydropower operations , solar panels , some wind turbines , and about 20 washing-machine-size co-generation plants in people 's homes that produce both heat for the home and electricity for the grid '' . Sladek has also been interested in finding ways of rendering nuclear power unnecessary in Germany : Sladek won a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2011 .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Ursula_Sladek", "rank": 94, "score": 96117 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Germany Content: Germany 's renewable energy sector is among the most innovative and successful worldwide . Net-generation from renewable energy sources in the German electricity sector has increased from 6.3 % in 2000 to about 34 % in 2016 . On Sunday 15 May 2016 at 14:00 hours , renewables supplied nearly all of domestic electricity demand . While peak-generation from combined wind and solar reached a previous all-time high of 74 % in April 2014 , wind power saw its best day ever on December 12 , 2014 , generating 562 GWh . Germany has been called `` the world 's first major renewable energy economy '' . More than 23,000 wind turbines and 1.4 million solar PV systems are distributed all over the country 's area of 357,000 square kilometers . As of 2011 , Germany 's federal government is working on a new plan for increasing renewable energy commercialization , with a particular focus on offshore wind farms . A major challenge is the development of sufficient network capacities for transmitting the power generated in the North Sea to the large industrial consumers in southern parts of the country . According to official figures , some 370,000 people were employed in the renewable energy sector in 2010 , especially in small and medium-sized companies . This is an increase of around 8 % compared to 2009 ( around 339,500 jobs ) , and well over twice the number of jobs in 2004 ( 160,500 ) . About two-thirds of these jobs are attributed to the Renewable Energy Sources Act . Germany 's energy transition , the Energiewende , designates a significant change in energy policy from 2011 . The term encompasses a reorientation of policy from demand to supply and a shift from centralized to distributed generation ( for example , producing heat and power in very small cogeneration units ) , which should replace overproduction and avoidable energy consumption with energy-saving measures and increased efficiency .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Germany", "rank": 95, "score": 96102 }, { "content": "Title: Under Secretary of Energy for Energy and Environment Content: The Under Secretary of Energy for Energy and Environment , also known as the Under Secretary of Energy , is a position within the United States Department of Energy . The Under Secretary oversees the Department 's energy and environment programs , including environmental cleanup of the nuclear weapons complex , nuclear waste management efforts , and applied energy research and developmental activities . The current acting Under Secretary is David B. Sandalow . The Under Secretary of Energy is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate . The Under Secretary is paid at level III of the Executive Schedule , meaning he or she receives a basic annual salary of $ 152,000 as of 2006 . Previous Under Secretaries by recency include Under Secretary Bud Albright , who was confirmed on September 3 , 2007 . Acting Under Secretary Bill Ostendorff , Acting Under Secretary Dennis Spurgeon , David K. Garman , and Robert G. Card . The Under Secretary is assisted by the Associate Under Secretary , the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy , the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management , the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy , the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy , the Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability , the Director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management , and the Director of the Office of Legacy Management .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Under_Secretary_of_Energy_for_Energy_and_Environment", "rank": 96, "score": 96022 }, { "content": "Title: Rosenfeld Effect Content: The Rosenfeld Effect is not a scientific phenomena , but an empirical fact that electricity use per capita in California ( CA ) has been almost flat from 1973 to 2006 , whereas use in the United States has risen 50 % . The effect is attributed to energy efficiency , a cause pioneered by Arthur H. Rosenfeld . Up until 2010 Dr. Rosenfeld was the commissioner and a very prominent member of the California Energy Commission board and presided over the Research , Development , and Demonstration Committee ; the Dynamic Pricing Committee ; and the Energy Efficiency Committee , whose main purposes are to promote energy efficiency and conservation , to support cutting edge research and , to look towards developing renewable energy sources . A conference in 2006 at UC Berkeley was dedicated to the Rosenfeld Effect . The purpose of the Energy Symposium conference on the Rosenfeld Effect was to inform people of the role increased energy efficiency plays in California , China , Russia , and on a much larger global scale . According to Dr. Rosenfeld , as time progresses , new technological breakthroughs make electrical appliances more efficient and longer lasting than their older counterparts . For example , when refrigerators were made in 1974 , the model consumed four times as much energy compared to refrigerators manufactured in 2001 . As the appliances became more efficient , they would save more energy , which consequently lowered the amount of money the average person paid for electricity to keep the appliance running . The cheaper cost of higher efficiency is also the premise behind Rosenfeld 's Law , which is also attributed to Rosenfeld . Rosenfeld believed that reasonable standards for energy efficiency in numerous appliances could guarantee a drastic reduction in energy consumption . As opposed to national precedents set in the early 1990s , California 's earlier standards for energy efficiency contributed much to these technological discoveries . The Rosenfeld Effect is often associated with the following two charts : Energy per capita vs time , comparing the US and California Estimated energy savings in California from efficiency standards and programs The first graph is Figure 1 of the 2007 California Integrated Energy Policy Report and is sometimes referred to as the Rosenfeld Curve . The second is widely used in Powerpoint presentations . The Natural Resource Defense Council ( NRDC ) , a special interest group independent of the California Energy Commission , released a document in 2005 detailing the energy per capita of the state of California as well as the energy per capita of the United States as a whole . From 1976 to 2005 , California 's energy per capita fluctuated around 6,500 kilowatt-hours per capita whereas the US roughly went from 8,000 kilowatt-hours to 12,000 kilowatt-hours per capita . The document also states that Rosenfeld 's titles , such as titles 20 and 24 , which are responsible for setting energy efficiency standards , have saved California from needing to build 21 power plants . For California 's per capita energy consumption to remain constant as the growing population increased its dependence on electricity , increases in efficiency had to keep up with electricity 's increasing utility . The article also credits Rosenfeld 's energy saving targets , his focus on research and development , his ability to integrate energy efficiency into resource procurement , his provision of `` performance-based incentives '' , his capability to motivate utility companies to segregate revenues from sales , his willingness to have progress towards targets measured by a third party , and his implementation of `` well-designed programs '' as additional reasons for California 's leadership in energy efficiency . One `` well-designed program '' the article cites is the subsidization of compact fluorescent lamps and how different methods were undertaken to make the cost drop from $ 25 a bulb in the 1980s to $ 3 a bulb in 2005 , which saved a typical Californian family on average of about $ 1000 per year . The NRDC estimates California saves approximately $ 42 billion a year from just four of Rosenfeld 's initiatives : the invention of DOE-2 ( a computer program that builds energy analysis -- $ 10 billion per year ) and the implementation of high-frequency ballasts ( $ 5 billion per year ) , low-e windows ( estimated $ 5 - $ 10 billion per year ) , and more efficient refrigerators ( $ 17 billion per year ) . Beyond saving energy and money , Rosenfeld 's actions at California 's Energy Commission have also helped paint California as an example to the United States in carbon dioxide emissions , setting California 's per capita emissions to half the national average in 2000 . Beyond setting standards and implementing programs , Rosenfeld and the California Energy Commission have invested money into research and development . The NRDC cites the following programs : the California Energy Commission 's Public Interest Energy Research Program ( PIER ) , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 's Center for Building Science , California Public Utilities Commission 's Emerging Technologies Fund ( CETF ) , and the California Clean Energy Fund ( CalCEF ) , all of which are focused on finding new ways to save energy , by finding new technology or ways that can help the everyday person use less power from the grid . According to its staff , PIER allocates grants to various companies investing in energy efficiency . The document PIER staff provides on the California Energy Commission 's website includes an example of a funded company : Altex Technologies Corporation , which researches technologies for fuel cells and boiler burners . The staff behind PIER estimates the program has also directly and indirectly created roughly 50,000 jobs since its imitation in 1996 . Funding for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 's Center for Building Science was to discover ways to limit energy waste . After sufficient testing , the applications team released a guide on how to design a research laboratory in a more energy efficiency manner . The guide includes suggestions for how to properly set air filtration , lighting , and supply , exhaust , and distribution systems for optimal efficiency . The CETF stated its primary goals include managing telecommunication mergers and helping strengthen the broadband Internet infrastructure of California , with saving energy an indirect result of its procedures . The California Public Utilities Commission writes that in 2010 the CETF considered its work complete and disbanded . CalCEF is a non-profit program that hopes to transition to a clean energy economy by creating and supporting institutions that grow markets for clean energy technologies . CalCEF is partnered with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , and according to a CalCEF press release published in December 2012 , the U.S. Department of Energy granted $ 120 million to upgrade the California storage accelerator . While the energy per capita began to rise post-2006 for California , Rosenfeld still took initiative to manage California 's energy consumption . In September 2005 , the California Public Utilities Commission authorized a $ 2.7 billion investment from 2006-2008 to save ratepayers $ 5.4 billion and to save California from having to expend resources in order to build three additional power plants . Rosenfeld 's work has motivated others to conserve energy . For example , In April 2006 , Ashok Gadgil of Lawrence Berkelely International Laboratory gave a presentation detailing international examples of the Rosenfeld Effect in practical use , which included programs making compact fluorescent lamps more cost-effective for poorer countries ; distributing energy efficient water filters to the Philippines , Mexico , and India ; and distributing metal cook-stoves with an increased efficiency factor of four in contrast to its predecessor to poor citizens of Sudan and Darfur refugees displaced by conflict in that region . To understand the extensive work and research put behind the Rosenfeld Effect , information presented by Dr. Rosenfeld himself illustrates how several areas of crucial interest were taken into account : investigating the science and engineering of energy end-use , assessing potential and theoretical opportunities for energy efficiency , developing analytic and economic models to quantify opportunities , and researching and developing new equipment and processes to make these opportunities a success . Dr. Rosenfeld 's main motivation for improving energy efficiency was to save money as well as save resources such as oil , gas , and forests for future generations . The purpose behind the Rosenfeld effect was not only to set an example in high efficiency standards , but also to curb the threat of carbon-emissions which lead to greenhouse gases and thus further threat of global warming . By making energy use more efficient humans would be burning less fossil fuel for energy consumption . This decreased carbon emissions by more than 3 million tons per year by the year 2008 , which is the equivalent of taking 650,000 cars off the road .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Rosenfeld_Effect", "rank": 97, "score": 95834 }, { "content": "Title: Hybrid renewable energy system Content: Hybrid renewable energy systems ( HRES ) are becoming popular as stand-alone power systems for providing electricity in remote areas due to advances in renewable energy technologies and subsequent rise in prices of petroleum products . A hybrid energy system , or hybrid power , usually consists of two or more renewable energy sources used together to provide increased system efficiency as well as greater balance in energy supply .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Hybrid_renewable_energy_system", "rank": 98, "score": 95656 }, { "content": "Title: Securing America's Energy Independence Act of 2007 Content: On January 18 , 2007 , Congressmen Michael McNulty ( D-NY ) and Dave Camp ( R-MI ) introduced legislation to reinvest funds in America 's most abundant renewable resource -- solar power . Title : `` Securing America 's Energy Independence Act of 2007 . '' , H.R. 550 January 18 , 2007 : Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means . February 14 , 2007 -- Senators Gordon H. Smith ( R-OR ) and Ken Salazar ( D-CO ) introduced legislation to stimulate investment in America 's most abundant renewable resource -- solar power . Title : `` Securing America 's Energy Independence Act of 2007 . '' , S. 590 February 14 , 2007 Referred to Senate committee . Status : Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Securing_America's_Energy_Independence_Act_of_2007", "rank": 99, "score": 95507 }, { "content": "Title: Electricity sector in Peru Content: The electricity sector in Peru has experienced impressive improvements in the past 15 years . Access to electricity has increased from 45 % in 1990 to 88.8 % in July 2011 , while service quality and efficiency of service provision improved . These improvements were made possible through privatizations following reforms initiated in 1992 . At the same time , electricity tariffs have remained in line with the average for Latin America . However , several challenges remain . Chief among them are the still very low level of access in rural areas and the untapped potential of some renewable energies , in particular wind and solar energy , due to an inadequate regulatory framework . The current electricity generation capacity is evenly divided between thermal and hydroelectric sources . A renewed recent dynamism of the electricity sector in the country is based on the shift to natural gas plants , which will be mainly fed from the production of the Camisea gas field in the Amazon Rainforest . The National Interconnected System ( SEIN ) serves 85 % of the connected population , with several `` isolated '' systems covering the rest of the country . While investment in generation , transmission and distribution in urban areas is predominantly private , resources for rural electrification come solely from public sources .", "qid": "383", "docid": "Electricity_sector_in_Peru", "rank": 100, "score": 95493 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Wind power Content: Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to mechanically power generators for electric power . Wind power , as an alternative to burning fossil fuels , is plentiful , renewable , widely distributed , clean , produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation , consumes no water , and uses little land . The net effects on the environment are far less problematic than those of nonrenewable power sources . Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network . Onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electric power , competitive with or in many places cheaper than coal or gas plants . Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land , and offshore farms have less visual impact , but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher . Small onshore wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide electric power to isolated off-grid locations . Wind power gives variable power which is very consistent from year to year but which has significant variation over shorter time scales . It is therefore used in conjunction with other electric power sources to give a reliable supply . As the proportion of wind power in a region increases , a need to upgrade the grid , and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur . Power management techniques such as having excess capacity , geographically distributed turbines , dispatchable backing sources , sufficient hydroelectric power , exporting and importing power to neighboring areas , using vehicle-to-grid strategies or reducing demand when wind production is low , can in many cases overcome these problems . In addition , weather forecasting permits the electric power network to be readied for the predictable variations in production that occur . As of 2015 , Denmark generates 40 % of its electric power from wind , and at least 83 other countries around the world are using wind power to supply their electric power grids . In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16 % to 369,553 MW . Yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4 % of worldwide electric power usage , 11.4 % in the EU .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power", "rank": 1, "score": 168227 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of wind power Content: The environmental impact of wind power when compared to the environmental impacts of fossil fuels , is relatively minor . Compared with other low carbon power sources , wind turbines have some of the lowest global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated . According to the IPCC , in assessments of the life-cycle global warming potential of energy sources , wind turbines have a median value of between 15 and 11 ( geq/kWh ) depending on whether off - or onshore turbines are being assessed . While wind turbine installations may cover a large area , they are compatible with many land uses such as farming and grazing , as only small areas of turbine foundations and infrastructure are made unavailable for use . Wind turbines generate some noise . At a residential distance of 300 m this may be around 45 dB , which is slightly louder than a refrigerator . At 1.5 km distance most wind turbines become inaudible . From a fundamental biological point of view , it is known that loud noise increases stress and stress causes diseases . Peer-reviewed research has generally supported the view that when properly sited wind turbines do not affect human health from noise . However , when improperly sited , data from the monitoring of two groups of growing geese revealed substantially lower body weights and higher concentrations of a stress hormone in the blood of the first group of geese who were situated 50 meters away compared to a second group which was at a distance of 500 meters from the turbine . Aesthetic aspects of wind turbines and resulting changes of the visual landscape can be significant . Conflicts arise especially in scenic and heritage protected landscapes . Siting restrictions ( such as setbacks ) have often been implemented to limit any intrusive environmental impacts . There are reports of bird and bat mortality at wind turbines as there are around other artificial structures . The scale of the ecological impact may or may not be significant , depending on specific circumstances . Prevention and mitigation of wildlife fatalities , and protection of peat bogs , affect the siting and operation of wind turbines .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_wind_power", "rank": 2, "score": 161591 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy Content: Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources , which are naturally replenished on a human timescale , such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , waves , and geothermal heat . Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas : electricity generation , air and water heating/cooling , transportation , and rural ( off-grid ) energy services . Based on REN21 's 2016 report , renewables contributed 19.2 % to humans ' global energy consumption and 23.7 % to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015 , respectively . This energy consumption is divided as 8.9 % coming from traditional biomass , 4.2 % as heat energy ( modern biomass , geothermal and solar heat ) , 3.9 % hydro electricity and 2.2 % is electricity from wind , solar , geothermal , and biomass . Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$ 286 billion in 2015 , with countries like China and the United States heavily investing in wind , hydro , solar and biofuels . Globally , there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries , with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer . As of 2015 worldwide , more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable . Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas , in contrast to other energy sources , which are concentrated in a limited number of countries . Rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security , climate change mitigation , and economic benefits . The results of a recent review of the literature concluded that as greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emitters begin to be held liable for damages resulting from GHG emissions resulting in climate change , a high value for liability mitigation would provide powerful incentives for deployment of renewable energy technologies . In international public opinion surveys there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power and wind power . At the national level , at least 30 nations around the world already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply . National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade and beyond . Some places and at least two countries , Iceland and Norway generate all their electricity using renewable energy already , and many other countries have the set a goal to reach 100 % renewable energy in the future . For example , in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply ( electricity , mobility and heating/cooling ) to 100 % renewable energy by 2050 . While many renewable energy projects are large-scale , renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries , where energy is often crucial in human development . United Nations ' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity . As most of renewables provide electricity , renewable energy deployment is often applied in conjunction with further electrification , which has several benefits : Electricity can be converted to heat ( where necessary generating higher temperatures than fossil fuels ) , can be converted into mechanical energy with high efficiency and is clean at the point of consumption . In addition to that electrification with renewable energy is much more efficient and therefore leads to a significant reduction in primary energy requirements , because most renewables do n't have a steam cycle with high losses ( fossil power plants usually have losses of 40 to 65 % ) . Renewable energy systems are rapidly becoming more efficient and cheaper . Their share of total energy consumption is increasing . Growth in consumption of coal and oil could end by 2020 due to increased uptake of renewables and natural gas .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy", "rank": 3, "score": 157059 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy debate Content: There is a renewable energy debate about the constraints and opportunities associated with the use of renewable energy . Renewable electricity production , from sources such as wind power and solar power , is sometimes criticized for being variable or intermittent . However , the International Energy Agency has stated that this only applies to certain renewables , mainly wind and solar photovoltaics , and its significance depends on a range of factors , such as the penetration of the renewables concerned . There have been `` not in my back yard '' ( NIMBY ) concerns relating to the visual and other impacts of some wind farms , with local residents sometimes fighting or blocking construction . In the USA , the Massachusetts Cape Wind project was delayed for years partly because of aesthetic concerns . However , residents in other areas have been more positive and there are many examples of community wind farm developments . According to a town councillor , the overwhelming majority of locals believe that the Ardrossan Wind Farm in Scotland has enhanced the area . The market for renewable energy technologies has continued to grow . Climate change concerns , coupled with high oil prices , peak oil , and increasing government support , are driving increasing renewable energy legislation , incentives and commercialization . New government spending , regulation and policies helped the industry weather the 2009 economic crisis better than many other sectors .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_debate", "rank": 4, "score": 156085 }, { "content": "Title: 100% renewable energy Content: The endeavor to use 100 % renewable energy for electricity , heating and cooling , and transport is motivated by global warming , pollution and other environmental issues , as well as economic and energy security concerns . Shifting the total global primary energy supply to renewable sources requires a transition of the energy system . In 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that there are few fundamental technological limits to integrating a portfolio of renewable energy technologies to meet most of total global energy demand . Renewable energy use has grown much faster than even advocates anticipated . In 2014 , renewable sources such as wind , geothermal , solar , biomass , and burnt waste provided 19 % of the total energy consumed worldwide , with roughly half of that coming from traditional use of biomass . The most important sector is electricity with a renewable share of 22.8 % , most of it coming from hydropower with a share of 16.6 % , followed by wind with 3.1 % . There are many places around the world with grids that are run almost exclusively on renewable energy . At the national level , at least 30 nations already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 % of the energy supply . Professors S. Pacala and Robert H. Socolow of Princeton University have developed a series of `` Climate stabilization wedges '' that can allow us to maintain our quality of life while avoiding catastrophic climate change , and `` renewable energy sources , '' in aggregate , constitute the largest number of their `` wedges . '' Mark Z. Jacobson , professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy program , says that producing all new energy with wind power , solar power , and hydropower by 2030 is feasible , and that existing energy supply arrangements could be replaced by 2050 . Barriers to implementing the renewable energy plan are seen to be `` primarily social and political , not technological or economic '' . Jacobson says that energy costs today with a wind , solar , and water system should be similar to today 's energy costs from other optimally cost-effective strategies . The main obstacle against this scenario is the lack of political will . Similarly , in the United States , the independent National Research Council has noted that `` sufficient domestic renewable resources exist to allow renewable electricity to play a significant role in future electricity generation and thus help confront issues related to climate change , energy security , and the escalation of energy costs ... Renewable energy is an attractive option because renewable resources available in the United States , taken collectively , can supply significantly greater amounts of electricity than the total current or projected domestic demand . '' The main barriers to the widespread implementation of large-scale renewable energy and low-carbon energy strategies are political rather than technological . According to the 2013 Post Carbon Pathways report , which reviewed many international studies , the key roadblocks are : climate change denial , the fossil fuels lobby , political inaction , unsustainable energy consumption , outdated energy infrastructure , and financial constraints .", "qid": "386", "docid": "100%_renewable_energy", "rank": 5, "score": 152252 }, { "content": "Title: Wind turbine Content: A wind turbine is a device that converts the wind 's kinetic energy into electrical power . Wind turbines are manufactured in a wide range of vertical and horizontal axis types . The smallest turbines are used for applications such as battery charging for auxiliary power for boats or caravans or to power traffic warning signs . Slightly larger turbines can be used for making contributions to a domestic power supply while selling unused power back to the utility supplier via the electrical grid . Arrays of large turbines , known as wind farms , are becoming an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy and are used by many countries as part of a strategy to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_turbine", "rank": 6, "score": 148374 }, { "content": "Title: Wind turbine prognostics Content: The growing demand for renewable energy has spurred global adoption and expansion of wind turbine technology . To increase energy capacity for existing and future wind farm projects , prognostics and health management ( PHM ) techniques are considered as a critical approach , whose functionality to diagnose and prognose system degradation and failure is capable to enhance reliability and reduce downtime .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_turbine_prognostics", "rank": 7, "score": 147052 }, { "content": "Title: List of books about renewable energy Content: This is a bibliography of renewable energy . Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , and geothermal heat , which are renewable ( naturally replenished ) . About 16 % of global final energy consumption comes from renewables , with 10 % coming from traditional biomass , which is mainly used for heating , and 3.4 % from hydroelectricity . New renewables ( small hydro , modern biomass , wind , solar , geothermal , and biofuels ) account for another 3 % and are growing very rapidly . Total investment in renewable energy reached $ 244 billion in 2012 . The top countries for investment in recent years were China , Germany , Spain , the United States , Italy , and Brazil . Leading renewable energy companies include BrightSource Energy , Enercon , First Solar , Gamesa , GE Energy , Goldwind , Nordex , Sinovel , Suntech , Trina Solar , Vestas and Yingli .", "qid": "386", "docid": "List_of_books_about_renewable_energy", "rank": 8, "score": 145531 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable resource Content: A renewable resource is a natural resource which replenishes to overcome resource depletion caused by usage and consumption , either through biological reproduction or other naturally recurring processes in a finite amount of time in a human time scale . Renewable resources are a part of Earth 's natural environment and the largest components of its ecosphere . A positive life cycle assessment is a key indicator of a resource 's sustainability . Definitions of renewable resources may also include agricultural production , as in sustainable agriculture and to an extent water resources . In 1962 Paul Alfred Weiss defined Renewable Resources as : `` The total range of living organisms providing man with food , fibres , drugs , etc. . . '' . Another type of renewable resources is renewable energy resources . Common sources of renewable energy include solar , geothermal and wind power , which are all categorised as renewable resources .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_resource", "rank": 9, "score": 144343 }, { "content": "Title: Native Wind Content: Native Wind ( NAWIG ) was formed to protect the environment and promote the welfare of Native Americans by facilitating the development of wind power and other renewable energy resources on tribal lands . Directors of Native Wind include representatives of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy , Native Energy , ICLEI , Honor the Earth and American Spirit Productions . Two wind facilities have previously been built through Native Wind -- a 750kW turbine at the Rosebud Indian Reservation and another at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota . The Indian tribes of the North and South Dakota and Nebraska are presently collaborating on a project to develop the large wind resources of the northern Great Plains . Eight separate tribes are moving ahead with plans to develop the first large-scale Native owned and operated wind farms in the United States .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Native_Wind", "rank": 10, "score": 143402 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable fuels Content: Renewable fuels are fuels produced from renewable resources . Examples include : biofuels ( e.g. Vegetable oil used as fuel , ethanol , methanol from clean energy and carbon dioxide or biomass , and biodiesel ) and Hydrogen fuel ( when produced with renewable processes ) . This is in contrast to non-renewable fuels such as natural gas , LPG ( propane ) , petroleum and other fossil fuels and nuclear energy . Renewable fuels can include fuels that are synthesized from renewable energy sources , such as wind and solar . Renewable fuels have gained in popularity due to their sustainability , low contributions to the carbon cycle , and in some cases lower amounts of greenhouse gases . The geo-political ramifications of these fuels are also of interest , particularly to industrialized economies which desire independence from Middle Eastern oil .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_fuels", "rank": 11, "score": 143276 }, { "content": "Title: Lists of renewable energy topics Content: Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale , such as sunlight , wind , rain , tides , waves , and geothermal heat . Renewable energy replaces conventional fuels in four distinct areas : electricity generation , air and water heating/cooling , motor fuels , and rural ( off-grid ) energy services . Based on REN21 's 2014 report , renewables contributed 19 percent to our global energy consumption and 22 percent to our electricity generation in 2012 and 2013 , respectively . These are lists about renewable energy : Index of solar energy articles List of books about renewable energy List of concentrating solar thermal power companies List of countries by electricity production from renewable sources List of energy storage projects Lists of environmental topics List of geothermal power stations List of hydroelectric power stations List of largest hydroelectric power stations List of offshore wind farms Lists of offshore wind farms by country Lists of offshore wind farms by water area List of onshore wind farms List of onshore wind farms in the United Kingdom List of people associated with renewable energy List of photovoltaics companies List of photovoltaic power stations List of pioneering solar buildings List of renewable energy companies by stock exchange List of renewable energy organizations List of renewable energy topics by country List of rooftop photovoltaic installations List of solar car teams List of solar powered products List of solar thermal power stations List of U.S. states by electricity production from renewable sources Lists of wind farms by country List of wind farms in Australia List of wind farms in Canada List of wind farms in Iran List of wind farms in Romania List of wind farms in Sweden List of wind farms in the United States List of wind turbine manufacturers", "qid": "386", "docid": "Lists_of_renewable_energy_topics", "rank": 12, "score": 142694 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in developing countries Content: Renewable energy technology has sometimes been seen as a costly luxury item by critics , and affordable only in the affluent developed world . This erroneous view has persisted for many years , but 2015 was the first year when investment in non-hydro renewables , was higher in developing countries , with $ 156 billion invested , mainly in China , India , and Brazil . Most developing countries have abundant renewable energy resources , including solar energy , wind power , geothermal energy , and biomass , as well as the ability to manufacture the relatively labor-intensive systems that harness these . By developing such energy sources developing countries can reduce their dependence on oil and natural gas , creating energy portfolios that are less vulnerable to price rises . In many circumstances , these investments can be less expensive than fossil fuel energy systems . In isolated rural areas , electricity grid extensions are often not economical . Off‐grid renewable technologies provide a sustainable and cost‐effective alternative to the diesel generators that would be otherwise be deployed in such areas . Renewable technologies can also help to displace other unsustainable energy sources such as kerosene lamps and traditional biomass . Kenya is the world leader in the number of solar power systems installed per capita ( but not the number of watts added ) . More than 30,000 small solar panels , each producing 12 to 30 watts , are sold in Kenya annually . Kenya was the first African country to use geothermal power , and still has the largest installed capacity of geothermal power in Africa at 200 MW , with a potential of up to 10 GW .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_developing_countries", "rank": 13, "score": 142295 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the Netherlands Content: Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain , the Netherlands today lags behind most EU countries in the production of energy from renewable sources . The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass , wind , solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power ( mostly from ground source and air source heat pumps ) . In 2014 , the Netherlands produced only 5.5 % of its total energy from renewables , a small rise from 3.7 % in 2010 and just 1 % in 1990 . Among the EU countries , only Malta and Luxembourg had lower percentages . The low take up of renewable energy may be partially explained by the flat and often sub-sea level landscape and subsequent limits to hydropower resources , although hydro poor resource countries such as Denmark have still managed to make renewables the focus of their energy needs . In 2015 , Dutch wind turbines had a total nameplate capacity of 3,431 MW . Wind and solar power installations had a record breaking year during 2015 and this may move the Netherlands closer to its target of 37 % of electricity production coming from renewables by 2020 . A number of large offshore windfarms have either come online recently ( Gemini wind farm ) or have been granted authorisation ( Borsellee 1 and 2 , and Borsellee 3 and 4 wind farms ) . Most of the tiny contribution made to electricity generation by hydroelectricity came from three power plants . A large part of the renewable electricity sold in the Netherlands comes from Norway , a country which generates almost all its electricity from hydropower plants . In the Netherlands , household consumers can choose to buy renewable electricity . Since 2008 , the amount of renewable energy used by household users has been increasing , rising from 38 % in 2008 to 41 % by 2009 . and up to 44 % by mid 2010 . One area in which the Netherlands is a relative leader is in the adoption of electric plug in vehicles . In 2015 PEV vehicles in the Netherlands represented 9.74 % of car sales , making it the world 's second highest share after Norway . Electric vehicles are able to run on renewable electricity with zero emissions and have the potential to provide grid power storage facilities . An interesting source of heat recovery used in the Netherlands is sourced from freshly milked milk , or warm milk . However at 0.3 % of total renewable energy production ( 2010 figures ) this source is not likely to accelerate energy transition in the country . Warm milk is still not mentioned in the EU Renewable Energy Directive , nor in international energy statistics and so is not included is gross final consumption figures . It does however provide Dutch farmers with plenty of hot water .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_Netherlands", "rank": 14, "score": 141406 }, { "content": "Title: Renewables.ninja Content: Renewables.ninja is a web tool developed by Imperial College London and ETH Zürich that shows the estimate amount of energy that could be generated by wind or solar farms at any location . The model has been tested by Dr Iain Staffell who is the Co-developer of renewables.ninja , from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London , and Dr Stefan Pfenninger from ETH Zürich to estimate the productivity of all wind farms planned or under construction in Europe for the next 20 years.German electrical supplier RWE are using it to test their own models of output .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewables.ninja", "rank": 15, "score": 140865 }, { "content": "Title: Clean Power Now Content: Clean Power Now is based out of Hyannis , Massachusetts and has a member base of over 12,000 members in 49 states . It is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit grassroots organization working to inform citizens and empower them to support viable renewable energy projects and policies . Their belief is that new energy projects , combined with efficiency and conservation efforts will bring about a clean , healthy environment , an improved economy , and a more secure , sustainable world . The organization 's immediate focus is to increase citizen support of offshore wind power in Nantucket Sound , namely the `' ' Cape Wind Project '' ' . Cape Wind is proposing America 's first offshore wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound . Over 5 miles from the nearest shore , 130 wind turbines will gracefully utilize the wind to produce a peak 420 megawatts of energy . In average winds , Cape Wind will provide three quarters of the energy required for the Cape and Islands .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Clean_Power_Now", "rank": 16, "score": 139593 }, { "content": "Title: Acciona Energy Content: Acciona Energy , a subsidiary of Acciona based in Madrid , is a Spanish company developing renewable energy projects , including small hydro , biomass , solar energy and thermal energy , and the marketing of biofuels . It also has assets in the field of co-generation and wind turbine manufacture . , it is carrying out research projects to produce hydrogen from wind power and to manufacture more efficient photovoltaic cells . , Acciona Energy has 164 wind farms in nine countries representing over 4,500 megawatts ( MW ) of wind power installed or under construction . Acciona Energy is also the developer , owner and operator of Nevada Solar One , the world 's first solar thermal plant built in more than 16 years , and the third largest facility of its kind . On September 18 , 2009 , the 100.5 MW EcoGrove Wind Farm in Lena , Illinois , U.S. became operational . The wind farm comprises 67 Acciona Windpower 1.5 MW turbines , and will produce enough to power 25,000 homes and offset 176,000 tons of carbon annually . The EcoGrove facility is spread across 7000 acre . Acciona Windpower 's main product is the AW1500 , a 1.545 MW output machine . There is a prototype AW3000 , a 3 MW model , operational in Pamplona , Spain . The company has a manufacturing facility in West Branch , Iowa which manufactures wind turbines . In June 2014 , Kohlberg Kravis Roberts announced it was taking a one-third stake in the international energy business of the company , at a cost of $ 417 million ( $ 567 million ) . The renewable energy generation business operates renewable assets , largely wind farms , across 14 countries including the United States , Italy and South Africa .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Acciona_Energy", "rank": 17, "score": 138905 }, { "content": "Title: Ecogen Content: Ecogen is an English wind power energy project developer . It specialises in smaller projects ( 5-20MW ) working with landowners to develop renewable forms of energy that benefit the local community . Services provided include initial advice , environmental and financial assessment , planning application preparation , site design , and contract negotiation services as well as operating the finished wind farm . Ecogen has its headquarters in Truro , Cornwall .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Ecogen", "rank": 18, "score": 138824 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy sculpture Content: A renewable energy sculpture is a sculpture that produces power from renewable sources , such as solar , wind , geothermal , hydroelectric or tidal . Such a sculpture is functionally both a renewable energy generator and an artwork , fulfilling utilitarian , aesthetic , and cultural functions . The idea of renewable energy sculptures has been pioneered by ecofuturist visionaries such as artists Patrice Stellest , Sarah Hall , Julian H. Scaff , Patrick Marold , architects Laurie Chetwood and Nicholas Grimshaw , University of Illinois professor Bil Becket , and collaborations such as the Land Art Generator Initiative . Echoing the philosophy of the environmental art movement as a whole , artists creating renewable energy sculpture believe that the aesthetics of the artworks are inextricably linked to their ecological function .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_sculpture", "rank": 19, "score": 138470 }, { "content": "Title: RenewableUK Content: RenewableUK , formerly known as the ` British Wind Energy Association ' ( BWEA ) , is the trade association for wind power , wave power and tidal power industries in the United Kingdom . RenewableUK has over 660 corporate members , from wind , wave and tidal stream power generation and associated industries . The association carries out research , and co-ordinates statistics and intelligence on marine and wind power in the UK and its waters . It also represents its members internationally , and to Government , regional bodies and local authorities in the UK .", "qid": "386", "docid": "RenewableUK", "rank": 20, "score": 137337 }, { "content": "Title: Green job Content: Green jobs or green-collared jobs are , according to the United Nations Environment Program , `` work in agricultural , manufacturing , research and development ( R&D ) , administrative , and service activities that contribute ( s ) substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality . Specifically , but not exclusively , this includes jobs that help to protect ecosystems and biodiversity ; reduce energy , materials , and water consumption through high efficiency strategies ; de-carbonize the economy ; and minimize or altogether avoid generation of all forms of waste and pollution . '' The environmental sector has the dual benefit of mitigating environmental challenges as well as helping economic growth . Green jobs , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , are classified as , `` jobs in business that produce goods or services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources '' or `` jobs in which workers ' duties involve making their establishment 's production processes more environmentally friendly or use fewer natural resources '' . The Bureau of Labor Statistics categorizes Green Jobs into the following : Water conservation , Sustainable forestry , Biofuels , Geothermal energy , Environmental Remediation , Sustainability , Energy auditors , Recycling , Electric Vehicles , Solar power , and Wind energy . These definitions include jobs which seek to use or develop renewable forms of energy ( i.e. wind , hydropower , geothermal , wind , landfill gas and municipal solid waste ) as well as increase their efficiency . Under the green jobs domain education , training , and public awareness are also included . These jobs seek to enforce regulations , support education , and increase public influence for the benefit of the environment .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Green_job", "rank": 21, "score": 136467 }, { "content": "Title: Deploying Renewables 2011 Content: Deploying Renewables 2011 : Best and Future Policy Practice is a 2011 book by the International Energy Agency . The book analyses the recent successes in renewable energy , which now accounts for almost a fifth of all electricity produced worldwide , and addresses how countries can best capitalize on that growth to realise a sustainable energy future . The book says that renewable energy commercialization must be stepped up , especially given the world 's increasing appetite for energy and the need to meet this demand more efficiently and with low-carbon energy sources . Wind power and other renewable energy sources offer great potential to address issues of energy security and sustainability . This analysis updates and expands Deploying Renewables : Principles for Effective Policies , published by the IEA in 2008 , in light of events and trends in the last five years . It also `` extends the analysis to a wider range of countries beyond the OECD and BRICS countries , focussing on 56 countries representative of each world region '' .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Deploying_Renewables_2011", "rank": 22, "score": 135328 }, { "content": "Title: Energiewende in Germany Content: The Energiewende ( German for energy transition ) is the transition by Germany to a low carbon , environmentally sound , reliable , and affordable energy supply . The new system will rely heavily on renewable energy ( particularly wind , photovoltaics , and hydroelectricity ) , energy efficiency , and energy demand management . Most if not all existing coal-fired generation will need to be retired . The phase-out of Germany 's fleet of nuclear reactors , to be complete by 2022 , is a key part of the program . Legislative support for the Energiewende was passed in late 2010 and includes greenhouse gas ( GHG ) reductions of 80 -- 95 % by 2050 ( relative to 1990 ) and a renewable energy target of 60 % by 2050 . These targets are ambitious . The Berlin-based policy institute Agora Energiewende noted that `` while the German approach is not unique worldwide , the speed and scope of the Energiewende are exceptional '' . The Energiewende also seeks a greater transparency in relation to national energy policy formation . Germany has made significant progress on its GHG emissions reduction target , achieving a 27 % decrease between 1990 and 2014 . However Germany will need to maintain an average GHG emissions abatement rate of 3.5 % per annum to reach its Energiewende goal , equal to the maximum historical value thus far . Germany spends $ 1.5 billion per annum on energy research ( 2013 figure ) in an effort to solve the technical and social issues raised by the transition . This includes a number of computer studies that have confirmed the feasibility and a similar cost ( relative to business-as-usual and given that carbon is adequately priced ) of the Energiewende . The term Energiewende is regularly used in English language publications without being translated ( a loanword ) .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Energiewende_in_Germany", "rank": 23, "score": 135047 }, { "content": "Title: Non-renewable resource Content: A non-renewable resource ( also called a finite resource ) is a resource that does not renew itself at a sufficient rate for sustainable economic extraction in meaningful human time-frames . An example is carbon-based , organically-derived fuel . The original organic material , with the aid of heat and pressure , becomes a fuel such as oil or gas . Earth minerals and metal ores , fossil fuels ( coal , petroleum , natural gas ) and groundwater in certain aquifers are all considered non-renewable resources , though individual elements are almost always conserved . In contrast , resources such as timber ( when harvested sustainably ) and wind ( used to power energy conversion systems ) are considered renewable resources , largely because their localized replenishment can occur within time frames meaningful to humans .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Non-renewable_resource", "rank": 24, "score": 134574 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Africa Content: The developing nations of Africa are popular locations for the application of renewable energy technology . Currently , many nations already have small-scale solar , wind , and geothermal devices in operation providing energy to urban and rural populations . These types of energy production are especially useful in remote locations because of the excessive cost of transporting electricity from large-scale power plants . The applications of renewable energy technology has the potential to alleviate many of the problems that face Africans every day , especially if done so in a sustainable manner that prioritizes human rights . Access to energy is essential for the reduction of poverty and promotion of economic growth . Communication technologies , education , industrialization , agricultural improvement and expansion of municipal water systems all require abundant , reliable , and cost-effective energy access .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Africa", "rank": 25, "score": 133681 }, { "content": "Title: Green Power Partnership Content: The United States Environmental Protection Agency 's Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that supports the organizational procurement of green power by offering expert advice , technical support , tools and resources . The EPA defines ` green power ' as a subset of renewable energy and `` represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit '' , with electricity produced from solar , wind , geothermal , biogas , biomass , and low-impact small hydroelectric sources listed as types of green power .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Green_Power_Partnership", "rank": 26, "score": 133330 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable portfolio standard (United States) Content: A Renewable Portfolio Standard ( RPS ) is a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources , such as wind , solar , biomass , and geothermal . The federal RPS is called the Renewable Electricity Standard ( RES ) . The RPS mechanism generally places an obligation on electricity supply companies to produce a specified fraction of their electricity from renewable energy sources . Certified renewable energy generators earn certificates for every unit of electricity they produce and can sell these along with their electricity to supply companies . Supply companies then pass the certificates to some form of regulatory body to demonstrate their compliance with their regulatory obligations . Because it is a market mandate , the RPS relies almost entirely on the private market for its implementation . Unlike feed-in tariffs which guarantee purchase of all renewable energy regardless of cost , RPS programs tend to allow more price competition between different types of renewable energy , but can be limited in competition through eligibility and multipliers for RPS programs . Those supporting the adoption of RPS mechanisms claim that market implementation will result in competition , efficiency , and innovation that will deliver renewable energy at the lowest possible cost , allowing renewable energy to compete with cheaper fossil fuel energy sources . RPS programs have been adopted in 29 of 50 U.S. states , and the District of Columbia .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_portfolio_standard_(United_States)", "rank": 27, "score": 132333 }, { "content": "Title: Intrepid Wind Farm Content: The Intrepid Wind Farm consists of 107 wind turbines , located in Sac and Buena Vista counties in north-west Iowa , has a generating capacity of 160.5 megawatts of electricity . The wind power project is MidAmerican Energy Company 's first owned and operated wind generation facility and became operational on December 31 , 2004 . When MidAmerican Energy first began planning the Intrepid site , the company worked closely with several state and national environmental groups , with a view to minimizing the environmental impact . Using input from such diverse groups as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources , the Nature Conservancy , Iowa State University , the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service , the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation , and the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club , MidAmerican created a statewide map of areas in the proposed region that contained specific bird populations or habitats . Those areas were then avoided when detailed site planning occurred . MidAmerican also worked in conjunction with the Army Corp of Engineers , to secure all necessary permits related to any potential risk to wetlands in the area . Regular inspections are also conducted to make certain that the wind farm is causing no adverse environmental impact to the region .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Intrepid_Wind_Farm", "rank": 28, "score": 132290 }, { "content": "Title: History of sustainability Content: The history of sustainability traces human-dominated ecological systems from the earliest civilizations to the present . This history is characterized by the increased regional success of a particular society , followed by crises that were either resolved , producing sustainability , or not , leading to decline . In early human history , the use of fire and desire for specific foods may have altered the natural composition of plant and animal communities . Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago , agrarian communities emerged which depended largely on their environment and the creation of a `` structure of permanence '' . The Western industrial revolution of the 18th to 19th centuries tapped into the vast growth potential of the energy in fossil fuels . Coal was used to power ever more efficient engines and later to generate electricity . Modern sanitation systems and advances in medicine protected large populations from disease . In the mid-20th century , a gathering environmental movement pointed out that there were environmental costs associated with the many material benefits that were now being enjoyed . In the late 20th century , environmental problems became global in scale . The 1973 and 1979 energy crises demonstrated the extent to which the global community had become dependent on non-renewable energy resources . In the 21st century , there is increasing global awareness of the threat posed by the human-induced enhanced greenhouse effect , produced largely by forest clearing and the burning of fossil fuels .", "qid": "386", "docid": "History_of_sustainability", "rank": 29, "score": 132035 }, { "content": "Title: Scottish Renewables Content: Scottish Renewables is the representative body of the Scottish renewable energy industry . Since 1996 , it has aimed to present a united voice to decision makers who make energy policy . Scottish Renewables represents over 300 members and member organisations are wide ranging across all technologies and supply chains . Scottish Renewables has developed 14 focus areas to fully represent the renewable energy industry . These include : offshore wind power , onshore wind power , bioenergy , heat , hydro , marine energy , and microgeneration . Johanna Yates , offshore policy manager for Scottish Renewables , has said Scotland is the natural home to offshore renewable energy , with abundant natural resources and long heritage of maritime industry -- principally oil and gas and fisheries . Scotland 's potential is well known and in recent months there has been investment from significant international players , such as Doosan , Mitsubishi and Gamesa , all vying to establish their wind turbines in Scottish waters . Future employment for offshore wind projects is promising , with up to 28,000 direct jobs being created by 2020 , leading to an economic input of # 7 billion .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Scottish_Renewables", "rank": 30, "score": 131894 }, { "content": "Title: Ecopower (cooperative) Content: Ecopower is a Belgian cooperative founded in 1991 , financing renewable energy projects in Flanders . Since the liberalisation of the energy market in Flanders ( July 2003 ) Ecopower became a supplier of green electricity produced in Belgium . At the end of 2010 1 % of the Flemish households were supplied by Ecopower . Projects in recent years include the placement of wind turbines in Eeklo , Gistel and Ghent , and the placement of hydroelectric turbines in Rotselaar , Hoegaarden and Overijse . Ecopower is member of the Belgium group of renewable cooperatives REScoop.be and the European group of renewable cooperatives REScoop.eu .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Ecopower_(cooperative)", "rank": 31, "score": 131872 }, { "content": "Title: Eco Marine Power Content: Eco Marine Power , a company based in Fukuoka , Japan , develops and markets renewable energy based systems for ships and other vessels . The company 's technologies use wind , solar and electric power to develop more energy efficient vessels with smaller carbon footprints . Founded in July 2010 in Fukuoka , Japan by Ohori Capital , Eco Marine Power aims to provide green power options for vessels and ships . The company is currently bring to market a system that can be used on larger vessels such as bulk carriers and cruise liners . This patented system is known as Aquarius MRE ( Marine Renewable Energy ) . Eco Marine Power has been internationally recognised for its innovative designs & solutions . The company been nominated for a number of awards including the Katerva Awards ( 2012 ) and Sustainable Shipping Awards ( 2011 ) . It was also the recipient of a 2012 Solutions Inspiring Action Award from the Savannah Oceans Exchange .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Eco_Marine_Power", "rank": 32, "score": 131346 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy law Content: Renewable energy law is a particular kind of energy law , and relates primarily to the transactional legal and policy issues that surround the development , implementation , and commercialization of renewable sources of energy , such as solar , wind , geothermal and tidal . Renewable energy , ( RE ) law also relates to the land use , siting , and finance issues encountered by developers of renewable energy projects . Renewable energy law also encompasses policies that relate to renewable energy and legislative instruments that further encourage its growth . One such form of legislation is feed-in tariffs , which provide economic incentives to the developers of renewable energy projects by setting a fixed price for the sale of energy produced from renewable sources . Feed-in tariff laws also provide financial certainty , are more cost effective and less bureaucratic than other support schemes such as investment or production tax credits , quota based renewable portfolio standards ( RPS ) , and auction mechanisms . In addition , the feed-in tariff generates more competition , more jobs , and more rapid deployment for manufacturing ; it also does not pick technological winners , for instance between more mature wind power technology versus solar photovoltaics technology .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_law", "rank": 33, "score": 131212 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable portfolio standard Content: A renewable portfolio standard ( RPS ) is a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources , such as wind , solar , biomass , and geothermal . Other common names for the same concept include Renewable Electricity Standard ( RES ) at the United States federal level and Renewables Obligation in the UK . The RPS mechanism places an obligation on electricity supply companies to produce a specified fraction of their electricity from renewable energy sources . Certified renewable energy generators earn certificates for every unit of electricity they produce and can sell these along with their electricity to supply companies . Supply companies then pass the certificates to some form of regulatory body to demonstrate their compliance with their regulatory obligations . RPS can rely on the private market for its implementation . In jurisdictions such as California , minimum RPS requirements are legislated . California Senate Bill 350 passed in October 2015 requires retail sellers and publicly owned utilities to procure 50 percent of their electricity from eligible renewable energy resources by 2030 . RPS programs tend to allow more price competition between different types of renewable energy , but can be limited in competition through eligibility and multipliers for RPS programs . Those supporting the adoption of RPS mechanisms claim that market implementation will result in competition , efficiency , and innovation that will deliver renewable energy at the lowest possible cost , allowing renewable energy to compete with cheaper fossil fuel energy sources . RPS-type mechanisms have been adopted in several countries , including Britain , Italy , Poland , Sweden , Belgium , and Chile , as well as in 29 of 50 U.S. states , and the District of Columbia .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_portfolio_standard", "rank": 34, "score": 130982 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Finland Content: Wind power in Finland describes wind power in Finland as part of energy in Finland and renewable energy in Finland . In December 2014 wind power capacity in Finland was 627 MW with 260 turbines and the wind energy share of total electricity consumption was 1.3 % . Wind power is the most popular energy resource among Finnish public : 90 % of Finns would want further investments in wind energy in September 2007 . In April 2005 the value was 88 % . In the Pori area of Finland 97 % of people supported wind power according to Suomen Hyötytuuli Oy in 2000 . Finland has a Feed-in Tariff scheme for wind turbines larger than 500 kW . Kimmo Tiilikainen ( 1966 ) ( Centre Party ) was the environmental minister of Finland during 1.10.2007-31 .3.2008 , while the permanent minister ( Paula Lehtomäki , Centre Party ) was on a leave . In his preliminary minister comments in September 2006 Kimmo Tiilikainen recommended Feed-in-Tariff for wind power within one year with the objective of 3000 MW wind power in 2020 . Finland consumed 90 000 GWh of electricity in ( 2006 ) . For reference Germany had installed base of 39,165 MW of wind power at the end of 2014 .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Finland", "rank": 35, "score": 130886 }, { "content": "Title: Ecotricity Content: Ecotricity is an energy company based in Stroud , Gloucestershire , England specialising in selling green energy to consumers that it primarily generates from its 70 megawatt wind power portfolio - the company prefers the term windmill rather than wind turbine . It is built on the principle of heavily reinvesting its profit in building more of its own green energy generation .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Ecotricity", "rank": 36, "score": 130612 }, { "content": "Title: Spoiled (film) Content: Spoiled ( stylized as spOILed ) is a 2011 documentary film about energy myths , environmental issues with energy , the problems with alternative energy , and the global warming controversy associated with energy . Spoiled also discusses wind energy , solar energy , fossil fuels , green energy , alternative energy , and sustainable energy as a part of its renewable energy documentary scope .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Spoiled_(film)", "rank": 37, "score": 130405 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Asia Content: Wind power in Asia is an important component in the Asian energy industry and one of the key sources of renewable energy in the region . As of April 2016 , the installed capacity of wind power in Asia ( excluding the Middle East ) totalled 175,831 MW . Asia is the fastest growing region in terms of wind energy , having increased its installed capacity by 33,858 MW in 2005 ( a 24 % increase over 2014 ) . China , with 145,362 MW of installed capacity , is the world 's largest generator of electricity from wind energy . India is the second largest in Asia with an installed capacity of 25,088 MW . Other key countries include Japan ( 1,394 MW ) , Taiwan ( 188 MW ) , South Korea ( 173 MW ) and the Philippines ( 33 MW ) .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Asia", "rank": 38, "score": 130381 }, { "content": "Title: Variable renewable energy Content: Variable renewable energy ( VRE ) is a renewable energy source that is non-dispatchable due to its fluctuating nature , like wind power and solar power , as opposed to a controllable renewable energy source such as hydroelectricity , or biomass , or a relatively constant source such as geothermal power or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Variable_renewable_energy", "rank": 39, "score": 130253 }, { "content": "Title: United States Wind Energy Policy Content: Modern United States Wind Energy Policy coincided with the beginning of modern wind industry of the United States , which began in the early 1980s with the arrival of utility-scale wind turbines in California ( see Altamont Pass ) . Since then , the industry has had to endure the financial uncertainties caused by a highly fluctuating tax incentive program . Because these early wind projects were fueled by investment tax credits based on installation rather than performance , they were plagued with issues of low productivity and equipment reliability . Those investment tax credits expired in 1986 , which forced investors to focus on improving the reliability and efficiency of their turbines . The 1990s saw rise to a new type of tax credit , the production tax credit , which propelled technological improvements to the wind turbine even further by encouraging investors to focus on electricity output rather than installation . Wind energy policy is generally directed at three categories of constituents : Research and Development Organizations Commercial/Residential Generators Manufacturers and Producers with one of two goals : to provide incentives or require production and installation of wind turbines or production of electricity from wind , or facilitate the appropriate location of wind turbines . Historically , incentives have come in the form of production or installation tax credits , grants , and renewable portfolio standards , at the federal , state , and local levels of government . Policy facilitating appropriate location has historically come in the form of local ordinances and permitting requirements . __ TOC __", "qid": "386", "docid": "United_States_Wind_Energy_Policy", "rank": 40, "score": 130076 }, { "content": "Title: Viking Wind Farm Content: Viking Wind Farm is a proposed wind farm being developed by Viking Energy , a partnership between Shetland Islands Council and SSE plc. . Initially proposed as a 150 turbine 600 MW project in 2009 , the scheme had significant opposition , on grounds including effects on wildlife , and the general environment ; part of the wind farm was also removed because of a potential interference with equipment at Scatsta Airport . A 370MW wind farm received planning permission in 2012 , but an objection by Sustainable Shetland was successful in Sep 2013 on the grounds of inadequate assessment of impact on the Whimbrel bird , and on licensing regulations relating to the 1989 Electricity Act . This decision was subsequently overturned by two higher courts in 2014 and 2015 .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Viking_Wind_Farm", "rank": 41, "score": 129880 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Foundation Content: The Renewable Energy Foundation ( REF ) , founded in 2004 by UK TV personality Noel Edmonds , is a United Kingdom-based registered charity with a stated aim of promoting the development of sustainable energy technologies . Their funders include Barclays Capital and Calor Gas . REF believes that the issues of climate change and energy supply are complex and closely intertwined . REF 's primary activity is commissioning and writing reports to provide information on energy issues . The REF has frequently argued against wind farm expansion . Since 2006 , REF has published a comprehensive set of statistics , describing in detail the performance of renewable energy generators in the UK that are registered under the Renewables Obligation . On 2 February 2011 , REF released a report critical of wind power , saying it would lead to higher prices for consumers .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Foundation", "rank": 42, "score": 129769 }, { "content": "Title: Copper in renewable energy Content: Renewable energy sources such as solar , wind , tidal , hydro , biomass , and geothermal have become significant sectors of the energy market . The rapid growth of these sources in the 21st century has been prompted by increasing costs of fossil fuels as well as their negative environmental impacts . While the average capacity of renewable energy sources was only 7 % globally in 2010 , most installation of new capacity has been with renewables . Few new installations were from fossil fuel-based power plants . The trend towards new power capacity by renewables is expected to continue through 2020 . Since renewable energy supplies offset the amount of fossil fuels that need to be combusted in power plants , the use of renewables indirectly helps to reduce CO2 emissions . Hence , renewable energy supplies enable societies to progress towards lower-carbon-based economies . Copper plays an important role in renewable energy systems . Since copper is an excellent thermal and electrical conductor among the engineering metals ( second only to silver ) , power systems that utilize copper generate and transmit energy with high efficiency and with minimum environmental impacts . By using copper instead of other lower electrical energy-efficient metal conductors , less electricity needs to be generated to satisfy a given power demand . This article discusses the role of copper in various renewable energy generation systems .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Copper_in_renewable_energy", "rank": 43, "score": 129732 }, { "content": "Title: Batokunku Content: Batokunku ( also spelled Batukunku ) is a village located in Kombo South , one of the nine districts of The Gambia 's Western Division . In January 2009 , the village became notable as the location of the first wind turbine erected in West Africa . The 150 kilowatt turbine , a second-hand machine originally built by the Danish wind energy manufacturer Bonus , currently provides electrical power for the entire village . The windmill is currently serviced/maintained by Global Energy ( generator service ) based in the nearby village of Tujereng in collaboration with Windstrom SH from Germany .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Batokunku", "rank": 44, "score": 129433 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy commercialization Content: Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years . First-generation technologies , which are already mature and economically competitive , include biomass , hydroelectricity , geothermal power and heat . Second-generation technologies are market-ready and are being deployed at the present time ; they include solar heating , photovoltaics , wind power , solar thermal power stations , and modern forms of bioenergy . Third-generation technologies require continued R&D efforts in order to make large contributions on a global scale and include advanced biomass gasification , hot-dry-rock geothermal power , and ocean energy . As of 2012 , renewable energy accounts for about half of new nameplate electrical capacity installed and costs are continuing to fall . Public policy and political leadership helps to `` level the playing field '' and drive the wider acceptance of renewable energy technologies . Countries such as Germany , Denmark , and Spain have led the way in implementing innovative policies which has driven most of the growth over the past decade . As of 2014 , Germany has a commitment to the `` Energiewende '' transition to a sustainable energy economy , and Denmark has a commitment to 100 % renewable energy by 2050 . There are now 144 countries with renewable energy policy targets . Renewable energy continued its rapid growth in 2015 , providing multiple benefits . There was a new record set for installed wind and photovoltaic capacity ( 64GW and 57GW ) and a new high of US$ 329 Billion for global renewables investment . A key benefit that this investment growth brings is a growth in jobs . The top countries for investment in recent years were China , Germany , Spain , the United States , Italy , and Brazil . Renewable energy companies include BrightSource Energy , First Solar , Gamesa , GE Energy , Goldwind , Sinovel , Trina Solar , Vestas , and Yingli . Climate change concerns are also driving increasing growth in the renewable energy industries . According to a 2011 projection by the ( IEA ) International Energy Agency , solar power generators may produce most of the world 's electricity within 50 years , reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions . Renewable power has been more effective in creating jobs than coal or oil in the United States .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_commercialization", "rank": 45, "score": 129410 }, { "content": "Title: Stephen Probyn Content: ( Alfred ) Stephen Probyn ( 1951 -- 2008 ) was one of North America 's foremost authorities on green energy and the independent power industry . Probyn was best known as a financier , entrepreneur , regulatory expert , and advisor to governments on energy and environmental policy . As founder and Chairman of The Probyn Group of companies , Stephen Probyn pioneered long-term financing and investment essential to the `` greening '' of large-scale electrical power development in North America , the Caribbean and Europe ; launched the first public companies to specialize in renewable energy in Canada and the U.K. ; and advanced public opinion and government policy favourable to a new era of sustainable energy technologies . In less than 20 years , he was responsible for the funding of some $ 3.5 billion in environmentally sound energy infrastructure -- predominantly , windpower , biomass ( wood waste ) , biogas ( landfill gas ) and hydroelectricity . He was also an early proponent of carbon markets , believing the trade in Renewable Energy Credits ( RECs ) and other types of carbon offsets to be the most efficient means of distributing the `` pain or gain '' of environmental compliance . By 2003 , as soon as the regulations for this new market were being put in place , one of the renewable energy companies under his leadership became one of the largest sellers of RECs in the United States . During his early career on the staff of Britain 's Leader of the Opposition Margaret Thatcher and , then , of senior federal and provincial ministers in Canada , he was immersed in the carbon-based politico-economic issues of the 1970s and early 1980s . These issues ranged from the decline of England 's coal industry and the global shock of the OPEC oil crisis , to Canada 's National Energy Program , which he helped to dismantle . In 1986 , he left politics for the energy industry itself . He wanted to be part of the transformations in the carbon economy and power markets that he saw as essential for an electricity-dependent world to have both a sustainable environment and economic growth in the new millennium . Stephen Probyn 's strategic aim was a `` green '' industrial revolution , stimulated by consumer demand in a free market system to achieve global expansion and 21st Century growth . Among The Probyn Group `` firsts '' in power and the environment are : North America 's largest wood waste-fueled electrical power generating facility ( Williams Lake , British Columbia , Canada -- 1991 ) . Canada 's first power plant certified under the federal Environmental ChoiceM Program ( Whitecourt , Alberta -- 1996 ) . Canada 's first `` demand-driven '' Green Power Sales program ( Calgary , Alberta -- 1998 ) World 's largest acquisition and financing in the history of wind power ( Storm Lake I and II , Idaho , U.S.A. -- 1999 ) World 's first 100 % renewable energy income fund , and first to be certified under Canada 's Environmental ChoiceM Program ( Clean Power Income Fund -- 2001 ) . Canada 's largest wind power financings ( Cowley Ridge , Alberta -- 1995 , Le Nordais , Québec -- 1998 and Erie Shores , Ontario -- 2005 ) . First renewable energy company on the London Stock Exchange 's Alternative Investment Market ( Renewable Energy Generation Ltd. -- 2005 ) . Central and Eastern Europe 's largest windpower facility ( Tymièn , Poland -- 2006 ) . Throughout his business career , Stephen Probyn remained an indefatigable public policy activist in speeches , interviews , television documentaries , newspaper columns and published articles . In addition to his numerous executive and corporate board appointments , he volunteered in public service and not-for-profit organizations in such positions as : Founding director of and President ( 1993 -- 95 ) of the Association of Power Producers of Ontario ( APPrO ) , formerly IPPSO , the Independent Power Producers Society of Ontario . Founding director of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships ( CCPPP ) . Founding director and Chairman of the Canadian Association of Income Funds ( CAIF ) . Chairman of Sustainable Development Technology Canada ( SDTC ) , appointed jointly by Canada 's Ministers of Natural Resources and the Environment . Founding member of the Stakeholders ' Alliance for Electricity Competition and Customer Choice . Member of the Electricity Market Design Committee , appointed by the Government of Ontario . Advisor to the North American Electric Reliability Council . Advisor to the Canada 's National Climate Change Process . Advisor to the G8 Renewable Energy Task Force . President and a director of the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs . Conservative candidate ( Toronto Centre-Rosedale ) in Canada 's 1997 federal election . Writing in the late 1990s , in an unfinished book he called Green Capitalism , Stephen Probyn summed up fundamental beliefs that made him a true originator in the power sector and inspired his public service to the end of his life : Real politics , politics that matter , are always about ideas ... Every era has its own big ideas . ... The theme of this book is that the environment is the next big idea ... If you want to change the world , you must first change the way it thinks .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Stephen_Probyn", "rank": 46, "score": 129182 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-neutral fuel Content: Carbon-neutral fuels can refer to a variety of energy fuels or energy systems which have no net greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint . One class is synthetic fuel ( including methane , gasoline , diesel fuel , jet fuel or ammonia ) produced from sustainable or nuclear energy used to hydrogenate waste carbon dioxide recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater . Other types can be produced from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines , solar panels , and hydroelectric power stations . Such fuels are potentially carbon-neutral because they do not result in a net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases . Until captured carbon is used for plastics feedstock , carbon neutral fuel synthesis is the primary means of carbon capture and utilization or recycling . To the extent that carbon-neutral fuels displace fossil fuels , or if they are produced from waste carbon or seawater carbonic acid , and their combustion is subject to carbon capture at the flue or exhaust pipe , they result in negative carbon dioxide emission and net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere , and thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas remediation . Such power to gas carbon-neutral and carbon-negative fuels can be produced by the electrolysis of water to make hydrogen used in the Sabatier reaction to produce methane which may then be stored to be burned later in power plants as synthetic natural gas , transported by pipeline , truck , or tanker ship , or be used in gas to liquids processes such as the Fischer -- Tropsch process to make traditional fuels for transportation or heating . Carbon-neutral fuels are used in Germany and Iceland for distributed storage of renewable energy , minimizing problems of wind and solar intermittency , and enabling transmission of wind , water , and solar power through existing natural gas pipelines . Such renewable fuels could alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels , enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles . A 250 kilowatt synthetic methane plant has been built in Germany and it is being scaled up to 10 megawatts .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Carbon-neutral_fuel", "rank": 47, "score": 129166 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in South Korea Content: Wind power in South Korea is a form of renewable energy in South Korea . As of 2015 wind power capacity in South Korea was 835 MW and the wind energy share of total electricity consumption was far below 0,1 % . Nevertheless , the Korean government plans to invest $ 8.2 billion into offshore wind farms in order to increase the total capacity by 2.5 GW by 2019", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_South_Korea", "rank": 48, "score": 128787 }, { "content": "Title: First Wind Content: Founded in 2002 , First Wind was an independent renewable energy company that develops and operates utility-scale power projects in the United States . It grew to employ more than 220 people across the country . Headquartered in Boston , the company develops or operates renewable energy projects in Maine , Vermont , Massachusetts , New York , Utah , Idaho , Washington and Hawaii with a combined capacity of nearly 1,300 megawatts . In addition to renewable energy projects , the company developed and operates two generator leads . First Wind began as a utility-scale wind power developer and operator , but in 2014 the company brought its first solar energy projects online . In November 2014 First Wind was purchased by SunEdison and its yieldco TerraForm Power for $ 2.4 billion . In February 2015 , as part of the merger integration , First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor , who led the company since 2004 , was appointed EVP Of North America Utility And Global Wind at SunEdison .", "qid": "386", "docid": "First_Wind", "rank": 49, "score": 128720 }, { "content": "Title: Black Law Wind Farm Content: The 42-turbine Black Law Wind Farm has a total capacity of 97 megawatts ( MW ) , sufficient to meet the average electricity needs of 70,000 homes each year - or a town the size of Paisley - and is estimated to save around 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year . The # 90 million wind farm is located near Forth in Lanarkshire and has been built on an old opencast coalmine site which was completely restored to shallow wetlands during the construction programme . It employs seven permanent staff on site and created 200 jobs during construction . Scottish Power is expected to complete a second phase which will see the installation of a further 12 turbines . The project has received wide recognition for its contribution to environmental objectives , including praise from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds , who said that the scheme was not only improving the landscape in a derelict opencast mining site , but also benefiting a range of wildlife in the area , with an extensive habitat management projects covering over 14 square kilometres .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Black_Law_Wind_Farm", "rank": 50, "score": 128717 }, { "content": "Title: Gulf Stream Turbines Content: Gulf Stream Turbines LLC is start up company that is trying to create a renewable energy source using the Gulf Stream current . The Gulf Stream , which is produced by the earth 's rotation , contains an enormous amount hydrokinetic energy . To tap into this immense source of renewable energy to produce electricity Gulf Stream Turbines plan on creating submersible power plants that can operate for extremely long periods without servicing . The Gulf Stream Turbine can do this because of its failure-proof design that depends on the laws of physics and has few moving parts .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Gulf_Stream_Turbines", "rank": 51, "score": 128547 }, { "content": "Title: List of renewable energy topics by country Content: This is a list of renewable energy topics by country . These links can be used to compare developments in renewable energy in different countries and to help and encourage new writers to participate in writing about developments in their own countries or countries of interest . The list refers to renewable energy in general , as well as solar power , wind power , geothermal energy , biofuel , and hydro-electricity . As of 2013 , China , Germany , and Japan , three of the world 's four largest economies , as well as India , generate more electricity from renewables than from nuclear power . Based on REN21 's 2014 report , renewables contributed 19 percent to humans ' global energy consumption . This energy consumption is divided as 9 % coming from traditional biomass , 4.2 % as heat energy ( non-biomass ) , 3.8 % hydro electricity and 2 % is electricity from wind , solar , geothermal , and biomass . China is the world 's largest producer of hydroelectricity , followed by Canada . Wind power capacity is growing at the rate of 26 % annually , and is widely used in Europe , Asia , and the United States . Wind power accounts for approximately 30 % of electricity use in Denmark , 20 % in Portugal , and 18 % in Spain . PV power stations are popular in Japan , China and the United States . The world 's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California , with a rated capacity of 750 MW . Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world , involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane , and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country 's automotive fuel . Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA . Plug-in electric vehicles in Norway reached a market share of 22.4 % in 2015 . the highest in the world . While many renewable energy projects are large-scale , renewable technologies are also suited to developing countries , where energy is often crucial in human development . Small solar PV systems provide electricity to a few million households , and micro-hydro configured into mini-grids serves many more .", "qid": "386", "docid": "List_of_renewable_energy_topics_by_country", "rank": 52, "score": 128397 }, { "content": "Title: The Solutions Project Content: The Solutions Project is an organization first conceived in 2011 by prominent figures in science , business and the entertainment media with the goal of utilizing the combined efforts of individuals in the fields of science , business and culture to accelerate the transition to 100 % renewable energy use in the United States . Based on the results of academic research , the organization maintains that America is capable of meeting its entire energy needs through renewable energy sources , and that this goal can be achieved by the year 2050 . ( The organization defines renewable energy as solar power , wind power , hydroelectric power , geothermal energy and wave/tidal power . ) Furthermore , the organization claims that the solutions that will be needed to achieve this goal are primarily social and political , not technical , in nature , as most of the technology necessary to bring about the transition already exists . The organization has proposed what it calls the `` 50 States 50 Plans '' initiative . These are plans developed for each of the 50 United States specifying the precise mix of renewable energy types that , given factors such as geography and climate , would allow that particular state to receive all of its energy from renewable sources by 2050 . The organization claims that , beyond the issue of environmental sustainability , a number of significant benefits to society would come about if the initiative were adopted , including consumer energy cost savings , health cost savings and millions of long-term ( 40 years or more ) jobs . Founders of The Solutions Project include Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson , renewable energy executive Marco Krapels , documentary filmmaker and activist Josh Fox and Hollywood actor and activist Mark Ruffalo .", "qid": "386", "docid": "The_Solutions_Project", "rank": 53, "score": 128267 }, { "content": "Title: Marine Current Turbines Content: Marine Current Turbines Ltd ( MCT ) , a Siemens business , is a United Kingdom-based company which is developing tidal stream generators . MCT was founded in 2000 to develop ideas of tidal power developed by Peter Fraenkel , who had previously been a founder partner of IT Power , a consultancy established to further the development of sustainable energy technologies . The company is based in Bristol and employed 15 people in 2007 . By 2003 , MCT had installed a 300 kW experimental tidal turbine 3 km northeast of Lynmouth , Devon and by 2008 they had a 1.2 MW turbine , SeaGen , in Strangford Lough , Northern Ireland which was able to feed electricity into the National Grid . They now have contracts to install a full tidal farm in the Skerries , off northwest Wales and projects in the Bay of Fundy , Nova Scotia and Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada . In February 2012 Siemens acquired a majority share in the company , raising its holding from 45 % to over 90 % . MCT was wholly owned by Siemens , as part of the Hydro and Ocean Business , before being transferred to the Renewables business and finally divested to Atlantis resources who effectively shut the company down .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Marine_Current_Turbines", "rank": 54, "score": 128099 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Michigan Content: Wind power in Michigan is a developing industry . The industrial base from the automotive industry has led to a number of companies producing wind turbine parts in the state.The development of wind farms in the state , however , has lagged behind . As of December 2015 , there were 887 wind turbines in the state with a nameplate capacity of 1531 MW . Wind provided 2.4 % of the state 's electricity in 2013 . Michigan 's requirement for 10 percent renewable energy by 2015 has led to increased alternative development in the state since it was passed in 2008 . A ballot initiative requiring 25 % by 2025 failed in 2012 . In 2011 , the Environmental Law & Policy Center identified over 100 businesses in Michigan involved in engineering and manufacturing wind turbine components , employing 4,000 people . The first commercial wind turbine installed in the state , a 0.6 MW model , was erected in Traverse City in 1996 . It remained the only turbine for several years . Traverse City Light & Power has announced a project to generate 30 % of its power from renewable sources by 2020 . In 2001 Mackinaw City installed 2 turbines rated at 0.6 MW each . Laker Elementary School in the Thumb region installed three 65KW turbines and a 10KW one , totaling 0.2 MW in 2005 . The first wind farm in the state was the Harvest Wind Farm in the Thumb , opened in December 2007 , with 32 turbines producing a rated 53 MW . In 2010 , wind power produced 0.3 % of Michigan 's electrical power . Installed wind capacity more than doubled in 2011 , to a total of 377 MW nameplate capacity . The largest wind farm in Michigan , the 213 MW Gratiot County Wind Project , entered full operation in June 2012 . A number of new projects are proposed in Michigan . In the Thumb region , which has most of Michigan 's high-quality onshore wind , 140 miles of new 345 kilovolt lines are being built to allow the region to support hundreds of proposed new turbines . Michigan has potential for offshore wind power in the Great Lakes but development has been delayed by political considerations . A proposed wind farm in Lake Michigan at Ludington was rejected in 2010 .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Michigan", "rank": 55, "score": 127809 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainable energy Content: Sustainable energy is energy that is consumed at insignificant rates compared to its supply and with manageable collateral effects , especially environmental effects . Another common definition of sustainable energy is an energy system that serves the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs . The organizing principle for sustainability is sustainable development , which includes the four interconnected domains : ecology , economics , politics and culture . Sustainability science is the study of sustainable development and environmental science . Technologies promote sustainable energy including renewable energy sources , such as hydroelectricity , solar energy , wind energy , wave power , geothermal energy , bioenergy , tidal power and also technologies designed to improve energy efficiency . Costs have fallen dramatically in recent years , and continue to fall . Most of these technologies are either economically competitive or close to being so . Increasingly , effective government policies support investor confidence and these markets are expanding . Considerable progress is being made in the energy transition from fossil fuels to ecologically sustainable systems , to the point where many studies support 100 % renewable energy .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Sustainable_energy", "rank": 56, "score": 127347 }, { "content": "Title: Energy security and renewable technology Content: The environmental benefits of renewable energy technologies are widely recognised , but the contribution that they can make to energy security is less well known . Renewable technologies can enhance energy security in electricity generation , heat supply , and transportation .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Energy_security_and_renewable_technology", "rank": 57, "score": 127305 }, { "content": "Title: Eco-investing Content: Eco-investing or green investing , is a form of socially responsible investing where investments are made in companies that support or provide environmentally friendly products and practices . These companies encourage ( and often profit from ) new technologies that support the transition from carbon dependence to more sustainable alternatives . As industries ' environmental impacts become more apparent , green topics have not only taken center stage in pop culture , but the financial world as well . In the 1990s many investors `` began to look for those companies that were better than their competitors in terms of managing their environmental impact . '' While some investors still focus their funds to avoid only `` the most egregious polluters , '' the emphasis for many investors has switched to changing `` the way money is used , '' and using `` it in a positive , transformative way to get us from where we are now ultimately to a truly sustainable society . '' The Global Climate Prosperity Scoreboard -- launched by Ethical Markets Media and The Climate Prosperity Alliance to monitor private investments in green companies -- estimated that over $ 1.248 trillion has been invested in solar , wind , geothermal , ocean/hydro and other green sectors since 2007 . This number represents investments from North America , China , India , and Brazil , as well at other developing countries .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Eco-investing", "rank": 58, "score": 127259 }, { "content": "Title: Emu Downs Wind Farm Content: The Emu Downs Wind Farm is a 79.2 MW wind farm in Western Australia . It was a joint development between Stanwell Corporation and Griffin Energy . The site is approximately 200 kilometres north of Perth , near Cervantes . Construction of the $ 180 million project commenced in November 2005 , and the project was commissioned in October 2006 . Emu Downs consists of 48 Vestas wind turbines ( each with 1.65 MW generating capacity ) , a substation , interconnection to the main 132 kV electricity grid , administration and stores buildings , and a network of access roads . The wind farm is close to the coast , with a good quality wind resource that has increased wind speeds and reliability aligning with periods for peak power demand . The wind farm provides electricity to run a desalination plant , 260 km to the south . The Kwinana Desalination Plant , located just south of Perth , turns water from the Indian Ocean into nearly 152 million litres ( 40 million gallons ) of drinking water per day . Emu Downs is accredited under the Australian Government 's Renewable Energy ( Electricity ) Act 2000 and as a Green Power Generator by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority . In June 2011 , the wind farm was acquired by the APA Group for $ 170 million from the failed Griffin Group .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Emu_Downs_Wind_Farm", "rank": 59, "score": 127142 }, { "content": "Title: The Phoenix Project: Shifting from Oil to Hydrogen Content: The Phoenix Project : Shifting from Oil To Hydrogen is a 360-page book authored by Harry Braun that provides a plan for the USA to shift from oil and other fossil and nuclear fuels to wind powered hydrogen production systems by 2020 . From a technology perspective , wind machines are no more difficult to manufacture than automobiles , which is why they could have been mass-produced for large-scale hydrogen production in the 1920s . Making hydrogen from the wind and water is the `` silver bullet '' that can make the USA energy independent of all fossil and nuclear fuels . Indeed , it is the only energy option that is pollution-free , carbon-free and can displace all fossil and nuclear fuels worldwide forever because it is completely renewable . Every green plant on the earth is a solar hydrogen machine that extracts hydrogen from water ( H20 ) with the energy of the sun . Rather than waiting for fuel cells or hybrid vehicles , the Phoenix Project advocates simply modifying every existing vehicle ( and power plant ) to use hydrogen . Category : Hydrogen economy Category : Environmental non-fiction books", "qid": "386", "docid": "The_Phoenix_Project:_Shifting_from_Oil_to_Hydrogen", "rank": 60, "score": 127046 }, { "content": "Title: Mount Millar Wind Farm Content: The Mount Millar Wind Farm is situated on an escarpment between the towns of Cowell and Cleve located 100 km southwest of Whyalla , South Australia . The 35 wind turbines are positioned on the elongated Mount Millar site ( about 7 km in length ) to maximise wind exposure . The wind farm can generate up to 70 megawatts ( MW ) of electricity and will provide enough energy to meet the needs of about 36,000 typical households . Because wind farms do not emit greenhouse gases in the generation of electricity , wind energy is considered a highly desirable form of renewable energy and assists in the reduction of the State 's reliance on coal and gas fired electricity generation . The Mount Millar Wind Farm is different from other SA wind farms , due to the turbines being a direct drive machine that do n't have gear boxes . This is why the nacelle of these turbines has a larger diameter than most . It connects to ElectraNet 's existing transmission network at Yadnarie Substation , via a new 33 km 132 kV overhead transmission line and substation . Construction of this wind farm started in late 2004 and was completed in December 2005 . Power production started in February 2006 . The $ 130 million project was developed by Tarong Energy Corporation Ltd , which has interests in both Queensland and South Australia ( including South Australia 's first wind farm , Starfish Hill Wind Farm ) . The Mount Millar wind farm was acquired by Meridian Energy in 2010 .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Mount_Millar_Wind_Farm", "rank": 61, "score": 126881 }, { "content": "Title: Baywind Energy Co-operative Content: Baywind Energy Co-operative was the first co-operative to own wind turbines in the United Kingdom . Baywind was modelled on the similar wind turbine cooperatives and other renewable energy co-operatives that are common in Scandinavia , and was founded as an Industrial and Provident Society in 1996 . It now has 1,200 members , each with one vote . A proportion of the profits is invested in local community environmental initiatives through the Baywind Energy Community Trust . The organisation won the 2004 National Social Enterprise Award for its innovative approach to community owned renewable energy . Baywind owned a 2.5 megawatt five-turbine wind farm at Harlock Hill near Ulverston , Cumbria ( operational since 29 January 1997 ) , and one of the 600 kilowatt turbines at the Haverigg II wind farm near Millom , Cumbria . The Harlock Hill site has now been re-powered with two 2.3 Mwh Enercon turbines , operational from May 2016 . The site is now owned by High Winds , a BenCom created under the new legal rules . Since Baywind 's establishment , further wind energy co-operatives have been established , many with the help of the organisation formed by Baywind for this purpose , Energy4All .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Baywind_Energy_Co-operative", "rank": 62, "score": 126738 }, { "content": "Title: Vaneless ion wind generator Content: A vaneless ion wind generator or power fence is a proposed wind power device that produces electrical energy directly by using the wind to pump electric charge from one electrode to another , with no moving parts . Wind energy is usually extracted to make electricity by means of a wind turbine . The bird deaths , vibrational noise , and moving shadows associated with wind turbines would not occur with ion based power generation . One design uses water sprayed from a nozzle facing a toroidal charged electrode . This induces an opposite charge in the water , and when the water flows out of the nozzle , each drop carries a small amount of charge . These water droplets are then blown by the wind , going through the center of the charged toroid without touching it . The droplets then hit a fine mesh , adding to its charge . The other alternative is to use the Earth as the second electrode . The main advantage of this system is that it has no moving parts except the water droplets . The disadvantages are that it needs a constant supply of water , its wind profile ca n't be reduced , it requires many small parts , and it has to be well-crafted to reduce corona discharge losses . The device would produce direct current , which would need to be inverted to apply to a standard AC power grid . Lord Kelvin created a similar device that used the energy of falling water droplets to generate high voltage , sometimes called `` Kelvin 's Thunderstorm '' .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Vaneless_ion_wind_generator", "rank": 63, "score": 126451 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable Energy Certificate (United States) Content: Renewable Energy Certificates ( RECs ) , also known as Green tags , Renewable Energy Credits , Renewable Electricity Certificates , or Tradable Renewable Certificates ( TRCs ) , are tradable , non-tangible energy commodities in the United States that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour ( MWh ) of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource ( renewable electricity ) and was fed into the shared system of power lines which transport energy . Solar renewable energy certificates ( SRECs ) are RECs that are specifically generated by solar energy . Renewable Energy Certificates provide a mechanism for the purchase of renewable energy that is added to and pulled from the electrical grid . These certificates can be sold and traded or bartered , and the owner of the REC can claim to have purchased renewable energy . According to the U.S. Department of Energy 's Green Power Network , RECs represent the environmental attributes of the power produced from renewable energy projects and are sold separately from commodity electricity . While traditional carbon emissions trading programs use penalties and incentives to achieve established emissions targets , RECs simply incentivize carbon-neutral renewable energy by providing a production subsidy to electricity generated from renewable sources . A green energy provider ( such as a wind farm ) is credited with one REC for every 1,000 kWh or 1 MWh of electricity it produces ( for reference , an average residential customer consumes about 800 kWh in a month ) . A certifying agency gives each REC a unique identification number to make sure it does n't get double-counted . The green energy is then fed into the electrical grid ( by mandate ) , and the accompanying REC can then be sold on the open market . `` Retirement occurs when a Renewable Energy Certificate ( REC ) is used by the owner of the REC . Use of the REC may include , but is not limited to , ( 1 ) use of the REC by an end-use customer , marketer , generator , or utility to comply with a statutory or regulatory requirement , ( 2 ) a public claim associated with a purchase of RECs by an end-use customer , or ( 3 ) the sale of any component attributes of a REC for any purpose . Once a REC is retired , it may not be sold , donated , or transferred to any other party . No party other than the owner may make claims associated with retired RECs . '' Energy from any grid-tied source is bought and sold with contracts specifying the generator and purchaser . In the trade of renewable energy , RECs specify that a unit of renewable energy was generated . Because once electricity is placed on the electrical grid it mixes with electricity from multiple sources and becomes indistinguishable , RECs are used to track the ownership of environmental and social benefits of the renewable energy . The majority of RECs are sold separately from the electricity itself . In these cases , the electricity is sold as `` null '' energy without its environmental and social benefits , as if it were generated by non-renewable resources such as coal , nuclear or natural gas . When RECs are purchased in combination with non-renewable electricity this constitutes the legal purchase of renewable energy . This is how electrical grid connected renewable energy is traded in the U.S. Grid-connected renewable energy is used by electric utility companies in meeting their regulatory requirements and by individuals and businesses wishing to lessen their environmental impact . RECs allow for purchasers to support renewable energy generation and allows the economic forces of supply and demand to spur the further development of renewable energy generation .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_Energy_Certificate_(United_States)", "rank": 64, "score": 126289 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Pennsylvania Content: There are more than twenty wind power projects operating in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania . The most productive wind energy regions generally fall in mountain or coastal terrains . The northern portion of the Appalachian chain , including most of Southwestern Pennsylvania , is one of the areas with the highest potential for wind energy in the Eastern United States . The mountain ridges of central and northeastern Pennsylvania , including the Poconos in the eastern part of the state , offer some of the best wind resources in the region . If all wind energy potential in Pennsylvania was developed with utility-scale wind turbines , the power produced each year would be enough to supply 6.4 % of the state 's current electricity consumption . In 2006 , Pennsylvania 's legislature ruled that wind turbines and related equipment may not be included in property-tax assessments . Instead , the sites of wind facilities are assessed for their income-capitalization value . In 2007 , Montgomery County became the first wind-powered county in the nation , with a two-year commitment to buy 100 percent of its electricity from a combination of wind energy and renewable energy credits derived from wind energy . In 2009 , the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored Swarthmore , Pennsylvania as a Green Power Community -- the only one in the Eastern United States - for its commitment to buy clean energy generated from wind turbines in mountainous region of western Pennsylvania . In 2012 , a coalition of wind farm developers , owner , operators , their supporters , and retail suppliers joined together to form ChoosePAWind . This coalition 's goal is to educate Pennsylvanians about the environmental and economic benefits of supplying energy from local wind farms . Many smaller wind farms in Pennsylvania are operated by NextEra Energy Resources , based in Florida .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Pennsylvania", "rank": 65, "score": 126107 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental and Energy Study Institute Content: The Environmental and Energy Study Institute ( EESI ) is an independent , bi-partisan 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization that aims to promote environmentally sustainable societies . Based out of Washington , DC , EESI seeks to be a catalyst moving society away from environmentally damaging fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future . The organization was established in 1984 by a bipartisan and bicameral group of members of the United States Congress who were concerned with global environmental and energy problems . EESI works to advance policy solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ground-level air pollution ; improve public health , energy security , and economic development opportunities ; and increase use of renewable energy and energy efficiency . The group seeks to advance its mission through policymaker education , coalition building , and policy development .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Environmental_and_Energy_Study_Institute", "rank": 66, "score": 125931 }, { "content": "Title: Air turbine Content: An air turbine is a turbine driven by airflow . Various forms include : Wind turbine , a renewable energy source Gas turbine , a type of internal combustion engine Ram air turbine ( RAT ) , an emergency power system for aircraft Small air turbines , used as high-speed pneumatic motors in tools such as dentist 's drills .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Air_turbine", "rank": 67, "score": 125866 }, { "content": "Title: Sirin Hamsho Content: Sirin Hamsho , ( Arabic : سيرين حمشو ) also transliterated Serene Hamsho , born in Hama , Syria 1986 , is a Syrian engineer and inventor specializing in renewable energy . She received an international patent for a wind turbine system design in 2015 , and was recognized by the BBC 's 100 Women and featured in the finale of the programme 's international edit-a-thon in 2016 .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Sirin_Hamsho", "rank": 68, "score": 125846 }, { "content": "Title: Green certificate Content: A Green Certificate - terminology predominantly used in Europe but now becoming more widespread globally - are a tradable commodity proving that certain electricity is generated using renewable energy sources . Typically one certificate represents generation of 1 Megawatthour of electricity . What is defined as `` renewable '' varies from certificate trading scheme to trading scheme . Usually , at least the following sources are considered as renewable : Wind ( often further divided into onshore and offshore ) Solar ( often further divided into photovoltaic and thermal ) Wave ( often further divided into onshore and offshore ) and tidal ( often further divided into onshore and offshore ) Geothermal Hydro ( often further divided into small - microhydro - and large ) Biomass ( mainly biofuels , often further divided by actual fuel used ) . Green certificates represent the environmental value of renewable energy generated . The certificates can be traded separately from the energy produced . Several countries use green certificates as a mean to make the support of green electricity generation closer to a market economy instead of more bureaucratic investment support and feed-in tariffs . Such national trading schemes are in use in e.g. Poland , Sweden , the UK , Italy , Belgium ( Wallonia and Flanders ) , and some US states . Once in the grid , renewable energy is impossible to separate from the conventionally generated energy . This makes purchasing of a green certificate equal to purchasing a claim , that the certificate owner consumed energy from the renewable portion of the whole energy in the grid . Therefore certificate purchase does not affect how much renewable energy was actually generated - only how it was distributed . In contrast to CO2e-Reduction certificates , e.g. AAU 's or CER 's under the UNFCC , which can be exchanged worldwide , Green Certificates can not be exchanged/traded between e.g. Belgium and Italy , let alone the USA and the EU member States .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Green_certificate", "rank": 69, "score": 125594 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Serbia Content: Wind power is a fledgling source of renewable energy in Serbia ; nevertheless Green Star Alternative Energy , inc. has constructing the first wind farm in Serbia through its Belo Blato Wind Energy Project . The project is divided into 2 phases . The first phase includes a 20 megawatts ( MW ) wind farm which began operating in 2009 . The second phase includes development of additional 300-MW of wind generated power . The first wind farm is near Kula .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Serbia", "rank": 70, "score": 125184 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Australia Content: Wind power in Australia is a mode of production of renewable energy in Australia . Wind power is a rapidly expanding mode of renewable energy production in Australia with an average annual rate of growth in installed capacity of 35 % over the five years up to 2011 . As at 2015 , there were 4187 megawatts ( MW ) of installed capacity , with another 14962 MW either being planned or under construction . In the year to October 2015 , wind power accounted for 4.9 % of Australia 's total electricity demand and 33.7 % of total renewable energy supply . As at October 2015 , there were 76 wind farms in Australia , most of which had turbines of from 1.5 to 3 MW . South Australia has 35 % of Australia 's wind power capacity , accounting for 34 % of that state 's electricity needs as of 2015 . By the end of 2011 wind power in South Australia reached 26 % of the State 's electricity generation , edging out coal-fired power for the first time . At that stage South Australia , with only 7.2 % of Australia 's population , had 54 % of Australia 's installed wind capacity . Victoria also has a substantial system , with just under 30 % of the Australia 's capacity as of 2015 . In August 2015 , the Victorian government announced financial backing for new wind farms as part of a push to encourage renewable energy in the state , which was expected to bring forward the building of a modest 100 MW of new wind energy in the state , worth $ 200 million in investment . The government expected that there were about 2400 MW worth of Victorian projects that had been approved but were yet to be built .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Australia", "rank": 71, "score": 125144 }, { "content": "Title: REG WindPower Content: REG WindPower is a renewable energy company , in the United Kingdom . REG Windpower is one of the UK 's leading developers and operators of small to medium-sized wind farms , operating nine sites in England and one in Wales , with a combined operational capacity of 41.15 MW . The ultimate parent company Renewable Energy Generation Limited , registered in Jersey , was put into liquidation in January 2016 .", "qid": "386", "docid": "REG_WindPower", "rank": 72, "score": 125064 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental aspects of the electric car Content: Although electric cars have several benefits over conventional internal combustion engine automobiles , they are still subject to environmental regulation due to heavy reliance of rare earth elements such as neodymium , most of which are from China . However , several key environmental benefits includes a significant reduction of local air pollution , especially in cities , as they do not emit harmful tailpipe pollutants such as particulates ( soot ) , volatile organic compounds , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , ozone , lead , and various oxides of nitrogen . The amount of carbon dioxide emitted depends on the emission intensity of the power sources used to charge the vehicle , the efficiency of the said vehicle and the energy wasted in the charging process . For mains electricity the emission intensity varies significantly per country and within a particular country , and on the demand , the availability of renewable sources and the efficiency of the fossil fuel-based generation used at a given time .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Environmental_aspects_of_the_electric_car", "rank": 73, "score": 125033 }, { "content": "Title: Green-collar worker Content: A green-collar worker is a worker who is employed in the environmental sectors of the economy . Environmental green-collar workers ( or green jobs ) satisfy the demand for green development . Generally , they implement environmentally conscious design , policy , and technology to improve conservation and sustainability . Formal environmental regulations as well as informal social expectations are pushing many firms to seek professionals with expertise with environmental , energy efficiency , and clean renewable energy issues . They often seek to make their output more sustainable , and thus more favorable to public opinion , governmental regulation , and the Earth 's ecology . Green collar workers include professionals such as conservation movement workers , environmental consultants , council environmental services/waste management/recycling managers/officers , environmental or biological systems engineers , green building architects , landscape architects , holistic passive solar building designers , solar energy and wind energy engineers and installers , nuclear engineers , green vehicle engineers , `` green business '' owners , green vehicle , organic farmers , environmental lawyers , ecology educators , and ecotechnology workers , and sales staff working with these services or products . Green collar workers also include vocational or trade-level workers : electricians who install solar panels , plumbers who install solar water heaters , recycling centre/MRF attendants , process managers and collectors , construction workers who build energy-efficient green buildings and wind power farms , construction workers who weatherize buildings to make them more energy efficient , or other workers involved in clean , renewable , sustainable future energy development . There is a growing movement to incorporate social responsibility within the green industries . A sustainable green economy simultaneously values the importance of natural resources and inclusive , equitable , and healthy opportunities for all communities . In the context of the current world economic crisis , many experts now argue that a massive push to develop renewable sources of energy could create millions of new jobs and help the economy recover while simultaneously improving the environment , increasing labour conditions in poor economies , and strengthening energy and food security .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Green-collar_worker", "rank": 74, "score": 124985 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the Philippines Content: Renewable energy accounts for 26.44 % of the total electrical energy needs in the Philippines , according to a 2013 survey . Renewable energy sources provided 19,903 gigawatt-hours of electrical energy out of a total need of 75,266 gigawatt-hours in 2013 . There are five main types of renewable energy used in the Philippines , hydropower , geothermal power , wind power , solar power and biomass power . There has been pressure to increase the Philippines ' usage of renewable energy sources in recent years due to the negative effects of fossil fuels -- such as pollution , accelerated climate change and fluctuating prices . A number of laws have been passed by the Philippine Congress to support the use of renewable energy including the Electric Power Industry Reform Act ( 2001 ) , which promotes the use of local and sustainable energy sources to replace imported fossil fuel sources ; the Biofuels Act ( 2006 ) , which encourages the use of biomass fuels ; the Renewable Energy Act ( 2008 ) ; and the Climate Change Act ( 2009 ) , which provides a legal basis for the tackling of climate change through sustainable development . The laws enacted by Congress have resulted in a significant degree of cooperation from private companies producing renewable energy , many of which have contracts with the Philippine Government .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_Philippines", "rank": 75, "score": 124744 }, { "content": "Title: Van Stadens Wind Farm Content: Construction on Van Stadens Wind Farm outside Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape , was started in September 2012 . The South African renewable energy company , MetroWind , is proceeding with the R550-million project which will provide power to the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality . The company will construct nine 3-megawatt wind turbines , boosting the local electricity grid , accounting for nearly half the 10 percent renewable energy target planned for Nelson Mandela Bay , and providing power for around 5 000 homes . In March 2012 South Africa released The Wind Atlas for South Africa , helping to identify other suitable wind energy sites in the Eastern , Western and Northern Cape provinces , and collating some 30 years ' of wind data . A website displays wind speed , frequency , direction and estimated power output , and will be regularly updated as new measurements become available . South Africa has excellent wind energy sites located along its coast and in several inland areas . The country plans to produce 42 % of all new electricity generation over the next 20 years from renewable sources . At the moment 90 % of its energy is from coal , leaving an enormous carbon footprint . Also participating in the project are the South African Weather Service , the University of Cape Town 's Climate System Analysis Group , and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research . The Technical University of Denmark 's wind energy department is also assisting with expertise , while funding is provided by South Africa 's Department of Energy , the Danish Embassy in SA , and the UN Development Programme 's Global Environment Facility .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Van_Stadens_Wind_Farm", "rank": 76, "score": 124741 }, { "content": "Title: Kaheawa Wind Power Content: Kaheawa Wind Power is one of the largest wind farms in Hawaii . It is located on the island of Maui above the town of Maalaea in the West Maui Mountains . Phase one ( KWP I ) of the project was completed in 2006 by developer and operator First Wind and produces 30 MW from 20 GE Energy 1.5 MW wind turbines . Phase two ( KWP II ) , completed in July 2012 , built 14 turbines below phase one with an additional 21 MW for a total capacity of 51 MW serving 18,700 homes . Kaheawa is the first wind farm in the United States to use a Habitat Conservation Plan ( HCP ) to protect the long term health of local species , including three endemic birds and one endemic bat .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Kaheawa_Wind_Power", "rank": 77, "score": 124636 }, { "content": "Title: Clean technology Content: Clean technology refers to any process , product , or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements , the sustainable use of resources , or environmental protection activities . Clean technology includes a broad range of technology related to recycling , renewable energy ( wind power , solar power , biomass , hydropower , biofuels , etc. ) , information technology , green transportation , electric motors , green chemistry , lighting , Greywater , and more . Environmental finance is a method by which new clean technology projects that have proven that they are `` additional '' or `` beyond business as usual '' can obtain financing through the generation of carbon credits . A project that is developed with concern for climate change mitigation ( such as a Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism project ) is also known as a carbon project . While there is no standard definition of `` clean technology , '' it has been described by Clean Edge , a clean technology research firm , as `` a diverse range of products , services , and processes that harness renewable materials and energy sources , dramatically reduce the use of natural resources , and cut or eliminate emissions and wastes . '' It notes that `` Clean technologies are competitive with , if not superior to , their conventional counterparts . Many also offer significant additional benefits , notably their ability to improve the lives of those in both developed and developing countries '' . Investments in clean technology have grown considerably since coming into the spotlight around 2000 . According to the United Nations Environment Program , wind , solar , and biofuel companies received a record $ 148 billion in new funding in 2007 as rising oil prices and climate change policies encouraged investment in renewable energy . $ 50 billion of that funding went to wind power . Overall , investment in clean-energy and energy-efficiency industries rose 60 percent from 2006 to 2007 . By 2018 it is forecast that the three main clean technology sectors , solar photovoltaics , wind power , and biofuels , will have revenues of $ 325.1 bn .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Clean_technology", "rank": 78, "score": 124406 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Denmark Content: Denmark is a world leading country in wind energy production and wind turbine production . In 2014 Denmark produced 57.4 % of its net electricity generation from renewable energy sources . The Danish wind company Vestas Wind Systems A/S has expanded from its domestic base and by 2015 had a revenue of $ 8.423 billion , with more than 18,000 employees globally and manufacturing plants in Denmark , Germany , India , Italy , Romania , the United Kingdom , Spain , Sweden , Norway , Australia , China , and the United States ( see Vestas link above for sources ) . Wind power alone produced 42.7 % of Denmark 's electricity production in 2014 and is expected to increase its production by nearly 80 % in the years to 2024 . Denmark has a target of producing 30 % of all its energy needs from RE energy sources by 2020 , a considerable increase from the 17 % it attained in 2005 . By 2014 this figure had already reached 29.2 % and was the fifth highest amongst the EU-28 countries . The country has ambitious renewable energy goals for the future , including using renewable energy for 100 % of its energy needs in all sectors including transport by 2050 . In the heating sector the country has long used and continues to develop district heating ( DH ) networks . Hot water or steam is produced centrally and then distributed through a network of insulated pipes to high population areas . Houses within a district heating area have heat exchangers installed instead of boilers for their heating and hot water requirements . The heat exchanger keeps the two water systems separate and means that heat can be adjusted as with a familiar domestic boiler . One simple but important innovation in the district heating network was the development of internally insulated pipes . The two pipes taking and receiving the return of water are placed inside a much larger pipe and insulating material is set so as to fill the figure eight shaped void between the two smaller and the large pipe . In 2013 district heating supplied over 60 % of all households in Denmark with heating and hot water . The development of district heating technology has led Denmark to become a world leader in industrial pump and thermostat designs and its products are used in many industries worldwide . Cogeneration is also widely used . This is a process that extracts the waste heat produced when generating electricity . Power stations designed to do this are known as Combined Heat and Power ( CHP ) stations . CHP stations in Denmark are often sized to provide the heat required for the local district heating system . Thus CHP stations produce both electricity for the grid and heat for district heating systems . Heat can be stored in large industrial hot water tanks for several days allowing electricity and heat supply to be provided time independently from each other . By 2013 the use of CHP stations had reduced the overall energy consumption in Denmark by 11 % . Danish electricity generation has become increasingly decentralised with a move away from production in the large central power stations to many smaller , locally based and mostly CHP stations . Many of these smaller stations use locally sourced bio energy sources including straw and wood pellets .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Denmark", "rank": 79, "score": 124076 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Portugal Content: Wind power in Portugal describes wind power in Portugal as part of energy in Portugal and renewable energy in Portugal . As of December 2013 , wind power capacity in Portugal ( Madeira and Azores included ) was of 4,731 MW . Wind share of total electricity consumption was 23 % saving nearly 8,182,900 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions . The major wind turbine manufacturers in the Portuguese market are Enercon , Vestas , Gamesa and Nordex . The largest owners of wind farms , as of December 2013 , are ENEOP2 ( 23,9 % ) , Iberwind ( 14,5 % ) ( EDP Renováveis ) ( 13 % ) , Generg ( 9,2 % ) and EEVM ( 6,2 % ) . The record of wind power generation utilization was achieved on October 24 , 2013 at 02:00 with 3844 MW or 84 % of the total used electricity .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Portugal", "rank": 80, "score": 123639 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Afghanistan Content: Renewable energy in Afghanistan includes biomass , hydropower , solar , wind power . Afghanistan is a landlocked country located in Asia that holds a spot as one of the countries with a smaller ecological footprint . It has been contended at different levels that hydropower may be an easier source of renewable energy for Afghanistan than other nations due to their geographical location . Their mountainous environment facilitates hydro dams and other facets of hydro energy ( Yasah et al. ) . The nation however , is not entirely independent on their sources of energy ; they import an annual sum from neighboring countries like Tajikistan ( Mainali & Silveira ) . Another form of renewable energy that Afghanistan has been doing is the implementation of Biogas ( Amjid et al. ) . With the start of Biogas , communities have begun to feel the benefits beyond that of the environment through capacity building as well ( Amjid et al. ) . Afghanistan is one of the lowest energy consuming countries in relation to a global standing ( Mainali & Silveira ) . The country continues to feel the effect of the war , and the hardships it has endured in the name of it continue to leave scars . With `` looting and lack of maintenance and spare parts mean that generation capacity is far below the potential level -LSB- ... -RSB- which in turn is sustainability below the country 's need '' . Afghanistan is not self sustainable with their use of energy , they also have the need to import energy from neighboring countries . One particular country that Afghanistan imports from is Tajikistan . It is known that `` the three countries also agreed to set up a joint commission to explore possibilities into the transfer of 500 Kilo Watts of energy from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Iran '' ( Institute for the Study of War ) . Importing energy is a popular thing among central Asian countries , adding a deeper level of connectedness between governments and citizens . -LSB- 2 -RSB-", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Afghanistan", "rank": 81, "score": 123599 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Connecticut Content: The U.S. state of Connecticut has vast wind energy resources onshore as well as offshore although Connecticut is the only state in the United States to block the construction of utility scale wind turbines . Connecticut maintains a Renewable portfolio standard that requires 23 % of the state 's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020 .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Connecticut", "rank": 82, "score": 123562 }, { "content": "Title: George Philippidis Content: George Philippidis is a renewable energy leader who has published and spoken extensively about the global need for energy diversification over the last 20 years . He advocates the development of renewable and alternative low-carbon power and fuels to enhance energy security , combat climate change , and secure sustainable economic growth . He has authored 11 cleantech patents , written numerous articles , and spoken nationally and internationally on this subject emphasizing that renewable and alternative energy will initially supplement and augment current resources and progressively replace fossil energy , provided that governments institute long-term energy policies promoting the development of and private investment in new energy technologies . A diverse energy portfolio , depending on the local availability of natural resources , includes ( 1 ) solar , wind , biomass-to-power , ocean , and geothermal energy for power generation , and ( 2 ) renewable hydrocarbons , biomass - and algae-derived biofuels , and electric vehicles for transportation . The private sector and the markets should determine which of those forms of low-carbon energy are most appropriate and cost-effective locally in different parts of the country and the world . Dr. Philippidis studied Chemical Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece getting a BS and at the University of Minnesota receiving a PhD . He also studied Business Administration at the University of Denver obtaining an MBA . He led strategic business units at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ( NREL ) of the US Department of Energy in Denver and at a subsidiary of Thermo Electron Corporation in Boston before becoming Energy Director of the Applied Research Center , the business arm of Florida International University in Miami . Presently , he is Director of the Alternative Energy Research Center and Associate Professor of Biofuel Engineering at the University of South Florida Polytechnic in the Tampa Bay area , where he works with companies and venture capital firms to commercialize clean energy technologies and educates students and professionals in critical energy issues . He has been advising the federal and state governments on energy policy , venture capital and private equity firms on investment in cleantech , and the private sector in the United States and Latin America on the establishment of a renewable energy industry .", "qid": "386", "docid": "George_Philippidis", "rank": 83, "score": 123428 }, { "content": "Title: WindShare Content: WindShare is a for-profit wind power co-operative that was officially launched in February 2002 in Toronto , Ontario , Canada . It was created by the non-profit Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative ( TREC ) which was incorporated in 1998 . TREC continues to exist as a separate non-profit entity . WindShare 's ExPlace wind turbine was erected on December 18 , 2002 , on the grounds of Exhibition Place , in Toronto . It was the first wind turbine installed in a major North American urban city centre . and the first community-owned wind power project in Ontario . The 91 m tall ExPlace wind turbine is co-owned by the WindShare co-operative and Toronto Hydro , and annually adds an average of 1000 MWh of electricity to the city 's main power grid . WindShare and its parent , the Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative ( TREC ) , have plans for more wind turbines . As of March , 2010 these plans are called `` The Lakewind Project . '' ( See below )", "qid": "386", "docid": "WindShare", "rank": 84, "score": 123291 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of the energy industry Content: The environmental impact of the energy industry is diverse . Energy has been harnessed by human beings for millennia . Initially it was with the use of fire for light , heat , cooking and for safety , and its use can be traced back at least 1.9 million years . In recent years there has been a trend towards the increased commercialization of various renewable energy sources . Consumption of fossil fuel resources leads to global warming and climate change . In most parts of the world little change is being made to slow these changes . If the peak oil theory proves true , and more explorations of viable alternative energy sources are made , our impact could be less hostile to our environment . Rapidly advancing technologies can achieve a transition of energy generation , water and waste management , and food production towards better environmental and energy usage practices using methods of systems ecology and industrial ecology .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_the_energy_industry", "rank": 85, "score": 122891 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy credit Content: A Renewable energy credit ( REC ) is any tax credit offered by a local or federal taxation authority as an incentive for the installation and operation of renewable energy systems such as solar or wind power . In the United States , as part of the new economic stimulus package , new renewable Energy Rebate Programs are in place . Residential and commercial customers may receive a lump sum cash rebate or , for larger systems , a five-year payback program from their local utility company . In addition , there is new 30 % uncapped federal tax credit and state tax credits around 10 % . Renewable Energy Credit is one of two main outputs or benefits from generation of new power from renewable sources . Renewable power generation creates actual power in the form of electricity , and environmental benefits to society from `` green '' power production -- such as minimizing pollution and slowing the rate finite fuel resources are used . The actual power is sold into the local grid , and the societal benefits are sold in the form of Renewable Energy Credits or `` RECs '' , sold separately as a commodity into the marketplace . While RECs are not actually a measure of power , each REC represents one megawatt hour ( MWh ) of renewable-generated energy . For each REC purchased the customer is able to claim the equivalent MWh of energy reduction as on offset to their conventional energy use . Opponents declare that by using RECs a customer can claim energy `` reduction '' even if they do not actually reduce their end-use at all - or even increase it . Proponents counter that more REC purchases drive increased production of renewable power which can replace conventional production .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_credit", "rank": 86, "score": 122882 }, { "content": "Title: Wild Horse Wind Farm Content: The Wild Horse Wind Farm is a 273-megawatt wind farm that generates energy for Puget Sound Energy that consists of one hundred twenty seven 1.8-megawatt Vestas V80 turbines and twenty two 2.0-megawatt Vestas V80 turbines on a 10800 acre site in Kittitas County , Washington , 17 mi east of Ellensburg , Washington . The turbines are placed on the high open Shrub-steppe ridge tops of Whiskey Dick Mountain , which was chosen for its energetic wind resource , remote location , and access to nearby power transmission lines . The towers are 221 ft tall , and each blade is 129 ft long , with a total rotor diameter of 264 ft , larger than the wingspan of a Boeing 747 . The turbines can begin producing electricity with wind speeds as low as 9 mi/h and reach full production at 31 mi/h . They shut down at sustained wind speeds of 56 mi/h . The site is also home to one of the largest solar array ( 500 kW ) in Washington . The wind farm was developed by EDP Renewables , a subsidiary of Energias de Portugal S.A. ( EDP ) , a world leading Portuguese utility ; and built by Puget Sound Energy ( PSE ) , an electric and gas distribution utility in the State of Washington . Construction began in October 2005 and was completed in December 2006 . An expansion was completed in 2009 . The Wild Horse Wind Farm also has a visitor center called the Renewable Energy Center , with guided tours of a Silicon Energy Solar array , a 1.8 MW wind turbine generator , a wind turbine blade , and includes a look inside the base of a wind turbine .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wild_Horse_Wind_Farm", "rank": 87, "score": 122648 }, { "content": "Title: Ecological light pollution Content: Ecological light pollution is the effect of artificial light on individual organisms and on the structure of ecosystems as a whole . The effect that artificial light has upon organisms is highly variable , and ranges from beneficial ( e.g. increased ability for predator species to observe prey ) to immediately fatal ( e.g. moths that are attracted to incandescent lanterns and are killed by the heat ) . It is also possible for light at night to be both beneficial and damaging for a species . As an example , humans benefit from using indoor artificial light to extend the time available for work and play , but the light disrupts the human circadian rhythm , and the resulting stress is damaging to health . Through the various effects that light pollution has on individual species , the ecology of regions is affected . In the case where two species occupy an identical niche , the population frequency of each species may be changed by the introduction of artificial light if they are not equally affected by light at night . For example , some species of spiders avoid lit areas , while other species are happy to build their spider web directly on a lamp post . Since lamp posts attract many flying insects , the spiders that do n't mind light gain an advantage over the spiders that avoid it , and consequently become more common . Changes in these species frequencies can then have knock-on effects , as the interactions between these species and others in the ecosystem are affected and food webs are altered . These ripple effects can eventually affect even diurnal plants and animals . As an example , changes in the activity of night active insects can change the survival rates of night blooming plants , which may provide food or shelter for diurnal animals . The introduction of artificial light at night is one of the most drastic anthropogenic changes to the Earth , comparable to toxic pollution , land use change , and climate change due to increases in the concentration of green house gases .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Ecological_light_pollution", "rank": 88, "score": 122324 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in Germany Content: Germany 's renewable energy sector is among the most innovative and successful worldwide . Net-generation from renewable energy sources in the German electricity sector has increased from 6.3 % in 2000 to about 34 % in 2016 . On Sunday 15 May 2016 at 14:00 hours , renewables supplied nearly all of domestic electricity demand . While peak-generation from combined wind and solar reached a previous all-time high of 74 % in April 2014 , wind power saw its best day ever on December 12 , 2014 , generating 562 GWh . Germany has been called `` the world 's first major renewable energy economy '' . More than 23,000 wind turbines and 1.4 million solar PV systems are distributed all over the country 's area of 357,000 square kilometers . As of 2011 , Germany 's federal government is working on a new plan for increasing renewable energy commercialization , with a particular focus on offshore wind farms . A major challenge is the development of sufficient network capacities for transmitting the power generated in the North Sea to the large industrial consumers in southern parts of the country . According to official figures , some 370,000 people were employed in the renewable energy sector in 2010 , especially in small and medium-sized companies . This is an increase of around 8 % compared to 2009 ( around 339,500 jobs ) , and well over twice the number of jobs in 2004 ( 160,500 ) . About two-thirds of these jobs are attributed to the Renewable Energy Sources Act . Germany 's energy transition , the Energiewende , designates a significant change in energy policy from 2011 . The term encompasses a reorientation of policy from demand to supply and a shift from centralized to distributed generation ( for example , producing heat and power in very small cogeneration units ) , which should replace overproduction and avoidable energy consumption with energy-saving measures and increased efficiency .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_Germany", "rank": 89, "score": 122196 }, { "content": "Title: Gil Masters Content: Gilbert ` Gil ' Masters is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering ( emeritus ) at Stanford University . Though he officially retired in 2002 , he continues to teach two classes at the university . He is the author of six books , including the leading environmental science textbook Introduction to Environmental Engineering and Science ( Prentice Hall ) , now in its third edition . He also recently published Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems ( Wiley ) and Energy for Sustainability : Technology , Planning , Policy ( Island Press ) . Within the broad field of environmental engineering , Gil Masters specializes in the interrelationships between environmental quality and energy consumption . His main focus is on the design and evaluation of renewable energy systems and energy efficient buildings , including photovoltaics , wind turbines , distributed generation , combined heat-and-power systems , fuel cells , passive solar design , and solar-thermal technologies . Masters taught environmental courses at Stanford since the mid-1970s , including CE170 , Man and the Environment . Masters earned a number of teaching awards at Stanford , including the Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching , and the Tau Beta Pi teaching award from the School of Engineering .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Gil_Masters", "rank": 90, "score": 122153 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Greece Content: Wind power in Greece was due to expand by 352 % by 2010 to meet the European target of 20 % coverage of energy needs from renewable sources . Previously , there were 1,028 wind turbines installed throughout Greece and the number was set to reach 2,587 wind turbines before the end of 2010 . According to the Ministry of Environment and Public Works , the system would have a nameplate capacity of 3,372 MW of power from wind alone compared to 746MW at the end of 2006 . Greece chose to invest primarily to wind power by 77 % , while the rest of renewable sources altogether comprise the remaining 23 % of production with hydroelectric power being second with 11 % .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Greece", "rank": 91, "score": 121480 }, { "content": "Title: Alliance Federated Energy Content: Alliance Federated Energy is headquartered in Milwaukee , Wisconsin . Its principal business is to develop , build , own , and operate energy and environmental infrastructure projects with a focus on renewable and environmentally sustainable technologies . AFE is managed by a team of industry veterans with significant experience in developing , operating , and financing energy-related businesses and projects around the globe . Collectively , the team has developed and/or financed over a dozen power generation projects over the past 30 years , including simple and combined cycle combustion turbines , pulverized coal , waste-coal , waste-to-energy , wind , and liquefied natural gas facilities .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Alliance_Federated_Energy", "rank": 92, "score": 121466 }, { "content": "Title: Green consumption Content: Green consumption , is closely related to the notions of sustainable development or sustainable consumer behaviour . It is a form of consumption that is compatible with the safeguard of the environment for the present and for the next generations . It is a concept which ascribes to consumers responsibility or co-responsibility for addressing environmental problems through adoption of environmentally friendly behaviors , such as the use of organic products , clean and renewable energy and the research of goods produced by companies with zero , or almost , impact . In Western societies , during the ` 60s and the early ` 70s , the necessity to protect the environment and the people health from the effects caused by industrial pollutants and by the continuous growth of economic and population has developed this new idea of consumption . In the 1980s first American `` green '' brands began to appear and exploded on the American market . During the 1990s green products had a slow and steady growth , remaining a niche phenomenon . American interest in them started to increase again in the early 2000s with greater speed and , despite the latest recession , it has been continuing to grow .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Green_consumption", "rank": 93, "score": 121451 }, { "content": "Title: Wind power in Iran Content: This article discuss the development and implementation of wind power in Iran . Iran has relied primarily on a fossil fuel-based energy sector to power its country . However , in the last decade Iran has made steps to decrease its dependency on fossil fuels by investing in the renewable energy of wind power . This article discuss the process as well as the reasons for Iran 's interest in renewable energy ; the positive and negative effects as a result of the presence of wind power ; the political dynamics occurring in Iran ; and its attempt to also invest in nuclear energy as well .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Wind_power_in_Iran", "rank": 94, "score": 121298 }, { "content": "Title: Citizen Partnerships for Offshore Wind Content: Citizen Partnerships for Offshore Wind is a collaboration of communities and organizations that believe the United States must move towards indigenous clean energy sources like offshore wind and that public education and citizen engagement are essential to making that transition . This partnership aims to connect coastal communities facing offshore wind development to address common challenges and opportunities posed by offshore wind . By working collaboratively , citizens can share experiences , information , and resources , and help build a unified movement towards the acceptance of offshore wind . Right now , the United States is more than 20 years behind Europe in adopting this established technology . The United States ' deeply rooted affiliations with the fossil fuel industry have allowed us to remain dependent on unhealthy and dangerous fuels . The East Coast and Great Lakes have an immense opportunity to produce clean energy and boost local economies by accepting offshore wind as a viable , preferable energy resource . It is in the public 's best interest to support offshore wind because of its great potential to improve our health , economy and energy security . While we as a collaborative support offshore wind as one of the many sources of renewable energy that can meet our needs , we require projects to be appropriately sited and to demonstrate proven benefits to the local community and environment . The initial gathering of 20 advocates representing communities in 15 coastal states produced a basis for collaboration that emphasized keeping the needs of communities at the forefront of the discussion of offshore wind . Sponsored by the Civil Society Institute ( CSI ) as a project that grew out of the CLEAN network , CPOW is directed by members of the collaborative . Civil Society Institute understands the immense contribution offshore wind power can make towards advancing a clean energy economy for the United States and reducing our dependence on unhealthy and dangerous fossil fuels , and therefore initiated the formation of this partnership .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Citizen_Partnerships_for_Offshore_Wind", "rank": 95, "score": 121154 }, { "content": "Title: Tethys (database) Content: Tethys is an online knowledge management system that provides the marine renewable energy ( MRE ) and offshore wind ( OSW ) energy communities with access to information and scientific literature on the environmental effects of devices . Named after the Greek titaness of the sea , the goal of the Tethys database is to promote environmental stewardship and the advancement of the wind and marine renewable energy communities . The website has been developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ( PNNL ) in support of the U.S. Department of Energy ( DOE ) Wind and Water Power Technologies Office . Tethys hosts information and activities associated with two international collaborations known as Annex IV and WREN , formed to examine the environmental effects of marine renewable energy projects and wind energy projects , respectively .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Tethys_(database)", "rank": 96, "score": 121093 }, { "content": "Title: Puketiro Wind Farm Content: The Puketiro Wind Farm is a renewable energy project being developed by the Greater Wellington Regional Council on Puketiro Forest land owned by the council near Pauatahanui , north of Wellington , New Zealand . After a tender process in 2006 , RES NZ Ltd was selected to develop the project . It is planned for approximately 40 wind turbines with a capacity of up to 130 MW . Wide public consultation was undertaken during early development of the project . 1300 submissions were received , with over 90 % in favour . Nonetheless , a group of residents ( Pauatahanui Futures Society Inc. ) sought an injunction in May 2008 to stop the wind farm from proceeding . The Greater Wellington Regional Council has since withdrawn permission for the three turbines that were to be installed in Battle Hill Farm Forest Park , and banned all turbines from the park .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Puketiro_Wind_Farm", "rank": 97, "score": 120493 }, { "content": "Title: Renewable energy in the United States Content: Renewable energy in the United States accounted for 13.44 percent of the domestically produced electricity in 2015 , and 11.1 percent of total energy generation . As of 2016 , more than 260,000 people work in the solar industry and 43 states deploy net metering , where energy utilities buy back excess power generated by solar arrays . Renewable energy reached a major milestone in the first quarter of 2011 , when it contributed 11.7 percent of total U.S. energy production ( 2.245 quadrillion BTU of energy ) , surpassing energy production from nuclear power ( 2.125 quadrillion BTU ) . 2011 was the first year since 1997 that renewables exceeded nuclear in US total energy production . Hydroelectric power is currently the largest producer of renewable power in the U.S. . It produced around 6.14 % of the nation 's total electricity in 2015 which was 45.71 % of the total renewable power in the U.S. . The United States is the fourth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world after China , Canada and Brazil . The Grand Coulee Dam is the 5th largest hydroelectric power station in the world . U.S. wind power installed capacity now exceeds 72,000 MW and supplies 4.1 % of the nation 's electricity . Texas is firmly established as the leader in wind power development , followed by Iowa and California . Since the U.S. pioneered the technology in 1981 with Solar One , several solar thermal power stations have also been built . The largest of these solar thermal power stations are the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility ( 392 MW ) , southwest of Las Vegas , and the SEGS group of plants in the Mojave Desert , with a total generating capacity of 354 MW . Large photovoltaic power plants in the USA include Solar Star ( 579 MW ) , near Rosamond , California , the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm , a 550 MW solar power plant in Riverside County , California and the Topaz Solar Farm , a 550 MW photovoltaic power plant , in San Luis Obispo County , California . The Geysers in Northern California is the largest complex of geothermal energy production in the world . The development of renewable energy and energy efficiency marks `` a new era of energy exploration '' in the United States , according to President Barack Obama . In a joint address to the Congress on February 24 , 2009 , President Obama called for doubling renewable energy within the next three years . In his 2012 State of the Union address , President Barack Obama restated his commitment to renewable energy and mentioned the long-standing Interior Department commitment to permit 10,000 MW of renewable energy projects on public land in 2012 .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Renewable_energy_in_the_United_States", "rank": 98, "score": 120320 }, { "content": "Title: China Power New Energy Development Content: China Power New Energy Development Company Limited ( CPNE , , abbreviated as 中电新能源 Zhōngdiàn xīnnéngyuán , former name : Oriental Investment ) is a Hong Kong listed energy company established in 2006 . It operates hydropower , wind , natural gas , solar , and waste-to-energy power plants . The chairman till December 2015 was Li Xiaolin , then also chairman and CEO of China Power International Development Limited and vice president of State Power Investment Corporation . She became the chairman of the company in May 2007 , replacing Lai Leong in this position . In December 2015 , she was replaced by Wang Binghua . In December 2011 , China Three Gorges Corporation paid HK$ 2.1 billion ( US$ 270 million ) for a 29 % stake in CPNED to become the largest shareholder of the company that time . In the same year CPNED became the first renewable energy company in China to succeed raising substantial hard currency funding via a bond issue . In 2010 , the company acquired China Power Dafeng Wind Power Company for US74 million . In 2012 , the company agreed to acquire a Chinese wind turbine unit of Suzlon Energy for US$ 60 million . However , this deal was terminated . In 2015 , the company announced that it will take over State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation .", "qid": "386", "docid": "China_Power_New_Energy_Development", "rank": 99, "score": 119936 }, { "content": "Title: Energy transition Content: Energy transition is generally defined as a long-term structural change in energy systems . These have occurred in the past , and still occur worldwide . Historic energy transitions are most broadly described by Vaclav Smil . Contemporary energy transitions differ in terms of motivation and objectives , drivers and governance . An example of transition toward sustainable energy , is the shift by Germany ( Energiewende ) , to decentralised renewable energy , and energy efficiency . Although so far these shifts have been replacing nuclear energy , their declared goal is the abolishment of coal , reducing non-renewable energy sources and the creation of an energy system based on 60 % renewable energy by 2050 . Renewable energy encompasses wind , hydropower , solar power , geothermal , and ocean power . These renewable sources are to serve as an alternative to fossil fuels ( oil , coal , natural gas ) and nuclear fuel ( uranium ) . Solving the energy/global warming problem is regarded as the most important challenge facing humankind in the 21st century . Piecemeal measures often have only limited potential , so a timely implementation for the energy transition requires multiple approaches in parallel . Energy conservation and improvements in energy efficiency thus play a major role . An example of an effective energy efficiency measure is improved insulation for buildings . Smart electric meters can schedule energy consumption for times when electricity is available inexpensively . After such a transitional period , with a continuing increase in renewable energy production these are expected to make up most , if not all , of the world 's energy production in 50 years according to a 2011 projection by the International Energy Agency , dramatically reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases .", "qid": "386", "docid": "Energy_transition", "rank": 100, "score": 119888 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 100,000-year problem Content: The 100,000-year problem ( `` 100 ky problem '' , `` 100 ka problem '' ) of the Milankovitch theory of orbital forcing refers to a discrepancy between the reconstructed geologic temperature record and the reconstructed amount of incoming solar radiation , or insolation over the past 800,000 years . Due to variations in the Earth 's orbit , the amount of insolation varies with periods of around 21,000 , 40,000 , 100,000 , and 400,000 years ( Milankovitch cycles ) . Variations in the amount of incident solar energy drive changes in the climate of the Earth , and are recognised as a key factor in the timing of initiation and termination of glaciations . While there is a Milankovitch cycle in the range of 100,000 years , related to Earth 's orbital eccentricity , its contribution to variation in insolation is much smaller than those of precession and obliquity . The 100,000-year-problem refers to the lack of an obvious explanation for the periodicity of ice ages at roughly 100,000 years for the past million years , but not before , when the dominant periodicity corresponded to 41,000 years . The unexplained transition between the two periodicity regimes is known as the mid-Pleistocene transition , dated to some 800,000 years ago . The related `` 400,000-year-problem '' refers to the absence of a 400,000-year periodicity due to orbital eccentricity in the geological temperature record over the past 1.2 million years .", "qid": "388", "docid": "100,000-year_problem", "rank": 1, "score": 120986 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 2, "score": 112968 }, { "content": "Title: Milankovitch cycles Content: Milankovitch cycles describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth 's movements on its climate over thousands of years . The term is named after Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković . In the 1920s , he theorized that variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit resulted in cyclical variation in the solar radiation ( insolation ) reaching the Earth , and that this orbital forcing strongly influenced climatic patterns on Earth . The Earth 's orbit varies between nearly circular and mildly elliptical ( its eccentricity varies ) . When the orbit is more elongated , there is more variation in the distance between the Earth and the Sun , and in the amount of solar radiation , at different times in the year . In addition , the rotational tilt of the Earth ( its obliquity ) , which causes the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun , changes slightly . A greater tilt makes the seasons more extreme . Finally , the direction in the fixed stars pointed to by the Earth 's axis changes ( axial precession ) , while the Earth 's elliptical orbit around the Sun rotates ( apsidal precession ) . The combined effect of the two precessions is a cycle in which proximity to the Sun occurs during different astronomical seasons . If the Earth is closer to the Sun while the northern or southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun ( is in summer ) , then both effects work together to heat that hemisphere . If the Earth is further from the Sun during summer , the greater distance slightly reduces the heat of summer . Similar astronomical theories had been advanced in the 19th century by Joseph Adhemar , James Croll and others , but verification was difficult because there was no reliably dated evidence , and because it was unclear which periods were important . Now , materials on Earth that have been unchanged for millennia are being studied to indicate the history of Earth 's climate . A study of the chronology of Antarctic ice cores using oxygen-nitrogen ratios in air bubbles trapped in the ice , which appear to respond directly to the local insolation , concluded that the climatic response documented in the ice cores was driven by northern hemisphere insolation as proposed by the Milankovitch hypothesis . Analysis of deep-ocean cores and a seminal paper by Hays , Imbrie , and Shackleton provide additional validation of the Milankovitch hypothesis through physical artifacts . However , there are still several observations that the hypothesis does not explain .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Milankovitch_cycles", "rank": 3, "score": 101013 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 4, "score": 93321 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 5, "score": 90367 }, { "content": "Title: Solar cycle Content: The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is the nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun 's activity ( including changes in the levels of solar radiation and ejection of solar material ) and appearance ( changes in the number and size of sunspots , flares , and other manifestations ) . They have been observed ( by changes in the sun 's appearance and by changes seen on Earth , such as auroras ) for centuries . The changes on the sun cause effects in space , in the atmosphere , and on Earth 's surface . While it is the dominant variable in solar activity , aperiodic fluctuations also occur .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Solar_cycle", "rank": 6, "score": 89210 }, { "content": "Title: Climate oscillation Content: A climate oscillation or climate cycle is any recurring cyclical oscillation within global or regional climate , and is a type of climate pattern . These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature , sea surface temperature , precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic , often occurring on inter-annual , multi-annual , decadal , multidecadal , century-wide , millennial or longer timescales . They are not perfectly periodic and a Fourier analysis of the data does not give a sharp spectrum . A prominent example is the El Niño Southern Oscillation , involving sea surface temperatures along a stretch of the equatorial Central and East Pacific Ocean and the western coast of tropical South America , but which affects climate worldwide . Records of past climate conditions are recovered through geological examination of proxies , found in glacier ice , sea bed sediment , tree ring studies or otherwise .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_oscillation", "rank": 7, "score": 88907 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal fluctuations Content: In statistical mechanics , thermal fluctuations are random deviations of a system from its average state , that occur in a system at equilibrium . All thermal fluctuations become larger and more frequent as the temperature increases , and likewise they decrease as temperature approaches absolute zero . Thermal fluctuations are a basic manifestation of the temperature of systems : A system at nonzero temperature does not stay in its equilibrium microscopic state , but instead randomly samples all possible states , with probabilities given by the Boltzmann distribution . Thermal fluctuations generally affect all the degrees of freedom of a system : There can be random vibrations ( phonons ) , random rotations ( rotons ) , random electronic excitations , and so forth . Thermodynamic variables , such as pressure , temperature , or entropy , likewise undergo thermal fluctuations . For example , for a system that has an equilibrium pressure , the system pressure fluctuates to some extent about the equilibrium value . Only the ` control variables ' of statistical ensembles ( such as N , V and E in the microcanonical ensemble ) do not fluctuate . Thermal fluctuations are a source of noise in many systems . The random forces that give rise to thermal fluctuations are a source of both diffusion and dissipation ( including damping and viscosity ) . The competing effects of random drift and resistance to drift are related by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem . Thermal fluctuations play a major role in phase transitions and chemical kinetics .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Thermal_fluctuations", "rank": 8, "score": 88445 }, { "content": "Title: HD 41248 Content: HD 41248 is a star in the constellation Pictor . It is a star very similar to our Sun , with the same spectral type ( G2V ) . It has 68 % of the Sun 's luminosity , 92 % of its mass and 78 % of its diameter . It is estimated to be around 2 billion years old , and it has a lower metallicity -- 43 % that of the Sun . With an apparent visual magnitude of 8.81 , it is too faint to be seen with the unaided eye , and is located around 170 light-years ( 52 parsecs ) away from the Solar System . HD 41248 was investigated in the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher ( HARPS ) and initially thought not to have planets , but review of its spectrum showed it to have two super-earths with orbital periods of 18.357 days and 25.648 days and minimum masses 12.3 and 8.6 times that of the Earth . The planets are in a 7:5 mean motion resonance . The existence of the planets has been called into question as being a possible false detection due to stellar activity , with a cycle of 25 days related to the star 's rotational period . The original researchers conceded small planet signals could be difficult to unravel from signal noise and noted that the star had become more active in recent years , but in reanalysing all the data concluded that the stability of the radial velocity signals over ten years strengthened the case for the planet hypothesis . They add that more conclusive proof could come as instruments operating in the near infrared such as CARMENES or the Habitable Zone Planet Finder ( HPF ) become operational .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_41248", "rank": 9, "score": 87371 }, { "content": "Title: Diurnal cycle Content: A diurnal cycle is any pattern that recurs every 24 hours as a result of one full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun . In climatology , the diurnal cycle is one of the most basic forms of climate patterns . The most familiar such pattern is the diurnal temperature variation . Such a cycle may be approximately sinusoidal , or include components of a truncated sinusoid ( due to the sun 's rising and setting ) and thermal relaxation ( Newton cooling ) at night . Diurnal cycles of environmental conditions ( light or temperature ) can result in similar cycles in dependent biological processes , such as photosynthesis in plants , or clinical depression in humans . Plant responses to environmental cycles may even induce indirect cycles in rhizosphere microbial activities , including nitrogen fixation . A semi-diurnal cycle refers to a pattern that occurs about every twelve hours or about twice a day . Often these can be related to lunar tides , in which case the interval is closer to 12 hours and 25 minutes .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Diurnal_cycle", "rank": 10, "score": 87184 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 11, "score": 86824 }, { "content": "Title: HIP 56948 Content: HIP 56948 ( also known as HD 101364 ) is a solar twin star of type G5V . It is one of the most sun-like stars yet known in terms of size , mass , temperature , and chemical makeup . Our sun is about 4.6 billion years old , and HIP 56948 is believed to be about a billion years younger , placing HIP 56948 just at the edge of a solar twin . Both stars are between a third and a halfway through their life on the main sequence . It is 208 light years away in the constellation of Draco , lying about halfway between Polaris and Dubhe on the celestial sphere . Astronomers have looked for planets in the system , so far without finding any . These observations suggest that the star does not have any hot Jupiters .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HIP_56948", "rank": 12, "score": 86739 }, { "content": "Title: Climate state Content: Climate state describes a state of climate on Earth and similar terrestrial planets based on a thermal energy budget , such as the greenhouse or icehouse climate state . The main climate state change is between periodical glacial and interglacial cycles in Earth history , studied from climate proxies . The climate system is responding to the current climate forcing and adjusts following climate sensitivity to reach a climate equilibrium , Earth 's energy balance . Model simulations suggest that the current interglacial climate state will continue for at least another 100,000 years , due to emissions - including complete deglaciation of the Northern Hemisphere .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_state", "rank": 13, "score": 86243 }, { "content": "Title: HD 197027 Content: HD 197027 ( HIP 102152 ) is a star in the constellation Capricornus that is located about 250 light years from the Sun . The measured properties of this star are very similar to those of the Sun , making it a candidate older solar twin . The abundances of 21 elements overall are more similar to the Sun than any other known solar twin . Additionally , the effective temperature , surface gravity , and microturbulence are nearly identical to the Sun 's . However , it is significantly older than the Sun , being approximately 3.6 billion years older than the Sun , at 8.2 Billion years old . The fact that the abundances are so similar to the Sun 's suggests that it is a potential candidate for hosting terrestrial type planets .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_197027", "rank": 14, "score": 85805 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-452 Content: Kepler-452 is a G-type main-sequence star located about 1400 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus . It has a similar temperature to that of the Sun , but it is 20 percent brighter , 3.7 percent more massive and is 11 percent larger . It is approximately six billion years old , 1.5 billion years older than the Sun and also has a much higher metallicity . Thus , Kepler-452 can be considered a solar twin , however its age pushes it more back towards the `` solar analog '' criteria .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Kepler-452", "rank": 15, "score": 84835 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclostratigraphy Content: Cyclostratigraphy is the study of astronomically forced climate cycles within sedimentary successions . Astronomical cycles are variations of the Earth 's orbit around the sun due to the gravitational interaction with other masses within the solar system . Due to this cyclicity solar irradiation differs through time on different hemispheres and seasonality is affected . These insolation variations have influence on Earth 's climate and so on the deposition of sedimentary rocks . The main orbital cycles are precession with at present main periods of 19 and 23 kyr , obliquity with at present main periods of 41 kyr , and 1.2 Myr , and eccentricity with at present main periods of around 100 kyr , 405 kyr , and 2.4 Myr . Cyclostratigraphic studies of rock records can lead to accurate dating of events in the geological past , to increase understanding of cause and consequences of Earth 's ( climate ) history , and to more control on depositional mechanisms of sediments and the acting of sedimentary systems .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Cyclostratigraphy", "rank": 16, "score": 84162 }, { "content": "Title: HD 71334 Content: HD 71334 is a Sun-like star 126.7 light years ( 38.85 parsecs ) from the Sun . HD 150248 is a G-type star and an older solar analog . It is older than the sun at 8.1 billion years , compared to the sun at 4.6 billion years old . At 8.1 billion years old , HD 71334 has pasted its stable burning stage . HD 71334 has a lower metallicity that the Sun . HD 71334 is found in the constellations of Puppis . Puppis is one of the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union . HD 71334 has a brightness of 7.8 . To date no solar twin with an exact match as that of the Sun has been found , however , there are some stars that come very close to being identical to that of the Sun , and are such considered solar twins by the majority of the public . An exact solar twin would be a G2V star with a 5,778 K temperature , be 4.6 billion years old , with the correct metallicity and a 0.1 % solar luminosity variation . Stars with an age of 4.6 billion years are at the most stable state . Proper metallicity and size are also very important to low luminosity variation .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_71334", "rank": 17, "score": 84142 }, { "content": "Title: Milutin Milanković Content: Milutin Milanković ( Милутин Миланковић , pronounced -LSB- milǔtin milǎːnkɔʋitɕ -RSB- 28 May 1879 -- 12 December 1958 ) was a Serbian mathematician , astronomer , climatologist , geophysicist , civil engineer , doctor of technology , university professor and popularizer of science . Milanković gave two fundamental contributions to global science . The first contribution is the `` Canon of the Earth 's Insolation '' , which characterizes the climates of all the planets of the Solar system . The second contribution is the explanation of Earth 's long-term climate changes caused by changes in the position of the Earth in comparison to the Sun , now known as Milankovitch cycles . This explained the ice ages occurring in the geological past of the Earth , as well as the climate changes on the Earth which can be expected in the future . He founded planetary climatology by calculating temperatures of the upper layers of the Earth 's atmosphere as well as the temperature conditions on planets of the inner Solar system , Mercury , Venus , Mars , and the Moon , as well as the depth of the atmosphere of the outer planets . He demonstrated the interrelatedness of celestial mechanics and the Earth sciences , and enabled consistent transition from celestial mechanics to the Earth sciences and transformation of descriptive sciences into exact ones .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Milutin_Milanković", "rank": 18, "score": 84099 }, { "content": "Title: HD 137388 Content: HD 137388 is a class K2IV ( orange subgiant ) star in the constellation Apus . Its apparent magnitude is 8.70 and it is approximately 128 light years away based on parallax . It has a surface temperature of 5182 K and is 47 % as luminous and 88 % as massive as the Sun , with 85 % of its diameter , and is thought to be around 7.4 ± 3.9 billion years old . Radial velocity studies indicate that it has a planet , b ( mass 0.223 MJ , period 330d ) . It orbits at an average distance of 0.89 AU .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_137388", "rank": 19, "score": 84063 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Thejll Content: Peter Andreas Thejll ( born 1956 ) is a Danish astrophysicist and climate researcher . His research in solar variation helped provide evidence of the greenhouse effect on the Earth 's climate in the late 20th century . In particular , his study with Knud Lassen on Northern Hemisphere land air temperature showed that the rise of 0.4 degrees Celsius since 1980 could not be accounted for by the solar cycle . Climatologists have pointed to this finding as an `` actual piece of evidence for greenhouse warming '' . Thejll received his undergraduate education at the University of Copenhagen . He received an M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Delaware . Thejll was a Carlsberg Fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and worked at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics . Thejll currently is a senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen . He is currently involved in the creation of a global automatic system to observe the Earth 's reflectivity - albedo - using observations of the earthshine on the Moon . Such data can be used for climate change studies and calibration of satellite data as the measurements deliver independent data on the albedo . A telescope is now installed on Hawaii at the Mauna Loa Observatory . The Swedish research agency VINNOVA is funding this project .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Peter_Thejll", "rank": 20, "score": 83982 }, { "content": "Title: HD 76700 Content: HD 76700 is a yellow dwarf star ( spectral type G6V ) 195 light years from Earth in the constellation of Volans . It has a mass very similar to ( 1.1 times ) that of our Sun , but is cooler and brighter ( with a surface temperature of 5694 K and luminosity of 1.69 Suns ) and thus much older -- around 6.9 billion years old . It is orbited by a recently discovered planet .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_76700", "rank": 21, "score": 83662 }, { "content": "Title: HD 122430 Content: HD 122430 is an orange giant star about 440 light years away in the constellation of Hydra on the celestial sphere . The star has completely run out of the hydrogen fuel that keeps it stable , although its age is only 3.1 billion years old , younger than the Sun 's 4.6 billion years . HD 122430 has a mass of 1.4 times and radius of 22.9 times that of the Sun . Despite its younger age , it has slightly lower metallicity , approximately 90 % . The temperature of its surface ( photosphere ) is approximately 4300 kelvins .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_122430", "rank": 22, "score": 83597 }, { "content": "Title: GD 61 Content: GD 61 is a white dwarf with a planetary system located 150 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus . It is thought to have been a main-sequence star of spectral type A0V with around three times the mass of the Sun that has aged and passed through a red-giant phase , leaving a dense , hot remnant that has around 70 % of the Sun 's mass and a surface temperature of 17,280 K . It is thought to be around 600 million years old , including both its life as a main-sequence star and as a white dwarf . It has an apparent magnitude of 14.8 . GD 61 was first noted as a potential degenerate star in 1965 , in a survey of white-dwarf suspects by astronomers from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona . In 2013 , a circumstellar disk that resulted from the destruction of a water-rich asteroid was detected in close orbit around GD 61 , which makes this the first detection of solid or liquid water on an extrasolar body . This asteroid would originally have been 26 % water by mass , close to the water content of Ceres . This evidence suggests that a planet , with a rocky surface similar to Earth 's , may have existed in the past , with the asteroid thus being an artifact from this period , now possibly part of a debris field from the hypothetical planet 's breakup . Such a planet would have had both a rocky surface and water , two key ingredients for life . The researchers used the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the elemental composition . The elements magnesium , silicon , iron , and oxygen were detected , all components of rocky planets , although the levels of oxygen were much higher than what could be accounted for . The lack of associated carbon left only one candidate for the oxygen excess -- water .", "qid": "388", "docid": "GD_61", "rank": 23, "score": 83558 }, { "content": "Title: YBP 1194 Content: YBP 1194 is a G-type main-sequence star , class G5V , in the open cluster M67 in the constellation Cancer . It is the best solar twin found to date , having the near temperature and mass as our sun . YBP 1194 has a higher metallicity than the Sun . YBP 1194 is .5 billion years younger than the Sun at an age of 4.2 billion years old , but due to the distance , the error bar is high at ± 1.6 billion years . On December 19 , 2013 , it was announced to have an extrasolar planet with a period of 6.9 days , and a high eccentricity of 0.24 with a mass of . YBP 1194 is about 2,772 light-years ( 850 parsecs ) from the Sun . YBP 1194 is packed in a small cluster , M67-NGC 2682 , with a radius 10 ly , with over 500 other stars . For comparison the Sun has 17 stars at a distance of 10 ly and about 134 stars at a distance of 20 ly .", "qid": "388", "docid": "YBP_1194", "rank": 24, "score": 83406 }, { "content": "Title: Future of Earth Content: The biological and geological future of Earth can be extrapolated based upon the estimated effects of several long-term influences . These include the chemistry at Earth 's surface , the rate of cooling of the planet 's interior , the gravitational interactions with other objects in the Solar System , and a steady increase in the Sun 's luminosity . An uncertain factor in this extrapolation is the ongoing influence of technology introduced by humans , such as climate engineering , which could cause significant changes to the planet . The current Holocene extinction is being caused by technology and the effects may last for up to five million years . In turn , technology may result in the extinction of humanity , leaving the planet to gradually return to a slower evolutionary pace resulting solely from long-term natural processes . Over time intervals of hundreds of millions of years , random celestial events pose a global risk to the biosphere , which can result in mass extinctions . These include impacts by comets or asteroids with diameters of 5 -- or more , and the possibility of a massive stellar explosion , called a supernova , within a 100-light-year radius of the Sun , called a Near-Earth supernova . Other large-scale geological events are more predictable . If the long-term effects of global warming are disregarded , Milankovitch theory predicts that the planet will continue to undergo glacial periods at least until the Quaternary glaciation comes to an end . These periods are caused by variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit . As part of the ongoing supercontinent cycle , plate tectonics will probably result in a supercontinent in 250 -- 350 million years . Some time in the next 1.5 -- 4.5 billion years , the axial tilt of the Earth may begin to undergo chaotic variations , with changes in the axial tilt of up to 90 ° . During the next four billion years , the luminosity of the Sun will steadily increase , resulting in a rise in the solar radiation reaching the Earth . This will result in a higher rate of weathering of silicate minerals , which will cause a decrease in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . In about 600 million years from now , the level of CO2 will fall below the level needed to sustain C3 carbon fixation photosynthesis used by trees . Some plants use the C4 carbon fixation method , allowing them to persist at concentrations as low as 10 parts per million . However , the long-term trend is for plant life to die off altogether . The extinction of plants will be the demise of almost all animal life , since plants are the base of the food chain on Earth . In about one billion years , the solar luminosity will be 10 % higher than at present . This will cause the atmosphere to become a `` moist greenhouse '' , resulting in a runaway evaporation of the oceans . As a likely consequence , plate tectonics will come to an end , and with them the entire carbon cycle . Following this event , in about 2 − 3 billion years , the planet 's magnetic dynamo may cease , causing the magnetosphere to decay and leading to an accelerated loss of volatiles from the outer atmosphere . Four billion years from now , the increase in the Earth 's surface temperature will cause a runaway greenhouse effect , heating the surface enough to melt it . By that point , all life on the Earth will be extinct . The most probable fate of the planet is absorption by the Sun in about 7.5 billion years , after the star has entered the red giant phase and expanded to cross the planet 's current orbit .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Future_of_Earth", "rank": 25, "score": 82036 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 26, "score": 81009 }, { "content": "Title: Variable star Content: A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth ( its apparent magnitude ) fluctuates . This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light , so variable stars are classified as either : Intrinsic variables , whose luminosity actually changes ; for example , because the star periodically swells and shrinks . Extrinsic variables , whose apparent changes in brightness are due to changes in the amount of their light that can reach Earth ; for example , because the star has an orbiting companion that sometimes eclipses it . Many , possibly most , stars have at least some variation in luminosity : the energy output of our Sun , for example , varies by about 0.1 % over an 11-year solar cycle .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Variable_star", "rank": 27, "score": 80986 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-59b Content: Kepler 59b , discovered in 2012 , is very likely a rocky planet with a radius of 1.1 Earths and a mass of 1.217 Earths and an average temperature of around 866 K.", "qid": "388", "docid": "Kepler-59b", "rank": 28, "score": 80518 }, { "content": "Title: James Hays Content: James D. Hays is a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University 's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory . Hays founded and led the CLIMAP project , which collected sea floor sediment data to study surface sea temperatures and paleoclimatological conditions 18,000 years ago . Hays is probably best known as a co-author of the 1976 paper in Science , `` Variations in the Earth 's orbit : Pacemaker of the ice ages . '' Using ocean sediment cores , the Science paper verified the theories of Milutin Milanković that oscillations in climate can be correlated with Earth 's orbital variations of eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession around the Sun ( see Milankovitch cycles ) .", "qid": "388", "docid": "James_Hays", "rank": 29, "score": 80280 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-20e Content: Kepler-20e is an exoplanet orbiting Kepler-20 . The planet is notable as it is the first planet with a smaller radius than Earth found orbiting a Sun-like star . The planet is second-closest to the star after Kepler-20b , and at 1040 K , it is far too hot to have liquid water on its surface . Along with the other four planets in the system , Kepler-20e was announced on 20 December 2011 . `` Kepler-20e is the first planet smaller than the Earth discovered to orbit a star other than the sun . A year on Kepler-20e only lasts 6 days , as it is much closer to its host star than the Earth is to the sun . The temperature at the surface of the planet , around 1400 degrees Fahrenheit , is much to hot to support life , as we know it . Kepler-20e is likely to be entirely rocky and without an atmosphere . The planet is tidally locked , always showing the same side to its host star , as the moon to the Earth , and could have large temperature differences between its permanent night and day sides . Astronomers think that the planet is likely to be geologically active , due to its own formation process and the strong gravitational interactions with its host star . In this artistic depiction , the planet is represented with active volcanoes on both the night and day sides . ''", "qid": "388", "docid": "Kepler-20e", "rank": 30, "score": 80125 }, { "content": "Title: Solar luminosity Content: The solar luminosity , , is a unit of radiant flux ( power emitted in the form of photons ) conventionally used by astronomers to measure the luminosity of stars . It is defined in terms of the Sun 's output . One solar luminosity is . This does not include the solar neutrino luminosity , which would add . The Sun is a weakly variable star , and its luminosity therefore fluctuates . The major fluctuation is the eleven-year solar cycle ( sunspot cycle ) that causes a periodic variation of about ± 0.1 % . Other variations over the last 200 -- 300 years are thought to be much smaller than this .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Solar_luminosity", "rank": 31, "score": 80029 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene climatic optimum Content: The Holocene Climate Optimum ( HCO ) was a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years BP . This event has also been known by many other names , including : Hypsithermal , Altithermal , Climatic Optimum , Holocene Optimum , Holocene Thermal Maximum , and Holocene Megathermal . This warm period was followed by a gradual decline until about two millennia ago . For other temperature fluctuations see : Temperature record For other past climate fluctuation see : Paleoclimatology For the pollen zone and Blytt-Sernander period associated with the climate optimum , see : Atlantic ( period )", "qid": "388", "docid": "Holocene_climatic_optimum", "rank": 32, "score": 79712 }, { "content": "Title: Fermi paradox Content: The Fermi paradox or Fermi 's paradox , named after physicist Enrico Fermi , is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates , e.g. , those given by the Drake equation , for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations . The basic points of the argument , made by physicists Enrico Fermi ( 1901 -- 1954 ) and Michael H. Hart ( born 1932 ) , are : There are billions of stars in the galaxy that are similar to the Sun , many of which are billions of years older than Earth . With high probability , some of these stars will have Earth-like planets , and if the Earth is typical , some might develop intelligent life . Some of these civilizations might develop interstellar travel , a step the Earth is investigating now . Even at the slow pace of currently envisioned interstellar travel , the Milky Way galaxy could be completely traversed in a few million years . According to this line of reasoning , the Earth should have already been visited by extraterrestrial aliens . In an informal conversation , Fermi noted no convincing evidence of this , leading him to ask , `` Where is everybody ? '' There have been many attempts to explain the Fermi paradox , primarily either suggesting that intelligent extraterrestrial life is extremely rare or proposing reasons that such civilizations have not contacted or visited Earth .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Fermi_paradox", "rank": 33, "score": 79501 }, { "content": "Title: Omega1 Scorpii Content: ω1 Scorpii , Latinised as Omega1 Scorpii , is a star in the zodiac constellation of Scorpius . With an apparent visual magnitude of 3.95 , it can be seen with the naked eye . Parallax measurements of this star give an estimated distance of around 470 light years from the Sun . It is a member of the Scorpius -- Centaurus Association . This is a B-type main sequence star with a stellar classification of B1 V . It has a luminosity of 9,120 Suns , consistent with an isochronal age of 5 million years and an estimated mass of 11 solar masses . The radius is about 6.6 times that of the Sun . It has an effective temperature of 26,530 in its outer atmosphere . Omega1 Scorpii is a β Cephei star that undergoes non-radial pulsations at a rate of 15 cycles per day . This is causing the surface temperature to fluctuate between 28,300 K and 22,600 K along the equator . The star is spinning rapidly with a projected rotational velocity of 105 km/s and an estimated rotation period of 14h .4 . The poles of the star are inclined by around 60 ° to the line-of-sight from the Earth .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Omega1_Scorpii", "rank": 34, "score": 79269 }, { "content": "Title: Diurnal Content: Diurnal ( `` daily '' ) may refer to : Diurnal cycle , any pattern that recurs daily Diurnality , the behavior of animals and plants that are active in the daytime Diurnal phase shift , a phase shift of electromagnetic signals Diurnal temperature variation , a cycle of daily temperature change In astronomy : Diurnal arc , the time ( expressed in right ascension ) that it takes a planet etc to move from its rising to its setting point Diurnal motion , the apparent motion of stars around the Earth In astrology : Diurnal chart , a chart for a given date , based on the natal chart Diurnal planet , a planet in a sect for which the Sun is above the horizon Diurnal sign , a sign in the zodiac", "qid": "388", "docid": "Diurnal", "rank": 35, "score": 78990 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 36, "score": 78712 }, { "content": "Title: Definitely Maybe (novel) Content: Definitely Maybe ( За миллиард лет до конца света , Za milliard let do kontsa sveta , literal translation : A Billion Years Before the End of the World , sometimes called Definitely Maybe : A Manuscript Discovered Under Unusual Circumstances ) is a sci fi novel written in 1974 by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Definitely_Maybe_(novel)", "rank": 37, "score": 78537 }, { "content": "Title: HD 117939 Content: HD 117939 is a Sun-like star 98 light years ( 30.23 parsecs ) from the Sun . HD 117939 is a G-type star and a near solar twin , It is much old than the sun at 6.1 billion years , compared to the sun at 4.6 billion years old . HD 117939 is found ub the constellation od Centaurus . HD 117939 has a brightness - apparent magnitude of 7.291 . To date no solar twin with an exact match as that of the Sun has been found , however , there are some stars that come very close to being identical to that of the Sun , and are such considered solar twins by the majority of the public . An exact solar twin would be a G2V star with a 5,778 K temperature , be 4.6 billion years old , with the correct metallicity and a 0.1 % solar luminosity variation . Stars with an age of 4.6 billion years are at the most stable state . Proper metallicity and size are also very important to low luminosity variation .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_117939", "rank": 38, "score": 78461 }, { "content": "Title: HD 150248 Content: HD 150248 is a Sun-like star 88 Light-years ( 26.9809 parsecs ) from the Sun . HD 150248 is a G-type star and a near solar twin . HD 150248 's photometric color is also very close to that of the Sun ; however , it has a lower abundance of metals , and has an apparent visual magnitude of 7.02 . At 6.2 billion years old , this star is 1.6 billion years older than our Sun and has passed the stable burning stage . HD 150248 is found on the border between the constellations Scorpius and Ara . To date , no solar twin with an exact match to that of the Sun has been found . However , there are some stars that come very close to being identical , and thus considered solar twins by the majority of the public . An exact solar twin would be a G2V star with a 5,778 K temperature , be 4.6 billion years old , with solar metallicity , and a 0.1 % solar luminosity variation . Stars with an age of 4.6 billion years , such as our Sun , are at the most stable state . Proper metallicity and size are also very important to low luminosity variation .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_150248", "rank": 39, "score": 78439 }, { "content": "Title: Schiaparelli (Martian crater) Content: Schiaparelli is an impact crater on Mars named after Giovanni Schiaparelli located near Mars 's equator . It is 461 km in diameter and located at latitude 3 ° south and longitude 344 ° . A crater within Schiaparelli shows many layers that may have formed by the wind , volcanoes , or deposition under water . Layers can be a few meters thick or tens of meters thick . Recent research on these layers suggests that ancient climate change on Mars , caused by regular variation in the planet 's tilt , may have caused the patterns in layers . On Earth , similar changes ( astronomical forcing ) of climate results in ice-age cycles . The regular appearance of rock layers suggests that regular changes in climate may be the root cause . Regular changes in climate may be due to variations of a planet 's tilt ( called obliquity ) . The tilt of the Earth 's axis changes by only a little more than 2 degrees since our moon is relatively large . In contrast Mars 's tilt varies by tens of degrees . When the tilt is low ( current situation on Mars ) , the poles are the coldest places on the planet , while the equator is the warmest ( as on Earth ) . This could cause gases in the atmosphere , like water and carbon dioxide , to migrate poleward , where they would freeze . When the obliquity is higher , the poles receive more sunlight , causing those materials to migrate away . When carbon dioxide moves from the Martian poles , the atmospheric pressure increases , possibly causing a difference in the ability of winds to transport and deposit sand . Also , with more water in the atmosphere sand grains may stick and cement together to form layers .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Schiaparelli_(Martian_crater)", "rank": 40, "score": 78407 }, { "content": "Title: Cosmic age problem Content: The cosmic age problem is a historical problem in astronomy concerning the age of the universe . The problem was that at various times in the 20th century , some objects in the universe were estimated to be older than the time elapsed since the Big Bang , as estimated from measurements of the expansion rate of the universe known as the Hubble constant , denoted H0 . ( This is more correctly called the Hubble parameter , since it generally varies with time ) . Since around 1997 -- 2003 , the problem is believed to be solved by most cosmologists : modern measurements give an accurate age of the universe of 13.8 billion years , and recent age estimates for the oldest objects are either younger than this , or consistent allowing for measurement uncertainties .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Cosmic_age_problem", "rank": 41, "score": 78159 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital effects on climate Content: There are various solar/celestial effects that exist which have an effect on Earth 's climate . These effects usually occur in cycles , and primarily include how Earth 's obliquity , the eccentricity of Earth 's orbit , and the precession of the equinoxes and solstices affect Earth 's climate . In addition to these effects , there are also other factors that have an effect on Earth 's climate . These other factors include how sun activity affects climate and how celestial phenomena , such as meteors , affect Earth 's climate . Some of these factors are n't yet well understood , for instance the ice ages occur on 100,000 year cycles , and it 's not completely understood why the various effects with this periodicity have such a strong effect on glaciation ( see the 100,000-year problem ) .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Orbital_effects_on_climate", "rank": 42, "score": 78002 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Mars Content: The climate of Mars has been an issue of scientific curiosity for centuries , in part because Mars is the only terrestrial planet whose surface can be directly observed in detail from the Earth with help from a telescope . Although Mars is smaller than the Earth , at 11 % of Earth 's mass , and 50 % farther from the Sun than the Earth , its climate has important similarities , such as the polar ice caps , seasonal changes and the observable presence of weather patterns . It has attracted sustained study from planetologists and climatologists . While Mars 's climate has similarities to Earth 's , including periodic ice ages , there are also important differences , such as much lower thermal inertia . Mars ' atmosphere has a scale height of approximately 11 km , 60 % greater than that on Earth . The climate is of considerable relevance to the question of whether life is or was present on the planet . The climate briefly received more interest in the news due to NASA measurements indicating increased sublimation of the south polar icecap leading to some popular press speculation that Mars was undergoing a parallel bout of global warming , although Mars ' average temperature has actually cooled in recent decades . Mars has been studied by Earth-based instruments since the 17th century but it is only since the exploration of Mars began in the mid-1960s that close-range observation has been possible . Flyby and orbital spacecraft have provided data from above , while direct measurements of atmospheric conditions have been provided by a number of landers and rovers . Advanced Earth orbital instruments today continue to provide some useful `` big picture '' observations of relatively large weather phenomena . The first Martian flyby mission was Mariner 4 which arrived in 1965 . That quick two-day pass ( July 14 -- 15 , 1965 ) was limited and crude in terms of its contribution to the state of knowledge of Martian climate . Later Mariner missions ( Mariner 6 , and Mariner 7 ) filled in some of the gaps in basic climate information . Data-based climate studies started in earnest with the Viking program in 1975 and continues with such probes as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter . This observational work has been complemented by a type of scientific computer simulation called the Mars general circulation model . Several different iterations of MGCM have led to an increased understanding of Mars as well as the limits of such models .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_of_Mars", "rank": 43, "score": 77845 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's energy budget Content: Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Earth's_energy_budget", "rank": 44, "score": 77536 }, { "content": "Title: HD 179949 b Content: HD 179949 b is an extrasolar planet discovered by the Anglo-Australian Planet Search at the Anglo-Australian Observatory , which orbits the star HD 179949 . The planet is a so-called `` hot Jupiter '' , a Jupiter-mass planet orbiting very close to its parent star . In this case , orbital distance is almost one-tenth that of Mercury from the Sun . One orbital revolution lasts only about 3 days . Its magnetic field induces a bright spot on its star at 30 degrees latitude , which rotates at 87 degrees inclination . If the planet orbited at 83-97 degrees , then its transit would be visible from Earth . The angle of inclination is therefore 83 degrees or less , but not much less ; and its mass is constrained to not much more than 0.923 ± 0.077 . The star is not tidally locked to the planet . Assuming the planet is perfectly grey with no greenhouse or tidal effects , and a Bond albedo of 0.1 , the temperature would be 1533 K . This is , like Tau Boötis b , hotter than the predicted temperature of HD 209458 b ( 1392K ) , and close to that of HD 149026 b , before they were measured . Searches for water in the planet 's atmosphere have been inconclusive , as have attempts to determine whether titanium and vanadium oxides are present . HD 179949 b is a candidate for `` near-infrared characterisation ... . with the VLTI Spectro-Imager '' .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_179949_b", "rank": 45, "score": 77188 }, { "content": "Title: HD 190228 Content: HD 190228 is a star located in the constellation Vulpecula . Its apparent magnitude is 7.31 and the absolute magnitude is 3.34 . The distance is 201 light years from Earth . The star is definitely old with age over 10 billion years and it is metal-poor . In 2000 , it was announced that a giant planet was orbiting the star with a minimum mass of 5 Jupiter masses , designated HD 190228 b . The planetary nature of the object was questioned because of the low metal content of the star : giant planets are more likely to be found around high-metallicity stars , so it was argued that the object was more likely to be a brown dwarf . Later astrometric measurements confirmed this : HD 190228 b is in fact a brown dwarf of 49.4 Jupiter masses in a nearly face-on orbit . The brown dwarf takes 1146 days to orbit the star , and the orbit is elliptical with an eccentricity of 0.5 .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_190228", "rank": 46, "score": 77034 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature cycling Content: Temperature cycling ( or temperature cycle ) is the process of cycling through two temperature extremes , typically at relatively high rates of change . It is an environmental stress test used in evaluating product reliability as well as in manufacturing to catch early-term , latent defects by inducing failure through thermal fatigue .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Temperature_cycling", "rank": 47, "score": 77013 }, { "content": "Title: Bond event Content: Bond events are North Atlantic ice rafting events that are tentatively linked to climate fluctuations in the Holocene . Eight such events have been identified . Bond events were previously believed to exhibit a quasi ~ 1,500-year cycle , but the primary period of variability is now put at ~ 1,000 years . Gerard C. Bond of the Lamont -- Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University was the lead author of the 1997 paper that postulated the theory of 1470-year climate cycles in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic . However , more recent work has shown that these tracers provide little support for 1,500-year intervals of climate change , and the reported ~ 1,500 ± 500-year period was a statistical artifact . Furthermore , following publication of the Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005 ( GICC05 ) for the North GRIP ice core , it became clear that Dansgaar-Oescher Events also show no such a pattern . The North Atlantic ice-rafting events happen to correlate with episodes of lowered lake levels in the Mid-Atlantic region , USA , the most weak events of the Asian monsoon for at least the past 9,000 years , and also correlate with most aridification events in the Middle East for the past 55,000 years ( both Heinrich and Bond events ) . For reasons that are unclear , the only Holocene Bond event that has a clear temperature signal in the Greenland ice cores is the 8.2 kyr event .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Bond_event", "rank": 48, "score": 76834 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Uranus Content: The climate of Uranus is heavily influenced by both its lack of internal heat , which limits atmospheric activity , and by its extreme axial tilt , which induces intense seasonal variation . Uranus 's atmosphere is remarkably bland in comparison to the other gas giants which it otherwise closely resembles . When Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986 , it observed a total of ten cloud features across the entire planet . Later observations from the ground or by the Hubble Space Telescope made in the 1990s and the 2000s revealed bright clouds in the northern ( winter ) hemisphere . In 2006 a dark spot similar to the Great Dark Spot on Neptune was detected .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_of_Uranus", "rank": 49, "score": 76540 }, { "content": "Title: Planetary equilibrium temperature Content: The planetary equilibrium temperature is a theoretical temperature that a planet would be at when considered simply as if it were a black body being heated only by its parent star . In this model , the presence or absence of an atmosphere ( and therefore any greenhouse effect ) is not considered , and one treats the theoretical black body temperature as if it came from an idealized surface of the planet . Other authors use different names for this concept , such as equivalent blackbody temperature of a planet , or the effective radiation emission temperature of the planet . Similar concepts include the global mean temperature , global radiative equilibrium , and global-mean surface air temperature , which includes the effects of global warming .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Planetary_equilibrium_temperature", "rank": 50, "score": 76270 }, { "content": "Title: Climate pattern Content: A climate pattern is any recurring characteristic of the climate . Climate patterns can last tens of thousands of years , like the glacial and interglacial periods within ice ages , or repeat each year , like monsoons . A climate pattern may come in the form of a regular cycle , like the diurnal cycle or the seasonal cycle ; a quasi periodic event , like El Niño ; or a highly irregular event , such as a volcanic winter . The regular cycles are generally well understood and may be removed by normalization . For example , graphs which show trends of temperature change will usually have the effects of seasonal variation removed .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_pattern", "rank": 51, "score": 76153 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 52, "score": 76132 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway greenhouse effect Content: A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Runaway_greenhouse_effect", "rank": 53, "score": 75910 }, { "content": "Title: Boring Billion Content: The Boring Billion is a term coined by palaeontologist Martin Brasier to refer to the approximately one billion-year period between 1.8 and 0.8 Ga in Earth 's history that is characterized by environmental , evolutionary , and lithospheric stability . It has also been termed the `` Barren Billion '' , `` Dullest Time on Earth '' and `` Earth 's Middle Ages '' . In the time leading up to the Boring Billion , Earth experienced multiple widespread glaciations , the origin of prokaryotic life , the introduction of oxygen into the atmosphere with the evolution of cyanobacteria , addition of UV-blocking ozone to the atmosphere , and the oxidizing of iron in the oceans . After the Boring Billion , the atmosphere again underwent rapid changes as atmospheric oxygen rose to approximately modern levels , most major animal phyla evolved during the Cambrian explosion , and large animals appeared in the oceans . The Boring Billion was thus termed boring because unlike the rapidly changing environments present on Earth before and after this period , it is characterized by climatic stability , low levels of atmospheric oxygen , lack of biological events , and the absence of extreme changes in the atmospheric and oceanic composition . Stability during the Boring Billion may be attributed to a relatively stable supercontinent that was initiated by 1.7 Ga and persisted until its breakup around 0.75 Ga. . The exact timing and duration of the Boring Billion is not agreed upon by scientists and estimates for the beginning and end of the Boring Billion range between 1.8 and 2.4 Ga for initiation and between 0.5 and 0.8 Ga for termination . The Boring Billion occurred during the Proterozoic Eon . During the Boring Billion , green and purple photosynthetic bacteria appear to have thrived in an anoxic and sulfidic ocean . This ocean was much less productive than modern oceans , released sulfurous gasses including toxic hydrogen sulfide , and was very limited in nutrients ( especially Mo , Fe , N , and P ) . As the Boring Billion progressed , eukaryotic life evolved from a prokaryotic ancestor within this ocean . By the end of the Boring Billion , the first life had appeared on land . Eukaryotes , specifically a proto-lichen , helped end the Boring Billion by causing Earth 's second oxygenation event and the Snowball Earth glaciation that accompanied it . While the Boring Billion has been termed ` boring ' due to its relative stability , scientists acknowledge that this name might not accurately describe this time . When plate tectonics , environmental conditions , and evolution of eukaryotic life are examined , this period does not appear boring at all . Records of this distant time are sparse , and the apparent stability of this period may be due in part to gaps in the geologic record .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Boring_Billion", "rank": 54, "score": 75904 }, { "content": "Title: Life on Venus Content: The speculation of life currently existing on Venus decreased significantly since the early 1960s , when spacecraft began studying Venus and it became clear that the conditions on Venus are extreme compared to those on Earth . The fact that Venus is located closer to the Sun than Earth , raising temperatures on the surface to nearly 735 K , the atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth , and the extreme impact of the greenhouse effect , make water-based life as we know it unlikely on the surface of the planet . However , a few scientists have speculated that thermoacidophilic extremophile microorganisms might exist in the lower-temperature , acidic upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Life_on_Venus", "rank": 55, "score": 75677 }, { "content": "Title: In the Ecstasy of Billions (1920 film) Content: In the Ecstasy of Billions ( Der Fluch der Menschheit , 2 . Teil - Im Rausche der Milliarden ) is a 1920 German film directed by Richard Eichberg and featuring Béla Lugosi . It was a sequel to The Curse of Man .", "qid": "388", "docid": "In_the_Ecstasy_of_Billions_(1920_film)", "rank": 56, "score": 75345 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital forcing Content: Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth 's axis and shape of the orbit ( see Milankovitch cycles ) . These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25 % at mid-latitudes ( from 400 to 500 Wm − 2 at latitudes of 60 degrees ) . In this context , the term `` forcing '' signifies a physical process that affects the Earth 's climate . This mechanism is believed to be responsible for the timing of the ice age cycles . A strict application of the Milankovitch theory does not allow the prediction of a `` sudden '' ice age ( rapid being anything under a century or two ) , since the fastest orbital period is about 20,000 years . The timing of past glacial periods coincides very well with the predictions of the Milankovitch theory , and these effects can be calculated into the future .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Orbital_forcing", "rank": 57, "score": 75042 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 58, "score": 74892 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 59, "score": 74774 }, { "content": "Title: Dansgaard–Oeschger event Content: Dansgaard -- Oeschger events ( often abbreviated D -- O events ) are rapid climate fluctuations that occurred 25 times during the last glacial period . Some scientists say that the events occur quasi-periodically with a recurrence time being a multiple of 1,470 years , but this is debated . The comparable climate cyclicity during the Holocene is referred to as Bond events .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Dansgaard–Oeschger_event", "rank": 60, "score": 74569 }, { "content": "Title: Kombayashi–Ingersoll limit Content: In planetary science , the Kombayashi -- Ingersoll limit represents the maximum solar flux a planet can handle without a runaway greenhouse effect setting in . For planets with temperature-dependent sources of greenhouse gases such as liquid water and optically thin atmospheres the outgoing longwave radiation curve ( which indicates how fast energy can be radiated away by the planet ) flattens at high temperatures , reaching a horizontal asymptote -- the Kombayashi -- Ingersoll limit itself . Since the equilibrium temperature is the intersection of this curve and a horizontal line representing solar flux , for fluxes above this point the planet heats up indefinitely . Kasting estimated the limit for Earth to be 320 watts per square meter . The limit is relevant for estimating the inner edge of the circumstellar habitable zone . However , the limit also depends on the surface gravity of the planet , making heavy worlds somewhat more resistant to the runaway effect .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Kombayashi–Ingersoll_limit", "rank": 61, "score": 74504 }, { "content": "Title: Earth Content: Earth ( from Eorðe -LSB- Γαῖα , Gaia -RSB- Terra ) , otherwise known as the World or the Globe , is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life . It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence , Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago . Earth 's gravity interacts with other objects in space , especially the Sun and the Moon , Earth 's only natural satellite . During one orbit around the Sun , Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times ; thus , an Earth year is about 365.26 days long . Earth 's axis of rotation is tilted , producing seasonal variations on the planet 's surface . The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides , stabilizes the Earth 's orientation on its axis , and gradually slows its rotation . Earth 's lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years . About 71 % of Earth 's surface is covered with water , mostly by its oceans . The remaining 29 % is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes , rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere . The majority of Earth 's polar regions are covered in ice , including the Antarctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Arctic ice pack . Earth 's interior remains active with a solid iron inner core , a liquid outer core that generates the Earth 's magnetic field , and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics . Within the first billion years of Earth 's history , life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth 's atmosphere and surface , leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms . Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago . Since then , the combination of Earth 's distance from the Sun , physical properties , and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive . In the history of the Earth , biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion , occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events . Over 99 % of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct . Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely ; most species have not been described . Over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival . Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures ; politically , the world has about 200 sovereign states .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Earth", "rank": 62, "score": 74400 }, { "content": "Title: Iota Capricorni Content: Iota Capricorni ( ι Cap , ι Capricorni ) is a solitary , yellow-hued star in the southern constellation of Capricornus . It can be seen with the naked eye , having an apparent visual magnitude of +4.3 . Based upon an annual parallax shift of 16.58 mas as seen from the Earth , the star is located about 197 light years from the Sun . At that distance , the visual magnitude of the star is diminished by an extinction factor of 0.08 due to interstellar dust . This is an evolved G-type giant star with a stellar classification of G8 III . It is classified as a BY Draconis type variable star . This is a chromospherically-active star with a longitudinal magnetic field strength of and an X-ray luminosity of . The activity and photometric variation of the star allow an estimate of its rotation period as 68 days . Iota Capricorni has an estimated 2.9 times the mass of the Sun and nearly 11 times the Solar radius . It is 390 million years old and is radiating 83 times the solar luminosity from its chromosphere at an effective temperature of 5,200 K.", "qid": "388", "docid": "Iota_Capricorni", "rank": 63, "score": 74357 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 64, "score": 74046 }, { "content": "Title: Upsilon Leonis Content: Upsilon Leonis ( υ Leo ) is a star in the zodiac constellation of Leo . It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.33 . The distance to this star , as determined using parallax measurements , is about 182 light years . At that distance , the visual magnitude of the star is diminished by an estimated extinction factor of 0m .02 because of interstellar dust . With an age of around 4 billion years , this star has evolved into a G-type giant star with a stellar classification of G9 III . It has 2.6 times the Sun 's mass , but has expanded to 11 times the solar radius and shines with 56 times the luminosity of the Sun at an effective temperature of 4,842 K . The rate of rotation is too small to be measured , with a projected rotational velocity of 0.0 km/s . The chemical abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium , what astronomers term the star 's metallicity , is less than half that in the Sun . It is most likely a member of the galactic thin disk population .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Upsilon_Leonis", "rank": 65, "score": 73888 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-444 Content: Kepler-444 ( or KOI-3158 , KIC 6278762 , 2MASS J19190052 +4138043 , BD +41 3306 ) is a star , estimated to be 11.2 billion years old ( more than 80 % of the age of the universe ) , approximately 117 ly away from Earth in the constellation Lyra . On 27 January 2015 , the Kepler spacecraft is reported to have confirmed the detection of five sub-Earth-sized rocky exoplanets orbiting the star . According to NASA , no life as we know it could exist on these hot exoplanets , due to their close orbital distances to the host star .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Kepler-444", "rank": 66, "score": 73870 }, { "content": "Title: HD 147506 Content: HD 147506 is a magnitude 8.7 F8 dwarf star that is somewhat larger and hotter than our sun . The star is approximately 370 light years from Earth and is positioned near the keystone of Hercules . It is estimated to be 2 to 3 billion years old .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_147506", "rank": 67, "score": 73828 }, { "content": "Title: HD 142415 Content: HD 142415 is a 7th magnitude yellow main-sequence star 113 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Norma . This star dwarfs the Sun in terms of mass ( 1.09 x ) , size ( 1.03 x ) , luminosity ( 1.1 x ) , temperature ( 1.01 x ) , and metallicity ( 1.62 x ) . The age of the star is as young as 1.5 billion years . The star is currently known to have one planet .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_142415", "rank": 68, "score": 72949 }, { "content": "Title: 109 Piscium b Content: 109 Piscium b ( aka HD 10697 b ) is a long-period extrasolar planet discovered in orbit around 109 Piscium . It is at least 6.38 times the mass of Jupiter and is likely to be a gas giant . As typical for long-period planets discovered around other stars , it has an orbital eccentricity greater than that of Jupiter . The discoverers estimate its effective temperature as 264 K from solar heating , but it could be at least 10-20 K warmer because of internal heating . Preliminary astrometric measurements suggested that the orbital inclination is 170.3 ° , yielding an object mass of 38 times that of Jupiter , which would make it a brown dwarf . However , subsequent analysis indicates that the precision of the measurements used to derive the astrometric orbit is insufficient to constrain the parameters , so the true inclination and mass remain unknown . A more plausible suggestion is that this planet shares its star 's inclination , of 69 ° .", "qid": "388", "docid": "109_Piscium_b", "rank": 69, "score": 72925 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 70, "score": 72873 }, { "content": "Title: Solar maximum Content: -RSB- Solar maximum or solar max is a normal period of greatest solar activity in the 11 year solar cycle of the Sun . During solar maximum , large numbers of sunspots appear and the sun 's irradiance output grows by about 0.07 % . The increased energy output of solar maxima can impact Earth 's global climate and recent studies have shown some correlation with regional weather patterns . At solar maximum , the Sun 's magnetic field lines are the most distorted due to the magnetic field on the solar equator rotating at a slightly faster pace than at the solar poles . The solar cycle takes an average of about 11 years to go from one solar maximum to the next , with duration observed varying from 9 to 14 years . Large solar flares often occur during a maximum . For example , the solar storm of 1859 struck the Earth with such intensity that the northern lights were visible as far from the poles as Cuba and Hawaii .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Solar_maximum", "rank": 71, "score": 72843 }, { "content": "Title: Subatlantic Content: The Subatlantic is the current climatic age of the Holocene epoch . It started at about 2,500 years BP and is still ongoing . Its average temperatures were slightly lower than during the preceding Subboreal and Atlantic . During its course the temperature underwent several oscillations which had a strong influence on fauna and flora and thus indirectly on the evolution of human civilizations . With intensifying industrialisation , human society started to stress the natural climatic cycles with increased greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Subatlantic", "rank": 72, "score": 72761 }, { "content": "Title: Phonon noise Content: Phonon noise , also known as thermal fluctuation noise , arises from the random exchange of energy between a thermal mass and its surrounding environment . This energy is quantized in the form of phonons . Each phonon has an energy of order , where is Boltzmann 's constant and is the temperature . The random exchange of energy leads to fluctuations in temperature . This occurs even when the thermal mass and the environment are in thermal equilibrium , i.e. at the same time-average temperature . If a device has a temperature-dependent electrical resistance , then these fluctuations in temperature lead to fluctuations in resistance . Examples of devices where phonon noise is important include bolometers and calorimeters . The superconducting transition edge sensor ( TES ) , which can be operated either as a bolometer or a calorimeter , is an example of a device for which phonon noise can significantly contribute to the total noise . Although Johnson -- Nyquist noise shares many similarities with phonon noise ( e.g. the noise spectral density depends on the temperature and is white at low frequencies ) , these two noise sources are distinct . Johnson-Nyquist noise arises from the random thermal motion of electrons , whereas phonon noise arises from the random exchange of phonons . Johnson-Nyquist noise is easily modeled at thermal equilibrium , where all components of the circuit are held at the same temperature . A general equilibrium model for phonon noise is usually impossible because different components of the thermal circuit are nonuniform in temperature and also often not time invariant , as in the occasional energy deposition from particles incident on a detector . The transition edge sensor typically maintains the temperature through negative electrothermal feedback associated with changes in internal electrical power . An approximate formula for the noise-equivalent power ( NEP ) due to phonon noise in a bolometer when all components are very close to a temperature T is where G is the thermal conductance and the NEP is measured in . In calorimetric detectors , the rms energy resolution due to phonon noise near quasi-equilibrium is described using a similar formula , where C is the heat capacity . A real bolometer or calorimeter is not at equilibrium because of a temperature gradient between the absorber and the bath . Since G and C are generally nonlinear functions of temperature , a more advanced model may include the temperature of both the absorber and the bath and treat G or C as a power law across this temperature range .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Phonon_noise", "rank": 73, "score": 72530 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 74, "score": 72430 }, { "content": "Title: Oerth Content: In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game , Oerth -LSB- ˈɔərθ -RSB- is the name of the fictional planet on which one of the earliest campaign settings , the World of Greyhawk , is located . Oerth has an axial tilt of 30 degrees , which would cause greater seasonal temperature variation than on Earth , were it not for wizardly and divine magic that shifts weather patterns to be more favorable to the populace ( at least the god-fearing folks ) .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Oerth", "rank": 75, "score": 72323 }, { "content": "Title: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Content: Six Degrees : Our Future on a Hotter Planet ( 358 pages ) , ISBN 978-0-00-720905-7 is a 2007 ( 2008 in USA ) non-fiction book by author Mark Lynas about global warming . The book looks and attempts to summarize results from scientific papers on climate change .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Six_Degrees:_Our_Future_on_a_Hotter_Planet", "rank": 76, "score": 72187 }, { "content": "Title: Are We Changing Planet Earth? Content: Are We Changing Planet Earth ? and Can We Save Planet Earth ? are two programmes that form a documentary about global warming , presented by David Attenborough . They were first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 24 May and 1 June 2006 respectively . Part of a themed season by the BBC entitled `` Climate Chaos '' , the programmes were produced in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and the Open University . They were directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Jeremy Bristow . The music was composed by Samuel Sim . Attenborough undertook the assignment in between his ` Life ' series Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood . Around the same time , the naturalist also narrated Planet Earth .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Are_We_Changing_Planet_Earth?", "rank": 77, "score": 72172 }, { "content": "Title: Geologic temperature record Content: The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth 's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion ( 109 ) year time scales . The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Geologic_temperature_record", "rank": 78, "score": 72090 }, { "content": "Title: Lambda Horologii Content: λ Horologii , latinised as Lambda Horologii , is a yellow-white giant star in the constellation Horologium . Analysis of its temperature and metallicity gives it a mass 1.76 times that of the Sun , a surface temperature of 6848 K , and an age of 1.4 billion years . Its rotational velocity is 140 km/second and has an oblateness of 0.17 .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Lambda_Horologii", "rank": 79, "score": 71973 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-37 Content: Kepler-37 is a G-type main-sequence star located in the constellation Lyra 215.2 light years from Earth . It is host to exoplanets Kepler-37b , Kepler-37c , Kepler-37d and Kepler-37e , all of which orbit very close to it . Kepler-37 has a mass about 80.3 percent of the Sun 's and a radius about 77 percent as large . It has a temperature similar to that of the Sun , but a bit cooler at 5,417 K . It has about half the metallicity of our Sun . With an age of roughly 6 billion years , it is slightly older than the Sun , but is still a main-sequence star . Until January 2015 , Kepler-37 was the smallest star to be measured via asteroseismology .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Kepler-37", "rank": 80, "score": 71919 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-22b Content: Kepler-22b , also known by its Kepler object of interest designation KOI-087 .01 , is an extrasolar planet orbiting within the empirical habitable zone of the Sun-like star Kepler-22 . It is located about 600 ly from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus . It was discovered by NASA 's Kepler Space Telescope in December 2011 and was the first known transiting planet to orbit within the habitable zone of a Sun-like star . Kepler-22 is too dim to be seen with the naked eye . Kepler-22b 's size is roughly twice that of Earth . Its mass and surface composition are unknown . An Earth-like composition for the planet has been ruled out . It is likely to have a volatile-rich composition with a liquid or gaseous outer shell . The only parameters of the planet 's orbit that are currently available are its orbital period , which is about , and its inclination , which is approximately 90 ° . Evidence suggests that the planet has a moderate surface temperature , assuming that the surface is not subject to extreme greenhouse heating . In the absence of an atmosphere , its equilibrium temperature ( assuming an Earth-like albedo ) would be approximately 262 K. The planet 's first transit was observed on 12 May 2009 . Confirmation of the existence of Kepler-22b was announced on 5 December 2011 .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Kepler-22b", "rank": 81, "score": 71885 }, { "content": "Title: Divergence problem Content: The divergence problem is an anomaly from the field of dendroclimatology , the study of past climate through observations of old trees , primarily the properties of their annual growth rings . It is the disagreement between the temperatures measured by the thermometers ( instrumental temperatures ) and the temperatures reconstructed from the latewood densities or , in some cases , widths of tree rings in the far northern forests . While the thermometer records indicate a substantial late 20th century warming trend , many tree rings from such sites do not display a corresponding change in their maximum latewood density . In some studies this issue has also been found with tree ring width . A temperature trend extracted from tree rings alone would not show any substantial warming since the 1950s . The temperature graphs calculated in these two ways thus `` diverge '' from one another , which is the origin of the term .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Divergence_problem", "rank": 82, "score": 71698 }, { "content": "Title: Climate across Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary Content: The climate across the Cretaceous -- Paleogene boundary ( K -- Pg or formerly the K -- T boundary ) is very important to geologic time as it marks a catastrophic global extinction event . Numerous theories have been proposed as to why this extinction event happened including an asteroid known as the Chicxulub asteroid , volcanism , or sea level changes . While the mass extinction is well documented , there is much debate about the immediate and long-term climatic and environmental changes caused by the event . The terrestrial climates at this time are poorly known , which limits the understanding of environmentally driven changes in biodiversity that occurred before the Chicxulub crater impact . Oxygen isotopes across the K -- T boundary suggest that oceanic temperatures fluctuated in the Late Cretaceous and through the boundary itself . Carbon isotope measurements of benthic foramifinera at the K -- T boundary suggest rapid , repeated fluctuations in oceanic productivity in the 3 million years before the final extinction , and that productivity and ocean circulation ended abruptly for at least tens of thousands of years just after the boundary , indicating devastation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems . Some researchers suggest that climate change is the main connection between the impact and the extinction . The impact perturbed the climate system with long-term effects that were much worse than the immediate , direct consequences of the impact .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Climate_across_Cretaceous–Paleogene_boundary", "rank": 83, "score": 71636 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 84, "score": 71534 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "388", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 85, "score": 71439 }, { "content": "Title: Epsilon Eridani Content: Epsilon Eridani ( ε Eridani , abbreviated Epsilon Eri , ε Eri ) , also named Ran , is a star in the southern constellation of Eridanus , at a declination of 9.46 ° south of the celestial equator . This allows it to be visible from most of Earth 's surface . At a distance of 10.5 ly from the Sun , it has an apparent magnitude of 3.73 . It is the third-closest individual star or star system visible to the unaided eye and is the second-closest star known to host a planet . The star is estimated to be less than a billion years old . Because of its relative youth , Epsilon Eridani has a higher level of magnetic activity than the present-day Sun , with a stellar wind 30 times as strong . Its rotation period is 11.2 days at the equator . Epsilon Eridani is smaller and less massive than the Sun , and has a comparatively lower level of elements heavier than helium . It is a main-sequence star of spectral class K2 , which means that energy generated at the core through nuclear fusion of hydrogen is emitted from the surface at a temperature of about 5000 K , giving it an orange hue . Epsilon Eridani 's designation was established in 1603 by Johann Bayer . It may be a member of the Ursa Major Moving Group of stars that share a similar motion through the Milky Way , implying these stars shared a common origin in an open cluster . Its nearest neighbour , the binary star system Luyten 726-8 , will have a close encounter with Epsilon Eridani in approximately 31,500 years when they will be separated by about 0.93 ly . The motion of Epsilon Eridani along the line of sight to Earth , known as the radial velocity , has been regularly observed for more than twenty years . Periodic changes in its value yielded evidence of a giant planet orbiting the star , making it one of the closest star systems with a candidate exoplanet . The detection of this orbiting planetary object , Epsilon Eridani b , was announced in 1987 . A preliminary orbit was published in 2000 , based on six independent data sets from four different telescopes . Observations indicate that this planet orbits with a period of about 7 years at a mean separation of 3.4 astronomical units ( AU ) . The discovery of the planet has been controversial because of the amount of background noise in the radial velocity data , particularly in the early observation , but many astronomers now regard the planet as confirmed . In 2016 it was given the alternative name AEgir . The Epsilon Eridani system also includes two belts of rocky asteroids : at about 3 AU and 20 AU from the star . The orbital structure could be maintained by a hypothetical second planet , which if confirmed would be Epsilon Eridani c. Epsilon Eridani hosts an extensive outer debris disk of remnant planetesimals left over from the system 's formation . As one of the nearest Sun-like stars with a planet , Epsilon Eridani has been the target of several observations in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence . Epsilon Eridani appears in science fiction stories and has been suggested as a destination for interstellar travel . From Epsilon Eridani , the Sun would appear as a 2.4-magnitude star in Serpens .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Epsilon_Eridani", "rank": 86, "score": 71429 }, { "content": "Title: HD 155358 Content: HD 155358 is a low metallicity yellow dwarf star approximately 43 pc away in the constellation Hercules . This star is known to be orbited by two extrasolar planets . The star is 11.9 billion years old and has a mass 0.89 times that of the Sun . At the time of the planets ' discoveries , it was notable for being the lowest metallicity planet-bearing star known , with an iron-to-hydrogen ratio 21 % of the solar value .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_155358", "rank": 87, "score": 71389 }, { "content": "Title: HD 73256 b Content: HD 73256 b is an 1.87 MJ hot Jupiter orbiting at 0.037 AU taking 2.55 days to orbit around HD 73256 . Assuming the planet is perfectly grey with no greenhouse or tidal effects , and a Bond albedo of 0.1 , the temperature would be about 1300 K . This is close to 51 Pegasi b ; between the predicted temperatures of HD 189733 b and HD 209458 b ( 1180-1392K ) , before they were measured . It is a candidate for `` near-infrared characterisation with the VLTI Spectro-Imager '' .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_73256_b", "rank": 88, "score": 71351 }, { "content": "Title: HD 20782 b Content: HD 20782 b is an extrasolar planet located approximately 117 light-years away in the constellation of Fornax , orbiting the star HD 20782 . This planet orbits in the most eccentric orbit known ( as of November 2012 ) , with a semi-major axis of 1.36 AU , and eccentricity e = 0.97 + / -0.01 . As a result , it also has one of the most extreme temperature swings .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_20782_b", "rank": 89, "score": 71298 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 90, "score": 71155 }, { "content": "Title: Teide 1 Content: Teide 1 was the first brown dwarf to be verified , in 1995 . It is located in the Pleiades open star cluster , approximately 400 ly from Earth . This object is more massive than a planet , but less massive than a star ( 0.0544 MSun ) . The radius of the brown dwarf is about that of Jupiter ( or one-tenth that of the Sun ) . Its surface temperature is 2600 ± 150 K , which is about half that of the Sun . Its luminosity is 0.08 -- 0.05 % of that of the Sun . Its age is only 120 million years compared to the Sun 's age of 4.68 billion years .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Teide_1", "rank": 91, "score": 70948 }, { "content": "Title: Solar variability Content: Solar variability refers to changes in solar activity , such as : Solar variation , the change in the amount of radiation emitted by the Sun ( see Solar radiation ) see also solar cycle , specifically for the 11-year cyclic variation in solar activity Changes in the solar wind , i.e. , charged particles ( moving much slower than the speed of light ) Category : Solar phenomena", "qid": "388", "docid": "Solar_variability", "rank": 92, "score": 70630 }, { "content": "Title: HD 187085 Content: HD 187085 is a yellow main sequence star about 147 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius . It is estimated to be younger than our Sun , at about 3.3 ( ± 1 ) billion years old , and more massive at 1.22 solar masses . In 2006 , an extrasolar planet was announced orbiting HD 187085 .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_187085", "rank": 93, "score": 70617 }, { "content": "Title: HD 168443 b Content: HD 168443 b is a planet seven times as massive as Jupiter . Given the high mass , this planet is likely to be a gas giant , or possibly a small brown dwarf depending on the orbital inclination . It orbits closer to its star than Mercury does to the Sun , and its surface temperature is likely to be very high .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_168443_b", "rank": 94, "score": 70473 }, { "content": "Title: HD 4628 Content: HD 4628 ( 96 G. Piscium ) is a main sequence star in the equatorial constellation of Pisces . It has a spectral classification of K2 .5 V and an effective temperature of 5,829 K , giving it an orange-red hue with a slightly smaller mass and girth than our Sun . HD 4628 lies at a distance of approximately 24.3 light years from the Sun . The apparent magnitude is just sufficient for this star to be viewed with the unaided eye . The star appears to be slightly older than our Sun -- approximately 5.4 billion years old . The surface activity is low and , based upon the detection of UV emission , it may have a relatively cool corona with a temperature of one million K. The star has a relatively high proper motion of 1.4 ″ per year and is moving in our general direction with a radial velocity of − 10.8 km/s . HD 4628 will make its closest approach to the Sun in about 32,000 years , when it comes within 7.3 pc . No definitive companion has yet been found in orbit around this star . In 1958 it was thought to have stellar companion that was also a flare star , but this was subsequently disproved .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_4628", "rank": 95, "score": 70346 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "388", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 96, "score": 70301 }, { "content": "Title: Theta Ceti Content: Theta Ceti ( θ Ceti , θ Cet ) is a solitary , orange-hued star in the equatorial constellation of Cetus . It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 3.60 . Based upon an annual parallax shift of 28.66 mas as seen from Earth , it is located about 114 light years from the Sun . At that distance , the visual magnitude is diminished by an extinction factor of 0.10 due to interstellar dust . With an age of about 2.2 billion years , this is an evolved , K-type giant star with a stellar classification of K0 III . It is a red clump star on the horizontal branch , which means it is generating energy through helium fusion at its core . The star has an estimated 1.8 times the mass of the Sun and has expanded to 10 times the Sun 's radius . It is radiating 53 times the solar luminosity from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 4,660 K.", "qid": "388", "docid": "Theta_Ceti", "rank": 97, "score": 70277 }, { "content": "Title: Fluctuation Content: Price fluctuations are upward or downward swings in the prices of products in an economy . Fluctuations in prices are a common phenomenon in the economic world , particularly among producers of agricultural products . Fluctuation may refer to : Quantum fluctuation arising from the uncertainty principle Primordial fluctuations , density variations in the early universe Universal conductance fluctuations , a quantum physics phenomenon encountered in electrical transport experiments in mesoscopic species Statistical fluctuations , very important in statistics , statistical mechanics , and thermodynamics Thermal fluctuations , statistical fluctuations in a thermodynamic variable An alternative name for conjuncture , a critical combination of events in economics Volatility ( finance ) , price fluctuation", "qid": "388", "docid": "Fluctuation", "rank": 98, "score": 70213 }, { "content": "Title: Modern Mars habitability Content: One of the central questions of modern Astrobiology is whether there is , or ever has been life on Mars . Mars probably had oceans in the past , and it definitely had lakes and a thicker atmosphere . Modern Mars has become cold , dry , and almost uninhabitable , yet , if life did ever arise on Mars , some hardy microbes and perhaps even multicellular life might survive there right through to the present . The only missions to search for life on Mars , the two Viking missions , returned results that were inconclusive . However the instruments were not designed to cope with the unusual conditions which Viking discovered on Mars , which may have confused the results of the experiments . Also , they did n't know enough about Mars at that time to target the regions we now think are most likely to have present day life . Life would meet many challenges on present day Mars . Liquid water boils at 0 ° C , over much of its surface . Even at the depths of the Hellas basin , any water is close to its boiling point of 10 ° C and will dry out quickly . Ice also evaporates into the atmosphere over geological timescales - and most of the equatorial regions are thought to be dry to depths of tens of meters . As its axial tilt varies , Mars atmosphere is sometimes thicker , and liquid water may then form on the surface - but any dormant life in the top few meters of soil would be destroyed over periods of millions of years by cosmic radiation . However , in 2008 , droplets were observed on the landing legs of Phoenix . Sadly , there was no way to analyse them , but the leading hypothesis is that they were droplets of salty water . Phoenix also made isotopic measurements which show that the Mars atmosphere has exchanged oxygen molecules with liquid on the surface in the recent geological past . This could indicate either recent episodic occurrences of liquid water ( for instance after a meteorite strike ) or water present every year , in contact with the atmosphere . We now know of many seasonal changes in the surface of Mars which are only visible in high resolution photographs . Most of these are now thought to be caused by dry ice or wind effects . However , the `` Recurrent slope lineae '' , and some of the `` flow like features '' form in conditions that suggest the occasional presence of small quantities of water on Mars . The evidence of flowing brines in the RSLs is strong , though it 's not known if they are habitable . Curiosity has also found indirect evidence of a brine layer 15 cm below the sands that it drives over , though most scientists think that this layer is not habitable for Earth life . Recent Mars surface simulations by Nilton Renno and his team have shown that small droplets of water can form on salt / ice interfaces for a few hours per day almost anywhere on the surface of Mars , and this may explain the Phoenix leg droplets observations . In a separate development , research by the German aerospace company DLR in Mars simulation chambers and on the ISS show that some Earth life can survive simulated Mars surface conditions without any water at all , and photosynthesize and metabolize , slowly . It can do this using the high relative humidity of the Mars atmosphere at night . All of this work was done after the Phoenix discoveries in 2008 . Other potential habitats include lakes formed in the higher latitudes after cometary or meteorite impacts , or as a result of volcanism . Covered by ice , these may remain liquid for centuries , or up to a few thousand years for the largest impacts . The planet may also have underground trapped layers of water heated by geothermal hotspots . Also there are suggestions that Mars may have a deep hydrosphere , a liquid layer below its cryosphere , a few kilometers below the surface . Deep rock habitats on Earth are inhabited by life so if this layer exists , it may also be habitable on Mars . The main questions are Do these potential habitats exist ? Are they habitable ? For instance , liquid water , if present , could be too cold , or too salty for Earth life Are they in fact inhabited by any forms of life ? As Mars is so inhospitable , life might not be able to spread to new habitats easily . So there might be life in some of the habitats and not in others . Or life on Mars may have gone extinct , or never evolved at all , in which case none of the habitats would be inhabited . These discoveries have renewed interest in this topic , with many astrobiologists saying that they think present day Mars may be more habitable than previously thought . The first conference on the Present Day Habitability of Mars was held in 2013 in UCLA . The 2017 conference session on Modern Mars Habitability will run from April 24 -- 28 in Mesa , Arizona", "qid": "388", "docid": "Modern_Mars_habitability", "rank": 99, "score": 70174 }, { "content": "Title: HD 205739 b Content: HD 205739 b is an extrasolar planet located approximately 350 light-years away in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus , orbiting the star HD 205739 . This planet has a minimum mass 37 % more than Jupiter and orbits 90 % of the distance between the Earth and the Sun . The planet has a very elliptical orbit , which has led its discoverers to postulate that the planet 's surface temperature varies by about 100 K along the entire orbit . This planet was reported on September 5 , 2008 after its discovery at Las Campanas Observatory , where the planet was observed for years by the N2K Consortium while using the Magellan Telescopes . Follow-up observations collected the radial velocity measurements necessary to confirm the candidate as a planet .", "qid": "388", "docid": "HD_205739_b", "rank": 100, "score": 70168 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Ice sheet Content: An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50000 km2 , thus also known as continental glacier . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland ; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of North America , the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America . Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers . Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap . An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery . Although the surface is cold , the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat . In places , melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly . This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet -- these are ice streams . The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms . The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap ( maybe several ) in the early Oligocene , but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene , when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica . The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene , but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation . This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Ice_sheet", "rank": 1, "score": 210848 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic ice sheet Content: The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Antarctic_ice_sheet", "rank": 2, "score": 199242 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West ( or Lesser ) Antarctica , the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains which lies in the Western Hemisphere . The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet , meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves . The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf , the Ronne Ice Shelf , and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea . It is estimated that the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet is about 25.4 million km3 ( 6.1 million cu mi ) , and the WAIS contains just under 10 % of this , or 2.2 million km3 ( 530,000 cu mi ) . The weight of the ice has caused the underlying rock to sink by between 0.5 and 1 kilometres ( 0.31 -- 0.62 mi ) in a process known as isostatic depression . Under the force of its own weight , the ice sheet deforms and flows . The interior ice flows slowly over rough bedrock . In some circumstances , ice can flow faster in ice streams , separated by slow-flowing ice ridges . The inter-stream ridges are frozen to the bed while the bed beneath the ice streams consists of water-saturated sediments . Many of these sediments were deposited before the ice sheet occupied the region , when much of West Antarctica was covered by the ocean . The rapid ice-stream flow is a non-linear process still not fully understood ; streams can start and stop for unclear reasons . When ice reaches the coast , it either calves or continues to flow outward onto the water . The result is a large , floating ice shelf affixed to the continent .", "qid": "390", "docid": "West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 3, "score": 194989 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland ice sheet Content: The Greenland ice sheet ( Grønlands indlandsis , Sermersuaq ) is a vast body of ice covering 1710000 km ² , roughly 80 % of the surface of Greenland . It is the second largest ice body in the world , after the Antarctic ice sheet . The ice sheet is almost 2400 km long in a north-south direction , and its greatest width is 1100 km at a latitude of 77 ° N , near its northern margin . The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 m . The thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point . It is not the only ice mass of Greenland -- isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76000 and around the periphery . If the entire 2850000 km3 of ice were to melt , it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m . The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice , or its Danish equivalent , indlandsis . It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Greenland_ice_sheet", "rank": 4, "score": 194601 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet ( EAIS ) is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica , and the largest on the entire planet . The EAIS lies between 45 ° west and 168 ° east longitudinally . The EAIS is considerably larger in area and mass than the West Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) . It is separated from the WAIS by the Transantarctic Mountains . The EAIS rests upon a large land mass , contrary to that of the WAIS , which rests mainly on bedrock below sea level . The EAIS is also home to the thickest ice on the frozen white continent , at 15,700 ft ( 4,800 m ) . More well known , however , is that the EAIS is home to the geographic South Pole as well as of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station .", "qid": "390", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 5, "score": 192929 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctica Content: West Antarctica , or Lesser Antarctica , one of the two major regions of Antarctica , is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere , and includes the Antarctic Peninsula . It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It lies between the Ross Sea ( partly covered by the Ross Ice Shelf ) , and the Weddell Sea ( largely covered by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf ) . It may be considered a giant peninsula stretching from the South Pole towards the tip of South America . West Antarctica is largely covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , but there have been signs that climate change is having some effect and that this ice sheet may have started to shrink slightly . The coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula are the only parts of West Antarctica that become ( in summer ) ice-free . These constitute the Marielandia Antarctic tundra and have the warmest climate in Antarctica . The rocks are clad in mosses and lichens that can cope with the intense cold of winter and the short growing-season .", "qid": "390", "docid": "West_Antarctica", "rank": 6, "score": 188932 }, { "content": "Title: Ice cap climate Content: An ice cap climate is a polar climate where the temperature never exceeds 0 C . The climate covers areas in or near the polar regions , such as Antarctica and Greenland , as well as the highest mountaintops . Such areas are covered by a permanent layer of ice and have no vegetation , but they may have animal life , that usually feeds from the oceans . Ice cap climates are inhospitable to human life . Antarctica , the coldest continent on Earth , sustains no permanent human residents , but has some civil inhabitants in proximity to research stations in coastal settlements that are maritime polar and there are some communities that are situated in a transitional zone between the two climates , but barely qualify as a tundra . Some places like Antarctica had a different climate before having an ice cap climate", "qid": "390", "docid": "Ice_cap_climate", "rank": 7, "score": 187035 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctica Content: East Antarctica , also called Greater Antarctica , constitutes the majority ( two-thirds ) of the Antarctic continent , lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent , separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains . It lies almost entirely within the Eastern Hemisphere and its name has been accepted for more than a century . It is generally higher than West Antarctica and includes the Gamburtsev Mountain Range in the centre . Apart from small areas of the coast , East Antarctica is permanently covered by ice . The only terrestrial plant life is lichens , mosses and algae clinging to rocks , and there are a limited range of invertebrates including nematodes , springtails , mites and midges . The coasts are the breeding ground for various seabirds and penguins , and the leopard seal , Weddell seal , elephant seal , crabeater seal and Ross seal breed on the surrounding pack ice in summer .", "qid": "390", "docid": "East_Antarctica", "rank": 8, "score": 182005 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Shield Content: The East Antarctic Shield or Craton is a cratonic rock body that covers 10.2 million square kilometers or roughly 73 % of the continent of Antarctica . The shield is almost entirely buried by the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that has an average thickness of 2200 meters but reaches up to 4700 meters in some locations . East Antarctica is separated from West Antarctica by the 100 -- 300 kilometer wide Transantarctic Mountains , which span nearly 3,500 kilometers from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea . The East Antarctic Shield is then divided into an extensive central craton ( Mawson craton ) that occupies most of the continental interior and various other marginal cratons that are exposed along the coast .", "qid": "390", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Shield", "rank": 9, "score": 180621 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice Content: The West Ice is a patch of the Greenland Sea covered by pack ice during winter time . It is located north of Iceland , between Greenland and Jan Mayen island . The West Ice is a major breeding ground for seals , especially harp seals and hooded seals . It was discovered in the early 18th century by British whalers . At the time , whalers were not interested in seal hunting as long as there was ample stock of bowhead whales in the area . However , after the 1750s , the whale population had been depleted in the area , and systematic seal hunting started , first by British ships and then by German , Dutch , Danish , Norwegian , and Russian ships . The annual catches were 120,000 animals around 1900 , mostly by Norway and Russia , and rose to 350,000 by the 1920s . They then declined , first because of imposed restrictions on total allowable catch and then in response to decreasing market demand . Nevertheless , the seal population in the West Ice was rapidly falling , from an estimated 1,000,000 in 1956 to 100,000 in the 1980s . In the 1980s -- 1990s , takings of harp seals totaled 8,000 -- 10,000 , and annual catches of hooded seals totaled a few thousand between 1997 and 2001 . Norway accounts for all recent seal hunting in the West Ice , as Russia has not hunted hooded seals since 1995 , and catches harp seals at the East Ice in the White Sea -- Barents Sea . Seal hunting in the West Ice was a dangerous occupation , as floating ice , storms and winds posed constant threat to the ships ; in the 19th century , the hunters often encountered frozen human bodies on the West Ice . A major accident occurred around 5 April 1952 when a sudden storm surprised 53 ships hunting in the area . Seven of them sank and five vanished , namely Ringsel , Brattind and Vårglimt from Troms and Buskøy and Pels from Sunnmøre , with 79 men on board . The search for them involved ships and planes and continued for many days , but no trace of the missing boats was found .", "qid": "390", "docid": "West_Ice", "rank": 10, "score": 170531 }, { "content": "Title: Cordilleran Ice Sheet Content: The Cordilleran ice sheet was a major ice sheet that periodically covered large parts of North America during glacial periods over the last ~ 2.6 million years . This included the following areas : Western Montana The Idaho Panhandle Northern Washington state down to about Olympia and Spokane All of British Columbia The southwestern third or so of Yukon Territory All of the Alaska Panhandle South Central Alaska The Alaska Peninsula Almost all of the continental shelf north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca The ice sheet covered up to 2.5 million square kilometres at the Last Glacial Maximum and probably more than that in some previous periods , when it may have extended into the northeast extremity of Oregon and the Salmon River Mountains in Idaho . It is probable , though , that its northern margin also migrated south due to the influence of starvation caused by very low levels of precipitation . At its eastern end the Cordilleran ice sheet merged with the Laurentide ice sheet at the Continental Divide , forming an area of ice that contained one and a half times as much water as the Antarctic ice sheet does today . At its western end it is believed nowadays that several small glacial refugia existed during the last glacial maximum below present sea level in the now-submerged Hecate Strait and on the Brooks Peninsula in northern Vancouver Island . However , evidence of ice-free refugia above present sea level north of the Olympic Peninsula has been refuted by genetic and geological studies since the middle 1990s . The ice sheet faded north of the Alaska Range because the climate was too dry to form glaciers . Unlike the Laurentide ice sheet , which is believed to have taken as much as eleven thousand years to fully melt , it is believed the Cordilleran ice sheet , except for areas that remain glaciated today , melted very quickly , probably in four thousand years or less . This rapid melting caused such floods as the overflow of Lake Missoula and shaped the topography of the extremely fertile Inland Empire of Eastern Washington .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Cordilleran_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 11, "score": 166848 }, { "content": "Title: Ice shelf Content: An ice shelf is a thick floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface . Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica , Greenland , Canada and the Russian Arctic . The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ( resting on bedrock ) ice that feeds it is called the grounding line . The thickness of ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters . In contrast , sea ice is formed on water , is much thinner ( typically less than 3m ) , and forms throughout the Arctic Ocean . It also is found in the Southern Ocean around the continent of Antarctica . Ice shelves are principally driven by gravity-driven pressure from the grounded ice . That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf . The primary mechanism of mass loss from ice shelves was thought to have been iceberg calving , in which a chunk of ice breaks off from the seaward front of the shelf . A study by NASA and university researchers - published in the June 14 , 2013 issue of Science - found however that ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent 's ice shelf mass loss . Typically , a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events . Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf . Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf . The density contrast between glacial ice , which is denser than normal ice , and liquid water means that only about 1/9 of the floating ice is above the ocean surface . The world 's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica . The term captured ice shelf has been used for the ice over a subglacial lake , such as Lake Vostok .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Ice_shelf", "rank": 12, "score": 163796 }, { "content": "Title: Joughin Glacier Content: Joughin Glacier is a glacier east of the Watson Peaks , flowing southeast into Wright Inlet on the Lassiter Coast . Named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2008 after Ian Joughin , an electrical engineer who pioneered the use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar to estimate surface motion and topography of ice sheets both in Antarctica and Greenland . He has used remote sensing , field work , and modeling to study ice dynamics since the early 1990s .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Joughin_Glacier", "rank": 13, "score": 160293 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Bindschadler Content: Dr. Robert Bindschadler is a senior fellow at NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center and has been an active field researcher in the Antarctic for over 25 years . He is a past president of the International Glaciological Society , chairs the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative , is an editor for the Journal of Glaciology and has led 14 expeditions to Antarctica and has participated in numerous other expeditions around the world including Greenland . He has also testified before Congress and has briefed the U.S. vice president concerning ice-sheet stability and is often quoted or featured in the media . He was born in Pittsburgh and received a B.S. in astronomy and physics in 1971 from the University of Michigan and earned his Ph.D in Geophysics from the University of Washington in 1978 and did post doctoral work in Switzerland prior to working at NASA . His work revolves around the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets using remote sensing technology . He has developed applications used to measure ice velocity and elevation using radar imagery which monitors the melting of ice sheets and detects changes in the volume of ice-sheets using radar altimetry . He has received numerous awards including Exceptional scientific achievement by NASA in 1994 as well as the Goddard Senior fellow in 2000 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Robert_Bindschadler", "rank": 14, "score": 160007 }, { "content": "Title: Echelmeyer Ice Stream Content: The Echelmeyer Ice Stream , formerly known as Ice Stream F , is a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It is an ice stream flowing west to the Shirase Coast to the north of the MacAyeal Ice Stream , and is one of several major ice streams draining from Marie Byrd Land into the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice streams were investigated and mapped by U.S. Antarctic Research Program personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983 -- 84 and originally named Ice Stream A , B , C , etc. , according to their position from south to north . The name was changed from Ice Stream F by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2002 to honor Dr. Keith A. Echelmeyer of the Geophysical Institute , University of Alaska , Fairbanks , who studied the flow of Marie Byrd Land ice streams , 1992 -- 93 and 1994 -- 95 , as well as the fast flow of surging glaciers in Alaska and Greenland . Dr. Echelmeyer was a student of Barclay Kamb for whom Kamb Ice Stream is named .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Echelmeyer_Ice_Stream", "rank": 15, "score": 159668 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet dynamics Content: Ice sheet dynamics describe the motion within large bodies of ice , such those currently on Greenland and Antarctica . Ice motion is dominated by the movement of glaciers , whose gravity-driven activity is controlled by two main variable factors : the temperature and strength of their bases . A number of processes alter these two factors , resulting in cyclic surges of activity interspersed with longer periods of inactivity , on both hourly and centennial time scales . Ice-sheet dynamics are of interest in modelling future sea level rise . __ TOC __", "qid": "390", "docid": "Ice-sheet_dynamics", "rank": 16, "score": 158602 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland Content: Greenland ( -LSB- ˈɡriːnlənd -RSB- Kalaallit Nunaat -LSB- kaˈlaːɬit ˈnunaːt -RSB- Grønland -LSB- ˈɡ̊ʁɶnˌlanˀ -RSB- ) is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans , east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago . Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America , Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe ( specifically Norway and Denmark , the colonial powers , as well as the nearby island of Iceland ) for more than a millennium . The majority of its residents are Inuit , whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century , gradually settling across the island . Greenland is the world 's largest island ( Australia , although larger , is generally considered to be a continental landmass rather than an island ) . Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica . With a population of about 56,480 ( 2013 ) , it is the least densely populated country in the world . The Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland , connecting the various cities and settlements . Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada . Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century , and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century . The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century . Soon after their demise , beginning in 1499 , the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island , naming it Terra do Lavrador ( later applied to Labrador in Canada ) . In the early 18th century , Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again . To strengthen trading and power , Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island . Denmark -- Norway claimed Greenland for centuries . Greenland was settled by Vikings ( of Norwegian origin ) more than a thousand years ago , who had previously settled Iceland to escape persecution from the King of Norway and his central government . Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland , encountering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached the Caribbean islands . They attempted to colonize land . Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians , Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262 . The Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century . Norway was dramatically hit with a larger death toll than Denmark by the Black Death , forcing Norway to accept a union in which the central government , university and other fundamental institutions were located in Copenhagen . Thus , the two kingdoms ' resources were directed at creating Copenhagen . Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved . Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814 , and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark . In 1973 , Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark . However , in a referendum in 1982 , a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985 . Greenland contains the world 's largest and most northernly national park , Northeast Greenland National Park ( Kalaallit Nunaanni nuna eqqissisimatitaq ) . Established in 1974 and expanded to its present size in 1988 , it protects 972001 km2 of the interior and northeastern coast of Greenland and is bigger than all but twenty-nine countries in the world . Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq , Kujalleq , Qaasuitsup , and Qeqqata . In 1979 , Denmark had granted home rule to Greenland , and in 2008 , Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act , which transferred more power from the Danish royal government to the local Greenlandic government . Under the new structure , in effect since 21 June 2009 , Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing , judicial system , company law , accounting , and auditing ; mineral resource activities ; aviation ; law of legal capacity , family law and succession law ; aliens and border controls ; the working environment ; and financial regulation and supervision , while the Danish government retains control of foreign affairs and defence . It also retains control of monetary policy , providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK 3.4 billion , which is planned to diminish gradually over time . Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources . The capital , Nuuk , held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games . At 70 % , Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world , mostly coming from hydropower .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Greenland", "rank": 17, "score": 157759 }, { "content": "Title: Waltershausen Glacier Content: Waltershausen Glacier ( Waltershausen Gletscher ) is one of the major glaciers in Greenland . It has its terminus on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet . This glacier was named after German geologist Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen by the Second German North Polar Expedition led by Carl Koldewey that first surveyed and partially explored the Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord in 1869 -- 70 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Waltershausen_Glacier", "rank": 18, "score": 156450 }, { "content": "Title: Konrad Steffen Content: Konrad `` Koni '' Steffen ( born 1952 ) is a glaciologist and the former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder , a position he held from 2005 until he took office as the director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest , Snow and Landscape Research on July 1 , 2012 . He is known for his research into Arctic sea ice and the glaciers of Greenland , and how they are affected by global warming . He has often traveled to Greenland to study these glaciers firsthand ; for example , when studying Petermann Glacier for three weeks in 2004 , Steffen did so from a camp set up 4,000 feet up the flanks of the glacier 's ice cap . He also operates a network of 20 weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet , the first of which , Swiss Camp , he established in 1990 . He has argued that due to this ice sheet melting faster than anticipated , sea levels could rise by about 3 feet by 2100 , considerably higher than the IPCC 's upper limit of 59 cm , and that Greenland might lose all its ice in 10,000 years , but Antarctica would take considerably longer , since it is so much bigger .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Konrad_Steffen", "rank": 19, "score": 155778 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Antarctica Content: The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and , thus , by ice . The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle . It is washed by the Southern ( or Antarctic ) Ocean or , depending on definition , the southern Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans . It has an area of more than 14 million km ² . Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , the world 's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water . Averaging at least 1.6 km thick , the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level ; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur ( e.g. , Lake Vostok ) . Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Geography_of_Antarctica", "rank": 20, "score": 154914 }, { "content": "Title: West Greenland Current Content: The West Greenland Current is a weak cold water current that flows to the north along the west coast of Greenland . The current results from the movement of water flowing around the southernmost point of Greenland caused by the East Greenland Current . According to Lloyd et al. , 2007 , the WGC is a WARM current connected to a broader scale North Atlantic climate via the combined influences of Atlantic water from the Irminger Current ( IC ) and polar water from the East Greenland Current . Paleoclimatology records derived from foraminifera abundance show that periodic influxes of warm subsurface temperatures and near-bottom temperatures occurred throughout the Late Holocene epoch , particularly during the Holocene climatic optimum . The increased flow from the nearby East Greenland Current was associated with increased glacial iceberg calving from the large Jakobshavn Isbrae glacial outlet within the western Greenland Ice Sheet , causing rapid melting and destabilization events . Following the Neoglaciation , the Jakobshavn outlet formed a floating ice tongue around 2000 years before present .", "qid": "390", "docid": "West_Greenland_Current", "rank": 21, "score": 154879 }, { "content": "Title: Hutchinson Glacier Content: The Hutchinson Glacier ( Hutchinson Gletscher ) is a large active glacier on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet . This glacier was named after American aviator George R. Hutchinson who crash-landed and was stranded in the area in 1932 during an attempted around-the-world flight with his family and was rescued and brought to Ammasalik by a fishing trawler .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Hutchinson_Glacier", "rank": 22, "score": 154753 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Greenland Content: Greenland is located between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean , northeast of Canada and northwest of Iceland . The territory comprises the island of Greenland -- the largest island in the world -- and more than a hundred other smaller islands ( see alphabetic list ) . As an island , Greenland has no land boundaries and 44,087 km of coastline . A sparse population is confined to small settlements along certain sectors of the coast . Greenland possesses the world 's second largest ice sheet . Greenland sits atop the Greenland plate , a subplate of the North American plate . The Greenland craton is made up of some of the oldest rocks on the face of the earth . The Isua greenstone belt in southwestern Greenland contains the oldest known rocks on Earth , dated at 3.7 -- 3.8 billion years old . The vegetation is generally sparse , with the only patch of forested land being found in Nanortalik Municipality in the extreme south near Cape Farewell . The climate is arctic to subarctic , with cool summers and cold winters . The terrain is mostly a flat but gradually sloping icecap that covers all land except for a narrow , mountainous , barren , rocky coast . The lowest elevation is sea level and the highest elevation is the summit of Gunnbjørn Fjeld , the highest point in the Arctic at 3694 m . The northernmost point of the Island of Greenland is Cape Morris Jesup , discovered by Admiral Robert Peary in 1909 . Natural resources include zinc , lead , iron ore , coal , molybdenum , gold , platinum , uranium , hydropower and fish .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Geography_of_Greenland", "rank": 23, "score": 154518 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice Shelf Content: The West Ice Shelf is a prominent ice shelf extending about 288 km in an east-west direction along the Leopold and Astrid Coast in East Antarctica between Barrier Bay and Posadowsky Bay . It was discovered and named by the First German Antarctica Expedition , 1901 -- 1903 , under Dr. Erich von Drygalski . The toponym describes the direction in which the German expedition first viewed the ice shelf . Their limited westward view became a prolonged one ; on February 21 , 1902 , the ship became stuck in the ice . It remained there imprisoned by the pack ice until February 8 , 1903 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "West_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 24, "score": 154426 }, { "content": "Title: North Ice Content: North Ice was a research station of the British North Greenland Expedition ( 1952 to 1954 ) on the inland ice of Greenland . The coordinates of the station were , at an altitude of 2341 m above sea level . The British North Greenland Expedition was led by Commander James Simpson RN . The station recorded the lowest temperature ever in North America with -66.1 C on 9 January 1954 . The name of the station contrasts to the former British South Ice station in Antarctica .", "qid": "390", "docid": "North_Ice", "rank": 25, "score": 154299 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet model Content: In climate modelling , Ice-sheet models use numerical methods to simulate the evolution , dynamics and thermodynamics of ice sheets , such as the Greenland ice sheet , the Antarctic ice sheet or the large ice sheets on the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period . They are used for a variety of purposes , from studies of the glaciation of Earth over glacial -- interglacial cycles in the past to projections of ice-sheet decay under future global warming conditions .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Ice-sheet_model", "rank": 26, "score": 153891 }, { "content": "Title: Ice core Content: An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet , most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica , Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere . As the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow , lower layers are older than upper , and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years . The properties of the ice and the recrystallized inclusions within the ice can then be used to reconstruct a climatic record over the age range of the core , normally through isotopic analysis . This enables the reconstruction of local temperature records and the history of atmospheric composition . Ice cores contain an abundance of information about climate . Inclusions in the snow of each year remain in the ice , such as wind-blown dust , ash , pollen , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . The length of the record depends on the depth of the ice core and varies from a few years up to 800 kyr ( 800,000 years ) for the EPICA core . The time resolution ( i.e. the shortest time period which can be accurately distinguished ) depends on the amount of annual snowfall , and reduces with depth as the ice compacts under the weight of layers accumulating on top of it . Upper layers of ice in a core correspond to a single year or sometimes a single season . Deeper into the ice the layers thin and annual layers become indistinguishable . An ice core from the right site can be used to reconstruct an uninterrupted and detailed climate record extending over hundreds of thousands of years , providing information on a wide variety of aspects of climate at each point in time . It is the simultaneity of these properties recorded in the ice that makes ice cores such a powerful tool in paleoclimate research .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Ice_core", "rank": 27, "score": 152690 }, { "content": "Title: East Greenland Ice-Core Project Content: The East Greenland Ice-Core Project , known as EGRIP , is a scientific project that plans to retrieve an ice core from the Northeast Greenland ice stream . The first season in the field was 2015 ; the project is expected to be drilling through to the base of the ice sheet by 2020 . Much of the camp set up for the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling Project ( NEEM ) was moved to the EGRIP location in 2015 . The equipment was towed by several tractors . The team ran low on fuel and had to abandon some equipment , arriving at the EGRIP location on 26 May , after nine days of towing .", "qid": "390", "docid": "East_Greenland_Ice-Core_Project", "rank": 28, "score": 152591 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice accidents Content: The West Ice accidents ( Ulykkene i Vestisen ) occurred around April 5 , 1952 when the five Norwegian seal hunting vessels Ringsel , Brattind and Vårglim from Troms and Buskøy and Pels from Sunnmøre with a total crew of 78 men vanished in the midst of a severe storm in the area of the West Ice in the Greenland Sea east of Greenland . Despite search and rescue operations for many days involving planes and naval ships , no traces of the missing boats were discovered . During Easter that year 53 Norwegian vessels were participating in seal hunting in the West Ice Pack . Of these 7 shipwrecked , 5 disappeared without a trace . The first vessel to shipwreck was the Møre boat `` Vestis '' , however the crew of this boat was rescued .", "qid": "390", "docid": "West_Ice_accidents", "rank": 29, "score": 152550 }, { "content": "Title: Petermann Glacier Content: Petermann Glacier is a large glacier located in North-West Greenland to the east of Nares Strait . It connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic Ocean near 81 degrees north latitude . It is named after the German cartographer August Heinrich Petermann", "qid": "390", "docid": "Petermann_Glacier", "rank": 30, "score": 152149 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctic Rift Content: The West Antarctic Rift is a major , active rift valley lying between East and West Antarctica . It encompasses the Ross Sea , the area under the Ross Ice Shelf and a part of West Antarctica . Its evolution is due to lithospheric thinning of the non-cratonic area of West Antarctica . Exploration of the geology of the West Antarctic Rift is difficult , because , apart from peaks of the Transantarctic Mountains that protrude above the ice , the region is covered by the vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet . Thus , the rift is less well known than other major rift valleys . It is known , however , that like the East African Rift , the West Antarctic Rift is actually a number of much shorter rifts that cross Antarctica . There is also a sharp division between older , broader Paleogene rifts including the Ross Sea Basin and the younger , narrower Terror Rift . There are also a large number of failed rifts extending as far as Berkner Island . Although many rifts within the West Antarctic Rift system are no longer active , it is now known that West Antarctica is moving away from the East Antarctic Craton in a north/northeasterly direction ( approximately in the direction of the South Georgia Islands ) at a rate of about 2 mm per year or 500,000 years per kilometre . The West Antarctic Rift is the source of all the recently active volcanoes within Antarctica , and of most of the major Antarctic mountain systems outside the Antarctic Peninsula . It is also believed to have a major influence on ice flows in West Antarctica , because fast moving ice streams are believed to be influenced by the lubrication provided by water-saturated till , which some argue could help cause breakup of the ice sheet if global warming accelerates .", "qid": "390", "docid": "West_Antarctic_Rift", "rank": 31, "score": 150740 }, { "content": "Title: Wordie Glacier Content: Wordie Glacier ( Wordie Gletscher ) is a glacier in northeastern Greenland . It has its terminus on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet . This glacier was named after Scottish polar explorer James Wordie ( 1890 -- 1962 ) by the 1926 -- 27 expedition led by Lauge Koch .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Wordie_Glacier", "rank": 32, "score": 150671 }, { "content": "Title: 53rd meridian west Content: The meridian 53 ° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean , Greenland , Newfoundland , the Atlantic Ocean , South America , the Southern Ocean , and Antarctica to the South Pole . In Antarctica , the meridian defines the eastern limit of Chile 's territorial claim and passes through the British and Argentinian claims - the three claims overlap . It also defines the western limit of Brazil 's unofficial claim . The 53rd meridian west forms a great circle with the 127th meridian east .", "qid": "390", "docid": "53rd_meridian_west", "rank": 33, "score": 150662 }, { "content": "Title: Midgard Glacier Content: Midgard Glacier ( Midgårdsgletscher ) is a glacier on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Midgard_Glacier", "rank": 34, "score": 150525 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary glaciation Content: The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Quaternary_glaciation", "rank": 35, "score": 150423 }, { "content": "Title: South Ice Content: South Ice was a British support base 560 km from the South Pole at 82 ° 05 'S , 30 ° 00 ' W in Edith Ronne Land , Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year , established by Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , where three men overwintered during the Antarctic winter of 1957 . In the same winter , men overwintered for the first time at the South Pole . The name of the station contrasts to North Ice which was a British research station in Greenland .", "qid": "390", "docid": "South_Ice", "rank": 36, "score": 150236 }, { "content": "Title: Kangerlussuaq Glacier Content: Kangerlussuaq Glacier ( Kangerlussuaq , meaning ` large fjord ' ; old spelling Kangerdlugssuaq ) is the largest glacier on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet . It flows into the head of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord , the second largest fjord in East Greenland .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Kangerlussuaq_Glacier", "rank": 37, "score": 149971 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica Content: The Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica is a research program consisting of two overland traverses of East Antarctica : the first from the Norwegian Troll Station to the South Pole in the 2007/2008 season ; and a return traverse via a different route in 2008/2009 . The main research focus of the program is climate change , the stated goals being to : Investigate climate variability in Dronning Maud Land of East Antarctica on time scales of years to a thousand years . Establish spatial and temporal variability in snow accumulation over this area of Antarctica to understand its impact on sea level . Investigate the impact of atmospheric and oceanic variability on the chemical composition of firn and ice in the region . Revisit areas and sites first explored by traverses in the 1960s , for detection of possible changes and to establish benchmark data sets for future research efforts . The program is part of Trans-Antarctic Scientific Traverse Expeditions -- Ice Divide of East Antarctica ( TASTE-IDEA ) , and the International Partners in Ice Coring Sciences ( IPICS ) , both of which have ISCU-WMO endorsement for the International Polar Year 2007-2009 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Norwegian-U.S._Scientific_Traverse_of_East_Antarctica", "rank": 38, "score": 149865 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen Sea Content: The Amundsen Sea , an arm of the Southern Ocean off Marie Byrd Land in western Antarctica , lies between Cape Flying Fish ( the northwestern tip of Thurston Island ) to the east and Cape Dart on Siple Island to the west . Cape Flying Fish marks the boundary between the Amundsen Sea and the Bellingshausen Sea . West of Cape Dart there is no named marginal sea of the Southern Ocean between the Amundsen and Ross Seas . The Norwegian expedition of 1928 -- 1929 under Captain Nils Larsen named the body of water for the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen while exploring this area in February 1929 . The sea is mostly ice-covered , and the Thwaites Ice Tongue protrudes into it . The ice sheet which drains into the Amundsen Sea averages about 3 km in thickness ; roughly the size of the state of Texas , this area is known as the Amundsen Sea Embayment ( ASE ) ; it forms one of the three major ice-drainage basins of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Amundsen_Sea", "rank": 39, "score": 149650 }, { "content": "Title: Christian IV Glacier Content: Christian IV Glacier ( Christian IV Gletscher or Kong Christian den IV 's Gletscher ) is a large glacier on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet . It is named after King Christian IV of Denmark ( 1577 -- 1648 ) . Administratively this glacier is part of the Sermersooq Municipality . The area surrounding Christian IV Glacier is uninhabited .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Christian_IV_Glacier", "rank": 40, "score": 148848 }, { "content": "Title: Nansen Ice Sheet Content: Nansen Ice Sheet , or Nansen Ice Shelf , is a 30 mi by 10 mi ice shelf . It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abutting the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue , along the coast of Victoria Land , Antarctica . This feature was explored by the South Magnetic Polar Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1907-09 and by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910-13 . Frank Debenham , geologist with the latter expedition , applied the name Nansen Sheet as the feature is adjacent to Mount Nansen , the dominating summit in the area .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Nansen_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 41, "score": 147264 }, { "content": "Title: Dye 3 Content: Dye 3 is an ice core site and previously part of the Distant Early Warning ( DEW ) line , located at ( , 2480 masl ) in Greenland . As a DEW line base , it was disbanded in years 1990/1991 . An ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice that has re-crystallized and trapped air bubbles over many years . The composition of these ice cores , especially the presence of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes , provides a picture of the climate at the time . Ice cores contain an abundance of climate information . Inclusions in the snow , such as wind-blown dust , ash , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances , remain in the ice . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . Typical ice cores are removed from an ice sheet such as the ice cap internal to Greenland . Greenland is , by area , the world 's largest island . The Greenland ice sheet covers about 1.71 million km2 and contains about 2.6 million km3 of ice .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Dye_3", "rank": 42, "score": 146211 }, { "content": "Title: 20th meridian west Content: The meridian 20 ° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean , Greenland , Iceland , the Atlantic Ocean , the Southern Ocean , and Antarctica to the South Pole . In some geographic schema , it is used as the line of longitude which best delineates the historical separation between the Old World of Eurasia and Africa and the New World of the Americas . The 20th meridian west forms a great circle with the 160th meridian east . In Antarctica , the meridian defines the border between the British Antarctic Territory and Queen Maud Land . Between the 5th parallel north and the 60th parallel south it forms the eastern boundary of the Latin American Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone .", "qid": "390", "docid": "20th_meridian_west", "rank": 43, "score": 146158 }, { "content": "Title: European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Content: The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica ( EPICA ) is a multinational European project for deep ice core drilling in Antarctica . Its main objective is to obtain full documentation of the climatic and atmospheric record archived in Antarctic ice by drilling and analyzing two ice cores and comparing these with their Greenland counterparts ( GRIP and GISP ) . Evaluation of these records will provide information about the natural climate variability and mechanisms of rapid climatic changes during the last glacial epoch . The European Science Foundation EPICA Programme ( 1996 -- 2005 ) provides co-ordination for EPICA drilling activities at Dome Concordia and Kohnen Station , which are supported by the European Commission and by national contributions from Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Italy , the Netherlands , Norway , Sweden , Switzerland and the United Kingdom . Deep drilling took place at two sites in Antarctica : Concordia Station at Dome C and Kohnen Station . In 2008 the project received the Descartes Prize for Research .", "qid": "390", "docid": "European_Project_for_Ice_Coring_in_Antarctica", "rank": 44, "score": 145536 }, { "content": "Title: Bjerkø Peninsula Content: Bjerkø Peninsula is a broad ice-covered peninsula of Antarctica , forming the west shore of MacKenzie Bay . Norwegian whalers explored this area in January and February 1931 , naming the cape at the end of this peninsula for gunner Reidar Bjerkø of the whale catcher Bouvet II , from whose deck the coast was sketched on January 19 . Since Sir Douglas Mawson probably saw this cape from a great distance as early as December 26 , 1929 , the Australian name of Cape Darnley has been retained for the cape , while the Norwegian name has been applied to the peninsula .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Bjerkø_Peninsula", "rank": 45, "score": 144963 }, { "content": "Title: Mikkelsen Bay Content: Mikkelsen Bay is a bay , 15 nmi wide at its mouth and indenting 10 nmi , entered between Bertrand Ice Piedmont and Cape Berteaux along the west coast of Graham Land , Antarctica . First seen from a distance in 1909 by the French Antarctic Expedition under Jean-Baptiste Charcot , but not recognized as a large bay . First surveyed in 1936 by the BGLE under Rymill , and resurveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1948-49 . The name was proposed by members of BGLE for Ejnar Mikkelsen , Danish Arctic explorer and Inspector for East Greenland , 1934-50 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Mikkelsen_Bay", "rank": 46, "score": 144792 }, { "content": "Title: King Oscar Glacier Content: King Oscar Glacier ( Kong Oscar Gletscher ) is one of several glaciers that drain the north-western part of the Greenland Ice Sheet into Melville Bay . As part of a comprehensive survey of Greenland 's glaciers that was published in 2006 , scientists documented that the mass balance -- the sum of gains through snow accumulation and losses through iceberg calving and melting -- of Kong Oscar and Greenland 's other north-western glaciers was strongly negative between 1996 and 2005 : they lost more ice than they gained . The pattern was similar to the ice sheet as a whole , which has been losing ice mass at an accelerating pace in the past decade .", "qid": "390", "docid": "King_Oscar_Glacier", "rank": 47, "score": 144714 }, { "content": "Title: Isunngua Content: Isunngua ( old spelling : Isúngua ) is a highland in the Qeqqata municipality in central-western Greenland , located immediately west of the Greenland Ice Sheet edge . In large part it is covered by the tundra , although in the immediate vicinity of the Sermersuaq ice sheet it gradually becomes exposed , barren , and largely devoid of life . The climate is polar continental , with the area receiving very little rainfall . Isunngua is a calving site for reindeer .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Isunngua", "rank": 48, "score": 144277 }, { "content": "Title: Dakshin Gangotri Glacier Content: The Dakshin Gangotri Glacier is a small tongue of the polar continental ice sheet impinging on the Schirmacher Oasis of central Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was discovered by the Second Indian Expedition to Antarctica in 1983 , and named for India 's first Antarctic research station . Since then its snout , and the area around it , has been regularly monitored and it has become a valuable site for tracking the impact of global warming through changes in the movement of the Antarctic ice sheet . The site is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area ( ASPA ) No. 163 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Dakshin_Gangotri_Glacier", "rank": 49, "score": 144247 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland's Grand Canyon Content: Greenland 's Grand Canyon or Grand Canyon of Greenland is a tentative canyon of record length discovered underneath the Greenland ice sheet as reported in the journal Science on 30 August 2013 ( submitted 29 April 2013 ) , by scientists from the University of Bristol , University of Calgary , and University of Urbino , who described it as a mega-canyon . Ice-penetrating radar data collected during NASA 's Operation IceBridge showed a huge subglacial canyon running from the central region of the island northward into the Arctic Ocean , to the fjord of the Petermann Glacier . The bottom of the canyon is below sea level ; the canyon is likely to have influenced basal water flow from the ice sheet interior to the margin . Jonathan Bamber , a geographer at University of Bristol , stated , `` The distinctive V-shaped walls and flat bottom suggests water carved the buried valley , not ice . '' The canyon is more than 750 km long , up to 800 m deep and 10 km wide , making it the longest canyon discovered on the Earth to date . There are , however , many canyons -- including Arizona 's Grand Canyon and Tibet 's Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon , previously the world 's longest -- that are deeper . The canyon predates ice sheet inception and has influenced basal hydrology in Greenland over past glacial cycles .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Greenland's_Grand_Canyon", "rank": 50, "score": 144005 }, { "content": "Title: New South Greenland Content: New South Greenland , sometimes known as Morrell 's Land , was an appearance of land recorded by the American captain Benjamin Morrell of the schooner Wasp in , during a sealing and exploration voyage in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica . Morrell provided precise coordinates and a description of a coastline which he claimed to have sailed along for more than 300 mi . Because the Weddell Sea area was so little visited , and hard to navigate due to ice conditions , the alleged land was never properly investigated before its existence was emphatically disproved during Antarctic expeditions in the early 20th century . At the time of Morrell 's voyage , the geography of the then unnamed Weddell Sea and its surrounding coasts was almost entirely unknown , making the claimed sighting initially plausible . However , obvious errors in Morrell 's voyage account , and his general reputation as a fabulist , created scepticism about the existence of this new land . In the German explorer Wilhelm Filchner searched for but found no traces of land , after his ship Deutschland became icebound in the Weddell Sea and drifted into the locality of Morrell 's observation . A sounding of the sea bottom revealed more than 5000 ft of water , indicating no land in near proximity . Three years later , trapped in the same waters with his ship Endurance , Ernest Shackleton was able by similar means to confirm the land 's non-existence . Various explanations for Morrell 's error have been suggested , including intentional deception . However , Morrell describes his find briefly and prosaically , evidently seeking no personal credit or glory from the discovery . In his narrative he assigns the honour to his fellow sealing captain , Robert Johnson , for finding and naming the land two years earlier . Morrell may have been honestly mistaken , through miscalculation of his ship 's position or by misremembering detail when writing the account after nine years . Alternatively , he may have made the common error of confusing distant icebergs with land , or been misled by the distorting effects of Antarctic mirage . In 1843 the distinguished British naval explorer James Clark Ross reported possible land in a position close to Morrell 's ; this land , too , would eventually be proven not to exist .", "qid": "390", "docid": "New_South_Greenland", "rank": 51, "score": 143470 }, { "content": "Title: Shackleton Ice Shelf Content: Shackleton Ice Shelf is an extensive ice shelf fronting the coast of East Antarctica for about 384 km ( 95E to 105E ) , projecting seaward about 145 km in the western portion and 64 km in the east . It occupies an area of 33,820 km ² . It is part of Mawson Sea and separates the Queen Mary Coast to the west from the Knox Coast of Wilkes Land to the east . The existence of this ice shelf was first made known by the USEE under Charles Wilkes who mapped a portion of it from the Vincennes in February 1840 . It was explored by the Australian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson ( 1911 -- 14 ) who named it for Sir Ernest Shackleton . The extent of the ice shelf was mapped in greater detail in 1955 , using aerial photography obtained by US Navy Operation Highjump , 1946-47 . Further mapping by the Soviet Expedition of 1956 showed the portion eastward of Scott Glacier to be a part of this ice shelf .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Shackleton_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 52, "score": 143416 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Kolosov Content: Cape Kolosov is a point along the west side of the ice-covered peninsula that forms the east side of the entrance to Amundsen Bay , Antarctica . It was photographed in 1956 from Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions aircraft , and rephotographed in 1958 by a Soviet expedition . The cape was named after the polar aviation navigator V. Kolosov , who died in the Arctic .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Cape_Kolosov", "rank": 53, "score": 143219 }, { "content": "Title: Bredebrae Content: Bredebrae ( Bredebræ `` Broad Glacier '' ) , sometimes also known as `` Brede Glacier '' , is a large glacier in northeastern Greenland . It has its terminus on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Bredebrae", "rank": 54, "score": 143186 }, { "content": "Title: Strømme Ridge Content: Strømme Ridge is a broad ice-covered ridge , 15 nmi long , trending northwest-southeast between the Muus and Soto Glaciers . The ridge terminates at the north side of Odom Inlet on the east coast of Palmer Land . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey in 1974 and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Jan A. Strømme , a Norwegian oceanographer from the University of Bergen , a member of the International Weddell Sea Oceanographic Expeditions , 1968 and 1969 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Strømme_Ridge", "rank": 55, "score": 143102 }, { "content": "Title: Wordie Ice Shelf Content: The Wordie Ice Shelf was a confluent glacier projecting as an ice shelf into the SE part of Marguerite Bay between Cape Berteaux and Mount Edgell , along the western coast of Antarctic Peninsula . In March 2008 , the British Antarctic Survey reported that it appeared ready to break away from the Antarctic Peninsula . By April 2009 it had done so , vanishing completely . Discovered by the British Graham Land Expedition ( BGLE ) under Rymill , 1934-37 , who named this feature for Sir James Wordie , Honorary Secretary ( later President ) of the Royal Geographical Society , member of the Discovery Committee , and chairman of the Scott Polar Research Institute . He also had been geologist and Chief of the Scientific Staff of the British expedition , 1914-16 , under Ernest Shackleton .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Wordie_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 56, "score": 142643 }, { "content": "Title: Håhellerskarvet Content: Håhellerskarvet , meaning `` shark cave mountain '' in Norwegian , is a 2,910 m high partially ice-covered mountain between Austreskorve Glacier and Lunde Glacier in the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains of Queen Maud Land , East Antarctica . Other nearby geographic features include Håhelleren Cove , indenting the north side of Håhellerskarvet , Håhelleregga Ridge , an irregular rock ridge just north of Håhellerskarvet , Håhellerbotnen Cirque , a large cirque on the east side of Håhelleregga Ridge , and Jøkulkyrkja , a broad , ice-topped mountain located east of Lunde Glacier . All of these geographic features were plotted from surveys and air photos by the Sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition ( 1956 -- 60 ) .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Håhellerskarvet", "rank": 57, "score": 142568 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland Ice Sheet Project Content: The Greenland Ice Sheet Project ( GISP ) was a decade-long project to drill ice cores in Greenland that involved scientists and funding agencies from Denmark , Switzerland and the United States . Besides the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , funding was provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Danish Commission for Scientific Research in Greenland . The ice cores provide a proxy archive of temperature and atmospheric constituents that help to understand past climate variations . The preliminary GISP field work started in 1971 at Dye 3 , where a 372 meter deep , 10.2 cm diameter core was recovered . After this , annual field expeditions were carried out to drill intermediate depth cores at various locations on the ice sheet . The first was a 398 m core at Milcent and another was a 405 m core at the Crete station in 1974 . After working out various logistical and engineering problems related to the development of a more sophisticated drilling rig , drilling to bedrock at Dye 3 began in the summer of 1979 using a new Danish electro-mechanical ice drill . In the first year , an 18 cm diameter hole was drilled and cased to a depth of 80 m. Coring continued for two more seasons , and on August 10 , 1981 , bedrock was reached at a depth of 2037 m . The Dye 3 site was a compromise : glaciologically , a higher site on the ice divide with smooth bedrock would have been better ; logistically , such a site would have been too remote .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Greenland_Ice_Sheet_Project", "rank": 58, "score": 142498 }, { "content": "Title: 25th meridian west Content: The meridian 25 ° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean , Greenland , the Atlantic Ocean , Cape Verde Islands , the Southern Ocean , and Antarctica to the South Pole . The 25th meridian west forms a great circle with the 155th meridian east . In Antarctica , the meridian defines the eastern limit of Argentina 's territorial claim and passes through the British claim - the two claims overlap .", "qid": "390", "docid": "25th_meridian_west", "rank": 59, "score": 142473 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic Content: There are many glaciers in the Antarctic . This set of lists does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . The lists include outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of these lists , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "390", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 60, "score": 141681 }, { "content": "Title: National Ice Core Laboratory Content: The National Ice Core Laboratory ( NICL ) located at the Denver Federal Center is the primary repository for ice cores collected by the United States . The facility is managed by the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) , and jointly funded by the USGS , National Science Foundation , and the University of New Hampshire . NICL currently houses ~ 17,000 m of ice cores collected from Greenland and Antarctica , including the GISP2 , Siple Dome , and portions of the Vostok cores . The facility is also the lead organization for the handling and storage of the upcoming West Antarctic Ice Sheet ice core . In addition to providing a large storage facility , maintained at -35 ° C , NICL also has one of the largest sub-zero research and sample preparation spaces in the world . NICL is responsible for distributing samples of ice cores in their collection to researchers around the world , following approved research proposals . In addition to research activities , NICL also participates in public outreach and gives ~ 100 tours per year .", "qid": "390", "docid": "National_Ice_Core_Laboratory", "rank": 61, "score": 141441 }, { "content": "Title: 28th meridian west Content: The meridian 28 ° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean , Greenland , the Atlantic Ocean , the Azores , the Southern Ocean , and Antarctica to the South Pole . The 28th meridian west forms a great circle with the 152nd meridian east . In Antarctica the meridian defines the eastern limit of Brazil 's unofficial territorial claim .", "qid": "390", "docid": "28th_meridian_west", "rank": 62, "score": 141300 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 63, "score": 141041 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic sea ice Content: Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean . It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer . Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few meters thick . This is in contrast to ice shelves , which are formed by glaciers , float in the sea , and are up to a kilometer thick . There are two subdivisions of sea ice : fast ice , which is attached to land ; and ice floes , which are not . Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow . As a result , melt ponds are rarely observed . On average , Antarctic sea ice is younger , thinner , warmer , saltier , and more mobile than Arctic sea ice . Due to its inaccessibility , it is not as well-studied as Arctic ice .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Antarctic_sea_ice", "rank": 64, "score": 141029 }, { "content": "Title: Kuivinen Ridge Content: Kuivinen Ridge is a transverse ridge extending southwest-northeast across the Saint Johns Range between an unnamed glacier and the Ringer Glacier in Victoria Land . The ridge is 5 nmi long and rises to 1750 m at Lanyon Peak . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2005 after ice coring specialist Karl C. Kuivinen , University of Nebraska-Lincoln ( UNL ) , 1974-2003 ; Field Operations Manager , Ross Ice Shelf Project Management Office , UNL , for the 1974-1978 season ; Director , Polar Ice Coring Office , UNL , 1979-1989 and 1994-2001 ; 15 summer field seasons in Antarctica , between 1968 and 2000 ; and 24 summer field seasons in Greenland and Alaska between 1974-99 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Kuivinen_Ridge", "rank": 65, "score": 140951 }, { "content": "Title: Julie Palais Content: Julie Michelle Palais ( * September 2 , 1956 in Massachusetts ) is an award-winning polar glaciologist who has made great contributions to climate change research studying volcanic fallout in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica . Since 1990 , she has played a pivotal role working at the National Science Foundation as Program Director of the Antarctic Glaciology Program in the Division of Polar Programs . Both the Palais Glacier and Palais Bluff in Antarctica were named in her honor . She has made twenty-eight trips to Antarctica and three trips to Greenland , and was the co-recipient of the Explorer Club 's Lowell Thomas Award .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Julie_Palais", "rank": 66, "score": 140914 }, { "content": "Title: 45th meridian west Content: The meridian 45 ° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean , Greenland , the Atlantic Ocean , South America , the Southern Ocean , and Antarctica to the South Pole . In Greenland the meridian defines the borders of Qaasuitsup and Qeqqata municipalities with the Sermersooq municipality and the North East Greenland National Park . The 45th meridian west forms a great circle with the 135th meridian east , and it is the reference meridian for the time zone UTC-3 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "45th_meridian_west", "rank": 67, "score": 140598 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland ice core project Content: The Greenland Ice Core Project ( GRIP ) was a multinational European research project , organized through the European Science Foundation . Funding came from 8 nations ( Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Iceland , Italy , Switzerland , and United Kingdom ) , and from the European Union . The project ran from 1989 to 1995 , with drilling seasons from 1990 to 1992 . GRIP successfully drilled a 3029-metre ice core to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet at Summit , Central Greenland from 1989 to 1992 at . Studies of isotopes and various atmospheric constituents in the core have revealed a detailed record of climatic variations reaching more than 100,000 years back in time . The results indicate that Holocene climate has been remarkably stable and have confirmed the occurrence of rapid climatic variation during the last ice age ( the Wisconsin ) . Delta-O-18 variations observed in the core part believed to date from the Eemian Stage have not been confirmed by other records including the NGRIP core and are now believed not to represent climate events : the interglacial climate of Eemian Stage appears to have been as stable as the Holocene .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Greenland_ice_core_project", "rank": 68, "score": 140077 }, { "content": "Title: Fahnestock Glacier Content: Fahnestock Glacier is a glacier about 30 nmi long draining to the Sulzberger Ice Shelf . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Mark A. Fahnestock , a faculty member of the University of New Hampshire , who was a field and theoretical researcher in Greenland and in the West Antarctic Ice Stream area from the 1980s onwards .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Fahnestock_Glacier", "rank": 69, "score": 139647 }, { "content": "Title: Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment Content: The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems . Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind . The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Sea_Ice_Physics_and_Ecosystem_eXperiment", "rank": 70, "score": 139511 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 71, "score": 139339 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 72, "score": 139155 }, { "content": "Title: Glopeflya Plain Content: Glopeflya Plain is a narrow , ice-covered plain between the eastern part of the Orvin Mountains and the interior ice plateau which rises close southward , in Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and air photos by the Sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition ( 1956 -- 60 ) and named Glopeflya ( the ravine plateau ) .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Glopeflya_Plain", "rank": 73, "score": 139102 }, { "content": "Title: Nioghalvfjerdsbrae Content: Nioghalvfjerdsbrae , sometimes referred to as `` 79 N Glacier '' , is a large glacier located in northeast Greenland . It drains an area of 103,314 km2 of the Greenland Ice Sheet with a flux ( quantity of ice moved from the land to the sea ) of 14.3 km3 per year , as measured for 1996 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Nioghalvfjerdsbrae", "rank": 74, "score": 138622 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 75, "score": 138608 }, { "content": "Title: Mawson Glacier Content: Mawson Glacier is a large glacier on the east coast of Victoria Land , Antarctica , descending eastward from the polar plateau , to the north of Trinity Nunatak and the Kirkwood Range , to enter the Ross Sea , where it forms the Nordenskjöld Ice Tongue . The glacier was first mapped by the British Antarctic Expedition ( 1907 -- 09 ) and named for Douglas Mawson , the expedition physicist , who later led two other Antarctic expeditions , 1911 -- 14 , and 1929 -- 31 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Mawson_Glacier", "rank": 76, "score": 138502 }, { "content": "Title: Hudson Mountains Content: The Hudson Mountains is a group of parasitic cones , forming nunataks just above the Antarctic ice sheet in west Ellsworth Land . They lie just east of Cranton Bay and Pine Island Bay at the eastern extremity of Amundsen Sea , and are bounded on the north by Cosgrove Ice Shelf and on the south by Pine Island Glacier .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Hudson_Mountains", "rank": 77, "score": 138172 }, { "content": "Title: Posadowsky Glacier (Antarctica) Content: Posadowsky Glacier ( Posadowskygletscher , ) is a glacier about 9 nmi long , flowing north to Posadowsky Bay immediately east of Gaussberg . Posadowsky Bay is an open embayment , located just east of the West Ice Shelf and fronting on the Davis Sea in Kaiser Wilhelm II Land . Kaiser Wilhelm II Land is the part of East Antarctica lying between Cape Penck , at 87 ° 43 ` E , and Cape Filchner , at 91 ° 54 ' E and is part of the Australian Antarctic Territory . Other notable geographic features in this area include Drygalski Island , located 45 mi NNE of Cape Filchner in the Davis Sea , and Mirny Station , a Russian scientific research station .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Posadowsky_Glacier_(Antarctica)", "rank": 78, "score": 138163 }, { "content": "Title: Hans Tausen Iskappe Content: Hans Tausen Iskappe is an ice cap in northern Greenland . It is about 75 km from north to south and 50 km from east to west and sits on a 1000 m high plateau . Ice cores show it is around 3500 -- 4000 years old . It formed since the Holocene climatic optimum of 6000-8000 BP . It is the source of many glaciers , including Ymer Gletscher , Lurgletscher and the Tjalfe Gletscher . It is a well studied ice cap , and is important to understanding the last Climactic Optimum . ( Holocene climatic optimum )", "qid": "390", "docid": "Hans_Tausen_Iskappe", "rank": 79, "score": 137876 }, { "content": "Title: Lambert Glacier Content: Lambert Glacier is a major glacier in East Antarctica . At about 60 miles ( 100 km ) wide , over 250 miles ( 400 km ) long , and about 2,500 m deep , it holds the Guinness world record for the world 's largest . It drains 8 % of the Antarctic ice sheet to the east and south of the Prince Charles Mountains and flows northward to the Amery Ice Shelf . It flows in part of Lambert Graben and exits the continent at Prydz Bay . This glacier was delineated and named in 1952 by American geographer John H. Roscoe who made a detailed study of this area from aerial photographs taken by Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 . He gave the name `` Baker Three Glacier '' , using the code name of the Navy photographic aircraft and crew that made three flights in this coastal area in March 1947 resulting in geographic discoveries . The glacier was described in Gazetteer No. 14 , Geographic Names of Antarctica ( U.S. Board on Geographic Names , 1956 ) , but the feature did not immediately appear on published maps . As a result the name Lambert Glacier , as applied by the Antarctic Names Committee of Australia in 1957 following mapping of the area by Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions in 1956 , has become established for this feature . It was named for Bruce P. Lambert , Director of National Mapping in the Australian Department of National Development .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Lambert_Glacier", "rank": 80, "score": 137375 }, { "content": "Title: Sorge Island Content: Sorge Island is an island lying just south of The Gullet in Barlas Channel , close east of Adelaide Island . Mapped by Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) from surveys and air photos , 1948-59 . Named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) for Ernst F.W. Sorge , German glaciologist who made the first seismic soundings of the Greenland ice sheet , 1929 -- 31 , and developed a theory of the densification of firn .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Sorge_Island", "rank": 81, "score": 137301 }, { "content": "Title: Glacial earthquake Content: Glacial earthquakes are earthquakes as large as magnitude 5.1 that occur in glaciated areas where the glacier moves faster than one kilometer per year . The number of glacial earthquakes in Greenland shows a peak every year in July , August and September , and the number is increasing over time . In a study using data from January 1993 through October 2005 , more events were detected every year since 2002 , and twice as many events were recorded in 2005 as there were in any other year . This increase in the numbers of glacial earthquakes in Greenland may be a response to global warming . Seismic waves are also generated by the Whillans Ice Stream , a large , fast-moving river of ice pouring from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Ice Shelf . Two bursts of seismic waves are released every day , each one equivalent to a magnitude 7 earthquake , and are seemingly related to the tidal action of the Ross Sea . During each event a 96 by 193 kilometer ( 60 by 120 mile ) region of the glacier moves as much as .67 meters ( 2.2 feet ) over about 25 minutes , remains still for 12 hours , then moves another half-meter . The seismic waves are recorded at seismographs around Antarctica , and even as far away as Australia , a distance of more than 6,400 kilometers . Because the motion takes place of such a long period of time 10 to 25 minutes , it can not be felt by scientists standing on the moving glacier . It is not known if these events are related to global warming .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Glacial_earthquake", "rank": 82, "score": 137162 }, { "content": "Title: Eastface Nunatak Content: Eastface Nunatak is a small nunatak about 11 nmi south of Mount Morning on the Ross Dependency 's Hillary Coast . It is ice covered with a conspicuous rock face on the east side . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from ground surveys and Navy air photos , and was given this descriptive name by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1963 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Eastface_Nunatak", "rank": 83, "score": 137109 }, { "content": "Title: West Spitsbergen Current Content: The West Spitsbergen Current ( WSC ) is a warm , salty current that runs poleward just west of Spitsbergen , ( formerly called West Spitsbergen ) , in the Arctic Ocean . The WSC branches off the Norwegian Atlantic Current in the Norwegian Sea . The WSC is of importance because it drives warm and salty Atlantic Water into the interior Arctic . The warm and salty WSC flows north through the eastern side of Fram Strait , while the East Greenland Current ( EGC ) flows south through the western side of Fram Strait . The EGC is characterized by being very cold and low in salinity , but above all else it is a major exporter of Arctic sea ice . Thus , the EGC combined with the warm WSC makes the Fram Strait the northernmost ocean area having ice-free conditions throughout the year in all of the global ocean .", "qid": "390", "docid": "West_Spitsbergen_Current", "rank": 84, "score": 137088 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age Content: An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Ice_age", "rank": 85, "score": 137030 }, { "content": "Title: East Greenland Current Content: The East Greenland Current ( EGC ) is a cold , low salinity current that extends from Fram Strait ( ~ 80N ) to Cape Farewell ( ~ 60N ) . The current is located off the eastern coast of Greenland along the Greenland continental margin . The current cuts through the Nordic Seas ( the Greenland and Norwegian Seas ) and through the Denmark Strait . The current is of major importance because it directly connects the Arctic to the Northern Atlantic , it is a major contributor to sea ice export out of the Arctic , and it is a major freshwater sink for the Arctic .", "qid": "390", "docid": "East_Greenland_Current", "rank": 86, "score": 137012 }, { "content": "Title: Charles W. Thomas (captain) Content: Charles Ward `` Tommy '' Thomas ( September 3 , 1903 -- March 3 , 1973 ) was a flag officer in the United States Coast Guard and commanding officer of the icebreakers USCGC Northland ( WPG-49 ) and USCGC Eastwind ( WAGB-279 ) that served in the Greenland Patrol during World War II . In August 1945 he was appointed commander of Greenland Patrol . After the war he was commanding officer of USCGC Northwind ( WAGB-282 ) during Operation Highjump ; The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Project 1946 -- 1947 , also known as the Fourth Byrd Antarctic Expedition . Later followed expeditions in the Bering Sea . In 1951 , Thomas wrote about his adventures as an ice sailor in `` Ice Is Where You Find It '' Rear Admiral ( United States ) Thomas appeared in the United States Navy documentary film The Secret Land , produced in 1948 . The film won an Academy Award in its category in 1948 . Later in his career he rose to the rank of rear admiral .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Charles_W._Thomas_(captain)", "rank": 87, "score": 136922 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland Sea Content: The Greenland Sea is a body of water that borders Greenland to the west , the Svalbard archipelago to the east , Fram Strait and the Arctic Ocean to the north , and the Norwegian Sea and Iceland to the south . The Greenland Sea is often defined as part of the Arctic Ocean , sometimes as part of the Atlantic Ocean . However , definitions of the Arctic Ocean and its seas tend to be imprecise or arbitrary . In general usage the term `` Arctic Ocean '' would exclude the Greenland Sea . In oceanographic studies the Greenland Sea is considered part of the Nordic Seas , along with the Norwegian Sea . The Nordic Seas are the main connection between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and , as such , could be of great significance in a possible shutdown of thermohaline circulation . In oceanography the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas are often referred to collectively as the `` Arctic Mediterranean Sea '' , a marginal sea of the Atlantic . The sea has Arctic climate with regular northern winds and temperatures rarely rising above 0 ° C . It previously contained the Odden ice tongue ( or Odden ) area , which extended eastward from the main East Greenland ice edge in the vicinity of 72 -- 74 ° N during the winter and acted as a key winter ice formation area in the Arctic . The West Ice forms in winter in the Greenland Sea , north of Iceland , between Greenland and Jan Mayen island . It is a major breeding ground of harp seal and hooded seal that has been used for seal hunting for more than 200 years .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Greenland_Sea", "rank": 88, "score": 136595 }, { "content": "Title: Uunartoq Qeqertaq Content: Uunartoq Qeqertaq , Greenlandic for `` The Warming Island '' , is an island off the east central coast of Greenland , 550 km north of the Arctic Circle . It became recognised as an island only in September 2005 , by US explorer Dennis Schmitt . It was attached to the mainland of Liverpool Land by glacial ice even in 2002 , when the ice shelves began retreating rapidly in this area , so that by 2005 it was no longer attached to the mainland . Members of the scientific community believe this newly discovered island is a direct result of global warming . The island has three large peninsulas , and thus resembles the letter W , or the Chinese character 山 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Uunartoq_Qeqertaq", "rank": 89, "score": 136575 }, { "content": "Title: Wilhelm August Graah Content: Wilhelm August Graah ( 1793 -- 1863 ) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer . Graah had mapped areas of West Greenland when he , in 1828 -- 30 , was sent on an expedition to the uninhabited eastern coast with the purpose to search for the lost Eastern Norse Settlement . The expedition set out from Copenhagen in the brig Hvalfisken , but - once arrived in Greenland - used umiaks able to navigate in the shallow waters between the coast and the sea ice . The expedition reached Dannebrog Islands ( 65 ° 18 ' N ) , but returned under great suffering and without having reached the inhabited areas in Tasiilaq . Two naturalists participated - the geologist Christian Pingel and the botanist Jens Vahl . Graah published an account of the exploration .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Wilhelm_August_Graah", "rank": 90, "score": 136571 }, { "content": "Title: Koci Cliffs Content: The Koci Cliffs are arcuate cliffs , 2424 m high , standing 1 nmi south of Colwell Massif in Victoria Land , Antarctica . The cliffs trend west-southwest -- east-northeast across the head of Waddington Glacier and locally mark the divide between glaciers flowing north to Ferrar Glacier or south to Skelton Glacier . The feature was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( 1994 ) after Bruce R. Koci of the Polar Ice Coring Office , University of Nebraska -- Lincoln , an authority in ice drilling with broad experience for many years in Antarctica and Greenland . He provided support to the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detection Array at the South Pole , 1993 -- 2001 , and to other parts of the U.S. Antarctic Program through the 2004 -- 05 field season .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Koci_Cliffs", "rank": 91, "score": 136567 }, { "content": "Title: Jøkulkyrkja Mountain Content: Jøkulkyrkja Mountain ( `` the Glacier Church '' ) , also known as Massiv Yakova Gakkelya , is a broad , ice-topped mountain with several radial rock spurs , standing east of Lunde Glacier in the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains of Queen Maud Land , East Antarctica . At 3148 m elevation , it is the highest elevation in Queen Maud Land , and also the highest elevation within the claims of Norway . The mountain is located on the Princess Astrid Coast of the Norwegian Antarctic Territory . Håhellerskarvet ( `` shark cave mountain '' ) , 2910 m , is located to the southwest ; the two peaks are separated by the 25-mile-long Lunde Glacier , which flows to the northwest .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Jøkulkyrkja_Mountain", "rank": 92, "score": 136520 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen Bay Content: Amundsen Bay , also known as Ice Bay , is a long embayment 24 mi wide , close west of the Tula Mountains in Enderby Land , Antarctica . The bay was seen as a large pack-filled recession in the coastline by Sir Douglas Mawson on January 14 , 1930 . Seen by Captain Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen in charge of a Norwegian expedition during an airplane flight on January 15 and subsequently mapped nearer its true position by the Norwegians . The bay was mapped in detail by an Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions party landed by aircraft in 1956 and another landed by launch from Thala Dan in February 1958 . It was named by Mawson after Roald Amundsen , the Norwegian explorer who was first to reach the South Pole .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Amundsen_Bay", "rank": 93, "score": 136409 }, { "content": "Title: Mohn Peaks Content: The Mohn Peaks are two ice-covered peaks , the northern and southern being 1,275 and high , respectively , standing 9 nmi west-southwest of the head of Mason Inlet , on the east coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . They were first seen and photographed from the air in December 1940 by the United States Antarctic Service . During 1947 the peaks were photographed from the air by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition under Finn Ronne , who in conjunction with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) charted them from the ground . They were named by the FIDS for Norwegian meteorologist Henrik Mohn .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Mohn_Peaks", "rank": 94, "score": 136409 }, { "content": "Title: Jakobshavn Glacier Content: Jakobshavn Glacier , also known as Sermeq Kujalleq ( in Greenlandic ) and the Jakobshavn Isbræ ( in Danish ) , is a large outlet glacier in West Greenland . It is located near the Greenlandic town of Ilulissat ( Jakobshavn ) and ends at the sea in the Ilulissat Icefjord . Jakobshavn Glacier drains 6.5 % of the Greenland ice sheet and produces around 10 % of all Greenland icebergs . Some 35 billion tonnes of icebergs calve off and pass out of the fjord every year . Icebergs breaking from the glacier are often so large ( up to a kilometer in height ) that they are too tall to float down the fjord and lie stuck on the bottom of its shallower areas , sometimes for years , until they are broken up by the force of the glacier and icebergs further up the fjord . Studied for over 250 years , Jakobshavn Glacier has helped develop our understanding of climate change and icecap glaciology . Ilulissat Icefjord ( Ilulissat Kangerlua ) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Jakobshavn_Glacier", "rank": 95, "score": 136029 }, { "content": "Title: 63rd meridian west Content: The meridian 63 ° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean , Greenland , North America , the Atlantic Ocean , South America , the Southern Ocean , and Antarctica to the South Pole . The 63rd meridian west forms a great circle with the 117th meridian east . In the Canadian province of Quebec , the 63rd meridian is used as a time zone boundary , with all land to its west falling within the Eastern Time Zone and all land to its east in the Atlantic Time Zone .", "qid": "390", "docid": "63rd_meridian_west", "rank": 96, "score": 135793 }, { "content": "Title: Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf Content: Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf is an ice shelf about 250 miles ( 400 km ) long on the coast of Queen Maud Land , extending from Cape Norvegia in the north to Lyddan Island and Stancomb-Wills Glacier in the south . Parts of the ice shelf were sighted by William Speirs Bruce in 1904 , Ernest Shackleton in 1915 , and Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen in 1930 . Most of it was photographed from the air in 1951-52 by the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition ( NBSAE ) and delineated from these photos . Additional delineation of the southern and landward margins of the feature was accomplished from air photos taken , by USN Operation Deep Freeze from 1967 to 1969 . The feature was named by Norway for Capt. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen , who explored the area in the late 1920s and early 1930s .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Riiser-Larsen_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 97, "score": 135677 }, { "content": "Title: NEEM Camp Content: NEEM Camp was a small research facility on the northern Greenland Ice Sheet , used as a base for ice core drilling . It is located about 313 km east of the closest coast , Peabody Bay in northern Greenland , 275 km northwest of the historical ice sheet camp North Ice , and 484 km ENE of Siorapaluk , the closest settlement . There is only one heavy-duty tent for accommodation of the researchers during summer . Access is by skiway ( snow runway ) . The acronym NEEM stands for North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling . The ice at the NEEM coring location ( 77 ° 27 'N 51 ° 3.6 ` W ) was predicted to be 2545 m thick . Drilling started at NEEM in June 2009 and drillers expected to hit bedrock in 2010 . The drilling progressed well and reached through the brittle zone ( ~ 800 m ) in mid-July 2009 . The plan was to process the ice below the brittle zone , per decision at the steering committee meeting in November 2008 in Copenhagen . By September 1 , 2009 , the coring had reached 1757.84 m for this season , setting a single-season deep ice core drilling record in 100 days . On July 26 , 2010 , drilling reached bedrock at 2537.36 m. The November/December 2007 issue of Technology Review magazine and its website carried a report on early efforts to establish this camp . The research goal is seek preserved ice from the Eemian , which included a warming period in Earth 's history . http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19504/ After the conclusion of the drilling activities , the machinery and dome of the NEEM camp was moved to a new location in the NEEM-EastGRIP traverse , forming the EastGRIP camp at location in 2015 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "NEEM_Camp", "rank": 98, "score": 135613 }, { "content": "Title: Breidsvellet Content: Breidsvellet is a steep ice slope on the east side of Jokulskarvet Ridge , in the Borg Massif of Queen Maud Land . It was mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and from air photos by the Norwegian -- British -- Swedish Antarctic Expedition ( 1949 -- 52 ) and named Breidsvellet ( the `` broad icesheet '' ) .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Breidsvellet", "rank": 99, "score": 135572 }, { "content": "Title: Kendrick Taylor Content: Kendrick Cashman Taylor , Jr. is a climate change researcher working with ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica . While a Research Professor at the Desert Research Institute in Reno , Nevada , he was the Chief Scientist for the Siple Dome and WAIS Divide ice core projects in Antarctica . He has also done work on near shore clarity at Lake Tahoe and teaching World Vision how to use geophysics to find favorable locations for shallow water wells in West Africa . His ResearcherID is A-3469-2016 and ORCID is 0000-0001-8535-1261 . Kendrick Cashman Taylor , Sr. ( 1922 -- 1995 ) was an engineer who specialized in vacuum metallurgy , especially related to depositing thin films on mylar . He is listed as the inventor on the follow U.S.A. patents : US3185565 , US3314826 , US3278331 , US3326177 , US3601179 , US3215423 , US3330900 , US3180633 , US3554268 , US3235243 .", "qid": "390", "docid": "Kendrick_Taylor", "rank": 100, "score": 135491 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Journal for Geoclimatic Studies Content: The Journal for Geoclimatic Studies is the name given to a nonexistent journal which published a fabricated global warming study in November 2007 entitled , `` Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria : the death of manmade global warming theory ? '' The published study identified the Journal for Geoclimatic Studies as an official publication of Okinawa University 's Institute for Geoclimatic Studies ( The Institute for Geoclimatic Studies is also fraudulent and does not exist ) . The spurious study , ostensibly authored by Daniel Klein and Mandeep J. Gupta of the University of Arizona 's Department of Climatology , and Philip Cooper and Arne FR Jansson at the University of Gothenburg 's Department of Atmospheric Physics , claimed that global warming was not human caused , but the work of carbon-dioxide emitting bacteria based on the ocean floor . The report was circulated by a number of global warming skeptics before discovery that the study authors and university departments identified in the publication did not exist . The website where the study was published was taken down once the deception was revealed , and its ownership was traced to David Thorpe , a science journalist and web designer based in the United Kingdom . The true author of the article is purportedly a man identifying himself as Mark Cox , who has claimed the hoax was designed to expose the gullibility and scientific illiteracy of global warming skeptics .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Journal_for_Geoclimatic_Studies", "rank": 1, "score": 118778 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 2, "score": 98756 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Global Warming Swindle Content: The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King . The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols . The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . '' Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .", "qid": "392", "docid": "The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle", "rank": 3, "score": 96768 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming conspiracy theory Content: A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus . Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_warming_conspiracy_theory", "rank": 4, "score": 94763 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 5, "score": 94246 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 6, "score": 89202 }, { "content": "Title: How Global Warming Works Content: How Global Warming Works is a website developed by Michael Ranney , a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of California , Berkeley in Berkeley , California , United States . The stated goal of the website is to educate the public on the mechanisms of global warming , which was motivated by research Ranney and colleagues conducted on attitudes towards and understanding of global warming .", "qid": "392", "docid": "How_Global_Warming_Works", "rank": 7, "score": 88098 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 8, "score": 87830 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming: The Signs and The Science Content: Global Warming : The Signs and The Science is a 2005 documentary film on global warming made by ETV , the PBS affiliate in South Carolina , and hosted by Alanis Morissette . The documentary examines the science behind global warming and pulls together segments filmed in the United States , Asia and South America and shows how people in these different locales are responding in different ways to the challenges of global warming to show some of the ways that the world can respond .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Warming:_The_Signs_and_The_Science", "rank": 9, "score": 86906 }, { "content": "Title: Sergei Petrovskii Content: Sergei Petrovskii is a Russian-born British mathematician who researches the modeling of natural phenomena . He is a professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Leicester . In 2015 , he led a study that found that if the ocean temperature were to increase by about six degrees Celsius due to global warming , phytoplankton might stop producing oxygen . This would lead to shortages of oxygen in the atmosphere , which could be very harmful to humans . Petrovskii said , `` About two thirds of the planet 's total atmospheric oxygen is produced by ocean phytoplankton - and therefore cessation would result in the depletion of atmospheric oxygen on a global scale . This would likely result in the mass mortality of animals and humans . '' Petrovskii 's study appeared in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology . Another stream of his research is modelling of biological invasions where he discovered a new phenomenon called `` patchy invasion '' . Contrary to a commonly used paradigm of alien species spread by a travelling population front , in the patchy invasion the invasive species spreads into new areas by creating individual patches not preceded by a front propagation . Patchy invasion has been observed in several invasions of insects and birds and has been studied theoretically using a variety of growth-dispersal models .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Sergei_Petrovskii", "rank": 10, "score": 86877 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "392", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 11, "score": 85928 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 12, "score": 84973 }, { "content": "Title: Steven Milloy Content: Steven J. Milloy is a lawyer , whose close financial and organizational ties to tobacco and oil companies have been the subject of criticism from a number of sources , as Milloy has consistently criticized the science linking secondhand smoke to health risks and human activity to global warming . He was a commentator for Fox News and ran the website junkscience.com , which is dedicated to `` debunking '' what Milloy labels `` faulty scientific data and analysis . '' On Fox News Channel he was billed as a `` Junk Science commentator . '' He describes himself as a libertarian . Among the topics Milloy has addressed are what he believes to be false claims regarding DDT , global warming , Alar , breast implants , secondhand smoke , ozone depletion , and mad cow disease . Milloy also runs CSRWatch.com , which monitors and criticizes the corporate social responsibility movement . From the 1990s until the end of 2005 , he was an adjunct scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute , which hosted the JunkScience.com site . He is currently an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute . Milloy is head of the Free Enterprise Action Fund , a mutual fund he runs with former tobacco executive Tom Borelli . He also operates the Advancement of Sound Science Center , a non-profit organization which is critical of environmental science , from his home in Potomac , Maryland . Milloy has authored four books .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Steven_Milloy", "rank": 13, "score": 84907 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "392", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 14, "score": 84756 }, { "content": "Title: Debunker Content: A debunker is a person or organization who attempts to expose or discredit claims believed to be false , exaggerated , or pretentious . The term is often associated with skeptical investigation of controversial topics such as UFOs , claimed paranormal phenomena , cryptids , conspiracy theories , alternative medicine , religion , or exploratory or fringe areas of scientific or pseudoscientific research . According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary , to `` debunk '' is defined as : `` to expose the sham or falseness of . '' If debunkers are not careful , their communications may backfire -- increasing an audience 's long-term belief in myths . Backfire effects can occur if a message spends too much time on the negative case , if it is too complex , or if the message is threatening .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Debunker", "rank": 15, "score": 84729 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming (Pitbull album) Content: Global Warming is the seventh studio album recorded by American rapper Pitbull . It was released on November 16 , 2012 . A teaser to accompany the release of Global Warming was first released onto Pitbull 's official Facebook and YouTube channel on September 17 , 2012 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Warming_(Pitbull_album)", "rank": 16, "score": 84298 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 17, "score": 83222 }, { "content": "Title: Robert E. Davis (climatologist) Content: Robert E. Davis is a Professor of Climatology at the University of Virginia 's Department of Environmental Sciences . Davis received his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Delaware . His research contributions include the development of a system for measuring the power of Nor'easter s . In his studies of global warming , he has suggested that it may manifest more by milder winters than by hotter summers , and predicted that its effects on human population will not be severe .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Robert_E._Davis_(climatologist)", "rank": 18, "score": 82715 }, { "content": "Title: Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Content: Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "qid": "392", "docid": "Surveys_of_scientists'_views_on_climate_change", "rank": 19, "score": 81845 }, { "content": "Title: Echa Pa'lla (Manos Pa'rriba) Content: `` Echa Pa ` lla ( Manos Pa ` rriba ) '' -LCB- Echa Para Allá ( Manos Para Arriba ) -RCB- ( English version known as `` Go Away ( Hands Up ) '' ) is a Latin Grammy award winning song recorded by American rapper Pitbull for his seventh studio album Global Warming . The song features guest vocals from Papayo . It was released on Jul 16 , 2012 . It was produced by Gregor Salto , Todorov and Urales `` DJ Buddha '' Vargas . The song has achieved moderate chart success and has found its way in Billboard Top Latin Songs . It also peaked number 5 on the Billboard Tropical Songs Chart . It was also the official Miss Teen USA 2012 theme song . `` Echa Pa ` lla '' won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Performance . At the 2014 Lo Nuestro Awards , it won the award for Urban Song of the Year at the 26th Lo Nuestro Awards .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Echa_Pa'lla_(Manos_Pa'rriba)", "rank": 20, "score": 81581 }, { "content": "Title: The Discovery of Global Warming Content: The Discovery of Global Warming is a book by the physicist and historian Spencer R. Weart published in 2003 ; revised and updated edition , 2008 . It traces the history of scientific discoveries that led to the current scientific opinion on climate change . It has been translated into Spanish , Japanese , Italian , Arabic , Chinese and Korean .", "qid": "392", "docid": "The_Discovery_of_Global_Warming", "rank": 21, "score": 81500 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 22, "score": 80567 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming taxes Content:", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_warming_taxes", "rank": 23, "score": 80498 }, { "content": "Title: Earth immune system Content: The Earth immune system is a controversial proposal , claimed to be a consequence of the Gaia hypothesis . The Gaia hypothesis holds that the entire earth may be considered a single organism ( Gaia ) . As a self-maintaining organism , Earth would have an immune system of some sort in order to maintain its health . Some proponents of this speculative concept , for example , hold that humankind can be considered an `` infection '' of Gaia , and that AIDS is an attempt by this immune system to reject the infection . `` Cancer '' might be a more accurate term , as humans evolved within Gaia , and are not external invaders . An opposite view is that humankind is Gaia 's immune system itself , perhaps evolved to avert future catastrophes such as the Permian and Cretaceous mass extinctions of species . James Lovelock 's book `` The Revenge of Gaia '' suggests that Gaia has many mechanisms for eliminating civilizations that do harm through greenhouse gas emissions and global warming , but suggests that with increasing heat being received from the sun , Gaia 's ability to `` bounce back '' as it did after the Permian and Cretaceous extinction events , may be increasingly compromised . Paul Hawken suggests in Blessed Unrest that when Earth is considered a living system then Earth 's immune system is made up of the million or so organizations all around the globe that are working for social justice , the environment , and indigenous people 's rights . Many of these groups are linked through the Internet and other means so there is a vast network of interconnected people and groups working to protect the planet , its people , and all beings . For example , one organization that serves to link groups working on sustainable energy is Inforse in Denmark .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Earth_immune_system", "rank": 24, "score": 79959 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change denial Content: Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Climate_change_denial", "rank": 25, "score": 79788 }, { "content": "Title: Global Change Research Act of 1990 Content: The Global Change Research Act 1990 is a United States law requiring research into global warming and related issues . It requires a report to Congress every four years on the environmental , economic , health and safety consequences of climate change . According to a summary by the Congressional Research Service , the Act : `` Directs the President , through the Federal Coordinating Council on Science , Engineering , and Technology ( Council ) , to establish the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences to carry out Council functions under specified provisions of the National Science and Technology Policy , Organization , and Priorities Act of 1976 relating to global change research , to increase the effectiveness and productivity of Federal global change research efforts . Directs the President to establish an interagency United States Global Change Research Program to improve understanding of global change . Requires the Chairman of the Council , through the Committee , to develop a National Global Change Research Plan for implementation of the Program . Sets forth required Plan contents and research elements , including that the Plan provide recommendations for collaboration within the Federal Government and among nations . Requires the Chairman to enter into an agreement with the National Research Council to : ( 1 ) evaluate the scientific content of the Plan ; and ( 2 ) provide information and advice and recommended priorities for future global change research . Requires the Committee to provide general guidance each year to each Federal agency or department participating in the Program with respect to preparation of requests for appropriations related to the Program . Requires the Council , at least every four years , through the Committee , to submit to the President and the Congress an assessment regarding the findings of the Program and associated uncertainties , the effects of global change , and current and major long-term trends in global change . Requires that the research findings of the Committee and of Federal agencies and departments be made available to the Environmental Protection Agency and all Federal agencies and departments . Title II : International Cooperation in Global Change Research - International Cooperation in Global Change Research Act of 1990 - Declares that the President should direct the Secretary of State to initiate discussions with other nations on : ( 1 ) international agreements to coordinate global change research ; and ( 2 ) an international research protocol for cooperation on the development of energy technologies which have minimally adverse effects on the environment . Directs the President to establish an Office of Global Change Research Information to disseminate to foreign governments and their citizens , businesses , and institutions scientific research useful in preventing , mitigating , or adapting to the effects of global change . Title III : Growth Decision Aid - Directs the Secretary of Commerce to : ( 1 ) conduct a study on the implications of growth and development on urban , suburban , and rural communities ; and ( 2 ) based on the study , produce a decision aid to assist State and local authorities in planning and managing growth and development while preserving community character . '' Following the publication of the first National Climate Assessment Report there were accusations that information was being suppressed , leading to complacency around public works , such as New Orleans flood defences . Greenpeace , the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth challenged the delay in federal district court on August 21 , 2007 . A judge ruled that an updated national assessment must be produced by May 31 , 2008 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Change_Research_Act_of_1990", "rank": 26, "score": 79781 }, { "content": "Title: Global studies Content: Global studies is the interdisciplinary study of political , economic , ecological and cultural interconnectedness . Global studies is oriented around the study of globalization as it relates to the global economy , market relations , the movement of people and resources , global communications , politics , the effect of human activity on the environment , and many more topics . Global studies is often used to map global change and is both micro and macro in scope . Global studies tackles the aforementioned topics by examining global power structures influenced by perspectives such as Orientalism and Eurocentrism . Global studies is distinguished from international studies by its broader focus -- international studies is only one aspect of global studies . In cases such as international studies or international relations , the concept of ` national ' confines the meaning of those fields of study . By comparison , global studies has a broader reach , from the global to the local .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_studies", "rank": 27, "score": 79591 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "392", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 28, "score": 79465 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in popular culture Content: The issue of climate change and global warming , their possible effects , and related human-environment interaction have entered popular culture since the late 20th century . Science historian Naomi Oreskes has noted , `` There 's a huge disconnect between what professional scientists have studied and learned in the last 30 years , and what is out there in the popular culture . '' An academic study contrasts the relatively rapid acceptance of ozone depletion as reflected in popular culture with the much slower acceptance of the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Climate_change_in_popular_culture", "rank": 29, "score": 79310 }, { "content": "Title: Climate ethics Content: Climate ethics is an area of research that focuses on the ethical dimensions of climate change ( also known as global warming ) , and concepts such as climate justice . Human-induced climate change raises many profound ethical questions , yet many believe that these ethical issues have not been addressed adequately in climate change policy debates or in the scientific and economic literature on climate change ; and that , consequently , ethical questions are being overlooked or obscured in climate negotiations , policies and discussions . It has been pointed out that those most responsible for climate change are not the same people as those most vulnerable to its effects . Terms such as climate justice and ecological justice ( ` eco justice ' ) are used worldwide , and have been adopted by various groups .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Climate_ethics", "rank": 30, "score": 78707 }, { "content": "Title: Merchants of Doubt Content: Merchants of Doubt : How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming is a 2010 non-fiction book by American historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway . It identifies parallels between the global warming controversy and earlier controversies over tobacco smoking , acid rain , DDT , and the hole in the ozone layer . Oreskes and Conway write that in each case `` keeping the controversy alive '' by spreading doubt and confusion after a scientific consensus had been reached , was the basic strategy of those opposing action . In particular , they say that Fred Seitz , Fred Singer , and a few other contrarian scientists joined forces with conservative think tanks and private corporations to challenge the scientific consensus on many contemporary issues . The George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer , two of the subjects , have been critical of the book . Other reviewers have been more favorable . One reviewer said that Merchants of Doubt is exhaustively researched and documented , and may be one of the most important books of 2010 . Another reviewer saw the book as his choice for best science book of the year . It was made into a film , Merchants of Doubt , directed by Robert Kenner , released in 2014 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Merchants_of_Doubt", "rank": 31, "score": 78470 }, { "content": "Title: International Human Dimensions Programme Content: The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change ( IHDP ) was a research programme that studied the human and societal aspects of the phenomenon of global change . IHDP aimed to frame , develop and integrate social science research on global change , and promote the application of its key findings . It strived to develop research approaches that put societies at the center of the debate , looking at then-current global environmental problems as social and societal challenges . IHDP 's work brought together groups of multi-disciplinary and multi-national researchers to work on long-term collaborative science . Its former role within the scientific field provided leadership in the selection and development of themes for focused research and in stimulating scientific communities to coordinate their efforts on these themes within the framework of its projects . IHDP research was conducted through ten projects . Its six core projects , focused on how humans affect and are affected by climate change , with specific topics including human security , urbanization , industrial transformation and environmental governance as they relate to global change . Two of its six core projects were also core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ( IGBP ) and focused specifically on coupled human-environment systems such as land use , and coastal zones . It also had four joint projects on the Earth 's carbon cycle , water systems , human health and food systems with the other three global change research programmes ( ESSP ) .", "qid": "392", "docid": "International_Human_Dimensions_Programme", "rank": 32, "score": 78421 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 33, "score": 78159 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Report Content: World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels , was produced by the Greening Earth Society , a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association . Early editions were paper based ; it was then transferred to a web-only format , having ceased publication as a physically based report with Volume 8 in 2002 . It continues to exist in blog form at www.worldclimatereport.com , although the website itself has not been updated since late 2012 . World Climate Report presents a scientific skeptical view of populist anthropogenic-driven mass global climate change , or as it describes , ` Global Warming Alarmism ' . However , it does not reject the concepts of global climate change or greenhouse theory ( or other well-established and widely accepted scientific theories or empirical studies ) , in general attempting to engender itself as giving a well balanced and scientific view of the sources ( though often at a contrary expense of its perceived adversaries : the aforementioned alleged ` Global Warming Alarmists ' ) . WCR says of itself : World Climate Report , a concise , hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press . As the nation 's leading publication in this realm , World Climate Report is exhaustively researched , impeccably referenced , and always timely . This popular biweekly newsletter points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as `` proof '' of disastrous warming . It 's the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty , such as the Kyoto Protocol , which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States ... World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what nature now calls the `` mainstream skeptic '' point of view . . In addition to Patrick Michaels ( chief editor ) , the staff is listed as Robert C. Balling , Jr ( contributing editor ) , Robert Davis ( contributing editor ) , and Paul Knappenberger ( Administrator ) . New Hope Environmental Services , an advocacy science consulting firm , claims WCR as its biweekly newsletter .", "qid": "392", "docid": "World_Climate_Report", "rank": 34, "score": 77811 }, { "content": "Title: Christopher C. Horner Content: Christopher C. Horner is an attorney in Washington , D.C. and a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who opposes the mainstream view of climate change and has been prominent in promoting climate change denial . He is the author of three books disputing the scientific evidence for man-made global warming . Horner had a financial relationship with coal companies who provided him with funds . Horner has been criticized for hounding climate scientists with frivolous requests for documentation and emails .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Christopher_C._Horner", "rank": 35, "score": 77506 }, { "content": "Title: Ozone depletion and climate change Content: Ozone depletion and climate change , or Ozone hole and global warming in more popular terms , are environmental challenges whose connections have been explored and which have been compared and contrasted , for example in terms of global regulation , in various studies and books . There is widespread scientific interest in better regulation of climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution , as in general the human relationship with the biosphere is deemed of major historiographical and political significance . Already by 1994 the legal debates about respective regulation regimes on climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution were being dubbed `` monumental '' and a combined synopsis provided . There are some parallels between atmospheric chemistry and anthropogenic emissions in the discussions which have taken place and the regulatory attempts which have been made . Most important is that the gases causing both problems have long lifetimes after emission to the atmosphere , thus causing problems which are difficult to reverse . However , the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol that amended it are seen as success stories , while the Kyoto Protocol on anthropogenic climate change has largely failed . Currently efforts are being undertaken to assess the reasons and to use synergies , for example with regard to data reporting and policy design and further exchanging of information . While the general public tends to see global warming as a subset of ozone depletion , in fact ozone and chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs ) and other halocarbons , which are held responsible for ozone depletion , are important greenhouse gasses . Furthermore , natural levels of ozone in both the stratosphere and troposphere have a warming effect .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Ozone_depletion_and_climate_change", "rank": 36, "score": 76940 }, { "content": "Title: International Research Center for Japanese Studies Content: The , or Nichibunken , is an inter-university research institute in Kyoto . Along with the National Institute of Japanese Literature , the National Museum of Japanese History , and the National Museum of Ethnology , it is one of the National Institutes for the Humanities . The center is devoted to research related to Japanese culture .", "qid": "392", "docid": "International_Research_Center_for_Japanese_Studies", "rank": 37, "score": 76934 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "392", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 38, "score": 76625 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 39, "score": 76521 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "392", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 40, "score": 76036 }, { "content": "Title: Lavoisier Group Content: The Lavoisier Group is an Australian organisation formed by politicians and dominated by retired industrial businesspeople and engineers . It does not accept the science of global warming and works to influence attitudes of policy makers and politicians . The organisation downplays the risk of the effects of global warming , rejects the scientific conclusion that human activity causes it , and opposes policies designed to curtail it . Some members regard climate change as a `` scam . '' The group was named after French scientist Antoine Lavoisier ( 1743-1794 ) , the father of modern chemistry who disproved the Phlogiston theory of combustion .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Lavoisier_Group", "rank": 41, "score": 75740 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Stilbs Content: Peter Stilbs ( born 1 June 1945 ) is an emeritus professor in physical chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology ( KTH ) in Stockholm , Sweden . Stilbs earned a master 's degree in chemical engineering from the Lund Institute of Technology at Lund University in 1969 , and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1974 . He served as a research assistant in physical chemistry at Uppsala University from 1976 to 1982 , and as an assistant professor from 1982 to 1986 . In 1986 he became a professor in physical chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm . His main fields of research are the techniques and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance ( NMR ) . Stilbs has also been active in the debate on global warming . He has criticised the view that there is a scientific consensus on the attribution of recent climate change , and described the climate projections conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) as inadequate and misleading . In September 2006 he was chairman of an international seminar at the Royal Institute of Technology labelled Global Warming -- Scientific Controversies in Climate Variability , where both critics and supporters of the theory of man-made global warming were invited .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Peter_Stilbs", "rank": 42, "score": 75506 }, { "content": "Title: The Greenhouse Conspiracy Content: The Greenhouse Conspiracy is a documentary film broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990 , as part of the Equinox series , which criticised the theory of global warming and asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding . It is one of the earliest instances of the suggestion of a conspiracy to promote false claims supporting global warming . Although the title of the program implied the existence of a conspiracy , when interviewed on the program Patrick Michaels played down the idea , saying , `` It may not quite add up to a conspiracy , but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory : scientists have needed funds , the media a story , and governments a worthy cause '' .", "qid": "392", "docid": "The_Greenhouse_Conspiracy", "rank": 43, "score": 75487 }, { "content": "Title: Roger Revelle Content: Roger Randall Dougan Revelle ( March 7 , 1909 -- July 15 , 1991 ) was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California , San Diego and was among the early scientists to study anthropogenic global warming , as well as the movement of Earth 's tectonic plates . UC San Diego 's first college is named Revelle College in his honor .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Roger_Revelle", "rank": 44, "score": 75377 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Policy Foundation Content: The Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) is a think tank in the United Kingdom , whose stated aims are to challenge `` extremely damaging and harmful policies '' envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming . It promotes climate change denial . In 2014 , when the Charity Commission ruled that the GWPF had breached rules on impartiality , a non-charitable organisation called the `` Global Warming Policy Forum '' or `` GWPF '' was created as a wholly owned subsidiary , to do lobbying that a charity could not . The GWPF website carries an array of articles `` sceptical '' of scientific findings of anthropogenic global warming and its impacts .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Warming_Policy_Foundation", "rank": 45, "score": 75203 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Content: The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment ( GEWEX ) is a research program of the World Climate Research Programme intended to observe , comprehend and model the Earth 's water cycle . The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives , studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed . Sunlight 's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain , and dries out land masses after rain . Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes . GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere . If the Earth 's climates were identical from year to year , then people could predict when , where and what crops to plant . However , instability created by solar variation , weather trends , and chaotic events create weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales . Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities . GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data , and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future . GEWEX is organized into several structures . As GEWEX was conceived projects were organized by participating factions , this task is now done by the International GEWEX Project Office ( IGPO ) . IGPO oversees major initiatives and coordinates between national projects in an effort to bring about communication of researchers . IGPO claims to support communication exchange between 2000 scientist and is the instrument for publication of major reports . The Scientific Steering Group organizes the projects and assigns them to panels , which oversee progress and provide critique . The Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project ( CEOP ) the ` Hydrology Project ' is a major instrument in GEWEX . This panel includes geographic study areas such as the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas operated by NOAA , but also examines several types of climate zones ( e.g. high altitude and semi-arid ) . Another panel , the GEWEX Radiation Panel oversees the coordinated use of satellites and ground based observation to better estimate energy and water fluxes . One recent result GEWEX 's Radiation panel has assessed data on rainfall for the last 25 years and determined that global rainfall is 2.61 mm/day with a small statistical variation . While the study period is short , after 25 years of measurement regional trends are beginning to appear . The GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel takes current models and analyzes the models when climate forcing phenomena occur ( global warming as an example of a ` climate forcing ' event ) . GEWEX is now the core project of WCRP .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Cycle_Experiment", "rank": 46, "score": 74999 }, { "content": "Title: U.S. Global Change Research Program Content: The United States Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society . The program began as a presidential initiative in 1989 and was codified by Congress through the Global Change Research Act of 1990 ( P.L. 101-606 ) , which called for `` a comprehensive and integrated United States research program which will assist the Nation and the world to understand , assess , predict , and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change . '' Thirteen departments and agencies participate in the USGCRP , which was known as the U.S. Climate Change Science Program from 2002 through 2008 . The program is steered by the Subcommittee on Global Change Research under the Committee on Environment , Natural Resources and Sustainability , overseen by the Executive Office of the President , and facilitated by a National Coordination Office . During the past two decades , the United States , through the USGCRP , has made the world 's largest scientific investment in the areas of climate change and global change research . Since its inception , the USGCRP has supported research and observational activities in collaboration with several other national and international science programs . These activities led to major advances in several key areas including : Observing and understanding short - and long-term changes in climate , the ozone layer , and land cover ; Identifying the impacts of these changes on ecosystems and society ; Estimating future changes in the physical environment , and vulnerabilities and risks associated with those changes ; and Providing scientific information to enable effective decision making to address the threats and opportunities posed by climate and global change . These advances have been documented in numerous assessments commissioned by the program and have played prominent roles in international assessments such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Program results and plans are documented in the program 's annual report , Our Changing Planet .", "qid": "392", "docid": "U.S._Global_Change_Research_Program", "rank": 47, "score": 74938 }, { "content": "Title: The Man-Eating Myth Content: The Man-Eating Myth : Anthropology and Anthropophagy is an influential anthropological study of socially sanctioned cultural cannibalism across the world , which casts a critical perspective on the existence of such practices . It was authored by the American anthropologist William Arens of Stony Brook University , New York and first published by Oxford University Press in 1979 . Arens ' primary hypothesis is that despite claims made by western explorers and anthropologists since the 15th century , there is no firm , substantiable evidence for the socially accepted practice of cannibalism anywhere in the world , at any time in history . Dismissing claims of cultural cannibalism made against the Carib and Aztec peoples by invading Spanish colonialists , he tackles 19th and 20th century claims regarding socially acceptable cannibalism in Sub-Saharan Africa and New Guinea . Turning to prehistory , he critiques archaeological claims to have discovered evidence for such practices in Europe and North America . In the second half of the work , Arens puts forward his argument that an erroneous belief in `` others '' who commit socially sanctioned cannibalism is a global phenomenon . He proceeds to chastise the anthropological community for perpetuating the `` Man-Eating Myth '' , suggesting reasons as to why they have done so . The Man-Eating Myth was widely reviewed in academic journals and also attracted attention from mainstream press . Views were mixed , with most reviewers highlighting the intentionally provocative nature of the work . Critics charged Arens with constructing straw man arguments and for exaggerating the methodological problems within anthropology . Although influential , in ensuing decades , increasing archaeological study of cannibalism led many to dismiss Arens ' hypothesis .", "qid": "392", "docid": "The_Man-Eating_Myth", "rank": 48, "score": 74864 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "392", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 49, "score": 74709 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 50, "score": 74678 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Doran Content: Peter Doran , Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University . Doran specializes in polar regions , especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems . Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal Nature in January 2002 . Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000 , his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the global warming theory , such as Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton . In an opinion piece in the July 27 , 2006 New York Times , Doran characterized this as a `` misinterpretation '' and stated , `` I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming . '' ( The temporary phenomenon is related to the `` hole '' in the ozone . As the `` hole heals '' the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly . ) Doran and his grad student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also published a paper in the Jan 27 , 2009 issue of EOS showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth 's climate . Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Peter_Doran", "rank": 51, "score": 74590 }, { "content": "Title: Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Content: Cool It : The Skeptical Environmentalist 's Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg . The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist ( first published in Danish in 1998 ) , which in English translation brought the author to world attention . Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment , often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions , and may have very little impact on the world 's temperature for centuries . Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Cool_It:_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist's_Guide_to_Global_Warming", "rank": 52, "score": 74433 }, { "content": "Title: Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow Content: The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow ( CFACT ) is a Washington , D.C.-based 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit organization founded in 1985 that advocates for free-market solutions to environmental issues , but has increasingly turned to climate denial . For example , CFACT co-founder Craig Rucker stated that mankind faces a threat `` not from man-made global warming , but from man-made hysteria . '' At the 29 April 2017 Climate March , leaflets distributed by CFACT claimed the scientific consensus that mankind is now driving global changes in the planet 's climate are `` bogus '' , that reports of record-setting temperatures are `` the hottest lie '' being told , and `` CO2 is not the ` control knob ' of the climate '' .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Committee_for_a_Constructive_Tomorrow", "rank": 53, "score": 74277 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Research Programme Content: The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "qid": "392", "docid": "World_Climate_Research_Programme", "rank": 54, "score": 74244 }, { "content": "Title: An Appeal to Reason Content: An Appeal to Reason : A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 book by Nigel Lawson . In it , Lawson argues that global warming is happening , but that the science is far from settled . He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the IPCC . He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences , and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic . He criticizes politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unless urgent action is taken , and he calls for gradual adaptation instead . The book has been criticized by some climatologists , including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson .", "qid": "392", "docid": "An_Appeal_to_Reason", "rank": 55, "score": 74223 }, { "content": "Title: David Legates Content: David Russell Legates is a Professor of Geography at the University of Delaware . He is the former Director of the Center for Climatic Research at the same university , and a former Delaware State Climatologist . Legates has published research papers , opinion editorials , and spoken openly in opposition to the consensus scientific opinion on climate change . More recently , he has been known for his skepticism toward the anthropogenic cause of the observed global warming patterns and the severity of its consequences at the local geographical scale . Legates viewpoint , as stated in a 2015 study that he co-authored , is that the Earth will experience about 1.0 C warming over the 2000 to 2100 period .", "qid": "392", "docid": "David_Legates", "rank": 56, "score": 74124 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Content: The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Surface_Heat_Budget_of_the_Arctic_Ocean", "rank": 57, "score": 74075 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 58, "score": 73996 }, { "content": "Title: Geophysical global cooling Content: Before the concept of plate tectonics , global cooling was a geophysical theory by James Dwight Dana , also referred to as the contracting earth theory . It suggested that the Earth had been in a molten state , and features such as mountains formed as it cooled and shrank . As the interior of the Earth cooled and shrank , the rigid crust would have to shrink and crumple . The crumpling could produce features such as mountain ranges .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Geophysical_global_cooling", "rank": 59, "score": 73753 }, { "content": "Title: Bjørn Lomborg Content: Bjørn Lomborg ( -LSB- bjɶɐ̯n ˈlʌmbɒˀw -RSB- ; born 6 January 1965 ) is a Danish author and adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School as well as President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center . He is former director of the Danish government 's Environmental Assessment Institute ( EAI ) in Copenhagen . He became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial book , The Skeptical Environmentalist ( 2001 ) , in which he argues that many of the costly measures and actions adopted by scientists and policy makers to meet the challenges of global warming will ultimately have minimal impact on the world 's rising temperature . In 2002 , Lomborg and the Environmental Assessment Institute founded the Copenhagen Consensus , a project-based conference where prominent economists sought to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methods based on the theory of welfare economics . In 2009 , Business Insider cited Lomborg as one of `` The 10 Most-Respected Global Warming Skeptics '' . While Lomborg campaigned against the Kyoto Protocol and other measures to cut carbon emissions in the short-term , he argued for adaptation to short-term temperature rises , and for spending money on research and development for longer-term environmental solutions . His issue is not with the reality of climate change , but rather with the economic and political approaches being taken ( or not taken ) to meet the challenges of that climate change . He is a strong advocate for focusing attention and resources on what he perceives as far more pressing world problems , such as AIDS , malaria and malnutrition . In his critique of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , Lomborg stated : `` Global warming is by no means our main environmental threat . '' In 2011 and 2012 , Lomborg was named a Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy `` for looking more right than ever on the politics of climate change '' .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Bjørn_Lomborg", "rank": 60, "score": 73565 }, { "content": "Title: Taken by Storm Content: Taken By Storm : The Troubled Science , Policy and Politics of Global Warming is a 2002 book about the global warming controversy by Christopher Essex and Ross McKitrick . The authors argue that politicians and others claim far more certainty than is justified by the science . The authors also argue that public policy discussions have abandoned science and resorted to ad hominem attacks . Taken by Storm was one of two runners up for the 2002 Donner Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Taken_by_Storm", "rank": 61, "score": 73507 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 62, "score": 73372 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Balling Content: Robert C. Balling , Jr. is a professor of geography at Arizona State University , and the former director of its Office of Climatology . His research interests include climatology , global climate change , and geographic information systems . Balling has declared himself one of the scientists who oppose the consensus on global warming , arguing in a 2009 book that anthropogenic global warming `` is indeed real , but relatively modest '' , and maintaining that there is a publication bias in the scientific literature .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Robert_Balling", "rank": 63, "score": 73315 }, { "content": "Title: World Wide Views on Global Warming Content: World Wide Views on Global Warming : A global project initiated by The Danish Board of Technology on the occasion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP15 ) held in Copenhagen December 2009 . World Wide Views on Global Warming ( or just WWViews ) was an international citizens involvement project based on methods developed by The Danish Board of Technology for the purpose of involving citizens in the political decision-making processes .", "qid": "392", "docid": "World_Wide_Views_on_Global_Warming", "rank": 64, "score": 73211 }, { "content": "Title: Munk School of Global Affairs Content: The Munk School of Global Affairs ( also referred to as the Munk School ) at the University of Toronto is an interdisciplinary academic centre with various research and educational programs committed to the field of globalization . It offers master 's degrees in Global Affairs , European , Russian , and Asia-Pacific studies . The school also offers a certificate program in global journalism .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Munk_School_of_Global_Affairs", "rank": 65, "score": 73176 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 66, "score": 72903 }, { "content": "Title: The Gutenberg Galaxy Content: The Gutenberg Galaxy : The Making of Typographic Man is a 1962 book by Marshall McLuhan , in which he analyzes the effects of mass media , especially the printing press , on European culture and human consciousness . It popularized the term global village , which refers to the idea that mass communication allows a village-like mindset to apply to the entire world ; and Gutenberg Galaxy , which we may regard today to refer to the accumulated body of recorded works of human art and knowledge , especially books . McLuhan studies the emergence of what he calls Gutenberg Man , the subject produced by the change of consciousness wrought by the advent of the printed book . Apropos of his axiom , `` The medium is the message , '' McLuhan argues that technologies are not simply inventions which people employ but are the means by which people are re-invented . The invention of movable type was the decisive moment in the change from a culture in which all the senses partook of a common interplay to a tyranny of the visual . He also argued that the development of the printing press led to the creation of nationalism , dualism , domination of rationalism , automatisation of scientific research , uniformation and standardisation of culture and alienation of individuals . Movable type , with its ability to reproduce texts accurately and swiftly , extended the drive toward homogeneity and repeatability already in evidence in the emergence of perspectival art and the exigencies of the single `` point of view '' . He writes : the world of visual perspective is one of unified and homogeneous space . Such a world is alien to the resonating diversity of spoken words . So language was the last art to accept the visual logic of Gutenberg technology , and the first to rebound in the electric age .", "qid": "392", "docid": "The_Gutenberg_Galaxy", "rank": 67, "score": 72728 }, { "content": "Title: Steuart Campbell Content: Steuart Campbell ( born 1937 ) is an Edinburgh-based sceptic and investigative science writer born in Birmingham . Campbell trained as an architect and worked as one until the mid-1970s . He then gained a degree in mathematics and science from the Open University ( BA , 1983 ) . He has written books on science and pseudoscience-related matters : ( Prometheus . 1997 . ) , ( Birlinn . 2002 . ) . Debunking belief in the Loch Ness Monster by analysis of all the main evidence , including the various photographs , eye-witness reports and sonar evidence of the `` monster '' . A critical examination of UFO reports and their explanation in terms of meteorological and astronomical phenomena . ( WPS . 2009 . Revised ed . ) . Examines the Jesus myth and the origins of Christianity . An examination of the crash of RAF Chinook helicopter ZD576 on the Mull of Kintyre . Campbell is the Treasurer of the Edinburgh Secular Society . He is also the author of over 100 articles on superstitions ( religious and non-religious ) , language problems , genealogy , scientific beliefs , optical phenomena ( astronomical and meteorological ) , electricity generation and global warming .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Steuart_Campbell", "rank": 68, "score": 72611 }, { "content": "Title: Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man's Impact On European Seas Content: Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man 's Impact On European Seas ( HERMIONE ) is an international multidisciplinary project , started in April 2009 , that studies deep-sea ecosystems . HERMIONE scientists study the distribution of hotspot ecosystems , how they function and how they interconnect , partially in the context of how these ecosystems are being affected by climate change and impacted by humans through overfishing , resource extraction , seabed installations and pollution . Major aims of the project are to understand how humans are affecting the deep-sea environment and to provide policy makers with accurate scientific information , enabling effective management strategies to protect deep sea ecosystems.The HERMIONE project is funded by the European Commission 's Seventh Framework Programme , and is the successor to the HERMES project , which concluded in March 2009 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Hotspot_Ecosystem_Research_and_Man's_Impact_On_European_Seas", "rank": 69, "score": 72119 }, { "content": "Title: Friends of Science Content: Friends of Science ( FoS ) is a Canadian non-profit advocacy organization based in Calgary , Alberta . The organization takes a position that humans are largely not responsible for the currently observed global warming , contrary to the established scientific position on the subject . Rather , they propose that `` the Sun is the main direct and indirect driver of climate change , '' not human activity . They argued against the Kyoto Protocol . The society was founded in 2002 and launched its website in October of that year . They are considered by many to promote climate change denial . They are largely funded by the fossil fuel industry . Madhav Khandekar , Chris de Freitas , Tim Patterson and Sallie Baliunas act as advisers to the Friends of Science with their work cited in Friends ' publications . Douglas Leahey has been president since December , 2009 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Friends_of_Science", "rank": 70, "score": 71955 }, { "content": "Title: Global Environment and Trade Study Content: The Global Environment & Trade Study ( GETS ) was a non-profit research institute established in 1994 to study the complex linkages between international trade and environmental sustainability . GETS supported numerous research projects on the legal , economic , and ecological aspects of trade and environment . GETS was centered at Yale University . GETS also studied the expanding role of civil society in global governance . In 2004 , the GETS Board decided that a sufficient amount had been accomplished over the decade , and that it was time to terminate the project .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Environment_and_Trade_Study", "rank": 71, "score": 71913 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 72, "score": 71825 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean heat content Content: Oceanic heat content ( OHC ) is the heat stored in the ocean . Oceanography and climatology are the science branches which study ocean heat content . Changes in the ocean heat content play an important role in the sea level rise , because of thermal expansion . It is with high confidence that ocean warming accounts for 90 % of the energy accumulation from global warming between 1971 and 2010 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Ocean_heat_content", "rank": 73, "score": 71761 }, { "content": "Title: Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project Content: The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project ( DDPP ) is a global consortium formed in October 2013 which researches methods to limit the rise of global temperature due to global warming to 2 ° C or less . The focus of the DDPP is on sustainable energy systems , other sectors of the economy , such as agriculture and land-use , are not directly considered .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Deep_Decarbonization_Pathways_Project", "rank": 74, "score": 71683 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming (Sonny Rollins album) Content: Global Warming is an album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins , released on the Milestone label in 1998 , featuring performances by Rollins with Stephen Scott , Bob Cranshaw , Idris Muhammad , Clifton Anderson , Victor See Yuen and Perry Wilson .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Warming_(Sonny_Rollins_album)", "rank": 75, "score": 71622 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Turkey Content:", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Turkey", "rank": 76, "score": 71505 }, { "content": "Title: The Skeptical Environmentalist Content: The Skeptical Environmentalist : Measuring the Real State of the World ( Verdens sande tilstand , literal translation : The True State of the World ) is a book by Danish environmentalist author Bjørn Lomborg , controversial for its claims that overpopulation , declining energy resources , deforestation , species loss , water shortages , certain aspects of global warming , and an assortment of other global environmental issues are unsupported by analysis of the relevant data . It was first published in Danish in 1998 , while the English edition was published as a work in environmental economics by Cambridge University Press in 2001 . Due to the scope of the project , comprising the range of topics addressed , the diversity of data and sources employed , and the many types of conclusions and comments advanced , The Skeptical Environmentalist does not fit easily into a particular scientific discipline or methodology . Although published by the social sciences division of Cambridge University Press , the findings and conclusions were widely challenged on the basis of natural science . This interpretation of The Skeptical Environmentalist as a work of environmental science generated much of the controversy and debate that surrounded the book .", "qid": "392", "docid": "The_Skeptical_Environmentalist", "rank": 77, "score": 71465 }, { "content": "Title: The Abolition of Man Content: The Abolition of Man is a 1943 book by C. S. Lewis . It is subtitled `` Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools , '' and uses that as a starting point for a defense of objective value and natural law , and a warning of the consequences of doing away with or `` debunking '' those things . It defends science as something worth pursuing but criticizes using it to debunk values -- the value of science itself being among them -- or defining it to exclude such values . The book was first delivered as a series of three evening lectures at King 's College , Newcastle , part of the University of Durham , as the Riddell Memorial Lectures on February 24 -- 26 , 1943 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "The_Abolition_of_Man", "rank": 78, "score": 70878 }, { "content": "Title: James Hansen Content: James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "qid": "392", "docid": "James_Hansen", "rank": 79, "score": 70815 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 80, "score": 70763 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Exchanges Content: The Global Energy and Water cycle Exchanges project (abbreviated GEWEX, formerly named the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment from 1990 to 2012) is an international research project and a core project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). In the beginning, the project intended to observe, comprehend and model the Earth's water cycle. The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives, studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed. Sunlight's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain, and dries out land masses after rain. Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes. GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere. If the Earth's climates were identical from year to year, then people could predict when, where and what crops to plant. However, instability created by solar variation, weather trends, and chaotic events creates weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales. Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities. GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data, and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future.", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Exchanges", "rank": 81, "score": 70646 }, { "content": "Title: Iris hypothesis Content: The iris hypothesis is a hypothesis proposed by Richard Lindzen et al. in 2001 that suggested increased sea surface temperature in the tropics would result in reduced cirrus clouds and thus more infrared radiation leakage from Earth 's atmosphere . His study of observed changes in cloud coverage and modeled effects on infrared radiation released to space as a result supported the hypothesis . This suggested infrared radiation leakage was hypothesized to be a negative feedback in which an initial warming would result in an overall cooling of the surface . The consensus view is that increased sea surface temperature would result in increased cirrus clouds and reduced infrared radiation leakage and therefore a positive feedback . Other scientists subsequently tested the hypothesis . Some concluded that there was no evidence supporting the hypothesis . Others found evidence suggesting that increased sea surface temperature in the tropics did indeed reduce cirrus clouds but found that the effect was nonetheless a positive feedback rather than the negative feedback that Lindzen had hypothesized . A later 2007 study conducted by Roy Spencer et al. using updated satellite data potentially supported the iris hypothesis . In 2011 , Lindzen published a rebuttal to the main criticisms . In 2015 a paper was published which again suggested the possibility of an `` Iris Effect '' . It also proposed what it called a `` plausible physical mechanism for an iris effect . ''", "qid": "392", "docid": "Iris_hypothesis", "rank": 82, "score": 70565 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "392", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 83, "score": 70455 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 84, "score": 70195 }, { "content": "Title: Cloud formation and climate change Content: Nephology ( -LSB- nɪˈfɒlədʒi -RSB- from the Greek word nephos for ` cloud ' ) is the study of clouds and cloud formation . British meteorologist Luke Howard was a major researcher within this field , establishing a cloud classification system . While this branch of meteorology still exists today , the term nephology , or nephologist is rarely used . The term came into use at the end of the nineteenth century , and fell out of common use by the middle of the twentieth . Recently , interest in nephology ( if not the name ) has surged as many meteorologists have begun to focus on the relationship between clouds and global warming . Since the late 1990s , some have suggested that when high solar activity lowers levels of cosmic rays , that in turn reduces cloud cover and warms the planet . Others say that there is no statistical evidence for such an effect . Some nephologists believe that an increase in global temperature could decrease the thickness and brightness ( ability to reflect light energy ) , which would further increase global temperature . Recently research has been going on at CERN 's CLOUD facility to study the effects of the solar cycle and cosmic rays on cloud formation .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Cloud_formation_and_climate_change", "rank": 85, "score": 69840 }, { "content": "Title: VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study Content: The VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Studies ( VOCALS ) is an international field experiment started in 2006 designed by World Climate Research Programme 's core project CLIVAR to better understand physical and chemical processes central to the climate system of the Southeast Pacific region . The experiment is organized in two parts : the VOCALS Regional Experiment ( VOCALS-Rex ) , and the VOCALS Numerical Modeling ( VOCALS-Mod ) .", "qid": "392", "docid": "VAMOS_Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land_Study", "rank": 86, "score": 69751 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 87, "score": 69651 }, { "content": "Title: International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Content: The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ( IGBP ) was a research programme that studies the phenomenon of global change . It closed in 2015 The International Council of Scientific Unions , a coordinating body of national science organizations , launched IGBP in 1987 . It looked at the total Earth system , the changes that are occurring , and the manner in which changes are influenced by human actions . IGBP aimed to describe and understand how the physical , chemical and biological processes regulate the Earth system . It also seeks to increase knowledge of how humans are influencing the global processes , such as the carbon cycle , nitrogen cycle , sulfur cycle , water cycle and phosphorus cycle . `` It delivers scientific knowledge to help human societies develop in harmony with Earth 's environment . '' IGBP research is organised around six projects representing the Earth system - land , atmosphere , ocean and where they meet ( land-atmosphere , land-ocean . atmosphere-ocean ) and two further projects looking at the Earth system as a whole : Past Global Changes ( PAGES ) which looks at palaeoclimate , and the Analysis , Integration and Modelling of the Earth System ( AIMES ) , which helps set the agenda for Earth system models . Plus four joint projects - carbon , water , human health and food security - with the other three international global-change programmes . In 2004 , IGBP published a landmark synthesis , Global Change and the Earth System ( Steffen et al ) . The synthesis stated that humanity was now the main driver of change at the planetary scale and that Earth is now operating in a `` no analogue '' state . Measurements of Earth system processes , past and present , have led to the conclusion that the planet has moved well outside the range of natural variability in the last half million years at least . Sybil Seitzinger is the Executive Director .", "qid": "392", "docid": "International_Geosphere-Biosphere_Programme", "rank": 88, "score": 69359 }, { "content": "Title: False balance Content: False balance is a real or perceived media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports . Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the actual evidence for each side , or may omit information that would establish one side 's claims as baseless . Examples of false balance in reporting on science issues include the topics of man-made versus natural climate change , the alleged relation between thimerosal and autism and evolution versus intelligent design . An example of false balance is the `` debate '' on global warming ; although the scientific community almost unanimously attributes global warming to the effects of the industrial revolution , there is a very small number , a few dozen scientists out of tens of thousands of scientists , who dispute the conclusion . Giving equal voice to scientists on both sides makes it seem like there is a serious disagreement within the scientific community , when in fact there is an overwhelming scientific consensus that anthropogenic global warming exists . False balance can sometimes originate from similar motives as sensationalism , where producers and editors may feel that a story portrayed as a contentious debate will be more commercially successful than a more accurate account of the issue . However , unlike most other media biases , false balance may stem from an attempt to avoid bias ; producers and editors may confuse treating competing views fairly -- i.e. , in proportion to their actual merits and significance -- with treating them equally , giving them equal time to present their views even when those views may be known beforehand to be based on false information .", "qid": "392", "docid": "False_balance", "rank": 89, "score": 69294 }, { "content": "Title: Dehaene–Changeux model Content: The Dehaene -- Changeux model ( DCM ) , also known as the global neuronal workspace or the global cognitive workspace model is a part of Bernard Baars 's `` global workspace model '' for consciousness . It is a computer model of the neural correlates of consciousness programmed as a neural network . It attempts to reproduce the swarm behaviour of the brain 's higher cognitive functions such as consciousness , decision-making and the central executive functions . It was developed by cognitive neuroscientists Stanislas Dehaene and Jean-Pierre Changeux beginning in 1986 . It has been used to provide a predictive framework to the study of inattentional blindness and the solving of the Tower of London test .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Dehaene–Changeux_model", "rank": 90, "score": 69077 }, { "content": "Title: First-in-man study Content: A first-in-man study is a clinical trial where a medical procedure , previously developed and assessed through in vitro or animal testing , or through mathematical modelling is tested on human subjects for the first time . Sometimes , this is called a Phase 0 study . Such studies present particular risks to the human subjects as was signally the case in the TGN1412 trial in 2006 . Consequently , there are ethical issues as to whether such trials should be performed on healthy volunteers , who have nothing to gain beyond a fee , or on patients who have a chance of enjoying a health benefit .", "qid": "392", "docid": "First-in-man_study", "rank": 91, "score": 69072 }, { "content": "Title: World Ocean Circulation Experiment Content: The World Ocean Circulation Experiment ( WOCE ) was a component of the international World Climate Research Program , and aimed to establish the role of the World Ocean in the Earth 's climate system . WOCE 's field phase ran between 1990 and 1998 , and was followed by an analysis and modeling phase that ran until 2002 . When the WOCE was conceived , there were three main motivations for its creation . The first of these is the inadequate coverage of the World Ocean , specifically in the Southern Hemisphere . Data was also much more sparse during the winter months than the summer months , and there was -- and still to some extent -- a critical need for data covering all seasons . Secondly , the data that did exist was not initially collected for studying ocean circulation and was not well suited for model comparison . Lastly , there were concerns involving the accuracy and reliability of some measurements . The WOCE was meant to address these problems by providing new data collected in ways designed to `` meet the needs of global circulation models for climate prediction . ''", "qid": "392", "docid": "World_Ocean_Circulation_Experiment", "rank": 92, "score": 69026 }, { "content": "Title: Man: A Course of Study Content: Man : A Course of Study , usually known by the acronym MACOS or M.A.C.O.S. , was an American humanities teaching program , popular in America and Britain in the 1970s . It was based upon the theories of Jerome Bruner , particularly his concept of the `` spiral curriculum '' . This suggested that a concept might be taught repeatedly within a curriculum , but at a number of levels , each level being more complex than the first . The process of repetition would thus enable the child to absorb more complex ideas easily . In MACOS , the concept was `` the chain of life '' or a `` lifeline '' : the entire history of a living thing . The course started with a simple lifespan in the form of the Pacific Coast salmon . It then moved on to the more complex life form of the herring gull , introducing concepts such as nurturing . The lifespan of the baboon was next examined , particularly within the societal context afforded by the baboon troop . The differences between innate behaviour and learned behaviour were introduced . Finally , the study opened up into a study of a man 's lifespan with a case study of Netsilik Inuit . This also included the interaction between the Netsilik and other life forms , such as reindeer and seals . The course comprised a self-contained kit of course materials , film cassettes , visual aids , and games . Some of the activities were very imaginative ; a game based upon reindeer migration had a loaded die to introduce discussion about instincts , and a paper seal would be cut up and shared among class members representing various people in the Netsilik community , according to a ritual governing who was entitled to which part of the animal . The emphasis of the course was upon learning particular skills within the teaching process , not upon the significance of the content . This included the necessity to ask questions , discuss , and reach conclusions based upon evidence and argument . The course was much criticized in the United States because of its emphasis upon questioning aspects of life , including belief and morality . It was particularly targeted by fundamentalist groups , evidenced by quotations included in the course booklet . In 2004 , the National Film Board of Canada produced Through These Eyes , a documentary about the controversy surrounding MACOS , and more generally about the interplay between politics and education .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Man:_A_Course_of_Study", "rank": 93, "score": 69023 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Network Content: The Global Climate Network ( GCN ) is an alliance of influential think tanks and research institutes in different countries that collaborate on research into climate change policy and whose stated aim is to help address the political blockages to ambitious action to tackle global warming . The Network has members in nine countries worldwide , including the USA , China , India , UK , Australia , Brazil , Norway , South Africa and Nigeria . Its Secretariat is housed at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London , UK . GCN members are engaged jointly in a programme of research projects , the results of which each member feeds into policy making at the domestic and international levels . Collectively , members of the Global Climate Network are committed to a vision of a prosperous and secure world in which greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced to a level that is no longer harmful to the climate system . Working together , the Network construct a narrative for action on climate change that is concerned with human and economic progress as well as environmental wellbeing . The Network 's patrons are Dr Rajendra Pachauri , chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and director-general of the Energy and Resources Institute in India ; John Podesta , former Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton and director of Center for American Progress , and Lord Christopher Patten of Barnes , former European Commissioner for External Affairs .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Climate_Network", "rank": 94, "score": 68987 }, { "content": "Title: Five Ways to Save the World Content: Five Ways to Save the World is a British documentary film on environmental issues related to climate change , released in 2006 . The film was made by Karen O'Connor , for the big screen and was shot in the English language to reach an international audience . It includes interviews with five environmental scientists and experts including Paul Crutzen , James Roger Angel , John Latham , Ian Jones , and Klaus Lackner . The `` five ways '' proposed are geoengineering techniques : space lenses in orbit , to diffract sunlight away from the earth cloud seeding with seawater to increase albedo sulfur launched into the stratosphere to increase albedo ocean fertilization with iron or urea ( nitrogen fertilizer ) artificial trees ( see carbon capture and sequestration ) Since the first three methods do not remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , they would only reduce global warming but not ocean acidification . Since the last two methods would remove carbon dioxide , they could in theory reduce both global warming and ocean acidification .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Five_Ways_to_Save_the_World", "rank": 95, "score": 68591 }, { "content": "Title: Stephen Schneider Content: Stephen Henry Schneider ( February 11 , 1945 -- July 19 , 2010 ) was Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change at Stanford University , a Co-Director at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a Senior Fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment . Schneider served as a consultant to federal agencies and White House staff in the Richard Nixon , Jimmy Carter , Ronald Reagan , George H. W. Bush , Bill Clinton , George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations . Schneider 's research included modeling of the atmosphere , climate change , and the effect of global climate change on biological systems . Schneider was the founder and editor of the journal Climatic Change and authored or co-authored over 450 scientific papers and other publications . He was a Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group II Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Assessment Report and was engaged as a co-anchor of the Key Vulnerabilities Cross-Cutting Theme for the Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) at the time of his death . During the 1980s , Schneider emerged as a leading public advocate of sharp reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming . In 2006 Professor Schneider was an Adelaide Thinker in Residence advising the South Australian Government of Premier Mike Rann on climate change and renewable energy policies . In ten years South Australia went from zero to 31 % of its electricity generation coming from renewables . An annual award for outstanding climate science communication was created in Schneider 's honor after his death , by the Commonwealth Club of California .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Stephen_Schneider", "rank": 96, "score": 68573 }, { "content": "Title: An Inconvenient Truth (book) Content: An Inconvenient Truth : The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It is a 2006 book by Al Gore released in conjunction with the film An Inconvenient Truth . It is published by Rodale Press in Emmaus , Pennsylvania , in the United States . Based on Gore 's lecture tour on the topic of global warming this book elaborates upon points offered in the film . The publisher of the text states that the book , `` brings together leading-edge research from top scientists around the world ; photographs , charts , and other illustrations ; and personal anecdotes and observations to document the fast pace and wide scope of global warming . '' Michiko Kakutani argues in the New York Times that the book 's `` roots as a slide show are very much in evidence . It does not pretend to grapple with climate change with the sort of minute detail and analysis '' given by other books on the topic `` and yet as a user-friendly introduction to global warming and a succinct summary of many of the central arguments laid out in those other volumes , `` An Inconvenient Truth '' is lucid , harrowing and bluntly effective . '' In a section called `` The Politicization of Global Warming '' , Al Gore said this statement : As for why so many people still resist what the facts clearly show , I think , in part , the reason is that the truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives . A highlighted statement separated from the main writing in that section was : The truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives . In 2009 , the audiobook version , narrated by Beau Bridges , Cynthia Nixon , and Blair Underwood , won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album .", "qid": "392", "docid": "An_Inconvenient_Truth_(book)", "rank": 97, "score": 68566 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Taylor (environmentalist) Content: Peter Taylor ( b. 24 Jan 1948 ) is a UK environmentalist with a long track record of public activism and scholarship on issues ranging from nuclear safety , ocean pollution , biodiversity strategies , renewable energy and climate change . His recent work on global warming has been questioned by environmentalists . His 2009 book Chill : a reassessment of global warming theory argued that most of the recent documented warming is caused by peaking natural cycles , that there is also a potential for global cooling and that adaptation not mitigation should be a priority . His views received widespread coverage in the media -- with front page on the Daily Express , and articles in the online versions of The Mail , The Times and an Al Jazeera video .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Peter_Taylor_(environmentalist)", "rank": 98, "score": 68510 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Tett Content: Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Simon_Tett", "rank": 99, "score": 68485 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming: What You Need to Know Content: Global Warming What You Need to Know is a 2006 global warming ( climate change ) documentary , directed by Nicolas Brown , starring Tom Brokaw , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer , and Mark Serreze . The film focuses on impacts from climate change , and Tom Brokaw interviews scientists . The documentary premiered on Discovery Channel , 16 July 2006 .", "qid": "392", "docid": "Global_Warming:_What_You_Need_to_Know", "rank": 100, "score": 68459 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Stop Climate Chaos Content: Stop Climate Chaos is a climate change coalition of primarily environmental and international development NGOs that was formed in September 2005 . The coalition ran the I Count campaign in 2006 -- 07 and organised The Wave , a campaign focused on the climatic impacts of energy production which took place on 5 December 2009 in the run-up to the UN talks in Copenhagen . The coalition encourages individuals to lobby the UK government for what they see as positive policies on climate change . From 2005 to 2010 the director of the coalition was Ashok Sinha . There is also a Scottish secretariat called Stop Climate Chaos Scotland .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Stop_Climate_Chaos", "rank": 1, "score": 93333 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 2, "score": 92418 }, { "content": "Title: Stop Climate Chaos Scotland Content: Stop Climate Chaos Scotland ( SCCS ) is a coalition of organisations in Scotland that are campaigning on climate change , including trade and student unions , environmental and international development organisations , faith and community groups . The coalition has close links with the Stop Climate Chaos coalition in London although it is a separately constituted organisation . Stop Climate Chaos Scotland played a key role in the development of the Climate Change ( Scotland ) Act 2009 , the strongest climate change legislation in the world . Stop Climate Chaos Scotland now works to ensure that the commitments set out in the Scottish Climate Change Act become a reality and that Scotland meets its targets to reduce emissions by 42 % by 2020 and 80 % by 2050 . As Scotland 's own emissions account for only a relatively small percentage of the global total , SCCS is also working with civil society groups in other countries to promote the Scottish climate change example .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Stop_Climate_Chaos_Scotland", "rank": 3, "score": 91497 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 4, "score": 89015 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 5, "score": 88386 }, { "content": "Title: Stop Esso campaign Content: The Stop Esso campaign was a campaign by Greenpeace , Friends of the Earth and People and Planet aimed at boycotting the oil company Esso , known as ExxonMobil in the United States , on the grounds that it is damaging the environment . The campaign alleges that Esso / ExxonMobil is : not investing in renewable energy sources denying the existence of global warming funding the creation of junk science which denies climate change , delaying urgently needed climate change action undermining the Kyoto Protocol .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Stop_Esso_campaign", "rank": 6, "score": 87649 }, { "content": "Title: List of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC or FCCC ) is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) , informally known as the Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . The objective of the treaty is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The treaty itself set no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . In that sense , the treaty is considered legally non-binding . Instead , the treaty provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' ) that may set binding limits on greenhouse gases . The UNFCCC was opened for signature on 9 May 1992 , after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . It entered into force on 21 March 1994 . As of December 2015 , UNFCCC has 197 parties .", "qid": "398", "docid": "List_of_parties_to_the_United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 7, "score": 85149 }, { "content": "Title: Climate oscillation Content: A climate oscillation or climate cycle is any recurring cyclical oscillation within global or regional climate , and is a type of climate pattern . These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature , sea surface temperature , precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic , often occurring on inter-annual , multi-annual , decadal , multidecadal , century-wide , millennial or longer timescales . They are not perfectly periodic and a Fourier analysis of the data does not give a sharp spectrum . A prominent example is the El Niño Southern Oscillation , involving sea surface temperatures along a stretch of the equatorial Central and East Pacific Ocean and the western coast of tropical South America , but which affects climate worldwide . Records of past climate conditions are recovered through geological examination of proxies , found in glacier ice , sea bed sediment , tree ring studies or otherwise .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_oscillation", "rank": 8, "score": 84917 }, { "content": "Title: Are We Changing Planet Earth? Content: Are We Changing Planet Earth ? and Can We Save Planet Earth ? are two programmes that form a documentary about global warming , presented by David Attenborough . They were first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 24 May and 1 June 2006 respectively . Part of a themed season by the BBC entitled `` Climate Chaos '' , the programmes were produced in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and the Open University . They were directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Jeremy Bristow . The music was composed by Samuel Sim . Attenborough undertook the assignment in between his ` Life ' series Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood . Around the same time , the naturalist also narrated Planet Earth .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Are_We_Changing_Planet_Earth?", "rank": 9, "score": 84135 }, { "content": "Title: Milankovitch cycles Content: Milankovitch cycles describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth 's movements on its climate over thousands of years . The term is named after Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković . In the 1920s , he theorized that variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit resulted in cyclical variation in the solar radiation ( insolation ) reaching the Earth , and that this orbital forcing strongly influenced climatic patterns on Earth . The Earth 's orbit varies between nearly circular and mildly elliptical ( its eccentricity varies ) . When the orbit is more elongated , there is more variation in the distance between the Earth and the Sun , and in the amount of solar radiation , at different times in the year . In addition , the rotational tilt of the Earth ( its obliquity ) , which causes the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun , changes slightly . A greater tilt makes the seasons more extreme . Finally , the direction in the fixed stars pointed to by the Earth 's axis changes ( axial precession ) , while the Earth 's elliptical orbit around the Sun rotates ( apsidal precession ) . The combined effect of the two precessions is a cycle in which proximity to the Sun occurs during different astronomical seasons . If the Earth is closer to the Sun while the northern or southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun ( is in summer ) , then both effects work together to heat that hemisphere . If the Earth is further from the Sun during summer , the greater distance slightly reduces the heat of summer . Similar astronomical theories had been advanced in the 19th century by Joseph Adhemar , James Croll and others , but verification was difficult because there was no reliably dated evidence , and because it was unclear which periods were important . Now , materials on Earth that have been unchanged for millennia are being studied to indicate the history of Earth 's climate . A study of the chronology of Antarctic ice cores using oxygen-nitrogen ratios in air bubbles trapped in the ice , which appear to respond directly to the local insolation , concluded that the climatic response documented in the ice cores was driven by northern hemisphere insolation as proposed by the Milankovitch hypothesis . Analysis of deep-ocean cores and a seminal paper by Hays , Imbrie , and Shackleton provide additional validation of the Milankovitch hypothesis through physical artifacts . However , there are still several observations that the hypothesis does not explain .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Milankovitch_cycles", "rank": 10, "score": 83982 }, { "content": "Title: Climate state Content: Climate state describes a state of climate on Earth and similar terrestrial planets based on a thermal energy budget , such as the greenhouse or icehouse climate state . The main climate state change is between periodical glacial and interglacial cycles in Earth history , studied from climate proxies . The climate system is responding to the current climate forcing and adjusts following climate sensitivity to reach a climate equilibrium , Earth 's energy balance . Model simulations suggest that the current interglacial climate state will continue for at least another 100,000 years , due to emissions - including complete deglaciation of the Northern Hemisphere .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_state", "rank": 11, "score": 82861 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 12, "score": 82117 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainability and environmental management Content: At the global scale sustainability and environmental management involves managing the oceans , freshwater systems , land and atmosphere , according to sustainability principles . Land use change is fundamental to the operations of the biosphere because alterations in the relative proportions of land dedicated to urbanisation , agriculture , forest , woodland , grassland and pasture have a marked effect on the global water , carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles . Management of the Earth 's atmosphere involves assessment of all aspects of the carbon cycle to identify opportunities to address human-induced climate change and this has become a major focus of scientific research because of the potential catastrophic effects on biodiversity and human communities . Ocean circulation patterns have a strong influence on climate and weather and , in turn , the food supply of both humans and other organisms .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Sustainability_and_environmental_management", "rank": 13, "score": 80797 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 14, "score": 79961 }, { "content": "Title: Diurnal cycle Content: A diurnal cycle is any pattern that recurs every 24 hours as a result of one full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun . In climatology , the diurnal cycle is one of the most basic forms of climate patterns . The most familiar such pattern is the diurnal temperature variation . Such a cycle may be approximately sinusoidal , or include components of a truncated sinusoid ( due to the sun 's rising and setting ) and thermal relaxation ( Newton cooling ) at night . Diurnal cycles of environmental conditions ( light or temperature ) can result in similar cycles in dependent biological processes , such as photosynthesis in plants , or clinical depression in humans . Plant responses to environmental cycles may even induce indirect cycles in rhizosphere microbial activities , including nitrogen fixation . A semi-diurnal cycle refers to a pattern that occurs about every twelve hours or about twice a day . Often these can be related to lunar tides , in which case the interval is closer to 12 hours and 25 minutes .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Diurnal_cycle", "rank": 15, "score": 79919 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital effects on climate Content: There are various solar/celestial effects that exist which have an effect on Earth 's climate . These effects usually occur in cycles , and primarily include how Earth 's obliquity , the eccentricity of Earth 's orbit , and the precession of the equinoxes and solstices affect Earth 's climate . In addition to these effects , there are also other factors that have an effect on Earth 's climate . These other factors include how sun activity affects climate and how celestial phenomena , such as meteors , affect Earth 's climate . Some of these factors are n't yet well understood , for instance the ice ages occur on 100,000 year cycles , and it 's not completely understood why the various effects with this periodicity have such a strong effect on glaciation ( see the 100,000-year problem ) .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Orbital_effects_on_climate", "rank": 16, "score": 79620 }, { "content": "Title: Chemical cycling Content: Chemical cycling describes systems of repeated circulation of chemicals between other compounds , states and materials , and back to their original state , that occurs in space , and on many objects in space including the Earth . Active chemical cycling is known to occur in stars , many planets and natural satellites . Chemical cycling plays a large role in sustaining planetary atmospheres , liquids and biological processes and can greatly influence weather and climate . Some chemical cycles release renewable energy , others may give rise to complex chemical reactions , organic compounds and prebiotic chemistry . On terrestrial bodies such as the Earth , chemical cycles involving the lithosphere are known as geochemical cycles . Ongoing geochemical cycles are one of the main attributes of geologically active worlds . A chemical cycle involving a biosphere is known as a biogeochemical cycle .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Chemical_cycling", "rank": 17, "score": 79574 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 18, "score": 79308 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 19, "score": 78854 }, { "content": "Title: World People's Conference on Climate Change Content: The World People 's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth was a global gathering of civil society and governments hosted by the government of Bolivia in Tiquipaya , just outside the city of Cochabamba from April 19 -- 22 , 2010 . The event was attended by around 30,000 people from over 100 countries , and the proceedings were transmitted live online by OneClimate and the Global Campaign for Climate Action ( GCCA ) . The conference was viewed as a response to what some termed failed climate talks in Copenhagen during the 15th United Nations Conference of Parties ( COP15 ) climate meetings in December 2009 . There have been claims after the Conference ended that there were flaws in its organization and that the Venezuelan government funded it partially . One of the important objectives of the conference was to produce proposals for new commitments to the Kyoto Protocol and projects in the lead-up to the next UN climate negotiations scheduled during the COP16 meeting in Cancun , Mexico in December 2010 . Conference topics included a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth ( see external links below ) , a World People 's Referendum on Climate Change , and the establishment of a Climate Justice Tribunal . The World People 's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth resulted in a People 's Accord .", "qid": "398", "docid": "World_People's_Conference_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 20, "score": 77606 }, { "content": "Title: How to Live a Low-Carbon Life Content: How to Live a Low-Carbon Life : The Individual 's Guide to Stopping Climate Change is a 2007 book by Chris Goodall , published by Earthscan/Routledge . According to New Scientist , this book provides `` the definitive guide to reducing your carbon footprint '' . Goodall explains how consumers can cut carbon usage by 75 percent without making drastic lifestyle changes . How to Live a Low-Carbon Life has been reviewed in the Journal of Environmental Health Research , The Guardian , and The Times . How to Live a Low-carbon Life won the 2007 Clarion award for non-fiction . A second edition was published in 2010 .", "qid": "398", "docid": "How_to_Live_a_Low-Carbon_Life", "rank": 21, "score": 77156 }, { "content": "Title: Virgin Earth Challenge Content: The Virgin Earth Challenge is a competition offering a $ 25 million prize for whoever can demonstrate a commercially viable design which results in the permanent removal of greenhouse gases out of the Earth 's atmosphere to contribute materially in global warming avoidance . The prize was conceived and financed by Sir Richard Branson , a successful British entrepreneur , and was announced in London on 9 February 2007 by Branson and former US Vice President and 2007 Nobel Prize winner Al Gore , creator of the 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth on climate change . Among more than 2600 applications , 11 finalists were announced on 2 November 2011 . These are Biochar Solutions , from the US ; Biorecro , Sweden ; Black Carbon , Denmark ; Carbon Engineering , Canada ; Climeworks , Switzerland ; COAWAY , US ; Full Circle Biochar , US ; Global Thermostat , US ; Kilimanjaro Energy , US ; Smartstones -- Olivine Foundation , Netherlands , and The Savory Institute , US .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Virgin_Earth_Challenge", "rank": 22, "score": 77106 }, { "content": "Title: Help Rescue The Planet Content: Help Rescue The Planet is an educational charity dedicated to minimising air pollution and mitigating climate change . In 2012 it organised the St George 's House Consultations in Windsor and The International Conference on Climate Change in London . Trustees include Dr Robin Russell-Jones , Dr Charles Tannock , MEP and Baroness Walmsley .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Help_Rescue_The_Planet", "rank": 23, "score": 77039 }, { "content": "Title: Nothing Can Stop Us (album) Content: Nothing Can Stop Us is a compilation album by Robert Wyatt released in 1982 .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Nothing_Can_Stop_Us_(album)", "rank": 24, "score": 76713 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Content: The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment ( GEWEX ) is a research program of the World Climate Research Programme intended to observe , comprehend and model the Earth 's water cycle . The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives , studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed . Sunlight 's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain , and dries out land masses after rain . Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes . GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere . If the Earth 's climates were identical from year to year , then people could predict when , where and what crops to plant . However , instability created by solar variation , weather trends , and chaotic events create weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales . Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities . GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data , and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future . GEWEX is organized into several structures . As GEWEX was conceived projects were organized by participating factions , this task is now done by the International GEWEX Project Office ( IGPO ) . IGPO oversees major initiatives and coordinates between national projects in an effort to bring about communication of researchers . IGPO claims to support communication exchange between 2000 scientist and is the instrument for publication of major reports . The Scientific Steering Group organizes the projects and assigns them to panels , which oversee progress and provide critique . The Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project ( CEOP ) the ` Hydrology Project ' is a major instrument in GEWEX . This panel includes geographic study areas such as the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas operated by NOAA , but also examines several types of climate zones ( e.g. high altitude and semi-arid ) . Another panel , the GEWEX Radiation Panel oversees the coordinated use of satellites and ground based observation to better estimate energy and water fluxes . One recent result GEWEX 's Radiation panel has assessed data on rainfall for the last 25 years and determined that global rainfall is 2.61 mm/day with a small statistical variation . While the study period is short , after 25 years of measurement regional trends are beginning to appear . The GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel takes current models and analyzes the models when climate forcing phenomena occur ( global warming as an example of a ` climate forcing ' event ) . GEWEX is now the core project of WCRP .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Cycle_Experiment", "rank": 25, "score": 76338 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 26, "score": 76320 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Report Content: World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels , was produced by the Greening Earth Society , a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association . Early editions were paper based ; it was then transferred to a web-only format , having ceased publication as a physically based report with Volume 8 in 2002 . It continues to exist in blog form at www.worldclimatereport.com , although the website itself has not been updated since late 2012 . World Climate Report presents a scientific skeptical view of populist anthropogenic-driven mass global climate change , or as it describes , ` Global Warming Alarmism ' . However , it does not reject the concepts of global climate change or greenhouse theory ( or other well-established and widely accepted scientific theories or empirical studies ) , in general attempting to engender itself as giving a well balanced and scientific view of the sources ( though often at a contrary expense of its perceived adversaries : the aforementioned alleged ` Global Warming Alarmists ' ) . WCR says of itself : World Climate Report , a concise , hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press . As the nation 's leading publication in this realm , World Climate Report is exhaustively researched , impeccably referenced , and always timely . This popular biweekly newsletter points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as `` proof '' of disastrous warming . It 's the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty , such as the Kyoto Protocol , which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States ... World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what nature now calls the `` mainstream skeptic '' point of view . . In addition to Patrick Michaels ( chief editor ) , the staff is listed as Robert C. Balling , Jr ( contributing editor ) , Robert Davis ( contributing editor ) , and Paul Knappenberger ( Administrator ) . New Hope Environmental Services , an advocacy science consulting firm , claims WCR as its biweekly newsletter .", "qid": "398", "docid": "World_Climate_Report", "rank": 27, "score": 76151 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "398", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 28, "score": 76054 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Content: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) is an international environmental treaty adopted on May 9 , 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 . It then entered into force on 21 March 1994 , after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it . The UNFCCC objective is to `` stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' . The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms . Instead , the framework outlines how specific international treaties ( called `` protocols '' or `` Agreements '' ) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC . Initially an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee ( INC ) produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992 . The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 , and opened for signature on 4 June 1992 . The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015 . The convention enjoys broad legitimacy , largely due to its nearly universal membership . The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties ( COP ) to assess progress in dealing with climate change . In 1997 , the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012 . The 2010 Cancún agreements state that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013-2020 in the Doha Amendment , which - as of December 2015 - had not entered into force . In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted , governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions . The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4th , 2016 . One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions and removals , which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions . Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries . The UNFCCC is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention , with offices in Haus Carstanjen , and the UN Campus ( known as Langer Eugen ) Bonn , Germany . From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres . In July 2016 , Patricia Espinosa from Mexico succeeded Figueres . The Secretariat , augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies .", "qid": "398", "docid": "United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 29, "score": 75840 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change adaptation in Nepal Content: Climate change ( CC ) refers `` to the change of earth 's global or regional climate over a long period of time , whether due to natural variability or as the result of human activities '' IPCC , 2007d :30 . By the impact of climate change , as systems become more vulnerable to natural hazards , there is a greater need to develop responses ( that is , adjustments in existing practices , processes or structures ) that are able to counter potential future disasters . Such a response is known as adaptation to climate change IPCC , 2001b ; Smit et al. , 1999 . Community forest user group ( CFUG ) is main areas to act climate change adaptation in Nepa", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_change_adaptation_in_Nepal", "rank": 30, "score": 75821 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Taylor (environmentalist) Content: Peter Taylor ( b. 24 Jan 1948 ) is a UK environmentalist with a long track record of public activism and scholarship on issues ranging from nuclear safety , ocean pollution , biodiversity strategies , renewable energy and climate change . His recent work on global warming has been questioned by environmentalists . His 2009 book Chill : a reassessment of global warming theory argued that most of the recent documented warming is caused by peaking natural cycles , that there is also a potential for global cooling and that adaptation not mitigation should be a priority . His views received widespread coverage in the media -- with front page on the Daily Express , and articles in the online versions of The Mail , The Times and an Al Jazeera video .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Peter_Taylor_(environmentalist)", "rank": 31, "score": 75741 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Action Network Content: Climate Action Network -- International ( CAN ) is an umbrella group of environmental non-governmental organisations ( NGOs ) active on the issue of climate change . It is most active at meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , where it publishes a daily newsletter `` ECO '' , presenting the views of the Environmental NGO community . The Climate Action Network-International is a worldwide network of over 1100 non-governmental organizations in 120 countries working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels . CAN members work to achieve this goal through the coordination of information exchange and NGO strategy on international , regional and national climate issues . CAN has formal regional networks which coordinate these efforts in Africa , Central and Eastern Europe , Europe , Latin America , North America , South Asia , Southeast Asia , and Japan . CAN also has members in China , the Pacific and the Middle East . CAN members place a high priority on both a healthy environment and development that `` meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs '' ( Brundtland Commission ) . Climate Action Network 's vision is to protect the atmosphere while allowing for sustainable and equitable development worldwide .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_Action_Network", "rank": 32, "score": 75686 }, { "content": "Title: Earthscan Content: Earthscan is an English-language publisher of books and journals on climate change , sustainable development and environmental technology for academic , professional and general readers .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Earthscan", "rank": 33, "score": 75297 }, { "content": "Title: A Friend of the Earth Content: T. Coraghessan Boyle 's novel A Friend of the Earth ( 2000 ) is a story of environmental destruction . The novel is set in 2025 ; as a result of global warming and the greenhouse effect , the climate has drastically changed , and , accordingly , biodiversity is a thing of the past .", "qid": "398", "docid": "A_Friend_of_the_Earth", "rank": 34, "score": 75115 }, { "content": "Title: Artists' Project Earth Content: Artists ' Project Earth is a UK registered charity which recruits internationally known musicians and artists through albums , concerts , art exhibitions and art related projects to raise awareness of climate change and funds for campaigns and disaster relief .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Artists'_Project_Earth", "rank": 35, "score": 74813 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change (general concept) Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_change_(general_concept)", "rank": 36, "score": 74777 }, { "content": "Title: Dork Sahagian Content: Dork Sahagian is an Armenian American climate scientist . He is the Director of the Environmental Initiative at Lehigh University in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania . He invented a technique for calculating the Earth 's air pressure in the past , based on the difference in the size of the bubbles in cooled volcanic lava . Sahagian contributed to three of four assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , which on October 12 , 2007 was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president Al Gore .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Dork_Sahagian", "rank": 37, "score": 74777 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 38, "score": 74722 }, { "content": "Title: Natural environment Content: The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally , meaning in this case not artificial . The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth . This environment encompasses the interaction of all living species , climate , weather , and natural resources that affect human survival and economic activity . The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components : Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention , including all vegetation , microorganisms , soil , rocks , atmosphere , and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries and their nature Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries , such as air , water , and climate , as well as energy , radiation , electric charge , and magnetism , not originating from civilized human activity In contrast to the natural environment is the built environment . In such areas where man has fundamentally transformed landscapes such as urban settings and agricultural land conversion , the natural environment is greatly modified into a simplified human environment . Even acts which seem less extreme , such as building a mud hut or a photovoltaic system in the desert , modify the natural environment into an artificial one . Though many animals build things to provide a better environment for themselves , they are not human , hence beaver dams and the works of Mound-building termites are thought of as natural . People seldom find absolutely natural environments on Earth , and naturalness usually varies in a continuum , from 100 % natural in one extreme to 0 % natural in the other . More precisely , we can consider the different aspects or components of an environment , and see that their degree of naturalness is not uniform . If , for instance , in an agricultural field , the mineralogic composition and the structure of its soil are similar to those of an undisturbed forest soil , but the structure is quite different . Natural environment is often used as a synonym for habitat . For instance , when we say that the natural environment of giraffes is the savanna .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Natural_environment", "rank": 39, "score": 74638 }, { "content": "Title: EarthLab Content: EarthLab is a climate crisis community . Established to generate social capital through education and motivation resulting in social action , EarthLab Foundation provides consumers a practical guide to green living . It uses an Earth Conservation Profile ( ECP ) calculator to help create carbon footprint profiles for its members . The EarthLab Foundation is a 501 ( c ) 3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Kirkland , Washington and is an independent non-profit service organization .", "qid": "398", "docid": "EarthLab", "rank": 40, "score": 74563 }, { "content": "Title: Index of environmental articles Content: The natural environment , commonly referred to simply as the environment , includes all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth . The natural environment includes complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention , including all vegetation , animals , microorganisms , soil , rocks , atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries . Also part of the natural environment is universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries , such as air , water , and climate .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Index_of_environmental_articles", "rank": 41, "score": 74481 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Exchanges Content: The Global Energy and Water cycle Exchanges project (abbreviated GEWEX, formerly named the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment from 1990 to 2012) is an international research project and a core project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). In the beginning, the project intended to observe, comprehend and model the Earth's water cycle. The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives, studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed. Sunlight's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain, and dries out land masses after rain. Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes. GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere. If the Earth's climates were identical from year to year, then people could predict when, where and what crops to plant. However, instability created by solar variation, weather trends, and chaotic events creates weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales. Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities. GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data, and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future.", "qid": "398", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Exchanges", "rank": 42, "score": 74415 }, { "content": "Title: Xiuhtezcatl Martinez Content: Xiuhtezcatl Martinez , or Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez , is a climate change activist , hip-hop artist and youth director of Earth Guardians , a worldwide conservation organization . As a teenager , Martinez has given TED talks and spoken before the United Nations on environmental policy . Martinez 's first name is an Aztec word pronounced `` Shu-TEZ-caht '' . Martinez was raised in Boulder , Colorado .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Xiuhtezcatl_Martinez", "rank": 43, "score": 74335 }, { "content": "Title: Early anthropocene Content: The Early Anthropocene Hypothesis ( sometimes called Early Anthropogenic ) was proposed by William Ruddiman . It posits that the Anthropocene era , as some scientists call the most recent period in Earth 's history when the activities of the human race first began to have a significant global impact on Earth 's climate and ecosystems , did not begin in the eighteenth century with advent of coal-burning factories and power plants of the industrial era , as was commonly assumed , but dates back to 8,000 years ago , triggered by intense farming activities after agriculture became widespread . It was at that time that atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations stopped following the periodic pattern of rises and falls that had accurately characterized their past long-term behavior , a pattern that is explained by natural variations in Earth 's orbit known as Milankovitch cycles .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Early_anthropocene", "rank": 44, "score": 74331 }, { "content": "Title: Baseline Surface Radiation Network Content: Baseline Surface Radiation Network ( BSRN ) is a project of the World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) and the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment ( GEWEX ) and as such is aimed detecting important changes in the Earth 's radiation field at the Earth 's surface which may be related to climate changes . The central archive of the BSRN is the World Radiation Monitoring Center ( WRMC ) which was initiated by Atsumu Ohmura in 1992 and operated at ETH until 2007 . Since 2008 the WRMC is operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research ( AWI ) , Germany .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Baseline_Surface_Radiation_Network", "rank": 45, "score": 74226 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emissions reporting Content: Human activities continue to impact Earth 's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases . One of the proposed ways to combat this climate change is through reporting by businesses on the impact of their activities . Large power stations and manufacturing plants are often required to report their emissions to appropriate government entities , for example to the European Union as part of the Emissions Trading System or to the US EPA as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program . In the United Kingdom , Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) has described climate change as the `` greatest environmental challenge facing the world today , '' and it is now a legal requirement for all quoted companies to report their annual greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Carbon_emissions_reporting", "rank": 46, "score": 74202 }, { "content": "Title: Cool the Earth Content: Cool the Earth Inc. is a non-profit educational organization based in Northern California . The mission of Cool the Earth is to educate kids and their families about climate change and motivate them to take simple measurable actions at home to reduce their carbon emissions . Currently , the organization offers programming to over 100 elementary schools .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Cool_the_Earth", "rank": 47, "score": 74191 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and poverty Content: In an ever-progressing world with an increasing demand for energy and animal agriculture , it is difficult to avoid climate change and its impacts on societies both locally and globally . Climate change affects social development factors , such as , poverty , infrastructure , technology , security , and economics across the globe . Although climate change affects everything we see around us , the interrelation between climate change and social vulnerability and inequality is particularly evident in impoverished communities . In particular , impoverished communities experience reductions in safe drinking water as well as food security as a result of climate change ( OECD 2013 ) . These typically rural , isolated communities do not exhibit sufficient financial and technical capacities to manage the risks associated with climate change ( climate risk ) ( Skoufias 2012 ) . Energy development and policy alteration could adjust the severity of climate change impacts ; this is being tested now , as renewable energy sources develop .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_change_and_poverty", "rank": 48, "score": 74076 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Code Red Content: Climate Code Red : The Case for Emergency Action is a 2008 book which presents scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is worse than official reports and national governments have so far indicated . The book argues that we are facing a `` sustainability emergency '' that requires a clear break from business-as-usual politics . The authors explain that emergency action to address climate change is not so much a radical idea as an indispensable course we must embark upon . Climate Code Red draws heavily on the work of a large number of climate scientists , including James E. Hansen . The key themes of Climate Code Red are : `` Our goal is a safe-climate future -- we have no right to bargain away species or human lives . '' `` We are facing rapid warming impacts : the danger is immediate , not just in the future . '' `` For a safe climate future , we must take action now to stop emissions and to cool the earth . '' `` Plan a large-scale transition to a post-carbon economy and society . '' `` Recognise a climate and sustainability emergency , because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual '' . Co-author David Spratt is a Melbourne businessman , climate-policy analyst , and co-founder of the Carbon Equity network . Co-author Philip Sutton is convener of the Greenleap Strategic Institute and Assistant Convenor of the Climate Emergency Network . The book was launched by the Governor of Victoria , Professor David de Kretser in Parliament House in Melbourne , Victoria , on July 17 , 2008 .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_Code_Red", "rank": 49, "score": 73962 }, { "content": "Title: Live Earth (2007 concert) Content: Live Earth was a one off event developed to combat climate change . The first series of benefit concerts were held on July 7 , 2007 . The concerts brought together more than 150 musical acts in eleven locations around the world which were broadcast to a mass global audience through televisions , radio , and streamed via the Internet .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Live_Earth_(2007_concert)", "rank": 50, "score": 73934 }, { "content": "Title: Requiem for a Species Content: Requiem for a Species : Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change is a 2010 non-fiction book by Australian academic Clive Hamilton which explores climate change denial and its implications . It argues that climate change will bring about large-scale , harmful consequences for habitability for life on Earth including humans , which it is too late to prevent . Hamilton explores why politicians , corporations and the public deny or refuse to act on this reality . He invokes a variety of explanations , including wishful thinking , ideology , consumer culture and active lobbying by the fossil fuel industry . The book builds on the author 's fifteen-year prior history of writing about these subjects , with previous books including Growth Fetish and Scorcher : The Dirty Politics of Climate Change . Requiem for a Species has been reviewed in Resurgence magazine , Socialist Review , Sydney Morning Herald , The Age , The Common Review , and Times Higher Education , which named it `` Book of the Week '' . Extracts of the book have appeared in The Guardian and Geographical magazine . The book won a 2010 Queensland Premier 's Literary Award .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Requiem_for_a_Species", "rank": 51, "score": 73449 }, { "content": "Title: The Climate Coalition (UK) Content: The Climate Coalition is a group of UK based organisations who share environmental concerns . Individuals may also join . It claims it `` is the UK 's largest group of people dedicated to action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world 's poorest communities . '' Amongst its areas of focus are ending the use of coal and encourage better home insulation . Some of its members are WWF ( UK ) , Friends of the Earth , Christian Aid , RSPB , but there are many others . Its main campaigning website and theme are ` For The Love Of ' , where people are invited to defend features of the environment they love that are at threat from climate change .", "qid": "398", "docid": "The_Climate_Coalition_(UK)", "rank": 52, "score": 73445 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 53, "score": 73226 }, { "content": "Title: Surviving the Century Content: Surviving the Century : Facing Climate Chaos and Other Global Challenges , edited by Herbert Girardet , is the first major book from the World Future Council , published by Earthscan in 2007 . Eight main issues relating to the politics of climate change are covered in the book : countering climate chaos , renewable energy policy , creating sustainable cities , local farming systems , rainforests and climate change , cradle to cradle production systems , an alternative vision for trade and creating a living democracy .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Surviving_the_Century", "rank": 54, "score": 73086 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclostratigraphy Content: Cyclostratigraphy is the study of astronomically forced climate cycles within sedimentary successions . Astronomical cycles are variations of the Earth 's orbit around the sun due to the gravitational interaction with other masses within the solar system . Due to this cyclicity solar irradiation differs through time on different hemispheres and seasonality is affected . These insolation variations have influence on Earth 's climate and so on the deposition of sedimentary rocks . The main orbital cycles are precession with at present main periods of 19 and 23 kyr , obliquity with at present main periods of 41 kyr , and 1.2 Myr , and eccentricity with at present main periods of around 100 kyr , 405 kyr , and 2.4 Myr . Cyclostratigraphic studies of rock records can lead to accurate dating of events in the geological past , to increase understanding of cause and consequences of Earth 's ( climate ) history , and to more control on depositional mechanisms of sediments and the acting of sedimentary systems .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Cyclostratigraphy", "rank": 55, "score": 73046 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 56, "score": 72838 }, { "content": "Title: Nothing Can Stop Us (song) Content: `` Nothing Can Stop Us '' is the third single by Saint Etienne . Released by Heavenly Records in 1991 , it is the first release to feature Sarah Cracknell , who would continue to front the band from this release on . `` Nothing Can Stop Us '' reached the number one spot on the American dance charts for one week . The song is based on a looped sample from Dusty Springfield 's recording of `` I Ca n't Wait Until I See My Baby 's Face '' . `` Nothing Can Stop Us '' was released as a double A side with `` Speedwell '' . As such , `` Speedwell '' takes lead track duty on the remix 12 '' single with the Flying Mix and Project Mix . The music video features the band driving and walking around central London with a late 60s movie style . The American remixes were done by the Masters At Work team of Kenny `` Dope '' Gonzales and Little Louie Vega . The lyric was partly re-written for these mixes , and the changes were retained in subsequent live performances . In 1994 , Saint Etienne produced a new version of the song for Kylie Minogue , which was released as a b-side on her single `` Confide in Me '' .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Nothing_Can_Stop_Us_(song)", "rank": 57, "score": 72732 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 58, "score": 72610 }, { "content": "Title: Nothing Can Stop Us Content: Nothing Can Stop Us may refer to : Nothing Can Stop Us ( album ) , a 1982 album by Robert Wyatt `` Nothing Can Stop Us '' ( song ) , a single by Saint Etienne `` Nothing Can Stop Us '' , song from Kylie Minogue by Kylie Minogue", "qid": "398", "docid": "Nothing_Can_Stop_Us", "rank": 59, "score": 72575 }, { "content": "Title: Five Ways to Save the World Content: Five Ways to Save the World is a British documentary film on environmental issues related to climate change , released in 2006 . The film was made by Karen O'Connor , for the big screen and was shot in the English language to reach an international audience . It includes interviews with five environmental scientists and experts including Paul Crutzen , James Roger Angel , John Latham , Ian Jones , and Klaus Lackner . The `` five ways '' proposed are geoengineering techniques : space lenses in orbit , to diffract sunlight away from the earth cloud seeding with seawater to increase albedo sulfur launched into the stratosphere to increase albedo ocean fertilization with iron or urea ( nitrogen fertilizer ) artificial trees ( see carbon capture and sequestration ) Since the first three methods do not remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , they would only reduce global warming but not ocean acidification . Since the last two methods would remove carbon dioxide , they could in theory reduce both global warming and ocean acidification .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Five_Ways_to_Save_the_World", "rank": 60, "score": 72555 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 61, "score": 72523 }, { "content": "Title: Global change Content: Global change refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system . The system consists of the land , oceans , atmosphere , polar regions , life , the planet 's natural cycles and deep Earth processes . These constituent parts influence one another . The Earth system now includes human society , so global change also refers to large-scale changes in society . More completely , the term `` global change '' encompasses : population , climate , the economy , resource use , energy development , transport , communication , land use and land cover , urbanization , globalization , atmospheric circulation , ocean circulation , the carbon cycle , the nitrogen cycle , the water cycle and other cycles , sea ice loss , sea-level rise , food webs , biological diversity , pollution , health , over fishing , and more .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Global_change", "rank": 62, "score": 72432 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 63, "score": 72356 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 64, "score": 72072 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation Content: Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation", "rank": 65, "score": 71735 }, { "content": "Title: Live Earth Pledge Content: The Live Earth Pledge ( or the Seven Point Pledge ) is a petition promulgated by the Live Earth campaign , urging governments to adopt a variety of environmental protection laws . The pledge was spearheaded by Live Earth founder Al Gore , consists of seven points `` directly designed to put pressure on governments and on businesses , but do so by asking people around the world to help to focus that pressure '' . Among others signing the pledge with Gore in 2007 were U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , both Democrats like Gore . The pledge was also presented to Live Earth concert attendees , who will be asked to sign . According to Gore , `` The climate crisis will only be stopped by an unprecedented and sustained global movement . ''", "qid": "398", "docid": "Live_Earth_Pledge", "rank": 66, "score": 71614 }, { "content": "Title: Climate variability Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_variability", "rank": 67, "score": 71473 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 68, "score": 71084 }, { "content": "Title: Climate engineering Content: Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation . Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility . Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy . Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts . Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_engineering", "rank": 69, "score": 70873 }, { "content": "Title: Greening Earth Society Content: The Greening Earth Society , now defunct , was a public relations organization which promoted the idea that there is considerable scientific doubt about the effects of climate change and increased levels of carbon dioxide . The Society published the World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute . It was a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association , with which it shared an office and many staff members . It has been called a `` front group created by the coal industry '' and an `` industry front '' . Fred Palmer , a Society staffer , is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy , a coal company . Although the Greening Earth Society was generally skeptical of the impact of climate change , it acknowledged some degree of global warming as real : `` Fact # 1 . The rate of global warming during the past several decades has been about 0.18 ° C per decade '' . Note that the actual increase in the global surface temperature during the 100 years ending in 2005 was 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C.", "qid": "398", "docid": "Greening_Earth_Society", "rank": 70, "score": 70759 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Research Programme Content: The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "qid": "398", "docid": "World_Climate_Research_Programme", "rank": 71, "score": 70729 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 72, "score": 70645 }, { "content": "Title: Presidential Climate Action Plan Content: President Barack Obama 's Climate Action Plan proposed a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions . It included preserving forests , encouraging the use of alternate fuels , and increased study of climate change . The plan was first established in 2008 and updated every two years since . The plan would support conservation of land and water resources and developing actionable climate science , and to encourage other countries to take action to address climate change , including reducing deforestation and lowering subsidies that increase use of fossil fuels . The plan specifically mentions methane , building efficiency , wind , solar and hydroelectricity . White House staff members who were directly tasked with implementation of the plan include Heather Zichal and Michelle Patron . On the first day of the presidency of Donald Trump , the White House website announced that The Climate Action Plan would be eliminated , stating it is ` harmful and unnecessary ' .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Presidential_Climate_Action_Plan", "rank": 73, "score": 70356 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 74, "score": 70043 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "398", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 75, "score": 70031 }, { "content": "Title: Mineral cycle Content: The mineral cycle is a biogeochemical and ecological process that regulates the flow , distribution , and migration of mineral nutrients across the Earth 's surface . Minerals are naturally occurring chemical compounds that are made up of elements . These elements undergo continual cycling within the environment and are influenced by a variety of factors . There are four main types of mineral cycle . The oxygen cycle , the water cycle , the phosphorus cycle , and the sulfur cycle .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Mineral_cycle", "rank": 76, "score": 69867 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's energy budget Content: Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Earth's_energy_budget", "rank": 77, "score": 69788 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory Content: The Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory ( CMDL ) was a climate laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) / Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . In October 2005 , it was merged with five other NOAA labs to form the Earth System Research Laboratory . CMDL 's mission was to observe and understand , through accurate , long-term records of atmospheric gases , aerosol particles , and solar radiation , the Earth 's atmospheric system controlling climate forcing , ozone depletion and baseline air quality , in order to develop products that will advance global and regional environmental information and services .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_Monitoring_and_Diagnostics_Laboratory", "rank": 78, "score": 69743 }, { "content": "Title: VNREDSat 1A Content: VNREDSat-1 ( short for Vietnam Natural Resources , Environment and Disaster Monitoring Satellite ) is the first optical Earth Observing satellite of Vietnam ; its primary mission is to monitor and study the effects of climate change , predict and take measures to prevent natural disasters , and optimise the management of Vietnam 's natural resources .", "qid": "398", "docid": "VNREDSat_1A", "rank": 79, "score": 69586 }, { "content": "Title: Big Ask Campaign Content: The Big Ask was a campaign by Friends of the Earth calling for a new climate change law in the United Kingdom and 15 other EU member states . The United Kingdom Government announced the introduction of the Climate Change Bill in the Queen 's Speech on November 15 , 2006 . This was after 130,000 people across the country had asked their MP to support such a bill . Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke was a spokesperson for the campaign .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Big_Ask_Campaign", "rank": 80, "score": 69363 }, { "content": "Title: Common But Differentiated Responsibilities Content: Common But Differentiated Responsibilities ( CBDR ) was formalized in United Nations Framework of Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) of Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro , 1992 . The CBDR principle is mentioned in UNFCCC article 3 paragraph 1 . . , and article 4 paragraph 1 . It was the first international legal instrument to address climate change and the most comprehensive international attempt to address negative impacts to global environment . CBDR principle acknowledges all states have shared obligation to address environmental destruction but denies equal responsibility of all states with regard to environmental protection . In the Earth Summit , states acknowledged disparity of economic development between developed and developing countries . Industrialization proceeded in developed countries much earlier than it did in developing countries . CBDR is based on relationship between industrialization and climate change . The more industrialized a country is , more likely that it has contributed to climate change . States came to an agreement that developed countries contributed more to environmental degradation and should have greater responsibility than developing countries . CBDR principle could therefore be said to be based on polluter-pays principle where historical contribution to climate change and respective ability become measures of responsibility for environmental protection . Concept of CBDR evolved from notion of `` common concern '' in Convention for the Establishment of an Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission of 1949 and `` common heritage of mankind '' in United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , 1982 .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Common_But_Differentiated_Responsibilities", "rank": 81, "score": 69338 }, { "content": "Title: Rebecca Sommer Content: Rebecca Sommer is a German artist , journalist , photographer , documentary filmmaker , and a human rights , nature rights and climate justice activist . She works with international NGO 's in special consultative status to the United Nations ( ECOSOC ) in participatory status with the Council of Europe , and civil society observer status to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . She convened and co-founded in 2001 Earth Peoples in NYC , a global network working together to promote natural and human rights , with special focus on Indigenous Peoples , Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth . 2004 she was commissioned by the United Nations to film and produce the awareness-raising video `` Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Nr .1 '' , which was first presented at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium at the United Nations Headquarters . In 2007 , prior to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the UN General Assembly , she created a video lobby-tool `` Discussions on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples '' to encourage discussions with a number of countries that expressed concern about some key issues , such as self-determination , access to lands , territories and resources and the lack of a clear definition of the term indigenous . UN agencies UNHCHR and UNHCHR as well states such as Bolivia , Guatemala , Mexico and Germany supported her awareness-raising efforts and enabled during the year several film screenings of her work to encourage debates among states that were reluctant to adopt the Declaration . Since 2013 she is the president of the Arbeitsgruppe Flucht + Menschenrechte ( AG F+M ) , a network supporting refugees in Europe . Sommer earns her living as an artist in print and film , and has worked as the editor-at-large for British magazines such as Scene , The Face , and Spirit and American magazines such as Black Book and Madison , while living in Germany , India , Great Britain , Brazil , South Africa and the United States .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Rebecca_Sommer", "rank": 82, "score": 69209 }, { "content": "Title: Loss and damage Content: The term Loss and damage denotes impacts of climate-related stressors that occur despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climatic changes . Loss and damage can result from sudden-onset events ( climate disasters , such as cyclones ) as well as slow-onset processes ( such as sea level rise ) . Loss and damage can occur in human systems ( such as livelihoods ) as well as natural systems ( such as biodiversity ) , though the emphasis in research and policy is on human impacts . Within the realm of loss and damage to human systems , a distinction is made between economic losses and non-economic losses . The main difference between the two is that non-economic losses involve things that are not commonly traded in markets . At the 18th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2012 in Doha , Qatar , it took 36 hours of negotiation between 195 nations to arrive at a plan to address loss and damage associated with adverse effects of climate change particularly in countries most vulnerable to climate change . A new website was launched at the conference by the Loss and Damage Vulnerable Countries Initiative . It described its aim as being `` the first dedicated site for news , resources and opinion on the issue of loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change '' . Examples of types of loss and damage include farmers who can no longer grow crops to eat , or grass to feed cattle , because their soil has become too salty , and fishermen who have lost their livelihoods because rivers have dried up . In popular press , and in statements by some parties in the climate negotiations , the terms loss and damage is often associated with liability and compensation . This explains why the topic raises heated debates , and tends to widen the divide between developed countries , which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions , and developing countries that are more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . For vulnerable countries , loss and damage is most of all about recognizing that past and current efforts to avoid dangerous climate change , and that there are limits and constraints to adaptation . The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has developed a work programme on loss and damage which aims to find ways to address the issue in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change . On 12 -- 14 September 2013 , it held a meeting in Fiji to consider how best to address loss and damage from ` slow-onset events ' . These are impacts of climate change that occur over time , such as sea-level rise , rather than in a single , destructive event . Bangladesh is already suffering from loss and damage resulting from sea-level rise , due to its flat terrain in the coastal region . At the 19th Conference of the Parties meeting of the UNFCCC in 2013 in Warsaw , Poland , the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts was established . At the 20th Conference of the Parties in Lima , Peru ( 2014 ) , the work plan of the executive committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism was approved . The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , published in 2013-2014 had no separate chapter on loss and damage , but WG2 Chapter 16 about adaptation limits and constraints , is very relevant for people interested in loss and damage . A qualitative data analysis ( QDA ) of what the IPCC 5th Assessment Report has to say about loss and damage surprisingly showed that the term was used much more often in statements about Annex 1 countries ( e.g. US , Australia or European countries ) than in text about non-Annex 1 countries ( most countries in Africa , Asia Latin America and the Pacific ) , which tend to be more vulnerable to impacts of climate change . Whether or not the IPCC 6th Assessment Report will have a chapter on loss and damage has not yet been decided .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Loss_and_damage", "rank": 83, "score": 68746 }, { "content": "Title: Frank Ackerman Content: Frank Ackerman ( born 1946 in Madison , Wisconsin ) is an economist known for his work in environmental economics , particularly in the areas of climate change and development . A prominent critic of conventional economic approaches to climate and their use of cost -- benefit analysis , he has written extensively for academic and popular presses and directed numerous studies for government agencies and nongovernmental organizations . Ackerman 's most recent books include Can We Afford the Future ? Economics for a Warming World ( Zed Books , 2009 ) , Poisoned for Pennies : The Economics of Toxics and Precaution ( Island Press , 2008 ) , and Priceless : On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing ( The New Press , 2004 , with Lisa Heinzerling ) . Most of his articles and reports are available on his personal website . Ackerman is a senior economist at Synapse Energy Economics , a public interest-oriented consulting firm in Cambridge , MA . Before joining Synapse in 2012 , he held research positions at the Stockholm Environment Institute 's US Center , at Tufts University 's Global Development and Environment Institute , and at the Tellus Institute . He has taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts . Ackerman received his BA in mathematics and economics from Swarthmore College and his PhD in economics from Harvard University . He is a co-founder and steering committee member of the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network , and a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform . He was a co-founder and editor of Dollars & Sense magazine .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Frank_Ackerman", "rank": 84, "score": 68531 }, { "content": "Title: Territorialisation of carbon governance Content: Territorialisation of Carbon Governance ( ToCG ) is a concept used in political geography or environmental policy which is considered to be a new logic of environmental governance . This method creates carbon-relevant citizens who become enrolled in the process of governing the climate . The territorialisation of carbon governance transforms climate change from a global to local issue . It embodies political practices that serve to connect the causes and consequences of global climate change to local communities . The commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions ( GHG ) has been a key component of sustainability within governance since the early 1990s . The ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments which brings together 1200 cities , towns and the associated 70 countries in their commitment to sustainable development . Further responses that seek to address these issues , include international body the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , the Rio Earth Summit and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . These organisations strive to tackle anthropogenic forces which are increasing risks of global warming . Under the territorialisation of carbon , climate and global flows of carbon are regarded as ` national sinks ' . This is a means by which the carbon cycle can be managed and territorialised through being assigned to a physical geographical space instead of being thought of as a global phenomenon . The act of territorialisation oversees the combining of material natures and state institutions into one system through the creation of carbon territories . This approach can allow individual states and governments to control and monitor their carbon emissions in order to improve their efforts in carbon governance . Carbon governance can be interpreted as the institutional arrangements under which greenhouse gas emissions are addressed and mitigated . This is achieved through regulating and controlling carbon activities . Measures and protocols exist in an attempt to address the issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions . Carbon governance is addressed via governmental decisions made through leadership and management which attempt to improve and resolve problems related to climate change .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Territorialisation_of_carbon_governance", "rank": 85, "score": 68472 }, { "content": "Title: Nothing Can Stop Me Content: `` Nothing Can Stop Me '' is a 2014 song by the singer CeCe Peniston , released as her first release on S1EG label . Two weeks prior to its release , the work was presented on a free download mixed compilation R&B Is Not Dead Vol . 1 by OhSoKool . It gained an urban adult contemporary airplay , debuting on the Adult R&B Songs at number thirty .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Nothing_Can_Stop_Me", "rank": 86, "score": 68437 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 87, "score": 68306 }, { "content": "Title: Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance Content: The Climate , Community & Biodiversity Alliance ( CCBA ) is an initiative led by Conservation International , CARE , The Nature Conservancy , Rainforest Alliance , and the Wildlife Conservation Society to promote the development of land management activities that simultaneously deliver significant benefits for climate , local communities , and biodiversity . The CCBA was established in 2003 and works to increase public and private investment in forest protection , restoration and agroforestry by developing standards that enable policy makers and project developers to demonstrate the delivery of social and environmental benefits from activities that reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases . The CCBA has two major initiatives : The Climate , Community and Biodiversity Standards , which are in use by more than 100 projects around the world . The Climate , Community & Biodiversity ( CCB ) Standards enable investors , policymakers , project managers and civil society observers to evaluate land-based climate change mitigation projects by identifying high-quality projects that adopt best practices to generate significant benefits for local communities and biodiversity while delivering credible and robust carbon offsets . The REDD + Social and Environmental Standards are a being developed in collaboration with the governments of Ecuador , Nepal and Tanzania to enable government programs to demonstrate that their programs for reducing emissions from land are designed and implemented in a way that ensures a high level of social and environmental performance .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate,_Community_&_Biodiversity_Alliance", "rank": 88, "score": 68253 }, { "content": "Title: Friends of the Earth (EWNI) Content: Friends of the Earth ( EWNI ) ( England , Wales and Northern Ireland ) is one of 70 national groups around the world which make up the Friends of the Earth network of environmental organizations . It is usually referred to just as Friends of the Earth within its home countries . Friends of the Earth Scotland operates separately , so there is no single Friends of the Earth ( UK ) . Since July 2008 , Andy Atkins was the executive director of FOE England , Wales and Northern Ireland . Under Atkins ' leadership , Friends of the Earth will continue to push for political action to tackle global environmental challenges . Since Craig Bennett has been director . In November 2006 , the BBC reported that the Government was including a Climate Change Bill in their legislative programme set out in `` the Queen 's Speech '' , as demanded by the Big Ask Campaign . The Climate Change Bill became law on 26 November 2008 . FoE EWNI is part of the 30 national organisations that Friends of the Earth Europe represents and unites at the European level .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Friends_of_the_Earth_(EWNI)", "rank": 89, "score": 68153 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Justice Action Content: Climate Justice Action ( CJA ) `` is a global network of groups and individuals committed to taking action to prevent catastrophic climate change '' . CJA formed as part of the alternative mobilisation around the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen , and organised mass Direct actions during the conference .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate_Justice_Action", "rank": 90, "score": 68117 }, { "content": "Title: The Climate Mobilization Content: The Climate Mobilization ( TCM ) is a grassroots environmental advocacy group working toward large-scale political action against global warming , with the belief that the crisis of climate change requires a national economic effort on the scale of the American mobilization of the home front during World War II . It was founded by psychologist Margaret Klein Salamon to confront climate change denial and build the political will necessary to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions and 100 % clean energy within a decade in order to avoid crossing potentially catastrophic climate tipping points and begin restoring a safe climate .", "qid": "398", "docid": "The_Climate_Mobilization", "rank": 91, "score": 68107 }, { "content": "Title: Climate-Alliance Germany Content: Climate-Alliance Germany ( Klima-Allianz Deutschland ) is a network of 110 civil society organizations , including environment groups , development groups , trade unions , and consumer associations . Founded in 2007 , the aim of the Alliance is to provide a common front to apply pressure to German decision-makers to adopt climate protection measures . Prominent members include WWF , BUND ( or Friends of the Earth Germany ) , and IG BAU ( a multi-sector trade union ) . A key issue for the Alliance is the prevention of new coal-fired power plants ( the Anti-Coal Campaign ) . The Alliance wants the German government to phase-out coal ( Kohleausstieg ) and promote renewable energy .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Climate-Alliance_Germany", "rank": 92, "score": 68009 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 93, "score": 67890 }, { "content": "Title: I'm not a scientist Content: `` I 'm not a scientist '' is a phrase that has been often used by American politicians , primarily Republicans , when asked about a scientific subject , such as global warming , or the age of the earth . Politicians who have used the phrase include John Boehner , Rick Scott , Marco Rubio , Bobby Jindal , and Mitch McConnell . It has been criticized by Coral Davenport writing for The New York Times , and by Steven Benen of the Rachel Maddow Show , and was satirized by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report . President Barack Obama singled the phrase out in his 2015 State of the Union speech , saying : I 've heard some folks try to dodge the evidence -LSB- of global climate change -RSB- by saying they 're not scientists ; that we do n't have enough information to act . Well , I 'm not a scientist , either . But you know what , I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA , and at NOAA , and at our major universities . And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate , and if we do n't act forcefully , we 'll continue to see rising oceans , longer , hotter heat waves , dangerous droughts and floods , and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe . Ford O'Connell , a Republican strategist and conservative activist , has argued that the phrase `` wo n't be a winner in the presidential field '' for Republican candidates . Commenting on the phenomenon , Journalist Dan Rather deplored the antiscience attitude it evinces , but stated that the anti-science attitude was evident not just among Republicans , but throughout American society . He blamed the media for their poor coverage of science , and for presenting a false equivalency between scientific consensus and climate change denial .", "qid": "398", "docid": "I'm_not_a_scientist", "rank": 94, "score": 67650 }, { "content": "Title: Klimaforum09 Content: Klimaforum09 - People 's Climate Summit , an open and alternative climate conference in December 2009 , was attended by about 50,000 people . Environmental activists from regions of the world most affected by climate change convened in Copenhagen at Klimaforum09 with leaders such as Vandana Shiva , founder of Navdanya , Nnimmo Bassey , chair of Friends of the Earth International , and author Naomi Klein . A People 's Declaration from Klimaforum09 was formulated before and during the People 's Climate Summit calling for `` System change - not climate change '' and handed over to the 15th Conference of the Parties of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at 18 December . Klimaforum09 took place from 7 December to 18 December 2009 in the DGI-byen conference center , near the Copenhagen Central Station , as open and alternative event during UNFCCC COP15 . The summit with over 300 debates , exhibitions , films , concerts and plays was organised by the Klimaforum network , a broad network of civil society organisations , and realized with the help of hundreds of volunteers .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Klimaforum09", "rank": 95, "score": 67556 }, { "content": "Title: Man on Earth Content: Man on Earth is a four-part British documentary television series presented by Tony Robinson . The programme documents the effects of climate change across 200,000 years of human history . The series premiered 7 December 2009 on Channel 4 with 1.4 million viewers . Accompanying Robinson to help explain the science are archaeologist Dr. Jago Cooper and climate modeller Dr. Joy Singarayer .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Man_on_Earth", "rank": 96, "score": 67522 }, { "content": "Title: Tim Lenton Content: Timothy Michael Lenton FGS FLS FRSB ( born July 1973 ) is Professor of Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter . In April 2013 he was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award . He graduated with a first class degree in natural sciences from Robinson College , Cambridge in 1994 and completed his PhD under Andrew Watson at the University of East Anglia in 1998 .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Tim_Lenton", "rank": 97, "score": 67297 }, { "content": "Title: Lists of environmental topics Content: The natural environment , commonly referred to simply as the environment , is all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth or some part of it ( e.g. the natural environment in a country ) . This includes complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention , including all vegetation , animals , microorganisms , rocks , atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries . And it includes universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries , such as air , water , and climate , as well as energy , radiation , electric charge , and magnetism , not originating from human activity .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Lists_of_environmental_topics", "rank": 98, "score": 67268 }, { "content": "Title: Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Content: `` Nothing 's Gon na Stop Us '' is a song by British rock band , The Darkness , released as a promotional single from their third studio album , Hot Cakes , released in February 2012 .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Nothing's_Gonna_Stop_Us", "rank": 99, "score": 67174 }, { "content": "Title: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication Content: The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication ( YPCCC ) is a research center at Yale University . The center is based at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and grew out of a conference held in Aspen , Colorado in 2005 . YPCCC 's mission is to bridge the gap between society and climate . The organization does the following : Conducts research on public climate knowledge , risk perceptions , decision-making and behavior ; Designs and tests new strategies to engage the public in climate science and solutions ; Empowers educators and communicators with the knowledge and tools to more effectively engage their audiences . Its affiliates include the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and the Earth Day Network . The research conducted by the YPCCC and its staff is often covered in the news and popular media , including NBC , Real Time with Bill Maher , Huffington Post , Discovery Channel , The Guardian , Bill Moyers , Time , Science , the New York Times and the U.S. News & World Report . One of the YPCCC 's projects is the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media , which hosts a number of YouTube videos on its official channel . Peter Sinclair is responsible for some of these videos . The Forum also hosts a blog focused on global warming and other environmental issues .", "qid": "398", "docid": "Yale_Program_on_Climate_Change_Communication", "rank": 100, "score": 67134 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climate Data Records Content: A Climate Data Record ( CDR ) is a specific definition of a climate data series , developed by the Committee on Climate Data Records from NOAA Operational Satellites of the National Research Council at the request of NOAA in the context of satellite records . It is defined as `` a time series of measurements of sufficient length , consistency , and continuity to determine climate variability and change . '' . Such measurements provide an objective basis for the understanding and prediction of climate and its variability , such as global warming .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_Data_Records", "rank": 1, "score": 121970 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 2, "score": 117531 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 3, "score": 116614 }, { "content": "Title: Pseudoproxy Content: A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Pseudoproxy", "rank": 4, "score": 115886 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 5, "score": 112448 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Tett Content: Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Simon_Tett", "rank": 6, "score": 111022 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 7, "score": 107874 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "399", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 8, "score": 107413 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record Content: For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Temperature_record", "rank": 9, "score": 106462 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 10, "score": 105448 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "399", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 11, "score": 104630 }, { "content": "Title: Hockham Mere Content: The Hockham Mere pollen data shows the rates of change in levels of vegetation using pollen samples from within the Holocene period . Hockham Mere is the site of a former lake , > 400 metres diameter , in Norfolk , East Anglia . Its biogenic sediments contain a late-Devensian & Holocene pollen record . This data can be analysed using temperature proxies to help determine climate change in the area at that time . These proxies can be the amount of pollen found in the sample , as more pollen would indicate higher flora productivity which would suggest a warmer climate . The same can be seen if data shows negligible amounts of pollen which would suggest a cooler climate . These are proxies for temperature , and not an accurate record as there are many variances that can not be monitored easily .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Hockham_Mere", "rank": 12, "score": 104522 }, { "content": "Title: Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit Content: Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit featured in press discussions of disputes over access to data from instrumental temperature records , particularly during the Climatic Research Unit email controversy which began in November 2009 . The UK Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) came into effect in 2005 , and FOI requests were made to the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) for the raw data from weather stations used in developing instrumental temperature record datasets , for copies of agreements under which the raw data was obtained from meteorology institutions , and also for email correspondence relating to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report . In many cases the raw data which CRU had obtained from National Meteorological Organisations was subject to restrictions on redistribution : on 12 August 2009 CRU announced that they were seeking permission to waive these restrictions , and on 24 November 2009 the university stated that over 95 % of the CRU climate data set had already been available for several years , with the remainder to be released when permissions were obtained . In a decision announced on 27 July 2011 the Information Commissioner 's Office ( ICO ) required release of raw data even though permissions had not been obtained or in one instance had been refused , and on 27 July 2011 CRU announced release of the raw instrumental data not already in the public domain , with the exception of Poland which was outside the area covered by the FOIA request . A 2008 FOI request by David Holland for emails discussing work on the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report was refused by the university . In November 2009 he alleged that CRU emails posted online discussed deleting the emails he had requested : in January 2010 the Deputy Information Commissioner told a journalist that this indicated an offence under section 77 of the FOIA , but prosecution was time-barred by statute of limitations . Newspapers misrepresented this as a decision in relation to raw data , and the issue was discussed by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry , which found there had been a lack of openness . The ICO decision published on 7 July 2010 stated that this potential offence had not been investigated as it was time-barred . As Holland was content not to proceed with his complaint against the university , no further action was needed , but the ICO would `` consider whether further action is appropriate to secure future compliance . '' In September 2011 the ICO issued new guidance to universities . This described exceptions and exemptions to protect research , including allowance for internal exchange of views between academics and researchers free from external scrutiny , as well as commending actively disclosing information when it is in the public interest .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Freedom_of_Information_requests_to_the_Climatic_Research_Unit", "rank": 13, "score": 102896 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 14, "score": 102879 }, { "content": "Title: HadCRUT Content: HadCRUT is the dataset of monthly instrumental temperature records formed by combining the sea surface temperature records compiled by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the land surface air temperature records compiled by the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) of the University of East Anglia . The data is provided on a grid of boxes covering the globe , with values provided for only those boxes containing temperature observations in a particular month and year . Interpolation is not applied to infill missing values . The first version of HadCRUT initially spanned the period 1881 -- 1993 , and this was later extended to begin in 1850 and to be regularly updated to the current year/month in near real-time .", "qid": "399", "docid": "HadCRUT", "rank": 15, "score": 101344 }, { "content": "Title: David Parker (climatologist) Content: David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England . He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' . In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .", "qid": "399", "docid": "David_Parker_(climatologist)", "rank": 16, "score": 101281 }, { "content": "Title: Central England temperature Content: The Central England Temperature ( CET ) record is a meteorological dataset originally published by Professor Gordon Manley in 1953 and subsequently extended and updated in 1974 , following many decades of painstaking work . The monthly mean surface air temperatures , for the Midlands region of England , are given ( in degrees Celsius ) from the year 1659 to the present . This record represents the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence . It is a valuable dataset for meteorologists and climate scientists . It is monthly from 1659 , and a daily version has been produced from 1772 . The monthly means from November 1722 onwards are given to a precision of 0.1 ° C . The earliest years of the series , from 1659 to October 1722 inclusive , for the most part only have monthly means given to the nearest degree or half a degree , though there is a small ` window ' of 0.1 degree precision from 1699 to 1706 inclusive . This reflects the number , accuracy , reliability and geographical spread of the temperature records that were available for the years in question .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Central_England_temperature", "rank": 17, "score": 100808 }, { "content": "Title: Geologic temperature record Content: The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth 's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion ( 109 ) year time scales . The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Geologic_temperature_record", "rank": 18, "score": 100552 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 19, "score": 99991 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 20, "score": 99088 }, { "content": "Title: National Climatic Data Center Content: The United States National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , previously known as the National Weather Records Center ( NWRC ) , in Asheville , North Carolina was the world 's largest active archive of weather data . Starting as a tabulation unit in New Orleans , Louisiana in 1934 , the climate records were transferred to Asheville in 1951 , becoming named the National Weather Records Center ( NWRC ) . It was later renamed the National Climatic Data Center , with relocation occurring in 1993 . In 2015 , it was merged with the National Geophysical Data Center ( NGDC ) and the National Oceanic Data Center ( NODC ) into the National Centers for Environmental Information ( NCEI ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "National_Climatic_Data_Center", "rank": 21, "score": 98173 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 22, "score": 97534 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit Content: The Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) is a component of the University of East Anglia and is one of the leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change . With a staff of some thirty research scientists and students , the CRU has contributed to the development of a number of the data sets widely used in climate research , including one of the global temperature records used to monitor the state of the climate system , as well as statistical software packages and climate models .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit", "rank": 23, "score": 96887 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 24, "score": 96623 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 25, "score": 94922 }, { "content": "Title: David Grisenthwaite Content: David Grisenthwaite from Kirkcaldy , Fife , Scotland , United Kingdom , is an amateur phenological data recorder . Since 1984 he has meticulously recorded the dates he has mowed his lawn . When his data was discovered by meteorologists it was hailed as an important find in recording climate change . Mr Grisenthwaite first cut of the year was 13 days earlier in 1984 than in 2004 , his last cut was 17 days later , thus providing evidence for an earlier onset of spring and a warmer climate in general . He has been featured in several newspaper articles , touted as a ` Great British eccentric ' David Grisenthwaite 's work was credited in the Royal Meteorological Society Journal entitled `` The Grass is Greener -- For Longer . ''", "qid": "399", "docid": "David_Grisenthwaite", "rank": 26, "score": 94572 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 27, "score": 94208 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 North American heat wave Content: In March 2012 , one of the greatest heat waves was observed in many regions of North America . Very warm air pushed northward west of the Great Lakes region , and subsequently spread eastward . The intense poleward air mass movement was propelled by an unusually intense low level southerly jet that stretched from Louisiana to western Wisconsin . Once this warm surge inundated the area , a remarkably prolonged period of record setting temperatures ensued . NOAA 's National Climate Data Center reported that over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were tied or broken from 1 March through 27 March . In some places the temperature exceeded 86 ° F ( 30 ° C ) . For instance , in Grand Rapids , Michigan , the highest temperature recorded was 87 ° F on March 21 ; in Chicago a high of 87 ° F was also recorded on that same day . Records were broken in unusual ways . Chicago , for example , saw temperatures above 80 ° F every day between March 14 -- 18 , breaking records on all five days . Chicago would go on to record eight days at or above 80 ° F during the month , with many suburban areas recording an additional day in the 80s on March 19 ( that day , the city only tied its record high of 78 ° F ) . In context , the National Weather Service 's Chicago branch noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the 80 's in April . And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80 ° F days as this March . In Traverse City , Michigan one day began with a low temperature ( 67 ° F ) higher than the previous record high for the day . Temperature records across much of southern Canada also were shattered . Some of the most impressive readings came from Nova Scotia on March 22 , when the mercury climbed to 30.0 C at a climate station in Lake Major , making it the highest March temperature recorded in Nova Scotia , and the third highest March temperature recorded in Canada . That same day , the temperature hit 29.2 C at Western Head , Nova Scotia . The heat reached as far east as Cape Breton Island , with the temperature climbing to 24.0 C at Sydney , Nova Scotia on March 22 , a place historically surrounded by ice-jammed waters , frigid winds , and snow in March . The week of March 18 also set record temperatures in Manitoba and much of Ontario as well as into the Maritime Provinces . Non-severe thunderstorms were reported on the evening hours of March 21 , through to the early morning hours March 22 into northern Ontario . In addition , NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data show that the atmospheric pattern was so persistent that much of the Midwest and Northeast , and up into Ontario , had temperature departures over periods of several days to a week or more of magnitudes which would be unusual even for a single day . Averaged over the seven-day period from March 16 to March 22 inclusive , nearly the entire area of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. and most of Ontario and Quebec had temperatures 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) or more above the 1981-2010 average . Even more dramatically , most of Iowa and Minnesota , all of Wisconsin and Michigan , and most of southeastern Ontario had seven-day mean temperatures more than 15 ° C ( 27 ° F ) above the climatological average for the same period . An 84 ° F high at Madison , WI in early March was 43 ° F above average and followed an overnight low of 60 ° F , 35 degrees above normal the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean . The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 ° F or more ; the highest temperature recorded there was 107 ° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s . This mild warm spell brought out spring peepers in northern Ontario on 23 March , which are usually not heard until mid-to-late April , or sometimes early May . The warm weather was also responsible for several early-season tornado touchdowns , such as the EF3 that struck Dexter , Michigan , near Ann Arbor .", "qid": "399", "docid": "March_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 28, "score": 93899 }, { "content": "Title: Frank Wentz Content: Frank Wentz is the CEO and director of Remote Sensing Systems , a company he founded in 1974 . Remote Sensing Systems specializes in satellite microwave remote sensing research . Together with Carl Mears , he is best known for developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) one . From 1978 to 1982 Frank was a member of NASA 's SeaSat Experiment Team involved in the development of physically based retrieval methods for microwave scatterometers and radiometers . He has also investigated the effect of climate change on satellite-derived evaporation , precipitation and surface wind values . His findings are different from most climate change model predictions .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Frank_Wentz", "rank": 29, "score": 92905 }, { "content": "Title: Carl Mears Content: Carl Mears is a Senior Scientist , at Remote Sensing Systems , since 1998 . He has worked on validation of SSM/I derived winds , and rain-flagging algorithm for the QuikScat scatterometer . He is best known for his work with Frank Wentz in developing a satellite temperature record from MSU and AMSU . Intercomparison of this record with the earlier UAH satellite temperature record , developed by John Christy and Roy Spencer , revealed deficiencies in the earlier work ; specifically , the warming trend in the RSS version is larger than the UAH one . Mears was a major contributor to Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere : Steps for Understanding and Reconciling Differences , the first released report from the US Climate Change Science Program . He also contributed to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group one report , Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Carl_Mears", "rank": 30, "score": 91593 }, { "content": "Title: John Christy Content: John Raymond Christy is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) whose chief interests are satellite remote sensing of global climate and global climate change . He is best known , jointly with Roy Spencer , for the first successful development of a satellite temperature record .", "qid": "399", "docid": "John_Christy", "rank": 31, "score": 91233 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom weather records Content:", "qid": "399", "docid": "United_Kingdom_weather_records", "rank": 32, "score": 90512 }, { "content": "Title: Rapid Climate Change-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array Content: The Rapid Climate Change-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array ( RAPID/MOCHA ) program is a collaborative research project between the National Oceanography Centre ( Southampton , U.K. ) , the University of Miami 's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science ( RSMAS ) , and NOAA 's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory ( AOML ) that measure the meridional overturning circulation ( MOC ) and ocean heat transport in the North Atlantic Ocean . This array was deployed in March 2004 to continuously monitor the MOC and ocean heat transport that are primarily associated with the Thermohaline Circulation across the basin at 26 ° N . The RAPID-MOCHA array is planned to be continued through 2014 to provide a decade or longer continuous time series . The continuous observations are measured by an array of instruments along 26 ° N . This monitoring array directly measures the transport of the Gulf Stream in the Florida Strait using an undersea cable and a moored array measures bottom pressure and water column density ( including temperature and salinity ) at the western and eastern boundary and on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ( MAR ) . Absolute transports including barotropic circulation are monitored using precision bottom pressure gauges . `` Dynamic height '' moorings are used to estimate the spatially average geostropic velocity profile and associated transports over relatively wide mooring separations . The dynamic height moorings requires measurements on both sides of the current field only , rather both the horizontal and vertical structure of the current field to be sufficiently well resolved to estimate transports . The basin-wide MOC strength and vertical structure are estimated via Ekman transports by satellite scatterometer measurements and the geotrophic and direct current observations . RAPID-MOCHA is funded by the National Environmental Research Council ( NERC ) and the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Rapid_Climate_Change-Meridional_Overturning_Circulation_and_Heatflux_Array", "rank": 33, "score": 90205 }, { "content": "Title: International Tundra Experiment Content: The International Tundra Experiment ( ITEX ) is a long-term international collaboration of researchers examining the responses of arctic and alpine plants and ecosystems to climate change . The ITEX network consists of more than 20 sites in polar and alpine locations around the world . Researchers measure plant responses to standardized , small-scale passive warming , snow manipulations , and nutrient additions . Researchers use small open-top chambers to passively increase mean air temperature by 1-2oC . The ITEX approach has been validated by tundra responses at the plot level . The network has published meta-analyses on plant phenology , growth , and reproduction , composition and abundance , and carbon flux .", "qid": "399", "docid": "International_Tundra_Experiment", "rank": 34, "score": 89938 }, { "content": "Title: Michael E. Mann Content: Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data . As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences . Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Michael_E._Mann", "rank": 35, "score": 89918 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars Content: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines is a 2012 book about climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann . In the book Mann describes how he became a researcher investigating the temperature record of the past 1000 years and was lead author , with Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , on the 1999 reconstruction that was the first to be dubbed the hockey stick graph . He concisely explains the basics of climate science including statistical methodology dealing with paleoclimate proxy data , and examines the tactics which opponents of action on climate change use to distort the science and attack the reputations of climate scientists . The book describes both the hockey stick controversy and the broader context of skepticism in science and contrarians rejecting evidence of human influence on climate . The book was picked by Physics Today books editor Jermey Matthews as one of the five top books of the 49 they had reviewed in 2012 .", "qid": "399", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_and_the_Climate_Wars", "rank": 36, "score": 89097 }, { "content": "Title: Gordon Manley Content: Gordon Valentine Manley , FRGS ( 3 January 1902 -- 29 January 1980 ) was an English climatologist who has been described as `` probably the best known , most prolific and most expert on the climate of Britain of his generation '' . He assembled the Central England temperature ( CET ) series of monthly mean temperatures stretching back to 1659 , which is the longest standardised instrumental record available for anywhere in the world . It provides a benchmark for proxy records of climatic change for the period covered , and is a notable example of scientific scholarship and perseverance ( it took over thirty years to complete ) . His two papers describing the work are available online .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Gordon_Manley", "rank": 37, "score": 88913 }, { "content": "Title: Recording thermometer Content: A recording thermometer is a type of thermometer that records temperature changes over a period of time . One end of the strip is attached to a long , light metal lever that holds a special pen . Tiny movement of the bimetallic strip causes much larger movement of the free end of the lever and the pen . The pen traces a rising and falling line on a strip of paper attached to a slowly turning drum . The drum usually makes one turn every seven or so days , so afterwards each strip of paper contains a complete and accurate record of temperature changes for a whole week . There are normally two types of metal on the bimetallic strip . Mostly one is steel and one is copper . Because these metals expand and contract at different rates.When one of these metals expand it curls tighter , when one contracts it uncurl slightly . When it curls or uncurls , the data is converted into electric signals , which record the temperature change . Category : Thermometers", "qid": "399", "docid": "Recording_thermometer", "rank": 38, "score": 88237 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "399", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 39, "score": 86736 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "399", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 40, "score": 86238 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Mirror Content: Climate Mirror is `` an open project to mirror public climate datasets '' , that is , an open access project to mirror ( to back up ) the data of publicly owned datasets from climate science , such as data from U.S. federally funded research . Datasets from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , and NASA are considered primary examples . The idea behind Climate Mirror is comparable to the notion that lots of copies keep stuff safe from disappearing through censorship , link rot , lapses of professionalism in preserving the integrity of the scientific record , or lack of digital permanence . It offers a massively parallel type of backup .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_Mirror", "rank": 41, "score": 86234 }, { "content": "Title: Steve McIntyre Content: Steven McIntyre ( born c. 1947 ) is a Canadian mining exploration company director , a former minerals prospector and semi-retired mining consultant whose work has included statistical analysis . He is best known as the founder and editor of Climate Audit , a blog devoted to the analysis and discussion of climate data . He is most prominent as a critic of the temperature record of the past 1000 years and the data quality of NASA 's Goddard Institute for Space Studies . He is known in particular for his statistical critique , with economist Ross McKitrick , of the hockey stick graph which appears to show that the increase in late 20th century global temperatures is unprecedented in the past 1,000 years .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Steve_McIntyre", "rank": 42, "score": 86182 }, { "content": "Title: Paleoclimatology Content: Paleoclimatology ( in British spelling , palaeoclimatology ) is the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth . It uses a variety of proxy methods from the Earth and life sciences to obtain data previously preserved within things such as rocks , sediments , ice sheets , tree rings , corals , shells and microfossils . It then uses the records to determine the past states of the Earth 's various climate regions and its atmospheric system . Studies of past changes in the environment and biodiversity often reflect on the current situation , specifically the impact of climate on mass extinctions and biotic recovery .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Paleoclimatology", "rank": 43, "score": 86014 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Data Operators Content: CDO is a command line suite for manipulating and analysing climate data . It provides more than 600 operators for this purpose and is an acronym for Climate Data Operators . Supported data formats are : netCDF 3/4 GRIB 1/2 SERVICE EXTRA IEG", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_Data_Operators", "rank": 44, "score": 85414 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Content: The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Surface_Heat_Budget_of_the_Arctic_Ocean", "rank": 45, "score": 85359 }, { "content": "Title: Homogenization (climate) Content: Homogenization in climate research means the removal of non-climatic changes . Next to changes in the climate itself , raw climate records also contain non-climatic jumps and changes for example due to relocations or changes in instrumentation . The most used principle to remove these inhomogeneities is the relative homogenization approach in which a candidate stations is compared to a reference time series based on one or more neighboring stations . The candidate and reference station ( s ) experience about the same climate , non-climatic changes that happen only in one station can thus be identified and removed .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Homogenization_(climate)", "rank": 46, "score": 85348 }, { "content": "Title: List of weather records Content: This is a list of weather records , a list of the most extreme occurrences of weather phenomena for various categories . Many weather records are measured under specific conditions -- such as surface temperature and wind speed -- to keep consistency among measurements around the Earth . Each of these records is understood to be the record value officially observed , as these records may have been exceeded before modern weather instrumentation was invented , or in remote areas without an official weather station . This list does not include remotely sensed observations such as satellite measurements , since those values are not considered official records .", "qid": "399", "docid": "List_of_weather_records", "rank": 47, "score": 84812 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature data logger Content: A temperature data logger , also called temperature monitor , is a portable measurement instrument that is capable of autonomously recording temperature over a defined period of time . The digital data can be retrieved , viewed and evaluated after it has been recorded . A data logger is commonly used to monitor shipments in a cold chain and to gather temperature data from diverse field conditions .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Temperature_data_logger", "rank": 48, "score": 84598 }, { "content": "Title: January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave was a significant heat wave event which affected most of southeastern Australia from 13 to 18 January 2014 . The main areas affected were Victoria , Tasmania , southern New South Wales away from the coast and the southern half of South Australia . The event ranked along with the 2009 heat wave , 1939 heat wave and 1908 heat wave as one of the most significant multi-day heatwaves on record . The heat wave broke a number of records for extended periods of heat . A spike in heat waves and record breaking high temperatures across Australia over the past five years has led to concerns over the effects of global warming and climate change on the country . Adelaide , South Australia suffered the brunt of the summer heat wave , recording 13 days with temperatures above 40 ° C.", "qid": "399", "docid": "January_2014_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 49, "score": 84475 }, { "content": "Title: Monthly Climatic Data for the World Content: Monthly Climatic Data for the World ( MCDW ) is a monthly publication of the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) division of the National Environmental Satellite , Data , and Information Service ( NESDIS ) division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) of the United States . According to the website , each monthly issue `` contains monthly mean temperature , pressure , precipitation , vapor pressure , and sunshine for approximately 2,000 surface data collection stations worldwide and monthly mean upper air temperatures , dew point depressions , and wind velocities for approximately 500 observing sites . This is the final quality controlled copy and generally has a 4 - 6 month time lag . '' The issues are available for download in portable document format .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Monthly_Climatic_Data_for_the_World", "rank": 50, "score": 84453 }, { "content": "Title: Wegman Report Content: The Wegman Report ( officially called the Ad Hoc Committee Report on the ` Hockey Stick ' Global Climate Reconstruction ) was prepared in 2006 by three statisticians led by Edward Wegman at the request of Rep. Joe Barton of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce to validate criticisms made by Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick of reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years , in particular the reconstructions by Mann , Bradley and Hughes which had become the focus of the hockey stick controversy .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Wegman_Report", "rank": 51, "score": 84196 }, { "content": "Title: Climate oscillation Content: A climate oscillation or climate cycle is any recurring cyclical oscillation within global or regional climate , and is a type of climate pattern . These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature , sea surface temperature , precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic , often occurring on inter-annual , multi-annual , decadal , multidecadal , century-wide , millennial or longer timescales . They are not perfectly periodic and a Fourier analysis of the data does not give a sharp spectrum . A prominent example is the El Niño Southern Oscillation , involving sea surface temperatures along a stretch of the equatorial Central and East Pacific Ocean and the western coast of tropical South America , but which affects climate worldwide . Records of past climate conditions are recovered through geological examination of proxies , found in glacier ice , sea bed sediment , tree ring studies or otherwise .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_oscillation", "rank": 52, "score": 84040 }, { "content": "Title: Raw data Content: Raw data , also known as primary data , is data ( e.g. , numbers , instrument readings , figures , etc. ) collected from a source . If a scientist sets up a computerized thermometer which records the temperature of a chemical mixture in a test tube every minute , the list of temperature readings for every minute , as printed out on a spreadsheet or viewed on a computer screen is `` raw data '' . Raw data has not been subjected to processing , `` cleaning '' by researchers to remove outliers , obvious instrument reading errors or data entry errors , or any analysis ( e.g. , determining central tendency aspects such as the average or median result ) . As well , raw data has not been subject to any other manipulation by a software program or a human researcher , analyst or technician . It is also referred to as primary data . Raw data is a relative term ( see data ) , because even once raw data has been `` cleaned '' and processed by one team of researchers , another team may consider this processed data to be `` raw data '' for another stage of research . Raw data can be inputted to a computer program or used in manual procedures such as analyzing statistics from a survey . The term `` raw data '' can refer to the binary data on electronic storage devices , such as hard disk drives ( also referred to as `` low-level data '' ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Raw_data", "rank": 53, "score": 83865 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "399", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 54, "score": 83834 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 Content: The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 ( c 19 ) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which aims to boost the number of heat and electricity microgeneration installations in the United Kingdom , so helping to cut carbon emissions and reduce fuel poverty . The Act was piloted through the House of Commons as a Private Member 's Bill by Mark Lazarowicz , MP . The Rt Hon Eric Forth MP , a well known opponent of Private Members ' Bills who often fillibustered them in Parliament , died during the passage of this bill through Parliament , after having prolonged the debate during Third Reading and Report for a number of days .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_Change_and_Sustainable_Energy_Act_2006", "rank": 55, "score": 83816 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 56, "score": 83799 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New Zealand Content: Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 57, "score": 83536 }, { "content": "Title: Typical meteorological year Content: A typical meteorological year ( TMY ) is a collation of selected weather data for a specific location , generated from a data bank much longer than a year in duration . It is specially selected so that it presents the range of weather phenomena for the location in question , while still giving annual averages that are consistent with the long-term averages for the location in question . TMY data is frequently used in building simulation , in order to assess the expected heating and cooling costs for the design of the building . It is also used by designers of solar energy systems including solar domestic hot water systems and large scale solar thermal power plants . The first TMY collection was based on 229 locations in the US and was collected between 1948 and 1980 . The second edition of the TMY is called `` TMY 2 '' . It is based on 239 stations collecting data between 1961 and 1990 . The TMY2 data include Precipitable water column ( precipitable moisture ) , which is important in predicting radiative cooling . The third , and latest TMY collection ( TMY3 ) was based on data for 1020 locations in the USA including Guam , Puerto Rico , and US Virgin Islands , derived from a 1976-2005 period of record where available , and a 1991-2005 period of record for all other locations . The TMYs are data sets of hourly values of solar radiation and meteorological elements for a 1-year period . Their intended use is for computer simulations of solar energy conversion systems and building systems to facilitate performance comparisons of different system types , configurations , and locations in the United States and its territories . Because they represent typical rather than extreme conditions , they are not suited for designing systems to meet the worst-case conditions occurring at a location . The source data are available for download from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory . Commercial software packages supporting simulations using TMY data include TRNSYS , PV * SOL and PVscout PVSyst . TMY data specific for specific locations will usually need to be paid for . On the other hand , an advanced , comprehensive , and free simulation package developed under funding from the US Department of Energy called EnergyPlus also reads TMY3 data files , and a large number of these are available at no cost from their website . NREL provides access to TMY2 and TMY3 data sets and also uses these data sets in its online solar energy calculator PVWatts . A complete and comprehensive review of weather files , including TMY , can be found in Herrera et al. , 2017 .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Typical_meteorological_year", "rank": 58, "score": 83388 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 59, "score": 83185 }, { "content": "Title: United States temperature extremes Content: For the United States , the extremes are 134 F in Death Valley , California in 1913 and -79.8 F recorded in Prospect Creek , Alaska in 1971 . The largest recorded temperature change in one place over a 24-hour period occurred on January 15 , 1972 in Loma , Montana , when the temperature rose from -54 to . The most dramatic temperature changes occur in North American climates susceptible to Chinook winds . For example , the largest 2-minute temperature change of 49 F-change occurred in Spearfish , South Dakota , a rise from -4 to .", "qid": "399", "docid": "United_States_temperature_extremes", "rank": 60, "score": 82075 }, { "content": "Title: Attorney General of Virginia's climate science investigation Content: The Attorney General of Virginia 's climate science investigation was a `` Civil Investigative Demand '' initiated in April 2010 by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for a wide range of records held by the University of Virginia related to five grant applications for research work by a leading climate scientist Michael E. Mann , who was an assistant professor at the university from 1999 to 2005 . The demand was issued under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act in connection with claims by Cuccinnelli that Mann had possibly violated state fraud laws in relation to five research grants , by allegedly manipulating data . No evidence of wrongdoing was presented to support the claim . Mann 's earlier work had been targeted by climate change skeptics in the hockey stick controversy , and allegations against him were renewed in late 2009 in the Climatic Research Unit email controversy but found to be groundless in a series of investigations . Widespread concerns were raised by University of Virginia 's faculty and numerous scientists and science organizations that Cuccinelli 's actions posed a threat to academic freedom , and would have a chilling effect on research in the state . The university filed a court petition and the judge dismissed Cuccinelli 's demand on the grounds that no justification had been shown for the investigation . Cuccinelli tried to re-open his case by issuing a revised subpoena , and appealed the case to the Virginia Supreme Court . The case was defended by the university , and the court ruled that Cuccinelli did not have the authority to make these demands . The outcome was hailed as a victory for academic freedom .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Attorney_General_of_Virginia's_climate_science_investigation", "rank": 61, "score": 81990 }, { "content": "Title: Angry Summer Content: The Australian summer of 2012 -- 2013 , known as the Angry Summer or Extreme Summer , resulted in 123 weather records being broken over a 90-day period , including the hottest day ever recorded for Australia as a whole , the hottest January on record , the hottest summer average on record , and a record seven days in a row when the whole continent averaged above 39 ° C. Single-day temperature records were broken in dozens of towns and cities , as well as single-day rainfall records , and several rivers flooded to new record highs . In January 2013 , the Bureau of Meteorology altered its weather forecasting chart 's temperature scale to include a range , coloured purple , between 52 ° and 54 ° C . The reporting of the heatwave in the Australian media attracted controversy in the scientific community , as very few articles cited a correlation between the event and climate change , which it was correlated with according to studies conducted by the University of Melbourne .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Angry_Summer", "rank": 62, "score": 81527 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Data Analysis Tool Content: The Climate Data Analysis Tool ( CDAT ) is plotting software used in atmospheric sciences and climatology . CDAT is a software used in atmospheric sciences and climatology to display meteorological fields such as pressure , temperature , or wind speeds . It allows to read gridded meteorological data in different formats such as netCDF or GRIB and plot time series of displays from several identical datasets with differing times . It is similar in scope to GrADS but with more extensive user interface and capabilities .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_Data_Analysis_Tool", "rank": 63, "score": 81442 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1990 heat wave in the United Kingdom was a particularly severe heat event with temperatures hitting record highs of 37.1 C on 3 August . The temperature was recorded at Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and was a full degree Celsius above the previous record , set in 1911 . However , this record was subsequently broken in the 2003 heatwave .", "qid": "399", "docid": "1990_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 64, "score": 81272 }, { "content": "Title: Ross Gelbspan Content: Ross Gelbspan is a writer and environmentalist . He has written two books relating to global warming : The Heat Is On ( 1997 ) and Boiling Point ( 2004 ) . The Heat Is On received national attention when President Bill Clinton told the press he was reading it . Boiling Point was the subject of the lead review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review . That review was written by former Vice President Al Gore . Gelbspan maintains the website heatisonline.org , which he updates on a daily basis . Prior to his involvement in the climate issue , Gelbspan worked as an editor and reporter at a number of newspapers , including The Philadelphia Bulletin , The Washington Post and the Boston Globe . At the Globe , he conceived , directed and edited a series of articles that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 . Since becoming involved in the climate issue , Gelbspan has delivered a number of lectures , radio and television interviews and has published multiple articles on the subject . He is a regular contributor on DeSmogBlog . He has published op-ed articles in a number of major newspapers -- as well as articles in a number of other outlets including Harper 's , The Atlantic Monthly , The American Prospect , Sierra Magazine , The Nation , and many others . He has spoken in venues that include the World Economic Forum and the Boston Social Forum . His media interviews include , among others , appearances on Nightline , All Things Considered , Talk of the Nation , World News Tonight and other outlets .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Ross_Gelbspan", "rank": 65, "score": 80811 }, { "content": "Title: Historical climatology Content: Historical climatology is the study of historical changes in climate and their effect on human history and development . This differs from paleoclimatology which encompasses climate change over the entire history of Earth . The study seeks to define periods in human history where temperature or precipitation varied from what is observed in the present day . The primary sources include written records such as sagas , chronicles , maps and local history literature as well as pictorial representations such as paintings , drawings and even rock art . The archaeological record is equally important in establishing evidence of settlement , water and land usage .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Historical_climatology", "rank": 66, "score": 80785 }, { "content": "Title: Remote Sensing Systems Content: Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) is a private research company founded in 1974 by Frank Wentz . It processes microwave data from a variety of NASA satellites . Most of their research is supported by the Earth Science Enterprise program . The company is based in Santa Rosa , California . They are a widely cited source of data , on the satellite temperature record . Their data is one source of evidence for global warming . Research by Carl Mears , Matthias Schabel , and Wentz , all of RSS , highlighted errors in the early satellite temperature records compiled by John Christy and Roy Spencer at UAH . The UAH data had previously showed no significant temperature trend , bringing the derived satellite data into closer agreement with surface temperature trends , radiosonde data and computer models . The UAH data is now closer to the RSS data but differences remain , for example the Lower Troposphere global average trend since 1979 , RSS currently have +0.133 K/decade while UAH have 0.140 K/decade , while the mid troposphere difference is even more marked at 0.079 K/decade and 0.052 K/decade respectively . However , in a recent online YouTube video , Dr. Carl Mears , a senior scientist with the team behind the satellite data , explained how he believes his data set needed correction . I would have to say that the surface data seems that it 's more accurate , because a number of groups analyze the surface data , including some who set out to prove the other ones wrong , and they all get more or less the same answer .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Remote_Sensing_Systems", "rank": 67, "score": 80663 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change (album) Content: Climate Change is the tenth studio album by rapper and songwriter Pitbull . It was released on March 17 , 2017 . through RCA Records , Polo Grounds Music and Mr. 305 Inc. . It features Enrique Iglesias , Flo Rida , Jennifer Lopez and Jason Derulo .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_Change_(album)", "rank": 68, "score": 80629 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital tuning Content: Orbital tuning refers to the process of adjusting the time scale of a geologic or climate record so that the observed fluctuations correspond to the Milankovitch cycles in the Earth 's orbital motion . Because changes in the Earth 's orbit affect the amount and distribution of sunlight the Earth receives , such changes are expected to introduce periodic climate changes on time scales of 20-100 kyr . Long records of sedimentation or climate should record such variations ; however , such records often have poorly constrained age scales . As a result , scientists will sometimes adjust the timing of the features in their records to match the predictions of orbital theory in the hopes of improving the dating accuracy . However , `` overtuning '' can result in apparent features that have no basis in the real data , such as occurred with the original SPECMAP record ( Muller & MacDonald 2000 ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Orbital_tuning", "rank": 69, "score": 80593 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory Content: The Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory ( CMDL ) was a climate laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) / Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) . In October 2005 , it was merged with five other NOAA labs to form the Earth System Research Laboratory . CMDL 's mission was to observe and understand , through accurate , long-term records of atmospheric gases , aerosol particles , and solar radiation , the Earth 's atmospheric system controlling climate forcing , ozone depletion and baseline air quality , in order to develop products that will advance global and regional environmental information and services .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_Monitoring_and_Diagnostics_Laboratory", "rank": 70, "score": 80139 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 71, "score": 80137 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "399", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 72, "score": 79923 }, { "content": "Title: European Climate Assessment and Dataset Content: The European Climate Assessment and Dataset ( ECA&D ) is a database of daily meteorological station observations across Europe and is gradually being extended to countries in the Middle East and North Africa . ECA&D has attained the status of Regional Climate Centre for high-resolution observation data in World Meteorological Organization Region VI ( Europe and the Middle East ) -RSB- . The objective of ECA&D is to monitor and analyze climate and changes in climate with a focus on climate extremes while making the data publicly available to download . Included in the database is a collection of daily series observations obtained from climatological divisions of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services ( NMHSs ) , observatories and research centres throughout Europe and the Mediterranean . The daily series of observations is combined with quality control and analysis of extremes via climate change indices . The ECA&D project is initiated by the European Climate Support Network ( ECSN ) and is coordinated at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute ( Dutch : Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut or KNMI ) which now funds the project after it was initially funded by the Network of European Meteorological Services ( EUMETNET ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "European_Climate_Assessment_and_Dataset", "rank": 73, "score": 79749 }, { "content": "Title: Global Change Information System Content: The US Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) develops and curates the Global Change Information System ( GCIS ) to establish `` data interfaces and interoperable repositories of climate and global change data which can be easily and efficiently accessed , integrated with other data sets , maintained and expanded over time . '' The initial focus of GCIS is to support the United States Third National Climate Assessment ( NCA3 ) , which is to publish reports that enhance the transparency and ability of decision-makers to understand the conclusions and use of the underlying data for their own purposes .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Global_Change_Information_System", "rank": 74, "score": 79670 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 75, "score": 79619 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Indian heat wave Content: In April and May 2016 , India experienced a major heat wave . A national record high temperature of 51.0 ° C ( 123.8 ° F ) was set in the town of Phalodi , in the state of Rajasthan . A total of over 160 people have died and 330 million affected . There are also water shortages . Drought has worsened the heat wave .", "qid": "399", "docid": "2016_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 76, "score": 79570 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 77, "score": 79489 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene climatic optimum Content: The Holocene Climate Optimum ( HCO ) was a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years BP . This event has also been known by many other names , including : Hypsithermal , Altithermal , Climatic Optimum , Holocene Optimum , Holocene Thermal Maximum , and Holocene Megathermal . This warm period was followed by a gradual decline until about two millennia ago . For other temperature fluctuations see : Temperature record For other past climate fluctuation see : Paleoclimatology For the pollen zone and Blytt-Sernander period associated with the climate optimum , see : Atlantic ( period )", "qid": "399", "docid": "Holocene_climatic_optimum", "rank": 78, "score": 79475 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "399", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 79, "score": 79466 }, { "content": "Title: UAH satellite temperature dataset Content: The UAH satellite temperature dataset , developed at the University of Alabama in Huntsville , infers the temperature of various atmospheric layers from satellite measurements of radiance . It was the first global temperature datasets developed from satellite information and has been used as a tool for research into surface and atmospheric temperature changes . The dataset is published by John Christy et al. and formerly jointly with Roy Spencer .", "qid": "399", "docid": "UAH_satellite_temperature_dataset", "rank": 80, "score": 79428 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New York City Content: Climate change in New York City could affect buildings/structures , wetlands , water supply , health , and energy demand , due to the high population and extensive infrastructure in the region . New York is especially at risk if the sea level rises , due to many of the bridges connecting to boroughs , and entrances to roads and rail tunnels . High-traffic locations such as the airports , the Holland Tunnel , the Lincoln Tunnel , and the New York Passenger Ship Terminal are located in areas vulnerable to flooding . Flooding would be expensive to reverse . Rising temperatures could bring a higher risk of heat related deaths from heat waves and increased concentrations of ground-level ozone ( potentially causing asthma and other health concerns ) .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_York_City", "rank": 81, "score": 79146 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "399", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 82, "score": 79056 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit email controversy Content: The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change . The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas . The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . '' Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy", "rank": 83, "score": 79047 }, { "content": "Title: The Weather of the Future Content: The Weather of the Future : Heat Waves , Extreme Storms , and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet ( ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0 ) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen . Cullen takes as her starting point the `` clear and present dangers '' posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels . She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world . Cullen predicts `` more frequent and more violent storms , more hot spells , cold spells , droughts , famines and huge waves of desperate refugees '' .", "qid": "399", "docid": "The_Weather_of_the_Future", "rank": 84, "score": 78870 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "399", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 85, "score": 78498 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "399", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 86, "score": 78225 }, { "content": "Title: Phil Jones (climatologist) Content: Philip Douglas Jones ( born April 22 , 1952 ) retired from his positions as the Director of the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) and as a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) at the end of 2016 . Jones was replaced as CRU director by Tim Osborn and has taken up a position as a Professorial Fellow at the UEA from January 2017 . His research interests include instrumental climate change , palaeoclimatology , detection of climate change and the extension of riverflow records in the UK . He has also published papers on the temperature record of the past 1000 years . He is known for maintaining a time series of the instrumental temperature record . This work was featured prominently in both the 2001 and 2007 IPCC reports , where he was a contributing author to Chapter 12 , Detection of Climate Change and Attribution of Causes , of the Third Assessment Report and a Coordinating Lead Author of Chapter 3 , Observations : Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change , of the AR4 .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Phil_Jones_(climatologist)", "rank": 87, "score": 78196 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "399", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 88, "score": 78178 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "399", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 89, "score": 78165 }, { "content": "Title: Berkeley Earth Content: Berkeley Earth is a Berkeley , California based independent 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit focused on land temperature data analysis for climate science . Berkeley Earth was founded in early 2010 ( originally called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project ) with the goal of addressing the major concerns from outside the scientific community regarding global warming and the instrumental temperature record . The project 's stated aim was a `` transparent approach , based on data analysis . '' In February 2013 , Berkeley Earth became an independent non-profit . In August 2013 , Berkeley Earth was granted 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) tax-exempt status by the US government . The primary product is air temperatures over land , but they also produce a global dataset resulting from a merge of their land data with HadSST . Berkeley Earth founder Richard A. Muller told The Guardian '' ... we are bringing the spirit of science back to a subject that has become too argumentative and too contentious , ... we are an independent , non-political , non-partisan group . We will gather the data , do the analysis , present the results and make all of it available . There will be no spin , whatever we find . We are doing this because it is the most important project in the world today . Nothing else comes close . '' Berkeley Earth has been funded by unrestricted educational grants totaling ( as of December 2013 ) about $ 1,394,500 . Large donors include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , the Charles G. Koch Foundation , the Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research ( FICER ) , and the William K. Bowes , Jr. . Foundation . The donors have no control over how Berkeley Earth conducts the research or what they publish . The team 's preliminary findings , data sets and programs were published in journals operated by OMICS Group , a predatory open access publisher beginning in December 2012 . The study addressed scientific concerns including urban heat island effect , poor station quality , and the risk of data selection bias . The Berkeley Earth group concluded that the warming trend is real , that over the past 50 years ( between the decades of the 1950s and 2000s ) the land surface warmed by 0.91 ± 0.05 ° C , and their results mirror those obtained from earlier studies carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the Hadley Centre , NASA 's Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) Surface Temperature Analysis , and the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia . The study also found that the urban heat island effect and poor station quality did not bias the results obtained from these earlier studies .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Berkeley_Earth", "rank": 90, "score": 78128 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Pacific Northwest heat wave Content: The 2009 Pacific Northwest heat wave was a heat wave that affected the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada in late July 2009 , particularly areas west of the Cascade Mountains in British Columbia , Oregon and Washington . The heat wave set many new heat records across the area , and broke the previous all-time record high temperature in Seattle by three Fahrenheit degrees ( 1.7 Celsius degrees ) . Because the temperatures reached in the heat wave are rare in the Pacific Northwest , few residents own air conditioners .", "qid": "399", "docid": "2009_Pacific_Northwest_heat_wave", "rank": 91, "score": 77879 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Australia Content: Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Australia", "rank": 92, "score": 77776 }, { "content": "Title: Billy Barr (naturalist) Content: Billy Barr is an American amateur scientist known for his collection of over 40 years of data on snow levels , temperatures and animal migration in the Colorado Rocky Mountains . Barr 's data collection is recognized as critical evidence of the effects of climate change .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Billy_Barr_(naturalist)", "rank": 93, "score": 77743 }, { "content": "Title: Climate model Content: Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_model", "rank": 94, "score": 77633 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower Content: The Amundsen-Nobile Climate Change Tower ( CCT ) is a 34-meter research tower installed in Ny-Ålesund , Svalbard , Norway , for the study of various physical parameters in the boundary layer of the lower troposphere . In particular it continuously measured meteorological parameters ( temperature , relative humidity , intensity and direction of the wind ) at four different levels of height , and the four components of solar radiation and infrared at the top of the tower itself . They also measure the height of the layer of snow and its temperature at two depths . The tower was funded by the Department of Earth and Environment ( DTA ) of the National Research Council of Italy ( CNR ) and installed by Kings Bay in science village of Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard island . The inauguration took place on30 April 2009 . The CCT is an important point of reference for the study of the energy balance at the surface , and the processes of interaction and exchange between the various components of the climate system . The structure is dedicated to the Arctic expeditions of Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Italian Umberto Nobile explorers .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Amundsen-Nobile_Climate_Change_Tower", "rank": 95, "score": 77612 }, { "content": "Title: Climate appraisal Content: A climate appraisal is a unique , location-based report for a specific property on climate change ( from global warming ) and other environmental risks . Information in a climate appraisal report enables property owners and/or buyers to assess for themselves how climate change risks could impact a specific property address in the future , probably by utilizing both historical and projected data from scientific modeling to display those potential risks . A climate appraisal report may include historical and projected information in the following categories : shoreline reduction from sea level rise , risk from hurricanes , tornadoes , earthquakes , volcanoes , droughts , wildfires , floods , diseasees , and industrial pollution . A report may integrate a wide range of environmental risk information after geocoding a location .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_appraisal", "rank": 96, "score": 77442 }, { "content": "Title: Measurement of sea ice Content: Measurement of sea ice is important for safety of navigation and for monitoring the environment , particularly the climate . Sea ice extent interacts with large climate patterns such as the North Atlantic oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation , to name just two , and influences climate in the rest of the globe . The amount of sea ice coverage in the arctic has been of interest for centuries , as the Northwest Passage was of high interest for trade and seafaring . There is a longstanding history of records and measurements of some effects of the sea ice extent , but comprehensive measurements were sparse till the 1950s and started with the satellite era in the late 1970s . Modern direct records include data about ice extent , ice area , concentration , thickness , and the age of the ice . The current trends in the records show a significant decline in Northern hemisphere sea ice and a small but statistically significant increase in the winter Southern hemisphere sea ice . Furthermore , current research comprises and establishes extensive sets of multi-century historical records of arctic and subarctic sea ice and uses , among others high-resolution paleo-proxy sea-ice records . The arctic sea ice is a dynamic climate-system component and is linked to the Atlantic multidecadal variability and the historical climate over various decades . There are circular changes of sea ice patterns but so far no clear patterns based on modeling predictions .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Measurement_of_sea_ice", "rank": 97, "score": 77342 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "399", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 98, "score": 77273 }, { "content": "Title: Proxy (climate) Content: In the study of past climates ( `` paleoclimatology '' ) , climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth 's history . Reliable global records of climate only began in the 1880s , and proxies provide the only means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began . Examples of proxies include ice cores , tree rings , sub-fossil pollen , boreholes , corals , lake and ocean sediments , and carbonate speleothems . The character of deposition or rate of growth of the proxies ' material has been influenced by the climatic conditions of the time in which they were laid down or grew . Chemical traces produced by climatic changes , such as quantities of particular isotopes , can be recovered from proxies . Some proxies , such as gas bubbles trapped in ice , enable traces of the ancient atmosphere to be recovered and measured directly to provide a history of fluctuations in the composition of the Earth 's atmosphere . To produce the most precise results , systematic cross-verification between proxy indicators is necessary for accuracy in readings and record-keeping . Proxies can be combined to produce temperature reconstructions longer than the instrumental temperature record and can inform discussions of global warming . The distribution of proxy records , just like the instrumental record , is not at all uniform , with more records in the northern hemisphere .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Proxy_(climate)", "rank": 99, "score": 77235 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "399", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 100, "score": 77214 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 1, "score": 145050 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 2, "score": 144821 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 3, "score": 139792 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 4, "score": 136591 }, { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 5, "score": 135218 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 6, "score": 135198 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 7, "score": 132008 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's energy budget Content: Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Earth's_energy_budget", "rank": 8, "score": 131396 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming conspiracy theory Content: A global warming conspiracy theory invokes claims that scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce false data or suppress dissent . It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to legitimize political controversy disputing this consensus . Global warming conspiracy theorists typically allege that , through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct , the science behind global warming has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons , or both .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_warming_conspiracy_theory", "rank": 9, "score": 128747 }, { "content": "Title: Heat death paradox Content: Formulated in 1862 by Lord Kelvin , Hermann von Helmholtz and William John Macquorn Rankine , the heat death paradox , also known as Clausius 's paradox and thermodynamic paradox , is a reductio ad absurdum argument that uses thermodynamics to show the impossibility of an infinitely old universe . This paradox is based upon the classical model of the universe in which the universe is eternal . Clausius 's paradox is a paradox of paradigm . It was necessary to amend the fundamental ideas about the universe , which brought about the change of the paradigm . The paradox was solved when the paradigm was changed . The paradox was based upon the rigid mechanical point of view of the Second principle of thermodynamics postulated by Rudolf Clausius according to which heat can only be transferred from a warmer to a colder object . If the universe was eternal , as claimed in the classical stationary model of the universe , it should already be cold . Any hot object transfers heat to its cooler surroundings , until everything is at the same temperature . For two objects at the same temperature as much heat flows from one body as flows from the other , and the net effect is no change . If the universe were infinitely old , there must have been enough time for the stars to cool and warm their surroundings . Everywhere should therefore be at the same temperature and there should either be no stars , or everything should be as hot as stars . Since there are stars and the universe is not in thermal equilibrium it can not be infinitely old . The paradox does not arise in Big Bang or Steady State cosmology . In Big Bang cosmology , the current age of the universe is not old enough to have reached equilibrium ; while in a Steady State system , sufficient hydrogen is replenished or regenerated continuously to allow for a constant average density and preventing stars from running down .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Heat_death_paradox", "rank": 10, "score": 127533 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 11, "score": 125948 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 12, "score": 124322 }, { "content": "Title: Pseudoproxy Content: A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Pseudoproxy", "rank": 13, "score": 123321 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 14, "score": 122600 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Tett Content: Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Simon_Tett", "rank": 15, "score": 120428 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 16, "score": 119254 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 17, "score": 119153 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 18, "score": 118953 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 19, "score": 118723 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change denial Content: Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism . Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming . Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none . Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks . The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation . Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_denial", "rank": 20, "score": 118197 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Data Records Content: A Climate Data Record ( CDR ) is a specific definition of a climate data series , developed by the Committee on Climate Data Records from NOAA Operational Satellites of the National Research Council at the request of NOAA in the context of satellite records . It is defined as `` a time series of measurements of sufficient length , consistency , and continuity to determine climate variability and change . '' . Such measurements provide an objective basis for the understanding and prediction of climate and its variability , such as global warming .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_Data_Records", "rank": 21, "score": 117003 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 22, "score": 116437 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 23, "score": 115058 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 24, "score": 114685 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "400", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 25, "score": 113620 }, { "content": "Title: David Parker (climatologist) Content: David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England . He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' . In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .", "qid": "400", "docid": "David_Parker_(climatologist)", "rank": 26, "score": 112930 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 27, "score": 112687 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 28, "score": 112557 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "400", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 29, "score": 112153 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 30, "score": 111879 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 31, "score": 111578 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 Content: The Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 ( c 19 ) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which aims to boost the number of heat and electricity microgeneration installations in the United Kingdom , so helping to cut carbon emissions and reduce fuel poverty . The Act was piloted through the House of Commons as a Private Member 's Bill by Mark Lazarowicz , MP . The Rt Hon Eric Forth MP , a well known opponent of Private Members ' Bills who often fillibustered them in Parliament , died during the passage of this bill through Parliament , after having prolonged the debate during Third Reading and Report for a number of days .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_Change_and_Sustainable_Energy_Act_2006", "rank": 32, "score": 111471 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 33, "score": 111267 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 34, "score": 110046 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Report Content: World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels , was produced by the Greening Earth Society , a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association . Early editions were paper based ; it was then transferred to a web-only format , having ceased publication as a physically based report with Volume 8 in 2002 . It continues to exist in blog form at www.worldclimatereport.com , although the website itself has not been updated since late 2012 . World Climate Report presents a scientific skeptical view of populist anthropogenic-driven mass global climate change , or as it describes , ` Global Warming Alarmism ' . However , it does not reject the concepts of global climate change or greenhouse theory ( or other well-established and widely accepted scientific theories or empirical studies ) , in general attempting to engender itself as giving a well balanced and scientific view of the sources ( though often at a contrary expense of its perceived adversaries : the aforementioned alleged ` Global Warming Alarmists ' ) . WCR says of itself : World Climate Report , a concise , hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press . As the nation 's leading publication in this realm , World Climate Report is exhaustively researched , impeccably referenced , and always timely . This popular biweekly newsletter points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as `` proof '' of disastrous warming . It 's the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty , such as the Kyoto Protocol , which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States ... World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what nature now calls the `` mainstream skeptic '' point of view . . In addition to Patrick Michaels ( chief editor ) , the staff is listed as Robert C. Balling , Jr ( contributing editor ) , Robert Davis ( contributing editor ) , and Paul Knappenberger ( Administrator ) . New Hope Environmental Services , an advocacy science consulting firm , claims WCR as its biweekly newsletter .", "qid": "400", "docid": "World_Climate_Report", "rank": 35, "score": 109816 }, { "content": "Title: Berkeley Earth Content: Berkeley Earth is a Berkeley , California based independent 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit focused on land temperature data analysis for climate science . Berkeley Earth was founded in early 2010 ( originally called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project ) with the goal of addressing the major concerns from outside the scientific community regarding global warming and the instrumental temperature record . The project 's stated aim was a `` transparent approach , based on data analysis . '' In February 2013 , Berkeley Earth became an independent non-profit . In August 2013 , Berkeley Earth was granted 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) tax-exempt status by the US government . The primary product is air temperatures over land , but they also produce a global dataset resulting from a merge of their land data with HadSST . Berkeley Earth founder Richard A. Muller told The Guardian '' ... we are bringing the spirit of science back to a subject that has become too argumentative and too contentious , ... we are an independent , non-political , non-partisan group . We will gather the data , do the analysis , present the results and make all of it available . There will be no spin , whatever we find . We are doing this because it is the most important project in the world today . Nothing else comes close . '' Berkeley Earth has been funded by unrestricted educational grants totaling ( as of December 2013 ) about $ 1,394,500 . Large donors include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , the Charles G. Koch Foundation , the Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research ( FICER ) , and the William K. Bowes , Jr. . Foundation . The donors have no control over how Berkeley Earth conducts the research or what they publish . The team 's preliminary findings , data sets and programs were published in journals operated by OMICS Group , a predatory open access publisher beginning in December 2012 . The study addressed scientific concerns including urban heat island effect , poor station quality , and the risk of data selection bias . The Berkeley Earth group concluded that the warming trend is real , that over the past 50 years ( between the decades of the 1950s and 2000s ) the land surface warmed by 0.91 ± 0.05 ° C , and their results mirror those obtained from earlier studies carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , the Hadley Centre , NASA 's Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) Surface Temperature Analysis , and the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia . The study also found that the urban heat island effect and poor station quality did not bias the results obtained from these earlier studies .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Berkeley_Earth", "rank": 36, "score": 109625 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling (disambiguation) Content: Global cooling was a 1970s conjecture about global climate change . Global cooling may also refer to : In general , one of the means by which Earth can undergo climate change Climate change denial , including contrarian views about global warming in the 20th and 21st centuries Cooling periods on the multimillion-year scale in the geologic temperature record Geophysical global cooling , a conjecture about the formation of natural features that was made obsolete by the theory of plate tectonics Little Ice Age , a period from the 16th to 19th centuries characterized by cooling and coincident with below average sunspots frequency", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_cooling_(disambiguation)", "rank": 37, "score": 109531 }, { "content": "Title: Climate ethics Content: Climate ethics is an area of research that focuses on the ethical dimensions of climate change ( also known as global warming ) , and concepts such as climate justice . Human-induced climate change raises many profound ethical questions , yet many believe that these ethical issues have not been addressed adequately in climate change policy debates or in the scientific and economic literature on climate change ; and that , consequently , ethical questions are being overlooked or obscured in climate negotiations , policies and discussions . It has been pointed out that those most responsible for climate change are not the same people as those most vulnerable to its effects . Terms such as climate justice and ecological justice ( ` eco justice ' ) are used worldwide , and have been adopted by various groups .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_ethics", "rank": 38, "score": 109368 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 39, "score": 109106 }, { "content": "Title: Ozone depletion and climate change Content: Ozone depletion and climate change , or Ozone hole and global warming in more popular terms , are environmental challenges whose connections have been explored and which have been compared and contrasted , for example in terms of global regulation , in various studies and books . There is widespread scientific interest in better regulation of climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution , as in general the human relationship with the biosphere is deemed of major historiographical and political significance . Already by 1994 the legal debates about respective regulation regimes on climate change , ozone depletion and air pollution were being dubbed `` monumental '' and a combined synopsis provided . There are some parallels between atmospheric chemistry and anthropogenic emissions in the discussions which have taken place and the regulatory attempts which have been made . Most important is that the gases causing both problems have long lifetimes after emission to the atmosphere , thus causing problems which are difficult to reverse . However , the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol that amended it are seen as success stories , while the Kyoto Protocol on anthropogenic climate change has largely failed . Currently efforts are being undertaken to assess the reasons and to use synergies , for example with regard to data reporting and policy design and further exchanging of information . While the general public tends to see global warming as a subset of ozone depletion , in fact ozone and chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs ) and other halocarbons , which are held responsible for ozone depletion , are important greenhouse gasses . Furthermore , natural levels of ozone in both the stratosphere and troposphere have a warming effect .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Ozone_depletion_and_climate_change", "rank": 40, "score": 109079 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New Zealand Content: Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 41, "score": 108695 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 42, "score": 108609 }, { "content": "Title: Lucia Liljegren Content: Lucia Liljegren is an American mechanical engineer who has worked at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ( on projects related to remediation and storage of radioactive waste ) and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University . She is best known ( as Lucia ) for her global warming/climate change blog The Blackboard ( Where Climate Talk Gets Hot ! ) , online since 2007 . Professor Judith Curry , a climatologist at Georgia Tech , calls Lucia `` probably the least controversial person in the climate blogosphere , because of her cheerfulness and sense of humor , honesty , and open mindedness . '' In the climate change debate , Lucia classifies herself as a `` lukewarmer '' : a person who recognizes global warming , but doubts the severity of the problem , and the certainty of climate science predictions . The Blackboard was one of the first sites to post some of the CRU emails leaked in the 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Lucia_Liljegren", "rank": 43, "score": 108214 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "400", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 44, "score": 107361 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "400", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 45, "score": 107184 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 46, "score": 106884 }, { "content": "Title: Geologic temperature record Content: The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth 's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion ( 109 ) year time scales . The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Geologic_temperature_record", "rank": 47, "score": 106611 }, { "content": "Title: Are We Changing Planet Earth? Content: Are We Changing Planet Earth ? and Can We Save Planet Earth ? are two programmes that form a documentary about global warming , presented by David Attenborough . They were first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 24 May and 1 June 2006 respectively . Part of a themed season by the BBC entitled `` Climate Chaos '' , the programmes were produced in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and the Open University . They were directed by Nicolas Brown and produced by Jeremy Bristow . The music was composed by Samuel Sim . Attenborough undertook the assignment in between his ` Life ' series Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood . Around the same time , the naturalist also narrated Planet Earth .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Are_We_Changing_Planet_Earth?", "rank": 48, "score": 106273 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 49, "score": 105946 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 50, "score": 105764 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 51, "score": 105755 }, { "content": "Title: Michael E. Mann Content: Michael E. Mann ( born 1965 ) is an American climatologist and geophysicist , currently director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University , who has contributed to the scientific understanding of historic climate change based on the temperature record of the past thousand years . He has pioneered techniques to find patterns in past climate change , and to isolate climate signals from noisy data . As lead author of a paper produced in 1998 with co-authors Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , Mann used advanced statistical techniques to find regional variations in a hemispherical climate reconstruction covering the past 600 years . In 1999 the same team used these techniques to produce a reconstruction over the past 1,000 years ( MBH99 ) which was dubbed the `` hockey stick graph '' because of its shape . He was one of eight lead authors of the `` Observed Climate Variability and Change '' chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Third Scientific Assessment Report published in 2001 . A graph based on the MBH99 paper was highlighted in several parts of the report , and was given wide publicity . The IPCC acknowledged that his work , along with that of the many other lead authors and review editors , contributed to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize , which was won jointly by the IPCC and Al Gore . Mann was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards including selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002 . In 2012 he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society , and awarded the status of distinguished professor in Penn State 's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences . Mann is author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications . He has also published three books : Dire Predictions : Understanding Global Warming ( 2008 ) , The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines ( 2012 ) , and , together with co-author Tom Toles , The Madhouse Effect : How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet , Destroying Our Politics , and Driving Us Crazy ( 2016 ) . In 2012 , the European Geosciences Union described his publication record as `` outstanding for a scientist of his relatively young age '' . Mann is also a co-founder and contributor to the climatology blog RealClimate .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Michael_E._Mann", "rank": 52, "score": 105622 }, { "content": "Title: Wegman Report Content: The Wegman Report ( officially called the Ad Hoc Committee Report on the ` Hockey Stick ' Global Climate Reconstruction ) was prepared in 2006 by three statisticians led by Edward Wegman at the request of Rep. Joe Barton of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce to validate criticisms made by Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick of reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years , in particular the reconstructions by Mann , Bradley and Hughes which had become the focus of the hockey stick controversy .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Wegman_Report", "rank": 53, "score": 105377 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change (general concept) Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_(general_concept)", "rank": 54, "score": 105199 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 55, "score": 104654 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 56, "score": 104457 }, { "content": "Title: Ross Gelbspan Content: Ross Gelbspan is a writer and environmentalist . He has written two books relating to global warming : The Heat Is On ( 1997 ) and Boiling Point ( 2004 ) . The Heat Is On received national attention when President Bill Clinton told the press he was reading it . Boiling Point was the subject of the lead review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review . That review was written by former Vice President Al Gore . Gelbspan maintains the website heatisonline.org , which he updates on a daily basis . Prior to his involvement in the climate issue , Gelbspan worked as an editor and reporter at a number of newspapers , including The Philadelphia Bulletin , The Washington Post and the Boston Globe . At the Globe , he conceived , directed and edited a series of articles that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 . Since becoming involved in the climate issue , Gelbspan has delivered a number of lectures , radio and television interviews and has published multiple articles on the subject . He is a regular contributor on DeSmogBlog . He has published op-ed articles in a number of major newspapers -- as well as articles in a number of other outlets including Harper 's , The Atlantic Monthly , The American Prospect , Sierra Magazine , The Nation , and many others . He has spoken in venues that include the World Economic Forum and the Boston Social Forum . His media interviews include , among others , appearances on Nightline , All Things Considered , Talk of the Nation , World News Tonight and other outlets .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Ross_Gelbspan", "rank": 57, "score": 103891 }, { "content": "Title: International Tundra Experiment Content: The International Tundra Experiment ( ITEX ) is a long-term international collaboration of researchers examining the responses of arctic and alpine plants and ecosystems to climate change . The ITEX network consists of more than 20 sites in polar and alpine locations around the world . Researchers measure plant responses to standardized , small-scale passive warming , snow manipulations , and nutrient additions . Researchers use small open-top chambers to passively increase mean air temperature by 1-2oC . The ITEX approach has been validated by tundra responses at the plot level . The network has published meta-analyses on plant phenology , growth , and reproduction , composition and abundance , and carbon flux .", "qid": "400", "docid": "International_Tundra_Experiment", "rank": 58, "score": 103646 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit email controversy Content: The Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( also known as `` Climategate '' ) began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) by an external attacker , copying thousands of emails and computer files , the Climatic Research Unit documents , to various internet locations several weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change . The story was first broken by climate change denialists with columnist James Delingpole popularising the term `` Climategate '' to describe the controversy . Several people considered climate change `` skeptics '' argued that the emails showed global warming was a scientific conspiracy , that scientists manipulated climate data and attempted to suppress critics . The CRU rejected this , saying the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas . The mainstream media picked up the story as negotiations over climate change mitigation began in Copenhagen on 7 December 2009 . Because of the timing , scientists , policy makers and public relations experts said that the release of emails was a smear campaign intended to undermine the climate conference . In response to the controversy , the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) , the American Meteorological Society ( AMS ) and the Union of Concerned Scientists ( UCS ) released statements supporting the scientific consensus that the Earth 's mean surface temperature had been rising for decades , with the AAAS concluding , `` based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now underway ... it is a growing threat to society . '' Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . However , the reports called on the scientists to avoid any such allegations in the future by taking steps to regain public confidence in their work , for example by opening up access to their supporting data , processing methods and software , and by promptly honouring freedom of information requests . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy", "rank": 59, "score": 103518 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "400", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 60, "score": 103390 }, { "content": "Title: Paleoclimatology Content: Paleoclimatology ( in British spelling , palaeoclimatology ) is the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth . It uses a variety of proxy methods from the Earth and life sciences to obtain data previously preserved within things such as rocks , sediments , ice sheets , tree rings , corals , shells and microfossils . It then uses the records to determine the past states of the Earth 's various climate regions and its atmospheric system . Studies of past changes in the environment and biodiversity often reflect on the current situation , specifically the impact of climate on mass extinctions and biotic recovery .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Paleoclimatology", "rank": 61, "score": 103216 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 62, "score": 103104 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Global Warming Swindle Content: The Great Global Warming Swindle is a polemical documentary film that suggests that the scientific opinion on climate change is influenced by funding and political factors , and questions whether scientific consensus on global warming exists . The program was formally criticised by Ofcom , the UK broadcasting regulatory agency , which upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King . The film , made by British television producer Martin Durkin , presents scientists , economists , politicians , writers , and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming . The programme 's publicity materials assert that man-made global warming is `` a lie '' and `` the biggest scam of modern times . '' Its original working title was `` Apocalypse my arse '' , but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols . The UK 's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007 . The channel described the film as `` a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions . This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired . '' According to Hamish Mykura , Channel 4 's head of documentaries , the film was commissioned `` to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide . '' Although the documentary was welcomed by global warming sceptics , it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists ( including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film 's claims ) . The film 's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data , relied on out-of-date research , employed misleading arguments , and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Later broadcasts corrected three errors in the original film .", "qid": "400", "docid": "The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle", "rank": 63, "score": 103104 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and agriculture Content: -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_and_agriculture", "rank": 64, "score": 102587 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of Sun angle on climate Content: The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate , as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location , time of day , and season due to the Earth 's orbit around the Sun and the Earth 's rotation around its tilted axis . Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight , caused by the tilt of the Earth 's axis , is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter . Change in day length is another factor . ( See also season . )", "qid": "400", "docid": "Effect_of_Sun_angle_on_climate", "rank": 65, "score": 102320 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 66, "score": 102307 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 67, "score": 101919 }, { "content": "Title: Global Change Research Act of 1990 Content: The Global Change Research Act 1990 is a United States law requiring research into global warming and related issues . It requires a report to Congress every four years on the environmental , economic , health and safety consequences of climate change . According to a summary by the Congressional Research Service , the Act : `` Directs the President , through the Federal Coordinating Council on Science , Engineering , and Technology ( Council ) , to establish the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences to carry out Council functions under specified provisions of the National Science and Technology Policy , Organization , and Priorities Act of 1976 relating to global change research , to increase the effectiveness and productivity of Federal global change research efforts . Directs the President to establish an interagency United States Global Change Research Program to improve understanding of global change . Requires the Chairman of the Council , through the Committee , to develop a National Global Change Research Plan for implementation of the Program . Sets forth required Plan contents and research elements , including that the Plan provide recommendations for collaboration within the Federal Government and among nations . Requires the Chairman to enter into an agreement with the National Research Council to : ( 1 ) evaluate the scientific content of the Plan ; and ( 2 ) provide information and advice and recommended priorities for future global change research . Requires the Committee to provide general guidance each year to each Federal agency or department participating in the Program with respect to preparation of requests for appropriations related to the Program . Requires the Council , at least every four years , through the Committee , to submit to the President and the Congress an assessment regarding the findings of the Program and associated uncertainties , the effects of global change , and current and major long-term trends in global change . Requires that the research findings of the Committee and of Federal agencies and departments be made available to the Environmental Protection Agency and all Federal agencies and departments . Title II : International Cooperation in Global Change Research - International Cooperation in Global Change Research Act of 1990 - Declares that the President should direct the Secretary of State to initiate discussions with other nations on : ( 1 ) international agreements to coordinate global change research ; and ( 2 ) an international research protocol for cooperation on the development of energy technologies which have minimally adverse effects on the environment . Directs the President to establish an Office of Global Change Research Information to disseminate to foreign governments and their citizens , businesses , and institutions scientific research useful in preventing , mitigating , or adapting to the effects of global change . Title III : Growth Decision Aid - Directs the Secretary of Commerce to : ( 1 ) conduct a study on the implications of growth and development on urban , suburban , and rural communities ; and ( 2 ) based on the study , produce a decision aid to assist State and local authorities in planning and managing growth and development while preserving community character . '' Following the publication of the first National Climate Assessment Report there were accusations that information was being suppressed , leading to complacency around public works , such as New Orleans flood defences . Greenpeace , the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth challenged the delay in federal district court on August 21 , 2007 . A judge ruled that an updated national assessment must be produced by May 31 , 2008 .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_Change_Research_Act_of_1990", "rank": 68, "score": 101469 }, { "content": "Title: DeSmogBlog Content: The DeSmogBlog , founded in January 2006 , is a blog that focuses on topics related to global warming . The site describes itself as `` the world 's number one source for accurate , fact based information regarding Global Warming misinformation campaigns . '' DeSmogBlog opposes what it describes as `` a well-funded and highly organized public relations campaign '' that it says is `` poisoning '' the climate change debate . Since its inception , the site has received several mentions in the media regarding its involvement in global warming issues . The site was co-founded by James Hoggan , president of a public relations firm based in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada . The website was recognized in December 2007 with an award by a trade organization for its standards and content .", "qid": "400", "docid": "DeSmogBlog", "rank": 69, "score": 101311 }, { "content": "Title: Climate across Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary Content: The climate across the Cretaceous -- Paleogene boundary ( K -- Pg or formerly the K -- T boundary ) is very important to geologic time as it marks a catastrophic global extinction event . Numerous theories have been proposed as to why this extinction event happened including an asteroid known as the Chicxulub asteroid , volcanism , or sea level changes . While the mass extinction is well documented , there is much debate about the immediate and long-term climatic and environmental changes caused by the event . The terrestrial climates at this time are poorly known , which limits the understanding of environmentally driven changes in biodiversity that occurred before the Chicxulub crater impact . Oxygen isotopes across the K -- T boundary suggest that oceanic temperatures fluctuated in the Late Cretaceous and through the boundary itself . Carbon isotope measurements of benthic foramifinera at the K -- T boundary suggest rapid , repeated fluctuations in oceanic productivity in the 3 million years before the final extinction , and that productivity and ocean circulation ended abruptly for at least tens of thousands of years just after the boundary , indicating devastation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems . Some researchers suggest that climate change is the main connection between the impact and the extinction . The impact perturbed the climate system with long-term effects that were much worse than the immediate , direct consequences of the impact .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_across_Cretaceous–Paleogene_boundary", "rank": 70, "score": 101288 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and potatoes Content: Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_and_potatoes", "rank": 71, "score": 101246 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 72, "score": 101111 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on island nations Content: Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_island_nations", "rank": 73, "score": 101040 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars Content: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars : Dispatches from the Front Lines is a 2012 book about climate change by the American climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann . In the book Mann describes how he became a researcher investigating the temperature record of the past 1000 years and was lead author , with Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes , on the 1999 reconstruction that was the first to be dubbed the hockey stick graph . He concisely explains the basics of climate science including statistical methodology dealing with paleoclimate proxy data , and examines the tactics which opponents of action on climate change use to distort the science and attack the reputations of climate scientists . The book describes both the hockey stick controversy and the broader context of skepticism in science and contrarians rejecting evidence of human influence on climate . The book was picked by Physics Today books editor Jermey Matthews as one of the five top books of the 49 they had reviewed in 2012 .", "qid": "400", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_and_the_Climate_Wars", "rank": 74, "score": 100972 }, { "content": "Title: Abrupt climate change Content: An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition to a new climate state at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance , and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing . Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse , Younger Dryas , Dansgaard-Oeschger events , Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum . The term is also used within the context of global warming to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime . One proposed reason for the observed abrupt climate change is that feedback loops within the climate system both enhance small perturbations and cause a variety of stable states . Timescales of events described as ` abrupt ' may vary dramatically . Changes recorded in the climate of Greenland at the end of the Younger Dryas , as measured by ice-cores , imply a sudden warming of + 10 C-change within a timescale of a few years . Other abrupt changes are the + 4 C-change on Greenland 11,270 years ago or the abrupt + 6 C-change warming 22,000 years ago on Antarctica . By contrast , the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum may have initiated anywhere between a few decades and several thousand years . Finally , Earth Systems models project that under ongoing greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2047 , the Earth 's near surface temperature could depart from the range of variability in the last 150 years , affecting over 3 billion people and most places of great species diversity on Earth .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Abrupt_climate_change", "rank": 75, "score": 100717 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming game Content: A global warming game , also known as a climate game or a climate change game , is a type of serious game . As a serious game , it attempts to simulate and explore real life issues to educate players through an interactive experience . The issues particular to a global warming video game are usually energy efficiency and the implementation of green technology as ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus counteract global warming . Global warming games also include more traditional board games , video games , as well as other varieties .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_warming_game", "rank": 76, "score": 100717 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 77, "score": 100491 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 78, "score": 100394 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC supplementary report, 1992 Content: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supplementary report of 1992 was published to contribute to the debate on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit , held in Rio de Janeiro . The report updated and revised some of the data contained in the IPCC First Assessment Report , and included six new climate change scenarios , including an update of the 1990 reference scenario . The major conclusion was that research since 1990 did `` not affect our fundamental understanding of the science of the greenhouse effect and either confirm or do not justify alteration of the major conclusions of the first IPCC scientific assessment '' . It noted that transient ( time-dependent ) simulations , which had been very preliminary in the FAR , were now improved , but did not include aerosol or ozone changes .", "qid": "400", "docid": "IPCC_supplementary_report,_1992", "rank": 79, "score": 100391 }, { "content": "Title: Climate model Content: Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_model", "rank": 80, "score": 100177 }, { "content": "Title: John Christy Content: John Raymond Christy is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) whose chief interests are satellite remote sensing of global climate and global climate change . He is best known , jointly with Roy Spencer , for the first successful development of a satellite temperature record .", "qid": "400", "docid": "John_Christy", "rank": 81, "score": 100098 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 82, "score": 100097 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record Content: For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Temperature_record", "rank": 83, "score": 100005 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit Content: The Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) is a component of the University of East Anglia and is one of the leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change . With a staff of some thirty research scientists and students , the CRU has contributed to the development of a number of the data sets widely used in climate research , including one of the global temperature records used to monitor the state of the climate system , as well as statistical software packages and climate models .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit", "rank": 84, "score": 99957 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom Climate Change Programme Content: The United Kingdom 's Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) . The 2000 programme was updated in March 2006 following a review launched in September 2004 . In 2008 , the UK was the world 's 9th greatest producer of man-made carbon emissions , producing around 1.8 % of the global total generated from fossil fuels .", "qid": "400", "docid": "United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 85, "score": 99900 }, { "content": "Title: Attorney General of Virginia's climate science investigation Content: The Attorney General of Virginia 's climate science investigation was a `` Civil Investigative Demand '' initiated in April 2010 by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for a wide range of records held by the University of Virginia related to five grant applications for research work by a leading climate scientist Michael E. Mann , who was an assistant professor at the university from 1999 to 2005 . The demand was issued under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act in connection with claims by Cuccinnelli that Mann had possibly violated state fraud laws in relation to five research grants , by allegedly manipulating data . No evidence of wrongdoing was presented to support the claim . Mann 's earlier work had been targeted by climate change skeptics in the hockey stick controversy , and allegations against him were renewed in late 2009 in the Climatic Research Unit email controversy but found to be groundless in a series of investigations . Widespread concerns were raised by University of Virginia 's faculty and numerous scientists and science organizations that Cuccinelli 's actions posed a threat to academic freedom , and would have a chilling effect on research in the state . The university filed a court petition and the judge dismissed Cuccinelli 's demand on the grounds that no justification had been shown for the investigation . Cuccinelli tried to re-open his case by issuing a revised subpoena , and appealed the case to the Virginia Supreme Court . The case was defended by the university , and the court ruled that Cuccinelli did not have the authority to make these demands . The outcome was hailed as a victory for academic freedom .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Attorney_General_of_Virginia's_climate_science_investigation", "rank": 86, "score": 99575 }, { "content": "Title: Hockham Mere Content: The Hockham Mere pollen data shows the rates of change in levels of vegetation using pollen samples from within the Holocene period . Hockham Mere is the site of a former lake , > 400 metres diameter , in Norfolk , East Anglia . Its biogenic sediments contain a late-Devensian & Holocene pollen record . This data can be analysed using temperature proxies to help determine climate change in the area at that time . These proxies can be the amount of pollen found in the sample , as more pollen would indicate higher flora productivity which would suggest a warmer climate . The same can be seen if data shows negligible amounts of pollen which would suggest a cooler climate . These are proxies for temperature , and not an accurate record as there are many variances that can not be monitored easily .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Hockham_Mere", "rank": 87, "score": 99469 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 88, "score": 99143 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change policy of the United States Content: Global climate change was first addressed in United States policy beginning in the early 1960s . The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) defines climate change as `` any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time . '' Essentially , climate change includes major changes in temperature , precipitation , or wind patterns , as well as other effects , that occur over several decades or longer . Climate change policy in the US has transformed rapidly over the past twenty years and is being developed at both the state and federal level . The politics of global warming and climate change have polarized certain political parties and other organizations . This article focuses on climate change policy within the United States , as well as exploring the positions of various parties and the influences on policy making and environmental justice repercussions .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_change_policy_of_the_United_States", "rank": 89, "score": 99004 }, { "content": "Title: Climate oscillation Content: A climate oscillation or climate cycle is any recurring cyclical oscillation within global or regional climate , and is a type of climate pattern . These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature , sea surface temperature , precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic , often occurring on inter-annual , multi-annual , decadal , multidecadal , century-wide , millennial or longer timescales . They are not perfectly periodic and a Fourier analysis of the data does not give a sharp spectrum . A prominent example is the El Niño Southern Oscillation , involving sea surface temperatures along a stretch of the equatorial Central and East Pacific Ocean and the western coast of tropical South America , but which affects climate worldwide . Records of past climate conditions are recovered through geological examination of proxies , found in glacier ice , sea bed sediment , tree ring studies or otherwise .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_oscillation", "rank": 90, "score": 98843 }, { "content": "Title: CLAW hypothesis Content: The CLAW hypothesis proposes a negative feedback loop that operates between ocean ecosystems and the Earth 's climate . The hypothesis specifically proposes that particular phytoplankton that produce dimethyl sulfide are responsive to variations in climate forcing , and that these responses act to stabilise the temperature of the Earth 's atmosphere . The CLAW hypothesis was originally proposed by Robert Jay Charlson , James Lovelock , Meinrat Andreae and Stephen G. Warren , and takes its acronym from the first letter of their surnames .", "qid": "400", "docid": "CLAW_hypothesis", "rank": 91, "score": 98796 }, { "content": "Title: Climate variability Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Climate_variability", "rank": 92, "score": 98731 }, { "content": "Title: Global Roundtable on Climate Change Content: The Global Roundtable on Climate Change , convened by the Earth Institute at Columbia University brought together representatives from corporations , research institutions , and government organizations to discuss the scientific consensus , economics , technology , and public policy issues associated with climate change . Following preliminary research and discussions , the group first met in 2005 and held a series of public and private meetings over the next five year . The Roundtable had five objectives : Improve global consensus on the science , technology , economics , and policy issues of anthropogenic climate change . Review technology and policy proposals for mitigating climate change while meeting global energy demand . Support research and prototypes of technologies and policies that address climate change . Provide a forum for discussion , analysis , and exchange of ideas from the represented groups . Support proposals and initiatives generated by the Roundtable 's discussions . Participants in the Roundtable meetings : ABB , Air France , Alcan , Alcoa , Alliant Energy , Allianz , American Electric Power , BASF , Bayer , Calvert Group , China Renewable Energy Industry Association , Citigroup , Coalition of Rainforest Nations , Columbia University , Deutsche Telekom , DuPont , Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand , Endesa , Environmental Defense , Eskom , Eni , Exelon , Fairfield University , FPL Group , General Electric , Iberdrola , ING Group , Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , International Gas Union , Munich Re , National Grid , NRG Energy , Rainforest Alliance , Republic of Iceland , Ricoh , Suntech Power , Swiss Re , Vattenfall , Volvo , World Council on Churches , World Petroleum Council , and many others . The Roundtable was funded by a grant from the Lenfest Foundation . Jeffrey Sachs , Director of the Earth Institute served as Chair . David L. Downie served as Director of the Global Roundtable on Climate Change before leaving the Earth Institute to join Fairfield University . On February 20 , 2007 , the Roundtable released `` The Path to Climate Sustainability : A Joint Statement by the Global Roundtable on Climate Change '' . The Joint Statement outlines a post-Kyoto framework and has been endorsed by over 100 of the Roundtable participating corporations and organizations . The Statement outlines ways to effect change at the levels of policy and industry , particularly in regards to creating sustainable energy systems necessary for achieving economic growth . In addition to its internal discussions , which were aimed at information exchange , education and consensus building , and development of the parthbreaking Joint Statement , Roundtable participants also participated in public forums . For example , David L. Downie organized two side-event panels during sessions of the global climate negotiations that featured presentations by Roundtable Participants , including himself , regarding how businesses and scientists were working together to lower greenhouse gas emissions . David L. Downie also discussed the Roundtable and related issues at other events during the climate negotiations and in other forums", "qid": "400", "docid": "Global_Roundtable_on_Climate_Change", "rank": 93, "score": 98688 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital tuning Content: Orbital tuning refers to the process of adjusting the time scale of a geologic or climate record so that the observed fluctuations correspond to the Milankovitch cycles in the Earth 's orbital motion . Because changes in the Earth 's orbit affect the amount and distribution of sunlight the Earth receives , such changes are expected to introduce periodic climate changes on time scales of 20-100 kyr . Long records of sedimentation or climate should record such variations ; however , such records often have poorly constrained age scales . As a result , scientists will sometimes adjust the timing of the features in their records to match the predictions of orbital theory in the hopes of improving the dating accuracy . However , `` overtuning '' can result in apparent features that have no basis in the real data , such as occurred with the original SPECMAP record ( Muller & MacDonald 2000 ) .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Orbital_tuning", "rank": 94, "score": 98527 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 95, "score": 98494 }, { "content": "Title: Tipping points in the climate system Content: A tipping point in the climate system is a threshold that, when exceeded, can lead to large changes in the state of the system. Potential tipping points have been identified in the physical climate system, in impacted ecosystems, and sometimes in both. For instance, feedback from the global carbon cycle is a driver for the transition between glacial and interglacial periods, with orbital forcing providing the initial trigger. Earth's geologic temperature record includes many more examples of geologically rapid transitions between different climate states.Climate tipping points are of particular interest in reference to concerns about global warming in the modern era. Possible tipping point behaviour has been identified for the global mean surface temperature by studying self-reinforcing feedbacks and the past behavior of Earth's climate system. Self-reinforcing feedbacks in the carbon cycle and planetary reflectivity could trigger a cascading set of tipping points that lead the world into a hothouse climate state.Large-scale components of the Earth system that may pass a tipping point have been referred to as tipping elements. Tipping elements are found in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, possibly causing tens of meters of sea level rise. These tipping points are not always abrupt. For example, at some level of temperature rise the melt of a large part of the Greenland ice sheet and/or West Antarctic Ice Sheet will become inevitable; but the ice sheet itself may persist for many centuries. Some tipping elements, like the collapse of ecosystems, are irreversible.", "qid": "400", "docid": "Tipping_points_in_the_climate_system", "rank": 96, "score": 98428 }, { "content": "Title: The Coming Global Superstorm Content: The Coming Global Superstorm ( ISBN 0-671-04190-8 ) is a 1999 book by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber , which warns that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects . First , the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift would generate a cordon of warm water around the North Pole , which in turn , holds in a frozen mass of Arctic air . Second , if the North Atlantic drift were to shut down , that barrier would fail , releasing a flood of frozen air into the Northern Hemisphere , causing a sudden and drastic temperature shift . The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the Gulf Stream : the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world 's oceans . Bell and Strieber explain the possibility that such current destabilizations have occurred before , as well as seemingly impossible engineering feats by the ancients . Among their examples is the island city of Nan Madol . The book claims that its construction , with exacting tolerances and extremely heavy basalt materials , necessitates a high degree of technical competency . Since no such society exists in the modern record or even , in legend , the society must have been destroyed by dramatic means . While other explanations beside a global meteorological event are possible , a correlating evidence set is presented in the woolly mammoth . Strieber and Bell assert that since mammoths have been found preserved with food still in their mouths and undigested in their stomachs , these animals must have been killed quickly , in otherwise normal conditions . They were preserved so well by quick freezing , which is taken as evidence of a rapid onset of a global blizzard or similar event . Interspersed with the analytical parts of the book are a series of interlinked short fictional scenarios , written in italics , describing what might transpire today if a destabilization of the North Atlantic Current were to occur . The fictional accounts of `` current events '' as the meteorological situation deteriorates provided background and inspiration for the 2004 science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow . Indeed , some events from the book are portrayed in the film with little modification .", "qid": "400", "docid": "The_Coming_Global_Superstorm", "rank": 97, "score": 98302 }, { "content": "Title: Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit Content: Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit featured in press discussions of disputes over access to data from instrumental temperature records , particularly during the Climatic Research Unit email controversy which began in November 2009 . The UK Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) came into effect in 2005 , and FOI requests were made to the Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) at the University of East Anglia ( UEA ) for the raw data from weather stations used in developing instrumental temperature record datasets , for copies of agreements under which the raw data was obtained from meteorology institutions , and also for email correspondence relating to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report . In many cases the raw data which CRU had obtained from National Meteorological Organisations was subject to restrictions on redistribution : on 12 August 2009 CRU announced that they were seeking permission to waive these restrictions , and on 24 November 2009 the university stated that over 95 % of the CRU climate data set had already been available for several years , with the remainder to be released when permissions were obtained . In a decision announced on 27 July 2011 the Information Commissioner 's Office ( ICO ) required release of raw data even though permissions had not been obtained or in one instance had been refused , and on 27 July 2011 CRU announced release of the raw instrumental data not already in the public domain , with the exception of Poland which was outside the area covered by the FOIA request . A 2008 FOI request by David Holland for emails discussing work on the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report was refused by the university . In November 2009 he alleged that CRU emails posted online discussed deleting the emails he had requested : in January 2010 the Deputy Information Commissioner told a journalist that this indicated an offence under section 77 of the FOIA , but prosecution was time-barred by statute of limitations . Newspapers misrepresented this as a decision in relation to raw data , and the issue was discussed by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry , which found there had been a lack of openness . The ICO decision published on 7 July 2010 stated that this potential offence had not been investigated as it was time-barred . As Holland was content not to proceed with his complaint against the university , no further action was needed , but the ICO would `` consider whether further action is appropriate to secure future compliance . '' In September 2011 the ICO issued new guidance to universities . This described exceptions and exemptions to protect research , including allowance for internal exchange of views between academics and researchers free from external scrutiny , as well as commending actively disclosing information when it is in the public interest .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Freedom_of_Information_requests_to_the_Climatic_Research_Unit", "rank": 98, "score": 98212 }, { "content": "Title: Thomsen–Berthelot principle Content: In thermochemistry , the Thomsen -- Berthelot principle is a hypothesis in the history of chemistry which argued that all chemical changes are accompanied by the production of heat and that processes which occur will be ones in which the most heat is produced . This principle was formulated in slightly different versions by the Danish chemist Julius Thomsen in 1854 and by the French chemist Marcellin Berthelot in 1864 . This early postulate in classical thermochemistry became the controversial foundation of a research program that would last three decades . This principle came to be associated with what was called the thermal theory of affinity , which postulated that the heat evolved in a chemical reaction was the true measure of its affinity . This hypothesis was later disproved , however , when in 1882 the German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz proved that affinity was not given by the heat evolved in a chemical reaction but rather by the maximum work , or free energy , produced when the reaction was carried out reversibly .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Thomsen–Berthelot_principle", "rank": 99, "score": 98078 }, { "content": "Title: Breeding for heat stress tolerance Content: Plant breeding is process of development of new cultivars . Plant breeding involves development of varieties for different environmental conditions -- some of them are not favorable . Among them , heat stress is one of such factor that reduces the production and quality significantly . So breeding against heat is a very important criterion for breeding for current as well as future environments produced by global climate change ( e.g. global warming ) .", "qid": "400", "docid": "Breeding_for_heat_stress_tolerance", "rank": 100, "score": 98066 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 1908 Content: According to NASA reports , 1908 was the coldest recorded year since 1880 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1908", "rank": 1, "score": 150934 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American cold wave Content: The 1936 North American cold wave ranks among the most intense cold waves in recorded North American meteorological history . The states of the Midwest United States and the Prairie Provinces of Canada were hit the hardest , but only the Southwest and California largely escaped its effects . February 1936 was the coldest month recorded in the states of North Dakota , South Dakota , and Minnesota , and rivals that of 1899 the coldest February on record for the continent as a whole . Only a few parts of the Great Basin , the Bering Sea coast of Alaska and the Labrador Sea coast of Canada were even close to their long-term means . The 1930s had previously seen some of the mildest winters in recorded North American climatic history -- 1930/1931 in the northern Plains and Western Canada , 1931/1932 in the East , 1932/1933 in New England and 1933/1934 in the Western United States . The northern plains had during the previous eleven years experienced six of their ten warmest Februaries between 1895 and 1976 -- those of 1925 , 1926 , 1927 , 1930 , 1931 and 1935 -- with only February 1929 being severe during this period . Despite a warm March over most areas east of the Rockies , the extended winter from October to March was the fifth-coldest on record over the conterminous United States and the coldest since 1917 . The cold wave was followed by one of the hottest summers on record , the 1936 North American heat wave .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1936_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 2, "score": 137010 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 North American cold wave Content: The 1994 North American cold wave occurred over the midwestern United States , eastern United States , and southern Canada during January 1994 . Two notable cold air events occurred from January 18-19 and from January 21-22 . There were 67 minimum temperature records set on January 19 . Indiana and Kentucky both set state records on January 19 . The United States experienced its coldest temperature month since February 1934 , although much of the West experienced mild temperatures . Washington and Idaho experienced the second warmest January recorded in the previous 100 years . During the same period , the western United States experienced one of its most damaging earthquakes ever , and the eastern United States experienced a major snowfall that significantly delayed traffic . Over 100 deaths occurred in the United States as a result of the cold wave .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1994_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 3, "score": 135498 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "401", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 4, "score": 131541 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 5, "score": 129836 }, { "content": "Title: February 2015 North American cold wave Content: The February 2015 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that affected most of Canada and the eastern half of the United States . Following an earlier cold wave in the winter , the period of below-average temperatures contributed to an already unusually cold winter for the Eastern U.S. Several places broke their records for their coldest February on record , while some areas came very close . The cause of the cold wave was due to the polar vortex advancing southwards into the eastern parts of the U.S , and even making it as far south as the Southeast , where snow is rare . By the beginning of March , although the pattern did continue for the first week , it abated and retreated near the official end of the winter . In addition to the extremely cold weather , multiple winter storms affected nearly the entire United States , especially in the snow-weary Northeast , which had already seen nearly 3 ft of snow in the latter part of January ; this was added to by roughly 3 -- 4 ft ( 36 -- 48 in ) more snow , leading to Boston having its highest seasonal snowfall on record .", "qid": "401", "docid": "February_2015_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 6, "score": 129777 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 7, "score": 128226 }, { "content": "Title: 1976 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1976 United Kingdom heat wave led to the hottest summer average temperature in the UK since records began . At the same time , the country suffered a severe drought . It was one of the driest , sunniest and warmest summers ( June/July/August ) in the 20th century , although 1995 is now regarded as the driest . Only a few places registered more than half their average summer rainfall . In the CET record , it was the warmest summer in that series . It was the warmest summer in the Aberdeen area since at least 1864 . It was the driest summer since 1868 in Glasgow .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1976_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 8, "score": 122684 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Adelaide heatwave Content: The 2014 Adelaide heatwave was a heat wave that occurred in Adelaide , South Australia in both January and February 2014 . The heatwaves were so strong that it broke records , becoming the hottest summer ever recorded in Adelaide . Although there were no deaths directly linked to the heatwave as of 2015 , there were at least 136 heat-related hospital admissions recorded .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2014_Adelaide_heatwave", "rank": 9, "score": 122372 }, { "content": "Title: January 2016 East Asia cold wave Content: In late January 2016 , a cold wave struck much of East Asia , parts of mainland Southeast Asia and parts of northern South Asia , bringing record cold temperatures and snowfall to many regions . Sleet was reported in Okinawa for the first time on record , and many other regions saw their coldest temperatures in decades . Snowfall and frigid weather stranded thousands of people across four countries . At least 85 people in Taiwan died from hypothermia and cardiac arrest following a sudden drop in temperature during the weekend of January 22 -- 24 . The cold claimed a further fourteen lives in Thailand , and snowstorms resulted in six deaths across Japan . This event was driven by a fast Arctic warming that occurred within the troposphere , forcing the Arctic Oscillation to change phase rapidly from positive ( in late December ) to negative ( in late January ) , facilitating the atmospheric blocking and associated Siberian high buildup .", "qid": "401", "docid": "January_2016_East_Asia_cold_wave", "rank": 10, "score": 119563 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–12 La Niña event Content: The 2010 -- 12 La Niña event was one of the strongest on record . It caused Australia to experience its wettest September on record in 2010 , and its second-wettest year on record in 2010 . It also led to an unusual intensification of the Leeuwin Current , the 2010 Pakistan floods , the 2010 -- 11 Queensland floods , and the 2011 East Africa drought . It also helped keep the average global temperature below recent trends , leading to 2011 tying with 1997 for the 14th-warmest year on record .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2010–12_La_Niña_event", "rank": 11, "score": 118780 }, { "content": "Title: 1954 Romanian blizzard Content: A massive snowstorm hit Romania in February 1954 . Heavy snowfall that month was recorded on the following dates : 1-4 , 7-9 , 17-19 and 22-24 . Wind speed reached 126 km/h in Bucharest on February 3 , a record that still stands . The maximum quantity of snow was recorded on the 3rd in Grivița : 115.9 L/m2 in 24 hours , another unbroken record . The thickest layer of snow , 173 cm , appeared in Călărași on February 3-4 and also remains a record . Snowdrifts reached 5 m in the southeast of the country .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1954_Romanian_blizzard", "rank": 12, "score": 118521 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 North American heat wave Content: In March 2012 , one of the greatest heat waves was observed in many regions of North America . Very warm air pushed northward west of the Great Lakes region , and subsequently spread eastward . The intense poleward air mass movement was propelled by an unusually intense low level southerly jet that stretched from Louisiana to western Wisconsin . Once this warm surge inundated the area , a remarkably prolonged period of record setting temperatures ensued . NOAA 's National Climate Data Center reported that over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were tied or broken from 1 March through 27 March . In some places the temperature exceeded 86 ° F ( 30 ° C ) . For instance , in Grand Rapids , Michigan , the highest temperature recorded was 87 ° F on March 21 ; in Chicago a high of 87 ° F was also recorded on that same day . Records were broken in unusual ways . Chicago , for example , saw temperatures above 80 ° F every day between March 14 -- 18 , breaking records on all five days . Chicago would go on to record eight days at or above 80 ° F during the month , with many suburban areas recording an additional day in the 80s on March 19 ( that day , the city only tied its record high of 78 ° F ) . In context , the National Weather Service 's Chicago branch noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the 80 's in April . And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80 ° F days as this March . In Traverse City , Michigan one day began with a low temperature ( 67 ° F ) higher than the previous record high for the day . Temperature records across much of southern Canada also were shattered . Some of the most impressive readings came from Nova Scotia on March 22 , when the mercury climbed to 30.0 C at a climate station in Lake Major , making it the highest March temperature recorded in Nova Scotia , and the third highest March temperature recorded in Canada . That same day , the temperature hit 29.2 C at Western Head , Nova Scotia . The heat reached as far east as Cape Breton Island , with the temperature climbing to 24.0 C at Sydney , Nova Scotia on March 22 , a place historically surrounded by ice-jammed waters , frigid winds , and snow in March . The week of March 18 also set record temperatures in Manitoba and much of Ontario as well as into the Maritime Provinces . Non-severe thunderstorms were reported on the evening hours of March 21 , through to the early morning hours March 22 into northern Ontario . In addition , NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data show that the atmospheric pattern was so persistent that much of the Midwest and Northeast , and up into Ontario , had temperature departures over periods of several days to a week or more of magnitudes which would be unusual even for a single day . Averaged over the seven-day period from March 16 to March 22 inclusive , nearly the entire area of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. and most of Ontario and Quebec had temperatures 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) or more above the 1981-2010 average . Even more dramatically , most of Iowa and Minnesota , all of Wisconsin and Michigan , and most of southeastern Ontario had seven-day mean temperatures more than 15 ° C ( 27 ° F ) above the climatological average for the same period . An 84 ° F high at Madison , WI in early March was 43 ° F above average and followed an overnight low of 60 ° F , 35 degrees above normal the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean . The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 ° F or more ; the highest temperature recorded there was 107 ° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s . This mild warm spell brought out spring peepers in northern Ontario on 23 March , which are usually not heard until mid-to-late April , or sometimes early May . The warm weather was also responsible for several early-season tornado touchdowns , such as the EF3 that struck Dexter , Michigan , near Ann Arbor .", "qid": "401", "docid": "March_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 13, "score": 118272 }, { "content": "Title: Great Blue Norther of November 11, 1911 Content: The Great Blue Norther of November 11 , 1911 was a cold snap that affected the central United States on Saturday , November 11 , 1911 . Many cities broke record highs , going into the 70s and 80s early that afternoon . By nightfall , cities were dealing with temperatures in the teens and single-digits on the Fahrenheit scale . This is the only day in many midwest cities ' weather bureau jurisdictions where the record highs and lows were broken for the same day . Some cities experienced tornadoes on Saturday and a blizzard on Sunday . A blizzard even occurred within one hour after an F4 tornado hit Rock County , Wisconsin . The main cause of such a dramatic cold snap was an extremely strong storm system separating warm , humid air from frigid , arctic air . Dramatic cold snaps tend to occur mostly in the month of November , though they can also come in February or March . These arrivals of Continental Polar or Arctic air masses are generally called northers , and the one in question was marked by a mass of steel blue clouds in the vicinity of the surface front , hence the name . Although temperature drops of this extent have happened on other occasions , as recently as February 2009 , the fact that the 1911 cold front passage was during the autumn and came after such warm weather contributed to the properties mentioned in this article .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Great_Blue_Norther_of_November_11,_1911", "rank": 14, "score": 117828 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 15, "score": 117703 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1962–63 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1962 -- 1963 ( also known as the Big Freeze of 1963 ) was one of the coldest winters on record in the United Kingdom . Temperatures plummeted and lakes and rivers began to freeze over . In the Central England Temperature ( CET ) record , extending back to 1659 , only the winter ( defined as the months of December , January and February ) of 1683 -- 84 has been significantly colder , with 1739 -- 40 being slightly colder than 1962 -- 63 . Over Scotland and Northern Ireland , where data do not extend back to 1740 , the winters of 1813 -- 14 and 1878 -- 79 were certainly colder than 1962 -- 63 , as was the winter of 1779 -- 80 in Scotland and 1894 -- 95 in Northern Ireland . This winter remains the coldest since at least 1895 in all meteorological districts of the United Kingdom except Scotland North , where the two winters of 1978 -- 79 and 2009 -- 10 were marginally colder .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Winter_of_1962–63_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 16, "score": 117258 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "401", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 17, "score": 116314 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 18, "score": 115953 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "401", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 19, "score": 115730 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 20, "score": 115589 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 European heat wave Content: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540 . France was hit especially hard . The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe . Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000 . The predominant heat was recorded in July and August , partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2003_European_heat_wave", "rank": 21, "score": 114598 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-6 Content: NOAA-6 , designated NOAA-A before launch , was a weather satellite operated by NOAA as part of its National Operational Environmental Satellite System . It was launched into a Sun-synchronous orbit by NASA aboard an Atlas F launch vehicle on 27 June 1979 from Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-3W . Based on the experimental TIROS-N satellite , it performed monitoring of ice and snow cover , agriculture , oceanography , volcanism , ozone and the space environment , in addition to its regular meteorological observations . Its instruments included the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer ( AVHRR/1 ) for global cloud cover observations , the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder ( TOVS ) suite for atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiling , the Space Environment Monitor ( SEM ) for measuring proton and electron fluxes , and the Data Collection and Platform Location System ( DCPLS ) for relaying data from balloons and ocean buoys . The TOVS suite consists of three subsystems : the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder 2 ( HIRS/2 ) , the Stratospheric Sounding Unit ( SSU ) , and the Microwave Sounding Unit ( MSU ) . The HIRS/2 instrument failed on 19 September 1983 , and the spacecraft was placed in reserve in early 1984 as NOAA prioritized operations of NOAA-7 and NOAA-8 . It was returned to operational status after NOAA-8 failed in June 1984 , and continued to return data until its decommissioning on 31 March 1987 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "NOAA-6", "rank": 22, "score": 113230 }, { "content": "Title: Description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports Content: The description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in IPCC reports has changed since the first report in 1990 as scientific understanding of the temperature record of the past 1000 years has improved . The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) and Little Ice Age ( LIA ) are the best-known temperature fluctuations in the last millennium . Critics of the `` hockey stick graph '' of all subsequent reports have claimed that the record of the MWP and LIA were suppressed in the IPCC Third Assessment Report , although every report has discussed the phenomena .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Description_of_the_Medieval_Warm_Period_and_Little_Ice_Age_in_IPCC_reports", "rank": 23, "score": 112445 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 24, "score": 110814 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave was a period of unseasonably warm weather which arrived towards the end of September 2011 and continued into October . As a result , record-high temperatures for the country were broken for the autumn months . The autumn heat wave followed the warmest temperatures to occur on record in the spring , but also the coolest temperatures to occur in the summer months since 1993 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Autumn_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 25, "score": 110659 }, { "content": "Title: Tornado outbreak of February 23–24, 2016 Content: The tornado outbreak of February 23 -- 24 , 2016 was an unusually prolific late-winter tornado outbreak that resulted in significant damage across the southern and eastern half of the United States in late February 2016 . Lasting nearly a day and a half , the outbreak produced a total of 61 tornadoes across eleven states , which ranked it as one of the largest February tornado outbreaks in the United States on record , with only the 2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak having recorded more . In addition , it was also one of the largest winter tornado outbreaks overall as well . The most significant and intense tornadoes of the event were four EF3s that struck southeastern Louisiana , Pensacola , Florida , Evergreen , Virginia , and Tappahannock , Virginia . Tornadoes were also reported in other places like Texas , Florida , and Pennsylvania . Severe thunderstorms , hail and gusty winds were also felt in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic states on February 24 as well . In addition to the outbreak , non-tornadic impacts were felt in the Midwest , where the storm system produced blizzard conditions and cold temperatures in places including Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , and even parts of southern Ontario in Canada . Snowfall totals of up to 17 in were recorded in parts of the hardest hit areas by the snowstorm .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Tornado_outbreak_of_February_23–24,_2016", "rank": 26, "score": 110275 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Swedish heat wave Content: The summer of 2014 in Sweden was unusually warm , especially in the northern parts of the country . The notability of this event was characterised as July being the warmest ever month on record in the north-west . Although temperature records set that summer are somewhat moderate by international standards , Sweden 's northerly latitude and marine influence has to be taken into account , rendering the temperatures recorded more extreme .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2014_Swedish_heat_wave", "rank": 27, "score": 109661 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2009–10 in Great Britain and Ireland Content: The winter of 2009 -- 10 in the United Kingdom ( also called The Big Freeze by British media ) was a meteorological event that started on 16 December 2009 , as part of the severe winter weather in Europe . January 2010 was provisionally the coldest January since 1987 across the country . A persistent pattern of cold northerly and easterly winds brought cold , moist air to the United Kingdom with many snow showers , fronts and polar lows bringing snowy weather with it . The first snowfall began on 17 December 2009 , before a respite over the Christmas period . The most severe snowy weather began on 5 January in North West England and west Scotland with temperatures hitting a low of -17.6 ° C in Greater Manchester , England . The snow spread to Southern England on 6 January and by 7 January the United Kingdom was blanketed in snow , which was captured by NASA 's Terra satellite . The thaw came a week later , as temperatures started to increase . The winter weather brought widespread transport disruption , school closures , power failures , the postponement of sporting events and 25 deaths . A low of -22.3 ° C was recorded in Altnaharra , Scotland on 8 January 2010 . Overall it was the coldest winter since 1978 -- 79 , with a mean temperature of 1.5 ° C.", "qid": "401", "docid": "Winter_of_2009–10_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland", "rank": 28, "score": 109600 }, { "content": "Title: August 2009 Argentine winter heat wave Content: The 2009 Argentine winter heat wave was a period of unusual and exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of the winter on August 2009 in Argentina . Several provinces of the country were most affected . Several records were broken . August 2009 was the warmest month since official measurements began . On 30 August 2009 it was hot enough to be the middle of summer late last week in the heart of Argentina even with the calendar showing more than three weeks remaining in the Southern Hemisphere winter . A shot of tropical heat drawn unusually far southward hiked temperatures 30 C-change above normal in the city of Buenos Aires and across the north-central regions of the country . Even though normal high temperatures for late August are near 16 C , readings topped 30 C degrees at midweek , then topped out above 32 C degrees during the weekend . Temperatures hit 33.8 C on 29 August and finally 34.6 C on 31 August in Buenos Aires , making it the hottest day ever recorded in winter breaking the 1996 winter record of 33.7 C. Elsewhere in Argentina , the mid-northern city of Córdoba reached a dramatic high of 37.8 C degrees on 29 August 2009 . Another northern city , Santa Fe , registered 38.3 C degrees on 30 August , compared to the normal high of around 18 C.", "qid": "401", "docid": "August_2009_Argentine_winter_heat_wave", "rank": 29, "score": 109156 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 30, "score": 109141 }, { "content": "Title: 1912 United States cold wave Content: The 1911-1912 United States cold wave ( also called 1912 cold air outbreak ) remains one of the coldest winters recorded to occur over the northern United States since meteorological data has been kept by the United States Weather Bureau , which was established in 1870 . The cold wave started in November 1911 and continued into March 1912 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1912_United_States_cold_wave", "rank": 31, "score": 108571 }, { "content": "Title: Cold Sunday Content: `` Cold Sunday '' was a meteorological event which took place on January 17 , 1982 , when unprecedentedly cold air swept down from Canada and plunged temperatures across much of the United States far below existing all-time record lows . The phenomenon was caused by an unusually strong high pressure system over Saskatchewan with a core pressure of 1055mb ( 31.15 inHg ) , a level rarely seen outside of permanent polar areas such as Siberia and Antarctica . A recent snowfall had left the ground without any way to hold on to its heat and temperatures dropped precipitously . This mass of cold air was so strong that the temperature at Mequon , Wisconsin , dropped to − 40 ° F ( − 40 ° C ) . The previous record was − 28 ° F ( − 33 ° C ) and temperatures below − 20 ° F ( − 29 ° C ) had been felt there only six times in the previous 100 years . The lowest temperature recorded that day in the United States was − 52 ° F ( − 47 ° C ) , measured near Tower , Minnesota . Below is a partial list of cities which set all-time record low temperatures in the United States . This is only a small fraction of all locales setting record low temperatures : Hundreds of towns and cities from North Dakota to New Jersey to Mississippi broke records , and the vast majority of the records set on `` Cold Sunday '' still stand . The cold was not confined to the night , either . In Princeton , New Jersey , and Cincinnati , Ohio , the daytime high temperatures were 2 ° F ( − 17 ° C ) and − 9 ° F ( − 23 ° C ) . The average high temperature in January is 39 ° F ( 4 ° C ) in both cities . While much of South Florida escaped the deep freeze , enough damage was done to citrus crops in Central Florida during the month of January to write off the 1982 harvest as a disaster . International Falls , Minnesota : − 45 ° F ( − 43 ° C ) Saint Cloud , Minnesota : − 35 ° F ( − 37 ° C ) Madison , Wisconsin : − 31 ° F ( − 35 ° C ) Green Bay , Wisconsin : − 28 ° F ( − 33 ° C ) Chicago , Illinois : − 27 ° F ( − 33 ° C ) Milwaukee , Wisconsin : − 26 ° F ( − 32 ° C ) Moline , Illinois : − 23 ° F ( − 31 ° C ) Peoria , Illinois : − 23 ° F ( − 31 ° C ) Akron , Ohio : − 22 ° F ( − 30 ° C ) Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania : − 18 ° F ( − 28 ° C ) Cleveland , Ohio : − 17 ° F ( − 27 ° C ) Jackson , Mississippi : − 5 ° F ( − 21 ° C ) Washington , D.C. : − 5 ° F ( − 21 ° C ) Birmingham , Alabama : − 2 ° F ( − 19 ° C )", "qid": "401", "docid": "Cold_Sunday", "rank": 32, "score": 108062 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 2003 Content: The Blizzard of 2003 , also known as the Presidents ' Day Storm II or simply PDII , was a historical and record-breaking snowstorm on the East Coast of the United States and Canada , which lasted from February 14 to February 19 , 2003 . It spread heavy snow across the major cities of the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states , making it the defining snowstorm of the very snowy winter of 2002-2003 . All cities from Washington DC to Boston were covered in 15 - of snow and those cities were brought to a standstill due to problems caused by temperatures and the snow . In Baltimore and Boston , this was the biggest snowstorm on record , with 28.2 and 27.5 inches ( 71.6 and 69.9 cm ) respectively .", "qid": "401", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_2003", "rank": 33, "score": 107535 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-15 Content: NOAA-15 ( designated NOAA-K before launch ) is one of the NASA-provided TIROS series of weather forecasting satellite run by NOAA . It was launched on 13 May 1998 , and is currently operational , in a sun-synchronous orbit , 807 km above the Earth , orbiting every 101 minutes . It hosts the AMSU-A and AMSU-B instruments , the AVHRR and High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder ( HIRS/3 ) instruments , as well as a Space Environment Monitor ( SEM/2 ) . APT transmission frequency is 137.62 MHz . Due to problems with the S-band transmitter high-gain antennas , NOAA-15 has been configured for High Resolution Picture Transmission using the S-Band Transmitter # 2 ( 1702.5 MHz ) omnidirectional antenna .", "qid": "401", "docid": "NOAA-15", "rank": 34, "score": 106822 }, { "content": "Title: Angry Summer Content: The Australian summer of 2012 -- 2013 , known as the Angry Summer or Extreme Summer , resulted in 123 weather records being broken over a 90-day period , including the hottest day ever recorded for Australia as a whole , the hottest January on record , the hottest summer average on record , and a record seven days in a row when the whole continent averaged above 39 ° C. Single-day temperature records were broken in dozens of towns and cities , as well as single-day rainfall records , and several rivers flooded to new record highs . In January 2013 , the Bureau of Meteorology altered its weather forecasting chart 's temperature scale to include a range , coloured purple , between 52 ° and 54 ° C . The reporting of the heatwave in the Australian media attracted controversy in the scientific community , as very few articles cited a correlation between the event and climate change , which it was correlated with according to studies conducted by the University of Melbourne .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Angry_Summer", "rank": 35, "score": 106768 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-February 2015 North American blizzard Content: From February 14 -- 15 , 2015 , a potent blizzard occurred in the Northeast United States . The storm dropped up to 25 in of snow in the regions already hit hard with snow from the past 2 weeks . The storm system also brought some of the most coldest temperatures to the Northeast in its wake .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Mid-February_2015_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 36, "score": 106716 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 37, "score": 106513 }, { "content": "Title: Deep Space Climate Observatory Content: Deep Space Climate Observatory ( DSCOVR ; formerly known as Triana , unofficially known as GoreSat ) is a NOAA Earth observation and space weather satellite launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle on February 11 , 2015 from Cape Canaveral . It was originally developed as a NASA satellite proposed in 1998 by then-Vice President Al Gore for the purpose of Earth observation . It is in a Lissajous orbit at the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point , 1500000 km from Earth , to monitor variable solar wind condition , provide early warning of approaching coronal mass ejections and observe phenomena on Earth including changes in ozone , aerosols , dust and volcanic ash , cloud height , vegetation cover and climate . At this location it has a continuous view of the Sun and the sunlit side of the Earth . The satellite is orbiting the Sun-Earth point in a six-month period , with a spacecraft-Earth-Sun angle varying from 4 to 15 degrees . It takes full-Earth pictures about every two hours and is able to process them faster than other Earth observation satellites . DSCOVR started orbiting around by June 8 , 2015 , just over 100 days after launch . After the spacecraft arrived on site and entered its operational phase , NASA began releasing near-real time images of Earth through the EPIC instrument 's website .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Deep_Space_Climate_Observatory", "rank": 38, "score": 105937 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Russian wildfires Content: The 2010 Russian wildfires were several hundred wildfires that broke out across Russia , primarily in the west in summer 2010 . They started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010 . The fires were associated with record-high temperatures , which were attributed to climate change -- the summer had been the hottest recorded in Russian history -- and drought . Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in seven regions , and 28 other regions were under a state of emergency due to crop failures caused by the drought . The fires cost roughly $ 15 billion in damages . A combination of the smoke from the fires , producing heavy smog blanketing large urban regions and the record-breaking heat wave put stress on the Russian healthcare system . Munich Re estimated that in all , 56,000 people died from the effects of the smog and the heat wave . The 2010 wildfires were the worst on record to that time ; in 2012 , however , new wildfires broke out , and they proved even more extensive and damaging .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2010_Russian_wildfires", "rank": 39, "score": 105079 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "401", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 40, "score": 104652 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 41, "score": 104212 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2010–11 in Great Britain and Ireland Content: The winter of 2010 -- 2011 was a weather event that brought heavy snowfalls , record low temperatures , travel chaos and school disruption to the islands of Britain and Ireland . It included the UK 's coldest December since Met Office records began in 1910 , with a mean temperature of -1 ° C , breaking the previous record of 0.1 ° C in December 1981 . Also it was the second-coldest December in the narrower Central England Temperature ( CET ) record series which began in 1659 , falling 0.1 ° C short of the all-time record set in 1890 . The winter of 2010 in England saw the earliest widespread winter snowfall since 1993 with snow falling as early as 24 November across Northumberland and North Yorkshire . A maximum snow depth of 30 in was recorded on 1 December in the Peak District , Sheffield , the Cotswold Hills and the Forest of Dean . In this event Scotland and Northern England were most severely affected . On 9 December temperatures recovered across much of the UK , causing a partial thaw . Later , on Thursday 16 December a cold front reintroduced a cold , arctic airstream . This cold spell brought further snow and ice chaos back to the British Isles with Southern England , Wales , the Republic of Ireland ( excluding the westerly coastal regions ) and Northern Ireland bearing the brunt of the wintry conditions . This led to severe disruption to the road and rail network with several airports being closed including London Heathrow Airport for a time . Several local temperature records were broken including a new record low for Northern Ireland of -18.7 ° C recorded at Castlederg on 23 December 2010 . By the new year a thaw had begun , and there was no recurrence of the extreme conditions for the remainder of the winter . There was some snowfall in early January , and there was an anticyclonic spell at the end of the month that brought some cold , frosty days . February was above average in temperature and ended on a mild note , although the snow returned in much of Scotland during March .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Winter_of_2010–11_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland", "rank": 42, "score": 103942 }, { "content": "Title: WD 0346+246 Content: WD 0346 +246 is a white dwarf in the ecliptic constellation of Taurus . It was discovered in 1997 when examination of photographs taken for a survey of brown dwarfs in the Pleiades revealed a faint star with high proper motion . It is one of the coolest white dwarfs known , with an effective temperature estimated to be approximately 3900 K equaling to a spectral type of M0 . Recent studies using NASA 's Spitzer Space Telescope and MDM Observatory 's 2.4-meter telescope ( near Tucson , Arizona , USA ) shows that this white dwarf ( together with another one : SDSS J110217 , 48 +411315.4 ) has a lowest ( for white dwarfs ) surface temperature about 3700 and 3800 degrees K due to the age of 11 to 12 billion years .", "qid": "401", "docid": "WD_0346+246", "rank": 43, "score": 103601 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 44, "score": 103421 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 2012 Content: The 2012 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day 26 January 2013 . It was the 20th countdown of the most popular songs of the year , as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. Voting commenced on 19 December 2012 , and closed at midnight on 20 January 2013 . Over 1.5 million votes were cast in this countdown , beating the record set in the 2011 list . In the week prior to the countdown , Nick Drewe , a Brisbane statistician and marketer , analysed the votes that had been published on social media and determined the possible top 100 , naming it the Warmest 100 . The votes that had been published represented approximately 2.7 % of the total vote . Ultimately , his list correctly predicted 92 of the songs in the countdown , the songs comprising the top 10 , and the top 3 in the correct order . The ABC have announced that it would likely make changes to the voting system to prevent `` spoiler attempts '' in future countdowns .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_2012", "rank": 45, "score": 103373 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 46, "score": 102950 }, { "content": "Title: MSU temperature measurements Content: Microwave sounding unit temperature measurements have been obtained from the troposphere since 1979 , when they were included within NOAA weather satellites . By comparison , the usable balloon ( radiosonde ) record begins in 1958 but has less geographic coverage and is less uniform . Satellites do not measure temperature . They measure radiances in various wavelength bands , which must then be mathematically inverted to obtain indirect inferences of temperature . The resulting temperature profiles depend on details of the methods that are used to obtain temperatures from radiances . As a result , different groups that have analyzed the satellite data have obtained different temperature trends . Among these groups are Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) . The satellite series is not fully homogeneous - the record is constructed from a series of satellites with similar but not identical instrumentation . The sensors deteriorate over time , and corrections are necessary for satellite drift in orbit . Particularly large differences between reconstructed temperature series occur at the few times when there is little temporal overlap between successive satellites , making intercalibration difficult . To compare to the trend from the surface temperature record ( approximately +0.07 ° C/decade over the past century and +0.15 -0.16 ° C/decade since 1979 ) it is most appropriate to derive trends for the part of the atmosphere nearest the surface , i.e. , the lower troposphere . Doing this , through January 2012 : RSS v3 .3 finds a trend of +0.137 ° C/decade . UAH v5 .4 finds a trend of +0.136 ° C/decade . An alternative adjustment introduced by Fu et al. ( 2004 ) finds trends ( 1979 -- 2011 ) of +0.14 ° C/decade when applied to the RSS data set and +0.11 ° C/decade when applied to the UAH data set . Using the T2 channel ( which include significant contributions from the stratosphere , which has cooled ) , Mears et al. of Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) find ( through January 2012 ) a trend of +0.082 ° C/decade . Spencer and Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) , find a smaller trend of +0.046 ° C/decade . A no longer updated analysis of Vinnikov and Grody found +0.20 ° C/decade ( 1978 -- 2005 ) . Another satellite temperature analysis is provided by NOAA/NESDIS STAR Center for Satellite Application and Research and use simultaneous nadir overpasses ( SNO ) to remove satellite intercalibration biases yielding more accurate temperature trends . The SNO analysis finds a 1979-2011 trend of +0.128 ° C/decade for T2 channel . The satellite records have the advantage of greater spatial coverage , whereas the radiosonde record is longer . There have been complaints of data problems with both records , and difficulty reconciling climate model predictions with the observed data .", "qid": "401", "docid": "MSU_temperature_measurements", "rank": 47, "score": 102946 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 48, "score": 102726 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-18 Content: NOAA-18 , known before launch as NOAA-N , is a weather forecasting satellite run by NOAA . NOAA-N ( 18 ) was launched on May 20 , 2005 , into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 854 km above the Earth , with an orbital period of 102 minutes . It hosts the AMSU-A , MHS , AVHRR , Space Environment Monitor SEM/2 instrument and High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder ( HIRS ) instruments , as well as the SBUV/2 ozone-monitoring instrument . It is the first NOAA POES satellite to use MHS in place of AMSU-B . APT transmission frequency is 137.9125 MHz ( NOAA-18 changed frequencies with NOAA-19 on June 23 , 2009 ) .", "qid": "401", "docid": "NOAA-18", "rank": 49, "score": 102566 }, { "content": "Title: Spring 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The Spring of 2011 in the United Kingdom was exceptional for the warm weather which occurred during April and the dry weather which was persistent during March and April in certain parts of the UK . April was statistically the warmest and driest in the country since records began in 1910 . There was a contrast between north-western parts of the UK which received substantial amounts of rainfall and south-eastern parts which received very little . As lack of rainfall continued in many parts during May , concerns arose that the country could submit to drought . High pressure was the cause for the warm , dry weather experienced during April . A high temperature of 27.8 ° C was recorded on 23 April at Wisley , Surrey , the highest temperature recorded in April in the UK since 1949 . Thus , the Central England Temperature for the month was 3.7 ° C above the 1971-2000 average , and daily maximum temperatures were up to 6 ° C higher than average .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Spring_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 50, "score": 102322 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Indian heat wave Content: In April and May 2016 , India experienced a major heat wave . A national record high temperature of 51.0 ° C ( 123.8 ° F ) was set in the town of Phalodi , in the state of Rajasthan . A total of over 160 people have died and 330 million affected . There are also water shortages . Drought has worsened the heat wave .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2016_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 51, "score": 102193 }, { "content": "Title: International Cloud Experiment Content: International Cloud Experiment ( formally known as `` Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment '' - TWP-ICE ) was a scientific mission to gather information on tropical storm formation . It involved seven airplanes , a ship anchored off Darwin in Australia , RV Southern Surveyor , and over 250 scientists and researchers . The I.C.E. took place from 21 January to 23 February 2006 , and had been in the planning stages since September 2003 . The experiment was a collaboration between the US Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement ( ARM ) Program , the Bureau of Meteorology ( Australia ) , NASA the European Commission DG RTD-1 .2 and several United States , Australian , Canadian and European Universities . During the experiment , a record-breaking tropical typhoon arose , then spent seven days as a `` landphoon '' over the Australian desert . The Australian Broadcasting Corporation released in 2007 Thunderheads , a 47-minute program which has shown on the Smithsonian Channel .", "qid": "401", "docid": "International_Cloud_Experiment", "rank": 52, "score": 101870 }, { "content": "Title: The Coldest Season Content: The Coldest Season is a 2007 album by dub techno duo Echospace ( credited on the album as Deepchord Presents Echospace ) which is composed of Rod Modell ( Deepchord ) and Stephen Hitchell . The Coldest Season was recorded using old analog equipment . The album is very atmospheric with ambient and techno influences . It was named the 49th best album of the decade by Resident Advisor .", "qid": "401", "docid": "The_Coldest_Season", "rank": 53, "score": 101424 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "401", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 54, "score": 101313 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene climatic optimum Content: The Holocene Climate Optimum ( HCO ) was a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years BP . This event has also been known by many other names , including : Hypsithermal , Altithermal , Climatic Optimum , Holocene Optimum , Holocene Thermal Maximum , and Holocene Megathermal . This warm period was followed by a gradual decline until about two millennia ago . For other temperature fluctuations see : Temperature record For other past climate fluctuation see : Paleoclimatology For the pollen zone and Blytt-Sernander period associated with the climate optimum , see : Atlantic ( period )", "qid": "401", "docid": "Holocene_climatic_optimum", "rank": 55, "score": 101045 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 56, "score": 100769 }, { "content": "Title: The Wild Wacky Wonderful World of Winter Content: The Wild Wacky Wonderful World of Winter was an HBO ( Home Box Office ) television broadcast first on February 22 , 1980 and again on February 26 , 1980 . From the HBO Guide , February 1980 : `` Here 's the warmest , wildest winter-weather comedy show ever to snowball into town . '' Costars were Beth Howland , Jack Riley , and Fred Willard , with special guest star Carol Burnett .", "qid": "401", "docid": "The_Wild_Wacky_Wonderful_World_of_Winter", "rank": 57, "score": 100749 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 58, "score": 100425 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 South-Eastern Australian heatwave Content: The 2014 South-Eastern Australian Heatwave was a prolonged period of time in which highly unseasonal weather was recorded across the south and south-eastern corridor of mainland Australia . The heatwave commenced during early May , and was the longest ever recorded in Australia 's modern history , lasting in some places up to 15 days . Sydney , Melbourne and Adelaide were most hard hit , with temperatures in these areas breaking late Autumn records and causing a distinct lack of precipitation , especially in Sydney , Australia 's most populous city . The cause of this phenomenon was a large blocking High pressure system situated over the Tasman sea , which pushed usual Autumn cold fronts far south of the mainland .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2014_South-Eastern_Australian_heatwave", "rank": 59, "score": 100391 }, { "content": "Title: February 2017 North American blizzard Content: The February 2017 North American blizzard was a fast-moving but powerful blizzard that affected the Northeastern United States with severe weather in the time span of February 8 -- 9 . Forming as an Alberta clipper in the northern United States , the system initially produced light snowfall from the Midwest to the Ohio Valley as it tracked southeastwards . It eventually reached the East Coast of the United States and began to rapidly grow into a powerful nor'easter . Up to 18 in of snow as well as blizzard conditions were recorded in some of the hardest hit areas before the system moved away from the coastline early on February 10 . Prior to the blizzard , unprecedented and record-breaking warmth had enveloped the region , with record highs of above 60 F recorded in several areas , including Central Park in New York City . Some were caught off guard by the warmth and had little time to prepare for the snowstorm , with some meteorologists calling the extreme weather changes `` unprecedented '' .", "qid": "401", "docid": "February_2017_North_American_blizzard", "rank": 60, "score": 100232 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 61, "score": 100183 }, { "content": "Title: February 1987 nor'easter Content: The February 1987 nor'easter was a significant winter storm in the US that impacted the Mid-Atlantic States around the end of the month . It delivered 8 -- 12 hours of heavy , wet snowfall to several states from West Virginia to New York between February 22 and February 24 . The storm was both preceded and followed by relatively warm temperatures , causing the snow to rapidly melt . The mild conditions were the result of a moderate anticyclone over the region that deteriorated as the nor'easter approached . Cold air damming likely took place prior to the storm 's formation . The nor'easter evolved from a complex series of low pressure areas . Eventually , the multiple center consolidated and a primary cyclone took hold along the Carolina coast . This low rapidly strengthened as it tracked northeastward . Upon reaching the Maryland coast , it turned more towards the east and intensified further to attain a minimum barometric pressure of 964 millibars by 1800 UTC on February 23 . The heaviest precipitation , occasionally accompanied by thunder and lightning , along with gusty winds , occurred between 0000 UTC and 1800 UTC . Snowfall accumulations exceeding 10 in were reported in eastern West Virginia , northern Virginia , north-central Maryland , northern Delaware , southern Pennsylvania , central and southern New Jersey , and Long Island . Most of the interior Northeast was spared a substantial impact from the storm . However , lighter totals extended as far north as central Massachusetts . The weight of the wet snow caused extensive damage to trees and power lines , and hundreds of thousands were reportedly left without power . At Washington , D.C. , 11 in of snow fell , having widespread effects . Limited states of emergency were declared in certain areas . MV Balsa 24 , a 345 ft long freighter , was lost February 25 , 1987 after it capsized in the storm . 18 sailors were killed and there was 1 survivor , who was rescued by the nuclear submarine USS Scamp ( SSN-588 ) . Fishing vessel Delores Marie was also lost , killing 3 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "February_1987_nor'easter", "rank": 62, "score": 99957 }, { "content": "Title: Cold wave of 1978 Content: The cold wave of 1978 was a weather event that occurred in the eastern United States . Beginning in December 1977 and lasting until March , it produced one of the coldest winters on record in all states east of the Rockies except Maine .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Cold_wave_of_1978", "rank": 63, "score": 99642 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian heat wave Content: In May 2015 , India was struck by a severe heat wave . , it has caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people in multiple regions . The heat wave occurred during the Indian dry season , which typically lasts from March to July with peak temperatures in April and May . Although it typically remains hot until late October , Indian monsoons often provide some respite from the heat . The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring Telangana , where more than 1,735 and 585 people died respectively , were the areas most affected by the heat wave . Other casualties were from the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha . The high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities . The 2015 heat wave has had the highest recorded temperatures since 1995 . In May 2016 , a new record was set in Phalodi .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2015_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 64, "score": 99601 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-17 Content: NOAA-17 was a weather forecasting satellite operated by NOAA . It was launched on 24 June 2002 , in a sun-synchronous orbit , 824 km above the Earth , orbiting every 101 minutes . It hosted the AMSU , AVHRR and High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder ( HRIS ) instruments . The satellite was retired in 2013 . Automatic Picture Transmission frequency was 137.5 MHz . NOAA-17 was decommissioned on 10 April 2013 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "NOAA-17", "rank": 65, "score": 99561 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1990 heat wave in the United Kingdom was a particularly severe heat event with temperatures hitting record highs of 37.1 C on 3 August . The temperature was recorded at Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and was a full degree Celsius above the previous record , set in 1911 . However , this record was subsequently broken in the 2003 heatwave .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1990_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 66, "score": 99172 }, { "content": "Title: North American blizzard of 1966 Content: The Blizzard of 1966 swept across most of the United States and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains on January 29 , 1966 , and brought record low temperatures , high winds and heavy snowfall in its wake . Within days , at least 142 people had been killed -- 31 had frozen to death , 46 died in fires that started while people were trying to heat their home . Others died from heart attacks while shoveling snow or pushing cars , or traffic accidents caused by slick roads . The death toll reached 201 by Wednesday , February 2 , as the storm eased . On Monday , January 31 , federal government employees in Washington were excused from reporting to work and international airports were closed from Boston to Washington , D.C. . Sixty inches ( five feet or 152 cm ) of snow fell on Oswego , New York , and the additional accumulation raised the snow level to 13 inches in Norfolk , Virginia . By February 1 , additional snow brought the level to 102 inches ( 8 1/2 feet ) to Oswego . ( This held the record for the most snowfall in a single storm in Oswego until the Lake Effect snow storm of February 2007 ) . The storm began as a nor'easter , which affected the New York City metro area and was followed by heavy `` wraparound '' lake effect snows . Winds were more than 60 mph during the storm , and at Fair Haven , New York they are believed to have exceeded 100 mph . The snow was badly drifted and roads and schools closed as long as a week . Drifts covered entire 2 story houses . A total of 103 inches of snow was recorded at Oswego , 50 inches of this falling on the last day of the storm alone . 50 inches of snow were also recorded at Camden , New York on the same day . The last day of the blizzard the winds subsided and snowburst conditions prevailed , with the snow falling straight down . Fair Haven did not have official snowfall records at the time , but state troopers reported measuring 100 inches of snow on the level , where none had been prior to the storm . Syracuse , New York received a record snowfall of 42.3 inches which remained their heaviest storm on record , until the Blizzard of 1993 . The storm lasted from January 27 to January 31 , 1966 , a total of 4 1/2 days . The daily snowfall totals for Oswego are as follows . January 27 , 1966 : 8 '' January 28 , 1966 : 12 '' January 29 , 1966 : 11 '' January 30 , 1966 : 21 '' January 31 , 1966 : 50 '' On January 22 -- 23 of 1966 , two other New York counties , Batavia and Genesee , each had 2 feet of snow fall on that Saturday night alone . The only thing that prevented that snowstorm from becoming a true blizzard like this infamous one of the very next weekend was the lack of high winds .", "qid": "401", "docid": "North_American_blizzard_of_1966", "rank": 67, "score": 99029 }, { "content": "Title: Summer of 1976 (Europe) Content: The summer of 1976 was considered to be one of the hottest summers in Europe ( and especially the United Kingdom ) within recent memory . A large high-pressure area dominated most of Europe for all of the summer months . The pressure system moved into place in late May 1976 and remained until the first traces of rain were recorded on August 27 . Rainfall throughout the July -- August period was down by half the annual average . During this spell of hot weather temperatures exceeded 32 ° C ( 89.6 ° F ) at several weather stations within the United Kingdom every day and the town of Cheltenham had eleven , including seven successive days from the 1st of July - recording 35.9 ° C ( 96.6 ° F ) on the 3rd . For the entire period much of Europe was bathed in continual sunshine with the United Kingdom seeing an average of more than 14 hours of sunshine per day . 1976 was dubbed `` The year of the Ladybird '' in that country due to the rise in the mass numbers of ladybirds brought on by the long hot period . `` The long hot summer of 1976 which eventually ended in September of that year , was the culmination of a 16-week dry spell - the longest recorded over England and Wales since 1727 . `` Quote From Met Office The summer of 1976 is by now a firmly established reference point for discussion in the UK of contemporary hot spells .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Summer_of_1976_(Europe)", "rank": 68, "score": 98879 }, { "content": "Title: 1879 English cricket season Content: The 1879 English cricket season saw Lancashire claim a share of the title for the first time . The summer was the coolest and wettest over the two-and-a-half centuries of climatic records in England , and during the early part of the twentieth century exceptionally wet seasons such as 1903 , 1912 , 1924 and 1927 were very frequently compared to 1879 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1879_English_cricket_season", "rank": 69, "score": 98870 }, { "content": "Title: Geologic temperature record Content: The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth 's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion ( 109 ) year time scales . The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Geologic_temperature_record", "rank": 70, "score": 98573 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-4 Content: NOAA-4 , also known as ITOS-G was a weather satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . It was part of a series of satellites called ITOS , or improved TIROS . NOAA-4 was launched on a Delta rocket on 15 November 1974 . The launch carried two other satellites : AMSAT-OSCAR 7 and Intasat . It remained operational for 1463 days until it was deactivated by NOAA on 18 November 1978 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "NOAA-4", "rank": 71, "score": 98563 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American heat wave Content: The 1936 North American heat wave was the most severe heat wave in the modern history of North America . It took place in the middle of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s , and caused catastrophic human suffering and an enormous economic toll . The death toll exceeded 5,000 , and huge numbers of crops were destroyed by the heat and lack of moisture . Many state and city record high temperatures set during the 1936 heat wave stood until the Summer 2012 North American heat wave . The 1936 heat wave followed one of the coldest winters on record .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1936_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 72, "score": 98545 }, { "content": "Title: 1901 eastern United States heat wave Content: The 1901 eastern United States heat wave was the most severe and deadly heat wave in the United States prior to the 1930s dust bowl . Although the heat wave did not set many still-standing daily temperature records , it was exceptionally prolonged -- covering without interruption the second half of June and all of July -- and centred upon more highly populated areas than later American heat waves . The heat wave accompanied a major drought in the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest , with Illinois having what remains its driest calendar year since records have been kept , and Missouri being only 0.21 in above its driest calendar year of 1953 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1901_eastern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 73, "score": 98521 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 74, "score": 98335 }, { "content": "Title: Central England temperature Content: The Central England Temperature ( CET ) record is a meteorological dataset originally published by Professor Gordon Manley in 1953 and subsequently extended and updated in 1974 , following many decades of painstaking work . The monthly mean surface air temperatures , for the Midlands region of England , are given ( in degrees Celsius ) from the year 1659 to the present . This record represents the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence . It is a valuable dataset for meteorologists and climate scientists . It is monthly from 1659 , and a daily version has been produced from 1772 . The monthly means from November 1722 onwards are given to a precision of 0.1 ° C . The earliest years of the series , from 1659 to October 1722 inclusive , for the most part only have monthly means given to the nearest degree or half a degree , though there is a small ` window ' of 0.1 degree precision from 1699 to 1706 inclusive . This reflects the number , accuracy , reliability and geographical spread of the temperature records that were available for the years in question .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Central_England_temperature", "rank": 75, "score": 98302 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-7 Content: NOAA-7 , designated NOAA-C before launch , was an American weather satellite launched in June 1981 as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's Polar Operational Environmental Satellites ( POES ) program . It was used to support the Global Atmospheric Research Program ( GARP ) during 1978 -- 1984 . An earlier launch , NOAA-B , was scheduled to become NOAA-7 , however NOAA-B failed to reach its required orbit . The launch of NOAA-7 took place at 10:52:59 UTC ( 3:53 a.m. PST ) on 23 June 1981 from Space Launch Complex 3W at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California . NOAA-7 was launched atop an Atlas E/F rocket with a Star-37S-ISS upper stage . The NOAA-7 satellite had a mass of 588.9 kg . The satellite 's design provided an economical and stable sun synchronous platform for advanced operational instruments to measure the Earth 's atmosphere , its surface and cloud cover , and the near space environment . The primary sensors included an Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer ( AVHRR ) and a TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder ( TOVS ) . One of the primary mission sensors , the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder ( HIRS ) , failed 7 February 1985 . There were a number of secondary experiments on-board NOAA-7 . These include a Space Environment Monitor ( SEM ) and a Data Collection and Platform Location System ( DCPLS ) . The United States Air Force also provided a contamination monitor to assess contamination sources , levels and effects for consideration on future spacecraft . NOAA-7 was based upon the Block 5D spacecraft bus developed for the U.S. Air Force . The satellite was capable of maintaining an earth-pointing accuracy of better than ± 0.1 ° with a motion rate of less than 0.035 degrees/second . NOAA-7 was withdrawn from use in June 1986 after its power system malfunctioned . In August 1997 the decommissioned satellite experienced an abrupt 1 second change in orbital period . At the same time 3 new debris particles were observed . It is unclear if this was caused by an internal release of energy or collision with an unidentified object . As of 8 December 2013 , the derelict satellite remains in a 834 by orbit , inclined at 98.87 degrees and with a period of 101.62 minutes .", "qid": "401", "docid": "NOAA-7", "rank": 76, "score": 98126 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-19 Content: NOAA-19 , designated NOAA-N ' ( NOAA-N Prime ) prior to launch , is the last of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's POES series of weather satellites ( which was scheduled to be replaced by the next-generation NPOESS series before the NPOESS project was cancelled ) . NOAA-19 was launched on February 6 , 2009 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "NOAA-19", "rank": 77, "score": 97970 }, { "content": "Title: Brown ocean effect Content: The brown ocean effect is an observed weather phenomenon where tropical cyclones , which are commonly expected to lose energy when they make landfall , instead maintain strength or intensify over land surfaces . While these systems are highly common in the United States and China , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) names Australia the most conducive environment after 30 years of research . In Australia such storm systems are called agukabams . One source of the brown ocean effect has been identified as the large amount of latent heat that can be released from extremely wet soils . A 2013 NASA study found that , from 1979-2008 , 45 of 227 tropical storms either gained or maintained strength after making landfall . The press release stated , `` The land essentially mimics the moisture-rich environment of the ocean , where the storm originated . '' Originally , countless research devoted to extratropical cyclones , storms that first derive energy from the warm ocean waters and later from the conjecture of various air masses , explained the intensification of storms after landfall . However , as research into these storms persists , Anderson and Shepherd , the two leading scientists behind the NASA study , discovered that some of these storms were not transitioning from warm-core to cold-core but were actually maintaining their warm-core dynamics , while ultimately outputting a greater measure of rainfall . In order for the brown ocean effect to take place , three land conditions must be met : `` First , the lower level of the atmosphere mimics a tropical atmosphere with minimal variation in temperature . Second , soils in the vicinity of the storms need to contain ample moisture . Finally , evaporation of the soil moisture releases latent heat , which the team found must measure at least 70 watts averaged per square meter . '' Storm systems impacted by the brown ocean effect gave rise to a new sub-category of tropical storm type called Tropical Cyclone Maintenance and Intensification Event or TCMI . Another study concluded that latent surface heat flux from land surfaces actually have the potential to be larger than from the ocean , albeit for brief periods only . Anderson and Shepherd are also examining the effects of climate change on TCMIs , looking into the potential intensification of these storms due to increase or decrease in the degree of wetness and dryness in areas susceptible to these systems .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Brown_ocean_effect", "rank": 78, "score": 97846 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Antarctica Content: The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth . Antarctica 's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983 , with − 89.2 C at Vostok Station . Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures , down to − 93.2 C at the cloud free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010 . It is also extremely dry ( technically a desert ) , averaging 166 mm of precipitation per year . On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet . Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent , because of the katabatic winds . Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate ( Köppen EF ) with very cold , generally extremely dry weather .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Climate_of_Antarctica", "rank": 79, "score": 97803 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1894–95 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1894 -- 95 was severe for the British Isles with a CET of 1.27 C . Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain . Whereas the average CET for the ten winters from 1885 -- 86 to 1894 -- 95 was 2.87 C , no winter with a CET under 3.0 C followed for twenty-two years and no month as cold as February or January 1895 until 1940 . In contrast , between 1659 and 1894 no spell with every winter CET above 3.0 C had lasted longer than twelve winters . Although this winter -- which featured the lowest North Atlantic Oscillation index between 1882 and 1962 with lower values recorded only in 1880/1881 , 1962/1963 and 1968/1969 -- affected most of Europe and North America very severely , the difficulties Britain had coping with it vis-à-vis the United States and Germany is seen as marking a beginning in the decline of British hegemony in global affairs . The severe winter led to mass unemployment and severe disruptions to shipping on the River Thames , which froze for the last time on record . Because mass political activism had not yet created the welfare state , most workers were left without sustenance and in industrial centres large soup kitchens were widespread to feed these people . There were also numerous skating festivals organised to take advantage of the unusually cold and sunny weather , with up to fifty thousand people skating on The Serpentine in London 's Hyde Park and speed skating races being widely popular and generating money to be used for relief of the poor , and in some cases to provide them with temporary work as vendors for spectators . Coal supplies dwindled as transporting coal by river was impossible , whilst many recently introduced exotic plants were killed by the cold .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Winter_of_1894–95_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 80, "score": 97758 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 81, "score": 97628 }, { "content": "Title: Great Frost of 1709 Content: The Great Frost , as it was known in England , or Le Grand Hiver ( `` The Great Winter '' ) , as it was known in France , was an extraordinarily cold winter in Europe in late 1708 and early 1709 , and was the coldest European winter during the past 500 years . The severe cold occurred during the time of low sunspot activity known as the Maunder Minimum .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Great_Frost_of_1709", "rank": 82, "score": 97339 }, { "content": "Title: Warm on a Cold Night Content: Warm on a Cold Night is the debut studio album by British electronic duo Honne . It was released on 22 July 2016 by Tatemae and Atlantic Records . The album features guest appearance by British singer-songwriter Izzy Bizu .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Warm_on_a_Cold_Night", "rank": 83, "score": 97273 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-B Content: NOAA-B was a spacecraft in the TIROS-N series launched by NASA on 29 May 1980 . Intended for a sun-synchronous orbit , the spacecraft entered a lower , elliptical orbit due to a launch vehicle malfunction resulting in a failed mission . Had the launch been successful it would have been designated NOAA-7 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "NOAA-B", "rank": 84, "score": 96809 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Sinks Content: Peter Sinks is a natural sinkhole in northern Utah that is one of the coldest places in the contiguous United States . Peter Sinks is located 8100 ft above sea level , in the Bear River Mountains east of Logan , within the Wasatch-Cache National Forest . Due to temperature inversions that trap cold nocturnal air , it routinely produces the coldest temperatures in the state . Even in the summer , the bottom of the sinkhole rarely goes four consecutive days without freezing . It is so cold near the bottom of the hole that trees are unable to grow . On 1 February 1985 , a temperature of -69.3 ° F was recorded there , the lowest recorded temperature in Utah , and the second coldest temperature ever recorded in the continental United States . Peter Sinks was discovered meteorologically by Utah State University student Zane Stephens in 1983 . Stephens , along with the Utah Climate Center , placed measuring instruments in the valley in the winter of 1984 . On February 1 , 1985 , Peter Sinks dropped to -69.3 ° F , while another nearby valley , Middle Sink , located 3 mi to the north-east , dropped to -64 ° F. Stephens hiked into Middle Sink to record the temperature personally . He then flew into Peter Sinks in a KUTV television station helicopter with broadcasting Meteorologist Mark Eubank . State Climatologist Gayle Bingham also traveled to the area and confirmed the temperature . The alcohol thermometer being used was retrieved and sent to the Bureau of Standards in Washington , D.C. to confirm the temperature . Since 1985 , Peter Sinks and Middle Sink have been studied extensively by Stephens and Tim Wright with the use of Campbell Scientific weather equipment . On January 29 , 2002 , the temperature dropped to -62 ° F at Middle Sink . Stephens and Wright 's main study is the change in temperature through the inversion at these sites . The valleys act like a dam trapping cold air . The coldest of the air settles to the bottom of the valley . Stephens and Wright have found that temperatures between the cold air `` lake '' and the warmer air above the valley can be different by as much as 70 ° F-change .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Peter_Sinks", "rank": 85, "score": 96533 }, { "content": "Title: List of extreme temperatures in Canada Content: In various locations in Canada , extreme temperatures are often recorded . Here is a list of 15 extreme hot and cold temperature recorded in Canada for the past 120 years , not necessarily the hottest or coldest 15 but some are shown for selected cities or regions , ( e.g. Toronto ) . These are officially recognized extreme temperatures by Environment Canada .", "qid": "401", "docid": "List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Canada", "rank": 86, "score": 96479 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 Eastern North America heat wave Content: The 1911 Eastern North America heat wave was an 11-day heat wave in New York City and other Eastern cities that killed 380 people starting on July 4 , 1911 . In Nashua , New Hampshire , the temperature peaked at 106 degrees Fahrenheit ( 41 C ) . In New York City , 146 people and 600 horses died . In Boston , the temperature rose to 104 ° ( 40 ° C ) on July 4 , an all-time record high that still stands today .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1911_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 87, "score": 96250 }, { "content": "Title: 2008 Afghanistan blizzard Content: The 2008 Afghanistan blizzard was a fierce but not a record-breaking blizzard that struck Afghanistan in February 2008 . Temperatures fell to a low of -30 C , with up to 180 centimetres of snow in the more mountainous regions , killing at least 926 people . Aid organizations and foreign troops distributed several tons of clothing , blankets , food and fuel in provinces throughout the country and in remote , mountainous villages . The hospitals performed frostbite amputations on at least 100 people across the country , as many walked barefoot in the freezing cold mud and snow . The weather also claimed more than 100,000 sheep and goats , and nearly 315,000 cattle died .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2008_Afghanistan_blizzard", "rank": 88, "score": 96212 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2014 North American cold wave Content: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013 -- 2014 winter season , and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States . The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex . Record-low temperatures also extended well into March . On January 2 , an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States , resulting in heavy snowfall . Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels , and low temperature records were broken across the United States . Business , school , and road closures were common , as well as mass flight cancellations . Altogether , more than 200 million people were affected , in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Early_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 89, "score": 96198 }, { "content": "Title: Operation Hot Winter Content: Operation Hot Winter ( מבצע חורף חם , Mivtza Horef Ham ) , also called Operation Warm Winter , was an Israel Defense Forces military campaign in the Gaza Strip , launched on February 29 , 2008 in response to Qassam rockets fired from the Strip by Hamas onto Israeli civilians . At least 112 Palestinian militants and civilians , along with three Israelis , were killed , and more than 150 Palestinians and seven Israelis were injured . There was some international concern over the scale of the operation , with the United States Department of State encouraging Israel to exercise caution to avoid the loss of innocent life , and the United Nations criticising Israel 's `` disproportionate use of force '' . The European Union demanded an immediate end to Palestinian militant rocket attacks on Israel and also Israel 's `` disproportionate use of force '' .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Operation_Hot_Winter", "rank": 90, "score": 96166 }, { "content": "Title: 1937 Indianapolis 500 Content: The 25th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday , May 31 , 1937 . With temperatures topping out at 92 ° F , it is one of the hottest days on record for the Indy 500 . Late in the race , Wilbur Shaw held a comfortable lead , and had lapped second place Ralph Hepburn . With about 20 laps to go , however , Shaw 's car had been leaking oil , and had nearly lost nearly all of the oil out of the crankcase . In addition , the right rear tire was heavily worn . Shaw slowed down considerably in an effort to nurse his car to the finish line . Shaw and his riding mechanic John `` Jigger '' Johnson were both suffering from burns due to the leaking oil . Second place Hepburn realized Shaw 's problems , and began a charge to catch him . He unlapped himself , and went on a tear in hopes of victory . As the laps dwindled down , Ralph Hepburn was closing dramatically . Shaw was largely defenseless , as he was carefully nursing the car around . As the car went in and out of the turns , the oil pressure was rising and dropping , and Shaw was calculating how much time he could give up per lap and still maintain the lead . Hepburn closed to a straightaway deficit , then was nearly in reach . On the final lap Hepburn pulled to within a few seconds , and by the last turn he was directly behind Shaw and looking to pass him for the win . With nothing to lose , Shaw floored the accelerator and pulled away down the final straight . He held off Hepburn for the win by 2.16 seconds , the closest finish in Indy 500 history to that point . The margin would stand as the closest finish ever at Indy until 1982 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "1937_Indianapolis_500", "rank": 91, "score": 96143 }, { "content": "Title: Nasha Niva Content: Nasha Niva ( Belarusian : Наша Ніва , Naša Niva , literally Our field ) is one of the oldest Belarusian weekly newspapers , founded in 1906 and re-established in 1991 . The current editor-in-chief is Andrej Skurko , who succeeded Andrej Dyńko .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Nasha_Niva", "rank": 92, "score": 96005 }, { "content": "Title: 2008–09 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season was the Australian bushfire season that ran from late December 2008 to April/May 2009 . Above average rainfalls in December , particularly in Victoria , delayed the start of the season , but by January 2009 , conditions throughout South eastern Australia worsened with the onset of one of the region 's worst heat waves . On 7 February , extreme bushfire conditions precipitated major bushfires throughout Victoria , involving several large fire complexes , which continued to burn across the state for around one month . 173 people lost their lives in these fires and 414 were injured . 3,500 + buildings were destroyed , including 2,029 houses , and 7,562 people displaced . Late 2008 had relatively few bushfires . Victoria in particular experienced higher than average rainfall in December , decreasing the fire danger in many regions of the state . Initial observations in October 2008 predicted an above average fire potential across Australia 's coastal regions and a below average potential in Central Australia , where drought has reduced the available fuel . In late January and early February , the effects of the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave increased temperatures across south-eastern Australia , particularly in Victoria and South Australia , where several locations broke all time temperature records . Various days of high wind speed , combined with the hot dry conditions , created extreme bushfire conditions between 25 January and 7 February 2009 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2008–09_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 93, "score": 95992 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 94, "score": 95887 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Pakistan heat wave Content: In April 2017 , a severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 51 ° C ( 124 ° F ) hit Pakistan , especially its southern parts . This heat wave broke the old temperature records of many cities in the country for the month of April . Larkana , a city in the southern province of Sindh , experienced the highest maximum temperature of 51.0 ° C on 20 April , breaking the previous day 's record of 50 ° C.", "qid": "401", "docid": "2017_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 95, "score": 95874 }, { "content": "Title: Cold Atom Laboratory Content: Cold Atom Laboratory ( CAL ) is an experimental instrument being developed for launch to the International Space Station ( ISS ) in June 2017 . The instrument will create extremely cold conditions in the microgravity environment of the ISS leading to the formation of Bose Einstein Condensates that are a magnitude colder than those that are created in laboratories on Earth . In a space-based laboratory , up to 20 seconds interaction times and as low as 1 picokelvin temperatures are achievable , and it could lead to exploration of unknown quantum mechanical phenomena and test some of the most fundamental laws of physics . NASA 's JPL scientists state that the CAL investigation could advance knowledge in the development of extremely sensitive quantum detectors , which could be used for monitoring the gravity of Earth and other planetary bodies , or for building advanced navigation devices . The initial mission will have a duration of 12 months with up to five years of extended operation .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Cold_Atom_Laboratory", "rank": 96, "score": 95827 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "401", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 97, "score": 95749 }, { "content": "Title: Port Walter Content: Port Walter is located on the southeastern side of Baranof Island in Sitka City and Borough , Alaska . It is made up of two parts : Little Port Walter and Big Port Walter . Little Port Walter was the home of a herring saltery during the turn on the century and the ruins can still be seen . Little Port Walter had a small community at one time but has been replaced by a research station that studies the life cycles of several species of Salmon . There is a staff of 3 -- 15 state and federal employees running the research station year-round . There is a dock , and the harbor itself is a safe anchorage . Little Port Walter receives an average annual precipitation of over 225 in and as such is the wettest permanent settlement in the United States and among the wettest in the world with lengthy climate records . As many as seventy-eight days per year see over 1 in of rain and/or snowfall per year , while in October 1974 69.23 in of rain fell and in January 1985 61.67 in . The record daily rainfall was 14.84 in on 6 December 1964 . The driest month was February 1989 with 0.63 in , while the hottest day on record was 12 August 1990 with 88 F and the coldest 2 January 1966 with 0 F overnight . The heaviest snowfall in a month was 94.2 in in December 2001 .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Port_Walter", "rank": 98, "score": 95735 }, { "content": "Title: Mitraba Content: Mitraba is a barren land in the northern Kuwait region , it currently holds the record of highest temperature ever recorded in Asia on 15 June 2010 when the mercury rose up to 55 ° C ( 131 ° F )", "qid": "401", "docid": "Mitraba", "rank": 99, "score": 95699 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "401", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 100, "score": 95654 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 1, "score": 141415 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 2, "score": 139151 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 3, "score": 135918 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "404", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 4, "score": 130783 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 5, "score": 128328 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 6, "score": 126011 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "404", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 7, "score": 124006 }, { "content": "Title: Cap carbonate Content: Cap carbonates are layers of distinctively textured carbonate rocks which typically form the uppermost layer of sedimentary sequences reflecting major glaciations in the geological record . The rising temperatures , and increased oceanic surface area - due to reduced ice cover and rising sea levels - at the end of a glaciation increase the rate of precipitation . High concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) must build up in the atmosphere to overcome the effect of the high reflectivity ( albedo ) of ice and allow temperatures to rise sufficiently to begin melting . Increased precipitation dissolves carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , falling as a weak carbonic acid - acid rain . This would weather exposed silicate and carbonate rock , including readily-attacked glacial debris , which would release large amounts of calcium . When washed into the ocean , these precipitate to form distinctively textured layers of carbonate sedimentary rock . A heavily debated cap carbonate appears at the top of the Gaskiers glaciation , believed by many to be global in extent .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Cap_carbonate", "rank": 8, "score": 122569 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 9, "score": 121094 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 10, "score": 120664 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 11, "score": 119182 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "404", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 12, "score": 117365 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 13, "score": 115884 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 14, "score": 115028 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 15, "score": 114506 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 16, "score": 114082 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 17, "score": 113444 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 18, "score": 113314 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 19, "score": 111434 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 20, "score": 110846 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 21, "score": 110469 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 22, "score": 109527 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 23, "score": 107800 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 24, "score": 107469 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 25, "score": 107274 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 26, "score": 107033 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 27, "score": 106724 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 28, "score": 106678 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "404", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 29, "score": 106018 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 30, "score": 105867 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling Curve Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Keeling_Curve", "rank": 31, "score": 105466 }, { "content": "Title: Fisheries and climate change Content: Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Fisheries_and_climate_change", "rank": 32, "score": 105052 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 33, "score": 104753 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "404", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 34, "score": 104393 }, { "content": "Title: Kaya identity Content: The Kaya identity is an identity stating that the total emission level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be expressed as the product of four factors : human population , GDP per capita , energy intensity ( per unit of GDP ) , and carbon intensity ( emissions per unit of energy consumed ) . It is a concrete form of the more general I = PAT equation relating factors that determine the level of human impact on climate . The Kaya identity is both simple and tricky , as it can be reduced to only two terms , but it is developed so that the carbon emission calculation becomes easy , as per the available data , or generally in which format the data is available .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Kaya_identity", "rank": 35, "score": 104250 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 36, "score": 103516 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 37, "score": 102824 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 38, "score": 102809 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon governance in England Content: The reduction of carbon emissions , along with other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , has become a vitally important task of international , national and local actors . If we understand governance as the creation of `` conditions for ordered rule and collective action '' then , given the fact that the reduction of carbon emissions will require concerted collective action , it follows that the governance of carbon will be of paramount concern . We have seen numerous international conferences over the past 20 years tasked with finding a way of facilitating this , and while international agreements have been infamously difficult to reach , action at the national level has been much more effective . In the UK , the Climate Change Act 2008 committed the government to meeting significant carbon reduction targets . In England , these carbon emissions are governed using numerous different instruments , which involve a variety of actors . While it has been argued by authors like Rhodes that there has been a `` hollowing out '' of the nation state , and that governments have lost their capabilities to govern to a variety of non-state actors and the European Union , the case of carbon governance in England actually runs counter to this . The government body responsible for the task , the Department of Energy and Climate Change ( DECC ) , is the `` main external dynamic '' behind governing actions in this area , and `` rather than hollowing out ( there has actually been a strengthening of ) central co-ordination '' . The department may rely on other bodies to deliver its desired outcomes , but it is still ultimately responsible for the imposition of the rules and regulations that `` steer ( carbon ) governmental action at the national level '' . It is therefore evident that carbon governance in England is hierarchical in nature , in that `` legislative decisions and executive decisions '' are the main dynamic behind carbon governance action . This does not deny the existence of a network of bodies around DECC who are part of the process , but they are supplementary actors who are steered by central decisions . This article focuses on carbon governance in England as the other countries of the UK ( Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland ) all have devolved assemblies who are responsible for the governance of carbon emissions in their respective countries .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_governance_in_England", "rank": 39, "score": 102377 }, { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 40, "score": 101395 }, { "content": "Title: North American Carbon Program Content: The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "qid": "404", "docid": "North_American_Carbon_Program", "rank": 41, "score": 101310 }, { "content": "Title: Geologic temperature record Content: The Geologic temperature record are changes in Earth 's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion ( 109 ) year time scales . The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a crucial component of the climate and oceanography of the time .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Geologic_temperature_record", "rank": 42, "score": 101225 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "404", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 43, "score": 101012 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 44, "score": 100860 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and potatoes Content: Global warming is predicted to have significant effects on global potato production . Like many crops , potatoes are likely to be affected by changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide , temperature and precipitation , as well as interactions between these factors . As well as affecting potatoes directly , climate change will also affect the distributions and populations of many potato diseases and pests . Potato is one of the world 's most important food crops . Potato production must be adapted to climate change to avoid reductions in crop yields .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_and_potatoes", "rank": 45, "score": 100858 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 46, "score": 99990 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 47, "score": 99181 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "404", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 48, "score": 99150 }, { "content": "Title: Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility Content: The Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility ( ZOTTO ) is a climatic research station in the Siberian taiga in the proximity of Zotino , Russia , established and operated by the Max Planck Society and the Sukachev Institute of Forest , it serves as a long-term observing platform to be operated for at least 30 years . Far from human influences , researchers aim to determine how the concentration of greenhouse gases , aerosols , and the rising temperatures of the terrestrial atmosphere affect each other mutually . The heart of the station is a 302 m tower on which precision instruments measure the concentration of carbon dioxide , methane and other greenhouse gases . The measurement data are processed directly in the station at the foot of the tower and then transferred to the Institute of Forest , in Krasnoyarsk , Russia , as well as to the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena , Germany . The station has been operational since September 2006 . It extended the project Terrestrial Carbon Observing System and was funded by the 5th framework programme of the European Union , uniting 8 European and 4 Russian partners . A main conclusion of the project is that Siberian forests constitute a substantially smaller carbon-sink than so far assumed .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Zotino_Tall_Tower_Observation_Facility", "rank": 49, "score": 98582 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 50, "score": 98539 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 51, "score": 98139 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record Content: For extreme records instead of records as a set of data , see List of weather records The temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time . The most detailed information exists since 1850 , when methodical thermometer-based records began . There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation , particularly during the current Holocene epoch . Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Temperature_record", "rank": 52, "score": 97868 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 53, "score": 97104 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 54, "score": 96968 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom weather records Content:", "qid": "404", "docid": "United_Kingdom_weather_records", "rank": 55, "score": 96570 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 56, "score": 96343 }, { "content": "Title: Territorialisation of carbon governance Content: Territorialisation of Carbon Governance ( ToCG ) is a concept used in political geography or environmental policy which is considered to be a new logic of environmental governance . This method creates carbon-relevant citizens who become enrolled in the process of governing the climate . The territorialisation of carbon governance transforms climate change from a global to local issue . It embodies political practices that serve to connect the causes and consequences of global climate change to local communities . The commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions ( GHG ) has been a key component of sustainability within governance since the early 1990s . The ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments which brings together 1200 cities , towns and the associated 70 countries in their commitment to sustainable development . Further responses that seek to address these issues , include international body the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , the Rio Earth Summit and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . These organisations strive to tackle anthropogenic forces which are increasing risks of global warming . Under the territorialisation of carbon , climate and global flows of carbon are regarded as ` national sinks ' . This is a means by which the carbon cycle can be managed and territorialised through being assigned to a physical geographical space instead of being thought of as a global phenomenon . The act of territorialisation oversees the combining of material natures and state institutions into one system through the creation of carbon territories . This approach can allow individual states and governments to control and monitor their carbon emissions in order to improve their efforts in carbon governance . Carbon governance can be interpreted as the institutional arrangements under which greenhouse gas emissions are addressed and mitigated . This is achieved through regulating and controlling carbon activities . Measures and protocols exist in an attempt to address the issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions . Carbon governance is addressed via governmental decisions made through leadership and management which attempt to improve and resolve problems related to climate change .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Territorialisation_of_carbon_governance", "rank": 57, "score": 96283 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 58, "score": 96121 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 59, "score": 95616 }, { "content": "Title: Eddy covariance Content: The eddy covariance ( also known as eddy correlation and eddy flux ) technique is a key atmospheric measurement technique to measure and calculate vertical turbulent fluxes within atmospheric boundary layers . The method analyzes high-frequency wind and scalar atmospheric data series , and yields values of fluxes of these properties . It is a statistical method used in meteorology and other applications ( micrometeorology , oceanography , hydrology , agricultural sciences , industrial and regulatory applications , etc. ) to determine exchange rates of trace gases over natural ecosystems and agricultural fields , and to quantify gas emissions rates from other land and water areas . It is frequently used to estimate momentum , heat , water vapour , carbon dioxide and methane fluxes The technique is also used extensively for verification and tuning of global climate models , mesoscale and weather models , complex biogeochemical and ecological models , and remote sensing estimates from satellites and aircraft . The technique is mathematically complex , and requires significant care in setting up and processing data . To date , there is no uniform terminology or a single methodology for the Eddy Covariance technique , but much effort is being made by flux measurement networks ( e.g. , FluxNet , Ameriflux , ICOS , CarboEurope , Fluxnet Canada , OzFlux , NEON , and iLEAPS ) to unify the various approaches . The technique has additionally proven applicable under water to the benthic zone for measuring oxygen fluxes between seafloor and overlying water . In these environments , the technique is generally known as the eddy correlation technique , or just eddy correlation . Oxygen fluxes are extracted from raw measurements largely following the same principles as used in the atmosphere , and they are typically used as a proxy for carbon exchange , which is important for local and global carbon budgets . For most benthic ecosystems , eddy correlation is the most accurate technique for measuring in-situ fluxes . The technique 's development and its applications under water remains a fruitful area of research .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Eddy_covariance", "rank": 60, "score": 95271 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 61, "score": 95164 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 62, "score": 94851 }, { "content": "Title: Enhanced weathering Content: Enhanced weathering refers to geoengineering approaches that use the dissolution of natural or artificially created minerals to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Since the carbon dioxide is usually first removed from ocean water , these approaches would attack the problem by first reducing ocean acidification .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Enhanced_weathering", "rank": 63, "score": 94591 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 64, "score": 94523 }, { "content": "Title: Suess effect Content: The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Suess_effect", "rank": 65, "score": 94390 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 66, "score": 94324 }, { "content": "Title: Evangelical Climate Initiative Content: The Evangelical Climate Initiative ( ECI ) is a campaign by US-American church leaders and organizations to promote market based mechanisms to mitigate global warming . ECI 's first statement , calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions , was initially signed by 86 evangelical leaders . Signatories included Rick Warren , the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges , and the leader of the Salvation Army . The number of signatories had risen to over 100 by December 2007 , and as of July 2011 over 220 evangelical leaders had signed the call to action . David P. Gushee , a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University , helped draft the document . When the Evangelical Climate Initiative launched in February 2006 , the National Association of Evangelicals ( NAE ) was not ready to make such a commitment . Not quite a year later , the NAE worked with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to bring scientists and evangelical Christian leaders together to mitigate climate change . As ABC News reported :", "qid": "404", "docid": "Evangelical_Climate_Initiative", "rank": 67, "score": 94193 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 68, "score": 93914 }, { "content": "Title: Angry Summer Content: The Australian summer of 2012 -- 2013 , known as the Angry Summer or Extreme Summer , resulted in 123 weather records being broken over a 90-day period , including the hottest day ever recorded for Australia as a whole , the hottest January on record , the hottest summer average on record , and a record seven days in a row when the whole continent averaged above 39 ° C. Single-day temperature records were broken in dozens of towns and cities , as well as single-day rainfall records , and several rivers flooded to new record highs . In January 2013 , the Bureau of Meteorology altered its weather forecasting chart 's temperature scale to include a range , coloured purple , between 52 ° and 54 ° C . The reporting of the heatwave in the Australian media attracted controversy in the scientific community , as very few articles cited a correlation between the event and climate change , which it was correlated with according to studies conducted by the University of Melbourne .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Angry_Summer", "rank": 69, "score": 93447 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 70, "score": 93263 }, { "content": "Title: Kenneth Hare Content: Fredrick Kenneth Hare , ( February 5 , 1919 -- September 3 , 2002 ) was a Canadian climatologist and academic , who researched atmospheric carbon dioxide , climate change , drought , and arid zone climates and was a strong advocate for preserving the natural environment .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Kenneth_Hare", "rank": 71, "score": 93205 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide clathrate Content: Carbon dioxide hydrate is a snow-like crystalline substance composed of water ice and carbon dioxide . It normally is a Type I gas clathrate . However , there has been some experimental evidence for the development of a metastable Type II phase at A temperature near the ice melting point . The clathrate can exist below 283K ( 10 ° C ) at a range of pressures of carbon dioxide . It is quite likely to be important on Mars due to the presence of carbon dioxide and ice at low temperatures .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_clathrate", "rank": 72, "score": 92719 }, { "content": "Title: Climate engineering Content: Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation . Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility . Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy . Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts . Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_engineering", "rank": 73, "score": 92278 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in China Content: The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_in_China", "rank": 74, "score": 92255 }, { "content": "Title: Gilbert Plass Content: Gilbert Norman Plass ( 22 March 1920 -- 1 March 2004 ) was a Canadian physicist who in the 1950s made predictions about the increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 20th century and its effect on the average temperature of the planet that closely match measurements reported half a century later . Plass worked most of his life as a physicist in the United States . He graduated from Harvard University in 1941 and earned a PhD in physics from Princeton University in 1947 . He worked as an associate physicist at the Metallurgical Laboratory ( Manhattan District ) of the University of Chicago from 1942 to 1945 . He became an instructor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in 1946 , and eventually became an associate professor there . In 1955 , leaving academia , he held a job for a year as a staff scientist with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation . He then joined the advanced research staff at the Aeronutronic division of the Ford Motor Company . In 1960 , he became manager of the research lab at Ford 's theoretical physics department and a consulting editor of the journal Infrared Physics ( now called Infrared Physics and Technology ) . In 1963 , he accepted a position as the first professor of atmospheric and space science at the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies ( now the University of Texas at Arlington ) , where he remained for five years . In 1968 , he arrived at Texas A&M University , where he served as professor of physics and head of the department .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Gilbert_Plass", "rank": 75, "score": 91843 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Data Records Content: A Climate Data Record ( CDR ) is a specific definition of a climate data series , developed by the Committee on Climate Data Records from NOAA Operational Satellites of the National Research Council at the request of NOAA in the context of satellite records . It is defined as `` a time series of measurements of sufficient length , consistency , and continuity to determine climate variability and change . '' . Such measurements provide an objective basis for the understanding and prediction of climate and its variability , such as global warming .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_Data_Records", "rank": 76, "score": 91656 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 77, "score": 91017 }, { "content": "Title: Vatican Climate Forest Content: The Vatican Climate Forest , to be located in the Bükk National Park , Hungary , was donated to the Vatican City by a carbon offsetting company . The forest is to be sized to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Vatican during 2007 . The Vatican 's acceptance of the offer , at a ceremony on July 5 , 2007 , was reported as being `` purely symbolic '' , and a way to encourage Catholics to do more to safeguard the planet . No trees have been planted under the project and the carbon offsets have not materialised . In a more effective move to combat global warming , in May 2007 , the Vatican announced that the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall would be covered with photovoltaic panels . The installation was officially placed into service on November 26 , 2008 .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Vatican_Climate_Forest", "rank": 78, "score": 90954 }, { "content": "Title: Individual action on climate change Content: Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Individual_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 79, "score": 90922 }, { "content": "Title: Supercritical carbon dioxide Content: Supercritical carbon dioxide ( s ) is a fluid state of carbon dioxide where it is held at or above its critical temperature and critical pressure . Carbon dioxide usually behaves as a gas in air at standard temperature and pressure ( STP ) , or as a solid called dry ice when frozen . If the temperature and pressure are both increased from STP to be at or above the critical point for carbon dioxide , it can adopt properties midway between a gas and a liquid . More specifically , it behaves as a supercritical fluid above its critical temperature ( 304.25 K ) and critical pressure ( 72.9 atm ) , expanding to fill its container like a gas but with a density like that of a liquid . Supercritical is becoming an important commercial and industrial solvent due to its role in chemical extraction in addition to its low toxicity and environmental impact . The relatively low temperature of the process and the stability of also allows most compounds to be extracted with little damage or denaturing . In addition , the solubility of many extracted compounds in varies with pressure , permitting selective extractions .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Supercritical_carbon_dioxide", "rank": 80, "score": 90752 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon neutrality Content: Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_neutrality", "rank": 81, "score": 90519 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change and agriculture Content: -RSB- Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes , both of which take place on a global scale . Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways , including through changes in average temperatures , rainfall , and climate extremes ( e.g. , heat waves ) ; changes in pests and diseases ; changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and ground-level ozone concentrations ; changes in the nutritional quality of some foods ; and changes in sea level . Climate change is already affecting agriculture , with effects unevenly distributed across the world . Future climate change will likely negatively affect crop production in low latitude countries , while effects in northern latitudes may be positive or negative . Climate change will probably increase the risk of food insecurity for some vulnerable groups , such as the poor . Agriculture contributes to climate change by ( 1 ) anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , and ( 2 ) by the conversion of non-agricultural land ( e.g. , forests ) into agricultural land . Agriculture , forestry and land-use change contributed around 20 to 25 % to global annual emissions in 2010 . There are a range of policies that can reduce the risk of negative climate change impacts on agriculture , and to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_and_agriculture", "rank": 82, "score": 90267 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 83, "score": 90180 }, { "content": "Title: Central England temperature Content: The Central England Temperature ( CET ) record is a meteorological dataset originally published by Professor Gordon Manley in 1953 and subsequently extended and updated in 1974 , following many decades of painstaking work . The monthly mean surface air temperatures , for the Midlands region of England , are given ( in degrees Celsius ) from the year 1659 to the present . This record represents the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence . It is a valuable dataset for meteorologists and climate scientists . It is monthly from 1659 , and a daily version has been produced from 1772 . The monthly means from November 1722 onwards are given to a precision of 0.1 ° C . The earliest years of the series , from 1659 to October 1722 inclusive , for the most part only have monthly means given to the nearest degree or half a degree , though there is a small ` window ' of 0.1 degree precision from 1699 to 1706 inclusive . This reflects the number , accuracy , reliability and geographical spread of the temperature records that were available for the years in question .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Central_England_temperature", "rank": 84, "score": 90069 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sequestration Content: Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_sequestration", "rank": 85, "score": 90024 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United Kingdom Content: Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 86, "score": 89767 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 87, "score": 89713 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 88, "score": 89228 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 89, "score": 88921 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon finance Content: Carbon finance is a new branch of Environmental finance . Carbon finance explores the financial implications of living in a carbon-constrained world , a world in which emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) carry a price . Financial risks and opportunities impact corporate balance sheets , and market-based instruments are capable of transferring environmental risk and achieving environmental objectives . Issues regarding climate change and GHG emissions must be addressed as part of strategic management decision-making . The general term is applied to investments in GHG emission reduction projects and the creation ( origination ) of financial instruments that are tradeable on the carbon market .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_finance", "rank": 90, "score": 88814 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita from 1990 through 2011 . All data was calculated by the US Department of Energy 's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) , mostly based on data collected from country agencies by the United Nations Statistics Division . Countries are ranked by their metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2009 . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use such as deforestation . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The carbon dioxide emissions of a country are only an indicator of one greenhouse gas . For a more complete idea of how a country influences climate change , gases such as methane and nitrous oxide should be taken into account . This is particularly so in agricultural economies . Carbon dioxide emissions are also known for earlier periods . A study of a global sample of twelve countries provide estimates for emissions since 1800 and explores the long-run drivers of carbon dioxide emissions by decomposing changes in carbon emissions into population , income , technological and energy mix changes .", "qid": "404", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 91, "score": 88726 }, { "content": "Title: Climate footprint Content: The term climate footprint has emerged from the field of carbon footprinting , and refers to a measure of the full set of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) controlled under the Kyoto Protocol . A climate footprint is a more comprehensive measure of anthropogenic impact upon the climate than a carbon footprint , but is also more costly and labour-intensive to calculate . A climate footprint is a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent ( CO2e ) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Climate_footprint", "rank": 92, "score": 88601 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 93, "score": 88546 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling (disambiguation) Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that depicts the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the twentieth century . It is named after Charles David Keeling who discovered the rise in carbon dioxide concentrations and plotted the graph . Keeling may also refer to : Keeling , Virginia North Keeling Cocos ( Keeling ) Islands Surname Charles Keeling , climatologist Edward Keeling Harold Keeling John Keeling , MP Ralph Keeling , son of Charles , also climatologist William Keeling , English sea captain", "qid": "404", "docid": "Keeling_(disambiguation)", "rank": 94, "score": 88249 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monitoring Content: Carbon monitoring refers to tracking how much carbon dioxide or methane is produced by particular activity at a particular point in time . For example , it may refer to tracking methane emissions from agriculture , or carbon dioxide emissions from land use changes , such as deforestation , or from burning fossil fuels , whether in a power plant , automobile , or other device . Because carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emitted in the largest quantities , and methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas , monitoring carbon emissions is widely seen as crucial to any effort to reduce emissions and thereby slow climate change . Monitoring carbon emissions is key to the cap-and-trade program currently being used in Europe , as well as the one in California , and will be necessary for any such program in the future , like the Paris Agreement . The lack of reliable sources of consistent data on carbon emissions is a significant barrier to efforts to reduce emissions .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_monitoring", "rank": 95, "score": 88166 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 96, "score": 87651 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 97, "score": 87531 }, { "content": "Title: Proxy (climate) Content: In the study of past climates ( `` paleoclimatology '' ) , climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth 's history . Reliable global records of climate only began in the 1880s , and proxies provide the only means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began . Examples of proxies include ice cores , tree rings , sub-fossil pollen , boreholes , corals , lake and ocean sediments , and carbonate speleothems . The character of deposition or rate of growth of the proxies ' material has been influenced by the climatic conditions of the time in which they were laid down or grew . Chemical traces produced by climatic changes , such as quantities of particular isotopes , can be recovered from proxies . Some proxies , such as gas bubbles trapped in ice , enable traces of the ancient atmosphere to be recovered and measured directly to provide a history of fluctuations in the composition of the Earth 's atmosphere . To produce the most precise results , systematic cross-verification between proxy indicators is necessary for accuracy in readings and record-keeping . Proxies can be combined to produce temperature reconstructions longer than the instrumental temperature record and can inform discussions of global warming . The distribution of proxy records , just like the instrumental record , is not at all uniform , with more records in the northern hemisphere .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Proxy_(climate)", "rank": 98, "score": 87384 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monoxide Content: Carbon monoxide ( CO ) is a colorless , odorless , and tasteless gas that is slightly less dense than air . It is toxic to hemoglobic animals ( both invertebrate and vertebrate , including humans ) when encountered in concentrations above about 35 ppm , although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities , and is thought to have some normal biological functions . In the atmosphere , it is spatially variable and short lived , having a role in the formation of ground-level ozone . Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom , connected by a triple bond that consists of two covalent bonds as well as one dative covalent bond . It is the simplest oxocarbon and is isoelectronic with the cyanide anion , the nitrosonium cation and molecular nitrogen . In coordination complexes the carbon monoxide ligand is called carbonyl .", "qid": "404", "docid": "Carbon_monoxide", "rank": 99, "score": 87226 }, { "content": "Title: Tipping points in the climate system Content: A tipping point in the climate system is a threshold that, when exceeded, can lead to large changes in the state of the system. Potential tipping points have been identified in the physical climate system, in impacted ecosystems, and sometimes in both. For instance, feedback from the global carbon cycle is a driver for the transition between glacial and interglacial periods, with orbital forcing providing the initial trigger. Earth's geologic temperature record includes many more examples of geologically rapid transitions between different climate states.Climate tipping points are of particular interest in reference to concerns about global warming in the modern era. Possible tipping point behaviour has been identified for the global mean surface temperature by studying self-reinforcing feedbacks and the past behavior of Earth's climate system. Self-reinforcing feedbacks in the carbon cycle and planetary reflectivity could trigger a cascading set of tipping points that lead the world into a hothouse climate state.Large-scale components of the Earth system that may pass a tipping point have been referred to as tipping elements. Tipping elements are found in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, possibly causing tens of meters of sea level rise. These tipping points are not always abrupt. For example, at some level of temperature rise the melt of a large part of the Greenland ice sheet and/or West Antarctic Ice Sheet will become inevitable; but the ice sheet itself may persist for many centuries. Some tipping elements, like the collapse of ecosystems, are irreversible.", "qid": "404", "docid": "Tipping_points_in_the_climate_system", "rank": 100, "score": 87200 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 1, "score": 157048 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 2, "score": 147050 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 3, "score": 143096 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 4, "score": 130480 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport in Australia Content: The environmental impact of transport in Australia is considerable . Australia subsidizes fossil fuel energy , keeping prices artificially low and raising greenhouse gas emissions due to the increased use of fossil fuels as a result of the subsidies . The Australian Energy Regulator and state agencies such as the New South Wales ' Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal set and regulate electricity prices , thereby lowering production and consumer cost . According to a report by The Institute for Sustainable Futures ( ISF ) at University of Technology Sydney , titled : `` Energy and Transport Subsidies in Australia '' , roughly 70 % of the country 's greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the energy and transport industries . The uptake of renewable energy in these sectors is slow because of subsidies to fossil fuels and the high cost of acquiring the sophisticated technology required to produce cleaner fuels . Furthermore , fossil fuels are easier to transport and use , compared to renewable energy , which often require sophisticated instruments to acquire and store . The report revealed that for the 2005 -- 2006 financial year , transport subsidies were measured to reach up to $ 10.1 billion , of which 74 % related to transport , 18 % to electricity and 4 % to renewable and efficient energy . These subsidies help energy generation companies increase their profits , therefore encouraging the building of additional coal-fuel power plants . Investing in other , more sustainable , types of electricity generation plants would have cost less than continuing to subsidize the building of these power plants . On a positive note , alternative transport fuels such as natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas are excused from fuel excise/tax . Tax calculated for the use of a company car is calculated as such : the further the person drives the car , the higher the business use and the lower the personal use . Since tax is calculated based on personal use , drivers tend to drive longer distances to lessen the amount of tax that they have to pay . This leads to a higher consumption of vehicular fossil fuels and , subsequently , higher greenhouse gas emissions . Dr Hal Turton , the Group Leader of the Energy Economics Group at Swiss research establishment , the Paul Scherrer Institute , discussed in his report for Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute titled : `` The Aluminium Smelting Industry : Structure , Market Power , Subsidies and Greenhouse Gas Emissions '' , that the yearly electrical use subsidy for the use of the six aluminium smelters in Australia is at least A$ 210 million . According to the report , Australia 's aluminium smelting industry is party to one of the most subsidized electricity charges as compared to other similar establishments . The ISF report found that removing electrical subsidies would bring up electricity prices by 3.9 % , which would lead to a fall in demand of electricity by 1.4 % in the long run . Reducing transport subsidies would increase prices by 32 % , which would lead to a fall in demand worth 18 % . It suggests that subsidies should be removed gradually so as not to hurt drivers who have no choice but to use petrol ( due to the lack of alternatives ) , and that taxpayer 's funds be channeled to subsidize the sustainable energy industry instead . The National Roads and Motorists ' Association ( NRMA ) is pushing for Australian petrol consumption to be reduced by 50 % by 2050 . It is advocating a move towards greener transport , and has called for a reduction of the A$ 10 billion subsidies given to the nation 's fossil fuel industry .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport_in_Australia", "rank": 5, "score": 127216 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 6, "score": 124852 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 7, "score": 124290 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 8, "score": 123534 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon fuel standard Content: A low-carbon fuel standard ( LCFS ) is a rule enacted to reduce carbon intensity in transportation fuels as compared to conventional petroleum fuels , such as gasoline and diesel . The most common low-carbon fuels are alternative fuels and cleaner fossil fuels , such as natural gas ( CNG and LPG ) . The main purpose of a low-carbon fuel standard is to decrease carbon dioxide emissions associated with vehicles powered by various types of internal combustion engines while also considering the entire life cycle ( `` well to wheels '' ) , in order to reduce the carbon footprint of transportation . The first low-carbon fuel standard mandate in the world was enacted by California in 2007 , with specific eligibility criteria defined by the California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) in April 2009 but taking effect in January 2011 . Similar legislation was approved in British Columbia in April 2008 , and by European Union which proposed its legislation in January 2007 and which was adopted in December 2008 . The United Kingdom is implementing its Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation Program , which also applies the concept of low-carbon fuels . Several bills have been proposed in the United States for similar low-carbon fuel regulation at a national level but with less stringent standards than California . As of early 2010 none have been approved . The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) issued its final rule regarding the expanded Renewable Fuel Standard ( RFS2 ) for 2010 and beyond on February 3 , 2010 . This ruling , as mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 ( EISA ) , included direct emissions and significant indirect emissions from land use changes .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Low-carbon_fuel_standard", "rank": 9, "score": 123123 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 10, "score": 122783 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 11, "score": 122046 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in China Content: The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_China", "rank": 12, "score": 121169 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 13, "score": 120351 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 14, "score": 117873 }, { "content": "Title: Fossil Fuel Beta Content: Fossil Fuel Beta ( FFß ) measures the percent change in excess , i.e. , market-adjusted , stock returns for every 1 percent increase in fossil fuel prices . If , for example , a company ( or industry ) has an FFß of -- 0.20 , then a 1 percent increase in fossil fuel prices should produce , on average , a 0.2 % decline in the firm 's stock price over and above the impact arising from fossil fuel price swing on the stock market as a whole . ( Conversely , a 1 percent decrease in fossil fuel prices should produce , on average , an equivalent increase in stock price . ) Converting the FFß into a hypothetical ` EPS-equivalent , ' based on , say , a 10 percent change in fossil fuel prices , it is possible to compare earnings-at-risk for individual companies with their competitors , or even industries with each other .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Fossil_Fuel_Beta", "rank": 15, "score": 114857 }, { "content": "Title: 21st-century fossil fuel regulations in the United States Content: Fossil fuel regulations are part of the energy policy in the United States and have gained major significance with the strong dependence on fossil fuel based energy . Regulatory processes are established at the federal and state level due to the immense economic , socio-political and environmental impact of fossil fuel extraction and production . Over 80 % of the United States ' energy comes from fossil fuels such as coal , natural gas , and oil . The Bush administration was marked by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 , which provided a monetary incentive for renewable energy adoption and addressed the issue of climate change . The Obama administration was made up of advocates for renewable energy and natural gas , while Donald Trump built his campaign on promises to revive the coal industry . Oil , gas , and coal companies have been at odds with policy makers who have supported a wider implementation of renewable energy , with the former often spending millions of dollars to lobby against cleaner energy . The Washington Post reported on February 22 , 2017 Scott Pruitt 's potential special interests with the fossil fuel industry as he began his term as the appointed head of the EPA under the Trump administration . Fossil fuel emission disproportionately affects working class , poor and minority populations . The people most adversely affected also have the least political influence and least access to health care .", "qid": "409", "docid": "21st-century_fossil_fuel_regulations_in_the_United_States", "rank": 16, "score": 114387 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 17, "score": 113696 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 18, "score": 113549 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 19, "score": 113304 }, { "content": "Title: Fossil fuel phase-out Content: Fossil fuel phase out refers to the discontinuation of the use of fossil fuels , through the decommissioning of operating fossil fuel-fired power plants , the prevention of the construction of new ones , and the use of Alternative energy to replace the role of fossil fuels . The purpose of fossil fuel phase-out is to reduce the negative externalities that use of fossil fuels cause . Negative externalities refer to the costs a certain activity has over people who did not choose to incur in them . A direct negative externality from fossil fuels ' use is air pollution , and an indirect negative externality are mining accidents , that happen as a consequence of the extraction of fossil fuels . Fossil fuel burning contributes to climate change , as it releases greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Fossil_fuel_phase-out", "rank": 20, "score": 113079 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 21, "score": 111805 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon power Content: Low-carbon power comes from processes or technologies that , produce power with substantially lower amounts of carbon dioxide emissions than is emitted from conventional fossil fuel power generation . It includes low carbon power generation sources such as wind power , solar power , hydropower and , including fuel preparation and decommissioning , nuclear power . The term largely excludes conventional fossil fuel plant sources , and is only used to describe a particular subset of operating fossil fuel power systems , specifically , those that are successfully coupled with a flue gas carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) system .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Low-carbon_power", "rank": 22, "score": 111596 }, { "content": "Title: Cap and Share Content: Cap and Share was originally developed by Feasta ( the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability ) and is a regulatory and economic framework for controlling the use of fossil fuels in relation to climate stabilisation . Accepting that climate change is a global problem and that there is a need to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally , the philosophy of Cap and Share maintains that the earth 's atmosphere is a fundamental common resource . Consequently , it is argued , each individual should get an equal share of the benefits from the limited amount of fossil fuels that will have to be burned and their emissions released into the atmosphere in the period until the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has been stabilised at a safe level .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Cap_and_Share", "rank": 23, "score": 111089 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Mexico Content: Mexico highly depends on the burning of its fossil fuels , and for the same reason , it is in its interest to look into mitigation solutions for its corresponding emissions . In the General Law on Climate Change on 2012 , Mexico promised to reduce 20 % of its GHG emissions by 2020 and 50 % by 2050 , as well as in the Paris Agreement . 19 % of the this new mitigation plan will be dedicated to carbon capture and storage and specifically 10 % to the energetic industry .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Mexico", "rank": 24, "score": 110196 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 25, "score": 110098 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Z. Jacobson Content: Mark Zachary Jacobson ( born 1965 ) is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy Program . Jacobson develops computer models about the effects of different energy technologies and their emissions on air pollution and climate . He has done influential research on the role of aerosols and black carbon on the climate and is regarded as a leading aerosol climate modeler . According to Jacobson , a speedy transition to clean , renewable energy is required to reduce the potential acceleration of global warming , including the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice . This change will also eliminate 2.5 -- 3 million deaths worldwide each year , related to air pollution , and reduce disruption associated with fossil fuel shortages .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Mark_Z._Jacobson", "rank": 26, "score": 109357 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Grenada Content: The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Grenada", "rank": 27, "score": 108690 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport Content: The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport", "rank": 28, "score": 106538 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Performance Index Content: The Climate Change Performance Index ( CCPI ) is an annual publication by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe . It evaluates the climate protection performance of 58 countries , responsible for over 90 % of global energy-related emissions . CCPI 2013 publication covers emissions from the fossil fuels , except emissions from the shipping industry . Following CCPI 2013 publication may include emissions from deforestation , agriculture and waste . 50 % of the evaluation is based on emissions trend , 30 % on emissions level and 20 % on national and international climate policy assessments made by more than 200 experts . The most recent results ( published December 2014 ) illustrate that efforts are still insufficient to prevent dangerous climate change . Thus , no country received rankings one to three in the results for 2015 although Denmark which topped the list was praised for its efforts .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_Change_Performance_Index", "rank": 29, "score": 106504 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 30, "score": 106075 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation Content: Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit the magnitude or rate of long-term climate change . Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human ( anthropogenic ) emissions of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) . Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks , e.g. , through reforestation . Mitigation policies can substantially reduce the risks associated with human-induced global warming . According to the IPCC 's 2014 assessment report , `` Mitigation is a public good ; climate change is a case of the ` tragedy of the commons . Effective climate change mitigation will not be achieved if each agent ( individual , institution or country ) acts independently in its own selfish interest ( see international cooperation and emissions trading ) , suggesting the need for collective action . Some adaptation actions , on the other hand , have characteristics of a private good as benefits of actions may accrue more directly to the individuals , regions , or countries that undertake them , at least in the short term . Nevertheless , financing such adaptive activities remains an issue , particularly for poor individuals and countries . '' Examples of mitigation include phasing out fossil fuels by switching to low-carbon energy sources , such as renewable and nuclear energy , and expanding forests and other `` sinks '' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere . Energy efficiency may also play a role , for example , through improving the insulation of buildings . Another approach to climate change mitigation is climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of GHGs at a level that would prevent dangerous human interference of the climate system . Scientific analysis can provide information on the impacts of climate change , but deciding which impacts are dangerous requires value judgments . In 2010 , Parties to the UNFCCC agreed that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) relative to the pre-industrial level . With the Paris Agreement of 2015 this was confirmed , but was revised with a new target laying down `` parties will do the best '' to achieve warming below 1.5 ° C . The current trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 ° C . Other mitigation policies have been proposed , some of which are more stringent or modest than the 2 ° C limit .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation", "rank": 31, "score": 105349 }, { "content": "Title: The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership Content: The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership ( LowCVP ) was announced by the UK Government in 2002 as an element of its Powering Future Vehicles Strategy . The purpose of the LowCVP is support reduction of carbon emissions from road transport in the UK with a clear focus on accelerating the adoption of low carbon vehicles and fuels ; other strategies for reducing transport carbon emissions , for example modal shift towards cycling and walking or reducing traffic congestion through intelligent transport systems are out of scope and are the preserve of other bodies who are more expert in those fields . The UK government has set a target for reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions and recognises that achieving its target will require emissions from road transport , which are significant , to be cut .", "qid": "409", "docid": "The_Low_Carbon_Vehicle_Partnership", "rank": 32, "score": 104870 }, { "content": "Title: Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion Content: Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion refers to the combustion-product gas resulting from the burning of fossil fuels . Most fossil fuels are combusted with ambient air ( as differentiated from combustion with pure oxygen ) . Since ambient air contains about 79 volume percent gaseous nitrogen ( N2 ) , which is essentially non-combustible , the largest part of the flue gas from most fossil-fuel combustion is uncombusted nitrogen . Carbon dioxide , the next largest part of flue gas , can be as much as 10 − 25 volume percent or more of the flue gas . This is closely followed in volume by water vapor ( H2O ) created by the combustion of the hydrogen in the fuel with atmospheric oxygen . Much of the ` smoke ' seen pouring from flue gas stacks is this water vapor forming a cloud as it contacts cool air . A typical flue gas from the combustion of fossil fuels contains very small amounts of nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) , sulfur dioxide ( SO2 ) and particulate matter . The nitrogen oxides are derived from the nitrogen in the ambient air as well as from any nitrogen-containing compounds in the fossil fuel . The sulfur dioxide is derived from any sulfur-containing compounds in the fuels . The particulate matter is composed of very small particles of solid materials and very small liquid droplets which give flue gases their smoky appearance . The steam generators in large power plants and the process furnaces in large refineries , petrochemical and chemical plants , and incinerators burn considerable amounts of fossil fuels and therefore emit large amounts of flue gas to the ambient atmosphere . The table below presents the total amounts of flue gas typically generated by the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas , fuel oil and coal . The data were obtained by stoichiometric calculations . It is of interest to note that the total amount of flue gas generated by coal combustion is only 10 percent higher than the flue gas generated by natural-gas combustion . Note : m ³ are standard cubic meters at 0 ° C and 101.325 kPa , and scf is standard cubic feet at 60 ° F and 14.696 psia .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Flue-gas_emissions_from_fossil-fuel_combustion", "rank": 33, "score": 104705 }, { "content": "Title: King Review Content: The King Review of low-carbon cars was launched in 2007 by the British Government to examine the vehicle and fuel technologies which could help to decarbonise road transport over the next 25 years . The Review was led by Professor Julia King CBE FREng , Vice-Chancellor of Aston University and former Director of Advanced Engineering at Rolls-Royce plc. . The interim analytical report was published in October 2007 , and focused on the potential for the reduction of emissions from road transport . It concluded : Urgent progress is needed from road transport to help meet emission cuts for the developed world of 60-80 percent by 2050 outlined in the Stern Review . At low cost and by 2030 , per-kilometre emissions from road transport could be reduced by 50 percent . Electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles have the potential to make near complete decarbonisation of road transport a realistic long-term objective . Biofuels have a role in the future UK fuel market , though demand must not be allowed to grow too quickly without robust environmental safeguards in place . The final stage of the Review was published in March 2008 , and gave recommendations on how the Government can play a role in decarbonising transport .", "qid": "409", "docid": "King_Review", "rank": 34, "score": 104442 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 35, "score": 104196 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions in Kentucky Content: The report `` Kentucky Greenhouse Gas Inventory '' provides a detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks for Kentucky in 1990 . Emissions were estimated using methods from EPA 's 1995 guidance document State Workbook : Methodologies for Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions . In 1990 , Kentucky emitted 35.4 million metric tons of carbon equivalent ( MMTCE ) . In addition , Kentucky estimated emissions of 0.4 MMTCE from biofuels . Emissions from biofuels are not included . The principal greenhouse gases were carbon dioxide , comprising 87.9 million metric tons ( 24.0 MMTCE ) , and methane , with 1.1 million metric tons ( 6.4 MMTCE ) . Other emissions included 0.0016 million metric tons of perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) ( 4.8 MMTCE ) , and 0.003 million metric tons of nitrous oxide ( 0.2 MMTCE ) The major source of carbon dioxide emissions was fossil fuel combustion ( 96 % ) , the majority of which is utility coal . Minor emissions came from cement and lime production and forest/grassland conversion . Carbon dioxide sinks ( i.e. , an increase in forest carbon storage ) offset about 26 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions . Sources of methane emissions were coal mining ( 73 % ) , domesticated animals ( 12 % ) , landfills ( 10 % ) , manure management ( 3 % ) , and natural gas/oil extraction ( 2 % ) . Nitrous oxide emissions were from fertilizer use . Sources of perfluorocarbons were HCFC-22 production ( 91 % ) and aluminum production ( 9 % ) . Kentucky 's emissions in 1990 were 9.6 MTCE per capita , compared to 1990 U.S. emissions of 6.4 MTCE per capita . Kentucky 's per capita emissions are high due to the large volume of coal-related activities in the state .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_in_Kentucky", "rank": 36, "score": 103533 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 37, "score": 103266 }, { "content": "Title: Texas Low Emission Diesel standards Content: Texas Low Emission Diesel standards ( TxLED ) are rules regulating the quality of diesel fuels , intended to reduce pollutants ( especially NOx ) . Since October 31 , 2005 , diesel fuel to be consumed by engines in 110 counties in Eastern Texas must meet these requirements : Maximum aromatic hydrocarbon content of 10 % by volume . Minimum cetane number of 48 . Alternatively , diesel fuel that complies with the specifications of a California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) certified alternative diesel formulation that was approved by CARB before January 18 , 2005 may be used , as can fuel approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ( TCEQ ) that is proven to have emissions equivalent to or less than TxLED compliant fuel .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Texas_Low_Emission_Diesel_standards", "rank": 38, "score": 103216 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 39, "score": 102790 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-neutral fuel Content: Carbon-neutral fuels can refer to a variety of energy fuels or energy systems which have no net greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint . One class is synthetic fuel ( including methane , gasoline , diesel fuel , jet fuel or ammonia ) produced from sustainable or nuclear energy used to hydrogenate waste carbon dioxide recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater . Other types can be produced from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines , solar panels , and hydroelectric power stations . Such fuels are potentially carbon-neutral because they do not result in a net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases . Until captured carbon is used for plastics feedstock , carbon neutral fuel synthesis is the primary means of carbon capture and utilization or recycling . To the extent that carbon-neutral fuels displace fossil fuels , or if they are produced from waste carbon or seawater carbonic acid , and their combustion is subject to carbon capture at the flue or exhaust pipe , they result in negative carbon dioxide emission and net carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere , and thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas remediation . Such power to gas carbon-neutral and carbon-negative fuels can be produced by the electrolysis of water to make hydrogen used in the Sabatier reaction to produce methane which may then be stored to be burned later in power plants as synthetic natural gas , transported by pipeline , truck , or tanker ship , or be used in gas to liquids processes such as the Fischer -- Tropsch process to make traditional fuels for transportation or heating . Carbon-neutral fuels are used in Germany and Iceland for distributed storage of renewable energy , minimizing problems of wind and solar intermittency , and enabling transmission of wind , water , and solar power through existing natural gas pipelines . Such renewable fuels could alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels , enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles . A 250 kilowatt synthetic methane plant has been built in Germany and it is being scaled up to 10 megawatts .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon-neutral_fuel", "rank": 40, "score": 102781 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Massachusetts Content: Formet Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed into law three global warming and energy-related bills that will promote advanced biofuels , support the growth of the clean energy technology industry , and cut the emissions of greenhouse gases within the state . The Clean Energy Biofuels Act , signed in late July , exempts cellulosic ethanol from the state 's gasoline tax , but only if the ethanol achieves a 60 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline . The act also requires all diesel motor fuels and all No. 2 fuel oil sold for heating to include at least 2 % `` substitute fuel '' by July 2010 , where substitute fuel is defined as a fuel derived from renewable non-food biomass that achieves at least a 50 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions . The requirement for both motor diesel fuel and heating oil increases by a percentage point per year until 2013 , after which it holds steady 5 % . The act also allows the state to expand the requirement to other forms of fuel oil , and it requires the state to work to establish a low-carbon fuel standard under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative . In early August of 2008 , Governor Patrick signed two additional bills : the Green Jobs Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act . The Green Jobs Act will support the growth of a clean energy technology industry within the state , backed by $ 68 million in funding over 5 years . The Global Warming Solutions Act requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 10 % -25 % below 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050 . Under the act , the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will carry the burdens of determining the baseline level of emissions in 1990 and creating a plan to meet the future emissions limits , including the establishment of interim limits for 2030 and 2040", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Massachusetts", "rank": 41, "score": 102715 }, { "content": "Title: Beyond Zero Emissions Content: Beyond Zero Emissions ( BZE ) is an Australia-based , not-for-profit climate change solutions think-tank . BZE was founded in 2006 by Matthew Wright and Adrian Whitehead under the guidance of Philip Sutton . The group coordinates research and education into how the Australian economy can rapidly reduce human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to ` zero and below ' by implementing changes to stationary energy , transport , buildings , agricultural activities , industrial processes and fossil fuel export sectors . In 2010 BZE released its first publication , the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan ( Wright , Hearps 2010 ) a research collaboration between Beyond Zero Emissions and the University of Melbourne Energy Research Institute . The aim of the report was to provide a detailed , fully realisable , fully costed 10-year plan to replace all stationary energy needs with 100 % renewable energy sources , using only current proven technologies and engineering . This report addressed the common perception that renewables can not replace fossil fuels , either due to immaturity of the technology or due to cost concerns . The group invited pro-bono contributions from engineers , scientists , and industry specialists to work on this and all subsequent projects , similar to the way open source software is developed . Since 2006 Beyond Zero Emissions has released the following publications : Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan ( 2010 ) , Repowering Port Augusta ( 2012 ) , Health and Social Harms of Mining in Local Communities : Spotlight on the Hunter Region report ( 2012 ) . Laggard to Leader : How Australia Can Lead the World to Zero Carbon Prosperity ( 2012 ) Zero Carbon Australia Buildings Plan ( 2013 ) , Zero Carbon Australia High Speed Rail ( 2014 ) Fossil Economy ( 2014 ) , Zero Carbon Australia Land Use - Agriculture and Forestry ( 2014 ) , Carbon Capture and Storage Report ( 2014 ) , Carbon Crisis : Systemic Risk of Carbon Emission Liabilities report ( 2015 ) Zero Carbon Australia Renewable Energy Superpower ( 2015 ) , Zero Carbon Australia Electric Vehicles ( 2016 ) , A full list of Beyond Zero Emissions publications is also available with links to free pdf downloads at the BZE website .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Beyond_Zero_Emissions", "rank": 42, "score": 101952 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 43, "score": 101869 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of wind power Content: The environmental impact of wind power when compared to the environmental impacts of fossil fuels , is relatively minor . Compared with other low carbon power sources , wind turbines have some of the lowest global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated . According to the IPCC , in assessments of the life-cycle global warming potential of energy sources , wind turbines have a median value of between 15 and 11 ( geq/kWh ) depending on whether off - or onshore turbines are being assessed . While wind turbine installations may cover a large area , they are compatible with many land uses such as farming and grazing , as only small areas of turbine foundations and infrastructure are made unavailable for use . Wind turbines generate some noise . At a residential distance of 300 m this may be around 45 dB , which is slightly louder than a refrigerator . At 1.5 km distance most wind turbines become inaudible . From a fundamental biological point of view , it is known that loud noise increases stress and stress causes diseases . Peer-reviewed research has generally supported the view that when properly sited wind turbines do not affect human health from noise . However , when improperly sited , data from the monitoring of two groups of growing geese revealed substantially lower body weights and higher concentrations of a stress hormone in the blood of the first group of geese who were situated 50 meters away compared to a second group which was at a distance of 500 meters from the turbine . Aesthetic aspects of wind turbines and resulting changes of the visual landscape can be significant . Conflicts arise especially in scenic and heritage protected landscapes . Siting restrictions ( such as setbacks ) have often been implemented to limit any intrusive environmental impacts . There are reports of bird and bat mortality at wind turbines as there are around other artificial structures . The scale of the ecological impact may or may not be significant , depending on specific circumstances . Prevention and mitigation of wildlife fatalities , and protection of peat bogs , affect the siting and operation of wind turbines .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_wind_power", "rank": 44, "score": 101544 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions Content: -RSB- This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity , based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2015 . The following table lists the 2015 annual emissions estimates ( in thousands of tonnes ) along with a list of emissions per capita ( in tonnes of per year ) from same source . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use , land-use change and forestry . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The top 10 largest emitter countries account for 67.6 % of the world total . Other powerful , more potent greenhouse gases , including methane , are not included in this data .", "qid": "409", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions", "rank": 45, "score": 100898 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental design in rail transportation Content: Environmental design is an emerging topic in railroad technology . Over the past twenty-five years , fuel efficiency in diesel locomotives has increased 85 % , allowing these trains to go farther and move more freight while using less fuel . New low-impact electric and hybrid trains reduce overall carbon emissions . Also , train manufacturers have started utilizing hydrogen technology for propulsion , with carbon emissions only coming from the manufacturing of the hydrogen itself .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_design_in_rail_transportation", "rank": 46, "score": 100713 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Mayhew (biologist) Content: Peter Mayhew is a British biologist at the University of York in the United Kingdom . He is the lead author of a study showing a long-term association between global temperature and biodiversity , origination , and extinction in the fossil record . This study demonstrated that biodiversity tends to be relatively low during greenhouse phases in Earth history and that extinction rates ( including mass extinctions ) tend to be higher . On the basis of this work he was nominated as one of the `` Great Britons of 2007 '' . He is also author of a textbook on evolutionary ecology .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Peter_Mayhew_(biologist)", "rank": 47, "score": 100704 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 48, "score": 100286 }, { "content": "Title: Emission intensity Content: An emission intensity is the average emission rate of a given pollutant from a given source relative to the intensity of a specific activity ; for example grams of carbon dioxide released per megajoule of energy produced , or the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions produced to gross domestic product ( GDP ) . Emission intensities are used to derive estimates of air pollutant or greenhouse gas emissions based on the amount of fuel combusted , the number of animals in animal husbandry , on industrial production levels , distances traveled or similar activity data . Emission intensities may also be used to compare the environmental impact of different fuels or activities . The related terms emission factor and carbon intensity are often used interchangeably , but `` factors '' exclude aggregate activities such as GDP , and `` carbon '' excludes other pollutants . One commonly used figure is carbon intensity per kilowatt-hour , or CIPK , which is used to compare different sources of electrical power .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Emission_intensity", "rank": 49, "score": 100025 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita from 1990 through 2011 . All data was calculated by the US Department of Energy 's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) , mostly based on data collected from country agencies by the United Nations Statistics Division . Countries are ranked by their metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2009 . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use such as deforestation . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The carbon dioxide emissions of a country are only an indicator of one greenhouse gas . For a more complete idea of how a country influences climate change , gases such as methane and nitrous oxide should be taken into account . This is particularly so in agricultural economies . Carbon dioxide emissions are also known for earlier periods . A study of a global sample of twelve countries provide estimates for emissions since 1800 and explores the long-run drivers of carbon dioxide emissions by decomposing changes in carbon emissions into population , income , technological and energy mix changes .", "qid": "409", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 50, "score": 99984 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New Zealand Content: Climate change in New Zealand refers to change in the climate of New Zealand on the scale of years , decades , centuries and longer periods of time . New Zealand is being affected by climate change and the impacts are predicted to increase in future . Anthropogenic global warming during the 20th century is apparent in the instrumental temperature record , in New Zealand 's participation in international treaties , and in social and political debates . Climate change is being responded to in a variety of ways by civil society and the government of New Zealand . An emissions trading scheme has been established and from 1 July 2010 , the energy and liquid fossil fuel sectors have obligations to report emissions and to obtain and surrender emissions units ( carbon credits ) .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_Zealand", "rank": 51, "score": 99414 }, { "content": "Title: Presidential Climate Action Plan Content: President Barack Obama 's Climate Action Plan proposed a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions . It included preserving forests , encouraging the use of alternate fuels , and increased study of climate change . The plan was first established in 2008 and updated every two years since . The plan would support conservation of land and water resources and developing actionable climate science , and to encourage other countries to take action to address climate change , including reducing deforestation and lowering subsidies that increase use of fossil fuels . The plan specifically mentions methane , building efficiency , wind , solar and hydroelectricity . White House staff members who were directly tasked with implementation of the plan include Heather Zichal and Michelle Patron . On the first day of the presidency of Donald Trump , the White House website announced that The Climate Action Plan would be eliminated , stating it is ` harmful and unnecessary ' .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Presidential_Climate_Action_Plan", "rank": 52, "score": 99238 }, { "content": "Title: Air pollution in Germany Content: Air pollution in Germany has significantly decreased over the past decade . Air pollution occurs when harmful substances are released into the Earth 's atmosphere . These pollutants are released through human activity and natural sources . Germany took interest in reducing its greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions by switching to renewable energy sources . Renewable energy use rose from 6.3 % in 2000 to 34 % in 2016 . Through the transition to renewable energy sources , Germany has become the climate change policy leader and renewable energy leader in the European Union ( EU ) and in the world with ambitious climate change programs . The current goal of the German government was approved on 14 November 2016 in the German Climate Action Plan 2050 , which outlines measures by which Germany can meet its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 . By 2050 , Germany wants to reduce their GHGs by 80 to 95 % and by 2030 they want to reduce it by 55 % , compared to the EU target of 40 % . In order to achieve these goals , a variety of strategies and policies are used rather than legislation . The four strategies the German government bases air pollution control on are laying down environmental quality standards , emission reduction requirements according to the best available technology , production regulations , and laying down emission ceilings . Through these strategies , policy instruments have been put in place that have contributed to the success of the significant air pollution reduction in Germany . These instruments include the Federal Emission Control Act and Implementing Ordinances , Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control ( TA Luft ) , Amendment to Ordinance on Small Firing Installations , Implementation of the directive on industrial emissions , and Transboundary air pollution control policy . The German Feed-in-Tariff policy introduced in 2000 led to the significant increase in renewable energy use and decreasing air pollution . They have been introduced in Germany to increase the use of renewables , such as wind power , biomass , hydropower , geothermal power , and photovoltaics , thereby reducing GHG emissions causing air pollution and combating climate change . The German government has been an agenda setter in international climate policy negotiations since the late 1980s . However , national and global climate policies have become a top priority since the conservative-social democratic government came into power in 2005 , pushing both European and international climate negotiations . Positive path dependency in Germany 's climate and energy policies has occurred over the past 20 years . There are three main triggers that put Germany on this positive path dependency and what led them to becoming a climate change policy leader . The first being the widespread damages to health , due to smog , and to nature , due to acid rain , caused by air pollution . The second being the shock of the two oil price crises , in 1973 and 1979 , that highlighted the problem of the German economy 's strong dependence on unsure foreign sources . The third being the growing opposition to the country 's growing reliance on nuclear energy . Air pollution began to be seen as a problem in Germany due to these three triggers , causing Germany to put policies into place to control air pollution . This has now developed from controlling air pollution to being a leader in climate change politics . __ TOC __", "qid": "409", "docid": "Air_pollution_in_Germany", "rank": 53, "score": 99200 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of the energy industry Content: The environmental impact of the energy industry is diverse . Energy has been harnessed by human beings for millennia . Initially it was with the use of fire for light , heat , cooking and for safety , and its use can be traced back at least 1.9 million years . In recent years there has been a trend towards the increased commercialization of various renewable energy sources . Consumption of fossil fuel resources leads to global warming and climate change . In most parts of the world little change is being made to slow these changes . If the peak oil theory proves true , and more explorations of viable alternative energy sources are made , our impact could be less hostile to our environment . Rapidly advancing technologies can achieve a transition of energy generation , water and waste management , and food production towards better environmental and energy usage practices using methods of systems ecology and industrial ecology .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_the_energy_industry", "rank": 54, "score": 99177 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse effect Content: The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Greenhouse_effect", "rank": 55, "score": 99004 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "409", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 56, "score": 97932 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom Climate Change Programme Content: The United Kingdom 's Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) . The 2000 programme was updated in March 2006 following a review launched in September 2004 . In 2008 , the UK was the world 's 9th greatest producer of man-made carbon emissions , producing around 1.8 % of the global total generated from fossil fuels .", "qid": "409", "docid": "United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 57, "score": 97547 }, { "content": "Title: Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading Content: Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading was a Task Group set up on 10 December 2006 by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to develop an Australian Carbon Trading Scheme . The terms of reference of the task group was : Australia enjoys major competitive advantages through the possession of large reserves of fossil fuels and uranium . In assessing Australia 's further contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions , these advantages must be preserved . Against this background the Task Group will be asked to advise on the nature and design of a workable global emissions trading system in which Australia would be able to participate . The Task Group will advise and report on additional steps that might be taken , in Australia , consistent with the goal of establishing such a system . The Prime Ministerial Task Group submitted its final report on 31 May 2007 . The scheme proposed by the Task Group had some similarities to the `` hybrid scheme '' developed by Warwick McKibbin . Prime Minister John Howard announced on 4 June 2007 the government 's plan for a carbon trading scheme to be launched in 2012 . Howard took the draft carbon trading scheme to the 2007 federal election .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Prime_Ministerial_Task_Group_on_Emissions_Trading", "rank": 58, "score": 97530 }, { "content": "Title: Dry Low Emission Content: Dry Low Emission ( abbreviation DLE ) is a technology that reduces NOx emissions that exhausts out of gas fired turbines . The amount of NOx produced depends on the combustion temperature . When the combustion takes place at a lower temperature the NOx emissions are reduced . Gas turbines with DLE technology were developed to achieve lower emissions without using water or steam to reduce combustion temperature ( Wet Low Emission ( WLE ) technology ) . WLE technology demands cleaning of large amounts of water , is heavy , takes more space and can be difficult to install offshore . A DLE combustor uses the principle of lean premixed combustion , and is similar to the SAC combustor with some exceptions . A DLE combustor takes up more space than a SAC turbine and if the turbine is changed it can not be connected directly to existing equipment without considerable changes in the positioning of the equipment . The SAC turbine has one single concentric ring where the DLE turbine has two or three rings with premixers depending on gas turbine type . DLE technology demands an advanced control system with a large number of burners . DLE results in lower NOx emissions because the process is run with less fuel and air , the temperature is lower and combustion takes place at a lower temperature .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Dry_Low_Emission", "rank": 59, "score": 97043 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "409", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 60, "score": 97039 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 61, "score": 96938 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 62, "score": 96633 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon diet Content: A low-carbon diet refers to making lifestyle choices to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGe ) resulting from consumption decisions . It is estimated that the U.S. food system is responsible for at least 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases . This estimate may be low , as it counts only direct sources of GHGe . Indirect sources , such as demand for products from other countries , are often not counted . A low-carbon diet minimizes the emissions released from the production , packaging , processing , transport , preparation and waste of food . Major tenets of a low-carbon diet include eating less industrial meat and dairy , eating less industrially produced food in general , eating food grown locally and seasonally , eating less processed and packaged foods and reducing waste from food by proper portion size , recycling or composting .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Low-carbon_diet", "rank": 63, "score": 96449 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon bubble Content: The carbon bubble is a hypothesized bubble in the valuation of companies dependent on fossil-fuel-based energy production , because the true costs of carbon dioxide in intensifying global warming are not yet taken into account in a company 's stock market valuation . Currently the price of fossil fuels companies ' shares is calculated under the assumption that all fossil fuel reserves will be consumed . An estimate made by Kepler Chevreux puts the loss in value of the fossil fuel companies due to the impact of the growing renewables industry at US$ 28 trillion over the next two decades-long . A more recent analysis made by Citi puts that figure at $ 100 trillion . Analysts in both the petroleum and financial industries are concluding that the `` age of oil '' has already reached a new stage where the excess supply that appeared in late 2014 may continue to prevail in the future . A consensus appears to be emerging that an international agreement will be reached to introduce measures to constrain the combustion of hydrocarbons in an effort to limit global temperature rise to the nominal 2 ° C that is consensually predicted to limit environmental harm to tolerable levels . According to the UK 's Committee on Climate Change , overvaluing companies that produce fossil fuels and greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to the economy . The committee warned the British government and Bank of England of the risks of the carbon bubble in 2014 . The following year , Mark Carney , the Governor of the Bank of England , in his lecture to Lloyd 's of London , warned that limiting global warming to 2 ° C appears to require that the `` vast majority '' of fossil fuel reserves be `` stranded '' , or `` literally unburnable without expensive carbon-capture technology '' , resulting in `` potentially huge '' exposure to investors in that sector . He concluded that `` the window of opportunity is finite and shrinking '' for responding to the threat that climate change poses to financial resilience and longer-term prosperity , which he called the `` tragedy of the horizon '' . That same month , the Prudential Regulation Authority of the Bank of England issued a report discussing the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to the insurance industry . In his speech announcing his denial of the proposal to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline , U.S. President Barack Obama gave as one reason for the decision '' ... ultimately , if we 're going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes , we 're going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground ... '' .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon_bubble", "rank": 64, "score": 96238 }, { "content": "Title: Hell and High Water (book) Content: Hell and High Water : Global Warming -- the Solution and the Politics -- and What We Should Do is a book by author , scientist , and former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph J. Romm , published December 26 , 2006 . The author is `` one of the world 's leading experts on clean energy , advanced vehicles , energy security , and greenhouse gas mitigation . '' The book warns of dire consequences to the U.S. and the world if wide-scale environmental changes are not enacted by the U.S. government within the next decade . It reviews the evidence that the current initial global warming changes will lead to accelerated warming . According to Romm , the oceans , soils , Arctic permafrost , and rainforests may become sources of greenhouse gas emissions . The book claims that , without serious government action within the next ten years , sea levels will rise high enough to submerge numerous coastal communities and inland areas on both U.S. coasts and around the world by the year 2100 . In April 2008 , TIME magazine wrote that `` On -LSB- Romm 's -RSB- blog and in his most recent book , Hell and High Water , you can find some of the most cogent , memorable , and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming . '' Romm was interviewed on Fox News on January 31 , 2007 about the book and the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report climate report .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Hell_and_High_Water_(book)", "rank": 65, "score": 96168 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse Mafia Content: Greenhouse Mafia is the title of a TV program aired by the ABC on the 13 February 2006 episode of its weekly current affairs program Four Corners . The program says the term greenhouse mafia is the `` in house '' name used by Australia 's carbon lobby for itself . The program featured former Liberal Party member Guy Pearse and Four Corners host Janine Cohen , while others concerned about the influence exerted by the fossil fuel lobby also participated . The report was based on a thesis Pearse wrote at the Australian National University between 1999 and 2005 regarding the response of Australian business to global warming . According to the program , lobby groups representing the coal , car , oil , and aluminium industries have wielded their power to prevent Australia from reducing its greenhouse gas emissions , which were already among the highest per capita in the world in 1990 .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Greenhouse_Mafia", "rank": 66, "score": 95520 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 67, "score": 95359 }, { "content": "Title: Unburned hydrocarbon Content: Unburned hydrocarbons ( UHCs ) are the hydrocarbons emitted after petroleum is burned in an engine . When unburned fuel is emitted from a combustor , the emission is caused by fuel `` avoiding '' the flame zones . For example , in piston engines , some of the fuel-air mixture `` hides '' from the flame in the crevices provided by the piston ring grooves . Further , some regions of the combustion chamber may have a very weak flame , that is , they have either very fuel-lean or very fuel-rich conditions and consequently they have a low combustion temperature . These regions will cause intermediate species such as formaldehyde and alkenes to be emitted . Sometimes the term `` products of incomplete combustion , '' or PICs , is used to describe such species . Category : Fossil fuels Category : Hydrocarbons", "qid": "409", "docid": "Unburned_hydrocarbon", "rank": 68, "score": 95260 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 69, "score": 95198 }, { "content": "Title: Fossil fuel Content: Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms , containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis . The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years , and sometimes exceeds 650 million years . Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum , coal , and natural gas . Other commonly used derivatives include kerosene and propane . Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon to hydrogen ratios like methane , to liquids like petroleum , to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon , like anthracite coal . Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields either alone , associated with oil , or in the form of methane clathrates . The theory that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth 's crust over millions of years was first introduced by Georgius Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century . The Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2007 the primary sources of energy consisted of petroleum 36.0 % , coal 27.4 % , natural gas 23.0 % , amounting to an 86.4 % share for fossil fuels in primary energy consumption in the world . Non-fossil sources in 2006 included nuclear 8.5 % , hydroelectric 6.3 % , and others ( geothermal , solar , tidal , wind , wood , waste ) amounting to 0.9 % . World energy consumption was growing about 2.3 % per year . Although fossil fuels are continually being formed via natural processes , they are generally considered to be non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to form and the known viable reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being made . The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns . The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes ( 21.3 gigatonnes ) of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) per year . It is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount , so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year . Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that increases radiative forcing and contributes to global warming . A global movement towards the generation of renewable energy is underway to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Fossil_fuel", "rank": 70, "score": 95155 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 71, "score": 94760 }, { "content": "Title: Zero-carbon city Content: A zero-carbon city runs entirely on renewable energy ; it has no carbon footprint and will in this respect not cause harm to the planet . Most cities throughout the world produce energy by burning coal , oil and gas , unintentionally emitting carbon . Almost every activity humans do involves burning one of these fossil fuels . To become a zero carbon city , an established modern city must collectively reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to zero and all practices that emit greenhouse gases must cease . Also , renewable energy must supersede other non-renewable energy sources and become the sole source of energy , so a zero-carbon city is a renewable-energy-economy city . This transition which includes decarbonising electricity ( increasing the importance of the sources of renewable electricity ) and zero-emission transport , is undertaken as a response to climate change . Zero-carbon cities maintain optimal living conditions while eliminating environmental impact . Instead of using established cities , many developers are starting from scratch in order to create a zero-carbon city . This way they can make sure every aspect of a city contributes to it being carbon free .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Zero-carbon_city", "rank": 72, "score": 94740 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries ranked by greenhouse-gas emissions per capita in 2000 . It is based on data for carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , perfluorocarbon , hydrofluorocarbon and sulfur hexafluoride emissions compiled by the World Resources Institute ( WRI ) from a variety of sources , including CDIAC and the US Environmental Protection Agency . Bunker-fuel emissions are not included . Two sets of per capita emissions are given , one with an estimate of the effects of land-use change ( for example , cutting down forests ) and one without . The former is based on regional estimates in Houghton ( 2003 ) . Difficulties with determining rates of deforestation and the magnitude of carbon stocks held by the remaining forests and with distributing regional carbon fluxes among individual countries mean that the land-use change components have a large margin of error , perhaps as large as + / -150 % in some cases . They are included here because , although difficult to quantify accurately at a country level , land-use change is a significant contributor to global warming . The WRI estimates that it accounted for almost a fifth of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 . For 2005 the data for a large number of countries only includes emissions ( see note 12 . )", "qid": "409", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 73, "score": 94669 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 74, "score": 93567 }, { "content": "Title: Airborne fraction Content: The airborne fraction is a scaling factor defined as the ratio of the annual increase in atmospheric to the emissions from anthropogenic sources . It represents the proportion of human emitted that remains in the atmosphere . The fraction averages about 45 % , meaning that approximately half the human-emitted is absorbed by ocean and land surfaces . There is some evidence for a recent increase in airborne fraction , which would imply a faster increase in atmospheric for a given rate of human fossil-fuel burning . However , other sources suggest that the `` fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades '' . Changes in carbon sinks can affect the airborne fraction .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Airborne_fraction", "rank": 75, "score": 93516 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-based fuel Content: Carbon-based fuel is any fuel principally from the oxidation or burning of carbon . Carbon-based fuels are of two main kinds , biofuels and fossil fuels . Whereas biofuels are derived from recent-growth organic matter and are typically harvested , as with logging of forests and cutting of corn , fossil fuels are of prehistoric origin and are extracted from the ground , the principal fossil fuels being oil , coal , and natural gas . From an economic policy perspective , an important distinction between biofuels and fossil fuels is that only the former is sustainable or renewable . Whereas we can continue to obtain energy from biofuels indefinitely in principle , the Earth 's reserves of fossil fuels was determined millions of years ago and is therefore fixed as far as our foreseeable future is concerned . The great variability in the ease of extraction of fossil fuels however makes its endgame scenario one of increasing prices over one or more centuries rather than of abrupt exhaustion . From the perspective of climate and ecology , biofuels and fossil fuels have in common that they contribute to the production of atmospheric carbon dioxide , which has emerged in recent decades as the fastest-changing greenhouse gas , whose principal impacts are global warming and ocean acidification . However biofuels actively participate in the carbon cycle today by photosynthesizing carbon dioxide , unlike fossil fuels whose participation was long ago , and can therefore in principle bring atmospheric CO2 into an equilibrium not possible with the continued use of fossil fuel . But in practice photosynthesis is a slow process , and the additional fuel produced by artificial methods of accelerating it such as application of fertilizer tends to be offset by the energy consumed by the accelerating processes , to a degree currently under active debate . In contrast the speed of photosynthesis is immaterial for fossil fuels because they had millions of years in which to accumulate . Burning of both fossil fuels and biofuels usually also produces carbon monoxide , which is toxic and can kill a person after mixing with the haemoglobin of the blood , increasing its concentration in the body . Biofuels and fossil fuels may also produce many other air pollutants depending on the contents of the fuel .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon-based_fuel", "rank": 76, "score": 93204 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 77, "score": 93015 }, { "content": "Title: Suess effect Content: The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Suess_effect", "rank": 78, "score": 92869 }, { "content": "Title: Ultra-low-sulfur diesel Content: Ultra-low-sulfur diesel ( ULSD ) is diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur content . Since 2006 , almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in Europe and North America has been of a ULSD type . The move to lower sulfur content allows for the application of advanced emissions control technologies that substantially lower the harmful emissions from diesel combustion . Testing by engine manufacturers and regulatory bodies have found the use of emissions control devices in conjunction with ULSD can reduce the exhaust output of ozone precursors and particulate matter to near-zero levels . In 1993 the European Union began mandating the reduction of diesel sulfur content and implementing modern ULSD specifications in 1999 . The United States started phasing in ULSD requirements for highway vehicles in 2006 , with implementation for off-highway applications , such as locomotive and marine fuel , beginning in 2007 .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Ultra-low-sulfur_diesel", "rank": 79, "score": 92866 }, { "content": "Title: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Content: ` The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI , pronounced `` Reggie '' ) is the first mandatory market based program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . RGGI is a cooperative effort among the states of Connecticut , Delaware , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , New York , Rhode Island , and Vermont to cap and reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector . RGGI compliance obligations apply to fossil-fueled power plants 25MW and larger within the nine-state region . RGGI establishes a regional cap on the amount of CO2 pollution that power plants can emit by issuing a limited number of tradable CO2 allowances . Each allowance represents an authorization for a regulated power plant to emit one short ton of CO2 . Individual CO2 budget trading programs in each RGGI state together create a regional market for CO2 allowances . The RGGI states distribute over 90 percent of allowances through quarterly auctions . These allowance auctions generate proceeds , which participating states are able to invest in strategic energy and consumer benefit programs . Programs funded through RGGI have included energy efficiency , clean and renewable energy , greenhouse gas abatement , and direct bill assistance . An initial milestone program 's development occurred in 2005 , when seven states signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU ) announcing an agreement to implement RGGI . The RGGI states then established individual CO2 budget trading programs , based on the RGGI Model Rule . The first pre-compliance RGGI auction took place in September 2008 , and the program became effective on January 1 , 2009 . The RGGI program is currently in its third three-year compliance period , which began January 1 , 2015 .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Regional_Greenhouse_Gas_Initiative", "rank": 80, "score": 92264 }, { "content": "Title: LOWERN Content: LOWERN is an acronym for 6 factors that affect climate . Latitude . Depending on how close or how far it is to the equator . Ocean currents . Certain ocean currents have different temperatures . Warm ocean currents warm the air above it , which warms the coast . Cold ocean currents cool the air above it , which cools the coast . This helps keep the coast a consistent temperature . Wind and Air masses . Heated ground causes air to rise which results in lower air pressure . As it rises it cools and descends to the ground resulting in high air pressure . This cycle repeats which creates wind . These air masses absorb the climate of the air below it . Elevation . The higher up you are , the colder and drier it will be . When air rises it expands due to low air pressure which causes it to cool . Relief . The differences in the elevation in land . As air is forced to rise over a piece of land ( e.g. a mountain ) the temperature decreases and condensation increases . As it condensates water droplets get bigger and heavier and are forced to fall . Once the air mass goes over the mountain the temperature and evaporation increases but condensations decreases , resulting in a halt in precipitation and rain shadows . Nearness to Water . Water heats up and cools down slower than land does , having a moderating effect . On colder days , the water heats up the land , whereas on hotter days , the land is cooled down by the water . These areas also experience more precipitation . Category : Climatology", "qid": "409", "docid": "LOWERN", "rank": 81, "score": 92044 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas inventory Content: Greenhouse gas inventories are a type of emission inventory that are developed for a variety of reasons . Scientists use inventories of natural and anthropogenic ( human-caused ) emissions as tools when developing atmospheric models . Policy makers use inventories to develop strategies and policies for emissions reductions and to track the progress of those policies . And , regulatory agencies and corporations rely on inventories to establish compliance records with allowable emission rates . Businesses , the public , and other interest groups use inventories to better understand the sources and trends in emissions . Unlike some other air emission inventories , greenhouse gas inventories include not only emissions from source categories , but also removals by carbon sinks . These removals are typically referred to as carbon sequestration . Greenhouse gas inventories , typically use Global warming potential ( GWP ) values to combine emissions of various greenhouse gases into a single weighted value of emissions . Some of the key examples of greenhouse gas inventories include : All Annex I countries are required to report annual emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) National governments that are Parties to the UNFCCC and/or the Kyoto Protocol are required to submit annual inventories of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals from sinks . The Kyoto Protocol includes additional requirements for national inventory systems , inventory reporting , and annual inventory review for determining compliance with Articles 5 and 8 of the Protocol . Project developers under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol prepare inventories as part of their project baselines . Corporation and other entities can prepare greenhouse gas inventories to track progress towards meeting an emission reduction goal . Scientific efforts aimed at understanding detail of total net carbon exchange . Example : Project Vulcan - a comprehensive US inventory of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_inventory", "rank": 82, "score": 91996 }, { "content": "Title: Air Pollution in Canada Content: Air pollution in Canada arises from the increasing airborne chemicals , matter and biological materials in the air . These factors cause harm to human health , the environment and to the economy . In the Canadian context , the main contributor of air pollution stems from burning fossil fuels for power and energy . Fossil fuels continue to be the main source of fuel for Canadians , even though the government is aware of the negative effects that it has on the environment and human health . Air pollution in Canada continues to be an issue due to the pressures with climate change , increased urbanization and continued reliance on vehicles as the primary source of transportation . A major contributor to the problem of Canadian air pollution are the Alberta Oil Sands . Though they are not closely related to major Canadian Metropolitan Areas , the quality of mostly rural Northern Alberta is poorer than areas of similar population densities in Canada . Toronto and other Canadian municipalities face environmental problems associated with air pollution due to industrial chemicals . Air pollution is Canada continues to negatively affect the environment , leading to an increase in health problems for Canadians , especially regarding leukemia . Air pollution has increased the rate of hospital visits per year and is currently causing premature deaths . There are current policy responses to combat the increasing rate of air pollution in Canada . The agreement is a response to Canada 's transportation and energy production infrastructure as they contribute to the problem of Air Pollution . The Canadian and United States federal governments have required each other to reduce air pollution by specific amounts annually through detailed reporting .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Air_Pollution_in_Canada", "rank": 83, "score": 91959 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monitoring Content: Carbon monitoring refers to tracking how much carbon dioxide or methane is produced by particular activity at a particular point in time . For example , it may refer to tracking methane emissions from agriculture , or carbon dioxide emissions from land use changes , such as deforestation , or from burning fossil fuels , whether in a power plant , automobile , or other device . Because carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emitted in the largest quantities , and methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas , monitoring carbon emissions is widely seen as crucial to any effort to reduce emissions and thereby slow climate change . Monitoring carbon emissions is key to the cap-and-trade program currently being used in Europe , as well as the one in California , and will be necessary for any such program in the future , like the Paris Agreement . The lack of reliable sources of consistent data on carbon emissions is a significant barrier to efforts to reduce emissions .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Carbon_monitoring", "rank": 84, "score": 91908 }, { "content": "Title: Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord Content: The Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord ( Midwestern Accord ) is a regional agreement by six governors of states in the US Midwest who are members of the Midwestern Governors Association ( MGA ) , and the premier of one Canadian province , whose purpose is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . The accord has been inactive since March 2010 , when an advisory group presented a plan for action to the association with a scheduled implementation date of January 2012 . Signatories to the accord are the US states of Minnesota , Wisconsin , Illinois , Iowa , Michigan , Kansas , and the Canadian Province of Manitoba . Observers of the accord are Indiana , Ohio , and South Dakota , as well as the Canadian Province of Ontario . While the Midwest has intensive manufacturing and agriculture sectors , making it the most coal-dependent region in North America , it also has significant renewable energy resources and is particularly vulnerable to the climate change caused by burning coal and other fossil fuels . The Midwestern Accord was the fourth tier of the MGA Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Summit Platform , signed on November 15 , 2007 . It established the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program , which aimed to : establish greenhouse gas reduction targets and time frames consistent with signing states ' targets ; develop a market-based and multi-sector cap-and-trade mechanism to help achieve those reduction targets ; establish a system to enable tracking , management , and crediting for entities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions ; and develop and implement additional steps as needed to achieve the reduction targets , such as a low-carbon fuel standards and regional incentives and funding mechanisms . Through the Midwestern Accord , the governors agreed to establish a Midwestern greenhouse gas reduction program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their states , as well as a working group to provide recommendations regarding the implementation of the accord . In June 2009 , the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord Advisory Group finalized its draft recommendations . In March 2010 the advisory group presented a plan to the MGA that called for implementation beginning in January 2012 . No further action was taken , as leadership in several of the states switched positions on climate policy . In July 2014 , accord member Kansas and observers Indiana , South Dakota , and Ohio joined a lawsuit opposing the EPA Clean Power Plan , federal climate regulations which could be met by implementation of the accord .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Midwestern_Greenhouse_Gas_Reduction_Accord", "rank": 85, "score": 91665 }, { "content": "Title: Low Emission Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP) Content: The Low Emissions Development Strategies Global Partnership ( LEDS GP ) aims to advance climate-resilient low emission development and support transitions to a low-carbon economy through coordination , information exchange and cooperation among countries and programs working to advance low-emission economic growth . The partnership was launched in 2011 and brings together more than 160 governmental and international institutions . The implementation , knowledge management , and outreach of LEDS GP is coordinated by a co-secretariat of the Climate & Development Knowledge Network ( CDKN ) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ( NREL ) . LEDS GP delivers support through its three regional platforms , the Africa LEDS Partnership ( AfLP ) , the Latin America and the Caribbean Partnership ( LEDS LAC ) and Asia Partnership ( ALP ) . It aims to : Strengthen support for low-emission climate-resilient development in all regions , Mobilize capacity and advance peer-to-peer learning and collaboration on low emission climate-resilient development across countries , international institutions and practitioners , and Improve and support coordination of low-emission climate-resilient development LEDS activities at the country , regional and global level .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Low_Emission_Development_Strategies_Global_Partnership_(LEDS_GP)", "rank": 86, "score": 91574 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Investment Organisation Content: The Environmental Investment Organisation ( EIO ) is a UK-based not-for-profit body dedicated to researching , proposing and implementing solutions to climate change . It has developed the Environmental Tracking ( ET ) concept , rebranded by ET Index Research in 2016 to Engaged Tracking , into two separate components known as the ET Carbon Rankings and the ET Index Series . The ET Carbon Rankings rate companies based on their greenhouse gas emissions intensity and transparency . The ET Low Carbon & Fossil Free Index Series , which are based on the rankings , provide investors with a tool to incentivise companies to lower emissions while reducing their exposure to potential future carbon ` price shocks ' .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_Investment_Organisation", "rank": 87, "score": 91099 }, { "content": "Title: Decarbonisation measures in proposed UK electricity market reform Content: The United Kingdom is committed to legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets of 34 % by 2020 and 80 % by 2050 , compared to 1990 levels , as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 . DECC ( 2008 ) . Climate Change Act . Decarbonisation of electricity generation will form a major part of this reduction and is essential before other sectors of the economy can be successfully decarbonised.DECC ( 2011a ) . Planning Our Electric Future : A White Paper for Secure , Affordable and Low-Carbon Electricity . The Government 's proposals for electricity market reform , published in a White Paper in July 2011 , included three initiatives to encourage decarbonisation of electricity generation in the UK : A Carbon Price Floor to complement the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) ; Feed-in tariffs which will eventually replace the Renewables Obligation ; and an Emissions Performance Standard to restrict future use of the most carbon intensive forms of generation . In implementing these proposals , the Government aims to attract investment in low-carbon generation , deliver security of supply through an appropriate mix of electricity sources and ensure a minimum amount of impact on consumer bills ; all this at a time when security of supply is threatened by scheduled closures of existing plants and both the demand for , and subsequently the price of , electricity is increasing .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Decarbonisation_measures_in_proposed_UK_electricity_market_reform", "rank": 88, "score": 91074 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "409", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 89, "score": 90884 }, { "content": "Title: Project Vulcan Content: Project Vulcan is a NASA/DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions at space/time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past . The initial purpose of the Vulcan Project was to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget , to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks , and to support the demands posed by higher resolution CO2 observations . The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has now made it a valuable tool for policymakers , demographers , social scientists and the public at large . Project Vulcan has achieved U.S. fossil fuel CO2 emissions at < 10 km spatial scales and an hourly time scale , based on datasets such as air quality emissions reporting , census data , highway statistics , energy statistics , and econometric data . Furthermore , Vulcan includes significant process-level detail , dividing the emissions into economic sectors and sub-sectors in addition to 23 fuel types . It has been produced for the year 2002 , and an annual product spanning 1980-2006 will be available by late-2009 . The first Vulcan inventory ( v1 .0 ) was released to the public in early April 2008 . Version 1.1 was released in February 2009 and Version 1.2 is due out in early August 2009 . In addition to the data release , establishment of the Vulcan website and a press release , a video of various aspects of atmospheric transport was released on Purdue University 's YouTube website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on Google Earth . As of 2015 , version 2.2 has been published on a site hosted by Arizona State University .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Project_Vulcan", "rank": 90, "score": 90663 }, { "content": "Title: London low emission zone Content: The London Low Emission Zone ( LEZ ) is a traffic pollution charge scheme with the aim of reducing the tailpipe emissions of diesel-powered commercial vehicles in London . Only vehicles that do not conform to higher emission standards are charged , the others may enter the controlled zone free of charge . The low emission zone started operating on 4 February 2008 with phased introduction of an increasingly stricter regime until 3 January 2012 . The scheme is administered by the Transport for London executive agency within the Greater London Authority .", "qid": "409", "docid": "London_low_emission_zone", "rank": 91, "score": 90544 }, { "content": "Title: Ultra-low-emission vehicle Content: An ultra-low-emission vehicle ( ULEV ) is a motor vehicle that emits extremely low levels of motor vehicle emissions compared to other vehicles . In some jurisdictions it is defined in law ; low and ultra low emission vehicles may be given tax or other advantages , while high emission vehicles may suffer restrictions or additional taxation .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Ultra-low-emission_vehicle", "rank": 92, "score": 90384 }, { "content": "Title: Eco-costs Content: Eco-costs are a measure to express the amount of environmental burden of a product on the basis of prevention of that burden . They are the costs which should be made to reduce the environmental pollution and materials depletion in our world to a level which is in line with the carrying capacity of our earth . For example : for each 1000 kg CO2 emission , one should invest $ 135 , - in offshore windmill parks ( and the other CO2 reduction systems at that price or less ) . When this is done consequently , the total CO2 emissions in the world will be reduced by 65 % compared to the emissions in 2008 . As a result , global warming will stabilise . In short : `` the eco-costs of 1000kg CO2 are $ 135 , - '' . Similar calculations can be made on the environmental burden of acidification , eutrification , summer smog , fine dust , eco-toxicity , and the use of metals , rare earth , fossil fuels , water and land ( nature ) . As such , the eco-costs are virtual costs , since they are not yet integrated in the real life costs of current production chains ( Life Cycle Costs ) . The eco-costs should be regarded as hidden obligations . The eco-costs of a product are the sum of all eco-costs of emissions and use of resources during the life cycle `` from cradle to cradle '' . The widely accepted method to make such a calculation is called Life Cycle Assessment ( LCA ) , which is basically a mass and energy balance , defined in the 14040 and ISO 14044 . The practical use of eco-costs is to compare the sustainability of several product types with the same functionality . The advantage of eco-costs is that they are expressed in a standardized monetary value which appears to be easily understood ` by instinct ' . Also the calculation is transparent and relatively easy , compared to damage based models which have the disadvantage of extremely complex calculations with subjective weighting of the various aspects contributing to the overall environmental burden . The system of eco-costs is part of the bigger model of the Ecocosts/Value Ratio , EVR", "qid": "409", "docid": "Eco-costs", "rank": 93, "score": 90160 }, { "content": "Title: Hot and high Content: In aviation , hot and high is a condition of low air density due to high ambient temperature and high airport elevation . Air density decreases with increasing temperature and altitude . At any given true airspeed , lower air density reduces the amount of lift generated by the wings or the rotors of an aircraft , which may hamper an aircraft 's performance and hence its ability to operate safely . The reduced density also reduces the performance of the aircraft 's engine , compounding the effect . Aviators gauge air density by calculating the density altitude . `` Hot '' and `` high '' do not have to be mutually inclusive of one another , though this tends to be the exception . If an airport is especially hot or high , the other condition need not be present . Temperatures can change from one hour to the next , while the elevation of an airport always remains constant . The fact that temperatures decrease at higher elevations mitigates the `` hot and high '' effect to a certain extent .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Hot_and_high", "rank": 94, "score": 89729 }, { "content": "Title: Low emission vehicle Content: A low-emission vehicle is a motor vehicle that emits relatively low levels of motor vehicle emissions . The term may be used in a general sense , but in some countries it is defined in air quality statutes . Different groups of people ( `` go greens '' , `` go with the flow '' and `` no greens '' ) show different interest in low emission vehicles", "qid": "409", "docid": "Low_emission_vehicle", "rank": 95, "score": 89409 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in South Korea Content: In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_South_Korea", "rank": 96, "score": 89396 }, { "content": "Title: Fossil fuel divestment Content: Fossil fuel divestment or fossil fuel divestment and investment in climate solutions is the removal of investment assets including stocks , bonds , and investment funds from companies involved in extracting fossil fuels , in an attempt to reduce climate change by tackling its ultimate causes . Numerous groups advocate fossil fuel divestment , which in 2015 was reportedly the fastest growing divestment movement in history . Beginning on campuses in The United States in 2011 with students urging their administrations to turn investments in the fossil fuel industry into investments in clean energy and communities most impacted by climate change , the movement soon spread across the globe . By December 2016 , a total of 688 institutions and over 58,000 individuals representing $ 5.5 trillion in assets worldwide had been divested from fossil fuels .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Fossil_fuel_divestment", "rank": 97, "score": 89245 }, { "content": "Title: Wildland fire emission Content: Wildland fire and wildland fire atmospheric emissions have been a part of the global biosphere for millennia . The major wildland fire emissions include greenhouse gasses and several criteria pollutants that impact human health and welfare. : Compared to the preindustrial era , wildland land fire in the conterminous U.S. has been reduced 90 percent with proportional reductions in wildland fire emissions . Land use changes ( agriculture and urbanization ) are responsible for roughly 50 percent of this decrease , and land management decisions ( land fragmentation , suppression actions , etc. ) are responsible for the remainder . Anthropogenic activities ( e.g. , industrial production , transportation , agriculture , etc. ) today have more than replaced the lost preindustrial wildland fire atmospheric emissions . The following charts compare preindustrial wildland fire emissions with contemporary emissions .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Wildland_fire_emission", "rank": 98, "score": 89180 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of shipping Content: The environmental impact of shipping includes greenhouse gas emissions , acoustic , and oil pollution . The International Maritime Organization ( IMO ) estimates that Carbon dioxide emissions from shipping were equal to 2.2 % of the global human-made emissions in 2012 and expects them to rise by as much as 2 to 3 times by 2050 if no action is taken . The First Intersessional Meeting of the IMO Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships took place in Oslo , Norway on 23 -- 27 June 2008 . It was tasked with developing the technical basis for the reduction mechanisms that may form part of a future IMO regime to control greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping , and a draft of the actual reduction mechanisms themselves , for further consideration by IMO 's Marine Environment Protection Committee ( MEPC ) .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_shipping", "rank": 99, "score": 89099 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United Kingdom Content: Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .", "qid": "409", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 100, "score": 89034 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 1, "score": 145212 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "412", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 2, "score": 131793 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 3, "score": 126562 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 4, "score": 124418 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Report Content: World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels , was produced by the Greening Earth Society , a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association . Early editions were paper based ; it was then transferred to a web-only format , having ceased publication as a physically based report with Volume 8 in 2002 . It continues to exist in blog form at www.worldclimatereport.com , although the website itself has not been updated since late 2012 . World Climate Report presents a scientific skeptical view of populist anthropogenic-driven mass global climate change , or as it describes , ` Global Warming Alarmism ' . However , it does not reject the concepts of global climate change or greenhouse theory ( or other well-established and widely accepted scientific theories or empirical studies ) , in general attempting to engender itself as giving a well balanced and scientific view of the sources ( though often at a contrary expense of its perceived adversaries : the aforementioned alleged ` Global Warming Alarmists ' ) . WCR says of itself : World Climate Report , a concise , hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press . As the nation 's leading publication in this realm , World Climate Report is exhaustively researched , impeccably referenced , and always timely . This popular biweekly newsletter points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as `` proof '' of disastrous warming . It 's the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty , such as the Kyoto Protocol , which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States ... World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what nature now calls the `` mainstream skeptic '' point of view . . In addition to Patrick Michaels ( chief editor ) , the staff is listed as Robert C. Balling , Jr ( contributing editor ) , Robert Davis ( contributing editor ) , and Paul Knappenberger ( Administrator ) . New Hope Environmental Services , an advocacy science consulting firm , claims WCR as its biweekly newsletter .", "qid": "412", "docid": "World_Climate_Report", "rank": 5, "score": 123595 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "412", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 6, "score": 123326 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 7, "score": 122915 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 8, "score": 122568 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 9, "score": 118492 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "412", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 10, "score": 118013 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 11, "score": 116165 }, { "content": "Title: The Deniers Content: The Deniers is a 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon , a Canadian environmentalist and writer . Subtitled `` The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria , political persecution , and fraud , '' the book draws attention to a number of scientists and others who , according to Solomon , have advanced arguments against what he calls the `` alarmist '' view of global warming , as presented by Al Gore , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , the mainstream media , and others . The book is based on a series of columns Solomon wrote for Canada 's National Post .", "qid": "412", "docid": "The_Deniers", "rank": 12, "score": 116030 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 13, "score": 115444 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "412", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 14, "score": 115233 }, { "content": "Title: 8.2 kiloyear event Content: In climatology , the 8.2 kiloyear event was a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present , or c. 6,200 BCE , and which lasted for the next two to four centuries . Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it , but more severe than the Little Ice Age that would follow , the 8.2 kiloyear cooling was a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum . During the event , atmospheric methane concentration decreased by 80 ppb or an emission reduction of 15 % , by cooling and drying at a hemispheric scale .", "qid": "412", "docid": "8.2_kiloyear_event", "rank": 15, "score": 114092 }, { "content": "Title: Raise the Alarm (album) Content: Raise the Alarm is the debut album by British indie band The Sunshine Underground , released 28 August 2006 . NME described the album as the `` first great album of the new rave movement '' which included the Klaxons and Shitdisco .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Raise_the_Alarm_(album)", "rank": 16, "score": 113525 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 17, "score": 113179 }, { "content": "Title: Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 Content: Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 ( ETM-2 ) , also called H-1 or the Elmo ( Eocene Layer of Mysterious Origin ) event , was a transient period of global warming that occurred approximately 53.7 million years ago ( Ma ) . It appears to be the second major hyperthermal that punctuated the long-term warming trend from the Late Paleocene through the early Eocene ( 58 to 50 Ma ) . The hyperthermals were geologically brief time intervals ( < 200,000 years ) of global warming and massive carbon input . The most extreme and best-studied event , the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM or ETM-1 ) , occurred about 1.8 million years before ETM-2 , at approximately 55.5 Ma . Other hyperthermals likely followed ETM-2 at nominally 53.6 Ma ( H-2 ) , 53.3 ( I-1 ) , 53.2 ( I-2 ) and 52.8 Ma ( informally called K , X or ETM-3 ) . The number , nomenclature , absolute ages and relative global impact of the Eocene hyperthermals are the source of much current research . In any case , the hyperthermals appear to have ushered in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest interval of the Cenozoic Era . They also definitely precede the Azolla event at about 49 Ma . ETM-2 is clearly recognized in sediment sequences by analyzing the stable carbon isotope composition of carbon-bearing material . The 13C/12C ratio of calcium carbonate or organic matter drops significantly across the event . This is similar to what happens when one examines sediment across the PETM , although the magnitude of the negative carbon isotope excursion is not as large . The timing of Earth system perturbations during ETM-2 and the PETM also appear different . Specifically , the onset of ETM-2 may have been longer ( perhaps 30,000 years ) while the recovery seems to have been shorter ( perhaps < 50,000 years ) . ( Note , however , that the timing of short-term carbon cycle perturbations during both events remains difficult to constrain ) . A thin clay-rich horizon marks ETM-2 in marine sediment from widely separated locations . In sections recovered from the deep-sea ( for example those recovered by Ocean Drilling Program Leg 208 on Walvis Ridge ) , this layer is caused by dissolution of calcium carbonate . However , in sections deposited along continental margins ( for example those now exposed along the Clarence River , New Zealand ) , the clay-rich horizon represents dilution by excess accumulation of terrestrial material entering into the ocean . Similar changes in sediment accumulation are found across the PETM . In sediment from Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean , intervals across both ETM-2 and the PETM shows signs of higher temperature , lower salinity and lower dissolved oxygen . The PETM and ETM-2 are thought to have a similar generic origin , although this idea is at the edge of current research . During both events , a tremendous amount of 13C-depleted carbon rapidly entered the ocean and atmosphere . This decreased the 13C/12C ratio of carbon-bearing sedimentary components , and dissolved carbonate in the deep ocean . Somehow the carbon input was coupled to an increase in Earth surface temperature and a greater seasonality in precipitation , which explains the excess terrestrial sediment discharge along continental margins . Possible explanations for changes during ETM-2 are the same as those for the PETM , and are discussed under the latter entry . The H-2 event appears to be a `` minor '' hyperthermal that follows ETM-2 ( H-1 ) by about 100,000 years . This has led to speculation that the two events are somehow coupled and paced by changes in orbital eccentricity . As in the case of the PETM , reversible dwarfing of mammals has been noted during the ETM-2 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Eocene_Thermal_Maximum_2", "rank": 18, "score": 108988 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 19, "score": 107899 }, { "content": "Title: Pliocene climate Content: During the Pliocene epoch ( 5.3 Ma to 2.6 Ma ) climate became cooler and drier , and seasonal , similar to modern climates . The global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene ( 3.3 Ma -- 3 Ma ) was 2 -- 3 ° C higher than today , global sea level 25m higher and the northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma . The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by an abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean beds . Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch . The global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas . During the Pliocene the earth climate system response shifted from a period of high frequency-low amplitude oscillation dominated by the 41,000-year period of Earth 's obliquity to one of low-frequency , high-amplitude oscillation dominated by the 100,000-year period of the orbital eccentricity characteristic of the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles . The equatorial pacific ocean sea surface temperature gradient was considerably lower than it is today , mean sea surface temperature in the east were substantially warmer than today but similar in the west , this condition has been described as a permanent El Niño state or El Padre", "qid": "412", "docid": "Pliocene_climate", "rank": 20, "score": 106920 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "412", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 21, "score": 106151 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 22, "score": 105817 }, { "content": "Title: Allerød oscillation Content: The Allerød oscillation ( Allerødtiden ) was a warm and moist global interstadial that occurred at the end of the last glacial period . It raised temperatures in the northern Atlantic region to almost present-day levels , before they declined again in the succeeding Younger Dryas period , which was followed by the present interglacial period . In some regions , especially in northern Eurasia , there is evidence for a cold period known as the Older Dryas interrupting the interstadial . In such regions the shorter oscillation ending with the Older Dryas is known as the Bølling oscillation , and the Allerød period is the interstadial following the Older Dryas . The Allerød period was named after a type site in Furesø municipality in Sjælland , Denmark ( near Copenhagen ) , where deposits created during the period were first identified in work published in 1901 by Hartz and Milthers . This Blytt-Sernander period corresponds to Pollen zone II .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Allerød_oscillation", "rank": 23, "score": 105635 }, { "content": "Title: Dr. Neil Trivett Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory Content: The Dr. Neil Trivett Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory is an atmospheric baseline station operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada located at Alert , Nunavut , on the north-eastern tip of Ellesmere Island , about 800 km south of the geographic north pole . The observatory is the northernmost of 31 Global Stations in an international network coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) under its Global Atmosphere Watch ( GAW ) program to study the long-term effects of pollution on the atmospheric environment . Among these 31 stations , Alert is one of three greenhouse gas `` intercomparison supersites '' , along with Mauna Loa in Hawaii and Cape Grim in Australia , which , due to their locations far from industrial activity , provide the international scientific community with a baseline record of atmospheric chemistry .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Dr._Neil_Trivett_Global_Atmosphere_Watch_Observatory", "rank": 24, "score": 105596 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "412", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 25, "score": 104429 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Coalition Content: The Global Climate Coalition ( GCC ) ( 1989 -- 2001 ) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and challenged the science behind global warming . The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations . The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol , and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States . The coalition promoted the views of climate skeptics . The GCC dissolved in 2001 after membership declined in the face of improved understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in climate change and of public criticism .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_Climate_Coalition", "rank": 26, "score": 104308 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Turkey Content:", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Turkey", "rank": 27, "score": 104080 }, { "content": "Title: Cretaceous Thermal Maximum Content: Cretaceous Thermal Maximum , also known as Cretaceous Thermal Optimum , was a period early in the Late Cretaceous notable for its dramatic increase in global temperatures .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Cretaceous_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 28, "score": 103268 }, { "content": "Title: World Federalist Movement Content: The World Federalist Movement ( WFM ) is a global citizens movement that advocates the establishment of a global federal system of strengthened and democratic global institutions subjected to the principles of subsidiarity , solidarity and democracy . Famous advocates of world federalism include Albert Einstein , Mahatma Gandhi , Martin Luther King Jr. , Rosika Schwimmer , Garry Davis , Emery Reves and Lola Maverick Lloyd . The organization was created in 1947 by those concerned that the structure of the new United Nations was too similar to the League of Nations which had failed to prevent World War II , both being loosely structured associations of sovereign nation-states , with few autonomous powers . The WFM International Secretariat is based in New York City , across from the headquarters of the United Nations , and has member and associate organizations around the world . The Movement has had Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council ( ECOSOC ) since 1970 and is affiliated with the UN Department of Public Information ( DPI ) and a current board member of the Conference of NGOs ( CONGO ) . It currently counts 30,000 to 50,000 supporters .", "qid": "412", "docid": "World_Federalist_Movement", "rank": 29, "score": 102866 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 30, "score": 102782 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 31, "score": 101521 }, { "content": "Title: The Discovery of Global Warming Content: The Discovery of Global Warming is a book by the physicist and historian Spencer R. Weart published in 2003 ; revised and updated edition , 2008 . It traces the history of scientific discoveries that led to the current scientific opinion on climate change . It has been translated into Spanish , Japanese , Italian , Arabic , Chinese and Korean .", "qid": "412", "docid": "The_Discovery_of_Global_Warming", "rank": 32, "score": 101010 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming (Sonny Rollins album) Content: Global Warming is an album by jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins , released on the Milestone label in 1998 , featuring performances by Rollins with Stephen Scott , Bob Cranshaw , Idris Muhammad , Clifton Anderson , Victor See Yuen and Perry Wilson .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_Warming_(Sonny_Rollins_album)", "rank": 33, "score": 100903 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 34, "score": 100778 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 35, "score": 100653 }, { "content": "Title: Ende Gelände 2016 Content: Ende Gelände 2016 was a large civil disobedience protest movement in Germany to limit global warming through fossil fuel phase-out . 3,500 -- 4,000 environmental activists from twelve countries blocked the Welzow-Süd open-pit coal mine and the coal-fired Schwarze Pumpe power station , then owned by Vattenfall ( Spremberg ) , from 13 to 15 May 2016 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Ende_Gelände_2016", "rank": 36, "score": 100351 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercane Content: A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached 50 C , which is 15 C-change warmer than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded . Such an increase could be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact , a large supervolcanic eruption , or extensive global warming . There is some speculation that a series of hypercanes resulting from an impact by a large asteroid or comet contributed to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs . The hypothesis was created by Kerry Emanuel of MIT who also coined the term .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Hypercane", "rank": 37, "score": 100110 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 38, "score": 99901 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 39, "score": 99708 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Luff (campaigner) Content: Peter John Roussel Luff , Director Mass1 , Trustee , Mass Extinction Monitoringl Observatory ( MEMO ) , Vice Chair , World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy , Trustee , China Dialogue , formerly CEO Action for a Global Climate Community ( 2003-2011 ) Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society ( 1997 -- 2001 ) ; formerly Director and Vice Chair of The European Movement UK , The International European Movement ( 1986 -- 1995 ) Funding and Marketing Director of the Social Democratic Party ( 1981 -- 1987 ) and Assistant Director of Amnesty International UK ( 1974 -- 1978 )", "qid": "412", "docid": "Peter_Luff_(campaigner)", "rank": 40, "score": 99486 }, { "content": "Title: Late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave ( also referred to as the November 2009 heat wave and the South Australian heat wave ) was a heat wave that occurred in the southeastern Australian states of South Australia , Victoria and southern New South Wales . Daily maximum temperatures during the heat wave were roughly 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) above average in many locations . Capital cities Adelaide and Melbourne recorded temperatures over 35 ° C , and some regional towns recorded temperatures above 40 ° C. Above average temperatures in the region began in late October and persisted until mid-November 2009 . Many locations through the region broke temperature records for November . This heat wave was the second experienced in the region within a 10-month period , following the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave in January and February 2009 , to which 374 deaths were attributed . Although the earlier heat wave was far more intense , the later heat wave was more extensive and long lasting . The heat wave was caused by a combination of factors , including hot , dry winds caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that had settled over the Tasman Sea , an El Niño event occurring in the Pacific Ocean , and gradually rising temperatures across southern Australia , probably as a result of global warming .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Late_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 41, "score": 99380 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming: What You Need to Know Content: Global Warming What You Need to Know is a 2006 global warming ( climate change ) documentary , directed by Nicolas Brown , starring Tom Brokaw , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer , and Mark Serreze . The film focuses on impacts from climate change , and Tom Brokaw interviews scientists . The documentary premiered on Discovery Channel , 16 July 2006 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_Warming:_What_You_Need_to_Know", "rank": 42, "score": 99061 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 43, "score": 98402 }, { "content": "Title: Interglacial Content: An interglacial period ( or alternatively interglacial , interglaciation ) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age . The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene , about 11,700 years ago .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Interglacial", "rank": 44, "score": 98362 }, { "content": "Title: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Content: Six Degrees : Our Future on a Hotter Planet ( 358 pages ) , ISBN 978-0-00-720905-7 is a 2007 ( 2008 in USA ) non-fiction book by author Mark Lynas about global warming . The book looks and attempts to summarize results from scientific papers on climate change .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Six_Degrees:_Our_Future_on_a_Hotter_Planet", "rank": 45, "score": 98347 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming (Pitbull album) Content: Global Warming is the seventh studio album recorded by American rapper Pitbull . It was released on November 16 , 2012 . A teaser to accompany the release of Global Warming was first released onto Pitbull 's official Facebook and YouTube channel on September 17 , 2012 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_Warming_(Pitbull_album)", "rank": 46, "score": 97705 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 47, "score": 97668 }, { "content": "Title: Global Day of Action Content: Global Day of Action is a direct action protest format . Environmentalism initiatives begun to use it in 2005 in connection with Global Climate Campaign . They aimed to focus world attention on the anthropogenic effect that humans are having on global warming . Its main objective is to spearhead demands that elected representatives of their respective governments honor commitments set forth by the Kyoto Protocol , by conducting in unison peaceful demonstrations around the world . The demonstration , or rallies , are intended to coincide with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , a meeting of world leaders from 189 nations , that meet annually to discuss climate change .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_Day_of_Action", "rank": 48, "score": 97604 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 49, "score": 97587 }, { "content": "Title: The Alarmist Content: The Alarmist , also known as Life During Wartime , is a 1997 film written and directed by Evan Dunsky , starring David Arquette , Stanley Tucci , with Kate Capshaw and Ryan Reynolds . The film is an adaptation of a play written by Keith Reddin .", "qid": "412", "docid": "The_Alarmist", "rank": 50, "score": 97585 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 51, "score": 97578 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 North American heat wave Content: In March 2012 , one of the greatest heat waves was observed in many regions of North America . Very warm air pushed northward west of the Great Lakes region , and subsequently spread eastward . The intense poleward air mass movement was propelled by an unusually intense low level southerly jet that stretched from Louisiana to western Wisconsin . Once this warm surge inundated the area , a remarkably prolonged period of record setting temperatures ensued . NOAA 's National Climate Data Center reported that over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were tied or broken from 1 March through 27 March . In some places the temperature exceeded 86 ° F ( 30 ° C ) . For instance , in Grand Rapids , Michigan , the highest temperature recorded was 87 ° F on March 21 ; in Chicago a high of 87 ° F was also recorded on that same day . Records were broken in unusual ways . Chicago , for example , saw temperatures above 80 ° F every day between March 14 -- 18 , breaking records on all five days . Chicago would go on to record eight days at or above 80 ° F during the month , with many suburban areas recording an additional day in the 80s on March 19 ( that day , the city only tied its record high of 78 ° F ) . In context , the National Weather Service 's Chicago branch noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the 80 's in April . And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80 ° F days as this March . In Traverse City , Michigan one day began with a low temperature ( 67 ° F ) higher than the previous record high for the day . Temperature records across much of southern Canada also were shattered . Some of the most impressive readings came from Nova Scotia on March 22 , when the mercury climbed to 30.0 C at a climate station in Lake Major , making it the highest March temperature recorded in Nova Scotia , and the third highest March temperature recorded in Canada . That same day , the temperature hit 29.2 C at Western Head , Nova Scotia . The heat reached as far east as Cape Breton Island , with the temperature climbing to 24.0 C at Sydney , Nova Scotia on March 22 , a place historically surrounded by ice-jammed waters , frigid winds , and snow in March . The week of March 18 also set record temperatures in Manitoba and much of Ontario as well as into the Maritime Provinces . Non-severe thunderstorms were reported on the evening hours of March 21 , through to the early morning hours March 22 into northern Ontario . In addition , NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data show that the atmospheric pattern was so persistent that much of the Midwest and Northeast , and up into Ontario , had temperature departures over periods of several days to a week or more of magnitudes which would be unusual even for a single day . Averaged over the seven-day period from March 16 to March 22 inclusive , nearly the entire area of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. and most of Ontario and Quebec had temperatures 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) or more above the 1981-2010 average . Even more dramatically , most of Iowa and Minnesota , all of Wisconsin and Michigan , and most of southeastern Ontario had seven-day mean temperatures more than 15 ° C ( 27 ° F ) above the climatological average for the same period . An 84 ° F high at Madison , WI in early March was 43 ° F above average and followed an overnight low of 60 ° F , 35 degrees above normal the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean . The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 ° F or more ; the highest temperature recorded there was 107 ° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s . This mild warm spell brought out spring peepers in northern Ontario on 23 March , which are usually not heard until mid-to-late April , or sometimes early May . The warm weather was also responsible for several early-season tornado touchdowns , such as the EF3 that struck Dexter , Michigan , near Ann Arbor .", "qid": "412", "docid": "March_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 52, "score": 97494 }, { "content": "Title: Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming Content: Cool It : The Skeptical Environmentalist 's Guide to Global Warming is a book by the Danish statistician and political scientist Bjørn Lomborg . The book is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist ( first published in Danish in 1998 ) , which in English translation brought the author to world attention . Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment , often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions , and may have very little impact on the world 's temperature for centuries . Lomborg concludes that a limited carbon tax is needed in the First World as well as subsidies from the First World to the Third World to help fight ongoing humanitarian crises .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Cool_It:_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist's_Guide_to_Global_Warming", "rank": 53, "score": 97344 }, { "content": "Title: Ross Gelbspan Content: Ross Gelbspan is a writer and environmentalist . He has written two books relating to global warming : The Heat Is On ( 1997 ) and Boiling Point ( 2004 ) . The Heat Is On received national attention when President Bill Clinton told the press he was reading it . Boiling Point was the subject of the lead review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review . That review was written by former Vice President Al Gore . Gelbspan maintains the website heatisonline.org , which he updates on a daily basis . Prior to his involvement in the climate issue , Gelbspan worked as an editor and reporter at a number of newspapers , including The Philadelphia Bulletin , The Washington Post and the Boston Globe . At the Globe , he conceived , directed and edited a series of articles that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 . Since becoming involved in the climate issue , Gelbspan has delivered a number of lectures , radio and television interviews and has published multiple articles on the subject . He is a regular contributor on DeSmogBlog . He has published op-ed articles in a number of major newspapers -- as well as articles in a number of other outlets including Harper 's , The Atlantic Monthly , The American Prospect , Sierra Magazine , The Nation , and many others . He has spoken in venues that include the World Economic Forum and the Boston Social Forum . His media interviews include , among others , appearances on Nightline , All Things Considered , Talk of the Nation , World News Tonight and other outlets .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Ross_Gelbspan", "rank": 54, "score": 97243 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 55, "score": 97097 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 56, "score": 96847 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–12 La Niña event Content: The 2010 -- 12 La Niña event was one of the strongest on record . It caused Australia to experience its wettest September on record in 2010 , and its second-wettest year on record in 2010 . It also led to an unusual intensification of the Leeuwin Current , the 2010 Pakistan floods , the 2010 -- 11 Queensland floods , and the 2011 East Africa drought . It also helped keep the average global temperature below recent trends , leading to 2011 tying with 1997 for the 14th-warmest year on record .", "qid": "412", "docid": "2010–12_La_Niña_event", "rank": 57, "score": 96731 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris , France , from 30 November to 12 December 2015 . It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties ( COP ) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) and the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties ( CMP ) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change , the text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 parties attending it . The agreement will enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions . On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ) , 174 countries signed the agreement in New York , and began adopting it within their own legal systems ( through ratification , acceptance , approval , or accession ) . According to the organizing committee at the outset of the talks , the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius ( ° C ) compared to pre-industrial levels . The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century . In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement , the parties will also `` pursue efforts to '' limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C . The 1.5 ° C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050 , according to some scientists . Prior to the conference , 146 national climate panels publicly presented draft national climate contributions ( called `` Intended Nationally Determined Contributions '' , INDCs ) . These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Celsius by 2100 . For example , the EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 . The agreement establishes a `` global stocktake '' which revisits the national goals to `` update and enhance '' them every five years beginning 2023 . However , no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement -- as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol . A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21 , including the Bonn Climate Change Conference , 19 to 23 October 2015 , which produced a draft agreement .", "qid": "412", "docid": "2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 58, "score": 96694 }, { "content": "Title: The Coming Global Superstorm Content: The Coming Global Superstorm ( ISBN 0-671-04190-8 ) is a 1999 book by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber , which warns that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects . First , the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift would generate a cordon of warm water around the North Pole , which in turn , holds in a frozen mass of Arctic air . Second , if the North Atlantic drift were to shut down , that barrier would fail , releasing a flood of frozen air into the Northern Hemisphere , causing a sudden and drastic temperature shift . The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the Gulf Stream : the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world 's oceans . Bell and Strieber explain the possibility that such current destabilizations have occurred before , as well as seemingly impossible engineering feats by the ancients . Among their examples is the island city of Nan Madol . The book claims that its construction , with exacting tolerances and extremely heavy basalt materials , necessitates a high degree of technical competency . Since no such society exists in the modern record or even , in legend , the society must have been destroyed by dramatic means . While other explanations beside a global meteorological event are possible , a correlating evidence set is presented in the woolly mammoth . Strieber and Bell assert that since mammoths have been found preserved with food still in their mouths and undigested in their stomachs , these animals must have been killed quickly , in otherwise normal conditions . They were preserved so well by quick freezing , which is taken as evidence of a rapid onset of a global blizzard or similar event . Interspersed with the analytical parts of the book are a series of interlinked short fictional scenarios , written in italics , describing what might transpire today if a destabilization of the North Atlantic Current were to occur . The fictional accounts of `` current events '' as the meteorological situation deteriorates provided background and inspiration for the 2004 science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow . Indeed , some events from the book are portrayed in the film with little modification .", "qid": "412", "docid": "The_Coming_Global_Superstorm", "rank": 59, "score": 96196 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "412", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 60, "score": 95775 }, { "content": "Title: Roman Warm Period Content: The Roman Warm Period or the Roman climatic optimum has been proposed as a period of unusually warm weather in Europe and the North Atlantic that ran from approximately 250 BC to AD 400 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Roman_Warm_Period", "rank": 61, "score": 95448 }, { "content": "Title: Carnian Pluvial Event Content: The Carnian Pluvial Event ( CPE ) is a major global climate change and biotic turnover that occurred during the Carnian , early Late Triassic , ~ 230 million years ago . The base of the CPE is marked by a ~ 0.4 % negative shift in carbon stable isotopes of fossil molecules ( n-alkanes ) from higher plants and total organic carbon . A ~ 0.15 % negative shift in oxygen stable isotopes of conodont apatite suggests a global warming . Major changes in organisms responsible for calcium carbonate production occurred during the CPE . A halt of carbonate sedimentation is observed in deep water settings of Southern Italy that was probably caused by the rise of the Carbonate Compensation Depth ( CCD ) . High extinction rates occurred among ammonoids , conodonts , bryozoa , and crinoids . Major evolutionary innovations followed the CPE , as the first occurrence of dinosaurs , calcareous nannofossils and scleractinian corals .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Carnian_Pluvial_Event", "rank": 62, "score": 95410 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "412", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 63, "score": 95373 }, { "content": "Title: Spanish Alarm Content: The Spanish Alarm was a period from 1739-1748 in which the Spanish Government sanctioned forces to raid and pillage English port towns along the Province of North Carolina , South Carolina and Georgia . The Kingdom of Great Britain without an adequate military presence in these provinces facilitated the provinces to devise local militias to combat the Spanish attacks . At the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession the Province of North Carolina raised four companies of one hundred men each to join other colonial troops in the siege of Cartagena . In addition to the four hundred men raised for the Cartagena expedition , it was necessary for the colonies to raise forces for the defense of their coastal towns and ports . Spanish attacks the eastern seaboard were meant to disrupt shipping and raid port towns . These raids were continuous from 1741 to 1748 . The raids in the Province of North Carolina were made on the towns and ports of Beaufort Town and Brunswick Town .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Spanish_Alarm", "rank": 64, "score": 95148 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change policy of the United States Content: Global climate change was first addressed in United States policy beginning in the early 1960s . The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) defines climate change as `` any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time . '' Essentially , climate change includes major changes in temperature , precipitation , or wind patterns , as well as other effects , that occur over several decades or longer . Climate change policy in the US has transformed rapidly over the past twenty years and is being developed at both the state and federal level . The politics of global warming and climate change have polarized certain political parties and other organizations . This article focuses on climate change policy within the United States , as well as exploring the positions of various parties and the influences on policy making and environmental justice repercussions .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Climate_change_policy_of_the_United_States", "rank": 65, "score": 94998 }, { "content": "Title: Late Antique Little Ice Age Content: The Late Antique Little Ice Age was a long-lasting Northern Hemisphere cooling period in the 6th and 7th century AD , proposed as theory in 2015 , and subsequently confirmed as the interval from 536 to about 660 AD . This period followed three immense volcanic eruptions in 536 , 540 and 547 . One of the suspected volcanic sites for those events is the Rabaul caldera , in the western Pacific , which erupted around 540 . The extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 were the early phenomena of the century-long global temperature decline . The evidence comes from a temperature reconstruction from the Euro-Med2k working group of the international PAGES ( Past Global Changes ) project , using new tree-ring measurements from the Altai Mountains , which closely matches the temperatures in the Alps in the last two centuries .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Late_Antique_Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 66, "score": 94907 }, { "content": "Title: George M. Woodwell Content: George M. Woodwell ( born October 23 , 1930 ) is an ecologist . He is an alumnus of Dartmouth College , class of 1950 . Woodwell founded the Woods Hole Research Center in 1985 in Woods Hole , MA as an institute for global environmental research . He is retired , but retains the title of Director Emeritus . He was one of the first scientists to sound the alarm on climate change , and he first testified to Congress about climate change impacts in 1986 . In 1997 he was awarded the 3rd Annual Heinz Award in the Environment and in 2001 he was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize .", "qid": "412", "docid": "George_M._Woodwell", "rank": 67, "score": 94650 }, { "content": "Title: The Heist (1970 film) Content: The Heist ( Le temps des loups , Temps des loups , tempo di violenza , also known as Dillinger 70 , Time of the Wolves , Carbon Copy and The Last Shot ) is a 1970 French-Italian crime-drama film written and directed by Sergio Gobbi .", "qid": "412", "docid": "The_Heist_(1970_film)", "rank": 68, "score": 94314 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "412", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 69, "score": 94246 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "412", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 70, "score": 94140 }, { "content": "Title: The Great Warming Content: The Great Warming is a 2006 documentary film directed by Michael Taylor . The film was hosted by Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves and even before its November 3 , 2006 première helped establish an alliance between Democrats and Evangelicals trying to shake the administration out of its inertia on Climate change mitigation . It is also the anchor for a broad , pro-active coalition ranging from Friends of the Earth to Union of Concerned Scientists to Churches of Christ . Theatre giant Regal Cinemas released the film in its top 50 markets on the weekend of November 4 to November 5 , 2006 , which makes the launch three times larger than for any other film of its kind , and highlights the growing currency of the global warming issues in the mainstream.A special program was developed for faith communities , and the film was distributed to over 500 churches , synagogues and mosques across the US . Featuring elements of the 2005 Public Broadcasting Service special Global Warming : the Signs and the Science , The Great Warming ( produced by the same team ) , it talks to key researchers and reports on social justice and day-to-day impacts as well as emission statistics . It 's also populated with everyday people from all over the United States and the planet who are feeling the brunt of global warming , and/or finding innovative ways to tackle it . While making the movie , producer Karen Coshof was determined not to lose sight of her most important advocate , the person on the street , to make the issue of global warming resonate in every household around the globe . Every person should `` feel empowered to act . '' In media interviews , Coshof explained that the film attracted an unprecedented coalition of leaders in science , religion , business , environmental activism and education . They have built bridges over historic gaps to support the message of this film to believe in the individual and collective moral responsibility to reverse the growing threats to the environment , and to the health and quality of life . The effort goes beyond the documentary : with a release timed just before the United States House elections , 2006 , the website featured a Questions for Candidates link where voters could send a questionnaire on energy , environment , and taxation to their federal and state candidates . The campaign also includes a Call to Action signed by leaders from every arena of public life , and which can be signed online by anyone who chooses . Advance DVD screenings at schools , churches , and town halls across the country have already mobilized thousands of people to change personal habits and demand action , and coalition members are working to track the effort .", "qid": "412", "docid": "The_Great_Warming", "rank": 71, "score": 94095 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 72, "score": 93957 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling (disambiguation) Content: Global cooling was a 1970s conjecture about global climate change . Global cooling may also refer to : In general , one of the means by which Earth can undergo climate change Climate change denial , including contrarian views about global warming in the 20th and 21st centuries Cooling periods on the multimillion-year scale in the geologic temperature record Geophysical global cooling , a conjecture about the formation of natural features that was made obsolete by the theory of plate tectonics Little Ice Age , a period from the 16th to 19th centuries characterized by cooling and coincident with below average sunspots frequency", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_cooling_(disambiguation)", "rank": 73, "score": 93943 }, { "content": "Title: Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project Content: The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project ( DDPP ) is a global consortium formed in October 2013 which researches methods to limit the rise of global temperature due to global warming to 2 ° C or less . The focus of the DDPP is on sustainable energy systems , other sectors of the economy , such as agriculture and land-use , are not directly considered .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Deep_Decarbonization_Pathways_Project", "rank": 74, "score": 93656 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 Eastern North America heat wave Content: The 1911 Eastern North America heat wave was an 11-day heat wave in New York City and other Eastern cities that killed 380 people starting on July 4 , 1911 . In Nashua , New Hampshire , the temperature peaked at 106 degrees Fahrenheit ( 41 C ) . In New York City , 146 people and 600 horses died . In Boston , the temperature rose to 104 ° ( 40 ° C ) on July 4 , an all-time record high that still stands today .", "qid": "412", "docid": "1911_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 75, "score": 93466 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "412", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 76, "score": 93395 }, { "content": "Title: African humid period Content: The African humid period (AHP) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, trees and lakes was caused by changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun; changes in vegetation and dust in the Sahara which strengthened the African monsoon; and increased greenhouse gases, which may imply that anthropogenic global warming could result in a shrinkage of the Sahara desert. During the preceding last glacial maximum, the Sahara contained extensive dune fields and was mostly uninhabited. It was much larger than today, but its lakes and rivers such as Lake Victoria and the White Nile were either dry or at low levels. The humid period began about 14,600–14,500 years ago at the end of Heinrich event 1, simultaneously to the Bølling-Allerød warming. Rivers and lakes such as Lake Chad formed or expanded, glaciers grew on Mount Kilimanjaro and the Sahara retreated. Two major dry fluctuations occurred; during the Younger Dryas and the short 8.2 kiloyear event. The African humid period ended 6,000–5,000 years ago during the Piora Oscillation cold period. While some evidence points to an end 5,500 years ago, in the Sahel, Arabia and East Africa the period appears to have taken place in several steps such as the 4.2 kiloyear event. The AHP led to a widespread settlement of the Sahara and the Arabian Deserts, and had a profound effect on African cultures, such as the birth of the Pharaonic civilization. They lived as hunter-gatherers until the agricultural revolution and domesticated cattle, goats and sheep. They left archeological sites and artifacts such as one of the oldest ships in the world, and rock paintings such as those in the Cave of Swimmers and in the Acacus Mountains. Earlier humid periods in Africa were postulated after the discovery of these rock paintings in now-inhospitable parts of the Sahara. When the period ended, humans gradually abandoned the desert in favour of regions with more secure water supplies, such as the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia, where they gave rise to early complex societies.", "qid": "412", "docid": "African_humid_period", "rank": 77, "score": 93204 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 78, "score": 92927 }, { "content": "Title: May Thirtieth Movement Content: The May Thirtieth Movement was a major labor and anti-imperialist movement during the middle-period of the Republic of China era . It began when Shanghai Municipal Police officers opened fire on Chinese protesters in Shanghai 's International Settlement on May 30 , 1925 . The shootings sparked international censure and nationwide anti-foreign demonstrations and riots .", "qid": "412", "docid": "May_Thirtieth_Movement", "rank": 79, "score": 92854 }, { "content": "Title: Kizimen Content: Kizimen is a stratovolcano in the southern part of Kamchatka Peninsula , Russia . The volcano was in a dormant state since an eruption in 1929 , but on 2 September 2009 it was reported by Georgina Cooper for the Reuters news agency that the crater lake temperature had risen 10 degrees Celsius in a week and plumes of steam were rising from its flanks . The activity continued throughout 2010 , with the formation of new fumaroles reported in November . Seismic activity and ash emission continued to build over the following weeks , and in January 2011 a hotspot was recorded , indicating the presence of lava . In early February 2011 the volcano sent a column of ash several kilometres high . In April 2011 , it was reported that the volcanic activity and ash were threatening the endangered wild reindeer of the area . On 31 December 2012 , following a 24-hour period of some 357 earthquakes reported under the volcano , Kizimen was raised to ` orange alert ' status . An eruption was reported on 10 January 2013 , with the ash plume reaching 4200 m altitude . On December 7 , 2013 activity at Kizimen and nearby Kliuchevskoi significantly increased , continued during November 29 - December 7 , prompting KVERT to raise the Alert Level to Red . Ash plumes rose to altitudes of 5.5 -- 6 km ( 18,000-19 ,700 ft ) a.s.l. and drifted more than 212 km NE and over 1,000 km E . According to a news article , a warning to aircraft was issued for the area around the volcanoes . Video showed gas-and-steam activity , and satellite images detected a daily weak thermal anomaly . On December 9 , the Alert Level was lowered to Green when the eruptions stopped . The volcano is not well understood , and research has indicated that the volcano could erupt in a similar fashion to the catastrophic 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Kizimen", "rank": 80, "score": 92701 }, { "content": "Title: Excessive heat warning Content: An Excessive Heat Warning is issued by the National Weather Service of the United States within 12 hours of the heat index reaching one of two criteria levels . In most areas , a warning will be issued if there is a heat index of at least 105 ° F for more than 3 hours per day for 2 consecutive days , or if the heat index is greater than 115 ° F for any period of time . Note that local offices , particularly those where excessive heat is less frequent or in areas with deserts or mountainous terrain , often have their own criteria . High values of the heat index are caused by temperatures being significantly above normal and high humidities , and such high levels can pose a threat to human life through conditions such as heat stroke , Heat exhaustion , and other heat-related illnesses .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Excessive_heat_warning", "rank": 81, "score": 92668 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Becky (1970) Content: Tropical Storm Becky was the second tropical cyclone and named storm of the 1970 Atlantic hurricane season . Becky formed from a tropical depression that was designated on July 19 . The next day it organized over the Yucatán Channel and became Tropical Storm Becky . Initially thought to have attained minimal hurricane status , Becky reached peak winds of 65 mph ( 100 km/h ) , but the storm began to deteriorate shortly thereafter . The storm made landfall on the Florida Panhandle on July 22 , and rapidly weakened over land . Overall , damage was related to heavy rainfall that caused flooding in Tallahassee , Florida ; 104 families suffered flood-related losses . About $ 500,000 ( 1970 USD ) in damage was attributed to the storm . Further north , the heavy rainfall swelled rivers . Becky may have been partially responsible for spawning tornadoes that destroyed or damaged several houses .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Becky_(1970)", "rank": 82, "score": 92284 }, { "content": "Title: World Wide Views on Global Warming Content: World Wide Views on Global Warming : A global project initiated by The Danish Board of Technology on the occasion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP15 ) held in Copenhagen December 2009 . World Wide Views on Global Warming ( or just WWViews ) was an international citizens involvement project based on methods developed by The Danish Board of Technology for the purpose of involving citizens in the political decision-making processes .", "qid": "412", "docid": "World_Wide_Views_on_Global_Warming", "rank": 83, "score": 92251 }, { "content": "Title: Lucy Parsons Content: Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons ( -- March 7 , 1942 ) was an American labor organizer , radical socialist and anarchist communist . She is remembered as a powerful orator . Parsons entered the radical movement following her marriage to newspaper editor Albert Parsons and moved with him from Texas to Chicago , where she contributed to the newspaper he famously edited - The Alarm . Following her husband 's 1887 execution in conjunction with the Haymarket Affair , Parsons remained a leading American radical activist as a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and member of other political organizations .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Lucy_Parsons", "rank": 84, "score": 92232 }, { "content": "Title: Oregon Petition Content: The Global Warming Petition Project , also known as the Oregon Petition , is a petition urging the United States government to reject the global warming Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and similar policies .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Oregon_Petition", "rank": 85, "score": 92219 }, { "content": "Title: 1816 Content: This year was known as the ` Year Without a Summer ' because of low temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere , the result of the Mount Tambora volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1815 . The sulfur from this eruption reflected the sun 's rays and caused severe global cooling , catastrophic in some locations .", "qid": "412", "docid": "1816", "rank": 86, "score": 92087 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2012 European cold wave Content: The Early 2012 European cold wave was a deadly cold wave that started on January 27 , 2012 and brought snow and freezing temperatures to much of the European continent . There were more than 824 reported deaths . Particularly low temperatures hit several Eastern and Northern European countries , reaching as low as -42.7 C in Finland . The heaviest snow was recorded in the Balkan region . The cold weather was a result of an extensive area of very high pressure located in over the north east of the continent in northern Russia , which circulated cold air from the east .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Early_2012_European_cold_wave", "rank": 87, "score": 91859 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 88, "score": 91810 }, { "content": "Title: Iron Age Cold Epoch Content: The Iron Age Cold Epoch ( also referred to as Iron Age climate pessimum or Iron Age neoglaciation ) was a period of unusually cold climate in the North Atlantic region , lasting from about 900 BC to about 300 BC , with an especially cold wave in 450 BC during the expansion of ancient Greece . It was followed by the Roman Warm Period ( 250 BC -- 400 AD ) .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Iron_Age_Cold_Epoch", "rank": 89, "score": 91780 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in southeast Alaska Content: Climate change in southeast Alaska are changes which occur in southeast Alaska as average temperatures rise as a result of global warming . The temperate rainforest that covers this area is a result of humid summers and transient snow cover in winter . The conifers that thrive in this moist climate are free from fire risk as compared to the forests to both the north and south . Warmer weather will lengthen the growing period of the trees and the increase in evapotranspiration is likely to outweigh the increase of precipitation . Assuming a scenario involving a mid-range increase in emissions , the average temperature may rise by about 3 ° F by the year 2040 and by 6 ° F by 2080 . The trees will grow more vigorously but fungi that cause rot will also thrive , there is likely to be an increase in windthrow , and fire risk may rise . With winter temperatures increasing , the type of precipitation will change . Lack of snow cover on the ground will expose tree roots to colder soils , and yellow ceder is already showing the result of this with many trees dying . The melting of glaciers in the watershed is likely to accelerate and will cause hydrological changes that will impact the wetland habitats and the distribution of wildlife . Animals such as the black-tailed deer , moose and mountain goat may benefit from less snow cover , while such mammals as the northwestern deer mouse that tunnels under the snow are likely to be disadvantaged .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Climate_change_in_southeast_Alaska", "rank": 90, "score": 91749 }, { "content": "Title: Simon Tett Content: Simon Tett is a climatologist working at the University of Edinburgh . He used to work at the Hadley Centre . His most-cited paper , is , and of it he says : All attempts at detecting and attributing climate change signals need a reliable observed data set and simulations with mechanisms that drive climate change included . In a nutshell , this paper is important because it was the first study to investigate the effect of sulphate aerosols in a general circulation model of the climate system . The experiments simulate the climate back to 1860 ( which is when the global records of surface temperature became reliable ) ... After 1970 our model with greenhouse gases alone begins to depart significantly from the observations . However , when we included sulphate aerosols , which have a cooling effect , the model agreed with the data from the 1930s and onwards . The rapid warming that has taken place since 1970 is , according to the model , attributable to a heating effect from greenhouse gases and a cooling effect from sulphate aerosols .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Simon_Tett", "rank": 91, "score": 91718 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "412", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 92, "score": 91709 }, { "content": "Title: Coral in non-tropical regions Content: The poleward migration of coral species refers to the phenomenon brought on by rising sea temperatures, wherein corals are colonising cooler climates in an attempt to circumvent coral bleaching, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. In the age of Anthropocene, the changing global climate has disrupted fundamental natural processes and brought about observable changes in the submarine sphere. Whilst coral reefs are bleaching in tropical areas like the Great Barrier Reef, even more striking, and perhaps more alarming; is the growth of tropical coral species in temperate regions, which has taken place over the past decade. Coral reefs are frequently compared to the \"canaries in the coal mine,\" who were used by miners as an indicator of air quality. In much the same way, \"coral reefs are sensitive to environmental changes that could damage other habitats in the future,\" meaning they will be the first to visually exhibit the true implications of global warming on the natural world.", "qid": "412", "docid": "Coral_in_non-tropical_regions", "rank": 93, "score": 91530 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1990 heat wave in the United Kingdom was a particularly severe heat event with temperatures hitting record highs of 37.1 C on 3 August . The temperature was recorded at Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and was a full degree Celsius above the previous record , set in 1911 . However , this record was subsequently broken in the 2003 heatwave .", "qid": "412", "docid": "1990_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 94, "score": 91438 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Tour Content: The Global Warming Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Aerosmith that included 67 concert performances across North America , Oceania , Asia and Latin America . Prior to the first leg of the tour , the band played a private event for Walmart shareholders . The first leg of the tour included 23 performances and lasted from late May through early August 2012 . The second leg included 14 performances in November and December 2012 . Before the second leg of the tour , the band performed a brief set at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in mid September . Also prior to the second leg , to promote the release of their new album in early November , the band made three special nationally-televised performances in New York City and also did a special performance in front of their old Boston apartment . The performances on the first two legs of the tour were held primarily in indoor arenas , with a couple outdoor shows and a few festival dates on the first leg , including three festivals in eastern Canada and Milwaukee 's Summerfest . The third leg of the tour ran from late April to mid May 2013 and saw Aerosmith playing their first shows in Australia since 1990 , as well as their first-ever shows in New Zealand and the Philippines . On May 30 , the band performed as part of the `` Boston Strong '' charity concert for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings . In July 2013 , the band played at the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia and at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut . In August 2013 , the band performed four concerts in Japan , but their first-ever shows in China and Taiwan were cancelled due to poor ticket sales . The band also performed in August at the Harley-Davidson 110th anniversary concert series in Milwaukee . Concerts were planned for Latin America in September and October , including their first-ever shows in Uruguay , Guatemala and El Salvador . Cheap Trick was the opening act for all dates in the first two legs except for a few festival shows . The Dead Dasies , a supergroup featuring Jon Stevens and Richard Fortus , were the opening act for the Australia/New Zealand leg . The tour is in promotion of Aerosmith 's new album Music from Another Dimension ! , released on November 6 , 2012 . In addition to many of their biggest hits and a few choice album cuts , the band has so far performed four new songs from Music from Another Dimension on this tour , three of them regularly ( `` Oh Yeah '' , `` Legendary Child '' , and `` Lover Alot '' ) , with the potential for more songs to be played in the 2013 leg . During the South America leg , specifically in Argentina and Brazil , Aerosmith toured with Whitesnake , including performances at the Personal Fest in Buenos Aires and at the Monsters of Rock in São Paulo . On May 5 , 2013 , the band announced they had cancelled their first-ever show in Jakarta due to safety concerns . In 2014 , Aerosmith played 17 concerts across Europe from May 14 to July 2 . A new tour , the Let Rock Rule Tour , was scheduled to follow in July , August , and September 2014 that saw Aerosmith play several dates in North America . This tour featured Slash ( with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators ) as the opening act . Full details of the tour were announced on April 8 , 2014 . On May 14 , 2014 , the band announced that they had cancelled their concert in Istanbul after Turkey declared a three-day mourning for the victims of Soma mine disaster . July 2 , 2014 concert in Kiev was cancelled due to civil unrest in Ukraine .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Global_Warming_Tour", "rank": 95, "score": 91320 }, { "content": "Title: 1970 world oil market chronology Content: January 1 : U.S. Federal oil depletion allowance reduced from 27.5 to 22.0 percent . May 3 : TAP line from Saudi Arabia to the Mediterranean interrupted in Syria , creating all-time tanker rate highs from June to December . September 4 : Libya raises posted prices and increases tax rate from 50 percent to 55 percent . Iran and Kuwait follow in November . November 12 : The Libyan government establishes the National Oil Corporation . December 9 : OPEC meeting in Caracas establishes 55 percent as minimum tax rate and demands that posted prices be changed to reflect changes in foreign exchange rates . | - | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | | width = `` 40 % '' align = `` center '' | This article is part of theChronology of world oil market events ( 1970-2005 ) | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | following year :1971 world oil market chronology | - Category : Oil market timelines World oil market chronology World Oil Market Chronology , 1970", "qid": "412", "docid": "1970_world_oil_market_chronology", "rank": 96, "score": 91291 }, { "content": "Title: November 2014 North American cold wave Content: The November 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that occurred across most of Canada and the contiguous United States , including parts of the Western United States up to western California . One of the first events of the winter , the cold wave was caused by the northward movement of an extremely powerful bomb cyclone associated with Typhoon Nuri 's remnant , which shifted the jet stream far northward , creating an omega block pattern . This allowed a piece of the polar vortex to advance southward into the Central and Eastern United States , bringing record-cold temperatures to much of the region . In contrast , Alaska experienced above-average temperatures . This was the worst cold wave that the North American region had experienced since an earlier cold wave in early 2014 . The cold wave was expected to last for a few weeks , extending at least until American Thanksgiving . Although the Omega Block broke down on November 20 , due to a powerful storm moving into the Gulf of Alaska , frigid conditions continued to persist across much of the United States . There was also concern among some meteorologists that another cold wave or abnormally cold trend might persist throughout the winter of 2014 -- 15 , the chances of which were `` above average . '' On November 23 , a warming trend primarily in the Eastern United States brought an end to the cold wave ; however , below-average temperatures were forecast to return to the Midwest by November 24 . Despite the development of a second cold wave , it ended on December 6 , when a ridge of high pressure brought above-average temperatures to the region , especially in the Central United States .", "qid": "412", "docid": "November_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 97, "score": 91192 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "412", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 98, "score": 91082 }, { "content": "Title: Younger Dryas Content: The Younger Dryas is a geological period from c. 12,900 to c. 11,700 calendar years ago ( BP ) . It is named after an indicator genus , the alpine-tundra wildflower Dryas octopetala . Leaves of Dryas octopetala are occasionally abundant in the Late Glacial , often minerogenic-rich , like the lake sediments of Scandinavian lakes . The Younger Dryas saw a sharp decline in temperature over most of the northern hemisphere , at the end of the Pleistocene epoch , immediately before the current warmer Holocene . It was the most recent and longest of several interruptions to the gradual warming of the Earth 's climate since the severe Last Glacial Maximum , c. 27,000 to 24,000 calendar years BP . The change was relatively sudden , taking place in decades , and resulted in a decline of 2 to 6 degrees Celsius , advances of glaciers and drier conditions , over much of the temperate northern hemisphere . It is thought to have been caused by a decline in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation , which transports warm water from the equator towards the North Pole , and which in turn is thought to have been caused by an influx of fresh cold water from North America into the Atlantic . The Younger Dryas was a period of climatic change , but the effects were complex and variable . In the southern hemisphere , and some areas of the north such as southeastern North America , there was a slight warming . The presence of a distinct cold period at the end of the Late Glacial interval has been known for a long time . Paleobotanical and lithostratigraphic studies of Swedish and Danish bog and lake sites , e.g. the Allerød clay pit in Denmark , first recognized and described the Younger Dryas . The Younger Dryas is the youngest and longest of three stadials that resulted from typically abrupt climatic changes that took place over the last 16,000 calendar years . Within the Blytt-Sernander classification of north European climatic phases , the prefix ` Younger ' refers to the recognition that this original ` Dryas ' period was preceded by a warmer stage , the Allerød oscillation , which in turn was preceded by the Older Dryas around 14,000 calendar years BP . This is not securely dated , and estimates vary by 400 years , but it is generally accepted that it lasted around 200 years . In northern Scotland the glaciers were thicker and more extensive than during the Younger Dryas . The Older Dryas , in turn , is preceded by another warmer stage , the Bølling oscillation that separates it from a third and even older stadial . This stadial is often , but not always , known as the Oldest Dryas . The Oldest Dryas occurred approximately 1,770 calendar years before the Younger Dryas and lasted about 400 calendar years . According to the GISP2 ice core from Greenland , the Oldest Dryas occurred between about 15,070 and 14,670 calendar years BP . In Ireland , the Younger Dryas has also been known as the Nahanagan Stadial , while in Great Britain it has been called the Loch Lomond Stadial . In the Greenland Summit ice core chronology , the Younger Dryas corresponds to Greenland Stadial 1 ( GS-1 ) . The preceding Allerød warm period ( interstadial ) is subdivided into three events : Greenland Interstadial-1c to 1a ( GI-1c to GI-1a ) .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Younger_Dryas", "rank": 99, "score": 91056 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "412", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 100, "score": 90943 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "413", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 1, "score": 170712 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 2, "score": 170436 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 3, "score": 158691 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "413", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 4, "score": 155155 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 5, "score": 150115 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 6, "score": 149451 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 7, "score": 146713 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 8, "score": 146160 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "413", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 9, "score": 145966 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 10, "score": 145949 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon leakage Content: Carbon leakage occurs when there is an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in one country as a result of an emissions reduction by a second country with a strict climate policy . Carbon leakage may occur for a number of reasons : if the emissions policy of a country raises local costs , then another country with a more relaxed policy may have a trading advantage . If demand for these goods remains the same , production may move offshore to the cheaper country with lower standards , and global emissions will not be reduced . if environmental policies in one country add a premium to certain fuels or commodities , then the demand may decline and their price may fall . Countries that do not place a premium on those items may then take up the demand and use the same supply , negating any benefit . There is no consensus over the magnitude of long-term leakage effects . This is important for the problem of climate change . Carbon leakage is one type of spill-over effect . Spill-over effects can be positive or negative ; for example , emission reductions policy might lead to technological developments that aid reductions outside of the policy area . `` Carbon leakage is defined as the increase in emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries . '' It is expressed as a percentage , and can be greater or less than 100 % . Carbon leakage may occur through changes in trading patterns , and that is sometimes measured as the balance of emissions embodied in trade ( BEET ) .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_leakage", "rank": 11, "score": 145559 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 12, "score": 144708 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon emission Content: The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change . The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle : The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score . There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles . CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Low-carbon_emission", "rank": 13, "score": 140762 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 14, "score": 140354 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 15, "score": 139874 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 16, "score": 138900 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 17, "score": 138593 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 18, "score": 136615 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 19, "score": 135978 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 20, "score": 134664 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 21, "score": 133823 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport Content: The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport", "rank": 22, "score": 133249 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "413", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 23, "score": 131750 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 24, "score": 131625 }, { "content": "Title: American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut Content: American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut , , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court , in an 8 -- 0 decision , held that corporations can not be sued for greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) under federal common law , primarily because the Clean Air Act ( CAA ) delegates the management of carbon dioxide and other GHG emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) . Brought to court in July 2004 in the Southern District of New York , this was the first global warming case based on a public nuisance claim .", "qid": "413", "docid": "American_Electric_Power_Co._v._Connecticut", "rank": 25, "score": 130319 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 26, "score": 130234 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 27, "score": 130194 }, { "content": "Title: California Senate Bill 32 Content: The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 : emissions limit , or SB-32 , is a California Senate bill expanding upon AB-32 to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions . The lead author is Senator Fran Pavley and the principal co-author is Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia . SB-32 was signed into law on September 8 , 2016 , by Governor Edmund Gerald `` Jerry '' Brown Jr. . SB-32 sets into law the mandated reduction target in GHG emissions as written into Executive Order B-30-15 . The Senate bill requires that there be a reduction in GHG emissions to 40 % below the 1990 levels by 2030 . Greenhouse gas emissions include carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , sulfur hexafluoride , hydrofluorocarbons , and perfluorocarbons . The California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) is responsible for ensuring that California meets this goal . The provisions of SB-32 were added to Section 38566 of the Health and Safety Code subsequent to the bill 's approval . The bill goes into effect January 1 , 2017 . SB-32 builds onto Assembly Bill ( AB ) 32 written by Senator Fran Pavley and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez passed into law on September 27 , 2006 . AB-32 required California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and SB-32 continues that timeline to reach the targets set in Executive Order B-30-15 . SB-32 provides another intermediate target between the 2020 and 2050 targets set in Executive Order S-3-05 . SB-32 was contingent on the passing of AB-197 , which increases legislative oversight of CARB and is intended to ensure CARB must report to the Legislature . AB-197 also passed and was signed into law on September 8 , 2016 .", "qid": "413", "docid": "California_Senate_Bill_32", "rank": 28, "score": 129084 }, { "content": "Title: Fugitive emissions Content: Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Fugitive_emissions", "rank": 29, "score": 128408 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 30, "score": 127599 }, { "content": "Title: Evangelical Climate Initiative Content: The Evangelical Climate Initiative ( ECI ) is a campaign by US-American church leaders and organizations to promote market based mechanisms to mitigate global warming . ECI 's first statement , calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions , was initially signed by 86 evangelical leaders . Signatories included Rick Warren , the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges , and the leader of the Salvation Army . The number of signatories had risen to over 100 by December 2007 , and as of July 2011 over 220 evangelical leaders had signed the call to action . David P. Gushee , a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University , helped draft the document . When the Evangelical Climate Initiative launched in February 2006 , the National Association of Evangelicals ( NAE ) was not ready to make such a commitment . Not quite a year later , the NAE worked with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to bring scientists and evangelical Christian leaders together to mitigate climate change . As ABC News reported :", "qid": "413", "docid": "Evangelical_Climate_Initiative", "rank": 31, "score": 127325 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 32, "score": 127034 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "413", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 33, "score": 126794 }, { "content": "Title: Kaya identity Content: The Kaya identity is an identity stating that the total emission level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be expressed as the product of four factors : human population , GDP per capita , energy intensity ( per unit of GDP ) , and carbon intensity ( emissions per unit of energy consumed ) . It is a concrete form of the more general I = PAT equation relating factors that determine the level of human impact on climate . The Kaya identity is both simple and tricky , as it can be reduced to only two terms , but it is developed so that the carbon emission calculation becomes easy , as per the available data , or generally in which format the data is available .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Kaya_identity", "rank": 34, "score": 126704 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita from 1990 through 2011 . All data was calculated by the US Department of Energy 's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) , mostly based on data collected from country agencies by the United Nations Statistics Division . Countries are ranked by their metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2009 . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use such as deforestation . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The carbon dioxide emissions of a country are only an indicator of one greenhouse gas . For a more complete idea of how a country influences climate change , gases such as methane and nitrous oxide should be taken into account . This is particularly so in agricultural economies . Carbon dioxide emissions are also known for earlier periods . A study of a global sample of twelve countries provide estimates for emissions since 1800 and explores the long-run drivers of carbon dioxide emissions by decomposing changes in carbon emissions into population , income , technological and energy mix changes .", "qid": "413", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 35, "score": 126286 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emission label Content: A carbon emission label or carbon label describes the carbon dioxide emissions created as a by-product of manufacturing , transporting , or disposing of a consumer product . This information is important to consumers wishing to minimize their ecological footprint and contribution to global warming made by their purchases .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_emission_label", "rank": 36, "score": 126212 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 37, "score": 125933 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 38, "score": 125760 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Protocol Content: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 39, "score": 125611 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon price Content: Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' . Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain . The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions . The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_price", "rank": 40, "score": 125270 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of shipping Content: The environmental impact of shipping includes greenhouse gas emissions , acoustic , and oil pollution . The International Maritime Organization ( IMO ) estimates that Carbon dioxide emissions from shipping were equal to 2.2 % of the global human-made emissions in 2012 and expects them to rise by as much as 2 to 3 times by 2050 if no action is taken . The First Intersessional Meeting of the IMO Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships took place in Oslo , Norway on 23 -- 27 June 2008 . It was tasked with developing the technical basis for the reduction mechanisms that may form part of a future IMO regime to control greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping , and a draft of the actual reduction mechanisms themselves , for further consideration by IMO 's Marine Environment Protection Committee ( MEPC ) .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_shipping", "rank": 41, "score": 124867 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 42, "score": 124607 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions Content: -RSB- This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity , based on the EDGAR database created by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2015 . The following table lists the 2015 annual emissions estimates ( in thousands of tonnes ) along with a list of emissions per capita ( in tonnes of per year ) from same source . The data only considers carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture , but not emissions from land use , land-use change and forestry . Emissions from international shipping or bunker fuels are also not included in national figures , which can make a huge difference for small countries with important ports . The top 10 largest emitter countries account for 67.6 % of the world total . Other powerful , more potent greenhouse gases , including methane , are not included in this data .", "qid": "413", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions", "rank": 43, "score": 124467 }, { "content": "Title: Regional climate change initiatives in the United States Content: Twenty-eight states have climate action plans and nine have statewide emission targets . The states of California and New Mexico have committed most recently to emission reductions targets , joining New Jersey , Maine , Massachusetts , Connecticut , New York , Washington and Oregon . Regional initiatives can be more efficient than programs at the state level , as they encompass a broader geographical area , eliminate duplication of work , and create more uniform regulatory environments . Over the past few years , a number of regional initiatives have begun developing systems to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants , increase renewable energy generation , track renewable energy credits , and research and establish baselines for carbon sequestration .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Regional_climate_change_initiatives_in_the_United_States", "rank": 44, "score": 124228 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries ranked by greenhouse-gas emissions per capita in 2000 . It is based on data for carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , perfluorocarbon , hydrofluorocarbon and sulfur hexafluoride emissions compiled by the World Resources Institute ( WRI ) from a variety of sources , including CDIAC and the US Environmental Protection Agency . Bunker-fuel emissions are not included . Two sets of per capita emissions are given , one with an estimate of the effects of land-use change ( for example , cutting down forests ) and one without . The former is based on regional estimates in Houghton ( 2003 ) . Difficulties with determining rates of deforestation and the magnitude of carbon stocks held by the remaining forests and with distributing regional carbon fluxes among individual countries mean that the land-use change components have a large margin of error , perhaps as large as + / -150 % in some cases . They are included here because , although difficult to quantify accurately at a country level , land-use change is a significant contributor to global warming . The WRI estimates that it accounted for almost a fifth of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 . For 2005 the data for a large number of countries only includes emissions ( see note 12 . )", "qid": "413", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 45, "score": 124208 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emissions reporting Content: Human activities continue to impact Earth 's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases . One of the proposed ways to combat this climate change is through reporting by businesses on the impact of their activities . Large power stations and manufacturing plants are often required to report their emissions to appropriate government entities , for example to the European Union as part of the Emissions Trading System or to the US EPA as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program . In the United Kingdom , Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) has described climate change as the `` greatest environmental challenge facing the world today , '' and it is now a legal requirement for all quoted companies to report their annual greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_emissions_reporting", "rank": 46, "score": 124004 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon shifting Content: Carbon shifting is the tendency for an individual to increase carbon dioxide emissions in one area of their lifestyle as a result of reducing emissions elsewhere . ` Carbon shifting ' might more accurately be termed ` domestic carbon shifting ' to distinguish it from carbon leakage which has occasionally also been called carbon shifting . Many attempts to encourage people to change aspects of their lifestyle and so reduce their carbon dioxide emissions make a virtue of the financial savings . In the United Kingdom the Energy Saving Trust lists various ways of saving energy , e.g. `` Energy saving light bulbs last up to 12 times longer than ordinary lightbulbs and can save you # 9 per year in electricity ( and 38 kilograms of ) or # 100 over the bulbs lifetime . '' However , whether or not carbon dioxide emissions are ultimately reduced will depend on how that saved money is spent . If the amount of money saved through walking to work is eventually spent on an extra city break involving air travel the net emissions may well increase . The problem of carbon shifting may undermine many voluntary piecemeal attempts at reducing carbon dioxide emissions . However , carbon shifting is not inherently negative . If a person can be persuaded to avoid activities that produce a high level of emissions for a given financial outlay then they may shift to activities that produce lower emissions for that same amount of money . Positive carbon shifting might be encouraged through the use of a carbon tax or the implementation of a Personal carbon trading scheme . The phenomenon of carbon shifting also suggests that for some comparative purposes the most appropriate measure of emissions would be emissions per unit of currency rather than total emissions . An activity that produces slightly lower emissions at a significantly lower cost may not necessarily be the best activity to promote as it leaves the individual with more money to spend on other emitting activities . Similarly , if two passengers are traveling on the same aircraft they might be deemed to be emitting the same total amount of carbon dioxide . However , if one of them paid a lower fare then , by this measure , they would be deemed to be damaging the environment more .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_shifting", "rank": 47, "score": 123802 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 48, "score": 123672 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Idaho Content: Like other parts of the world , climate in Idaho has changed dramatically over the geologic history of the Earth . Paleo-climatic records give some indication of these changes . The longest instrumented records of climate in Idaho extend back to the late 1800s . Concern over human induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and methane from agriculture and industry , are driving research efforts across the state at university , state , and federals levels to understand what the implications of climate change could be in Idaho . In the big picture of greenhouse gas emissions , Idaho emits the least carbon dioxide per person of the United States , less than 23,000 pounds a year . It relies mostly on nonpolluting hydroelectric power from its rivers . Like other parts of the world , Idaho has seen significant temperature increases , especially in the last several decades . From 1971-2005 the average annual observed temperature in the Snake River Plain , located in southern Idaho , has increased by 1.4 degrees Celsius based on data from 10 climate stations ( Dubois , Ashton , Oakely , Pocatello , Aberdeen , Hazelton , Jerome , Boise , Nampa , and Payette ) . Statistically the increasing temperature trends are most significant in the months of January , March , and April . While precipitation has generally increased , since the early 1900s . The high variability in precipitation makes the identification of precipitation trends statistically difficult . Over the next century , climate in Idaho will experience additional changes due both to ` natural ' climate variability and due to feedbacks related to the interaction between climate variability and increasing greenhouse gases . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Idaho could increase by 5 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 9 F-change ) in winter and summer and 4 F-change ( with a range of 2 F-change to 7 F-change ) in spring and fall . Precipitation is estimated to change little in summer , to increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and to increase by 20 % in winter ( with a range of 10-40 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The impacts described in the sections that follow take into account estimates from different models . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Idaho", "rank": 49, "score": 123643 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon finance Content: Carbon finance is a new branch of Environmental finance . Carbon finance explores the financial implications of living in a carbon-constrained world , a world in which emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) carry a price . Financial risks and opportunities impact corporate balance sheets , and market-based instruments are capable of transferring environmental risk and achieving environmental objectives . Issues regarding climate change and GHG emissions must be addressed as part of strategic management decision-making . The general term is applied to investments in GHG emission reduction projects and the creation ( origination ) of financial instruments that are tradeable on the carbon market .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_finance", "rank": 50, "score": 123641 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in China Content: The position of the Chinese government on climate change is contentious . China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol , but as a non-Annex I country which is not required to limit greenhouse gas emissions under terms of the agreement . In particular since 2007 the Chinese government has n't changed its attitude towards climate change policy and has become one of the major drivers of low-carbon technology developments . In 2002 , on the basis of an analysis of fossil fuel consumption ( including especially the coal power plants ) and cement production data , that China surpassed the United States as the world 's largest emitter of carbon dioxide , putting out 7,000 million tonnes , in comparison with America 's 5,800 million . According to data from the US Energy Information Administration China was the top emitter by fossil fuels CO2 in 2009 China : 7,710 million tonnes ( mt ) ( 25.4 % ) ahead of US : 5,420 mt ( 17.8 % ) , India : 5.3 % , Russia : 5.2 % and Japan : 3.6 % . China was also the top emitter of all greenhouse gas emissions including building and deforestation in 2005 : China : 7,220 mt ( 16.4 % ) , US : 6,930 mt ( 15.7 % ) , 3 . Brazil 6.5 % , 4 . Indonesia : 4.6 % , 5 . Russia 4.6 % , 6 . India 4.2 % , 7 . Japan 3.1 % , 8 . Germany 2.3 % , 9 . Canada 1.8 % , and 10 . Mexico 1.6 % . In the cumulative emissions between 1850 and 2007 the top emitters were : 1 . US 28.8 % 2 . China : 9.0 % , 3 . Russia 8.0 % , 4 . Germany 6.9 % , 5 . UK 5.8 % , 6 . Japan 3.9 % , 7 . France 2.8 % , 8 . India 2.4 % , 9 . Canada 2.2 % and 10 . Ukraine 2.2 % . According to BBC News , in September 2014 , China surpassed the European Union 's per capita carbon emissions for the first time in history . China 's per capita carbon emissions now stand at 7.2 t/capita . China 's carbon emissions have increased rapidly since its economic boom in the early 2000s . Since then , their per capita carbon emissions have increased by more than 2.5 times .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Climate_change_in_China", "rank": 51, "score": 122875 }, { "content": "Title: Chinese national carbon trading scheme Content: The Chinese national carbon trading scheme is a cap and trade system for carbon dioxide emissions set to be implemented in July 2017 . This emission trading scheme ( ETS ) creates a carbon market where emitters can buy and sell emission credits . From this scheme , China can limit emissions , but allow economic freedom for emitters to reduce emissions or purchase emission allowances from other emitters . China is currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and many major Chinese cities have severe air pollution . With this plan , China will soon be the largest market in carbon trading . The scheme will limit emissions from six of China 's top carbon dioxide emitting industries , including coal-fired power plants . China was able to gain experience in drafting and implementation of an ETS plan from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , where China was part of the Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) . From this experience with carbon markets , and lengthy discussions with the next largest carbon market , the European Union ( EU ) , as well as analysis of small scale pilot markets in major Chinese cities and provinces , China 's national ETS will be the largest of its kind and will help China achieve its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution ( INDC ) from the Paris Agreement in 2016 .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Chinese_national_carbon_trading_scheme", "rank": 52, "score": 122592 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 53, "score": 122303 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2002 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place from October 23 to November 1 , 2002 , in New Delhi , India . The conference included the 8th Conference of the Parties ( COP8 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The conference adopted the Delhi Ministerial Declaration that , amongst others , called for efforts by developed countries to transfer technology and minimize the impact of climate change on developing countries . It is also approved the New Delhi work programme on Article 6 of the Convention . The COP8 was marked by Russia 's hesitation , stating that it needed more time to think it over . The Kyoto Protocol could enter into force once it was ratified by 55 countries , including countries responsible for 55 per cent of the developed world 's 1990 carbon dioxide emissions . With the United States ( 36.1 per cent share of developed-world carbon dioxide ) and Australia refusing ratification , Russia 's agreement ( 17 % of global emissions in 1990 ) was required to meet the ratification criteria and therefore Russia could delay the process .", "qid": "413", "docid": "2002_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 54, "score": 121725 }, { "content": "Title: Clean Power Plan Content: The Clean Power Plan is an Obama administration policy aimed at combating anthropogenic climate change ( global warming ) that was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in June 2014 . It is widely expected to be eliminated under President Donald Trump , who signed an executive order on March 28 , 2017 mandating the EPA to review the plan . The final version of the plan was unveiled by President Obama on August 3 , 2015 . The 460-page rule ( RIN 2060 -- AR33 ) titled `` Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources : Electric Utility Generating Units '' was published in the Federal Register on October 23 , 2015 . The Obama administration designed the plan to lower the carbon dioxide emitted by power generators .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Clean_Power_Plan", "rank": 55, "score": 121596 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon monitoring Content: Carbon monitoring refers to tracking how much carbon dioxide or methane is produced by particular activity at a particular point in time . For example , it may refer to tracking methane emissions from agriculture , or carbon dioxide emissions from land use changes , such as deforestation , or from burning fossil fuels , whether in a power plant , automobile , or other device . Because carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emitted in the largest quantities , and methane is an even more potent greenhouse gas , monitoring carbon emissions is widely seen as crucial to any effort to reduce emissions and thereby slow climate change . Monitoring carbon emissions is key to the cap-and-trade program currently being used in Europe , as well as the one in California , and will be necessary for any such program in the future , like the Paris Agreement . The lack of reliable sources of consistent data on carbon emissions is a significant barrier to efforts to reduce emissions .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_monitoring", "rank": 56, "score": 121331 }, { "content": "Title: Vatican Climate Forest Content: The Vatican Climate Forest , to be located in the Bükk National Park , Hungary , was donated to the Vatican City by a carbon offsetting company . The forest is to be sized to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Vatican during 2007 . The Vatican 's acceptance of the offer , at a ceremony on July 5 , 2007 , was reported as being `` purely symbolic '' , and a way to encourage Catholics to do more to safeguard the planet . No trees have been planted under the project and the carbon offsets have not materialised . In a more effective move to combat global warming , in May 2007 , the Vatican announced that the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall would be covered with photovoltaic panels . The installation was officially placed into service on November 26 , 2008 .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Vatican_Climate_Forest", "rank": 57, "score": 120878 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United Kingdom Content: Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 58, "score": 120662 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Content: The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme ( or CPRS ) was a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme for anthropogenic greenhouse gases proposed by the Rudd government , as part of its climate change policy , which had been due to commence in Australia in 2010 . It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia . The policy began to be formulated in April 2007 , when the federal Labor Party was in Opposition and the six Labor-controlled states commissioned an independent review on energy policy , the Garnaut Climate Change Review , which published a number of reports . After Labor won the 2007 federal election and formed government , it published a Green Paper on climate change for discussion and comment . The Federal Treasury then modelled some of the financial and economic impacts of the proposed CPRS scheme . The Rudd government published a final White Paper on 15 December 2008 , and announced that legislation was intended to take effect in July 2010 ; but the legislation for the CPRS ( aka ETS ) failed to gain the numbers in the Senate and was twice rejected creating a double dissolution election trigger . A bitter political debate within the Coalition Opposition saw Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull lose the leadership to the anti-CPRS Tony Abbott . The Rudd government did not call an election and in April 2010 , Rudd deferred plans for the CPRS . After the 2010 federal election , the Gillard Government was able to get the Carbon Pricing Mechanism ( CPM ) passed into law as part of the Clean Energy Futures Package ( CEF ) in 2011 , and became effective on 1 July 2012 . However , after the 2013 federal election there was a change in government , and the Abbott Government repealed the CEF package on 17 July 2014 . Due to the great deal of policy uncertainty surrounding the scheme , organizations in Australia responded in a rather informal and tepid manner and largely withheld from making any large-scale investments in emissions reductions technology during the scheme 's operation .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_Pollution_Reduction_Scheme", "rank": 59, "score": 120631 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 60, "score": 120435 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP17 ) was held in Durban , South Africa , from 28 November to 11 December 2011 to establish a new treaty to limit carbon emissions . A treaty was not established , but the conference agreed to establish a legally binding deal comprising all countries by 2015 , which was to take effect in 2020 . There was also progress regarding the creation of a Green Climate Fund for which a management framework was adopted . The fund is to distribute US$ 100 billion per year to help poor countries adapt to climate impacts . While the president of the conference , Maite Nkoana-Mashabane , declared it a success , scientists and environmental groups warned that the deal was not sufficient to avoid global warming beyond 2 ° C as more urgent action is needed .", "qid": "413", "docid": "2011_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 61, "score": 120418 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 62, "score": 120324 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "413", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 63, "score": 120174 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Japan Content: Climate change in Japan is being addressed at a governmental level . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) proposes two hypothetical future scenarios . One is Scenario `` A1B '' based on the assumption that a future world will have more global economic growth ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 720ppm in 2100 ) . The other is Scenario `` B1 '' based on the assumption that a future world will have global green economy ( the concentration of carbon dioxide will be 550ppm in 2100 ) . Earth Simulator calculations , reveal the daily increase in mean temperature in Japan during the period of 2071 to 2100 . The temperature has increased by 3.0 ° C in Scenario B1 and 4.2 ° C in A1B compared to that of 1971 to 2000 . Similarly , the daily maximum temperature in Japan increased by 3.1 ° C in B1 and 4.4 ° C in A1B . The precipitation in summer in Japan increased steadily due to global warming ( the annual average precipitation increased by 17 % in Scenario B1 and by 19 % in Scenario A1B during the period of 2071 to 2100 compared to that of 1971 to 2000 ) . Currently , Japan is a world leader in the development of new climate-friendly technologies . Honda and Toyota hybrid electric vehicles were named to have the highest fuel efficiency and lowest emissions . The fuel economy and emissions decrease is due to the advanced technology in hybrid systems , biofuels , use of lighter weight material and better engineering . As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol , and host of the 1997 conference which created it , Japan is under treaty obligations to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps related to curbing climate change . The Cool Biz campaign introduced under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was targeted at reducing energy use through the reduction of air conditioning use in government offices .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Japan", "rank": 64, "score": 120009 }, { "content": "Title: Emission Reduction Unit Content: The emission reduction unit ( ERU ) is an emissions unit issued under a Joint Implementation project in terms of the Kyoto Protocol . An ERU represents a reduction of greenhouse gases under the Joint Implementation mechanism , where it represents one tonne of equivalent reduced . To allow comparison between the different effects of gases on the environment , scientists have defined multipliers for gases that compare their greenhouse potency ( global warming potential ) relative to that of carbon dioxide . One example of a Joint Implementation project resulting in an emission reduction unit , is the production of biogases by landfill sites . These gases consist of mainly methane which escapes to the atmosphere if it is not collected . The main reason for dealing with methane is that it has a 100-year global warming potential multiplier of 25 compared to carbon dioxide ( i.e. has 25 times the greenhouse potency ) . Collection of methane is usually accompanied by its combustion . Burning one tonne of methane produces nearly 3 tonnes of , thus reducing its greenhouse effect by ( 25-3 = 22 ) ERU . In December 2012 , ERU prices crashed to a low of 15 euro cents before recovering to 23c after news that EU 's Climate Change Committee was to vote on a ban of ERUs from countries that have not signed up to a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol . In January 2013 , Bloomberg reported that emission reduction unit prices declined 89 percent in 2012", "qid": "413", "docid": "Emission_Reduction_Unit", "rank": 65, "score": 119938 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 66, "score": 119676 }, { "content": "Title: German response to Kyoto Protocol Content: Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany . Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states . As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms . In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible . Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .", "qid": "413", "docid": "German_response_to_Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 67, "score": 119653 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon footprint Content: A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual , event , organisation , or product , expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent . In most cases , the total carbon footprint can not be exactly calculated because of inadequate knowledge of and data about the complex interactions between contributing processes , especially which including the influence on natural processes storing or releasing carbon dioxide . For this reason , Wright , Kemp , and Williams , have suggested to define the carbon footprint as : A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and methane ( CH4 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) . Greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) can be emitted through land clearance and the production and consumption of food , fuels , manufactured goods , materials , wood , roads , buildings , transportation and other services . For simplicity of reporting , it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide , or its equivalent of other GHGs , emitted . Most of the carbon footprint emissions for the average U.S. household come from `` indirect '' sources , i.e. fuel burned to produce goods far away from the final consumer . These are distinguished from emissions which come from burning fuel directly in one 's car or stove , commonly referred to as `` direct '' sources of the consumer 's carbon footprint . The concept name of the carbon footprint originates from ecological footprint , discussion , which was developed by Rees and Wackernagel in the 1990s which estimates the number of `` earths '' that would theoretically be required if everyone on the planet consumed resources at the same level as the person calculating their ecological footprint . However , given that ecological footprints are a measure of failure , Anindita Mitra ( CREA , Seattle ) chose the more easily calculated `` carbon footprint '' to easily measure use of carbon , as an indicator of unsustainable energy use . In 2007 , carbon footprint was used as a measure of carbon emissions to develop the energy plan for City of Lynnwood , Washington . Carbon footprints are much more specific than ecological footprints since they measure direct emissions of gases that cause climate change into the atmosphere . Carbon footprint is one of a family of footprint indicators , which also includes water footprint and land footprint .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_footprint", "rank": 68, "score": 119361 }, { "content": "Title: Clean Energy Act 2011 Content: The Clean Energy Act 2011 is the main Act in a package of legislation that established an Australian emissions trading scheme , to be preceded by a three-year period of fixed carbon pricing designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and limit global warming . The package was introduced by the Gillard Labor Government in February 2011 and repealed on 17 July 2014 by the Abbott Government .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Clean_Energy_Act_2011", "rank": 69, "score": 119014 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 70, "score": 118564 }, { "content": "Title: New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme Content: The New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme ( also known as GGAS ) was a mandatory greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme that aimed to lower greenhouse gas emissions in New South Wales , Australia , to 7.27 tonnes of carbon dioxide per capita by the year 2007 , which commenced on 1 January 2003 . The Scheme imposed obligations on NSW electricity retailers and certain other parties , including large electricity users who elected to manage their own benchmark to abate a portion of the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to their sales/consumption of electricity in NSW . They did this by purchasing and acquitting NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates ( also known as NGACs ) created by accredited `` Abatement Certificate Providers '' ( ACPs ) . The NSW Minister for Energy , Chris Hartcher , announced closure of the scheme in April 2012 , effective from 30 June 2012 . The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme ( GGAS ) closed on 30 June 2012 . The NSW Government closed GGAS to avoid duplication with the Commonwealth 's carbon price which commenced on 1 July 2012 .", "qid": "413", "docid": "New_South_Wales_Greenhouse_Gas_Abatement_Scheme", "rank": 71, "score": 118293 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on terrestrial animals Content: Climate change has had a significant direct effect on terrestrial animals , by being a major driver of the processes of speciation and extinction . The best known example of this is the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which occurred 350 million years ago . This event decimated amphibian populations and spurred on the evolution of reptiles . Climate change is a natural event that has occurred throughout history . However , with the recent increased emission of CO2 in the Earth 's atmosphere , abrupt climate change has occurred . It has been hypothesized that anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing has significantly influenced global climate since about 8000 before present ( Van Hoof 2006 ) . Animals have had specific responses to climate change . Species respond to climate changes by migration , adaptation , or if neither of those occur , death . These migrations can sometimes follow an animal 's preferred temperature , elevation , soil , etc. , as said terrain moves due to climate change . Adaptation can be either genetic or phenological , and death can occur in a local population only ( extirpation ) or as an entire species , otherwise known as extinction . Climate changes is projected to affect individual organisms , populations , species distributions and ecosystem composition and function both directly ( ex . Increased temperatures and changes in precipitation ) and indirectly ( through climate changing the intensity and frequency of disturbances such as wildfires and severe storms ) ( IPCC 2002 ) . Every organism has a unique set of preferences or requirements , a niche and biodiversity has been tied to the diversity of animals ' niches . These can include or be affected by temperature , aridity , resource availability , habitat requirements , enemies , soil characteristics , competitors , and pollinators . Since the factors that compose a niche can be so complex and interconnected , the niches of many animals are bound to be affected by climate change ( Parmesan Yohe 2003 ) . One study done by Camille Parmesan and Gary Yohe from University of Texas , Austin shows the global fingerprint of climate change on natural systems . The results of their global analysis of 334 species were recorded to demonstrate the correlation of patterns consistent with global climate change of the 20th century . Using the IPCC 's ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ) ` levels of confidence ' , this study proved significant nonrandom behavioral changes due to global climate change with very high confidence ( > 95 ) . Furthermore , an accuracy of 74-91 % change in species has displayed predicted change for species in response to climate change .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_terrestrial_animals", "rank": 72, "score": 117990 }, { "content": "Title: Presidential Climate Action Plan Content: President Barack Obama 's Climate Action Plan proposed a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions . It included preserving forests , encouraging the use of alternate fuels , and increased study of climate change . The plan was first established in 2008 and updated every two years since . The plan would support conservation of land and water resources and developing actionable climate science , and to encourage other countries to take action to address climate change , including reducing deforestation and lowering subsidies that increase use of fossil fuels . The plan specifically mentions methane , building efficiency , wind , solar and hydroelectricity . White House staff members who were directly tasked with implementation of the plan include Heather Zichal and Michelle Patron . On the first day of the presidency of Donald Trump , the White House website announced that The Climate Action Plan would be eliminated , stating it is ` harmful and unnecessary ' .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Presidential_Climate_Action_Plan", "rank": 73, "score": 117936 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of global warming in Australia Content: Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming . This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming , which involves taking action to minimise the effects of global warming . Scientific consensus on global warming , together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions , is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming . Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions . However , CCS can not deliver in time to avoid dangerous increases in temperatures , as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030 . Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets , more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power , photovoltaics , and solar thermal technologies . The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases . A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions . It requires large businesses ( defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually ) to pay a price for emissions permits . The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticised and highly publicised move .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Mitigation_of_global_warming_in_Australia", "rank": 74, "score": 117837 }, { "content": "Title: ACEA agreement Content: The ACEA agreement refers to a voluntary agreement between the European Automobile Manufacturers Association ( ACEA ) and the European Commission to limit the amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emitted by passenger cars sold in Europe . With 18 million cars sold each year , Europe is the last major car market in the world . Signed in 1998 , the agreement sought to achieve an average of 140 g/km of CO2 by 2008 for new passenger vehicles sold by the association 's cars in Europe . This target represents a 25 % reduction from the 1995 level of 186 g/km and is equivalent to a fuel economy of 5.8 L/100 km or 5.25 L/100 km for petrol and diesel engines respectively . However , the average for the whole car market for 2008 was 153.7 g/km , so the target has not been achieved . Besides the agreement with ACEA , the European Commission also closed agreements with the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association ( JAMA ) and Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association ( KAMA ) . However , for the latter two the target date is 2009 instead of 2008 and as ACEA accounts for 86.4 % of car sales in Europe , the impact of the latter two is much smaller . The ultimate EU target to which these agreements are to contribute , is to reach an average CO2 emission ( as measured according to Commission Directive 93/116/EC ) of 130 g/km for all new passenger cars by 2015 . The European Commission announced in late 2006 that it is working on a proposal for legally binding measures and limits . In February 2007 , the Commission acknowledged the failure of the voluntary agreement . Following this , a proposal of regulation was introduced by the Commission on 19 December 2007 .", "qid": "413", "docid": "ACEA_agreement", "rank": 75, "score": 117653 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 76, "score": 117364 }, { "content": "Title: United Kingdom Climate Change Programme Content: The United Kingdom 's Climate Change Programme was launched in November 2000 by the British government in response to its commitment agreed at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) . The 2000 programme was updated in March 2006 following a review launched in September 2004 . In 2008 , the UK was the world 's 9th greatest producer of man-made carbon emissions , producing around 1.8 % of the global total generated from fossil fuels .", "qid": "413", "docid": "United_Kingdom_Climate_Change_Programme", "rank": 77, "score": 117221 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon neutrality Content: Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_neutrality", "rank": 78, "score": 117193 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 79, "score": 116674 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 80, "score": 116671 }, { "content": "Title: UK Emissions Trading Scheme Content: The UK Emissions Trading Scheme was a voluntary emissions trading system created as a pilot prior to the mandatory European Union Emissions Trading Scheme which it now runs in parallel with . It ran from 2002 and it closed to new entrants in 2009 . Management of the scheme transferred to the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2008 . At the time , the scheme was a novel economic approach , being the first multi-industry carbon trading system in the world . ( Denmark ran a pilot greenhouse gas trading scheme between 2001 and 2003 but this only involved eight electricity companies ) . It took note of the emerging international consensus on the benefits of carbon trading that were being proposed in the mandatory Kyoto Protocol , which had not been ratified at that time , and allowed government and corporate early movers and to gain experience in the auction process and the trading system that the later schemes have entailed . It ran in parallel to a tax on energy use , the Climate Change Levy , introduced in April 2001 , but companies could get a discount on the tax if they elected to make reductions through participation in the trading scheme . The voluntary trading scheme recruited 34 participants from UK industries and organisations who promised to make reductions in their carbon emissions , this has since expanded to 54 sectors of the UK economy . In return they received a share of a # 215 million `` incentive fund '' from the Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( DEFRA ) . Each agreed to hold sufficient allowances to cover its actual emissions for that year , and participate in a cap and trade system , with an annually reducing cap . Each participant could then decide to take action to manage its emissions to exactly meet its target , or reduce its actual emissions below its target ( thereby releasing allowances that it could sell on , or save for use in future years ) , or buy allowances from other participants to cover any excess . From March 2002 , DEFRA ran an auction of emission allowances to perform allocations to participants , after the start of the mandatory EU scheme .", "qid": "413", "docid": "UK_Emissions_Trading_Scheme", "rank": 81, "score": 116511 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon governance in England Content: The reduction of carbon emissions , along with other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) , has become a vitally important task of international , national and local actors . If we understand governance as the creation of `` conditions for ordered rule and collective action '' then , given the fact that the reduction of carbon emissions will require concerted collective action , it follows that the governance of carbon will be of paramount concern . We have seen numerous international conferences over the past 20 years tasked with finding a way of facilitating this , and while international agreements have been infamously difficult to reach , action at the national level has been much more effective . In the UK , the Climate Change Act 2008 committed the government to meeting significant carbon reduction targets . In England , these carbon emissions are governed using numerous different instruments , which involve a variety of actors . While it has been argued by authors like Rhodes that there has been a `` hollowing out '' of the nation state , and that governments have lost their capabilities to govern to a variety of non-state actors and the European Union , the case of carbon governance in England actually runs counter to this . The government body responsible for the task , the Department of Energy and Climate Change ( DECC ) , is the `` main external dynamic '' behind governing actions in this area , and `` rather than hollowing out ( there has actually been a strengthening of ) central co-ordination '' . The department may rely on other bodies to deliver its desired outcomes , but it is still ultimately responsible for the imposition of the rules and regulations that `` steer ( carbon ) governmental action at the national level '' . It is therefore evident that carbon governance in England is hierarchical in nature , in that `` legislative decisions and executive decisions '' are the main dynamic behind carbon governance action . This does not deny the existence of a network of bodies around DECC who are part of the process , but they are supplementary actors who are steered by central decisions . This article focuses on carbon governance in England as the other countries of the UK ( Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland ) all have devolved assemblies who are responsible for the governance of carbon emissions in their respective countries .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_governance_in_England", "rank": 82, "score": 116343 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 83, "score": 116222 }, { "content": "Title: North American Carbon Program Content: The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "qid": "413", "docid": "North_American_Carbon_Program", "rank": 84, "score": 116153 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "413", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 85, "score": 116058 }, { "content": "Title: European Union Emission Trading Scheme Content: The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions . Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention . The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 . The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase . Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation . Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .", "qid": "413", "docid": "European_Union_Emission_Trading_Scheme", "rank": 86, "score": 115735 }, { "content": "Title: Flick Off Content: FLICK OFF ( flick off ) is a Canadian advertising campaign launched by Key Gordon Communications . It is a movement to fight climate change by getting Canadians to use less energy . Its sponsors include MuchMusic , Roots Canada , Environmental Defence Canada and the Government of Ontario . Some view this program as a continuation of the scrapped program One-Tonne Challenge in global perspective . The motivation for the campaign is both to reduce energy consumption for its own sake and also with the aim of reducing carbon emissions to ultimately combat global warming . The website associated with the campaign is aimed specifically at young Canadians . The website contains educational material about causes and consequences of global warming and strategies for reducing carbon emissions , and includes a `` carbon calculator '' called One Less Tonne to measure individual carbon dioxide emissions . The website was launched by British entrepreneur Richard Branson and Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten in Toronto on April 25 , 2007 . According to the official website , the campaign is now in `` hibernation '' .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Flick_Off", "rank": 87, "score": 115675 }, { "content": "Title: Politics of global warming Content: The complex politics of global warming results from numerous cofactors arising from the global economy 's interdependence on carbon dioxide emitting hydrocarbon energy sources and because carbon dioxide is directly implicated in global warming -- making global warming a non-traditional environmental challenge .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Politics_of_global_warming", "rank": 88, "score": 115172 }, { "content": "Title: Land use, land-use change and forestry Content: Land use , land-use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) is defined by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat as a `` greenhouse gas inventory sector that covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced land use , land-use change and forestry activities . '' LULUCF has impacts on the global carbon cycle and as such , these activities can add or remove carbon dioxide ( or , more generally , carbon ) from the atmosphere , influencing climate . LULUCF has been the subject of two major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Additionally , land use is of critical importance for biodiversity .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Land_use,_land-use_change_and_forestry", "rank": 89, "score": 115109 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions in Kentucky Content: The report `` Kentucky Greenhouse Gas Inventory '' provides a detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks for Kentucky in 1990 . Emissions were estimated using methods from EPA 's 1995 guidance document State Workbook : Methodologies for Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions . In 1990 , Kentucky emitted 35.4 million metric tons of carbon equivalent ( MMTCE ) . In addition , Kentucky estimated emissions of 0.4 MMTCE from biofuels . Emissions from biofuels are not included . The principal greenhouse gases were carbon dioxide , comprising 87.9 million metric tons ( 24.0 MMTCE ) , and methane , with 1.1 million metric tons ( 6.4 MMTCE ) . Other emissions included 0.0016 million metric tons of perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) ( 4.8 MMTCE ) , and 0.003 million metric tons of nitrous oxide ( 0.2 MMTCE ) The major source of carbon dioxide emissions was fossil fuel combustion ( 96 % ) , the majority of which is utility coal . Minor emissions came from cement and lime production and forest/grassland conversion . Carbon dioxide sinks ( i.e. , an increase in forest carbon storage ) offset about 26 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions . Sources of methane emissions were coal mining ( 73 % ) , domesticated animals ( 12 % ) , landfills ( 10 % ) , manure management ( 3 % ) , and natural gas/oil extraction ( 2 % ) . Nitrous oxide emissions were from fertilizer use . Sources of perfluorocarbons were HCFC-22 production ( 91 % ) and aluminum production ( 9 % ) . Kentucky 's emissions in 1990 were 9.6 MTCE per capita , compared to 1990 U.S. emissions of 6.4 MTCE per capita . Kentucky 's per capita emissions are high due to the large volume of coal-related activities in the state .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_in_Kentucky", "rank": 90, "score": 114868 }, { "content": "Title: Klaus Lackner Content: Klaus S. Lackner is the director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions ( CNCE ) and a professor in School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University . He is a pioneer in carbon management and is the first to suggest capturing carbon dioxide from air in the context of addressing climate change . His current work includes the demonstrating and improving passive methods to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , integrating air capture technology with applications for using carbon dioxide , exploring safe and permanent disposal options for carbon dioxide , and identifying opportunities for automation and scaling . His publications have been cited 5842 times as of November 12 , 2015 . His h-index is 31 . Previously , he was the director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute and Faculty in the Earth and Environmental Engineering department at Columbia University from 2001 - 2014 . He , along with CNCE executive director , Allen Wright , co - founded of the first privately held air capture company Global Research Technologies ( GRT ) in Tucson , AZ where they demonstrated the moisture swing . Prior to his academic work he held appointments at the theoretical division of Los Alamos National Laboratory for nearly 17 years . His idea of the self - replicating machines along with his colleague , Christopher Wendt , was featured by Discover Magazine in 1995 as `` One of the 7 Ideas that can Change the World . ''", "qid": "413", "docid": "Klaus_Lackner", "rank": 91, "score": 114843 }, { "content": "Title: Assigned amount units Content: An Assigned Amount Unit ( AAU ) is a tradable ` Kyoto unit ' or ` carbon credit ' representing an allowance to emit greenhouse gases comprising one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalents calculated using their Global Warming Potential . Assigned Amount Units are issued up to the level of initial `` assigned amount '' of an Annex 1 Party to the Kyoto Protocol . The `` assigned amounts '' are the Kyoto Protocol Annex B emission targets ( or `` quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives '' ) expressed as levels of allowed emissions over the 2008-2012 commitment period .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Assigned_amount_units", "rank": 92, "score": 114839 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 93, "score": 114818 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainable automotive air conditioning Content: Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends . The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases . Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Sustainable_automotive_air_conditioning", "rank": 94, "score": 114772 }, { "content": "Title: 1998 United Nations Climate Change Conference Content: The 1998 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place in November 1998 in Buenos Aires , Argentina . The conference included the 4th Conference of the Parties ( COP4 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . It had been expected that the remaining issues unresolved in Kyoto would be finalized at this meeting . However , the complexity and difficulty of finding agreement on these issues proved insurmountable , and instead the parties adopted a 2-year `` Plan of Action '' to advance efforts and to devise mechanisms for implementing the Kyoto Protocol , to be completed by 2000 . During the conference , Argentina and Kazakhstan expressed their commitment to take on the greenhouse gas emissions reduction obligation , the first two non-Annex countries to do so . Category :20 th-century diplomatic conferences Category : Diplomatic conferences in Argentina Category : Climate change conferences Category : History of Buenos Aires 1998 1998 United Nations Climate Change Conference , 1998 Category :1998 in the environment Category :1990 s in Buenos Aires Category :1998 in Argentina Category : November 1998 events", "qid": "413", "docid": "1998_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference", "rank": 95, "score": 114519 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon emission trading Content: Carbon emissions trading is a form of emissions trading that specifically targets carbon dioxide ( calculated in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or tCO2e ) and it currently constitutes the bulk of emissions trading . This form of permit trading is a common method countries utilize in order to meet their obligations specified by the Kyoto Protocol ; namely the reduction of carbon emissions in an attempt to reduce ( mitigate ) future climate change . Under Carbon trading , a country having more emissions of carbon is able to purchase the right to emit more and the country having less emission trades the right to emit carbon to other countries . More carbon emitting countries , by this way try to keep the limit of carbon emission specified to them .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_emission_trading", "rank": 96, "score": 113478 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 97, "score": 113438 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Disclosure Project Content: The CDP ( formerly the `` Carbon Disclosure Project '' ) is an organisation based in the United Kingdom which works with shareholders and corporations to disclose the greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions of major corporations . As disclosure of emission related data as CDP 's primary activity , the quality of the data reported to CDP is key . In 2014 , nearly 2000 businesses reported climate change data to CDP . The value of CDP 's reports for investors and NGOs is contested . Furthermore , the quality of the data on which CDP 's reports are premised is questionable .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Carbon_Disclosure_Project", "rank": 98, "score": 112681 }, { "content": "Title: Stuart Agnew Content: John Stuart Agnew ( born 30 August 1949 ) is a Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region for the UK Independence Party . He was elected in 2009 . Agnew was born in Norwich . He was educated at Gordonstoun School and the Royal Agricultural College . He is a Norfolk farmer who formerly represented Norfolk on the NFU Council . He is a long term UKIP member . In the European Parliament he sits on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development . He ran for UKIP in the 2001 General Election in Mid Norfolk and in the 2005 General Election in Norfolk North , and stood in Broadland in the 2010 and 2015 UK General Elections . Agnew describes climate change science as `` the global warming scam '' . In March 2015 he spoke in the European Parliament , saying that plants need carbon dioxide as food , so `` if you succeed in decarbonising Europe , our crops will have no natural gas to grow from '' . Richard A. Betts of the UK Met Office described this as a misunderstanding , since cutting emissions did not mean reducing existing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . In March 2016 Fincham Farm , owned and run by Agnew , was featured in a video investigation by Hillside Animal Sanctuary . It showed supposedly free range chickens living in squalid conditions , infested with mites , and with high levels of ammonia .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Stuart_Agnew", "rank": 99, "score": 112489 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "413", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 100, "score": 112234 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Environmental issues with coral reefs Content: Human impact on coral reefs is significant . Coral reefs are dying around the world . In particular , coral mining , pollution ( organic and non-organic ) , overfishing , blast fishing and the digging of canals and access into islands and bays are serious threats to these ecosystems . Coral reefs also face high dangers such as diseases , destructive fishing practices and warming oceans . In order to find answers for these problems , researchers study the various factors that impact reefs . The list of factors is long , including the ocean 's role as a carbon dioxide sink , atmospheric changes , ultraviolet light , ocean acidification , viruses , impacts of dust storms carrying agents to far-flung reefs , pollutants , algal blooms and others . Reefs are threatened well beyond coastal areas . In 2008 estimates assembled from coral reef specialists from around the world indicated that 19 % of the existing area of coral reefs has already been lost , and that a further 17 % is likely to be lost over the subsequent 10 -- 20 years . Only 46 % of the world 's reefs could be currently regarded as in good health . About 60 % of the world 's reefs may be at risk due to destructive , human-related activities . The threat to the health of reefs is particularly strong in Southeast Asia , where 80 % of reefs are endangered . By the 2030s , 90 % of reefs are expected to be at risk from both human activities and climate change ; by 2050 , all coral reefs will be in danger . Coral Reef loss has been cause for concern for a long time , but is now starting to gain traction as one of the worlds greatest environmental threats . The current greatest threat to the reefs are coral bleaching , which is the loss of the endosymbiotic algae from the coral ( the thing that gives coral it 's vibrant color ) due to rising ocean water temperatures . Some other threats that are not as prominent but still play a factor to the loss of the world 's reefs are poisonous fishing practices , explosive fishing practices , careless tourism , and pollution . The loss of the coral reefs will come with consequences such as human vulnerability , environmental chaos , and a massive , relatively unseen , economic cost .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Environmental_issues_with_coral_reefs", "rank": 1, "score": 98394 }, { "content": "Title: 1921 Mari wildfires Content: Wildfires in the Mari Autonomous Oblast , in the east of European Russia , occurred in the summer of 1921 . Damage included 2,660 square kilometres of pine forest burned off , with serious repercussions for industry in the area , already paralyzed by the Povolzhye famine . The wildfires led to 35 human and 1,000 cattle deaths , and 60 villages were destroyed . The effects of the fire were made worse by strong winds .", "qid": "418", "docid": "1921_Mari_wildfires", "rank": 2, "score": 98079 }, { "content": "Title: Coral Reef Alliance Content: The Coral Reef Alliance ( CORAL ) is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco , California , that partners with local reef communities around the world to protect coral reefs . CORAL was founded in Berkeley , California , in 1994 by Stephen Colwell , and is currently headed by Dr. Michael Webster . With 19 % of the world 's coral reefs already destroyed and another 35 % at immediate risk or threatened due to human pressures , organizations like CORAL are addressing an urgent need .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_Reef_Alliance", "rank": 3, "score": 94115 }, { "content": "Title: Earth 2100 Content: Earth 2100 is a television program that was presented by the American Broadcasting Company ( ABC ) network on June 2 , 2009 and was aired on the History Channel in January 2010 and was shown through the year . Hosted by ABC journalist Bob Woodruff , the two-hour special explored what `` a worst-case '' future might look like if humans do not take action on current or impending problems that could threaten civilization . The problems addressed in the program include current climate change , overpopulation , and misuse of energy resources . The events following the life of a fictitious storyteller , `` Lucy '' ( told through the use of motion comics , or limited animation ) , as she describes how the events affect her life . The program included predictions of a dystopian Earth in the years 2015 , 2030 , 2050 , 2085 , and 2100 by scientists , historians , social anthropologists , and economists , including Jared Diamond , Thomas Homer-Dixon , Peter Gleick , James Howard Kunstler , Heidi Cullen , Alex Steffen and Joseph Tainter . It ended with a quote from writer Alex Steffen , saying `` Kids born today will see us navigate past the first greatest test of humanity , which is : can we actually be smart enough to live on a planet without destroying it ? '' According to Executive Producer Michael Bicks , `` this program was developed to show the worst-case scenario for human civilization . Again , we are not saying that these events will happen -- rather , that if we fail to seriously address the complex problems of climate change , resource depletion and overpopulation , they are much more likely to happen . ''", "qid": "418", "docid": "Earth_2100", "rank": 4, "score": 93675 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "418", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 5, "score": 93145 }, { "content": "Title: Coral in non-tropical regions Content: The poleward migration of coral species refers to the phenomenon brought on by rising sea temperatures, wherein corals are colonising cooler climates in an attempt to circumvent coral bleaching, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. In the age of Anthropocene, the changing global climate has disrupted fundamental natural processes and brought about observable changes in the submarine sphere. Whilst coral reefs are bleaching in tropical areas like the Great Barrier Reef, even more striking, and perhaps more alarming; is the growth of tropical coral species in temperate regions, which has taken place over the past decade. Coral reefs are frequently compared to the \"canaries in the coal mine,\" who were used by miners as an indicator of air quality. In much the same way, \"coral reefs are sensitive to environmental changes that could damage other habitats in the future,\" meaning they will be the first to visually exhibit the true implications of global warming on the natural world.", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_in_non-tropical_regions", "rank": 6, "score": 91414 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Ocean Conference Content: The 2017 United Nations Ocean Conference was a United Nations conference that took place on June 5th-9th 2017 which sought to mobilize action for the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources.The Earth's waters are said to be \"under threat as never before\", with pollution, overfishing, and the effects of climate change severely damaging the health of our oceans. For instance as oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, biodiversity is becoming reduced and changing currents will cause more frequent storms and droughts. Every year around 8 million metric tons of plastic waste leak into the ocean and make it into the circular ocean currents. This causes contamination of sediments at the sea-bottom and causes plastic waste to be embedded in the aquatic food chain. It could lead to oceans containing more plastics than fish by 2050 if nothing is done. Key habitats such as coral reefs are at risk and noise pollution are a threat to whales, dolphins, and other species. Furthermore almost 90 percent of fish stocks are overfished or fully exploited which cost more than $80 billion a year in lost revenues.UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that decisive, coordinated global action can solve the problems created by Humanity. Peter Thomson, President of the UN General Assembly, highlighted the conference's significance, saying \"if we want a secure future for our species on this planet, we have to act now on the health of the ocean and on climate change\".The conference sought to find ways and urge for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. Its theme is \"Our oceans, our future: partnering for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14\". It also asked governments, UN bodies, and civil society groups to make voluntary commitments for action to improve the health of the oceans with over 1,000 commitments − such as on managing protected areas − being made.", "qid": "418", "docid": "United_Nations_Ocean_Conference", "rank": 7, "score": 90569 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene extinction Content: The Holocene extinction , otherwise referred to as the Sixth extinction or Anthropocene extinction , is the ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch , mainly due to human activity . The large number of extinctions spans numerous families of plants and animals , including mammals , birds , amphibians , reptiles and arthropods . With widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats such as coral reefs and rainforest , as well as other areas , the vast majority of these extinctions is thought to be undocumented . According to the species-area theory , and based on upper-bound estimating , the present rate of extinction may be up to 140,000 species per year , making it the greatest loss of biodiversity since the Cretaceous -- Paleogene extinction event . The Holocene extinction includes the disappearance of large land animals known as megafauna , starting at the end of the last Ice Age . Megafauna outside of the African continent , which did not evolve alongside humans , proved highly sensitive to the introduction of new predation , and many died out shortly after early humans began spreading and hunting across the Earth ( additionally , many African species have also gone extinct in the Holocene ) . These extinctions , occurring near the Pleistocene -- Holocene boundary , are sometimes referred to as the Quaternary extinction event . The arrival of humans on different continents coincides with megafaunal extinction . The most popular theory is that human overhunting of species added to existing stress conditions . Although there is debate regarding how much human predation affected their decline , certain population declines have been directly correlated with human activity , such as the extinction events of New Zealand and Hawaii . Aside from humans , climate change may have been a driving factor in the megafaunal extinctions , especially at the end of the Quaternary . The ecology of humanity has been noted as being that of an unprecedented `` global superpredator '' that regularly preys on the adults of other apex predators and has worldwide effects on food webs . Extinctions of species have occurred on every land mass and ocean , with many famous examples within Africa , Asia , Europe , Australia , North and South America , and on smaller islands . Overall , the Holocene extinction can be characterized by the human impact on the environment . The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century , with meat consumption , overfishing , ocean acidification and the amphibian crisis being a few broader examples of an almost universal , cosmopolitan decline in biodiversity . A ballooning human population along with profligate consumption are considered to be the primary drivers of this rapid decline .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Holocene_extinction", "rank": 8, "score": 90526 }, { "content": "Title: Coral Triangle Initiative Content: The Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs , Fisheries , and Food Security ( CTI-CFF ) , also shortly known as the Coral Triangle Initiative ( CTI ) , is a multilateral partnership of six countries ( Indonesia , Malaysia , Philippines , Papua New Guinea , Solomon Islands , Timor-Leste ) working together to sustain extraordinary marine and coastal resources by addressing crucial issues such as food security , climate change , and marine biodiversity .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_Triangle_Initiative", "rank": 9, "score": 90203 }, { "content": "Title: 2033 (film) Content: 2033 also billed as 2033 : Future Apocalypse ( in Spanish as 2033 and 2033 : La Ilusion de un Futuro Mejor ) is a Mexican film that premiered on 24 September 2009 at the Fantastisk Film Festival Lund , Sweden ) . It was the directorial debut for the director , Francisco Laresgoiti . Regarding the title , Laresgotiti said that he `` initially call it VCR 2026 , ( Viva Cristo Rey 2026 ) , the motto of the Cristeros , as this would define the ideology of the tape , but decided to use 2033 as this will be the two thousandth anniversary the death of Jesus Christ . '' The film was intended to be a trilogy , but the two sequels had not been written as of 2008 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2033_(film)", "rank": 10, "score": 89190 }, { "content": "Title: Permian–Triassic extinction event Content: The Permian -- Triassic ( P -- Tr or P -- T ) extinction event , colloquially known as the Great Dying , the End-Permian Extinction or the Great Permian Extinction , occurred about 252 Ma ( million years ) ago , forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods , as well as the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras . It is the Earth 's most severe known extinction event , with up to 96 % of all marine species and 70 % of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct . It is the only known mass extinction of insects . Some 57 % of all families and 83 % of all genera became extinct . Because so much biodiversity was lost , the recovery of life on Earth took significantly longer than after any other extinction event , possibly up to 10 million years . Studies in Bear Lake County near the Idaho city of Paris showed a quick and dynamic rebound in a marine ecosystem , illustrating the remarkable resiliency of life . There is evidence for one to three distinct pulses , or phases , of extinction . Suggested mechanisms for the latter include one or more large meteor impact events , massive volcanism such as that of the Siberian Traps , and the ensuing coal or gas fires and explosions , and a runaway greenhouse effect triggered by sudden release of methane from the sea floor due to methane clathrate dissociation or methane-producing microbes known as methanogens ; possible contributing gradual changes include sea-level change , increasing anoxia , increasing aridity , and a shift in ocean circulation driven by climate change .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Permian–Triassic_extinction_event", "rank": 11, "score": 88663 }, { "content": "Title: Black Friday bushfires Content: The Black Friday bushfires of 13 January 1939 , in Victoria , Australia , were among the worst natural bushfires ( wildfires ) in the world . Almost 20,000 km ² ( 4,942,000 acres , 2,000,000 ha ) of land was burned , 71 people died , several towns were entirely destroyed and the Royal Commission that resulted from it led to major changes in forest management . Over 1,300 homes and 69 sawmills were burned , and 3,700 buildings were destroyed . It was calculated that three-quarters of the State of Victoria was directly or indirectly affected by the disaster . The Royal Commission noted that `` it appeared the whole State was alight on Friday , 13 January 1939 '' .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Black_Friday_bushfires", "rank": 12, "score": 87663 }, { "content": "Title: Millepora dichotoma Content: Millepora dichotoma '' , the net fire coral , is a species of hydrozoan , consisting of a colony of polyps with a calcareous skeleton . Part of the metabolism of the fire coral relies on zooxanthellae included in their anatomy . They are found from the Red Sea to Samoa and South Africa . They form fan-shaped colonies up to 60 cm across , but clumps may be several metres across . Coloured mustard to olive-yellow , the fans form in a single plane . Feeding polyps snare plankton from the passing current along exposed portions of upper reef slopes up to 15 m depth , growing transverse to the prevailing current to ensure maximum exposure to passing foodstuff . The stinging nematocysts contain a toxin which causes painful burn-like wounds on contact . At worst , this may cause collapse in those with a severe allergic reaction . Skin irritation may continue for up to two weeks .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Millepora_dichotoma", "rank": 13, "score": 86004 }, { "content": "Title: Coral Reefs (film) Content: Coral Reefs ( French title : Le Récif de corail ) is a 1938 French language motion picture adventure drama directed by Maurice Gleize . The screenplay was written by Charles Spaak , based on novel by Jean Martet . The film stars Jean Gabin , Michèle Morgan , Pierre Renoir and Gina Manès . It tells the story of a charged innocent Mexican sailor who escapes to a lagoon in the Pacific Ocean . He meets with a lonely girl in the woods , having an affair . However his current gunrunning operation is noticed by an earnest detective .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_Reefs_(film)", "rank": 14, "score": 85995 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Russian wildfires Content: The 2010 Russian wildfires were several hundred wildfires that broke out across Russia , primarily in the west in summer 2010 . They started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010 . The fires were associated with record-high temperatures , which were attributed to climate change -- the summer had been the hottest recorded in Russian history -- and drought . Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared a state of emergency in seven regions , and 28 other regions were under a state of emergency due to crop failures caused by the drought . The fires cost roughly $ 15 billion in damages . A combination of the smoke from the fires , producing heavy smog blanketing large urban regions and the record-breaking heat wave put stress on the Russian healthcare system . Munich Re estimated that in all , 56,000 people died from the effects of the smog and the heat wave . The 2010 wildfires were the worst on record to that time ; in 2012 , however , new wildfires broke out , and they proved even more extensive and damaging .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2010_Russian_wildfires", "rank": 15, "score": 85370 }, { "content": "Title: 2015–16 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2015 -- 16 Australian bushfire season was the most destructive bushfire season in terms of property loss since the 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season , with the loss of 408 houses and at least 500 non-residential buildings as a result of wild fires between 1 June 2015 and 31 May 2016 . The season also suffered the most human fatalities since the 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season ; 6 died in Western Australia , 2 in South Australia and 1 in New South Wales . 8 deaths were as a direct result of fire , and a volunteer firefighter died due to unrelated health complications while on duty . The season witnessed four notable fires ; the Cascades fire in Western Australia , the Pinery fire in South Australia , the Great Ocean Road fire in Victoria , and the Harvey-Waroona fire in Western Australia .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2015–16_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 16, "score": 84850 }, { "content": "Title: Apollo 1 Content: Apollo 1 , initially designated AS-204 , was the first manned mission of the United States Apollo program , which had as its ultimate goal a manned lunar landing . The low Earth orbital test of the Apollo Command/Service Module never made its target launch date of February 21 , 1967 . A cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test on January 27 at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 killed all three crew members -- Command Pilot Virgil I. `` Gus '' Grissom , Senior Pilot Edward H. White II , and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee -- and destroyed the Command Module ( CM ) . The name Apollo 1 , chosen by the crew , was officially retired by NASA in commemoration of them on April 24 , 1967 . Immediately after the fire , NASA convened the Apollo 204 Accident Review Board to determine the cause of the fire , and both houses of the United States Congress conducted their own committee inquiries to oversee NASA 's investigation . The ignition source of the fire was determined to be electrical , and the fire spread rapidly due to combustible nylon material , and the high pressure , pure oxygen cabin atmosphere . The astronauts ' rescue was prevented by the plug door hatch , which could not be opened against the higher internal pressure of the cabin . A failure to identify the test as hazardous ( because the rocket was unfueled ) led to the rescue being hampered by poor emergency preparedness . During the Congressional investigation , then-Senator Walter Mondale publicly revealed a NASA internal document citing problems with prime Apollo contractor North American Aviation , which became known as the `` Phillips Report '' . This disclosure embarrassed NASA Administrator James E. Webb , who was unaware of the document 's existence , and attracted controversy to the Apollo program . Despite congressional displeasure at NASA 's lack of openness , both congressional committees ruled that the issues raised in the report had no bearing on the accident . Manned Apollo flights were suspended for 20 months while the Command Module 's hazards were addressed . However , the development and unmanned testing of the Lunar Module ( LM ) and Saturn V Moon rocket continued . The Saturn IB launch vehicle for Apollo 1 , AS-204 , was used for the first LM test flight , Apollo 5 . The first successful manned Apollo mission was flown by Apollo 1 's backup crew on Apollo 7 in October 1968 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Apollo_1", "rank": 17, "score": 84778 }, { "content": "Title: Coral bleaching Content: Coral bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel algae that lives inside their tissues . Normally , coral polyps live in an endosymbiotic relationship with the algae and that relationship is crucial for the coral and hence for the health of the whole reef . Bleached corals continue to live . But as the algae provide the coral with 90 % of its energy , after expelling the algae the coral begins to starve . Above-average sea water temperatures caused by global warming have been identified as a leading cause for coral bleaching worldwide . Between 2014 and 2016 , the longest global bleaching events ever were recorded . According to the United Nations Environment Programme , these bleaching events killed coral on an unprecedented scale . In 2016 , bleaching hit 90 percent of coral on the Great Barrier Reef and killed 29 percent of the reef 's coral . In 2017 , the bleaching further expanded to areas of the park that were previously spared , such as the central one . __ TOC __", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_bleaching", "rank": 18, "score": 84352 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 205 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 205 , adopted on May 22 , 1965 , in the face of a potentially widening conflict in the Dominican Republic , the Council requested that the temporary suspension of hostilities in Santo Domingo called for in United Nations Security Council Resolution 203 be transformed into a permanent cease-fire and invited the Secretary-General to submit a report to the Council on the implementation of this resolution . The resolution was adopted by ten votes to none ; the United States abstained . In the days following the resolution , a de facto cessation of hostilities took place in Santo Domingo .", "qid": "418", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_205", "rank": 19, "score": 83374 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Russian wildfires Content: From 12 to 16 April 2015 , a series of wildfires spread across southern Siberia , Russia . In the Republic of Khakassia , 29 people were killed and 6,000 left homeless . Further east in Zabaykalsky Krai , four people died in wildfires near Chita . Damage was also reported in Inner Mongolia .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2015_Russian_wildfires", "rank": 20, "score": 83223 }, { "content": "Title: Coral Reef Restaurant Content: The Coral Reef Restaurant is a themed seafood restaurant in The Seas with Nemo & Friends , which is located in Epcot 's Future World . One entire wall of the restaurant consists of a glass window that is eight inches thick and that provides a view into an aquarium . While they eat , restaurant guests are able to watch tarpons , sharks , sea turtles , stingrays , groupers , and sometimes scuba divers in the six-million-gallon aquarium . Artist Kim Minichiello painted the underwater scene that appears on the restaurant 's menu covers . Ron Douglas 's cookbook America 's Most Wanted Recipes : Just Desserts includes two dishes from the Coral Reef Restaurant : the Baileys and Jack Daniel 's Mousse and the Chocolate Wave Cake . One reviewer from The Guardian compares the Coral Reef Restaurant to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant in Disney 's Hollywood Studios , writing that both restaurants `` are great settings '' where `` eating is awful . '' In The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids 2015 , Bob Sehlinger , Liliane Opsomer , and Len Testa call the Coral Reef Restaurant one of the two most overpriced restaurants in Epcot , the other being Monsieur Paul . In Pauline Frommer 's Walt Disney World and Orlando , Jason Cochran writes of his experience of the Coral Reef Restaurant , saying , `` I had some of the worst food in my life ... although the setting rocks . '' In Beyond the Attractions : A Guide to Walt Disney World with Preschoolers , Lisa Battista calls the aquarium view `` incredible '' .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_Reef_Restaurant", "rank": 21, "score": 82831 }, { "content": "Title: 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years Content: 2052 -- A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years is a 2012 book describing trends in global development . It is written by Jørgen Randers and is a follow-up to The Limits to Growth , which in 1972 was the first worldwide report by the Club of Rome . It differs in three ways from the previous report . First , it does not describe an impending disaster scenario , but shows only trends . Secondly , it is to be read in the light of experience since 1972 , namely , that all of humanity has responded to the report , but with a delay of 20 to 40 years . Thirdly , it offers not only future scenarios , it makes concrete proposals on how the individual should respond to emerging developments . Randers repeatedly points out that he does not want to predict specific events , only general trends .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2052:_A_Global_Forecast_for_the_Next_Forty_Years", "rank": 22, "score": 82800 }, { "content": "Title: Kimbe Bay Content: Kimbe Bay is a large bay in West New Britain Province , off the northern coast of New Britain , Papua New Guinea , at . Kimbe Bay is an important biodiversity hotspot . 60 percent of the coral species of the entire Indo-Pacific region live here . Kimbe Bay is the home of more than 860 coral reef fish species . Because of a massive die-off of coral worldwide due to pollution , human activities , and global warming , Kimbe Bay has become increasingly important , since it is seen as one of the last holdouts for coral should the degradation continue . Efforts are currently underway to limit the human impact on the bay . Due to its beauty it is also a popular diving site .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Kimbe_Bay", "rank": 23, "score": 82765 }, { "content": "Title: Reef of Death Content: Reef of Death is a 1998 young adult novel by Paul Zindel published by HarperCollins and Hyperion and is the fifth book of `` The Zone Unknown '' series . Set in Australia , it is an adventure story with elements of horror .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Reef_of_Death", "rank": 24, "score": 82715 }, { "content": "Title: African coral reefs Content: African coral reefs are coral reefs mainly found along the south and east coasts of Africa . The east coast corals extend from the Red Sea to Madagascar in the south , and are an important resource for the fishersmen of Kenya , Tanzania and Madagascar . As with coral reefs elsewhere , African coral reefs are more biologically diverse than the surrounding ocean , and support species such as the mantis shrimp , potato grouper , humphead wrasse and maxima clam , as well as many seaweeds and corals . On the east coast , temperatures average about 26 C over the year . The average rainfall is highest between January to April , at about 300 mm , and lowest during August to November , at about 100 mm . There are multiple threats to the reefs , such a tourist diving and damaging the corals , or taking samples . Then there are industrial run-offs and pollutants , untreated sewage and the increasing sediment flows in rivers that threaten all of the coastal ecosystems . The reef is also threatened by climate change . Due to global warming , the sea surface temperature increases and in 1997/98 a particularly severe ` El Nino ' killed 90 percent of corals on the reef . The CORDIO ( COral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean ) NGO have set up an East African task force to monitor the reef 's management .", "qid": "418", "docid": "African_coral_reefs", "rank": 25, "score": 82366 }, { "content": "Title: 2013–14 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2013 -- 14 Australian bushfire season was , at the time , the most destructive bushfire season in terms of property loss since the 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season , with the loss of 371 houses and several hundred non-residential buildings as a result of wild fires between 1 June 2015 and 31 May 2016 . The season also suffered 4 fatalities ; 2 died in New South Wales , 1 in Western Australia and 1 in Victoria . One death was as a direct result of fire , 2 died due to unrelated health complications while fighting fires on their property , and a pilot contracted by the NSW Rural Fire Service died during an accident .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2013–14_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 26, "score": 82287 }, { "content": "Title: Death Race 2050 Content: Death Race 2050 is a 2017 political satire action film directed by G.J. Echternkamp , and starring Manu Bennett , Marci Miller and Malcolm McDowell . It is a sequel to the 1975 film Death Race 2000 . Both films were produced by Roger Corman , who described the film as `` a car-racing picture with some black humor . ''", "qid": "418", "docid": "Death_Race_2050", "rank": 27, "score": 82157 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on humans Content: Climate change has brought about possibly permanent alterations to Earth 's geological , biological and ecological systems . These changes have led to the emergence of large-scale environmental hazards to human health , such as extreme weather , ozone depletion , increased danger of wildland fires , loss of biodiversity , stresses to food-producing systems and the global spread of infectious diseases . The World Health Organization ( WHO ) estimates that 160,000 deaths , since 1950 , are directly attributable to climate change . Many believe this to be a conservative estimate . To date , a neglected aspect of the climate change debate , much less research has been conducted on the impacts of climate change on health , food supply , economic growth , migration , security , societal change , and public goods , such as drinking water , than on the geophysical changes related to global warming . Human impacts can be both negative and positive . Climatic changes in Siberia , for instance , are expected to improve food production and local economic activity , at least in the short to medium term . Numerous studies suggest , however , that the current and future impacts of climate change on human society are and will continue to be overwhelmingly negative . The majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world , who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health , wealth and other factors , and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change . A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009 , estimated more than 300,000 deaths and about $ 125 billion in economic losses each year , and indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_humans", "rank": 28, "score": 82070 }, { "content": "Title: The Reef (2010 film) Content: The Reef is a 2010 Australian horror film . The film was written and directed by Andrew Traucki , his second feature film ( the first being Black Water ) , and is about a group of friends who capsize while sailing to Indonesia . The group decides that their best bet for survival is to swim to a nearby island but they find themselves stalked by a great white shark .", "qid": "418", "docid": "The_Reef_(2010_film)", "rank": 29, "score": 82053 }, { "content": "Title: Great Barrier Reef Content: The Great Barrier Reef is the world 's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2300 km over an area of approximately 344400 km2 . The reef is located in the Coral Sea , off the coast of Queensland , Australia . The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world 's biggest single structure made by living organisms . This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms , known as coral polyps . It supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981 . CNN labelled it one of the seven natural wonders of the world . The Queensland National Trust named it a state icon of Queensland . A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park , which helps to limit the impact of human use , such as fishing and tourism . Other environmental pressures on the reef and its ecosystem include runoff , climate change accompanied by mass coral bleaching , and cyclic population outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish . According to a study published in October 2012 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , the reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985 . The Great Barrier Reef has long been known to and used by the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples , and is an important part of local groups ' cultures and spirituality . The reef is a very popular destination for tourists , especially in the Whitsunday Islands and Cairns regions . Tourism is an important economic activity for the region , generating over AUD$ 3 billion per year . In November 2014 , Google launched Google Underwater Street View in 3D of the Great Barrier Reef . A March 2016 report stated that coral bleaching was more widespread than previously thought , seriously affecting the northern parts of the reef as a result of warming ocean temperatures . In October 2016 , Outside published an obituary for the reef ; the article was criticized for being premature and hindering efforts to bolster the resilience of the reef . In March 2017 , the journal Nature published a paper showing that huge sections of a 800-kilometre ( 500 mi ) stretch in the northern part of the reef had died in the course of 2016 due to high water temperatures , an event that the authors put down to the effects of global climate change .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Great_Barrier_Reef", "rank": 30, "score": 81933 }, { "content": "Title: Coral reef protection Content: Coral reef protection is the process of modifying human activities to avoid damage to healthy coral reefs and to help damaged reefs recover . The key strategies used in reef protection include defining measurable goals and introducing active management and community involvement to reduce stressors that damage reef health . One management technique is to create Marine Protected Areas ( MPAs ) that directly limit human activities such as fishing . It takes approximately 10 thousand years for coral polyps to form a reef , and between 100,000 and 30 million years for a fully mature reef to form .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_reef_protection", "rank": 31, "score": 81871 }, { "content": "Title: Coral reef fish Content: Coral reef fish are fish which live amongst or in close relation to coral reefs . Coral reefs form complex ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity . Among the myriad inhabitants , the fish stand out as colourful and interesting to watch . Hundreds of species can exist in a small area of a healthy reef , many of them hidden or well camouflaged . Reef fish have developed many ingenious specialisations adapted to survival on the reefs . Coral reefs occupy less than one percent of the surface area of the world oceans , but still they provide a home for 25 percent of all marine fish species . Reef habitats are a sharp contrast to the open water habitats that make up the other 99 % of the world oceans . However , loss and degradation of coral reef habitat , increasing pollution , and overfishing including the use of destructive fishing practices , are threatening the survival of the coral reefs and the associated reef fish .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_reef_fish", "rank": 32, "score": 81267 }, { "content": "Title: 2040s Content: The 2040s is a decade of the Gregorian calendar that will begin on January 1 , 2040 and will end on December 31 , 2049 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2040s", "rank": 33, "score": 81069 }, { "content": "Title: Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument Content: The Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located off Saint John , Virgin Islands . The clear waters surrounding Saint John support a diverse and complex system of coral reefs . The health of these reefs is closely tied to its component plants and animals as well as adjacent non-coral marine environments such as sandy bottoms , seagrass beds , and mangrove forests . Seeking to provide greater protection to the sensitive coral reef resources , President Clinton established the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument on January 17 , 2001 . The monument includes 12,708 acres ( 51 km2 ) of federal submerged lands within the 3 mile ( 5 km ) belt off Saint John , including Hurricane Hole and areas north and south of Saint John .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Virgin_Islands_Coral_Reef_National_Monument", "rank": 34, "score": 80386 }, { "content": "Title: Census of Coral Reefs Content: The Census of Coral Reefs ( CReefs ) is a field project of the Census of Marine Life that surveys the biodiversity of coral reef ecosystems internationally . The project works to study what species live in coral reef ecosystems , to develop standardized protocols for studying coral reef ecosystems , and to increase access to and exchange of information about coral reefs scattered throughout the globe . The CReefs project uses the implementation of autonomous reef-monitoring structures ( ARMS ) to study the species that inhabit coral reefs . These structures are placed on the sea floor in areas where coral reefs exist , where they are left for one year . At the end of the year , the ARMS is pulled to the surface , along with the species which have inhabited it , for analysis . Coral reefs are thought to be the most organically different of all marine ecosystems . Major declines in key reef ecosystems suggest a decline in reef population throughout the world due to environmental stresses . The vulnerability of coral reef ecosystems is expected to increase significantly in response to climate change . The reefs are also being threatened by induced coral bleaching , ocean acidification , sea-level rise , and changing storm tracks . Reef biodiversity could be in danger of being lost before it is even documented , and researchers will be left with a limited and poor understanding of these complex ecosystems . In an attempt to enhance global understanding of reef biodiversity , the goals of the CReefs Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems were to conduct a diverse global census of coral reef ecosystems . And increase access to and exchange of coral reef data throughout the world . Because coral reefs are the most diverse and among the most threatened of all marine ecosystems , there is great justification to learn more about them .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Census_of_Coral_Reefs", "rank": 35, "score": 80350 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Taoyuan bus fire Content: The 2016 Taoyuan bus fire occurred on the ROC National Road No. 2 , in the 2nd Taoyuan City Great Park section . The bus that was involved was carrying Chinese tourists . At 12:57 on July 19 , 2016 , on State Road at the 2nd West Park section of the convoy of red coral tour , a bus with the license plate number 197-EE collided with a guardrail , and a fire started and killed all 26 people on board the bus . This was the most serious bus accident in Taiwan that occurred in 2016 . An investigation found out that the bus driver had purposefully crashed after dousing the bus with gasoline and lighting it on fire .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2016_Taoyuan_bus_fire", "rank": 36, "score": 79922 }, { "content": "Title: 2030 – Aufstand der Alten Content: 2030 -- Aufstand der Alten ( 2030 - Rise of the Elderly ) is a three-part German television miniseries which aired in January 2007 . The docudrama , about demographics or `` demographic crime '' , is written and directed by Jörg Lühdorff . The first part is titled `` Die Geiselnahme ( Taking a Hostage ) '' , the second is titled `` Das Leben im Untergrund ( Living in the Underground ) '' , and the third is titled `` Das Geheimnis in der Wüste ( Tower of the Firstborn ) '' .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2030_–_Aufstand_der_Alten", "rank": 37, "score": 79890 }, { "content": "Title: Acropora hemprichii Content: Acropora hemprichii is a species of acroporid coral that was first described by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg in 1834 . Found in shallow reefs in marine environments , this species occurs at depths of 3 to , and lives for between 13 and 24 years . The species is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List , and has a decreasing population . It is common with a wide range , and is listed on Appendix II of CITES .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Acropora_hemprichii", "rank": 38, "score": 79753 }, { "content": "Title: List of off-season Australian region tropical cyclones Content: An off-season Australian tropical cyclone is a tropical cyclone that existed in the Australian Region , between 90 ° E and 160 ° E , outside of the official season . The World Meteorological Organization currently defines the season as occurring between 1 November and 30 April , of the following year , which is when the majority of all tropical cyclones exist . During the off-season , systems are more likely to either develop during or persist until May , with approximately 52 % of such storms occurring during that month . Occasionally , however , storms develop in October , with approximately 34 % of such storms occurring during that month . As of 2017 , there have been 88 tropical cyclones known to have occurred off-season . Off-season cyclones are most likely to occur in the Coral Sea , with most affecting land in some way . Cumulatively , at least 4 deaths occurred due to the storms , The most recent off-season storm was Tropical Cyclone Greg in May 2017 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "List_of_off-season_Australian_region_tropical_cyclones", "rank": 39, "score": 79698 }, { "content": "Title: Carl Eugene Watts Content: Carl Eugene Watts ( November 7 , 1953 -- September 21 , 2007 ) , also known by his nickname Coral , was an American serial killer dubbed `` The Sunday Morning Slasher '' . He died of prostate cancer while serving two sentences of life without parole in a Michigan prison for the murders of Helen Dutcher and Gloria Steele .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Carl_Eugene_Watts", "rank": 40, "score": 79688 }, { "content": "Title: 1989 world oil market chronology Content: March 23 : Exxon tanker Valdez runs aground , spilling 11 e6USgal of crude oil in the waters of Prince William Sound 's Bligh Reef . Oil prices react upward to news of the spill and to potential shortages on the west coast caused by refinery fires there . June : OPEC raises their production ceiling to 19.5 Moilbbl per day . | - | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | previous year :1988 world oil market chronology | width = `` 40 % '' align = `` center '' | This article is part of theChronology of world oil market events ( 1970-2005 ) | width = `` 30 % '' align = `` center '' | following year :1990 world oil market chronology | - Category : Oil market timelines World oil market chronology World Oil Market Chronology , 1989", "qid": "418", "docid": "1989_world_oil_market_chronology", "rank": 41, "score": 79670 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef Content: The Great Barrier Reef , the world 's largest reef system , stretching along the East coast of Australia from the northern tip down to the town of Bundaberg , is composed of roughly 2,900 individual reefs and 940 islands and cays that stretch for 2,300 kilometres ( 1,616 mi ) and cover an area of approximately 344,400 km2 . The reef is located in the Coral Sea , off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia . A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park . According to the 2014 report of the Australian Government 's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority ( GBRMPA ) , says that climate change is the most significant environmental threat to the Great Barrier Reef , while the other major environmental pressures are listed as decreased water quality from land-based runoff , impacts from coastal development and some persistent impacts from fishing activities . The reef is also threatened by storms , coral bleaching and ocean acidification . The 2014 report also shows that , while numerous marine life species have recovered after previous declines , the strength of the dugong population is continuing to decline . Terry Hughes , Federation Fellow , ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University , wrote in a 14 August 2014 Conversation piece that harmful government policies and ongoing conflicts of interest over mining royalties are risks of an equivalent magnitude . The GBRMPA consider climate change , poor water quality , coastal development , and some impacts from fishing to be the area 's major threats , but reef scientists Jon Day , Bob Pressey , Jon Brodie and Hughes stated that the `` cumulative effects of many combined impacts '' is the real issue . In a Conversation Article , Mathieu Mongin , a biogeochemical modeller at CSIRO and colleagues mapped parts of the Great Barrier Reef that are most exposed to ocean acidification . This map of pH on the Great Barrier Reef presents the exposure to ocean acidification on each of the 3,581 reefs , providing managers with the information they need to tailor management to individual reefs . The Great Barrier Reef is not a singular reef nor a physical barrier that prevents exchange between reefs ; it is a mixture of thousands of productive reefs and shallow areas lying on a continental shelf with complex oceanic circulation .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Environmental_threats_to_the_Great_Barrier_Reef", "rank": 42, "score": 79571 }, { "content": "Title: Landes Forest 1949 Wildfire Content: A major wildfire occurred from 19 August 1949 to 25 August 1949 in the Landes forest in France . 50000 ha of forest land were burnt - and 82 people killed . It is considered the most deadly forest fire in Europe in modern times . The municipalities of Cestas , Saucats , Marcheprime and Mios in the Gironde department were devastated by the forest fire .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Landes_Forest_1949_Wildfire", "rank": 43, "score": 78917 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires Content: The 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires are a complex of wildfires which began in late November 2016 . Some of the towns most impacted are Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg , both near Great Smoky Mountains National Park . The fires have claimed at least 14 lives , injured 134 , and are one the largest natural disasters in the history of Tennessee . As of December 12 , the fires had burned more than 10,000 acres ( 15 square miles ) inside the national park , and 6,000 acres in other parts of the area . At least 14,000 area residents and tourists were forced to evacuate , while over 2000 buildings were damaged and/or destroyed . One of the largest wildfires is the Chimney Tops 2 Fire , which has burned more than 10,000 acres , and closed the Chimney Tops Trail . The Great Smoky Mountains wildfires are the deadliest wildfires in the eastern U.S. since the Great Fires of 1947 , which killed 16 people in Maine . In addition , the fires are also the most deadly and destructive of the 2016 Southeastern United States wildfires . Local news outlets feature continuing live coverage of the situation .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2016_Great_Smoky_Mountains_wildfires", "rank": 44, "score": 78776 }, { "content": "Title: Røst Reef Content: The Røst Reef ( Røstrevet ) is a deep-water coral reef off the coast of Lofoten , Norway . The reef was discovered in 2002 . It extends over a length of about 35 km , and has a width of up to 3 km . The reef is generated by the coral Lophelia pertusa , and is the world 's largest known Lophelia reef . It is also the world 's largest known deep-water coral reef . The authorities have introduced regulations to protect the reef against trawling .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Røst_Reef", "rank": 45, "score": 78757 }, { "content": "Title: China Airlines Flight 204 Content: China Airlines Flight ( CI204 ) was a Boeing 737 that crashed into a mountain after take off from Hualien Airport , Taiwan , on 26 October 1989 . The crash killed all 54 passengers and crew on board the aircraft .", "qid": "418", "docid": "China_Airlines_Flight_204", "rank": 46, "score": 78712 }, { "content": "Title: Southeast Asian coral reefs Content: Southeast Asian coral reefs have the highest levels of biodiversity for the world 's marine ecosystems . They serve many functions , such as forming the livelihood for subsistence fishermen and even function as jewelry and construction materials . Coral reefs are developed by the carbonate-based skeletons of a variety of animals and algae . Slowly and overtime , the reefs build up to the surface in oceans . Coral reefs are found in shallow , warm salt water . The sunlight filters through clear water and allows microscopic organisms to live and reproduce . The Indian Ocean holds 60 % of the world 's coastal reefs , 25 % are in the Pacific and 15 % are in the western Atlantic . There are coral reefs in the Persian Gulf , Madagascar , the Philippines , Hawaiian Islands and off Southeast Asia . Coral reefs have been preserved and identified in rocks over 400 million years old . Coral reefs are actually composed of tiny , fragile animals known as coral polyps . Coral reefs are significantly important because of the biodiversity . Although the number of fish are decreasing , the remaining coral reefs contain more unique sea creatures . The variety of species living on a coral reef is greater than anywhere else in the world . An estimation of 70-90 % of fish caught are dependent on coral reefs in Southeast Asia and reefs support over 25 % of all known marine species . However , those sensitive coral reefs are facing detrimental effects on them due to variety of factors : overfishing , sedimentation and pollution , bleaching , and even tourist-related damage .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Southeast_Asian_coral_reefs", "rank": 47, "score": 78625 }, { "content": "Title: Global Strategic Trends Programme Content: The Global Strategic Trends Programme was established in 2001 to research and understand potential trends that shape and inform the future strategic context . It is undertaken at the Development , Concepts and Doctrine Centre ( DCDC ) which is under the UK 's Joint Forces Command and based in Shrivenham , Wiltshire . One of the main findings of `` Global Strategic Trends out to 2040 '' is that the era out to 2040 will be a time of transition , characterised by instability both in the relations between states , and in the relations between groups within states . During this timeframe significant global trends will include ; climate change , rapid population growth , resource scarcity , a resurgence in ideology and a shift in global power from West to East . The struggle to establish an effective system of global governance , is likely to be a central theme of the era .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Global_Strategic_Trends_Programme", "rank": 48, "score": 78044 }, { "content": "Title: HD 204313 b Content: HD 204313 b is an extrasolar planet which orbits the G-type main sequence star HD 204313 , located approximately 155 light years away in the constellation Capricorn . This planet orbits the star at a distance of 3.082 astronomical units and takes 1931 days or 5.29 years to revolve around the star . It has minimum mass four times that of Jupiter . However the radius and inclination are not known since this planet was not detected by transit method or direct imaging . Instead , this planet was detected by radial velocity method using the CORALIE Echelle spectrograph mounted on the 1.2 meter Euler Swiss Telescope located at La Silla Observatory in Atacama desert , Chile on August 11 , 2009 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "HD_204313_b", "rank": 49, "score": 77909 }, { "content": "Title: Great Fire of 1910 Content: The Great Fire of 1910 ( also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup , the Big Burn , or the Devil 's Broom fire ) was a wildfire that burned about 3000000 acre , approximately the size of Connecticut ) in northeast Washington , northern Idaho ( the panhandle ) , and western Montana . The area burned included parts of the Bitterroot , Cabinet , Clearwater , Coeur d'Alene , Flathead , Kaniksu , Kootenai , Lewis and Clark , Lolo , and St. Joe National Forests . The firestorm burned over two days ( August 20 -- 21 , 1910 ) , and killed 87 people , mostly firefighters . It is believed to be the largest , although not the deadliest , forest fire in U.S. history . The outcome was to highlight firefighters as public heroes while raising public awareness surrounding national nature conservation .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Great_Fire_of_1910", "rank": 50, "score": 77830 }, { "content": "Title: Coral Reef Adventure Content: Coral Reef Adventure is a 70mm American documentary film released in 2003 to IMAX theaters . It is narrated by actor Liam Neeson , and directed by Greg MacGillivray . Embarking on a 10-month expedition through the islands of the South Pacific , husband and wife underwater photography-duo Michele and Howard Hall explore the declining reefs and failing health of the world 's oceans . From Australia 's Great Barrier Reef , to a friend 's coral reef-sustained village in Fiji , the diving expeditions show a range of coral reefs , from flourishing ones filled with unusual and exotic inhabitants , to vast stretches of bleached coral decline which prompted the Hall 's activism . Along their journey , scientists working to understand and save the reefs meet with the Hall 's . Jean-Michel Cousteau , son of the famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau , also makes an appearance , as do well-known dive guide and singer Rusi Vulakoro , brother of Vude singer Laisa Vulakoro , who guides the Halls in their dive adventure . This documentary film is the third oceanic , ecologically-themed IMAX production from director MacGillivray , after The Living Sea and Dolphins . Crosby Stills & Nash contribute to the film 's soundtrack . The Giant Screen Theater Association named it the best film achievement of 2003 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_Reef_Adventure", "rank": 51, "score": 77635 }, { "content": "Title: Millepora complanata Content: Millepora complanata , commonly known as blade fire coral , is a species of fire coral in the family Milleporidae . It is found in shallow waters in the Caribbean Sea where it is a common species . The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of `` least concern '' .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Millepora_complanata", "rank": 52, "score": 76941 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 California wildfires Content: The 2013 California wildfires consisted of 9,907 wildfires that burned at least 577,675 acre of land in the state of California , during 2013 . The wildfires injured at least 125 people and killed at least 1 , and caused over $ 218.15 million ( 2013 USD ) in damage . These included several large , notable wildfires , including the Rim Fire , which became California 's 3rd largest wildfire . One of the wildfires was also caused by the plane crash of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 on July 6 , 2013 , which ignited a wildfire that burned around 1 acre of land .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2013_California_wildfires", "rank": 53, "score": 76929 }, { "content": "Title: 1953 Suva earthquake Content: The 1953 Suva earthquake occurred on September 14 at 00:26 UTC near Suva , Fiji , just off the southeast shore of Viti Levu . This earthquake had a magnitude of Ms 6.8 . The earthquake triggered a coral reef platform collapse and a submarine landslide that caused a tsunami . Eight people were reported killed ; a wharf , bridges , and buildings were severely damaged in Suva .", "qid": "418", "docid": "1953_Suva_earthquake", "rank": 54, "score": 76875 }, { "content": "Title: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History Content: The Sixth Extinction : An Unnatural History is a 2014 non-fiction book written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by Henry Holt & Company . The book demonstrates that the Earth is in the midst of a modern , man-made , sixth extinction . In the book , Kolbert chronicles previous mass extinction events , and compares them to the accelerated , widespread extinctions during our present time . She also describes specific species extinguished by humans , as well as the ecologies surrounding prehistoric and near-present extinction events . The author received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for the book in 2015 . The target audience is the general reader , and scientific descriptions are rendered in understandable prose . The clear writing blends explanations of her treks to remote areas with interviews of scientists , researchers , and guides , without advocating a position , and maintaining objectivity . Hence , the sixth mass extinction theme is applied to flora and fauna existing in diverse habitats , such as the Panamanian rainforest , the Great Barrier Reef , the Andes , Bikini Atoll , city zoos , and the author 's own backyard . The book also applies this theme to a number of other habitats and organisms throughout the world . After researching the current mainstream view of the relevant peer reviewed science , Kolbert estimates flora and fauna loss by the end of the 21st century to be between 20 % to 50 % `` of all living species on earth '' . __ TOC __", "qid": "418", "docid": "The_Sixth_Extinction:_An_Unnatural_History", "rank": 55, "score": 76827 }, { "content": "Title: 2040 Content:", "qid": "418", "docid": "2040", "rank": 56, "score": 76568 }, { "content": "Title: 2019–20 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, colloquially known as Black Summer, was a period of unusually intense bushfires in many parts of Australia. In June 2019, the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service acting director warned of the potential for an early start to the bushfire season which normally starts in August. The warning was based on the Northern Australia bushfire seasonal outlook noting exceptional dry conditions and a lack of soil moisture, combined with early fires in central Queensland. Throughout the summer, hundreds of fires burnt, mainly in the southeast of the country. The major fires peaked during December–January. As of 9 March 2020, the fires burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares (46 million acres; 186,000 square kilometres; 72,000 square miles), destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people. Nearly three billion terrestrial vertebrates alone – the vast majority being reptiles – were affected and some endangered species were believed to be driven to extinction. At its peak, air quality dropped to hazardous levels in all southern and eastern states. The cost of dealing with the bushfires is expected to exceed the A$4.4 billion of the 2009 Black Saturday fires, and tourism sector revenues fell by more than A$1 billion. However, economists estimated that the Australian bushfires may cost over A$103 billion in property damage and economic losses, making the bushfires Australia's costliest natural disaster to date. Nearly 80 percent of Australians were affected either directly or indirectly by the bushfires. By 7 January 2020, the smoke had moved approximately 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi) across the South Pacific Ocean to Chile and Argentina. As of 2 January 2020, NASA estimated that 306 million tonnes (337 million short tons) of CO2 had been emitted.From September 2019 to March 2020, fires heavily impacted various regions of the state of New South Wales. In eastern and north-eastern Victoria large areas of forest burnt out of control for four weeks before the fires emerged from the forests in late December. Multiple states of emergency were declared across New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. Reinforcements from all over Australia were called in to assist fighting the fires and relieve exhausted local crews in New South Wales. The Australian Defence Force was mobilised to provide air support to the firefighting effort and to provide manpower and logistical support. Firefighters, supplies and equipment from Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, among others, helped fight the fires, especially in New South Wales.During the ensuing crisis, an air tanker and two helicopters crashed during firefighting operations, the air tanker crash resulting in the deaths of the three crew. Two fire trucks were caught in fatal incidents caused directly by fire conditions, killing three fire fighters.By 4 March 2020, all fires in New South Wales had been extinguished completely (to the point where there were no fires in the state for the first time since July 2019), and the Victoria fires had all been contained. The last fire of the season occurred in Lake Clifton, Western Australia, in early May.There has been considerable debate regarding the underlying cause of the intensity and scale of the fires, including the role of fire management practices and climate change, which during the peak of the crisis attracted significant international attention. Politicians visiting fire impacted areas received mixed responses, in particular Prime Minister Scott Morrison. An estimated A$500 million was donated by the public at large, international organisations, public figures and celebrities for victim relief and wildlife recovery. Convoys of donated food, clothing and livestock feed were sent to affected areas.", "qid": "418", "docid": "2019–20_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 57, "score": 76436 }, { "content": "Title: Texas-Oklahoma wildfires of 2005–06 Content: The Texas-Oklahoma wildfires of 2005 -- 06 were a series of wildfires , primarily in the states of Texas and Oklahoma , that began November 27 , 2005 and continued into April 2006 . Surrounding states were also affected to a lesser extent . The fires were triggered by a combination of record-high temperatures , drought , and high winds in the region . The situation was exacerbated , at least in Texas , by plentiful rains in recent years . The rains encouraged vegetation growth , which then dried out over the winter drought leaving more potential fuel . The unusually dry conditions have been attributed to La Niña . At Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City , only 0.36 in of rain fell in the first two months of the year . On January 1 , fires continued to develop throughout the two states . By January 3 , many of the fires were reported to be under control ; but outbreaks continued through January , February , and March . In Texas , 12 people were killed . Eight Texas towns were evacuated in March 2006 . From December 26 , 2005 to April 3 , 2006 , Texas suffered 11,048 wildfires which burned 4903851 acre and destroyed 423 homes . In Oklahoma , 869 homes were damaged ; 300 of them were destroyed . As of April 5 , 2006 , there had been over 22,564 wildfires across the country in the year to date , burning 1872701 acre . Texas governor Rick Perry declared the entire state a disaster area , describing it as a `` tinderbox '' , and called for firefighters and fire equipment to combat the blazes . In addition , the governor of Oklahoma , Brad Henry , declared a disaster and pleaded for federal aid . On January 10 , President Bush declared several Oklahoma counties to be disaster areas ; the list was amended to include 26 counties by late March . Heavy rains in late March promised at least temporary relief to the affected areas . Governor Henry lifted the burn ban ( which had been instated in November ) throughout Oklahoma on March 22 , but reinstated it for most counties only five days later , on March 27 . Much of Texas was also placed under a burn ban .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Texas-Oklahoma_wildfires_of_2005–06", "rank": 58, "score": 76384 }, { "content": "Title: Aquaculture of coral Content: Coral aquaculture , also known as coral farming or coral gardening , is the cultivation of corals for commercial purposes or coral reef restoration . Aquaculture is showing promise as a potentially effective tool for restoring coral reefs , which have been declining around the world . The process bypasses the early growth stages of corals when they are most at risk of dying . Small corals are propagated in nurseries then replanted on the reef . Coral is farmed by coral farmers who live locally to the reefs and farm for reef conservation or for income . It is also farmed by scientists for research , by businesses for the supply of the live and ornamental coral trade , and by private aquarium hobbyists . __ TOC __", "qid": "418", "docid": "Aquaculture_of_coral", "rank": 59, "score": 76354 }, { "content": "Title: Peshtigo Fire Content: The Peshtigo Fire was a forest fire that took place on October 8 , 1871 in and around Peshtigo , Wisconsin . It was the deadliest wildfire in recorded history , with estimated deaths of around 1,500 people , possibly as many as 2,500 . Occurring on the same day as the more famous Great Chicago Fire , the Peshtigo Fire has been largely forgotten . On the same day as the Peshtigo and Chicago fires , Holland and Manistee , Michigan ( across Lake Michigan from Peshtigo ) , and Port Huron at the southern end of Lake Huron also had major fires , leading to various theories of mutual cause by contemporaries and later historians .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Peshtigo_Fire", "rank": 60, "score": 76320 }, { "content": "Title: 1987 Daxing'anling Wildfire Content: The 1987 Daxing ` anling Wildfire , also known as the May 6 Fire ( 5 · 6大火 ) was a major wildfire that began in the northeast Daxing ` anling Prefecture Heilongjiang People 's Republic of China on May 6 , 1987 . The burning lasted almost a month , when it was finally stopped on June 2 , 1987 . The fire covered about 10000 km2 of which 6500 square kilometres was forestry . About 266 people were wounded and 211 died in the sea of fire with 50,000 left homeless .", "qid": "418", "docid": "1987_Daxing'anling_Wildfire", "rank": 61, "score": 76259 }, { "content": "Title: Vargas tragedy Content: The 1999 Vargas tragedy was a disaster that struck the Vargas State of Venezuela on 15 December 1999 , when the torrential rains and the flash floods and debris flows that followed on December 14 -- 16 which killed tens of thousands of people , destroyed thousands of homes , and led to the complete collapse of the state 's infrastructure . According to relief workers , the neighborhood of Los Corales was buried under 3 m of mud and a high percentage of homes were simply swept away to the ocean . Whole towns like Cerro Grande and Carmen de Uria completely disappeared . As much as 10 % of the population of Vargas perished during this event .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Vargas_tragedy", "rank": 62, "score": 76190 }, { "content": "Title: Coral Reef Initiative for the South Pacific Content: Coral Reef Initiative for the South Pacific ( CRISP ) is a French inter-ministerial project founded in 2002 . Its aims focus on developing a vision for the future for coral reef eco-systems and the communities that depend on them within the French overseas territories and Pacific Island developing countries . Programme coordination is provided by the CRISP Coordination Unit and a programme manager who is supported by scientific counselors . The programme is hosted by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community who is located in Nouméa , New-Caledonia . CRISP is under the institutional protection from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme . It is a regional initiative that promotes the protection and sustainable management of the coral reefs of the Pacific island states .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_Reef_Initiative_for_the_South_Pacific", "rank": 63, "score": 76103 }, { "content": "Title: The Next Hundred Million Content: The Next Hundred Million : America in 2050 is a non-fiction book by American economist and demographer Joel Kotkin . The author outlines a world in which the growing US population reaches four hundred million by 2050 . He argues that the US will become more diverse ( with a trend towards ethnic/racial mixing ) and more competitive , and he predicts that the US will experience continual economic growth that advances the populations ' standard of living . Kotkin writes that the US `` should emerge by mid-century as the most affluent , culturally rich and successful nation in human history '' .", "qid": "418", "docid": "The_Next_Hundred_Million", "rank": 64, "score": 76011 }, { "content": "Title: Black Dragon Fire Content: The Black Dragon Fire was a massive wildfire that occurred in China and the Soviet Union during May 1987 . It was one of the largest wildfires ever to occur , and the largest to strike China in over 300 years . Over two hundred died in the fires and hundreds more were injured . The fire ended up destroying 18 million acres of forest , including one sixth of China 's entire timber reserves .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Black_Dragon_Fire", "rank": 65, "score": 75938 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Western Cape fire season Content: The 2015 Cape wildfires were a series of wildfires that burned across the Western Cape from February to April 2015 . Major fires burned across the Cape Peninsula starting on 1 March in Muizenberg and burning until 9 March , when firefighters extinguished it . The fire resulted in 1 death , 56 injuries , over 6,900 ha of burnt land , and 13 damaged properties , of which 3 were destroyed . The cause of the fire was later determined to be arson . There were also major fires near Wellington and Porteville starting in February , which claimed the lives of 3 firefighters and a fire in Stellenbosch that caused the evacuation of the University of Stellenbosch and burned over 2,900 ha of land .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2015_Western_Cape_fire_season", "rank": 66, "score": 75795 }, { "content": "Title: Love Story 2050 Content: Love Story 2050 is a 2008 Indian science fiction-romance film starring producer Pammi Baweja and director Harry Baweja 's son Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra . Some parts were filmed in Adelaide , Australia . Initially the film was supposed to release on 21 December 2007 but got postponed to 4 July 2008 due to extensive post-production work . The premiere was held on 2 July 2008 in London . The film draws a lot of similarity to the 1991 Telugu film Aditya 369 ; while the Telugu film dealt with travel to the past as well as distopian post-apocalyptic future , Love Story 2050 was exclusively about travelling to an utopian future-city of Mumbai in the year 2050 . It is the first utopian time travel film of Bollywood . The movie was released on 4 July 2008 to negative reviews and was a commercial disaster . However , it was noted that the film helps ` understand the cultural anxieties about India 's neoliberal future captured in the cinematic imagination of the utopian city ' .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Love_Story_2050", "rank": 67, "score": 75779 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Portugal Wildfires Content: The 2016 Portugal Wildfires are a series of wildfires that burned across mainland Portugal and the Madeira archipelago in the north Atlantic Ocean during August 2016 that prompted the evacuation of more than one thousand people and destroyed at least 37 homes near Funchal on Madeira island . Flights were also disrupted at Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport due to high levels of smoke . At least seven major fires were burning out of control in the north of Portugal on August 9 , according to officials . The authorities say around 3,000 firefighters are trying to extinguish hundreds of forest fires across the country . An emergency was declared in Portugal 's northern Norte Region as firefighters battled numerous wildfires .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2016_Portugal_Wildfires", "rank": 68, "score": 75761 }, { "content": "Title: Reef (novel) Content: Reef is a historical fiction novel written by Sri Lankan-born British author Romesh Gunesekera , first published by Granta Books in 1994 . Written in English and set in Sri Lanka , it tells the story of a talented young chef named Triton who is so committed to pleasing his master , Mr. Salgado , a marine biologist obsessed with swamps and seafood , that he is oblivious to the political unrest threatening his country . It is Gunesekera 's debut novel and second book , following his 1992 collection of short stories , Monkfish Moon . It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1994 , but lost to How Late It Was , How Late by James Kelman amid much controversy ; and the Guardian Fiction Prize the same year .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Reef_(novel)", "rank": 69, "score": 75708 }, { "content": "Title: 2046 (film) Content: 2046 is a 2004 Hong Kong romantic drama film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai . It is a loose sequel to Kar-wai 's films Days of Being Wild ( 1990 ) and In the Mood for Love ( 2000 ) . It follows the aftermath of Chow Mo-wan 's unconsummated affair with Su Li-zhen in 1960s Hong Kong but also includes some science fiction elements and makes frequent references to the date of December 24 or Christmas Eve , on which many significant events in the film occur .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2046_(film)", "rank": 70, "score": 75551 }, { "content": "Title: Coral Triangle Content: The Coral Triangle is a geographical term so named as it refers to a roughly triangular area of the tropical marine waters of Indonesia , Malaysia , Papua New Guinea , Philippines , Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste that contain at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ecoregion . This region encompasses portions of two biogeographic regions : the Indonesian-Philippines Region , and the Far Southwestern Pacific Region . The Coral Triangle is recognized as the global centre of marine biodiversity and a global priority for conservation . It is also called the `` Amazon of the seas '' and covers 5.7 e6km2 of ocean waters . Its biological resources sustain the lives of over 120 million people . According to the Coral Triangle Knowledge Network , about $ 3 billion in fisheries exports and another $ 3 billion in coastal tourism revenues are derived as annual foreign exchange income in the region . The WWF considers the region a top priority for marine conservation , and the organization is addressing the threats it faces through its Coral Triangle Program , launched in 2007 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_Triangle", "rank": 71, "score": 75451 }, { "content": "Title: The Reef Content: The Reef may refer to The Reef , an alternative name for the Witwatersrand in South Africa The Reef ( novel ) , a 1912 novel by Edith Wharton The Reef ( 1999 film ) , a film adaptation of the novel The Reef ( 2010 film ) , an Australian film Great Barrier Reef , the planet 's largest coral reef Shark Bait , a 2006 animated film released as The Reef in the United States , South Africa and Ireland ; and as Pi 's Story in South Korea Shark Bait 2 : High Tide , a sequel to that film released as The Reef 2 : High Tide in the United States , South Africa and Ireland and as Pi 's Story 2 : High Tide in South Korea", "qid": "418", "docid": "The_Reef", "rank": 72, "score": 75374 }, { "content": "Title: Predator Free 2050 Content: Predator Free 2050 is a plan put forth by the New Zealand government with the goal of eradicating all marsupial and mammalian introduced predators from New Zealand by 2050 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Predator_Free_2050", "rank": 73, "score": 75224 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Colorado wildfires Content: In the summer of 2013 , there were several major wildfires in Colorado in the United States . During June and July , record high temperatures and dry conditions fueled the fires all across the state . By July 24 , 570 structures had been destroyed and 2 lives were lost . Below is a list of the major fires of the year .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2013_Colorado_wildfires", "rank": 74, "score": 75221 }, { "content": "Title: Acropora dendrum Content: Acropora dendrum is a species of acroporid coral that was first described by Bassett-Smith in 1890 . Found in tropical , shallow reefs in areas of powerful waves at depths of 5 to , it is threatened by disease . The species is rated as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List , with a decreasing population . It is not common but found over a large area , and is listed on CITES Appendix II .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Acropora_dendrum", "rank": 75, "score": 75146 }, { "content": "Title: 2009 Mediterranean wildfires Content: The 2009 Mediterranean wildfires were a series of wildfires that broke out across France , Greece , Italy , Spain , and Turkey in July 2009 . Strong winds spread the fire during a hot , dry period of weather killing at least eight people , six of whom were in Spain . Some of the wildfires were caused by lightning , along with arson and military training .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2009_Mediterranean_wildfires", "rank": 76, "score": 75089 }, { "content": "Title: Off Armageddon Reef Content: Off Armageddon Reef is a science fiction novel by American author David Weber , published by Tor Books . It is the first book in the open-ended Safehold series . It follows a group of survivors who have settled a planet they name Safehold , a place where they had sought to escape from a terrible war , but that becomes the scene of a new struggle to uphold the principles of human civilization .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Off_Armageddon_Reef", "rank": 77, "score": 75089 }, { "content": "Title: TANS Perú Flight 204 Content: TANS Perú Flight 204 refers to a domestic scheduled Lima -- Pucallpa -- Iquitos passenger service , operated with a Boeing 737-200 Advanced , that crashed on 23 August 2005 on approach to Pucallpa Airport , 4 mi off the airfield , following an emergency landing attempt because of bad weather , killing 40 of the 98 passengers and crew aboard .", "qid": "418", "docid": "TANS_Perú_Flight_204", "rank": 78, "score": 74906 }, { "content": "Title: Blackwater Fire of 1937 Content: On August 18 , 1937 , a lightning strike started the Blackwater Fire in Shoshone National Forest , approximately 35 mi west of Cody , Wyoming , United States . Fifteen firefighters were killed by the forest fire when a dry weather front caused the winds to suddenly increase and change direction . The fire quickly spread into dense forest , creating spot fires that trapped some of the firefighters in a firestorm . Nine firefighters died during the fire and six more died shortly thereafter from severe burns and respiratory complications and another 38 firefighters were injured . More wildland firefighters were killed in the Blackwater fire than in any other in a United States National Forest in the 103 year interval between the Great Fire of 1910 and the Yarnell Hill Fire of 2013 . The Blackwater fire consumed 1700 acre of old-growth forest dominated by Douglas fir trees on the west slopes of Clayton Mountain . At the time the firestorm occurred , the temperatures were about 90 F and the relative humidity was only 6 percent . Though most of the firefighters consisted of Civilian Conservation Corps ( CCC ) employees , they were led by more experienced United States Forest Service ( USFS ) fire managers . Firefighters in the first half of the 20th century used mostly hand tools to suppress wildfires , and all gear was carried by the firefighters or by pack animals . Weather forecasting and radio communication were generally poor or nonexistent . Investigations and analysis of the event led the USFS to develop better ways to provide a more immediate response to combat fires ; one of them was the development of the smokejumper program in 1939 . Additionally , the Ten Standard Firefighting Orders , a standardized set of wildland firefighting principles , were developed in 1957 . A year after the tragedy , survivors and their fellow employees constructed several memorials at the scene of the incident .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Blackwater_Fire_of_1937", "rank": 79, "score": 74807 }, { "content": "Title: Dies the Fire Content: Dies the Fire is a 2004 alternate history and post-apocalyptic novel written by S. M. Stirling . It is the first installment of the Emberverse series and is a spin-off from S. M. Stirling 's Nantucket series , where the Massachusetts island of Nantucket is thrown back in time from March 17 , 1998 to the Bronze Age . In Dies the Fire , S. M. Stirling chronicles the struggle of two groups who try to survive `` The Change '' , a mysterious worldwide event that suddenly alters physical laws so that electricity , gunpowder , and most other forms of high-energy-density technology no longer work . As a result of this , modern civilization comes crashing down .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Dies_the_Fire", "rank": 80, "score": 74770 }, { "content": "Title: Acropora polystoma Content: Acropora polystoma is a species of acroporid coral that was first described by G. Brook in 1891 . Found in marine , tropical , reefs on upper slopes where waves are strong , it occurs at deppths between 3 and . It is classed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List , and it has a decreasing population . It is not common and found over a large area and is classified under CITES Appendix II .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Acropora_polystoma", "rank": 81, "score": 74762 }, { "content": "Title: Coral reef Content: Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held together by calcium carbonate structures secreted by corals . Coral reefs are built by colonies of tiny animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients . Most coral reefs are built from stony corals , which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups . The polyps belong to a group of animals known as Cnidaria , which also includes sea anemones and jellyfish . Unlike sea anemones , corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons which support and protect the coral polyps . Most reefs grow best in warm , shallow , clear , sunny and agitated waters . Often called `` rainforests of the sea '' , shallow coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth . They occupy less than 0.1 % of the world 's ocean surface , about half the area of France , yet they provide a home for at least 25 % of all marine species , including fish , mollusks , worms , crustaceans , echinoderms , sponges , tunicates and other cnidarians . Paradoxically , coral reefs flourish even though they are surrounded by ocean waters that provide few nutrients . They are most commonly found at shallow depths in tropical waters , but deep water and cold water corals also exist on smaller scales in other areas . Coral reefs deliver ecosystem services to tourism , fisheries and shoreline protection . The annual global economic value of coral reefs is estimated between US$ 29.8-375 billion . However , coral reefs are fragile ecosystems , partly because they are very sensitive to water temperature . They are under threat from climate change , oceanic acidification , blast fishing , cyanide fishing for aquarium fish , sunscreen use , overuse of reef resources , and harmful land-use practices , including urban and agricultural runoff and water pollution , which can harm reefs by encouraging excess algal growth .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_reef", "rank": 82, "score": 74599 }, { "content": "Title: Resilience of coral reefs Content: The resilience of coral reefs is the biological ability of coral reefs to recover from natural disturbances such as storms and bleaching episodes . Resilience refers to the ability of biological or social systems to overcome pressures and stresses by maintaining key functions through resisting or adapting to change . Reef resistance measures how well coral reefs tolerate changes in ocean chemistry , sea level , and sea surface temperature . Reef resistance and resilience are important factors in coral reef recovery from the effects of ocean acidification . Natural reef resilience can be used as a recovery model for coral reefs and an opportunity for management in marine protected areas ( MPAs ) . __ TOC __", "qid": "418", "docid": "Resilience_of_coral_reefs", "rank": 83, "score": 74298 }, { "content": "Title: S190 Content: S190 may refer to : German submarine U-11 ( S190 ) , a 1968 Bundesmarine Type 205 submarine S-190 may refer to : S-190 : Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior , a training course on the field of wildland fire suppression in the United States", "qid": "418", "docid": "S190", "rank": 84, "score": 74245 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Security Council Resolution 203 Content: United Nations Security Council Resolution 203 , adopted on May 14 , 1965 , in the face of growing instability , a developing civil war and the probability of foreign intervention in the Dominican Republic , the Council called for a strict cease-fire and invited the Secretary-General to send a representative to the Dominican Republic to report to the Council on the present situation . The resolution was passed unanimously .", "qid": "418", "docid": "United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_203", "rank": 85, "score": 74229 }, { "content": "Title: Rover incident Content: The Rover Incident occurred on March 12 , 1867 when the American merchant ship Rover , en route from Shantou to Newchwang , was wrecked off the coast of Formosa ( Taiwan under Qing rule ) . The ship struck a coral reef called Qixingyan near Oluanpi and drifted into the area of Kenting . The American sailors were killed by Taiwanese Aborigines in revenge for earlier killings of Kaolut ( Koalut/Ku-a-lut/etc ) tribe members by foreigners . Subsequently , the U.S. military decided to send a military expedition against the tribe members responsible .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Rover_incident", "rank": 86, "score": 74172 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 Greek forest fires Content: The 2007 Greek forest fires were a series of massive forest fires that broke out in several areas across Greece throughout the summer of 2007 . The most destructive and lethal infernos broke out on 23 August , expanded rapidly and raged out of control until 27 August , until they were put out in early September . The fires mainly affected western and southern Peloponnese as well as southern Euboea . The death toll in August alone stood at 67 people . In total 84 people lost their lives because of the fires , including several fire fighters . Some of these firestorms are believed to be the result of arson while others were merely the result of negligence . Hot temperatures , including three consecutive heat waves of over 40 ° C ( 105 ° F ) , and severe drought rendered the 2007 summer unprecedented in modern Greek history . From the end of June to early September , over 3,000 forest fires were recorded across the nation . Nine more people were killed in blazes in June and July . A total of 2,700 square kilometers ( 670,000 acres ) of forest , olive groves and farmland were destroyed in the fires , which was the worst fire season on record in the past 50 years . Of the total of 2,700 km ² , 1,500 km ² ( 370,000 acres ) were burnt forests in Southern Greece alone . Many buildings were also destroyed in the blaze . The fire destroyed 1,000 houses and 1,100 other buildings , and damaged hundreds more .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2007_Greek_forest_fires", "rank": 87, "score": 74114 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 Texas wildfires Content: The 2011 Texas wildfires were a series of destructive wildfires in Texas , United States that occurred in the 2011 fire season . Statistics on the fires have been recorded since the current fire season began November 15 , 2010 . During 2011 in Texas , around 31,453 fires had burned 4,000,000 acres ( about double the previous record ) , 2,947 homes ( 1,939 of which were destroyed over the Labor Day weekend ) , and over 2,700 other structures . 47.3 % of all acreage burned in the United States in 2011 was burned in Texas . The fires had been particularly severe due to the 2011 Southern US drought that covered the state , and was exacerbated by the unusual convergence of strong winds , unseasonably warm temperatures , and low humidity . Timber lost to drought and wildfire in 2011 could have produced $ 1.6 billion worth of products , resulting in a $ 3.4 billion economic impact in East Texas . Firefighters from more than forty-three states have been involved in the operation to combat the fires . Two firefighters were killed . Eastland volunteer firefighter Gregory M. Simmons , 51 , died April 15 while battling a 3000 acre blaze Friday afternoon near Eastland . Cactus volunteer firefighter Elias Jaquez died April 20 from injuries sustained while fighting a blaze April 9 in Moore County . On Sunday , September 4 , 2011 , a firestorm known as the Bastrop County Complex Fire engulfed Bastrop , Texas and by September 30 had destroyed 1,645 homes , burned 34,068 acres , and killed two people . This fire is now regarded as the most catastrophic wildfire in Texas history . Texas Governor Rick Perry declared a State of Disaster starting on December 21 , 2010 , and renewed the proclamation every month . On April 16 , 2011 , Perry asked that President Barack Obama declare 252 of 254 Texas counties as disaster areas due to wildfires and wildfire danger ; the request was partially approved on July 1 , 2011 . Critics of the governor 's relief efforts point to his budget cuts to the Texas Forest Service which provides a first line of defense against wildfires . Overall , wildfires in Texas during 2011 caused $ 510.927 million in damages and caused six fatalities , though an additional 62 people were injured .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2011_Texas_wildfires", "rank": 88, "score": 74080 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 California wildfires Content: The 2007 California Wildfire Season saw over 9,000 separate wildfires that charred 1,087,110 acre of land . 30 of those wildfires were part of the Fall 2007 California firestorm , which burned approximately 970,977 acres ( about 3,900 km ² , or 1,500 mi ² ) of land from Santa Barbara County to the U.S. -- Mexico border , surpassing the October 2003 California wildfires in scope , which were estimated to have burned . At the peak of the wildfire activity in October 2007 , the raging wildfires were visible from space . The wildfires killed a total of 14 people , with nine of them dying directly from the fires ; 160 others were injured , including at least 124 firefighters . California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in seven California counties where fires were burning . President George W. Bush concurred , and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts . Over 6,000 firefighters worked to fight the blazes ; they were aided by units of the United States Armed Forces , United States National Guard , almost 3,000 prisoners convicted of non-violent crimes , and 60 firefighters from the Mexican cities of Tijuana and Tecate . The fires forced approximately 1,000,000 people to evacuate from their homes , becoming the largest evacuation in California 's history . Major contributing factors to the extreme fire conditions were drought in Southern California , hot weather , and the strong Santa Ana winds with gusts reaching 85 mph ( 140 km/h ) . California 's `` fire season , '' which traditionally runs from June to October , has become a year-round threat due to a mixture of perennial drought and the increasing number of homes built in canyons and on hillsides surrounded by brush and forest . The fires had numerous sources . Several were triggered by power lines damaged by the high winds . coyotehowls One fire started when a semi-truck overturned . Another was suspected as having been deliberately caused ; the suspect was shot and killed in flight by state authorities . A 10-year-old boy admitted that he accidentally started the Buckweed Fire by playing with matches . Causes of the remaining fires remain under investigation . The last fires , the Santiago and Poomacha Fires , were fully contained on November 9 , 2007 , about 19 days after the series of wildfires had begun to ignite . During the season , the National Interagency Fire Center reports that two firefighters were killed . One died via helicopter and the second in a bulldozer rollover .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2007_California_wildfires", "rank": 89, "score": 74065 }, { "content": "Title: Coral Triangle Day Content: The Coral Triangle Day was established on June 9 , to celebrate and raise awareness of the ocean conservation and protection , especially on the Coral Triangle , the world 's epicenter of marine biodiversity . Intended as an open-sourced event , the day is celebrated by individuals , organizations , and establishment concerned on the Coral Triangle . The Coral Triangle day was observed the first time on June 9 , 2012 , in conjunction with the World Oceans Day on June 8 .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Coral_Triangle_Day", "rank": 90, "score": 74015 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 91, "score": 73793 }, { "content": "Title: Active Reef Content: Active Reef is an isolated reef lying in the Firth of Tay , just off the north coast of Dundee Island . Discovered and named by Thomas Robertson , master of the Active , one of the ships of the Dundee whaling expedition of 1892 -- 93 . The Active ran onto this reef during a gale on January 10 , 1893 and lay there for 6 hours before she could be gotten off . Category : Reefs of Graham Land Category : Landforms of the Joinville Island group", "qid": "418", "docid": "Active_Reef", "rank": 92, "score": 73779 }, { "content": "Title: List of Michigan wildfires Content: The U.S. state of Michigan has been the site of several major wildfires . The worst of these were in the lumbering era of the late-1800s when lumbering practices permitted the buildup of large slash piles and altered forest growth patterns which may have contributed to size of the wildfires . The scattered nature of settlements , lumber camps and Indian tribes during this time lead to large uncertainties in determining the number of deaths and property losses . More recent fires have been much smaller and contained by modern firefighting methods with better records of the destruction they caused . Almost all of the thousands of yearly fires in the state are only a few acres , although 100-200 homes are damaged each year by these small fires .", "qid": "418", "docid": "List_of_Michigan_wildfires", "rank": 93, "score": 73774 }, { "content": "Title: Fire on the Mountain (book) Content: Fire on the Mountain ( ISBN 0061829617 ) is a 1999 non-fiction book by John Norman Maclean that describes the most famous wildland fire of the late 20th century . The book describes the events and aftermath of the South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain on July 6 , 1994 in Colorado , which took the lives of 14 firefighters . The fire has become an icon of firefighting , a caution about the dangers of taking high risks for low-value wildlands . Those who died included nine members of the Prineville ( Oregon ) Hot Shots : Kathi Beck , Tami Bickett , Scott Blecha , Levi Brinkley , Doug Dunbar , Terri Hagen , Bonnie Holtby , Rob Johnson , and Jon Kelso ; one Missoula Smoke Jumper : Don Mackey ; two McCall ( Idaho ) Smoke Jumpers : Roger Roth , and James Thrash ; and two members of a Helitack fire crew : Richard Tyler , and Rob Browning . Fire on the Mountain , a national bestseller , won the Mountain and Plains Booksellers award as the best non-fiction of 1999 . It was made into an eponymous two-hour documentary by the History Channel that was a finalist for an Emmy award and won the Cine Master 's Award as the best documentary of 1999 . National Geographic Films is currently developing the book as a full-length feature movie . The book is written to a general audience , but has also become a staple of wildland firefighter training courses , from entry level to the top level .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Fire_on_the_Mountain_(book)", "rank": 94, "score": 73731 }, { "content": "Title: List of Colorado wildfires Content: This is a list of Colorado wildfires which have occurred periodically throughout its recorded history . One of the most significant fires in United States history was The Big Blowup of 1910 . In that fire , 3 million acres burned and 78 firefighters were killed in the northern Rocky Mountains ( in the states of Washington , Idaho , and Montana ) which led to a standing policy in Colorado of all fires out by 10am . The policy evolved over the 20th century . The Colorado State Forest Service was established by the Colorado General Assembly in 1955 and oversees response to wildfires in Colorado . The Hayman Fire was the largest wildfire in Colorado state history , part of the 2002 Colorado wildfires . The 2012 Colorado forest fires broke the record for most destructive fire twice and led to declaration of a federal disaster area in June 2012 . The 2013 Colorado forest fires , fueled by high heat and winds again broke the record for the most destructive and , as of July 5 , 2013 , includes the second largest ( by area ) in Colorado History .", "qid": "418", "docid": "List_of_Colorado_wildfires", "rank": 95, "score": 73518 }, { "content": "Title: August 2016 Western United States wildfires Content: The August 2016 Western United States Wildfires is a natural disaster in the United States with flames engulfing California , Idaho , Montana , Nevada , Oregon , Washington and Wyoming . Evacuations took place in Oregon , Nevada and Wyoming .", "qid": "418", "docid": "August_2016_Western_United_States_wildfires", "rank": 96, "score": 73480 }, { "content": "Title: The Coral Sea (band) Content: The Coral Sea is a California-based indie rock band led by Rey Villalobos . Their music is atmospheric and ambient . Their songs have been used on American TV shows Grey 's Anatomy , Sleeper Cell and Californication . Their song `` Yesterday / Tomorrow '' was used at the end of the series pilot for Standoff . The five-piece band was formed in 2004 by lead singer and songwriter Rey Villalobos . Their self-produced first album Volcano and Heart was released in 2006 . After their debut , they toured the US and the UK , sharing bills with artists such as The Walkmen , St. Vincent , The Silversun Pickups , and Frank Black . They have also been in rotation on numerous radio shows , including KCRW 's Morning Becomes Eclectic . In 2006 , their song `` Look at Her Face '' , from their first album , caught the attention of ABC TV and was featured on the Grey 's Anatomy season finale . In 2009 , their song `` Ah , Ah , Ah '' , from their second album `` Firelight '' , was featured on Grey 's Anatomy .", "qid": "418", "docid": "The_Coral_Sea_(band)", "rank": 97, "score": 73447 }, { "content": "Title: Off to See the Lizard Content: Off to See the Lizard is the seventeenth studio album by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett . Initially to be called Stranger than Fishing , it was released in June 1989 as MCA 6314 and was produced by Elliot Scheiner and Buffett . The album is the first to feature much of the Coral Reefer Band . Following the release of this album , Buffett paused his normal output of one album every year or two and did not release another album until 1994 's Fruitcakes .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Off_to_See_the_Lizard", "rank": 98, "score": 73431 }, { "content": "Title: 2012 Araucanía wildfires Content: The 2012 Araucanía wildfires were a series of forest fires that occurred in January 2012 mainly in the communes of Carahue and Lumaco . The first fire in Araucanía Region appeared in the estate Casa Piedra in Carahue and preceded other summer wildfires in Chile in the Biobío Region and Torres del Paine National Park . As of 6 January 2012 seven firefighters had died in the Araucanía fires .", "qid": "418", "docid": "2012_Araucanía_wildfires", "rank": 99, "score": 73214 }, { "content": "Title: Mehmet Coral Content: Mehmet Gündüz Coral ( born 11 September 1947 ) is a Turkish novelist , known for his novels with historical settings . His works , such as Extinct Times of Byzantium ( author house/USA 2000 ) and The Lost Diaries of Constantinople ( DK Publishing 2008 ) , are also translated to foreign languages .", "qid": "418", "docid": "Mehmet_Coral", "rank": 100, "score": 73137 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Global warming in Tuvalu Content: Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 m above sea level , with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 m above sea level . Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise . Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut , pulaka , and taro .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 1, "score": 155911 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of climate change on island nations Content: Climate change is producing drastic changes to Earth processes and changing Earth 's environmental status quo . Especially pertinent to human development is the threat of climate change on island nations . As sea levels continue to rise , island peoples and cultures are being threatened . As the former President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , Christopher Loeak , noted `` In the last year alone , my country has suffered through unprecedented droughts in the north , and the biggest ever king tides in the south ; and we have watched the most devastating typhoons in history leave a trail of death and destruction across the region . '' Efforts to combat theses environmental changes are ongoing and multinational . Particularly notable is the adoption of the Paris agreement at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 , which by no means an unqualified success , is certainly a step in the right direction in regards to fighting the effects of climate by aiming to slow the pace of global warming .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Effects_of_climate_change_on_island_nations", "rank": 2, "score": 154940 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "419", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 3, "score": 152346 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "419", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 4, "score": 137640 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "419", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 5, "score": 131612 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 6, "score": 127395 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 7, "score": 126193 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 8, "score": 123640 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 9, "score": 123403 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 10, "score": 122998 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 11, "score": 122369 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Tuvalu Content: Global warming (recent climate change) is particularly threatening in Tuvalu. This is because the average height of the islands is less than 2 metres (6.6 ft) above sea level, with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 metres (15 ft) above sea level. Between 1971 and 2014, during a period of global warming, Tuvalu islands have increased in size, according to aerial photography and satellite imagery. Over four decades, there was a net increase in land area in Tuvalu of 73.5 ha (2.9%), although the changes were not uniform, with 74% of land increasing in size and 27% of land decreasing in size. The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has risen at 3.9 mm per year, which is approximately twice the global average.Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to be significantly impacted by rising sea levels. Not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut, pulaka, and taro. Research from the University of Auckland suggests that Tuvalu may remain habitable over the next century. However, as of March 2018, Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga stated that Tuvalu is not expanding and has gained no additional habitable land. Sopoaga has also said that evacuating the islands is the last resort.", "qid": "419", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Tuvalu", "rank": 12, "score": 121765 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 13, "score": 121672 }, { "content": "Title: James O'Brien (oceanographer) Content: James O'Brien ( born August 10 , 1935 , died September 20 , 2016 ) is the emeritus Robert O. Lawton Professor of Meteorology and Oceanography at Florida State University . He believes sea levels are rising but predicts a more modest 18 in rise instead of 6 ft by 2100 targeted by some other scientists . He stated that `` sea level in Florida is going to continue to rise period . Unless we go back into an Ice age , we will continue to rise at over 8 in in 10 year . That 's without any global warming . ''", "qid": "419", "docid": "James_O'Brien_(oceanographer)", "rank": 14, "score": 120646 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "419", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 15, "score": 120344 }, { "content": "Title: David Parker (climatologist) Content: David Parker is head of climate monitoring at the Hadley Centre , Exeter , England . He has published extensively on the land and marine temperature record and its consistency . In 2002 , he was an organiser of a `` Workshop on Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data '' . In 2004 , he has published a paper in Nature , showing that the urban heat island effect has not affected the historical temperature record . In this article , Parker shares his observations of the minimum temperature over 24 hours worldwide since 1950 that were expressed as anomalies . Also it includes his reasoning to why urbanization has not systematically exaggerated the observed global warming trends in minimum temperature . He further goes on to mention how the criterion for `` calm '' was changed while the global trend for minimum temperature remained unchanged . From his analysis he finds that windy and calm nights warmed at the same rate . Both the windy and calm increased at a rate of ( 0.16 + 0.03 C ) . He compares his small sample of 26 stations in North America and Siberia with global trends from 1950 to 1953 , covering over 5,000 stations . Estimates of recent global warming , supported by Parker 's analysis shows that urban warming has not introduced significant biases . `` The reality and magnitude of global-scale warming is supported by the near-equality of temperature trends on windy nights with trends based on all data . '' ( Parker ) This paper has been commented on by Roger Pielke , Sr. , et al. .", "qid": "419", "docid": "David_Parker_(climatologist)", "rank": 16, "score": 118859 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the Arctic Content: The effects of global warming in the Arctic , or climate change in the Arctic include rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , and melting of the Greenland ice sheet with a related cold temperature anomaly , observed in recent years . Potential methane release from the region , especially through the thawing of permafrost and methane clathrates , is also a concern . The Arctic warms twice as fast compared to the rest of the world . The pronounced warming signal , the amplified response of the Arctic to global warming , it is often seen as a leading indicator of global warming . The melting of Greenland 's ice sheet is linked to polar amplification . According to a study published in 2016 , about 0.5 ◦ C of the warming in the Arctic has been attributed to reductions in sulfate aerosols in Europe since 1980 .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_Arctic", "rank": 17, "score": 117106 }, { "content": "Title: Fisheries and climate change Content: Rising ocean temperatures and ocean acidification are radically altering aquatic ecosystems . Climate change is modifying fish distribution and the productivity of marine and freshwater species . This has impacts on the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture , on the livelihoods of the communities that depend on fisheries , and on the ability of the oceans to capture and store carbon ( biological pump ) . The effect of sea level rise means that coastal fishing communities are in the front line of climate change , while changing rainfall patterns and water use impact on inland ( freshwater ) fisheries and aquaculture .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Fisheries_and_climate_change", "rank": 18, "score": 116016 }, { "content": "Title: John Lawrence Daly Content: John L. Daly ( 31 March 1943 -- 29 January 2004 ) was an Australian teacher and self-declared `` Greenhouse skeptic . '' He was known for speaking out publicly against what he called the `` Global Warming scare , '' and authored the book The greenhouse trap : Why the greenhouse effect will not end life on earth , published in 1989 by Bantam Books . Since his death his website , Still Waiting for Greenhouse is maintained by Jerry Brennan , though updates slowed considerably after Daly 's death and stopped completely in 2008 . Daly investigated various studies by scientists which appear to support global warming scenarios and raised objections to them . For example , he denied that the average sea level is rising , on the basis the ` Isle of the Dead ' mean ocean level benchmark .", "qid": "419", "docid": "John_Lawrence_Daly", "rank": 19, "score": 115078 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment Content: The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment ( ACIA ) is a study describing the ongoing climate change in the Arctic and its consequences : rising temperatures , loss of sea ice , unprecedented melting of the Greenland ice sheet , and many impacts on ecosystems , animals , and people . The ACIA is the first comprehensively researched , fully referenced , and independently reviewed evaluation of Arctic climate change and its impacts for the region and for the world . The project was guided by the intergovernmental Arctic Council and the non-governmental International Arctic Science Committee . Three hundred scientists participated in the study over a span of three years . The 140-page synthesis report Impacts of a Warming Arctic was released in November 2004 , and the scientific report later in 2005 . The ACIA Secretariat is located at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Arctic_Climate_Impact_Assessment", "rank": 20, "score": 113992 }, { "content": "Title: Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment Content: The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems . Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind . The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Sea_Ice_Physics_and_Ecosystem_eXperiment", "rank": 21, "score": 113672 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on oceans Content: Global warming can affect sea levels , coastlines , ocean acidification , ocean currents , seawater , sea surface temperatures , tides , the sea floor , weather , and trigger several changes in ocean bio-geochemistry ; all of these affect the functioning of a society .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_oceans", "rank": 22, "score": 113485 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean heat content Content: Oceanic heat content ( OHC ) is the heat stored in the ocean . Oceanography and climatology are the science branches which study ocean heat content . Changes in the ocean heat content play an important role in the sea level rise , because of thermal expansion . It is with high confidence that ocean warming accounts for 90 % of the energy accumulation from global warming between 1971 and 2010 .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Ocean_heat_content", "rank": 23, "score": 112862 }, { "content": "Title: Josh Willis Content: Joshua `` Josh '' K. Willis is an oceanographer at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory . His area of expertise is current sea level rise , as well as measuring ocean temperatures . When sea level fell from 2010 to 2011 , Willis stated that this was due to an unusually large La Niña transferring more rainfall over land rather than over the ocean as usually happens . In addition , Willis is the project scientist for Jason-3 .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Josh_Willis", "rank": 24, "score": 112728 }, { "content": "Title: Alliance of Small Island States Content: Alliance of Small Island States ( AOSIS ) is an intergovernmental organization of low lying coastal and small island countries . Established in 1990 , the main purpose of the alliance is to consolidate the voices of Small Island Developing States ( SIDS ) to address global warming . AOSIS has been very active from its inception , putting forward the first draft text in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations as early as 1994 . At the 2013 Warsaw climate change conference , AOSIS also pushed for the establishment of an international mechanism on loss and damages stressed by the wreckage of Supertyphoon Haiyan . As the existence of many AOSIS states are put at risk by climate change AOSIS has threatened lawsuits . The results of a recent review of the literature show that potential liability for climate change-related losses for the Alliance of Small Island States is over $ 570 trillion . Many of the member states were present at the December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP15 ) . Democracy Now ! reported that members from the island state of Tuvalu interrupted a session of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference on 10 December 2009 to demand that global temperature rise be limited to 1.5 ° C instead of the proposed 2 ° C. AOSIS has a membership of 44 states , of which 39 are members of the United Nations and 5 observers from all around the world . The alliance represents 28 % of the developing countries , and 20 % of the UN 's total membership .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Alliance_of_Small_Island_States", "rank": 25, "score": 112386 }, { "content": "Title: David Vaughan (glaciologist) Content: David Glyn Vaughan OBE is a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey . His research focus is the role of ice sheets in the Earth system and the societal threat of climate change and rising sea levels . He is a co-ordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . His research work includes the mapping of the bed under Pine Island Glacier and the discovery of a subglacial volcano . Vaughan was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to glaciology .", "qid": "419", "docid": "David_Vaughan_(glaciologist)", "rank": 26, "score": 111097 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on Sri Lanka Content: Sri Lanka is an equatorial island of 65,610 km2 which hosts many diverse endemic species , and is considered to be a biodiversity hotspot . It has 400 bird species , 26 are endemic , and 105 amphibian species , 85 % are endemic . Sri Lanka also has a declining marine ecosystem , with ongoing threats to the coastal coral reef environments . If climate change proceeds unchecked , Sri Lanka will undergo widespread effects , such as climate variability and sea-level rise , which will directly affect the overall abundance and security of endemic species . Local and global policy changes are crucial in reducing CO2 emissions so islands located near the equator will not be as drastically affected .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_Sri_Lanka", "rank": 27, "score": 109515 }, { "content": "Title: Heard Island glaciers Content: The Heard Island glaciers covered 79 percent of Heard Island itself , in 1947 , covering 288 km2 ; by 1988 , this had decreased by 11 percent to 257 km2 . The glaciers fall under the Antarctic Environmental Gradient , which spans 30 degrees of latitude and includes a range of macro-climatic zones from cool temperate islands to the frigid and arid Antarctic continent . Glaciers extend from 2745 m to sea level , with ice up to 150 m deep.The geologic movement of the glaciers can appear fast-flowing due to the steep slope and high precipitation , and are particularly sensitive to climatic fluctuations . Measurements between 1947 and 1980 show glacial retreat , particularly on the eastern flanks , is correlated with changes in weather patterns . A 29 % reduction in area of the Brown Glacier from 1947-2003 was observed . The volcano Big Ben , from which all the glaciers drain , has shown no sign of changing geothermal output to cause the melting ; a 1 degree Celsius warming has occurred over the same time period . Glaciologists continue to study the Brown Glacier , detailing surveys of the glacier 's snout and surface , which determine if glacial retreat is rapid or punctuated . Measurements on the mass balance of the glacier , as well as more detailed ice thickness measurements using a portable radar echo sounder , were undertaken . Monitoring of climatic conditions continues , with emphasis on the impact of Foehn winds on glacier mass balance . An expedition by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division recently visited the volcanic island in 2009 , observing glaciers that had retreated 50 metres in three years . Repairs were made to an automatic weather station established in November 2000 . Glaciologist Dr. Ian Allison cites that the latest aerial surveys that show continuous rapid melt and that satellite imagery shows the island double in size due to volcanic activity .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Heard_Island_glaciers", "rank": 28, "score": 108375 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 29, "score": 107471 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 30, "score": 105787 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Thejll Content: Peter Andreas Thejll ( born 1956 ) is a Danish astrophysicist and climate researcher . His research in solar variation helped provide evidence of the greenhouse effect on the Earth 's climate in the late 20th century . In particular , his study with Knud Lassen on Northern Hemisphere land air temperature showed that the rise of 0.4 degrees Celsius since 1980 could not be accounted for by the solar cycle . Climatologists have pointed to this finding as an `` actual piece of evidence for greenhouse warming '' . Thejll received his undergraduate education at the University of Copenhagen . He received an M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Delaware . Thejll was a Carlsberg Fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and worked at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics . Thejll currently is a senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen . He is currently involved in the creation of a global automatic system to observe the Earth 's reflectivity - albedo - using observations of the earthshine on the Moon . Such data can be used for climate change studies and calibration of satellite data as the measurements deliver independent data on the albedo . A telescope is now installed on Hawaii at the Mauna Loa Observatory . The Swedish research agency VINNOVA is funding this project .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Peter_Thejll", "rank": 31, "score": 104526 }, { "content": "Title: The Coming Global Superstorm Content: The Coming Global Superstorm ( ISBN 0-671-04190-8 ) is a 1999 book by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber , which warns that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects . First , the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift would generate a cordon of warm water around the North Pole , which in turn , holds in a frozen mass of Arctic air . Second , if the North Atlantic drift were to shut down , that barrier would fail , releasing a flood of frozen air into the Northern Hemisphere , causing a sudden and drastic temperature shift . The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the Gulf Stream : the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world 's oceans . Bell and Strieber explain the possibility that such current destabilizations have occurred before , as well as seemingly impossible engineering feats by the ancients . Among their examples is the island city of Nan Madol . The book claims that its construction , with exacting tolerances and extremely heavy basalt materials , necessitates a high degree of technical competency . Since no such society exists in the modern record or even , in legend , the society must have been destroyed by dramatic means . While other explanations beside a global meteorological event are possible , a correlating evidence set is presented in the woolly mammoth . Strieber and Bell assert that since mammoths have been found preserved with food still in their mouths and undigested in their stomachs , these animals must have been killed quickly , in otherwise normal conditions . They were preserved so well by quick freezing , which is taken as evidence of a rapid onset of a global blizzard or similar event . Interspersed with the analytical parts of the book are a series of interlinked short fictional scenarios , written in italics , describing what might transpire today if a destabilization of the North Atlantic Current were to occur . The fictional accounts of `` current events '' as the meteorological situation deteriorates provided background and inspiration for the 2004 science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow . Indeed , some events from the book are portrayed in the film with little modification .", "qid": "419", "docid": "The_Coming_Global_Superstorm", "rank": 32, "score": 104436 }, { "content": "Title: John H. Mercer Content: John H. Mercer ( Cheltenham , England , 19 October 1922 -- Columbus , Ohio 3 July 1987 ) was a glaciologist , chiefly known for his theoretical work on , and field studies of Antarctic ice streams , especially in the Transantarctic Mountains and in West Antarctica . Following John T. Hollin 's work ( 1962 ) suggesting that climatic warming and rising sea-level cause Antarctic ice shelves to retreat , Mercer postulated that the West Antarctic ice sheet , being grounded well below sea-level and terminating in floating ice shelves , was vulnerable to these changes and may have collapsed altogether during the last interglacial when Antarctica may have been warmer and sea-level may have been higher . In 1978 , in the science magazine Nature , Mercer pointed out that `` green-house '' warming from burning fossil fuel could have the same effect during the present interglacial . Two studies published 12 May 2014 confirm Mercer 's assumption . Climate scientist James Hansen has coined the term , `` John Mercer effect . '' After Mercer published his paper suggesting that the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse in response to warming , he struggled to get funding . Others , including Hansen , had similar problems . Many climate scientists censor their own work to avoid losing funding , especially regarding prospects for limiting warming to 2 ° C above pre-industrial temperatures . John H. Mercer was the third child of Harriet and John W. Mercer . He was educated at private schools in Cheltenham and , later , at Gordonstoun in Scotland . During World War II he served in the British Merchant Marines ( 1940 -- 46 ) as a radio man . After the war he went to University of Cambridge and studied geography . At that time he came under the influence of William Vaughan Lewis . After finishing his B.A. in 1949 Mercer went to Canada , where he received his PhD in geography from McGill University in 1954 . He was a Research Scholar from 1954 to 1956 at the Australian National University in Canberra , where he studied land use and population in western Samoa . He returned to Canada and worked in the Canadian Hydro-graphic Office in Ottawa as a geographer in 1957 and 1958 . During 1959 -- 60 , 1961 -- 62 , 1964 , and 1966 , the American Geographical Society employed him at its World Data Center A for Glaciology in New York . The turning point in his career as a glaciologist was in 1960 , when he became a Research Associate at The Ohio State University , in the Institute of Polar Studies ( renamed the Byrd Polar Research Center ) . He remained at The Ohio State University until his death , becoming its first Senior Research Scientist .", "qid": "419", "docid": "John_H._Mercer", "rank": 33, "score": 104385 }, { "content": "Title: Iris hypothesis Content: The iris hypothesis is a hypothesis proposed by Richard Lindzen et al. in 2001 that suggested increased sea surface temperature in the tropics would result in reduced cirrus clouds and thus more infrared radiation leakage from Earth 's atmosphere . His study of observed changes in cloud coverage and modeled effects on infrared radiation released to space as a result supported the hypothesis . This suggested infrared radiation leakage was hypothesized to be a negative feedback in which an initial warming would result in an overall cooling of the surface . The consensus view is that increased sea surface temperature would result in increased cirrus clouds and reduced infrared radiation leakage and therefore a positive feedback . Other scientists subsequently tested the hypothesis . Some concluded that there was no evidence supporting the hypothesis . Others found evidence suggesting that increased sea surface temperature in the tropics did indeed reduce cirrus clouds but found that the effect was nonetheless a positive feedback rather than the negative feedback that Lindzen had hypothesized . A later 2007 study conducted by Roy Spencer et al. using updated satellite data potentially supported the iris hypothesis . In 2011 , Lindzen published a rebuttal to the main criticisms . In 2015 a paper was published which again suggested the possibility of an `` Iris Effect '' . It also proposed what it called a `` plausible physical mechanism for an iris effect . ''", "qid": "419", "docid": "Iris_hypothesis", "rank": 34, "score": 103556 }, { "content": "Title: Uunartoq Qeqertaq Content: Uunartoq Qeqertaq , Greenlandic for `` The Warming Island '' , is an island off the east central coast of Greenland , 550 km north of the Arctic Circle . It became recognised as an island only in September 2005 , by US explorer Dennis Schmitt . It was attached to the mainland of Liverpool Land by glacial ice even in 2002 , when the ice shelves began retreating rapidly in this area , so that by 2005 it was no longer attached to the mainland . Members of the scientific community believe this newly discovered island is a direct result of global warming . The island has three large peninsulas , and thus resembles the letter W , or the Chinese character 山 .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Uunartoq_Qeqertaq", "rank": 35, "score": 102050 }, { "content": "Title: Islands First Content: Islands First is a recently founded non-governmental organization working on behalf of the Small Island Developing States to confront the challenges of climate change , the depletion of ocean resources ( including ocean acidification and biodiversity loss ) , and ocean level 's rise .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Islands_First", "rank": 36, "score": 101524 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Antarctica Content: The effects of global warming in Antarctica may include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Antarctica", "rank": 37, "score": 100600 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica cooling controversy Content: An apparent contradiction in the observed cooling behavior of Antarctica between 1966 and 2000 became part of the public debate in the global warming controversy , particularly between advocacy groups of both sides in the public arena including politicians , as well as the popular media . In his novel State of Fear , Michael Crichton asserted that the Antarctic data contradict global warming . The few scientists who have commented on the supposed controversy state that there is no contradiction , while the author of the paper whose work inspired Crichton 's remarks has said that Crichton `` misused '' his results . There is no similar controversy within the scientific community , as the small observed changes in Antarctica are consistent with the small changes predicted by climate models , and because the overall trend since comprehensive observations began is now known to be one of warming . At the South Pole , where some of the strongest cooling trends were observed between the 1950s and 1990s , the mean trend is flat from 1957 through 2013 .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Antarctica_cooling_controversy", "rank": 38, "score": 100561 }, { "content": "Title: Clathrate gun hypothesis Content: The clathrate gun hypothesis is the popular name given to the hypothesis that increases in sea temperatures ( and/or drops in sea levels ) can trigger the sudden release of methane from methane clathrate compounds buried in seabeds and that are contained within seabed permafrost which , because methane itself is a powerful greenhouse gas , leads to further temperature rise and further methane clathrate destabilization -- in effect initiating a runaway process as irreversible , once started , as the firing of a gun . In its original form , the hypothesis proposed that the `` clathrate gun '' could cause abrupt runaway warming on a timescale less than a human lifetime . It was thought to be responsible for warming events in and at the end of the last glacial maximum , however this is now thought to be unlikely . However , there is stronger evidence that runaway methane clathrate breakdown may have caused drastic alteration of the ocean environment ( such as ocean acidification and ocean stratification ) and of the atmosphere of earth on a number of occasions in the past , over timescales of tens of thousands of years . These events include the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum 56 million years ago , and most notably the Permian -- Triassic extinction event , when up to 96 % of all marine species became extinct , 252 million years ago .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Clathrate_gun_hypothesis", "rank": 39, "score": 100091 }, { "content": "Title: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Content: Six Degrees : Our Future on a Hotter Planet ( 358 pages ) , ISBN 978-0-00-720905-7 is a 2007 ( 2008 in USA ) non-fiction book by author Mark Lynas about global warming . The book looks and attempts to summarize results from scientific papers on climate change .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Six_Degrees:_Our_Future_on_a_Hotter_Planet", "rank": 40, "score": 99828 }, { "content": "Title: Canadian Arctic Archipelago Content: The Canadian Arctic Archipelago , also known as the Arctic Archipelago , is a group of islands north of the Canadian mainland . Situated in the northern extremity of North America and covering about 1424500 km2 , this group of 36,563 islands in the Arctic Sea comprises much of the territory of Northern Canada -- most of Nunavut and part of the Northwest Territories . The Canadian Arctic Archipelago is showing some effects of global warming , with some computer estimates determining that melting there will contribute 3.5 cm to the rise in sea levels by 2100 .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Canadian_Arctic_Archipelago", "rank": 41, "score": 99629 }, { "content": "Title: Hypercane Content: A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could form if ocean temperatures reached 50 C , which is 15 C-change warmer than the warmest ocean temperature ever recorded . Such an increase could be caused by a large asteroid or comet impact , a large supervolcanic eruption , or extensive global warming . There is some speculation that a series of hypercanes resulting from an impact by a large asteroid or comet contributed to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs . The hypothesis was created by Kerry Emanuel of MIT who also coined the term .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Hypercane", "rank": 42, "score": 99506 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 43, "score": 98741 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in New York City Content: Climate change in New York City could affect buildings/structures , wetlands , water supply , health , and energy demand , due to the high population and extensive infrastructure in the region . New York is especially at risk if the sea level rises , due to many of the bridges connecting to boroughs , and entrances to roads and rail tunnels . High-traffic locations such as the airports , the Holland Tunnel , the Lincoln Tunnel , and the New York Passenger Ship Terminal are located in areas vulnerable to flooding . Flooding would be expensive to reverse . Rising temperatures could bring a higher risk of heat related deaths from heat waves and increased concentrations of ground-level ozone ( potentially causing asthma and other health concerns ) .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Climate_change_in_New_York_City", "rank": 44, "score": 98187 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "419", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 45, "score": 97784 }, { "content": "Title: I'm not a scientist Content: `` I 'm not a scientist '' is a phrase that has been often used by American politicians , primarily Republicans , when asked about a scientific subject , such as global warming , or the age of the earth . Politicians who have used the phrase include John Boehner , Rick Scott , Marco Rubio , Bobby Jindal , and Mitch McConnell . It has been criticized by Coral Davenport writing for The New York Times , and by Steven Benen of the Rachel Maddow Show , and was satirized by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report . President Barack Obama singled the phrase out in his 2015 State of the Union speech , saying : I 've heard some folks try to dodge the evidence -LSB- of global climate change -RSB- by saying they 're not scientists ; that we do n't have enough information to act . Well , I 'm not a scientist , either . But you know what , I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA , and at NOAA , and at our major universities . And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate , and if we do n't act forcefully , we 'll continue to see rising oceans , longer , hotter heat waves , dangerous droughts and floods , and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe . Ford O'Connell , a Republican strategist and conservative activist , has argued that the phrase `` wo n't be a winner in the presidential field '' for Republican candidates . Commenting on the phenomenon , Journalist Dan Rather deplored the antiscience attitude it evinces , but stated that the anti-science attitude was evident not just among Republicans , but throughout American society . He blamed the media for their poor coverage of science , and for presenting a false equivalency between scientific consensus and climate change denial .", "qid": "419", "docid": "I'm_not_a_scientist", "rank": 46, "score": 97746 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 47, "score": 97635 }, { "content": "Title: Island effect Content: Island effect may refer to : Urban heat island , also known as the Heat island effect , in which metropolitan areas are warmer than the surrounding environment Nut Island effect , a management principle when teams become isolated and decrease efficiency Foster 's rule , also known as the Island rule or the Island effect , where island populations of animals change in size", "qid": "419", "docid": "Island_effect", "rank": 48, "score": 97449 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Doran Content: Peter Doran , Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University . Doran specializes in polar regions , especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems . Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal Nature in January 2002 . Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000 , his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the global warming theory , such as Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton . In an opinion piece in the July 27 , 2006 New York Times , Doran characterized this as a `` misinterpretation '' and stated , `` I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming . '' ( The temporary phenomenon is related to the `` hole '' in the ozone . As the `` hole heals '' the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly . ) Doran and his grad student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also published a paper in the Jan 27 , 2009 issue of EOS showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth 's climate . Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Peter_Doran", "rank": 49, "score": 97226 }, { "content": "Title: Urban thermal plume Content: An urban thermal plume describes rising air in the lower altitudes of the Earth 's atmosphere caused by urban areas being warmer than surrounding areas . Over the past thirty years there has been increasing interest in what have been called urban heat island ( UHI ) , but it is only since 2007 that thought has been given to the rising columns of warm air , or ` thermal plumes ' that they produce . We are all familiar with on-shore breezes at the seaside on a warm day , and off-shore breezes at night . These are caused by the land heating up faster on a sunny day and cooling faster after sunset , respectively . Our personal experience of on-shore breezes shows us that the thermals , or warm airs , that rise from the land and sea respectively have a sensible effect on the local microscale meteorology ; and perhaps at times on the mesometeorology . Urban thermal plumes have as powerful although less localized an effect . London is generally 3 to 9 Celsius hotter than the Home Counties . London 's meteorological aberrations were first studied by Luke Howard , FRS in the 1810s , but the notion that this large warm area would produce a significant urban thermal plume was not seriously proposed until very recently . Microscale thermal plumes , whose diameters may be measured in tens of metres , such as those produced by industrial chimney stacks , have been extensively investigated , but largely from the point of view of the plumes dispersal by local micrometeorology . Though their velocity is generally less , their very much greater magnitude ( diameter ) means that urban thermal plumes will have a more significant effect upon the mesometeorology and even continental macrometeorology .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Urban_thermal_plume", "rank": 50, "score": 97112 }, { "content": "Title: Deglaciation Content: Deglaciation describes the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages , to warm interglacials , characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume ( IPCC AR5 ) . Thus , it refers to the retreat of a glacier , an ice sheet or frozen surface layer , and the resulting exposure of the Earth 's surface . The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier . After the Last Glacial Maximum ( ca. 21k years ago ) , the last deglaciation begun , which lasted until the early Holocene . The previous deglaciation took place between approximately 22ka until 11.5 ka . This occurred when there was an annual mean atmospheric temperature on the earth that increased by roughly 5 ° C , which was also accompanied by regional high-latitude warming that exceeded 10 ° C . This was also followed by noteworthy deep-sea and tropical-se warming , between about 1-2 ° C ( deep-sea ) and 2-4 ° C ( tropical sea ) . Not only did this warming occur , but the global hydrological budget also experienced noticeable changes and regional precipitation patters changed . As a result of all of this , the worlds main ice sheets , including the ones located in Eurasia , North America and parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheets melted . As a consequence , sea levels rose roughly 120 metres ) . These processes did not occur steadily , and they also did not occur at the same time .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Deglaciation", "rank": 51, "score": 96807 }, { "content": "Title: Sea surface temperature Content: Sea surface temperature ( SST ) is the water temperature close to the ocean 's surface . The exact meaning of surface varies according to the measurement method used , but it is between 1 mm and 20 m below the sea surface . Air masses in the Earth 's atmosphere are highly modified by sea surface temperatures within a short distance of the shore . Localized areas of heavy snow can form in bands downwind of warm water bodies within an otherwise cold air mass . Warm sea surface temperatures are known to be a cause of tropical cyclogenesis over the Earth 's oceans . Tropical cyclones can also cause a cool wake , due to turbulent mixing of the upper 30 m of the ocean . SST changes diurnally , like the air above it , but to a lesser degree . There is less SST variation on breezy days than on calm days . In addition , ocean currents such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ( AMO ) , can effect SST 's on multi-decadal time scales , a major impact results from the global thermohaline circulation , which affects average SST significantly throughout most of the world 's oceans . Coastal SSTs can cause offshore winds to generate upwelling , which can significantly cool or warm nearby landmasses , but shallower waters over a continental shelf are often warmer . Onshore winds can cause a considerable warm-up even in areas where upwelling is fairly constant , such as the northwest coast of South America . Its values are important within numerical weather prediction as the SST influences the atmosphere above , such as in the formation of sea breezes and sea fog . It is also used to calibrate measurements from weather satellites .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Sea_surface_temperature", "rank": 52, "score": 96798 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Argentina Content: According to scientists , global warming is predicted to have significant effects on the climate of Argentina . Though temperatures have increased at a slower rate than the global average , nonetheless these impacts have occurred in many areas . If these trends continue , it is predicted that climate change will exacerbate existing natural disasters such as increasing the intensity and frequency of floods or create new ones .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Argentina", "rank": 53, "score": 96232 }, { "content": "Title: Ghrsst-pp Content: The Group for High Resolution SST ( GHRSST ) is a follow on activity form the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment ( GODAE ) high-resolution sea surface temperature pilot project ( GHRSST-PP ) provides a new generation of global high-resolution ( < 10 km ) SST data products to the operational oceanographic , meteorological , climate and general scientific community , in real time and delayed mode . See GHRSST for full details . Sea surface temperature ( SST ) measured from Earth Observation Satellites in considerable spatial detail and at high frequency , is increasingly required for use in the context of operational monitoring and forecasting of the ocean , for assimilation into coupled ocean-atmosphere model systems and for applications in short-term numerical weather prediction and longer term climate change detection . Currently there are many different SST data sets available derived from satellite systems . But , scientists and operational agencies alike are presented with a bewidering set of options in terms of SST product content , coverage , spatial resolution , timeliness , format and accuracy . The international GODAE steering committee realised that SST data products were not adequate for GODAE forecast systems and initiated the GODAE High Resolution SST Pilot Project ( GHRSST-PP ) . User Requirements were collected together to define the optimal SST data products that could be developed to suit the widest possible number of applications . In 2008 the GHRSST-PP Science Team agreed to close the Pilot Project as the GODAE project was completed . A follow on activity called the Group for High Resolution SST is now continuing the coordination of GHRSST activities .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Ghrsst-pp", "rank": 54, "score": 95884 }, { "content": "Title: The Ny-Ålesund Symposium Content: The Ny-Ålesund Symposium is an annual high level international event where top researchers and politicians , senior business executives , representatives of NGOs and other decision makers meet to share experiences and to discuss climate change solutions . The topics are related to the challenges of climate change , other environmental issues , and issues directly connected to the Arctic and the Northern areas which could have major global consequences . Participation is limited to 45 people , by invitation only . The Symposium takes place on Svalbard at 79 degrees north . It is the world 's northernmost permanent settlement and is only 1200 km from the North Pole . The Norwegian Government has transformed this former mining community into a major base for scientific research and environmental monitoring in the Arctic . The base hosts scientists from more than 20 nations and plays an important role in international climate change research . It is owned and operated by the governmental company Kings Bay AS , a coal mining company in earlier days . The scenery is exceptional , with a backdrop of unspoiled Arctic nature . The purpose of the Symposium is to exchange knowledge , improve the understanding and seek solutions of the challenging impacts these issues have both on the Arctic regions and internationally . The Symposium is organized by Kings Bay AS in cooperation with the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research , the Ministry of the Environment -RSB- , the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , the Ministry of Trade and Industry , the Ministry of Justice and the Police , and the -LSB- Research Council of Norway -RSB- . Statkraft AS is a co-organizer and sponsor of the Symposium . The secretariat is by CICERO Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo . His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway is patron of the Symposium . The first Symposium was arranged in March 2006 . The main themes for the symposia have been : 2006 - The changing Arctic - new opportunities and challenges 2007 - The changing Arctic - global climate change - the need for action 2008 - Global climate change and research challenges 2009 - Climate change : Understanding global politics towards Copenhagen and beyond 2010 - The Changing Arctic and Its Global Implications 2011 - cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud 2012 - Towards a green economy : the role of technology 2013 - The Changing Arctic - Opportunity or Threat 2014 - Breaking the Climate Stalemate", "qid": "419", "docid": "The_Ny-Ålesund_Symposium", "rank": 55, "score": 95828 }, { "content": "Title: Past sea level Content: Global or eustatic sea level has fluctuated significantly over the Earth 's history . The main factors affecting sea level are the amount and volume of available water and the shape and volume of the ocean basins . The primary influences on water volume are the temperature of the seawater , which affects density , and the amounts of water retained in other reservoirs like rivers , aquifers , lakes , glaciers , polar ice caps and sea ice . Over geological timescales , changes in the shape of the oceanic basins and in land/sea distribution affect sea level . In addition to eustatic changes , local changes in sea level are caused by tectonic uplift and subsidence . Over geologic time sea level has fluctuated by hundreds of meters . Today 's interglacial level is near historic highs and is 130 meters above the low level reached during the Last Glacial Maximum 19,000 -- 20,000 years ago . Observational and modeling studies of mass loss from glaciers and ice caps indicate a contribution to sea-level rise of 0.2 to 0.4 mm/yr averaged over the 20th century . Over this last million years , whereas it was higher most of the time before then , sea level was lower than today .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Past_sea_level", "rank": 56, "score": 95787 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "419", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 57, "score": 95658 }, { "content": "Title: Science and technology in Pacific Island countries Content: Science and technology in Pacific Island countries describes trends in the South Pacific , a part of the world that is on the frontlines of climate change . This article describes projects and policy initiatives that have been put in place since 2010 at national and regional levels to ensure sustainable development and foster a ` green ' economy . Many of these initiatives involve a wide range of actors , from governments to international development agencies and banks , universities and private firms .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Science_and_technology_in_Pacific_Island_countries", "rank": 58, "score": 94904 }, { "content": "Title: GROVER Content: GROVER or Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research is an Earth-bound autonomous student-designed rover developed by the Goddard Space Flight Center . With this solar-powered rover , scientists hope to get cheaper data about the Greenland ice sheet that lies in a rapidly warming region . The test drive started in Summit Camp in Greenland on a three kilometer thick ice sheet , which is the highest spot on the largest island of the World . The science team is led by the glaciologist Lora Koenig from NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Md. . The test began on 3 May 2013 at temperatures as low as -30 ° C and is planned to continue till 8 June 2013 .", "qid": "419", "docid": "GROVER", "rank": 59, "score": 94848 }, { "content": "Title: ANDRILL Content: ANDRILL ( ANtarctic DRILLing Project ) is a scientific drilling project in Antarctica gathering information about past periods of global warming and cooling . The project involves scientists from Germany , Italy , New Zealand , and the United States . At two sites in 2006 and 2007 , ANDRILL team members drilled through ice , seawater , sediment and rock to a depth over more than 1,200 m and recovered a virtually continuous core record from the present to nearly 20 million years ago . The project is based at McMurdo Station in Antarctica . In studying the cores , ANDRILL scientists from various disciplines are gathering detailed information about past periods of global warming and cooling . A major goal of the project is to significantly improve the understanding of Antarctica 's impact on the world 's oceans currents and the atmosphere by reconstructing the behavior of Antarctic sea-ice , ice-shelves , glaciers and sea currents over tens of millions of years . Initial results imply rapid changes and dramatically different climates at various times on the southernmost continent.Quirin Scheirmeier , `` Sediment cores reveal Antarctica 's warmer past , '' Nature News , April 24 , 2008 . The $ 30 million project has achieved its operational goal of retrieving a continuous core record of the last 17 million years , filling crucial gaps left by previous drilling projects . Making use of knowledge gained through prior Antarctic drilling projects , ANDRILL employed novel techniques to reach record depths at its two drilling sites . Among the innovations deployed were a hot-water drilling system that allowed for easier ice-boring and a flexible drill pipe that could accommodate tidal oscillations and strong currents . On December 16 , 2006 , ANDRILL broke the previous record of 999.1 m set in 2000 by the Ocean Drilling Program 's drill ship , the Joides Resolution . The Antarctic-record 1285 m of core ANDRILL went on to recover represents geologic time to about 13 million years ago . In 2007 , drilling at the Southern McMurdo Sound , ANDRILL scientists recovered another 1138 meters ( 3733.6 ft ) of core . One goal in 2006 was to look at a period of around 3 to 5 million years ago in the Pliocene , which scientists know to be warmer . The team 's sedimentologists identified more than 60 cycles in which ice sheets or glaciers advanced and retreated across McMurdo Sound .", "qid": "419", "docid": "ANDRILL", "rank": 60, "score": 94780 }, { "content": "Title: Jonathan M. Gregory Content: Jonathan M. Gregory FRS is a climate modeller working on mechanisms of global and large-scale change in climate and sea level on multidecadal and longer timescales . He is currently a senior scientist in the Climate Division of NERC 's National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS-Climate ) , located in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading ; and a Research Fellow in climate change at the Met Office Hadley Centre . A 2004 study , led by Gregory and published in the journal Nature , predicted that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated as a consequence of global warming , resulting in a rise in global sea-levels by 7 meters over the next 1000 years or more . He was a co-ordinating Lead Author of the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report chapter 11 Changes in Sea Level , and a contributing author to the sea level chapter in the IPCC Second Assessment Report '' . Gregory was also a co-Lead Author of the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report chapter 5 Observations : Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level , and chapter 10 Global Climate Projections . IPCC was a co-recipient ( with Al Gore ) of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on climate change . In 2010 Jonathan Gregory was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to carry out research on sea level change . In 2017 Jonathan Gregory was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Jonathan_M._Gregory", "rank": 61, "score": 94746 }, { "content": "Title: Nils-Axel Mörner Content: Nils-Axel Mörner ( born 1938 ) , is the former head of the paleogeophysics and geodynamics department at Stockholm University . He retired in 2005 . He was president of the International Union for Quaternary Research ( INQUA ) Commission on Neotectonics ( 1981 -- 1989 ) . He headed the INTAS ( International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union ) Project on Geomagnetism and Climate ( 1997 -- 2003 ) . He is a critic of the IPCC and the notion that the global sea level is rising . He was formerly the Chairman of INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution , and led the Maldives Sea Level Project .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Nils-Axel_Mörner", "rank": 62, "score": 94502 }, { "content": "Title: United Nations Ocean Conference Content: The 2017 United Nations Ocean Conference was a United Nations conference that took place on June 5th-9th 2017 which sought to mobilize action for the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources.The Earth's waters are said to be \"under threat as never before\", with pollution, overfishing, and the effects of climate change severely damaging the health of our oceans. For instance as oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, biodiversity is becoming reduced and changing currents will cause more frequent storms and droughts. Every year around 8 million metric tons of plastic waste leak into the ocean and make it into the circular ocean currents. This causes contamination of sediments at the sea-bottom and causes plastic waste to be embedded in the aquatic food chain. It could lead to oceans containing more plastics than fish by 2050 if nothing is done. Key habitats such as coral reefs are at risk and noise pollution are a threat to whales, dolphins, and other species. Furthermore almost 90 percent of fish stocks are overfished or fully exploited which cost more than $80 billion a year in lost revenues.UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that decisive, coordinated global action can solve the problems created by Humanity. Peter Thomson, President of the UN General Assembly, highlighted the conference's significance, saying \"if we want a secure future for our species on this planet, we have to act now on the health of the ocean and on climate change\".The conference sought to find ways and urge for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14. Its theme is \"Our oceans, our future: partnering for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14\". It also asked governments, UN bodies, and civil society groups to make voluntary commitments for action to improve the health of the oceans with over 1,000 commitments − such as on managing protected areas − being made.", "qid": "419", "docid": "United_Nations_Ocean_Conference", "rank": 63, "score": 94441 }, { "content": "Title: Sergei Petrovskii Content: Sergei Petrovskii is a Russian-born British mathematician who researches the modeling of natural phenomena . He is a professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Leicester . In 2015 , he led a study that found that if the ocean temperature were to increase by about six degrees Celsius due to global warming , phytoplankton might stop producing oxygen . This would lead to shortages of oxygen in the atmosphere , which could be very harmful to humans . Petrovskii said , `` About two thirds of the planet 's total atmospheric oxygen is produced by ocean phytoplankton - and therefore cessation would result in the depletion of atmospheric oxygen on a global scale . This would likely result in the mass mortality of animals and humans . '' Petrovskii 's study appeared in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology . Another stream of his research is modelling of biological invasions where he discovered a new phenomenon called `` patchy invasion '' . Contrary to a commonly used paradigm of alien species spread by a travelling population front , in the patchy invasion the invasive species spreads into new areas by creating individual patches not preceded by a front propagation . Patchy invasion has been observed in several invasions of insects and birds and has been studied theoretically using a variety of growth-dispersal models .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Sergei_Petrovskii", "rank": 64, "score": 94361 }, { "content": "Title: Hell and High Water (book) Content: Hell and High Water : Global Warming -- the Solution and the Politics -- and What We Should Do is a book by author , scientist , and former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph J. Romm , published December 26 , 2006 . The author is `` one of the world 's leading experts on clean energy , advanced vehicles , energy security , and greenhouse gas mitigation . '' The book warns of dire consequences to the U.S. and the world if wide-scale environmental changes are not enacted by the U.S. government within the next decade . It reviews the evidence that the current initial global warming changes will lead to accelerated warming . According to Romm , the oceans , soils , Arctic permafrost , and rainforests may become sources of greenhouse gas emissions . The book claims that , without serious government action within the next ten years , sea levels will rise high enough to submerge numerous coastal communities and inland areas on both U.S. coasts and around the world by the year 2100 . In April 2008 , TIME magazine wrote that `` On -LSB- Romm 's -RSB- blog and in his most recent book , Hell and High Water , you can find some of the most cogent , memorable , and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming . '' Romm was interviewed on Fox News on January 31 , 2007 about the book and the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report climate report .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Hell_and_High_Water_(book)", "rank": 65, "score": 94111 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Grenada Content: The issue of climate change has received significant public and political attention in Grenada . As of 2013 , the mitigation of its effects has been high on the agenda of the Government of Grenada , which seeks to set an example through innovation and green technology . Given its small size , Grenada is not a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , but does use fossil fuel to generate 90 % of its electricity . The Government of Grenada has set a goal of generating 50 % of its energy from solar and wind power by 2030 , and is taking steps to abolish Grenlec , the state-run electric utility . Because tourism is a mainstay of the economy , there is also interest in exploring the use of seawater for air-conditioning . As of 2013 , Grenada had a US$ 6.9 million pilot project to adapt its irrigation system to climate change and conduct local and regional water planning , funded by the German International Climate Initiative ( IKI ) . Groundwater depletion , lower water tables , disruption of water supply by hurricanes ( such as Hurricane Ivan ) , saltwater intrusion , and rising sea levels pose challenges for providing a consistent water supply for agriculture and tourism . In 2013 , the newspaper The Washington Diplomat profiled Grenada 's ambassador to the United States , Angus Friday , who has served as a `` senior climate policy specialist at the World Bank . '' In his earlier posting as Grenadian Ambassador to the United Nations , `` he frequently advocated for small Caribbean and Pacific island nations threatened by rising ocean levels . ''", "qid": "419", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Grenada", "rank": 66, "score": 93850 }, { "content": "Title: Nymark Content: Nymark ( Norwegian : `` new ground '' ) was the name that artist Alex Hartley gave to a small island he discovered in the arctic archipelago of Svalbard , a Norwegian territory , in 2004 . It is officially named Nyskjæret by the Name Committee for Norwegian Polar Regions ( skjer = skerry ) . It is a small island in the Barents Sea , 500 miles off the coast of Norway . It emerged from the now melted portion of a retreating glacier and is around the size of a football field . As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad , Hartley toured a scaled version of Nyskjæret round the South West coast of England as nowhereisland . According to its website , it provided a platform to engage with issues raised by the project , exploring a sense of place through an epic , nomadic sculpture and how we can respond to the issue of global warming . The island was discovered during a Cape Farewell expedition of scientists and artists , collaborating on a cultural response to global warming and the retreating Arctic ice pack . A large wall exhibit made from framed rock samples , letters , maps , photographs , and other documentation materials forms part of Cape Farewell - Art and Climate Change , and appeared in the National Conservation Centre in Liverpool as part of the 2006 biennial .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Nymark", "rank": 67, "score": 93388 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "419", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 68, "score": 92987 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "419", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 69, "score": 92904 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 70, "score": 92839 }, { "content": "Title: World Ocean Conference Content: The World Ocean Conference is an international conference which includes diplomats and heads of state from a number of countries . It took place in May 2009 in Manado , Indonesia . Its topic is the threat to various nations from rising oceans due to global warming . The conference was scheduled to be held for five days . It included hundreds of officials and experts from 70 countries . It is seen as a prelude to talks in December 2009 regarding a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol .", "qid": "419", "docid": "World_Ocean_Conference", "rank": 71, "score": 92825 }, { "content": "Title: Urban heat island Content: An urban heat island ( UHI ) is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities . The temperature difference usually is larger at night than during the day , and is most apparent when winds are weak . UHI is most noticeable during the summer and winter . The main cause of the urban heat island effect is from the modification of land surfaces . Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor . As a population center grows , it tends to expand its area and increase its average temperature . The less-used term heat island refers to any area , populated or not , which is consistently hotter than the surrounding area . Monthly rainfall is greater downwind of cities , partially due to the UHI . Increases in heat within urban centers increases the length of growing seasons , and decreases the occurrence of weak tornadoes . The UHI decreases air quality by increasing the production of pollutants such as ozone , and decreases water quality as warmer waters flow into area streams and put stress on their ecosystems . Not all cities have a distinct urban heat island . Mitigation of the urban heat island effect can be accomplished through the use of green roofs and the use of lighter-colored surfaces in urban areas , which reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat . There are concerns raised about possible contribution from urban heat islands to global warming . Research on China and India indicates that urban heat island effect contributes to climate warming by about 30 % . On the other hand , one 1999 comparison between urban and rural areas proposed that the urban heat island effects have little influence on global mean temperature trends . Many studies reveal increases in the severity of the effect with the progress of climate change .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Urban_heat_island", "rank": 72, "score": 92699 }, { "content": "Title: James McCarthy (oceanographer) Content: James J. McCarthy is a Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard and was President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from Feb 2008-Feb 2009 . McCarthy is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography and former Master of Pforzheimer House . He is also Acting Curator of the Malacology Department in the Museum of Comparative Zoology . His studies address factors that regulate the processes of primary production and nutrient supply in upper ocean , approached using controlled laboratory studies and field investigations . Study sites range from near shore to the open ocean . Recent and current field research sites include the North Atlantic , equatorial Pacific , and Arabian Sea . He is on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment . Quote from Science News February 2009 interview : The Maldives and Kiribati highlight a hidden challenge for coping with climate change \\ global Warming . It 's not just about slowing the emissions of greenhouse gases . It 's also about figuring out what to do for localities threatened with the possibility of extinction from -LSB- rising ocean waters . `` They are like the canary in the coal mine in terms of the dramatic impact of climate change on a whole civilization of people '' `` They did n't cause the problem , but they will be among the first to feel it . '' The 2007 IPCC report took an extremely conservative approach to potential sea level rise , focusing on thermal expansion . It estimated that sea level increases could range from 0.2 to 0.6 meters by 2100 . Experts cautioned , however , that these numbers were highly uncertain and probably underestimated the potential change . The IPCC analysis did not take into account the unexpectedly rapid rate of melting and decay of polar ice sheets , particularly in Greenland , that has been observed recently , or the prospect of accelerated breakdown of polar sheets in the future . `` That 's not something that was anticipated '' .", "qid": "419", "docid": "James_McCarthy_(oceanographer)", "rank": 73, "score": 92685 }, { "content": "Title: Coral in non-tropical regions Content: The poleward migration of coral species refers to the phenomenon brought on by rising sea temperatures, wherein corals are colonising cooler climates in an attempt to circumvent coral bleaching, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. In the age of Anthropocene, the changing global climate has disrupted fundamental natural processes and brought about observable changes in the submarine sphere. Whilst coral reefs are bleaching in tropical areas like the Great Barrier Reef, even more striking, and perhaps more alarming; is the growth of tropical coral species in temperate regions, which has taken place over the past decade. Coral reefs are frequently compared to the \"canaries in the coal mine,\" who were used by miners as an indicator of air quality. In much the same way, \"coral reefs are sensitive to environmental changes that could damage other habitats in the future,\" meaning they will be the first to visually exhibit the true implications of global warming on the natural world.", "qid": "419", "docid": "Coral_in_non-tropical_regions", "rank": 74, "score": 92122 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "419", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 75, "score": 91975 }, { "content": "Title: Gretchen Hofmann Content: Gretchen Hofmann is professor of ecological physiology of marine organisms at the University of California , Santa Barbara . She holds a B.S. from the University of Wyoming , and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in Environmental , Population and Organismal Biology . She works on the ecological physiology of marine organisms , in particular kelp , invertebrates and perciform fishes . Hofman 's work on the effects of changing seawater acidity and temperature on marine life has drawn wide attention . Hofmann told The Times of India that as marine invertebrates deal with increasing acidity , the larvae have to `` re-tune '' their metabolism in order to still make a shell . `` But this is done at a cost . The physiological changes that are a response to the acidity make the animals less able to withstand warmer waters , and they are smaller , '' which causes `` catastrophic '' problems on up the food chain as larger organisms fail to get enough food to survive . In 2006 , Reuters followed her to Antarctica where she drilled through the ice to explore the impact of warming global temperatures on fish . She explained that '' `` If we learn how the most cold-adapted organisms -- the organisms that are most used to cold and no temperature change -- how they respond , we might learn something about the processes in temperate species , figuring out what pathways to look at that might be changing -- or might not be changing . ''", "qid": "419", "docid": "Gretchen_Hofmann", "rank": 76, "score": 91953 }, { "content": "Title: Field Notes from a Catastrophe Content: Field Notes from a Catastrophe : Man , Nature , and Climate Change is a 2006 non-fiction book by Elizabeth Kolbert . The book attempts to bring attention to the causes and effects of global climate change . Kolbert travels around the world where climate change is affecting the environment in significant ways . These locations include Alaska , Greenland , the Netherlands , and Iceland . The environmental effects that are apparent consist of rising sea levels , thawing permafrost , diminishing ice shelves , changes in migratory patterns , and increasingly devastating forest fires due to loss of precipitation . She also speaks with many leading scientists about their individual research and findings . Kolbert brings to attention the attempts of large corporations such as Exxon Mobil and General Motors to influence politicians and discredit scientists . She also writes about America 's reluctance in the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions . Leading this resistance , she explained , was the Bush administration , which was opposed to the Kyoto protocol since it was ratified in 2005 . Kolbert concludes the book by examining the events surrounding the events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and arguing that governments have the knowledge and technologies to prepare for such disasters but choose to ignore the signs until it is too late .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Field_Notes_from_a_Catastrophe", "rank": 77, "score": 91868 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 78, "score": 91773 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Europe Content: Climate change in Europe describes the climate change related issues in Europe . This includes the climate politics , contribution in the global warming and the influence of the global warming in Europe . According to international climate experts global temperature rise should not exceed 2 ° C to prevent the most dangerous consequences of the climate change . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . It is estimated that from the now living persons alive are 70 % in the year 2050 . Emission reduction means development and implementation of new energy technology solutions . Some people consider that the technology revolution has already started in Europe since the markets of the renewable technology have annually grown . European Union climate chief is Connie Hedegaard since 10 February 2010 .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Europe", "rank": 79, "score": 91305 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Content: The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Surface_Heat_Budget_of_the_Arctic_Ocean", "rank": 80, "score": 91277 }, { "content": "Title: Hovgaard Island (Greenland) Content: Hovgaard Island ( Hovgaard Ø ) is a large uninhabited island of the Greenland Sea , Greenland . The island was named after Andreas Hovgaard , a Polar explorer and officer of the Danish Navy who led an expedition to the Kara Sea on steamship Dijmphna in 1882-83 . Polar climate prevails in Hovgaard Island . The average annual temperature in the area is -17 ° C . The warmest month is July when the average temperature reaches -2 ° C and the coldest is February when the temperature sinks to -29 ° C.", "qid": "419", "docid": "Hovgaard_Island_(Greenland)", "rank": 81, "score": 90979 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level Content: Mean sea level ( MSL ) ( abbreviated simply sea level ) is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earth 's oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured . MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised geodetic reference pointthat is used , for example , as a chart datum in cartography and marine navigation , or , in aviation , as the standard sea level at which atmospheric pressure is measured in order to calibrate altitude and , consequently , aircraft flight levels . A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a mean low and mean high tide at a particular location . Sea levels can be affected by many factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales . The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change , and sea level rise has been widely quoted as evidence of ongoing global warming . The term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level ( AMSL ) .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Sea_level", "rank": 82, "score": 90844 }, { "content": "Title: Tim Naish Content: Tim Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist . He is the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre , Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand . He has written about the collapse of Antarctica 's Larsen B ice shelf . In 2002 , between January 31 and March 7 the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed and broke up . Tim Naish warned that the ice shelf of Weddell Sea is imperiled , and if the temperature rises by 3 ° C , the ice shelves of Antarctica will become thinner . `` These are dramatic changes '' -- said Tim Naish . In 2009 , Professor Naish was awarded a New Zealand Antarctic Medal ( NZAM ) for services to Antarctic climate science .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Tim_Naish", "rank": 83, "score": 90803 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic geoengineering Content: Temperatures in the Arctic region have tended to increase more rapidly than the global average . Projections of sea ice loss that are adjusted to take account of recent rapid Arctic shrinkage suggest that the Arctic will likely be free of summer sea ice sometime between 2059 and 2078 . Various climate engineering schemes have been suggested to reduce the chance of significant and irreversible effects such as Arctic methane release . Several climate engineering proposals have been made which are specific to the Arctic . They are usually hydrological in nature , and principally centre upon measures to prevent Arctic ice loss . In addition , other solar radiation management climate engineering techniques , such as stratospheric sulfate aerosols have been proposed . These would cool the Arctic by adjusting the albedo of the atmosphere .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Arctic_geoengineering", "rank": 84, "score": 90762 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 85, "score": 89889 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 86, "score": 89692 }, { "content": "Title: Seamount Content: A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water 's surface ( sea level ) , and thus is not an island . Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the seafloor to 1000 - in height . They are defined by oceanographers as independent features that rise to at least 1000 m above the seafloor , characteristically of conical form . The peaks are often found hundreds to thousands of meters below the surface , and are therefore considered to be within the deep sea . During their evolution over geologic time , the largest seamounts may reach the sea surface where wave action erodes the summit to form a flat surface . After they have subsided and sunk below the sea surface such flat-top seamounts are called `` guyots '' or `` tablemounts '' A total of 9,951 seamounts and 283 guyots , covering a total of 8,796,150 km2 have been mapped but only a few have been studied in detail by scientists . Seamounts and guyots are most abundant in the North Pacific Ocean , and follow a distinctive evolutionary pattern of eruption , build-up , subsidence and erosion . In recent years , several active seamounts have been observed , for example Loihi in the Hawaiian Islands . Because of their abundance , seamounts are one of the most common marine ecosystems in the world . Interactions between seamounts and underwater currents , as well as their elevated position in the water , attract plankton , corals , fish , and marine mammals alike . Their aggregational effect has been noted by the commercial fishing industry , and many seamounts support extensive fisheries . There are ongoing concerns on the negative impact of fishing on seamount ecosystems , and well-documented cases of stock decline , for example with the orange roughy ( Hoplostethus atlanticus ) . 95 % of ecological damage is done by bottom trawling , which scrapes whole ecosystems off seamounts . Because of their large numbers , many seamounts remain to be properly studied , and even mapped . Bathymetry and satellite altimetry are two technologies working to close the gap . There have been instances where naval vessels have collided with uncharted seamounts ; for example , Muirfield Seamount is named after the ship that struck it in 1973 . However , the greatest danger from seamounts are flank collapses ; as they get older , extrusions seeping in the seamounts put pressure on their sides , causing landslides that have the potential to generate massive tsunamis .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Seamount", "rank": 87, "score": 89513 }, { "content": "Title: Ken Caldeira Content: Kenneth Caldeira is an atmospheric scientist who works at the Carnegie Institution for Science 's Department of Global Ecology . He researches ocean acidification , climate effects of trees , intentional climate modification , and interactions in the global carbon cycle/climate system . He also acted as an inventor for Intellectual Ventures , a Seattle-based invention and patent company headed up by Nathan Myhrvold .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Ken_Caldeira", "rank": 88, "score": 89449 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 89, "score": 89232 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on marine mammals Content: The effect of global warming on marine mammals is a growing concern . Many of the effects of climate change are currently unknown due to its unpredictability , but many are becoming increasingly evident today . Some effects are very direct such as loss of habitat , temperature stress , and exposure to severe weather . Other effects are more indirect such as changes in host pathogen associations , changes in body condition because of predator -- prey interaction , changed in exposure to toxins , and increased human interactions . These are just a few examples of what marine mammals are dealing with as a result of rapid climate change . There are a number of marine mammals that have been affected by climate change including walruses , seals , penguins , and polar bears .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_marine_mammals", "rank": 90, "score": 89201 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on Australia Content: Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that global warming will negatively impact the continent 's environment , economy , and communities . Australia has been designated as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change , according to the Stern Review and others , due partially to the importance of its agricultural sector and the prominence of its coast . Australia is vulnerable to the effects of global warming projected for the next 50 to 100 years because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas , an already warm climate , high annual rainfall variability , and existing pressures on water supply . The continent 's high fire risk increases this susceptibility to change in temperature and climate . Additionally , Australia 's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas , and its important tourism industry depends on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and other fragile ecosystems . The impacts of climate change in Australia will be complex and to some degree uncertain , but increased foresight may enable the country to safeguard its future through planned mitigation and adaptation . Mitigation may reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impacts , but requires global solutions and cooperation , while adaptation can be performed at national and local levels .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_Australia", "rank": 91, "score": 88889 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 92, "score": 88679 }, { "content": "Title: Myron Ebell Content: Myron Ebell is Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute ( CEI ) , a libertarian advocacy group based in Washington , D.C. . He is also the chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition , a loose coalition formed in 1997 which presents itself as `` focused on dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic , scientific , and risk analysis '' . In these organizations , Ebell has been central in promoting climate change denial , distributing his views to the media and politicians . Ebell , who is not a scientist , has been described as a climate change skeptic , a climate contrarian and a climate change denier . In September 2016 , Ebell was appointed by then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead his transition team for the United States Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Myron_Ebell", "rank": 93, "score": 88346 }, { "content": "Title: Executive Order 13653 Content: Executive Order 13653 Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change was issued by President Barack Obama on November 1 , 2013 . EO 13653 is the Federal Government 's response to the rising issue of climate change . It was issued in order to prepare the Nation for the impending impacts on the environment brought by climate change and to implement risk management strategies to lessen the harm done by these impacts on the Nation . EO 13653 mandates that the Federal Government , as well stakeholders , must manage these risks with deliberate preparation , cooperation , and coordination in order to effectively improve climate preparedness and resilience . With preparedness and resilience come a safer economy , infrastructure , environment , and supply of natural resources - allowing the continuation of department and agency operations , services , and programs . Agencies are called on to promote open lines of sharing and communication throughout all levels of government , make both informed and strategic decisions , quickly adapt and adjust future plans when needed , and to effectively prepare for the future by planning . The order was rescinded by President Donald Trump on March 28 , 2017 . The previous Order attempted to plan for the following Environmental Impacts : High Temperatures Heavy Downpours Permafrost Thawing Ocean Acidification Sea Level Rise", "qid": "419", "docid": "Executive_Order_13653", "rank": 94, "score": 88181 }, { "content": "Title: Kerry Emanuel Content: Kerry Andrew Emanuel ( born April 21 , 1955 ) is an American professor of meteorology currently working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge . In particular he has specialized in atmospheric convection and the mechanisms acting to intensify hurricanes . He was named one of the Time 100 influential people of 2006 . In 2007 , he was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences . He hypothesized in 1994 about a superpowerful type of hurricane which could be formed if average sea surface temperature increased another 15C more than it 's ever been ( see `` hypercane '' ) . In a March 2008 paper published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society , he put forward the conclusion that global warming is likely to increase the intensity but decrease the frequency of hurricane and cyclone activity . Gabriel Vecchi , of NOAA said of Emanuel 's announcement , `` While his results do n't rule out the possibility that global warming has contributed to the recent increase in activity in the Atlantic , they suggest that other factors -- possibly in addition to global warming -- are likely to have been substantial contributors to the observed increase in activity . '' In 2013 , with other leading experts , he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers , which stated that `` continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity 's ability to avoid dangerous climate change . ''", "qid": "419", "docid": "Kerry_Emanuel", "rank": 95, "score": 88073 }, { "content": "Title: Global Sea Level Observing System Content: The Global Sea Level Observing System ( GLOSS ) is an Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission program whose purpose is to measure sea level globally for long-term climate change studies . The program 's purpose has changed since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the program now collects realtime measurements of sea level . The project is currently upgrading the over 290 stations it currently runs , so that they can send realtime data via satellite to newly set up national tsunami centres . They are also fitting the stations with solar panels so they can continue to operate even if the mains power supply is interrupted by severe weather . The Global Sea Level Observing System does not compete with Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis as most GLOSS transducers are located close to land masses while DART 's transducers are far out in the ocean .", "qid": "419", "docid": "Global_Sea_Level_Observing_System", "rank": 96, "score": 87756 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Research Programme Content: The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "qid": "419", "docid": "World_Climate_Research_Programme", "rank": 97, "score": 87704 }, { "content": "Title: Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists Content: The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "qid": "419", "docid": "Bali_Declaration_by_Climate_Scientists", "rank": 98, "score": 87584 }, { "content": "Title: El Niño–Southern Oscillation Content: El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) is an irregularly periodical variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean , affecting much of the tropics and subtropics . The warming phase is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña . Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component , coupled with the sea temperature change : El Niño is accompanied with high , and La Niña with low air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific . The two periods last several months each ( typically occur every few years ) and their effects vary in intensity . The two phases relate to the Walker circulation , discovered by Gilbert Walker during the early twentieth century . The Walker circulation is caused by the pressure gradient force that results from a high pressure system over the eastern Pacific Ocean , and a low pressure system over Indonesia . When the Walker circulation weakens or reverses , an El Niño results , causing the ocean surface to be warmer than average , as upwelling of cold water occurs less or not at all . An especially strong Walker circulation causes a La Niña , resulting in cooler ocean temperatures due to increased upwelling . Mechanisms that cause the oscillation remain under study . The extremes of this climate pattern 's oscillations cause extreme weather ( such as floods and droughts ) in many regions of the world . Developing countries dependent upon agriculture and fishing , particularly those bordering the Pacific Ocean , are the most affected .", "qid": "419", "docid": "El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation", "rank": 99, "score": 87580 }, { "content": "Title: Ian Clark (geologist) Content: Ian D. Clark is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa ( Canada ) , who has been publishing research on geoscience , groundwater and geochemistry since 1982 . His graduate work in isotope hydrogeology was at the University of Waterloo and the University of Paris . Clark is among the scientists who reject the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change ; in the 2007 UK television documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle , he states that changes in global temperature correlate with solar activity , saying `` Solar activity of the last hundred years , over the last several hundred years correlates very nicely on a decadal basis , with sea ice and Arctic temperatures . ''", "qid": "419", "docid": "Ian_Clark_(geologist)", "rank": 100, "score": 87487 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: World Coal Association Content: World Coal Association ( WCA ) is an international non-profit , non-governmental association based in London created to represent the coal industry . The association was formerly called the World Coal Institute ( WCI ) but changed its name in November 2010 . The WCA undertakes lobbying , organises workshops , and provides coal information to decision makers in international energy and environmental policy and research discussions , as well as supplying information to the general public and educational organisations on the benefits and issues surrounding the use of coal . It also promotes clean coal technologies . It has participated in a number of United Nations and International Energy Agency workshops , boards , and forums , including the UN Commission on Sustainable Development , the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change , the IEA Working Party on Fossil Fuels , and the IEA Coal Industry Advisory Board . It is also part of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum . It is co-author for a report on the future of coal in ASEAN nations .", "qid": "420", "docid": "World_Coal_Association", "rank": 1, "score": 172106 }, { "content": "Title: International Energy Agency Content: The International Energy Agency ( IEA ) ( Agence internationale de l'énergie ) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis . The IEA was initially dedicated to responding to physical disruptions in the supply of oil , as well as serving as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors . The IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states , but also works with non-member countries , especially China , India , and Russia . The Agency 's mandate has broadened to focus on the `` 3Es '' of effectual energy policy : energy security , economic development , and environmental protection . The latter has focused on mitigating climate change . The IEA has a broad role in promoting alternate energy sources ( including renewable energy ) , rational energy policies , and multinational energy technology co-operation . IEA member countries are required to maintain total oil stock levels equivalent to at least 90 days of the previous year 's net imports . At the end of July 2009 , IEA member countries held a combined stockpile of almost 4.3 billion barrels ( 680,000,000 m3 ) of oil . On 1 September 2015 , Fatih Birol took office as the new Executive Director , succeeding in this position former Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs , Maria van der Hoeven .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Energy_Agency", "rank": 2, "score": 154458 }, { "content": "Title: International Energy Centre Content: The International Energy Centre ( IEC ) is a collaborative initiative established by three of Australia 's leading universities ( University of Western Australia , University of Newcastle and University of Queensland ) , and foundation industry member Glencore Xstrata . IEC 's vision is to create an established centre of excellence in thought leadership , postgraduate education and innovation management to support the transition to a sustainable low carbon world . The Centre formed in 2011 with foundation sponsorship funding from Xstrata Coal , a subsidiary of Xstrata , ( now Glencore Xstrata ) . The business model is based on the experience of the formation of the International Water Centre , a joint venture between University of Western Australia , University of Queensland ( two of the three universities in the IEC ) plus Griffith University and Monash University . Recently Glencore awarded scholarships to six Master of Energy Studies students .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Energy_Centre", "rank": 3, "score": 152079 }, { "content": "Title: Deploying Renewables 2011 Content: Deploying Renewables 2011 : Best and Future Policy Practice is a 2011 book by the International Energy Agency . The book analyses the recent successes in renewable energy , which now accounts for almost a fifth of all electricity produced worldwide , and addresses how countries can best capitalize on that growth to realise a sustainable energy future . The book says that renewable energy commercialization must be stepped up , especially given the world 's increasing appetite for energy and the need to meet this demand more efficiently and with low-carbon energy sources . Wind power and other renewable energy sources offer great potential to address issues of energy security and sustainability . This analysis updates and expands Deploying Renewables : Principles for Effective Policies , published by the IEA in 2008 , in light of events and trends in the last five years . It also `` extends the analysis to a wider range of countries beyond the OECD and BRICS countries , focussing on 56 countries representative of each world region '' .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Deploying_Renewables_2011", "rank": 4, "score": 144516 }, { "content": "Title: International Renewable Energy Agency Content: The International Renewable Energy Agency ( IRENA ) is an intergovernmental organization to promote adoption and sustainable use of renewable energy . It was founded in 2009 and its statute entered into force on 8 July 2010 . The agency is headquartered in Abu Dhabi . The Director-General of IRENA is Adnan Amin , a national of Kenya . IRENA is an official United Nations observer .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Renewable_Energy_Agency", "rank": 5, "score": 137737 }, { "content": "Title: Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future Content: Big Coal : The Dirty Secret Behind America 's Energy Future is a book by Jeff Goodell which claims that coal mining is one of America 's largest and most influential industries . Goodell suggests that coal mining is deadly and environmentally destructive .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Big_Coal:_The_Dirty_Secret_Behind_America's_Energy_Future", "rank": 6, "score": 135656 }, { "content": "Title: The International Forum on Energy Security for the Future Content: The International Forum on Energy Security for the Future : New Sources , Responsibility , Sustainability ( ESF ) is an initiative on energy security focused on popularization of alternative energy sources in Europe and worldwide . Founded by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation , Aleksander Kwaśniewski 's Foundation `` Amicus Europae '' and Ukraine 's leading private oil & gas producer Burisma Group in 2016 , the Forum supports an equal and open dialogue between states , governments , businesspeople , expert community and civil society about the transition to a green economy and renewable energy sources .", "qid": "420", "docid": "The_International_Forum_on_Energy_Security_for_the_Future", "rank": 7, "score": 134547 }, { "content": "Title: American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity Content: The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity ( ACCCE , formerly ABEC or Americans for Balanced Energy Choices ) is a U.S. non-profit advocacy group representing major American coal producers , utility companies and railroads . The organization seeks to influence public opinion and legislation in favor of coal-generated electricity in the United States , placing emphasis on the development and deployment of clean coal technologies . Since carbon capture and sequestration -- which ACCCE and its member companies advocate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal burning -- has yet to be tested on a large scale , some have questioned whether this approach is feasible or realistic . ACCCE faced a Congressional investigation when it was discovered that a lobbying firm hired by ACCCE had sent forged letters to lawmakers . The letters , purporting to come from a variety of minority-focused non-profit groups , were in fact forged by a lobbying firm hired by ACCCE .", "qid": "420", "docid": "American_Coalition_for_Clean_Coal_Electricity", "rank": 8, "score": 133231 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Energy Content: Carbon Energy Limited ( former name : Metex Resources Limited ) is an Australian global energy technology provider and services company with expertise in unconventional syngas extraction utilising its proprietary Underground Coal Gasification ( UCG ) technology . It operates an underground coal gasification pilot plant at Bloodwood Creek , Queensland , Australia . In 2009 , Carbon Energy signed an agreement with the Chilean company Antofagasta Minerals to develop an underground coal gasification project in Mulpún , Chile . The Company is headquartered in Brisbane , Australia , is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange ( ASX ) as CNX and is quoted on the OTCQX International Exchange as CNXAY in the United States .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Carbon_Energy", "rank": 9, "score": 131515 }, { "content": "Title: International Coal Group Content: International Coal Group , Inc. ( ICG ) is a mining company in the United States that produces coal from 12 mining complexes in Northern and Central Appalachia ( Kentucky , Maryland , and West Virginia ) and from one complex in the Illinois Basin . The company is now headquartered in Teays Valley , West Virginia . It became a subsidiary of Arch Coal , Inc in 2011 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Coal_Group", "rank": 10, "score": 131200 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Technology Perspectives Content: Energy Technology Perspectives ( ETP ) is a publication on energy technology published by the International Energy Agency 's ( IEA ) . It demonstrates how technologies can help achieve the objective of limiting the global temperature rise to 2 ° C and enhancing energy security . G8 leaders invited the International Energy Agency to contribute to the Gleneagles G8 Plan of Action on Climate Change , Clean Energy and Sustainable Development in 2005 . They asked the IEA to advise on alternative scenarios and strategies for a `` clean , clever , competitive energy future '' . The results of this initiative included the Energy Technology Perspectives , first published in 2006 . Energy Technology Perspectives ( ETP ) gives a long-term outlook on the global energy system . The main results are presented up to the year 2050 . For the 2012 edition the analysis was extended to include scenarios up to 2075 . ETP models the global energy system under different scenarios for around 500 technology options . Aimed at policy makers , energy experts , business leaders and investors the book 's purpose is to serve as a guide for decision makers on energy trends when setting policy and business objectives concerning energy technology . The book is accompanied by an online component which includes data visualisations , downloadable data and figures complements . Information on the modelling methodology , assumptions and results are also presented online .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_Technology_Perspectives", "rank": 11, "score": 129364 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Information Administration Content: The U.S. Energy Information Administration ( EIA ) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting , analyzing , and disseminating energy information to promote sound policymaking , efficient markets , and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment . EIA programs cover data on coal , petroleum , natural gas , electric , renewable and nuclear energy . EIA is part of the U.S. Department of Energy .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_Information_Administration", "rank": 12, "score": 127975 }, { "content": "Title: Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining (Ukraine) Content: The Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining of Ukraine is the main body in the system of central government responsible for realization of electric power-generating state policies ; nuclear-industrial , and oil-gas complexes often referred simply as the Fuel-Energy Complex . The ministry is coordinated by the Cabinet of Ministers .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Ministry_of_Energy_and_Coal_Mining_(Ukraine)", "rank": 13, "score": 127204 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 14, "score": 125783 }, { "content": "Title: Energy value of coal Content: The energy value of coal , or the fuel content , is the amount of potential energy in coal that can be converted into actual heating ability . The value can be calculated and compared with different grades of coal or even other materials . Materials of different grades will produce differing amounts of heat for a given mass . While chemistry provides methods of calculating the heating value of a certain amount of a substance , there is a difference between this theoretical value and its application to real coal . The grade of a sample of coal does not precisely define its chemical composition , so calculating the actual usefulness of coal as a fuel requires determining its proximate and ultimate analysis ( see `` Chemical Composition '' below ) .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_value_of_coal", "rank": 15, "score": 124397 }, { "content": "Title: International Energy Mining Industry Limited Content: International Energy Mining Industry Limited ( short form : IEM ) registered in Hong Kong in 2004 . It engages in coal , nickel ore , iron ore and other mineral resources business . Its supplier has set up an operation office in Surabaya , Indonesia and owned several mines in Kalimantan Island . IEM is one of the very few traders , which entered the China market in the early stage . Nowadays , it provides many power plants and some stated-owned enterprises in China with Envirocoal . Apart from mineral products , IEM provides transportation from the mine to port and from the port to other countries . Port : Muara Satui 3 '' 56 '' 40 South Latitude 115 '' 31 '' 45 East Longitude", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Energy_Mining_Industry_Limited", "rank": 16, "score": 124098 }, { "content": "Title: Global Methane Initiative Content: The Global Methane Initiative ( GMI ) is a voluntary , international partnership that brings together national governments , private sector entities , development banks , NGOs and other interested stakeholders in a collaborative effort to reduce methane gas emissions and advance methane recovery and use as a clean energy source . National governments are encouraged to join GMI as Partner Countries , while other non-State organizations may join GMI 's extensive Project Network . As a public-private initiative , GMI creates an international platform to build capacity , development methane abatement strategies , engage in technology transfer , and remove political and economic barriers to project development for emissions reduction . The initiative currently focuses on five sectors , which are known sources of anthropogenic methane emissions : agriculture , coal mining , municipal solid waste , municipal wastewater , and oil and gas systems . Through international cooperation , GMI seeks to reduce global methane emissions , the second largest contributor to atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases , in order to enhance economic growth , promote energy security , improve the environment , and reduce greenhouse gases . Other expected benefits include improving mine safety , reducing waste , and improving local air quality .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Global_Methane_Initiative", "rank": 17, "score": 123987 }, { "content": "Title: International Network for Sustainable Energy Content: The International Network for Sustainable Energy ( INFORSE ) is an international , non-profit organisation ( NGO ) network of environmental organizations promoting sustainable energy to protect the environment and to decrease poverty .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Network_for_Sustainable_Energy", "rank": 18, "score": 122932 }, { "content": "Title: The Coal Question Content: The Coal Question ; An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation , and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines ( 1865 ) was a book by economist William Stanley Jevons that explored the implications of Britain 's reliance on coal . Given that coal was a finite , non-renewable energy resource , Jevons raised the question of sustainability . `` Are we wise , '' he asked rhetorically , `` in allowing the commerce of this country to rise beyond the point at which we can long maintain it ? '' His central thesis was that the supremacy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland over global affairs was transitory , given the finite nature of its primary energy resource . In propounding this thesis , Jevons covered a range of issues central to sustainability , including limits to growth , overpopulation , overshoot , energy return on energy input ( EROEI ) , taxation of energy resources , renewable energy alternatives , and resource peakinga subject widely discussed today under the rubric of peak oil .", "qid": "420", "docid": "The_Coal_Question", "rank": 19, "score": 122108 }, { "content": "Title: Global Apollo Programme Content: The Global Apollo Programme is a call for a major global science and economics research programme to make carbon-free baseload electricity less costly than electricity from coal by the year 2025 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Global_Apollo_Programme", "rank": 20, "score": 121776 }, { "content": "Title: World Energy Outlook Content: The annual World Energy Outlook is the International Energy Agency 's flagship publication , widely recognised as the most authoritative source for global energy projections and analysis . It represents the leading source for medium to long-term energy market projections , extensive statistics , analysis and advice for both governments and the energy business . It is produced by the Office of the Chief Economist , presently under the direction of Dr. Fatih Birol . Using a Reference Scenario based on no change in current policies , it enables policy-makers to evaluate their current path . The WEO has also developed an alternative scenario that puts the global energy systems on a trajectory to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions in line with limiting the increase in temperature to 2 ° C.", "qid": "420", "docid": "World_Energy_Outlook", "rank": 21, "score": 121468 }, { "content": "Title: World energy consumption Content: World energy consumption is the total energy used by the entire human civilization . Typically measured per year , it involves all energy harnessed from every energy source applied towards humanity 's endeavours across every single industrial and technological sector , across every country . It does not include energy from food , and the extent to which direct biomass burning has been accounted for is poorly documented . Being the power source metric of civilization , World Energy Consumption has deep implications for humanity 's socio-economic-political sphere . Institutions such as the International Energy Agency ( IEA ) , the U.S. Energy Information Administration ( EIA ) , and the European Environment Agency record and publish energy data periodically . Improved data and understanding of World Energy Consumption may reveal systemic trends and patterns , which could help frame current energy issues and encourage movement towards collectively useful solutions . Closely related to energy consumption is the concept of total primary energy supply ( TPES ) , which - on a global level - is the sum of energy production minus storage changes . Since changes of energy storage over the year are minor , TPES values can be used as an estimator for energy consumption . However , TPES ignores conversion efficiency , overstating forms of energy with poor conversion efficiency ( e.g. coal , gas and nuclear ) and understating forms already accounted for in converted forms ( e.g. photovoltaic or hydroelectricity ) . The IEA estimates that , in 2013 , total primary energy supply ( TPES ) was 1.575 × 1017 Wh ( = 157.5 PWh , 5.67 × 1020 joules , or 13,541 Mtoe ) . From 2000 -- 2012 coal was the source of energy with the largest growth . The use of oil and natural gas also had considerable growth , followed by hydropower and renewable energy . Renewable energy grew at a rate faster than any other time in history during this period . The demand for nuclear energy decreased , in part due to nuclear disasters ( e.g. Three Mile Island 1979 , Chernobyl 1986 , and Fukushima 2011 ) . In 2011 , expenditures on energy totalled over 6 trillion USD , or about 10 % of the world gross domestic product ( GDP ) . Europe spends close to one-quarter of the world 's energy expenditures , North America close to 20 % , and Japan 6 % .", "qid": "420", "docid": "World_energy_consumption", "rank": 22, "score": 121429 }, { "content": "Title: Jamaica Society of Energy Engineers Content: The Jamaica Society of Energy Engineers ( JSEE ) is a newly formed public non-profit organization with a mandate to promote the conscientious utilization of energy resources in Jamaica . The JSEE formation was initially spurred by the need for a professional entity to provide and oversee local training and certification of Energy Auditors and Managers . The JSEE is now a chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers ( AEE ) , which is the world-wide certifying body for all energy engineers .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Jamaica_Society_of_Energy_Engineers", "rank": 23, "score": 121182 }, { "content": "Title: International Atomic Energy Agency Content: The International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy , and to inhibit its use for any military purpose , including nuclear weapons . The IAEA was established as an autonomous organisation on 29 July 1957 . Though established independently of the United Nations through its own international treaty , the IAEA Statute , the IAEA reports to both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council . The IAEA has its headquarters in Vienna . The IAEA has two `` Regional Safeguards Offices '' which are located in Toronto , Canada , and in Tokyo , Japan . The IAEA also has two liaison offices which are located in New York City , United States , and in Geneva , Switzerland . In addition , the IAEA has three laboratories located in Vienna and Seibersdorf , Austria , and in Monaco . The IAEA serves as an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nuclear power worldwide . The programs of the IAEA encourage the development of the peaceful applications of nuclear technology , provide international safeguards against misuse of nuclear technology and nuclear materials , and promote nuclear safety ( including radiation protection ) and nuclear security standards and their implementation . The IAEA and its former Director General , Mohamed ElBaradei , were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on 7 October 2005 . The IAEA 's current Director General is Yukiya Amano .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Atomic_Energy_Agency", "rank": 24, "score": 121037 }, { "content": "Title: Coal in Europe Content: Coal in Europe describes coal as energy fuel in Europe today . Coal includes hard coal , brown coal , and lignite . Coal production in Europe is falling , and imports exceed production . If production and consumption continue at the present rate , proven and economically recoverable world reserves would last for about 150 years . According to IEA Coal Information ( 2007 ) world production and use of coal have increased considerably in recent years . There is , however , growing controversy in Europe over the use of coal , as many denounce it for reasons such as health risks and links to global warming .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal_in_Europe", "rank": 25, "score": 120053 }, { "content": "Title: Siberian Coal Energy Company Content: Siberian Coal Energy Company ( SUEK ) is one of top-ten global coal producers by output , international sales and reserves and Russia 's largest coal producer , which has affiliates and subsidiaries in Krasnoyarsk Oblast , Primorsky Krai , and Khabarovsk Krai , Chita Oblast , Kemerovo Oblast , Buryatia and Khakassia .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Siberian_Coal_Energy_Company", "rank": 26, "score": 119581 }, { "content": "Title: International Petroleum Exchange Content: The International Petroleum Exchange , now ICE Futures ( since 2005-04-7 ) , based in London , was one of the world 's largest energy futures and options exchanges . Its flagship commodity , Brent Crude was a world benchmark for oil prices , but the exchange also handled futures contracts and options on fuel oil , natural gas , electricity ( baseload and peakload ) , coal contracts and , as of 22 April 2005 , carbon emission allowances with the European Climate Exchange ( ECX ) . The IPE was acquired by the Intercontinental Exchange in 2001 . The IPE was an open outcry exchange until 7 April 2005 , when its name was changed to ICE Futures and all trading was shifted onto an electronic trading platform .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Petroleum_Exchange", "rank": 27, "score": 119088 }, { "content": "Title: International Sustainable Energy Organization Content: The objective of the International Sustainable Energy Organization for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency ( ISEO ) with headquarters in Geneva is to accelerate and enlarge the world-wide contribution of clean , sustainable energy to economic and equitable social development . Gustav R. Grob founded ISEO for the United Nations in 2002 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Sustainable_Energy_Organization", "rank": 28, "score": 118801 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental and Energy Study Institute Content: The Environmental and Energy Study Institute ( EESI ) is an independent , bi-partisan 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization that aims to promote environmentally sustainable societies . Based out of Washington , DC , EESI seeks to be a catalyst moving society away from environmentally damaging fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future . The organization was established in 1984 by a bipartisan and bicameral group of members of the United States Congress who were concerned with global environmental and energy problems . EESI works to advance policy solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ground-level air pollution ; improve public health , energy security , and economic development opportunities ; and increase use of renewable energy and energy efficiency . The group seeks to advance its mission through policymaker education , coalition building , and policy development .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Environmental_and_Energy_Study_Institute", "rank": 29, "score": 118672 }, { "content": "Title: European Climate Foundation Content: The European Climate Foundation is an international organisation whose aims are to promote climate and energy policies that it says would greatly reduce Europe 's greenhouse gas emissions and to help Europe play a stronger international leadership role in mitigating climate change . According to the grop , key elements of a sustainable energy future include : A substantial increase in energy efficiency A successful transition from conventional to renewable energy Maintenance of the earth 's ecological systems and the life-supporting services they provide Equitable distribution of energy services to different segments of the population , both internationally and within nations . The European Climate Foundation is funded by the Nationale Postcode Loterij , The Arcadia Fund , The Children 's Investment Fund Foundation , The ClimateWorks Foundation , The McCall MacBain Foundation , Oak Foundation , The Stordalen Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation .", "qid": "420", "docid": "European_Climate_Foundation", "rank": 30, "score": 118530 }, { "content": "Title: International Authority for the Ruhr Content: The International Authority for the Ruhr ( IAR ) was an international body established in 1949 by the Allied powers to control the coal and steel industry of the Ruhr Area in West Germany . Its seat had been in Düsseldorf . It was agreed at meetings in London on 20 April and 2 June 1949 by the United States , United Kingdom , France and the Benelux countries . The London agreement was signed on 28 April of that year . It was abolished by the Treaty of Paris in 1951 , which moved its activities to the European Coal and Steel Community ( ECSC ) . The IAR ended its work on 27 May 1952 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Authority_for_the_Ruhr", "rank": 31, "score": 118063 }, { "content": "Title: Coal power in the United States Content: Coal power in the United States accounted for 39 % of the country 's electricity production at utility-scale facilities in 2014 , 33 % in 2015 , and 30.4 % in 2016 Coal supplied 16.5 quadrillion BTUs of primary energy to electric power plants in 2013 , which made up nearly 92 % of coal 's contribution to energy supply . Utilities buy more than 90 percent of the coal consumed in the United States . Coal has been used to generate electricity in the United States since an Edison plant was built in New York City in 1882 . The first alternating current power station was opened by General Electric in Ehrenfeld , Pennsylvania in 1902 , servicing the Webster Coal and Coke Company . By the mid-twentieth century , coal had become the leading fuel for generating electricity in the US . The long , steady rise of coal-fired generation of electricity shifted to a decline after 2007 . The decline has been linked to the increased availability of natural gas , decreased consumption , renewable power , and more stringent environmental regulations . The Environmental Protection Administration has advanced restrictions on coal plants to counteract mercury pollution , smog , and global warming .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal_power_in_the_United_States", "rank": 32, "score": 117963 }, { "content": "Title: Bureau of Energy Resources Content: The Bureau of Energy Resources ( ENR ) is an agency in the United States Department of State that coordinates the Department 's efforts in promoting international energy security . The bureau is under the purview of the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth , Energy , and the Environment . The head of the Bureau of Energy Resources is Amos Hochstein , Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Bureau_of_Energy_Resources", "rank": 33, "score": 117754 }, { "content": "Title: War on coal Content: In the United States , the war on coal is a phrase used by the coal industry and its supporters to describe what they claim is an effort by the Obama administration to impose stringent regulations on coal power in the United States and thereby make such power uneconomical . Proponents of this phrase also often identify the Environmental Protection Agency as one of the chief entities waging this putative war , although Michael Grunwald has claimed that the war on coal , although real , does not primarily happen at the national level but at the state and local level , and that the `` boots on the ground '' in the war are lawyers from the Sierra Club 's Beyond Coal campaign . The Obama administration has denied that they are waging a war on coal , noting that it may be possible to upgrade older power plants with more efficient turbines , and also pointing to the possibility of carbon sequestration techniques . On March 28 , 2017 , in announcing an executive order aimed at revoking various rules regarding carbon emissions enacted during the Obama administration , President Donald Trump stated that `` Our administration is putting an end to the war on coal . ''", "qid": "420", "docid": "War_on_coal", "rank": 34, "score": 117684 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Technology Data Exchange Content: The Energy Technology Data Exchange ( ETDE ) was formed in 1987 and officially ended 30 June 2014 . It was initiated as a multilateral agreement under the International Energy Agency ( IEA ) agreement network , replacing numerous other bilateral agreements . The multilateral agreement was for the international exchange of energy research and development and information . The exchange resulted in a database which was the world 's largest collection of energy research , technology , and development ( RTD ) information ( ETDEWEB - described below ) . The collection of information was generated from energy RTD literature published in member countries and through other partnering arrangements with organizations such as the International Nuclear Information System ( a unit of the International Atomic Energy Agency ) . This had the effect of creating a broad spectrum of information that was included in the ETDE database . The range of content included fossil fuels , renewable energies ( including Hydrogen ) , End-Use ( Buildings , Industry and Transport ) , fusion , energy policy , conservation , and efficiency , and cross-sectional activities . This fulfilled the need for timely exchange of global information towards the goal of a sustainable energy future . ETDE operated under an IEA Implementing Agreement and was governed by an Executive Committee of delegates from ETDE member countries . Officers of the Executive Committee included a Chair and two Vice-Chairs , elected to three-year terms . Day-to-day operations were managed through an operating agent organization , which reported to the Executive Committee .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_Technology_Data_Exchange", "rank": 35, "score": 117356 }, { "content": "Title: Intermountain Power Agency Content: The Intermountain Power Agency , located in Utah , is a power generating cooperative of 23 municipalities in Utah and 6 in California . It owns the Intermountain Power Plant near Delta , Utah , one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the United States . About 75 percent of the generated power is purchased by cities in southern California and the remainder is purchased by cities , cooperatives and Pacificorp in Utah and a cooperative in Nevada . The IPA also runs transmission lines to Mona , Utah , to Adelanto Converter Station in Adelanto , California and near Ely , Nevada . In 2010 the IPA and the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for trying to prevent a third coal-fired unit at the IPP generation site due to carbon dioxide emissions concerns . The plant is scheduled to be converted to natural gas by 2025 at a cost of $ 500 million .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Intermountain_Power_Agency", "rank": 36, "score": 116368 }, { "content": "Title: Coal analyzer Content: Coal analyzers are bulk material analyzers used by coal producers , coal preparation plants , and coal-fired power plants to determine coal quality in real time . Coal quality parameters of greatest interest include ash , moisture , sulfur , and energy density ( also known as heat content ) . Although most coal operations can obtain this information about coal quality by taking physical samples , preparing the samples , and analyzing them with laboratory equipment , these processes often involve a time lag of up to 24 hours from gathering the sample to final analysis results . In contrast , coal analyzers provide analysis information each minute on material being transported by conveyor either at the mine or the power plant . This timely coal quality information in turn allows the operator to improve his process by taking timely process control actions , such as sorting , blending , coal homogenization , or prep plant control . There are several different types of coal analyzers . Some of the more sophisticated analyzers use prompt gamma neutron activation analysis ( PGNAA ) or pulsed fast thermal neutron activation ( PFTNA ) to determine the elemental content of the coal . Another emerging technology for elemental analysis is laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy ( LIBS ) . PGNAA and LIBS enable analysis of sulfur and ash ( the latter , by summing the ash constituents ) . When combined with a second type of analyzer , the moisture meter , they provide moisture and energy value as well . Moisture meters are often found in conjunction with the elemental analyzers , but sometimes are used alone , or in conjunction with ash gauges . Most moisture meters use microwave technology . The emerging technology of magnetic resonance ( MR ) offers a more direct measurement . Most ash gauges employ gamma attenuation principles . Coal analyzers were first introduced in the early 1980s with the US and Australia leading the way . The demand for coal analyzers has been highest in the US , due to the need to control sulfur as mandated by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977 . By 2005 , more than 600 coal analyzers were in use throughout the world . Most of these analyzers are mounted around an existing conveyor belt , although a significant minority analyze sample streams taken from the main process stream .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal_analyzer", "rank": 37, "score": 115339 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Resources Conservation Board Content: The Energy Resources Conservation Board ( ERCB ) was an independent , quasi-judicial agency of the Government of Alberta . It regulated the safe , responsible , and efficient development of Alberta 's energy resources : oil , natural gas , oil sands , coal , and pipelines . Led by eight Board members , the ERCB 's team of engineers , geologists , technicians , economists , and other professionals served Albertans from thirteen locations across the province . The ERCB 's mission was to ensure that the discovery , development , and delivery of Alberta 's energy resources took place in a manner that was fair , responsible and in the public interest . The ERCB adjudicated and regulated matters related to energy within Alberta to ensure that the development , transportation , and monitoring of the province 's energy resources were in the public interest . The Board provided this assurance of the public interest through its activities in the application and hearing process , regulation , monitoring , and surveillance and enforcement . The information and knowledge responsibility of the Board included the collection , storage , analysis , appraisal , dissemination and stakeholder awareness of information . Open access to information developed awareness , understanding and responsible behavior and allowed the Board and stakeholders to make informed decisions about energy and utility matters . This responsibility would result in the Board discharging its advisory role with respect to matters under the jurisdiction of the Board . The Government of Alberta owns about 80 % of the province 's mineral rights , such as oil , natural gas , coal , and the oil sands . In other words , most resources are owned by the people of Alberta through their government . While private companies can develop these resources , the ERCB was authorized by the government to protect the public 's interest relating to the discovery , development , and delivery of these resources . Regulation was needed so that non-renewable resources were produced in a safe , responsible , and efficient manner , without waste . The ERCB also ensured that everyone affected by development had a chance to be heard . When conflicts regarding development remained unresolved between companies and landowners , the ERCB worked to settle the issues in a fair and balanced manner . In 1996 , the Alberta Geological Survey ( AGS ) joined the ERCB . AGS assisted the ERCB by providing data , information , knowledge and advice about the geology of Alberta .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_Resources_Conservation_Board", "rank": 38, "score": 115000 }, { "content": "Title: European Communities Content: The European Communities ( EC ) , sometimes referred to as the European Community , were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions . These were the European Coal and Steel Community ( ECSC ) , the European Atomic Energy Community ( EAEC or Euratom ) , and the European Economic Community ( EEC ) ; the latter of which was renamed the European Community ( EC ) in 1993 by the Maastricht Treaty , which formed the European Union . When the Communities were incorporated into the European Union in 1993 , they became its first pillar . The European Coal and Steel Community ceased to exist in 2002 when its founding treaty expired . The European Community was dissolved into the European Union by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 ; with the EU becoming the legal successor to the Community . Euratom remained an entity distinct from the EU , but is governed by the same institutions .", "qid": "420", "docid": "European_Communities", "rank": 39, "score": 114807 }, { "content": "Title: GCM Resources Content: GCM Resources plc , formerly Asia Energy and Global Coal Management , is a mining company quoted in the London Alternative Investment Market . Its major asset and goal is to exploit open cast coal mining opportunities in the Phulbari region of Dinajpur District , Bangladesh .", "qid": "420", "docid": "GCM_Resources", "rank": 40, "score": 114776 }, { "content": "Title: BankTrack Content: BankTrack is a global network of non-governmental organizations cooperating in the field of private banks and sustainability . BankTrack uses direct action , lobbying , and research to achieve its goals . BankTrack focuses primarily on the work of private banks and their involvement in projects that are a risk to the environment , society or human rights . The network consists of 40 organizations , including Greenpeace International , Rainforest Action Network and various national Friends of the Earth groups . The network was established in 2003 , building upon initiatives that led to the release of the Collevecchio declaration . The Declaration was the first civil society statement on the role of financial sector and sustainability , and was signed by over 100 civil society organizations . BankTrack releases research reports focused on sustainability in the banking sector , used by many organizations , banks and analysts . Recent reports include Mind the Gap and Close the Gap , which benchmarked the sustainability policies of over 40 global banks , and Bankrolling Climate Change , which investigated finance for the coal industry , and ranked the top 20 `` Climate Killer Banks '' .", "qid": "420", "docid": "BankTrack", "rank": 41, "score": 114769 }, { "content": "Title: International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies Content: The International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies ( ICHET ) was a project of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization ( UNIDO ) . Its role was to support , demonstrate and promote viable implementations of hydrogen energy technologies with the aims of enhancing future economic development , particularly in emerging countries . Founded through a Trust Fund Agreement signed between UNIDO and the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in 2003 in Vienna , ICHET started operation in 2004 and closed down in December 2012 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Centre_for_Hydrogen_Energy_Technologies", "rank": 42, "score": 114500 }, { "content": "Title: Electricity Security and Affordability Act Content: The Electricity Security and Affordability Act is a bill that would repeal a pending rule published by the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) on January 8 , 2014 . The proposed rule would establish uniform national limits on greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions from new electricity-generating facilities that use coal or natural gas . The rule also sets new standards of performance for those power plants , including the requirement to install carbon capture and sequestration technology . The bill passed in the United States House of Representatives during the 113th United States Congress .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Electricity_Security_and_Affordability_Act", "rank": 43, "score": 114394 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum Content: The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum ( CSLF ) is an international initiative to advance carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) technology . The Forum is a Ministerial-level organization that includes 23 member countries and the European Commission . Membership is open to national governmental entities that are significant producers or users of fossil fuel and that have a commitment to invest resources in research , development and demonstration activities in carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies . CSLF also recognizes that stakeholders , those organizations that are affected by and can affect the goals of CSLF , form an essential component of CSLF activities . The CSLF Charter , signed in June 2003 , organized the CSLF by creating a Policy Group , which governs the overall framework and policies of the CSLF , a Technical Group , which reviews the progress of collaborative projects and makes recommendations to the Policy Group on any needed actions , and an administrative Secretariat , which organizes CSLF meetings , coordinates communications among CSLF Members , and acts as a clearinghouse of information . In July 2005 , the G8 Summit endorsed the CSLF in its Plan of Action on Climate Change , Clean Energy and Sustainable Development , and identified it as a medium of cooperation and collaboration with key developing countries in dealing with greenhouse gases . Similar designations were also made in bilateral activities that include : the joint statement of the U.S.-European Union Summit on Energy Security , Energy Efficiency , Renewables and Economic Development , and the Mainz Declaration of Germany and the United States on Cleaner and More Efficient Energy , Development and Climate Change . In 2006 and 2007 , the International Energy Agency and the CSLF held a series of three workshops for invited experts from around the world on the topic of near-term opportunities for carbon capture and storage . Resulting recommendations from these workshops were formally adopted by the CSLF and were sent forward to G8 leaders . The CSLF has recognized 30 carbon capture and storage projects worldwide that demonstrate a wide range of CO2 capture , transport and storage research and activities .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Carbon_Sequestration_Leadership_Forum", "rank": 44, "score": 113998 }, { "content": "Title: Coal Commission Content: The Coal Commission was a United Kingdom government agency , created to own and manage coal reserves . It was set up in 1938 and ceased to operate on 1 January 1947 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal_Commission", "rank": 45, "score": 113293 }, { "content": "Title: HDG International Group Content: HDG International Group and its subsidiaries are leading coal , natural gas and oil producers with significant operations in the central Appalachian area of the United States . Their reserves consist of over 4 billion tons primarily consisting of high Btu , low sulfur steam coal that is currently in high demand in the United States and international coal markets . The HDG International Group 's global headquarters is in Charlotte , North Carolina . HDG International Group , produce , process and sell steam and metallurgical coal from ten regional business units supported by active underground mines , 7 active surface mines and 4 coal preparation plants located throughout Tennessee , West Virginia , Kentucky and Pennsylvania .", "qid": "420", "docid": "HDG_International_Group", "rank": 46, "score": 113262 }, { "content": "Title: Coalclaims Content: Coalclaims or Coal Health Claims is the collective name for two compensation schemes run by the UK Government . Responsibility for the claims lies with the Department of Energy and Climate Change which split off from the Department for Business , Enterprise and Regulatory Reform ( BERR ) in October 2008 . BERR itself was a rename of the Department of Trade and Industry ( DTI ) . These schemes exist to compensate UK coal miners and their families in relation to respiratory disease and Vibration white finger ( VWF ) . These are the biggest personal injury schemes in British legal history and possibly the world . The claims are processed for the government by Capita ( formerly IRISC who were acquired by Aon Corporation who sold the IRISC part of their operation to Capita in 2004 ) . Claims are processed using a system known as ICMS ( IRISC Claims Management System ) which is as custom application written in FoxPro ) . This system integrates with the BCRDL ( British Coal Respiratory Disease Litigation ) Pension Loss Calculator that was developed by Workflow Consulting Limited under joint instruction from the British Government and the CSG ( Claimant Solicitors Group ) . Claimant solicitors can also track their cases using a government sponsored website the current version of this was built and is operated by Web Technology Group . Prior to 2003 it was operated by Integrated Solutions Consultants Ltd of Hemel Hempstead who used to have the domain www.isc.co.uk though this has now been resold . For the BCRDL scheme calculators to calculate the portion of quantum attributable to the miner 's exposure to coal dust and their pension loss can be downloaded from the BCRDL maintained by Workflow Consulting Limited .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coalclaims", "rank": 47, "score": 113252 }, { "content": "Title: Beyond Coal Content: The Beyond Coal movement is a campaign by environmental group the Sierra Club to promote renewable energy instead of coal . Their primary objective is to close coal power plants in the United States , including at least one-third of the country 's more than 500 coal plants by 2020 , and to replace them with renewable energy sources . The campaign is also active in other countries ; for example they are trying to prevent the construction of the Kosovo C thermal power plant near Pristina , Kosovo ; to this end they have collaborated with academic and Obama administration climate advisor Dan Kammen . Other objectives include keeping coal in the ground , specifically in Appalachia and the Powder River Basin , where the majority of American coal reserves are located , and preventing coal from being exported from America . The campaign has received at least $ 80 million from Michael Bloomberg and his philanthropic foundation , Bloomberg Philanthropies . During the early Presidency of George W. Bush , an energy task force convened by Dick Cheney advocated the construction of 200 new coal plants in the United States , warning that if they were not built the entire country would face load shedding as California had just seen . During the Bush administration , the Beyond Coal campaign prevented 170 of the 200 plants from being built .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Beyond_Coal", "rank": 48, "score": 113122 }, { "content": "Title: Switch (2012 film) Content: Switch is a documentary film on global energy directed by Harry Lynch , produced and distributed by Arcos Films , and featuring Scott W. Tinker , a geologist and energy researcher who runs the Bureau of Economic Geology , a 200-person research unit of The University of Texas at Austin . and is a professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences . The film is part of a larger energy education and efficiency project , which also includes the Switch Energy Project website , with additional video content and educational programs . The website includes interviews with some of the world 's leading energy policy analysts . Interviews including Ernie Moniz , former Under Secretary of Energy , Steven E. Koonin , Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency , Richard Jones and physicist Richard A. Muller . The film aims to be a nonpartisan , scientifically based exploration of the energy transition from the traditional energies of coal and oil to future energies . It has been accepted by many environmental groups , government agencies , fossil and renewable energy companies and academic institutions . Switch premiered at the 2012 Environmental Film Festival in Washington DC to positive reviews , then played at 12 other international festivals , most of them environmentally focused , and at 6 international geology conferences , before opening in theaters in New York in September 2012 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Switch_(2012_film)", "rank": 49, "score": 112880 }, { "content": "Title: National Energy Commission Content: The National Energy Commission ( NEC ; ) is an agency established in 2010 to coordinate the overall energy policies for the People 's Republic of China . The body includes 23 members from other agencies such as environment , finance , central bank , National Development and Reform Commission . The purpose of this new commission is to draft a new energy development strategy , evaluate energy security and coordinate international cooperation on climate change , carbon reduction and energy efficiency .", "qid": "420", "docid": "National_Energy_Commission", "rank": 50, "score": 112530 }, { "content": "Title: Fatih Birol Content: Fatih Birol ( born 22 March 1958 , in Ankara ) is a Turkish economist and energy expert , who has been the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency ( IEA ) since 1 September 2015 . He previously served as the Chief Economist and Director of Global Energy Economics at the IEA in Paris . He is responsible for the IEA 's flagship World Energy Outlook publication , which is recognised as the most authoritative source for strategic analysis of global energy markets . He is founder and chair of the IEA Energy Business Council which provides a forum for cooperation between the energy industry and policymakers . Birol has been named by Forbes magazine among the most powerful people in terms of influence on the world 's energy scene . He is the Chairman of the World Economic Forum ( Davos ) Energy Advisory Board and a member of the UN Secretary-General 's ` High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All . ' He is a frequent contributor to print and electronic media and delivers numerous speeches each year at major international summits and conferences .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Fatih_Birol", "rank": 51, "score": 112374 }, { "content": "Title: Institute for Energy Research Content: The Institute for Energy Research ( IER ) is a Washington , D.C.-based non-profit organization that conducts research and analysis on the functions , operations , and government regulation of global energy markets . IER maintains that the free market provides the most inexpensive solutions to global energy and environmental challenges .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Institute_for_Energy_Research", "rank": 52, "score": 112246 }, { "content": "Title: International Renewable Energy Alliance Content: International Renewable Energy Alliance ( REN Alliance ) is a formal partnership entered into on 4 June 2004 by five non-profit international renewable energy organisations : International Hydropower Association ( IHA ) , International Solar Energy Society ( ISES ) , International Geothermal Association ( IGA ) , World Wind Energy Association ( WWEA ) , World Bioenergy Association ( WBA ) . ( Since June 2009 ) They represent the hydro , geothermal , solar , and wind power/energy and bioenergy sector . The alliance provides a unified cross-sectoral voice on renewable energy in international and regional energy fora and media . Climate change concerns , coupled with high oil prices , peak oil , and increasing government support , are driving increasing renewable energy legislation , incentives and commercialization . As of 2011 , 119 countries have some form of national renewable energy policy target or renewable support policy . National targets now exist in at least 98 countries . There is also a wide range of policies at state/provincial and local levels .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Renewable_Energy_Alliance", "rank": 53, "score": 112050 }, { "content": "Title: Burning the Future: Coal in America Content: Burning the Future : Coal in America is a 2008 documentary film produced and directed by David Novack . The film focuses on the impacts of mountaintop mining in the Appalachians , where mountain ridges are scraped away by heavy machinery to access coal seams below , a process that is cheaper and faster than traditional mining methods but is damaging to the environment . Some environmental problems discussed in the film include disfigured mountain ranges , extinct plant and animal species , toxic groundwater , and increased flooding . The film 's run time is 89 minutes . In 2012 , it was rereleased in a shorter , updated version , that was created for public broadcast on PBS . This new version of the film 's run time is 56 minutes . The executive producer of the film is CJ Follini , founder and CEO of the former Gun For Hire Production Studios .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Burning_the_Future:_Coal_in_America", "rank": 54, "score": 111991 }, { "content": "Title: IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme Content: The International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme ( IEA SHC ) is one of over 40 multilateral Technology Collaboration Programmes ( also known as TCPs ) of the International Energy Agency . It was one of the first of such programmes , founded in 1977 . Its current mission is to `` advance international collaborative efforts for solar energy to reach the goal set in the vision of contributing 50 % of the low temperature heating and cooling demand by 2030 . '' . Its international solar collector statistics Solar Heat Worldwide serve as a reference document for governments , financial institutions , consulting firms and non-profit organizations .", "qid": "420", "docid": "IEA_Solar_Heating_and_Cooling_Programme", "rank": 55, "score": 111942 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Saving Trust Content: Energy Saving Trust ( EST ) is a British organization devoted to promoting energy efficiency , energy conservation , and the sustainable use of energy , thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions and helping to prevent man-made climate change . It was founded in the United Kingdom as a government-sponsored initiative in 1992 , following the global Earth Summit . Energy Saving Trust is an independent , not-for-profit organization funded by the government and the private sector . It is a social enterprise , and also has a charitable foundation . The EST has regional offices in England , and country offices in Wales , Northern Ireland , and Scotland . It maintains a comprehensive website , and a network of numerous local advice centres .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_Saving_Trust", "rank": 56, "score": 111770 }, { "content": "Title: AIE Content: AIE may refer to : Academy of Interactive Entertainment , an Australian video games and 3D animation school International Energy Agency ( French : Agence internationale de l'énergie ) , a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization AIE , the Romanian abbreviation for Alianţa pentru Integrare Europeană , the Alliance for European Integration Air Inuit ( ICAO code ) , an airline based in Dorval , Quebec , Canada Applied information economics , a decision analysis method", "qid": "420", "docid": "AIE", "rank": 57, "score": 111537 }, { "content": "Title: Mercuria Energy Group Content: Mercuria Energy Group Ltd is a privately held Swiss international commodity trading company active over a wide spectrum of global energy markets including crude oil and refined petroleum products , natural gas ( including LNG ) , power , coal , biodiesel , carbon emissions , base metals and agricultural products . In 2014 , the company bought the commodities trading arm of J.P. Morgan in a reported US$ 800 million deal . It is one of the world 's five largest independent energy traders and asset operators and is based in Geneva , Switzerland , with 28 additional offices worldwide . Mercuria moves about 1.5 m barrels of crude and oil products daily , and has upstream and downstream assets ranging from oil reserves in Argentina , Canada and the US , to oil and products terminals in Europe and China , as well as substantial investment in the coal mining industry and bio fuels plants in Germany and the Netherlands . Their primary competitors are Swiss commodity houses Glencore , Trafigura and Vitol , US based trader Cargill and Hong Kong/Singapore based Noble Group . Mercuria was started in 2004 by Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi , then executives at Phibro -- the commodities trader sold by Citigroup to Occidental Petroleum in 2009 -- and previously at Goldman Sachs . The company focused mostly on oil trading until 2007 . During that time Mercuria was called J&S Group after Grigorij Jankilevitsch and Vyacheslav Smolokowski who were Ukrainian-Polish businessmen . Jankilevitsch , Smolokowski and their affiliates founded Mercuria including financially but gradually withdrew after some political turmoil . As the company has expanded , it has hired away traders and investment professionals from across Europe , particularly Morgan Stanley , Goldman Sachs , Louis Dreyfus Group and Electrabel in London . Mercuria 's 2013 revenue was US$ 112 billion . It has subsidiaries worldwide , including Navitas Energy in Canada and Vesta Terminal Services in Europe , which operates port logistics , storage and processing facilities in the Netherlands , Estonia , Belgium , and Germany . Mercuria , former owner of Vesta Terminal , entered into a joint venture with Sinopec by selling 50 % of the terminals in 2013 . In November 2010 , Mercuria Energy bought MGM International Group from Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. and MGM International LLC . The Miami , Florida-based MGM International Group is developer of international projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and trades in global carbon markets . The company recently arranged debt financing of 2.5 billion to fund expansion through asset purchases in Europe and North America . In 2010 , Mr Dunand raised speculation that Mercuria may follow Glencore into the public markets by saying that they did not require additional capital immediately , but may go public within 2 -- 3 years particularly if that allowed them to purchase assets that they could not otherwise afford .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Mercuria_Energy_Group", "rank": 58, "score": 111483 }, { "content": "Title: European Coal and Steel Community Content: The European Coal and Steel Community ( ECSC ) was an organisation of 6 European countries set up after World War II to regulate their industrial production under a centralised authority . It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris , signed by Belgium , France , West Germany , Italy , the Netherlands and Luxembourg . The ECSC was the first international organisation to be based on the principles of supranationalism , and started the process of formal integration which ultimately led to the European Union . The ECSC was first proposed by French foreign minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950 as a way to prevent further war between France and Germany . He declared his aim was to `` make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible '' which was to be achieved by regional integration , of which the ECSC was the first step . The Treaty would create a common market for coal and steel among its member states which served to neutralise competition between European nations over natural resources , particularly in the Ruhr . The ECSC was run by four institutions : a High Authority composed of independent appointees , a Common Assembly composed of national parliamentarians , a Special Council composed of nation ministers , and a Court of Justice . These would ultimately form the blueprint for today 's European Commission , European Parliament , the Council of the European Union and the European Court of Justice . The ECSC stood model for the communities set up after it by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 , the European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community , with whom it shared its membership and some institutions . The 1967 Merger ( Brussels ) Treaty led to all of ECSC 's institutions to merge into that of the European Economic Community , but the ECSC retained its own independent legal personality . In 2002 , the Treaty of Paris expired and the ECSC ceased to exist in any form , its activities fully absorbed by the European Community under the framework of Amsterdam and Nice treaties .", "qid": "420", "docid": "European_Coal_and_Steel_Community", "rank": 59, "score": 111362 }, { "content": "Title: American Society of Mining and Reclamation Content: American Society of Mining and Reclamation ( ASMR ) is an advisory council which focuses on the reclamation of lands that had been disturbed by coal extraction . ASMR is a professional society with international prominence , including members from 20 countries . ASMR initially focused on lands disturbed by coal mining . Today the organization focus includes all aspects of land reclamation and protection , and enhancement of soil and water resources .", "qid": "420", "docid": "American_Society_of_Mining_and_Reclamation", "rank": 60, "score": 111348 }, { "content": "Title: Walter Energy Content: Walter Energy , Inc. , with its corporate and U.S. headquarters in Birmingham , Alabama , and its Canadian & UK headquarters in Vancouver , British Columbia , is the world 's leading , publicly traded `` pure play '' metallurgical coal producer for the global steel industry . The Company also produces natural gas , steam coal and industrial coal , anthracite , metallurgical coke , and coal bed methane gas .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Walter_Energy", "rank": 61, "score": 110964 }, { "content": "Title: Instituto para la Diversificación y Ahorro de la Energía Content: The Institute for Diversification and Saving of Energy ( IDAE ) is an agency of the Ministry of Industry , Energy and Tourism through the Ministry of Energy . The Secretary of State for Energy , Mr. Alberto Nadal Belda , is the president of IDAE . Contribute to achieving the objectives of Spain in improving energy efficiency , renewable energy and other low carbon technologies is the strategic framework of its activity . In this sense , the IDAE conducts communicaction campaigns , dissemination and training , technical assistance , program development and funding of specific projects of technological innovation and replicable nature . Also , the Institute leads an intense international activity under various European programs and cooperation with third countries worldwide .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Instituto_para_la_Diversificación_y_Ahorro_de_la_Energía", "rank": 62, "score": 110694 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Energy Perspectives Content: Solar Energy Perspectives is a 2011 book by the International Energy Agency . Solar energy technologies come in various forms -- solar heating , solar photovoltaics , solar thermal electricity -- and can make considerable contributions to solving some of the most urgent problems the world now faces : The development of affordable , inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge longer-term benefits . It will increase countries ' energy security through reliance on an indigenous , inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource , enhance sustainability , reduce pollution , lower the costs of mitigating climate change , and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise . These advantages are global . Hence the additional costs of the incentives for early deployment should be considered learning investments ; they must be wisely spent and need to be widely shared . Solar Energy Perspectives builds upon past analyses of solar energy deployment contained in the World Energy Outlook , Energy Technology Perspectives and several IEA Technology Roadmaps . It aims at `` offering an updated picture of current technology trends and markets , as well as new analyses on how solar energy technologies for electricity , heat and fuels can be used in the various energy consuming sectors , now and in the future '' .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Solar_Energy_Perspectives", "rank": 63, "score": 110429 }, { "content": "Title: Coal Authority Content: The Coal Authority is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal_Authority", "rank": 64, "score": 110392 }, { "content": "Title: Federal Energy Agency (Russia) Content: Russian Energy Agency is a federal state budgetary organization under the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation , that provides implementation of the Federal Law `` Improvement of energy conservation and energy efficiency '' , and the Government 's activities in the field of energy efficiency and sustainable energy development of the Russian economy , innovative energy , renewable energy sources ( RES ) . Furthermore , Russian Energy Agency is a center for the exchange , monitoring of information , trainings , coordination and promotion of projects in the field of energy efficiency , renewable energy and innovation in the fuel and energy sector . Russian Energy Agency has an extensive network of branches in 70 regions of the Russian Federation , employs over 2000 people . The agency was established in December 2009 by converting the FSI `` Association '' Rosinformresurs `` Russian Energy Ministry ( Order of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation № 560 of December 16 , 2009 ) in order to implement the major strategic targets for reducing energy intensity of the national economy by 40 % by 2020 , set by President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev ( Decree № 889 of June 4 , 2008 `` On some measures to improve energy and environmental performance of the Russian economy '' ) . Russian Energy Agency has an extensive network of branches in 70 regions of the Russian Federation , employs over 2000 people .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Federal_Energy_Agency_(Russia)", "rank": 65, "score": 110254 }, { "content": "Title: Coala (software) Content: coala is a free and open-source language independent analysis toolkit , written in Python . The primary goal of coala is to make it easier for developers to create rules which a project 's code should conform to . coala emphasizes on reusability and pluggability of analysis routines , and the principle of do n't repeat yourself ( DRY ) . On 6 May it was featured on SDTimes.com as Github Project of the Week . coala was also featured in the hackerpublicradio . On 9 May 2016 , an article was published on Medium by Gitter regarding its community .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coala_(software)", "rank": 66, "score": 109966 }, { "content": "Title: Worshipful Company of Fuellers Content: The Worshipful Company of Fuellers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London . It is now associated with the whole energy sector , but has its roots in coal : the Fuellers , or coal traders , were originally members of the Woodmongers ' Company , which became defunct in the eighteenth century . The Company was incorporated separately in 1981 , and was granted Livery status in 1984 . It is a charitable institution and many of the members ( though not all ) are drawn from the energy industry . As such , membership is not limited to energy sector employees , but also to those whose interests can make a contribution on energy matters . The Company 's activities include a social programme ( Livery dinners , etc ) , as well as regular industrial visits and talks . The Fuellers ' Company ranks ninety-fifth in the Order of Precedence of Livery Companies . Its motto is In Carbone Robur Nostrum , Latin for Our Strength in Coal . It has made submissions to the Government 's energy policy review , details of which can be found on its website . The present Clerk to the Company is Sir Antony Reardon Smith , Bt .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Worshipful_Company_of_Fuellers", "rank": 67, "score": 109862 }, { "content": "Title: Review of International Organizations Content: The Review of International Organizations is a peer-reviewed academic journal that analyzes operations and policies of both governmental and non-governmental organizations . Scientific contributions cover agencies such as the International Monetary Fund , the World Trade Organization , the World Bank , the G7 , the NATO , the European Court of Human Rights , the United Nations , and similar formal institutions . In addition , the journal offers research on networks of international cooperation , including the Global Development Network and the International Competition Forum . The journal is published by Springer Boston . Its current editors are Axel Dreher ( Editor-in-Chief , University of Heidelberg ) , James Vreeland ( Associate Editor , Georgetown University ) , Roland Vaubel ( Associate Editor , University of Mannheim ) and Todd Sandler ( Associate Editor , University of Texas at Dallas ) . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal has a 2015 impact factor of 2.444 , ranking it 11th out of 163 journals in the category `` Political Science '' and 6th out of 86 journals in the category `` International Relations '' .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Review_of_International_Organizations", "rank": 68, "score": 109845 }, { "content": "Title: China Coal Energy Content: China Coal Energy Co. , Ltd. , is a publicly traded company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange . The chairman is Wang An . On 16 December 2006 , it was listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as H share . China Coal joined Hang Seng China Enterprises Index Constitute Stock . On 7 September 2007 , China Coal announced that it would issue A share in the Shanghai Stock Exchange . It was listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange on 1 February 2008 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "China_Coal_Energy", "rank": 69, "score": 109512 }, { "content": "Title: FutureGen Content: FutureGen is a project ( now suspended ) to demonstrate capture and sequestration of waste carbon dioxide from a coal-fired electrical generating station . The project ( renamed FutureGen 2.0 ) was retrofitting a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Meredosia , Illinois , with oxy-combustion generators . The waste CO2 would be piped approximately 30 mi to be sequestered in underground saline formations . FutureGen was a partnership between the United States government and an alliance of primarily coal-related corporations . Costs were estimated at US$ 1.65 billion , with $ 1.0 billion provided by the Federal Government . Citing an inability to commit and spend the funds by deadlines in 2015 , the Department of Energy withdrew funds and suspended FutureGen 2.0 in February , 2015 . The government also cited the Alliance 's inability to raise the requisite amount of private funding . First announced by President George W. Bush in 2003 , construction started in 2014 after restructuring , canceling , relocating , and restarting . FutureGen 2.0 still faces legal challenges . FutureGen 2.0 is the most comprehensive Department of Energy Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration project , involving all phases from combustion to sequestration . FutureGen 's initial plan involved integrated gasification combined cycle technology to produce both electricity and hydrogen . Early in the project it was to be sited in Mattoon , IL .", "qid": "420", "docid": "FutureGen", "rank": 70, "score": 109293 }, { "content": "Title: Information Council on the Environment Content: The Information Council on the Environment ( ICE ) , was a U.S. organization created by the National Coal Association , the Western Fuels Association , and Edison Electrical Institute .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Information_Council_on_the_Environment", "rank": 71, "score": 109137 }, { "content": "Title: International Council on Clean Transportation Content: The International Council on Clean Transportation ( ICCT ) is an independent nonprofit organization incorporated under Section 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) of the US tax code . It provides technical and scientific analysis to environmental regulators . It is funded by the ClimateWorks Foundation , the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation , the Energy Foundation , and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Council_on_Clean_Transportation", "rank": 72, "score": 109119 }, { "content": "Title: Wood Mackenzie Content: Wood Mackenzie is a global energy , chemicals , renewables , metals and mining research and consultancy group with an international reputation for supplying comprehensive data , written analysis and consultancy advice . In 2015 , the company was acquired by Verisk Analytics , an American data analytics and risk assessment firm , in a deal valued at $ 2.8 billion . It is based in Edinburgh , Scotland , though it has over 25 offices worldwide . The company 's energy business was founded in 1973 , when it started reviewing the North Sea oilfields . Between 2007 and 2014 , Wood Mackenzie acquired coal specialists Hill & Associates in the US , Barlow Jonker in Australia , and Brook Hunt , the UK-based metals analysts . Since 2015 a host of companies have become part of Wood Mackenzie including PSG , a petroleum database service ; PCI , the specialist chemicals analysis group ; and Greentech Media .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Wood_Mackenzie", "rank": 73, "score": 109007 }, { "content": "Title: Stockholm Environment Institute US Center Content: The Stockholm Environment Institute ( SEI ) is an international research organization focusing on the issue of sustainable development . SEI has its headquarters in Stockholm with a network structure of permanent and associated staff worldwide and with centres the US , York ( UK ) , Oxford ( UK ) , Tallinn ( Estonia ) , and Asia ( Bangkok ) . SEI 's US center is a research affiliate of Tufts University in Massachusetts and also has offices in Davis , California , and Seattle , Washington . It conducts a diverse programme focusing on the social , technological and institutional requirements for a transition to sustainability . Its funders include the United Nations , the World Bank , and numerous foundations and national governments such as the United States , Sweden , Denmark , Germany , the Netherlands and the UK . In addition to providing policy-relevant analyses , the Center works to build capacity in developing countries for integrated sustainability planning through training and collaboration on projects . Its decision support tools are widely used : LEAP for energy planning and climate change mitigation , WEAP for water resources planning and PoleStar for evaulating sustainable development strategies . Its activities are organized into three programs : The Climate and Energy Program conducts energy system analyses , examines environmental consequences of energy use such as global warming , and develops policies for a transition to efficient and renewable energy technology . The Water Resources Program brings an integrated perspective to freshwater assessment , one that seeks sustainable water solutions by balancing the needs for basic water services , development and the environment . The Sustainable Development Studies Program takes a holistic perspective in assessing sustainability at global , regional , and national levels .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Stockholm_Environment_Institute_US_Center", "rank": 74, "score": 108726 }, { "content": "Title: Coal assay Content: Coal Analysis techniques are specific analytical methods designed to measure the particular physical and chemical properties of coals . These methods are used primarily to determine the suitability of coal for coking , power generation or for iron ore smelting in the manufacture of steel .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal_assay", "rank": 75, "score": 108670 }, { "content": "Title: Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program Content: The Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program ( CLASP ) is an international nonprofit organization which provides technical and policy support to governments worldwide and works to implement energy efficiency standards and labels ( S&L ) for appliances , lighting , and equipment . It specializes in publishing studies and analyses with relevance to S&L practitioners . The organization was created in 1999 as a strategic cooperation of three organization -- the Alliance to Save Energy ( ASE ) , the International Institute for Energy Conservation ( IIEC ) , and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( LBNL ) . It became an independent , non profit 501 ( c ) 3 organization in 2005 . CLASP conducts some of its technical analysis through an international network of partners , who are experts in the various aspects of S&L . Currently , CLASP 's network includes over 200 technical experts and S&L practitioners from more than 30 different countries . Additionally , CLASP collaborates with various international S&L initiatives , such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Energy Standards Information System ( APEC ESIS ) and International Energy Agency Efficient Electrical End-Use Equipment ( IEA 4E ) , to facilitate information exchange and connect S&L experts in similar regions or areas of expertise . CLASP joined the ClimateWorks Foundation ( CWF ) as a Global Best Practice Network ( BPN ) in March 2009 . ClimateWorks ' BPNs are institutions staffed by technical and regulatory experts who help design , implement , and enforce policies proven to reduce CO2 emissions . The ClimateWorks Foundation focuses on the sectors and regions responsible for most of the world 's carbon emissions . CLASP , as part of its partnership with ClimateWorks , moved from working exclusively in developing countries to also working in more industrialized economies including the United States and European Union . In 2011 , CLASP was appointed as the Operating Agent for the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment ( SEAD ) initiative , a multilateral collaboration initiated by the Clean Energy Ministerial ( CEM ) and the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation ( IPEEC ) to transform the global market toward higher energy efficiency . SEAD member governments include Australia , Brazil , Canada , the European Commission , France , Germany , India , Japan , Korea , Mexico , Russia , South Africa , Sweden , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , and the United States . China participates as an observer .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Collaborative_Labeling_and_Appliance_Standards_Program", "rank": 76, "score": 108640 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon-based fuel Content: Carbon-based fuel is any fuel principally from the oxidation or burning of carbon . Carbon-based fuels are of two main kinds , biofuels and fossil fuels . Whereas biofuels are derived from recent-growth organic matter and are typically harvested , as with logging of forests and cutting of corn , fossil fuels are of prehistoric origin and are extracted from the ground , the principal fossil fuels being oil , coal , and natural gas . From an economic policy perspective , an important distinction between biofuels and fossil fuels is that only the former is sustainable or renewable . Whereas we can continue to obtain energy from biofuels indefinitely in principle , the Earth 's reserves of fossil fuels was determined millions of years ago and is therefore fixed as far as our foreseeable future is concerned . The great variability in the ease of extraction of fossil fuels however makes its endgame scenario one of increasing prices over one or more centuries rather than of abrupt exhaustion . From the perspective of climate and ecology , biofuels and fossil fuels have in common that they contribute to the production of atmospheric carbon dioxide , which has emerged in recent decades as the fastest-changing greenhouse gas , whose principal impacts are global warming and ocean acidification . However biofuels actively participate in the carbon cycle today by photosynthesizing carbon dioxide , unlike fossil fuels whose participation was long ago , and can therefore in principle bring atmospheric CO2 into an equilibrium not possible with the continued use of fossil fuel . But in practice photosynthesis is a slow process , and the additional fuel produced by artificial methods of accelerating it such as application of fertilizer tends to be offset by the energy consumed by the accelerating processes , to a degree currently under active debate . In contrast the speed of photosynthesis is immaterial for fossil fuels because they had millions of years in which to accumulate . Burning of both fossil fuels and biofuels usually also produces carbon monoxide , which is toxic and can kill a person after mixing with the haemoglobin of the blood , increasing its concentration in the body . Biofuels and fossil fuels may also produce many other air pollutants depending on the contents of the fuel .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Carbon-based_fuel", "rank": 77, "score": 108475 }, { "content": "Title: Expo 2017 Content: Expo 2017 is an International Exposition scheduled to take place between June 10 and September 10 , 2017 in Astana , Kazakhstan . The expo 's theme is `` Future Energy '' , and aims to create a global debate between countries , nongovernmental organizations , companies and the general public on the crucial question : `` how do we ensure safe and sustainable access to energy for all while reducing CO2 emissions ? ''", "qid": "420", "docid": "Expo_2017", "rank": 78, "score": 108269 }, { "content": "Title: Coalition of Activist Lesbians Australia Content: The Coalition of Activist Lesbians Australia ( COAL ) was formed in Australia in 1994 to work towards the end of discrimination against lesbians . COAL lobbies the Australian Commonwealth and other state and territory Governments to remove discrimination against lesbians . They are Australia 's national lesbian advocacy organisation and is the only United Nations accredited lesbian non-government organisation .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coalition_of_Activist_Lesbians_Australia", "rank": 79, "score": 108196 }, { "content": "Title: Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation Content: Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation is an agency of the Indian government established in 1948 under The Coal Mines Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1948 The authority manages the following schemes : Coal Mines Provident Fund Scheme Coal Mines Family Pension Scheme ( merged with Pension Scheme in 1998 ) Coal Mines Pension Scheme Coal Mines Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal_Mines_Provident_Fund_Organisation", "rank": 80, "score": 108090 }, { "content": "Title: Nuclear Energy Agency Content: The Nuclear Energy Agency ( NEA ) is an intergovernmental agency that is organized under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) . Originally formed on 1 February 1958 with the name European Nuclear Energy Agency ( ENEA ) ( the United States participated as an Associate Member ) , the name was changed on 20 April 1972 to its current name after Japan became a member . The mission of the NEA is to `` assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing , through international co-operation , the scientific , technological and legal bases required for the safe , environmentally friendly and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes . ''", "qid": "420", "docid": "Nuclear_Energy_Agency", "rank": 81, "score": 107891 }, { "content": "Title: International Association for Energy Economics Content: International Association for Energy Economics ( IAEE ) is an international non-profit society of professionals interested in energy economics . IAEE was founded in 1977 , in the period of the energy crisis , when it became obvious that lack of knowledge on energy economics is one of the problems when dealing with the short - and long-term issues of energy supply and demand . IAEE is incorporated under United States laws and has headquarters in Cleveland . IAEE has over 4,500 members worldwide ( in over 100 countries ) . There are over 25 national chapters , in countries where membership exceeds 25 individual members . The IAEE publishes a renowned academic quarterly journal : The Energy Journal , the policy oriented journal : Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy , and a newsletter `` The IAEE Newsletter '' . Some of the regularly active national chapters of the IAEE are : USAEE - United States GEE - Germany BIEE - Great Britain", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Association_for_Energy_Economics", "rank": 82, "score": 107834 }, { "content": "Title: FEDARENE Content: FEDARENE ( European Federation of Agencies and Regions for Energy and Environment ) is the premier European network of regional and local organisations which implement , co-ordinate and facilitate energy and environment policies . Regional and local agencies , regional governments and departments working in these fields , are represented in FEDARENE . FEDARENE , an international non-profit association set up in 1990 at the initiative of 6 European regions , now has 70 member regions from 20 European Union countries and Norway .", "qid": "420", "docid": "FEDARENE", "rank": 83, "score": 107432 }, { "content": "Title: Energy policy of Australia Content: The energy policy of Australia is subject to the regulatory and fiscal influence of all three levels of government in Australia , although only the State and Federal levels determine policy for primary industries such as coal . As of 2016 , Federal energy policies continue to support the coal mining and natural gas industries through subsidies for fossil fuel use and production as the exports by those industries contribute significantly to the earnings of foreign exchange and government revenues . Australia is one of the most coal-dependent countries in the world . Coal and natural gas , along with oil-based products , are currently the primary sources of Australian energy usage and the coal industry produces approximately 38 % of Australia 's total greenhouse gas emissions . In 2015 Federal policy reverted to a pro-coal economy with cuts to alternate and renewable energy government offices , targets and subsidies Federal climate change policy changed following the election of the Labor Rudd Government in December 2007 , which committed to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme in 2010 , and to expand the mandatory renewable energy target to ensure 20 % of electricity supply in Australia was from renewable sources by 2020 . After a contentious political debate , a carbon pricing mechanism entered force on 1 July 2012 under Prime Minister Julia Gillard , but was repealed by the Abbott Government in 2014 . In June 2015 the Abbott Government downgraded the renewable energy target from 41,000 GWh per year to 33,000 GWh . As of 2013 , Australia was now only the 12th highest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita in the world , and 16th ( behind China , Russia . the US , Germany , the UK , Japan , India and other major developed nations ) , in total CO2 emissions ( kt per year ) . Renewable energy commercialisation in Australia is an area of growing activity . Australia 's renewable energy industries are diverse , covering numerous energy sources and scales of operation , and currently contribute about 8 -- 10 % of Australia 's total energy supply . The major area where renewable energy is growing is in electricity generation following the introduction of government Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets . The two most populous states , New South Wales and Victoria have renewable energy targets of 20 % and 25 % respectively by 2020 .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_policy_of_Australia", "rank": 84, "score": 107416 }, { "content": "Title: Energy Watch Group Content: The Energy Watch Group ( EWG ) is an international network of scientists and parliamentarians . The EWG conducts research and publishes studies on global energy developments concerning both fossil fuels and renewables . The organization states that it seeks to provide energy policy with objective information . The EWG was founded in 2006 by the former German parliamentarian & The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany awardee Hans-Josef Fell and further parliamentarians from other countries to provide both experts and political decision makers as well as the public with information on energy issues .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_Watch_Group", "rank": 85, "score": 107270 }, { "content": "Title: International Hydropower Association Content: The International Hydropower Association ( IHA ) is a non-profit , international organisation and membership association representing the global hydropower sector . IHA has members in more than 80 countries , including over 100 corporate and affiliate members working across sectors such as electricity generation , water management , construction , engineering and related industries . IHA also partners with international organisations , research institutions , governments and civil society . The association 's mission is `` to advance sustainable hydropower by building and sharing knowledge on its role in renewable energy systems , freshwater management and climate change solutions '' .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Hydropower_Association", "rank": 86, "score": 107073 }, { "content": "Title: Federal Fuel Administration Content: The Federal Fuel Administration was a World War I-era agency of the Federal government of the United States established by of August 23 , 1917 pursuant to the Food and Fuel Control Act , managed use of coal and oil . To conserve energy , it introduced daylight saving time , shortened work weeks for civilian goods factories , and encouraged Heatless Mondays . Even prior to a declaration of war by the United States , shortages of coal were experienced in the winter of 1916-17 . To address concerns about a steady supply of fuel to support military and industrial operations and for use by consumers , in 1917 the Federal Fuel Administration was established and US President Woodrow Wilson appointed Harry A. Garfield to lead the agency . Garfield in turn selected local administrators for each state . Fuel committees were organized down to the county level . The activities of the administration included setting and enforcing the prices of coal . The administration had broad powers to set the price of coal at various points ( mine , dock ) and the cost of transportation ( by rail ) , and in regard to end use ( home , factory , or business , etc. ) . Daylight Saving Time was formally adopted in the United States in 1918 by the Fuel Administration . The Standard Time Act of 1918 established both standard time zones and set summer DST to begin on March 31 , 1918 . The idea was unpopular , however , and Congress abolished DST after the war , overriding President Woodrow Wilson 's veto . DST became a local option and was observed in some states until World War II , when President Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round DST , called `` War Time , '' on February 9 , 1942 . It lasted until the last Sunday in September 1945 . The next year , many states and localities adopted summer DST . By mid-1922 , the administration 's activities were declining and some states were taking a more active role in managing coal production .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Federal_Fuel_Administration", "rank": 87, "score": 106896 }, { "content": "Title: Coal Content: Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams . The harder forms , such as anthracite coal , can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure . Coal is composed primarily of carbon , along with variable quantities of other elements , chiefly hydrogen , sulfur , oxygen , and nitrogen . A fossil fuel , coal forms when dead plant matter is converted into peat , which in turn is converted into lignite , then sub-bituminous coal , after that bituminous coal , and lastly anthracite . This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time . Throughout human history , coal has been used as an energy resource , primarily burned for the production of electricity and heat , and is also used for industrial purposes , such as refining metals . Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide , as well as one of the largest worldwide anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide releases . The extraction of coal , its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change . Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining . Since 1983 , the world 's top coal producer has been China . In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal -- 47.7 % of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production . In 2015 other large producers were United States ( 813 million tonnes ) , India ( 678 ) , European Union ( 539 ) and Australia ( 503 ) . In 2010 the largest exporters were Australia with 328 million tonnes ( 27.1 % of world coal export ) and Indonesia with 316 million tonnes ( 26.1 % ) , while the largest importers were Japan with 207 million tonnes ( 17.5 % of world coal import ) , China with 195 million tonnes ( 16.6 % ) and South Korea with 126 million tonnes ( 10.7 % ) .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal", "rank": 88, "score": 106860 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental Integrity Project Content: The Environmental Integrity Project ( EIP ) is a Washington , D.C.-based environmental nonprofit organization that advocates for more effective enforcement of environmental laws . The organization was founded in 2002 by former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) attorneys , Eric V. Schaeffer and Michele Merkel . EIP is known for its legal and investigative efforts to reduce air and water pollution from coal-fired power plants , oil and gas facilities , factory farms , and other sources including incinerators and waste water treatment plants . The group also focuses on environmental justice and pollution in the Chesapeake Bay . EIP is headquartered in Washington , DC , and it has another office in Austin , TX and staff in Pennsylvania , Vermont , and Georgia . In 2013 , Charity Navigator , an independent charity evaluator , rated EIP as a four-star charity organization . EIP maintains Ashtracker.org , a website that shows groundwater quality at coal ash disposal areas . The site relies on groundwater monitoring data from public documents .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Environmental_Integrity_Project", "rank": 89, "score": 106827 }, { "content": "Title: Solid Energy Content: Solid Energy is the largest coal mining company in New Zealand and is a state owned enterprise of the New Zealand Government . The company was formed from the former government department State Coal Mines . It was then established as a state owned enterprise called Coal Corporation in 1987 ( known as Coalcorp ) , and renamed Solid Energy New Zealand Limited in 1997 . In 2015 , it had a turnover of NZ$ 369.8 million and produced 2.8 million tonnes of coal . The company mines extensively in New Zealand 's Waikato and the West Coast regions . Approximately half the coal mined is exported , as it is high value with little moisture , sulphur , or other impurities . Much of this is to China , India and Japan where it is used in the power generation and coke industries and for the manufacture of steel and other metals . Major domestic users include the Huntly Power Station and New Zealand Steel at Glenbrook . Solid Energy went into voluntary administration in August 2015 . On 31 October 2016 it was announced that the company 's assets had been sold to three separate buyers .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Solid_Energy", "rank": 90, "score": 106806 }, { "content": "Title: L&L Energy Content: L&L Energy , Inc. was an American company headquartered in Seattle , Washington , in the business of producing , processing , and selling coal in the People 's Republic of China . As of 2011 , the company was focused on acquiring small-scale coal mining operations in China , as well as supplies of American coal that it planned to process and sell in China . The company was de-listed from NASDAQ in April 2014 , shortly following the announcement of investigations of the company by the SEC and Department of Justice . In 2015 U.S. District Court sentenced the company to five years of probation , and CEO Dickson Lee to a five-year prison term for securities fraud . Lee was accused of misrepresenting the company 's chief financial officer and internal controls in order to achieve a stock market listing , and of deceiving investors . Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta at one time served on the board of the company .", "qid": "420", "docid": "L&L_Energy", "rank": 91, "score": 106784 }, { "content": "Title: Coal in China Content: China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world and is the largest user of coal-derived electricity , generating an estimated 73 % of domestic electricity production in 2014 from coal . Coal production and consumption fell in 2014 and 2015 . As a share of the source of electricity generation , coal is projected to decline steadily , falling to 45 % in 2040 . At the beginning of 2016 China was said to be building or planning 144 new coal-fired power stations , and building more coal-burning capacity each year than the whole capacity of Britain . But in April the National Energy Administration ( NEA ) issued a directive curbing construction of new coal fired plants in many parts of the country . This was followed up in January 2017 when the NEA canceled a further 103 coal power plants , eliminating 120 gigawatts of future coal-fired capacity , despite the resistance of local authorities mindful of the need to create jobs . In July 2016 the commission in charge of state-owned enterprises , SASAC , ordered companies under its supervision to cut coal mining capacity by 10 % in 2 years and by 15 % in 5 years . The decreasing rate of construction is due to the realization that too many power plants had been built and some existing plants were being used far below capacity . Nevertheless , in the first two months of 2016 China had added 22 GW of capacity , 14 GW of which was coal , according to the China Electricity Council . In April 2017 coal-powered electricity production hit a new record high .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Coal_in_China", "rank": 92, "score": 106657 }, { "content": "Title: Saudi Association for Energy Economics Content: Saudi Association for Energy Economics ( SAEE ) is an international non-profit professional organization based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . Dr. Mohammad Al-Sahlawi was the first president in 2009 . SAEE is an affiliation of the International Association of Energy Economics ( IAEE ) , which is a global , nonprofit organization founded in 1977 and based in the United States . IAEE has more than 3,000 members and more than 30 national affiliates around the world .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Saudi_Association_for_Energy_Economics", "rank": 93, "score": 106617 }, { "content": "Title: Organization for International Economic Relations Content: The Organization for International Economic Relations ( OiER ) ( in German : Organisation für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen ) is based in Vienna , Austria and is a non-profit , non-governmental global network that focuses on building partnerships and identifying trends in a global context and in addressing key future-oriented issues in areas of sustainability , innovation , communication , environment , energy and mobility .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Organization_for_International_Economic_Relations", "rank": 94, "score": 106339 }, { "content": "Title: Energy and Environmental Research Center Content: The Energy and Environmental Research Center ( EERC ) in Grand Forks , North Dakota , United States is a research , development , demonstration , and commercialization facility for energy and environment technologies development . The center is a nonprofit division of the University of North Dakota . The center was founded in 1951 as the Robertson Lignite Research Laboratory , a federal facility under the United States Bureau of Mines . It became a federal energy technology center under the United States Department of Energy in 1977 and was defederalized in 1983 . The center employs approximately 210 employees . The EERC conducts research , development , demonstration , and commercialization activities involving zero-emissions coal conversion ; CO2 capture and sequestration ; energy and water sustainability ; hydrogen and fuel cells ; advanced air emission control technologies , emphasizing SOx , NOx , air toxics , fine particulate , CO2 , and mercury control ; renewable energy ; wind energy ; water management ; flood prevention ; global climate change ; waste utilization ; energy efficiency ; and contaminant cleanup . The EERC is located on more than 15 acre of land on the southeast corner of the UND campus in Grand Forks , North Dakota , and houses 254000 sqft of laboratories , fabrication facilities , technology demonstration facilities , and offices . The EERC has a current contract portfolio of over $ 208.4 million and the EERC 's estimated regional economic impact is $ 78.1 million . Since 1987 , the EERC has had more than 1,315 clients in 50 states and 52 countries .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_and_Environmental_Research_Center", "rank": 95, "score": 106112 }, { "content": "Title: International Solar Energy Society Content: The International Solar Energy Society ( ISES ) is a global organization for promoting the development and utilisation of renewable energy . ISES is a UN-accredited NGO and David S. Renné is the current president . It has its headquarters in Freiburg im Breisgau , Germany . ISES was formed in 1954 as a worldwide non-profit organisation dedicated to the advancement of the utilisation of solar energy . ISES is now active in over 110 countries worldwide . Its members include scientists and researchers , plus many others from industry , solar energy associations and other private and public organisations .", "qid": "420", "docid": "International_Solar_Energy_Society", "rank": 96, "score": 106059 }, { "content": "Title: Marches Energy Agency Content: Marches Energy Agency ( MEA ) is an energy agency in the United Kingdom , operating on a not-for-profit basis . The agency was formed by Shropshire County Council in 1995 to promote the use of sustainable energy in the area . Richard Davies was the director from 1998 to 2014 , having previously worked as a chemical engineer . Much of their work is conduction in partnership with local authorities , and focuses on helping communities cut their carbon emissions , especially in rural areas .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Marches_Energy_Agency", "rank": 97, "score": 106044 }, { "content": "Title: World Alliance for Decentralized Energy Content: The World Alliance for Decentralized Energy ( WADE ) was founded in 1997 with the original name of the International Cogeneration Alliance . It was originally formed in response to the UNFCCC meetings in Kyoto to raise the profile of cogeneration on the agenda . In 2002 the organization changed its name to WADE and broadened its scope to include all forms of decentralized energy or distributed generation including renewable technologies such as solar PV and small scale wind power .", "qid": "420", "docid": "World_Alliance_for_Decentralized_Energy", "rank": 98, "score": 105600 }, { "content": "Title: Hi-Gen Power Content: Hi-Gen Power ( former name : B9 Coal ) is a London-based developer of projects combining underground coal gasification with carbon capture and storage and alkaline fuel cells . It was established in 2009 to commercialize alkaline fuel cells developed by the fuel cell manufacturer AFC Energy . It is affiliated with B9 Gas . In 2010 , B9 Coal in cooperation with AFC Energy and underground coal gasification developer Linc Energy commissioned a hydrogen fuel cell named Alfa System at the Chinchilla underground coal gasification facility . Combining these technologies allows usage of hydrogen , produced by the underground coal gasification process , as a feedstock for the fuel cell . In August 2010 , B9 Coal proposed usage of combined underground coal gasification and alkaline fuel cells technologies at the Rio Tinto Alcan Lynemouth power station in Northumberland . In October 2010 , AFC Energy , Powerfuel Power , and B9 Coal agreed to integrate AFC Energy 's fuel cell technology with the integrated gasification combined cycle technology at the planned Hatfield power station at the Hatfield Colliery near Doncaster .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Hi-Gen_Power", "rank": 99, "score": 105552 }, { "content": "Title: Energy and Environmental Security Initiative Content: Established in 2003 , the Energy and Environmental Security Initiative ( EESI ) is an interdisciplinary Research & Policy Institute located at the University of Colorado Law School . The fundamental mission of EESI is to serve as an interdisciplinary research and policy center concerning the development and crafting of State policies , U.S. energy policies , and global responses to the world 's energy crisis ; and to facilitate the attainment of a global sustainable energy future through the innovative use of laws , policies and technology solutions . In pursuit of this mission , EESI 's primary operational function is that of an enabling environment for teaching , research and policy analysis vis-à-vis the impact of laws and policies on the scientific , technological , sociopolitical , commercial , and environmental dimensions of sustainable energy .", "qid": "420", "docid": "Energy_and_Environmental_Security_Initiative", "rank": 100, "score": 105370 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Tide gauge Content: A tide gauge ( also known as mareograph or marigraph , as well as sea-level recorder ) is a device for measuring the change in sea level relative to a datum . Sensors continuously record the height of the water level with respect to a height reference surface close to the geoid . Water enters the device by the bottom pipe ( far end of the tube , see picture ) , and electronic sensors measure its height and send the data to a tiny computer . Historical data are available for about 1,450 stations worldwide , of which about 950 provided updates to the global data center since January 2010 . At some places records cover centuries , for example in Amsterdam where data dating back to 1700 is available . When it comes to estimating the greater ocean picture , new modern tide gauges can often be improved upon by using satellite data . Tide gauges are used to measure tides and quantify the size of tsunamis . The measurements make it possible to derive the mean sea level . Using this method , sea level slopes up to several 0.1 m/1000 km and more have been detected . A tsunami can be detected when the sea level begins to rise , although warnings from seismic activity can be more useful .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Tide_gauge", "rank": 1, "score": 162017 }, { "content": "Title: UK National Tide Gauge Network Content: The UK National Tide Gauge Network is part of the National Tidal and Sea Level Facility . It was set up in 1953 to record sea levels around the coast of the UK , after the east coast of England was affected by severe floods . Gauges positioned at 43 locations around the UK coast record data , which is archived at the British Oceanographic Data Centre in Liverpool . Once quality controlled , this data is made available for scientific use .", "qid": "424", "docid": "UK_National_Tide_Gauge_Network", "rank": 2, "score": 147237 }, { "content": "Title: Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level Content: The Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level is a repository for tide gauge data used in the measurement of long-term sea level change . The PSMSL is based at the National Oceanography Centre in Liverpool , England . It was founded in 1933 as the IUGG Mean Sea Level Committee , and adopted as a Permanent Service of the International Council for Science in 1958 . The tide gauge data are freely accessible by all , and consist predominantly of monthly-mean and annual-mean sea levels . The primary , `` Revised Local Reference '' data set has a continuous history of benchmark surveys for each gauge , ensuring that sea level is measured relative to a known land-based datum . There is also a `` Metric '' data set without such datum control , and a set of hourly and daily ocean bottom pressure data from the open ocean . The latter has no datum control , and the instruments are prone to calibration drift , so the bottom pressure data are useful only for oscillations with periods significantly shorter than the length of an individual instrument deployment ( typically 1 year ) . The PSMSL is financially supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council , the International Council for Science World Data System , and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Permanent_Service_for_Mean_Sea_Level", "rank": 3, "score": 133300 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy Lewis Content: George Edward `` Duffy '' Lewis ( April 18 , 1888 -- June 17 , 1979 ) , born in San Francisco , California , was a left fielder and right-handed batter who played Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox ( 1910 -- 17 ) , New York Yankees ( 1919 -- 20 ) and Washington Senators ( 1921 ) . Lewis attended Saint Mary 's College of California .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy_Lewis", "rank": 4, "score": 130513 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy-Herreshoff watertaxi Content: The Duffy-Herreshoff DH30 watertaxi is an 18-person hydrogen fueled passenger ship , power-assisted by an electric motor that gets its electricity from a fuel cell . The watertaxi debuted on October 20 , 2003 in San Francisco ( Newport Beach ) .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy-Herreshoff_watertaxi", "rank": 5, "score": 130182 }, { "content": "Title: Rachel Campos-Duffy Content: Rachel Campos-Duffy ( born October 22 , 1971 ) is an American television personality who first gained fame in 1994 as a cast member on the MTV reality television series The Real World : San Francisco , before becoming a TV host , most notably as a recurring guest host on the ABC talk show The View . She was ranked one of `` Newsmax 's 50 Most Influential Latino Republicans '' in 2016 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Rachel_Campos-Duffy", "rank": 6, "score": 127184 }, { "content": "Title: San Bernardino train disaster Content: The San Bernardino train disaster , sometimes known as the Duffy Street incident , was a combination of two separate but related incidents that occurred in San Bernardino , California , United States : a runaway train derailment on May 12 , 1989 ; and the subsequent failure on May 25 , 1989 , of the Calnev Pipeline , a petroleum pipeline adjacent to the tracks which was damaged by earth-moving equipment during the crash cleanup .", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Bernardino_train_disaster", "rank": 7, "score": 124840 }, { "content": "Title: National Tidal and Sea Level Facility Content: Established in 2002 , The National Tidal and Sea Level Facility is responsible for monitoring sea levels in the UK . The NTSLF comprises the UK National Tide Gauge Network , geodetic networks , and gauges in the British Dependent Territories of the South Atlantic and Gibraltar . Data collected is used to create tidal predictions , monitor climate change and determine extreme sea levels for navigation and coastal engineering design . The Network is funded by the UK Environment Agency . Associated scientific research is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council ( NERC ) and the Department for Environment , Food and Rural Affairs ( Defra ) .", "qid": "424", "docid": "National_Tidal_and_Sea_Level_Facility", "rank": 8, "score": 123591 }, { "content": "Title: Tide Content: Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth . The times and amplitude of tides at any given locale are influenced by the alignment of the Sun and Moon , by the pattern of tides in the deep ocean , by the amphidromic systems of the oceans , and the shape of the coastline and near-shore bathymetry ( see Timing ) . Some shorelines experience a semi-diurnal tide -- two nearly equal high and low tides each day . Other locations experience a diurnal tide -- only one high and low tide each day . A `` mixed tide '' -- two uneven tides a day , or one high and one low -- is also possible . Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to a number of factors . To make accurate records , tide gauges at fixed stations measure water level over time . Gauges ignore variations caused by waves with periods shorter than minutes . These data are compared to the reference ( or datum ) level usually called mean sea level . While tides are usually the largest source of short-term sea-level fluctuations , sea levels are also subject to forces such as wind and barometric pressure changes , resulting in storm surges , especially in shallow seas and near coasts . Tidal phenomena are not limited to the oceans , but can occur in other systems whenever a gravitational field that varies in time and space is present . For example , the solid part of the Earth is affected by tides , though this is not as easily seen as the water tidal movements .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Tide", "rank": 9, "score": 122465 }, { "content": "Title: Matt Duffy Content: Matthew Michael Duffy ( born January 15 , 1991 ) is an American professional baseball shortstop for the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball ( MLB ) . He played college baseball at Long Beach State and was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2012 . He bats and throws right-handed .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Matt_Duffy", "rank": 10, "score": 118140 }, { "content": "Title: Warwick Avenue (song) Content: `` Warwick Avenue '' is a song by Welsh singer Duffy from her debut album Rockferry ( 2008 ) . The title refers to Warwick Avenue tube station in London . It was written by Jimmy Hogarth , Eg White , and Duffy and produced by Hogarth . It was released in May 2008 as the third single ( second in North America ) from the album , but had already charted by March and April due to download sales . It peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart due to strong download and physical sales and has sold 249,165 copies in the UK to date . The B-side to the 7 '' single is `` Loving You '' , and was written by Duffy , Richard J. Parfitt of the 60ft Dolls and Owen Powell of Catatonia . This song was number forty-one on Rolling Stones list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008 . An official remix exists featuring a verse by American rapper Wale .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Warwick_Avenue_(song)", "rank": 11, "score": 116611 }, { "content": "Title: Frank Duffy (baseball) Content: Frank Thomas Duffy ( born October 14 , 1946 ) is a retired American shortstop who spent all or part of ten seasons from 1970 to 1979 in Major League Baseball ( MLB ) with the Cincinnati Reds ( 1970 -- 1971 ) , San Francisco Giants ( 1971 ) , Cleveland Indians ( 1972 -- 1977 ) and Boston Red Sox ( 1978 -- 1979 ) . As of 2016 , he is one of four Turlock High School baseball players to have reached the majors , along with Brad Lesley , Steve Soderstrom and Dan Reichert . A 1964 graduate who also starred in basketball and football , Duffy was inducted into the school 's Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997 . Duffy is probably most remembered for being a part of what is considered a lopsided trade between the Reds and Giants . On May 29 , 1971 , Duffy was traded along with pitcher Vern Geishert for young outfielder George Foster . Geishert , who had played briefly in the majors in 1969 , never played in the majors again , while Foster developed into a feared slugger and an important cog in `` The Big Red Machine '' , the Reds ' dynastic team of the first half of the 1970s . Later that same year , Duffy was part of a second trade that is almost as infamous . On November 29 , exactly seven months after the previous trade , Duffy was traded with pitcher Gaylord Perry to the Indians , with the Giants receiving pitcher Sam McDowell . In this case , Duffy was on the other side of the lopsided deal , as he went on to be the Indians ' starting shortstop for several years , leading the league in fielding percentage for shortstops in 1973 , and placing in the top 5 for that same stat for his first 5 years in Cleveland . Perry went on to win 20 games three times , receive two Cy Young Awards , and eventually earn a place in the Hall of Fame , while McDowell pitched for four seasons , winning 10 games in 1972 but only 9 in the next three seasons combined . Duffy was dealt to the Red Sox for Rick Kreuger on March 23 , 1978 . He became expendable after his unexpected re-signing just before the start of spring training created a glut of shortstops for the Indians who had acquired Tom Veryzer and Dave Rosello during the off-season . His time in Boston was most noted for his quote `` The team gets off a plane and twenty-five players go off in twenty-five different cabs , '' an indictment of his teammates ' egocentric discord that resulted in their inability to cope with adversity during the Red Sox 's 1978 American League East pennant race collapse . Duffy appeared in only 70 games with the Red Sox who released him on May 22 , 1979 . Duffy retired and is a resident of Tucson , Arizona .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Frank_Duffy_(baseball)", "rank": 12, "score": 115917 }, { "content": "Title: Henyon-Kasper-Duffy Barn Content: Henyon-Kasper-Duffy Barn is a historic building located south of Solon , Iowa , United States . The barn was built for Bradford `` Hoss '' Henyon in 1876 . He owned this farm from 1848 until his death in 1879 . He used the barn as a changing station for horses on both the stage route and the mail route on the Old Dubuque Road , which passed in front of the farm . James B. Kasper bought the farm from the Henyon 's and his son John took over from him . They also housed horses in the barn . John 's son-in-law Charles Duffy took over the farm and then his son Chuck succeeded him . During the Duffy ownership the barn housed hogs and then Newport Valley Shorthorn cattle . The barn is unusually tall for its time . In order to provide additional stability , it employs two tall canted ( leaning ) posts along with the more common vertical posts in its construction , which is unusual for a barn of this type . The canted posts support a secondary girt below the principal tie beam instead of the principal beam itself . The barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Henyon-Kasper-Duffy_Barn", "rank": 13, "score": 114036 }, { "content": "Title: Tides (organization) Content: Tides is a donor-advised fund that directs money to politically liberal causes . Founded in 1976 in San Francisco , Tides provides money to organizations working to advance progressive policy in the areas of the environment , health care , labor issues , immigrant rights , gay rights , women 's rights and human rights . It also offers fiscal sponsorships and management services and manages two centers in San Francisco and New York that offer collaborative spaces for social ventures and other nonprofits . Tides oversees the Tides Center , which helps develop smaller progressive organizations .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Tides_(organization)", "rank": 14, "score": 112150 }, { "content": "Title: Clinton Truman Duffy Content: Clinton Truman Duffy ( 1898 -- 1982 ) was the warden of San Quentin State Prison between 1940 and 1952 . He was a prominent opponent of capital punishment .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Clinton_Truman_Duffy", "rank": 15, "score": 111225 }, { "content": "Title: John Duffy and David Mulcahy Content: John Duffy and David Mulcahy ( both born 1959 ) are two British rapists and serial killers who together attacked numerous women and children at railway stations in the south of England during the 1980s . They are known as the Railway Rapists and the Railway Killers .", "qid": "424", "docid": "John_Duffy_and_David_Mulcahy", "rank": 16, "score": 110534 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy the Disney Bear Content: Duffy the Disney Bear is a Disney character that can be found at the Tokyo Disney Resort , Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park in California , Walt Disney World in Florida , Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland Paris . As the story goes , Minnie Mouse created Duffy for Mickey Mouse as he was packing for a long voyage at sea . Duffy is available for purchase and at `` meet and greets . '' Duffy is seen a lot in the Disney Parks where kids carry them around , Although originally created for and briefly sold at the Disney World Once Upon a Toy shop in Orlando in 2002 , Duffy only became popular after OLC executives adopted the character , gave it a name and a backstory , and aggressively marketed it in the Tokyo DisneySea park . Japanese fans took to it and some of them started to carry around multiple Duffy plush bears during their visits to the park . The My Friend Duffy show replaced a Donald Duck-themed show at the American Waterfront Cape Cod Cook-Off hamburger restaurant in 2010 . Duffy was previously known as `` The Disney Bear '' with an entirely different backstory . The original story found on the tag of the first released bear 's ear said that Mickey brought his favorite bear to Magic Kingdom Park . Mickey sat in front of the castle wishing that he had a friend with him to share the excitement and magic of the park . Tinker Bell appears and sprinkles pixie dust on Mickey 's bear , bringing it to life . Mickey then hugs the bear and a Mickey-shape appears on the bear 's face , forever bonding Mickey and his new friend . Duffy the Disney Bear joined the American Disney parks on October 14 , 2010 . He was welcomed at Epcot in Walt Disney World and Disney California Adventure Park at Disneyland Resort . He then joined Hong Kong Disneyland Resort on November 19 , 2010 . He was welcomed at Main Street , U.S.A. in Hong Kong Disneyland Park . He joined Disneyland Paris on June 2011 . He made his official debut in Disneyland Paris at Disneyland Park on November 7 , 2011 , for its holiday season . He has his own character greeting area and photo location in Town Square . He has a character greeting location at Disneyland Hotel and at Disney 's Newport Bay Club Hotel . He participates in the daily daytime parade `` Disney 's Once Upon a Dream Parade '' in the Christmas unit `` Dreams of Christmas '' . He is also at the daily nighttime show `` Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony '' . Duffy is featured in the video game Kinect Disneyland Adventures , where players can interact with him although he does n't speak . Duffy is unique among Disney characters in that he was not first featured in a Disney movie or TV show until he made his television debut in the 2010 Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade . He also is on his own Bedtime Story Channel in Walt Disney World . On 13 December 2012 Duffy debuted in the Disney Store in the U.K. , as well as the Disney Stores in the United States .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy_the_Disney_Bear", "rank": 17, "score": 109499 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level rise Content: A sea level rise is an increase in the volume of water in the world 's oceans , resulting in an increase in global mean sea level . Sea level rise is usually attributed to global climate change by thermal expansion of the water in the oceans and by melting of Ice sheets and glaciers on land . Melting of floating ice shelves or icebergs at sea raises sea levels only slightly . Sea level rise at specific locations may be more or less than the global average . Local factors might include tectonic effects , subsidence of the land , tides , currents , storms , etc. . Sea level rise is expected to continue for centuries . Because of the slow inertia , long response time for parts of the climate system , it has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 m for each degree Celsius of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years . IPCC Summary for Policymakers , AR5 , 2014 , indicated that the global mean sea level rise will continue during the 21st century , very likely at a faster rate than observed from 1971 to 2010 . Projected rates and amounts vary . A January 2017 NOAA report suggests a range of GMSL rise of 0.3 -- 2.5 m possible during the 21st century . Sea level rises can considerably influence human populations in coastal and island regions and natural environments like marine ecosystems .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Sea_level_rise", "rank": 18, "score": 109199 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy, Australian Capital Territory Content: Duffy ( postcode : 2611 ) is a suburb in the Canberra district of Weston Creek . On Census night 2011 , Duffy had a population of 3,241 people . Duffy was named in honour of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy , ( 1816 -- 1903 ) the 8th Premier of Victoria . Streets in the suburb of Duffy are named after Australian dams and reservoirs . Duffy was gazetted as a placename on 2 July 1970 . The Canberra bushfires of 2003 destroyed about 200 Duffy homes and the local petrol station . Duffy was the suburb that received the most damage in the fires . Narrabundah Hill , which borders the western edge of Duffy , is managed by ACT Forests and had contained a mature pine plantation before the fires . , work was under way to plant a new plantation on the hill and surrounding areas .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy,_Australian_Capital_Territory", "rank": 19, "score": 108802 }, { "content": "Title: Augustine Duffy Content: Augustine Michael Duffy ( February 18 , 1905 -- July 26 , 1966 ) was a businessman and politician in Newfoundland , Canada . He represented Ferryland from 1951 to 1952 and St. John 's Centre from 1956 to 1962 in the Newfoundland House of Assembly . His first name also appears as Augustus in some sources . The son of Michael A. Duffy and Mary J. Lawlor , he was born in St. John 's in 1905 and was educated at Saint Bonaventure 's College . Duffy married his first wife , Ethel Oliphant , around 1930 ; the couple had two daughters . Ethel died from tuberculosis in 1935 and he married Elizabeth M. Morrisey in 1938 ; there were no children from his second marriage . He was managing director of A.M. Duffy Ltd. and of The Colonial Stationery Ltd. . He was first elected to the Newfoundland assembly in 1951 as a Progressive Conservative . The results of the election were overturned due to voting irregularities and Duffy was defeated in the by-election that followed . He was elected again in 1956 but , in 1959 , he left the Conservative party and joined the United Newfoundland Party . Duffy was co-founder of the party with John R. O'Dea . He was defeated when he ran for re-election in 1962 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Augustine_Duffy", "rank": 20, "score": 106668 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy of San Quentin Content: Duffy of San Quentin is a 1954 American film noir crime film directed by Walter Doniger and written by Walter Doniger and Berman Swarttz . The film stars Louis Hayward , Joanne Dru , Paul Kelly , Maureen O'Sullivan , George Macready and Horace McMahon . The film was released by Warner Bros. on March 16 , 1954 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy_of_San_Quentin", "rank": 21, "score": 106382 }, { "content": "Title: James Duffy (athlete) Content: Jimmy McNiff/Duffy ( May 1 , 1890 in County Sligo , Ireland -- April 23 , 1915 outside Ypres , Belgium ) was a distance runner from Canada , one of the world 's best marathon runners at the beginning of the 20th century . He participated in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm and was the winner of the 1914 Boston Marathon . Born in Ireland , Duffy grew up in Edinburgh , Scotland after moving there with his family as a child . According to his own later account , Duffy participated in cross-country races in Scotland , winning many of them . In 1911 he emigrated to Canada , where he worked in Toronto as a tinsmith and stonecutter . In his spare time he visited the Central YMCA , the director of which quickly recognized his talent . Representing the Central YMCA , Duffy came in second in the 1911 Ward Marathon , a twenty-mile event in Toronto . During the race Duffy stopped to argue with supporters of another runner . In May 1912 , he ran the Spectator Marathon in Hamilton , Ontario , which served that year as the Canadian Olympic trial . The race , which was reduced to nineteen miles , was run in exceedingly hot and humid weather . Only eight of twenty-five starters finished the race . Duffy himself had overestimated his strength , but qualified for the Olympics by finishing in second place behind Harry Jensen of the United States , who passed him in the final mile and won by twenty seconds . Representing the Eaton Athletic Club of Toronto , Duffy placed fifth in the marathon at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm , which also took place in very high temperatures , resulting in the death of Portuguese runner Francisco Lázaro . In October 1912 Duffy won both the Ward Marathon and the Hamilton Herald 's race around Hamilton Bay , setting a new course record in the latter event . After the Hamilton Bay race Duffy accepted full-time coaching from athletic trainer Tommy Thomson , who persuaded him to relocate to Hamilton , where he joined the Ramblers Club . With Thomson as trainer , Duffy won seven consecutive marathons , including one in Yonkers , New York . On April 20 , 1914 , Duffy won the Boston Marathon in 2:25:01 . His success had gotten around and he was so much the favorite that the Boston bookmakers would not take high bets on his victory . The race developed into a thriller , with fellow Canadian runner Édouard Fabre matching Duffy 's pace throughout . Only in the final mile did Duffy gain a small lead , winning the race by fifteen seconds . Duffy 's first request after his victory was for a cigarette , and after his post-race medical examination he asked for a bottle of beer . After the Boston Marathon Duffy turned professional , losing his first professional race to Édouard Fabre . Duffy enlisted in the Canadian Army at the outbreak of World War I . He joined the 91st Argyle Regiment and was subsequently transferred to the 16th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force . Duffy was killed in a charge against the Germans while serving with the 16th Battalion in the Second Battle of Ypres on April 23 , 1915 , eight days before his twenty-fifth birthday and four days after Édouard Fabre won the 1915 Boston Marathon .", "qid": "424", "docid": "James_Duffy_(athlete)", "rank": 22, "score": 106129 }, { "content": "Title: Storm tides of the North Sea Content: A storm tide is a tide with a high flood period caused by a storm . Storm tides can be a severe danger to the coast and the people living along the coast . The water level can rise to more than 5 metres ( 17 ft ) above the normal tide . The North Sea , especially the Netherlands , northern Germany and Denmark is particularly susceptible to storm tides . The coastline of the German Bight forms an L-shape facing northwest . Also vulnerable is the southern North Sea between England and the Netherlands , where the sea shallows and is funnelled between the land . For the protection of the low-lying areas along the coast , long and high dike systems have been built . Storm tides are a regular occurrence in these areas ; usually , there are several storm tides each winter . Most of them do not cause significant damage .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Storm_tides_of_the_North_Sea", "rank": 23, "score": 105099 }, { "content": "Title: Nicolás de Cardona Content: thumb | World map included by Nicolás de Cardona in his report about the trip to the Kingdom of California . It shows California as an island . thumb | 250px | right | Original Chart of San Francisco de Campeche by Nicolás de Cardona , 17th century , towards 1620 . From Archivo de Indias , Seville Spain . Nicolás de Cardona was a Spanish entrepreneur and adventurer with residence in Seville , who was involved in the exploration of the Western coast of the North American continent In 1610 , Nicolas sailed from Spain to the Americas , as a captain in the fleet of General Juan Gutiérrez de Garibay . Nicolas commanded six ships together with Captain Francisco Basilio . On 13 August 1611 a concession for the exploitation of pearl fishing along the California coast , previously held unsuccessfully by Sebastián Vizcaíno , was given to Tomás de Cardona ( the uncle of Nicolás ) , Sancho de Merás , and Francisco de la Paraya , all Sevillans . Nicolas was put in charge of the exploration . He went to Acapulco end of 1614 and built three frigates there , the San Antonio , San Francisco and San Diego . During the following years , Nicolas attempted in vain to establish a pearl business , and fought against Dutch intrusions by Joris van Spilbergen . Ruined , Nicolas went back to Spain to obtain more funds , and once again set to develop the pearling business , receiving Royal Orders in May 1618 . He finally returned to Spain in 1623 , where he published in 1624 his Hydrographic and Geographic Descriptions of Many northern and Southern Lands and Seas in the Indies , Specifically of the Discovery of the Kingdom of California .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Nicolás_de_Cardona", "rank": 24, "score": 104868 }, { "content": "Title: James E. Duffy (American football) Content: James Eugene Duffy ( January 10 , 1867 -- September 16 , 1953 ) was an American football player and lawyer . He played halfback for the University of Michigan football team for seven years from 1885 to 1891 and was captain of the 1888 team . In 1886 , he set the world record by drop kicking a football 168 feet , 7 1/2 inches . After graduating from Michigan , he was an attorney in Bay City , Michigan and a long-time member of the University of Michigan Board in Control of Athletics .", "qid": "424", "docid": "James_E._Duffy_(American_football)", "rank": 25, "score": 104465 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy Site Content: The Duffy Site is a substantial archaeological site along the Wabash River in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Illinois . Located near the village of New Haven in Gallatin County , it is the type site for the Duffy Complex , a group of similar sites on the Illinois side of the Wabash near its confluence with the Ohio River . Duffy is distinctive largely because of its pottery : the site 's inhabitants typically produced ceramics of various thicknesses and comparatively few decorative elements , tempered with grog . What decorations exist are typically limited to one or two rows of simple lines or bars that have been incised or stamped on the side of the piece of pottery . Projectile points found at the site are small triangular `` Mounds Stemless '' points , and the inhabitants produced celts of a vaguely rectangular shape . The site is believed to have been inhabited circa AD 1000 . Duffy is clearly related to sites of the Yankeetown Complex , which is named for the Yankeetown Site on the Ohio River east of Evansville , Indiana . Like Duffy , the people of Yankeetown produced grog-tempered pottery with few details other than incisions , although differences between Duffy and Yankeetown pottery are substantial enough to rule out a close connection between the two peoples . Nevertheless , the two sites share certain cultural influences : both feature Late Woodland elements , and as Yankeetown appears to show the beginnings of an indigenous form of the Mississippian culture , Duffy bears some evidence of Mississippian influence . Other Illinois sites potentially related to the Duffy Complex include Carrier Mills in Saline County , which shows some Duffy influence , and Gallatin County 's Illinois Salines , which has yielded pottery more closely resembling that of Duffy than that of Yankeetown . The latter site appears to have been under Duffy control as the region was transitioning from terminal Late Woodland to Mississippian . In 1977 , the Duffy Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places , qualifying because of its archaeological importance ; it is one of seven Gallatin County locations on the Register , as is the Great Salt Spring .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy_Site", "rank": 26, "score": 104456 }, { "content": "Title: San Francisco International Airport station Content: San Francisco International Airport station is a Bay Area Rapid Transit ( BART ) reversal station on the Pittsburg/Bay Point -- SFO/Millbrae line located inside the San Francisco International Airport , also known as SFO or SFIA . The station is located on level 3 of the International Terminal , next to Parking Garage G . There are two entrances and exits -- one on level 3 , adjacent to the grand foyer off the north side of the International Terminal ; and the other is a level up at the Garage G/BART AirTrain station .", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Francisco_International_Airport_station", "rank": 27, "score": 104323 }, { "content": "Title: John Duffy (economist) Content: John Duffy ( born January 2 , 1964 ) is an American economist . He earned an A.B. in Economics from the University of California , Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California , Los Angeles . He is currently Professor of economics at the University of California , Irvine . He was previously Professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh . Duffy 's research interests are in behavioral economics , experimental economics , game theory and macroeconomics .", "qid": "424", "docid": "John_Duffy_(economist)", "rank": 28, "score": 104235 }, { "content": "Title: Sea Level Datum of 1929 Content: The Sea Level Datum of 1929 was the vertical control datum established for vertical control surveying in the United States of America by the General Adjustment of 1929 . The datum was used to measure elevation ( altitude ) above , and depression ( depth ) below , mean sea level ( MSL ) . Mean sea level was measured at 26 tide gauges : 21 in the United States and 5 in Canada . The datum was defined by the observed heights of mean sea level at the 26 tide gauges and by the set of elevations of all bench marks resulting from the adjustment . The adjustment required a total of 66,315 miles ( 106,724 km ) of leveling with 246 closed circuits and 25 circuits at sea level . Since the Sea Level Datum of 1929 was a hybrid model , it was not a pure model of mean sea level , the geoid , or any other equipotential surface . Therefore , it was renamed the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 ( NGVD 29 ) in 1973 . NGVD29 was superseded by the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 ( NAVD 88 ) , based upon an equipotential definition and a readjustment , although many cities and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects with established data continued to use the older datum .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Sea_Level_Datum_of_1929", "rank": 29, "score": 104086 }, { "content": "Title: Gavin Duffy (businessman) Content: Gavin Duffy is an Irish entrepreneur and businessman , and is part owner of the HRM Group of Companies , one of Ireland 's largest recruitment companies . Duffy set up a local radio station employing 20 people by age 18 . In 1989 he set up the country 's first licensed provincial local radio station , LMFM , which was sold to UTV in 2004 for about $ 10 million a sum which Duffy claims holds the Irish and UK record for the highest multiple achieved for a broadcast or publishing asset . He founded his media and management consultancy Mediatraining.ie in 1992 with his wife and business partner Orlaith Carmody . Duffy is a regular conference speaker at business events in Ireland . Duffy has been a dragon on all ( 2009-Present ) series on the Irish version of Dragons ' Den , produced by Raidió Teilifís Éireann .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Gavin_Duffy_(businessman)", "rank": 30, "score": 104037 }, { "content": "Title: Patricia Lynne Duffy Content: Patricia Lynne Duffy is an instructor in the UN Language and Communications Programme . She has an M.A. from Teachers College , Columbia University . She is an Acting Officer of the UN Society of Writers and on the management committee of the UN 1 % for Development Fund . Duffy is the author of Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens : How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds , the first book by a synesthete about synesthesia . ` Blue Cats ' has been reviewed in both the popular press as well as in academic journals , Cerebrum and the APA Review of Books . The book describes Duffy 's own experience of synesthesia , as well as that of the many synesthetes she interviewed , as well as theories of what causes synesthetic perception . Duffy is also the author of the chapter , `` Synesthesia and Literature '' , included in the Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia ( Oxford University Press , 2013 ) . Duffy has taught English at New York University , the City University of New York , and the UN Language and Communications Programme , including staff training abroad at UN offices in Addis Ababa , Arusha , Entebbe , Kigali , Monrovia , Nairobi , and Port-au-Prince . Her article on development micro-projects , `` Kitengesa , Uganda : Happy Developments '' was published on the web site of Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs . In addition , Duffy has written articles for publications including New York Newsday , the San Francisco Chronicle ( All the Colors of the Rainbow ) , the Boston Globe , and the Village Voice . Ms. Duffy wrote two award-winning essays , Taipei Tales and Dining in French for the literary journal Literal Latte . Her work is included in the anthologies They Only Laughed Later : Tales of Women on the Move ( Europublic Press ) and Soulful Living ( HCI ) . She has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia and lived and worked in China for a year and a half . Her special interest is in what she terms `` personal coding '' , the unique way in which each person codes information and makes a one-of-a-kind `` inner map '' of the world around them . She has been interviewed about her research and her synesthesia by a number of publications including the New York Times , the Washington Post , Smithsonian magazine , Discover Magazine , and Newsweek , as well as on TV and radio programs such as National Public Radio , the BBC , Public Radio International and the Discovery Channel . Duffy has given presentations on synesthesia at Yale University , Princeton University , the University of California , San Diego , Rockefeller University , the University of Virginia , the University of Hanover , the University of Almeria , University of Granada , University of Jaen , University of Stockholm and others . Duffy was invited to be a Plenary Speaker on synesthesia at the `` Towards a Science of Consciousness '' conference at University of Arizona at Tucson . She is a co-founder of and consultant to the American Synesthesia Association .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Patricia_Lynne_Duffy", "rank": 31, "score": 103654 }, { "content": "Title: Forest Hill Station (San Francisco) Content: Forest Hill Station is a Muni Metro station near the Forest Hill and Laguna Honda neighborhoods in San Francisco , California . It was originally built as part of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1916-1918 , and is the oldest subway station west of Chicago . The original name of the station is Laguna Honda Station , and the lettering on the front façade still says `` • LAGUNA · HONDA · STATION • TWIN · PEAKS · TUNNEL • '' . The station consists of two side platforms next to the tracks far below the surface . Forest Hill Station is located deeper underground than any other Muni Metro station ; so much so that , unlike other stations , most people use an elevator to reach the platform at Forest Hill . Unlike all other underground Muni Metro stations , there is no underground concourse mezzanine level directly above the platform level . Instead , the concourse level is in a building on the surface . Currently , the L Taraval and M Ocean View stop at the station both inbound and outbound . The K Ingleside stops on outbound trips while the T Third Street stops on inbound ones , as the two lines are interlined following a service change on June 30 , 2007 . Scenes from the films Dirty Harry ( 1971 ) and Milk ( 2008 ) were shot inside of this station .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Forest_Hill_Station_(San_Francisco)", "rank": 32, "score": 103594 }, { "content": "Title: Wave Organ Content: The Wave Organ is an sculpture constructed on the shore of San Francisco Bay in May 1986 by the Exploratorium . Through a series of pipes , the Wave Organ interacts with the waves of the bay and conveys their sound to listeners at several different stations . The effects produced vary depending on the level of the tide but include rumbles , gurgles , sloshes , hisses , and other more typical wave sounds . The structure incorporates stone platforms and benches where visitors may sit near the mouths of pipes , listening . The Wave Organ is located at the end of a spit of land extending from the Golden Gate Yacht Club . The stone pieces used in its construction were salvaged from the demolition of the Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco . Exploratorium artist in residence Peter Richards conceived and designed the organ , working with sculptor and mason George Gonzales . There is a panoramic view of the city across the narrow channel into the St. Francis and Golden Gate yacht clubs , bounded on the left by the Fort Mason piers and to the right by a towering eucalyptus grove bordering Crissy Field . The park and trail to it are wheelchair accessible , with the trailhead at the Marina Green park . The Wave Organ includes 25 PVC organ pipes and is dedicated to Frank Oppenheimer . Oppenheimer was the founding director of the Exploratorium , led the fundraising efforts for the Wave Organ , and died seven months before construction started .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Wave_Organ", "rank": 33, "score": 103355 }, { "content": "Title: Between the Tides Content: Part of Stanford University 's Spatial History Project , headed by Richard White ( historian ) , Between the Tides is a digital history project that seeks to show how the San Francisco Bay and its shoreline have changed over time by overlaying seemingly disparate data sets . More generally , because of the bay 's `` twin character as both urban and natural , '' this project aims to provide insights into the complicated and constantly changing relationship between society and nature .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Between_the_Tides", "rank": 34, "score": 103284 }, { "content": "Title: San Jose and Ocean Content: San Jose and Ocean is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's J Church line . It is located in the Mission Terrace neighborhood . It is located along the edge of Balboa Park . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Jose_and_Ocean", "rank": 35, "score": 103166 }, { "content": "Title: San Felipe, Baja California Content: San Felipe is a town on the bay of San Felipe in the Gulf of California ( Sea of Cortez ) in the Mexican state of Baja California , 190 km south of the United States border and within the municipality of Mexicali . It also serves as a borough seat of its surrounding area . The Bay of San Felipe is 3 meters above sea level . At low tide , the water can recede as much as 2 km . San Felipe experiences one of the largest tidal bores in the world due in part to the Colorado River delta to the north . The seven-meter tides expose a kilometer of ocean floor . The port of San Felipe is a small town historically dependent on fishing and now on tourism , catering mostly to U.S. travelers and containing an international airport . The population of San Felipe was 16,702 at the 2010 census , and can increase by up to 5,000 due to the presence of Canadian and U.S. part-time residents ( retirees and vacation homeowners ) , who travel to the town from the United States during the American holidays spring break and Memorial Day .", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Felipe,_Baja_California", "rank": 36, "score": 102768 }, { "content": "Title: Eddie & the Tide Content: Eddie & the Tide were an American band started by Steve `` Eddie '' Rice in 1983 . They continued to play the San Francisco Bay Area from 1983 to 1990 . They released five albums and one EP . They appeared on the Lost Boys soundtrack with their song , `` Power Play '' . Eddie & the Tide ( originally named `` The Suburbs '' until forced to change their name by court order ) played frequently during the early 1980s in the Santa Cruz and San Francisco Bay Area at venues such as the Monterey Music Hall in Monterey , The Keystone in Palo Alto , The Stone in San Francisco , and The Catalyst in Santa Cruz and built a loyal following . Eventually signed by Bobby Corona who owned the Keystone night clubs , they released the independent EP `` Maybe I 'll Get Lucky '' in 1982 which went on to be the biggest selling indie release to date in California . In 1984 , they independently released their first full-length album `` I Do It For You '' . They were signed by Atco/Atlantic Records and released two albums `` Go Out and Get It '' and `` Looking For Adventure '' in 1985 and 1987 , respectively . Failing to reach the popularity expected , they were subsequently dropped from their label . They returned to the studio and released `` Dig Down Deep '' independently in 1988 followed by `` Stand Tall '' in 1989 . They also flirted with a name change to `` The Tide '' around this time . Eventually , they withdrew from the music scene and moved on with their personal lives . Steve `` Eddie '' Rice has released two solo albums since then . One in 2000 titled `` It All Comes Down To Love '' and one in 2009 titled `` My Days In The Desert '' . Also , the albums Go Out and Get It and Looking For Adventure were finally released on compact disc and available from the band website .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Eddie_&_the_Tide", "rank": 37, "score": 102481 }, { "content": "Title: Eimar O'Duffy Content: Eimar Ultan O'Duffy ( 29 September 1893 -- 21 March 1935 ) was born in Dublin and educated at Belvedere College in Dublin , Stonyhurst College in Lancashire and at University College Dublin . He and Bulmer Hobson caused disaster to the plans for the 1916 Easter Rising when they told Eoin MacNeill that the Rising was planned for the next week ; MacNeill , nominal head of the Irish Volunteers , reacted by sending messengers around the country to call off the manoeuvres which were the cover for the Rising , and advertising in newspapers to cancel them . O'Duffy and Hobson went to the North .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Eimar_O'Duffy", "rank": 38, "score": 102433 }, { "content": "Title: Uriah Duffy Content: Uriah Duffy ( 31 July 1975 , Wakefield , Rhode Island , United States ) is an American bassist . He is best known as the former bassist of Whitesnake . He is currently the bassist of the California-based progressive rock band Points North . An internationally endorsed musician , Uriah is known for his versatility , with chops ranging from Funk , R&B , Jazz , Hip-Hop , House , Rock , Metal and Gospel .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Uriah_Duffy", "rank": 39, "score": 102348 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean and Lee Content: Ocean and Lee is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located in the Westwood Park neighborhood . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_and_Lee", "rank": 40, "score": 102120 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean and San Leandro Content: Ocean and San Leandro is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located in the Balboa Terrace neighborhood . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_and_San_Leandro", "rank": 41, "score": 102010 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy's Peak Content: Duffy 's Peak is a small hill or butte near the Salt Fork Brazos River in Garza County , Texas . Duffy 's Peak extends less than 50 ft above the Salt Fork , yet despite its small size , it served as an important landmark for early surveyors of the region and is said to be named for a member of the original survey team who died and was buried nearby in the late 1870s . Duffy 's Peak is located in the rolling plains to the south and east of the caprock escarpment of the Llano Estacado . The soils of the area are moderately deep silt loams that support mesquite , yucca , cacti , and grasses . The local terrain is eroded , cut by highly intermittent streams such as the Salt Fork Brazos River and its tributaries , such as McDonald Creek and Lake Creek . These streams typically flow only during periods of heavy rainfall , when flash floods sweep through the area . The erosionally resistant sandstones of the peak 's cap have protected underlying soils that have remained intact while surrounding sediments have eroded away . As a result of this process , Duffy 's Peak now stands out as a small but relatively prominent landmark that can be seen from a significant distance . In 1969 , the Texas Historical Commission erected a historical marker for Duffy 's Peak along Texas State Highway 207 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy's_Peak", "rank": 42, "score": 101682 }, { "content": "Title: San Pedro Rock Content: San Pedro Rock is a rock formation and small island off Point San Pedro in Pacifica , California , in the San Francisco Bay Area 's San Mateo County . Access is only during low tide . At other times , access is blocked by private properties .", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Pedro_Rock", "rank": 43, "score": 101624 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy Peak Content: Duffy Peak is a peak southeast of Hageman Peak in the Staccato Peaks , southwest Alexander Island , Antarctica . Dargomyzhsky glacier extends and flows west from the base of Duffy Peak and enters the nearby Bach Ice Shelf . The peak was photographed from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth in 1935 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Lieutenant Commander Joseph A. Duffy , a U.S. Navy aircraft pilot in Squadron VXE-6 during Operation Deep Freeze , 1969 and 1970 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy_Peak", "rank": 44, "score": 101430 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean (Muni) Content: Ocean is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's M Ocean View line . It is located in the Merced Manor neighborhood in a special rail-only right of way , as the M train cuts through a small path to avoid several crowded intersections where Sloat and Ocean Avenues meet California Route 1 . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_(Muni)", "rank": 45, "score": 101384 }, { "content": "Title: KHB49 Content: KHB49 ( sometimes referred to as San Francisco All Hazards ) is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the San Francisco Bay Area and can be heard 40 miles into the Pacific Ocean . It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Monterey , California with its transmitter located in Mt. Pise . It broadcasts weather and hazard information for the following counties : Alameda , Contra Costa , Marin , Napa , San Francisco , San Mateo , Santa Clara , and Sonoma .", "qid": "424", "docid": "KHB49", "rank": 46, "score": 101211 }, { "content": "Title: Seaport Centre Content: Seaport Centre is a high-tech business park located in Redwood City , California , United States , and as of 2007 is one of the largest biotechnology research complexes in the San Francisco Bay Area . The property consists of 623000 sqft of developed building area , and is situated in proximity to the Port of Redwood City . The property is classified as Class A office space and is constructed as a series of separate buildings . The original lands of the Seaport Centre were used as salt evaporation ponds on tidal lands of the San Francisco Bay , a land use that started sometime prior to 1940 . As of 2002 leasing rates at Seaport Centre were in the range of $ 27 per square foot per annum . In 2005 , Slough Estates , a United Kingdom-based REIT , purchased the entirety of Seaport Centre to develop it as a biotechnology research center to compete with the existing biotech hubs in Silicon Valley and South San Francisco . The Seaport Centre is located on generally level ground at approximately 25 ft above mean sea level . Stormwater surface runoff is pumped from Seaport Centre to discharge into Redwood Creek", "qid": "424", "docid": "Seaport_Centre", "rank": 47, "score": 101086 }, { "content": "Title: Sea level Content: Mean sea level ( MSL ) ( abbreviated simply sea level ) is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earth 's oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured . MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised geodetic reference pointthat is used , for example , as a chart datum in cartography and marine navigation , or , in aviation , as the standard sea level at which atmospheric pressure is measured in order to calibrate altitude and , consequently , aircraft flight levels . A common and relatively straightforward mean sea-level standard is the midpoint between a mean low and mean high tide at a particular location . Sea levels can be affected by many factors and are known to have varied greatly over geological time scales . The careful measurement of variations in MSL can offer insights into ongoing climate change , and sea level rise has been widely quoted as evidence of ongoing global warming . The term above sea level generally refers to above mean sea level ( AMSL ) .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Sea_level", "rank": 48, "score": 100967 }, { "content": "Title: Tide table Content: Tide tables , sometimes called tide charts , are used for tidal prediction and show the daily times and levels of high and low tides , usually for a particular location . Tide heights at intermediate times ( between high and low water ) can be approximated by using the rule of twelfths or more accurately calculated by using a published tidal curve for the location .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Tide_table", "rank": 49, "score": 100953 }, { "content": "Title: San Jose and Geneva Content: San Jose and Geneva is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's M Ocean View line . It is located in the Ingleside neighborhood near Balboa Park Station . San Jose and Geneva Station is the terminus for the regular service of the M Ocean View line . Trains do not enter the Balboa Park Station/Green Light Rail Center complex like the J Church and K Ingleside lines do , but instead loop around the older Cameron Beach Yard on the opposite corner .", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Jose_and_Geneva", "rank": 50, "score": 100600 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Duffy (American football) Content: Robert C. Duffy ( May 13 , 1903 -- December 9 , 1974 ) was the 20th head football coach at Dickinson College in Carlisle , Pennsylvania and he held that position for two seasons , from 1927 until 1928 . After serving in World War II , he practiced law in Philadelphia and was elected Register of Wills as a Republican in 1953 . Duffy was born in Binghamton , New York in 1903 . He graduated from Lafayette College in 1926 , where he was an All-American football and basketball player . He later received his law degree from Dickinson Law School in 1929 . While at Dickinson , he coached the football team there . His overall coaching record at Dickinson was 6 -- 9 -- 1 . In 1930 , he moved to Philadelphia to take up the practice of law . During World War II , Duffy was assigned to the T13th Transport Squadron , nicknamed `` The Thirsty 13th , '' from September 1942 until January 1945 , first as the Intelligence Officer , and then the Executive Officer -- right-hand man of the Commanding Officer , in New Caledonia , New Hebrides , and Biak . According to various squadron members : `` Duffy was like a father to us . If you needed something , Duffy would get it done . '' `` He was the backbone of the squadron . '' `` The mentor of everyone was Bob Duffy , and everyone hung out with him and played cards with him . '' `` The men loved Major Duffy . '' After the war , Duffy returned to his law practice in Philadelphia . He also became involved with politics there as a Republican and was elected Register of Wills in 1953 . While in office , he served as chairman of the Republican City Committee from 1953 to 1956 . He did not run for re-election as Register of Wills in 1957 , but continued his private law practice . Duffy also remained involved with football , serving as director of the College Football Hall of Fame and a trustee of the Pop Warner Conference . He died in 1974 , at the age of 71 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Robert_Duffy_(American_football)", "rank": 51, "score": 100458 }, { "content": "Title: Edmund Duffy Content: Edmund Duffy ( March 1 , 1899 -- September 12 , 1962 ) , was an American editorial cartoonist . He grew up in Jersey City , New Jersey , eventually moving to main metropolitan areas . Duffy did not attend high school , but instead went into the Art Students League of New York . Duffy 's career took him London , Paris , New York , and finally to Baltimore where he spent the majority of his professional career working for The Baltimore Sun . Throughout his career Duffy won three Pulitzer Prizes for Editorial Cartooning in 1931 , 1934 , and the last one in 1940 . Duffy began to work for the Baltimore Sun in 1924 , when he was only about 25 years old , but he received high praise from the famous journalist , H.L. Mencken .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Edmund_Duffy", "rank": 52, "score": 100451 }, { "content": "Title: Terrence A. Duffy Content: The Honorable Terrence A. `` Terry '' Duffy is a U.S.-based business executive . He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CME Group , the world 's leading derivatives marketplace . In 2014 , CNBC named Duffy on its list Top 200 : Leaders , icons and rebels , recognizing the world 's top business leaders of the last 25 years . In 2014 and 2015 , Chicago Magazine named Duffy on its 100 most powerful people list . Duffy along with the help of the two prior Chairs ( Melamed and Sandner ) helped build CME Group into a brand recognized around the globe and often serves as the voice of the global derivatives industry . In 2016 , CME Group was named the world 's fastest growing and most valuable exchange brand , with a brand value of $ 1.7 billion , beating out the New York Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Exchange . He has served in the chief executive role since November 2016 . He joined the CME board in 1995 and has served as chairman since 2002 and as vice chairman from 1998-2002 . During his tenure , he led CME Group to become the world 's first exchange to demutualize and go public . He also led the company 's mergers and acquisitions , most notably when Chicago Mercantile Exchange acquired its cross-town rival Chicago Board of Trade and later the New York Mercantile Exchange . He helped navigate through the financial crisis of 2008 and was instrumental in shaping the historic Dodd-Frank legislation . Duffy is a Presidential Appointee of the Federal Thrift Investment Board . The FRTIB administers the Thrift Savings Plan , a tax-deferred defined contribution ( retirement savings ) plan for federal employees . He is Vice Chairman of the CME Group Foundation , whose mission is to enhance economic opportunity , health and education , especially for disadvantaged youth . He serves as co-chair of the Mayo Clinic Greater Chicago Leadership Council and he is also a member of the Economic Club of Chicago , the Executives ' Club of Chicago and the President 's Circle of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs . From the time he joined the exchange in 1981 until he assumed the chairman role in 2002 , Duffy was president of his own firm , TDA Trading , Inc. .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Terrence_A._Duffy", "rank": 53, "score": 100352 }, { "content": "Title: William J. Duffy Content: William J. Duffy ( October 29 , 1916 -- February 25 , 2013 ) was an American jurist and legislator . Born in North Branch , Minnesota , Duffy grew up in Hollandtown , Wisconsin and graduated from Kaukauna High School . He graduated from St. Norbert College and received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School . He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II . He then practiced law in Green Bay , Wisconsin . He served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1949 to 1950 as a Democrat . Duffy was elected a Wisconsin Circuit Court judge for Brown County , Wisconsin serving until his retirement in 1992 . He died in Green Bay , Wisconsin .", "qid": "424", "docid": "William_J._Duffy", "rank": 54, "score": 100331 }, { "content": "Title: Alameda Mole Content: The Alameda Mole was a transit and transportation facility in Alameda , California for ferries landing in the East Bay of San Francisco from 1878 to the 1930s . It was located on the west end of Alameda , and later became part of the Alameda Naval Air Station . It was one of three neighbouring moles , the others were the Oakland Mole and the WP Mole ( Western Pacific ) . The purpose of the mole was to extend tracks of rail-based transportation lines beyond the shallow mud flats along the shore of the East Bay into water deep enough to accommodate the passenger and rail ferries to San Francisco . The mole was originally built by the South Pacific Coast Railroad in 1876-1878 to serve as the northern terminal of its narrow gauge railroad to Santa Cruz . The Southern Pacific acquired the mole by lease in 1887 . The mole burned to the water on November 20 , 1902 and was rebuilt larger and farther out into the bay . It was dual gauged ( both narrow and standard gauge ) starting in 1898 and fully standard gauged after 1906 . The Alameda Mole was used by : ( i ) local trolley cars ( such as the Red Line ) , ( ii ) ferries to San Francisco , ( iii ) regular trains running in a horseshoe pattern ( dubbed the Horseshoe Line ) to the Oakland Mole , ( iv ) local steam commuter lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad ( initially , the narrow gauge South Pacific Coast Railroad-later the standard gauge Southern Pacific Railroad ) which were later transformed into the East Bay Electric Lines . Southern Pacific 's electrified trains were not streetcars , but full-sized railroad cars which connected to the mainland by bridges at Webster Street and Fruitvale . The trains ran to both the Oakland Mole and the Alameda Mole . In the 1930s Pan American Airways established a seaplane port along the fill that led to the Alameda Mole . This was the original home base for the China Clipper . With the advent of World War II , a vast stretch of the marshy area southwest of the Alameda Mole was filled and the Naval Air Station Alameda established . This major Naval facility included a large airfield and docks for several aircraft carriers . It closed in 1997 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Alameda_Mole", "rank": 55, "score": 100126 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean Beach, San Francisco Content: Ocean Beach is a beach on the west coast of San Francisco , California , United States , bordering the Pacific Ocean . It is adjacent to Golden Gate Park , the Richmond District , and the Sunset District . The Great Highway runs alongside the beach , and the Cliff House and the site of the former Sutro Baths sit at the northern end . The beach is a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area , which is administered by the National Park Service . During the late spring and summer , San Francisco 's characteristic foggy weather frequently envelops the beach . The average temperature for the last 5 years has been 13.2 C However , the beach is popular with surfers and participants in bonfire parties . More beach-friendly weather occurs in late fall and early spring , when fog is less prevalent . The water at Ocean Beach is noteworthy for its strong currents and waves , which makes it popular among serious surfers . The water is cold , due in part to a process known as upwelling , in which frigid water from below the ocean surface rises to replace the surface water that moves away from the beach as a result of the Coriolis effect . The rapid rip currents and cold water make the ocean dangerous for casual swimmers and even those who simply want to set foot in it , and swimmers have been swept away and drowned . Nevertheless , the beach is one of the Bay Area 's top surfing spots . The southern portion of the beach by Sloat Boulevard is one of the cleanest in the state .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_Beach,_San_Francisco", "rank": 56, "score": 99980 }, { "content": "Title: 44 Montgomery Content: 44 Montgomery is a 43-story , 172 m office skyscraper in the heart of San Francisco 's Financial District . When completed in 1967 , it was the tallest building west of Dallas until 555 California Street was erected in 1969 . The building was once the world headquarters for Wells Fargo Bank . It was sold by AT&T in 1997 for US$ 111 million . The building contains direct underground access to the Montgomery Street Station . Tenants include the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission , Locke Lord , Alpha Omega Financial Systems , Armanino LLP , Invest Northern Ireland , Northwestern University , Signature Consultants and Seagate Properties , Inc. . .", "qid": "424", "docid": "44_Montgomery", "rank": 57, "score": 99512 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy (singer) Content: Duffy ( born 23 June 1984 as Amie Ann Duffy ) is a Welsh singer , songwriter and actress . Born in Gwynedd , Wales , she was introduced to Jeannette Lee of Rough Trade Records , which led to her signing a recording contract with A&M Records in 2007 . Following the release of the singles `` Rockferry '' ( 2007 ) and `` Mercy '' ( 2008 ) , the latter reaching singles charts worldwide , Duffy released her 2008 debut album Rockferry . The album entered the UK Album Chart at number one , and became the best-selling album in the United Kingdom in 2008 with 1.68 million copies sold . The album was certified several times Platinum and sold over 7 million copies worldwide , spawning further successful singles . With `` Mercy '' , Duffy became the first Welsh woman to achieve number-one on the UK Singles Chart since 1983 , while Rockferry was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album amongst further nominations at the 51st Grammy Awards . In 2009 , she won three Brit Awards for British Breakthrough , Best British Female and Best British Album . In 2010 , Duffy released her second album Endlessly . Following its relative critical and commercial failure , in February 2011 , Duffy announced she would take an extended hiatus from music before beginning work on her third album , and made her acting debut in the film Patagonia . She has since appeared in , and contributed music to , the films Secret Love and Legend ( both 2015 ) , in the latter playing American singer Timi Yuro .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy_(singer)", "rank": 58, "score": 99362 }, { "content": "Title: Ten Mile Tide Content: Ten Mile Tide is an independent band originating in San Francisco . They describe their sound as `` feel-good acoustic rock , foot-stomping folk , and beer-drenched bluegrass . '' Twin brothers Jason ( lead electric guitar and vocals ) and Justin ( rhythm acoustic guitar and vocals ) Munning started the band in 1999 at Stanford University along with Steve Kessler ( fiddle ) , Marc Mazzoni ( lead vocals , keyboards ) , Bryan Jayne ( bass , vocals ) , and Brooks Dubose ( drums , vocals ) . Jeff Clemetson ( bass ) , Kristen Kessler ( sound ) and Matt Mitchell ( keyboard ) joined on to form the core of the band which toured in different formats full-time for over 6 years . The band has shared the stage with multiple bands including : , The Wailers , Dispatch , moe. , the Gourds , Reel Big Fish , Karl Denson 's Tiny Universe , Strangefolk , the Clumsy Lovers , The Slip , Jerry Joseph , Assembly of Dust , Luce , Graham Colton , and Hootie & the Blowfish . They 've been to multiple music festivals , and received national and international media attention . They also play at many colleges . In January 2006 , Ten Mile Tide was nominated for a Jammy Award by Relix magazine . In April 2005 , they were selected as the `` New Groove of the Month '' by Jambands.com .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ten_Mile_Tide", "rank": 59, "score": 99352 }, { "content": "Title: James P.B. Duffy Content: James Patrick Bernard Duffy ( November 25 , 1878 -- January 8 , 1969 ) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from New York . Duffy was born in Rochester , New York , one of nine children . He graduated from Georgetown University in 1901 and from Harvard Law School in 1904 . He was admitted to the bar the same year and began practice in partnership with Republican James Breck Perkins , a member of Congress . He abandoned the practice of law in 1914 acceding to his father 's request to take over as manager of The Duffy-Powers Department Store , the family business . There he remained until the concern went bankrupt in 1932 . Duffy was an avid Democratic Party member and held a series of political posts before and after his period on the bench . He was a member of the City of Rochester , New York School Board from 1905 -- 32 , and a member of the New York State Alcoholic Beverage Control Board from 1933-34 . He was elected to Congress in 1934 , having defeated incumbent Republican James L. Whitley and represented New York 's 38th congressional district from January 3 , 1935 until January 3 , 1937 , departing due to his defeat for renomination in 1936 . He was then appointed by Governor Lehman to the New York Supreme Court on April 20 , 1937 and served until December 31 , 1937 . He was defeated by Nathan Lapham in the subsequent election and served until December 31 , 1937 . Duffy practiced law in partnership from 1938 onward , and sat on the New York State Probation Commission from 1938-44 . During the course of his life , Duffy was ubiquitous in the Rochester , New York region . He was a founder and for fifty-two years Director of Family Services of Rochester , fifty-two years a Trustee of the Chamber of Commerce , thirty-four years a counsel to the local Red Cross , forty-two years a Trustee of the Community Chest , thirty-four years a Commissioner of the Rochester Museum , thirty-four years a Trustee of the Rochester Savings Bank , thirty-two years a Director and one year President of the local Automobile Club , fifty-two years a Trustee of St. Patrick 's Church and three years a functionary of the United Service Organization . He was a member of nine different clubs and brotherhoods . He received numerous honors during the course of his life , most notable his designation as a Knight of St. Gregory and a Knight of Malta by Pope Pius XI . One report indicated that he went to Mass every day , carried a missal at all times , and meticulously recorded in all his diaries . Duffy died at St. Anne 's Home in Rochester , New York on January 8 , 1969 and was laid to rest in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery . `` James P. B. Duffy School No. 12 '' in Rochester , New York was named in his honor .", "qid": "424", "docid": "James_P.B._Duffy", "rank": 60, "score": 99345 }, { "content": "Title: San Francisco State University Station Content: San Francisco State University Station is a major Muni Metro aboveground station located on the median of 19th Avenue at Holloway Avenue , near the station 's namesake university . It is served by the M Ocean View line , which runs between Embarcadero Station and Balboa Park Station . Several Muni and SF State Shuttle bus lines also have stops near the station . The next station is Stonestown Galleria Station .", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Francisco_State_University_Station", "rank": 61, "score": 99310 }, { "content": "Title: Bruce Duffy Content: Bruce Michael Duffy ( born June 9 , 1951 ) is an American author . He is best known for his novel The World As I Found It , a fictionalized account of the life of Ludwig Wittgenstein , a prominent 20th century philosopher . In 1988 , Duffy won a Whiting Award and received a Guggenheim Fellowship . Joyce Carol Oates named `` The World As I Found It '' as one of `` five great nonfiction novels , '' calling the book `` a bold and original work of fiction '' and `` one of the most ambitious first novels ever published '' ( Salon.com ) .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Bruce_Duffy", "rank": 62, "score": 99263 }, { "content": "Title: Francisco station Content: Francisco is an ` L' station on the CTA 's Brown Line . It is a surface level station with a single island platform , located in Chicago 's Ravenswood Manor neighborhood at 4649 North Francisco Avenue . The adjacent stations are Kedzie , which is about one third of a mile ( 0.536 km ) to the west , and Rockwell , located across the Chicago River about three eighths of a mile ( 0.6 km ) to the east .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Francisco_station", "rank": 63, "score": 99214 }, { "content": "Title: Gordon W. Duffy Content: Gordon W. Duffy served in the California legislature and during World War II he served in the United States Navy .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Gordon_W._Duffy", "rank": 64, "score": 99144 }, { "content": "Title: Beach and Stockton Station Content: Beach and Stockton Station is a streetcar station in San Francisco , California , serving the San Francisco Municipal Railway 's E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves heritage railway lines . It is located on Beach Street at Stockton Street , near the Pier 39 shopping center and tourist attraction .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Beach_and_Stockton_Station", "rank": 65, "score": 99106 }, { "content": "Title: Herbert S. Duffy Content: Herbert Smith Duffy ( February 25 , 1900 -- February 29 , 1956 ) was Ohio Attorney General from 1937 to 1939 and from 1949 to 1951 . Duffy , a Democrat from Columbus , Ohio , settled a case against the Ohio Bell Telephone Company . The case was before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio , the Ohio Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court , and lasted fourteen years . Duffy won elections for Attorney General in 1936 and 1948 , while losing for that office in 1942 and 1950 . He also lost a Democratic primary election for Ohio Governor in 1940 , lost general elections for the Ohio Supreme Court in 1944 and 1946 , and a party primary for Lieutenant Governor in 1954 . Duffy authored a Biography/Eulogy of William Howard Taft in 1930 . He was national commander of the American Legion at the Inter-Allied War Veteran 's Congress in Brussels , Belgium in 1935 . He died at his home after a brief illness in 1956 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Herbert_S._Duffy", "rank": 66, "score": 99102 }, { "content": "Title: Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco Content: Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco is a United States Coast Guard Air Station located 13 miles south of downtown San Francisco , California at the San Francisco International Airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County . The air station sits adjacent to the airport which consists of its own ramp , one hangar an administration building and several other support structures .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Coast_Guard_Air_Station_San_Francisco", "rank": 67, "score": 99025 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean and Jules Content: Ocean and Jules ( also known as Ocean and Dorado ) is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located in the Westwood Park neighborhood at the intersection of Ocean Avenue , Jules Avenue and Dorado Terrace . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_and_Jules", "rank": 68, "score": 99002 }, { "content": "Title: Chartboost Content: Chartboost is a San Francisco-based mobile game discovery and monetization platform . The company , which acts as a business engine for mobile games , allows video game developers to create customized interstitial and video ads , promote new games , and swap traffic with one another . Developers have direct access to game data derived from Chartboost-enabled games . As of 2016 , Chartboost had been integrated into more than 300,000 games with 40 billion game sessions per month . The company has raised $ 21 million in funding and has offices in San Francisco and Amsterdam .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Chartboost", "rank": 69, "score": 98976 }, { "content": "Title: Philosopher's Way, San Francisco Content: Philosopher 's Way , San Francisco is a 2.7 mi loop trail around the perimeter of John McLaren Park created by artists Peter Richards and Susan Schwartzenberg , staff artists at the Exploratorium . The trail , dedicated on January 5 , 2013 , is the first and only path built for philosophers in the United States and features fourteen stone markers by mason George Gonzalez intended as `` musing stations '' to stimulate contemplation . The trail was funded as a public art set-aside by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission , and offers views of Mount Diablo , Mount Tamalpais , Angel Island , and the Pacific Ocean on a clear day .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Philosopher's_Way,_San_Francisco", "rank": 70, "score": 98884 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean and Phelan Content: Ocean and Phelan is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located on the campus of San Francisco City College and is connected to the pedestrian bridge that links the main portion of the school with satellite buildings . The bridge was built after two students from the nearby Lick-Wilmerding High School were injured by a speeding car while trying to cross Ocean Avenue in the 1970s . In late 2016 , the terminus of the K Ingleside line was temporarily relocated to Ocean and Phelan from Balboa Park while station improvements were being implemented at Balboa Park .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_and_Phelan", "rank": 71, "score": 98860 }, { "content": "Title: Hugh Duffy (rugby) Content: Hugh Duffy ( born 1 April 1934 , in Shotts ) is a Scottish rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1950s , playing representative level rugby union ( RU ) for Scotland making his debut in a five nations international match against France in Paris , and at club level for Jed-Forest RFC , as a Flanker , i.e. number 6 or 7 , and playing club level rugby league ( RL ) for Salford , and Halifax , as a Forward . Duffy was one of the first XV Scottish Rugby Union internationalists to move to rugby league .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Hugh_Duffy_(rugby)", "rank": 72, "score": 98658 }, { "content": "Title: The Ups and Downs (album) Content: The Ups and Downs is the debut album by the English singer/songwriter Stephen Duffy ( released under the name Stephen `` Tin Tin '' Duffy ) . It was released in April 1985 and reached No. 35 on the UK Albums Chart . It includes the UK No. 4 single , `` Kiss Me '' , a solo re-recording of a song originally recorded with his earlier band , Tin Tin . A second single from the album , `` The Icing on the Cake '' reached # 14 in the UK . Although further singles from the album were released , none charted within the top 75 . During a 2008 interview to promote its expanded CD reissue , Duffy commented that `` I never liked The Ups and Downs . I enjoyed mixing with Stephen Street and making ` The Icing on the Cake ' but the rest of it is just a mess . ''", "qid": "424", "docid": "The_Ups_and_Downs_(album)", "rank": 73, "score": 98642 }, { "content": "Title: Tide (disambiguation) Content: A tide is the rise and fall of a sea level caused by the Moon 's gravity and other factors . Tide may also refer to :", "qid": "424", "docid": "Tide_(disambiguation)", "rank": 74, "score": 98634 }, { "content": "Title: South San Francisco station (Caltrain) Content: South San Francisco is a Caltrain station in South San Francisco , California , served by local and limited-stop trains . The station is on the east side of Highway 101 beneath East Grand Avenue ; downtown South San Francisco is across the freeway .", "qid": "424", "docid": "South_San_Francisco_station_(Caltrain)", "rank": 75, "score": 98471 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean and Aptos Content: Ocean and Aptos is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located in the Balboa Terrace neighborhood . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_and_Aptos", "rank": 76, "score": 98383 }, { "content": "Title: West Portal and 14th Avenue Content: West Portal and 14th Avenue is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside and M Ocean View lines . It is located in the West Portal neighborhood . It is the only street level stop in a string of stations that includes the Market Street Subway and several outdoor platforms just to its south .", "qid": "424", "docid": "West_Portal_and_14th_Avenue", "rank": 77, "score": 98278 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean and Victoria Content: Ocean and Victoria ( or Ocean and Fairfield ) is a split station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located in the Mount Davidson neighborhood on Ocean Avenue between Victoria Street and Fairfield Way . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_and_Victoria", "rank": 78, "score": 98249 }, { "content": "Title: Gerald Duffy Content: Gerald C. Duffy ( 1896 -- June 25 , 1928 ) was a screenwriter of the silent film era , as well as a journalist , and short story writer and copyeditor . He is best known for his many contributions to Redbook magazine , which he edited , as well as being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Title Writing in the 1st Academy Awards for the film The Private Life of Helen of Troy . His prolific fiction career brought him to the attention of First National Pictures who hired him on as a writer . Gerald died in 1928 while dictating a script in Los Angeles , California .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Gerald_Duffy", "rank": 79, "score": 97974 }, { "content": "Title: Conus duffyi Content: Conus duffyi is a species of sea snail , a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Conidae , the cone snails and their allies . Like all species within the genus Conus , these snails are predatory and venomous . They are capable of `` stinging '' humans , therefore live ones should be handled carefully or not at all .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Conus_duffyi", "rank": 80, "score": 97962 }, { "content": "Title: Thoreau Center for Sustainability Content: Tides ' Thoreau Center for Sustainability are green nonprofit centers that house more than 70 nonprofit organizations in San Francisco and New York City . Thoreau Centers for Sustainability are operated by Tides Shared Spaces , a Tides initiative .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Thoreau_Center_for_Sustainability", "rank": 81, "score": 97962 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy's Hill Content: Duffy 's Hill is a hill located on Lexington Avenue between 102nd and 103rd Streets in the East Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan , New York City . It was named for Michael James Duffy , a Tammany Hall Alderman who spent $ 250,000 to build 26 rowhouses on the south side of 101st Street between Lexington and Park Avenues in 1894 . He continued building between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue up to 104th Street , a section of the city sometimes known at the time as `` Duffyville '' . The hill marked the site of cable car accidents by 1897 , as the cars had to quickly accelerate and decelerate at this point . The New York Railways Corporation had a 24-hour guard stationed at the base of the hill at 103rd Street by 1937 to watch over streetcar incidents related to the hill . At one time , Lexington Avenue buses would detour onto Park Avenue to avoid the hill . The National Board of Fire Underwriters noted that Lexington Avenue 's grade of 12.6 % was the steepest of any `` important localit -LSB- y -RSB- '' in Manhattan .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy's_Hill", "rank": 82, "score": 97887 }, { "content": "Title: Junipero Serra and Ocean Content: Junipero Serra and Ocean is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located in the St. Francis Wood neighborhood . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Junipero_Serra_and_Ocean", "rank": 83, "score": 97781 }, { "content": "Title: Kilmore East, Victoria Content: Kilmore East is a locality in the Australian state of Victoria , 90 kilometres north of Melbourne . At the , Kilmore East had a population of 353 . Kilmore East railway and telegraph station was established in 1872 to serve Kilmore . The Post Office at Kilmore East opened on 1 September 1872 as Gavan Duffy , named after Sir Charles Gavan Duffy the Premier of Victoria until June of that year . It was renamed Kilmore East two months later and closed in 1976 . Gavan Street and Duffy Street are reminders of the original township name . In 1976 , a bluestone quarry was developed 3 km to the north of the station . A hilltop above Saunders Road was identified as the starting point of a major bushfire on 7 February 2009 that devastated many localities to the south-east including Wandong and Kinglake .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Kilmore_East,_Victoria", "rank": 84, "score": 97775 }, { "content": "Title: Ed Duffy Content: Edward Charles Duffy ( 1844 , Ireland -- October 16 , 1888 , Brooklyn , New York ) , was a professional baseball player . He played one season in Major League Baseball as an infielder in 1871 for the Chicago White Stockings . He was banned from baseball in 1865 for associating with gamblers , but was reinstated in 1870 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ed_Duffy", "rank": 85, "score": 97629 }, { "content": "Title: Clinton A. J. Duffy Content: Clinton A. J. Duffy ( born c. 1966 ) is a New Zealand marine scientist , who works in the Marine Conservation Unit of the Department of Conservation . Duffy is a shark expert , whose work includes the taxonomy and conservation status of New Zealand 's deepwater dogfishes , attaching GPS wildlife tracking devices to great white sharks , and surveying basking sharks . He performed the public dissection of a great white shark at the Auckland Museum in 2009 . Duffy has BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Canterbury .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Clinton_A._J._Duffy", "rank": 86, "score": 97335 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean and Miramar Content: Ocean and Miramar is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located in the Westwood Park neighborhood . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_and_Miramar", "rank": 87, "score": 97265 }, { "content": "Title: Ocean and Cerritos Content: Ocean and Cerritos ( or Ocean and Westgate ) is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's K Ingleside line . It is located in the Mount Davidson neighborhood at the intersection of Ocean Avenue , Cerritos Avenue and Westgate Drive . Category : Muni Metro stations", "qid": "424", "docid": "Ocean_and_Cerritos", "rank": 88, "score": 97236 }, { "content": "Title: William James Duffy Content: William James Duffy ( November 21 , 1888 -- January 18 , 1946 ) was a Canadian provincial politician . Born in South Durham , Quebec , Duffy was the member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for Compton from 1931 to 1935 and 1939 to 1946 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "William_James_Duffy", "rank": 89, "score": 97150 }, { "content": "Title: South San Francisco station (BART) Content: South San Francisco is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station located in suburban South San Francisco , California in northern San Mateo County . It consists of two main tracks and a shared underground island platform .", "qid": "424", "docid": "South_San_Francisco_station_(BART)", "rank": 90, "score": 97126 }, { "content": "Title: Fraser station Content: The Fraser -- Winter Park station is a train station in Fraser , Colorado . It is served by Amtrak 's California Zephyr , which runs once daily between Chicago , and Emeryville , California in the San Francisco Bay Area . The station house is unstaffed , except during the winter months . At 8561 ft above sea level , it is the highest Amtrak station in the United States .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Fraser_station", "rank": 91, "score": 96967 }, { "content": "Title: San Pablo Bay Content: San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California . Most of the Bay is shallow ; however , there is a deep water channel approximately in the middle of the bay , which allows access to major ports in Sacramento , Stockton , Benicia , and Martinez ; and other smaller ports on the Sacramento -- San Joaquin River Delta .", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Pablo_Bay", "rank": 92, "score": 96741 }, { "content": "Title: Well, Well, Well (Duffy song) Content: `` Well , Well , Well '' is a song by Welsh singer Duffy , from her second studio album , Endlessly ( 2010 ) . It was released as the lead and only single from the album worldwide , beginning on 19 October 2010 in the UK . As with the rest of the album , the song was both written and produced by Duffy and Albert Hammond , with Stuart Price providing co-production . It is an up-tempo pop song in which Duffy questions her lover 's accusations , with Duffy calling it a song about `` desire for freedom '' within a relationship . Marking a departure from the soul sound of her debut album , Rockferry ( 2008 ) , the song received mixed reviews from critics ; being both praised and criticized for Duffy 's vocal style . Some thought that it `` is possibly the weakest of the new tunes '' from its parent album . Failing to meet the popularity of her previous singles , `` Well , Well , Well '' peaked at number 41 on the UK Singles Chart and number 37 on the European Hot 100 Singles chart . Commercially , it is her worst performing single to date , although it proved to be a moderate success in mainland Europe , reaching the top twenty in Finland , Belgium and Switzerland . The song 's accompanying music video portrayed Duffy backed with male dancers in several scenes around the city of Oxford , England . The single was promoted extensively as part of a campaign of `` major TV moments '' , taking in the UK , the United States as well as seven countries around Europe in 2010 and 2011 . At 2:45 , it is the shortest of all Duffy 's singles .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Well,_Well,_Well_(Duffy_song)", "rank": 93, "score": 96538 }, { "content": "Title: Beach and Mason Station Content: Beach and Mason Station is a streetcar station in San Francisco , California , serving the San Francisco Municipal Railway 's E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves heritage railway lines . It is located on Beach Street at Mason Street .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Beach_and_Mason_Station", "rank": 94, "score": 96389 }, { "content": "Title: San Jose and Niagara Content: San Jose and Niagara is a station on the San Francisco Municipal Railway light rail network 's M Ocean View line . It is located in the Ingleside neighborhood neighborhood near the intersection of San Jose Avenue and Niagara Avenue .", "qid": "424", "docid": "San_Jose_and_Niagara", "rank": 95, "score": 96340 }, { "content": "Title: James Duffy (VC) Content: James Duffy ( 17 November 1889 -- 8 April 1969 ) ( Séamus Ó Dubhthaigh ) was a British Army soldier during the First World War , and an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross , the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces . Duffy was born on 17 November 1889 in Gweedore ( Gaoth Dobhair ) , County Donegal , Ireland . He was 28 years old , and a private in the 6th Battalion , The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers , British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC . On 27 December 1917 at Kereina Peak , Palestine , whilst the company was holding a very exposed position , Private Duffy , a stretcher-bearer , and another stretcher-bearer went out to bring in a seriously wounded comrade . When the other stretcher-bearer was wounded , Private Duffy returned to get another man , who was killed almost immediately . The private then went forward alone and , under very heavy fire , succeeded in getting both wounded men under cover and attended to their injuries . His gallantry undoubtedly saved both men 's lives .", "qid": "424", "docid": "James_Duffy_(VC)", "rank": 96, "score": 96290 }, { "content": "Title: Church Street Station (San Francisco) Content: Church Street Station is a Muni Metro station at the six-way intersection of Market Street , Church Street and 14th Street in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood of San Francisco , California . The station consists of two side platforms next to the tracks on the second level down with the concourse mezzanine level overlooking it . The J Church line , which enters and exits the Market Street Subway tunnel in a portal near the station , has an above-ground inbound stop near the corner of Church and Market Streets , and an outbound stop near the corner of Church and 14th Streets . The F Market & Wharves streetcar line , running along Market Street , also has stops at the intersection . The N Judah line also exits the Market Street tunnel before reaching the Church Street station and stops one block away at Church and Duboce Avenue . At both Church Street Station and Castro Street Station , there is only one stairway on each side of Market Street leading into the station . ( All other stations on the Market Street Subway have entrances spread out along the length of the station . ) One of these entrances is located on the northwest corner of Market and 14th Street , and the other is on the southwest corner of Market and Church Street . Church Street Station is featured in the Nick Nolte/Eddie Murphy cop dramedy 48 Hours , with shots of entrances , plaza and platform levels , and train operations . Service at this station began in June 1980 .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Church_Street_Station_(San_Francisco)", "rank": 97, "score": 96230 }, { "content": "Title: Fitzgerald Marine Reserve Content: Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is a marine reserve in California on the Pacific Ocean , located just north of Pillar Point Harbor and Mavericks in the San Mateo County community of Moss Beach . Moss Beach is located approximately 20 mi south of San Francisco and 50 mi north of Santa Cruz . The reserve is a 32 acre holding which extends from Montara light station at the north to Pillar Point on the south . The reserve consists of a three-mile stretch of beach , tidepool habitat , marsh , erosive bluffs , clifftop trail and cypress and eucalyptus forests . The property is owned by the State of California and managed by San Mateo County as a county park and nature preserve . The reserve is administratively assigned to be part of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary . Adjacent to and possibly within the reserve is an endangered species of butterfly , the San Bruno elfin butterfly . Montara State Marine Reserve & Pillar Point State Marine Conservation Area extend offshore from Montara , just north of Pillar Point . Like underwater parks , these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems . Fitzgerald Marine Reserve lies within Montara State Marine Reserve .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Fitzgerald_Marine_Reserve", "rank": 98, "score": 96191 }, { "content": "Title: Wells on Sea railway station Content: Wells on Sea railway station is located in Wells-next-the-Sea , Norfolk on the narrow gauge Wells and Walsingham Light Railway . It was opened in 1982 . It is located south of the former level crossing on the A149 Coast Road , close to the former junction with the West Norfolk Junction Railway . The original station , which has been converted to non-rail use , is half a mile closer to the town .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Wells_on_Sea_railway_station", "rank": 99, "score": 96169 }, { "content": "Title: Duffy, West Virginia Content: Duffy is an unincorporated community in Lewis County , West Virginia . The community 's name honors Dr. Duffy , a local medical doctor .", "qid": "424", "docid": "Duffy,_West_Virginia", "rank": 100, "score": 96140 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Ivanoff Head Content: Ivanoff Head is a small rocky headland , or probable island , which lies along the coast and is partly overlain by continental ice , situated 4 mi west of the Hatch Islands at the head of Vincennes Bay , Antarctica . The feature was first mapped from aerial photographs taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 , and was named `` Brooks Island '' by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1956 . The name Ivanoff Head , inadvertently applied by Australia in 1961 , has succeeded the earlier name in general use and is now recommended . Helicopter landings were made here by Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions from the Magga Dan in February 1960 . The feature was used as a rescue base when a helicopter crashed nearby , and was named after Captain P. Ivanoff , the pilot of the crashed helicopter .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ivanoff_Head", "rank": 1, "score": 144121 }, { "content": "Title: Howkins Inlet Content: Howkins Inlet is an ice-filled inlet which recedes southwest for 6 nmi between Cape Brooks and Lamb Point , along the east coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . It was discovered and photographed from the air in December 1940 by the United States Antarctic Service . During 1947 it was photographed from the air by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition under Finn Ronne , who in conjunction with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) charted it from the ground . The inlet was named by the FIDS for Gordon Howkins , a meteorologist with the FIDS base at Deception Island in 1944 -- 45 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Howkins_Inlet", "rank": 2, "score": 132944 }, { "content": "Title: Church Glacier Content: Church Glacier is a tributary glacier , 10 nmi long , flowing southward along the west side of nearby Church Ridge to enter Leander Glacier northwest of Shadow Bluff , in the Admiralty Mountains , a major mountain range situated in Victoria Land , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos , 1960 -- 63 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Brooks D. Church , a laboratory management technician at McMurdo Station , Hut Point Peninsula , Ross Island , 1966 -- 67 and 1967 -- 68 . The glacier lies on the Pennell Coast , a portion of Antarctica lying between Cape Williams and Cape Adare .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Church_Glacier", "rank": 3, "score": 128498 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic ice sheet Content: The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Antarctic_ice_sheet", "rank": 4, "score": 128206 }, { "content": "Title: Ice and the Sky Content: Ice and the Sky ( La Glace et le ciel , also known as Antarctica : Ice and Sky ) is a 2015 French documentary film directed by Luc Jacquet about the work of Claude Lorius , who began studying Antarctic ice in 1957 , and , in 1965 , was the first scientist to be concerned about global warming . The film was selected to close the 2015 Cannes Film Festival .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ice_and_the_Sky", "rank": 5, "score": 127137 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic sea ice Content: Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean . It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer . Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few meters thick . This is in contrast to ice shelves , which are formed by glaciers , float in the sea , and are up to a kilometer thick . There are two subdivisions of sea ice : fast ice , which is attached to land ; and ice floes , which are not . Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow . As a result , melt ponds are rarely observed . On average , Antarctic sea ice is younger , thinner , warmer , saltier , and more mobile than Arctic sea ice . Due to its inaccessibility , it is not as well-studied as Arctic ice .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Antarctic_sea_ice", "rank": 6, "score": 122800 }, { "content": "Title: Jill Mikucki Content: Jill Ann Mikucki is an American microbiologist , educator and Antarctic researcher , best known for her work at Blood Falls demonstrating that microbes can grow below ice in the absence of sunlight . She is a leader of international teams studying study ecosystems under the ice .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Jill_Mikucki", "rank": 7, "score": 122003 }, { "content": "Title: Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment Content: The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems . Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind . The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Sea_Ice_Physics_and_Ecosystem_eXperiment", "rank": 8, "score": 121469 }, { "content": "Title: Stefan Ice Piedmont Content: Stefan Ice Piedmont is a small ice piedmont at the northwest extremity of Pernik Peninsula , Loubet Coast in Graham Land , overlying the coast between Cape Rey and Holdfast Point . Mapped from air photos taken by Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition ( FIDASE ) ( 1956 -- 57 ) . Named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) for Josef Stefan ( 1835 -- 1893 ) , Austrian physicist who in 1889 pioneered the theory of heat flow in a freezing ice layer ( see Stefan problem ) and first used it to calculate rates of sea ice growth in the Arctic .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Stefan_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 9, "score": 120962 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic oscillation Content: The Antarctic oscillation ( AAO , to distinguish it from the Arctic oscillation or AO ) is a low-frequency mode of atmospheric variability of the southern hemisphere . It is also known as the Southern Annular Mode ( SAM ) . It is defined as a belt of westerly winds or low pressure surrounding Antarctica which moves north or south as its mode of variability . In its positive phase , the westerly wind belt contracts towards Antarctica , while its negative phase involves this belt moving towards the Equator . In 2014 , Dr Nerilie Abram used a network of temperature-sensitive ice core and tree growth records to reconstruct a 1000-year history of the Southern Annular Mode . This work suggests that the Southern Annular Mode is currently in its most extreme positive phase over at least the last 1000 years , and that recent positive trends in the SAM are attributed to increasing greenhouse gas levels and later stratospheric ozone depletion .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Antarctic_oscillation", "rank": 10, "score": 117084 }, { "content": "Title: Institute Ice Stream Content: The Institute Ice Stream is an ice stream flowing north into the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica , southeast of Hercules Inlet . The feature was traversed by the United States Antarctic Research Program ( USARP ) Ellsworth -- Byrd Seismic Party , 1958 -- 59 , and the USARP -- University of Wisconsin Seismic Party , 1963 -- 64 . It was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute -- National Science Foundation -- Technical University of Denmark airborne radio echo sounding program , 1967 -- 79 , and in association with Foundation Ice Stream and Support Force Glacier , named after the Scott Polar Research Institute , Cambridge , England .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Institute_Ice_Stream", "rank": 11, "score": 116691 }, { "content": "Title: Dakshin Gangotri Glacier Content: The Dakshin Gangotri Glacier is a small tongue of the polar continental ice sheet impinging on the Schirmacher Oasis of central Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was discovered by the Second Indian Expedition to Antarctica in 1983 , and named for India 's first Antarctic research station . Since then its snout , and the area around it , has been regularly monitored and it has become a valuable site for tracking the impact of global warming through changes in the movement of the Antarctic ice sheet . The site is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area ( ASPA ) No. 163 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Dakshin_Gangotri_Glacier", "rank": 12, "score": 115950 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Brooks Content: Cape Brooks is a cape marked by steep , conspicuous walls which rise to 465 m , forming the south side of the entrance to New Bedford Inlet , on the east coast of Palmer Land . It was discovered and photographed from the air in December 1940 by members of the US Antarctic Service , and again photographed from the air in 1947 by members of the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , who in conjunction with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) also charted it from the ground . Cape Brooks was named by the FIDS for Charles E.P. Brooks , an English meteorologist on the staff of the Meteorological Office , from 1907 to 1949 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Cape_Brooks", "rank": 13, "score": 115713 }, { "content": "Title: Grow Up (book) Content: Grow Up is a book by author Ben Brooks . Category :2011 novels", "qid": "428", "docid": "Grow_Up_(book)", "rank": 14, "score": 115609 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica: A Year on Ice Content: Antarctica : A Year on Ice is the first feature film by New Zealand filmmaker Anthony B. Powell . This documentary is set in Antarctica , specifically in the Ross Island region , which is home to two research bases : United States ' McMurdo Station and New Zealand 's Scott Base . It chronicles a year of time spent living and working at these remote stations ; the summer season ( October to February ) when the sun shines 24 hours a day and the long dark winter ( February to October ) where the sun goes down for four long months and darkness envelopes the environment . The film focuses on the everyday workers that keep the stations and the equipment running so the scientists can complete their work . Interviewees include a helicopter pilot , fireman , firehouse dispatcher , cook , mechanic , storekeeper , storeman , finance person , administrative person , and operations manager . Extensive use of time-lapse photography is used to document the changing seasons and the Antarctic landscapes . Powell had to invent many of his own camera systems to survive the extreme conditions of the deep Antarctic winter . Powell 's previous work includes footage for Discovery , National Geographic , and was featured in BBC 's Frozen Planet . The film also touches upon topics such as ` T3 Syndrome , ' a term that describes what happens to people during the winter , when the T3 hormone in the brain is reassigned to the muscles of the body in an effort to protect it against the extreme cold . The film also describes how the community works and plays together including the annual New Year 's party `` Ice Stock '' . The film 's post-production was completed at Park Road Post Production in Wellington , New Zealand .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Antarctica:_A_Year_on_Ice", "rank": 15, "score": 115305 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 16, "score": 114923 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Ice Marathon & 100k ultra race Content: The Antarctic Ice Marathon was established by Richard Donovan / Polar Running Adventures to enable marathon runners to complete a marathon on all seven continents . It also enables athletes to complete the marathon grand slam - a marathon on all seven continents and the North Pole . Runnings of the Antarctic Ice Marathon and 100 km race have taken place at 80 ° south just a few hundred miles from the South Pole at the foot of the Ellsworth Mountains . Participants are flown from Punta Arenas , Chile to the race location in the interior of the Antarctic and experience anything from subzero temperatures to 24 hours of daylight while there .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Antarctic_Ice_Marathon_&_100k_ultra_race", "rank": 17, "score": 114880 }, { "content": "Title: Chionodraco rastrospinosus Content: The ocellated icefish ( Chionodraco rastrospinosus ) is a fish of the family Channichthyidae . It lives in the cold waters off Antarctica and is known for having transparent haemoglobin-free blood . C. rastrospinosus live in the Southern Ocean up to a depth of 1 km . They grow up to 52 cm and average 30 cm . The adults feed on krill and other fish . Larvae are 17 mm long when they hatch , and grow by about 2 mm a week . The larval stage lasts for up to 18 months during which they feed mainly on krill . They become sexually mature at four years , and normally live up to about eight years , but sometimes as long as twelve . In the Antarctic autumn , adult C. rastrospinosus migrate to shallow waters to spawn at a depth of 200 -- 300 m . The eggs are scattered and hatch six months later around April .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Chionodraco_rastrospinosus", "rank": 18, "score": 114775 }, { "content": "Title: Wells Glacier Content: Wells Glacier is a glacier 9 nmi west of Cape Brooks , flowing north into New Bedford Inlet in Palmer Land . Mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from ground surveys and U.S. Navy air photos , 1961 -- 67 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for James T. Wells , storekeeper with the South Pole Station winter party in 1967 . Category : Glaciers of Palmer Land", "qid": "428", "docid": "Wells_Glacier", "rank": 19, "score": 114573 }, { "content": "Title: Brooks Point Content: Brooks Point is a small rock headland on the west shore of Vincennes Bay , about 5 nmi west-northwest of Mallory Point . This feature was first mapped from air photos taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for John Brooks , a seaman on the United States Exploring Expedition flagship USS Vincennes under Charles Wilkes , 1838 -- 42 . This 1972 naming resolves the problem raised by displacement of the name `` Brooks Island '' ( now Ivanoff Head ) .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Brooks_Point", "rank": 20, "score": 114522 }, { "content": "Title: Ice cap climate Content: An ice cap climate is a polar climate where the temperature never exceeds 0 C . The climate covers areas in or near the polar regions , such as Antarctica and Greenland , as well as the highest mountaintops . Such areas are covered by a permanent layer of ice and have no vegetation , but they may have animal life , that usually feeds from the oceans . Ice cap climates are inhospitable to human life . Antarctica , the coldest continent on Earth , sustains no permanent human residents , but has some civil inhabitants in proximity to research stations in coastal settlements that are maritime polar and there are some communities that are situated in a transitional zone between the two climates , but barely qualify as a tundra . Some places like Antarctica had a different climate before having an ice cap climate", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ice_cap_climate", "rank": 21, "score": 114398 }, { "content": "Title: Grew Peak Content: Grew Peak is a peak over 1,400 m high , one of several named peaks on the Mount Murphy massif in Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . The feature is located on the northeast spur of the massif , between Benedict Peak and the loftier summit peaks . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos , 1959 -- 66 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Edward Grew , a U.S. Exchange Scientist to the Soviet Molodyozhnaya Station in 1973 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Grew_Peak", "rank": 22, "score": 114176 }, { "content": "Title: European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Content: The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica ( EPICA ) is a multinational European project for deep ice core drilling in Antarctica . Its main objective is to obtain full documentation of the climatic and atmospheric record archived in Antarctic ice by drilling and analyzing two ice cores and comparing these with their Greenland counterparts ( GRIP and GISP ) . Evaluation of these records will provide information about the natural climate variability and mechanisms of rapid climatic changes during the last glacial epoch . The European Science Foundation EPICA Programme ( 1996 -- 2005 ) provides co-ordination for EPICA drilling activities at Dome Concordia and Kohnen Station , which are supported by the European Commission and by national contributions from Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Italy , the Netherlands , Norway , Sweden , Switzerland and the United Kingdom . Deep drilling took place at two sites in Antarctica : Concordia Station at Dome C and Kohnen Station . In 2008 the project received the Descartes Prize for Research .", "qid": "428", "docid": "European_Project_for_Ice_Coring_in_Antarctica", "rank": 23, "score": 113712 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctica Content: West Antarctica , or Lesser Antarctica , one of the two major regions of Antarctica , is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere , and includes the Antarctic Peninsula . It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It lies between the Ross Sea ( partly covered by the Ross Ice Shelf ) , and the Weddell Sea ( largely covered by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf ) . It may be considered a giant peninsula stretching from the South Pole towards the tip of South America . West Antarctica is largely covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , but there have been signs that climate change is having some effect and that this ice sheet may have started to shrink slightly . The coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula are the only parts of West Antarctica that become ( in summer ) ice-free . These constitute the Marielandia Antarctic tundra and have the warmest climate in Antarctica . The rocks are clad in mosses and lichens that can cope with the intense cold of winter and the short growing-season .", "qid": "428", "docid": "West_Antarctica", "rank": 24, "score": 113627 }, { "content": "Title: Brooks Nunatak Content: Brooks Nunatak is an isolated nunatak , 1,615 m high , standing 6 nmi southwest of Shurley Ridge on the south side of Mackin Table in the Patuxent Range , Pensacola Mountains . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and from U.S. Navy air photos , 1956 -- 66 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Robert E. Brooks , a biologist at South Pole Station , summer 1966 -- 67 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Brooks_Nunatak", "rank": 25, "score": 113209 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen Icefall Content: Amundsen Icefall is a steep and turbulent icefall where the Axel Heiberg Glacier descends from the polar plateau between Mount Fridtjof Nansen and Mount Don Pedro Christophersen , in the Queen Maud Mountains of Antarctica . Named by the Southern Party of the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition ( 1961 -- 62 ) for Captain Roald Amundsen , who ascended Axel Heiberg Glacier en route to the South Pole in 1911 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Amundsen_Icefall", "rank": 26, "score": 112726 }, { "content": "Title: Mercer Ice Stream Content: Mercer Ice Stream , formerly Ice Stream A , flows west to Gould Coast to the south of Whillans Ice Stream , Antarctica . It is the southernmost of several major ice streams draining from Marie Byrd Land into the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice streams were investigated and mapped by U.S. Antarctic Research Program personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983 -- 84 and named Ice Stream A , B , C , etc. , according to their position from south to north . The name was changed by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2002 to honor Quaternary geologist John H. Mercer ( 1922 -- 87 ) of the Institute of Polar Studies ( now the Byrd Polar Research Center ) , Ohio State University , who mapped the moraines above Reedy Glacier and in the Ohio Range at the head of Horlick Ice Stream , the major tributaries to Mercer Ice Stream .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Mercer_Ice_Stream", "rank": 27, "score": 112711 }, { "content": "Title: New Bedford Inlet Content: New Bedford Inlet is a large pouch-shaped , ice-filled embayment between Cape Kidson and Cape Brooks , along the east coast of Palmer Land . Discovered and photographed from the air in December 1940 by members of the United States Antarctic Service ( USAS ) , and named after New Bedford , Massachusetts , the centre of the New England whaling industry in the middle of the 19th century . Category : Inlets of Palmer Land", "qid": "428", "docid": "New_Bedford_Inlet", "rank": 28, "score": 112616 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West ( or Lesser ) Antarctica , the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains which lies in the Western Hemisphere . The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet , meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves . The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf , the Ronne Ice Shelf , and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea . It is estimated that the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet is about 25.4 million km3 ( 6.1 million cu mi ) , and the WAIS contains just under 10 % of this , or 2.2 million km3 ( 530,000 cu mi ) . The weight of the ice has caused the underlying rock to sink by between 0.5 and 1 kilometres ( 0.31 -- 0.62 mi ) in a process known as isostatic depression . Under the force of its own weight , the ice sheet deforms and flows . The interior ice flows slowly over rough bedrock . In some circumstances , ice can flow faster in ice streams , separated by slow-flowing ice ridges . The inter-stream ridges are frozen to the bed while the bed beneath the ice streams consists of water-saturated sediments . Many of these sediments were deposited before the ice sheet occupied the region , when much of West Antarctica was covered by the ocean . The rapid ice-stream flow is a non-linear process still not fully understood ; streams can start and stop for unclear reasons . When ice reaches the coast , it either calves or continues to flow outward onto the water . The result is a large , floating ice shelf affixed to the continent .", "qid": "428", "docid": "West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 29, "score": 112464 }, { "content": "Title: Icebird (ship) Content: The Icebird is a cargo vessel which delivers supplies to the Australian Antarctic Division ( AAD ) bases , principally Macquarie Island , Mawson , Casey and Davis Stations . The Icebird 's maiden voyage to Antarctica began when she departed from Cape Town , South Africa in November 1984 . In 1996 , the vessel was renamed Polar Bird .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Icebird_(ship)", "rank": 30, "score": 112429 }, { "content": "Title: Hymenobacter antarcticus Content: Hymenobacter antarcticus is a species of bacteria first isolated from Victoria Upper Glacier , Antarctica on basal ice . It is a psychrotolerant , heterotrophic aerobe . It is notable for the prevalence of horizontal gene transfers in its evolution , possibly due to dormancy because of its habitat .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Hymenobacter_antarcticus", "rank": 31, "score": 112424 }, { "content": "Title: Mercator Ice Piedmont Content: Mercator Ice Piedmont is a gently-sloping ice piedmont at the head of Mobiloil Inlet , formed by the confluence of the Gibbs , Lammers , Cole and Weyerhaeuser Glaciers in eastern Graham Land , Antarctica . The feature was first photographed from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth in November 1935 , and was plotted from these photos by W.L.G. Joerg as the lower end of a `` major valley depression '' along the coast . It was first seen from the ground by Finn Ronne and Carl R. Eklund of the United States Antarctic Service , 1939 -- 41 , which also obtained air photos . The ice piedmont was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in December 1958 , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Flemish mathematician and geographer Gerardus Mercator , the originator , in 1568 , of the map projection which bears his name .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Mercator_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 32, "score": 112180 }, { "content": "Title: Petrie Ice Rises Content: Petrie Ice Rises is a group of ice rises extending in a north-south line lying merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , to the west of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Seen from the air on a British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) radio echo sounding flight around Alexander Island , February 11 , 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery . Named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1980 after David L. Petrie , BAS and Scott Polar Research Institute ( SPRI ) electronic technician , about 1966-70 , who was on the flight .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Petrie_Ice_Rises", "rank": 33, "score": 112046 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet ( EAIS ) is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica , and the largest on the entire planet . The EAIS lies between 45 ° west and 168 ° east longitudinally . The EAIS is considerably larger in area and mass than the West Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) . It is separated from the WAIS by the Transantarctic Mountains . The EAIS rests upon a large land mass , contrary to that of the WAIS , which rests mainly on bedrock below sea level . The EAIS is also home to the thickest ice on the frozen white continent , at 15,700 ft ( 4,800 m ) . More well known , however , is that the EAIS is home to the geographic South Pole as well as of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station .", "qid": "428", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 34, "score": 112041 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Antarctica Content: The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and , thus , by ice . The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle . It is washed by the Southern ( or Antarctic ) Ocean or , depending on definition , the southern Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans . It has an area of more than 14 million km ² . Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , the world 's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water . Averaging at least 1.6 km thick , the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level ; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur ( e.g. , Lake Vostok ) . Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Geography_of_Antarctica", "rank": 35, "score": 111929 }, { "content": "Title: Wordie Ice Shelf Content: The Wordie Ice Shelf was a confluent glacier projecting as an ice shelf into the SE part of Marguerite Bay between Cape Berteaux and Mount Edgell , along the western coast of Antarctic Peninsula . In March 2008 , the British Antarctic Survey reported that it appeared ready to break away from the Antarctic Peninsula . By April 2009 it had done so , vanishing completely . Discovered by the British Graham Land Expedition ( BGLE ) under Rymill , 1934-37 , who named this feature for Sir James Wordie , Honorary Secretary ( later President ) of the Royal Geographical Society , member of the Discovery Committee , and chairman of the Scott Polar Research Institute . He also had been geologist and Chief of the Scientific Staff of the British expedition , 1914-16 , under Ernest Shackleton .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Wordie_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 36, "score": 111914 }, { "content": "Title: South Ice Content: South Ice was a British support base 560 km from the South Pole at 82 ° 05 'S , 30 ° 00 ' W in Edith Ronne Land , Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year , established by Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , where three men overwintered during the Antarctic winter of 1957 . In the same winter , men overwintered for the first time at the South Pole . The name of the station contrasts to North Ice which was a British research station in Greenland .", "qid": "428", "docid": "South_Ice", "rank": 37, "score": 111696 }, { "content": "Title: MacAyeal Ice Stream Content: MacAyeal Ice Stream , formerly Ice Stream E , is an ice stream in Antarctica flowing west to the juncture of Shirase Coast and Siple Coast between Bindschadler Ice Stream and Echelmeyer Ice Stream . It is one of several major ice streams draining from Marie Byrd Land into the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice streams were investigated and mapped by U.S. Antarctic Research Program personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983 -- 84 onwards and named Ice Stream A , B , C , etc. , according to their position from south to north . The name was changed from Ice Scream E by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2002 to honor Douglas R. MacAyeal of the Department of Geophysical Sciences , University of Chicago , a U.S. Antarctic Program investigator in the Ross Sea area including study of the Ross Ice Shelf , the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Marie Byrd Land ice streams , 1989 -- 2002 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "MacAyeal_Ice_Stream", "rank": 38, "score": 111404 }, { "content": "Title: Grimmia antarctici Content: Grimmia antarctici is a species of moss that grows in areas of Antarctica such as the Windmill Islands . It lives in areas that are not icy , especially on the northern peninsula . Unusually high levels of carbon dioxide have been found in air surrounding this species of moss .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Grimmia_antarctici", "rank": 39, "score": 111248 }, { "content": "Title: Airdevronsix Icefalls Content: Airdevronsix Icefalls is a line of icefalls at the head of Wright Upper Glacier , in Victoria Land , Antarctica . Named by U.S. Navy Operation Deepfreeze ( 1956 -- 57 ) for U.S. Navy Air Development Squadron Six , which had been formed to provide air support for the Deep Freeze operations and which had also carried out many important Antarctic exploratory flights . This icefall belongs to world 's most impressive natural landmarks and is approximately 5 km wide and 400 m tall . It has formed on Jurassic dolerite sill , which has intruded in Devonian - Triassic sandstone .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Airdevronsix_Icefalls", "rank": 40, "score": 111031 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic Content: There are many glaciers in the Antarctic . This set of lists does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . The lists include outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of these lists , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "428", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 41, "score": 110639 }, { "content": "Title: Lloyd Icefall Content: Lloyd Icefall is a large icefall at the head of Lillie Glacier , draining from the Antarctic polar plateau between the King Range and the Millen Range . It was named by the Northern Party of the New Zealand Federated Mountain Clubs Antarctic Expedition ( NZFMCAE ) , 1962 -- 63 , for R. Lloyd , a field assistant with the Southern Party of that expedition .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Lloyd_Icefall", "rank": 42, "score": 110517 }, { "content": "Title: Foundation Ice Stream Content: Foundation Ice Stream is a major ice stream in Antarctica 's Pensacola Mountains . The ice stream drains northward for 150 mi along the west side of the Patuxent Range and the Neptune Range to enter the Ronne Ice Shelf westward of Dufek Massif . The United States Geological Survey mapped the stream from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos , 1956 -- 66 . The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names named the stream in recognition of the National Science Foundation , which provided major support to the U.S. Antarctic Research Program during this period .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Foundation_Ice_Stream", "rank": 43, "score": 110477 }, { "content": "Title: Concept Ice Vehicle Content: The Concept Ice Vehicle or CIV was a bio-fuelled , propeller-powered vehicle that was developed for the Andrew Regan / Andrew Moon bid to cross the Antarctic in 2009 . The Expedition was rescheduled to November 2010 and the Ice Vehicle was re-engineered and renamed the Winston Wong Bio-Inspired Ice Vehicle BIV . Professor Winston Wong is the sponsor of the Moon Regan Transantarctic Expedition 2010 . The Expedition has several key objectives : to show that the right motorised vehicles can operate successfully and efficiently in the Antarctic , to successfully complete a transantarctic crossing and to help researchers at Imperial College London gather useful data on vehicle emissions , the performance of biofuels and human performance under extreme conditions . Few ground vehicles have , to date , been successful there ; researchers who work across the continent tend to rely on air travel , which may be more environmentally damaging .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Concept_Ice_Vehicle", "rank": 44, "score": 110333 }, { "content": "Title: Dee Ice Piedmont Content: Dee Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont between Pavie Ridge and the mouth of Clarke Glacier on the east side of Mikkelsen Bay , west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula . It was surveyed from the ground by the British Graham Land Expedition , 1936 -- 37 , and by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1948 -- 50 . It was photographed by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , November 1947 ( trimetrogon air photography ) , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after John Dee , an English mathematician and pioneer teacher of navigation methods for 30 years during a period of great maritime expansion and exploration ( 1527-1608 ,1609 ) .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Dee_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 45, "score": 109967 }, { "content": "Title: Joice Icefall Content: Joice Icefall is an icefall draining from the Antarctic polar plateau through the Millen Range into Lensen Glacier . It was named by the southern party of the New Zealand Federated Mountain Clubs Antarctic Expedition , 1962 -- 63 , after I. Joice , a field assistant to the party .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Joice_Icefall", "rank": 46, "score": 109600 }, { "content": "Title: Geelan Ice Piedmont Content: Geelan Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont forming the northern end of Rothschild Island , off the coast of Antarctica . Following survey by the British Antarctic Survey , 1975 -- 77 , it was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) for Patrick John Michael Geelan , who was Secretary of the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names , 1955 -- 79 , a member of the UK-APC from 1955 , and Chairman of the UK-APC from 1992 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Geelan_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 47, "score": 109529 }, { "content": "Title: Van der Veen Ice Stream Content: Van der Veen Ice Stream , formerly Ice Stream B1 , is a large southeastern tributary to the Whillans Ice Stream in Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) after Cornelis J. `` Kees '' van der Veen , Byrd Polar Research Center and Departments of Geological Sciences and Geography , Ohio State University ; glacial theoretician and collaborator with Ian Whillans , 1986 -- 2001 , in many seminal reports on the dynamics of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet , including former Ice Stream B , now Whillans Ice Stream .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Van_der_Veen_Ice_Stream", "rank": 48, "score": 109459 }, { "content": "Title: Ice pier Content: An ice pier is a man-made structure used to assist the unloading of ships in Antarctica . It is constructed by pumping seawater into a contained area and allowing the water to freeze . By repeating this procedure several times , additional layers are built up . The final structure is many metres in thickness , and strong enough to support container trucks . Operation Deep Freeze personnel constructed the first floating ice pier at Antarctica 's southernmost sea port at McMurdo Station in 1973 . Ice piers have been in use each summer season since , at McMurdo 's natural harbor at Winter Quarters Bay located at . The harbor is positioned on the southern tip of Ross Island . Historically , two supply ships , a freighter and a tanker , arrive at the ice pier each summer , after an icebreaker opens a ship channel through pack ice . The ice pier 's key function is to provide a platform for freight trucks to come alongside a supply ship to receive or offload cargo . Steel cables attached to shoreline hold the dock in a fixed position . Port officials distribute freight arriving at the dock to McMurdo Station , nearby Scott Base , and to field camps as far away as the South Pole . Imports include virtually any materials needed to support personnel living and working in Antarctica . Exports range from items such as scientific ice core samples and human waste collected from field camps to broken equipment and recyclables for return to the United States for processing . Ice piers typically have a lifespan of three to five years . Once an ice pier is no longer usable , icebreakers tow the pier to sea to be cast adrift .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ice_pier", "rank": 49, "score": 109435 }, { "content": "Title: Rutford Ice Stream Content: Rutford Ice Stream is a major Antarctic ice stream , about 180 miles long and over 15 miles wide , which drains southeastward between the Sentinel Range , Ellsworth Mountains and Fletcher Ice Rise into the southwest part of Ronne Ice Shelf . Named by US-ACAN for geologist Robert Hoxie Rutford , a member of several USARP expeditions to Antarctica ; leader of the University of Minnesota Ellsworth Mountains Party , 1963-1964 . Rutford served as Director of the Division of Polar Programs , National Science Foundation , 1975-1977 . The ice stream is situated in a deep trough which is a tectonic feature between the Ellsworth Mountains and the Fletcher Promontory . Because of this the ice stream position may have been stable for millions of years . The bed of the ice stream reaches 2000 m below sea level . Therefore , between the bed of the ice stream and the height of the Ellsworth Mountains there is a vertical relief of 7 km over a distance of only 40 km . At the upper ( inland ) end of the ice stream the ice thickness reaches 3100 m falling to around 2300 m in the trough . Flow speed reaches a maximum of around 400 metres per year about 40 km inland from where the ice stream meets the Ronne Ice Shelf and starts to float on the sea . The speed of the Rutford ice stream varies by as much as 20 % every two weeks , in response to variations in the tides .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Rutford_Ice_Stream", "rank": 50, "score": 109151 }, { "content": "Title: Polar see-saw Content: The polar see-saw ( also : Bipolar seesaw ) is the phenomenon that temperature changes in the northern and southern hemispheres may be out of phase . The theory ( or hypothesis ) states that large changes , f.e. when the glaciers are intensely growing or depleting , in the formation of ocean bottom water in both poles take a long time to exert their effect in the other hemisphere . Estimates of the period of delay vary , one typical estimate is 1500 years . This is usually studied in the context of ice-cores taken from Antarctica and Greenland .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Polar_see-saw", "rank": 51, "score": 109070 }, { "content": "Title: Getman Ice Piedmont Content: Getman Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont between Reichle Mesa and Three Slice Nunatak at the east end of Joerg Peninsula , Bowman Coast , Antarctica . It drains north-northeastwards into Hondius Inlet . The feature was explored from the ground and photographed from the air by the United States Antarctic Service , 1939 -- 41 , the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , 1947 -- 48 , and was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1946 -- 48 . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1977 for Commander Robert T. Getman of the United States Coast Guard , an Executive Officer on USCGC Southwind during U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze , 1969 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Getman_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 52, "score": 108993 }, { "content": "Title: Wiesnet Ice Stream Content: Wiesnet Ice Stream is an ice stream about 15 nautical miles ( 28 km ) long flowing into Venable Ice Shelf west of Allison Peninsula . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) after Donald R. Wiesnet , National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pioneer , from the 1970s to the 1980s , in the use of remotely sensed data for mapping Antarctica and first to conceive of the use of polar orbiting satellite data to completely map the continent .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Wiesnet_Ice_Stream", "rank": 53, "score": 108954 }, { "content": "Title: Students on Ice Content: Students on Ice ( also known as SOI ) is a Canadian charitable organisation that leads educational expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for international high school and university students . Its mandate is to provide youth , educators and scientists from around the world with learning and teaching opportunities in the polar regions , with the goal of fostering new understanding of and respect for the global environment .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Students_on_Ice", "rank": 54, "score": 108877 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Cold Reversal Content: The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Antarctic_Cold_Reversal", "rank": 55, "score": 108781 }, { "content": "Title: Schaus Ice Rises Content: Schaus Ice Rises is a group of small ice rises merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , aligned east-west just off the north side of Eroica Peninsula , situated off the southwest coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1967-68 and from Landsat imagery taken 1972-73 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Commander Richard Schaus , U.S. Navy , assigned to the Division of Polar Programs , National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , as aviation projects officer , 1979-80 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Schaus_Ice_Rises", "rank": 56, "score": 108730 }, { "content": "Title: Marr Ice Piedmont Content: Marr Ice Piedmont is a large ice piedmont which covers the northwestern half of Anvers Island , in the Palmer Archipelago , Antarctica . This feature was presumably first seen by a German expedition under Eduard Dallmann , 1873 -- 74 , and was first roughly surveyed by the French Antarctic Expedition , 1903 -- 05 , and French Antarctic Expedition , 1908 -- 10 , both under Jean-Baptiste Charcot . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for British marine biologist James W.S. Marr , first commander of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1943 -- 45 , and leader of the base at nearby Port Lockroy . Marr was also a member of the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition under Mawson , 1929 -- 31 , and of Shackleton 's expedition of 1921 -- 22 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Marr_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 57, "score": 108534 }, { "content": "Title: IceCube Neutrino Observatory Content: The IceCube Neutrino Observatory ( or simply IceCube ) is a neutrino observatory constructed at the Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica . Its thousands of sensors are distributed over a cubic kilometre of volume under the Antarctic ice . Similar to its predecessor , the Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array ( AMANDA ) , IceCube consists of spherical optical sensors called Digital Optical Modules ( DOMs ) , each with a photomultiplier tube ( PMT ) and a single board data acquisition computer which sends digital data to the counting house on the surface above the array . IceCube was completed on 18 December 2010 . DOMs are deployed on `` strings '' of sixty modules each at depths ranging from 1,450 to 2,450 meters , into holes melted in the ice using a hot water drill . IceCube is designed to look for point sources of neutrinos in the TeV range to explore the highest-energy astrophysical processes . In November 2013 it was announced that IceCube had detected 28 neutrinos that likely originated outside of the Solar System .", "qid": "428", "docid": "IceCube_Neutrino_Observatory", "rank": 58, "score": 108008 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "428", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 59, "score": 108005 }, { "content": "Title: Amundsen Bay Content: Amundsen Bay , also known as Ice Bay , is a long embayment 24 mi wide , close west of the Tula Mountains in Enderby Land , Antarctica . The bay was seen as a large pack-filled recession in the coastline by Sir Douglas Mawson on January 14 , 1930 . Seen by Captain Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen in charge of a Norwegian expedition during an airplane flight on January 15 and subsequently mapped nearer its true position by the Norwegians . The bay was mapped in detail by an Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions party landed by aircraft in 1956 and another landed by launch from Thala Dan in February 1958 . It was named by Mawson after Roald Amundsen , the Norwegian explorer who was first to reach the South Pole .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Amundsen_Bay", "rank": 60, "score": 107839 }, { "content": "Title: Karoo Ice Age Content: The Karoo Ice Age from 360 -- 260 million years ago ( Mya ) was the second major ice age of the Phanerozoic Eon . It is named after the tillite ( Dwyka Group ) found in the Karoo region of South Africa ( and adjacent areas ) , where evidence for this ice age was first clearly identified in the 19th century . The tectonic assembly of the continents of Euramerica ( later with the Uralian orogeny , into Laurasia ) and Gondwana into Pangaea , in the Hercynian-Alleghany Orogeny , made a major continental land mass within the Antarctic region , and the closure of the Rheic Ocean and Iapetus Ocean saw disruption of warm-water currents in the Panthalassa Ocean and Paleotethys Sea , which led to progressive cooling of summers , and the snowfields accumulating in winters , causing mountainous alpine glaciers to grow , and then spread out of highland areas , making continental glaciers which spread to cover much of Gondwana . At least two major periods of glaciation have been discovered : The first glacial period was associated with the Mississippian subperiod ( 359.2 -- 318.1 Mya ) : ice sheets expanded from a core in southern Africa and South America . The second glacial period was associated with the Pennsylvanian subperiod ( 318.1 -- 299 Mya ) ; ice sheets expanded from a core in Australia and India . The extent of ancient glaciations in Antarctica is not well known , because the present ice sheet hides the evidence .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Karoo_Ice_Age", "rank": 61, "score": 107827 }, { "content": "Title: Green Ice Rises Content: The Green Ice Rises are a local swelling of the Antarctic ice surface 5 nmi east of Henderson Island , where the Shackleton Ice Shelf overrides an underlying obstruction . The feature was mapped by G.D. Blodgett ( 1955 ) from aerial photography taken by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump ( 1946 -- 47 ) , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Duane L. Green , a radio operator and recorder with U.S. Navy Operation Windmill parties which established astronomical control stations along Wilhelm II , Knox , and Budd coasts in January and February , 1948 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Green_Ice_Rises", "rank": 62, "score": 107801 }, { "content": "Title: Eady Ice Piedmont Content: Eady Ice Piedmont is the ice piedmont lying south of Mount Discovery and Minna Bluff , merging at the south side with the Ross Ice Shelf , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from ground surveys and Navy air photos , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1963 for Captain Jack A. Eady , U.S. Navy , Chief of Staff to the Commander , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , from July 1959 to April 1962 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Eady_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 63, "score": 107755 }, { "content": "Title: Ice People Content: Ice People is a documentary film directed by Anne Aghion about the research of Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis in Antarctica . Produced by Dry Valleys Productions , this 2008 film portrays the scientists discovering fossils from 13.9 million years ago . The film premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2008 and was screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July 2008 . This film aired on Sundance Channel in 2009 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ice_People", "rank": 64, "score": 107451 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic: A–H Content: This is a list of glaciers in the Antarctic with a name starting with the letters A -- H . This list does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . This list includes outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of this list , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "428", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic:_A–H", "rank": 65, "score": 107381 }, { "content": "Title: Charybdis Icefalls Content: The Charybdis Icefalls are a large group of crevassed icefalls in the lower portion of Harlin Glacier , where it descends notably to join the Rennick Glacier at Victoria Land in Antarctica . The feature is nourished in part by the Lovejoy Glacier which flows eastward parallel to the Harlin Glacier 's north side and coalesces with it before reaching the icefalls . It was first mapped by the United States Geological Survey ( 1962 -- 63 ) and the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition ( NZGSAE ) ( 1963 -- 64 ) , and named by the latter after Charybdis , the fearsome whirlpool monster of Greek mythology . The icefalls lies situated on the Pennell Coast , a portion of Antarctica lying between Cape Williams and Cape Adare .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Charybdis_Icefalls", "rank": 66, "score": 107347 }, { "content": "Title: Forster Ice Piedmont Content: Forster Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont lying landward of the Wordie Ice Shelf , along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula . It is formed by the confluence of Airy , Seller , Fleming and Prospect Glaciers and is about 25 mi long from north to south and 12 mi wide . The feature was first surveyed from the ground by the British Graham Land Expedition in 1936 -- 37 , and again in more detail by Peter D. Forster and P. Gibbs of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) in 1958 . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Forster , a surveyor at Stonington Island in 1958 and at Horseshoe Island in 1960 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Forster_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 67, "score": 107253 }, { "content": "Title: Handel Ice Piedmont Content: Handel Ice Piedmont is a large ice piedmont lying north and west of the Colbert Mountains , between Haydn Inlet and Schubert Inlet on the west-central coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Apparently first seen from the air by the United States Antarctic Service in 1940 but not separately mapped , it was first mapped from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , 1947 -- 48 , by Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960 . The feature was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for George Frideric Handel , the German composer .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Handel_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 68, "score": 107096 }, { "content": "Title: Icenhower Ridge Content: Icenhower Ridge is a broad , mainly ice-covered ridge that rises to over 1600 m between Yancey Glacier and Sennet Glacier in the Britannia Range , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in association with Byrd Glacier and Sennet Glacier , after Commander Joseph B. Icenhower , U.S. Navy , captain of , a submarine ( Central Group of Task Force 68 ) of U.S. Navy Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 , led by Admiral Richard E. Byrd .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Icenhower_Ridge", "rank": 69, "score": 107082 }, { "content": "Title: Henry Ice Rise Content: Henry Ice Rise is a triangular-shaped ice rise about 70 mi long located between Korff Ice Rise and the southern portion of Berkner Island in the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . It was first visited by the United States International Geophysical Year geophysical traverse party from Ellsworth Station , 1957 -- 58 , and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Captain Clifford D. Henry of the Military Sealift Command , a veteran American polar sea captain and master of . Henry died aboard his ship , February 16 , 1975 , while returning from his fourteenth voyage to Antarctica in support of the U.S. Antarctic Research Program .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Henry_Ice_Rise", "rank": 70, "score": 107060 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Runway Content: The Ice Runway is the principal runway for the US Antarctic Program during the summer Antarctic field season due to its proximity to McMurdo Station . The other two runways in the area are the snow runway at Williams Field ( NZWD ) and the compacted snow runway at Phoenix Airfield ( NZFX ) , which replaced Pegasus Field ( NZPG ) in 2017 . This runway is capable of handling wheeled aircraft , that have included to date : Lockheed C-5 Galaxy , Lockheed C-141 Starlifter , Boeing C-17 Globemaster III , Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Lockheed P-3 Orion . In the summer season of 2009/2010 the RNZAF trialled a modified Boeing 757 operationally . The intention is to use the Boeing 757 for passenger transport thereby freeing up capacity for C17 cargo space . The annual sea-ice runway for wheeled aircraft is constructed at the start of each season and is used until early December when the sea ice begins to break up . Subsequently flight operations are moved back to Williams Field . Pilots landing C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft on the sea ice runway report that the surface is stable , not unlike landing on concrete . However , the similarity with land bases ends when the jet aircraft rolls to a stop . The nearly 450,000 pound ( = 201 tons ) weight of the plane , including cargo and passengers , causes it to sink into the ice , albeit only a matter of inches . A laser light is trained on the aircraft to measure the settlement rate . The $ 200 million aircraft is moved to a new location on the six-foot-thick ice as a safety measure if the 10-inch red line is reached , according to the News Tribune in Tacoma , Washington .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ice_Runway", "rank": 71, "score": 106995 }, { "content": "Title: Dome A Content: Dome A or Dome Argus is the loftiest ice dome on the Antarctic Plateau , located 1200 km inland . It is thought to be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth ; scientists believe that temperatures can sometimes even drop below -102 ° C in the winter . It is the highest ice feature in Antarctica , consisting of an ice dome or eminence of 4093 m elevation above sea level . It is located near the center of East Antarctica , approximately midway between the enormous head of Lambert Glacier and the geographic South Pole , within the Australian claim .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Dome_A", "rank": 72, "score": 106900 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic: I–Z Content: This is a list of glaciers in the Antarctic with a name starting with the letters I -- Z . This list does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . This list includes outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of this list , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "428", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic:_I–Z", "rank": 73, "score": 106889 }, { "content": "Title: Hemmen Ice Rise Content: Hemmen Ice Rise is an ice rise 11 mi long and 2 to wide , with an estimated area of 55 sqkm , located 17 km off the northwest corner of Berkner Island in the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . The feature appears for the first time on a chart prepared at Ellsworth Station in 1957 by Captain Finn Ronne , U.S. Navy Reserve . The ice rise was subsequently noted in U.S. Earth Resources Technology Satellite imagery . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for George E. Hemmen , Executive Secretary of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in 1972 ; he served with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey as a meteorological observer at Admiralty Bay , 1952 -- 53 , and as Base Leader at Deception Island , 1953 -- 54 , and with the Royal Society Antarctic Expedition , 1956 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Hemmen_Ice_Rise", "rank": 74, "score": 106766 }, { "content": "Title: Ferrigno Ice Stream Content: Ferrigno Ice Stream is an ice Stream more than 15 nmi long flowing into Eltanin Bay southwest of Wirth Peninsula , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Jane G. Ferrigno of the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) . Ferrigno has been a specialist for some decades from the 1970s in the use of satellite imagery for glacier studies and map compilation , co-leader of the USGS team that compiled the 1:5,000,000 - scale radiometer maps of Antarctica , and task leader of the team that is compiling 25 glaciological and coastal-change maps of Antarctica . Beneath the glacier lies the Ferrigno Rift , a rift valley some 1.5 km deep , 10 km wide , and at least 100 km long . The rift valley was discovered using ice-penetrating radar during a survey of the glacier in 2010 by a team from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Aberdeen investigating ice-melt on the glacier that had been measured using satellites . The ice-filled rift valley is connected to the ocean and is believed to impact ice loss on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ferrigno_Ice_Stream", "rank": 75, "score": 106677 }, { "content": "Title: Ice Gate Glacier Content: Ice Gate Glacier is a narrow hanging glacier , tributary to Astudillo Glacier , between rock spurs on the west slope of Dallmeyer Peak , Danco Coast , Antarctica . It was named by the Polish Antarctic Expedition in about 1992 , probably from the gatelike appearance of the spurs at the junction of the two glaciers .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ice_Gate_Glacier", "rank": 76, "score": 106655 }, { "content": "Title: Shackleton Ice Shelf Content: Shackleton Ice Shelf is an extensive ice shelf fronting the coast of East Antarctica for about 384 km ( 95E to 105E ) , projecting seaward about 145 km in the western portion and 64 km in the east . It occupies an area of 33,820 km ² . It is part of Mawson Sea and separates the Queen Mary Coast to the west from the Knox Coast of Wilkes Land to the east . The existence of this ice shelf was first made known by the USEE under Charles Wilkes who mapped a portion of it from the Vincennes in February 1840 . It was explored by the Australian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson ( 1911 -- 14 ) who named it for Sir Ernest Shackleton . The extent of the ice shelf was mapped in greater detail in 1955 , using aerial photography obtained by US Navy Operation Highjump , 1946-47 . Further mapping by the Soviet Expedition of 1956 showed the portion eastward of Scott Glacier to be a part of this ice shelf .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Shackleton_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 77, "score": 106651 }, { "content": "Title: Hughes Ice Piedmont Content: Hughes Ice Piedmont is the ice piedmont between Cordini Glacier and Smith Inlet on the east coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Terence J. Hughes , a United States Antarctic Research Program glaciologist at Deception Island and McMurdo Sound during 1970 -- 71 , and at Deception Island , 1973 -- 74 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Hughes_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 78, "score": 106447 }, { "content": "Title: Vere Ice Rise Content: Vere Ice Rise is a small ice rise lying merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , lying off the west coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was roughly mapped from the air by British Antarctic Survey on a radio echo sounding flight on 1 February 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery of February 1979 . It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1980 after Flight Lieutenant Robert P. Vere , RAF , the second pilot of the Twin Otter aircraft used on the British Antarctic Survey flight .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Vere_Ice_Rise", "rank": 79, "score": 106402 }, { "content": "Title: Hamilton Ice Piedmont Content: Hamilton Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont , 8 nmi wide , to the east of Wyatt Hill , Bear Peninsula , on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy aerial photographs , 1959 -- 66 , and was named in 1977 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Robert Hamilton , a meteorologist at the University of California , Davis , who was United States Antarctic Research Program Station Scientific Leader at South Pole Station , winter party 1975 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Hamilton_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 80, "score": 106368 }, { "content": "Title: Williams Ice Stream Content: Williams Ice Stream is an ice stream about fifteen miles ( 24 km ) long flowing into Venable Ice Shelf just east of Fletcher Peninsula . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) after Richard S. Williams , Jr. , senior research geologist , United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) , Woods Hole , Massachusetts , authority in aerial and satellite investigations of geomorphic processes and the fluctuations of glaciers on a global basis , particularly in Iceland and Antarctica ; project leader of the team that is compiling 25 Glaciological and Coastal-Change Maps of Antarctica , and that compiled the 1:5,000,000 - scale Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer maps of Antarctica .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Williams_Ice_Stream", "rank": 81, "score": 106271 }, { "content": "Title: Iceberg B31 Content: Iceberg B31 is a large iceberg that formed in November 2013 , when it separated from the Pine Island Glacier . B31 is heading into the Antarctic ocean , which may have possible repercusions for international shipping . Soon it would not be possible to track the iceberg as the winter darkness completely hides it . The ice island is 20 miles by 12 miles and 500 m of height . It was first observed by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) , an instrument on NASA 's Terra and Aqua satellites of NASA .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Iceberg_B31", "rank": 82, "score": 106182 }, { "content": "Title: West Ice Shelf Content: The West Ice Shelf is a prominent ice shelf extending about 288 km in an east-west direction along the Leopold and Astrid Coast in East Antarctica between Barrier Bay and Posadowsky Bay . It was discovered and named by the First German Antarctica Expedition , 1901 -- 1903 , under Dr. Erich von Drygalski . The toponym describes the direction in which the German expedition first viewed the ice shelf . Their limited westward view became a prolonged one ; on February 21 , 1902 , the ship became stuck in the ice . It remained there imprisoned by the pack ice until February 8 , 1903 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "West_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 83, "score": 106089 }, { "content": "Title: Whillans Ice Stream Content: Whillans Ice Stream is a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet , formerly known as Ice Stream B , renamed in 2001 in honor of Ohio State University glaciologist Ian Whillans .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Whillans_Ice_Stream", "rank": 84, "score": 106088 }, { "content": "Title: Hydrogenophilaceae Content: The Hydrogenophilaceae are a family of Betaproteobacteria , with two genera -- Hydrogenophilus and Thiobacillus . Like all Proteobacteria , they are Gram-negative . Hydrogenophilus species are thermophilic , growing around 50 ° C and obtaining their energy from oxidizing hydrogen . Thiobacillus spp . can be used in pest control , such as potato scabs . If an affected area is treated with sulfur and Thiobacillus spp. , the bacteria oxidise the sulfur to sulfuric acid , which destroys the pest , as the potato scabs can not tolerate acidic conditions . Thiobacillus thioparus may contribute to the formation of acid rain through the oxidation of sulfur dioxide to sulfurous acid . Hydrogenophilus thermoluteolus is a facultative chemolithoautotroph that previously had only been found in hot springs . However , it was isolated in 2004 from ice core samples retrieved from a depth around 3 km under the ice layer covering Lake Vostok in Antarctica . The presence of these thermophilic bacteria in the ice suggests that a geothermal system exists beneath the cold water body of Lake Vostok .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Hydrogenophilaceae", "rank": 85, "score": 106067 }, { "content": "Title: Skytrain Ice Rise Content: Skytrain Ice Rise is a large , flattish , peninsula-like ice rise of about 50 miles extent , extending from the vicinity of Meyer Hills in the Heritage Range eastward into the Ronne Ice Shelf of Antarctica . It was mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from surveys and USN air photos , 1961 -- 66 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) after the LC-47 Douglas Skytrain airplane ( also called R4D and Dakota ) , used extensively in the supply and placement of U.S. field personnel in Antarctica beginning with USN Operation Highjump , 1946 -- 47 , and continuing into the late 1960s .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Skytrain_Ice_Rise", "rank": 86, "score": 105902 }, { "content": "Title: Swinburne Ice Shelf Content: Swinburne Ice Shelf , is an ice shelf just north of Edward VII Peninsula and the Alexandra Mountains in the southern part of Sulzberger Bay , Antarctica . The ice shelf is 20 miles long and 5 miles wide and extends from Fisher Island to White Islands . It was photographed from aircraft and mapped by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition ( ByrdAE ) , 1928-30 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Captain H.W Swinburne , Jr. , Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff , U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , during Operation Deep Freeze 1970 and 1971 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Swinburne_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 87, "score": 105896 }, { "content": "Title: Heirtzler Ice Piedmont Content: Heirtzler Ice Piedmont is a relatively low , triangular-shaped , ice-covered area of about 7 nmi extent , located at the west side of Violante Inlet and north of Maury Glacier , on the Black Coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . The feature was first seen and photographed from the air by the United States Antarctic Service on December 30 , 1940 , and was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1966 -- 69 . In association with the names of continental drift scientists grouped in this area , it was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after James R. Heirtzler , an American physicist . Heirtzler was a Research Scientist at Columbia University 's Lamont -- Doherty Geological Observatory , 1960 -- 64 , and Senior Research Scientist , 1964 -- 67 ; he was Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute , 1969 -- 86 ; Geophysicist and Head of the Geophysics Branch at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from 1986 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Heirtzler_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 88, "score": 105884 }, { "content": "Title: Fox Ice Stream Content: Fox Ice Stream is an ice stream about 6 nmi long flowing into Eltanin Bay southwest of Wirth Peninsula , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Adrian Fox of the British Antarctic Survey , part of the USA -- UK cooperative project to compile Glaciological and Coastal-Change Maps of the Antarctic Peninsula ; he was active in field and mapping projects from the early 1990s onwards .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Fox_Ice_Stream", "rank": 89, "score": 105883 }, { "content": "Title: Dvořák Ice Rise Content: Dvořák Ice Rise is an ice rise 1.5 nmi in extent , rising above the ice of Mendelssohn Inlet in the southwest part of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was first mapped , from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , 1947 -- 48 , by D. Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960 , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Antonín Dvořák , the Czech composer . ( 1841-1904 ) .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Dvořák_Ice_Rise", "rank": 90, "score": 105568 }, { "content": "Title: ANDRILL Content: ANDRILL ( ANtarctic DRILLing Project ) is a scientific drilling project in Antarctica gathering information about past periods of global warming and cooling . The project involves scientists from Germany , Italy , New Zealand , and the United States . At two sites in 2006 and 2007 , ANDRILL team members drilled through ice , seawater , sediment and rock to a depth over more than 1,200 m and recovered a virtually continuous core record from the present to nearly 20 million years ago . The project is based at McMurdo Station in Antarctica . In studying the cores , ANDRILL scientists from various disciplines are gathering detailed information about past periods of global warming and cooling . A major goal of the project is to significantly improve the understanding of Antarctica 's impact on the world 's oceans currents and the atmosphere by reconstructing the behavior of Antarctic sea-ice , ice-shelves , glaciers and sea currents over tens of millions of years . Initial results imply rapid changes and dramatically different climates at various times on the southernmost continent.Quirin Scheirmeier , `` Sediment cores reveal Antarctica 's warmer past , '' Nature News , April 24 , 2008 . The $ 30 million project has achieved its operational goal of retrieving a continuous core record of the last 17 million years , filling crucial gaps left by previous drilling projects . Making use of knowledge gained through prior Antarctic drilling projects , ANDRILL employed novel techniques to reach record depths at its two drilling sites . Among the innovations deployed were a hot-water drilling system that allowed for easier ice-boring and a flexible drill pipe that could accommodate tidal oscillations and strong currents . On December 16 , 2006 , ANDRILL broke the previous record of 999.1 m set in 2000 by the Ocean Drilling Program 's drill ship , the Joides Resolution . The Antarctic-record 1285 m of core ANDRILL went on to recover represents geologic time to about 13 million years ago . In 2007 , drilling at the Southern McMurdo Sound , ANDRILL scientists recovered another 1138 meters ( 3733.6 ft ) of core . One goal in 2006 was to look at a period of around 3 to 5 million years ago in the Pliocene , which scientists know to be warmer . The team 's sedimentologists identified more than 60 cycles in which ice sheets or glaciers advanced and retreated across McMurdo Sound .", "qid": "428", "docid": "ANDRILL", "rank": 91, "score": 105490 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic microorganism Content: Antarctica is one of the most physically and chemically extreme terrestrial environments to be inhabited by microorganisms . Nonetheless , on February 6 , 2013 , scientists reported that bacteria were found living in the cold and dark in a lake buried a half-mile deep ( 0.5 mi ) under the ice in Antarctica . This finding was later confirmed by scientists on August 20 , 2014 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Antarctic_microorganism", "rank": 92, "score": 105419 }, { "content": "Title: Martin Ice Rise Content: Martin Ice Rise is an ice rise , 6 nmi long and 3 nmi wide , merged within the George VI Ice Shelf and the George VI Sound , located 10 nmi southwest of Kirwan Inlet , off the east coast of Alexander Island and the west coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . It was delineated as an ice rise from U.S. Landsat imagery of January 1973 , and was named in 1977 by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Sir David Martin ( 1914 -- 76 ) , Executive Secretary of the Royal Society , 1947 -- 76 , who played a leading role in organizing the Royal Society International Geophysical Year Expedition , 1956 -- 58 .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Martin_Ice_Rise", "rank": 93, "score": 105313 }, { "content": "Title: Minnehaha Icefalls Content: Minnehaha Icefalls is a small , heavily crevassed icefall descending the steep western slopes of Mount England and forming a southern tributary to New Glacier , close west of its terminus at Granite Harbour , Victoria Land , Antarctica . It was charted and named by a party of the British Antarctic Expedition ( 1910 -- 13 ) led by Thomas Griffith Taylor . The name , after Minnehaha , was suggested by Frank Debenham .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Minnehaha_Icefalls", "rank": 94, "score": 105276 }, { "content": "Title: Mozart Ice Piedmont Content: Mozart Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont , 60 nautical miles ( 110 km ) long-running in a NW-SE direction and 15 nautical miles ( 28 km ) wide in its widest part , on the west coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Mapped from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition ( RARE ) in 1947 , by Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) in 1960 . Named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( 1756 -- 1791 ) , famous Austrian composer . Some landforms within this area are named in association with the Mozart Ice Piedmont such as Figaro Nunatak , along with a few other landforms .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Mozart_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 95, "score": 105208 }, { "content": "Title: Ives Ice Rise Content: Ives Ice Rise is an ice rise about 1 mi long at the head of Weber Inlet , an ice-filled inlet situated between Bennett Dome and Berlioz Point on the Beethoven Peninsula , situated in the southwest part of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1967 -- 68 and Landsat imagery taken 1972 -- 73 . In association with the names of composers grouped in this area , it was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Charles Ives , the American composer .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Ives_Ice_Rise", "rank": 96, "score": 105205 }, { "content": "Title: Voyeykov Ice Shelf Content: Voyeykov Ice Shelf , is an ice shelf fringing the coast between Paulding Bay and Cape Goodenough , Antarctica . Mapped by the Soviet Antarctic Expedition ( SovAE ) ( 1958 ) and named after Aleksandr I. Voyeykov ( 1842 -- 1916 ) , a Russian climatologist .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Voyeykov_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 97, "score": 105187 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Doran Content: Peter Doran , Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University . Doran specializes in polar regions , especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems . Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal Nature in January 2002 . Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000 , his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the global warming theory , such as Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton . In an opinion piece in the July 27 , 2006 New York Times , Doran characterized this as a `` misinterpretation '' and stated , `` I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming . '' ( The temporary phenomenon is related to the `` hole '' in the ozone . As the `` hole heals '' the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly . ) Doran and his grad student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also published a paper in the Jan 27 , 2009 issue of EOS showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth 's climate . Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Peter_Doran", "rank": 98, "score": 105121 }, { "content": "Title: Alison Ice Stream Content: Alison Ice Stream is an ice stream about 8 nmi long flowing into Eltanin Bay south of Wirth Peninsula , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Alison Cook , a British Antarctic Survey computer specialist , part of the United States-UK cooperative project to compile glaciological and coastal change maps of the Antarctic Peninsula in the late 1990s and early 2000s .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Alison_Ice_Stream", "rank": 99, "score": 105120 }, { "content": "Title: Roberts Ice Piedmont Content: Roberts Ice Piedmont is a large ice piedmont , 20 nautical miles ( 37 km ) long in a north-south direction and 15 nautical miles ( 28 km ) wide , lying to the north and northwest of Mount Calais and occupying most of the northeast corner of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was first seen from a distance and roughly surveyed by the French Antarctic Expedition , 1908 -- 10 , under Charcot . It was photographed from the air by the British Graham Land Expedition ( BGLE ) on August 15 , 1936 , and roughly mapped from these photos . It was then named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1955 after Brian B. Roberts ( 1912 -- 78 ) , a British ornithologist , polar specialist and leading figure in the development of Antarctic nomenclature ; ornithologist , BGLE , 1934 -- 37 ; Secretary , United Kingdom Antarctic Place-names Committee , 1945-74 . About six nunataks are situated within the Roberts Ice Piedmont , these are Hengist Nunatak ( a separate nunatak ) and the Horsa Nunataks ( a group of about five nunataks ) . Both of these features are named after Saxon kings of England in the fifth century ; however , they have no association or relation with Brian B. Roberts and the Roberts Ice Piedmont itself .", "qid": "428", "docid": "Roberts_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 100, "score": 105086 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Antarctic ice sheet Content: The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of the Earth . It covers about 98 % of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth . It covers an area of almost 14 e6km2 and contains 26.5 e6km3 of ice . Approximately 61 percent of all fresh water on the Earth is held in the Antarctic ice sheet , an amount equivalent to about 58 m of sea-level rise . In East Antarctica , the ice sheet rests on a major land mass , but in West Antarctica the bed can extend to more than 2,500 m below sea level . Much of the land in this area would be seabed if the ice sheet were not there . In contrast to the melting of the Arctic sea ice , sea ice around Antarctica was expanding . The reasons for this are not fully understood , but suggestions include the climatic effects on ocean and atmospheric circulation of the ozone hole , and/or cooler ocean surface temperatures as the warming deep waters melt the ice shelves .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Antarctic_ice_sheet", "rank": 1, "score": 173159 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The Western Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) is the segment of the continental ice sheet that covers West ( or Lesser ) Antarctica , the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains which lies in the Western Hemisphere . The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet , meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves . The WAIS is bounded by the Ross Ice Shelf , the Ronne Ice Shelf , and outlet glaciers that drain into the Amundsen Sea . It is estimated that the volume of the Antarctic ice sheet is about 25.4 million km3 ( 6.1 million cu mi ) , and the WAIS contains just under 10 % of this , or 2.2 million km3 ( 530,000 cu mi ) . The weight of the ice has caused the underlying rock to sink by between 0.5 and 1 kilometres ( 0.31 -- 0.62 mi ) in a process known as isostatic depression . Under the force of its own weight , the ice sheet deforms and flows . The interior ice flows slowly over rough bedrock . In some circumstances , ice can flow faster in ice streams , separated by slow-flowing ice ridges . The inter-stream ridges are frozen to the bed while the bed beneath the ice streams consists of water-saturated sediments . Many of these sediments were deposited before the ice sheet occupied the region , when much of West Antarctica was covered by the ocean . The rapid ice-stream flow is a non-linear process still not fully understood ; streams can start and stop for unclear reasons . When ice reaches the coast , it either calves or continues to flow outward onto the water . The result is a large , floating ice shelf affixed to the continent .", "qid": "430", "docid": "West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 2, "score": 146219 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Ice Sheet Content: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet ( EAIS ) is one of two large ice sheets in Antarctica , and the largest on the entire planet . The EAIS lies between 45 ° west and 168 ° east longitudinally . The EAIS is considerably larger in area and mass than the West Antarctic Ice Sheet ( WAIS ) . It is separated from the WAIS by the Transantarctic Mountains . The EAIS rests upon a large land mass , contrary to that of the WAIS , which rests mainly on bedrock below sea level . The EAIS is also home to the thickest ice on the frozen white continent , at 15,700 ft ( 4,800 m ) . More well known , however , is that the EAIS is home to the geographic South Pole as well as of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station .", "qid": "430", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 3, "score": 145685 }, { "content": "Title: John H. Mercer Content: John H. Mercer ( Cheltenham , England , 19 October 1922 -- Columbus , Ohio 3 July 1987 ) was a glaciologist , chiefly known for his theoretical work on , and field studies of Antarctic ice streams , especially in the Transantarctic Mountains and in West Antarctica . Following John T. Hollin 's work ( 1962 ) suggesting that climatic warming and rising sea-level cause Antarctic ice shelves to retreat , Mercer postulated that the West Antarctic ice sheet , being grounded well below sea-level and terminating in floating ice shelves , was vulnerable to these changes and may have collapsed altogether during the last interglacial when Antarctica may have been warmer and sea-level may have been higher . In 1978 , in the science magazine Nature , Mercer pointed out that `` green-house '' warming from burning fossil fuel could have the same effect during the present interglacial . Two studies published 12 May 2014 confirm Mercer 's assumption . Climate scientist James Hansen has coined the term , `` John Mercer effect . '' After Mercer published his paper suggesting that the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse in response to warming , he struggled to get funding . Others , including Hansen , had similar problems . Many climate scientists censor their own work to avoid losing funding , especially regarding prospects for limiting warming to 2 ° C above pre-industrial temperatures . John H. Mercer was the third child of Harriet and John W. Mercer . He was educated at private schools in Cheltenham and , later , at Gordonstoun in Scotland . During World War II he served in the British Merchant Marines ( 1940 -- 46 ) as a radio man . After the war he went to University of Cambridge and studied geography . At that time he came under the influence of William Vaughan Lewis . After finishing his B.A. in 1949 Mercer went to Canada , where he received his PhD in geography from McGill University in 1954 . He was a Research Scholar from 1954 to 1956 at the Australian National University in Canberra , where he studied land use and population in western Samoa . He returned to Canada and worked in the Canadian Hydro-graphic Office in Ottawa as a geographer in 1957 and 1958 . During 1959 -- 60 , 1961 -- 62 , 1964 , and 1966 , the American Geographical Society employed him at its World Data Center A for Glaciology in New York . The turning point in his career as a glaciologist was in 1960 , when he became a Research Associate at The Ohio State University , in the Institute of Polar Studies ( renamed the Byrd Polar Research Center ) . He remained at The Ohio State University until his death , becoming its first Senior Research Scientist .", "qid": "430", "docid": "John_H._Mercer", "rank": 4, "score": 141535 }, { "content": "Title: Ice2sea Content: Ice2sea is a program of scientific research funded by the European Union 's Framework 7 Programme to study the effects of climate change on glaciation and the melting of ice caps and glaciers on sea level . The ice2sea project , a collaborative of 24 research institutions , which is headed by Prof David Vaughan , aims to reduce the uncertainty in sea-level projections which are of great economic and social importance to the European Union , especially as large areas of coastal area in Europe are below or less than a metre above sea level . The 2007 fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) report highlighted ice sheets * as the most significant remaining uncertainty in projections of sea-level rise . Understanding about the crucial ice-sheet effects was `` too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate of an upper bound for sea-level rise '' . Improved scientific results from ice2sea will feed directly into the fifth IPCC report ( due in 2013 ) to generate more accurate sea-level rise projections . The initiative recently funded research by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany , which was published in Nature in 2012 , which predicts the disappearance of the 450000 km2 vast Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in east Antarctica by the end of the century which could add up to 4.4 mm of rise of sea level each year due to its melting alone .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice2sea", "rank": 5, "score": 137690 }, { "content": "Title: Dakshin Gangotri Glacier Content: The Dakshin Gangotri Glacier is a small tongue of the polar continental ice sheet impinging on the Schirmacher Oasis of central Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was discovered by the Second Indian Expedition to Antarctica in 1983 , and named for India 's first Antarctic research station . Since then its snout , and the area around it , has been regularly monitored and it has become a valuable site for tracking the impact of global warming through changes in the movement of the Antarctic ice sheet . The site is protected under the Antarctic Treaty System as Antarctic Specially Protected Area ( ASPA ) No. 163 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Dakshin_Gangotri_Glacier", "rank": 6, "score": 137310 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "430", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 7, "score": 136122 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 8, "score": 135691 }, { "content": "Title: Ice sheet Content: An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50000 km2 , thus also known as continental glacier . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland ; during the last glacial period at Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of North America , the Weichselian ice sheet covered northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America . Ice sheets are bigger than ice shelves or alpine glaciers . Masses of ice covering less than 50,000 km2 are termed an ice cap . An ice cap will typically feed a series of glaciers around its periphery . Although the surface is cold , the base of an ice sheet is generally warmer due to geothermal heat . In places , melting occurs and the melt-water lubricates the ice sheet so that it flows more rapidly . This process produces fast-flowing channels in the ice sheet -- these are ice streams . The present-day polar ice sheets are relatively young in geological terms . The Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed as a small ice cap ( maybe several ) in the early Oligocene , but retreating and advancing many times until the Pliocene , when it came to occupy almost all of Antarctica . The Greenland ice sheet did not develop at all until the late Pliocene , but apparently developed very rapidly with the first continental glaciation . This had the unusual effect of allowing fossils of plants that once grew on present-day Greenland to be much better preserved than with the slowly forming Antarctic ice sheet .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice_sheet", "rank": 9, "score": 135360 }, { "content": "Title: Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment Content: The Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment ( SIPEX ) was an Australian contribution to the International Polar Year ( IPY ) . The expedition studied the sea ice in the Antarctica zone in September and October 2007 , investigating links between the sea ice and the Southern Ocean ecosystems . Taking part were 45 scientists from 8 different countries , each a specialist on some aspect of the Antarctic sea ice zone . Travelling aboard the research vessel Aurora Australis , the researchers covered East Antarctica between 110 ° E and 130 ° E. Experiments dealt with ice thickness and snow cover , the sympagic fauna and flora and examined the effects of ocean currents and wind . The extent and distribution of sea ice in the polar regions is a sensitive indicator of global climate change . Global warming has been implicated in significant reductions in the extent of sea ice and this trend is set to continue . An improved understanding of sea ice may lead to improved conservation policies in Antarctica .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Sea_Ice_Physics_and_Ecosystem_eXperiment", "rank": 10, "score": 133936 }, { "content": "Title: David Vaughan (glaciologist) Content: David Glyn Vaughan OBE is a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey . His research focus is the role of ice sheets in the Earth system and the societal threat of climate change and rising sea levels . He is a co-ordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . His research work includes the mapping of the bed under Pine Island Glacier and the discovery of a subglacial volcano . Vaughan was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to glaciology .", "qid": "430", "docid": "David_Vaughan_(glaciologist)", "rank": 11, "score": 131383 }, { "content": "Title: West Antarctica Content: West Antarctica , or Lesser Antarctica , one of the two major regions of Antarctica , is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere , and includes the Antarctic Peninsula . It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It lies between the Ross Sea ( partly covered by the Ross Ice Shelf ) , and the Weddell Sea ( largely covered by the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf ) . It may be considered a giant peninsula stretching from the South Pole towards the tip of South America . West Antarctica is largely covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , but there have been signs that climate change is having some effect and that this ice sheet may have started to shrink slightly . The coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula are the only parts of West Antarctica that become ( in summer ) ice-free . These constitute the Marielandia Antarctic tundra and have the warmest climate in Antarctica . The rocks are clad in mosses and lichens that can cope with the intense cold of winter and the short growing-season .", "qid": "430", "docid": "West_Antarctica", "rank": 12, "score": 131166 }, { "content": "Title: Geography of Antarctica Content: The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and , thus , by ice . The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle . It is washed by the Southern ( or Antarctic ) Ocean or , depending on definition , the southern Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian Oceans . It has an area of more than 14 million km ² . Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet , the world 's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water . Averaging at least 1.6 km thick , the ice is so massive that it has depressed the continental bedrock in some areas more than 2.5 km below sea level ; subglacial lakes of liquid water also occur ( e.g. , Lake Vostok ) . Ice shelves and rises populate the ice sheet on the periphery .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Geography_of_Antarctica", "rank": 13, "score": 130934 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme points of Antarctica Content: The tallest mountain in Antarctica is Mount Vinson rising 4,892 metres ( 16,050 feet ) above sea level . The lowest point in Antarctica is within the Bentley Subglacial Trench , which reaches 2,555 metres below sea level . This is also the lowest place on Earth not covered by ocean ( although it is covered by ice ) . The lowest accessible point in Antarctica is the shore of Deep Lake , Vestfold Hills , which is 50 m beneath sea level . The point on land farthest from any coastline on the Antarctic Continent is located at . This is also known as the South Pole of inaccessibility . Antarctica is the southernmost land mass on Earth . The Geographical South Pole lies on the Polar Plateau at . It is here that the southernmost human habitation on Earth is located : Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station ( U.S. Administered Base ) . Vostok Station is the most isolated research base on the continent ( located at ) , and it is situated over the southernmost lake in the world , Lake Vostok , a subglacial lake 4,000 metres ( 13,000 feet ) under the surface of the ice where the station sits . Formerly administrated by the Soviets , it is now operated by Russia . The southernmost volcano on the planet -- Mount Erebus -- is in Antarctica on the world 's southernmost island reachable from the sea : Ross Island . The southernmost island is Berkner Island . It is embedded in the ice shelf , fully covered by ice and fully below sea level . The Ross Sea is the southernmost sea in the world , with its southernmost extremity ( Gould Coast ) at the foot of the Horlick Mountains approximately 200 miles ( 320 km ) from the Geographic South Pole . However , this area is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf . The southernmost open sea is also part of Ross Sea , namely Bay of Whales at 78 ° 30 'S , at the edge of Ross Ice Shelf . The northernmost extremity of the Antarctic mainland ( without nearshore islands ) is Prime Head , at the northern tip of the Trinity Peninsula at . The Antarctic Peninsula is the largest contiguous part of the continent projecting north of the Antarctic Circle and thus has many of the continent 's research bases . Prime Head is 609 mi ( 980 km ) from Cape Horn . The northernmost research base on the mainland is Esperanza Base .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Extreme_points_of_Antarctica", "rank": 14, "score": 130457 }, { "content": "Title: Ice and the Sky Content: Ice and the Sky ( La Glace et le ciel , also known as Antarctica : Ice and Sky ) is a 2015 French documentary film directed by Luc Jacquet about the work of Claude Lorius , who began studying Antarctic ice in 1957 , and , in 1965 , was the first scientist to be concerned about global warming . The film was selected to close the 2015 Cannes Film Festival .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice_and_the_Sky", "rank": 15, "score": 128693 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic sea ice Content: Antarctic sea ice is the sea ice of the Southern Ocean . It extends far north in winter and retreats almost to the coastline each summer . Sea ice is frozen seawater that is usually less than a few meters thick . This is in contrast to ice shelves , which are formed by glaciers , float in the sea , and are up to a kilometer thick . There are two subdivisions of sea ice : fast ice , which is attached to land ; and ice floes , which are not . Sea ice in the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of from the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow . As a result , melt ponds are rarely observed . On average , Antarctic sea ice is younger , thinner , warmer , saltier , and more mobile than Arctic sea ice . Due to its inaccessibility , it is not as well-studied as Arctic ice .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Antarctic_sea_ice", "rank": 16, "score": 126684 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet dynamics Content: Ice sheet dynamics describe the motion within large bodies of ice , such those currently on Greenland and Antarctica . Ice motion is dominated by the movement of glaciers , whose gravity-driven activity is controlled by two main variable factors : the temperature and strength of their bases . A number of processes alter these two factors , resulting in cyclic surges of activity interspersed with longer periods of inactivity , on both hourly and centennial time scales . Ice-sheet dynamics are of interest in modelling future sea level rise . __ TOC __", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice-sheet_dynamics", "rank": 17, "score": 126583 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-sheet model Content: In climate modelling , Ice-sheet models use numerical methods to simulate the evolution , dynamics and thermodynamics of ice sheets , such as the Greenland ice sheet , the Antarctic ice sheet or the large ice sheets on the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period . They are used for a variety of purposes , from studies of the glaciation of Earth over glacial -- interglacial cycles in the past to projections of ice-sheet decay under future global warming conditions .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice-sheet_model", "rank": 18, "score": 126496 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica Content: The Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica is a research program consisting of two overland traverses of East Antarctica : the first from the Norwegian Troll Station to the South Pole in the 2007/2008 season ; and a return traverse via a different route in 2008/2009 . The main research focus of the program is climate change , the stated goals being to : Investigate climate variability in Dronning Maud Land of East Antarctica on time scales of years to a thousand years . Establish spatial and temporal variability in snow accumulation over this area of Antarctica to understand its impact on sea level . Investigate the impact of atmospheric and oceanic variability on the chemical composition of firn and ice in the region . Revisit areas and sites first explored by traverses in the 1960s , for detection of possible changes and to establish benchmark data sets for future research efforts . The program is part of Trans-Antarctic Scientific Traverse Expeditions -- Ice Divide of East Antarctica ( TASTE-IDEA ) , and the International Partners in Ice Coring Sciences ( IPICS ) , both of which have ISCU-WMO endorsement for the International Polar Year 2007-2009 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Norwegian-U.S._Scientific_Traverse_of_East_Antarctica", "rank": 19, "score": 126135 }, { "content": "Title: Nansen Ice Sheet Content: Nansen Ice Sheet , or Nansen Ice Shelf , is a 30 mi by 10 mi ice shelf . It is nourished by the Priestley and Reeves Glaciers and abutting the north side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue , along the coast of Victoria Land , Antarctica . This feature was explored by the South Magnetic Polar Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1907-09 and by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910-13 . Frank Debenham , geologist with the latter expedition , applied the name Nansen Sheet as the feature is adjacent to Mount Nansen , the dominating summit in the area .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Nansen_Ice_Sheet", "rank": 20, "score": 125668 }, { "content": "Title: Ice cap climate Content: An ice cap climate is a polar climate where the temperature never exceeds 0 C . The climate covers areas in or near the polar regions , such as Antarctica and Greenland , as well as the highest mountaintops . Such areas are covered by a permanent layer of ice and have no vegetation , but they may have animal life , that usually feeds from the oceans . Ice cap climates are inhospitable to human life . Antarctica , the coldest continent on Earth , sustains no permanent human residents , but has some civil inhabitants in proximity to research stations in coastal settlements that are maritime polar and there are some communities that are situated in a transitional zone between the two climates , but barely qualify as a tundra . Some places like Antarctica had a different climate before having an ice cap climate", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice_cap_climate", "rank": 21, "score": 125007 }, { "content": "Title: Last Glacial Maximum Content: The Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ) was the last period in the Earth 's climate history during the last glacial period when ice sheets were at their greatest extension . Growth of the ice sheets reached their maximum positions in about 24,500 BCE . Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 18,000 to 17,000 BCE and in Antarctica approximately 12,500 BCE , which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level in about 12,500 BCE . Vast ice sheets covered much of North America , northern Europe , and Asia . The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth 's climate by causing drought , desertification , and a dramatic drop in sea levels . It was followed by the Late Glacial .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Last_Glacial_Maximum", "rank": 22, "score": 124140 }, { "content": "Title: Billycock Hill Content: Billycock Hill is a rounded , ice-covered hill in Antarctica , which rises to 1,630 m and projects 180 m above the surrounding ice sheet . It is situated close north of the head of Neny Glacier on the west coast of Graham Land . First surveyed by the United States Antarctic Service , 1939 -- 41 , it was re-surveyed in 1946 by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , and named by them for its resemblance to a billycock hat .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Billycock_Hill", "rank": 23, "score": 123647 }, { "content": "Title: Post-glacial rebound Content: Post-glacial rebound ( also called either isostatic rebound or crustal rebound ) is the rise of land masses that were depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period , through a process known as isostatic depression . Post-glacial rebound and isostatic depression are different parts of a process known as either glacial isostasy , glacial isostatic adjustment , or glacioisostasy . Glacioisostasy is the solid Earth deformation associated with changes in ice mass distribution . The most obvious and direct effects of post-glacial rebound are readily apparent in parts of Northern Eurasia , Northern America , Patagonia , and Antarctica . However , through processes known as ocean siphoning and continental levering , the effects of post-glacial rebound on sea level are felt globally far from the locations of current and former ice sheets .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Post-glacial_rebound", "rank": 24, "score": 123196 }, { "content": "Title: Catherine Ritz Content: Catherine Ritz is a French Antarctic researcher , best known for her work on ice sheets and their impact on sea level rise .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Catherine_Ritz", "rank": 25, "score": 123112 }, { "content": "Title: Landy Ice Rises Content: Landy Ice Rises is a group of six ice rises in the Bach Ice Shelf near the head of Stravinsky Inlet , on Alexander Island . They were named by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee in 1980 after Michael Paul Landy , a British Antarctic Survey glaciologist from 1975 to 1981 , who worked in the area from Adelaide station , 1975 -- 76 , and Rothera station , 1976-77 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Landy_Ice_Rises", "rank": 26, "score": 123001 }, { "content": "Title: Konrad Steffen Content: Konrad `` Koni '' Steffen ( born 1952 ) is a glaciologist and the former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder , a position he held from 2005 until he took office as the director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest , Snow and Landscape Research on July 1 , 2012 . He is known for his research into Arctic sea ice and the glaciers of Greenland , and how they are affected by global warming . He has often traveled to Greenland to study these glaciers firsthand ; for example , when studying Petermann Glacier for three weeks in 2004 , Steffen did so from a camp set up 4,000 feet up the flanks of the glacier 's ice cap . He also operates a network of 20 weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet , the first of which , Swiss Camp , he established in 1990 . He has argued that due to this ice sheet melting faster than anticipated , sea levels could rise by about 3 feet by 2100 , considerably higher than the IPCC 's upper limit of 59 cm , and that Greenland might lose all its ice in 10,000 years , but Antarctica would take considerably longer , since it is so much bigger .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Konrad_Steffen", "rank": 27, "score": 121891 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna Content: The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna ( ANITA ) experiment has been designed to study ultra-high-energy ( UHE ) cosmic neutrinos by detecting the radio pulses emitted by their interactions with the Antarctic ice sheet . This is to be accomplished using an array of radio antennas suspended from a helium balloon flying at a height of about 37,000 meters . The neutrinos , with energies on the order of 1018 eV , produce radio pulses in the ice because of the Askaryan effect . It is believed that these high-energy cosmic neutrinos result from interaction of ultra-high-energy ( 1020 eV ) cosmic rays with the photons of the cosmic microwave background radiation . It is thus hoped that the ANITA experiment can shed light on the origin of these cosmic rays .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Antarctic_Impulse_Transient_Antenna", "rank": 28, "score": 121835 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Cold Reversal Content: The Antarctic Cold Reversal ( ACR ) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age . It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene Epochs . The Last Glacial Maximum and sea-level minimum occurred c. 21,000 years before present ( BP ) . Antarctic ice cores show gradual warming beginning 3000 years later . At about 14,700 BP , there was a large pulse of meltwater , identified as Meltwater pulse 1A , probably from either the Antarctic ice sheet or the Laurentide ice sheet . Meltwater pulse 1A produced a marine transgression that raised global sea level about 20 meters in two to five centuries and is thought to have influenced the start of the Bølling / Allerød interstadial , the major break with glacial cold in the Northern Hemisphere . Meltwater pulse 1A was followed in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere by a renewed cooling , the Antarctic Cold Reversal , in c. 14,500 BP , which lasted for two millennia -- an instance of warming causing cooling . The ACR brought an average cooling of perhaps 3 ° C . The Younger Dryas cooling , in the Northern Hemisphere , began while the Antarctic Cold Reversal was still ongoing , and the ACR ended in the midst of the Younger Dryas . This pattern of climate decoupling between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and of `` southern lead , northern lag '' would manifest in subsequent climate events . The cause or causes of this hemispheric decoupling , of the `` lead/lag '' pattern and of the specific mechanisms of the warming and cooling trends are still subjects of study and dispute among climate researchers . The specific dating and intensity of the Antarctic Cold Reversal are also under debate . The onset of the Antarctic Cold Reversal was followed , after about 800 years , by an Oceanic Cold Reversal in the Southern Ocean .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Antarctic_Cold_Reversal", "rank": 29, "score": 121311 }, { "content": "Title: South Pole–Queen Maud Land Traverse Content: The South Pole -- Queen Maud Land Traverse ( SPQMLT ) was a three-part scientific exploration of Antarctica undertaken by the United States in the 1960s . The three parts , referred to individually as South Pole -- Queen Maud Land Traverse I , II , and III ( SPQMLT-1 , -2 , and -3 ) , traveled a zigzag route across nearly 4200 km of the Antarctic Plateau in the austral summers of 1964-1965 , 1965-1966 , and 1967-1968 . The participants included scientists from Belgium , Norway , and the United States . Their objectives included determining the thickness of the Antarctic Ice Sheet , the elevation and slope of its surface , the rate of ice accumulation , and the subglacial topography . Other objectives included measuring the density and temperature of the ice at depth , measuring the geomagnetic field and gravity , and obtaining snow samples and ice cores .", "qid": "430", "docid": "South_Pole–Queen_Maud_Land_Traverse", "rank": 30, "score": 120286 }, { "content": "Title: ANDRILL Content: ANDRILL ( ANtarctic DRILLing Project ) is a scientific drilling project in Antarctica gathering information about past periods of global warming and cooling . The project involves scientists from Germany , Italy , New Zealand , and the United States . At two sites in 2006 and 2007 , ANDRILL team members drilled through ice , seawater , sediment and rock to a depth over more than 1,200 m and recovered a virtually continuous core record from the present to nearly 20 million years ago . The project is based at McMurdo Station in Antarctica . In studying the cores , ANDRILL scientists from various disciplines are gathering detailed information about past periods of global warming and cooling . A major goal of the project is to significantly improve the understanding of Antarctica 's impact on the world 's oceans currents and the atmosphere by reconstructing the behavior of Antarctic sea-ice , ice-shelves , glaciers and sea currents over tens of millions of years . Initial results imply rapid changes and dramatically different climates at various times on the southernmost continent.Quirin Scheirmeier , `` Sediment cores reveal Antarctica 's warmer past , '' Nature News , April 24 , 2008 . The $ 30 million project has achieved its operational goal of retrieving a continuous core record of the last 17 million years , filling crucial gaps left by previous drilling projects . Making use of knowledge gained through prior Antarctic drilling projects , ANDRILL employed novel techniques to reach record depths at its two drilling sites . Among the innovations deployed were a hot-water drilling system that allowed for easier ice-boring and a flexible drill pipe that could accommodate tidal oscillations and strong currents . On December 16 , 2006 , ANDRILL broke the previous record of 999.1 m set in 2000 by the Ocean Drilling Program 's drill ship , the Joides Resolution . The Antarctic-record 1285 m of core ANDRILL went on to recover represents geologic time to about 13 million years ago . In 2007 , drilling at the Southern McMurdo Sound , ANDRILL scientists recovered another 1138 meters ( 3733.6 ft ) of core . One goal in 2006 was to look at a period of around 3 to 5 million years ago in the Pliocene , which scientists know to be warmer . The team 's sedimentologists identified more than 60 cycles in which ice sheets or glaciers advanced and retreated across McMurdo Sound .", "qid": "430", "docid": "ANDRILL", "rank": 31, "score": 120266 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary glaciation Content: The Quaternary glaciation , also known as the Pleistocene glaciation or the current ice age , is a series of glacial events separated by interglacial events during the Quaternary period from 2.58 Ma ( million years ago ) to present . During this period , ice sheets expanded , notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland , and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere ( for example , the Laurentide ice sheet ) . The major effects of the ice age are erosion and deposition of material over large parts of the continents , modification of river systems , creation of millions of lakes , changes in sea level , development of pluvial lakes far from the ice margins , isostatic adjustment of the crust , and abnormal winds . It affected oceans , flooding , and biological communities . The ice sheets themselves , by raising the albedo , affect a major feedback on climate cooling .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Quaternary_glaciation", "rank": 32, "score": 119943 }, { "content": "Title: Ice-albedo feedback Content: Ice-albedo feedback ( or snow-albedo feedback ) is a positive feedback climate process where a change in the area of snow-covered land , ice caps , glaciers or sea ice alters the albedo . This change in albedo acts to reinforce the initial alteration in ice area . Cooling tends to increase ice cover and hence the albedo , reducing the amount of solar energy absorbed and leading to more cooling . Conversely , warming tends to decrease ice cover and hence the albedo , increasing the amount of solar energy absorbed , leading to more warming . The effect also applies on the small scale to snow-covered surfaces . A small amount of snow melt exposes darker ground which absorbs more radiation , leading to more snowmelt . The effect has mostly been discussed in terms of the recent trend of declining Arctic sea ice . Internal feedback processes may also potentially occur , as land ice melts and causes eustatic sea level rise , and also potentially induces earthquakes as a result of isostatic rebound , which further acts to disrupt glaciers , ice shelves , etc. .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice-albedo_feedback", "rank": 33, "score": 119810 }, { "content": "Title: Bentley Subglacial Trench Content: Bentley Subglacial Trench is a vast topographic trench in Marie Byrd Land , West Antarctica , 80 ° S , 115 ° W . At 2,555 meters ( 8,382 ft ) below sea level , it is the lowest point on the surface of the earth not covered by ocean , although it is covered by ice . Normally , it is not counted as the lowest point on land , since the overlying ice sheet makes it essentially subterranean . ( See Extremes on Earth and Vestfold Hills ) Also , if the ice melted , the area would be under water . The trench was named in 1961 after Charles R. Bentley who was the geophysicist in charge of the scientific expeditions in West Antarctica in 1957 -- 59 that led to its discovery .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Bentley_Subglacial_Trench", "rank": 34, "score": 119641 }, { "content": "Title: Beehive Hill Content: Beehive Hill is an ice-covered hill in Antarctica , which rises to 2030 m and projects 610 m above the surrounding ice sheet . It is situated on the plateau of Graham Land 10 nmi east of the head of Neny Fjord and close north of the head of Wyatt Glacier . It was first surveyed in 1940 by the United States Antarctic Service , on whose field charts the hill is labeled `` Sphinx '' , and re-surveyed in 1946 by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey who gave the present name because of the hill 's resemblance to a wicker beehive .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Beehive_Hill", "rank": 35, "score": 119437 }, { "content": "Title: Mercator Ice Piedmont Content: Mercator Ice Piedmont is a gently-sloping ice piedmont at the head of Mobiloil Inlet , formed by the confluence of the Gibbs , Lammers , Cole and Weyerhaeuser Glaciers in eastern Graham Land , Antarctica . The feature was first photographed from the air by Lincoln Ellsworth in November 1935 , and was plotted from these photos by W.L.G. Joerg as the lower end of a `` major valley depression '' along the coast . It was first seen from the ground by Finn Ronne and Carl R. Eklund of the United States Antarctic Service , 1939 -- 41 , which also obtained air photos . The ice piedmont was surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in December 1958 , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Flemish mathematician and geographer Gerardus Mercator , the originator , in 1568 , of the map projection which bears his name .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Mercator_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 36, "score": 119138 }, { "content": "Title: Dvořák Ice Rise Content: Dvořák Ice Rise is an ice rise 1.5 nmi in extent , rising above the ice of Mendelssohn Inlet in the southwest part of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was first mapped , from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , 1947 -- 48 , by D. Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1960 , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Antonín Dvořák , the Czech composer . ( 1841-1904 ) .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Dvořák_Ice_Rise", "rank": 37, "score": 118941 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Antarctica Content: The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth . Antarctica 's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983 , with − 89.2 C at Vostok Station . Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures , down to − 93.2 C at the cloud free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010 . It is also extremely dry ( technically a desert ) , averaging 166 mm of precipitation per year . On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet . Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent , because of the katabatic winds . Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate ( Köppen EF ) with very cold , generally extremely dry weather .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Climate_of_Antarctica", "rank": 38, "score": 118512 }, { "content": "Title: List of glaciers in the Antarctic Content: There are many glaciers in the Antarctic . This set of lists does not include ice sheets , ice caps or ice fields , such as the Antarctic ice sheet , but includes glacial features that are defined by their flow , rather than general bodies of ice . The lists include outlet glaciers , valley glaciers , cirque glaciers , tidewater glaciers and ice streams . Ice streams are a type of glacier and many of them have `` glacier '' in their name , e.g. Pine Island Glacier . Ice shelves are listed separately in the List of Antarctic ice shelves . For the purposes of these lists , the Antarctic is defined as any latitude further south than 60 ° ( the continental limit according to the Antarctic Treaty System ) .", "qid": "430", "docid": "List_of_glaciers_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 39, "score": 118136 }, { "content": "Title: Fowler Ice Rise Content: Fowler Ice Rise is a very large Antarctic ice rise between Evans Ice Stream and Carlson Inlet , in the southwest part of the Ronne Ice Shelf . The feature appears to be completely ice-covered except for the Haag Nunataks , which protrude above the surface in the northwestern portion . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from Landsat imagery taken 1973 -- 74 , and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Captain Alfred N. Fowler , U.S. Navy , Commander of the U.S. Naval Support Force , Antarctica , 1972 -- 74 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Fowler_Ice_Rise", "rank": 40, "score": 117960 }, { "content": "Title: Dome A Content: Dome A or Dome Argus is the loftiest ice dome on the Antarctic Plateau , located 1200 km inland . It is thought to be the coldest naturally occurring place on Earth ; scientists believe that temperatures can sometimes even drop below -102 ° C in the winter . It is the highest ice feature in Antarctica , consisting of an ice dome or eminence of 4093 m elevation above sea level . It is located near the center of East Antarctica , approximately midway between the enormous head of Lambert Glacier and the geographic South Pole , within the Australian claim .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Dome_A", "rank": 41, "score": 117945 }, { "content": "Title: Armadillo Hill Content: Armadillo Hill is an ice-covered hill in Antarctica which rises to 1760 m and projects 120 m above the surrounding ice sheet . It is situated in the south part of Hemimont Plateau in Graham Land 4 nmi east-southeast of the head of Northeast Glacier and 8 nmi northeast of the head of Neny Fjord . First roughly surveyed by the British Graham Land Expedition , 1934 -- 37 , it was resurveyed in 1940 by sledging parties of the United States Antarctic Service on whose field charts the hill is labelled `` Sawtooth '' . It was named Armadillo Hill by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey following its 1946 -- 47 survey , because when viewed from the northeast the tumbled ice blocks on the summit and general shape of the hill resemble the side view of an armadillo .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Armadillo_Hill", "rank": 42, "score": 117721 }, { "content": "Title: Philippi Rise Content: Philippi Rise is a low , snow-covered promontory 7 nautical miles ( 13 km ) wide and extending some 10 nautical miles ( 18 km ) southeast from the east coast of Graham Land . The ice surface is highest in the west , where it rises to about 395 m and is broken by Borchgrevink and Gemini Nunataks . The Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Nordenskjold , 1901 -- 04 , reported an ice wall or glacial terrace in the vicinity of Borchgrevink Nunatak . Although unable to determine its nature , Nordenskjold named the feature Philippigletscher , after Emil Philippi . It was determined to be a snow-covered promontory by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) during their 1947 survey of this coast . Category : Mountains of Graham Land Category : Oscar II Coast", "qid": "430", "docid": "Philippi_Rise", "rank": 43, "score": 117647 }, { "content": "Title: Ferrigno Ice Stream Content: Ferrigno Ice Stream is an ice Stream more than 15 nmi long flowing into Eltanin Bay southwest of Wirth Peninsula , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Jane G. Ferrigno of the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) . Ferrigno has been a specialist for some decades from the 1970s in the use of satellite imagery for glacier studies and map compilation , co-leader of the USGS team that compiled the 1:5,000,000 - scale radiometer maps of Antarctica , and task leader of the team that is compiling 25 glaciological and coastal-change maps of Antarctica . Beneath the glacier lies the Ferrigno Rift , a rift valley some 1.5 km deep , 10 km wide , and at least 100 km long . The rift valley was discovered using ice-penetrating radar during a survey of the glacier in 2010 by a team from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Aberdeen investigating ice-melt on the glacier that had been measured using satellites . The ice-filled rift valley is connected to the ocean and is believed to impact ice loss on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ferrigno_Ice_Stream", "rank": 44, "score": 117579 }, { "content": "Title: Military activity in the Antarctic Content: As Antarctica has never been permanently settled by humans , there has historically been little military activity in the Antarctic . Because the Antarctic Treaty , which came into effect on June 23 , 1961 , bans military activity in Antarctica , military personnel and equipment may only be used for scientific research or any other peaceful purpose ( such as delivering supplies ) on the continent . The Antarctic Treaty specifically prohibits military activity on land or ice shelves below 60 ° S . While the use of nuclear weapons is absolutely prohibited , the Treaty does not apply to naval activity within these bounds ( in the Southern Ocean ) so long as it takes place on the high seas .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Military_activity_in_the_Antarctic", "rank": 45, "score": 117540 }, { "content": "Title: South Ice Content: South Ice was a British support base 560 km from the South Pole at 82 ° 05 'S , 30 ° 00 ' W in Edith Ronne Land , Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year , established by Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition , where three men overwintered during the Antarctic winter of 1957 . In the same winter , men overwintered for the first time at the South Pole . The name of the station contrasts to North Ice which was a British research station in Greenland .", "qid": "430", "docid": "South_Ice", "rank": 46, "score": 117483 }, { "content": "Title: European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Content: The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica ( EPICA ) is a multinational European project for deep ice core drilling in Antarctica . Its main objective is to obtain full documentation of the climatic and atmospheric record archived in Antarctic ice by drilling and analyzing two ice cores and comparing these with their Greenland counterparts ( GRIP and GISP ) . Evaluation of these records will provide information about the natural climate variability and mechanisms of rapid climatic changes during the last glacial epoch . The European Science Foundation EPICA Programme ( 1996 -- 2005 ) provides co-ordination for EPICA drilling activities at Dome Concordia and Kohnen Station , which are supported by the European Commission and by national contributions from Belgium , Denmark , France , Germany , Italy , the Netherlands , Norway , Sweden , Switzerland and the United Kingdom . Deep drilling took place at two sites in Antarctica : Concordia Station at Dome C and Kohnen Station . In 2008 the project received the Descartes Prize for Research .", "qid": "430", "docid": "European_Project_for_Ice_Coring_in_Antarctica", "rank": 47, "score": 117473 }, { "content": "Title: Petrie Ice Rises Content: Petrie Ice Rises is a group of ice rises extending in a north-south line lying merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , to the west of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Seen from the air on a British Antarctic Survey ( BAS ) radio echo sounding flight around Alexander Island , February 11 , 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery . Named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee ( UK-APC ) in 1980 after David L. Petrie , BAS and Scott Polar Research Institute ( SPRI ) electronic technician , about 1966-70 , who was on the flight .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Petrie_Ice_Rises", "rank": 48, "score": 117253 }, { "content": "Title: Tim Naish Content: Tim Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist . He is the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre , Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand . He has written about the collapse of Antarctica 's Larsen B ice shelf . In 2002 , between January 31 and March 7 the Larsen B ice shelf collapsed and broke up . Tim Naish warned that the ice shelf of Weddell Sea is imperiled , and if the temperature rises by 3 ° C , the ice shelves of Antarctica will become thinner . `` These are dramatic changes '' -- said Tim Naish . In 2009 , Professor Naish was awarded a New Zealand Antarctic Medal ( NZAM ) for services to Antarctic climate science .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Tim_Naish", "rank": 49, "score": 116649 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming in Antarctica Content: The effects of global warming in Antarctica may include rising temperatures and increasing snow melt .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Global_warming_in_Antarctica", "rank": 50, "score": 116099 }, { "content": "Title: Troll Airfield Content: Troll Airfield is an airstrip located 6.8 km from the research station Troll in Princess Martha Coast in Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . Owned and operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute , it consists of a 3300 by runway on glacial blue ice on the Antarctic ice sheet . The airport is located at 1232 m above mean sea level and is 235 km from the coast . The airfield opened in 2005 and serves as the centre of the Dronning Maud Land Air Network ( DROMLAN ) , a multinational cooperation to use Troll as an all-year hub to provide intercontinental traffic to Antarctica and onwards to the various research stations using aircraft suitable for inter-Antarctic operations . Intercontinental flights normally operate from Cape Town International Airport using Ilyushin 76 , C-130 Hercules , P-3 Orion and similar , long-range aircraft . Feeding services to other research station is normally done either with Basler BT-67 aircraft , De Havilland DHC-6 / 300 Twin Otter aircraft and Dornier Do-228 aircraft and helicopters .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Troll_Airfield", "rank": 51, "score": 116011 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctic Shield Content: The East Antarctic Shield or Craton is a cratonic rock body that covers 10.2 million square kilometers or roughly 73 % of the continent of Antarctica . The shield is almost entirely buried by the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that has an average thickness of 2200 meters but reaches up to 4700 meters in some locations . East Antarctica is separated from West Antarctica by the 100 -- 300 kilometer wide Transantarctic Mountains , which span nearly 3,500 kilometers from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea . The East Antarctic Shield is then divided into an extensive central craton ( Mawson craton ) that occupies most of the continental interior and various other marginal cratons that are exposed along the coast .", "qid": "430", "docid": "East_Antarctic_Shield", "rank": 52, "score": 115898 }, { "content": "Title: Wordie Ice Shelf Content: The Wordie Ice Shelf was a confluent glacier projecting as an ice shelf into the SE part of Marguerite Bay between Cape Berteaux and Mount Edgell , along the western coast of Antarctic Peninsula . In March 2008 , the British Antarctic Survey reported that it appeared ready to break away from the Antarctic Peninsula . By April 2009 it had done so , vanishing completely . Discovered by the British Graham Land Expedition ( BGLE ) under Rymill , 1934-37 , who named this feature for Sir James Wordie , Honorary Secretary ( later President ) of the Royal Geographical Society , member of the Discovery Committee , and chairman of the Scott Polar Research Institute . He also had been geologist and Chief of the Scientific Staff of the British expedition , 1914-16 , under Ernest Shackleton .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Wordie_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 53, "score": 115879 }, { "content": "Title: Hudson Mountains Content: The Hudson Mountains is a group of parasitic cones , forming nunataks just above the Antarctic ice sheet in west Ellsworth Land . They lie just east of Cranton Bay and Pine Island Bay at the eastern extremity of Amundsen Sea , and are bounded on the north by Cosgrove Ice Shelf and on the south by Pine Island Glacier .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Hudson_Mountains", "rank": 54, "score": 115544 }, { "content": "Title: Mid-Brunhes Event Content: The Mid-Brunhes Event ( MBE ) is a climatic shift evident in a number of marine sediment and Antarctic ice cores . It corresponds to an increase in amplitude of glacial-interglacial cycles . The MBE roughly corresponds to the transition between MIS 12 and MIS 11 ( Termination V ) about 430 kyr ago . It is characterized by a further increase of ice-volume variations with , from then to the present day , four large-amplitude 100-kyr-dominated glacial -- interglacial cycles .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Mid-Brunhes_Event", "rank": 55, "score": 115529 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Bindschadler Content: Dr. Robert Bindschadler is a senior fellow at NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center and has been an active field researcher in the Antarctic for over 25 years . He is a past president of the International Glaciological Society , chairs the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative , is an editor for the Journal of Glaciology and has led 14 expeditions to Antarctica and has participated in numerous other expeditions around the world including Greenland . He has also testified before Congress and has briefed the U.S. vice president concerning ice-sheet stability and is often quoted or featured in the media . He was born in Pittsburgh and received a B.S. in astronomy and physics in 1971 from the University of Michigan and earned his Ph.D in Geophysics from the University of Washington in 1978 and did post doctoral work in Switzerland prior to working at NASA . His work revolves around the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets using remote sensing technology . He has developed applications used to measure ice velocity and elevation using radar imagery which monitors the melting of ice sheets and detects changes in the volume of ice-sheets using radar altimetry . He has received numerous awards including Exceptional scientific achievement by NASA in 1994 as well as the Goddard Senior fellow in 2000 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Robert_Bindschadler", "rank": 56, "score": 115442 }, { "content": "Title: Martin Ice Rise Content: Martin Ice Rise is an ice rise , 6 nmi long and 3 nmi wide , merged within the George VI Ice Shelf and the George VI Sound , located 10 nmi southwest of Kirwan Inlet , off the east coast of Alexander Island and the west coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . It was delineated as an ice rise from U.S. Landsat imagery of January 1973 , and was named in 1977 by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Sir David Martin ( 1914 -- 76 ) , Executive Secretary of the Royal Society , 1947 -- 76 , who played a leading role in organizing the Royal Society International Geophysical Year Expedition , 1956 -- 58 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Martin_Ice_Rise", "rank": 57, "score": 115054 }, { "content": "Title: Vere Ice Rise Content: Vere Ice Rise is a small ice rise lying merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , lying off the west coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was roughly mapped from the air by British Antarctic Survey on a radio echo sounding flight on 1 February 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery of February 1979 . It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1980 after Flight Lieutenant Robert P. Vere , RAF , the second pilot of the Twin Otter aircraft used on the British Antarctic Survey flight .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Vere_Ice_Rise", "rank": 58, "score": 114348 }, { "content": "Title: Dee Ice Piedmont Content: Dee Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont between Pavie Ridge and the mouth of Clarke Glacier on the east side of Mikkelsen Bay , west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula . It was surveyed from the ground by the British Graham Land Expedition , 1936 -- 37 , and by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1948 -- 50 . It was photographed by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , November 1947 ( trimetrogon air photography ) , and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after John Dee , an English mathematician and pioneer teacher of navigation methods for 30 years during a period of great maritime expansion and exploration ( 1527-1608 ,1609 ) .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Dee_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 59, "score": 114156 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Doran Content: Peter Doran , Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University . Doran specializes in polar regions , especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems . Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal Nature in January 2002 . Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000 , his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the global warming theory , such as Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton . In an opinion piece in the July 27 , 2006 New York Times , Doran characterized this as a `` misinterpretation '' and stated , `` I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming . '' ( The temporary phenomenon is related to the `` hole '' in the ozone . As the `` hole heals '' the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly . ) Doran and his grad student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also published a paper in the Jan 27 , 2009 issue of EOS showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth 's climate . Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Peter_Doran", "rank": 60, "score": 113998 }, { "content": "Title: Hemmen Ice Rise Content: Hemmen Ice Rise is an ice rise 11 mi long and 2 to wide , with an estimated area of 55 sqkm , located 17 km off the northwest corner of Berkner Island in the Ronne Ice Shelf , Antarctica . The feature appears for the first time on a chart prepared at Ellsworth Station in 1957 by Captain Finn Ronne , U.S. Navy Reserve . The ice rise was subsequently noted in U.S. Earth Resources Technology Satellite imagery . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee for George E. Hemmen , Executive Secretary of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in 1972 ; he served with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey as a meteorological observer at Admiralty Bay , 1952 -- 53 , and as Base Leader at Deception Island , 1953 -- 54 , and with the Royal Society Antarctic Expedition , 1956 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Hemmen_Ice_Rise", "rank": 61, "score": 113984 }, { "content": "Title: Climate inertia Content: Climate inertia describes the widespread inherent characteristic of the climate , ecological , and socio-economic systems . Inertia from anthropogenic impacts may be slow to become apparent , or could be irreversible if climate change crosses associated thresholds . Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica take time to respond to the emissions of fossil fuel carbon in the climate system . The global warming also causes thermal inertia , thermal expansion of the oceans , which contributes to sea level rise . It has been estimated that we are already committed to a sea-level rise of approximately 2.3 meters for each degree of temperature rise within the next 2,000 years .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Climate_inertia", "rank": 62, "score": 113785 }, { "content": "Title: Ice rise Content: An ice rise is a clearly defined elevation of the otherwise totally flat ice shelf , typically dome-shaped and rising 100 to 200 metres above the surrounding ice shelf . An ice rise forms where the ice shelf touches the rocky seabed because of an elevation in the seabed that remains below sea level . ( In contrast , an elevation in the seabed that extends above sea level is defined as an island ) . The ice shelf flows over the seabed elevation , completely covering it with ice , thereby forming an ice rise . The resulting tension forms crevasses around the ice rise . An island within and totally covered by the ice shelf , may appear the exactly the same as an ice rise . Elaborate measurements may be required to distinguish between these two geographic features . Although ice rises are typically located within the ice shelf area , they can partially face the open sea . Ice rises are found only on the ice shelves of Antarctica . The largest ice rises exceed dimensions of 50 by 200 km , or 10 000 km ² in area . Some ice rises are incorrectly called islands , but also a few totally ice-covered islands within an ice shelf are also called ice rises . Ice rises , grouped by ice shelf , clockwise starting in East Antarctica : Brunt Ice Shelf McDonald Ice Rumples Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf Lyddan Island King Baudouin Ice Shelf Derwael Ice Rise Amery Ice Shelf Budd Ice Rumples IR1 to IR5 near the ice front Shackleton Ice Shelf Green Ice Rises ( the northernmost ice rise , at 66 ° 21 'S ) Harrisson Ice Rises Ross Ice Shelf Crary Ice Rise ( the southernmost ice rise , at 82 ° 56 'S ) Crosson Ice Shelf Davis Ice Rise Bach Ice Shelf Burgess Ice Rise Dvořák Ice Rise Ives Ice Rise Landy Ice Rises George VI Ice Shelf Martin Ice Rise Wilkins Ice Shelf Petrie Ice Rises Schaus Ice Rises Vere Ice Rise Wordie Ice Shelf Coker Ice Rise Linchpin Ice Rise Miller Ice Rise Napier Ice Rise Reynolds Ice Rise Wade Ice Rise Müller Ice Shelf Humphreys Ice Rise Larsen-C Ice Shelf Bawden Ice Rise Gipps Ice Rise Tharp Ice Rise Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf Berkner Island Korff Ice Rise Henry Ice Rise Fowler Ice Rise Skytrain Ice Rise Doake Ice Rumples Dott Ice Rise Fletcher Ice Rise Hemmen Ice Rise Kealey Ice Rise Kershaw Ice Rumples Henry and Korff Ice Rises are the largest ice rises , with areas of roughly 1 500 to 1 600 km ² .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice_rise", "rank": 63, "score": 113699 }, { "content": "Title: Echelmeyer Ice Stream Content: The Echelmeyer Ice Stream , formerly known as Ice Stream F , is a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet . It is an ice stream flowing west to the Shirase Coast to the north of the MacAyeal Ice Stream , and is one of several major ice streams draining from Marie Byrd Land into the Ross Ice Shelf . The ice streams were investigated and mapped by U.S. Antarctic Research Program personnel in a number of field seasons from 1983 -- 84 and originally named Ice Stream A , B , C , etc. , according to their position from south to north . The name was changed from Ice Stream F by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2002 to honor Dr. Keith A. Echelmeyer of the Geophysical Institute , University of Alaska , Fairbanks , who studied the flow of Marie Byrd Land ice streams , 1992 -- 93 and 1994 -- 95 , as well as the fast flow of surging glaciers in Alaska and Greenland . Dr. Echelmeyer was a student of Barclay Kamb for whom Kamb Ice Stream is named .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Echelmeyer_Ice_Stream", "rank": 64, "score": 113469 }, { "content": "Title: Ice shelf Content: An ice shelf is a thick floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface . Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica , Greenland , Canada and the Russian Arctic . The boundary between the floating ice shelf and the grounded ( resting on bedrock ) ice that feeds it is called the grounding line . The thickness of ice shelves ranges from about 100 to 1000 meters . In contrast , sea ice is formed on water , is much thinner ( typically less than 3m ) , and forms throughout the Arctic Ocean . It also is found in the Southern Ocean around the continent of Antarctica . Ice shelves are principally driven by gravity-driven pressure from the grounded ice . That flow continually moves ice from the grounding line to the seaward front of the shelf . The primary mechanism of mass loss from ice shelves was thought to have been iceberg calving , in which a chunk of ice breaks off from the seaward front of the shelf . A study by NASA and university researchers - published in the June 14 , 2013 issue of Science - found however that ocean waters melting the undersides of Antarctic ice shelves are responsible for most of the continent 's ice shelf mass loss . Typically , a shelf front will extend forward for years or decades between major calving events . Snow accumulation on the upper surface and melting from the lower surface are also important to the mass balance of an ice shelf . Ice may also accrete onto the underside of the shelf . The density contrast between glacial ice , which is denser than normal ice , and liquid water means that only about 1/9 of the floating ice is above the ocean surface . The world 's largest ice shelves are the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica . The term captured ice shelf has been used for the ice over a subglacial lake , such as Lake Vostok .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice_shelf", "rank": 65, "score": 113430 }, { "content": "Title: Forster Ice Piedmont Content: Forster Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont lying landward of the Wordie Ice Shelf , along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula . It is formed by the confluence of Airy , Seller , Fleming and Prospect Glaciers and is about 25 mi long from north to south and 12 mi wide . The feature was first surveyed from the ground by the British Graham Land Expedition in 1936 -- 37 , and again in more detail by Peter D. Forster and P. Gibbs of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey ( FIDS ) in 1958 . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after Forster , a surveyor at Stonington Island in 1958 and at Horseshoe Island in 1960 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Forster_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 66, "score": 113426 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica: A Year on Ice Content: Antarctica : A Year on Ice is the first feature film by New Zealand filmmaker Anthony B. Powell . This documentary is set in Antarctica , specifically in the Ross Island region , which is home to two research bases : United States ' McMurdo Station and New Zealand 's Scott Base . It chronicles a year of time spent living and working at these remote stations ; the summer season ( October to February ) when the sun shines 24 hours a day and the long dark winter ( February to October ) where the sun goes down for four long months and darkness envelopes the environment . The film focuses on the everyday workers that keep the stations and the equipment running so the scientists can complete their work . Interviewees include a helicopter pilot , fireman , firehouse dispatcher , cook , mechanic , storekeeper , storeman , finance person , administrative person , and operations manager . Extensive use of time-lapse photography is used to document the changing seasons and the Antarctic landscapes . Powell had to invent many of his own camera systems to survive the extreme conditions of the deep Antarctic winter . Powell 's previous work includes footage for Discovery , National Geographic , and was featured in BBC 's Frozen Planet . The film also touches upon topics such as ` T3 Syndrome , ' a term that describes what happens to people during the winter , when the T3 hormone in the brain is reassigned to the muscles of the body in an effort to protect it against the extreme cold . The film also describes how the community works and plays together including the annual New Year 's party `` Ice Stock '' . The film 's post-production was completed at Park Road Post Production in Wellington , New Zealand .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Antarctica:_A_Year_on_Ice", "rank": 67, "score": 113353 }, { "content": "Title: Van der Veen Ice Stream Content: Van der Veen Ice Stream , formerly Ice Stream B1 , is a large southeastern tributary to the Whillans Ice Stream in Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) after Cornelis J. `` Kees '' van der Veen , Byrd Polar Research Center and Departments of Geological Sciences and Geography , Ohio State University ; glacial theoretician and collaborator with Ian Whillans , 1986 -- 2001 , in many seminal reports on the dynamics of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet , including former Ice Stream B , now Whillans Ice Stream .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Van_der_Veen_Ice_Stream", "rank": 68, "score": 113287 }, { "content": "Title: Julie Palais Content: Julie Michelle Palais ( * September 2 , 1956 in Massachusetts ) is an award-winning polar glaciologist who has made great contributions to climate change research studying volcanic fallout in ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica . Since 1990 , she has played a pivotal role working at the National Science Foundation as Program Director of the Antarctic Glaciology Program in the Division of Polar Programs . Both the Palais Glacier and Palais Bluff in Antarctica were named in her honor . She has made twenty-eight trips to Antarctica and three trips to Greenland , and was the co-recipient of the Explorer Club 's Lowell Thomas Award .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Julie_Palais", "rank": 69, "score": 112848 }, { "content": "Title: Hamilton Ice Piedmont Content: Hamilton Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont , 8 nmi wide , to the east of Wyatt Hill , Bear Peninsula , on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy aerial photographs , 1959 -- 66 , and was named in 1977 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Robert Hamilton , a meteorologist at the University of California , Davis , who was United States Antarctic Research Program Station Scientific Leader at South Pole Station , winter party 1975 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Hamilton_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 70, "score": 112616 }, { "content": "Title: Greenland ice sheet Content: The Greenland ice sheet ( Grønlands indlandsis , Sermersuaq ) is a vast body of ice covering 1710000 km ² , roughly 80 % of the surface of Greenland . It is the second largest ice body in the world , after the Antarctic ice sheet . The ice sheet is almost 2400 km long in a north-south direction , and its greatest width is 1100 km at a latitude of 77 ° N , near its northern margin . The mean altitude of the ice is 2135 m . The thickness is generally more than 2 km and over 3 km at its thickest point . It is not the only ice mass of Greenland -- isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76000 and around the periphery . If the entire 2850000 km3 of ice were to melt , it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m . The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice , or its Danish equivalent , indlandsis . It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Greenland_ice_sheet", "rank": 71, "score": 112600 }, { "content": "Title: List of Antarctic churches Content: There exist a number of Antarctic churches , including both Christian churches on Antarctica proper and those that were built south of the Antarctic Convergence . According to the 6th article of the Antarctic Treaty , Antarctica is defined politically as all land and ice shelves south of the 60th parallel , while the nearest natural boundary is the Antarctic Convergence . There are eight churches on Antarctica proper , with another two located south of the Antarctic Convergence . The southernmost of these religious buildings is the Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows , a Catholic chapel carved out of the ice surrounding the Belgrano II Base , at Bertrab Nunatak . While there are currently only a few freestanding structures dedicated solely to Christian religions , most research stations have small meeting rooms that are dual-purposed partially for religious services . These rooms are also commonly used by adherents of other world religions . The Chapel of the Snows also hosts services for other faith groups such as Latter Day Saints , Baha'i , and Buddhism . These religious structures serve the entire population of Antarctica , which varies from approximately 4,400 in summer to 1,100 in winter . This population is spread across approximately 40 year-round stations and a range of summer-only stations , camps , and refuges .", "qid": "430", "docid": "List_of_Antarctic_churches", "rank": 72, "score": 112419 }, { "content": "Title: Research stations in Antarctica Content: A number of governments maintain permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed . Unlike the bases set up in the Arctic ( see Drifting ice station ) , the research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rock or on ice that is ( for practical purposes ) fixed in place . Many of the stations are staffed around the year . A total of 30 countries ( as of October 2006 ) , all signatories to the Antarctic Treaty , operate seasonal ( summer ) and year-round research stations on the continent . The population of people performing and supporting scientific research on the continent and nearby islands varies from approximately 4,000 during the summer season to 1,000 during winter ( June ) . In addition to these permanent stations , approximately 30 field camps are established each summer to support specific projects .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Research_stations_in_Antarctica", "rank": 73, "score": 112416 }, { "content": "Title: Velchev Rock Content: Velchev Rock is a small nunatak rising to 208 m on the southwest end of Balkan Snowfield just north of Contell Glacier on eastern Livingston Island of the South Shetland Islands , Western Antarctica . It is located 1,000 m east of Atlantic Club Peak and 1,220 m southeast of Sinemorets Hill , and projects slightly above the ice sheet with approximately 0.3 hectares of rocky ground exposed on its northern slope in the summer . It was named for Krum A. Velchev , a meteorologist at the St. Kliment Ohridski Base during the summer seasons of 1993-94 , 1994 -- 95 and 1995-96 . Category : Nunataks of Antarctica", "qid": "430", "docid": "Velchev_Rock", "rank": 74, "score": 112399 }, { "content": "Title: Jøkulfallet Content: Jøkulfallet is a steep ice slope on the north side of Jokulkyrkja Mountain in the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica . It was plotted from surveys and air photos by the Sixth Norwegian Antarctic Expedition ( 1956 -- 60 ) and named Jøkulfallet ( the glacier fall ) .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Jøkulfallet", "rank": 75, "score": 112339 }, { "content": "Title: Heirtzler Ice Piedmont Content: Heirtzler Ice Piedmont is a relatively low , triangular-shaped , ice-covered area of about 7 nmi extent , located at the west side of Violante Inlet and north of Maury Glacier , on the Black Coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . The feature was first seen and photographed from the air by the United States Antarctic Service on December 30 , 1940 , and was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1966 -- 69 . In association with the names of continental drift scientists grouped in this area , it was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after James R. Heirtzler , an American physicist . Heirtzler was a Research Scientist at Columbia University 's Lamont -- Doherty Geological Observatory , 1960 -- 64 , and Senior Research Scientist , 1964 -- 67 ; he was Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute , 1969 -- 86 ; Geophysicist and Head of the Geophysics Branch at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from 1986 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Heirtzler_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 76, "score": 112290 }, { "content": "Title: Schaus Ice Rises Content: Schaus Ice Rises is a group of small ice rises merged within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , aligned east-west just off the north side of Eroica Peninsula , situated off the southwest coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . Mapped by United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1967-68 and from Landsat imagery taken 1972-73 . Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names ( US-ACAN ) for Commander Richard Schaus , U.S. Navy , assigned to the Division of Polar Programs , National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , as aviation projects officer , 1979-80 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Schaus_Ice_Rises", "rank": 77, "score": 112282 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctic Peninsula Content: The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica , located at the base of the Southern Hemisphere . At the surface , it is the biggest , most prominent peninsula in Antarctica as it extends 1300 km from a line between Cape Adams ( Weddell Sea ) and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands . Beneath the ice sheet which covers it , the Antarctic Peninsula consists of a string of bedrock islands ; these are separated by deep channels whose bottoms lie at depths considerably below current sea level . They are joined together by a grounded ice sheet . Tierra del Fuego , the southernmost tip of South America , lies only about 1000 km away across the Drake Passage . The Antarctic Peninsula is currently dotted with numerous research stations and nations have made multiple claims of sovereignty . The peninsula is part of disputed and overlapping claims by Argentina , Chile and the United Kingdom . None of these claims has international recognition and , under the Antarctic Treaty System , the respective countries do not attempt to enforce their claims . Argentina has the most bases and personnel stationed on the peninsula .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Antarctic_Peninsula", "rank": 78, "score": 112222 }, { "content": "Title: Kamb Glacier Content: Kamb Glacier is a broad elevated glacier , 4 nmi ) long , in the Royal Society Range , Victoria Land , Antarctica , flowing northeast from Fogle Peak to enter Condit Glacier . It was named in 1992 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after glaciologist Barclay Kamb of the California Institute of Technology , who was from the 1980s a principal investigator in United States Antarctic Research Program studies of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet , including the drilling of deep boreholes to the base of Siple Coast ice streams , and who undertook research in order to determine the mechanisms by which the ice streams are able to move at relatively greater speeds than the surrounding ice sheet .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Kamb_Glacier", "rank": 79, "score": 112176 }, { "content": "Title: Cape Sastrugi Content: Cape Sastrugi is a sharply projecting point on the west side of Deep Freeze Range , standing 1.5 nautical miles ( 2.8 km ) northwest of Snowy Point and overlooking the north portion of Nansen Ice Sheet , in Victoria Land . First explored by the Northern Party of the British Antarctic Expedition , 1910 -- 13 , and so named by them because of large and extensive sastrugi that impeded the travel of this party in approaching the point . Category : Headlands of Victoria Land Category : Scott Coast", "qid": "430", "docid": "Cape_Sastrugi", "rank": 80, "score": 111863 }, { "content": "Title: Beacon Hill (Antarctica) Content: Beacon Hill is an ice-covered , dome-shaped hill of elevation 1,810 m which rises 120 m above the surrounding plateau ice surface . It is situated in the south part of Hemimont Plateau in Graham Land , Antarctica 2.5 mi northeast of McLeod Hill . The hill surmounts the divide between Northeast Glacier and Bills Gulch . It was surveyed and named by the U.S. Antarctic Service ( USAS ) , 1939-41 ; the hill may have been the site of a beacon at that time . The U.S. Antarctic Service ( USAS ) operated a plateau weather station close southwestward ( 68 ° 07 ' S , 66 ° 30 ' W ) of the hill throughout November and December 1940 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Beacon_Hill_(Antarctica)", "rank": 81, "score": 111713 }, { "content": "Title: Burgess Ice Rise Content: Burgess Ice Rise is a small ice rise lying within the Wilkins Ice Shelf , off the west coast of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was mapped from the air on a radio echo sounding flight by the British Antarctic Survey on February 11 , 1967 , and later accurately positioned from U.S. Landsat imagery of February 1979 . It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1980 after Flight Lieutenant Robert William Burgess , Royal Air Force pilot in command of the Twin Otter aircraft on the flight .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Burgess_Ice_Rise", "rank": 82, "score": 111679 }, { "content": "Title: Airdevronsix Icefalls Content: Airdevronsix Icefalls is a line of icefalls at the head of Wright Upper Glacier , in Victoria Land , Antarctica . Named by U.S. Navy Operation Deepfreeze ( 1956 -- 57 ) for U.S. Navy Air Development Squadron Six , which had been formed to provide air support for the Deep Freeze operations and which had also carried out many important Antarctic exploratory flights . This icefall belongs to world 's most impressive natural landmarks and is approximately 5 km wide and 400 m tall . It has formed on Jurassic dolerite sill , which has intruded in Devonian - Triassic sandstone .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Airdevronsix_Icefalls", "rank": 83, "score": 111585 }, { "content": "Title: Castle Peak (Antarctica) Content: Castle Peak is a prominent ice-covered peak , 2,380 m high , standing immediately south of Murphy Glacier and close off the west side of Avery Plateau in Graham Land . It is shaped like a truncated cone with a rounded summit and rises more than 610 m above the surrounding ice . It was first surveyed in 1946 by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , and so named by them because of its resemblance to a ruined medieval castle .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Castle_Peak_(Antarctica)", "rank": 84, "score": 111522 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 85, "score": 111197 }, { "content": "Title: ICESat Content: ICESat ( Ice , Cloud , and land Elevation Satellite ) , part of NASA 's Earth Observing System , was a satellite mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance , cloud and aerosol heights , as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics . ICESat was launched 13 January 2003 on a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into a near-circular , near-polar orbit with an altitude of approximately 600 km . It operated for seven years before being retired in February 2010 , after its scientific payload shut down and scientists were unable to restart it . The ICESat mission was designed to provide elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as cloud property information , especially for stratospheric clouds common over polar areas . It provides topography and vegetation data around the globe , in addition to the polar-specific coverage over the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets . The satellite was found useful in assessing important forest characteristics , including tree density .", "qid": "430", "docid": "ICESat", "rank": 86, "score": 111152 }, { "content": "Title: Rockefeller Plateau Content: The Rockefeller Plateau in Antarctica is that portion of the interior ice plateau of Marie Byrd Land lying eastward of Shirase Coast and Siple Coast and southward of the Ford Ranges , Flood Range and Executive Committee Range , centering near the coordinates given above . Much of its extensive , ice-covered surface is from 1,000 to 1,500 m above sea level . It was discovered by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd , in 1934 , and named for John D. Rockefeller , Jr. , patron of the Byrd expeditions .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Rockefeller_Plateau", "rank": 87, "score": 111082 }, { "content": "Title: Ice core Content: An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet , most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica , Greenland or from high mountain glaciers elsewhere . As the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow , lower layers are older than upper , and an ice core contains ice formed over a range of years . The properties of the ice and the recrystallized inclusions within the ice can then be used to reconstruct a climatic record over the age range of the core , normally through isotopic analysis . This enables the reconstruction of local temperature records and the history of atmospheric composition . Ice cores contain an abundance of information about climate . Inclusions in the snow of each year remain in the ice , such as wind-blown dust , ash , pollen , bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances . The variety of climatic proxies is greater than in any other natural recorder of climate , such as tree rings or sediment layers . These include ( proxies for ) temperature , ocean volume , precipitation , chemistry and gas composition of the lower atmosphere , volcanic eruptions , solar variability , sea-surface productivity , desert extent and forest fires . The length of the record depends on the depth of the ice core and varies from a few years up to 800 kyr ( 800,000 years ) for the EPICA core . The time resolution ( i.e. the shortest time period which can be accurately distinguished ) depends on the amount of annual snowfall , and reduces with depth as the ice compacts under the weight of layers accumulating on top of it . Upper layers of ice in a core correspond to a single year or sometimes a single season . Deeper into the ice the layers thin and annual layers become indistinguishable . An ice core from the right site can be used to reconstruct an uninterrupted and detailed climate record extending over hundreds of thousands of years , providing information on a wide variety of aspects of climate at each point in time . It is the simultaneity of these properties recorded in the ice that makes ice cores such a powerful tool in paleoclimate research .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice_core", "rank": 88, "score": 111037 }, { "content": "Title: Talos Dome Content: Talos Dome is a large ice dome rising to 2,300 m to the southwest of the Usarp Mountains in Antarctica . The dome overlies the east margin of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin . The feature was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute ( SPRI ) - National Science Foundation ( NSF ) - Technical University of Denmark ( TUD ) airborne radio echo sounding program , 1967 -- 79 , and was named after Talos of Greek mythology , who assisted Minos in the defense of Crete . Category : Ice caps of Antarctica Category : Landforms of Oates Land", "qid": "430", "docid": "Talos_Dome", "rank": 89, "score": 110981 }, { "content": "Title: Antarctica Content: Antarctica ( UK English -LSB- ænˈtɑːktɪkə -RSB- or -LSB- ænˈtɑːtɪkə -RSB- , US English -LSB- æntˈɑːrktɪkə -RSB- ) is Earth 's southernmost continent . It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere , almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle , and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean . At 14000000 km2 , it is the fifth-largest continent . For comparison , Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia . About 98 % of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages 1.9 km in thickness , which extends to all but the northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula . Antarctica , on average , is the coldest , driest , and windiest continent , and has the highest average elevation of all the continents . Antarctica is a desert , with annual precipitation of only 200 mm ( 8 in ) along the coast and far less inland . The temperature in Antarctica has reached − 89.2 ° C ( − 128.6 ° F ) , though the average for the third quarter ( the coldest part of the year ) is − 63 ° C ( − 81 ° F ) . Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent . Organisms native to Antarctica include many types of algae , bacteria , fungi , plants , protista , and certain animals , such as mites , nematodes , penguins , seals and tardigrades . Vegetation , where it occurs , is tundra . Although myths and speculation about a Terra Australis ( `` Southern Land '' ) date back to antiquity , Antarctica is noted as the last region on Earth in recorded history to be discovered and colonised by humans , being only first sighted in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on Vostok and Mirny , who sighted the Fimbul ice shelf . The continent , however , remained largely neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment , lack of easily accessible resources , and isolation . In 1895 , the first confirmed landing was conducted by a team of Norwegians . Antarctica is a de facto condominium , governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status . Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959 , and thirty-eight have signed it since then . The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining , prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal , supports scientific research , and protects the continent 's ecozone . Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists from many nations .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Antarctica", "rank": 90, "score": 110939 }, { "content": "Title: East Antarctica Content: East Antarctica , also called Greater Antarctica , constitutes the majority ( two-thirds ) of the Antarctic continent , lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent , separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains . It lies almost entirely within the Eastern Hemisphere and its name has been accepted for more than a century . It is generally higher than West Antarctica and includes the Gamburtsev Mountain Range in the centre . Apart from small areas of the coast , East Antarctica is permanently covered by ice . The only terrestrial plant life is lichens , mosses and algae clinging to rocks , and there are a limited range of invertebrates including nematodes , springtails , mites and midges . The coasts are the breeding ground for various seabirds and penguins , and the leopard seal , Weddell seal , elephant seal , crabeater seal and Ross seal breed on the surrounding pack ice in summer .", "qid": "430", "docid": "East_Antarctica", "rank": 91, "score": 110928 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age Content: An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ice_age", "rank": 92, "score": 110679 }, { "content": "Title: Ives Ice Rise Content: Ives Ice Rise is an ice rise about 1 mi long at the head of Weber Inlet , an ice-filled inlet situated between Bennett Dome and Berlioz Point on the Beethoven Peninsula , situated in the southwest part of Alexander Island , Antarctica . It was mapped by the United States Geological Survey from U.S. Navy aerial photographs taken 1967 -- 68 and Landsat imagery taken 1972 -- 73 . In association with the names of composers grouped in this area , it was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Charles Ives , the American composer .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Ives_Ice_Rise", "rank": 93, "score": 110664 }, { "content": "Title: Hughes Ice Piedmont Content: Hughes Ice Piedmont is the ice piedmont between Cordini Glacier and Smith Inlet on the east coast of Palmer Land , Antarctica . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Terence J. Hughes , a United States Antarctic Research Program glaciologist at Deception Island and McMurdo Sound during 1970 -- 71 , and at Deception Island , 1973 -- 74 .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Hughes_Ice_Piedmont", "rank": 94, "score": 110516 }, { "content": "Title: Amery Ice Shelf Content: The Amery Ice Shelf is a broad ice shelf in Antarctica at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast . It is part of Mac . Robertson Land . The name `` Cape Amery '' was applied to a coastal angle mapped on February 11 , 1931 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition ( BANZARE ) under Douglas Mawson . He named it for William Bankes Amery , a civil servant who represented the United Kingdom government in Australia ( 1925 -- 28 ) . The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names interpreted this feature to be a portion of an ice shelf and , in 1947 , applied the name Amery to the whole shelf . In 2001 two holes were drilled through the ice shelf by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division and specially designed seabed sampling and photographic equipment was lowered to the underlying seabed . By studying the fossil composition of sediment samples recovered , scientists have inferred that a major retreat of the Amery Ice Shelf to at least 80 km landward of its present location may have occurred during the mid-Holocene climatic optimum ( about 5,700 years ago ) . In December 2006 , it was reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that Australian scientists were heading to the Amery Ice Shelf to investigate enormous cracks that had been forming for over a decade at a rate of three to five metres a day . These fractures threaten to break off a 1000 square kilometre piece of the Amery Ice Shelf . Scientists want to discover what is causing the cracks , as there has not been similar activity since the 1960s . However , the head of research believes that it is too early to attribute the cause to Global Warming as there is the possibility of a natural 50-60 year cycle being responsible . Lambert Glacier flows from Lambert Graben into the Amery Ice Shelf on the southwest side of Prydz Bay . The Amery Basin is an undersea basin north of the Amery Ice Shelf . The Chinese Antarctic Zhongshan Station and Russian Progress Station are located near this ice shelf . The Amery Ice Shelf is small compared to the Ross Ice Shelf and the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Amery_Ice_Shelf", "rank": 95, "score": 110434 }, { "content": "Title: The Satellite Content: The Satellite is a small rock peak rising to 1,100 m , protruding slightly above the ice sheet 3 nautical miles ( 6 km ) southwest of Pearce Peak and 8 nautical miles ( 15 km ) east of Baillieu Peak . Discovered and named in February 1931 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition ( BANZARE ) under Mawson . The approximate position of this peak was verified in aerial photographs taken by the U.S. Navy Operation Highjump on February 26 , 1947 . Category : Mountains of Mac . Robertson Land", "qid": "430", "docid": "The_Satellite", "rank": 96, "score": 110367 }, { "content": "Title: Mizuho Plateau Content: The is a mainly featureless ice plateau in Antarctica , situated eastward of the Queen Fabiola Mountains and southward of the Shirase Glacier in Queen Maud Land . A field party of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition studied the plateau in November and December 1960 and named it . At the Japanese Showa Station on East Ongul Island , it was called `` Japan Highland '' , but this name was not adopted officially . `` Mizuho '' is one of the ancient names of Japan .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Mizuho_Plateau", "rank": 97, "score": 110222 }, { "content": "Title: Bindschadler Glacier Content: Bindschadler Glacier is a glacier in the northwest part of Royal Society Range , Victoria Land , flowing north between Table Mountain and Platform Spur to join Emmanuel Glacier . It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1992 after glaciologist Robert A. Bindschadler of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ; from 1983 a principal investigator for United States Antarctic Research Program studies of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet including dynamics of ice streams in the Siple Coast area , their interaction with the Ross Ice Shelf , and the role of polar ice sheets in global climate change .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Bindschadler_Glacier", "rank": 98, "score": 110209 }, { "content": "Title: Helle Slope Content: Helle Slope is a large ice piedmont along the coast of Queen Maud Land , Antarctica , lying east of Jutulstraumen Glacier and north of the Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains . It was photographed from the air by the Third German Antarctic Expedition ( 1938 -- 39 ) ; it was mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and air photos by the Norwegian -- British -- Swedish Antarctic Expedition ( 1949 -- 52 ) and from air photos by the Norwegian expedition ( 1958 -- 59 ) , and was named for Sigurd Helle , leader of the 1957 Norwegian expedition to Queen Maud Land .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Helle_Slope", "rank": 99, "score": 110154 }, { "content": "Title: Humphreys Ice Rise Content: Humphreys Ice Rise is an ice rise in the Muller Ice Shelf in the southwestern part of Lallemand Fjord , Loubet Coast , Antarctica . It was photographed from the air by the Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition , 1956 -- 57 , and surveyed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey , 1956 -- 59 . In association with the names of glaciologists grouped in this area , the feature was named `` Humphreys Hill '' by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee after William J. Humphreys , an American meteorologist and specialist on the effects of ice in the atmosphere . Humphreys was joint author with W.A. Bentley ( for whom Bentley Crag was named ) of Snow Crystals , New York , 1931 . It was renamed as Humphreys Ice Rise to reflect the true nature of the feature .", "qid": "430", "docid": "Humphreys_Ice_Rise", "rank": 100, "score": 110095 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "432", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 1, "score": 154497 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick graph Content: Hockey stick graphs present the global or hemispherical mean temperature record of the past 500 to 2000 years as shown by quantitative climate reconstructions based on climate proxy records . These reconstructions have consistently shown a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century , with the instrumental temperature record by 2000 exceeding earlier temperatures . The term `` hockey stick graph '' was coined by the climatologist Jerry Mahlman , to describe the pattern shown by the ( MBH99 ) reconstruction , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat with a downward trend to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' followed by a sharp , steady increase corresponding to the `` blade '' portion . The reconstructions have featured in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) reports as evidence of global warming . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . Paleoclimatology dates back to the 19th century , and the concept of examining varves in lake beds and tree rings to track local climatic changes was suggested in the 1930s . In the 1960s , Hubert Lamb generalised from historical documents and temperature records of central England to propose a Medieval Warm Period from around 900 to 1300 , followed by Little Ice Age . This was the basis of a `` schematic diagram '' featured in the IPCC First Assessment Report of 1990 beside cautions that the medieval warming might not have been global . The use of indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed , and by the late 1990s a number of competing teams of climatologists found indications that recent warming was exceptional . introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large scale reconstructions . Their study was featured in the IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 . In 1998 Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 with shading emphasising that uncertainties ( to two standard error limits ) were much greater in earlier centuries . independently produced a CPS reconstruction extending back for a thousand years , and ( MBH99 ) used the MBH98 methodology to extend their study back to 1000 . A version of the MBH99 graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , which also drew on Jones et al. 1998 and three other reconstructions to support the conclusion that , in the Northern Hemisphere , the 1990s was likely to have been the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year during the past 1,000 years . The graph became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th century warmth was exceptional . In 2003 , as lobbying over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol intensified , a paper claiming greater medieval warmth was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy . Later in 2003 , Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick published disputing the data used in MBH98 paper . In 2004 Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal components analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . Their analysis was subsequently disputed by published papers including and which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . Political disputes led to the formation of a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council , their North Report in 2006 supported Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , support the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Further reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Hockey_stick_graph", "rank": 2, "score": 139512 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in popular culture Content: The issue of climate change and global warming , their possible effects , and related human-environment interaction have entered popular culture since the late 20th century . Science historian Naomi Oreskes has noted , `` There 's a huge disconnect between what professional scientists have studied and learned in the last 30 years , and what is out there in the popular culture . '' An academic study contrasts the relatively rapid acceptance of ozone depletion as reflected in popular culture with the much slower acceptance of the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climate_change_in_popular_culture", "rank": 3, "score": 133880 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 4, "score": 133296 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 5, "score": 131061 }, { "content": "Title: Duncan Wingham Content: Duncan John Wingham ( born 12 October 1957 ) is a British physicist who is Professor of Climate Physics at University College London , and was the first Director of the Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling . He is chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council and Principal Scientist for the CryoSat Satellite Mission . In the 1990s , Wingham was involved in a four-year satellite study of the Antarctic ice sheet . His conclusion then , and from later research , is that the Antarctic has contributed little to observed rising sea levels in the 20th century . However , he has also stated that `` it is possible that the consequences of global warming on sea level rise have been underestimated ... Other sources of rise must be underestimated . In particular it is possible that the effect of global warming on thermal expansion -LSB- on the oceans -RSB- is larger than we thought '' . In a 2005 interview Wingham stated '' -LSB- t -RSB- he Antarctic is to some extent insulated from global warming because to its north are zonal flows in the atmosphere and ocean , unimpeded by other landmasses ... I am not denying global warming . ''", "qid": "432", "docid": "Duncan_Wingham", "rank": 6, "score": 127073 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Thejll Content: Peter Andreas Thejll ( born 1956 ) is a Danish astrophysicist and climate researcher . His research in solar variation helped provide evidence of the greenhouse effect on the Earth 's climate in the late 20th century . In particular , his study with Knud Lassen on Northern Hemisphere land air temperature showed that the rise of 0.4 degrees Celsius since 1980 could not be accounted for by the solar cycle . Climatologists have pointed to this finding as an `` actual piece of evidence for greenhouse warming '' . Thejll received his undergraduate education at the University of Copenhagen . He received an M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Delaware . Thejll was a Carlsberg Fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and worked at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics . Thejll currently is a senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen . He is currently involved in the creation of a global automatic system to observe the Earth 's reflectivity - albedo - using observations of the earthshine on the Moon . Such data can be used for climate change studies and calibration of satellite data as the measurements deliver independent data on the albedo . A telescope is now installed on Hawaii at the Mauna Loa Observatory . The Swedish research agency VINNOVA is funding this project .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Peter_Thejll", "rank": 7, "score": 126816 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 8, "score": 125256 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "432", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 9, "score": 124754 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility Content: The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility ( ARM Climate Research Facility ) is a United States Department of Energy scientific user facility for the study of global climate change by the national and international research community . The ARM Climate Research Facility consists of global observation sites and research aircraft that measure radiative properties of the atmosphere , particularly cloud and aerosol formation processes . Continuous data from these sites , as well as supplemental data obtained through intensive field research campaigns , are available to scientists online through the ARM Data Archive . ARM is collaboratively managed by nine DOE national laboratories .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Atmospheric_Radiation_Measurement_Climate_Research_Facility", "rank": 10, "score": 121822 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Science Program Content: The Climate Change Science Program ( CCSP ) was the program responsible for coordinating and integrating research on global warming by U.S. government agencies from February 2002 to June 2009 . Toward the end of that period , CCSP issued 21 separate climate assessment reports that addressed climate observations , changes in the atmosphere , expected climate change , impacts and adaptation , and risk management issues . Shortly after President Obama took office , the program 's name was changed to U.S. Global Change Research Program ( USGCRP ) which was also the program 's name before 2002 . Nevertheless , the Obama Administration generally embraced the CCSP products as sound science providing a basis for climate policy . Because those reports were mostly issued after the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , and in some cases focused specifically on the United States , they were generally viewed within the United States as having an importance and scientific credibility comparable to the IPCC assessments for the first few years of the Obama Administration .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climate_Change_Science_Program", "rank": 11, "score": 121365 }, { "content": "Title: Gordon Manley Content: Gordon Valentine Manley , FRGS ( 3 January 1902 -- 29 January 1980 ) was an English climatologist who has been described as `` probably the best known , most prolific and most expert on the climate of Britain of his generation '' . He assembled the Central England temperature ( CET ) series of monthly mean temperatures stretching back to 1659 , which is the longest standardised instrumental record available for anywhere in the world . It provides a benchmark for proxy records of climatic change for the period covered , and is a notable example of scientific scholarship and perseverance ( it took over thirty years to complete ) . His two papers describing the work are available online .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Gordon_Manley", "rank": 12, "score": 120020 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit Content: The Climatic Research Unit ( CRU ) is a component of the University of East Anglia and is one of the leading institutions concerned with the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change . With a staff of some thirty research scientists and students , the CRU has contributed to the development of a number of the data sets widely used in climate research , including one of the global temperature records used to monitor the state of the climate system , as well as statistical software packages and climate models .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit", "rank": 13, "score": 119697 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 14, "score": 119272 }, { "content": "Title: Hockey stick controversy Content: In the hockey stick controversy , the data and methods used in reconstructions of the temperature record of the past 1000 years have been disputed . Reconstructions have consistently shown that the rise in the instrumental temperature record of the past 150 years is not matched in earlier centuries , and the name `` hockey stick graph '' was coined for figures showing a long-term decline followed by an abrupt rise in temperatures . These graphs were publicised to explain the scientific findings of climatology , and in addition to scientific debate over the reconstructions , they have been the topic of political dispute . The issue is part of the global warming controversy and has been one focus of political responses to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . Arguments over the reconstructions have been taken up by fossil fuel industry funded lobbying groups attempting to cast doubt on climate science . The use of proxy indicators to get quantitative estimates of the temperature record of past centuries was developed from the 1990s onwards , and found indications that recent warming was exceptional . The reconstruction introduced the `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method used by most later large-scale reconstructions , and its findings were disputed by Patrick Michaels at the United States House Committee on Science . In 1998 , Michael E. Mann , Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes developed new statistical techniques to produce ( MBH98 ) , the first eigenvector-based climate field reconstruction ( CFR ) . This showed global patterns of annual surface temperature , and included a graph of average hemispheric temperatures back to 1400 . In ( MBH99 ) the methodology was extended back to 1000 . The term hockey stick was coined by the climatologist Jerry D. Mahlman , to describe the pattern this showed , envisaging a graph that is relatively flat to 1900 as forming an ice hockey stick 's `` shaft '' , followed by a sharp increase corresponding to the `` blade '' . A version of this graph was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , along with four other reconstructions supporting the same conclusion . The graph was publicised , and became a focus of dispute for those opposed to the strengthening scientific consensus that late 20th-century warmth was exceptional . Those disputing the graph included Pat Michaels , the George C. Marshall Institute and Fred Singer . A paper by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas claiming greater medieval warmth was used by the Bush administration chief of staff Philip Cooney to justify altering the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment . The paper was quickly dismissed by scientists in the Soon and Baliunas controversy , but on July 28 , Republican Jim Inhofe spoke in the Senate citing it to claim `` that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people '' . Later in 2003 , a paper by Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick disputing the data used in MBH98 paper was publicised by the George C. Marshall Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute . In 2004 , Hans von Storch published criticism of the statistical techniques as tending to underplay variations in earlier parts of the graph , though this was disputed and he later accepted that the effect was very small . In 2005 , McIntyre and McKitrick published criticisms of the principal component analysis methodology as used in MBH98 and MBH99 . The analysis therein was subsequently disputed by published papers , including and , which pointed to errors in the McIntyre and McKitrick methodology . In June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton launched what Sherwood Boehlert , chairman of the House Science Committee , called a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into the data , methods and personal information of Mann , Bradley and Hughes . At Boehlert 's request , a panel of scientists convened by the National Research Council was set up , which reported in 2006 , supporting Mann 's findings with some qualifications , including agreeing that there were some statistical failings but these had little effect on the result . Barton and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield requested Edward Wegman to set up a team of statisticians to investigate , and they supported McIntyre and McKitrick 's view that there were statistical failings , although they did not quantify whether there was any significant effect . They also produced an extensive network analysis which has been discredited by expert opinion and found to have issues of plagiarism . Arguments against the MBH studies were reintroduced as part of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy , but dismissed by eight independent investigations . More than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears . The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited 14 reconstructions , 10 of which covered 1,000 years or longer , to support its strengthened conclusion that it was likely that Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the 20th century were the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . Over a dozen subsequent reconstructions , including Mann et al. 2008 and , have supported these general conclusions .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Hockey_stick_controversy", "rank": 15, "score": 119195 }, { "content": "Title: Miller-Casella thermometer Content: The Miller-Casella thermometer was a Six 's thermometer with a double bulb used extensively by the Challenger expedition during the late nineteenth century . The thermomemeter was used for water temperature readings along 360 different research stations around the world 's oceans . The thermometer , which was about 9 inches in length , was enclosed in a copper case and filled with a solution of creosote in spirit . A U-shaped mercury tube recorded maximum and minimum temperature as the thermometer was lowered and raised into the ocean . This design assumed accurate measurements could be taken as long as the water closer to the surface of the ocean was always warmer than that below . Scientists aboard the HMS Challenger later questioned this assumption and made temperutare measurements with reversing thermometers instead which would n't require the coldest water to be at the ocean 's bottom .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Miller-Casella_thermometer", "rank": 16, "score": 118553 }, { "content": "Title: Surveys of scientists' views on climate change Content: Surveys of scientists ' views on climate change - with a focus on human-caused or anthropogenic global warming ( AGW ) - have been undertaken since the 1990s . A 2016 paper ( which was co-authored by Naomi Oreskes , Peter Doran , William Anderegg , Bart Verheggen , Ed Maibach , J. Stuart Carlton and John Cook , and which was based on a half a dozen independent studies by the authors ) concluded that `` the finding of 97 % consensus -LSB- that humans are causing recent global warming -RSB- in published climate research is robust and consistent with other surveys of climate scientists and peer-reviewed studies . ''", "qid": "432", "docid": "Surveys_of_scientists'_views_on_climate_change", "rank": 17, "score": 118280 }, { "content": "Title: Proxy (climate) Content: In the study of past climates ( `` paleoclimatology '' ) , climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth 's history . Reliable global records of climate only began in the 1880s , and proxies provide the only means for scientists to determine climatic patterns before record-keeping began . Examples of proxies include ice cores , tree rings , sub-fossil pollen , boreholes , corals , lake and ocean sediments , and carbonate speleothems . The character of deposition or rate of growth of the proxies ' material has been influenced by the climatic conditions of the time in which they were laid down or grew . Chemical traces produced by climatic changes , such as quantities of particular isotopes , can be recovered from proxies . Some proxies , such as gas bubbles trapped in ice , enable traces of the ancient atmosphere to be recovered and measured directly to provide a history of fluctuations in the composition of the Earth 's atmosphere . To produce the most precise results , systematic cross-verification between proxy indicators is necessary for accuracy in readings and record-keeping . Proxies can be combined to produce temperature reconstructions longer than the instrumental temperature record and can inform discussions of global warming . The distribution of proxy records , just like the instrumental record , is not at all uniform , with more records in the northern hemisphere .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Proxy_(climate)", "rank": 18, "score": 118230 }, { "content": "Title: John Christy Content: John Raymond Christy is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville ( UAH ) whose chief interests are satellite remote sensing of global climate and global climate change . He is best known , jointly with Roy Spencer , for the first successful development of a satellite temperature record .", "qid": "432", "docid": "John_Christy", "rank": 19, "score": 117160 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "432", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 20, "score": 116730 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 21, "score": 116513 }, { "content": "Title: EdGCM Content: The Educational Global Climate Model or EdGCM is a fully functional global climate model ( GCM ) that has been ported for use on desktop computers ( Windows PCs and Macs ) . It operates through a graphical user interface and is integrated with a relational database and scientific visualization utllities , all of which aim at helping improve the quality of teaching and understanding of climatology by making real-world research experiences more accessible . EdGCM is designed to permit teachers and students to conduct in-depth investigations of past , present and future climate scenarios in a manner that is essentially identical to the techniques used by national and international climate research organizations . EdGCM was developed at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies as a joint project of Columbia University and NASA scientists and programmers . The Global Climate Model at the core of EdGCM is GISS Model II . During the 1980s and early 1990s this GCM was one of NASA 's primary climate research tools . Results from the model have appeared in hundreds of scientific publications . The coarser resolution of the climate model in EdGCM ( 8 ° x 10 ° , latitude x longitude ) makes it inexpensive to run . But , because it contains most of the key atmospheric physics of modern GCMs , EdGCM is also used by climate researchers who do not have access to the most recent GCM versions .", "qid": "432", "docid": "EdGCM", "rank": 22, "score": 116438 }, { "content": "Title: Ghrsst-pp Content: The Group for High Resolution SST ( GHRSST ) is a follow on activity form the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment ( GODAE ) high-resolution sea surface temperature pilot project ( GHRSST-PP ) provides a new generation of global high-resolution ( < 10 km ) SST data products to the operational oceanographic , meteorological , climate and general scientific community , in real time and delayed mode . See GHRSST for full details . Sea surface temperature ( SST ) measured from Earth Observation Satellites in considerable spatial detail and at high frequency , is increasingly required for use in the context of operational monitoring and forecasting of the ocean , for assimilation into coupled ocean-atmosphere model systems and for applications in short-term numerical weather prediction and longer term climate change detection . Currently there are many different SST data sets available derived from satellite systems . But , scientists and operational agencies alike are presented with a bewidering set of options in terms of SST product content , coverage , spatial resolution , timeliness , format and accuracy . The international GODAE steering committee realised that SST data products were not adequate for GODAE forecast systems and initiated the GODAE High Resolution SST Pilot Project ( GHRSST-PP ) . User Requirements were collected together to define the optimal SST data products that could be developed to suit the widest possible number of applications . In 2008 the GHRSST-PP Science Team agreed to close the Pilot Project as the GODAE project was completed . A follow on activity called the Group for High Resolution SST is now continuing the coordination of GHRSST activities .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Ghrsst-pp", "rank": 23, "score": 115782 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Research Unit documents Content: Climatic Research Unit documents including thousands of e-mails and other computer files were stolen from a server at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in a hacking incident in November 2009 . The documents were redistributed first through several blogs of global warming skeptics , and allegations were made that they indicated misconduct by leading climate scientists . A series of investigations rejected these allegations , while concluding that CRU scientists should have been more open with distributing data and methods on request . Precisely six committees investigated the allegations and published reports , finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct . The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged by the end of the investigations . The incident occurred shortly before the opening December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit . It has prompted general discussion about increasing the openness of scientific data ( though the majority of climate data have always been freely available ) . Scientists , scientific organisations , and government officials have stated that the incident does not affect the overall scientific case for climate change . Andrew Revkin reported in the New York Times that `` The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument . ''", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climatic_Research_Unit_documents", "rank": 24, "score": 115778 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Research Programme Content: The World Climate Research Programme ( WCRP ) was established in 1980 , under the joint sponsorship of International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization , and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO since 1993 . It is a component of the World Climate Programme . The objectives of the programme are to develop the fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate processes needed to determine to what extent climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate . The programme encompasses studies of the global atmosphere , oceans , sea ice , land ice ( such as glaciers , ice caps and ice sheets ) , and the land surface which together constitute the Earth 's physical climate system . WCRP activities address issues of scientific uncertainty in the Earth 's climate system including transport and storage of heat by the ocean , the global energy and hydrological cycle , the formation of clouds and their effects on radiative transfer , and the role of the cryosphere in climate . These activities match the scientific priorities identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and provide the basis for responding to issues raised in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . WCRP also lays the scientific foundation for meeting the research challenges posed in Agenda 21 . Together with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme , WCRP provides the international framework for scientific cooperation in the study of global climate change . Scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee consisting of 18 scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations .", "qid": "432", "docid": "World_Climate_Research_Programme", "rank": 25, "score": 114816 }, { "content": "Title: Mikhail Budyko Content: Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko ( 20 January 1920 -- 10 December 2001 ) was a Russian climatologist and one of the founders of physical climatology . He pioneered studies on global climate and calculated temperature of Earth considering simple physical model of equilibrium in which the incoming solar radiation absorbed by the Earth 's system is balanced by the energy re-radiated to space as thermal energy . Ethnically Belarussian , Budyko earned his M.Sc . in 1942 from the Division of Physics of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute . As a researcher at the Leningrad Geophysical Observatory , he received his doctorate in physical and mathematical sciences in 1951 . Budyko served as deputy director of the Geophysical Observatory until 1954 , as director until 1972 , and as head of the Division for Physical Climatology at the observatory from 1972 until 1975 . In that year he was appointed director of the Division for Climate Change Research at the State Hydrological Institute in St. Petersburg . Budyko 's groundbreaking book , Heat Balance of the Earth 's Surface , published in 1956 , transformed climatology from a qualitative into a quantitative physical science . These new physical methods based on heat balance were quickly adopted by climatologists around the world . In 1963 , Budyko directed the compilation of an atlas illustrating the components of the Earth 's heat balance . He was the first researcher to discuss the role of humans in Pleistocene megafauna extinction .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Mikhail_Budyko", "rank": 26, "score": 114509 }, { "content": "Title: Climatology Content: Climatology ( from Greek κλίμα , klima , `` place , zone '' ; and - λογία , - logia ) or climate science is the study of climate , scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time . This modern field of study is regarded as a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield of physical geography , which is one of the Earth sciences . Climatology now includes aspects of oceanography and biogeochemistry . Basic knowledge of climate can be used within shorter term weather forecasting using analog techniques such as the El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) , the Madden -- Julian oscillation ( MJO ) , the North Atlantic oscillation ( NAO ) , the Northern Annular Mode ( NAM ) which is also known as the Arctic oscillation ( AO ) , the Northern Pacific ( NP ) Index , the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation ( IPO ) . Climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system to projections of future climate . Weather is known as the condition of the atmosphere over a period of time . While Climate has to do with the atmospheric condition over an extended to indefinite period of time .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climatology", "rank": 27, "score": 112037 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 28, "score": 111918 }, { "content": "Title: AATSR Content: The Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer ( AATSR ) is one of the Announcement of Opportunity ( AO ) instruments on board the European Space Agency ( ESA ) 's Envisat satellite . This instrument is a multi-channel imaging radiometer with the principal objective of providing data concerning global Sea Surface Temperature ( SST ) to the high levels of accuracy and stability required for monitoring and carrying out research into the behaviour of the Earth 's climate . AATSR can measure Earth 's surface temperature to a precision of 0.3 K-change , for climate research . Among the secondary objectives of AATSR is the observation of environmental parameters such as aerosols , clouds , fires , gas flares , water content , biomass , and vegetal health and growth . AATSR is the successor of ATSR-1 and ATSR-2 , payloads of ERS-1 and ERS-2 .", "qid": "432", "docid": "AATSR", "rank": 29, "score": 111683 }, { "content": "Title: International Tundra Experiment Content: The International Tundra Experiment ( ITEX ) is a long-term international collaboration of researchers examining the responses of arctic and alpine plants and ecosystems to climate change . The ITEX network consists of more than 20 sites in polar and alpine locations around the world . Researchers measure plant responses to standardized , small-scale passive warming , snow manipulations , and nutrient additions . Researchers use small open-top chambers to passively increase mean air temperature by 1-2oC . The ITEX approach has been validated by tundra responses at the plot level . The network has published meta-analyses on plant phenology , growth , and reproduction , composition and abundance , and carbon flux .", "qid": "432", "docid": "International_Tundra_Experiment", "rank": 30, "score": 111607 }, { "content": "Title: Satellite temperature measurements Content: The temperature of the atmosphere at various altitudes as well as sea and land surface temperatures can be inferred from satellite measurements . These measurements can be used to locate weather fronts , monitor the El Niño-Southern Oscillation , determine the strength of tropical cyclones , study urban heat islands and monitor the global climate . Wildfires , volcanos , and industrial hot spots can also be found via thermal imaging from weather satellites . Weather satellites do not measure temperature directly . They measure radiances in various wavelength bands . Since 1978 microwave sounding units ( MSUs ) on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration polar orbiting satellites have measured the intensity of upwelling microwave radiation from atmospheric oxygen , which is related to the temperature of broad vertical layers of the atmosphere . Measurements of infrared radiation pertaining to sea surface temperature have been collected since 1967 . Satellite datasets show that over the past four decades the troposphere has warmed and the stratosphere has cooled . Both of these trends are consistent with the influence of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Satellite_temperature_measurements", "rank": 31, "score": 110493 }, { "content": "Title: I'm not a scientist Content: `` I 'm not a scientist '' is a phrase that has been often used by American politicians , primarily Republicans , when asked about a scientific subject , such as global warming , or the age of the earth . Politicians who have used the phrase include John Boehner , Rick Scott , Marco Rubio , Bobby Jindal , and Mitch McConnell . It has been criticized by Coral Davenport writing for The New York Times , and by Steven Benen of the Rachel Maddow Show , and was satirized by Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report . President Barack Obama singled the phrase out in his 2015 State of the Union speech , saying : I 've heard some folks try to dodge the evidence -LSB- of global climate change -RSB- by saying they 're not scientists ; that we do n't have enough information to act . Well , I 'm not a scientist , either . But you know what , I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA , and at NOAA , and at our major universities . And the best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate , and if we do n't act forcefully , we 'll continue to see rising oceans , longer , hotter heat waves , dangerous droughts and floods , and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration and conflict and hunger around the globe . Ford O'Connell , a Republican strategist and conservative activist , has argued that the phrase `` wo n't be a winner in the presidential field '' for Republican candidates . Commenting on the phenomenon , Journalist Dan Rather deplored the antiscience attitude it evinces , but stated that the anti-science attitude was evident not just among Republicans , but throughout American society . He blamed the media for their poor coverage of science , and for presenting a false equivalency between scientific consensus and climate change denial .", "qid": "432", "docid": "I'm_not_a_scientist", "rank": 32, "score": 110141 }, { "content": "Title: Raymond S. Bradley Content: Raymond S. `` Ray '' Bradley is a climatologist and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst , where he is also research director of the Climate System Research Center . Bradley 's work indicates that the warming of Earth 's climate system in the twentieth century is inexplicable via natural mechanisms .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Raymond_S._Bradley", "rank": 33, "score": 109509 }, { "content": "Title: UAH satellite temperature dataset Content: The UAH satellite temperature dataset , developed at the University of Alabama in Huntsville , infers the temperature of various atmospheric layers from satellite measurements of radiance . It was the first global temperature datasets developed from satellite information and has been used as a tool for research into surface and atmospheric temperature changes . The dataset is published by John Christy et al. and formerly jointly with Roy Spencer .", "qid": "432", "docid": "UAH_satellite_temperature_dataset", "rank": 34, "score": 109410 }, { "content": "Title: Leiden scale Content: The Leiden scale ( ° L ) was used to calibrate low-temperature indirect measurements in the early twentieth century , by providing conventional values ( in kelvins , then termed `` degrees Kelvin '' ) of helium vapour pressure . It was used below -183 ° C , the starting point of the International Temperature scale in the 1930s ( Awbery 1934 ) . It probably goes back to around 1894 , when Heike Kamerlingh Onnes ' cryogenic laboratory was established in Leiden , Netherlands . It has been reported that the scale is the kelvin scale shifted so that the boiling points of hydrogen and oxygen become zero and 70 respectively , but this is unlikely to be true . Oxygen under a standard atmosphere boils at a temperature in the 90.15 to 90.18 K range . For hydrogen , it depends on the molecular variety . The boiling point is 20.390 K for `` normal '' hydrogen ( made up of 75 % orthohydrogen and 25 % parahydrogen ) and 20.268 K for pure parahydrogen . Under the purported definition , absolute zero would lie at -20.15 ° L.", "qid": "432", "docid": "Leiden_scale", "rank": 35, "score": 109203 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "432", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 36, "score": 109057 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Content: The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Surface_Heat_Budget_of_the_Arctic_Ocean", "rank": 37, "score": 108831 }, { "content": "Title: Instrumental temperature record Content: The instrumental temperature record provides the temperature of Earth 's climate system from the historical network of in situ measurements of surface air temperatures and ocean surface temperatures . Data are collected at thousands of meteorological stations , buoys and ships around the globe . The longest-running temperature record is the Central England temperature data series , that starts in 1659 . The longest-running quasi-global record starts in 1850 . In recent decades more extensive sampling of ocean temperatures at various depths have begun allowing estimates of ocean heat content but these do not form part of the global surface temperature datasets .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Instrumental_temperature_record", "rank": 38, "score": 108519 }, { "content": "Title: List of climate research satellites Content: The invention of climate research through the use of satellite remote telemetry began in the 1960s through development of space probes to study other planets . During the U.S. economic decline in 1977 , with much of NASA 's money going toward the Shuttle program , the Reagan Administration proposed to reduce spending on planetary exploration . During this time , new scientific evidence emerged from ice and sediment cores that Earth 's climate had experienced rapid changes in temperature , running contrary to the previously held belief that the climate changed on a geological time scale . These changes increased political interest in gathering remote-sensing data on the Earth itself and stimulated the science of climatology .", "qid": "432", "docid": "List_of_climate_research_satellites", "rank": 39, "score": 108415 }, { "content": "Title: The Hockey Stick Illusion Content: The Hockey Stick Illusion : Climategate and the Corruption of Science is a book written by Andrew Montford and published by Stacey International in 2010 . Montford , an accountant and science publisher who publishes a blog called ` Bishop Hill ' provides his analysis of the history of the `` hockey stick graph '' of global temperatures for the last 1000 years and the controversy promoted by mining exploration company director Steve McIntyre about the research which produced the graph . The book describes the history of the graph from its inception to the beginning of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy ( `` Climategate '' ) . The book was Amazon UK 's second bestselling environment book of 2010 .", "qid": "432", "docid": "The_Hockey_Stick_Illusion", "rank": 40, "score": 107952 }, { "content": "Title: Pseudoproxy Content: A pseudoproxy is a synthetic dataset used in paleoclimatology to test methods of reconstruction of global or hemispherical climate change from temperature records , developed for reconstructing the temperature record of the past 1000 years using proxies for periods before the instrumental temperature record . In May 2002 Michael E. Mann and Scott Rutherford published a paper introducing this method of adding artificial noise to actual temperature records or to climate model simulations to produce what they called `` pseudoproxies '' . When the reconstruction algorithms were used with these pseudoproxies , the result was then compared with the original record or simulation to see how closely it had been reconstructed . They discussed the issue that regression methods of reconstruction tended to underestimate the amplitude of variation .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Pseudoproxy", "rank": 41, "score": 107631 }, { "content": "Title: Climate as complex networks Content: The field of complex networks has emerged as an important area of science to generate novel insights into nature of complex systems . The application of the network theory to climate science is a young and emerging field . To identify and analyze patterns in global climate , scientists model climate data as Complex Networks . Unlike most of real-world networks in which nodes and edges are well defined , nodes in climate networks are identified with the spatial grid points of underlying global climate data set , which is defined arbitrarily and can be represented at various resolutions . Two nodes are connected by an edge depending on the degree of statistical similarity ( that may be related to dependence ) between corresponding pairs of time-series taken from climate data , based on similarity shared in climatic variability . The climate network approach enables novel insights into the dynamics of the climate system over many spatial and temporal scales .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climate_as_complex_networks", "rank": 42, "score": 107334 }, { "content": "Title: Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l'environnement Content: The Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l'environnement ( LSCE , Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory ) is a laboratory for the study of climate and in particular climate change . It plays a very important role within the framework of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , which involves many of its researchers . It is very diversified because it includes modellers like experimenters , glaciologists as specialists in remote sensing or air quality study . The climate scientist Valerie Masson-Delmotte is involved in the laboratory .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Laboratoire_des_sciences_du_climat_et_de_l'environnement", "rank": 43, "score": 107283 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 44, "score": 106794 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 45, "score": 106745 }, { "content": "Title: Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment Content: The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment ( SORCE ) is a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that measures incoming X-ray , ultraviolet , visible , near-infrared , and total solar radiation . These measurements specifically address long-term climate change , natural variability and enhanced climate prediction , and atmospheric ozone and UV-B radiation . These measurements are critical to studies of the Sun , its effect on our Earth system and its influence on humankind . The SORCE spacecraft launched on January 25 , 2003 on a Pegasus XL launch vehicle to provide NASA 's Earth Science Enterprise ( ESE ) with precise measurements of solar radiation . SORCE measures the Sun 's output using radiometers , spectrometers , photodiodes , detectors , and bolometers mounted on a satellite observatory . The SORCE satellite orbits the Earth accumulating solar data . Spectral measurements identify the irradiance of the Sun by characterizing the Sun 's energy and emissions in the form of color that can then be translated into quantities and elements of matter . Data obtained by the SORCE experiment can be used to model the Sun 's output and to explain and predict the effect of the Sun 's radiation on the Earth 's atmosphere and climate . Flying in a 645 km , 40 degree orbit , SORCE is operated by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics ( LASP ) at the University of Colorado at Boulder , Colorado . It will continue the precise measurements of total solar irradiance that began with the ERB instrument in 1979 and has continued to the present with the ACRIM series of measurements . SORCE will also provide the measurements of the solar spectral irradiance from 1 nm to 2000 nm , accounting for 95 % of the spectral contribution to the total solar irradiance . SORCE carries four instruments including the Total Irradiance Monitor ( TIM ) , Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment ( SOLSTICE ) , Spectral Irradiance Monitor ( SIM ) , and the XUV Photometer System ( XPS ) .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Solar_Radiation_and_Climate_Experiment", "rank": 46, "score": 106581 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Content: The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment ( GEWEX ) is a research program of the World Climate Research Programme intended to observe , comprehend and model the Earth 's water cycle . The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives , studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed . Sunlight 's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain , and dries out land masses after rain . Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes . GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere . If the Earth 's climates were identical from year to year , then people could predict when , where and what crops to plant . However , instability created by solar variation , weather trends , and chaotic events create weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales . Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities . GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data , and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future . GEWEX is organized into several structures . As GEWEX was conceived projects were organized by participating factions , this task is now done by the International GEWEX Project Office ( IGPO ) . IGPO oversees major initiatives and coordinates between national projects in an effort to bring about communication of researchers . IGPO claims to support communication exchange between 2000 scientist and is the instrument for publication of major reports . The Scientific Steering Group organizes the projects and assigns them to panels , which oversee progress and provide critique . The Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project ( CEOP ) the ` Hydrology Project ' is a major instrument in GEWEX . This panel includes geographic study areas such as the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas operated by NOAA , but also examines several types of climate zones ( e.g. high altitude and semi-arid ) . Another panel , the GEWEX Radiation Panel oversees the coordinated use of satellites and ground based observation to better estimate energy and water fluxes . One recent result GEWEX 's Radiation panel has assessed data on rainfall for the last 25 years and determined that global rainfall is 2.61 mm/day with a small statistical variation . While the study period is short , after 25 years of measurement regional trends are beginning to appear . The GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel takes current models and analyzes the models when climate forcing phenomena occur ( global warming as an example of a ` climate forcing ' event ) . GEWEX is now the core project of WCRP .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Cycle_Experiment", "rank": 47, "score": 106175 }, { "content": "Title: Gilbert Plass Content: Gilbert Norman Plass ( 22 March 1920 -- 1 March 2004 ) was a Canadian physicist who in the 1950s made predictions about the increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 20th century and its effect on the average temperature of the planet that closely match measurements reported half a century later . Plass worked most of his life as a physicist in the United States . He graduated from Harvard University in 1941 and earned a PhD in physics from Princeton University in 1947 . He worked as an associate physicist at the Metallurgical Laboratory ( Manhattan District ) of the University of Chicago from 1942 to 1945 . He became an instructor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in 1946 , and eventually became an associate professor there . In 1955 , leaving academia , he held a job for a year as a staff scientist with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation . He then joined the advanced research staff at the Aeronutronic division of the Ford Motor Company . In 1960 , he became manager of the research lab at Ford 's theoretical physics department and a consulting editor of the journal Infrared Physics ( now called Infrared Physics and Technology ) . In 1963 , he accepted a position as the first professor of atmospheric and space science at the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies ( now the University of Texas at Arlington ) , where he remained for five years . In 1968 , he arrived at Texas A&M University , where he served as professor of physics and head of the department .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Gilbert_Plass", "rank": 48, "score": 106118 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature Content: A temperature is an objective comparative measurement of hot or cold . It is measured by a thermometer . Several scales and units exist for measuring temperature , the most common being Celsius ( denoted ° C ; formerly called centigrade ) , Fahrenheit ( denoted ° F ) , and , especially in science , Kelvin ( denoted K ) . The coldest theoretical temperature is absolute zero , at which the thermal motion of atoms and molecules reaches its minimum -- classically , this would be a state of motionlessness , but quantum uncertainty dictates that the particles still possess a finite zero-point energy . Absolute zero is denoted as 0 K on the Kelvin scale , − 273.15 ° C on the Celsius scale , and − 459.67 ° F on the Fahrenheit scale . The kinetic theory offers a valuable but limited account of the behavior of the materials of macroscopic bodies , especially of fluids . It indicates the absolute temperature as proportional to the average kinetic energy of the random microscopic motions of those of their constituent microscopic particles , such as electrons , atoms , and molecules , that move freely within the material . Temperature is important in all fields of natural science including physics , geology , chemistry , atmospheric sciences , medicine and biology as well as most aspects of daily life .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Temperature", "rank": 49, "score": 105910 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "432", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 50, "score": 105873 }, { "content": "Title: Ian Clark (geologist) Content: Ian D. Clark is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa ( Canada ) , who has been publishing research on geoscience , groundwater and geochemistry since 1982 . His graduate work in isotope hydrogeology was at the University of Waterloo and the University of Paris . Clark is among the scientists who reject the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change ; in the 2007 UK television documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle , he states that changes in global temperature correlate with solar activity , saying `` Solar activity of the last hundred years , over the last several hundred years correlates very nicely on a decadal basis , with sea ice and Arctic temperatures . ''", "qid": "432", "docid": "Ian_Clark_(geologist)", "rank": 51, "score": 105860 }, { "content": "Title: Seita Emori Content: Seita Emori ( born 1970 in Kanagawa , Japan ) is a Japanese environmental scientist whose most noted work focuses upon the worldwide effects of Global Warming . He completed his Doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1997 and thereafter joined the National Institute of Environmental Studies , Japan where he is currently the Chief of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section at the Center for Global Environmental Research . Emori is a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and a member of the IPCC Steering Committee for the `` Expert Meeting on New Scenarios '' , for which the IPCC received a Noble Prize in 2007 . Among Emori 's publications are the academic paper `` Sensitivity Map of LAI to Precipitation and Surface Air Temperature Variations in a Global Scale '' ( co-authored with his Japans colleague Hiroshi Kanzawa and Jiahua Zhang and Congbin Fu of the START , Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing , China ) .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Seita_Emori", "rank": 52, "score": 105737 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Doran Content: Peter Doran , Ph.D. is Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Louisiana State University . Doran specializes in polar regions , especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems . Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal Nature in January 2002 . Because he and his colleagues found that some parts of Antarctica had cooled between 1964 and 2000 , his paper has been frequently cited by opponents of the global warming theory , such as Ann Coulter and Michael Crichton . In an opinion piece in the July 27 , 2006 New York Times , Doran characterized this as a `` misinterpretation '' and stated , `` I have never thought such a thing ... I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming . '' ( The temporary phenomenon is related to the `` hole '' in the ozone . As the `` hole heals '' the Antarctic will dramatically warm quickly . ) Doran and his grad student Maggie Kendall Zimmerman also published a paper in the Jan 27 , 2009 issue of EOS showing that active climate researchers almost unanimously agree that humans have had a significant impact on the Earth 's climate . Both an Antarctic stream and glacier were named for Doran by the U.S. Geological Survey to commemorate his many significant research contributions conducted on the continent .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Peter_Doran", "rank": 53, "score": 105615 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 54, "score": 105417 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Research (journal) Content: Climate Research is a small peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Inter-Research Science Center that was established in 1990 . Its founder and long time publisher was marine biologist Otto Kinne . Outside the climate research community , the journal is mostly known for its 2003 publication of a controversial and now discredited climate change article . Three volumes , each typically containing half a dozen articles , are published each year . Each of its 12 editors therefore handles an average of less than 2 articles a year . Climate Research covers all aspects of the interactions of climate with organisms , ecosystems , and human societies . In 2006 , a special issue of the journal , titled `` Advances in Applying Climate Prediction to Agriculture '' , was published under open access .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climate_Research_(journal)", "rank": 55, "score": 105202 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 56, "score": 104990 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "432", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 57, "score": 104553 }, { "content": "Title: John F. B. Mitchell Content: John Francis Brake Mitchell OBE FRS ( born 7 October 1948 ) is a British climatologist and climate modeller . He studied Applied Mathematics at Queen 's University Belfast in 1970 , staying on to gain a PhD in Theoretical Physics in 1973 . In 1978 , he was appointed head of the Climate Change group in what is now the Met Office 's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research . He was Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2008 and Director of Climate Science from 2008 to 2010 . He is the most cited scientist regarding the topic of global warming . He was a convening lead author for the first and third IPCC Working Group I reports and lead author for the second . He was also chair of the World Meteorological Organization JSC/CLIVAR Working Group on Climate Modelling and a member of WMO Executive Council from 2005 to 2008 . He now ( 2014 ) works part-time as Principal Research Fellow , advising the Met Office Chief Scientist on climate change and is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading .", "qid": "432", "docid": "John_F._B._Mitchell", "rank": 58, "score": 104536 }, { "content": "Title: North Report Content: The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the temperature record of the past two millennia , providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of global warming . It was produced by a National Research Council committee , chaired by Gerald North , at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert as chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science . These reconstructions had been dubbed `` hockey stick graphs '' after the 1999 reconstruction by Mann , Bradley and Hughes ( MBH99 ) , which used the methodology of their 1998 reconstruction covering 600 years ( MBH98 ) . A graph based on MBH99 was featured prominently in the 2001 IPCC Third Assessment Report ( TAR ) , and became a focus of the global warming controversy over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . It was disputed by various contrarians , and in the politicisation of this hockey stick controversy the New York Times of 14 February 2005 hailed a paper by businessman Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick ( MM05 ) as undermining the scientific consensus behind the Kyoto agreement . On 23 June 2005 , Rep. Joe Barton , chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce , with Ed Whitfield , Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations , wrote joint letters referring to issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article , and demanding that Mann , Bradley and Hughes provide full records on their data and methods , finances and careers , information about grants provided to the institutions they had worked for , and the exact computer codes used to generate their results . Boehlert said this was a `` misguided and illegitimate investigation '' into something that should properly be under the jurisdiction of the Science Committee , and in November 2005 after Barton dismissed the offer of an independent investigation organised by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences , Boehlert requested the review , which became the North Report . The North Report went through a rigorous review process , and was published on 22 June 2006 . It concluded `` with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries '' , justified by consistent evidence from a wide variety of geographically diverse proxies , but `` Less confidence can be placed in large-scale surface temperature reconstructions for the period from 900 to 1600 '' . It broadly agreed with the basic findings of the original MBH studies , which subsequently been supported by other reconstructions and proxy records , while emphasising uncertainties over earlier periods . The principal component analysis methodology that McIntyre and McKitrick had contested had a small tendency to bias results so was not recommended -- but it had little influence on the final reconstructions , and other methods produced similar results .", "qid": "432", "docid": "North_Report", "rank": 59, "score": 104292 }, { "content": "Title: Earth Simulator Content: The , developed by the Japanese government 's initiative `` Earth Simulator Project '' , was a highly parallel vector supercomputer system for running global climate models to evaluate the effects of global warming and problems in solid earth geophysics . The system was developed for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency , Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute , and Japan Marine Science and Technology Center ( JAMSTEC ) in 1997 . Construction started in October 1999 , and the site officially opened on March 11 , 2002 . The project cost 60 billion yen . Built by NEC , ES was based on their SX-6 architecture . It consisted of 640 nodes with eight vector processors and 16 gigabytes of computer memory at each node , for a total of 5120 processors and 10 terabytes of memory . Two nodes were installed per 1 metre x 1.4 metre x 2 metre cabinet . Each cabinet consumed 20 kW of power . The system had 700 terabytes of disk storage ( 450 for the system and 250 for the users ) and 1.6 petabytes of mass storage in tape drives . It was able to run holistic simulations of global climate in both the atmosphere and the oceans down to a resolution of 10 km . Its performance on the LINPACK benchmark was 35.86 TFLOPS , which was almost five times faster than the previous fastest supercomputer , ASCI White . ES was the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004 . Its capacity was surpassed by IBM 's Blue Gene/L prototype on September 29 , 2004 . ES was replaced by the Earth Simulator 2 ( ES2 ) in March 2009 . ES2 is an NEC SX-9 / E system , and has a quarter as many nodes each of 12.8 times the performance ( 3.2 x clock speed , four times the processing resource per node ) , for a peak performance of 131 TFLOPS . With a delivered LINPACK performance of 122.4 TFLOPS , ES2 was the most efficient supercomputer in the world at that point . In November 2010 , NEC announced that ES2 topped the Global FFT , one of the measures of the HPC Challenge Awards , with the performance number of 11.876 TFLOPS . ES2 was replaced by the Earth Simulator 3 ( ES3 ) in March 2015 . ES3 is a NEC SX-ACE system with 5120 nodes .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Earth_Simulator", "rank": 60, "score": 104187 }, { "content": "Title: ERA-40 Content: ERA-40 is an ECMWF re-analysis of the global atmosphere and surface conditions for 45-years , over the period from September 1957 through August 2002 by ECMWF . Many sources of the meteorological observations were used , including radiosondes , balloons , aircraft , buoyes , satellites , scatterometers . This data was run through the ECMWF computer model at a 125 km resolution . As the ECMWF 's computer model is one of the more highly regarded in the field of forecasting , many scientists take its reanalysis to have similar merit . The data is stored in GRIB format . The reanalysis was done in an effort to improve the accuracy of historical weather maps and aid in a more detailed analysis of various weather systems through a period that was severely lacking in computerized data . With the data from reanalyses such as this , many of the more modern computerized tools for analyzing storm systems can be utilized , at least in part , because of this access to a computerized simulation of the atmospheric state .", "qid": "432", "docid": "ERA-40", "rank": 61, "score": 103966 }, { "content": "Title: National Campus Climate Survey Content: The National Campus Climate Survey ( NCCS ) is a service offered to institutions of higher education in the United States who would like to better understand and improve their campus climate with regards to sexual assault and related topics . The study is designed to : Meet all state and federal requirements for the conduct of sexual assault surveys . Provide a scientifically rigorous survey instrument to help schools learn about the campus climate concerning sexual misconduct . Provide varying survey implementation tiers to match institutions ' varying needs for defensible data . Provide a benchmarking tool to allow institutions to compare their results against other participating institutions , and where possible , peer groups . The National Campus Climate Survey was developed at the University of Michigan in collaboration with a local survey research firm , SoundRocket ( formerly known as Survey Sciences Group , LLC ) The study was developed in response to the report from the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault .", "qid": "432", "docid": "National_Campus_Climate_Survey", "rank": 62, "score": 103594 }, { "content": "Title: Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists Content: The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "qid": "432", "docid": "Bali_Declaration_by_Climate_Scientists", "rank": 63, "score": 103499 }, { "content": "Title: Robert E. Davis (climatologist) Content: Robert E. Davis is a Professor of Climatology at the University of Virginia 's Department of Environmental Sciences . Davis received his Ph.D. in 1988 from the University of Delaware . His research contributions include the development of a system for measuring the power of Nor'easter s . In his studies of global warming , he has suggested that it may manifest more by milder winters than by hotter summers , and predicted that its effects on human population will not be severe .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Robert_E._Davis_(climatologist)", "rank": 64, "score": 102880 }, { "content": "Title: Future sea level Content: The rate of global mean sea-level rise ( ~ 3 mm/yr ; SLR ) has accelerated compared to the mean of the 20th century ( ~ 2 mm/yr ) , but the rate of rise is locally variable . Factors contributing to SLR include decreased global ice volume and warming of the ocean . On Greenland , the deficiency between annual ice gained and lost tripled between 1996 and 2007 . On Antarctica the deficiency increased by 75 % . Mountain glaciers are retreating and the cumulative mean thickness change has accelerated from about − 1.8 to − 4 m in 1965 to 1970 to about − 12 to − 14 m in the first decade of the 21st century . From 1961 to 2003 , ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 m increased and portions of the deeper ocean are warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( 2007 ) projected sea level would reach 0.18 to 0.59 m above present by the end of the 21st century but lacked an estimate of ice flow dynamics calving . Calving was added by Pfeffer et al. ( 2008 ) indicating 0.8 to 2 m of SLR by 2100 ( favouring the low end of this range ) . Rahmstorf ( 2007 ) estimated SLR will reach 0.5 to 1.4 m by the end of the century . Pielke ( 2008 ) points out that observed SLR has exceeded the best case projections thus far . These approximations and others indicate that global mean SLR may reach 1 m by the end of this century . However , sea level is highly variable and planners considering local impacts must take this variability into account .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Future_sea_level", "rank": 65, "score": 102789 }, { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 66, "score": 102779 }, { "content": "Title: The Discovery of Global Warming Content: The Discovery of Global Warming is a book by the physicist and historian Spencer R. Weart published in 2003 ; revised and updated edition , 2008 . It traces the history of scientific discoveries that led to the current scientific opinion on climate change . It has been translated into Spanish , Japanese , Italian , Arabic , Chinese and Korean .", "qid": "432", "docid": "The_Discovery_of_Global_Warming", "rank": 67, "score": 102568 }, { "content": "Title: Cloud formation and climate change Content: Nephology ( -LSB- nɪˈfɒlədʒi -RSB- from the Greek word nephos for ` cloud ' ) is the study of clouds and cloud formation . British meteorologist Luke Howard was a major researcher within this field , establishing a cloud classification system . While this branch of meteorology still exists today , the term nephology , or nephologist is rarely used . The term came into use at the end of the nineteenth century , and fell out of common use by the middle of the twentieth . Recently , interest in nephology ( if not the name ) has surged as many meteorologists have begun to focus on the relationship between clouds and global warming . Since the late 1990s , some have suggested that when high solar activity lowers levels of cosmic rays , that in turn reduces cloud cover and warms the planet . Others say that there is no statistical evidence for such an effect . Some nephologists believe that an increase in global temperature could decrease the thickness and brightness ( ability to reflect light energy ) , which would further increase global temperature . Recently research has been going on at CERN 's CLOUD facility to study the effects of the solar cycle and cosmic rays on cloud formation .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Cloud_formation_and_climate_change", "rank": 68, "score": 102344 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Dynamics Content: Climate Dynamics is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science + Business Media . It covers all aspects of the dynamics of global climate systems , including analytical and numerical modeling research on the structure and behavior of the atmosphere , oceans , cryosphere , biomass , and land surface as interacting components of the dynamics of global climate . The journal also publishes reviews and papers emphasizing an integrated view of the physical and biogeochemical processes governing climate and climate change .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climate_Dynamics", "rank": 69, "score": 102043 }, { "content": "Title: Remote Sensing Systems Content: Remote Sensing Systems ( RSS ) is a private research company founded in 1974 by Frank Wentz . It processes microwave data from a variety of NASA satellites . Most of their research is supported by the Earth Science Enterprise program . The company is based in Santa Rosa , California . They are a widely cited source of data , on the satellite temperature record . Their data is one source of evidence for global warming . Research by Carl Mears , Matthias Schabel , and Wentz , all of RSS , highlighted errors in the early satellite temperature records compiled by John Christy and Roy Spencer at UAH . The UAH data had previously showed no significant temperature trend , bringing the derived satellite data into closer agreement with surface temperature trends , radiosonde data and computer models . The UAH data is now closer to the RSS data but differences remain , for example the Lower Troposphere global average trend since 1979 , RSS currently have +0.133 K/decade while UAH have 0.140 K/decade , while the mid troposphere difference is even more marked at 0.079 K/decade and 0.052 K/decade respectively . However , in a recent online YouTube video , Dr. Carl Mears , a senior scientist with the team behind the satellite data , explained how he believes his data set needed correction . I would have to say that the surface data seems that it 's more accurate , because a number of groups analyze the surface data , including some who set out to prove the other ones wrong , and they all get more or less the same answer .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Remote_Sensing_Systems", "rank": 70, "score": 101996 }, { "content": "Title: Space mirror (climate engineering) Content: The use of space mirrors as an anti-global warming measure is a proposed technology for climate change mitigation by deflection of sunlight . It was one of a series of proposals for controlling global warming made to the United States government in 2001 . At the `` Response Options to Rapid or Severe Climate Change '' round-table meeting organized by the President 's Climate Change Technology Program in September 2001 to gather ideas for averting climate change , one of the proposals was to station one or more wire-mesh `` mirrors '' in orbit to deflect sunlight back into space or to filter it . The idea was proposed by Lowell Wood , a senior staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , who calculated that deflecting 1 % of sunlight would restore climatic stability , and that that would require either a single mirror 600000 sqmi in area or several smaller ones . Wood had been researching the idea for more than ten years but considered it so infeasible that it should only be a back-up plan for solving the global warming problem . In January 2007 , The Guardian reported that the US government was recommending that research on sunlight deflection , including space mirrors , be continued as `` insurance '' and that the next United Nations Report on Climate Change advocate such a strategy . In addition to the space mirror , suggested sunlight-reducing techniques included launching thousands of highly reflective balloons and pumping sulphate droplets into the upper atmosphere to emulate volcanic emissions . Space mirrors were first considered in the 1980s as a way to cool the climate of Venus . James Early , also at Livermore , in 1989 proposed using a `` space shade '' 2,000 kilometers in diameter orbiting at Lagrangian Point L1 . He estimated the cost at between one and ten trillion US dollars and suggested manufacturing it on the moon using moon rock . Using space mirrors as a space sunshade to reduce the impact of sunlight falls into the category of geoengineering : deliberately modifying the earth 's climate . At a conference on the topic organized by Daniel Schrag of Harvard University and David Keith of the University of Calgary in November 2007 , the consensus was that it was worth studying such ideas further despite their high cost , the doubtful feasibility of some including the space mirror , and the risk of their distracting attention from reduction of greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Space_mirror_(climate_engineering)", "rank": 71, "score": 101901 }, { "content": "Title: World Ocean Circulation Experiment Content: The World Ocean Circulation Experiment ( WOCE ) was a component of the international World Climate Research Program , and aimed to establish the role of the World Ocean in the Earth 's climate system . WOCE 's field phase ran between 1990 and 1998 , and was followed by an analysis and modeling phase that ran until 2002 . When the WOCE was conceived , there were three main motivations for its creation . The first of these is the inadequate coverage of the World Ocean , specifically in the Southern Hemisphere . Data was also much more sparse during the winter months than the summer months , and there was -- and still to some extent -- a critical need for data covering all seasons . Secondly , the data that did exist was not initially collected for studying ocean circulation and was not well suited for model comparison . Lastly , there were concerns involving the accuracy and reliability of some measurements . The WOCE was meant to address these problems by providing new data collected in ways designed to `` meet the needs of global circulation models for climate prediction . ''", "qid": "432", "docid": "World_Ocean_Circulation_Experiment", "rank": 72, "score": 101598 }, { "content": "Title: 20th century in ichnology Content: The 20th century in ichnology refers to advances made between the years 1900 and 1999 in the scientific study of trace fossils , the preserved record of the behavior and physiological processes of ancient life forms , especially fossil footprints . Significant fossil trackway discoveries began almost immediately after the start of the 20th century with the 1900 discovery at Ipolytarnoc , Hungary of a wide variety of bird and mammal footprints left behind during the early Miocene . Not long after , fossil Iguanodon footprints were discovered in Sussex , England , a discovery that probably served as the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's The Lost World . Several enduring mysteries from the 19th century continued to vex ichnologists , like the identity of the Chirotherium trackmaker . Renowned paleontologist Franz von Nopcsa attributed the ichnogenus to the prosauropod dinosaur Plateosaurus , despite an apparent mismatch between its number of toes ( 4 ) and the preserved digit traces of Chirotherium ( 5 ) . Von Nopcsa explained the discrepancy by arguing that one of the impressions in the Chirotherium tracks was left by a soft tissue structure that did not fossilize . However , it was Wolfgang Soergel who correctly hypothesized that Chirotherium was produced by a distant relative of modern crocodilians . Using only its footprints as a guide he reconstructed the life appearance of the Chirotherium trackmaker . Decades later paleontologists described an animal named Ticinosuchus which precisely fulfilling Soergel 's predictions . Ticinosuchus or a close relative seems to have been the true Chirotherium trackmaker . During the 20th century , many significant fossil trackway discoveries were made in the western United States . In the 1930s and 1940s , Roland T. Bird discovered the tracks of large sauropod and theropod dinosaurs in Texas . He excavated a major section of the track ways on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History . This was the first large scale excavation of fossil footprints in history . In the 1950s Lee Stokes reported unusual footprints he interpreted as the first known pterosaur tracks . This attribution would be controversial much of the rest of the century but has since been vindicated . The dinosaur footprints of Dinosaur Ridge in Colorado were also discovered and studied in the 20th century . The advent of the Dinosaur Renaissance and the publication by R. McNeil Alexander of a formula which could reconstruct their running speed based on data from fossil trackways brought renewed interest and prestige to ichnology during the late 20th century . This led to several symposia on the subject of vertebrate trace fossils . In 1986 such a conference dedicated to dinosaur footprints was held in New Mexico . Roughly a decade later renowned German ichnologist Heinrich Haubold organized a conference dedicated to the more ancient footprints of the Paleozoic Era . This gathering has been regarded as a turning point in the study of tracks of that age .", "qid": "432", "docid": "20th_century_in_ichnology", "rank": 73, "score": 101593 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "432", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 74, "score": 101395 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Programme Content: The World Climate Programme ( WCP ) was established following the first World Climate Conference in 1979 . The major sponsors are the World Meteorological Organization , United Nations Environment Programme , the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational , Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) , and the International Council for Science ( ICSU ) . The World Climate Research Programme is a component of the WCP .", "qid": "432", "docid": "World_Climate_Programme", "rank": 75, "score": 101319 }, { "content": "Title: List of female scientists in the 20th century Content: This is a historical list , intended to deal with the time period when women working in science were rare . For this reason , this list deals only with the 20th century . Some women who primarily worked in the 19th or 21st centuries may appear in a different list .", "qid": "432", "docid": "List_of_female_scientists_in_the_20th_century", "rank": 76, "score": 101289 }, { "content": "Title: James Annan Content: James D. Annan is a scientist involved in climate prediction . He was a member of the Global Warming Research Program at Frontier Research Centre for Global Change which is associated with the Earth Simulator in Japan . In 2014 he left Japan , returning to the United Kingdom as a co-founder of Blue Skies Research .", "qid": "432", "docid": "James_Annan", "rank": 77, "score": 101097 }, { "content": "Title: List of large-scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years Content: This list of large scale temperature reconstructions of the last 2,000 years includes climate reconstructions which have contributed significantly to the modern consensus on the temperature record of the past 2000 years . The instrumental temperature record only covers the last 150 years at a hemispheric or global scale , and reconstructions of earlier periods are based on climate proxies . In an early attempt to show that climate had changed , Hubert Lamb 's 1965 paper generalised from temperature records of central England together with historical , botanical and archeological evidence to produce a qualitative estimate of temperatures in the north Atlantic region . Subsequent quantitative reconstructions used statistical techniques with various climate proxies to produce larger scale reconstructions . Tree ring proxies can give an annual resolution of extratropical regions of the northern hemisphere , and can be statistically combined with other sparser proxies to produce multiproxy hemispherical or global reconstructions . Quantitative reconstructions have consistently shown earlier temperatures below the temperature levels reached in the late 20th century . This pattern as seen in was dubbed the hockey stick graph , and as of 2010 this broad conclusion was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th century `` shaft '' appears .", "qid": "432", "docid": "List_of_large-scale_temperature_reconstructions_of_the_last_2,000_years", "rank": 78, "score": 100933 }, { "content": "Title: Tom Wigley Content: Tom Wigley is a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide . He is also affiliated with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research ( UCAR ) . He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) for his major contributions to climate and carbon cycle modeling and to climate data analysis , and because he is `` one of the world 's foremost experts on climate change and one of the most highly cited scientists in the discipline . '' His h-index ( August 2014 ) is 64 , one of the highest in the discipline . He contributed to many of the reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) . Wigley was educated as a mathematical physicist and earned his doctorate at the University of Adelaide in Australia . He served as director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1993 . In 1993 he went on to the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder , Colorado , where he was appointed a senior scientist in 1994 . He subsequently moved to the University of Adelaide where he currently ( 2014 ) holds a Professorial Fellowship . His published papers include the first paper to demonstrate 20th century warming using both land and marine data , the first paper to include the effects of aerosol cooling on projections of future climate change , the first paper to provide realistic scenarios for the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 , and the first paper to use pattern-based methods to identify a significant human influence on the climate . Wigley has also published a number of highly cited papers in aqueous geochemistry , including a now-standard method for carbon dating of groundwater . Wigley has argued in the popular media that the IPCC has been too optimistic about the prospect of averting harmful climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions through the use of renewable technologies alone , and argued that any realistic portfolio must include significant contributions from nuclear energy . He has also pointed out that `` the human-induced changes that are expected over the next 100 years are much , much greater than any changes that societies experienced in the past . '' In 2013 , with other leading experts , he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers , which stated that `` continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity 's ability to avoid dangerous climate change . ''", "qid": "432", "docid": "Tom_Wigley", "rank": 79, "score": 100869 }, { "content": "Title: Wibjörn Karlén Content: Wibjörn Karlén ( born 26 August 1937 in Kristine , Kopparberg County , Sweden ) , Ph.D. , is a professor emeritus of physical geography and quaternary geology at Stockholm University , Sweden . In an article which describes Karlén as a paleoclimatologist , he is quoted as saying : `` One of the big problems with trying to determine long-term temperature changes , is that weather records only go back to about 1860 . By relying on statistical reconstruction of the last 1000 years , using only the temperature patterns of the last 140 years instead of actual temperature readings , the IPCC report and Summary missed both a major cooling period as well as a significant warming trend during that millennium . '' Karlén has also criticized the mainstream media for `` spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate . '' He was also named in a 2007 minority report of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as one of 400 `` prominent scientists '' who were said to dispute global warming . In 2010 , he predicted that natural climate changes , caused to a large degree by the sun 's activity , would more likely make the climate colder than warmer in the next decades . He is a contributing author to the Fraser Institute 2007 Independent Summary for Policymakers . Karlén is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Wibjörn_Karlén", "rank": 80, "score": 100861 }, { "content": "Title: CLARREO Content: CLARREO ( Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory ) is a high-priority NASA decadal survey mission , originally selected as such by the National Research Council in 2007 . The CLARREO mission is intended to provide a metrology laboratory in orbit to accurately quantify and attribute Earth 's climate change ( see List of climate research satellites ) . If launched at the earliest opportunity , CLARREO 's observations could be used to detect the largest of climate trends above natural variability by the year 2039 . Then it may go on to further test , validate , and improve prediction by climate models . The mission also might provide the first orbiting radiometers with enough accuracy to serve as reference calibration standards that can fine-tune other spaceborne sensors and climate research , making climate trends apparent in their data sets within a 30-year time frame . Due to funding cuts in announced for the 2012 budget , the CLARREO mission was significantly scaled back , while remaining spaceborne projects were eyed to fill the gap . In the President 's FY16 budget request , CLARREO was provided $ 76.9 M to demonstrate essential measurement technologies of the CLARREO Tier 1 Decadal Survey mission . That funding will potentially support the flight of two instruments , Reflected Solar ( RS ) and Infrared ( IR ) spectrometers , hosted on the International Space Station in FY 2019 .", "qid": "432", "docid": "CLARREO", "rank": 81, "score": 100833 }, { "content": "Title: Thomas Stocker Content: Thomas Stocker ( born 1959 ) is a Swiss climate scientist . Born in Zürich , Stocker obtained a degree in physics at the ETH Zurich . He was active in research at the University College London , at McGill University in Montreal and at Columbia University in New York . Since 1993 , he is professor and head of the department of Climate and Environmental Physics at the University of Bern . The focus of Stocker 's research is the development of models of climate change based on , among other , the analysis of ice cores from the polar regions . He significantly contributed to creating the `` hockey stick graph '' that shows a growing increase of global mean temperatures in recent times . Since 1998 , he contributes to the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , and is co-chairman of the IPCC Working Group I ( assessing scientific aspects of the climate system and climate change ) from 2008 to 2015 . In 1993 , Stocker was awarded the Swiss National Science Foundation 's National Latsis Prize , and 2009 the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union . He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a member of the Academia Europaea and the American Meteorological Society . Stocker is featured in the film Taking Earth 's Temperature : Delving into Climate 's Past . On February 18 , 2015 , the Swiss government announced it would nominate Dr. Stocker as a candidate for the next chair of the IPCC to succeed Dr. Pachauri .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Thomas_Stocker", "rank": 82, "score": 100727 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming: What You Need to Know Content: Global Warming What You Need to Know is a 2006 global warming ( climate change ) documentary , directed by Nicolas Brown , starring Tom Brokaw , James Hansen , Michael Oppenheimer , and Mark Serreze . The film focuses on impacts from climate change , and Tom Brokaw interviews scientists . The documentary premiered on Discovery Channel , 16 July 2006 .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Global_Warming:_What_You_Need_to_Know", "rank": 83, "score": 100580 }, { "content": "Title: Thermo-hygrograph Content: A thermo-hygrograph or hygrothermograph is a chart recorder that measures and records both temperature and humidity ( or dew point ) . Similar devices that record only one parameter are a thermograph for temperature and hygrograph for humidity . Thermographs where the variations are recorded using photography were described by several scientists as early as 1845 , including Francis Ronalds who was Honorary Director of the Kew Observatory . An updated model of the initial machine was deployed across the national observational network set up by the new UK Met Office in 1867 and coordinated by Kew Observatory . These instruments then saw extended use around the world . An alternative thermograph configuration has a pen that records temperature on a revolving cylinder . The pen is at the end of a lever that is controlled by a bi-metal strip of temperature-sensitive metal which bends as the temperature changes . A human hair bundle can be used for humidity in such machines .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Thermo-hygrograph", "rank": 84, "score": 100445 }, { "content": "Title: Climate model Content: Climate models use quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate , including atmosphere , oceans , land surface and ice . They are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the climate system to projections of future climate . All climate models take account of incoming energy from the sun as short wave electromagnetic radiation , chiefly visible and short-wave ( near ) infrared , as well as outgoing long wave ( far ) infrared electromagnetic . Any imbalance results in a change in temperature . Models vary in complexity : A simple radiant heat transfer model treats the earth as a single point and averages outgoing energy This can be expanded vertically ( radiative-convective models ) and/or horizontally Finally , ( coupled ) atmosphere -- ocean -- sea ice global climate models solve the full equations for mass and energy transfer and radiant exchange . Box models can treat flows across and within ocean basins . Other types of modelling can be interlinked , such as land use , allowing researchers to predict the interaction between climate and ecosystems .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climate_model", "rank": 85, "score": 100432 }, { "content": "Title: Twentieth century studies in neuroscience Content: Twentieth century studies in neuroscience is an article detailing important and seminal studies and undertakings of scientists and doctors working in the field of neuroscience during the twentieth century .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Twentieth_century_studies_in_neuroscience", "rank": 86, "score": 99746 }, { "content": "Title: Roy Spencer (scientist) Content: Roy Warren Spencer ( born December 20 , 1955 ) is a meteorologist , Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville , and the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer ( AMSR-E ) on NASA 's Aqua satellite . He has served as Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA 's Marshall Space Flight Center . He is known for his satellite-based temperature monitoring work , for which he was awarded the American Meteorological Society 's Special Award .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Roy_Spencer_(scientist)", "rank": 87, "score": 99543 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming: The Signs and The Science Content: Global Warming : The Signs and The Science is a 2005 documentary film on global warming made by ETV , the PBS affiliate in South Carolina , and hosted by Alanis Morissette . The documentary examines the science behind global warming and pulls together segments filmed in the United States , Asia and South America and shows how people in these different locales are responding in different ways to the challenges of global warming to show some of the ways that the world can respond .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Global_Warming:_The_Signs_and_The_Science", "rank": 88, "score": 99476 }, { "content": "Title: James Hansen Content: James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "qid": "432", "docid": "James_Hansen", "rank": 89, "score": 99434 }, { "content": "Title: George Kukla Content: George Kukla ( born Jiří Kukla ; 14 March 1930 -- 31 May 2014 ) was a senior research scientist at the Lamont -- Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University . Kukla was a member of the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences , prior to emigrating to the US , and a pioneer in the field of astronomical climate forcing . In 1972 he became a central figure in convincing the United States government to take the dangers of climate change seriously . Kukla and geologist , Robert Matthews of Brown University , convened a historic conference , themed : `` The Present Interglacial : How and When will it End ? '' Kukla and Matthews then highlighted the dangers of global cooling in Science magazine and , to President Richard Nixon . The Nixon administration reacted swiftly to their letter , which described calamities such as killer frosts , lower food production and floods , to come . By February 1973 , the State Department had established a Panel on the Present Interglacial , which advised Drs. Kukla and Matthews that it `` was seized of the matter '' and numerous other government agencies were soon included . Kukla was co-author of a chapter in the book `` Natural Climate Variability on Decade to Century Time Scales '' published by the National Research Council . Kukla believed all glacial periods in Earth 's history began with global warming ( understood as an increase of area-weighted average global mean temperature ) . He believed Earth 's recent warming is mostly natural and will ultimately lead to a new ice age .", "qid": "432", "docid": "George_Kukla", "rank": 90, "score": 99386 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 91, "score": 99358 }, { "content": "Title: The First Measured Century Content: The First Measured Century : The Other Way of Looking at American History is a three-hour PBS documentary film hosted by Ben J. Wattenberg . The film was produced for PBS by BJW , Inc. and New River Media , Inc. and was first broadcast in December 2000 . The film traces American history during the 20th century through a sequence of vignettes of pioneering social scientists who used numerical tools to examine America . The film mixes archival footage , archival still photography and artwork , interviews with contemporary experts , graphical animations of statistical trends , and on-camera narrative appearances by the host . Information from Middletown IV , a 1999 replication of Middletown studies of Muncie , Indiana first begun by Robert and Helen Lynd in 1924 , is included in the film and companion volume .", "qid": "432", "docid": "The_First_Measured_Century", "rank": 92, "score": 99123 }, { "content": "Title: John Michael Wallace Content: John Michael Wallace ( born October 28 , 1940 ) , is a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington , as well as the former director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean ( JISAO ) -- a joint research venture between the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . His research concerns understanding global climate and its variations using observations and covers the quasi biennial oscillation , Pacific decadal oscillation and the annular modes of the Arctic oscillation and the Antarctic oscillation , and the dominant spatial patterns in month-to-month and year-to-year climate variability , including the one through which El Niño phenomenon in the tropical Pacific influences climate over North America . He is also the coauthor with Peter V. Hobbs of what is generally considered the standard introductory textbook in the field : Atmospheric Science : An Introductory Survey . He was the third most cited geoscientist during the period 1973 -- 2007 .", "qid": "432", "docid": "John_Michael_Wallace", "rank": 93, "score": 99099 }, { "content": "Title: 20th century Content: The 20th century was a century that began on January 1 , 1901 and ended on December 31 , 2000 . It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium . It is distinct from the century known as the 1900s which began on January 1 , 1900 , and ended on December 31 , 1999 . The 20th century was dominated by a chain of events that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era : World War I and World War II , nuclear power and space exploration , nationalism and decolonization , the Cold War and post-Cold War conflicts ; intergovernmental organizations and cultural homogenization through developments in emerging transportation and communications technology ; poverty reduction and world population growth , awareness of environmental degradation , ecological extinction ; and the birth of the Digital Revolution . It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication and genetic modification of life . The term `` short twentieth century '' was coined to represent the events from 1914 to 1991 . Global total fertility rates , sea level rise and ecological collapses increased ; the resulting competition for land and dwindling resources accelerated deforestation , water depletion . and the mass extinction of half the world 's estimated nine million unique species and wildlife population ; consequences which are now being dealt with . It took all of human history up to 1804 for the world 's population to reach 1 billion ; world population reached an estimated 2 billion in 1927 ; by late 1999 , the global population reached 6 billion . Global literacy averaged 80 % ; global lifespan-averages exceeded 40 + years for the first time in history , with over half achieving 70 + years ( three decades longer than it was a century ago ) .", "qid": "432", "docid": "20th_century", "rank": 94, "score": 99074 }, { "content": "Title: Rapid Climate Change-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array Content: The Rapid Climate Change-Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array ( RAPID/MOCHA ) program is a collaborative research project between the National Oceanography Centre ( Southampton , U.K. ) , the University of Miami 's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science ( RSMAS ) , and NOAA 's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory ( AOML ) that measure the meridional overturning circulation ( MOC ) and ocean heat transport in the North Atlantic Ocean . This array was deployed in March 2004 to continuously monitor the MOC and ocean heat transport that are primarily associated with the Thermohaline Circulation across the basin at 26 ° N . The RAPID-MOCHA array is planned to be continued through 2014 to provide a decade or longer continuous time series . The continuous observations are measured by an array of instruments along 26 ° N . This monitoring array directly measures the transport of the Gulf Stream in the Florida Strait using an undersea cable and a moored array measures bottom pressure and water column density ( including temperature and salinity ) at the western and eastern boundary and on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge ( MAR ) . Absolute transports including barotropic circulation are monitored using precision bottom pressure gauges . `` Dynamic height '' moorings are used to estimate the spatially average geostropic velocity profile and associated transports over relatively wide mooring separations . The dynamic height moorings requires measurements on both sides of the current field only , rather both the horizontal and vertical structure of the current field to be sufficiently well resolved to estimate transports . The basin-wide MOC strength and vertical structure are estimated via Ekman transports by satellite scatterometer measurements and the geotrophic and direct current observations . RAPID-MOCHA is funded by the National Environmental Research Council ( NERC ) and the National Science Foundation ( NSF ) .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Rapid_Climate_Change-Meridional_Overturning_Circulation_and_Heatflux_Array", "rank": 95, "score": 98966 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature measurement Content: Temperature measurement ( or thermometry ) describes the process of measuring a current local temperature for immediate or later evaluation . Datasets consisting of repeated standardized measurements can be used to assess temperature trends .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Temperature_measurement", "rank": 96, "score": 98826 }, { "content": "Title: Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction Content: Climate : Long range Investigation , Mapping , and Prediction , known as CLIMAP , was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a map of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum . The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration ( 1970s ) and is based in large part of the collection and analysis of a very large number of sediment cores to create a snapshot of conditions across the oceans . The CLIMAP project also resulted in maps of vegetative zones across the continents and the estimated extent of glaciation at the time . Most CLIMAP results aim to describe the Earth as it was 18 thousand years ago , but there was also an analysis to look at conditions during the previous interglacial -- 120 thousand years ago ( CLIMAP 1981 ) . CLIMAP has been a cornerstone of paleoclimate research and remains the most used sea surface temperature reconstruction of the global ocean during the last glacial maximum ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , but it has also been persistently controversial . CLIMAP resulted in estimates of global cooling of only 3.0 ± 0.6 ° C relative to the modern day ( Hoffert and Covey 1992 ) . The climate change during an ice age that occurs far from the continental ice sheets themselves is believed to be primarily controlled by changes in greenhouse gases , hence the conditions during the last glacial maximum provide a natural experiment for measuring the impact of changes in greenhouse gases on climate . The cited estimates of 3.0 ° C implies a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide changes at the low end of the range proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . However , CLIMAP also suggested that some of the tropics and in particular much of the Pacific Ocean were warmer than they are today . To date , no climate model has been able to reproduce the proposed warming in the Pacific ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , with most preferring a several degree cooling . Also , it appears that climate models which are forced to match the CLIMAP sea surface measurements are too warm to match estimates for changes at continental locations ( Pinot et al. 1999 ) . This suggests that either climate model design is missing some important unknown factor , or CLIMAP systematically overestimated the temperatures in the tropical oceans during the last glacial , though there is at present no consistent explanation for why or how this should have happened . Unfortunately cost and difficulty of collecting sediment cores from the open Pacific has limited the availability of samples that might help to confirm or disprove these observations . If the Pacific reconstruction is assumed to be in error , it would result in a larger climate sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gases .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Climate:_Long_range_Investigation,_Mapping,_and_Prediction", "rank": 97, "score": 98788 }, { "content": "Title: Global Precipitation Measurement Content: Global Precipitation Measurement ( GPM ) is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA as well as other international space agencies to make frequent ( every 2 -- 3 hours ) observations of Earth 's precipitation . It is part of NASA 's Earth Systematic Missions program and works with a satellite constellation to provide full global coverage . The project provides global precipitation maps to assist researchers in improving the forecasting of extreme events , studying global climate , and adding to current capabilities for using such satellite data to benefit society . GPM builds on the notable successes of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission ( TRMM ) , which was also a joint NASA-JAXA activity . The project is managed by NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center , and consists of a GPM Core Observatory satellite assisted by a constellation of spacecraft from other agencies and missions . The Core Observatory satellite measures the two and three dimensional structure of Earth 's precipitation patterns and provides a new calibration standard for the rest of the satellite constellation . The GPM Core Observatory was assembled and tested at Goddard Space Flight Center , and launched from Tanegashima Space Center , Japan , on a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA rocket . The launch occurred on February 28 , 2014 at 3:37 am JST on the first attempt . Agencies in the United States , Japan , India and France ( together with Eumetsat ) operate the remaining satellites in the constellation for agency-specific goals , but also cooperatively provide data for GPM . __ TOC __", "qid": "432", "docid": "Global_Precipitation_Measurement", "rank": 98, "score": 98648 }, { "content": "Title: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Content: The Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment ( GRACE ) , a joint mission of NASA and the German Aerospace Center , has been making detailed measurements of Earth 's gravity field anomalies since its launch in March 2002 . By measuring gravity anomalies , GRACE shows how mass is distributed around the planet and how it varies over time . Data from the GRACE satellites is an important tool for studying Earth 's ocean , geology , and climate . GRACE is a collaborative endeavor involving the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas , Austin ; NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , Pasadena , Calif. ; the German Space Agency and Germany 's National Research Center for Geosciences , Potsdam . The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for the overall mission management under the NASA ESSP program . The principal investigator is Dr. Byron Tapley of the University of Texas Center for Space Research , and the co-principal investigator is Dr. Christoph Reigber of the GeoForschungsZentrum ( GFZ ) Potsdam . The GRACE satellites were launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome , Russia on a Rockot ( SS-19 + Breeze upper stage ) launch vehicle , on 17 March 2002 . The spacecraft were launched to an initial altitude of approximately 500 km at a near-polar inclination of 89 ° . The satellites are separated by approximately 200 km along their orbit track . GRACE has far exceeded its designed five-year lifespan . the GRACE spacecrafts orbit has decayed by 150 km , and is continuing to decay at 30 km/year . Its successor , GRACE Follow-On , is expected to launch in 2017/18", "qid": "432", "docid": "Gravity_Recovery_and_Climate_Experiment", "rank": 99, "score": 98591 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Balling Content: Robert C. Balling , Jr. is a professor of geography at Arizona State University , and the former director of its Office of Climatology . His research interests include climatology , global climate change , and geographic information systems . Balling has declared himself one of the scientists who oppose the consensus on global warming , arguing in a 2009 book that anthropogenic global warming `` is indeed real , but relatively modest '' , and maintaining that there is a publication bias in the scientific literature .", "qid": "432", "docid": "Robert_Balling", "rank": 100, "score": 98562 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Climate variability Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_variability", "rank": 1, "score": 115429 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change (general concept) Content: Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\\nThe energy moving through Earth\\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of \"internal variability\", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_change_(general_concept)", "rank": 2, "score": 114668 }, { "content": "Title: Climate oscillation Content: A climate oscillation or climate cycle is any recurring cyclical oscillation within global or regional climate , and is a type of climate pattern . These fluctuations in atmospheric temperature , sea surface temperature , precipitation or other parameters can be quasi-periodic , often occurring on inter-annual , multi-annual , decadal , multidecadal , century-wide , millennial or longer timescales . They are not perfectly periodic and a Fourier analysis of the data does not give a sharp spectrum . A prominent example is the El Niño Southern Oscillation , involving sea surface temperatures along a stretch of the equatorial Central and East Pacific Ocean and the western coast of tropical South America , but which affects climate worldwide . Records of past climate conditions are recovered through geological examination of proxies , found in glacier ice , sea bed sediment , tree ring studies or otherwise .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_oscillation", "rank": 3, "score": 104543 }, { "content": "Title: Climate pattern Content: A climate pattern is any recurring characteristic of the climate . Climate patterns can last tens of thousands of years , like the glacial and interglacial periods within ice ages , or repeat each year , like monsoons . A climate pattern may come in the form of a regular cycle , like the diurnal cycle or the seasonal cycle ; a quasi periodic event , like El Niño ; or a highly irregular event , such as a volcanic winter . The regular cycles are generally well understood and may be removed by normalization . For example , graphs which show trends of temperature change will usually have the effects of seasonal variation removed .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_pattern", "rank": 4, "score": 102472 }, { "content": "Title: Bond event Content: Bond events are North Atlantic ice rafting events that are tentatively linked to climate fluctuations in the Holocene . Eight such events have been identified . Bond events were previously believed to exhibit a quasi ~ 1,500-year cycle , but the primary period of variability is now put at ~ 1,000 years . Gerard C. Bond of the Lamont -- Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University was the lead author of the 1997 paper that postulated the theory of 1470-year climate cycles in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic . However , more recent work has shown that these tracers provide little support for 1,500-year intervals of climate change , and the reported ~ 1,500 ± 500-year period was a statistical artifact . Furthermore , following publication of the Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005 ( GICC05 ) for the North GRIP ice core , it became clear that Dansgaar-Oescher Events also show no such a pattern . The North Atlantic ice-rafting events happen to correlate with episodes of lowered lake levels in the Mid-Atlantic region , USA , the most weak events of the Asian monsoon for at least the past 9,000 years , and also correlate with most aridification events in the Middle East for the past 55,000 years ( both Heinrich and Bond events ) . For reasons that are unclear , the only Holocene Bond event that has a clear temperature signal in the Greenland ice cores is the 8.2 kyr event .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Bond_event", "rank": 5, "score": 100887 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclostratigraphy Content: Cyclostratigraphy is the study of astronomically forced climate cycles within sedimentary successions . Astronomical cycles are variations of the Earth 's orbit around the sun due to the gravitational interaction with other masses within the solar system . Due to this cyclicity solar irradiation differs through time on different hemispheres and seasonality is affected . These insolation variations have influence on Earth 's climate and so on the deposition of sedimentary rocks . The main orbital cycles are precession with at present main periods of 19 and 23 kyr , obliquity with at present main periods of 41 kyr , and 1.2 Myr , and eccentricity with at present main periods of around 100 kyr , 405 kyr , and 2.4 Myr . Cyclostratigraphic studies of rock records can lead to accurate dating of events in the geological past , to increase understanding of cause and consequences of Earth 's ( climate ) history , and to more control on depositional mechanisms of sediments and the acting of sedimentary systems .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Cyclostratigraphy", "rank": 6, "score": 100886 }, { "content": "Title: Diurnal cycle Content: A diurnal cycle is any pattern that recurs every 24 hours as a result of one full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun . In climatology , the diurnal cycle is one of the most basic forms of climate patterns . The most familiar such pattern is the diurnal temperature variation . Such a cycle may be approximately sinusoidal , or include components of a truncated sinusoid ( due to the sun 's rising and setting ) and thermal relaxation ( Newton cooling ) at night . Diurnal cycles of environmental conditions ( light or temperature ) can result in similar cycles in dependent biological processes , such as photosynthesis in plants , or clinical depression in humans . Plant responses to environmental cycles may even induce indirect cycles in rhizosphere microbial activities , including nitrogen fixation . A semi-diurnal cycle refers to a pattern that occurs about every twelve hours or about twice a day . Often these can be related to lunar tides , in which case the interval is closer to 12 hours and 25 minutes .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Diurnal_cycle", "rank": 7, "score": 96417 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 8, "score": 95823 }, { "content": "Title: Milankovitch cycles Content: Milankovitch cycles describes the collective effects of changes in the Earth 's movements on its climate over thousands of years . The term is named after Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milanković . In the 1920s , he theorized that variations in eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession of the Earth 's orbit resulted in cyclical variation in the solar radiation ( insolation ) reaching the Earth , and that this orbital forcing strongly influenced climatic patterns on Earth . The Earth 's orbit varies between nearly circular and mildly elliptical ( its eccentricity varies ) . When the orbit is more elongated , there is more variation in the distance between the Earth and the Sun , and in the amount of solar radiation , at different times in the year . In addition , the rotational tilt of the Earth ( its obliquity ) , which causes the seasons as the Earth revolves around the Sun , changes slightly . A greater tilt makes the seasons more extreme . Finally , the direction in the fixed stars pointed to by the Earth 's axis changes ( axial precession ) , while the Earth 's elliptical orbit around the Sun rotates ( apsidal precession ) . The combined effect of the two precessions is a cycle in which proximity to the Sun occurs during different astronomical seasons . If the Earth is closer to the Sun while the northern or southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun ( is in summer ) , then both effects work together to heat that hemisphere . If the Earth is further from the Sun during summer , the greater distance slightly reduces the heat of summer . Similar astronomical theories had been advanced in the 19th century by Joseph Adhemar , James Croll and others , but verification was difficult because there was no reliably dated evidence , and because it was unclear which periods were important . Now , materials on Earth that have been unchanged for millennia are being studied to indicate the history of Earth 's climate . A study of the chronology of Antarctic ice cores using oxygen-nitrogen ratios in air bubbles trapped in the ice , which appear to respond directly to the local insolation , concluded that the climatic response documented in the ice cores was driven by northern hemisphere insolation as proposed by the Milankovitch hypothesis . Analysis of deep-ocean cores and a seminal paper by Hays , Imbrie , and Shackleton provide additional validation of the Milankovitch hypothesis through physical artifacts . However , there are still several observations that the hypothesis does not explain .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Milankovitch_cycles", "rank": 9, "score": 94213 }, { "content": "Title: Blazhko effect Content: The Blazhko effect , which is sometimes called long-period modulation , is a variation in period and amplitude in RR Lyrae type variable stars . It was first observed by Sergey Blazhko in 1907 in the star RW Draconis . The physics behind the Blazhko effect is currently still a matter of debate , with there being three primary hypotheses . In the first , referred to as the resonance model , the cause of the modulation is a non-linear resonance among either the fundamental or the first overtone pulsation mode of the star and a higher mode . The second , known as the magnetic model , assumes the variation to be caused by the magnetic field being inclined to the rotational axis , deforming the main radial mode . The magnetic model was ruled out in 2004 by high resolution spectro-polarimetric observations . The third model assumes that cycles in the convection cause the alternations and the modulations . Observational evidence based on Kepler ( spacecraft ) observations indicates much of the Blazhko effect 's two-cycle light curve modulation is due to simple period-doubling . Many RR Lyrae stars have a variability period of approximately 12 hours and ground based astronomers typically make nightly observations about 24 hours apart ; thus period-doubling results in brightness maximums during nightly observations that are significantly different than the daytime maximum .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Blazhko_effect", "rank": 10, "score": 88235 }, { "content": "Title: Dansgaard–Oeschger event Content: Dansgaard -- Oeschger events ( often abbreviated D -- O events ) are rapid climate fluctuations that occurred 25 times during the last glacial period . Some scientists say that the events occur quasi-periodically with a recurrence time being a multiple of 1,470 years , but this is debated . The comparable climate cyclicity during the Holocene is referred to as Bond events .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Dansgaard–Oeschger_event", "rank": 11, "score": 87723 }, { "content": "Title: CLIVAR Content: CLIVAR ( climate variability and predictability ) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme . Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales , identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for climate modelling .", "qid": "434", "docid": "CLIVAR", "rank": 12, "score": 85780 }, { "content": "Title: 12 Ophiuchi Content: 12 Ophiuchi is a variable star in the constellation Ophiuchus . No companions have yet been detected in orbit around this star , and it remains uncertain whether or not it possesses a dust ring . This star is categorized as a BY Draconis variable , with variable star designation V2133 . The variability is attributed to large-scale magnetic activity on the chromosphere ( in the form of starspots ) combined with a rotational period that moved the active regions into ( and out of ) the line of sight . This results in low amplitude variability of 12 Ophiuchi 's luminosity . The star also appears to display rapid variation in luminosity , possibly due to changes in the starspots . Measurements of the long-term variability show two overlapping cycles of starspot activity ( compared to the Sun 's single , 11-year cycle . ) The periods of these two cycles are 4.0 and 17.4 years . This star is among the top 100 target stars for NASA 's planned Terrestrial Planet Finder mission . However , the mission is now postponed indefinitely . Its abundance of heavy elements ( elements heavier than helium ) is nearly identical to that of the Sun . The surface gravity is equal to , which is somewhat higher than the Sun 's . The space velocity is 30 km/s relative to the solar system . The high rotation period and active chromosphere are indicative of a relatively young star .", "qid": "434", "docid": "12_Ophiuchi", "rank": 13, "score": 84374 }, { "content": "Title: Variability Content: Variability is how spread out or closely clustered a set of data is . Variability may refer to : Climate variability , changes in the components of Earth 's climate system and their interactions Genetic variability , a measure of the tendency of individual genotypes in a population to vary from one another Heart rate variability , a physiological phenomenon where the time interval between heart beats varies Human variability , the range of possible values for any measurable characteristic , physical or mental , of human beings Spatial variability , when a quantity that is measured at different spatial locations exhibits values that differ across the locations Statistical variability , a measure of dispersion in statistics Variable renewable energy Variability function , a component of Bernoulli stochastics , a mathematical model Variability hypothesis , nineteenth century hypothesis that males have a greater range of ability than females", "qid": "434", "docid": "Variability", "rank": 14, "score": 83152 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 15, "score": 82201 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Content: Climate is the statistics of weather , usually over a 30-year interval . It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature , humidity , atmospheric pressure , wind , precipitation , atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time . Climate differs from weather , in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region . A region 's climate is generated by the climate system , which has five components : atmosphere , hydrosphere , cryosphere , lithosphere , and biosphere . The climate of a location is affected by its latitude , terrain , and altitude , as well as nearby water bodies and their currents . Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables , most commonly temperature and precipitation . The most commonly used classification scheme was the Köppen climate classification . The Thornthwaite system , in use since 1948 , incorporates evapotranspiration along with temperature and precipitation information and is used in studying biological diversity and how climate change affects it . The Bergeron and Spatial Synoptic Classification systems focus on the origin of air masses that define the climate of a region . Paleoclimatology is the study of ancient climates . Since direct observations of climate are not available before the 19th century , paleoclimates are inferred from proxy variables that include non-biotic evidence such as sediments found in lake beds and ice cores , and biotic evidence such as tree rings and coral . Climate models are mathematical models of past , present and future climates . Climate change may occur over long and short timescales from a variety of factors ; recent warming is discussed in global warming . Global warming results in redistributions . For example , `` a 3 ° C change in mean annual temperature corresponds to a shift in isotherms of approximately 300 -- 400 km in latitude ( in the temperate zone ) or 500 m in elevation . Therefore , species are expected to move upwards in elevation or towards the poles in latitude in response to shifting climate zones '' .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate", "rank": 16, "score": 81911 }, { "content": "Title: Annual cycle of sea level height Content: The annual cycle of sea level height ( or seasonal cycle or annual harmonic ) describes the variation of sea level that occurs with a period of one year . Historically , analysis of the annual cycle has been limited by locations with tide gauge records , i.e. , coastlines and some islands in the deep ocean , and by sparse records in the Southern Hemisphere . Since 1992 , satellite-based altimeters have provided near global coverage of sea level variability , allowing for a more thorough understanding of the annual cycle both in the deep ocean and in coastal margins .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Annual_cycle_of_sea_level_height", "rank": 17, "score": 81751 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming hiatus Content: A global warming hiatus , also sometimes referred to as a global warming pause or a global warming slowdown , is a period of relatively little change in globally averaged surface temperatures . In the current episode of global warming many such 15-year periods appear in the surface temperature record , along with robust evidence of the long-term warming trend ; climate is classically averaged over 30-year periods . Publicity has surrounded claims of a global warming hiatus during the period 1998 -- 2013 . The exceptionally warm El Niño year of 1998 was an outlier from the continuing temperature trend , and so subsequent annual temperatures gave the appearance of a hiatus : by January 2006 , it appeared to some that global warming had stopped or paused . A 2009 study showed that decades without warming were not exceptional , and in 2011 a study showed that if allowances were made for known variability , the rising temperature trend continued unabated . There was increased public interest in 2013 in the run-up to publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report , and despite concerns that a 15-year period was too short to determine a meaningful trend , the IPCC included a section on a hiatus , which it defined as a much smaller increasing linear trend over the 15 years from 1998 to 2012 , than over the 60 years from 1951 to 2012 . Various studies examined possible causes of the short-term slowdown . Even though the overall climate system has continued to accumulate energy due to Earth 's positive energy budget , the available temperature readings at the Earth 's surface indicate slower rates of increase in surface warming than in the prior decade . Since measurements at the top of the atmosphere show that Earth is receiving more energy than it is radiating back into space , the retained energy should be producing warming in the Earth 's climate system . Research reported in July 2015 on an updated NOAA dataset casts doubt on the existence of a hiatus , and it finds no indication of a slowdown even in earlier years . Scientists working on other datasets welcomed this study , though they have expressed the view that the recent warming trend was less than in previous periods of the same length . Subsequently , a detailed study supports the conclusion that warming is continuing , but it also find there was less warming between 2001 and 2010 than climate models had predicted , and that this slowdown might be attributed to short-term variations in the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , which was negative during that period . Another review finds `` no substantive evidence '' of a pause in global warming . A statistical study of global temperature data since 1970 concludes that the term ` hiatus ' or ` pause ' is not justified . Independent of these discussions about data and measurements for earlier years , 2015 turned out to be much warmer than any of the earlier years , already before El Niño conditions started . The warmth of 2015 largely ended any remaining scientific credibility of claims that the supposed `` hiatus '' since 1998 had any significance for the long-term warming trend . In January 2017 , a study published in the journal Science Advances cast further doubt on the existence of a recent pause , with more evidence that ocean temperatures have been underestimated . An April 2017 study found the data consistent with a steady warming trend globally since the 1970s , with fluctuations within the expected range of short term variability .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Global_warming_hiatus", "rank": 18, "score": 80529 }, { "content": "Title: Climate state Content: Climate state describes a state of climate on Earth and similar terrestrial planets based on a thermal energy budget , such as the greenhouse or icehouse climate state . The main climate state change is between periodical glacial and interglacial cycles in Earth history , studied from climate proxies . The climate system is responding to the current climate forcing and adjusts following climate sensitivity to reach a climate equilibrium , Earth 's energy balance . Model simulations suggest that the current interglacial climate state will continue for at least another 100,000 years , due to emissions - including complete deglaciation of the Northern Hemisphere .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_state", "rank": 19, "score": 80435 }, { "content": "Title: Heart rate variability Content: Heart rate variability ( HRV ) is the physiological phenomenon of variation in the time interval between heartbeats . It is measured by the variation in the beat-to-beat interval . Other terms used include : `` cycle length variability '' , `` RR variability '' ( where R is a point corresponding to the peak of the QRS complex of the ECG wave ; and RR is the interval between successive Rs ) , and `` heart period variability '' . Methods used to detect beats include : ECG , blood pressure , ballistocardiograms , and the pulse wave signal derived from a photoplethysmograph ( PPG ) . ECG is considered superior because it provides a clear waveform , which makes it easier to exclude heartbeats not originating in the sinoatrial node . The term `` NN '' is used in place of RR to emphasize the fact that the processed beats are `` normal '' beats .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Heart_rate_variability", "rank": 20, "score": 79642 }, { "content": "Title: Pacific decadal oscillation Content: The Pacific Decadal Oscillation ( PDO ) is a robust , recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability centered over the mid-latitude Pacific basin . The PDO is detected as warm or cool surface waters in the Pacific Ocean , north of 20 ° N. Over the past century , the amplitude of this climate pattern has varied irregularly at interannual-to-interdecadal time scales ( meaning time periods of a few years to as much as time periods of multiple decades ) . There is evidence of reversals in the prevailing polarity ( meaning changes in cool surface waters versus warm surface waters within the region ) of the oscillation occurring around 1925 , 1947 , and 1977 ; the last two reversals corresponded with dramatic shifts in salmon production regimes in the North Pacific Ocean . This climate pattern also affects coastal sea and continental surface air temperatures from Alaska to California . During a `` warm '' , or `` positive '' , phase , the west Pacific becomes cooler and part of the eastern ocean warms ; during a `` cool '' or `` negative '' phase , the opposite pattern occurs . The Pacific Decadal Oscillation was named by Steven R. Hare , who noticed it while studying salmon production pattern results in 1997 . The Pacific Decadal Oscillation index is the leading empirical orthogonal function ( EOF ) of monthly sea surface temperature anomalies ( SST-A ) over the North Pacific ( poleward of 20 ° N ) after the global average sea surface temperature has been removed . This PDO index is the standardized principal component time series . A PDO ` signal ' has been reconstructed to 1661 through tree-ring chronologies in the Baja California area .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Pacific_decadal_oscillation", "rank": 21, "score": 78828 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change policy of the United States Content: Global climate change was first addressed in United States policy beginning in the early 1960s . The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) defines climate change as `` any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time . '' Essentially , climate change includes major changes in temperature , precipitation , or wind patterns , as well as other effects , that occur over several decades or longer . Climate change policy in the US has transformed rapidly over the past twenty years and is being developed at both the state and federal level . The politics of global warming and climate change have polarized certain political parties and other organizations . This article focuses on climate change policy within the United States , as well as exploring the positions of various parties and the influences on policy making and environmental justice repercussions .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_change_policy_of_the_United_States", "rank": 22, "score": 78793 }, { "content": "Title: Climatological normal Content: Climatological normal is a 30-year average of a weather variable . Climatological normals are used as an average or baseline to evaluate climate events and provide context for year-to-year variability . Normals can be calculated for a variety of weather variables including temperature and precipitation and rely on data from weather stations . Variability from the 30-year averages is typical and climate variability looks at the magnitude of extremes .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climatological_normal", "rank": 23, "score": 78756 }, { "content": "Title: Klaus Hasselmann Content: Klaus Hasselmann ( born 25 October 1931 ) is a leading oceanographer and climate modeller . He is probably best known for developing the Hasselmann model of climate variability , where a system with a long memory ( the ocean ) integrates stochastic forcing , thereby transforming a white-noise signal into a red-noise one , thus explaining ( without special assumptions ) the ubiquitous red-noise signals seen in the climate .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Klaus_Hasselmann", "rank": 24, "score": 78665 }, { "content": "Title: Solar variability Content: Solar variability refers to changes in solar activity , such as : Solar variation , the change in the amount of radiation emitted by the Sun ( see Solar radiation ) see also solar cycle , specifically for the 11-year cyclic variation in solar activity Changes in the solar wind , i.e. , charged particles ( moving much slower than the speed of light ) Category : Solar phenomena", "qid": "434", "docid": "Solar_variability", "rank": 25, "score": 78100 }, { "content": "Title: U Carinae Content: U Carinae ( U Car ) is a Classical Cepheid variable , a type of variable star , in the constellation Carina . Its apparent magnitude is 6.86 . U Car is a δ Cepheid variable with a period of 38.7681 days . It was one of the earliest Cepheids to be discovered . It has also one of the longest periods , and hence is one of the most luminous in the class . There are still only a few Cepheids with longer periods , including RS Puppis , SV Vulpeculae , and the unusual S Vulpeculae . The brightness variation in U Car is caused by fundamental mode pulsations . The radius and temperature both vary , with the radius changing by during each cycle . The temperature variation causes the spectral type to vary between F6 and G7 .", "qid": "434", "docid": "U_Carinae", "rank": 26, "score": 76346 }, { "content": "Title: North African climate cycles Content: North African climate cycles have a unique history that can be traced back millions of years . The cyclic climate pattern of the Sahara is characterized by significant shifts in the strength of the North African Monsoon . When the North African Monsoon is at its strongest annual precipitation and subsequent vegetation in the Sahara region increase , resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the `` green Sahara '' . For a relatively weak North African Monsoon the opposite is true , with decreased annual precipitation and less vegetation resulting in a phase of the Sahara climate cycle known as the `` desert Sahara '' . Variations in the climate of the Sahara region can at the simplest level be attributed to the changes in insolation due to slow shifts in Earth 's orbital parameters . These parameters include the precession of the equinoxes , obliquity , and eccentricity as put forth by Milankovitch theory . The precession of the equinoxes is regarded as the most important orbital parameter in the formation of the `` green Sahara '' and `` desert Sahara '' cycle .", "qid": "434", "docid": "North_African_climate_cycles", "rank": 27, "score": 76255 }, { "content": "Title: 100,000-year problem Content: The 100,000-year problem ( `` 100 ky problem '' , `` 100 ka problem '' ) of the Milankovitch theory of orbital forcing refers to a discrepancy between the reconstructed geologic temperature record and the reconstructed amount of incoming solar radiation , or insolation over the past 800,000 years . Due to variations in the Earth 's orbit , the amount of insolation varies with periods of around 21,000 , 40,000 , 100,000 , and 400,000 years ( Milankovitch cycles ) . Variations in the amount of incident solar energy drive changes in the climate of the Earth , and are recognised as a key factor in the timing of initiation and termination of glaciations . While there is a Milankovitch cycle in the range of 100,000 years , related to Earth 's orbital eccentricity , its contribution to variation in insolation is much smaller than those of precession and obliquity . The 100,000-year-problem refers to the lack of an obvious explanation for the periodicity of ice ages at roughly 100,000 years for the past million years , but not before , when the dominant periodicity corresponded to 41,000 years . The unexplained transition between the two periodicity regimes is known as the mid-Pleistocene transition , dated to some 800,000 years ago . The related `` 400,000-year-problem '' refers to the absence of a 400,000-year periodicity due to orbital eccentricity in the geological temperature record over the past 1.2 million years .", "qid": "434", "docid": "100,000-year_problem", "rank": 28, "score": 75094 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse and icehouse Earth Content: Throughout the Phanerozoic history of the Earth , the planet 's climate has been fluctuating between two dominant climate states : the greenhouse earth and the icehouse earth . These two climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with glacial and interglacial periods , which occur only during an icehouse period and tend to last less than 1 million years . There are five known glaciations in Earth 's climate history ; the main factors involved in changes of the paleoclimate are believed to be the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide , changes in the Earth 's orbit , and oceanic and orogenic changes due to tectonic plate dynamics . Greenhouse and icehouse periods have profoundly shaped the evolution of life on Earth .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth", "rank": 29, "score": 74351 }, { "content": "Title: GY Andromedae Content: GY Andromedae ( GY And ) is an α2 Canum Venaticorum type variable star in the northern constellation Andromeda . Its brightness fluctuates in visual magnitude between 6.27 m and 6.41 m , making it a challenge to view with the naked eye even in good seeing conditions . The magnetic activity on this star shows an unusually long period of variability , cycling about once every 23 years . Based upon parallax measurements , this star is located at a distance of about 520 ly from the Earth . This is classified as an Ap/Bp star , with a peculiar spectrum showing lines of chromium and europium that change in intensity over a period matching the variability cycle , although opposite in phase . Its most striking characteristic is the presence of the unstable element promethium in its emission spectrum . All isotopes of this element are radioactive with half lives of 17.7 years or less . The promethium in the outer envelope may be generated by the spontaneous fission of higher mass transuranic elements . In 1958 , American astronomer Horace W. Babcock discovered that this is a spectroscopic binary star . It has an orbital period of 273 days with a large eccentricity of 0.47 . The two components are separated by an estimated distance of at least , or 0.25 Astronomical Units .", "qid": "434", "docid": "GY_Andromedae", "rank": 30, "score": 74181 }, { "content": "Title: Business cycle Content: The business cycle or economic cycle is the downward and upward movement of gross domestic product ( GDP ) around its long-term growth trend . The length of a business cycle is the period of time containing a single boom and contraction in sequence . These fluctuations typically involve shifts over time between periods of relatively rapid economic growth ( expansions or booms ) , and periods of relative stagnation or decline ( contractions or recessions ) . Business cycles are usually measured by considering the growth rate of real gross domestic product . Despite the often-applied term cycle , these fluctuations in economic activity do not exhibit uniform or predictable periodicity . The common or popular usage boom-and-bust cycle refers to fluctuations in which the expansion is rapid and the contraction severe .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Business_cycle", "rank": 31, "score": 73938 }, { "content": "Title: Holocene climatic optimum Content: The Holocene Climate Optimum ( HCO ) was a warm period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years BP . This event has also been known by many other names , including : Hypsithermal , Altithermal , Climatic Optimum , Holocene Optimum , Holocene Thermal Maximum , and Holocene Megathermal . This warm period was followed by a gradual decline until about two millennia ago . For other temperature fluctuations see : Temperature record For other past climate fluctuation see : Paleoclimatology For the pollen zone and Blytt-Sernander period associated with the climate optimum , see : Atlantic ( period )", "qid": "434", "docid": "Holocene_climatic_optimum", "rank": 32, "score": 73819 }, { "content": "Title: Termination (geomorphology) Content: Termination , as used by Quaternary geologists , oceanographers , and paleoclimatologists is the period of time during an glacial cycle when there is a relatively rapid transition from full glacial climates to full interglacial climates . For the Quaternary period , terminations are numbered using Roman numerals from the most recent termination as `` I '' and with increasing value , e.g. `` II '' , `` III '' , and so forth , into the past . Termination I , also known as the Last Glacial Termination , is the end of Marine isotope stage 2 ; Termination II is the end of Marine Isotope Stage 6 ; Termination III is the end of Marine Isotope Stage 8 ; Termination IV is the end of Marine Isotope Stage 10 , and so forth . During the Quaternary , global climate experienced a recurring pattern of ice-sheet growth and decay . The length of Late Quaternary cycles varied between 80,000 and 120,000 years , with an average recurrence interval of about 100,000 years . The typical Late Quaternary glacial cycle was asymmetric having a long cooling interval that was characterized by an oscillating buildup of ice sheets to maximum volume . The long cooling interval was then followed by a relatively short warming period . During this warming period , called a termination , huge Northern hemisphere ice sheets melted away ; sea level rose about 120 m ; and interglacial climate emerged across the planet in a few thousand years . In case of the termination of the last glacial cycle , the retreat of continental ice sheets in the Northern hemisphere began about 20,000 calendar years ago . By about 7,000 calemdar years ago , a small ice cap on Baffin Island was all that was left of the great Laurentide Ice Sheet that had once covered northern North America . In Antarctica , the last termination began about 18,000 years ago and interglacial climate was attained close to 11,000 years ago .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Termination_(geomorphology)", "rank": 33, "score": 73568 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change adaptation in Nepal Content: Climate change ( CC ) refers `` to the change of earth 's global or regional climate over a long period of time , whether due to natural variability or as the result of human activities '' IPCC , 2007d :30 . By the impact of climate change , as systems become more vulnerable to natural hazards , there is a greater need to develop responses ( that is , adjustments in existing practices , processes or structures ) that are able to counter potential future disasters . Such a response is known as adaptation to climate change IPCC , 2001b ; Smit et al. , 1999 . Community forest user group ( CFUG ) is main areas to act climate change adaptation in Nepa", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_change_adaptation_in_Nepal", "rank": 34, "score": 73015 }, { "content": "Title: BY Draconis variable Content: BY Draconis variables are variable stars of late spectral types , usually K or M , and typically belong to the main-sequence . The name comes from the archetype for this category of variable star system , BY Draconis . They exhibit variations in their luminosity due to rotation of the star coupled with star spots , and other chromospheric activity . Resultant brightness fluctuations are generally less than 0.5 magnitudes . Light curves from BY Draconis variables are quasiperiodic . The period is close to the star 's mean rotational rate . The light curve is irregular over the duration of the period and it changes slightly in shape from one period to the next . For the star BY Draconis the shape of the light curve over a period remained similar for a month . Nearby K and M stars that are BY Draconis variables include Barnard 's Star , Kapteyn 's Star , 61 Cygni , Ross 248 , Lacaille 8760 , Lalande 21185 and Luyten 726-8 . Ross 248 is the first discovered BY Draconis variable , the variability having been identified by Gerald E. Kron on 1950 . The variability of BY Draconis itself was discovered in 1966 and studied in detail by Sugainov over the period 1973-1976 . Procyon , which is much brighter than the Sun and has a spectral type of F5 IV/V , is also claimed to be a BY Draconis variable . Procyon is unusual in two ways : it is moving off the main sequence into the subgiant phase , and it is midway between PP burning and CNO burning , which means that it is intermediate between having a convective and non-convective outer layer . Either reason could explain the larger than normal star spots . Some of these stars may exhibit flares , resulting in additional variations of the UV Ceti type . Likewise , the spectra of BY Draconis variables ( particularly in their H and K lines ) are similar to RS CVn stars , which are another class of variable stars that have active chromospheres .", "qid": "434", "docid": "BY_Draconis_variable", "rank": 35, "score": 72499 }, { "content": "Title: David H. Bromwich Content: David H. Bromwich is a member of the Byrd Polar Research Center and a professor at the Department of Geography , The Ohio State University . His work has involved the evaluation and diagnosis of polar weather and climate variability . He received his Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin , Madison . In 1979 he joined Ohio State 's Byrd Polar Research Center as a research scientist . His research has focused on the variability of precipitation over Antarctica , Greenland , and the Arctic Ocean , thus contributing to the understanding of climate and potential sea level changes . He has made contributions to defining aspects of U.S. science policy . Having helped identify the need to improve numerical weather prediction ( NWP ) for the Antarctic , Bromwich has been influential in the development and evaluation of the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System ( AMPS ) . In April 2001 AMPS was one of four weather models used to predict a window of opportunity for the emergency medical evacuation of Ronald Shemenski from the Amundsen -- Scott South Pole Station . Flights to the base are normally halted from late February until November because of the extreme winter cold and darkness . But the airlift was successfully completed and pilot Sean Loutitt confirmed the reliance on the forecasts , stating `` The weather was the biggest concern '' .", "qid": "434", "docid": "David_H._Bromwich", "rank": 36, "score": 72373 }, { "content": "Title: SX Phoenicis variable Content: An SX Phoenicis variable is a type of variable star . These stars exhibit a short period pulsation behavior that varies on time scales of 0.03 -- 0.08 days ( 0.7 -- 1.9 hours ) . They have spectral classifications in the range A2-F5 and vary in magnitude by up to 0.7 . Compared to the Sun , these stars have a lower metallicity , which means they have a reduced abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium . They also have relatively high space velocity and low luminosities for stars of their stellar classification . These properties distinguish the SX Phoenicis variables from their cousins , the Delta Scuti variables . The latter have longer periods , strong metallicity and large amplitudes . SX Phoenicis variables are found primarily in globular clusters and galactic halos . The variability cycle has a periodicity-luminosity relation . All known SX Phoenicis variables in globular clusters are blue straggler stars . These are stars that appear more blue ( having a higher temperature ) than the main sequence stars in the same cluster that have similar luminosities .", "qid": "434", "docid": "SX_Phoenicis_variable", "rank": 37, "score": 72083 }, { "content": "Title: Stellar pulsations Content: Stellar pulsations are caused by expansions and contractions in the outer layers as a star seeks to maintain equilibrium . These fluctuations in stellar radius cause corresponding changes in the luminosity of the star . Astronomers are able to deduce this mechanism by measuring the spectrum and observing the Doppler effect . Many intrinsic variable stars that pulsate with large amplitudes , such as the classical Cepheids , RR Lyrae stars and large-amplitude Delta Scuti stars show regular light curves . ( By regular one means that Fourier analysis shows amplitudes that are constant in time . ) This regular behavior is in contrast with the variability of stars that lie parallel to and to the high-luminosity/low-temperature side of the classical variable stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram . These giant stars are observed to undergo pulsations ranging from weak irregularity , when one can still define an average cycling time or period , ( as in most RV Tauri and Semiregular variables ) to the near absence of repetitiveness in the Irregular variables . The W Virginis variables are at the interface ; the short period ones are regular and the longer period ones show first relatively regular alternations in the pulsations cycles , followed by the onset of mild irregularity as in the RV Tauri stars into which they gradually morph as their periods get longer . Stellar evolution and pulsation theories suggest that these irregular stars have a much higher luminosity to mass ( L/M ) ratios . A third category of variable stars are the non-radial pulsators which typically have much smaller pulsation amplitudes . With relative fluctuations in brightness from ~ 10 % down the observable limit , non-radial pulsation is very common among stars . Here we address the mathematical and physical reasons for the difference between the regular and irregular large amplitude stars . Intuitively , a prerequisite for irregular variability is that the star be able to change its amplitude on the time scale of a period . In other words , the coupling between pulsation and heat flow must be sufficiently large to allow such changes . This coupling is measured by the relative linear growth - or decay rate of the amplitude of a given normal mode in one pulsation cycle ( period ) . For the regular variables ( Cepheids , RR Lyrae , etc. ) numerical stellar modeling and linear stability analysis show that is at most of the order of a couple of percent for the relevant , excited pulsation modes . On the other hand , the same type of analysis shows that for the high L/M models is considerably larger ( 30 % or higher ) .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Stellar_pulsations", "rank": 38, "score": 71920 }, { "content": "Title: Solar cycle Content: The solar cycle or solar magnetic activity cycle is the nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun 's activity ( including changes in the levels of solar radiation and ejection of solar material ) and appearance ( changes in the number and size of sunspots , flares , and other manifestations ) . They have been observed ( by changes in the sun 's appearance and by changes seen on Earth , such as auroras ) for centuries . The changes on the sun cause effects in space , in the atmosphere , and on Earth 's surface . While it is the dominant variable in solar activity , aperiodic fluctuations also occur .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Solar_cycle", "rank": 39, "score": 71868 }, { "content": "Title: Solar maximum Content: -RSB- Solar maximum or solar max is a normal period of greatest solar activity in the 11 year solar cycle of the Sun . During solar maximum , large numbers of sunspots appear and the sun 's irradiance output grows by about 0.07 % . The increased energy output of solar maxima can impact Earth 's global climate and recent studies have shown some correlation with regional weather patterns . At solar maximum , the Sun 's magnetic field lines are the most distorted due to the magnetic field on the solar equator rotating at a slightly faster pace than at the solar poles . The solar cycle takes an average of about 11 years to go from one solar maximum to the next , with duration observed varying from 9 to 14 years . Large solar flares often occur during a maximum . For example , the solar storm of 1859 struck the Earth with such intensity that the northern lights were visible as far from the poles as Cuba and Hawaii .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Solar_maximum", "rank": 40, "score": 71480 }, { "content": "Title: Quaternary Content: Quaternary ( -LSB- pronkwəˈtɜrnəri -RSB- ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy ( ICS ) . It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present . The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs : the Pleistocene ( 2.588 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago ) and the Holocene ( 11.7 thousand years ago to today ) . The informal term `` Late Quaternary '' refers to the past 0.5 -- 1.0 million years . The Quaternary Period is typically defined by the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets driven by Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that occurred .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Quaternary", "rank": 41, "score": 71362 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital forcing Content: Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth 's axis and shape of the orbit ( see Milankovitch cycles ) . These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25 % at mid-latitudes ( from 400 to 500 Wm − 2 at latitudes of 60 degrees ) . In this context , the term `` forcing '' signifies a physical process that affects the Earth 's climate . This mechanism is believed to be responsible for the timing of the ice age cycles . A strict application of the Milankovitch theory does not allow the prediction of a `` sudden '' ice age ( rapid being anything under a century or two ) , since the fastest orbital period is about 20,000 years . The timing of past glacial periods coincides very well with the predictions of the Milankovitch theory , and these effects can be calculated into the future .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Orbital_forcing", "rank": 42, "score": 71203 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 43, "score": 70952 }, { "content": "Title: Seasonality Content: In time series data , seasonality is the presence of variations that occur at specific regular intervals less than a year , such as weekly , monthly , or quarterly . Seasonality may be caused by various factors , such as weather , vacation , and holidays and consists of periodic , repetitive , and generally regular and predictable patterns in the levels of a time series . Seasonal fluctuations in a time series can be contrasted with cyclical patterns . The latter occur when the data exhibits rises and falls that are not of a fixed period . These fluctuations are usually due to economic conditions and are often related to the `` business cycle . '' The period of time usually extends beyond a single year and the fluctuations are usually of at least two years . Organisations facing seasonal variations , such as ice-cream vendors , are often interested in knowing their performance relative to the normal seasonal variation . Seasonal variations in the labour market can be attributed to the entrance of school leavers into the job market as they aim to contribute to the workforce upon the completion of their schooling . These regular changes are of less interest to those who study employment data than the variations that occur due to the underlying state of the economy ; their focus is on how unemployment in the workforce has changed , despite the impact of the regular seasonal variations . It is necessary for organisations to identify and measure seasonal variations within their market to help them plan for the future . This can prepare them for the temporary increases or decreases in labour requirements and inventory as demand for their product or service fluctuates over certain periods . This may require training , periodic maintenance , and so forth that can be organized in advance . Apart from these considerations , the organisations need to know if variation they have experienced has been more or less than the expected amount , beyond what the usual seasonal variations account for .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Seasonality", "rank": 44, "score": 70814 }, { "content": "Title: Kondratiev wave Content: In economics , Kondratiev waves ( also called supercycles , great surges , long waves , K-waves or the long economic cycle ) are proposed cycle-like phenomena in the modern world economy . It is stated that the period of a wave ranges from forty to sixty years , the cycles consist of alternating intervals between high sectoral growth and intervals of relatively slow growth .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Kondratiev_wave", "rank": 45, "score": 70668 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 46, "score": 70639 }, { "content": "Title: S Pegasi Content: S Pegasi ( S Peg ) is a long period Mira variable star that takes 319.22 days for each cycle . It has a magnitude range of 8-13 . It is 580 times the radius of the Sun and is in the constellation Pegasus .", "qid": "434", "docid": "S_Pegasi", "rank": 47, "score": 70485 }, { "content": "Title: Modern Maximum Content: The Modern Maximum refers to the period of relatively high solar activity which began with Solar Cycle 15 in 1914 . It reached a maximum in Cycle 19 during the late 1950s and may have ended with Cycle 23 in 2000 as Cycle 24 is recording , at best , very muted solar activity . This period is a natural example of solar variation , and one of many that are known from proxy records of past solar variability . The Modern Maximum reached a double peak once in the 1950s and again during the 1990s . The value of the maximum , and even to some extent its existence , depends somewhat on the method of counting sunspot numbers .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Modern_Maximum", "rank": 48, "score": 70245 }, { "content": "Title: Physical impacts of climate change Content: This article is about the physical impacts of climate change . For some of these physical impacts , their effect on social and economic systems are also described . This article refers to reports produced by the IPCC . In their usage , `` climate change '' refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties , and that persists for extended periods , typically decades or longer ( IPCC , 2007d :30 ) . The climate change referred to may be due to natural causes and/or the result of human activity .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Physical_impacts_of_climate_change", "rank": 49, "score": 70227 }, { "content": "Title: Tidewater glacier cycle Content: The tidewater glacier cycle is the typically centuries-long behavior of tidewater glaciers that consists of recurring periods of advance alternating with rapid retreat and punctuated by periods of stability . During portions of its cycle , a tidewater glacier is relatively insensitive to climate change .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Tidewater_glacier_cycle", "rank": 50, "score": 70074 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Atlantic Variability Content: The Tropical Atlantic Variability ( TAV ) is influenced by internal interaction and external effects . TAV can be discussed in different time scales : seasonal ( annual cycle ) and interannual .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Tropical_Atlantic_Variability", "rank": 51, "score": 69936 }, { "content": "Title: Journal of Climate Content: The Journal of Climate is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society . The journal publishes articles on climate research , in particular those concerned with large-scale atmospheric and oceanic variability , changes in the climate system ( including those caused by human activities ) , and climate simulation and prediction .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Journal_of_Climate", "rank": 52, "score": 69831 }, { "content": "Title: Oxygen isotope ratio cycle Content: Oxygen isotope ratio cycles are cyclical variations in the ratio of the abundance of oxygen with an atomic mass of 18 to the abundance of oxygen with an atomic mass of 16 present in some substances , such as polar ice or calcite in ocean core samples , measured with the isotope fractionation . The ratio is linked to water temperature of ancient oceans , which in turn reflects ancient climates . Cycles in the ratio mirror climate changes in geologic history .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Oxygen_isotope_ratio_cycle", "rank": 53, "score": 69720 }, { "content": "Title: Orbital tuning Content: Orbital tuning refers to the process of adjusting the time scale of a geologic or climate record so that the observed fluctuations correspond to the Milankovitch cycles in the Earth 's orbital motion . Because changes in the Earth 's orbit affect the amount and distribution of sunlight the Earth receives , such changes are expected to introduce periodic climate changes on time scales of 20-100 kyr . Long records of sedimentation or climate should record such variations ; however , such records often have poorly constrained age scales . As a result , scientists will sometimes adjust the timing of the features in their records to match the predictions of orbital theory in the hopes of improving the dating accuracy . However , `` overtuning '' can result in apparent features that have no basis in the real data , such as occurred with the original SPECMAP record ( Muller & MacDonald 2000 ) .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Orbital_tuning", "rank": 54, "score": 69509 }, { "content": "Title: Double periodic variable Content: A Double Periodic Variable ( DPV ) is a type of binary star . As the name implies , the systems vary in brightness not only due to eclipses of one star by the other , but also on a cycle of roughly 33 times longer than the orbit . The star gaining mass from the other has a thick disk of material surrounding it , and the systems apparently lose mass cyclically into the interstellar medium over time . The cause for the secondary longer variability still is not established . The stars are rare , with 21 systems found in the Galaxy and more than 170 in the Magellanic Clouds ( Abril 2016 ) .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Double_periodic_variable", "rank": 55, "score": 68934 }, { "content": "Title: T Andromedae Content: T Andromedae ( T And ) is a variable star of the Mira type in the constellation Andromeda . T And 's variability occurs periodically , with the period calculated at 280.1 days .", "qid": "434", "docid": "T_Andromedae", "rank": 56, "score": 68856 }, { "content": "Title: Theodor Landscheidt Content: Theodor Landscheidt ( Bremen , 1927 -- May 20 , 2004 ) was a German author , astrologer and amateur climatologist . In 1989 , Landscheidt forecast a period of sunspot minima after 1990 , accompanied by increased cold , with a stronger minimum and more intense cold which should peak in 2030 His work on solar cycles has been cited by global warming skeptics to argue that observed warming is not anthropogenic and will soon be reversed , based on an assumption that fluctuations in climate are controlled by solar activity . In 1983 he founded and financed the `` Schroeter Institute for Research in Cycles of Solar Activity '' in Lilienthal , near Bremen . The Institute later moved with him to Nova Scotia , Canada .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Theodor_Landscheidt", "rank": 57, "score": 68541 }, { "content": "Title: David Battisti Content: David Battisti is The Tamaki Endowed Chair of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington and a fellow at the American Geophysical Union . His research interests include understanding how interactions between the ocean , land , atmosphere , and sea ice lead to climatic variability at timescales that vary from seasonal to decadal timescales , as well as the paleoclimate . He is also interested in how climate variability ( including El Nino ) affects food production . He received his PhD in 1988 at the University of Washington Department of Atmospheric Sciences . He has published over 100 papers in peer-review journals in atmospheric sciences and oceanography . He also helps organize an annual set of climate dynamics courses .", "qid": "434", "docid": "David_Battisti", "rank": 58, "score": 68508 }, { "content": "Title: Weather and climate Content: There is often confusion between weather and climate . Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a particular place over a short period of time , whereas climate refers to the weather pattern of a place over a long period , long enough to yield meaningful averages . Meteorology studies weather , while climatology studies climate ; both are atmospheric sciences .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Weather_and_climate", "rank": 59, "score": 68320 }, { "content": "Title: James Hays Content: James D. Hays is a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University 's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory . Hays founded and led the CLIMAP project , which collected sea floor sediment data to study surface sea temperatures and paleoclimatological conditions 18,000 years ago . Hays is probably best known as a co-author of the 1976 paper in Science , `` Variations in the Earth 's orbit : Pacemaker of the ice ages . '' Using ocean sediment cores , the Science paper verified the theories of Milutin Milanković that oscillations in climate can be correlated with Earth 's orbital variations of eccentricity , axial tilt , and precession around the Sun ( see Milankovitch cycles ) .", "qid": "434", "docid": "James_Hays", "rank": 60, "score": 68020 }, { "content": "Title: Marilyn Raphael Content: Marilyn N. Raphael is a Trinidadian climatologist , best known for her work on climate change and variability in the high latitude southern hemisphere . She is a professor and former chair of the Department of Geography at UCLA .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Marilyn_Raphael", "rank": 61, "score": 67999 }, { "content": "Title: African humid period Content: The African humid period (AHP) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, trees and lakes was caused by changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun; changes in vegetation and dust in the Sahara which strengthened the African monsoon; and increased greenhouse gases, which may imply that anthropogenic global warming could result in a shrinkage of the Sahara desert. During the preceding last glacial maximum, the Sahara contained extensive dune fields and was mostly uninhabited. It was much larger than today, but its lakes and rivers such as Lake Victoria and the White Nile were either dry or at low levels. The humid period began about 14,600–14,500 years ago at the end of Heinrich event 1, simultaneously to the Bølling-Allerød warming. Rivers and lakes such as Lake Chad formed or expanded, glaciers grew on Mount Kilimanjaro and the Sahara retreated. Two major dry fluctuations occurred; during the Younger Dryas and the short 8.2 kiloyear event. The African humid period ended 6,000–5,000 years ago during the Piora Oscillation cold period. While some evidence points to an end 5,500 years ago, in the Sahel, Arabia and East Africa the period appears to have taken place in several steps such as the 4.2 kiloyear event. The AHP led to a widespread settlement of the Sahara and the Arabian Deserts, and had a profound effect on African cultures, such as the birth of the Pharaonic civilization. They lived as hunter-gatherers until the agricultural revolution and domesticated cattle, goats and sheep. They left archeological sites and artifacts such as one of the oldest ships in the world, and rock paintings such as those in the Cave of Swimmers and in the Acacus Mountains. Earlier humid periods in Africa were postulated after the discovery of these rock paintings in now-inhospitable parts of the Sahara. When the period ended, humans gradually abandoned the desert in favour of regions with more secure water supplies, such as the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia, where they gave rise to early complex societies.", "qid": "434", "docid": "African_humid_period", "rank": 62, "score": 67897 }, { "content": "Title: UX Arietis Content: UX Arietis is a variable star of the RS CVn type , located in the northern zodiacal constellation of Aries . Based upon parallax measurements from the Hipparcos satellite , it is roughly 168 light years away . The variability of the star is believed due to a combination of cool star spots and warm flares , set against the baseline quiescent temperature of the stellar atmosphere . The variability appears to be cyclical with a period of 8 − 9 years .", "qid": "434", "docid": "UX_Arietis", "rank": 63, "score": 67897 }, { "content": "Title: Applegate mechanism Content: The Applegate mechanism ( Applegate 's mechanism or Applegate effect ) explains long term orbital period variations seen in certain eclipsing binaries . As a main sequence star goes through an activity cycle , the outer layers of the star are subject to a magnetic torque changing the distribution of angular momentum , resulting in a change in the star 's oblateness . The orbit of the stars in the binary pair is gravitationally coupled to their shape changes , so that the period shows modulations ( typically on the order of ∆ P/P ∼ 10 − 5 ) on the same time scale as the activity cycles ( typically on the order of decades ) .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Applegate_mechanism", "rank": 64, "score": 67856 }, { "content": "Title: Climatic Change (journal) Content: Climatic Change is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science + Business Media covering cross-disciplinary work on all aspects of climate change and variability . It was established in 1978 and the editors-in-chief are Michael Oppenheimer ( Princeton University ) and Gary Yohe ( Wesleyan University ) .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climatic_Change_(journal)", "rank": 65, "score": 67776 }, { "content": "Title: Historical climatology Content: Historical climatology is the study of historical changes in climate and their effect on human history and development . This differs from paleoclimatology which encompasses climate change over the entire history of Earth . The study seeks to define periods in human history where temperature or precipitation varied from what is observed in the present day . The primary sources include written records such as sagas , chronicles , maps and local history literature as well as pictorial representations such as paintings , drawings and even rock art . The archaeological record is equally important in establishing evidence of settlement , water and land usage .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Historical_climatology", "rank": 66, "score": 67728 }, { "content": "Title: Population cycle Content: A population cycle in zoology is a phenomenon where populations rise and fall over a predictable period of time . There are some species where population numbers have reasonably predictable patterns of change although the full reasons for population cycles is one of the major unsolved ecological problems . There are a number of factors which influence population change such as availability of food , predators , diseases and climate .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Population_cycle", "rank": 67, "score": 67410 }, { "content": "Title: Early anthropocene Content: The Early Anthropocene Hypothesis ( sometimes called Early Anthropogenic ) was proposed by William Ruddiman . It posits that the Anthropocene era , as some scientists call the most recent period in Earth 's history when the activities of the human race first began to have a significant global impact on Earth 's climate and ecosystems , did not begin in the eighteenth century with advent of coal-burning factories and power plants of the industrial era , as was commonly assumed , but dates back to 8,000 years ago , triggered by intense farming activities after agriculture became widespread . It was at that time that atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations stopped following the periodic pattern of rises and falls that had accurately characterized their past long-term behavior , a pattern that is explained by natural variations in Earth 's orbit known as Milankovitch cycles .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Early_anthropocene", "rank": 68, "score": 66599 }, { "content": "Title: Atlantic Equatorial mode Content: The Atlantic Equatorial Mode or Atlantic Niño is a quasiperiodic interannual climate pattern of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean . It is the dominant mode of year-to-year variability that results in alternating warming and cooling episodes of sea surface temperatures accompanied by changes in atmospheric circulation . The term Atlantic Niño comes from its close similarity with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) that dominates the tropical Pacific basin . The Atlantic Niño is not the same as the Atlantic Meridional ( Interhemispheric ) Mode that consists of a north-south dipole and operates more on decadal timescales . The equatorial warming and cooling events associated with the Atlantic Niño are known to be strongly related to atmospheric climate anomalies , especially in African countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea . Therefore , understanding of the Atlantic Niño ( or lack thereof ) has important implications for climate prediction in those regions . Although the Atlantic Niño is an intrinsic mode to the equatorial Atlantic , there may be a tenuous causal relationship between ENSO and the Atlantic Niño in some circumstances .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Atlantic_Equatorial_mode", "rank": 69, "score": 66323 }, { "content": "Title: Flandrian interglacial Content: The Flandrian interglacial or stage is the name given by geologists and archaeologists in the British Isles to the first , and so far only , stage of the Holocene epoch ( the present geological period ) , covering the period from around 12,000 years ago , at the end of the last glacial period to the present day . As such , it is in practice identical in span to the Holocene . Present climatological theory ( based on analysis of Milankovitch cycles ) forecasts that the present Flandrian climate should decline in temperature towards a global climate similar to that of the ice age . Less orbital eccentricity may have the effect of moderating this temperature downturn . The Flandrian began as the relatively short-lived Younger Dryas climate downturn came to an end . This formed the last gasp of the Devensian glaciation , the final stage of the Pleistocene epoch and is traditionally seen as the latest warm interglacial in a series that has been occurring throughout the Quaternary geological period . The first part of the Flandrian , known as the Younger Atlantic , was a period of fairly rapid sea level rise , known as the Flandrian transgression and associated with the melting of the Fenno-Scandian , Scottish , Laurentide and Cordilleran glaciers . Fjords were formed during the Flandrian transgression when U-shaped glaciated valleys were inundated with water .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Flandrian_interglacial", "rank": 70, "score": 65894 }, { "content": "Title: Neoglaciation Content: The neoglaciation ( `` renewed glaciation '' ) describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth 's climate during the Holocene , following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation , the most recent glacial period . Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest point in the Earth 's climate during the current interglacial stage . The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning : local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler ( and wetter ) conditions . Driven inexorably by the Milankovitch cycle , cooler summers in higher latitudes of North America , which would cease to completely melt the annual snowfall , were masked at first by the presence of the slowly disappearing continental ice sheets , which persisted long after the astronomically calculated moment of maximum summer warmth : `` the neoglaciation can be said to have begun when the cooling caught up with the warming '' , remarked E. C. Pielou . With the close of the `` Little Ice Age '' ( mid-14th to late 19th centuries ) , neoglaciation appears to have been stalled in the late 20th century , assumed to be caused by anthropogenic global warming . Whether it has been temporarily or semi-permanently stalled , neoglaciation has been marked by a retreat from the warm conditions of the Climatic Optimum and the advance or reformation of glaciers that had not existed since the last ice age . In the mountains of western North America , montane glaciers that had completely melted reformed shortly before 5000 BP . The most severe part of the best documented neoglacial period , especially in Europe and the North Atlantic , is termed the `` Little Ice Age '' . In North America , neoglaciation had ecological effects in the spread of muskeg on flat , poorly drained land , such as the bed of recently drained Lake Agassiz and in the Hudson Bay lowlands , in the retreat of grassland before an advancing forest border in the Great Plains , and in shifting ranges of forest trees and diagnostic plant species ( identified through palynology ) . The view that neoglaciation is ending in present times , is assumed by those who identify the most recent climate changes and global warming as the onset of a new period in Earth history , speculatively calling it the `` Early anthropocene '' , as a coming geological age dominated by the effects of Homo sapiens .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Neoglaciation", "rank": 71, "score": 65739 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 72, "score": 65462 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 73, "score": 65264 }, { "content": "Title: Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica Content: The Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica is a research program consisting of two overland traverses of East Antarctica : the first from the Norwegian Troll Station to the South Pole in the 2007/2008 season ; and a return traverse via a different route in 2008/2009 . The main research focus of the program is climate change , the stated goals being to : Investigate climate variability in Dronning Maud Land of East Antarctica on time scales of years to a thousand years . Establish spatial and temporal variability in snow accumulation over this area of Antarctica to understand its impact on sea level . Investigate the impact of atmospheric and oceanic variability on the chemical composition of firn and ice in the region . Revisit areas and sites first explored by traverses in the 1960s , for detection of possible changes and to establish benchmark data sets for future research efforts . The program is part of Trans-Antarctic Scientific Traverse Expeditions -- Ice Divide of East Antarctica ( TASTE-IDEA ) , and the International Partners in Ice Coring Sciences ( IPICS ) , both of which have ISCU-WMO endorsement for the International Polar Year 2007-2009 .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Norwegian-U.S._Scientific_Traverse_of_East_Antarctica", "rank": 74, "score": 65161 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Atlantic SST Dipole Content: The Tropical Atlantic SST Dipole refers to a cross-equatorial sea surface temperature ( SST ) pattern that appears dominant on decadal timescales . It has a period of about 12 years , with the SST anomalies manifesting their most pronounced features around 10 -- 15 degrees of latitude off of the Equator . The term Tropical Atlantic SST dipole is only one of the characteristic names used to refer to this mode of variability ; other definitions include the interhemispheric SST gradient or the Meridional Atlantic mode . This decadal-scale SST pattern constitutes one of the key features of SST variability in the Tropical Atlantic ocean , with another one being the Atlantic Equatorial Mode or Atlantic Niño , which occurs in the zonal ( east-west ) direction at interannual timescales , with sea surface temperature and heat content anomalies being observed in the eastern equatorial basin . Its importance in climate dynamics and decadal-scale climate prediction is evident when investigating its impact on adjacent continental regions such as the Northeast Brazil , the Sahel as well as its influence on North Atlantic cyclogenesis .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Tropical_Atlantic_SST_Dipole", "rank": 75, "score": 65157 }, { "content": "Title: Economic Confidence Model Content: The Economic Confidence Model is an economic cycle theory by Martin A. Armstrong . Armstrong proposes that economic waves occur every 8.6 years , or 3141 days , which approximately Pi X 1000 . At the end of each cycle is a crisis after which the economic climate improves until the next 8.6 year crisis point . The model has been profiled in The New Yorker , Time magazine , Financial Times and Barrons due to what appeared to be accurate predictions .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Economic_Confidence_Model", "rank": 76, "score": 64978 }, { "content": "Title: Solar minimum Content: Solar minimum is the period of least solar activity in the 11 year solar cycle of the sun . During this time , sunspot and solar flare activity diminishes , and often does not occur for days at a time . The date of the minimum is described by a smoothed average over 12 months of sunspot activity , so identifying the date of the solar minimum usually can only happen 6 months after the minimum takes place . Solar minima are not generally correlated with changes in climate but recent studies have shown a correlation with regional weather patterns . Solar minimum is contrasted with the solar maximum , where there may be hundreds of sunspots .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Solar_minimum", "rank": 77, "score": 64968 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Exchanges Content: The Global Energy and Water cycle Exchanges project (abbreviated GEWEX, formerly named the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment from 1990 to 2012) is an international research project and a core project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). In the beginning, the project intended to observe, comprehend and model the Earth's water cycle. The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives, studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed. Sunlight's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain, and dries out land masses after rain. Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes. GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere. If the Earth's climates were identical from year to year, then people could predict when, where and what crops to plant. However, instability created by solar variation, weather trends, and chaotic events creates weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales. Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities. GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data, and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future.", "qid": "434", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Exchanges", "rank": 78, "score": 64793 }, { "content": "Title: Henrietta Hill Swope Content: Henrietta Hill Swope ( October 26 , 1902 -- November 24 , 1980 ) was an American astronomer who studied variable stars . In particular , she measured the period-luminosity relation for Cepheid stars , which are bright variable stars whose periods of variability relate directly to their intrinsic luminosities . Their measured periods can therefore be related to their distances and used to measure the size of the Milky Way and distances to other galaxies .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Henrietta_Hill_Swope", "rank": 79, "score": 64767 }, { "content": "Title: Climatology Content: Climatology ( from Greek κλίμα , klima , `` place , zone '' ; and - λογία , - logia ) or climate science is the study of climate , scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time . This modern field of study is regarded as a branch of the atmospheric sciences and a subfield of physical geography , which is one of the Earth sciences . Climatology now includes aspects of oceanography and biogeochemistry . Basic knowledge of climate can be used within shorter term weather forecasting using analog techniques such as the El Niño -- Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) , the Madden -- Julian oscillation ( MJO ) , the North Atlantic oscillation ( NAO ) , the Northern Annular Mode ( NAM ) which is also known as the Arctic oscillation ( AO ) , the Northern Pacific ( NP ) Index , the Pacific decadal oscillation ( PDO ) , and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation ( IPO ) . Climate models are used for a variety of purposes from study of the dynamics of the weather and climate system to projections of future climate . Weather is known as the condition of the atmosphere over a period of time . While Climate has to do with the atmospheric condition over an extended to indefinite period of time .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climatology", "rank": 80, "score": 64746 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Thejll Content: Peter Andreas Thejll ( born 1956 ) is a Danish astrophysicist and climate researcher . His research in solar variation helped provide evidence of the greenhouse effect on the Earth 's climate in the late 20th century . In particular , his study with Knud Lassen on Northern Hemisphere land air temperature showed that the rise of 0.4 degrees Celsius since 1980 could not be accounted for by the solar cycle . Climatologists have pointed to this finding as an `` actual piece of evidence for greenhouse warming '' . Thejll received his undergraduate education at the University of Copenhagen . He received an M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Delaware . Thejll was a Carlsberg Fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and worked at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics . Thejll currently is a senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen . He is currently involved in the creation of a global automatic system to observe the Earth 's reflectivity - albedo - using observations of the earthshine on the Moon . Such data can be used for climate change studies and calibration of satellite data as the measurements deliver independent data on the albedo . A telescope is now installed on Hawaii at the Mauna Loa Observatory . The Swedish research agency VINNOVA is funding this project .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Peter_Thejll", "rank": 81, "score": 64690 }, { "content": "Title: Single-cell variability Content: In cell biology , single-cell variability occurs when individual cells in an otherwise similar population differ in shape , size , position in the cell cycle , or molecular-level characteristics . Such differences can be detected using modern single-cell analysis techniques . Investigation of variability within a population of cells contributes to understanding of developmental and pathological processes ,", "qid": "434", "docid": "Single-cell_variability", "rank": 82, "score": 64631 }, { "content": "Title: FK Comae Berenices Content: FK Comae Berenices is a variable star that varies in apparent magnitude between 8.14 m and 8.33 m over a period of 2.4 days . It is the prototype for the FK Com class of variable stars . The variability of FK Com stars may be caused by large , cool spots on the rotating surfaces of the stars .", "qid": "434", "docid": "FK_Comae_Berenices", "rank": 83, "score": 64547 }, { "content": "Title: Gerard C. Bond Content: Gerard Clark Bond ( May 20 , 1940 -- June 29 , 2005 ) was a widely published and highly respected American geologist . Bond received his Bachelor of Science degree at Capital University in Columbus , Ohio , where his father Ralph Bond was a Professor of Geology . He worked at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades , New York as Head of the Deep-Sea Sample Repository , after teaching briefly at Williams College in Williamstown , Massachusetts and the University of California , Davis . Bond theorized that variations in solar activity -- the appearance of sunspots and changes in the emission of solar radiation -- might be driving 1,500-year-cycles of amplified variability in northern hemisphere climate during the last glaciation , resulting in increases in iceberg discharges from the Laurentide ice sheet into the North Atlantic ocean , as evidenced by changes in the petrology of grains he extracted from deep sea cores covering this period . The cyclicity is also found during the Holocene , where the events are referred to as Bond events . Bond was awarded the Ewing Medal at the AGU Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony , December 2003 .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Gerard_C._Bond", "rank": 84, "score": 64531 }, { "content": "Title: Glacial period Content: A glacial period ( alternatively glacial or glaciation ) is an interval of time ( thousands of years ) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances . Interglacials , on the other hand , are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods . The last glacial period ended about 15,000 years ago . < ref name = `` Severinghaus1999 '' > </ref> The Holocene epoch is the current interglacial . A time when there are no glaciers on Earth is considered a greenhouse climate state .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Glacial_period", "rank": 85, "score": 64506 }, { "content": "Title: Cooperative Institute for Climate Applications and Research Content: The Cooperative Institute for Climate Applications and Research ( CICAR ) formalizes a major collaborative relationship between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research ( OAR ) and Columbia University . The CICAR research themes are : Modeling , understanding , prediction , and assessment of climate variability and change Development , collection , analysis , and archiving of instrumental and Paleoclimate data Development of the application of climate variability and change prediction and assessment to provide information for decision makers and assess risk to water resources , agriculture , health , and policy", "qid": "434", "docid": "Cooperative_Institute_for_Climate_Applications_and_Research", "rank": 86, "score": 64409 }, { "content": "Title: Glory (satellite) Content: The Glory satellite was a planned NASA satellite mission that would have collected data on the chemical , micro-physical and optical properties -- and the spatial and temporal distributions -- of sulfate and other aerosols , and would have collected solar irradiance data for the long-term climate record . The science focus areas served by Glory included : atmospheric composition ; carbon cycle , ecosystems , and biogeochemistry ; climate variability and change ; and water and energy cycles . The US$ 424 million satellite was lost on March 4 , 2011 , when its Taurus XL carrier rocket malfunctioned . A subsequent investigation revealed that the fairing system failed to open fully , causing the satellite to reenter the atmosphere at which point it likely broke up and burned .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Glory_(satellite)", "rank": 87, "score": 64368 }, { "content": "Title: Roger A. Pielke Content: Roger A. Pielke Sr. ( born October 22 , 1946 ) is an American meteorologist with interests in climate variability and climate change , environmental vulnerability , numerical modeling , atmospheric dynamics , land/ocean -- atmosphere interactions , and large eddy/turbulent boundary layer modeling . He particularly focuses on mesoscale weather and climate processes but also investigates on the global , regional , and microscale . Pielke is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Roger_A._Pielke", "rank": 88, "score": 64322 }, { "content": "Title: Ice age Content: An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere , resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers . Within a long-term ice age , individual pulses of cold climate are termed `` glacial periods '' ( or alternatively `` glacials '' or `` glaciations '' or colloquially as `` ice age '' ) , and intermittent warm periods are called `` interglacials '' . In the terminology of glaciology , ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres . By this definition , we are in an interglacial period -- the Holocene -- of the ice age . The ice age began 2.6 million years ago at the start of the Pleistocene epoch , because the Greenland , Arctic , and Antarctic ice sheets still exist .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Ice_age", "rank": 89, "score": 64289 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Ancient Rome Content: The climate of Ancient Rome varied throughout the existence of that civilization . In the first half of the 1st millennium BC the climate of Italy was more humid and cool than now and the presently arid south saw more precipitation . The northern regions were situated in the temperate climate zone , while the rest of Italy was in the subtropics , having a warm and mild climate . During the annual melt of the mountain snow even small rivers would overflow , swamping the terrain ( Tuscany and the Pontine Marshes were deemed impassable in antiquity ) . The existence of Roman civilization ( including the Eastern Roman Empire ) spanned three climatological periods : Early Subatlantic ( 900 BC -- 175 AD ) , Mid-Subatlantic ( 175 -- 750 ) and Late Subatlantic ( since 750 ) . The written , archaeological and natural-scientific proxy evidence independently but consistently shows that during the period of the Roman Empire 's maximum expansion and final crisis , the climate underwent changes . The Empire 's greatest extent under Trajan coincided with the Roman climatic optimum . The climate change occurred at different rates , from apparent near stasis during the early Empire to rapid fluctuations during the late Empire . Still , there is some controversy in the notion of a generally moister period in the eastern Mediterranean in AD -- 600 AD due to conflicting publications .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate_of_Ancient_Rome", "rank": 90, "score": 64277 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 91, "score": 64277 }, { "content": "Title: Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Content: The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment ( GEWEX ) is a research program of the World Climate Research Programme intended to observe , comprehend and model the Earth 's water cycle . The experiment also observes how much energy the Earth receives , studies how much of that energy reaches surfaces of the Earth and how that energy is transformed . Sunlight 's energy evaporates water to produce clouds and rain , and dries out land masses after rain . Rain that falls on land becomes the water budget which can be used by people for agricultural and other processes . GEWEX is a collaboration of researchers worldwide to find better ways of studying the water cycle and how it transforms energy through the atmosphere . If the Earth 's climates were identical from year to year , then people could predict when , where and what crops to plant . However , instability created by solar variation , weather trends , and chaotic events create weather that is unpredictable on seasonal scales . Through weather patterns such as droughts and higher rainfall these cycles impact ecosystems and human activities . GEWEX is designed to collect a much greater amount of data , and see if better models of that data can forecast weather and climate change into the future . GEWEX is organized into several structures . As GEWEX was conceived projects were organized by participating factions , this task is now done by the International GEWEX Project Office ( IGPO ) . IGPO oversees major initiatives and coordinates between national projects in an effort to bring about communication of researchers . IGPO claims to support communication exchange between 2000 scientist and is the instrument for publication of major reports . The Scientific Steering Group organizes the projects and assigns them to panels , which oversee progress and provide critique . The Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project ( CEOP ) the ` Hydrology Project ' is a major instrument in GEWEX . This panel includes geographic study areas such as the Climate Prediction Program for the Americas operated by NOAA , but also examines several types of climate zones ( e.g. high altitude and semi-arid ) . Another panel , the GEWEX Radiation Panel oversees the coordinated use of satellites and ground based observation to better estimate energy and water fluxes . One recent result GEWEX 's Radiation panel has assessed data on rainfall for the last 25 years and determined that global rainfall is 2.61 mm/day with a small statistical variation . While the study period is short , after 25 years of measurement regional trends are beginning to appear . The GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel takes current models and analyzes the models when climate forcing phenomena occur ( global warming as an example of a ` climate forcing ' event ) . GEWEX is now the core project of WCRP .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Global_Energy_and_Water_Cycle_Experiment", "rank": 92, "score": 64266 }, { "content": "Title: Transient climate simulation Content: A transient climate simulation is a mode of running a global climate model ( GCM ) in which a period of time ( typically 1850 -- 2100 ) is simulated with continuously-varying concentrations of greenhouse gases so that the climate of the model represents a realistic mode of possible change in the real world .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Transient_climate_simulation", "rank": 93, "score": 63927 }, { "content": "Title: List of periods and events in climate history Content: Knowledge of precise climatic events decreases as the record goes further back in time . Some notable climate events known to paleoclimatology are listed here . The timeline of glaciation covers ice ages specifically , which tend to have their own names for phases , often with different names used for different parts of the world . The names for earlier periods and events come from geology and paleontology . The marine isotope stages ( MIS ) are often used to express dating within the Quaternary .", "qid": "434", "docid": "List_of_periods_and_events_in_climate_history", "rank": 94, "score": 63825 }, { "content": "Title: Seasonal year Content: The seasonal year is the time between successive recurrences of a seasonal event such as the flooding of a river , the migration of a species of bird , or the flowering of a species of plant . The need for farmers to predict seasonal events led to the development of calendars . However , the variability from year to year of seasonal events ( allegedly due to climate change or just random variation ) makes the seasonal year very hard to measure . This means that calendars are based on astronomical years ( which are regular enough to be easily measured ) as surrogates for the seasonal year . For example , the ancient Egyptians used the heliacal rising of Sirius to predict the flooding of the Nile . A study of temperature records over the past 300 years suggests that the seasonal year is governed by the anomalistic year rather than the tropical year . This suggestion is surprising because the seasons have been thought to be governed by the tilt of the Earth 's axis ( see Effect of sun angle on climate ) . The two types of years differ by a mere 4 days over 300 years , so Thompson 's result may not be significant . However , the result is not unreasonable . The seasons can be considered to be an oscillating system driven by two inputs with slightly different frequencies : the total input of energy from the sun varies with the anomalistic year , while the distribution of this energy between the hemispheres varies with the tropical year . In other physical situations , oscillating systems driven by two similar frequencies can latch onto either one . One point that must be considered is that the oscillation arising from the tilt of the axis is much greater than that arising from the distance of the sun .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Seasonal_year", "rank": 95, "score": 63803 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "434", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 96, "score": 63733 }, { "content": "Title: Measurement of sea ice Content: Measurement of sea ice is important for safety of navigation and for monitoring the environment , particularly the climate . Sea ice extent interacts with large climate patterns such as the North Atlantic oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation , to name just two , and influences climate in the rest of the globe . The amount of sea ice coverage in the arctic has been of interest for centuries , as the Northwest Passage was of high interest for trade and seafaring . There is a longstanding history of records and measurements of some effects of the sea ice extent , but comprehensive measurements were sparse till the 1950s and started with the satellite era in the late 1970s . Modern direct records include data about ice extent , ice area , concentration , thickness , and the age of the ice . The current trends in the records show a significant decline in Northern hemisphere sea ice and a small but statistically significant increase in the winter Southern hemisphere sea ice . Furthermore , current research comprises and establishes extensive sets of multi-century historical records of arctic and subarctic sea ice and uses , among others high-resolution paleo-proxy sea-ice records . The arctic sea ice is a dynamic climate-system component and is linked to the Atlantic multidecadal variability and the historical climate over various decades . There are circular changes of sea ice patterns but so far no clear patterns based on modeling predictions .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Measurement_of_sea_ice", "rank": 97, "score": 63678 }, { "content": "Title: Phenology Content: Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate , as well as habitat factors ( such as elevation ) . The word , coined by the Belgian botanist Charles Morren around 1849 , is derived from the Greek φαίνω ( phainō ) , `` to show , to bring to light , make to appear '' + λόγος ( logos ) , amongst others `` study , discourse , reasoning '' and indicates that phenology has been principally concerned with the dates of first occurrence of biological events in their annual cycle . Examples include the date of emergence of leaves and flowers , the first flight of butterflies and the first appearance of migratory birds , the date of leaf colouring and fall in deciduous trees , the dates of egg-laying of birds and amphibia , or the timing of the developmental cycles of temperate-zone honey bee colonies . In the scientific literature on ecology , the term is used more generally to indicate the time frame for any seasonal biological phenomena , including the dates of last appearance ( e.g. , the seasonal phenology of a species may be from April through September ) . Because many such phenomena are very sensitive to small variations in climate , especially to temperature , phenological records can be a useful proxy for temperature in historical climatology , especially in the study of climate change and global warming . For example , viticultural records of grape harvests in Europe have been used to reconstruct a record of summer growing season temperatures going back more than 500 years . In addition to providing a longer historical baseline than instrumental measurements , phenological observations provide high temporal resolution of ongoing changes related to global warming .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Phenology", "rank": 98, "score": 63563 }, { "content": "Title: S Coronae Borealis Content: S Coronae Borealis ( S CrB ) is a Mira-type long period variable star with a period of 360 days in the constellation Corona Borealis . Its apparent magnitude varies between 5.8 and 14.1 Located around 1946 light-years distant , it shines with a luminosity approximately 16643 times that of the Sun and has a surface temperature of 3033 K.", "qid": "434", "docid": "S_Coronae_Borealis", "rank": 99, "score": 63234 }, { "content": "Title: Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction Content: Climate : Long range Investigation , Mapping , and Prediction , known as CLIMAP , was a major research project of the 1970s and 80s to produce a map of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum . The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration ( 1970s ) and is based in large part of the collection and analysis of a very large number of sediment cores to create a snapshot of conditions across the oceans . The CLIMAP project also resulted in maps of vegetative zones across the continents and the estimated extent of glaciation at the time . Most CLIMAP results aim to describe the Earth as it was 18 thousand years ago , but there was also an analysis to look at conditions during the previous interglacial -- 120 thousand years ago ( CLIMAP 1981 ) . CLIMAP has been a cornerstone of paleoclimate research and remains the most used sea surface temperature reconstruction of the global ocean during the last glacial maximum ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , but it has also been persistently controversial . CLIMAP resulted in estimates of global cooling of only 3.0 ± 0.6 ° C relative to the modern day ( Hoffert and Covey 1992 ) . The climate change during an ice age that occurs far from the continental ice sheets themselves is believed to be primarily controlled by changes in greenhouse gases , hence the conditions during the last glacial maximum provide a natural experiment for measuring the impact of changes in greenhouse gases on climate . The cited estimates of 3.0 ° C implies a climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide changes at the low end of the range proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . However , CLIMAP also suggested that some of the tropics and in particular much of the Pacific Ocean were warmer than they are today . To date , no climate model has been able to reproduce the proposed warming in the Pacific ( Yin and Battisti 2001 ) , with most preferring a several degree cooling . Also , it appears that climate models which are forced to match the CLIMAP sea surface measurements are too warm to match estimates for changes at continental locations ( Pinot et al. 1999 ) . This suggests that either climate model design is missing some important unknown factor , or CLIMAP systematically overestimated the temperatures in the tropical oceans during the last glacial , though there is at present no consistent explanation for why or how this should have happened . Unfortunately cost and difficulty of collecting sediment cores from the open Pacific has limited the availability of samples that might help to confirm or disprove these observations . If the Pacific reconstruction is assumed to be in error , it would result in a larger climate sensitivity to changes in greenhouse gases .", "qid": "434", "docid": "Climate:_Long_range_Investigation,_Mapping,_and_Prediction", "rank": 100, "score": 63157 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Spring 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The Spring of 2011 in the United Kingdom was exceptional for the warm weather which occurred during April and the dry weather which was persistent during March and April in certain parts of the UK . April was statistically the warmest and driest in the country since records began in 1910 . There was a contrast between north-western parts of the UK which received substantial amounts of rainfall and south-eastern parts which received very little . As lack of rainfall continued in many parts during May , concerns arose that the country could submit to drought . High pressure was the cause for the warm , dry weather experienced during April . A high temperature of 27.8 ° C was recorded on 23 April at Wisley , Surrey , the highest temperature recorded in April in the UK since 1949 . Thus , the Central England Temperature for the month was 3.7 ° C above the 1971-2000 average , and daily maximum temperatures were up to 6 ° C higher than average .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Spring_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 1, "score": 141837 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Pakistan heat wave Content: In April 2017 , a severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 51 ° C ( 124 ° F ) hit Pakistan , especially its southern parts . This heat wave broke the old temperature records of many cities in the country for the month of April . Larkana , a city in the southern province of Sindh , experienced the highest maximum temperature of 51.0 ° C on 20 April , breaking the previous day 's record of 50 ° C.", "qid": "435", "docid": "2017_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 2, "score": 133591 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian heat wave Content: In May 2015 , India was struck by a severe heat wave . , it has caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people in multiple regions . The heat wave occurred during the Indian dry season , which typically lasts from March to July with peak temperatures in April and May . Although it typically remains hot until late October , Indian monsoons often provide some respite from the heat . The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring Telangana , where more than 1,735 and 585 people died respectively , were the areas most affected by the heat wave . Other casualties were from the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha . The high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities . The 2015 heat wave has had the highest recorded temperatures since 1995 . In May 2016 , a new record was set in Phalodi .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2015_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 3, "score": 121783 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 North American heat wave Content: In March 2012 , one of the greatest heat waves was observed in many regions of North America . Very warm air pushed northward west of the Great Lakes region , and subsequently spread eastward . The intense poleward air mass movement was propelled by an unusually intense low level southerly jet that stretched from Louisiana to western Wisconsin . Once this warm surge inundated the area , a remarkably prolonged period of record setting temperatures ensued . NOAA 's National Climate Data Center reported that over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were tied or broken from 1 March through 27 March . In some places the temperature exceeded 86 ° F ( 30 ° C ) . For instance , in Grand Rapids , Michigan , the highest temperature recorded was 87 ° F on March 21 ; in Chicago a high of 87 ° F was also recorded on that same day . Records were broken in unusual ways . Chicago , for example , saw temperatures above 80 ° F every day between March 14 -- 18 , breaking records on all five days . Chicago would go on to record eight days at or above 80 ° F during the month , with many suburban areas recording an additional day in the 80s on March 19 ( that day , the city only tied its record high of 78 ° F ) . In context , the National Weather Service 's Chicago branch noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the 80 's in April . And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80 ° F days as this March . In Traverse City , Michigan one day began with a low temperature ( 67 ° F ) higher than the previous record high for the day . Temperature records across much of southern Canada also were shattered . Some of the most impressive readings came from Nova Scotia on March 22 , when the mercury climbed to 30.0 C at a climate station in Lake Major , making it the highest March temperature recorded in Nova Scotia , and the third highest March temperature recorded in Canada . That same day , the temperature hit 29.2 C at Western Head , Nova Scotia . The heat reached as far east as Cape Breton Island , with the temperature climbing to 24.0 C at Sydney , Nova Scotia on March 22 , a place historically surrounded by ice-jammed waters , frigid winds , and snow in March . The week of March 18 also set record temperatures in Manitoba and much of Ontario as well as into the Maritime Provinces . Non-severe thunderstorms were reported on the evening hours of March 21 , through to the early morning hours March 22 into northern Ontario . In addition , NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data show that the atmospheric pattern was so persistent that much of the Midwest and Northeast , and up into Ontario , had temperature departures over periods of several days to a week or more of magnitudes which would be unusual even for a single day . Averaged over the seven-day period from March 16 to March 22 inclusive , nearly the entire area of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. and most of Ontario and Quebec had temperatures 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) or more above the 1981-2010 average . Even more dramatically , most of Iowa and Minnesota , all of Wisconsin and Michigan , and most of southeastern Ontario had seven-day mean temperatures more than 15 ° C ( 27 ° F ) above the climatological average for the same period . An 84 ° F high at Madison , WI in early March was 43 ° F above average and followed an overnight low of 60 ° F , 35 degrees above normal the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean . The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 ° F or more ; the highest temperature recorded there was 107 ° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s . This mild warm spell brought out spring peepers in northern Ontario on 23 March , which are usually not heard until mid-to-late April , or sometimes early May . The warm weather was also responsible for several early-season tornado touchdowns , such as the EF3 that struck Dexter , Michigan , near Ann Arbor .", "qid": "435", "docid": "March_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 4, "score": 121221 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 5, "score": 120246 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Indian heat wave Content: In April and May 2016 , India experienced a major heat wave . A national record high temperature of 51.0 ° C ( 123.8 ° F ) was set in the town of Phalodi , in the state of Rajasthan . A total of over 160 people have died and 330 million affected . There are also water shortages . Drought has worsened the heat wave .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2016_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 6, "score": 119744 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "435", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 7, "score": 118983 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 8, "score": 115930 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2007 Content: Global storm activity of 2007 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2007 to December 31 , 2007 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , they may form in summer , though it would have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the summer of 1816 in the Northeast United States of America . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2007", "rank": 9, "score": 112076 }, { "content": "Title: April Content: April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar , the fifth in the early Julian and the first month to have the length of 30 days . April is commonly associated with the season of spring in parts of the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in parts of the Southern Hemisphere , where it is the seasonal equivalent to October in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa .", "qid": "435", "docid": "April", "rank": 10, "score": 110573 }, { "content": "Title: August 2009 Argentine winter heat wave Content: The 2009 Argentine winter heat wave was a period of unusual and exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of the winter on August 2009 in Argentina . Several provinces of the country were most affected . Several records were broken . August 2009 was the warmest month since official measurements began . On 30 August 2009 it was hot enough to be the middle of summer late last week in the heart of Argentina even with the calendar showing more than three weeks remaining in the Southern Hemisphere winter . A shot of tropical heat drawn unusually far southward hiked temperatures 30 C-change above normal in the city of Buenos Aires and across the north-central regions of the country . Even though normal high temperatures for late August are near 16 C , readings topped 30 C degrees at midweek , then topped out above 32 C degrees during the weekend . Temperatures hit 33.8 C on 29 August and finally 34.6 C on 31 August in Buenos Aires , making it the hottest day ever recorded in winter breaking the 1996 winter record of 33.7 C. Elsewhere in Argentina , the mid-northern city of Córdoba reached a dramatic high of 37.8 C degrees on 29 August 2009 . Another northern city , Santa Fe , registered 38.3 C degrees on 30 August , compared to the normal high of around 18 C.", "qid": "435", "docid": "August_2009_Argentine_winter_heat_wave", "rank": 11, "score": 110503 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2006 Content: Global storm activity of 2006 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2006 to December 31 , 2006 . Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Other major non winter events such as large dust storms , Hurricanes , cyclones , tornados , gales , flooding and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena to a lesser or greater existent . Very rarely , well-defined winter storms may form during the summer , though it would usually have to be an abnormally cold summer , such as the Summer of 1816 in the Northeastern United States . In many locations in the Northern Hemisphere , the most powerful winter storms usually occur in March and , in regions where temperatures are cold enough , April .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2006", "rank": 12, "score": 110367 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 13, "score": 110344 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Swedish heat wave Content: The summer of 2014 in Sweden was unusually warm , especially in the northern parts of the country . The notability of this event was characterised as July being the warmest ever month on record in the north-west . Although temperature records set that summer are somewhat moderate by international standards , Sweden 's northerly latitude and marine influence has to be taken into account , rendering the temperatures recorded more extreme .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2014_Swedish_heat_wave", "rank": 14, "score": 107555 }, { "content": "Title: April 2016 United States storm complex Content: The April 2016 United States storm complex was a major storm system that resulted from an upper-level low in the United States stalling and producing a major snowstorm in the Rocky Mountains , and record-breaking rain in and around Houston , Texas , resulting in severe flooding . There were more than 17 inches of rain in one day in parts of the city , and up to 4 inches of rain per hour that morning at George Bush Intercontinental Airport . It is described as the wettest April in the city on record . As the most widespread flood event there since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 , it caused a state of emergency to be declared in nine counties . __ TOC __", "qid": "435", "docid": "April_2016_United_States_storm_complex", "rank": 15, "score": 106160 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Lahore Content: Lahore features a five-season semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification BSh ) ( from another source : Composite monsoon climate ) with five seasons : foggy winter ( 15 Nov -- 15 Feb ) with few western disturbances causing rain ; pleasant spring ( 16 Feb -- 15 April ) ; summer ( 15 April -- June ) with dust , rain storms and heat wave periods ; rainy monsoon ( July -- 16 September ) ; and dry autumn ( 16 September -- 14 November ) . The hottest month is June , where average highs routinely exceed 40 C . The wettest month is July , with heavy rainfalls and evening thunderstorms with the possibility of cloudbursts . The coolest month is January with dense fog . The city 's highest maximum temperature was 48.3 C recorded on May 30 , 1944 . And 48 C was recorded on June 9 , 2007 . The lowest temperature recorded in Lahore is -- 1 ° C , recorded on 13 January 1967 . The highest rainfall in the city recorded during 24 hours is 221 mm , which occurred on 13 August 2008 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_of_Lahore", "rank": 16, "score": 105131 }, { "content": "Title: 1976 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1976 United Kingdom heat wave led to the hottest summer average temperature in the UK since records began . At the same time , the country suffered a severe drought . It was one of the driest , sunniest and warmest summers ( June/July/August ) in the 20th century , although 1995 is now regarded as the driest . Only a few places registered more than half their average summer rainfall . In the CET record , it was the warmest summer in that series . It was the warmest summer in the Aberdeen area since at least 1864 . It was the driest summer since 1868 in Glasgow .", "qid": "435", "docid": "1976_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 17, "score": 104538 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 North American cold wave Content: The 1994 North American cold wave occurred over the midwestern United States , eastern United States , and southern Canada during January 1994 . Two notable cold air events occurred from January 18-19 and from January 21-22 . There were 67 minimum temperature records set on January 19 . Indiana and Kentucky both set state records on January 19 . The United States experienced its coldest temperature month since February 1934 , although much of the West experienced mild temperatures . Washington and Idaho experienced the second warmest January recorded in the previous 100 years . During the same period , the western United States experienced one of its most damaging earthquakes ever , and the eastern United States experienced a major snowfall that significantly delayed traffic . Over 100 deaths occurred in the United States as a result of the cold wave .", "qid": "435", "docid": "1994_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 18, "score": 104402 }, { "content": "Title: April (Sun Kil Moon album) Content: April is the third studio album by American alternative folk band Sun Kil Moon , released in the US on April 1 , 2008 through Caldo Verde Records , and on April 18 , 2008 in Japan via P-Vine Records . The album was recorded at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco and Well Recording in Seattle during a seven-month stretch from spring to late summer in 2007 . The album was produced and written by Mark Kozelek . Will Oldham , Ben Gibbard and Eric Pollard lend their backing vocals throughout the album . The album also comes with a bonus disc of 4 alternate recordings . April is also available on vinyl through Caldo Verde Records , Vinyl Films , and Aural Exploits . A limited pressing of 1,000 copies on black vinyl were released on May 6 , 2008 to retail and online outlets ; 500 on white vinyl from May 20 , 2008 exclusively at sunkilmoon.com ; and 400 on marble vinyl , exclusive to Aural Exploits , from June 3 , 2008 . The 4 bonus tracks ( plus two previously unreleased live versions of `` Lucky Man '' and `` Tonight in Bilbao '' ) were released separately as a vinyl EP , titled Tonight the Sky , available exclusively on Caldo Verde Records ' website in January 2009 . The songs `` Moorestown '' and `` Unlit Hallway '' first appeared on Mark Kozelek 's 2006 live double album Little Drummer Boy Live . At the time of the album 's release , the two songs were previously unreleased . The song `` Lucky Man '' refers to the Emerson , Lake & Palmer song of the same name from the band 's 1970 debut self-titled album . `` Heron Blue '' is featured in the Gears of War 3 teaser trailer which premiered in April 2010 . April debuted in the Billboard Top 200 at # 127 . By its second week , the album slid but remained in the top 200 at # 200 . The album was released to positive reviews , with Slant Magazine asking the question : `` How many other artists can boast as many near-masterpieces ? ''", "qid": "435", "docid": "April_(Sun_Kil_Moon_album)", "rank": 19, "score": 104342 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Budapest Content: The Climate of Budapest is humid continental . Winter ( December until early March ) is by far the coldest and cloudiest time of year . Snowfall is fairly frequent in most years , and nighttime temperatures of − 15 ° C ( 5 ° F ) are not uncommon from mid-December until mid-February . The spring months ( March and April ) see variable conditions , with a rapid increase in the average temperature . Budapest 's summer , lasting from June until September , is the warmest time of year . Budapest has as much summer sunshine as many Mediterranean resorts . Sudden heavy showers also occur , particularly in May and June . The autumn in Budapest ( mid-September until late October ) is characterized by less rain than in summer and long sunny days .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_of_Budapest", "rank": 20, "score": 104147 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave was a period of unseasonably warm weather which arrived towards the end of September 2011 and continued into October . As a result , record-high temperatures for the country were broken for the autumn months . The autumn heat wave followed the warmest temperatures to occur on record in the spring , but also the coolest temperatures to occur in the summer months since 1993 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Autumn_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 21, "score": 103765 }, { "content": "Title: 2008–09 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season was the Australian bushfire season that ran from late December 2008 to April/May 2009 . Above average rainfalls in December , particularly in Victoria , delayed the start of the season , but by January 2009 , conditions throughout South eastern Australia worsened with the onset of one of the region 's worst heat waves . On 7 February , extreme bushfire conditions precipitated major bushfires throughout Victoria , involving several large fire complexes , which continued to burn across the state for around one month . 173 people lost their lives in these fires and 414 were injured . 3,500 + buildings were destroyed , including 2,029 houses , and 7,562 people displaced . Late 2008 had relatively few bushfires . Victoria in particular experienced higher than average rainfall in December , decreasing the fire danger in many regions of the state . Initial observations in October 2008 predicted an above average fire potential across Australia 's coastal regions and a below average potential in Central Australia , where drought has reduced the available fuel . In late January and early February , the effects of the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave increased temperatures across south-eastern Australia , particularly in Victoria and South Australia , where several locations broke all time temperature records . Various days of high wind speed , combined with the hot dry conditions , created extreme bushfire conditions between 25 January and 7 February 2009 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2008–09_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 22, "score": 102619 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "435", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 23, "score": 102606 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–12 La Niña event Content: The 2010 -- 12 La Niña event was one of the strongest on record . It caused Australia to experience its wettest September on record in 2010 , and its second-wettest year on record in 2010 . It also led to an unusual intensification of the Leeuwin Current , the 2010 Pakistan floods , the 2010 -- 11 Queensland floods , and the 2011 East Africa drought . It also helped keep the average global temperature below recent trends , leading to 2011 tying with 1997 for the 14th-warmest year on record .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2010–12_La_Niña_event", "rank": 24, "score": 102591 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave Content: The 2013 Southwestern United States heat wave occurred in late June to early July 2013 , lasting from around four days to a week locally . Daily highs were up to 15 ° C ( 26 ° F ) above average , with relative humidity below 15 % . Many locations experienced temperatures over 45 ° C ( 113 ° F ) . 46 monthly record high temperatures were reached or broken , and 21 records for the highest overnight temperatures were reached or broken .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2013_Southwestern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 25, "score": 101797 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "435", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 26, "score": 101515 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "435", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 27, "score": 100811 }, { "content": "Title: Tropical Storm Ana (2003) Content: Tropical Storm Ana was the first of two named tropical cyclones , along with Tropical Storm Arlene in 2017 , on record in the North Atlantic basin to exist in the month of April . The first tropical cyclone of the 2003 season , it developed as a subtropical cyclone from a non-tropical low on April 20 to the west of Bermuda . It tracked east-southeastward and organized , and on April 21 it transitioned into a tropical cyclone with peak winds of 60 mph ( 95 km/h ) . Tropical Storm Ana turned east-northeastward , steadily weakening due to wind shear and an approaching cold front , and on April 24 it became an extratropical cyclone . The storm brushed Bermuda with light rain , and the remnants produced precipitation in the Azores and the United Kingdom . Swells generated by the storm capsized a boat along the Florida coastline , causing two fatalities .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Tropical_Storm_Ana_(2003)", "rank": 28, "score": 100695 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American cold wave Content: The 1936 North American cold wave ranks among the most intense cold waves in recorded North American meteorological history . The states of the Midwest United States and the Prairie Provinces of Canada were hit the hardest , but only the Southwest and California largely escaped its effects . February 1936 was the coldest month recorded in the states of North Dakota , South Dakota , and Minnesota , and rivals that of 1899 the coldest February on record for the continent as a whole . Only a few parts of the Great Basin , the Bering Sea coast of Alaska and the Labrador Sea coast of Canada were even close to their long-term means . The 1930s had previously seen some of the mildest winters in recorded North American climatic history -- 1930/1931 in the northern Plains and Western Canada , 1931/1932 in the East , 1932/1933 in New England and 1933/1934 in the Western United States . The northern plains had during the previous eleven years experienced six of their ten warmest Februaries between 1895 and 1976 -- those of 1925 , 1926 , 1927 , 1930 , 1931 and 1935 -- with only February 1929 being severe during this period . Despite a warm March over most areas east of the Rockies , the extended winter from October to March was the fifth-coldest on record over the conterminous United States and the coldest since 1917 . The cold wave was followed by one of the hottest summers on record , the 1936 North American heat wave .", "qid": "435", "docid": "1936_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 29, "score": 100689 }, { "content": "Title: Weather extremes in Canada Content: This table shows record weather extremes in Canada . * A snowfall season can start anywhere from September to December and usually lasts until March or April .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Weather_extremes_in_Canada", "rank": 30, "score": 100043 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Atlantic hurricane season Content: The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season is an ongoing event in the annual formation of tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere . The season officially began on June 1 , 2017 , and will end on November 30 , 2017 . These dates historically describe the period each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin and are adopted by convention . However , as shown by the exceptionally rare Tropical Storm Arlene , which was only the second named storm on record to form in April , the formation of tropical cyclones is possible at any time of the year . Pending approval by the National Weather Service , the National Hurricane Center will begin issuing advisories on potential tropical cyclones that are a threat to land during this season . For the third consecutive year in a row , activity began early , with the formation of Tropical Storm Arlene on April 19 , nearly a month and a half before the official start of the season . It is only the second named storm on record to exist in the month in April , with the first being Ana in 2003 , as well as the strongest overall for the month of April . __ TOC __", "qid": "435", "docid": "2017_Atlantic_hurricane_season", "rank": 31, "score": 99653 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Islamabad Content: The climate of Islamabad has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classifion , with five seasons : Winter ( Nov − Feb ) , Spring ( March − April ) , Summer ( May − June ) , Rainy Monsoon ( July − August ) and Autumn ( September − October ) . The hottest month is June , where average highs routinely exceed 38 C . The wettest month is July , with heavy rainfall and evening thunderstorms with the possibility of cloudburst . The coolest month is January , with temperatures variable by location . In Islamabad , temperatures vary from cold to mild , routinely dropping below zero . In the hills there is sparse snowfall . The weather ranges from a minimum of -3.9 C in January to a maximum of 46.1 C in June . The average low is 2 C in January , while the average high is 38.1 C in June . The highest temperature recorded was 46.5 C in June , while the lowest temperature was -4 C in January . On 23 July 2001 , Islamabad received a record breaking 620 mm of rain fell in just 10 hours . It was the heaviest rainfall in 24 hours in Islamabad and at any locality in Pakistan during the past 100 years . Following is the weather observed over Islamabad Airport , which is actually located in Rawalpindi .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_of_Islamabad", "rank": 32, "score": 99473 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "435", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 33, "score": 99251 }, { "content": "Title: Monthly Climatic Data for the World Content: Monthly Climatic Data for the World ( MCDW ) is a monthly publication of the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) division of the National Environmental Satellite , Data , and Information Service ( NESDIS ) division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) of the United States . According to the website , each monthly issue `` contains monthly mean temperature , pressure , precipitation , vapor pressure , and sunshine for approximately 2,000 surface data collection stations worldwide and monthly mean upper air temperatures , dew point depressions , and wind velocities for approximately 500 observing sites . This is the final quality controlled copy and generally has a 4 - 6 month time lag . '' The issues are available for download in portable document format .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Monthly_Climatic_Data_for_the_World", "rank": 34, "score": 98325 }, { "content": "Title: April shower Content: In the United Kingdom and Ireland , an April shower is rain during the month of April . One of the major causes of the often heavy downpours is the position of the jet stream . In early spring , the jet stream starts to move northwards , allowing large depressions to bring strong winds and rain in from the Atlantic . In one day the weather can change from springtime sunshine to winter sleet and snow . The track of these depressions can often be across Ireland and Scotland bringing bands of rain followed by heavy showers ( often of hail or snow ) and strong blustery winds . The proverb `` March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers '' , first recorded in 1886 , or the shorter , trochaic version `` April showers bring May flowers '' ( originally `` Sweet April showers/Do spring May flowers '' , part of a poem recorded in 1610 ) are common expressions in English speaking countries . The phrase is referenced in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales : `` Whan that Aprill , with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote ''", "qid": "435", "docid": "April_shower", "rank": 35, "score": 97954 }, { "content": "Title: Summer of 1976 (Europe) Content: The summer of 1976 was considered to be one of the hottest summers in Europe ( and especially the United Kingdom ) within recent memory . A large high-pressure area dominated most of Europe for all of the summer months . The pressure system moved into place in late May 1976 and remained until the first traces of rain were recorded on August 27 . Rainfall throughout the July -- August period was down by half the annual average . During this spell of hot weather temperatures exceeded 32 ° C ( 89.6 ° F ) at several weather stations within the United Kingdom every day and the town of Cheltenham had eleven , including seven successive days from the 1st of July - recording 35.9 ° C ( 96.6 ° F ) on the 3rd . For the entire period much of Europe was bathed in continual sunshine with the United Kingdom seeing an average of more than 14 hours of sunshine per day . 1976 was dubbed `` The year of the Ladybird '' in that country due to the rise in the mass numbers of ladybirds brought on by the long hot period . `` The long hot summer of 1976 which eventually ended in September of that year , was the culmination of a 16-week dry spell - the longest recorded over England and Wales since 1727 . `` Quote From Met Office The summer of 1976 is by now a firmly established reference point for discussion in the UK of contemporary hot spells .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Summer_of_1976_(Europe)", "rank": 36, "score": 97900 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 37, "score": 97181 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 38, "score": 96873 }, { "content": "Title: Tornado outbreak of April 9–11, 2011 Content: The tornado outbreak of April 9 -- 11 , 2011 was one of several tornado outbreaks in the U.S. to take place during the record month of April 2011 . Producing 43 tornadoes across five states , widespread damage took place ; however , no fatalities resulted from the event due to timely warnings . In Wisconsin , 16 tornadoes touched down , ranking this outbreak as the state 's largest April event on record as well as one of the largest single-day events during the course of any year . The strongest of these storms was an EF4 tornado that touched down south of Pocahontas , Iowa on April 9 . Between 0256 and 0257 UTC ( 9:56 and 9:57 pm CDT ) that day , five tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously in Pocahontas County , Iowa , all of which were from one supercell thunderstorm . Throughout Iowa , damage from the storms is estimated at $ 78.6 million , much of which likely took place in and around Mapleton . In addition to the tornadoes , Texas experienced a widespread straight-line wind and hail event , leaving $ 100 million in damage . Overall , losses from the storm system reached $ 2.2 billion , making it the third of a record ten billion dollar disasters in 2011 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Tornado_outbreak_of_April_9–11,_2011", "rank": 39, "score": 96578 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 40, "score": 96380 }, { "content": "Title: Angry Summer Content: The Australian summer of 2012 -- 2013 , known as the Angry Summer or Extreme Summer , resulted in 123 weather records being broken over a 90-day period , including the hottest day ever recorded for Australia as a whole , the hottest January on record , the hottest summer average on record , and a record seven days in a row when the whole continent averaged above 39 ° C. Single-day temperature records were broken in dozens of towns and cities , as well as single-day rainfall records , and several rivers flooded to new record highs . In January 2013 , the Bureau of Meteorology altered its weather forecasting chart 's temperature scale to include a range , coloured purple , between 52 ° and 54 ° C . The reporting of the heatwave in the Australian media attracted controversy in the scientific community , as very few articles cited a correlation between the event and climate change , which it was correlated with according to studies conducted by the University of Melbourne .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Angry_Summer", "rank": 41, "score": 96255 }, { "content": "Title: April Rain Content: April Rain is the second full-length album by the Dutch symphonic metal band , Delain . It was released in the Benelux on 20 March 2009 and was released internationally on 30 March 2009 by Roadrunner Records . It was released in Australia on 10 April 2009 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "April_Rain", "rank": 42, "score": 95920 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2009 Content: Global storm activity of 2009 profiles the major worldwide storms , including blizzards , ice storms , and other winter events , from January 1 , 2009 to December 31 , 2009 . Wintery storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures , such as snow or sleet , or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form ( i.e. freezing rain ) . It may be marked by strong wind , thunder and lightning ( a thunderstorm ) , heavy precipitation , such as ice ( ice storm ) , or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere ( as in a dust storm , snowstorm , hailstorm , etc. ) . Summer storms including flooding , severe thunderstorms and extratropical cyclones ( which can occur in summer or winter ) are also included in this list to a certain extent . As this occurred a heat wave and/or unforeseen monsoon weather also hit parts of Australia in 2009 and 2010 . Victoria , the scene of horrific bushfires the year before , had a far colder summer , with hot weather arriving more than a month later than usual in 2009 . August 17 saw a dust storm at Laguna Mar Chiquita as a major drought hit Argentina , and flooding and hailstorms hit southeastern Australia and Queensland in March 2010 . The lack of winter precipitation in parts of China , however , contributed to a severe drought in the southwest . Bolivia , Venezuela , Mali , Mauritania , Morocco and Spain have also seen periods of drought in 2009 and 2010 . On between May 12 and 26 , both Mauritania , the Sénégal River Area and neighbouring parts of both Senegal and Mali faced both a drought and famine in 2010 . A storm ( from Proto-Germanic * sturmaz `` noise , tumult '' ) is any disturbed state of an astronomical body 's atmosphere , especially affecting its surface , and strongly implying severe weather . Storms are created when a centre of low pressure develops , with a system of high pressure surrounding it . This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds , such as the cumulonimbus . Small , localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground , resulting in smaller meteorological disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2009", "rank": 43, "score": 95710 }, { "content": "Title: April Macie Content: April Macie ( November 2 , 1977 ) is an American comedian , television personality , writer , and actress . She won Howard Stern 's `` Hottest and Funniest Chick '' contest and appeared in the fourth season of NBC 's reality series Last Comic Standing .", "qid": "435", "docid": "April_Macie", "rank": 44, "score": 94914 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 India heat wave Content: More than 1,030 people were killed in the 2002 heatwave in south India . Most of the dead were poor and elderly and a majority of deaths occurred in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh . In districts that were impacted most , the heat was so severe that ponds and rivers evaporated and in those same districts birds had fallen from the sky and animals were collapsing from the intense heat . It is said by officials to be the worst heat wave in four years . The relief commissioner of Andhra Pradesh , Rosaiah , said that the maximum number of 172 deaths related to heat took place in the East Godavari district . There were also 166 deaths in Prakasam and 144 deaths in West Godavari . Unusually high temperatures were detected across India during April of the year 2002 . In addition , this heat wave over northern zones of India lasted from the middle of April to the third week in May , thus , causing these fatalities . On May 10 the highest temperature recorded in the region of Gannavaram ( Vijayawada ) was 49 degrees Celsius ( 120.2 degrees Fahrenheit ) . According to the BBC News , `` Heatwaves are defined as periods of abnormally high temperatures and usually occur between March and June in India . May is the country 's hottest month , with an average maximum temperature of 41C ( 104F ) in Delhi . Longer , more severe heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent globally . Intense heat can cause cramps , exhaustion and heat stroke . Thousands of people have died across India during heatwaves in 2002 and 2003 . '' The heatwaves also affected the northern states of Punjab , Haryana , Orissa and 100 people suffered from heat-related sickness . 2010 Indian heatwave", "qid": "435", "docid": "2002_India_heat_wave", "rank": 45, "score": 94905 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 46, "score": 94388 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The March 2012 United Kingdom and Ireland heat wave was a period of unseasonable warm weather with temperatures getting above 20 C in many places . The average temperature for this time of year in the United Kingdom is 10 C. Aboyne , Scotland , recorded a temperature of 23.6 C on 27 March , the highest March temperature in Scotland since records began . For around eight days no clouds were visible for the majority of places in the UK , allowing the sun to shine straight down through the blue sky and induce high air temperatures . The high pressure also meant there was little wind to act as a coolant .", "qid": "435", "docid": "March_2012_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 47, "score": 94368 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 European heat wave Content: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540 . France was hit especially hard . The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe . Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000 . The predominant heat was recorded in July and August , partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2003_European_heat_wave", "rank": 48, "score": 94192 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Muscat Content: The climate of Muscat features a hot , arid climate with long and very hot summers and mild winters . Annual rainfall in Muscat is about 100 mm ( 4 in ) , falling mostly from December to April . In general , precipitation is scarce in Muscat with several months , on average , seeing only a trace of rainfall . The climate is very hot , with temperatures reaching as high as 49 ° C ( 120 ° F ) in the summer . For sightseeing , the best time to visit Muscat is from December to March as the temperatures are moderate and pleasant , making it easy to move around . Between mid-March and October , travel is very exhausting with the average temperature between 31 ° C to 38 ° C and sunburn and dehydration are possible .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_of_Muscat", "rank": 49, "score": 94082 }, { "content": "Title: Hassilabied Content: Hassilabied is a village in the Sahara Desert in Morocco , 5 km north of Merzouga . Most people are here to take a camel safari into the dunes of Erg Chebbi , and to get a taste of remote ( tourism-influenced ) Berber life . Winter months ( November to February ) are cool , with daily high temperatures only slightly over 10 ° C , and cold nights . Spring until April is pleasant , with temperatures from 25 ° C up to 30 ° C in the afternoons , and with cool nights . Summer months are hot . In winter and spring there is occasional short rain or drizzle ( a couple of days per month , on average ) , but heavy rain is unusual . Category : Populated places in Errachidia Province Category : Oases of Morocco", "qid": "435", "docid": "Hassilabied", "rank": 50, "score": 93821 }, { "content": "Title: July Content: July is the seventh month of the year ( between June and August ) in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and the fourth month to have the length of 31 days . It was named by the Roman Senate in honor of the Roman general , Julius Caesar , it being the month of his birth . Prior to that , it was called Quintilis . It is on average the warmest month in most of the Northern hemisphere ( where it is the second month of summer ) and the coldest month in much of the Southern hemisphere ( where it is the second month of winter ) . The second half of the year commences in July . In the Southern hemisphere , July is the seasonal equivalent of January in the Northern hemisphere . In the Northern Hemisphere , `` Dog days '' are considered to begin in early July , when the hot sultry weather of summer usually starts . Spring lambs , born in late winter or early spring , are usually sold before July 1 . July is the traditional period known as `` fence month '' ( the closed season for deer in England ) , the end Trinity term ( sitting of the High Court of Justice of England ) , taking place on July 31 , and also the time in which the elections of Japanese House of Councillors , replacing half of its seats , held every three years ( the latest one in 2016 ) . In Ancient Rome the festival of Poplifugia was celebrated on July 5 , Ludi Apollinares on July 13 and for several days afterwards , but these dates does not correspond to the modern Gregorian one .", "qid": "435", "docid": "July", "rank": 51, "score": 93072 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 52, "score": 92529 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Adelaide heatwave Content: The 2014 Adelaide heatwave was a heat wave that occurred in Adelaide , South Australia in both January and February 2014 . The heatwaves were so strong that it broke records , becoming the hottest summer ever recorded in Adelaide . Although there were no deaths directly linked to the heatwave as of 2015 , there were at least 136 heat-related hospital admissions recorded .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2014_Adelaide_heatwave", "rank": 53, "score": 92518 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Faisalabad Content: The climate of Faisalabad features a Semi-arid climate ( BWh ) in Köppen-Geiger classification with very hot and humid summers and dry cool winters . The average maximum and minimum temperature in June are 40.5 C and 26.9 C , respectively . In January it the average maximum stands at 19.4 C and 4.1 C , respectively . The summer season starts from Mid-April and continues till late-October . May and June are the hottest months , while July , August and the first half of September can be oppressively humid , except for the days when it rains . June is the hottest month in Faisalabad when conditions are dry and dust storms are common . While the coldest month is January , which is also a dry month with significant foggy days . The fog is particularly dense at night and early morning hours . The winter season starts from November and continues till early-February . ref name = `` IP '' / > . Spring sets in after Mid February and lasts usually till late March when temperatures begin to warm up and conditions become drier and sunnier . The average annual rainfall lies only at about 375 mm , which is highly seasonal since approximately half of the yearly rainfall takes place in July and August during the monsoon season .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_of_Faisalabad", "rank": 54, "score": 92469 }, { "content": "Title: Aprilis Content: Aprilis or mensis Aprilis ( April ) was the fourth month of the ancient Roman calendar , following Martius ( March ) and preceding Maius ( May ) . On the oldest Roman calendar that had begun with March , Aprilis was the second of ten months in the year . April had 30 days on calendars of the Roman Republic , with a day added to the month during the reform in the mid-40s BC that produced the Julian calendar . April was marked by a series of festivals devoted to aspects of rural life , since it was a busy month for farmers . As Rome became more urbanized , the significance of some ceremonies expanded , notably the Parilia , an archaic pastoral festival celebrated as the `` birthday '' ( dies natalis ) or founding day of Rome . The month was generally preoccupied with deities who were female or ambiguous in gender , opening with the Feast of Venus on the Kalends .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Aprilis", "rank": 55, "score": 92405 }, { "content": "Title: 1908 Content: According to NASA reports , 1908 was the coldest recorded year since 1880 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "1908", "rank": 56, "score": 92391 }, { "content": "Title: Global temperature record Content: The global temperature record shows the fluctuations of the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans through various spans of time. The most detailed information exists since 1850, when methodical thermometer-based records began. There are numerous estimates of temperatures since the end of the Pleistocene glaciation, particularly during the current Holocene epoch. Older time periods are studied by paleoclimatology.", "qid": "435", "docid": "Global_temperature_record", "rank": 57, "score": 92354 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 58, "score": 92221 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Himachal Pradesh Content: There is a huge variation in the climatic conditions of Himachal Pradesh due to variation in altitude ( 450 -- 6500 metres ) . The climate varies from hot and sub-humid tropical ( 450 -- 900 metres ) in the southern low tracts , warm and temperate ( 900 -- 1800 metres ) , cool and temperate ( 1900 -- 2400 metres ) and cold glacial and alpine ( 2400 -- 4800 metres ) in the northern and eastern high elevated mountain ranges . By October , nights and mornings are very cold . Snowfall at elevations of nearly 3000 m is about 3 m and lasts from December start to March end . About 4500 m , is perpetual snow . The spring season starts from mid February to mid April . The weather is pleasant and comfortable in the season . The rainy season start at the end of the month of June . The landscape lushes green and fresh . During the season streams and natural springs are replenished . The heavy rains in July and August cause a lot of damage resulting in erosion , floods and landslides . Out of all the state districts , Dharamsala receives the highest rainfall , nearly about 3400 mm . Spiti is the driest area of the state ( rainfall below 50mm ) . The reason is that it is enclosed by high mountains on all sides .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_of_Himachal_Pradesh", "rank": 59, "score": 92145 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Ecuador Content: The climate of Ecuador varies by region , due to differences in elevation and , to a degree , in proximity to the equator . The coastal lowlands in the western part of Ecuador are typically warm with temperatures in the region of 25 ° C. Coastal areas are affected by ocean currents and between January and April are hot and rainy . The weather in Quito is consistent with that of a subtropical highland climate . The city has barely any cool air since it is close to the equator . The average temperature during the day is 66 F , which generally falls to an average of 50 F at night . The average temperature annually is 64 F . There are only really two obvious seasons in the city : dry and wet . The dry season ( summer ) runs from June to September and the wet season ( winter ) is from October to May . As most of Ecuador is in the southern hemisphere , June to September is considered to be winter , and winter is generally the dry season in warm climates . Spring , summer , and fall are generally the `` wet seasons '' while winter is the dry ( with the exception of the first month of fall being dry ) .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_of_Ecuador", "rank": 60, "score": 91840 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 1962–63 in the United Kingdom Content: The winter of 1962 -- 1963 ( also known as the Big Freeze of 1963 ) was one of the coldest winters on record in the United Kingdom . Temperatures plummeted and lakes and rivers began to freeze over . In the Central England Temperature ( CET ) record , extending back to 1659 , only the winter ( defined as the months of December , January and February ) of 1683 -- 84 has been significantly colder , with 1739 -- 40 being slightly colder than 1962 -- 63 . Over Scotland and Northern Ireland , where data do not extend back to 1740 , the winters of 1813 -- 14 and 1878 -- 79 were certainly colder than 1962 -- 63 , as was the winter of 1779 -- 80 in Scotland and 1894 -- 95 in Northern Ireland . This winter remains the coldest since at least 1895 in all meteorological districts of the United Kingdom except Scotland North , where the two winters of 1978 -- 79 and 2009 -- 10 were marginally colder .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Winter_of_1962–63_in_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 61, "score": 91733 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–15 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2014 -- 15 Australian bushfire season was expected to have the potential for many fires in eastern Australia after lower than expected rainfall was received in many areas . Authorities released warnings in the early spring that the season could be particularly bad . Warmer and drier weather conditions were experienced during winter and extended into 2015 , due to a developing El Niño event . Sydney was on track to record its hottest autumn on record and only had one fifth of the average rainfall in May . Adelaide recorded sixteen consecutive days of 20 C in May 2014 . Queensland sweltered through a heatwave , with record October temperatures being set in many towns through the state . New October records included Toowoomba with 36.4 C , St George with 42.6 C , Amberley with 41.3 C and Roma with 41.6 C. Throughout 2014 and the first 6 months of 2015 , 18 fires were declared `` national disasters '' affecting a total of 68 local government areas across New South Wales , South Australia , Victoria and the Northern Territory .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2014–15_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 62, "score": 91452 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 63, "score": 91422 }, { "content": "Title: January 2016 East Asia cold wave Content: In late January 2016 , a cold wave struck much of East Asia , parts of mainland Southeast Asia and parts of northern South Asia , bringing record cold temperatures and snowfall to many regions . Sleet was reported in Okinawa for the first time on record , and many other regions saw their coldest temperatures in decades . Snowfall and frigid weather stranded thousands of people across four countries . At least 85 people in Taiwan died from hypothermia and cardiac arrest following a sudden drop in temperature during the weekend of January 22 -- 24 . The cold claimed a further fourteen lives in Thailand , and snowstorms resulted in six deaths across Japan . This event was driven by a fast Arctic warming that occurred within the troposphere , forcing the Arctic Oscillation to change phase rapidly from positive ( in late December ) to negative ( in late January ) , facilitating the atmospheric blocking and associated Siberian high buildup .", "qid": "435", "docid": "January_2016_East_Asia_cold_wave", "rank": 64, "score": 91378 }, { "content": "Title: April 3 Content:", "qid": "435", "docid": "April_3", "rank": 65, "score": 91309 }, { "content": "Title: Blackthorn Winter Content: Blackthorn Winter , in rural England , is a spell of cold weather in early April which often coincides with the blossoming of the blackthorn in hedgerows . The pure white of the blackthorn blossom , which appears before the leaves , matches the snow or hoar frost covering the fields nearby . It may also refer to : Blackthorn Winter ( Reiss novel ) , a 2006 novel by Kathryn Reiss Blackthorn Winter ( Wilson novel ) , a 2003 novel by Douglas Wilson", "qid": "435", "docid": "Blackthorn_Winter", "rank": 66, "score": 91280 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature record of the past 1000 years Content: For information on the description of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age in various IPCC reports see MWP and LIA in IPCC reportsThe temperature record of the past 1,000 years is reconstructed using data from climate proxy records in conjunction with the modern instrumental temperature record which only covers the last 150 years at a global scale . Large-scale reconstructions covering part or all of the 1st millennium and 2nd millennium have shown that recent temperatures are exceptional : the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 concluded that `` Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely '' the highest in at least the past 1,300 years . '' The curve shown in graphs of these reconstructions is widely known as the hockey stick graph because of the sharp increase in temperatures during the last century . As of 2010 this broad pattern was supported by more than two dozen reconstructions , using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records , with variations in how flat the pre-20th-century `` shaft '' appears . Sparseness of proxy records results in considerable uncertainty for earlier periods . Individual proxy records , such as tree ring widths and densities used in dendroclimatology , are calibrated against the instrumental record for the period of overlap . Networks of such records are used to reconstruct past temperatures for regions : tree ring proxies have been used to reconstruct Northern Hemisphere extratropical temperatures ( within the tropics trees do not form rings ) but are confined to land areas and are scarce in the Southern Hemisphere which is largely ocean . Wider coverage is provided by multiproxy reconstructions , incorporating proxies such as lake sediments , ice cores and corals which are found in different regions , and using statistical methods to relate these sparser proxies to the greater numbers of tree ring records . The `` Composite Plus Scaling '' ( CPS ) method is widely used for large-scale multiproxy reconstructions of hemispheric or global average temperatures ; this is complemented by Climate Field Reconstruction ( CFR ) methods which show how climate patterns have developed over large spatial areas , making the reconstruction useful for investigating natural variability and long-term oscillations as well as for comparisons with patterns produced by climate models . During the 1,900 years before the 20th century , it is likely that the next warmest period was from 950 to 1100 , with peaks at different times in different regions . This has been called the Medieval Warm Period , and some evidence suggests widespread cooler conditions during a period around the 17th century known as the Little Ice Age . In the hockey stick controversy , contrarians have asserted that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than at present , and have disputed the data and methods of climate reconstructions .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Temperature_record_of_the_past_1000_years", "rank": 67, "score": 91131 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of New York Content: The climate of New York state is generally humid continental , while the extreme southeastern portion of the state ( New York City area ) lies in the warm temperate climate zone . Winter temperatures average below freezing during January and February in much of New York state , but several degrees above freezing along the Atlantic coastline , including New York City . Seasonally , summer-like conditions prevail from June to early September statewide , while areas in far southern New York and New York City have summer conditions from late May through late September . Cold air damming east of the Appalachians leads to protracted periods of cloud cover and precipitation east of the range , primarily between the October and April months . Winter-like conditions prevail from November through April in northern New York , and from December through March in southern New York . On average , western New York is much cloudier than points south and east in New York , much of it generated from the Great Lakes . Greenhouse gas emission is low on a per capita basis when compared to most other states due to the extensive use of mass transit , particularly across New York City . The significant urbanization within New York city has led to an urban heat island , which causes temperatures to be warmer overnight in all seasons . Annual precipitation is fairly even throughout the year across New York state . The Great Lakes region of New York sees the highest annual rain and snow amounts in New York state , and heavy lake effect snow is common in western New York in winter . In the hotter months , large , long-lived complexes of thunderstorms can invade the state from Canada and the Great Lakes , while tropical cyclones can bring rains and winds from the southwest during the summer and fall . Hurricane impacts on the state occur once every 18 -- 19 years , with major hurricane impacts every 70 -- 74 years . An average of ten tornadoes touch down in New York annually .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Climate_of_New_York", "rank": 68, "score": 91098 }, { "content": "Title: Choitro Content: Choitro is the last month of the Bengali calendar . It falls from mid-March to mid-April and is the last month of Spring ( বসন্ত Bôsôntô ) . The name of the month is derived from the star Chitra ( চিত্রা Chitra ) .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Choitro", "rank": 69, "score": 90942 }, { "content": "Title: Kumud Content: Kumud is a tribal area in Fujairah , United Arab Emirates . Kumud is almost totally mountainous . The weather is seasonal , although it is warm most of the year . The months from October to March are generally regarded as the coolest , with daytime temperatures averaging around 25 C and rarely venturing above 30 C . The winter period also coincides with the rainy season . Rainfall is higher than the rest of the UAE because of the effect of the Hajar mountains and the easterly winds bringing with them water-laden clouds off the warm Gulf of Oman in the Indian Ocean . The temperatures climb above 40 C degrees in the summer .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Kumud", "rank": 70, "score": 90272 }, { "content": "Title: Global Historical Climatology Network Content: The Global Historical Climatology Network ( GHCN ) is a database of temperature , precipitation and pressure records managed by the National Climatic Data Center , Arizona State University and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center . The aggregate data are collected from many continuously reporting fixed stations at the Earth 's surface and represent the input of approximately 6000 temperature stations , 7500 precipitation stations and 2000 pressure stations . This work has often been used as a foundation for reconstructing past global temperatures , and was used in previous versions of two of the best-known reconstructions , that prepared by the National Climatic Data Center ( NCDC ) , and that prepared by NASA as its Goddard Institute for Space Studies ( GISS ) temperature set . The average temperature record is 60 years long with ~ 1650 records greater than 100 years and ~ 220 greater than 150 years ( based on GHCN v2 in 2006 ) . The earliest data included in the database were collected in 1697 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Global_Historical_Climatology_Network", "rank": 71, "score": 90111 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 72, "score": 90092 }, { "content": "Title: KIH54 Content: KIH54 ( sometimes referred to as Birmingham All Hazards ) is a NOAA Weather Radio station that serves the Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman Combined Statistical Area and surrounding cities . It is programmed from the National Weather Service forecast office in Calera , Alabama with its transmitter located in the same city , side-mounted on the transmitter tower of Birmingham local television station WTTO . It broadcasts weather and hazard information for the following counties : Bibb , Blount , Chilton , Coosa , Jefferson , Shelby , St. Clair , Tuscaloosa , and Walker . On April 23 , 2014 , it was reported that the transmitter had stopped operating , a cause for concern because central Alabama is predicted to be impacted by severe thunderstorms between approximately April 27 and April 30 , and no NOAA Weather Radios in the broadcast area of KIH54 will sound for watches and warnings issued by the National Weather Service until the transmitter is repaired . On April 24 , it was announced that a temporary , but much weaker , transmitter had been activated on the site of the main , inoperative transmitter . It is currently operating on the broadcast signal of KIH54 , using the same call sign . The main transmitter has since been repaired and is fully operational .", "qid": "435", "docid": "KIH54", "rank": 73, "score": 90047 }, { "content": "Title: 2012–13 South Pacific cyclone season Content: The 2012 -- 13 South Pacific cyclone season was a below average tropical cyclone season , with six tropical cyclones occurring within the basin between 160 ° E and 120 ° W . The season officially ran from November 1 , 2012 to April 30 , 2013 , however the last tropical disturbance was last noted on May 1 , as it moved into the subtropics . During the season , tropical cyclones were officially monitored by the Fiji Meteorological Service ( FMS ) , Australian Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) and New Zealand 's MetService . The United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) and other national meteorological services including Météo-France and NOAA also monitored the basin during the season . During the season there were 22 significant tropical disturbances assigned a number and a F suffix by the FMS 's Regional Specialized Meteorological Center in Nadi , Fiji ( RSMC Nadi ) , including Severe Tropical Cyclone Sandra which moved into the basin from the Australian region on March 9 . The BoM , MetService and RSMC Nadi all estimated sustained wind speeds over a period of 10-minutes and used the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale , while the JTWC estimated sustained winds over a 1-minute period , which are subsequently compared to the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale ( SSHS ) . __ TOC __", "qid": "435", "docid": "2012–13_South_Pacific_cyclone_season", "rank": 74, "score": 89973 }, { "content": "Title: Gashua Content: Gashua is a community in Yobe State in northeastern Nigeria , on the Yobe River a few miles below the convergence of the Hadejia River and the Jama'are River . Average elevation is about 299 m . The population in 2006 was about 125,000 . The hottest months are March and April with temperature ranges of 38-40o Celsius . In the rainy season , June-September , temperatures fall to 23-28o Celsius , with rainfall of 500 to 1000mm .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Gashua", "rank": 75, "score": 89968 }, { "content": "Title: Haar (fog) Content: In meteorology , haar or sea fret is a cold sea fog . It usually occurs on the east coast of England or Scotland between April and September , when warm air passes over the cold North Sea .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Haar_(fog)", "rank": 76, "score": 89704 }, { "content": "Title: February 2015 North American cold wave Content: The February 2015 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that affected most of Canada and the eastern half of the United States . Following an earlier cold wave in the winter , the period of below-average temperatures contributed to an already unusually cold winter for the Eastern U.S. Several places broke their records for their coldest February on record , while some areas came very close . The cause of the cold wave was due to the polar vortex advancing southwards into the eastern parts of the U.S , and even making it as far south as the Southeast , where snow is rare . By the beginning of March , although the pattern did continue for the first week , it abated and retreated near the official end of the winter . In addition to the extremely cold weather , multiple winter storms affected nearly the entire United States , especially in the snow-weary Northeast , which had already seen nearly 3 ft of snow in the latter part of January ; this was added to by roughly 3 -- 4 ft ( 36 -- 48 in ) more snow , leading to Boston having its highest seasonal snowfall on record .", "qid": "435", "docid": "February_2015_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 77, "score": 89453 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Fantala Content: Very Intense Tropical Cyclone Fantala was the most intense tropical cyclone of the south-west Indian Ocean in terms of sustained winds . Part of the 2015 -- 16 cyclone season , Fantala formed on 11 April to the south of Diego Garcia , an island in the central Indian Ocean . With a ridge to the south , the storm moved westward for several days while gaining strength , aided by warm waters and decreasing wind shear . Late on 17 April , the Météo-France office on Réunion ( MFR ) estimated peak 10-minute winds of 250 km/h ( 155 mph ) , making Fantala the strongest tropical cyclone of the basin in terms of 10-minute sustained winds . The Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) estimated peak 1-minute winds of 280 km/h ( 175 mph ) , equivalent to Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale and tied only with Agnielle from November 1995 as the strongest on record in the south-west Indian Ocean . While near peak intensity , Fantala passed near the Farquhar Group of the Seychelles , damaging most of the buildings in the small archipelago . By 18 April , Fantala had weakened to an intense tropical cyclone and slowed its forward motion , eventually reversing its direction of movement . After fluctuating in strength , the disorganized system reversed direction again , making its closest approach to Madagascar . Fantala degenerated into a remnant low on 24 April , and the remnants continued toward Tanzania . There , heavy rainfall resulted in flooding that washed away roads and houses , killing 13 people . Rains extended further into Kenya , with similar effects .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Cyclone_Fantala", "rank": 78, "score": 89376 }, { "content": "Title: April (disambiguation) Content: April is a calendar month . April may also refer to : April ( given name )", "qid": "435", "docid": "April_(disambiguation)", "rank": 79, "score": 89237 }, { "content": "Title: March Content: March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars . It is the second month to have a length of 31 days . In the Northern Hemisphere , the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March . The March equinox on the 20th or 21st marks the astronomical beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere , where September is the seasonal equivalent of the Northern Hemisphere 's March .", "qid": "435", "docid": "March", "rank": 80, "score": 88976 }, { "content": "Title: Siberian High Content: The Siberian High ( also Siberian Anticyclone ) is a massive collection of cold dry air that accumulates in the northeastern part of Eurasia from September until April . It is usually centered on Lake Baikal . It reaches its greatest size and strength in the winter when the air temperature near the center of the high-pressure cell is often lower than -40 ° C . The atmospheric pressure is often above 1040 mbar . The Siberian High is the strongest semi-permanent high in the northern hemisphere and is responsible for both the lowest temperature in the Northern Hemisphere , of -67.8 ° C on 15 January 1885 at Verkhoyansk , and the highest pressure , 1083.8 mbar ( 108.38 kPa , 32.01 inHg ) at Agata , Krasnoyarsk Krai on 31 December 1968 , ever recorded . The Siberian High is responsible both for severe winter cold and attendant dry conditions with little snow and few or no glaciers across Siberia , Mongolia , and China . During the summer , the Siberian High is largely replaced by the Asiatic low .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Siberian_High", "rank": 81, "score": 88870 }, { "content": "Title: 2012–13 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2012 -- 13 Australian bushfire season had above average fire potential for most of the southern half of the continent from the east coast to the west . This is despite having extensive fire in parts of the country over the last 12 months . The reason for this prediction is the abundant grass growth spurred by two La Niña events over the last two years . Most parts of the country experienced a heat wave at the start of 2013 , with a new national average maximum being set on 7 January 2013 . The new record of 40.33 C beat the old record of 40.17 C that had been set on 21 December 1972 . Another record also beaten in 2013 was Australia 's mean temperature climbing from 31.86 C set on 21 December 1972 to 32.23 C on 7 January 2013 . Additionally , six of the 20 hottest days in Australian records ( by average maximum ) have been in January 2013 . Australia also experienced its hottest summer on average following a particularly hot spell in January . Using average day and night temperatures the average was found to be 28.6 C beating the previous record set in the summer of 1997 -- 1988 . Fourteen of the weather bureau 's 112 long term weather stations recorded their hottest days on record including one in Sydney that recorded a daytime record of 46 C . The daytime maximum temperatures for 2012 -- 13 also beat the 1982 -- 83 record and January was the hottest month since records began in 1910 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2012–13_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 82, "score": 88755 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 83, "score": 88414 }, { "content": "Title: 1879 English cricket season Content: The 1879 English cricket season saw Lancashire claim a share of the title for the first time . The summer was the coolest and wettest over the two-and-a-half centuries of climatic records in England , and during the early part of the twentieth century exceptionally wet seasons such as 1903 , 1912 , 1924 and 1927 were very frequently compared to 1879 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "1879_English_cricket_season", "rank": 84, "score": 88278 }, { "content": "Title: List of United States tornadoes in April 2017 Content: This page documents all tornadoes confirmed by various weather forecast offices of the National Weather Service in the United States during April 2017 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "List_of_United_States_tornadoes_in_April_2017", "rank": 85, "score": 88134 }, { "content": "Title: List of off-season Australian region tropical cyclones Content: An off-season Australian tropical cyclone is a tropical cyclone that existed in the Australian Region , between 90 ° E and 160 ° E , outside of the official season . The World Meteorological Organization currently defines the season as occurring between 1 November and 30 April , of the following year , which is when the majority of all tropical cyclones exist . During the off-season , systems are more likely to either develop during or persist until May , with approximately 52 % of such storms occurring during that month . Occasionally , however , storms develop in October , with approximately 34 % of such storms occurring during that month . As of 2017 , there have been 88 tropical cyclones known to have occurred off-season . Off-season cyclones are most likely to occur in the Coral Sea , with most affecting land in some way . Cumulatively , at least 4 deaths occurred due to the storms , The most recent off-season storm was Tropical Cyclone Greg in May 2017 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "List_of_off-season_Australian_region_tropical_cyclones", "rank": 86, "score": 88046 }, { "content": "Title: April 2007 nor'easter Content: The April or Spring Nor ' easter of 2007 was a nor'easter that affected mainly the eastern parts of North America during its four-day course , from April 14 to April 17 , 2007 . The combined effects of high winds , heavy rainfall , and high tides led to flooding , storm damages , power outages , and evacuations , and disrupted traffic and commerce . In the north , heavy wet snow caused the loss of power for several thousands of homes in Ontario and Quebec . The storm caused at least 18 fatalities .", "qid": "435", "docid": "April_2007_nor'easter", "rank": 87, "score": 88002 }, { "content": "Title: San Mateo Ixtatán Content: San Mateo Ixtatán is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango . It is situated at 2540 m above sea level in the Cuchumatanes mountain range and covers 560 km2 of terrain . It has a cold climate and is located in a cloud forest . The temperature fluctuates between 0.5 and . The coldest months are from November to January and the warmest months are April and May . The town has a population of about 10,000 , and is the municipal center for an additional 20,000 people living in the surrounding mountain villages . It has a weekly market on Thursday and Sunday . The annual town festival takes place from September 19 to September 21 honoring their patron Saint Matthew . The residents of San Mateo belong to the Chuj Maya ethnic group and speak the Mayan Chuj language , not to be confused with Chuj baths , or wood fired steam rooms that are common throughout the central and western highlands .", "qid": "435", "docid": "San_Mateo_Ixtatán", "rank": 88, "score": 87716 }, { "content": "Title: 1997 April Fool's Day blizzard Content: The 1997 April Fool 's Day blizzard was a major winter storm in the Northeastern United States on March 31 and April 1 , 1997 . The storm dumped rain , sleet , and snow from Maryland to Maine leaving hundreds of thousands without power and as much as three feet of snow on the ground . Due to the date many people took warnings of the storm less than seriously . Plows had already begun to be put away for the summer and hardware stores had to sell shovels again even though they already had out patio furniture . One commuter called it `` Mother Nature 's April Fools ' Joke . ''", "qid": "435", "docid": "1997_April_Fool's_Day_blizzard", "rank": 89, "score": 87670 }, { "content": "Title: The Old Cows Days/The Days of the Brindled Cow Content: In the Irish Calendar The Old Cows Days/The Days of the Brindled Cow are the last days of March and the first three days of April ; in . The term comes from a folk tale , illustrating the unpredictability of the weather at this time of year in Ireland . The tale relates how the bó riabhach , `` the brindled cow '' , complained at the beginning of April to her companions in the herd of the terrible harshness of the previous month of March . As the grumbling of the cow continued , the at first uninterested March began to take umbrage and decided to teach the speckled cow a lesson she would never forget . So March `` borrowed '' the first three days of April but made them so bitterly cold and miserable that before they were ended the unlucky bó riabhach had died . These `` days of the brindled cow '' are still with us , or so the story goes , to remind us that we complain about the harshness of the weather at our peril . The same story can be found in different versions all over Ireland and Europe in General . Category : Irish fairy tales", "qid": "435", "docid": "The_Old_Cows_Days/The_Days_of_the_Brindled_Cow", "rank": 90, "score": 87647 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Gwenda Content: Severe Tropical Cyclone Gwenda was tied with Cyclone Inigo for the most intense Australian tropical cyclone on record , with a barometric pressure of 900 hPa ( mbar ) and was the most intense storm worldwide in 1999 . Forming out of a tropical disturbance over the Arafura Sea on 2 April 1999 , the precursor to Gwenda tracked slowly westward and gradually became more organised . On 4 April , the system developed into a Category 1 cyclone and was named Gwenda . It began to undergo explosive intensification the following day , and in a 30-hour span ending early on 7 April , the storm 's maximum 10-minute sustained wind speed increased from 75 km/h ( 45 mph ) to 225 km/h ( 140 mph ) and its barometric pressure decreased to 900 hPa ( mbar ) . The Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported that the storm had peaked as a high-end Category 4 equivalent on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane scale . Increasing wind shear and an acceleration in forward speed caused Gwenda to quickly weaken . Less than 18 hours after peaking , the storm made landfall roughly 45 km east of Port Hedland , Western Australia with winds of 100 km/h ( 65 mph ) . After moving ashore , Gwenda abruptly stalled before dissipating on 8 April . Although it was once an extremely intense cyclone , the factors that caused its deterioration also prevented significant damage . Rainfall from the storm peaked at 205 mm . Minor structural damage was reported , and only localised flooding was recorded . Following its usage , the name Gwenda was retired at the end of the season .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Cyclone_Gwenda", "rank": 91, "score": 87507 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2014 North American cold wave Content: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013 -- 2014 winter season , and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States . The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex . Record-low temperatures also extended well into March . On January 2 , an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States , resulting in heavy snowfall . Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels , and low temperature records were broken across the United States . Business , school , and road closures were common , as well as mass flight cancellations . Altogether , more than 200 million people were affected , in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Early_2014_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 92, "score": 87328 }, { "content": "Title: Tornado outbreak and floods of April 28 – May 1, 2017 Content: The tornado outbreak and floods of April 28 -- May 1 , 2017 were a series of severe weather events that affected the central United States , producing life-threatening flooding and a major tornado outbreak . It formed out of a disturbance in the Southwestern United States on April 28 , and caused significant impacts , including a heavy snowstorm in the Rockies , and other types of severe weather . Up to 3 ft of snow fell on the cold side of the system , and up to a foot of rain fell in and around the central parts of the nation . The most significant and damaging events of the storm unfolded late on April 29 , when two large , long-tracked , and powerful wedge tornadoes struck areas near Canton , Texas , the strongest being an EF4 . Together , the two tornadoes caused four deaths and many injuries .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Tornado_outbreak_and_floods_of_April_28_–_May_1,_2017", "rank": 93, "score": 87307 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "435", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 94, "score": 87264 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 North India cold wave Content: North India was devastated by a cold wave during the month of January 2017 . This occurrence had a severe effect on several North Indian states , including Himachal Pradesh , Jammu and Kashmir , Punjab , Harayana , Rajasthan , and Uttar Pradesh . The lowest temperature in Gulmarg due to the cold wave was recorded at -12.4 C . The banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar froze . Keylong of Himachal Pradesh and Kargil of Jammu and Kashmir witnessed low temperatures of -13.9 C and -15.6 C respectively . At least 40 people have died as a result of the cold front . Several army camps in Kashmir bound sectors were damaged and many people died in avalanches in Kashmir districts near the Line of Control during the last few days of January 2017 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "2017_North_India_cold_wave", "rank": 95, "score": 87262 }, { "content": "Title: NOAA-6 Content: NOAA-6 , designated NOAA-A before launch , was a weather satellite operated by NOAA as part of its National Operational Environmental Satellite System . It was launched into a Sun-synchronous orbit by NASA aboard an Atlas F launch vehicle on 27 June 1979 from Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-3W . Based on the experimental TIROS-N satellite , it performed monitoring of ice and snow cover , agriculture , oceanography , volcanism , ozone and the space environment , in addition to its regular meteorological observations . Its instruments included the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer ( AVHRR/1 ) for global cloud cover observations , the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder ( TOVS ) suite for atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiling , the Space Environment Monitor ( SEM ) for measuring proton and electron fluxes , and the Data Collection and Platform Location System ( DCPLS ) for relaying data from balloons and ocean buoys . The TOVS suite consists of three subsystems : the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder 2 ( HIRS/2 ) , the Stratospheric Sounding Unit ( SSU ) , and the Microwave Sounding Unit ( MSU ) . The HIRS/2 instrument failed on 19 September 1983 , and the spacecraft was placed in reserve in early 1984 as NOAA prioritized operations of NOAA-7 and NOAA-8 . It was returned to operational status after NOAA-8 failed in June 1984 , and continued to return data until its decommissioning on 31 March 1987 .", "qid": "435", "docid": "NOAA-6", "rank": 96, "score": 87234 }, { "content": "Title: Great Blue Norther of November 11, 1911 Content: The Great Blue Norther of November 11 , 1911 was a cold snap that affected the central United States on Saturday , November 11 , 1911 . Many cities broke record highs , going into the 70s and 80s early that afternoon . By nightfall , cities were dealing with temperatures in the teens and single-digits on the Fahrenheit scale . This is the only day in many midwest cities ' weather bureau jurisdictions where the record highs and lows were broken for the same day . Some cities experienced tornadoes on Saturday and a blizzard on Sunday . A blizzard even occurred within one hour after an F4 tornado hit Rock County , Wisconsin . The main cause of such a dramatic cold snap was an extremely strong storm system separating warm , humid air from frigid , arctic air . Dramatic cold snaps tend to occur mostly in the month of November , though they can also come in February or March . These arrivals of Continental Polar or Arctic air masses are generally called northers , and the one in question was marked by a mass of steel blue clouds in the vicinity of the surface front , hence the name . Although temperature drops of this extent have happened on other occasions , as recently as February 2009 , the fact that the 1911 cold front passage was during the autumn and came after such warm weather contributed to the properties mentioned in this article .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Great_Blue_Norther_of_November_11,_1911", "rank": 97, "score": 87183 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2010–11 in Great Britain and Ireland Content: The winter of 2010 -- 2011 was a weather event that brought heavy snowfalls , record low temperatures , travel chaos and school disruption to the islands of Britain and Ireland . It included the UK 's coldest December since Met Office records began in 1910 , with a mean temperature of -1 ° C , breaking the previous record of 0.1 ° C in December 1981 . Also it was the second-coldest December in the narrower Central England Temperature ( CET ) record series which began in 1659 , falling 0.1 ° C short of the all-time record set in 1890 . The winter of 2010 in England saw the earliest widespread winter snowfall since 1993 with snow falling as early as 24 November across Northumberland and North Yorkshire . A maximum snow depth of 30 in was recorded on 1 December in the Peak District , Sheffield , the Cotswold Hills and the Forest of Dean . In this event Scotland and Northern England were most severely affected . On 9 December temperatures recovered across much of the UK , causing a partial thaw . Later , on Thursday 16 December a cold front reintroduced a cold , arctic airstream . This cold spell brought further snow and ice chaos back to the British Isles with Southern England , Wales , the Republic of Ireland ( excluding the westerly coastal regions ) and Northern Ireland bearing the brunt of the wintry conditions . This led to severe disruption to the road and rail network with several airports being closed including London Heathrow Airport for a time . Several local temperature records were broken including a new record low for Northern Ireland of -18.7 ° C recorded at Castlederg on 23 December 2010 . By the new year a thaw had begun , and there was no recurrence of the extreme conditions for the remainder of the winter . There was some snowfall in early January , and there was an anticyclonic spell at the end of the month that brought some cold , frosty days . February was above average in temperature and ended on a mild note , although the snow returned in much of Scotland during March .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Winter_of_2010–11_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland", "rank": 98, "score": 87127 }, { "content": "Title: Lyrids Content: The April Lyrids ( LYR , IAU shower number 6 ) are a meteor shower lasting from April 16 to April 26 each year . The radiant of the meteor shower is located in the constellation Lyra , near this constellation 's brightest star , Alpha Lyrae ( proper name Vega ) . Their peak is typically around April 22 each year . The source of the meteor shower is particles of dust shed by the long-period Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher . The April Lyrids are the strongest annual shower of meteors from debris of a long-period comet , mainly because as far as other intermediate long-period comets go ( 200 -- 10,000 years ) , this one has a relatively short orbital period of about 415 years . The Lyrids have been observed for the past 2,600 years . The shower usually peaks on around April 22 and the morning of April 23 . Counts typically range from 5 to 20 meteors per hour , averaging around 10 . As a result of light pollution , observers in rural areas will see more than observers in a city . Nights without a moon in the sky will reveal the most meteors . April Lyrid meteors are usually around magnitude +2 . However , some meteors can be brighter , known as `` Lyrid fireballs '' , cast shadows for a split second and leave behind smokey debris trails that last minutes . Occasionally , the shower intensifies when the planets steer the one-revolution dust trail of the comet into Earth 's path , an event that happens about once every 60 years . This results in an April Lyrid meteor outburst . The one-revolution dust trail is dust that has completed one orbit : the stream of dust released in the return of the comet prior to the current 1862 return.This mechanism replaces earlier ideas that the outbursts were due to a cloud of dust moving in a 60-year orbit . In 1982 , amateur astronomers counted 90 April Lyrids per hour at the peak and similar rates were seen in 1922 . A stronger storm of up to 700 per hour occurred in 1803 , observed by a journalist in Richmond , Virginia : Shooting stars . This electrical -LSB- sic -RSB- phenomenon was observed on Wednesday morning last at Richmond and its vicinity , in a manner that alarmed many , and astonished every person that beheld it . From one until three in the morning , those starry meteors seemed to fall from every point in the heavens , in such numbers as to resemble a shower of sky rockets ... Another such outburst , and the oldest known , the shower on March 23.7 , 687 BC ( proleptic Julian calendar ) was recorded in Zuo Zhuan , which describes the shower as `` On the 4th month in the summer in the year of xīn-mǎo ( of year 7 of King Zhuang of Lu ) , at night , ( the sky is so bright that some ) fixed stars become invisible ( because of the meteor shower ) ; at midnight , stars fell like rain . '' In the Australian Aboriginal astronomy of the Boorong tribe , the Lyrids represent the scratchings of the Mallee fowl ( represented by Vega ) , coinciding with its nest-building season .", "qid": "435", "docid": "Lyrids", "rank": 99, "score": 87122 }, { "content": "Title: 2013–14 South Pacific cyclone season Content: The 2013 -- 14 South Pacific cyclone season was a slightly below average tropical cyclone season , with six tropical cyclones occurring within the basin between 160 ° E and 120 ° W . The season ran from November 1 , 2013 to April 30 , 2014 , however , the first four tropical disturbances occurred during October 2013 and were included as a part of the season . During the season , tropical cyclones were officially monitored by the Fiji Meteorological Service ( FMS ) , Australian Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) and New Zealand 's MetService . The United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) and other national meteorological services including Météo-France and NOAA also monitored the basin during the season . During the season there were 21 significant tropical disturbances were assigned a number and an `` F '' suffix by the FMS 's Regional Specialized Meteorological Center in Nadi , Fiji ( RSMC Nadi ) , including the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Hadi from the Australian region . The BoM , MetService and RSMC Nadi all estimated sustained wind speeds over a period of 10-minutes and used the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale , while the JTWC estimated sustained winds over a 1-minute period , which are subsequently compared to the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane wind scale ( SSHS ) . __ TOC __", "qid": "435", "docid": "2013–14_South_Pacific_cyclone_season", "rank": 100, "score": 87069 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Hong Kong, North Africa and the European continent as a whole, along with parts of Canada, Russia, Indochina, South Korea and Japan during May, June, July, and August 2010. The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event, which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010. The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010, and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected. But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected, in the Northern Hemisphere. The second phase (the main, and most devastating phase) was caused by a very strong La Niña event, which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011. According to meteorologists, the 2010–11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed. That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia. The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010, caused severe heat waves, and multiple record-breaking temperatures. The heatwaves began on April 2010, when strong anticyclones began to develop, over most of the affected regions, in the Northern Hemisphere. The heatwaves ended in October 2010, when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated. The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June, over the Eastern United States, Middle East, Eastern Europe and European Russia, and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia. June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally, at 0.66 °C (1.22 °F) above average, while the period April–June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere, at 1.25 °C (2.25 °F) above average. The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 °C (1.19 °F), and the previous warm record for April–June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 °C (2.09 °F), set in 2007. The strongest of the anticyclones, the one situated over Siberia, registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars. The weather caused forest fires in China, where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali, as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17. A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January. In August, a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland, the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off, the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years. By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010, about $500 billion (2011 USD) of damage was done, in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves, droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century, include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 4th Assessment Report. Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels.", "qid": "436", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_heat_waves", "rank": 1, "score": 162893 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 2, "score": 162262 }, { "content": "Title: 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves Content: The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves included severe heat waves that impacted most of the United States , Kazakhstan , Mongolia , China , Hong Kong , North Africa and the European continent as a whole , along with parts of Canada , Russia , Indochina , South Korea and Japan during May , June , July , and August 2010 . The first phase of the global heatwaves was caused by a moderate El Niño event , which lasted from June 2009 to May 2010 . The first phase lasted only from April 2010 to June 2010 , and caused only moderate above average temperatures in the areas affected . But it also set new record high temperatures for most of the area affected , in the Northern Hemisphere . The second phase ( the main , and most devastating phase ) was caused by a very strong La Niña event , which lasted from June 2010 to June 2011 . According to meteorologists , the 2010 -- 11 La Niña event was one of the strongest La Niña events ever observed . That same La Niña event also had devastating effects in the Eastern states of Australia . The second phase lasted from June 2010 to October 2010 , caused severe heat waves , and multiple record-breaking temperatures . The heatwaves began on April 2010 , when strong anticyclones began to develop , over most of the affected regions , in the Northern Hemisphere . The heatwaves ended in October 2010 , when the powerful anticyclones over most of the affected areas dissipated . The heat wave during the summer of 2010 was at its worst in June , over the Eastern United States , Middle East , Eastern Europe and European Russia , and over Northeastern China and southeastern Russia . June 2010 marked the fourth consecutive warmest month on record globally , at 0.66 ° C ( 1.22 ° F ) above average , while the period April -- June was the warmest ever recorded for land areas in the Northern Hemisphere , at 1.25 ° C ( 2.25 ° F ) above average . The previous record for the global average temperature in June was set in 2005 at 0.66 ° C ( 1.19 ° F ) , and the previous warm record for April -- June over Northern Hemisphere land areas was 1.16 ° C ( 2.09 ° F ) , set in 2007 . Sometime during June 2010 , the highest recorded temperature caused by the heatwave was 53.5 ° C , in Southeastern Russia , just north of Kazakhstan . The strongest of the anticyclones , the one situated over Siberia , registered a maximum high pressure of 1040 millibars . The weather caused forest fires in China , where three in a team of 300 died fighting a fire that broke out in the Binchuan County of Dali , as Yunnan suffered the worst drought in 60 years by February 17 . A major drought was reported across the Sahel as early as January . In August , a section of the Petermann Glacier tongue connecting northern Greenland , the Nares Strait and the Arctic Ocean broke off , the biggest ice shelf in the Arctic to detach in 48 years . By the time the heatwaves had ended in late October 2010 , about $ 500 billion ( 2011 USD ) of damage was done , in the Northern Hemisphere alone . The World Meteorological Organization stated that the heat waves , droughts and flooding events fit with predictions based on global warming for the 21st century , include those based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's 2007 4th Assessment Report . Some climatologists argue that these weather events would not have happened if the atmospheric carbon dioxide was at pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2010_Northern_Hemisphere_summer_heat_waves", "rank": 3, "score": 161558 }, { "content": "Title: 2003 European heat wave Content: The 2003 European heat wave led to the hottest summer on record in Europe since at least 1540 . France was hit especially hard . The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe . Peer-reviewed analysis places the European death toll at more than 70,000 . The predominant heat was recorded in July and August , partly a result of the western European seasonal lag from the maritime influence of the Atlantic warm waters in combination with hot continental air and strong southerly winds .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2003_European_heat_wave", "rank": 4, "score": 140867 }, { "content": "Title: Spring 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The Spring of 2011 in the United Kingdom was exceptional for the warm weather which occurred during April and the dry weather which was persistent during March and April in certain parts of the UK . April was statistically the warmest and driest in the country since records began in 1910 . There was a contrast between north-western parts of the UK which received substantial amounts of rainfall and south-eastern parts which received very little . As lack of rainfall continued in many parts during May , concerns arose that the country could submit to drought . High pressure was the cause for the warm , dry weather experienced during April . A high temperature of 27.8 ° C was recorded on 23 April at Wisley , Surrey , the highest temperature recorded in April in the UK since 1949 . Thus , the Central England Temperature for the month was 3.7 ° C above the 1971-2000 average , and daily maximum temperatures were up to 6 ° C higher than average .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Spring_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 5, "score": 140715 }, { "content": "Title: January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The January 2014 southeastern Australia heat wave was a significant heat wave event which affected most of southeastern Australia from 13 to 18 January 2014 . The main areas affected were Victoria , Tasmania , southern New South Wales away from the coast and the southern half of South Australia . The event ranked along with the 2009 heat wave , 1939 heat wave and 1908 heat wave as one of the most significant multi-day heatwaves on record . The heat wave broke a number of records for extended periods of heat . A spike in heat waves and record breaking high temperatures across Australia over the past five years has led to concerns over the effects of global warming and climate change on the country . Adelaide , South Australia suffered the brunt of the summer heat wave , recording 13 days with temperatures above 40 ° C.", "qid": "436", "docid": "January_2014_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 6, "score": 137093 }, { "content": "Title: 2010–12 La Niña event Content: The 2010 -- 12 La Niña event was one of the strongest on record . It caused Australia to experience its wettest September on record in 2010 , and its second-wettest year on record in 2010 . It also led to an unusual intensification of the Leeuwin Current , the 2010 Pakistan floods , the 2010 -- 11 Queensland floods , and the 2011 East Africa drought . It also helped keep the average global temperature below recent trends , leading to 2011 tying with 1997 for the 14th-warmest year on record .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2010–12_La_Niña_event", "rank": 7, "score": 136619 }, { "content": "Title: Angry Summer Content: The Australian summer of 2012 -- 2013 , known as the Angry Summer or Extreme Summer , resulted in 123 weather records being broken over a 90-day period , including the hottest day ever recorded for Australia as a whole , the hottest January on record , the hottest summer average on record , and a record seven days in a row when the whole continent averaged above 39 ° C. Single-day temperature records were broken in dozens of towns and cities , as well as single-day rainfall records , and several rivers flooded to new record highs . In January 2013 , the Bureau of Meteorology altered its weather forecasting chart 's temperature scale to include a range , coloured purple , between 52 ° and 54 ° C . The reporting of the heatwave in the Australian media attracted controversy in the scientific community , as very few articles cited a correlation between the event and climate change , which it was correlated with according to studies conducted by the University of Melbourne .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Angry_Summer", "rank": 8, "score": 133164 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave was a heat wave that commenced in late January and led to record-breaking prolonged high temperatures in the region . The heat wave is considered one of the , if not the , most extreme in the region 's history . During the heat wave , fifty separate locations set various records for consecutive , highest daytime and overnight temperatures . The highest temperature recorded during the heat wave was 48.8 ° C in Hopetoun , Victoria , a record for the state . Many locations through the region recorded all-time high temperatures including capital cities Adelaide , which reached its third-highest temperature , 45.7 ° C , and Melbourne , which recorded its highest-ever temperature on record , 46.4 ° C. Both cities broke records for the most consecutive days over 40 ° C , while Mildura , Victoria recorded an all-time record twelve consecutive days over 43 ° C. The exceptional heat wave was caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that settled over the Tasman Sea , with a combination of an intense tropical low located off the North West Australian coast and a monsoon trough over Northern Australia , which produced ideal conditions for hot tropical air to be directed down over southeastern Australia . The heat began in South Australia on 25 January but became more widespread over southeast Australia by 27 January . A weak cool change moved over the southern coastal areas bringing some relief on 30 January , including Melbourne , where the change arrived that evening , dropping temperatures to an average of 30.8 ° C. Higher temperatures returned on the following weekend with Melbourne recording its hottest day since records began in 1855 , 46.4 ° C , also the highest temperature ever recorded in an Australian capital city . The heat wave generated extreme fire conditions during the peak of the 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season , causing many bushfires in the affected region , contributing to the extreme bushfire conditions on 7 February , also known as the Black Saturday bushfires , which claimed 173 lives in Victoria . Ten months after this heat wave , a second struck the same region in November 2009 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Early_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 9, "score": 131935 }, { "content": "Title: 2008–09 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2008 -- 09 Australian bushfire season was the Australian bushfire season that ran from late December 2008 to April/May 2009 . Above average rainfalls in December , particularly in Victoria , delayed the start of the season , but by January 2009 , conditions throughout South eastern Australia worsened with the onset of one of the region 's worst heat waves . On 7 February , extreme bushfire conditions precipitated major bushfires throughout Victoria , involving several large fire complexes , which continued to burn across the state for around one month . 173 people lost their lives in these fires and 414 were injured . 3,500 + buildings were destroyed , including 2,029 houses , and 7,562 people displaced . Late 2008 had relatively few bushfires . Victoria in particular experienced higher than average rainfall in December , decreasing the fire danger in many regions of the state . Initial observations in October 2008 predicted an above average fire potential across Australia 's coastal regions and a below average potential in Central Australia , where drought has reduced the available fuel . In late January and early February , the effects of the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave increased temperatures across south-eastern Australia , particularly in Victoria and South Australia , where several locations broke all time temperature records . Various days of high wind speed , combined with the hot dry conditions , created extreme bushfire conditions between 25 January and 7 February 2009 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2008–09_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 10, "score": 131783 }, { "content": "Title: 2012–13 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2012 -- 13 Australian bushfire season had above average fire potential for most of the southern half of the continent from the east coast to the west . This is despite having extensive fire in parts of the country over the last 12 months . The reason for this prediction is the abundant grass growth spurred by two La Niña events over the last two years . Most parts of the country experienced a heat wave at the start of 2013 , with a new national average maximum being set on 7 January 2013 . The new record of 40.33 C beat the old record of 40.17 C that had been set on 21 December 1972 . Another record also beaten in 2013 was Australia 's mean temperature climbing from 31.86 C set on 21 December 1972 to 32.23 C on 7 January 2013 . Additionally , six of the 20 hottest days in Australian records ( by average maximum ) have been in January 2013 . Australia also experienced its hottest summer on average following a particularly hot spell in January . Using average day and night temperatures the average was found to be 28.6 C beating the previous record set in the summer of 1997 -- 1988 . Fourteen of the weather bureau 's 112 long term weather stations recorded their hottest days on record including one in Sydney that recorded a daytime record of 46 C . The daytime maximum temperatures for 2012 -- 13 also beat the 1982 -- 83 record and January was the hottest month since records began in 1910 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2012–13_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 11, "score": 130681 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Adelaide heatwave Content: The 2014 Adelaide heatwave was a heat wave that occurred in Adelaide , South Australia in both January and February 2014 . The heatwaves were so strong that it broke records , becoming the hottest summer ever recorded in Adelaide . Although there were no deaths directly linked to the heatwave as of 2015 , there were at least 136 heat-related hospital admissions recorded .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2014_Adelaide_heatwave", "rank": 12, "score": 130302 }, { "content": "Title: 2017 Pakistan heat wave Content: In April 2017 , a severe heat wave with temperatures as high as 51 ° C ( 124 ° F ) hit Pakistan , especially its southern parts . This heat wave broke the old temperature records of many cities in the country for the month of April . Larkana , a city in the southern province of Sindh , experienced the highest maximum temperature of 51.0 ° C on 20 April , breaking the previous day 's record of 50 ° C.", "qid": "436", "docid": "2017_Pakistan_heat_wave", "rank": 13, "score": 128892 }, { "content": "Title: Late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave Content: The late 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave ( also referred to as the November 2009 heat wave and the South Australian heat wave ) was a heat wave that occurred in the southeastern Australian states of South Australia , Victoria and southern New South Wales . Daily maximum temperatures during the heat wave were roughly 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) above average in many locations . Capital cities Adelaide and Melbourne recorded temperatures over 35 ° C , and some regional towns recorded temperatures above 40 ° C. Above average temperatures in the region began in late October and persisted until mid-November 2009 . Many locations through the region broke temperature records for November . This heat wave was the second experienced in the region within a 10-month period , following the early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave in January and February 2009 , to which 374 deaths were attributed . Although the earlier heat wave was far more intense , the later heat wave was more extensive and long lasting . The heat wave was caused by a combination of factors , including hot , dry winds caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that had settled over the Tasman Sea , an El Niño event occurring in the Pacific Ocean , and gradually rising temperatures across southern Australia , probably as a result of global warming .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Late_2009_southeastern_Australia_heat_wave", "rank": 14, "score": 125500 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 South-Eastern Australian heatwave Content: The 2014 South-Eastern Australian Heatwave was a prolonged period of time in which highly unseasonal weather was recorded across the south and south-eastern corridor of mainland Australia . The heatwave commenced during early May , and was the longest ever recorded in Australia 's modern history , lasting in some places up to 15 days . Sydney , Melbourne and Adelaide were most hard hit , with temperatures in these areas breaking late Autumn records and causing a distinct lack of precipitation , especially in Sydney , Australia 's most populous city . The cause of this phenomenon was a large blocking High pressure system situated over the Tasman sea , which pushed usual Autumn cold fronts far south of the mainland .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2014_South-Eastern_Australian_heatwave", "rank": 15, "score": 124059 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 Indian heat wave Content: In April and May 2016 , India experienced a major heat wave . A national record high temperature of 51.0 ° C ( 123.8 ° F ) was set in the town of Phalodi , in the state of Rajasthan . A total of over 160 people have died and 330 million affected . There are also water shortages . Drought has worsened the heat wave .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2016_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 16, "score": 122605 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European cold wave Content: The 2006 European cold wave was an unusual cold wave which resulted in abnormal winter conditions over much of Europe . Southern Europe saw cold and snow , while places in northern Norway saw abnormally mild conditions . The phenomenon started on 20 January in Russia with temperatures below -40 ° C and extended to Central Europe where parts of Poland , Slovakia and Austria saw temperatures drop below -30 ° C . The cold resulted in the deaths of up to 50 people in Russia and a significant death toll in Eastern Europe including Moldova and Romania . The abnormal conditions gradually abated towards the end of the month .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2006_European_cold_wave", "rank": 17, "score": 121632 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2009–10 in Europe Content: The winter of 2009 -- 2010 in Europe was unusually cold . Globally , unusual weather patterns brought cold , moist air from the north . Weather systems were undergoing cyclogenesis from North American storms moving across the Atlantic Ocean to the west , and saw many parts of Europe experiencing heavy snowfall and record-low temperatures . This led to a number of deaths , widespread transport disruption , power failures and postponed sporting events .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Winter_of_2009–10_in_Europe", "rank": 18, "score": 120000 }, { "content": "Title: 2015 Indian heat wave Content: In May 2015 , India was struck by a severe heat wave . , it has caused the deaths of at least 2,500 people in multiple regions . The heat wave occurred during the Indian dry season , which typically lasts from March to July with peak temperatures in April and May . Although it typically remains hot until late October , Indian monsoons often provide some respite from the heat . The South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and the neighbouring Telangana , where more than 1,735 and 585 people died respectively , were the areas most affected by the heat wave . Other casualties were from the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha . The high demand for electricity to power air conditioning led to power outages in some cities . The 2015 heat wave has had the highest recorded temperatures since 1995 . In May 2016 , a new record was set in Phalodi .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2015_Indian_heat_wave", "rank": 19, "score": 119753 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Swedish heat wave Content: The summer of 2014 in Sweden was unusually warm , especially in the northern parts of the country . The notability of this event was characterised as July being the warmest ever month on record in the north-west . Although temperature records set that summer are somewhat moderate by international standards , Sweden 's northerly latitude and marine influence has to be taken into account , rendering the temperatures recorded more extreme .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2014_Swedish_heat_wave", "rank": 20, "score": 119492 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "436", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 21, "score": 119026 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–15 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2014 -- 15 Australian bushfire season was expected to have the potential for many fires in eastern Australia after lower than expected rainfall was received in many areas . Authorities released warnings in the early spring that the season could be particularly bad . Warmer and drier weather conditions were experienced during winter and extended into 2015 , due to a developing El Niño event . Sydney was on track to record its hottest autumn on record and only had one fifth of the average rainfall in May . Adelaide recorded sixteen consecutive days of 20 C in May 2014 . Queensland sweltered through a heatwave , with record October temperatures being set in many towns through the state . New October records included Toowoomba with 36.4 C , St George with 42.6 C , Amberley with 41.3 C and Roma with 41.6 C. Throughout 2014 and the first 6 months of 2015 , 18 fires were declared `` national disasters '' affecting a total of 68 local government areas across New South Wales , South Australia , Victoria and the Northern Territory .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2014–15_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 22, "score": 118069 }, { "content": "Title: Summer of 1976 (Europe) Content: The summer of 1976 was considered to be one of the hottest summers in Europe ( and especially the United Kingdom ) within recent memory . A large high-pressure area dominated most of Europe for all of the summer months . The pressure system moved into place in late May 1976 and remained until the first traces of rain were recorded on August 27 . Rainfall throughout the July -- August period was down by half the annual average . During this spell of hot weather temperatures exceeded 32 ° C ( 89.6 ° F ) at several weather stations within the United Kingdom every day and the town of Cheltenham had eleven , including seven successive days from the 1st of July - recording 35.9 ° C ( 96.6 ° F ) on the 3rd . For the entire period much of Europe was bathed in continual sunshine with the United Kingdom seeing an average of more than 14 hours of sunshine per day . 1976 was dubbed `` The year of the Ladybird '' in that country due to the rise in the mass numbers of ladybirds brought on by the long hot period . `` The long hot summer of 1976 which eventually ended in September of that year , was the culmination of a 16-week dry spell - the longest recorded over England and Wales since 1727 . `` Quote From Met Office The summer of 1976 is by now a firmly established reference point for discussion in the UK of contemporary hot spells .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Summer_of_1976_(Europe)", "rank": 23, "score": 117122 }, { "content": "Title: 1976 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1976 United Kingdom heat wave led to the hottest summer average temperature in the UK since records began . At the same time , the country suffered a severe drought . It was one of the driest , sunniest and warmest summers ( June/July/August ) in the 20th century , although 1995 is now regarded as the driest . Only a few places registered more than half their average summer rainfall . In the CET record , it was the warmest summer in that series . It was the warmest summer in the Aberdeen area since at least 1864 . It was the driest summer since 1868 in Glasgow .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1976_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 24, "score": 115855 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 25, "score": 115723 }, { "content": "Title: August 2009 Argentine winter heat wave Content: The 2009 Argentine winter heat wave was a period of unusual and exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of the winter on August 2009 in Argentina . Several provinces of the country were most affected . Several records were broken . August 2009 was the warmest month since official measurements began . On 30 August 2009 it was hot enough to be the middle of summer late last week in the heart of Argentina even with the calendar showing more than three weeks remaining in the Southern Hemisphere winter . A shot of tropical heat drawn unusually far southward hiked temperatures 30 C-change above normal in the city of Buenos Aires and across the north-central regions of the country . Even though normal high temperatures for late August are near 16 C , readings topped 30 C degrees at midweek , then topped out above 32 C degrees during the weekend . Temperatures hit 33.8 C on 29 August and finally 34.6 C on 31 August in Buenos Aires , making it the hottest day ever recorded in winter breaking the 1996 winter record of 33.7 C. Elsewhere in Argentina , the mid-northern city of Córdoba reached a dramatic high of 37.8 C degrees on 29 August 2009 . Another northern city , Santa Fe , registered 38.3 C degrees on 30 August , compared to the normal high of around 18 C.", "qid": "436", "docid": "August_2009_Argentine_winter_heat_wave", "rank": 26, "score": 113640 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 North American heat wave Content: In March 2012 , one of the greatest heat waves was observed in many regions of North America . Very warm air pushed northward west of the Great Lakes region , and subsequently spread eastward . The intense poleward air mass movement was propelled by an unusually intense low level southerly jet that stretched from Louisiana to western Wisconsin . Once this warm surge inundated the area , a remarkably prolonged period of record setting temperatures ensued . NOAA 's National Climate Data Center reported that over 7,000 daily record high temperatures were tied or broken from 1 March through 27 March . In some places the temperature exceeded 86 ° F ( 30 ° C ) . For instance , in Grand Rapids , Michigan , the highest temperature recorded was 87 ° F on March 21 ; in Chicago a high of 87 ° F was also recorded on that same day . Records were broken in unusual ways . Chicago , for example , saw temperatures above 80 ° F every day between March 14 -- 18 , breaking records on all five days . Chicago would go on to record eight days at or above 80 ° F during the month , with many suburban areas recording an additional day in the 80s on March 19 ( that day , the city only tied its record high of 78 ° F ) . In context , the National Weather Service 's Chicago branch noted that Chicago typically averages only one day in the 80 's in April . And only once in 140 years of weather observations has April produced as many 80 ° F days as this March . In Traverse City , Michigan one day began with a low temperature ( 67 ° F ) higher than the previous record high for the day . Temperature records across much of southern Canada also were shattered . Some of the most impressive readings came from Nova Scotia on March 22 , when the mercury climbed to 30.0 C at a climate station in Lake Major , making it the highest March temperature recorded in Nova Scotia , and the third highest March temperature recorded in Canada . That same day , the temperature hit 29.2 C at Western Head , Nova Scotia . The heat reached as far east as Cape Breton Island , with the temperature climbing to 24.0 C at Sydney , Nova Scotia on March 22 , a place historically surrounded by ice-jammed waters , frigid winds , and snow in March . The week of March 18 also set record temperatures in Manitoba and much of Ontario as well as into the Maritime Provinces . Non-severe thunderstorms were reported on the evening hours of March 21 , through to the early morning hours March 22 into northern Ontario . In addition , NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data show that the atmospheric pattern was so persistent that much of the Midwest and Northeast , and up into Ontario , had temperature departures over periods of several days to a week or more of magnitudes which would be unusual even for a single day . Averaged over the seven-day period from March 16 to March 22 inclusive , nearly the entire area of the Midwest and Northeast U.S. and most of Ontario and Quebec had temperatures 10 ° C ( 18 ° F ) or more above the 1981-2010 average . Even more dramatically , most of Iowa and Minnesota , all of Wisconsin and Michigan , and most of southeastern Ontario had seven-day mean temperatures more than 15 ° C ( 27 ° F ) above the climatological average for the same period . An 84 ° F high at Madison , WI in early March was 43 ° F above average and followed an overnight low of 60 ° F , 35 degrees above normal the daily high being more than seven standard deviations above the mean . The absolute temperature and departure statistically would be equivalent to a mid-July high at that station in excess of 125 ° F or more ; the highest temperature recorded there was 107 ° at least once during the heat waves of the middle 1930s . This mild warm spell brought out spring peepers in northern Ontario on 23 March , which are usually not heard until mid-to-late April , or sometimes early May . The warm weather was also responsible for several early-season tornado touchdowns , such as the EF3 that struck Dexter , Michigan , near Ann Arbor .", "qid": "436", "docid": "March_2012_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 27, "score": 112914 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Adelaide Content: Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa ) , with mild to cool winters with moderate rainfall and warm to hot , dry summers . Adelaide is the driest of the Australian capital cities and the past two decades have been far warmer than usual , with the past 8 years seeing an excess of 40 + degrees every summer . Alarmingly , the city has also recorded almost 10 consecutive years of below-average Spring rainfall , with 2014 on track to continuing this trend . A spike in heat waves , droughts and record-breaking high temperatures over the past decade has led to some concerns over the effects of global warming and Man-made climate change ( AGW ) on the city . Nine of the ten warmest years recorded in Adelaide have occurred since 2002 , with 2013 being the hottest year and summer 2015 -- 2016 being the fourth-hottest summer recorded .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_of_Adelaide", "rank": 28, "score": 112589 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave was a period of unseasonably warm weather which arrived towards the end of September 2011 and continued into October . As a result , record-high temperatures for the country were broken for the autumn months . The autumn heat wave followed the warmest temperatures to occur on record in the spring , but also the coolest temperatures to occur in the summer months since 1993 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Autumn_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 29, "score": 110855 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 European heat wave Content: The 2007 European heatwave was a heat wave that affected most of Southern Europe and the Balkans . The phenomenon began affecting Italy and Turkey on June 17 and expanded into Greece and the rest of the Balkans , Hungary and Ukraine on June 18 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2007_European_heat_wave", "rank": 30, "score": 109310 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Australia Content: Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century . In 2013 , the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter , and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change . In 2014 , the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia 's climate that highlighted several key points , including the significant increase in Australia 's temperatures ( particularly night-time temperatures ) and the increasing frequency of bush fires , droughts and floods , which have all been linked to climate change . Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 ° C in average annual temperatures , with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years . Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia . Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10 -- 20 % since the 1970s , while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s . Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic , as rain has become heavier and infrequent , as well as more common in summer rather than in winter , with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia . Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas ( rising demand ) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought ( diminishing supply ) . At the same time , Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions . Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer . A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism , it successfully reduced Australia 's carbon dioxide emissions , with coal generation down 11 % since 2008 -- 09 . The subsequent Australian Government , elected in 2013 under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott was criticised for being `` in complete denial about climate change '' . Furthermore , the Abbott government repealed the carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move . The renewable energy target ( RET ) , launched in 2001 , was heavily modified under Abbott 's government . However , under the government of Malcolm Turnbull , Australia attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement . This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020 . The federal government and all state governments ( New South Wales , Victoria , Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia , Tasmania , Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions , in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change . Sectors of the population have campaigned against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations , reflecting concerns about the effects of global warming on Australia . The Garnaut Climate Change Review predicted that a net benefit to Australia may be derived by stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq . The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011 , considerably large given the small population of the country .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Australia", "rank": 31, "score": 109163 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 32, "score": 109003 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of the Nordic countries Content: The climate of the Nordic countries is that of a region in Northern Europe that consists of Denmark , Finland , Iceland , Norway and Sweden and their associated territories , which include the Faroe Islands , Greenland and Åland . Stockholm , Sweden has on average the warmest summer of the Nordic countries , with an average maximum temperature of 23 ° C in July ; Copenhagen , Oslo and Helsinki have an average July maximum temperature of 22 ° C.", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_of_the_Nordic_countries", "rank": 33, "score": 108763 }, { "content": "Title: Early 2012 European cold wave Content: The Early 2012 European cold wave was a deadly cold wave that started on January 27 , 2012 and brought snow and freezing temperatures to much of the European continent . There were more than 824 reported deaths . Particularly low temperatures hit several Eastern and Northern European countries , reaching as low as -42.7 C in Finland . The heaviest snow was recorded in the Balkan region . The cold weather was a result of an extensive area of very high pressure located in over the north east of the continent in northern Russia , which circulated cold air from the east .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Early_2012_European_cold_wave", "rank": 34, "score": 108740 }, { "content": "Title: Heat (Colder album) Content: Heat is the second album from French musician Colder , released on Output Recordings on July 4 , 2005 . The album was produced in Paris , France and was released on CD , limited edition CD ( housed in a digipak ) , and limited edition red-colored 12 '' vinyl . The album was also released on CD in Mexico with two bonus tracks . All versions of the album are out of print .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Heat_(Colder_album)", "rank": 35, "score": 108272 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 North American cold wave Content: The 1994 North American cold wave occurred over the midwestern United States , eastern United States , and southern Canada during January 1994 . Two notable cold air events occurred from January 18-19 and from January 21-22 . There were 67 minimum temperature records set on January 19 . Indiana and Kentucky both set state records on January 19 . The United States experienced its coldest temperature month since February 1934 , although much of the West experienced mild temperatures . Washington and Idaho experienced the second warmest January recorded in the previous 100 years . During the same period , the western United States experienced one of its most damaging earthquakes ever , and the eastern United States experienced a major snowfall that significantly delayed traffic . Over 100 deaths occurred in the United States as a result of the cold wave .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1994_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 36, "score": 108137 }, { "content": "Title: 2002 India heat wave Content: More than 1,030 people were killed in the 2002 heatwave in south India . Most of the dead were poor and elderly and a majority of deaths occurred in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh . In districts that were impacted most , the heat was so severe that ponds and rivers evaporated and in those same districts birds had fallen from the sky and animals were collapsing from the intense heat . It is said by officials to be the worst heat wave in four years . The relief commissioner of Andhra Pradesh , Rosaiah , said that the maximum number of 172 deaths related to heat took place in the East Godavari district . There were also 166 deaths in Prakasam and 144 deaths in West Godavari . Unusually high temperatures were detected across India during April of the year 2002 . In addition , this heat wave over northern zones of India lasted from the middle of April to the third week in May , thus , causing these fatalities . On May 10 the highest temperature recorded in the region of Gannavaram ( Vijayawada ) was 49 degrees Celsius ( 120.2 degrees Fahrenheit ) . According to the BBC News , `` Heatwaves are defined as periods of abnormally high temperatures and usually occur between March and June in India . May is the country 's hottest month , with an average maximum temperature of 41C ( 104F ) in Delhi . Longer , more severe heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent globally . Intense heat can cause cramps , exhaustion and heat stroke . Thousands of people have died across India during heatwaves in 2002 and 2003 . '' The heatwaves also affected the northern states of Punjab , Haryana , Orissa and 100 people suffered from heat-related sickness . 2010 Indian heatwave", "qid": "436", "docid": "2002_India_heat_wave", "rank": 37, "score": 107306 }, { "content": "Title: Extreme weather events in Melbourne Content: thumb | A church destroyed by the 1918 Brighton tornado Extreme weather events in Melbourne , Australia have occurred on multiple occasions . The city has experienced a number of highly unusual weather events and extremes of weather . An increase in heat waves and record breaking temperatures over the last decade has led to much discussion over the effects of climate change in the country .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Extreme_weather_events_in_Melbourne", "rank": 38, "score": 107104 }, { "content": "Title: 2019 heat wave in India and Pakistan Content: From mid-May to mid-June 2019, India and Pakistan had a severe heat wave. It was one of the hottest and longest heat waves since the two countries began recording weather reports. The highest temperatures occurred in Churu, Rajasthan, reaching up to 50.8 °C (123.4 °F), a near record high in India, missing the record of 51.0 °C (123.8 °F) set in 2016 by a fraction of a degree. As of 12 June 2019, 32 days are classified as parts of the heatwave, making it the second longest ever recorded.As a result of hot temperatures and inadequate preparation, more than 184 people died in the state of Bihar, with many more deaths reported in other parts of the country. In Pakistan, five infants died after extreme heat exposure.The heat wave coincided with extreme droughts and water shortages across India and Pakistan. In mid-June, reservoirs that previously supplied Chennai ran dry, depriving millions. The water crisis was exacerbated by high temperatures and lack of preparation, causing protests and fights that sometimes led to killing and stabbing.", "qid": "436", "docid": "2019_heat_wave_in_India_and_Pakistan", "rank": 39, "score": 106806 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 40, "score": 106697 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 extreme weather events Content: The 2013 extreme weather events included several all-time temperature records in Northern and Southern Hemisphere . The February extent of snow cover in Eurasia and North America was above average , while the extent of Arctic ice in the same month was 4,5 % below the 1981 -- 2010 average . The Northern Hemisphere weather extremes have been linked to the melting of Arctic sea ice , which alters atmospheric circulation in a way that leads to more snow and ice . By January 11 , 233 weather-related deaths were reported in India . Elsewhere , particularly in Russia , the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom , low temperatures affected wildlife , delaying bird breeding and disrupting the bird migration . On January 10 Bangladesh faced the lowest temperature since country 's independence , at 3.0 ° C in Saidpur . While Finland and most of Northern European countries got the record high , and even the highest temperatures at Europe during May and June , Western - and Middle Europe faced much cooler weather and even their wettest May and June ever . During summer prolonged heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere set new record high temperatures . On March 24 , 2014 , the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization Michel Jarraud announced that `` many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change '' .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2013_extreme_weather_events", "rank": 41, "score": 106671 }, { "content": "Title: Roman Warm Period Content: The Roman Warm Period or the Roman climatic optimum has been proposed as a period of unusually warm weather in Europe and the North Atlantic that ran from approximately 250 BC to AD 400 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Roman_Warm_Period", "rank": 42, "score": 106539 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American cold wave Content: The 1936 North American cold wave ranks among the most intense cold waves in recorded North American meteorological history . The states of the Midwest United States and the Prairie Provinces of Canada were hit the hardest , but only the Southwest and California largely escaped its effects . February 1936 was the coldest month recorded in the states of North Dakota , South Dakota , and Minnesota , and rivals that of 1899 the coldest February on record for the continent as a whole . Only a few parts of the Great Basin , the Bering Sea coast of Alaska and the Labrador Sea coast of Canada were even close to their long-term means . The 1930s had previously seen some of the mildest winters in recorded North American climatic history -- 1930/1931 in the northern Plains and Western Canada , 1931/1932 in the East , 1932/1933 in New England and 1933/1934 in the Western United States . The northern plains had during the previous eleven years experienced six of their ten warmest Februaries between 1895 and 1976 -- those of 1925 , 1926 , 1927 , 1930 , 1931 and 1935 -- with only February 1929 being severe during this period . Despite a warm March over most areas east of the Rockies , the extended winter from October to March was the fifth-coldest on record over the conterminous United States and the coldest since 1917 . The cold wave was followed by one of the hottest summers on record , the 1936 North American heat wave .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1936_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 43, "score": 106291 }, { "content": "Title: Oceanic climate Content: An oceanic climate ( also known as marine , west coast and maritime ) is the Köppen classification of the climate typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents , and generally features cool summers ( relative to their latitude ) and cool but not cold winters , with a relatively narrow annual temperature range and few extremes of temperature , with the exception for transitional areas to continental , subarctic and highland climates . Oceanic climates are defined as having a monthly mean temperature below 22 C in the warmest month , and above 0 C in the coldest month . It typically lacks a dry season , as precipitation is more evenly dispersed throughout the year . It is the predominant climate type across much of North Western Europe , the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada , portions of southwestern South America and small areas of southeast Australia , and New Zealand as well as isolated locations elsewhere . Oceanic climates generally have cool summers and cool ( but not cold ) winters . They are characterised by a narrower annual range of temperatures than are encountered in other places at a comparable latitude , and generally do not have the extremely dry summers of Mediterranean climates or the hot summers of humid subtropical . Oceanic climates are most dominant in Europe , where they spread much farther inland than in other continents . Oceanic climates can have much storm activity as they are located in the belt of the stormy westerlies . Many oceanic climates have frequent cloudy or overcast conditions due to the near constant storms and lows tracking over or near them . The annual range of temperatures is smaller than typical climates at these latitudes due to the constant stable marine air masses that pass through oceanic climates , which lack both very warm and very cool fronts .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Oceanic_climate", "rank": 44, "score": 105075 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 45, "score": 104687 }, { "content": "Title: April Rain Content: April Rain is the second full-length album by the Dutch symphonic metal band , Delain . It was released in the Benelux on 20 March 2009 and was released internationally on 30 March 2009 by Roadrunner Records . It was released in Australia on 10 April 2009 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "April_Rain", "rank": 46, "score": 104633 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Australia Content: Australia 's climate is governed largely by its size and by the hot , sinking air of the subtropical high pressure belt . This moves north and south with the seasons , so that the rainfall pattern over Australia is highly seasonal . Australia 's rainfall is the lowest of all continents except Antarctica . But it is variable , with frequent droughts lasting several seasons -- thought to be caused in part by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation . The climate varies widely due to its large geographical size , but by far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid . Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil . The northern part of the country has a tropical climate , varied between tropical rainforests , grasslands and part dessert . Because Australia is a small continent , separated from polar regions by the Southern Ocean , it is not subject to the movements of frigid polar air that sweep over Northern Hemisphere continents during winter . Consequently , its winter is relatively mild , so that there is n't the great contrast between summer and winter temperatures there is in the northern continents . Yet in many parts of the country , seasonal highs and lows can be considerable : temperatures have ranged from above 50 C to well below zero . Nonetheless , minimum temperatures are moderated . The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is associated with seasonal abnormality in many areas in the world . Australia is one of the continents most affected and experiences extensive droughts alongside considerable wet periods . Occasionally a dust storm will blanket a region and there are reports of the occasional tornado . Tropical cyclones , heat waves , bushfires and frosts in the country are also associated with the Southern Oscillation . Rising levels of salinity and desertification in some areas is ravaging the landscape . Climate change in Australia is a highly contentious issue . Temperatures in the country have risen following an increasing trend of global warming between the years of 1910 to 2004 by approximately 0.7 ° C. Overnight minimum temperatures have warmed more rapidly than daytime maximum temperatures in recent years . The late-20th century warming has been largely attributed to the increased greenhouse effect . According to the Bureau of Meteorology , 80 % of the land has less than 600 mm of rainfall per year and 50 % has even less than 300 mm . As a whole , Australia has a very low annual average rainfall of 419 mm .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_of_Australia", "rank": 47, "score": 104311 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 2012 Content: The 2012 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day 26 January 2013 . It was the 20th countdown of the most popular songs of the year , as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. Voting commenced on 19 December 2012 , and closed at midnight on 20 January 2013 . Over 1.5 million votes were cast in this countdown , beating the record set in the 2011 list . In the week prior to the countdown , Nick Drewe , a Brisbane statistician and marketer , analysed the votes that had been published on social media and determined the possible top 100 , naming it the Warmest 100 . The votes that had been published represented approximately 2.7 % of the total vote . Ultimately , his list correctly predicted 92 of the songs in the countdown , the songs comprising the top 10 , and the top 3 in the correct order . The ABC have announced that it would likely make changes to the voting system to prevent `` spoiler attempts '' in future countdowns .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_2012", "rank": 48, "score": 104143 }, { "content": "Title: 1911 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The United Kingdom heatwave of 1911 was a particularly severe heat wave and associated drought . Records were set around the country for temperature in England , including the highest accepted temperature , at the time , of 36.7 C ( 98.6 F ) , only broken 79 years later in the 1990 heatwave , which reached 37.1 C ( 98.78 F ) . The highest ever accepted temperature is currently 38.5 C ( 101.3 F ) recorded on 10 August 2003 in Faversham , Kent . North America was also affected around about this time .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1911_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 49, "score": 103349 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Orson Content: Severe Tropical Cyclone Orson was the fourth most intense cyclone ever recorded in the Australian region . Forming out of a tropical low on 17 April 1989 , Orson gradually intensified as it tracked towards the west . After attaining Category 5 intensity on 20 April , the storm began to track southward and accelerated . The following day , the cyclone reached its peak intensity with winds of 250 km/h ( 155 mph 10-minute sustained ) and a barometric pressure of 904 hPa ( mbar ) . Orson maintained this intensity for nearly two days before making landfall near Dampier . The cyclone rapidly weakened after landfall as it accelerated to the southeast . After moving into the Great Australian Bight on 24 April , the storm dissipated . Despite Orson 's extreme intensity , damage was relatively minimal as it struck a sparsely populated region of Western Australia . Five people were killed offshore and damages amounted to . The storm damaged a new gas platform that explored a possible oil field , believed to contain nearly 200 Moilbbl of oil . The damage delayed the project for nearly two weeks . The most severe impacts took place in Pannawonica , where 70 homes were damaged . Following the storm , cleanup costs reached A$ 5 million ( US$ 4.1 million ) . Due to the severity of the storm , the name Orson was retired after the season .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Cyclone_Orson", "rank": 50, "score": 103332 }, { "content": "Title: 2017–18 Australian region cyclone season Content: The 2017 -- 18 Australian region cyclone season is the period of the year when most tropical cyclones form in the Southern Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans between 90 ° E and 160 ° E . The season will officially run from 1 November 2017 to 30 April 2018 , however , a tropical cyclone could form at any time between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018 and would count towards the season total . During the season , tropical cyclones will be officially monitored , by one of the five Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres ( TCWCs ) that operate in this region . Three of the five centers are operated by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) in Perth , Darwin , and Brisbane , while the other two are operated by the National Weather Service of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby and the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology , Climatology and Geophysics in Jakarta , Indonesia . The United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) and other national meteorological services including Météo-France will also monitor the basin during the season .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2017–18_Australian_region_cyclone_season", "rank": 51, "score": 102878 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 2016 Content: The 2016 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day , 26 January 2017 . It is the 24th countdown of the most popular songs of the year , as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. 2016 's countdown broke several Hottest 100 records , including number of votes ( over 2.25 million ) , number of songs by Australian acts both in the whole list ( 66 out of the 100 ) and at its top ( all of the top four ) , and longest absence between countdowns ( 16 years for Paul Kelly ) . With the first-place win of Australian producer Flume for `` Never Be like You '' , 2016 marks a record-breaking fourth consecutive annual countdown in which the number-one track was by an Australian act , after Vance Joy in 2013 , Chet Faker in 2014 , and The Rubens in 2015 . Flume became the first electronic dance music producer to top the countdown .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_2016", "rank": 52, "score": 102837 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Gwenda Content: Severe Tropical Cyclone Gwenda was tied with Cyclone Inigo for the most intense Australian tropical cyclone on record , with a barometric pressure of 900 hPa ( mbar ) and was the most intense storm worldwide in 1999 . Forming out of a tropical disturbance over the Arafura Sea on 2 April 1999 , the precursor to Gwenda tracked slowly westward and gradually became more organised . On 4 April , the system developed into a Category 1 cyclone and was named Gwenda . It began to undergo explosive intensification the following day , and in a 30-hour span ending early on 7 April , the storm 's maximum 10-minute sustained wind speed increased from 75 km/h ( 45 mph ) to 225 km/h ( 140 mph ) and its barometric pressure decreased to 900 hPa ( mbar ) . The Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported that the storm had peaked as a high-end Category 4 equivalent on the Saffir -- Simpson hurricane scale . Increasing wind shear and an acceleration in forward speed caused Gwenda to quickly weaken . Less than 18 hours after peaking , the storm made landfall roughly 45 km east of Port Hedland , Western Australia with winds of 100 km/h ( 65 mph ) . After moving ashore , Gwenda abruptly stalled before dissipating on 8 April . Although it was once an extremely intense cyclone , the factors that caused its deterioration also prevented significant damage . Rainfall from the storm peaked at 205 mm . Minor structural damage was reported , and only localised flooding was recorded . Following its usage , the name Gwenda was retired at the end of the season .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Cyclone_Gwenda", "rank": 53, "score": 102646 }, { "content": "Title: Bushfires in Australia Content: Bushfires in Australia are frequent events during the warmer months of the year , due to Australia 's mostly hot , dry climate . Each year , such fires impact extensive areas . On one hand , they can cause property damage and loss of human life . On the other hand , certain native flora in Australia have evolved to rely on bushfires as a means of reproduction , and fire events are an interwoven and an essential part of the ecology of the continent . For thousands of years , Indigenous Australians have used fire to foster grasslands for hunting and to clear tracks through dense vegetation . Major firestorms that result in severe loss of life are often named based on the day on which they occur , such as Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday . Some of the most intense , extensive and deadly bushfires commonly occur during droughts and heat waves , such as the 2009 Southern Australia heat wave , which precipitated the conditions during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in which 173 people lost their lives . Other major conflagrations include the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires , the 2003 Eastern Victorian alpine bushfires and the 2006 December Bushfires . Global warming is increasing the frequency and severity of bushfires .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Bushfires_in_Australia", "rank": 54, "score": 102375 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 55, "score": 101918 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2010–11 in Europe Content: The winter of 2010 -- 2011 in Europe began with an unusually cold November caused by a cold weather cycle that started in southern Scandinavia and subsequently moved south and west over both Belgium and the Netherlands on 25 November and into the west of Scotland and north east England on 26 November . This was due to a low pressure zone in the Baltics , with a high pressure over Greenland on 24 November . From 22 November 2010 , cold conditions arrived in the United Kingdom , as a cold northerly wind developed and snow began to fall in northern and eastern parts , causing disruption . The winter arrived particularly early for the European climate , with temperatures dropping significantly lower than previous lows for the month of November . On 28 November , Wales recorded its lowest-ever November temperature of -17.3 C in Llysdinam , and Northern Ireland recorded its lowest ever November temperature of -9.5 C in Lough Rea . The UK Met Office issued severe-weather warnings for heavy snow for eastern Scotland and the north-east of England . From January , temperatures were more normal .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Winter_of_2010–11_in_Europe", "rank": 56, "score": 101429 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming on Australia Content: Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that global warming will negatively impact the continent 's environment , economy , and communities . Australia has been designated as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change , according to the Stern Review and others , due partially to the importance of its agricultural sector and the prominence of its coast . Australia is vulnerable to the effects of global warming projected for the next 50 to 100 years because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas , an already warm climate , high annual rainfall variability , and existing pressures on water supply . The continent 's high fire risk increases this susceptibility to change in temperature and climate . Additionally , Australia 's population is highly concentrated in coastal areas , and its important tourism industry depends on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and other fragile ecosystems . The impacts of climate change in Australia will be complex and to some degree uncertain , but increased foresight may enable the country to safeguard its future through planned mitigation and adaptation . Mitigation may reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impacts , but requires global solutions and cooperation , while adaptation can be performed at national and local levels .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming_on_Australia", "rank": 57, "score": 101311 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 2008 Content: The 2008 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day , 26 January 2009 . It was the sixteenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year , as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station , Triple J. Voting commenced on Boxing Day , 26 December 2008 , and closed on 18 January 2009 . The second half of the countdown was broadcast live from Parramatta Park in New South Wales , with live crosses to the Big Day Out , held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne , Victoria . Over 800,000 votes were received , a record number .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_2008", "rank": 58, "score": 101234 }, { "content": "Title: 2000s Australian drought Content: The 2000s drought in Australia , also known as the Millennium drought is said by some to be the worst drought recorded since European settlement . The drought affected most of southern Australia , including its largest cities and largest agricultural region ( the Murray-Darling basin ) . It commenced with low rainfall conditions in late 1996 and through 1997 , and worsened through particularly dry years in 2001 and 2002 . By 2003 it was recognised as the worst drought on record . The year 2006 was the driest on record for many parts of the country and conditions remained hot and dry through to early 2010 . The emergence of La Niña weather conditions in 2010 rapidly ended the drought , and led to floods in some locations . The drought placed extreme pressure on agricultural production and urban water supply in much of southern Australia . It has led to the construction of six major seawater desalination plants to provide water to Australia 's major cities , and to changes in the management of water in the Murray-Darling basin , particularly the formation of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2000s_Australian_drought", "rank": 59, "score": 100637 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Melbourne Content: Melbourne , the state capital of Victoria and second largest city in Australia , has a temperate oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ) and is well known for its changeable weather conditions . This is mainly due to Melbourne 's geographical location . This temperature differential is most pronounced in the spring and summer months and can cause very strong cold fronts to form . These cold fronts can be responsible for all sorts of severe weather from gales to severe thunderstorms and hail , minor temperature drops , and heavy rain .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_of_Melbourne", "rank": 60, "score": 100504 }, { "content": "Title: 1901 eastern United States heat wave Content: The 1901 eastern United States heat wave was the most severe and deadly heat wave in the United States prior to the 1930s dust bowl . Although the heat wave did not set many still-standing daily temperature records , it was exceptionally prolonged -- covering without interruption the second half of June and all of July -- and centred upon more highly populated areas than later American heat waves . The heat wave accompanied a major drought in the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest , with Illinois having what remains its driest calendar year since records have been kept , and Missouri being only 0.21 in above its driest calendar year of 1953 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1901_eastern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 61, "score": 100413 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Alby Content: Severe Tropical Cyclone Alby was regarded as the most devastating tropical cyclone to impact southwestern Western Australia on record . Forming out of an area of low pressure on 27 March 1978 , Alby steadily developed as it tracked southwestward , parallel to Western Australia . Between 1 and 2 April , the storm quickly intensified and attained its peak intensity as a Category 5 cyclone on the Australian cyclone intensity scale . After turning to the southeast , the storm underwent an extratropical transition as it neared Cape Leeuwin . The storm brushed the cape on 4 April , bringing hurricane-force winds , before rapidly losing its identity the following day . In Western Australia , the combination of Alby 's fast movement and hurricane-force winds caused widespread damage . Along the coast , large swells flooded low-lying areas and numerous homes lost their roofs from high winds . Further inland , bushfires were worsened by the storm as it brought little rain , generally less than 20 mm along the coast . These fires burned roughly 114,000 hectares ( 281,700 acres ) and destroyed two towns . Five fatalities are directly attributed to Alby while two more resulted from the fires . The resulting damage was extensive , with monetary losses reaching A$ 50 million ( $ 45 million USD ) .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Cyclone_Alby", "rank": 62, "score": 100158 }, { "content": "Title: Thermal low Content: Thermal lows , or heat lows , are non-frontal low-pressure areas that occur over the continents in the subtropics during the warm season , as the result of intense heating when compared to their surrounding environments . Thermal lows occur near the Sonoran Desert , on the Mexican plateau , in California 's Great Central Valley , the Sahara , over north-west Argentina in South America , over the Kimberley region of north-west Australia , the Iberian peninsula , and the Tibetan plateau . Over land , intense , rapid solar heating of the land surface results in heating of the lowest layers of the atmosphere via reradiated energy in the infrared spectrum . The resulting hotter air is less dense than surrounding cooler air . This , combined with the rising of the hot air , results in the formation of a low pressure area . Elevated areas can enhance the strength of the thermal low as they warm more quickly than the atmosphere which surrounds them at the same altitude . Over the water , instability lows form during the winter when the air overlying the land is colder than the warmer water body . Thermal lows tend to have weak circulations , and can extend to 3100 m in height . Thermal lows over the western and southern portions of North America , northern Africa , and southeast Asia are strong enough to lead to summer monsoon conditions . Development of thermal lows inland of the coastline lead to the development of sea breezes . Sea breezes combined with rugged topography near the coast can encourage poor air quality .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Thermal_low", "rank": 63, "score": 99455 }, { "content": "Title: 1943–44 Australian bushfire season Content: The 1943 -- 44 Australian bushfire season was marked by a series of major bushfires following severe drought conditions in the state of Victoria in Australia . The summer of 1943 -- 44 was the driest summer ever recorded in Melbourne until 2002 with just 46 mm falling , a third of the long-term average . Between 22 December 1943 and 15 February 1944 , 51 people were killed , 700 injured , and 650 buildings were destroyed across the state . Many personnel who would have been normally available for fire fighting duties had been posted overseas and to remote areas of Australia during World War II .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1943–44_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 64, "score": 99162 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The March 2012 United Kingdom and Ireland heat wave was a period of unseasonable warm weather with temperatures getting above 20 C in many places . The average temperature for this time of year in the United Kingdom is 10 C. Aboyne , Scotland , recorded a temperature of 23.6 C on 27 March , the highest March temperature in Scotland since records began . For around eight days no clouds were visible for the majority of places in the UK , allowing the sun to shine straight down through the blue sky and induce high air temperatures . The high pressure also meant there was little wind to act as a coolant .", "qid": "436", "docid": "March_2012_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 65, "score": 99134 }, { "content": "Title: 1990 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1990 heat wave in the United Kingdom was a particularly severe heat event with temperatures hitting record highs of 37.1 C on 3 August . The temperature was recorded at Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and was a full degree Celsius above the previous record , set in 1911 . However , this record was subsequently broken in the 2003 heatwave .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1990_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 66, "score": 99056 }, { "content": "Title: Australian region tropical cyclone Content: An Australian tropical cyclone is a non frontal , low pressure system that has developed , within an environment of warm sea surface temperatures and little vertical wind shear aloft in either the Southern Indian Ocean or the South Pacific Ocean . Within the Southern Hemisphere there are officially three areas where tropical cyclones develop on a regular basis , these areas are the South-West Indian Ocean between Africa and 90 ° E , the Australian region between 90 ° E and 160 ° E and the South Pacific basin between 160 ° E and 120 ° W . The Australian region between 90 ° E and 160 ° E is officially monitored by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology , the Papua New Guinea National Weather Service and the Badan Meteorologi Klimatologi dan Geofisika , while others like the Fiji Meteorological Service and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also monitor the basin . Each tropical cyclone year within this basin starts on July 1 and runs throughout the year , encompassing the tropical cyclone season which runs from November 1 and lasts until April 30 each season . Within the basin , most tropical cyclones have their origins within the South Pacific Convergence Zone or within the Northern Australian monsoon trough , both of which form an extensive area of cloudiness and are dominant features of the season . Within this region a tropical disturbance is classified as a tropical cyclone , when it has 10-minute sustained wind speeds of more than 65 km/h ( 35 mph ) , that wrap halfway around the low level circulation centre , while a severe tropical cyclone is classified when the maximum 10-minute sustained wind speeds are greater than 120 km/h ( 75 mph ) .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Australian_region_tropical_cyclone", "rank": 67, "score": 98866 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "436", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 68, "score": 98818 }, { "content": "Title: List of off-season Australian region tropical cyclones Content: An off-season Australian tropical cyclone is a tropical cyclone that existed in the Australian Region , between 90 ° E and 160 ° E , outside of the official season . The World Meteorological Organization currently defines the season as occurring between 1 November and 30 April , of the following year , which is when the majority of all tropical cyclones exist . During the off-season , systems are more likely to either develop during or persist until May , with approximately 52 % of such storms occurring during that month . Occasionally , however , storms develop in October , with approximately 34 % of such storms occurring during that month . As of 2017 , there have been 88 tropical cyclones known to have occurred off-season . Off-season cyclones are most likely to occur in the Coral Sea , with most affecting land in some way . Cumulatively , at least 4 deaths occurred due to the storms , The most recent off-season storm was Tropical Cyclone Greg in May 2017 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "List_of_off-season_Australian_region_tropical_cyclones", "rank": 69, "score": 98584 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Sydney Content: The climate of Sydney is humid subtropical ( Köppen Cfa ) , shifting from mild and cool in winter to warm and hot in the summer , with no extreme seasonal differences as the weather is moderated by proximity to the ocean . More contrasting temperatures are recorded in the inland western suburbs . Rainfall is spread evenly throughout the year , though it is generally highest between February and June . Precipitation varies across the region , with areas adjacent to the coast being the wettest . Sydney has 103.9 clear days annually , with the monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 53 % in January to 72 % in August . The city receives around 20 thunderstorms per year . Sydney 's heat is usually dry when temperatures soar over 35 C . In some hot days , low pressure troughs would increase humidity and southerly busters would decrease temperatures . In late autumn and winter , east coast lows can bring large amounts of rainfall . Sydney experiences an urban heat island effect , making certain parts of the city more vulnerable to extreme heat , particularly the west . Efforts have been introduced to investigate and mitigate this heat effect , including increasing shade from tree canopies , adding rooftop gardens to high rise structures and changing pavement colour . The El Niño Southern Oscillation plays an important role in determining Sydney 's weather patterns : drought and bushfire on the one hand , and storms and flooding on the other . Sydney is prone to heat waves and drought , which have become more common in recent years .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_of_Sydney", "rank": 70, "score": 98548 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Inigo Content: Cyclone Inigo was tied with Cyclone Gwenda for being the most intense recorded cyclone in the Australian region in terms of pressure . It developed from a tropical low that crossed eastern Indonesia in late March 2003 . Becoming a named tropical cyclone on 1 April , Inigo rapidly intensified as it tracked southwestward , reaching a minimum central pressure of 900 hPa on 4 April . An approaching trough weakened the cyclone and turned it to the southeast , and on 8 April Inigo dissipated after making landfall on Western Australia as a minimal tropical storm . The precursor disturbance dropped heavy rainfall across eastern Indonesia , causing widespread flooding and mudslides . The worst of the damage was on Flores island , though damage was also reported on West Timor and Sumba . The flooding and mudslides damaged or destroyed thousands of houses , forcing many to leave their homes . A total of 58 casualties were reported in association with the disturbance . In Australia , Inigo produced locally heavy rainfall , but little damage .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Cyclone_Inigo", "rank": 71, "score": 98525 }, { "content": "Title: 2011 North American heat wave Content: The 2011 North American heat wave was a deadly summer 2011 heat wave that affected the Southern Plains , Midwestern United States , Eastern Canada , Northeastern United States , and much of the Eastern Seaboard , and had Heat index/Humidex readings reaching upwards of 131 ° F. On a national basis , the heat wave was the hottest in 75 years .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2011_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 72, "score": 98456 }, { "content": "Title: 2002–03 Australian region cyclone season Content: The 2002 -- 03 Australian region cyclone season included Cyclone Inigo , which tied Cyclone Gwenda in 1999 as the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Australian basin . It began on 1 November 2002 and ended on 30 April 2003 . The regional tropical cyclone operational plan also defines a tropical cyclone year separately from a tropical cyclone season , which runs from 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2003 . These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Australian region , which is defined as in the southern hemisphere between 90 ° E and 180 ° E . The season 's ten tropical depressions existed within these dates , with the first , designated as Tropical Cyclone 07S , entering the basin on 27 December 2002 . The last system , Cyclone Epi , dissipated on 6 June 2003 . Tropical cyclones in this area were monitored by four Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres ( TCWCs ) : the Australian Bureau of Meteorology ( BOM ) in Perth , Darwin , and Brisbane and one in Port Moresby , Papua New Guinea . Tropical cyclogenesis in the season began when a tropical low developed in the Arafura Sea on 5 January and last until 24 January , after meandering over northern and Western Australia . On 1 February , weakening Cyclone Beni entered the Australian region and brought severe flooding to Queensland , before dissipating on 5 February . Severe Tropical Cyclone Fiona formed north of Western Australia on 3 February and later peaked as a Category 4 severe tropical cyclone on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale . Cyclone Graham developed offshore Western Australia on 24 February and made landfall in a rural area of that state on 28 February , producing flooding in the area . Tropical Cyclone Harriet existed offshore of Western Australia from 1 March to 11 March . On 1 March , Cyclone Erica formed offshore Queensland and strengthened as it moved in a parabolic path , before leaving the Australian region on 12 March . Erica caused only minor damage in Queensland . Cyclone Craig originated offshore Northern Territory on 8 March . The system subsequently struck the territory and eventually made another landfall in Queensland on 12 March , after crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria . Impact from Craig was generally minor . Cyclone Inigo formed on 30 March and caused severe impact in Indonesia , especially in Flores , Sumba , and West Timor . Inigo later deepened into the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Australian region , tied with Cyclone Gwenda in 1999 . Inigo weakened significantly before striking Western Australia on 8 April and dissipating shortly thereafter . The final system , Tropical Cyclone Epi developed east of Papua New Guinea on 5 June and dissipated on the following day . Overall , the tropical cyclones of this season caused 60 deaths and about $ 12 million ( 2003 USD ) in damage .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2002–03_Australian_region_cyclone_season", "rank": 73, "score": 97380 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Olivia Content: Severe Tropical Cyclone Olivia was a powerful cyclone that produced the highest non-tornadic winds on record on Barrow Island , 408 km/h , breaking the record of 372 km/h on Mount Washington in the United States in April 1934 . The 13th named storm of the 1995 -- 96 Australian region cyclone season , Olivia formed on 3 April 1996 to the north of Australia 's Northern Territory . The storm moved generally to the southwest , gradually intensifying off Western Australia . On 8 April , Olivia intensified into a severe tropical cyclone and subsequently turned more to the south , steered by a passing trough . On 10 April , Olivia produced the worldwide record strongest gust on Barrow Island , and on the same day the cyclone made landfall near Varanus Island . The storm quickly weakened over land , dissipating over the Great Australian Bight on 12 April . While in its formative stages , Olivia produced light rainfall in the Northern Territory . While offshore Western Australia , the cyclone forced oil platforms to shut down , and the combination of high winds and waves caused heavy damage to oil facilities . Onshore , Olivia 's high winds damaged several small mining towns , halting operations . Every house in Pannawonica sustained some damage . One person in the town was injured by flying glass and had to be flown to receive treatment , and nine others were lightly injured . The cyclone also produced heavy rainfall and a localized storm surge . Damage was estimated `` in the millions '' . While the storm was dissipating , rough seas in South Australia killed A$ 60 million ( US$ 47.5 million ) worth of farm-raised tuna at Port Lincoln . The name Olivia was retired after the season .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Cyclone_Olivia", "rank": 74, "score": 97310 }, { "content": "Title: January 2016 East Asia cold wave Content: In late January 2016 , a cold wave struck much of East Asia , parts of mainland Southeast Asia and parts of northern South Asia , bringing record cold temperatures and snowfall to many regions . Sleet was reported in Okinawa for the first time on record , and many other regions saw their coldest temperatures in decades . Snowfall and frigid weather stranded thousands of people across four countries . At least 85 people in Taiwan died from hypothermia and cardiac arrest following a sudden drop in temperature during the weekend of January 22 -- 24 . The cold claimed a further fourteen lives in Thailand , and snowstorms resulted in six deaths across Japan . This event was driven by a fast Arctic warming that occurred within the troposphere , forcing the Arctic Oscillation to change phase rapidly from positive ( in late December ) to negative ( in late January ) , facilitating the atmospheric blocking and associated Siberian high buildup .", "qid": "436", "docid": "January_2016_East_Asia_cold_wave", "rank": 75, "score": 97053 }, { "content": "Title: 2013–14 Australian region cyclone season Content: The 2013 -- 14 Australian region cyclone season was a slightly below average tropical cyclone season . It officially started on 1 November 2013 , and ended on 30 April 2014 . The regional tropical cyclone operational plan defines a `` tropical cyclone year '' separately from a `` tropical cyclone season '' ; the `` tropical cyclone year '' began on 1 July 2013 and ended on 30 June 2014 . After two seasons with no cyclones of Category 5 intensity , this season saw two of the ten named storms reaching this level : Gillian and Ita . Of the two systems , Gillian rapidly intensified from a tropical low to a Category 5 in just 48 hours but caused only minor damage . Ita was ultimately the strongest and most intense system inside the basin and made landfall on the Far North Queensland coast near Cooktown , causing minor damage but significant flooding . In addition , significant damage was also caused by Christine in the towns of Wickham and Roebourne in Western Australia while Fletcher dumped over 1250 mm of rainfall on the Queensland town of Kowanyama , making it the fifth-wettest tropical cyclone in the country on record . __ TOC __", "qid": "436", "docid": "2013–14_Australian_region_cyclone_season", "rank": 76, "score": 96948 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American heat wave Content: The 1936 North American heat wave was the most severe heat wave in the modern history of North America . It took place in the middle of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s , and caused catastrophic human suffering and an enormous economic toll . The death toll exceeded 5,000 , and huge numbers of crops were destroyed by the heat and lack of moisture . Many state and city record high temperatures set during the 1936 heat wave stood until the Summer 2012 North American heat wave . The 1936 heat wave followed one of the coldest winters on record .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1936_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 77, "score": 96904 }, { "content": "Title: Liawenee Content: Liawenee ( / laɪɑ : wi : ni : / ) is a small town in Tasmania , Australia built near Great Lake and the River Ouse , and was established on 11 June 1920 . The town is known for its fishing at nearby Great Lake and hosts several fishing events . Liawenee and surrounding Miena Dam experience annual mean maximum temperatures of 12.6 and 10.1 respectively and are thus amongst the coldest permanently inhabited places in Australia ; irrespective of Miena Dam Liawenee is colder on this metric than notable mainland sites of a similar altitude such as Nimmitabel ( 15.6 ) and Cooma ( 19.4 ) as well as Thredbo village ( 13.5 ) - a station of considerably greater altitude ( 1380m AMSL ) . Within Tasmania , only the uninhabited summits of Mount Wellington ( Kunanyi ) and Mount Read record lower annual mean maximum temperatures ( 7.8 and 8.7 respectively ) although other mountains of Tasmania that currently lack weather stations may experience similar or colder conditions also .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Liawenee", "rank": 78, "score": 96778 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Budapest Content: The Climate of Budapest is humid continental . Winter ( December until early March ) is by far the coldest and cloudiest time of year . Snowfall is fairly frequent in most years , and nighttime temperatures of − 15 ° C ( 5 ° F ) are not uncommon from mid-December until mid-February . The spring months ( March and April ) see variable conditions , with a rapid increase in the average temperature . Budapest 's summer , lasting from June until September , is the warmest time of year . Budapest has as much summer sunshine as many Mediterranean resorts . Sudden heavy showers also occur , particularly in May and June . The autumn in Budapest ( mid-September until late October ) is characterized by less rain than in summer and long sunny days .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_of_Budapest", "rank": 79, "score": 96642 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 2010 Content: The 2010 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced and played on Australia Day , 26 January 2011 . It is the eighteenth countdown of the most popular songs of the year , as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. Voting commenced at midnight on Monday 20 December 2010 , and closed at midnight on Sunday 16 January 2011 . 1.26 million votes were recorded from 152 countries , a new record number of votes . The # 1 spot belonged to `` Big Jet Plane '' by Angus & Julia Stone . The whole top 100 can be viewed here The full list of places # 101-200 can be viewed here", "qid": "436", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_2010", "rank": 80, "score": 96593 }, { "content": "Title: 1982–83 South Pacific cyclone season Content: The 1982 -- 83 South Pacific cyclone season was one of the most active and longest South Pacific tropical cyclone seasons on record , with 14 tropical cyclones occurring within the South Pacific basin between 160 ° E and 120 ° W . During the season tropical cyclones were monitored by the meteorological services of Australia , Fiji , French Polynesia and New Zealand . The United States Armed Forces through the Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) and Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center ( NPMOC ) , also monitored the basin and issued unofficial warnings for American interests . The first tropical cyclone of the season developed a day before the season officially began on October 31 , while the last tropical cyclone of the season dissipated on April 23 . Most of the activity during the season occurred within the central and eastern parts of the basin with French Polynesia affected by several systems .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1982–83_South_Pacific_cyclone_season", "rank": 81, "score": 96427 }, { "content": "Title: Lunz am See Content: Lunz am See is a municipality in the district of Scheibbs , Lower Austria , Austria . Since May 2007 Lunz am See has been the home of the `` Wasser Cluster Lunz '' . It has been recorded as the coldest place in Central Europe , as a temperature of -52.6 Celsius was measured here on 19 February 1932 at .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Lunz_am_See", "rank": 82, "score": 96266 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 83, "score": 96056 }, { "content": "Title: Cyclone Monica Content: Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica was the most intense tropical cyclone , in terms of maximum sustained winds , on record to impact Australia . The 17th and final storm of the 2005 -- 06 Australian region cyclone season , Monica originated from an area of low pressure off the coast of Papua New Guinea on 16 April 2006 . The storm quickly developed into a Category 1 cyclone the next day , at which time it was given the name Monica . Travelling towards the west , the storm intensified into a severe tropical cyclone before making landfall in Far North Queensland , near Lockhart River , on 19 April 2006 . After moving over land , convection associated with the storm quickly became disorganised . On 20 April 2006 , Monica emerged into the Gulf of Carpentaria and began to re-intensify . Over the following few days , deep convection formed around a 37 km wide eye . Early on 22 April 2006 , the Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) assessed Monica to have attained Category 5 status , on the Australian cyclone intensity scale . The Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) also upgraded Monica to a Category 5 equivalent cyclone , on the Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale . The storm attained its peak intensity the following day with winds of 250 km/h ( 155 mph 10-minute winds ) and a barometric pressure of 916 mbar ( hPa ; 27.05 inHg ) . On 24 April 2006 , Monica made landfall about 35 km west of Maningrida , at the same intensity . Rapid weakening took place as the storm moved over land . Less than 24 hours after landfall , the storm had weakened to a tropical low . The remnants of the former-Category 5 cyclone persisted until 28 April 2006 over northern Australia . In contrast to the extreme intensity of the cyclone , relatively little structural damage resulted from it . No injuries were reported to have occurred during the storm 's existence and losses were estimated to be A$ 6.6 million ( US$ 5.1 million ) . However , severe environmental damage took place . In the Northern Territory , an area about 7,000 km2 ( 4,300 mi2 ) was defoliated by Monica 's high wind gusts . In response to the large loss of forested area , it was stated that it would take several hundred years for the area to reflourish .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Cyclone_Monica", "rank": 84, "score": 95955 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 85, "score": 95816 }, { "content": "Title: European windstorm Content: European windstorm is a name given to the strongest extratropical cyclones which occur across the continent of Europe . They form as cyclonic windstorms associated with areas of low atmospheric pressure . They are most common in the autumn and winter months . On average , the month when most windstorms form is January . The seasonal average is 4.6 windstorms . Deep low pressure areas are relatively common over the North Atlantic , sometimes starting as nor'easter s off the New England coast , and frequently track across the North Atlantic Ocean towards western Europe , past the north coast of Britain and Ireland and into the Norwegian Sea . However , when they track further south they can affect almost any country in Europe . Commonly affected countries include the United Kingdom , Ireland , the Netherlands , Norway , the Faroe Islands and Iceland , but any country in Central Europe , Northern Europe and especially Western Europe is occasionally struck by such a storm system . The strong wind phenomena intrinsic to European windstorms , that give rise to `` damage footprints '' at the surface , can be placed into three categories , namely the `` warm jet '' , the `` cold jet '' and the `` sting jet '' . These phenomena vary in terms of physical mechanisms , atmospheric structure , spatial extent , duration , severity level , predictability , and location relative to cyclone and fronts . On average these storms cause economic damage $ 1.9 billion per year , and insurance losses of $ 1.4 billion per year ( 1990 -- 1998 ) . They rank as the second highest cause of global natural catastrophe insurance loss ( after U.S. hurricanes ) .", "qid": "436", "docid": "European_windstorm", "rank": 86, "score": 95732 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Lahore Content: Lahore features a five-season semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification BSh ) ( from another source : Composite monsoon climate ) with five seasons : foggy winter ( 15 Nov -- 15 Feb ) with few western disturbances causing rain ; pleasant spring ( 16 Feb -- 15 April ) ; summer ( 15 April -- June ) with dust , rain storms and heat wave periods ; rainy monsoon ( July -- 16 September ) ; and dry autumn ( 16 September -- 14 November ) . The hottest month is June , where average highs routinely exceed 40 C . The wettest month is July , with heavy rainfalls and evening thunderstorms with the possibility of cloudbursts . The coolest month is January with dense fog . The city 's highest maximum temperature was 48.3 C recorded on May 30 , 1944 . And 48 C was recorded on June 9 , 2007 . The lowest temperature recorded in Lahore is -- 1 ° C , recorded on 13 January 1967 . The highest rainfall in the city recorded during 24 hours is 221 mm , which occurred on 13 August 2008 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_of_Lahore", "rank": 87, "score": 95720 }, { "content": "Title: Lake Velence Content: Lake Velence is the third largest lake in Hungary . It is a popular holiday destination among Hungarians . The lake has an area of 26 km2 , one third of which is covered by the common reed . Because of the sunny climate of the area and the shallowness of the lake , it is one of the warmest lakes in Europe : its temperature in the summer may reach 26 to 28 ° C.", "qid": "436", "docid": "Lake_Velence", "rank": 88, "score": 95658 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 89, "score": 95438 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe Content: 2014 Pentecost weekend storms in Europe were a series of severe supercell storms affecting western Europe which followed a heatwave in early June 2014 , resulting from a Spanish plume synoptic weather pattern . The weekend saw repeated convective storm development across an arc from southwest France towards Paris and on towards Belgium and northwest Germany , where warm air masses interacted with the cooler air brought in by an area of low pressure moving towards the continent from the Atlantic . Outbreaks of severe weather were reported from these storm developments with the worst damages occurring over the German state of on 9 June , where the storm was described as one of the most violent in decades by the German weather service ( Deutscher Wetterdienst ) , this storm is also referred to as low pressure area `` Ela '' in some German media .", "qid": "436", "docid": "2014_Pentecost_weekend_storms_in_Europe", "rank": 90, "score": 95349 }, { "content": "Title: Kunlun Station (Antarctica) Content: Kunlun Station is one of four Chinese research stations in Antarctica . It is located in the Australian Antarctic Territory at 4087 m above sea level , the highest among all research stations , and 7.3 km southwest of Dome A and was officially opened on January 27 , 2009 . Fully constructed the station is planned to cover an area of 558 m ² . The main building , covering 236 m ² , is planned erected in April 2009 . The site is one of the coldest in the world , with temperatures occasionally reaching -80 ° C in the winter . It is indicated from satellite measurements that places nearby could reach a world record -90 ° C temperature . In April 2012 the first of three Antarctica Schmidt telescopes ( AST3 ) was installed at Kunlun Station . The other two were planned for installation in 2013 and 2014 . A bigger optical telescope , Kunlun Dark Universe Survey Telescope ( KDUST ) , is planned to be installed by 2020 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Kunlun_Station_(Antarctica)", "rank": 91, "score": 95302 }, { "content": "Title: 1983–84 Australian region cyclone season Content: The 1983 -- 84 Australian region cyclone season was one of the most active seasons on record . It officially started on 1 November 1983 , and officially ended on 30 April 1984 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1983–84_Australian_region_cyclone_season", "rank": 92, "score": 95087 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2010–11 in Great Britain and Ireland Content: The winter of 2010 -- 2011 was a weather event that brought heavy snowfalls , record low temperatures , travel chaos and school disruption to the islands of Britain and Ireland . It included the UK 's coldest December since Met Office records began in 1910 , with a mean temperature of -1 ° C , breaking the previous record of 0.1 ° C in December 1981 . Also it was the second-coldest December in the narrower Central England Temperature ( CET ) record series which began in 1659 , falling 0.1 ° C short of the all-time record set in 1890 . The winter of 2010 in England saw the earliest widespread winter snowfall since 1993 with snow falling as early as 24 November across Northumberland and North Yorkshire . A maximum snow depth of 30 in was recorded on 1 December in the Peak District , Sheffield , the Cotswold Hills and the Forest of Dean . In this event Scotland and Northern England were most severely affected . On 9 December temperatures recovered across much of the UK , causing a partial thaw . Later , on Thursday 16 December a cold front reintroduced a cold , arctic airstream . This cold spell brought further snow and ice chaos back to the British Isles with Southern England , Wales , the Republic of Ireland ( excluding the westerly coastal regions ) and Northern Ireland bearing the brunt of the wintry conditions . This led to severe disruption to the road and rail network with several airports being closed including London Heathrow Airport for a time . Several local temperature records were broken including a new record low for Northern Ireland of -18.7 ° C recorded at Castlederg on 23 December 2010 . By the new year a thaw had begun , and there was no recurrence of the extreme conditions for the remainder of the winter . There was some snowfall in early January , and there was an anticyclonic spell at the end of the month that brought some cold , frosty days . February was above average in temperature and ended on a mild note , although the snow returned in much of Scotland during March .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Winter_of_2010–11_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland", "rank": 93, "score": 94841 }, { "content": "Title: 1984–85 Australian region cyclone season Content: The 1984 -- 85 Australian region cyclone season was one of the most active seasons on record . It officially started on 1 November 1984 , and officially ended on 30 April 1985 .", "qid": "436", "docid": "1984–85_Australian_region_cyclone_season", "rank": 94, "score": 94581 }, { "content": "Title: Unusual Heat Content: Unusual Heat is the seventh studio album by British-American rock band Foreigner , released on 14 June 1991 by Atlantic Records . Recorded at several different studios across the state of New York and England , and produced by Terry Thomas and Mick Jones , it was the only album with lead singer Johnny Edwards . He replaced original lead singer Lou Gramm after the latter had parted company in 1990 . Unusual Heat was the last album to feature bass guitarist Rick Wills , who joined the band in 1979 , and drummer Dennis Elliott , who was a founding member . Unusual Heat was a huge commercial failure , only peaking at number 117 on the Billboard 200 chart -- a sharp decline in sales comparing with all previous albums , all of which reached the Top 20 and became at least Platinum . None of the two singles released from the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100 , however , `` Lowdown and Dirty '' was a number 4 Mainstream Rock chart hit .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Unusual_Heat", "rank": 95, "score": 94562 }, { "content": "Title: Temperature (song) Content: `` Temperature '' is the third worldwide and the second American single from Jamaican DJ Sean Paul 's album The Trinity ( 2005 ) . The song was produced by Rohan `` Snowcone '' Fuller and received a positive reception from music critics . The song was released as the second U.S. single in the first quarter of 2006 and reached number one in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Paul 's third number one hit single . It reached the top ten in Canada and France and the top twenty in the United Kingdom , peaking at # 11 there . In Australia , `` Temperature '' debuted at number nineteen but quickly found its way to number five the following weeks . `` Temperature '' won Dance Song Of The Year at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in 2007 . `` Temperature '' became Sean Paul 's biggest hit single in the US . In Australia it became a hit , with Sean Paul making interview appearances on radio , including on the Paul Celoni Radio Show . Even though it only spent one week at # 1 , `` Temperature '' showed extreme longevity on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending 17 weeks in the top 10 . Until Nelly Furtado and Timbaland 's `` Promiscuous '' , this was the longest run in the top ten for a single in 2006 . It became Sean Paul 's first single to sell an excess of one million digital downloads , earning platinum certification . The song uses the dancehall riddim `` Applause '' . It was used in the games Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 and Dance Central ( in the latter as DLC ) . It can also be heard in the 2007 film , Norbit . Officially , there are two versions of the song , which only differ in their rhythm . In 2008 , the media reported that Stacey Gayle of New York City experienced seizures as a result of hearing the song .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Temperature_(song)", "rank": 96, "score": 94470 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2009–10 in Great Britain and Ireland Content: The winter of 2009 -- 10 in the United Kingdom ( also called The Big Freeze by British media ) was a meteorological event that started on 16 December 2009 , as part of the severe winter weather in Europe . January 2010 was provisionally the coldest January since 1987 across the country . A persistent pattern of cold northerly and easterly winds brought cold , moist air to the United Kingdom with many snow showers , fronts and polar lows bringing snowy weather with it . The first snowfall began on 17 December 2009 , before a respite over the Christmas period . The most severe snowy weather began on 5 January in North West England and west Scotland with temperatures hitting a low of -17.6 ° C in Greater Manchester , England . The snow spread to Southern England on 6 January and by 7 January the United Kingdom was blanketed in snow , which was captured by NASA 's Terra satellite . The thaw came a week later , as temperatures started to increase . The winter weather brought widespread transport disruption , school closures , power failures , the postponement of sporting events and 25 deaths . A low of -22.3 ° C was recorded in Altnaharra , Scotland on 8 January 2010 . Overall it was the coldest winter since 1978 -- 79 , with a mean temperature of 1.5 ° C.", "qid": "436", "docid": "Winter_of_2009–10_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland", "rank": 97, "score": 94391 }, { "content": "Title: Timeline of the 2004–05 Australian region cyclone season Content: The 2004 -- 05 Australian region cyclone season was a near-average season with eleven tropical cyclonesAn average tropical cyclone season contains thirteen tropical cyclones . occurring within the Australian region south of the equator and from 90 ° E to 160 ° E . The season officially ran from 1 November 2004 to 30 April 2005 with pre-season Tropical Cyclone Phoebe forming on 1 September and an unnamed tropical cyclone dissipating on 15 April . This is the period of the year when most tropical cyclones form within the Australian region . During the season at least five people were killed from tropical disturbances while overall damage was estimated at $ ( 2005 USD ; $ USD ) . Severe Tropical Cyclone Harvey caused an estimated $ ( 2005 USD ; $ USD ) in damage in Northern Territory when it made landfall in February . The most damaging storm of the season , Severe Tropical Cyclone Ingrid , killed five people and caused an estimated $ ( 2005 USD ; $ USD ) as the first tropical cyclone on record , to bring hurricane-force windspeeds to Queensland , Northern Territory , and Western Australia . Within the Australian region , tropical lows are monitored by the Bureau of Meteorology ( BoM ) , who run Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres ( TCWC ) in Perth , Darwin and Brisbane . There is also a TCWC in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea . These TCWCs issue warnings for tropical lows between 90 ° E and 160 ° E . The United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center ( JTWC ) issues unofficial warnings within the Australian region , designating tropical cyclones with the P suffix when they form to the east of 135 ° E and S when they form to the west of 135 ° E . The Bureau of Meteorology and TCWC Port Moresby both use the Australian Tropical Cyclone Intensity Scale , and measure windspeeds over a period of ten minutes , while the JTWC measures sustained winds over a period of one minute and uses the Saffir -- Simpson Hurricane Scale . This timeline includes information from post-storm reviews by the Bureau of Meteorology , TCWC Port Moresby , and the JTWC . It documents tropical cyclone formations , strengthening , weakening , landfalls , extratropical transitions , and dissipations during the season . Reports among warning centers often differ ; as such , information from all three agencies has been included .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Timeline_of_the_2004–05_Australian_region_cyclone_season", "rank": 98, "score": 94324 }, { "content": "Title: Great Frost of 1709 Content: The Great Frost , as it was known in England , or Le Grand Hiver ( `` The Great Winter '' ) , as it was known in France , was an extraordinarily cold winter in Europe in late 1708 and early 1709 , and was the coldest European winter during the past 500 years . The severe cold occurred during the time of low sunspot activity known as the Maunder Minimum .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Great_Frost_of_1709", "rank": 99, "score": 94257 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of London Content: London , the capital and largest city in England and the United Kingdom has a temperate oceanic climate , with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year . Summer temperatures rarely rise much above 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) , though higher temperatures have become more common recently . The highest temperature ever recorded in London was 38.1 ° C ( 100.6 ° F ) , measured at Kew Gardens during the European Heat Wave of 2003 . In modern times , heavy snowfalls have been infrequent with snow generally only settling once or twice each winter and accumulations usually of no more than an inch ( 2.5 cm ) or so . Despite its reputation as being a rainy city , London receives less precipitation ( 601 mm ( 24 in ) in a year ) , than Rome , Bordeaux , Toulouse , Naples and less than half the precipitation of Sydney or New York City . This is despite the fact that sub-tropical regions usually receive fewer rainy or overcast days . London 's large built-up area creates a microclimate ( an `` urban heat island '' ) , with heat stored by the city 's buildings . Sometimes temperatures are 5 ° C ( 9 ° F ) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas .", "qid": "436", "docid": "Climate_of_London", "rank": 100, "score": 93964 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Winter Content: Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates , between autumn and spring . Winter is caused by the axis of the Earth in that hemisphere being oriented away from the Sun . Different cultures define different dates as the start of winter , and some use a definition based on weather . When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere , it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere , and vice versa . In many regions , winter is associated with snow and freezing temperatures . The moment of winter solstice is when the sun 's elevation with respect to the North or South Pole is at its most negative value ( that is , the sun is at its farthest below the horizon as measured from the pole ) , meaning this day will have the shortest day and the longest night . The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates outside the polar regions differ from the date of the winter solstice , however , and these depend on latitude , due to the variation in the solar day throughout the year caused by the Earth 's elliptical orbit ( see earliest and latest sunrise and sunset ) .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Winter", "rank": 1, "score": 108536 }, { "content": "Title: January Content: January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the first month to have the length of 31 days . The first day of the month is known as New Year 's Day . It is , on average , the coldest month of the year within most of the Northern Hemisphere ( where it is the second month of winter ) and the warmest month of the year within most of the Southern Hemisphere ( where it is the second month of summer ) . In the Southern hemisphere , January is the seasonal equivalent of July in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa . Ancient Roman observances during this month include Cervula , and Juvenalia ; celebrated January 1 , as well as one of three Agonalia , celebrated January 9 , and Carmentalia , celebrated January 11 . These dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar .", "qid": "441", "docid": "January", "rank": 2, "score": 106805 }, { "content": "Title: July Content: July is the seventh month of the year ( between June and August ) in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and the fourth month to have the length of 31 days . It was named by the Roman Senate in honor of the Roman general , Julius Caesar , it being the month of his birth . Prior to that , it was called Quintilis . It is on average the warmest month in most of the Northern hemisphere ( where it is the second month of summer ) and the coldest month in much of the Southern hemisphere ( where it is the second month of winter ) . The second half of the year commences in July . In the Southern hemisphere , July is the seasonal equivalent of January in the Northern hemisphere . In the Northern Hemisphere , `` Dog days '' are considered to begin in early July , when the hot sultry weather of summer usually starts . Spring lambs , born in late winter or early spring , are usually sold before July 1 . July is the traditional period known as `` fence month '' ( the closed season for deer in England ) , the end Trinity term ( sitting of the High Court of Justice of England ) , taking place on July 31 , and also the time in which the elections of Japanese House of Councillors , replacing half of its seats , held every three years ( the latest one in 2016 ) . In Ancient Rome the festival of Poplifugia was celebrated on July 5 , Ludi Apollinares on July 13 and for several days afterwards , but these dates does not correspond to the modern Gregorian one .", "qid": "441", "docid": "July", "rank": 3, "score": 104259 }, { "content": "Title: Mesopause Content: The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions . Due to the lack of solar heating and very strong radiative cooling from carbon dioxide , the mesosphere is the coldest region on Earth with temperatures as low as -100 ° C ( -148 ° F or 173 K ) . The altitude of the mesopause for many years was assumed to be at around 85 km ( 53 mi . ) , but observations to higher altitudes and modeling studies in the last 10 years have shown that in fact the mesopause consists of two minima - one at about 85 km and a stronger minimum at about 100 km . ( 62 mi . ) Another feature is that the summer mesopause is cooler than the winter ( sometimes referred to as the mesopause anomaly ) . It is due to a summer-to-winter circulation giving rise to upwelling at the summer pole and downwelling at the winter pole . Air rising will expand and cool resulting in a cold summer mesopause and conversely downwelling air results in compression and associated increase in temperature at the winter mesopause . In the mesosphere the summer-to-winter circulation is due to gravity wave dissipation , which deposits momentum against the mean east-west flow , resulting in a small north-south circulation . In recent years the mesopause has also been the focus of studies on global climate change associated with increases in CO2 . Unlike the troposphere , where greenhouse gases result in the atmosphere heating up , increased CO2 in the mesosphere acts to cool the atmosphere due to increased radiative emission . This results in a measurable effect - the mesopause should become cooler with increased CO2 . Observations do show a decrease of temperature of the mesopause , though the magnitude of this decrease varies and is subject to further study . Modeling studies of this phenomenon have also been carried out .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Mesopause", "rank": 4, "score": 97688 }, { "content": "Title: Summer Content: Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons , falling between spring and autumn . At the summer solstice , the days are longest and the nights are shortest , with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice . The date of the beginning of summer varies according to climate , tradition and culture . When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere , it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere , and vice versa .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Summer", "rank": 5, "score": 95636 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 6, "score": 94269 }, { "content": "Title: Season Content: A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather , ecology and hours of daylight . Seasons result from the yearly orbit of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth 's rotational axis relative to the plane of the orbit . In temperate and polar regions , the seasons are marked by changes in the intensity of sunlight that reaches the Earth 's surface , variations of which may cause animals to go into hibernation or to migrate , and plants to be dormant . During May , June , and July , the northern hemisphere is exposed to more direct sunlight because the hemisphere faces the sun . The same is true of the southern hemisphere in November , December , and January . It is the tilt of the Earth that causes the Sun to be higher in the sky during the summer months which increases the solar flux . However , due to seasonal lag , June , July , and August are the hottest months in the northern hemisphere and December , January , and February are the hottest months in the southern hemisphere . In temperate and subpolar regions , four calendar-based seasons are generally recognized : spring , autumn or fall , and winter . Ecologists often use a six-season model for temperate climate regions : prevernal , vernal , estival , serotinal , autumnal , and hibernal . Many tropical regions have two seasons : the rainy , wet , or monsoon season and the dry season . Some have a third cool , mild , or harmattan season . Seasons often held special significance for agrarian societies , whose lives revolved around planting and harvest times , and the change of seasons was often attended by ritual . In some parts of the world , some other `` seasons '' capture the timing of important ecological events such as hurricane season , tornado season , and wildfire season . The most historically important of these are the three seasons -- flood , growth , and low water -- which were previously defined by the former annual flooding of the Nile in Egypt .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Season", "rank": 7, "score": 93575 }, { "content": "Title: Northern Hemisphere Content: The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator . For other planets in the Solar System , north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth 's North pole . Due to the Earth 's axial tilt , winter in the Northern Hemisphere lasts from the December solstice ( typically December 21 UTC ) to the March Equinox ( typically March 20 UTC ) , while summer lasts from the June solstice ( typically June 21 UTC ) through to the September equinox ( typically September 23 UTC ) . The dates vary each year due to the difference between the calendar year and the astronomical year . Its surface is 60.7 % water , compared with 80.9 % water in the case of the Southern Hemisphere , and it contains 67.3 % of Earth 's land .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Northern_Hemisphere", "rank": 8, "score": 90883 }, { "content": "Title: June Content: June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the second month to have the length of 30 days . June contains the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere , the day with the most daylight hours , and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere , the day with the fewest daylight hours ( excluding polar regions in both cases ) . June in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to December in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa . In the Northern hemisphere , the beginning of the traditional astronomical summer is 21 June ( meteorological summer begins on 1 June ) . In the Southern hemisphere , meteorological winter begins on 1 June . At the start of June , the sun rises in the constellation of Taurus ; at the end of June , the sun rises in the constellation of Gemini . However , due to the precession of the equinoxes , June begins with the sun in the astrological sign of Gemini , and ends with the sun in the astrological sign of Cancer .", "qid": "441", "docid": "June", "rank": 9, "score": 90624 }, { "content": "Title: 5th millennium Content: `` 4400 '' redirects here . For the science fiction TV series , see The 4400 . The fifth millennium of the Gregorian calendar will begin on January 1 , 4001 , and end on December 31 , 5000 . It will be the fifth millennium in the Anno Domini or Common Era .", "qid": "441", "docid": "5th_millennium", "rank": 10, "score": 90422 }, { "content": "Title: Year Without a Summer Content: The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer ( also the Poverty Year , the Summer that Never Was , Year There Was No Summer , and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death ) because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4 -- 0.7 ° C ( 0.7 -- 1.3 ° F ) . This resulted in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere . Evidence suggests that the anomaly was predominantly a volcanic winter event caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies ( the largest eruption in at least 1,300 years after the extreme weather events of 535 -- 536 ) , perhaps plus the 1814 eruption of Mayon in the Philippines . The Earth had already been in a centuries-long period of global cooling that started in the 14th century . Known today as the Little Ice Age , it had already caused considerable agricultural distress in Europe . The Little Ice Age 's existing cooling was aggravated by the eruption of Tambora , which occurred during its concluding decades .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Year_Without_a_Summer", "rank": 11, "score": 90183 }, { "content": "Title: 2006 European heat wave Content: The 2006 European heat wave was a period of exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of June 2006 in certain European countries . The United Kingdom , France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , Italy , Poland , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Germany and western parts of Russia were most affected . Several records were broken . In the Netherlands , Belgium , Germany , Ireland and the United Kingdom , July 2006 was the warmest month since official measurements began .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2006_European_heat_wave", "rank": 12, "score": 89245 }, { "content": "Title: December 21 Content: In the Northern Hemisphere , December 21st is usually the shortest day of the year and is sometimes regarded as the first day of winter . In the Southern Hemisphere , December 21st is usually the longest day of the year and occurs during the southern summer .", "qid": "441", "docid": "December_21", "rank": 13, "score": 88639 }, { "content": "Title: Summer solstice Content: The summer solstice ( or estival solstice ) , also known as midsummer , occurs when a planet 's rotational axis , in either northern or southern hemispheres , is most inclined toward the star that it orbits . Earth 's maximum axial tilt toward the Sun is 23 ° 26 ′ . This happens twice each year ( once in each hemisphere ) , at which times the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the north or the south pole . The summer solstice occurs during the hemisphere 's summer . This is the northern solstice in the northern hemisphere and the southern solstice in the southern hemisphere . Depending on the shift of the calendar , the summer solstice occurs some time between June 20 and June 22 in the northern hemisphere and between December 20 and December 23 each year in the southern hemisphere . The same dates in the opposite hemisphere are referred to as the winter solstice . When on a geographic pole , the Sun reaches its greatest height at the moment of solstice . It can be noon only along that longitude which at that moment lies in the direction of the Sun from the pole . For other longitudes , it is not noon . Noon has either passed or has yet to come . Hence the notion of a solstice day is useful . The term is colloquially used like `` midsummer '' to refer to the day on which solstice occurs . The summer solstice day has the longest period of daylight -- except in the polar regions , where daylight is continuous , from a few days to six months around the summer solstice . 2016 was the first time in nearly 70 years that a full moon and the Northern Hemisphere 's summer solstice concur on the same day . The 2016 summer solstice 's full moon rose just as the Sun set . Worldwide , interpretation of the event has varied among cultures , but most recognize the event in some way with holidays , festivals , and rituals around that time with themes of religion or fertility . In some regions , the summer solstice is seen as the beginning of summer and the end of spring . In other cultural conventions , the solstice is closer to the middle of summer . Solstice is derived from the Latin words sol ( sun ) and sistere ( to stand still ) .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Summer_solstice", "rank": 14, "score": 88502 }, { "content": "Title: Dongzhi (solar term) Content: The traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms . Dōngzhì , Tōji , Dongji , or Đông chí is the 22nd solar term , and marks the winter solstice . It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 270 ° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 285 ° . It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 270 ° . In the Gregorian calendar , it usually begins around 21 December ( 22 December East Asia time ) and ends around 5 January . Along with equinoxes , solstices mark the middle of East Asian calendar seasons . Thus , in '' '' , the Chinese character '' 至 '' means `` extreme '' , which implies `` solstices '' , and therefore the term for the winter solstice directly signifies the summit of winter , as `` midwinter '' is used in English . In China , Dongzhi was originally celebrated as an end-of-harvest festival . Today , it is observed with a family reunion over the long night , when pink and white tangyuan are eaten in sweet broth to symbolise family unity and prosperity .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Dongzhi_(solar_term)", "rank": 15, "score": 88121 }, { "content": "Title: 1976 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1976 United Kingdom heat wave led to the hottest summer average temperature in the UK since records began . At the same time , the country suffered a severe drought . It was one of the driest , sunniest and warmest summers ( June/July/August ) in the 20th century , although 1995 is now regarded as the driest . Only a few places registered more than half their average summer rainfall . In the CET record , it was the warmest summer in that series . It was the warmest summer in the Aberdeen area since at least 1864 . It was the driest summer since 1868 in Glasgow .", "qid": "441", "docid": "1976_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 16, "score": 86854 }, { "content": "Title: Qingming Content: Qīngmíng , Seimei , Cheongmyeong , or Thanh minh is the name of the 5th solar term of the traditional East Asian lunisolar calendar , which divides a year into 24 solar terms . In space partitioning , Qingming begins when the sun reaches the celestial longitude of 15 ° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 30 ° . It more often refers in particular to the day when the sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 15 ° , usually on April 5 . Compared to the space partitioning theory , in the time division theory Qingming falls around April 7 or approximately 106.5 days after winter equinox . In the Gregorian calendar , it usually begins around 4 or 5 April and ends around 20 April .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Qingming", "rank": 17, "score": 86062 }, { "content": "Title: August 2009 Argentine winter heat wave Content: The 2009 Argentine winter heat wave was a period of unusual and exceptionally hot weather that arrived at the end of the winter on August 2009 in Argentina . Several provinces of the country were most affected . Several records were broken . August 2009 was the warmest month since official measurements began . On 30 August 2009 it was hot enough to be the middle of summer late last week in the heart of Argentina even with the calendar showing more than three weeks remaining in the Southern Hemisphere winter . A shot of tropical heat drawn unusually far southward hiked temperatures 30 C-change above normal in the city of Buenos Aires and across the north-central regions of the country . Even though normal high temperatures for late August are near 16 C , readings topped 30 C degrees at midweek , then topped out above 32 C degrees during the weekend . Temperatures hit 33.8 C on 29 August and finally 34.6 C on 31 August in Buenos Aires , making it the hottest day ever recorded in winter breaking the 1996 winter record of 33.7 C. Elsewhere in Argentina , the mid-northern city of Córdoba reached a dramatic high of 37.8 C degrees on 29 August 2009 . Another northern city , Santa Fe , registered 38.3 C degrees on 30 August , compared to the normal high of around 18 C.", "qid": "441", "docid": "August_2009_Argentine_winter_heat_wave", "rank": 18, "score": 85016 }, { "content": "Title: June 21 Content: This day usually marks the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere , which is the day of the year with the most hours of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere and the fewest hours of daylight in the Southern Hemisphere .", "qid": "441", "docid": "June_21", "rank": 19, "score": 84894 }, { "content": "Title: Year Content: A year is the orbital period of the Earth moving in its orbit around the Sun . Due to the Earth 's axial tilt , the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons , marked by changes in weather , the hours of daylight , and , consequently , vegetation and soil fertility . In temperate and subpolar regions around the globe , four seasons are generally recognized : spring , summer , autumn and winter . In tropical and subtropical regions several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons ; but in the seasonal tropics , the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked . A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth 's orbital period as counted in a given calendar . The Gregorian , or modern , calendar , presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days , as do the Julian calendars ; see below . For the Gregorian calendar the average length of the calendar year ( the mean year ) across the complete leap cycle of 400 years is 365.2425 days . The ISO standard ISO 80000-3 , Annex C , supports the symbol `` a '' ( for Latin annus ) to represent a year of either 365 or 366 days . In English , the abbreviations `` y '' and `` yr '' are commonly used . In astronomy , the Julian year is a unit of time ; it is defined as 365.25 days of exactly seconds ( SI base unit ) , totalling exactly seconds in the Julian astronomical year . The word `` year '' is also used for periods loosely associated with , but not identical to , the calendar or astronomical year , such as the seasonal year , the fiscal year , the academic year , etc. . Similarly , `` year '' can mean the orbital period of any planet : for example , a Martian year or a Venusian year are examples of the time a planet takes to transit one complete orbit . The term can also be used in reference to any long period or cycle , such as the Great Year .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Year", "rank": 20, "score": 84891 }, { "content": "Title: HD 176527 Content: HD 176527 is a 5th magnitude star in the constellation Lyra , approximately 350 light years away from Earth . It is an orange giant star of the spectral type K2III . It therefore has a surface temperature of 3,500 to 5,000 kelvins and is much larger and brighter , yet cooler , than our Sun .", "qid": "441", "docid": "HD_176527", "rank": 21, "score": 84814 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "441", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 22, "score": 84566 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Budapest Content: The Climate of Budapest is humid continental . Winter ( December until early March ) is by far the coldest and cloudiest time of year . Snowfall is fairly frequent in most years , and nighttime temperatures of − 15 ° C ( 5 ° F ) are not uncommon from mid-December until mid-February . The spring months ( March and April ) see variable conditions , with a rapid increase in the average temperature . Budapest 's summer , lasting from June until September , is the warmest time of year . Budapest has as much summer sunshine as many Mediterranean resorts . Sudden heavy showers also occur , particularly in May and June . The autumn in Budapest ( mid-September until late October ) is characterized by less rain than in summer and long sunny days .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Climate_of_Budapest", "rank": 23, "score": 84284 }, { "content": "Title: HD 171301 Content: HD 171301 and BD +30 ° 3223B are two components of a double star in the constellation Lyra , approximately 370 light years away from Earth . The brighter of the pair , 5th magnitude HD 171301 , is a subgiant star with the spectral type B8IV . It therefore possesses a surface temperature of 11,000 to 25,000 kelvins and is brighter , larger , and at least twice as hot as our Sun . Its companion , BD +30 ° 3223B , is a 13th magnitude star of an unknown spectral type .", "qid": "441", "docid": "HD_171301", "rank": 24, "score": 84043 }, { "content": "Title: August 7 Content: This day marks the approximate midpoint of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and of winter in the Southern Hemisphere ( starting the season at the June solstice ) .", "qid": "441", "docid": "August_7", "rank": 25, "score": 83963 }, { "content": "Title: 1999–2000 NFL playoffs Content: The National Football League playoffs for the 1999 season began on January 8 , 2000 . The postseason tournament concluded with the St. Louis Rams defeating the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV , 23 -- 16 , on January 30 , at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta , Georgia . These playoffs were notable in that all outdoor games were played with gametime temperatures of 50 ° F or higher , making for one of the warmest playoff seasons of all time . It was the first time no California-based NFL team made the playoffs since 1969 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "1999–2000_NFL_playoffs", "rank": 26, "score": 83670 }, { "content": "Title: Effect of Sun angle on climate Content: The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of Sun angle on climate , as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location , time of day , and season due to the Earth 's orbit around the Sun and the Earth 's rotation around its tilted axis . Seasonal change in the angle of sunlight , caused by the tilt of the Earth 's axis , is the basic mechanism that results in warmer weather in summer than in winter . Change in day length is another factor . ( See also season . )", "qid": "441", "docid": "Effect_of_Sun_angle_on_climate", "rank": 27, "score": 83620 }, { "content": "Title: Aoussou Content: Aoussou is the period of the year extending , according to the Berber calendar , over 15 days from 25 July . It is known to be a very hot period .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Aoussou", "rank": 28, "score": 83517 }, { "content": "Title: HD 173780 Content: HD 173780 is a 5th magnitude star in the constellation Lyra , approximately 250 light years away from Earth . It is an orange giant star of the spectral type K3III , meaning it has a surface temperature of 3,500 to 5,000 kelvins . It is much bigger and brighter than our Sun , yet cooler .", "qid": "441", "docid": "HD_173780", "rank": 29, "score": 83364 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Antarctica Content: The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth . Antarctica 's lowest air temperature record was set on 21 July 1983 , with − 89.2 C at Vostok Station . Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures , down to − 93.2 C at the cloud free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010 . It is also extremely dry ( technically a desert ) , averaging 166 mm of precipitation per year . On most parts of the continent the snow rarely melts and is eventually compressed to become the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet . Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent , because of the katabatic winds . Most of Antarctica has an ice cap climate ( Köppen EF ) with very cold , generally extremely dry weather .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Climate_of_Antarctica", "rank": 30, "score": 83120 }, { "content": "Title: HD 15920 Content: HD 15920 is a 5th magnitude star in the constellation Cassiopeia , approximately 260 light years away from Earth . It is a yellow giant star of the spectral type G8III , meaning its surface temperature is in the same range as our Sun , 5,000 to 6,000 kelvins . It is much bigger and more luminous than the Sun .", "qid": "441", "docid": "HD_15920", "rank": 31, "score": 83061 }, { "content": "Title: Neoglaciation Content: The neoglaciation ( `` renewed glaciation '' ) describes the documented cooling trend in the Earth 's climate during the Holocene , following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciation , the most recent glacial period . Neoglaciation has followed the hypsithermal or Holocene Climatic Optimum , the warmest point in the Earth 's climate during the current interglacial stage . The neoglaciation has no well-marked universal beginning : local conditions and ecological inertia affected the onset of detectably cooler ( and wetter ) conditions . Driven inexorably by the Milankovitch cycle , cooler summers in higher latitudes of North America , which would cease to completely melt the annual snowfall , were masked at first by the presence of the slowly disappearing continental ice sheets , which persisted long after the astronomically calculated moment of maximum summer warmth : `` the neoglaciation can be said to have begun when the cooling caught up with the warming '' , remarked E. C. Pielou . With the close of the `` Little Ice Age '' ( mid-14th to late 19th centuries ) , neoglaciation appears to have been stalled in the late 20th century , assumed to be caused by anthropogenic global warming . Whether it has been temporarily or semi-permanently stalled , neoglaciation has been marked by a retreat from the warm conditions of the Climatic Optimum and the advance or reformation of glaciers that had not existed since the last ice age . In the mountains of western North America , montane glaciers that had completely melted reformed shortly before 5000 BP . The most severe part of the best documented neoglacial period , especially in Europe and the North Atlantic , is termed the `` Little Ice Age '' . In North America , neoglaciation had ecological effects in the spread of muskeg on flat , poorly drained land , such as the bed of recently drained Lake Agassiz and in the Hudson Bay lowlands , in the retreat of grassland before an advancing forest border in the Great Plains , and in shifting ranges of forest trees and diagnostic plant species ( identified through palynology ) . The view that neoglaciation is ending in present times , is assumed by those who identify the most recent climate changes and global warming as the onset of a new period in Earth history , speculatively calling it the `` Early anthropocene '' , as a coming geological age dominated by the effects of Homo sapiens .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Neoglaciation", "rank": 32, "score": 82741 }, { "content": "Title: List of locations with a subtropical climate Content: This list of locations with a subtropical climate specifically lists locations considered within the subtropics . The subtropics are geographic and climate zones located roughly between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn and the 40th parallel in both hemispheres . Subtropical climate regimes can exist at high elevations within the tropics , such as across the Mexican Plateau and in Vietnam and Taiwan . Six climate classifications utilize the term to help define the various temperature and precipitation regimes for the planet Earth . Using the Trewartha climate classification eight or more months of the year within the subtropics have an average temperature at or above 10 ° C , with their coldest month averaging between 6 and . The Köppen climate classification instead classifies the warmest month above 22 C and the coldest above 0 C or -3 C depending on preference . A great portion of the world 's deserts are located within the subtropics , due to the development of the subtropical ridge . Within the humid monsoon regimes in the subtropics , a wet season is seen annually during the summer , which is when most of the yearly rainfall falls . Within the Mediterranean climate regime , the wet season occurs during the winter . Areas bordering warm oceans are prone to locally heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones , which can contribute a significant percentage of the annual rainfall . Plants such as date palms , citrus , mango , litchi , and avocado are grown within the subtropical zones . This is not a complete list . Many of the higher mountains at tropical latitudes have sparsely ( if at all ) inhabited areas with a subtropical climate . Roads with reflectors also exist in most areas with subtropical climates .", "qid": "441", "docid": "List_of_locations_with_a_subtropical_climate", "rank": 33, "score": 82718 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The autumn 2011 United Kingdom heat wave was a period of unseasonably warm weather which arrived towards the end of September 2011 and continued into October . As a result , record-high temperatures for the country were broken for the autumn months . The autumn heat wave followed the warmest temperatures to occur on record in the spring , but also the coolest temperatures to occur in the summer months since 1993 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Autumn_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 34, "score": 82607 }, { "content": "Title: HD 172044 Content: HD 172044 and BD +33 ° 3154B are two components of a binary star system in the constellation Lyra , approximately 520 light years away from Earth . 5th magnitude HD 172044 is a giant or subgiant star with the spectral type B8II-IIIp ... The `` p. . . '' signifies that the star has a peculiar spectrum and spectral peculiarities have yet to be described . It is bluish white in color and has a surface temperature of 11,000 to 25,000 kelvins . It is therefore at least twice as hot as our Sun on its surface , and many times brighter and larger in size . BD +33 ° 3154B is an 11th magnitude star of an unknown spectral type .", "qid": "441", "docid": "HD_172044", "rank": 35, "score": 82555 }, { "content": "Title: HD 19275 Content: HD 19275 is a 5th magnitude star in the constellation Cassiopeia , approximately 162 light years away from Earth . It is a dwarf star , like the Sun , of the spectral type A2Vnn . It therefore has a surface temperature of 7,500 to 11,000 kelvins and is many times more luminous than the Sun . The `` nn '' in its spectral type signifies that it has very broad spectral lines , because it rotates very fast .", "qid": "441", "docid": "HD_19275", "rank": 36, "score": 82382 }, { "content": "Title: 2013 heatwave in Ireland and the United Kingdom Content: The 2013 heat wave in the United Kingdom and Ireland was a period of unusually hot weather primarily in July 2013 , with isolated warm days in June and August . A prolonged high pressure system over Britain and Ireland caused higher than average temperatures for 19 consecutive days in July , reaching 33.5 ° C at Heathrow and Northolt . Following a brief period of cooler weather at the end of July , temperatures temporarily rose again , peaking at 34.1 ° C on 1 August in the United Kingdom , the warmest the country had seen since July 2006 , and 31.0 ° C in Ireland . At 19 days , the July heatwave was the longest continuous period of hot weather in the UK since August 1997 . However , in the general sense , Britain did not have an overall exceptional summer ; the country experienced cool low pressure systems brought by an unseasonably low latitude by the jet stream for the 6 summers previous , which made the summer of 2013 more `` welcome '' and feel warmer than other summers . The historical records suggests `` Using the CET record ( for June , July & August ) , the average temperature by that measure was 16.3 degC ( Provisional ) : neither June nor August was exceptionally warm , so this value does not ` rate ' too highly when set against other very warm summer seasons . '' With June being a cool month and August being an Average month , in terms of temperatures the English Central summer temperature ended up being on the average side set up against previous summers since the CET series began in 1659 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2013_heatwave_in_Ireland_and_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 37, "score": 82302 }, { "content": "Title: Xiaohan Content: The traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms . Xiǎohán , Shōkan , Sohan , or Tiểu hàn is the 23rd solar term . It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 285 ° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 300 ° . It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 285 ° . In the Gregorian calendar , it usually begins around 5 January and ends around 20 January . 23 Category : Winter time", "qid": "441", "docid": "Xiaohan", "rank": 38, "score": 82281 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–15 North American winter Content: The 2014 -- 15 North American winter refers to winter as it occurred across the continent from late 2014 through early 2015 . While there is no well-agreed-upon date used to indicate the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere , there are two definitions of winter which may be used . Based on the astronomical definition , winter begins at the winter solstice , which in 2014 occurred on December 21 , and ends at the March equinox , which in 2015 occurred on March 20 . Based on the meteorological definition , the first day of winter is December 1 and the last day February 28 . Both definitions involve a period of approximately three months , with some variability . While both the meteorological and astronomical definitions of winter involve the onset of winter occurring in December , many places in North America experienced their first wintry weather during mid November . A period of below-average temperatures affected much of the contiguous United States , and several records were broken . An early trace of snowfall was recorded in Arkansas . There were greater accumulations of snow across parts of Oklahoma as well . A quasi-permanent phenomenon referred to as the polar vortex may have been partly responsible for the cold weather . Temperatures in much of the United States dropped 15 to below average by November 19 following a southward `` dip '' of the polar vortex into the eastern two-thirds of the country . The effects of this dip were widespread , bringing about temperatures as low as 28 F in Pensacola , Florida . Following a significant snowstorm there , Buffalo , New York received several feet of snow from November 17 -- 21 . During the 2014 -- 15 winter season , Boston broke its all-time official seasonal 107.6 in snowfall record from the winter of 1995 -- 96 , with a total snowfall record of 108.6 in as of March 15 , 2015 . Many records for snowfall and temperature were broken , many for the month of February , with every state east of the Mississippi River being colder than average , some for the entire winter . However , this meteorological winter was the 19th-warmest of the past 120 winters over the lower 48 states , largely due to persistent warm weather in the West .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2014–15_North_American_winter", "rank": 39, "score": 82212 }, { "content": "Title: 2018 British Isles heat wave Content: The 2018 Britain and Ireland heat wave was a period of unusually hot weather that took place in June, July and August. It caused widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and a number of wildfires. These wildfires worst affected northern moorland areas around the Greater Manchester region, the largest was at Saddleworth Moor and another was at Winter Hill, together these burned over 14 square miles (36 km2) of land over a period of nearly a month.A heat wave was officially declared on 22 June, with Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave. The British Isles were in the middle of a strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet stream, this was part of the wider 2018 European heat wave. The Met Office declared summer 2018 the joint hottest on record together with 1976, 2003 and 2006.", "qid": "441", "docid": "2018_British_Isles_heat_wave", "rank": 40, "score": 81951 }, { "content": "Title: 2001 Eastern North America heat wave Content: A rather cool and uneventful summer along the East Coast of the United States ( with a more average heat pattern occurring in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions ) changed abruptly when a ridge of high pressure centered off the coast of South Carolina strengthened in late July . It began in early August for areas of the Midwest and western Great Lakes before spreading eastward and intensifying . It waned in most areas by the middle of the month , and although fairly short in duration compared with some other continental heat waves , it was very intense at its peak . The high humidity and high temperatures led to major heat wave that overtook the major Northeast Megalopolis . Temperatures in Central Park , New York City reached a peak of 103 F . The temperature reached 105 F in Newark , New Jersey . Meanwhile , in Ontario and Quebec , extreme temperatures were also reported daily during the first week of August . Ottawa recorded its second-hottest day ever when the mercury approached 37 C on August 9 and at the Toronto Airport it hit 38 C on the same day , the hottest day there since 1955 with four straight days topping 35 C. Numerous records were shattered during the heatwave . Even in Nova Scotia , surrounded by the relatively cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean , temperatures still broke 35 C in some locations . Glace Bay , which has a sub-Arctic climate reached a record-breaking 35.5 C on August 10 . At least four New Yorkers died of hyperthermia . Chicago had at least 21 deaths .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2001_Eastern_North_America_heat_wave", "rank": 41, "score": 81429 }, { "content": "Title: 2014 Swedish heat wave Content: The summer of 2014 in Sweden was unusually warm , especially in the northern parts of the country . The notability of this event was characterised as July being the warmest ever month on record in the north-west . Although temperature records set that summer are somewhat moderate by international standards , Sweden 's northerly latitude and marine influence has to be taken into account , rendering the temperatures recorded more extreme .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2014_Swedish_heat_wave", "rank": 42, "score": 81288 }, { "content": "Title: Singularity (climate) Content: A singularity is a weather phenomenon likely to occur with reasonable regularity around a specific approximate calendar date , outside of more general seasonal weather patterns ( e.g. , that May Day is usually warmer than New Year 's Day in northern locales ) . The existence of singularities is disputed , some considering them due to seeing patterns in noise and statistical artifacts from small samples . In North America , the most significant purported singularities are January thaw ( warmer weather around January 25 ) and Indian summer ( warmer weather in mid-autumn ) . More fanciful ones include the British tradition that rain on St. Swithun 's Day ( 15 July ) will be followed by forty days and nights of rain , and similar folk beliefs around groundhog day .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Singularity_(climate)", "rank": 43, "score": 81275 }, { "content": "Title: Tobi (month) Content: Tobi ( Ⲧⲱⲃⲓ , Tōbi ) , also known as Tybi ( Τυβί , Tybí ) and Tubah , is the fifth month of the Egyptian and Coptic calendars . It lies between January 9 and February 7 of the Gregorian calendar . The month of Tobi is also the first month of the season of Proyet ( Growth and Emergence ) in Ancient Egypt , where the Nile floods recede and the crops start to grow throughout the land of Egypt .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Tobi_(month)", "rank": 44, "score": 81248 }, { "content": "Title: Spring 2011 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The Spring of 2011 in the United Kingdom was exceptional for the warm weather which occurred during April and the dry weather which was persistent during March and April in certain parts of the UK . April was statistically the warmest and driest in the country since records began in 1910 . There was a contrast between north-western parts of the UK which received substantial amounts of rainfall and south-eastern parts which received very little . As lack of rainfall continued in many parts during May , concerns arose that the country could submit to drought . High pressure was the cause for the warm , dry weather experienced during April . A high temperature of 27.8 ° C was recorded on 23 April at Wisley , Surrey , the highest temperature recorded in April in the UK since 1949 . Thus , the Central England Temperature for the month was 3.7 ° C above the 1971-2000 average , and daily maximum temperatures were up to 6 ° C higher than average .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Spring_2011_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 45, "score": 81189 }, { "content": "Title: February 4 Content: This day marks the approximate midpoint of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and of summer in the Southern Hemisphere ( starting the season at the December solstice ) .", "qid": "441", "docid": "February_4", "rank": 46, "score": 81180 }, { "content": "Title: HD 175740 Content: HD 175740 , BD +41 ° 3177B and BD +41 ° 3177C are components of a double star in the constellation Lyra , approximately 270 light years away from Earth . The most luminous star , 5th magnitude HD 175740 , is a yellow giant star of the spectral type G8III . It therefore has a surface temperature of 5,000 to 6,000 kelvins , in the same range as that of our Sun , though it is much larger and brighter in comparison . BD +41 ° 3177B is a 13th magnitude star of an unknown spectral type .", "qid": "441", "docid": "HD_175740", "rank": 47, "score": 81179 }, { "content": "Title: 1908 Content: According to NASA reports , 1908 was the coldest recorded year since 1880 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "1908", "rank": 48, "score": 81118 }, { "content": "Title: Medieval Warm Period Content: The Medieval Warm Period ( MWP ) , Medieval Climate Optimum , or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that may also have been related to other climate events around the world during that time , including China and other areas , lasting from about 950 to 1250 . It was followed by a cooler period in the North Atlantic and elsewhere termed the Little Ice Age . Some refer to the event as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly as this term emphasizes that effects other than temperature were important . Despite uncertainties , especially for the period prior to 1600 for which data are scarce , the warmest period of the last 2,000 years prior to the 20th century in the Northern Hemisphere very likely occurred between 950 and 1100 . Proxy records show peak warmth occurred at different times for different regions , indicating that the Medieval Warm Period was not a time of globally uniform change . Temperatures in some regions matched or exceeded recent temperatures in these regions , but globally the Medieval Warm Period was cooler than recent global temperatures . Possible causes of the Medieval Warm Period include increased solar activity , decreased volcanic activity , and changes to ocean circulation .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Medieval_Warm_Period", "rank": 49, "score": 81032 }, { "content": "Title: 2015–16 North American winter Content: The 2015 -- 16 North American winter refers to winter as it occurred across the continent from late 2015 through early 2016 . While there is no well-agreed-upon date used to indicate the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere , there are two definitions of winter which may be used . Based on the astronomical definition , winter begins at the winter solstice , which in 2015 occurred late on December 21 , and ends at the March equinox , which in 2016 occurred on March 20 . Based on the meteorological definition , the first day of winter is December 1 and the last day February 29 . Both definitions involve a period of approximately three months , with some variability . Contrary to the past two winters , the United States ( including the Northeast ) experienced warmer conditions , mainly due to a strong El Niño . However , despite the warmth , significant weather systems still occurred . The main event of the winter was when a crippling and historic blizzard struck the Northeast in late January , dumping up to 3 ft of snow in and around the metropolitan areas .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2015–16_North_American_winter", "rank": 50, "score": 80834 }, { "content": "Title: Summer of 1976 (Europe) Content: The summer of 1976 was considered to be one of the hottest summers in Europe ( and especially the United Kingdom ) within recent memory . A large high-pressure area dominated most of Europe for all of the summer months . The pressure system moved into place in late May 1976 and remained until the first traces of rain were recorded on August 27 . Rainfall throughout the July -- August period was down by half the annual average . During this spell of hot weather temperatures exceeded 32 ° C ( 89.6 ° F ) at several weather stations within the United Kingdom every day and the town of Cheltenham had eleven , including seven successive days from the 1st of July - recording 35.9 ° C ( 96.6 ° F ) on the 3rd . For the entire period much of Europe was bathed in continual sunshine with the United Kingdom seeing an average of more than 14 hours of sunshine per day . 1976 was dubbed `` The year of the Ladybird '' in that country due to the rise in the mass numbers of ladybirds brought on by the long hot period . `` The long hot summer of 1976 which eventually ended in September of that year , was the culmination of a 16-week dry spell - the longest recorded over England and Wales since 1727 . `` Quote From Met Office The summer of 1976 is by now a firmly established reference point for discussion in the UK of contemporary hot spells .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Summer_of_1976_(Europe)", "rank": 51, "score": 80724 }, { "content": "Title: 1997–98 El Niño event Content: The 1997 -- 98 El Niño was regarded as one of the most powerful El Niño -- Southern Oscillation events in recorded history , resulting in widespread droughts , flooding and other natural disasters across the globe . It caused an estimated 16 % of the world 's reef systems to die , and temporarily warmed air temperature by 1.5 ° C , compared to the usual increase of 0.25 ° C associated with El Niño events . It led to a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever after extreme rainfall in north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia . It also led to record rainfalls in California during the water season of 1997 -- 98 and one of Indonesia 's worst droughts on record . 1998 ultimately became the warmest year in recorded history ( up until then ) .", "qid": "441", "docid": "1997–98_El_Niño_event", "rank": 52, "score": 80398 }, { "content": "Title: 16 Lyrae Content: 16 Lyrae ( 16 Lyr ) is a 5th magnitude star in the constellation Lyra , approximately 128 light years away from Earth . It is a white star of the spectral type A7V , meaning it has a surface temperature of 7,500 to 11,000 kelvins . It is a dwarf star , like the Sun , but much hotter and brighter .", "qid": "441", "docid": "16_Lyrae", "rank": 53, "score": 80148 }, { "content": "Title: Kumud Content: Kumud is a tribal area in Fujairah , United Arab Emirates . Kumud is almost totally mountainous . The weather is seasonal , although it is warm most of the year . The months from October to March are generally regarded as the coolest , with daytime temperatures averaging around 25 C and rarely venturing above 30 C . The winter period also coincides with the rainy season . Rainfall is higher than the rest of the UAE because of the effect of the Hajar mountains and the easterly winds bringing with them water-laden clouds off the warm Gulf of Oman in the Indian Ocean . The temperatures climb above 40 C degrees in the summer .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Kumud", "rank": 54, "score": 80107 }, { "content": "Title: El Azara Content: El Azara is the period of the year extending , according to the Berber calendar , from 3 to 13 February and known by a climate sometimes hot , sometimes cold .", "qid": "441", "docid": "El_Azara", "rank": 55, "score": 79758 }, { "content": "Title: May Content: May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and the third month to have the length of 31 days . May is also the month with the shortest name with three letters . May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere . Therefore , May in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of November in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa . Late May typically marks the of the summer vacation season in the United States and Canada and ends on Labor Day , first Monday of September .", "qid": "441", "docid": "May", "rank": 56, "score": 79692 }, { "content": "Title: March equinox Content: The March equinox or Northward equinox is the equinox on the Earth when the subsolar point appears to leave the southern hemisphere and cross the celestial equator , heading northward as seen from Earth . In the Northern Hemisphere the March equinox is known as the vernal equinox , and in the Southern Hemisphere as the autumnal equinox . On the Gregorian calendar the Northward equinox can occur as early as 19 March or as late as 21 March . For a common year the computed time slippage is about 5 hours 49 minutes later than the previous year , and for a leap year about 18 hours 11 minutes earlier than the previous year . Balancing the increases of the common years against the losses of the leap years keeps the calendar date of the March equinox from drifting more than one day from 20 March each year . The March equinox may be taken to mark the beginning of spring and the end of winter in the Northern Hemisphere but marks the beginning of autumn and the end of summer in the Southern Hemisphere . In astronomy , the March equinox is the zero point of sidereal time and , consequently , right ascension . It also serves as a reference for calendars and celebrations in many human cultures and religions .", "qid": "441", "docid": "March_equinox", "rank": 57, "score": 79271 }, { "content": "Title: First of the Five Elements Content: First of the Five Elements is the Finnish fifth studio album by the power metal band Warmen , released on September 30 , 2014 . The creation of the album was financed with crowdfunding .", "qid": "441", "docid": "First_of_the_Five_Elements", "rank": 58, "score": 78900 }, { "content": "Title: Highest temperature recorded on Earth Content: The standard measuring conditions for temperature are in the air , 1.5 meters above the ground , and shielded from direct sunlight . The highest confirmed temperature on Earth recorded according to these measures was 56.7 C in Furnace Creek Ranch , California , located in the Death Valley desert in the United States , on July 10 , 1913 . The former highest official temperature on Earth , held for 90 years by ` Aziziya , Libya , was de-certified by the WMO ( World Meteorological Organization ) in January 2012 as the record for the world 's highest surface temperature ( this temperature of 57.8 ° C ( 136 ° F ) , registered on 13 September 1922 , is currently considered to have been a recorder 's error ) . Christopher C. Burt , the weather historian writing for Weather Underground who shepherded the Libya reading 's 2012 disqualification , believes that the 1913 Death Valley reading is `` a myth '' , and is at least four or five degrees Fahrenheit too high , as do other weather historians Dr. Arnold Court and William Taylor Reid . Burt proposes that the highest reliably recorded temperature on Earth is still at Death Valley , but is instead 53.9 C recorded five times : 20 July 1960 , 18 July 1998 , 20 July 2005 , 7 July 2007 , and 30 June 2013 . Temperatures measured directly on the ground may exceed air temperatures by 30 to 50 ° C . A ground temperature of 84 ° C ( 183.2 ° F ) has been recorded in Port Sudan , Sudan . A ground temperature of 93.9 ° C ( 201 ° F ) was recorded also in Furnace Creek Ranch on 15 July 1972 ; this may be the highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded . The theoretical maximum possible ground surface temperature has been estimated to be between 90 and 100 ° C for dry , darkish soils of low thermal conductivity . Temperature measurements via satellite also tend to capture occurrence of higher records but are considered less reliable than ground-positioned thermometers . There is a satellite record of 66.8 C measured in the Flaming Mountains of China in 2008 . Other satellite measurements of ground temperature taken between 2003 and 2009 , taken with the MODIS infrared spectroradiometer on the Aqua satellite , found a maximum temperature of 70.7 ° C ( 159.3 ° F ) , which was recorded in 2005 in the Lut Desert , Iran . The Lut Desert was also found to have the highest maximum temperature in 5 of the 7 years measured ( 2004 , 2005 , 2006 , 2007 and 2009 ) . These measurements reflect averages over a large region and so are lower than the maximum point surface temperature .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Highest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth", "rank": 59, "score": 78631 }, { "content": "Title: Little Ice Age Content: The Little Ice Age ( LIA ) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . Although it was not a true ice age , the term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939 . It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries , but some experts prefer an alternative timespan from about 1300 to about 1850 . Climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of the period , which varied according to local conditions . The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals : one beginning about 1650 , another about 1770 , and the last in 1850 , all separated by intervals of slight warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report considered the timing and areas affected by the Little Ice Age suggested largely-independent regional climate changes rather than a globally-synchronous increased glaciation . At most , there was modest cooling of the Northern Hemisphere during the period . Several causes have been proposed : cyclical lows in solar radiation , heightened volcanic activity , changes in the ocean circulation , variations in Earth 's orbit and axial tilt ( orbital forcing ) , inherent variability in global climate , and decreases in the human population .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Little_Ice_Age", "rank": 60, "score": 78395 }, { "content": "Title: Jingzhe Content: Jīngzhé , Keichitsu , Gyeongchip , or Kinh trập is the 3rd of the 24 solar terms in the traditional East Asian calendars . It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 345 ° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 360 ° . More often , it refers to the day when the Sun is exactly at a celestial longitude of 345 ° . In the Gregorian calendar , it usually begins around March 5 and ends around March 20 . The word 驚蟄 means the awakening of hibernating insects . 驚 is to start and 蟄 means hibernating insects . Traditional Chinese folklore says that during Jingzhe , thunderstorms will wake up the hibernating insects , which implies that the weather is getting warmer .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Jingzhe", "rank": 61, "score": 78185 }, { "content": "Title: Global storm activity of 2010 Content: The global storm activity of 2010 includes major meteorological events in the Earth 's atmosphere during the year , including winter storms ( blizzards , ice storms , European windstorms ) , hailstorms , out of season monsoon rain storms , extratropical cyclones , gales , microbursts , flooding , rainstorms , tropical cyclones , and other severe weather events . The thunderstorm season for the Northern Hemisphere began this time of year , beginning on March 1 , and ending on August 31 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Global_storm_activity_of_2010", "rank": 62, "score": 78080 }, { "content": "Title: Earth's energy budget Content: Earth 's energy budget accounts for the energy Earth receives from the Sun . Much of this energy is lost when the earth re-radiates it back into outer space , and the rest of the energy is distributed throughout the five components of Earth 's climate system . This system is made up of earth 's water , ice , atmosphere , rocky crust , and all living things . Quantifying changes in these amounts is required to accurately model the Earth 's climate . Received radiation is unevenly distributed over the planet , because the Sun heats equatorial regions more than polar regions . Energy is absorbed by the atmosphere , hydrosphere , and lithosphere , and , in a process informally described as Earth 's heat engine , the solar heating is redistributed through evaporation of surface water , convection , rainfall , winds , and ocean circulation . When the incoming solar energy is balanced by an equal flow of heat to space , the Earth is said to be in radiative equilibrium and under that condition , global temperatures will be stable . Disturbances of Earth 's radiative equilibrium , such as an increase of greenhouse gases , will change global temperatures in response . However , Earth 's energy balance and heat fluxes depend on many factors , such as atmospheric composition ( mainly aerosols and greenhouse gases ) , the albedo ( reflectivity ) of surface properties , cloud cover and vegetation and land use patterns . Changes in surface temperature due to Earth 's energy budget do not occur instantaneously , due to the inertia of the oceans and the cryosphere . The net heat flux is buffered primarily by becoming part of the ocean 's heat content , until a new equilibrium state is established between radiative forcings and the climate response .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Earth's_energy_budget", "rank": 63, "score": 78074 }, { "content": "Title: Lidong Content: The traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms . Lìdōng , Rittō , Ipdong , or Lập đông is the 19th solar term . It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 225 ° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 240 ° . It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 225 ° . In the Gregorian calendar , it usually begins around November 7 and ends around November 22 . Lidong signifies the beginning of winter in East Asian cultures .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Lidong", "rank": 64, "score": 78021 }, { "content": "Title: Triple J Hottest 100, 2012 Content: The 2012 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day 26 January 2013 . It was the 20th countdown of the most popular songs of the year , as chosen by the listeners of Australian radio station Triple J. Voting commenced on 19 December 2012 , and closed at midnight on 20 January 2013 . Over 1.5 million votes were cast in this countdown , beating the record set in the 2011 list . In the week prior to the countdown , Nick Drewe , a Brisbane statistician and marketer , analysed the votes that had been published on social media and determined the possible top 100 , naming it the Warmest 100 . The votes that had been published represented approximately 2.7 % of the total vote . Ultimately , his list correctly predicted 92 of the songs in the countdown , the songs comprising the top 10 , and the top 3 in the correct order . The ABC have announced that it would likely make changes to the voting system to prevent `` spoiler attempts '' in future countdowns .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Triple_J_Hottest_100,_2012", "rank": 65, "score": 77966 }, { "content": "Title: March 2012 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The March 2012 United Kingdom and Ireland heat wave was a period of unseasonable warm weather with temperatures getting above 20 C in many places . The average temperature for this time of year in the United Kingdom is 10 C. Aboyne , Scotland , recorded a temperature of 23.6 C on 27 March , the highest March temperature in Scotland since records began . For around eight days no clouds were visible for the majority of places in the UK , allowing the sun to shine straight down through the blue sky and induce high air temperatures . The high pressure also meant there was little wind to act as a coolant .", "qid": "441", "docid": "March_2012_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 66, "score": 77782 }, { "content": "Title: 2014–16 El Niño event Content: The 2014 -- 16 El Niño was a warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that resulted in unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line . These unusually warm waters influenced the world 's weather in a number of ways , which in turn significantly affected various parts of the world . These included drought conditions in Venezuela , Australia and a number of Pacific islands while significant flooding was also recorded . During the event more tropical cyclones than normal occurred within the Pacific Ocean , while fewer than normal occurred in the Atlantic Ocean .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2014–16_El_Niño_event", "rank": 67, "score": 77745 }, { "content": "Title: GROVER Content: GROVER or Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research is an Earth-bound autonomous student-designed rover developed by the Goddard Space Flight Center . With this solar-powered rover , scientists hope to get cheaper data about the Greenland ice sheet that lies in a rapidly warming region . The test drive started in Summit Camp in Greenland on a three kilometer thick ice sheet , which is the highest spot on the largest island of the World . The science team is led by the glaciologist Lora Koenig from NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Md. . The test began on 3 May 2013 at temperatures as low as -30 ° C and is planned to continue till 8 June 2013 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "GROVER", "rank": 68, "score": 77727 }, { "content": "Title: January 3 Content: Perihelion , the point during the year when the Earth is closest to the Sun , occurs around this date .", "qid": "441", "docid": "January_3", "rank": 69, "score": 77726 }, { "content": "Title: August Content: August is the eighth month of the year ( between July and September ) in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the fifth month to have the length of 31 days . In the Southern Hemisphere , August is the seasonal equivalent of February in the Northern Hemisphere . In many European countries , August is the holiday month for most workers . Certain meteor showers take place in August . The Kappa Cygnids take place in August with the dates varying each year , the Alpha Capricornids meteor shower takes place as early as July 10 and ends at around August 10 , and the Southern Delta Aquariids take place from mid-July to mid-August with the peak usually around July 28 -- 29 . The Perseids , a major meteor shower , typically takes place between July 17 - August 24 , with the days of the peak varying yearly . The star cluster of Messier 30 is best observed around August . This month was originally named Sextilis in Latin , because it was the sixth month in the original ten-month Roman calendar under Romulus in 753 BC , when March was the first month of the year . About 700 BC it became the eighth month when January and February were added to the year before March by King Numa Pompilius , who also gave it 29 days . Julius Caesar added two days when he created the Julian calendar in 45 BC giving it its modern length of 31 days . In 8 BC it was renamed in honor of Augustus ( despite common belief , he did not take a day from February ; see the debunked theory on month lengths ) . According to a Senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius , he chose this month because it was the time of several of his great triumphs , including the conquest of Egypt . In ancient Rome , Supplicia canum was held on August 3 , Lychnapsia was held on August 12 , Nemoralia was held from August 13 -- 15 ( or on the full moon of August ) , Tiberinalia and Portumnalia were held on August 17 , Consuales Ludi was held on August 18 , Vinalia rustica was held on August 19 , Vulcanalia was held on August 23 , Opiconsivia was held on August 25 , and Volturnalia was held on August 27 . These dates do not correspond to the modern Gregorian calendar . August is the month with highest birth rate in the United States .", "qid": "441", "docid": "August", "rank": 70, "score": 77722 }, { "content": "Title: Autumn Content: Autumn ( British English ) or fall ( American English ) is one of the four temperate seasons . Autumn marks the transition from summer to winter , in September ( Northern Hemisphere ) or March ( Southern Hemisphere ) , when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier and the arrival of day becomes noticeably later , and the temperature cools down considerably . One of its main features is the shedding of leaves from deciduous trees . Some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as `` mid-autumn '' , while others with a longer temperature lag treat it as the start of autumn . Meteorologists ( and most of the temperate countries in the southern hemisphere ) use a definition based on months , with autumn being September , October and November in the northern hemisphere , and March , April and May in the southern hemisphere . In North America , autumn is usually considered to start with the September equinox ( 21 to 24 September ) and end with the winter solstice ( 21 or 22 December ) . Popular culture in North America associates Labor Day , the first Monday in September , as the end of summer and the start of autumn ; certain summer traditions , such as wearing white , are discouraged after that date . As daytime and nighttime temperatures decrease , trees shed their leaves . In traditional East Asian solar term , autumn starts on or around 8 August and ends on or about 7 November . In Ireland , the autumn months according to the national meteorological service , Met Éireann , are September , October and November . However , according to the Irish Calendar , which is based on ancient Gaelic traditions , autumn lasts throughout the months of August , September and October , or possibly a few days later , depending on tradition . In Australia and New Zealand , autumn officially begins on 1 March and ends on 31 May .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Autumn", "rank": 71, "score": 77708 }, { "content": "Title: Shevat Content: Shevat ( Hebrew : שְׁבָט , Standard Šəvat Tiberian Šəḇāṭ ; from Akkadian Šabātu ) is the fifth month of the civil year starting in Tishre ( or Tishri ) and the eleventh month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar starting in Nisan . It is a winter month of 30 days . Shevat usually occurs in January -- February on the Gregorian calendar . The name of the month was taken from the Akkadian language during the Babylonian Captivity . The assumed Akkadian origin of the month is Šabātu meaning strike that refers to the heavy rains of the season . In Jewish sources the month is first mentioned by this name in prophet Zechariah ( Zechariah 1 ) .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Shevat", "rank": 72, "score": 77399 }, { "content": "Title: March Content: March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars . It is the second month to have a length of 31 days . In the Northern Hemisphere , the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March . The March equinox on the 20th or 21st marks the astronomical beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere , where September is the seasonal equivalent of the Northern Hemisphere 's March .", "qid": "441", "docid": "March", "rank": 73, "score": 77338 }, { "content": "Title: Dahan (solar term) Content: The traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms . Dàhán , Daikan , Daehan , or Đại hàn is the 24th solar term . It begins when the Sun reaches the celestial longitude of 300 ° and ends when it reaches the longitude of 315 ° . It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 300 ° . In the Gregorian calendar , it usually begins around 20 January and ends around 4 February . 24 Category : Winter time", "qid": "441", "docid": "Dahan_(solar_term)", "rank": 74, "score": 77328 }, { "content": "Title: HD 3240 Content: HD 3240 is a 5th magnitude star in the constellation Cassiopeia , approximately 510 light years away from Earth . It is a bluish white giant star of the spectral type B7III , meaning its surface temperature is at least twice as hot as that of the Sun , and it is many times larger and brighter .", "qid": "441", "docid": "HD_3240", "rank": 75, "score": 77276 }, { "content": "Title: Winter solstice Content: The winter solstice ( or hibernal solstice ) , also known as midwinter , is an astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year . In the Northern Hemisphere this is the December solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere this is the June solstice . The axial tilt of Earth and gyroscopic effects of its daily rotation mean that the two opposite points in the sky to which the Earth 's axis of rotation points ( axial precession ) change very slowly ( making a complete circle approximately every 26,000 years ) . As the Earth follows its orbit around the Sun , the polar hemisphere that faced away from the Sun , experiencing winter , will , in half a year , face towards the Sun and experience summer . This is because the two hemispheres face opposite directions along Earth 's axis , and so as one polar hemisphere experiences winter , the other experiences summer . More evident from high latitudes , a hemisphere 's winter solstice occurs on the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year , when the sun 's daily maximum elevation in the sky is at its lowest . Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment in time , the term sometimes refers to the day on which it occurs . Other names are `` midwinter '' , the `` extreme of winter '' ( Dongzhi ) , or the `` shortest day '' . In some cultures it is seen as the middle of winter , while in others it is seen as the beginning of winter . In meteorology , winter in the Northern Hemisphere spans the entire period of December through February . The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening hours of daylight during the day . The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates differ from winter solstice , however , and these depend on latitude , due to the variation in the solar day throughout the year caused by the Earth 's elliptical orbit ( see earliest and latest sunrise and sunset ) . Worldwide , interpretation of the event has varied across cultures , but many have held a recognition of rebirth , involving holidays , festivals , gatherings , rituals or other celebrations around that time .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Winter_solstice", "rank": 76, "score": 77256 }, { "content": "Title: 1906 United Kingdom heat wave Content: The 1906 United Kingdom heat wave occurred all over the country from August to September . This was unusual as the highest temperatures were recorded in early September and the intense heat began in late August , whereas most heat waves in the UK begin in June and July . Even so , the heatwave had a comparable intensity to the 1990 heat wave , and it has been described as the most intense September heat wave in the 20th century . From 31 August to 3 September , the temperature in the UK exceeded 32 C consecutively over most of the UK on these four days . In September , CET Central England and Birmingham recorded a highest temperature of 31.5 C , and Oxford recorded a highest temperature of 33.1 C ; however , this record for September in Oxford was broken in 1911 with a temperature of 33.4 C. 2 September was the hottest day of the month as temperatures reached 35.6 C in Bawtry . This day was also the hottest over the most of the UK , again unusual because of its late occurrence . This remains the hottest September temperature of any day in the UK and the eighth-hottest day overall in the 20th century . Scotland also had temperatures reaching 32.2 C at Gordon Castle , Moray , and Northern Ireland had temperatures reaching 27.8 C in Armagh , County Armagh both recorded on 1 September 1906 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "1906_United_Kingdom_heat_wave", "rank": 77, "score": 77243 }, { "content": "Title: 2000 Southern United States heat wave Content: Aided by drought , a heat wave persisted in late Summer 2000 along the southern tier of the United States from July to early September of that year . Near the end of the period , daily , monthly , and even all-time record high temperatures were broken , with highs commonly peaking well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit . On September 4 , Houston hit 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) and Dallas peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) ; on September 5 , Corpus Christi peaked at 109 ° F ( 42.8 ° C ) , San Antonio peaked at 111 ° F ( 43.9 ° C ) while College Station and Austin reached 112 ° F ( 44.4 ° C ) . Damage totaled $ 4 billion , mainly due to wildfires and crop losses , and there were 140 deaths .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2000_Southern_United_States_heat_wave", "rank": 78, "score": 77209 }, { "content": "Title: 2016–17 North American winter Content: The 2016 -- 17 North American winter refers to winter as it occurred across the continent from late 2016 through early 2017 . While there is no well-agreed-upon date used to indicate the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere , there are two definitions of winter which may be used . Based on the astronomical definition , winter begins at the winter solstice , which in 2016 occurred on December 21 , and ends at the March equinox , which in 2017 occurred on March 20 . Based on the meteorological definition , the first day of winter is December 1 and the last day February 28 . Both definitions involve a period of approximately three months , with some variability .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2016–17_North_American_winter", "rank": 79, "score": 77194 }, { "content": "Title: 2007 World Championships in Athletics – Men's marathon Content: The Men 's Marathon event at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics took place on August 25 , 2007 in the streets of Osaka , Japan . The weather conditions were difficult , with 28 degrees C ( 82 ° F ) and 72 per cent humidity at the start of the race . The temperature rose to 30 degrees C ( 86 ° F ) towards the end of the race , and many competitors failed to finish the race .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2007_World_Championships_in_Athletics_–_Men's_marathon", "rank": 80, "score": 77096 }, { "content": "Title: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C Content: The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to \"deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments\" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require \"deep emissions reductions\" and \"rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.\" Furthermore, the report finds that \"limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being\" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, \"Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050.\" The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.", "qid": "441", "docid": "Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C", "rank": 81, "score": 76753 }, { "content": "Title: International Year of Planet Earth Content: The United Nations General Assembly declared 2008 as the International Year of Planet Earth to increase awareness of the importance of Earth sciences for the advancement of sustainable development . UNESCO was designated as the lead agency . The Year 's activities spanned the three years 2006-2009 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "International_Year_of_Planet_Earth", "rank": 82, "score": 76705 }, { "content": "Title: 1879 English cricket season Content: The 1879 English cricket season saw Lancashire claim a share of the title for the first time . The summer was the coolest and wettest over the two-and-a-half centuries of climatic records in England , and during the early part of the twentieth century exceptionally wet seasons such as 1903 , 1912 , 1924 and 1927 were very frequently compared to 1879 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "1879_English_cricket_season", "rank": 83, "score": 76335 }, { "content": "Title: June solstice Content: The June solstice , also known as the northern solstice , is the solstice on the Earth that occurs each June falling on the 20th -- 22nd according to the Gregorian calendar . In the Northern Hemisphere , the June solstice is the summer solstice , whilst in the Southern Hemisphere it is the winter solstice .", "qid": "441", "docid": "June_solstice", "rank": 84, "score": 76327 }, { "content": "Title: 2016 North American heat wave Content: In the month of July 2016 , a major heat wave began to plague much of the central U.S with record high temperatures . Some places experienced temperatures of up to 39 C. Heat indexes in some places climbed as high as 45 C.", "qid": "441", "docid": "2016_North_American_heat_wave", "rank": 85, "score": 76313 }, { "content": "Title: Kepler-20e Content: Kepler-20e is an exoplanet orbiting Kepler-20 . The planet is notable as it is the first planet with a smaller radius than Earth found orbiting a Sun-like star . The planet is second-closest to the star after Kepler-20b , and at 1040 K , it is far too hot to have liquid water on its surface . Along with the other four planets in the system , Kepler-20e was announced on 20 December 2011 . `` Kepler-20e is the first planet smaller than the Earth discovered to orbit a star other than the sun . A year on Kepler-20e only lasts 6 days , as it is much closer to its host star than the Earth is to the sun . The temperature at the surface of the planet , around 1400 degrees Fahrenheit , is much to hot to support life , as we know it . Kepler-20e is likely to be entirely rocky and without an atmosphere . The planet is tidally locked , always showing the same side to its host star , as the moon to the Earth , and could have large temperature differences between its permanent night and day sides . Astronomers think that the planet is likely to be geologically active , due to its own formation process and the strong gravitational interactions with its host star . In this artistic depiction , the planet is represented with active volcanoes on both the night and day sides . ''", "qid": "441", "docid": "Kepler-20e", "rank": 86, "score": 76211 }, { "content": "Title: Bølling-Allerød warming Content: The Bølling-Allerød interstadial was an abrupt warm and moist interstadial period that occurred during the final stages of the last glacial period . This warm period ran from c. 14,700 to c. 12,700 years before the present ( BP ) . It began with the end of the cold period known as the Oldest Dryas , and ended abruptly with the onset of the Younger Dryas , a cold period that reduced temperatures back to near-glacial levels within a decade . In some regions , a cold period known as the Older Dryas can be detected in the middle of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial . In these regions the period is divided into the Bølling oscillation , which peaked around 14,500 BP , and the Allerød oscillation , which peaked closer to 13,000 BP . Estimates of CO2 rise are 20 -- 35 ppmv within 200 years , a rate less than 29 -- 50 % compared to the anthropogenic global warming signal from the past 50 years , and with a radiative forcing of 0.59 -- 0.75 W m − 2 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Bølling-Allerød_warming", "rank": 87, "score": 76048 }, { "content": "Title: Lowest temperature recorded on Earth Content: The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is − 89.2 C , which was at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica by ground measurements . A 2009 study estimated that under exceptional climate conditions similar to those recorded at Vostin 1983 , temperatures higher on the plateau around Dome Argus could potentially drop lower than − 95 C. On August 10 , 2010 , satellite observations measured a surface temperature of − 93.2 C at 81.8 ° S 59.3 ° E , along a ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji , at 3,900 m elevation . The result was reported at the 46th annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco , in December 2013 ; it is a provisional figure , and may be subject to revision . The value may not be listed as the record coldest temperature as it was measured by remote sensing satellites and not by ground-based thermometers , unlike the 1983 record . The temperature announced reflects that of the ice surface , while the Vostok readings measured the air above the ice , and so the two are not directly comparable . However , it is most likely that the real temperature on the site was lower than that recorded at Vostok .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Lowest_temperature_recorded_on_Earth", "rank": 88, "score": 76035 }, { "content": "Title: Zmaray Content: Zmaray or Zmarai is the name of the fifth month of the Afghan calendar . It occurs within the summer season ( from July 22/23 to August 21/22 ) and contains 31 days . Zmaray corresponds with the tropical Zodiac sign Leo . Zmaray literally means `` lion '' in Pashto . Category : Pashto names for the months of the Solar Hijri calendar ps : زمری", "qid": "441", "docid": "Zmaray", "rank": 89, "score": 75871 }, { "content": "Title: July 4 Content: The Aphelion , the point in the year when the Earth is farthest from the Sun , occurs around this date .", "qid": "441", "docid": "July_4", "rank": 90, "score": 75850 }, { "content": "Title: 1994 North American cold wave Content: The 1994 North American cold wave occurred over the midwestern United States , eastern United States , and southern Canada during January 1994 . Two notable cold air events occurred from January 18-19 and from January 21-22 . There were 67 minimum temperature records set on January 19 . Indiana and Kentucky both set state records on January 19 . The United States experienced its coldest temperature month since February 1934 , although much of the West experienced mild temperatures . Washington and Idaho experienced the second warmest January recorded in the previous 100 years . During the same period , the western United States experienced one of its most damaging earthquakes ever , and the eastern United States experienced a major snowfall that significantly delayed traffic . Over 100 deaths occurred in the United States as a result of the cold wave .", "qid": "441", "docid": "1994_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 91, "score": 75811 }, { "content": "Title: Julian year Content: A Julian year can refer to : The Julian year ( astronomy ) is a time interval of exactly 365.25 Earth days , used in astronomy . The Julian year ( calendar ) is a year in the Julian calendar which has started on different days , at different times , in different countries and is equal to either 365 or 366 days , or 365.25 days on average .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Julian_year", "rank": 92, "score": 75719 }, { "content": "Title: Eismitte Content: Eismitte , in English also called Mid-Ice , was the site of an Arctic expedition in the interior of Greenland that took place from July 1930 through August 1931 , and claimed the life of noted German scientist Alfred Wegener . The name `` Eismitte '' means Ice-Center in German , and the campsite was located 402 km from the coast at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters ( 9,843 feet ) . The coldest temperature recorded during the expedition was − 64.9 ° C ( − 85 ° F ) , while the warmest temperature noted was − 2.8 ° C ( 27 ° F ) . For the 12-month period beginning September 1 , 1930 and ending August 31 , 1931 , the warmest month , July , had a mean monthly temperature of − 12.2 ° C ( 10 ° F ) , while the coldest month , February , averaged − 47.2 ° C ( − 53 ° F ) . Over the same period a total of 110 millimeters ( 4.33 inches ) of water-equivalent precipitation was recorded , with most of it , rather surprisingly , being received in winter . At the latitude of the camp , the sun does not set between May 13 and July 30 each year , and does not rise between November 23 and January 20 .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Eismitte", "rank": 93, "score": 75596 }, { "content": "Title: 1936 North American cold wave Content: The 1936 North American cold wave ranks among the most intense cold waves in recorded North American meteorological history . The states of the Midwest United States and the Prairie Provinces of Canada were hit the hardest , but only the Southwest and California largely escaped its effects . February 1936 was the coldest month recorded in the states of North Dakota , South Dakota , and Minnesota , and rivals that of 1899 the coldest February on record for the continent as a whole . Only a few parts of the Great Basin , the Bering Sea coast of Alaska and the Labrador Sea coast of Canada were even close to their long-term means . The 1930s had previously seen some of the mildest winters in recorded North American climatic history -- 1930/1931 in the northern Plains and Western Canada , 1931/1932 in the East , 1932/1933 in New England and 1933/1934 in the Western United States . The northern plains had during the previous eleven years experienced six of their ten warmest Februaries between 1895 and 1976 -- those of 1925 , 1926 , 1927 , 1930 , 1931 and 1935 -- with only February 1929 being severe during this period . Despite a warm March over most areas east of the Rockies , the extended winter from October to March was the fifth-coldest on record over the conterminous United States and the coldest since 1917 . The cold wave was followed by one of the hottest summers on record , the 1936 North American heat wave .", "qid": "441", "docid": "1936_North_American_cold_wave", "rank": 94, "score": 75591 }, { "content": "Title: 17 Lyrae Content: 17 Lyrae is a binary star system in the constellation Lyra , approximately 132 light years away from Earth . The main star , 17 Lyrae A , is a 5th magnitude white star of the spectral type F0V , meaning it has a surface temperature of about 7,500 kelvins . It is a dwarf star , like the Sun , yet brighter and hotter . Its companion , 17 Lyrae B , is a 9th magnitude star of an unknown spectral type . There was once thought to be a third star in the system and would be designated 17 Lyrae C , until it was evident that the star 's parallax and proper motions were too different for it to be part of the system .", "qid": "441", "docid": "17_Lyrae", "rank": 95, "score": 75513 }, { "content": "Title: Winter of 2009–10 in Great Britain and Ireland Content: The winter of 2009 -- 10 in the United Kingdom ( also called The Big Freeze by British media ) was a meteorological event that started on 16 December 2009 , as part of the severe winter weather in Europe . January 2010 was provisionally the coldest January since 1987 across the country . A persistent pattern of cold northerly and easterly winds brought cold , moist air to the United Kingdom with many snow showers , fronts and polar lows bringing snowy weather with it . The first snowfall began on 17 December 2009 , before a respite over the Christmas period . The most severe snowy weather began on 5 January in North West England and west Scotland with temperatures hitting a low of -17.6 ° C in Greater Manchester , England . The snow spread to Southern England on 6 January and by 7 January the United Kingdom was blanketed in snow , which was captured by NASA 's Terra satellite . The thaw came a week later , as temperatures started to increase . The winter weather brought widespread transport disruption , school closures , power failures , the postponement of sporting events and 25 deaths . A low of -22.3 ° C was recorded in Altnaharra , Scotland on 8 January 2010 . Overall it was the coldest winter since 1978 -- 79 , with a mean temperature of 1.5 ° C.", "qid": "441", "docid": "Winter_of_2009–10_in_Great_Britain_and_Ireland", "rank": 96, "score": 75434 }, { "content": "Title: Climate of Adelaide Content: Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa ) , with mild to cool winters with moderate rainfall and warm to hot , dry summers . Adelaide is the driest of the Australian capital cities and the past two decades have been far warmer than usual , with the past 8 years seeing an excess of 40 + degrees every summer . Alarmingly , the city has also recorded almost 10 consecutive years of below-average Spring rainfall , with 2014 on track to continuing this trend . A spike in heat waves , droughts and record-breaking high temperatures over the past decade has led to some concerns over the effects of global warming and Man-made climate change ( AGW ) on the city . Nine of the ten warmest years recorded in Adelaide have occurred since 2002 , with 2013 being the hottest year and summer 2015 -- 2016 being the fourth-hottest summer recorded .", "qid": "441", "docid": "Climate_of_Adelaide", "rank": 97, "score": 75416 }, { "content": "Title: April Content: April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar , the fifth in the early Julian and the first month to have the length of 30 days . April is commonly associated with the season of spring in parts of the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in parts of the Southern Hemisphere , where it is the seasonal equivalent to October in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa .", "qid": "441", "docid": "April", "rank": 98, "score": 75391 }, { "content": "Title: The Wild Wacky Wonderful World of Winter Content: The Wild Wacky Wonderful World of Winter was an HBO ( Home Box Office ) television broadcast first on February 22 , 1980 and again on February 26 , 1980 . From the HBO Guide , February 1980 : `` Here 's the warmest , wildest winter-weather comedy show ever to snowball into town . '' Costars were Beth Howland , Jack Riley , and Fred Willard , with special guest star Carol Burnett .", "qid": "441", "docid": "The_Wild_Wacky_Wonderful_World_of_Winter", "rank": 99, "score": 75381 }, { "content": "Title: 2016–17 Australian bushfire season Content: The 2016-17 Australian Bushfire Season saw a very wet start with the 5th wettest December on record being 76 % above the average rainfall for the month.across much of the country . This caused a significant surge in vegetation growth leading into the fire danger period .", "qid": "441", "docid": "2016–17_Australian_bushfire_season", "rank": 100, "score": 75249 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Attribution of recent climate change Content: Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are : increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases global changes to land surface , such as deforestation increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols . There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity . According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence . Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities : A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established . Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual . Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included . Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming . The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Attribution_of_recent_climate_change", "rank": 1, "score": 143027 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom Content: According to official statistics , there has been a reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom . These emissions are caused primarily by primary energy consumption . If indirect emissions are accounted for , however , research suggests that UK emissions may have increased since 1990 , due largely to manufacture of short-term consumer items overseas . Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to drive global warming and ocean acidification . Under the Kyoto protocol the UK Government committed to reducing the levels of and five other greenhouse gases by 12.5 % below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012 . These commitments have been surpassed and new targets set .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_Kingdom", "rank": 2, "score": 142204 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 3, "score": 141376 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming controversy Content: The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring , how much has occurred in modern times , what has caused it , what its effects will be , whether any action should be taken to curb it , and if so what that action should be . In the scientific literature , there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view , though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions . Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the media than in the scientific literature , where such issues are treated as resolved , and such disputes are more prevalent in the United States than globally . Political and popular debate concerning the existence and cause of climate change includes the reasons for the increase seen in the instrumental temperature record , whether the warming trend exceeds normal climatic variations , and whether human activities have contributed significantly to it . Scientists have resolved these questions decisively in favour of the view that the current warming trend exists and is ongoing , that human activity is the cause , and that it is without precedent in at least 2000 years . Public disputes that also reflect scientific debate include estimates of how responsive the climate system might be to any given level of greenhouse gases ( climate sensitivity ) , how global climate change will play out at local and regional scales , and what the consequences of global warming will be . Global warming remains an issue of widespread political debate , often split along party political lines , especially in the United States . Many of the issues that are settled within the scientific community , such as human responsibility for global warming , remain the subject of politically or economically motivated attempts to downplay , dismiss or deny them -- an ideological phenomenon categorised by academics and scientists as climate change denial . The sources of funding for those involved with climate science -- both supporting and opposing mainstream scientific positions -- have been questioned by both sides . There are debates about the best policy responses to the science , their cost-effectiveness and their urgency . Climate scientists , especially in the United States , have reported official and oil-industry pressure to censor or suppress their work and hide scientific data , with directives not to discuss the subject in public communications . Legal cases regarding global warming , its effects , and measures to reduce it have reached American courts . The fossil fuels lobby has been identified as overtly or covertly supporting efforts to undermine or discredit the scientific consensus on global warming .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_warming_controversy", "rank": 4, "score": 138904 }, { "content": "Title: Regional effects of global warming Content: Regional effects of global warming are long-term significant changes in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region due to global warming . The world average temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gases , especially carbon dioxide . When the global temperature changes , the changes in climate are not expected to be uniform across the Earth . In particular , land areas change more quickly than oceans , and northern high latitudes change more quickly than the tropics , and the margins of biome regions change faster than do their cores . Regional effects of global warming vary in nature . Some are the result of a generalised global change , such as rising temperature , resulting in local effects , such as melting ice . In other cases , a change may be related to a change in a particular ocean current or weather system . In such cases , the regional effect may be disproportionate and will not necessarily follow the global trend . The increasing temperatures from greenhouse gases have been causing sea levels to rise for many years . There are three major ways in which global warming will make changes to regional climate : melting or forming ice , changing the hydrological cycle ( of evaporation and precipitation ) and changing currents in the oceans and air flows in the atmosphere . The coast can also be considered a region , and will suffer severe impacts from sea level rise .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Regional_effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 5, "score": 137828 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 6, "score": 137755 }, { "content": "Title: Effects of global warming Content: The effects of global warming are the environmental and social changes caused ( directly or indirectly ) by human emissions of greenhouse gases . There is a scientific consensus that climate change is occurring , and that human activities are the primary driver . Many impacts of climate change have already been observed , including glacier retreat , changes in the timing of seasonal events ( e.g. , earlier flowering of plants ) , and changes in agricultural productivity . Future effects of climate change will vary depending on climate change policies and social development . The two main policies to address climate change are reducing human greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and adapting to the impacts of climate change . Geoengineering is another policy option . Near-term climate change policies could significantly affect long-term climate change impacts . Stringent mitigation policies might be able to limit global warming ( in 2100 ) to around 2 ° C or below , relative to pre-industrial levels . Without mitigation , increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels might lead to global warming of around 4 ° C. Higher magnitudes of global warming would be more difficult to adapt to , and would increase the risk of negative impacts .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Effects_of_global_warming", "rank": 7, "score": 137483 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "442", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 8, "score": 126895 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of global warming Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media. Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.", "qid": "442", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_global_warming", "rank": 9, "score": 123765 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 10, "score": 121413 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 11, "score": 121381 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse effect Content: The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet 's atmosphere warms the planet 's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere . If a planet 's atmosphere contains radiatively active gases ( i.e. , greenhouse gases ) the atmosphere will radiate energy in all directions . Part of this radiation is directed towards the surface , warming it . The downward component of this radiation -- that is , the strength of the greenhouse effect -- will depend on the atmosphere 's temperature and on the amount of greenhouse gases that the atmosphere contains . On Earth , the atmosphere is warmed by absorption of infrared thermal radiation from the underlying surface ( heated by the sun ) , absorption of shorter wavelength radiant energy from the sun , and convective heat fluxes from the surface . Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere radiate energy , some of which is directed to the surface and lower atmosphere . The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect . Earth 's natural greenhouse effect is critical to supporting life . Human activities , primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests , have intensified the natural greenhouse effect , causing global warming . The mechanism is named after a faulty analogy with the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse . The way a greenhouse retains heat is fundamentally different , as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow and retaining warm air inside the structure .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Greenhouse_effect", "rank": 12, "score": 118945 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates Content: Environmental issues in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) are cause by the exploitation of natural resources , rapid population growth , and high energy demand . The continuing temperature rise caused by global warming contributes to UAE 's water scarcity , drought , rising sea level and aridity . The countryside of the UAE , characterized with its great arid land , infrequent precipitation , and high temperatures are already facing long-term aridity . This precondition is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and contributes to worsening water scarcity , quality , and water contamination . The United Arab Emirates are located in the Middle East between Oman and Saudi Arabia , adjoining the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf . In the last years , the impact of global warming on the UAE has intensified the already existing environmental issues , including water scarcity and limited agricultural land . The United Arab Emirates are a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , listed as having the 29th highest carbon dioxide emissions . Since the boom of the oil-industry occurred in the early 21st century , the population and its consumption of energy have sharply increased . The UAE contains the world 's seventh largest natural resource of oil and seventeenth-largest natural gas reserve . This possession of a high amount of valuable natural resources , pushed the UAE to the position of the ninth wealthiest country in the world by 2016 GDP per capita . These financial resources support their adaptation capacity to `` climate change-induced challenges '' . Currently , they are investing in increasing air conditioning infrastructure , rainwater drainage systems , constructing flood barriers and new desalination plants . In June 2016 Abu Dhabi announced a project for an enhanced rainwater drainage system due to unnaturally occurring thunderstorms in March 2016 which caused 860 damages on properties and flooding . Also the three main characteristics of UAE 's politics contribute to the recent natural unsustainability : First , the Emirates feature components of a Rentier state . It is governed by an authoritarian political system and finally both facts cause critical natural resource-related trades . In particular , UAE as a rentier state means that the federalization gains external rent from foreign individuals , companies and governments . A rentier state 's economy is predominated by the dependency on external rents . Oil revenues also count as external rent .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Environmental_issues_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates", "rank": 13, "score": 116470 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 14, "score": 115717 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 15, "score": 114973 }, { "content": "Title: Clathrate gun hypothesis Content: The clathrate gun hypothesis is the popular name given to the hypothesis that increases in sea temperatures ( and/or drops in sea levels ) can trigger the sudden release of methane from methane clathrate compounds buried in seabeds and that are contained within seabed permafrost which , because methane itself is a powerful greenhouse gas , leads to further temperature rise and further methane clathrate destabilization -- in effect initiating a runaway process as irreversible , once started , as the firing of a gun . In its original form , the hypothesis proposed that the `` clathrate gun '' could cause abrupt runaway warming on a timescale less than a human lifetime . It was thought to be responsible for warming events in and at the end of the last glacial maximum , however this is now thought to be unlikely . However , there is stronger evidence that runaway methane clathrate breakdown may have caused drastic alteration of the ocean environment ( such as ocean acidification and ocean stratification ) and of the atmosphere of earth on a number of occasions in the past , over timescales of tens of thousands of years . These events include the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum 56 million years ago , and most notably the Permian -- Triassic extinction event , when up to 96 % of all marine species became extinct , 252 million years ago .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Clathrate_gun_hypothesis", "rank": 16, "score": 113252 }, { "content": "Title: Global dimming Content: Global dimming is the gradual reduction in the amount of global direct irradiance at the Earth 's surface that was observed for several decades after the start of systematic measurements in the 1950s . The effect varies by location , but worldwide it has been estimated to be of the order of a 4 % reduction over the three decades from 1960 -- 1990 . However , after discounting an anomaly caused by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 , a very slight reversal in the overall trend has been observed . Global dimming is thought to have been caused by an increase in particulates such as sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere due to human action . It has interfered with the hydrological cycle by reducing evaporation and may have reduced rainfall in some areas . Global dimming also creates a cooling effect that may have partially counteracted the effect of greenhouse gases on global warming .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_dimming", "rank": 17, "score": 110672 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 18, "score": 110604 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 19, "score": 109939 }, { "content": "Title: Hell and High Water (book) Content: Hell and High Water : Global Warming -- the Solution and the Politics -- and What We Should Do is a book by author , scientist , and former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph J. Romm , published December 26 , 2006 . The author is `` one of the world 's leading experts on clean energy , advanced vehicles , energy security , and greenhouse gas mitigation . '' The book warns of dire consequences to the U.S. and the world if wide-scale environmental changes are not enacted by the U.S. government within the next decade . It reviews the evidence that the current initial global warming changes will lead to accelerated warming . According to Romm , the oceans , soils , Arctic permafrost , and rainforests may become sources of greenhouse gas emissions . The book claims that , without serious government action within the next ten years , sea levels will rise high enough to submerge numerous coastal communities and inland areas on both U.S. coasts and around the world by the year 2100 . In April 2008 , TIME magazine wrote that `` On -LSB- Romm 's -RSB- blog and in his most recent book , Hell and High Water , you can find some of the most cogent , memorable , and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming . '' Romm was interviewed on Fox News on January 31 , 2007 about the book and the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report climate report .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Hell_and_High_Water_(book)", "rank": 20, "score": 109295 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 21, "score": 108148 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Saskatchewan Content: The effects of climate change in Saskatchewan are now being observed in parts of the province . There is evidence of reduction of biomass in Saskatchewan 's boreal forests ( as with those of other Canadian prairie provinces ) that is linked by researchers to drought-related water stress stemming from global warming , most likely caused by greenhouse gas emissions . While studies , as early as 1988 ( Williams , et al. , 1988 ) have shown that climate change will affect agriculture , whether the effects can be mitigated through adaptations of cultivars , or crops , is less clear . Resiliency of ecosystems may decline with large changes in temperature . The provincial government has responded to the threat of climate change by introducing a plan to reduce carbon emissions , `` The Saskatchewan Energy and Climate Change Plan '' , in June 2007 .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Saskatchewan", "rank": 22, "score": 106351 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 23, "score": 106232 }, { "content": "Title: Global cooling Content: Global cooling was a conjecture during the 1970s of imminent cooling of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere culminating in a period of extensive glaciation . This hypothesis had little support in the scientific community , but gained temporary popular attention due to a combination of a slight downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s and press reports that did not accurately reflect the full scope of the scientific climate literature , which showed a larger and faster-growing body of literature projecting future warming due to greenhouse gas emissions . The current scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth has not durably cooled , but underwent global warming throughout the 20th century .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_cooling", "rank": 24, "score": 105828 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 25, "score": 105413 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse debt Content: Greenhouse debt or carbon debt is the measure to which an individual person , incorporated association , business enterprise , government instrumentality or geographic community exceeds its permitted greenhouse footprint and contributes greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and climate change . The concept makes no sense without a clear numerical value for the permitted greenhouse footprint . It is not clear what this value is . Friends of the Earth and similar organisations put forward the concept to define specifically the environmental harm caused by developed countries ' past and present policies . Some governments , at least the Australian Labor leadership , have a tendency to accept such a line of reasoning . The greenhouse debt assessment thus forms an ecological footprint analysis but can be used separately . Taken conjointly with a ` water debt ' analysis and an ecological impact assessment , greenhouse debt analysis is basic to giving individuals , organisations , governments and communities an understanding of the effects they are having on Gaia , life , and global warming . Ensuring that the greenhouse debt is zero is essential towards achieving ecologically sustainable development or a sustainable retreat . Any greenhouse debt incurred will contribute to making life harder for future generations of humans and non-human lifeforms . There are three possible consequences that occur as a result of a greenhouse debt . Mitigation : finding compensatory ways of reducing the greenhouse debt so its effects are neutralised Adaptation : finding ways of adjusting to the resulting global warming or climate change Suffering : having one 's quality of life reduced as a result of the consequences", "qid": "442", "docid": "Greenhouse_debt", "rank": 26, "score": 105177 }, { "content": "Title: Media coverage of climate change Content: Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change , as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global instrumental temperature record shows increase in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases . Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view , although a few organisations hold non-committal positions . The way the media report on climate change in the English-speaking media , especially in the United States , has been widely studied , while studies of reporting in other countries have been fewer . A number of studies have shown that particularly in the United States and in the UK tabloid press , the media significantly understated the strength of scientific consensus on climate change established in IPCC Assessment Reports in 1995 and in 2001 . A peak in media coverage occurred in early 2007 , driven by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Al Gore 's documentary An Inconvenient Truth . A subsequent peak in late 2009 , which was 50 % higher , may have been driven by a combination of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy and December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair , while a few feel that it is biased ( see , for example , Bozel & Baker , 1990 ; Lichter & Rothman , 1984 , Nissani , 1999 ) . However , most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues . Moreover , they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias ( cf. , Bell , 1994 ; Trumbo , 1996 ; Wilkins , 1993 ) .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Media_coverage_of_climate_change", "rank": 27, "score": 104724 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas removal Content: Greenhouse gas removal projects are a type of climate engineering that seek to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere , and thus they tackle the root cause of global warming . These techniques either directly remove greenhouse gases , or alternatively seek to influence natural processes to remove greenhouse gases indirectly . The discipline overlaps with carbon capture and storage and carbon sequestration , and some projects listed may not be considered to be geoengineering by all commentators , instead being described as mitigation .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_removal", "rank": 28, "score": 104693 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 Content: The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 , or Assembly Bill ( AB ) 32 , is a California State Law that fights global warming by establishing a comprehensive program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sources throughout the state . AB 32 was authored by then-Assembly member Fran Pavley and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez ( D-Los Angeles ) and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 27 , 2006 . On June 1 , 2005 , Governor Schwarzenegger signed an executive order known as Executive Order S-3-05 which established greenhouse gas emissions targets for the state . The executive order required the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions levels to 2000 levels by 2010 , to 1990 levels by 2020 , and to a level 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050 . However , to implement this measure , the California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) needed authority from the legislature . The California State Legislature passed the Global Warming Solutions Act to address this issue and gave the CARB authority to implement the program . AB 32 requires the California Air Resources Board ( CARB or ARB ) to develop regulations and market mechanisms to reduce California 's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year of 2020 , representing approximately a 30 % reduction statewide , with mandatory caps beginning in 2012 for significant emissions sources . The bill also allows the Governor to suspend the emissions caps for up to a year in case of emergency or significant economic harm . The State of California leads the nation in energy efficiency standards and plays a lead role in environmental protection , but is also the 12th largest emitter of carbon worldwide . Greenhouse gas emissions are defined in the bill to include all of the following : carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , sulfur hexafluoride , hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons . These are the same greenhouse gases listed in Annex A of the Kyoto Protocol .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_Warming_Solutions_Act_of_2006", "rank": 29, "score": 104370 }, { "content": "Title: Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources Content: Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming potential of electrical energy sources through life-cycle assessment of each energy source . The findings are presented in units of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source . The scale uses the global warming potential unit , the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) , and the unit of electrical energy , the kilowatt hour ( kWh ) . The goal of such assessments is to cover the full life of the source , from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and waste management . In 2014 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide equivalent ( e ) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide . This was done by analyzing the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source . For all technologies , advances in efficiency , and therefore reductions in e since the time of publication , have not been included . For example , the total life cycle emissions from wind power may have lessened since publication . Similarly , due to the time frame over which the studies were conducted , nuclear Generation II reactor 's e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors , presently under construction in the United States and China . Other limitations of the data include : a ) missing life cycle phases , and , b ) uncertainty as to where to define the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source . The latter is important in assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world , rather than the established practice of simply assessing the energy source in isolation .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Life-cycle_greenhouse-gas_emissions_of_energy_sources", "rank": 30, "score": 104241 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas inventory Content: Greenhouse gas inventories are a type of emission inventory that are developed for a variety of reasons . Scientists use inventories of natural and anthropogenic ( human-caused ) emissions as tools when developing atmospheric models . Policy makers use inventories to develop strategies and policies for emissions reductions and to track the progress of those policies . And , regulatory agencies and corporations rely on inventories to establish compliance records with allowable emission rates . Businesses , the public , and other interest groups use inventories to better understand the sources and trends in emissions . Unlike some other air emission inventories , greenhouse gas inventories include not only emissions from source categories , but also removals by carbon sinks . These removals are typically referred to as carbon sequestration . Greenhouse gas inventories , typically use Global warming potential ( GWP ) values to combine emissions of various greenhouse gases into a single weighted value of emissions . Some of the key examples of greenhouse gas inventories include : All Annex I countries are required to report annual emissions and sinks of greenhouse gases under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) National governments that are Parties to the UNFCCC and/or the Kyoto Protocol are required to submit annual inventories of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from sources and removals from sinks . The Kyoto Protocol includes additional requirements for national inventory systems , inventory reporting , and annual inventory review for determining compliance with Articles 5 and 8 of the Protocol . Project developers under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol prepare inventories as part of their project baselines . Corporation and other entities can prepare greenhouse gas inventories to track progress towards meeting an emission reduction goal . Scientific efforts aimed at understanding detail of total net carbon exchange . Example : Project Vulcan - a comprehensive US inventory of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_inventory", "rank": 31, "score": 103843 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 32, "score": 103546 }, { "content": "Title: Kyoto Protocol Content: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , based on the fact that ( a ) global warming exists and ( b ) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it . The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto , Japan , on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005 . There are currently 192 parties ( Canada withdrew effective December 2012 ) to the Protocol . The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to `` a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' ( Art. 2 ) . The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities : it puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere . The Protocol 's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012 . A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012 , known as the Doha Amendment to the protocol , in which 37 countries have binding targets : Australia , the European Union ( and its 28 member states ) , Belarus , Iceland , Kazakhstan , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Ukraine . Belarus , Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets . Japan , New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto 's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period . Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada ( which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 ) and the United States ( which has not ratified the Protocol ) . As of July 2016 , 66 states have accepted the Doha Amendment , while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states . Of the 37 countries with binding commitments , 7 have ratified . Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020 . This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement , which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Kyoto_Protocol", "rank": 33, "score": 103192 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of transport Content: The environmental impact of transport is significant because it is a major user of energy , and burns most of the world 's petroleum . This creates air pollution , including nitrous oxides and particulates , and is a significant contributor to global warming through emission of carbon dioxide , for sector . By subsector , road transport is the largest contributor to global warming . Environmental regulations in developed countries have reduced the individual vehicle 's emission ; however , this has been offset by an increase in the number of vehicles , and more use of each vehicle . Some pathways to reduce the carbon emissions of road vehicles considerably have been studied . Energy use and emissions vary largely between modes , causing environmentalists to call for a transition from air and road to rail and human-powered transport , and increase transport electrification and energy efficiency . The transportation sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) in the United States . An estimated 30 percent of national GHGs are directly attributable to transportation -- and in some regions , the proportion is even higher . Transportation methods are the greatest contributing source of GHGs in the U.S. , accounting for 47 percent of the net increase in total U.S. emissions since 1990 . Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl , which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands . By reducing transportation emissions globally , it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth 's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change . The health impact of transport emissions is also of concern . A recent survey of the studies on the effect of traffic emissions on pregnancy outcomes has linked exposure to emissions to adverse effects on gestational duration and possibly also intrauterine growth . As listed above direct impacts such as noise and carbon monoxide emissions create direct and harmful effects on the environment , along with indirect impacts . The indirect impacts are often of higher consequence which leads to the misconception that it 's the opposite since it is frequently understood that initial effects cause the most damage . For example , particulates which are the outcome of incomplete combustion done by an internal combustion engine , are not linked with respiratory and cardiovascular problems since they contribute to other factors not only to that specific condition . Even though the environmental impacts are usually listed individually there are also cumulative impacts . The synergetic consequences of transport activities . They take into account of the varied effects of direct and indirect impacts on an ecosystem . Climate change is the sum total impact of several natural and human-made factors . 15 % of global CO2 emissions are attributed to the transport sector .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_transport", "rank": 34, "score": 102749 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change litigation and the California Environmental Quality Act Content: Litigation related to climate change and greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions has become increasingly common in federal and state courts . Following adoption of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 ( AB 32 ) and publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report ( AR4 ) , additional pressure was placed on California public agencies to evaluate potential adverse effects to global climate change caused by GHG emissions . In particular , several lawsuits have been filed against agencies for failure to analyze GHG emissions generated by projects subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ( CEQA ) . Court decisions prior to the 2010 revisions to the CEQA guidelines gave early insights as to how CEQA would be used as a vehicle to identify and mitigate GHG emissions within the state . Decisions issued after adoption of the revised guidelines are now being used to interpret CEQA 's new requirement to evaluate GHG emissions and climate change .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_change_litigation_and_the_California_Environmental_Quality_Act", "rank": 35, "score": 102685 }, { "content": "Title: Cumulative effects (environment) Content: Cumulative environmental effects can be defined as effects on the environment which are caused by the combined results of past , current and future activities . Over time , direct and indirect human activities combine to collectively impact the environment . These effects may differ from the original , individual activities . For example , ecosystems can be damaged by the combined effects of human activities , such as air , land , and/or water pollution , improper handling of industrial waste , and other human development activities . Global warming is the cumulative effect caused by too much greenhouse gas , and it may then cause a loss in biodiversity and acid rain . North America has contributed to creating various cumulative effects on the environment . Many states in the United States have inadequate or no formal environmental review requirements in order to assess the cumulative effects on the environment from harmful practices . The extent to which cumulative effects in each state are evaluated varies greatly . For example , some programs only require an assessment on specific natural resource issues and others require comprehensive examination of cumulative effects on the environment . Environmental assessments are a necessity to ensure the further advancement of healthy ecosystems , habitats , and wildlife .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Cumulative_effects_(environment)", "rank": 36, "score": 102364 }, { "content": "Title: The Greenhouse Conspiracy Content: The Greenhouse Conspiracy is a documentary film broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 12 August 1990 , as part of the Equinox series , which criticised the theory of global warming and asserted that scientists critical of global warming theory were denied funding . It is one of the earliest instances of the suggestion of a conspiracy to promote false claims supporting global warming . Although the title of the program implied the existence of a conspiracy , when interviewed on the program Patrick Michaels played down the idea , saying , `` It may not quite add up to a conspiracy , but certainly a coalition of interests has promoted the greenhouse theory : scientists have needed funds , the media a story , and governments a worthy cause '' .", "qid": "442", "docid": "The_Greenhouse_Conspiracy", "rank": 37, "score": 101780 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 38, "score": 101575 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "442", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 39, "score": 101188 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change Content: Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time ( i.e. , decades to millions of years ) . Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions , or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions ( i.e. , more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics , and volcanic eruptions . Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change , often referred to as global warming . Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models . A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth 's past -- has been assembled , and continues to be built up , based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles , cores removed from deep accumulations of ice , floral and faunal records , glacial and periglacial processes , stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers , and records of past sea levels . More recent data are provided by the instrumental record . General circulation models , based on the physical sciences , are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data , make future projections , and link causes and effects in climate change .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_change", "rank": 40, "score": 100602 }, { "content": "Title: Methane emissions Content: Global methane emissions are major part of the global greenhouse gas emissions . Methane in the atmosphere has a 100-year global warming potential of 34 .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Methane_emissions", "rank": 41, "score": 100471 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway climate change Content: Runaway climate change or runaway global warming is hypothesized to follow a tipping point in the climate system , after accumulated climate change initiates a reinforcing positive feedback . This is thought to cause the climate to rapidly change until it reaches a new stable condition . These phrases may be used with reference to concerns about rapid global warming . Some astronomers use the expression runaway greenhouse effect to describe a situation where the climate deviates catastrophically and permanently from the original state -- as happened on Venus . Although these terms are rarely used in the peer-reviewed climatological literature , that literature does use the similar phrase `` runaway greenhouse effect '' , which refers specifically to climate changes that cause a planetary body 's water to boil off .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Runaway_climate_change", "rank": 42, "score": 100410 }, { "content": "Title: Heaven and Earth (book) Content: Heaven and Earth : Global Warming -- The Missing Science is a popular science book published in 2009 and written by Australian geologist , professor of mining geology at Adelaide University , and mining company director Ian Plimer . It disputes the scientific consensus on climate change , including the view that global warming is `` very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic ( man-made ) greenhouse gas concentrations '' and asserts that the debate is being driven by what the author regards as irrational and unscientific elements . The book received what The Age newspaper called `` glowing endorsements '' from the conservative press . The Australian said it gave `` all the scientific ammunition climate change skeptics could want . '' Other reviewers criticised the book as unscientific , inaccurate , based on obsolete research , and internally inconsistent . Ideas in it have been described as `` so wrong as to be laughable '' . Heaven and Earth was a bestseller in Australia when published in May 2009 , and is in its seventh printing , according to the publisher . The book has also been published in the United States and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Heaven_and_Earth_(book)", "rank": 43, "score": 100216 }, { "content": "Title: Contribution to global warming by Australia Content: Australia has one of the highest per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the world , with 0.3 % of the world 's population it produces 1.8 % of the world 's greenhouse gasses . It was 18.3 tonnes per year per person and the 11th highest in the world per capita in 2009 . Australia uses principally coal power ( 70 % ) for electricity , with the remainder mainly gas , with no nuclear , low levels of hydro power , and low , but increasing , levels of solar , wind and wave power .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Contribution_to_global_warming_by_Australia", "rank": 44, "score": 98966 }, { "content": "Title: List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita Content: This is a list of countries ranked by greenhouse-gas emissions per capita in 2000 . It is based on data for carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , perfluorocarbon , hydrofluorocarbon and sulfur hexafluoride emissions compiled by the World Resources Institute ( WRI ) from a variety of sources , including CDIAC and the US Environmental Protection Agency . Bunker-fuel emissions are not included . Two sets of per capita emissions are given , one with an estimate of the effects of land-use change ( for example , cutting down forests ) and one without . The former is based on regional estimates in Houghton ( 2003 ) . Difficulties with determining rates of deforestation and the magnitude of carbon stocks held by the remaining forests and with distributing regional carbon fluxes among individual countries mean that the land-use change components have a large margin of error , perhaps as large as + / -150 % in some cases . They are included here because , although difficult to quantify accurately at a country level , land-use change is a significant contributor to global warming . The WRI estimates that it accounted for almost a fifth of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2000 . For 2005 the data for a large number of countries only includes emissions ( see note 12 . )", "qid": "442", "docid": "List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions_per_capita", "rank": 45, "score": 98906 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental impact of aviation Content: The environmental impact of aviation occurs because aircraft engines emit heat , noise , particulates and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Among others airplanes emit particles and gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , hydrocarbons , carbon monoxide , nitrogen oxides , sulfur oxides , lead and black carbon which interact among themselves and with the atmosphere . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient and less polluting turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . From 1992 to 2005 , passenger kilometers increased 5.2 % per year . And in the European Union , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . Comprehensive research shows that despite anticipated efficiency innovations to airframes , engines , aerodynamics and flight operations , there is no end in sight -- even many decades out -- to rapid growth in CO2 emissions from air travel and air freight , due to projected continual growth in air travel . This is because international aviation emissions have escaped international regulation up to the ICAO triennial conference in October 2016 agreed on the CORSIA offset scheme , and because of the lack of taxes on aviation fuel worldwide , lower fares become more frequent than otherwise which gives a competitive advantage over other transportation modes . Unless market constraints are put in place this growth in aviation 's emissions will result in the sector 's emissions amounting to all or nearly all of the annual global emissions budget by mid-century , if climate change is to be held to a temperature increase of 2 ° C or less . There is an ongoing debate about possible taxation of air travel and the inclusion of aviation in an emissions trading scheme , with a view to ensuring that the total external costs of aviation are taken into account .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Environmental_impact_of_aviation", "rank": 46, "score": 98582 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "442", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 47, "score": 98524 }, { "content": "Title: American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut Content: American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut , , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court , in an 8 -- 0 decision , held that corporations can not be sued for greenhouse gas emissions ( GHGs ) under federal common law , primarily because the Clean Air Act ( CAA ) delegates the management of carbon dioxide and other GHG emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) . Brought to court in July 2004 in the Southern District of New York , this was the first global warming case based on a public nuisance claim .", "qid": "442", "docid": "American_Electric_Power_Co._v._Connecticut", "rank": 48, "score": 98285 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic methane emissions Content: Arctic methane release is the release of methane from seas and soils in permafrost regions of the Arctic . While a long-term natural process , it is exacerbated by global warming . This results in a positive feedback effect , as methane is itself a powerful greenhouse gas . The Arctic region is one of the many natural sources of the greenhouse gas methane . Global warming accelerates its release , due to both release of methane from existing stores , and from methanogenesis in rotting biomass . Large quantities of methane are stored in the Arctic in natural gas deposits , permafrost , and as undersea clathrates . Permafrost and clathrates degrade on warming , thus large releases of methane from these sources may arise as a result of global warming . Other sources of methane include submarine taliks , river transport , ice complex retreat , submarine permafrost and decaying gas hydrate deposits . Concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere are higher by 8 -- 10 % than that in the Antarctic atmosphere . During cold glacier epochs , this gradient decreases to practically insignificant levels . Land ecosystems are considered the main sources of this asymmetry , although it has been suggested that `` the role of the Arctic Ocean is significantly underestimated . '' Soil temperature and moisture levels have been found to be significant variables in soil methane fluxes in tundra environments .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Arctic_methane_emissions", "rank": 49, "score": 98263 }, { "content": "Title: World Climate Report Content: World Climate Report , a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels , was produced by the Greening Earth Society , a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association . Early editions were paper based ; it was then transferred to a web-only format , having ceased publication as a physically based report with Volume 8 in 2002 . It continues to exist in blog form at www.worldclimatereport.com , although the website itself has not been updated since late 2012 . World Climate Report presents a scientific skeptical view of populist anthropogenic-driven mass global climate change , or as it describes , ` Global Warming Alarmism ' . However , it does not reject the concepts of global climate change or greenhouse theory ( or other well-established and widely accepted scientific theories or empirical studies ) , in general attempting to engender itself as giving a well balanced and scientific view of the sources ( though often at a contrary expense of its perceived adversaries : the aforementioned alleged ` Global Warming Alarmists ' ) . WCR says of itself : World Climate Report , a concise , hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and popular press . As the nation 's leading publication in this realm , World Climate Report is exhaustively researched , impeccably referenced , and always timely . This popular biweekly newsletter points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in the science that is being touted as `` proof '' of disastrous warming . It 's the perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio Climate Treaty , such as the Kyoto Protocol , which are aimed at limiting carbon emissions from the United States ... World Climate Report has become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what nature now calls the `` mainstream skeptic '' point of view . . In addition to Patrick Michaels ( chief editor ) , the staff is listed as Robert C. Balling , Jr ( contributing editor ) , Robert Davis ( contributing editor ) , and Paul Knappenberger ( Administrator ) . New Hope Environmental Services , an advocacy science consulting firm , claims WCR as its biweekly newsletter .", "qid": "442", "docid": "World_Climate_Report", "rank": 50, "score": 97624 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States Content: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand . While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 . The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_the_United_States", "rank": 51, "score": 97191 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 52, "score": 97072 }, { "content": "Title: Fugitive emissions Content: Fugitive emissions are emissions of gases or vapors from pressurized equipment due to leaks and other unintended or irregular releases of gases , mostly from industrial activities . As well as the economic cost of lost commodities , fugitive emissions contribute to air pollution and climate change . A detailed inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from upstream oil and gas activities in Canada for the year 2000 estimated that fugitive equipment leaks had a global warming potential equivalent to the release of 17 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide , or 12 per cent of all greenhouse gases emitted by the sector . Venting of natural gas , flaring , accidental releases and storage losses accounted for an additional 38 per cent . Fugitive emissions present other risks and hazards . Emissions of volatile organic compounds such as benzene from oil refineries and chemical plants pose a long term health risk to workers and local communities . In situations where large amounts of flammable liquids and gases are contained under pressure , leaks also increase the risk of fire and explosion . Leaks from pressurized process equipment generally occur through valves , pipe connections , mechanical seals , or related equipment . Fugitive emissions also occur at evaporative sources such as waste water treatment ponds and storage tanks . Because of the huge number of potential leak sources at large industrial facilities and the difficulties in detecting and repairing some leaks , fugitive emissions can be a significant proportion of total emissions . Though the quantities of leaked gases may be small , gases that have serious health or environmental impacts can cause a significant problem . To minimize and control leaks at process facilities operators carry out regular leak detection and repair activities . Routine inspections of process equipment with gas detectors can be used to identify leaks and estimate the leak rate in order to decide on appropriate corrective action . Proper routine maintenance of equipment reduces the likelihood of leaks . Because of the technical difficulties and costs of detecting and quantifying actual fugitive emissions at a site or facility , and the variability and intermittent nature of emission flow rates , bottom-up estimates based on standard emission factors are generally used for annual reporting purposes . New technologies are under development that could revolutionize the detection and monitoring of fugitive emissions . One technology , known as differential absorption lidar ( DIAL ) , can be used to remotely measure concentration profiles of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere up to several hundred meters from a facility . DIAL has been used for refinery surveys in Europe for over 15 years . A pilot study carried out in 2005 using DIAL found that actual emissions at a refinery were fifteen times higher than those previously reported using the emission factor approach . The fugitive emissions were equivalent to 0.17 % of the refinery throughput . Portable gas leak imaging cameras are also a new technology that can be used to improve leak detection and repair , leading to reduced fugitive emissions . The cameras use infrared imaging technology to produce video images in which invisible gases escaping from leak sources can be clearly identified .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Fugitive_emissions", "rank": 53, "score": 96953 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 54, "score": 96891 }, { "content": "Title: Leipzig Declaration Content: The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995 , seeking to refute the claim there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue . It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005 , claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement . All versions of the declaration , which opposes the global warming hypothesis and the Kyoto Protocol , were penned by Fred Singer 's Science and Environmental Policy Project ( SEPP ) . The first declaration was based on a November 9 -- 10 , 1995 conference , organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig , Germany . The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn , Germany on November 10 -- 11 , 1997 . The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Leipzig_Declaration", "rank": 55, "score": 96188 }, { "content": "Title: California Senate Bill 32 Content: The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 : emissions limit , or SB-32 , is a California Senate bill expanding upon AB-32 to reduce greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions . The lead author is Senator Fran Pavley and the principal co-author is Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia . SB-32 was signed into law on September 8 , 2016 , by Governor Edmund Gerald `` Jerry '' Brown Jr. . SB-32 sets into law the mandated reduction target in GHG emissions as written into Executive Order B-30-15 . The Senate bill requires that there be a reduction in GHG emissions to 40 % below the 1990 levels by 2030 . Greenhouse gas emissions include carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , sulfur hexafluoride , hydrofluorocarbons , and perfluorocarbons . The California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) is responsible for ensuring that California meets this goal . The provisions of SB-32 were added to Section 38566 of the Health and Safety Code subsequent to the bill 's approval . The bill goes into effect January 1 , 2017 . SB-32 builds onto Assembly Bill ( AB ) 32 written by Senator Fran Pavley and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez passed into law on September 27 , 2006 . AB-32 required California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and SB-32 continues that timeline to reach the targets set in Executive Order B-30-15 . SB-32 provides another intermediate target between the 2020 and 2050 targets set in Executive Order S-3-05 . SB-32 was contingent on the passing of AB-197 , which increases legislative oversight of CARB and is intended to ensure CARB must report to the Legislature . AB-197 also passed and was signed into law on September 8 , 2016 .", "qid": "442", "docid": "California_Senate_Bill_32", "rank": 56, "score": 96084 }, { "content": "Title: Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 Content: The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 - a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide , and for other purposes . It was proposed in the 110th United States Congress by Senators Bernie Sanders ( I-VT ) and Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ) on January 15 , 2007 . It was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works . The measure was intended to increase performance standards for electricity generation and motor vehicles with the option of an emissions `` cap and trade '' system . The emissions cap would begin in 2010 with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050 . The legislation would also provide funding for R&D on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide , among other projects ; set emissions standards for new vehicles and a renewable fuels requirement for gasoline beginning in 2016 ; establish energy efficiency and renewable portfolio standards beginning in 2008 and low-carbon electric generation standards beginning in 2016 for electric utilities ; and require periodic evaluations by the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether emissions targets are adequate .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_Warming_Pollution_Reduction_Act_of_2007", "rank": 57, "score": 95333 }, { "content": "Title: Politics of global warming Content: The complex politics of global warming results from numerous cofactors arising from the global economy 's interdependence on carbon dioxide emitting hydrocarbon energy sources and because carbon dioxide is directly implicated in global warming -- making global warming a non-traditional environmental challenge .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Politics_of_global_warming", "rank": 58, "score": 95310 }, { "content": "Title: Global Climate Coalition Content: The Global Climate Coalition ( GCC ) ( 1989 -- 2001 ) was an international lobbyist group of businesses that opposed action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and challenged the science behind global warming . The GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy and the most prominent industry advocate in international climate negotiations . The GCC was involved in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol , and played a role in blocking ratification by the United States . The coalition promoted the views of climate skeptics . The GCC dissolved in 2001 after membership declined in the face of improved understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in climate change and of public criticism .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_Climate_Coalition", "rank": 59, "score": 95081 }, { "content": "Title: The 2030 °Challenge Content: The 2030 ° Challenge is an initiative by Edward Mazria and Architecture 2030 asking the global architecture and construction community to adopt a series of greenhouse gas reduction targets for new and renovated buildings . In many developed countries the construction and use of buildings is the leading consumer of energy and producer of greenhouse gas emissions . Stabilizing and reversing emissions in this sector is key to keeping future global warming under one degree celsius ( ° C ) above today 's level , in order to avoid increased global warming , potentially to reach a tipping point .", "qid": "442", "docid": "The_2030_°Challenge", "rank": 60, "score": 95002 }, { "content": "Title: GWP Content: GWP can stand for : Global-warming potential , a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere Global Water Partnership , an international network offering practical advice for sustainably managing water resources Gross world product , the combined GNP of all countries in the world Gross Written Premiums , a measure of revenues for insurance businesses Guild Wars Prophecies , an MMORPG Guinea-Bissau peso , the currency code for Guinea-Bissau 's peso from 1975 to 1997 Gigawatt-peak , a measure in gigawatts of the nominal power of a photovoltaic solar energy device under laboratory illumination conditions", "qid": "442", "docid": "GWP", "rank": 61, "score": 94958 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of global warming in Australia Content: Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at reducing the extent of global warming . This is in distinction to adaptation to global warming , which involves taking action to minimise the effects of global warming . Scientific consensus on global warming , together with the precautionary principle and the fear of non-linear climate transitions , is leading to increased effort to develop new technologies and sciences and carefully manage others in an attempt to mitigate global warming . Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) for coal-fired power stations has been put forward as a solution to rising greenhouse gas emissions . However , CCS can not deliver in time to avoid dangerous increases in temperatures , as widespread commercial use of CCS is not expected before 2030 . Following the introduction of government mandatory renewable energy targets , more opportunities have opened up for renewable energy technologies such as wind power , photovoltaics , and solar thermal technologies . The deployment of these technologies provides opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases . A carbon price was introduced on 1 July 2012 by the government of Julia Gillard with the purpose of reducing Australia 's carbon emissions . It requires large businesses ( defined as those with annual carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over 25,000 tonnes annually ) to pay a price for emissions permits . The tax was scrapped by the Abbott government in July 2014 in what was a widely criticised and highly publicised move .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Mitigation_of_global_warming_in_Australia", "rank": 62, "score": 94920 }, { "content": "Title: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Content: Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 . At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Mitigation_of_aviation's_environmental_impact", "rank": 63, "score": 94860 }, { "content": "Title: Arctic sea ice decline Content: Arctic sea ice decline is the sea ice loss observed in recent decades in the Arctic Ocean . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that greenhouse gas forcing is largely , but not wholly , responsible for the decline in Arctic sea ice extent . A study from 2011 suggested that internal variability enhanced the greenhouse gas forced sea ice decline over the last decades . A study from 2007 found the decline to be `` faster than forecasted '' by model simulations . The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concluded with high confidence that sea ice continues to decrease in extent , and that there is robust evidence for the downward trend in Arctic summer sea ice extent since 1979 . It has been established that the region is at its warmest for at least 40,000 years and the Arctic-wide melt season has lengthened at a rate of 5 days per decade ( from 1979 to 2013 ) , dominated by a later autumn freezeup . Sea ice changes have been identified as a mechanism for polar amplification .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Arctic_sea_ice_decline", "rank": 64, "score": 94597 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 65, "score": 94511 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 66, "score": 94270 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide equivalent Content: Carbon dioxide equivalent ( CDE ) and equivalent carbon dioxide ( e and eq ) are two related but distinct measures for describing how much global warming a given type and amount of greenhouse gas may cause , using the functionally equivalent amount or concentration of carbon dioxide as the reference .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_equivalent", "rank": 67, "score": 94269 }, { "content": "Title: America's Climate Security Act of 2007 Content: The America 's Climate Security Act of 2007 was a global warming bill that was considered by the United States Senate to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the United States . Also known as the Lieberman-Warner bill , bill number , the legislation was introduced by Sens. Joseph Lieberman ( I-CT ) and John Warner ( R-VA ) on October 18 , 2007 . The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in December 2007 , and was debated in the Senate during the week of June 2 . The bill would create a national cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gas emissions , in which polluters would mostly be allocated right-to-emit credits based on how much greenhouse gas they currently emit . The cap would get tighter over time , until by 2050 , emissions would be reduced to 63 % below 2005 levels . Several environmental groups express their encouragement at the progress in legislation on the global warming issue while at the same time expressing disappointment that the bill does n't reduce emissions enough . On June 6 , 2008 , the bill was killed by Senate Republicans over worries that it would damage the economy .", "qid": "442", "docid": "America's_Climate_Security_Act_of_2007", "rank": 68, "score": 93942 }, { "content": "Title: Retreat of glaciers since 1850 Content: The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use , mountain recreation , animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt , and , in the longer term , the level of the oceans . Studied by glaciologists , the temporal coincidence of glacier retreat with the measured increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases is often cited as an evidentiary underpinning of global warming . Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas , Alps , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and the southern Andes , as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa , are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial losses . Glacier mass balance is the key determinant of the health of a glacier . If the amount of frozen precipitation in the accumulation zone exceeds the quantity of glacial ice lost due to melting or in the ablation zone a glacier will advance ; if the accumulation is less than the ablation , the glacier will retreat . Glaciers in retreat will have negative mass balances , and if they do not find an equilibrium between accumulation and ablation , will eventually disappear . The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cooler temperatures compared to the present . Subsequently , until about 1940 , glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed substantially . Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed temporarily , in many cases , between 1950 and 1980 as global temperatures cooled slightly . Since 1980 , a significant global warming has led to glacier retreat becoming increasingly rapid and ubiquitous , so much so that some glaciers have disappeared altogether , and the existences of many of the remaining glaciers are threatened . In locations such as the Andes of South America and Himalayas in Asia , the demise of glaciers in these regions has the potential to affect water supplies in those areas . The retreat of mountain glaciers , notably in western North America , Asia , the Alps and tropical and subtropical regions of South America , Africa and Indonesia , provide evidence for the rise in global temperatures since the late 19th century . The acceleration of the rate of retreat since 1995 of key outlet glaciers of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may foreshadow a rise in sea level , which would affect coastal regions .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Retreat_of_glaciers_since_1850", "rank": 69, "score": 93800 }, { "content": "Title: Virgin Earth Challenge Content: The Virgin Earth Challenge is a competition offering a $ 25 million prize for whoever can demonstrate a commercially viable design which results in the permanent removal of greenhouse gases out of the Earth 's atmosphere to contribute materially in global warming avoidance . The prize was conceived and financed by Sir Richard Branson , a successful British entrepreneur , and was announced in London on 9 February 2007 by Branson and former US Vice President and 2007 Nobel Prize winner Al Gore , creator of the 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth on climate change . Among more than 2600 applications , 11 finalists were announced on 2 November 2011 . These are Biochar Solutions , from the US ; Biorecro , Sweden ; Black Carbon , Denmark ; Carbon Engineering , Canada ; Climeworks , Switzerland ; COAWAY , US ; Full Circle Biochar , US ; Global Thermostat , US ; Kilimanjaro Energy , US ; Smartstones -- Olivine Foundation , Netherlands , and The Savory Institute , US .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Virgin_Earth_Challenge", "rank": 70, "score": 93525 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Pakistan Content: Pakistan makes a tiny contribution to total global greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions , less than 1 % ( among the lowest in the world ) but it is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change , and it has very low technical and financial capacity to adapt to its adverse impacts . The effects of climate change and global warming on Pakistan , the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas , threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of Pakistan . In Pakistan , such effects are projected to impact millions of lives . As a result of ongoing climate change , the climate of Pakistan has become increasingly volatile over the past several decades ; this trend is expected to continue . Climate Change Mitigation Pakistan 's greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions are low compared to international standards . In 2008 Pakistan 's total GHG emissions were 310 million tons of CO2 equivalent . These comprised : CO2 54 % ; Methane ( CH4 ) 36 % ; Nitrous Oxide ( N2O ) 9 % ; Carbon Monoxide ( CO ) 0.7 % ; and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds 0.3 % . ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . The energy sector is the single largest source of GHG emission in Pakistan ; it accounts for nearly 51 % of these emissions and is followed by the agriculture sector ( 39 % ) , industrial processes ( 6 % ) , land use , land use change and forestry ( LULUCF ) ( 3 % ) emissions and waste ( 1 % ) ( Source : National GHG inventory 2008 ) . As such , the most important targets for mitigation efforts focused on reduction of GHG emissions are the energy and agriculture sectors . In the energy sector , integration of climate change and energy policy objectives is particularly important as today 's investment will `` lock in '' the infrastructure , fuel and technologies to be used for decades to come . Similarly , the building and transport infrastructure put in place today should meet the design needs of the future . Therefore , greater attention must be paid to energy efficiency requirements in building codes and long-term transport planning .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Pakistan", "rank": 71, "score": 93477 }, { "content": "Title: California Proposition 23 (2010) Content: Proposition 23 was a California ballot proposition that was on the November 2 , 2010 California statewide ballot . It was defeated by California voters during the statewide election by a 23 % margin . If passed , it would have suspended AB 32 , a law enacted in 2006 , legally referred to its long name , the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 . Sponsors of the initiative referred to their measure as the California Jobs Initiative while opponents called it the Dirty Energy Prop . The goal of the proposition was to freeze the provisions of AB 32 until California 's unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 % or below for four consecutive quarters . Since the rate was then at 12.4 % , and it had been decades since the state had seen an unemployment rate below 5.5 % for such a period of time , this wording was seen by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others as a wording trick to delay the environmental regulations indefinitely . AB 32 requires that greenhouse emission levels in the state be cut to 1990 levels by 2020 , in a gradual process of cutting that is slated to begin in 2012 . Reducing greenhouse emission levels to 1990 levels will involve cutting them by about 15 % from 2010 levels . AB 32 includes a provision allowing the Governor of California to suspend the provisions of AB 32 if there are `` extraordinary circumstances '' in place , such as `` significant economic harm '' . The supporters of Prop 23 , Assemblyman Dan Logue and Ted Costa , decided to circulate a petition to accomplish a suspension of the environmental regulations . Governor Schwarzenegger , as well as the major party candidates for Governor , Jerry Brown , and Meg Whitman , all stated they would vote `` no '' on Prop 23 . Brown however favored `` adjustments '' to AB 32 , while Whitman would have immediately suspended the law . Louise Bedsworth , a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California , predicted in April 2010 that total campaign spending on this proposition would top the $ 154 million record set in 2006 by Proposition 87 . If campaign spending on the proposition does reach that level , it could be because supporters and opponents view the battle over the suspension of AB 32 as symbolic in the larger national debate over global warming . Steven Maviglio , speaking for a group that wants to keep AB 32 intact , said , '' ... this could be a ground zero for the battle for the future of clean energy '' .", "qid": "442", "docid": "California_Proposition_23_(2010)", "rank": 72, "score": 93169 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 73, "score": 93158 }, { "content": "Title: Climate system Content: Earth's climate arises from the interaction of five major climate system components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things). Climate is the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components. The climate system can change due to internal variability and external forcings. These external forcings can be natural, such as variations in solar intensity and volcanic eruptions, or caused by humans. Accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly being emitted by people burning fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Human activity also releases cooling aerosols, but their net effect is far less than that of greenhouse gases. Changes can be amplified by feedback processes in the different climate system components.", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_system", "rank": 74, "score": 92708 }, { "content": "Title: IPCC First Assessment Report Content: The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established . Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports . The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes : We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it . We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ... Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade . There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets . Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more . under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .", "qid": "442", "docid": "IPCC_First_Assessment_Report", "rank": 75, "score": 92674 }, { "content": "Title: Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 Content: The Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 , also known as Senate Bill 375 or SB 375 , is a State of California law targeting greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles . The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 ( AB 32 ) sets goals for the reduction of statewide greenhouse gas emissions . Passenger vehicles are the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions statewide , accounting for 30 % of total emissions . SB 375 therefore provides key support to achieve the goals of AB 32 . SB 375 instructs the California Air Resources Board ( CARB ) to set regional emissions ' reduction targets from passenger vehicles . The Metropolitan Planning Organization for each region must then develop a `` Sustainable Communities Strategy '' ( SCS ) that integrates transportation , land-use and housing policies to plan for achievement of the emissions target for their region . In a press release the day he signed the bill into law , Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stated , `` What this will mean is more environmentally-friendly communities , more sustainable developments , less time people spend in their cars , more alternative transportation options and neighborhoods we can safely and proudly pass on to future generations . ''", "qid": "442", "docid": "Sustainable_Communities_and_Climate_Protection_Act_of_2008", "rank": 76, "score": 92566 }, { "content": "Title: Runaway greenhouse effect Content: A runaway greenhouse effect is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its oceans boil away . An example of this is believed to have happened in the early history of Venus . On the Earth , the IPCC states that `` a ` runaway greenhouse effect ' -- analogous to -LSB- that of -RSB- Venus -- appears to have virtually no chance of being induced by anthropogenic activities . '' Other large-scale climate changes are sometimes loosely called a `` runaway greenhouse effect '' although it is not an appropriate description . For example , it has been hypothesized that large releases of greenhouse gases may have occurred concurrently with the Permian -- Triassic extinction event or Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum . Other terms , such as `` abrupt climate change '' , or tipping points could be used when describing such scenarios .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Runaway_greenhouse_effect", "rank": 77, "score": 92502 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific consensus on climate change Content: There is currently a strong scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and that this warming is mainly caused by human activities. This consensus is supported by various studies of scientists' opinions and by position statements of scientific organizations, many of which explicitly agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis reports. Nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors.", "qid": "442", "docid": "Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change", "rank": 78, "score": 92436 }, { "content": "Title: Peter Thejll Content: Peter Andreas Thejll ( born 1956 ) is a Danish astrophysicist and climate researcher . His research in solar variation helped provide evidence of the greenhouse effect on the Earth 's climate in the late 20th century . In particular , his study with Knud Lassen on Northern Hemisphere land air temperature showed that the rise of 0.4 degrees Celsius since 1980 could not be accounted for by the solar cycle . Climatologists have pointed to this finding as an `` actual piece of evidence for greenhouse warming '' . Thejll received his undergraduate education at the University of Copenhagen . He received an M.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Delaware . Thejll was a Carlsberg Fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute and worked at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics . Thejll currently is a senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen . He is currently involved in the creation of a global automatic system to observe the Earth 's reflectivity - albedo - using observations of the earthshine on the Moon . Such data can be used for climate change studies and calibration of satellite data as the measurements deliver independent data on the albedo . A telescope is now installed on Hawaii at the Mauna Loa Observatory . The Swedish research agency VINNOVA is funding this project .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Peter_Thejll", "rank": 79, "score": 92409 }, { "content": "Title: Idealized greenhouse model Content: The surface of the Sun radiates light and heat at approximately 5,500 ° C . The Earth is much cooler and so radiates heat back away from itself at much longer wavelengths , mostly in the infrared range . The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth 's atmosphere , including carbon dioxide and water vapour , are transparent to the high-frequency , high-energy solar radiation , but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving the surface of the earth . Thus heat is easily let in , but is partially trapped by these gases as it tries to leave . Rather than get hotter and hotter , Kirchhoff 's law of thermal radiation says that the gases of the atmosphere also have to re-emit the infrared energy that they absorb , and they do so , also at long infrared wavelengths , both upwards into space as well as downwards back towards the Earth 's surface . In the long-term , thermal equilibrium is reached when all the heat energy arriving on the planet is leaving again at the same rate . In this idealized model , the greenhouse gases cause the surface of the planet to be warmer than it would be without them , in order for the required amount of heat energy finally to be radiated out into space from the top of the atmosphere . The greenhouse effect can be illustrated with an idealized planet . This is a common `` textbook model '' : the planet will have a constant surface temperature Ts and an atmosphere with constant temperature Ta . For diagrammatic clarity , a gap can be depicted between the atmosphere and the surface . Alternatively , Ts could be interpreted as a temperature representative of the surface and the lower atmosphere , and Ta could be interpreted as the temperature of the upper atmosphere . In order to justify that Ta and Ts remain constant over the planet , strong ocean and atmospheric currents can be imagined to provide plentiful lateral mixing . Furthermore , any daily or seasonal cycles in temperature are assumed to be insignificant .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Idealized_greenhouse_model", "rank": 80, "score": 92327 }, { "content": "Title: Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases Content: The Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases , created in 1985 , was an advisory body for the review of studies into the greenhouse effect . The group was created by the International Council of Scientific Unions , the United Nations Environment Programme , and the World Meteorological Organization to follow up on the recommendations of the International conference of the Assessment of the role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts , held at Villach , Austria , in October 1985 . The seven-member panel included Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin and Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare . The group held its last meeting in 1990 . It was gradually replaced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Advisory_Group_on_Greenhouse_Gases", "rank": 81, "score": 92325 }, { "content": "Title: Polar amplification Content: Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance ( for example greenhouse intensification ) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than the planetary average . On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict longwave radiation to space ( a greenhouse effect ) , surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict . Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards , the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict . In the extreme , the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime , so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal ( no difference between poles and equator ) . On Earth , water vapor and trace gasses provide a lesser greenhouse effect , and the atmosphere and extensive oceans provide efficient poleward heat transport . Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification , as described below .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Polar_amplification", "rank": 82, "score": 92026 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 83, "score": 91858 }, { "content": "Title: Fluorinated gases Content: Fluorinated gases ( F-gases ) are man-made gases that can stay in the atmosphere for centuries and contribute to a global greenhouse effect . There are four types : hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) , sulfur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) and nitrogen trifluoride ( NF3 ) .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Fluorinated_gases", "rank": 84, "score": 91851 }, { "content": "Title: Post–Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions Content: Post-Kyoto negotiations refers to high level talks attempting to address global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions . Generally part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , these talks concern the period after the first `` commitment period '' of the Kyoto Protocol , which expired at the end of 2012 . Negotiations have been mandated by the adoption of the Bali Road Map and Decision 1/CP .13 ( `` The Bali Action Plan '' ) . UNFCCC negotiations are conducted within two subsidiary bodies , the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention ( AWG-LCA ) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol ( AWG-KP ) and were expected to culminate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in December 2009 in Copenhagen ( COP-15 ) ; negotiations are supported by a number of external processes , including the G8 process , a number of regional meetings and the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate that was launched by US President Barack Obama in March 2009 . High level talks were held at the meeting of the G8 +5 Climate Change Dialogue in February 2007 and at a number of subsequent G8 meetings , most recently leading to the adoption of the G8 leaders declaration `` Responsible Leadership for a Sustainable Future '' during the G8 summit in L ´ Aquila , Italy , in July 2009 .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Post–Kyoto_Protocol_negotiations_on_greenhouse_gas_emissions", "rank": 85, "score": 91051 }, { "content": "Title: Scientists for Global Responsibility Content: Scientists for Global Responsibility ( SGR ) in the United Kingdom promotes the ethical practice and use of science and technology . SGR is affiliated to the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility ( INES ) . SGR 's main areas of concern are arms and arms control , including military involvement in UK universities ; effect of excessive greenhouse gas emissions on climate ; the nature of war and reducing barbarity ; topsoil and water shortages resulting from modern agricultural methods ; depletion of species of fish due to over-fishing ; continual spread of nuclear weapons , and reduction of occurrence of serious nuclear accidents . SGR evaluates the risk of new science and new technological solutions to older science-based problems and threats , while recognizing the enormous contribution science , design and technology has made to civilisation and human well-being .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Scientists_for_Global_Responsibility", "rank": 86, "score": 90971 }, { "content": "Title: The Real Global Warming Disaster Content: The Real Global Warming Disaster ( Is the Obsession with ` Climate Change ' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History ? ) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming can not be attributed to humans , and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated . From a standpoint of environmental scepticism , Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce emissions and claims that , as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies , the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged . He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists , and criticises how the UN 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) presents evidence and data , in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections . Booker concludes , `` it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed '' may be imaginary , and that , if so , `` it will turn out to be one of the most expensive , destructive , and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made '' . The book 's claims were strongly criticised by science writer Philip Ball , but the book was praised by several columnists . The book opens with an erroneous quotation , which Booker subsequently acknowledged and promised to correct in future editions . The book was Amazon UK 's fourth bestselling environment book of the decade 2000 -- 10 .", "qid": "442", "docid": "The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster", "rank": 87, "score": 90683 }, { "content": "Title: International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences Content: The International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences , Inc. ( CAETS ) is an organization of national engineering and technological sciences academies . Its primary mission is to advise governments and international organizations on technical and policy issues , to improve the understanding of engineering and technology by the public , to offer a forum for discussion and communication , to support cooperation , and to improve education and practice of its field of interest . CAETS was founded in 1978 by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering , the Royal Academy of Engineering , the Mexican National Academy of Engineering , the US National Academy of Engineering and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and , as of 2007 , has more than 25 members among the national academies of engineering of many major industrialized countries . CAETS is incorporated as a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit corporation in the District of Columbia , USA . In October 2007 , CAETS issued a Statement on Environment and Sustainable Growth : As reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , most of the observed global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human-produced emission of greenhouse gases and this warming will continue unabated if present anthropogenic emissions continue or , worse , expand without control . CAETS , therefore , endorses the many recent calls to decrease and control greenhouse gas emissions to an acceptable level as quickly as possible .", "qid": "442", "docid": "International_Council_of_Academies_of_Engineering_and_Technological_Sciences", "rank": 88, "score": 90664 }, { "content": "Title: John Lawrence Daly Content: John L. Daly ( 31 March 1943 -- 29 January 2004 ) was an Australian teacher and self-declared `` Greenhouse skeptic . '' He was known for speaking out publicly against what he called the `` Global Warming scare , '' and authored the book The greenhouse trap : Why the greenhouse effect will not end life on earth , published in 1989 by Bantam Books . Since his death his website , Still Waiting for Greenhouse is maintained by Jerry Brennan , though updates slowed considerably after Daly 's death and stopped completely in 2008 . Daly investigated various studies by scientists which appear to support global warming scenarios and raised objections to them . For example , he denied that the average sea level is rising , on the basis the ` Isle of the Dead ' mean ocean level benchmark .", "qid": "442", "docid": "John_Lawrence_Daly", "rank": 89, "score": 90365 }, { "content": "Title: Drawdown (climate) Content: Climate drawdown is the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere begin to decline on a year-to-year basis . Drawdown is a goal for reversing climate change , and eventually reducing global average temperatures . Project Drawdown is a climate change mitigation project initiated by Paul Hawken and climate activist Amanda Joy Ravenhill . Central to the project is the compilation of a list of the `` 100 most substantive solutions to global warming . '' The list , encompassing only technologically viable , existing solutions , was compiled by a team of over 200 scholars , scientists , policymakers , business leaders and activists ; for each solution the carbon impact through the year 2050 , the total and net cost to society , and the total lifetime savings were measured and modelled .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Drawdown_(climate)", "rank": 90, "score": 90234 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Massachusetts Content: Formet Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed into law three global warming and energy-related bills that will promote advanced biofuels , support the growth of the clean energy technology industry , and cut the emissions of greenhouse gases within the state . The Clean Energy Biofuels Act , signed in late July , exempts cellulosic ethanol from the state 's gasoline tax , but only if the ethanol achieves a 60 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline . The act also requires all diesel motor fuels and all No. 2 fuel oil sold for heating to include at least 2 % `` substitute fuel '' by July 2010 , where substitute fuel is defined as a fuel derived from renewable non-food biomass that achieves at least a 50 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions . The requirement for both motor diesel fuel and heating oil increases by a percentage point per year until 2013 , after which it holds steady 5 % . The act also allows the state to expand the requirement to other forms of fuel oil , and it requires the state to work to establish a low-carbon fuel standard under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative . In early August of 2008 , Governor Patrick signed two additional bills : the Green Jobs Act and the Global Warming Solutions Act . The Green Jobs Act will support the growth of a clean energy technology industry within the state , backed by $ 68 million in funding over 5 years . The Global Warming Solutions Act requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the state to 10 % -25 % below 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80 % below 1990 levels by 2050 . Under the act , the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will carry the burdens of determining the baseline level of emissions in 1990 and creating a plan to meet the future emissions limits , including the establishment of interim limits for 2030 and 2040", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Massachusetts", "rank": 91, "score": 90099 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming taxes Content:", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_warming_taxes", "rank": 92, "score": 89670 }, { "content": "Title: Hydrofluorocarbon Content: Hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , organic compounds that contain fluorine and hydrogen atoms , are the most common type of organofluorine compounds . They are commonly used in air conditioning and as refrigerants in place of the older chlorofluorocarbons such as R-12 and hydrochlorofluorocarbons such as R-21 . They do not harm the ozone layer as much as the compounds they replace ; however , they do contribute to global warming . Their atmospheric concentrations and contribution to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly increasing , causing international concern about their radiative forcing . Fluorocarbons with few C -- F bonds behave similarly to the parent hydrocarbons , but their reactivity can be altered significantly . For example , both uracil and 5-fluorouracil are colourless , high-melting crystalline solids , but the latter is a potent anti-cancer drug . The use of the C-F bond in pharmaceuticals is predicated on this altered reactivity . Several drugs and agrochemicals contain only one fluorine center or one trifluoromethyl group . Unlike other greenhouse gases in the Paris Agreement , hydrofluorocarbons have other international negotiations . In September 2016 , the so-called New York Declaration urged a global reduction in the use of HFCs . On 15 October 2016 , due to these chemicals ' contribution to climate change , negotiators from 197 nations meeting at the summit of the United Nations Environment Programme in Kigali , Rwanda reached a legally-binding accord to phase out hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) in an amendment to the Montreal Protocol .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Hydrofluorocarbon", "rank": 93, "score": 89500 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change feedback Content: Climate change feedback is important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes may amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing , and so play an important part in determining the climate sensitivity and future climate state . Feedback in general is the process in which changing one quantity changes a second quantity , and the change in the second quantity in turn changes the first . Positive feedback amplifies the change in the first quantity while negative feedback reduces it . The term `` forcing '' means a change which may `` push '' the climate system in the direction of warming or cooling . An example of a climate forcing is increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases . By definition , forcings are external to the climate system while feedbacks are internal ; in essence , feedbacks represent the internal processes of the system . Some feedbacks may act in relative isolation to the rest of the climate system ; others may be tightly coupled ; hence it may be difficult to tell just how much a particular process contributes . Forcings , feedbacks and the dynamics of the climate system determine how much and how fast the climate changes . The main positive feedback in global warming is the tendency of warming to increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere , which in turn leads to further warming . The main negative feedback comes from the Stefan -- Boltzmann law , the amount of heat radiated from the Earth into space changes with the fourth power of the temperature of Earth 's surface and atmosphere . Some observed and potential effects of global warming are positive feedbacks , which contribute directly to further global warming . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's ( IPCC ) Fourth Assessment Report states that `` Anthropogenic warming could lead to some effects that are abrupt or irreversible , depending upon the rate and magnitude of the climate change . ''", "qid": "442", "docid": "Climate_change_feedback", "rank": 94, "score": 89443 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 95, "score": 89436 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming (disambiguation) Content: Global warming is one of the common names for the current change in Earth 's climate . Global warming may also refer to : Global Warming ( Pitbull album ) , a 2011 music album by Pitbull Global Warming ( Sonny Rollins album ) , a 1998 music album by Sonny Rollins Global warming game , several games based on the concept Not to be confused with the Global warming controversy , which refers to the public debate over scientific conclusions on climate change .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_warming_(disambiguation)", "rank": 96, "score": 89313 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming game Content: A global warming game , also known as a climate game or a climate change game , is a type of serious game . As a serious game , it attempts to simulate and explore real life issues to educate players through an interactive experience . The issues particular to a global warming video game are usually energy efficiency and the implementation of green technology as ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus counteract global warming . Global warming games also include more traditional board games , video games , as well as other varieties .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Global_warming_game", "rank": 97, "score": 88830 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 98, "score": 88796 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 99, "score": 88548 }, { "content": "Title: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Content: Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 . The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .", "qid": "442", "docid": "Unstoppable_Global_Warming:_Every_1,500_Years", "rank": 100, "score": 87920 } ]

[ { "content": "Title: Scott Denning Content: A. Scott Denning is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University , whose faculty he joined in 1998 . He is known for his research into atmosphere-biosphere interactions and atmospheric carbon dioxide . He firmly supports action to avoid dangerous climate change and has said that the science behind it is `` settled '' . He has also argued that , if no action is taken on the matter , global warming could cause the climate of Colorado to resemble the current climate of its neighbors to the south , such as southern New Mexico , Texas and Mexico .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Scott_Denning", "rank": 1, "score": 161001 }, { "content": "Title: 350.org Content: 350 . org is an international environmental organization encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million . It was founded by author Bill McKibben with the goal of building a global grassroots movement to raise awareness about human-driven climate change , to confront climate change denial , and to cut emissions of carbon dioxide in order to slow the rate of global warming . 350 . org takes its name from the research of Goddard Institute for Space Studies scientist James E. Hansen , who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million ( ppm ) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point .", "qid": "443", "docid": "350.org", "rank": 2, "score": 147195 }, { "content": "Title: Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change Content: The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit organization based in Tempe , Arizona . The Center produces a weekly online science newsletter called CO2Science . The Center was founded and is run by Craig D. Idso , along with Sherwood B. Idso , his father , and Keith E. Idso , his brother . They came from backgrounds in agriculture and climate . According to the Idsos , they became involved in the global warming controversy through their study of earth 's temperature sensitivity to radiative perturbations and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels and carbon sequestration . The Center sharply disputes the consensus scientific opinion on climate change shown in IPCC assessment reports , and believes that global warming will be beneficial to mankind .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Center_for_the_Study_of_Carbon_Dioxide_and_Global_Change", "rank": 3, "score": 146087 }, { "content": "Title: History of climate change science Content: The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect first identified . In the late 19th century , scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change the climate . Many other theories of climate change were advanced , involving forces from volcanism to solar variation . In the 1960s , the warming effect of carbon dioxide gas became increasingly convincing . Some scientists also pointed out that human activities that generated atmospheric aerosols ( e.g. , `` pollution '' ) could have cooling effects as well . During the 1970s , scientific opinion increasingly favored the warming viewpoint . By the 1990s , as a result of improving fidelity of computer models and observational work confirming the Milankovitch theory of the ice ages , a consensus position formed : greenhouse gases were deeply involved in most climate changes and human caused emissions were bringing discernible global warming . Since the 1990s , scientific research on climate change has included multiple disciplines and has expanded . Research has expanded our understanding of causal relations , links with historic data and ability to model climate change numerically . Research during this period has been summarized in the Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years . It may be a change in average weather conditions , or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions ( such as more or fewer extreme weather events ) . Climate change is caused by factors that include oceanic processes ( such as oceanic circulation ) , biotic processes , variations in solar radiation received by Earth , plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions , and human-induced alterations of the natural world . The latter effect is currently causing global warming , and `` climate change '' is often used to describe human-specific impacts .", "qid": "443", "docid": "History_of_climate_change_science", "rank": 4, "score": 144414 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Content: Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years . Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds . The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth's_atmosphere", "rank": 5, "score": 143856 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center Content: The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center ( CDIAC ) is an organization within the United States Department of Energy that has the primary responsibility for providing the US government and research community with global warming data and analysis as it pertains to energy issues . The CDIAC , and its subsidiary the World Data Center for Atmospheric Trace Gases , focus on obtaining , evaluating and distributing data related to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions . CDIAC was founded in 1982 . Its present offices are located within the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The current director is Thomas A. Boden .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_Dioxide_Information_Analysis_Center", "rank": 6, "score": 141825 }, { "content": "Title: List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming Content: This is a list of scientists who have made statements that conflict with the scientific consensus on global warming as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and endorsed by other scientific bodies . As approximately 97 % of publishing climate scientists support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change , this list represents a minority viewpoint . The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century . Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) . The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows : The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 ° C since the late 19th century , and 0.17 ° C per decade in the last 30 years . `` There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities '' , in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane . If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue , with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 ° C to 5.8 ° C between 1990 and 2100 . Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise . The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming . These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations ; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous . The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science . There have been several efforts to compile lists of dissenting scientists , including a 2008 US senate minority report , the Oregon Petition , and a 2007 list by the Heartland Institute , all three of which have been criticized on a number of grounds . For the purpose of this list , a `` scientist '' is defined as an individual who has published at least one peer-reviewed research article in the broad field of natural sciences , although not necessarily in a field relevant to climatology . Since the publication of the IPCC Third Assessment Report , each has made a clear statement in his or her own words ( as opposed to the name being found on a petition , etc. ) disagreeing with one or more of the report 's three main conclusions . Their views on climate change are usually described in more detail in their biographical articles . Few of the statements in the references for this list are part of the peer-reviewed scientific literature ; most are from other sources such as interviews , opinion pieces , online essays and presentations . NB : Only individuals who have their own Wikipedia article may be included in the list .", "qid": "443", "docid": "List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming", "rank": 7, "score": 138873 }, { "content": "Title: Kenneth Hare Content: Fredrick Kenneth Hare , ( February 5 , 1919 -- September 3 , 2002 ) was a Canadian climatologist and academic , who researched atmospheric carbon dioxide , climate change , drought , and arid zone climates and was a strong advocate for preserving the natural environment .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Kenneth_Hare", "rank": 8, "score": 138293 }, { "content": "Title: Climate engineering Content: Climate engineering , commonly referred to as geoengineering , also known as climate intervention , is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth 's climatic system with the aim of limiting adverse global warming . Climate engineering is an umbrella term for measures that mainly fall into two types : carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management . Carbon dioxide removal addresses the cause of global warming by removing one of the greenhouse gases ( carbon dioxide ) from the atmosphere . Solar radiation management attempts to offset effects of greenhouse gases by causing the Earth to absorb less solar radiation . Climate engineering approaches are sometimes viewed as additional potential options for limiting global warming , alongside mitigation and adaptation . There is substantial agreement among scientists that climate engineering can not substitute for climate change mitigation . Some approaches might be used as accompanying measures to sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . Given that all types of measures for addressing climate change have economic , political , or physical limitations , some climate engineering approaches might eventually be used as part of an ensemble of measures . Research on costs , benefits , and various types of risks of most climate engineering approaches is at an early stage and their understanding needs to improve to judge their adequacy and feasibility . Almost all research into solar radiation management has consisted of computer modelling or laboratory tests , and an attempt to move to outdoor experimentation was controversial . Some carbon dioxide removal practices , such as planting of trees and bio-energy with carbon capture and storage projects , are underway . Their scalability to effectively affect global climate is , however , debated . Ocean iron fertilization has been given small-scale research trials , sparking substantial controversy . Most experts and major reports advise against relying on climate engineering techniques as a simple solution to global warming , in part due to the large uncertainties over effectiveness and side effects . However , most experts also argue that the risks of such interventions must be seen in the context of risks of dangerous global warming . Interventions at large scale may run a greater risk of disrupting natural systems resulting in a dilemma that those approaches that could prove highly ( cost - ) effective in addressing extreme climate risk , might themselves cause substantial risk . Some have suggested that the concept of engineering the climate presents a so-called `` moral hazard '' because it could reduce political and public pressure for emissions reduction , which could exacerbate overall climate risks ; others assert that the threat of climate engineering could spur emissions cuts . Some are in favour of a moratorium on out-of-doors testing and deployment of solar radiation management ( SRM ) .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Climate_engineering", "rank": 9, "score": 135973 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric carbon cycle Content: The atmosphere is one of the Earth 's major carbon reservoirs and an important component of the global carbon cycle , holding approximately 720 gigatons of carbon . Atmospheric carbon plays an important role in the greenhouse effect . The most important carbon compound in this respect is the gas carbon dioxide . Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere ( approximately 0.04 % on a molar basis ) , it plays a vital role in retaining heat in the atmosphere and thus in the greenhouse effect . Other gases with effects on the climate containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons ( the latter is entirely anthropogenic ) . Emissions by humans in the past 200 years have almost doubled the amount carbon dioxide in the atmosphere .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Atmospheric_carbon_cycle", "rank": 10, "score": 135355 }, { "content": "Title: Charles David Keeling Content: Charles David Keeling ( April 20 , 1928 -- June 20 , 2005 ) was an American scientist whose recording of carbon dioxide at the Mauna Loa Observatory first alerted the world to the possibility of anthropogenic contribution to the `` greenhouse effect '' and global warming . The Keeling Curve measures the progressive buildup of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas , in the atmosphere .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Charles_David_Keeling", "rank": 11, "score": 135221 }, { "content": "Title: Keeling Curve Content: The Keeling Curve is a graph that plots the ongoing change in concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere since the 1950s . It is based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that began under the supervision of Charles David Keeling . Keeling 's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere . Many scientists credit Keeling 's graph with first bringing the world 's attention to the current increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Charles David Keeling , of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego , was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) concentration , taking readings at the South Pole and in Hawaii from 1958 onwards . Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere had been taken prior to the Mauna Loa measurements , but on an ad-hoc basis across a variety of locations . Guy Stewart Callendar had shown a steady increase in concentrations since the 19th century . Keeling had perfected the measurement techniques and observed `` strong diurnal behavior with steady values of about 310 ppm in the afternoon '' at three locations : Big Sur near Monterey , the rain forests of Olympic Peninsula , and high mountain forests in Arizona . By measuring the ratio of two isotopes of carbon , Keeling attributed the diurnal change to respiration from local plants and soils , with afternoon values representative of the `` free atmosphere '' . By 1960 , Keeling and his group had determined that the measurement records from California , Antarctica , and Hawaii were long enough to see not just the diurnal and seasonal variations , but also a year-on-year increase that roughly matched the amount of fossil fuels burned per year . In the article that made him famous , Keeling observed : `` at the South Pole the observed rate of increase is nearly that to be expected from the combustion of fossil fuel '' .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Keeling_Curve", "rank": 12, "score": 133622 }, { "content": "Title: North American Carbon Program Content: The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program . The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions . The specific program goals are as followed : Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins . Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 . Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends . The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .", "qid": "443", "docid": "North_American_Carbon_Program", "rank": 13, "score": 133193 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon diet Content: A carbon diet refers to reducing the impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas production specifically , CO2 production . In today 's society , we produce CO2 in every day activities such as driving , heating , deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal , oil and gas . It has been found that carbon dioxide from the burning of coal , natural gas , and oil for electricity and heat is the largest single source of global greenhouse gas emissions . For years , governments and corporations have been attempting to balance out their emissions by participating in carbon-offsetting -- the practice in which they invest in renewable energy to compensate for the global-warming pollution that they produce . Despite these efforts the results are still far off and we continue to see growth in CO2 concentration . Now , a growing number of individuals are trying to make a reduction in the amount of CO2 that is being produced by participating in low carbon dieting . This small adjustment in household CO2 production has the potential to reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and it deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy . It can potentially help avoid `` overshoot '' of greenhouse gas concentration targets ; provide a demonstration effect ; reduce emissions at low cost ; and buy time to develop new technologies , policies , and institutions to reach long-term greenhouse gas emission targets and to develop adaptation strategies .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_diet", "rank": 14, "score": 131113 }, { "content": "Title: Michael Raupach Content: Michael Robin Raupach ( 30 October 1950 -- 10 February 2015 ) was an Australian climate scientist . He is credited with developing the concept of a carbon budget , the amount of CO2 that is emitted and absorbed in the global ecosystem in the course of a year . When the in balance , CO2 emissions and absorption in carbon sinks are roughly the same , but when disturbed , possibly large changes in the ecosystem ensue . He was a founding co-chair of the Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) , a network of the world 's leading carbon cycle researchers . He was instrumental in publishing the Annual Carbon Budget , which draws on a large amount of scientific data to determine the level of imbalance and options for addressing it . He worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation before becoming the director of the Australian National University 's Climate Change Institute in 2014 . He was a co-chair of the Global Carbon Project from 2000 to 2008 , and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Fourth Assessment Report in 2007 . He chaired the steering committee of the ` Australia 2050 ' project of the Australian Academy of Science ( AAS ) . In 2009 -- 2010 he chaired the Expert Working Group on Challenges at the Intersection of Carbon , Energy and Water , reporting to the Prime Minister 's Science , Engineering and Innovation Council and the Office of the Chief Scientist of Australia . His career included the publication of 150 scientific papers and 50 reports . His research developed in three stages , the first focused on very localized flow and transport of matter and energy through and above plant canopies . At the next stage , he worked on quantification of CO2 transport through and above plant canopies , though still on a small scale . In the 1990s , his focus began to shift to global ecosystems when he became a member of the scientific steering committee of the Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle core project of the IGBP ( International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme ) . One of the most fundamental and important questions that the project addressed was : does the land-surface matter in climate and weather ? His research contributed to addressing that question , through his work on turbulent fluxes near the land surface , boundary-layer budgeting and quantifying the water balance at broader scales . He was a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science , the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering , and the American Geophysical Union . Just before his death following a short illness , he co-chaired the working group of the Australian Academy of Science drafting the AAS booklet The Science of Climate Change : Questions and Answers .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Michael_Raupach", "rank": 15, "score": 130193 }, { "content": "Title: Ken Caldeira Content: Kenneth Caldeira is an atmospheric scientist who works at the Carnegie Institution for Science 's Department of Global Ecology . He researches ocean acidification , climate effects of trees , intentional climate modification , and interactions in the global carbon cycle/climate system . He also acted as an inventor for Intellectual Ventures , a Seattle-based invention and patent company headed up by Nathan Myhrvold .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Ken_Caldeira", "rank": 16, "score": 129648 }, { "content": "Title: CO2 fertilization effect Content: The fertilization effect or carbon fertilization effect suggests that the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the rate of photosynthesis in plants . The effect varies by species and availability of water . From a quarter to half of Earth 's vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide . One related trend may be what has been termed `` Arctic greening . '' Scientists have been finding , of late , that as northern portions of the planet warm up even as total atmospheric carbon dioxide increases , there 's been an increase in plant growth in these regions . Studies led by Trevor Keenan from the Department of Energy 's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ( Berkeley Lab ) show that , from 2002 to 2014 , plants appear to have gone into overdrive , starting to pull more carbon dioxide out of the air than they have done before . The result was that the rate at which carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere did not increase during this time period , although previously , it had grown considerably in concert with growing greenhouse gas emissions .", "qid": "443", "docid": "CO2_fertilization_effect", "rank": 17, "score": 129575 }, { "content": "Title: Copenhagen Diagnosis Content: The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report written by twenty-six climate scientists from eight countries . It was published in 2009 and was a summary of the peer-reviewed literature to date . The Copenhagen Diagnosis is a follow-up of the previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's Working Group 1 Report . The studies summarized , which date back to the cutoff point of the Working Group 1 Report , are those that authors viewed most relevant to the discussions at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference . The Copenhagen Diagnosis served as the midpoint between IPCC -- AR4 and IPCC-AR5 . In total , the Copenhagen Diagnosis contains eight main sections , which are : Surging Greenhouse gas emissions Since 1990 , the combined global emission of carbon dioxide from various origins , such as cement production , deforestation , and fossil fuel burning , has increased 27 % . Human-induced warming Studies conducted by Lee and Rind show that only 10 % of global warming over the past century was due to the Sun . Acceleration of melting ice caps Glaciers and melting ice caps can contribute to about 8/10ths of a meter to global sea level rise . Rapid Arctic sea-ice decline According to simulations run by NCAR Climate System Model version 3 , the Arctic summer is expected to be ice-free by 2040 . Underestimation of changing sea levels In contrast to previous IPCC , the rate of sea level rise ( 3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years ) has increased around 80 % faster than previously predicted . Damage due to inaction A region of permafrost , called the Yedoma , stores about 500 Gt of CO2 and , once released due to rising global temperatures , will increase global temperatures even more . Turning point must come soon The largest climate science conference , held in 2009 , has stated , `` Temperature rises above 2 ° C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with , and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond . '' The Future By 2100 , global mean air-temperature is projected to warm by 2 ° C -- 7 ° C above pre-industrial levels .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Copenhagen_Diagnosis", "rank": 18, "score": 129543 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change mitigation scenarios Content: Climate change mitigation scenarios are possible futures in which global warming is reduced by deliberate actions , such as a comprehensive switch to energy sources other than fossil fuels . A typical mitigation scenario is constructed by selecting a long-range target , such as a desired atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , and then fitting the actions to the target , for example by placing a cap on net global and national emissions of greenhouse gases . An increase of global temperature by more than 2 ° C has come to be the majority definition of what would constitute intolerably dangerous climate change with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ° C above pre-industrial levels per the Paris Agreement . Some climate scientists are increasingly of the opinion that the goal should be a complete restoration of the atmosphere 's preindustrial condition , on the grounds that too protracted a deviation from those conditions will produce irreversible changes .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Climate_change_mitigation_scenarios", "rank": 19, "score": 128497 }, { "content": "Title: Deforestation and climate change Content: Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change . It is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere , after fossil fuel combustion . Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions through combustion of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon . It used to account for more than 20 % of carbon dioxide emissions , but it 's currently somewhere around the 10 % mark . By 2008 , deforestation was 12 % of total , or 15 % if peatlands are included . These proportions are likely to have fallen since given the continued rise of fossil fuel use . Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces , temperatures warmed roughly 1.53 ° F ( 0.85 ° C ) between 1880 and 2012 , according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . In the Northern Hemisphere , 1983 to 2012 were the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Deforestation_and_climate_change", "rank": 20, "score": 127832 }, { "content": "Title: Tom Wigley Content: Tom Wigley is a climate scientist at the University of Adelaide . He is also affiliated with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research ( UCAR ) . He was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) for his major contributions to climate and carbon cycle modeling and to climate data analysis , and because he is `` one of the world 's foremost experts on climate change and one of the most highly cited scientists in the discipline . '' His h-index ( August 2014 ) is 64 , one of the highest in the discipline . He contributed to many of the reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( the work of the IPCC , including the contributions of many scientists , was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ) . Wigley was educated as a mathematical physicist and earned his doctorate at the University of Adelaide in Australia . He served as director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1993 . In 1993 he went on to the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder , Colorado , where he was appointed a senior scientist in 1994 . He subsequently moved to the University of Adelaide where he currently ( 2014 ) holds a Professorial Fellowship . His published papers include the first paper to demonstrate 20th century warming using both land and marine data , the first paper to include the effects of aerosol cooling on projections of future climate change , the first paper to provide realistic scenarios for the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 , and the first paper to use pattern-based methods to identify a significant human influence on the climate . Wigley has also published a number of highly cited papers in aqueous geochemistry , including a now-standard method for carbon dating of groundwater . Wigley has argued in the popular media that the IPCC has been too optimistic about the prospect of averting harmful climate change by reducing greenhouse emissions through the use of renewable technologies alone , and argued that any realistic portfolio must include significant contributions from nuclear energy . He has also pointed out that `` the human-induced changes that are expected over the next 100 years are much , much greater than any changes that societies experienced in the past . '' In 2013 , with other leading experts , he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers , which stated that `` continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity 's ability to avoid dangerous climate change . ''", "qid": "443", "docid": "Tom_Wigley", "rank": 21, "score": 127450 }, { "content": "Title: Economics of global warming Content: The economics of global warming concerns the economic aspects of global warming ; this can inform policies that governments might consider in response . A number of factors make this a difficult problem from both economic and political perspectives : it is a long-term , intergenerational problem ; benefits and costs are distributed unequally both within and across countries ; and scientific and public opinions may diverge . One of the most important greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide . Around 20 % of carbon dioxide which is emitted due to human activities can remain in the atmosphere for many thousands of years . The long time scales and uncertainty associated with global warming have led analysts to develop `` scenarios '' of future environmental , social and economic changes . These scenarios can help governments understand the potential consequences of their decisions . The impacts of climate change include the loss of biodiversity , sea level rise , increased frequency and severity of some extreme weather events , and acidification of the oceans . Economists have attempted to quantify these impacts in monetary terms , but these assessments can be controversial . The two main policy responses to global warming are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ( climate change mitigation ) and to adapt to the impacts of global warming ( e.g. , by building levees in response to sea level rise ) . Another policy response which has recently received greater attention is geoengineering of the climate system ( e.g. injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth 's surface ) . One of the responses to the uncertainties of global warming is to adopt a strategy of sequential decision making . This strategy recognizes that decisions on global warming need to be made with incomplete information , and that decisions in the near term will have potentially long-term impacts . Governments might choose to use risk management as part of their policy response to global warming . For instance , a risk-based approach can be applied to climate impacts which are difficult to quantify in economic terms , e.g. , the impacts of global warming on indigenous peoples . Analysts have assessed global warming in relation to sustainable development . Sustainable development considers how future generations might be affected by the actions of the current generation . In some areas , policies designed to address global warming may contribute positively towards other development objectives . In other areas , the cost of global warming policies may divert resources away from other socially and environmentally beneficial investments ( the opportunity costs of climate change policy ) .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Economics_of_global_warming", "rank": 22, "score": 127348 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse gas Content: A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect . Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture . It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Greenhouse_gas", "rank": 23, "score": 125166 }, { "content": "Title: Evangelical Climate Initiative Content: The Evangelical Climate Initiative ( ECI ) is a campaign by US-American church leaders and organizations to promote market based mechanisms to mitigate global warming . ECI 's first statement , calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions , was initially signed by 86 evangelical leaders . Signatories included Rick Warren , the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges , and the leader of the Salvation Army . The number of signatories had risen to over 100 by December 2007 , and as of July 2011 over 220 evangelical leaders had signed the call to action . David P. Gushee , a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University , helped draft the document . When the Evangelical Climate Initiative launched in February 2006 , the National Association of Evangelicals ( NAE ) was not ready to make such a commitment . Not quite a year later , the NAE worked with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to bring scientists and evangelical Christian leaders together to mitigate climate change . As ABC News reported :", "qid": "443", "docid": "Evangelical_Climate_Initiative", "rank": 24, "score": 125148 }, { "content": "Title: Polar forests of the Cretaceous Content: Cretaceous polar forests were temperate forests that grew at polar latitudes during the final period of the Mesozoic Era , known as the Cretaceous Period 145 -- 66 Ma . During this period , global average temperature was about 10 C-change higher and carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels were approximately 1000 parts per million ( ppm ) , 2.5 times the current concentration in Earth 's atmosphere . The abundance of atmospheric carbon dioxide had a very significant impact on global climate and Earth 's natural systems as its concentration is considered one of the main factors in the development of a pronounced greenhouse Earth during the Cretaceous with a very low average global temperature gradient . As a consequence , high paleolatitudes in both hemispheres were much warmer than at present . This temperature gradient was partly responsible for the lack of continental ice sheets in polar regions . As a response to elevated global temperatures , the Earth 's hydrologic cycle was significantly enhanced due to greater volume of moisture evaporation from the surface of the ocean . In turn , the absolute sea level during this time period stood at elevations much higher than the present level . Continental encroachment of seawater formed widespread shallow seas , including expanses of epeiric seas . An increase in surface area between shallow , warm epeiric seawater and the atmosphere permits higher evaporation rates and more precipitation at various latitudes , producing a more temperate global climate . A widespread temperate climate also had significant effects on high latitude ecosystems .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Polar_forests_of_the_Cretaceous", "rank": 25, "score": 125098 }, { "content": "Title: Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases Content: The Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gases , created in 1985 , was an advisory body for the review of studies into the greenhouse effect . The group was created by the International Council of Scientific Unions , the United Nations Environment Programme , and the World Meteorological Organization to follow up on the recommendations of the International conference of the Assessment of the role of carbon dioxide and of other greenhouse gases in climate variations and associated impacts , held at Villach , Austria , in October 1985 . The seven-member panel included Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin and Canadian climatologist Kenneth Hare . The group held its last meeting in 1990 . It was gradually replaced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Advisory_Group_on_Greenhouse_Gases", "rank": 26, "score": 124690 }, { "content": "Title: William D. Sellers Content: William D. Sellers ( 18 August 1928 -- 27 August 2014 ) was an American meteorologist , climate scientist , and pioneer of climate modelling . He created one the earliest climate models and was one of the first scientists to recognize the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere on the earth 's climate . He published the textbook `` Physical Climatology '' .", "qid": "443", "docid": "William_D._Sellers", "rank": 27, "score": 122056 }, { "content": "Title: Kaya identity Content: The Kaya identity is an identity stating that the total emission level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be expressed as the product of four factors : human population , GDP per capita , energy intensity ( per unit of GDP ) , and carbon intensity ( emissions per unit of energy consumed ) . It is a concrete form of the more general I = PAT equation relating factors that determine the level of human impact on climate . The Kaya identity is both simple and tricky , as it can be reduced to only two terms , but it is developed so that the carbon emission calculation becomes easy , as per the available data , or generally in which format the data is available .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Kaya_identity", "rank": 28, "score": 121304 }, { "content": "Title: Five Ways to Save the World Content: Five Ways to Save the World is a British documentary film on environmental issues related to climate change , released in 2006 . The film was made by Karen O'Connor , for the big screen and was shot in the English language to reach an international audience . It includes interviews with five environmental scientists and experts including Paul Crutzen , James Roger Angel , John Latham , Ian Jones , and Klaus Lackner . The `` five ways '' proposed are geoengineering techniques : space lenses in orbit , to diffract sunlight away from the earth cloud seeding with seawater to increase albedo sulfur launched into the stratosphere to increase albedo ocean fertilization with iron or urea ( nitrogen fertilizer ) artificial trees ( see carbon capture and sequestration ) Since the first three methods do not remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , they would only reduce global warming but not ocean acidification . Since the last two methods would remove carbon dioxide , they could in theory reduce both global warming and ocean acidification .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Five_Ways_to_Save_the_World", "rank": 29, "score": 120938 }, { "content": "Title: Paul Wennberg Content: Paul O. Wennberg is the R. Stanton Avery Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology ( Caltech ) . He is the director of the Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science . He is chair of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network and a founding member of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory project , which created NASA 's first spacecraft for analysis of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . He is also the principal investigator for the Mars Atmospheric Trace Molecule Occultation Spectrometer ( MATMOS ) to investigate trace gases in Mars 's atmosphere . Wennberg 's research focuses on the atmospheric chemistry of planets , including air quality , photochemistry , and the carbon cycle . He designs and builds remote-sensing and in-situ scientific instruments which are used in field investigations supported by the National Science Foundation and NASA . His scientific instruments have made it possible to measure radicals in the atmosphere at concentrations that could not previously be detected . He measures atmospheric trace gases , making it possible to accurately describe the exchange of carbon dioxide and other gases between the atmosphere and the land and ocean . His research has substantially advanced understanding of the atmospheric chemistry of the troposphere and the stratosphere .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Paul_Wennberg", "rank": 30, "score": 120925 }, { "content": "Title: Stephen E. Schwartz Content: Stephen E. Schwartz ( born 1941 ) is an atmospheric scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory . He served from 2004 to 2009 as the Chief Scientist of the Atmospheric Science Program of the United States Department of Energy . The program is charged with developing a comprehensive understanding of how the atmosphere processes energy related trace chemicals , such as nitrogen oxides , sulfur , aerosols and carbon dioxide . The current focus is on aerosols and carbon dioxide .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Stephen_E._Schwartz", "rank": 31, "score": 120428 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide removal Content: Carbon dioxide removal ( CDR ) methods refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . Among such technologies are bio-energy with carbon capture and storage , biochar , direct air capture , ocean fertilization and enhanced weathering . CDR is a different approach than removing CO2 from the stack emissions of large fossil fuel point sources , such as power stations . The latter reduces emission to the atmosphere but can not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere . As CDR removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , it creates negative emissions , offsetting emissions from small and dispersed point sources such as domestic heating systems , airplanes and vehicle exhausts . It is regarded by some as a form of climate engineering , while other commentators describe it as a form of carbon capture and storage or extreme mitigation . Whether CDR would satisfy common definitions of `` climate engineering '' or `` geoengineering '' usually depends upon the scale on which it would be undertaken . The likely need for CDR has been publicly expressed by a range of individuals and organizations involved with climate change issues , including IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri , the UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres , and the World Watch Institute . Institutions with major programs focusing on CDR include the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute , Columbia University , and the Climate Decision Making Center , an international collaboration operated out of Carnegie-Mellon University 's Department of Engineering and Public Policy . The mitigation effectiveness of air capture is limited by societal investment , land use , availability of geologic reservoirs , and leakage . The reservoirs are estimated to be sufficient to for storing at least 545 GtC . Storing 771 GtC would cause an 186 ppm atmospheric reduction . In order to return the atmospheric CO2 content to 350 ppm we need atmospheric reduction of 50 ppm plus an additional 2 ppm per year of current emissions .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide_removal", "rank": 32, "score": 119122 }, { "content": "Title: Andrew Watson (scientist) Content: Andrew James Watson FRS ( born 1952 ) is a British marine and atmospheric scientist and an expert in processes affecting atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations . He was formerly a Professor of biogeochemistry in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia , in 2013 he moved to a position as Professor at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Exeter .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Andrew_Watson_(scientist)", "rank": 33, "score": 119103 }, { "content": "Title: James Hansen Content: James Edward Hansen ( born 29 March 1941 ) is an American adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University . He is best known for his research in climatology , his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming , and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous climate change . In recent years he has become a climate activist to mitigate the effects of climate change , on a few occasions leading to his arrest . In 2000 , Hansen advanced an alternative view of global warming over the last 100 years , arguing that during that time frame the negative forcing via aerosols and the positive forcing via largely balanced each other out , and that the 0.74 ± 0.18 ° C net rise in average global temperatures could mostly be explained by greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide , such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons . However , even then he wrote `` the future balance of forcings is likely to shift toward dominance of CO2 over aerosols ''", "qid": "443", "docid": "James_Hansen", "rank": 34, "score": 118958 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Content: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change : A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases was a 2005 international conference that examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration , and the 2 ° C ( 3.6 ° F ) ceiling on global warming thought necessary to avoid the most serious effects of global warming . Previously this had generally been accepted as being 550 ppm . The conference took place under the United Kingdom 's presidency of the G8 , with the participation of around 200 ` internationally renowned ' scientists from 30 countries . It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter , from 1 February to 3 February .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change", "rank": 35, "score": 118871 }, { "content": "Title: Contraction and Convergence Content: Contraction and Convergence ( C&C ) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change . Conceived by the Global Commons Institute -LSB- GCI -RSB- in the early 1990s , the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level ( contraction ) , resulting from every country bringing its emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries ( convergence ) . It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid dangerous climate change , carbon dioxide being the gas that is primarily responsible for changes in the greenhouse effect on Earth . It is expressed as a simple mathematical formula . This formula can be used as a way for the world to stabilize carbon levels at any level . Advocates of Contraction and Convergence stress that negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -LSB- UNFCCC -RSB- are governed sequentially by the ` objective ' of the UNFCCC -LSB- safe and stable GHG concentration in the global atmosphere -RSB- followed by its organising principles -LSB- ` precaution ' and ` equity ' -RSB- . C&C is widely cited and supported .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Contraction_and_Convergence", "rank": 36, "score": 118269 }, { "content": "Title: Guy Stewart Callendar Content: Guy Stewart Callendar ( February 1897 - October 1964 ) was an English steam engineer and inventor . His main contribution to knowledge was developing the theory that linked rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to global temperature . This theory , earlier proposed by Svante Arrhenius , has been called the Callendar effect . Callendar thought this warming would be beneficial , delaying a `` return of the deadly glaciers . ''", "qid": "443", "docid": "Guy_Stewart_Callendar", "rank": 37, "score": 118053 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming potential Content: Global warming potential ( GWP ) is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere . It compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of the gas in question to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide . A GWP is calculated over a specific time interval , commonly 20 , 100 , or 500 years . GWP is expressed as a factor of carbon dioxide ( whose GWP is standardized to 1 ) . In the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , methane has a lifetime of 12.4 years and with climate-carbon feedbacks a global warming potential of 86 over 20 years and 34 over 100 years in response to emissions . User related choices such as the time horizon can greatly affect the numerical values obtained for carbon dioxide equivalents . For a change in time horizon from 20 to 100 years , the GWP for methane decreases by a factor of approximately 2.5 . The substances subject to restrictions under the Kyoto protocol either are rapidly increasing their concentrations in Earth 's atmosphere or have a large GWP . The GWP depends on the following factors : the absorption of infrared radiation by a given species the spectral location of its absorbing wavelengths the atmospheric lifetime of the species Thus , a high GWP correlates with a large infrared absorption and a long atmospheric lifetime . The dependence of GWP on the wavelength of absorption is more complicated . Even if a gas absorbs radiation efficiently at a certain wavelength , this may not affect its GWP much if the atmosphere already absorbs most radiation at that wavelength . A gas has the most effect if it absorbs in a `` window '' of wavelengths where the atmosphere is fairly transparent . The dependence of GWP as a function of wavelength has been found empirically and published as a graph . Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum , the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Global_warming_potential", "rank": 38, "score": 117369 }, { "content": "Title: Scientific opinion on climate change Content: The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring , its causes , and its probable consequences . The scientific consensus is that the Earth 's climate system is unequivocally warming , and that it is extremely likely ( meaning 95 % probability or higher ) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans . It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere , such as from deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels , partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols ; natural changes had little effect . This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports , by scientific bodies of national or international standing , and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists . Individual scientists , universities , and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications , and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys . National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming . These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that : Warming of the climate system is unequivocal , as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures , the widespread melting of snow and ice , and rising global average sea level . Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities . Benefits and costs of climate change for -LSB- human -RSB- society will vary widely by location and scale . Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative . Overall , net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming . The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time . The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change , associated disturbances ( e.g. flooding , drought , wildfire , insects , ocean acidification ) and other global change drivers ( e.g. land-use change , pollution , fragmentation of natural systems , over-exploitation of resources ) . Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments , and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change . Policy decisions , however , may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion . No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points . The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists , which in 2007 updated its statement to its current non-committal position . Some other organizations , primarily those focusing on geology , also hold non-committal positions .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change", "rank": 39, "score": 117196 }, { "content": "Title: Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (2005 conference) Content: In 2005, an international conference titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: A Scientific Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases examined the link between atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and global warming and its effects. The conference name was derived from Article 2 of the charter for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The conference explored the possible impacts at different levels of greenhouse gas emissions and how the climate might be stabilized at a desired level. The conference took place under the United Kingdom's presidency of the G8, with the participation of around 200 \"internationally renowned\" scientists from 30 countries. It was chaired by Dennis Tirpak and hosted by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, from 1 February to 3 February. The conference was one of many meetings leading up to the 2015 Paris Agreement, at which the international community agreed to limit global warming to no more than 2C in order to have a 50-50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. However, a 2018 published study points at a threshold at which temperatures could rise to 4 or 5 degrees through self-reinforcing feedbacks in the climate system, suggesting it is below the 2 degree temperature target.", "qid": "443", "docid": "Avoiding_Dangerous_Climate_Change_(2005_conference)", "rank": 40, "score": 116918 }, { "content": "Title: Atmospheric methane Content: Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth 's atmosphere . Atmospheric methane concentrations are of interest because it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere . The 100-year global warming potential of methane is 28 . That is , over a 100-year period , it traps 28 times more heat per mass unit than carbon dioxide and 32 times the effect when accounted for aerosol interactions . Global methane levels , had risen to 1800 parts per billion ( ppb ) by 2011 , an increase by a factor of 2.5 since pre-industrial times , from 722 ppb , the highest value in at least 800,000 years . Its concentration is higher in the Northern Hemisphere since most sources ( both natural and human ) are located on land and the Northern Hemisphere has more land mass . The concentrations vary seasonally , with , for example , a minimum in the northern tropics during April − May mainly due to removal by the hydroxyl radical . Early in the Earth 's history carbon dioxide and methane likely produced a greenhouse effect . The carbon dioxide would have been produced by volcanoes and the methane by early microbes . During this time , Earth 's earliest life appeared . These first , ancient bacteria added to the methane concentration by converting hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane and water . Oxygen did not become a major part of the atmosphere until photosynthetic organisms evolved later in Earth 's history . With no oxygen , methane stayed in the atmosphere longer and at higher concentrations than it does today . Methane is created near the surface , and it is carried into the stratosphere by rising air in the tropics . Uncontrolled build-up of methane in Earth 's atmosphere is naturally checked -- although human influence can upset this natural regulation -- by methane 's reaction with hydroxyl radicals formed from singlet oxygen atoms and with water vapor .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Atmospheric_methane", "rank": 41, "score": 116463 }, { "content": "Title: Low-carbon economy Content: A low-carbon economy ( LCE ) , low-fossil-fuel economy ( LFFE ) , or decarbonised economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources that therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions into the biosphere , but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide . GHG emissions due to anthropogenic ( human ) activity are the dominant cause of observed global warming ( climate change ) since the mid-20th century . Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes around the world , increasing the likelihood of severe , pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems . Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies ( LEDS ) . These strategies seek to achieve social , economic and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts . Globally implemented low-carbon economies are therefore proposed by those having drawn this conclusion , as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change , and as a precursor to the more advanced , zero-carbon economy .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Low-carbon_economy", "rank": 42, "score": 116444 }, { "content": "Title: Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility Content: The Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility ( ZOTTO ) is a climatic research station in the Siberian taiga in the proximity of Zotino , Russia , established and operated by the Max Planck Society and the Sukachev Institute of Forest , it serves as a long-term observing platform to be operated for at least 30 years . Far from human influences , researchers aim to determine how the concentration of greenhouse gases , aerosols , and the rising temperatures of the terrestrial atmosphere affect each other mutually . The heart of the station is a 302 m tower on which precision instruments measure the concentration of carbon dioxide , methane and other greenhouse gases . The measurement data are processed directly in the station at the foot of the tower and then transferred to the Institute of Forest , in Krasnoyarsk , Russia , as well as to the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena , Germany . The station has been operational since September 2006 . It extended the project Terrestrial Carbon Observing System and was funded by the 5th framework programme of the European Union , uniting 8 European and 4 Russian partners . A main conclusion of the project is that Siberian forests constitute a substantially smaller carbon-sink than so far assumed .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Zotino_Tall_Tower_Observation_Facility", "rank": 43, "score": 116251 }, { "content": "Title: Revelle factor Content: The Revelle factor ( buffer factor ) is the ratio of instantaneous change in carbon dioxide to the change in total dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) , and is a measure of the resistance to atmospheric CO2 being absorbed by the ocean surface layer . The buffer factor is used to examine the distribution of CO2 between the atmosphere and the ocean , and measures the amount of CO2 that can be dissolved in the mixed surface layer . It is named after the oceanographer Roger Revelle , who was one of the first scientists to study global warming . Revelle factor = / ( Δ -LSB- DIC -RSB- / -LSB- DIC -RSB- ) where DIC is dissolved inorganic carbon . Δ -LSB- -RSB- / -LSB- -RSB- is the instantaneous change in p and Δ -LSB- DIC -RSB- / -LSB- DIC -RSB- is the instantaneous change in DIC .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Revelle_factor", "rank": 44, "score": 116044 }, { "content": "Title: Ian G. Enting Content: Ian Enting ( born 25 September 1948 ) is a mathematical physicist and the AMSI/MASCOS Professorial Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems ( MASCOS ) based at The University of Melbourne . Enting is the author of Twisted , The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial in which he analyses the presentation and use of data by climate change deniers . More recently he has been addressing the claims made in Ian Plimer 's book `` Heaven + Earth '' . He has published a critique , `` Ian Plimer 's ` Heaven + Earth ' -- Checking the Claims '' , listing what Enting claims are numerous misrepresentations of the sources cited in the book . From 1980 to 2004 he worked in CSIRO Atmospheric Research , primarily on modelling the global carbon cycle . He was one of the lead authors of the chapter and the Carbon Cycle in the 1994 IPCC report on Radiative Forcing of Climate . Enting has published scientific papers , on mathematical physics and carbon cycle modelling , and a monograph on mathematical techniques for interpreting observations of carbon dioxide and other trace gases .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Ian_G._Enting", "rank": 45, "score": 115962 }, { "content": "Title: Global Carbon Project Content: The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes . The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases . The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership . In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' . A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide . On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found . They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Global_Carbon_Project", "rank": 46, "score": 115687 }, { "content": "Title: Presidential Climate Action Plan Content: President Barack Obama 's Climate Action Plan proposed a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions . It included preserving forests , encouraging the use of alternate fuels , and increased study of climate change . The plan was first established in 2008 and updated every two years since . The plan would support conservation of land and water resources and developing actionable climate science , and to encourage other countries to take action to address climate change , including reducing deforestation and lowering subsidies that increase use of fossil fuels . The plan specifically mentions methane , building efficiency , wind , solar and hydroelectricity . White House staff members who were directly tasked with implementation of the plan include Heather Zichal and Michelle Patron . On the first day of the presidency of Donald Trump , the White House website announced that The Climate Action Plan would be eliminated , stating it is ` harmful and unnecessary ' .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Presidential_Climate_Action_Plan", "rank": 47, "score": 115466 }, { "content": "Title: Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study Content: The Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study or Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study ( SOLAS ) is an international scientific research initiative that is one of the core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme . SOLAS has a goal to achieve quantitative understanding of the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere , and of how this coupled system affects and is affected by climate and environmental change . Thus , this international project is a critical component to understanding the Earth system and the effects of climate change on this system . The project includes meteorologists , oceanographers , marine biologists , and policy-makers . SOLAS has three major focus areas : Biogeochemical interactions and feedbacks between ocean and atmosphere , Exchange processes at the air-sea interface and the role of transport and transformation in the atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers , and Air-sea flux of carbon dioxide and other long-lived radiatively active gases ( this last focus is developed jointly with the Integrated Marine and Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research project ; IMBER ) . These three focuses are detailed in the project 's Science Plan and Implementation Strategy and in three separate Implementation Plans , and each focus has its own Implementation Working Group . The project is administered by a panel of scientific experts in the Scientific Steering Committee , and project coordination is handled by the SOLAS International Project Office at the University of East Anglia in Norwich UK . Scientific research is conducted by nations across the globe , and SOLAS has 23 established National Networks . SOLAS runs a successful biennial International Summer School , held at the Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques de Cargèse in Corsica France , and the next Summer School is scheduled for 2007 . Communications from SOLAS include a monthly e-bulletin , a biannual newsletter , and a website . An Open Science Meeting was held in Xiamen China in March 2007 .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Surface_Ocean_Lower_Atmosphere_Study", "rank": 48, "score": 115253 }, { "content": "Title: Environmental issue Content: Environmental issues are harmful trouble effects of human activity on the biophysical environment . Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual , organizational or governmental levels , for the benefit of both the environment and humans . Environmentalism , a social and environmental movement , addresses environmental issues through advocacy , education and activism . The carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases ( GHG ) in the atmosphere has already exceeded 400 parts per million ( NOAA ) ( with total `` long-term '' GHG exceeding 455 parts per million ) . ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report ) This level is considered a tipping point . `` The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change . We are already at risk of many areas of pollution ... It 's not next year or next decade , it 's now . '' Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) : Environment destruction caused by humans is a global problem , and this is a problem that is on going every day . By year 2050 , the global human population is expected to grow by 2 billion people , thereby reaching a level of 9.6 billion people ( Living Blue Planet 24 ) . The human effects on Earth can be seen in many different ways . A main one is the temperature rise , and according to the report '' Our Changing Climate '' , the global warming that has been going on for the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) . Since 1895 , the U.S. average temperature has increased from 1.3 ° F to 1.9 ° F , with most of the increase taken place since around year 1970 ( Walsh , et al. 20 ) .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Environmental_issue", "rank": 49, "score": 114921 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon rift Content: Carbon rift is a theory attributing the input and output of carbon into the environment to human capitalistic systems . This is a derivative of Karl Marx 's concept of metabolic rift . In practical terms , increased commodity production demands that greater levels of carbon dioxide ( or CO2 ) be emitted into the biosphere via fossil fuel consumption . Carbon rift theory states that this ultimately disrupts the natural carbon cycle and that this `` rift '' has adverse effects on nearly every aspect of life . Many of the specifics regarding how this metabolic carbon rift interacts with capitalism are proposed by Brett Clark and Richard York in a 2005 article titled `` Carbon Metabolism : Global capitalism , climate change , and the biospheric rift '' in the journal Theory and Society . Researchers such as Jean P. Sapinski of the University of Oregon claim that , despite increased interest in closing the carbon rift , it is projected that as long as capitalism continues , there is little hope of reducing the rift . Both deforestation and the emission of greenhouse gases have been linked to increased atmospheric CO2 levels . Carbon rift theory states that these are the result of human production through capitalistic systems . There are proposed solutions to climate change such as geoengineering proposed in the December 2015 Paris Agreement . However , some argue that the capitalist mode of production is at fault for the emission of greenhouse gas and that solutions must be found to this issue before climate change itself can be addressed . Carbon rift theory , while rarely criticized directly , often indirectly receives criticism regarding the underlying causes of climate change and attributing the stated effects to alternative explanations for climate change , instead of as a result of human activity . Such explanations include the Chaotic Solar System Theory and that increased water vapor is responsible for climate change .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_rift", "rank": 50, "score": 114888 }, { "content": "Title: Gilbert Plass Content: Gilbert Norman Plass ( 22 March 1920 -- 1 March 2004 ) was a Canadian physicist who in the 1950s made predictions about the increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 20th century and its effect on the average temperature of the planet that closely match measurements reported half a century later . Plass worked most of his life as a physicist in the United States . He graduated from Harvard University in 1941 and earned a PhD in physics from Princeton University in 1947 . He worked as an associate physicist at the Metallurgical Laboratory ( Manhattan District ) of the University of Chicago from 1942 to 1945 . He became an instructor of physics at Johns Hopkins University in 1946 , and eventually became an associate professor there . In 1955 , leaving academia , he held a job for a year as a staff scientist with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation . He then joined the advanced research staff at the Aeronutronic division of the Ford Motor Company . In 1960 , he became manager of the research lab at Ford 's theoretical physics department and a consulting editor of the journal Infrared Physics ( now called Infrared Physics and Technology ) . In 1963 , he accepted a position as the first professor of atmospheric and space science at the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies ( now the University of Texas at Arlington ) , where he remained for five years . In 1968 , he arrived at Texas A&M University , where he served as professor of physics and head of the department .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Gilbert_Plass", "rank": 51, "score": 114445 }, { "content": "Title: Katsuko Saruhashi Content: was a geochemist who made some of the first measurements of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) levels in seawater and subsequently showed the evidence in seawater and the atmosphere of the dangers of radioactive fallout .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Katsuko_Saruhashi", "rank": 52, "score": 114333 }, { "content": "Title: Klaus Lackner Content: Klaus S. Lackner is the director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions ( CNCE ) and a professor in School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University . He is a pioneer in carbon management and is the first to suggest capturing carbon dioxide from air in the context of addressing climate change . His current work includes the demonstrating and improving passive methods to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere , integrating air capture technology with applications for using carbon dioxide , exploring safe and permanent disposal options for carbon dioxide , and identifying opportunities for automation and scaling . His publications have been cited 5842 times as of November 12 , 2015 . His h-index is 31 . Previously , he was the director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute and Faculty in the Earth and Environmental Engineering department at Columbia University from 2001 - 2014 . He , along with CNCE executive director , Allen Wright , co - founded of the first privately held air capture company Global Research Technologies ( GRT ) in Tucson , AZ where they demonstrated the moisture swing . Prior to his academic work he held appointments at the theoretical division of Los Alamos National Laboratory for nearly 17 years . His idea of the self - replicating machines along with his colleague , Christopher Wendt , was featured by Discover Magazine in 1995 as `` One of the 7 Ideas that can Change the World . ''", "qid": "443", "docid": "Klaus_Lackner", "rank": 53, "score": 114068 }, { "content": "Title: Global warming Content: Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years . In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing . Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years . Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) , whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change . Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Global_warming", "rank": 54, "score": 113921 }, { "content": "Title: JoBea Way Holt Content: JoBea Way Holt ( born 1954 ) is an American planetary scientist who has worked for NASA . Holt studied the carbon cycle in Earth 's atmosphere . She is also a member of the Climate Project , and is the author of several books and research papers .", "qid": "443", "docid": "JoBea_Way_Holt", "rank": 55, "score": 113702 }, { "content": "Title: Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists Content: The 2007 Bali Declaration by Climate Scientists was a statement signed by over 200 climate scientists advocating specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the 21st century . The statement was based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Article 2 that committed signatories to the '' ... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system '' and on the science available in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment report ( IPCC AR4 ) . The Bali Declaration was released to coincide with the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Bali 3 -- 15 December 2007 . Category : Climate change policy", "qid": "443", "docid": "Bali_Declaration_by_Climate_Scientists", "rank": 56, "score": 113682 }, { "content": "Title: Climate sensitivity Content: Climate sensitivity is the equilibrium temperature change in response to changes of the radiative forcing . Therefore , climate sensitivity depends on the initial climate state , but potentially can be accurately inferred from precise palaeoclimate data . Slow climate feedbacks , especially changes of ice sheet size and atmospheric CO2 , amplify the total Earth system sensitivity by an amount that depends on the time scale considered . Although climate sensitivity is usually used in the context of radiative forcing by carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , it is thought of as a general property of the climate system : the change in surface air temperature ( ΔTs ) following a unit change in radiative forcing ( RF ) , and thus is expressed in units of ° C / ( W/m2 ) . For this to be useful , the measure must be independent of the nature of the forcing ( e.g. from greenhouse gases or solar variation ) ; to first order this is indeed found to be so . The climate sensitivity specifically due to is often expressed as the temperature change in ° C associated with a doubling of the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere . For coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models ( e.g. CMIP5 ) the climate sensitivity is an emergent property : it is not a model parameter , but rather a result of a combination of model physics and parameters . By contrast , simpler energy-balance models may have climate sensitivity as an explicit parameter . The terms represented in the equation relate radiative forcing ( RF ) to linear changes in global surface temperature change ( ΔTs ) via the climate sensitivity λ . It is also possible to estimate climate sensitivity from observations ; however , this is difficult due to uncertainties in the forcing and temperature histories .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Climate_sensitivity", "rank": 57, "score": 113021 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon neutrality Content: Carbon neutrality , or having a net zero carbon footprint , refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset , or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference . It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation , energy production , and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel . The carbon neutrality concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases ( GHG ) measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence ( e ) -- the impact a GHG has on the atmosphere expressed in the equivalent amount of CO2 . The term `` climate neutral '' reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change , even if CO2 is the most abundant , encompassing other greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol , namely : methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFC ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFC ) , and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) . Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this article . The best practice for organizations and individuals seeking carbon neutral status entails reducing and/or avoiding carbon emissions first so that only unavoidable emissions are offset . Carbon neutral status is commonly achieved in two ways : Balancing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels , with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy , so that the carbon emissions are compensated , or alternatively using only renewable energies that do n't produce any carbon dioxide ( also called a post-carbon economy ) . Carbon offsetting by paying others to remove or sequester 100 % of the carbon dioxide emitted from the atmosphere -- for example by planting trees -- or by funding ` carbon projects ' that should lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions , or by buying carbon credits to remove ( or ` retire ' ) them through carbon trading . While carbon offsetting is often used alongside energy conservation measures to minimize energy use , the practice is criticized by some . The concept may be extended to include other greenhouse gases measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence . The phrase was the New Oxford American Dictionary 's Word Of The Year for 2006 .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_neutrality", "rank": 58, "score": 112673 }, { "content": "Title: Thomas Knutson Content: Thomas Knutson is a climate modeller at the US Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory , a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) . His research covers hurricane activity , the link between climate change and hurricane incidence and intensity , and climate change detection and attribution . He served as a contributing author on working group 1 of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report . He is an Associate Editor of the American Meteorological Society 's Journal of Climate . He has published in Science , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Journal of Geophysical Research , Journal of Climate , Tropical Cyclone Research and Review , Tellus A and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society . In 2004 , Knutson published a paper suggesting that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide would lead to more intense hurricanes . This finding was subsequently supported by independent research . Knutson was invited to discuss his thesis on Ron Reagan 's MSNBC talk show , but the invitation was withdrawn after the White House intervened . Source : New Scientist Magazine 2007-02-03 , p. 5", "qid": "443", "docid": "Thomas_Knutson", "rank": 59, "score": 112342 }, { "content": "Title: D. James Baker Content: D. James Baker ( born March 23 , 1937 ) is an American scientist who was trained as a physicist , practiced as an oceanographer , and has held science and management positions in academia , non-profit institutions , and government agencies . He a former Under Secretary of Commerce for Atmosphere and Oceans and Administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , and currently Director , Global Carbon Measurement Program , William J. Clinton Foundation working with forestry programs in developing countries with the aim of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and at the same time helping alleviate poverty .", "qid": "443", "docid": "D._James_Baker", "rank": 60, "score": 111775 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon tax Content: A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels . It is a form of carbon pricing . Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel ( coal , petroleum , and natural gas ) and converted to carbon dioxide and other products when combusted . In contrast , non-combustion energy sources -- wind , sunlight , geothermal , hydropower , and nuclear -- do not convert hydrocarbons to . is a heat-trapping `` greenhouse '' gas which represents a negative externality on the climate system ( see scientific opinion on global warming ) . Since GHG emissions caused by the combustion of fossil fuels are closely related to the carbon content of the respective fuels , a tax on these emissions can be levied by taxing the carbon content of fossil fuels at any point in the product cycle of the fuel . Carbon tax offers social and economic benefits . It is a tax that increases revenue without significantly altering the economy while simultaneously promoting objectives of climate change policy . The objective of a carbon tax is to reduce the harmful and unfavorable levels of carbon dioxide emissions , thereby decelerating climate change and its negative effects on the environment and human health . Carbon taxes offer a potentially cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions . From an economic perspective , carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax . They help to address the problem of emitters of greenhouse gases not facing the full social cost of their actions . Carbon taxes can be a regressive tax , in that they may directly or indirectly affect low-income groups disproportionately . The regressive impact of carbon taxes could be addressed by using tax revenues to favour low-income groups . A number of countries have implemented carbon taxes or energy taxes that are related to carbon content . Most environmentally related taxes with implications for greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries are levied on energy products and motor vehicles , rather than on emissions directly . Opposition to increased environmental regulation such as carbon taxes often centers on concerns that firms might relocate and/or people might lose their jobs . It has been argued , however , that carbon taxes are more efficient than direct regulation and may even lead to higher employment ( see footnotes ) . Many large users of carbon resources in electricity generation , such as the United States , Russia , and China , are resisting carbon taxation .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_tax", "rank": 61, "score": 111643 }, { "content": "Title: Climate Change Research Centre Content: The Climate Change Research Centre ( abbreviated CCRC ) is a research initiative established in 2007 at the University of New South Wales . The foundation Directors of the CCRC were the Australian Research Council ( ARC ) Federation Fellow Professor Matthew England , who established the Climate and Environmental Dynamics Laboratory in 2005 , and Professor Andrew Pitman , the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science . The current Director is Professor Steven Sherwood ( an ARC Laureate Fellow ) . The Centre 's research falls into ten broad categories : Climate Oceanography Atmospheric Science Ecosystems Carbon Cycle Terrestrial Processes Climate Impacts Energy Policy Climate Model Evaluation Palaeoclimatology The CCRC is the University of New South Wales lead of the Australian Research Council 's Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science ( 2011 -- 2018 ) .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Climate_Change_Research_Centre", "rank": 62, "score": 111438 }, { "content": "Title: Citizens' Climate Lobby Content: Citizens ' Climate Lobby ( CCL ) is an international grassroots environmental group that trains and supports volunteers to build relationships with their elected representatives in order to influence climate policy . Operating since 2007 , the goal of CCL is to build political support across party lines to put a price on carbon , specifically a revenue neutral carbon fee and dividend ( CF&D ) at the national level . CCL is supported by notable climate scientists James Hansen , Katharine Hayhoe , and Daniel Kammen . CCL 's advisory board also includes former Secretary of State George Shultz , former US Representative Bob Inglis , actor Don Cheadle , and RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris . Founded in the United States , CCL has active groups in Australia , Bangladesh , Brazil , Burundi , Cameroon , Canada , Chile , France , Germany , Iceland , India , Italy , Kenya , Nepal , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Nigeria , Panama , Poland , Portugal , Qatar , Romania , Serbia , Scotland , Sweden , Switzerland , the Ukraine , and the United Kingdom .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Citizens'_Climate_Lobby", "rank": 63, "score": 111141 }, { "content": "Title: Climate footprint Content: The term climate footprint has emerged from the field of carbon footprinting , and refers to a measure of the full set of greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) controlled under the Kyoto Protocol . A climate footprint is a more comprehensive measure of anthropogenic impact upon the climate than a carbon footprint , but is also more costly and labour-intensive to calculate . A climate footprint is a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , nitrous oxide ( N2O ) , hydrofluorocarbons ( HFCs ) , perfluorocarbons ( PFCs ) and sulphur hexafluoride ( SF6 ) emissions of a defined population , system or activity , considering all relevant sources , sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population , system or activity of interest . Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent ( CO2e ) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential ( GWP100 ) .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Climate_footprint", "rank": 64, "score": 110944 }, { "content": "Title: Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite Content: The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite ( GOSat ) , also known as , is an Earth observation satellite and the world 's first satellite dedicated to greenhouse-gas-monitoring . It measures the densities of carbon dioxide and methane from 56,000 locations on the Earth 's atmosphere . The GOSAT was developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) and launched on 23 January 2009 , from the Tanegashima Space Center . Japan 's Ministry of the Environment , and the National Institute for Environmental Studies ( NIES ) use the data to track gases causing the greenhouse effect , and share the data with NASA and other international scientific organizations .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Greenhouse_Gases_Observing_Satellite", "rank": 65, "score": 110691 }, { "content": "Title: Christopher Field Content: Chris Field , Ph.D is an American scientist and researcher , who has contributed to the field of climate change . The author of more than 200 scientific publications , Field 's research emphasizes impacts of climate change , from the molecular to the global scale . His work includes major field experiments on responses of California grassland to multi-factor global change , integrative studies on the global carbon cycle , and assessments of impacts of climate change on agriculture . Field 's work with models includes studies on the global distribution of carbon sources and sinks , and studies on environmental consequences of expanding biomass energy .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Christopher_Field", "rank": 66, "score": 110546 }, { "content": "Title: Suess effect Content: The Suess effect is a change in the ratio of the atmospheric concentrations of heavy isotopes of carbon ( 13C and 14C ) by the admixture of large amounts of fossil-fuel derived CO2 , which is depleted in 13CO2 and contains no 14CO2 . It is named for the Austrian chemist Hans Suess , who noted the influence of this effect on the accuracy of radiocarbon dating . More recently , the Suess effect has been used in studies of climate change . The term originally referred only to dilution of atmospheric 14CO2 . The concept was later extended to dilution of 13CO2 and to other reservoirs of carbon such as the oceans and soils .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Suess_effect", "rank": 67, "score": 110354 }, { "content": "Title: Individual action on climate change Content: Making various personal choices has been advocated as a means of fighting climate change . A carbon diet is an effective way to understand the amount of impact on the environment and how to make meaningful changes . A low carbon diet is a way of reducing impact by choosing food that causes much less pollution . Trees : Protecting forests and planting new trees contributes to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air . There are many opportunities to plant trees in the yard , along roads , in parks , and in public gardens . In addition , some charities plant fast-growing trees -- for as little as $ US0 .10 per tree -- to help people in tropical developing countries restore the productivity of their lands . Conversely , clearing old-growth forests adds to the carbon in the atmosphere , so buying non-old-growth paper is good for the climate as well as the forest . Labels : The Energy Star label can be seen on many household appliances , home electronics , office equipment , heating and cooling equipment , windows , residential light fixtures , and other products . Energy Star products use less energy . Travel : In the United States , perception towards climate change influenced people to change their travel lifestyle . More than a third of Americans have changed their travel habits in 2008 , versus only 14 % in 2007 . Cars : Purchasing a vehicle which gets high gas mileage helps to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide . Flying : Avoiding air travel and particularly frequent flyer programs has a high benefit because the convenience makes frequent , long distance travel easy , and high-altitude emissions are more potent for the climate than the same emissions made at ground level . Walking and running are among the least environmentally harmful modes of transportation , followed by the bicycle . Many energy suppliers in various countries worldwide have options to purchase part or pure `` green energy . '' The wind energy produced in Denmark , for example , provides about 20 percent of the country 's total electricity needs . These methods of energy production emit no greenhouse gases once they are up and running . Carbon offsets : The principle of carbon offset is thus : one decides that they do n't want to be responsible for accelerating climate change , and they 've already made efforts to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions , so they decide to pay someone else to further reduce their net emissions by planting trees or by taking up low-carbon technologies . Every unit of carbon that is absorbed by trees -- or not emitted due to your funding of renewable energy deployment -- offsets the emissions from their fossil fuel use . In many cases , funding of renewable energy , energy efficiency , or tree planting -- particularly in developing nations -- can be a relatively cheap way of making an individual `` carbon neutral '' . Carbon offset providers -- some as inexpensive as US$ 0.11 per metric ton ( USD 0.10 per US ton ) of carbon dioxide -- are referenced below under Lifestyle Action .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Individual_action_on_climate_change", "rank": 68, "score": 110039 }, { "content": "Title: Syed Iqbal Hasnain Content: Syed Iqbal Hasnain is an Indian glaciologist , writer , educationist and the Chairman of the Glacier and Climate Change Commission of the Government of Sikkim . He is a former vice chancellor of the University of Calicut and a member of the United Nations Environment Program Committee on Global Assessment of Black Carbon and Troposphere Ozone . Hasnain has served the Jawaharlal Nehru University as a professor of glaciology and has been associated with The Energy and Resources Institute ( TERI ) and the Centre for Policy Research , a social science research institute affiliated to the Indian Council of Social Science Research ( ICSSR ) . A distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Stimson Center , he has delivered several orations and has written articles and a book on glaciology . The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri , in 2009 , for his contributions to studies on environment .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Syed_Iqbal_Hasnain", "rank": 69, "score": 109991 }, { "content": "Title: Atmosphere of Earth Content: The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases , commonly known as air , that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth 's gravity . The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation , warming the surface through heat retention ( greenhouse effect ) , and reducing temperature extremes between day and night ( the diurnal temperature variation ) . By volume , dry air contains 78.09 % nitrogen , 20.95 % oxygen , 0.93 % argon , 0.04 % carbon dioxide , and small amounts of other gases . Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor , on average around 1 % at sea level , and 0.4 % over the entire atmosphere . Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers , and air suitable for use in photosynthesis by terrestrial plants and breathing of terrestrial animals is found only in Earth 's troposphere and in artificial atmospheres . The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 kg , three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface . The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude , with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space . The Kármán line , at 100 km , or 1.57 % of Earth 's radius , is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space . Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km . Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere , based on characteristics such as temperature and composition . The study of Earth 's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science ( aerology ) . Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Atmosphere_of_Earth", "rank": 70, "score": 109902 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon sequestration Content: Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Carbon sequestration involves long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to mitigate or defer global warming . It has been proposed as a way to slow the atmospheric and marine accumulation of greenhouse gases , which are released by burning fossil fuels . Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological , chemical , and physical processes . Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects , including large-scale , artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced using subsurface saline aquifers , reservoirs , ocean water , aging oil fields , or other carbon sinks .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_sequestration", "rank": 71, "score": 109879 }, { "content": "Title: Mark Z. Jacobson Content: Mark Zachary Jacobson ( born 1965 ) is professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere and Energy Program . Jacobson develops computer models about the effects of different energy technologies and their emissions on air pollution and climate . He has done influential research on the role of aerosols and black carbon on the climate and is regarded as a leading aerosol climate modeler . According to Jacobson , a speedy transition to clean , renewable energy is required to reduce the potential acceleration of global warming , including the disappearance of the Arctic Sea ice . This change will also eliminate 2.5 -- 3 million deaths worldwide each year , related to air pollution , and reduce disruption associated with fossil fuel shortages .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Mark_Z._Jacobson", "rank": 72, "score": 109869 }, { "content": "Title: National Centre for Atmospheric Science Content: The National Centre for Atmospheric Science ( NCAS ) is a research centre of its parent organisation , the Natural Environment Research Council ( NERC ) , providing for scientific research and increased knowledge in atmospheric science in the United Kingdom . The NCAS performs research into climate change , air quality , weather and atmospheric modelling . NCAS employs over 130 members of staff across 19 organisations , and is headquartered at the University of Leeds .", "qid": "443", "docid": "National_Centre_for_Atmospheric_Science", "rank": 73, "score": 109848 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in the United States Content: Because of global warming , there has been concern in the United States and internationally , that the country should reduce total greenhouse gas which is relatively high per capita . In 2012 , the United States experienced its warmest year on record . , the thirteen warmest years for the entire planet have all occurred since 1998 , transcending those from 1880 . From 1950 to 2009 , the American government 's surface temperature record shows an increase by 1 F-change , approximately . Global warming has caused many changes in the U.S. . According to a 2009 statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) , trends include lake and river ice melting earlier in the spring , plants blooming earlier , multiple animal species shifting their habitat ranges northward , and reductions in the size of glaciers . Predicting future climate changes are fraught with difficulty . Some research has warned against possible problems due to American climate changes such as the spread of invasive species and possibilities of floods as well as droughts . Changes in climate in the regions of the United States appear significant . Drought conditions appear to be worsening in the southwest while improving in the northeast for example . President Barack Obama committed in the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 , 42 % below 2005 levels by 2030 , and 83 % below 2005 levels by 2050 . In an address towards the U.S. Congress in June 2013 , Obama detailed a specific action plan to achieve the 17 % carbon emissions cut from 2005 by 2020 . He included such measures as shifting from coal-based power generation to solar and natural gas production . Climate change is seen as a national security threat to the United States . In 2015 , according to The New York Times and others , oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but , nonetheless , funded deniers for years . 2016 was an historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in U.S.", "qid": "443", "docid": "Climate_change_in_the_United_States", "rank": 74, "score": 109362 }, { "content": "Title: Tihomir Novakov Content: Tihomir Novakov , Ph.D known also as Tica Novakov ( March 16 , 1929 -- January 2 , 2015 ) was a Serbian-born American physicist . As a scientist , Novakov is known for his black carbon , air quality , and climate change research . James Hansen dubbed him `` the godfather of black carbon . ''", "qid": "443", "docid": "Tihomir_Novakov", "rank": 75, "score": 109339 }, { "content": "Title: Migration of marine species in the Northern Atlantic Ocean Content: The world 's oceans are warming due to climate change . Climate change is caused by three major factors which are the greenhouse effect , variation in the sun 's energy that reaches Earth , and changes in reflectivity within Earth 's atmosphere and its surface . The greenhouse effect is caused by greenhouse gases that absorb sunlight . Energy from the sun that reaches Earth is either retained or sent into space . Greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere such as carbon dioxide , methane , and water vapor absorb energy which cause a blanketing effect that warms the earth . Aerosols such as black carbon also catalyze the warming effect as they are unreflective and absorb energy from the sun supplementing greenhouse gases in the warming effect . These combined factors are warming the Earth 's land as well as the oceans . Many fish species possess a certain range of water temperature that they are able to tolerate which is causing species to migrate to different areas where the water temperature is livable . The warming of the Atlantic Ocean is causing many fish species to shift north towards once cooler waters so they can live within their temperature range . Tropical species are being found outside their normal range and into more northern waters causing an array of ecological , economic , and fishery management problems .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Migration_of_marine_species_in_the_Northern_Atlantic_Ocean", "rank": 76, "score": 108939 }, { "content": "Title: Free-air concentration enrichment Content: Free-Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment ( FACE ) is a method used by ecologists and plant biologists that raises the concentration of in a specified area and allows the response of plant growth to be measured . Experiments using FACE are required because most studies looking at the effect of elevated concentrations have been conducted in labs and where there are many missing factors including plant competition . Measuring the effect of elevated using FACE is a better way of estimating how plant growth will change in the future as the concentration rises in the atmosphere . FACE also allows the effect of elevated on plants that can not be grown in small spaces ( trees for example ) to be measured .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Free-air_concentration_enrichment", "rank": 77, "score": 108695 }, { "content": "Title: Jeffrey Kiehl Content: Jeffrey Theodore Kiehl ( born June 10 , 1952 ) is an American climate scientist . He is head of the Climate Change Research Section in the National Center for Atmospheric Research located in Boulder , Colorado . He completed his atmospheric science doctoral studies at the State University of New York , Albany . He was awarded the 2012 Climate Communication Prize from the American Geophysical Union .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Jeffrey_Kiehl", "rank": 78, "score": 108599 }, { "content": "Title: Christine Wiedinmyer Content: Christine Wiedinmyer is a research scientist in the Atmospheric Chemistry Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research . She has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin . Wiedinmyer developed the Fire INventory from NCAR ( FINN ) , `` a high resolution global fire emissions model now used by local , regional , and global chemical modelers to better quantify the impacts of fire emissions on atmospheric composition , both in hindsight and forecast model applications . '' She used the model to estimate that the 2010 Russian wildfires liberated 22 teragrams of highly toxic carbon monoxide , though this amount was less than the cumulative carbon monoxide emissions of 2012 and 2003 . Wiedinmyer discovered that in the long run , controlled burning of forests will produce up to sixty percent less carbon dioxide emissions compared to the full-fledged wildfires they prevented . Undergrowth will be destroyed by the controlled burns while carbon-rich mature trees survive . Without removing the undergrowth , wildfires can quickly escalate out of control using the undergrowth as fuel , and then burn down mature trees as well . Wiedinmyer is also a co-founder of the Earth Science Women 's Network .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Christine_Wiedinmyer", "rank": 79, "score": 108558 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon finance Content: Carbon finance is a new branch of Environmental finance . Carbon finance explores the financial implications of living in a carbon-constrained world , a world in which emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases ( GHGs ) carry a price . Financial risks and opportunities impact corporate balance sheets , and market-based instruments are capable of transferring environmental risk and achieving environmental objectives . Issues regarding climate change and GHG emissions must be addressed as part of strategic management decision-making . The general term is applied to investments in GHG emission reduction projects and the creation ( origination ) of financial instruments that are tradeable on the carbon market .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_finance", "rank": 80, "score": 108305 }, { "content": "Title: Biosequestration Content: Biosequestration is the capture and storage of the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by biological processes . This may be by increased photosynthesis ( through practices such as reforestation / preventing deforestation and genetic engineering ) ; by enhanced soil carbon trapping in agriculture ; or by the use of algal bio sequestration ( see algae bioreactor ) to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions from coal , petroleum ( oil ) or natural gas-fired electricity generation . Biosequestration as a natural process has occurred in the past , and was responsible for the formation of the extensive coal and oil deposits which are now being burned . It is a key policy concept in the climate change mitigation debate . It does not generally refer to the sequestering of carbon dioxide in oceans ( see carbon sequestration and ocean acidification ) or rock formations , depleted oil or gas reservoirs ( see oil depletion and peak oil ) , deep saline aquifers , or deep coal seams ( see coal mining ) ( for all see geosequestration ) or through the use of industrial chemical carbon dioxide scrubbing .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Biosequestration", "rank": 81, "score": 108140 }, { "content": "Title: Drawdown (climate) Content: Climate drawdown is the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere begin to decline on a year-to-year basis . Drawdown is a goal for reversing climate change , and eventually reducing global average temperatures . Project Drawdown is a climate change mitigation project initiated by Paul Hawken and climate activist Amanda Joy Ravenhill . Central to the project is the compilation of a list of the `` 100 most substantive solutions to global warming . '' The list , encompassing only technologically viable , existing solutions , was compiled by a team of over 200 scholars , scientists , policymakers , business leaders and activists ; for each solution the carbon impact through the year 2050 , the total and net cost to society , and the total lifetime savings were measured and modelled .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Drawdown_(climate)", "rank": 82, "score": 107934 }, { "content": "Title: Stuart Agnew Content: John Stuart Agnew ( born 30 August 1949 ) is a Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region for the UK Independence Party . He was elected in 2009 . Agnew was born in Norwich . He was educated at Gordonstoun School and the Royal Agricultural College . He is a Norfolk farmer who formerly represented Norfolk on the NFU Council . He is a long term UKIP member . In the European Parliament he sits on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development . He ran for UKIP in the 2001 General Election in Mid Norfolk and in the 2005 General Election in Norfolk North , and stood in Broadland in the 2010 and 2015 UK General Elections . Agnew describes climate change science as `` the global warming scam '' . In March 2015 he spoke in the European Parliament , saying that plants need carbon dioxide as food , so `` if you succeed in decarbonising Europe , our crops will have no natural gas to grow from '' . Richard A. Betts of the UK Met Office described this as a misunderstanding , since cutting emissions did not mean reducing existing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere . In March 2016 Fincham Farm , owned and run by Agnew , was featured in a video investigation by Hillside Animal Sanctuary . It showed supposedly free range chickens living in squalid conditions , infested with mites , and with high levels of ammonia .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Stuart_Agnew", "rank": 83, "score": 107663 }, { "content": "Title: Dennis L. Hartmann Content: Dennis L Hartmann is an American atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington . He has done research on ozone depletion and climate change . In 2016 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Dennis_L._Hartmann", "rank": 84, "score": 107439 }, { "content": "Title: Timothy Ball Content: Timothy Francis `` Tim '' Ball ( born November 5 , 1938 ) is a Canadian geographer . A retired professor , he taught in the department of geography at the University of Winnipeg from 1971 until 1996 . Ball rejects the scientific opinion on climate change , stating that `` CO2 is not a greenhouse gas . '' He has worked with the Friends of Science and the Natural Resources Stewardship Project , and is a research fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Timothy_Ball", "rank": 85, "score": 107420 }, { "content": "Title: Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide Content: Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide are used to help answer questions about Earth 's carbon cycle . There are a variety of active and planned instruments for measuring carbon dioxide in Earth 's atmosphere from space . The first satellite mission designed to measure was the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse Gases ( IMG ) on board the ADEOS I satellite in 1996 . This mission lasted less than a year . Since then , additional space-based measurements have begun , including those from two high-precision ( better than 0.3 % or 1 ppm ) satellites ( GOSAT and OCO-2 ) . Different instrument designs may reflect different primary missions .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Space-based_measurements_of_carbon_dioxide", "rank": 86, "score": 107281 }, { "content": "Title: David Reay Content: David S. Reay is a climate change scientist , author , and professor of carbon management at the University of Edinburgh .", "qid": "443", "docid": "David_Reay", "rank": 87, "score": 107228 }, { "content": "Title: Helen Cleugh Content: Helen A. Cleugh is an atmospheric scientist . She is currently the Chief Research Scientist in Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) ( Oceans and Atmosphere ) where she leads the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub . Cleugh 's research focuses on observing and predicting atmospheric , climate and marine systems and determining how they interact with human activities .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Helen_Cleugh", "rank": 88, "score": 107218 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon literacy Content: Carbon Literacy is a term used to describe an awareness of climate change and the climate impacts of mankind 's everyday actions . The term has been used in a range of contexts in scientific literature and in casual usage ( see Research ) , but is most associated with The Carbon Literacy Project ( CLP ) .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_literacy", "rank": 89, "score": 106733 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon dioxide Content: Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas . As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product . Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas . It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting . Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_dioxide", "rank": 90, "score": 106641 }, { "content": "Title: Climate change in Wyoming Content: On a per-person basis , Wyoming emits more carbon dioxide than any other state or any other country : 276000 lb of it per capita a year , because of burning coal , which provides nearly all of the state 's electrical power . Over the last century , the average temperature in Laramie , Wyoming , has increased 1.5 ° F ( 0.8 ° C ) , and precipitation has decreased by up to 20 % in many parts of the state . Over the next century , climate in Wyoming may change even more . For example , based on projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre 's climate model ( HadCM2 ) , a model that accounts for both greenhouse gases and aerosols , by 2100 temperatures in Wyoming could increase by 4 ° F ( 2 ° C ) in spring and fall ( with a range of 2-7 ° F ) , 5 ° F ( 2.5 ° C ) in summer ( with a range of 2-8 ° F ) , and 6 ° F ( 3 ° C ) in winter ( with a range of 3-11 ° F ) . Precipitation is estimated to decrease slightly in summer ( with a range of 0-10 % ) , increase by 10 % in spring and fall ( with a range of 5-20 % ) , and increase by 30 % in winter ( with a range of 10-50 % ) . Other climate models may show different results , especially regarding estimated changes in precipitation . The amount of precipitation on extreme wet or snowy days in winter is likely to increase . The frequency of extreme hot days in summer would increase because of the general warming trend . It is not clear how the severity of storms might be affected , although an increase in the frequency and intensity of winter storms is possible .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Climate_change_in_Wyoming", "rank": 91, "score": 106548 }, { "content": "Title: Murry Salby Content: Murry Lewis Salby is an atmospheric scientist who focused on upper atmospheric wave propagation for most of his early career , and who more recently has argued against aspects of the scientific consensus that human activity contributes to climate change . From the mid 1980s , Salby conducted research out of University of Colorado Boulder . In 2005 , the National Science Foundation opened an investigation into Salby 's federal funding arrangements and found that he had displayed `` a pattern of deception -LSB- and -RSB- a lack of integrity '' in his handling of federal grant money . He resigned his position in Colorado in 2008 and became professor of climate risk at Macquarie University in Macquarie Park , New South Wales . In 2013 he was dismissed by the university on grounds of refusal to teach and misuse of university resources . He has written two textbooks , Fundamentals of Atmospheric Physics ( 1996 ) , and Physics of the Atmosphere and Climate ( 2011 ) . The latter textbook , building on his first book , offers an overview of the processes controlling the atmosphere of Earth , weather , energetics , and climate physics .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Murry_Salby", "rank": 92, "score": 106302 }, { "content": "Title: Werner Kurz Content: Werner Kurz is a Canadian research scientist at Canada 's Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria , British Columbia . He is leading the development of an accounting system to assess potential climate change known as the National Forest Carbon Accounting System for Canada . Currently , his research focuses on using forest land to its maximum carbon efficiency , reducing the impact of natural disasters , and managing forests . Kurz holds a PhD in forest ecology from the University of British Columbia . He has made significant contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and the work of the IPCC ( including the contributions of many scientists ) was recognized by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Werner_Kurz", "rank": 93, "score": 106223 }, { "content": "Title: Sherwood B. Idso Content: Sherwood B. Idso ( born June 12 , 1942 ) is the president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change , a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonprofit organization . Prior to that time he was a Research Physicist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture 's Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix , Arizona , where he worked since June 1967 . He was also closely associated with Arizona State University over most of this period , serving as an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Geology , Geography , and Botany and Microbiology . His two sons , Craig and Keith , are , respectively , the founder and vice president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change . Idso is the author or co-author of over 500 publications including the books Carbon Dioxide : Friend or Foe ? ( 1982 ) and Carbon Dioxide and Global Change : Earth in Transition ( 1989 ) . He served on the editorial board of the international journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology from 1973 to 1993 and since 1993 has served on the editorial board of Environmental and Experimental Botany . Over the course of his career , he has been an invited reviewer of manuscripts for 56 different scientific journals and 17 different funding agencies , representing an unusually large array of disciplines . He is an ISI highly cited researcher .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Sherwood_B._Idso", "rank": 94, "score": 106207 }, { "content": "Title: Darin Toohey Content: Darin W. Toohey is an American atmospheric scientist . He is a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder since 1999 . Toohey 's research addresses the role of trace gases and aerosols on Earth 's climate , atmospheric oxidation , and air quality . He was a Jefferson Science Fellow at the United States Department of State , 2011-2012 .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Darin_Toohey", "rank": 95, "score": 105975 }, { "content": "Title: Carbon capture and storage in Australia Content: Carbon capture and storage ( CCS ) is an approach to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere . Carbon capture and storage is also used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to increase yield from declining oil fields , and for storage of from natural gas fields . No coal-fired power station in Australia has CCS of . CCS is proven technology but is not yet commercially viable for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power stations . Without an economic driver such as a high carbon price or revenue from Enhanced Oil Recovery CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until at least 2020 . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10 % and 55 % of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100 . In the 2015 budget , the Abbott Government cut $ 460m from CCS research projects leaving $ 191.7 m to continue existing projects for the next seven years . The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Carbon_capture_and_storage_in_Australia", "rank": 96, "score": 105945 }, { "content": "Title: Journal for Geoclimatic Studies Content: The Journal for Geoclimatic Studies is the name given to a nonexistent journal which published a fabricated global warming study in November 2007 entitled , `` Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria : the death of manmade global warming theory ? '' The published study identified the Journal for Geoclimatic Studies as an official publication of Okinawa University 's Institute for Geoclimatic Studies ( The Institute for Geoclimatic Studies is also fraudulent and does not exist ) . The spurious study , ostensibly authored by Daniel Klein and Mandeep J. Gupta of the University of Arizona 's Department of Climatology , and Philip Cooper and Arne FR Jansson at the University of Gothenburg 's Department of Atmospheric Physics , claimed that global warming was not human caused , but the work of carbon-dioxide emitting bacteria based on the ocean floor . The report was circulated by a number of global warming skeptics before discovery that the study authors and university departments identified in the publication did not exist . The website where the study was published was taken down once the deception was revealed , and its ownership was traced to David Thorpe , a science journalist and web designer based in the United Kingdom . The true author of the article is purportedly a man identifying himself as Mark Cox , who has claimed the hoax was designed to expose the gullibility and scientific illiteracy of global warming skeptics .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Journal_for_Geoclimatic_Studies", "rank": 97, "score": 105866 }, { "content": "Title: Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Content: The Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum ( PETM ) , alternatively ( ETM1 ) , and formerly known as the `` Initial Eocene '' or '' '' was a time period with more than 8 ° C warmer global average temperature than today . This climate event began at the time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs . The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago . The associated period of massive carbon injection into the atmosphere has been estimated to have lasted no longer than 20,000 years . The entire warm period lasted for about 200,000 years . Global temperatures increased by 5 -- 8 ° C . The carbon dioxide was likely released in two pulses , the first lasting less than 2,000 years . Such a repeated carbon release is in line with current global warming . A main difference is that during the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum , the planet was essentially ice-free . The onset of the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has been linked to an initial 5 ° C temperature rise and to extreme changes in Earth 's carbon cycle . The period is marked by a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope records from around the globe ; more specifically , there was a large decrease in 13C/12C ratio of marine and terrestrial carbonates and organic carbon . Stratigraphic sections of rock from this period reveal numerous other changes . Fossil records for many organisms show major turnovers . For example , in the marine realm , a mass extinction of benthic foraminifera , a global expansion of subtropical dinoflagellates , and an appearance of excursion , planktic foraminifera and calcareous nanofossils all occurred during the beginning stages of PETM . On land , modern mammal orders ( including primates ) suddenly appear in Europe and in North America . Sediment deposition changed significantly at many outcrops and in many drill cores spanning this time interval . At least since 1997 , the Paleocene -- Eocene Thermal Maximum has become a focal point of considerable geoscience research because it probably provides the best past analog by which to understand impacts of global climate warming and of massive carbon input to the ocean and atmosphere , including ocean acidification . Although it is now widely accepted that the PETM represents a `` case study '' for global warming and massive carbon input to Earth 's surface , the cause , details and overall significance of the event remain perplexing .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Paleocene–Eocene_Thermal_Maximum", "rank": 98, "score": 105543 }, { "content": "Title: Robert Berner Content: Robert Arbuckle Berner ( November 25 , 1935 -- January 10 , 2015 ) was an American scientist known for his contributions to the modeling of the carbon cycle . He taught Geology and Geophysics from 1965 to 2007 at Yale University , where he latterly served as Professor Emeritus until his death . His work on sedimentary rocks led to the co-founding of the BLAG model of atmospheric carbon dioxide , which takes into account both geochemical and biological contributions to the carbon cycle .", "qid": "443", "docid": "Robert_Berner", "rank": 99, "score": 105485 }, { "content": "Title: V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics Content: The V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics is a Russian research organisation based in Tomsk . Its purpose is to study the atmosphere . The Laboratory of Optical Signals Propagation gathers satellite data on aerosols , ozone , and Earth reflectivity over Siberia . The Laboratory of Aerosol Optics collects information on temperature , humidity , soot , and atmospheric scattering at Tomsk . The TOR Station measures gas constituents in the atmosphere , in cluding carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide , sulfur dioxide , ozone , nitrogen oxides , methane and hydrogen sulfide at two locations . The Siberian lidar station can measure the temperature in the stratosphere and troposphere . Aerosol particle size is measured by using six different wavelengths for the laser . The institute was founded in 1969 by Vladimir Yevseyevich Zuev who became its director . The parent organisation was the Laboratory of Infrared Radiations of the Siberian Physical-Technical Institute of the Tomsk State University . A journal is published called Atmospheric and Oceanic Optics .", "qid": "443", "docid": "V.E._Zuev_Institute_of_Atmospheric_Optics", "rank": 100, "score": 105414 } ]